Crowned oak and acorns

· 1 Comment ·

A family crest. — Addendum: I HAVE to add this. I found this crest (taken from a mausoleum) in my archives. I liked the crown and I liked the oaks and acorns and so I picked it for the challenge. However, I have a photo of the whole mausoleum so I checked the inscription out of curiosity. Here it is:

So this is the final resting place of one Georg Wilding with the title of a prince. His grandfather married a Neapolitan princess and thus came by the title. Now it happens that I have an American friend with this surname. She doesn’t THINK she is related but the acorns and oak seem oddly familiar to something she has seen in her father’s genealogy research. She will let me know. Isn’t this exciting / weird / strange / interesting?

Even if nothing comes of it, it made me renew a friendship.

Linked to the Ragtag Daily Prompt: Crown.

I’m a fan of the Gruffalo

· 5 Comments ·

A little bit over a year ago, a statue of the Gruffalo and the mouse was unveiled in our town. I went back to have a look how the two have fared since.

Not too bad, it seems. The photo on the left is from a year ago.

Beltz and Gelberg publishes the Gruffalo books in German and their headquarters are in Weinheim. When an old oak tree was hit by lightning the idea to use the wood for a sculpture came up.

For the unveiling the illustrator, Alex Scheffel, came to the Windeck, a castle ruin above the place where the sculpture now stands, and he let his young audience have a glimpse of his art.

But who is this creature? With terrible claws

And terrible teeth in his terrible jaws?

He has knobbly knees and turned out toes, and a poisonous wart at the end of this nose.

His eyes are orange.  His tongue is black.

He has purple prickles all over his back.

Oh help, oh no. It’s a gruffalo.

And a final view of the Gruffalo, as seen by the mouse:

Linked to I’m a fan of … #86. More fanatical posts can be found here.

Sandstone windows

· 3 Comments ·

In our area sandstone is widely used in houses, sometimes for the whole building but often as a contrasting material. It is used as a frame for windows from the ornamental to the mundane to utilitarian.

Linked to Monday Window.

Burned stone

· 7 Comments ·

The Baltic Sea has the richest treasure of amber. In the towns on the coastline amber is omnipresent in museums, jewellery shops and just as a reference. Stralsund was part of the Hanseatic league in the middle ages and the typical ship of the seafaring traders, a cog, was included in the official seal. Jewellers in Stralsund combined these traditions to create this iconic brooch.

Linked to the Ragtag Daily Prompt: Amber,