Tag: #aphotoaweek

After the harvest surprise

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I saw this stork stalking through the cut off wheat stalks (oh my!) and grabbed my camera.  If I noticed the two spots in the back to the left of him, I didn’t give them a second thought.

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I got closer.  Magnificent bird, I thought, totally focused on the stork.

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I zoomed in.  What a wonderful bird!

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Only at home, when I had transferred the photos to my computer and saw them on the larger screen, I realised that those brown, indistinct lumps had ears.

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For A Photo a Week: Unexpected.  For more unexpected finds, click here.

twisted love

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Where are you?

This is linked to A Photo a Week: twisted.  This little dog will twist his head a full 360° to catch a glimpse of his human.  But it is no ordinary love, she is a medical rescue dog who is trained to look out for her owner in case he is having heart problems.

Another twisted tale – not a good photo but I saw this buck with wire twisted up in his antler.  We reported it, and I think (hope) he was helped.

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“Two souls, at least, reside within my breast!”

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109 view b

The (almost) accurate quote from Goethe’s Faust describes it best. There is this side of me, enamored by the rolling hills of the Odenwald,

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and then there is the other side, that loves the excitement of the city of Frankfurt with its highrise buildings and modern side of living.

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And this is the compromise, I guess.  A view from one side of the Upper Rhine valley, where I live, all the way across to the hills of the Palatinate (Pfalz), with the twin cities of Mannheim and Ludwigshafen on either side of the Rhine in between.  The distance from the Odenwald to the other side is about 50 kilometres at this point.

This is linked to A Photo a Week: View.

Poppies

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My attempt to change part of my lawn into a flower meadow hasn’t been all that successful. No poppies to be seen.  So I enjoyed the display of poppies on the kerb of the road in a neighbouring town, and not just read ones.

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And there is always next year for my garden.

This is linked to A Photo a Week: flower.

Wish you were beer

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Wiesn

This unusual view of the part of München called Schwanthalerhöhe is taken from the area which during two weeks in September (sic!) houses the world famous Oktoberfest. The rest of the year most of the Wiesn is a flat, barren expanse packed with gravel. It is situated close to the city centre with buildings on all four sides.  A few smaller events use part of the area throughout the year but when nothing is going on it’s just empty space which accentuates the urban surroundings all the more.

For A Photo a Week: urban.

A policeman, a market-woman, were standing …

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Schutzmann Tschako

Marktfrau

Smiles all round with these two life-size sculptures in the middle of Koblenz in the Rhine valley.  They depict a market-woman and a policeman illustrating an old joke which is written on a plaque in the local dialect (about Norbert’s dog who peed on the leg of the market-woman’s husband).

This is linked to A Photo a Week: smile.

 

 

Dampfnudel und Kartoffelsupp’

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Dampfnudel mit Weinsoße

Some 50+ years ago this was often what we ate on a Saturday: potato soup and yeast dumplings or sometimes yeast dumplings and wine sauce.  It was either and not all together as it is offered here on the window of this pastry shop in Ladenburg, near Mannheim.  I had never seen this combination – Dampfnudel und Kartoffelsuppe – in a restaurant before.  It was  a real blast from the past, evocative of Saturday mornings which were spent in school, coming home to mum’s home cooking.  A time when Saturday afternoons were meant for working in the house and the garden, shops closed at 1 or 2pm, and the busy day slowly eased into the weekend.  Food on Saturdays was simple and traditional, usually eaten in the kitchen, unlike more formal Sunday fare.

This is linked to A Photo a Week Challenge: nostalgia.

 

As every flower wilts

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104 ending

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The title is the beginning of the poem “Phases” by Hermann Hesse (Stufen), one of the best known and most quoted poems in German.  It goes on to extol the virtues of endings and their inherent new beginnings and ends with “Courage my heart, take leave and fare thee well.”

This is linked to A Photo a Week Challenge: Endings.