Tag: #I’m a fan of …

I’m a fan of ships’ names

· 4 Comments ·

A challenge a few days ago asked for “freedom” and a photo of a ship popped up on my screen.  It got me thinking on names for ships and boats.

Freedom
Vici

Ships named after concepts: Freedom and Vici (Latin: I conquered).

Jessica
Tim

To be fair, the last one could be a girl’s name.  Traditionally girl’s names have been popular for boats: Jessica and Tim.  Not necessarily confined to girls nowadays, it seems.

Susan Emma Rose

More girls: Susan, Emma, and Rose.  Or appropriate for Stratford-upon-Avon – Shakespeare characters: Hamlet, Othello, and Puck.

Boats can be named after friends or indulgences: The Black Cat and Laphroaig.

subito
Kurpfalz

Foreign or very local: Subito (Italian for fast) and Kurpfalz (both  travelling on the river Neckar).

South Carolina
Atlanta

From further afield: South Carolina and Atlanta – both to be found on the river Rhine.

Seas The Day

Not to forget star signs and plays on words: Aries and Seas The Day.

Linked to I’m a Fan of … #71.  More fanatical photos can be found here.

 

I’m a fan of hares

· 7 Comments ·

069 rabbit f

This hare was far away in the fields last week and as I was trying to get a photo of it a man approached me and asked – quite suspiciously, I thought – what I was shooting.  It took him a bit to see the hare and we both came very close to violating physical distance rules because I wanted to let him look through my camera.  Of course, the hare who had been munching happily on the green stalks took its chance and disappeared.

069 rabbit e

I seem to have a knack to catch hares from the rear.

069 rabbit c

This one did its best to hide, keeping low in the grass.

069 rabbit d

But when it realised that the game was up, it upped and disappeared in the woods.

069 rabbit a

And the same story last year, when the grass was already higher.

069 rabbit b

Linked to I’m a fan of … #69.  More fanatical photos can be found here.

I’m a fan of Bismarck

· 2 Comments ·

First of all, I’m a fan of serendipity.  Let me explain …

2020 bismarck a

This is the Springbok hooker Bismarck du Plessis, warming up for the match against Scotland in the 2015 Rugby World Cup in Newcastle, one of the two international rugby matches I watched in my life.

This is what he looked like in the match, a bit more dignified:

2020 bismarck b

Bismarck is the guy on the right.  He has been in the (rugby) news lately in South Africa as his merits were discussed in an all-time best Springbok team.

And then last week I was on a hike passing the Bismarck tower in Heidelberg:

Bismarckturm Bismarcksaeule

One of many, many monuments that were built in Germany to honour the “Iron Chancellor” Otto von Bismarck.  It is said that more monuments have been erected for him in Germany than for any emperor, king philosopher, or poet.  And this in mainly 20 years, from 1890 to 1910.  Somehow most of these monuments turned out to be towers but on the Feldberg, the highest mountain of the Black Forest, they build a kind of cairn with a relief of Bismarck:

2020 bismarck d

In my hometown we only managed a bust – which has a curious history.  It was supposed to be melted down during the second world war when metal for grenades and the like had come into short supply.  It was only rediscovered in 1961 and now stands in a little, unassuming park.

2020 bismarck c

And then, there was that recent pub quiz (zoom version) where I scored biggly because I knew the name of the capital of the US state of North Dakota.

Linked to I’m a fan of … #67 .  More fanatical photos can be found here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m a fan of rapeseed

· 4 Comments ·

065 rape a

I’m not sure whether I am in favour of the proliferation of rape seed fields all over the country, some grown for being made into oil but the majority made into petrol.  I am also not in favour of the yellow muck that descends on cars and windows during its flowering time.  But I can’t help being fan of the strips of yellow in the rural landscape, of the yellow fields and of the delicate little flowers.

Linked to I’m a fan of … #65.  More fanatical photos can be found linked here.