🤔 A man's got a heart....心
- Nigel
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
31st March 2025 年3月31日
New Ross - a small Irish town in County Wexford on the river Barrow. It's 1985, and a local coal merchant makes an unscheduled delivery to a Catholic convent in the early hours of Christmas. His astonishing discovery of a girl locked up in the coal shed propels him in an unexpected direction. It reveals a community under the power of the church and complicit in avoiding its insidious hypocrisy. This is Claire Keegan's "Small Things Like These". Stunning.
How is it that the Irish produce so many good writers? We have just read her short novel in our book group.
For the record:
I am rehairing a 'cello bow in my workshop and the cacophony of children's voices causes me to look out of the window. Oh, yes, there they are, chattering away merrily on some mini class trip. But there is a big red lorry. Oh, no, it's time for the department store to put up an enormous poster of yet another scantilly attired female. I shall have to look at her (and she at me) for at least 6 months now.
2 mins later all is quiet and the children have disappeared.....Advertising. How did it all begin? Do they teach it in schools now?
I remember once getting off a train in Dresden 🛤️. It was 1990, and the Berlin Wall had only recently opened up a few months before. When we stepped down from the dark green DDR carriage (smelling of cheap plastic and disinfectant), two very odd things struck me. Firstly, there was a platoon of asian soldiers waiting on the other platform. They wore light, sand-coloured gear and they looked lost and uncomfortable. I never found out where they had come from. Secondly, The vast architecture of Dresden station was revealed before us - without a single advertisement. It was like stepping back into a 19thc. print.
We will now take a break to relish springtime in Langen.......
......glowing pussy willows.......
Magnolia at the former Forsthaus......
Forsythia.......
Beech nuts ....
wild apple......
It all looks idyllic doesn't it? You go into the forest and the woodpeckers are calling.....
But then you come across a banner draped over the path, and the noise of hammering....
My heart sinks. And here is the reason .....The local gravel and sand extraction firm, Sehring GmbH, threatens to raise over 60 hectares of this forest to the ground in the summer. They have done it before, and despite huge protests, and the fact that the forest is protected (Bannwald), got their way.
They (Sehring) ,
......argue that they can re-establish the forest once they have extracted their sand and gravel. Their previous attempts to do this are less than impressive.
I walk into the areal and chat to one of the activists. He is so young! and full of idealism and passion. It is gut-wrenching to imagine the scenes which may follow later in this year....
The structures being built look very solid, but the men who will come with the police will have very big machines......
I wished them good luck. The issue will no doubt become a football between the Stadt Langen and the Government - with the Regierungspräsidium (Regional Council in Darmstadt) playing a crucial role.........
Let's move on to something less depressing. A wonderful cherry blossom.....in a park in Langen
There is even a cherry tree on the Bockenheimer Landstrasse in Frankfurt, where I joined the ICF rehearsal retreat at the weekend.......https://www.internationalchoir.de/
Time to get back to singing?.......
But we don't always just rehearse. There is something here which we call a "Bunte Abend" - a bit of fun to round off an all-day rehearsal session. You are encouraged to do a Party Piece. OK, so let's see how the character Fagin from "Oliver" goes down. Thank you to Mr. Rhodri Britton at the piano...........😅
👉 For the full Fagin Experience use 🎧!
I never use the car to go into Frankfurt. Which means I am very familiar with the metro stations. Last week I showed you the splendours of Westend station. This week it's Bockenheimer Warte, the stop for the Senckenberg Museum. I love the way this no-smoking sign seems to allude to the fossil. It seems to be saying "smoke, and you will end up fossilized" 😄
Molluscs ? We've got plenty here.....and our research team is finding more every year....https://sosa.senckenberg.de/
In 2022, when I was working with the Main Matsuri Festival, I met Enka singer Akari Mochizuki. We got on very well, as she spoke fluent English and lived in London. She in turn introduced me to Takuya, a brilliant Taiko drummer - a "Taikoist". When you see these Japanese drummers they are usually in a fearsome group. But Takuya is different, as he does his own solo performances - a dazzling experience.
He's very versatile though, and when I linked him up with the Bridges Chamber Orchestra in Frankfurt.......well, why not go to the concert in the hr Sendesaal on April? Sat 12.04.2025 at 20:00..........
Here is his own website......https://taiko-ist-takuya.jp/en/top-en/
As always, thank you for reading, and if you know anyone who might be interested in this blog then do send it on.
読んでくれてありがとう
See you....... matane!
Nigel 🖋️
and no blog would be complete without a hiking photo - this time at Heppenheim, Bergstrasse.....
THE END 終わる
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