ritas kleine welt

frühling lässt sein blaues band wieder flattern durch die lüfte ... der mond bald blink, der mond bald blass, der mond als runde zähre! -- mörike feat. holz

though i enjoyed this year's winter immensely, it was about time for spring to come round. it's a spring day and night here in leipzig.

observing the mid-winter growth of my potplants, i was delighted to see that the hibiscus is in bloom again. which never happened before during this time of year simply because our flat is a bit colder than average. so i'm rather delighted that the plant surprised me with an open blossom this morning.

edit: and thus, silliness ensued...

shoetossing doesn't stop. not for the die-hards. not even in winter. not in adverse conditions, like snow. so here's the latest sighting of shoefiti in leipzig.

sorry for the lack of colour. it's winter, as i would like to have you know.

every winter, the crows are gathering in this city in order to survive the cold season. the colder it gets, the bigger the swarms. one of the great side effects of this phenomenon are the dancing swarms every evening. single flocks gather together every evening to create one big swarm before they settle down for the night in the trees around. but see for yourselfves below.

instead of just counting off the different stations of my life in the past 365 days, let me just show you, what i did on the occassion. spanning from one new year's eve to another, it seems like most of my activities have been taped either by night or underground with an equal lack of proper light.

five days away from christmas, in christian parley on the fourth sunday in advent, i thought i should finally get into the spirit of the season and make a day of it. so in the order of appearance, here's what i did today.

it's been proven countless times already: life has a sarcastic streak to it. yesterday morning, was just another example. this time on the subject of language, though.

walking home from the leuschnerplatz after midnight last friday, the official lichtfest was already over and the nearly 100,000 leipziger had already gone home to sleep. the city was empty and quiet again. but unlike twenty years ago this was not a quietness of dread, but of calm and peace. there's a unique spirit in this city which you can encounter every day. it's got nothing to do with being showy or over the top. it's being content with what's here and taking pride in what has been achieved. it's a marvelous little place.

on 9 october, 1989, the prayers for peace began in the nikolaikirche in leipzig. thousands of leipzigers had begun gathering each monday to pray for a peaceful solution to the bubbling conflicts in what was to become the final year of the GDR. for his level-headed guidance and the repeated call for, 'keine gewalt!' (no violence!), the reverend christian führer was later awarded the augsburger peace prize. yesterday, twenty years after the first monday prayers, he repeated the reading of the sermon on the mount. guests of honour were the german president, horst köhler, saxony's prime minister, stanislaw tillich, leipzig's mayor, burkhard jung. but no one received a greater cheer of welcome than germany's former foreign minister, hans-dietrich genscher. the people of leipzig welcomed him with standing ovations.

as it is super election year 2009 in germany, s. and i just came back from our third trip to the ballots within the past six months. today it was for the bundestag. hands up who can show an equal track record.

edit: the numbers are in. oh, dear!

s. and i went exploring the city on foot yesterday. why? because it was sunny and because it was open house/construction site/tunnel day. at the future tube stop 'bayrischer bahnhof', the construction site opened their gates to the public so that people could get a first look. s. and i climbed down a couple of steep steps into the deep bowels of leipzig (cue: inevitable comment about the föhrer-bonker) and walk back out in what will eventually become the tracks. naturally, all above and below ground was documented by my trusty camera.

edit: now complete with video

with the help of a diagramme and a photograph of the surrounding area provided by maria a., i tried to find the stolperstein dedicated to the memory of susanne aizen in löhrs carree last week. on that occassion, i literally stumbled across a new block located directly in front of the entrance to the sparkasse. it's really odd. when i started looking out for stolpersteine last year, it was really difficult spotting them. now it appears that i have acquired a certain 'eye' for them. i remember looking for the stolperstein for dr. cohn at the nordplatz and walking by it again and again and again until i found it. this time, i spotted the bronze stone for menni buchsbaum already from far away. (walking through london is rather irritating for that matter, because much of the pavement is littered with yellow plastic plaques every couple of metres.)

so i decided to play a bit with a couple of pictures i took at the zoo last weekend and give them a bit of a vintage colouring. and then i got a bit carried away. thus, silliness ensued...

edit: now featuring tiger #2 and #3.

last week on my daily journey to work, i came by a new sighting of shoefiti in leipzig. judging by the numbers of shoes a couple of football teams must have been the providers. it was a bit like running into a shoe orgy up a metal tree...

now that i've found a name for this phenomenon, it would be a waste not to take more pictures. come to think of it, in eight days' time, when i'll be in london, i'll keep my eyes open. chances are high that there are even more people there engaging in the arts of tossing shoes.