🔵 The Lake lay Blue 青い湖

Nigel
Feb 9
4 min read

9th February 2025 年2月9日

(".....today.........in .....Germany .......very ......cold.......it is !....")

Oh dear, this is far too slow. I can't even remember the Kanji character for cold. I think I had better continue in English 😅.......................

When I was little there was an advert on television which ended with the uplifting slogan "Beans means Heinz!". It was pandering to the British passion for baked beans, which were disgorged from their tin 🥫, heated and poured out over hot buttered toast 🍞.

On 4th February I went to a bean-throwing event in Frankfurt. What's that? you may ask. Well, there is an old custom in Japan (Setsubun 節分 ) of welcoming in the new season of Spring. The idea is to banish all the demons of the past winter and welcome in the fortune of the new season. And you do this by throwing beans out of the front door, or at a member of the family wearing an oni (demon or ogre) mask, shouting " Out with the devils, in with good fortune!"

鬼は外! 福は内!, Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!, before slamming the door.

Here are some beans I had left over. They have nothing to do with Mr. Heinz!

There was a time when I knew where everything was in my workshop 🪚 . I still do, more or less, but it's become a bit more random.

私のワークショップの混乱

One thing is easy to find though, because it sort of sticks up in the air asking to be noticed - my tuning fork....🎼

私のおんさ ( 音叉 )

A newly cut bridge is best mirrored by a shiny varnish.....

新しいこま　( 駒 )

We are rehearsing Rossini's "Petit Messe Solonelle" with the choir at the moment. It's scored for piano and harmonium. I doubt that we will find a suitable harmonium in Frankfurt. Pity really, because it would add a certain je ne sais pas to the Klang. So when I saw Scott's photos of this monster instrument (in a church in Tokyo*) I had to include them here. Crazy instrument, built by Dumont & Lelievre in the 19thc. Honestly. What next. Perhaps we should do a concert in Tokyo?

( *Reinanzaka church 日本キリスト教団霊南坂教会 )

Apparently it doubles as an organ as well! Quote Scott: "....it was just restored in Holland by the (apparently) top harmonium restorer in Europe, so plays like a new instrument. It has a pedalboard and blower for those who want to play pipe organ rep, but I’m going full bore (hopefully not fully boring!) reed organ/harmonium rep this time. It is an absolutely thrilling sound in the big and resonant room. Nothing like our image of demure little reed organs wheezing away in the back of a little, acoustically dead, church ....."

Go for it Scott! 頑張ってくださいね!

So there. Fancy shipping this thing from Japan to Holland and back again! I wonder : if you added two more keyboards (and a second pair of hands) could you then play the Rossini?!😄

I think we should leave that to the experts in Holland to sort out (you know...double dutch and all that).

Have just read an extraordinary book for our book group. It reveals the myriad connections which unite the immigrant community in a provincial town in Pennsylvania in the 1930`s. Ellis Island and all that. Mostly black people from the southern states, and Jewish people from Romania, Germany, Lithuania and Russia seeking a new life. Jews and blacks are forced into unlikely alliances against the the white, predominately racist "Americans". Read it please. It's good.

私たちの読書グループのために素晴らしい本を読みました

No blog would be complete without a report of a hike would it? This week is no exception. Despite Deutsche Bahn's best efforts to stymie our travel arrangements (cancellations, delays etc.), 20 or so of us intrepid hikers assembled at Heidelberg Station at the weekend to walk over the hills to the town of Neckargemünd, 16 or so kilometres up the Neckar Valley. It was a gloriously sunny day, which did wonders for our general mood. I did a similar walk just 2 weeks ago, but the weather was not so kind then.

ハイデルベルク近郊のハイキング