Rockin' Boy Blogger Award

A while ago I blogged about the Rockin' Girl Blogger Award, which as the name already says, only goes to girls. A dear male friend of mine felt left out a bit and as I'm this supernice girl (hey, it's just the plain truth :D) and he's a supernice guy I thought I'm going to make him a button. So, Victor, here it is, especially for you:



The rules of the Rockin' Girl Blogger Award were that you could nominate five other bloggers. Hm, who are my favorites? Now, let me do some thinking as there are actually very few male bloggers that I read. Or hold on! Let me add some more rules first (somehow I love being first and being allowed to set the rules of the game :D). Don't give this award to any guy who:

a) thinks Bush is great
b) thinks it's ok to humiliate, torture, sodomize and do other inhumane stuff to people as had happened in Abu Ghreib or is happening in Guantánamo with the justification that American soldiers in Iraq are being killed
c) does believe that women have enough rights anyway and should shut up
d) is racist

because I can only bear this amount of stupidity and not more (I should better not have entered the political board of a certain forum today... ugh). That's about it, I guess (I might come up with other rules when I'm in bad mood and feel like letting it out on someone :D). Have I ever mentioned that some days I daydream about ruling the world as a benevolent dictactor? Knowing that I'm not flawless it might not be such a good idea, but really don't you also sometimes think that some people are so stupid they should have no rights at all and that everything would be better if you told them what to do? Why is it that I can be so blissfully ignorant of my own mistakes, but other people's stupidity has to be so obvious to me? :D

Anyway, here are the others on my list (although I so doubt that any of them ever reads knitting blogs :D):

* Satya, because he is cool and a fighter.
* Rob from No Cookies For Me, because he seems to be sincerely interested in feminist topics.
* Ben from Badscience, because he's so unbribable and you can't fool him with fluffy theories.
* Erich as the founder of Dangerous Intersection, where I troll the comment sections. :D

Grab your button and put it on your blogroll. :)

Edit: I just discovered that Roberta, who started the Rockin' Girl Award, was also so nice to start an award for the guys. As there is certainly no need for two awards, poor Victor will have to wait a bit more... Ok, hon, I'm sure you will receive it pretty soon! :)

Edit2: Seems like I got offical approval from Roberta. :)

Finished: Lala Scarf

Pattern: "Lala Scarf" from "Greetings from Knit Cafe" by Suzan Mischer, pattern by Kat Coyle (she has a couple of other nice patterns in the book)
Yarn: Rowan Kidsilk Haze
Color: #580 "Grace" (main color), #606 "Candy Girl", #592 "Heavenly"
Price: $ 12 for 25 g (thank God you don't need that much yarn for the scarf)
Amount: plenty left for more Lala scarves
Needles: 6 mm
Gauge: looked ok to me
Dimensions: it's small (good grief, I'm lazy today, am I? :D I'm not going to measure it, but it's a cute little thing that is big enough to wrap around your neck)
Modifications: none

Lala scarf, originally uploaded by projektleiterin.

The scarf is a quick knit, except for the border, nearly 400 stitches to bind off, plus the loops. And personally, I don't really like the mohair, it's so thin and I'm afraid of breaking the yarn. And knitting very thin yarn with huge needles feels a bit awkward, too. It's the second time I've knit this scarf and I appreciate that it's knit with big needles, so the pain goes over fairly quickly, except for the last part, which drags on and on. But I do love the end result, so it's ok. :) I'm a bit surprised that the mohair doesn't itch, especially since I have a sensitive neck, but it seems that if you apply some lotion on your neck before wearing it helps.

Lala scarf, originally uploaded by projektleiterin.

Pic is courtesy of fbz, taken at the textile market in Benediktbeuern, yep, I haven't posted about it yet... :o Still need to upload the pictures. In the meantime, keep yourself entertained with the blog entries of Alala, BockstarkKnits, Tini, Deknit, and Elemmaciltur, some of whom I had the pleasure of meeting them there for the first time (of course, they are all totally adorable :) )

My first socks

Pattern: Garter Rib Socks from "Sensational Knitted Socks" by Charlene Schurch
Yarn: A merino/alpaca 4-ply sock yarn from eBay
Color: Pink
Price: 7.38 €/100 g
Amount: less than 65 g
Needles: 2,5 mm
Gauge: 5.5 stitches/inch
Dimensions: European shoe size 37
Modifications: none

It's a great book. With the help of this book I managed to finish my first pair of sock. I have tried it before, but somehow I never really understood what I was doing... In this book you will find very clear instructions for various combinations of these factors:

1. Foot circumference (5" - 12")
   
2. Gauge (5.5 stitches/inche - 10 stitches/inch)
   
3. Pattern with x stitches (4, 5, 6, 8, 12 stitch count repeats (or how do you say?), plus some Fair Isle and cabled pattern, etc.)
   
4. 4 or 5 dpns or two circulars

For example, I had a gauge of 5.5 stitches/inch, the circumference of my foot is a around 8.5 inches, I wanted to use a pattern with 4 stitches and knit with 4 dpns. It was all in the book. I only had to follow the instructions and got my socks in the end. Oh boy, that's so easy. :)

Some of you might have remembered my post about a racist article in Medical Hypotheses. I've decided to write to one of the editors, Mr António Damásio, and ask him for a statement. Why him? Because I happened to have a discussion about him on another blog, he is famous enough that I recognize his name (I had no clue who the others on the editorial board were) and he has a good reputation as a scientist, which in my opinion implies greater responsibility for the things that happen in one's name, because the impact on the public is simply greater. There's a difference between reading racist articles in cheap magazines and reading them in an academic journal with an editorial board consisting of scientists (and no, I don't care that it's not peer-reviewed). And finding a name like his on the board is even worse.

He used to work at the University of Iowa, but has moved to the University of Southern California. I got his contact information from here (I'm not saying that you have to contact him, but hey, if you happen to be a bit pissed off, too, and have his email address handy...? :D).

I'm a Rockin' Girl Blogger

Claudia nominated me for the Rockin' Girl Blogger Award (if you don't know what it is, I also had to google a bit, "So, if you’re a girl or woman and you blog and you have to rock, then you’re in" ).



I am now allowed to nominate five other female bloggers. Here's my list, in no particular order:

• Cheryl from SeedStitch, because she is does take challenges and is making awesome progress as a runner.


• Suzi from Krawuggl, because her blog feels like a quiet oasis of peace
  


• Rachel from Lickety Knit, because she's got a wicked sense of humour


• Alicia from Leftist Looney Lunchbox, because she enthusiastically works on changing the world


• Annie from Tangled Yarn, because we have the same great knitting taste

If it was allowed to nominate guys I would also nominate Victor. He's fabulous, because he has started at least as many languages as I and showed me how to spin last week.

Finished: Hydrangea Lace Scarf

Pattern: "Hydrangea Lace Scarf" by Eugen Beugler
Yarn: Colourmart 100% cashmere, 3/28 heavy laceweight
Color: Shagreen
Price: $34 per 150 g cone
Amount: 50 g
Needles: 3.5 mm
Gauge: no clue
Dimensions: 25 x 137 cm
Modifications: None
Difficulty: Easy

I love this scarf. It's perfect. The green is perfectly light and delicate, the pattern easy to memorize. The blocking required more time and pins than usual, because I wanted to get the edge right.




From my last dyeing experiment.

Asian people and Down Syndrome

I read a review of an article today on www.badscience.net that really upset me; not the post, but the article. It's published in Medical Hypotheses, an academic journal by Elsevier, and the title is "Down subjects and Oriental population share several specific attitudes and characteristics" (if you want to read the whole article go to the badscience blog post unless you have a subscription for this journal or want to purchase the article separately).

What it's all about:

Summary:

Down’s syndrome is characterized not only by a typical “habitus”, mental retardation of variable gravity and several alterations of the cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrenteric and immunitary system, but also by specific attitudes and characteristics that are in common with the Oriental population. Starting from the origin of the term mongolism, replaced with other terms such as Trisomy 21, Down’s syndrome, and anomaly of Down because of the racist use made in the last century, we propose, in the light of modern knowledge about the heredity of features, a reflection on those aspects and attitudes which highlight a very particular twinning between a Down person and Asiatic peoples.

Proof of this claim:

Down persons during waiting periods, when they get tired of standing up straight, crouch, squatting down, reminding us of the ‘‘squatting’’ position described by medical semeiotic which helps the venous return. They remain in this position for several minutes and only to rest themselves this position is the same taken by the Vietnamese, the Thai, the Cambodian, the Chinese, while they are waiting at a the bus stop, for instance, or while they are chatting.

Where the hell did these dimtwits get their observations? Marco Polo? These bumpkins probably never set a foot to Asia.

There is another pose taken by Down subjects while they are sitting on a chair: they sit with their legs crossed while they are eating, writing, watching TV, as the Oriental peoples do.

I very much doubt that this is something that is passed genetically, rather it seems like a cultural thing.

Another aspect of Down person that remind the Asiatic population, are alimentary characteristics. Down subjects adore having several dishes displayed on the table and have a propensity for food which is rich in monosodium glutamate (a salt of glutamate), such as parmigiano, beef broth, tinned food, etc. The Chinese food abounds in monosodium glutamate that seems to be responsible for the fifth taste or ‘‘umami taste’’

Parmigiano? You mean, the Parmesan cheese from Italy and that is found in abundance in dishes like spaghetti?

The tendencies of Down subjects to carry out recreative–reabilitative activities, such as embroidery, wicker-working ceramics, book-binding, etc., that is renowned, remind the Chinese hand-crafts, which need a notable ability, such as Chinese vases or the use of chop-sticks employed for eating by Asiatic populations.

I’d like to take my knitting needles now and shove them up someone’s no man’s land where it really hurts.

I'm dyeing yarn!

Inspired by Elemmaciltur's successful dyeing experience I decided that now was the time to finally give kettly dyeing a try. Why kettle dyeing? Because I've had an eye on the gorgeous yarn at handpaintedyarn.com for a while (I'm probably going to place an order there soon...). I've seen people knit really nice things with it, like here or here. It's multicolored yarn, but I like it. :)

I did basically the same as Elemmaciltur, except that I soaked the yarn for maybe an hour and not a day (I also used way way way less vinegar ;)). As I felt self-confident enough to have remembered everything necessary about the dyeing process I didn't bother to take one last look at the website before starting (great idea), so I didn't cook it for an hour, instead I just waited till I had added the last colors and the water was clear, then took the pot off the stove to let it cool. I also found a thermometer to measure the temperature of the water and to adjust the temperature of my colors to ensure that adding the colors would not cause a significant change of temperature in the water thereby causing the yarn to felt.

I made different mixtures with the red food coloring in various concentration. To get a darker red I added a bit of blue. The colors were a nice dark red/dark pink/light pink in the pot, but washing turned them all into various shades of lobster red. There are also many white spots where the dye didn't penetrate the masses of yarn.



It's a very very bright green... The funny thing is I just wasn't able mix a light green. I added three drops of blue food coloring to a cup with water and vinegar and one drop of yellow. Then I added many many more drops of yellow and it was still the same color (a very nice woodruff color, by the way). Anyway, as you can see, in the end the yarn turned a very bright yellowish green.




Yarn: 4-ply sock yarn by Wolle Rödel, 420 m/100 g
Color: white
Amount: 100 g


Yarn: Rheumawolle by Wolle Rödel, 280 m/50 g
Color: white
Amount: 50 g

I used sugarfree food coloring (I got told that it's important that the food colorings be sugarfree otherwise it won't work. I had once tried to dye yarn with something similar to Kool Aid, but it contained sugar and it didn't work out well. Probably also because I hadn't been aware then that I might have to set the color with vinegar.).

I would have prefered different colors, but these look ok, too. Next time I might try to get my hands on some dye for Easter eggs. I wonder if they still sell them at this time of the year.

MS3 clue 1

I pinned it on the back of a pillow. Looks ok as far as now, no mistake noticed.


I found two little tin boxes to store some of the beads. Much better than tubes that tip over if you're not careful and more convenient than the little zip lock bags in which these beads arrived.




And when you open them, they look like little treasure chests. :D

Last details about Hanami Stole

Pattern: Hanami Stole by Melanie Gibbons (Pink Lemon Twist)
Yarn: Colourmart 100% cashmere, 3/28 heavy laceweight (by the way, if you have ever wondered what all these funny numbers like 2/28, 3/28, 1/18, etc. mean, they tell you how many plies your yarn has, first number, and how thick it is, second number. For more information go here)
Color: Rumour
Price: $34 per 150 g cone
Amount: probably 120 g, because I have 30 g left and this was a 150 g cone
Needles: 3 mm, but 3,5 mm would also work out
Gauge: it seems my swatch had 28 stitches x 40 rows/10 cm
Dimensions: 45 cm wide and 168 cm long
Modifications: I cast on more stitches, 113, because my gauge was different. As I didn't want my stole to become so holey, I left out the last two charts. I somehow had to make up for the missing length and I wanted to have a slower transition between the basket weave lace pattern and the blossom pattern anyway, so I inserted a somewhat longer stockinette section (two charts long) between the two pattern sections. And I thought less holes would make the stole a bit warmer, too. My stole was still too short though, so I took the first blossom chart and doubled the number of rows between the holes till this part was two charts long. After that I just followed the pattern. The last thing I did was made the ruffle at the end a bit more, uhm, how do you say, "ruffly"? Instead of one row of kfb I did two. And I added beads every four stitches when binding off the ruffle. I felt like having something a bit more girly and sassy, therefore more ruffles. :)


That's how the stole looks worn (I wonder when I will have the opportunity to wear a stole?! And I'm already working on my next one. :D). The yarn becomes incredibly soft and fluffy after washing. It does not smell good when you buy it, because it still has spinning oil on it, but I think it's worth it (and it added some polish to my wood needles :D).

Finally - casting on for MS3 stole!

I thought I would never start this stole. First I didn't know what yarn to chose, given that Melanie said the best choice would be black or white. Personally I found it difficult to find laceweight yarn in these colours. Eventually I chose Zephyr wool-silk in "Pewter" which is the nicest light grey that you can probably find. I really like this color. :) Then I had trouble finding the right beads. I wanted the same glass beads that I had used for the Hanami Stole, but I didn't have enough for this stole. I finally found some on the internet (the shops here only carried acrylic beads or they were too big, too small, not the right color, not the right shape), but it took another couple of weeks till they arrived. As I have already said I initially wanted the same transparent glass beads as I had used previously, but in the end I settled on matt black beads that I purchased with the other ones. I'm knitting the stole with my new ebony needles (I've totally spoiled myself recently :D I got a couple of Holz & Stein knitting needles, 350 g of really nice glass beads, Alpaca Drops yarn in a beautiful raspberry color for knitting the Wine and Roses Mitts and a small blanket for me and a new bike (I didn't have a bike for maybe more than 8 years)) and I found that the matt black of the needles and the silver of the yarn were a good combination. The black beads make the stole look a tad more interesting. I'll show pictures later.

And last but not least, a website I found recently: Knitting Delight. There are some awesome shawl patterns there. I really like Sternblume, Moonflower, Spiderlady and Numero 13. Unfortunately the pictures are all in black and white, while some might consider this chic and classic, it appears a bit dull to me (also the quality of the pictures could be a bit better), nevertheless, it's still obvious that these shawls are very pretty.

Cast-on for Hydrangea Lace Scarf

Pattern by Eugen Beugler. Available at Fibertrends. I'm using Colourmart 3/28 100% cashmere in "Shagreen".



By the way, I just saw that this beautiful wrap cardigan with kimono sleeves by Sweaterbabe is sold at half the price throughout August. And yes, it's all mine already. :D

Finished: Hanami Stole

It's finally done! :) Or sort of. I admit, due to the stole's length it's difficult to find a suitable way to block it and I'm too lazy now to torture my poor brain for an adequate solution. I just laid it down on my training mat and pulled it apart with my fingers. I can do a proper blocking another day, but first I want to see how it looks! More about the details and modifications later.

Tussah Silk

Here's an interesting article about Tussah silk. The silk is collected after the moths have emerged, so it's not necessary to kill them. More reason to buy even more Zephyr Wool-Silk! Yay! :D

I'm on Ravelry, too!

Cool, I'm also on Ravelry now! You're asking what it is? Here's a summary from their website:

Ravelry is a place for knitters, crocheters, designers, spinners, and dyers to keep track of their yarn, tools and pattern information, and look to others for ideas and inspiration.

[...]

So what can you personally do on Ravelry? You can talk about your own projects, integrate that information into your personal website and contribute to someone else's project a world away.

Sounds cool, doesn't it? :) Everything in one place. No more googling around and searching blogs because you're looking for information about a certain pattern, yarn, knitting book, etc. It's all here! And let's not forget the inspiration you get by discovering so many new projects with only a few clicks.

Their website is still in the beta phase, so you might also have to spend some time on their waiting list, but it seems to be worth it. By the way, you can find me here.

Hanami Stole in progress

I've finished about half of the Hanami Stole (read the background of the stole, it's quite interesting). The design is beautiful, but I'm still doing some modifications. I don't really like the end part with the many holes, so I'm going to leave out some of the cherry blossom sections and instead insert a stockinette part in the middle, also in order to separate the blossom part from the basket weave part.

The original yarn is Knit Picks' "Alpaca Cloud" in "Peppermint Heather". I love alpaca, but as they don't ship internationally I had to look for something else. I decided to go for heavyweight 3/28 cashmere from Colourmart. The color is called "Rumour" (orchid). It came as a cone, smelling funny (because of the spinning oil, I suppose. My mom says it smells like jute fiber. I think it smells dusty.). It's recommended to wash the yarn after knitting so I only wound the yarn into a nice big ball (manually! I really want a ball winding machine!) and hope that nobody in the train where I mostly knit will notice the smell.

The pattern looks quite intricate, but if you stop clinging to the charts and just follow the flow of the pattern you will have no problems. You will know what you have to knit next by watching the development of the pattern.


The little beads represent water drops. Cool, isn't it? :)


That's my swatch. The yarn really blooms after washing, so it's definitely recommended to check your gauge and see if you like the look of your swatch. The washing will definitely even out irregular stitches. If this picture was better you could see the difference between the stitches in the pictures above and this one (I don't think I will get better close up pictures though...).


"Minimaiden" by Handmaiden, bought at Knitty Noddy. The color is called "Rose Garden".


Another handwound ball. I think it looks totally perfect, but I still want a ball winding machine...

header margariten

Mystery Stole 3 has started!

Mystery Stole 3 has started and I'm sososo excited! :D After seeing Melanie's fabulous designs I just had to buy some of her patterns (at the moment I'm knitting the Hanami stole using laceweight cashmere in a color called "rumour" ("orchid" seems to be a more common name for this color)) and now I'm going to participate in this knitalong! I just signed up for the knitting group, don't forget to sign up , too, because the group closes on July 6. This is going to be such fun! :D

World Heritage Site Bamberg

Mother's Day, which was a couple of days ago, was an opportunity for me and my Mom to visit Bamberg. Bamberg is a World Heritage Site due to its well-preserved Altstadt (Old Town). Other cities in Germany during WWII got bombed and their Old Town destroyed, for strategic and symbolic reasons, but Bamberg was lucky, it just happened to be of no interest for the allies. I'll be honest, I didn't think the prospect to visit old parts of a city to be that thrilling, but it turned out that this city has a lot of charm and the old houses were just lovely. We also had a very entertaining tourguide who turned out to be a former schoolmate of mine. Years ago she moved there to study medieval history of art and falling for the charm of the city decided to settle there.

I'm afraid my pictures won't do the beauty of this city justice. I'm always surprised to see how boring some pictures can appear, while in in reality the view was so nice. Anyway, maybe you will nevertheless be able to get a hint of how it really is.







But our tour didn't start on top of a hill of course, it started with a short cruise on the Regnitz, the river which passes Bamberg. This part is called "Little Venice" due to the river and the picturesque half-timbered houses on its bank. We got told that these half-timbered houses that nowadays so many people find adorable and cute were considered ugly, oldfashioned and bad taste and their owners were usually really poor people, like fishermen. The building on the right side was a slaughterhouse, a sign that this indeed was not the most expensive residential area.








That's the Bamberg Cathedral. It was built with the purpose to imitate the St Peter's Basilica in Rome (Bamberg is also located on more or less seven hills like Rome and the monarchs of those past ages were eager to find as many resemblances as possible). The cathedral, like the one in Rome, is one of the few churches that are orientated to the West instead of the East.


On the other side of the place is the Neue Residenz, the home of one of the bishops of Bamberg.




The bishop who built the Neue Residenz hated half-timbered buildings. That's part of the former bishop's residence. He would have also like to get rid of this building, but if I remember it right he didn't have the means to pay for it.


View from top of the hill to another hill with another church.


The Old Town Hall built on the bridge as a compromise to resolve the conflicts between the different rising classes among the population. If I remember it correctly, the craftsmen lived on one side of the bridge and the merchants on the other side. Both were mistrustful of each other.

Crochet an anemone

I had to crochet some flowers for this pink sweater and did some experimenting with new flower shapes. This one looks like an anemone:



These are the instructions in case someone is interested in crocheting anemones. And beware, I'm not a crochet expert and I might have done things differently than I should have.

sl st: slip stitch
ch: chain
sc: single crochet
hdc: half double crochet
dc: double crochet
tr: treble

Instructions:
1. Start with an adjustable ring. Instead of ch3, ch1. Sc 7. Close the ring by doing a sl st into the first sc.

2. Ch 5. Hdc1 into the 3rd ch. Dc 1 into the 2nd ch. Dc 1 into the 1st ch. Sl st1 into sc. *Ch 5. Hdc 1 into the 3rd ch. Dc1 into the 2nd ch. Dc 1 into the 1st ch. Sl st1 into next sc.* Repeat from * 7 times Hdc1 into the 3rd ch. Dc 1 into the 2nd ch. Dc1 into the 1st ch. Sl st1 into sl st from previous row.

3. Turn your work. Pick the bar in the middle at the end of the 1st petal (see picture). It's part of the sc from the first row and make a sl st. Ch 6. Hdc 1 into 4th ch. Dc 1 into 3rd ch. Tr 1 into 2nd ch. Tr 1 into 1st ch.





*Pick the bar in the middle at the end of the next petal. It's part of the sc from the first row and make a sl st. Ch 6. Hdc 1 into 4th ch. Dc 1 into 3rd ch. Tr 1 into 2nd ch. Tr 1 into 1st ch.* The last petal ends with a sl st into the first ch of the first petal.

By the way, the petals in the pictures look so straight, because I made a mistake.

Yarn: Schachenmayr "Jazz", 50 % cotton, 50 % acrylic
Hook: 3.5 mm, but I think 4 mm would probably be better.

Feel free to substitute.

Colbert Roasts President Bush - 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner

I watched this absolutely fabulous video yesterday. It's a speech by Stephen Colbert held at the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner in which he mocks the president and his politics shamelessly. It's from last year, but I only had the chance now to see it. Apart from his wit he is also so damn cute. *fawn* :D

A trip to the Isle of Mainau/Blumeninsel Mainau

On Tuesday, which was a holiday here, my mom and I went on a trip to visit the Isle of Mainau. Mainau is a small island in the Lake Constance (funny, I didn't know that was its name in English till I looked it up now, the German name is Bodensee. Also in German the name of the isle is Blumeninsel Mainau, the flower isle Mainau, but in English it's just Isle of Mainau) and famous for its beautiful garden and park. It belongs to the aristrocratic family Bernadotte and as far as I understood is actually not German property, as I had always thought, but Swedish.

Right now is a good time to take a stroll there and admire the flowers. It was a four hour trip with the bus, which also included a short ride with a ferry (I love water and boats, so that was a definite bonus to this awesome day), but it was absolutely worth it. We were also very lucky with the weather, not too hot, not too cold (although it had been very cold in the morning and I had cursed myself for my carelessness), and a lot of sunshine.

I found it hard to believe that the ferry would be able to take up a whole bus, but I found it even more amazing when on the way home I saw that the ferry was loaded with four buses (!) and a couple of cars.




That picture was taken on the way home, but we won't be too picky with the timeline, will we? :D


Here's a plan of the garden (only click on the picture if your connection can handle 4 MB images :D )


At the entrance we were greeted by a giant flower.


We had to get up very early, but it was worth it, less visitors and the light was just fabulous for taking pictures. I'm not really a fan of my camera, but it was doing a decent job this day. Here are some daisies.


I'm in love with magnolias. I like the ones with big tulip-shaped blossoms in white and pink and a little bit of brownish pink, but these here were also quite beautiful.






The whole ground was covered with pink blossoms, there were still plenty of them on the trees though.




Here's panoramic view of the garden.




A peacock.


I started to feel like I was on vacation in some mediterranean country (of which I'm very fond). Lake Constance is just a lake, albeit the second largest in Europe, but it felt like I was on a beach. You could see little waves on the shore.




The name of the artist who created all these sculptures is Stefan Szczesny and while I find these to be very charming and joyful I don't find his paintings very attractive (there is an exhibition inside the castle right now). A wild mix of colors that don't go well together and a lot of nude women, which is not the shocking thing, it's that he draws them in various revealing positions and with very clear details, so that, in my humble opinion at least, he crosses the border of sensual and gets rather close to crude.














Looks a lot like lace.




Stairs with flowers.






Allium








Now to pictures of some of my favorite flowers - tulips. There were masses of them there. The light was fantastic and in fact, maybe too much as some of the pictures look a bit artificial. In any case, after getting into the mood again for traveling because of the whole atmosphere and because of taking so many pictures, I think I really really want a new camera. If you bother to go to new places, you should make sure that you can take nice memories and souvenirs home. I used to have a Canon Prima Super 120, which was such a lovely camera, nothing very fancy, but I liked the pictures I took. I probably lost it one day at the airport (I was really really late and in such a hurry not to miss my flight. I guess, I forgot to put it back into my backpack after taking it out to look for my passport :( ).




















Dogwood (Cornus, Hartriegel). It's the state tree of Missouri and Virginia.




A hanky tree, I kid you not. :D With a lot of kids, too.






A very big maple (?) tree.


Rhododendron


More Allium.




Another field of tulips.








In the butterfly house. They're feasting on orange slices. Usually butterflies do not really get close to people, these here though seemed to like showing off. I was able to get really really close to them and make makro shots and they just didn't care. As if they were enjoying people's attention. :)




Suddenly they did not look that charming anymore... :D




Bamboo


View from the top.