When I shared my Heidelberg Fungi post, I mentioned how disappointed I was at the amount of fungi I had seen this Autumn. This is partially due to a lack of walks in the right places. But luckily, we were headed to the Black Forest in Germany so I KNEW this was my chance to see some more interesting fungi. But would I be able to spot them?
We were staying in the beautiful spa town of Bad Wildbad, where CBC and I had spent a couple of happy nights and days with his Brother some years ago.
We headed up the funicular railway to the Sommerberg and after a visit to the Tree top walk and the epic slide, we walked onwards through the forest.
And here's the first of a few posts of what I saw.
The first fungus I spotted was Yellow Stagshorn emerging out of a mossy stump of a tree. I've seen this a couple of times but a colourful fungus is always exciting!
Next, I saw this pinky/red fungus which I think was a Beech/Beechwood Sickener, Russula Nobilis, definitely a Brittlegill/Russula mushroom, if not that exact one.
The ones below, which were somewhat damaged (as is often the way with Brittlegills as they are tasty to insects!) were Russula atropurpurea, otherwise known as the Purple Brittlegill.
At this point, CBC had given up on me and walked ahead.
Once I got up close and personal to the leaves, I spotted more and more.
This orangey one below was intriguing to me.
And here's another view of it where you can see the light shining through its gills. This one was in better condition.
As there were plenty of these, I wanted to have a look at its gills so I tried to lift it up a bit but then it snapped. This bright orange latex oozed out of it.
It wasn't till after the next day's walk and seeing plenty of these that I found an ID on this fungi-type. And it's a highly-sought after edible which is called the Saffron Milkcap or to use its rather delightful and apt Latin name, Lactarius Deliciosus!
Here was another example I thought, but now, looking at it, it's not the same one as it has a white stipe!
I'm not sure what this was. Was it a Fly Agaric variety without its spots?
These pale pink mushrooms are perplexing me a bit. They could be Rosy Bonnets, Mycena Rosea but the shape is slightly confusing
It was hard to tell if this was a Russula Amethystina or another Purple Brittlegill! It had a big pool of water in it!
In my first 20 minutes of looking, I was already happy to have seen to many but what would I find next? I had come with a wishlist of a few fungi I would like to see but would I see any of them??
I wore this TARDIS Tuesday outfit for school today and I was determined to ACTUALLY photograph it! Managed to get CBC to take a picture for me too so no faffing with the tripod!
I cannot believe that I haven't featured this outfit since May 2023 for this week's TARDIS Tuesday. Utterly perplexed!
This will be the 3rd time I have featured a version of this outfit for TT!
Worn by Yaz Khan in The Power of the Daleks, it is classic Yaz.
It featured a Dessa Balfern jacket by All Saints, and a burgundy and black snakeskin-print blouse, also from All Saints. Some unidentified boots which may be from Doc Martens and some black jeans.
I like this outfit because it's made out of cotton materials, not leather or synthetic!
Last time I featured this outfit, I was wearing the screen accurate jacket but NOT one owned by me. I was the recipient of this jacket for my Russian friend Anna who lives in Argentina. I sent it onto her but she let me take some photos in it. I liked the jacket but never planned to buy it as the RRP was ££££ (over £100, possibly £200!!). However, a year or so back, I saw it for sale for £5 on Vinted! £5!?!?!?! I couldn't resist it at that price and I am glad I went for it! Such a jolly Autumnal colour.
I wore my ASOS black trousers as usual. I do actually have a pair of SA Yaz Khan All Saints jeans (not these ones!) which were a bargain at £5 too but I can't wear jeans for school!
I am not the biggest fan of animal print but the snake skin print on this shirt, also from All Saints is really pretty in the colours it features in! It was also very cheap! I like the fact it's actually cotton and has nice balloon sleeves and elasticated cuffs!
I'm not sure if she is wearing any necklaces but I decided to wear my K necklace!
For warmth, I added in this mustard cardigan from White Stuff (a present from my Father in Law and Mother in Law a long time ago when FiL was still alive). I know it was cold today because I kept this cardie on all day even when I was playing 'In and out the dusty blue bells' with Year 1 children in the music room!
A final touch is my hair in plaits! I found this amazing blog which is dedicated to analysing ALL of Yaz Khan's outfits, shoes, jewellery AND hairstyles and they show that this hairstyle is actually 2 strand twisted braids so I might try that another time! You can find it here
I enjoyed this outfit and it's nice to return to Yaz's outfits again!
At church today, we had a lovely sermon given by a young woman named Steph who occasionally gives a sermon and often shares a profound message. One thing she said, which struck a chord was, I'm stuck Lord and I don't know what to do but I see you! This is quite comforting and was comforting as I was feeling somewhat anxious and things were on my mind, even through the sermon/service.
At the end of the service, the vicar, who leads the worship said to me, I'm not very good at encouraging people or remembering to tell people how much they are appreciated but today, as we were playing, it struck me that I should say this to you today. I wanted to say to you that when you play, not only are you talented at playing the notes but your playing is anointed, that comes from God and is pleasing to him. I can't remember his exact words, because at that point, him saying that, brought tears to my eyes. I thanked him because it really did mean a lot to me to hear him say and I really did need to hear that today and from that moment on, the things that were filling my mind and were making me feel anxious, seemed to fade away. I wanted to record it here because I think it's important to remember moments and things people say that you cherish. I do know that when I play at church, that I am blessed and it blesses. I always feel comforted and I am so grateful to know God. If that sounds cheesy, then I am Camenbert and proud! :-) Even hours later, when I think of what he said, it brings tears to my eyes but these are tears of gratitude of God speaking to me.
It meant a lot to me.
Another cherished thing was this weekend sharing a friend's 40th birthday celebrations in London. Our friend lives in Sweden and had come over to celebrate with all her friends back in the UK. We had a lunch in a pub in Bloomsbury and then a trip another pub before heading to the Bloomsbury Lanes for Karaoke and finally having pizzas and drinks in the Lucky Pig in Soho. We had such fun at the Karaoke. CBC and I sang A Whole New world from Aladdin together as well as What is this feeling? from Wicked and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. It was SUCH a joyous event. Everyone had such a good time at the Karaoke and I really enjoyed singing even if I felt a bit embarrassed at first (as there were lots of singers there). It was fun to do that together with CBC and to remember what it feels like to hang out with friends and just have fun! We don't do that so much in recent times and it was lovely.
I've talked about our dear family friend, Norma in various posts on this blog. Norma was such an interesting friend and a great story-teller. One of Norma's stories, which I loved, was the inspiration for today's poem which began from the Toy Press word of the week, Track. I'll give you the backdrop to the poem once you've read it as I don't want to spoil the ending.
Brainteaser:
We’re going to track a criminal
Of the most heinous kind.
They’ve done the deed most foul,
The culprit will be charged and fined.
They’ve licked off ALL the chocolate
On every birthday Malteaser.
Left me soggy honeycomb pips,
But WHO, is the great brainteaser?
We’ve scanned the crime scene, looked for clues,
Seen footprints brown and small.
Let’s follow the trail to catch the fiend,
I’ll soon reveal all…
In the corner of one room,
Sucking and spitting them just like that.
His whiskers all chocolatey, looking guilty
Is my Loathsome Lenny Cat!
As a child, I delighted in her tales of her cats. In particular, were the many stories of her Burmese cat, Lenny, known as Loathsome Lenny due to the many crimes he committed!
She told me the story of having a box of Malteasers which she had opened, put in a glass bowl for some gusts and was really dismayed to find that she'd found many of them bereft of their chocolate and some of them abnormally shiny. She discovered that one of her cats was indeed getting the Malteasers in their mouth and then spitting them out when she caught them in the act! I'm not sure that it was Lenny, I can't remember which of her many feline residents it was so I decided to atrribute it to Lenny as it is absolutely the type of crime he'd commit!
I wish I had written down someof the stories Norma told of her cats and her life working for the Sound Archives department at the BBC. She was such an interesting person.
xx
Update: Apparently the culprit was JIM! I'll leave it as Lenny though as I had such affection for that cat that he deserves to be preserved in a poem!
I am very excited about this as it was one of my favourite things to watch as a child. We taped it from the TV when I was younger and we would wheel it out during any school holiday- didn't have to be Christmas.
This was a 1984 adaptation made by the BBC of John Masefield's classic children's story, The Box of Delights. It is a sequel to the lesser-known The Midnight Folk, featuring main character, Kay Harker and some magical folk, characters from history and pagan mythology, wonderous creatures and forays into the past plus the earnest desire to ensure that the 1000th celebration can be held at Tatchester Cathedral. Masefield's original text includes lots of his delightful poetry and the book is set around Christmas. The TV series featured the wonderful Patrick Troughton as Cole Hawlings, an enigmatic character and the music is delightful. When they filmed it, they spent the most money (£1million) that had ever been spent on a Children's TV series and featured live action AND animation. The theme music is from the 3rd movement of Victor Hely-Hutchinson's Carol Symphony which is a haunting rendition of The First Nowell. I very much recommend it.
I am currently dressed in my TARDIS Tuesday, worn for school but I just can't summon up the energy to find my camera, tripod and attempt to move racks of washing to find a nice spot!
So, go and watch The Box of Delights.
You can also listen to the radio adaptation of it too.
On our second day in Germany, CBC and I began our day in our bargain hotel in Frankfurt, Hotel Cult. We paid £46 for the night in a double room including amazing buffet breakfast. We found free parking on the street. The night before, we walked down the street to a lovely family run Vietnamese restaurant for dinner. The next morning, after our epic breakfast, we drove to Nieu Isenberg for a quick visit and then drove to Heidelberg for a quick visit to the castle there.
After our visit, we took the funicular railway up the hill and decided to go for a steep walk through the woods up to the higher station.
It was rainy and quite slippy and I was annoyed at C for rushing me.
However, the walk became bit interesting when we started spying fungi. I should explain that I've been feeling pretty hard done by this Autumn as everyone else seemed to be going for walks and seeing incredible fungi including ceps/boletes.
When C first mooted the idea of a German holiday, particularly returning to the Black Forest region, my head immediately thought, "MUSHROOM SPYING!!!"
C pointed out this one and my (still disgruntled) reaction was, "Honey fungus is dull!!"
One of the fungi I see the most is Turkey Fantail. The wonderful thing about this is that it takes so many different colours and you can see so many different hues when you spy this one.
Above is quite a reddy/pinky example which I haven't seen very often.
I spied these tiny Bonnet mushrooms coming out of some beautiful wood. CBC accused me of up-skirting it but was jealous he had missed this example. I suspect is just a Common Bonnet (Mycena galericulata flata) but I'm not sure.
Although I generally find white mushrooms relatively dull, this one was beautiful. Not sure what it was.
These were definitely Common Bonnets and they have an almost floral appearance sometimes.
Are these Clustered Bonnets?
I took a wrong turning at one point, away from CBC who was far ahead and annoyed with the fungi examination as the light was fading but I'm glad I did as I saw this variety of Bolete mushroom sticking out of a root.
It was hard to get a clear picture of its spongy pores as the shadow and lighting made it hard to focus.
Further up, I saw this Coral fungus. It's part of the Clavaroid fungi family. I think this is the Ramaria Stricta.
I caught CBC up and we reached a proper road for a while
I loved these Creme Brulee looking mushrooms but can't seem to ID them!
These white-gilled toadstools had a beautiful, wavy-angel-like appearance. I suspect they might be the Giant Funnel, Aspropaxillus giganteus.
I saw this intriguing early growth fungi.
I've tried to see what this could be and there might be some suggestion these will be Schizophyllum commune (Splitgill mushroom),young Oyster mushrooms, Lionsmane gill or a Common puffball in their 'egg' stage.
Are these the same ones? They definitely looked more like a Common puffball variety.
This one below was very prickly-looking. I wondered if they were some sort of growth or were part of the original fungus?
Finally, here was a variety of puffball Lycoperdon perlatum (Literally translates as Wolf farts!) or Earthball (Scleroderma citrinum)? Hmmm, which was which...
I'm inclined to go with Puffball but without cutting into it, I couldn't tell!
CBC and I finally reached the top of the Berg and the Cable Car station to take us back down to the car. It was now getting darker but we could see some lovely views of Heidelberg.
It was a fun walk and visit despite the rain. I'll share a bit more on the castle anon.
In Half Term, CBC and I travelled to Germany for our holiday. CBC LOVES a nomadic holiday- a few days here and there before moving on. It's fun but does end up with lots of travel and can be more expensive. (especially when you only book the accommodation at 5am of the morning you are travelling)
Our first day, he had his Garden Design course so we didn't travel till afternoon and we were driving so after we travelled on Le Shuttle through the Eurotunnel which ended up being an hour and a half delayed, we ended up in a small town near Brussels around 10pm local time. We stayed in a B&B which was pleasant but simple and then departed the next morning. We drove for several hours through Belgium and then Germany and decided to stop off in Bonn as we wanted to visit Beethoven's birth house museum.
We parked in a multi-storey carpark off the main street in Bonn and walked to the museum.
Here it is.
I was SO happy to be in Germany as I hate being that tourist who doesn't speak the language or does so badly. I did A level German and adore speaking German even though I have forgotten a lot in the 26 years since I stopped speaking it regularly. It was so nice to be able to communicate in the language. CBC, who doesn't speak German, was very relieved.
You download an app to your phone that will play you audio about each exhibit which is really handy.
The museum is divided into different exhibitions and rooms.
Beethoven perceived by his contemporaries
Bonn in times of transition
Work and Everyday life
Network. Friends
Network. Patrons
Network. Loved ones
The Artist and his Work
Blow of fate
We started off in the room with images of Beethoven himself.
I loved the Beethoven bust by Franz Klein, 1812.
It was an authentic representation of the composer. He used a plaster cast of Beethoven's face. The composer allowed the plaster cast to be taken twice after a panic the first time when he thought he mgiht suffocate. The only part that was formed later was the eyes as these were obviously closed for the cast.
Two of his friends from the Streicher family commissioned this work of him. They owned piano factory and they had busts of favourite composers such as Schiller and Haydn and Andreas Streicher who was also a respected composer.
This small miniature was by Christian Hornemen from 1802, Danish painter, during his stay in Vienna. He used the finest paintbrush onto ivory. This shows Beethoven, 31 year old, the first high point of his career where he was truly feeling and perceived as successful. He had fashionable look- he was the desired guest of every Viennese salon. He apparently wasn't usually this well coiffed. He was often described as being scruffy and didn't like having to dress up.! He was fond of this small portrait. He gave this to Stefan Von Broining, a childhood friend, as a peace offering after a fierce argument.
The most famous portrait of Beethoven. By Joseph Stieler. He was a highly regarded portraiture of the time. Beethoven sat 4 times for this portrait. It was unusual for Beethoven to sit still for any length of time so this is quite special. It's the best depiction of him. This is only portrait that actually shows him composing. He holds the Misse Solemnis score in his hand. He had a serious discussion with Stieler to discuss which work and which page should be depicted. He chose the Credo.
The forest background expresses Beethoven's love of nature. Stieler created an idealised image of Beethoven.
For me, this portrait is the most famous image of Beethoven I know so to stand in front of it was pretty special!
The Credo depicted. Have a listen as you read on.
I was very excited to see Beethoven's viola! I didn't know he played the viola! He played this instrument from the age of 19. He was a violist with the royal court orchestra. He was also the organist for this ensemble. He got to know and play most of the well known repertoire of the day through this job. He began music aged 5 with his father Johann on violin. His father was very strict and told him off for poor playing, at least according to a family friend so it's hard to know how mcuh was true. We know that Beethoven's first concert was aged 7 in Cologne by his dad. He began organ lessons and then violin with good teachers, sought by his father. He also attended Elementary school but not secondary school as apparently he wasn't very good at languages or maths!
This is the parts of the organ he played at the time.
This model of the city of Bonn at this time was really interesting to look at and from a child's view, looks incredible.
One thing I loved was seeing Beethoven's manuscripts before they were copied by a copywriter for publishing. I found it all very scruffy and hard to read so I am glad that wasn't my job!
One thing that many know about Beethoven was that he lost his hearing completely by the end of his life. This is extremely difficult for anyone this happens to. For a musician, this is and must have been utter torture.
Here was a collection of his various ear trumpets. The museum taught us that he tried many quirky treatments for hearing loss. He also had conversation books where his friends would write replies to things he said. It seems like he was very grumpy and rude!
Another score.
Here's the exterior garden.
I haven't shown you everything, just a few little highlights.
There was a lovely listening room for his Juvenilia with earphones and a lovely chill out room where there are sometimes live performances. They played a recording of his Moonlight Sonata with a screen that highlighted the notes on the original handwritten score.
We loved the museum but were now very hungry.
We found a patisserie round the corner.
I ate this wonderful chocolate and hazelnut mousse!
Here's a massive dummy in the shop of Beethoven!
After this, CBC ended up buying one of two little souvenirs. I ended up buying a lovely little leather violin keyring in a gift shop opposite which I plan to wear on my belt as a cute little charm! This was my only holiday souvenir.
We had a bit of a panic with the machine in the carpark as it wouldn't accept our payment but had taken the card and the money. Curiously, it had a 'call for help' button on it. I called it and in my German, I tried to explain it had taken our money and now wouldn't give anything back! Miraculously, they managed to make it work remotely and all fine!
It was now time to drive to Frankfurt! We found bargain hotel in Frankfurt called Hotel Cult. We paid £46 for the night in a double room including amazing buffet breakfast. We found free parking on the street. I'm not too fond of the overly stodgy and meaty traditional German fare and I didn't want this for a whole week so I looked up something local and that night, we walked down the street to a lovely family run Vietnamese restaurant for dinner where vegetables were plentiful!
I should state something gutting I realised on the day we there. Originally, we had been planning to stay in Darmstadt as that was near the location we needed to be the next day. I discovered that THAT very day, in DARMSTADT, was the famous German Doctor Who convention, Timelash, which I have wanted to attend for a few years and Paul McGann, the Doctor Who actor I have always wanted to meet was there. I was literally going to be in the town on the day of this German convention! Sigh...another time.
