Happy February to all my friends and readers
beautiful watercolour painting by Hanka Koebsch
"Warmer Tag"
"Warm Day"
Hanka and Frank say to this picture:
And again a robin flew in front of our lens in the garden. Almost invisible, hiding in the bushes.
(Und
schon wieder ist uns im Garten ein Rotkehlchen vor die Linse geflogen.
Fast nicht zu sehen, hat es sich in den Büschen versteckt.)
The German word for Robin is "Rotkehlchen" (Redbreast). The French call it "Rouge-gorge", the Italian "Pettirosso", the Spanish "Petirrojo", the Portuguese "Pisco de Papo Vermelho", the Swedish "Rödhake" and the Dutch "Roodborst" (see Wikipedia). They all mean the same.
Nowadays, we would probably call it "Orangebreast" but because the name orange was not known until the fruit orange was introduced to most European countries, the name stuck. We call redheads the same even though the colour of "red" hair is mostly more "orange".
The old Germanic and Celtic tribes considered the robin the bearer and bringer of the sun. Its also supposed to protect against lightning and bring peace to the house. It must work. We have quite a few robins in our garden, as we also have other birds because we tend to feed them and always make sure there is plenty of water for them, as well. And we have a very peaceful house.
There are several Christ legends around where the Robin either took a thorn from Jesus' thorn crown and a drop of blod fell on his breast or the Robin sang to Jesus and is marked with the breast from his wounds. There are several authors who wrote about it, i.a. Robert Burns (The Marriage of Robin Redbreast and the Wren) and Selma Lagerlöf [Christmas Stories].
Whatever it is, nowadays Robin is THE Christmas bird in most countries, though I believe it started on the British isles.
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Have a happy February with this beautiful watercolour painting by Hanka Koebsch.
You can find many more wonderful pictures on their website here.
You can also have a look under my labels Artist: Frank Koebsch and Artist: Hanka Koebsch where you can find all my posts about them.
Happy February! I love that watercolor. :D
ReplyDeleteThanky ou so much, Lark.
DeleteI love the "Christ Legends" by Selma Lagerlöf! And that robin is adorable. Unfortunately, there are no robins in the U.S.A. Our robins here look like blackbirds in shape.
ReplyDeleteWell, Eva, I'm sure you have other beautiful birds that you would miss if you came back here. And yes, the Christ Legends are beautiful, I need to read more by Selma Lagerlöf, the first woman who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. That certainly means something.
DeleteAnd the pictures by Hanka and Frank Koebsch are all absolutely beautiful. I am so happy that they approve of my sharing them here.
Yes, we do have very colorful birds here. I think my son would really miss those birds if he went somewhere else. He loves birds and knows a lot about them! We once read "Nils Holgersson" to my son when he was little, but it was the unabridged version and without an atlas and good maps it was hard to follow.
DeleteOh, we have plenty of colourful birds in Germany, they are just not the commonplace ones in the garden. My father-in-law used to be the biggest twitcher there ever was and he had so many birds with lots and lots of colours. Of course, they don't compete with the Austrialian ones. LOL
Delete