Happy December!

Happy December to all my Friends and Readers

New Calendar picture with this
beautiful watercolour painting by Frank Koebsch

"Wenn der Schlitten kaputt ist - Weihnachtsmann an der Ostsee"

"When the sled is broken - Santa Claus at the Baltic Sea"

Frank says to this picture:

"In the harbour of Althagen, in a landscape of snow, ice and sunshine, there was a bright red coastal fisherman's boat. When I started thinking about a motif for a Christmas watercolor, I converted the fisherman's boat into a boat for Santa Claus and that's how my watercolour came about."

"Im Hafen von Althagen lag in einer Landschaft mit Schnee, Eis und Sonnenschein ein knallrotes Boot der Küstenfischer. Als ich dann begann, über ein Motiv für ein Weihnachtsaquarell nachzudenken, funktionierte ich dann das Boot der Fischer in ein Boot für den Weihnachtsmann um und so ist mein Aquarell entstanden."

Read more on their website here. *

It's nice to think about Father Christmas coming by boat. In the Netherlands, that's exactly how the story goes, he comes by boat from Spain on St. Nicholas' Eve (though a little posher than this one). Mind you, he looks a little more like a bishop, as he did everywhere when I was little.

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We had some nice days in November but also some not so nice ones, as usual in this month. Some days were pretty grey but I like the calmness this part of autumn brings.

Probably not the highlight of the month, but certainly a great day was our annual charity week in the Industrial Museum in our town. They sell each donated book for €1, children's books for €0,50. So, I got myself a nice stash of classics and some newer ones.

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Did you know that Germany has a lot of different names in different languages?

Well, first of all, Germans call it Deutschland from the Old High German diutisc, Dutch Duitsland, Scandinavians Tyskland.

The Romanic languages call it Allemagne in French or Alemania in Spanish, from the Alamanni tribe that settled in today's Alsace, parts of Baden-Württemberg and Switzerland, and hence they were the neighbours of those regions.

In Italy it is known as Germania from the Latin Germania (where also the English word comes from), it describes fertile land for farming behind the Limes (the Roman border defence in Germany).

In Polish it is called Niemcy from the Protoslavic nemets for meaning "mute, unable to speak" but also foreigner/stranger.

In Finnish and Estonian they call it Saksa and Saksamaa respectively from the name of the Saxon tribe. 

And there's a reason, of course, why we have all these different names. Germany as one country has only existed since the 1866 when Prussia and other northern and central German states created the North German Confederation, which was the forerunner to the German Empire. Before, the neighbouring country just called the people by the state they belonged to then.

 

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We had two book club meetings this month, one at the beginning, one at the end. And we read two lovely books, the first one was a re-read for me:

Ivey, Eowyn "To The Bright Edge of the World" - 2016

 and the second one was a German book that hasn't been translated, unfortunately:
Knöppler, Florian "Kronsnest" - Kronsnest [Name of Village] - 2020

 

My favourite book last month was "Stone in a Landslide" by Maria Barbal i Farré.

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The old German words for December are
Julmond, Heilmond, Christmond, or Dustermond.

Jul is the old-Germanic celebration of the winter solstice, also known as Yule.

Heil is healing, so the healing moon who gives us time to relax.

Christ should be self-explanatory.

Duster means dark, unfriendly. There is also a word "zappenduster" which I explained in August 2022.

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* You can also have a look under my labels Artist: Frank Koebsch and Artist: Hanka Koebsch where you can find all my posts about the two artists. 

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🎄 I wish you all a Happy December 🎄
🎄 and a Merry Christmas! 🎄