Happy September to all my Friends and Readers
New Calendar picture with this
beautiful watercolour painting by Hanka Koebsch
"Unter dem alten Apfelbaum"
"Under the Old Apple Tree"
Hanka and Frank say to this picture:
"Memories come flooding back: Grandma's beautiful garden with the old apple tree that we could climb as children and whose thick branches were still strong enough to carry the swings."
Any fruit tree looks beautiful when it bears its yield. Who wouldn't just love to grab one of those apples now? I also remember climbing into the trees with all the fruit.
Mind you, I have a problem with apple cakes. I never liked these with the dried fruit on the top. Since I am lactose intolerant, I have noticed that most cafés or restaurants that serve cakes have only one lactose-free version, if at all. And that is my least favourite apple cake. Since that is often the only option when I go out with friends and want to eat something to my coffee, I really can't stand it anymore. I wouldn't mind if they offered some non-sweet alternative, like a sandwich but in the afternoon, that is hardly ever offered. So, I go hungry most of the time.
Read more on their website here. *
* * *
The theatre season started again. Three open air performances in the last week, one of them "Much Ado About Nothing" by William Shakespeare.
If you haven't seen an adaptation, I can highly recommend the one with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson. One of our favourite movies. Have a look here on IMDb.
* * *
I love September. My favourite month. Not just because it's also the month of my birthday but mainly becaue it's the beginning of autumn, my favourite season. The end of summer, the end of the hot weather. So, I was trying to find a German saying about September. But I found a quote instead. I have no idea who said this but I absolutely love it.
"Ah, September! You are the gateway to the season that awakens my soul."
(Ach, September! Du bist das Tor zur Jahreszeit, die meine Seele erweckt.)
Isn't that just beautiful? And so true. It's the month where I can finally breathe again and therefore be myself.
* * *
My Jane Austen read (see #Reading Austen project) this month was "The Jane Austen Handbook". If you are an Austen fan, I can highly recommend this little edition that tells us a lot about the Regency time.
The other August book I can highly recommend is "Knife" by Salman Rushdie. He tells us about the attack in 2022 and how he came back to life after that.
* * *
One of our outings last month took us to a nearby lake, large enough to have the feeling you are at the sea. The Dümmer See (Wikipedia)
* * *
* 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.
* * *
And here is my German expression for this month:
"Das Leben ist kein Ponyhof" (Life is not a pony farm, i.e Life is not a bed of roses)
It means life isn't always easy, you don't always get what you want. It's not an idyllic holiday destination.
In this sense:
🍂 I wish you all a very Happy September! 🍂
Happy September! Cool that you got to see an open-air Shakespeare performance last week, too.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Joy. And a Happy September to you.
DeleteYes, it was fantastic. We love the theatre and Shakespeare is, of course, one of the best. It was a great ending to last month.
Have you ever seen Joss Whedon's modern-day version of Much Ado About Nothing? He got together with some of his acting friends and they filmed it at his house. It's so funny and so well done! I love it. Happy September!
ReplyDeleteNo, but I found it on IMDb and will have a look for it. Thanks so much, Lark. Have a great month!
DeleteHappy September and happy early birthday too! I love fall, it is also my favorite season, but I am not quite ready for it to be here yet. Mainly because that means winter will be here soon.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Cindy, still a couple of weeks to go but it's always nice to more or less greet my favourite season with my birthday.
DeleteI can't stand summer, far too hot, and I am happy to be able to breathe. And I always say, if it gets too cold, I can always put on more clothes. ;)
Have a great Setpember!
Thank you for sharing your September thoughts, and beautiful pictures. I just love lakes. It is so nice to swim in sweet water.
ReplyDeleteImagine that you have all these Shakespeare plays around you. We hardly ever have them in Sweden. I did see King Lear with Ian MacKellen on the Cinema, which was great. Otherwise not too much in the way.
You're welcome, Lisbeth. Yes, lakes are great but nothing beats the ocean. I envy you because of that. However, I won't complain, the Dümmer is lovely to visit. And not too far.
DeleteYes, we are very lucky as regards to the theatre here. We always loved going but it was never so easy as now here. We have many plays in the area, even very professional ones. And the amateur performances are really good, as well. Quite a choice.
I love September too--still warm (at times too warm) but the mornings are so nice and crisp.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the watercolor so much. Sadly, our apple trees didn't bear much fruit this year, and what they did was mutilated by squirrels. I love apple pie, apple cobbler, apple sauce, and cooking with apples.
Much Ado is definitely one of my all-time favorite plays, Shakespeare or otherwise, and the Thompson/Branagh version is superb.
I recently gave my copy of The Jane Austen Handbook to one of our JASNA region's newer members. It is a treasure trove of fun facts.
Oh, a fellow lover of the colder climate. I always get weird looks when I say I'm glad summer is over. Great to know I'm not the only one, Jane.
DeleteHanka and Frank are both great painters and I'm glad you like their paintings, as well.
I do like a lot of food with apples, but those dried pieces on a dry cake ... nope, not for me. And I can't even enhance it with cream because if they don't have lactose free cakes, they don't have lactose free crdam, either.
I also love Much Ado above every other Shakespeare play. So much fun.
And I am sure your new member enjoyed the book you gave her, it's fantastic, even if you know a lot already but also a great present.