It's starting to get cold!

Hi Everybody!

It's slowly cooling down here, and by next week it should be really frosty. As it has been mild and sunny most days, it was rather surreal watching people erecting the booths for the Christmas market, which opens in a few days, especially as the workers were mostly wearing short sleeved shirts.

Time to get my winter pullovers out!

For Paint Party Friday I made another A3 (12" x 16") mixed media piece. The background was painted with cream and then sponged with some left over brown acrylic paint, which I also used to stencil some diamonds,honeycombs  and a flying figure. I sewed various strips of netting, gold paper, linen and burlap to the page, and a strip of cork and gold washi tape was added. The figures are from TH, the butterflies (LaBlanche) were fussy cut. The quote is from Buddha. The blue patches were rubbed on with a Gelato.

I am also linking to Simon Wednesday challenge,  all that glitters is gold.

Another beautiful sunrise:

At the beginning of November G and I visited the Gruga Park in Essen, and enjoyed walking around in sunshine, enjoying the flowers, gardens and trees. I took a lot of photos, the first batch of which I am showing here. I was astonished to see so many blooming flowers in November:

There were lots of rusty sculptures along our way:

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

T sTands for The ST. MarTin's Procession

Hi Everybody!

Hope your week got off to a good start. 

On Tuesdays Elizabeth celebrates her T stands for Tuesday Party, so here a warm welcome to all of the lovely ladies of the T gang.

Last week the feast of St Martin was celebrated here in Rhineland; every town, village, and  borough has its own procession. Saint Martin rides in on a horse, accompanied by kids with coloured lanterns. 'Martin' sees a freezing beggar, swipes his cloak into 2 pieces with his sword and gives half to the beggar. This is celebrated with a procession, collecting money for people who have less, and eating 'Weckmänner', which do taste rather good:

This is a painting from El Greco:

And a painting from  Düsseldorf made in 1905:

It's also tradition to eat a Martin's goose with red cabbage and dumplings:

Traditional lanterns:

Kids often go from door to door, sing a song about St Martin and get rewarded with goodies:

(Images 2,3,4,5, and 6 courtesy of Wikipedia)

My drink was, as always, cappuccino, shown here in my fave mug:

Last Sunday I went again for an early morning walk through the fields to Schloss Kalkum after enjoying a beautiful sunrise::

The ducks were looking happy as always:

The castle ghost was there again:

The last of my balcony flowers:

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Remembrance Day

Lest we forget!

(Water coloured tag, linking to Tag Tuesday, Poppies)

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved, and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

John McCrae