Sunflowers, Tomatoes, Potatoes... (new version)

 

What do you think when you see a sunflower? 

Normally I am as pleased as Punch when I see their friendly faces. 

But at the moment I am highly irritated because of the attack of the climate activists, who threw tomatoe soup at Vincent van Gogh's painting "Sunflowers". Van Gogh painted them in 1888, in pleasant anticipation of Paul Gaugin's visit, who then was his friend (the visit ended in disaster - think of the ear). 

In the German weekly "Die Zeit" Elisabeth Raether wrote that the group "Just Stop Oil" was founded in April 2022 and got donations of 1,1 million Dollar by the US Climate Emergency Fund, which was founded by Aileen Getty, granddaughter of J.P.Getty, the Oil-Tycoon. 

"The end justifies the means" says a proverb - yet I do not agree. 

In Berlin we have climate protesters who stick themselves on the big motorway Avus - very annoying for the car drivers who have to wait till the police carries off all protesters - but here at least can understand the meaning of the action: cars are heavy polluters. 

But why throw tomato soup on a piece of art? 

The National Gallery at Trafalgar Square in London is visited each year by millions of visitors (I am one of them and LOVE this museum). 

No painting, writes Raether, is insured - because nobody can pay the policy, which would be 1 % of the appraisal value of the paintings. 

Two female members of "Just Stop Oil" threw tomato soup at the painting - it was protected by glass, but one can be very happy that the soup did not soak between frame and glass. 

Comment of an activist: 

"Mostly I was bothered that the soup wasn't vegan". 

and another:

"Yes, even if that painting would not have been protected by glass, we would have thought the action to be appropriate. Where is the shock when real sunflowers are destroyed!" said, so Raether, one of the group. 

Of course the attackers got much attention. But much turndown too. 

Do they really think that because of their action one tree less will be logged in the rainforest? One person more learn about the climate catastrophe? Or change their way of living? Sympathise with them? 

Rain forest is irreplaceable, nature and climate too. And I am really concerned, and try to change what I can change. 

But art is irreplaceable too. 

To think that - to achieve the "good cause" - everything is allowed is a mistake. And history showed that sometimes "a good cause" might spiral up -  I think of Frankfurt in 1968 ("Burn, warehouse, burn!") where the argumentation - burning humans in a warehouse should give you the feeling of the napalm-burning people in Vietnam - came up.

The German followers of 'Just Stop Oil',  "Die letzte Generation - The Last Generation", now threw mashed potatoes at the painting "Cornrick"  by Claude Monet in the museum Barberini in Potsdam and said:    

"People starve, people freeze, people die. We are in a climate catastrophe. And all you are afraid of are tomatoe soup or mashed potatoes on a painting."     

PS: And beside my anger about trying to destroy works of art it is also THAT self-righteous statement above which makes me angry too: 

                       They KNOW what WE feel or do? 

Cherries - and a Touching Madonna

In Berlin sometimes I dip into a museum and look at only one or two paintings. It is like having an "espresso", a "little mouthful" as Pu Bear would say - just a glimpse at Beauty, and the eyes, the heart and the soul are happy. 

I notice "little things" - and that is one reason why I love this painting so much (you find it in Berlin's "Gemäldegalerie):  

"The Madonna and Child Enthroned" (1525) by Quinten Matsijs, a Dutch painter, (né 1465 in Leuven/ died 1530 in Antwerpen) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quentin_Matsys 

Butter, cherries, and a roll - these mouthwatering details you see it in this  painting.  

What fascinates me is the "imperfect" surrounding: this Madonna is so real - so human, she is not the unapproachable "Holy Virgin", but a tender young woman who cuddles her child. As most mothers she has a lot to do, household chores are not the most important on her To-Do-list. 

You see, if you look very hard, something on the floor, in front of her right foot: 

                                        some cherry pits!  

On planting bulbs - a quote from "The Provincial Lady" by E.M.Delafield

 

November 7th. -- Plant the indoor bulbs. Just as I am in the middle of them, Lady Boxe calls. I say, untruthfully, how nice to see her, and beg her to sit down while I just finish the bulbs. Lady B. makes determined attempt to sit down in armchair where I have already placed two bulb-bowls and the bag of charcoal, is headed off just in time, and takes the sofa. 

    Do you know, she asks, how very late it is for indoor bulbs? September, really, or even October, is the time. Do I know that the only reliable firm for hyacinths is somebody from Haarlem? Cannot catch the name of the firm, which is Dutch, but reply Yes, I do know, but think it my duty to buy Empire products. Feel at the time, and still think, that this is an excellent reply. Unfortunately Vicky comes into the drawing-room later and says: "O Mumie, are those the bulbs we got at Woolworths?" 

Lady B. stays to tea. (Mem.: Bread-and-butter too thick. Speak to Ethel.) We talk some more about bulbs, the Dutch School of Paintings, our Vicar's wife, sciatica, and All Quiet on the Western Front. 

(Query: Is it possible to cultivate the art of conversation when living in the country all year round?) 

Britta says: I LOVE the hilarious books by E.M.Delafield - read them often - and just in time: November is coming near, and I have planted a few bulbs of snowdrops - "a few" means: 7 - hahaha, that is the number of snowdrops that were in the bag. 

Well - I garden on the balcony, and only in one box I planted perennials, and there I put the little bulbs in between. Am curious whether they manage... 

In The Times of Sustainability...

 

...when I saw that rusty chair which you might spot when you squint, I asked myself: "Which idiot put that chair into the carrier of a high-voltage power line?" and then a flash of inspiration shot through my brain.

 

You see the wind turbines far on the hills: Germany -  crammed with theorists dominating pragmatists, though we have great engineers  - has to learn to produce its own sustainable electricity. 

As Government is against our already installed nuclear power plants (the Honest Fritz shivers when he thinks of coming winter, though Government  - really, no joke!- has equipped him with good advice: "Shower less and shorter" and "Use a washcloth" and "Turn down the heating") - we have (and should have long ago, I agree on that, thrusting aside the thought of many, many killed birds) to install more wind turbines. 

So: "recycling" and "sustainability" are the right password of the present and the future. 

(Though I would keep the nuclear power plants for a wile). 

"Sustainabilty" you call it in Plain Old English - in Germany they call it "Nachhaltigkeit" - first used 1713 in a publication on forestry - but there as "nachhaltige Nutzung" = ongoing use" - which makes sense. As a German philologist, I am not happy with the substantive. 

And I thought: why shall I throw that new blog of mine "...und eine kleine Blume muss man auch haben" - which is part of a quote of Hans Christian Andersen: 

"Just living is not enough, said the butterfly, one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower"  

onto the compost heap, only because I made a mistake in thinking about my aim and my readers? 

You are my readers - and you speak English - thus I will take the little blog-seedling and water it diligently, protect it agains sun and wind, maybe build a little wind shelter as The Little Prince did for his rose. 

Meaning: I will write in my own rambling English words, make my own blunders - and do not leave the field to Google translations - all that I will do in the name of sustainability. 

Come to think of it: I do it in the name of FUN - because I LOVE plants! 

 

Der Burggarten der Kaiserburg Nürnberg, der Bürgermeistergarten und der gemeine Buchsbaumzünsler

 

Gestern habe ich es endlich geschafft, einen kleinen Ausflug nach Nürnberg zu machen und dabei nicht nur die Kaiserburg, sondern auch den Burggarten anzuschauen. 

Mein Navy und ich spielten mal wieder: "Wer hält wohl länger durch?" - 

- als ich genug hatte vom "links abbiegen!", "nach dreihundert Metern viermal im Kreis gehen!" "zurück gehen, hahaha!"  und mich das obige Strassenschild ebenfalls auslachte, hatte ich genug von Google Map und fragte einen Einheimischen nach dem Weg - von da ab ging's bergauf. 

Vorbei an dem "Weingärtle", nun ja - viele Flaschen wird das nicht ergeben, und dann lag er da, der Burggarten: ein fast runder Platz, mit mehreren großen, buchsbaumeingefaßten Rosenbeeten, von Bäumen überschattet. (Ohne zu prahlen: auf meinem großen Südbalkon blühen zur Zeit mehr Rosen als hier.) 

Aber ich hatte ein hochinteressantes Gespräch mit einem jungen Gärtner, der gerade die vielen Buchsbaumfassungen beschnitt. 

"Ihr Buchsbaum sieht prächtig aus - so gesund! Sie haben offenbar keine Probleme mit dem Buchsbaum-Zünsler oder der Pilzkrankheit Cylindrocladium buxicola?" (Hier sprachen Kenner unter sich :-)  

Bei dem Pilz handelt sich um eine sehr aggressive Art, der seit 2004 in Deutschland heimisch wurde und die Buchsbäume wie vertrocknet aussehen lässt - ich habe in England Gartenbesitzer weinen sehen. 

Im Burggarten haben sie "nur" den Buchsbaumzünsler, Cydalima perspectalis, einen ostasiatischen Kleinschmetterling, nicht einmal häßlich, aber extrem gefräßig. Bis vor kurzem hatte er keine natürlichen Feinde, denn die Raupe frißt sich vorsichtshalber mit den Giftstoffen des Buchsbaums voll, je giftiger die Blätter, desto leckerer. Aber Blaumeise, Spatz und Buchfinken wollten nun auch nicht immer nur Nürnberger Bratwurst mit Sauerkraut essen, sondern holten sich zur Abwechslung  rasch mal ein Räupchen-Sushi beim Asiaten.  

Die Gärtner im Burggarten machen es so: sie gehen jede Woche mit Hochdruckstrahlern an den langen Hecken vorbei, unter die sie Folie gelegt haben, und pusten das Viehzeug runter. Und haben großen Erfolg durch ihre Mühe.  

Ich ging nach dieser spannenden und langen Unterhaltung noch ein Stück weiter zum Bürgermeister-Garten - auch in den Burgmauern, und wurde nicht nur mit einem wunderschönen Weitblick über die Stadt belohnt: 

sondern auch durch viele schön geplante Herbstblumen 

 unter und um einen Baumkreis, 

eingefasst in Buchsbaum: 

Zu ausführlichen Information über die Gärten und ihre spannende Geschichte empfehle ich https://www.schloesser.bayern.de/deutsch/garten/objekte/nbg_burg.htm 

PS: I really admire the quick Google translation into English - but do have my doubts about the part about the battle of the gardeners against the box tree moth. They simply use a high-pressure water blaster and a foil where the caterpillars fall upon and can be destroyed without any poison.