The Fest's in Full Swing!!

I made three rounds of the city today, stopping at the booths of the Hansa Cities that grabbed my eye, got to babble a little in Polish and Russian and enjoyed the sights and sounds of music and food and people of all sorts, and just a minute ago, a new first-two mounted policemen clopping along the flagstones of the Deichtorwall behind my building!!  The scared the heck out of the little band of young people occupying the bench along the moat who were quietly downing a few beers before gravitating to the disco!!

Some of my favorite sights today:

This last group was great!  The were singing 'No Satisfaction' when I took this shot...

Hoeker, Hansa, and hey! it's raining...

The 40 th Hoeker Fest in Herford kicked off yesterday. It's been joined today by the International Hansa Days. You may remember the Hanseatic League from your history classes. Herford is a member. Numerous German cities are represented here this week, as well as the Member cities from Latvia, Iceland, Lithuania, Holland, Belgium, Poland,  Russia, Norway, Scotland, and Sweden.  The streets are filling up with revelers and reenacters, vendors, buyers, and people who just like to look.  The weather is beautiful, preparations for concerts, parades, and pageants are underway and or course, the heavens open and drown them all.  Very biblical, with the exception that no one dies.  All in all, it's starting to look cool and I'm looking forward to learning some new people and getting some clues to the next stop on the magical mystery tour....

Here's a list of cities represented here this week, along with the links to their websites (courtesy of our friendly city) to help you plan your next Hansiatic vacation!

Stadt (Organisation)	Land	Webseite
Brügge	Belgien	www.brugge.be
Ahlen	Deutschland	www.ahlen.de
Alfeld	Deutschland	www.alfeld.de
Anklam	Deutschland	www.anklam.de
Attendorn	Deutschland	www.attendorn.de
Bad Iburg	Deutschland	www.badiburg.de
Beckum	Deutschland	www.beckum.de
Bockenem	Deutschland	www.bockenem.de
Borgentreich	Deutschland	www.borgentreich.de
Brakel	Deutschland	www.brakel.de
Brandenburg an der Havel	Deutschland	www.stadt-brandenburg.de
Breckerfeld	Deutschland	www.breckerfeld.de
Brilon	Deutschland	www.brilon.de
Buxtehude	Deutschland	www.buxtehude.de
Demmin	Deutschland	www.demmin.de
Dorsten	Deutschland	www.dorsten.de
Dortmund	Deutschland	www.dortmund.de
Einbeck	Deutschland	www.einbeck.de
Emmerich	Deutschland	www.emmerich.de
Frankfurt (Oder)	Deutschland	http://www.frankfurt-oder.de
Gardelegen	Deutschland	www.gardelegen.info
Greifswald	Deutschland	www.greifswald.de
Gronau (Leine)	Deutschland	www.gronau-leine.de
Halle (Saale)	Deutschland	www.halle.de
Haltern am See	Deutschland	www.haltern.de
Hamburg	Deutschland	http://www.hamburg-tourism.de/
Hameln	Deutschland	www.hameln.de
Hamm	Deutschland	www.hamm.de
Hansestadt Stralsund	Deutschland	www.stralsund.de
Hansestadt Wipperfürth	Deutschland	www.wipperfuerth.de
Haselünne	Deutschland	www.haseluenne.de
Hattingen	Deutschland	www.hattingen.de
Helmstedt	Deutschland	http://www.stadt-helmstedt.de/
Herford	Deutschland	www.herford.de
Höxter	Deutschland	www.hoexter.de
Kalkar/Grieth	Deutschland	www.kalkar.de
Kamen	Deutschland	www.stadt-kamen.de
Korbach	Deutschland	www.korbach.de
Kyritz	Deutschland	www.kyritz.de
Lemgo	Deutschland	www.lemgo.de
Lippstadt	Deutschland	www.lippstadt.de
Lübeck	Deutschland	www.luebeck.de
Lüneburg	Deutschland	www.lueneburg.de
Lünen	Deutschland	www.luenen.de
Magdeburg	Deutschland	www.magdeburg-tourist.de
Medebach	Deutschland	www.medebach-touristik.de
Meppen	Deutschland	www.meppen-tourismus.de
Merseburg	Deutschland	www.merseburg.de
Minden	Deutschland	www.minden.de
Mühlhausen	Deutschland	www.muehlhausen.de
Münster	Deutschland	www.tourismus.muenster.de
Naumburg (Saale)	Deutschland	www.naumburg.de
Neuss	Deutschland	www.neuss.de
Nieheim	Deutschland	www.nieheim.de
Olpe	Deutschland	www.olpe.de
Osnabrück	Deutschland	www.osnabrueck.de
Osterburg	Deutschland	www.osterburg.de
Paderborn	Deutschland	www.paderborn.de
Quedlinburg	Deutschland	www.quedlinburg.de
Rheda-Wiedenbrück	Deutschland	www.rheda-wiedenbrueck.de
Rheine	Deutschland	www.rheine.de
Rostock	Deutschland	www.hansesail.com
Rüthen	Deutschland	www.ruethen.de
Salzwedel	Deutschland	www.salzwedel.de
Schwerte	Deutschland	www.schwerte.de
Soest	Deutschland	www.soest.de
Stade	Deutschland	www.stade.de
Stendal	Deutschland	www.stendal.de
Tangermünde	Deutschland	www.tangermuende.de
Telgte	Deutschland	www.telgte.de
Uelzen	Deutschland	www.uelzen.de
Unna	Deutschland	www.hansetourist.de
Warburg	Deutschland	www.warburg.de
Warendorf	Deutschland	www.warendorf.de
Werne	Deutschland	www.werne.de
Wesel	Deutschland	www.weselmarketing.de
Wismar	Deutschland	www.wismar.de
King's Lynn	England	www.west-norfolk.gov.uk
Kingston upon Hull	England	www.hullcc.gov.uk
Hansestadt Tallinn	Estland	http://www.tallinn.ee/
Narva	Estland	www.narva.ee
Pärnu	Estland	www.parnu.ee
Tartu	Estland	www.tartu.ee
Viljandi	Estland	www.viljandi.ee
Turku	Finnland	www.turku.fi
La Rochelle	Frankreich	www.larochelle.fr
Hafnarfjörður	Island	www.hafnarfjordur.is
Cesis	Lettland	www.cesis.lv
Kuldiga	Lettland	www.kuldiga.lv
Limbazi	Lettland	www.limbazi.lv
Riga	Lettland	www.riga.lv
Straupe	Lettland	www.pargaujasnovads.lv
Valmiera	Lettland	www.valmiera.lv
Kaunas	Litauen	www.kaunas.lt
Deventer	Niederlande	www.deventer.nl
Doesburg	Niederlande	www.doesburg.nl
Elburg	Niederlande	www.elburg.nl
Groningen	Niederlande	www.groningen.nl/ondernemer
Harderwijk	Niederlande	www.harderwijk.nl
Hasselt	Niederlande	www.zwartewaterland.nl
Hattem	Niederlande	www.hattem.nl
Kampen	Niederlande	www.kampen.nl
Ommen	Niederlande	www.ommen.nl
Zutphen	Niederlande	www.zutphen.nl
Zwolle	Niederlande	www.zwolle.nl
Bergen	Norwegen	www.bergen.kommune.no
Gdansk/Danzig	Polen	www.gdansk.pl
Goleniow	Polen	www.goleniow.pl
Kolobrzeg/Kolberg	Polen	www.kolobrzeg.eu
Krakow/Krakau	Polen	www.krakow.pl
Lebork	Polen	www.lebork.pl
Slubice	Polen	www.slubice.pl
Slupsk	Polen	www.slupsk.pl
Torun	Polen	www.torun.pl
Belozersk	Russland	www.gorodbelozersk.ru
Kaliningrad	Russland	http://www.klgd.ru/
Kingisepp	Russland	www.kingisepp-mo.ru
Pskow	Russland	www.pskovgorod.ru
Smolensk	Russland	www.smol-tourism.ru
Tikhvin	Russland	www.tikhvin.org
Totma	Russland	http://old.totma-vologda.ru/doc/doc.php
Twer	Russland	www.tver.ru
Velikij Ustjug	Russland	www.vumr.ru
Welikij Nowgorod	Russland	http://visitnovgorod.ru/
Wologda	Russland	http://vologda-oblast.ru/en/
Aberdeen	Schottland	http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/home/home.asp
Kalmar	Schweden	www.kalmar.se
Visby	Schweden	www.gotland.se

and death shall have no dominion

A beautiful piece by Dylan Thomas,  a favorite line, and a good excuse to ruminate.

" Though lovers be lost, love shall not" strikes a chord.

I've been asked a few questions of late, questioning aspects of being most often alone, which I am. One was on homesickness, the other on loneliness.  I don't feel either.  I do sometimes miss the presence of others I've enjoyed and I do sometimes miss a trout stream I used to fish, or an alpine meadow I used to camp in, but missing something I once experienced is something I do joyfully.  Missing means having fond memories and I enjoy many of those.  For many, though, it implies a sadness at not being able to connect with that experience.  That is not my way.  It's taken a long time to work it through, but I've broken my attachments to my experiences.  That doesn't mean I've forgotten or suppressed them. It means that I live in the here and now and when you do this mindfully, when you work everyday at being aware of your body and your mind and your connections to the world you know and the world you haven't experienced yet, you realize that present, past, and future are the same thing and "though lovers be lost, love shall not; and death shall have no dominion." For a Buddhist, death has no dominion and love is never lost and sitting quietly on a Saturday night is a lot more important than anything else I can think of.

Drinking Drinking a Cup of Green Tea

Paul Reps, an American artist, poet, and knower of Zen once wrote "Drinking a bowl of green tea, I stopped the war.

 I am sitting quietly tonight, drinking green tea and smiling at the thought of stopping all wars and saving all sentient beings. I'm smiling, because I've been sitting quietly for most of the day. I've written a few poems and sketched a bit and thought about the way following my breath quiets my mind.  Mind is vast, as vast as space, and when it's empty, l experience fullness. Drinking a cup of green tea.

Gray Enough for You?

It's been a cool, gray week on Steinstrasse. I've played around with some ideas for a sculpture series, dropped a few words into the slowly evolving novel, and I've written some poems which sound like Haiku. The major part of the week has centered around "Rushton and His Times in American Canoeing", one of my favorites. I love canoes, the Adirondacks, and the magnates, hermits, and madmen who fished, padded, and waded through that beautiful wilderness.

The book is a wonderful collection of tales and facts, and the repository of the recreated lofting plans for some of Rushton's best designs. I built a model of one  them many years ago to see how it would look as a fiberglassed wood strip construction. My experience working with Kai and his fairytale houses has rekindled my  need to build things and I think it's time I started.

I'm writing about it, because I don't want the idea to pass, like so many others have. I'll keep you posted.

The Sands of Time

The Sands of Time blew back and forth for a few hours last week. l took the train over to Köln on Thursday to meet my old friend Tim Speicher. He and his wife Jo Ann have been cruising the rivers of Europe. Their ship is a little too big for the Werre, so we settled on the Rhein. Aside from the mandatory Westfälisch half hour of rain, it was a fine day.

The first sand storm hit when Tim said it had been 52 year since we first met. We were 14 and freshmen at St. Rose High School. We were also new kids on the block. Tim went to grade school in Archbald and I in Jermyn. In those days, a few miles meant a lot more than they do today, culturally, politically, and economically. Carbondale, when St. Rose was located, was a much bigger town than either of ours, and somewhat intimidating, at least, for the the first few weeks.

 We survived, and 52 years later, we ate Bratwurst and Rotkohl in Köln.

On the train back to Herford, I relived a lot my life, good and bad, happy and sad. My dreams were full of ghosts that night, and I smiled on waking in a future I had never imagined, where the Sands of Time look more like dust on the furniture.

May Day, mayday

First of all, Happy May Day to all of you who celebrate it, and Happy Birthday to those born on it.  As for the rest of you, a very merry unbirthday.

Some of you know that May Day is the equivalent to the American Labor Day.  It's the day of the worker and we workers are not working today (at least in the factories, the restaurants and cafes are open). My plan for the day was to get up early (which I did) and go for a walk (which I didn't).  It's a beautiful day, so far, with a blue sky and bright sunlight making the budding trees even more magical, and I really should be out there walking about, or at least, sitting in a sidewalk cafe drinking coffee, so I'll make this short: mayday, mayday, mayday, SOS,SOS,SOS: help me, I'm enjoying life.  Shouldn't I be in some sort of existential funk?  It is, after all Spring and I live alone.  The ducks are paired up, the hares, the titmouses, and pigeons, and everything else that moves.  Pollen is looking for a place to land, the world is mating.

Enough.  I've done my part.  There are two separate continua of this stream of consciousness.  A male in Pennsylvania and a female in New York.  Anything more would be dangerous.  I'm going to rest on my laurels, and play the part of a zen monk until this body quits and I'm transferred to the waiting room.  And now, it's time to drink coffee, or maybe eat ice cream.  I wish you all a peaceful May Day, with no need to demonstrate or revolt against the regime.  May you and your children all find comfort in their Buddha Nature.