Vinterferie -- 1 -- Winter Holdays

      I dag fejrede vi vor Frue af Lourdes. Vi spiste kager, faktisk muffins og talte en smule om  Lourdes.
     Uglemor bagte muffins, men glemte helt at tage nogle billeder.
I  fredags, den 8. var det jo nåledag, og der fi vi også kage og dsendte nålene afsted. Vi må se billederne derfra i stedet.

-- 💙 --

Today we celebrated Our Lady of Lourdes. We had cake, muffins actually, and spoke shortly about our Lady's apparitions at Lourdes.

MotherOwl made muffins, but forgot to make photos.
But some days ago - February 8th, we also had cake, and sent off our broken needles in style. Pictures from that day will have to suffice.

-- 📍 --

Nålene i en lille træbåd  --  The needles in a small wooden boat.

Nålekage. De knækkede tandstikkere skal illudere nåle 

-- 📍  --

Needle cake. The broken toothpicks are symbolic needles.

Noderegn -- Rain of Notes

     Trolden spiller klaver, han spiller godt, og øver trofast. Lige for øjeblikket er han i gang med Impromptu i Ges-dur af Shubert. Den er meget smuk, næsten som en bøn, men der er frygteligt mange noder i den, og Uglemor følte sig lettere overvældet.
     Ligesom Blå på tegningen her.

-- 𝅘𝅥𝅮 𝆕 𝅘𝅥𝅮 𝅝 𝅘𝅥𝅮 𝆕 𝅘𝅥𝅮 --

Trolli plays the piano. He plays really well, and he's diligently practising. Just now he's doing Impromptu in G♭ major by Shubert. It is a very wonderful piece of music, almost like a prayer, but it contains an awful lot of notes. MotherOwl feels quite overwhelmed.
Like Blue in the drawing here.

Back to the Classics ... Musings.

It seems this is going to be a reading season of serendipity.

January 1st I rolled a 2, telling me to read a 20th Century Classic. I read The Trapp Family, not because it fit the category, but because I kept on being reminded about it.

Then - having read the book early, I rolled a 7 - a Very Long Classic. But hunting for a long book, I stumbled upon Seven years in Tibet, a book I always wanted to read. It was not super long, but fit category 10 - Classic From Africa, Asia, or Oceania (includes Australia).

I then followed my own rule of rolling the die whenever I had read a book, and written about it. The die showed me a 1, a 19th Century Classic. Hunting for such a book, I found instead Three Hearts and Three Lions by Paul Anderson. Once again not suitable for the chosen category,  but for another one. Classic From a Place You've Lived as parts of the book is placed in Elsinore.

Today, following my new rule, I rolled a 4 - Classic in Translation. Maybe the category it's easiest to find a book for. Now I'm off to search, I'm curious as to what I'm going to find this time.

-- 📚 -- updated list -- 📚 --

 1. 19th Century Classic:  Alice in Wonderland

 2. 20th Century Classic: READ - Trapp Family Singers.

 3. Classic by a Female Author: ?

 4. Classic in Translation: ?

 5. Classic Comedy: Don Quijote

 6. Classic Tragedy. The Odyssey or The Iliad.

  7. Very Long Classic: ?

  8. Classic Novella: ?

  9. Classic From the Americas: Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer.

10. Classic From Africa, Asia, or Oceania (includes Australia):  READ - 7 Years in Tibet

11. Classic From a Place You've Lived: READ - 3 Hearts and 3 Lions

12. Classic Play: Jedermann.

Nålenes mindedag - Harikuyo - Memorial for Needles

Mange tak til Messymimi's meanderings for at minde mig om harikuyo - nålefest. Det er på denne dag, man lægger årets knækkede og bukkede nåle til hvile med tak for deres tjeneste og under bønner om at blive en bedre syerske i det kommende år.
Jeg tager ikke til det nærmeste tempel, jeg ved ikke engang hvor jeg skulle tage hen - og præsten ville nok glo temmelig meget, hvis jeg mødte op til messen bevæbnet med knækkede og bukkede nåle og en kage.
Men jeg kan godt lige ideen med at sige pænt tak for tjenesten til de udtjente ting. Og en bøn om at forbedre sine evner i det kommende år? Kan vi ikke alle have behov for det.
Der vil nok foregå noget i Uglebo i dag, der kommer til at involvere udtjente nåle og kage.

I just want to thank Messymimi's meanderings for reminding me of harikuyo, feast of the broken needles. Today seamstresses and people sewing bring the needles, pins and so on broken or otherwise rendered useless since this date last year to a temple. There they lay them to rest in soft tofu or cake, meanwhile thanking them for their services and praying to become better in the coming year.
I'm not going to the nearest temple - I would not even know where to go - and the priest would surely eye me suspiciously if I brought my needles and pins along to mass, to bury them there.
That being said, I like the idea of saying a proper goodbye and thanks to broken needles and pins, and prayers for improving, I think we all could need that.
Some kind of ceremony, and a cake, is going to find its way to the Owlery today.

Back to the Classics -- Three Hearts and Three Lions

Well, I did roll a 1 - telling me to read a 19. century classic. But looking for such a book on the shelves I stumbled across Three Hearts and Three Lions written in 1961 by Poul Anderson. Well it is strictly speaking a science fiction book, but written in the 20 century.That category was taken by Sound of Music. Well then as crucial parts of the book takes place in Helsingør (Elsinore) where I lived for many years this could count as

11: Classic From a Place You've Lived. 


Link to the Back to the Classics Challenge.

The theme of the book is the eternal fight between Law and Chaos. Holger, a common dude from Elsinore is fighting in the resistance during the Nazi occupation of Denmark. One night, on the beach near Kronborg (Yes Hamlet's castle) he is with a group trying to secure the passage to Sweden for a boat with a supercargo refugee. Fighting for this end, Holger is hit by enemy bullets, and suddenly he's somewhere else. Transported through space and time, not knowing who or where he is, but with a great warhorse and equipment suitable for a knight of noble ilk, he tries to find his way back. His coat of arms Three Hearts and Three Lions, and his name, Holger, gives off to all but him, that he is Ogier le Danois, the Defender, the Holy knight sleeping in the dungeons of Kronborg to appear in times of peril.
He fights his way through realms fair and foul with unlikely allies and grim foes. In the end he discovers who and what he is in a rather unexpected way.
Wikipedia told me that "The novel influenced the role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons, especially the original alignment system, which grouped all characters and creatures into "Law" and "Chaos". The game drew on the novel's depiction of the troll, which regenerated when wounded, the swanmay, and the nixie. The novel also inspired the paladin character class."
As I played Dungeons & Dragons for many year, always yearning to be a Paladin, and always twarted by my chaotic co-players, this spoke to me.
It is excellently written with many jokes and puns, and I think it is even funnier for me, because Poul Anderson knew Danish, had lived in Denmark for some years, and in this book he accurately describes a Dane seen from an American point of view. Also his use of Danish pronunciation and words makes this even better.

-- 📚 -- updated list -- 📚 --

 1. 19th Century Classic:  Alice in Wonderland

 2. 20th Century Classic: READ - Trapp Family Singers.

 3. Classic by a Female Author: ?

 4. Classic in Translation: ?

 5. Classic Comedy: Don Quijote

 6. Classic Tragedy. The Odyssey or The Iliad.

  7. Very Long Classic: ?

  8. Classic Novella: ?

  9. Classic From the Americas: Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer.

10. Classic From Africa, Asia, or Oceania (includes Australia):  READ - 7 Years in Tibet

11. Classic From a Place You've Lived: THIS ONE

12. Classic Play: Jedermann.