Barbara's secondary hive

A couple of weeks ago I visited the Europe exhibition "The Power of the Word" in the abbey of St. Paul. The main theme had been the spread of monasticism throughout Europe, aided by the written word.

The abbey is over ninehundred years old and had always been "a focus of liturgy, science and art development" (citation from their homepage).

This is a picture of the Romanesque Basilica which forms the center of the abbey:




For centuries the abbey has also run a school, which I happened to attend for 8 years. As a pupil of the monk-run institution, I spent some time in the buildings of the abbey as well.
Now in preparation for this year's Europe exhibition taking place within the hallowed halls, some major renovation work has been done and parts of the building which I remebered being in a sad condition, have been revitalised. Of course I was very curious about what had been accomplished.

The exhibition was magnificent - but what impressed me the most, I wanted to share with you. Unfortunately I hadn't been able to take pictures there. But today I stumbled over some pictures of what I wanted to show you in the web - ( The Library: )

Even though the Europe exhibition is over, the library alone is worth a visit. So, should you ever be in the area, stop by.
Here's the link to their homepage.

I've used the time I spent bound to the couch due to my illness with reading Updikes "The Witches of Eastwick" and "The Widows of Eatwick".
The reason why picked the Witches was the film of the same title, which I had in fond memory; especially because of Nickolson's brilliant performance in his devillish character. I deliberately said the film of the same title, and not the film based on the novel, for the film and the book tell two very different stories, which first confused me when, after app. one third of the book, the stories went in completely different directions.
The book, although it can be seen as a parody on feminism, is dark; the main characters which I deperately tried to like, just because they carry the story, become more and more disagreeable, and their spells, which at the beginning of the book are just mischievious, gravitate in the realm of evil as the story progresses. I guess the stuff was too dark to be filmed true to the story. I somewhere read that for a certain time in was impossible in Hollywood to let a murder go unpunished, may be that still was the reason for just using the brilliant setting and spinning a new, lighter story with it.

The Widows begin 30 years after the Witches ended, the three witches have become old and widowed, and sex has lost it's meaning in their life. Alone they reunite for journeys and finally revisite Eastwick, where they are still remembered; not fondly, as one can imagine.

Basially I liked the Widows much more than the Witches. I liked how Updike described the daily struggle with the aging bodies, how they desperately tried to exude the same cockiness they possessed at their prime of their desirability, back when they still were witches, but fail.

It was the first time I have read Updike and I was thoroughly impressed with his language. Not easy to read in original for a not native speaker of English, but I wouldn't prefer the German Translation, for German never can convey the easiness of Updikes language (I've read  excerpts of the German translation, and what I read paled in comparison to the original, despite the good work of the translator).

Leave me a comment asking for a letter if you want to play.
Then, write 10 things that you love starting with that letter.
Post the list in your journal.

sunnythirty3 gave me the letter 'C'.

1. Capuccino - without it the start into the day wouldn't be the same


2. Cake - especially if I don't have to bake it myself. No, in fact I like baking much more than cooking.


3. Cantering on Amadeus when he is in a good mood. When he is not, it is hard work.


4. Chicago – the band, not the city - "If you leave me now ...."


5. Chapel - I like the athmosphere in small chapels. The residue of incense in the air, the light coming through stained glass windows ...


6. Comedy


7. Children - especially my own child, of course; I just don't get people who can't tolerate children.


8. Cheese -  my love for it is not as strong as lady_karelia's and I don't make my own, but living without it would be hard indeed.


9. Chestnut - I know, I know, a good horse has no colour. But show me a bunch of horses and I will always squee over the chestnut ones.


10. Chocolate

Congratulate me, for I have hit the jackpot!
Larva has successfully managed to pass her germs on to me. On Monday I've come down with ... *drumroll please* ... pneumonia.
/ sarcasm 

No joking, I'm feeling like shit.
That is all.

I think I mentioned I would take Larva to the cinema before we would pick Drone up from the railwaystation. Well, she wanted to see Hannah Montana (firstly because it will be rather long before our local cinema is going to show it and secondly, because all of her friends secretly love HM, but none of them would admit it, so going to watch it with friends is out of the question). As there weren't really much movies to choose from at this time of the day, I agreed - and enjoyed it, despite myself. No, really - my expectations for that film were as low as they can get, but I was positively surprised. I actually laughed out loud a few times and even shed a few tears - those only due to a piece of music, I might ad. Speaking of the music - the not-Hannah-songs I even enjoyed. The two hours spent in the cinema did not feel like wasted time at all.

A thunderstom that lasted half an hour and brought hail in its wake, left the tournament place soaked through. As a result I, sitting in the judge box, had prime tickets for a rather spectacular stunt show today. Horses were skidding towards the hurdles, riders were falling down left and right, but thankfully nobody had been injured.

In the afternoon, after my duty at the tournament was over for today, I went shopping with Larva, then biked the river route down to the idyllic lake again, and upon my returning home picked the withered blossoms from my rhododendrons. I also noticed that weeding has to be done. I'll put that on my chore list for tomorrow.

Now I'm considering what to do with my evening. Reading? Fic or a book? Or watching a film with Larva? She wanted to see PotC 3 for ages - I'll probably humour her.

Over the last couple of months I have steadily gained weight. I already thought I might have issues with my thyroid, but the blood tests didn't confirm that.
The drama I had with finding fitting summer trousers combined with the shock my scales gave me last week made it imperative that I started a battle against my increasing thighs and weight.  But as I'm not really a diet girl, I just decided to reduce the amount of food I eat and increase physical activities. Riding alone apparently is not enough anymore.
As an additional motivator I decided to post here about it.

This afternoon I made a 23 km long bike tour. Nothing fancy, just a ride alongside the river flowing through our valley. The route is an easy one, not to many steep parts in it - just the right thing to get used to regular biking.

( a few pictures under a cut to spare those who are not interested )

I will make sure to take my camara with me on future bike tours. Be prepared for picspam in weeks to come.

From tomorrow until Sunday the annual spring tournament is taking place at our barn. Of course I will help once again, and thus be working at the barn every day. Amadeus on the other hand will be enjoying the weekend on the meadows.

So, did you all have an enjoyable Walpurgis Night?

Larva and I have just returned from church, where we sang and read texts at confirmation mass. There were some minor glitches - no wonder after just two rehearsals - but all in all it was acceptable, I think.

Today is public holiday in Austria, Labour Day. Ususally the socialist party holds assemblies, sometimes those are combined with the old custom of outting up maypoles. I wonder if those festivities will be peaceful to day, what with the recession and rising unemployment everywhere.

Yesterday Larva and I were asked to join a small group of adults and children framing the confirmation mass on Friday with singing and reading texts. As on of Larva's friends will be confirmed on that day, Larva agreed to it. We had one rehearsal so far - I think it will be a bit chaotic, but what can be expected of a group thrown together on such a short notice?

I've just worked through what we learned in our last French lesson. Does anybody really use Coucou as an informal greeting in France?

Happy Birthday, shiv5468!



May your day be filled with blond totties ... or at least with pretty shoes and chocolate.

... pour mes amis francais!

And a happy April fool's day to my English-speaking friends as well.

The bed won today. I was up at 6 but heard the very unpleasant sound of a very fierce wind, which persuaded me to forgoe riding in the morning and stay in bed instead.

Instead of riding, I put the boy out on the meadow for the first time this season. Upon greeting me he was rather under-enthusiastic, for I was disturbing him in watching the going ons around the barn. So many new horses! All that excitement! But as soon as he realised where we were heading to, he was all bouncy.
All the schoolhorses have to spend the weekend on the meadow, for their boxes are needed for the tournament, so he thought he would join his friends there. Imagine his disappointment when we passed their meadow. All his posing had been for naught.
Then we passed a meadow with two horses he didn't know and he posed again, this time rather aggressivly, but I managed to manoever him past this meadow as well, and finally we reached our destination. I suspected he would celebrate being out by running and jumping around. Well, I was wrong. As soon as I released him he let his head drop down to eat.

When I fetched him after performing my duties at the tournament, I feared I would have troubles getting him indoors again. But no, as soon as he saw me walking towards him, he came to me and followed me without fuss back into his box, where he immediately resumed watching what's going on.

As I'm in a serious lack of topics to post about, I will share my afternoon with you.
Alas, I spent my afternoon at the barn - where else? The weather was rather spring-like and horsey was in a good mood, so I honestly can say that it was a perfect afternoon :-)
We started with an extensive grooming session (he is shedding his winter fur - heavens, isn't there a use for all that hair I keep brushing off him?) and then continued with a relaxed working session in the outside rink. Given that there was a lot going around us (preparations for the tournament tomorrow), he was really good. He didn't even attempt to buck when cantering :-)

After we finished, we walked down to the big riding place, where a newly placed boulder set him off bulking last time. I wanted to show him that this boulder is in fact *not* a big bad lion that wants to eat him. We were walking around the place, each time coming closer to the boulder until I sat on down on the offending thing and he was foraging next to me. I think I will have to repeat that routine a couple of times until he won't bulk anymore when passing the spot.

As I have mentioned, it's tournament time again and the barn is in uproar. Most of  the new people in our barn are ambitious jumpers and so the tension is palpable. Today a lot of last minute training was going on.
I'm going to work tomorrow and Sunday morning, sitting with the judges again and being an elfin' helper all around. Pity I won't get to ride myself ... unless I get up really early so I can ride before the tournament begins. Hmm ... we'll see who is going to win tomorrow morning: the bed or the horsey. 

If yes, you probably stayed at home hiding under your blanket today.
I only have a phobia of pronouncing that word. Heavens, I’m still trying to untangle the knot it left on my tongue. 

The word is derived form the concatenation of the Greek works Paraskeví (Friday) and dekatreís (thirteen), attached to phobia (which don’t think I have to explain). 

I was really astounded to read in a paper that the number of people calling in sick on Friday 13th is not only the double amount of a normal day, but rises up to being 5 times higher than normal. The article also referenced that the abnormal fear of Friday 13th which leads to avoid everything apart hiding under a blanket, is called paraskavedekatriaphobia. Reading this word led me to start an online search, with the astounding outcome that apparently the fear of that particular day is a relatively new one, triggered by the novel Friday, the Thirteenth by Thomas W. Lawson. 

Of course Friday has been considered an unlucky number for centuries, as well as the number 13. But the combination of the two to cause fears seems to be relatively young. 

Personally, I don’t give a damn about that particular superstition. But if you do, I sincerely hope your fears will be unfounded.

I've just come home from my first ride outside this year.
Well, to call it "ride" is probably as bit much. As my ankle is still bothering me, it was nothing more than half an hour of walk / trot in the outside rink, but it was still awesome to feel the sun on your face again with tempereatures that don't let you freeze your ass off. And I have seen the first bee of the year. *content sigh*

Tomorrow I will be off to Vienna for a week to attend a programming course. I'm not looking forward to it. Well, I'm looking forward to learning something new, but spending the week alone is not to my liking. At the moment I'm perusing the theater and cinema programs to find something that would interest me.

Na hoffentlich wird diese Regierungsperiode wenigstens lustig ...



Zur Info: Stan is unser Bundeskanzler und Ollie ist Vizekanzler und Finanzminister.

For my English-speaking friends: Stan is our chancellor and Ollie is his vice-chancellor and minister of finances.

Larva and I celebrated Valantines Day by driving to capital!city for a shopping spree.
We didn't spend all that much and mostly enjoyed strolling through malls and watched what was going on.

It was the release date of the German translation of "Twilight - Breaking Dawn" and the bookshops were all sparkly vampire themed. I had trouble deflecting Larva from the series. I don't deem her old enough to read it.
In addition to this, electional campaigning was in full swing - at least on Valentine's day I got a bunch of flowers out of it :-)

Now our feet hurt and we are both glad to be back home.

( Your result for Are You Obsessed With Harry Potter?... )

Next month elections for senate / governor and city senates /Mayors will be taking place in Carinthia.
The election campains are in full swing and leave their mark.
This is how streets look like at the moment:



All those posters are really annoying.