Well ... With Caffeine

Prince Harry of the United Kingdom and Meghan Markle?

I can't help it but it always reminds me of "the Margarita-affair". Read for prince Harry 'Margarita de Bourbon de Parme' and for Meghan 'Edwin de Roy van Zuydewijn'. What "really" happened? Depends who you ask. Princess Margarita, Edwin, prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, and king Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands all of them have their own version of events.

How it ended? Well, ...

Something else. Look at the effects of various drugs on spiders weaving their webs (research).

Wondering what testresults we'd get with a fox hunting, a wild pig looking for food, a woodpecker, a hunting bat, and a homo sapiens writing a poem or making a painting on a given subject.

P.S. I wrote this post after drinking six cups of strong coffee. Coffee with caffeine.

P.P.S. Or the effect of various drugs on making love with you. Wondering.

Hide-out in Blue

 Why do we travel? Mountains follow mountains, plains upon plains, and lakes upon lakes.

On my way to Toscany or The Marches in Italy I passed Lago Maggiore a couple of times. I was driving over the Gotthard Pass and deep down the blue water of the 'Greater Lake'. And sun. Always sun.

In the Swiss part of the lake are the Brissago Islands located. The history of these islands tell in a nutshell the history of refugees in Western Europe. Early Christians used the island as refuge. Between 1885-1927 Antoinette de Saint Léger - Bayer lived on the island with her husband. She was born in Russia and possibly the illegitimate daughter of Emperor Alexander II of Russia. She had to sell her island to Max Emden from Germany. Between 1927-1949 the island belonged to him and after his death to his son Hans Erich Emden. Senior was forced by the German nazis to sell his art and property because he was a jew. His son fled to Chile and sold the islands after the Second World War to the Swiss government. 

Today Max Emden's villa is a hotel: Villa Emden.

 

Isn't it lovely? 

P.S. A lot of old pictures from 1950 and before: here.

When One Comes to Listen

"Listening Point is a bare glaciated spit of rock in the Quetico-Superior country. Each time I have gone there I have found something new which has opened up great realms of thought and interest. For me it has been a point of discovery and, like all such places of departure, has assumed meaning far beyond the ordinary.
From it I have seen the immensity of space and glimpsed at times the grandeur of creation. There I have sensed the span of uncounted centuries and looked down the path all life has come. I have explored on this rocky bit of shore the great concept that nothing stands alone and everything, no matter how small, is part of a greater whole.
(...)
I named this place Listening Point because only when one comes to listen, only when one is aware and still, can things be seen and heard. Everyone has a listening-point somewhere. It does not have to be in the north or close to the wilderness, but some place of quiet where the universe can be contemplated with awe." Sigurd Olson, 'Listening Point' (1958), page 3 and 8.

Below pictures of the Listening Point cabin:

I asked artist Anna Zandberga-Šenke (website) to make a visual summary of Listening Point in a graphic. She made one for me. A very cool and lovely graphic. How gifted she is. Cleverly made. A complex puzzle in which the world comes to a standstill and at the same time is in motion. Grapic:

Explanation of the numbered details:  

 

1. Chimney outside
2. Green from wood and blue fairy cloud
3. Corner of roof
4. Door hinges inside
5. Detail fireplace inside
6. Matching beams in corner of house outside
7. Old boards
8. Carpet and cover over bed
9. Back of chair
10. Blue from sky
11. Paddle of canoe
12. Canoe inside
13. Red from canoe
14. Green and black of canoe
15. Window with sunlight
16. Window green forest outside
17. Window green forest outside
18. Books on shelf
19. Round basket on shelf
20. Scandanavian symbols on rug above shelf: mix of auseklis, krusts and star. For protection against evil or bad dreams
21. Golden ratio
22. Brown of roof

P.S. I wrote about Olson before in 2015 'Olson Quote'.

You Must Change Your Life

A poem Rilke (1875-1926) wrote in 1908 after he saw this ancient Greek torso in the Louvre, Paris, France (more). Rhyme scheme:  abba cddc eef gfg. In German (original) and English