Hope for February: ESPERANZA RISING and Esperanza Spalding
Hopeful signs: Tiny snowdrops dusting the ground under giant trees bare of leaves under a gray sky. Kriegshoven, Germany. © Laurel Decher, 2016. Hope keeps cropping up . . . Hope keeps cropping up. In February things can look dark in the Northern Hemisphere, but the light always comes. I want to share some hope […]
Collateral damage: What if there’s no one to vouch for you?
Collateral damage: Ruins of the Castle of Are (Ahr) built by Theodorich of Are around 1100 A.D. What would you do if you lost your identity? Or had no way to prove you were one of the “good guys”? A reputation is a thing you don’t think about until it’s lost. There are so many […]
Rituals for Starting Work: medieval construction, coal mining, printing presses
Medieval construction workers building Schloss Horst. ©Laurel Decher, 2015 Over the weekend, I visited a castle, the Schloss Horst Museum in Gelsenkirchen, a printing press, the Historische Druckwerkstatt that offered a trip to the age of lead, and a coal mine, Bergbaustollen Nordsternpark. Schloss Horst turned out to be a museum that drops you into […]
An Ode to Rain Boots
The inventor of rain boots. Thomas Lawrence [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons Rain boots are also called Wellies after the Duke of Wellington, a brilliant army strategist. If the rest of the Duke’s strategy was as good as his rubber rain boots, no wonder he beat Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. My husband got […]
Blast from the past in the National Park
This sign says: “Risk of loss of life! Walking outside of the marked trails is absolutely forbidden. Vogelsang was used for military exercises until 2005. Risk of loss of life . . . Wear a hat and long-sleeved shirt against ticks and sunburn and cover your skin against frostbite. Don’t leave your toothpaste or bacon […]