Batty in the Belfry or Airhead in the Aerie?

Neither, of course!  I am just trying to translate the self-ironic name of Jana's blog, 'Der Vogel im Oberstuebchen' - her project is as mad as it is amazing!

Deep in the wilderness that is Southern Germany, and a mere nine hours drive from La Bourboule, there lives a most remarkable young woman with a can-do attitude and an epic ability to pursue her dreams, called Jana Kostritza.

When she was 14 years old, she started to take flying lessons with the local sailplane club (Huelben eV), because if you want to get to places you might as well fly there.

Several years into her flying career she encountered an old Ka8 - a glider from the Schleicher company, from the same family that also includes, inter alia, the Rhoensegler and the ASK 13.  Jana was immediately smitten, and having confessed her love to just about anyone who could be made to listen, struck lucky.  A friend of a friend of a neighbours' talkative parakeet (I am embroidering a little here) had heard rumours of an old battered Ka8 languishing somewhere in obscurity.

Jana being Jana she followed up the lead, and managed to get her hands on the dilapidated glider.

'Dilapidated' being the operative word here.  The sailplane needed a few repairs ....

And a sailplane, no matter how battered, needs a lot of space, both to park and to repair....

What was a glider fancier to do?  Now Jana, I have you know, is not the only remarkable member of her family.  She has equally amazing parents, who, believe this or not, made a hole in the roof of their house, rented a crane, and had the oldtimer lifted into their attic.

Once there, Jana and a growing coterie of friends and helpers, set about nurturing the old injured  wind rider back to active duty.  So far she has spend 600 hours in this labour of love!  While other teenagers wasted their lives taking lessons in square dancing, smoking behind sheds, distributing pamphlets for disreputable extremist parties, and do whatever else it is that teenagers do these days, Jana brought her Ka8 back to life.

In case you suspect that Jana exclusively focused on her glider project and neglected all her other duties, I can inform you that she continued to go to school, did her chores around the house, and helped little old ladies across the street, because she is an exceedingly sensible young lady.

She also set up a blog, and reached out to the glider community for help with her project (which is how I got to know her).  She provides updates on the blog, and if anyone would like to help, either by buying a T-shirt, or by aiding the project in a more hand-on fashion, Jana would be very happy to hear from you.  I provide links below.

Unfortunately Jana's blog is in German, which is not understood by as many people as one might hope, and that is one of the reasons why I am doing this post on my own blog - I simply cannot bear the thought that anyone might be excluded from knowing about this wonderful project just because they lack the necessary linguistic skills!

The other, greater, reason for this blog post is that I am the world's most ardent Glider Groupie, and a feminist to boot, and Jana's glider project gladdens my heart immeasurably.  Who says that only boys and men can be Glider-builders and Glider-flyers?  This wonderful young woman is both!  Before being even old enough to smoke, drink, or become a soldier.  Put that in your pipe and smoke it, misogynists of the world!

Completion of the restoration is expected to be completed around Easter time, and all supporters will be invited to witness the maiden flight.  On this occasion the revived Ka8 will also receive a proper name - my suggested one of 'Narrenkiste' - 'Box of Fools' - was not adopted.

So if you are anywhere near Stuttgart and even vaguely interested in gliders, you would be a fool not to become involved in this amazing adventure.

'Nuff said.  Jana has generously allowed me to use several photos made of the glider project, which I post below for your delectation.  Observe and be amazed!

Can do, will get there!

Jana's Blog

Jana's blog donation page

Jana's blog supporters - includes Aufwind!!!

Merry Christmas, Everyone!!!!

Christmas Mouse amongst the sausages

This year has been a difficult one for me, as reflected by the dearth of posts - I was simply not up to writing anything.  My nasal polyps have been tormenting me, so I often can't sleep at all at night, and sometimes not much during the day, either.  This is rather exhausting!

Nevertheless I have been able to continue with my work - excellently so, I am told! - and keep the house and contact with friends & relations more or less on track, albeit often belatedly.

I am now using the holiday season to catch up a bit, and rest as much as I can.  And from tomorrow I am starting another fast - the only thing that keeps the polyps from growing......

So if you have been feeling neglected of late, don't take it personally!!!

Merry Christmas & a Healthy Happy 2019!

Another sunny day in la Bourboule

I don't usually approve of graffiti, especially not on churches - but this is funny!

Had a little wander around before lunch ...

I wondered about this - a romantic gift to some lucky person?

 

Back of the hotel where I am staying

I went out to have lunch today, given the dearth of cabbage.  I had ONE roll with my soup, one flipping roll.  And have been blowing my nose ever since.

Back to cabbage!

Eating cabbage in la Bourboule

This is a sort of addendum to the previous post ....

Apparently I have caused a local supply crisis in la Bourboule.  The whole town has run out of white cabbage.  Today I tried to buy some Brussels Sprout, but was warned off them by the shopkeeper - other customers have been complaining.

They are also out of broccoli, not a stalk to be had.

I may need to leave the town centre and go to one of the various out of town shops.  Mind you, they may have been warned about me.  I can just imagine them hiding all their cruciferous vegetables - it's that crazy foreigner, don't leave your cauliflowers undefended!

Snif.  I am sitting on my bed, thinking longingly of the feasts of days past.  Crunchy, sweet, juicy, delicious cabbage!  I ate it without condiments or spices, just cut into large chunks.  I spent hour upon hour, like a ruminating cow, thoughtfully chewing cabbage leaves, carefully and thoroughly, like a disciple of Fletcher.

I desire no other food at all.  Faced with the dearth of cabbage I am thinking of going on another little fast, just three or four days.  What is the point of eating, after all, when I cannot eat cabbage?

On the table nearby sits a tin full of shortbread, which I have brought as a gift for someone.  In the past I would have had no compunction to raid the tin.  But not any more.  I look at the tin and wish it was full of cabbage.  Shortbread no longer strikes me as food.

The last few days I noticed that my acid reflux has disappeared.  And so have my stomach and intestinal issues.  I am able to smell a little more each day, it seems.  I can sleep at night and breathe through my nose.  So my polyps appear to be shrinking.

The question is, will I have to live exclusively on cabbage for the rest of my life to retain these benefits?

I wouldn't mind all that much, actually.

Ah delicious, scrumptious, delectable cabbage!

Being Bone-idle in la Bourboule

Sorry there weren't any blog posts, or assorted witticisms, or even a few snap shots.  Basically I was resting.

I have been having problems with nasal polyps for some time now, and the last few years they got so bad I completely lost my sense of smell - I can sit next to a raw onion and smell nothing.  It kind of destroys your enjoyment in food.

Then for the last half year it got even worse, in that I could barely breathe through my nose whenever I laid down to sleep at night.  So basically I didn't sleep much!  If I hadn't been so used to getting little sleep during the menopause I wouldn't have survived the last few months....

Anyway, I decided something had to be done about this.

I had raised the matter with my doctors on various occasions, but didn't get much sympathy.  Operations are pretty useless, since the polyps almost always grow back.  And after every operation there is a bit of scar tissue, and after the forth operation there is so much scarring that no more operations are possible.  So operations don't seem a good solution.

Then there are steroids.  A months ago I had a lung infection - probably from breathing through my mouth - and was given super-heavy doses of oral steroids for five days.  And low and behold, I was able to smell a little - a sure sign of polyp shrinkage.  This only lasted for a week, though.  Evidence that taking steroids reduces polyps, and that the effect reverses when steroids are discontinued.  Since steroids have nasty side effects, they do not strike me as a good solution, either.

However, there remains the fasting cure.  There is no evidence that it works for polyps.  No one knows what causes polyps, but they are related to asthma and sinusitis, which I am prone to.  Both are partly the result of inflammation.  Inflammation is partly caused by certain foods.  Fasting reduces inflammation.

I figured there was a reasonable chance that fasting would also reduce polyps.  And decided that the time had come for a little self experimentation.

The nice thing with nasal polyps is that I can gauge their size by my ability to smell - so no fancy medical measurements are needed to monitor progress.  The more I can smell the smaller the polyps.

First I went on a sort of fasting-mimicking diet for ten days (I was working and didn't want to keel over).  It's a special diet where you eat so little that your body thinks you are actually fasting.  I had about 300 calories a day, no sugar or carbs, just fat and a bit of protein and a few vegetables.  My body was not fooled!  Result minimal - I could sometimes smell something for a second or two, especially after I blew my nose, but that was it.

So I decided to do the real thing, and decided to stop eating for seven days, with only a bit of MCT oil in coffee when I felt faint.  After five days I hit some sort of crisis.  I sneezed for hour upon hour, used up tissues by the landfill site, and felt very very miserable.  Also very very weak.  Reluctantly I broke my fast with some beef broth.

That was three days ago.  I then asked my body what it wanted to eat, and received a clear but weird reply:  raw white cabbage and head-cheese!

I bought a huge head of white cabbage and a large chunk of headcheese, and started to eat, expecting the worst.  After all those days of eating first minimally and then nothing at all, I was overloading my stomach with raw cabbage, by the pound?!?!  I sat on my bed, stomach distended with raw cabbage, and awaited the inevitable.

Miraculously my stomach did not protest - despite me having a history of heartburn etc.  Ditto with the rest of my gastric system.  It seems that my body was so happy to be given real food again that he wasn't going to make any difficulties!

I continued along this path all day yesterday as well, but also added fried green beans and some cheese to my repertoire.  The delicatessen had by now run out of headcheese, so I bought some other, sort of meatloaf thing, instead, and offered it to my stomach.

It was rejected, and I was forced to throw it out.  Luckily the deli restocked today.  Head cheese has a lot of gelatin, and is very anti-inflammatory, so maybe that is what my body is after.  Raw cabbage is also very healthy, full of minerals and vitamins, and it tastes very nice - sort of like sweet radishes!

All the while I continued to sneeze and snort and wipe my nose until it was red and sore, and my nights were spent in sleeplessness.

Until this morning.  I awoke after ten hours of sleep, and did not sneeze.  Watching myself suspiciously, I went to the bathroom to perform my ablutions - usually by now 20 tissues would have become utilised.  Nothing, except a little half-hearted snort.

As I write this evening has fallen, and my tissue consumption remains at a count of three.  I opened the fridge to cook my lunch, and was assailed by the strong fumes of an onion.

I am not allowing myself to be too hopeful yet, but I really do think I am making progress.

So now you know why I have not been posting.  I was / am rather exhausted from lack of food, and needed all my will power to stay away from said food.  And since you are bound to ask, no I didn't lose much weight.  All that cabbage!

Now you must excuse me, I am off to the shops to buy another cabbage!  Yup, I ate a raw cabbage the size of a football in three days flat.

Go figure.

The Quince Harvest

I have been seriously busy!

But today I took out some time to get the Quince Harvest done.  Possibly because of the slashing back earlier this year of the ambitious foliage that overgrows my garden  I actually had quite a few fruit on my quince tree this year, for the first time ever.

Sadly, all the best quinces are just out of reach ...

But I still managed to get two baskets full of them.  Now quinces have a limited range of usages.  It is either jelly, or jam, or quince bread/cheese (a sort of thick fruit paste, popular in Portugal).  I have had some success with baking them like apples, or turning them into a compote, but really apples are better for that.  So the harvest is more than sufficient for my purposes.

Quinces are usually ripened after picking, by keeping in a cool room, and, to accommodate the larger than usual harvest, I invested in a few fruit crates - basically crates with a wooden frame and a wire-mesh on the bottom.  Lined with newspapers they make a very passable storage facility for apples and quinces and similar.  Currently mine are nestling on top of my wardrobe in the spare bedroom, full of ripening quinces.

Since quinces smell rather lovely, I trust my sister, who is coming to stay in my house, will not be too distracted by them.  The fact that the quinces need to be kept cool - about 15 Celsius - and the resulting necessarily low temperature of the spare bed room, could cause some strife, of course.  What is more important, the comfort of my guest or the well-being of my quinces?  Decisions decisions!

Anyway, I had a lot of fun harvesting today.  My regular ladder doesn't have much reach, but luckily a kindly neighbour donated a much taller ladder to the street (where I found and joyfully appropriated it), and this allowed me to gather another two dozen fruit that would otherwise had been out of reach.

Picking from the bathroom window likewise added to the yield.  My walking stick, kept precisely for this purpose, served as a grapple hook and enabled me to pull fruit-laden branches in my direction.  Lastly, a net on a stick, usually employed in fishing bits of flotsam out of the pond, extended my arm by about 4 feet and also aided the gathering effort.

All in all it was a very satisfying, wholesome experience.

The sun shone throughout - much better than last weekend, when the Triplets and I went sloe-picking, and it drizzled for the entire afternoon.  I processed those sloes today as well, after a spell in the freezer.  I had managed to stake my claim on almost two gallons of the communally picked fruit.  We had collected four and a half freezer bags worth, and I kept two and a half of them, fobbing the other two triplets off with a bag each.  I justified this shameless piece of rapacity by pointing out that (a) I had knowledge of the best sloe picking spots, which I shared with them, and (b) had supplied the necessary equipment (old milk churns - there is nothing better for picking sloes, you pick the sloes into the lid, and keep the churn dangling on your arm).  They were very gracious about it, bless them.

Always start with the right equipment!

Large plentiful quinces - on this branch, anyway!

Spot the walking stick

Nice tall ladder

Mysterious mushrooms have been shooting up all over the garden

Even Lazarus the Croc doesn't seem to want them

Harvesting through the bathroom window

Spot the fishing net

Safely stored on top of the wardrobe

Aren't they cute?

Afternoon butterfly on buddlia