Confessions of a Glider Groupie – The Tiny Visitors

Rainer Reiher resting on the ledge of the Church Tower while keeping an eye on Zachary Zugvogel

Part 1 – The Red Reiher Quartet

I have been promising to feature the Tiny Visitors for quite a while now, but somehow or other things always got in the way.  Also, they are shy little creatures and I am loathe to upset them inadvertently and so have been putting it off writing about them.  But yesterday I had an e-mail from an outraged reader, to the effect of ‘Whenever are you going to post some photos of the Dash Dash Dash Visitors?’, so I decided to knuckle under and finally get the job started.

Another view of Rainer

 

Being eyeballed by Goncale Alves, the miscreant cat

 

First in line for appreciation are the Red Reihers, but before I start I need to say a few preliminary things about the Tiny Visitors in general.  They are all rather ancient, harking back to the time just before or during the War.  They are all models of proper life sized aircraft, to the scale of 1 to 200.  With one exception, they are all German.  And equally with one exception, they are all gliders.  One is a glider which had motors added to it, and whether this makes it a non-glider isn’t something I would like to discuss outside of a Philosophy class (when will I ever cease to invoke Platon?).  Anyway, they are all old comrades who survived the War and keep good company. 

Rolf Reiher likes to be near the Glidermaster ....

..... but isn't above teasing Her Who Must Be Obeyed!

The Red Reihers hatched in the Wiking factory in the late 1930s.  Most Reihers in those days were olive green or wore camouflage, but the chief designer thought it was a bit drab and boring and made a few prototype models in other colours, including orangey-red ones.  He made a dozen, but was told to leave it at that as there was no demand.  However, one day early in 1939 a dozen glider pilots visited the factory, and the boss decided to give them the little Red Reihers as souvenirs of the occasion.

Richard Reiher likes to fly in formation with other Tiny Visitors .....

Some of the pilots gave them to their children or other little relatives, but most kept them and carried them in their breast pockets as good luck charms.  War is a nasty business, and the cheery little red gliders reminded them of a happier life in more peaceful times.

....... if they want a change they can easily slip out of their harnesses!

 

The War was not kind to the pilots, nor to the Red Reihers who shared their lives for a while.  I have no idea what happened to most of them, but the Reihers who now inhabit The Little House had, each on their own, managed to escape death and destruction.  Lead by an instinct deeply seated in every glider, no matter how tiny, they each made their way to the Wasserkuppe after the War and formed a little squadron.  For reasons I shall presently relate they had to leave this refuge, and after numerous adventures met the other Little Visitors who now share the airspace above my bed.

Rudolf Reiher departed for France some time ago on a secret mission .....

My Reihers are models of the very successful DFS Reiher sports glider which was first built in 1937, and tested by the famous German pilot Hannah Reitsch at the Wasserkuppe.  None survived the War.  If you are interested in details of this glider, try the Wikipedia link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DFS_Reiher

Rudolf saying Good-Bye!

I have heard that a few more Red Reihers were hatched after the War and used as gifts for visitors to the Wiking factory, but whether this is true I do not know.

Richard and other gliders - notice that the ASK 13 Rudi-Alexis has taken to the air as well!

Hermes Scarf - Daimyo

Today seems to be my day for blogging, now that the Christmas labours are out of the way I have the time.  Anyway, here is my second Christmas scarf, also jacquard, in the most achingly beautiful shades of red and orange:  Daimyo - Princes du Soleil Levant!

This is one of my 'Vitamin' scarves - just looking at it makes me feel alive and healthy, like eating several large oranges!  Another orange scarf, Carnaval de Venise, has the same effect on me.  I look at these scarves when I feel blue or depressed, which sometimes happens in this unrelentingly miserable weather.  After a few minutes of silent contemplation my brain calms down and submerges itself in the scarf, and engorges itself with those rich nourishing colours.  It feels like becoming simply a vessel for colour, my whole being reduces to my eyes and the joy they experience in the presence of these life-affirming colours.

Colours are very important to me, especially bright cheerful ones!  I will never understand why people clad themselves in black, which makes them look like crows decending on a carcass to despoil, or hide away in drab non-descript shades, which makes them blend into the background, like ghosts in a thick fog.  Of course not every colour suits every person, but surely we can do better than black and dark muddy grey/brown/green/blue/red?  And if you must don such garb, at least brighten it up with a colourful, cheery scarf!

Getting this scarf has been quite time consuming for me.  I had spotted it on German Ebay some years ago, but the bidding went through the roof and I desisted.  But I kept thinking of it for many months, and eventually decided to track it down.  I found it in Kansas but the seller refused to ship to anywhere outside the States, so I had to enlist the help of numerous friends who came theough big time - thank you K and M for your generous aid!!!!

There is an excellent discussion of this scarf on the link at the bottom of this post, if you are interested in background and details.  I freely admit that I am being lazy by just referring people to other websites, but frankly find it preferable to stealing other people's labour by copying their stuff, which seems to happen quite a lot.  I am not an expert on these scarves, just an ardent admirer!  Have a look at these photos, and you may understand my passion!

http://codexcostinianus.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/homage-to-japan-daimyo-princes-du.html

Collecting Scarves & Hermes La Comedie Italienne

 

One of the great after-Christmas pleasures is admiring one's presents and, in the case of clothing, figuring out how to best incorporate them into one's wardrobe and colour schemes. Having long ago passed the mark where scarves are 'needed', I now buy strictly for artistic appreciative reasons - never mind whether I already have a colour, or whether the scarf is completely unpractical, if is is beautiful I covet it.

During the last year I amassed six 'grails' - can there be more than one? - which I designated as either Christmas presents (the jacquards) or birthday presents (the others). I also made the extremely depressing (though financially beneficial) discovery that I now own most of the scarves I really really lust after. It is true that there are one or two still floating around on Ebay which I would not kick out of my Scarf-Treasury (chest of drawers) if they miraculously turned up there, but I have now spent three months trawling the scarf boutiques of the world without coming across a scarf I 'must have' and have to reluctantly conclude that I have completely cornered the market - I have reached saturation point! The end of an era .....

Whenever I am in the grip of an overwhelming passion, I tend to overdo things a little, but never go completely off the rails (with one notable exception, obviously). I remember when I was on the pot-craze; bought le Creuset pots like there was no tomorrow, until I ran out of space and had to admit that I needed no more. In the months to follow I then de-cluttered two pots I did not really need, and since then have neither added nor subtracted from the collection - an equilibrium has been achieved. This is fairly typical of my crazes; I acquire what I need with ingenious efficiency, and end up with 20% more than I need. Then I stop. I am not a collector - I always stop. I am able to own eleven volumes of a twelve volume set of books and pass up the twelfth if I don't like it, never mind that it leaves me with an incomplete set.

Regarding the scarves, they are good to collect because they take up little space, can be used on a daily basis, appeal to my artistic inclinations, and, in the case of Hermes, seem to hold their value better than stocks & shares. Unfortunately I like their older scarves better than the new ones, and I am extremely particular as to what I like. Even the old ones rarely meet my stringent criteria, especially now that I have the basics covered and buy strictly for aesthetic appeal.

The scarf I shall feature in this post, La Comedie Italienne, is a jacquard, my favourate material, which is no longer used by Hermes (except for some monochrome scarves recently). This scarf usually has a white background with a coloured frame - not something I like, because I am not into so much colour contrast (very tricky to match), and when you wash it there is every chance that the colour from the surround will bleed into the main white part of the scarf and ruin it. Only twice have I seen this scarf with a coloured background - once in fuchsia which I don't like and once in green. I bought the green one, from Japan, and love it.

Step forward, Christmas present number 1!

 

 

 

I am not going to discuss the details of this scarf, because it is described very well on the following link (you need to scroll down a bit before you get to it):



http://63gramos.blogspot.co.uk/p/philippe-ledoux.html

Water water everywhere ...

We have had an awful lot of rain this year, and December has been no exception.  Oxfordshire is flooded in parts, as evidenced by this photo I took at the bottom of Cherwell Street near the town centre.  Luckily I am well above the water level, before my house gets flodded half the town would need to be submerged.  Oxford is surrounded by floodplains, where housebuilding is prohibited, and as you can see, with good reason!

I took a quick walk across Magdalen Bridge this afternoon and took these photos of the Angel and Greyhound meadows.  Note the submerged waste bins, benches, and children's playground!  Well, at least there isn't going to be another hose pipe ban any time soon!

 

 

The Great Post-Christmas Clear-Up

Much as I love Christmas, I so don’t enjoy the aftermath!  Despoiling the tree and putting it back into the garden, putting all decorations back into their boxes and the boxes back into the attic, cleaning the house off pine needles, processing all the left over food – the list is endless.

I try to make it easier by taking it in stages and interspersing it with some pleasant activity.  So I clean for one hour, and then read a book for an hour, or take a walk.  I am currently reading ‘Affluenza’, by Oliver James, just the sort of book to stop me from hitting the after-Christmas sales and indulge in another orgy of consumption.

I did go out yesterday, but not to buy anything but rather to look for coins – only four more days until year end, when I will do the Great Coin Count and see how lucky my year has been.  Obviously I am doing what I can do bump up this year’s count!  I reasoned that all those shoppers were bound to drop some coins.  In England Christmas is widely regarded as an opportunity to get plastered / inebriated / shockingly drunk, a state which often results in the sort of careless movements which cause coins to drop out of pockets, and I had looked forward to streets liberally paved with pennies.

Unfortunately I was not to be so lucky, yesterday I just found one Euro cent, and today a penny and a five pence piece.  So I went home to do a bit more cleaning up.

Just as an experiment I put my giant pine cones onto the freshly denuded Christmas tree, and you can see for yourself that my decision to hang them onto the chandelier rather than poor little old Theodor Gruenbaum was wisely appropriate.

Anyway, I am pretty much back to normal and shall spend the next few blog posts discussing other subjects!  Stay tuned for photos (can you stay 'tuned' for photos?) of the long awaited, amazingly marvelous, one and only .....  MESSERSCHMITT GIGANT !!!!!

 

The Christmas Dinner ....

One of my ancestors used to say, 'Ducks and chickens are peculiar birds - too large for breakfast, too small for dinner!'  He was referring to a meal for just one person.  I am sad to report that the family's genetic stock has deteriorated, and I was no match for this duck dominated Christmas dinner - leftovers galore!

Nevertheless, it was very tasty and I can pass on a few tips.  The sprouts were cooked with raisins and nutmeg, the parsnips with candied orange peel, and the taters has a butter & parsley dressing.  The gravy was thickened with sloe sirup and the cranberry sauce was made with lemon zest, cinnamon, and cloves, plus a little sugar.  The duck itself was first boiled for an hour and then roasted for a further hour and a half.  Succulent flesh and crispy skin were my rewards for this extra effort, plus the beginnings of a decent stock.  As soon as I have pre-digested my epic meal I shall throw the duck carcass into the broth and boil it for five or six hours.  I shall then use some of the stock to make vegetable soup by liquidising the left over vegetables, and suspend some sausage pieces and duck meat in them.  Then I shall freeze the whole mess and go on a fast.  I feel rather distended!

Since you are bound to ask, I skipped the pudding course!