October 1

Written October 2

Dear Friends and Family,

Marianne is gone, off visiting family. I am supposed to stay busy and this is a diary to show just how busy I have been.

Last weekend, I did the Frankfurt Auto show and that warranted its own diary. This weekend I did the garden show at Weingartsgreuth, a local palace. The garden show does not warrant a whole page. In fact, it was the same as last year and the year before, except the good weather brought out crowds. As I recall, last year it was cold and rainy.

	I take this same picture every year.	These guys play every year. In the same shirts.

So, everything was as before, as things often are here in Franconia.

After most of the week away again in Frankfurt, it was nice to be home again. I took a few flower pictures, just to illustrate that our garden is still looking OK, up close.

I also gave my car its annual waxing. It looks pretty good for a seven-year-old.

I had vowed to get a bit more practice with photography and, on Saturday, I started with a dawn shoot of our own palace and village. These are that "HDR" stuff and I realized that, to do it right, one needs frequent practice. But, it is fun nonetheless and a good way to kill time.

In black and white, it is easy to imagine this to be a 150-year-old photo.		And maybe this is an old hand-colored postcard?

Later that day, I drove over to Burgebrach, since I had read they were having a "kirchweih", the annual celebration of the opening of a local church. Sometimes these events are good picture opportunities. This time, I was treated (?) to another raising of a long skinny tree. Very traditional. Very time-consuming.

Fans are traditional	Young men drinking beer are also traditional.		As is someone at the base who has done this before
The tree goes up bit by bit, and the beer goes down slurg by slurg. However, the overall director (middle of left picture) and the base boss stayed completely beer-free. Good thing since that tree looks heavy.
	Little boys watch and dream of when they will be big enough to raise the kirchweihbaum (and drink beer?), while the band plays enthusiastically.

My final stop was the village of Ebrach, a place famous for a church and a youth prison. Actually, there are two prisons, an old one that started life out hundreds of years ago as a monastery (ancient monks and modern prisoners share similar living standards) and a modern one, that is invisible behind high walls and concertina wire.

I had wanted to take "HDR" pictures inside the church because it is one of the most colorful churches I know in Germany. Unfortunately, the sign said "no tripods" so that left out my multiple-picture technique. I did manage a few shots, but nothing to write home about.

The old monastery gardens were pleasant and peaceful; however, one does have to wonder about the monk's choice of garden statuary. Not very religious.

Trust me, these could have been great shots in HDR, lots of color and lots of contrasting light levels. Oh well.			It is the "thanksgiving"season here in Bavaria and church displays like this are traditional.
The old monastery.	Yard art.	Nice tree.

So, that was Day One of my three-day weekend. (Day Two started with a few hours of picture analysis and web-page drafting!) Now, on to something else.

John