Went this morning to water the seeds on the steep bank above the riffle secured by jute netting and covered with a light layer of compost.  After that took out the paddle board, as I’d been resolving to do for some time, carried it and a paddle and a pole saw down to the beach, along with my phone sealed up in the cookie container.  Water and air were calm. Paddled slowly to the top of the long pool below the log seating area, where, as before there was a minor blockage of twigs, a log, and some caught up trash.  Tried to clear them, but didnt feel the stamina to portage over the bank to the next pool upstream, which I saw was full of small patches of algae. Worked vigorously to cut and move the brush (without power tools, yuck) and to free the flow, quicken the current above and below and hopefully flush the algae out.

Back home I lunched and napped and did a little housework while Jan prepared for the dinner gathering tonight.  After researching cannabis in copenhagen and discovering the difficulty of finding it since the demolition of “pusher’s alley,” I took up another long delayed obligation: to try out the tablet form cannabis edibles I’d bought for our trip in 2023 to determine if they were still good.

I lay down again and put in earbuds and started the Beethoven Adagios collection, which sounded as if I was stoned.  After an hour I walked the dog to the creek, experiencing heightened colors and sensations.  There I tried out a number of sit spots, though the wind was blowing wildly.

I saw two things at the edge of perception I’d not encountered before: beside the rifflepool, sheltered from the turmoil above, I saw tiny points of light floating downstream at a steady pace. As soon as I took notice of an individual, it would blink out.  I concluded that these were little sun magnifiers produced by reflective cups of the water’s surface tension formed around miniscule floating particles–bugs, blossoms, flotsam.

Afterwards, sitting on the eucalyptus log near the Water Shed out in the wind , I watched two red tailed hawks flying high. Then coming from the housing development I saw a flock of tiny purple birds, or maybe large insects, wavily making their way in my direction. As I stared, the body of the flock sent out elongated arms in which I could still see tiny purple creatures.  And then suddenly they disappeared, but not before I could tell that they were actually shreds of cloud–separate drops or droplets blown by the wind from the west and dissipating on their way over the creek and approaching the farmland.

Last week we received a meticulously packed parcel from Hanna and Karl Britz containing a new book published by the Community Foundation of Kehl titled On the Trail of the Stumbling Stones in Kehl: Memories of Jewish Kehl, to which they  made major contributions.  Their enclosed card recalls the intense experience of our visit with them in 2023 and alerts us to the inclusion of  material we provided for an entry about my great grandfather, Josef Wertheimer. As noted in the introduction, the recent trend toward extreme right-wing politics in Germany  as well as in many other countries make this project all the more relevant today. [English translation provided by Mac Photos app]

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Friday January 17 was the day appointed for the harvest, that is, the slaughter, of my favorite sheep of the flock.  Savannah, our wheelchair-bound student in Therapeutic Horticulture, gave her this name and I always preferred it, but she was officially known as Maple. I made no objection to the choice of sacrificial lamb, affirming the need to regard our animals as livestock rather than pets in order to maintain the semblance of an agricultural enterprise and to recoup a portion of the expense of breeding and feeding them. There was also the value of their hides for wool rugs and for me, otherwise a confirmed vegetarian, the opportunity to eat the most delicious meat I’d ever come across and share it with others on festive occasions.

Unlike the farm’s true pet sheep, Tucker, who was bottle fed from birth and raised as a 4H project by a young girl in Paso intending to sell her at the 2020 County Fair  but adopted out to us after the Fair was cancelled by COVID, Capri was never halter broken and like the others, only controllable when following Tucker, who would go wherever his shepherd or shepherdess led.

Whenever I approached Capri’s corral or pasture with a friendly greeting, she’d join the others in turning and walking away.  But if I came in, sat down on an upturned bucket and played my recorder for a few minutes, she’d shyly approach and then nose up to me for some closed-eye skritchy-scratchy followed by stroking on her cheeks and chin.

Jan studied German in High School and college. A few months before we first met at a poetry seminar at the Free University of Palo Alto in 1966, she returned from a year-long residence at the Stanford-in-Germany campus near Stuttgart which entailed several months of work as a nurse’s aide at Krankenhaus Bethanien, a nursing home founded by Martin Luther’s wife and located directly on the Berlin Wall. She told me later that when she first saw me, dressed in a white shirt, wine colored v-neck sweater and beret, she thought she was back in Swabia.  My being a first generation child of German refugees was one of the factors that drew us together more than those that separated us–a New York Jew and a Presbyterian Mayflower descendant from L.A.

She’d been a leader of the Stanford-in-Germany alumni group that met regularly ever since and had organized their three-day gathering a few years ago in San Luis Obispo.  She’d also been active in the  organization managing yearlong home exchanges since the fifties between San Luis students and those attending a high school also in Stuttgart, the city where both my parents grew up.

Driven by her general interest in genealogy as well as the post World War 2 effort to understand the horrors of the Holocaust, Jan continually collected stories and documents about my family which I generally preferred to ignore or turn away from.  Learning of the German government’s policy to offer reinstatement of German citizenship to those from whom the Nazis had revoked it, as well as to their children and grandchildren, she took on the challenge of assembling the formidable archive of proof required to qualify for this benefit.

After two years of persistent research and correspondance with the German Consulate in L.A. she secured an appointment on October 16 2024 for the four of us to be sworn in and receive our papers.  By then, given the travel and work opportunities throughout Europe they provided along with a possible escape from the shadow of fascism deepening in this country,  we all were excited to meet for the event and celebrate at a nearby German restaurant afterward.

mm 

September 19, 2024 4:00 p.m. South Terminal Vancouver Airport

The entry Lund Retreat/Transitions 2021 is pertinent reading here waiting for the flight to Powell River. I wrote it during my stay at Knoll House hiding from the exposure I felt after the tributes marking my retirement from leadership at City Farm.

The entry concluded with an expression of confidence that continuing ownership of Knoll House would fill the gap created by that second retirement and our upcoming move from 35-year residence on Albert Drive.

But since then, real-world changes reversed that 2021 prediction.

One was taking up two new projects in SLO which filled the gap—initiating the Prefumo Creek Restoration and Enhancement Project and serving as a Director of our new residence’s Homeowner’s Association.

Other changes bore directly on Knoll House. After 28 years, the responsibilities of absentee ownership were growing beyond what we could handle at our age. We’d hoped to pass those on to our son by gifting him the property at present rather than as inheritance, but he declined the offer. That meant a major reason to keep the place—our annual summer stay there with his family—was no longer guaranteed.

After Jan and I spent our 2023 summer vacation traveling in Europe rather than in Lund, we both felt ready to sell Knoll House.  The most difficult consequence of that decision was having to ask our ten-year tenants to move elsewhere. But fortunately they found a way to buy it through a tenants-in-common agreement with their next door neighbor.

So after our first summer absences from Lund since we moved away 44 years ago, I planned to make this the last trip, in order to establish closure and say goodbye.

September 20 8:00 p.m. Knoll House

Today this all changed again, due to new real world causes.  First was the effect of waking up here this morning.

Another is recorded in an email exchange that took place after my hitchhike up the highway from lunch at Nancy’s bakery:

On Sep 20, 2024, at 3:36 PM, Frank…wrote

Steve, something bigger than me intervened today.
What an amazing event!
I’m glad you were hitching a ride.
Amy, my wife and I would love to get together when you are in Lund next.
All my best, Frank

———

Hi Frank

I’m grateful for your lift and our conversation, but even more for your amplification of it here.  I thought this trip to Lund was going to be a good-bye to the place, but it turns out, unexpectedly, that it’s a return… to the place where the past is present.

Two hours later, Jan phoned and relayed Joe’s surprise invitation to his home in Ketchum for this Thanksgiving. I called to thank him and Amy, and then the conversation led to our continuing connection with Lund, even after the sale of the property. It ended with discussion of their idea for a multigenerational vacation next summer on Savary Island or at an airBnB on the mainland.

After a hearty breakfast and checking out of the hotel, we received this email:

Somewhat disoriented, but aware of the widespread disorder in this summer’s flight scheduling and especially wary of British Airways’ unreliability, we scrambled to adapt. We were able to secure another night’s stay where we were.  Then we tried to secure seats on the next day’s United flight, having  had the past experience of being bumped from a confirmed reservation without them. By middle afternoon, Jan managed to speak to a United agent who would provide the seat numbers only after payment of a late fee of $450.

Now left with time on our hands but not much enterprise, we walked down the block in the opposite direction from the elegant French bistro toward the tuba sounds coming from  Munich’s largest beer hall and cliche tourist attraction, the Hofbrauhaus. The cavernous dining room was too loud, but we found a table at the small patio in front. There the day’s frustration was dissolved in traditional food and drink and amiable conversation with a young South Korean couple centered on the TV series “The Extraordinary Attorney Wu” and with our waiter, centered on his happy experience in migrating from Albania, settling here and making a family in Munich.

This was to be our last day in Europe before returning to San Luis Obispo.  Jan suggested we spend it at the Bavarian National Museum.  She was motivated by its large collection of  Tilman Riemenschneider woodcarvings, some of which, like the Franz Marc Blaue Reiter, she’d been taken with during her 1965 stay at Stanford in Germany.

We caught the Tram at Mariannenplatz, at first confused by its name’s similarity with Marienplatz, the city’s central square.  Across the street rose St. Lukas, a Lutheran rather than Catholic church, whose combination of Baroque and Art Nouveau styles reminded me of the Prinzregentstheater we were in the previous night.

Getting off at Maximillianstrasse, we waited to cross the street next to a young family in Bavarian garb on a Sunday Spatziergang who allowed me to take their picture.

Before entering the museum we stopped for lunch at its garden cafe.

It was still a long walk to the front entrance of the complex dedicated to the decorative arts and culture of the medieval and early modern periods.

Once inside, we got sidetracked by a labyrinth of exhibits of ivory carving, painted porcelain, filigreed silver and other gewgaws of the super-rich during the 18th and 19th centuries  before we got back on course to the 15th. (more…)

I rented a bike from the shop down the block to explore Munich’s extensive park, the English Garden, located  nearby.  Designed to resemble a natural landscape, its mature forests, wide meadows and rich water features were nevertheless meticulously maintained.

I hadnt ridden a non-electric bike in a couple of years, but the exertion felt good as did traveling the wide paths meant for both walkers and riders.

I came upon the artificial surf break I’d read about, lined on both sides with people and their boards waiting for a shot. None lasted more than a few seconds:

Signs in German and English proclaimed the Germans’ love of nature and their commitment to environmental action, though the translation of Habitat as “Lebensraum” had sinister echoes of the Nazi rationale for invading their neighboring states.

The meadow adorned with wildflowers reinforced the point that lawns are useful for sports but should share space with less artificial landscapes.

I sat on a bench for a while to watch locals enjoying the lake.

Looking for a cup of coffee I exited the park across from a building whose design lured me into its courtyard. It was was the home of “Munich Re,” the worldwide Reinsurance Company that insures other insurance companies for their losses. (more…)

I was longing to visit the Alte Pinakotek ever since I saw its collection mentioned on reproductions of paintings I saw in high school. The austere Renaissance style of the building seemed appropriate to house its  grand collection of  “Old Masters.”

The succession of galleries shrinking to a vanishing point gave an impression of limitless depth.

This portrait greeted us as we got out of the elevator.

We were looking for its most famous treasure, the self portrait of Albrecht Durer which served as the museum’s logo.

The understatement in the caption, “touches most viewers,” gained meaning as I stared.

as it seemed to do for others in the room.

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