I JUST FOUND OUT THIS today glancing in an estate agent's window. Houses like the one I live in part of are apparently deceptively large with several "reception rooms" and more bedrooms. Asking price: just under £700,000.(NB: It's a bit posher than the "property" illustrated...)
Which reminds me, my one remaining hamster, Spherical Roborovski (I call her "Spherical" but actually she was the only one of three with an ordinary robo-body; the other two were "runts" which probably accounts for why they died early...)
Anyway: Spherical is now lady of her own manor with a luxurious 2-storey nest comprising several interlinked cardboard rooms with doors cut out by me. With Pompidou Centre style toilet tubes linking the exterior. Very swish for a Mongolian Pygmy Hamster ...
Having lost my Gothic German Bible for several days inside a duvet (don't ask ~ I don't know) my Biblical German is coming on in leaps and bounds. Some of the words seem far more expressive in German than English. E.g. what do you think a "winestick" and an "oil tree" are? I'm also fluent in Biblical vocabulary and can now say Slave/Servant, Righteous, Faithful, Whore, Wrathful, Revelation, Tribulation, Temple, Priest, Angel, Vision, Unclean, Prophet, Apostle, Disciple ... etc etc.The word for Revelation by the way (Offenbarung) means literally "open-baring". See what I mean about expressive.
Anyhow I must dash. This stingy internet caff only rents out by the half hour and I am soon to be "terminated"...
PS: Yes ~ my Lutherian Bible has pages exactly like the one shown. No wonder it took me over a month to get used to the swirly Gothic typeface...
Hey, I can read some of it. And I took German years ago. Take care of Spherical. Will you get more hamsters?
ReplyDeleteSomeone asked whether I might get a companion for S, but I was told they are only guaranteed to get on if they've shared a nest since babyhood...
ReplyDeleteIt's those Gothic capital letters - on every single noun that make reading "olden" German so very difficult. & up till the end of WWII EVERY SINGLE book published in German was printed like that!!
Winestick? a rod?
ReplyDeleteoil tree? olive tree?
Well at least you're getting a broad education. I love the typeface rather than the words. Glad Sperical isn't feeling lonely! They're beautiful houses, looks like Wilsden Green where my daughter stayed last year.
ReplyDeleteReading German, eh? I wouldn't like to try reading the typeface, though, beautiful as it is. It's too hard on the eyes.
ReplyDeletePoor little Spherical...she must be lonely without her stable mates. Unless she's a murderer and you don't know it!
That's a beautiful residence, but think of all the cleaning...no thanks!
Jeannie: yes an oiltree is indeed an olive tree! A "winestick" is a vine ...
ReplyDeleteBaino: yes it is just like there ... the houses are quite a bit bigger than they appear from outside ... apparently our garden is really nice because I know someone who's looked it up on Google Earth. But I've never seen it ...
Pussinboots: I don't THINK Spherical's a murderer. She was always top peck, being tubbiest. Itchy was most fractious ~ starting fights when she was on heat. Which was every 4 days according to the books, but the fights were far far less frequent...
If I had a big house I'd get in an old lady called Olive or Marge or do the rounds in rubber gloves with the radio blaring... or just let it get dirty ..(!)
It's most aristocratic to have a house full of dusty rooms (though the small suite used every day should be pretty pristine, methinks) ;->...
May Spherical live long and prosper! :)
ReplyDeleteYou should try some of those biblical German words out next time you have problems at the council office ;)
ReplyDeleteHiya,
ReplyDeleteThat 'swirly' typeface is classified as 'Black letter'
See links for more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackletter
They come in various fonts. Blackletter is just the category the fall under.
These are the fonts available from different foundries:
Font shophttp://www.fontshop.com/fonts/category/blackletter/
Fonts.comhttp://www.fonts.com/aboutfonts/articles/fontinfo/04-01-2005.htm
Linotypehttp://www.linotype.com/2221/blackletterfonts.html?PHPSESSID=85e4a0e8d97e53e1d937d989f818d939
From a calligraphers angle:
http://www.black-letter.co.uk/catalog/
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For more typography links worth visiting, here are a couple:
http://www.typographer.org/index.html
http://ilovetypography.com/
xx Kelly xx
Akelamalu: thank you I hope she does so too. She's showing no sign of slowing down yet...
ReplyDeleteBimbimbie: aye!~ I might that!!
Kelly: thanks for all that. I think the specific style of Gothic blackletter was called Fraktur but it has unfortunate associations with the Nazi past. Perhaps because that's when it was last used. But it was actually the Nazi party who modernized the script, insisting mass publications should be printed in ordinary Roman font. They believed the blackletter typeface ~ barely legible to the rest of Europe ~ would be a hindrance when the 3rd Reich was running and in charge of the entire continent of Europe...
Opulently I to but I contemplate the collection should acquire more info then it has.
ReplyDeleteAgain a honesty a possessions post. Offer your friend
ReplyDeleteI will not agree on it. I regard as polite post. Specially the title attracted me to be familiar with the sound story.
ReplyDelete