We could use a little snow in the Grand Duchy of Stollen!

Today's seasonal photograph is of the Flensburger Weihnachtsmarkt (Flensburg Christmas Market) in the small German city of Flensburg near the Danish border.

A dark, damp, gloomy December morning here at Stollen Central. We sure could use some of the snow they have had in parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Upper Michigan, which would brighten things up nicely. The Nordic Skiing place that the Grand Duchess and I like, ABR Trails just outside Ironwood, Michigan, reports 4"-6" on the ground and some grooming of trails. What a shame it's about eight hours north of us by car! And Young Master Paul is still a wee bit on the young side for that sort of outting. Sigh.

On the soldierly front, I completed one batch of four RSM Prussian musketeers early yesterday evening and began another batch of five, which will bring us to 16 musketeers in a day or two when those are finished. A photo or two when these are done. Then it will be time to tackle a couple of officers, a drummer, and a standard bearer plus the mounted colonel, all of which should provided a nice change of pace before plowing ahead with another four musketeers.

Finally, today's photograph of a German Christmas market comes from Flensburg, a small, sleepy place very close to Denmark but on the German side of the border. The region is interesting because it's one of those places which has, or had until the fairly recent past, a sizable Danish-speaking minority. However, when I spent several days in the city in the spring of 1990, I only ever encountered German speakers. Maybe I just wasn't listening closely enough? But I digress. What a shame one can't earn billions for the simple act of digression. I'd be filthy rich by now.

Anyway, for those of you who are intrigued by the idea of these German Christmas markets, something that many other countries have taken up in recent years, here is a link to Wikipedia, which explains a bit about the origins of this delightful pre-Christmas tradion that typically takes place during the Advent period or Adventzeit. Just click on this link: Weihnactsmarkt.

Comments

Bloggerator said…

We are having a somewhat mild start to summer here in Melbourne. It can't last. Batten down the hatches (and get the airconditioner re-gassed) for those 40C+ days and look for the start of the bush-fire season!

Cheers,

Greg

3:28 PM

Rob Young said…

Mywife Sandra, coming from Warrington, likes the idea of snow - she didn't see much in her younger. Personally, being from Tyneside, I remember having to walk to school over the tops of trees. I don't wish for snow.

Rob

1:43 PM

It's Early Days Yet. . .

M aking some early progress with Batch A of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment over the last several days/evenings. Nothing terribly exciting just yet, but the basic black, brown, and flesh areas are done as are the green bases, and gray undercoat. The latter two areas needed some careful retouching early in the week. Next up, the neck stocks. I might just do these in red for the enlisted men although some of my source material suggest they were black, but I always look for an excuse to shake things up a bit. Any errant splotches of red (or black) can be covered with another application of light gray before I move onto the next step. "Giddy up!" as one Cosmo Kramer might have said. -- Stokes

A Little More Brushwork. . .

A little more brushwork on the first batch of (my version of) the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment yesterday (Saturday). Taking a different tack this time and addressing many of the details first before the white coats and other larger areas of uniform. The eagle-eyed among you will notice that I've painted the (dark) red stocks of the enlisted men. Always a difficult and frustrating item to paint, it made sense to paint from the inside out as it were and get that particular detail out of the way first rather than try to paint it in later after much other painting has been accomplished. Trying to reduce the need for later retouching of other items on the figures you understand. Hopefully, I will be able to get back to these later today after a second trip back to the Apple Store for help with a couple of new iPad issues and, following the return home, some revision of Google Slides for tomorrow's meetings with my students. -- Stokes P.S. And according t...

And We're Off!!!

Arrrgh! Gotta go back into camera settings on my iPhone to bring all of the frame into focus. Blast! Painting is underway on the 60 or so Minden Austrians, which are slated to become my version of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment of AWI renown. More or less indistinguishable from Austrians of the era really, right down to the red facings and turnbacks, but the eventual flags (already in my files) will set them apart. I went ahead and based-coated all of them over a couple of days lthe last week of August, using a mix of light gray and white acrylic gesso, before next applying my usual basic alkyd oil flesh tone to the faces and hands. In a day or two, I'll hit that with Army Painter Flesh Wash to tone things down a bit and bring some definition to the faces and hands. As usual, the plan is to focus on about 20 figures at a time, splitting the regiment roughly into thirds along with the color party and regimental staff. Depending on ...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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