Festive Coquette (Lophornis chalybeus)

I saw this lovely hummingbird in the Atlantic Rainforest near Curitiba (south Brazil) when I used to live there until about 10 years ago.

I was lucky enough to get a few photos but as it was quite misty (as it usually is on the mountains in early morning) the photos serve only for reference. I used to go the rainforest, a section known as the Graciosa Trail, once a month when I lived in Curitiba.

Waves by Eduard von Keyserling was first published as Wellen in 1911. This Dedalus Books edition was first published earlier this year and was translated from the German by Gary Miller, who also includes an informative introduction to the book. I must admit that I hadn’t heard of Keyserling until I read Tony Malone’s brilliant translation of Schwüle Tage (Sultry Days) from last year’s German Literature Month. In the introduction to the book Miller makes the point that Keyserling forms a link between nineteenth century realism and twentieth century modernism in literature; his work is sometimes described as ‘literary impressionism’. Keyserling was a rather odd-looking, sickly aristocrat from present day Latvia, whose books are largely about German aristocracy before the First World War; although limited in scope his depiction of these social elites were not uncritical.

Waves takes place in a seaside village somewhere on the Baltic Sea. We are…

The Gilets jaunes appeared as a populist, grassroots protest movement that developed in France in the autumn of 2018. Fuelled by social media, it crystallised on 17 November 2018, with the organisation of mass demonstrations and the blocking of roads, which continued through the winter of 2019.

A typical day in my life would include waking up and turning on the coffee maker. A breakfast would be concluded by a piece of toast with something on top and off to uni or work we go. Yet, there are those special days when I have nowhere to rush to and then, my friends, I go for a brunch with my close ones.

Brunching deserves its own post, so some day I will write about that on the blog too. However, today we are heading for one specific place and manily Café Central. One of the “institutions” when it comes to coffee culture in Vienna and a favorite place to many authors and artists throught the past hundred years. Whenever you think of a traditional coffee house around the city, this would be it. So without further adew let’s get to it.

Even at the centre of a busy city like Paris you can find incredible gilded water fountains to admire, with these found at Place de la Concorde – see more of that here