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Street Prophets Friday: A Busy Week of Werelynxing (photo diary) [1]

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Date: 2022-07-15

Starting big, Mrs the Werelynx and I drove into the lovely town of Hořice to spend the day with some friends enjoying a Food Festival being held in one of the parks.

Hořice is famous, at least in this country (that being the Czech Republic), for several things, among them are a road motorcycle race that boasts 300 turns, a local delicacy in tubular pastry form that legendarily was a gift from Napoleon’s own personal cook and then there’s the sandstone, beautiful, quality sandstone quarried on the edges of Hořice is the main reason a prominent school of sculpture was started there and the works of the professors, students and visiting artists from around the world practically overflow the town and surrounding countryside.

This is an iconic and massive piece displayed in the park where the festival was held. It shows a larger than life character, Krákonoš, a bearded old man (or is he?) capable of appearing as a giant able to stride over mountains. He’s something of a guardian spirit of the Krkonoše Mountains which rise to the north of Hořice. In fairytales he protects this region, its flora and fauna from greedy individuals. He’s a magic geezer, able to hear and see all that happens within his domain, control the weather and a bunch of other tricks. One tale has him punishing poachers by turning the bodies of the animals they’ve shot into sawdust. A benevolent spirit, he looks pretty grim and scary in this particular representation, perhaps just giving a stern lecture to the little children he holds in his hand?

Dozens of stands with a fantastic variety of food at the festival. That little red stand was very popular and was run by a woman from Uganda serving dishes from her homeland as fast as she could. To the right is a sushi stand, next to that, the thing that looks like a tiny locomotive, is a smoke grill for a stand serving BBQ. The stand on the left shouldn’t be left out of any festival— mini donuts!

Oh, and the bust on the sandstone monument at the back of that photo is of Antonín Dvořák.

Bonus points if you can identify this guy. One of my favorite illustrators.

We walked up to the graveyard, which features this imposing sandstone arched gateway.

We stopped by a little shop specializing in those little pastry tubes before walking back up the hill and through the school’s vast sculpture garden. They’ve apparently run out of room after having added to the park with the works created during the annual international sculpting symposium.

That evening we went to visit another treasure in this region, the baroque hospital complex at Kuks.

Bridge across the Labe (Elbe) River with the hospital and spa building on the hill in the background.

We attended a concert of organ music and operatic singing in the hospital’s chapel.

I indulged in a bit of sketching, seated as I was in front of baroque splendor with the performers behind me in the organ loft.

One evening, I encountered a natural phenomenon that I’d never witnessed before.

I went out in the yard at dusk and was startled to find hundreds of beetles buzzing around this bushy pine shrub and the ash tree it’s growing under. I got out my camera and took several pictures with the flash, attempting to figure out what was going on.

Cropped to get a better look at that blur on the left in the pic above

Turns out that these are European June Beetles and commonly seen gathering in these parts the first week or so of July. Crazy beetles, June! it’s in your name!

Sometime in the next couple of days I managed to find some wandering around in the daylight.

I gather they’re great fans of many of the things I’m growing in my garden, but no sign of them there.

Fabulous Mother-In-Law was stung by a hornet, one of a dozen or so who had gotten into her room and were busily building a nest in a dark, quiet corner.

I got rid of it. Such a beautiful, papery construction. Always sorry to have to get rid of wasp and hornet nests that were built a bit too close for comfort.

Fabulous Mother-In-Law also discovered an alien in the yard.

Clathrus archeri, a toxic mushroom whose bulbs pop open to this splay of bright red tentacles. It’s an invasive species, thought to have been brought to Europe in sheep’s wool from Australia around 1914. It’s growing in the spot where we had a huge pile of wood dumped a year ago. The added value here is that it smells like rotting flesh.

An old friend, a college classmate of Mrs the Werelynx and later one of my ceramics students, stopped by for some tutoring on using the potter’s wheel.

Her much improved centering technique in action.

Glad to have been some help to her as she will be soon passing along my tips to her own students. We worked together at my rickety, DIY, kick wheel for about three hours and ended with 4 pots and a mutual feeling of looking forward to her second lesson.

Been finding myself being a more frequent visitor to dKos in the long evenings. I’m making myself laugh at the way I jump into the middle of seemingly pointless and endless exchanges. It had been quite awhile since I went off on one of my stupid, snarky romps and this week I romped like a lunatic. I put so much time and thought into my responses, nobody is convinced by my arguments or even paying much attention to my yowling to be honest. Even if I’ve just been batting replies back and forth with a Russian troll or an 9 year-old boy snickering at my stupidity with his friends during a sleepover, I always feel that my time was not entirely wasted. I’ve at least put my half-formed opinions into words, I’ve examined my own thoughts and done the work of making sure they’re not entirely groundless. I’ve gained some modicum of surety that my opinions are not reactionary fluff. I do a bit of research, dig up some links, ostensibly to convince my “opponent”, but in reality merely convincing myself.

Ah, I do seem to love to hear myself yowl. Foolish little werelynx.

I blame it on the moon.

Perhaps my best pic of the full “supermoon” this week. Maybe more interesting because of the clouds interfering.

And today things are looking like this:

The kick wheel now propping up windows we’re repainting.

And in Michelewln news, she wrote that, with the computer parts all finally delivered, she’d been having trouble contacting the guys who are supposed to put things together. Their server’s down and her calls weren’t getting through, but she’s now saying that the computer guys should be there later today or tomorrow. The pneumonia is still clinging, apparently getting into her ears and making her dizzy (she’s adapted by using the cane that she got after her foot surgery a couple years ago.) Coughing up a bit of blood too. Nurse Pixie is on the job applying kitty kisses every half hour. I’m still worried though. Get back to us soon, Michele!

Thanks for stopping by.

This is an open thread.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/15/2110523/-Street-Prophets-Friday-A-Busy-Week-of-Werelynxing-photo-diary

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