Maura's Illuminated Manuscript

When you're in Europe and you're American, sometimes you just have to walk around and take pictures of the architecture. These photos were all taken in or near the old center ("Mitte" or "Zentrum") of Leipzig.



Some buildings were modern...



...but most weren't.



...and a few were even ridiculously ornate. Also ridiculously ornate are the bird calls that I heard while sitting where I took this photo. Kraftwerk included them at the start of their song "Morgenspaziergang" on the Autobahn LP. They were so fantastical I didn't believe they weren't synthesized until I heard them in Germany.



And this being Europe, you gotta have some churches. Here's a Reformed...



...so what's this church, a criminal or something?



This is the one with Bach (maybe) buried inside it. It's definitely the one where he worked for 27 years.



This? Not a church, but still cool.



Marktplatz, which was having a wine festival while I was there.



Neues Rathaus — the "New" City Hall...



...with the Pied Piper in front? I don't even know. But it's got the Ratskeller in the basement, where you can get a huge beer with your salad that has sorbet on top.

Anyway. Leipzig. Freude.

After spending much of Friday recovering from Thursday, my Saturday turned out to be pretty mellow. I went to Capitol Hill with absolutely zero plan, and ran into namoda on a first date! They were headed to the Wildrose, so I decided to... not go there and give them some space.

Instead, I went to Vermillion and assuaged some guilt: you see, it's an art gallery with a bar at the back, and even though I've gone there to see the art a zillion times over the years, I had never bought a damn thing from them. Well, I remedied that. The place was near empty because they were about to close for a private party, but even the bar itself has lots of cool stuff to look at.

Fun fact: one of the art pieces on the wall in Vermillion is a map overlaying Capitol Hill of 1993 with Capitol Hill of 2023; it shows which buildings have been demolished since and what they've been replaced with. I like it as art, but as a city resident and fan of that neighborhood*, it's depressing.

Did not go to the Merc because I didn't want to spend more money. Of course all my friends went. Damn FOMO.

Snarfed Persian Rose ice cream at Sweet Alchemy. Went home at a reasonable hour.

I went to Lake Washington on Sunday for sooper seekrit circumflatulation, and even with all the crud in the air reminded myself of how beautiful the lakeshore is.


*I did consider moving to the Hill back in '12, but at the time I needed three things: space for the Wendling, parking, and rent I could afford. I could pick any two in that neighborhood.

I, uh, forgot that V had another party planned yesterday afternoon. So what did I do instead? I took the train two hours each way up to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains to catch the scenery and, once again, geek out at nature.

But first, some station names are more Australian than others:



Four hours on the train? Cost me AUD$5.60. It was one of the "intercity" trains.

A little girl in front of me on the train was explaining case & gender in English pronouns to her Mandarin-speaking mother, who looked so proud. It was to die for. But on to the Blue Mountains!





I went to a place called Echo Point with some nice and therefore popular lookouts and trails. Pictured are The Three Sisters, a sacred place for the Aborigines. I did not climb down 80m of steep stairs and back up because a) I was wearing flip flops, and b) I saw a fit man my age get really winded on the way back up.







Tree ferns! I kind of have a thing for them, because there used to be forests of them no later than the early Mesozoic. I believe there aren't any that are indigenous to North America. Aussies tell me they're really easy to grow here.



"Eucalypt" forest. I wish I could have smelled it; damn my allergies. I did see some spectacular birds that I'd never seen before, but it was almost eerily quiet. Newtown is full of exotic bird calls; not so the Blue Mountains.







I passed some trees with pods on them unlike any I'd ever seen, so I asked a random old dude coming the other way - you can do that in Australia - and he said they were probably Banksia. I'd never heard of them before in my life. I found what look to be at least two different species within 50m of trail.

An since I couldn't get panorama mode to work again, here's the money series:









I can't help but wonder if the Grand Canyon ever looked like that in the distant past. I hope the Grand Canyon isn't the Blue Mountains' near future.

Oh, a couple of Aussies have offered a plausible suspect in the assault on my nose & eyes: plane trees, which are an introduced species. They're common as dirt in Sydney and inner suburbs like Newtown, but there are none in the Blue Mountains, where I felt way better. Plane trees are bad, and of course, hay fever in general is pretty serious in Australia. Some Aussies claim that pollen in Europe often gets to them. Fascinating, but it never bothered me.

V got me into a night, a quarterly called Extra Dirty, that her partner was hosting. I had to dress appropriately:



Yeah, that's latex, and that was its maiden outing. I had a lovely time with lovely people. All the prettiest ladies wore latex, including an ace milliner. Gothy girls, hit me up for her contact info. I will say this, though: it was a bit of a sausage fest, but that's what Folsom is like, too.

Speaking of Folsom, I was telling one Aussie that if she were to come to San Francisco, she should do it then. She said she had no interest in coming to the US because of all the guns. "I wish I could argue with you," I said, "but I can't." Le sigh.

But that ugly reminder of home aside, I'm very glad I went. I'm recovering now - I got home at 0430 local time - and hoping V & her partner M will join me for dinner.

Australia's my kind of place: friendlier than Seattle, less huggy and in-your-face than California with a climate more like the latter. Aussie nature is as beautiful as it is dangerous. I'm already making noises about coming back.

Brunette Sister is safely in DC as of last night, and Strawberry Blond Sister is safe from my trans rays in her home about six blocks away. What Mom and I did without them was to go to Kanapaha Gardens, a 50+ acre botanical garden filled with an astounding variety of plants. This being Florida, there's a lot of stuff you can grow there that won't do so well elsewhere. Let's see if I can remember some highlights:

• HUJ bamboo stands.
• A formerly three-crowned palm tree that had lost two crowns to a hurricane.
• A big horsetail patch, a fern area, and a cycad garden. I've mentioned to some of you that if I had way too much time & money on my hands, I'd start up a garden of ancient plants. Parts of Kanapaha are very nearly that. Between the plants and the reptiles & amphibians, the mesozoic never really ended in Florida.
• A honeysuckle trestle. I'd forgotten how much I love that smell.
• An awful lot of what looks like primeval North Florida forest - live oaks, Spanish moss, thick vines, windfall trees.
• Sinkholes! OK, the granddaddy of them all is the Devil's Millhopper not far from Mom's, but still, they're cool.

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In summation, Florida is a land of many contrasts. This has been, as I predicted, the best family visit ever. Yeah, I can't wait to get back to Project Girlfriend, but on the other hand I'm not looking forward to getting back to the daily grind. Mom & Brunette Sister tolerated my giddy burblings and TMI with tremendous grace, and being able to - How to put this? - be real with them feels wonderful.

Oh by the way: I don't think I've used lip balm all day. I don't need it when I'm here.

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Confession time: I've been using LJ as a write-only medium while I'm on vacation, so please let me know if you've undergone any major life changes such as changing sex, dying, etc.

I've known for months there's a coyote living around the corner from me in the bushes behind what its owner has dubbed Louis Park, a lot with a grass lawn, detached garage, and no house belonging to the folks across the street, who don't mind if we neighborhood dog owners let our dogs off leash there. (Louis was a neighborhood dog.) Last night, while walking Her Puppiness, a dude with two huskies warns me that he saw the coyote at the park. 'No biggie,' thinks I, because that coyote has seen us before and wouldn't let us get within half a block.

When the Puppigrrl and I get within sight of Louis Park, sure enough, the coyote is maybe five yards from the street. Upon seeing us, he (?) edges back another five, but sits there and silently, calmly watches us. He's a beautiful animal. Of course I want to pet him. The punch line: my dog doesn't seem to have noticed him. Sure, we were across the street and it was dark, but this is a dog who loves to mix it up with other dogs. She sniffed more than usual the whole walk, but I guess her eyes and ears aren't what they used to be, even if her nose is. After we pass, I look over my shoulder a time or two. The coyote follows us with his eyes all the way down the block.

I can't say I'm thrilled that the coyote seems to be losing its fear of humans, but I confess that I loved getting up close. I guess I now know for sure who's digging all those holes in Louis Park (hunting moles, say the park's neighbors -- The coyote's a hero to them.) and why I haven't seen any bunnies there lately.