What Ježíšek brought to us

I ordered this from Mieke Willems for my son. As I expected, he didn't care much when he opened the present but I was surprised to find on the box a little writing on bottom right: Made in Czechoslovakia. It traveled all the way to Belgium so that I could have it back here in Prague. But I think it went there at least twenty years ago, not only design of the box says so (I thought it was retro, I admit) also little investigation revealed that it went out through Pragoexport, the monopoly for exporting toys abroad from THAT time.

I wonder what the story is, the toys are new, where were they hanging out all that time? My husband said, of course they were made in Czechoslovakia, look at them! I am not sure what he meant.

But we are playing. I got my kid attracted by having the puppets drive his little cars that he also got, on his little car rug with streets and gasoline stations depicted on it. They drive wild, have accidents and pull their vehicles to garages. They also go to Christmas islands where they dare to climb our Christmas tree. I get very tired as I happen to be back in my childish years (meant both ways). But my son doesn't. I have to go now, need to go play.

Christmas

Last week, a friend of mine brought me flowers. I was giving her fir branches since we had bought our Christmas tree and had to cut off few bottom branches. So we had our Christmas tree in the room. And she brought me flowers that she had picked the same day in her garden, just before the frost stroke down.

And we put up our Nativity scene, too. A complete one. With baby Jesus and the three Mags from the East. Dominik was curious what little Ježíšek looks like. So I pulled the figures out and we put the whole scene together. Little Jesus brings presents to every family on Christmas Eve, so all the presents magically appear under the tree after dinner. He comes invisible through the window. I had always imagined him as a grown up man with a goatee and a snowy face like I used to see him on a painting in my grandma's house.

CV / Books

I couldn't miss this one. So my corner view this week is all the posts labeled books that I have written here so far. Scroll down and pick the one that attracts you the most. (and tell me which one it is).
books

Czech Books for Japan

The Japanese site that I pointed to yesterday is actually more interesting than I thought. Well, what makes it most enigmatic is the fact that I don't understand a word, except for the book titles. It can be a good and almost complete overview of kids' books published in Czech Republic in the last 40, 50 years, which have good illustrations AND they are all for sale. As I mentioned, you can even see few illustrations from inside of the book when you click on them.

It is actually a great second hand book store for the Czech book illustration matter. I wonder who goes into so much trouble finding these books. Someone who knows they want them in Japan badly.

Anyway, here are some more pictures by Jágr from my beloved book.

Ground Frost and his Fellow

We are waiting for snow and it is not coming. These two illustrations are from my favorite book from childhood: Christmas Fairy-tales. Not only I liked the pictures by Jágr (necessary to say I liked them rather when I got older) I also liked the stories which have mostly things and animals acting as real persons. They are funny. So far, my kid doesn't want to hear them. And I would like to reread them so much!

That link for Jágr is pretty interesting. When you click on a book, it opens three or four other illustrations from the same book.

Completely on different subject, I came across this nice shop, they call themselves a modern one with a vintage touch.

Evening / corner view

Little piece of nature on the hill above Žižkov. The town is there, hidden in the dark, you see the silhouettes of the rooftops.

More of the corner view see Jane.

Žižkov

Trains don't go anymore through Žižkov. Now they have a tunnel to run through. I can't remember if it felt romantic or not to have trains behind the house, although our house is further from the track, it was kind of a strange experience to sit in one of the pubs there and to to feel the train crossing your back every 20 minutes. The place was shivering, glasses at the table moving slowly along.
For a year or so the rails are gone and the track has been turned into a bicycle path. They also pulled down one of the two bridges crossing diagonally the main street high above peoples' heads. I think that it is pity. The bigger one stayed. AND now, walking there, I can see what I wasn't allowed before.
What is it like to have an apartment under the roof there? It is some seventh floor or so, high and noisy, but what is the room there with those cubist windows shaped like?


Strange stairs, you will never see them from the street, this is taken from the bridge above the street. They look like they fall as soon as someone steps on them and see? They don't. Another strange thing is that they don't lead anywhere, there is no door at the bottom. Where is she going?
The back sides of the houses. The turned away faces.
Don't forget to click on the pictures.

Corner view / corners of my home

Found places in our flat. Do you have a favorite one here?
I found yesterday these pictures that fit nicely the theme. I tried to take my corners in the same way. I have a lot to learn. I found the page through ici. Ici is worth looking at every day, too.

More of the corner view see Jane.

Sweater for this winter

This time it took only a second to persuade him to put his new sweater on. Strangely, he liked it right away and likes wearing it ever since. How happier could the knitter be? The pattern comes from some magazine, if anyone interested I will post which issue, it is originally a German magazine from Burda. The yarn is, as I have announced several times, from handpaintedyarn.com. I am little curious whether the colors blend after I will wash it. Anyway, it probably wouldn't harm the sweater.

And I cast on a new one the same day. I take delight in this garter stitch on thick needles and with even thicker merino. Again, handpaintedyarn.com. Take a closer look by clicking on the picture.

Corner view / Menu del día

What is this little guy eating? Apple dumplings! They are halves of apples coated in dough made of ricotta, flour, egg and milk and boiled in hot water. The fruit inside gets hot and you sprinkle the dumplings with more ricotta, cinnamon, sugar and drawn butter on a plate. It sounds like dessert but believe me, we have it here as a main dish. We have other sweet main dishes, we eat strange here. And they are easy to make. The only thing is that each country has little different ricotta, butter and flour so the overall result depends on where you cook it. I have tried it.

I usually make plum dumplings or strawberry. These are raw ones before boiling. Bon Apetit!

For other corner viewers se Jane's page.

First picture: this is the way they built in Southern Bohemia until the 19th century. There are a few villages that still have majority of these farm houses. Look at the tree, looks as old as the house itself.

Second picture: I was wandering why I felt like putting these two pics together and there is actually that theater portal that is little like the gate into the farm. And there are other things, too, like village houses and folk theater or something. The theater is paper and was found at my friend's cottage when she bought it. Click on it.

Poems of the Night

A book cover that I like. Vítězslav Nezval, Básně noci, graphic layout Lucie Weisbergrová, Praha 1966.



Don't miss that the word Básně - Poems is written under the paper cover of the book.

Corner view / not accomplished

I am taking a detour today from our corner view, I have a good excuse for it, although I think the theme was pretty neat. I don't have a mobile with a camera and no one has called me since the last corner view when I was on the street. So this picture is from the opening of a new apartment building round the corner from my house. It is very posh and hyper modern but what is it doing in old Žižkaperk? No, no, I am not going to complain about the intervention of the modern into the old, it is just that people who buy these apartments they wouldn't go in dirty old Žižkov with an apparent criminal activities going on under some business around the place, cheap bistros, strange types hanging out on the corner and pawnshops open all night for little thieves to sell their just stolen stuff. On the picture it looks nice, doesn't it? From the aesthetic point of view, I can't complaint, neither about the town nor the new building.

This thing

is in the shop. Another attempt to reproduce an image of a mosaic or tile floor like they had in Rennaisance. It is quite rich this one, I would like to do something more simple but at the same time I like this "filling up the space".

There are also some new birds there, too.

Corner view / Favorite Dish

Things for Dominik

Puppets. They are drawn on a piece of thick paper and they are two sided, the stick goes in the middle. The original idea was to make his toys like puppets, I am not sure why, but when it came to make a second one, he wanted daddy. So we made daddy a puppet.

Brooch after Tiny Happy. She makes REALLY BEAUTIFUL ones and they don't look difficult to make. But they are. They are very tiny and require lot of staring at a little thing. I wasn't sure if it was clear what it depicted, Domik said it was a goose. He likes it more than I do and proudly wears it all the time.

Domik likes to have a bag when we go out, like mummy. I have made few bags in my life so he needed one too. This one shows how silly I want to be with embroidery. I was told it is grandpa sitting in the car.
Apron. Again, like mummy. Simple cut and a little pocket on front. Gets used all the time. A little cook.

Knitting

I am almost finished with this one. Dominik's sweater for this winter. I hope I will show you the whole piece soon.
By the way, where are good yarn stores? I bought this yarn through handpaintedyarn.com, it is good but I want to try something different. Any advice?

Corner view / contrasts

Taken on the 28th of October in the town where I was born. A parade with lampions (or Japanese lanterns as a dictionary says). On the 28th they celebrate a foundation of Czechoslovakia in 1918. However, for long years this holiday was covered by a different one, the Great October Revolution in Russia, which was supposed to ban a national feast in favor of a then more important one. A lampion parade was obligatory for school kids like me. (Have been talking a lot about living under communism lately, he..) And it is clearly visible what these two holidays absorbed - All Saints Day.

Suffering the Landscape

We went for a day trip out in Šumava, close to the border. Close to where my parents live. I know that the landscape pictures might be boring but there was a tremendous view over the mountains. And this beautiful blue cottage, just next to an abandoned and huge co-operative cow shed (that escaped my lens). Only later I realized that these had been the forbidden places, still twenty years ago, a so called border zone with the iron curtain on the edge of it. Back then we had no idea how close we were to the West! The border zone spread over a good half of these mountains and for me being a little kid it was like living over seven rivers and seven mountains, far far from the world that maybe didn't exist at all!

Domik apparently didn't like being out on our outing. He was totally scared the whole time. I remember having similar feelings of fear at certain places out in landscape myself. It was only few times in my life but repeatedly at the same places. Very strange and intensive. It disappeared when my school-mates from Prague were visiting and I had to find the most romantic places out here to show them. I started to look at it aesthetically and that was the end of a savage in me. The end of my genuine relation with the landscape. Now Domik has it and suffers.