Hello,
here we are again... and with an even bigger smile than usual as we had a quick view at our last post and stumbled over its last sentence: "As far as we are concerned we are dedicated to appear here again in May... let's see what life thinks about this..." Seems that life had other plans as it so often has... *LOL*
But we have plans too... plans for this post. And maybe it would be a good idea to get yourselves a good cup of coffee or tea or whatever first as this post might become a little longer as we have so much to show and tell. This post will be about how time flies, about nature, about love and most of all about (who would ever have guessed that) nutcrackers. Be also prepared for another round of "Getting to know Schleswig-Holstein" as well of our annual searching game "Where is Rosey?" And we are very excited being able to announce the appearance of a world famous superstar right here on our blog... and for the first time ever in the history of "BiWuBearies on the Blog" our voice from the background will show up in person. We hope you're curious now... so let's start right away - with the topic of "My, how time flies!" And what could ever underline this better than the updates of our calendar. Let's start with the picture of May...
which was taken in the Schlei area. Allow us to quote Wikipedia: "The Schlei is a narrow inlet of the Baltic Sea in Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany. It stretches for approximately 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the Baltic near Kappeln and Arnis to the town of Schleswig." This photo is the almost perfect summary of what spring is like in our part of the world. It's the endless yellow of the rape together with the fresh green of a growing nature combined (if one is lucky) with a blue sky and blue water. However, the green doesn't show up too well at this picture that's why we're adding an own photo taken near our little hometown.
Yes, combine the elements of these two pictures and you know how spring in Schleswig-Holstein looks like. *giggle* And here comes the calendar photo for June:
Greetings to the Netherlands! *teehee* This Dutch style windmill can be found at Pellworm, one of our North Sea islands. And although spring is long gone and summer has officially started we would like to hop back to spring for a moment as we can't skip our annual searching game "Where is Rosey?" But as service is in our blogbeary DNA we offer you some warm-up training first with an easy round of "Where is Fluby?" Let's go:
Did you already spot me? I think it's not difficult to find me this year. But if not... perhaps now?
I bet you found me by now. Anyhow... if you'd prefere it even closer... here I am!!!
And it you couldn't spot me in the first picture - I was here:
So much for the training... here comes the real challenge: "Where is Rosey?"
Honestly... if you were able to spot Rosey in the first picture you can count on us to bow down and praise your eagle eyes. And to everybody else... perhaps now?
Maybe this still needs a good combination of good sight and having luck to fix on the right spot. If you weren't able so far to spot Rosey we bet you will succeed in the next picture.
Now it was easy, wasn't it? However... just in case... we have another one:
Gotcha'! And this is where Rosey was in the first photo:
And while we're already at it... here comes volume 93943 of our beloved *coughcough* series "And once more many pictures of BiWuBearies in the garden". Starting back in spring...
and next some taken a few days ago in June. And believe us, there was big relief involved when we finally could take some summer pictures! Being embraced by two oceans our home state is almost never without wind and us natives say "it's no storm as long as the sheep on the dykes still wear their woolly curls." *grin* But we really had strong wind every day since weeks! With daily wind speed of 20 km/h and much more trying to stay in the flowers was somehow like riding a rodeo bull. But last weekend we had a two-day heatwave and finally had the chance... and you can count on us - we used it! Honestly, we already started to fear we would need to fill the summer section of the next BiWuBeary calendar with photos from the archives. But no... here come a few from summer 2025:
The next two pictures show Rosey and me in one of our hostas taking a sunbath;
This is for sure a giant, isn't it? And as we always say - Mother nature is the most powerful Magician. Just look at this picture... same blogbearies... same hosta... only that this photo was taken April 27th and the two above June 21st. Amazing, don't you agree?
And... did you just feel the light breeze of history when looking at the photos... or to be more exact the photo of the giant hosta? As we said in the beginning... for the first time in the history of "BiWuBearies on the Blog" you can see our Birgit... or at least a part of her shadow. *broadgrin* And after so many beautiful flowers we might now flow under the wonderful sound of the "Waltz of the Flowers" from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite to this post's main topic: Nutcrackers!
Nutcrackers belong for sure to the most traditional and popular symbols at Christmas time. In the 16th century people started to create nutcracker figurines and in the 18th century they reached the Ore Mountains (the region where almost every traditional Christmas decoration has its origin) getting the appearance in which we know them today. Of course the famous ballet by Tchaikovsy being based on a fairytale by E.T.A. Hoffmann had some influence on the success of nutcrackers too. But it's said that their success is also based on the fact that they often come along as kings or other officials... a good way for normal people to make for example a king do a really hard job. *LOL*
Birgit's Dad loved Christmas decorations as much as Birgit's Mom and Birgit herself... perfect family match. And he always wanted to have a nutcracker... and as he was born Dec 8th his two women gave him a classical nutcracker by Käthe Wohlfahrt as a birthday gift many years ago. Birgit's Dad named him "The Little King" and insisted that he always needed a prominent place in the Christmas decoration... and a good place through the year. That's why "The Little King" spends most of his time behind glass doors in the living room cabinet and during Advent time he finds a place on a big shelf filled with special Christmas decorations... most of them by Käthe Wohlfahrt too and all of them including beloved memories now after the passing of Birgit's parents. This is where "The Little King" stands during every Advent time:
Link to the webshop of Käthe Wohlfahrt: https://www.kaethe-wohlfahrt.com/
Quite a handsome fellow in his red uniform jacket... and never a bad hair day. *LOL* Btw the pictures in this photo were all made by the silent blog reader in Diamond Painting technique which she loved doing so much... sadly she was not allowed anymore to see the two snowmen pictures framed being part of the decoration. The more dear they are to us... and so is the red Christmas topper. As long as Birgit can remember this has crowned every Christmas tree of her family. Birgit would never trade this for another! Some people may not be aware of this... but memories really do manifest in special things.
But now that you know a little about Christmas traditions of Birgit's family you will understand that Birgit has a special relationship when it comes to nutcrackers. And so does Ylvi, our Christmas Elf who is in fact collecting nutcrackers of all kinds. So Birgit started to create her very own Nutcracker Suite in miniature for Ylvi's personal collection - and as a homage to her beloved Dad. We're starting right away with miniature nutcrackers made by Käthe Wohlfahrt which are about 10 cm in height.
Among the miniature versions available the left one had the most likeness with "The Little King" that's why Birgit had to have him. And she received the gingerbread nutcracker as a gift from the silent blogreader years ago. And these guys would even work... theoretically. *grin*
The next two nutcrackers of Ylvi's collection are in fact very famous characters appearing in the role of the Nutcracker Prince. Nutcracker Suite... here we are again. Please say hello to the Yellow Brick Man by Lego and an even louder hello to the one and only real Donald, the greatest and best Donald ever and of course the most outstanding Donald in the history of Donalds - Mr. Donald Duck!!!
And after these special bought pieces we're coming now to 3D printed figurines being painted by Birgit and her brushes. We start with three nutcrackers from Artofmini who first received a coat of gesso...
Link to the webshop of Artofmini: https://www.artofmini.com/en-uk/index.html
and looked like this in the end:
We really love the idea of the cupcake and cup hats. And now we come to nutcracker figurines all being bought from Nalladris. As you will see right now they have an amazing range... and you already know three of those as you will for sure remember King F, Queen R and Kiing Huiby who are part of our BiWuBeary Christmas Market.
Link to the webshop of Nalladris: https://www.nalladris.com/
Strange... somehow King F and Queen R remind me of somebearies I happen to know. *LOL* King Huiby comes along in the way this figurine was supposed to look and his name is of course a little hommage to the friend who gave the figurine to us as a gift... Huibrecht!
Link to Huibrecht's blog: https://swinnendael.blogspot.com/
At the same occasion Huibrecht spoiled us with another nutcracker gift from Nalladris. This is sold as "Rattenkoning" in Dutch language but we have no doubt is is meant to be the Mouse King from the Nutcracker Suite.
And now make a guess... would you suppose that Birgit would just paint this or would she rather try to turn it into something special... perhaps into somebody everybody knows? The answer is clear - so she changed the feet with the help of the glue trick as good as possible and just gave it a try. And now we are really curious if you will be able to recognize him at all... *gulp*
Yay, it's Mickey Mouse in the role of his life as the Mouse King. And whether you were able to recognize him from Birgit's humble result... we can proudly announce that we got appreciation from a very special juror who was in fact perfect to judge this case. Pleae hold your breath for the appearance of a world famous superstar... Mr. Mickey Mouse in person judging his humble alter ego created by Birgit.
I am authorized to quote Mr. Mouse - he said: "Oh boy... I really like how this turned out and I feel honored to know a miniature nutcracker looking like me will be part of the personal collection of the Chief Elf of the Wishing Department at the North Pole." For the next nutcracker we also got ourselves an expert for judging the result... or in other words we asked our snowman loving Elf friend Lasse to have a look at this snowman nutcracker.
And I was once more authorized to quote - this time the words of Mr. Lasse Elfsson: "Sorry, Birgit... but you will need to make another one for my Mom's collection. This beautiful nutcracker coming along as a snowman with this color scheme can only be dedicated to go into my room." Well, what are we supposed to say... Birgit was not surprised as she had foreseen this so she had already bought a few more pieces of this figurine. And as long as Lasse is happy, Birgit will gladly paint a new snowman nutcracker for Ylvi. But now it's time to get royal again... with the next nutcracker from Nalladris - a huge guy being almost 10 cm tall.
And he's also a helpful guy as he is supposed to hold a tray with cups in his hands. Birgit is still not sure whether or not she will use this tray for him... perhaps he might end with holding a hanging ornament in his hand instead. So she just painted the figurine itself... and it's really pure coincidence that she used a similar color scheme as Sun from Nalladris did.
Birgit came up with blue and silver because she still had two other big nutcrackers waiting which were meant to be painted in red and green so this guy needed a different look. And here they are... King and Queen:
This photo shows very well the difference the PLA color makes. You can see every detail on the cream colored Queen... but hardly any on the white King. Here they are again with the suggestion photos of their packages to give you an impression how they are supposed to look like.
And now have a guess... what was Birgit's first step when she started working on these royal nutcrackers? Oh, did we just here a "you already told us... she painted them green and red"? Yes, that's what she did... but not in the first step... much later... because the first thing Birgit did was taking both her craft knife and her courage. Be prepared for unusual brutality now... *gulp*
I bet you did not see this "sphinx moment" coming... how could you. And don't make me talk about brutally ripping off buttons from a woman's blouse. Yikes! Well, but unlike us you did not know which plans Birgit had for this couple. However... it just occurs to us... in fact we gave you a hint in our last post. Do you remember this mysterious picture?
And... any idea now what Birgit is up to? We are convinced you were able to guess right... Birgit wanted to turn these figurines into nutcrackers showing Christmas Elves in Birgit-style. And even more... these should remind of Einar and Ylvi... but they're not supposed to be copies of them. In fact these nutcrackers refer to the legendary Christmas Elves Thordis and Ingvar who were Santa's first Elf helpers. It needed some additions made of polymer clay, plenty of the glue trick for all hair parts and after the first colors were added they started to look as they should.
And in the end they looked like this:
Together with Ylvi and Einar it's easy to see that Birgit succeeded in keeping to their color scheme (and looks) when creating Thordis and Ingvar.
And it's amazing when you compare Ingvar with the Blue King... please keep in mind that these figurines are originally totally identical... except for the position of the forearms.
It's funny... but in our opinion Ingvar looks bigger than the Blue King now. And we're ending today with a group photo showing the whole nutcracker gang together.
But before we finally leave we would still like to share a recommendation for an amazing British artist which is Kendra Haste. She is currently exhibited in a museum in Schleswig-Holstein that's why we stumbled over her when we watched a report about her work on tv. In fact we had never heard of her... which is somehow amazing as some of Kendra's work is permanently exhibited at the Tower of London and the famous Waterloo station (Does anybody Remember "Waterloo Sunset" by the Kinks... or perhaps the cover by Def Leppard?) She creates lifelike, realistic animals which are absolutely stunning - even more as they are made of chicken wire. If you're curious now... try these links:
About Kendra Haste on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kendra_Haste
And we would really recommend to go to the "Film" section at the website and to click on the first picture ("Big Bad Wolf") there. It leads to a video clip "Drawing with wire" being commissioned by the Ornamental Cast Iron Museum in Büdelsdorf, Schleswig-Holstein where Kendra is exhibited until November. It's amazing to see how she works... and btw... we don't get paid for this but still recommend to watch "Royal Pets" too... *LOL* We're wishing to all of you a great time until our next post... hopefully with plenty of time for creative projects.
Hugs
Flutterby & Rosey