It's getting autumny here, with days that are partly golden and super-warm, and days that are more nippy and grey and rainy. Overall, though, it's been rather warm - which has led to the thyme in our not-lawn blooming a third time right now, and the strawberries (yes, the strawberries!) have followed suit and are now blooming. And producing fruit. (More decorative than tasty, though, so you have no reason to be jealous.) The tomatoes in the wintergarden are doing another round as well, and I will be the last person to complain about that.

Things are... strange this year. Really. Apart from the unseasonable blooming of fruit and vegetable plants, we're all in the midst of the much-mentioned and not-at-all-looked-forward-to "Second Wave" now. Well, all of us except maybe Norway and Finland, who are staunchly holding out. (Keep it up, whatever you are doing or not doing!)

Our local numbers have, by now, risen to the "red traffic lights" stage. That's the stage with more than 50 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants over the last 7 days. Measures against the virus spread are supposed to start at the "orange" phase, with 35 incidence or more. However, it looks like these measures (which are mostly contact restrictions and extension of mask wearing rules) were either not followed well enough, or they were unsuitable, or they were too late, as  in quite a few places in Germany, numbers are still rising. So much that Bavaria (hooray federal system!) has now extended the traffic lights to have a "dark red" stage that comes into play once the incidence number rises above 100. Which is the case in several places in Bavaria, and some spots in Germany even have a number above 200.

After the "lockdown" had ended and things seemed more under control, about everyone in politics said that we would be taking measures locally from now on, curbing the spread of the virus in each region. Then there was the summer holidays, and then school started, and numbers were creeping up. Still the prevailing talk was that we would definitely have no second lockdown.
Numbers were going up more, and more, in Germany's neighbouring countries and in Germany. We were nearing the numbers of new cases we had in spring, when the first wave was at its peak. However... what I read was things like "ah, no need to worry, we're testing so much more now than in spring that you cannot compare the numbers, and we're well-prepared, and we have plenty of hospital beds free". Erm... maybe that is the case, but steeply rising numbers and the dynamics of a spreading illness means that we will reach higher and higher numbers? So maybe don't downplay it, but start doing something before it gets out of hand?

But... politicians were reluctant (sort of understandably, but still not very helpful). And so it happened. Now there's suddenly talk of a new lockdown maybe becoming necessary.

It's an unpleasant situation all around; everyone is tired of the changed life, and nobody wants to go back to the restrictions we had in spring (though seeing it realistically, they were not so bad in Germany, compared to many other countries). We know a bit more about the virus now, and maybe that makes us think we're safer than we are; we also remember that the first wave did by far not have as dire consequences as we feared for a while. So how bad can it be, right?

Ah. Well. I'd say... bad? Really bad? Maybe even really really bad?

The not-wanting-to-deal-with-it-yet mindset (or non-action-set) that our politicians have shown seems to be similar in our neighbouring countries. Something very human, it appears - though I'm not entirely sure whether I find that a helpful thought, or whether it makes me doubt our collective intelligence since obviously nobody anywhere has learned anything from the first wave. Jury's still out. Maybe I'll do my judging of humankind's intelligence after the election in the US?

So we're trying to draw back into our little corner of the world for a while, being even more careful than before. We can both work from home, so we're really lucky in that regard. Any other activities are done as much as possible at times and in ways that involve as few other people as possible. It sucks, but I'd rather a bit of suck than an unknown amount of sick, or having someone else fall sick because of me.

The weather today, at least, makes it easy to stay home and curl up in a corner of the sofa - it's grey and drizzling rain. We stay home a lot. We drink tea. We meet our friends virtually (thank goodness for video chats).

So far, we cope. I hope you do, too.

I've sort of stopped living under a rock in some regards, all since this pandemic thingie really started to take off - I'm now actually following the news (or at least some of it). Which means I'm also looking at the numbers. Or should I say The Numbers?

And ah, they are not pretty, not in Germany, not anywhere else except maybe in China, where things seem to be all under control for now. It's weird, to me, how there's this rise in new infections everywhere and yet, if you look at German people and German news, a lot of voices can be heard that say "don't restrict this or that now, or our economy won't make it".

For instance, there's a ban on renting hotel rooms to people from "high risk areas", which is every city or district with a 7-day incidence of more than 50 new cases per 100 000 inhabitants. That 7-day number is the one most important for German rulings right now, and there was, theoretically, an agreement on things having to happen as soon as it's crossed in a place, but every step is debated there as well.
That ban on renting is, understandably, not looked upon kindly by the hotel owners. Especially since it's not the same in all of Germany (welcome to our federal state system), because the states could not agree on a common line.

And that is one of the main things lamented over these days - there's no common politic, no common guideline, no common rules for Germany. (Same is true for the EU, by the way, which is also not quite perfect, but that's another can of worms.) It would be easier in some regard if there was a firm rule of, say, "everyone has to wear a mask in public if numbers go above 35". I can see that it may be hard to find a set of rules that all the federal state heads can agree to, but at the moment, it seems to me that there's lots of talking only, and lots of "if this or that is restricted, that part of economy will die", and nothing really happens, and numbers are still rising. A part of this, I think, is due to utterings (found in the news) like "you can't compare the numbers now with those from April, because there's much more testing now". Oh really? Well, you can still see that the numbers are rising, and how quickly they do that, and it's not so hard to figure that while exponential growth with 50% of tests coming out positive and with 1.5% of tests coming out positive is still exponential growth, and since we all know that the earlier this growth is stopped the better, it would be much more sensible to act sooner rather than later. Sigh. The humans. (Me included. I'm also not happy about the prospect of restricting our still very limited social life even further...)

We still don't know so much about the virus, and how quickly it spreads in what kind of situation. All we can do for now is try to break the infection chains again. We've done it before, rather successfully... so I'm hoping we'll be able to do so again. Before winter really starts... and especially before everyone goes to see their family and extended family for Christmas.

Germans were asked not to go visit family for Easter; that's something that we also usually do, and we stayed home here this year. The same, though, is much harder to imagine happening for Christmas, and I'd be much more unwilling not to go see my family then. So. Stay careful, and safe, everybody. Let's get this wave dealt with, doing our bit... so we can all have a bit more normalcy back in a few weeks!

It's Friday, and for this Friday, FFF have planned to take up protests again - because even though we're all still in the grip of the pandemic, and numbers are unfortunately going up about everywhere in the world (gaah!), our other issue, the climate change, is not going to go away. Especially not with all the extra single-use plastics that are currently necessary (more or less...) due to hygiene requirements.

I'm hoping that the extra restrictions placed on vendors will peter out quickly now, or get lifted, but I'm not getting my hopes to high. It's time to make it possible again to fill customer's containers, in order to save single-use packaging. Germany used to be at the point where it was finally possible at most bakeries and butcher's shops to bring your own bag for baked goods, and your own boxes for meat, and get those filled. This has largely been stopped by the extra measurements taken due to the pandemic. Which I can understand - but now that we know more about the virus and how it spreads, and especially that touching items is not the primary vector of the virus by far, it's time to get back to more sustainable ways of shopping.

So. Fridays For Future protests today. Here in Erlangen, it won't be a single one, intending to be a huge central protest, but there's several smaller ones taking place - so that protesters can keep their distance (plus wearing masks). If you're up to something like this, you can find protests taking place near you on klima-streik.org for Germany, or on Global Climate Strike for all over the world.

See you there!

I am back from my summer break, and there are a lot of emails, of course, and some orders and other requests that will keep me busy for the next few days.

There's also a lot of things to tell - but first, because it's current, and urgent:

Moria. After the fire, there's still stalling all around; our Mr Seehofer (even though part of a party that has "Christian" in its name, and should thus have a modicum of humanity and milte) is still forbidding German communities to take in refugees. There's a lot of them who have offered to do so, and more than the utterly ridiculous 100 -150 unaccompanied youths that Mr. S. has agreed to. About everyone sane and thinking is in agreement that Moria needs to be evacuated, and should have been months ago. (Here's an article from MSF, to just list one.)

Please help increase the pressure on our politicians by writing an email (If you're in Germany, you can do so very easily via leavenoonebehind), or tweeting, or by going out on the street if there's a protest near you. There is a petition to the EU on the Campact site as well, please help by signing it. You can also help by donating, via leavenoonebehind under the link above. Every voice helps. This madness needs to end, and it needs to end now.

 

Status of things here: The cat is lounging on my arms (and half on the keyboard) again, and if I have not cuddled her for too long, I get admonished that her ear needs kneading, or her belly needs rubbing, or that she generally needs some more attention. There's a package waiting to be packed and brought to the post office together with the already-packed one (which will happen very soon), the usual stack of emails to be answered and taken care of, and there are way too many tabs open in my browser. Which, as you well know, means:

Time for a link post!

If you like to look at weird design choices for... stuff, check out the Instagram account "uglydesign". It's curated by two designers who are trying to find the ugliest thing there is (just like the name hints) - but obviously, beauty and ugliness are in the eye of the beholder, and I find some of the things not predominantly ugly, but more "cool in a weird way". (Some are utterly horrible to my personal aesthetic sense, though.)

EXARC has a new section about textiles, with a collection of interesting articles that will be extended with new ones as they come up. I especially appreciate that someone else also writes about the "it depends" thing, something that has come up again and again in my personal research and crafting, and that I think is very important when discussing time needed to do something (which, in turn, is a frequent topic both in Experimental Archaeology and in explaining aspects of medieval or historical craft to the wider public).

Now some bits in German:
Here's an interesting article about how much food gets thrown away in Germany, and how much of that would be avoidable. Especially bread, one of the staples, and considered a Very German Thing Indeed, gets binned in a horribly high percentage. Altogether, a third of the food produced ends up in the trash. A THIRD!!!
We've recently had some more trouble than usual with bread getting mouldy, reasons as yet unknown (different types of bread, or the weather, or contamination of our bread box, or a mix of things, or something else, possibly), and it always makes me really sad to have to throw it away. I have a general tendency of seeing food going bad as a personal failure, and I consider throwing away still-edible things as a kind of disrespect towards all the people who have worked on making this food.
This is a combination that you might call... interesting. On the down side, it leads to much chagrin for every bit I have to bin because it's really not edible anymore, which includes those where there was no way of avoiding the outcome (such as fruit that was damaged during transport and instantly changes from "unripe" to "covered with greenish fur"). It also includes me eating dodgy stuff, or things I don't really enjoy anymore because they have to be used, on occasion. On the up side, it means that relatively few food gets thrown away here, and that I have a good amount of creative approaches to leftover foods and their use.

On to something more positive: A medieval shipwreck was found in a German river, the Lippe. The wreck was found by chance by a hobby diver, and now gets checked out by archaeologists. It's about ten metres long and probably about 1000 years old; whether and how it will be excavated is still being evaluated.

And a last German link - there's an Interessengemeinschaft Zugpferde! I didn't know that until a while ago, when I stumbled across it via an article about sustainability in field- and forestwork. For small fields and in some circumstances, it makes more sense to invest in draft animals instead of trying to go "all western, all modern" and get a tractor, or other machinery. The IG Zugpferde tries to keep the draught horse and draught cattle use alive and offers all kinds of stuff around this - from competitions to workshops and courses to learn how to care for and use draught animals. I'm utterly delighted - and I hope there will be more draught animals in use in the future!

Too many tabs open in my browser - you know what that means: Link Post!

I don't know if you know about the more-or-less satirical party "Die Partei" in Germany, but they actually have two people in the EU parliament. Both of them are sort of doing the job of a medieval fool, trying to point out the absurdities and stupidities that nobody else mentions or dares to mention. With varying effect - but who knows, maybe it will change something over time. At least it's a way of keeping updated on things that are happening in the parliament, and on getting a few insights of how stuff works there (or doesn't work).

One of them, Nico Semsrott, now has started a youtube series he calls the "Nico Semsrott Show", explaining stuff. Here's the first episode, in English (to reach more people) with German captions available:


This article about a special blue dye is already a bit older itself, but I found it still interesting - it was used to dye the tassels on prayer shawls, and provided by a species of Murex molluscs.

The melting glaciers in Norway reveal archaeological finds - which is a wonderful source for archaeology, but still feels like a bad thing overall to me. Climate change will kick us all in the ass before long.

Finally, here's a concert titled "The Wool Merchant and The Harp" in the Leeds programme, featuring Leah Stuttard playing the harp.

 

There's weird things happening in Germany these days - demonstrations against the measurements taken to curb the spread of the Corona virus, because some people feel that having to wear a mask, or not being allowed to do everything like in normal times is taking away their personal freedom. Just like the ban on public religious services is seen, by some, to take away their freedom of religion. (I always thought that freedom of religion means you can believe whatever you want, and do religious things accordingly as long as that hurts nobody else, without being prosecuted or discriminated because of it. And that is still very much the case in Germany. Nobody prevented anyone from praying - just praying in groups was not allowed for a while.)

The problematic thing about these demonstrations is that a) obviously, those demonstrating are often not taking the virus seriously, and don't keep their distance from each other, and b) the people there come from a variety of different backgrounds and with different agendas, and a lot of those are not necessarily things that are, um, equipped with a positive attitude to our current democratic society. Or, to put it bluntly: A lot of right-wing extremist idiots happen to be among those demonstrating groups, trying to make the best out of the pandemic situation (as in make Germany Nazi again). Gah. At the same time, conspiracy theories are getting a lot of attention, and a lot of people fall for them. I find that scary.

One of the commonly repeated things in these theories is that Corona/COVID-19 is no worse than influenza is. Well. First of all, influenza is no joke, and it kills a lot of people each year (which could probably be avoided or lessened if we all behaved a bit differently during flu season... and who knows, maybe we will, in the future, knowing how to act in the fight against a virus now?). The argumentation is that obviously, a lot of the things predicted (like the German healthcare system collapsing) have not happened, and thus the virus can't be as dangerous or as deadly as it has been said, and in some cases it's even postulated that it doesn't actually exist at all. (Yes, the system has not collapsed yet - due to the measurements taken.) Fortunately, this is rather quickly cleared up, as there's such a thing as excess mortality - the difference between the number of people dying in a certain period compared to the average over the rest of the year, or the same period in previous years. The website EuroMOMO (short for European Mortality Monitor) has a lot of very impressive graphs showing the higher rates of death due to the current spread of COVID-19, and how different they are in countries that had their healthcare system brought to the edge of collapse or beyond, and in countries where the spread has been curbed strongly enough to prevent that. They are chilling graphs - but it's good to have them, and good to know.