Trapped

The five geese have slowly been getting to be a nuisance. I love having them about, they talk a lot and always greet one but they are also very curious and love being around where the action is. And if there is no action they will make some, walking in to sheds and finding things to destroy. I still haven't got around to repairing the damage the last ones did about 10 years ago to the horse trailer electric wiring.

However the worst part are the huge amount of green "piles" the leave all over the place. As such it's no comparsion to hens looking more like chewed up grass but it does stick well to shoes. So yesterday ordered some poultry netting which arrived today. Staked out around 1000m² on the field the horses have grazed on the last few weeks. They accepted it well until I walked away and was out of sight when they then tried to break out. Luckily I had bought the version with electric wire strands and set this up. After two shocks they had learnt the lesson. Feel sorry for them but it may mean the difference between life and death for one or two of them.

While ordering the nets over the internet from the well known South American web site (will my grandchildren know what the Amazon is? - Try Googling it!) I bought the DVD of the Sound of Music. The idea had formed in the last few days after seeing TochterPleach's Blip of a Almabtrieb and Viehscheid and seeing all the lederhosen and girl's dirndls being paraded at the Octoberfest.

The film is probably responsible for most Anglo-Saxon's (Anglosphere) view of Austria & Bavaria. In both Austria & Germany the film is for the most part unknown and only in 2005 did a DVD appear in German. This year a 50th Anniversary DVD has been produced. I don't know a single German who has heard of it. Apparently it was shown in German cinemas usually ending with the marriage and not showing the flight from the Nazis - it had no success.

So now I have the DVD to join my original LP (one of some 10 million copies and one of the biggest sellers of all time). Will try to get Angie to watch it in the English language version with German subtitles. I listened to five minutes of the German language version but Maria prancing over the alps singing "Die Täler entlang" (Along the valleys) instead of "The hills are alive" was enough for me.

By coincidence this evening a documentary on Bavarian traditional costume - basically all a big PR job since the late 19thC used and misused by the Bavarian royal family, later by Hitler and after the war for tourism.The average farmer couldn't afford such clothing and anyway tried to look as much as a "city slicker" as possible. On old film in the early 1920s of the Octoberfest and you won't see anyone in costume. Indeed on my first visit in 1989, lederhosen was the exception rather than the rule.

However I do rather like the almost obsessive dressing up nowadays by all ages.