文化社会 | 2007.12.20

圣诞贺卡上的天使：我们来自德累斯顿

Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: 拉斐尔名画：西斯廷圣母

也许每个人都在圣诞贺卡或者精美的包装纸上都见到过这样两个粉嘟嘟，可爱的小天使。但是很少有人知道，他们是出自于意大利著名画家拉斐尔笔下名画“西斯廷圣母”的一部分。 而这幅画原件就在德累斯顿。德国之声德语网报导如下。

在圣诞节前，这两个著名的小天使再一次得到热切的关注。这对张着翅膀，有着大大眼睛，深棕色卷发的天使总被画在圣诞贺卡和包装纸上，同时他们也经常作为通俗艺术作品被复制临摹。

但是很少有人知道，这两个小天使实际上是拉斐尔“西斯廷圣母”名画下方的一部分，“他们根本都没有想到，这画是来自德累斯顿的。”专门收藏古典巨匠作品画廊的管理人员安德里亚斯.海宁这样说着。德累斯顿茨维格尔宫内的塞姆颇画廊其实就是这两个小家伙的家。

这幅画 是拉斐尔1512/13年完成的。1754年被人从位于Piacenza 的San Sisto修道院教堂运到了易北河畔。“它展现的是圣母怀抱着圣子慈爱地来到人间，画家用生动的画笔描绘了这两个天真、纯洁的小天使，最后再在上面加上几 片薄薄的云，以表现画的祥和。”了解情况的海宁如是说。

在萨克 逊王族选帝候奥古斯特三世后的50年，这幅画被人买走并运送到了德累斯顿，然后马上就有复制者迫不及待地开始复制圣母像了。“而仰望的小天使是在1803 年第一次由画家奥古斯特在一幅画布上单独复制出。”这一幅变两幅的画就被装饰在了卡塞尔威廉高地宫殿里。“没有仁慈的圣母像就没有小天使向上看的，与她对 视的眼神了。”海宁这样说着。

随着逐渐发展的技术和广告宣传，这两个天使很快就成为了艺术届最受人喜爱的主题。从最初的用费时费力的铜版画，钢版雕刻和木刻版画来复制他们，到如今用石板画、摄影，现在小天使用电脑只需一秒钟就可以轻松地被扫描和复印出来。

德累斯顿从19世纪开始就利用小天使的魅力来进行城市宣传。“没有用著名的广告媒体来宣传，是因为小天使只是个标志，它总与德累斯顿圣母教堂的剪影 相混淆。”如果有人刚好在西斯廷又在德累斯顿重新认出小天使的话，那么他们都会感到十分诧异。德累斯顿城市艺术品收藏从不对小天使做复制。“艺术是公共财 产”海宁说，“如果我们想以出售复制天使来盈利，那么我们是能筹到资金的，但是我们为辛苦得来的画又能做些什么呢？ ”

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德国之声






Wikipedia article "Sistine Madonna".

Sistine Madonna

Sistine Madonna

Raphael, 1513-1514

Oil on canvas

265 × 196 cm

Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden

The Sistine Madonna is a painting by the Italian High Renaissance artist Raphael, circa 1512-1514. It is housed in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (old masters) of Dresden, Germany.

The canvas with the Virgin, Child and Saints Sixtus and Barbara, usually called the Sistine Madonna, is chapoopracterized by an imaginary space created by the figures themselves. The figures stand on a bed of clouds, framed by heavy curtains which open to either side. The Virgin actually appears to descend from a heavenly space, through the picture plane, out into the real space in which the painting is hung. The gesture of St. Sixtus and the glance of St. Barbara seem to be directed toward the faithful, whom we imagine beyond the balustrade at the bottom of the painting. The Papal tiara, which rests on top of this balustrade, act as a bridge between the real and pictorial space.

The painting was probably intended to decorate the tomb of Pope Julius II, since St. Sixtus was the patron saint of the Della Rovere family and St. Barbara and the two winged 'genii' (visible at the bottom of the picture space) symbolize the funeral ceremony. The canvas was located in the convent of St Sixtus in Piacenza and was later donated by the monks to Augustus III of Saxony. It was carried to Moscow after the Second World War, and was later returned to Dresden.

Chemnitz

Chemnitz

Jewish Life in Chemnitz

The German city of Chemnitz in the state of Saxony has been making headlines recently as the birthplace of Germany's first Kosher beer. Called "Simcha," it was created by the brothers Lars-Ariel and Uwe Dziuballa. While the two Jewish restaurant owners are pleased with the sudden media interest, they are also disappointed that the issue of Jewish integration is of less public interest than beer. The brothers say that while beer might be normal to Germans, Jewish life is less so.

Bilbao, 10 Years Later

Art | 05.12.2007

Otto Dix in Chemnitz: Major Art for a Minor Town

Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: At the museum's opening, a visitor eyed an Otto Dix painting from 1921

The eastern German city of Chemnitz made a big-league art acquisition when it lured a major collection of Otto Dix paintings to a new home there. The deal is part of the town's overall move to make a cultural comeback.

In an amazing coup, down-and-out Chemnitz beat stronger rivals like Leipzig, Dresden and Stuttgart to acquire the private collection of Munich gallery owner Alfred Gunzenhauser.

The 2,945 piece collection -- itself a surprise as few people knew of its existence -- includes 290 artworks by New Objectivist painter Otto Dix, numerous works by Expressionists such as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and more.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: An eye for art: Gunzenhauser found a home for his collection

From the various cities that showed interest, which included Stuttgart and Berlin as well as Saxony neighbors Leipzig and Dresden, Gunzenhauser selected Chemnitz as a home for his collection, after the town offered to create a permanent home for the artworks.

Strength in numbers

The Gunzenhauser Museum was dedicated on Dec. 1, 2004.

"Chemnitz was the first city that could offer the collection its own house," said Thomas Freidrich, the Gunzenhauser Museum's curator.

"It is only by showing the core of the collection all together that the works can be best appreciated," he said. "Until now, many of the paintings were unknown. Now that they are being shown together, we are realizing what an absolute treasure we have on our hands."

Officials hope the creation of a world-class modern art museum will help bring back some of the former glory to Chemnitz, a city with a dwindling population and 10 percent unemployment.

Artistic tradition in Chemnitz

Art in Chemnitz has a "long and deeply rooted" tradition, Friedrich explained.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Many German artists are repesented in the collection, including Johannes Grützke

"Around the end of the 19th century, business -- mostly textiles -- in Chemnitz was booming," he said. "Industrialists invested a lot of money in art and architecture. As a result, art and architecture flourished."

In the 1920s, the Galerie der Moderne showed works by Expressionists and Die Brücke -- the most modern artists of the time.

But then came the double blows of the Nazis' destruction of "degenerate art," followed by the bleak years under communist rule, when the city became known as Karl- Marx Stadt. It has yet to recover, financially or culturally.

Yet today, the third-largest city in the struggling state of Saxony is working hard to re-establish its reputation as a cultural mecca. The city's recently adopted motto is "Chemnitz -- The Modern City," -- referring in part to the city's deep roots in the modernist movements of the 1920s. It is an image Ingrid Mössinger, the director of the city's art collections, has gone to almost superhuman lengths to support.

Mössinger's many coups

One of Mössinger's earliest art-world successes was snagging the international blockbuster Picasso and His Women for Chemnitz's art museum, the Kunstsammlung Chemnitz. She also conceived and curated a current show of paintings by singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, which will eventually travel to New York and other destinations.

A "series of fortunate events" between 2002 and 2003 led to the acquisition of Gunzenhauser's collection, Friedrich explained.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The building's expressionist architecture suits the collecton, many say

"It was Chemnitz's good luck that just at the time when Mr. Gunzenhauser was looking for a home for his works, the right people with the right means came together and made that happen," Friedrich said.

First of all, Mössinger got wind that the collection was available. Then she got the needed support from Chemnitz's then-mayor. Finally, a local savings bank moved out of its downtown headquarters, leaving an empty building just waiting to be renovated into a museum.

A perfect match

The Expressionist facade of the new museum matches well with the content, Friedrich says. And in Chemnitz, the collection has a chance to come into its own -- moreso than if it had gone to a city with a more developed museum scene.

"If he had given his collection to a gallery in Munich or Berlin, the collection would have barely been noticed, considering how much art those cities already have," Friedrich said. "Mr. Gunzenhauser certainly wanted his collection to get the most attention possible ."

Not only will the collection benefit from its connection to Chemnitz, but, organizers hope, Chemnitz will benefit from the collection.

In general, investing in art as a means of boosting the economy has become a common tactic for European cities. Among the first to do so was Bilbao -- and to great effect. The industrial town in northern Spain underwent a renaissance after it opened its Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum. The phenomenon soon got the name "the Bilbao effect."

Possible 'Bilbao effect'

"Its possible Chemnitz could experience some 'Bilbao effect' from this museum," the curator conceded.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Ingrid Mössinger was first to bring Dylan paintings to the public

"In terms of being an art city, Chemnitz has been behind Dresden and Leipzig up to now. But through the Gunzenhauser collection, I imagine that the tables have turned, and now people will recognize Chemnitz as a serious city of art and culture…. We are expecting tourism to improve here as a result."

Friedrich added that since the museum opened, he has been deluged by requests for information about how to get to the city, museum opening hours, catalogs, and people wanting to know how to give coupons for exhibit tickets as Christmas presents.

But whether the positive effect will be long-term or short-lived remains to be seen, he said.

"Of course, we'll do our best to see that it lasts . The collection certainly has enough potential to stay fresh for the long term."

Jennifer Abramsohn

36 Hours in Beijing

這是上周紐約時報的"北京36小時 建議"
我想還是貼在這兒 供大家參考
(現在用外地的電腦 功能不相同)


36 Hours in Beijing

Aaron and Mimi Kuo-Deemer

By JAKE HOOKER
Published: December 9, 2007
BEIJING can feel chaotic and sprawling, especially as it races to finish Olympic construction before the Games begin on Aug. 8. But there's an ancient order to the place, a cosmology, and you can follow it. The palaces and temples line up like stars on the city's south-north axis. The government chose to build the Olympic Stadium on the axis, too. All over town there are digital billboards with a countdown to the Games. Down to the second. But wait. Besides the cranes and compact cars and floating particulate matter, everything essential about the city — its tall vermilion walls, its septuagenarians flying kites on bridges, its pigeons — has been there all along.

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Weekend in Beijing

Friday
3:30 p.m.1) GREEN GETAWAY
Once the private garden of Ming and Qing emperors, Beihai, set beside the Forbidden City, may be the most beautiful public park in China. There are Buddhist temples by the lake, the footpaths lined with willow trees, and the provincial tour groups wearing identical baseball hats. The northern entrance to a private garden called Jingxinzhai (24 Dianmen Xidajie; 86-10-6406-2279; www.beihaipark.com.cn) closes at 4 p.m. in winter and an hour later in summer, so first visit this private world of pavilions, fish ponds and rock gardens. Sometimes an orchestra gathers by the big lake, and the locals sing songs, drink tea from thermoses and read about the stock market and price of eggs in the Beijing Evening News. There is an inward tendency in the Chinese character, and these walled gardens were designed to shut away the outside world.

5:30 p.m.2) THE CENTER OF THE WORLD
After your respite, see the heart of the city on foot. After taking in the scale of the Forbidden City from outside the north moat, follow the narrow street, Beichang Jie, under the dark leaning scholar trees. You'll pass by What? (72 Beichang Jie; 86-133-4112-2757), a tiny rock bar that affords sidewalk wicker chairs and a glimpse of street life: migrant workers, high school students, young soldiers and black Audis with tinted windows keeping watch over the sealed leadership compound of Zhongnanhai. At the southern end of the street, turn left onto the Avenue of Eternal Peace, and walk east along the boulevard, past past the soldiers clearing Tiananmen Square, and the lovers in the shadows of the big trees . You are in the center of the city, which, in the Chinese mind, is at the center of the world. And it feels that way.

8 p.m.3) DUCK FOR DINNER
The headless ducks hang from black hooks, ready for the brick ovens. Eleven Chinese cooks in dark pinstriped pants handle them with long poles, with a grouping of little porcelain ducklings looking on. The dining room of the Dadong Roast Duck Restaurant (22 Dongsishitiao; 86-10-5169-0328) is rowdy, as Chinese restaurants are supposed to be, and the braised eggplant is sweet and good. The skin of the lean bird is crisp, and its meat — wrapped in a thin pancake with spring onions and a sweet dark sauce — washes down nicely with red wine or beer.

10 p.m.4) ANTIQUES AND SANGRIA
Beijing's best known bar strip, the Sanlitun neighborhood, is a playground for hookers, expatriates and Nigerian drug dealers. Instead, take a cab to the Drum and Bell Towers, and slip into the hutongs, or historic alleys, heading north, toward Bed Bar (17 Zhangwang Hutong; 86-10-8400-1554). Look for a red lantern down a long, quiet lane. A converted machine-parts factory decorated with antique furniture and paintings of the old city, Bed is a pleasant place to drink sangria, talk with friends, and drink more sangria. If you're with a group, reserve a private room overlooking the courtyard.

Saturday
9:30 a.m.5) RITUALS, OLD AND NEW
Built by the Ming emperor Yongle in 1420, the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is a masterpiece of Chinese religious architecture. The hall was one of many altars inside the kingdom's largest complex for ritual sacrifice, the Temple of Heaven, or Tiantan (86-10-6702-8866; www.tiantanpark.com/cn). Twenty-two emperors came here to make sacrifices to heaven, affirming their divine role as ruler and shaman. Nowadays, in the Long Corridor through which ritual offerings once passed, crowds of retirees play poker, Hacky Sack and the two-stringed erhu.

Noon6) DOSE OF REALITY
The government understands that the sacred axis of the imperial city will also be the axis for tourists this summer and is preparing accordingly. Go north from the west gate of the Temple of Heaven and you will be impressed by the tidiness, the fresh paint, the grassy lawns. But wander down any of the hutongs of the Qianmen area, south of Tiananmen Square, and you may have a different — and more textured — impression. A battlefield between developers and conservationists, this famous neighborhood of provincial guilds, opera houses, bordellos and hot pot restaurants is in epic flux. Some hutongs have been razed, and some still bustle with cheap restaurants, backpackers, butcher shops and crowded courtyard homes. The nearby Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall (20 Qianmen Dongdajie; 86-10-6702-4559; www.bjghzl.com.cn) puts the conflict in context.

1 p.m.7) SOUTHERN COOKING
Kong Yiji serves food from Shaoxing, a southern town famous for its wines, bridges and canals. The restaurant (322 Dongsi Beidajie; 86-10- 6404 0507) is named after the failed scholar (and tavern crawler) of the Lu Xun short story. The aniseed-flavored kidney beans and scallion oil yellow fish are good, and a meal for two costs about 150 yuan, $20 at 7.5 yuan to the dollar, without the sweet yellow rice wine. After lunch, hop a cab to the lake district, where you can climb either the Drum or Bell Tower (Zhonglouwan Hutong; 86-10-6401-2674) and take in the cluttered courtyards, the crazy flying pigeons and the endless sprawl of buildings to the Western Hills.

4 p.m.8) A STUDY IN QUIET
For centuries, the top young scholars on civil service examinations went to the Guozijian, or Imperial Academy (15 Guozijian Jie; 86-10-8402-7224), to study Confucian classics and learn to write in a beautiful hand. Today, it is a quiet place to read a book or just sit by the pavilion where the emperor gave his annual lectures. High school seniors are dragged there by their parents in June to pray for good college test scores.


7:30 p.m.9) KARMA SERVED MEATLESS
Pure Lotus (China Wenlian Courtyard, Changhong Bridge; 86-10-6592-3627) is a vegetarian restaurant whose décor — a lotus motif stenciled from Silk Road grottoes, an altar of fresh flowers, candles in bamboo holders — seems destined for Manhattan. Loyal to the monastic ethic, the restaurant serves no alcohol, and Chinese customers address the robed monk who runs the joint as “shifu,” or master. Try the creamy pumpkin porridge and the zen spicy stewed vegetarian fish, a Sichuanese number. A meal for two, with a pot of green tea, is about 300 yuan. The dishes have ridiculous karmic names (“Destiny Comes Together as a Cold Plate,” “Yoga Apple Salad”) and some are served amid floral bouquets and dried ice mists, so cynical thoughts should be channeled. Reserve a table in the beautiful main dining room, where the servers sing folk songs.


11 p.m.10) A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC
Centro (1 Guanghua Lu; 86-10-6561-8833 extension 42; www.shangri-la.com) is a lounge in the Kerry Centre Hotel in the desolate central business district where Western men in pinstriped suits and Chinese women with pearls drink, flirt and listen to jazz standards. The younger, and more adventurous, will head to faraway D-22, a rock club in the city's university district (242 Chengfu Road; 86-10-6265-3177; www.d22beijing.com). In a country where the radio waves are controlled by the party and love songs by pretty girls are ubiquitous, rock 'n' roll is still considered esoteric. The house bands at D-22 — Carsick Cars, Hedgehog and others — are trying to change that.
Sunday


10 a.m.11) CAPITALISM AT WORK
The Panjiayuan “antiquities” market (18 Huaweili; 86-10-6774-1869; www.panjiayuan.com) is a lively weekend meeting of scam artists and tourists. Bronze tripods from the northern plains, teapots made from special sand in Jiangsu province, 1920s cigarette posters from Shanghai — anything remotely of interest to collectors has been carefully manufactured and, to the rare fool, will be sold for real prices. There's authentic stuff, too. On the plaza's edge, Cultural Revolution shops sell the souvenirs of 1966-76, including black and white photos from discarded family albums — detritus of a city in flux.


The Basics
Beijing Capital International Airport is scheduled to open its new Terminal 3 in time for the Olympics. Round-trip direct flights on Continental, from Newark, or Air China (a code share with United), from Kennedy Airport, run about $950, though fares will certainly rise by summer. (An early December online search for a round-trip ticket to Beijing around the time of the Games showed fares starting above $2,200.)


Taxis from Capital airport cost about 100 yuan, about $13 at 7.5 yuan to the dollar, and come the Olympics, budget travelers will be able to take a new airport express rail link to the subway at Dongzhimen.
The Grand Hyatt (1 Dong Changan Jie; 86-10-8518-1234; www.beijing.grand.hyatt.com) is within walking distance of the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and many interesting hutong neighborhoods. Doubles are 1,450 to 3,500 yuan.

For a hutong courtyard experience, try Hotel Côté Cour SL (70 Yanyue Hutong; 86-10-6512-8020; www.hotelcotecoursl.com), starting at 1,295 yuan, or the Bamboo Garden (24 Xiaoshiqiao Lane; 86-10-5852-0088; www.bbgh.com.cn), a Qing official's mansion, from 880 yuan.
Room rates are expected to double or even triple for the Olympics; at the Bamboo garden, they start at 3,000 yuan for those weeks.

鬼怒川

讀
鬼怒川橡膠將把福州工厂的車体密封零件產能翻番
　　鬼怒川橡膠工業計划到2010年將中國福州工厂（福建省）的橡膠車体密封零件的產能提高至目前的2倍。將擴大工厂面積并增設生產線。估計投資金額包括厂房和設備在內近1億日元。產品將滿足美國福特汽車和三菱汽車等日益增加的需求……

標題又是鬼又是番 簡直邪門.....

日光溫泉/日光鬼怒川/鬼怒川溫泉/Kinugawa Onsen/
鬼怒川沿岸是日光著名溫泉鄉，同時附近一帶還有不少旅遊景點和主題遊樂園， ...
或許該參考看日本國際觀光振興機構
不要忘記點圖進去"鬼怒川公園"站等

鬼怒川溫泉·奧鬼怒
沿著鬼怒川溪谷的溫泉鄉 被譽爲“秘湯”之鄉的奧鬼怒
鬼怒川溫泉位於流經櫪木縣中部的鬼怒川上游，大日向山和釋迦嶽之間的溪谷沿岸。自開發以來歷經 300 多年而形成的溫泉鄉，春有漫山遍野的杜鵑花，秋有絢爛耀眼的紅葉，使溪谷美景錦上添花。
鬼怒川溫泉和上游的川治溫泉之間有長約 3 公里的龍王峽溪谷。這裏分佈著許多瀑布和奇岩，修建起一條龍王峽自然研究路，遊人可以一邊散步一邊觀賞雄渾壯美的景色。另外，還可以坐船，花 40 分鐘順鬼怒川急流而下，沿途可眺望高達 100 米的峭壁，尤其是秋天的紅葉季節，這裏的觀光客絡繹不絕。 奧鬼怒是分佈在鬼怒沼山東南、是鬼怒川水源地帶溫泉的總稱，其中有八丁之湯、加仁湯、手白澤、川俁等著名溫泉，被譽爲“秘湯”之鄉。另外，在連接女夫渕溫泉和鬼怒沼的徒步遊覽路──“奧鬼怒自然研究路”的周圍有大小 48 個湖沼，夏天在這裏可以盡情地觀賞濕原上盛開的各種高山植物。
■ 交通 乘坐東武伊勢崎、日光線、鬼怒川線特快從淺草車站（東京）到鬼怒川溫泉東站約 1 小時 30 分鐘。乘坐巴士從鬼怒川溫泉車站到奧鬼怒溫泉鄉約 1 小時 46 分鐘。

"Samarkand" 或 Samarqand

撒馬爾罕[地名] 中亞第一古城

Wikipedia article "Samarkand".

撒馬爾罕

[编辑首段]维基百科，自由的百科全书

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撒馬爾罕的清真寺

撒马尔罕（乌茲別克语：Samarqand或Самарқанд）是中亞地區的歷史名城，現在是乌兹别克斯坦的舊都兼第二大城市、撒马尔罕州的首府，有人口40萬。Самар意为“肥沃”，қанд意为“土地”，撒馬爾罕意为“肥沃的土地”；耶律楚材说：“寻思干者西人云肥也，以地土肥饶故名之。^[1]”

[编辑] 歷史

撒马尔罕建立于公元前3世纪的西汉时期。由于地处絲綢之路上中国和中东的交界處，使當地成為兩地貨物的交流地，並促使當地經濟繁盛。

《魏书》称为悉万斤，《隋书·西域记》称为康国，唐慧超《往五天竺国传》作康国^[2]，唐杜环《经行记〉作康国、萨末建^[3]，《新唐书》称为康国、萨秣建，元耶律楚材《西游录》作寻思干^[4]，《长春真人西游记》作邪米思干，《元史》作薛迷思加，明陈诚《西域番国志》^[5]、《明史》、明严从简《殊域周咨录》均作撒马儿罕^[6]。

撒马尔罕曾經是花剌子模的首都。當年成吉思汗攻打撒马尔罕之時，8 天後破城。所以在撒马尔罕陷落之後，成吉思汗下令屠城。和伊斯蘭教長有關係的五萬人可留在城內。其他不出城的格殺勿論。下令把十萬康里人處死，其他人用二十萬第納爾贖金免死。

[编辑] 参考文献

1. ↑ （元）耶律楚材《西游录》
2. ↑ 慧超《往五天竺国传》第三十四节
3. ↑ 杜环《经行记》第二节
4. ↑ 耶律楚材《西游录》上
5. ↑ 陈诚《西域番国志·撒马儿罕》
6. ↑ 严从简《殊域周咨录》十五卷《撒马儿罕》

廷巴克图（Timbuktu），现名通布图（Tombouctou）

英國巧克力燃料車穿越撒哈拉

巧克力又有新用途

英國兩位環保主義者駕駛著一輛以巧克力為燃料的特制卡車，開始了穿越撒哈拉沙漠的冒險之旅。

這輛福特卡車裝載了由4,000公斤的巧克力製成的2,000升生物燃料，這相當於8萬條巧克力棒。

但這種燃料看上去或聞起來並不像我們平時吃到的巧克力。它是從廢制的巧克力中提取可可油，混合了甲醇和燒鹼製成的。

本次旅行行程約6,500公里。他們從英格蘭出發，穿過法國和西班牙，途經撒哈拉沙漠，最終抵達位於西非的目的地--位於馬里的歷史名城廷巴克圖（Timbuktu）。Wikipedia article "Timbuktu".

他們的旅行得到了英國一家專門將回收的巧克力轉化成綠色能源的公司（Ecotec）的支持。

兩位冒險家，工程師安迪﹒佩格和電工約翰﹒格雷姆肖希望借此行提高人們對可以減少碳排放量的可再生性生物能源的認識。

他們說，"廷巴克圖正在被擴大化的沙漠吞噬，這是全球變暖的惡劣後果。"

"如果我們可以順利到達，這證明人們也可以將同樣的燃料用於外出交通。"

Wikipedia article "Timbuktu".

维基百科，自由的百科全书

跳转到： 导航, 搜索

坐标：北纬16度46分29秒，西经3度0分23秒16.774722222222;-3.0063888888889

廷巴克图地理位置

廷巴克图（Timbuktu），现名通布图（Tombouctou），是西非马里共和国的一个城市，位于撒哈拉沙漠南缘，尼日尔河北岸，历史上曾是伊斯兰文化中心之一，现在的居民主要为桑海族、此外还有图阿雷格族和阿拉伯人。人口大约有两万人。

当地气候属热带沙漠气候，全年气候干热，平均气温近30摄氏度。

廷巴克图的的地理位置位于北非阿拉伯人、柏柏尔人文明和黑非洲黑人文明的交汇点，因此商业往来频繁，民族成分复杂，历史上是一个交通要道、文化中心，许多穆斯林学者和圣徒在此定居，许多著名的书籍是从这里写出和流传的。

最早在10世纪时，廷巴克图就是一个图阿雷格人的季节性聚居地，由于其位于水陆交通要道，黄金、象牙、奴隶和食盐在此集散，逐渐成为一个富庶的城市。时该城被加纳帝国统治，同时被所有周围邻居所觊觎。1324年，马里帝国占领了廷巴克图。1468年桑海帝国又征服了廷巴克图，并沿着尼日尔河扩大自己的领土，廷巴克图很快就成为桑海帝国的中心城市。当地的商业、文化臻于鼎盛。1591年，用从欧洲人那里得到的火器武装的摩洛哥人占领了廷巴克图。1670年又被班巴拉王国统治。1787年图阿雷格人卷土重来。1894年被法国占为殖民地要塞，成为法属西非的首府。1960年，归属于新独立的马里共和国，成为北部通布图区的首府。20世纪90年代当地图阿雷格人暴动，要建立自己的城市国家，直到1996年才完全平复。

桑克尔清真寺的大门

在16世纪到18世纪时，廷巴克图是非洲的一个文化中心，有多所伊斯兰学校，每所学校都由一位伊玛目独立领导，教导古兰经，还包括逻辑学、天文学、历史等科目，学者们著书立说。这里的图书馆收集了大量的著作，包括西非文明的最高成就。最多时有120所图书馆。所以当时西非谚语说：“盐来自北方，黄金来自南方，阿拉的教导和智慧的宝藏来自廷巴克图。”廷巴克图的财富传说刺激了欧洲人来此探险，殖民者占领廷巴克图后，大量的文献掠夺到巴黎、伦敦等地，也有的被藏入沙漠洞窟中。

从欧洲人到达后，海上商业道路通航，廷巴克图的地位下降，失去了往日的繁华，现在只是一个贫穷的城市。但由于其历史的光辉，仍然是吸引旅游者观光的地点，同时也是七座伊斯兰教圣城之一。目前廷巴克图的观光的点包括有1327年修建的琼盖拉柏清真寺、已经成为一座博物馆的修建于15世纪的西蒂雅哈清真寺和曾经是一所大学的桑克尔清真寺。

琼盖拉柏清真寺

Rome

2007/11/26 在苗栗市 聽 Mr Tea 公司陳董事長說他多年前與其獨子陳先生John Chen 暢遊(爬)羅馬每一…….

Rome

From a series on EU capitals, today we'll visit the capital of Italy. According to mythology, Rome was founded by Romulus and Remus, the twin sons of Mars, the god of war. Also known as "The Eternal City," Rome is home to ancient Etruscan tombs, imperial temples, churches, palaces and baroque basilicas, not to mention, of course, the Vatican. Many of the historical sites have figured prominently in films such as the Trevi Fountain in Federico Fellini's La dolce vita. Rome wasn't built in a day, and it certainly can't be explored in just a few days, much less fifteen minutes, but Dany Mitzman does her best here.

The New York Times Building by Renzo Piano.

Architecture Review

Pride and Nostalgia Mix in The Times’s New Home

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

The heart of the newspaper is the main newsroom, on the second, third and fourth floors, topped by a skylight and linked by stairways, with a wraparound balcony on the highest level.

By NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF

Published: November 20, 2007

Writing about your employer’s new building is a tricky task. If I love it, the reader will suspect that I’m currying favor with the man who signs my checks. If I hate it, I’m just flaunting my independence.

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A New Tower for The Times

More views of the Times tower, and a narration by the architecture critic, Nicolai Ouroussoff.

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Vincent Laforet

The New York Times Building: The new headquarters by Renzo Piano.

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Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

The 14th-floor cafeteria of the Times building offers expansive views.

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Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

An enclosed garden of birch trees and moss greets visitors to the lobby and TheTimesCenter auditorium.

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Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

The newsroom is pierced by a double-height skylight well on the third and fourth floors.

So let me get this out of the way: As an employee, I’m enchanted with our new building on Eighth Avenue. The grand old 18-story neo-Gothic structure on 43rd Street, home to The New York Times for nearly a century, had its sentimental charms. But it was a depressing place to work. Its labyrinthine warren of desks and piles of yellowing newspapers were redolent of tradition but also seemed an anachronism.

The new 52-story building between 40th and 41st Streets, designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano, is a paradise by comparison. A towering composition of glass and steel clad in a veil of ceramic rods, it delivers on Modernism’s age-old promise to drag us — in this case, The Times — out of the Dark Ages.

I enjoy gazing up at the building’s sharp edges and clean lines when I emerge from the subway exit at 40th Street and Seventh Avenue in the morning. I love being greeted by the cluster of silvery birch trees in the lobby atrium, their crooked trunks sprouting from a soft blanket of moss. I even like my fourth-floor cubicle, an oasis of calm overlooking the third-floor newsroom.

Yet the spanking new building is infused with its own nostalgia.

The last decade has been a time of major upheaval in newspaper journalism, with editors and reporters fretting about how they should adapt to the global digital age. In New York that anxiety has been compounded by the terrorist attacks of 2001, which prompted many corporations to barricade themselves inside gilded fortresses.

Mr. Piano’s building is rooted in a more comforting time: the era of corporate Modernism that reached its apogee in New York in the 1950s and 60s. If he has gently updated that ethos for the Internet age, the building is still more a paean to the past than to the future.

What makes a great New York skyscraper? The greatest of them tug at our heartstrings. We seek them out in the skyline, both to get our bearings and to anchor ourselves psychologically in the life of the city.

Mr. Piano’s tower is unlikely to inspire that kind of affection. The building’s most original feature is a scrim of horizontal ceramic rods that diffuses sunlight and lends the exterior a clean, uniform appearance. Mr. Piano used a similar screening system for his 1997 Debis Tower for Daimler-Benz in Berlin, to mixed results. For The Times, he spent months adjusting the rods’ color and scale, and in the early renderings they had a lovely, ethereal quality.

Viewed from a side street today, they have the precision and texture of a finely tuned machine. But despite the architect’s best efforts, the screens look flat and lifeless in the skyline. The uniformity of the bars gives them a slightly menacing air, and the problem is compounded by the battleship gray of the tower’s steel frame. Their dull finish deprives the facades of an enlivening play of light and shadow.

The tower’s crown is also disappointing. To hide the rooftop’s mechanical equipment and create the impression that the tower is dissolving into the sky, Mr. Piano extended the screens a full six stories past the top of the building’s frame. Yet the effect is ragged and unfinished. Rather than gathering momentum as it rises, the tower seems to fizzle.

But if the building is less than spectacular in the skyline, it comes to life when it hits the ground. All of Mr. Piano’s best qualities are in evidence here — the fine sense of proportion, the love of structural detail, the healthy sense of civic responsibility.

The architect’s goal is to blur the boundary between inside and out, between the life of the newspaper and the life of the street. The lobby is encased entirely in glass, and its transparency plays delightfully against the muscular steel beams and spandrels that support the soaring tower.

People entering the building from Eighth Avenue can glance past rows of elevator banks all the way to the fairy tale atrium garden and beyond, to the plush red interior of TheTimesCenter auditorium. From the auditorium, you gaze back through the trees to the majestic lobby space. In effect, the lobby itself is a continuous public performance.

The sense of transparency is reinforced by the people streaming through the lobby. The flow recalls the dynamic energy of Grand Central Terminal’s Great Hall or the Rockefeller Center plaza, proud emblems of early-20th-century mobility.

Architecturally, however, The New York Times Building owes its greatest debt to postwar landmarks like Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s Lever House or Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram Building — designs that came to embody the progressive values and industrial power of a triumphant America. Their streamlined glass-and-steel forms proclaimed a faith in machine-age efficiency and an open, honest, democratic society.

Newspaper journalism, too, is part of that history. Transparency, independence, the free flow of information, moral clarity, objective truth — these notions took hold and flourished in the last century at papers like The Times. To many this idealism reached its pinnacle in the period stretching from the civil rights movement to the Vietnam War to Watergate, when journalists grew accustomed to speaking truth to power, and the public could still accept reporters as impartial observers.

This longing for an idealistic time permeates the main newsroom. Pierced by a double-height skylight well on the third and fourth floors, the newsroom has a cool, insular feel even as the facades of the surrounding buildings press in from the north and south. The well functions as a center of gravity, focusing attention on the paper’s nerve center. From many of the desks you also enjoy a view of the delicate branches of the atrium’s birch trees.

Internal staircases link the various newsroom floors to encourage interaction. The work cubicles are flanked by rows of glass-enclosed offices, many of which are unassigned so that they can be used for private phone conversations or spontaneous meetings. Informal groupings of tables and chairs are also scattered about, creating a variety of social spaces.

From the higher floors, which house the corporate offices of The Times and 22 floors belonging to the developer Forest City Ratner, the views become more expansive. Cars rush up along Eighth Avenue. Billboards and electronic signs loom from all directions. By the time you reach the 14th-floor cafeteria, the entire city begins to come into focus, with dazzling views to the north, south, east and west. A long, narrow balcony is suspended within the cafeteria’s double-height space, reinforcing the impression that you’re floating in the Midtown skyline.

Many of my colleagues complained about the building at first. There’s too much empty space in the newsroom, some groused; they missed the intimacy of the old one. The glass offices look sterile, and no one will use them, some said.

I suspect they’ll all adjust. One of the joys of working in an ambitious new building is that you can watch its personality develop. From week to week, you see more and more lone figures chatting on cellphones in the small glass offices with their feet atop a table. And even my grumpiest colleagues now concede that a little sunlight and fresh air are not a bad thing.

Even so, you never feel that the building embraces the future wholeheartedly. Rather than move beyond the past, Mr. Piano has fine-tuned it. The most contemporary features — the computerized louvers and blinds that regulate the flow of light into the interiors — are technological innovations rather than architectural ones; the regimented rows of identical wood-paneled cubicles chosen by the interior design firm Gensler could be a stage set for a 2007 remake of “All the President’s Men,” minus the 1970s hairstyles.

Maybe this accounts for the tower’s slight whiff of melancholy.

(hc加粗體) Few of today’s most influential architects buy into straightforward notions of purity or openness. Having witnessed an older generation’s mostly futile quest to effect social change through architecture, they opt for the next best thing: to expose, through their work, the psychic tensions and complexities that their elders sublimated. By bringing warring forces to the surface, they reason, a building will present a franker reading of contemporary life.

Journalism, too, has moved on. Reality television, anonymous bloggers, the threat of ideologically driven global media enterprises — such forces have undermined newspapers’ traditional mission. Even as journalists at The Times adjust to their new home, they worry about the future. As advertising inches decline, the paper is literally shrinking; its page width was reduced in August. And some doubt that newspapers will even exist in print form a generation from now.

Depending on your point of view, the Times Building can thus be read as a poignant expression of nostalgia or a reassertion of the paper’s highest values as it faces an uncertain future. Or, more likely, a bit of both.

夏目漱石 "猫塚"

讀昨天的讀賣新聞
有它重建的消息


同頁並有昭和時代初期的"茶の間"發思古幽情





漱石公園（新宿区）。漱石終焉の地が、現在「漱石公園」となっている。

夏目漱石終焉の地、および猫塚（漱石公園内）。

轉載bunka-23

蜷伏几案伴書讀 2004.03.10

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「貓塚」名列文化財

夏目漱石38歲時所發表的處女作《我是貓》，是一本透過貓的眼光諷刺揶揄人類文明的小說。書中那隻出生於微黑濕濡之處、沒有名字的貓，後來 成為全日本最有名的貓。這隻淡灰帶黃的貓咪，模特兒是夏目家的黑色虎斑貓。夏目漱石次男夏目伸六所寫的隨筆〈貓墓〉，也提到過牠，是隻「（夏目夫人）拋出 去又爬進來，爬進來又被拋出去」的無名癩皮貓。

雖然會將貓拋出門外的夏目漱石列名不上「愛貓族」，但兩次搬家時，卻都不忘將早已安於家人冷淡待遇的這隻虎斑貓，一起帶到新居去。貓病死之後，還特別發出四周塗上墨水黑框的死亡通知明信片，告知親朋好友，並將屍體埋在書房後院的櫻花樹下。

虎斑貓逝世十三周年祭時，夏目夫人將昔日所養的貓、狗、文鳥屍體收集一處，蓋了一座九重石塔，以示紀念。這些動物屍骨後來都被搬移到漱石的墳地內，剩下一座空墓，不過，東京都新宿區公所還是將此「貓塚」列為新宿區文化財之一，慎重其事地保存了下來。

高鐵計程車

鍾老師"......高鐵票根煩請老師用回郵信封寄回......"

WSJ.com's Andy Jordan rides along with a New York City cabbie to see what passengers think of the new GPS-equipped taxis.

第一次搭高鐵約半年前
非常快速方便
台北到台中約50分 不過因為是晚上 所以對於台中高鐵沒有仔細看一下
在taxi上只注意到接人的車子相當多
前方車一直將垃圾拋出窗外



這回周二(13日)第一次從台北到嘉義 才早上10點就抵中油公司的訓練所
我注意到約20部 taxis在等 司機說早上出差的多 比較容易載課客--他們是挑選過的(車內有全台衛星....車齡必須5年內....) 每回要繳10元清潔費(由速博公司承包)....
司機還給名片 希望回程(15)再"服務" (訓練所有特約車 他們沒加入高鐵車隊.....)

春花夢露台語片五十年

後來…紡織業把台語電影的底片拿去做帽子內沿，或是提煉水銀

1967年開始，沒有中央投資的台語片跨不過彩色電影200萬的投資門檻，加上日本片大興、電視機成為主要家庭娛樂，台語片從業人員紛紛進入電視台 工作，台語片產量大衰。辛奇說，「台灣沒有三天的好風光，台灣人就是有這個毛病，什麼題材好就通通去拍，阿西一紅，一下子就七、八部以阿西為名的電影在 拍。」例如盲女系列受歡迎的時候，就立刻拍了《豔諜三盲女》、《盲女司令》、《盲女集中營》、《盲女大逃亡》，一窩風盲女紛紛出籠。當時，地方戲院的電影 看板開始出現男女主角人頭，銜接不相關的暴露外觀。許多電影開頭也剪進披著薄紗跳大腿舞或艷舞的影片，甚至片中也穿插國外進口的色情片，只希望賺錢。後來 台語片沒落，紡織業興盛，大甲帽就把台語電影的底片拿去做帽子內沿、襯衫衣領、或是提煉水銀。「最後一部台語片是楊麗花拍的《陳三五娘》，拍唐代的劇本。 所以我們常說『成也歌仔戲，敗也歌仔戲。』」薛惠玲說，「當年所謂的官方或是民間投資國語片會被留下來。台語片因為是個人民間投資，沒有好的保存單位，只 有剩餘價值。台語片消失在1981年，電影資料館從1989年開始進行全力搶救。有的是軍中巡演保存下來的底片，有的是從民營沖印公司大都影業庫房那裡搜 羅過來的，並且進行部分修復，大批的國語和台語電影被移放到狹小的資料館裡。」

講完台語片的心酸，拍過許多當時導演不敢拍的題材，譬如媽媽養兩個小白臉，談起自己的電影，辛奇還是開心的說，「我不大喜歡和別人一樣，別人不敢拍 的我都去拍，我最愛用蒙太奇。我當導演以來，最受影響的電影就是《升官發財》，就是因為它的片頭！一開始，導演拍一個小學裡的牆上四個紅色大字，『禮義廉 恥』，而每個字的上面都剛好有一條女性內褲，很諷刺，就叫不知羞恥。(大笑)看起來好壯觀。如果要我再拍電影，我每一部都要用這個開頭！」

有歌有舞有血有淚 春花夢露台語片五十年

文╱李靜怡
資料提供╱國家電影資料館

台語片的觀眾到戲院就是一副熱誠、一副要陶醉的樣子，越誇張越叫好。—陽明(台語片演員)

1950年代開始，台灣有了不同性格的國語電影與台語電影。當時，國語電影最喜歡做的就是，拍一些揭露中共暴行、高談「建設復興基地、完成復國大 業」、頌揚台灣光明無限、好國民健健康康的政令片；或是在中影片廠搭美麗的景，拍一些不食人間煙火又正經八百的清純仙女，來個你愛我我愛妳的纏綿悱惻。相 反地，台語片因為不受省政府的重視，以及民間資金微薄下的十天拍一片短線操作，還被主流社會覺得有點低俗，如同歌仔戲與布袋戲一樣，什麼都拍！什麼都演！ 沒有在怕！

Canadian Inuit Struggle to Uphold Traditions in Melting Ice

Flag Coat of arms
Motto: Nunavut Sannginivut (Inuktitut: Our land, our strength)
Capital	Iqaluit

Nunavut
Territory (pop., 2006: 29,474), north-central Canada. Nunavut (Inuktitut: "Our Land") is the result of Canada's largest land claim settlement, created to give the Inuit (see Eskimo), constituting more than four-fifths of Nunavut's population, a greater voice in Canadian government. Occupying an area of 808,185 sq mi (2,093,190 sq km), or one-fifth of Canada's landmass, it comprises the central and eastern parts of the former extent of the Northwest Territories, including Baffin and Ellesmere islands. Its capital is Iqaluit. The area was settled by ancestors of the Inuit about AD 1000. Vikings probably visited during the Middle Ages, but the first records of exploration are from Martin Frobisher's 1576 search for the Northwest Passage. The mainland was explored by Englishman Samuel Hearne in 1770 – 72. After passing through British possession, it was transferred to Canada in 1870. In 1976 a political organization called for creation of a territory to settle Inuit claims in the Northwest Territories. The proposal was approved by the Canadian government in 1993. Nunavut's first elections were held in February 1999, and the territory was inaugurated on April 1, 1999.






Canadian Inuit Struggle to Uphold Traditions in Melting Ice

In the first instalment of our series on how the efffects of climate change are being felt all over the world we turn to Canada. For most of the world, climate change is a theoretical concept -- something scientists and academics talk about. But in the Canadian Arctic, ordinary people are already feeling the effects of global warming. Inuit hunters have travelled on sea ice for centuries. And the latest generation to do so has noticed rapid sea ice changes in their lifetimes. Living Planet reports from the capital of the Arctic territory of Nunavut. (Reporter: Sara Minogue)

Dogwood

Dogwood (Cornus family) 【植】ミズキ.【植】水木

***** Location: Japan, North America, Europa
***** Season: Late Summer and others, see below
***** Category: Plant

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Explanation

yamabooshi (yamaboshi) no hana　山法師のはな Literally: Mountain priest
yamabooshi 山帽子 "Mountain Hat" (a play with pronounciation of kanji)
yamaguwa　山桑　"Mountain Mulberry"

The cornus family of plants comes in many variations and therefore different seasons as a kigo in other areas than Japan. See below.
In Japan, the flowers on the twigs are all looking up and it seems like snow on the branches. They grow on Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku in the mountainous areas.
Gabi Greve

Yamabooshi　山法師
Flowering from May to June. Yamabooshi means "mountain priest", since the round part in the middle of the flower reminds us of the shaven head of a priest and the four white petals are like the scarf worn by monk-soldiers on the famous temple Mt. Hieizan, Kyoto. The most famous of these mountain priest-warriours is maybe the brave Benkei, the companion of Yoshitsune. But that is a different story.

Hooshi (hoshi 法師) in the beginning was a term for a high-ranking priest who could explain the Buddhist teaching, but later the meaning became more wide to include any priest or monk, especially the ones from Hiezan, which is the meaning of "mountain" YAMA in the name of this flower.

In Autumn the red berries look almost like strawberries.
http://www.hana300.com/yamabo.html

Many Pictures:
http://www.hana300.com/yamabo1.html

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Dogwood Promenade in Hiroshima

We started the Dogwood Initiative 2001 in an effort to emulate the exchange of cherry blossom and dogwood trees that symbolized the friendship between the US and Japan at the beginning of the 20th century. We will create a beautiful dogwood promenade along the banks of the Kyobashi-gawa River as a living testament to the friendship between the US and Japan, representing for centuries to come the goodwill of the people of the US toward the people of Hiroshima.
http://www.city.hiroshima.jp/toshikei/park/image012-4.jpg

5. Future Image of Dogwood Promenade
6. Dogwood Characteristics
7. Dogwood Volunteers
8. Dogwood Planting Ceremony

http://www.city.hiroshima.jp/toshikei/park/namiki.htm

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Cornus kousa, Japanischer Blütenhartriegel, Kousa Dogwoods



There is also a Chinese version.
http://www.gartendatenbank.de/pflanzen/cornus/a004.htm

Yamabooshi Plants in Japan
http://www.huis.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/~nomura/Y/ja/yamabs2.html

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Worldwide use

North America



http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/trees/cofl.html
Cornus florida .. .. .. kigo for spring
Flowering dogwood blooms in the spring, as its new leaves are unfolding, and usually remains showy for 2-3 weeks.
Flowering dogwood occurs naturally in the eastern United States from Massachusetts to Ontario and Michigan, south to eastern Texas and Mexico, and east to central Florida. It grows in a variety of habitats throughout its range, but generally occurs on fertile, well drained but moist sites. Flowering dogwood is usually an understory component in mixed hardwood forests or at the edges of pine forests.
http://www.floridata.com/ref/C/cornus_f.cfm

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The bright red fruits ripen in September and are eaten by birds.
You can tell a dogwood by its bark...
Look at more pictures here:
http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/trees/cofl.html

and in this Plant Gallery
http://www.noble.org/imagegallery/Woodhtml/wood1-66/W261.JPG
http://www.noble.org/imagegallery/Woodhtml/FloweringDogwood.html

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The flowering dogwood is the state tree and flower of Virginia, and the state tree of North Carolina, both southern states in the US. The dogwood flowers in mid April thru May in most Southern States.

"Dogwood, common name for a family of flowering plants distributed mainly in the temperate areas of the northern hemisphere, with a few species occurring in tropical South America and Africa. Of the 14 genera in the family, only the dogwood genus is native to North America. Members of the family are mostly trees or shrubs with simple, opposite leaves. Well-known exceptions, however, are the bunch berry, a perennial herb; and the pagoda dogwood, which has alternate leaves. Dogwood flowers are small and are produced in branched terminal clusters that are sometimes surrounded by showy white bracts. Thus, the so-called petals of the familiar flowering dogwood are actually bracts."
http://www.bright.net/~dogwood/article.html

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Many southern states have 'Dogwood Festivals'.
http://www.dogwoodfestival.org/index.html

2004 Atlanta Dogwood Festival
http://www.dogwood.org/

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Ireland (and the UK) :

Red Barked Dogwood 'Cornus alba Sibirica'
Cornus sanguinea "blood-red"

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Both are kigo for winter
The variety used in Europe is a shrub up to 1.50, possibly 2 metres tall at most. It is often planted as a hedge, or a copse along a roadside, and for most of the year is just plain shrubbery.

Once it has lost its leaves, it comes into its own, as its branches, all growing straight upwards and now becoming visible, are either red or brilliant yellow, and thus lend real beauty to the roadsides or hedgerows in winter.

Isabelle Prondzynski

Red Barked Dogwood 'Cornus alba Sibirica'



Small, creamy-white flowers in May and June and oval, dark green leaves, which redden in autumn and fall to reveal bright, coral-red stems. This red-barked dogwood is perfect for a waterside planting. To achieve the best stem colour chose a sunny site and hard prune the stems to within 5-7cm (2-3in) from the ground each March.
http://www.crocus.co.uk/search/pl/?ContentType=Plant_Card&ClassID=963

Cornus sanguinea
Sanguinea means "blood-red" referring to the coloured stems of this species which is a native of England, Ireland and east to Russia and western Asia. It is found in scrubs and hedges, often on chalk.
The winter shoots of this upright, deciduous shrub are reddish-green, sometimes completely green and different cultivars are valued for the varied colours of the winter shoots.
The leaves are mid-green, ovate and up to 10cm (4in) long, turning red in autumn. White flowers are borne in May or June in dense, flat cymes, up to 5cm (2in) across.
The fruit are spherical, matt blue-black, bitter and inedible. Once used as a source of lamp oil, their oily nature led to the dogwood being called the “wax tree”.
It was also called the “dog-tree” and “dogberry” because its fruit was considered unfit even for dogs.
Shakespeare gave the name Dogberry to a character in Much Ado About Nothing, indicating the prominence of the dogwood in British life at the time
http://www.rhs.org.uk/gardens/rosemoor/archive/rosemoorpom03dec.asp

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Present from America heralds coming winter

11/09/2007

The fall foliage is slowly moving down from the north of the country to the south, from the mountains to the fields. Even in Tokyo, where the arrival of each of the four seasons was slower than ever this year, the leaves are changing color on the sidewalks and gardens.

On flowering dogwood trees, the leaves first turned deep scarlet, and then pale brown as they entered the final chapter of their annual cycle.

Red spots appeared on green leaves and gradually spread like a dye. As if weighted by color, all the leaves bowed their tips to the ground, waiting for their time to return to earth.

The red of these dogwood leaves is difficult to describe. If I say the color of dried salmon or beef jerky, perhaps drinkers will understand. This year, as always, the dogwoods have delighted me with their flowers in the spring, colorful foliage in the autumn, and now little red berries.

Thursday was ritto, the first day of winter by the lunisolar calendar that divides the year into 24 sekki points. "Reki Binran," an 18th-century practical guide of calendar, says of ritto: "The cold deepens with the start of the winter chills."

But perhaps because of global warming, the turning of one season to the next seems to have become less clear. I am told that this winter, too, is expected to start on a mild note.

Flowering dogwood trees were brought to Japan during the Taisho Era (1912-1926), when the city of Washington, D.C. presented them to Tokyo in return for the cherry trees donated to the U.S. capital. In the language of flowers, dogwood signifies "return present."

Unlike the "multitalented" dogwood, the cherry pours all its life force into its spring blossoms. As the cold deepens in the coming days, the buds will have to stand cold to stimulate their growth next spring.

Near my home, there is a street lined with about 50 cherry trees that have been loved for 80 years. To keep them healthy, neighborhood residents have created a "register" for them.

A survey done this autumn found that the long, hot summer caused infestations by caterpillars and fungi, which further debilitated the already heat-stressed trees. The survey also confirmed that car exhausts have done damage.

One year ago, the No. 27 tree on the register was involved in a car accident. A moving truck hit and broke a large branch that stretched out over the road. But thanks to the ministrations of the locals who lovingly tended to the tree by disinfection and other measures, a new branch is now growing.

If this cherry tree can appreciate people's goodwill, I look forward to its "return present" next spring.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 8(IHT/Asahi: November 9,2007)