First fruits

I noticed this morning whilst reading the Bezirk's Magazin (a locale mag for locale people) that the "first fruits" of this years local harvest are already in. They are being promoted by the local media and local supermarkets in a way I can't imagine happening in the UK.

These "first fruits" aren't fruits at all but are actually root vegetables; radishes to be precise.

Their health virtues are extolled (a key part of your "5 a day") alongside their green credentials (being locally grown they have traveled only a short distance and therefore only have a small carbon footprint etc etc).

I think there is something quite comforting that something as unassuming as the humble radish can enjoy such adulation.

Achtung! avalanches!!

Saw some amazing photographs of avalanches in Die Zeit Magazin last week by Yann Gross.



Although I wanted snow, I'm relieved we didn't get thing much! (original photos (c) Yann Gross)

Rock me Amadeus

Did you know that Austro popstar Falco was dead?

Neither did I! Tomorrow (6th February) is the anniversary of his death in a road accident in the Dominican Republic. The press, the radio and the television have been saturated (slight exaggeration there, but only slight) with Falco stories and remembrance programmes.

I would almost imagine he is receiving more column inches now than when he was at the height of his fame in the mid 1980's.

He is buried in Vienna's Zentralfriedhof.

Alles klar, Herr Kommissar?