november: vineyard excursion.

so november rolled around quickly and brought unpleasant & heartbreaking happenings with it. when i made my walk through the vineyards around johannisberg castle at the beginning of november things were still in some kind of neat order. a few weeks later my little world was unsettled by death. a cousin of mine died of cancer after 4 years battleing it. i had a hard time realizing i wouldn't meet him again, ever. i still get teary-eyed when i think about the month of november and of him and his family. i think our family grew a little bit closer after his death - isn't it strange that people huddle together as soon as someone leaves our world - when in other times you rarely see each other? it makes me sad that i am so far away from my family - the distance kind of numbs me sometimes, and it's not what i want to feel, this numbness, i want to actually feel the pain and ache that comes along with a loss. but sometimes all that is left when bad things happen around me is this kind bluntness and stupor - because i'm not nearby.

but back to this post and its pictures: the vineyards of the rheingau region are worth seeing all year long but in autumnal times they seem even more lovely - late bloomings of roses and tinged leaves, fog and early sundowns - this all gives me some kind of piece in a world that i'd like to forget sometimes.

i had parked my car in oestrich-winkel - another wine growing town in the rheingau area. from there i made a few dead end walking choices - sometimes little alleys don't lead to anything - but it makes for a little heart pound as it's kind of exciting when you explore them.

and then i made my way to johannisberg castle. it was a foggy day.

between the vines.

church st. john the baptist in the front - the castle in the back.

the best colour - red vine leaves.

rhine vista.

along the walls of johannisberg castle you can find lots and lots of rose trees.

dew and frost were biting these beauties.

as you can see, even architectural wise everything revolves around wine and vines.

my return path guided me through the vines again.

the sun eventually peeked through the fog.

above the cross.

view onto oestrich-winkel & the rhine valley.

yellow is the colour that predominates the vineyards.

and then i felt the urge to shoot some self portraits.

november: kickelhahn, himmelblau & weimar cemetery.

i had a week off in november and visited my parents ( as i often do on my vacations ). on a sunday morning we headed to the thuringian forest to climb onto the peak of the kickelhahn mountain. the kickelhahn mountain is the landmark mountain of the city of ilmenau . johann wolfgang von goethe , the famous writer & philosopher, often visited ilmenau and also climbed the kickelhahn. oftentimes he stopped at a little hut in the woods to relax for a while and on one of these stops he wrote one of his most known poems. our little adventure didn't last the whole day, though, as we had a little date with the weimar cemetery to look after the grave of my grandparents and then to visit my cousin and his family. tiny peek onto the kickelhahn tower. thuringian woods - deep dark green. at the goethe hut. this plate shows the german version of the poem goethe wrote here. inside the hut. and here's the english translation. i love this poem so much, as ...

in the forests.

it's that time of the year again.

july '20: lake petersdorf discoveries and a plea against genocide.

the green wild meadows of malchow's sandfeld. in the west of malchow there is a big chunk of forest that spans towards plauer see, a widely 'uncultivated' area these days, but it hasn't always been this way. in my last post i mentioned the nazi munition factory that had been built in these woods, away from prying eyes of their enemies and where they also built an external subcamp for the concentration camp ravensbrück. exactly these woods we explored on a pretty sunny day, betraying the darkness that happened around these parts. isn't it weird that there are places in this world that were built or used by dark forces and horrible regimes and you vist them 80 years later and they are the most peaceful places you can imagine? sometimes my brain can't cope with the contrast of knowing what was in the past and what the present looks and feels like. it definitely leaves me with a strange impression often, kind of like a little sting in my heart and brain that is not ...

ghost of nature.

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