august: animal park kastel.

there is a tiny animal retreat outside of the city quarter mainz-kastel. it is build like a little farm and houses a lot of farming animals. but what i liked most about it was the beautiful area it's situated in, a little biotope with a lovely overgrown pond, and swamp-like surroundings. wandering around the area was really soothing. the whole park seems to be an insider tip, not many people were around, even though it was still well visited. i guess the typical farm animals aren't that much of a show-stopper for a lot of people. it is always very admirable when there are people, though, who manage such tiny animal parks just so they can bring families closer to nature and the animals and plants existing in it. all work they do in this park is voluntary as they don't take entry and manage everything off of donations.

the beautiful main pond.

they had koi carps in the pond and also turtles!

what kind of pond would it be if there weren't any ducks around?

one of the small ponds. it was really like a little jungle out there.

walking under the willows was magical.

turtle sunbath!

these little ponds were created to house frogs and insects.

a little waterfall was also part of the water system.

the play of light, leaves and wind was really a beautiful thing to experience. especially in such an overgrown place.

little swamp-like ponds.

strange berries.

i still haven't found out what this plant is, i even asked my dad, who's like the plant expert in our family, but he couldn't say it either.

i even discovered a little lizard peeking its head out of a tiny cave.

geese were following you around everywhere and also chicken! unfortunately i didn't shoot the ponies or sheep / goats, neither the rabbits nor the ferrets. maybe next time!

the area is sandwiched between an industrial complex and a highway, which made it very special, as you wouldn't expect such a jungle-like landscape here. you couldn't hear the highway as well, it was just purely out of this world, like a magic hidden place.

the street to the park was really deserted, it felt like some kind of end of the world.

there was also a little palais around the corner, but it was not open for any guests as it is inhabited.

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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