heath pea blossoms in the wiesbaden woods.
in the north of wiesbaden you can find lots and lots of woods, because the taunus mountains are the natural barrier there! one day in late april i made a small walk near the kesselbach valley and a little restaurant called fischzucht ( fish farm ) that was mainly really magical. i still think back to that day as actually more traumatic than enchanting, though, even though the pictures prove that it was full of beautiful moments. when i look at these pictures now, i don't really feel like i've actually been there and walked these paths in enjoyment. it feels a bit like a fairy world which can feel strangely unsettling and kind of ominous. like nature tried to win me over with beauty, while disconcertment and unease was just around the corner. but before i get to that part of the story, these pictures will lull you into believing that nothing bad will happen as the fairies do their magic tricks on you.
all the flowers above were found on this patch of land, a small meadow. in the back everything bloomed yellow, which was what lured me in first and foremost. it was a field of cypress spurge!
found some bugleweed in the meadows as well!
cypress spurge is a toxic plant, so you should be really careful when you are handling it. if you hurt it the milk can cause allergic reactions and painful blisters.
it was quite a sight, this field of yellow blossoms 😍
i love to zoom in on things, it often creates interesting perspectives. like where there was a rather small-looking field of cypress spurge there suddenly is a big wide sea of sunny blossoms.
in a different corner of the meadow i found this abstract 'art sculpture'. it's actually a salt lick, something's that deposited in the woods every once in a while for the animals to lick. it's supposed to give them mineral nutrients ( and maybe to lure them into hunting ground? )
fresh greens and shadows are a good combination.
a different meadow field, much bigger and less yellow.
such delicate little blossoms.
fragmented and splintered. oftentimes this is proof of a lightning strike.
tiny paths leading through the most beautiful light-flooded areas.
barbed wire in the wild. definitely not a friend of these lying around.
even though together with plant growth it creates a special contrast.
i love that part of the spring season, when every tree, every bush lights up with glorious bright green tones. always feels incredibly saturated.
a teeny vole sat under some tree roots and the only reason why i spotted it out of the corner of my eye was due to it moving. i sat down for a little while and waited for it to return, camera ready and after only just a few minutes it emerged again and eyed me curiously. can we talk about magic moments? because that was one ❤
eventually came upon the kesselbach, a small stream. again, i sat down to enjoy the sounds it made, bubbling and sputtering.
wild bridges for tiny rodents.
i loved how primal it felt by this stream. kind of raw and pristine.
a gorgeous little jungle.
my path continued to be quite jungle-like, with fallen trees overgrown with moss.
the structure of wood with its deep creases and furrows, it's something i find incredibly stimulating. my hands seek out the wood automatically, feeling out the relief of what was once living.
when i found these two toys buried into the soil of an uprooted tree it was only mere moments away from the incident that broke the magic of my little walk. looking back now, these should have been signs for me, that something unsettling would happen. discovering the rabbit and the plush monkey first seemed like a surreal thing, something curious that you register as an amusing oddity.
but when you turn around the corner and almost get run over by a car turning into a parking lot, with two adults, a man and a woman, jumping out at you screaming at you for help because their little daughter has breathing arrest, this amusing oddity suddenly vanishes from your brain and reality hits you hard in the face again. you call the ambulance as quickly as you can with your shaking hands, while the mother of the child gets her baby out of the safety seat and starts massaging the baby's body in the luggage space. you hand over your phone to the father when the connection is made and help him out to determine where in the woods you are currently located. and then it's waiting until the ambulance arrives ( about 10 minutes later, fortunately ) - during which the baby girl comes to again, slowly breathing and looking at you with her big eyes, not understanding what just happened. she's not crying, just looking at you with an intense stare, wondering who you are, strange person that holds her little hands and talking to her, coaxing her back into consciousness. her mom cries tears of relief when she realizes she's got her baby back. in that moment the ambulance arrives and asks about what happened, if it happened in the past as well ( turned out it did, poor thing seemed to have a condition ) and then, after thanking me profusely for staying with them and helping them out, they take the baby and her mom to the hospital, while the dad follows them with the car.
and just like that you are alone in the woods again, feeling emotions that you can't assign to a specific one, ranging from anxiety to fear to relief to sadness. and a tiny hole appears inside you in which you realize again how quickly a moment can change into something different, how quickly a magic afternoon can turn into a traumatic event. it's like the ground is pulled out underneath you, and it leaves you with an uneasiness about the things that you thought were real, makes you question everything up until the very moment that inverted your sense of self.
it's how they always say: death and life, life and death, they are intricately linked to each other. and while you go through your day relatively untouched it doesn't mean that death ( or uneasiness and ennui in general ) is far away, ignoring you. it can always make itself known, and it does so especially in a most unsuspected way.
i was so happy to see the life come back into the little girl, and i was relieved that the ambulance got there so quickly, despite us being out of the city's realms. sometimes the memory of the child holding my hand and me holding hers comes back to me and i hope that she is well and safe. such small creatures should not have to endure severe conditions and sickness, should not have to make the acquaintance of death in such an early stage of life. i hope she thrives and gets to conquer her demons, i hope she finds peace and solace growing up and i hope she doesn't have to go through more of these unsettling episodes of apnea.
concluding this entry with a picture of dwarf periwinkles, which symbolize immortality and were once used to protect people from ghosts, evil persons and sickness. i found these minutes before i had the encounter with the little girl and its parents. i'm letting these speak for themselves.
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