the enkindled spring
This spring as it comes bursts up in bonfires green,
Wild puffing of emerald trees, and flame-filled bushes,
Thorn-blossom lifting in wreaths of smoke between
Where the wood fumes up and the watery, flickering rushes.
I am amazed at this spring, this conflagration
Of green fires lit on the soil of the earth, this blaze
Of growing, and sparks that puff in wild gyration,
Faces of people streaming across my gaze.
And I, what fountain of fire am I among
This leaping combustion of spring? My spirit is tossed
About like a shadow buffeted in the throng
Of flames, a shadow that's gone astray, and is lost.
the best think in existence: carnation pink!
let's return some to springtime endeavours with pictures from my parent's garden abloom in may! my favourite thing about this garden is the wide variety of flowers & plants, which make it so versatile! i am a big proponent of diverse gardens, it attracts insects, bees, birds & little animals & make it a more lively place! also, if you put in some vegetables & fruit, it will also benefit the human, aside them getting joy from all the greening & blossoming of course! i never understood why people create gardens without lots of growth and plenty of rock & gravels, aside maybe from having less work to do. though i doubt that, i think those sterile gardens require plenty of work, especially to keep them sterile, when all nature wants is growing a damn & overcoming it all! 'cause it will, it will creep through eventually again, that's for sure. it's so nice to have wild patches of nature in your garden, trees that give shade, high grasses filled with wildflowers where the bees & bumblebees can fly and find nectare, butterflies can flutter around happily & birds can find a huge platter of food to feed their offspring with, while singing & chirping to their heart's content. while little mice can scurry through the grasses undetected & the hedgehogs sniff out their evening meals. while flowers & plants grow more abundant throughout the season, popping up juicy, colourful blossoms & delighting your heart in every way. out with the sterile, in with the marvelous chaos of nature!
these always smell so heavenly, the fragrance of carnations definitely is one of my top favourite flower fragrance ever. very aromatic & tangy!
poppies & lupins.
the poppies my dad is growing are persian poppies, they are often huge as hands & have big capsules which are surrounded by feathery stamen. they are said to contain alkaloids like thebaine & oripavine ( opioids, basically) , which is helpful in creating industrially manufactured analgesics. it's not allowed to grow these in huge patches, unless they are approved by the state for medicinal uses. it is allowed though to plant them for ornamental purposes in gardens in small amounts. i find these flowers exceptionally beautiful & delicate, they're thin petals are so tender! i also really adore the capsules, even when the petals fall off & the capsule ripens, it's so interesting to see how it changes & will eventually dry down so much, that you can shake the seeds out of it! with breadseed poppies, you could try to process them so far as to use them in food, but i couldn't find anything of the same for the persian poppy. in any way, it still is a super interesting plant, and i would always have them in my garden, if i owned one. they are just so very pretty!
just the details of their stamen & the velvety top of the capsules! ❤
another fave of mine: these double-flowered peonies! they're big pompom blossoms are always so ravishing!
this little patch in my parent's garden reveals lupines, more peonies that are still in budding stage, budding african lilies & dame's rockets. probably even more, but it's not possible to name them all just by looking at a photo.
sometimes i groom this little garden path & remove little weeds & moss. often i sit down & listen to podcasts while doing so, which basically sends me to a meditative state & i can totally forget the time over it 😅
a cute eurasian collared dove i spotted sitting on our front yard fence! these are so petite & dainty!
fields outside our village, in the background you can see the stump of the old windmill.
these lush green crop fields just make me happy everytime!
again, the old windmill sitting on top of a small hill. i couldn't find any info on how old this mill is, but i know its stump is in a good condition as there's still people living on the property.
i used to dislike wandering around my village as a teen, but i love to return now as an adult & re-connect myself with my homelands. this shot is towards the big windmill park that is getting bigger & bigger by the years. it counts 22 windmills these days.
short interruption for this cutiepie right here, madame rose, when she was just a wee little baby girl. she entered our lives 2 years ago, when my brother and his girlfriend bought her & brought her home. ever since i met her i was completely enamoured with her and everytime i get to see her on my homeland visits it's always a complete joy to cuddle & smooch & play with her!
the schlossgraben, which in former times surrounded the castle that stood on the moat until 1948. it was torn down allegedly by the order of the russian occupants. allegedly, because rumors also tell that it wasn't the russians, but the big landowners of the village who wanted to have building materials for their own courtyards & farms.
anyway, so much about this little foray into my home village, let's move on to my second home, southern hessia! on another nice may day i was taking myself out to ginsheim-gustavsburg, to be more precise to that city's ginsheim district. it's a small village right next to an oxbow channel of the rhine river, and though i never did think of ginsheim-gustavsburg as charming, this part of town convinced me otherwise! i really loved the promenade by the water & there were some nice meadows on the neuaue outside of ginsheim, too. but what would my walks be without taking any glances on the fabric of the village, so of course some buildings stood out to me and i documented them! sometimes it really pays to look at places that you deemed not worthwhile before, even though you couldn't know exactly, because you have never been there! just another reminder that right in front of your nose can hide the most precious things, you just gotta ditch the prejudices & take a step closer!
at the ginsheim harbour, with a view onto the oxbow channel of the rhine river. it looked like you could rent canoes somewhere, which i would be quite interested in for a summer activity!
there's also a little ferry that takes you over to langenau island, it's called 'johanna'. i am not quite sure about the operating hours, since it is privately owned by an estate that's situated on the island. maybe it only takes people over when there's something going on at the estate? apparently you can book weddings, corporate events and other festivities there. i couldn't find any infos on eventual timetables anywhere, not even on the website for the event location. kind of odd, and it somehow reeks of elitism in my opinion 😅
it is not the only option to get onto the island, though, a few kilometers down the oxbow channel you can enter it over a rock embankment. i feel like i should do that sometime & try to explore the island a bit!
the evangelical church from 1746, a baroque hall church that was first built by johann lichtenberg. it is a rather plain church, but that is mainly because it was destroyed in the second world war & re-built in a more simple style in 1953. i am sure it was more elaborate before the war.
this memorial commemorates all the local soldiers ( 62 ) killed in action from the 1st world war ( 1914 - 1918 ). it was erected in 1935 & designed by hermann kornmesser.
the church's parish hall is directly adjacent to it, and also was built around 1935. the high gable & the bow arch entrance are very minimalistic in style, but kind of chic? i at least liked it enough to take a photo of it 😅
hotel & restaurant 'rheinischer hof'. the building is from 1813, but was of course altered over the years. the restaurant & hotel busine started in 1964, though it had been an inn before that.
you can book short-term & longterm accommodations and even though they look quite modern & chic, they're not even super expensive!
views of the altrhein at the mouth of the schwarzbach creek. it was so idyllic there, i watched the canoes & boats & the ferry for a long, long time, taking delight in the splendor of spring.
everywhere poplar cotton was flying around, turning the scenery even more into a magical one.
to add to the enjoyment of it all, dragonflies were populating the shores of the schwarzbach creek, dazzling & fluorescing. this one is a calopterix virgo - or as they are commonly known: a banded demoiselle. it is actually damselfly, not a dragonfly. they are fluttering around at the bankside of rivers to impress female demoiselles, well, and that doesn't only work on them, but also that worked on me 😍
here's a female one, on the lookout for a suitable partner!
and another male one, in dancing position!
juicy green grass & clover blossoms on the dam next to the creek.
the schwarzbach further away from its estuary into the rhine river. can you spot a visitor?
the visitor is a gray heron, taking a bath in the poplar cotton-infused waters of the creek. did you know that in ancient rome the call of the heron was an augury of events to come? now i will be much more attentive when i hear their calls 😅
beautiful schwarzbach embedded into emerald nature. this river may look nice, but it is said to be one of the most polluted rivers in hessia. heavy metals like mercury, cadmium & lead were found in it, indicating that industrial waste was once discarded into it. as far as i know, the practice of waste disposal into rivers got cut immensely, but a lot of what is measured today seems to be old contaminations that are not easy to get rid of because it seeps from the soil into the waters.
wandering around high grasses & old orchard meadows.
i am always a sucker for old, dead, gnarly trees ❤
just relishing in the green saturation 😍
this path actually leads to the oxbow channel, but i didn't feel like walking the entire way there, so i returned back to the schwarzbach.
and made it back to the dike...
... where i would take a path back to ginsheim village, passing by californian poppies by the wayside.
they looked so nice against this wall. i think i found these near the cemetery.
i eventually ended up in the village again. loved this patch of purple flowers in the middle of a residential area.
the patch consisted of the hairy vetch, a legume that is usually used in livestock food or as cover crop.
their clustered inflorescence was really gorgeous to look at!
the residential area i found the hairy vetch in. some very modern apartment homes. they were erected in 2015 on a spot that was formerly a sports field.
another new addition to ginsheim is the new fire brigade building. it was built from 2015 to 2017 by lengfeld & wilisch.
i like it's simplicity & transparency. the tower both functions as a landmark & exercise tower. the big writing reminds you who to call in cases of emergency.
i also liked the symbolism that was fixed on top of the tower, telling you exactly where the fire brigade can help.
in close proximity you'll find the albert-schweitzer-schule, an elementary school. the gym with its red-framed big windows was screaming mid-century chic to me. in fact, it was built in 1960 ( by novotny & partner architects ), confirming my mid-century assessment.
exploring the school grounds revealed some neat little details to me. i loved the red framing around the windows for example, but also this little corner with a stained glass mosaic.
i like creations like this a lot, it feels so creative & whimsical!
here, the windos were framed in blue. the little campus was designed very open & airy, with several school buildings surrounding the school yard.
i found an assortment of painted rocks on the schoolgrounds, too, a colourful, cheerful thing to discover!
lots of foxes & rainbows.
thus ends another little foray into some local, often overlooked cities & villages! maybe i should make this a theme, because i love exploring the lesser-known places as much, if not even more than the well-known stuff. there's always so much hidden gems to find!
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