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Back in Green

23 Apr

Spent all day in the garden, weeding, cleaning and preparing containers, pricking and repotting and doing this year’s first herb harvest! Due to the mild winter and early spring the green are exploding and everything seems to be one month ahead. Our cherry tree has already flowered, the apple tree is in full bloom as well as the lilac. The meadow is white with daisies and cuckoo flowers and the sweet woodruff is already flowering. The new additions to the garden planted last year are blossoming. But there are also some ‘wild’ additions, such as the common lungwort, which I spotted growing wild now on our meadow and which has been known as a medicinal herb for centuries. Below are some recent impressions of the Green and our garden. You see what has become of the seedlings I had posted a few weeks ago…


Above: the bed in half-shade, which we dug out and manured with fresh compost soil last year – before weed had taken over the whole place, so we removed about half a meter soil, strained it and laid foil around everything. Now it’s filled with plants for study and pleasure. I start to worry though it may soon be too packed!

Below: a bed left wild and overgrowing; forget-me-not and hyacinths have found a new place there admidst ground elder unconquered. All attempts to weed it out were futile. Therefore I learned it has also some benific qualities and now would actually be a good time for harvesting and using it fresh in cooking… Besides the sweet woodruff has been expanding not only there but this year it also started taking over the raised bed! As you can see it is overflowing and it was high time to clear it and do a first herb harvest. Lets see what to do with all the woodruff and wormwood! Well, the latter I already know what to use it for… There is also our lilac tree blooming by the compost, spreading its sweet scent.

And there is also the lungwort, which I look forward to study more…

Hellebores

14 Mar

sometimes these flowers are in my dreams

and the world is inside of a hellebore

my vision is that of a bug and these plants occur like giants

I observe the juices pulse inside of stems and leaves

I see every vein

I see flowers opening and unfolding

I love all their colors and shapes

just like the bees feed on them at a time

when other resources are yet scarce

sometimes in dream I hear them

move and unfurl

not so little froglings

so-called roses in the snow

stigmata the tips of serpent tongues

roots the dread head of Medusa

in my hand

eyes are

beneath are

diamonds

Spring

2 Mar

I wonder if winter is yet to come or if it was simply cancelled for this year. Well, here are a few snapshots of the first spring bloomers of 2014 that popped up this week! With the crocuses you could basically sit beside the flowers and watch them opening one after the other…

Listen to the Silence II

18 Jan

In a moment of clarity I snapped my camera and went down to the park, photographing the ivy and barren trees until the sun was setting, which was 233 images later and that was also when I ran out of battery. My fingers and feet had actually been freezing way earlier but that was secondary as my focus was on different things: the more you look the more you see and the more I was photographing the more I was discovering… It has not been like that for a while that I could be with the trees and vine and see them and listen to them. Respective there has been music on my mind all day, whereas the trees stood silently, but hearing is not always about hearing as much as seeing doesn’t always have to do with the eye… so what what did the senses sense or what did -I- sense? Usually it’s an overload. Nature’s silence can be very loud and powerful at times… That’s what is worked through and recapitulated later, when examining, picking out and enhancing the photos, finding forms and structures, whereby listening to the music that had been on my mind all day… Each photo in this post is representative of a row of similar photos, but for convenience I chose 20 of them to share here. And I leave them untitled this time around…

Closing tonight with this song by Oliver Huntemann: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gYcunUMpeE

Before I was listening to old and new stuff by Hole. I could never get into this band, but since New Year’s Eve it caught my attention and now bought a record this evening.

Beith

20 Dec

Reflecting upon this year, taking a few notes and posting them here on my blog. I’ll focus on the positive stuff. I wave goodbye to the leeches and say Hello to those that approach me for serious business. I swallow the bitter stuff and make something sweet of it…

There is a tree of new beginnings, a tree that is much connected to the state that occures after severe clearcuts and profound desolation: the Birch.
It has been there for the past three years, or perhaps even longer, always when it was about time to make some long-needed changes, both on a personal as well as outward level. It is a tree that grows in places and under conditions, where others seldom dare to exist and which provides the foundation for others to thrive on, who does not only give but also facilitates new birth. A pioneer, which has its darker edges too. It is one tree I had to witness being cut down and mutilated by humans, when it would “take away too much of the sun”. A tree I share one or two scars with and that reminds me of my own limitations and weaknesses, delusions and misconceptions. But it is also a tree that teaches swiftness when you carry too heavy, advices you to be in control of your own destiny and reminds you to clean up and cast overboard all the unneeded stuff and hindrances. I am calling and listening to the Birch, seeking counsel and advice on changes that may need to be done in 2014.

Meanwhile new seeds are being sown and new growth it shall bring. Likewise other plants, the perennial ones, now barren yet not dead, keep growing and developing, whilst I continue working on new and old art pieces. Time flies. Fast. The work I do now provides the fundament for what I will do in the future.

So long, here’s wishing you a blessed longest night of the year. Whatever you do, be it a huge fire or just using this time for personal regeneration and meditation. Be well. And do what you can to help others be well to.

Autumn in Dresden Dölzschen

27 Oct

Today I hade a little rendezvous with Eddie. You wonder who Eddie is? Well, Eddie is a little pig. 🙂 And today I met him for a photoshoot in the park. But before these pictures go online here a few snapshots of this beautiful autumn day, which was probably the last for this year. Enjoy the colors!

Golden October

23 Oct

Golden October is finally here! I’ll enjoy the last warm autumn days working outdoors on my boxes and pentacles. What are you up to?

Seasonal 2: Collecting more Mushrooms

15 Oct

Another autumn is here, which means also it’s mushroom season again! This year we did not find as many celps but therefore I could expand my collection of inedible and partly poisonous specimens (which is btw. a very good way to learn and study them). Alas, now I just have to figure how to preserve their color and shape. For once I succeeded at drying the fly agaric caps but due to the cold and rainy weather the others unfortunately went moldy. Dryer and warmer air would be needed. Well, next year I will have another try. In the meantime test your knowledge in mycology – can you name all specimens on the photos below?

Forest Walk

14 Oct

Enjoying autumn and walks in the forest…

2 Seed Pods, 94 Photos

3 Sep
Henbane Seed Pods

Henbane Seed Pods

 

2 Seed Pods, 94 Photos

2 Seed Pods, 94 Photos

When working with herbs I also document some aspects and details. With some herbs I focus on the dried fruits and seeds and photograph them as random still lifes, experimenting with light and shadow. I do that as time permits, working on a little series there. Today Henbane in.