I beg your pardon...

... I never promised you a rose garden. But if I did, it would be the "Rosengarten" (sorry, no English version of the site yet) in Bad Langensalza where you can find:

roses (obviously):






but also delphinium:

unmanned


and manned


and even lavender:


And that's a German rosegarden for you - no flower would dare to break ranks ;-)


An interesting technical aspect about these photos: I accidentally took my 100 mm macro lens only and left the tripod head at home, so I was limited to that focal length and tripodless shooting. I'm not showing you the misses but I still think I nevertheless managed quite a few hits :-).

How do you know you're in...

... Hessen? Simple, just look out for the clues.

The sauce is always green and consists of exactly seven regional herbs:


The cheese is full of music:


The apple wine is called "fabric"*:


.. and its monuments hang high above the streets:


And you can be absolutely certain when you hear the Hessian "anthem".

* Stöffche is the diminutive of Stoff = fabric

All that glitters

Since I was a young child, my parents used to call me a magpie - attracted to everything shiny. It has not gotten better with time, on the contrary, now I'm making my own shiny things. As much jewellery as I make, there is only a number of pieces that I actually wear regularly and I would like to show you some now, all made from polymer clay and something.

Faux turquoise necklace with crystal beads:



Art sheet earrings on sterling silver earwires:


Faux jade necklace with supposedly my name in ancient Chinese characters:



Flower bracelet with renaissance pearls:


PS: I take custom orders, too :-).

Berlin.... du bist so wunderbar, Berlin...*

I was visiting friends in Berlin last weekend and was surprised to hear that they're not rejoicing the fact that they're here every waking moment ;-).

Here some impressions.

The Quadriga on top of the Brandenburg Gate:


Underneath this monument, several epochs come together:


Remains of the Berlin Wall:


Reichstag:


And while walking around the Reichstag in the blistering heat, I was seriously considering this arrangement:


In case you didn't know, Berlin is broke - but in style:


and nevertheless isn't losing its colourfulness:

*And the title "Berlin.. you are so wonderful, Berlin" is at the same time the soundtrack to the post.

The big world of small things

Part One: Blossoms