Norwegen Blumen / Norway Flowers I
Norway Flowers / Norwegen-Blumen I
Botanic Gardens in the Volksstaat Hessen
Kaffeebohne
Over the Easter weekend I went on several hikes with my friends Wiebke and Luisa, which during the winter involved getting lost and crossing the partially iced-over Fulda. These walks were not as perilous though there was some Osternausflippen on the tiny Cantus train over the frequently-contentious issue of bike transport, which I mostly attribute to the seeming interminability of the religious holiday to the non-religious Hessians.
On Sunday we traveled to the Universität Kassel’s Witzenhausen campus to visit the Gewächshaus für tropische Nutzpflanzen, a huge greenhouse complex of tropical plants like coffee and giant grapefruit. Stadt Witzenhausen, “die Kirschenstadt,” itself is the “legendary” home to many cherry trees, though I have never seen many Kirschblüte in the two springs I have been here – maybe that’s the Witz.
Farther down the River Werra, where the river turns back into the Fulda, is the Botanischer Garten Kassel, where we saw a moth and butterfly incubation house, with thousands of Tagpfauenauge (a true Schmetterlinge species, not a moth as they appear), just coming out of their cocoons. Also a special humidity controlled greenhouse just for cacti.
Hienieden Franz Marc ~ Trauerarbeit 100
Indexical photo with authorial shadow; graves of Franz and Maria Marc
On 4 March 2016, the 100th anniversary of the death of the painter, animal lover, writer, and ever-elusive person Franz Marc, I visited Marc’s grave in Kochel. Initially I had intended to spend the day between the Lenbachhaus and the Pinakothek der Moderne in München immersed in the paintings I have studied now for many years. But in truth I am devoted to Marc’s life as much as his art, and it seemed more right to take make a pilgrimage and pay respects in the proper sense of the word in the tiny Bavarian town where Marc lived off and on.
This trip was covered on the now-silent Franz Marc Twitter account and received much support and nice wishes from many kind souls.
It was a very emotional experience and had some typical Bavarian humorous adventures as well. I arrived on the regional train at about 11:00 on a dazzling clear, cold day, with most of the snow from the previous week’s blizzard still on the ground. The Ammergau Alps, what Marc called „das blaues Land“, glowed. Inserting itself into this majestic, somber first act was the fact that, in Kochel, Ruhezeit on Fridays apparently begins at 11:00…and this was a very intense Ruhezeit too…everything had abruptly closed, including the flower shop where I had intended to get some violets. I should add that all the flowers and plants were just sitting there outside, and the doors to the shop were open, but the lights were off and the people away being quiet. This was the same at other shops – I have always found it very amusing that in places where Ruhezeit is taken seriously, lunch places also close, even though Ruhezeit is at lunch time, and Kochel takes Ruhezeit quite seriously. In fact it was Friday Ruhezeit the entire time I was there. I stayed until 16:00, the hour of Marc’s death.
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