A different experience

Most travelers will experience extremely crowded places, visiting the top sights in Italy, such as monuments in Florence, Rome or Venice. But even in those cities one can find Viva Italiana in the most unusual places. Places less traveled.

Such a place is the Santuario della Madonna de Montenero, in Cinque Terre, high above the hussle and bussle of the crowded trains below. This place seems to above it all with views over the entire Cinque Terre region and beyond.

Or walking around on a rainy day in a lovely town called Chiavari, just a train-ride north of Cinque Terre.

taking shelter in one of the local l'osteria's an Italian tavern, serving whatever is fresh for the day.

Visiting a flea market, finding old treasures.

Or creepy puppets . . .

The experience will be real.

Puddles of joy

If we are lucky enough to witness a single lily on a pond

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to watch the speed of a single drop

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to be fully present when a bloom is at its peak

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only then are we truly on our path.

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Life falls where it may, perfectly!

Every time I go out into the fields and forest, it has changed from the time I was there a few days before. Nothing else changes as drastic as Nature.

Everything seems to be perfectly placed, yet so random. One of the most difficult things to achieve is to TRY to make something look random.

Humans have a tendency to place things deliberately. But with the lack of thought, life falls where it may perfectly!

Past and Present

Coming from the new world into the old, I notice the many things that have survived with the ages.

I imagine the people that have been here before us. Perhaps we don't have to catch our own fish or hunt deer to survive, but many traditions remind us of a time long past.

One such place is the "Alme" - dialect for common land, from the french "Allmende". These are plots at the outskirts of town, where that townspeople can lease to grow their vegetables.

I remember very old people on their bicycles with a pick and shovel over their shoulders on their way to the fields. Even today you can see people with a tiny trailer hitched to their bicycles transporting dirt or harvested potatoes.

Another thing that can still be seen is the craftsmanship of architectural details.

The amount of time that was put into the design of a door for example stands the test of time. This craftsmanship is getting lost all around the world. I do hope newer generations take an interest and make sure that the craft and pride that goes into creating something will not be lost.

The transformation of Spring

Living in California, I can still appreciate wildflowers in "spring", but for people who have not seen the sun for months, spring has an all together different meaning.

Even in writing a black and white blog, I can see the vibrance of the colors. Spring is an experience for all the senses. Smell, touch, vision combined with the sounds of bird-life trumpeting their happiness about the arrival of Spring.

Spring is about transformation and we can learn to be inspired by the power of nature to go from darkness and cold to the fullness of life.

To keep going even though we do not know what is at the end of the road.

To weather the storm and burst into full bloom!

Mother Nature

I often wonder why we are so afraid of change, when on one hand we yearn for novelty and on the other we fight the process when faced with it. Nature doesn't discern. She freely accepts change and executes no prejudice.

She bears beauty in most unlikely places and does well in solitude.

She knows no adversity and freely merges with it.

as she reflects upon herself.

Ebb and Tide of Life

Somehow this post was deleted, so I re-posting. I like to visit the "Auen" (flood plains near rivers), a place where ebb and tide take on a different form. Only due to floods during the rainy season, these trees change from being underwater to being surrounded by shells on muddy ground. Stranded boats, debris or a child's toy boat make this a very aery place.

Auen are forever changing. Streets are under water at times, making them impassible, they are frozen and bizarre in winter with branches sticking out of the ice. Lush and green in the spring and summer months. They never look the same and are forever beautiful. If we could only learn from them to be as graceful about change as they are.

Historic Impressions

Being here, walking the grounds of medieval Germany, my love for history is rekindled. It is not so much the architecture that fascinates me, but the resonance human beings leave behind. I cannot help but feel all the souls that have walked these ancient grounds

One of the medieval cities that takes me back in time is Gernbach. First mention in 1219 the city thrived with timber trade. Some of the buildings here were standing when Luther wrote Ninety-Five Theses. In 1517 Martin Luther (1483-1546) rejected the claim by the Catholic Roman Church that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He sought to reform the Roman Catholic Church which he felt had been corrupted.

People who embraced his ideas were burned at the stake. These same people walked these alleys, and were perhaps prosecuted for their most valued beliefs. Today, cafes and cute shops leave almost no trace of the horrors that happened here in the dark ages.

But traces of history are not only prevalent in larger cities with architecture. Small villages, such as the one I was born in have a long history as well. My hometown (first records from 991) for example is more than 1000 years old, when people roamed this place along the River Rhine.

Bietigheim has two churches. The old Church (called the Chapel) dates back to 1150, where the new church was built in 1863, one hundred years before I was born.

Churches were the center of every village. The church bells were a way to know the time, know if someone died, man or woman, if there was a wedding or church service. The chime of each town is unique and it is the very first sound I hear when I return. It puts me back immediately to a time of ease and wonder.

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Wiesen und Wälder

Meadows and woods, that is what surrounds this area in the south of Germany, very close to the border to Alsace, where storks breed on church rooftops and the world has not moved much from where it was one hundred years ago.

Remanence of the old world are still visible, in the fields, the fertile ground still bears importance in the lives of the inhabitants who have lived here for hundreds of years. Time is told by how high the corn has grown, if hay has been rolled or by the appearance of certain wildflowers.

Huge blankets of yellow, like a beacon in the rainy months of April give light to the summer months to come.

The smells of my childhood are ever present especially riding my bike through the woods, where the temperature drops by 10 degrees and a musty smell becomes ever prevalent. I don't remember seeing as many brooks before. A decade ago many of the streams were put into their natural state and biotopes made it possible for wildlife to return to its former glory.

Memories of the Black Forest

Living on the most Northern part of the Black Forest it seems natural to have childhood memories. But one in particular had more to do with a watercolor that hung in my families home that my mom had done when she was young.

It was that of a young woman using a sichel to gather flowers on a bridge near Forbach that was build in the middle ages. I always imagined that it was indeed my mom as a young woman in the picture.

Today, I drove across the bridge and found the spot from where the pictures was taken.

With a very good feeling, I drove up into the mountains where there was still snow and fog. I finally found my single birch tree that I have been looking for.

Mai-poles were abundant on my drive as every village had their own version.

Feeling alive

It seems pointless talking about feeling alive. The very notion that one tries to explain it is contradictory. Yet, why is it so rare that we truly feel alive? It seems we are caught in a web of expectations, pressures and the noise of "life". But is it life? Or is it white noise, chatter, an idea of what life should be? When I am out in the field shooting, I feel that aliveness come up and I am in awe. My mind becomes quiet, and nature determines what life is.

Water and Earth

Walking along the dam gives rise to a sense of safety, where none exists. Even though there is no imminent danger, one feels grand atop two worlds.

There is a feeling of vastness on either side, either the forest or the still waters on the other side. Trees are reflected in the stillness of the wetlands, a perfect reflection of self.

Suddenly a pounding sound down stream. Another boat approaching beside the ones anchored beside me with chains.

A world less known between Water and Earth.

Stomping through wet grass

I got up at 4:30 to get up for a misty early morning shoot. It was not, but the grass beneath my feet contained all the moisture I wanted to see in the air. My shoes were soon soaked through to my socks. I saw wild fowl, rabbits and dear roaming around the meadow outside of Muggensturm. I remembered the words of Michael Kenna, "you’re giving something to the landscape, it’s giving something to you". You can become one with your landscape if you immerse yourself in it.

That morning I went down streets I never went before, just to see what was there. Often I am surprised and never disappointed to go the road less traveled.

Arrival in Germany

Late yesterday evening I went out to the old Rhine arms, an area where the River Rhine used to flow before it was straightened in 1817. This flood plain is covered in trees that stick out of the water. My favorite time to visit is winter when the trees stick out of the ice.

I went out shooting closer to where the new River Rhine flows.  The lower area is populated by swans and while shooting there yesterday, I was attacked by them, rushing off I realized the next day that I had lost my light meter. Returning there the next day, my light meter was still laying on the shore, still turned on.

I did end up with some nice images. Sadly I do not have a Negative scanner in Germany, so I layed my negatives on to my screen and photographed them with my i-phone. The results were a real moire as I used to know from my printing days.  I am a lucky girl, that's all I can say.