Thursday 24 November 2016

Walking the Streets of Paris V: Tour d'Eiffel in Variations





...in twinkling dress  ...


Tour d'Eiffel is always worth photographing  - but how to take pictures of this icon without being boring or repetitive? 

 chinoiserie



 an impression



a bit shaky



classic lighthouse

original and copies



so many!


Good night! 

Thursday 17 November 2016

Plant of the Month : Krötenlilie or Toad Lily (Tricyrtis hirta)

This November in this early wet and cold season, this lily still carries a few flowers: sturdy and a bit waxen, they raise their faces through the yellowing leaves of this hardy plant. It is rarely seen in gardens in Germany, although it is an undemanding plant. It needs light shade among shrubs but can stand a drought, too. Its colours vary: when buying one, it is important to see it in flower, buy it in flower, because some varieties have an odd blueish-red shade, like washed-out jeans that have accidentally been put in the same washing cyle together with a bleeding red t-shirt.






I have no idea, why this pretty lily is called toad lily - because of its dots looking like warts? A good reason to try some distorting photoshop-filters ....


Jump!





Saturday 12 November 2016

Educating Our Daughters


Glass Ceilings 



A composition from a photo I got when she visitied Berlin on November 9th, 2009 and from a visit to Washington in 2006, viewed through a glasshouse roof (ok - maybe a bit bland ... :() 


There has been a lot of talk about glass ceilings and about their perceived capacity to keep women from reaching the top echelons in business and politics. 
As the last US election has shown quite clearly, this glass ceiling is not only contrived by men protecting their turf, afraid of strong women bosses. Unfortunately, these glass ceilings are equally or more so supported and enforced by females:
other women are a more serious threat and more difficult to manage  for ambitious women striving to get to the top. 

When we are educating our daughters, we teach them to become independent thinkers, to be proud of their own achievements, to lead the lives they chose to lead. But we don't talk of an inherent womanly character flaw: 
Sadly, women can be so judgemental, resentful and envious of other women and begrudge their successes for no reason at all except that they are women. Some women will go to length to stop other women from achieving their perfectly fine goals even at a cost to themselves. 

What does it matter why and when a woman changed or did not change her surname to adopt her husband's? 
Why would it be interesting ot know whether a woman can make cookies if she is not applying for a job as cook?
Why do we want to know, why a woman decided to stay with an unfaithful husband and save a marriage - surely it must have been for all the wrong and selfish reasons? 
And all these questions were asked about one of the most highly educated women with a long list of proven accomplishments and a perfect capability who was applying for the most difficult job in difficult times. 

I feel so ashamed of my fellow white ladies who apparently predominately decided to shun an eminently suitable respectable woman leader for a misogynist gross bully. I thought we had come further. I thought, we had independently thinking women, proud of their own achievements and supportive of each other, we would decide which work to do, we would decide which guy to marry and we would decide who we want to be represented by. But it seems more than half of the population of white female voters chose the gorilla. 

Why would normal women  vote for the biggest bully on earth? For a proven liar, using abusive hate language, treating half the population as crap, having cheated on his series of wives, with no political record and lots of empty promises  ... 
Because they like self-proclaimed "winners"? They like the biggest and loudest ? The rich guy? Isn't it some primeval, animalish, instinctive,  atavistic drive to be male-supported?  Looking for the strongest guy who might surely know what is best for us? Are we subconsciously dreaming to be the lady of a gorgeous big monster? Rather the cheater than being cheated?  Even though he has proven to be not a protector but denigratory, divisive and abusive? 

We, mothers and grandmothers, have to educate our daughters to be conscious and beware of these faults in our genetic makeup, when we are judging other women. We have to be good examples for our daughters. We have to learn to be critical of our own opinion about other women, and analyze exactly why we don't like a woman.  We must learn that whenever we are asked for an opinion about another woman to switch on our brains, to not judge her on her relationship to the other sex. It seems our judgement is even more negative,  if she has a successful or attractive husband: she "must have slept her way up", or she "must have ridden on his coattails". We must learn to not make assumptions that have no basis in reality. Assumptions made by women about other women are very often very negative and irresponsibly taken for fact. We must learn to be supportive of each other. We must trust and earn the trust of each other and not see the competitor in the pursuit of men.  

Because if these pitfalls have resulted in such a US president, all women who voted for him not because of his virtues and programmes (which certainly is their right), but because they have had some undefined unreflected hatred of Hillary Clinton,  surely deserve that special place in hell that Madeleine Albright talked about. 





Wednesday 9 November 2016

November 9 again ...




... another pretentious strongman ...

This November 9th, today,  will go down in history as the day the US people chose to end the role of their country as world leader.  
They seem to be fed up with being moral and good, politically correct, multicultural and tolerant, sick of being constantly shown their faults by a morally superior black president. That was asking too much. So they opened their ears to racist, sexist and hateful talk, shut off their brains,  and let emotions and atavistic instincts overrule their thinking. They chose a several times bankrupt conman, a perceived strongman, who in large fake gold lettering promises cloud-cuckoo-land. They have acted like long starved reigned-back health foodies who desired a big fatty burger with double extra cheese and lots of artificial colour, aroma and what not. And gave in. We can only hope it won't give them and the rest of the world indigestion for a long time. 

So far, he has not shown any interest in politics and no desire to shape the country for a better world except to amass his own personal fortunes. Christian - or humanistic - values are not high up on his list of virtues. But we have to give him the benefit of doubt. There is nothing to go on, no facts to judge how he will react in a crisis - we can only hope that he has been a good actor, that his campaigning was a long, successful act and that he will continue to keep out of politics. And that the US democratic (and republican!) institutions and processes will have enough checks and balances installed and that he will have competent people around -  possibly a good vice president -  to steer the country through the next few years and crises that are sure to come. But that may be very naive ... 

And that he sticks to what he can (possibly) still do well : 


.....enjoy his ladies. ... Sorry, hippo! 



Thursday 3 November 2016

Walking the Streets of Paris IV : Parc André Citroen



Parc André Citroên was opened in 1992 on the space of an old Citroên manufacturing site south of the Eiffel Tower on the banks of the Seine. It is a very young public parc with an ambitious geometric layout. Magnolia grandiflora and oak trees are cut in geometric box-shapes in contrast to more naturally growing parts of the gardens.   





 from above



Parts of the garden are divided into smaller areas with colour themes dedicated to a colour, a metal, a day of the week, a planet, a state of the water (rain, snow etc.) and a sense. 
Six further gardens are named for activities: Jardin doré, Jardin en movement and others. 


The blue garden , Perovskia (russian sage) in the back


Stachys byzantina "Blue Carpet"


Several greenhouses are connected with elaborate elevated walks.



surrounding office buildings



 A cherry alley : cherry trees have been planted on elevated pedestals. They seem to sit on small Mexican-Aztec-style pyramids.



a small bamboo grove



at work



Visitors can ride in a tethered helium balloon 150 m up to see a panorama of Paris: