Plant of the Month : Nachtviolen und Mondviolen

This is about a group of plants, very easy to grow, self-sowing and adding some light to darker woody areas of the garden: The "Night Viols" and "Moon Viols" as they are called in Germany, or Hesperis matronalis and Lunaria rediviva. Their English names are a bit odd and hard to remember: Dame's rocket and Honesty. 
We grow them in front of rhododendron. I have both species and unfortunately I have grown them in the same corner of the garden very close together, because I mistook them for the same species a long time ago. They are obviously closely related, both belonging to Brassicaceae. Lunaria has heart-shaped leaves, Hesperis long slender ones. They start as low plants but can become quite tall and lanky. In my garden they come together in a happy mix, building a big waving bunch of white and sometimes violet flowers for most of the month of May and often later again. Both species seed freely and new plants appear wherever they find a spot that they like.   
When I take a tour through the dark garden on a warm evening like these days, the white blossoms greet me between dark bushes. The sweetest scent wafts through the air and covers the whole area telling me "We are here - enjoying the evening like you!".

 seeds

 Hesperis matronalis "alba"

Garden Visit : Berlin's Tiergarten

Berlin's Tiergarten is not really a "Tiergarten" - an "animal park" -  like the name implies but a huge innercity green area more like New York's Central Park at two-thirds of its size. 

Its name derives from its history as a hunting ground of the Prussian kings. It is best explored by bike, connecting the old west with its shopping areas around KaDeWe and Bahnhof Zoo railway station to the government area around Reichstag to the east smack in the middle of the city. You can cycle from one end to the other and explore lakes and small streams, meadows, a rose garden, and lots of unusual statues and other monuments. 

a stag in the rose garden

 Asters

 Echinops and Echinacea

 lots of day lilies in July

  an interesting monochrome combination of allium seed heads and not yet fully opened sedum flowers

flowering hosta

 the composer Albert Lortzing

Beethoven

Princess Luise and her husband Friedrich Wilhelm III have their own little island "Luiseninsel" -  look at the beautiful crochet-like carvings of her scarf.

The hunting history is depicted in many bronze sculptures:

 A tribute to fox-hunting? The horse looks exhausted.

 Goldelse in the background

Poor guy! I can't image they ever hunted lion in Berlin, certainly not females with cubs! 

She wears spurs on her bare heels!

Apart from bronze animals the park is populated by many birds:

a blue tit feeding its little ones

I have been bird watching in Germany since childhood but here I am at a loss: I have no idea, what the name of this bird might be - never seen anything like that. From its size and behaviour it looks like a mutant blackbird with a white face and beard.

here the normal version

Further down the park in  the thicket one finds all sorts of strange monuments that in today's Germany one would rather like to hide: 

Soldiers and their families 

The Soviet Union built a large monument close to the former border:

This cannon has found new use as a home for a sparrow couple in a surprising new interpretation of the German proverb "Mit Kanonen auf Spatzen schießen". No shooting here! 

"Aus Kanonen mit Spatzen schießen"

Another monstrous monument from 1901 is for Bismarck. I am not sure what this wants to tell us:

Here a Germanic male is hammering his sword. His wife sits to the right reading a book or possibly reading out instructions for him how to do it? Allthewhile her sister to the left is facing the foe bare-breasted ... 

Hm. The front side does not give us any more clues: The bare-breasted lady has actually killed a lion with a foot and what looks like a small telescope. Another male is carrying the whole world on his shoulders. And everything presided over by Bismarck. But wait: maybe the idea behind it is not as ludicrous  - an unwelcome reflection just crept up in my mind, of modern Germany and its perceived role in Europe - just replace the male Hercules with Mrs Merkel ... and Macron the one with the sword, guided by his classics literature reading wife ...?

The reading lady is elegantly leaning on an Egyptian sphinx for more support from a glorious past.  

Enjoy the walk!

... reflections in muddy water ...

A very good day ...

.... for Fleur today: 

After she had broken her right front hoof last year in March 2016, not quite three years old, she had been in treatment and not allowed outside at all. 
Three months in a cast and a further six months in her box with special shoes, only taken out every six weeks for x-rays sedated when the doctor visited, then five months careful special training to rebuild muscles and strengthen softened tendons. The first days we were allowed to "walk for one minute up and down the aisle" , then two, then five - can you imagine any young horse that would controllably walk after long stretches of standing for one minute?   After a few weeks she was allowed a controlled trot at the lead rope - 

Not a single veterinarian that we had asked for advice  gave much hope for such a young horse with such a complicated slightly dislocated fracture and most recommended putting her on the "heavenly eternal pastures" - not worth the effort, not worth the money, she would not hold out, she would go mad standing in her box all day long, often alone indoors when all other horses went out for the day, or - in the best case scenario -   she would develop arthrosis.

Here she is - a few weeks ago - on one of her first trips to the hall  to run free:

Isn't she absolutely beautiful?

Today, we felt very lucky and very very super happy - I led her outdoors for her first grazing in over a year, a bit anxious: what would she do when she saw the open fields, other horses, wind and sun? Would she explode and take off on her own, ruining all the efforts, overexerting her legs, running into some ditch or worse, tractors, bicycles, what not?
Horses have very long memories - she remembered the path to the paddock, took up all her surroundings a little anxiously but carefully and followed me trustingly to her plot, where she was received by her neighbour friends in what seemed to be a whinnying choir. 

She is of such wonderful relaxed disposition. During the past 15 months she took each long day in a super friendly, patient, but still inquisitive manner, partaking in all what was going on around her, and did not develop any bad habits. We have never seen such a delightful behaviour in such a high-bred horse.

Her friend Franzi, same age, is one year ahead in training, though she still often looks at me as if she was a baby : 

Here on one of our relaxed walks through the fields around the farm, where they both live. 

Berlin - Gallery Weekend

Last weekend saw the 13th edition of Gallery Weekend, a yearly event of Berlin's art scene, when most galleries in Berlin open for a long weekend with lots of extra events, artist's studio visits, concerts, talks, discussions, cocktail parties ... 

Here are some of the more interesting works that I found that attracted me: 

Wim Botha's paper sculptures - here he has turned a few Encyclopedia Britannica  into a feminine slender and beautiful head - a very well-read woman. 


I loved this grinning octopus in the style of an online-game image although most people would not want one in their living-room.

A very large empty wall (22 m long!) is needed for this mural "Zeitlaich"  by Jonas Burgert. 

Anri Sala "take over"

More women might unknowingly have a similar "art collection". 

a fan: 

 Nika Fontaine paints her "Lucid Dreams" with polyester glitter: 

A few artists experiment with frames: glass that is supposed to protect the work behind is broken or molten,  connecting the outer world, the viewer, to the art behind the glass and giving more depth to the works. 

As always I got many ideas to follow up on ... .