Guest Post on Joyful Jubilant Learning

If you want to know what you can learn from living One and a half year on your own, have a look at my guest post on Joyful Jubilant Learning!

Modern Berlin: Potsdam Square

No, Berlin is not that green everywhere. Here, on the Potsdam Square (in German: Potsdamer Platz) it is mostly grey or greyish-blue. High buildings tower into the sky, broad streets are crossing.

When the wall between the Eastern and Western part of Berlin still stood, this place was a large no-go area, belonging to the eastern side. After the fall of the Berlin Wall it was decided by the local authorities that this place, which had been the livliest place in the 1930ies, should be revived. In the 1990 the first buildings began to be set up. As usual in these cases people discussed the way modern architecture was planned and realized: cold atmosphere, inhuman, incommunicative – these were some of the arguments brought forward.

I live near the Potsdam Square. It has a big mall where I often go to do my shoppings. There are many cafés and restaurants where you can sit outside and have a latte. This place is not cold – in my eyes it stands for open-mindedness, for the international character of Berlin.

Welcome Back, Joanna!

One of the persons whose blog I follow because I learn so much reading the contributions there, is Joanna Young. One of my favourite posts is 12 Reasons To Enjoy Writing with Gratitude.

Joanna Young has moved to the West of Scotland and has been offline a whole week. Welcome back, dear friend!

Seagulls fighting

This is a painting in pastel colors I did quite some time ago. Seagulls fighting over a fish. This aggressivity is part of nature, but most of the time it is just threatening the other guy (seagull, sparrow, dog, whatsoever), and not killing him.

These days the going-ons in the Georgien Republik prove that man not only threatens. He also kills. Let us all hope that the conflict will be settled without further killings.

Keep on Trying

This picture is has been created accidentally. I’ve got a black ceramic cat in my flats, and I decided to try out the makro function of my camera. The results were – ahem – more than bad. You could see nothing than a black form standing before a somewhat whiteish background. Half an hour of working on it with Photoshop didn’t do anything good. So I decided to call it a day and to throw all the pics into the wastebin. But then I stopped. Maybe a last try with those beautiful layer masks and layer styles? The next ten minutes you could be see clicking wildly around – and this is the result! (Don’t ask me how I did it – I don’t remember!)

And this is, what I learned: Even when you think you have tried everything – there might be a last possibility, a last way. Try it!

Rhapsody in Green

Would you ever believe that this picture was shot in Berlin?

Many visitors coming to Berlin are very much surprised when they see how green the city is. Especially they are amazed when they take a boat trip along the Landwehrkanal – which leads through such crowded parts of Berlin like Neukölln and Kreuzberg.

You can take a walk along the Landwehrcanal as well and enjoy the shadow of the trees when the sun is hot. You can take a book and sit down near the water; eventually you will be visited by ever hungry ducks and swans. It’s one of my favourite places to go – which are yours?

Water lilies

I took this picture last sunday when I visited the “Britzer Garten” (Britzer Park/Garden) for the second time this year. The leaves of the water lilies are very neatly arranged on the surface, almost forming geometric patterns. For me it is quite a contrast to the picture in my post “Life is Chaos”.

The Grapes of Joy

I like grapes. I like them as grapes, juicy and fresh, together with a piece of cheese. When the day is very hot, I just have them for lunch, nothing else.

I like them as wine: white wine, pure or with sparkling water – a very refreshing drink. Red wine, dark red, sipped slowly.

Be it the fruit or the wine: Both are to be enjoyed, grape after grape eaten slowly, and the wine sipped, not gulped down. How often do we eat too fast, drink too fast. We often don’t know afterwards what we’ve eaten or drunk. Let’s enjoy our food and drink!

Life is Chaos

I took this photo from a wooden platform at the banks of a pool with white and red water lilies. Looking over the pond I saw all the water lilies most beautifully arranged on the water. Then I turned round and saw this: Green chaos with the two red spots of water lilies.

And that made me think about how we like life to be and how it often is. We (or should I better say: I?) like it structured, well laid out before me. I make my plans – for the day, for the week.

But then, things happen which are not planned. Bad things – and good things. I meet someone accidentally and I spend one or two hours talking with him. I enjoy it, after having decided to throw my plan for the day away. Just as the green chaos in the picture above looks beautiful to me, the chaos of life can be beautiful. Let’s enjoy it!

This is a contribution to the Life is ______ project of Robert Hrhuzek at Middlezonemusings.com.