Summer in the City!
Fountain in an Italian restaurant. Photo: Ulla Hennig
This restaurant with its beautiful garden and fountain is only a few steps away from the place where I live. I enjoy sitting outside, sipping a glas of white wine, watching the birds come and take a bath. It is summer in the city, and it’s beautiful!
Belvedere
Belvedere on the Pfingstberg near Potsdam. Photo: Ulla Hennig, September 2011
The Belvedere is a small palace on the Pfingstberg in Potsdam, the capital of the federal state of Brandenburg. It was built between 1847 and 1863. After WW II it fell into disrepair. Between 1988 and 2005 it was repaired by a group of local residents and is now open to tourists again.
The Brandenburg Landscape
My friend Carina is a great photographer. She lives in Berlin together with her husband, and in her free time she explores the beauties of nature in Brandenburg, the federal state which surrounds Berlin.
Brandenburg has a lot of small lakes. Many of them lie hidden somewhere between the trees, and you can go there and spend a whole day without seeing anyobdy. They are perfect places to recover from the noise of Berlin.
Light on Water
Light on Water. Photo: Ulla Hennig, September 2011
Unfortunately my new camera has only got a display and no viewfinder. I could not see what I was taking a photo of, but I had a try. I was interested in the reflection of the sun in the water, not so much in the bridge. I tried to focus more on that by applying a gaussian filter on the upper half of the photo, but was not satisfied with it, so I left it as it came out of the camera.
Mushrooms on Wood
Mushrooms on Wood. Photo: Ulla Hennig, September 2011
Two weeks ago our University staff went on a trip to Potsdam, the capital of the federal state of Brandenburg. We visited a very famous building, the Belvedere on the “Pfingstberg”. Of course I took photographs of the building (you will see them later on this blog), but I was also interested in the small things of nature and found this stump with two mushrooms on it.
I like the structure of the cracks in the wood, and how the mushrooms seem to sit on them – they remind me of two white eyes in a brown face. Maybe we should call it the face of fall?
Lily
Lily. Photo by Ulla Hennig, taken in September 2011
I could not resist taking a photograph of the lovely liles I got for my birthday this year. They were beautiful to look at, but I knew that they would not last forever in the vase in my living room. Taking a photo of them somehow makes them live forever…
Pink flowers
Pink flowers on a day in August. Photo: Ulla Hennig
Pink in all shades is my favourite colour. I read on a website:
Put some pink in your life when you want:
- calm feelings
- to neutralize disorder
- relaxation
- acceptance, contentment
And then I knew once more: pink is my colour! Especially the one point “neutralize disorder” – it seems that I have to have more pink flowers in my flat…
Public transport Architecture
The entrance to the S-Bahn station Botanischer Garten. Photo: Ulla Hennig August 2011
This is the facade of the entrance to the commuter train station “Botanischer Garten” in Berlin. It is one example of the public transport architecture in Berlin, especially regarding the commuter train (S-Bahn). Many of the stations are under the ground, like subway stations, but some of them are above the ground, like the S-Bahn station “Botanischer Garten“.
The Berlin S-Bahn
S-Bahn Station Botanischer Garten. Photo: Ulla Hennig, August 2011
The S-Bahn is part of the Berlin public transport system. It connects the outskirts of Berlin with the center. Normally trains stop at the stations every 10 minutes. On some lines you have a train coming every three minutes.
Some of the stations are quite old. The S-Bahn came into existence in 1924, and in 1929 the electrification of the existing suburban lines was completed.
The S-Bahn Station Botanischer Garten (in English: botanical garden) is part of the line from the north of Berlin going straight down to the south. As you can see on the photo there is a lot of green on both sides of the line – taking the S-Bahn will show you how green Berlin really is!
Mute Swan
White swan. Photo: Ulla Hennig, 2011
I took this photograph early this year while visiting some friends who lived out of Berlin. The region around Berlin is beautiful – small dark lakes, little villages and old churches.
The swan had approached us hoping that we would feed him. It took some time till he realised that there was nothing dropping from above, and then he or she (I guess it is a “he”) turned around and slowly swam off.
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