Category Archives: Ears

Music, music, music, and … well, beanies?

Of Hedgehogs and Cucumbers

Another year gone by, somewhat low-carb on the sensual side this 2021, much like it’s predecessor, and similarily oblomovian. Landwehrkanal froze and was ice-skated upon, later inflatable boats were rowed on the same canal. Sahara sand flew over Berlin, breads were baked, drinks were mixed, books were read, movies were watched, technology failed. Cats came, cats died. Goodbye FLockerl, you were found dead on the cemetery that was your second home by an old lady – what an iconic way to go. You will be dearly remembered …

Flockerl you were a drooly cat. After you ate dry food – half was gone and half was wet. But you were a worthy successor to Ziggy, with whom you’re now cruising through the cemeteries of cat heaven.

Goodbye Flockerl !

Hedgy & Company are very much alive to the contrary .. growing fatter and bolder, and still preferring cat food over slugs! When there is enough food for everyone, there is peace. But cat food makes you very thristy, so quickly a drink of puro agave! 😉

Sharing is caring. When there is food for everyone, there is peace.

Eine sommerliche remote work + vacation Combo in Hoheneich (und Wien) brachte etwas Abwechslung, das gelegentliche Glaserl “Joiseph”, der Platane beim Wachsen zusehen, Holz einschlichten für den Winter und fast jeden Tag schwimmen im Teich! Du was ham si’ die Zwergerl g’freut jeden Tag beim Pumpen mit dem neuen Brunnen!

‘kochte Haaße. Aufschneid’n. Schoaf. Brot (Scheibn). Gurkerl. Zwa Pfefferoni, schoaf. Budweisa. Da muss bei einen einfachen Menschen einfach Freude aufkommen.

Im Garten in Berlin gab’s heuer frische Gurken, stachelig und schneckensicher wuchsen sie prächtig im und aus dem Hochbeet heraus und kletterten an allem was sich links und rechts zum Klettern anbot. Nächstes Jahr bekommt ihr eine Rankhilfe meine grünen Freunde!

Sorte: Dicke Bertha.

A sunny Friday off during late summer led Björn and me on a bike tour through Berlin in search of brutalist and modernist architecture (yes, we had two dedicated maps ;-)) and there was lots of coarse concrete to touch!

The Shell building (top) was one of our favourites, but among the most brutal ones are mainly churches.

Um brutalistische Betonbauten auszubalancieren hilft: der Britzer Garten! Im September gibt es dort ganz grandiose Dahlienbeete zu bestaunen, und auch die eine oder andere fluffy flower from outer space:

Dahlia, dahlia … and a VERY fluffy sunflower mutant!

A week on Elba in October gave some time to explore the Tao of Physics (highly recommended – probably the best read of 2021), sample local wines (Aleatico!) and enjoy views from various high spots.

Unicorn enjoyed the view from the citadel!

2021 also saw the 20 years anniversary of my master thesis, part of which was completed in Stockholm in 2001. Frequent visits to Stockholm have taken place since then, the latest one last November/December which is a very un-touristy season and very nice just because of that already.

Stockholm then and now. Top: view from Gamla Stan towards Stadshuset in April 2001, bottom: view from Nationalmuseet towards Gamla Stan, November 2021.

The Buddha is rotated, and many things are askew as we try to embrace the paradoxical nature of the universe and are waiting for the pandemic and capitalism to end (neither of which will of course), so we are only left with practicing our minimal-vogue moves.

This would be how the pros are doing it:

With this, I send you into 2022, practice your floor work and your duck-walk, and may the force be with you, as always!

Veronica, Hanami & Co

Jetzt ist er da.

Little forrest of moss, lilac, wisteria, peione, almond, Fukubana cherry, maple, magnolia, lily of the valley, akleia, chess flower, anemone with its friends gingko and the japanese larch.

“Nose” category for double smell: wisteria and lilac, “Ears” for all the birdies and “Hands” for all the planting and soil digging action!

Eternally Unfinished

Men speaks many different languages, the king said
Children speak only one: the mother language
Mothers don’t speak; they hear
For men don’t know what to say, but this is okay
For older people don’t hear nor do they speak
For having come before, they learned how to see
How to decay, while they observe” [1]

Sometimes we are above, sometimes below, but we are Eternally Unfinished, even if we knew ALL the languages, as I sometimes wish.
The second guided tour I had the pleasure to experience with Juan wasn’t any bit less intriguing than the first, which was this one:


I am therefor very happy that a centrepiece of that exhibit has found its way into my realm, where it can remind us of the most universal und powerful language of all: silence.
As Juan emphasized back then, the skull is a symbol of life, not of death. As we unearth it, layer by layer, we uncover and discover his-story, auf Deutsch: die Ge-schichte(n). Just as we ourselves are many-layered stacks of stories, some of them lost, some hidden, some fragile and fading, but some strong enough to provide us with a skeleton that supports us for some time.
Which stories will remain?


The skull (category: Brains) is a multi-layered symbol of life.

And those you fear neither Death nor Hell nor the Florence Foster Jenkins of Finnish Tango go back to www.petersch.at and make sure their browser doesn’t block audio autoplay. Qui vit sans folie … (category: Ears) 🙂

[1] from Juan Arata: “What makes us human? – A model of Migra Tion”, Booklet for Ruberoid Festival 25-26 Sep 2015, ACUD Kunsthaus, Berlin

Das Hörrohr

“Reading The Hearing Trumpet liberates us from the miserable reality of our days”, said Luis Buñuel. And not just during a pandemic I would like to add to that. In the end, “people under seventy and over seven are very unreliable if they are not cats”, and those are the majority. And: Leonora reveals the true origin of the Holy Grail, which after all we’re also searching for here, and which reminds me that the front tyre of my bike is in desperate need of pneuma. 🙂 Whoever does not acquire a copy of this book at their local book merchant of trust after this immediately, cannot be helped.

First published 1974 (though written in the early 60s) in French translation as “Le cornet acoustique”

Here she is:

A book for all senses, but clearly: category “ears”.