Veronika Wild

The Tree of Life - an old lime tree in Haiterbach The last few days were spent in a flurry of visiting and cake eating as I said fond farewells to many of my relatives. Once again, I will miss having so many people around to whom I have some kind of connection, although I was also missing my own little family back home. When I’m in Australia I miss these people and these landscapes. That’s one of the problems of belonging to two cultures – one you are born into and another one in which you grow up. I feel certain that sometime in the future, science will discover that far from children being resilient and easily transplantable, sudden translocation and migration leaves a lasting trauma, especially if done in difficult circumstances. I can tell you it's how you become a nomad, never quite at home in either. It does make you realise however, that culture is not a fixed and absolute thing and that other countries have found other ways to solve universal human problems. While it ...

  It was well and truly autumn when I got back from my latest trip. While I was recovering and with only a few days to go before my departure, we visited more relatives – both living and no longer with us, a gallery and at least one more castle. Despite all those cakes, big meals with lots of potatoes and spätzle, and all the chocolate we got at the Ritter Sport Chocolate Factory, I still managed to lose weight in Germany. I attribute this at least in part to the fact that that rarely a day went by without some kind of walk. Getting ready for a Warmer Future One of our early walks was to my cousin’s old “School’ that is, the Braike Campus of the University of Nürtingen und Gaislingen‘s School of Economy and the Environment , where students were experimenting with sustainable landscape design and climate change resilient plants. As part of their practical work for degrees in Landscape Architecture they had created a pleasant park with sections devoted to plants that thrive with ...

Please try to read these in English if you can. I can't speak for other languages, but I have just checked the German. Google translate is much better than it was, but some meaning will be lost. Curious how others find it. Alexandra Platz in the centre of town is where the buses stop. That's the Baden -Baden Casino on the left Although I had now passed through Baden -Baden a few times, I hadn’t really stopped to have a look at it as I was usually hurrying to catch another bus. The weather channel had predicted a change on my last day anyway, so I thought that would be a good time to have a look around and to visit one of the galleries I had wanted to see. No – one I knew had ever been to Baden -Baden, which I thought was rather odd, given that it was a well – known spa town and not too far away. When they said, “No, they hadn’t," they usually did so, with a slight sniff of disapproval. Do I detect a Calvinistic streak in this part of of the world which frowns on exce...