I wish everyone a healthy and peaceful New Year 2024. I very much hope that we humans will once again recognize much more what unites us instead of what divides us. After all, I can still hope 💚🙏🍀

A green woodpecker visited our garden this week. This is a rather rare guest. We interpret this as a success of our natural, ecological garden. Unfortunately, our landlady prefers short lawns without weeds and a structured, tidy garden design. We regularly have to justify our gardening style.

Deutschland ist zum ersten Mal Weltmeister im Basketball 🏀🏆 Ich freue mich riesig für das Team, den Trainer, die Co-Trainer, die Fans und den Sport. Was für eine Sensation ❤️🎉🥳

www.deutschlandfunk.de/deutschla…

I have watched several 📺 TV shows and movies from different genres in the past year. I think the following have something in common, even though they are from different genres and deal with different stories. I have enjoyed them all. They are all about people coping with difficult life situations and trying to find their place in the world/universe. And many of them contain some sense of humor and give reason for hope.

Movies:

• Nomadeland
• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
• Green book
• The father

TV shows:

• Mandalorian
• Somebody Somewhere
• Alaska daily
• The Peripheral
• Wednesday
• Vigil
• Russian Doll
• Poker face
• Schitt’s Creek
• Little woman
• Extraordinary Attorney Woo
• Superstore

Jippie, I just customized a theme for the first time in my life : ) And I think it works. My last (and only) html course for beginners (titled “How to build your homepage with html”) at university was two decades ago. I customized the Scribe theme with the Conversation on Micro.blog plug in from @sod under each post. However, it looks a bit different, with a red icon rather than the marquee icon. But for now, I’m happy I was able to do it myself. The instructions from @sod and @manton here were very helpful.

We saw this double rainbow last Saturday when we were on the A2 on our way back from Lower Saxony to Saxony-Anhalt. I was sitting behind the wheel of the car. For more than 1 hour we drove in the twilight through heavy rain. I could hardly see anything because of rain and fog. At times it went forward only with 40km/h, where otherwise at least 130 km/h are permitted. I was rarely so concentrated and tense behind the wheel. But when we finally reached the end of the rain area, we were rewarded with this double rainbow. And we also made it home safely.

After every rain comes sunshine … and sometimes a double rainbow : )

We just spotted a wood lizard (Zootoca vivipara) in our backyard. How exciting to see such a small creature in our garden. We live near a small forest and have a stone wall partially surrounding our garden. This seems to be a suitable habitat for the lizard, which is very gratifying.

I came across this article and was really surprised at the amazing skills that some patients with Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) develop in the arts. It is a refreshing view that FTD patients not only carry the heavy burden of a terrible disease, but that there can be something positive amidst this nightmare.

Miller became fascinated by the idea that something as terrible as neurodegeneration could yield something positive. “In neurology, we’re so good at describing deficits,” he said. “For me, and I think for most people, it was a paradox. It was not something we were trained to think about.” As his curiosity grew, Miller encountered more FTD patients with visual artistic creativity. “I started to see people coming into my office who had carved ducks out of wood or who had welded beautiful insectlike creatures or who had started painting,” he said.

www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/…

Eine Rentnerin mit einer schweren neurodegenerativen Erkrankung und ihr Lebenspartner, der selbst unter Depressionen leidet und sie pflegt, sind in ihrem Kleingarten. Da spazieren Eltern mit ihrem Kind an dem Garten vorbei und steuern auf eine Sackgasse zu. Das sieht die Rentnerin, läuft aus ihrem Garten, um ihnen mitzuteilen, dass der Weg hier endet. Aufgrund ihrer Erkrankung, fällt es der Rentnerin sehr schwer, die richtigen Worte zu finden. Aber es gelingt irgendwie, ihr Lebenspartner kommt dazu und sie beginnen ein Gespräch. Die Eltern berichten, dass sie verheiratet und aus Syrien nach Deutschland gekommen sind. Hier leben sie schon länger und sprechen gut Deutsch. Die Rentnerin und ihr Lebensgefährte laden die Familie in ihren Garten ein. Die Eltern sehen dort Weinblätter und fragen, ob sie welche mitnehmen dürfen. Als Dankeschön für die Einladung und Freundlichkeit bedanken sich die Eltern ein paar Tage später mit einigen gefüllten Weinblättern und eingelegten Kartoffeln, liebevoll angerichtet.

Beide Familien leben im Bundesland Sachsen-Anhalt in Deutschland. Beide Familien haben einen niedrigen sozioökonomischen Status. Beide Familien befinden sich in unterschiedlichen, aber sehr schwierigen Lebenssituationen. Sie begegnen und sie sehen sich. Unabhängig von Herkunft und Gesundheitsstatus.

Ich hatte das Bedürfnis aufzuschreiben, dass ein solches soziale Miteinander auch im ehemaligen Osten Deutschlands passiert.

I haven’t traveled as much yet, but I have visited some European countries and have seen a lot of Germany already. I have not yet visited only one (Bremen) of three city-states (Bremen, Hamburg, Berlin) in Germany.

As for what counts: If I simply passed through in a car, it doesn’t count. If I was only there at an airport for a layover, it doesn’t count. Everything else counts.

Countries I have visited:

• England
• Scotland
• Denmark
• Netherlands
• Switzerland
• France
• Spain
• Poland
• Czech Republic
• Slovakia
• Austria
• Italy
• United States (Massachusetts, New Hampshire)

Islands I have visited:

• Madeira (Portugal)
• Teneriffa (Spain)
• Mallorca (Spain)

I’ve been to 15 out of 16 states and city-states in Germany: (I put the German pronunciation in brackets in case it differs from the English version).

• Hamburg
• Berlin
• Schleswig-Holstein
• Mecklenburg–West Pomerania (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern)
• Brandenburg
• Saxony-Anhalt (Sachsen-Anhalt - my homeland)
• Saxony (Sachsen)
• Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen)
• North Rhine-Westphalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen)
• Hesse (Hessen)
• Thuringia (Thüringen)
• Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz)
• Saarland
• Baden-Wuerttemberg (Baden-Württemberg)
• Bavaria (Bayern)

What holds me back from long-distance travel is mainly the need to board an airplane. I have a significant amount of respect for flying, and I avoid it if possible. I only use an airplane when absolutely necessary. When we flew to Madeira, the landing at the short runway was quite exciting. I was relieved when I had both feet back on the ground. I didn’t want to leave Madeira behind, but not only because of the flying. We simply found it very beautiful there.

I guess The X-Files is the TV show I’ve spent more of my life on than any other TV show. I liked it then and I still love the old episodes to this day. Nowadays it amazes me that I don’t (still) believe in the existence of extraterrestrials or secret conspiracies : ) 📺

I wanted to take a picture of a beautiful ladybird. Later at home I realized that the ladybird was chasing aphids.