A pleasant variation! 😊🌾🌼

🌳🌾🍎🏡 Right in the heart of Germany lies a hidden dune landscape. It’s a striking and unexpected contrast to the typical surroundings of meadows, forests, fields, and traditional orchard grasslands.

🧭🦬🌬 The Schwanheim Dune is a remarkable natural monument in the western part of Frankfurt am Main. It was formed around 10,000 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age, when strong winds blew sand from the dried-out bed of the River Main and piled it into dunes. Such inland dunes, located far from any coastline, are rare – unlike the more common coastal dunes found in northern Germany.

🌲🪵🏰 Originally, the dune was covered by forest, but in the Middle Ages, large areas were cleared for farming and intensively logged for timber. As a result, the sandy soil was exposed to wind and erosion. Without protective vegetation, the sand began to drift and posed a threat to nearby settlements and farmland. To stabilize the area, pine trees were planted – many of which still shape parts of the landscape today.

🌾🦟🌿 Despite these changes, a portion of the open sandy terrain remained – providing habitat for rare, specialized plants and animals adapted to dry, nutrient-poor conditions. Today, the Schwanheim Dune is a protected natural area and a valuable ecological refuge.

🌼🌸🏵 Walking along the boardwalk, I came across beautiful wildflowers such as St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum), viper’s bugloss (Echium vulgare), and the evening-primrose (Oenothera biennis). Grey hair-grass (Corynephorus canescens) is also typical of this dry dune environment. While it is widespread in the many dune landscapes of northern Germany, the species is considered endangered in the state of Hesse.

🤗 For a more nuanced discussion, please feel free to use the comments section, private messages or the anonymous contact form on my website.

Who needs speed when you have irresistible charm? 🦥🌿✨️

🤗 For a more nuanced discussion, please feel free to use the comments section, private messages or the anonymous contact form on my website.

🌼 🦕 💕 🦖 🌸

Magnolias are among my favorite flowering plants. I suspect that's because as a child I was always so excited when I could admire the flowers from my dinosaur book in real life. Magnolias are sometimes called living fossils because they have been known since the Cretaceous period. I still remember the artist's impression from my book of the Triceratops surrounded by blooming magnolias.

A special feature of magnolias is that they specialize in pollination by beetles. Beetles are evolutionarily older than bees, and magnolias have retained very close to their primal characteristics.

I saw this star magnolia yesterday in Frankfurt. Not far away, a huge tulip magnolia was also in bloom. In Oberursel, the magnolias I saw are not yet in bloom, but are also about to open their blossoms.

🤗 For a more nuanced discussion, please feel free to use the comments section, private messages or the anonymous contact form on my website.

As you can see, I’ve successfully completed 2nd grade! ✨😊

I’m sharing my primary school report from 1994 because ADHD, which has been with me since childhood, wasn’t diagnosed until I was 20. The quieter, mixed type often goes unnoticed. Even back then, my dreamy nature was clear, as I sometimes drifted away in class, lost in my thoughts. However, when a subject sparked my curiosity - like natural sciences - it was easier for me to engage. These topics appealed more directly to my ADHD-affected reward system, allowing me to focus and work more effectively. Distractions still impact me, especially with motor skills, but I’ve learned ways to adapt. ADHD often leads to deep, lifelong interests - and, yes, sometimes we forget our homework.😅

"Frederic has successfully completed the 2nd grade. He has a good grasp of basic multiplication. Addition and subtraction within 100 are more challenging for him. With word problems, he usually only recognizes the necessary calculation operation with external help.

In German, he reads simple words and texts but still struggles with unfamiliar and longer words. He sometimes does not understand the content of more difficult texts. When copying, he usually makes only a few mistakes, whereas he has more problems with practiced dictations. His writing is still somewhat uneven, and he sometimes has difficulty keeping within the lines. Frederic has attended a German support course. In general studies, he is particularly interested in natural science topics and works well here.

He could be more proactive in physical education, as his performance is good. In music, he sometimes participates in elements of the lessons (singing, rhythm, movement games to music, listening to music). He paints and draws very well but is still quite clumsy with manual tasks.

Frederic is very dreamy and usually works only minimally. He often does not understand work instructions and cannot yet work independently. He completes written tasks carefully and with concentration but needs a lot of time to do so. Sometimes he forgets to do his homework."

🤗 For a more nuanced discussion, please feel free to use the comments section, private messages or the anonymous contact form on my website.

While the Egyptian goose (Alopochen aegyptiaca) is only known to most Europeans as an invasive species, it once had divine significance in its namesake homeland. Although its original distribution area extended across almost the entire African continent, it was particularly worshipped in ancient Egypt, especially around Thebes. There it was considered a deity, Gengen Wer, "the great cackler," whose loud cackle filled the primordial darkness and who laid the world egg in a mulberry tree in Heliopolis, from which light and the world then emerged. This deity was one of the various manifestations associated with the complex Egyptian pantheon, which included the fertility aspects of gods like Amun. People assumed that creation was a continuous cycle and that every human being hatched from an underworld goose egg.

🤗 For a more nuanced discussion, please feel free to use the comments section, private messages or the anonymous contact form on my website.

Drop it like it's hot 💩

A mirid bug (Deraeocoris ruber) defecates on a hemp leaf. In fact, insect excrement is about as warm as its surroundings.

🤗 For a more nuanced discussion, please feel free to use the comments section, private messages or the anonymous contact form on my website.

From a flower's perspective. Today, we are all flowers! 🌸🌻🌼🪻🏵🍀

🤗 For a more nuanced discussion, please feel free to use the comments section, private messages or the anonymous contact form on my website.

Beautiful shiny hoverfly!✨🐝

I suspect it is a Melanostoma species. Pretty sure a male.

The distance between the eyes of hoverflies is always narrower in males than in females.👀

Their larvae eat aphids and the adults feed on flower nectar and pollen.🌺🌼🌸

📊 Around 48,000 animal species have been identified in Germany, including over 33,000 insect species. Insects make up around 70 percent of all animal species in Germany.

🤗 For a more nuanced discussion, please feel free to use the comments section, private messages or the anonymous contact form on my website.

🌞🌞🌞

Pretty empty, even though it was a very hot and sunny Saturday. But you often have luck with this unheated outdoor pool because it's not as popular as others. A great place to meet other introverts seeking peace and quiet... and leave them alone. 😄

Enjoy sloth life! ✌️🙃

🌊🌊🌊

🤗 For a more nuanced discussion, please feel free to use the comments section, private messages or the anonymous contact form on my website.

To photograph a lizard, you have to think like a lizard, move like a lizard...

Here I sneaked up on a sand lizard (Lacerta agilis) 🦎🌞

He clearly wanted to be seen.💚 Males turn bright green during the spring mating season - from April to June - and brown again in the late summer.🤎

🤗 For a more nuanced discussion, please feel free to use the comments section, private messages or the anonymous contact form on my website.