❄️ It’s getting cold, and the first snowflakes are falling. Looking back, this year somehow feels like it lasted forever. It’s interesting, because I often feel the opposite—that time is racing. Yet now, it feels warm and soft, as if I’ve gained emotional distance from the events of a year ago. Even the memory of this summer feels like it belongs to a small eternity ago. So much has happened, and yet I’m often not even aware of it because life keeps pulling me forward.

It’s fascinating how time can feel both fleeting and expansive, depending on our perspective. In the midst of life’s events, time seems to rush by, leaving little room for reflection. But looking back, the emotional distance and layers of experience stretch and reshape time, making some moments feel like they belong to another lifetime.

Perhaps it’s this paradox—living forward but looking back—that defines our sense of time. Each season, each moment, becomes a layer: softening with distance but remaining an essential part of who we are. The warmth I feel now might come from the resilience and growth I’ve carried through this year. And as the snow falls, winter invites me to pause and honor what has passed, while quietly preparing for what’s to come.

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

Our grandparents visited me and my little brother in the children's home. Both loved animals and fed me lots of books and cakes. My grandmother was an artist and painted animal portraits with make-up on paper. She was a cousin of the German painter Rudolf Kortokraks. That's probably where my artistic streak came from. Both were politically active. My grandfather had a great sense of humor and was the son of the German founding father and humanist Dr. Werner Hilpert. Despite this, we grew up in simple living conditions. My brother and I lived in children's homes for about three years in total. My mother was homeless for 9 years. Life cannot be put into categories. The first children's home was privately financed and offered a little luxury (e.g. computer room, sauna, excursions, supplies), but we were always used as advertising figures (e.g. newspaper reports on company XY, which sponsors the children's home with a toy race track, etc.). The second children's home, where the photos were taken, was much simpler and was only able to afford modern equipment such as new furniture and computers - a few years after the fall of the Berlin Wall - thanks to a generous donation from the Lions Club. Instead, we often went out into nature together to pick mushrooms and berries and learned to haggle at every opportunity. Many of the residents of the children's home were mentally handicapped. Then I made friends and learned early on what the true qualities of being human are. It is being human.

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

View of the panel buildings on Karl-Friedrich-Schinkel-Straße in Plauen (Vogtland/Saxony) in 2000. I lived there for a while on weekends. The rear row of buildings and the building on the right have since been demolished.

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

In the Wolfsschlucht. A small waterfall and a cool stream. It was still summer. I actually wanted to post this three months ago because it belongs to the other posts. But my grandma died and other things. And because my girlfriend broke up with me today, I thought it would be a good time to complete it and remember this beautiful day again. Which was one of the most beautiful for me.

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

Into the woods 🌳✨

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

We had a wonderful hike in the Brohltal in the Eifel. 🥰

One of the many beautiful sights are the trass caves.

🌋 Trass, a volcanic tuff, was already mined there by the Romans. These are the deposits of a volcanic eruption that created Lake Laach around 13,000 years ago.

🏗️🏛️ Tuff is a soft rock that is primarily used as a building material on the outside of buildings or is mixed with cement.

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

🌻🦥

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

I always enjoy the beautiful Taunus 😊

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

Thursday evening after the first of two windstorms calmed down. The weather was really nice for a moment. Evening after evening the sunset approaches the Taunus Mountains. Its glow is already touching the Altkönig ("Old King"). Shortly after taking this photo, hailstones started penetrating the sensitive tip of my sloth nose. Can't await summer!

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

Aerial view of the city of Frankfurt am Main in 2004. The Taunus rests in its majesty and cuddles with clouds.

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