Botanical garden and the Ginkgo tree

Mai Quynh on 10. February 2024

When I think about botanical gardens, the educational aspect is the first thing that comes to my mind. They are often attached to a university and when you enter a botanical garden, the plants are categorized according to a system. And you see these little rectangular metal plates everywhere, with the scientific name engraved in black. Sometimes there is even a trivial name that you can learn.

What I usually don't take home: Knowledge about plants. I told myself often: Today you're going to look at a plant, memorize it and its name! And if you do that a few times, you'll have expanded your repertoire of knowledge about plants by at least a little bit.

And so many times this was too much effort and I simply enjoyed the plants and how they were put together.

As I have learnt from the german Wikipedia entry "Botanischer Garten" (Botanical Garden) I did everything the correct way. It says (the following quote is translated by DeepL and me): "'Science and pleasure' was the motto of the botanical gardens at Kew near London (England), at the beginning of the history of the great botanical gardens in Europe and America." Thus, pleasure is at least as desirable as the scientific aspect.

Ginkgo?

Once I actually learnt something. I can't quite remember how it all happened in detail but here's my vague recollection: there were one or two ginkgo trees in a botanical garden. Next to the metal name plates was a poster promising more information. It was written: Ginkgo trees have two sexes - female or male. The botanical garden only had trees of one gender because the other gender had something smelly.

I did a quick research on the missing details so that neither you nor I end this text with dangerous half-knowledge. The Karlsruhe botanical garden explains in the section "Männliche und weibliche Ginkgos" (Male and female ginkgos): Female plants develop fruits in autumn which eventually fall off the tree. If you crush them then, they will stink of butyric acid. I therefore assume that the Dresden botanical garden, where I had read the poster, only had male plants.

However, the pictures of the ginkgos are not taken in the Dresden botanical garden, but - after having strawberry tartlet - in the botanical garden not far from the S-Bahn station Klein Flottbek in Hamburg.

Last but not least, two random things: Firstly - Goethe wrote a poem about the ginkgo called "Ginkgo biloba". And secondly - don't forget the g after the k in the word ginkgo.

Camera + lens: Minolta 9000 AF + Minolta AF 50mm f1.4
Film: KODAK 100T-MAX
Development + scan: Charlie Engel Lab 2.0

Summer vineyards | Between pixel and grain

Mai Quynh on 15. January 2024

"It must look megaaaa here in summer!"

That's what we said to ourselves as we stood on the banks of the Rhine in the town of Bingen, about 30 kilometres west of Mainz. There you have a wonderful view of the vineyards opposite. However, on a weekend in January this year, when we decided to explore the area, it was all very dreary. Dreary and icy cold.

On the other side of the Rhine, diagonally from Bingen, lies the town of Rüdesheim. It's probably best known for its instagrammable town corners. We were quite astonished when Rüdesheim was pretty much dead. Many shops are closed from January to March, Rüdesheim seems to have adapted to tourism. At least we had some gastronomic offeres. So we could sit down in a café.

Last summer, I went for a long walk with friends not far away from Bingen and Rüdesheim. That particular January weekend, we travelled past the station by train where we started and ended our long walk last year.

In anticipation of summer - but above all to warm up on my mind - I brought a view of the vineyards from exactly that day. I remember very warm temperatures and sweet white grape juice. I also remember a short nap on the bench. I can hardly wait for the warmer and longer days.

Camera + lens: Minolta Dynax 7000i, Minolta AF 50 mm
Film: Kodak Professional Portra 160
Development + scan: ON FILM LAB

December 2023

Mai Quynh on 10. January 2024

The last month of the year.

I had discussed with a friend: In the course of a conversation about a reflection tool for 2023/2024, we thought we wanted to reflect more in general so that we could see and appreciate what the passed time had given us. I realised that the monthly review on the blog which I am doing for almost a year had led me to this direction. To help me remembering many moments and days that would have disappeared too quickly into the recesses of my memory otherwise.

I only show a fraction of my life on the blog. For me, the final text here is only an excerpt and I think that’s a bit sad for myself. So after the discussion I recapitulated December 2023 for myself quite detailed. It was a lot and it was worth it! I was pretty happy afterwards. As a result, however, I’m now tired of creating a slimmed-down version for the blog.

So I don’t know what else remains for the blog right now?

Photo is not from December

Nevertheless, a few words

December was full of life: There were various parties I went to. Birthday parties, wedding parties, Christmas parties at work and at home. I met people, spent time together and enjoyed the time. It’s not necessary the case that the time spent together is also enjoyed.

I have learnt that after a workday, it feels different – better! – when I’m not fiddling around on my mobile phone first, like „from the work screen to the mobile phone screen“. Instead, I do something „practical“/“manual“/“haptic“ such as cooking, tidying up, looking after plants. The feeling afterwards was rewarding, saying „I’ve done something!“. It’s not that big of a secret. Apparently I needed to experience that nonetheless.

What else happened:

Keyword „sorting“:I have organised my negative films and prints into a system. Through further conversations with people close to me, I finally realised that „sorting“ is one of my hobbies.

A few months ago I bought a digital camera (full format)that is compatible with my existing lenses. During my week off at the end of December, I took it with me and tried it out. I’m a bit lost.

Fiddling with the blog I: I keep my blog bilingual and this is implemented quite „pragmatically“: there is a blog post, at the top is the German text, at the bottom the English text. Other blogs have implemented this in a more sophisticated way by clicking on a button and the whole website changes into the other language. I wanted to have that, too! In December, I finally took the time to look into this topic and tried out two plugins. One of them convinced me. Now I „just“ have to implement it. I estimated that this would take quite a bit of time, at least a weekend. That’s why I wanted to do it all at once, so that it would be finished, not drag on and the blog wouldn’t be in an intermediate state for a long time. But in the meantime, I think I’ll find it very difficult to find a block of time like that. So it’s possible that I’ll actually do this bit by bit and the blog will be in this kind of limbo for a while eventually.

Fiddling with the blog II: I’ve also been looking into the question of how I can create the option for a „quick reaction“ a.k.a. Like button. Here, too, I have found a potentially suitable plugin. But the implementation of this is pending until after the technical conversion of my blog to multilingualism is done.

During my week off at the end of the month, I also had a lot of time to work on a few texts for the blog and changed my system to create and keep an overview of what I actually want to post and how far I am in each case. I’m really happy about that.

2023 in a nutshell

I won’t do a separate annual review on the blog. But at least I can say a few lines about it here: It was a very nice year personally, with lots of lovely highs and I’m so so grateful for that. As far as the blog is concerned, I’m on a path that I really like at the moment and hope that it continues at least like this. Both in terms of my blog itself and how I move around in the blogosphere. Despite the many construction sites I do see. There have been a lot of great things!

With that in mind: wishing you a happy and prosperous new year – 2024!