Audiostretto 59/4/24 English

I really enjoy spending time in a small park nearby. For me, it's a kind of mini urban oasis where there's space for nature, where no traffic is actually allowed, with a few exceptions, and where fortunately there aren't very many people. The other day I came across an elderly gentleman smoking his tobacco pipe. As the park allows you to walk in circles, i.e. do a kind of lap, I passed the spot wh...

Tunnel In the natural world, a tunnel is a place of transition. In the mountains, for example, from one valley to another or a path through solid natural material. In a figurative sense, a tunnel is often the image of a difficult time when life doesn't mean well for you, when you have to endure something difficult and you can't see the daylight, the sun. Nobody wants that. This is intensified in o...

Thermals Are you one of the brave ones who have ever flown with a paraglider? I've only heard that it must be a tremendous experience. I don't know if I would have the courage if I had the opportunity to try it out. But what I think I have understood is that you need to know the current thermal conditions in order to fly well. By that I mean where certain air masses are active and how active they...

Notes Are you one of those people who still take notes with pen and paper? When I was at school, this was the only and usual way to take notes when the teacher spoke and taught us the subject matter. Later in my professional life, we also had writing pads or notebooks to take notes when talking to customers or to discuss, record, sketch etc. what we had discussed. Today, if at all, this can be don...

Autumn is the time of harvest. Many fruits ripen during this time and the bright colours are once again a tremendous natural spectacle and firework of life before winter comes and with it a period of rest. Ripe fruit is super tasty. We look forward to them in most cases and we don't just have them in our fruit bowls as decoration. However, it often happens with ripe or overripe fruit that it can d...

We live in a culture, a time and a country in which we often seek not only the optimal and expedient, but the best possible. This also has its good points and speaks in favour of the quality standards we have on the one hand, but also of our possibilities on the other: that we have resources at our disposal that allow us to achieve the best possible results. However, as mentioned, this is not alwa...

Box You've probably already sent something by post, i.e. a parcel. Boxes are extremely practical. You can open them at the top, insert the items to be sent, pad them a little if necessary so that the goods are not thrown back and forth and they are easy to seal. The parcels are also convenient for transport organisation: they are easier to stack than bags or large padded sacks or envelopes. So eve...

Nutshell The Latin expression ‘in nuce’ - i.e. literally ‘in a nut’ - means: summarised, in essence, the core message. If you take this image and think about it further, you realise that the kernel of a nut is not so easily accessible. There is the hard shell that protects the kernel well and breaking it open without destroying or damaging the kernel is not so easy and requires - at least from us...

Well, talking about steps... There are some that are really comfortable to walk on and others that don't fit my stride length or height. Some of them are very shallow steps where I don't know whether I should take an intermediate step or a really big one. Others are so steep that I feel a fear of falling when descending these stairs. There are handrails to counteract this insecurity. In other word...

There was a TV series Baywatch from US with well-known actors. Whether this series is good or bad remains to be seen. But in most of the photos from this series, you can see lifeguards with a kind of red boye with which they rescue drowning people from the sea. I imagine that these buoys are light, filled with air and so stable that they can neither break nor be injured by sharp objects. Presumabl...

By definition, a pergola is a porch or extension and originally served as a sunshade in the transitional area between the house and terrace. This makes it possible to be outside and enjoy the warmth and fresh air without having to fear the strength of the sun. So two things can be combined: Protection from dangerous UV rays and being outdoors and breathing fresh air. Protection and freedom - not s...

When we went to the zoo as children, I had certain favourite animals. These included the elephants. They were so big and yet somehow they radiated a peaceful calm. Another factor was perhaps that they were fed with fruit and today we would say they were vegetarian. So no other animal had to lose its life because of them, as was the case with snakes, for example. At that time, I also noticed that t...

As children, we went with our parents to large strawberry fields when the strawberries were ripe and were allowed to pick strawberries ourselves. At home, we made delicious cakes and jam and the like from them. These ripe fruits were also very delicious to eat straight from the bush - which was allowed. They were incomparably better than the packaged fruit you get in the supermarket. Strawberries...

Pasta There are different types of pasta: spaghetti, spaghettoni, linguini, maccheroni, capellini, fettuccine, pappardelle, tagliatelle, bavete and many more. And this also includes farfalle. In our language, we call them Krawättli, or little ties. The name actually means butterflies. But we just call them Krawättli. The interesting thing about them is that they have nothing to do with a tie, big...

In the animal kingdom, there are animals that make themselves very small when in danger or go into rigor mortis in order to be virtually invisible or uninteresting to the attacker. Once the danger is over, they wake up again and return to life. This type of behaviour also occurs in humans from time to time, but usually doesn't really help. If we hide from danger or threats, especially if they...

In the Mediterranean region, opaque fences are sometimes found near the beach to mark boundaries or simply to prevent animals from entering or curious people from seeing things they shouldn't. These are closely spaced bamboo trees or similar plants that are so close together that there is no space between them. As the individual pieces of wood are relatively thin, such a fence can even be roll...

There are always moments of disappointment in life. The German term describes what happens: the release of a deception. That is one thing. The other is that such experiences are often linked to injuries. Especially when people disappoint us, it often hurts. If we are in physical pain, we or the doctor first try to alleviate the symptoms, the pain, and at the same time address the cause in order to...

As children, we had great fun making soap bubbles. We were proud when some of them lasted as long as possible and flew far. Today, certain artists make very large bubbles on the streets in the summer and delight children and adults alike. If such a bubble remains stationary, you can sometimes even see the surroundings reflected in it - and distorted accordingly, because the bubble has a curved sur...

The name Adam has a special meaning for Jews and Christians. It is not just any name, be it a first name or a surname. The name stands for the first human being who, according to the biblical account of creation, was created by God at the end of his creative work and the creation of the world. The name is derived from Hebrew, where Adamah means the earth. The name Adam thus expresses his origin: f...

A railway carriage is not really worth much on its own. I'm not talking about its material value, but its usefulness. It only comes into its own when it is combined with others and pulled or pushed by a locomotive. Then, however, it is very valuable and useful: it protects travellers, offers them space and comfort and can be built into train compositions. It is of little use in isolation becau...

China is a huge country with presumably very different regions, population groups, traditions and also languages or dialects. In our media, China is often not presented in a very positive light in a political context. This creates an image of the country, the people, the politicians etc. This is certainly not completely false, because our media do not spread obvious lies. But it is our view, shape...

I imagine having a fir branch in front of me. Advent, the run-up to Christmas, spontaneously comes to mind. Branches of fir laid out on a table with candles or on colourful, Advent napkins. Yet the German Christmas carol ‘O fir tree’ says that it is green all year round. So the fir branch doesn't necessarily have to remind me of this special time at the end of the year. And yet it does. Experi...

You know how it is: something is bothering you, worries, anger, insecurity, fears. Your whole mind is so absorbed that everything revolves around it. It seems as if there is nothing else and as if this thing determines your whole life. A vicious circle spins faster and faster and a gravitational force of negativity takes effect so that you are totally absorbed to the point of being paralysed and c...

In the biographical accounts of the life of Jesus and his friends, there are many stories that Jesus told to those who listened to him. The birds of the sky also appear in his stories from time to time. I wondered whether there are other birds that are not ‘of the sky’. In any case, they are an example for Jesus that they are created creatures that contribute nothing to their livelihood - and yet...

Can the flapping of a butterfly's wings in Brazil trigger a tornado in Texas? This question is known as the butterfly effect. It is about the unpredictability of the long-term impact of small effects. If you want to understand this logic or the supposedly reactive system behind it, it becomes complex and can be stressful if the conclusion is that everything I do has consequences. This can lead...