Erlengrund
Together with a couple of new friends, we sit around the outdoor dining table, anticipating the dinner Bernhard has been preparing for us. In the distance, the sun sinks below the horizon. We are communing at the threshold when the moon takes over guard from the sun. All of a sudden, the screech of the barn owl travels right above us and straight through me, followed by a series of hoots from what I presume is a tawny owl.
Together they introduce the moon. Not just any moon, the supermoon, rising from the dark lake. Everyone and everything quietens. Silence in suspense. Our ears are attuned to the speech of beings, our eyes locked on this celestial body we so often miss out on between the high-rise blocks of the city.
A rowing boat sways lightly on the lake. Its water translucent, crystal clear, and an invitation to dive in. Lakebed to surface, connected by the long stalks of waterlilies. There are dozens of them, each reflecting sunlight in their own unique way, like a floor of shimmering mirrors.
The sun radiates in late summer's warmth. Her rays shine through the long branches of poplars that tower high above the moss-covered huts. The world is touch, I remember, as I glide my fingertips along the fine edges of reeds and the contours of blossoming flowers.
Meanwhile, two white cabbage butterflies flutter and chase one another, drawing me into fields that seem neither far nor near, neither fully dream nor entirely real.
Erlengrund is a place of repose and reclusion, of reconnection to self and cycles. To set foot on Erlengrund is to step into a portal that transports me deeper within and simultaneously farther outwards — into the Earth's ever-fluctuating body. I come here to trade Berlin’s bustling city life for the buzzing of bees and whispering reeds. To retrieve myself, yet paradoxically, only to get lost again in the process. Lost in a different experience of time, not dictated by the mind but by the flow of seasons and the circle of moon and sun.
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This tribe of ducks wanders the gardens and keep the garden free from plant-nibbling slugs.
Even though insect numbers have been starkly declining, Haus Erlengrund is a biotope with many species of butterflies flapping around, such as this beautiful peacock butterfly.
Bernhard Landen, the vision holder of Haus Erlengrund, explains to me how he transformed the abandoned house into a space for relaxation, togetherness, and creative pursuits. In 2024, he renovated the house with the help of a few friends, and installed wooden-frame windows that permit a view onto the lake.