maikääl-is-back

With summer comes work, and when it's not raining, it's best to live under the stars. Fleeing from the rain, we headed south with the large metal mass. We turned west early into...

At the moment, I am living as Brother Michael, living the life of a monk. Besides temporary chastity, only Mother Nature allows me to be close to her. Since Annina left on the...

The mountains, like life itself, are neither kind nor cruel. The piles of stones and debris are evidence of constant change, of growth and decay. With my inner eye, I imagine...

The south wind blows and the wanderlust gnaws. It's no longer a worn-out backpack on your back and a few francs in your pockets like in your youth, but a proper travel vehicle....

In the past few weeks I have been very busy and my muse is in quarantine, so I couldn't think of a suitable topic for a blog entry. Therefore, this text is about the maturing of...

Global warming is taking a break and Frau Holle has been working tirelessly in the last few days. The snow has fallen in large quantities and has buried our Fiat Panda, making...

Don't even think about it - is the title of the book I recently finished. Mister George explains how we manage to ignore the greatest threat to humanity - climate change. It is...

Here, the aging professor tells his protege the story of his deceased wife, who used to fart in her sleep. He wonders why he misses such things about her the most. The...

It's November. The season with stones, dust, and high school students is over. The back hurts, patience is exhausted, and the lines on the calendar are empty. Some people are...

I distrust my brain. Apparently, it is a master at making things fit that are not. It shamelessly uses the imagination and invents stories like the Brothers Grimm did. Curtain...

I found a piece of culture hidden in the most beautiful autumn colors in Engadine. In the garden Il Parkin with artworks by Not Vital, the elves are still dancing among the...

The branches of the rowan tree in our garden bend under the weight of the red berries and the first snow. Winter has kissed the mountains early this year and the stories of our...

I ran up the rain-shining stairs and fragments of memories passed through my head like the fog that lay in the Schmiedgasse before me. In front of me appeared the pink school...

I don't write because I'm asked to by others - except by my mother-in-law of course - but because I ask myself to do so. I don't write to be understood, but to understand - to...

After a long celibacy of cultural abstinence, the two of us recently enjoyed a ballet performance. With their choreography of bodies, the dancers told a story that has been...

People love stories. I realized this once again when I told children a tale of bloodthirsty monsters, foaming bulls, and brave girls last week. Justice prevails in the end and...

I am the Oberhostatt's Heiris Klausen Michi. This is my tribe. My grandfather was Heiri, my father is Klaus, I am Michi and we all have shitted our pants on the Oberhostatt. I...

The relationship with my brother in our childhood can be compared to North and South Korea. Despite our blood relationship, there was war in the air, which was only averted by a...

Sometimes the time has come to stop. I'm not talking about eating chocolate or being embarrassed. For ten years, I have been meditating with stones and stacking them into dry...

There are days when everything is shit. After a perfect weekend with friends, I sit on Monday with muscle soreness in the VW van on my way to my dry-stone walls. I'm sure that...

Back in Switzerland, where I ended up during the Corona crisis. I remember reading somewhere that the Chinese character for "crisis" is composed of the characters "danger" and...

Another chapter in Canada comes to an end. Came to work at a nature school and obtain the Permanent Resident Visa and left without achieving either. Failed? One is already a...

My teaching career in Vancouver was short-lived, as the global media star and spoilsport also brought this school to its knees. Eight months were planned at the Soaring Eagle...

Everything in nature is subject to cycles. What means more nature than the rising and setting of the sun, the repeating of seasons, the growth and decay of all living things....

I call him the Two-tone bird (his repertoire is limited to two tones) and he announces the arrival of spring. The days are getting longer, the snowflakes are fewer, the sun...

Last weekend, I saddled my Grand Dodge Caravan and traveled south to the Ktunaxa Indians. Canadians no longer refer to them as Indians, but as First Nations. They were the first...

My wish for life consists of pure verbs.... Discover, explore, hide, find, get lost, be found, ask questions, find answers, give answers, listen to stories, make up stories,...

Eight years ago, I pedaled through Alaska and Canada's vast expanses on my bike. Famished and with the scent of weeks-long travel in my jersey, I met Donna and Pat in Paradise...

Physicist Stephen Hawking already knew that work can give meaning and direction to life. We spend most of our time working, so it would be a shame to do something we don't...

The deadliest thing in Canada is not a bloodthirsty bear or a rabid beaver. Enemy number one is the sneaky hamburger, and many Canadians succumb to the consequences caused by...