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IN CLASS

Tumblr demonstration. We are super cool.

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Note on the hike: training for WHW, 15km with 7 kilo pack; from Holzweiler to Dernau along the Rotweinwanderweg (Red Wine Way) along the Ahr Valley, and through the woods to Mayschoß.

I saw: six butterflies, three salamanders, two spiders.

I saw: a few wild roses, hundreds of wild poppies growing between the grapevines, and countless unidentified flora.

I saw: an old monastery with the walls of its church still intact.

I saw: workers weeding the grapevines on the steepest of hillsides.

I saw: with great relief, the tracks of the train that would take me down the Ahr River to the Rhine, and back home.

I also ate ice cream.

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Check backwards, I have new old posts.

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And one hundred years later, she posts again.

Note on the hike: 10 km through the Siebengebirge from Margarethenhöhe to Löwenburg, down to Milchhäuschen up the Drachenfels down into the town of Königswinter.

Spent most of the hike in wonderful conversation. Enjoyed the cool breeze and the sunshine.

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Note on the hike: Schweinheim.

A patriotic fungus.

A jealous tree.

A happy beetle.

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Note on the walk: Venusberg, Waldau

PIGGIES, PIGGIES, PLAYING IN THE SUNSHINE.

It's spring! For real! Teeny-weeny wild boarlets. The adults were not happy with each other. At one point they had a real fight - the one pig kept trying to steal away the other pig's piglets. They must have been only a week or two old.

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Note on the hike: Godesberg to Godesburg

Burgfriedhof Godesberg - monument "Mutter Erde" (Mother Earth) for the families Dernen and Wittgenstein, created from sandstone by Adolf Simatschek in 1912.

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Note on the walk: Schweinheim

It's spring! The greens are fabulous.

Look at that meadow. If the green was any fresher it would be a baby's bottom!

Look at that bark! It looks like leaves of a book ready to peel off and be read.

Look at those flowers! They're here! They're queer! They ain't going nowhere.

Look at that armmy tree in the sunshine!

Look at that glowy tree in the sunshine!

I am happy.

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Note on the hike: Holzweiler to Ahrweiler.

It is like the woods are saying goodbye to winter with this symbol of Christmas, and hello to spring with this Easterlike bursting forth of new life from the dark tombs of seeds.

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Note on the walk: Rodderberg

Super fit horses.

Butterflies.

Blossoms.

Blossoms.

Blossoms.

Blossoms.

Blossoms.

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Note on the hike: Löwenburg

Construction on the ruins of Löwenburg.

A lonely chap on a wall overlooking the Rhine.

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Note on the hike: Maria Laach, hohe Waldrunde.

What I found in the woods today:

A hoofprint in the spring mud.

A tree I climbed.

A Picasso-tree.

Walnut and cherry trees, with views of the Laacher See behind them.

A piece of volcanic rock. It was light as a feather in my hand, and I was afraid I would crush it. It looked like a piece of the moon.

The monastery Maria Laach, glimpsed through the trees.

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Note on the hike: Margarethenhöhe zum Einkehrhaus, über Berg Rosenau richtung Petersberg.

What I found in the woods today:

Burg Rosenau, first mentioned in official documents in 1222. It was sold in 1243 to a cloister, and curiously the contract contained an unusual clause which allowed the cloister to destroy it. When a claim was made in 1250 by family members of the previous owners, the cloister destroyed the castle. The stones were most likely used to build another cloister elsewhere. In 1898, the land was owned by one Anselm Bachem, who built a hotel nearby. It was destroyed in WW2, but today a retreat centre stands in its place. The castle ruins consist of a rounded plateau on which walls of up to six metres high still stand. The stones are trachyte, a volcanic rock quite common in the region. In 1990 it was restored and declared a historic site.

An old signpost: Königswinter, arrow to the right. Margarethenhöhe, arrow to the left.

A big old quarry. They may have gotten the stones for the castle here, but I suspect it is newer than that. The hotel was probably built from this, though!

Riders along the road.

A snail's shell that someone hung on a branch. I marvel still at the mathematical beauty of it. Spira mirabilis! Logarithmic spirals.

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Note on the hike: Treppchen rauf; Venusberg

What I found in the woods today:

I just went in and sat on a log somewhere and breathed and was quiet. It was nice. On the way in I saw

A stump that looks like a mole.

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Note on the hike: Schweinheim

What I found in the woods today:

Tree and vine, entangled and grown together.

A fungus which looked like someone had thrown a white disc into a tree with enough force to have it stick there...

A feather... with actual fifty shades of grey! Seriously, I counted at least nine.

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Note on the hike: Venusbergrunde

What I found in the woods today:

A little robin.

Don't look for a robin in the winter, For that's a foolish thing. Don't look for a robin in the winter, For he won't be around 'til spring. But if you see a redbreast in the garden, And he begins to sing, Then you know without a doubt That the robin is about And it's spring, spring, SPRING!

A fluorescent green algae on the bottom of trees, close to the ground. I have seen this all winter on almost all trees, but this specimen was particularly bright!

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Note on the hike: Milchhäuschenweg

What I found in the woods today:

A tree stump octopus climbing its way out of a dusty ditch.

A pavilion hidden way up on a hill, with views of Drachenfels.