The Woods (and my 500th post!)

Yes, 500th! Phew!

Last Sunday I went to look for some wild garlic and to inspect this tree in the woods next to our garden – fortunately just far enough away from the house if it comes down…. We’ve watched (and heard) woodpeckers tapping away at it, and wonder what the cause of its demise was. The dreaded bark beetle (Borkenkäfer)?

In any case, I was drawn further into the woods when I saw all the vinca growing there – a blue-green carpet of loveliness!

With filtered sunlight it looks so at home – much prettier than the garden varieties I think.

Then I struggled through lots of dead wood and sprouting bushes to find these…

and these…

and these – my favourites!

Click on any picture below for a closer look.

Reclaiming Desert

I often watch TED talks and was recently fascinated by this one by Allan Savory, a biologist, ecologist and “holistic manager” of grasslands.

Reversing desertification – land turning to desert – has become his life mission after he made a terrible mistake in his early career as a biologist; while setting up national parks in Africa the land set aside began to deteriorate and it was blamed on elephants…

With a simple – oh SO simple – method, much desertification can be reversed with stunning speed. Climate CAN be changed – to the positive! If we can change microclimates on a large scale, we are changing macroclimate.

I found this talk informative, revealing and also very moving. So if you get a chance over the weekend, do take a look.

Allan Savory: How to green the desert and reverse climate change

Happy March!

Meteorogically speaking, spring begins today. Our weather reports have thus been summing up, and it’s official: this winter has been the dullest, greyest, gloomiest and cloudiest on record in Germany, with the least sunshine in 62 years! I am therefore extremely happy to see our weather forecast for the next few days is for up to 10 hours of sunshine…

The snow is melting slowly, but to remind me/you of what awaits in the very near future, here’s a photo from last March.

Hope it’s a sunny month for you all!

Candlemas

Candlemas (Lichtmess in German) is a day with many sayings attached to it. In Bavaria the farming year begins, the Christmas decorations come down, and forecasts for the coming season are made….

“If Candlemas Day is clear and bright, winter will have another bite. If Candlemas Day brings cloud and rain, winter is gone and will not come again.”

Ist’s an Lichtmess hell und rein,
wird ein langer Winter sein.
Wenn es aber stürmt und schneit,
ist der Frühling nicht mehr weit.

Groundhog Day, famous in Pennsylvania for forecasting the onset of spring, was taken across the Atlantic by German immigrants.

Groundhog Day (Wikimedia Commons)

The original animal was a badger, and the saying was:

Wenn an Lichtmess der Dachs seinen Schatten sieht, geht er noch einmal für sechs Wochen in seinen Bau.  

If the badger sees his shadow on Candlemas Day, he will return to his burrow for another six weeks.

(Apparently this is one of the most reliable weather proverbs!)

I somehow think Phil would not see his shadow here today… our snow melted within 24 hours on Wednesday, and since then we’ve had cloud, strong winds and rain. So hopefully “winter is gone and will not come again”!

What’s the weather like in your part of the world? If the sun is shining, beware – winter may yet return!

Book Review: Why Willows Weep

Why Willows Weep

edited by Tracy Chevalier

Why Willows Weep is a collection of nineteen short stories written by well-known contemporary British authors (an impressive list, as you can see on the cover above!). They are all fables, explaining some of the mysteries surrounding our trees. For example, why are crab apples sour, why are lime trees sticky, and why does the horse chestnut bear white candles?

All the trees are native to the UK, and for every book sold, the Woodland Trust (the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity) will plant five native trees.

The book is magical, with a few of the stories really standing out above the others. Yet all are enjoyable. Each story is only a few pages long, and they are all linked by their style – brief and poignant. The simplicity is a gift. There is some beautiful language in there!

Some of my favourites were most definitely “Why Willows Weep”, written by Sally Vickers, “How the Blackthorn Got Its Flowers” by Susan Elderkin, and “How the Oak Tree Came to Life” by Maggie O’Farrell.

If you love words and trees, this will appeal to you… A moving, peaceful and charming read for a rainy Sunday afternoon!