A Walk in the Woods

Slowly, Summer is ending. It is not so hot anymore. The days are shorter. The trees are starting to loose their leaves. It does rain, but not continuously. 

So, what to do on a warm, dry Sunday afternoon? I went for a walk in the wood close to home. And moved  a little off the main path, following small trails. Maybe, they are actual hiking trails, maybe they are trodden paths by animals. I did not walk through the woods wild. And was very careful not to destroy the flora in the wood that already is suffering from the drought.

Let me show you some impressions of this walk:

Just a fancy tree trump with stones by the wide path.

This is where I left the normal path
and went down a steep slope.
Can you see the trail leading down??

The trail was there before the trees fell on it.
But it still seems to be used - by animals.

My "purpose" for going off-path was to check on a few big rocks I had seen from above. I found caves. If I were a rabbit - they sure would be nice for a hiding or resting place.

already filled with grass for sleeping =)

another hole in the ground close by

These two small caves were below these rock walls:

rock wall - one of many there

smaller wall 

And then let's walk along those rock walls. There is a rustle in the leaves. Ah, a rabbit just hopped up this tiny canyon:

It's just about a 3m climb - but not easy at all!

Smiling, not attempting to follow this rabbit, we follow the trails close the rock foot and hear water gurgling and splashing. There must a creek close by!! 

Found the creek, not much water, but lot of noise!

A small water fall a bit up the creek,
half a meter is enough.

Following the creek uphill to see were the spring is, the water stopped before we reach the edge of the ravine it flows in.

By now the walk has taken about an hour - time for a small rest before we leave the animal trails and go back to an official hiking path:

Take a rest and enjoy the wood, the birds, the wind in the trees. 

And then continue on the hiking path.

Until we reach the spring, the path leads to spring:

Very, very little water in this shallow spring. The drought is showing here.
The drought caused by very little snow and and rain in Winter and Spring time.

Walking back on the main paths now, The sound of running water suddenly is gone. The drought has made the small creek vanish in some places, to appear again a bit later. With some fish caught in the small ponds left. Hopefully it rains soon , so they can swim back to more water.

In very early Spring this small wood part
has been partially flooded - now it's all dry
and the stones in the creek overgrown.

A small pond with a fish, swimming
hectic up and dow

Fresh water coming out from under a  tree,
to flow into the creek.

Another dry part.

Finally another small bank to rest on and enjoy the scenery and atmosphere under the old pear tree before we walk back home. Passing a sole violet still flowering and some ferns. I hope, you enjoyed this walk with me. 

Let's take another short rest and go back the trails in memory.

A lonely Violet,
one last flower in the sparse sunlight on the ground.

Ferns grow in the shade of the big trees.

For more impressions of rocks and wood, and creek you can go to my album for that day: 

Walk in the Wood

Rocks, Stones and small Caves

In Spring and now I was hiking through the woods around here - looking at rocks.
I already had posted once about it: Awesome Tree and tiny Caves

So now I want to show you some more of those rocks and "caves" (small openings) from around here that are not so openly and typically seen from the marked hiking paths. Ones that are not being photographed at or all the time or are already made public.

These two caves above might look large - actually they are just about cat sized small holes below the rocks and close to the ground. Photos taken in middle of March - still some ice crystals in there.
There was a small opening to a narrow cave close by, called "Eishöhle", where the monks from the monastery got the ice for cooling the fresh brewed beer in the early 1200's. They kept that ice closer to the monastery though, in a place called "Katzenkeller", a half tunnel shaped cellar in the North side of the woods.
In recent times (about 50 years back) the village children crawled into the partly crashed cave and had small "parties" in there. Parents were scared it would collapse on top of them. So, the exact location of this cave was not passed on much.
When going there this year all of the entry to the cave was gone, completely crashed downhill. Only those icy cold small holes are left.

These two photos above, taken just a week later, are on the hill, facing South, above the village lower in the valley. Just an "Abri", an opening in a rock big enough to for humans to hide in from bad weather with wide opening and safe from wild animals.
This one is about 2m deep, only 60cm high at the opening - but about 4m wide overall. Today I have been there again and took a photo of the "Abri" right next to this big one - only 3m wide and about 50cm high, but also about 2m deep and a bit lower to the ground as well (makes it easier to photograph without using flashlight).

And then there was the hike two weeks ago into a complete different direction. More to the North and uphill.
Located deep between the fields and woods along the hiking path, but not close to it, I could see those rocks behind the trees:

But I had to rush on as the companions I was with had no interest in exploring the rocks further. "If you don't intend on climbing them (as in "free-climbing") then you have no need to go there." Ah well, maybe I go there another time alone or with someone that is interested in rocks.

There was also this interesting wall along the hiking path, from medieval times.

In the woods around here there are many lone rocks, walls from ancient times and newer ones from the start of making fields on this rocky ground. And some caves too - hard to find and small.
A bit further away, in the "Fränkische Schweiz" are some larger caves - open for public only when opened by a guide and paid for.

Surely, lots more to explore. =))

Awesome tree and tiny caves

These recent early spring days I took the chance of the splendid weather, and having a bit of free time, to walk around the woods around my home with my daughter.

We had a lot of fun walking together. And we took photos too.

Here some of them:

This is one of the first flowers to bloom; growing very, very close to the water. It belongs to the family of  Ranunculaceae. There even was a patch of them growing right in the middle of the little creek!

Along the path some of these stone piles could be seen. This one in particular was in a dip of the path (on the left side of the photo). During winter, this stone pile is the only way to know you are still on the right path and not walking cross country through the wood. And there are some places where going off the path could end you up at the edge of a steep ravine or at the top of a big block of rock with no way down. 

Stone piles like these can be found all over the world: in the European Alps, in barren areas with no good landmarks; even seen them in Australia.The origin and meaning varies from landmarks, piles that are used to store food and other important hings below them or some cultural and religious uses. The ones in the woods around here were done by passing persons for fun. Some have become path markers. But I think most are there just because people had seen and heard something vague about them and just add another stone to mark that they too had passed the pile. And, yes, I do remember that when I had seen such piles in the Alps during a vacation hike there many years ago I too added a stone to a pile while taking a pause to look around the awesome landscape there! ^^; 

We walked along this little creek right to the spring. Here an impression of the creek (taken in January BEFORE the snow and ice had come and passed away) as it is flowing over the rocks. It's a well visited tourist path; especially on weekends. Even now it still looked this way - no spring flowers there yet - only greener grass and moss.

When we finally reached the spring we looked at the place it came out of the rocks. Maybe there is a cave there? So hard to see in the dark and below the rock. So I used the flashlight of my camera to take a photo of what lies in the dark. 

Well, no cave there. Not one that a human could crawl into! But the water does find the way out right there.

The next day we went into the opposite direction.
All around there were also lots of rocks and "cliffs" with openings close to the ground. Again I used the flashlight to see beyond the area that was in daylight. But there was no water at all.

 

Well, there is nothing much there. Unless you are a mouse or a spider maybe.Or, if you're skinny and small you can use them as sleeping areas: about 1m * 1.5m * 0.5m of space.

On our way back home we passed an odd looking tree:

It had been cut at the top some long time ago. Then it regrew and had been cut again at the sides. But still this tree lives on - sprouting new limbs over and over again. Now this area is under nature protection. No more cutting of trees - unless they are so damaged (and hollow) that they would collapse onto the hiking paths for the tourists.

The "ancient" left over tree top is about my height; and we tried to climb up on it. To sit or lie on the strong horizontal limb to bath in the afternoon sun that was slowly being covered by hazy clouds again. (We didn't make it up as we kept slipping of the sides with our sneakers - barefooted we might have had a better chance. But we also didn't try very hard.)

And here a zoomed in view of the landscape across from the hill with clifff we were on today: 

I'm looking forward to the days when spring is fully here. 

With sunshine and warm air; and birds and insects all around; and green and flowers sprouting everywhere.

And I will take my camera along to make photos and share them with you. Nature is soooo beautiful, you just need to go out with open eyes and see and feel it.