winter

Town under the snow

  • 03/01/2018

First snow; the winter is here

  • 09/12/2017

Snow makes whiteness where it falls,
The bushes look like popcorn balls.
The places where I always play,
Look like somewhere else today.

Author: Mary Louise Allen

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Black forest

  • 03/12/2017

The Black Forest stretches from the High Rhine in the south to the Kraichgau in the north. In the west it is bounded by the Upper Rhine Plain (which, from a natural region perspective, also includes the low chain of foothills); in the east it transitions to the Gäu, Baar and hill country west of the Klettgau. The Black Forest is the highest part of the South German Scarplands and much of it is densely wooded, a fragment of the Hercynian Forest of Antiquity. It lies upon rocks of the crystalline basement and Bunter Sandstone, and its natural boundary with the surrounding landscapes is formed by the emergence of muschelkalk, which is absent from the Black Forest bedrock.

Thanks to the fertility of the soil which is dependent on the underlying rock, this line is both a vegetation boundary as well as the border between the Altsiedelland (“old settlement land”) and the Black Forest, which was not permanently settled until the High Middle Ages. From north to south the Black Forest extends for over 160 km, attaining a width of up to 50 kilometres in the south, and up to 30 kilometres in the north. Tectonically the range forms a lifted fault block, which rises prominently in the west from the Upper Rhine Plain, whilst seen from the east it has the appearance of a heavily forested plateau.

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Black forest – Germany

  • 19/02/2017

Gnadenthal – Switzerland

  • 15/02/2017

Schluchsee in winter – Germany

  • 14/02/2017

The Schluchsee is a reservoir lake in the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, southeast of the Titisee in the Black Forest near Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany.

The Schluchsee, with its height of 930 metres (3,050 ft) above sea level, is the highest reservoir in Germany and also the largest lake in the Black Forest. By contrast the Hornberg Basin (Hornbergbecken), is 1,048 metres above sea level, but is the upper basin of a pumped storage hydropower station, rather than a reservoir.

The water of the reservoir is relatively cool even in summer because of its high elevation.

The best-known settlements around the Schluchsee are on its northern shores and include the eponymous town of Schluchsee and the hamlets of Seebrugg by the dam itself and Aha. The Three Lakes Railway, an extension of the Höllentalbahn, runs from Titisee station along the northern shore to the terminus at Seebrugg.

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Around Birrhard – Switzerland

  • 12/02/2017

Vallée du Dessoubre – Doubs – France

  • 11/02/2017

Du cirque de Consolation à Saint Hippolyte, cette vallée très encaissée sépare le plateau de Belleherbe du plateau de Maîche-Le Russey.

Depuis la Roche du Prêtre qui surplombe de 350 mètres la reculée de Consolation, le Dessoubre suit, sur 30 kilomètres de son parcours, une combe parallèle aux gorges du Doubs et, après bien des méandres, la rivière finit par aboutir dans le Doubs à Saint Hippolyte, petite ville médiévale.

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