Palatine Wood Gnome

There are many that spread over a much larger territory; that host a wider range of peculiar plants or give shelter to much more interesting wildlife species.
But the Palatine Forest is the largest coherent wood in Germany and, most of all: It's my home.
Why "Wood Gnome"?
Well, I have been named thus because I turn into Rumpelstiltskin kind of regularly when "visitors" come over from the other side of the Rhine Plains (where they have lots of forest as well...) with their huge cars, jamming the streets of my village, drive up to a forester's lodge, have lunch there, return home after a final cup of coffee and then claim "Oh, we have been to the WOODS this weekend"

That's why.

Sunday 23 March 2008

Pinnacles, Wednesday

It was worth getting up this early. At first I was not at all pleased because the sky was covered in thick dark clouds and it was drizzling when I got up but miraculously when we came to the Pinnacles the clouds parted and though there were more coming from the sea right above us there was sun peeping through. The light was brilliant and we were the only ones there so could take our time walking around instead of using the car track, leaving it to get better shots; it was still fairly cool and ... no flies!
These rock formations are something special indeed.
We decided to return once more at sunset to compare light qualities and spend the rest of the day on the beach.
Which was a bit of a problem at first because I keep forgetting at what time the tide comes in and the beaches we had a look at the evening before were all more or less flooded or covered with sea grass and algae. Given that Harald is still a bit panicky about jelly fish and stingrays we didn't actually enter the water but were content to take a stroll along the beach, sun bathing, watching birds, before returning to the Pinnacles.
A hearty serving of Spaghetti and meatballs I prepared earlier in the afternoon ended a wonderful day.

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