|
Nature
Switched On
|
|
introduction
Sunday 7:32 |
a S T A M M E R project 2007 January 27 & 28, Saturday & Sunday Now it was getting really cold. Sunday morning showed 5ºC below zero inside and 9ºC below zero outside the caravan! Eiderdowns had kept us sufficiently warm at night and we went early to bed. But after these long nights I couldn't wait to get up and watch the first sunrays on the mountains.
|
Sunday 8:15 |
The oaks of the wood at the south border of the terrain were now almost devoid of leaves. The tree is actually semi-deciduous and has expressive trunks which come out very nicely in mid-winter.
|
||
Some
Quercus faginea
trees. High
up is the nestbox for the European Scops Owl. |
Looking west. Below is the
south-terrace with still some frozen snow. Saturday 13:38 |
|
Near the south border. Saturday 13:43 |
||
|
The remainders of frozen snow indicate quite well the patches on different levels, in this case the area where the former owner had moved and levelled the soil. My idea is to use stones to build walls to retain the earth and consolidate the ramps as there are already clear signs of soil erosion by currents of rainwater. Besides, the stone walls create interesting ecological niches and fit of course extremely well in the Le Roy tradition..
|
|
Looking west. On the left, the highest terrace
of the terrain with at its end a nice example of a terrace wall. |
||
A winter champion, this Scabiosa columbaria. With almost 10ºC below zero in the morning it was still able to maintain its fresh green colour and even produce flower buds (which later on would putrefy).
Not green anymore but with promising buds of leaves and flowers was this beautiful Honeysuckle (Lonicera etrusca) below.
|
||
Looking north east in the western
part of the terrain. Small scabious (Scabiosa columbaria) in the foreground. Sunday 11:50 |
||
Looking north-east.
|
||
introduction |
|