The sky is burning

After a nice day the sky is burning now. See my lonely oak again.

my favorite oak - the lonely oak

This European oak (English oak), Quercus robur
is within walking distance from my home.
On the way back from cross country skiing I
made these pictures today.
The lonely oak. 

my two favorite linden trees

We had the warmest December and January in historyso far. Now all of a sudden, 
within 24 hours we have winter and skiing is on again. On the way to the slopes
I pass by these two specimens. They look so very different, but they both are
linden trees of the same species: Tilia platiphyllos.

walk in the Munich zoo

This has nothing to do with bonsai, but it is still fun. 

for a walk in Dietramszell #3

Something much more positive:
the young donkey who knows nothing about all this. 

for a walk in Dietramszell #2

Thannkirchen is close to Dietramszell. Now this was first
 mentioned in the year of 882. This does not mean that it is
ONLY  1120 years old.
It is probably several thousand years old.
The Celts had villages all over the place here. And the locals are
descendants of the Celts.
Anyway, see the church which was founded in 1662.
And then the memento which makes me think how good we have it today:

"In the year 1945 on the fist of May the German retreat was almost over.
Part of the fleeing German army found this a place to settle. Eight tanks of the
enemy, well equipped fired at them. Thannkirchen did not exactly profit from this.
A heap of ashes and some walls were left over from this hut of the farmer. The farm 
of Ziotz who lived across from here also burned down to the ground. A stable and
the whole house of theWimbauer burnedcompletely.  The inhabitants have tried to
stop the fire while the tanks were still shooting. They hit the church four times, the
parishhouse had no roof and devastation was everywhere. 
It is hard to explain in short words. The Americans still shot into the village for an
hour and more. Thanks god nobody was wounded, they were in the shelter. And
they have rebuild this place because they did not want to go under"

Imagine: on the same evening the war was declared over in Bavaria and only four
days later the German Reich gave up officially.
This really hits me every time I read this memento. How come people do this. I don't
mean the American tanks, mind you. How times have changed. Thanks God.

for a walk in Dietramszell #1

Today we were for a long walk around Dietramszell. This is a village around a monastery about 25 miles south of Munich, Germany. The monastery was founded in 1102. See the church, which was later refubished to have a more baroque look.

1) Dietramszell monastery
2) Dietramszell the tower
3) a European oak, Quercus robur against the Alps

Kirchsee, a small lake south of Munich, Germany

The "Kirchsee" a small lake is situated 25 miles south of Munich, Germany, just in sight of the Alps. The baroque building is "Kloster Reutberg", a mostastery which was founded in 1677 .

winter impressions at the small lake

 This is within walking distance form my home.

walk along the Walchensee in Germany

The Walchensee is a natural lake in the south of Bavaria right in
the Alps. 

Achensee, the lake in the Tyrolean mountains

This is the lake of my youth, Achensee in Tyrol, Austria.