Monday 9 November 2015

Autumnal Woodland, Part I

Two Sundays ago, we were once more out for a walk in the woods around Stuttgart. This time, we parked the car near the place we went to shown here, but took a different route through the woods.

The colours, the light, the air - it was all very beautiful:



This sign says that the oak tree next to it is "Wilhelm's Oak" - referring to the very same Wilhelm I told you about here and here.
The oak itself is an estimated 350 years old (not all that old for an oak, actually), and was King Wilhelm's spot of preference to lie in wait for any unsuspecting boar that would come his way when he was out here hunting.






We had a particular place in mind for this walk, and on our way there came past an enclosure for boar - nowadays, nobody hunts in these woods anymore, and the boar are there not for the questionable pleasure of shooting them, but to live in peace and be looked at by anyone who walks by and cares to stop and look at them.
You'll see them in all sizes in my next post :-)

16 comments:

  1. I love the color in these photos! What a beautiful forest!

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    1. It's good to walk there no matter the season, but this time of year it is particularly beautiful.

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  2. I echo Jennifer's remarks. Wild boars can be quite dangerous. I hope they didn't chase you out of their forest.

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    1. They did not. Instead they came right up to the fence where people could scratch their ears and stroke their backs.

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  3. I think we took this walk many years ago when we lived in Stuttgart.

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    1. It's a rather popular place for walks, and I wouldn't be surprised if you knew the area, too.

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  4. We had beautiful autumn colours like that through October as well. November has started off a lot more novemberish though, with more rain and strong winds... So not all that much colour left now!

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    1. Still nowhere near enough rain here, Monica. It's been an altogether way too dry year so far. Some trees have nearly shed all their leaves now, too, but there is still plenty of colour around.

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  5. Gorgeous colours. Ours are all going now, but it's been a beautiful autumn.

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    1. This was 2 weeks ago; there are less leaves on the trees now and more on the ground, too. But it is still the warmest November "ever", apparently, and way too dry here. Not that I'm complaining...!

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  6. You just can't beat being in the woods in the autumn. There is just something magical about the lights and sounds and smells. These woods are beautiful.

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  7. Very beautiful. Very satisfying to walk in the woods on a cool sunny autumn day.......Magic!

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    1. It was cooler two weeks ago than right now, Kristi - very strange weather, we're having the warmest November in 60 years or so!

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  8. It's a beautiful walk but the mention of boars rather worries me. The only time I have actually come up against a wild boar was in Berlin early one morning. Fortunately it decided to chase someone else and a bus actually stopped in the middle of a road crossing to rescue the person. That enabled me to go the other way and get 'home' before the boar came my way. Needless to say I'm not very partial to wild boar (except on a plate).

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    1. These were all safe behind a sturdy fence - or should I say we were all safe outside their fence. A friend of my sister's one time came across a wild boar while on a walk on her own in the woods in Tuscany. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her (which is pretty fast, I guess), and didn't come to any harm. I can run fast, too, but I don't want to test my skill against a wild boar if I can help it!

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