meadow orchard in breckenheim.
the pfingstbornanlage ( pfingstborn park ) in breckenheim is a beautiful place to be in the spring, obviously because the fruit trees are in full bloom! apple, pear, mirabelles, cherries, haw- & blackthorn, plums & prune trees all show themselves in their best attire!
meadow orchards are a traditional form of pomiculture, they were constructed in a way to offer a large variety of fruit crops and create agriculturally & ecologically valuable habitats. these landscape forms are not very numerous anymore, in fact, the spreading of residential areas, and the constant building of infrastructure like streets, train tracks etc. is continiously endangering these beautiful meadows. add to that the ignorance of people who 'only buy fruit in the supermarket because the quality is better' ( suck my ass ) and you have another reason why these orchards are declining.
but not all is bad, in more recent years some people have rediscovered fruit orchards again and are trying to upkeep them and preserve them for the future. and i think that's really important, because the management of these helps nature and humans alike! not only can we humans come into the benefit of super delicious and way more aromatic fruit, but insects, birds and little animals are thriving equally in such a landscape! insects for example pollinate the trees, they live in the crevices and holes of the trunks and branches, which in turn attracts birds and critters who also feed on them and find homes in their crowns and tree caves, which also amasses the ecological diversity in this landscape. the grasslands below the standard size trees are also important to mention, as herbs and flowers that grow there are equally beneficial to the ecology of the place. in pastoral economy meadow orchards are also significant, cows and sheeps love the juicy meadows and aid and promote the biocenosis. so you see, there really should be more effort to keep this landscape alive everywhere!
for me, they're also just aesthetically pleasing landscapes, the trees provide shadow ( & super yummy fruit ) in the summer, produce gorgeous fall foliage in autumn and in winter their spindly silhouettes can be a great subject for any landscape photographer ;)
the pfingstborn park traditionally is also an asset in the culture of breckenheim, historically the citizens of breckenheim celebrated their pentecost festivals up there and even today many celebrations are held here. the pfingstborn well is situated close and was a popular water dispenser amongst kids and adults alike. i don't think the well impressed me much, otherwise i would've probably gotten a picture of it ( or i just simply haven't encountered it during my visit there ).
these meadows had such a juicy green tone and with the perfect blue sky and the white blossoms of the cherry trees and other white blooming ones, it created such a fresh image of a day in spring!
i simply couldn't get enough of these saturated sceneries 😍
i should've probably revisited by now to see and try the fruit-bearing cherry trees, but i got the distinct feeling i missed out on the season 😅. i mean, prunes are still to come and everything plummy, plus apples and pears, so all is not lost yet.
it's always hard for me to determine white blossom trees, but i feel 50 percent sure that these belong to a plum tree or a cherry tree 😂 i lean more towards plum, but really, i can't be sure unless i visit the pfingstborn and go looking for these trees again to see what fruit they bear!
i found a sheep sitting in the shadows of an old truck, kind of camouflaging itself!
view down the meadows into the direction of wiesbaden and mainz. i think the hills in the back might belong to the lennebergwald, but could also be part of the wiesbaden taunus, it's really hard to say!
it was a gorgeous view, though, that's the most important fact to know ;)
upon closer inspection though, i am fairly convinced it's the wiesbaden taunus 😜
after sitting down on a log for a while, enjoying the views, i decided to dive right into the adjacent woods. as it was so sunny and bright out, the light/shadow play was fantastic that day 😍
those mixed woods are part of the anterior taunus mountains, which are hilly, but not super mountainous in that sense. you have lots of deciduous forest here, i even discovered an old beech forest later, that felt absolutely majestic! oh, and aren't the fresh greens absolutely delightful?
a little sturdy and resilient dandelion 💛
this little guy made one hell of a concert! my photos don't really do him justice ( of course, he's one of the more audible sorts ;P )
it's a male eurasian blackcap ( we call them mönchsgrasmücke - which translates into monk's grass midge ;D ). their singing is very melodious, which was what drew me in initially and made me want to find the bird! it was hard to spot at first, since it's fairly grey and can therefore blend in well with its surroundings, but eventually i spotted it!
here's its birdsong!
i think it sounds a bit like flute, right?
on the grounds i happened to come across these tiny blossoms. it's a little herb called geranium robertianum, or more commonly used is the name herb-robert. it's said to possess some medicinal uses, but its potency is actually debated. in medieval times it was used in medicines to fight nosebleeds, diarrhea and improve liver and gallbladder issues. apparently it also seems to be great to fight off midges, as its smell seems to be quite a repellant! i haven't smelled anything weird, but then again, i didn't rub it between my fingers, which if you do that, will release an odour of burnt rubber tires! next time i come across these, i will try this out, so i can report back ;P
these cuties are my alltime favourite hawthorn blossoms! hawthorn is a really wonderful little bush that can be used widely for all kinds of things ( edibles, wood, medicine ). it's proven to actually have healing properties and is used in heart medicine! their little red sour-sweet berries are edible, too, but quite floury, which is why people rather leave them alone ( i guess they don't like to eat mealy stuff 😅 )! i would probably try to cook them for jams, though, and they would certainly be a great additive for vitamin rich juices and syrups!
there's all kinds of hiking paths in those little woods ( part of the dachskopf mountain ) near breckenheim and for a brief moment i followed this cloverleaf one! the whole thing is about 6 kilometer long, but i had to make the discovery that the path was very badly signposted and i eventually lost track of it. thank goodness other hiking routes are meandering through the forest as well, and i found my way back by following those.
i am not sure anymore, when i look at this image, if the white looking leaves are actually illuminated by sunlight, or if i actually photographed a white-blooming bush! it's hard to see, actually, almost like an illusion, right? and that's why i love this image so much, i call it 'ghost growth' :D
took a short break at this forest cabin! how gorgeous was this fresh green scenery? 😍
people randomly carved initials and names into the wooden window shutters of the cabin.
detected some lily of the valley bulbs! beware, sometimes people confuse this poisonous plant with wild garlic, the green leaves can look very similar to the edible herb. BUT there's three distinct little details you can look out for: the leaves of lily of the valley actually grow in pairs right out of one stem, unlike wild garlic, which grows its leaves in several single ones. another think i always test when i want to find out if its wild garlic or lily of the valley is the sound the leaf makes when you bend it! if it actually makes a loud snapping noise, you found yourself some wild garlic. it can be tricky to keep these two plants apart ( and there's even another look-alike, the meadow saffron, also poisonous ) in their early states, without their blossoms, so here's another hack that can help you find out what you just found: look at the undersides of the leaves! wild garlic is matted underneath, wherease lily of the valley has a shiny underside.
i still love the tiny little lilies, though! their bell blossoms, once out, are such a cute sight, and when they cover a big area, they just look utterly enchanting ( and they have a wonderful sweet odour! )
oh, and on a scale from 1 to 10, their toxicity is 10, though historically it was often used as a medicinal herb for heart issues, menstruational pain, dropsy & strokes! these days, you can only find tiny traces in medicine for heart-related issues, but the doctors still have to be very careful about the dosage they give to their patients.
when you encounter lily of the valley, you can sometimes get irritiations on skin and eyes if you even just touch the plant ( i think that also depends on how sensitive you are ). if you consume it, it can lead to nausea, diarrhea, feeling dizzy, having arrhythmia and breathlessness. basically, it will accelerate your pulse and heartbeat first, eventually slows down to almost a halt and then can lead to complete cardiac arrest. quite eerie, huh? why people of the old times thought that this is a good medicinal plant, i do not know 😂 or they were just totally awesome magic people who were able to measure and prepare it in a way that really helped sick people get better!
skeleton twigs!
found a huge ant hill, which almost devoured a tree.
teeming picture puzzle! can you make out the red wood ants? did you know that their nests can reach a height of about 3 meters when undisturbed? those ant hills are actually protected in germany, and you can be sued if you destroy one willfully so when you encounter them in the wild, you should keep a certain kind of distance to them and be very careful!
straight path ahead!
i loved the green edges of the path, there were all kinds of flowering plants shining bright and happy!
such as the greater stitchwort!
still not over the fact that these woods were absolutely gorgeous that day! ( even two years later 😂 )
blooming broom was lining the wood paths everywhere!
their jasmine-like odour is always super enchanting and i love their fairy blossoms!
i especially love their swirly stamen, which makes it look like a butterfly's suction spout!
gorgeous wood rush/beech tree forest! the area of the dachskopf is a protected landscape, and the forest called dachswald is connected to that as well. i remember that i read some information about these beech groves on my walk, but now on my researches on it later, i couldn't find any informations. i distinctly remember a sign telling me that this forest is a beech tree primeval forest, but how old exactly, i don't recollect. kind of unfortunate, too, that there's no information on this protected landscape and its specifics.
but even without knowing the exact ins and outs of why this is a protected landscape, it doesn't take away from the enjoyment of its beauty! look how green everything was 😍
a glance upwards to the crowns of the trees was equally satisfying!
i just loved how light-flooded everything was 💚
tiny sunny pathways were explored as well!
so. freaking. enchanting! 😍 like seriously, if this isn't a wood nymphs dream home, then i don't know what would be!
reaching the borders of the forest that would lead me out to open meadow land again. loved this little overgrown patch of forest ground - blue periwinkles were greeting friendly!
stepping out of the woods and seeing blooming trees = a continuation of my being overly delighted about spring ;D
my heart says these are apple blossoms, probably those of the crab apple.
pure white blossom perfection!
this could never be an eye-sore to me, always a feast to the eye 😍
i LOVE orchard meadows ❤
and finally, i also met some ponies :D
the east of wiesbaden is often overlooked when it comes to touristic endeavours, but if you take a moment and actually dive into this rural area, you'll be surprised by its beauty and the hidden gems it can offer! the 'ländchen' is everything else than boring! and especially in springtime it is GORGEOUS, with all the orchard meadows being abloom and the plants and trees on the green rise!
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