along the fischbach.
on a much greyer day in january than in the last post and also a much snowier one, i headed out with the plan to walk through the forests between my village and limbach. since it had just snowed a lot, i figured it would be like a fairytale winter wonderland walk. little did i know, but should have known, judging by the grey, almost white skies, that i would walk through heavy snowfall and got quite cold after a while 😂
two streams go through strinz-trinitatis, the basbach and fischbach. for this walk i followed the fischbach for a while, before leaving it for the woods. it passes by some garden allotments.
some of the garden sheds were quite beautiful, looking like summer cabins. totally would love to hide there during summer!
icy fischbach. i loved how the flowing stream created a meandering pattern.
little sculptures revealed themselves in the snow, such as this owl.
there were other garden sheds, too - seemingly abandoned.
winter seems to lay bare the chaos in some gardens, when in summer everything is hidden by green foliage.
this bicycle always rests at this spot, functioning as the garden entrance gate 😅
the path also passes by some rock formations, which is something i love. all around the village you will find rocks protuding out of the ground, creating a landscape that feels wild and romantic!
fischbach view towards the conjunction of another llittle stream - the bornbach. the valley the bornbach is running through is called 'hühnergrund' ( chicken ground ). though it doesn't have anything to do with chicken! the word hühner in this case derivates from gravesites, namely the hünengräber of the region. a hünengrab is also called a 'giant's grave' - it's a grave from neolithic times. apparently, we have a few of them in the community of hünstetten ( where strinz-trinitatis is a part of ), though i think they are more mound graves than actual megalithic ones. maybe i'll find some on my future walks and hikes! since the hühnergrund is named after such a grave, there must be one in that part of the woods.
the heckenberg is another hill that my village is known for, as it's a protected landscape. you can see parts of it here in this picture on the right. it's protected because it's juniper heathland - something that was intentionally developed by us humans through grazing and pasturing over centuries and since that is very rare these days, the whole landscape is worth protecting.
there is a path that leads you out of the devil's cut onto a higher plateau that has some sweet views onto strinz-trinitatis. this plateau is part of a bigger rock formation called 'röderstein'.
zooming in on the church tower.
you probably heard of the term whiteout - it's a weather condition that happens mostly during snow storms that will reduce visibility and contrast and turn the sky and the ground into basically one white surface. it can lead to loss of orientation if you are subjected to it for a longer period of time. while i can tell you that i haven't been in a whiteout so far, sometimes surroundings can eerily remind you of the possibility. despite this looking like a whiteout, it was certainly not one, but rather a flat-light situation. nonetheless, it was really cool to witness and take some pictures in.
when you zoom out of the image you can clearly make out other points of orientation, like the woods on the right. this is the difference to a whiteout, you wouldn't see the woods at all if one happened.
at this point of my walk it started to snow more heavily. this shot is towards limbach, you can dimly see it in the back.
with the change of perspective it was more and more apparent that this was no whiteout.
passing by the vorderwald into the direction of the hühnerstraße. this street is a federal highway ( b417 ), though a small one that leads from wiesbaden to limburg. as with the hühnergrund, the hühnerstraße also got nothing to do with chickens, but again is a malapropism of the 'hünen', the 'giants', that lived here in the stone age.
limbach swallowed by snow clouds.
the clouds were almost like fog, too, which probably strenghtend the perception of being in something like a whiteout. this is looking back into the direction of strinz-trinitatis.
two lonesome trees.
she's got wings and feels like dancing 😁
approaching the hühnergrund again, which means, the path to home was not long anymore! this meadow is called klöppelwiese ( clapper meadow ). my guess is, that in old times they let sheep and cows graze around here that had bells on their neck and you could probably hear them from afar as the clapper of their bells were making them sing.
mossed up twigs and branches.
sculptural things in the deep woods. i was imagining these branches to be portals to a magic land.
in the hühnergrund. suddenly the mood got a little mysterious and kind of eerie as the snow clouds made it through the forest.
this little shelter is always perfect for taking a break before moving on to your destination. this one is close to my village and is situated on a junction that either will lead you to görsroth or to obberlibbach, depending where you choose to go. oh, and of course it leads you back to strinz-trinitatis as well.
back near the village i made it up to the heckenberg.
some locals keep their woodstacks up there.
views over to the fields of the klöseberg. behind this hill lies ketternschwalbach and panrod.
when on top of the heckenberg there's a fantastic view on strinz-trinitatis and its surrounding landscape. on good days you can see the mountains of the aartaunus ( which is a very enticing and fascinating part of the taunus mountain range ). in summer sheep and cows will graze over the heath meadows, returning the heckenberg to its traditions of keeping this protected landscape preserved for later generations. just a few months ago the fencing did not yet exist, it was put up at the end of october to keep wandering human feet off the fragile ecosystem of the heath meadows. i am excited to see if this will benefit the heath in any way and we'll be able to see it bloom in the late summer months!
little strinz-trinitatis in winter glory!
the timber-frame building next to the church is the parsonage, it also houses our local library, which is managed by the parish of the evangelical church. one day i'll post more about the buildings in this little village and will show them up close, many are ancient and protected as landmarks. the parsonage is part of the church ensemble on the kirchberg ( church hill ).
getting closer to the village core. from the heckenberg you can look down on the old core of strinz-trinitatis, which is where my appartment is situated. even though i don't live in one of them old timber-framed houses, i still am happy that i found the place i am living in, under a roof, with big windows and a pretty awesome view on the church hill. i also don't have to walk far until i am deep in the woods, which i am very appreciative of. it makes such a difference to quickly be in nature when your four walls are closing up on you or you had a stressful day at work ( which doesn't happen that much anymore - country life is much quieter even in the retail department, compared to city life ).
i love the tiny houses of the old village, maybe one day i will even be capable of living in one of them timber-framed beauties!
the house in front of the church is another remarkable building, a former school. the village had one of the first latin schools in the dominion of nassau-idstein. it was first mentioned in 1562. over the centuries it lost its latin focus and then was only used as a primary school.
in the very last minutes of my hike i came upon some goat friends, which i of course had to say hello to!
i can't believe this goat posed so perfectly for me 😍
despite the hike being very wet due to the snowfall and eventually also very cold, i would never say i regretted going out. every weather in my new home and surroundings is good weather, and i am willing to brave all them weather conditions!
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