Merry Christmas and a hopeful 2018!

Again a year has passed and it's time to review 2017 and to slow down and enjoy the quality time with family. After a long search I found in 2017 'my little house in the forest' and I 'm privileged and feel blessed that I have a place to relax and where I'm completely connected with nature.

2017 was a year with worries about decisions of our world leaders, about the decline of insects like butterflies and bees, about the renewal of the licence to use the weedkiller Glyphosate in the EU for another five years, about my experience that too many people are too indifferent regarding nature/animal issues, about my encounters with very agressive people in traffic, about the growth of intensive animal farming. When I was little I learned that when I wanted something to change I must start with myself and so I did.....I stopped eating meat.

The amount of butterflies was dramatically low in 2017, in my garden during the summer season I counted only a few specimens and during my annual holiday in Germany I found ONE resting butterfly. Fortunately some other visits and trips to nature areas recovered the balance of my desire to find butterflies and I have some nice memories of 2017.
The visit to the Alcon Blue area was a special one as I was afraid to find none. In 2016 big parts of their habitat was drowned for weeks. Finding this species within a few seconds after entering the area gave me hope! Hope that the brink of extinction is not reached yet....hope that we can change it....hope that we can change more things to save our planet.....we only must start with ourselves!!!

Alcon Blue (Phengaris alcon) - Hope for the future

I wish you all Merry Christmas and the very best for 2018!
Merry Christmas - Prettige kerstdagen - Frohe Weihnachten - Joyeux Noël!!​