Welcome to the frosty Butjadingen!

Winter has finally arrived and a cold easterly wind brings freezing temperatures and allows the ditches to freeze over. The children have had their first sliding sessions on the ditch and if it keeps on freezing, we can finally skate on the Pütten at Tossens!
This is a welcome break from the long weeks of mild temperatures and too much rain, and even if the heating costs increase - better cold and sunny than these eternal cloudy skies!
There is only one downside: Farmers can once again drive their tractors out into the fields and everywhere you go there is a distinct country smell in the air! I ask myself every time, whether it is really necessary to apply the manure so thick that the pastures turn into black bogs of stench! With the next rainy day all the manure will be washed away and seep into the ground and from there on into the trenches. No wonder that many ditches now contain just a muddy brown broth and animal and plant varieties are dwindling or becoming extinct altogether. In my youth (I know I am showing my age here) you could still catch a lot of frogs, salamanders, beetles, dragonflies and a variety of wildflowers from the meadows made for a perfect Mother´s Day bouquet! But what do I know - I am not a farmer and and I am sure that the environmental agency has everything safe and under controll!

But enough with the criticism ... I prefer to get out onto the ice :-)

Have a clear frosty February,

Stephanie Lake


Skating on the Pond
   
Cold and frosty morning
But the sun is bright,
Flooding all the landscape
With its golden light.
    
Hear the sounds of laughter
Smiles on every face!
The boys are getting ready
To go and have a race.
     
There go Dean and Andrew,
Catlin takes a fall,
The ice is like a mirror,
And winner takes it all!
    
Eyes that beam with pleasure,
Cheeks all flushed and pink;
Watch the girls there twirling,
On our icy rink!
    
I shall try my skills now,
Ready! Clear the track!
Helpful hands reach forward
To help me off my back!
    
Wrapped in scarves andd mittens
Young and old are fond,
Of healthy winter frolics
on the frozen pond.

Stephanie Lake