We try to go for a walk almost every evening and have started to explore our new surroundings in the past week or two. We used to do a little loop through the streets (“einmal um den Pudding”) when living in Bonn and Andernach, but the village we now live in is too small for that. Instead, we explore the country lanes and paths around the village. It’s always interesting, mostly thanks to two things: One, the landscape is very hilly, so you’re always able to see the next village over there, and isn’t that this other village we drove through before? Two, there’s a lot of wildlife around, and sometimes you’re lucky to see some of it.

On our walk last night we saw four deer – two pairs consisting of a mother and a fawn each. They were browsing near the forest in the evening sun, but fled when they saw us. We also saw lots of buzzards and maybe some falcons, too, but they were pretty common in the Eifel as well, so we’re used to seeing them.

The less romantic side of country life is that whenever you open a window or door just a crack, some of the lovely wildlife is eager to come into your house. So far, we’ve had lots of flies, spiders, a few wasps (there’s a nest under the roof), moths, daddy longlegs and grasshoppers – the latter live in our garden, there are literally dozens of them on each square metre of grass.

P.S.: A couple of days ago, a tiny bird flew into the teacher’s room at school through the open balcony door. I managed to catch it with a towel and brought it back outside. I didn’t know what kind of bird it was, so I looked it up later: It was a kinglet (Goldhähnchen), probably a goldcrest (Wintergoldhähnchen). Here are some more photos. Kinglets are the smallest native birds in Germany.