Hi Liz,
but there's danger for this paradise .... !
We have a small stream through our garden - on the other side there's a very special german-type party: Building houses that no-one needs. On this side there was sooo much life ... now it's a dead-zone (it sounds cynic: Do Germans love dead-zones?)
Sometimes i think our house is like an enclave or ark ...
Here you can see my wife with our duck "Gustav" (nowadays this name bears a complete new, brutal meaning) - in former times wild-living, now living in our garden ... he has the choice to.
Behind the wooden wall our neighbors are living and do have a lot of fun creating barbwire zones to prevent intruding of "Gustav" in their area. They also love to poison these rare rats ... the real killing affects all other animals (martens, owls, falcons), most of them are unter protection (nature conservation).
Here in Germany people are used to rail against the american behaviour due to the nature and environment. Oh, it's sooo cool to do this - and doing everything vice versa!!! I often thought it would be best to abandon this country and leave it with its betonizing fetish ...
some sad greetings
Uwe
