Iceland does not feel like changing scenery - it is like changing planet. Going for a week off road in Iceland’s South is a good thing to do, while on my construction site the house foundation went through the finish line. April is a little to late for a good chance to see Northern lights. But Iceland has a lot to offer: glaciers, volcanos, waterfalls, geysers and all you need to push a 4x4 to the limit …
Finally, I found an easy way to offset my carbon footprint: I bought a forest. This is a quite a simplification, compared to the accounting hassle you have with commercial carbon trading for every poo. And it also comes handy in the context of social distancing.
Watching the Covid-19 endgame in Germany now, some of my compatriots are quite a disgrace for humankind after the Enlightenment. Among others, we have a movement called "Querdenker", indicating that the direction of their thoughts is lateral to the mainstream. To me, it appears that their thinking has no direction at all. And also, the length of the thought vector is very small. It must be a tough job for a democratic government to be the intermediate between science and these "citizens." Mostly, it is holding up well, but there are also weird debates on loosening the contact limitations over Christmas etc. They must have found a way to negotiate a cease-fire with the virus during these days.
Luckily, I brought a few Covid-19 Antigen-Tests from Hong Kong. To my surprise, they are not available for general retail in Germany. In Wanchai you can pick them up at the cashout at Watsons, between the chewing gums and the condoms. Made in Korea.
Even my own life is relatively untouched by the restrictions, of course, I do miss a few things also: the museums, the library and even our Anne Sophie Mutter concert in Frankfurt Alte Oper has been cancelled. I hope this year does not damage the cultural landscape permanently. But I assume until mid next year, things will pick up again and we can assess the damage.
The first snow was falling a few days ago. Eddie is a spring dog and has never seen this. But of course, even he is not a sled dog; he knows Iditarod and the great race in Alaska where dogs and mushers raced to deliver serum to an isolated settlement with a diphtheria outbreak. I told him. I wish our American friends would have kept a bit of this spirit, instead of what we have to observe today. When people don’t work together, luckily, we can always count on our dogs.
I am not clear yet which model to apply for assessing the CO2 absorbtion capacity of these trees. I only found numbers for pines, but not oaks, which have the seasonality in dropping leaves in winter and other differences in parameters.
Eddie following ths call of the wild in Taunus.
The pictures below would not be anything special, if taken in Frankfurt during the time December to February. But now, getting off for my morning run on March 18th, this is quite a surprise. It should be spring-ish by now.
Bockenheim residential street
Our "parking space".
Highway underpass in Niddapark which is also used as a graffity gallery.
Niddapark, Frankfurt am Main
