The Way of the Serpent

It was a chaotic Saturday, I admit. Nothing really worked out. Except for the weather, so after eating late lunch we headed out.

"Okay, little tiger, but not so far. My knee hurts." Alarm bells in my mom's head, who's a physical therapist. But the walking first. I had cooked, so mom did the dishes and I went out to take pictures of the snow banks in the fading sun.

"Papa, can you pull me on the sledge?" It's her first time in winter snow, so it's a valid request. But my knee... It's a good thing that my mom is here. While they go and search for the sledge, I spot something magnificent - the sun setting behind a ridge of trees.

I hobble onto the field and take many pictures, with the intention to make a comparison post about different days of that tree ridge, and the snow ridges, and so on. The frozen and somewhat slippery earth is not benevolent to my knees, so I soon head back to meet up with the other two generations, and we walk on.

We pass the bio gas facility and arrive at Rixdorf, the close by manor that - among many agricultural activities - runs the bio gas facility. The puppies aren't available, their person needs to tend to the horses and has a meeting. The weather is still gorgeous.

"We could walk around the Schlangenweg," says mom. "On the sledge?" asks Lily. "If there's snow..." says mom. "Yes, please, let's do that!" exclaims Lily excitedly.

It is decided then. And yes, there is snow.

The Schlangenweg or "Snake Way" in Rixdorf is a beautiful short walking path circling around the manor that around 50 people in the world know about. I'm pretty sure that some of the 50 people living in Rixdorf don't quite know about it. Mom does, though, she's a passionate walker.

As many places in northern Germany that aren't fields, it's a forest with partially swampy soil.

I dragged behind as I was taking pictures, playing with the camera and the snow and the trees and was overall very joyful with this toy.

I had a question stuck in my mind, accompanying every perspective I took - how would they look in black and white? Trying to find structures I could imagine. I'll work on that edit another day.

You can see the reed grass in the back, covering a bigger part of the meadow.

The little forest almost never cleaned. There are some works going on it, but a lot of the dead wood is left for just that. Dead. Which of course enriches the local diversity.

Okay, squirrels are not very diverse, but they're plain awesome. So happy I got to see one, they're not very active in Winter. Can you even find it?

We saw some deer, too, but they were far away, almost just spots moving quickly. My digital zoom only got blur. But that's fine - the sun going down was the real protagonist.

The "Rixdorfer Teiche" are small-ish ponds, and again, a protected area, making space for abundant nature. How not to be happy?

There is a little irrigation channel turning into a creek called "Kossau". Theirs an equally little weird, too, so the following lowland isn't flooded all autumn and spring, and doesn't run too dry in summer.

There are some stairs down to the creek that flows by the main house and the manor and the following stables and other buildings. Probably for washing clothes back in the days, or some refreshing bathing.

Though the path is full of curves (nomen et omen!), there's one fairly straight patch - perfect for a solo sledge ride. How not to be happy?

Basically all the old buildings of the manor are under protection due to their ancient reed roofs. A good reason to forbid any fireworks in Rixdorf and Lebrade, the neigboring village where my mom lives.

It's so iconic that even the duck house and the the bus station have reed on their roofs.

The main mansion, for some reason, is not. Maybe it burned down once?

There was something to it. It still looks great, especially with the lights and the sun in the background.

I think one is allowed to walk around there. Not many people do, so it's never crowded. On a day like that, though we met 2 older couples strolling. Who would miss an atmosphere like this? We didn't. And it will be a cherished memory for quite a while, and maybe stay with Lily forever.

"Papa?"
"Yes, little tiger?"
"Does your knee still hurt?"
"Yes, quite a bit. But I'm wonderfully happy, so the pain is worth it."
"Do you remember how I fell over on the sledge?"
"Which time?"
"All the times. That was fun. It was all fun."
"Yes, my love. It was beautiful."

Thank you for reading! Please feel free to engage in any original way, including dropping links to your posts on similar topics. I'm happy to read (and curate) any quality content that is not created by LLM/AI.