March has winter bits and summer bits.
We spent a lot of time by the stream in the woods next to our new house. It's been great just to let the kids play and absorb the forest serenity and the details.
We hit a castle every weekend this month. This one was Ruine Forchtenberg, from the 1200s. Interestingly, this one had two claims to fame. The massive indoor underground keep was one of them, the biggest of its kind, finished in the 1600s. . The other was a local hero, Sophie Scholl, who grew up in this town and played in the castle as a child. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Scholl
Looking for fossils. In this part of the Schwabische alb it's always a possibility you'll find some.
Our second castle was Zavelstein. We've been before, but not with the kids. It was better than we remembered.
Some fellow hikers were laughing at Huey, but were not sure if they were laughing at the mullet or the Croix.
We discuss all the time about how we love the Black Forest but we also love the Schabisch Alb and really either of them will do and we're luck to be close to them.
We visited a series of caves down in the alb. The big one was closed due to bats and things hibernating in the winter. We knew things tend to hibernate in the winter but didn't know that the big caves were closed. No matter, there were plenty of small caves to have a look at.
Those cave eiszapfen were no doubt full of cave minerals. Very healthy.
Jeffrey found the tiniest snail.
We also decided to hike up to a castle on the same day we hiked up to caves. The kids were beat, but in fairly good spirits.
Burg Maisenburg overlooks a neat little valley.
These days we hit the bakery on the way out, because it's open and we can save time making or getting snacks for hikes earlier. So we might be hiking a bakery bag up the castle, and that's fine.
This is ruine Achalm, a little castle above the town of Reutlingen.
Since you're still here, here are some phone photos from this month of mostly the same subject matter.
Astrid got flowers from her dad. Very good.
We get home from the bakery and Oscar is waiting for us.
Putting together Jeffrey's standing art desk
