Where I live in Texas, we have only two seasons: blazing hot and “I wonder if I should take a sweater.” The chance to watch four seasons unfold is a precious gift to me. A month ago, I wrote a post on the arrival of autumn: the flowers were still blooming, but a few trees had begun to change. Now we’re in the middle of deep autumn, and the year is really dying. So on an overcast day this weekend, Joe and I donned our jackets and grabbed our cameras and headed out to record it.
We went to Mehlinger Heide (Mehlinger Heath). Just fifteen minutes north of Kaiserslautern is the largest stretch of contiguous heath in southern Germany. Heather to the horizon: Emily Dickinson (quoted above) would have been in heaven! The preserve stretches for almost a thousand acres (400 hectares) and requires active management to keep it from turning back into forest.
Mehlinger Heide came about by accident. The military cleared the land of forest growth before World War II to practice tank maneuvers. The soil is as sandy as a beach, and heather took hold. By the beginning of the 21st century, the area had become an important habitat for plants, birds, and insects adapted to this unusual terrain.
Our landlord, Rainer Müller, worked with the U.S. military officials in Germany and the local, state, and federal government agencies to help found the Mehlinger Heide preserve. The United States contributed funds to help get Mehlinger Heide started. So Germans and Americans alike can be proud of the international cooperation that turned this former battle exercise ground into a place where some of the smallest, most fragile life-forms can find shelter and grow.
The heather appears brown right now from a distance, but up close, we could see bright red and pearly beige. No wonder heather inspired the creation of tweeds and plaids.
To get to Mehlinger Heide, take the A63 to the Sembach exit, turn in the direction of Mehlingen, and travel about four kilometers. Or travel up B40 from A6, Kaiserslautern exit, for about five kilometers.
To read my latest blog posts, please click on the “Green and Pleasant Land” logo at the top of this page. Photos taken in October, 2011, at Mehlinger Heide, Mehlingen, Germany. Text and photos copyright 2011 by Joseph Dunkle and Clare B. Dunkle.