Construction site, Somerville, Massachusetts

Assembly Square continues to develop apace in Boston, with some sort of high-rise now emerging above the land that used to be parking lots and rather sketchy strip mall.  When I first moved to Somerville, the development plans for assembly square were a major point of contention in local politics, between established powers who wanted to make a quick buck with their developer friends and progressives agitating for more strategic development of a mixed commercial and residential area.  I hope this high-rise means the mixed-use developments have ultimately won, but I've lost touch with what's going on in the former home that embraced me for a decade of my life, across my true transition from childhood into adulthood.  I miss that city in many ways, and in others am quite content with my new life in Iowa.

Church in hamlet near Wadern, Germany

Walking on the trails around Schloss Dagstuhl, one can also end up stumbling into little hamlets, like this minuscule one with a tiny little old church sitting in the middle of half a dozen or so houses.

Hunting blind near Wadern, Germany

Every hunting blind that I have ever seen in the US is carefully concealed in woods and brush, tall reeds, or the like.  Around Schloss Dagstuhl in Germany, however, they stand full out in the middle of the fields, hoisted up on stilts where neither person nor animal can possible fail to notice it.

Countryside near Wadern, Germany

The countryside around Dagstuhl is all warm rolling hills in a patchwork of forest and farm and laced through with fine walking trails on which to start one's day.

Old bunker near Wadern, Germany

More modern castles of a sort are also embedded in the hillsides around Schloss Dagstuhl, though without any of the fanfare or educational signage.  If you peer through the window, you see nothing but an old and dusty concrete room with bits of debris strewn around.  I have a hunch that it probably dates from World War II, but given its location it might just as well be from any other time in the early to middle 20th century.

Berg Dagstuhl, Wadern, Germany

Schloss Dagstuhl is a remarkable and lovely meeting center for computer science workshops, embedded in the middle of nowhere in the German countryside not far from the French border.  Above it on the hillside stand the ruins of the ancient castle, Berg Dagstuhl.

Frost shadows, Iowa City

With the temperature just on the critical edge, the morning sun burns off the frost where it touches but not in shadows yet.  At the bottom and left of each shadow runs a narrow line where the rising sun has moved  to touch the frost but not quite yet melted it away.