Every coin has it's flipside

A late troubled night and much too little sleep. Weather though this morning was friendly if cold at 0°C. Took off with the dogs to Ottobeuren and a walk in the Bannwald (forest/woods) above the basilica. Paths quite tricky in places with frozen melted snow, but we managed to do the full round without any falls.

On the way home stopped off at the Basilica and lit three candles (extra photo), two for my private reasons and one for all Blipers, anywhere in the world who have their own or family and friends suffering from health problems. I was raised catholic, mainly by Benedictine monks to whose order Ottobeuren belongs, but the jury has always been out,  deliberating. In the meantime I am grateful to those who have the belief to build such monuments all around the world and for all sorts of religions, but I am very sceptical of things like miracles. But I do believe there are miraculous like events and when the chips are down, I will plead to "God" for help, whatever this entity is and particular, as today is "Women's Day",  if it is a human form, whatever sex. I pleaded today.

It is possible to buy traditional candles to light but only "To Go". The ones to light in the Basilica are low-soot. Not surprising given the millions that have been invested in the Basilica in renovation over the last years. The Basilica belongs to the State of Bavaria as do most of the famous Bavarian castles on the Bavaria-in-a-day tours. It is quite a sight inside and no photo I shoot can do it justice. Fans of baroque would enjoy it, as well as the countless such buildings in Bavaria. To get some idea of scale, there are two people standing at the foot of the altar.

Talking of environment: Today a report has again demented the dreadful state of Lake Constance (an hour from here), the 2015 catch for the professional fisherman was the worst on record. The cause: the water is too clean, it's to all intents and purposes, drinking quality! Back in the 60s when all the sewage and slurry was entering untreated, the fish had plenty to eat. Now they are starving. The fishermen are pleading for the use of less effective phosphate filters on the sewage works. Added to this the winter has been too warm and somehow the cold and warm water exchange and thus oxygen, doesn't work as it should. However, yet again the clean water helps to compensate this. I suspect the 150 or so existing professional fishermen (and at least one woman) will become rarer. By the way: the fishing but also border regulations between Austria, Germany and Switzerland seem to work well  - the borderlines have never been formally drawn up.

And while we are on the environment: I mentioned 10 days ago, Angie having to get out of the forest fast as an injured wild boar was on the loose. Turned out there had been a "society" shooting beat towards Ottobeuren. Beats are very rare and society ones even more so. MrB and other local professional  hunters were not invited. The guests had managed to injure two animals and finally the next day one was found and killed. As is required a meat sample was sent for analysis and resulted in the carcass having to be expensively disposed of as it was well over the radiation limit. There is natural radiation everywhere, but we still suffer from the Chernobyl accident 30 years ago. I heard just last week that the French state of Burgundy has declared its truffles as now being safe to eat again. Here some will still not eat local wild mushrooms. Chernobyl is again coming in the spotlight on its anniversary and still they haven't managed to bury the ruins under a shield of concrete. I doubt the disposal of the radiation waste will ever happen and the whole area will remain a shrine to what can happen when we work with technology we can't control.

There is a link from nuclear technology back to the candles, but I won't expand. Tons of radioactive material is transported around the world daily in trains, planes, ships and trucks, luckily most in very small units, controllable and intended for useful purposes such as medical treatment of disease.