OUR TRIP OF TODAY

started while it rained, a soft rain really, but it became soon real rain. Our goal was to climb to the Charlottenstein, a strange rough stone building in the Rheinhardswald. It must have had in earlier times a view over the river and the forests, but the trees around it had grown higher and higher.
Charlottensteon was build by Alfred von der Stein, teacher at the gymnasium in Essen (Westfalen). One can read on the plaquette that he was born in 1892 and died in 1944, that he had build the tower from 1925 till 1940 during the holidays, and he had named it after his wife Charlotte.
Near the tower one can still see a 'Steinbruch' where the teacher probably had found his huge stones. The funny thing is that I earlier had presumed that he had build it with the help of his students on their holidays.
When we arrived at the spot it started to snow! And soon my feet were wet, as we walked a soaking path.
For the thirth day in a row I have taken pictures of a birch that had captivated my eye because I saw an image in it that reminded me so much of a painting by Klimt.
The last two days another picture had my preference, but today I show the birch.
Even more so while I don't want to look like stalking the house where the birch grows.

My haiku:

Birch changed into
A painting or a picture
Forever admired

And the proverb:

Birchen twigs break no ribs.

From the collection of J. Clarke, Paroemio Anglo-Latina, 1639.