White elephant

Had to get some animal food so drove over to Erkheim and took the opportunity to try out another new walk with the dogs.

Was not expecting anything special from the surroundings as it was quite close to the Munich-Lake Constance motorway and the Erkheim exit. Sad that the countryside has to "suffer", especially close to motorway exits, with the building of industrial estates but I can understand it and even have some sympathy with the advantages it brings.

If I was an employer looking to set up a new facility, I would probably go for a rural site. There are far more talented people living in the sticks than one would at first think. The people are probably more grateful of having a job and I'm sure the loyalty (given proper management of course) is generally higher. Apart from the wage cost factor, the employees themselves have available, cheaper housing costs and the potential for a higher quality of life, that is if you are in to the quiet life!

On the walk we passed a small house alongside a stream. There was a duck swimming in the stream with her 7 ducklings. Luna was very interested not ever having seen swimming chicks and mother duck warned us off with lots of very loud noises but didn't swim away. After a minute of this, a lady came from behind a fence to find out what was going on. The duck is hers and she is very protective having lost one duckling yesterday. Got in to a very interesting long talk. Lots of similarities as far as animals and personal circumstances. She and her husband are moving from the rented house this week to a new site. They have bought a wooden block house style house, erected it on a rented site and are looking for their "dream" site to eventually move the bloick house to!

Just a few hundred meters from the site of this Blip is also a P-Y-O strawberry field, so while the dogs took a rest, I quickly picked 2kg of strawberries and in the evening tried making a chocolate & strawberry cheesecake. Was a bit disappointed. Think I prefer a "sour"note to a cheesecake. However as a pud it wasn't bad. Will have to find another strawberry recipe for the rest tomorrow.