Watercress/ Brøndkarse
Nasturtium officinale

- a brook almost overgrown in watercress.

Watercress is native from Europe to central Asia and one of the oldest known leaf vegetables. The plant is a member of the cabbage family, related to garden cress and mustard, known for their peppery flavour. It is not related to Tropaeolum, popularly known as "nasturtiums".
Watercress grows mainly in running water, with its long creeping, hollow stalks floating on the surface. The small flowers are white or green - and like many plants in this family the foliage of watercress becomes bitter when the plants begin producing flowers. If unharvested, watercress can grow to a height of 50-120 cm.

Watercress thrives in clean, running water, but can be cultivated in a garden or in a pot. The plant is immensely rich in minerals and vitamins and works fine in the kitchen. Watercress has more iron than spinach, more calcium than milk and three times as much vitamin E as lettuce. It's packed with vitamins A and C, and is low in calories. It is dealed fresh and the young shots are used before flowering. Its taste is spicy and piquante, it can be used raw or cooked in salads, soup, shellfish and as a green sprinkle; suits for Hamburg parsley, pork, champignons, chicken, grill, fish and dressing. The seeds kan germinate like common cress and the dry seeds can be crushed to a mustard. One of Britain's best known dishes, watercress soup, became very popular in the 17th century when it was claimed to cleanse the blood. Watercress was once popular as a tea, freshly made with lemon and sugar. It was drunk as a tonic to ease aches and pains.

NB: It is not advisable to gather watercress out in nature unless it is absolutely certain that no animals are upstreams, especially sheep. People can get a deadly serious infection from a liver parasite. (The parasite dies by cooking.)

The juice from watercress is used in bathing soaps, and the cooked plant in baths for soar muscles. It has a long-standing reputation as a hair-tonic, helping to promote the growth of thick hair when rubbed on the head. Watercress cooked in milk and added honey is used for a face lotion, which keeps the skin soft and brightens freckles. Victorians actually thought the plant could remove freckles, and they also used it as a cure for toothache and hiccups. Eating a bag of watercress is said to be a good cure for a hang-over.


Dollerup Bæk

When Hippocrates founded the first hospital on the island of Kos around 400 BC, he grew wild watercress in the natural springs and used it to treat blood disorders. As a medicinal plant watercress has been traditionally considered a diuretic, expectorant, purgative, stimulant, stomachic and tonic. It has also been used as a remedy against anemia, eczema, kidney and liver disorders, tuberculosis, boils, warts and tumors. It is commonly detoxicating and strengthening by long illness. According to Pliny the smoke of burning cress keeps away serpents.

According to the book "James Cook and the Conquest of Scurvy", Captain James Cook was able to circumnavigate the Globe three times, due in part, to his use of watercress in his sailors diets. Maybe he had read about the Persian king Xerxes who ordered his soldiers to eat watercress to keep them healthy during their long marches. It was also used by soldiers in general to both prevent and cure scurvy. Irish monks were said to survive for long periods eating only bread and watercress and referred to watercress as"pure food for sages". Lord Byron was quoted as saying that watercress "doth restore the bloom to the cheeks of a young maiden". He also called it the "Herb that while young is friendly to life."

Superstition:
Watercress belongs to the Moon. It is connected to the water's elementary creatures, the Undines. If it is worn in a red flannelbag it protects people who sail or flies over water. It gives insight in the nature of water. If watercress is eaten by day peoples' dreams will be more provident, mysterious and visionary. The plant increases empathy and understanding.

Anglo-Saxons swore by watercress potage to "spring clean" the blood. The British vegetarian writer Colin Spencer says that the Romans treated insanity with vinegar and watercress. Roman emperors ate it to help them make "bold decisions". Watercress is believed by many to be an aphrodisiac and in Crete, islanders swear by its powers and ancient recipes are handed down from one generation to the next. The Greeks had a saying that "Eating cress makes one witty". According to Cretan legend watercress grew in the springs of the Dikton Cave on Crete where the god Zeus is said to have eaten the plant to fortify himself against his murderous father Cronos.


"When I ask for a water cress sandwich, I do not mean a loaf with a field in the middle of it.”
Oscar Wilde



photo Dollerup Bæk, 25. July 2009: grethe bachmann

Dyer's Broom/ Farve-Visse
Genista tinctoria



Dyer's Broom is also named Dyer's Greenweed. It has pretty butter-yellow flowers and it grows all over Europe where it is found in heaths and fringes, along roads and the edges of woods and in light oak- and pine woods. All parts of the plant are poisonous.

The plant was always used for dyeing linen and wool, already the Romans knew these qualities. Dyer's broom provides a useful yellow dye which is fast, and it was grown commercially for this purpose in parts of Britain into the early 19th century. The woollen cloth mordanted with alum was dipped yellow with dyer's broom. In England linen and wool were dyed yellow with dyer's broom, then dipped into a vat of blue dye - woad or later indigo - to produce the once famous Kendal Green, which was superseded by the brighter Saxon Green in the 1770s. Kendal Green is a local common name for the plant. With an after care with iron-sulphate the dye becomes dark brown and with copper sulphate olivegreen.

In Welsh mythology Blodeuweed is the name of a woman made from the flowers of broom, meadowsweet and the oak by Math ab Mathonwy and Gwydion to be the wife of Llen Llaw Gyffes. Her story is part of the Mabinogi, the tale of Math, son of Mathonwy.

A traditional hymn from Sussex says:
Sweep the house with blossed broom in May
Sweep the head of the household away.
Despite this it was also common to include a decorated bundle of broom at weddings.

Ashes of broom were used to treat dropsy, while its strong smell was said to be able to tame wild horses and dogs.

In folk medicine dyer's broom was used for numerous diseases like many other herbs. Besides this it was used as a coffe-substitute and a culinary herb. The plant is poisonous so they might need a treatment after a cup of coffee or a spray of broom-spice on the dish!



photo Trehøje, Mols 11. July 2009: grethe bachmann

Cameroon/Cameroun Sheep at Strandkær
Naturhistorisk Museum/ Mols-Laboratory
Mols, East Jutland

Sheep have been domesticated by humans for thousands of years and used for both wool and meat. They are generally found wherever human populations have settled and are usually kept in breeding groups called flocks which consist of a few males and many females. They can, however, survive in the wild on grassland and rocky mountainsides.

The Cameroon/Cameroun Sheep is a dwarf species of domesticated sheep found in hot countries, most notably (and originally) Cameroon, but also south-west and central AfricaThey are similar to early breeds of sheep. Since this breed of sheep comes from Africa, its wool is suitable for the hot temperatures in Africa. Their colours are red/brown with patches of black or white. They do not have woolly coats, as they are adapted to hot weather, but in winter it develops an additional layer of wool. However, this can be compared with the coat of an Arabian horse and doesn’t really provide protection from the long, cold European winters. Even native animals with a winter fleece that has adapted to prevailing temperatures don’t always survive cold winters. They must have a dry shelter with no drafts in winter. Cameroon sheep graze all day on grass and any other vegetation they can find.

Information about the Mols-Laboratory: Strandkær

Cameroon/Cameroun is a Republique in central and western Africa. The name derives from the Portuguese sailors who rached the coast in 1472. They noted an abundance of prawns and rayfish in the Wouri River and named it Rio dos Camarões, Portuguese for "River of Prawns". Cameroon is home to over 200 different ethnic and linguistic groups. The country is well known for its native styles of music and for its successful national football team. English and French are the official languages.

photo Strandkær 11.July 2009: grethe bachmann

How to Thatch a House






This was really an interesting sight to see how a thatched roof is made. And when it's done its a work of art. On the second picture where the guy brings materials on a tractor some of the pretty finished roof is seen.

The latest decades many thatched roofs have disappeared in Denmark, corresponding to that one thatched roof is removed every day every year. But now there is a growing interest for thatched roofs. Newbuilt thatched houses emerge in the Danish landscape. More and more house owners remove the old roof plates and bring the country house back to its old glory with the roof it was born with. This happens in the 11. hour, since there are only a little more than 42.000 thatched houses left in Denmark.

The Living Roof is a tribute to the cultural inheritance it represents. It has a history of 5.000 years with proud traditions and many good stories about fascination and beauty, custom and renewal and the skilled craft.

The materials used for thatched roofs is Danish and Polish straw, lyme grass, heather , seaweed etc. There two principal forms ,the sewed roof and the tied roof, and there are several local variants of those two forms.

The materials used today are mostly reed, which grows in fresh- or brackish water ; formerly rye straw (long straw) was mainly used, in West Jutland and at Bornholm mixed with heather. West of Lillebælt the straw was sewed upon the laths, east of Lillebælt they were fastened by binding hazel sticks upon the straw. Upon Øerne (Ærø, Langeland Lolland- Falster-Møn etc.) the ridge was covered in oat straw, which was sewed or fastened with connected pieces of oakwood, kragtræer; in West Jutland heather and turf were often used as a ridge. A turf ridge and a ridge of eelgrass is known from Funen.

At the island Læsø are still some houses with eelgrass roofs. They are now listed.



photo Thy , North Jutland, 1. June 2009: grethe bachmann

Eurasian Hobby/Lærkefalk
Falco subbuteo



photo Portlandmose, Lille Vildmose 20. June 2009:
stig bachmann nielsen, Naturplan foto

The Eurasian hobby can without slowing down its speed catch a dragonfly in the air, bring the insect to its beak with the claw and eat it. Just look at a gallery with fantastic photos of the hobby. See especially nr. 7 on the first page by Mogens Hansen, where the falcon eats its "lunch" in the air. The hobby is able to catch both swallows and swifts on the wing, and barn swallows or house Martins have a characteristic "hobby" alarm call.

The hobby prefers open landscapes with small forests and wetlands. Its food are birds, insects and exceptionally bats. This pretty little flyer is the size of a kestrel, but has another plumage and flight. It is a well-proportioned falcon with long, pointed wings and a rather short tail. It has an elegant flight with fast strong strokes of the wings interrupted by a glide. The hobby does not hover like the kestrel. Adults are slate-grey above, and streaked lengthwise below, with a white throat. Close views enable the red "trousers" and vent to be seen. Sexes are similar, but juveniles are generally much browner.

The hobby is a true falcon. In falconry one of the characteristics of a true falcon is to prey on birds in the open air. They circle hundreds of feet into the air, waiting for the prey to be flushed out by beaters or dogs. In falconry in the Middle Ages only the larger female bird was properly called the falcon. The male, which is up to one third smaller than the female, was the tiercel. The long winged falcons were restricted to nobility.The hobby was considered the easiest falcon to train, it was mostly used for hunting larks.

The Eurasian Hobby is native to most of Europe and Asia and some localitites in Northwest Africa. In Europe it breeds mostly in lowlands, in general avoiding large areas without trees. In Denmark the species is especially connected to older, open forests with grazed meadows or wetlands or other open nearby biotops which are rich in insect-life.

In the 1800s the hobby was probably a common breeding bird in Denmark, but with the intensive agriculture the species declined. Environmental poisons contributed furthermore to this development. Around 1950 the breeding population were reduced to max. 20 pair. It seemed that the decline continued up to the Millenium with only 5 pair. 2005 was the best hobby-year since the start of *DOF's project Truede og Sjældne Ynglefugle (DATSY) in 1998 with at least 15 pair. In 2006 were at least 10 breeding pair in Denmark. Hobbies nest in old nests of crows and other birds, laying 2-4 eggs. Three hobby-pair have breeded in old crow-nests put up in pylons, all in Sønderjylland. The hobby overwinters in Africa.

Eurasian Hobby see : Observationer

A wonderful story about a young Eurasian hobby with a broken wing.
A hobby with a broken wing was saved. After 29 days on Aabenraa Veterinary Hospital the young hobby could be discharged. The rare falcon was found with a broken wing by a local ornitologist Jesper Tofft from Sønderjylland. The hobby was a young bird from one of the crow-nests in the pylons in Sønderjylland. Jesper Tofft keeps an open eye with the Eurasian Hobby in the above mentioned project *DATSY, and he brought the hobby to the veterinary hospital. Dyrenes Beskyttelse (Animal Protection) has a nursing station in connection to the hospital. Usually birds of prey and owls with a broken wing do not achieve a nursing place, since experience shows that hunting birds with broken wings seldom can be cured and become effective hunters in the wild again. But the veterinarian Torben Knage-Rasmussen made an exception. "The ornitologists argued for that we had to do everything in order to heal this young hobby, because the species are so rare in Denmark that each specimen is of importance to the population" And then the veterinarian said yes. There are probably only 15 hobby pair in Denmark at present.

Except the broken wing the hobby was in good condition and vigorous. It also had a good appetite. It had to be fed on the first day, but already on the next day it eat the food itself. (chickens). On the first days the falcon was in a box with straw, but it soon came to
a small volière, and three weeks later in a large volière where it trained the first flights. The falcon was calm and composed during the whole course, and the veterinarian describes it as an easy patient. He said that he had taken care of various birds of prey, but the hobby was very balanced with a calm temper. It wasn't confused although it was experiencing an unusual situation.

Fortunately it showed that the nursing was worth the try. After 29 days of nursing the young patient was ringed, before Jesper Tofft put the it out near the nest where it was born. The falcon was so fast and brisk that the ready photographer missed to sharpen the picture. It rushed out at high speed to live the life of a free bird again, and it was received by two hobbies from its own family only a few minutes later.

Source:
DOF (Dansk Ornitoligisk Forening)
Danmarks Fugle og Natur

* DATSY is a project for endangered and rare breeding birds in Denmark.

Orange Hawkweed/ Pomerans Høgeurt
Pilosella aurantiaca


Orange Hawkweed/Pomerans Høgeurt is native to most of Europe, though not to the southernmost and northernmost sections. It is found in some localities in Denmark . The species is completely dependent on not getting any shadow from competing plants. It is mostly spread from gardens , but in the listed and Ramsar-protected Verup Mose in Odsherred Statsskovdistrikt (Zealand) the Orange Hawkweed is found together with i.e. Common Hair-Grass (Bølget Bunke); Sedge (Grå Star); Goose-Grass (Gåse-Potentil); Hairy Woodrush (Håret Frytle) ; Sheep's Sorrel(Rødknæ) ; Wild Strawberry (Skovjordbær) and Wild Chervil (Vild Kørvel).

Wild About Denmark

photo 14 June 2009 , Gammel Rye, Mid Jutland: grethe bachmann

Lapland Cornel/Hønsebær
Cornus suecica



Lapland cornel/Hønsebær (Cornus suecica) is a wintergreen herbaceous perennial covering the earth like a carpet. It's blooming in May-July with small purple flowers surrounded by white petal-like bracts. The fruit is a red berry. The plant spreads vigorously in underground suckers.
Lapland cornel is spread cirkumpolar which means that it is found in the northern part of Norway across Lapland, the northern part of Russia and North Sibiria to Alaska, North Canada and Greenland - the whole way around the North Pole.

It is also found in special habitats in Denmark, here in a moor in Rold skov. It grows in moist, acid soil in community with cranberry (tranebær), dward-birch (dværgbirk), bog-bilberry (mosebølle), cloudberry (multebær), rhinantus (skjaller) and Hare's Tail cottongrass (Tue-kæruld).

Observation Denmark Hønsebær

27. June 2009 Rold Skov, North Jutland: grethe bachmann

Margrethediget


In Mid Jutland close to Hærvejen and Øster Nykirke is Margrethediget, a low bank with a ditch to the south. It was originally longer and has once blocked Hærvejen between the moors to the east and the hillsides to the west. Rests of weapons have been found in the fields by the dike and a small massive canon ball in the bank itself. The folk legend says that it was Erik Klipping's mother Margrethe Springhest ( Sambiria) who built it, but similar banks in Denmark are archaeologically dated to Iron Age in the centuries just before Christ.

Hærvejen (the road system also in Google Earth)

photo June 2009: grethe bachmann

The Elegant Red Kite


photo Bælum, North Jutland, 20. June 2009
stig bachmann nielsen, Naturplan foto


photo Skagen May 2008: grethe bachmann

The red kite is a beautiful bird of prey with its long forked tail, the long wings and the chestnut-red colour. It is about 25% larger than the buzzard. The red kite is a fantastic flyer, it often stops in mid air , then turns around and goes down to the ground to examine a possible prey. When it is marking its nest-territory it hovers like a dragon above the forest for hours, therefore its English name "kite".

The red kite has, contrary to its close relative the black kite, a limited geographical distribution. Almost the whole breeding area of the species is inside Europe. 80 % of the European population is concentrated in 3 countries, Germany, France and Spain. In all three countries the kite is declining. In Denmark the red kite breeds few in number, but it has prospered during the latest years and is now found in all parts of the country. Most pairs of the red kite breed in the eastern part of Jutland.
The red kite breeds in open landscapes with spread forests, mostly close to water streams, lakes and moors. It often takes over other large birds' nests i high trees like the nests of raven or buzzard. The nest is often decorated with paper pieces, coloured plastic, rope etc. The red kite is also few in numbers as a migrating bird in Denmark, although the number of migrating kites in East Denmark is growing in line with the growing population in southern Sweden. The Danish and south Swedish kites overwinter primarily in Spain and France. Winter-feeding in Sweden has caused that more south Swedish kites overwinter close to their breeding area, and the kite is also observed in Denmark in winter in growing numbers.

The red kite is especially known as an expert in finding and eating carrion. It has an important role as "Nature's garbage man". But it is also able to hunt and kill its prey. The young birds are fed with fresh-caught amphibians, reptiles, mice, rats, young hares, little birds, crows and seagulls. The kite takes the prey represented in large numbers at the breeding place.
About two hundred years ago the red kite was a common bird of prey in Denmark, but shooting and poisoning wiped out the population in the beginning of the 1900s. After a Danish helårsfredning (protection all year) in 1922 the species re-immigrated in the beginning of the 1970s from the growing Swedish and German populations and has since spread slowly. The south Swedish kite-population has grown from 20 pair in 1960 to more than 1.200 breeding pair at present. The red kite is still endangered in Europe caused by a direct persecution in the wintering places in Spain, but an international pressure has reduced the problem lately.


Red Kite: Observation and Photo-Gallery


Source:
DOF (Dansk Ornitologisk Forening)
Danmarks Fugle og Natur

Scorzonera hispanica
Scorzonera humilis


Scorzonera humilis/Lav Skorzoner

Scorzonera hispanica, black oyster plant or Viper's Grass or simply Scorzonera is a member of the sunflower family, cultivated as a root vegetable. It has heads of yellow flowers. It is native to Southern Europe and the Near East. It is generally thought to have spread to the rest of Europe from Spain. The name Scorzonera derives from the Old French word scorzon meaning snake. The Celtic and Germanic peoples are believed to have eaten the black salsify which was considered efficaceous against the bubonic plague and snake bites until the 16th century. The plant was being cultivated as a vegetable in Italy and France by 1660, and soon after, the Belgians were growing vast fields of it. The black salsify is considered very nutritious, and it is often eaten together with other vegetables and is popular in white sauce.

photo Torup, Mid Jutland 24. May 2009: grethe bachmann

Polygala vulgaris
Common Milkwort/Almindelig mælkeurt



Polygala vulgaris/ Common Milkwort is a species of the genus Polygala. It was called Freya's Hair in Scandinavia, but after Christianity came to it was renamed after Virgin Mary. All heathen names were obviously forbidden. Boring! Freya's Hair was a beautiful name.

Common milkwort is native to most of Europe, but to the south only in the mountains. It was used medicinally as an infusion to increase the flow of a nursing mother's milk. It is antibacterial and was used for many diseases fx bronchitis, good for the stomach, laxative, loss of appetite, tuberculosis and veterinary it promoted the flow of milk in cattle. Common milkwort grows on heaths, dunes and grasslands. It is rare, but frequent in patches on calcerous grassland.

photo Stigsholm Sø, Mid Jutland 24. May 2009: grethe bachmann

Volsted - a Fortelandsby
Mester Gothi in Volsted Church
Himmerland
North Jutland



Volsted is one of our oldest and best preserved fortelandsbyer (a forte is the common land of the village) with the characteristic village pond upon the forte, surrounded by houses and farms from where the fields stretch out starshaped like pieces of a layer cake. Many villages dared not in the renewal around 1790 give up the safety of the village and the social network and move the farms out into the landscape. Volsted is one of few villages still with the look of an old fortelandsby.

Kulturhistorie.

The small Volsted Church without tower is built in ab. 1150, and it has some spectacular carved stones by the famous Mester Gothi. A carved inscription says that "gothi fecit" = "gothi built" - and the name and figures are similar to the stones in Gjøl Church in Vendsyssel . This is a quite unique case to know the stone mason who probably also was the building master of two Danish village churches from the 1100s.


Volsted Church, the entrance (click to enlarge)

The entrance to the church consists of authentic Romanesque frame stones, which probably framed the original entrances of the church. Now they are placed around a later porch entrance.
Above the door is a stone with the favorite animal of the 1100s, the strong lion , possibly a symbol of the evil which can only be defeated by Christianity. To the left is the Fall of Man and above this an ashlar with a wild boar. To the right is a bishop, maybe the building master, and above him God's lamb. In the eastern wall of the porch are three ashlars with fertility symbols and animal motives.


photo 2 May 2009: grethe bachmann, Volsted, North Jutland

Take Care of Our Insects Please!


Bumblebee filled with lots of pollen (click to enlarge)

The scientists in Denmark keep an eye on the insect-population like they do in many other countries. Many Danish insect species disappear, including butterflies and bumble bees. Six species of the bumblebee in Denmark have disappeared during the last 50 years, according to senior-scientist Per Kryger at Århus University. Those six species account for a fourth of the bumblebee-species in Denmark, and they will never come back. He estimates that there is a similar decline among the other 230 bee-species , and several butterflies and mosquitos are dying out. Although the bees and mosquitos are known for their smarting and itching bites, they are necessary in order to pollinate trees and plants so they can give apples, tomatoes and other good things.

The scientists are of the opinion that the importance of insects in general is strongly underestimated. Too few insects mean large increasing costs on common fruit and vegetables. Internationally is reckoned that the economic value of the insect pollination is about 1.125 billion kroner (= ab. 8 billion dollars). In Denmark the insects increase the production with two billion kroner, estimates Per Kryger.

The agriculture is the big culprit when it is about the extermination of insects. Pesticides and field-exploitation destroy the places where the insects live and breed. Large parts of Denmark are put under the plough and herbicides wipe out the important insect-plants.
Source: metroXpress 23. April 2009

Other things have showed to be a danger. The scent of flowers is threatened by pollution. The pollution mixes with the flowerscent and drown out the scent-trace which bees and other pollinating insects use in order to find their way to the flowers. This according to an investigation from University of Virginia in Usa (from Magasine "FoodCulture") The weaker the trace gets the harder it will be for the insects to find the plants meaning that the insects gather less nourishment - and then there will be fewer insects in the future. Last but not least it can prevent flowers from propagate, which means that they die out.
Source: metroXpress 12. May 2009.

When we then add to all this that the Danish farmers now are allowed to cultivate more fallow fields which are important living and breeding places for the insects then it looks bad for the future of the insects.

Furthermore the farmers are now allowed to put more pigs in their stables, the same size of stables with more pigs! There are places in the countryside where there are far too many pig-farms in an area - and from where you have to take flight if you're so unlucky to arrive on a day when they're spreading out slurry. This could at least be minimized, but instead it's growing worse.
Source: from the TV-press and my own experience on several occasions.

photo Store Økssø 2. May 2009: grethe bachmann

Stubber Kloster, North Jutland
Benedictine Nuns in the Middle Ages

Stubber Klosterruin on the inlet at Stubbergård Sø

Upon an inlet in a small lake in North Jutland was built a nunnery for the Benedictine-order in the early Middle Ages. This was Stubber Kloster, mentioned for the first time in 1268 - but maybe already from 1150. In the Middle Ages the inlet was an island connected to the main land with a bridge. The building was a small four- winged plan from which is left a vaulted cellar, which was built in the 1400s together with a west wing. In the beginning of the 1800s a big part of Stubber Kloster burnt down and the last rests - except the west wing addition with the cellar - was demolished in 1870. The ruin has a beautiful situation at Stubbergård Sø . From Søgårde is a road to a Parking place. From here is a 2 km long nature trail down to the ruin on the east side of Stubbergård Sø.


In the Middle Ages the hills were forested, now they are grown with junipers

How was a nun's life in a Benedictine convent ? She took the monastic vow which meant that she promised to stay inside the walls of the convent, to live a life in poverty and chastity and to subject to the will of the prioress in unconditional obedience. In the convent all sisters were equal, they wore the same dress and shared the same conditions, they shared a dormitory with simple beds or had small sparsely furnished cells. They had dinner in a joint dining hall. Only the prioress had her own flat in one of the wings and was allowed to have guests at her table. If the private nuns had visitors, the conversation had to take place through a grated window.

The pious sisters had to spend their time praying, attending service and doing housework, under which they had to remain silent. Three times in 24 hours they gathered for a hymn of thanksgiving and prayers in the church. There were 2 daily masses, confessions every fourtnight and Communion at least once a month. The convent had its own priest. He might also be a prior who together with the prioress took care of the out-turned functions of the convent and administered the estates. The prioress could not herself attend meetings at the thing or do business on behalf of the convent. Later it was common practise to let a secular businessman function as a principal of the nunnery.


The nature trail goes between two small lakes to Stubber Kloster

Actually the nuns had to do all pursuits in the household, but the rough work was undoubtedly taken over by servants. The nuns came from the top of the social class, and they were probably not the least interested in cleaning and wash. Many nunneries in Europe were wellknown educational places, but there is no documentation for this in Denmark - the education was mostly of a religious kind in the convent. Many nuns worked as teachers for children, who were placed in the convent in order to be brought up. Much of the nuns' spare time went with fine needlework, magnificent embroidery with gold and silverthread with biblical scenes. And the Benedictine nuns still obeyed the rules of St. Benedict.

But as time went by the rules began to loosen. The prioress began to attend church-meetings, and the private nuns went in the streets of the town or in the country-roads, mostly in order to visit their families, but people were shocked. In 1447 the Danish king commanded that a building should be added to the convent in Aalborg in order to make the nuns remember their vows and shut them in to keep them from going out or have any other social convention than the one which the rule and the church allowed.


The nature trail

The vow about poverty was not kept in full either. The Danish Benedictine nuns were not without possessions. There are many examples that the nuns owned estates and gold, and they had both furs and silken clothes and jewelry. The record was held by a prioress in Easebourne in England who in the 1400s brought her convent almost on the verge of bankruptcy because of her luxurious social life - and she was instructed by the bishop to sell her furs in order to rectify the economy of the convent.

The ascetic life was relieved as time went by. Benedict's rule suggested that meat must not be eaten. This was changed into that meat of two-footed animals was allowed. But later the four-footed animals joined the queue; the findings of animal bones in Ringkloster's soil tells that the nuns had feasted on delicious pork. In a convent is a list of what food and clothes the prior in the end of the 1400s had to deliver to the nuns. Four barrels of beer every week, besides bread, barley, butter, herring, fish, pork, peas, beans, beef, porpoise-pork, onion, cheese, barley- and oat grain and salt and milk from 6 cows which were in the prior's stable, oil for the Lent, free cabbage-land and barley and oat for the geese.



As much as it was possible the nuns lived like other ladies of high rank; they had furs, linen in stead of rough underclothes, and they might wear jewelry. The life has been somewhat relieved, but in the middle of the 1400s a European reform movement demanded sinful nuns to follow the rules of Benedict, and some Johannes from Holstein was sent to the convents in Jutland. In Sebber and Gudum kloster he was received well by the nuns - and they were brought back to follow their original vows, but in the other Jutland convents they did not want to have anything to do with this Johannes - so they just sat still and said nothing and let the storm sweep out.

It was the aristocracy who made the convents rich, and it was the ladies of the aristocracy who lived in the convents. The old widows could achieve a safe and comfortable old age - but to the women wo came to the nunnery when children or quite young, the life in the convent could be terribly difficult and awful. The world outside was a closed land to them. An abbedisse Elisabeth in Bergen Convent at Rügen said that her brother had better marry her to the poorest knight of all than bury her alive in the nunnery in Bergen.


The ruin

At the reformation Stubber Kloster had an estate of 146 large and lesser farms and houses in 34 various parishes in Jutland. The convent owned several water-mills, seven forests, seven moors, seven green meadows, seven scores of ploughs - and they had the patronage-rights to seven churches. In 1538 were only 11 nuns left in Stubber Kloster.

Stubber Kloster

Stubbergård Sø

Source: Skalk 6, 1972; "Nonneliv - især i Jylland", Rikke og Olaf Olsen

photo 25 April 2009: grethe bachmann, Stubber Kloster, North Jutland

Those Lovely Cows


Look like twins...............


I want my portrait taken too!

photo 180409: grethe bachmann, Hærvejen v. Koutrupgård

High Flyers


Two Brimstone butterflies flying high up in the air, disappearing over the treetops......

photo 180409: grethe bachmann

Bat (Flagermus) on its Wings in Daylight
Sydflagermus/ Eptesicus serotinus


Bat , Vestermølle , at Rørbæk Sø

Bats are the only flying mammals. In Denmark's fauna are 17 species, and internationally are about 1000 species; every 4th mammal on earth is a bat. The Danish name flagermus comes from Old German Fledermaus, fleder meaning flagre (fluttering, flitting).

In the 1400s the bat was called: bakke, in 1603 aftenbakke, comes from Old Norse Blaka = flagre (fluttering, flitting).

Many of the Danish bat species overwinter in Daugbjerg and Mønsted's Kalkgruber (lime pits) in Mid Jutland. The lime pits are situated in Fjends Kommune (community) , which has a bat in its city seal.

Vestermølle, at Rørbæk sø

Magics, Omens, Fairy Tales.
Some connects bats with horror and thriller movies. It might especially be caused by the gory vampire-stories, amongst those the story about the infamous count Dracula. It is known since the early Middle Ages that there was much superstition around this little mysterious animal.

In the 1400s they said that bat-blood stopped the growth of hair.
A bat has only three drops of blood, they are under the left wing, if they are rubbed upon a girl without being noticed she will forever feel attached to the one who did it.
If the blood was rubbed upon the eyelid or in the eyes then this would make you psychic, you would be able to see what was invisible to other people, both day and night.
If you drink three drops of a bat's blood you'll become invisible.

A bat's heart or head worn in a black cloth under the right arm would make one sleepless until it was removed.
Wearing a dried bat made you a winner in cardplaying. You would be a winner in games when the magic word was written with a bat's blood and black ink upon your left arm.
If a bat's head hangs in a pigeon house, the doves cannot leave it.
If more bats than usual fly in the evening the weather will be fine the next day.
If a bat flies into the house it's a death warning to the family.

Those people who live at the moon have bats as milch cows and poppies as corn. All bats and poppies on earth came originally from the moon.

In a fairy tale a princess is held prisoner in a hill, where she finds a bat, she drinks its blood and achieves strength anough to dig herself out.

A princess is an accomplice of a troll in a mountain, she flies in the night over the city in a large white robe and with long black wings.

The hall of a troll is decorated with glow-worms and skye-blue bats. (H.C.Andersen's fairy-tale: Rejsekammeraten (The Travelling companion) translated by Jean Hersholt.


Vestermølle, at Rørbæk Sø, after a short flight in the early
afternoon the bat flew up under the roof eaves.

NB:
If people might find a bat upon the ground then this might be a sick animal or a big young one who hasn't yet found out how to fly. Exhausted bats who hasn't found food can reduce their metabolism and almost hibernate. The best solution is to get the bat up on a secured place, fx on a branch or in a shelter under the roof eaves. Some bats can be infected with rabies, which can be transferred to humans in a bite. So its important to wear gloves when handling a bat.

Rørbæk Sø

Source:
Folk og Fauna 3, Dansk etnozoologi, V.J. Brøndegaard, edit. 1986.
Naturguiden
Mønsted Kalkgruber

photo 18. April 2009: grethe bachmann

The Ertebølle Culture
Kitchen Midden/ Køkkenmødding


Ertebølle

Ertebølle Hoved is an ab. 500 m long and up to 20 m high coastal bank with layers of moler and ashes, and it is situated in a very beautiful nature area about 17-18 km southwest of Løgstør - close to the village Ertebølle. From the top of Ertebølle Hoved is an unique view across Limfjorden to Salling, Mors, Fur and Livø. Ertebølle Hoved is a very welknown fishing place; many sea trouts have been caught here. In the cliff is a big colony of sand martins. There are exciting geological formations with layers of volcanic ashes and moler and travelling rocks from Norway and Sweden and possibilites of finding fossils of plants and animals in the ashes and moler. Of the kitchen midden are only weak traces ab. 2 km to the south, but an exhibition gives an interesting introduction to the history.


A view to Vitskøl Kloster


Ertebølle on the coast, a view to Salling

Ertebølle gave name to Ertebøllekulturen, which is the international denominator of the coastal cultures in the early part of Jægerstenalderen. It is due to that the National Museum in the 1890s excavated a giant kitchen midden at Ertebølle, consisting of oyster- and scallop/ cockleshells which revealed that people lived at this place in the early part of Jægerstenalderen. The kitchen midden is from the period 5200-4200 b.c. and represents a southern Scandinavian Stone Age culture.Findings of bones etc. suggest that some of the large settlements were residences all the year round, while the lesser settlements were seasonal. In Denmark settlements from this cultural period are common on the islands and coasts of Limfjorden and along Jutland's east coast. But it was Ertebølle which gave the name to this era.

Kitchen middens may have a thickness of several meters and a stretching of several hundred meters. From the beginning they consisted of small shell heaps growing higher and higher. Among the shells were trash from housekeeping, animal bones, tools, etc. They did not live like poor people at the settlements. Their daily food was rich in nutrients. An informative finding was a clay-pot with the burnt crusts of fish. The fish were put unskinned into the pot. It was not possible to determine the plant parts, but the pot has probably contained a fish soup with herbs, it was somewhat like the Stone Ages people's bouillabaisse. Another clay-pot contained a porridge consisting of fermented blood and flour, made of seed and hazelnuts. These and other examples were an insight to a food culture, where cooking the food did secure that the nutrients in seed, fruit, roots and vegetables were exploited, and at the same time that it maintained the juice and the fat in a good soup.


Ertebølle Hoved

The hunting people who lived in the period after ab. 6.800 b.c. is named Kongemosejægerne after a settlement in the western part of Zealand. The hunting people from ab. 5400 bc is named Ertebøllejægerne after the famous kitchen midden Ertebølle south of Løgstør at Limfjorden. The various names do not refer to immigration, since there was a population continuity of the hunting tribes. The names are just archaeological names of the various tool-traditions, which succeeded one another during Jægerstenalderen - and which made it easier to confirm the archeaological findings.

The hunting people lived in settlements at the coast, generally all year round. Here was the richest flora and the richest food supply. Large areas of fx North Jutland, North Funen and North Zealand were flooded by water and divided in islands, numerous inlets and low-watered lands. The most important food was the food from the sea. Human bones were examined, showing that fish and sea mammals were the large part of the food in Jægerstenalderen. A seasonal movement of the settlements did undoubtedly take place. There seem to have existed some specialized settlements with season-hunting for seal and furred animals, fx in East Jutland at Ringkloster (Skanderborg), where the settlement was used during several centuries, mainly inhabited in winter season.


There are only weak traces of the kitchen midden

At the coast was brushwood of alder, willow, hazel and hawthorn; ivory and honeysuckle twisted around bushes and trees. Mistletoe was common. The animal life in the settlement was marked by an almost endless richness in variation. There were large amounts of fish, there were seals, dolphins, porpoises and killers in the salt waters and the inlets. Furthermore a large amount of birds, both resident and migrating birds. The hunting included aurochs, red deer, wild boar, elk and furring animals like otter and pine marten, in the sea they were hunting for fish, sea mammals and sea birds. The hunting in the hinterland gave a large bag of important raw materials and valuable meat. People at the coast might also have had a contact to inland settlements.

The climate was mild, subtropical. The mildness of the climate had also an influence on the conditions between the land and the sea. The ocean continued to rise, caused by the melting down of ice at the poles. (Since the ocean reached its maximum in the Atlantic period it has sunk ab. 3 m during the next 7000 years caused by a general fall in temperature). The rise of the water was not regular. Since the hunting people's settlements mostly were placed in connection to water, the water level was of great importance. The settlements were moved to keep pace with the coast advance or return. The population grew and grew, which increased the need for food; it weighed heavily on the resources, and in the end it became a necessity to find a permanent solution. And the agriculture came to ab. 4000 b.c.



The changed conditions between land and sea gave the archeologists great possibilities for studying the settlements at the coasts. They were mostly situated in small quiet inlet areas and inner low-lands. In the northern part of Denmark in North Jutland the kitchen middens are found in raised land. In the southern part of Denmark the kitchen middens are below water.


Mini-museum in front and a large Stenalder Center behind the trees.

A mini-museum close to the cliff describes about the kitchen midden and the geology of the area. A few hundred meters from here is the exhibition of the Stenaldercenter which describes the nature in and around Ertebølle ab. 6-7000 years ago and how people lived, furthermore are several archaeological findings etc. A reconstructed settlement gives examples of how the huts from that period might have looked, and the visitors can see how flint was made into axes and other tools, and they can participate in activities like archery and skin tanning etc.

Source:
Gyldendal og Politikens Danmarkshistorie 1988, Bind 1. "I begyndelsen", af Jørgen Jensen.
Bodil og Heino Døygaard: "Se dit Land Danmark". Skarv. Høst og Søn. 1996
Politikens store Danmarksbog, af Søren Olsen, 2003

photo 9. April 2009: grethe bachmann

Wool for Nesting




In some parks, here in Mindeparken, Århus , wool are placed in bushes in quiet areas. Although there were only two meters between us the bird still came gathering wool for its nest. It did not care at all that someone was watching it so close by.

photo 10. april 2009: gb, Rømerhaven, Mindeparken, Århus

Mysteries - 6) Gurre Castle Ruin

 The Wild Hunt


Gurre is an exciting place with a medieval atmosphere even in daylight, but on dark nights mysterious things happen at times . If you are at Gurre on a dark night you might hear the splash of oars in the water and the muted sound of voices, it's coming closer and closer, but no boat and no passengers are showing. Everything grows even more mysterious when you consider that there is no water surrounding Gurre. But what today is dry land was in the Middle Ages a lake, and the castle was situated upon a small islet out in the lake.

The invisible boat is a peaceful experience. It was heard by various people, lonely night wanderers, people walking their dogs, larger groups , once a group of 23 people. Usually the boat is heard in summer on quiet warm evenings, and the experience is neither scaring or spooky, just a little strange. People claim that another ghostly event feels quite dangerous after they had been witnessing the wild hunt of king Valdemar.



King Valdemar Atterdag was very fond of Gurre Castle. He used it as a hunting seat and stayed there as often as he could. He died at the castle in 1385, but did not rest quietly in his grave. He once said that if he could have Gurre then God could have Paradise to himself. God doomed Valdemar to be hunting in the forests around Gurre until Judgment Day.

It's not a funny experience to meet king Valdemar. He's accompanied by awesome hounds with shining eyes and fire from their jaws. This is pure folktale, but there are stories from people who claim they have seen or heard king Valdemar and his hunting dogs. Yet he's somewhat worn out during the latest years since it seems that he's no more seen but only heard!



In February 1982 king Valdemar and his hunting party was heard by two bird-watchers from Copenhagen who went to Gurre to look for owls. After a short search they found a very active tawny owl who didn't mind to be studied while sitting in a tree next to the road leading down to Gurre castle ruin. A few minutes later the owl grew silent. It straightened up looking directly down the road to the ruin. It was obvious that it had noticed something, and a few seconds later the two bird-watchers heard the baying of dogs and the distinct sound of galloping horses. The sound grew louder and louder, but no matter how intensely the two witnesses stared down the dark road they saw nothing.

Considering the late hour it was not very likely that people were out riding accompanied by dogs. At last the sound was so loud that it was "like standing close to a racecourse". After a minute the sound disappeared and the two witnesses hurried home. In the meantime the owl had disappeared, probably frightened by the sound, which existed not only in the imagination of the two bird-watchers. It's rather funny. Bird-watchers have played an important role in three cases here. But then they are out at times where others are sitting in their cosy homes enjoying a quiet night by the TV, maybe watching a horror-movie!


Sheep grassing peacefully at Gurre.

The story about Gurre and king Valdemar Atterdag is wellknown in Danish Literature, and the texts of I.P.Jacobsen have been interpreted in music by Arnold Schönberg in Gurre-Lieder

See also this: Gurre Slotsruin

Source:
"Det mystiske Danmark", en rejseguide til spøgelser, uhyrer og andre mærkværdigheder.
Lars Thomas, Aschehoug Dansk Forlag, 2005

photo 2008: grethe bachmann, Gurre, Zealand.