Visiting old Mills in Lower Saxony

   Today, we visited friends in a small place at half an hour distance from Hamburg. After having tea, the host who is my husband's best friend took us to some romantic places close to his house.

A lovely mill pond, a 19th century mill -- a sad view because the owner won't renovate the mill. The village administration won't allow him to chop down the neigbouring forest, so he keeps the mill which is deteriorating. A sad case of power struggle.

 The creek at the foot of the mill




Our next aim was the heather landscape; the bloom of the heather is over, it looks rather pale.

A big juniper on the plain which is kept free by grazing sheep. If they weren't there, the landscape would very soon be covered by forests again.

 Pine roots in the sand

There was another mill in the next village, a well-kept one which is inhabited.

Behind it, a cobble-stone lane led to a surprising little chapel.
It was part of a rural courtyard with victorian buildings,  nowadays seemed to be an old people's pension.