Rustling leaves, a bird in the distance, some raindrops (I hope it was rain though), all lovely sounds ruined by random thoughts. Trying to forget world politics and their attempt to destroy it all.
Quite interesting how the English language uses both the Germanic and Romance root words autumn and fall. Whilst in Dutch and German we use fall only as a verb. For the season Germanic languages use ‘herfst’ or ‘herbst’, yes, it is related to the English ‘harvest’.
On my bike trip over to my hiking destination I heard the X-Files theme. That certainly triggered an extensive thought that kept me busy for most of my walk. Basically it made me wonder how many things were once misinterpreted as it was regarded from modern, Western POV. You certainly remember the cave wall paintings that might be construed as ufo’s. I was googling the pic but was dumbfounded by the sheer amount of fake images. What certain people now see as ufo’s, perhaps when fireworks were invented they thought the murals were fireworks too.
Anyways, what I meant to say is that humanity always wanted to understand their surroundings. Or better, explain in such a way they could grasp what is going on. No surprise first humans had nature religions and many deities. Then monotheism wrote a script and appropriated many of the pagan aspects.
Since we still do not understand the world, earth, climate etc fully yet, we still try to give it a reason. Have we progressed enough not to label force of nature as a punishment of an invisible man in the sky? We do seem to understand we have been causing most of the problems arising, most of us anyways. Some people, especially in high positions hear money talk louder than the force of nature. Oh certainly, earth has been going through many of these stages. I am not so much worried for earth itself, but humanity. Is there still humanity though?
Today’s walk would have been torture for cell reception ten years ago when roaming was still ‘a thing’ (and costly). The unidentified object on the pic above is a boundary marker. Yes, Belgium became independent in 1830 but it was only 13y later they figured out (political, juridical, territorial, etc) how to draw the border (when you see the border you will understand why it took that long; have you ever heard of Baarle?), hence the year 1843. Our history, as Belgium, is quite recent. Perhaps that is why (still) not many identify as Belgian.
Funny how heather and heathen is also linked. In Dutch we call it ‘heide’ en ‘heidene’, however a slightly different pronunciation of the same word. The English language is a mystery when heathen and thief are the same sounds in Dutch written as “ie”. Like the Dutch ‘dier’ (animal) that is still in use in English deer. The Dutch “ei” sound does not exist in English (as far as I am aware). Closest sound is “eye” or “bay”. Perhaps most English do know how the pronounce the German “ein”, which is closer to the Dutch “ei”. Fascinating how the Germanic language went through vowel changes. Not only vowels though since b, p and f’s got swapped and even the English ‘th’ is just a “d” in Dutch or “t” in German.
Last photo of the day was a magic trick, a trompe l’oeil. A floating birch caught my attention. No, it was not stuck in the barbwire but high up in other trees.
It was one of those occasions when you see something weird but don’t understand at once. It cannot levitate, right?
Many synonyms exist for a walk. In Dutch we most often use the word the English use as wanderer, ‘wandelen’. In Dutch we also have a plethora of synonyms. One both of use is to step or ‘stappen’.
Well, I just wanted to show off the photos. If you stayed and read my rambles, kudos (Greek)!
Celtic Belgae 
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