Snowmen on our New Year's Day Stroll

As every year, we started this year again with the good intention of getting a bit more fresh air. So we used the beautiful first day of the year for a litte walk in the snow around our village. We were greeted by quite a few Snowmen on our way!

Blue skies, white snow and black trees

An exceptionally gorgeous Snowwoman!

... and another one!

And while I was fascinated by some very red berries...

...Sonja built her very own Snowman :-)

The Same Procedure as every Year

It's time to watch our all time favourite X-Mas movies:

1. Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)
What have the romans ever done for us? Offensive, annoying, funny.

2. Die Hard (1988)
Now I have a machine gun. Ho. Ho. Ho. Suspenseful, thrilling, and funny, too.

3. It's a wonderful Life (1946)
Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings. Wonderful, lovely, and awww.

What are your favourites?

Wishing you a Merry Christmas (or: insert otherwise multicultural or interfaith Holiday greetings here) and a Happy New Year.

And btw: the header "Same Procedure as every Year" is a quote from the British skit The 90th Birthday with Freddie Frinton, which is very popular in Germany. It happens to be a weird German tradition to watch this on New Year's Eve!

Last Rays of the Year

Sonja occupies the sofa at home with a flu, but these are probably the last sunny hours of the year, so I grab my camera and go for a little walk around our village. Just a few hundred meters away from our house nature starts (or what we grew used to calling 'nature' in Western Europe), so right away I dive into a world of falling leaves, color and tranquility!

What could be more beautiful than sunshine reflected in colorful leaves?

I am not the only one enjoying the last warm rays of the year...

Blue skies look different in autumn...

Playing with the zoom... I always wanted to do this!

Enough firewood for a hard winter that will likely never come!

As soon as the sun is gone the temperature falls perceptibly!

This one would have liked to join me!

Busy Summertime

The weather could have been a bit better (as in warmer), but we made due with what we got. And we were out riding (be it bicycling, scootering or motorcycling) a lot. Related posts can be found on Sonja's blog.

Alpine Roads in Switzerland

Somewhere in France

We had another visitor, too. Andrea, who swapped the draught in California against the occasional torrential rainfalls in Germany.

Castle Hohengeroldseck, Blackforest, Germany

And now Roland is about to embark on a trip to Southern England with his buddies, while Sonja is mentally preparing for another exciting trip towards Italy. We are really getting good at life, aren't we?

Harvest Time

We had rented a cycle for Mom to be able to show her our backyard and our favourite place by the river Kinzig. She did a great job pedalling through the valley. And of course, we had to dip our feet into the refreshing water. The river level was quite high, so Roland made sure that Mom wouldn't be accidentally torn away by the strong current. (He was counting on dinner after all...)

Mom became quite excited when she discovered all the low hanging fruit. There were apples, peas, yellow plums and purple plums. And before we could say stop, she was already in the orchard harvesting, or better "collecting samples" (well, scrumping isn't exactly legal but widely tolerated by the farmers).

Caught red-handed!

Another fruit, another stop.

Mom's pickings

One Mum and All Saints

It's summertime. And living is easy. Especially this week, because Sonja's Mum has arrived. And while others tend to spend their vacation expecting us to entertain and feed them, Mum has made it her mission to spoil us rotten. No cooking, no cleaning for us. We come home from the job and all the housework is done and dinner's on the table.

In return we showed her our most favourite places, one of them being Castle Staufenberg, located on top of a hill, surrounded by vineyards, and overlooking the Rhine area. Roland was successful in acquiring a local white wine, and together we enjoyed the view.

At your service

View getting blurry already?

Mum & daughter

A view from castle Staufenberg

The following day we went to the waterfalls and the ruins of All Saints (Allerheiligen Wasserfälle). Mum had no problem to ascent the 221 steps leading on top of the falls, and was willing to follow us further even to the ruins.

The abbey ruins are always worth a visit, and we are still marvelling at the mystic and beauty of this place.

Photographing a dog owner photographing his dog. What a beautiful border collie, such a friendly, disciplined and active breed. Roland wanted to adopt him in an instant but for some reason the owner wouldn't agree.

Our descent was an easy one downhill and down the 221 stairs again. Shortly after it started to rain cats and dogs and did cut short our little road trip but there sure will be another time for small adventures. So we were heading back home were Mom would whip up another wonderful supper.

Another Summer Evening

Even after a year in the Southwestern part of Germany we are still amazed about the fantastic weather in this region. Being used to rainy and humid summers in the area around Cologne (the so-called 'Rhineland') we enjoy the warm and relatively dry climate down here a lot. So - between two World Cup quarter finale matches - we strolled around with our bicycles again, mesmerized by the beauty of our surroundings.

At the Kinzig river

Like holidays!

We love the noise the water makes at these small rapids

The branches of the apple trees need support already, because the apples are too heavy for quite young trees already.

A few more weeks, and these beauties are going to be ripe and juicy!!

Less juicy, but at a ripe old age...