Wuppertal.

Last night on TV news they showed pictures of the damage that had taken place through a winter storm in the north of New Zealand, flooded roads and blown down trees and damage to buildings. Now talking about freak weather situations we have had our share of them over the last week, luckily to say none of them affected us directly. The city of Dortmund is about 50 odd km from us as the sparrow fly’s, and in a matter of two hours it rained 200 litres per square meter. They showed on TV a part of the city were a small stream is situated near some houses. In a matter of no time the street and the houses were flooded and people were shown wading up to their waist’s in water. In the south a hailstorm beat the hell out of the area around Augsburg ruining the harvest there.

The whole week has been weather wise very humid with high temperatures and lots of thunderstorms causing a lot of damage were they hit, with the exception of one they all passed by us, so we can call ourselves very lucky.

Glad to hear that my brother no1broadstreet. has recovered from the flu and I hope his wife has also fully recovered by now. I’ve got a good tip for curing the flu according to my boss, Schnapps laced with ground black pepper; don’t know if it works because personally I’ve never tried it, but he swears by it and I have never seen him miss work when the flu was doing it’s rounds.

Personally my wife and I prefer our prevention flu jab which we have every year in October, it costs us nothing (the state pays for it) and it seems to work.

On Tuesday I did a trip to Wuppertal, (on the bike) which is about the same distance as Düsseldorf is from were we live but in the opposite direction. Were one is nearly on the flat all the way to Düsseldorf the ride to Wuppertal is all hill climbing and very strenuous. While I was there I made a couple of photos of the Schwebebahn.

Schwebebahn Wuppertal

On my way home I did a detour through a small village called Gruiten. In this small village church my daughter was married.

I intended to cycle along the banks of the river Düssel through into Neandertal but the weather turned bad on me and I was forced to end my trip long before I reached the end of the valley.

I was out picking Blackberry’s this afternoon on my own this time, I think we should have enough now. If we manage to make 10 glasses of jam with this lot that I have picked and the 15 that we have already made then that should see us through till this time next year.

The photos are of the Schwebahn taken in the outskirts of Wuppertal a placed called Vorwinkel. The Poppy’s I took on the way to Gruiten.

Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss

Blackberry's.

Once again the week has gone so quickly and sometimes I have the feeling it’s Monday and the next day is already Friday.

On Monday it rained all day and you could not venture from the house unless you had too (taking the dog for a walk for instance).

On Tuesday I spent the day at work and once again it rained all day. The company is an hours drive from were I live and it poured down all the way, just before I reached the company the sun came out and I thought I had left the rain behind me, no luck it started to rain again an half an hour later and lasted all day.

Wednesday was a beautiful day and I spent the morning tidying the gardens up around the three houses which I look after. In the afternoon is shopping time; we always go shopping in the middle of the week, why? I don’t know it’s our routine I suppose.

Thursday morning I cleaned the three houses (which I do every Thursday). In the afternoon I mowed the lawn and tided the garden up.

On Friday evening we had friends round for drinks. It was a lovely warm evening and we sat out side on the patio till they went home which was around half past eleven. So now you see why the week sometimes fly’s by so quickly.

The time of year has come when we go Blackberry picking to make jam. Yesterday morning after breakfast I set out on my bike to go to the spots were we know there are lots of Blackberry’s to my disappointment they had been all cut back and the ones that were left over were not ripe yet. So off I went to another spot, here I found a lot of ripe ones, I hadn’t been there ten minutes when it started to thunder and the rain set in once again.

Of course one needs protective clothing for picking Blackberry’s, something like Sir Lancelot used to ware would be the ideal clothing. I hadn’t been at the bush five minutes and I had scratched my arm and legs, my right hand was stained purple and my finger nails looked like I had been working in a coal mine. Oh! What joys one has picking Blackberry’s. My wife and I are going again this afternoon (Sunday)

We have just got back from Blackberrying in just under two hours in the scorching sun we have picked two small buckets full enough to make about 15 glasses of jam. Now my wife has set the juice extractor up outside on the patio and tomorrow with the juice that she has extracted will make the jam.

That was my week. All in all a good one.

The photos speak for themselves.

Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss

Worrying times.

It’s worrying time we are going through at the moment with my mother being transferred from her room in the rest home to the hospital care section of the home. I am far away from what’s taking place at the home and have no idea whose decision it was in the home to move my mother and give her room to another person. My question is, “ what happens if my mother regains her strength back and doesn’t need to be in the hospital care anymore?” An other person has occupied her room and her things stored away.

Talking about my brother http://no1broadstreet.blogspot.com/ he and his wife are back home safe and sound after their holiday in the US. Tomorrow (Saturday) my brother and I our going to link up on Skype which my wife and myself are looking forwards to.

Weather wise, well really it’s not worth mentioning, Monday and Tuesday was warm and sunny with strong winds, the rest of the week rain and nothing but rain. According to the weather forecast it’s going to stay that way till the middle of next week.

We managed to get out on Tuesday afternoon and go for along walk with the dog nearly two and a half hours. The walk took us through the woods to a large field were our dog could run around and enjoy himself.

That was my week nothing exciting but that’s life sometimes.

Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss

The photo is of the castle in Cochem on the river Mosel. Taken two years ago.

Wet and dismal week

It was one of those weeks, cold wet and dismal. It was nearly impossible to go out with out the risk of getting wet. Apart that I am one year older since Friday nothing really has happened worth mentioning. As once told in my previous post I was given a super birthday present from my wife, a Notebook. My wife gave it to me a few weeks before my birthday and on the day she gave me a natural sponge, my old one was dropping to pieces. I always use a sponge when I shower.

On Tuesday I was at work and in the afternoon I presented my boss with my first layouts of the job I had been working on? I knew that he would not accept every thing that I had put to paper but was pleased when only one item was not excepted, it was very reassuring to know I was on the right track so to say.

On Thursday managed to mow the neighbours lawn in the afternoon I was just finished when it started to rain again, my intentions was to mow my lawn after I had finished mowing the neighbours. Managed to get it done late Friday afternoon.

This morning (it’s Sunday) I did my usual run and to my surprise it turned out to be a super run I did the 10 km in 55 minutes, it normally takes me around 70 minutes to complete. It must have to do with the food that I have been eating this last week, no junk food, lot’s of vegetables, rice full corn bread etc.

Oh! One of my high lights of the week was the post from my brother no1broadstreet about his escapade with the toilet at his sister in-laws. My wife and I could not stop laughing; it must have been very embarrassing for him, but the way he wrote, it was funny.

There is one more thing, we went to our local garden centre last week and bought a garden statue (a kobold) we have named him Till. We had been eyeing this statue up for a long time but it was so expensive we always left with the intentions to buy it at a later date. My wife then made the plunge last week in buying it, her argument some one will buy it before we do.

The photo is of the garden kobold Till.

Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss

Heart attack.

The last week was on the whole a normal one nothing really exciting happened like the week before (Fire Scare) On Tuesday my brother linked up with me over Skype, only by chance. I had some work to finish for my job and suddenly the Skype phone rang it was a nice surprise and we had a good chin wag about America and his holiday.

On Wednesday we decided to drive to Düsseldorf/Oberkassel, which is on the other side of the Rhine. There one can walk for miles along the banks of the Rhine enjoying the view and our dog; well for him it’s freedom pure.

We hadn’t been there long when we noticed a young girl running towards us crying bitterly we estimated her age around nine or ten years. I stopped her and asked her why was she crying? (Thinking something terrible might have happed to her) between loud sobs she told us that she had lost her mobile phone and most of her spending money had gone on recharging the chip card. My wife and I decided that we would help her to look for the mobile. We spread out the three of us plus the dog and backed tracked the way the girl had come, I asked her for her number and periodically rang the number with my mobile and listened if we could hear the ringing of her phone, sorry to say we were unlucky we did not find her phone for her.

On Saturday I received e-mail from my brother-in law saying that my Mother had had a heart attack. My wife and I was of course shocked at the news and I sent a e-mail to my brother-in law arranging a link over Skype on Sunday morning (there is a ten hour difference between New Zealand and Germany) sorry to say this link didn’t take place I could not contact him. I then tried to ring him and again this failed, why I do not know, probably some technical fault.

My brother-in law sends us daily reports on the condition of my Mother via e-mail. To top it all in his e-mail yesterday he told us that my aunty Betty who lives in London had passed away the day before (she was the younger sister of my Mother) I don’t know if they have told my Mother, I think under the circumstances at the moment it would be wise not to.

The weather over last week has been mixed to say the least. Monday it was the hottest day of the year the temperature raising above the 36-centigrade mark. On Tuesday evening and into the night we had a thunderstorm due to the high temperature. The rest of the week was ok and today its very windy with showers.

The photo is of the Knee Bridge (that’s the name Kniebrücke) that crosses the Rhine to Düsseldorf/Oberkassel.

Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss

Fire scare.

The week was a normal one little happened that one could talk about until Friday afternoon around four. I had just finished mowing the lawn when my wife asked me to come into the bedroom because she had smelt something that she could not localise it smelt like burnt oil to me. I thought it was probably a car out side that had a bust cylinder gasket or something and was burning oil, my wife closed the window and for me that was the end of the issue.

I then went outside to disperse the grass clipping in the bio tonne when the lady from next door who was outside with her two children and her Mobil in her hand ready to call the fire department asked me if I knew were the smell was coming from. At this stage the smell was very intensive but were it was actually coming from I could not say. I called my wife and together we checked all the cellars and found nothing unusual. We then went outside to see if we could localise were the smell of burning oil was coming from. In the mean time the lady from next door had called the fire department and they were on their way to us. We then actually found out were the smell was coming from it was the flat next door to our.

The fire brigade turned up in force lights flashing sirens going, in fact the full works. Neighbours turned up from no were not wishing to miss such a show. Police and ambulance turned up and it was a full-scale action, not to be forgotten for along time.

The firemen broke into the flat just as the grandparents (who were looking after the little girl while the parents were at work) came back from were they had been.

The cause of the burning fat and the heavy smoke was a frying pan left on the oven with chicken legs in it. The Grand mother had forgotten to switch of the oven when they left the flat.

So much excitement we haven’t had for along time. The main thing is no one was hurt and really little damage was done.

The photos are of the fire brigade out in full force.

Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss

A new project.

Starting a new project is one thing, planning and financing it is the other. Separating our garden from our neighbours we had four conifer trees, which gave us a bit of privatise when we sat out on our patio. Now for some unknown reason they have died off on us in less the six months (no idea why) so we decided not to plant new trees but instead put a fence up.

Now there are all types of fences on the market, and picking the right one that fits in our budget was nerve robbing with two visits to the DIY store, also we had to consider our neighbours, luckily there we had no big problems.

The job entailed first of all taking the trees out complete with roots, transporting the fence home (on the roof rack of the car) secondly putting the fence up which meant cementing in the post supports (the fence has four section) lining up the fence accurately and then two coating of wood preservative, the job took me three days to finish. Both my neighbours and my wife are pleased with the results, and that’s the main thing.

On Thursday I visited my friend http://campdllroadblog.blogspot.com/ he was having some difficulties with setting up his Blog post and together we worked that out so I hope in the future we will see some interesting posts from him. I always enjoy my visits and we have a good chat, this time he give me one of his home made curries to take home with me, it was delicious and very hot!

Glad to hear that my brother no1broadstreet has arrived at his destination in the US safely and is enjoying his holiday. I have received a load of photos from him and I must say it looks very warm were he is. I am hoping that perhaps we can link up with each other via Skype while he is over there

Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss

The photos are of the dieing trees and the new fence.