Luneberger Heide

As Germany is well known for the Black Forest in the south they are also known for the heide in the north. I know other countries such as England and Scotland have heide (heather) too. One of our trips took us to the Luneberger Heide which was about a 30 minute or less ride from my aunt's house.
The heide/heather blooms mainly towards the end of August and into September. It is really beautiful to see when it is blooming. The Luneberger Heide was made into a national park, and I know that a long time ago they would graze sheep out there, but I'm not sure if they still do or not.
This picture was taken at the end of June about 13 years ago when my daughter and I were there.

Here are some pictures from the little town area that hubby and I toured.
See the stone sheep in the yard?

The bird feeders and other things were made with little pebbles.

Hubby with uncle and cousin

These next few pictures hubby took. The horse and buggy ride that will take you out into the heide/heather, but we opted not to as it was a little chilly that day with some sprinkles.

Of course hubby had to take pictures of the heide/heather honey. Also, see that paper lantern there? We use to walk around with those when I was a child the year that we lived there. I wanted one so bad, and the lady selling the honey knew my uncle so she gave it to me!

Here hubby took this picture to show how thick the straw can be.

A little store where I bought a few things.

Another hubby picture to show what the ceiling looked like on the inside. Once a maintenance man, always a maintenance man!

In front of this hotel and restaurant they had all the different varieties of heide/heather laid out.

Are these picture with the heide/heather not gorgeous?!

We went in here and had coffee and cake, me, hot chocolate, and I forgot to take pictures of the inside. I can tell you though it sure was good!!!
P.S. I went back in and added heather next to the word heide. I am so use to saying heide!

A walk

When my mother-in-law passed away there were tons of old photos left behind that nobody wanted except for me. I love looking at old photographs. I believe there is such a story to be told. So, I was going through some of my mother-in-laws old photos (or it could be from one of the other two sisters)and came across this one.

I love it when I see people walking hand in hand, especially older people. There is something special in it, don't you agree?

Shooooooes!

Another rainy day in Georgia. Goodness, we are getting the rain. So I bit the bullet and decided to clean out my closet. I asked hubby to take down a shelf and put another one up. Now I can start moving some fall stuff in, get rid of the old and worn out, rearrange, etc.. While I was doing this hubby comes back in and plops his self down on the bed, and starts saying, why don't you add this, or put that this way. So....I gave him the look, yup, you know the kind I mean. Needless to say his response was, time for me to go!
We don't have very big closets, and I have a lot of shoes. I had purchased these containers with drawers for some other project, but after looking at them I thought, hmmm I bet these could hold a lot of shoes! Was I ever right!

Just a small sample, and this doesn't even show my boots! Blame it on hubby though. If I am having a rough day or need a pick me up he will tell me why don't you go and buy yourself another pair of shoooooes!!! What a guy!!!

Trip to the Baltic Sea area

One of our trips up north in Germany was to visit my Uncle Lothar and his family. My uncle and my aunt use to live in Hamburg and they had a restaurant back then. They served very good and delicious food too! Later on they sold all of that and moved to Pelzerhaken which actually used to be on the east German side. Pelzerhaken sits on the Ostsee or as we know it the Baltic Sea. It is a beautiful area with sandy beaches for miles. A lot of Germans will go and camp along the Baltic sea every chance they get during the summer. When we were going there with another uncle of mine we saw cars lined up on the autobahn heading that way!
Here is a picture of my Uncle Lothar with his pigeons. My mom told me that he has raised pigeons since he was a little boy and he is now getting close to 70 if he isn't already. (I can't remember) He reminds me so much of my Opa (my German grandfather).

Here is a picture of my Uncle Lothar, Tante Heike and my cousin Ilona with me. I never had a chance to really know Ilona as she was a very little girl when we were there ions ago. Of course back then they were not right next door either so it was a treat to visit them. I did not realize how much we resemble one another until I saw this picture!
Ilona and her husband run a restaurant in Gromitz, Schleswig-Holstein a little to the north of Pelzerhaken. It too sits right on the Baltic Sea. Their restaurant is called Strand Picknick so if anyone ever gets to that area I highly recommend their food! We had such a delicious dinner with them. The only bad thing is that we had very little time to spend together.

Here I am with Ilona's older sister Corinna. She is a few years younger than me, and I tend to remember her a little more. I found out that she had gotten married in August and her date is our anniversary date!

This is their 300 year old house. Her husband has had it for a long time and has remodeled quite a bit of it. We were fascinated by it as we really do not have 300 year old houses here! He did a beautiful job on the inside too.

This is what they turned into a garage, but it also houses the heating in it too.

The flower garden on the side.

Is this not cute?! I want hubby to make something like this for me!

I had to get a picture of the duck painted on the door.

Is this not a beautiful set table? We had coffee and kuchen (cake) here. The Germans do know their pastries.....it was all homemade and heavenly!!

It turned out to be a lovely day although the time was short. It was nice to see some more of my German side of the family, and that was what was most important!

And they're off!

Our good neighbors/friends are now up in the air on their way to Germany. In about 5more hours they will be with daughter and grandson so I know that everyone is excited! My daughter and I took them to the airport as we both love going to the airport just to do a little dreamin'.

To top it all off it is their anniversay today...32 years! Have fun you two and we will see you in about a week!

Two days of sunshine!

So far we have had two days of sunshine with some clouds mixed in. I don't know how many of you have seen on the news (we even made national news) of all the flooding in Atlanta. Fortunately we did not have that happen in our area, but our ground was just as saturated as we had received about 10 inches of rain. Today they are forecasting a few more showers. What a week for hubby to have taken off from work! So, with the sun shinning we have had tons of different mushrooms popping out everywhere! Some I have not seen before. Here are some pictures of the different ones that I have found.

When we were over in Germany my cousin's boyfriend went mushroom hunting and brought back a huge basket full. I don't know one from the other so that would be too dangerous for me! Although the fresh ones sure taste good!

Lil' hummingbird

Just thought that I would show you the newest addition to the hummingbirds. I painted this one on a tile. This is part of my summer "look" in the guest bathroom. I have been taking more pictures of hummingbirds as they are going crazy around here even with all of the rain we have been getting. I guess they are stocking up! They need to since I believe we have received about 6-10 inches of rain!!

Rainy day in the south

Another rainy day in the south! According to the weather channel we will be seeing another week of rain too. Hmmmm, I guess it is time to start cleaning out the spare room. Of course, rainy weather, good movie, glass of wine or if it is too chilly then a nice cup of tea. Though the couch is looking awfully comfy....might be time for a nap!!!!

A sunny drive

I thought that I would get back to showing you some more pictures from Germany. I did take 605 of them, but I won't bore you will all!!!!
Since it is raining cats and dogs here I thought a sunny drive would be nice. This was after we left my aunt's house in the Black Forest. We were on the autobahn for a while, but then the GPS detected some road work up ahead and sent us on a detour. What a lovely detour it was! Rolling hillsides, winding roads, small villages, I could have done that all day! Yet we needed to keep on track time wise so we could make it to my other aunt's house before dark.

Our next door neighbors who saw the pictures said that this reminded them of Wisconsin (where he is from, she is from Georgia). He said it is no wonder a lot of Germans settled in Wisconsin, he can see why now. They will see it soon too when they visit their daughter and grandson (her husband is in the Army).

This last picture looks like the perfect country road! The leaves were changing colors, the sky was a brilliant blue, what more can I say!

Leaving on a jet plane

Oh I wish so!! I can't believe it has been a year today that we left to go to Germany to see family and also to see a little bit of Europe. We are so ready to go again! Our next door neighbors are leaving next week to visit their daughter and grandson. I know that they are all excited and will have a blast! I guess I better get back to counting my pennies!!!