Sad Day

Timothy Price25 Comments

Sunrise

Laurie called me early this morning because Marble Kitty was having problems breathing. She took her to an emergency vet, and Marble had fluid pressing on her lungs. The vet removed the fluid and Marble had a collpsed lung with a mass in it. A long story short, she didn’t make it. Sadly we lost one of the sweetest kitties.

Between back and forth with Laurie on Marble’s condition, Marina, Socrotis and I went out to buy bread, and then in the afternoon we went to dinner in a restaurant by the sea.

It’s been raining on and off all day, and the area has received “buckets of rain” over the past few months, so the vegetation is green and wildflowers are blooming everywhere.

Dinner

View from the table

Local black cat

Long Legged Buzzard

Assissin Bug

Local frogs

We heard a chirping sound that sounded like a bird, but it was coming from under a concrete slab, and Merlin Bird ID could not identify what it was. Marina looked under the concrete but could see anything. I took photos under the concrete, and after I processed the photo, I found the frog on the right-hand photo with its head sticking up out of the water.

Houses with a great view

Handicap access to the water

This sweet dog came out to greet us

Sunset to the east

Cool lights over the dining room table in the Airbnb I’m staying in down the road from Marina and Socrotis.

Back From Belgium. Gone To The Dogs!

Timothy Price37 Comments

It was raining in Geel this morning

You can’t have my cake or eat it either, Niki!

You can’t eat the Eurasian Magpie, either…

Or the Eurasian Collared-Dove…

Or the Eurasian Jackdaw..

Or the cute Common Chaffinch!

“What? Are you just going to let me starve?”

Herman took me to aother old church this morning.

There were several of these locked, grated grottoes around the outside of the church with lighted votive candles inside them.

A man driving a small utility truck filled with lighted votive candles in the back stopped and said hi to us and explained to Hermin in Flemish that his job was to keep the candles lit. He had done it for ten years and loved the job.

Nike was watching for us to return from his bed in the garage.

I got back in the late after noon, and returned the rental car. Then we went straight from Enterprise car rental to Trivia at the Irish Pub. There were a couple of Golden Retrievers that came to Trivia Night. The white one really like me, and I had to pet it most of the time. It would put it’s head in my lap when I stopped petting it.

Tristan snuck a picture of me petting the dog. We are not supposed to use phones while a trivia round is in play.

Germany To Belgium In A Spanish Car

Timothy Price41 Comments

Hi all! I’m Niki.

I drove from Germany to Belgium this morning to meet Herman and Niki. Herman and I have been following each other since 2013. You can find Herman’s blog at https://hopedog.wordpress.com. Laurie and I were planning on meeting Herman and Bowie in 2020 when we were scheduled to go to Antwerp to give papers at an international linguistics conference, but the conference was cancelled because of COVID. Six years, two cats later (Jimi was in between Mr. Bowie and Niki), I finally met Herman and lovely Niki. Herman is a wonderful and gracious host. We spent the afternoon visiting two abbies, both built in the early 12th centuries, and then we happened upon the War Cemetery (WWII) on the way home. Herman said he’d lived in Geel all his life and had never been to the War Cemetery. Most of the soldiers buried there were in their teens and 20s when they were killed in battle.

Dawn in Germany

Niki is very friendly and inquisitive

Espresso and the best cake in Belgium by popular vote. It was wonderful.

Niki liked il paparazzo’s hair.

Gate the the first abby we visited

The church has a painting of The Last Supper started by Leonardo da Vinci and finished by his students.

A Eurasian Moorhen in the moat around the abbey

The Last Supper

While we were in this building that has a reproduction of The Last Supper at eye level, a couple of women were counting the hands of all the people in the painting and couldn’t get a match. There are 13 people (Christ and 12 disciples) in The Last Supper, but the women were only coming up with 22 hands instead of 26. We all got involved in counting hands, and we were all coming up with different numbers. Then I asked about the feet, but the women were heading to the church.

Display that names Christ and the disciples, and the button turns lights on to illuminate the painting.

White pigeon

The new bridge over the canal that Herman’s great-grandfather helped dig around 1901.

Buildings that are part of the second abby we visited.

The old pipe organ

The new pipe organ with a rearview mirror. Hmmm. What might the organist need a rearview mirror for?

A modern monk

Herman treated me to a tradritional Blegium Fries lunch. It was great.

After we returned from visiting abbies and the war cemetery, Niki was more curious about camera.

I checked into the Corbie Hotel in Geel. I will have this lovely lady watching over me tonight.

Anime

Timothy Price23 Comments

Dawn

Koi in the Japanese Garden in Kaiserslautern

Not coy

Amine in the Japanese Garden in Kaiserslautern

“I’m being coy. Can I have a Koi?”

Common Shelduck

Bar-Headed Geese

Eurasian Moorhen

Last night

The Archer

The underside of a Eurasian Green Woodpecker

“The Woodpecker is way out of my reach!”

Eurasian Blackbird

Portraits of famous dogs in an Italian restaurant in Landstuhl

“Famous dawgs in Landstuhl? Not cool! Fool!”

Moon made an appearance between rain showers this evening.

Geschützgewehre zielen

Timothy Price37 Comments

Dawn

There’s a shooting range we walk by before entering the forest.

Die Bar ist geöffnet
Geh am Sonntag schießen, trink
Geschützgewehre zielen

Speaking of Karlsberg beer, the Karlsberg Brewery is in Homberg.

Under the ruins of the castle on the hill above Homberg is a sand mine.

With hard hats on our heads, we descended into the sand mines. In Italy truant children were turned into donkies and sent to work in the salt mines. I wonder if truant children were sent to work in the sand mines in Homberg.

Homberg residents took refuge in the sand minds during bombing raids on homberg in WWII.

Atlas purrfurs the yarn mine. Sand mines are for other purposes in the cat world. Photo by Tristan.

Lots of low ceilings. The tunnels were much darker than in the photos.

Homberg

Atlas: “Blanket caves are so much more comfortable than sandbox tunnels!” Photo by Tristan.

Black Forest In White

Timothy Price42 Comments

Dawn

We drove to the Black Forest to day and went to the Treetop Walk, and the Open Ait Museum that is buildings from the 1700s with different periods from the 1700s onwards.

Tunnels over a kilometer in length along the way

Enrance and walk to the Treetop Walk.

I started my exercise tracker when we started walking up to the Treetop Walk

It snowed on us all the time we were at the site.

On to Gutach in the snow to see the Open Air Museum

Black Redstart on the roof of the museum ticket office, gift shop and restaurant.

Had to take a Black Forest Cake break while in the Black Forest

Sunset

Atlas

Autokauf

Timothy Price43 Comments

Beware of Dog!

We drove to Wiesbaden this morning to shop for cars. Jessica needs a reliable car to run around to the different places where she does massage therapy.

We got a bit wired before venturing onto the used car lot.

Der Hund!

The cars in the running were this sporty Toyota…

A Maserati…

A classic BMW…

And a smiley VW Golf.

Any guesses as to which one Jessica bought?

Bridges over the Rhine

Alexandrine Parakeets were chirping in the trees. They are very large parakeets.

A medeival wheelchair ramp

There were also Rose-ringed Parakeets in the trees. They are smaller than the two.

We went to a Viking restaurant for dinner.

Sunset on the AutoBahn

Home

Atlas: “No one asked me if I wanted to go car shopping!”