Sunset over the Palatinate

Took this photo while walking the dog one evening. I just liked the colors.

The Quarry and the Odenwald Beyond

Last weekend we went for a walk around the quarry in Nußloch. Unfortunately I never got a picture of the Königstuhl. The mountains around it were covered in snow. You can see some of it in the pictures below.

Nußlocher Wald

A close up of the tree tops.

Intrepid Hikers

Winter has arrived early to Nußloch. Already in November the ground is frozen and the snow is sticking. Temperatures haved dropped below zero. Yesterday morning we had -5°C.

The First Snow (Our sign, from the Spinalis is still holding up.) 

The Quince lost its leaves before the snow arrived.

Cosmos crowding out the Hollyhock

Our Quince so loaded that some branches reach the ground.

I figured we had a little more than 100 kg (220 lbs) of fruit. 

Now that winter has arrived, I thought I would post some pictures left over from summer.

Binky and Vinnie

Andrea and Binky

The dog days of summer? Vinnie's owner passed on these photos to us from back in May. The photos were taken out in the fields around Nußloch.

Meet our pumpkin family! This years harvest of squash. Looks like we might have some spaghetti squash in there, but we are not really sure. Some of them were supposed to be zucchini. Now if we were playing Agricola, we would have gotten full points!

Burg Steinsberg in Sinsheim

Looking back down into Baiertal

Descending into Baiertal

We walked some 8-10 kilometers from Nußloch to Oberhof in Dielheim. We had long looked at taking this walk, since it connected up a number of paths that we had looked at before. It took us some 2.5 hours climbing over the ridge, down into the next valley, then over the next ridge. We took Anke and Ralf with us. Alan and Dorle met us in Oberhof for lunch. We drove home in the Foster's car and our car which we had prepositioned in Oberhof that morning.

Kathryn climbing into Schatthausen

Cats in Baiertal waiting for the cows to be milked.

View Larger Map

We actually cut off the part that goes over Maisbach. Google does not show the trail that runs around the gravel mine and across to Baiertal.

Ralf

Yours Truly

Goldregen - Wildflower or Weed?

Gravel mine in Nußloch for Heidelberg Cement

Anke

Rest of the Team

Nussloch Garden Show

OK, the photos are a few weeks old now, but this is what are garden looks like....

Quinces are ripening on the tree with a little Waldmeister just left of the tree trunk.

The bumblebees are all over our Hibiscus.

Cleo is watching over our blackberries. We harvested the first two this week.

Tomatoes grow along the back of our barn.

Mischa patrols among the corn. Now the corn has flowered and the cobs are developing. Here you see our squash before it took over the yard. Now it is nearly twice as big, though the yield has not been great. The Mangold has been doing quite well, supplying a number of meals for us as well as for the Fosters.

Hiking around Nußloch

The road to Leimen and Lingental

Sheep at the Schafhof

In the middle is Speyer. The peak at the top right is Kalmitt.

Winter has returned!

Our backyard had no snow last night.



The view over the Rhine Valley.


Taking Binky for a walk.



Quite the winter wonderland.

We ended up walking around the gravel quarry. I shoulda brought my skis!

Painting

Yardwork

The new Shea residence. We take possession in the middle of June. The house is a double-house. Number 5 is our half on the right. The odd building you see behind it is also part of the property. It looks like it was used as a stall for pigs or goats and possibly chickens via a ramp up to the second floor.

Maypole in the Rain

May Day 2009 consisted of our Tuesday night gaming group, Grupo Martes, and members of our D&D Group. Stefan, the Nos Family, the Childress Family, and the te Uhle Family all took part. We walked out to the fruit groves and had a picnic, before setting up the maypole. We had enough time to wrap up the pole before the thunderstorm swept in and began raining on us. We wondered if the pole would conduct lightning. We returned to our house to lend out towels and dry shirts before going to Kathrin and Peter's house. There we made hamburgers and played the afternoon away.

Michael and Silke

Kathrin and Mark

Michael and Stefan

Binky and Andrea

Mark also took pictures. See his webalbum.