Blogtoberfest-Last Day, Push Me Pull You

So what was Paddy looking at in yesterdays post?

Jewel was looking too.

Llamas!

3 in a field

amongst the vineyards.
Remember we saw one being walked along the road?
Well this is where it must have been from.

Aren't they lovely?

They were very interested in the Hounds.

Jewel got a bit excited and started barking.
But the llamas just watched her.

The one below looks a bit spooked by her though.

Mike was walking the Hounds up by the llamas last week

when a young lady called him over.
'Sprechen Sie Deutsch?' she said.

She obviously knew of us to say that,
knowing that we are English.
Her and her friend look after the llamas it appears
and wanted to meet the Hounds.

One of them had had a Spanish Greyhound,

and she made such a fuss of our Hounds Mike said.

It's not something you expect to see in the vineyards,

a trio of llamas!
Nor a 'Push me Pull you!'

Well it's the last day of October.

And I've enjoyed taking part in Tinniegirl's Blogtoberfest.

It has helped me get back into regular blogging.

Now how good is that.

Blogtoberfest Day 30, Walks and Weather

Random photos taken this week.

The weather has been changeable.

Misty mornings.

Brightening up later if we were lucky.

These first 4 photos were taken from our usual walk

alongside the river.

The trees are looking lovely,

breathtaking sometimes.

We have been taking a different route at lunchtimes.

Through the allotments I showed you here

and along the edge of the vineyards on this side of the river.
The photo below is the same village shown in the first photograph.

We passed this shrine, which I have shown you a glimpse of before (in the allotment post).

In between the walks I've been doing a bit of sewing.
I'll show you that another time.

But tomorrow I will show you what we saw on our walk

and what Paddy is eyeing up!

Blogtoberfest-Day 29, Pink Thoughts

Pink thoughts for International Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Take a look over at Christina's for more Pink Thoughts.
I took this photo a couple of weeks back in one of the villages along the river.
Mike and I were having a quiet stroll,
me taking photos as we walked.
Just enjoying the afternoon in each others company.
These bright pink plastic tablecloths brought a smile to my face.
They contrasted nicely with the greyness of the day.

Blogtoberfest- A Walk Around our Village Part 2

Let's continue our walk from yesterday through part of our village.
The house above may be a bit faded, but I think it has a certain charm.
Whilst the fellow below has a cheeky sort of charm.
There seems to be a tradition in the valley,
it may be confined to this area,
or may be throughout Germany,
of life sized figures sitting or standing outside premises.
They are usually business premises.
Last week as I was gardening a passer by called to me for instructions.
She wanted to find the artist who makes these figures.
Apparently she lives/or lived in the village.
We had a very nice chat.
Fortunately she spoke English!

This house is quite different from it's neighbours!

There is a lot of greenery outside this building considering there is little or no garden.

An attractive courtyard.

We are now heading back home.
The trees are looking particularly fine.

There are a few hotels, bars and eating places along this road.
In the warmer months they are popular with cyclists stopping for lunch and refreshments.

We stopped to admire this white dog.

Unfortunately Rufus started barking at it.

He thought it was real.
It does look rather fine though
don't you think?

Blogtoberfest Day 27, A Walk around our Village

As it was a lovely afternoon, Mike suggested a walk around our village.
Here are some of the photos I took.
There are always water features to be found in the villages and towns.
Maybe I should do a post dedicated to them sometime.
This is a simple one in a small open area where I saw men playing boules a month or so back.

Can't have a walk around the village without taking a snap of some window boxes!

This looks to be quite an old house which is being renovated.

Mike commented that there is a wide variety of architecture in the village.

The outside of a walled garden.

A closer look.

The last three are all the same property.

In the picture below you can see the vineyards across the river.

A lovely display of flowers.

I took more photos which I can post another time.

As I'm often doing these days, I am posting this late at night

and the photos take ages to upload.

So until next time......

Blogtoberfest Day 26, A-Z Monday

K is for Kite.
And this tiny one is in my sewing box. I bought it because I hadn't seen one this small before. It's only four and a half inches long, (just over 11 cms.).
And yes I have flown it.
The one below is still in it's packet unopened. I have been waiting to fly it with my grandson.
I'm sure I own a third kite, I think it is still in Sweden.
They are all inexpensive ones.

I probably got my love of kites from my dad. I can remember making one with him out of brown paper, and flying it.

Happy days.

For more A-Z Mondays pop over to Jen's.

For some Blogtoberfest fun pop over to Cathy's.

Blogtoberfest Day 25, The Little Visitor

Mike has been away over the weekend leaving me without a camera. Shame really.

Missed Photo Opportunities

• Yesterday morning as I walked the Hounds, I could hear voices coming from over the river. I knew that they would be the voices of the workers in the vineyards but it was difficult to see them. The river and the hillside were shrouded in mist. The workers would appear and disappear as the mist swirled around them.
• In the afternoon I drove along the river to buy some food for the Hounds. And some chocolate for me! I noticed a market in a village over the river. So on my return I detoured through the village stopping to look round the market. It was the type of market that called itself a Flea Market, but sold all types of things such as new clothes, kitchen tools, second hand books, china, glass and various bits and pieces. But the thing I loved the most and don't expect to see again were two fully grown swans swimming round the water feature, which was quite small. It's a permanent feature and there were stalls spread out around it. Quite incongruous!
• Last night about 6pm as the light was begining to fade, I drove with the Hounds up through the vineyards overlooking our neighbouring village. I noticed one or two candles lit in the churchyard. As we were finishing our walk it began to rain, not that the Hounds were bothered about it. Once back at the car, I drove down towards the church and stopped for a short while. By now the light had just about gone. I walked into the churchyard. Each grave had a lantern on it, most of them were lit. It not only looked lovely, but it felt serene. One of those moments that I will remember.
• This morning the light was just lovely with the sun shining on the trees. It's amazing. Although we walk past the trees every day, and I do take notice of what I see, the trees have suddenly changed colour overnight! Or so it seems.

All those missed photo opportunities!

Never mind, Mike arrived back earlier today, with the camera. He had been away camping Friday and Saturday at an international adventure bikers meeting. I stayed to look after the Hounds. It rained last night and the tent got wet, so it was a case of hanging it up to dry in the loft when he got home. But he discovered he had brought something back with him. It must have fallen out of the tent as he hung it over the line. He put it into a tin to move it as the colouring suggested it might be poisonous. It was a Fire Salamander.




A lovely little chap. But from the accounts that we read, yes they are poisonous. He was just a baby as they can grow to 11 inches (about 27 cms), ours was about two and a half inches. Mike was keen to get it out of the tin so it didn't get stressed. Come to think about it, I think it would have been more stressed travelling wrapped up in a tent on a fast motor bike for 2 hours, than having it's photo taken. But never mind, Mike took it outside where it seemed to find a nice place to hide underneath a step.
So now we have a Fire Salamander living under our step.
Check the link to see how it got it's name.

Blogtoberfest Day 24, Mad Hatter's Tea Party

I'm off over to Eye Candy where Candace is hosting The Mad Hatter's Tea Party.
All you need to bring with you is a hat!
I have a spare one or two if you would care to join me.
I think she's been very busy getting everything ready.


There'll be lots to eat I'm sure.

With a cake of course.

And what's a tea party with no tea?

We'll have plenty of fun.


I expect there will be a celebrity

or 3

or 4 joining us.

It's bound to go on into the small hours.

Well,

will I see you there?

All the photos are from flickr. For credits click on the highlighted words.

One or two errors occurred however so for the cake click here,

for the teacup click here,

and for the Cheshire cat click here.

Hope that sorts it.

I had to include the Cheshire cat as that is where I was born.

Blogtoberfest Day 20, Tidy Gardens

Setting off down the stairs with the Hounds for their morning walk, I stopped to take this photo of the sun pouring through the blinds in the spare room. Just perfect, the position of the shadow beneath the hat I thought.

We've had a few days of sunshine now after that wintry weather. I've even been doing a bit of gardening wearing a sleeveless top. It was just bordering on being cool. People round here seem to be very keen on keeping their gardens tidy, so much so that as soon as the leaves fall they are swept up. We've a long way to go with this garden before it comes up to scratch. I'll just have to hope that the sun continues to shine!

Blogtoberfest Day 19, A-Z Monday Letter L

L is for lizard.
We saw some on the walk that I showed you on last weeks A-Z Monday.
These are some more photos from that walk on 12th October.

As you can see the day started out sunny and warm.
This is Mike and Danny with Rufus and Paddy not long after starting out, walking up through the vineyards.


We stopped plenty, the views were too nice not to.
The Hounds don't seem to be impressed with the view.

The next photo shows the vineyards across the river, (the side that we live on).

I love the rows of vines.

So straight,

yet every now and then,

a block of vines will be set at a different angle to the neighbouring plot.

This next photo looks steeply down the rows of vines to the river.

When we got as far as we wanted, we stopped and ate lunch.

The path after that got too steep and narrow to take the Hounds along.

Or maybe we were just too hot!

I took a walk along the path a short way as I was curious to what views it held.

But all I managed to do was to nearly step on this lizard!

They do move fast, especially to get out of the way.

The Hounds waited patiently as I took some photos of them, before we all set off back down the path.

This time there were far more lizards about. I think the sun had warmed the rocks.

Rufus spotted a lizard and after that he didn't stop looking out for them.

All the way back down the track he had his eyes to the side watching for their movement.

At times he was walking sideways!

After the walk Mike dropped Danny and I off at a town down river so that we could catch the boat back.

But not before Danny and I stopped for refreshments first!

By the time we got on the boat the weather was changing.

It had dulled over and had got a little chilly.

It didn't spoil the boat trip though,

or the day.

Catch some more A-Z Monday fun with Jen,

and Blogtoberfest fun with Cathy.