Say Hello to Jess

Last Friday,

I drove to Liege in Belgium to meet Mike off a train.

He had a very special reason for me to go and meet him.

He had gone to the UK a few days earlier

to meet for the first time, and collect,

Jess,

our new greyhound.

Isn't she gorgeous?

Here she is with her 3 new brothers.

She seems to have taken a bit of a shine to Paddy.

You can see how much smaller she is.

She is settling in very well

and making herself at home.

Last night she made me laugh.

Mike was already in bed

and I was on my way to bed

when she came trotting through

and pounced on Mike's slipper.

She carried it off,

jumped on the bed,

and put it next to him,

where she had already put

one of my shoes.

Here she is on her own bed

with a bone.

We think we will be able to take her lots of places,

as she doesn't seem to mind other dogs.

She isn't too sure of loud or unusual noises yet,

but I'm sure that's only because it's all very new to her.

She even came to one of the wine festivals with us.

She has been on lots of different walks with us.

And seems to be enjoying her new life.

I'm sure you will be seeing lots more of her.

Getting back to Normal

Thank you, thank you,

for all your kind words and thoughts regarding Jewel.

It has been a very sad time for us,

and your comments have meant a lot to Mike and I.

It has been a period of readjustment

of life without Jewel.

On the afternoon that Jewel died,

Mike and I were reminiscing about her,

when the wind started to blow the open window.

I got up to close it and as I looked down at the road outside,

I could see hailstones the size of golf balls,

not falling,

but catapulting into the road below.

They were coming down with such force

that Mike and I

dashed round the house

closing all the shutters on the windows.

I later mopped up a bucketful of water

from the balcony caused by the hailstones.

We later learned from friends

that not only cars had been damaged by the hailstones,

but houses too.

A few miles along the river,

the hailstones had weighed just under one kilogram,

about 1.9 lbs.

Car windscreens had been smashed,

bodywork had been dented.

But not only that,

roofs of houses had been damaged,

and in one unfortunate village,

the hailstones had caused so mush damage to the houses

that people had to be evacuated.

Some of these houses are having to be knocked down.

Added to that was the terrible hurt caused to animals,

many being killed,

and others having to be put out of their misery by vets.

It sounds unbelievable,

but we happened to take a bike ride

out that way and passed a different village

where several roofs had been covered with plastic.

We have also seen the damage done to cars.

A windscreen smashed of a car parked in our village,

and a back window covered over with plastic on a car that we followed for a while.

Our friend who has a car workshop

has been inundated with repairing windscreens.

We have never seen the like before.

Unfortunately,

that seemed to mark the change in the weather here,

which has now become cooler.

Typically,

some friends arrived on Tuesday.

I haven't been out yet,

but today looks decidedly cooler still, and dull.

September marks a busy time on the Mosel.

It's when the main wine festivals take place.

Last weekend it was Bernkastel's festival.

It is the largest in this area.

Mike and I went along on Saturday evening

to watch the fireworks.

They mark a battle which took place

when Napolean sailed up the river and fired on the castle.

The castle of course retaliated.

So the display focuses on the castle and the riverside.

It was lovely.

I heard a group of Americans saying how good it was.

The photo was taken last year

is of the castle overlooking the river.

A beautiful setting for the fireworks.

I have had to use a photo from last year

as unfortunately,

I have broken the camera,

again!

I haven't been using the computer much lately

and it will be a few days yet before I will be using it regularly.

But then I will get round to visit you all.

So in the meantime,

thank you once again for visiting

and your kind comments, they mean a lot.

Blogtoberfest Day 9, Varied

What a gorgeous morning it was here.

Can you see the mist in the valley?

A few minutes later and it had almost gone.

Grapes were being harvested

and we stopped to talk to some of the people working in the vineyards.

We asked when the wine would be ready to drink from this years harvest.

And they asked about the hounds.

Apparently it's not expected to be such a good year for wine

due to all the rain we had in August and September.

Although I have read somewhere

that the wine is never poor from this area.

And the wine from this years harvest can be drunk in the Spring.

A little further along the road

and a group of walkers stopped to admire the hounds.

It's unusual to see Greyhounds here,

so people will often stop and ask about them.

In the afternoon

the good weather continued.

It must have been perfect for paragliding

as there were loads up in the sky above the village.

There's not usually so many.

I counted over 30, then stopped.

I drove up river to visit a wine festival.

Another pretty part of the Mosel.

And what a pretty dog.

Its owner was minding a stall displaying this yarn.

There were quite a few dogs around.

Waiting patiently,

as their owners

sampled the wine.

I think this fellow has maybe had a bit too much wine,

what do you think?

As I neared our village on the way back home,

quite a few emergency vehicles passed me.

Unfortunately,

one of the paragliders had landed in the trees.

Let's hope they were okay.

Pop on over to Tinnie Girl to see who else is taking part in Blogtoberfest.

The Romans are coming

Today we took Danny to a wine festival.
This one was also celebrating the Romans.
Hence the Roman boat,
and the Roman soldiers.


They were part of the parade.
Of course there was some wine as well.
This happens to be where my favourite wine comes from.
But I let Danny and Mike do the tasting as I was driving.


Danny tried some Flederweiss which I mentioned yesterday.
We asked the guys serving it what it was,
(they spoke good English).
It is indeed wine that has not completed the fermentation process.
I did not take a photo of it though.
But I did take this one of a decorated pumpkin
which caught my eye.


And this one which I rather liked.

But the rain hasn't been far away all weekend.

So it wasn't long before the umbrellas made an appearance.

We were ready to go home by then

and take the Pups out for their teatime walk.
I did a little jogging with Paddy.

I'm not sure whether he cut across me,

or pulled me, (he's quite boisterous),

but the next thing was, I was flat on the floor.

Fortunately it was on the grass,

and fortunately only Mike saw me.

He found it funny of course.

After which,

we were off out again,

(unusual for us),

and across the river to a nearby eating place.

It's an old monastry,

which is now a brewery.
It's very popular.

We had our meal,

and the boys had a beer,

then it was back home to watch a DVD.

I hope you all had a good weekend.

See you tomorrow.

Wine Festivities

Despite it being October
there is a lot of activity here on the Mosel.
September and October is the busiest time for tourists.
And no wonder.
There is a wine festival every weekend!
I've already been to 4 different ones while I've been here.
I love them!
I love the atmosphere.



I love the way the narrow streets are packed with stalls, people, bands.
It's noisy, in a happy way.
It's as though the sleepy village has come to life.



The villagers work together to make their wine festival a success.

And it pays off.

As the evening wears on,

it is difficult to make your way along the street.

It's so packed with people enjoying themselves.

Now, I must go and check where the festival is on next weekend.

Hope you all had a good weekend.