Honesty, Worthing, England

maelduin_wyndsong


Posted Jul 17, 2010, 5:14 pm
I, Honesty, announce that I am beginning my dreams travel the world! I have yet to find a host, but before I leave I would like to tell everyone about my home. There are yellow snapdragons, purple fireweed, and pink wild roses. Also, on a regular basis, I enjoy the wild strawberries and saskatoons particular to our region. Though I love all the foliage of my home (and the deer and moose I have for friends!) sometimes that wanderlust just becomes overwhelming!

I'm a bit of a hippy, you could say, and I was born on Valentine's day!

Finally, what sparked my journey, was watching 'The Aristocats' for the 100th time and asking myself "Why can't I be like Thomas O'Mally?" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Aristocats)
He travels everywhere!

Anyway, I'M OFF TO EAT PANCAKES!

They're GRRRRREAT. (Way better than frosted flakes :P)
olgamaus


Posted Aug 31, 2010, 1:35 pm
Hi Mummy,
I arrived in Remscheid today. My first host Katja showed me the outside of my package, there is a sticker from the custums on it, it seemed I was stuck there for a while.

They have horrible weather here - ugh!

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Katja told me that it was raining for four days.

Bye
Honesty
olgamaus


Posted Aug 31, 2010, 2:21 pm
Hi Mummy,
today it stopped raining. When Katja went to the shopping mall to buy her lunch she showed me the water tower which is close her workplace in a law firm.

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This is the city hall, its tower is 48 m high.

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On the place in front of the city hall you can find a pillar with a lion, the heraldic animal of Remscheid.

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That's all for today :)
Bye
Honesty
olgamaus


Posted Sep 3, 2010, 3:28 pm
Hi Mummy,
we went to town today because the sun was shining - at least a little bit :)

First we walked through the shopping mall.

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Here you can see the company building of the local newspaper "Remscheider General-Anzeiger" ...

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... nearby the central bus station.

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The Volkshochschule (adult evening classes) is situated in this modern building.

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Here you can see all at once: the city hall, the newspaper building and the Volkshochschule.

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Oh, someone sprayed a heart onto the concrete wall!

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Here you can see one of the churches in the city centre.

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You can also find a funny fountain here.

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We went along the shopping street than.

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This is the main entrance of the shopping mall.

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In the afternoon it started to rain again :(

Bye
Honesty
olgamaus


Posted Sep 5, 2010, 9:34 pm
Hi Mummy,
we took a really long hiking tour along the River Wupper today. We went to Leichlingen, a small town, by train.

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From here we followed the River Wupper for about 17 - 20 km.

River Wupper is flowing through the city centre of Leichlingen.

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This is a typical house of this region. Old houses are often covered with slate, you can also find lovely half-timbered houses.

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We followed the river until we reached the historical grindery Wipperkotten. It was first mentioned in the documents in early 17th century, situated close to the River Wupper. It burned down and was rebuilt several times, survived even both World Wars. It was supposed to be dismantled in 1955, but it was saved, restored and is unter monument protection now.  Today they were celebrating their annual "Schleiferfest".

Here you can see the old grindery buildings with the double-waterwheel.

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The waterwheels were running, driving the machines inside.

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Here you can see one of the historical workplaces.

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Outside again ...

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We continued walking towards to Solingen. River Wupper is damed by a weir here.

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We walked through a lovely hamlet than, it is called "Rueden", which is the German word for a male dog.

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We walked along lovely flowers.

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Do you know Himalayan Balsam?

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When we had to cross a road we saw this lovely vintage car.

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We walked through another hamlet, Balkhausen.

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In Balkhausen there is another historical grindery. a museum is situated here.

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We walked until we reached Solingen-Unterburg. High above this district you can find the medieval castle "Schloss Burg", built in early 13th century. I hope I will vist this castle some time, Katja promised to take me there if possible. You can see the castle in the background of the next photo and a zoomed photo.

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A chair-lift is leading uphill to the castle.

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We took a last group photograph in Unterburg.

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This was a fantastic trip, but my feet are hurting now (not only my feet, I suppose ;) )

Love
Honesty
olgamaus


Posted Sep 5, 2010, 9:58 pm
Hi Mummy,
I want to show you my new friends here. They are camilla, Bussi, Tochi, Klaus and Squirt, Bussi and camilla will leave today, Bussi prepared a farewell-meal for us: neon-coloured glowworms. I don't know if I like glowworms. Let's try them ;)

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They are great!

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Katja told me that I wouldl like her pets, I'm curious what kind of pets they are. I can see litter boxes, a scratchen post and a scratching ton in the apartement. Maybe cats? I'll find out!

Bye
Honesty
olgamaus


Posted Sep 9, 2010, 7:30 pm
Hi Mummy,
we had pancakes for dinner. We helped Katja to prepare them.

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Hm, tuna? Onions? I like my pancakes with maple syrup. Katja told me that in Germany pancakes with a savoury filling are favoured.  Well, I'm always open for surprises :D

While the first pancake was baking, we prepared some raw vegetables.

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It did not look that bad with its tuna-onion-cheese-filling  ;)

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Yummy!

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Tomorrow I will feed the other predators here. Yes, I am not the only predator here. There are three little furry things living in a drawer, eating raw meat. This seems to be interesting ...

Bye
Honesty
olgamaus


Posted Sep 13, 2010, 8:58 pm
Hi Mummy,
in the afternoon we went to Katja's friend Kerstin to take a walk with her and her dog. We went to an area where the city limits of Remscheid and Wuppertal meet. We walked through a small hamlet with old houses.

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We decided to walk to a nearby dam, "Ronsdorfer Talsperre". We walked though a rural area.

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We reached the dam soon.

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Oh dear, this darn is a dam?!

Indeed, you can see the whole dam here.

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We walked downhill towards a pretty valley.

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The creek which is running through this valley is backed-up to fishing ponds. Here is one of them. What a lovely scenery.

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We saw this pretty restaurant in the valley. Katja told me that is here for more than 100 years.

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We walked back when it started to rain. We all got wet!

Bye
Honesty
olgamaus


Posted Sep 21, 2010, 6:41 pm
Hi Mummy,
we took a walk to the municipal park today.
My current home is in a part of the city where many old houses "survived" World War Ii.

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This church is surrounded by large trees, so you cannot take a photo from a distance to show the whole building (only in winter :) )

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After a short walk we reached the municipal park. First we visited the pond, ducks and turtles are living here.

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The observatory is situated here in the park.

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We walked around a bit. On the next photo you can see the outskirts of the neighbour city Wuppertal in the background.

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You can find three allotment areas in the park. Here is one of them, the district Hasten lying in the valley behind the gardens.

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On our way back home we said "Hello" to Katja's sister-in-law. On our way there we walked along another allotment area.

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The weather is supposed to become better in the following days, I hope we will go out a little bit more often than!

Bye
Honesty

olgamaus


Posted Oct 2, 2010, 11:10 am
Hi Mummy,
we took a long hiking tour today. We followed a hiking path which is called “Around Wuppertal”. Wuppertal is the neighbour city of Remscheid, the borders of the municipal areas of both cities meet in Morsbach valley. This hiking path is about 110 km long, surrounding the municipal area of Wuppertal. Of course we only did part of it.

Most of the time the path was leading through forests, touching the outskirts of Wuppertal.

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We walked through an old hamlet.

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They are still working nowadays in this historic factory building.

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Due to the bad weather during the last weeks the forests are full of mushrooms.

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What a lovely mailbox! It belongs to an old house in the middle of the forest.

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While we had to walk uphill we saw some fish ponds.

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After walking through another hamlet I could see the city centre of Remscheid in the distance.

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The weather seemed to be crazy - always changing between sunshine and a cloudy sky. Nontheless those sunflowers were lovely.

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Sometimes we had to cross creeks by jumping onto stones or climbing over trees.

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We saw trees with painted-on funny faces  :D

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We were leaving the  hiking trail here to walk to Muengsten Bridge, Germany's highest railway bridge.
olgamaus


Posted Oct 2, 2010, 11:26 am
We reached the municipal area of Remscheid than. Morsbach creek is marking the border between Remscheid and Wuppertal. It is opening into the river Wupper here.

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From here it is not far to Muengsten Bridge which is Germany's highest railway bridge. A few years ago a leisure park was created underneath the bridge with resting chairs, playgrounds, crazy golf and restaurants. You can even play in the river here as long as there is no high water.

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Here you can see at least part of the bridge. It is so large that is difficult to take a photo which shows the whole bridge    :)

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Muengsten Bridge is overspanning the valley of river Wupper connecting the cities of  Remscheid and Solingen. It is 465 m long and 107 m high. It was finished in 1897. It is made of steel. At the moment restoration works are taking place.

Finally we made it!

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We rested for a while and had a coffee.

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We walked along river Wupper for a while. Isn't this a beauty spot?

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When we walked uphill our path turned into another direction, we reached the bridge once more, this time walking along the slope of the valley.

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We walked uphill until we reached the beginning of the bridge. Katja knows a path which is leading through the masonry construction of the bridge.

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We reached a rural area than, a really wonderful place.

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This was a really exhausting trip but I have seen some wonderful places.

Love
Honesty
olgamaus


Posted Oct 12, 2010, 7:54 pm
Hi Mummy,
Katja showed us Schloss Burg, a medieval castle in the neighbour city Solingen. It is situated high upon a hill above the River Wupper.

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Schloss Burg was built in 1133 by Count Adolf I von Berg on a hill above the river Wupper.That's why this region is called "Bergisches Land". Many people believe that it's name refers to the landscape with hills and valleys. (For those who do not speak German: The German word for mountain or hill is "Berg", so many people think that the name "Bergisches Land" means "land with many hills" )

About a hundred years later it was enlarged by Count Engelberg II von Berg. This is the guy on the horse in the courtyard.

In Thirty Years War (17th century) many parts of the castle were destroyed. It was rebuilt then, but it was used for industrial purposes for many years. In the end of the 19th century they began to rebuild it as it appears today.

In the castle courtyard you can find souvenir shops and shops whose owners are doing an "old" handcraft. For example someone makes soap, another makes brushes, then you can buy things that were used by knights for the kids, like swords and helmets. 

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This monument is showing Count Engelberg II von Berg.

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From this high point you have a great overview across the landscape.

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After visiting the castle we took a walk in the surrounding forests.

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There is a pretty outlook pavilion.

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When we walked back to the car we saw those planted shoes - real shoes  :D

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A sawmill is situated here.

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Bye
Honesty
olgamaus


Posted Oct 19, 2010, 7:54 pm
Hi Mummy,
today we met Katja's friend Kerstin and took a walk with her and her dog.

When we picked them up at their home we had a look around the garden.

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We went to Wuppertal, to Scharpenacken, a former army training area. This area was used for military purposes until 2004 A.D as a shooting range. Today there is a local recreation area with vast open areas.

A lot of people come with their dogs and let them run and play here.

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We went along a valley then and walked to the other side of the valley. There you can find "Vorwerk-Park",  a country park which was created in early 20th century by rich manufacturer, Adolf Vorwerk, as a private park for his own mansion. In 2001 the park was opened for publicity.

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There are some outlook points, you have a great overview across the valley here.

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Bye
Honesty

olgamaus


Posted Oct 23, 2010, 7:59 pm
Hi Mummy,
we stayed at home today, having a really lazy day. Katja is knitting socks for a girl in South America and in the afternoon we decided to bake a cake. We made a cake with raisins, but not with "ordinary" raisins. The raisins were put into rum a few days ago :)

Katja printed the receipe and pinned it to the kitchen wall.

The ingredients for our cake are

250 g  butter / margarine
200 g  sugar
1 p  vanilla sugar
salt, lemon peel
4  eggs
100 ml milk
300 g  wheat flour
100 g  starch flour
1  p baking powder
250 g raisins
chocolate icing or sugar powder

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Those raisins smelled delicious!

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First we had to grease the baking pan. The baking oven was preheated to 175°C.

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Katja prepared the dought. First butter was beaten with sugar and vanilla sugar, than the eggs were mixed in, than milk and flour, starch flour and baking powder. At last the raisins were put into the dough.

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The cake had to bake for about 75 minutes.

75 minutes later ......

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We took the cake out of the baking pan ...

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With its chocolate topping it looked like this:

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Yummy!

We'll taste it tomorrow.

Bye
Honesty
olgamaus


Posted Oct 30, 2010, 8:31 pm
Hi Mummy,

it was time to say good-bye to Katja, my friends and the ferrets.

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After feeding the ferrets I packed my things and set out for Canada. I hope my journey home won't last too long.

Bye
Honesty
lucymonty


Posted Dec 9, 2010, 5:04 pm
Honesty has arrived in England! He is looking forward to British adventures :-) Photos to follow!
lucymonty


Posted Jan 3, 2011, 5:56 pm
Hi mum!

I've had a great Christmas and New Year and wanted to show you some of the things I've been doing in England so far...

For one thing I've met a distant relative! Monty the cat  :)
lucymonty


Posted Jan 3, 2011, 6:10 pm
I also made new friends...

Climbed the Christmas tree (can you see me?!) and hid underneath...

Warmed up by the fire because it was foggy and cold outside...

I had to wear a silly hat to keep warm too...

But I was happy when I got a candy cane for Christmas!
lucymonty


Posted Jan 20, 2011, 4:47 pm
Hi Mum  :D

I've got a new friend! ThomasHH... a little giraffe!

Here he is arriving from Canada!

Honesty

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