Buzz BlueJay, Miami, Florida, USA

kessalia Posted May 5, 2011, 7:23 pm	Hello hello!  There I was, just nomming on some seed, when I heard a voice behind me. There was Mel, asking if I still wanted to see the world.  Well of course I did!  Who wouldn't want to see new places and make new friends??  So I bounced around and told her YES YES YES!  So now I'm just waiting for my first trip!  Mel and her dolls say they will give me some practice this week, then I'm on my own.  I'm sure I'm up for it!  It takes a lot to get to a big bluejay like me! I love flying, bright colors, and exploring woods and rivers, and learning about other birds.
kessalia Posted May 5, 2011, 8:03 pm	Mel told me that if I was going to be a cool voyager that everyone would want to host, that I needed some practice in visiting manners, and in posing and exploring.  So she took me off on a practice voyage to Holland, MI! Mel, Mel's mom, Has and me all went to the Veldheer Tulip Farm to see the displays for the Tulip Festival.  Everyone in Holland around this time of year, Mel says, are either tourists or pretending to be Dutch, like their ancestors.  Since Mel has a Dutch last name herself, I didn't see why she was annoyed by it, but then she told me she doesn't like most human tourists.  That was why she was ging to teach me my manners before sending me to her friends!  I think she will do better with animals ones!  We are much nicer.  So we went driving down to Holland, Has and I got to sit on Mel's lap.  But Meema made an early stop.  Where were we?  We were at a feed/farm supply store to get BIRD SEED!  I was all for that kind of shopping, but I couldn't help exploring, too! Look look!  I followed the sound of peeping to tubs of baby chicks!  They are birds my size, and they made a lot of noise!  Peep peep peep! Howdy!  What do you think, would I make an awesome cowboy or what?  Those cows wouldn't know what hit 'em, y'all!  OOh!  Or I could be a farmer!  They make tractors in BLUE?  I want one! So then, lots of birdseed in hand, or trunk, we were off to the tulip farms!  Wow!  So so many flowers!  So many bright colors! Can you see me hiding in those pretty pretty blue hyacinths?  I blend in good! I kept wanting to fly into the trees for better views.  Also, some of the trees were so pretty!  Mel told me to mind my manners and not go far though!  She said I should ask my host or hostess if I'm allowed to fly into the trees, and ALWAYS come back if I'm called.  I will try try to remember! From this tree I could see the biggest windmill!  I wonder what the view from the top would be?  No Mel, I will be good and stay here....  For now.... Then we went inside to the store.  There was a lot of stuff to look at, and Has and I wanted to see it all.  We both found some wooden shoes our size!  I think mine are nicer, they are blue and white and black! Like me!  And of course I wasn't going to let Has be the only one getting attention.  I wanted smoochies too!  Smoochies are fun! This was already a long day for me, since I'd barely been out of the backyard before!  But there was one more stop, since Mel and her mom weren't feeling ready to go inside again after such a nice Spring day!  So we stopped for just a few minutes to check out a new nature center along the Pigeon River.  Pigeons??  Pigeons are birds?  Will I see Pigeons? No, Mel says, the pigeons have been extinct for years now!  The river was named for the millions of passenger pigeons, but they were hunted to death. Yikes!  I'm glad bluejays aren't considered game birds! How could anyone want to hurt something as beautiful as this!  I made a new friend!  Are you my mommy?  Hmm?  Hmph.  Don't talk much, do you?  Are you sure you're a bluejay?? Now off to home!  Mel says I did good and learned fast.  So now she'll spend some time and find me a good host. I can't wait!  Yippee!
kessalia Posted May 6, 2011, 7:05 pm	Mel says she found me a host!  But she won't let me go yet.  Hey hey!  I wanna travel!  Oops.  I'm not using good manners, am I?    Maybe I should talk to Lady Amelie about an etiquette class. Once I calmed down though, Mel told that it was because she is going to travel soon, and want me to go with her first.  She just didn't want me to miss a chance to see Niagara Falls, she says!  Wow wow!  I can't wait!  It's one of the biggest waterfalls anywhere!  And there's a big big tower in Toronto we might be able to go up?  Really?      I hope it works out to do all that! Well, since I'll be here for a couple more weeks, I am being good and helping out.  Today I helped Mel fill all of the bird feeders.  I promise I did leave more for other birds, than I ate myself.  Honest.  Yesterday we took a walk to visit Mel's grandma in the care home she lives at.  We walked over a bridge - the creek there flows into the Grand River, which is the biggest river in Michigan! Mel and her mom carried plastic bags with them on thier walk.  I didn't know why until I saw that they were picking up litter as they went.  the path we walked was along a big road, so there was lots of junk.  Eww!  But we got it looking nice, along that part of the path anyway!  Look look!  I helped!  I am good at finding litter and pointing it out to Mel! And then we finally got to the home, and grandma was sleeping!  I got to visit with her housemates though.  They wanted to see me, and I thought it was nice to make new friends! I was a good voyager!  I was friendly and helpful and SO SO photogenic!  But being a beautiful bluejay, how could I not be?
kessalia Posted May 11, 2011, 12:03 am	We got a new visitor today!  And no matter what she says, I wasn't scared.  Not for a minute!  I flew off to... uh...  I dunno, but I wasn't scared, honest.  After the excitment calmed down, and we ran out of cookies, I started to beg Mel to take me down the block. I could see through the window that the neighbor's tree was full of flowers!  I wanted to go see!  Mel, let's go see! So she took her camera to get some artsy photos too, since she likes photography, and she took me along!  I invited vanilla to come too, because I wanted to talk to her alone... The tree was so so pretty!  mel says it is a saucer magnolia.  Mel knows a lot of tree's names. I tried to climb as high as I could. I talked vanilla into climbing up too, so we could chat.  She can't fly like me, but bears are good climbers!  I learned that! I asked her a lot of questions about travelling.  I didn't want anything else to know, but...  I'm a little more nervous about it than I want to say!  I am a big brave bluejay, but new things canbe scary too! Vanilla says that it can be a bit scary, but it helps when everyone is so nice when you get there.  She convinced me that seeing new things will be totally worth it!  I think so! Mel finished her pictures, so we started to walk back home.  But there were even more beautiful trees blooming along the road!  I just had to stop and see them too! This one is a weeping cherry.  It smelled lovely!  Who needs to go to Japan or Washington to see cherry flowers?  (ME!  I wanna go!  Vanilla says she does too.) This one is a different type of cherry - Mel says she knows it best as a Sand Cherry.  it goes here wild in the sand dunes along the lake. I wanna go see that too! Then we walked the rest of the way home.  Vanilla was getting tired, from all the excitment.  I stopped at the birdfeeder.  Then we went in to take naps while Mel got ready for work.  Being a toy can be a good life!
kessalia Posted May 16, 2011, 6:40 pm	Hello hello!  We had a busy morning! First we had an electrician over to look at the house, but that wasn't exciting much for us.  But then the doorbell rang again and new friends got delivered!  They were Riin and Eri from Latvia!  They are traveling toys, but not Toy Voyagers - Mel met their mom on postcrossing and offered to take them for a bit.  She's trying to see if they will sign up for an account like us!  So then we had to go to the store because we were out of bread and stuff.  So Mel took us small toys along! This is the cereal aisle... The meat and seafood counters... And then the produce!  What, no birdseed??  Fine, I'll eat the bread. And when Mel looked at the price of tomatoes, she remembered she had her own plants that needed planting now the fear of frost is mostly over.  So that is what we did next! It was a team effort.  Dan came to help with the heavy work.  We asked him why he cared about the garden, and he said that since he was a chef, of course he cared about growing good food! I helped pull weeds and sticks out of the garden box!   I was very very good at that!  This is Riin and Eri!  Aren't they tiny!  They helped with weeds too! Then Vanilla put a big scoop of compost in the hole from the big ball. Amanda was big enough to handle the plants, but vanilla helped! This is a tomato! I was in charge of putting in the tag so Mel knows what plants are what! We planted a lot of plants for such small toys, but Mel helped.  Here we are with our mostly done garden! Mel says this might be a good day to go to work with her, though Monday's are usually busy and there is a full moon too soon, so she might be wrong.  We will be good mannered and stay quiet if it is busy!
kessalia Posted Jun 9, 2011, 5:30 pm	I know, I know, I haven't even posted my trip photos yet!  Busy busy!  But Mel promised she'll catch them up soon.  We'll see!  But today I'm super super excited, because I finally get to travel!  Mel asked, do I want to stay for the history thing this weekend, and I thought about it, but I know I can see the pictures Vanilla and the rest take, so I would rather get traveling!  I get to go to a new place and see new things and make new friends, yippee for me!  So I said goodbye to one of my favorite trees, which bloomed just in time, and all my friends. Then Mel said my travel envelope was ready!  I picked it out myself!  I love the colors! Im checking to make sure everything is there, the treat I picked out, my card, and even my customs form for the post office, and in I will jump!  See you soon!  Excited!
Gizalba Posted Jun 14, 2011, 4:46 pm	WOOOHOOOO! Mel guess what guess what?! I'm here already! Suddenly the top of my envelope started to move and then... there was day light! Along with the daylight there were three curious faces peering in at me. I shuffled myself out to introduce myself. I was a bit nervous but didn't want to show it so I decided to show off my flying skills. I zoomed around the garden and landed in a bush, then I jumped down and found some flowers that matched the ones on the little purple bear's tummy. This purple bear is another visiting TV called Edelweiss. She was delighted that I'd found the daisies because she loves having pictures taken with flowers. After her picture she picked the flower and gave it to me as a present. I was well chuffed and gave her a hug I thought it would look nice in my hair. My host keeps stroking my head which is rather annoying! After all the excitement at my arrival my host realised she hadn't even looked at the card and treat still in the package! So I got them out to give to her and she was very happy with them. She said she'd never heard of a maple syrup lolly before so that was a great surprise. The other Tvs, Edelweiss, PinkyHH and Mirembe, were very impressed with my envelope I'd picked out. They said 'Buzz travels with style!'  I am off to explore some more, bye bye for now! Love Buzz
Gizalba Posted Jun 18, 2011, 6:34 pm	Hi Mel, I had to wait a few days for my first trip out in this new foreign land, and I was starting to get a bit agitated sat on the shelf. However today we went to a nearby town called Wigan. We messed around in the flower beds, then it was time for some more serious photos. Well, I tried to be serious When I was sat on the wall outside the church a man walked passed and said 'nice toy innit'. I'm not an 'it'!  But my host said it was a compliment all the same and she was proud to be seen with me We had a group photo on a bush. I tried to put my wing around Pinky but it just looks like I've wacked her on the head! Oops. We wandered a bit more and found an interesting statue of half a face. I pointed out some mischievious looking kids to my host, so we took some pictures. They were setting something on fire, can you see the flame if you look reeaally closely? I think they saw me staring though If you looked at the statue from the other side, it was a full face When we got home Mirembe, PinkyHH and I helped Edelweiss with one of her life missions to eat something purple. We nibbled through all the strawberries and green grapes so that only the purple grapes where left. They were rather tasty and renewed our energy.
Gizalba Posted Jun 26, 2011, 2:20 pm	Hi Mel, On thursday we said farewell to Mirembe and gave her hugs, she is off to her first host in Ukraine! Afterwards I went to explore the display cabinet in the living room which had a mirror in the back so I could check my hair. It had lots of interesting figures in, including a rather scary skull. I tried talking to some of the heads but they were motionless Laurel and Hardy seemed to be having a good laugh though. On friday and today we went with our host to visit a friend in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The other TVs had been there before but I hadn't so it was extra exciting! The first pic is of me in the centre of the city. We also looked in a bookshop which was a rather grand inside. The others climbed the shelves so that we could have a picture with the statue in the background, but I got up first due to my expert flying skills We caught a bus and in a different part of the city we came across a big Sonic the hedgehog figure which my host's friend thought would be great for a TV photo shoot. I even match because I'm blue When we got back my host finally let me use the laptop to look at Vanilla's Historical re-enactment updates. I had been begging to see them but I did say please  Hello Vanilla if you are reading this! *waves*
Gizalba Posted Jun 29, 2011, 7:31 pm	When we got off the train in Manchester we saw this massive sky scraper! Then we walked a bit to find a nice building (I don't know why I have my wing up in that picture!) On the way we saw a Harry Potter poster which my host liked We found some pretty canal boats and I was very fond of the flowers on top and how they were painted. I wish we could have looked inside of one!  On the other side of the canal there was a little toyvoyager-sized house. We wanted to visit it but we didn't have any canoes to get across the water . We also saw a Roman Granary, there was a sign explaining but we got bored of that and wanted to play! Ooh, on the way back we saw a very brightly coloured building and I had a rest.
Gizalba Posted Jul 2, 2011, 7:00 pm	It was the Croft village Carnival today mum!!! They have a procession through the streets with floats pulled by Tractors or Lorries. I wanna drive a tractor! can I drive one?! My host said that it would interupt the procession if I tried to hijack a tractor so I had to contain myself Maybe I could sit on a float instead, I'd look so good! No? Where's the fun around here?! Okay, I did have fun really The first pic is of me looking at the people beginning to come out of their houses to wait for it to start, we were pretty early but later there would be crowds. Miss Becca says that this is the only day of the year when Croft looks like it has people in! At other times it is extremely quiet. We walked out of the estate to get a good view with no heads in the way I sat with Edel and Pinky on someone's garden wall, to wait for it to begin. Here come the bagpipes! Then came the walkers, with the pre-school. They don't look too happy do they... cheer up people! The next float is the primary school, followed by... ROCKET! I want a ROCKET! Mum, can I go to space?! Awww. After that came the Women's Institute float called 'Women of the world'. I didn't get a great picture of that because Pinky and Edelweiss snatched the camera, how rude  There was then a book advertising float with cute kids on. And finally... More music, but this time a brass band! I have more photos which I will post later... Of scarecrows! P.s. I forgot to include the Angel Girl Scout float so I've added it at the end. Although it's blury because the camera focused on my head!
Gizalba Posted Jul 5, 2011, 4:49 pm	Leading on from the last update... Every year the carnival has a scarecrow competition where anyone in the village can make a scarecrow to display in their garden. This year's theme was the 70's! So we went to have a nosy Pinky and I though the 'Croft Village people' were the best, followed by Flower Power and Skarsky and Hutch because they used the Rabbit Hutch :P However Edel wanted Flower Power to win because that scarecrow matched her tummy! I believe that makes her biased
Gizalba Posted Jul 23, 2011, 9:14 pm	Hi mom!!! Long time no speak, my host says sorry! I will update you on the goings on: The first photo was taken on the 14th of July when my host was getting ready for the midnight showing of the final Harry Potter. She was very thoughtful and made us hats for the occasion!  Even though they only seem to wear hats in the first film... ah well. Sadly there was nothing exciting in the cinema for us to take more photos of - noone dressed up, booo!  Then today was Pinky's leaving day I insisted she gave me a few more toyvoyager tips before she left, as she is a very well-travelled and wise bear. And then there were two... Edelweiss and I get on well though My host says there are a few more toys on their way so that will be exciting! Anyway, the next picture is the shelf where us toyvoyagers sleep. Pinocchio's AWSOME - we're best buds And Edel has a baby clown friend. I wanted to investigate some of the other shelves though, and I met some bears and a pelican called Swoop. My host says she's seen one of Swoop's distant relatives on toyvoyagers somewhere, going by the name of Wilson... Swoop was very happy to hear that.
Gizalba Posted Jul 24, 2011, 9:55 pm	Today we managed to visit a city and a town all in one day! Our host had an appointment in Manchester so we went there in the car, then Edel and I wanted to get the train to her home town centre afterwards. It was lovely and sunny so we couldn't see why not We took so many pictures I won't describe every one, but at first we went to a park and I tried to make friends with the pidgeons 'HELLO I'M BUZZ!!!' They were a bit rude and looked at me like I was some crazy blue bird.... oh wait, I am  Haha, oh well, I'm way too intelligent for them anyway. We spotted some window cleaners abseiling with their buckets on the big buildings. Then we found a mini water-fall further down the canal from last time we went - does that count towards my waterfall mission mom?! And the pretty graffiti! When we got to Warrington we visited the town hall with the golden gates, another park, then went into the centre where all the shops are. There was Alice in Wonderland at the Mad Hatter's tea party! And then we heard chanting and wandered over the the rugby the stadium where there was a match on. My host doesn't like rugby but usually when you mention to someone you live in Warrington they only know it because of the Warrington Wolves team. The pubs nearby were so busy with people spilling out you could hardly see the doors! The last pic was meant to go first, as it was us in the car in the morning.
Gizalba Posted Aug 1, 2011, 10:22 pm	Today we were surprised because our host got up at 6am for once! And said that we could go on a morning stroll We visited the horses and even saw a rabbit! It is nice that there are stables here so you see horses walking around the neighbourhood with their owners, but behind their fields is the motorway which you may be able to see on one of the pictures. The constant noise of cars and lorries ruins the atmosphere a bit. A white horsey came to say hello We didn't get too near though in case he wanted to eat us! When we got back the room looked pretty because my host's glitter ball was reflecting the sun, so we took a picture of that too.
Gizalba Posted Aug 11, 2011, 7:05 pm	We're back (on sunday night we travelled down to stay with my host's friends in Gloucester). I am going to split these updates into sections. This section shows us on monday morning, learning how to quill; a skill which my host's friend taught us We cut some strips of coloured paper and I chose the light blue  Then we used a cuticle stick which had a slit cut into the top to keep the paper strip on, and twisted the paper into a spiral. We put the spiral down, then glued the end of the paper so that we could pinch the sides of the circle to make a leaf shape. Finally we glued all of these onto the card and stuck pipe cleaners on to make the trunk of the tree. At the end of our stay we gave the card to our host's friends as a thankyou for looking after us
Gizalba Posted Aug 14, 2011, 4:54 pm	On monday afternoon we went for a stroll to the local park. We had to go through a church graveyard to get to it, which was nice and calm. Then we entered the park and for some reason it looked a bit like Autumn, with the leaves falling already! Some of the trees must be confused. There was a building hidden behind the trees which looked pretty. Then we found a mini nature reserve to investigate. There didn't seem to be much wildlife about... I called out to the bird houses on the massive tree I saw. I thought there might be some fellow bluejays around but there was no response However on the way back to the flat we saw some black and white cat twins sat on bins! They looked rather amusing
Gizalba Posted Aug 18, 2011, 12:59 am	The third of our mini break updates: This morning we visited the town centre of Cheltenham. Edelweiss and I were posing on the wall for our picture (well Edel was actually having a lie down), then noticed that behind us was a a cute group of fluffy ducklings! We zoomed in the camera to get a closer look In the shopping centre I found this nice erm... I'm not sure what it was, but it was decorative We went to a park for our lunch, then did some climbing  On the second climbing photo I had just decided to sunbathe, honest mum, I didn't fall! The sun was so bright the pictures aren't that clear as we're washed out by the light! The fountain looked cooling, but we didn't really want to jump in as it was rather green. On our way back along the high street to the buses there was a pretty bank building. I will update again soon to show where we got the bus to next
Gizalba Posted Aug 26, 2011, 5:45 pm	The final instalment of our mini break... In my last update we were just about to get the bus from Cheltenham to Gloucester city centre. Here I am on the bus When we arrived we were glad we'd made the journey. The cathedral is so beautiful and calming. We were even allowed to take some pictures inside and it wasn't really dark like some cathedrals. We were messing about around the walls when a man went past saying 'what a good idea to take your teddies with you on a day out!' He didn't stop long enough for us to explain that we weren't any old teddies - we were teddies travelling the world! :P Ah well. We managed to get some pictures in the centre grassed bit of the cathedral, just before the camera's battery died and signalled it was time to travel back to our host's home! We had lots of fun mum Added trivia found online (My host likes visiting places where bits of the Harry Potter movies were filmed ) Quote: 'Gloucester Cathedral - Gloucester (Hogwarts School, Corridors) The cathedrals magnificent cloisters were used as the the corridors of Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone' and 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets' and were the setting for ghost scenes. The talking pictures in the Sorcerer' stone, and the overflowing bathrooms in the Chamber of Secrets were also filmed here. '
Gizalba Posted Aug 28, 2011, 5:25 am	On our walk back from the library where my host had been studying, we went along a bridge. There wasn't much else to see on the walk apart from the Free-range chicken farm near to my host's house. I don't think we were meant to be on the land so we zoomed in a bit. The next photo is us inspecting the exciting looking sequin glitter glue Michel was using to make his mum's birthday banner - we helped too!
Gizalba Posted Sep 4, 2011, 9:30 pm	My host travelled to Durham for a meeting about her education, so us toys went along too. We had fun taking pictures from the back of the car We're not sure what the landscape was that we passed, on the map it looks like we skimmed the top of the Yorkshire Dales. We had a break to stretch our legs and met some sheep  They wanted to talk to us I think but our host was wary about our safety. When we reached our destination we didn't have much time to investigate as the journey is a long way to go there and back in a day. But we just about had time to walk along the river a bit and saw the cathedral in the distance. Since Edelweiss had seen it before she described to the rest of us what it looked like close up We had parked in my host's college grounds which is on a hill next to the river Wear, so we had a quick look around there too. (Sorry the pictures are a bit out of order towards the end!)
Gizalba Posted Sep 16, 2011, 8:17 pm	Hi Mum! Today my host took us to a nearby city called Liverpool. We visited her favourite shop which is known as 'Quiggins'; it is full of gothic/retro/vintage/alternative clothing and objects. Sorry the indoor pictures are blurry; it is rather dimly lit and we suspected a flash may not be allowed! The next pictures are of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, just up the hill from Quiggins. We waited for a group of tourists to move so we could get a group shot undisturbed From the other side of the cathedral we zoomed and could just about view the top the Liver Building, which has two liver bird statues on top. This building is situated next to the Docks and River Mersey. We will hopefully go to see that side of Liverpool another day.
Gizalba Posted Sep 29, 2011, 6:42 pm	Today we went back to Liverpool!  But when we got there we realised there was someone missing... Edelweiss! There was a moth whizzing around the other day and since Edel is made of wool she had crawled into her plastic bag with the cedar wood for safety. When my host scooped us all off the shelf in a rush this morning, Edel was still in her bag on the other shelf!  So sad. But when we got back she said she'd had a nice rest, and was happy to see our photos It was a day of typical English whether; dull sky and the constant threat of rain. We made our way past St George's Hall (the one with all the collumns) and through St John's gardens. These are part of the Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City UNESCO world heritage site (gosh what a mouth full!), along with Pier Head and Albert Dock which we are making our way towards. OH, and I met a seagull! But he was a bit stuck-up and didn't want to talk :/ There was a statue with people in chains and the words 'England expects every man to do his duty'! We didn't have time to look at what the surrounding buildings where, but perhaps it was to do with the courts... We reached Pier Head where the Royal Liver Building is. This is the main landmark in Liverpool and according to legend if the birds on top fly away, the city will no longer exist  This is the building that I saw in the distance the other day when we visited the cathedral. We wandered along a bit more to reach Albert Dock, where The Beatles music band museum is. THEN... we saw the Yellow Duck Marine! It is a site-seeing bus/boat created due to The Beatles 'Yellow submarine' song. It tours the main sights on land, then splashes into the river and turns into a boat. We heard the driver saying in a strong scouse accent 'The louder you scream, the bigger the splash!' LOL. Buzz, Michel, Pengy and I started singing 'we all live in a yellow submarine... a yellow submarine... a yellow submarine...' Because we're cool We got so carried away singing we didn't get the big splash on camera, but I managed to snap a photo of it sailing away just before it disappeared from site. We also spotted some Superlambanana decendants The original one was much bigger and bright yellow, as you would imagine a bannana would be It was created for Liverpool due to its history of bananas and lambs being common cargo at the docks, and also to make a point about the dangers of genetic engineering. In 2008 125 small replicas were made, with lots of different designs and scattered throughout the city. The superlambananas you can see me with are part of a collection of 8 new ones which arrived in 2010.
Gizalba Posted Oct 2, 2011, 7:15 pm	Hi there! My host is a bit behind with her photo updates, but we've given up on trying to get 'correct' dates! As you will know, the other week BineHH arrived! I recognised the writing on the envelope, WOO Although my host helped Bine use the computer to draw black lines on the photo to hide the addresses. For 'security' reasons apparently . Anyway, I managed to free the little crab, and he introduced himself He showed me the postcard and I was thrilled to see that there was a birdy on there that looked similar to me. It was from you mum! And to see the drawings on the other side, made me so proud to be able to say that the card was from my mentor The other TVs loved their pictures too! Bine and I also had fun nomming on the yummy sweets.
Gizalba Posted Oct 5, 2011, 9:53 pm	The first few photos are of Pengy showing us the Royal wedding postcards he found I was very interested in the dress! Then another day my host saw a nice island-type thing with ducks and geese and swans on, in the middle of a business park. Usually business parks are horrible to look at, but we thought using the water to attract natural wildlife was a good planning idea Sorry I didn't get many pictures though mum, the camera battery died!
Gizalba Posted Oct 9, 2011, 7:24 pm	Here are some pictures of a church in the next village along from my host's home village. It was the end of a lovely hot day which felt like summer. The weather was quite strange for the beginning of October, but we weren't complaining.
Gizalba Posted Oct 15, 2011, 7:10 pm	A few weeks ago we all got packed into a bag, ready to travel to my host's term-time home in Durham, North-east England. It was very exciting!  We stopped off at a service station for a break. Unlike the rather dull motorway stations this was a friendly country one with farm animals. Just as we were leaving we looked across at the cows and then stared I said 'is that a deformed cow?!' Pinky Bear exclaimed 'That cows got humps!' and then BineHH shouted 'That cow's a CAMEL!' :O Ahahaha. So funny. It was extremely windy so much so that my host had to try several times to get the camera still, but we were determined to get the random field camel on camera My host had never seen a Camel in a field before. In England we usually only see Camels in zoos! I don't think Mr Camel was aware that he was not a cow... :P He was on the other side of the field though so I have added some really zoomed in pictures for you to see
Gizalba Posted Oct 15, 2011, 9:42 pm	So, on the 3rd of October (quite in the past now!), we arrived in the university Halls of residence. On another day there was a double rainbow! We rushed over to climb onto the windowsill, but sadly it was fading quickly I don't know if you can see the remains of one of them just above the roof on the opposite building? The other pics are of our new Toyvoyager accomodation :P The shelf is very much like the one back at my host's home, only this one is more spacious so we can all fit on
Gizalba Posted Oct 23, 2011, 12:13 am	Helloo mum! I am actually on my way to Germany right now. I was posted today! I had to put my wings up in order to fit into the envelope, a bit like when humans put their arms up to fit into a jumper The others laughed and bid me farewell. I will especially miss Edelweiss as we have stayed here together for quite a while. My host didn't want to put me into the envelope until the last minute as she was so sad to see me go. She will keep looking out for my updates when I get to Germany The following is from a week ago: Every saturday now, a private tutor comes to teach my host statistics (because she really fails at understanding anything to do with numbers!). Anyway, that is rather dull, but the room where she is tutored is really pretty, so last Saturday we took some photos. It is in the building where my host lives, but all sorts of people book it. Today we couldn't go in as there was a wedding! We had a bit of a chuckle about the bum on the wall My host said it was artistic but we just thought it was funny! I'm not sure if TVs are allowed to take photos of the room... but we didn't touch anything! The sunlight was beaming in through the windows, and I had a nosy at the trophy cabinet. I don't know what the trophies were for though as we were trying to be quick just in case anyone came in! My host said she may have a look at the trophies another time and report back to me
HoBi Posted Nov 2, 2011, 8:31 pm	Hello Mum, Finally I arrived in Germany. Snakey and Murph opened my envelope and looked into it. Then I climbed out of the envelope. I took the postcard out of the envelope – Gizalba gave it to me – and showed it to the others. But I had more – some sweets and a gift.. Of course Murph and I unwrapped the gift. We showed the gift to HoBi and Snakey. Thanks  Gizalba. I will show more photos soon, Mum. Love Buzz
HoBi Posted Nov 6, 2011, 11:48 am	Hello friends, It is RikeH’s birthday today. Snakey, Murph and I created a card for her. First we decided which theme we wanted to have. Difficult! Murph loved the mice. Snakey and I wanted the hippo. Okay, RikeH loves hippos. So we took the hippo. We started. Murph took the glue. Snakey and I pressed the paper. The card was finished. I signed the card. And now we all are singing for RikeH HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LIEBE RIKE, HAPPY BIRTHDAY FOR YOU!!! Have a wonderful birthday! Buzz
HoBi Posted Nov 8, 2011, 8:51 pm	Hi Mum, today I went into a great forest with Murph and Snakey. There were old trees and wonderful rocks. Murph showed me this rare mushroom. Can you see these beautiful rocks? And the wonderful old trees. We climbed up the rock. What a nice forest! There was a look-out in the forest. We thought about climing up the tower. And decided to go – we wanted to see the surrounding from the tower. The view was brillant! We decided that it was a tall tall tower - so I completed one of my life missions! Great! There was a little church. We felt like being in a big castle. - It was a wonderful trip! Many greetings Buzz
Gizalba Posted Nov 12, 2011, 4:53 pm	Me leaving for Germany! Sorry these are late mum, but here are the photos we took on my last host's mobile phone, when her camera was broken. Hence the lack of quality There were lots of postcrossing postcards coming alongside my parcel to the post-office!
HoBi Posted Nov 14, 2011, 7:22 pm	Hi Mum, Today Murph showed me Bad Salzdetfurth. It is an old mining city.  Here you see a photo of the emblem. This is a museum with many old machines of the mining time. Can you see us? There were Salines in the Park. The people used them to produce salt in the Past. This was a  Summstein. Murph told us, how it works. You should stand in the Stone and hum. Then your Body tingle.  Of course we tried it out. There is a street of planets In Bad Salzdetfurth. All planets are in the correct distance to the sun all over the city. We found the Earth.  It is a really beautiful city. Then we drove to this funny sculpture. Do you know these two guys? They are Max and Moritz. Wilhelm Busch wrote about their story in a book. He lived here. Many greetings Buzz
HoBi Posted Nov 20, 2011, 5:54 pm	Hello Mum, Today we made a trip to the wisent park in Springe. We saw a lot of animals there. First we saw these beautiful birds. They were almost as beautiful as I am. This is a hotel for bugs. We met moose… … and many deer. These lazy animals gave the name for the park. (No - not the nice ones in the front - look behind us!) More beautiful animals! It was a great trip. Yours Buzz
HoBi Posted Nov 29, 2011, 8:50 pm	Hello Mum, today it was my last day with Murph. It was cold and windy, but we wanted to make a nice trip to Alfeld. In Alfeld everything is decorated for Christmas. I would love to see this old tower in the summertime – I think that it will be more beautiful then. On the marketplace there is a funny monument. And a beautiful fountain. The marketstreet and the townhall. What a shock! I thought that the church burned. Luckily it was only smoke from a factory behind the church. I found this wonderful houw – the old Latin School. Near to it there was another statue. On our way back we saw this big angel. I wanted a photo with it. At home we we lightened the first candle of the Advent wreath. We were not able to celebrate the first Advent for a long time. I am a little late – fam-united is waiting for me. So I said goodbye to the others. And I jumped into my envelope. It was great here, but now I am happy to have a nice time with fam-united. Love Buzz
fam-united Posted Dec 18, 2011, 5:09 pm	I finally arrived at my new host's home for celebrating Christmas. I'm curious to meet all the other toyvoyagers here. I will keep you posted. Bye, Buzz
fam-united Posted Dec 19, 2011, 7:48 pm	Today we helped Petra to bake two large apple cakes, because tomorrow is the last day of her son's alternative service. We prepared the dough and cut apples into pieces, added cinnamon, raisins and sliced almonds to the apples and cooked them. Then we made a part of the dough in the plate and filled it with the warm apples and covered it with dough again. I would so love to make this internet able to give you a hint of the smell in the kitchen, yummy. While we all worked really hard, one of us sat around and only listened to music of the cd-played. Of course one whose name is Priscilla can only listen to music of Elvis, especially when it is Christmas time and it is a Christmas album. The first of us, who discovered the new cd was Henry the Adventure Hound. We needed a lot of flour for the cake.
fam-united Posted Dec 19, 2011, 8:18 pm	This weekend there is a special event in Bruchsal. There is a second Christmas market for three days around the palace. The weather wasn't that great - no snow, but it was cold enough and the place was full of people. At first we listend to the trombone choir playing Christmas songs. We also took a look into all the tents, but it was too crowded to take photos there. We left the Christmas market and took a photo of the front of the palace by night before we drove home again.
fam-united Posted Dec 20, 2011, 3:29 pm	While our host was teaching at school, it started to snow. We asked her to go out with us, but she said, that the snow is rather wet and that it isn't nice outside. Nevertheless she took some photos with me to show the roofs covered with some snow. Here you see the two towers of the church St. Peter.
fam-united Posted Dec 28, 2011, 9:02 pm	Petra has time to do some more baking. At first we all sat down at our place, where Petra wanted us to sit. We took the book and searched for some nice recipes. You can see, which recipes we picked out for baking today. We also baked some other sorts of cookies.
fam-united Posted Dec 28, 2011, 9:34 pm	Today is a very special day. We all were allowed to help packing the presents for Christmas. Later we helped to cook chicken fricassee in the clay pot and some corn salad and of course we helped to eat everything Later we ate some of our selfmade cookies.
fam-united Posted Dec 28, 2011, 10:15 pm	Merry Christmas to you! In the morning we watched a movie, which Petra got as present yesterday evening: Elvis: That's the way it is. I must say, that he was a really cute guy and I also like some of his songs. Our sheep waited in the stable with the sheep. Then we all went to the crib with the newborn Jesus.
fam-united Posted Dec 29, 2011, 1:40 pm	Today we helped to cook again. We had lamb, dumplings, vegetables (carrots, onions, oranges and dates) with red pepper pearls. It tasted very very fine, although it was a diet recipe- without the dumplings. Then everyone went away and we were alone at home. We prepared everything for dinner: raclette. Look at this amount of black olives.
fam-united Posted Dec 31, 2011, 2:44 pm	Today we went to Petra's parents in law to celebrate Christmas with them and her husbands' sisters families. We saw some nice angels and another beautiful Christmas tree.
fam-united Posted Dec 31, 2011, 3:30 pm	The weather was a bit better, so we decided to go on a short walk over the graveyard, which is close to where I live right now. There is a beautiful baroque church next to the graveyard. It's called St. Peter. We also visited to Jewish graveyard. Next to the newapostolic church on the left we had a good view over a part of Bruchsal. The big house on the right is the backside of Sancta Maria. Next to Sancta Maria we had another good view over the city. I hope, that I will come closer to those towers to see exactly, what these buildings look like. Petra told me, that from left to right you can see the tower of the city church Our holy lady, church St. Damian and Hugo, which belongs to the palace and the old tower of the ancient castle. Here is the front of Sancta Maria. It is a school for soon to be kindergardeners and also home for some Franciscan nuns. Here we are on our way back home. Turning around the left corner there the place, where I live right now.
fam-united Posted Jan 2, 2012, 3:13 pm	It's the last day of 2011 and we start to bake a new year pretzel. At first we had to take flour, some warm milk and fresh barm. We prepared a yeast sponge. Later we added honey and melted butter and salt.
fam-united Posted Jan 2, 2012, 3:36 pm	Happy New Year We celebrated with friends and had a lot of fun. At midnight we watched the fireworks. I'm sorry, it was really difficult to take a nice photo. This one isn't really a nice one.
fam-united Posted Jan 2, 2012, 8:35 pm	Mandy Sheep read a lot about Baden-Württemberg, because she joins in the Big German Round Robin. After hours of searching for information about the state we're living with our host right now, she got bored of reading so much, so she decided to listen to a nice song on youtube. Maybe you will watch it to. It is "Crawfish" from Elvis Presley's movie "King Creole". She called us to join her.
fam-united Posted Jan 27, 2012, 6:43 pm	The weather isn't the best one, but today we've seen some blue sky I decided to join my host and her daughter, when her daughter delivered a journal of the catholic church to some people. On our way we saw some nice old houses.
fam-united Posted Jan 27, 2012, 8:18 pm	In the evening we went to take the stars from a storeroom of the church, where our hosts belong to. Petra takes care for the stars, which will be carried around by the starsingers on 6th January. Some of the stars are old, some don't look nice anymore, so Petra creates new covers and we decided to help her today. Here you see a star, that still looks nice. Nevertheless it isn't, if you take a closer look. Last year it rained a lot and the star got wet. Now you can see white glue running down, where it should be only clear yellow. Some said, that it doesn't matter, but our host didn't like it and she asked us to cut out new yellow transparent paper and a new black star silhouette. We didn't like the yellow side of this star, so we decided to spray it bronze and cut out a new yellow transparent paper and black star silhouette too. We had to work really hard. We also didn't like these two stars and we had to throw one into the bin, because it was broken on the back totally. Then we had to outline the first star on the transparent paper. Priscilla helped to cut it out. But it was rather difficult for her, so Lintilla offered to help her. While we worked, we found some marzipan potatoes. We tried to speak really low, because Mi-Go had been fallen asleep in our back and you know, that he always runs to get it, if he sees something to eat. But we should have knows it better. Of course he also feels, if something to eat is around. He jumped up and caught the marzipan potatoes in the same second. Only Lintilla seemed to take no notice of it. Proud Mi-Go! We tried to keep calm and go on with our work. We had to outline the black star now. Mi-Go was anything else, but no help for us. But to our surprise, he was the one, who asked us, if he could be the one, who was allowed to cut out the black star silhouette. That looks really difficult, but it seems, that he's the one, who knows, how to do it. And yeah, it just looks great. Now you can be really proud, Mi-Go. But, oh dear, we had done a mistake, when we outlined the yellow star. It was the wrong side of the paper and so the star didn't fit perfectly to the wooden star. We were very disappointed. We had to cut out another yellow star and black star silhouette, which fit perfectly then. Then we had a break and read the newspapers. We read, that Wulff is the Federal President and that there are some problems, but they aren't really interesting for toyvoyagers. But it was really interesting for us, that they wrote about a storm, which should hit Germany soon - no toyvoyager weather For me it was interesting to see a photo of the wife of Baden-Württembergs Minister-President Kretschmann. I read, that she doesn't want to be called a First Lady. I did want to read this whole news article, but the others didn't and so we went on to the next page. We saw a photo with a little bit of snow. Wow, there's snow somewhere in Germany. But then we turned to read the Bruchsal news and the first thing we saw, what a nice bird singing and a pussy willow blooming. It seems like springtime here. Did you know, that petrol in Germany is that expensive? I'm not sure, because we didn't know about this. Diesel costs between 1,37 Euro and 1,48 Euro, which means between 1,8092 US-Dollar and 1,9544 US-Dollar. It would be interesting to know, how expensive it is in other countries. On Karlsruhe page on the right we read about a big construction area, where they build a new way for the city tram. Here is an interesting page. It shows items, which you can buy in the newspaper shop. They sell items of Baden. Maybe we should go there and take a look, but surely they will cost some money.
fam-united Posted Jan 28, 2012, 10:14 am	I like this Christmas decoration on the window. It's on the same place each year. If you like it too and want the originals to cut them out for yourself, please send a note to Petra. It's a nice place for us toyvoyagers, too. It is warm and you can see everything that's going on on the street The first photo is without flash, just to show you, how dark it is outside although it is early midday. If Petra hasn't done a mistake, then there are 26 toyvoyagers sitting together. Some are her toyvoyagers, some her daughters and some are rescued toyvoyagers, which still are at her place and of course some are guests, who will move on again.
fam-united Posted Jan 28, 2012, 10:51 am	After the big group photo session we finished the stars. The other toyvoyagers were really curious and came to take a look at the beautiful stars. Later a group of starsingers visited our house, but we just had been too slow, so we aren't on this photo. Nevertheless we thougth, that it is a good idea to show you, how starsingers can look like. They don't carry one of our stars, though. They belong to the church region, were our hosts live, but our hosts go to another church, where they lived before. It's a bit complicated In the afternoon we all helped our Petra to bake two cakes. She told us, that tomorrow isn't only Epiphany, but also her husbands 50th birthday and that we will go to the parish hall and carry cakes with us. At first we baked a Hermann cake. It is a cake like a round robin, that's how it seems for me. Petra told us, that she received a part of the cake a few days ago and that she had to stir it and to feed it and that now it is ready to get baken. Of course we added some more stuff like flour, sugar, almonds, cinnamon, chocolate pieces. We read the recipe. Then we had to get some more dishes for the "kids" of this cake. We had been really busy. We also added some apple pieces. We wondered, if this dish would be big enough and decided, that it wasn't. So we took a star for the dough of Hermann.
fam-united Posted Jan 28, 2012, 1:34 pm	During the last weeks we had such a bad weather, that we didn't want to go outside. Today Petra and her pupils went to visit the firestation of Bruchsal. It was very interesting to listen to the fireman. He talked about so many things. I had been fascinated, when I saw the big cars. We only took three photos, because Petra had to take care for her pupils in first line, of course.
fam-united Posted Jan 28, 2012, 4:06 pm	Today I went to school to help Petra, when she fixed new papers to the wall. At first we had to remove the flower paintings. Then we fixed the selfcreated posters of the book presentations.
fam-united Posted Feb 6, 2012, 2:15 pm	Today we drove to the Michaelsberg in Untergrombach. Untergrombach is one of Bruchsal's suburbs with about 6000 inhabitants. 3500 to 2600 BC there were frist human signs on the Michaelsberg, which gave this culture the name "Michaelsberger Kulturkreis" 1502 AD Joss Fritz from Untergrombach planned the "Bundschuhaufstand" during the time of Peasant's Wars. In the far (right side) you see some houses, which belong to Bruchsal. Bruchsal and also Untergrombach are located at the edge to the Kraichgau. Here you see the Rhine Valley. If the weather is sunny, you can see the Palatinate Forest in the far. The chapel is on top of the Michaelsberg.
fam-united Posted Feb 19, 2012, 10:34 am	Karlsruhe is the third largest city of Baden-Württemberg. It is the main city of the Baden part. It is located close to the German - French border, only about 25 km from Bruchsal. We arrived at Karlsruhe after a drive of about 25 minutes. We first tried to find a parking place and then crawled out of the car. Wow, was it cold outside. We all didn't have the right clothes for a walk, so we had to hurry. Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states. The town surrounding the Palace became the seat of two of the highest courts in Germany, the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany (Bundesverfassungsgericht) whose decisions have the force of a law in many cases, and the Federal Court of Justice of Germany (Bundesgerichtshof), the highest court of appeals in matters of civil law and criminal law. It therefore considers itself the home of justice in Germany, a role taken over from Leipzig after 1945. Due to similarities to the United States capital city, it has been speculated that Karlsruhe was a model city for the cityscape of Washington, D.C.[4] Both cities have a center — in Karlsruhe the palace and in D.C. the Capitol Building — from which the streets radiate outward. L'Enfant, Washington's city planner, had been given the plans of Karlsruhe (among numerous other European cities) as an inspiration. (you can read this and more on wikipedia) In 1715, Charles III William, Margrave of Baden-Durlach established Karlsruhe (Charles' repose), where he built his residence. The city was planned with the palace tower (Schloss) at the center and 32 streets radiating out from it like the spokes of a wheel, or the ribs of a folding fan, so that one nickname for Karlsruhe in German is the "fan city" (Fächerstadt). Here's a photo of the palace. We really wanted to see more, but it was so cold, that we hurried back to our car. When we looked out of the car window, we could see the State Art Gallery.
fam-united Posted Feb 21, 2012, 4:33 pm	We decided to drive to Durlach to climb the Turmberg. Our hosts told us, that the view from Turmberg would be just perfect. So we are really excited. You can see the top of the Turmberg just straight ahead.
fam-united Posted Feb 21, 2012, 7:20 pm	Durlach is a borough of the German city of Karlsruhe with a population of roughly 30,000. It was chosen by the margrave Charles II in 1565 as residence of the rulers of Baden-Durlach, and retained this distinction though it was almost totally destroyed by the French in 1689. Margrave Charles III William decided that he needed more space which led to the foundation of Karlsruhe, which in 1715 became the new capital until the state was merged into the grand-duchy of Baden. We only drove through some narrow streets, because it wasn't far from sunset.
fam-united Posted Feb 21, 2012, 9:50 pm	The Turmberg ('tower hill') is a vineyard-covered hill of the northern most part of the Black Forest. A castle ruin with watch-tower are located on top of the Turmberg. The watch-tower in particular offers fine views of Karlsruhe towards the west and the Rhine River valley. On very clear days even farther west the Vosges in France can be seen. The Rhine River is the border between Germany and Alsace area of France. The South and East offer nice views of the Black Forest, and since the Turmberg is the northern most tip of the Black Forest you have hills more than actual mountains.
olgamaus Posted Mar 4, 2012, 5:39 pm	Hi Mummy, today I met my new host Katja and the ToyVoyagers Snakey from Hong Kong and Bamboo from Spain. fam-united also visited Cologne today and met my new host here. The very most important thing you have to see in Cologne is Cologne Cathedral. It is a renowned monument of German Catholicism and Gothic architecture and is a World Heritage Site. Cologne Cathedral was built between 1248 and 1880. The cathedral is the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe, its towers are about 157 m tall. Katja promised that later we would prpbably have a look at the inside of the cathedral. So we first went to see River Rhine, also in the picture you can see the Hohenzollern Bridge, a bridge for trains and pedestrians / cyclists. There are also lots of excursion boats. We followed the promenade and walked past the old town of Cologne. Those houses were built in 17th ventury. Katja had a great idea: We would visit the German Chocolate Museum (Imhoff Schokoladenmuseum) situated in this partly old building. First we walked around the building. A view from the roof of the building ... Inside the museum we saw all the machines which are necessary to make delicious chocolate. There is a real chocolate fountain! We all got wafers dipped into melted chocolate. Yummy! These are moulds for Easter Bunnies and Santa Claus. This is an old shop. We went back to the city than. In the old town you can find narrow lanes and lovely houses. Than we went into the cathedral. Look at the fantastic mosaic on the floor. Unfortunately it was time for getting home than. Bye Buzz BlueJay
olgamaus Posted Mar 6, 2012, 7:59 pm	Hi Mummy, I went with Katja to her workplace in a law firm today. As the weather was great, we took a log walk in our lunch break. First Katja showrd me the water tower, situated at the highest point of the city centre. We waked around in the city ... There are also lots of old houses, they are often covered with slate and they have green shutters. In the background you can see the outskirts of the neighbour city Wuppertal. Katja suggested that we could walk on the "Route of Tools" (Trasse des Werkzeugs), a lane for pedestrians and cyclists which was built on a former, now closws railway track for freight trains. The building work was sponsored by local companies, mostly tool producing companies, that's why it is called "Route of Tools". It starts in the district Hasten and follows the old railway track to the central station in the city centre, about 4,5 km. It seems that spring would come to Europe There are distance data painted on the ground - 4 km to the station. We found a bench, made of a large screw cramp. Sometimes you can see remains of the former railway track. I found those wrench patters stamed into the tarmac. Those glass knobs are isolaters. At this paoint the lane really looks like industry! There are signs with the logos of sponsoring companies ... ... and one sign showing the coat of arms of Remscheid. Here are a lot of company buildings close to the lane, these are still in use ... ... and those are dilapidated. Katja showed me the former slaughterhouse, the wholw complex is under monument protection. Today you can find offices here and crafts enterprises. Here are more company signs. Already close to the station I saw a train, it's track running parallel to the Route of Tools. We nearly reached the station. From here we went to a nearby supermarket to buy a few things for dinner, than we had to return to work. Bye Buzz BlueJay
olgamaus Posted Mar 8, 2012, 1:01 pm	Hi Mummy, my host showed us a bit around the city when we went to work. The first photos were taken in the vicinity of my current home. A restaurant is situated in this lovely house, my host told me. Here you can see the main entrance of the shopping mall. This is the city hall, its tower is 48 m tall. Our workplace is not far from here. We had to hurry to get there in time Bye Buzz BlueJay
olgamaus Posted Mar 10, 2012, 12:13 pm	Hi Mummy, a new guest arrived today, it's Albus Star from England. We played with the pets later. Three ferrets are living here - funny, lively, furry and cheeky things. This is Shiva. I was a bit afraid of them because they mostly eat birds. Okay, I am not a chicken or a duck, but they might get siily ideas! This is Zaehnchen, the most curious thing on earth as my host says Bye for today Buzz BlueJay
olgamaus Posted Mar 14, 2012, 8:43 pm	Hi Mummy, We took a walk today in the district Luettringhausen. We brought Katja's friend's son to the soccer training there. In the meantime we took a walk in the surroundings. We found a lovely place, hidden in the valley - an historic hammer mill. Iron and steel was produced here since 15th century. A large millwheel was lying on the ground. When we walkes further through the valley we saw a lot of meadows. I like those houses here. Bye for today Buzz BlueJay
olgamaus Posted Mar 18, 2012, 7:51 pm	Hi Mummy, today I helped my host to cook a delicious soup. It is a vegetarian soup. All you need is vegetable stock, red lentils, a garlic clove, a piece of ginger, soy sauce, salt and pepper. Katja cooked pineapple jam with lime and ginger in the morning, you can see the glasses cooling down in the background, also delicious stuff. First we had to chop garlic and ginger ... ... than braise it lightly in a little bit oil ... ... lentils and vegetable stock were added. Everything had to boil for about 12 minutes. In the meantime I watched Katja's daughter prepare a fruit salad with pineapple, kiwi fruit, banana and orange. She is a cook, she can cut extremely fast Our soup was ready than. We had to puree it after adding a bit soy sauce, pepper and salt. Yummy! Bye Buzz BlueJay
olgamaus Posted Mar 20, 2012, 7:54 pm	Hi Mummy, we went out for a walk in the afternoon, although the weather is no longer that nice as yesterday. Here you can see the street where I am living at the moment, lots of lovely houses built in the early 1900's. The next photo was still taken in the city centre. Than we walked towards the outskirts of Remscheid, deep in a valley. They are having Easter trees here, not only Christmas trees Here you can also find very old houses, much older than those in the city centre. You can often find older industrial sites close to dwellings here. Snowdrops are blooming everywhere. Here is a factory which produces varnishes for industrial purposes. We reached the district Hasten than. Here you can see two museums, the German Tool Museum and a Patrician Villa, built in late 18th century. In this Villa you can see how people lived in those years. There is a park behind those museums, built as an outdoor facility. There are several machines outside. (We needed a little rest after walking so long.) From here we still had to walk uphill for more than half an hour to get home - it's really exhausting here Love Buzz BlueJay
olgamaus Posted Mar 27, 2012, 1:17 pm	Hi Mummy, we are having wonderful weather here. We took a walk today to visit Muengsten Bridge, the highest railway bridge in Germany. The bridge is overspanning a valley between Remscheid and the neighbour city Solingen. We had to walk for about an hour to get there. Our walk took us through a rural area. We went into the forest than. There was a viewpoint. We saw the bridge here. Katja told us that we would still have to walk some time until we were in the valley under the bridge. We were under the bridge than, but still not on the bottom of the valley. The bridge is about 480 long, 107 m tall and was completed in 1907. There were restauration works in the last years, but there will have to be more in the following years. The brige was built of steel and it will have to be strengthened. Out path led us downhill to river Wupper, flowing in the valley. Parts of the soil are covered with anemones. We crossed the river Wupper here. Finally we reached Muengsten Bridge with a leisure park underneath it. A lot of people were here, enjoying the lovely weather and the warmth of the sun. Isn't this an impressive view, this bridge growing out of the forest? The workshop of an artist blacksmith is situated here. He made some funny things, like the shark. We took the bus back home, being a bit tired Bye Buzz BlueJay
olgamaus Posted Apr 3, 2012, 6:49 am	Hi Mummy, we were really shocked this morning - it was extremely cold outside, about 0°C! At noontime it became a bit warmer, so we took a walk with Katja's nephew and her brother-in-law in Hohenhagen, a district of Remscheid. It is a housing area with access to woodland and a rural area. You can see the outskirts of the neighbour city Wuppertal on the first photo. We saw the frist spring flowers The A1 motorway is passing by. A terrible storm in 2007 destroyed large parts of the forest, so you can see the motorway nowadays. We saw deer in the forest. We took a zoomed photo. This is the housing area. In the background you can see the water tower in the city centre of Remscheid, about 3 km from here. Later we went to Katja's relatives to let her ferrets play in the garden. Bye Buzz BlueJay
olgamaus Posted Apr 6, 2012, 11:25 am	Hi Mummy, we went to Wuppertal today to invite a friend for dinner. Wuppertal ist one of the neighbour cities of Remscheid. One of the city’s greatest attractions is the suspended monorail (Schwebebahn), which was established in 1901. The tracks are 8 m above the streets and 12 m above the Wupper River. Here you can see one of 20 stations along the 13,3 km long route. We took a walk through the shopping streets than. In the background you can see the historical city hall. We went to an old quarter with lots of bars and restaurants than, Luisenviertel. There are really narrow lanes. We found the restaurant than, a Turkey restaurant. We had a fantastic dinner here. Bye Buzz BlueJay
olgamaus Posted Apr 9, 2012, 11:58 am	Hi Mummy, in the early afternoon we went to Katja's sister to celebrate Easter with the whole family. There are cherry trees blooming at the station, a really lovely view. So many delicous sweets! Bye Buzz BlueJay
olgamaus Posted Apr 21, 2012, 6:45 pm	Hi Mummy, today we visited a medieval castle in the neighbour city Solingen, Schloss Burg, It is situated high upon a hill above the River Wupper. 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 of many hills" ) About a hundred years later it was enlarged by Count Engelberg II von Berg. This is the man on the horse in the courtyard. In Thirty Years War (17th century) large 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 handmade brushes, brooms, soap, lovely yarns and wooden knitting needles, toys like swords and helmets and much more. The round tower was the powder tower, it was restored about two years ago. When we walked back to the car, we saw some of those lovely half-timbered houses which were built in 17th century. Bye for now Buzz BlueJay
olgamaus Posted Apr 22, 2012, 5:50 pm	Hi Mummy, today sayed good-bye to all my friends here in Germany and packed my souvenirs. I am on my way home now! I hope I will be with you soon Love Buzz BlueJay
kessalia Posted Feb 1, 2015, 9:22 pm	Hello hello!  I have a question!  Who made the silly rule that Blue Jays don't go south for the winter? All my trees are bare and the flowers are gone.    Today we are having a snowstorm with maybe 8 inches of snow!  That is taller than me!  That is taller than me if I was standing on my own head!  But I do look very pretty and colorful against the white snow, I so guess it isn't ALL bad.
Vunder Posted Jul 8, 2015, 7:40 pm	Great! Great! Great! I'm in Russia! Hansel met me and we went to watch TV with Galiya apa's little son The cartoon made in Russia is called "Smeshariki" (a short version for funny balls) The weather is rainy and chilly for summer, but everyone's content Take care, Your Buzz PS: Galiya apa sends you a "hi" and a "thanks"
Vunder Posted Jul 24, 2015, 12:20 pm	Dear Mom! How are you there? I'm just fine! But I guess I won't be able to make updates too often (we'll see!). Anyway we have visited an amusement park, it isn't big here, but we had fun with Galiya apa and her family! Thus, there are few photos, we just forgot to make them)))) But you can have some idea, just look at this Ferris wheel photos Going up! Here on the background you can see the Kazan Kremlin, the most famous sight (a UNESCO sight) in this city. And going back home we took a photo of the entrance, though it was an exit for us at that time, of course Hugs and kisses, Your Buzz
Vunder Posted Aug 9, 2015, 6:12 pm	Hi Mom! So here's my new update! It was a very productive weekend, I dare say! This is the Kyzyl Yeshler village where we went (it's translated from Tatar as "red youth", Soviet past ): Galiya apa's parents have a house there, though they live in the city, they love fresh air Me too Kyzyl yeshler is a small Tatar village, it has only about 100 inhabitatants, but it is now popular with the "dwellers from the city" like Galiya apas parents They were one of the first ones to build here a house though, they remember this village having its own shop, primary school and herd, all of which is gone now. Anyway the village is very cosy and charming in its desolation Here are some of the views of the village, its surroundings and its inhabitants Not only we cycled, we also flied a kyte! But don't think we were only resting and doing nothing! I had a lesson on gathering mushrooms and helped my hosts to pick apples I hope you had a great weekend too! Love you, Buzz
Vunder Posted Aug 18, 2015, 5:34 pm	Hello Mom! Just a short update from Galiya apa's birthday! She turned thirty And she was very busy recieving guests I can open a flower shop, he-he Have a nice day there! Yours, Buzz
Vunder Posted Aug 23, 2015, 1:04 pm	Hi there! We have a new guest here Her name's Dille Speaking with other tvs is so much fun! Keep in touch! Yours, Buzz
Vunder Posted Aug 28, 2015, 6:59 pm	Hi Mom! It was a cooking day today Together with Dille we learnt to make "manti". It's an Eastern dish, a kind of dumplings made of unleavened dough and meat filling (Tatar cuisine is mostly not for vegeterians ) So, the process! Firstly you should make the filling, it takes the most of the time actually, if you do it properly. Chop the meat (traditionally it is mutton, but we took beef) finely, then add onion, also chopped finely, in the proportion of 50/50. Add salt, pepper and other spices to your liking (caraway, for example). To fasten the process many housewives here take minced meat, though it's not a traditional recipe, of course. Actually the recipies may vary, some add potatoes, some add pumpkin, just use your fantasy)))) Then make the dough: simply mix warm water, flour and salt. Here is our result: Then roll out the dough, cut it into squares and put the filling inside. Form mantis by attaching the opposite sides of the squares. We made 4 such plates We steamed one part of the mantis and the rest was frozen Yummy! Cheers! Buzz
Vunder Posted Sep 10, 2015, 8:29 pm	Hello Mom! I have some updates left from summer and I guess it's just time to publish them, since it's cold outside and the memories are warm So, one day we went to a fair called "Pechen bazary" (translated from Tatar as the "Hay market"). It was dedicated to the Tatar culture, cuisine and craft. It was held in the so called "Old Tatar district". The mosque you see is one of the oldest ones in Kazan (the end of the 18th century) and one of the first ones to be built after the Kazan khanate was conquered by Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century. The strange blue-roofed building is the Tatar Academic Theatre The lake you see is called Qaban. There are some legends about it: for example, it is believed that there is treasure on the bottom of it (I didn't check though wanted to ) So, here are the photos with the views, enjoy Hope to hear from you soon, Your Buzz
Vunder Posted Sep 26, 2015, 6:43 pm	Hi Mom! This is my last update here I'm sad to leave this place, but eager to continue my journey! We went to a very interesting place called "Green boulevard". It's a rest ground sponsored by Mega-mall and IKEA. There was a "contact" zoo in it too (you can touch, feed and play with some of the animals there) And my favourite emus! Unfortunately, I couldn't ride them since they were biting But I guess we understood each other)) Well, after having a good rest we went back home) Sending you love and a big hug! Yours, Buzz
Vunder Posted Oct 3, 2015, 6:01 pm	Hi Mom! My last photo in Russia, at a local post office! Goodbye Kazan and Galiya apa, thank you for hosting me, that was a really interesting experience! America is waiting for me! Hugs and kisses, Buzz
jeanettemiami Posted Nov 23, 2015, 6:37 pm	Here I am finally! I'm in Miami and can't wait for my adventures to start! What a funny cat in a hat!

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