Travelog for: *Nick*

Hi mum,

in the evening we were invited by olgamaus and her guests to take part in a spooky Halloween party

Here we are with Dutchy the Lion, Kirin, Rocky Raccoon, Nosyblue, Tsukumo, KoalaMimi and Frederik

They welcomed us very warmly

I´ve choosen "the-ghost-with-measles-pox"-costume 

And look, how much nasty looking meals they have prepared for us


fly agaric made out of tomatoes and little mozzarella balls

Eyeballs in matterpudding... yuck



See us all around the horrible fruit-brain-salad


And here we have the terrible hot chillie-devils


What do You think about the mice with their brains next to them?

I love them

The ilumination was soo nice terrible


Best costume of this Halloween eve: Frederik, the living skull


What a spooky party


the pure horror


Just me with Rocky Raccoon


Glad that the fruitbrain was out

Burbs....

Really nobody, not even Helmut, had a sensible declaration for this....


Spooky halloween...

Hello Mum,

today we made a short trip around  Burg Castle again, because Helmut wanted to test his new cam, so thats the reason why he isn´t seen on the most pictures actually and why we don´t have so many photos as usually, because he didn´t manage the cam very well


I´ve been there already some time ago


And I remember that I liked it


Look, the statue of Count Engelbert


Really huge and impressive, the complete Castle


We all like the ropeway very much


And the view on the landscape

Look, there is a machine, where You can mint souvernier-coins


Strunki does it for me

Ready, there is the coin, nice

We continue our walk around the castle


And reach our main aim for today, a small nice temple-formed viewpoint


And inside, look at the ceiling, where You see a lot of city coat of arms from Bergisch-Land-towns


A last nice view on Unterburg


And a last farewell to the proud castle of Schloss Burg


Love
Yours
*Nick*

Hi Mum,
today we did a great new fun with our friends: having a bath


And we all need a bath, look at my dirty feet....


Everybody of us gets his personal own bathingtowel


But first we have to undress...


My scarf is dirty, too

Ready for the bathtube with a nice bathingtowel


So now we boys fill the tube with warm water


And add some shower foam

Carefully Hase tests with her ear


Ladies first, of course


Whopp, UrselHH the brave, enjoys at first


A great experience, even to see, how Hase falls into the bathtube


And now lt´s start the shower


See the clean and happy girls


The next is Helmut and he loves it

He invites me to get into the tube.... Should I really???
#
Yes

Ahhhh, that´s much more better


We like the warm shower as well


Being proper and clean is very pleasant


Every time with pleasure again


That´s for today, my dear mum
love and hug You
Yours
*Nick*

Hi Mum,

today was a great event at the pond: Störte, my "brother in law by marriage between my mum and his dad", has landed and he survived a long, long and dangerous sailing trip (so he told us later)

Lotte found him first and we plushies supported him to reach the pond banks


So we pulled

and pulled


Then, after a while, we did it: His first steps on the ground


He spoke to me: " I know Your face"

"Yes", I told him, I´m *Nick* my mum is together with Your dad"

"Hoho, it´s always good to meet relatives in the wide world", he answered.

What a overhelming warm welcome we gave each other

Welcome Störte

Helmut also was happy to meet him



And Lotte? You can imagine how she melted...

a rose, clever, Störte...


Lotte returned the favour immediately

Here´s her fur for wintertime

And something more to heat him up: A honeydrink

We think, he likes it


That was it for today, mum,
see You soon and love You
Yours
*Nick*

Hello Mum,

today it was almost sunny in the morning so we decided to drive to Wuppertal and visited the "Northern Park" Nordpark there


The foothpaths are very comfortable there


Before we went into the forest, we enjoyed the view on Barmen


And found a nice monument, used as a spring in the summer


Look at the carved stone, a frog perhaps?


We also passed a popular restaurant destination, but the renovations take some years, strunki told us


O.K., instead of having a stop there, we discovered the forest


and found nice autum colours


Along our way we saw lots of beeches and yews


And found some nice treestumps where we played a little bit


See me with my best pal Helmut

and Hase

even Störte has fun

and little UrselHH comes on top

At last, who else? Lotte...


I like playing in the trees

(good camouflage, hihi)

so we continued our walk and wanted to visit the fallow deer in the game enclosure


We had to go deeper into the forest


And found first?

some last blooming daisy

Will we watch the deer from here?


Yes, here they are




What a nice sunday noon walk

That was is for today
Love and kisses for You Mum
Yours
*Nick*

Today it is Störte´s birthday (and I know that he doesn´t like it)

Look how peacefully he sleeps, with the bottle in his arms

But now Helmut and me have to wake him up


Hap-py Birth-day to You
Hap-py Birth-day to You
Hap-py Birth-day, dear Stööööööörte,
Hap-py Birth----day to Youuuuuu


Before he was able to check the situation and perhaps become more angry, we promised him his first birthday suprise and lead him to the secret spirituousal supplies.

Therefore we have to wander

through the kitchen

through the hall

and reached the pantry


Störtes next step to heaven: A pirates breakfast 


It followed a funny stairwayparty


After a while, Störte missed the ladies... No girls tonight, I told him

Look at my foot, Helmut informed him

Woooow, a map was our second gift for him

and of course Störte is a pirate who understands his job, he identifies it as a treasure map

and nominated Helmut and me to members of his crew

From now on we are pirates and partners to lift the treasure as well *giggle*

Our great adventure begins from now on...

tbc...

Dear Mum,

today we made a short trip to the Wuppervorsperre


But before we came to the water, we had to walk trough a forest



Some last fruits we saw, perhaps red elderberry [Sambucus racemosa]?


Look at the wonderful autum colours


A woodshelter formed as a fungus, that´s nice


An alley of larch [Larix]

Even the ground is yellow because the larch is the only coniferous species that looses its needle-leafs in autum

See us having a rest


and playing between the nice coloured leafs

Finally, we reached the river banks

a little bit foggy

looks very interesting, the bank on the other side


And finally it was a very nice trip with our friends


That´s it for today,
dear mum
Yours
*Nick*

After our trip to the Wuppersperre something wonderful happend to me:
"By mistake" I must have been hiked into olgamaus bag and on occasion my brother Frederik invited me to a beer

It was very nice sitting on the warm heater and talk to the guests of olgamaus

See me with RSG Leo, Frederik, Tsukumo, Rocky Raccoon and Dutchy the Lion

I felt sooo cold that I wrapped myself into the next woolen cloth Frederik gave me


Frederik showed me also the hobby of olgamaus: knitting wool


And suddenly I had a yummy beer... and? somebody wrapped a measuring tape around me...


I must have fallen into sleep

When Frederik waked me up, I felt a beautiful pullover on my body

Look, what olgamaus knitted for me: My first own custom garment

A dream in white, blue and bordeaux-red

Exactly the colours of my neckerchief


I love it
Thanks a lot, dear olgamaus

(all photos of this update by friendly courtesy of olgamaus)

Hello Mum,

today we went into the city and enjoyed the Festival of Lights in the Hindenburgstreet


We saw a lot of lightchains and flames in the street, all looked very comfortable und welcoming


Look at the wonderful star of the Hutterites


And the shops in this street are a refreshing alternative to the overloaded malls and shopping centers
Here is a hatterer-shop with handcrafted hats

An antique shop

And an organic grocery store


Then we found a nice place where we enjoyed deep fried almond pastry for us and a spiked hot orange punch for our eternal thirsty Störte




That´s all for today,
see and love You, Mum
until soon
Yours
*Nick*

Hi Mum,

today we did something for our feathered friends, the birds staying  outside in wintertime

See me with the raisins, HelmutBluepant and Charlotte with the vegetable fat, UrselHH with the oat flakes, Hase and Störte with the grain feed


These are old plantingpots with a stick in the middle and we want to melt the fat and mix all our ingriediences together to fill them.



So let´s start with Helmut and Lotte melting the fat in a huge panpot

That takes some time to heat the fat, but see how disciplined I am Mum, I don´t nibble my raisins


After a while the fat began to melt

See Helmut stiring in the pot

Lotte and me supervise Ursel stiring the oat flakes into the fat

She´s a tough mouse girl and doesn´t need any support she ensures to us


Now it´s time for adding the raisins


I have to ensure myself that there isn´t one raisin missing


After mixing the raisins, the seed and the oat flakes and stiring the mixture, the feeding is ready for the old little pots


See me filling the pot


Ready

When the fat cools out and becomes hard, You can turn around the pots and hang them into the trees so the birds can pick out the seeds, the oat flakes and the raisins in wintertime

That´s it for today
Yours
*Nick*

Hello Mum,

today we went to the Botanical Garden Solingen


Altough the autum is almost all over and only a few plants are still blooming, we had some nice views on the scenery there


Here we are in the Alpinum


Have You ever seen such a huge butterfly?


Some last blooming rosebushes


And a lot of impressive trees are here, too


Here we are at the lake that is situated in the lower part of the botanical Garden


This is a bookcrossing board situated in the middle of the garden: Some people bring their old books there and let them free and some other interested take them for reading


From here You have a wonderful view onto the lower part of the garden


Then we left the park for a while and followed the Korkenziehertrasse that´s a combined foot- and cyclepath that connects the parts of the city besides the streets mainly used by cars



Uuuhh, this tunnel was a little bit spooky

Then it was time to turn around and walk back trough the garden.

When we left, we saw the huge sign with lots of donators helping that the botanical garden in Solingen can be still open

Later we passed the nice oldtown of Solingen-Gräfrath and enjoyed the Christmas-lights at the market place


Have a nice first Advent


Love
Yours
*Nick*

Hello Mum,

*Snow * Snow * Snow*

My secret birthday wish comes true


All my friends congratulate me

Then we met St. Nicholas, he almost has the same name as I have



Look what I got, I´m sooo happy

And my friends gave me a present, too


A golden bear, woooow

See us playing in the snow, what a great day

What a nice birthday
See You soon Mum
Yours *Nick*

Dear Mum,

Happy second sunday in Advent
wish You *Nick* and friends

We have a lot of fun swinging in the Advent wreath

Yours
*Nick*

Hello Mum,
today were a lot of surprises waiting for us:-)

At first an envelope from Dr. Kröbner arrived

Hase was totally upset...

and crawled into the envelope....
After a looong while we only saw a red cap...

Tadaaahhh

Oh, her Mum, sent her pullover and the nice winter-cap she got from jasper in Switzerland, what a nice idea
We all admired the nice postcard Dr. Kröbner wrote

and love the angel that was sent by

The next happy surprise was the nice postcard OleOrangescarf sent us

Look at the iluminated windmill standing in the open-air-museum in Detmold, thanks a lot, dear Ole
At last a huge parcel from RikeH

What would be in there??

See Charlotte and Störte creating a new sports: Parceldiving...

A christmas present for Lotte....

Will she be brave enough to wait until christmas??
But what about the envelope??

Lotte isn´t able to wait any longer, she MUST open anything NOW....

What a suprise... it´s Soeren, another of my brothers



Lotte passes out


UrselHH gives Soeren a warm welcome


Hase is very happy to welcome him as well


Störte and Soeren: family members reunited


My brother as well, so happy to see You here


What an eventful evening