An outing to Zons, a little mediaeval town.

Zons is a little town near Dormagen, between Neuss and Cologne. It was first mentioned in the 7th century, so it is really rather antique....It used to be one of the places which grew rich on the customs and excise they got from the ships taking their wares along the Rhine....tax is evidently no recent invention!! We drove to Benrath, past the castle there, and then found the leafy lane leading down to the Rhine ferry. We only had to wait a few minutes till the ferry came, and then we drove on. The ferry man came and collected our fares, and by the time we had paid we were already over on the other side. The Rhine is very full at the moment, if the water gets much higher, then the ferry can't cross over. We walked from the car-park past some sheep, which were grazing on the meadows, and then discovered a statue of a Bishop standing there, so we went and greeted him. Then we strolled around the walls, admired the old houses & Inge tried to climb the walls. One of the pictures shows some little silvery plaques, they show how high the floods were in some years. The next pic shows one marker right up at the top of the arch, that was in 1798 and must have been a very frightening flood. We saw some strange *creatures* outside a shop selling lots of fantastic things that nobody really needs but a lot of people like to have....And we met a very friendly white dog, keeping watch in front of his house, and enjoying *talking* to all who went by. We had a nice lunch in an old pub, and then drove home via another route, along the Rhine, through Neuss, a town with a lot of Roman and mediaeval ruins, and then over the bridge in Düsseldorf before driving back to Inge's place. There we enjoyed our coffee and a few games of skipbo before I drove home. I found a nice video of Zons on You Tube, here is the link if anyone is interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znj1R5YQuts.
All in all, a nice day, in nice company.

Damsel in distress again....

....And more tags had to suffer with distress ink from TH, die cuts, stamps etc. Was, as usual, great fun to make, and cheered me up a bit. Used TH alteration dies - dragonfly & bird in a cage, and a sparrow from Sizzix - one of my favourite dies. The backgrounds have been distressed with stormy skies, wild honey, victorian velvet and bundled sage, and the the text has been stamped with forest moss and / or archival black. The dragonfly and sparrow have been embossed with clear embossing powder. Used prima flowers, a LaBlanche clock stamp and some bits and bobs from my magic tins for decorating. The edges have been distressed and decorated with faux stitching. Thanks for looking!

Great minds think alike - or some ATCs made and received

Some ATCs are more fun to make than others, as the themes just appeal more....or less!!
Here is a selection of those done in the last few months; some with the theme *It's a man's world* - how true! sent to Karen; some of my favourite animal - naturally a cow, as my home is full of them, as pics, clocks, lights, tables etc - which were sent to Joanne (who unfortunately didn't get round to saying if she got them or not!), and then *my fave holiday* as theme. I was wavering between Paris and New York, but as I didn't have any suitable embellies for NY, it just had to be Paris. The tags went to Alma and to Susie J. On the day I sent mine off, I got a letter with my ATC and two beautiful tags from Susie, and had to really laugh out loud, as we had both chosen the same theme - as I said at the beginning, *Great minds think alike!* The first pic shows Susie's beautiful tag, the others are my efforts!
P.S. The ATCs for this mo nths butterfly swap are all done and dusted, but I can't show the pics till they have been posted and reached their destinations!!

A weekend visitor, glass and other curiosities

If I haven't posted much the past week or so, it was because I have been spending a lot of time with a friend, who had her knee operated on 2 weeks ago. In the meantime she can run about again, and is doing very well, and came here to spend the weekend with me, a real (old) *girls weekend*. We did lots of nattering, played rummicub and cards, ate too much and had lots of nibbles to boot. All in all a pleasant weekend, with plenty of laughs and time to get to know each other better.
This evening I took some photos of some of the *curiosities* residing in my flat - it's a bit like a rather crazy museum, with lots of glass - which I have collected since I was small (and THAT was a long time ago!), strange animals, lamps, figures etc. spread through all rooms, including the bathroom, hall and kitchen. And this is just a part of it all, as I realised to my horror while taking the photos - at least I know now why I never have enough space to put anything in....
And a proud announcement to end the saga - my flowers on the balcony have been thriving since 4 weeks, this has to be an all time record, as I mostly manage to reduce them to the consistency of dried tea leaves within a few days.

More weather antics....

After the enormous heat wave of the last few days, with temperatures up to 40° and high humidity, everybody was looking forward to some cool relief in the form of rain and wind.
WE GOT IT!!!
On Monday, as I left the house, large raindrops started falling thick and fast. By the time I got into the car, hail stones were rattling on the roof, making a scary noise, and within minutes the road was under water, branches, twigs and leaves were flying everywhere, and I had to turn back because the road was impassable. I tried 2 other turnings, but no chance, same story, so I was happy to get back home safely. The little lane at the back of the house - which is on cellar level - was also full, so I had to paddle home. 2o minutes later it was all over. No more rain, the sun was shining, and I decided to go to my frined's after all. The water was steaming off the streets, and apart from a bit of paddling to get to the car and a nasty and very muddy puddle at the post office, exactly THERE where I got out of the car, it was a journey with no problems. Tuesday and Wednesday the weather heated us up again enormously, and then, yesterday afternoon, the clouds started to build up again. In a few minutes, the trees were bending in the wind, the sky went from greeny-grey to lilac to dark purple, and then it started - thunder, lightning, strong gusts of wind, rain and hail stones, and it was as dark as night. Really spooky! It lasted all in all for about an hour, and caused a lot of damage throught the county - trees and roofs blown down, the airports here and in Frankfurt had to close, and trains and trams were blocked for hours because of trees and branches on the tracks and / or damage to the overhead cables. Lots of roads were under water again, a lot of people got injured, one got killed. A man from the fire brigade said it was the worst storm he had experienced here in his 30 years as fire-man.
Today it's a bit cooler, but will be heating up again today and tomorrow, and the weather men have predicted more storms for Saturday....are all those people right with their visions of global warming?



The photos were taken from my balcony, except for the last 2 which were taken from the internet.

Hot days and nights....

Here in Düsseldorf it is once again too hot to do anything. I wouldn't mind if it would cool off in the evening, but hot and steamy nights are not conducive to sweet sleep. The weather experts have forecast big storms for tomorrow, and hopefully some cooler air after that.
It has been sooooooooo hot that I have hardly been able to craft, I need an air-conditioned craft room. Well, I can dream about it....
I managed to get Gina's challenge LO for this month done. I didn't have any bird photos for it, as my printer is *on strike* just now (too warm??), so used lots of die cut birds and bird cages (TH Alterations), some die cut flowers and some transfers. The leafy background paper was in a packet I got from my best friend B. Gina, hope you are satisfied with my attempt. The second LO was made in May for Alma's challenge, which was supposed to have a song title in it and... and...? Can't remember the specifications any more. I used black magic paper from coredinations and a photo which Gina sent me. Tried to keep the colours simple. I hope Alma will forgive me that I didn't get round to putting up pics till now....

Rose fairies, grunge and hot weather....

After the very long, cold winter and a long wait for spring, and then summer, it seems to be here - with a vengeance! Temperatures of good 30°, & even more in my apartment, seem to be addling my grey cells, especially the ones responsible for creativity, cooking, cleaning and doing anything else apart from languishing near the ventilator with one eye on the computer, one on the TV and one on a book - oops, was that one too many?? But I did manage to get some crafting done this afternoon, thanks to litres of iced tea, a generous portion of ice, ventilators right and left and a bowl of cold water to stop my feet from sizzling.
Used some old fashioned rose and fairy pics, tags distressed with TH inks, and decorated with hearts and wings cut with a TH *alterations* die.
Thanks for looking!