It's a wonderful day in Central Washington. The sun is shinning and the wind is quiet for the time being. It's supposed to reach 65 today. I think that golf will be on the agenda. As you can see I'm smoking some salmon and thinking about what wine will go the best with it.

As you can see the Ralf's were in Italy in March during a break. As always the food looks good. Annette is flying out to Germany on Tuesday the 12th. I'm staying home and watching the cat. Well I guess I'd better get the garden tilled and ready to plant. See you later.

As I looked at the site this morning, I realized I hadn't written anything since Christmas. It seems we have been running around like chickens with our heads cut off as my Mother used to say. I am sharing a couple of pictures that were taken recently. The Elk picture was taken about 25 miles from here as we were coming home from the Tri-Cities. The Eagle picture was taken last week by a school mate of mine that lives on Hood Canal. He said this was the best eagle picture that he had ever taken. He thought the caption should be. "Don't come back to the nest now, it's too late." It is a beautiful shot. It is Super Bowl Sunday and I am getting ready to go play a round of golf and follow that with a good viewing seat in front of a 60 inch big screen. There's a group of five of us that have been going to my brother-in-law's for the Super Bowl for five years now. It is always a lot of fun. It shouldn't be any different today. Lot's of Food, Wine and Eloquent Expressions of Wisdom as the commercials are viewed and the action unfurls on the field. The weather today is about 46 degrees and no wind for now. They say we will get lots of wind tonight. But after a game of golf and football, I guess we can handle that. Hopefully we will back to regular on this blog shortly.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL !!!!!

Well, I guess it is time to enjoy the rewards of our labors. We are quickly approaching Christmas and we must have all been nice, as I see many presents under the tree. The gentleman you see in the trees is Germany's St Nicholas. He is sharing with Zmo's kinder class about how each one is doing and what they need to work on. It was wonderful spending the time during this special season on a different country. I think we all are looking for the same assurances that we are loved and have tha ability to share that with someone else. Jim brought the tree through the forest back to the apartment. Kathleen and Zmo decorated it and the candles were the finishing touch. It is a beautiful tree. May all of you take the time to share your christmas season with those around you. May we all reach out and make someone's day special. Merry Christmas

As we come to the close of another year.

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.

It has been another full and prosperus year. We have enjoyed so many fruits for our labors and it seems they just continue. I hope this finds everyone well and getting ready to enjoy the holidays. We have just returned from Germany and are slowly getting our clocks back to normal. It doesn't seem bad going over, but coming home just takes longer to get adjusted. We had a great visit with Jim, Kathleen and Zmo. We were there from November 23rd to December 14th. I'm sure that they were glad to see us leave as we were using their bed. We certainly enjoyed the wonderful hospitality of Jim and Kathleen, but also the many interesting people we met along the way.

We were there for the season of Weihnachtsmarkts. It starts in late November and runs to Christmas. They are Christmas Markets. We had the opportunity to go to five different markets. Stuttgart, Strasbourg, Fr, Esslingen, Ludwigsburg, and Ulm. They were all different and and all very much alike. The food was wonderful and of course the Gluewein, which is a hot mulled wine. They had both red and white. Each market had it's own special mugs. There were booths that had almost everything you could need for Christmas. There were ornaments, nutcrackers, incense houses, leather work, wood work, and goods from all over the area.

We went to Ulm by ourselves and what a sight. The cathedral there has the tallest spire in the world. They have a pipe organ that was magnificent and we were lucky enough to hear a 30 minute concert while we were there. The building was huge. As we sat listening to the concert, we watched our breath. It probably was in the low thirties in the building. We traveled to Ulm by rail and it was nice to see the countryside all covered with snow. We bought scarfs in Ulm, as the wind was blowing and we needed the protection around the neck opening.

Our trip to Strasbourg, France was by bus, with a group of teachers from Kathleen's school. It was a long day, but well worth the trip. We had a group lunch at a small restaurant that was spectacular. We were certainly ready to get back on the bus at the end of the day. It was a two-hour ride.

Of course the biggest part of the trip was spent with Zmo. We really enjoyed seeing her and how she is progressing in her kinder school. Her languese is amazing. She speaks German very well and her English vocabulary is grow every day. She had a little friend come home with her one day who spoke no English. Annette is talking and Zmo said, "Grandma, she olny speaks Duetsch."

Jim is the chief cook and bottle washer. He is a very good cook and almost everything we had was german origin. He did make pizza one night which is one of his specialties. We are trying to get ready for Christmas here at home and that is going slow. We will go to Cindy's for Christmas and will probably spend a couple of days there. The ground was bare when we came home, but we got enough snow to cover the ground this morning. Hopefully it will melt, but the temperature is supposed to stay cold all this week.

Again, "Merry Christmas and may you have a wonderful new year."

Lake Wallowa

What a view! We spent last week in Oregon. Annette had told me of this place and said she wanted to go back to see it. It is only 4 1/2 hours from home. We stayed at an outstanding B&B and enjoyed the beautiful area with Annette's brother Stan and his wife Terri. This lake is at the 4200 foot level and the Tram leaves you at the top of the area at 8150 feet. The restaurant in the picture is the highest restauant in the Northwest. The food was great and the prices were very reasonable. One of the tourists we met at the top said that this had been on their "Bucket List" for a while and I told her it should be on everyone's list. We will certainly go back. There are about three miles of trails around the top of Mt. Howard and we only did about a third of those. We would like to see the other side of the mountain. In the bottom picture you can see the mountain to the left. That is where the tramway goes. It is a fifteen minute ride and lots of views to go with it. We had breakfast with our friends from Dorset, Ontario yesterday in Wenatchee. We hadn't seen them for four years. Their daughter and boyfriend with them were on a bike ride to Winthorp and beyond. It was great to see them and spend some time with them. They run the Marina near Dorset, that we stopped at in 2006. It sounds like all is well in Germany as Kathleen has started back to work. We are shopping pricing for a trip later this fall. The weather is beautiful here and we hope to have much more of it in the next few weeks.

Wedding Reception at the Winery.

I fear that summer is coming to a close. It's still warm and sunny, but the nights are a little cooler. Today the wind is blowing at a stiff rate. They say it could be as high as 40 mph until 9 PM. Our weather has been very good lately. We went to Leanne's reception last Friday. She is Phillip's daughter, that's Annette youngest brother. It was a really nice reception and the food and drink was very good. They had a DJ and the dancing was good also. Met some new people and saw a lot of old friends and family. It's always nice to see the family grow. James, Leanne's husband is a gymnastics coach. He works in the Bothell area of Seattle. That's the north end if you don't know Seattle. He is not a teacher, just helps run a gymnastics program. Who knows, we might see one of his proteges in the Olympics some day. The quilt was a gift from Annette and Maggie. Maggie put it together and Annette quilted it. It is a beautiful quilt. We spent the time with Stan and Teri, Annette's other brother. We went to Cottage Grove on Sunday to see Jodi and Jim. We haven't been there for a few years. It was good to get together with all. And of course the food was good everywhere. We are getting ready for a busy September. As you can see by the photos, Kathleen and Zmo were at a biergarten somewhere enjoying the time. She starts school next week. Their time here seemed very short, but time flies when you are having fun.

Goning Home Again

Well. we haven't written for a while. We got home from Kansas on the first Thursday of August. We had a great time. Saw a lot of people and I think this was the biggest group of I'm not sure who you are reunions. I think the family is in good shape. We spent a couple of days at Gary's and Nancy's and of course had a fish fry. Dixie was able to come and join us for the festivities. Yesterday we loaded Kathleen, Jim and Zmo for the ride to Seattle for the flight back to Germany. It seemed such a short time that we got to see them. They are home now and Kathleen said that Zmo was a good traveler on the way back. She did shed a tear while landing at Amsterdam. Cindy and I put the office back together and all is well on the home front. I'll write more in a few days.