we're hillbillies again!!!

 

while our current life in london couldn't be further away from the range it is great and somewhat unreal to remember that these pics were taken less that 6 weeks ago. meris, diana, harry, clinton and seth did the full programme: long riding days, mountains, canyons, wall lake, shoot 'em again, taylor creek, and lot's a loping up ant hill, our favourite next to the mesa gallops, the meadows and all the other favourites as well. what do you do when you really don't want to leave?

(check out the picasa album on the right for more)

another year!

not difficult to be cheerful when you are still young enough to hope to look older so the supermarket will sell it's fine chablis to you but anyway: meris we wish you a very happy birthday and we hope you're having a great time!

messin' around in mesilla

to a hot chilli summer...

complaints over the last days that instead of showing a few recent pics we are still somewhat stuck in the summer holidays but my excuse is that it simply is too much fun to linger a little longer and going over the different places again so it'll just have to do for the time being..

and so the saga continues. leaving nyc behind we hopped via atlanta to el paso, texas and stayed in the great camino real again, where deac figured out that at least 10 cowboy boot outlets were in close range of - say- half a mile and so two days devoted to shopping. q: how many boots does one man need? a: you can wear three shirts on top of each other on your flight home but three pairs of boots may look a tad silly. so thank goodness for luggage restrictions, it was only four pairs in the end. per person. just kiddin...

however, even with that many boots there was still space to pack a ton of chillies or so and off to hatch which claims to be the chilli capital of the world. even from afar there seems to be a light red dust hanging over the town but in the coming weeks i'd sneak up to our bag full of anchos, colorados, anaheim and serrano just to get a quick fix. lovely lunch at a local cafe and great, great chillis

what do you mean - summer is over?

last few images from this lovely long summer, i promise, but take just one look at our cheeky little fellow pictured here in our favourite wildlife park near frankfurt (the one with the three white wolves!) and you can feel the sun right through the damp that is lying over town right now

almost the entire family came together in diane's lovely house and what a great day it was, with mini golf and cakes and pasta and a lot of fun at night time - at least for the kids...

very, very happy to see katrin the next day and hear about her adventures

and - already on the way in - a stopover in cologne with aunti pam and captain retro as cheerful as always

guys we miss you all a lot!!!

niagara falls

niagara falls must be one of the most photographed objects in the world and we too couldn't resist even so it meant our cameras drowned in the thick mist that covers every millimeter of air.

torn between the trip on the "maid of the mist" and the cave walk we decided on the latter as it allowed us to stand for as long under the falls as we wanted (kind of). truly spectacular and for america relatively unsecured walkways lead you right into and under the thundering downpour, with the water gushing around us, over our heads, feet, anything.

god knows why we even tried to stay dry in the hideous yellow plastic sacks they give out as they only look silly, make you sweat inside and give a real laugh to your neighbours.

but an experience of a lifetime and worth every wrecked camera, phone, handbag in the world.

nyc highway at night

some very moody pics from rike in north manhatten if i remember correctly but then she was the only one truly awake, with mom asleep and the driver on auto-pilot and with square eyes. even though we spent actually very little time there this year nyc takes its toll...

click here for a really stunning picture of big apple in the guardian yesterday.

summer highlights

it's very easy to name the one highlight of the summer that has outdone all else and that is meeting niki in troy, new york. the first stop on our multiple legs trip finally seeing her was by far the nicest and that's against a string of terrific sights and adventures...

well, klm managed again to lose my suitcase and this time with everything in it for four days but these are minor hick-ups and in the end my luggage flew from jfk to albany all by itself. we on the other hand took a car (eventually, after i forgot which rental company i had booked) and dashed off to troy where we met nik and together we drove around a lot and saw again albany, scenectady, watervliet and all those little places around that we hadn't seen for nearly 6 years, and also a little further to bennington, vermont and saratoga springs, where to rike's delight the horse racing season had just started and some very handsome beasts crossed the roads right in front of our car.

with nik and deac being old hares in troy (scusi, an old german saying) we saw of course the very best of this interesting and so very unusual 19th century town that is desperately trying to keep it's beautiful town center from dying...

and it was also just lovely to see rose again who became such a wonderful friend to big deac many years ago and on top of this we even met cousin melanie (or grand cousin, as rike named her) who once visited us in london...so take a look at the many pictures deac and rike took in the picasa pages on the top right.

(me - no clothes and no make-up for three days!!!)