Common Crane Day

It was a cold but sunny tuesday so I took my bicycle for a tour along the River Wümme. The sky was full of Common Cranes on their way to the south.
Crane

Home Sweet Home :)

A good friend of mine had birthday - I used the opportunity and took some pictures of the place she lives ...

Bremen - Boats

Harvest

I never liked autumn because of the approaching times of darkness and cold. But this year is different, I am starting to like autumn, it´s the time to harvest the fruits of nature.  
On this picture are some Crabapples,  fruits from the Sloe, Sweet Chestnut, Beech Seeds, Rowan, Blackberries, and Hawthorn berries.

Emptying The Dog In The Evening

It is early evening, but still enough light for a walk in direction of Highdown Hill.

Harbour Fun

The summer visitors are gone, benches and fences are being painted for the coming season, and the vehicles are wrapped and packed for winter. The Harbour Fun in Littlehampton was empty and silent on this day :)

Littlehampton

Wheel of Life - Sandhenge :)

Emptying the Dog - Low Tide

This post goes out to those who asked for more doggie pics, hi Floker :P

Angmering - The Roman Villa

Since watching Time Team, my eyes are searching the ground when walking over the fields in Sussex. So it didn´t take a long until I found a bit of clay,  a very orange coloured one, with inclusions and patches of different coloured material. I could even see that it had been worked by man and not by machine. Somebody had soften the edge of a corner with a finger or the thumb.

Wheel Of Life, Pt4 Stonehenge

I am getting quite addicted to the diggings of the Time Team :)
This documentary about Stonehenge is about the historical landscape where Stonehenge is built. It shows the connection between the Durrington Walls/ Woodhenge (which in my eyes appears to be the symbol for life) and Stonehenge (which after the archaeological resurches seems to be more a symbol for death). The connection between these spiritual places is the nearby River Avon.
At least I must add that I truly believe in the importance of the winter solstice for those who has been celebrating there. Dark long nights opens the human mind for insights and spirituality, and it is the time for rebirth of life, the wheel of life keeps on turning.

Here you can use an interactiv panoramic view of Stonehenge.

P.S. Only few minutes after making this post I heard the latest news about the landscape surrounding Stonehenge.  Read about the finds here.

Sit Here With Me

Streaming Waters
Watch watercams here.

South Downs Way

The 160 Km long South Downs Way National Trail follows the old routes and droveways along the chalk escarpment and ridges of the South Downs. The sea is nearby and can be seen from parts of the trail. Here is a map with the heights of the route.
Unfortunately the weather was cloudy and rainy as I went, but it didn´t stop us breaking up with the dog for a three days walk with two nights of wild camping :)

John (US) - Sussex Drinking Song

Source: http://www.contours.co.uk/walking-holidays/south-downs-way.php

London - Notting Hill Carnival

Monday the 25th August turned out to become "the soggiest bank holiday on records" (BBC), but I had come to London in order to visit The Notting Hill Carnival, so I dressed properly in my rain clothes and joined in. As I met my dancing teacher Petra Siekermann, I can proudly say that I have been dancing to the rhytm Tiriba on the carnival :)

Great Canal Journeys

My trip to London and my walk along the towpath made me remember how lovely it is on the canals. Bluebottle was so kind to send me this article, and after doing some researches I´ve found the four episodes of the documentary :)
Episode 1: Kennet & Avon Canal
Episode 2: Rochdale Canal and Hudderfield Narrow
Episode 3: LLangollen Canal
Episode 4: France - Canal du Nivernais
Unfortunately these videos aren´t available in the UK, sorry about that :(

Home Sweet Home - A Narrow Boat

London - The River Lea Valley

Close to the City of London and the West End stretches the southern part of the River Lea Valley. From here you can cruise the canal systems, the River Thames, the River Lea and Stort.
It is very central but as silent as if you were on the country side. I took a walk along the towpath on a sunny morning and got friendly with some cats :)

Hamburg - 3D

Wonder what happens when the price of 3D personal printers sinks ...

Hamburg - "Monkey On My Back"

This is the works of John R. I´ve seen his works in Bremen as well :)

Hamburg - Lieb Sein

Hamburg - El Bocho

Already in Berlin I was impressed by the big cut out´s from El Bocho. He is responsible for the figure Little Lucy as well.

Hamburg - SIRO KRKN

SIRO KRKN

Hamburg - Tiles

Hamburg - Stencils

Hamburg - Cut It Out

Hamburg - Stickers

Hamburg - Animals

However, I had to make one post only with animals :)

Hamburg - Graffiti

I´ve learned something new as I viewed all the pics I made in Hamburg. Not everything is "graffiti". Street art can be done through cut outs, tiles or stencils, for example. As result I decided to create different categories - sorry Floker :(
I also decided to do posts about single artist. Sometimes i even found the links to their official sites.

As I said before, there are loads of posts with street art coming up - enjoy! :)

Hamburg - Schanzenviertel

Hamburg is not too far away from Bremen, and Floker and I had already long ago decided to make the trip in order to check out the street art scene.
We decided to drive to the quarter Schanzenviertel where we started for our 6-hours lasting walk.
This post offers an impression of houses and sourroundings of that area. The posts following will be full of all kinds of street art :)

My Favourite Place in Bremen, Pt 2

The lovely garden of my friend is still a favourite place to be. Let me show you some flowers and a sweet little fluffy bird :) Does anybody now what kind of bird it is?

Home Sweet Home

Already years ago I was really impressed by the flat of a friends parents. They have been collecting all their life - for me it is like paradise for my eyes, similar to a big flea market :)

A Workshop For Plaster Figures

But, truly spoken, this figures are made of cast ceramic, so I´ve been told :)

Bremen - Bürgerpark

Let´s Take A Rest

After round about half of the tour there is a small bridge for the ferry to the pub Wümmeblick on the other side of the River Wümme.
It is a lovely stop for breakfast :)
The bridge is not big, but it manages to hold up 7 signs which tells us what to do or not -
I think that is quite typical german.

The River Wümme

Since weeks a high pressure area is laying over the north of Europe - the weather in Bremen is hardly bearable, it is really hot and dry.
On these kind of days I start early with the bicycle. A tour I´m doing regularly is along the River Wümme. This tidal river is curving through a flat landscape which was created by people from Holland in  medieval times. They channeled the area and made it useable for farming.
Today this area is a nature reserve - Naturschutzgebiet Untere Wümme - and a popular nearby recreational area for cyclists, walkers and boaters.

Theatre And Circus

Tea And Symphony - Armchair Theatre

Rose Garden

Lynn Anderson - Rose Garden

Bremen - Graffiti

I went for a walk and found new graffiti made by TONA. So here they are, together with other pieces of street art I´ve been collecting during the last months.

Oldenburg - Graffiti

Hier ist ein Link des Gegenstand-punktverlags. Der Vortrag wendet sich gegen Fußball-weltmeister-schaft und Nationalismus.
Panem et circenses.

Oldenburg - City

Oldenburg - Kultursommer

The Kultursommer Oldenburg takes place until the 27th July, so there are still possibilites to enjoy music, and that for free!

Oldenburg - Castle and Parc

The facad of the castle in Oldenburg is built in style of the Renaissance, although I think some of the decorations must be from the time of the Baroque ...
A count lived here from 1607 - 1667, afterwards it became an administrative headquarter of the Dane´s. Nowadays the building is used as museum, Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Oldenburg.
The castle´s parc is on the other side of a big street, and it is a nice quite place in the midst of the busy town.

Habib Koité

For sure, great musicians were playing on the hottest Saturday this summer. Habib Koité and his formation played on stage during the Oldenburger Kultursommer.
This post goes out to those dancemiece who weren´t able to go there!
Check out the pics behind the fold.

My Favourite Place In Bremen

Bremen has had very hot weather the last days, up to 30°C.
One of the best places for me to go has been the garden of a friend. Here I can sit under an old and tall beech (Fagus Sylvatica) enjoying the shade and watching the birds :)

Flowers Of Angmering

In Loving Memory - All´s Well

Since I have had contact with people from these Islands I understood that benches are something very important. Loads of  things in life happens here :)
As young you sit on them with your friends, drinking, listening to music and watching the girls/boys walking by.
As an adult you sit on them to rest whilst you are for a walk with your dog, or you meet up with strangers on a bench by the church :P
And when you are dead the members of your family will attach a badge on your favourite bench.
So my dear friends, grab your handkerchiefs, come with me and commemorate those who already left us.

Emptying The Dog By The Sea

With the bus to Littlehampton and back along the beach.

Early Mornings Long Walk

I wanted to walk early in the morning, and managed to be on my way at 8 am. Through the cold woods up to a hill with view as far as to the sea where I layed down for an hour in the morning sun.
Afterwards down to Patching and it´s church St. John the divine.
Thereafter over the fields, up to Highdown Hill and back to Angmering.
All in all 13 km walk - I felt quite exhausted after that :)

Emptying The Dog In The Woods

What to do on hot sunny days?
Go into the woods and cool down.

Brighton - The Old Pier

Check it out - this webcam of the promenade and the pier does still work :)

Brighton - Graffiti

I forgot to mention - Brighton is a great place to stroll around looking for new styles in graffiti, unfortuntly i have already seen the most of them. But there is somebody new since I´ve been there last ...

Brighton - Shopwindow

Brighton - Town