BIKE RIDE TO Käfertal Wald IN THE EVENING
After a hot day with thunder and lightning showers it cleared up so we went on a short evening ride to the Käfertal Wald forest to see the animals.  Most had already gone to sleep but we did get to see a few deer and fed them some carrots.  They love carrots.  Their antlers have really grown since we last visited them when Christina was here.

"Do you have more carrots for me?"

HOT WEATHER AND THUNDER & LIGHTNING
We have had several really hot days here, around 90 F or more.  I went for a swim in the lake yesterday to cool off.  It was really very nice and refreshing.  The cats have been like melted butter, hardly able to move.  Today it clouded up and we had a wonderful display of loud thunder, eye popping lightning and a heavy down poor of rain.  It cooled things off nicely.

Muffin is like melted butter.

VOLKSWAGEN CAR SHOW, BIKE RIDE TO MULBERRY ISLAND, SISTER MOON'S DINNER WITH US

On Saturday morning we rode our bikes to Steve's office to make some copies of some papers and on the way we ran across a Volkswagen car show.  I enjoyed seeing all the really nicely restores old cars and cute little campers that they have for the VW's.

There were these cute little campers they pull behind the VW's.
This guy also had a home made bike on the back.
I wouldn't mind having one of the campers but I'd pull it with a different car.

We saw many really nice camper vans

another cute camper with a pop up

Some of the VW's like this one had window fences.
I'm not sure if the fence is to keep birds out or kids in.
There is also a attachable window air conditioner on the drivers side.

there were also some new modern looking VW's

I remember Pat & Lee Heaton had a VW bus camper.
They took that camper all over the U.S. and Europe.

After the car show and the visit to the office we did the ride I did previously to Mulberry Island.  In addition to those sites we saw a horse getting new shoes at the horse riding school on the island and some cute dogs getting to play in the river.

A big horse getting new shoes.

other horses use for riders at the school

I thought this one had a beautiful 2 tone hair color.

Chocolate Lab loving the river and fetching sticks.

In the evening, we invited Sister Lauren Moon and Sister Samantha Smith over for dinner and a walk around the lake.  Sister Moon is ending her mission here in Germany next week and will be flying back to the U.S. on Friday.  I made them an american meal of meatloaf, potatoes au gratin, jello salad, and a fresh peach pie that we put vanilla ice cream on.

Sister Moon about to pluck a feather from the swan in the lake and Sister Smith.

Sister Moon and Sister Smith

PAINTING MANUELLA AND DAVID'S APARTMENT
Manuella and David are getting married next month.  They have just rented an apartment so on Friday a few of us went over to help them paint it.  I left before it was finished that day but maybe sometime we'll go back and see the end results.

David in the kitchen before painting.

Sister Moon and Sister Smith and Elder Elsworth in the hall

Sister Moon and Sister Smith and Elder Elsworth in the hall

Looking out the bedroom window into the back.
I noticed that all the apartments on the left have the TV dishes.

Living room before paint

Looking out the living room window

doing the ceiling white

Manuella doing the walls golden "gelb".

David's mom and little sister

David's mom, little sister and Manuella

Sister Moon and Elder Elsworth looking into the kitchen

BIKE RIDE AROUND MULBERRY ISLAND
Today I left early before it would get too hot and road my bike south through Freudenheim and onto the small island in the Neckarkanal.   Our friend Werner Siebert was so very nice to put together a small booklet of interesting sights around Manneheim for us with maps and descriptions of the places.  I used this to decide where to go today.  In 1819 the Grand Duchess Stephanie of Baden planted Mulberry bushes on the island for the breeding of the silkworm and was hoping to have local silk made from them.  But the silkworms didn't produce much or the strands where not very long or the Germans with their big hands were not skilled at handling the strands so the project was a failure.  But there are still Mulberry bushes/trees on the island and I also saw a lot of raspberry or blackberry bushes, apple trees, and a plum tree that had some ripe fruit that I and many birds had the joy of eating this morning.    My ride was about 3 hours long.  Not so many miles I don't think as I just enjoyed the ride and seeing everything.

This portion of the ride is getting close to Ilvesheim.
The Neckarkanal is on the north side.
The path is dirt and a little narrow so going slow is good.

Going across the Neckar bridge from Ilvesheim to Seckenheim.

This is the lock bridge for cyclists and pedestrians only, as I come back across the Neckar.
The train is on its own bridge and goes zooming by.
From here I noticed there was a path going towards the west end of the island and going under these bridges.

I took this path but I am afraid I was not suppose to as I saw signs with something about "verboten" but I thought it didn't mean bikes because it was a nice path and it was on the map.

The area has lot of raspberry or blackberry bushes along here but I didn't see any ripe ones or maybe the birds ate them already.

Here is one of the storks with red feet.
They fly away pretty fast but I got pretty close before this one flew away.

There was this small hazard on the path on the east side of the island going back towards the Feudenheim bridge again. My bike just fit under the tree.
But someone took care of it by painting a green stripe on the tree before you whack yourself.
That is a pheasant feather in my pouch that I found on the ground.

This is a sequence of photos I took of a barge going into the lock.  I was fascinated at how it barely fits in the lock.  It is going up stream towards Heidelberg.

They have a guy on the left with a walkie talkie

and a guy on the right with a walkie talkie

and the gate comes down, then the lock will fill with water and the barge will go out the other side.

CHURCH FRIENDS
We feel very blessed and thankful for all the great people we have met here in Germany and in our church.  This weekend we spent time with a few of them.  We had dinner with some, went on walks, had great talks, went to a live play in the woods, had a night bike ride, and had a great day in church.

These are our good friends Bob and Judy Palmer.  We had dinner together here in the apartment and went for a walk around our local lakes.  Bob & Judy came to Germany many years ago and ended up staying.  Judy also brought me a crock pot and I am so very thankful and will be using it soon.

A few of the local garden bunnies.

 I finally had a red squirrel hold still long enough to take a picture.

Sister Lauren Moon and the skirt she made at our apartment.
The skirt I am wearing I made in high school with fabric that Cindy Wiedemann's father brought back from India.

Sister Samantha Smith and Sister Lauren Moon brought me a sunflower that they cut at a local "cut yourself" garden.
I gave them a can of refried beans because they are craving Mexican food.

This is our great Bishop Jürgen Broo

We had dinner over at the home of the Zimmernink's.  A wonderful family full of love and fun and very interesting and creative people.  They have a really big back yard with a really nice garden of trees, flowers, fruits and vegetable and chickens.  They do big projects that many would be afraid to take on.  But with the skill and knowledge and will power that the Zimmerninks have in their family anything is possible.  They removed an old swimming pool and are installing big polymer tanks that arrive in sections and are welded together that will collect rain water from the roof.  This will be water storage for the garden and for fish.

Dr. Wolfgang Zimmernink explaining his project of gathering rain water for big fish tanks in the back yard.

Thor, the son of Imke and Wolfgang is the one doing the hard labor of digging and putting in the tanks.
Thor also dug the basement for additional rooms in the home.

Shows some of the temporary rain pipe collectors.
When done the pipes will be routed to the 4th tank that will be closer to the house.

Another one of the tanks

Thor is standing on the wood on top of one of the tanks.

Looking down into the yard from the 3rd story of the house.  There will be a 4th tank and then the area plants put back in around where the old pool was removed.

Imke in her flower garden selected some Lilies for me to take home.  Imke is very creative and has many talents.  She is a really talented seamstress and has a wonderful sewing room and collection of dolls and hand made things and she is a fantastic cook.