Trying to make lemonade

Hello to you sweet readers :-)
Haven't been here for a long time and I apologize.
Life has given me quite a few lemons lately and I'm trying hard to make lemonade of it but I didn't find the right recipe yet.
I've had crates of lemons in the past and I've  managed to make lemonade out of them but there comes a time that you are sick and tired of them and must find a new way to make it digestible this time.
I know we all go through some hard times at one time or another and I will be fine but for now I don't feel fine.
So please have a little patience, I'm trying hard to overcome myself :-)

Helen XXX

WO IST DER UKKI ??? Mystery of the Tomb, part 3

Okay, we went to Germany again on July the 28.

My heart started beating very fast when we approached the Mountain House.

I had this strange premonition concerning Uncle Ukki . . . . 

When we arrived we had the most strange welcome !

There was a gnome sitting on the stairs, he had a big yet a bit alarming smile on his face !

And oh my oh my ! He introduced himself but he spoke in such a strange dialect the only thing I could make out of his words was his name : Adular

We asked him if he met Uncle Ukki and why he wasn't here to greet us but his words were such a puzzling mix of French and Rhineland-Palatinate dialect we didn't understand a thing !

Oh yes, "wine" that was the only word we thought we could make out of his jibber jabber !!?
So Erik and I decided after a long discussion (  usually alcohol doesn't make things simple) to give him some wine.

Well, that was a big help ! NOT !!! After finishing the entire bottle the only thing he did was sing a German song :

"Heil dir im Siegerkranz" (German for "Hail to Thee in Victor's Crown") it was from 1871 to 1918 the unofficial national anthem of the German Empire. Previously, it had been the anthem of Prussia, the melody of the hymn derived from the British anthem "God Save the Queen".

Because of the melody we were utterly more confused and decided to lure him to bed so we could spend some quite time on the terrace and think what to do.

No sign of Ukki ! 
Suddenly we heard some noise along the road and look who was there !

It was Paula !

She came running down to our terrace and gave us a warm welcome.

We asked her to sit with us for a while because we needed her help.

We explained our concern about Uncle Ukki and maybe she would like to help us ? 

"Indeed I will " she said with her beautiful soft voice.

Immediately she started sniffing the grounds and began to walk through the house and the garden.

 

"Someone covered his tracks" she said with a disappointed face.
We were totally desperate ! We hugged Paula and wished her good night and with heavy hearts we went to bed.
Next morning we had breakfast outside when all of a sudden Pinky started yelling at us.

She wanted us to follow her . . . 

HERE HERE !!!!
Oh my goodness ! Look what she found !

Two polaroid photo's of what seems to be Uncle Ukki !!

We couldn't leave it at that, this looked like a mysterious disappearance !

Well, for us there was no other option then to call the local newspaper, someone must have seen or heard about Uncle Ukki !

Unfortunately, we didn't thought about the little ones at home and some smart Barn Owl brought them the newspaper.

The little ones were enjoying the nice weather outside when the owl appeared.

The newspaper was in German of course but smart Higgins who speaks all languages including Bird language and German started translating .

"I'm sorry but I have to tell you that Uncle Ukki is missing"

"Oh no ! That can't be true ! " and the little ones started to cry.
"Wait a minute ! Wait a minute !!! " said Higgins.
"Uncle Ukki is a very wise gnome, you don't think he will let himself get into trouble ! You must not believe anything that is written ! I think Uncle Ukki is on a very exciting adventure and he will be all right ! We know him and he will not come back before he finds out what is going on with the Tomb."

Well, that was a true statement of Higgins! 
The little ones broke out in laughter, Higgins never spoke so many words but he was right, Uncle Ukki would be all right and they felt a huge relief and they all sat down and enjoyed the sun again.
"I'm sure we will hear from Uncle Ukki soon" said little Arthur.

I KNOW THEY WILL . . . . . .

Helen XXX

OUCH !

I'm so sorry you may have been on the lookout for Uncle Ukki's story about his adventure :-(

I strained my hip before we went to Germany and I could hardly walk. I couldn't take pics ( it involves bending and crawling between the rocks and bushes ) and Uncle Ukki is on his own now in Germany :-I.

Because of that hip-thing I lost my Mojo.

 I'm normally a person who doesn't walk but run ( not on purpose I can't help it) and I'm so frustrated about it. I walk like Quasimodo and as a result my knee hurts too, hahahaa I sound like a little kid.

Can't take Pinky for a walk ( he does his walkies with Erik and Arthur) and I'm shuffling a bit between my kitchen and the bedroom.

I've got real painkillers today ( !!!) and I hope it will be back to normal soon.

The little "vacation" in Germany was nevertheless wonderful.

The minute we arrived our neighbour came almost running to us and told us that there were two fox cubs sitting on our doorstep some 10 minutes before we arrived !

Well, this neighbour is a real outdoors man, lived his entire life in this woody area and still he was so enthusiastic !

In the week that followed we had a visit from a fox cub on our terrace but this time Pinky went berserk and the cub ran off.

Erik was invited by our neighbour to watch a soccer game and when he came into his house the neighbour whispered to him : come quick, look out the window !

And there she was ! The Mama fox ! The neighbour has a big box of old bread outside which he feeds to his rabbits and Mama fox just came by to grab herself a loaf :-)

Ha ! Apparently she collected the loafs, in the bushes next to our house was a big pile of bread loafs ! 

In the evening you could hear nibbling sounds and I imagined the complete fox family having dinner.

There is a little stream behind the house, the house is on a hill and you can look down on the stream if it wasn't such a jungle :-). The stream attracts animals of course ( YAY ! ) and besides the fox family ( there were 4 cubs ) we heard wild boar late at night and early in the morning there was a deer. 

The deer came every morning and Erik managed to take a pic :-)

And and much to our surprise we saw fire flies !! Never saw them before ! 

We tried to take pics of them but as you can see ( hopefully) it's just a little dot in a lot of black.

I show it anyway because I think it's funny, seeing hundreds of them and ending up with this pic !

Oh before we left, Pinky needed her Rabies shot and well she went kind of funny :

See the foam on her mouth ! :-)

Well, we did manage to do some work on the house, we finished the shutters !!!!

( If you look closely you can see Uncle Ukki in the window. . ) 

Uncle Ukki will keep me posted while he is still in Germany but so far no word from him.

I won't worry about him, he seemed to be okay staying there and he is still investigating !

Helen XXX

Ukki says Goodbye

Uncle Ukki packed his bag, rolled up his sleeping mat and waves goodbye.

To answer some questions he would like to explain that the Tomb is indeed several of hundreds of years old.

It's supposed to be surrounded by a "field", all creatures great and small can see the Burial-sight because they have this so called " impression vision".

Uncle Ukki will explain later what that means.

Humans don't have the "impression vision" any more, well that is to say, rumours are more and more humans are rediscovering this ability.

And that is why Uncle Ukki is so anxious to find out who took these photo's and why these photo's were send to him.

 

The Mail-mole is deaf-mute and blind, so no hope on an explanation on his part.

 I'll see you all in a week !

Helen XXX

Disturbing news . . . .

This week Uncle Ukki received two photographs by Mole-mail ( as in the animal ).

Very very disturbing, the photo's are from a Gnome tomb.

Gnomes are buried too but it's on a secret location and no human ever discovered their whereabouts.

There are several locations on the world and luckily Uncle Ukki recognized this Tomb so he is going away for a while to investigate.

All he will tell us it's in Germany in a hill called "Schloß Berg " .

He expects to be back Saturday June 30.

Helen xxx

The Blues. . .

The children stared and stared and in their thoughts they called ; " KING OLLAMH " 

All of a sudden !!! The painting became blurry and look !

There he was ! Out of the blue ! He stepped right out of the painting and made a deep bow for Uncle Ukki and the children.

"Good afternoon King Ollamh, welcome in my house on behalf of the children and me." said Uncle Ukki in a very solemn voice.

"It is my pleasure Ukki, I heard the children have a lot of questions and I am here to answer them. " said the King with a smile.

"Come sit with me, can you take my cloak and wand Ukki? "

He sat down and the children gather round him.

"I will tell you who I am and what I do :

I am from a dynasty of blue-blooded gnomes and my task is to take away the blues from the people.

Little Barby, you want to know why the sky is blue ? 

Well, this is what happens. . . . 

Whenever someone is feeling blue I got a message from certain animals, mostly birds, and I will come in the night and take away those blues.

The blues goes into my bag and I will call a bird which has blue in it's feathers. It has to have some blue in it's feathers for camouflage, otherwise people would notice a bird flying around with a blue bag.

So, when ( for instance) a Blue Jay appears, I give it a most important assignment. 

It has to bring the Bag-of-Blues to Skugga !

Skugga is a Cloud Creature, he eats people's blues and after he eats it he lets out an enormous burp, blowing away the clouds and Voila ! the sky turned blue, the sun appears and people are feeling happy again.

Look up children ! Can you see him?

 "Oh, I don't see him King Ollamh. . ." said little Higgins
"Well, squint your eyes and look again " said the King

"Oooooh yes I can see him ! Oooh he looks very kind !"

"Indeed he is, he is here to help. He turns up every once in a Blue Moon and as we gnomes know that means once a month in human terms."

"But King Ollamh, there are many people who are feeling blue these days how can you help them all ?"

I can't little Ginny, that is why I leave a message with the people I've visited.

I tell them to focus on beauty and spread beauty and I leave a little note with a quote from a remarkable little girl :

“I don't think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.”
― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

Helen XXX 

Questions, questions, questions :-)

It was a beautiful day and the little ones were sitting in the kitchen while Uncle Ukki prepared lunch.

They were chit-chatting about all kind of stuff and admiring the new wall paper Uncle Ukki received from a gnome from the other side of ( this) world.

Uncle Ukki finally decided to put up a painting he had for a long time and he was in a very good mood.

Barby was reading quietly as usual when suddenly she asked: "Uncle Ukki, I've read the Gnome book from A to Z but there is something I cannot find . . . . ."

"What is it Barby dear ?" Uncle Ukki asks her.

"Well, I'm trying to find out why the sky is blue ! I did check your Great Book of Knowledge but there are missing pages and where the missing pages should be there was this very old photograph."

"Yes yes look Uncle Ukki ! This fell out of your book!"
 Arthur held up a very odd looking picture.

"Oh dear. . . ." Uncle Ukki replied and he paused for a minute.
He had a frown on his face as if he was thinking very hard.

"Children, the man on the photo and the man on the painting are one and the same man.

He is the Great King Ollamh and he is one of the few Gnomes who is responsible for feeding a creature called Skugga."

The little ones started talking all at once: who is Skugga ! what does he feed the Skugga ! what does that has anything to do with the blue sky!  why are the pages missing?!!!

Uncle Ukki raised his voice and told them to be quite.

"CHILDREN ! Our lunch is ready so first : lets eat ! "

 While we eat you take a close look at the painting of King Ollamh, it's a magical painting and if we call him with our thoughts he will hear us and come soon and tell you himself what 

his task is in this world."

Uncle Ukki has said enough, the little ones were quite as a mouse :-) and while enjoying their lunch they looked up at the painting and tried very hard to think about this Great King.

 To be continued. . . . .

We have a visitor. . . . . 

to be continued . . . . . .

The cutest Sloths !!!

It took some time to finish these two.

The real ones are so super cute, I felt like I could never get close to that adorableness.

But the last few days the sun was shining, it was so very nice outside and I was totally relaxed so I gave it another go.

That must have helped, everything looked much brighter and well, here they are :

Two playfully little Sloths !
Of course they had to bother Pinky 

 But Pinky didn't feel like playing so they climbed through the apple tree

 After a while they were tired and crawled inside their basket :-)

 It took just a minute to fall asleep . . . 

In my Etsy shop :-)

Helen XXX

Burrowing Owl Youth Gang :-)

I've been busy. . . .

I didn't want to post about this little gang until they were all  finished !

It took some time because the weather was so fine and I wanted to make my garden pretty again as well.In the meantime I played with them . . . . .

And here are the final mug shots :-)

They will be in my Etsy shop  :-)

Helen XXX