Travelog for: Oink

Hello
My name is Oink, because I often end my sentences with a little 
"OINK"
As I'm a little piglet, I love everything which is pink like me.
"OINK"
My big red heart belongs to my Mommy, so I carry it with me, just to bring it back to Mommy one day.
"OINK"
I wear a blackwhite scarf because I'm a fan of old black'n white movies.
"OINK"

Ooh, those lovely pinkish aplleblossoms  "OINK"


More pink flowers  "OINK"


Beautiful flowers, but here I like the tulips best, because they are pink!  "OINK"


Here I am with my siblings and Fimbo Fimble "OINK"


.

Hello Mum... OINK

I arrived in Remscheid at Strunkis home and got a warm welcome from Charlotte and PinkyHH outside in the garden, because today was the hottest day here...OINK

Both looked into my envelope


They helped me out and I showed them from where I come, from the Black Forest ...OINK



Then Charlotte hugged and welcomed me


Pinky welcomed me as well. What a nice pink girl she is...OINK


Both asked me if I am hungry...OINK OINK


Oh yes, I am hungry after my journey..OINK

And so I got as a first meal an icecold mousse au chocolat

Well, I finished first

It was soooo yummy..OINK

After a little while Charlotte showed me a few flowers in the garden...pink flowers...OINK

Here is a pink Peonie

And here You can see cranesbill (geranium)


Here is another pink peonie

It was big enough to lay in...OINK

And here is the nice smelling oleander


But the funniest was Lottes own potted poppy-blossom where she invited my to sit in together with her


Thats for today, Mum, hope You like it?...OINK

Hi Mum,

It was long after Midnight, when Lotte, Pinky and me went upstairs to watch a very special event: The "Queen of the night (selenicereus grandiflorus) opened her huge blossom only for a few hours in the night before she fade


Look, how big the blossom is...OINK


But the best is, that the blossom has sometimes a sweet fragrance between vanilla and chocolate...Hmmm...yummy..OINK 


Now I have to hurry up getting into the bed....OINK
Good night and love You, Mum

Very early in the morning we gave farewell to PinkyHH

Ohhhh..what a pity, I like this nice pinky young lady soo much...OINK OINK

But she has the chance to visit Usedom now and so we waved her a last good bye

OINK PinkyHH OINK

Today we visited the Botanical Garden of the University of Bonn because there is once a year a cacti-market


And what great luck we had: The giant corpse flower [Amorphophallus titanum] was blooming today, a botanical rare sensation


This is the Palace of Poppelsdorf and the Botanical Garden now is the former Palace Garden


Outside I found the first pink blossoms



And also outside I found a ficus carica with fruits


Lets see first the cactis and the tropical houses





Here togehter with Charlotte


O.K., this isn´t a cactus but a little fuchsia, as a bonsai


And here are the first cacti with very nice blossoms



After visiting the market we went outside again and found some more nice plants


This is a protea, the plant above I missed the name for

I like the water lilies [nymphea]



Here we are in the tropical palm house


This is a the nut of a coco de mer [Lodoicea maldivica] from one island of the Seychelles, Praslin, where they have their endemical habitat

They have gigantic leafs similar to this one I am sitting on


Here we are in the fern house


A nice coloured Bromelia

And much more tropical blossoms






Here is a very blue water lillie


Now lets see more outside



This is the garden of the perennial plants

Look at this nice pink Archillea


More water lillies and other nice plants




This is the palace again from the backside



Nice pink Digitalis


In the alpine part we watched lizzards in the sun




In the blossom of a huge rhubarb we watched the ladybird larva


And here under some trees we found some turban lily [Lilium martagon]



And now we see the best of the day: the blooming giant corpse flower in the victoria water lillie hall


This is a rather small one, it lasts some time, if it will be grown



Between one nice shine blue water lillie


And here it is






After this nice event we went to have an ice-cream and a coffee


What a nice day

Hey Mum...Oink Oink:-)

hope, that You feel better and that all will be allright with You?

Today I went with Strunki to the place where she works.


This is the view out of her window in the 2nd floor


In the lobby You can see a nice garden pond


This is Bong, a crazy snake and we liked each other. But most of the day he sleeps around strunkis screen


This is the oldest plant in the office, a christmas cactus and strunki ensured, that it blooms a lot mostly in January


I found a lot of maps there, look, on the table is a map of the world


And one map from Germany on the wall


Look, mum, this is where I come from..Oink Oink


Some funny bears are on the wall, too




Here I meet some more office-plushies, but they only like to work here and do not travel...poor guys...

The nice guy on the left is Wirsing, in the middle You see Christmas and the nice pink guy next to me is Pig

With Pig I had a nice conversation and he showed me his box where he works togehter with the little mouse Manfred sitting in an eggholder-chair on two feet


In the dracena I saw two magnetic snowpeople climbing


At noon we had lunch



Then our working day came to an end and we went home..Oink
Love You Mum and see You
lots of hugs to You....Oink

Hi Mum ...Oink,
hope You are allright and feeling better?

Today we went to a nice location called Overmanns in Sprockhövel.


Its a rural Café with a nice beer-garden and playground and lets see what else we found there


Together with Lotte in a beach-basket


Look, that´s  me on some bronce-deers



Me on a tractor..Oink...Can You see me and my red heart`?


Some geese in a voliere



Nice pair of kids


With Lotte on a tray in form of a kind man


A funny statue of a chicken


Let´s see what we find inside


A reck with some antique rural mugs


Me on an old merry-go-round-horse


And the last suprise: We found a hidden twin of Dr.Kröbner...Oink Oink


That was it for today
Love and kiss You, Mummi
Yours Oink

Hi Mum, Oink 

today we went to the pedestrian zone of Remscheid, the Alleestreet.

Here You can see the tower of the town-hall

On top of the hill of Remscheid You see a bus-station


OK, lets start from the beginning and go down with me

The two metal pylons between the trees should symbolize two pliers or nippers, because in former days Remscheid was a main town for tool-industries

We saw a funny restaurant there

Look at the funny pigs snout they have


This weekend was a big event in the pedestrian zone where a lot of local restaurants placed mobile kitchens in tents to show their cooking repertiore


Look at the nice coffee-wagon


This one looked vey exclusive


In front of the Alle Center there is a fountain


In the near were some bronce statues with playing kids


This is the statue of the "Tüpitter" a local original of Remscheid

It is a symbol of the local newspaper and stands for being not afraid to report about things that move the region and speak in the local dialect.
The complete meaning is in Original : "Nit te bang! Tü Pitter!" That means he should not be afraid to pull the big bell and alarm the people with it.


We went on and found some nice old cars placed in the pedestrian zone.

Look at the nice old Ford


Here You have a nice restored race supporter


This old lorry was huge

And this one I liked most, its called "Samba-Bus", an old Bulli and one of the first small motorhomes for camping


Heres is the view down the Alleestreet


Look at this funny statues



In a street nearby the pedestrian zone we found a nice garden in front of a florist shop





Look at the nice flowers and can You read the sign?


OK, lets go on. I liked this poster in a shop window


And now we are at a place called the Market, it´s the End of the pedestrian zone and You see the old city-church of Remscheid


Look at the coloured and funny fountain



In former times this should be used as a market-hall but now its a café in


Here You have the view back to the Alleestreet



On our way back we found this strange motor-bike and people told us, it would run...with sangria used as fuel...strange...



Well, lets walk back, strunki promised me a sweet surprise...Oink


And there we are   A café called "Sahnetörtchen"


It is the heaven of plushie-cakes ....Oink Oink


Look at our nice cakes we found


Mine was with cassis


And soooo Yummy....Oink


That was it for today ...Oink Oink
Love You, bye Mummi

Hi Mum...Oink Oink

today we vistited two nice places but I will start with the Botanical Garden of Solingen


Growing in the wall I found the first nice flowers


In the whole park Yoou can find metal sculptures

Can You see me in the middle, behind the rose?

It begins with a nice little alpinum where You find some nice different plants






Look at the wild bee or bumblebee


Now we are in the area that looks like a small spa park




There I found an owl reading a book


This is the little spa park again




Some last peonies are still blooming, but thees are the very last ones

Here am I inbetween some pinks, or gillyflowers (dianthus)


Here we are in some plots again








Look at this huge columbines (Aquilegia)



And the blue colour of this delphinium is incredible


Now is a good time to admire the roses they have there









Some of them have a beautiful fragrance, but the most do not smell, what a pity

Here we are in the upper part again







I have never seen such a huge butterfly


And even not such clourful one

In the alpinum flows a little micro-river



And this is one part of the donators-table and the friends of the botanical garden who support it, that the garden can be still open for the public without any fee entry, but You are welcome to spend a little amount, of course.

The next place we visited was the park of wild forest animals in Düsseldorf. I found some wild relatives there



The first animal I found was a mixture between a bear and an otter, what do You think, it could be?


Here I saw some red deer



This was the plain where the fallow deer lives and where You can watch them without any fence between the visitors and the deer




Look at the nice spring


And here are them, the fallow deer







Further on we found a rascal


And here are my first real pigs...o.k., theese are wild ones, but I will try to meet also the domestic ones to fulfill my life-mission really












At least I was able to ride on a wooden one, that was fun for me



That was it for today, Mum,
love and hug You, bye and see You soon

Hello Mum, ..Oink Oink
I am soo upset: Strunki told us that HelmutBluepant is on his way back home and this is the chance to fulfill my second life-mission:
Meeting an other TV-pig

So Charlotte decided to cook his favourite meal: a lentil stew


My job was to try and to taste ...Oink Oink


But I was in mood to shock Lotte-Bunny and felt down after tasting her stew   ...Oink


She was very upset and nervous that the stew wasn´t good


But later I laughed and told her that I was only joking her ...Oink Oink


She was very glad when I told her that I never tasted such a yummy stew  Oink Oink


So I look very forward to meet Helmut in the next days

That´s it for today, bye mum and love and hug You
Yours Oink

Hello Mum,

today was a great day: Helmut came back home and he brought a new visitor. TobiHH




And when we gave Helmut a warm welcome, I fulfilled my next life-mission: Meet another TV-pig  Oink Oink


Helmut and Tobi are very nice and I like them from the first time we met



They had a lot of gifts and souvenirs from Helmuts journey to Switzerland

Lotte and me got very tasty cookies

Helmut showed us postcards from the nice Hotel in Zermatt


Look at the huge Map of the area around the Matterhorn

Then it was time for dinner and we liked the stew Lotte and me made the day before very much





For dessert we had chocolate covered marsh mellows

And then the welcome-back-party started  Oink Oink




We had Hugo to drink

And together with Helmut I danced the strawberry-dance






Tobi and Lotte did it as well




Helmut and me had a lot of fun, what a great party



But after so much Hugo and so many funny party-play we all were glad to sleep in the plushie-bag


That was a great evening Oink Oink
Love and hug You Mummy

Yours Oink

Hi Mum,
today I made a little walk through the garden around the house

Here I found some huge digitalis

A beautiful Delphinum in pink and yellow


Look, me at the lillies


Theese columbine [Aquelia] are two-coloured




And this rosebush is very old


The very first ox-eye daisy [Buphthalmum salicifolium]

Bumblebee and butterfly love it

Blue and yellow corydalis


Some more columbine



And a small red-leafed japanese acer


Now we are at the pond

The main plant there is the water soldier [Stratiotes aloides], Helmut told me, that the larvas of the dragonfly use it for coming out of the water after some years of growing and hang themselfs at the leaf tips to hatch out in some weeks. It has mall nice white flowers, only one per plant


A single rose

it even has a wonderful fragrance

This is the honeysuckle or woodbine [Lonicera]

It has a beatiful fragrance mainly in the evening


The little white flowers of the wormwood


Here we are in the part with some apple trees

And I am inbetween the apples


Behind the small astilbs are still some late peonies

I dont´t know if I like the pink or the white one more

But the white one could be the right one for me


A lot of blackberries for jam

But at the moment they are still blooming

And columbine again

In different colours and shapes

And this is a columbine meadow-rue [Thalictrum aquilegiifolium] in yellow


But the funniest and everlasting flower in the garden is a huge potted poppy

Lotte told me that it is hers and helmuts favourite place, the poppy blooms and brings colour in the garden, even when every other flower is faded

Here together with TobiHH enjoy chilling in the poppy, what a funny idea able to sit in a flower

Back in the house Helmut showed me his newest leaf-cacti blooming, the Epiphyllum


And after this he invited me to the higher terrace up tot he roof where the warmhouses stand


A very blue plumbago


And a yellow „princess of the night“

Also a epiphyllum

Like this red ones


At last a blooming strelitzia


That was my walk around the garden and the house and I saw some nice flowers and plants
Love to You Mum

Hello Mum,

today we went to an old but interesting place in Remscheid: The Steffenshammer, a very old smithy that is now a little Museum and still funcionable today and shows the visitor, how the people in the Bergisch Land formed irontools with using water as energy.

The place is called Clemenshammer, but the old smithy is called Steffenshammer



Behind me You can see a huge wheel for transmission

This is the entrance to the little half-timbered house and until the 1930s a widow with 6 children lived.

The house is very very small, you can see it at the windows.

This is the entrance

Behind me are the narrow stairs up to the first floor but this is closed for public

Here in the main room the association that promotes the Clemenshammer, shows what tools the smithy produced in the old times and wich tools they needed and how hard and difficult the circumstances of living and working were in the so called "good old times...





And this is the smithy itself


Lets have a look inside



Here I am on a funny chair, it hangs from the ceiling.

That has the reason that the smith can move for and back when the iron gets longer and longer during the process of smithering

There You can see the hammer powerd by waterenergie and the anvil, where the sun shines through. It was very dark there, only the light from outside and the fire in the oven lightend the room

Lets have a look outside again and see how the water turns the huge wheel





Huiii. I like the water that sprinkled very powerful, what an energy, what a noise it makes...

In the garden was a small summer-party and they showed how to smith


And it was funny to see how they bake wafels here






Hmm, yummie, of course we had one

There was a wheel of fortune


I won a little sheep that was happy to join out troops

And a dixie-band played nice music





We were allowed to sit in the shadow of the big bass-tuba

Nice summerparty and we recreated a little moment sitting on this bank



Then we were invited to visit an astonishing park: The "Unicat of Gardens"


The man told us that is the official smallest park






What a nice and interesting place this was

The last for today shows a typical Bergisch House with ist green shutters

Ähh..By the way Mom..its for sale...wouldn´t You like the idea of living in the Bergisch Land??

Love and greeting and many hugs
Yours Oink

This evening the other plushies made one of my life missions come true: Sleeping in a pink bed



Not only a pink bed: I was betted on roseleafs



A dream comes true

I never slept more comfortable