My final two ornaments for 2024 and a visit to the Black Forest

And here we are... nearing the end of November already! I just wanted to pop in and wish all of my U.S. readers a very Happy Thanksgiving. Are you ready for the big day? I have one more pie to make (I've already made a pecan pie and apple/cranberry pie and will make a crustless pumpkin pie tomorrow). I also made a few kinds of cookies as well as pumpkin cranberry bread and applesauce mini-muffins. That is my favorite thing about the holiday season (besides getting together with my family!)--baking, baking, baking!

This is such a busy time of year so I chose to make my final two ornaments quick ones. I just love this pair from the Prairie Schooler booklet "A Merry Mini Surprise," don't you? For both ornaments, I changed the colors a bit. I used the traditional PS red, DMC 221, and for the green, I used DMC 3362. Like the first ornament I made from this booklet, I chose to finish them into rounds so I added various snowflakes to form a circular shape.

Two more mini Prairie Schooler Santas for 2024

I chose the Santa carrying the bag of Christmas greens to stitch for my November ornament. The little embellishment on the ribbon is made up of some small leaves that I removed from my dried boxwood wreath, three artificial berries, and a solitary jingle bell. I just glue them on to the ribbon one piece at a time using Aleene's Tacky Glue.

My November ornament

And finally (hard to believe another year of ornaments is over), here is my December ornament. Good Old St. Nick has certainly earned a rest after a busy night of delivering toys to all the good little boys and girls and has taken off his cap. Have you ever seen Santa without his cap? I thought he might be bald, but no--he has a full head of beautiful white hair! I imagine him as waving goodbye to the old year. A very fitting December ornament, I'd say!

And my ornament for December--farewell 2024!

I'll be writing my annual "Parade of Ornaments" post soon where I'll show each of my monthly ornaments for the past year--hope you'll come visit me then!

The next leg of our Rhine River cruise finds us in the beautiful...

Black Forest area of Germany

Oh, I just loved this day; after all, I was in my happy place--the mountains! Once again, it was not the best weather--the day was chilly and foggy with a bit of rain, but we still enjoyed our day in the fascinating Black Forest Open Air Museum at Vogtsbauernhof. To give my U.S. friends an idea of what this was like, it was similar to visiting Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia--only much older. The buildings that had been assembled on the 17 acre grounds were moved from various parts of the Black Forest to represent different time periods and building styles. There are lovely little cottage gardens and farm animals spread throughout along with educational displays and exhibits. Here are some of my favorite sights--hope you enjoy them! If you click on the names of the various houses, you can see more photos of the interiors of each one. And, as always, the photos themselves are clickable for a more detailed view.

The bus driver told us that this was one of the very oldest homes in the Black Forest. It is still inhabited after centuries of use and he said the old man and woman who reside there will sometimes come out to wave to passersby.

I thought this photo that I took from the bus window on the way to the open air museum resembled a watercolor landscape.

The inviting entrance to the open air museum at Vogtsbauernhof

The idea for the open air museum began with this  farmhouse called the Vogtsbauernhof. It is the only building still standing on its original site and dates to the year 1612. The interior decor was left much the same way as when the last owner moved out in 1965. Not exactly what one expected to see when entering a 17th century home!

This trio of geese was quite entertaining as they honked at us tourists!

The "Little Castle" from Effringen is the oldest of the buildings dating back to 1407. It is quite shocking to wander inside and see that the home is decorated in the style of when the last owner left in 1972! Imagine the harvest golds, oranges, and greens that were popular back in the '70s and you can picture it quite well.

I love everything about this scene--the ivy covered walls, crumbling stone, potted red geraniums, and the watering trough. Memories from long ago.

Such a sweet scene from the white-curtained window. I imagine it is much as it has appeared for centuries.

The Ortenauhaus built in 1775 is the only building built strictly as a dwelling place for families. In the other buildings, the farm animals occupied the lower floor! Can you imagine the sounds (and smells!) that must have drifted upward into the family's living quarters?

What a tidy little garden. I imagine it must have been very pretty when it was in bloom.

A view of the Ortenauhaus outbuildings through a massive wooden door.

The Leibgedinghaus, built in 1652, was what a typical retirement cottage would look like. The farmer's children were obligated by law to house their parents when they became too old to work the farm and would move them into a home like this until they died. You can see some of the interior shots above which included an eating area and a bedroom.

The bright red geraniums found on many homes added  spots of color to the cloudy day.

The Hippenseppenhof represents the oldest type of Black Forest home with the steeply pitched roofline. Note the crucifix displayed on the exterior. We saw similar scenes on many of the homes in this area.

The upper floor of the Hippenseppenhof building had several display areas illustrating the history of this particular section of the Black Forest. The interesting hats pictured above are called Bollenhut which translates into "ball hat." The red balled hats were worn by unmarried Protestant women beginning in the mid-18th century. Married women wore the ones with the black pompoms. The hats consist of 14 of the fluffy balls arranged in the shape of a cross. There is a short 20 second video right here, if you'd like to see them (and the rest of these fascinating costumes) up-close.

The upper floor also held a collection of carriages from years passed.

Just a few of the farm animals we met on our walk that day.

The Hippenseppenhof even had its own tiny chapel where the farmer and his family would gather to recite their daily prayers.

I so enjoyed walking the grounds of the open air museum at our own pace and not following a tour guide. I honestly would have been happy to spend more time there, but, as always, we needed to be back on our ship in time to sail for the next port. Before we left, we were treated to a wonderful lunch complete with the famous Black Forest Cake! We also spent some time in the gift shop selecting presents for our family and admiring the spectacular cuckoo clocks which lined the walls. I was tempted to purchase a small one as my mom and dad always had a tiny one in the corner of our kitchen that I fondly recall. But, in the end, I decided to simply remember theirs...

Just a tiny portion of the the hundreds of cuckoo clocks that were for sale.

It was such a lovely day in spite of the gray misty weather! The mountains always bring me a sense of peace not unlike the times I sit down to stitch.

Farewell Vogtsbauernhof--we certainly enjoyed our visit.

Did you enjoy the Black Forest visit today? I hope so! I may take a break from my river cruise posts and get back to them in January. The coming month is just so very busy, isn't it? I still have posts set in Switzerland and Italy to share with you--it was a very busy 2 1/2 week tour for sure! The main reason I write about them is so I'll remember more of the details in my old(er) age, but I hope you get something out of them as well.

And now we move on into December! Are you ready for the big day? I'm way behind having had Thanksgiving hosting duties, but I can't wait to pull my decorations from the attic and get started decorating on December 1st. I'll be simplifying things this year as my sons will all be with their significant others (although I'm sure my middle son who lives locally will stop by for a while with his girlfriend so we won't be totally alone). I may even get a new Christmas stitching start going! Who knows... Anyway, I hope your last month of 2025 is a good one (it seems like I just wrote that about 2024!). Thank you so much for stopping by, taking the time to leave such kind comments and write such nice emails--I appreciate each and every one! Happy Thanksgiving all! Bye for now...

Wishing each of you in the U.S. a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with friends and family!

 

A pair of Prairie Schoolers and a parade of castles

How can it be mid-October already? Did you know there are only 71 days left until Christmas? If anyone has a secret as to how to slow time down, I'd love to know it, wouldn't you? How is everyone's month going so far? We've had so many beautiful sunny days--surprisingly warm for October, too. I know that will soon be changing, but for now, I'm enjoying every minute of this lovely autumn weather while it lasts. Our garden has been put to bed for the winter and I'm thinking ahead to Thanksgiving which I'll be hosting this year. It will be a smaller gathering, but there is still so much to do! I've already begun decorating for Thanksgiving in between my usual free time spent reading and stitching. I actually have two new ornaments to share with you today. 

Below are my Christmas ornaments for September and October. I got a bit behind due to our Rhine River cruise so this month I played catch-up. Both just happen to be Prairie Schooler designs--my all-time favorite comfort stitching!

My September and October Prairie Schooler ornaments

I showed you my unfinished September ornament in my last post, but here is the 1995 annual Prairie Schooler all ready to hang on my tree. As I mentioned, he is stitched on 40 ct. vintage country mocha Newcastle with most of the suggested colors. To see any changes I made, you can refer to this post from September.  As with most of my annual PS Santas, I kept the finishing simple with DMC 221 cording and a gingham bow. The ornament is backed with a burgundy and white gingham. This ornament will forever remind me of our trip to Europe last month!

My finish of the 1995 Prairie Schooler annual Santa

 

For October, I chose one of the patterns from Prairie Schooler Book No. 81: "Songs of the Season." "Deck the Halls" is stitched on 40 ct. water green Newcastle. I did make a few color changes, using DMC 221 for the red and 610 for the sack on Santa's back. I also changed the lettering to DMC 3371 from the suggested red and used smyrna stitches for all of the berries as well as the pom-pom on Santa's hat. 

Such a fun finish for October--there was a lot more stitching in this one than I first thought!

And here it is all finished and ready for December decorating. Again, I simply added handmade cording, a gingham bow, and a small silver jingle bell. Love how it turned out!

My finish of "Deck the Halls" from PS Book No. 81 "Songs of the Season"

Giveaway winner... And I can't forget that I offered two PS mini-cards as a giveaway last time. There were ten entries for the cards and the name picked from the hat is...

             Donna King                            

Donna King, you are the winner!

Congratulations, Donna! Please send me your mailing address (my email is in the right sidebar under the "A Bit About Me" section) and I'll get these sent right our to you. As always, keep an eye on this space for future giveaways!

On to the travelogue... That wraps up the stitching portion of this post, but for those of you who are interested, I have Part 2 of my Rhine River cruise today. My favorite part of our cruises (both this one and the Danube River cruise we did five years ago) was simply sitting and watching the world go by as the ship floated through the water. There is a particularly lovely section of the Rhine River that showcases many of the ancient castles known as the Rhine River Gorge and that's where we'll travel today. Sit back, relax, and imagine life in this beautiful part of the world. (All photos are clickable for a better view).

Around every bend of the river, there was another scene right out of a fairy tale!

Maus Castle / Berg Maus, built in the 14th century, has been meticulously restored and is now an aviary for eagles, owls, and falcons

Rheinfels Castle / Burg Rheinfels (with the flag of Germany in the foreground) was the largest fortress along the Middle Rhine Valley. Today it is one of that areas most visited attractions even though much of it is in ruins. There is a hotel and restaurant there--you can even get married on site!

Katz Castle / Burg Katz , perched high up on the hill, was built in the 13th century. It is now privately owned and not open to the public--can you imagine the view they must have?! And the amount of money they must spend on upkeep...

Some of the pretty pastel houses along the Rhine River with Katz Castle looming above.

The Lorelei / Loreley, the 433 foot high slate rock that has become infamous for maritime disasters and legends involving a singing siren combing her golden hair who lured unsuspecting sailors to their deaths.

A charming little village stands next to a castle remnant

Schönburg Castle / Burg Schönburg is one of the oldest castles on the Rhine--first mentioned in the 10th century. It was burned down in 1689 by French soldiers, but restored in the 19th century, and is now run as a hotel and restaurant.

A view of the beautiful vineyards on the hillside near Schönburg Castle.

Pfalzgrafenstein Castle / Burg Pfalzgrafenstein is located on the small island of Falkenau and was built in the 14th century. It served as a toll station and a prison and has never been destroyed through all of those centuries.

Stahleck Castle / Burg Stahleck was built in the 12th century and, despite much destruction through the years from wars, it was always faithfully restored. Today it serves as a youth hostel for the Rhineland-Palatinate Youth Hostel Association. Can you imagine staying in a hostel with that gorgeous view?!

Yet another pretty little town with lush vineyards covering the hillsides.

Ehrenfels Castle / Burg Ehrenfels is a ruined castle from the 12th century. You can hike up to it and enjoy the breathtaking views of the river below.

Did you enjoy that little tour? I have to tell you that the morning we sailed was chilly and windy--many of us were bundled up in our warmest clothes, coats, and blankets as we sat on the ship's deck watching the castles go by! Thankfully, the weather turned warmer that afternoon for our next stop--the town of...

 Rüdesheim, Germany

Rüdesheim is a town of about 10,000 people best known for it's winemaking. Vineyards abound and the Riesling wine made from their grapes is world famous. 

Our first view of the Rüdesheim area. Far off on the hilltop is the imposing Niederwald Monument which we would hike to after we enjoyed lunch on the ship. 

What a pretty hike we had that afternoon--through lush green vineyards overlooking the river. It was quite a workout as our guide (a young man in his 20s!) marched all of us 60 and 70-year-olds up the hill as if someone was chasing us. Whew! Here are some of the highlights of our Rüdesheim hike.

Just a few of the delicate wildflowers we spotted on our hike.

Although the vast majority of the grapes grown in this region are green, I found a few purple ones hanging from the vines.

We hiked up to the monument, but there are also cable cars available.

We made it--we reached the Niederwald Monument! Left to right are my husband, me, my youngest sister, and my brother-in-law--great traveling companions!

Such a lovely view of the vineyards!

The massive Niederwald Monument was built from to 1871 to commemorate the unification of Germany after the Franco-Prussian War. Notice how tiny the people are in comparison to the monument!

We took the cable car down and the views were amazing.

It looks like a postcard, doesn't it?

When we reached the bottom of the hill, we spent a bit of time in the town of Rüdesheim itself, strolling the charming streets, stopping for a cool drink as we rested under a canopy of grape leaves, and simply enjoying the warmth of the sunshine.

Little did we know that that would be the last of the sunshine we'd have for awhile! Our next stop was a rainy, windy, miserable day, but we still enjoyed our visit to...

HEIDELBERG, GERMANY

Oh, how disappointing the weather was when we woke up that morning! Cold and rainy--not exactly what you want as you prepare to walk through the ruins of one of the most historic structures in Germany: Heidelberg Castle. The castle is a huge complex of buildings in various states of ruin. The misty, rainy weather actually made a perfect backdrop for the crumbling buildings on the day we visited. I so wish we could have stayed longer, but when you are on a tour, you are strictly limited by bus and tour guide schedules. There was so much we didn't see, but here are photos of the highlights. (I've included many clickable links if any of you would like to read more about the buildings featured).

The oldest part of the castle complex was built in the 1200's and various buildings were added on for centuries. That is why you see so many different styles of architecture from Gothic to Renaissance as shown above. The beautiful hues in the building material come from the red sandstone which is quarried from the surrounding Neckar Valley.

The Friedrich's Wing immediately catches your eye as you walk into the courtyard. Built in the early 1600's, it holds a romantic chapel on the ground floor which can be used for weddings.

The Ottheinrich Wing features elaborate carvings and statues of political, scientific, mythological, and religious figures. As you can see, the top floors are nothing but a shell--open to the air as a result of fires and a lightning strike. The bottom floor was covered and serves as a museum today. The pinkish color of the facade was so lovely!

There is beauty even in the ruins

In the background, you can see a few of the construction vehicles that are ever present. There is constant repair going on at different places in the castle ruins just to keep them from crumbling all the way to the ground.

A view into the lush green gardens of what was once the moat of the castle.

The Gate/Clock Tower and Ruprecht's Wing (on the right) which is the oldest residential palace still standing in the castle complex. It was built in the early 1400s.

By the time we reached this point in the walking tour, it was really raining as you can see in the photo above. Pictured is the famous Powder Tower (or Exploded Tower) built in the early 16th century that was partially destroyed by the French in a war in the late 17th century. Can you see how thick those walls were? The blown off portion has been resting against the remains of the tower for over 300 years now!

A very misty view from the castle to the Neckar River and the town below

Heidelberg Castle is also known for housing the world's largest wine barrel or as it's known in Germany--the Heidelberg Tun. The first barrel was built in 1591 and held 130,000 liters of wine. It was replaced by one that held 200,000 liters  of wine in 1664, and then the present barrel was constructed in 1751 from 130 oak trees. It can hold 220,000 liters (58,124 gallons) of wine and is so massive that there is even a dance floor on top of it!

The largest wine barrel in the world dwarfs visiting tourists. The photo in the upper right shows the steps leading up to the dance floor on top of the barrel. The statue is of Perkeo, the court jester, who now stands guard over the giant barrel. He was famous for his ability to consume massive amounts of wine.

Unfortunately, the rain was so heavy by the end of our tour, that the hike planned for the afternoon had to be cancelled so we had some free time. We actually enjoyed our down time and had the streets almost to ourselves. We had a relaxing lunch in a German pub, did a bit of shopping (where we purchased two warm fleece shirts to help with the colder than normal temperatures), and enjoyed the views of the castle from the old town.

Looking up from the Altstadt (Old Town) you can get an even better idea of the massive size of the castle complex

The Marktplatz, in the oldest section of Heidelberg, is often used for Christmas markets. On the left is the Town Hall with its beautiful window boxes overflowing with red blooms.

Because of the rain, the streets were nearly empty. I can imagine that, in good weather, they are bustling with shoppers and folks enjoying outdoor meals.

The Old Bridge /Alte Brücke and gate over the Neckar River

The view from the bridge offers a great vista of Heidelberg Castle looming over the town

Goodby rainy Heidelberg! I'm so glad that I packed that bright raincoat at the last minute as it sure came in handy on many occasions.

I'll pause my travelogue here and on my next post we'll journey to France! My first trip there--again, not the greatest weather, but it was certainly an experience that I look forward to sharing with all of you. Thank you so much for all of your kind comments on my previous post--I really appreciate each one so much. I had my cardiologist appointment this morning and, although she thinks I'm okay, she wants to run more tests. So, the saga continues... Hope each of you has a wonderful day with lots of stitching time. I'm heading to my stitching chair as soon as I hit "post."  Bye for now...