900 year old mikvah

 Somehow the boat picked up speed and we got to town way ahead of schedule  Viking gives a tour in every port but we didn’t want to wait.  We went to Speyer on our own, about a 40 minute walk away  Fortunately there were some sights on the way

What is left of the synagogue 

Cute Speyer neighborhood 

Looking through a gate

The wise rabbis of Speyer

Interesting art

The outside of the cathedral 

Doorway 

Steve in Jewish alley

steve in front of their huge cathedral 

On the way they had an open air flight museum. We are becoming very familiar with those Lufthansa Jets

Another museum with interesting benches 

Detail of gargoyle on the cathedral 

Speyer welcomed Jews 800 years ago and for about 500 years Speyer was a center of Jewish learning. They built a Mikvah, a bath with flowing water from the mountains for women to cleanse themselves. it is well preserved because for hundreds of years it was buried under sand. However the harmony between the Jews and the non Jews ended during the plague years. How come they aren’t getting the plague? Bathing in mountain water versus the cesspool Rhine? Jews must have caused the plague and were driven out and the synagogue burned

Some famous German pilgrim

Inside a former Catholic Church that was made Protestant for the many Prussian soldiers stationed these

Orpheus

Cute town square 

Entrance to the mikvah

The mikvah 

Rudesheim

 After going through the heavily castled section of the Rhine, we berthed late afternoon outside the tiny town of Rudesheim, home of their cognac like brandy which they turn into a drink called Rudesheimer kaffee which we had on board  We had time before dinner to take a walk before dinner through the town  I did get some Rudesheimer kaffee gelato mainly to use the bathroom, hard to find sometimes   One thing to know in German towns is to find the Rathaus, town hall, usually good for a free bathroom 

Summer flowers

 

School is done. Oliver will go to high school 

My irises did well this year

Maya and Naomi. 

Maya celebrating the end of elementary school though she is taking summer classes 

Unfolding Japanese iris

Not sure how this got in my yard. Known as the Mickey Mouse plant or Asian day flower

Kids on Memorial Day 

Front garden a month ago

I’ve been raising black swallowtails. I find the caterpillars on my dill, put them in jars, watch them pupate. So far two have turned into butterflies, the one above being a female. A male, no blue lots of yellow, also hatched. Two more caterpillars have just pupated

Petunias 

Japanese iris unfolded

Had a good strawberry crop this year. Maya liked to pick them

The same butterfly pictured above 2 weeks earlier 

Peony garden at the U. My peonies did great too

Lobelia all over the place

From one of my many planters

Day lilies 

Hannah on vacation 

Front garden early morning 

Blanket flower

Tessa paddle boarding 

Flower basket

Hydrangeas 

I found a pair of nice planters in someone’s trash while out on a bike ride

Cousins escaping the heat

Maya in the peony garden

So on this rainy day, instead of gardening I will catch up on this blog. Yes I love the spring and summer. Our usual birds have returned: the hummingbirds, orioles, cedar waxwings, grosbeaks and the wrens being my favorite. In the evening we sit next to our waterfall and watch the wren parents diligently hunting bugs for the babies, back and forth every few minutes. Lots of bugs this year. The babies have since fledged but they will probably raise more

Naomi is doing well in school hoping to get a degree in computer science. We have Maya a lot while she’s in classes or when her father thinks it is too expensive to pick her up

I hadn’t heard from an old friend in a while. I knew he had chronic leukemia and he had come to say goodbye to me a while back. When he didn’t return my text, I typed his name and obituary. Bingo. He died just a few days after we had communicated last. Sad. 

I have not seen my friends much. I had invited them over one evening and two canceled at the very last minute. Made me sad.

My enemy, the HOA lady who thinks my big flowers are dragging everyone’s house values down has stepped on other peoples toes and has quit. So I don’t have her to worry about anymore