A Painting in Progress - Herons, Cranes and Vaya con Dios

Hello Everybody,


A cloudy weekend in the Moseltal, not the sunny couple of days we were led to expect from the trusty weather report.
Wilbur is well pleased with himself at the moment as he has a New Source of Adventure when he helps me with the recycling. 
A Trailer.
'Look at me! I can walk all around the edge without falling off, then I can run round and round in the inside on me four fluffy paws and turn meself upside down in the corners!'
If it hadn't been for Wilbur, I would have missed the cranes this morning. Still in adventurous mood, he bounded out into the garden and when I followed him, I heard that strange eerie noise which makes you look up - and there they were. I still think it's great that with all the distance they fly, from Spain to Scandinavia, they fly over Eller. We saw them today, Wilbur and me, just about midday, so they were flying up above the village while the church bells were ringing out over the Valley..... 


Despite the lack of sunshine, it was a mild day for a walk down by the River. The herons are now back as well and are busy nesting up in the trees on the opposite bank - I always think of herons as standing about in water looking for the odd fish or a frog, so it's interesting to see them perched up high in the trees in their twiggy nests. Every now and then they stretch those loooooonnnnggg legs and have a bit of a soar about and a bit of a croak, but when I saw them yesterday, they were all standing on a little spit of land just before the railway bridge......

......I counted over twenty of them altogether - never seen so many herons in one place.


I was accompanied on my walk today (well, part of it) by the barge Vaya con Dios (Go with God) - carrying coal in the direction of Trier, then either onto France or along the River Saar. We haven't seen our ol' friend Eiltank 47 for a long time now - I'll have to check on the whereabouts of Merlijn as well, now that everywhere's waking up again. Here she is turning the curve at Bremm, by the Calmont Slope - the afforementioned Kloster Stuben is just behind the trees on the Riverbank.

H says that he would love to be a Barge Captain and I must admit that I see the attraction of it meself, traveling the waterways of Europe, seeing different places at different times of the year. Wilbur would love it too, I imagine, with his ol' friend Frankie curled up tight in the cabin on cold and windy days and hunting iridescent flying fishes leaping from the bows when the sun was shining.....


So, soon.
Tschüss!