Here are some scenes from the countryside just outside Siegburg from our apartment.

On Monday afternoon, June 30, after we had spent most of the day working on projects at the apartment, Claire and I decided to take a stroll from the apartment into the nearby country side just south of our apartment. The area around Siegburg is mostly gently rolling hills kind of country side with lots of farm fields, pastures, and plant life tucked in between the various towns and villages. It is somewhat like most of Cleveland County in NC, and a few places in Texas as well. The harvesting of the wheat has been in full force for about a week and most of the fields have already been harvested. The soil composition here is a mixture of clay and loam that is very good for growing things.

To get out into the country from our apartment, you just go out the front entrance, take a right turn, and two blocks to the south you're headed into the fields between the town and the Sieg River that flows into the Rhein just north of Bonn. It looks a lot like the Broad River just south of Boiling Springs, but isn't quite as wide across. We came across people swimming and just relaxing along the river. Especially interesting to me were the two boys using a rope tied to a high tree branch and swinging out over the water before dropping off into the river. Many, many years ago as a teenager in the 1950s, I remember doing something similar in West Texas during the summer months. On the other side of the river is a jogging / bicycling path that seems to be heavily used, even on warm days.

The weather here has been very cool most every day, although a couple of days the temperatures have reached the middle to upper 80s. Everyone feels the heat very much when it moves from the usual mid-70s to the hotter temperatures. But most always a hot afternoon will be followed by a nice rain that evening or the next day and everything cools down. I'm discovering through my recording of daily health data etc. that the temperature, humidity and barometric pressure levels tend to be more constant and without the drastic rising and falling that we endure in NC and TX. This is helping me feel better just about every day.

Enjoy the photos, although I should warn you that there are more pictures than in previous albums. And that doesn't include some 70 to 80 shots that we didn't upload.

Afternoon Stroll

We hope you enjoy these pictures as much as we did in taking them.

Lorin & Claire

Please note a correction to our German home telephone number; it was incorrectly listed at the beginning.

IBC - International Baptist Church Cologne  
Pastor Lorin Cranford
Postfach 800518 
D - 51005 Koeln


For current weather conditions in Siegburgh: