…We’re just back from 10 days in Germany, guests of Kurt and Gisela Volkert.  Kurt was a combat cameraman for CBS News when we met in Viet Nam in 1967.  We’re joined here by our new friend, a well-known German still photographer, Gaby Sommer. We met Gaby for lunch at an old castle overlooking the Rhine…not far from the Lorelei rock which is around the bend to the right.  We spent three hours telling tall tales when not devoting full attention to an assortment of beers, wines and food. In fact, sight-seeing on the trip—in the Rhine valley up to Amsterdam—took a back seat to sampling more than a dozen sausages…

There’ll be no blogging for the next 10 days. Wooz and I are taking a break—even from Devon—for a short vacation with our friends in Germany.  This is the first “non-Devon” trip we’ve managed in four years. See you in September…here at the Thistle Hill blog and at the joint meeting of the two national Devon associations in North Carolina.

….from time to time.  And this is one of the times.  Nothing to do with grass fed cattle…or healthy eating. Maybe it’s brain candy. https://www.youtube.com/embed/sGF6bOi1NfA?rel=0  

….to a glass a day….they’ve made the decision easier. Thanks to Gisela Volkert in Konigswinter, Germany for the picture.  We’re about to travel to Germany for a few days.  Good to know they’ve made it more efficient.  

….we offer this van Gogh!

….from our good friend, Dr. Sue Beal.  She sends along a video produced at a girls’ summer camp—Hameau—in Pennsylvania.  It’s at an Ayrshire dairy farm and the camp is run by Gayle Rodgers.  Sue tells us the girls are “shining examples of leadership, talent and sensibility”. It’s always reassuring that there are still those kinds of girls around.  Turn up your sound. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzpVkbwbpXM  

….speaking of miracles, as philosopher Wendell Berry was in the previous post….what could be more miraculous than the power of just plain old food?  (And of course what could be more difficult to find nowadays than just “plain old food”?) We noticed another major hamburger recall this week.  They’re so frequent that the media hardly covers them any longer.  And no one bothers to point out that all this tainted meat comes from government-inspected factories while the government is busy trying to shut down small farmers and processors. But the point of this is how to keep your medical bills down.  Grass fed beef, of course.  And particularly those cuts that very…