This is what happens...

whenon tries to buy a Lidl-trainticket online :( :

browsing the archives

Movement

Autumn

just love this season :).

Noble Gundog

and cuddly pup

Piggybank

A present I made for a friend and colleague for her 30th birthday.
The real present - the money - is of course inside the pig.

Escape

Yesterday morning I discovered a small (´bout 3 cm) , live (!) Lizard in a plastic bag of potting soil at work.
I knocked up a makeshift reptile tank from one of the fridgeboxes and took it home with me.
The plan was to put it in my old Gecko tank, which is waiting at my parents attic. As I left home at 5.30 yesterday morning and came back at 20.00 (took Heiko for a walk directly after work) I was too lazy to do anything but put the lizard in its container close to the heating and catch it a fruitfly.
This morning I realized that this was a mistake, the lizard´s gone.
"*** ! " :(

And a tipp if you´re living in germany and like C&A : this weekend their online shop charges no shipping costs.

Heiko

Two new flatmates

One of them planned:
and one not:



Since Lola, my dsungarian hamster, died I´ve been wanting to get a successor. This morning I finally got round to driving to Osnabrueck´s animal shelter and had a look at their four dwarf hamsters. They
had been dumped with 4 more conspecifics in a cardboard box in may.
One of them kept screeching at me as soon as I came close to the cage. So I thought we might get along well and took her home with me :) .
Actually: she was obviously very stressed by the surroundings and I felt she had to get out of there. She is settling well into her new home, has explored the whole enclosure and has tested the wodent wheel extensively.
She´s also stopped screeching and came up to me inquisitively... so we´ll see if she´ll really turn out to be the "monster hamster" as she presented herself in the shelter.

In contrast, my second new flatmate wasn´t planned at all. This afternoon I got a call from the chairwoman of the animal protection society I´m a member of.
She told me she had been given a "white mouse" which turned out to be a baby rat. So the ritten is here for now and I´ll see what´ll become of it.

Needless to say I didn´t get round to doing any of the things I had planned for today...

Tara

a friend´s kitten

Naked mole rats

(Heterocephalus glaber) on display in the newish underground part of Osnabrück Zoo. These animals are fascinating, especially their social structure. Interested? Naked mole rats on "the life of mammals", BBC: Videolink.

Did you know there´s another "eusocial" mole rat beside the naked one? I didn´t either... the damaraland mole rat. (Cryptomis damarensis)

Do you want a mole rat for you home ?
You can have one! Sandras mole rat figurines.

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Last days

in Krakow. I'm leaving on Saturday and am kind of looking forward to it, even if people are very nice here, the school's interesting and the city beautiful. Wrote a test today... arghhhh....tomorrow is the last day at school and we'll get the results then.
And it's 35 C again and I've really had enough of this heat to be honest, I find it really hard to sleep, too. And yes, i know I spent months in the tropics, but its different in a city. At least for me...I guess Im just a country bumpkin.
Did nothing special on the last days, wanted to go to Wielizka Saltmine but not enough people turned up for the trip. Hopefully I'll go to see Krakow zoo tomorrow, missed the bus today.
Work starts on Monday and I'm kind of looking forward to that, too :).

Oświęcim

..is polish for 'Auschwitz'.
I spent the day there.
(Not) much more to write, still stunned and I guess it will take a long time to cope with the experience.
Glad I went though.

Dzien dobry from Krakows Central Square!

Hurra, I've made it to Krakow, Poland !
Right now I'm sitting in an internet cafe above the Rynek, 'Europes most beautiful central square'. Don't know about that but it is a very nice and lively square with an unbelievable number of historical buildings. As you might know I'm not much of a city fan but as fas as cities go Krakow is beautiful.
I'm staying in Boronowice, one of the suburbs, about 20 miuntes by tram from the centre. It's a really nice place to stay and I've got my own room with a desk, and cupboard and I can use the communal kitchen and it's clean :) and everyone is nice.
Everyone means my german landlady and her polish boyfriend who'll only be there til friday, another polish girl and two italian guys of whom I've only met one so far.
I like to stay in the suburb because it feels more "real" , no tourists around there.

The polish course (absoulte beginner :() is from 9.30 to 13.00 and really intense. We are 5 within the group, 3 germans, one american and a french guy. So I get to practise english as well, hurra :)!
One shouldn't count ones chicken before they are hatched but so far I'm glad I've come here.

There are only two problems:
1. it's really hot! Too hot! Summer! Packed the wrong clothes!
2. There's too much to do, too many things on offer. I've made the concious decision to take it easy though - I'm here on holiday and I want to stroll around, get a feel of the place, relax.
Don't really want a tight schedule besides the course. On sunday I'll be off to Zakopane in the mountains and on saturdaz there is a choice of going to Auschwitz concentration camp. I haven't really decided if I'm going, don't know if I'm prepared for that right now.

That's all for now, I'll go down and slowly head towards "home" :).

They´ve hatched!

and I´ve had such a good time today! Took my new Mountainbike and Heiko and cycled through the Pine Forest to the canal. Went for a swim, Heiko was highly irritated when I was in the water with him :), rode along the canal and back through the woods and fields.

60 cm...

...from where I now sit, a green finch (Carduelis chloris) built her nest in the vine growing along the wall.

I also found two nests of Wagtails (had to look that up, too: Bachstelze, Motacilla alba *) at work this week while tidying up the greenhouses.
It´s rather sad to throw them away but there´s nothing else to do, there´s no chance of survival.
Probably better now, before the eggs hatch.

* Did you know there are two subspecies, the Nominatspezies (whatever that is in english) M. alba alba with a gray back and M. alba yarrellii with a black back (Source)?
Embarrassingly, I didn´t.

It´s rather nice to have a quiet weekend at home once in a while.
I took Heiko for a two hour walk along the canal yesterday evening.
We live within walking distance from the River Ems, farmland, Pine-forest and the Dortmund- Ems canal (well, 1.5 km) .

Did I mention that I really like this place?
Yes?
Well, I´ll keep mentioning it ;).


Größere Kartenansicht

I´d love to show more photos but it´s too risky to take my camera along when boisterous Heiko is around.

Next Sunday I´m off to Poland and I just realized that I´m going to miss the finch-chicks! Damn.

Quótes & thoughts on a friday evening

Oscar Wilde once said that one's real life is often the life one does not lead. Well, fucking right on, Oscar. [...] The life I was leading didn't let me be, I don't know… be who I thought I was.
[... ]
And maybe everyone feels that way, but that's no reason to stick with it.

From "A long way down" by Nick Hornby.
I really like this book and can also recommend the audio version.
And no, I´m not feeling depressed and I´m not whingeing or wallowing in self-pity *.
I just feel that Mr. Wilde has a point sometimes.

* Well, granted, maybe a bit. But once in a while I have to to get it out of my system, and then it´s ok again :).
A very different quote by another favorite author of mine leaps into my mind almost immediately:
"People often tell me that they wish they had lived a life like mine. I say : "Well, why didn't you? All you had to do was to live it."
This one I like even better, it´s by Gerald Durrell, who´s been a major influence in my life. Life just doesn´t seem to be as simple as that. You may try and fail. But at least you´ve tried. (Soooo many quotes on that topic. Look ´em up yourself!)

And now I´ll try to summon my energy and take my landlords dog Heiko for a walk and enjoy the beautiful farmland and river and woods around my home. And as it´s quoting time today: "Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”
Robert Brault
Luckily "One day" has come to me a while ago.

More Quotations by (and about) Gerald Durrell:

You can get too scientific about animals. They weren't designed to fit into computer programmes.

Many people think that conservation is just saving fluffy animals- what they don't realize is that conservation is war to prevent the human race from committing suicide.
When we realize that we ourselves maybe one of the species which will go extinct- we are after all just another animal- then we will do something about it. If we want something badly enough, we generally get it. That's when the chemistry changes. What we must realize now is how badly we should want it.

For future generations, their only means of experiencing this natural splendour (the tropical rainforest) maybe by reading about it and, while they read, damning us for not having preserved their heritage.

They`re mad. But they are the people who are saving these animals. You have to be obsessed to work in conservation. We all are. Look at Gerry: You might think he's a nice bloke. He's witty and charming, and given a couple of second she would have your grandmother eating out of his hand. But believe me, the man's a nutter. He's obsessed with saving animals. If you were in a firing line alongside a lemur, you'd get it straight between the eyes.

P.s.: Spellchecker doesn´t know the words "fucking" and "nutter". Seems to be a politically correct dictioniary...us-american?

Surprise!

Someone I got to meet in Costa Rica at La Selva biological station, while I worked on a project with nectarivorous bats, just posted this picture on her facebook account.
I painted it during "art night" - an evening when a bunch of people - all of them natural scientists - got together to draw.
And drink, of course.
Some americans tried to explain the rules of baseball to me that evening...without any success.
Sometimes its good to be reminded what a strange and beautiful world this can be - the unexpected memories, resurfacing all of a sudden put a smile on my face.

Ouch!

1. I remitted 80 Euro for the polish course and mistyped the recipient - everything else like the account numer, iban and swift No. were correct. The bank charged a fee of 50 Euro for sending the money- well, what´s left of it -back.

2. Just happenend:

Stairs in Rothenburg

out of the can

I´ve got a nephew!!!

Hurra, since yesterday I´m aunt twice :)!

One of my pic´s is amongst the best 100 in a photo contest : Click
Nothing to be too proud of, considered that really good Macro-photographers won´t enter their valuable photos into such contests. But one is grateful for small achievements.

Poland

Just booked my flights - I´m off to Krakow next month, on a two week language course in polish.

Bargain hunting

can be fun :).

Got this Mountainbike for 5.50 € at e-bay yesterday evening and took it home with me en route on the way back from my parents house - so I didn´t even have any extra transport costs.
I want(ed) to use it at the garden nursery where I work. I really need a bike there and my first one has been ruined by the people who "borrowed" it, and the one I´ve got there now is a bit to good for the rough life a bike has to lead there.
The only "problem" is that I now really feel like using my new aquisition in the woods next to my house :
And that I´ve got no idea how to fix a rack for all the stuff I need to carry through the greenhouses.

Bautz & Rusty

a Jack Russel & a Magyar Vizsla bitch. Together with Heiko & their owner, a friend & colleague of mine, the five of us took a nice walk along the river Ems today.

It´s spring!

Life is like a dandelion - when the time has come everyone has to fly on their own.

Hurra!
My favorite season!

Well, it was until I started working in a garden centre. For now spring means work. And work.
And even more work. But at least this year the kind of work I´m doing is a bit more to my liking, even if it´s really (physically) arduous most of the time.

I´ve only worked from 6 til 11.30 today and it almost feels like a day off.
I´d really like to go and see my family now, especially my niece Jonna, but they´re all on holiday together at the moment. Hope the weather cooperates and they´re enjoying their stay at the seaside.

Object(s) of desire

There are three things I " like" to spend money on: Travel, Animals and Photography.

Right now I really want a new telephoto lens.
I have got one , a Tamron 100-300 mm, but since it fell down in Kopenhagen zoo when the strap of my backpack severed it doesn´t work properly anymore.
And I never really liked it.

If I´d hit the jackpot I´d go for a Canon EF 400mm 2.8 L IS USM which costs about 7000 Euro .
And a 300 mm, and a 600 mm...

Since that´s completely out of the question in the real world I´m now trying to make my mind up what I really "need" * and can afford.
(* Honestly? Does one really NEED a Telelens? )

I´ve managed to reduce the choice to two lenses and am now trying to decide between a
1. Canon EF 100-300mm 4.5-5.6 USM (o.k., sensible, more or less affordable, about 250 Euro ) and a 2. Canon EF 70-300mm 4-5.6 IS USM (Object of desire, not sensible, about 450 Euro. I´ve been scanning the 2nd-hand market for weeks).

This really isn´t of any interest to you?
Isn´t it me who keeps quoting that "A technically perfect photograph can be the world’s most boring picture." (Andreas Feininger)?

I know, I know, and the time I spent on lookjing for equipment I should really spend on photography, cause at the moment I´m not really content with my photos.
But I still had to get it off my chest :).

And to add at least something that might be of interest to you - if you´re into photography- there´s a site with "Photoquotes" on the net.

Green

fotocommunity

Winter Wonderland

Heiko loves snow

I wonder what happened- saw this dead deer in the frozen river Ems today: