Winter Wonderland

in motion

Prairie dog (Cynomys) at my new workplace.

New Bathroom Storage

After 10 years it was finally time to get rid of my "provisional" bathroom cupboard, which I created from an ikea Ivar shelf-unit.
The Probem was that the new cabinet should provide as much stowage as possible, but it also needed to fit under a sloping ceiling.
So after a lot of thought and research I went to Ikea, bought myself a childrens closet called Sundvik.
I then made & added two more shelves and  some boxes, which was both cheap and easy.

making the new shelves. I wish I had a workroom ;)

adding brackets to fix the new shelves

 

Finished ;)

the sloping ceiling the cabinet had to fit under, it could also only be 1,15 m wide

Like a girl

Sheryl Sandberg on female Leaders
 (Untertitel auf Deutsch  verfügbar)

“Success and likeability are positively correlated for men and negatively for women. When a man is successful, he is liked by both men and women. When a woman is successful, people of both genders like her less.”

And then there´s this ad campaign which raises the question why "like a girl" is an insult.
Which is a very good question. 

Glück im Unglück

don´t think there´s an english translation for that one
Lucky in bad luck would be word by word.

Came home from work, broke off my key.
Aaargh!
Went to my landlord who lives next door, got a replacement key.
Doesn´t work.
Phoned the guy who lives in the apartment on the first floor.
He´s close by, arrives within 5 min and has left his 2nd door open by chance.

Phew!
He´s also a craftsmen and able to remove the lock from the door.

My landlord has got another lock with 4 keys, my neighbor fits it in.

Voila, Problem solved !!!
That could have been so much worse, I´m so happy & grateful ;).

Sylt in black & white

Ringelgänse (Branta bernicla)

working on a talk

 

for the first time in ages

 

Being silly with the dog

Siproeta epaphus egg on Hemigraphis. Nothing as beautiful as nature.

a butterfly mind

"a person who never settles with one group, interest, or occupation for long"

Came across this expression today when listening to "After Henry" on BBC4 - great way to practice your english.

I´m afraid I might have one.Occasionally.
  
Oh, and along the way (which just proves my point) I discovered a new conspiracy theory, the net is so full of weird stuff...http://conspiracy.wikia.com/wiki/Monarch_Mind_Control

360 Butterfly garden by Jasper Bloemsma

Largest pet store in the world

Been at the, supposedly, largest pet store in the world today, in Duisburg. Not going to name it, cause the owner is not good a dealing with crticism. You can buy monkeys, sloths, dog puppies. Terrible place and attitude, the only nice thing were some really well designed fish tanks.It´s a shame that places like this find costumers - dog puppies had disappeared from pet stores for very good reasons. You either get them from a reputable breeder or a shelter.

technical literature

which has accumulted since April, 1.5 years ago, when my employer opened his butterfly house. Just picked up another one from the post office: Butterfly Gardening for Texas.
Don´t worry about those childrens books- I like using them when doing signs for the butterfly house, the help me simplifying.
Love collecting those books, but need to spend more time reading them.
Never thought that would happen, as I´ve never been into plants and did botany at University mainly because I had to, but I love the plant & gardening books especially.

Now packing for Amsterdam & Lübeck - Invertebrate conference (Tue - Thurs.) & holiday weekend (Fri-Sun).
After the Costa-Rica-Travel-reunion in Koblenz, which was fun ! ;), that´s quite a full programm fro my relaxing holiday week...
(Trolley broken, perfect timing.)

bugged

Last week my car was in the workshop for insepction, quite expensive but o.k., has to be done.
Yesterday my cam belt was replaced, very expensive.
Today my car doesn´t work anymore.

***!!!!

Alledgedly coincidence.

Not happy.

offspring in the butterfly house

anyone know what plant this is ?

Enrichment

Used to love "environmental enrichment" at the zoo.
Gave Nick a pinecone with peanut butter yesetrday and he semmed to enjoy it ;)

Evolution of thoughts

This picture is not mine, it was on my Newsfeed (source).

Not so long ago I would have looked at it, and seen a caterpillar on a flower.

A year ago I would have seen a Monarch-to-be.

Later that it was feeding on tropical Milkweed. *

And now the first thing is I think is: "Wow, someone has got a problem with Aphids!" ;)

Wonder what I will see in the future..


* Yes, I would have thought Danaus plexippus on Asclepias currassavica.
But I get told by everyone but biologically interested people (who are the best, anyway;) ) that scientific names are annoying and only used to show off.
Well, I think common names are a waste of time, I have to learn those in german and english and dutch and googling them takes 10 times as long as the "latin" ones.

Caterpillar I found today

while walking the dog, on Alnus