more pics

Yann, one of the fellow volunteers and a very nice, french guy has sent the address for some pictures from Ecuador. I like them a lot :).

last year this time...

... I started night-shifting as my mum reminded me today, and last years blog entry proofs. Not at all upset that I´ll probably be done with normal times this year :).
Still, one can make good use of overtime sometimes, looking forward to my ten weeks in Africa.
Flight to Cape Town is booked, but I should get a move on planning the rest, accomodation etc..

DUS-CPT

booking a flight is nerve-wrecking

Africa !?

Been planning this winters holiday for quite some time now. Found an exciting research project on striped mice in South Africa. Glad they said I could come. Yesterday my application for leave for incredible 10 weeks (!!!)  has been granted at work and 8 of those I´ll spend working.
Looking for flights at the moment, always a nerve-wrecking activity...
But then I look at Cape Town Sites and want to go right now! Penguins, yay!!!

Got to make it happen :) !


If all works out though, I´ll be quite sad not to be home for christmas, with my family.

Oryctes nasicornis

Digitally "enhanced" (*) - got huge problems with lighting macros. I´ll take part in a workshop next month where I´ll hopefully learn.
* : I use "Photo Impact" so I can´t use the synonyme "photoshopped".
Unfortunately, Photoshop seems to be unaffordable.

This is the first pic I ever submitted to Wikipedia.The german and english articles aren´t very good, the dutch one is much more detailed. In the european wikipedia (till today I din´t know how many different ones there were) there is a very brief article with almost no information but with the sentence "Dim, the beetle from the Disney and Pixar film, A Bug's Life is a European rhinoceros beetle." Aha. How interesting...
Gonna check the polish & spanish wiki now... :)

Oh, and in case you´re worried: I know these beetles are protected, but we found him in a completely artificial environment without any chance of survival, so I´thought it would be o.k. to use him as a model before releasing him in an appropriate spot. He spent some time in a box with lots of soil, where he dug himself in.

Ronja & Rhino beetle

Ronja, a colleagues cat who´s lodging here for two weeks. As with almost any animal and plant, I love the natural coloring best.

Male Rhinoceros beetle (Oryctes nasicornis) another colleague found at work in the soil for one of the planters today. They´re pretty and pretty rare.

“Why do you go away?

“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.”
― Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky

I love Terry Pratchetts books.