Jonathan

This is Jonathan, the bird. He has been in my life since, hm, since when? I don't know. I can't recall the day he stepped - or flew - into my life. He's always been there, as long as I can remember. It's fun to pull on the string that is connected to his body. Then his wings move up and down and he really seems to fly.

Nature and industry combined

This pic was taken last winter. It shows the river that runs through my hometown and a steel mill. I like the contrast of it: the industry in the back and the peaceful river in the front. It perfectly sums up what it's like in this area. When I grew up, there was a lot of steel industry in my hometown. A lot has changed since then. Some factories had to close, others had to cut down their production.
Fortunately, my town is surrounded by a beautiful landscape, so it is trying to get some profit (and new jobs) out of it. Seems to work as far as I can tell.

A busy weekend

I'm so glad the weekend is over! That might sound a bit strange because weekends are normally a time where one can relax and recover from the stress of the week.

Well, my weekend was busy, too busy. I was on call Saturday, fortunately only during the day. When I got home at nearly 10 pm, I was so tired that I went straight to bed.

Sunday morning was spent remodeling the kitchen in my new appartment. It's still far from finished but at least I've reached a point where one can imagine what it's going to look like some day. I'm going to post pictures soon.

After lunch with my parents I went biking. The summer is finally here and I don't know how long the good weather is going to last. So I just had to go - despite feeling already exhausted before my ride.


Seeing these cows was one of the positive moments of the tour. Apart from that, it wasn't a pleasure at all. My legs were too tired and the hills felt like mountains.
I'll give it another try next weekend.

Sunshine!

Yeah! It finally stopped raining today.

At first I didn't recognize this big round yellow thing in the sky. Then I remembered what it is: the sun. Long time no see.

So what did I do today? Right. I went mountainbiking. It felt sooo good to be back on the bike.

I have to say it again:

Whoever is in charge of the weather right now in Germany - it is enough. I do not want any more rain at the moment. Thank you.

I guess I'll spend the day cleaning up the house. Cooking. Washing my clothes. Cleaning out junk drawers.

Hoping for better times.

I could get used to that kind of view

Well, once again a picture I took in Italy some months ago. Actually nearly one year ago. I can't get enough. It's such a great landscape there! The wind turbines are a little bit, but really only a little bit, interfering with the overall impression of the landscape. And they are definitively loud. You can already hear them at the point where the photo was taken. It becomes ear-shattering once you've reached them. On the other hand, they are a good source of alternative energy. So I guess I'll put up with them.

Side note: Whoever is in charge of the weather right now in Germany - it is enough. I do not want any more rain at the moment. Thank you.

Memories

With the weather being so awful during the last few days (rainy and unusual cold for the beginning of June) I didn't feel like spending much time outside. Therefore, I haven't been on my bike for at least a week now, which is really uncommon for me.

I used the time for scanning and editing some old photos.

Like this one:


It shows my grandmother, one of my cousins and me in my grandma's appartment in February 1983. When I was a kid and teenager, my parents and I used to visit my grandma nearly every weekend for lunch. Very often my relatives were there, too. My cousin is some years older than I am, but nevertheless we had a lot of fun on those days. Sometimes we would just play some kind of parlor game, sometimes we would play house together with my younger cousin and on other days we'd just watch some stupid show on TV.
Our grandma died some years ago and so did our weekly meetings. It's too bad we don't see each other more often.

Where to go?

I'm not very good at making decisions. I normally spend too much time thinking about nearly everything. Sure, sometimes that's okay, some things need a lot of thinking. But sometimes I wish I were more spontaneous.

To make a long story short: I still have nearly three weeks of vacation left this year and I have absolutely no idea when and where I want to go. There's only one thing I know for sure: I do not intend to stay at home for the whole time.

Any suggestions?

Flowers

I like to take pictures. I like flowers. So there’s only one logical consequence: taking photos of flowers! That’s what I did in the last weeks. Here are some of the results:


I took another/better pic of this but somehow it got lost on my computer. If I ever find it again, I'll post it.


Beautiful, isn't it? I've got absolutely no idea what the name of this flower is but I like it.

Once more:



A close look into one of the many flower pots:



And a not so close look: