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Spring
Tomorrow, I’m leaving spring to go back to winter, rain and cold lovely Bergen!
Mail from Oregon
Today I got mail, real mail!
On our trip to the Pacific Northwest over a year ago, I found a little book about the painted hills by illustrator Matt Sundstrom. I liked it very much and used it as a guide when we visited the place. Matt Sundstrom has a few other books including illustrations from Portland (PDX) and a boat trip on Crater Lake. I ordered something else, which I will tell you about later (it’s a birthday gift…) and got 3 little books in addition, thanks!
Looking forward to our next Oregon trip to Crater Lake!
Handmade shoes
This might sound a bit snobish, but I just go my second pair of handmade shoes. I got my first pair a few month ago and I would never give them back. It’s like with everything, once you have the chance to compare a quality product with a „commercial“ product, you can see (and with shoes) feel the difference. You understand why they cost a little bit more and why your grandparents did not have to buy shoes every other week (well there were also no supermarkets back then).
The other thing I like about handmade products are the small details, the sign that somebody cared about the thing he created. There are for example some wise (I think) words written on the sole of my shoes. I would like to know what it means, who speaks Italian?
Bird of Paradise Flower
The Bird of Paradise Flower with the common name Strelitzia (Strelitzia reginae) is native to South America, but often used as house flower elsewhere in the world. In Tenerife they grow every garden.
Strelitzia are bird pollinated, something which is very unusual in Switzerland or Norway. And It’s great to watch the bird fly into a flower as huge as the bird itself. Strelitzia has a developed a clever mechanism to be pollinated by birds. The anther (male part of the flower) and stylus (female part of the flower) are grown together and form a spathe, where the bird can land. With the weight of the bird the spathe opens (picture) and releases pollen onto the birds feet/belly. When each visit the bird spreads the pollen and help the plant to reproduce.
Volcanic Rocks
Being on an Island that has been formed by a volcano automatically brings me back to the school when I learnt about how volcanic rocks are formed. With enormous heat and pressure the rock with vesicular texture is formed and spit out of a hole in the ground.
I am amazed about the rock formations that we can find at each corner here: black beaches, wrinkly stones and moon like landscapes.
The landscape pics are from Mr. K.
Birds
Since my bird course last spring, I also stop and try to identify all the birds that I spot. Some of the birds are easy, because they are European birds overwintering on the Canary Islands, like the common kestrel (Falco tinnuculus). Others are new to us: atlantic canary (Serinus canaria), barbary partridge (Alectoris barbara) on El Hierro and blue chaffinch (Fringilla tedea).
Time lapse camera
I’ve bought a time lapse camera, strictly for scientific use! Next summer, I want several cameras to do my work and record when the plants start to flower and which insects pollinate them. Of course „somebody“ has to look at one million pictures in the end, but I don’t worry about that now.
I’m testing my new camera at the moment, not on insects but on sunsets, cloudless nights and trying to catch the moon.
By the way, this is the first time I brought as many cameras on holidays as Mr. Lovely, the photographer!
Teneriffa
We decided to start the year in the sun. We are on Teneriffa for a few days. Today we acclimated to the bright sun, the wind and visited Los Gigantes. More impressions form our trip are here.
Dragon stamps
I made a few stamps for two dragon and dinosaur loving boys for christmas.
