Some colors in these white-gray-days.


I really love the above photo. The atmosphere in it is like which in paintings of an old master and it seems as if the narcissus want to tell us a story. Well, at least to me - probably because I saw too much old master styled paintings and photography lately ;)


Never managed to nurse my orchids to bloom longer than two or three weeks :( Yet I find the fragility of the parched petals somehow beautiful.


Not sure, what kind of berries they used to be. The firey-orange-red color on the tree on the foreground of a white winter scenery on the last week Sunday walk has caught my attention. I've been wondering: have the flesh of the berries been eaten by birds or what happened to them? A friend and I had to choose another walking route because of the icy path in the forest (and everywhere else).

Here are two photos of our walk.



Two variants of the last photo - experiments using the Flickr app's filter on the iPod. I have wanted to post them last week via the iPod, but the format was horrible, so I had to wait till I got on my PC again today.



***

BTW.. sometimes, having really hard time is part of your life and it'd be great, if you got people to support you. No, I'm not talking about me in particular. But some old friends are doing a raffle to support her.

Where has the time flown? I've been so busy and always tired, that I rarely spent time on the PC anymore in the evening. I hope, you all are enjoying a wonderful holiday at the moment - merry Christmas to you all, who celebrate it! Over here the sun is shining the whole day, so I went for a walk on the lake before lunch. I'm not alone with the idea. Many people were enjoying the sunny day too - alone, with the family, with the dog(s),... sitting, walking, jogging,...




Even the swan family enjoyed the day ;) From the distance I first thought, they were some man-made sculptures, since they had all their heads under the water LOL




I took my camera, but forgot to check at home - no SD-card inside (and this is not the first time it happened to me lately - arghh!). Luckily I got the iPod with me. The quality is of course not the same, but at least I could show you what a beautiful day it was ;)



I'm wishing you a grand start into 2013 and may the new year will bring you health, luck and happiness!

on a gray day

I've collected colors on my way home from work today.
Tonight: a gig with the choir.

Happy Weekend to you all!

on the roof

The March and the May look on top of a sport hall. I
love it! See my shadow and my bike's over there? :)

may

April is gone and May has arrived, together with the
rainy weather. Luckily it was dry on Friday though.
My son, my son's friend, his little brother and I went
to the forest for a walk. The kids were enthusiastic, as
they wanted to collect some materials for a house (I
forget.. was it for the fairy or for the lacewing? hmm...).
Each of them brought a plastic bag along. On the way
they found barks on the ground. Quickly they got the
bags full before we even reached the forest.

In the forest we stopped on a steep spot, where they
happily gliding on their bottom (uh,.. my son wore of
course his new pants). Afterwards their excitement
for the forest was gone a bit (they had the full bags
anyway ;)), but I 'forced' them to go on (bad, bad me
;)). Luckily they followed me, as some steps ahead we
found a place full of woodruff. The kids gathered some
for syrup :)



The reason why I 'forced' the kids to go on, was this place.



I simply love it! Going to the forest without visiting this
spot is like not going to the forest at all. I always feel
peace and joy there - it's always the reward of the walk :)



On that day, the poplar seeds were flying around. It was
like snowing :) The kids gathered them for their project
on our way back home. In the garden of my son's friend
they then build the house. I forgot to take photos of it, as
I was busy talking with his mother, who gave me some
plants for my garden - peppermint and lilac layers :)
After eating strawberry cake we quickly went home, as
my son would be picked up by his father. And me? Of
course I worked in the garden :) I simply love it!

nature power

Nature seems to show off it's power all over the 
world these days. As I don't read newspapers nor
watch TV lately, I just found out about the
Victorian bushfire from blogs I follow this morning 
- Jenmarae, Pia, Heather and Di have mentioned 
it in their blogs. Such a tragedy! My thoughts are
with the victims and their families. My family live
in Victoria, but their place is luckily not affected.

In compare to that, this stormy day here is nothing...


Hope the nature will calm down again soon.

let me take you..

..to one of my most favorite place in this city.
Just pretend, it was Sunday afternoon (that was
the time as I took these photos :)).



We first have to come to the industrial area, which
lies on the other side of the railway. So we better
take this bridge to avoid long waiting time. Those
tiny houses are the elevator and stairway to the
track.



And after walking through the first industrial area
we have to come to the new main bridge, which
will take us to the south part of Konstanz. Under
the bridge, there are some graffiti and moon like
landscape.





Now, we're almost there.



My fave place in Konstanz is in the middle of this
bridge, when I drive towards Switzerland and
look to the right. No matter what season or time,
I always have a short (since I have to concentrate
myself to the traffic again), but great view, which
always inspires me.
The right side, which I rarely see normally.



And the left side, which I really love. Well, not at
the moment - too much sunlight for photo shooting!
This is part of Lake Constance, which is called
Seerhein - a slim part, which conjunct the bigger
lake (Obersee = upper lake) and the smaller lake
(Untersee = under lake).



It is also part of a nature park, where you can
watch many bird species, e.g. bald coot (fulica atra).



Oh, and I see some big birds coming...



Swans!



They are flying to the side, where I usually spend
more time in this city. Directly on the lake, at the
Obersee, where the pedestrian zone is with most
stores, banks, etc.



Oh, do you see, what I see? No? Let zoom in..
the Alps! Too bad my camera cannot catch it as
clearly as my eyes.



Now you've seen my favorite place in this town :)
Hope you like the small walk. In real I walked
a bit more on Sunday. You can see some photos
in my photo blog. Here I will only show you two
more photos. One of the sunset of that Sunday.



And the other one is my dream. This water tower
is a cultural monument and is 'for sale'. I wish
I had the money to buy and renovate it. I would
turn it into a gallery with a café. And on days
like this it would be a perfect place to watch
the Seerhein. Oh, I'll keep on dreaming...



Oh, I decided to show you one more last photo :)
It is one of the street names in this area - 'sewer
street'. This area used to be an area of textile
industry, thus the name - sewer street, weaver
street, etc.



Thanks for taking this long walk with me :)

choir weekend

Last weekend I was away with my choir. We went
to the Northern Alps. I simply love the surroundings
of the house, where we lived. The mountain, the
valley, the air and not to forget the food!! We
have a member, who loves to cook. She always
prepared something special together with some
other members. It was Asian food this time -
a 6 course meal!!! Oh, so yummy - I
ate too much for sure ^_^


More pictures..

It's always like a short holiday for me, even if
we mostly worked very hard during those days
till late in the evening and went nowhere, but
only for a short walk. We worked on our songs
as well as on our choreography, as we'll be
having a concert next week.




I couldn't stand to take some pictures around
the house, as I saw some 'kitschy' motives.
Well, not kitschy actually, but I've seen them so
many times everywhere and still they are so
tempting :)



Before I left for the weekend, I've listed my
entry for the EST weekly challenge, which was
hosted by creationsbyeve. The theme was
Africa.

beautiful day

As I've told you in my last post,
I needed to go to the PO again yesterday.
This time I took my camera with me
and made some photos along the way.
It was a beautiful, sunshiny day.

Forgotten - the blue toy locomotive


Surviving - amazing, how nature works
Maybe I should retake this scene from another angle
- this one doesn't really express, how I felt,
as I saw them.


Wish - I love the shadow.
And I wish, I was as tall as my shadow :-)


Carnival Is Coming


Yes, Fasnet begins on Thursday and
I still have to finish my son's costume.
But between all the cutting and sewing
I've just to make this ACEO on Sunday.
I'm not sure, if I want to trade this one though.
But as my concentration wasn't fully on it,
I've made a mistake and have to "repair" it.
I know, I wanted to train myself not to be
such a perfectionist by making the collages,
but still... :-)

Before


After

nature junk

Today I've wanted to send my ACEO
to my Collage A Day trade partner.
As I was walking to the post office,
I've found some nature junks,
which are treasure troves for me.



But of course, I've also seen real junks.
Some are really interesting.
A blue toy locomotive e.g., which
layed almost fully buried on the road.
Too bad I didn't have the camera with me.
I should take a photo of this on Monday,
since I have to go there once more.
The post office closed earlier today *grr*
Anyway I've made this collage
out of some troves - nature junk.

patterns of fall

Things I love about fall:
the colors and the patterns (and sometimes the rain ;-)).
I think this year I've missed the colors,
since I've been no where that much.
Uuhm, to be honest..
I often forgot to take my camera with me.

Yesterday I enjoyed these patterns AND
I have my camera with me :-)

growing beauty and sunbather

the clover has always been my inspiration.