Just a few more pictures, just to avoid people suspecting my untimely demise..., there is also a new deadline for the thesis well we shall see. I lost track of the "almost submissions".

A special picture to Germany to compare the lemon pyle rooster and hen (from left) Calligula (hen), Nero (hen), and Marcus Aurelius (rooster) resting in the grass. The rooster actually has a fair few more dark gray/blackish feathers at his neck but they don't show very well in this posture. The hen has maybe 5 medum rey feathers in her tail. On the picture they're all about four months old, he has grown in more "manly" feathers now with very glossy wing coverts.

The same day the three on their first foray into the back garden - the front garden is their normal range and has much shorter grass, the find the back a bit scary.

The chicken shed is actually the former outside loo, but thanks to Gibby as luxurious as they come. The ladder alone is a work of art, with little apple tree brach cross bars. But of course Marcus had to keep an eye on him anyway...

And finally a flower picture from the living room, nothign fancy just a few flowers from the garden - but I do like the photo...
 

And finally a selection of Barcelona pictures, I wasn’t there on holiday but for a conference, that one!



The conference was great. I enjoyed it and the talk I presented went down very well as well. I also made quite a few contacts and was delighted to put a few faces to names I only knew from papers. Even one of the Icelandic authors I like was there!

The entertainment was impressive as well, in particular the “social night”. It confirmed once more that a career in science is strongly correlated to an inability to dance but came with very nice food and special entertainment, too!




The one single thing I desperately wanted to see was the Sagrada Familia, and even though it is only 50% done, is extremely impressive. I mean just have a look at a few of the very many pictures I took. How cool is that?


I was particularly taken by the sketches for some of the figures for the “passion” façade. Like this one, another one, of a rider with a spear, has already been transformed into a watercolour by me.




What surprised me most was the amount of art deco type architecture all around the old city. Really, every door knocker seemed to be designed 100 years ago. Well I am exaggerating, but there were a lot of very impressive buildings about.

Wohooo,

We’re back.

The long awaited holiday report. Well, you’ll all be mystified, right. Given that I didn’t send a single post card from Germany. My address book is still missing and I left the laptop at home.

Well, how about a few highlights? The adventure begun on the flight, my in-laws are about as lovely as they come –BUT. They cannot be described as the most experiences travellers. So travelling with them is a lot like travelling with small children. Scene at the airport – “Do you have any liquids in your hand luggage?” “No, just passports, cigarettes and the jam.” “Jam?” “Yes, it is a present, it is not liquid, is it now?”…

On the weekend we went to my dad’s exhibition. The opening was nice and I met a lot of old friends I would never have had a chance to meet otherwise.

We went to the market, mostly to get the world famous dry cured sausages… yumm. We visited the Wasserkuppe, and spend a very entertaining hour frightening my mother in law that she would have to get into a hang glider in the afternoon. She said she was never fooled but we know better!



We also went to the theatre in the ruin (The Odyssey, very cool! http://www.bad-hersfelder-festspiele.de/index.php?rubrik=1&content=101). First time I saw an entire theatre cast in Wellies!

And of course we visited the former border (http://www.grenzmuseum.de/content_en/). They build quite a nice museum there. I expected it to be quite dull, but it was actually interesting for the guests and I got a few good giggles. Like the best of the former UDSSR vehicles. There was a personnel carrier with the same engine capacity as my Polo (1.2 l) it reached the almost the same top speed as my Polo (60 miles/hour) but used 30l diesel/100km to do so. How did they ever get that dog into space?



Of course Fulda nearby is always worth a visit :-)

We didn’t do touristy things all the time though. We also spend a good deal of time in my father’s lovely garden soaking up the sun. And watching the Hawfinches feeding their chicks. Actually we saw a surprising about of birds in the garden, without mentioning all the ravens and red kites that flew over. Gibby desperatly wanted a photographic proof of all the kites, so he snapped a stuffed one in the border museum... CHEAT!

I even squeezed in a trip to the local wool dealer. Ohhhh, ahh - Gibby is still horrified how much money I left there. But in my defence, all that wool is actually for knitting Christmas presents with.

On our last day we bought some goldfish to restock my fathers pond without telling him. He is still convinces they appeared naturally. How he expects a single goldfish to breed or a heron to bring in a 2 inch fishies we shall never know…

Hersfeld is known as being a Spa town for its two very healthy mineral springs. Recently the build a pavillion were you can actually taste the water, it is lovely!

We have managed to cut the grass in the garden though, well Gibby has. And there are suspicions that there are actually plants hiding under the weeds somewhere. The neighbours did a most excellent job looking after my potted flowers. Several went there green and came back in bloom. The only losses were my mandrakes. I am a bit upset, but honestly, they were never the most beautiful of plants anyway.

• finely chopped bird’s eye chillies
• 1 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup sugar
• one teaspoon grated ginger
• 3 large cloves of garlic squished
• 2 teaspoons of tomato puree (just for colour, really)
• 2 teaspoons flour or starch