My little morning friend

This video is still fresh - it was taken a few minutes ago. Today the weather is horrible. It's raining cats and dogs, but hunger is stronger than heavy rain drops. Birds have been coming to my sunflower-seed-dish all morning to have a tasty breakfast. This little fellow is just one of them. I saved his life once, when he crashed into the balcony glass window and fell down unconscious. I picked him up and held him in my hand to keep him warm and all of a sudden he started to move again. When I let him go, he was a bit dizzy at first, but then he flew away. As you can see, he's still doing fine. You might wonder how I know it's the same bird - you see, he's got a tiny feather sticking out near his left wing. Here, he's having a snack - despite the sparrow-attack! I hope you like it!

What a sight!

For the past couple of days we've had some quite heavy winds. The trees have been stripped of their autumn cloaks almost completely and this is what's left - an amazing rug of leaves. Beautiful, isn't it?

Delicious Dinner

These photos were taken about an hour ago :-) As you can see, we had a great dinner - we roasted chestnuts!! Yummyyyy!!! I love chestnuts in any edible form: cooked, as paste, in cakes, etc. But nothing can quite compare to roasted ones. You see, it's not just about eating them. To me, roasting chestnuts is a ceremony. First, there's the cutting (you have to make a small cut into every single fruit, so that they don't "explode" during the process of roasting). Then comes the roasting. The beautiful sweet smell fills the kitchen (and other rooms, too, if you forget to close the kitchen door ;-) ). It must be done properly in a heavy iron pan - otherwise you can forget the sweet smell and get ready for the stink of burnt chestnuts, which, I guarantee you, is not pleasant to smell or easy to get rid of. Finally, the ceremony of peeling and eating. Every single nut has to be peeled by hand while still hot. Always do this with some old newspapers spread over the table, so that your table won't get all black and dirty. It's great if you do it with friends or family members while chatting or watching TV. A word of advice: eat each fruit immediately after peeling - cold ones are not nearly as tasty as hot ones! Well, I hope you had an evening as delicious as ours was!!

Till next time,

Yours truly

The Golden Colours of Autumn

These photos were taken some time ago (on 15th September, as you can see), but I decided to post them only now to bring some joy into your gloomy (as far as the weather goes) autumn weather. The leaves from our birch tree (you can see the first branches changing the colours, too) are like little golden coins scattered on the ground and just looking at these photos makes me want to turn back time to that day again :-) It was the last day that we could sit outside in the backyard on "the golden carpet". The birch tree is nearly bare now - I'll post on some photos for all of you to see - but it's still beautiful. Now, it looks like a giant with a million tiny hands stretching towards the sky. Still a beautiful sight! Just now we are having the first snowshower and some quite heavy winds. Well, let's wait till morning - perhaps I'll be able to make some photos of the road in front of the house covered in snow...

Magic...

This post should actually come before the one with the red berries... Well, whatever - I have another thing to show to you. This morning I got up exceptionally early - at 6 o'clock in the morning, which is such a rare occasion that I had to memorize it somehow. So, I opened the balcony doors, and, while almost freezing to death in the fresh morning air, I saw this beautiful sunrise! I ran to get the camera and took some photos. Here are the winning two! The little white spots on the black surface are the lights from the houses below and the rest is pretty self-explanatory. It was magic and it really made my day! I hope it makes yours, too!

Autumn colours

Today, as I was on my way home from work, I saw this bush (I think it's blackthorn, also known as sloe). The short branches were so full of little bright-red berries that the tree almost broke under their weight. I thought it was such a beautiful sight that I just had to share it with the world! Click on the photo to see it in full size - you can actually see the little berries hanging in clusters between the leaves. These branches are also a popular "lookout" for my birds - especially for the doves. Unfortunately, since I was standing under the tree, none of the dove-family members were up there. Well, maybe I'll catch them some other time!
A lovely scene, isn't it? I sure think so! :-)
Till next time
Yours truly

My latest hobby

I decided to post another photo on my blog, but before I go on explaining what it shows, I'd just like to explain something else. On my last post I got a comment that my photo was out of focus. I know it was - you see, I've only got a simple camera, which focuses automatically and it's not exactly meant to be used for taking photos of such small things as toy cars, etc. You are supposed to take a picture from a distance of at least 1 - 2 metres - then, the focus is good. But if I did that with a toy car and other small objects, you could hardly see what I was trying to show. So, I intend to post photos here in the future, as well, regardless of anyone's comment about the focus. It is my blog and I can do with it whatever I want - and that includes posting non-focused photos! If you don't like looking at them, then don't!

So, now to my latest invention. The photo above shows my new bags. The big one on the left is still in the making, so it's still stretched out and looks like a rug. The one on the right is already finished and it's a small purse. The only thing it still needs is a zipper, but I haven't got one that small at home at the moment. Both are made from Hama pearls, used in a new way. To make such a bag you need a strong thread and a long needle. Then you simply sew the pearls together into a looong rug (like the one on the left). In the end, you fold the rug in half and sew the sides together. On the top, fasten a zipper so that the bag closes safely. That's it! It's as simple as that, but it takes quite some time to finish such a bag. The small one took me a day, but the long one a month. You see, the work is very slow because you have to pick one pearl after another and put them together. Doing that means being bent over a table for hours, so you can only do up to about 4 or 5 lines per day. But, when it's finished, the reward is a unique bag which nobody else has!! Trust me, that makes it worthwhile! If anyone would like to learn how to sew the beads together, I'll be posting a film guide here soon, as well!

That's all for now!
Till the next post,
Yours truly

My new key-chain

As you can see in my profile, cars are one of my hobbies. In fact, I'm crazy about them. Oldtimers, new cars, racing cars, Formula 1 - it doesn't matter as long as it has wheels, makes noise and looks cool. Oldtimers are a special form of "love" to me - shiny "grandads" or "grandmas" are simply lovely to look at and it breaks my heart if I see and old car decaying and being slowly killed by time and heartless people in somebody's backyard or in some junkyard at the back of beyonds. It makes me want to save the poor thing immediately, but unfortunately I have neither the money nor the space to keep and restore oldtimers. If I did, that would certainly be the project that would bring a lot of joy and happiness into my life!

Another chapter are brand new cars. Their aerodynamic form is what especially attracts me. Of course, it's not completely unimportant what is hidden or goes on under the hood either! The stronger the engine the better. A nice BMW 330 or a Maserati 3200 GT would be like candy to a baby for me. However, such cars are completely out of my financial class. Then there are racing cars and Formula 1 - love to watch them, would like to drive them, but again: can't afford either.

So, I simply had to find a cheaper way to own a cool-looking and otherwise extremely expensive car, which would always be at my disposal for a "drive". And I came up with the perfect solution: a key-chain! It's cheap, it's always in my pocket and I can take it for a "spin" any time I want! So, I took a photo of my new companion and posted it above for all of you to see. Pretty cool, having a world champion Formula 1 sitting comfortably in your pocket, isn't it? :-)

Chemtrails

Among my latest posts was one about strange clouds. At the time I didn't know what they were called or how they were formed. Well, earlier today I found out both. The strange lines are called chemtrails and, apparently they are not clouds at all! In fact, nobody is quite sure what they are or how they are formed. Presumably they are (as their name already suggests) trails of chemicals that jetplanes and other big passenger planes leave behind. Various studies have proven that there are high levels of dangerous chemicals in these "sky-patterns" and the otherwise beautifully-looking lines are a health threat. Theories about their existance vary, however. Some say that they are a form of chemical weapon. Others have even gone so far as to suggest that they are means of thought-control.

Whether you believe all this or not, if you happen to be lucky enough (although I don't know if "lucky" is the word to use here) to be under one of these strange shapes, I say that you do observe it. The lines can "hang around" for several hours, forming strange and interesting patterns or shapes, and they can change colour to pink or pinkishly-orange over time. Take a photo or two - you can use it as an interesting computer background or post it on your blog like I did. And, trust me, I was under this pattern for a whole afternoon and I'm still very much alive and kicking! :-)