• babys breath - balcony - greenflies - marguerite - petunia

    >More "gardening"

    >After finding that my magueritas have greenflies, I had to move them both to one windowsill,so that they will not contaminate my other plants until the treatment works. (It has already begun to do so, I saw lots of „dried“ greenflies today when tending to the plants, mwehehe…)
    The movement meant I gained some space for the others. I wanted to buy a big lavender today, but I was all over the marketplace and then all flowershops close by- no lavender. At the market was a smallish lavender in tree-form but it looked sick.
    At one flowershop I found two nice handmade flowerpots that are frost resistant. One I wanted for my petunia, which hates hanging on the balcony railing and is only thriving since it stood on the ground. For the other, I found a cute little plant. It is called „Gipskraut“ or „Schleierkraut“ („Baby’s Breath“ (Gypsophila paniculata)).
    I will keep everything so spacy and far away until I am rid of the little pests…

    So now the „tree“-like plants share a window and the small blooming plants stand on the windowsill before my kitchen.
    Zuckerhutfichte und Steinheide

    Küchenfensterbank

    Schleierkraut

    The „white petunia“ that is not white anymore:
    Weiße Petunie 1
    Weiße Petunie 2
    Weiße Petunie 3
    (after those pictures, I removed some suspicious looking leaves, but this one still seems healthy)

  • balcony - butterfly - marguerite - painted lady

    >A special little visitor

    >on the balcony this morning.
    This little guy, which seems to be a „Distelfalter(Painted Lady or Vanessa cardui):

    Schmetterling
    Click on image for larger version
    Image © me

    Couldn’t resist this:

    marguerite in full bloom

    Appologies for the slight striped and grained piccie above, but this was taken through the window *and* a flynet and for that it is very well, I think.
    When I got outside to repeat the piccie without obstacles between me and the butterfly, it had already fluttered on.

  • Blindenfussball - cheers - livestream

    >And it is time again –

    >- for sitting at the computer and cheer and suffer with the football club. For this weekend, we have the third matchday of the Blindenfussball Bundesliga 2009.

    At www.blindenfussball.net you can listen to the matches using the internet livestream.

    And of course, at Saturday 19:00 and Sunday 11:00 you have to cheer especially for our Hamburg-based players of the FC St. Pauli! *cheers for Katja and Michael*

    Logo DFBL

  • balcony - plants

    >Plants

    >My Stone-Heather (PIERIS JAPONICA) is going to blossom! Woot! And the flower-shop lady said it would not survive the winter in a pot outside. Mwehe… am now tempted to show her the piccies.

    Steinheide blüht

    Steinheide blüht

    Steinheide blüht

    And my little firtree has miniature fir cones, verry cute. Will try to get piccies of that, too.

  • big improvement - waterfilter

    >Sometimes solutions can be easy…

    >…I never really believed in those waterfilters that are supposed to make water from the faucet „pure“ and heighten its taste and that of the drinks and food made with such water.
    Until lately, a colleague at work let me drink a glass of filtered water and it was good! The water at work has a very odd taste normally- I suppose it is because it is an old house with old waterpipes- not even letting the water run for a while did change this.
    The filtered water tasted neutral! I was impressed.

    This occasion I remembered today, when standing in the mineral water section of the shop and finding that the water I use to drink was out of stock again. This happens a lot of late. Grumbling I loaded a pack of another brand into my cart. That one is drinkable, but it does taste differently.
    On the way to the tills, I suddenly remembered that filter incident and veered off to the household stuff section. And there I spontaneous picked up one waterfilter and took it home with the rest of my shoppings.
    Here I was curiously assembling it and then made the required testruns of water through the filter.
    When everything was done and I could taste the water for the first time, I was impressed- all the metallic tang and the chalkiness was gone. ==^===^== (Especially the chalky stuff is annoying, my water here leaves white traces in the glass often, when untreated)
    Hee, now that will save me a lot of bottle-carrying in summer, because I needn’t buy that much water now, when I can finally drink tap-water, too.

    Here is the filter I got:
    http://www.brita.net/de/jugs.html?&L=5 Mine is called „Marella“.

  • balcony - cat - primroses - spring

    >Springify your life!

    >(Pardon the word-creation, LOL!!)

    Today, I wandered over the local market for fun (and to get flowers for Mum) and was mightily inspired by all the colourful plants on display.
    So, when I got home, I woke my balcony from its hibernation, so to speak, removing the greatest parts of protective wrappings from the plants as well as dead leaves and branches.
    And then I filled the two baskets with primroses who colour my view outside now.
    primroses
    primroses

    Like this it looks where they stand now:
    primroses

    All my rustling, moving, crawling, cutting was supervised by qualified personel, namely my neighbours cat, who very seriously watched me to make sure I did everything right:
    Pepper

  • babylon 5 - battleship - ewww - shadow - spiders

    >I want an award of bravery, LOL!!

    >Why? Last night I had the charming pleasure to find a 1:100 scale model of the spaceships that the „Shadows“ in Babylon 5 used on my wall… Spaceship looks like this (click)
    But honest, a five centimeter spider at half past one? Eeeew!!

    Sure was but one thing- no way was I going to sleep with it one room!
    After considering the options, I decided on the vaccuum cleaner and hurried to fetch it before the spider could sneak off. Then after finding enough room for a quick jump from my chair if necessary, I readied my trusty vaccuum cleaner and gone was the ugly critter. (Since I am paranoid, I let the vaccuum cleaner run quite a while, neighbours or not and then closed the tube with adhesive tape before putting it away. Today I was house cleaning, so there is no return after the added amount of debris in there, now, I hope.)
    And then I checked under my bed for more spiders, LOL!! And only then I went back to sleep…

    On a nicer note- these are the two nice flowers that I recently bought, they have such a great colour!
    plants on the windowsill

  • kitchen window - snowdrop - stupid neighbours

    >It’s been a while…

    >…with lots to do and recovering from the flu I fell sick with over New Year. But I am still here and so it was definitely time to post something again.

    Right now I call it a blessing that I live on this side of the corridor and on topmost floor…Why? Because the guy across the corridor seems to have some party, (there are at least ballons at his door) and on the corridor, or in my hallway you hear loud music and the neighing laughter of one his visitors as if you stand among them. I am extremely thankful that my other rooms are not affected, as badly sound insulated as they may be otherwise. So unless they take it out on the corridor tonight, sleeping should not be affected by their stupid music.

    Today I got a snowdrop from Mum!

    Potted Snowdrop

    My kitchen windowsill (spring-y flowers in the middle are not real ones)
    Kitchen window

  • Advent 08 - blossom - holly

    >Little Advent surpise

    >One of the young holly plants that I have for decorating my Advent-table when I have visitors is blossoming! :o)

    Miniblossom on holly

    Miniblossom on holly closeup

    (The berries are fake. Hmmm… when I look at the blossom, it looks a lot like the floral version of an eight-pointed star. *g*)

  • Advent 08 - decorations

    >Advent time has begun!

    >Today, I let the pictures talk for themselves. I share some of my Advent decoration with you here.

    I start with a lantern I got as a pressie, I need to get some more Christmassy decoration for it, but it looks very nice with the fake wineleaves anyways:
    lantern with leaves 01

    lantern with leaves 02

    And now the more seasonal stuff:

    Christmas corner 2

    Photobucket

    Decorated windowsill

    Adventwreath 02

    Inside out with Christmas lights

    Photobucket

    star in the kitchenwindow

    Starlight- from outside in

  • pretty nature. decorations - screen - star

    >A little bit of everything

    >Today the weather is terriffic and I took a little stroll actoss town, as I needed absolutely necessary things (*g*) anyway. (I got home with pills against too much gastric acid, sanding paper, leather pieces for fiddlings and two little pots of special paint and a folding paper-star for upcoming seasonal decorations) We have crisp air but it is sunny, the trees still have some marvellous colour and so that walk was really nice. I started out painfree (foot) and got along without pain 90% of the way. Only on cobblestones, the foot was not ok. This is really good. I have great hopes that with the help of the shoe-inlays that I ordered, I will soon be able again to walk a little further. And then I will go see the outer range of the Boberger Dünen where one walks on a solid asphalt track and see how that goes. I doubt I will be able to walk far, as I need to take the way to the station into my calculation, but I really miss that place.

    After that little outing, I was really busy and gave my balcony a last cleaning before the winter, as it turned out, that was very necessary, LOL!!
    I was even rewarded optically for doing so, as I found this beautiful arrangement:
    leaf with water droplets
    (How typical that my digital camera’s batteries deserted me here and I had to use my cellphone’s inferior camera…)

    This is the paper-star with and without lights:
    star with light on

    star with light out

    detail of pattern

    Thanks to Benni, who gave to me his old screen, my computer place now looks like this:
    open computer closet

    detail of computer closet with screen
    And I am no longer in a terrible hurry to replace my old screen which I could now retire before it would have exploded, LOL!!

  • death of common sense

    >*takes hat off respectfully and mourns*

    >(Found this in a comment response on the Fugly Horse of the Day Blog and really had to share, for it is sad but true…)

    London Times Obituary of the late Mr. Common Sense –

    Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:

    Knowing when to come in out of the rain; why the early bird gets the worm;
    Life isn’t always fair; and maybe it was my fault.

    Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don’t spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

    His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

    Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.

    It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an Aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

    Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

    Common Sense took a beating when you couldn’t defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.

    Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

    Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason.

    He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers; I Know My Rights, I Want It Now, Someone Else Is To Blame, and I’m A Victim.

    Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and do nothing.

    (I am bit surprised that the stepbrothers seem to be well, for I recall to have strangled „I Know My Rights“ and „I Am A Victim“ in person just recently…)

  • exterminators - wasps

    >Ewwww, it’s huuuge! How gross!

    >…This quote comes from the vermin exterminator who I had to call at work today, because each morning, my colleagues from the logistics are overrun by wasps. They hang on the windows as clots and crawl everywhere. Of course some manage to get in, too and one of the ladies up there is deadly allergic to wasps and sits there with an antidote shot right next to her… o.O
    Of course, when the exterminator guys finally showed up, the wasps weren’t home. And apparently we don’t have a nest under the roof- the guys crawled around on it, banging suspect corners with a broomstick (I wonder what they would have done if an angry hoarde had come out at that…) No nest. They closed several venting slits where they found suspicious activity but no nest. (I assume the nest is rather more likely on the grounds of our messy-neighbour. He offers so many wonderful opportunities to stick a nest to.)
    When they crawled out onto the roof, my colleague Benni called after them if they could already spot a thing- the answer that came was that they just saw a huuuge spider that was very gross. LOL!! And that came from vermin exterminators?! Good that they didn’t ask any of us to remove it for them… *snickers*

  • Poesiealbum - the past

    >From the past

    >Sorting through a heap that was thrown into the closet when moving in, I found my old „Poesiealbum“ (English translations that I found are „poetry album“ or „fiendship books“, though the Wiki description of the latter means something different from what I mean).
    Many people who wrote into it, I have not seen for years or they are already dead, so it was like looking back into a different time which made me at first very sad (why does everything look back to always seem so much more „golden“ than present times? *g*)and then when I had passed that sentimental stage, it made me smile and recall all the good times or funny moments with those people who had been literally buried in the book and in my closet.
    I want to share what my first English teacher wrote in that booklet. He has kindled the spark to get a liking to the English language which his later successors never managed to quench, no matter how hard they tried with their way of teaching. >=< Without the first impression that English is fun or even beautiful, I wouldn't be writing here now...
    This is what he wrote for me:

    Routine (Arthur Guiterman)

    No matter what we are and who,
    Some duties everyone must do:

    A poet puts aside his wreath
    To wash his face and brush his teeth,

    And even Earls
    must comb their curls,

    And even kings
    have underthings.

    I doubt I understood it back then, this was 19 years ago (feels oooold), but the motto of the little poem kinda accompagnied me through life indeed, for indeed we all are just human, no matter if being royalty or ordinary people. I was never impressed with someone who had a big and important title, name, whatever, if the personality was not matching it.

    …Goes to dig deeper into a pile of papers from the past…

  • advertising is annoying - Weird Saturday

    >What am I doing here, then?

    >So…as stated here http://ailanreanter.livejournal.com/122205.html, I’ve finally had enough of LJ deteriorating to a commercial place like all the others that’s full of ads.
    She says and goes to Google, LOL!! But here at least I have still the choice if I post ads or not. I choose not to, of course. Layoutwise I have free hand here, if I understand the stylesheet I can do anything to my account, no design limits. Will look into that.
    I don’t know what it is about ads, but they piss me off like nothing else, especially if they are for a topic that is not even part of the website content. (I.e. a page about horses getting ads for tack shops and feed supply won’t annoy me as much as a site about reading where there is suddenly a lot of ads for fashion clothes). But enough of that, that’s just to explain.

    Today I woke up much too early (so my body told me) after sleeping not so good and was immediately blinded by the morning sun. Don’t get me wrong, I like sunny mornings, but stepping out of your little snoozecorner into a blinding ray of sun, just because you were too stupid to close the blinds the night before- that makes me very much understand that funny „aargh, take it away“ gesture that a movie-vampire makes, LOL!!
    Then I found that my spider is violating our agreement. *sigh* I gave her an deadline to return to her corner until tomorrow evening. (This little spider (of the gangly, fragile kind) moved in here a few days after me. She only survived me finding it because it would have been too much work and moving furniture to get at her back then. Then when I was just about to set out for spiderhunt, I saw her catch and eat the mosquito that had driven me insane the night before. Following a code of honour I grudgingly allowed her to stay- as long as she lived only in that corner where I can see her and ate all flying nasties. So far she has, but since it is getting colder and I have flynets in every window, there isn’t much spiderfood left. And this morning I caught her wandering merrily across the ceiling…) Stupid me will have a bad conscience when going after her- I should have never let her live here so long – it may sound funny, but I am kinda used to her now… To a spider.. LOL!!
    Day continued nicely with finishing Vile’s big parcel and seeing it to the post office, but the reminder that it is weird Saturday was lurking around the corner still… When I washed my hair before I went to see my parents, I overlooked that fact that the showercurtain was not fully touching the wall and surprised myself with giving a part of the bathroom a gratitous shower.. aarrgh!! I nearly missed the bus because of it, since I had to mop up all the water…
    Gee…so far that has been all for today- if you don’t count me tripping over a bookpile while carrying a heap of laundry-stuff…
    What a weird day, but as I said, it is looking up and now I am safely at my computer, writing, theoretically not much can go wrong…Hopefully.*crosses fingers, just in case*