Cute Encounter of the Third Degree ...

So I had a short holiday down at our cabin and we had a quite amazing wildlife-moment.

The cutest baby squirrel was nosing around our cabin door and we ran into the little fellow several times during the day.

We couldn't understand why it kept rummaging the entrance area with such curiosity, but I was happy to get some nice pictures.

Finally we realized he was trying to get back up under the roof, where perhaps he was born in an undetected nest. At one point - (which I have on videotape and might try to post one day) he even ran right up my leg, thinking my brown linen pants where a tree or something - and hung there on my lower thigh looking me in the eye (or rather into the camera) as if begging me to lift him up to the beam where we had just discovered his very worried mother calling out to him.

Of course he just as quickly decided this was a dangerous move and turned nimbly down to my now outstretched bare foot and took a leap of faith onto the coat rac and, from there, disappeared under the cabin.

With the mother out looking for him, we all moved out of the way so she could fetch him. And, I'm very happy to say, a few minutes later we saw her skipping across the lawn - with her adorable little baby hanging onto her chest with a tight grip.

All's well, that ends well and how I love those rare up-and-close encounters with the (semi)wild ...

Spring to it...

So how to fully take advantage of the last day of easter holidays?
Well, they say you reap what you sow, so let's sow something we like, shall we!?

Here's a step by step photo presentation, just because I find this process is almost as beautiful as the final result.


Lathyrus Odoratus, sound okay to you, sweet pea? Who doesn't love Sweet Pea?











First of all you are going to need some good seeds. They may vary in size and color, but they all have a visible scarlike mark on one side - a bit like a bean.




















Now it is a really good idea to soak them in luke warm water overnight, to get the whole wonderful miracle starting.












After soaking they look a bit bloated and their hard skin is somewhat softer if not actually soft.









Even though these pots are just for the baby plant I like to make sure there's good drainage. I'm always very happy to use clay pellets for this kind of drainage. I'm sure it's really not necessary at this stage, but it's my garden and ...






Then you need some friendly soil.










There is one more thing you should do to help the saplings get going and there are at least two different approaches. Either you rub the seed with sandpaper. Make sure you work on the opposite side of the seed from the little scar.



















Instead of sandpaper you may use a sharp knife to make a small incision - again - not where the scar is, - on the other side of the seed.

Then you place the seeds in their pots ...

And add some more soil - about an inch of it - and give it a friendly pat.









When you are to water such delicate pots you must show some care. I like to use this shaker/sprinkler - intended for that good stuff you sprinkle over a nice cup of cappuccino ... fill it with fresh water and twirl the sprinkler over the pots.





















Then you place them where they get lots of light and encouragement and then ... well, then you wait. (Actually, what you do is tidy up all that mess you just made on the living room table, wash your hands and make a nice cup of tea and feel really good about yourself for doing such a fine job!) There is something to be said about gardening - it just lifts my spirit!

Young Norwegian Virtuoso

When my younger (much younger and much, much "cleverer") sister was a teenager she studied the violin at this pretty prestigious school. This is a very demanding thing to do next to "regular" school - and it has been the breeding ground of some remarkable talent. And a real treat for the family to attend the Christmas concerts and such... Anyway, one of the talents we had the pleasure to be wow-ed by during those years was a very charming, multi-talented young virtuoso and composer, Alexander Rybak.

Now I usually wake up to the radio in the morning and one recent morning I awoke to this wonderfully catchy song with a touch of norse folk music and I was more than a little surprised to learn that this was Norway's contribution to the Eurovision Song Contest (usually not my cup of tea) - written and performed by none other than ...
yes, you guessed it:

If it won't play, klick here for the youtube video

And if you liked that one, here are a few more links
Foolin' (by A. Rybak)
All I do is dream of you (by G. Kelly)

Easter resolutions?

I'm not really a resolution kind of girl, but if I learn about a fact or great idea that deep down makes real sense to me --- that's another story all together.

Anyhow, I found a great list of resolutions over at the happiness project and some of them are at least worth contemplating.

I'd like to highlight just one, that seemed particularly intriguing to me:

# Pick something you strongly believe in, and think about how you might be wrong



Image source: photoristic

What? I can't see it? You serious?

So I was really wanting to see the footage of Letterman telling O'Reilly he thinks of him as a goon. Now I've formed an opinion of the O'Reilly guy mainly by clips that are available on the internet - and in their 'discontextualized' state those clips are pretty unsettling. (Somehow I'm not so sure the full context will make him seem less narrowminded ...)

I'm actually not all THAT worried that this one guy has such a spectacularly one dimensional perception of the world and his own surroundings - what really DOES frighten me is that he has a large number of viewers - perfectly decent Americans - who apparently seem to think that he makes some kind of sense ... I find THAT scary, shocking and quite disturbing.

So - you can understand how I'd like to see the footage of him being called a goon ... here's what I get:

Source: Huffington Post

Now, what the hell is that all about? It's not like I'm in one of those unfortunate countries that suffer censorship troubles. I'm actually posting from Norway - which is practically the same as Denmark - A place where (according to O'Reilly) just about anything goes - as long as it's very awful. But even "crazy Scandinavian liberty" seems to have it's limits ...

And that's how I don't get the pleasure of watching this clip.

And if anyone should feel inclined to point out that I'm not being very tolerant of O'Reilly's points of view - I'd just like to say that: Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

That little Freudism allows me to post this pretty cool cigar image I just googled:

Source: http://www.myspace.com/dediegocigars

Contradictorials

A while back the canteen at my work place made a wonderful decision to provide an old snack that I haven't really had since childhood. Everyone is close to ecstatic about it and it really is every bit as tasteful as we all remember it.

Only thing funny is the slightly contradictory description, as it claims to be both The original and New and improved at the same time ... Just take a looksie at this perfectly fuzzy image from my mobile phone camera and see for yourself:

(actually it says New and better, but I can't be bothered correcting the illustration)

At last...

... and I mean that in more ways than one. Less than a week ago I was thrilled to see that the sun was not only making a rare appearance, it is now up high, and late enough to peek arboud the south-western corner of our building and lending it's wonderful rays to .... ME! The image below really tells it all!

The other reason for humming the old tune is that I was rebuffed by blogger.com from last thursday until this very evening.

Thanks to some great advice from Chuck (aka nitecruzr) I managed to fix what turned out to be a MTU problem - and I'm back in business :o)

Just to let you know...

I have made two additions my new photoshopping site - It's turned out to be a really fun way to practice those desperately underdeveloped PS-skills! I recommend it for anyone who needs an littel push/motivation to put in som practice time.