I recently bought a new Camera.
Obviously, the first thing I did was work out the nodal point - the point of rotation on the barrel of the lens to cancel parallax distortion when rotating the camera for panorama photography. Once I'd worked that out, I went out and took my first panorama.

Remember me publishing this image recently?



This was the second version of the scene. With the first version, I misjudged the exposure. Well, you know - new equipment, snow, photographing into the sun ...
Anyway - this was what happened:



Obviously, I didn't think it was worth stitching the images together, so I just left it.
Until today, that is. The snow plough didn't come through this morning (did I mention that?) so I started playing around. Here is the result:



You can send the plough in now, I'm ready to take some more pics!

At first I presumed they were fox tracks.
We have a den of foxes just 500 meters away.
Sometimes, at night, it sounds as if a child is being butchered in my front garden.
I've checked more than once.
You harden with time and now they could butcher a child in my front garden and I wouldn't give it a moments notice.

Just as you hear in tales, the foxes move from hen-coop to hen-coop stealing hens.
You can often watch them, heads held high, carrying off their prizes.
That is why I presumed these to be fox-tracks.



I was mistaken.
We have a lone deer moving backwards and forwards across 'my' valley.
It will stop every now and then at the edge of the woods and scrape the snow off the ground with its hoof, to get at the grass below I presume.



The sound of my shutter, in the silence of the morning, was enough to make him (I'm presuming he's male) dash for the trees...

The snow plough hasn't been through for two days now.
It looks as if we're supposed to be more interested in looking for Easter eggs than in going out.
I've not seen any bunny-tracks, so could you get the snow plough out please!

Oh, and did I mention it being cold?

20th March 2008, 06:48. Spring begins.
20th March 2008, 07:28. 30 Minutes into spring - this picture was taken:



We are not amused!



But then again, perhaps we are...
These pictures were taken a 08:00:





If only the temperatures weren't well below freezing...

Please click the images above for the larger versions

In something under 100 days the European Cup kicks off with The Czech Republic vs. Switzerland, who is hosting the championships together with Austria.

Talking about a 'Charm-Offensive' Dr. Petra Solba, CEO of Austrian Advertising, stated recently:
'We place a high value on hospitality - the unique mix of service-mindedness and friendliness, spiced with a substantial shot of humor.'
That might just work in Austria, though I have reason to doubt*.

Jürg Schmid, CEO of The Swiss Tourist Board was quoted as saying:
'There are many unexpected sides of Switzerland to discover - for example, the refreshing red and white enthusiasm for their own team. Switzerland wants to surprise!

Oh, they'll surprise, all right, no doubt about that!
Their lack of humour, and the fact that Swiss service enterprises confuse 'hospitality' with 'hostility' is going to cause a lot of surprises.

We are looking at somewhere around 600,000 football tourists and something like 1,000,000 overnight-stays.
For 'tourist' please read 'antogonist', 600,000 people and each of them is going to want something at some point - just imagine the pressure those hotel and restaurant employees are going to be under.

It will start at breakfast with waiters and waitresses being asked the best route to the local stadium.
On too many occasions the answer will be: 'Sorry, this is the hotel restaurant, not an information office!'
It doesn't matter that the guests will not return or that they will most certainly advise friends not to visit, 'they wouldn't have returned anyway - they're only here for the match.'

Just imagine then, that a gentleman from the Swiss Tourist Board has hit on a bizarre new idea. He recently suggested on the radio that the antagonists guests should be treated with respect and answered in a friendly, polite and helpful manner, even though they are not personal friends.
One or two of those service-people may have heard the programme and may even give the idea some consideration.

The rest ...
... I'm not optimistic.

*While skiing in Austria a many years ago I was sitting with friends waiting to order something to eat. The boss served us himself - by the time he got to me, I'd forgotten the name of the desert I'd chosen. Stuttering I asked for 'Salzburger Dingsbums' (Thingamajig)
The boss answered in Austrian German:
'Wannst nit woast wie's hoast, dann brauchst au nit essa'
If you don't know what it's called, you dont need to eat it.

I've not tired Salzburger Nockerl to this day ...

Did I say no sign at all?
I have to take that back.



A watering can and a zink flower pot only made it as far as the middle of the slope down into the valley.
Two watering cans remain lost but are probably just out of sight behind the next dip.



I did manage to get some shopping done, but realise now, why we were warned to stay home.
I had to drag myself along the barn wall to reach my car and was hardly able to grapple the car door open.
Apparently Emma (The hurricane) was blowing at 150 kmh.

There was chaos in St.Gallen when I got there.
They are building a new football stadium/shopping center. The shopping center is due to open next weekend.
It looks as if there might be a delay after all, Emma took part of the roof off and dumped it in the road!
They were working 24/7 to finish on time as it was ...

That bamboo plant is still there. How does one get rid of something like that without attracting attention?

All I wanted to do, was drink a cup of coffee ...

I recently bought a new coffee machine.
The old one was playing up.
For some reason the Jura coffe makers all seem to develop problems with their electric circuits. To replace the circuitry is almost as expensive as a new machine.

I've looked at Saeco machines before. They seem to be robust, but that has been one of the main things that has prevented me from buying one. The bean grinder is so robust that you can hear it doing its chores two miles away.
Then there was always the problem that there was only one heater for both the coffee and the milk. This meant that if you made a cappuccino you would have to wait a while for the heater to cool down before you could make your next coffee.

Well, just recently I saw a Saeco machine make a cappuccino. I saw it but didn't hear it. And straight afterwards the woman demonstrating it made an espresso.
She had me interested.
Yes, she said, new grinders and additional heaters.
It only took another cappuccino and an espresso to convince me.

So half an hour ago, I switched on the machine. 'Clean the milk container' the screen said.
No, I'll do that later, I thought.
Peeeeep!! Clean the milk container!! The machine said.
The process takes 20 minutes and uses one-and-a-half litres of water plus chemicals.

The process finished, you may refill the water tank with fresh water and rinse the system.
Now you can settle down to the daily ritual.

Press the button for a cappuccino. I like how it will prepare a cappuccino with just a single touch of a button.
Just watch it appear, almost magically, in the cup.
Take the cup to the breakfast table, sit down and, at long last, take a sip of fresh coffee.

Peep, peep, peep, the machine says - 'Rince the milk container'.
Good, so now you get up, leave your fresh coffee, press the buttons and rince the milk container.
May I sit down now and drink my coffee?
After studying the screen carefully, there are no messages.
Back to the breakfast table and take another sip of that well-earned coffee.

Peeeep!! 'Remove the milk container!'
Switch the bloody thing off so I can drink my coffee!

Really, I never saw a more annoying machine!
I am going to take my old machine to have the circuitry replaced next week.
Does anyone want a coffee machine that will make a cappuccino at the touch of a button?

It is difficult to imagine a house shaking for hours on end.
But that is exactly what this one is doing.
Shaking, vibrating and occasionally lurching.
Where the ceiling is still the original wooden-plank-construction the dust of three hundred years is trickling out from between the cracks.

They have warned us not to go outside unless it is absolutely necessary and then definitely not to go where there are trees.
Train services have been discontinued until further notice.
No - we're not in the middle of an earthquake, it is windy!

The picture below is of an electric fence.
Somewhere along its length it came adrift and now it is hanging bizarrely in the wind.
The brown patterns on the grass?
The farmer decided it was going to rain so he emptied the contents of the organic manure tanks from his cow shed.
It hasn't rained yet but thanks to the wind, at least I can't smell it.



My neighbour's metal table has been transported to new surroundings and there is no sign at all of her watering cans.
I just wish the bamboo plant would blow away too ...



... not much chance of that happening, I suppose.

I need to do some shopping, I wonder if I should risk going out ...
... what do they mean when they say 'unless it is absolutely necessary'?