Exploring the Earth's abundance
Ahhhh, surrounded by green and blue.
My soul and body need both on a very regular basis. I actually crave for it everyday and that is why we are planning on having it whenever. Green forests, blue water. I do love deserts, too, though. It is nature with her sounds, her rhythm, her calmness, her seasons, her learnings, her beauty, her colours, and her rawness, that sparks my fire within.
What makes your heart jump? Read more
Lady Bird is bringing you some red Australian flower specks today!
Australia is very famous for its unique and in many cases endemic wildlife. But plants are not short of these attributes as you may have thought when reading my yellow post.
Did you know, for example, that most eucalypts, even though they are grown all over the planet these days, are originally endemic to Australia? Around 800 different species are known and some grow so high – a staggering 100 m – that they belong to the tallest trees on Earth. Koalas have specialized their diet to some species’ leaves and are adapted to the very high concentration of essential oils, which are hard to digest and in fact poisonous. What’s more, due to the low energy input and the slow digestion process, koalas sleep a mere 20 hours a day. So, chances are high you find them sleeping in a eucalyptus, if you find them at all.
I promised red flower specks… and was distracted by the sheer abundance in Australia, and koalas :0). Let’s continue, but not without some fluffy photos of a koala grabbing its favourite food. Read more
Almost no words today and so sorry for the very sad aspect of this post.
It leaves me speechless and heartbroken to learn of the poaching in Botswana. I would just like to pay my heartfelt tribute to the rangers and anti-poaching units who try their very best everyday and of course to the majestic animals. May they stay safe!
How often a day do you look in a mirror? What does it tell you?
Somehow, the photos I share with you today caught my eye when working in Lightroom and they quite obviously are about reflection and mirroring. I had these rays of sunlight stunningly shining through clouds already in my last post. But now, they are mirrored in the Chobe river in Botswana.
The magic did not want to stop that day and I remember me standing there with my camera in hand speechless by the jaw-dropping sceneries I was just witnessing. I even completely forgot about the wild African animal kingdom around me that could potentially appear… elephants, buffalos, leopards, lions, hyenas to name a few :0). Read more
What started out as a comfy summer me-time on the picnic blanket in the shadow under a tree this afternoon ended quite impressively in a fast pedalling home with my two-wheel-drive that is my bicycle.
See for yourself :0). Read more
I thought it is time for some beauty. Natural beauty, of course.
What does the word beauty spark in you?
Today, I’d like to bring it to you in the form of a glittering beautiful little wonder. Here it is again, that little wonder you can find everywhere when your senses are put on awareness.
Remember me going down very low on hot sand to take photographs of an animal in behind the camera? Well, it seems I am not the only one who loves sandy feet :0).
There is this glittering little creature living on sandy patches and standing the heat. I am talking of the Northern Dune Tiger beetle Cicindela hybrida (in German: Dünen-Sandlaufkäfer). Quite hard to photograph, indeed, as it flies or runs (they are fast runners) off whenever you come too close. But there are tricks as I found out…. go down low, be patient, be still, don’t mind the heat of around 60 degree Celsius, and be passionate. Oh and I also talk to them ;0). Read more
How are you doing right now?
When I look out the window, at Europe and the world my heart gets heavy and quite sad.
Treetops, meadows and grass turn brown under a heat wave and an exceptionally dry year so far. Birds stop singing, fish die in rivers, insects are less abound. Wildfires rage in the Arctic circle, temperatures rise over 30 degrees Celsius in the same region, and some crops fail or are at least much lower than they are supposed to be. This is just to mention a few things that look terribly wrong for me.
What has already become regular in developing countries as they especially suffer from and feel climate change, the latter more and more hits and arrives in the developed world. After all, it is that developed world which is responsible for climate change in the first place.
What’s more, Mother Nature and above all the ocean is choking on plastic and rubbish from ever faster consuming humans. I think beyond repair. Every year, 8 million tons of plastic end up in the ocean of our blue planet. “It’s equivalent to five grocery bags filled with plastic for every foot of coastline in the world.” writes Coastal Care. And this figure rises. Read more
