this is pretty funny: an open letter concerning the interpretation of the book of leviticus and others.

and here’s an interesting quote i found on that website:

i just returned from a wwf-congress in breitenwang [G] in the lechtal valley (near reutte). news and photos will soon be posted.

i never got to post this *here*, but there it is now:

in the last few months, every now and then i found some time to play with my JG-RC2 and i’m really content.

the final firmware isn’t available yet, but i’m fine with the preliminary one, so far. (that’s how i got it in the first place – the final product version is not available, so i ordered the beta-version. but only the firmware will be different in the final version – and it’s upgradeable.)

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i thought 9 hours of additional free time per day would make a huge difference. still don’t feel much of that, though.

only 4 months after taking photos of various herbs for my little brother’s website (see “kräuter” in the german section), i managed to get the images up on my site as well…

in case you’re interested in using the images (high-res files available) please get in touch!

[view photos: herbs]

i was on a choir trip to steiermark/burgenland last weekend – my first trip with the wiltener sängerknaben boy’s choir.

we arrived in gnas/steiermark [G] (you might want to zoom in) after an 8-hour bus ride with our friendly (…) bus driver and two looong and bad movies. try to avoid watching “like mike” (german speaking folk: also stay away from “7 zwerge”) – or at least protract for as long as you can.

we were staying at a supposed youth hostel in gnas , but the jugend- und familiengästehaus gnas (de) seemed more like a 3-star rated hotel: spacious, clean rooms, tv and a balcony. totally recommendable!

over night, temperatures dropped by at least 10 °C, down to 13 °C. nice. :neutral: of course, i soon caught a cold, and i wonder if that’s going to be a tradition (keyword: krems2002).

little side note here: taking three aspirin tablets in a 5-hour-timespan is a big “no-no!” if you’re falling ill and your stomach doesn’t feel so good.

 
anyway: more than ever, i enjoyed being in a choir and singing very frequently.
our concert program (2 concerts and one mass) consisted of tyrolean folk songs, clerical choir music, and three operatic choir pieces. my personal highlight was richard wagner’s “freudig begrüßen wir die halle” (from the opera “tannhäuser”) – it’s monumental.

and, on another side note, i’m still amazed at what children at that age can accomplish. :shock:
unbelievable!

 
here are some photos:

[view photos: choir trip to gnas]
(i’m also trying to get pictures of the concerts. if i get any, i’m going to add them here as well.)

the hunt is over, and we did catch a shrew.
it wasn’t a eurasian water shrew (neomys fodiens; wasserspitzmaus), but a southern water shrew (neomys anomalus; sumpfspitzmaus).
but considering that the southern water shrew is much less frequent than the eurasian one, i think we were pretty successful.
as a side-effect, we caught about 20 other mice, mainly apodemus species (a genus of eurasian field mice) – wood mice (apodemus sylvaticus; waldmaus) and yellow-necked mice (apodemus flavicollis; gelbhalsmaus), afaik.
we released them a little farther, so they wouldn’t block the traps (and would not have to sit in a box again).

three interesting side-notes:

• the bait we used, is …peanut butter! the creamy kind. peanut butter is ideal, because it has a strong smell, and it’s sticky.
• in case you’re wondering: the shrew DOES have ears, but they’re well-hidden in the fur.
• in the nightshot picture, note that you can actually see the pupils in the mouse’s little button eyes.

the shrew (let’s call him dewey!) was taken to vorarlberg, where it will be on an exhibition, and afterwards it will be released again.

here are some photos:

[view photos: rodents]

this week’s top word in my trapper keeper ultra keeper futura s 2000 is “wasserspitzmaus” (eurasian water shrew, neomys fodiens).

that’s because i am helping catch one (alive), and the traps need to be inspected several times a day.

the water shrew is one of the very few venomous mammals that live in central europe. with its saliva, it can kill animals that are as big as a mouse!

stay tuned for more.