Tuesday, July 15, 2003
Struggling to get this changed...
Ok, I know this page takes too long to load due to the size of the images, so I'm trying to get a second blog - or rather a "Plog" - going that will be used exclusively for images and their captions. I haven't been able to upload images to that Plog yet, but when I do I'll rearrange things here. In the mean time, here is a skyline shot of Frankfurt. Germans call Frankfurt "Mainhattan" because it is a city on the Main river (pronounced incidentally like the word "mine") and the city has the closest thing you'll see in Europe to skyscrapers like those found in New York City. I took the photo from the top floor of a parking garage near the city center.
Ok, I know this page takes too long to load due to the size of the images, so I'm trying to get a second blog - or rather a "Plog" - going that will be used exclusively for images and their captions. I haven't been able to upload images to that Plog yet, but when I do I'll rearrange things here. In the mean time, here is a skyline shot of Frankfurt. Germans call Frankfurt "Mainhattan" because it is a city on the Main river (pronounced incidentally like the word "mine") and the city has the closest thing you'll see in Europe to skyscrapers like those found in New York City. I took the photo from the top floor of a parking garage near the city center.
Monday, July 14, 2003
Wounded Pride
Sunday morning I got up bright and early (well, bright and early for me) and set off with camera bag in hand. Right outside my door what do I see but an American that I'd met a few days before sitting on a park bench outside the Rest Home across the walk way from my building. He noticed me and motioned me over. He sat there with something in his hand and it wasn't long before I discerned that it was a bird nestled there. I glanced around but didn't see a pair in the bush, so I returned to the unusual scene.
He told me that he'd noticed the bird when he went out on his Sunday morning sojourn for fresh bread (yes, I came to discover that Germany has a bakery open on Sunday!). The bird, which seemed to be whole, didn't seem to be entirely healthy. It didn't seem capable of flight. Moreover, it just seemed a little dazed and quite ready to sit in the palm of the man's hand. He thought it was a baby falcon. I was skeptical.
So I snapped a few photos of the bird.
To the best of my knowledge it is a swallow, that master of acrobatic flight. But why would such a deft and fearless flier be reluctant to leave the man's hand in one big damn hurry? I suspect that the bird may have been more EMBARRASSED than anything else because he probably knocked himself silly against a tree branch while attempting some bird-equivalent to a 16 point inverted Imelman. Any self respecting swallow would indeed be humiliated and not want to be seen by his fellow swallows.
Sunday morning I got up bright and early (well, bright and early for me) and set off with camera bag in hand. Right outside my door what do I see but an American that I'd met a few days before sitting on a park bench outside the Rest Home across the walk way from my building. He noticed me and motioned me over. He sat there with something in his hand and it wasn't long before I discerned that it was a bird nestled there. I glanced around but didn't see a pair in the bush, so I returned to the unusual scene.
He told me that he'd noticed the bird when he went out on his Sunday morning sojourn for fresh bread (yes, I came to discover that Germany has a bakery open on Sunday!). The bird, which seemed to be whole, didn't seem to be entirely healthy. It didn't seem capable of flight. Moreover, it just seemed a little dazed and quite ready to sit in the palm of the man's hand. He thought it was a baby falcon. I was skeptical.
So I snapped a few photos of the bird.
To the best of my knowledge it is a swallow, that master of acrobatic flight. But why would such a deft and fearless flier be reluctant to leave the man's hand in one big damn hurry? I suspect that the bird may have been more EMBARRASSED than anything else because he probably knocked himself silly against a tree branch while attempting some bird-equivalent to a 16 point inverted Imelman. Any self respecting swallow would indeed be humiliated and not want to be seen by his fellow swallows.
