Plant of the Month : Lampionblumen

This is a plant that flowers in late summer, but is nevertheless at its prettiest now in deep winter.  Here in my garden, under the decaying leaves,  I found the last year's remnant beautifully transformed: Physalis alkekengi or Chinese Lantern (Lantern flower in German). Winter has dissolved their papery skins and left the delicate skeletons of the heart-shaped lanterns with the orange seed intact inside. 

I brought them indoors to dry. Let's see how long they last. 

Polo on Ice in St Moritz

Next weekend, the Polo on Snow World Cup tournament on the frozen lake of St Moritz takes place. I used to go there every year, away from the conference at Davos, which ran parallel, but not anymore. I would leave in the early morning by the beautiful glass-ceilinged Bernina Express train, silently winding through mountains and tunnels, to enjoy a wonderful day out, in blazing sun in the majestic snow covered mountains as a background to the steaming horses in the cold air, their impatient snorts and the thumping of hooves in full speed on the ice - perfect days that I was glad to exchange for darkened rooms in the conference centre and would not want to miss. 

The frozen lake of St. Moritz

Tents for stabling, food, equipment,  ...and even a car park are installed on the thick ice of the lake at St. Moritz.

stable tent

... just in case ...

at a slower speed

In the Swiss Alps

For a few years we used to go to the large annual conference in the Swiss Alps that is running this week. While my husband sat indoors in meetings rarely seeing a sunray, I spent my time mostly outdoors. As we have little snow in our parts, it was a nice change to hike through the winter scenery. The Swiss - unlike Austria - prepare their wintery hills not only for skiers but for hikers, too, so walking in the snow in the blazing bright sunshine is pure pleasure with no risk to be run over by daredevil skiers or snowboarders. 

a larch tree

mountain ash in snow

Bored with bad tea or coffee? 

Wanderlust : Lizard Island, Australia

Everyone has a different way to recharge their batteries. Mine is by travelling - in body or mind - and filling my senses with new images, different forms, shapes and colours, different light, sounds and scents, new ideas. 

I had first seen the coral islands of the Maldives in the Indian ocean from above while travelling from Hongkong back to Europe once, even before we decided to spend a vacation there. Looking out of the plane window down onto that dotted wonderland of blue, green and turquoise islands surrounded by sand banks and expanses of deep blue-green water from a height of 30.000 ft, I thought for a moment, the pilot must have taken a wrong turn, must be taking a rather long detour from Asia to Europe,  and flown to the Great Barrier Reef instead. I landed safely and on time in Frankfurt though, so the plane must have taken the unfamiliar southern route over South Asia. 

Lacking any travel right now, I have gone through my images from a trip to Lizard Island in the Great Barrier Reef, which I visited when my travel-hungry daughter took an exchange semester at Sydney University in Australia in 2013.

the airport 

Lizard Island is a dream vacation spot - mostly warm weather, but not too dry, interesting wild life (the island is a National Park) with a world renowned marine biology research station, a leisurely hill to climb, great diving and on top of that, a small luxurious resort with great food. I wish I could fly back there anytime.... 

a very long tongue ...

a bee-eater

a group of white-breasted wood swallows (Artamus leucorynchus) on an umbrella tree (Schefflera actinophylla)

this tree is also a favourite of sun birds (Nectarinia jugularis)

The nest of the Australian jumping biting green tree ant. They build intricate nests by weaving together leaves with "home-spun" silk thread. They can jump on their enemies and have been known to jump on photographers who approached the nest too closely, so I kept my distance. 

a rose dove (rose-crowned fruit dove or Ptilinopus regina) 

they have flying foxes, too, but I could not get close enough for a good picture

the research station for the Great Barrier Reef gives guided tours

This is an image overlay of several images that I created there. I  associate it with Grönemeyer's "Träume für bare Münze" which is actually called "Halt mich". It is one of my favourite songs and one of his few melodious and peaceful ones, but never mind. 

More Crab Salad

I have been looking for pictures to decorate guest bathroom walls ... how about these? 

When all three children are visiting, they always quarrel about bathroom time - maybe these in large format will help  reduce time spent in the shower? 

For the experiments I used Capture NX2 and the Nik Colour Efex Pro Filters.