Sky Watch Friday No. 1 - Up In The Sky

We took these photos last summer in the Salzkammergut, a region in Austria which is very green, with mountains and lakes, and where the nights are fresher than in the city of Vienna.

Despite the heat, we made little trips in our neighbourhood like this one on top of Schafberg with its breathtaking view over the lakes.

Not only birds were in the sky!

Click on the images to enlarge!

I have made two series of SKY WATCH FRIDAY this time, No. 1 and No.2

Alpine Choughs - Alpendohlen

Schafberg
Wolfgangsee, Salzkammergut
Austria

Sky Watch Friday No. 2 is below!

Sky Watch Friday No. 2 - High Above

Schafberg

Salzkammergut
Austria

Fond of Blueberries

On a hiking tour we found bushes full with blueberries.

I gave some berries to our dog D'Ora and she liked them very much.
As my supply was too slow for her,
she began to pick the blueberries herself
directly from the bushes!

Please watch this video:



Heidelbeeren!

BRILLIANT BLOG AWARD! YIPPIEEE!

I want to thank Elizabeth for giving me this award! As it is my first award, I am really excited about it! Thank you very much, Elizabeth!

I love Elizabeth's calm artistic photos from Marakech and also from New York very much. I am blogging for a few months now and have visited blogs all around the world. Some of them became real friends, and "Skywatch Friday" also offers a good opportunity to establish contacts.
So I'm handing this award on to:

Mary Beth with Small City Scenes of Stanwood showing life in the northwest of the USA in a most comforting way;

Anonymous of Sydney and King Jack who make my mornings bright with their unique blogs Birds Anonymous and Photography Anonymous;

CES and her Dishes for her witty and humorous blog conversation with Anonymous of Sydney (my belly muscles have doubled within only two months because of reading their twitter);

Laughingwolf for his blog paws and reflect... who sneaks about the world wide web on gentle paws with a subtle nose compiling interesting and humorous things from anywhere;

Barbara with her beautiful blog "Ramblings from an English Garden" who welcomed me warmheartedly with the words "Just post what interests you and you will find that it is of interest to others too";

14 years old Rachel from South Florida for her stunning blog "Picture perfect - A new picture each day (: " who says that photography is her passion;

and 18 years old Whitney from Florida with her beautiful blog Live Love Laugh who allows us to share her world.

Now you have to chose 7 of your blogging chums to hand it on to and tell them.

Austria's Dog Model No. 1

Oops!

Sky Watch Friday - Horizon

The most thrilling thing about walking towards a horizon is the uncertainty of what is to be expected behind it.


Here is more of SWF!

Where is the Sun?

This is a picture taken last week
at a time when the sun was still shining over Austria.

Now we have no shadows anymore,

and we are drowning and freezing to death!

HELP!!!
Please send me some Caribbean Links!

It's serious :(

At the Vienna Zoo - A Special Bird

Have you seen the new birds?

Where are they?

Why is everybody staring at us?

Don't know.
Let's swim synchronously!

Oh, this one
seems to be their leader!

Waldrapp
Geronticus eremita
Northern Bald Ibis

(here is more information about this archaic feathered friend)

Garden Gnome To Be Missed?

Rambling through the country (Austria, in the heart of Europe),
you come across things you would not have expected.
We found these cute gardens when we followed our long distance hiking trail no. 04 through the Vienna Woods last Spring.

This style is not to everyone's taste, but it is remarkable.
Please enlarge - it's pure fun!

Better not try to eat these lambs, whoever...

This is us, me in the middle, no gnomes, for sure,
in the public mirror (?)

Two months later, another encounter with gnomes.

Innocently, we are on section no. 6 of our long distance hiking trail, this time already in the northern Alps.
The weather is bad, we are wet to the bones.
Suddenly a thrill:
Garden gnomes' environment, still more refined:

Our dog is well trained:
D'Ora checks out the situation immediately.

Ah! Rubber ducks and gnomes!
(Enlarge!)

Yes, no doubt!

Even a frog !

Hm, I fell in love
with the little garden
with its gnomes and frogs and flowers and ...

Sigh: wish I had a garden of my own...

Afraid of cows ;-)

On our hiking trip to the "Kräuterin", mountains about 1900 m high,
we had to cross large meadows with (c)grazing cows.
The first encounter:
a cow welcomed us at the entrance to the realm of mountain pastures.

(click to enlarge)

The cow looked suspiciously at our dog, called her herd together and began to follow us.

The picture is blurred because I began to tremble immediately.

More cows were waiting, looking still innocent.

The following scenes are not photographed
because the cows began to chase the dog
and the dog tried to hide behind me.

Of course, some of our group (the males) successfully distracted the cows from the dog.
I was so afraid, I tried to hide in the bushes to get out of sight and could not take a photo :(

The cows still followed us towards the peak of the mountain.

Even here they followed us.

Only when the meadows turned rocky, the cows gave up.

Finally we reached the peak safely!

Persons living in cowboy areas must laugh at me, I'm sure!
;)
But I was happy that I stayed alive!