graffiti

Yes, I encourage children to help me take pictures of weird things,, and while we were in Europe I took quite a few pictures of the graffiti which was pretty much everywhere in the old east. "Kill Maim Burn" is at a monument where we would do some urban rock climbing. It was on the hilltop in the neighborhood park right across the street, and what is written in the stone translates roughly to "the war dead implore peace"; so it has a different tone than, "kill maim burn". There were also some pretty talented stencil artists around town.



This was one of Kristi's favorites in Jena. better run nazi scum. It took me a while to see the anime eyes



No, Ben did not carve his name in a spanish cactus, but he did get a charge out of seeing his name. I think this counts as graffiti.

Czech for "We passed in a dream"

I still haven't done the research on this place, but there are a couple recent times in east German history when Ha Ha game over is appropriate and unser freude eure toter means:

Our joy your dead

Loved these guys

These two go good together

This was real vandalism, broken glass and all, that showed up one day on our bank.

Things I've lost at home

Remember that 19 hour 100Km German walk I took a while back? Truth be told I spent most of the following week in bed, it took three weeks for the painful inflammation on the backside of my patellas to wane, and I'm still having some fallout from that long hike, or better said,, fall-off. On the bright side I still have 4 toe nails, which is close to a half-full set, but I'm not 100% sure I get to keep the one on that left pinky toe. 3/10 isn't at all close to half-full, and is instead a lot closer to just weird looking feet.

Things I've found at home

Like the old world, the new world has it's own charm.
Europe didn't have any equivalents of these for me:

My own private Snake River (where you can catch more bass than you can count)


The Oregon coast (where you can drive on the beach for miles with truckloads of cousins)


Humming birds (and I should add a recent super close encounter with a Peregrine Falcon)



A garden full of grasshoppers (Also known as targets. I need to go buy a few thousand more BBs and continue to do my part to protect the local new world plant life!)

Thigmotaxis

Thigmotaxis is when an organism moves towards physical contact. Many simple organisms have evolved this behavior for protection and it is commonly called crevice-seeking. Sometimes if you are small and tasty, your little brain tells you that feeling pressure from all sides is good and safe. Cockroaches are the most famously thigmotactic thing around, but my nemesis, Forficula auricularia or the common earwig, causes me the most grief.

This fellow was enjoying the physical contact of,, you guessed it,, contacts! Electrical contacts that are needed for us to enjoy having water. This is not the safest crevice to seek and not one I would advise for anyone conductive. This kind of trouble usually doesn't get really going until fall when the little bastards are trying to find a crevice to overwinter, but this year, they are getting an early start. Two fried wigs so far. This one was just so photogenic I couldn't resist taking his picture. His little charcoaled head was enough to keep the contact from closing.

NOW it feels like home

Getting up at first light to dig a hole at a wet spot is the epitomy of home. I can't remember a summer out here without a leak and a hole.


This one isn't much to complain about, should be an easy fix, but it made me realize that I didn't have to do any maintenance as an apartment dweller in Europe. Pretty cush life, really.


I did dig a hole in Jonathan's garden while we were there,, and that sucked. Really hard clay and lots of rocks. I'll take a rock free moist palouse silty loam any day over that tough Jena soil. This is the best soil in the world for digging a big hole, and at this ol' place that opportunity seems to arise frequently!

HSH

We got up at 4am, got home at 1am and the day was 9 hours longer than a regular earth day. It was preceded by an 8 day road-trip taking the extra, extra, long way from Jena to the Frankfurt airport. We hopped from town to town taking in medieval villages, Playmobil FunPark (only 8 bucks!!) Bavaria, luge courses, playgrounds, gondolas, castles, the Black Forest, and some fantastic rock skipping on the Rhine. Along the way we had another 4-country day without really trying; once we woke up in Austria, got coffee in Lichtenstein, then drove through countless Swiss tunnels on our way back into Germany. Whew. These kids are TROOPERS!


Ben and Claire are now rediscovering their toys.

Kristi is rediscovering her own bed.

I'm just soaking it all in.

My first impression of the whole six month adventure?? WOW, that was a change of pace for some quiet mostly monolingual country folk.

We lived in a two bedroom apartment, where we could walk to work, or school, or the park, or shopping. If you wanted to go to Paris, it was a ten minute walk to a train station. There were neighbors, new friends and old friends. It was never quiet, but always calm. I haven't seen stars like we have here tonight in six months, but I have never got to walk in a deep dark beech forest watching fire flies here either. It was all so wonderfully new and fun and exciting.

I am incredibly grateful to the folks on both sides who made it possible. Rod, Jonothan, Laura-n-Bob, Kim, Wendy,, above and beyond the call! And a special thanks and love to the Mothers Nancy for keeping us supplied with Mac and Cheese, peanut butter and Gluten-free treats and Papa Ray and Grammy of the Seattle pick-up. You all are amazing and I'm glad you are in our lives,,, ok getting sappy,,, time to go get some sleep!

Girls in Austria

Claire and Julia were cut from the same cloth. They had to say good-bye today and the tears would well up and flow again every so often in our car for most of the afternoon. Our fathers and daughters trip to Austria last week surely didn't help them part ways. I have the usual pics of flora and fauna from the trip to share, but for this post it is pictures of inseparable friends on a carefree vacation together.

There was even a bit of glissading in the alps

and the best unattended coin-operated rides EVER!