Author Archive
Sunday, March 9th, 2025
Nature is signaling that we’re done with winter around here, but that may be a lie. We often get a cold snap or two in March, which can be really bad. But for now we’re enjoying the warm spring weather. We have started going to the Art Market at the Durham Farmer’s market again, now […]
Posted in bees, Mother Earth, North Carolina | Comments Off on Spring!
Friday, February 28th, 2025
This winter we had a fair amount of snow. We got about an inch or two (3-5 cm) in early January and almost 4 inches (ca 10 cm) in late February. Snow is a bit of a problem when you’re trying to take care of farm animals. The horses themselves are OK if they have […]
Posted in dogs, North Carolina, Our gang, photographs | Comments Off on Snow Day
Monday, January 27th, 2025
Posted in Germany, History | Comments Off on Never Forget
Sunday, January 26th, 2025
Back in 2009, when I started running barefoot, I also tried running barefoot during cold weather. I did not enjoy it, because my feet went cold and numb pretty quickly, and that increases the risk of injury. So I pretty much only ran during warm weather spring thru fall and used a treadmill at the […]
Posted in Go figure, North Carolina, word up | Comments Off on Barefoot running in Winter
Wednesday, January 1st, 2025
2024 did not have much major excitement (good or bad) for us personally. Yeah, the country is falling apart and the world is going to shit, but that’s nothing new. The most significant change for me last year was getting U.S. citizenship and voting for the first time – after living in this country for […]
Posted in years | Comments Off on 2024
Monday, December 30th, 2024
Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the USA has died at the age of 100. What an amazing journey he had, and what a legacy he leaves behind! Also, this means that flags will be at half-staff at the next President’s inauguration! How fitting.
Posted in History, RIP | Comments Off on R.I.P., President Carter
Sunday, October 27th, 2024
In early July, while turning the big compost pile, I found a clutch of snake eggs. Laura and I decided to try to hatch them, and she set up an incubator. After about 2 months, one of the eggs actually did hatch and a pretty rat snake baby emerged. We got her some frozen pinkies […]
Posted in Adventures, Mother Earth, North Carolina, photographs | Comments Off on Ratsnake hatched and released
Thursday, September 26th, 2024
After 8 years with us and approximately at 10 years of age, our female emu Mel died in a tragic accident last weekend. On Saturday evening, as I went out to feed the animals, I saw that Mel was throwing a fit (which she sometimes does), racing around the pasture and doing her crazy dance, […]
Posted in Emu, Our gang, RIP | Comments Off on RIP Emu Mel
Saturday, September 21st, 2024
I applied in June online on the grounds that I had been a legal US resident for more than 5 years (30 , actually), and I was approved and sworn in on Sept. 9, 2024 at the RDU field office. The process was really straight-forward, but then so was my case. The vibe at the […]
Posted in Adventures, North Carolina, word up | Comments Off on Oh say, can you see …
Thursday, July 4th, 2024
Posted in Freedom, General, Go figure | Comments Off on Happy Birthday, USA
Thursday, June 27th, 2024
ENGLISH in a nutshell: Germany now allows dual citizenship! Yay! Ab heute gilt das neue Staatsangehörigkeitsgesetz (StAG) für Deutschland. Das Staatsangehörigkeitsmodernisierungsgesetz (StARModG) wurde am 26. März 2024 erlassen, und es erneuert das StAG in drei wichtigen Punkten: Diese Modernisierung war dringend notwendig, vor allem für Menschen die schon lange in Deutschland leben, aber keine Deutsche […]
Posted in Deutsch, Germany | Comments Off on Neues Staatsangehörigkeitsgesetz (StAG)
Sunday, April 14th, 2024
Happy New Year to the Sri Lankan Community on the island and around the world! April 13 Sri Lankans (Sinhala and Tamil) celebrated the move of the sun into the sign of Pisces, which traditionally marks the the beginning of a new year for them. My friends in the local Sri Lankan community here in […]
Posted in Celebrate!, North Carolina, people | Comments Off on Happy New Year!
Friday, April 12th, 2024
This is the Three Sisters Swamp in North Carolina. It’s a flooded bald cypress forest along the Black River. The large trees in this picture are likely over a thousand years old – possibly around two thousand years even. Laura and I went on a kayak tour through the swamp at the end of March […]
Posted in Adventures, Cool places, North Carolina | Comments Off on A truly ancient forest
Friday, March 8th, 2024
This is a recording of the first hour of the broadcast of the Apollo 11 moon landing. A YouTuber bought a 60-year-old video tape on eBay, and it turned out to contain a recording of the moon landing broadcast. The live feed from the moon start at around minute 40 of the video.
Posted in History | Comments Off on Video of the First Moon Landing
Monday, February 26th, 2024
Posted in geeks, space | Comments Off on Chromoscope
Monday, January 1st, 2024
For us, last year marked a return to (a new) normal, after the COVID pandemic and after my mother’s illness and death in 2022. I am back in the office on a pretty regular basis, and we were able to travel without public health-related restrictions. Although COVID is not “over,” it has become integrated and […]
Posted in years | Comments Off on 2023
Wednesday, December 20th, 2023
Posted in Mother Earth | Comments Off on Huge new fissure eruption in Iceland
Saturday, November 11th, 2023
From August 26 to September 8 this year, Laura and I went on a little adventure to Iceland. First we spent a few days with my dad and his partner Marion exploring the area around Reykjavik, then Laura and I went on a 6-day horse riding tour on the Snæfellsnes peninsula. Finally, we drove South […]
Posted in Adventures, Cool places, photographs | Comments Off on Iceland vacation
Tuesday, July 18th, 2023
Last week, the Fagradalsfjall volcano in southern Iceland produced a new eruption near the Litli-Hrútur mountain. There is lots of beautiful drone footage of the eruption, but this is some of the nicest I have seen, so far. Here is a link to a live webcam of the new vent.
Posted in Mother Earth | Comments Off on New Volcano eruption in Iceland
Wednesday, May 17th, 2023
On April 25, our 18 year-old Russian Blue cat named Koklo died. She had been sick for a long time, but recently her health got worse and worse, and on Tuesday she passed away peacefully at home. Koklo loved – nay adored – Laura. Koklo always wanted to be near Laura and sleep in her […]
Posted in cats, RIP | Comments Off on R.I.P. Koklo the cat