k~owl *still not back*'s photostream

How time flies! "Springtime greetings" was the last thing you heard from me - and now the year is almost over again. Many things have changed for me in the last 12 months, the most important is that I finally quit my job (not after I had found a new one, of course!) and I just wanted to let you know that I'm still around and doing well :-)

And after all … as Juj put it last year "It never really seems like Christmas until you post The Chosen One." … so here it is - please welcome with me The Chosen One 2011. The weather can't be more different from last year but hey… Christmas is here … NOW :-)

Happy Holidays to you all!

The essence of spring - flowers, bees and drying my laundry outside ツ♫♥

Do you remember this building? I wrote about it two years ago. Now it's being broken down to build a car care center there.

I loved that ugly old building, it's so sad, it almost breaks my heart.

Date: Jan 27th, 2011, 10:10 pm

Taken with Canon EOS 50D, attached to Newton Reflector 350/1600 mm Telescope
Focal Length: 1600 mm
ISO speed: 1600
Aperture value: about f/4.5 ~ 5 ... something like that
Exposure time: 30 sec

Temperature of photographer's feet: sub-zero ;-)

Last week I had the great opportunity to attach my camera to a telescope in a nearby observatory and take a picture of M42, the Orion Nebula.

Day 1: When I came home from work, this very small guy, built by Nick, welcomed me on the garage roof beside the terrace door.
His eyes were made from raisins (some people may remember that I hate raisins, so you probably won't ever find any in our kitchen. Instead Nick took the last dry grapes from the wild vine growing on our terrace). The nose is an oat flake, the mouth a Kellogg's Honeynut Loop and the stick a piece of vine twine.

Day 2: More snow and a very cold night. Nick made him a hat.

Day 3: A sunny day. Frosty can see his shadow. Does that mean another six weeks of winter?

Day 4: Fresh snow turned Frosty in some sort of weird puffy dwarf.

Day 5: Mild weather. Frosty is waiting for the moon to rise. Total lunar eclipse in the morning!

Day 6: Oops, Frosty lost his hat!

Day 7: A new hat with an important purpose: our usual Christmas thaw has set in and Nick took another piece of terrace vine (a dry leaf this time) to protect Frosty from the rain.

Day 8: Still thawing, Frosty is braving the rain. btw, this was the day we cut our Chosen One.

Day 9: Christmas Eve and boy, have I ever seen such masses of snow? At least I can't remember (and even my Mum, who was with us that night, couldn't). A strong cold wind was blowing all day and it snowed and snowed until the snow on our terrace covered my biggest flower pots. When we were decorating The Chosen One, Nick gave a plastic bauble (shame on me, I didn't even know that such trashy things exist in my deco box) to Frosty.

Day 10: A sunny, lazy day. Frosty is enjoying the early sunset.

Day 11: More snow in the afternoon, Frosty is snowbound up to his shoulders. He looks somewhat bigger, doesn't he? The reason for his unexpected growth has lain under our Christmas Tree, and it has a red ring and an L and a 100mm and IS and USM and MACRO. :-)

Day 12: In the night the snow turned to rain and ushered in the end of Frosty the Happy Snowman.

Day 13: Another frosty night with temperatures below -10 °C turned Mr. F into a glistening ice sculpture.

Day 14: Period of grace: Frosty enjoys a nice sunny but not too warm day.

Day 15: ...followed by a misty night and morning. But he's still hanging on. Brave little guy.

Day 16: New Year's Eve and temperatures above 0 °C. Hard times for little snowmen, but Frosty wants wants WANTS to see the fireworks tonight.

Day 17: ...and he did! From his place on the garage roof, he had a great view over the town. Then, not long after midnight, heavy rain set in and Frosty went to a place where all snowmen go. Good bye, little friend!

A very Happy New Year to all my flickr friends!