Sometimes also your soul requires for food. You should indulge in therefore a little bit of time and strengthen youself somewhat with the texts and pictures on this webpage for the hardship of life.
 
Flying subtenants
 
At present, the possibilities for activities are very limited. It is all the more pleasing to discover things in the surroundings that delight the heart.
On 18.4.2021, the couple of blackbirds, who had been living in the vicinity of my home for months, decided to build a nest in a balcony corner. A few years before, an other couple had chosen this corner, even if the available building area is quite small. It is probably safer against magpies and crows than the abundant shrubs and hedges.
The picture at the top left shows the condition of the nest after only about 4 hours of construction time. And the nest grows from minute to minute. The structure itself seems to take over only the blackbird female. It carries "huge" grass, moss and small branches. She stuffs the material into the corner and manages to build a stable structure out of it only with beak and claws. The male sits only on the street lamp or on trees and observes the surroundings. Let's see how the two keep up its birdies and when the first offspring sits on the balcony.
Addendum: Since no one is still sitting on the nest after 4 weeks, I assume that the birds have found a better ground after laying the foundation stone.
 
Mammatus clouds
 
On 11.3.2021, at around 17.20 clock, the rain front of the storm "Klaus" moved over my hometown. In addition to a rainbow, a rather rare cloud formation could also be seen afterwards: Mammatus clouds. These are bag-like, almost smooth shapes that hang at the bottom of the closed cloud layer. There are many different theories about the origin. These clouds are always beautiful to look at.
 
Total lunar eclipse with "super blood moon"
 
The total lunar eclipse on 28.9.2015 have inspired all those, who have seen it. The moon was occurs in the umbra of Earth's shadow and was illuminated red, a "blood moon". Beside the moon was located very close to the Earth like in each autumn, a "super moon", causing the moon's disk was visible a little bit larger than normal. Both phenomena together gave the "super blood moon".
At 0012 UTC the moon entered the penumbra of the Earth. The total lunar eclipse lasted from 0211 to 0323 UTC. The moon was then located between 27 and 17° above the horizon. The culmination of darkness was at 0247 UTC at 20°. The lunar eclipse ended at 0522 UTC. A total lunar eclipse is not as short as a total solar eclipse. The total phase of this one lasted 72 minutes.
 
The next total lunar eclipse which is visible in Germany will be on 27.7.2018. But its total phase starts at 1930 UTC at 3°, just above the horizon, and ends at 2113 UTC at 13° (maximum at 2022 UTC at 9°). The total phase of this lunar eclipse will last 103 minutes. Sunset at this day at 1906 UTC.
 
The total lunar eclipse on 21.1.2019 will be visible a little more, because its total phase lasts from 0441 UTC at 20° to 0543 UTC at 11° (maximum at 0512 UTC at 16°). Sunrise at this day at 0607 UTC.
 
Although two total lunar eclipses will follow on 16.5.2022 and 14.5.2025, but their total phases will not be visible from Berlin. The next total lunar eclipse, visible in Berlin from start to finish, will not be until 31.12.2028. The total phase of this lunar eclipse begins at 1616 UTC at 10° and ends at 1728 UTC at 20°. The maximum will be around 1752 UTC at 15°. The sunset will be on this day at 1501 UTC.
 
All time and angle specifications on this webpage refer to Berlin in Germany. These data come from the Javascript Lunar Eclipse Explorer.
 
As with the eye doctor
 
The permanent exhibition of Camera Obscura is located in the immediate vicinity of the castle of Edinburgh. Optical illusions are taught there. You can walk there troung a tunnel with a level and firm ground, in which gauranteed anybody woobles because lights turning around him. And there you can also see an Ames room and can be turned by the proportions in it.
A large poster of approximately 80 cm × 110 cm (DIN A0) had it done to me, which looked like with the eye doctor The first lines were still wonderful to read from a distance. Then you had to step closer. At the end I had to put on my reading glasses to decipher the last lines and then loudly to laugh (at me). The letters of the bottom row were only 2 mm in size. The quote was: "If you are able to read this, you are standing too close to the wall."
 
Stealth Antenna
 
On the way back from a bike ride, I discovered this unusual part in the front yard of a house on 9.6.2014 two against each other rotating, metallic rings that brought water. I had seen it once before in an other garden, but found no opportunity to photograph it. Not only its location allows conclusions about the function: a lawn sprinkler.
But you could use the copper rings also acts as a magnetic loop? The rings should be only electrically isolated and it's necessary to created a feed. Oh yes, you should also turn off the water. But then even the "bad" neighbor would not realize, that you having an antenna in the garden.
 
Jumbled letter
 
Every now and then we see in newspapers or on webpages jumbled letters. Sometimes arise funny words that are guaranteed not intended in this context. Somewhere I stumbled upon the following text, which drives it to the extreme.
 
I love CW
 
I could not believe my eyes when I drove past this poster with the bus from work to home at 25.5.2012. "I love CW" was there to read in large letters. Such a profession to CW I had never seen anywhere before. So I went back again equipped with a camera. And there the poster proves not as proof of love for wireless telegraphy (CW) but as advertising poster from the operator of a petrol station and snack stand.
I love CW = I love Currywurst (German for sausage in curry sauce).
 
Number problem
 
If you want to train your brain, maybe this number problem are the right one for you. This problem does preschool agers (4 years old) solve within 5 til 10 minutes, programmers within an hour, an people with higher education ... well, check it yourself! I found this riddle somewhere in the internet.
 
Cleaning
 
If you are a homebrewer, so for certain a lot of radios already stands in the shelf with you, which are too rarely used. Depending upon frequency of the use on the surfaces you could discover a dust.
However one should clean the radios and the accessory in regular intervals. Also after a portable operation you should clean your rig. Admittedly you can ignore dust and mud up to a certain level, but one should draw a line. Otherwise it ends like at this intact car with the sleeping driver inside, which parked on 13.9.011 in the proximity of my house. I thought up to now, this would be feasible only in an animated film. Do you remember of the two going astray cars Van and Minny in the Pixar film "Cars", which herbage grew out of each chink?
 
I wish you the time Elli Michler
 
Nowadays one hurries ever more from a date to the next date. "Take it easy!" seems to be a dictum from yesterday. Is "Higher, faster, longer!" the he slogan today? I think: No, it isn't. I wish you the time with a small poem by Elli Michler.
 
Inexhaustible power source
 
Now and then I will asked, what the slogan "Don't forget: the fun is the power!" stands for. One asker sent me an interpretation as equation. But it turns around a not measurable and inexhaustible power source
 
When God created the man unknown author
 
The life does not run off usually homogeneously. Who stops and looks back once, will recognize itself (also as a woman) in the creation of the man and will realize, what still lies before one.
 
Desiderata Max Ehrmann
 
Probably it preceded me with this poem like so many other people. Somewhere I read the first lines of this poem and was fascinated by the possibility of being able to describe the apparently complicated ways of the life in a simple manner. Since the first lines were not sufficient for me, I searched for the complete work and found it fast: Desiderata, a poem for a way of life; written 1927 by Max Ehrmann. If each one take good heed of only a few lines from it, then I think that the world can change to the good one. Hopefully still many people read this poem.