Just browsing through some snaps I did on Christmas and stumbled upon this one. It shows the remains of Hunter’s presents about 15 minutes after he got them. I have never seen a more eager little creature. He is totally versatil in opening packages, as this is his “job” here at home. When the postman arrives, it is Hunter’s time to work. Albeit I have to say that he got less and less elegant in the last 2 years. As you can see above. Although he never scratches the content, the packaging is totally in pieces. And if the content is for him, it will basically look the same as the box in a matter of no time.
Christmas night was a very exciting time for him.
I am ever so thankful his only destruction tendencies are directed towards packaging material and his toys. He does not touch anything else.
The first time I noticed that he had a hang for opening boxes, was when I was packing my things some day before the moving van came to transport the boxes to our “new” appartment. It was in the middle of the night and I was sitting in my living room, wrapping things and stuffing them into the cardboard boxes, which I then closed with duct tape, on which I’d write the contents, so I would be able to reuse the boxes at a later time (I move around a lot). I was terribly tired and quite happy to see that I was coming to an end. I was so focussed on finishing the job that I did not notice my dog went missing in the room where I was putting the closed boxes.
Meanwhile he was quietly chewing off the edges of the duct tape and cleanly stripping it off the boxes with an elegant move while climbing from one side to the other. Almost all of the boxes were open and the duct tape became a huge messy bulk in the middle of the room … I eventually managed to tape all the boxes shut again, but the missing content description caused a lot of trouble afterwards.
Since then he is our “unpacker” … albeit he now prefers to make holes into our packages. It is quicker. Guess he thinks he is paid by piece.
I took this shot today, December 29th, in total darkness. I pushed the RAW file all the way to get what you see above.
I am posting this file here because to me it became the symbol for 2011. I have a dream. And I will have to drill a tunnel through the Alps to hopefully come out at the one perfect spot on the other side. No GPS. No laser. Just by hand and human senses. The chances that this will work out are minimal.
So what? After all I could try again.
Thankfully I am not afraid of the dark.
Just being a bit sentimental …
Guess it is the end-of-year syndrome.
Today I got a nice email, quite appreciative of the little blog-series but also questioning me as to why I chose to photograph the backyard for this.
It is simply that this place – which is not even our backyard, but our neighbour’s – tickles me. As soon as I saw it for the very first time I also took my very first picture of it. In a very strange way it symbolizes something utterly German for me. In a surreal way. And the fact that it is always neat and tidy, but that I have never ever seen anybody there – not even in plein summer heat with 40°C and more, when you would have found me right down there with my feet in the water – just reinforces this strange impression on me. No party, no child, no fish in the pond, no picnic, no one reading a book or newspaper, sunbathing or having a romantic dinner. Nothing. A strange, slightly sore, slightly fake, alien emptyness, with trees like toy soldiers guarding a lifeless pond.
I actually never thought one could squeeze so many pictures out of such a place. But I was actually not even caring about repeats, I would not have minded if they had turned out being all the same. There is no right or wrong in this. Only “outcome”. I was taking this backyard as an anchor to the outside world while I was inside working like a madman. Interesting enough, the different lighting sets, that are possible due to innumerous windows, moon and sunlight, actually gave me more diversity than I had expected. And that in a very short amount of time. Nonetheless, it is more about this strange place functioning as an available anchor, than this being about “my” backyard. But obviously it would not have worked, if it had not been my “backyard”.
13:42
We just caught our butter thieves in flagranti: two magpies!
And I thought they were only looking for bling?
So I took a new piece of butter and tied it to the plate with a thin wire. The little birds can still pick without problem, but no way to steal the whole chunk without having to take the plate with it!
Update:
The magpies were there again, they even worked on the wire and tried to get it off, but without success.
Little birds are happy and I am amazed: never seen anything the like. If these two birds took away the two pounds of butter that disappeared throughout the last days, then I am sure they have enough to get through the winter without any addition to it. I cannot imagine where they stored it, though. I would love to see their nest now – it probably looks like a Matthew Barney adaptation, or something from Beuys.
Might you all have the vision and wisdom to make your dreams be and become true.
20:01
No. Definitively no lights in the trees (yet).
16:56
Getting dark. Still snowing lightly.
Last year they had christmas lights in the 4 trees around the pond – I think they just took the lights off in August.
Maybe they think it is too soon to put them up again?
16:04
Yessss…..!
Finally.
First white Christmas that I remember having since I was a little child.
What is this?! Snow all the time and now, on THE DAY, everything melting?
