Happy Halloween!

Ahem.

This is what to give to your co-workers when you were too busy contemplating what to give to them for Halloween until - out of a sudden (as usual) - October 31st comes along...

Took less than a minute to prepare and made them smile, nevertheless ;-P

North Sea

We went to the North Sea for a short trip.
On our way, we visited our parents (and on the way back home, my dear Granny).
The days were loaded with occurances and impressions, and now that the holidays are over, my poor brain is left to sort out all of this...
(in addition to what I'm chewing over anyway)

Anyway, to be at the sea was wonderful. I so love the sea...
It is dearer to me than the mountains. Mountains are majestic, yes. Impressive. Monumental.
But static.
But the sea is always in motion, glittering friendly in the sun. And yet, we know that it can be a cruel, murderous force of nature.

A problem when taking a trip to the North Sea is the tide. Actually, high tide is approximately every 12 hours. But when you're not lucky, there is no sea to see (pun intended)...

We were lucky.
We travelled to the isle of Langeoog, and it had been high tide before that, so that the tide went out while we were there, resulting in the fact, that the beach became broader and broader. The sea is so shallow at most places that the tide going out leaves hundreds of metres of sand, where there was water some hours before. But don't be fooled! The rising tide might cut you from dry land when you try to walk too far!

The beach would be getting broader. But it's also very, very long (Langeoog stretches for 14 kilometres; the North of which is sandy).

Ah!, to see the sea again!

...and the gulls...

...and the sea and the shells making silly patterns when the sea leaves the shore...

Talking about patterns...

What would a walk on the beach be without looking for shells, stones and stuff...?

Look at the delicate form of the seaweed!

I wondered what this was:

Apparently, it was the carcass of a crab. We found some of these at Langeoog. They're very brittle, fragile. They resemble the skeletons of sea urchins with their tiny little holes and dots.
How beautiful!
But nothing to cary home with us, as we had nothing to put it into to be transported safely.

Okay, now, I cheated with the last pic. That one was taken on the evening before we went to Langeoog ;-)

We were also in Bremen and Oldenburg.
But I'll leave it to another day to show you my pictures of Bremen.

ATC

Hey there!
It's been long since I posted here...
A long time when I focused on my personal problems, or rather on staying sane anyway.

At last, three days ago, I experienced a creative overflow, which hadn't happened for quite some time. Way back when, I used to have a lot of ideas and had to put them down in a book to remember later - when I thought I might have time. Not that I really ever get to do all those things...
But on Monday, I couldn't find sleep and had to get up and really DO SOMETHING.
Which led me to create my first ever ATC.
And I'm quite pleased with what it turned out like - although the theme of the text somehow seems quite strange to me (does it want to tell me something, or what?).


I started with a sheet of paper from my sketch block. For some reason, I wanted to know if it where possible to paint with curry and dried paprika pepper powder, both being colorful and hard to remove if clothes are stained with it.
So I took some of the powder and mixed it with a drop or two of water and applied it to the paper with my forefinger, smearing and rubbing. This is what created the orange background. Nice colors, I wonder if they will fade...
Then, as you might have guessed, I took a TV programme and cut out the duck photos; the words were taken from a brochure my health insurance company sent me.
The text translates "The brain sounds an alarm."

Go figure.