tadaa: itt az uj haziallatom: Charles, a hoercsoeg

Voila: mein neues Haustier. Stinkt nicht, beisst nicht und laesst sich freiwillig mit Erdbeeren fuettern - (ohne Backentaschen- abszessgefahr!) wenn das mal nichts is! Ich hoffe, dass Nois beste Tina-Freundin die Seite jetzt spannender findet:). Und Schmagges: wenn Du auf Charles klickst & ihn mit der Maus in das Rad schiebst, dann dreht er extra fuer Dich seine Runden in dem fuer Hamsterorthopaeden sicherlich fuer verwerflich befundenen Rad. Remelem, tetszik?

Dead of the week 4 - beetle

This time I found a small, but quite nice looking dead - a beetle which seems to serve as a feast for dozens of little ants.

Habitat: Tucson Botanical Gardens

Cause of death: age or murder

Apache dancer

Originally I wanted to put a video of an Apache boy performing a pow wow dance at this place, but somehow I can't upload videos to this blog. To still give you an impression of the Native American dances, I insert a photo of another Apache who's dancing the eagle dance. Since he was moving really quickly, the picture is a bit wiggly. Another member of his family was singing and playing the drums at the same time.

Mittsommernacht

These firedancers were performing a pretty cool show on the multicultural solistice event that was going on in front of the Arizona State Museum on Saturday night. Some of the dancers (they call themselves "Flam Chen") were walking on stilts and some were on the ground swinging around burning sticks and chains. They were accompanied by a really good Dembe Drum group.

Tucson "ring" meteroite

This is a bronze replicate of a meteroite that hit a place in the Santa Rita mountains a few hundred years ago. Unfortunately nobody knows the exact spot where it fell down; there might probably be more meterorite pieces undetectedly lying around.
The original meteorite can actually be visited at the Smithsonian museum in Washington.

sundial at the planetarium

There's a sundial in front of the Flandrau Science Center's Planetarium - if you step on the actual date (the month and days are marked on a loop in the middle of the sundial) your shadow will point at the actual time. Neat, isn't it?
As you can see I was there at 6:30pm.

Dead of the week 3 - rat

Dieses seltene Exemplar von Wasserleiche habe ich im Reid Park Zoo entdeckt. Selten deshalb, weil Wasser hier ausgesprochen rar ist (naja, das haben Wuesten nun mal so an sich). Ich hoffe, der pietaetvolle Rahmen nicht allzu sehr vom schaurigen Schicksal dieses Individuums als Reptilienfutter ablenkt.
Fundort: Krokodilgehege
vermutete Todesursache: Tierpfleger

flying fruit

Grins :)
Nur gut, dass unsere Nachbarn in Giessen da kulanter waren und ueber fliegende Eier und Aepfel hinweggesehen haben...

Harris's Antelope Ground Squirrel

These agile little squirrels populate the mountains of the Sonoran desert. They are extremly quick, so it's hard to catch them in a motionless position. Isn't it cute though?

notorious "A"

Das ist also das beruehmt-beruechtigte A auf dem "A" mountain. Wer genau damit angefangen hat, weiss ich nicht. Sicher ist nur, dass sowohl Phoenix und Tucson stolze Besitzer eines "A" mountains sind und sich die Studis dieser beiden Uni-Staedte seit jeher ganze Naechte um die Ohren schlagen, um das jeweil feindliche "A" in den Farben IHRER Uni zu streichen. Der Sinn dahinter bleibt mir zwar groesstenteils verborgen, erinnert mich aber dunkel an die bescheuerten Fahnen-Klau-Aktionen auf diversen Naju-Veranstaltungen...

radeldiho

Hier ist exklusiv und einmalig mein frisch getuntes Rad zu bewundern - man beachte die formschoenen einklappbaren Gepaeckkoerbe sowie die nicht wirklich sichtbaren, aber extra haltbaren kaktusstachelresistenten Schlaeuche. Jetzt fehlen nur noch pinke Alufelgen und man koennte meinen, ich haette bei "pimp my ride" mitgemacht.

view of Tucson from the top of "A" mountain

On Saturday I decided to abandon my inner couch potato and mutate to what I would call a real Tucsonian. That means basically you get up in the middle of the night (which is 5 o'clock a.m. in my case), exhaust yourself by riding your bike to the top of the next available mountain and realize that you're by far not the first person who had this great idea. The others are allready heading down while you scramble upwards, sweating and gasping for air. Then, on the top, you sware to yourself that next time you'll get up two hours earlier, because it's allready so hot outside, that even rolling down makes appears to be too heavy exercise. Back at home you drink 3 liters of cold water, take a shower and feel ready to go back to bed again...

you are beautiful

found this on North Campbell Avenue :)

hummingbird babies

Hier sieht man beide Kolibri-Babies. Da das Nest recht weit oben im Baum haengt, konnte ich die Zwerge nicht von oben ablichten. Ausserdem haben sie staendig ihre Schaebel in Richtung meiner Kamera gestreckt; vielleicht in der Hoffnung, dass Futter im Anmarsch ist. Wenn Kolibris aus dem Ei schluepfen, sind ihre Schnaebel noch ganz kurz. Sie wachsen erst im Laufe der naechsten Wochen in die Laenge. Naja, ist eigentlich ziemlich logisch - mit den sperrigen Schnaebeln wuerden sie garantiert nicht in die winzigen Eier (ca. 0,3g) passen. Das Bild ist fuer Dich, Tina!

hummingbird nest

See who's hiding between the branches? It's a tiny little nest (about 3-4 cm in diameter) with 2 hungry little hummingbird babies in it, waiting for their parents to feed them.
Hummingbird nests are actually made out of plant material that's held together with spider webs.

herb garden

And another image of my favorite place in town - the Tucson Botanical Gardens.

Tucson Rodeo

Die Rodeo-Fotoserie soll einen lokalen Bezug zu den im Nebenraum ausgestellten Stierkampf-Radierungen von Goya darstellen.
Habe also diesen ungluecklichen Cowboy gesehen und natuerlich sofort an den einzigen mir bekannten Westernheldenbegeisterten gedacht - howdy, Mr. Barber, das Bild ist fuer Dich!

muzeumi erdoe

Az erdoe mindenuett talalhato - meg a muzeumban is! Ezaltal mar mindjart odahaza erzem magam:)

Dead of the week 2 - bird

I found this dead bird on my way to Reid Park Zoo. I think it is a victim of a car accident, but I don't know for sure. May it rest in peace until some starving raptor grabs it.

Palo Verde

Yesterday I learned that Palo Verde (they're called "verde" because of their bright green bark) trees are not really trees, but bushes. With their green beans they provide food for ground squirrels and a lot of other desert animals. This Palo Verde is located not far from my department.

Hahnemann in Mexico

Na sieh mal einer an - diese Homoeo- pathen scheinen sich wirklich ueberall rumzutreiben! Leider hatte die Apotheke geschlossen, sonst haett ich dem AK doch glatt ein Souvenir mitgebracht. Tod C200 oder so.

La Aldea

That's my current home on the campus - a bit too fancy (and boring) for me, so I'm moving by the end of the month.

no beer on the streets

Warum darf man hier seelenruhig mit ner geladenen Knarre durch die Gegend spazieren, aber noch nicht mal auf ner Bank sitzen und friedlich sein Bier trinken?

butterflies

Saguaros and Yucca

Giant Saguaro cacti grow extremely slow. Their first branch appears when they are around 100 years old. Saguaros and are indigenous only to the Sonoran desert and they are protected by federal law, so you can't just take one from the desert and plant it in your garden.
In addition, many birds use these cacti as well-tempered, safe homes - see the nestsholes in the cactus on the right side of the picture? If you zoom in the 3rd hole from the top of the cactus, you'll recognize a little bird poking out of its nest.

Mexican backyard garden

This is the most colourful place in the gardens - and the one with the most shade.

my favorite bench

Viele der Baenke im Botanischen Garten sind mit bunten Mosaiken verziert - diese hier ist meine Lieblingsbank. Man kann stundenlang da sitzen und beobachten, wie Kolibris Nektar trinken, sich jagen und sogar rueckwaerts fliegen. Das sind doch wahrhaft paradiesische Zustaende!

Desert Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus magister)

It's seeking the shade, just like me!

bench & cacti

The Tucson Botanical gardens are a great place for bird-, reptile- and plantlovers. I've been there several times and couldn't get enough of the hummingbirds, cardinals, quails, lizards and of course the cacti. The only disadvantage is the weather - I think I'll never ride my bike to that place at 1pm again. It feels like being scalped alive by the sun...

Dead of the week 1 - squirrel

Niemand kuemmert sich sich um all die tollen toten Tiere auf der Strasse. Mit der "Leiche der Woche" will ich diese gravierende Luecke schliessen. In Gedenken an meine Mitbewohner im Unterhof, die mir (aus recht fragwuerdigen Gruenden, finde ich) die voruebergehende Lagerung eines Prachtexemplars von ueberfahrenem Baummarder im Kuehlschrank verweigert haben.

round-tailed ground squirrels

There are probably hundreds of ground squirrels living in Reid Park. These young fellows were curious enough to leave their safe burrow to see who's lurking around their home. After a while, a third youngster came out, but then their mother took a quick look at me and decided that I might be dangerous. She called her kids in a high-pitched wheeze and suddenly all of them disappeared in the hole.