Summer Vacation, Day 3: New Romney
From Orcq we drove 140 km to Calais, took the ferry to Dover, 1 hour and 40 minutes across the Channel, and continued 40 km to New Romney.
Summer Vacation, Day 2: Tournai
From Baarlo we moved on to Orcq, a village just west of Tournai in Belgium, 260 km in three hours with two breaks along the way. Tomorrow it’s only about 130 km to Calais, the ferry is at 12pm and we’ve got the flex ticket - we can board any ferry within a few hours before and after our booked departure time.
Summer Vacation, Day 1: Venlo
We finished packing the California this morning without any rush, we are traveling light; no big awning tent to assemble, no bikes, no roof box, just the pop-up tent that is with us again.
Woodpecker
I spotted a woodpecker couple roaming around my favorite tree outside of the village, the same place I photographed the young kestrel. I sneaked up behind a bush and held still for a few minutes until the male woodpecker landed 3m in front of me. Shots like this make up for weeks of dissatisfaction with my own photos.
Sparrows
Work is occupying much of my time. The morning walks are getting shorter, I met this Sparrow on one of them. Vacation is approaching fast and coincidentally the ROSE came back from repair. The experience with the local bike shop in Leipzig and the bike being sent to the ROSE HQ to get fixed went very smooth, all within warranty, but I haven’t had the chance to take it out yet - August at the earliest.
Bowl
Nadine did this delicious Asian-style bowl. She didn’t like it as much as I did, so when I said I love all of it, her reaction was rather skeptical. But I meant it! It contained a half-boiled egg from our hens, we wouldn’t otherwise eat eggs.
Flight
First time I managed to take a picture of a flying barn swallow, not decent but it’s a first! It’s been a challenge keeping up with daily posts, in the background work occupies a lot of time, mentally I am thinking about the road trip we are going to do starting next week. We’ll be visiting South England with a surprise stop at Jasper’s. I’ve been getting version 1.15 of Hypo ready, with real user feedback included, after it took off a bit when I posted to a Threads community.
Dive
Nadine did some great shots after the meadows have been mowed down in front of our garden. It attracts swallows, starlings, red and black kites, storks, to catch the rodents that have been surprised by the chaos of the tractor mowing it all down.
Spring Stone
After two days, and in the end two extra pairs of hands, to get the 300kg spring stone into place along with its water inlet and pump, countless trips to the hardware store, concrete, pipes and hoses later, everything is finally in place. I’m glad software development isn’t as hard as this.