Month: June 2018

Weiz, Kulm and a nice dinner

Andy rode the train with Leilani to Weiz, and walked around for a while.



I joined him 2 hours later for a tour of the Weizbergkirche, and especially the herbgarden next to it.




Not many photos of the herbs turned out, afterwards we looked at the inside and outside of the church.




Afterwards we drove up the Kulm, and hiked a bit near the peak…


…and looked at the house my grandpa Franz build, where my family and I spent many weekends and summer-weeks.

Later we visited Barbara Falk, a sheep farmer in Illensdorf. I always buy my socks there, and we got wool for Leilani to felt, got a garden-tour and lots of samples, rasberries, cucumbers, peppers…
At home Mutti and I cooked 3 mushroom dishes and Kaeferbohnensalat – scarlet runner bean salad with pumpkin seed oil dressing.

I wanted to photograph the food from the top, but then decided to photograph Leilani instead, who obviously was very hugry and did not want to wait…

Sulzberg

We went to the “Aussichtsturm” in Kleeberg, which for once was open. Good exercise and good views. Andy had forgotten his camera, and did the stairs twice, and got a good photo. The 3 little dots are Oma, Leilani and I, and in full resolution even recognizable. Gerd was too far back to see.




Afterwards we went mushroom picking nearby




Graz

After Andy and I dropped off the sparrow at “Wildtiere in Not” we took 2 hours in Graz
We assume this is the Hilmteich, at least the part of Graz it is in is called Hilmteich, “Teich” meaning a small lake

Later we walked a bit in the Leechwald, and learned 25% of Graz are covered by forest. Much of it was closed though, after recent storms uprooted trees and made it unsafe.

We went to the nearby pigrimage church Mariatrost

It was beautiful inside, but someone was tuning the high notes of a harpsichord and it was unbearable

So we walked around for a while, hoping it would stop

Andy liked the Kirchenwirt (church tavern) but we did not go in


We tried once more, this time he was practicing, mainly the dissonant parts of the Messiah (which we knew because we had read there was going to be concert there the next day of Haendel’s Messiah), so we left soon.

Our Sparow

For less than 24 hours I had a young sparrow. First one cat caught him in the morning, we set him free and then the other cat got him around 4pm, this time after I freed him he was a bit dazed and did not really hop around happily anymore. So I went back and caught him again 10 minutes later. It was way too easy and I thought he was probably injured. He sat on my hand for a while my mom got a cage, but he did not want to leave my hand when I tried sticking him in. 1/2 hour later the bird perked up and ate crumbled up birdfood and drank water drops from my finger. He tried to fly once or twice but was not very successful at landing. Without hesitation he let me pick him up again, and hoped on my shoulder, wanting to eat every 15 minutes or so. He let me know he needed something by nibbling on my finger, alternating between my head, hand and shoulder and occasionally my arm. Leilani and Andy got to feed him too, and Leilani found better way to give him water.

After 4 hours we put him in his cage and darkened it, and it slept there, until I woke him up at 5:30 to feed him before Leilani had to start to get ready for school around 6am.

When I went to take a shower (after sending Leilani off around 7am to the train) I “loaned” the bird to Andy.

He did not stay right on his head for long, but close by and watched Andy perched on the computer. You can see a small wound on his chest on this picture.

As soon as I was back, even while my hair was wet he liked sitting on my head.

I researched their food, and was very sad to learn that the chances of successfully raising a bitten songbird were extremely low because of cat bite infections, and the bird definitely had small bites on the chest. The good news were that the wildlife rescue organization “Wildtiere in Not” takes birds like this and raises them and in most cases is able to set them free. With a heavy heart we brought the bird to the station in Graz, I tried to cover the bird with a handkerchief-tent in the car, but he kept pinching me harder and harder until I gave in and let him sit on my shoulder. He looked out the window intently, climbed down once to eat a few flakes and a dried mealworm, and only got panicky when we got out the car, I had to put him in a cage to turn him over. I was very sad to let him go, even though it was the right thing for us and the bird. The staff separated us way to fast, and to them it’s total routine, they treated his injuries right away and put him in the cage with another young sparrow. I’ll go visit him in 2 days or so.