Days 23 - 29: The Big Hairy Beast vs. the offspring of Shelob & Aragog

Well no blogs this past week, mainly due to the amount of time it takes to get everything done. I'm trying this weekly format to sum up the photos I've done. Let me know if you really can't live without my inane ramblings on a daily basis ;-)

Last saturday I was feeling under the weather, having caught Siegrid's flu. Now she might not have taken it seriously, but I'm a man - and that meant MANFLU!!!! Luckily I had the Big Hairy Beast (or the big hairy hot water bottle - more of whom below) lying on me as I watched the football in the afternoon so I didn't have to get up to take my photo :D

 

The Big Hairy Beast (Ginny), after a hard day's work

The Big Hairy Beast does come in extremely useful in other ways too. Living in the country, she delights in dragging all sorts of animals home which, more often than not, the head of which I am given as a trophy. This kind of behaviour doesn't always meet Siegrid's approval. The rat's head before christmas was particularly bloody, the wild hare she dragged through the house was rather messy (it wasn't even in season! tut tut!) and the various detached mice heads left in a ritual manner outside the front door are just freaky.
The Big Hairy Beast topped all of her previous behaviour this week. Not once, but twice. She saved Siegrid from certain mutilation at the hands, or limbs, of the arachnid offspring of Shelob and Aragog. Now, I didn't see this spider alive myself, but according to Siegrid it was biiiiiiiiiiig. Big big:

An artist's impression of the size of the spider according to eyewitness accounts (to scale)

The Big Hairy Beast responded to the 1st attack by the Spider on Siegrid by bravely fighting it off, forcing it to hide (though how something that big can hide in our house I don't know). When it sneakily reappeared hours later, Ginny stepped in again. This battle of beasts will become the stuff of legend. Already Hollywood Moguls have comissioned a remake of "Clash of the Titans" in its honour. The Big Hairy Beast triumphed. As I strolled into the lounge to be greeted by the sight of Siegrid (stood on a chair just like in a Tom & Jerry cartoon) screaming while Ginny batted the spider all around the lounge, I wondered what the all the fuss was about, it looked tiny to me. BUT I didn't know that when giant spiders die, they shrink back to a normal size. Now that is something that J. K. Rowling got wrong, and thanks to Siegrid for pointing that out to me.

Anyhoo, a selection of other snaps from this week, the sharper-eyed amongst might notice the general snowy theme:

Thanks for stopping by...

Day 22: The way to a boy's heart is....

with PIZZA! Poor Siegrid is recuperating on the couch after a nasty bout of flu (buried under a pile of knitting watching sit coms AND moaning about how guilty she feels for doing it! Good luck to her I say...). What better way for me to practise my culinary skills than by picking up the phone and calling the local Pizzeria?

What did Ewan think of the idea?

"Pizza? Oh daddy, how did you know?"

One down, one to go. Surely Denis isn't as easy to please?

Actually, yes.

So, one megafeast later, we're all settling down around Siegrid to watch a film. Have a nice weekend everyone!

Day 21: Fool's Gold

One of Denis's hobbies (and believe me, he has many) is collecting crystals, fossils and "cool" rocks. Whenever the River Salzach gets low enough, we spend hours turning over stones, and we always end up with a bag bulging full of almost identical rocks. Not identical to the boys though, oh no. Each and every rock will have a definite and valid reason why it has to be brought home with us. I'm just happy that we don't live next door to a crystal mine, otherwise we'd be putting in shifts like the seven dwarves in 'Snow White'.

Last week Denis did visit some crystal caves however, and brought us a few beauties back...

A prize to the first person to name all of the above crystals and minerals ;)

Day 20: Rodents of the Lost Ark

Bah, today's trip to the gym robbed me of valuable time again, so what better way to rush a post reintroduce Nippy than with a sequel? Nippy's house is a Pirate Ship,

which she doesn't venture out of too often. That might be because the big hairy beast (Ginny the Cat) is often sitting on the other side of the glass, wishing she had opposable digits in order to open the cage.
Today Nippy scaled the mast of the ship for the 1st time, making it to the Crow's nest. Bravo Nippy.

In other bizarre news, the boys have been playing Lego Star Wars this week, and yesterday got stuck on a level. Ewan dreamt about how to solve the problem overnight and woke up this morning telling us all about it. The weird thing is, he was right! The force is strong in this one :D

Day 19: Boyz n the Wood

The woods can be a dangerous place to be, especially with playas like these guys guarding their turf. Tru dat.

Anyway, now I've got that ridiculous pun out of my system, today's photo was not that one, but the one below. Many thanks to the lads for their posing - I wonder how many photos they will have posed for before this year is out?

Our local woods are a wonderful place for a walk, but we did have to beat a hasty retreat once we heard the growling of a Gruffalo in the undergrowth. Just don't tell Ewan there's no such thing :D

A special mention has to go to Siegrid's photos of Ewan, which are exceptional  - check them out

Day 18: Nippy Cain and the Hamster Labyrinth of DOOM™...

Today I had to stay at home with Ewan who was feeling poorly, as Siegrid had to drive across Austria to where Denis had an appointment. It's not as easy to get Ewan enthuasiastic about a project as Denis, and he was feeling pretty rotten, so I felt we needed something special to do to alleviate those sick day blues. That special something was the "Hamster Labyrinth of DOOM™".

The Hamster Labyrinth of DOOM™

Built using every single surviving piece of Lego Duplo that we own, this magnificent labyrinth was designed to give Ewan's hamster Nippy a nice change of scenery. Nippy's task was to enter the maze through the white door (bottom right), and make her way to the air traffic control tower (transparent part under the blue crane arm). It took quite a while to get the sides high enough so that Nippy couldn't cheat, but our engineering triumphed!!

An engineer, today.

 We then had to wait several hours for the furbag to wake up, which gave Siegrid & Denis enough time to make it back home for the exciting finale.

The wee beastie enters the arena

Nippy proved to be a hamster of excellent intelligence, trying every possible exit route before making her way through the various perils to snatch the treasure from the very heart of the Hamster Labyrinth of DOOM™.

victori spolia: To the victor the spoils

Back to work tomorrow, we don't have any Lego to play with there :(

p.s. for all you photo geeks, all today's photos SOOC, with minor cropping to the last two...

Day 17: We got game

Outside is miserable, ice rain has made any outdoor activites impossible. So what better than a roaring fire, home-made scones and a round of our favourite board game "Carcasonne"?

For the record, Siegrid and her economic advisor won:

The powers of Mordor consider their next move

Denis was 2nd and I came last :(

Day 16: Toboggan or not toboggan, that is the question

Or at least it was after hurling myself down a large mountain on a flimsy piece of wood last night. Winter sports are not the safest pastimes anyway, but combined with the German love for good food and Schnapps, yesterday I really found myself asking "Why am I doing this?" as my fragile bag of meat and bones sailed ever closer past giant, granite-like fir trees.

As always, my plans for taking photos were thwarted :(
I only took my Lumix snapshot camera with me, as I've heard the Canon EOS series is very sensitive to high-speed crashes. As soon as the tractor started pulling us up the mountain though, the batteries of the camera drained from full to empty in about 10 seconds. Well, it was cold, but that was very disappointing. Surprisingly, the pub at the top of the mountain didn't sell fresh batteries, so I had to purchase copious amounts of alcohol instead which, in turn, rather influenced my steering skills. So I'm afraid the shots I anticipated taking were not to be...

Still, enjoy today's (well yesterday's really) photo...

and a bonus mountain shot :D

Day 15: Clash of the Titans / Appetite for Construction

Robot tragedy struck today in the Cain household. It came completely out of the blue....


Alpha Rex was standing guard outside the house, always watchful for dangerous intruders. The air was still, too still.

The snow, blinding his ultra sonic sensors, helped to provide camouflage for the attacker that Rex never realised was approaching until it was too late:

"Roooarrr"

Yes, the dreaded Roboraptor was upon us. Presumably after our stores of robot chickens, this robot dinosaur was determined to get in. The hour of Rex's last stand had come, man to man robot to robot, toe to toe, a fight to the death.


Obviously I don't want to show the graphic images. Oil was spilt, the snow was scattered with bricks and plastic. Alpha Rex saved the Cains but sacrificed his life in the process. Alpha Rex, we salute you...

Alpha Rex, 10.01.2010 - 15.01.2010, a brave robot.

Now, with Rex gone, we obviously have to get on with our lives. Therefore Denis and I have started project R2D2. Our prototype can be seen hanging out with some pals below:

Bet you can't guess which R2D2 is which can you? Thought not!

Day 14: Happiness is a warm lunch

Today is Thursday, or as the Germans like to call it, Donnerstag ("Thunder day"). Not in our office though, for us Donnerstag is Dönerstag, the day on which we encamp en masse to the local Döner Kebab restaurant for our weekly fix of cholesterol and chili. This picture is a little selection of the various chili sauces and pastes that we took with us today, the majority of which are powerful enough to send a dragon rushing for breath mints.

I can proudly say that at least 4 of those sauces (the hottest ones naturally) were liberally applied to my food, the result of which had me running outside of the restaurant to rub snow onto my steaming head :D

Now the picture was just a snapshot taken with the office camera, but just LOOK at that beautiful presentation ;)

And talking of spicy hot, check out scorching Siegrid's latest work here...

Day 13: Catwalk models

Another day, another dollar, another evening of poor lighting. Luckily our cat Findus was feeling particularly photogenic today. Once Ewan was finished with his photo shoot (how long before he starts his blog I wonder?) I was able to take a few snaps myself.

Ewan's photoshoot...

And the star of the show:

Today was the first day in the gym this year - myself and a few colleagues made a pact at the xmas do. Of the original 10 on the list, 4 turned up (life's just too predictable sometimes). I therefore predict that the quality of my photography tomorrow will be directly influenced by the level of muscle ache I will be suffering. Don't be surprised if I can only manage a shaky blur (or more of a shaky blur than normal).

Have a nice evening!

Day 12: Band of Brothers

Well, there was nothing going on in this household today, nothing APART FROM ROCK!!!!!!!!!

 

 

The lads were rocking out while I was on the sidelines waiting to have a go. No luck there though :(
Ewan's the drummer and Denis plays guitar. I think I might learn bass and that leaves Siegrid on vocals - god help us all (just joking!).
David Bowie's "Let's Dance" seems to be the favourite song at the moment, but the choice of songs isn't that great. Hopefully, Beatles Rock Band will arrive soon - let's see the boys try and get the controller out of my hands then.

Day 11: Heroes

There was very little time for photos again today - I know I moan a lot about this but with working, sledging, shopping and the delivery of BAND HERO, it really was a busy day. Therefore I borrowed Ewan's christmas present - his Vtech camera - to provide the photo of the day. Now, it may not be my best photo, but at least I can play ABC by the Jackson 5 perfectly now :D

This is one of Ewan's efforts - there really is no end to the talent in this family ;)

Days 8-10: Siegrid service

Due to my "Beschäftigung" at the weekend I made a pact with wifey - namely that I would take photos of her which she might be able to use on her site, and that the best 3 could be used for these last 3 days. Although this does feel like a bit of a cheat, I have at least managed to take some photos which even Siegrid approves of (no mean feat, she isn't always keen to be on the other side of the lens).

I therefore present my gorgeous wife...

Stunning I'm sure you all agree - so please leave a comment to let us know which you think Siegrid should use...

Siegrid's photo of the day can be found here

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

p.s. Avatar was excellent - get yourself to the next 3D cinema immediately if you haven't seen it yet

UPDATE: I have neglected to mention that all of the fabulous knitwear, modelled here so well, was also made by the fair hands of Siegrid :D

Day 7: Take another little pizza my heart

Just got back from a family birthday gathering. This particular cousin has the best party food ever - make your own pizza. Mmmmmmmm, Pizza....

Sorry, got sidetracked there. Anyway, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and my boys love making their own pizza. Naturally the blissful peace at the table while all the kids tucked in gave me a chance to take some shots. Again I was stuck with indoor lighting which gave everything a weird orange look, so it was the perfect opportunity to try some black & white. This was my favourite 'cos Ewan's such a little cutey:

I have a very busy weekend coming up, finishing off the renovation of the electrics in the various buildings around the house - so don't be surprised if the next days' photos are of recycling or an electrician. I am also going to see Avatar tomorrow, so it might be a giant blue 3D electrician if the mood takes me :)

Don't forget to check out what Siegrid's been up to today, bye for now.

Day 6: Some like it Hoth

Okay, today's photo was a no brainer. Siegrid was out on a photo shoot and I was at home with the boys. A quick vote meant that we were all in favour of one topic for today.

The Phantom Denis & Ewan McGregor....

A big thank you to the boys for putting up with the cold for all of 45 seconds before we had to run back in again. It's amazing what you don't see when you take a photo - for example I had no idea Ewan had put a hat on. He then asked me to remove it in Photoshop but that's beyond my talents right now. Originally Denis wanted skin like Samuel L. Jackson (Mace Windu) and Ewan wanted to be green like Yoda. Although I can manage to give them the correctly coloured light sabres the skin changes were a bridge too far. Maybe this time next year...

Unfortunately I'm back at work tomorrow so it's back to the dark side for my photos :(

Day 5: Baby it's cold outside

Brrr. I came home to an empty house today. A cold, draughty, empty house. Unfortunately our house is old and has no central heating system, which means that a roaring fire is a winter must-have. Ever the practical man, I killed 2 birds with one stone by practising with the camera whilst the fire got going. I'm beginning to get the hang of the different settings - and I'm very proud of myself for not using any automatic or default settings yet!

Tomorrow is a bank holiday in Austria & Germany, so I'll have the daylight hours at my disposal - all I need now is an idea. I must admit it was one of the best decisions of my life to live over here, you're never far away from the next public holiday :D

Siegrid has now returned from her day trip - she spent all day at a huge indoor playground with the boys, so I'm curious about what photo she's going to post...

Day 4: The unbearable lightness of Gumpling

Today was a rude awakening - the big flaw in the plan. While I leave the house at 6 in the morning to go to work, my darling wife saunters out of bed some hours later and then spends quality time in daylight hours carefully crafting a picture. I, on the other hand, come home from work to be greeted by dusk and 11w of energy saving light bulb power.

Therefore today's efforts reflect this imbalance - Siegrid's photo shows beautiful rays of light sweeping across the lounge floor, and my brave attempt required cardiopulmonary resuscitation in photoshop to make it worthy of even my humble blog. Hmmmm, I think I might hide Siegrid's camera tomorrow morning while she sleeps...

Today's photo then. My two boys in their favourite world - Planet Lego. Enjoy, and I promise to come up with something lighter tomorrow.

Days 1-3

Well there's always a problem to start with. Siegrid inconveniently chose the 3rd of January to start this challenge, leaving me 3 photos short at the start. However my crazy skills soon overcame that problem and one photoshoot later (my mood not helped by Manchester United losing beforehand), I have selected photos to represent days 1 to 3.



Day 1
This first one is very representative of the dynamics of our 2 boys. In the foreground Ewan is having a minor paddy, and in the background Denis is in the middle of an engineering project (building a ramp for sledging over).



Day 2
This was the dramatic sunset that really did all the work for me - all that was left for me to do was fiddle hopefully with the camera trying to discover how to get the most out of it. I like this one most -the lens flare would make J.J.Abrams weep...



Day 3
Once Ewan cheered up again I managed this shot of him having a break, the sunset reflecting off the flask.



It was a learning curve today, and I wouldn't expect to see any of my photos on the cover of National Geographic yet, but I reckon by the June edition they'll be ringing me...

Thanks for stopping by!