Sir David on Kiwi's

For my graduation my parents gave me something I've wanted for years: the complete Life Collection by David Attenborough. Over seventy-two hours of Sir David's soothing voice, telling us all about the wonders of nature. And even the box is pretty.

I've watched all episodes of Life of Birds by now and it really is a wonderful series. The BBC happens to have put all the episodes on Youtube as well, so I can share some of my favorite parts!

I love this bit about the kiwi. Because you can't see its wings and tail it has a very peculiar shape for a bird and it moves in such an odd, but quite elegant way too.
I also saw a bit of Attenborough: 60 Years in the Wild where he discusses the advance of wildlife filming techniques. He also talked about the filming of the kiwi. He was a bit worried that the kiwi would be disturbed by his presence, but since kiwis rely mainly on their sense of smell and David was lying in heaps of rotting seaweed it didn't even seem to notice him! He could also hear the little noises of the kiwi clearing his nostrils every time. Oh, I wish I could have been there...

Garden visitors

Since the snow came last tuesday we've had a lot of birds visit our feeder in the backyard. I have a perfect view of all the little (and larger) visitors from the living room window, and I just love hanging on the couch, watching the tiny blue tits, the slightly larger great tits, the (in comparison) enormous wood pidgeons, the squabbling starlings, the occasional robin, and even -as I was just staring absentmindedly out of the window- a great spotted woodpecker!

These little balls of energy and feathers move so fast I only got two good shots out of fourteen!

Contemplating pidgeon...

There's some bread on the table, but apparently quite a bit of snow to plow through before getting there!

With the ruffled feathers, I think this one's a juvenile. It disappeared as soon as the other pidgeon flew away too.

A starling sitting quietly by itself for once.

And this beautiful bird! I think I might have gasped when I saw him...

A lot

You know those times when nothing much is going on, and then suddenly everything seems to happen at once?
Well, I do. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty boring, with just school stuff. Then Thursday I went to Artis, the Zoo in Amsterdam (get ready for lots and lots of cute baby animal pictures!), Friday was my last day of school for my second year (woohoo!) and I was told for the first time that my presentation was the best one (okay, so there were only three other groups, but still! I really detest public speaking, so this is quite a victory for me!). Saturday I went to a circus themed party and I got my boyfriend to dance with me (another pretty big victory) and Sunday I went to an opera and yesterday I started on two new notebooks.
So now it's picture time :)

I just had to take a picture of this owl slide to share :) I used to play in this when I was little, but now I probably won't even fit through the hole anymore :P

I had no idea elephants could look fragile, but this little baby does! Her name is Mumba and she was only twelve days old when I saw her! You can watch her birth and first steps here. It's not that gross, but the elephants are screaming all the time, so you might want to turn the sound off...

I think turtletongues are pretty gross but also quite intriguing... They're just so large...

Seriously, what is better then a miniature lemur? I can't think of anything...

Well, maybe a yawning teethless baby lemur... :)

I don't now what it is, but this picure is really funny to me :)

The red ruffed lemurs in Artis are on an island, where you can get really close to them! Though this also makes it very difficult for me not to pet them... 

Just look at those tiny fingernails! And the tip of his tongue that is poking out :)

The little one was in sunbathing position right before I took this picture, but he fell over... Poor little thing :)

It was also the first time in six years that a lion cub had been born! It kept making these cute mewing noises when his mother got too far away :)

And a baby sea lion! I guess it was really tired though, it was just lying there all the time...

His family was really enjoying themselves though!

The male loves to swim really close to the glass with this smug look in his face :)

I really love the elegance of these creatures. Double backwards summersoult? No problem!

You can just see the little head of the baby gorilla on the right arm of his mother :)

And last but not least: a tiny peacock!

I hope you aren't too dazzled by this picture overload :) I'll be back soon with some pictures of my new notebooks!

Total(ly invisible) eclipse

Yesterday, my parents and I drove out to a high point to watch the lunar eclipse that was going on.

It was supposed to look something like this

{Photograph by Harry Kikstra of ExposedPlanet, a really beautiful photoblog!} 

or like this.

But instead it looked like this

Stupid Dutch clouds... I was really excited about this! Well, at least the next one isn't so far away... Only four years to wait! And I shot some nice pictures of the sunset :)

On top of my disappointment, the stupid clouds decided to turn into rain today, while I had to spent the whole day outside to count plants. (You may ask me why someone would bother to do that, but you'd better be prepared for a long and boring response)

So I'm feeling a bit pitiable today...

But I've got some good news too! A friend from my class asked me to make two notebooks for her! My very first buyer! Yay :)

I hope it isn't raining where you live :)

Two day holiday: Part 3

This will be the final part describing my two day holiday. You can also read the first and second part!

We had a very nice breakfast at the hotel, with smoked salmon again :) I really love that stuff! When we had eaten enough, we went to the Dutch Open Air Museum. It's a really large area, where they have rebuilt houses, farms and shops of the last two hundered years to "bring the past to life". At first we were both quite excited about it all, but in a while I became more interested in the flowers and animals that were around.

This bee was way too small for the flower! He kept tripping over the stamens :P

This pig was actually rolling around in the mud! How cliché...

This chicken was very suspicious of my camera...

This is one of the most beautiful carrousels I've ever seen! I would have loved to have a ride in that swan if I wouldn't have driven the average age up so much...

This little guy looked like he was smiling in his sleep :)

And this one had a really sheepish smirk :P

This must be the weirdest chicken I've ever seen... My father didn't even recognize it as a chicken when I first showed him the picture! It is actually a traditional Dutch chicken breed, so I guess I must be proud or something...

Though we got bored quite quickly with this place, we found out we had walked around for nearly three hours! We went to the next place quickly, but I'm a sucker for museum shops, so we had a look around there, and they sold a journal by boygirlparty! I think that's pretty cool :)

Next, we went to National Park the Hoge Veluwe, which is one of the largest nature reserves in the Netherlands. On the way there we came across a building site and in the enclosure around it were small holes so you could look at what they were doing. They weren't doing anything actually, but someone very genius had put this sticker next to a hole :)

At the park they have free bikes at every entrance, so you can cycle through the park. So of course we did that! It was lovely to cycle through the woods, underneath te trees and to stop at all the nice sites. We parked our bikes under a tree once, and wandered into the woods. It was really beautiful and quiet :)

When we cycled further, we saw a sign that said "observation post" so we went in that direction. When we entered it, we immediately saw a group of deer! The longer we stayed, the more there came and in the end there were seven adults and a little one!

You can click on the pictures to see them larger!

You can see the little one in the middle on this picture!

I could have stayed there for hours, just watching the deer move around. One time the little fawn lay down and you could only see his ears twitching above the grass sometimes. It was so cute :)

I was really sad to leave, but we still had to cycle back to the entrance, take two buses to the city, find some food and take the train back home. I had a really wonderful time though and I can't wait for the summer holiday to begin so we can go deer spotting again :)

This post must be the longest I've ever written! I hope you enjoyed it :)