"Aich Dob" - Bleiburg's Volleyball Heroes

congratulations about a point well played.

Not much to say, but a lot to look at !

Computer down

For two days I was without access to the internet.
What a catastrophe!
No "Google" " No e-mail" no "Facebook"
It seemed as if the world had closed down and hung a sign on its front door saying:
"Closed today... Come back tomorrow".

Luckily, Bertstravels has other things for its amusement.

Aich Dob wins another one

Aich-Dob

is a small village of not more than 50 or 60 houses. In 1983 it was smaller still.

At that time, however, a young man from Vienna married a young woman from Aich Dob, moved there and, because he had played Volleyball in Vienna, started to play this game with some of the local kids on the meadow of a neighbour.

Out of these humble beginnings came the team of today who consistently play in the top standings of the Austrian- as well as the "Central European League."

Last night, SKAD, played against the perennial champion of  Croatia and,

Aich Dob won 3 games to 1

Your intrepid photographer was there and shot these "breathtaking" photos.

Aich Dob in the yellow/blue strip, played poorly in the first game and lost it 21-25.

Then they seemed to wake up and won the next three games.

Larches

Larches

introduce a wonderful golden-brown color

into an evergreen forest

Water Lily fronds and John Hunt Nolan

After a short sprinkling of rain 

in the Hailstorm Creek Marsh, Algonquin Park, Ontario, Canada.

 Relaxing in the Marsh. My good friend, John Hunt Nolan, having a bite of a sandwich.

Are they putting us on ?

I recently went to an exhibition of paintings by a local painter.

I wish I could show you some of them here.

Let me attempt a short description of one of them, which gives you an idea of what all the rest were like:

A white canvass, in the middle thereof an irregular black square, several dabs of reddish brush strokes in the center of the black square.

Simply something which just about anyone could have produced by splashing a little paint around.

On the elaborately produced invitation was, beside the time and place, the text, here translated into English-

“The Artist Painter sees and feels colors as the messengers of spiritual dimensions, which imbues his work with a deeply lyrical and spiritual mood, permeated by a sensitive silence.

His openhearted reflections are founded on a sensitive spot light and minimalist transitions of nuances in an ascetic fullness of various shadings of white.

He uses a Collage Technique in which he applies many thin, semi translucent layers, covering the entire spectrum of feelings, inclusive those of a meditative and erotic nature.”

The people visiting this “Vernissage” stood, with an awe-struck look upon their faces, discussing the merits of these works with earnest expressions.

I just stand there, feeling that I should exclaim in a loud voice:

But the Emperor is naked.

Bertstravels

just is no art expert

African Waterlily

All along the Kafupe River in Zambia, these water lilies with their serrated fronds  crowd the shore line.