A bit too early ?

"Snowbells" in our garden !

The earliest harbingers of Spring.

This year "A Bit Too Early" ?

Competitors in Free Enterprise

I needed (wanted) 12 bananas.

So, I bought 6 from one and 6 from the other !

There was much bartering and bantering.

Two more birds

Mirror, mirror on the floor

black and white, for ever more !

A "Saddle  Bill Storch"  in the tall grass !

Birds of Africa

When I returned from a Safari in Africa, some years ago, I discovered that I had taken pictures of 60 different species of birds. I had not even tried to specifically photograph birds. It just happened that way. I'll show you some of these images. A fraction of the different species flitting around Zimbabwe and Botswana.

The Yellow Billed Hornbill!

A close relation, maybe a brother of the Red Billed Hornbill.

The Hammerkop !

About the size of a little duck, 

it nevertheless builds the largest Nest of any Bird in Africa.

The Pale Chanting Goshawk

The Little Egret

a successful fisher and frogger

Aegyptian Geese

Kingfisher

The Purple Breasted Roller,

one of the most colourful birds in Africa

The Crimson Breasted Shrike

*****************

Here are 10 different birds, 

photographed in Zimbabwe and Botswana.

There are another 50 in my Photo-Gallery,

while many many more escaped my lens.

Don't try to convert Jews.

I think that this is too funny for words:
The Vatican established a Commission which was to investigate the attempts by Catholics to convert members of the Jewish Faith.
This commission has now completed its studies and released a document stating that Christians, in particular Roman Catholics, should stop trying to convert Jews to Catholicism.
"Jews do not need to be converted to Catholicism to find Salvation, since God did not revoke his covenant with Israel." said the Pope.
In other words, Catholics are now ready  to share heaven with members of the Jewish faith.
The question now is: are the Jews ready to share heaven with the Catholics ?
Pope Francis speaks of the deep respect and friendship which exists between Catholics and Jews and adds: A Christian cannot be anti-Semitic. 
If this were so, there would be very few Christians in Austria and Germany, since many Austrians and Germans are deeply anti-Semitic.
Does the silence which came out of the Vatican during the persecution and murder of  millions of Jews during the Nazi regime not just deafen your ears ?

Tailgating

It is a terrible habit. Annoying and dangerous, asking for rear end collisions.
So naturally, the highway administration places warning signs in both German and English.
These signs show two licence plates, totally bent out of shape and the message reads:
"Keep your distance"
It is interesting to note that one of the licence plates is of Austrian and the second of German origin, both showing, besides the Country's letters, "A" and "D" ( for Deutschland ) respectively the circle of stars, denoting the European Union.
This, of course can be seen as just a clever way to bring home the message " do not tailgate",
but one may also remember years gone by, when it might have been appropriate for Austria to have said to Germany :

"Keep Your Distance.". 

(Not that it would have done any good, with the German Army lined up in force on the other side of the Inn river  and Austria in the majority happy and willing to "Keep NO distance )

I am certain that this sign carries no hidden political message and is posted along the highways just to make us slow down a little.

Bertstravels

thinks this sign is funny.

B I R D S OF ALGONQUIN PARK; CANADA

Seagull ready for take-off

Redwinged Blackbird calling a mate !

Red-headed Woodpecker

Northern Oriol

Scarlet Tanager

Tristach - in the Fog

Another mountain

another church

another steeple

another fog enshrouded day.

Am Tristacher See in East Tirol

 Lake Tristach

on a foggy, rainy day

Made a quick visit to Tristach in East Tirol

where my son, Steven and his son David are skiing.

Photographically that's the best I could do !

The 14th day of February

HAPPY  VALENTINE'S  DAY

MAY ALL OF YOU BE HAPPY TODAY AND FOREVER MORE THEREAFTER:

FIRST SNOW

During the night from 12th to 13th February it snowed and snowed and snowed some more.

Last night, at about 11PM the lawn was green !

The Mainsquare of Bleiburg with my car in the foreground.

The View from our balcony.

THE PEACOCK

The Peacock - or -The Milkweed

Blochziagn

It is an old custom in Lower Carinthia. On "Fasching Saturday"
(the last Saturday of the Carnival Season)
a group of local men go from house to house, wherever there lives an unmarried woman, and "sell" her a piece of a log, and play some music and sing.
Each woman, so graced, has to give a monetary contribution and it is suggested that she will find the right man and be married shortly.
No statistics exist regarding the success of this custom.

A number of logs are drawn by a horse.

A short piece ( about 30cm long ) is cut from the log

and "sold" to this unmarried woman.

Well known and prominent male citizens participate 

in this quaint custom, called  "Blochziagn"

(Carinthian Dialect for "pulling the log.")

An Embarrassing Error

I chatted with these Islamic ladies for half an hour before the waiter of the restaurant told me that they were umbrellas.

Bertstravels
wondered why they did not reply to my comments.

JULIAN ASSANGE

was a computer “guru” who became a so-called “hacker”.

A Hacker is a person who breaks into somebody's computer for the purpose of stealing information. He is not much different from the person who breaks into somebody's home for the purpose of stealing things.

After having hacked the computer systems of the U.S. Pentagon, U.S, Department of Defense, Citybank, and sundry other Government Agencies as well as private companies, banks, universities etc. he was arrested by Australian police, charged with a number of offenses, find a minimal amount, and released on a “Good Behavior Bond.”

There followed a period of positive and negative attention paid to Assange and his e-platform “WikiLeaks” from a variety of individuals.

In November of 2010 Assange was accused by Swedish authorities to have, during a visit to their country, committed a number of sex related offenses.

He fled to England and in August of 2012 asked the Ecuadorian embassy for “political asylum”.

(One wonders what is “political” about charges of rape?)

Julian Assange has lived in a room there ever since.

His reluctance to leave the Ecuadorian Embassy seems to be based on his concern of being arrested by British Authorities, being extradited to Sweden, possibly tried for the sex related charges and then being extradited to the U.S.A. where he would face charges of Espionage activities.

Julian, it seems, is slowly getting tired of life in one room in a South American embassy and has applied to the United Nations for a finding on his situation.

In February of 2016 a five member panel, in a 3:2 decision found that Julian Assange has been subject to “arbitrary detention and should be compensated".

British and Swedish prosecutors rejected this finding and, quite frankly, I am at a total loss, how three out of five panel members can possibly come to such a conclusion.

No one is detaining the man in the Embassy. He went there of his own free will and has remained there voluntarily ever since.

If, as he states, he is innocent of all charges, why does he not come out, and rely on the honesty of Swedish prosecutors, who will be unable to convict him. His innocence will be proven in a Court of Law.

I, in fact, do not believe that these Swedish charges are what Julian is really worried about. I think he is more concerned that Sweden will be positively inclined to allow the U.S.A.'s request for extradition to the USA, where he would be tried for Espionage.

Julian, the Hacker, now has a choice: Come out of the narrow protection of Ecuador and face the charges raised against him, be found innocent or guilty, as the evidence or lack thereof may direct,

or he may remain “in Ecuador”, in order to avoid prosecution in Sweden and/or the USA.

The operative word now is “may”. 

He may stay ( as long as Ecuador is willing to host him ), 

or he “may” leave and face the music.

Under no circumstances can he claim, nor should a UN panel have found that he is being

“arbitrarily detained”.

Arbitrary: 1.) uncontrolled or unrestricted by law.

                 2.) capricious, unreasonable, unsupported.

Detention:     keeping a person in custody or confinement.

Neither of these dictionary definitions fit the circumstances of the case.

If hiding from the Authorities can be compared to detention, then every accused person who seeks escape from lawful prosecution could make this same claim.

Al Capone or John Dillinger, both of whom hid for many years from the authorities could have filed a claim for “compensation”.

It staggers my imagination how such a finding could have been arrived at by persons of sound mind.

What do you think ?

Bertstravels

Monica Rathgeber, again...

I had planned to make the previous entry about Monica my very last comment about this issue.
However, some of the suggestions made in one of the daily papers are so unbelievable that I simply must address them.

In all seriousness one columnist actually suggests, that Monica was and is the "Sacrificial Lamb".
That she simply did as she was ordered to do and that she should go free and others ( her superiors)
should be charged.
They, of course, should be charged, but not with Grand Larceny and Forgery, but with failing to properly supervise the activities of their staff.

Does this writer really think that the Minister of Finance, or the Premier of the Province of Salzburg ordered Ms Rathgeber to change an invoice from an arborist, submitted for removal of some trees, amounting to €468.00 to, believe it or not,  €266,468 ?
Does he truly believe that Monika's political and administrative bosses ordered her to forge signatures on almost 100 financial documents which, according to the rules, demanded two signatories affixing their name?

Now the "Conspiracy Theorists" naturally have a field day and it will turn out that in their mind it is everybody's fault, except for Monika Rathgeber, this poor woman who was forced to lie and forge and do her bosses bidding.

And if you believe this, I have a bridge in Brooklyn which I can sell you. Real cheap.....

Bertstravels

Atop the "Koralm" (almost )

No snow whatever in the lower regions.
Not a flake.
So, I decided to drive up the "Koralm" as far as I could safely go.
With no tire chains, no "Four Wheel Drive" I went on my way.
At one point I stopped to take some pictures and could not get the car back into motion, having stopped on an icy patch.
Backing up was also not an easy thing, since I was pretty close to the edge of the road.
Finally, by rocking the car a bit from "reverse" to a low "forward gear" I was able to get moving again. I was not prepared to take any further chances and after having found a wider stretch of this road, I carefully turned around and arrived safely back in the snowless valley.
The pictures I got are worth the pounding of my heart:

The Village of St. Andrae, as seen from half way up the Koralm.

The lower regions are totally devoid of snow, 

with some of the white stuff high up on the opposite hills.

A lonesome farm, just at the edge of the snow.

This is where the going got dicey.

About a hundred meters further up, 

I carefully turned the car around

and breathed a sigh of relief when I got back to bare road conditions.

Monika Rathgeber

Do you remember her ?
She is the lady who was in charge of the administration  of Tax moneys, paid by the Citizens of the Province of Salzburg.
She "invested" large funds in very risky derivatives and other high risk ventures. She made some money for the Province in the beginning, then she started to lose, which forced her, or so she thought, to gamble some more and in larger amounts. She then forged documents, channeled funds intended for the building of apartments and used them to gamble some more, all in the hope of making up the losses incurred previously.
Finally she lost, so it was reported, in excess of 500 million Euros.
All this happened in 2012. She stood accused of Grand Larceny, Forgery and who knows what else.
The trial started and ended yesterday.
Monika Rathgeber made a full confession and received a rather light sentence: 
Four years, but only one unconditional. 
The judge also mentioned that she would be an ideal candidate for a leg shakle.
This apparent light sentence was imposed because Monika did not commit her crime for her own enrichment. She did it, so she said, for the people of the Province of Salzburg.
So, she poorly invested and lost between 350 and 500 million Euros (depending on which paper you read), forged signatures on documents, misdirected funds, so she could gamble some more and she may not serve one day in Jail.
Actually this corresponds closely with my philosophy about "who should be in Jail".
I think that only violent offenders should serve jail sentences. 
Jails are over crowded with inmates whom society needs not fear.
Non-violent offenders should therefore be sentenced to leg shakles, monetary fines, and/or social services. And yet, I consider Ms Rathgeber's punishment a bit on the light side.

Art for Art's Sake !

I seem to be surrounded by talented painters:
Here are samples of a few of them. 
Each of them has worked in a variety of styles. 
Unfortunately I can show only a limited number.
There will be more later.

"Cinque Terre", by Frank Vessio

"The Badlands"

by

Nat Capitanio

"Grey Mare"

by

Nat Capitanio

"The End of the Dialog"

by Franz Brandl + 2013

"The Horsemen of the Apocalypse"

by Karl Brandstätter

by: Burgie 

Self Portrait

by: Dainese

"The Hills near Bleiburg"

by Dainese

"The Apocalyps"

by: Hermann Falke

"Forest Wedding"

Hermann Falke

 Giselbert Hoke  + 2015

During a conversation with Giselbert Hoke, I used the word 'abstract' in relation to his style.

"No, no", he said, "My work is not 'abstract'. To paint in the Abstract one has to have a 'thing'

which you then paint in the Abstract. In my work," he continued, "the painting itself is the Thing."

*********

Bertspix Productions made a DVD presentation show of each of the above artists, except for Frank Vessio and Nat Capitanio.

When next I return to Canada, I will produce such a show

of the work of these two talented Canadian Painters.

Bertstravels

Steeple

The steeple of a little country church in the early morning light .