A glance into the Mezquita-Catedral of Córdoba

Oh Tannebaum, oh Tannebaum ....

Dieses Jahr hat Lara beim schmücken des Baumes geholfen,  Spielzeug und Kugeln fleißig angehangen. Stachelig und fragil steht er jetzt da und leuchtet Papa Noel die Stelle wo er die ganzen Geschenke ablegen soll. Ob wir in den letzten 24 h noch Schnee bekommen .... ? wohl eher nicht...

On a walkabout

Being out of the big city is a gift these days. No traffic, neither cars nor internet. Just a backpack, some gear, a map, compass and a plan to get lost in the woods. The Indian summer autumn weather was an extra present and we appreciated every minute.

Lara als Laubfee

Indian summer in Potsdam

The heater is on again, summer is over and we are in the middle of autumn. The Indian summer arrived in Germany and the trees have all kinds of colours from yellow, orange to red. The memories of todays beautiful trip to Potsdam Sanssouci will help to survive the rainy days in grey Berlin.

Living at Arghan Station

I just got back from a 3 week field work trip at the Arghan Forest Station located at the Tarim River about 100km north of its ending Taitema lake. More about the project here. The Station is located on the main road which runs north / south between the Taklamakan and the Kumtag Desert. The only thing dividing the deserts are the Poplar forest and the Tarim itself. The station consists of a main building (no running water, no electricity or land line telephone) a earth closet (w / m), a fire watch tower and a veggie garden. One of the staff was the cook for the whole crew (5 germans and a dozen Urghur). Its a miracle how the chef was able to prepare food considering the poorly equipt kitchen (room with a fire place / gas stove). The dearly needed water was brought in a big tank and stored underground. To run our laptops and tools and not to sit in the dark at night we had two generators running in the morning and after sunset. The biggest treasure in the station was the fridge. Its such a shove of motivation to think on a fridge stocked with cold "Wusu" beer. Luckely the Urghur colleagues are Moslems and prefer black tea over alcohol. 

Usually its said deserts are cool at night, our building stored so much heat from the sun that the majority of the people decided to sleep in tents outside. The hot concrete below the tents wans't much better. Only in the early morning hours when the wind blew a light breeze it got comfortable. But as soon as the sun was up the heat got back. The only relieve from the hotness was the river, which we went about 5  times a day. Luckily the river had water, the Water administration got the order to open the gates upstream to make sure that the Taitema lake is filled. This "ecological water"supply started around 1999 before that time run the river dry at this section for many years.China Mobile everywhere - I remember reception issue in Australia as soon as you left the greater city area. In China no problem, China Mobile covered almost every corner of the country. While using a internet stick for video skype (no facebook, twitter or youtube in China) it crossed my mind, that despite no real power supply nor a water pipeline we can see our relatives 1000km away. Thats really cool.

Always and forever,you and me, you will see ....

Hochzeit - Boda - Wedding

Many things happened in the last months since we posted our last news into this blog. Probably the biggest news are, that we got married. Yes, it all happened last weekend in the beautiful south eastern corner of Spain in the Cabo de Gata Natural Park. We enjoyed very much to have friends and family together for our biggest day in life  (since the birth of our daughter Lara of course).

Lara has now 11 months and got her first two teeth. She loves to eat small pieces of bread little by little totally wet from saliva and crunched in her hand. Mhh, jummy. After the wedding we moved to Berlins Eastern Kiez called Lichtenberg. Friends of big communistic living silos might get jealous. We are just happy to have our very own place since returning from Australia. 

Cinética

Trailer Cinética. Ana Cembrero Coca from La ignorancia on Vimeo.

Buena suerte para los festivales cinematográficos pendientes, esperamos que tendrá tanto éxito como en Nueva York y el Liverpool. Besos y abrazos, nos sentimos orgullosos de ustedes

Stunning spring in Germany

butterfly in cherry tree

The nappies can dry in the sun

Spring is the most wonderful season which nature has in its assortment. Flowers in dozens of species and various colours appear were 2 month before was a thick layer of snow. The trees show their first leaves reserved and cautiously. The last week in March was cold and wet but the weather changed to our favour and flavour into a fantastic April, were you can have ice cream in the sun and bbq's in the garden.
The volcano and its ashes forced us to stay a week longer then planned in Thuringia. The frustration was big but the weather god had mercy with us.