Chinese fan dance

Check out this youtube video, it is definitely a beautiful dance



Greets,

SW

PS thanks to everyone for the grats :)

Master degree and canon 400D

Good news, I have graduated for my Master degree in Animal Biology and Welfare!!!!!!

I am so glad, this also means that my dissertation has been approved.

And as a present for getting my degree my parents gave me a new camera, a canon 400D to be precise. And to practice I of course took some pics of my dogs. Enjoy!!!

Tippy was posing nicely, which is rare :)

Huge tongue

And another tongue flick, so my camera was tongue flick approved *G*

In Loving Memory of Leica

At the good age of exactly 33 years and 6 months, my horse and above all best friend for 10 years, was laid to rest.


The daughter of Amanlia and Nartan, can now finally join her foal Cartouche.

Can I say goodbye?
Well than it is with a heavy sigh

I will let you flow
And with the wind you may go

While leaves are falling
And winter is calling

Forever the memories will stay
And than there will come a day..

That we will gladly meet again

Leica
April 24 1974- October 24 2007

I will miss you dearly, my friend

Abunai 2007

Hi Hi everyone,

Last weekend I went to the second japanese culture convention this year which was Abunai in Enschede. It was simply great, we had a lot of fun so yeah what more do you want. And of course my friend (Mathilda) and I cosplayed as well. If you are wondering what cosplaying is, well it is dressing up like one of your favorite anime or manga character :) this also includes lolitas and maids.

Mathilda as a classic lolita on Saturday, Kawaii!!!!

An even cuter picture :)

Me as Kureha Suzuka from Tokko*G*

Me as Shouryuujo from the anime Legend of the Condor Hero on Sunday

And Mathilda as a Gothic Lolita

I definitely love this picture

And a silly one of a huge Sardine Can, which people call art for some reason :/

Been a while

Hi everyone,

It has been a while, but I finished my dissertation!!!!

It will still be a while till I know if they accept it as a pass though :/

For now some pictures I took last week with my brother's camera (Canon 400D)

Oban and Edinburgh, Scotland

Hi hi,

A few weeks back I went to see Chris for a few days, it wasn't long enough by far but we sure did have a great time. Oban is situated to the north west of Scottish coast. It is a beautiful place.

The next day we went to Edinburgh and by coincidence the Fringe was on. Lots of cool dancing, acting and tricks in the middle of the street. Camera Obscura and World of Illusions was absolutely crazy and made my brain spin for a few more hours afterwards.

We also went to Edinburgh castle, as castles are generally cool, unfortunately this one was not really impressive. In comparison Sterling Castle was far better, ah well.

Enjoy the photies,

SW

Most of Oban from above.

Almost looks like a painting, doesn't it?

A stairway to.........

Where salt water meets fresh water, or the other way around. Cool bridge btw.

My love Chris climbing a bit, as usual :)

A dog at the entrance of Edinburgh castle.


Edinburgh skyline.

Utrecht, the Netherlands

Hi everyone,

It has been a while, but hey dissertation is almost at end. 17 September is hand in date and I still have to do a lot. By the way, if any one is interested in reading the literature review on "The biology and welfare of toucans" and my paper on "The welfare of toucans in two dutch institutions" than please do let me know. It might still take a while before everything is peered etc. but at least I will know.

And now for something less intellectual. Photies!!! A few weeks ago I went to do a city trip with my dad. This time we went to Utrecht. The thing is that we never intend to do something with architecture, however it does always happen. We climbed the Dom and had a huge walk through the centre and some other bits. I can recommend it to everyone, especially if you are bored with Amsterdam *G* Utrecht is a student city and therefore there are many comic stores and other wee funny shops with strange and cool stuff.

Greetz,

SW


The Church to which the Dom used to be attached. A twister took the middle part of the church *G*

The courtyard garden, I avoided the very ugly modern architecture part

The Dom itself, it is 112 meters high


The view from atop the Dom

Like Amsterdam, Utrecht also has canals. most of these canals have lovely bars and restaurants right at the water, where in this case ducks are taking a nap


And of course the typical canal houses should not be forgotten. Though I don't quite know if that is a wise place for stairs, but perhaps that is also why the fence is there *G*

Puffins in trouble

This is a reply to an off topic comment from Math (thank you) on a news heading on puffins in trouble:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/6933378.stm

It has been known for a few years that the fish puffins normally catch to feed their chicks and themselves have been in trouble as well. Due to overfishing and possible other factors the normally fat long sand-eels are small and thin and hard to find.

Overfishing would not only seem the problem, as good old global warming is also blamed for the up rise of a non native plant called mallow tree. The nest sites are overgrown with this plant which leaves the chicks and puffins vulnerable to predators and weather elements.
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/wildlife/article2323405.ece

And apparently those are not the only threats, according to this article (from 2002):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/2406179.stm
Rats have been and most likely still are a threat to puffins.

However there are still many things done for these birds. Have a look at this:
http://www.projectpuffin.org/
You can adopt a puffin and watch the live puffin cam, and there is lots of other info on puffins on as well.

Ow and perhaps we should stop buying sand eels of course!!!!!
More info on these tiny eel like fish can be found here:
http://www.marlab.ac.uk/Delivery/standalone.aspx?contentid=657

Thank you and kind regards,

SW

This should be Eurocommerce Berlin according to the number it had, but unfortunately Berlin is grey and not bay, so it is a wild guess which horse this is, most probably also an Eurocommerce under Schroder.

The same horse as above, it had a bright red ribbon in its tail, probably for good luck.

This is Broere Phoenix, a dutch bred dressage horse under Kirsten Beckers. This horse did not contest at Chio, but most likely was there for experience and training.

CHIO Rotterdam 21 June, the Netherlands

Just before I went to Spain with Chris, I spend a few hours at CHIO Rotterdan taking photies of the many horses there. I took my brother's Canon 400D with me and had fun working with it. I took many photies and selected about 27 good ones, so I just posted the first lot. Hopefully all the names are correct.

Enjoy,

SW

A statue at the main ring

Number 213 Constance Menard with Lianca, a former circus horse

Number 244 Imke Schellekens-Bartels with Sunrise

Again number 244

Some more photies of spain

I hope everyone is enjoying the photies, and to possibly enjoy you even more, here are some more photies. The last ones though, but for more beautiful photies, have a look on Chris his site.

Next up will be some photies from 21 June CHIO Rotterdam, a horse event for showjumping and dressage at high levels. My brother was so kind to lend me his Canon 400D *G*

SW

A lemon tree with many lemons, it amazed me that many plants in southern DRY Spain hold so much water.

The rest of the lemon grove on which we had a view from the garden

Holiday photies

Hi everyone,

Chris and I survived southern Spain *G* it was between 30 and 40 degrees during the day and about 20 at night. We had only a few drops of rain and that was during the night. A nice breeze made it durable enough to do things during the morning, afternoon and evening. Especially the evenings were beautiful with a nice sunset and a bright moon.

Below some photies of the holiday, so enjoy

SW

A goat of stone guarding the entrance of a house

Spanish snails in matching colours

A huge working ant next to a more normal sized ant

Our rental car, a fiat punto which was a surprisingly good car. Good handling, spacious and fast, but the brakes were a bit weird

a closeup of a palm tree

Chris climbing, I think he climbed about everything he could climb :S

And the house :) where we spend the week, thanks to chris's parents

(More photies will follow shortly)