You can see the oil platforms dwarfed by massive rain clouds just off the coast of Texas in this snap, if you look hard enough:
When them cotton balls get a rottin‘ in Texas
South Texas is famous for its cotton fields. Here the cotton is ready-to-pick:
It really begs the question: what happen if it rains?
The old western song made famous by the Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe tells „When them cotton balls get a rottin‘, you can‘t pick very much cotton.“ So presumably it is possible for cotton to rot.
But after a rain shower, do farmers worry about how much moisture the cotton has before harvesting? Is the water content somehow tied to the price? This is in fact the case for feed corn: the higher the water content, the lower the price.
The lonesome expanse of sea-side Texas
Not only does Texas have one of the longest coastlines of any entity in the world, but in fact – like most of Texas itself – it is an empty coastline.
Here I am standing deep within the Padre Island National Seashore (itself at over 100 km long, the longest protected stretch of beach in the world) watching the thunderstorms brewing in the distance.
I‘d say the nearest human to where I am standing now is over 25 miles away. This is one reason that keeps drawing me back to Texas, time and time again.
My artwork is completely fresh out-of-the-camera and unretouched in any way. This now definitely belongs to one of my all time favorite snaps.
Thunderstorm over the Gulf of Mexico in Texas
I took what I hopefully believe you‘ll agree is a magnificent snap on a recent holiday in Texas. I‘ve waded out into the water at the North Padre Island National Seashore. As usual, none of my artwork is re-touched or enhanced in any way: this is a color snap from my iPhone 8, and I did not even need to crop it.
If you look closely you‘ll see a few seagulls in the sky.
Nagold Flowers – 1
Here are some summertime flowers on a bridge over the Nagold River in Germany’s Black Forest:
Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg above Kintzheim
This is a magnificent summertime snap of the famous Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg castle high above the Alsacian village of Kintzheim:
Milan Panoramic
Taken with the famous Duomo di Milano at my back, the Galleria is on the left:
Interestingly, this hidden cathedral behind me, which you cannot see in this shot, is the largest cathedral in Italy, the third largest cathedral in Europe, and the fourth largest cathedral in the world! You can get a sense of just how big, when I simply turn 180% and take this shot:
Bad Canstatter Volksfest
Although the Oktoberfest in München is by far more well known, the Bad Canstatter Volksfest in Germany has the unique charm that it’s almost as big as the Oktoberfest, but is attended only by the locals.
Here’s what I thought was a pretty snap of a beer hall I took early one afternoon:
Believe it or not, it is attended by several million Germans – real Germans, not tourists – and it is world’d second largest beer festival.
Building in Opfikon
Nothing special, just what I thought was a wonderful snap of a building in an industrial park in Opfikon, in the Canton of Zürich, in Switzerland:
Swiss countryside
Here is a wonderful snap of the countryside in the Swiss canton of Fribourg,
You don’t see this everyday
In fact, I don’t think I have ever seen anything even remotely close to this:
Sadly, I was in a hurry to catch a train, but there are many questions I’d like to ask. Number one among those: how important is it to keep the stick vertical? I assume a tube with such a high aspect ratio between its length and diameter is in great danger of bending.
Update on September 6: He was out there again today, so I stopped to talk with him and he showed me the device. He also demonstrated it will NOT bend! It‘s made out of an extremely heavy, extremely thick PVC plastic, and it‘s attached to a compressor that pumps water to the top.
Fire in Alsace
It’s not just in the Amazon! What looks to be coming from a farm in Alsace, the anvil shape of the smoke is a good allegory for how the smoke is violently hammering the climate:
The Bull in Bulle
When you step out of the train station in the village of Bulle in the region of Gruyère in the canton of Fribourg in the French speaking Romandie part of Switzerland, this is what you see:
Winterthur sunrise
I am really happy with the way this snap out of my apartment window looked in winter. For me it is somehow an emotional scene, in which the warming sunlight is violently tearing through the winter mask enclosing the city:
Bamberg Water – Dam I forgot!
Not damn, but dam. I took this snap while visiting the Franconian village of Bamberg, in Germany:
And it reminded me I left the village before exploring what this really was.
The Rhine-Danube canal flows through the city of Bamberg, and the Rhine-Danube canal has plenty of locks. But this is not one of them, and I am not sure why they need to regulate the flow of the river here. It doesn’t look like the water is used for any purposes, such as an historic mill or modern power generation.
It’s on my to-do list to come back one day and figure this out!
Thun
A nice shot of downtown Thun in the winter:
Isola dei Pescatori
This little island in the Italian Laggo Maggiori has a population of 25:
Newest addition
The little banjo below on the left is my newest acquisition!
My Deering Calico (on the right) is a professional level instrument, but it‘s loud and weighs in at around 5 kg. In fact, most non-experts are always surprised at the weight, but a banjo like this sports a so-called tone ring – a huge doughnut piece of bell metal that weighs several kgs and that gives the banjo its unique banjo twang.
My new Deering Artisan (on the left) lacks the tone ring and a few other components, so it weighs in at just less than 1 kg.
The main reason for the acquisition is two-fold: For a long time I have wanted a little travel banjo that I could take with me more easily. And this style of banjo is used for a very unique – but extremely challenging – style of banjo music known as clawhammer or frailing, and I thought it was finally time for me to learn!
The amazing Marvin-the-Martian garbage receptacles of France
Continuing the series, this is Marvin the Martian:
Children today might not recognize him as easily as I do, having grown up watching Looney-Tunes cartoons on television. He dates back to 1948.
And Marvin-the-Martian is what I always think about when I see these garbage receptacles at the rest areas of the autoroutes in France:
Lugano
This is not Lugano, per se, but rather looking out from Lugano, on the northern coast of Lake Lugano:
The incredible wind turbines of Bourgogne
I captured this breathtaking snap of wind turbines nestled deep within the Bourgogne countryside of France. It is a bit misleading, because when you get up close you realize how truly large and monstrous these wind turbines are:
If you’ve been to France, then you know how it is. There are literally thousands of wind turbines all over the country. I could not find the data for 2019, but in 2015 France had a total of 5’956 turbines.
Breathtaking Goldau in Arth
A lot of people I know call it Arth-Goldau, but I think technically that’s the name of the railway station! The village in this snap below is Goldau, and it is pretty much smack dab in the center of a region called Arth.
Regardless or irregardless, it’s the Swiss countryside at its summertime best!
North shore of Lake Constance
Lake Constance – or the Bodensee, in German – is really a lopsided place. It separates Germany (in the north) from Switzerland (in the south). Because Germany generally lacks big lakes, the North Shore of the Bodensee has become a quite affluent area for Germans. But because Switzerland generally has spectacular lakes (and the Bodensee is not one of them), the South Shore of the Bodensee is not only undeveloped but in fact real estate here is comparatively inexpensive for Switzerland. Here is a view of the north coast:
Udaipur Yak
A yak concludes his busy day of work in the Northern India village of Udaipur with a few stolen minutes of gentle contemplation:
A very special oblique, unique fountain of motion in Winterthur
For this next attraction you have to go deep into Winterthur – very deep indeed, to a part of Winterthur that I think few tourists have ever seen or likely ever will.
With the Swiss being very proud – and rightfully so – of their thousands upon thousands of fountains that provide fresh spring drinking water, it is surprising you don’t see more things like this:
There is a small wheel that is turned by the water, causing the little metal blacksmith to bend back and forth and – believe it or not – hit his hammer on an anvil, giving a nice little chime.