golegrand

and here we are, another year flashed by, we already set off for our 4th year on the south side of the alps, and i should do like marmots do – oversleep the gloomy and cold winter days, i wouldn't miss a single bit of them. so for now, here a quick recollection of the year – entirely in line with the current taste that climate change knocks on every door… how it began is here , and as mentioned, march has been a beautiful spring month. though, april and may have been unstable and uncomfortable – unexpectedly dull, rainy, and windy, with temps under 20 ° in the valley and still snowfall in altitude. brr. south tyrol was caught in the clouds. early summer was right on time on the first day of june, bringing to (sun)light a rich and colourful nature – the late snow melt let abundant river waters sparkle and alpine meadows grow thick of wild flowers and grass. at the turn of the j-months a north european tour took us away from the mountains for 6 sunny family days in...

south tirol counts more than 40 dialects, all belonging to  southern bavarian idioms . these dialects may strongly vary from a valley or a mountainside to another one, and in the course of the 20th century italian expressions have crept progressively into the vocabulary, making of south tyrolean a multicoloured togetherness and coexistence of austro-german and italian culture. a pleasure – and a challenge – linguistically as well as culturally. here another picking of words. augngleser = brille (glasses) beck = bäcker (baker) bloam = blume (flower) casino = durcheinander, zirkus (mess) dai = los!, weiter!, erzähl mir nichts (go!, come on) fertig (die sind fertig) = alle, ausverkauft (over, sold-out) guat = gut (good) (hoi, ins geats guat!) kassa = bank, kasse (bank, checkout) keschtn = kastanien (chestnut) ma dai = echt, wirklich? (really?) marillen = aprikose (apricot) paktl = geschenkpaket (gift-wrapping) patent = führerschein (driving licence) radel =...

non ci credo. hard to believe, but in the news yesterday:  a "cold front" . after two cloudy days and a temperature drop from 30 to 22 °c, they're wondering on the third day bringing, indeed, lots of rain, what happened to the awaited hot summer. truly. yes, everything is relative, and that's how it is here, everyone gets upset by only one single insignificant cloudy or rainy day. on the other hand, they say that we need more rain… er… or rather the nature needs it, and ideally at night. which, i must confess, would meet my principle too. anyway. today, everybody is happy again: bright blue sky returned, it's getting hot and hotter. seriously. we're spoiled by the weather, the season and the beautiful nature. and with our new e-mtb, we can now switch outdoor activities between hiking and biking, discovering mountains and valleys with a different view. like up to almost 900 m at masulschlucht gorge in the val passiria . or a afternoon roundtrip of ...

finalmente, la pioggia. i see some grins over the line. not that everybody was really waiting for it, except the farmers, however nobody complained as sprinkle started early this week. seriously: after a winter without snow and only barely rain, march and april have been very dry too. and right after easter, the weather changed course, bringing days of polar air and a strong freezing north wind which upset everyone. and mother nature as well. it hasn’t been so cold since mid february! at the same time, the public authority announced a water shortage , asking everybody to take care about their own consumption. in our area, obermais, water supply has been switched from source to deep-well which, obviously, isn’t as good as the spring water we normally enjoy from tap. then, the north wind stopped blowing, letting the clouds take place over south tyrol, so relief came last monday as first raindrops fell, turning to continuous rainfall in the late evening. it...

a first for me last saturday: since the day we arrived in merano almost four months ago, i finally left my nearest environment by another mode of transportation than my own feet. till then actually, i went once by bus to the hardware shop a couple of stations away, and otherwise only walked in town and on pathways, and hiked on mountain trails – as for the furthest to something like 12 km outside the city limits. so, it finally happened on saturday that we took the train in the afternoon for a short trip to bolzano . bolzano the capital city of south tyrol, and with a population of nearly 107,000 it’s also far the largest city of the province. there, we went to say hello to ötzi , the 5,300 years old iceman, at the south tyrol museum of archeology. cool thing. and to get back on our feet again after such a memorable moment, we choose the "stadt café città" for a delicious apfelstrudel , and a millefeuille as well because italian/south tyrolea...

hooray! after almost two broadband-access-less months, me setting on tenterhooks (try to imagine!), our home is finally connected to the internet. that was like pulling teeth. so here they are, some photos of our new environment , enjoy. that aside, south tyrol is the very antithesis of hamburg: here you count the cloudy days, no the sunny ones. it's winter, and it's cold, however with nearly blue sky and sunshine non-stop. we made the right decision. i remember a friend native of the region saying once south tyrol is a land of plenty… he is so right.

yesterday at the elbe river in hamburg … one year before at swan river … … and the indian ocean a day later … ouch.

today's featured image: cottesloe's latitude. this one today might be hard to get for those living somewhere above 43 degrees north latitude. myself, i could never have imagine that before experiencing it in the flesh.… see: it happens sometimes that the temperatures jump a bit around, changing from an average of 35 °c to 38° on several days in a row, where the temperature is already above 30° at 9:00 am (and force you to switch your morning run to a more-walking exercise…), rises to 36° at 3 pm, and suddenly drops to 24° two hours later, and at this point… it just feels cold. yes, cold! or call it cool, whatever, but believe me – 24 °c do feel frizzy under certain circumstances. anyway. this january weather just tops to explore perth and discover this great and diversified metropol. i enjoy walking here around and discovering the places. there are the cbd , its city skyline and street malls where futu...

time to say good bye. we're leaving boulder today, last sushi-party in broomfield tonight, and tomorrow we'll head up early to the airport and land back at sea level in the evening in fort myers, fl, for two beach weeks on siesta key. we're dying for salty air!… and warm temperatures too. our winter here has been as tough as it gets, with an extremely changing (and challenging!) february month made of snow, cold, clouds, sun, milder temps and high winds too (with gusts to 89 mph/143 km/h on one night last week) – people say it's normally not so cold or breezy as it was this year and the other seasons there are all so beautiful and easy (well… except when it comes to the flood as for last september). we're not only about to take leave from a gorgeous mountain region,  the #1 sports town in america, but also from america's foodiest town, so here some words about…food! colorado is surely more on food quality than most of the others states in america (in my m...

welcome to the real cold… if january saw many nice sunny days (and mild for some of them), things took a turn for the worse after the pineapple express story … first, boulder got tons of snow. deep snow, deep clouds, three days in a row. we chose one of these days for denver downtown, however, we shortened our first visit to the capital of colorado because exploring the city was anything but fun with the cold and the snow, so we gave up and decided to come back another time after a short walk on the 16th street mall, and an obligatory visit to the bronco's fan shop (denver broncos were playing against the seahawks of seattle in the super bowl final on the next day and everybody in colorado was mad about that). the day after was, hooray!, a beautiful sunshiny day – although still icy cold. we went for a ride through the all snowy white plain to the mountains. the nature spectacle was breathtaking and stunning, with gorgeous pictures and panoramas of majestic mounts and red rocks ...

at settler's park on our running way today. there was another snow raid on boulder last night. this morning, boulder's dailycamera front page was featuring a "pineapple express"… hem… eh? pineapple express? in terms of pineapples, my brain connects to tropical regions, palm trees, sun, a bowl of pineapple chunks after a morning run on the beach, a piña colada at the end of a hot vacation day – not to a snow storm! nevertheless, it makes sense: a pineapple express is a meteorological phenomenon that forms in the area of hawaii (island-sun-sea-tropics-pineapple!) with moist air. it builds an atmospheric river along the pacific coast and the moist air is pushed through that corridor across the western of north america. that brought this snowfall into colorado yesterday night. ( wikipedia  is more detailed/accurate on that topic). cold week-end ahead… florida, siesta key – hear me calling?!

colorado enjoys  300 days of sunny days per year . noteworthy difference between oceanic and semi-aride climate which makes it unbelievable for us north-german frogs that we saw no rain since dec 21st in hamburg! that's 39 days in a row. we have been snowed instead, yes, but considering one week-end of snowstorm, as well as some other snow in-between in more than five weeks, the deal is still not too bad for seeing the sun almost every day, and some of these days are lovely warm. temperature variations, however, are extreme – while last saturday was making me the gift of a deep blue sky with temps around 62 f/17 c (was bliss!), temperatures suddenly dropped on sunday late afternoon and we went back from dinner under the cold snow. it lasted all monday long, yesterday was back sunny. so. we enjoyed some hot summer time in colorado 2012 , and we went back with the aim to feel the winter. well… we got it! we started today in our fifth week in boulder and are about to close ...

the beach on siesta key is a large stretch of crystal-white powdery sand – 99% pure quartz, almost snow-white. hamburg is white of snow. it's so depressive and monotonous, especially landing back from the bright and colorful florida... it's supposed to be spring but since we're back, that is more than 2 weeks, it has been snowing nearly every day. freezing temperatures around 35° f, the cold even dropped to 23°f… ok. think positive. whatever. today's a sunny day at 41° f (be carefull of the heat!!) and yesterday we enjoyed sunshine too. plus: dst is back, days are longer, it's summer time, hurrah! anyway. again we've been somewhere else with a better climate. again we got a new breathe of life. and again we're back on the idea about moving away from hamburg. south of france, florida, australia, south tyrol, colorado, all that places have been considered at some point. the project could begin to take shape soon and it's maybe going to be where we...

omg! that's so rude. after having gone more or less patiently through this long dark german winter, we finally landed in miami, florida but the long-awaited sunny-hot weather still keeps us waiting... the first day in south beach was cloudy at 63 f, the second day on the road to siesta key wasn't better, and today has been even worse with max 58 f and north wind – at least, we could enjoy one hour of sunshine during a run on the beach this morning. anyway. it's good to be back on the island and the forecast reports 68 f for tomorrow. never give up!

rude homecoming by 20° c temperature difference – rainy, windy, cloudy… hamburg in the endless autumn. not fun. we have to set up a plan!

this winter, we're not that snowed as  last year  which is – should be said – already a plus. whereas  december and january have been two awful dark  months of stormy and rainy weather, suddenly, as if by magic, the sun came out again on january 25th, my birthday. light! blue sky! colors!  sunny but icy-freezing-windy-cold days followed where temperatures went down to -15° C – back at something around 0° C, we feel happy about the mildness! it's all relative. florida's countdown is on: 8 days to go before we take off. yippee!