Just Ducky! No Ducks but a Lone Bachelor Drake

"Be like a duck. 
Calm on the surface, 
but always paddling 
like the dickens underneath."

Michael Caine 

Rick Wackeman's instumental - "Ducks and Drakes"

A couple of weeks ago, I finally got my first indication that summer was truly underway. A personal tradition that began way back in 2008. Back then I shot a photo the first one of a pair of ducks, swimming on the pond/fountain at the complex where I work. I say pond/fountain as because it is so big I am never sure, even with the water spouts, whether it is one or the other. You could even describe it as a pool. If they didn't empty it for winter, it would make a jolly good skating rink. If they failed to empty it, it would crack from the expanding water as it froze.

Days of Wine, Roses...and Therapy. An Incredible Journey

"They are not long, the days of wine and roses."

Ernest Dowson 

Ella Fitzgerald & Joe Pass - "Days of Wine and Roses"  

Journeys are roads to awareness on many plains. Most have purposes. Some are for fun; some are for illicit acts, full of deceit; some are to catch up with family and friends; some are for business; while others may have a deep therapeutic purpose.

I undertake a special journey regularly, to a nice area of Austria to undertake an exploration into the influences that have shaped my development, my subsequent choices and life effecting decisions. These journeys, take me to a peaceful environment. The therapeutic journeys started a year ago, and were decades overdue.

Oops-a-daisy, or in Other Words those Accidental Snaps

Accidental Snaps - Oops #01

Accidental Snaps - Oops #02

Accidental Snaps - Oops #03

Accidental Snaps - Oops #4
"The progress of a photographer can often
be marked by the accumulated number of mistakes
he or she had made along the way. "

Catherine Jo Morgan 

Arcade Fire - "Photograph" from the "Her" soundtrack  

Ever have one of those moments when you realise you forgot to switch off the camera and you have an accidental click? This happened to me a couple of weeks ago. The results of this sort of "little a accident" would generally end up being deleted.  

When I downloaded the card, I looked twice. In the case of this first accidental snap (Oops #01), it was way out of focus and greatly blurred, albeit there was something strangely captivating in the shot. I liked it, finding it quite attractive in an arty-farty type of way.

Best Kept Secrets of Austria - Summer Harvest Stalls

"One must ask children and birds 
how cherries and strawberries taste."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 

The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever

Around about the beginning of May each year, on my way to and from work, or just into the city, I start to watch for my favourite summer season fruit, vegetables and berry stall. This is generally a large table located on the lower level of the Tram Junction at the U-Bahn station at Schottentor. I have been doing this since my first summer in Vienna, which was way back in 2006.

The first offerings of the season are generally strawberries, and strangely small bunches of Lily of the Valley. Maybe this has to do with the fact that here they are called Maiglöckchen (May Bells) and/or they are a nice Mother’s Day present. This year the Lily of the Valley was missing. They had sprouted and bloomed way back in March. The strawberries on the other hand have arrived just on schedule.