h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello new loafers and a pink handbag and two jackets.Hope you have a few nice evenings organised so you can wear your new elegant jacket
I bought a cosy new warm winters coat ,which I will probably see half price in a couple of weeks time ,such is life.

A new ppppppppppppurrring around splendid!Isn't it amazing how they have their own unique personalities which they share with you only if they like you.So graceful and agile too.I to watch them chase butterflies and now it is the fallen leaves they chase

Autumn is a fantastic season so many colours and the sky takes on a clear crystal quality.Best of all is the smell of Autumn, the air is like berry and bracken scented
I have lots of shrubs which have nice berries on at this time of year.But my favourite is the sedum which flowers now and has the most gorgeous coloured flowers like deep raspberry pink.I have planted most of my bulbs now.But have loads of jobs to still do in the garden before it really turns colder.I still have the tubs to plant out yet.

Christmas will be soon upon us and the decorations and cards are in the shops already here.I adore decorating the house for Christmas and the tree trimming is .I confess I haven't started singing carols yet though The smell of rich fruit cake reminds me of Christmas though

I have been studying for my next exam, but can be a little lazy on the sunny days if I can manage to postpone revision I will catching up on the cold wet days
How goes your study ?
Until next time give a hug for me

Hello!

I’m surprised that Christmas decorations aren’t available yet in stores. You can already buy all various forms of gingerbread, but no kitschy Santa or angel figurines, no Christmas baubles either… This year they’re trying to force Halloween upon us once more. Last year it seemed as they’d given up, but this year you can buy pumpkin figures and Halloween costumes everywhere. This is okay I think – at least it prevents them to sell Christmas decorations in August (like last year).

I haven’t planted any bulbs yet. As long as my cosmos and mallows are still in bloom I can’t be bothered to compost them in order to make space for the bulbs. I must be careful not to fail to plant them in time!

The black cat didn’t show up again… But there seem to be several hedgehogs living in the yard now. They eat tons of cat food, they’ve really grown fat throughout the last weeks. I don’t know how many hedgehogs there are – but given that they’re eating so much cat food (and leaving behind quite a number of little black poo-sausages in return) it must be more than one.

Have a nice weekend!

Those hedgehogs have an insatiable appetite mine have been trawling about in the leaves of the garden making the funniest noises Once they move in ,and find some nice food supplied to them they stay

It was a splendid day today ,the sky was crystal clear and so blue It was quite warm in the sun too ,I just wandered around tiding up in the garden here and there I always hang on to the summer plants as long as I can but we are having hard frosts already at night so most had finished flowering naturally.The Autumn flowering plants are stunning at the moment though.

I wonder where the cat went ? Maybe the hedgehogs scared it
Well have a nice weekend and take care until next time

Hello!

I just returned from a (very) little walk. It’s wonderful weather today, the cat and I enjoyed the last few sunbeams in the garden. Most beautiful are the staghorn sumacs and the Virginia creeper at this time. The latter one has turned into crimson, while the staghorn sumacs are mostly yellow and bright orange, but here and there still a little green or already deep red.

We had no frost yet. Usually the first frost in fall comes by the end of October or the beginning of November. Last year we had no frost before the middle of December! That was great – my mallows were still in bloom around the 15th December.

The cat is becoming naughtier and naughtier. She insists on sleeping in a box in my bedroom, keeps making a lot of noise throughout the night, and refuses to leave the house when it’s too cold outside for her taste. She usually asks me to let her out of the house around 4 a.m., but as soon as she has realized that it’s cold outside she changes her mind and wants to stay in the house, walking about and making noise. The other night I tried to throw her out by gently pushing her towards the door. Result: she turned around, stopped purring for a moment and hissed at me, just to vanish under the staircase a second later, purring again. I was quite angry, but I had no chance to grab her and throw her out. In the end I lured her outside with food – which is of course a stupid idea: giving the cat a reward for being naughty.

Before I gave her the box to sleep in she tried to occupy a tiny square basket (12x20 cm, and 8 cm in height) I had left on the floor. In the basket there was already sitting a little Tigger soft toy which occupied about a third of the basket. So basically the cat tried to lie down in a basket that would have even been too small for a two month old kitten.
After I had taken the basket away from her I went back to bed. Then she decided that the best place for her to have a nap was right on my chest! Believe me, this cat is HEAVY! She stalked on my breast with her thin stilts and it really hurt! I then gave her the box, and now she’s all happy sleeping in it. I have no idea why she decided to leave the cosy armchair in the first place, and what’s so great about spending the night in a (rather small) hard box.

No wonder the neighbors decided to throw her out! This is going to be a really tough, sleepless winter for me!

Ooooo, I better go back to working on my thesis! Still so much work to do! Have a nice week! Talk to you soon!

katkodl

Hello that is definately being naughty!At least she didn't try to sit on your head when you were asleep again
They are so feisty s' but cute when they are not hissing at you.

You are really lucky not having frost early , I noticed a difference in the plants over night because of the hard frost.We already need the heating on at night .The wind was warm today though which made a change.

Hope you are finding time to work on your thesis.It is hard to discipline yourself as there are too many distractions around
I can always find distractions from study especially when everything looks so beautiful in the landscape.Autumn skies are very special too Virginia Creepers are stunning
My next exam is next month so back to for me too
Have lots of breaks and until next time take care

Hello Wildamethyst!

I think we're going to have frost tonight. It's already been very cold last night, but to my surprise the plants didn't show any signs of temperatures below zero yet. But I'm afraid tonight they're due.

The has turned into a nasty piece of work meanwhile. I have no idea why she's that moody and rude all the time... I finally threw her out on Sunday evening, and again yesterday evening, and we'll see what's going to happen tonight. As long as she doesn't realize that it's not her house she has to spend the nights in the yard. I know it's a bit rude to throw her out now that it's cold again, but her behavior is beyond the bounds of good taste!

I've been very lazy throughout the last few days. We had some wonderful days (before it turned cold at the weekend), and I spent most of my time with going for walks. I was also busy arranging some fall decorations in the house... you know, some kitschy horse chestnuts, decorative gourds, sunflowers and tiny red apples.

How's it going with your work? Hope you're not as easily distracted from work as I am these days.

Have a nice evening! Talk to you soon!

Hello
That won't like the cold yard after your warm bedroom! but maybe she will be nicer now after feeling the chill.

The kestrels had a late clutch of chicks and a really young bird was in the garden after the collared doves.It actually let me get really close to it, I thought it must be injured but it was just young and not experienced at hunting yet.It really made my day

The hawks and buzzards have had a good year breeding and I spent too much time watching them today when I should have been revising.The weather has turned much cooler now and the leaves are falling quickly.

I am as easily distracted as you are studying but everthing looks so pretty it would be a shame not to enjoy the season
Until next time

Hello!

I'm once more plagued by insomnia, but this time it's not the cat's fault. The temperatures have increased again, so the cat doesn't mind sleeping in the yard. She's now nice again, which is great because I was really tired of fighting with her!

I planted most of my bulbs at the weekend. That is, I planted them all and ran out of tulips, so I have to buy some more and continue to plant them as long as the soil istn*t frozen. I decided to buy some snowdrops, spring snowflakes and crocus as well. I'm going over the top once again!

Isn't it weird how everyone seems to act up because of the bird flu? I've started feeding the birds again, and some people already said I shouldn't do that because of the bird flu.
Have you seen some more birds of prey around your house? We don't have any around here... the biggest birds around here are crows. I like collared doves a lot - they look very elegant, don't they?

Have a nice week! I'm looking forward to hearing from you!

hello I am glad that has decided to behave nicely again .Insomnia has really been a problem for me and the last few days have been difficult because I am so tired.My insomnia usually comes and goes but at exam time it is something I could really do with out.Of course it doesn't help that I have a tendency to worry about things that haven't even happened yet
Spring snowflakes I them .I hope you have managed to get the rest of your bulbs planted.Everywhere is flooded here! there has been torrential rain yesterday and there was a lot of accidents on the roads.
The birds are busy enjoying some wild seed and nuts that I put out for them.My little robin must have been cold this morning because he had fluffed himself up all plump and pretty.The collared doves haven't been around much for a couple of days, they are elegant though .The kestrel and the bad weather must have put them off.
Crows are funny though aren't they and clever birds too.Although not so pretty as the s
Hope your insomnia goes away and you have a nice weekend
Take care

Hello!

It’s the first rather cold day in weeks, and the are all excited about the food I’m providing them next to my window. They are the biggest distraction ever! I could sit and stare at them all day long!

I’m glad that the decided to sleep in the living room, and not in my room. She’d get crazy if she saw all those birds at my window! The is pretty old, but she’s a really skilled hunter. Well, actually she didn’t have much of a choice last winter, when the neigbors had thrown her out, and we were still reluctant with feeding her. In summer she often brought me mice and rats and was all proud! She always got really excited when she’d caught another huge rat and insisted on showing it to me (or someone else in the house) before she devoured it.

How are you doing at this time? Are you still plagued by insomnia? At the moment I’m able to sleep again, and I was really busy with my thesis last week. So maybe I’ll be a bit lazy today, not sure yet. I still haven’t planted the remaining bulbs, maybe I’ll do that today. I wish I had done it while the weather was still fine, but I didn’t dare to neglect my thesis throughout the last week and so I put off the garden work. And now it’s cold. This was a silly strategy…

Is it still raining in your place? We didn’t have any rain in weeks. Some rain would be fine, or maybe even snow! I really should plant this bulbs before it’s too late! Do you get a lot of snow in winter? We sometimes do – last year we had tons of snow, that was fun. I’m always getting excited when it’s snowing, I’m so childish!

Will you go to a Halloween party? I won’t… I’m kind of isolated here in the countryside, but Halloween isn’t a big issue in Austria anyway.

I’m looking forward to hearing from you! Have a great week!
And: Happy Hallowe'en!

Happy halloween
I was at a halloween party (fancy dress) I went as a vampy vampire and my friend was dressed as a pumpkin she had orange tights on and her legs looked so funny sticking out from this big round foam pumpkinWe all played games which were supposed to be for the children but the adults ended up being the most childish ones thereReally was fun.
The big fat ginger tomcat from next door leaves me presents on my doorstep dead field mice usually but was immensely proud of a baby rat he caught last week I am sure he enjoys seeing me upset!He is a very arrogant cat and when he walks away he looks over his shoulder at you and swishes his tail But he is cuddley and very good at purring loudly to attract any attention he can.
It has been pouring down with rain this morning but the sun has come out nowThursday was like summer
We do get a lot of snow but that isn't surprising since we are on a high latitude.I snow ,making fresh footprints in new snow is so nice, the snow tends to last ages because of the cold.But I have to confess I do not like slush when the snow begins to melt.
I had a bad week with insomnia but managed to get some sleep last nightBeen busy revising but kept making silly mistakes because I was tired and that made me
I like living in the countryside and think I would not survive city life very well at all.I like to walk and enjoy the scenery around me. I saw the second best rainbow I have ever seen on Friday
Hope you get your bulbs in before the bad weather comesTake care and speak to you soon

Hello Wildamethyst!

How are you?
I’ve been busy bustling through the garden lately. I’ve planted (almost) all bulbs, and I’m busy with cutting, eradicating, raking… It’s so much fun!
I was also working a lot on my thesis, so I’m quite proud of myself at the moment. Admittedly I had a rather lazy day today – hope this is not the beginning of another idle period!

We still had no frost here. Thus many of my cosmos and mallows are still in bloom! And we’ll have another increase in temperature next week, at least that’s what the weather lady on TV said. I’m already eager for snow, but I’m afraid I’ll have to wait another few weeks… You’re right about the slush – it’s disgusting. And somehow depressing – seeing the fresh nice fluffy snow turning into boring gray slush…

When will you have your next exam?
I have to go to the libraries next week… It will be my first visit in Vienna in almost 6 weeks! It’s the first time in 6 years that I have stayed away from Vienna for longer than 2, maybe 3 weeks. While I do enjoy the life in the countryside I do miss my friends, the museums and also the Viennese coffeehouses. And it’s a nuisance that there’s hardly any public transport here. There’s only one tiny bus that comes once an hour – and it takes the bus 40 minutes to reach the shopping mall. It takes you an estimated 5-10 minutes if you go by car, but I don’t have one, so I’m dependent on the bus. *sigh*
Well then, enough moaning for tonight!

I’m looking forward to hearing from you! Have a wonderful week!!!