Gefunden im IOFF:
“Al Pacino in Scareface” (Na, aber… So schlimm sieht der Junge doch nicht aus!)
“Virgo Mortensen in A History of Violence” (Leicht astrologisch veranlagt, der Gute? Oder wie?)
Impressive: Lego Aircraft carrier (thanks, Patrick!)
Es wird Herbst. Das merke ich nicht nur daran, dass mein Auto mich morgens anpingt und behauptet, es könnte unterwegs glatt sein (hat ja schließlich unter 4 Grad) - auch die Ponies wissen Bescheid: und zwar setzen sie nicht nur schon wieder kräftig Plüsch an, auch unsere Durchschnittsgeschwindigkeit im Gelände steigt. Rapide.
Vorbei sind die Zeiten, in denen uns eine sportliche Schnirkelschnecke durchaus mal hätte überholen können. Jonnypony schreitet munter aus, lässt sich vom (noch harmlosen) Wind ein bisschen die Mähne durchpusten und wittert hinter jedem Busch / Baum / Holzstoß / Spaziergänger ein ponyfressendes Monster.
Und das sonst so zahme Pony packt mal wieder seinen beachtlichen Dickkopf aus. Er weiß unterwegs nicht nur besser als ich, wo’s lang geht (nach Hause, und zwar JETZT, wenn’s sein muss auch durch’s Unterholz…), sondern möchte am liebsten auch gleich noch die Gangart bestimmen (die dritte natürlich, was denn sonst?).
Was soll ich sagen, wir haben heute mal wieder einiges zu diskutieren gehabt - und wir waren insgesamt SEHR sportlich unterwegs. 
(Wobei ich zugeben muss, dass ich das Pony lieber am Rand einer Wiese entlangflitzen lasse als auf den Waldwegen, wo ich dann doch immer etwas Angst um meine Knie habe, wenn JP sich so richtig in die Kurven legt und grade so haarscharf an den Bäumen vorbeisemmelt…)
Edit: Ein paar Tappfühler korrigiert.
After breakfast, our parents’ neighbor Eugen invited us (ok, he invited Camden in the first place 
) to come and see his fish. And so Camden went, and we went along.
Eugen has a number of Japanese Koi, most of them between the ages of 15 - 20 years - not even middle-aged yet, but pretty big, compared to your average goldfish. 
By now the “fishies” are too big to be carried away by herons and other predators.
We learned that Koi not only live to be 60 years or so (if they don’t get eaten by herons or cats first), but also that some of them change their color over time. One fish, named - now quite inappropriately - “Goldy” had looked like a big goldfish when Eugen got him. But now the fish looks almost black with a bit of gold dust sprinkled on top.
Camden got to feed and even pet the big, scaly monsters - which meant that we all were in the splash zone when the Koi got frightened or excited.
Since Camden is fascinated by all kinds of stones, rocks, gravel and such, Dad offered to cut one of the interesting-looking stones open for him. So Dad donned his heavy leather apron an work gloves and started the big stone saw - just to cut one rather smallish stone for his grand-nephew…
Camden posing for the “not-so-secret spy cam” on sandstones (some of them “leftovers” from the renovation of the Freiburg cathedral)
“The Saw”
So, what’s inside? Just more stone…
In the afternoon, Dad took Erika, Camden and the rest of us secret-spy-cam-operators on a short tour of the garden.
Starting with the giant sunflowers…
… snacking on raspberries somewhere in the middle…
… and finally having a look at the already somewhat badger-damaged vineyard. At least there were still enough Muskateller grapes for us to try some (at least those of us who eat grapes with seeds… )
Once again Dad wished to have “surprise guests” at his birthday party. Little did he know what we had in store for him…
Since it was his 75th birthday we wanted something special, something big. But what could be bigger than inviting his whole glee club as a surprise (which we did for his 70th birthday)? Hmmm…
Earlier this year we had already found a willing co-conspirator: our cousin Erika from “a kingdom Far Far Away” (the U.S., that is), whom he hadn’t seen in the last 14 years. And she had promised to bring singing, dancing and cello-playing reinforcements… (yes, Camden, that’s you!)
We had our doubts that we could keep it a secret, especially as the Big Day drew closer and we had some rather special arrangements to make (anybody know where one can borrow a 1/4-size cello for about a week or so?). Dad knew we were up to something, but had no clue about what it might possibly be.
We were a little worried that it might be a bit too much for him; Mom was even close to telling him, right before we came back from the train station with Erika + Camden. But she didn’t - and I must say, Dad took it remarkably well! (Just a mild case of head-shaking throughout the rest of the day, accompanied by the occasional sigh… )
