We’re leaving Berlin to Dresden today. The new Czech trains are niice & oh so smooth. I’ve been on an older Czech train with compartments and it was claustrophobic. Plus conversation with strangers is more likely in compartments and I’m not a fan of that much lauded train experience #Travel

We were walking in Berlin’s Tiergarten by some sort of Zoo exhibit. We couldn’t help but gawk through a metal fence at an Ostrich, when suddenly a Fox showed up to hunt Helmeted guineafowl. The Ostrich gave chase and stomped away the Fox (I couldn’t photo document that as it was FAST) #Travel

A red and brown Fox is looking for a meal as three Helmeted guineafowl run by

An Ostrich bends down toward some turf with its neck curved a bit. It is standing in front of a gate and a small boulder.

I went exploring Berlin for a bit and stumbled upon an exterior hall loaded with art, near the Hackeshen Hofe and across from an Apple Store. People were going out of their way to pose for cameras with the art behind them #Travel

A building wall with a mixture of colorful art, graffiti, and stickers. There's one prominent piece of art prompting to delete the Epstein files. Two bikes are parked in front of the building wall.

Here’s an Eurasian skylark and an Eurasian kestrel from Berlin’s Tempelhofer Field. The birds love the expansive and currently protected grassy areas to the sides of the runways.  #EurasianSkylark #EurasianKestrel #Birds #TravelA Eurasian Skylark, with brown and tan markings, has one remarkably long talon on each foot. It is perched on a fence wire amidst green grass. It's looking to the left.A Eurasian Kestrel is looking into the distance atop a chainlink fence's metal post. It has tan wings and back, gray tail feathers, a gray head and black markings around its eyes.A view down the right runway of the long-closed Tempelhofer Field in Berlin. Striking K-rails with red and white stripes are placed in rows on the runway with wide separations. There are only a handful of people biking, scootering, walking, and running on the runway. All vegetation is green and in the distance are lots of trees. On the right, a lone sky scraper juts out of the ground from behind the trees.

The Flohmarkt (Flea Market) in Berlin is wild. Want an old school digital camera? You’re set. A mix of German Marks, including DDR Ostmarks? Yup. Sun glasses, too. And all the Lego people you could ever want. #Travel

Rows of old school digital cameras on a table. These are 2000-2015ish vintage. A mix of Deutsche Marks, Reichsmarks, Ostmarks with a flat stained glass bunny holding it all down Rows of boxes of sun glasses on tables. Endless. A crowd of LEGO people on a green Lego board. These are mostly wearing work uniforms.

And now for something completely different, Tulips and a lone blooming rose at Berlin’s Humboldthain Rosengarten (the rest of the roses are nowhere close to blooming) #BloomScrolling #TravelTulips with flowers of deep red centers and yellow tips. There's a slight bokeh effect, blurring some dandelion seed heads.Bright red Tulip flowers that rapidly turn yellow at the centerA tulip garden along the western edge of the Rosengarten. The tulips are in two terraced beds with blocks of rock to retain the soil. Above the terrace is a walkway with wooden handrails and, for a wooden overhead, concrete supportsA metal arbor with a leafy rose bush growing out of the top. The rose flowers are yellow. The top of the arctuate arbor is just in view.

Yesterday, we covered some ground in Berlin. From the East Side Gallery murals on an existing section of the Berlin Wall, north to the Kulturbrauerie (& a visit to the DDR Museum), and then southwest to the Asparagus Festival (Spargelfest) in Berlin-Schönberg. It’s easy to get around Berlin. #TravelA mural on the Berlin Wall wall. A hand with a thumbs up and a chain attached to the tip of the thumb and onto the wrist. It is captioned with "Diagonale Lösung Des Problems" (in English, that's "Diagonal solution of the problem". The artist is Michail Serebrjakow, from Moscow, Russia.Many bikes and a scooter cross in painted bike lanes within a wide intersection of Eberswalde Strasse, Danziger Strasse, Shönnhauser Allee, and Pappalalle near the Kulturbraurei. A green overcrossing for the U-bahn(?) crosses over. A street filled with people walking at the Spargelfest with many vendors under canopies along the sides of the streets. The street is surrounded by multistory buildings and bendy-trees.

Vegetarian Momos, Tibetan dumplings, from the outdoor market at Kruezberg in Berlin #Travel

A small basket of half-moon shaped steamed dumplings with various sauces including chili and garnished with chives and thinly sliced carrots

And now for something completely different, a short 34-second video from a passenger train of the Germany countryside, east of Frankfurt. The fields of yellow flowers are likely rapeseed, grown mainly for oil (called Canola in North America) #Travel

Jet lagged at Frankfurt Airport means exploring at 4am in pursuit of hot coffee. McDonald’s was open. #Travel

Looking between an indoor lit up area of the Squaire into a darkened area. There’s the back of a lone person in the distance A wide oval walkway between Frankfurt Airport and the train station at the Squaire. The floors reflect thr ceiling lights giving the hall a futuristic kind of look

May 7, 2026: A very ordinary landing at Frankfurt International’s 25R. There’s no speed brake action this time. #AvGeek #Aviation

May 6, 2026: a 1.5-minute long video of an over-wing passenger view from a United CRJ–200 landing at SFO on 28R. Watch the speed brakes! #SFO #AvGeek #Aviation #CRJ2 #N944SW

5/6/2026: United CRJ-200 N944SW at Sacramento International, taxiing to the gate. It’ll turn around for San Francisco #AvGeek #Aviation #CRJ2 #N944SW

December 15, 2025: United B737-9 Max (N27509) SFO-YVR, first landing attempt and go-around #AvGeek #N27509 #B39M #GoAround #Aviation #Video #TestPost

Our cultivated native California grapes have a bumper crop this year. The house Northern Mockingbird pair will be very pleased this fall. And there should be enough for us to make a delightful syrup that goes well with vanilla ice cream #NativeGarden #GrapesA bunches of freshly set grapes hang from a vine that's overly dense with leaves. The grapes are very green and small but spread out and ready to swell.

This year, our Bacon Avocado has the best fruit-set ever, after its complimentary Mexicola Avocado bloomed in parallel. I’m guessing 75% of the currently pea-sized fruit will drop over the summer #Avocado #HomeOrchard #GardeningTwo baby pea-sized Bacon Avocados are visible with the front of a flat hand behind them for scale. There are a few avocado stems that end in nothing, and that's where fruit failed to set.

In case you missed it, the United Airlines Fleet website moved. There you can get niche information on UAL aircraft status or find a tail number with an equipment number #AvGeek #Aviation #UnitedAirlines

I think this sphinx moth had just pupated since it wasn’t in any mood to fly off. I disturbed it while weeding a clump of native California fuchsias (I’ve been busy gardening before upcoming travel) #SphinxMoth #NativeGarden

A Sphinx moth sits on a ledge among some brown to light green vegetation. It has many shades of brown with stripes running parallel and orthogonal to its body parts.

These are really smart ladybugs feasting on pesky oleander aphids that are in our milkweed #Ladybugs #Milkweed #NativeGardenA cluster of ladybugs are in the center of a milkweed, where new tender growth has attracted oleander aphids. The milkweed leaves, some of which are chewed up from the previous day's hail, are broad and full of veins.

Our Feijoa trees (pineapple guava) are going gangbusters #BloomScrolling

Sun dappled Feijoa flowers with bright long red centers and large discrete pedals.