Europe 2014 - Paris Street Piano Event, Painting Outside

From Switzerland it was over to Paris for a few nights before heading back to Houston.  On our first jaunt from the hotel we came across this, an area outside where pianos were being painted for an interactive art exhibition.  Gotta love the free spirit...

Europe 2014 - Lucerne Wedding Gift Packets

Toward the end of the proceedings someone handed out little packets of something (I forget what) to the wedding party.  I was so successful in making myself a part of things with the Big Cahoona that I was given one also...thankful that I hadn't had to speak to anyone.  They'd hired a professional photographer, seen below, but who's to say there couldn't've been two?

Europe 2014 - Lucerne Wedding Doves

Surely this held more interest for the little ones than what the fuddy-duddies were up to...

Europe 2014 - Lucern Wedding Dove Prep

In the midst of all the noise and celebration was this dove cage in the shape of a heart.  I wasn't able to stay long enough to witness the release, but suppose that's what they did eventually.

As stated in this post from Japan, I'm not in the habit of taking pictures of children.  But, as you can see in tomorrow's post, these doves presented an irresistible opportunity to capture the curiosity of the little ones...

Europe 2014 - Lucerne Wedding Parents

Out pops the bride - herself about to pop! - and groom.  What an awesome tradition...I suppose to bless the baby as well as the marriage of the parents.  I was touched, and shared in the joy of all that surrounded us in attendance.

Europe 2014 - Lucerne Wedding, Baby Clothes

This is the scene that awaited us just beyond the top of those stairs.  A wedding!  As one who likes to take pictures, especially of the cultural variety, this was a gift handed to me on a silver platter.  I immediately jettisoned everyone and everything else and went crazy snapping away with the Big Cahoona.

But I was puzzled.  Why the baby clothes?  I soon found out, as when the proper time arrived they raised the string as seen below, and...

Europe 2014 - Lucerne Table Candle

Captured this as Chenjean, Allison and I were wondering around taking in the sights.  It was interesting enough to just be in Lucerne absorbing the culture of one of the world's most developed and civilized cities, but it was something at the top of these stairs that literally stopped me in my tracks...

Europe 2014 - Lucerne Murals

Were murals such as this painted for the tourist trade?  Don't know, but they were everywhere...

Europe 2014 - Lucerne Groceries

I'm no grocery shopper, but one of the coolest things about faraway places is the different kinds of everyday items that you see here and there, such as these variably-colored eggs.  Whoever heard of eggs that have two colors?  The tomatoes below similarly catch the eye:

Europe 2014 - Lucerne Bridge Flowers

Europe 2014 - Lucerne, Swan

The next half-dozen or so posts were captured in Lucerne on our various walks in the area.

Europe 2014 - Lucerne Chocolate Factory, Train Stop

Captured as we waited for the train to go back into Lucerne, the proverbial shot of things through things...

Europe 2014 - Lucerne Chocolate Factory, Bullseye!

The fly?  Designed into the enamel as an aid to the careless...

Europe 2014 - Lucerne Chocolate Factory, Piglet-on-a-Post

My Aunt, who collected everything pigs, would have loved this one.

Europe 2014 - Lucerne Chocolate Factory, Daisies with Blue Background

This and the next couple of posts are objects of interest from around the chocolate factory, in no particular relation to chocolate and in no particular order...

Europe 2014 - Lucerne Chocolate Factory, Allison's Creation

Who can go to Switzerland without doing something about chocolate?  There was a factory outside of town, to which we took a short train ride.  For some reason we were the only customers that day and had the whole place to ourselves...possibly because they were cleaning equipment and not actually making chocolate.  We benefited by having our own dedicated tour guide, who helped Allison make the confection that you see above, baking on a conveyor.

This is a view from the end of the conveyor along with a shot of its creator:

Europe 2014 - Lucerne Hike, Glowing Flowers

These are a couple of the last photos taken at the end of the hike, as we were re-entering the tourist district of Lucerne.

Found that the Glowing Edges effect is good for flower shots with a busy background.

Europe 2014 - Lucerne Hike, Dry-Docked Kayak

If you've followed this blog very much in the past you've seen a comparison of a subject shot fully zoomed out and fully zoomed in, to demonstrate the incredible reach of the workhorse lens I use on the Big Cahoona.  This is such an occasion, as the shot above and the shot below were captured from the same exact position.

Europe 2014 - Lucerne Hike, Rustic Shed

Another rustic scene, with the path visible at far left.  As rural and out-of-the-way as this seems, the city was close by and clearly visible to the right.

Europe 2014 - Lucerne Hike, Tree with Sign / The Skull and the Gila Monster

When my son was a Cub Scout we planned all kinds of outings to see all kinds of things, in both the natural and urban worlds.  There were camping trips, nature hikes, and church services in the great outdoors.  There also were trips to museums, and one time we convoyed to the studios of Fox Channel 26 here in Houston to see how they did the news and weather.

But one trip that I'll never forget was much closer to home.  I discovered that the father of one of the scouts, who lived just a few blocks from our house, was a herpetologist.  Upon learning that fact I latched on, asking many questions and swapping stories.  This fellow did some serious research on rattlesnakes, and was one of very few in the state with a license to possess a captured gila monster, the only known poisonous species of lizard.  We soon made plans to go to his house to see firsthand.

The members of the pack arrived at his house on the appointed day and were ushered upstairs where he kept the gila monster as well as a few other items of interest.  One of those items was a human skull, which I asked about.  He said that one day he was walking down the street in the Rice Village area and saw a store catering to Wiccans, satanists and devil worshipers in general.  One thing he saw in the display case was a row of human skulls.  One of them was in pretty good shape, and he was oddly drawn to it, guessing that this individual's parents, whoever they were, would not want their child's remains used in ritual practices.

He went in and made an offer on the spot.  The price was $600.  Since he couldn't afford it at the time, he put in on layaway (yes, a human skull on layaway) and made payments until he was finally able to bring it home to rest on a shelf above his desk.  And there it sat, staring at us on our Cub Scout field trip.

Then there was the gila monster, in a terrarium off to one side.  After lifting the top he instructed me to take it out of the cage so the kids could feel the texture of its beady skin.  Evidently, having described my experience with snakes, he'd concluded that I was used to handling even poisonous reptiles, which wasn't the case.  In fact, I was just thinking of an article recently read where a graduate student at a university was bitten by one and wrote an hour-by-hour account of the agony he experience over the next two days.

I didn't even give myself a chance to get nervous about it.  I'd read enough to know how to grab the thing and just went for it, placing two fingers just behind its neck, the other two fingers behind the forelimbs, and, lifting it out as it struggled, used the other hand to stabilize the back end.  It was a big guy - about eleven inches long, but I kept a solid grip as the kids reached over one by one to stroke its back and tail.  After a minute or so the monster was placed back into his home.

Europe 2014 - Lucerne Hike, City Proximity

The city loomed larger as we neared the end of the hike.  Below, Allison during a moment of repose:

Europe 2014 - Lucerne Hike, Picnic Ladies

As mentioned earlier the weather was fine, so saw lost of folks either on their way to or already having a picnic along the hills surrounding the lake; on that day this was a commons sight.

Europe 2014 - Lucerne Hike, Gate Dog

Survey by smell...

Europe 2014 - Lucerne Hike, Trimotor Plane

Having this historic plane fly overhead was a thrill...similar shot here of the venerable DC3.

Europe 2014 - Lucerne Hike, House with Boat Garage

Europe 2014 - Lucerne Hike, Hanging Dolls

Saw this in the middle of a neighborhood close to the beginning of the hike.  Have no idea what the meaning was, and tried to look it up to no avail...

Europe 2014 - Lucerne Hike, Lake House with Tree

This and the next half-dozen or so posts will be random pics that I liked for one reason or another, in no particular order.

Europe 2014 - Lucerne Hike, Sailing Masts with Sculpture / The Rat Snake and the Radio

As we turned toward a wooded area I looked back and put the Big Cahoona in action, using the masts as a backdrop to this sculpture.  Many times I had to run to catch up with the girls, as they moved on while I was snapping away.
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During my first three semesters at SFA I lived in Dorm 16, run with an iron fist by a lady we called Ma Bradshaw.  It was a great place to live, and safer than most other dorms because of her no-nonsense style of management.  In spite of that, I managed to sneak in a few snakes as pets during my time there.

One of those was a huge Texas rat snake, more than five feet in length.  It was a wild one, caught in Bonita Creek down the way from where the Rusk Mansion is.  I wore gloves when reaching down to pick it up because it would bite furiously, but once in my arms or around my neck it settled down and the gloves came off.  Quite the conversation piece.

I was always the last to leave my dorm when a semester was over, because my family wasn't nearby and I wasn't in a hurry to go anywhere.  Therefore I was virtually alone on my floor at the end of the fall semester in 1978, working on the last of a twig collection for my dendrology class (being a forestry major at the time).  To make the evening more interesting I let the snake out to have the run of the room for a while.

After securing the underside of the door with a towel and making sure there were no holes or unnoticed passageways for it to crawl into, I let it out.  Rat snakes love to climb, so first thing it climbed up the bookcase, stretching its full length to get to the top.  After being there a bit it came down, supposedly to check out a possible route of escape.  Rat snakes are fast, so it had the room covered in no time.  During all of this I was sitting at my desk working on the final touches of mounting my twigs.  After about fifteen minutes it crawled up on my desk and settled down next to the wall a couple of feet from where I was working.  So far nothing really strange or out of the ordinary.

But then something happened.  Suddenly - THWACK!! - he struck across the desk and bit a portable radio I had turned up on the other side of the desk, lightning fast, then collected itself back against the wall.  I thought, "Well, haven't seen that before", then went back to my project.

After about another minute THWACK!, and again after about another fifteen seconds THWACK!  The same thing...striking across the width of my desk, passing just a few inches from of my working hands, biting the radio in the same spot.

Now I'm thinking that this is unusual, wondering what could make a snake want to strike at and bite a radio in the first place, not to mention in succession like that.  Then it dawned on me that, since snakes "hear" via vibrations perceived underneath the chin and through the jawbone, this guy was capturing the vibrations from the music (country, the slow and twangy kind), striking only when certain bass notes came from the speaker.  I watched a while and sure enough, it only struck when a song hit those bass notes - completely ignoring me in the whole process.  Fearing that it would injure itself before long, I turned off the radio and there were no more THWACKS to distract me from my work.