Author: Paul Handover

Tanja Brandt

I promised you more background information.

You will all recall that when we were ‘enjoying’ the chaos of having new flooring installed in three of our rooms I posted over a number of days a selection of wonderful, incredible photographs taken by Tanja Brandt. Here is one of those photos.

We were all utterly enthralled by them and wanted to know more about Tanja.

But Tanja is German and her website and blogsite are, not surprisingly, in German. However, a good friend of mine from times past, Chris Snuggs, who is fluent in German (and French) came to the rescue when I asked for a favour of an English translation.

I sent Chris the link to Tanja’s ‘About Me’ page and here is what Chris emailed me yesterday.

Paul

At this URL: https://www.ingoundelse.de/%C3%BCber-mich/

…. she introduces herself with two short texts followed by a list of publications and/or photographic events and awards etc.

I have done a translation of the two elements of her introduction but not attempted to translate the list that follows.

I am assuming that if you want to write an introduction to her you can take her words according to my translation and reformulate them in your own words.

If you want a proper translation of her own words then I think I would need to work on it a bit more. The difficulty there is that if I translate her words directly it will not sound great in English; to get her meaning across in good English I would have to be a bit more free with the phrasing.

I hope that makes sense.

Made sense to me! Wonderful sense!
Here are those translations with the original German in blockquotes and the English translation by Chris topped and tailed with Tanja’s photographs:

Über mich …
Verlasse dich auf dein Herz – es schlug schon, bevor du denken konntest …

…. gibt es nicht so viel zu erzählen. Meine große Leidenschaft, seit ich in Windeln krabbeln kann, sind Tiere.

Tiere im Allgemeinen – vor allem auch Greifvögel und Raubkatzen – und Hunde im Speziellen.

Ich glaube, ich spreche ihre Sprache.

Ein Leben ohne Tiere ist für mich schwer vorstellbar und wenn Jemand keine Tiere mag, dann wird er sich vermutlich nicht sehr lange bei mir aufhalten.

About me
Trust your heart; it was beating before you were capable of thought.

There’s not all that much to say. My greatest passion even since I was a baby are animals – all kinds of animals, above all birds of prey and big cats – and especially dogs.

I believe I speak their language!

For me a life without animals is difficult to imagine, and if someone doesn’t like animals, then he or she would probably not be around me for long.

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Fotografie ist meine Leidenschaft

Wie es begann?

Ich wollte schöne Fotos von meinen Tieren. Bzw überhaupt von Tieren. Fotos, die die Seele und den Charakter des jeweiligen Tieres widerspiegeln. Nicht einfach nur Fotos.

So kam mir der Gedanke, mit einer professionellen Kamera dürfte das kein Problem sein. Die Kamera wurde gekauft und es ging los – das Ergebnis war ernüchternd ….

Ich musste dann doch noch einige Workshops besuchen, um da zu sein, wo ich heute stehe.Kurse, Workshops, Webinare, Bücher, Austausch mit anderen Fotografen und viel üben. Und ich versuche jeden Tag, was dazu zu lernen und zu entdecken.

Aber allein das Technikverständnis macht es nicht aus, um die Seele der Tiere zu zeigen und die Arbeit mit den Tieren ist so wertvoll. Ich kann Tiere nur fotografieren, wenn sie sich wohlfühlen und mit Begeisterung mitmachen oder Wildtiere eben keine Angst vor mir haben.

Photography is my passion. How did it all begin?
I wanted to take beautiful photos of my animals, indeed, of all animals: photos which would reveal the soul and character of each animal – not just snaps …..

So I had the idea that all I needed was a professional camera. The camera was bought and off I went – the experience was chastening. I realized I needed training to get where I am now: went to workshops, on courses, internet lessons, books, exchanges with other photographers and lots more. And I still try every day to discover and learn something new.

But technique alone doesn’t suffice to lay bare the soul of a creature. Working with animals is so fulfilling, but I can only photograph them when they are at ease and enthusiastically join in the process, or if with wild animals when they are not afraid of me.

So many things make presenting this blog to you so very special for me. Then something comes along that takes it into the stratosphere of being special. That is Tanja Brandt. Tanja’s photographs and how she describes herself are stratospheric!

I am so pleased to have been granted permission by Tanja to share her photographs; something I never want to stop doing!

Visiting the Vet – Ruby’s UTI

This one is closer to home!

Back on the 11th August Jean and I took Ruby into Lincoln Road Vet because there was blood in her urine. Ruby is one of our six dogs that we have at home. Ruby is the last of the Mexican ex-rescue dogs and is an eleven-year old Sharpei mix.

Here she is staring up at me to the right of Oliver in the picture below .

In clockwise order: Oliver; Sweeny; Ruby; Pedy.

Because of Ruby’s age and background and the fact that there was significant blood in her urine we were bracing ourselves for some bad news.

Once checked in it wasn’t too long a wait before we were shown in to Dr. Jim’s room.

There Jim took some urine for analysis and then started examining Ruby. Jim was worried that Ruby might have kidney stones.

However, and thankfully, the urine test revealed an infection, nothing worse! A urinary tract infection or UTI.

Therefore, the first move would be to start Ruby on a course of Amoxillin.

Jim explained that Amoxillin was an antibiotic that he thought would be good for Ruby and would quickly determine whether or not Ruby had a simple urinary tract infection (UTI) or if it was something more challenging (my words).

Wikipedia offers a good description of Amoxicillin, from which I offer the opening paragraph.

Amoxicillin, also spelled amoxycillin, is an antibiotic useful for the treatment of a number of bacterial infections.^[2] It is the first line treatment for middle ear infections. It may also be used for strep throat, pneumonia, skin infections, and urinary tract infections among others.^[2] It is taken by mouth, or less commonly by injection.^[2]^[3]

Maybe my initial reluctance to publish this Visiting the Vet post was down to me not wanting to do that before the results of the antibiotic treatment were clear.

Ergo, Jean and I are overjoyed to report that the Amoxicillin course did sort everything out and that Ruby is over her UTI and back to being her normal, healthy, happy self.

When Jim called us at home a week later he was just as pleased to hear the good news!

It’s in the language!

A comprehensive guide to the body language of our beautiful dogs.

Back in August 2016 I shared a post with you all from Vetstreet.com about interpreting the growls of a dog. It seemed to be liked by many of you.

Now fast forward to eleven days ago and an email that came in from Emma.

Dear Learning from Dogs Team,
My name’s Emma, a blogger at Hello Cute Pup.

I have been reading your blog for some time, and I absolutely love what you have been doing! Your content inspires me on a daily basis, and I’m really in love with your website.

I’ve been thinking about how I could help add value to you and your blog and I would love to contribute a guest post on your site.

I was inspired to write this article after reading your great piece “Why Dogs Are Friendly”.

I promise that I will provide HIGH-quality content that you won’t find anywhere else.

As a pet parent myself, I’ve had tons of amazing experience that I could bring to your audience.

Here are some links to other pieces that I have written to give you an idea of the quality that I am bringing to the table.

Dog Express
http://www.dogexpress.in/how-to-choose-the-best-dog-food-for-pugs
Imagine Forest
http://www.imagineforest.com/blog/baileys-best-buddy/

Safe and Healthy Life

http://www.safeandhealthylife.com/food-diet-for-dogs-the-ultimate-guide/

Let me know if you are interested. I already know your blogging style, plus I understand what your readers love as I am one.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Cheers and have a good day!

Emma

Well you all know me sufficiently well to know that I couldn’t resist. Especially after seeing how nicely Emma had presented those pieces she linked to above.

Here is Emma’s article.

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A Comprehensive Guide to Basic Dog Body Language

Understanding your loved ones’ body language is always important. If you understand how your partner, sister, mother, or father acts when they feel a certain way, you can more accurately meet their emotional needs. This is the same as it is with the canine members of your family.

Understanding how your dog behaves when he or she feels certain things will help you bond, and help build trust, as well as make both you and your dog happier.

How do you decode dog behavior? There are a few ways, and a few certain body signals that your dog will give you that you should understand. Here are a few of them.

Play Bow

You may have noticed that when a dog is feeling frisky and energetic, he or she will bow their front end to the ground and push their rear end into the air. Typically, this means that the dog wants to play.

Tail Wagging

It’s a common belief that tail wagging means that a dog is happy. While this can be true, tail wagging can also mean a few other things.

A tail that wags low can mean your dog is scared or unsure.
A high and stiff tail wag can mean that your dog feels irritated, scared, or unsure. This kind of tail wagging can often lead to a dog becoming aggressive if pushed.

Freezing

Dogs often “freeze” when they are scared or guarding something like food, water, a toy, or their owner. This means that the dog will stop what he or she is doing and stand in one position without moving. When a dog is frozen, he or she is more likely to bite.

Rolling

When a dog rolls over, it usually means that he or she is submissive- but it’s important to pay attention to the dog’s whole body. If your dog’s tail and mouth are hanging loose, it can mean that he or she wants a belly rub or some attention. If the tail is tucked in or his or her mouth is stiff, it can mean that your dog is scared or nervous. Before you touch a dog who is rolled over, look for the signs of comfort.
Perked Ears

Chances are, if you own a dog, you’ve seen him or her with his ears perked up. This means that your dog is alert and attentive.
Tail Between Legs

When a dog tucks his or her tail between his legs, this is a classic sign of fear. Dogs who are scared, as a general rule of thumb, are prone to becoming aggressive in an attempt to protect themselves- so be careful when getting too close to a dog who is acting fearful.
Signs of stress

Like humans, dogs can become stressed. Stress in dogs can make them act in certain ways and exhibit specific body language. Some of the signs that mean that a dog is stressed are:

Yawning in new situations
Panting when it isn’t hot
Licking their front paws as someone new approaches
Licking of the lips despite not recently having eaten or drank
Scratching
Avoiding eye contact
Shaking himself off after someone new touches him
Highly audible exhales that can be accompanied by whining or avoiding eye contact
Lying down and refusing to participate

Signs of fear

Dogs exhibit easy-to-read signs of fear. Some of these signs are:

Drooling
Pacing
Tucking his tail while moving away from something
Whining
His or her feet start to sweat
Growling and moving away
Curling his or her lips and showing teeth
Trying to hide
Running away

Signs of Happiness

Along with taking up the play bow position, dogs offer us other physical signs that they are happy. These include:

Energetic tail wagging
Tail thumping on the floor or ground
Lying in a relaxed, one paw tucked under, position
Bumping or pressing against you
Initiating physical contact
Jumping up
Smiling (yes, sometimes it really does look as if your dog smiles)
Playful barking to get your attention

Although the above behaviors are common in most dogs, it’s important to remember that dogs have individual personalities – what one dog does in a situation, isn’t necessarily what another does in that same situation. For example, if your dog reacts well with some dog shampoo, another dog might hate it. This shampoo might make him panic and he could fear baths forever.
To truly understand what your dog’s body is trying to tell you, pay attention to how he or she acts. He may react in the ways that are listed above, or he may have his own unique way of expressing to you how he feels.
Context is also a key point to focus on when you’re trying to determine how your dog feels based on his body language. For example, if your dog is being cornered by another, bigger and more intimidating dog and he wags his tail, chances are that he isn’t happy. In this situation, he more than likely is gearing up for a fight or is feeling scared.

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My hopes are that Emma will be writing many more guest posts for this place.

Oh, want to know a little more about Emma?

Emma is the founder of HelloCutePup. As the owner of 3 dogs, Emma has had the pleasure of learning the ins and outs to becoming a pet owner. With years of experience working on training, at-home dog health care, and aesthetic maintenance, she has the real-world experience that every pet owner is looking for. She is an avid blogger who enjoys giving realistic tips and tricks to help dog owners understand their pet’s personalities and to help pets easily become a part of the family.

Fabulous!

Picture Parade Two Hundred and Nine

Just a few memories of the last week.

Our English guests, Mark and Debbie, who stayed with us after traveling to Warm Springs, South-East of Portland, Oregon, to view the eclipse took the following three photographs.

See the crescents in the dappled shade of a near by bush. 10 minutes before totality.

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Then you will love the next one. Sent in by Neil Kelly from Devon, England.

Madison wears sunglasses to view the eclipse along the Cumberland River, Nashville, USA

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And another beauty courtesy of Neil K.

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Back to the stars!

The rising moon a little after 5am on the 19th August.

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And there hanging above that rising moon was Venus!

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Finally, back to Tanja Brandt whose most beautiful photographs will be gracing these Picture Parades in the future.

The wonderful love of a dog

Just enjoy!

We are chilling out for a couple of days giving our attention to Mark and Debbie who are staying with us. They came over to view the eclipse and I shall feature a few of Mark’s photographs for this coming Sunday’s Picture Parade.

(The following first seen over on the Care2 website)

Published on Aug 2, 2017

This dog’s motherly instincts are so strong that she feels the need to help raise an abandoned litter of kittens. What a hero!

And not this is not a dog that is living in a loving home but a stray dog! Incredible creatures.

Giving us better lives!

Delighted to republish this for you all.

Marc who blogs at Healthy Pawz recently decided to follow this place. I went across to Healthy Pawz to leave my thanks for the follow, as I always try to do, and read a most wonderful post. Wanted to republish it here today.

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Pets Can Change Our Life For The Better

myhealthypawz

Posted on August 18, 2017

Pets have an amazing ability to change our lives for the better. They find that special place in our heart and latch on with incredible amounts of unconditional love. When we regularly give our pets undivided attention, we build a bond and connection that will last a lifetime.

Every moment we spend with our pets is an opportunity to observe them and learn more about their personality, nuances or needs. Notice the simple and basic things about your pet like when they are relaxed, comfortable, happy, anxious, etc., just as you would a child. Those moments of observation will teach you so much about the little being that wants nothing more than to provide you with unconditional love and attention.

Another great benefit to having a pet is that they can sometimes see in us what we cannot see in ourselves. We know about service pets that support people in different ways for sight, comfort, seizures, autism, etc. But, our own pets are also in tune to our needs and emotions. However, we are sometimes so rushed with life that we fail to recognize the great gift our pets are offering us (me included). We have a rescue kitten with one eye and in my opinion, she’s amazing. This little cat noticed inflections in my voice that indicated stress of some sort. For me it was business as usual, but for her it was climb on my chest and rub her little face against mine. After a few hundred times of this (exaggerated of course) I finally realized that she was trying to calm me down. And I learned to better recognize when I needed to take a step back with a deep breath throughout the day.

We live in a very fast paced, get it done kind of society. That kind of daily grind can strip away some of our compassion and empathy because we are so overwhelmed with other aspects of life that we may not notice when we are stuck in that vortex spinning around aimlessly. Whether we realize it or not our pets are a great conduit to restoring that which we need to sustain us in our human relationships. Compassion and empathy are easily understood, but not always easily lived out. Our pets are a daily reminder of this because they provide both compassion and empathy daily. Because of this, we have an opportunity to reciprocate compassion and empathy back to them and to those around us.

Whether you have a dog, cat, hamster, etc., pets can enhance our lives in so many ways. Carve out some daily time to spend with your furry loved one, observe them on their terms and take some time to reflect about how they are benefiting your life. Watch over time as your emotional intelligence evolves through this process.

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There is so much wise advice in that post!

Hard to highlight any particular sentence but this one spoke to me early on: “When we regularly give our pets undivided attention, we build a bond and connection that will last a lifetime.”

A connection that will last a lifetime!

Getting too old for this!

This wasn’t what I had planned for today ….

….. but I only managed to get my office back to some form of functionality late yesterday afternoon.

So some peeks into the last few days..

The installers arrived bright and early on Saturday morning.

But I guess one advantage of us starting to get used to the house being upside down, it having been like this since the 11th, was that the dogs were pretty relaxed about the whole affair.

Not quite sure that Jeannie and me were so cool about the chaos that had surrounded us for so many days now.

Then the picture below was the state of my office Sunday afternoon.

But the one great bonus was that the smoke in the air from nearby forest fires meant that yesterday’s sunrise was a very beautiful sight.

Hopefully, good people, back to more normal times tomorrow. (And the new floor does look great!)

The day of the eclipse!

The day has arrived! Listen carefully!

Listen?? Yes, and thanks to The Smithsonian, if you are blind or visually impaired!

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What Does an Eclipse Sound Like?

A new app will allow blind and visually impaired users to experience the upcoming solar eclipse on August 21.

By Nathan Hurst
smithsonian.com August 14, 2017

How would you describe an eclipse to a blind person? The moon moves in front of the sun, yes. But what does that look like? Someone trained in illustrative description of images might say, “The moon appears as a featureless black disk that nearly blocks out the sun. The sun’s light is still visible as a thin band around the moon’s black disk. To the upper right, at the moon’s leading edge, a small area of sunlight still shines brilliantly.”

That’s just an example of how such an event could be described. Bryan Gould, director of accessible learning and assessment technologies at the National Center for Accessible Media, a non-profit working to make media experiences accessible to people with disabilities, is hoping to offer oral descriptions of the eclipse in an app. Paired with other features, like a tactile diagram and audio from the changing natural environment as the eclipse darkens the sky, the app is designed to make the event more accessible to blind or visually impaired people who want to experience it.

Gould is working with Henry Winter, a solar astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, to develop the app, called Eclipse Soundscapes. As the August 21 solar eclipse darkens a path across the United States, Eclipse Soundscapes will release descriptions, timed—based on the user’s location—to match the progress of the eclipse.

Winter conceived Eclipse Soundscapes after a conversation with a friend who’s been blind since birth. She asked him to explain what an eclipse means.

Such an event might provide an interesting representation of the eclipse, thought Winter, so he partnered with the National Park Service’s Natural Sounds program, which preserves and catalogs sounds from the parks. Helpers stationed at national parks along the route will record audio during the eclipse, to hear the change in the “bioacoustical chorus” of the animals.

This can’t happen in real time, of course, so the National Center for Accessible Media is providing illustrative descriptions, based on a previous eclipse. The sounds of crickets, frogs and birds becoming active on the day of the eclipse will be added to the app later.

Last, with the help of an audio engineer named Miles Gordon, Winter is trying something completely new. Gordon developed a “rumble map” of the eclipse: The app places images of different stages of an eclipse on your smartphone’s screen, and as you trace your finger across the eclipse’s image, the vibration increases or decreases based on the brightness of the image.

“It does give you the impression that you’re actually feeling the sun, as you move your finger around,” says Winter.

“I realized I didn’t have the vocabulary to answer that question for her,” says Winter. “Every way I thought about it was visual in nature, and I didn’t know how to explain it to somebody … light, dark, bright, dim, flash. All these different words have no meaning to somebody that’s never seen.”

But the project goes well beyond audio descriptions. It includes two further elements: audio of the changing soundscape caused by the eclipse, and a tactile exploration of the eclipse’s image (which means that people who are blind or visually impaired can “feel” the eclipse using vibrations on their smartphones).

Many creatures become active as the sun sets, and many of them use darkness as an indicator of time of day. During an eclipse, crickets will chirp and frogs will chorus, thinking night has fallen. These habits were noted as far back as 1932, in a Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences article titled “Observations on the Behavior of Animals During the Total Solar Eclipse of August 31, 1932.”

Scientists around the world will be using the eclipse as an opportunity to study solar astronomy in a way they usually can’t, measuring the ultraviolet light emitted from the sun’s corona, which Earth-based observers can’t normally see, as it is overpowered by the normal sunlight. It’s also rare for an eclipse to cover this much land — it traverses from Oregon to South Carolina — and Winter points out that it is a particularly good opportunity for education and outreach.

Though education is important, for Wanda Diaz Merced, a visiting scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who is completely blind, there’s a lot more to the eclipse than that. Merced, who has consulted on the Eclipse Soundscapes project, studies human-computer interaction and astrophysics, and to do her research, she needs assistance translating data into a format she can interact with. She’s been building tools to help with that translation, and sees elements of Winter’s project that could contribute.

“It’s still not a prototype that I may use, for example, to study elements of the photosphere. It is not on that stage,” says Merced. “But hopefully one day we will be able to not only hear, but to touch.”

The eclipse will occur on August 21, starting around 10 a.m. in Oregon and finishing by 3 p.m .in South Carolina. The Eclipse Soundscapes app is available for iOS now, and the team is working on an Android app as well.

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I can’t imagine there’s anyone still pondering on whether or not to view the eclipse.

But that still doesn’t stop me offering you this recently presented TED Talk.

On August 21, 2017, the moon’s shadow will race from Oregon to South Carolina in what some consider to be the most awe-inspiring spectacle in all of nature: a total solar eclipse. Umbraphile David Baron chases these rare events across the globe, and in this ode to the bliss of seeing the solar corona, he explains why you owe it to yourself to witness one, too.

This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxMileHigh, an independent event. TED editors featured it among our selections on the home page.

About the speaker: David Baron David Baron writes about science in books, magazines, newspapers and for public radio. He formerly served as science correspondent for NPR and science editor for PRI’s The World.

Enjoy it, good people. And protect your eyes!!!

Or better still allow NASA Television to show the eclipse to you.

NASA Television will air a four-hour show – Eclipse Across America – which will include live video of the event, along with coverage of activities in parks, libraries, stadiums, festivals and museums across the nation, and on social media. NASA’s show begins at 15:00 UTC (11 a.m. EDT; translate to your time zone), or later (we’ve seen this time waffle around a bit). Check the website for changes or further details.

Flooring Saga Day Five

Hopefully back to normal for tomorrow.

(And, apologies, if there have been some duplications of these fabulous photographs.)

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Don’t know about you but returning to my ‘normal’ style of blog posts could run the risk of being seen as inferior to the posts of the last four days!

But can’t resist sharing one further photograph with you.