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Dog:

Conversation from Friday:

Chris: "Wow, I'm really excited to be coming home tomorrow! Can you pick me up at the airport?"

Jen: "Oh ya, I might bring our new dog"

Chris: "errr.... pardon me.."



Anyway, puppies are always fun, except when they need to be taken out in the middle of the night.

Her name is Sophie, and she is a 10 week old Dalmatian. She has lots of energy, but she is very smart and is already learning to fetch and respond to her name. We still have some trouble with getting our legs tangled in the leash though.

Back in the Hannover forest:

I found out that this beautiful old forest that I've enjoyed walking through, in Hannover, is called Eilenriede, and it has a rich history dating back to medievel times. Although the forest has been damaged by cattle, forestry and WWII, I can't image that parts of it wouldn't be classed as 'old growth'. Eillenriede is nearly twice as big an NY's central park.

I found the translated German wikipedia page very interesting. For any of my colleages who may visit Hannover, I highly recommend a visit to this forest.














The tall forest canopy is so dense that the forest floor is cool and moist, even in the warm sun. Probably a perfect habitat for interesting slimy creatures that would dry out in any other environment.




















I was totally unable to capture the shear magnitude of this White Oak tree on film. Digital SLR with wide-angle lens, won't you please come and live with me? I estimated the tree at > 4 ft. diamter, and somewhere over 80 ft. tall. As a young tree growing in a dense, mature forest, it would have had to grow fast and tall to compete for light. It's form is greatly unlike any Oak tree grown in open sun, it has a smooth, straight trunk for about 60 ft. maybe. It's hard to make out the upper branches.

Rewarded for pain:

This morning was the first day the training session I'm giving here in Hannover. Unfortunately, it didn't get off to a great start. About 30 minutes after starting the course, I started to feel a bit "off" and started wondering if I had low blood sugar (due to my diabetes). I wanted to push on , at least for a few more minutes because I felt really akward taking a break just after getting started. I really didn't want to have to explain my circumstance. Normally I can get away with this, but only a few minutes later, I was nearly on the floor. I was likely speaking weird and acting weird, and the folks, which I had met only a short time before starting giving me strange looks. I called a break, and by this point it was very bad. I started to panic bad and shovel down massive amounts of sugar. The participants of the course were starting to talk to each other in German and laugh. I felt really embarrased because I imaged they were talking about me. I started sweating and became super nervous and shaky. I got up and went to the washroom and sat on the toilet in the stall to have some privacy so I could calm down and wait for my sugar to come up. It took nearly 1/2 hour. I came back to the room and they were chuckling. I felt I had no choice but to explain myself and they became silent. I felt it cast a weird vibe to the training at least until after lunch. I tried to be extra friendly, to try and work the mood back to normal. Fortunately, by the end of the day I think it was all good. Strangely enough, I'd normally be really sick with high blood sugar after an episode like that. I must have been really bad because even with probably 100g of sugar, it wasn't high.

I managed to wrap up the day a bit early, and went back to the hotel to relax. The hotel is pretty cool. It is a reworked building where foutain pens were manufactured. The ceiling in the room is around 20 feet high. Sun beams in the window and makes it super hot; fortunately it's been rather cloudy and rainy, so my room is comfortable.

Later in the evening I went for a walk and found a beautiful, huge forested park. Some of the oak and beach trees are over 4 ft around and 80+ feet tall. My guess is that they are over 100 years old. There is a zoo bordering the park, and apparantly it was established in 1860. My guess is that the trees are from around this time as well. I walked for about an hour. I felt excited to see the trees and the cool, moist forest understory with it's woodland plants and old mosses made me feel calm and at peace. The day's trouble melted away.

Highway 508 near Calabogie:

Jen took these: