This is just a little more to the right from the view I posted on the last photo. Here the Leibnitzstraße (from the left), the Kämpchenstrasse (from the top) and the Muhrenkamp (from the right) meet and end up down on the Dickswall. This is also the corner on which I took the stop sign photo, which you can see on the foreground :-). There’s a tiny little park on the right, which was actually completely bulldozed over last year, killing at least two huge trees, when a rain reservoir was constructed beneath it. Fortunately a few new trees were planted, but it will take another fifty years or so for them to grow as big as their predecessors.

I know I’m being watched! He’s right behind me, isn’t he?
I still have some great blackbird “outtakes” left :-).

I think forty cactus flower photos are enough for now without getting repetetive, so here’s a last one I shot three days ago. This is again a HDR, but this time I like the very natural-looking colours. The cactus flowers will be back sometime around April or May, so stay tuned :-).

It’s just the house at the corner of Mülheim’s Kämpchenstrasse and Dickswall. For some reason it looks to me like it is built out of Lego bricks! It was recently renovated and does look quite good now.

And a third photo of the blackbirds snacking on the rowanberries.
If this goes on, the tree will be bare at the end of the week!

One last shot of the insides of my old Ibach piano. I’m not sure if the hammers were exchanged for new ones when we had the piano tuned in about 1990, but I remember that the whole mechanic was removed and taken to the workshop for refurbishment. The work done was quite extensive, but it made the instrument fit for the next century! Remember, a piano is not just for Christmas, but for life :-).

Just a quick non-HDR shot with the flash today, but at least it’s a duo this time!

Old houses in the foreground, new(er) houses in the background – that’s pretty much the story of Mülheim’s inner city. Although even the highrises in the background are about 35 years old now…

Another closer look at the inner workings of my old Ibach piano. Yesterday I found out that this Oberdämpfer / Overdampener style of mechanic is also called Birdcage Action in England – and you can see exactly why in this photo: the steel rods of the dampeners literally create a cage over the hammers.

The stockpile of rowanberries is slowly, but steadily getting smaller!