Birds, water, beauty
This morning I shared the air and water with lots of birds: 8 ducks, a coot and hundreds of swallows, which sat tightly packed on the handrail of my boat and happily took to the air - as only birds can. The video is without a thumbnail because I don't know how to do that yet. It's beautiful - be sure to watch it.
I love birds. In my book Leinen los. How I built a houseboat in the centre of Berlin to live my dream, I wrote about my encounters with these beautiful animals:
„I would never have thought how much the beauty of birds would touch me. There are the country birds - the nightingale that sits on an old crane in the evening and sings marvellously. Of course, pigeons, tits and sometimes robins.
One day when I was planting vines, a little robin sat down not even an arm's length away from me and watched me digging. Then it ate an earthworm that it had picked up from the soil I had loosened up and pooped unabashedly. Perhaps it just wanted to fertilise my wine as a thank you for the worm.
Birds by the water
The water birds have their own special charm, of course. There are the ducks, which sometimes don't swim to save energy, but let themselves be carried by an ice floe or a branch - before I moved on board, I hadn't realised that ducks sometimes hitch a ride.
From time to time, the black, elegant cormorants with their slender necks can also be seen diving for fish and travelling long distances under water. But then they display a lack of table manners - the fish is gobbled down in one piece. There is something special about watching this.
Funny birds: coots
I also like coots, which always look a bit clumsy. Even as adult birds, they look like babies just learning to walk - and the way they dive into the water makes me laugh every time.
The knobbly black birds with the white pallor on their foreheads can also be spelt with an ä. I prefer the spelling with an e because to bless means „to bless“ in English, and as we all know, you can never have enough blessings.
When I was celebrating the start of 2016 on board my ship, a flock of coots swam straight towards my ship at midnight - probably frightened by the firecrackers. We counted over 100 - a blessing!
Swans - majestic birds
But what I love most are the majestic swans. Just as I'm writing this, my neighbour, Mr Swan, comes gliding across the water. He raises his wings and the morning sun shines through.
On a postcard, it might look cheesy. In real life, it's simply beautiful.
Since I've been living on the ship, I've made a habit of watching animals whenever I see or hear them.“
If you want to find out more about the birds and my life on the water and the long journey to get there, then get my book Cast off. How I built a houseboat in the centre of Berlin to live my dream.
