Just in case you're looking for an excuse to look at a soothing murky green screen... you are helping fish?

There's a boat lock in Utrecht that is closed during spring - but that is the time of year that fish migrate upstream for spawning. The city has found a rather ingenious solution: The Fish Doorbell. You can watch the livestream from a camera in front of the lock, and when you see a fish, you can ring the doorbell for the fish. Once enough fish are waiting, the lock is opened and they can travel on.

You can find the doorbell here (even with an English version for the site). It's just the right thing to watch when you need to look at more or less nothing for a bit. And if you're lucky, you might see a fish!

Maps are nice, and very helpful, and an interesting thing. They are also quite misleading when it comes to the size of countries - because with the "normal" map projection, the one we're all most used to because it's the most common, the sizes change in regard to the distance to the equator.

So in case you've ever wondered how large Greenland or Finland really are compared to Italy... here you can find out: thetruesize.com allows you to drag and drop individual countries on top of other ones. Makes for some really interesting shrinkage if you drag Greenland into Africa!

A while ago, some reels turned up in my Instagram feed, and thus I stumbled over Elle Cordova. She's doing stuff about a variety of things, and one of them is... fonts. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did: 

It's Friday! The weekend is coming up, and that's a very nice thing.  Also a nice thing? The many flowers blooming outside. Like those little ones:

It's really nice to have these heralds of spring blooming!  

It's Pi Day, 3.14, and to my great delight, I've actually realised it before posting here - so you're getting a Pie post today. 

I am quite fond of pies, and sometimes think I should make them way more often, but... well... they do require either some work, or some suitable leftovers. Work as in "making the pie and the filling to go with it", or leftovers that can go into the pie shell with little or no modification, so there's only the dough, and then the baking, to do.

For weekday lunch (which is the thing I'm cooking stuff for), making both the dough and the filling is usually more time than I can fit into the schedule... which leaves leftovers to put into the pie. Sadly, that does not happen too often anymore either. The nicest leftovers (I think) that you can stick into a pie shell is some meat-based dish. Add in, maybe, some leftover potatoes and vegetables, the remainder of the sauce or make some if necessary, and off you go. However, we've reduced the amount of meat-based dishes that we eat over the course of the last years... and there's my problem with having leftovers. 

So, hm, maybe we should have the sweet version more often then, to make up for it - but there's so many nice cakes to bake...

Do you have favourite pie recipes? Sweet or savoury?

I'm having the day off after my workshop, so you are getting this photo of one of the squirrels living hereabouts: 

It's sitting on the tree one garden over, having a snack. There's at least three squirrels that we see frequently, and two of them - one red and one greyish-red - seem to be romantically involved... so there's a chance for more squirrels over time! 

With absolutely impeccable timing, the German Rail is on strike since yesterday and all of today. Fortunately, this was announced a few days beforehand, so I could look into my options to get to my tablet weaving workshop...

With a normal train connection, it's about the same amount of time for me to drive and to take the train. However, train means that I can do something else while travelling (like reading, or knitting), and driving means... driving. So I usually strongly prefer using the train.

Which got me into a conundrum: Brave the strike, take the train (there's still a decent connection I can take which is, according to the schedule, going to run) or go for the "safe" option and drive instead, on roads that are probably a good bit more full than usual, and on a Friday afternoon to boot? So after weighing the pros and cons, I've decided to be adventurous, booked seat reservations for the trains that are supposed to bring me where I want to go, and now I'm off.

Wish me luck!