Here I am, back at work, the cat hanging out on the desk (over my arm, of course), and me catching up. Not quite at a snail's pace - but then, they actually are not that slow when they want to get somewhere. 

We have quite a lot of grapevine snails in the garden, to our delight. I'm not so fond of the slugs, but the snails are all welcome. (It probably helps that we don't have a lot of things growing that are attractive to snails and slugs, and/or so delicate they will get eaten up.)

This one here is clearly on the way somewhere. Maybe to some snail meetup - a few days ago, there was a group of three of them very close to each other...

Well, not quite holidays, but the Most Patient Husband of Them All has a few days off next week, so I will take some time off as well. Because, uh, I think I don't need to explain the reasons here, right?

Anyway, this means I will take off the blog next week; I'll be back on May 5 with the usual mix of random things I found on the Internet, cat pictures, weather reports and the occasional rant about stuff going on here. And while I'm doing whatever, you get to enjoy this image of the little hedgehog we found a few weeks ago.

She's now back with us, spending a few days in a corral to get used to the surroundings again before we'll open everything up again and she can roam freely.

(She was named Katrina, by the way, by the hedgehog station staff.) 

... giving us riddles.

Like the female community buried, and now being excavated, here: 

It's only a short video, but I found the graves quite fascinating! 

Amazingly, the book covers analysed in a Northern French abbey were bound in... seal skins. That was quite unexpected, and some more research and analyses discovered more seal skin use in books in Belgium and England. 

You can read the original article here.

Ebay sent me an email a while ago about changes in their Terms and Conditions, ending with the sentence "You do not need to do anything". They are valid from yesterday - and apparently if you don't do anything (like I did), it grants ebay permission to use your data for training of KI.

Aaargh. And have I mentioned aargh? Thankfully I have the Most Patient Husband of Them All, who sent me info about this today, including on how to deny this. (Obviously if they already used your data, that's done, but at least you can disallow anything new to be used.)

If you want to read a bit more in German about this, here's a Spiegel article. And if you only care for the "f* off and leave my data alone"-link, here you go. You will have to log in, then move the slider from the "yes" to "no" side.

And just in case you have not guessed yet: I am very much not amused.

It's getting warmer and sunnier here, and all kinds of flowers are blooming. Some are a little early, and it's been too dry hereabouts,  but I am still enjoying the warmth... and the flower carpet that the Gundermann is making: 

(The dictionary tells me the English name is "ground ivy", which seems a little weird to me - there's not so much similarity to ivy...)

And also coming up, very fitting to the warm weather and everything green and hopeful again: Easter. Which means I will have a few days off, so the blog will go on a break until next Tuesday. I hope you can enjoy a few nice days and maybe a long weekend, whether you celebrate or not!

In case you can access BBC online, there's a one-hour broadcast about "The Mysteries of the Bayeux Tapestry", featuring Dr. Alexandra Makin. It's currently available online here.