Corvus frugilegus

Most pleople I know seem to hate rooks, maybe because their descent on Viennese parks signals winter's imminent return. Since I actually love winter, I always look forward to seeing them back from their Russian or Polish summer retreats, elegantly sashaying around my beloved Volksgarten as if they owned the place. Although I'm not at all interested in birds and poultry per se, I find rooks incredibly cool with their jet black plumage and majestic strut. They are as unimpressed by human beings who walk past them as they are by dogs. Last week I found out that they are obviously carnivores when I walked past a group (flock?) of them luxuriously picking apart frozen convenience food, i.e. frozen stiff pigeon. Yum, yum.

With the Siberian temperatures we're having at the moment (around -15° when I leave home in the morning) plus the notoriously merciless Viennese wind my brisk early-morning walk feels like some kind of extreme winter sport. I still love it, though and keep telling myself that it boosts my immune system. No colds so far this winter, knock, knock.

Lunch-break purchases: Perfume. I'd run out of mine and tracked down a bottle of the rather hard-to-get (at least in Austria) scent, Automne (part of the Les Saisons par Van Cleef&Arpels series) which I discovered a year ago and find really "is me". Other than that, some more (cheap) cosmetic staples.