Singapore zoo flower

Macro Flower Saturday

Macro Flower Saturday Macro Flower Saturday ">Macro Flower Saturday



http://blueberrycraftandhobbytime.blogspot.com/p/join-my-photo-challenge-flowers-on.html





Reed like plant with pink flurry flowers. May be Jama can tell us what it is called.

A Feeding Robin For World Bird Wednesday

This picture above, taken in October 2008 is the kind of picture I was hoping for when I saw a Robin fly into our Mountain Ash tree one day last week. the robin's mouth was full but not with what I had expected.It had a grasshopper in its mouth!. It definitely was having a protein lunch. I was surprised when I downloaded the picture. I had expected to see its mouth full of berries.I have never seen a Robin eat a grasshopper before!And the Robin ate it or swallowed it whole. When first looking at the picture I wondered if the bird had sprouted whiskers? But no, it was having a grasshopper lunch.





Got pictures of birds you would like to share? Why not post them on Worldbird Wednesday? http://pineriverreview.blogspot.com/To find out how, please scroll down the right hand side of this page until you come to the worldbird logo, click on it and follow the directions from there

Thursday Theme Song: My city of ruin.

http://hootin--anni.blogspot.com/



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO-ds1-9yPw



I went to the earthquake ravaged city of Christchurch this weekend, and saw the rubbles. My heart bled to see these historical building turned to ruins. 128 people died in the earthquake on 22 Feb 2011.

Bruce Springsteen's My City of Ruin was adopted by the people of Christchurch as their anthemn.



History



The song was written in November 2000, for an Asbury Park, New Jersey Christmas show benefit to help promote the revitalization of the city. Once a popular resort destination in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Asbury Park had succumbed to significant amounts of blight for a variety of reasons, including the ill-effects of the Great Depression, the opening of the Garden State Parkway, and race riots.



The song first starts describing the current state of Asbury Park, the deterioration, and the absence of people in the area.



There's a blood red circle

On the cold dark ground

And the rain is falling down

The church doors blown open

I can hear the organ's song

But the congregations gone

Throughout the song, Springsteen continues to describe the city using images such as men loitering on a street corner and buildings with boarded up windows. The song ends, however, on a hopeful and optimistic note by powerfully imploring the city to "rise up" from the decay.





Come on rise up!

Come on rise up!

''Rise up



The song took on an entirely new meaning soon after the September 11 attacks, offering a message of hope and rising from the ruins. The most famous live performance of the song came on September 21, 2001 during the America: A Tribute to Heroes national telethon. With only a guitar and a harmonica, Springsteen opened the program, introducing the number as "a prayer for our fallen brothers and sisters" and modifying a few phrases in the song. He was joined on stage by Patti Scialfa, Steven Van Zandt, Soozie Tyrell, Lisa Lowell and Clarence Clemons. It was included as the first track on the subsequent album released of the telethon performances.



http://www.facebook.com/pages/My-City-of-Ruins/106097969421778?ref=ts

G is for grasshopper for ABC Wednesday Round 9

G is for Green Grasshopper

Can you see it? Perhaps this grasshopper didn't mean to seek out a camouflaged location on this old railroad tie, but it worked

Grasshoppers

As the summer season progresses I notice changes in the plants and small creatures that I see along the trails and paths that I follow each day.



In July, most morning walks were interrupted by my stopping to take pictures of Skippers and Fritillaries; then Common Wood-nymphs, Monarchs, Painted Ladies and Viceroys appeared. Cabbage Whites and Sulphurs started alighting on vegetation long enough for me to catch their images with my camera; last weekend I saw a Milbert's Tortiseshell ( in 2006 when this was written)Then gradually I noticed changes. During the past couple of weeks I seldom saw Skippers anymore and fewer butterflies. However now I am often alerted with a dry, sharp "click-click" sort of sound and I see many flying dark wings with light borders crossing my paths. Grasshoppers. There seem to be many and they jump and fly about as I walk along . I don't know their special names but I do have a few pictures of them to share.

ABCWednesday is hosted by Mrs. Nesbitt. Each week a different letter is featured. It goes in alphabetical order and next week is the letter 'g'. I have never photographed a giraffe before it won't be giraffe,so I'm not sure yet, what 'g' topic I will feature. If you would like to contribute to ABC Wednesday , you may do so by locating the meme here:http://abcwednesday-mrsnesbitt.blogspot.com/

A Robin and Mountain Ash berries for ruby Tuesday

Soon this Mountain Ash tree will be stripped of its berries and I hope my camera and I see the action and feathered visitors. It only takes a day for the berries to be devoured and the tree to be bare of its berries.

We had a huge Mountain Ash tree at out previous home at Hawkshaw and each year we waited for a huge flock of evening Grosbeaks to descend upon the berries. there used to be so many birds, it was a seasonal delight that we anticipated and enjoyed.

Here at our present home we get mainly Robins and sometimes Cedar Waxwings feasting on the red berries of this magnificent tree, which was a gift to us from our son Davis several years ago.



Got photos with red? Why not share them by posting them to

Ruby Tuesday. To find this delightful red focused meme, please click here.http://workofthepoet.blogspot.com/

watery wednesday: Earthquake Ravaged Christchurch

For watery Wednesday here, you can't really see the water. The water mains had been broken by the eartquake, and Kim and Lynn were washing the car after driving through the broken sewage pipes,















http://waterywednesday.blogspot.com/



I was down in Christchurch for the weekend. There are two stories here that are so incredulous that you just have to trust me.



During the two days I was there, there were 4 aftershocks of low magnitude and I was unaware of them.



On Saturday, my host friends took me to the fringes of the inner city and I saw mainly the old churches which were affected. On the way home, Jenny Ah Peng saw about 6 inches of bubbling water, and as she drove through them she joked that she got a free car wash. The next moment, she was @@##$ about driving through the sewage water. I was concentrating on the water at the kerb and didn't smell anything despite having the window wound down. Their mum and Kim and Lynn smelt the awful smell. All except me.



Now I tell you why, I think I have posted it before. When I was about 3 years old, my Dad went to London to study. We moved back to my grand Dad's house. At that time in the 50s, there was no power or TV or radio. To entertain us, my uncles performed magic tricks. One of these tricks was to put a peanut up their nostril and have it reappear in their arm pit. Impressionable me, I tried to imitate. My peanut got stuck in my nostril. All efforts to dig the peanut out failed and it remained in my nostril because my grand Dad was worried it would be pushed further if they tried to dig it. So my peanut remained in my nose nostril for many months. One day, we took a boat to my maternal grandma's house. I jumped from the jetty to the boat. As I jumped, my peanut came out. It had swollen and grown whitish. I had grown quite fondly of it. I was exclaiming, " My peanut! my peanut!" and showing it to everyone.



Is it by coincidence that I am the only child in the family of 9 kids who is allergic to peanuts? Mum never told Dad. I mentioned this to Dad not so long ago. He was shocked that nobody took me to the hospital. He said the peanut could have traveled to my lungs and I would have died.



To date, one of my nieces had duplicated Aunty Ann's peanut story. The stunt that went wrong.

mellow yellow, ruby red. rednesday: Campbell Aero Classics

http://mellowyellowmonday.blogspot.com/





http://workofthepoet.blogspot.com



http://www.suelovescherries.blogspot.com/







I went to Christchurch to visit my old friends. They took me to Loburn, to visit Ivan and Sandy Campbell. We were all excited as we drove to North Canterbury to Loburn Abbey airfield, as we knew we were going to fly in this special plane. At the Hanger were half finished planes.



I flew in a tiger moth. http://ann-mythoughtsandphotos.blogspot.com/2011/08/scenic-sunday-campbell-aero-classics.html



http://www.campbellaeroclassics.com

Prose, Poetry, Paras and Prayers

Good gracious, I have some catching up to do.



I had the flashest of flash fictions published online in Spilling Ink Review,

here: http://spillinginkreview.com/issue-5/flash-fiction/joanne-mckay/



I am alleged to have a poem currently residing in the Biggar Poetry Garden, but not having made it over there this summer I can't confirm with a visual sighting. More about the Garden and getting your poems in it (really!) here:

http://biggarpoetrygarden.weebly.com/index.html



And I kept up my Gutter record by getting into no. 5 with The M8 Gantry's Lament, a concrete poem.

And a strange thing happened. The magazine printed it wrong. Now, that's actually quite an interesting experience. One's first response is, obviously, "Oh no, they've fucked up my poem." Then you ponder what to do. Magazine's out already. Upon sober reflection, you realise that no one else knows it's wrong, probably no one else cares or would have actually realised that the pattern of the letters was meant to exactly reproduce the failing original gantry messages, and finally that even considering complaining about it is prima donna plus.

So I did nothing. Except mention it here...

All that said, it's still a brilliant magazine and the equally brilliant Marion McCready is in this issue too. Plus lots of other folk.

To purchase or submit, see here: http://www.guttermag.co.uk/



And for the live experience you can hear me next Saturday! I'm reading at the Callender Poetry Weekend. Catch me in the Kirk Hall opposite the shop (that's what it says) at some point between 10.15am and 12noon this September 3rd.

Full details here: http://www.desktopsallye.com/page22.htm

Next, in 15 days time my husband (over 50) is going to run 10 miles over difficult terrain near Catterick wearing army boots and trousers whilst carrying a 35lb rucksack.





Why? Because I told him to. No, actually because he wanted to. It's the P Company Challenge, he's doing it for the charity I work for, and if anyone would like to sponsor him you can do so here: http://www.justgiving.com/Craig-McKay



And the prayers are for those of you on the East Coast of America. God protect you all.

Cloudy skies for Skywatch Friday

A beautiful blue sky filled with fluffy clouds accompanied us all the way home from the superstore after grocery shopping. My camera was enticed.





















A happy day for everyone and have a great weekend please.

Skywatch Friday is a long standing meme where sky views from all over the world are posted at:

http://skyley.blogspot.com/Why not participate as well

A Star Descended in Dumfriesshire

Angelina Jolie was in Thornhill on Saturday! That's ANGELINA JOLIE and Thornhill 2 miles away. I would have stood in the rain for hours...



Newsworthy bit here: http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2011/08/23/angelina-jolie-visits-halo-trust-mine-clearing-charity-during-scotland-stay-115875-23366181/

Flurry...

... of activity.



During the recent French visit we went to Edinburgh and visited three Parliament buildings in one day. Who knew?!

Before 1707, the Kingdom of Scotland was a sovereign independent state which had its own legislature, the Parliament of Scotland,which met from 1640 until 1707 at Parliament House on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh.

Old Parliament

The Act of Union, passed in 1707, created an incorporating political union between the Kingdoms of Scotland and England. The Union merged the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England into the Parliament of Great Britain which was housed in the Palace of Westminster in London. As a consequence, Scotland was directly governed from London for the next 292 years without a legislature or a Parliament building of its own.

Pressure for an independent parliament grew in the 1970s with the growth of the Scottish National Party and monies were invested into the conversion of the former Royal High School on Calton Hill into an official parliament. Whilst much of this conversion was completed (including creation of the main debating hall) and the building was renamed New Parliament House it was determined that the facility was too small for its stated purpose (as and when that purpose arose). Failure to create an independent parliament, following the rather onerous conditions of the 1979 devolution referendum, led a campaign group to set up adjacent to the Royal High School at the foot of the access road to Calton Hill. Starting informally this became a permanently manned "vigil" to keep the concept in the public mind. This led to the Royal High School being the "popular" choice of site in the public (and particularly SNP) mindset.

Parliament that never was





A referendum of the Scottish electorate, held on 11 September 1997, approved the establishment of a directly-elected Scottish Parliament to legislate on most domestic affairs. Following this, the Scottish Office, led by the then Secretary of State for Scotland, Donald Dewar, decided that a new purpose-built facility would be constructed in Edinburgh, to house the Scottish Parliament.

New Parliament

We pique-niqued in Princes Street Gardens and fought valiantly with the hordes of street performers.

On Saturday we held a ceilidh, in a place called Speddoch Hall which is on no map.

And rather bizarrely, I found myself at an outdoor performance of The Fantastic Mr Fox last night, having spent all day throwing £20 notes at various shopkeepers in Dumfries in an attempt to secure some of the vanishingly small stocks of school shoes, plimsoles and anoraks. Somehow, saying 'We've been very busy' when they know the date the schools go back just as well as I do didn't cut it with me come the end. I think I growled at a few shop assistants.

School tomorrow!