Bonjour, je no parlent français. Je fais des excuses pour la mauvaise traduction. Cette une image a eu plus de points de vue des personnes de langue française que le reste de mon blog obtient jamais… Si vous êtes ici Google, pourriez vous me dire pourquoi tant de personnes de langue française recherchent le " ; Toucan" ? Merci !
This is a Toucan;
(they live in South America)
This is a sign I saw in Scotland... Now what could it mean?
According to Wikipedia a Toucan crossing is a cross walk big enough to let pedestrians and bikes cross at once. So since Two-can cross at the same place it is a Toucan Crossing (wow, a country that embraces puns full-on, how about that)
You know what, my whole seven continent thing really just isn't going to work for my blog. My description is "pictures of my world" and well, I haven't seen so much of the world. So far I've only seen North America and the UK... barely anything. I would post about the redwoods, but I do that anyway. I would post about Antarctica because I am fascinated by it, but I have links to the sites I think are truly worth seeing. It's hard to put into digestable bites all that I find so irresistable about the place. I mean, I live in Berkeley because I love the year round weather that involves zero snow (ever) but Antarctica is so full of possibility. It's untainted, vulnerable, beautiful and displays the most obvious signs of climate change and the future of the planet. It holds hidden parts of the past of the planet...It is a mystery, a blank place on the map; thar be monsters here... I would post about the Yangtse river and how much I want to see it. The Yangtse has a river dolphin that is probably extinct now but captured my imagination as much as unicorns or dragons when I was little. I would like to write about Australia and how everything there could kill you, but there's such a wealth of marsupials and other throw-back species that reside there... I would post about deforestation in Europe and how they are trying to recover what was lost... Then there is South America. The obvious choice is the Amazon and how the rate of extinction is tragic, how we need to support sustanable enterprises there. Really I've never been to South America so what other problems they have I'm not sure. My aunt and uncle live in Ecuador and tell me that the UV rays there are extremely harsh... There are many places that I want to see, that I think deserve preservation but I don't think it's my place to write about so much that I've never seen. I do care about them but this is not the forum to discuss such things. Basically I think it's important to see the world around you, to look towards places beyond you and to see how they are all connected... I hate getting preachy and I hate focusing on negativity... Martin Luther King wouldn't have gone far with a speech that began "I had a nightmare". We need to envision a better world because that's all we can do. So I'm sorry but I'm not going to post about places I want to see but haven't yet.
Happy Earth Day. Today I'm posting a rather longish (15 min) video of an interview with Wangari Maathai; the first environmentalist to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The most simple explanation of her work is that she founded a movement to help replenish Kenya's forests... but the Green Belt Movement is much more than that. The planting of the trees is a medicine for problems in the community that reach far beyond a stripped landscape. They are allowing their community to produce their own fuel, they are giving women work and meager pay... Most of what I know of the Green Belt Movement is from interviews on NPR, today I started reading her memoir so hopefully I'll be able to discuss this inspirational woman better when I'm done. For now, please enjoy the youTube link, it's a 15 minutes well spent.
Hi All. On Tuesday the 22nd it will be Earth-day. In observation of it I will be posting a seven part series of ecological blogs, one for each continent. I would love to say that it will be a new post every day but really I'm going to be pretty busy next week and to properly research each topic I think it will take longer than that... You can look forward to me posting about various ecological challenges along with actions that are being taken, research being done and personal challenges for you to help make the earth a cleaner and healthier place to live.
In the mean time you can check out Earth Day activities near you at the official Earth Day website.
You can join the Sierra Club at a special $15 Earth Day rate.
You can plant veggies in your garden, go on a hike, walk (instead of drive) to the store or postal office, talk to your plants and exchange gasses, hang dry your laundry, turn off the a/c, pick up some trash, make money recycling... or go into the corner and cry about the melting ice caps (whatever you prefer). Ok I'm afraid I must return to my real work now... no more goofing around on the internet today.
I got to see the original sketches for the House on Pooh Corner by E.H. Shepard at the Victoria & Albert Museum... When I see original sketches like these it makes me really excited. Usually (as was the case with these) they are in some small hallway, not really in a place of prominence but still lovingly displayed. I think that seeing the actual document gives me a sense of intimate connection with the artist. E.H. Shepard is rather a big celebrity in the world of children's book illustrators. Looking at the actual graphite shows me how he thought, how we are similar, how we are different... he becomes a peer more than an idol... and then after a moment of technical criticisim... the nostalgia planted in my being at an early stage of life bursts from my depths and into a smile that says "Pooh!!!" finally I am reduced to the excitement of finding an old friend in an unexpected place.
He had murmured this to himself three times in a singing sort of way, when suddenly he remembered. He had put it into the Cunning trap to catch the Heffalump. "Bother" said Pooh. "It all comes to trying to be kind to Heffalumps." and he got back into bed. But he couldn't sleep... he tried counting sheep and as that was no good, he tried counting Heffalumps. And that was worse. because every Heffalump that he counted was making straight for a pot of Pooh's honey, and eating it all.
"My tail is getting cold. I don't want to mention it, but I mention it. I don't want to complain but there it is. My tail's cold"
There was also a sketch by Edward Lear...
The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea In a beautiful pea green boat, They took some honey, and plenty of money, Wrapped up in a five pound note. The Owl looked up to the stars above, And sang to a small guitar, 'O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love, What a beautiful Pussy you are, You are, You are! What a beautiful Pussy you are!'
Lear's "pussy" looks a little peeved...reminds me of my old cat that I had (very cleverly) named "Hissy"
The Brit's seem to be frequently criticised for their "bad food" but after my brief journey there I found little evidence to support the reputation. They do seem to like a few flavors that I love and your typical American does not. There is more black licorice, rhubarb is considered a treat and their "mint" gum tastes like anise (yummy!)... while there I took shots of a few of the meals we had. To start, what kind of suckers do you think you're going to lure into your restaurant by naming it "The Walrus and the Carpenter" and having a "Lewis Caroll dining room"? Yes. THIS kind of fool is who... This was the first pub we tried.
This pub had a full sausage menu that had you pick your variety of sausage and it's delivery method. I chose "Toad in the Hole" mostly because I'd heard it mentioned on the BBC and it's a funny name. The dish consisted of three sausages served in Yorkshire Pudding (the bread bowl thing they're sitting in), surrounded by mashed potatoes, gravy and some unidentifiable (Kale?) greens. I had a pint of London's Pride Ale with it, that was NOT served warm as legend says English beer is, but rather cool (it's just not the icy temperature of the Rockies). The ale was creamy and flavorful (delish!) Conclusion about this dish; the pudding wasn't so exciting, the sausage, gravy, and veggies were heavenly although I wished that they had a half order available, I thought it enough for two meals. At another pub (this one was in Scotland) I had the Irish version of Toad in the Hole; Colcannon. When we ordered, I asked the waitress what kinds of ales they had, she said "We've only got Caffrey's" I had an impulse to jump up and hug her that I fought off and merely said "yes yes, please, I'll have that" Caffrey's is only my favorite ale that stopped being imported to the states 6 months after my 21st birthday... it was almost better than I remembered. The Caffrey's was also served cool not icy (perfect). The Colcannon was pretty good too. Mia had a goat cheese salad with pears and apples (I think she said it was good but I was too preoccupied with meat and beer to pay attention, sorry Mia). The Albert and Victoria Museum was amazing and free and has a palatial dining room with chandeliers, stained glass windows and a hallway of mouth watering cuisine... feeling a bit poor however with the dollar being so weak I opted for the ₤3 lunch of pumpkin soup... it was a little like Trader Joe's butternut squash soup, only it was obviously fresh, served with a dollop of butter and a roll and in this fetching tureen (how stylish). It was required of me to try Fish and Chips in England. This pub is a block away from the Old Globe. Here you see my order of Fish and Chips and in the back You see Mia getting ready to try her "Ploughman's Cheese Sandwich". The fish was Real fish. It wasn't mushy fish goo like we get from the freezer section here (although I must admit, I love that fish goo). It was alright but I thought that the fish was a little bland for my taste. The chips were rather fantastic and tasted like homemade. They also offered me "garden peas" or "mushy peas". I should have had the mushy peas for the true English experience, but I couldn't... and the woman at the counter assured me that they're "disgusting"... unfortunatley the "garden peas" were equally disgusting. They tasted Grey, in the way that Otter Pops or Gummy Bears can taste Green and Red... ick. The Fish and Chips were good, but I thought I have had them equally good in the States. The Beer; more London's Pride. A Ploughman's Cheese sandwich on the menu says that the ingredients are "cheese,lettuce,tomato,and pickle served on rye bread". What Mia recieved was bread with some purple chutney inside it... we asked the waitress if this was the correct order showing at the very least the missing cheese in a "Cheese sandwich". "Oh I'm so sorry" she exclaimed, she took it away and brought it back all improved; the exact same purple chutney but now with some shreds of cheese on top of it. It tasted salty, sour, sweet and rotting all at once. It smelled of brine... "Pickle" in Britain does not mean pickled cucumber as it usually does in the States but it is actually a bizarre mixture of wrong and barely edible. Ok I guess it's actually onion, rutabega, coliflower and spices... this dish I think is evidence for "bad English food"... My only complaint (other than the pickle) was about their coffee. The English like really weak coffee. In fact after trying two different places I discovered that they actually drink a lot of Nescafe. I actually stood staring at the coffee crystals agape... when my dry mouth managed to make a sound all I could say was "Soylent Green is made of people". I mostly managed to give up on the coffee and live off of the black tea which is good everywhere, while poor Mia became a sort of American Arthur Dent in search of a decent cup of Joe... all for naught. Even Starbucks serves their English coffee extra weak.
English Tea; We ordered "Tea for two" and got this Tower of food. For ₤10 we got all of this food plus tea. The bottom plate had sandwiches (we had the option of tuna or pickle and I quickly chose the tuna). The middle plate had two large slices of carrot cake, and the top plate had scones and clotted cream. The sandwiches and cake were just like what you can get at home but the scones and cream were devine. The scones were buttery and light with a faint berry taste, and clotted cream is somewhere between heavy whipped cream and butter. I noticed that other patrons were heaping it on their scones but I was happy with only a thin layer of it on my scone. Tea for two involved food for four... very satisfying. Finally I end this post with the most simple and yet brilliant food improvement courtesy of my people (The Scots). It's just porridge (which tastes just like Quaker quick oats made with water) served with some brown sugar, fruit and a shot of Drambuie. Treat yourself. Try this.
I think I know why these photos look so odd. I got them back from the drugstore fully convinced that either my camera was broken or my film was ruined by the magnet in my bag... however now in retrospect I remember taking these shots with a blue filter just to see how it would turn out...
...I think they turned out rather striking.
These detail shots of the Joshua Trees were taken with the new macro rings Dad gave me... Unfortunatley all of the shots at the end of the roll didn't produce any images at all... (I finished the roll 4 months later) so I think I'll go get a new battery and if that doesn't help I'll take it into a shop. Some of the shots I don't have up here came out a little over-exposed, anybody have a suggestion about how to not do that?
I must say I am tired of the state of environmentalism these days.
What concerns me though is the way that some people are going overboard about the doom of the planet. If every Sunday you go to church and are told that you are going to hell and there is nothing you can really do about it, you'll probably stop going. If every time you go to the gym you are told that you're wasting your time and you'll never really get into shape before you die... really why not just head over to Ben & Jerry's for some instant gratification instead? If every book you read about the state of the environment tells you about how everything is falling apart and dying and it's doing that so rapidly that our efforts aren't doing enough, why bother? On one level it is important to see the state of things. We need to understand that resources are not unlimited. There is too much waste, the oceans are suffocating, the glaciers are melting, extinction is increasing... Yes there are a lot of problems. But you know what, we are not living on a giant ball of decay. Doom and gloom environmental zealots are making Earth sound like a giant leper colony that we must try to make better but probably won't and everything will fall apart and die and it's all our fault... what a freakin' bummer! I want people to see the Joy that is the Earth. I want people to go out into their local nature (forest, desert, savanna, ice cave...) and just take a look at what there is. If everybody just spent some quiet time with nature, breathing the air, feeling the ground, watching the bugs and the birds... they could remember that Earth is Beautiful. "Saving" the Earth is not a chore. It is just what we must do. We don't need to cry and moan about it, we just need to fix it. Earth is not just beautiful. It is our home, our health. Earth is our family. Earth renews spirit... Even with a supposition of an afterlife and a heaven, we're not there folks, we are Here and Now. Right now we have the privilege to live in 'Creation'. We are not dead yet, Earth is not dead yet, so let's stop all the crying about what is wrong and let's get excited about fixing it up. Let's not think about what a bummer it is to live here in the ruins of Eden, but look around and see what we do have. It's amazing.
I pulled up weeds today. It unearthed spiders and snails and all sorts of crawing things... I'm fascinated with snails... instead of chucking them into the street I just watched them crawl around and hide when hitting unknown objects... then I filmed a few... and maybe I jazzed it up a bit. Only a bit. Hope the soundtrack isn't too over the top, hope I don't get in trouble with youTube for putting it in... ach whatever.
I believe it is time to wrap up with my excursion to the old world. I have so many photos but it could take a very long time to blog about them all and I would like to try and enjoy the world around me right now. I do have at least another two blogs left from my trip... however here is a good mix of some of my favorite shots before we return to the now;
These gates are under a beautiful Victorian bridge. This is where the meat market used to be in London. When divorce was still illegal you could sell your wife here. A sign of time gone by at an old underground entrance; I am particularly proud of this shot. It is a photo in triplicate; window pane, bottles in silhouette, and reflection of the street behind. ooh Art. Beautiful texture captured in the St.Paul's underground; Inside St.Margret's church. It is beautiful. It smells of incense, granite and old wood. The floor is covered with engraved memorials, the walls are covered with more memorials and epitaphs (there are probably people buried underneath the floors) I was captivated by the grey stained glass! I wanted to attend services. The Scottish Highlands (shockingly different and still right next to the lowlands) The tiny European rental car that roughed it through some Rural parts of the Highlands, this is a Ford Ka (yes an American company that has given us so much grief about building smaller more gas efficient cars in the states makes these already... what is their problem? I think these would sell like hotcakes in crammed cities like San Francisco) A graveyard in the highlands. This grave is only about 100 years old, the yard is still in use, I found a grave that was from 2002 and it looked almost as dilapidated as this one, only the clearer lettering and the date gave it away. I guess that in this soggy environment everything gets overrun by weather and moss. Castle Sween at sunset; A moody shot of Glasgow (I do intend to write a whole post on Glasgow, it was fascinating)
