Welcome to 2009!

Just a preliminary report...

Wishing you a Happy New Year!

I'm feeling a wee bit peaky at the moment, my "old trouble" is grizzling, so I've just been taking it easy and playing in the digital darkroom. So I give you these, for your entertainment, my experiments in merging multiple photographic images. (For more images go here

Click on images to enlarge

Doorways to Other Worlds

Castles of the Flame

And on that note, I give you this too

Books and Bubbles
- life is too short for poor food and cheap wine -

And wish you a wonderfully happy New Year.

May 2009 bring you love and laughter, happiness and joy, good health and abundance, peace and harmony, success and dreams fulfilled. May the year ahead be filled with all and only the very best of everything.

And do go here for a very special New Year's greeting! Enjoy!

The year 2008 in my blog - photo-cavalcade

It is getting close to 2009 and everyone is making a cavalcade of some sort based on the year that has gone by. Surprisingly, I'm going to to the same. Since this is mainly a photo-blog, I have picked one posted picture from each month during the year. I hope you will enjoy them - just click on the picture below and start scrolling.

Happy New Year!

X is for things we are not supposed to do

Found in the bathroom of a hotel. They had obviously been the venue of a conference for editors...

A Happy New and Better Year to all the Lexicographers in ABC Wednesday!

Today's post is my entry in the third round of ABC Wednesday, the meme initiated by Denise Nesbitt.

For more, you can log on via a Mr Linky enabled site or
a no-comment blog where you can post a copy or short version of your post with a link-back to your original post for the full version and comments.

Odd Shot Smile(y) of the Year

Found yesterday - one happy stone ball! Looking forward to the New Year's Ball, perhaps? Or maybe it was only an oddball.

Happy New Year to all Odd Shooters!

Please visit Katney's Kaboodle for more about Odd shots!

European route E18 through Drammen

European route E 18 begins at Northern Ireland, then through Scotland, England, Norway, Sweden, and Finland to end at Russia. It is about 1,890 km (1,174 mi) in length.

Amalie Skram

Bergen has its share of statues. As usual they depict politicians and various cultural personalities, most commonly men. One of the few made to commemorate a woman is this one of the female writer Amalie Skram. Wikipedia describes her literary life like this:

In 1882 Amalie Skram debuted under the name Amalie Mueller with Madam Høiers Leiefolk. Her work continued until her death. She dealt with topics she knew well.

Her work can be divided into three categories:

• Novels concerning marriage, which explored taboo topics such a female sexuality, and the subservient status of women in that period. These works was received by many as overly provocative and resulted in open hostility from some segments of society.
• Multi-generation novels, which dealt with the fate of a family over several generations. With these she explored the social institutions and conditions of the time and campaigned for change.
• Mental hospital works such as Prof Hieronimus and Paa St. Jørgen, which deal with the primitive and brutal conditions of such institutions of the period. Her novels created a major stir in Denmark and precipitated improvements in these institutions.

She is recognized as one of the early and strong proponents of what has come to be known as the women's movement, setting the early European early trend. Her works, which had been generally forgotten with her death, were rediscovered and received strong recognition in the 1960s. Several of her works are currently available in recent translations to English.

The Statue was made by the female sculptor Maja Refsum in 1949 and is placed at "Klosteret" on "Nordnes" in Bergen

Some evening shots from Drammen

Sunset

Reflections

Magasinet shopping senter

Pedestrian shopping street

From a post-Christmas stroll

Do we eat too much at Christmas? Do we spend too much? Do we get too much? I don't know - all I know is that with 'flu in the house, guests in the house, variable weather and personal side-effects of medicines, it has been little exercise. I attempted to rectify some of that today.

At least the weather was nice!

Someone on the other side of the fjord had obviously got too many gifts and was doing something about it...

The Guinea Fowl Chronicles: Bo's Christmas Present and The Ba-Kaaka Nostra...

According the avian vet, Bo needed a friend.
“See if you can find another abandoned guinea chick,” she said, “or else a bantam chick.”
So this is what Bo got for Christmas…

Silky Bantam

A silky pekin bantam chick.
Cute, isn’t it. And so tame and docile and with the loveliest voice. (And it loves cuddling – with humans.)
The trouble was, the exercise was not what one could call a success.
First of all we put Chick in Bo’s sleeping cage, next to Bo’s outside cage. At first Bo was fascinated and did her best to break through bars to meet and greet Chick. Cool, we thought, this is going to be a clucking success.
So we popped Chick in Bo’s cage. There were a few wary moments. Chick in one half of the cage, Bo in the other. Then the wariness gave way to curiousity. And then it moved to “not having any of this”. At which point we had Bo on one side of the cage, Chick on the other. Back to back, ready, it looked, for the duel. We decided to leave them to it.
Chick, who is a very confident little bird, just got on with things. It stalked around the cage, ate Bo’s food, deposited several hearty calling cards and scratched in her soil and seed tray until it uprooted most of the seedlings.
Bo meanwhile turned neurotic. She scurried up and down her cage. She hopped onto several high places, hopped down, scurried some more until Chick decided enough was enough and started issuing some powerful pecks to Bo’s back. It should be mentioned that despite being the same age, despite the Pekin Bantam being a “small” sized chicken, Chick was still more than double Bo’s size.
Bo leapt onto her log and meeped. And peeped. And meeped some more. And within ten minutes the Ba-kaaka Nostra flew over the wall.
I have no idea what Bo said but it seemed like every guinea fowl in the immediate vicinity heard the call and arrived.
The Ba-kaaka Nostra were nothing short of awesome - a group of about nine guinea fowl, led by Stoppy Old Fart and The Duchess (an elderly matriarch with attitude). They were dark, hunched and intent - and it may have been my imagination but I swore they were wearing trench coats, fedoras, dark glasses and some of them were carrying violin cases under their wings.

The Ba-Kaaka Nostra... Y'can call me Sal G...

They flowed across the lawn like a tide of black oil. They sidled up to the cage and proceeded to inspect and offer comfort. They cast beady eyes on Chick. Chick just looked at them equally beadily and growled.

A beady-eyed Bantam...

They offered advice to Bo, who evidently ignored it all and just ran up and down like um, er, a headless chicken.
The Ba-kaaka Nostra moved off and watched. Chick stalked over to Bo and gave her several hearty pecks on the bum.
“Meep,” squeaked Bo.
The Ba-Kaaka Nostra, to a guinea fowl, rose up on their toes and flapped their wings.
It was time to intervene. Bo was removed from her outside cage and brought inside. Chick was left in the outside cage until we realised it was unseasonably cold and Chick, who is a dear little bird, wasn’t happy. So Bo’s outside cage came inside and Christmas Eve saw the family room filled with cages, birds and a lot of bird pooh. Yes, yuck indeed.
Chick spent Christmas day ambling about the backyard, which we’d enclosed. The Ba-kaaka Nostra and several entire guinea families spent the day on the lawn with Bo attempting to redress her neuroses. She wasn’t interested in talking to us and so we spent half the day, between Christmas lunch and present unwrapping, talking to and cuddling Chick.

Chick Cuddling

On Boxing Day Chick was returned to the World of Birds, the sanctuary from which we got her. We were sorry to see her go because she really was a total delight, who taught me that I have the makings of a Chicken Whisperer.

Chick gone goofy from cuddling...

With Chicken gone (and sorely missed), Bo’s neuroses has declined and we will just carry on muddling along. We’ll bear in mind, however, that we are being watched. Not just by Atyllah and Granny Were, but also by the inimitable and thoroughly intimidating Ba-kaaka-Nostra.

Y' lookin' at me?

Investigating a Christmas tree

Have you ever investigated your Christmas tree close-up? It can be an interesting experience.

You will of course find some "ordinary" Christmas-tree decorations.

But you might be lucky and find an elf (or a "nisse" as we call them here)

And if it is really your day, you might have the kind of tree that attracts birds!

Sky Watch Friday # 38

Some evening shots from Drammen.

Iso 6400 - 1/60s - 50mm - f/4.0

Iso 1100 - 50mm - 1/60s - f/2.8

For more Sky Watch photos, visit the Sky watch site - Sky watch was Dots idea, now hosted by Sandy, Wren, Klaus, Fishing Guy and Ivar.

Wishing you Happy Holidays!

Wishing you all the very best over the festive season - and here's a little something from Atyllah, D and me to amuse you...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Oh Woe, Bo - no, no, no - it's Yo, Bo!

Erk, what a few days it's been. Ms Bo woke up very, very poorly on Saturday morning - so much so that we thought she was at death's door. I sat with her on my lap most of the morning until we could get an appointment with the local vet. Of course, the local vet had never had to deal with a guinea fowl before and kept rushing out to his colleague to ask about various lumps and bumps he found on Ms Bo's anatomy. None of these comings and goings encouraged us very much and Ms Bo was deeply indignant about the whole business especially when the vet shoved a thermometer up her whazoo (cloaca to those of you avian and anatomically-minded sorts). Ms Bo's eyes sort of crossed and she decided the better part of valour was to play possum, which, after a mighty squawk, she did. Then it was a shot of antibiotics, followed a vitamin injection that elicited a shriek of protests. Then Ms Bo was weighed - all of 110g of her.
"Come back tomorrow," the vet said.
And so on Sunday we repeated the whole business by which time Ms Bo was a whole lot feistier and less inclined to cooperate.
"Make an appointment to see our avian vet on Tuesday," said the vet who acknowledged he knew absolutely nothing about guinea fowl. "And bring her back tomorrow for another jab of antibiotics."

So, this morning Ms Bo finally got to see not just one avian vet, but two. And clearly they spoke Guinea. I was rushing about like a headless chicken doing grocery shopping while D did the concerned parent thing. He said Bo was like a lamb with the two avian vets, who fussed her and loved her and told her she was totally wonderful. It turned out all the lumps and bumps are normal to guinea fowl anatomy. They reckoned Ms Bo was doing just fine. They provided hints on how to get her to feed more effectively. They suggested that we get her a "friend" - a chicken chick - or, they said, if another abandoned guinea fowl chick was brought in, could they call us.
"Yes, absolutely," said D, eternally a sucker for a lost cause.
Frankly, I was surprised he resisted the vets' attempts to foist an abandoned hamster on to him. Were it not for the fact that we do have plans to leave SA sooner rather than later, I rather suspect we'd now be fostering said hammie.
Ms Bo had another vitamin shot, she's to get more oral antibiotics, she's been given vitamin powder and we've been told that if she's made it this far, she'll make it, per se. Whew! Relief and cheers all round.
I do, however, suspect that Ms Bo is going to be with us for the long term - her and whatever chicken we get to keep her company. I'm just wondering how Atyllah the Hen and Granny Were are going to take to this bit of news. Will it be praise for the Goddess Vanilla or will it be utter scorn for humans who clearly have no idea what they're doing!

And just to keep you amused - some recent antics from the wild menagerie...

A guinea (the resident pair) got into the cage one day... his wife was not impressed.
"Harold," clucked Maude, "what in the name of all that is corn are you doing in there?! Come out now before they put you in the pot!"

A new crop of chicks have found their way into the garden...

Mom, why's this chick in a cage?

The usual suspect, trying to find a way of breaking and entering... incorrigible!

A gathering of guineas - the new chicks, and Bo's family and all the other usual suspects

But on that note of Bo's happy and encouraging progress, let me take the opportunity to wish you and yours a very happy, blessed, loving and fun-filled festive season - whether you celebrate Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Yule, Rohatsu, Ramadan and Eid ul Adha, the Winter or Summer Solstice (yes, a bit late on some of those, I know!). And I hope none of you are having turkey...

Reflections from my Christmas Tree

W is for Wishing You a Merry Christmas!

Today's post is also my entry to the third round of ABC Wednesday. The Wishes goes to all who pass by, and especially to the founder of the meme, Denise Nesbitt.

For more, you can log on via a Mr Linky enabled site or
a no-comment blog where you can post a copy or short version of your post with a link-back to your original post for the full version and comments.

It`s Chritmas time in Drammen

58mm - f/6.3 - 1/60s - Iso 2800

28mm - f/5.0 - 1/60s - Iso 2500

28mm - f/5.0 - 1/60s - Iso 1250

The Guinea Fowl Chronicles, Ms Bo's Beau...

Ms Bo... not a very big peep

Ms Bo, it seems, in addition to her usual entourage, has a beau. Well, he’s either that or he’s appointed himself as part time Father Protector. He’s a lone male guinea, whose mate died last year, after she’d been in some kind of accident that had partially severed her leg. We’d have caught her and taken her for treatment if we could have, but she was far too traumatised. The hen’s leg finally fell off and she and her mate pretty much lived in the safety of the garden for a few months before she disappeared. He spent weeks wandering around aimlessly and is now a daily visitor to the garden and seems to have become quite attached to Ms Bo.

Ms Bo and her beau...

Ms Bo's entourage

Last week I discovered that on top of the black and rufous-chested sparrowhawks and the neighbourhood cats, Ms Bo has an additional predator to worry about – a black headed heron. Herons will evidently munch anything up to the size of a dove. Since Ms Bo appears to be a dwarf guinea fowl, she’d make a suitable snack. Father Protector aka The Beau, happened to be in the garden the day the heron appeared. Up he went on his toes, spread out his wings and flapped them vigorously. Of course, the heron just ignored him, until Father Protector proceeded to herd the lurking beast away from Bo’s cage.

Bo's Beau seeing off the evil heron...

There, that got rid of him!

Ms Bo also has another guinea couple who just don’t seem to know what to make of her. They have hung out in the garden for the past few months – and now that Bo’s family are infrequent visitors the Guinea Couple hang around her cage most of the day, the hen constantly pecking at Bo through the mesh. This morning they were both lying at her cage, waiting for her to be brought out and have subsequently spent the last couple of hours obsessing over her. I do honestly wish I spoke better Guinea so I could make the necessary enquiries!

As for Ms Bo…well, she remains a Very Small Bird. Her siblings, who occasionally come to visit, are now huge. They’ve got their iron-grey spotted feathers and you can see the beginnings of their combs. The size difference is simply absurd. The curious thing is that Ms Bo seems just fine. She eats like a ravening horde, pootles around her cage, chats to herself and remains decidedly feisty of spirit. D is convinced she’s growing, just very slowly - I think he’s being optimistic. Our zoologist friend just reckons she’s a “dwarf”. Personally, I’m still hoping for a last minute growth spurt, but I suspect I may be being optimistic too.

Bo and her brother - little and large...

Bo's Brother - he ain't heavy, he's my brother...

Bo's mother, her brother and the usual suspect...

Ms Bo on the hop...

This weekend Villa Beau Bo aka the Peep Palace will be getting an extension, so Bo will have still more space in which to shout the odds. Meanwhile, our mealworm cultivation project having proved to be a disaster and earthworms containing too high a tannin content, D is now cultivating maggots. I know, don’t ask. Still we have discovered that maggots make a fine meal for a small bird – and I think they’re probably better than some of the bugs I’ve been finding for her. I mean, for heaven’s sake, last week I had to stick my finger into her mouth to dislodge a bug that she’d snarfed down too rapidly. I would really prefer not to have to do that again. It’s bad enough trundling down to the greenbelt at the end of the road with a net and collecting box to harvest grasshoppers and having people look at us askance and ask, “Um, exactly what are you doing?” Ah well, eccentric is as eccentric does, I guess, and we have a guinea chick to rear.