©voyager, all rights reserved
Just look at all that sweet sunshine lighting up the snow. That’s spring sunshine. You can see that the sun is finally sitting higher in the sky and the days have become noticeably longer. All that light is just a tease, though, because winter has decided to stick around. Temps are projected to stay in the -10º C range right through the end of the week and we’re due to get snow again tomorrow. Damn.
Assorted animals living in the zoo. Not all of them are “kept” there, except by the good food sources.
© Giliell, all rights reserved
© Giliell, all rights reserved
© Giliell, all rights reserved
© Giliell, all rights reserved
It’s time to put away your worries for a while and take a walk with Ice Swimmer. Today we’re going up.
Odd Spruce Revisited ©Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved
The spruce is odd because it has an even number of crowns. The deciduous trees behind the spruce are hiding the wetland.
This Monday morning we have something special from Avalus. They aren’t flowers, but they’re just as pretty.
These are two decorative glass balls that my mother has in her garden. I really liked the frostcovering.
©Avalus, all rights reserved
©Avalus, all rights reserved
Here are some more pictures of the walk back from the caves, I don’t think any particular commentary is necessary, just enjoy. Although these are more demonstrative of the treachery inherent to any wild and untamed place that feels the heavy hand of human civilisation: rebellion lies not far beneath the surface.
©rq, all rights reserved.
In some places, the railing was completely absent. From the pale scratches on the rock below, it was deduced that this was relatively recent damage… So the walk continued with frequent glances upslope! ©rq, all rights reserved.
©rq, all rights reserved.
©rq, all rights reserved.
This, I think, was the most uncomfortable place of the entire hike. ©rq, all rights reserved.
©rq, all rights reserved.
©rq, all rights reserved.
Gateway to a magical world… ©rq, all rights reserved.
Is this the tomb of Amontillado? Or simply a bricked up cave? The words ‘Open Sesame’ didn’t seem to have any effect at all… ©rq, all rights reserved.
Last week the weather was all sunshine and wonder. Today it’s rain and storm, many carnival parades have been cancelled already. So let’s go back to flowers and sunshine.
© Giliell, all rights reserved
© Giliell, all rights reserved
Don’t say I didn’t warn you! Our orang utans are doing their best to help with the species conservation, although they demonstrated well that humans can’t plan everything. About 12 years ago a mature orang utan lady and her daughter moved in, hoping that the lady would breed with our male. Turned out the female adult was pregnant already, surprising everybody with a baby in summer. But even after the baby was grown quite a bit, the lady told the dude in no certain terms that he could stuff his dick into the meat grinder or she’d do that for him.
He waited a few years until the daughter had matured and then successfully mated with her, having several kids. He got sent to a different zoo last year to see if could keep up his good work in the conservation of this wonderful species.
One of my favourite books has a great bit about Truth, Illusion and the Edge between the two. And the edge of Canyon Matka is the mirror of the water. The mountains reach into the sky, but if you peer down into the water, you can see that the mountains descend into the depths as well – but more about that later.
It was a quiet evening. And the rocks, glorious rocks, dipped into the river and rose out of it, in bends and folds eons in the shaping.
©rq, all rights reserved.
© Giliell, all rights reserved
Chinese chipmunks, also known as cute overload.
© Giliell, all rights reserved
I love those little tufts on the ears, so much like tiny horns.
© Giliell, all rights reserved
© Giliell, all rights reserved
And a grey chipmunk that inhabits the ground of the enclosure. It was not chilled out as the other one.
© Giliell, all rights reserved
It’s time to join Ice Swimmer on his walk around Harakka.
Emerging from the Wetland ©Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved
The bird watching shelter we visited earlier is on the right. Sunday was definitely brighter than Saturday. Across the water are the island Särkkä and Suomenlinna Sea Fortress.
Week 1 here in Macedonia has been successfully survived. It’s a long-established truth that the more disaster you expect, the less you will get (like bringing an umbrella to prevent the rain), but it was still exhausting, and some recovery was in order. Apparently it is trendy to use nature exposure these days, so that is what we – my two Lithuanian colleagues and I – proceeded to do. This will be a long series of posts, because I finally had the time, the freedom and the unhurried companionship to take a… decent… amount of photos. So, here is part 1: Pathways (which will be in two parts). Let us take a walk! Also OMG it’s been so long since I posted!
©rq, all rights reserved.
Happy Birthday to me! ©voyager, all rights reserved
Today is Jack’s 11th Birthday, sort of. Jack is a Leap Year Baby and since there is no February 29 this year we’re celebrating today. So far, Bubba has listened to his parents sing to him off-key, had bacon and eggs for breakfast and then had an exciting romp up at the lake. Plans for later in the day include gifts (a new rubber pig that honks and squeals and a bag of his favourite treats – Greenies,) more singing (Jack loves to sing) and a nice bit of salmon to top his kibble for supper. All in all, I’d say that’s a pretty good day for a not-quite birthday.
© Giliell, all rights reserved
There’s a walk in aviary with budgies, many of them happy to say hello to the visitors (the zoo provides feed you can give them). The keepers probably spend a lot of time checking for escapes, but some of them always do, although they also seem to return as soon as it gets dark and cold. Except for this little fellow, who has decided to move out permanently and make its home in the wooden beams of the aviary. Literally. It seems like the keepers have just decided to let it go as an example of how wild budgies nest.