Category: flickr

Voyage of the Moons

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Well, this is fairly amazing.

“Software engineer, planetary and climate data wrangler, and science data visualization artist”, Kevin Gill has – as far as I can make out – melded together images from the Cassini spacecraft you may remember it from this post) during its journey past Jupiter and Saturn, and made them into a mini video:

The silence makes this all the more powerful, for me.

First up are Io and Europa passing over Jupiter’s Giant Red Spot (has anyone suggested using an ointment containing either salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide?), followed by Titan moving past Saturn’s rings, seen as a thin line, edge on.

It’s all rather mesmerising. The latter, especially, has a really otherworldly feel to it. I mean, I am aware that these are bother very clearly other worlds, but I’m sure you get what I mean.

Original link here (creative commons says help yourself – thanks, Kevin).
The rest of his photostream looks equally impressive.

Wildlife

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It was an amazing weekend. Wild and windy, but full of spring sunshine, and Cape Agulhas really showed off.

Sure, there was the whale, but that was dead and anyway, we’d already seen snakes and tortoises and the infamous Pengueagle (or Eaguin?) (more on that another time) before we saw her.

And then a walk on the beach this morning yielded Plovers, Kingfishers, a Curlew, some Caspian Terns (Sterna caspia):

…some very dramatic waves, photobombed by a Kelp Gull (Larus dominicanus):

…and the highlight of my weekend, a Cape Clawless Otter (Aonyx capenensis), showing off his catch of (I think) a Carpenter (Argyrozona argyrozona):

We disturbed him as we walked along the beach, but he was as interested in us (and the beagle) as we were in him. He floated a few metres out in the bay with his fish in his mouth before transferring it to his (clawless) paws so he could give us a proper grin.

It was a reminder how lucky we are to have the cottage and how much our kids can learn from visits there. If we’d been in Cape Town this weekend, it would have been all iPads and crap on TV (although less windy, admittedly). Instead it was fresh air (albeit moving rather fast) and some amazing experiences. All in just over 24 hours.

More photos to follow, but I feel like catching up on the footy now.

Bar Wall

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A quick flashback to a bar wall in Paris.

This was in Montmartre. I’ve no idea who the guy in the centre is (or was?), but I do remember that the bar in question was called Le Tire Bouchon – “The Corkscrew”.

This idea of “leaving your mark” when you visit is a very similar one to Ronnie’s Sex Shop (it’s not actually a sex shop) in South Africa’s Karoo. There, you’re encouraged to write on the walls or to leave an item of clothing (ties and bras are the most popular if I remember rightly) (I wasn’t wearing either on our first visit – rookie error).

The result is messy, random, eclectic and completely unique.
It’s also rather engaging. After all, I didn’t take any other photos of bar walls while I was over there.

Heritage weekend photos

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Yes.
Belatedly, but still: weekend photos.

Some proteas (not from the weekend, but who’s checking anyway), a specific startrail (despite the brightest moon EVER!), some shipwreck (I didn’t know which one I liked best, so I shared four) and some birdage (taken by my daughter).

Here’s an example:

And here’s the link.

Knock yourselves out. (Not literally.)

Hurricane Lamp QP

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Yet another busy morning, filled with trampoline building, sorting out the garden and prepping for a braai later today.

It all leaves very little time for blogging.

Herewith then, a quota photo which I’ve been using as my desktop background since I took it last month.

Super simple, super relaxing and won’t get in the way of your icons.

Help yourself to it for your desktop too: the big version is here.