Taken back in September, a young White-breasted Cormorant (Phalacrocorax lucidus) at Intaka Island.
I don’t know why (and I know that this sounds a bit mad), but it just reminds me of a side character from a 1970s American police series.
Niche.
Any good at French? Yep – they are the Blood Islands.
Scary name, beautiful place, just off the South West coast of Corsica.
And their name has nothing to do with blood:
The name “Sanguinaires”, given to these islets, has several origins; either due to the purple light which bloodied the rocks, just before sunset over the sea, or to the color of Frankenias (Frankenia laevis), small plants with pink flowers whose leaves turn bright red in autumn, or to flowers snowflake roses.
Other hypotheses refer to the Gulf of Sagone . Old geographical maps mention the “Sagonnaires” islands (isule sagunarie) named by the bishopric of Sagone . Later makeshift settlements served as lazarets for coral fishermen nicknamed i sanguinari (black-blooded people), returning from Africa.
Basically, no-one knows.
Amazingly, despite all those towers on all those islands, only one of them is a lighthouse. The one nearest to us (actually on the island mainland) is a 16th century watchtower – an example of a Genoese Tower, and the two furthest on the far island are a small defensive tower built in the 18th century, and a semaphore – a marine signaling building:
And then, of course, because this is 6000 miles…, the lighthouse:
Constructed 1844, Automated 1984.
Height 18.5m, Elevation 98m, Range 44km.
180W halogen lamp with Characteristic: Fl 3 W 15s
Happy Christmas to those who celebrate.
Happy Saturday to those who don’t.
Whatever your views on today, I hope you have a lovely time doing whatever you are doing.
And if you are looking to try and find some festive feeling, please enjoy this playlist I discovered via Vox.
It’s got everything. If you can’t find the Christmas track you want on here, it either doesn’t exist, or you simply ran out of time because this thing is OVER SEVEN DAYS LONG!
You can flick it on this morning and still be listening to it NEXT YEAR! Be amongst the first of friends to get into the Christmas spirit for 2022.
Merry Christmas, you trendsetter!
This may only be strictly relevant to my British audience. Or to those who have watched some British TV series. But this is really clever stuff from Darrell Maclaine on Youtube. Classic TV theme tunes as they would have been recorded by famous international music stars. The joy is shared between the nostalgia, the talent and the sheer incongruity.
Where else could you hear Michael Jackson singing the theme from Dad’s Army?
Or Paul McCartney doing Are You Being Served??
There are loads more at the link above.
Simple fun. Brilliant.
That didn’t last long, did it?
Ugh. I’m not having a good day.
Many reasons for it, but the shifting sands of Covid policies, together with the shifting plans of the next couple of weeks, a touch of added crappy service from the local Amazon wannabe, and just a soupçon of just sheer meh as a garnish.
I turned to the internet for amusement and escape.
Mostly, that was a very bad idea, but there was this from xkcd, which is so simple and so perfect:
In related, better news, it looks like I might be able to go heterologous with my booster vaccine. Which is great, but does bring up the awkward question of why we have to wait until after the period of maximum benefit to actually get it again.