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Tuesday, 30 October 2012

Tuesday; Nature's wonders;


Honey Bee collecting nectar and pollen; My Garden;



Lavishly golden,
 liquid sunshine held in tiny, waxen  chambers. 
 The  fragrance of  flowers and harvest, warmed by sun, wind and rain,
 nectar collected diligently, 
transmuted into  the sweetest  of sweets,
 for sticky, little fingers to lick and savour,
  this wonderful alchemy of  nature. 


©Photo/Text Ts



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Monday, 29 October 2012

Monday; Aahh...




Aahh… close your eyes and dream of an island in the sun;
 idly succumb  to a delightful dream;  a closed book in your lap,
 the soft tap
 of  a slow day rolling by. Aahh…



©Photo/Text Ts




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Saturday, 27 October 2012

Sepia Saturday 149;



Aptly described as ‘gifts from the earth’, thermal springs occur in many parts of New Zealand. Most are scattered throughout the Taupo Volcanic Zone in the central North Island, but some are in areas of extinct volcanic activity such as Northland, the Coromandel Peninsula and the Bay of Plenty. Others lie in non-volcanic areas, along faultlines, particularly in Westland and North Canterbury. They are formed when rainwater seeps down through rock towards the heat source deep beneath the surface and then rises again. The hot water dissolves minerals in the rock, and the mineral content as well as the temperature of hot springs varies according to locality.

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/thermal-pools-and-spas




 Mud is bubbling;


Water Steaming;


Hot sulfurous lake;

©Photos/ Ts Rotorua, New Zealand;


look for Sepia Saturday 

Tuesday, 23 October 2012

Tuesday; nibble; Jaboticaba fruit.



  JABOTICABA
(Myrciaria cauliflora)

The Jaboticaba is  a tree native to Brazil. Fruits are formed directly on the stem and branches. The fruit has a fairly thick purplish black skin, with a sweet white flesh inside. It  is best eaten  fresh or can be used to make jellies and drinks.




A multi-branched evergreen tree, the jaboticaba  is a decorative although slow growing tree. Up to four times a year, the small yellow-white colored flowers followed by the fruit, appear directly from the trunks, limbs and large branches of the tree.  Jaboticabas might begin to bear fruit anytime from 4 to 10 years old

Jaboticaba trees are mostly raised by seed. The seeds are polyembryonic each seed giving rise to 3-4 seedlings.

For more info click






Pop the fruit into your mouth, squeeze out the fruit pulp and discard the skin;


©Photos/Text Ts.






Saturday, 20 October 2012

Sepia Saturday 148; Native Mounted Police;


Native Police Rockhampton, Queensland, 1864

The Native Police Forces were established in Port Phillip in 1842 in New South Wales and 1859 in Queensland. The force was built up of young Aboriginal men who were sent to kill Aboriginal people of different language groups. This was a vital contribution to the defeat of the Aboriginal resistance.

Australian native police like units, consisting of Aboriginal troopers under the command usually of a single white officer, existed in several Australian colonies during the nineteenth century. Yet there were really only two forces formerly budgeted, organized and deployed at the frontier by the government for long term use. The first was the Native Police Corps established in 1837 in the Port Phillip District of the then Australian colony of New South Wales (now Victoria) and the second was deployed in the northern districts of New South Wales, the later colony of Queensland in 1848. However, the latter force, known predominantly simply as the "Native Police Force" (sometimes called the "Native Mounted Police Force") of Queensland, was by far the largest, most notorious and longest lasting of them all. It existed from 1848 to at least 1897.  Other native police like systems were also occasionally used both in New South Wales and in the colonies of South Australia, Western Australia and in Northern Territory (then part of the colony of South Australia), but with the exception (it seems) of a small unit briefly existing in South Australia, they were informally organized often private initiatives, not formerly established and deployed as a government financed frontier force.



Please go and look what others are up to...here Sepia Saturday 148;








Wednesday, 17 October 2012

Wednesday; Good Luck;

Ladybird a symbol of good luck;
























































Bona Fortuna;

Luck is merely a name we give to events after they occur which we find to be fortuitous and perhaps improbable.
Cultural views of luck vary from perceiving luck as a matter of random chance to attributing to luck explanations of faith or superstition.
The Romans believed in the embodiment of luck as the goddess Fortuna. 


Lucky symbols are popular worldwide.

The English noun luck appears comparatively late, during the 1480s, as a loan from Low German,  luk, a short form middle High German gelücke.
Luck is a way of understanding a personal chance event. 
Luck can be good or bad
Luck can be accident or chance
Examples of luck:
Break a leg
You correctly guess an answer in a quiz which you did not know.

Fortuna, the Roman goddess of fate or luck, was popular as an allegory in medieval times, and even though it was not strictly reconcilable with Christian theology, it became popular in learned circles of the High Middle Ages to portray her as a servant of God in distributing success or failure in a characteristically "fickle" or unpredictable way, thus introducing the notion of chance.

Rationalists  feel the belief in luck is a result of poor reasoning or wishful thinking. To a rationalist, a believer in luck who asserts that something has influenced his or her luck commits the "post hoc ergo propter hoc" logical fallacy: that because two events are connected sequentially, they are connected causally as well. 

A definition of good destiny is: enjoying good health, having the physical and mental capabilities of achieving set goals in life, having good appearance, has happiness in mind and is not prone to accidents. 

There is also a series of spiritual, or supernatural beliefs regarding fortune. These beliefs vary widely from one to another, but most agree that luck can be influenced through spiritual means by performing certain rituals or by avoiding certain circumstances.

Luck is a form of superstition which is interpreted differently by different individuals. Carl Jung coined the term synchronicity, which he described as "a meaningful coincidence".

Christianity, in its early development, accommodated many traditional practices which at different times, accepted omens and practiced forms of ritual sacrifice in order to divine the will of their supreme being or to influence divine favoritism. The concepts of "Divine Grace" or "Blessing" as they are described by believers closely resemble what is referred to as "luck" by others.

Mesoamerican religions, such as the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas, had particularly strong beliefs regarding the relationship between rituals and the gods.
In these cultures, human sacrifice,  as well as self sacrifice by means of bloodletting, could possibly be seen as a way to propitiate the gods and 
earn favor for the city offering the sacrifice. 

Many traditional African practices, such as voodoo and hoodoo, have a strong belief in superstition. Some of these religions include a belief that third parties can influence an individual's luck. Shamans and witches are both respected and feared, based on their ability to cause good or bad fortune for those in villages near them.


Luck is an important factor in many aspects of society.
Games
A game may depend on luck rather than skill or effort. 

Many countries have a national lottery. Individual views of the chance of winning, and what it might mean to win, are largely expressed by statements about luck. For example, the winner was "just lucky" meaning they contributed no skill or effort.
"Leaving it to chance" is a way of resolving issues. For example, flipping a coin at the start of a sporting event may determine who goes first.

Numerology
Most cultures consider some numbers to be lucky or unlucky. This is found to be particularly strong in Asian cultures, where the obtaining of "lucky" telephone numbers, automobile license plate numbers, and household addresses are actively sought, sometimes at great monetary expense. Numerology, as it relates to luck, is closer to an art than to a science.

Buddhism
Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, taught his followers not to believe in luck. The view which was taught by Gautama Buddha states that all things which happen must have a cause, either material or spiritual, and do not occur due to luck, chance or fate. The idea of moral causality, karma  is central in Buddhism. 

Ex mea sententia; Luck is mere Luck!

©Photo/Text Ts