Huzzah – Greenland has landed!

Tags

animals, end of the world, Greenland, Mayan, Mongolia, Montville, Nuuk, photographs, photography, photos, places, Queensland, travel, Ulan Bator, water, water dragon

What a wonderful Christmas surprise. Well, a couple of days before actually but I have only just got to putting finger to key now, which makes it post Christmas day but… ah well, I am babbling.  What I mean to say is that finally I have had a visitor from GREENLAND. Huzzah!!

Dani Henriksen from Nuuk dropped by to see my last post – Breakfast with Audrey.  Aluu Dani and Juullimi Ukiortaassamilu Pilluarit (thanks omniglot).  Dani is a Filipina whose blog can bee seen here. Maligayang pasko at manigong bagong taon (and apologies for my rusty Tagalog).

So now, the 2013 challenge begins – to have a person from Mongolia visit. So, brush off your penpals and if they live in Mongolia, get them to drop on by. Of course Ulan Bator is somewhat larger than Nuuk but, unlike Nuuk, I have actually been to the Mongolian capital.

When I was there in 1991 the world was a different place. The USSR was coming to an end, China was reluctantly allowing in foreigners and  a ticket on the trans-Mongolian could be purchased cheaper on the black market. Mongolia is definitely on my list of places to visit again.

Now, just because I like this pic, here is a lovely juvenile water dragon spotted near Montville in Queensland the other week. Have a wonderful journey into 2013 and remember, it’s only 981 more days until the revised Mayan end of the world. So, keep smiling.

Breakfast with Audrey

Tags

arts, Audrey, Audrey Hepburn, Greenland, London, Madame Tussaud, people, photographs, photography

Who would I have at my dinner table if I could? Well, I must admit that Audrey Hepburn would be at the head of the table. This photo was taken last year and, for a woman who has been dead for 18 years, she looks incredible. Imagine what she was like when she was alive!

Actually, you may have guessed that this isn’t really Audrey. Madame Tussaud’s in London has this scene set up for people like me to ogle. She really is quite stunning, even in wax.

While looking around the Intramanet, I came across a whole lot of Audrey Hepburn related briefs on a site called (and I kid you not) Greenland Culture File. Check it out here.

I haven’t posted for some time – competing priorities and having a dud spell on the photography  I have been experimenting with my camera and have produced some spectacularly bad pics which will never be seen by human eyes. They have been recycled into ones and zeros on my PC.

Hopefully, looking back over some old shots will inspire me and maybe produce some postings over the coming days/weeks. And I still await a visitor from Greenland!

 

And a couple of departing quotes from Audrey:

Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’

 

The most important thing is to enjoy your life – to be happy – it’s all that matters.

 

Umbrellas

Tags

australia, brisbane, Greenland, people, photographs, photography, photos, places, tourists, Umbrella, Victoria Bridge, water

In 2009 I went for a walk around Brisbane taking photos of reflections. While crossing the river Victoria bridge I glanced across to the other side of the road and saw these wonderful tourists just passing. Of course, I didn’t have my camera ready so had to quickly snap what I could. The result is below.

Now, normally I don’t play too much with pictures as I am in the mood of trying to get the photo right at point of origin. That doesn’t always happen 🙂 This one I played with and kind of like the effect of the coloured umbrellas.

Which version do you like?  I wonder if the tourists ever went to Nuuk (ha – I bet you didn’t pick up the link between this and Greenland!).

 

Enraptured

Tags

Accipiter, animal, australia, bird, Bird of prey, Brown Goshawk, Flora and Fauna, Greenland, magpie, photo, photography, red rock, travel, victoria, Volcanic field

On our last trip we were literally surrounded by winged creatures. Looking down gave us the bees of my last two posts. Looking up gave us another delight – a beautiful raptor had come to check us out.

I think it is a brown goshawk but would welcome another opinion or confirmation. Until such time as I get told otherwise, I’ll go with this.

It soared over the fields checking out the tourists and the prey far below. It’s hunting grounds used to be alive with volcanic action, the last one lashing the earth with its fiery tongue some four millenia ago.

Today it is fertile grazing land and home to a multitude of rabbits and small furry raptor lunches. We have probably driven past this area a gazillion times but this time, we made the effort to stop and look at the Red Rock lookout.

It was an extremely windy and cold place, the kind of place I loathe. My partner was wrapped in a rug from the car and looking a lot like a shivering tartan souvlaki. I had on my rainbow jumper which screams to the world that life is great. The Accipiter fasciatus hovered over us seemingly oblivious to the winds which were buffeting us.

Finally it decided to leave us. On its way to a who knows where, a magpie decided to put on a brave show of attacking the bird of prey. The goshawk flew on, ignoring the worrying being dished out by the bird.
Does anyone know what raptors live in Greenland?

Life is good.

Nanna’s garden

Tags

australia, cold, flora, flowers, garden, Greenland, images, photographs, photography, photos, places, soringtime, spring, victoria, Warrnambool

Nannas do gardens well. And my mother-in-law (Nanna to my kids) is no exception. Being in the south of Australia in springtime gives an array of different colours. The flowers that thrive down here in the Greenland-esque cold are very different than those of my warm northern home.

If you click here or on the picture below, you will see a few of the wonderful ornaments which adorn the chilly outdoors of Nanna’s garden.

One of those photos

Tags

australia, Greenland, health, humour, Mongolia, people, photographs, photography, places, travel

Okay, due to unforeseen circumstances I have missed a couple of Friday Photos. Hopefully I can make up for that over the coming days/weeks. In the meantime, I have travelled to Victoria. Every  now and then that photo comes along which aligns the stars. You know, the one which everyone says “That must have been conjured in Photoshop” or “Nah, that’s a set-up”.

Yesterday, while driving back from a heavy-duty shopping expedition, our car drove from the carpark (with us in it) and showed us “One of those photos”. Now if this pic does not tickle the fancy of people from as far away as Greenland and Mongolia, I don’t know what will. Notice the way I added Greenland and Mongolia in an attempt to boost this blog’s page rank on http://www.google.gl and http://www.google.mn (queue maniacal laughter).

So, here it is – one of those photos. I believe it is worth a full 1000 words. What do you think?

Hope you enjoy.

 

Friday Photo

Tags

Champs Elysees, france, Friends, Greenland, Mongolia, paris, people, photograph, photographs, photography, photos, places, travel

Now this is a real quick post as I prepare for my niece’s 21st birthday tomorrow. This pic was taken in on the Avenue des Champs Elysees in Paris. It was one of those that you take when playing with a new camera and kind of surprised me when I looked at in on the computer. It was taken in black and white so no ‘shopping’ apart from the border. Hope you enjoy. And just so I can legitimately tag this to encourage viewers…I reckon the bloke with his back to us is from Greenland or Mongolia.

Have a great weekend.

Monday I’ve got Friday on my mind

Tags

australia, Greenland, humour, Mongolia, photographs, photography, photos, pirates, places, public, sunshine coast, toilets

So here is the link to Friday’s photo. Fans of pirates, hopscotch and toilets will enjoy what I found up in Kawana a couple of weekends ago. This photo is more unusual than anything else. I would love to find out what the story behind it is. If you know, do tell. And if anyone can let me know if the same kind of picture is found in Greenland or Mongolia, I would love to hear that as well.

As usual, click on the teaser below to see the full Friday photo.

Friday photo

Tags

baby, child, cold, cuddle, Greenland, mother, motherhood, Nuuk, parenthood, parrenthood, photo, photographs, photography, rowing

Okay, so  there have still been no Greenlanders visiting my blog. The capital, Nuuk, has about 16,000 people. Surely someone has a computer there. If you know anyone in Greenland my challenge to you is to get them to visit my blog. Better still, get them to comment on a photo or musing. 🙂 Also looking for people from Mongolia or Iraq – preferably natives and not visitors or expats.

In the meantime, this week’s Friday Photo is one of warmth and cuddles and parenthood. You can find it here or by clicking on the photo below.

Have a great weekend.

Aluu Greenlandians

Tags

Friends, Greenland, Greenlandic, Iraq, Mongolia

No one from Greenland has ever visited my blog and I am sad about that. If anyone knows someone from Greenland, can you ask them to come to my blog please so my stat map has a Greenland visitor on it – that would be cool.

Oh, also anyone from Mongolia or Iraq.

Google translate doesn’t have Greenlandic as an option so here is the above in Thai.

หนึ่งจากกรีนแลนด์ไม่ได้เคยเข้าเยี่ยมชมบล็อกของฉันและฉันเสียใจเกี่ยวกับว่า ถ้าใครรู้ใครบางคนจากกรีนแลนด์ที่คุณสามารถขอให้พวกเขามาในบล็อกของฉันโปรดดังนั้นแผนที่ stat ของฉันมีผู้เข้าชมกรีนแลนด์เมื่อมัน – ที่จะเย็น

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