Time for a more mature look at Soppy Sunday…African Honey Bee.Black Mamba.Donegal.Cone SnailPony Gerry’s granddaughter is looking after. (Thanks, Gerry).Lago di BraiesThat’s my grandad up the top of the page there!Mount Lebanon.Best buddies.Poison Dart Frog.Restaurant with a difference.Skye.Leopard Seal.Box Jelly Fish.Clouded Leopard.El Hajje, Lebanon.Cape Buffalo.Blue Ringer Octopus.Southern Greenland SunsetI’m sad you have to go. Come back next week, please.
Lovely pictures as always! And BTW, the number of deadly venomous creatures caught my eye.
By my count, there are fourteen pictures showing fifteen different “animals”…….by which I mean as distinct from flowers and plants and landscapes. (I don’t want to get into the deep weeds of biological taxonomy here.) No less than 5 of the 15 different creatures are (or can be) extremely venomous, with a bite or sting that is potentially deadly to humans. (And this is not counting the bee…..who usually gets a pass because he makes honey.)
And then we have the Cape Buffalo, the Lion, and the Leopard, which are all usually considered to be dangerous to humans. Only the dog, cat, horse, seal, and of course the loveable Orangutans, can be considered relatively safe. But a big dog can maul you, a cat can scratch you, and an enraged horse can trample you. Which leaves only the orangs and the seal, either of which can accidentally fall on you.
None of this is apropos of anything at all, except to point out that in the animal world, Soppy Sunday is not necessarily a walk in the park from the standpoint of human safety. In particular, stay away from things that are brightly colored or have interesting geometrical patterns. Many have deadly venom.
Stay away from those Cape Buffalo too. The Lions and Leopards go without saying.
Danny, it’s a pram dinghy, not a bath: you can just make out the ribs inside. Still, even as a dinghy it isn’t doing much to enhance the landscape. Sadly, not just Skye, but many other places in our beautiful country are marred by the rubbish people dump or throw away – old tractors, farm equipment, wrecked vehicles, old bedsteads – and that’s just some of the big stuff. It’s such a beautiful world and so many of us treat it like a rubbish tip.
Conan……I did find my way to this paragraph in The Guardian:
“The Manningham Park lake has been restored, after 30 years of neglect, just in time to rescue from oblivion the boatkeeper’s traditional cry: “Come in number 11, your time is up.”
So it does seem to involve a “boatkeeper” and a “traditional cry.” 🙂
Danny, about the “safe” animals, I’m pretty sure an angry adult orang could tear your limbs off and I’d strongly recommend not being in the water anywhere near a Leopard Seal. Come to think of it, probably the only really safe animals are the soft toy ones. On reflection, scratch that, I once tripped over a toy polar bear that’d fallen off the bed onto the floor and I took a real tumble. To be really safe, we should stick to looking at the pics on Soppy Sunday 🙂
Thanks Andimac. I really couldn’t figure out why someone would abandon a bathtub at such a spot.
Yes, it’s the animals on Soppy Sunday for me. Lots safer that way. Based on the venomous theme, I was reading about some of the critters in Australia. It’s amazing that any Australians survive to maturity. 😉
Conan…..We must cut the Australians some slack. The poor people must be constantly terrified. Even if they escape the snakes and the spiders, a salt water croc will swallow them whole while on holiday at the beach. 😉
How acutely observant of you Danny. During the week I came across an article on some of the world’s most deadly animals, and the pictures were pretty neat.
So in fact, a good number of them ended up in SS this week…
No Tris, it was indeed my acute powers of observation…..LOL. I spotted the theme as soon as I saw that frog and the octopus. When you see bright colors and interesting patterns, stay away from the critter!
Some rattlesnakes have the geometrical patterns…….such as the “diamond back” rattler in Arizona and the southwest. Less well known is the really pretty little snake with bright colored bands called the Coral Snake. More venomous than the rattlesnake.
I was lucky enough to encounter a rare Eastern Massassauga Rattlesnake whilst on holiday in Canada 4 years ago. Unfortunately the only bit of filming gear I had was my iPod nano, but I set it to video and boldly (or stupidly) edged closer to get a descent shot. I don’t know if it was years of conditioning watching cowboy films or just some primal fear reaction but at about 5-6 feet away it hissed and rattled and I recoiled with ‘snake like’ speed.
My Canadian cousins have been going to that same area in a small bay off Georgia Bay on Lake Huron regularly for 30+ years and have never seen one. Unfortunately when I showed them the inferior iPod footage, taken in glaring sunlight it looked like a short bit of rope lying on the ground and was met with some scepticism. Comments like yeh, have another whisky etc.. abounded.
@ Greig…….Yes, when you hear the rattle, it’s probably a good idea to depart. I read a story about a guy here (not sure where) who decided to pick up a rattler to share a selfie. He got bit and spent some time in the hospital. I’ve never actually seen one outside of a zoo.
of course we’ll be back next week little one. In fact, I’ll even pop back before the next SS. Lovely pictures again. The dangerously venomous ones are really quite pretty. The seal was beautiful. Only thing is I wonder if the first picture might be granny – the boys tend to have large flappy cheek pads called flanges though they do take ages to grow so it might be a underdeveloped boy.
Anyway since you can never have enough orangutans here is a short film of them making their beds in the trees.
Thanks for the photos, Tris! You are now an Honorary Member of the Lebanon Tourist Board! I’ll pick up the award and associated privileges on your behalf when I visit in a fortnight!
You’re welcome, John. It’s kind of you to offer to pick up the awards, although Munguin says that he should probably go with you, just to make sure it’s all done with decorum. (He’s a most decorous animal.)
It looks spectacularly beautiful.
Thanks for posting the photo Tris. Kourtney will be chuffed.
Donegal is very like Scotland I hear. I think our family stayed ther for a year or so, but that was before my time on this earth.
It’s very like Scottish Gaelic Tris. My dad was an Irish Gaelic speaker (though English born) and could converse with Scots Gaelic speakers fairly easily.
Ah, Donegal, one of my favorite places. Pints of the black stuff and plenty of craic in O’Neill’s in beautiful Bundoran in the afternoon and late-night entertainment and more of the black stuff in the Fox’s-Lair! Lovely story about the local butcher and his pal the barber on a drinking spree and ended up falling asleep in the barber’s shop with the butcher who had paid hundreds of pounds for a wig in the customer’s chair. Some time later the barber woke up and thinking he had a customer proceeded to give him a hair cut….! If Ralph is reading this I did not mention any names!
Oops! That was meant to be a paragraph break, not a new post. Meantime, I will try to find the picture of the most alien, and fascinating, creature of the deep, that up until recently I would not have thought existed. Utterly astonishing example of bio-diversity. Bear with me whilst I (try to) find the picture. This might take a while.
MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 
Lovely pictures as always! And BTW, the number of deadly venomous creatures caught my eye.
By my count, there are fourteen pictures showing fifteen different “animals”…….by which I mean as distinct from flowers and plants and landscapes. (I don’t want to get into the deep weeds of biological taxonomy here.) No less than 5 of the 15 different creatures are (or can be) extremely venomous, with a bite or sting that is potentially deadly to humans. (And this is not counting the bee…..who usually gets a pass because he makes honey.)
And then we have the Cape Buffalo, the Lion, and the Leopard, which are all usually considered to be dangerous to humans. Only the dog, cat, horse, seal, and of course the loveable Orangutans, can be considered relatively safe. But a big dog can maul you, a cat can scratch you, and an enraged horse can trample you. Which leaves only the orangs and the seal, either of which can accidentally fall on you.
None of this is apropos of anything at all, except to point out that in the animal world, Soppy Sunday is not necessarily a walk in the park from the standpoint of human safety. In particular, stay away from things that are brightly colored or have interesting geometrical patterns. Many have deadly venom.
Stay away from those Cape Buffalo too. The Lions and Leopards go without saying.
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And Donegal is pretty.
As are the rocks at Skye. (Lots of abandoned bathtubs there?)
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Danny, it’s a pram dinghy, not a bath: you can just make out the ribs inside. Still, even as a dinghy it isn’t doing much to enhance the landscape. Sadly, not just Skye, but many other places in our beautiful country are marred by the rubbish people dump or throw away – old tractors, farm equipment, wrecked vehicles, old bedsteads – and that’s just some of the big stuff. It’s such a beautiful world and so many of us treat it like a rubbish tip.
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Come in number 11, your time is up! (A very British reference that you might not get, Danny)
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Conan……I did find my way to this paragraph in The Guardian:
“The Manningham Park lake has been restored, after 30 years of neglect, just in time to rescue from oblivion the boatkeeper’s traditional cry: “Come in number 11, your time is up.”
So it does seem to involve a “boatkeeper” and a “traditional cry.” 🙂
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I assumed it was something for animals to drink out of, Danny.
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Danny, about the “safe” animals, I’m pretty sure an angry adult orang could tear your limbs off and I’d strongly recommend not being in the water anywhere near a Leopard Seal. Come to think of it, probably the only really safe animals are the soft toy ones. On reflection, scratch that, I once tripped over a toy polar bear that’d fallen off the bed onto the floor and I took a real tumble. To be really safe, we should stick to looking at the pics on Soppy Sunday 🙂
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Thanks Andimac. I really couldn’t figure out why someone would abandon a bathtub at such a spot.
Yes, it’s the animals on Soppy Sunday for me. Lots safer that way. Based on the venomous theme, I was reading about some of the critters in Australia. It’s amazing that any Australians survive to maturity. 😉
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Mature Australians. There’s a thought…
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Conan…..We must cut the Australians some slack. The poor people must be constantly terrified. Even if they escape the snakes and the spiders, a salt water croc will swallow them whole while on holiday at the beach. 😉
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LOL. True Andi!
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How acutely observant of you Danny. During the week I came across an article on some of the world’s most deadly animals, and the pictures were pretty neat.
So in fact, a good number of them ended up in SS this week…
Has Munguin been on the phone with you?
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No Tris, it was indeed my acute powers of observation…..LOL. I spotted the theme as soon as I saw that frog and the octopus. When you see bright colors and interesting patterns, stay away from the critter!
Some rattlesnakes have the geometrical patterns…….such as the “diamond back” rattler in Arizona and the southwest. Less well known is the really pretty little snake with bright colored bands called the Coral Snake. More venomous than the rattlesnake.
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We’re so lucky in Scotland. We have adders, but not in abundance (I’ve only ever seen one), and really nothing that brightly coloured.
Of course, a cow or a sheep can be dangerous if they have young, and you wouldn’t want to be anywhere near an angry swan!
Incidentally, you may find yourself awarded the Star of Munguin (third class) for observation. Congratulations!
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I was lucky enough to encounter a rare Eastern Massassauga Rattlesnake whilst on holiday in Canada 4 years ago. Unfortunately the only bit of filming gear I had was my iPod nano, but I set it to video and boldly (or stupidly) edged closer to get a descent shot. I don’t know if it was years of conditioning watching cowboy films or just some primal fear reaction but at about 5-6 feet away it hissed and rattled and I recoiled with ‘snake like’ speed.
My Canadian cousins have been going to that same area in a small bay off Georgia Bay on Lake Huron regularly for 30+ years and have never seen one. Unfortunately when I showed them the inferior iPod footage, taken in glaring sunlight it looked like a short bit of rope lying on the ground and was met with some scepticism. Comments like yeh, have another whisky etc.. abounded.
I know what I saw though.
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Kinda depends on whether you had been drinking the whisky before your encounter, or when you were recounting the tale.
Bits of rope can be confusing when you’ve had a few 🙂
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That’s a worrying thought Tris. I’m going to keep a wary eye out for confusing bits of rope from now on.
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LOL!!!!
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Tris…..Who would not be honored by the Star of Munguin! Although I suppose it’s the FIRST class version that comes with a knighthood. 😉
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First class has never been awarded, Danny!
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@ Greig…….Yes, when you hear the rattle, it’s probably a good idea to depart. I read a story about a guy here (not sure where) who decided to pick up a rattler to share a selfie. He got bit and spent some time in the hospital. I’ve never actually seen one outside of a zoo.
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“I’m sad you have to go. Come back next week, please.”
I imagine most of us will. Beautiful stuff.
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Thank you, Douglas. That last orangutan does look sad, doesn’t (s)he?
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of course we’ll be back next week little one. In fact, I’ll even pop back before the next SS. Lovely pictures again. The dangerously venomous ones are really quite pretty. The seal was beautiful. Only thing is I wonder if the first picture might be granny – the boys tend to have large flappy cheek pads called flanges though they do take ages to grow so it might be a underdeveloped boy.
Anyway since you can never have enough orangutans here is a short film of them making their beds in the trees.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/group/orangutans/
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Great film. I wish they’d come and make my bed!
Yes, I reckon you are probably right. The first pic looks like an older animal and given the flanges, I reckon it’s grandma, rather then grandpa.
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Thanks for the photos, Tris! You are now an Honorary Member of the Lebanon Tourist Board! I’ll pick up the award and associated privileges on your behalf when I visit in a fortnight!
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You’re welcome, John. It’s kind of you to offer to pick up the awards, although Munguin says that he should probably go with you, just to make sure it’s all done with decorum. (He’s a most decorous animal.)
It looks spectacularly beautiful.
Hope you and Mrs Brownlie have a great holiday.
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I lived in Donegal for a short while, a lifetime ago. You’ve made me most melancholy Tris, thinking of days gone by and lost youth…
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Interesting place, Conan.
In Ulster, but in the Republic, Irish speaking. It looks beautiful and it’s, as I said, in the Republic. Free from Britain.
Ideal.
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Thanks for posting the photo Tris. Kourtney will be chuffed.
Donegal is very like Scotland I hear. I think our family stayed ther for a year or so, but that was before my time on this earth.
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Tell Kourtney she’s welcome, Gerry.
I’d like to go to Donegal one day. I need to get John to teach me some of the language first though.
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It’s very like Scottish Gaelic Tris. My dad was an Irish Gaelic speaker (though English born) and could converse with Scots Gaelic speakers fairly easily.
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So I believe Gerry. I’m sure John could help me out in it. I guess it’s like Portuguese and Spanish, or even Scots and English.
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Ah, Donegal, one of my favorite places. Pints of the black stuff and plenty of craic in O’Neill’s in beautiful Bundoran in the afternoon and late-night entertainment and more of the black stuff in the Fox’s-Lair! Lovely story about the local butcher and his pal the barber on a drinking spree and ended up falling asleep in the barber’s shop with the butcher who had paid hundreds of pounds for a wig in the customer’s chair. Some time later the barber woke up and thinking he had a customer proceeded to give him a hair cut….! If Ralph is reading this I did not mention any names!
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LOL. Aye, Ralph, don’t worry mate. We don’t know yer name. And I promise if ever I get to Donegal, mum’s the word.
Can’t promise about Munguin though!
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Even that snake is laughing at Colonel Davidson.
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And who could blame it?
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In today’s clammy heat Greenland looks very inviting. Can we have another octopus next week plz?
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I think you might find Scotland quite inviting too this summer if you are looking for a bit of cool. It’s barely in double figures!
Of course you can have another octopus next week. 🙂
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trispw,
Cephalopods are pretty interesting. You should do more of them!
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Sounds good. They are beautiful.
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Oops! That was meant to be a paragraph break, not a new post. Meantime, I will try to find the picture of the most alien, and fascinating, creature of the deep, that up until recently I would not have thought existed. Utterly astonishing example of bio-diversity. Bear with me whilst I (try to) find the picture. This might take a while.
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OK. 🙂
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I eventually found a picture, though it is not the picture. Anyway I give you:
https://tse2.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.5VTR5jIKJnKNI5QzJ0mUrAEsEs&pid=15.1&P=0&w=300&h=300
Vampire Squid!
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Wow, he/she is a beauty. Specially that eye.
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