Morning, I’ve been hanging around for ages waiting for you. You need to get up earlier. I hope you can all see the pictures this week.Moncheau, Germany.Anyone know what these are?A traffic jam in one of these countries that President Pinhead doesn’t like.I’ve got my Robin back. He seems to know when I go into the back garden and heads for the tree just above where he knows the fat and the mealworms will be. Silver Lake, California.This baby Blue Heron clearly wants something to eat.Sounds like my kinda dog.No, silly. I’m a dog, I don’t feel the cold…well, not when I’m playing.This Yosemite must be the most amazing place. Every week we seem to have another stunning picture.Yemen.One of the quaint back streets running down from the back of Basilique du Sacré Coeur to the Blvd de Clichy. Interestingly (we were talking about it in Saturday’s post) these street have granite setts.Scottish Wild Cat, becoming endangered.Svartifoss, Iceland.Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, oh that was a good one.Statue of the Unknown Bureaucrat, Reykjavik .Bintan Island, Indonesia.Another species becoming endangered. What are we doing to the planet?Won’t be long now until we’ll be seeing this sight on ponds over the country.OK, this little one has been up long enough, showing you lot round Soppy Sunday. Time for a nap. See you all next week.
I love that part of Paris. I have friends who live around there. I’m not sure I’d like to live there all the time, but they also have a house in the south of France, so it’s not 24/7/52 excitement.
In was in a café on Clichy that someone asked me if I was English. (Apparently my accent suggested that I was foreign). I replied that I was Scottish.
The patron was obviously of the Marks and Spencer school of geopolitics and informed me that Scotland was in the north of England.
Still he knew a bit more about it by the time we left!
Haven’t read that one, Tris. I’ll have to add it to my Books To Read list which now has, I’m sure, more entries than a library catalogue. Ah well, as the ancient Romans were wont to say, “Ars longa, vita brevis.”
Andi. I love Simenon’s style. It’s easy reading, interesting plots, great characters, lovely and evocative descriptions of Parisian life. Great in French or in most of the translations.
If you take you Hippocrates quote to mean that art outlives its creator, then that is very true of Georges Simenon.
Help! I remembered watching the televised series with Rupert Davies – in black and white! I couldn’t remember the dates but have found it was as far back as 1960 – 1963. (I was still at school, mind you, but only just.) I seem to recall that my Dad was a fan, despite not being much of a TV addict.
“The patron was obviously of the Marks and Spencer school of geopolitics and informed me that Scotland was in the north of England.
Still he knew a bit more about it by the time we left!”
From the Cafe Montmartre picture, I now know what the previous discussion about “setts” in pavement was all about. I didn’t realize that natural stone was quarried for this purpose, except maybe in ornamental applications. But I do remember seeing paving brick in old streets here, through holes or gaps in asphalt that has been laid down over it. Seems like it would be expensive to quarry stone for this purpose, but then I remembered seeing historical signs in north central Kansas about “post rock land.” It’s an area where the early settlers on the treeless prairie quarried shallow limestone deposits for building materials and fence posts. Today, you can still see some of the old structures, and look out into the fields and see many of those post rock fence rows. In some cases, they are still strung with barbed wire, but in other places you see fences built of modern materials, but the farmers have left the old post rock fence rows as historical artifacts.
Tris, if you’re in Caithness you often come across fields where the “fence” is made of upright slices of Caithness flagstone (or flags). There are few trees in Caithness, so the flags were a better option than wooden posts and wire.
The Flowers look like Eschscholzia to me but I can’t be certain from the picture cos it’s not very clear. It’s one of my favourites and very easy to grow but needs a lot of dead heading to keep it flowering.
Nice feathery foliage too, will survive a mild Fife winter and self seeds though it’s better to sow your own to get earlier blooms. An easy one for kids to grow and there’s an amazing red variety.
Yellow seems to be the most common colour here so I could be wrong because the whole fields Orange in the picture.
Lovely flowers but a complete PITA for dead-heading. We had them around the front for a couple of years but if you want them to flower for longer than a couple of weeks you need to spend 30-60 minutes every day dead-heading. Sadly I feel life is too short for that 🙂
Nah, have to respectfully disagree with you there Vestas. I’ve grown Eschscholzia for years and they’re no worse than many other annuals in the deadheading department. They can be sensitive to light levels when the flowers are new, they close at night for example but they stay open all the time as they age.
I don’t grow many annuals so deadheadings just something I do in the passing and isn’t onerous. It’s a subjective thing but I’ve always looked upon them as a value for money plant.
We found that by the time they’d “aged” enough to stay open most of the petals had been blown off anyway. Not exactly that windy in Leicestershire so I dunno whether we did anything wrong.
As an aside its the only plant I’ve ever grown where someone knocked on the door to ask what it was. They do look spectacular when everything is right.
My plantnet plant identifier android app confirms “Eschscholzia californica cham.” otherwise known as Californian poppy. Everyone needs this app in their life. Ok, nobody needs this in their life.
Actually I do. Thanks, Terry. I think a friend of mine has that one on her phone, and sometimes it works… although I usually carry a little book which identities stuff by colour and I can often find it before she does!
Definitely California poppies. Look up Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve … I remember being very struck by the yellow poppies when I visited California. Sometimes I wish I’d more of an effort to stay – Northern California is one of the better places to be in the USA.
Thank you again for the life-affirming orangutans; I realized that I rather needed them this week!
Very nice – lots of dogs and birds this week. I’ve a robin comes visiting too – not so much for me but for the worms in the garden. There doesn’t seem to be much chance of those ducks becoming endangered though unlike many species. Watched Secret Life of the Zoo and apparently there were only 50 known Javan Green mapies in the world. So they brough one in to breed with a very young male they already had. They weren’t sure he wasn’t too young (1o months old) but two eggs hatched though one later died. So now there are 51 known Javan Green magpies in the world.
Lovely orangs and nice to see one with its mum as it should be.
Well, I don;t think my Robbie comes to see me. But he knows that when i open that shed the most likely thinking to come out is, meal worms and fat pellets.
There’s always a chance too, if it’s not too awful weather, that i might turn over a bit of soil or lift a stone…
51 is better than 50… and who knows, now he’s got the hang of this breeding thing, how many more may be to follow!
I wonder if I caused an upset by including a video last week?
Seems to me bird people are the greatest danger to hedgehogs. They were collecting them to kill them in the Isles. I don’t think enough effort was made to relocate them.
I remember seeing extremely large hedgehogs around
Livingston. Are they still wandering about?
There were DECADES of efforts to remove them prior to the cull – all efforts were unsuccessful.
Bottom line is that the hedgehog is not native to any of the Scottish islands and was causing catastrophic damage to ground-nesting birds which ARE native to the islands.
You know, Danny, that Unknown Bureaucrat looks like the sort of guy who’d listen to you in stony silence, block out all your views and be as immovable as a rock.
Beautiful view of the lower cascade of Yosemite Falls!
Some boring information about Yosemite Falls (to bring down the excitement level):
As the surrounding snow pack in the Sierra Nevada Range melts in the Spring after California’s Winter rain and snow season, the surrounding streams in Yosemite National Park find ways to plunge anywhere from a few hundred to a couple of thousand feet to the Yosemite Valley floor. Many of the twenty or so falls in Yosemite dry up and entirely disappear in August and September after California’s dry season.
The posted picture is of the lower falls (and a bit of the middle cascade) of Yosemite Falls. Yosemite Creek falls to the valley floor in three cascades with a total height of 2,425 ft….making it the 20th highest waterfall in the world. It descends in three falls. The Upper Yosemite Fall (the one you see from a distance and is almost always shown on the Yosemite picture post cards) is a height of 1,430 ft. The middle part of the falls is a series of cascades (with quite a bit of lateral travel,) which descend a total of 675 ft, but are seldom seen since they are mostly hidden in a gorge which is only accessible by a difficult trail. Then the bottom of the falls can be seen again, with a final drop of 320 ft. Tourists can get up close and personal to the lower falls.
But the snow always melts, and by the end of summer, Yosemite Falls usually disappears entirely. So if you want to see falls, go to Yosemite in May or June. If you want to see the really tall rocks unobscured by all that falling water, go in August or September.
A couple of pictures showing more of Yosemite Falls, and a Park Service video about it.
The picture post card shot of the valley showing Yosemite Falls:
Picture showing the whole falls…….the lower falls at the very bottom (as one might expect:)
PS: Each of a total of 21 waterfalls in Yosemite National Park has their own Wikipedia entry. Even a little one called “Quaking Aspen Falls” with a total height of TWENTY-FIVE feet.
Here’s what Wikipedia says about it:
“Quaking Aspen Falls (also called Tioga Pass Falls) is a 25-foot, multi-stranded waterfall off Tioga Pass Road in Yosemite National Park. Although the falls typically dry up by August, the stream flows year-round both above and below the falls.”
Anyone have any earthly idea how a waterfall can dry up, while the stream flows year-round both above and below it?
If true, it seems like this would be the REALLY big attraction at Yosemite!
Hey, the photos are back and I can see clearly now but I’m not making a song and dance about it. I wonder how they managed those buildings in the Yemen and how many poor souls they lost in the making?
So if anyone has a TV licence or can visit someone who has – tonight 6pm on Pick freeview channel 11 is
Monkey Life – set in Monkey World Dorset which has lots of rescued monkeys and apes and we can view their antics. Plenty of life affirming orang to watch!
MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 
Good to see the pic of Café Montmartre, Tris. I had lunch there on 14th October 2016 and very pleasant it was too.
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Fantastique, Andi.
I love that part of Paris. I have friends who live around there. I’m not sure I’d like to live there all the time, but they also have a house in the south of France, so it’s not 24/7/52 excitement.
In was in a café on Clichy that someone asked me if I was English. (Apparently my accent suggested that I was foreign). I replied that I was Scottish.
The patron was obviously of the Marks and Spencer school of geopolitics and informed me that Scotland was in the north of England.
Still he knew a bit more about it by the time we left!
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I’m reading “Maigret Au Picratt’s” at the moment, and that takes place in Montmartre et Pigalle.
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Haven’t read that one, Tris. I’ll have to add it to my Books To Read list which now has, I’m sure, more entries than a library catalogue. Ah well, as the ancient Romans were wont to say, “Ars longa, vita brevis.”
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Andi. I love Simenon’s style. It’s easy reading, interesting plots, great characters, lovely and evocative descriptions of Parisian life. Great in French or in most of the translations.
If you take you Hippocrates quote to mean that art outlives its creator, then that is very true of Georges Simenon.
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Help! I remembered watching the televised series with Rupert Davies – in black and white! I couldn’t remember the dates but have found it was as far back as 1960 – 1963. (I was still at school, mind you, but only just.) I seem to recall that my Dad was a fan, despite not being much of a TV addict.
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There have been others…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maigret_(1960_TV_series)
and
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107221/
and
http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/rowan-atkinsons-maigret-slammed-critics-7648328
My mum said the one in the 60s was the best.
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“The patron was obviously of the Marks and Spencer school of geopolitics and informed me that Scotland was in the north of England.
Still he knew a bit more about it by the time we left!”
Fantastique!
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MDR. (French for LOL)
Merci
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From the Cafe Montmartre picture, I now know what the previous discussion about “setts” in pavement was all about. I didn’t realize that natural stone was quarried for this purpose, except maybe in ornamental applications. But I do remember seeing paving brick in old streets here, through holes or gaps in asphalt that has been laid down over it. Seems like it would be expensive to quarry stone for this purpose, but then I remembered seeing historical signs in north central Kansas about “post rock land.” It’s an area where the early settlers on the treeless prairie quarried shallow limestone deposits for building materials and fence posts. Today, you can still see some of the old structures, and look out into the fields and see many of those post rock fence rows. In some cases, they are still strung with barbed wire, but in other places you see fences built of modern materials, but the farmers have left the old post rock fence rows as historical artifacts.
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Not many left here, but they were very good, and durable as a road surface.
Not often you see a stone fence post here, but I’ve seen concrete ones.
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Tris, if you’re in Caithness you often come across fields where the “fence” is made of upright slices of Caithness flagstone (or flags). There are few trees in Caithness, so the flags were a better option than wooden posts and wire.
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Another place on my togo list Andi.
Thanks for that. I had no idea.
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Photo no.3, Tris. It’s a wild guess but I’d say they’re flowers 🙂
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Well, there’s a thing, Andi. And us never knowing that we had a David Attenbourgh clone in our midst!
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Ah, you wanted more detail – OK – they’re orange flowers.
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Now, that’s a lot better. Thanks very much!
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The Flowers look like Eschscholzia to me but I can’t be certain from the picture cos it’s not very clear. It’s one of my favourites and very easy to grow but needs a lot of dead heading to keep it flowering.
Nice feathery foliage too, will survive a mild Fife winter and self seeds though it’s better to sow your own to get earlier blooms. An easy one for kids to grow and there’s an amazing red variety.
Yellow seems to be the most common colour here so I could be wrong because the whole fields Orange in the picture.
California poppies the common name.
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Yes, I think you are right, Greig12.
They are beautiful. Gotta get some.!
Thank you.
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They are California Poppies.
Lovely flowers but a complete PITA for dead-heading. We had them around the front for a couple of years but if you want them to flower for longer than a couple of weeks you need to spend 30-60 minutes every day dead-heading. Sadly I feel life is too short for that 🙂
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Also they only open when there’s full sunshine, they stay closed on cloudy days…
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Ah Vestas, that’s a bit of a disadvantage in Scotland!
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Nah, have to respectfully disagree with you there Vestas. I’ve grown Eschscholzia for years and they’re no worse than many other annuals in the deadheading department. They can be sensitive to light levels when the flowers are new, they close at night for example but they stay open all the time as they age.
I don’t grow many annuals so deadheadings just something I do in the passing and isn’t onerous. It’s a subjective thing but I’ve always looked upon them as a value for money plant.
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We found that by the time they’d “aged” enough to stay open most of the petals had been blown off anyway. Not exactly that windy in Leicestershire so I dunno whether we did anything wrong.
As an aside its the only plant I’ve ever grown where someone knocked on the door to ask what it was. They do look spectacular when everything is right.
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I’ll give them a try.
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Well, I guess… but, with a something nice on the headphones and a sunny day, I can think of worse ways to spend your time…
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Indeed but when you get to day 30 you may feel differently 😀
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Yep, that’s probable… 🙂
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My plantnet plant identifier android app confirms “Eschscholzia californica cham.” otherwise known as Californian poppy. Everyone needs this app in their life. Ok, nobody needs this in their life.
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Actually I do. Thanks, Terry. I think a friend of mine has that one on her phone, and sometimes it works… although I usually carry a little book which identities stuff by colour and I can often find it before she does!
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Definitely California poppies. Look up Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve … I remember being very struck by the yellow poppies when I visited California. Sometimes I wish I’d more of an effort to stay – Northern California is one of the better places to be in the USA.
Thank you again for the life-affirming orangutans; I realized that I rather needed them this week!
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Orangs always help. 🙂
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Very nice – lots of dogs and birds this week. I’ve a robin comes visiting too – not so much for me but for the worms in the garden. There doesn’t seem to be much chance of those ducks becoming endangered though unlike many species. Watched Secret Life of the Zoo and apparently there were only 50 known Javan Green mapies in the world. So they brough one in to breed with a very young male they already had. They weren’t sure he wasn’t too young (1o months old) but two eggs hatched though one later died. So now there are 51 known Javan Green magpies in the world.
Lovely orangs and nice to see one with its mum as it should be.
Ps I can see all the pictures!
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Well, I don;t think my Robbie comes to see me. But he knows that when i open that shed the most likely thinking to come out is, meal worms and fat pellets.
There’s always a chance too, if it’s not too awful weather, that i might turn over a bit of soil or lift a stone…
51 is better than 50… and who knows, now he’s got the hang of this breeding thing, how many more may be to follow!
I wonder if I caused an upset by including a video last week?
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All the pictures came through for me too.
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Relieved, Danny!
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Seems to me bird people are the greatest danger to hedgehogs. They were collecting them to kill them in the Isles. I don’t think enough effort was made to relocate them.
I remember seeing extremely large hedgehogs around
Livingston. Are they still wandering about?
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Who organised that?
I’d gladly have a pair to live here, but they need a great deal of space, and if they bred, there wouldn’t be enough natural food for them.
If I put out food, the local cats would just eat it.
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There were DECADES of efforts to remove them prior to the cull – all efforts were unsuccessful.
Bottom line is that the hedgehog is not native to any of the Scottish islands and was causing catastrophic damage to ground-nesting birds which ARE native to the islands.
The cull was 100% the right decision.
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They coulda moved them to the mainland then.
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They did but as it turned out the “mainland” didn’t want thousands more (non-native) hedgehogs eating birds eggs either 😉
NB – I’m not talking about Central/Southern Scotland here.
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Superb photos and all visible today. Can’t say the same for yesterday or the day before (as to visibility, which fluctuates).
Anyway the above have been so uplifting I wish for a great day to all.
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I’m very glad to hear it.
WordPress mystifies me.
I’ve never heard of anyone else having difficulties on their blog.
Vendetta against Munguin?
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Got a laugh at the sign that forbids smoking drinking skate-boarding dogs!
Also at the Statue of the Unknown Bureaucrat in Reykjavik . The Icelanders would seen to have sort of a quirky sense of humor.
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You know, Danny, that Unknown Bureaucrat looks like the sort of guy who’d listen to you in stony silence, block out all your views and be as immovable as a rock.
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Boom Boom, Andi!
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Yep, poor wee dog. Someone is trying to wreck his day!
Yes, I think they do have a very individual sense of humour, Danny.
They also stand no nonsense from their politicians. I suspect that had they ever been weird enough to elect Trump, he would already be removed.
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Andi: About that bureaucrat……..EXCELLENT!
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Yes Tris……..President Trump……..ONLY in America. 😦
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Or Britain. Look, they keep that useless weak and wobbly robot.
But in Iceland TRUMP would be DUMPED
and
MAY would be MAYBE NOT!.. or as someone once said: “Gone at the beginning of June!”
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We can hope so Tris!
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Beautiful view of the lower cascade of Yosemite Falls!
Some boring information about Yosemite Falls (to bring down the excitement level):
As the surrounding snow pack in the Sierra Nevada Range melts in the Spring after California’s Winter rain and snow season, the surrounding streams in Yosemite National Park find ways to plunge anywhere from a few hundred to a couple of thousand feet to the Yosemite Valley floor. Many of the twenty or so falls in Yosemite dry up and entirely disappear in August and September after California’s dry season.
The posted picture is of the lower falls (and a bit of the middle cascade) of Yosemite Falls. Yosemite Creek falls to the valley floor in three cascades with a total height of 2,425 ft….making it the 20th highest waterfall in the world. It descends in three falls. The Upper Yosemite Fall (the one you see from a distance and is almost always shown on the Yosemite picture post cards) is a height of 1,430 ft. The middle part of the falls is a series of cascades (with quite a bit of lateral travel,) which descend a total of 675 ft, but are seldom seen since they are mostly hidden in a gorge which is only accessible by a difficult trail. Then the bottom of the falls can be seen again, with a final drop of 320 ft. Tourists can get up close and personal to the lower falls.
But the snow always melts, and by the end of summer, Yosemite Falls usually disappears entirely. So if you want to see falls, go to Yosemite in May or June. If you want to see the really tall rocks unobscured by all that falling water, go in August or September.
A couple of pictures showing more of Yosemite Falls, and a Park Service video about it.
The picture post card shot of the valley showing Yosemite Falls:
Picture showing the whole falls…….the lower falls at the very bottom (as one might expect:)
The US Park Service video:
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PS: Each of a total of 21 waterfalls in Yosemite National Park has their own Wikipedia entry. Even a little one called “Quaking Aspen Falls” with a total height of TWENTY-FIVE feet.
Here’s what Wikipedia says about it:
“Quaking Aspen Falls (also called Tioga Pass Falls) is a 25-foot, multi-stranded waterfall off Tioga Pass Road in Yosemite National Park. Although the falls typically dry up by August, the stream flows year-round both above and below the falls.”
Anyone have any earthly idea how a waterfall can dry up, while the stream flows year-round both above and below it?
If true, it seems like this would be the REALLY big attraction at Yosemite!
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“Anyone have any earthly idea how a waterfall can dry up, while the stream flows year-round both above and below it?”
Erm….. NOPE!
WikiFail!
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Wow, that was a fantastic video. I love the enthusiasm and love of these guys for their waterfall.
Thanks for sending.
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Thanks Tris. I was also interested in the views of the rock face when the water drys up. You don’t see that in the postcards. 🙂
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Yeah, true, Danny, although I think I can understand that!
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Hey, the photos are back and I can see clearly now but I’m not making a song and dance about it. I wonder how they managed those buildings in the Yemen and how many poor souls they lost in the making?
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Good news… and thank you to Johnny Nash for the inspiration for your text.
I’ve never understood how they could build at the top of hills, anywhere, really. The loss of life must have been horrific.
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So if anyone has a TV licence or can visit someone who has – tonight 6pm on Pick freeview channel 11 is
Monkey Life – set in Monkey World Dorset which has lots of rescued monkeys and apes and we can view their antics. Plenty of life affirming orang to watch!
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Thanks for that PP. Sounds a good bet.
Ni licence here, but I’m sure many do.
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me again. The Canary has a piece about endangered animals. Very sad and axolotls are so cute.
https://www.thecanary.co/discovery/2018/01/14/take-good-look-stunning-photos-worlds-endangered-animals-last-images/
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Ohhhh that’s so sad.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Frustration
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