SOPPY SUNDAY SCOTTISH SUMMERTIME SPECIAL

 

norang
I always say there’s nothing like a hug on a Sunday morning.
n bun
I know it’s not Easter yet, but Panda Paws has been asking for me, I hear, so here I am…
n killer whale
I’m having a whale of a time being in Munguin’s Soppy Sunday.
n penguinbs sg
What are we queueing for again?
n danny
Hubble Ultra Deep Field (from Danny). cw ESA/Hubble.
n klevan ukraine
Klevan, Ukraine.
n kangaroos
No, you can’t pick any. This is our garden and these are OUR flowers.
n kangaroo island
I wouldn’t mind some of what that guy was drinking when he came up with this road on Kangaroo Island.

n happy dog

I’m ready to go for my walk when you are…

n jaisalmer India

Jaisalmer, India

n hello

Now, look me in the eyes and say that…

n sudan white rhino

This was Sudan, the last white rhino in the world…

n bye bye, white rhino

He died this week of old age. This is his keeper, and friend, saying goodbye.

n bergen

Bergen, Norway. They are right hard these Norwegians. This one didn’t clear the snow off the bench before sitting on it.

n abu dabhi

Abu Dhabi.

n bee

Good find here… lots of lovely pollen.

n Ban Gioc, Cao Bằng, Vietnam

Ban Gioc, Vietnam.

n baby or9

OK… now DON’T FORGET TO CHANGE YOU CLOCKS TO SCOTTISH SUMMERTIME (as long as you live in Scotland). Remember it’s spring forward and fall back. See you next week.

 

65 thoughts on “SOPPY SUNDAY SCOTTISH SUMMERTIME SPECIAL”

      1. I thought that if people enjoyed these pics, they would probably enjoy yours too.

        No wonder you stayed on there. It looks amazing. I love the neighbourhood pics.

        If Munguin gets itchy paws I can see us turning up…

        But I just saw cheap flights to Iceland…. so I’m thinking….

        Well maybe. Later in the year.

        Liked by 1 person

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    1. Thank you.

      Sudan’s death was sad. He was the last male of his kind. He died of old age, clearly very much loved by his friend and keeper. I guess you can’t ask for more than that, but yes, moist eyes looking at that pic.

      Liked by 1 person

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  4. Lovely pictures this week. Sad about the Rhino.
    Beautiful picture of Bergen! There’s the possibility that Norwegians may be just a bit dense. The accepted practice in the states is to heap ridicule on people who don’t brush the snow off a bench before they sit down. 😉

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    1. Yeah, the rhino was lovely. But I think he had a good life… or as good as it can be, and he lived long for a rhino.

      At the end he had his friend with him.

      Well, I suppose they could be thick… but they weren’t thick enough to want to leave Norway for Trumpland!!!

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      1. Tris…..As much as Trumpy likes Norway and Norwegians, he probably has trouble understanding why they don’t like HIM. Speaking of Trumpy……he’ s had a busy week, what with firing the Deputy Director of the FBI, and the Secretary of State, and the White House National Security Adviser. He also threatened porn star Stormy Daniels (an alias) with a twenty million dollar lawsuit if she didn’t quit talking about their affair. (Apparently the first time in history a sitting President has ever threatened a private citizen in such a manner.) Well Stormy told him to put his twenty million dollar lawsuit where the sun don’t shine, and contracted to appear and tell all on a premier American TV network interview program tomorrow (Sunday) night……AND she has promised to bring pictures. So by Monday morning, the world may have nude pictures of the President of the United States and a porn star.

        All in all, just another week in the life of the Great Republic. If the porn star pictures appear as promised, be assured that I will forward copies to Munguin Media Group well before sending them to the London tabloids.

        PS: For reference in the ongoing legal negotiations with Stormy Daniels, Trumpy has used the name “David Dennison.” Apparently the first time in history that an American President has ever used an alias while in office.

        Liked by 2 people

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        1. I’m sure his friends, the Norwegians, will be following his progress carefully to see whether it really is the kind of country that they want to emigrate to.

          I look forward to Ms Daniels’ performance, and more particularly to Colbert’s and Myers’ take on it!

          President Dennison sounds altogether more dignified than President Trump!

          Liked by 1 person

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          1. Maybe his best bet would be to just legally change his name to Dennison and claim that he never knew anyone named Trump.

            High television ratings are anticipated for the porn star interview. So stay tuned……… 😉

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  5. The 9th pic, beautiful Collie.
    As the servant of one I know from experience that 10 minutes after you’re back in the house from a gruelling hillwalk. HE wants OUT again.

    Liked by 1 person

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  7. Yeah I did ask for a bunnie but then I realised I was too early and emailed Tris. to delay! Does that mean Easter will be bunnieless – only Tris knows. Anyway lovely stuff and the dogs are cute even though I’m not a dog person. Sad about the rhino – there are two ladies left but unless Sudan left a “donation” that is that for the species.
    We really need to be more aware just how many species are on the brink. Indeed here in Scotland the wildcat is very much under threat.

    Anyway sorry I’m late but in my defence there is a hour less today 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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  8. Looking at the amazing Hubble pic from Danny and then at the sad ones of Sudan, the white rhino, I immediately thought of something written by the great American naturalist, William Beebe, “The beauty and genius of a work of art may be reconceived, though its first material expression be destroyed; a vanished harmony may yet again inspire the composer, but when the last individual of a race of living things breathes no more, another heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can be again.”

    We have made machines that can look into the vastness of the universe, a universe which we cannot even begin to comprehend, and we are looking into its past because the light from those galaxies, nebulae and star clusters began its travels aeons before we even existed. Yet with all the knowledge we have garnered we seem, as a species, unable to look into the near future of an ecosystem that we are destroying with our relentless greed.

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    1. Yes. It makes you think. We are so clever, but for all out brains we are ruining our world, through stupidity and greed.

      And so many refuse to see it.

      Sometimes man has a cull of a species for the good of others.

      The only cull that will really be effective for the world, is a cull of humans.

      Liked by 2 people

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      1. Yeh, well erm there is a mechanism for culling humans already, it’s called war and let’s not forget pestilence while we’re at it.

        The damage we do as humans is natural because we evolved on planet Earth so we are a product of nature. It is both inaccurate and pompous to think we’re somehow above or separate from that. Our planet is at risk, ‘the planet’ is not. New species will evolve if we fuck it all up and new ecosystems as amazing and diverse as the ones we are currently destroying will replace what has been destroyed. It has happened many times, before humanity existed, and will likely happen many times more before our sun dies.

        The human race can either be a blink in earths history or it can use its unique intelligence to overcome its many shortcomings to survive and evolve and be something greater.

        Surviving greed is the greatest challenge we face as a species and it’s very possible that we’re just not up to the task. The Earth will of course continue to thrive and survive, despite us.

        Had a wee drinkie up the gairden this pm, enjoying the spring day, watching the birds and frogs spawning in the pond so, just sayin… Flubble.

        Liked by 4 people

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    3. andimac,

      I have a love / hate relationship with the USA.

      On the one hand it provides us with utterly inspiring things, like Danny’s deep space picture. It is nearly as effective as this:

      http://www.bigskyastroclub.org/pale_blue_dot.html

      That is all of Sudan and Donald Trump and you and I. That is the whole of the Earth from not very far away.

      On t’other, it appears to be open to presidential decree whether or not Elephant trophies are importable or not. I’d have thought any sane nation wouldn’t even be having a debate over that.

      Perhaps, if they could just raise their eyes from their death cult – for that is what it is – whether in Black Ghetto’s, Whitish Schools or on a a world stage, and perhaps vote Emma Gonzales as their next President, the world might just be a better place.

      Shit, I just wrote what I think!

      Liked by 2 people

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      1. Douglas…..Carl Sagan’s “Pale Blue Dot” is certainly a great picture. There is a story that NASA didn’t want to spend the money to turn Voyager I around, align the camera, and analyze the data. But Sagan and the JPL contractor insisted. Sagan said that for the first time in human history we had a camera at the orbit of Pluto, and it would be unthinkable that we wouldn’t turn it around and take a picture of the little star in the sky where it originated. It was as I recall, the last image that the Voyager I returned to earth before its camera was turned off to save power and repurpose its computer for deep space studies.

        The Voyagers are now far past the orbit of Pluto beyond the solar system. Famously, on a gold disk, they carried pictures and sounds from earth in case someone out there ever finds them. The TV series “The West Wing” did an episode that mentioned that.

        Also…..after 28 years, NASA is planning to do another such picture with the more powerful camera aboard the New Horizons planetary probe that took pictures of Pluto as it flew by. There was an article about it in “The Atlantic” last month.

        https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/02/new-horizons-pale-blue-dot-nasa/553160/

        Liked by 1 person

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        1. Andi…..Some additional info on the astronomy/NASA/ESA front that you might find interesting. I liked your comment about the image that we see in light now sweeping past the earth, and which left the most distant galaxies more than nine billion years before the planet earth even formed. Upon close examination, the little elongated slivers of light that are obviously spiral galaxies….scattered like stars in the sky……..are seriously awesome in this image, IMHO. Then there are the barely discernible little points of light that are the REALLY distant galaxies.

          It’s likely that these will be the most distant galaxies that will ever be seen with existing optical telescope technology. The light from the FIRST stars and galaxies that formed in the universe after the big bang (probably up to 300 million years earlier) is redshifted much farther into the infrared spectrum and is very faint. To image it requires a large infrared telescope. The long-delayed James Webb Infrared Space Telescope is now scheduled for launch by NASA and ESA next year. JWST….far over budget and schedule…… has sapped NASA’s science budget for the last decade. If it does not work, I would imagine that heads will roll at NASA. Unlike the Hubble Telescope whose flaw in the mirror was fixable, JWST will be at the inaccessible L2 Lagrange point almost a million miles beyond the moon. Now what could POSSIBLY go wrong with that?……LOL.

          Some current info about JWST and general info about the Deep Field if interested:

          https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/nasa-s-james-webb-observatory-prepares-for-additional-testing

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Deep_Field

          Liked by 1 person

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        2. Danny,

          Thanks for that. I too admire NASA.

          I think that NASA is the best of the USA.

          I have, on the other hand, a fear that your country is going down a path that that we might all regret.

          When I was young, and that wasn’t yesterday, we used to chant:

          “The White House is a shite House

          We shall not be moved.

          Just standing by the waterside,

          We shall not be moved.”

          Alarmingly, I recall that now.

          You, sir, are the good guy, along with Emma Gonzales and others. It is sad that your voices are not considered as mainstream?

          Respect

          You have a hard road to travel. May it work out….

          Liked by 3 people

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          1. Douglas…..I agree that NASA is some of the best stuff we do. And it’s not even that expensive…..considering how much costly high tech stuff is required for science missions like the planetary probes and the Mars landers. The entire yearly NASA budget for Science programs is about $5 Billion dollars, which is about one half the cost of a new aircraft carrier. The entire cost of the JWST will come in at $10 Billion, which spans 20 years of work. The European Space Agency in its partnership agreement with NASA will end up paying at least $1.2 Billion for JWST. Of course we spend too much money on the military…….Trumpy’s budget office projects $716 Billion for the pentagon in the 2019 budget. By comparison, NASA’s ENTIRE 2019 budget….which includes ground operations to keep everything going that’s still in space…….is $19.9 Billion…..roughly 1/36 of the military budget. But as much money as the Pentagon’s $716 Billion is, the TOTAL federal budget for 2019 is $3,930 Billion……almost 2/3 of which is direct monthly payments to pensioners in the Social Security system, to the elderly in the national Medicare medical insurance program, and various other social programs. So any way you look at it, the NASA space science programs are a very tiny federal outlay and a very great bargain. And as much as I hate to think about how much money is spent on the military, almost two out of every three federal dollars go to elderly pensioners, to medical payments for the elderly sick, the disabled, and other social needs…..before a cent of discretionary outlays like the military can be appropriated.

            I’m reminded that before he was finally run out of town for his Vietnam catastrophe, Lyndon Johnson had to endure the almost endless taunt…”Say hey LBJ, how many kids did you kill today.” He famously said that he felt like a man caught on a lonely Texas highway in a hailstorm. He couldn’t run, he couldn’t hide, and he couldn’t make it stop.

            Liked by 1 person

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  9. Apologies for introducing serious matters, but there is a fascinating Sunday Essay on NI in today’s Observer, in which it is stated that in the high days of traditional unionism, “The BBC in Belfast was compliant, assuring ministers that they should ‘look upon us as their mouthpiece’”.
    What was that about the Beeb’s reputation for impartiality ?

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. I’d like to read this.

      It is so very obvious that it is biased, indeed is there not something in its royal charter that obliges it to guard or protect the integrity of their united kingdom?

      Like

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        1. I’m trusting that since the extradition of Pinochet to Spain was blocked, it should be possible to block the extradition of Carla Ponsati .

          Liked by 1 person

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      1. Douglas……yes, as Tris said, the interview was less than spectacular. I would go so far as to say it was a complete bust. We were obviously misled by Stormy Daniels’ attorney and his pre-interview hype. No naked pictures of the President at all! Bummer!

        Liked by 1 person

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  12. You couldn’t make it up.
    Reported that the USA is going to ban the import of Scottish farmed Salmon.
    This is because the farms shoot Mammals, ie seals.
    This is quite strange as the resident mammals in the USA seem to shoot other resident Mammals at ahigher rate than we shoot seals.
    Suppose we will accept the chlorinated chicken as they’re not mammals.
    Not looking forward to the Naked Trump pictures, but I suppose you could use one instead of a fire guard, keep antthing away from the heat.

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. Oh I’m sure Mr Fox will sort all that out.

      Although, he might say, ‘well, we’ll ban everything because you shoot children’.

      I’d do pretty much anything to avoid seeing a naked Trump.

      Liked by 1 person

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      1. Dave and Tris……..Well, there will be no naked Trump pictures…..at least for now. The porn star interview went on as scheduled, but it turned out that we were duped by the pre-interview hype from her attorney. He says that pictures exist, but she won’t show them NOW. The interview was actually pretty dull as accounts from porn stars about sex (only one time) with someone who would be elected president of the United States go. Worse things have been said about Trump than Stormy Daniels had to say. Some of which he has admitted…….except on alternate days when he denies them. 😉

        Liked by 1 person

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      2. PS: Dave, and Tris…….Good point about mammals!
        I’m also intrigued by your comment on chlorinated chickens.
        It brought to mind the fact that there are commercial standards involving the sale of eggs in Britain and Europe that are WAYYYYYY different than the USA does it. To be blunt about it…..we Americans WASH our eggs before they are sold and you folks don’t. Then we refrigerate them and you folks don’t.

        Here’s the story:

        https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/09/11/336330502/why-the-u-s-chills-its-eggs-and-most-of-the-world-doesnt

        Experts say that both American and British/European methods are OK, and both have about the same rate of bacterial contamination at the point of sale. But that is DEFINITELY not really the point in my opinion.

        When I was a little kid, I would visit a great-grandmother who kept chickens, and I would go to the hen house and help gather the eggs. So I know exactly what’s sometimes on the eggs when they come out of the nest. I won’t be so indelicate as to say what it is, but I’m sure it’s obvious. To possibly encounter such surface contamination on eggs sitting on an refrigerated shelf of a grocery store beside the bread and mayonnaise would be quite unacceptable……in my humble opinion.

        So that brings me back to chlorinated chicken.

        https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4091751/chlorine-washed-chicken-eu-liam-fox/

        I would say that a good dose of chlorinated disinfectant never hurt anything or anyone. It’s the American way! But it seems that the Brits and the EU have other ideas…….as they do with those dirty unrefrigerated eggs. 😉

        Liked by 1 person

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        1. PPS……errata: I meant “sitting on an UNrefrigerated shelf” not “refrigerated shelf.” But you probably got my point about contamination on eggs in the grocery store anyway. 🙂

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  14. This morning, Radio 4 showing why its nickname is Aunti Beeb,
    The news comments are in order
    Anti Corbyn, ref jewish community
    Anti Trump, ref the hooker
    Anti Russia, ref the cinema fire
    Anti snp, wee quote about extra pay for soldiers in scotland
    The the conditioning
    Hunt to GIVE an extra £5billion to ENHS, over ten years.
    Pay rise for ENHS
    Extra places in training for midwives
    Definately the mouthpiece of the establishment.
    All the other stuff, weinstein, female pay, brexit, leave funding, all off the table.
    But the cricket, englandland are about to draw with New Zealand.
    Gave up the TV, now about to give up radio.
    Spain, nothing much to report
    Danny’s picture of the universe puts all this into perspective, it’s all lunacy, look at how insignificant their position is compared to the scale of what’s surely out there.
    Miniscule minds thinking they have power.

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. I was interested to hear that Mr Hunt is considering a tax to raise more money for the NHS.

      What ever happened to the £350 m a week that Brexit was supposed to bring in?

      Like

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  15. Oh dear , NZ won the cricket.
    But the Aussie cheats won the Ashes, maybe by doing the ball thing, need a rerun of the ashes matches.
    Rerun the referendums, are you serious, the cricket is much more important.
    Yes I did wonder what happened to the £350 million a WEEK, if you multiply it up and ignore the deflationary value over Ten years it comes to
    £18,200,000,000,000. or there abouts.
    Have you realised that the uk owes £2 trillion, that means if it was all to the chinese, every man , woman and child would owe a Chinese person £40,000.
    Strange that Mother Theresa says the magic money tree doesn’t exist, except of course for the DUP.
    Good article on the EBC being the mouthpiece for the 6 counties.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. LOL. Cricket, eh?

      I was just surprised to hear that we may need another tax specially for the health service when it is about to come into such a lot of money.

      Yep, it was a very good article.

      Like

      Reply

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