Not so much fun getting a bath… I wish I had someone to play with.
Oh, and as an afterthought, 100 years ago on Saturday (December 1) Iceland became an independent country under the Danish crown. (In 1944 it became a republic).
Til hamingju með sjálfstæði þitt, Ísland. Vonandi, Skotland mun fljótlega fylgja þér.
Congratulations on your independence, Iceland. Hopefully, Scotland will soon follow you.
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MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 
Congratulations, Iceland! Yaay! Come and visit us here in the Deep South, all you Icelanders, before that teejus May woman makes it difficult for you to get in!
But hang on a minute… Let’s see now … Current population of Iceland: about 350,000. Current population of Denmark: about 5,750,000. But the Ruth Davidson Party and quite a few of the others have told us that that’s far too wee to be independent! Not just Iceland, Denmark too! Surely you can’t have a wee, wee place becoming independent from a place that’s too wee itself to be independent!
Those places are both far too wee to be independent, surely? They must be economic basket cases with enormous financial black holes, mustn’t they?
Hang on a minute… Let’s see now… According to Wikipedia’s List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita (https://is.gd/dcDd0i), both those places are well ahead of the United Kingdom! Their people are actually far better off than we are! How can this possibly be, Tris? It must be those enemies of the people, the elite, the experts, the people whose business it is to know stuff! It is lies! It is fake news! They must build a wall along the Kiel Canal and get Germany to pay for it!
To soothe my shredded nerves and calm my immense and shattering sense of betrayal at the thought that the Great and the Good of Dear Old Blighty [Give it a rest. The people aren’t stupid. They see what you’re doing.-Ed.] might have been telling me great big porkies all my life, I looked again at your photos, Tris, particularly the baby orangutans. On balance, I judge that life has been reaffirmed, though a hot oil treatment with Argan oil could perhaps be considered.
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“Surely you can’t have a wee, wee place becoming independent from a place that’s too wee itself to be independent!”
Hush! Or the Hjaltlanders will be getting ideas …
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Actually Ed, they are building a wall all the way around Iceland. And obviously these figures from the experts are as dubious as this nonsense about global warming when it was really cold the other night and I had to put on extra heating.
Obviously the people in countries like Denmark and Iceland are only pretending to be rich. Fur coats and no knickers.
Just looking at your list there of the most wealthy countries, you really have to ask why Luxembourg and San Marino aren’t punching above their weight but leaving it too poor little places like the disUnited Kingdom.
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It’s not that Scotland as a country is geographically too wee, its not that it doesn’t have the resources, it’s that in 2014 it was more than half the voters that were too wee to be independent.
They just didn’t have the spirit possessed by the Icelanders. Vassalage, euphemistically known as Unionism, was good enough for them and that unfortunately is why we’re all in the position we’re in now.
Scotland can have all the resources on earth but if the majority of people eligible to vote either can’t be bothered or are a bunch of jessies then we’re Fcuk’d.
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True that…
The Icelanders believed in themselves. There are too many Scots that think for some unfathomable reason, we need Mrs May and Mr Rees Mogg to keep us right.
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It’s the Cringe – which is nothing more nor less than brainwashing. Now, people, does anyone know what you call regimes that use the media to spread lies and propaganda, try to make out that black is white and will not tell the truth about our situation? Anyone? Let’s see some hands…
We should be thankful, I suppose, that opposition voices are not silenced more – let’s say, enthusiastically and permanently. There’s an old Soviet joke about Nikita Khruschev at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the one at which he rocked the Party and the country when he denounced Stalin, his dictatorship and his cult of personality. The joke goes that when he finished his speech, a lone voice from the back of the hall said “And where were you when all this was going on?”, to which Khruschev replied, “Who was that? Stand up, please, and identify yourself”. And – nothing. And Khruschev said “Yes, that’s exactly where I was too.”
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Brilliant!!!!
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Exceptionally fine collection of places and critters this week!
The redwoods include both the tallest and biggest single stem trees (by volume) in the world. Immodestly, I suppose the country they grow in goes without saying. (State too for that matter!) 😉
The tallest tree in the world:
“Hyperion” – 379 ft (115 meters) height – Coast Redwood
Biggest tree by volume:
“General Sherman” – 274.9 ft (83.8 m) height – 36.5 ft (11.1 m) max diameter at base
Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum)
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They are gorgeous, Danny. I will never forget my visit to a sequoia forest in California – the feeling was almost religious, as if those trees were not only old but wise.
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Ed……I’ve sometimes thought of the Sequoias as being similar to the Grand Canyon in one respect. No photograph can do them justice. You really have to stand in the forest and look up at them.
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Wow, Danny. That’s a big B I G tree.
Does your president know about it?
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Tris…….Whether General Sherman or the other big redwoods has come to Trumpy’s attention as part of his program to vacuum the California forests is unknown. 😉
Speaking of Trumpy, he’s been feeling a bit down what with being pursued by Mueller and the FBI. Even being out of the country hasn’t helped, although he was visited on Saturday night by old friends in Argentina.
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I see the idiot May didn’t get a look in with Donny there.
And after her having that stern talk with MbS!
🙂
Good one. I like the dance with VP and MbS
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Tris……Since Trumpy decided to avoid both Putin and Mbs at the G20 (Trump couldn’t afford another political disaster like the Helsinki summit with Putin,) the big friendly high five they gave each other got a lot of media play. So SNL turned it into something like a dance number.
He didn’t have much of anything to say to the European allies either. And certainly not to Trudeau. As for May, maybe he figures he’ll wait to see if she wins the vote in Parliament before he gets very friendly again.
Still talking to China I guess, in spite of the trade war. Had to have SOMEBODY to talk to. 😉
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He should stick to talking to himself. He probably believes himself. No other person does.
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PS: California has what is reputed to be the OLDEST tree on earth too. This Bristlecone Pine in the White Mountain’s isn’t all that big and doesn’t look like much, but its age is dated at 5,066 years. Almost twice as old as the pyramids.
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Awww poor old thing. It’s beautiful. There’s simply no such thing as an ugly tree.
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Yeah, he wants the Mexicans to cut it down and use it to build a big fence, a huge fence, a really enormous fence, to keep all those Mexican rapists and murderers out, especially the women and the barefoot children in nappies.
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Sheesh. WordPress!!! *&(#)_|! That comment is supposed to go with Tris’s B I G tree comment all the way up there – look – up and up and up they go – way up into the sky – so high up their upper branches are lost in mist and cloud…
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Ed……Always fun to try to figure out where a reply will actually post for a click of a particular “Reply.” I always think I have it right, but am occasionally surprised. 😉
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If only Munguin would fork out for the paid version of WordPress. But you know what he’s like.
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Tris……After all, we must consider Munguin’s responsibility for his large extended family in Antarctica, some of whom don’t even have brown fur coats. 😉
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Heavy is the head that bears the crown… No, wait, that doesn’t work…
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Maybe you could do a crowd fund…
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🙂
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Oh they are the worst kind…
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blooming heck you know the trees are big but when you see the humans standing and looking at them, boy are they BIG.
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Panda Paws……The General Sherman tree is also old……estimated at 2300 to 2700 years. A branch fell out of the General Sherman that was the size of an average neighborhood tree:
“In January 2006 the largest branch on the tree (seen most commonly, in older photos, as an “L” or golf-club shape, protruding from about a quarter of the way down the trunk) broke off. There were no witnesses to the incident, and the branch — larger than most tree trunks; diameter over 2 m (6.6 ft) and length over 30 m (98 ft) — smashed part of the perimeter fence and cratered the pavement of the surrounding walkway.”
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The dog amongst the chickens pic gave me paws for thought. Though I doubt by the look of it that any will end up clawinated 😉
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Ouch! 🙂
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Those were great. Unusually for me my favourites were the dog pics. Loved the puppy and zebra and of course the oodles of chicks. And an ely, love an ely.
And as for the bath sharing, you can definitely tell we’re related there can’t you. Granted they are a wee bit hairy than us but still…
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Good idea to share your bath with an orangutan. It saves on water.
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Not when the orang is obviously climbing up the toddler to get out of the water 😀
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clever wee soul.
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PP, I think it’s a giraffe with the puppy but a zebra would be good too – spots and stripes 🙂
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of course it’s a giraffe… I know it’s a giraffe so why on God’s green earth did I type zebra!
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Hmmmmmmm….. Could it be drink?
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Tris, great set of pics – as always. Ta much. Neddy the horse is obviously a real favourite, featuring twice. I like the iguana – it reminds me of the expressions on the faces of some bosses I’ve worked for. I suppose, mind you, that could have sad something to do with me. I love the great shot of Carrick Castle. That really takes me back. It has been many years, too many, since I was there. Maybe the pic will prompt me to really take myself back and visit it again.
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If you go back, Andi, take some pics. It’s absolutely lovely. I went to sleep last night imagining living there…
The iguana reminded me of my Great |Aunt Ethel!
Neddy is a great horse. He’s very fond of carrots and apples!!! And he has an appetite like a…well, like a horse.
If you get distracted when you’re feeding him, he kicks the metal gate to get your attention.
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Andi……I like old castles. I think I prefer Carrick as it was about 40 years ago, before reconstruction as a private residence started. The new roof (and current scaffolding) detracts from the overall effect, even if the electrical wiring and modern plumbing won’t be seen.
http://www.castlesfortsbattles.co.uk/central_west_scotland/carrick_castle.html#gallery
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I tend to agree but usually the alternative is it continues to deteriorate & gets to a tipping point sooner rather than later.
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Vestas…….It’s in a beautiful location too. I suppose that a privately owned site is best restored and maintained as a private residence. Ideally, one might prefer that a site of sufficient historical importance be publicly owned, restored and maintained at an appropriate point in historical time, with public access provided as an historical site. But probably too many such places in the UK and Europe for that to be feasible except for sites of supreme historical importance.
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Danny, Scotland is probably the most castellated country on earth and many are in public ownership under the auspices of Historic Scotland or the National Trust for Scotland but there are just too many for public ownership to be the answer. Some, in any case, are already very ruinous and at least enlightened private ownership preserves some and some of the latter are occasionally open to the public. I love them all and visit as many as I can, ruined or not. Of course, “castle” is a wide-ranging word. In Scotland, many of these castles are not the huge fortresses seen in Hollywood mediaeval epics but are really fortified houses, often called tower houses. Every small chieftain or landowner needed one (or more) in the days when Scotland was an unruly and violent place – unlike today, of course 🙂
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Andi……I see lots of references to Historic Scotland and the National Trust for Scotland when looking at pictures and references about historic sites. There are so many historic ruins in Scotland and England that I always wonder if what are often just some standing stone walls of historical importance are accessible to the public. If access is not restricted in some way, one wonders about problems of vandalism.
For example, the old ruined abbeys are interesting in this regard. Places like Whitby Abbey:
I read that Carrick Castle is easily seen from surrounding public rights-of-way. Looks like maybe the owner has installed skylights in the new roof. Nice to know that things have settled down a bit from the old days in Scotland, and that people don’t have to live behind high stone walls anymore. 😉
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May be back to that soon, Danny, when Brexit bites!
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You wouldn’t want to live init without heating though… or plumbing I’m guessing 🙂
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Yes Tris , not too many people would take to fourteenth century accommodations. 😉
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PS…..Although it occurs to me that the royals have taken to spartan Victorian era accommodations at Balmoral. Electricity and plumbing available……but still no central heating apparently. Not sure if an electric heater is preferable to roaring fires in the fireplaces or not.
Most people don’t carry their purse around the house BTW, so royal eccentricities must be indulged I guess.
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Balmoral is her own property. By and large she has to pay her own bills there. She’s as tight as a duck’s whatsit.
The “purse” (handbag in the UK) is something the queen always carries. Apparently she uses it to signal to her underlings, when for example she wants rid of someone. She picks it up, or changes the arm it is on or something like that.
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Tris….I’d heard that about a signaling device. There were news stories about a new official portrait for the 100th anniversary for the RAF in which the royal handbag took center stage. That was where she put it for the sitting, and the artist decided to paint it in. 🙂
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It’s more famous than she is, Danny.
It was a portrait of the handbag with some old dear sitting on an expensive chair as background.
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Munguin wouldn’t stand for it, I can tell you that for free.
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Seen the dog & chicks one before I think – with a label of “WTF is going on?” 🙂
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Versatile dog!
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