1. You have to pretend to laugh at humans when they think they are being amusing, or clever (as if).2. A white buffalo has been born to a herd in the Ozarks in Missouri. According to native American legend, the birth a such a once-rare animal foretells better times coming. This fellow’s name is Takoda, a Sioux word meaning “friend to everyone. Danny, if you see him, please pass on Munguins regards.3. Three little gooses from school are we… (hat tip to DonDon for the correction).4. Andorra la Vella, capital of Andorra.5. Bet Lady Gaga wishes she had my dressmaker!! David sent me quite a few brilliant underwater pics, so we can have a special feature on Tuesday.6. County Kerry, Ireland.7. By decree of himself, all blackbirds are called Bertie. They used to be either Bertie or Boris, but Munguin has quite gone off the name Boris for present, so they are all Berit… which makes like a bit confusing. This beauty was captured (on camera) by Andimac.8. Srem in the snow.9. Sometimes its good to have a furry coat like this.10. This is Howard. The Bulgarian dog who was with the RS when she fell. Because of the injuries she sustained, Howard has to be found a new home, but oddly (considering Brexit) he’s off to a home in the UK. So this is the last we’ll see of the cheery wee fellow. Good luck, Howard.11. Swan sunset.12. Is that a carrot I see before my eyes?13. You wanna come play?14. Can sea lions join in?15. Birds of a feather…16 Dien Bien Phu.17. What a weird nest I have.18. You won’t let Andrea Loathsome and her hunt-tories come after me, will you?19. What do you mean “fat”. I’d like to see you live outside in our winters.20. Oh you have to laugh at the mess they are making of running the world. I can see the Orangutans are going to have to talk over.
Gosh, is it that time already?
Vid 1: That fellow really is having a giraffe!
Pic 2: I once saw a white deer in Breadalbane. Probably no more common than white buffalo.
Pic 3: Sorry tris, them’s no deuks, them’s geese.
Pic 7: There are lots of blackbirds around just now. I’ve never seen so many.
Staying with Pic 7 and the blackbird, in Canterbury Tales Chaucer seems to use both “merle” and “amsel” to signify blackbird. Both the French and German words.
Odd, that.
A lot of German words like kirk have come to Scots through trading with the Hanseatic League ports like Hamburg or Lubeck in the middle ages so other words would be carried into English in the same way. Norman French was the official language and was spoken at the English court until the time of Henry IV in the 15th century. English was looked down on as the language of the common people and beneath contempt in the eyes of the nobility… Merle came from Norman French. Bird watchers would be aware of the Latin taxonomic name of the blackbird turdus merula, meaning thrush blackbird, i.e. black thrush.
I believe that the Tsars in Russia didn’t speak Russian at all, only French, because Russian was a guttural language and French was beautiful, flowing and lyrical.
I suppose their top servants had to speak French too. Only the scullery maids could get away with Russian 🙂
Always something new to learn at Munguin’s! Who knew of a scared white buffalo in the Missouri Ozarks? The next time I’m taking in a show at Branson, I’ll stop and convey Munguin’s best wishes. 😉
There seems to be more white buffalo born these days than there once was. This may be due to Bison crossbreeding with cattle, or it may simply be that a greater amount of good fortune, peace and well-being is required in the wake of the Trump administration. According to the link, Takoda is pure bison (and presumably therefore fully sacred.) Some interesting info and video in the links!
The buffalo herd is at Dogwood Canyon Nature Park near Branson.
Visitors wishing to take in the beauty of the Missouri-Arkansas Ozarks may however prefer to avoid Branson altogether. There ARE all the shows and rides in Branson of course, not to mention The Titanic which is moored there, along with the iceberg. (You enter through the iceberg. Think Las Vegas in the Ozark hills. 😉 )
The Titanic looks ermmm… wonderful, Danny. And the iceberg is…ummm…quite icebergy!
I’ll be booking a flight just as soon as we are allowed to travel more than 5 miles… or something.
The park looks like a good thing though. Some lovely animals.
I once considered a trip to Branson to see PC when she did a season at the Moon River Theatre. Looking at it, I’m not entirely sorry I decided against it.
Tris……I’ve never actually seen a show in Branson. They did (probably still do) have quite a number of nice theaters there with a variety of shows. Andy Williams as far as I know effectively retired there and built the Moon River Theater where he played regularly. The Moon River shows were very popular, and PC playing there would have been a nostalgic reminder of the days when both PC and Andy Williams played engagements at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.
Old timers remember a time before Branson’s economy became tourism, when it was a sleepy little Ozarks town, in a region noteworthy as the setting for “Shepherd of the Hills”, a 1907 novel by Harold bell Wright which describes life in the remote Ozarks region around the turn of the twentieth century. The novel was filmed several times, including a 1941 film starring John Wayne. The area of the Ozarks around Branson is sometimes called Shepherd of the Hills country.
Tris……..I guess one has to make allowances for Branson tourism, but the Ozarks hill country south of Branson along the Missouri-Arkansas state line is really quite pretty. As is the even more rugged Arkansas Ozarks which reach an elevation of 2561 ft at Buffalo Lookout, Arkansas.
Marcia, Dave……..I don’t see anyone getting a lifejacket, but you do get to feel the iceberg and sit in a lifeboat. The reconstructed interiors look reasonably well done. It’s not really clear in this video how many actual artifacts are there or how they are displayed.
It is similar to the Titanic exhibition in Las Vegas that I saw. Where they give you a card with a name of a passenger and at the end you find out if the passenger survived or died. The girl who asked for the name of the passenger at the end of the tour seemed a bit put out when I called the French passenger by the French pronunciation and not the American way of saying the name.
Well that was very cheering and I needed cheered up given events elsewhere. With the recent bad weather I certainly needed that furry black and white coat and unfortunately I resemble the stoutness of those penguins more than I would like to.
I’m sure Howard will settle in his new home as long as he doesn’t speak Bulgarian and have the Brexiteers after him!
Anyway I now have Tuesday to look forward to as well. An underwater special no less!
I was compelled to look up the history of Andorra, their national anthem sings of Charlemagne and their lands being saved from moors in 803, no new kid on the block then.
Couldn’t help wonder if our planned freeports will also be providing similar duty free shopping experiences. Providing the bulk of the population with access to cheap booze and goods, another vote winner.
Thanks Marcia, interesting vids but the town and my subsequent thoughts has caused my wee soul to shrink. I am now in need of some orangutan time for balance.
MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 
Gosh, is it that time already?
Vid 1: That fellow really is having a giraffe!
Pic 2: I once saw a white deer in Breadalbane. Probably no more common than white buffalo.
Pic 3: Sorry tris, them’s no deuks, them’s geese.
Pic 7: There are lots of blackbirds around just now. I’ve never seen so many.
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Nope. It isn’t that time. I managed to publish when I was trying to schedule. My fault…
White things are probably relatively rare unless they live in the snowy places like Greenland, Canada, Lapland, Russia, etc.
Testing testing. They are indeed geese. I have to start taking more water with it.
We usually have two males and a female in the garden, but all my mates’ gardens seem to have one (and they are all called Bertie. Odd that!
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White things like ptarmigan in winter plumage, mountain hares in their winter coats . . . lovely!
The geese hereabouts aren’t barnacle or canada, but . . . Egyptian! Or Nile geese, as they call them in German.
Last week I saw a whole flock of blackies — all males. Never seen that before.
What do you call a female? Bertina?
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Staying with Pic 7 and the blackbird, in Canterbury Tales Chaucer seems to use both “merle” and “amsel” to signify blackbird. Both the French and German words.
Odd, that.
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Interesting.
I suppose I can imagine why “merle”. In the late 1300s I suppose a lot of educated people spoke French, at least the Norman version of it.
I’m surprised about the German though. Any suggestions?
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Anglo-Saxon
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Ah yeah… That’s what ordinary people spoke.
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A lot of German words like kirk have come to Scots through trading with the Hanseatic League ports like Hamburg or Lubeck in the middle ages so other words would be carried into English in the same way. Norman French was the official language and was spoken at the English court until the time of Henry IV in the 15th century. English was looked down on as the language of the common people and beneath contempt in the eyes of the nobility… Merle came from Norman French. Bird watchers would be aware of the Latin taxonomic name of the blackbird turdus merula, meaning thrush blackbird, i.e. black thrush.
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Thanks, Morego.
I believe that the Tsars in Russia didn’t speak Russian at all, only French, because Russian was a guttural language and French was beautiful, flowing and lyrical.
I suppose their top servants had to speak French too. Only the scullery maids could get away with Russian 🙂
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Strangely, we call her Mabel. Always Mabel. Has been through a succession of females.
Odd, eh.
I like geese too. So many in the fields around Dundee at the moment.
These Nile ones are very handsome birds:
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That first vid is most particularly life-affirming, Tris!
Nevertheless, I’m sad that Howard is leaving, and remain concerned about the RS. All best wishes to her.
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According to John, the RS is making stout progress eschewing any support except when out of doors. But I know we all wish her a very speedy recovery.
I’ll miss Howard though.
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Always something new to learn at Munguin’s! Who knew of a scared white buffalo in the Missouri Ozarks? The next time I’m taking in a show at Branson, I’ll stop and convey Munguin’s best wishes. 😉
There seems to be more white buffalo born these days than there once was. This may be due to Bison crossbreeding with cattle, or it may simply be that a greater amount of good fortune, peace and well-being is required in the wake of the Trump administration. According to the link, Takoda is pure bison (and presumably therefore fully sacred.) Some interesting info and video in the links!
The buffalo herd is at Dogwood Canyon Nature Park near Branson.
Visitors wishing to take in the beauty of the Missouri-Arkansas Ozarks may however prefer to avoid Branson altogether. There ARE all the shows and rides in Branson of course, not to mention The Titanic which is moored there, along with the iceberg. (You enter through the iceberg. Think Las Vegas in the Ozark hills. 😉 )
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Hmmmm….
The Titanic looks ermmm… wonderful, Danny. And the iceberg is…ummm…quite icebergy!
I’ll be booking a flight just as soon as we are allowed to travel more than 5 miles… or something.
The park looks like a good thing though. Some lovely animals.
I once considered a trip to Branson to see PC when she did a season at the Moon River Theatre. Looking at it, I’m not entirely sorry I decided against it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Tris……I’ve never actually seen a show in Branson. They did (probably still do) have quite a number of nice theaters there with a variety of shows. Andy Williams as far as I know effectively retired there and built the Moon River Theater where he played regularly. The Moon River shows were very popular, and PC playing there would have been a nostalgic reminder of the days when both PC and Andy Williams played engagements at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.
Old timers remember a time before Branson’s economy became tourism, when it was a sleepy little Ozarks town, in a region noteworthy as the setting for “Shepherd of the Hills”, a 1907 novel by Harold bell Wright which describes life in the remote Ozarks region around the turn of the twentieth century. The novel was filmed several times, including a 1941 film starring John Wayne. The area of the Ozarks around Branson is sometimes called Shepherd of the Hills country.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shepherd_of_the_Hills_(novel)
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I’m told by friends who have been that it is a lovely place and I guess it is at least a little more tolerable that Las Vegas!!!
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Tris……..I guess one has to make allowances for Branson tourism, but the Ozarks hill country south of Branson along the Missouri-Arkansas state line is really quite pretty. As is the even more rugged Arkansas Ozarks which reach an elevation of 2561 ft at Buffalo Lookout, Arkansas.
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I’m not gonna sit on that overhang though, Danny! NO matter how beautiful it is.
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LOL Tris……I agree! I like a lookout with a nice high wall. More like this one in the same area.
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That’s more my style too, Danny
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Do you have to put on a lifejacket when you enter?
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Bring your own lifeboat!
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Marcia, Dave……..I don’t see anyone getting a lifejacket, but you do get to feel the iceberg and sit in a lifeboat. The reconstructed interiors look reasonably well done. It’s not really clear in this video how many actual artifacts are there or how they are displayed.
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It looks a lot better from the inside, Danny.
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Yes it does. 😉
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It is similar to the Titanic exhibition in Las Vegas that I saw. Where they give you a card with a name of a passenger and at the end you find out if the passenger survived or died. The girl who asked for the name of the passenger at the end of the tour seemed a bit put out when I called the French passenger by the French pronunciation and not the American way of saying the name.
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Seems odd. Americans are not usually picky about pronunciation of foreign names and words.
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LOL.
Not sure I see the point of doing that.
Out of interest was your passenger dead or alive?
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Well that was very cheering and I needed cheered up given events elsewhere. With the recent bad weather I certainly needed that furry black and white coat and unfortunately I resemble the stoutness of those penguins more than I would like to.
I’m sure Howard will settle in his new home as long as he doesn’t speak Bulgarian and have the Brexiteers after him!
Anyway I now have Tuesday to look forward to as well. An underwater special no less!
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I’m sure Howard will be fine. I hope his flight is ok.
He’s a smart dog. I’m sure he’ll learn to bark in English…
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New Orangutan Species Filmed for First Time.
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I won’t accept us losing those lovely creatures. They deserve to live their lives in peace and safety without us ruining their habitat!
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The prospect enrages me too, PP. As it should any human being worth the title.
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Andorra
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The countryside looks fantastic, but the town… ye gads… what a horror.
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I was compelled to look up the history of Andorra, their national anthem sings of Charlemagne and their lands being saved from moors in 803, no new kid on the block then.
Couldn’t help wonder if our planned freeports will also be providing similar duty free shopping experiences. Providing the bulk of the population with access to cheap booze and goods, another vote winner.
Thanks Marcia, interesting vids but the town and my subsequent thoughts has caused my wee soul to shrink. I am now in need of some orangutan time for balance.
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I’d forgotten were were going to have free ports …again.
I didn’t notice last time, and I don’t suppose I will this time.
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Dien Bien Phu Travel Guide – by Rusty Compass
A visit to the former war torn area of Dien Bien Phu.
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Fascinating. but right a the end that wee lad with that big knife …. ouch…
My brother has been a few times. He said that the people are the nicest he’s ever met.
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Nobody does wildlife voiceovers like David Attenborough. TBF this is really a Monday thing, but I might lose it if I wait!
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Brilliant. He’s obviously never washed anything in his life.
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🤣🤣
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