SOPPY SUNDAY

I should let you know that Munguin has, in his spare time this week, been chairing important meetings of various and sundry groups of the great ape families (the Towers has been an interesting place to be) in order to agree who should be allowed to act as guides to Soppy Sunday. He even brought in Dr Goodall for advice. He trusts you will not be disappointed with his choice (which is final).

1.
2. Are we still going to be included?
3. I think Kangaroos should get a look in too. Specially white ones.
4. Then, in fairness, there are Scottish waterfalls, like Clashnessie Falls!!!
5. Nothing like having a drink or two together.
6. Gecko forms a friendship with a possum. More here and loads of cute pics of animal friends.
7. Andimac captures a Goldfinch on camera.
8. Queen of Sheba orchid found after 10 years in Western Australia. Details in the article.
9. Munguin Towers in readiness for the arrival of the Emperor Penguin.
10. Sometimes you just need a lie down.
11. Alligator eyes in the Everglades. Beats a “No Swimming” sign any day.
12. Aye, go on, tie a yellow ribbon around me, I dare ya!
13. Ah, the joys of a day off…
14. I was in here first, wait your turn! I dunno, can a burd not have a bit of peace in the bath?
15. Bet you birds wish you had a bath like we have… and we never use it!
15. Bulgarian Turtle doing a bit of sunbathing at Srem.
16. Mummy Bear and Baby Bear.
17. Pucker up, Munguin!
18. Afternoon tea for Munguin and his majesty.
19. Sometimes we fight like cat and dog.
20. I eat Bulgarian flies, or rather I would if I were in Bulgaria, but I’m in England, so I eat English flies.
21. I’m a growing bird!
22. Munguin likes his baskets.
23. And you think you have it hard with Munguin?
24. I wish I could grow one of these.
25. Well, I hope you liked Soppy Sunday with me in charge. My Mummy’s come to get me and take me home now that I’ve seen the Emperor Penguin. Tris says I should say thank you to my assistants today, John, Kenn, Erik, Quokka and Andimac. (He’s very bossy, that Tristan.). One of us will see you next week.

53 thoughts on “SOPPY SUNDAY”

  2. Exceptional group of pictures this week! Munguin Gardens is lovely this summer. Are those lights around the seating area? Nice for the nighttime tours! The eyes staring from the Everglades make an amazing picture.
    I wonder if anyone ever lost a finger in one of those flytrap plants. They look dangerous. 😉

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    1. Yes, there are lights around the table and on a tree on the other side of the area.

      Although at the moment it doesn’t get dark until 10.30ish, in a few weeks’ time it is pleasant to sit with some light and a glass of something. Not that I’d know, of course, but Munguin tells me he enjoys it.

      I think they are quite gentle on human fingers. They are a bit fussy what they eat, and you really never know where humans have hand their hands. 🙂

      You cold easily lose a leg or and arm in the Everglades though, I suspect. 🙂

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          1. Oh yea. I had an aunt who lived in south Florida and kept her car in an open carport. She would look under it for gators before she started it. A neighbor found one under her car one morning.

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            1. EEEK.

              Oh, hello Alli. What you doing under my car? Would you please move because I don’t want to run over you as I go to work.”

              Did you know they have a life span of between 30 and 50 years?

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              1. I didn’t know that!
                Maybe they run when you start the car. There’s the problem of having your legs exposed when you get in though. 🙂

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  3. №24:

    If that’s the native white water lily, Nymphaea alba, it’s easy to grow. Provided you can give it 1-1½m depth, along with several square metres of surface area to spread out in.

    If Munguin’s not prepared to splash (sorry) for that and you really, really want a water lily, there is a not overly expensive option. There are dwarfs that are small enough to grow in a decent sized half barrel.

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      1. There are waterlilies of all sizes Tris. If the one in your pic is a native one (no guarantee it is, there are plenty of white cultivars) it’s an absolute monster; they literally crawled out of the holding tanks when I handled them. The tanks were too shallow, 45cm, and the small volume, surface dimensions 240 x 120cm, meant the water warmed rapidly and accelerated their growth.

        If you look at a list of cultivars, a couple of specific epithets jump out; “marliacea” and “laydeckeri”. These were many cultivars, developed by Joseph Bory Latour-Marliac and, perhaps his son-in-law, Maurice Laydecker in late 19th century France. Latour-Marliac, a lawyer, opened a nursery near Paris in 1875 which supplied Monet with the waterlilies he later painted.

        He was considered a genius, in the world of horticulture, but nobody (other than, perhaps, his son-in-law) knows how he/they went about hybridisation; the techniques died with him/them. It took a century, perhaps longer, for modern horticulturists to get back to their level.

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  5. I remember when we took our children to Disney World in Florida back in the late 90s, we went on a nightime alligator trip. We went on those boat things with the massive fans at the back that skim across the water. When the guy in charge shone the light out over the water and we saw all those eyes I thought maybe it wasn’t really the best trip to take two wee (8 and 7 years old) children on 😱🤣🐊🐊.
    Jane Goodall was our next door neighbour for a while in Dar es Salaam. Our houses were both on the beach. I did some work for her, collating info on the chimps (pre computer days)

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      1. I just collated the info. I was invited up to Gombe, but I’d just had my first baby and it was a long and complicated journey to get there.

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    2. Wow. That’s amazing.

      I hope you held on tightly to the kids.

      Great job working for Dr Goodall. What an exciting life you live.

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  6. I often think we humans , as a species, do not deserve or warrant to be considered, by some of us , as the assumed superior species over all animals and nature….the so called superior brains we have …we fail to use to benefit and enhance the world for ALL creatures and nature to coexist within it….instead some of us choose to exploit and destroy it…..indeed some of us even subject fellow human beings to the same disdain and cruelty with which they treat those other creatures and nature itself that we SHARE our world with….

    I often get MORE pleasure and peace when I enjoy the pleasures that nature provides and with sharing my life with some animals than I ever do with SOME of my fellow men and women….I know I am not alone in feeling this…

    Lovely pictures that give some respite from the here and now……which also emphasise that there are other things just as important and worth sharing other than ……concerns currently dominating our lives….via HUMANS …what ARE we like……WHAT INDEED…..

    Have a lovely Sunday……..( everyone else on here too)

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    1. Very true, NMRN.

      We have a sort of nature garden here with loads of wild flowers growing and a lot of birds visiting for the food Munguin provides.

      We watch little ones, who go from being in a nest to learning to fly and still being fed by parents, to being totally independent within a few weeks.

      They are far brighter than we are.

      And like you, I prefer the company of Bertie the Blackbird, or Robbie the robin to most of the neighbours. Interacting with them is a fantastic experience.

      That goes for the trees and other plants too…

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  7. Lovely stuff, a fair balm for the soul. But what have I done? Caused havoc in the great ape kingdom 🙂 Will the orangs ever forgive me. Munguin’s garden is looking splendid these days, splendid. It turns out a factotum’s work is never done. Isn’t andimac an artistic chap, toons and pics!

    Loved the hairy coos. Recently one of the Pollok Park residents decided to go for a wander and ended up at the train station. But between strikes and reduced services, he decided to hang with this I’ll just go back to the park!!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-61801445

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    1. Aye, Munguin been involved in this all week, sorting out priorities after the ape seniors read about the possibbilities of vacancies at the Republic.

      I suggested that some of them might like to so the garden work or take a turn with the vacuum cleaner or shopping details, but nah, all they want to do is tour guide.

      This will never be the same again! 🙂

      Andi’s photos are indeed as splendid as his toons. Mine seem to come out blurry, by comparison. Maybe I should get a camera instead of using a phone.

      Brilliant story about the little white bull and the trains.

      “The next train is WHEN and HOW MUCH?

      “Nae chance. Why could I not have been born in Switzerland?”

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  8. Lovely photos. Always a treat on a Sunday morning.

    There seems to be an abundance of moths just now. I like moths, the working class of the butterflies aristocracy.

    Here is a video of moths in New Hampshire.

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      2. Marcia……Lovely moths! Perhaps I’ll buy a camera from a shopping channel, where they have trouble differentiating pictures of moths, from butterflies, from HORSES!

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          1. LOL……I DO have trouble finding the horsey head and hooves in the moth picture. Maybe he was determined to stick with the script, even though he was handed the wrong picture. 🙂

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  9. Anent No5 – Many years ago, in Rome, I bought a slice of pizza from a street stall. as I started to eat it, about a dozen wasps (definitely not bees) landed on the side away from me and began to eat their share of the topping. It was a bit of a shock at first but they were completely uninterested in me, only in my pizza. We all ate together quite pleasantly but as I got towards their edge, I decided I’d eaten enough and left that edge for them 🐝

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              1. No, that’s true.

                But he wants his titles back and he wants respect shown to him… which kinda suggests to me that he’s a mental case that believes that even though he’s a criminal, and a pretty disgusting one at that, his birth makes him worthy of respect.

                Delusional old fool.

                I have more respect for Munguin’s Rubbish bin (Garbage can). At least it does a useful job, leaves young girls along… and, for that matter, looks better than he does.

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  10. No Bulgarian dietfor the flytrap. It lives in Suffolk and belongs to Erik the Tooth (also regular JFAL contributor) who sent the photie to me for passing on to SS. Erik says he feeds it with flies, sipeders, and centipedes, adding: “The traps work once or twice then die off and are replaced. It is my belief this plant was created rather than adapted by Darwin evolution. It has such a complex mechanism with a twenty second cut-off between the ‘trigger’ hairs to prevent it closing a trap with falling leaves or debris. Very clever !”

    Can’t say I agree with Erik on the creationism but it’s certainly a very impressive performance.

    Do agree though with all the favourable comments on Munguin Gardens. Just as impressive as the flytrap mechanism. Another great SS crop all round. Maybe no balm in Gilead but plenty to be had here. Anyone know if Gilead’s got broadband yet?

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    1. Oh dear, trust me to get the info on the fly trap wrong. Munguin says I’m a dithering fool. I don’t think I dither?

      Anyways, apologies to Erik and many thanks to him for all the funnies he sends. Suitable changes are being passed down the chain of command as I write.

      Munguin thanks you for the kind words on the grounds.

      He says he could lend you his gardener, but he’d have to be back by 5 pm Scottish time… to start preparing the dinner and chilling the wine. OK?

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      1. There’s a 2000AD/Judge Dredd story called Wilderlands that features suitably threatening ones. I’ll take a photo once there’s light.

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