Everything/Anything and…Chess…"Despite the documented evidence by chess historian HJR Murray, I've always thought that chess was invented by a goddess"–George Koltanowski: from the foreword to:"Women in chess, players of the Modern Age"
This picture was sent to me by Braam…he is a South African living/working in Azerbaijan. He’s found my blog for the recipes and in particular the buttermilk rusk recipe…and he’s baked his own and he sent me pics of the evidence too…which I will upload on the post with the recipe…and he’s also tried my own pizza-recipe …HERE he’s thought to send me this pic to make my day…and being a catlover…he really HAS made my day!! This is soooooo cute!!! btw…he’s also in Baku!!! –and I’m so jealous!! as Baku is the city where the Chess tournament was held a couple of weeks ago and if you’ve seen my posts about it…you will remember the beautiful pics of the old city…and hopefully Braam is going to send me a few pics of Baku too! If you’re a cat-lover…try getting yourself this book! It’s really a fantastic book to have!
This is what Nicky looked like. I’ve found this photo on the internet as our photos of Nicky and Lompie are packed away.
She was a cat found at a nursery. It was a rainy day in Centurion. I wanted to get some plants for a big clay pot in my class. I walked into the nursery. While looking around in the section where they kept all sorts of pots and stands with seeds, I heard a cat mewing. It was a soft, fainted mew and I couldn’t make out where it was coming from. I kept on looking around, but saw nothing. There were tons of shelves, covered in hessian with stuff on display. I starting lifting up the hessian, near where I heard the cat. There she was! A very young kitty with a plate of milk. I couldn’t resist stroking her and picked her up immediately. There was a man serving customers – with a wheelbarrow busy doing all sorts of odd things. Stroking this beautiful little kitty, I walked to him and asked him whose cat it was.”Nobody’s, I only feed her while she’s around.” I pleaded to have her and he agreed as it was nobody’s cat anyway.
That day was my lucky day! I locked her in my car and ran back to get the plants. I couldn’t get my plants fast enough and to get back to the car. I got back to the car and there, very pleased with herself, she was waiting on the back seat, looking me very thankfully in the eyes through the window. I still remember those large green eyes, head a bit tilted sideways. When I got into the car, it was only a loud purrrr-purrrr I could hear and I knew she was happy. She looked at me as if she has been mine for years.
Nicky loved water! It was funny. I found her on a rainy day and she loved water so much, she liked it if you poured it all over her. She would then look over her shoulder and just say…”purr-mew”…as if she was asking for more! I used to have a small red watering can and when I had it with me, she came to me as if she was asking to have water running down her spine. When I poured the water down her spine, she would then wriggle her body and, “purr-mew”, to show how she enjoyed it.
She was friends, big friends, with Lompie. Lompie was the Blue Lilac-point Siamese! They were like kids – crazy kids, chasing one another up and down the flat – and later in the house [when we moved into a house] and around the garden, looking a bit silly most of the times, making us laugh when they were doing it. Lompie would start to chase and then suddenly turned around and then Nicky would chase Lompie. Completely two ‘silly’ children. We had great fun with them and could sit in the garden looking at them playing ‘hide-and-seek’ with one another, hiding behind plants, or going up a tree. It was as if they enjoyed entertaining us and knew how we enjoyed them. Their tails were swishing from side to side when they were taking position, when playing. It was funny.
The following pictures were found on the internet. I was looking for pictures that portray her personality the best.
Nicky used to get into the basin quite often and loved it when you open the tap slightly to drink some water from the tap. I think she enjoyed the coolness of it too.
She loved to wriggle on the carpet, also when they played, she was always the one on her back, defending herself from Lompie.
Nicky was curious, very curious and I know we have a similar photo of her which we took in our garden, almost this very same position, looking at ‘something’.
In our flat, we also had a beam like this! [behind the front door]. She loved to walk on it, sometimes she was ‘hiding’ there when she heard us coming up the stairs [from outside] and when we opened the door, she would “purr-mew”, as if she couldn’t help herself saying, “hello, here I am!” or maybe it was her way of saying, “wha! got you!”
Very strange but this photo IS Nicky!! 100% Nicky! Found on dreamstime.com, but this is SO, SO Nicky! 500%!
This is typical what Nicky was like, at times. Lazy-looking, self-content expression on her face.
Enjoy this cat-poem.
Cat in the window
What do you see? Cloud, wind, birds,a bird in a tree. The daffodils shivering the February breeze, A puddle in the road beginning to freeze.
Snow on the wind Dusk in a cloud. Leaves in a frenzy, The bird’s head cowed. Winter – though the sun shines. Blizzard, and the north wind’s whine.
The king of the jungle doesn’t frighten the lion whisperer.
Animal behaviourist Kevin Richardson has such an intimate bond with big cats that he can spend the night curled up with them without the slightest fear of attack.
Richardson, 32, who is based in a wildlife conservation area near Johannesburg in South Africa, works his unusual magic on other species too. Cheetahs, leopards and even unpredictable hyenas hold no threats for him.
So instinctively in tune is he with these beasts, whose teeth are sharp enough to bite through thick steel, that mother hyenas even allow him to hold their newborn cubs without pouncing to the rescue. But lions are his favourite. He lavishes them with unconditional love, he says, treating each individual differently, speaking to them, caressing them and, above all, treating them with respect.
A former student of human physiology who once worked with pre and post-operative human patients, Kevin turned to animals ten years ago when he came to the conclusion that he could trust a lion over one of his own kind every time – well, nearly every time.A close encounter with an aggressive four-year-old male in the early days taught him a lesson he has not forgotten. The animal pinned him to the ground and started biting him until something about Kevin’s passive attitude stopped him in his tracks.
Kevin says he is most confident with animals he has known since birth, but claims he can become close friends with any lion less than a year old, when it is still flexible enough to accept him as part of its own pride.
I have to rely on my own instincts to gauge an animal or a situation, and I will not approach a creature if something doesn’t feel right, he says. I don’t use sticks, whips or chains, just patience. It may be dangerous, but this is a passion for me, not a job.
Read and see more pictures HERE ….– links will open in a new window.
This next news report is about White Lions in South Africa, the only White Lions in the world that live in the wild without anyone feeding them. The link will open in a new window and it’s in Afrikaans only. These white Lions are from the Sanbona Wild Reserve in the Klein Karoo – Little Karoo…this is their link which will open in a new window.
Met net sowat 300 witleeus wat wêreldwyd nog voorkom, is die Witleeu-projek in die Sanbona-wildreservaat in die Klein-Karoo ‘n suksesverhaal wat ook vir ‘n wêreld-eerste gesorg het.
Die witleeus wat op dié reservaat van 54 000 ha tussen Montagu en Barrydale voorkom, is die enigstes ter wêreld wat nie in aanhouding is nie en self vir hul kos jag.
Die oorspronklike witleeus het in Timbavati, ‘n private natuurreservaat teenaan die Krugerwildtuin, voorgekom, maar is daar verwyder.
Witleeus is nie albino’s nie. Dit is ‘n eiesoortige en baie skaars leeuspesie wat draers van wit gene is en dus ‘n kleurvariasie van die gewone bruin leeu is.
Die eerste witleeus – ‘n mannetjie en ‘n wyfie – is in 2003 in die reservaat losgelaat om die eerste selfonderhoudende witleeus te wees sedert dié spesie in die 1970’s uit die Timbavati-gebied verwyder is.
Die leeus het saam met gewone bruin leeus geleef om sodoende te leer jag. Hoewel die twee witleeus gereeld ‘n bok platgetrek het, is hul vermoëns onderdruk deur hul vroeëre kontak met mense.
Die broeipaar is uit die veld onttrek en in ‘n kleiner kamp aangehou. Hul drie welpies is in 2006 saam met bruin leeus vrygelaat. Ná enkele weke het die leeus as ‘n trop gefunksioneer.
In 2007 is nóg drie welpies van die oorspronklike paar – een mannetjie en twee wyfies – gebore en dadelik in die reservaat vrygelaat met so min moontlik menslike kontak.
Die langtermyndoel van dié projek, wat sover R35 miljoen kos, is om ‘n hele trop van wit- en bruin leeus te vestig.
Volgens mnr. Andrew Slater, wildbewaarder van Sanbona, dra hulle geen kennis van enige witleeus wat die afgelope 30 jaar wild in die veld gebore is en oorleef het nie.
” ‘n Leeu het ongeveer 7 kg vleis per dag nodig, en met die 5 000 diere op Sanbona behoort hulle darem nie honger te ly nie,” sê hy.
Die witleeus in die reservaat dra almal bande met ‘n opsporingstoestel om die nek. “Dis sodat ons kan weet die diere beweeg rond en dat hulle gesondheid nie verswak nie,” sê Slater. For those people constantly thinking I have Lions on my blog mating…here is now a link for you guys!! I get it often that people get directed to my blog via a search with search terms like: “lions mating” or “lions having sex”…hahaha..now you have a link to follow! I don’t know why they’ve thought I’ve had that info here, I was getting tired for those searches..ok, help yourself now and see how they do it in nature! The link will open in a new window. http://www.metacafe.com/watch/984860/amazing_footage_of_male_lion_talking_while_mating/
Spoken by great men:"Give me 20 divisions of American soldiers and I will breach Europe. Give me 15 consisting of Englishmen and I will advance to the borders of Berlin. Give me two divisions of those marvellous fighting Boers and I will remove Germany from the face of the earth." - Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery, Commander of the Allied Forces during WW2.
"The Americans fight for a free world, the English mostly for honour, glory and medals, the French and Canadians decide too late that they have to participate. The Italians are too scared to fight, the Russians have no choice. The Germans for their Fatherland. The Boers? Those sons of Bitches fight for the hell of it." American General, George 'Guts and Glory' Patton.
Chessalee 