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"
I’ve come across this fantastic image. I love thunder/lightning and I do miss it here in London. You don’t get it here and if you do, you would think it was just another plane to touch down at Heathrow. I’ve taken the quote from this travelblog too. Also, enjoy the music of Bette Midler – The wind beneath my wings. South Africa, you are the wind beneath my wings!
Images here from a Cape Town-awardwinning-travelblog, worth to visit! The link will open in a new window.
Cape Town doesn’t get that many thunderstorms so when we do we tend to get very excited. This morning’s spectacular storm had us getting out the cameras and snapping away, but I think Cape Town local John Maarschalk wins with this incredible image.
John says:
“We had a marvellous electric show this morning around Cape Town. This was taken from inside my car with the camera balanced on the camera bag, with the wind blowing and the occassional squall of rain coming through. It wasn’t the best conditions to shoot, hence the movement in the image.
DUKE ORSINO:
If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! it had a dying fall:
O, it came o’er my ear like the sweet sound,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour! Enough; no more:
‘Tis not so sweet now as it was before.
O spirit of love! how quick and fresh art thou,
That, notwithstanding thy capacity
Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there,
Of what validity and pitch soe’er,
But falls into abatement and low price,
Even in a minute: so full of shapes is fancy
That it alone is high fantastical.
Swallows in Durban – see the news article in this entry from ENS news
Enjoy “Village Swallows” by Mantovaniand his orchestra. It is a composition by Josef Strauss, one of the Strauss-brothers.
hmmm…just what I need…flowers and chocolates!! and on this video…the music of Strauss…”Roses from the South”
Swallow Flocks and World Cup Airport Try Coexistence
DURBAN, South Africa, November 12, 2007 (ENS) – This year, as five million barn swallows migrate from across Europe to roost in South Africa’s Mt. Moreland Reedbed, they will be greeted by air traffic controllers. The controllers will be waiting to warn pilots of the swallow flocks coming in to land so that bird-plane collisions can be avoided.
The plan to protect the birds was announced Monday at a ceremony at the reedbed, attended by the nonprofit conservation group BirdLife South Africa.
The decision to protect the swallows was made in response to global outcry last November, when BirdLife outlined its concern about the expansion of La Mercy Airport at Durban, in preparation for South Africa’s hosting of World Cup 2010.
The airport is being expanded to handle traffic expected for the soccer event and the KwaZulu Natal government wants to see the project completed by 2009.
The Airports Company of South Africa, which administers the existing Durban International Airport, owns the La Mercy land where the $8 billion King Shaka International Airport is under construction, 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of Durban.
The new airport is expected to replace Durban International, which will be decommissioned. But for the swallows at the Mt. Moreland Reedbed, without special planning and accomodation, the airport would have been deadly.
Both the reed bed and Mount Moreland are situated South West of the proposed development are aligned exactly with the proposed runway and so are in the flight patch of aircraft leaving or arriving the airport.
The controllers at La Mercy Airport have been among those watching the millions of birds come in this year from all over eastern and western Europe. They will leave again at the onset of winter. The threat that planes at an expanded La Mercy Airport would pose to the swallows roosting at the reedbed, among Africa’s largest roosts, was put across by conservationists and BirdLife partner organizations throughout Europe.The barn swallow, Hirundo rustica, undertakes one of the world’s most remarkable migrations. The birds fly thousands of miles from southern Africa in spring to breed in Europe and then repeat the feat in reverse in the autumn, to winter back in Africa.
“This has been a fantastic result, and we’re delighted to report on this outcome after a year of negotiations and meetings. The support of so many people via letters and petitions has played an important part.” said Neil Smith, conservation manager at BirdLife South Africa, which led the campaign.
The Airports Company of South Africa has been supportive of making accommodations for the birds.
“Since our campaign started, the Airports Company of South Africa has really come on board, quickly realizing the importance of this site as a reedbed of international significance,” said Smith.
Following BirdLife’s complaint, consultants were brought in to examine the roosting and flocking behavior of the swallows, using advanced radar imagery. They confirmed that constant monitoring of the swallow movements during take-off and landing of aircraft would be required.
The Airports Company of South Africa now says it will install in the airport control tower the same advanced radar technology that the consultants used to study the movement of the swallows.
This will mean that planes can take the option of circling or approaching from another angle when large flocks of swallows form over the reedbed site in the late evening.
Environmental management staff will be employed to make sure that suitable management of the reedbed continues, the airports company said.
Bird conservationists feel somewhat reassured about the swallows’ future. “Losing such a valuable site could have affected breeding swallow populations across Europe,” said Dr. Ian Burfield, Birdlife’s European research and database manager.
“Conserving migratory birds is about more than ensuring one site is protected or well managed,” said Burfield. “It takes global effort: at breeding sites, at stopover sites during migration, and at important non-breeding sites like this, where large numbers of birds roost.
Blou…My tema vir hierdie week. Ek het besluit ek gaan ‘n kleur kies vir die volgende paar weke, totdat ek “uit” kleur raak…sal dit ooit gebeur..ek glo nie ek wil swart-en-wit wees nie!
Blue is my theme for this week and I’m going to take a colour per week…hopefully I won’t run out of colours.This image was created by using “mosaic maker” …- link at the bottom of this post! – which is really great fun to do! You can click on the image to see a larger view and then even zoom into it too. The nature images are from South Africa, but not the dolphin image. The image next to the Jonathan Livingston Seagull book-cover, is a Kadinsky image. These images are all on my PC which I’ve found through some Google-searches, apart from the 3rd pic left, those beautiful flowers are from my garden! and those two cats are actually “playing” chess! If you click on the image, you will see a little bear with a hug-box…have a hug for today from that box! It’s free!
The music is an Afrikaans song..”Blou”…which means “Blue” in English. I’ve got also for you Neil Diamond’s song…”Song sung blue” and a song by Vicky Leandros…. “My world is blue”. Laurika Rauch is one of my favourite South African artists. I’ve blogged about her a couple of times before and you will hear her singing “Blou”.
On the second image you can see some of the “technology” on my pc, which I use to convert files and the most recent program I’ve started to use, is the Audacity. My Blogger-friend – from “My-kop-op-‘n-blok” has told me about this smart little program. I don’t know the program as yet, but at least know how to split an audio file like this one of Laurika, to give you only a taste of it. Today, I copied the “taster” to the bottom bar and replay the track and suddenly, co-incidently, I’ve created an echo! Take a listen at the first track and then the original second. Afterwards, when playing around on the menus of the program, I discovered the “echo”-function…but I’ve thought it was cool that I’ve created it myself. I haven’t tried the “echo”-funtion…will do that a next time. I’ve also found out how to use the “fade out”-function, so now it doesn’t sound like the music stops suddenly without a warning… If you have a Blogger-site, I’ve also “discovered” how to upload music on the Blogger-site, If you need any help, give me a shout!
Blou….by Laurika Rauch
And…this is Neil Diamond’s song…”Song sung blue”
And the last song is sung by Vicky Leandros, a Greek singer…”My world is blue”
Jan left me cold and April cried
June came when I finished with May
through the signs and the seasons
with her rhymes and her reasons
Julie blew the clouds away
a perfect shadow in a sunshine day.
A month of summerday nights she stayed
blue skies all day each day clear
till the sun in her eyes began to fade
with every daisy chain she made
and she kissed me goodbye like a razor blade
singing I’ll return next year
But tomorrow’s a world away.
Blou – Laurika Rauch
As die skemer kom
en hy vang my by jou
en hy stuur jou terug na jou huis toe
wie sou verstaan
hoe ek sou voel
wie sou verstaan
oral om, om my heen
is dit blou
want ek wil by jou wees
ek wil by jou wees
vanaand
tyd en plek
bepaal wat gebeur
niemand kan dit keer nie
sê my wat’s reg
en wat is verkeerd
wie sou bepaal?
Oral om, om my heen
is dit blou
want ek wil by jou wees
ek wil by jou wees
vanaand
koor:
alles is blou
alles is blou
blou is die wolke
blou is die maan
blou is die venster waarby ek staan
blou is my hart en
blou my gedagtes
blou om my heen
alles is blou
alles is blou
alles is blou
alles oor jou
as die skemer kom
en hy vang my by jou
en hy stuur jou terug na jou huis toe
wie sou verstaan hoe ek sou voel
wie sou verstaan
oral om, om my heen
is dit blou
want ek wil by jou wees
ek wil by jou wees
vanaand
Thanks Braam for reminding me that I am a Blue Bull supporter!! How could I fotget about the bulls!!! hehehe
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 