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Rain forests
Rain forests When I hear the word ‘rain forest’ I usually think of a ‘luxuriant tropical forest with heavy rainfall’, in accordance with the definition given by my Oxford dictionary. But there are also rain forests in temperate climates. These forests are luxuriant too, be it not hot and damp as the tropical ones, but cool and…
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Fern trees
Fern trees For millions of years New Zealand has been isolated from the rest of the world. That’s why nature could develop on these islands without much interference from outside. The result is that about 80% of the plants and trees in New Zealand are only found there and nowhere else on Earth. Interestingly, certain species…
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Sleeping beauty
Sleeping beauty The bacchante sleeps off her glow of last night’s pleasure under the attentive eyes of a row of men. Only they can see from their point of view that this Maenad is actually a hermaphrodite. The generous curves of her soft, feminine body are beyond their reach. The kouros stands tall in the…
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Natural beauty
Natural beauty Tanned by the scorching sunmarked by the passing yearsbreathing in the pure mountain airshaped by culture and traditionslightly amused, somewhat concerned…………..Two vibrant female faces from Kumaon. Photo of the week: Almora, Uttarakhand, India 2013
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The three graces
The three graces Three raven-haired mountain graces looking intently at life in the valley below. Even from behind and fully dressed they’re beautiful. Quite different from Canova’s three graces whose charming postures I can admire daily on a picture postcard in my room. Women together in a world of their own: wherever, ever a treat for the…
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Charming Creek
Charming Creek From 1928 onward, the Charming Creek Valley on the west coast of New Zealand’s South Island became the scene of industrious coal-mining activity. A small railway track was built through the valley along the creek to transport the coal from the mine, which was about 10 kilometer inland, to the coast. After 30…
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Battlefield after the battle
Battlefield after the battle Judging from the stumps that are left of them, the trees that once inhabited this little valley must have formed a nice and green copse. Something like the one nearby in the picture below. But alas, they were no match for the army of humans that came and felled each one of…
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Treacherous Cook
Treacherous Cook At the foot of the Cook massif there is a big stone cube carrying dozens of brass-plates with the names of climbers that have fallen to their death on the treacherous slopes and glaciers of this high mountain peak. You’d better stay down and look up in awe at Cook from below, while contemplating…
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Enchanting Alexandrina
Enchanting Alexandrina I visited Alexandrina early in the morning. A slanting slope of yellow grass beneath; a field of little white clouds fanning out in the sky above; and in between, Alexandrina stretched out in all her serene beauty. From afar, through a dip in the mountain range, Cook craned his neck and cast a covetous…
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Salty beach
Salty beach My old Hachette guide tells me that very long ago, before the Tertiary Era, the Dead Sea was an expanse of sweet water lying above (!) the level of the Mediterranean. After the dislocation of the valley of the Jordan it sank to great depths and came into contact with salt deposits deep…
καιρός remembered
… the right moment, position chosen, shoot …
