Tag: Animals
-
At home in Kumaon
At home in Kumaon A row of old village cottages; the ground floor is for the animals, whilst the people live upstairs. All built, finished and painted in the traditional style. But times have changed. In the background, we catch a glimpse of a new building, constructed from brick and cement. And so the charm…
-
The cow lifting game
The cow lifting game What do you do when a cow is lying right in the middle of the path, blocking the way, and has absolutely no intention of getting up and moving out of the way? You don’t often come across such a stubborn cow, but that’s exactly what happened here. It was only…
-
The road herd, cushion-footed
The road herd, cushion-footed This time, for a change, we didn’t have to slalom dangerously between cows standing on the road chewing the cud; we weren’t forced onto the hard shoulder by a convoy of Ambassador cars with flashing lights belonging to some politician and his entourage; but, to our surprise, we were held up…
-
Got you!
Got you! Life is: eating and being eaten. In the last instance it means death, but death for one is life for the other. Such is the law of nature. Photos of the week: Vondelpark, Amsterdam, Netherlands 2009
-
Crab art
Crab art Whilst the termites in last week’s post impressed us with their magnificent architecture, here it is the pattern created by tiny crabs on the beach that appeals to our aesthetic sensibilities. A sensibility that is probably alien to the dog that walked right through it, although his or her footprints do complement the…
-
Ant art
Ant art Ant hills can be impressive, but these termite mounds in the north of Arnhem Land are nothing short of astonishing works of art. Many a bird’s nest can fill us with equal awe because of its ingenuity, but it is above all the sheer size of these termite mounds that is so astonishing.…
-
Floating fish
Floating fish The fish in this ‘aquarium’ without water aren’t floating, just like the birds in last week’s post weren’t flying. They are artificial, man-made and suspended in the air. While the birds were flying through the world of advertising, the fish are floating in the world of art. The two worlds have in common that…
-
Flying birds
Flying birds The world of advertising isn’t the real world. The flying birds on the photo above in front of the big advertisement board of Giorgio Armani aren’t real birds. In that sense the two go well together. The beautiful woman and – sometimes – the handsome man on an advertisement photo are not available,…
-
Yak horns
Yak horns Turning prayer wheels, as mentioned in last week’s post, and prayer flags fluttering in the wind, as mentioned in an earlier post, are effective ways of amplifying and spreading the positive effects of the sacred texts they contain. Another very ancient custom is the use of engraved stones or animal skulls and horns…
-
Moloch horridus
Moloch horridus This ‘grotesque Australian reptile’ – in the words of my Oxford Dictionary – is popularly called thorny devil or thorny dragon. I think its official name – Moloch horridus – sounds more horrid than the popular one. Here’s what I read in my friend Jane’s reptile book: “the Moloch horridus is the sole member of…
καιρός remembered 