Tag: Nature
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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…
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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.…
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Green Goa
Green Goa Judging from my posts of the last few weeks, you may think it is the presence of the catholic culture, brought to the region by the Portugese, that attracts me to this country in the first place. This may partially be true, but there is more. Like the whole stretch of land between…
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Katoomba
Katoomba or: nature sold as amusement park Come and discover the Scenic World of Katoomba in the Blue Mountains! With the Scenic Skyway (photo) one moves at 270 metres above the floor of the Jamison Valley in the highest cable car in Australia! If next you don’t go down into the valley with the Scenic…
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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…
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White elephant
White elephant Sometimes you meet after many years an old acquaintance who greets you with the exclamation “You haven’t changed a single bit!” The same applies to the Indian Ambassador car. Since its birth in 1957 as a clone of Morris Oxford its looks have hardly changed during all those years that it has been in production. But…
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Under the Sony roof
Under the Sony roof Why this photo appeals to me: The proportions and the arrangement of the light and dark areas within the frame create a powerful, graphic image. The straight lines and their angles, in contrast to the curved shape of the roof, create a pleasing sense of tension. The fact that the dark…
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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…
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Desert art
Desert art Drawings in the sand through the interplay of wind and sturdy desert grass. Using the grass-stalks as a compass, the wind has drawn circles around each plant. At first they must have been very faint, but after days and days of strong wind from different directions they are now clearly visible, engraved in…
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Kata Tjuta
Kata Tjuta or: What’s in a name? Looking from the red planet Mars at the red continent Australia on planet Earth we may be able to see, with the best available telescope, an image like you’ll find here (please click), on a picture made by NASA. From that far we perceive a group of heavily eroded bulges…
