79 posts tagged “photography”

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What a beautiful day today.  The manservant vacuumed throughout the house and then served me coffee and a cinnamon bun on our sunny deck -  all before 10am.

I did a lot yesterday -  that traipse down, and back up, the back steps with full body weight on the foot plus a few laps of the house with just a walking stick.   I felt that I achieved a lot and was pretty pleased with myself - until I went to bed.  When I took the boot off I saw that I had bruising all around my ankle!!  An uncomfortable night followed with my foot aching and feeling as though it had an extra block of wood, to the one I already have, on it.  So, it was decided I would have an easier day today. 

As I sat out in the sun I thought about how healing it can be to one's spirit.  I thought about taking the evil boot off and sunning my foot but decided the neighbourhood had enough scary sights without me adding to it.  

We have friends coming over soon for a few late afternoon drinks -  the evenings are still nice enough to sit outside and I'm really looking forward to some wine and nibbles.

On the ride to work the other morning I saw someone jogging in the park and I thought "I wish I could run"   
LOL -  I haven't  willingly  run in 30 years!! 

I have to learn to walk again yet .....  I will have ups and downs in the progress and must remind myself to not try to run before I can walk!

Probably for awhile my life will be a little like a set of escalators - every up day will have a corresponding down day...

  I took this photo in the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney, Australia.

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and nearly out of power.    Full work days sap these old batteries!
 
I took these photos out in country Australia - near Coonabarabran.   It is the same power line running out of town towards the telescope -  different poles, different angles, different time of day:

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I had worried that I was going to have a glut of tomatoes - but really we kept up with the production there -  I think they are heirloom tomatoes as they are not very big and I had to use a couple to make a tomato sandwich. 

However, we do have a glut of peppers (capsicums & chillies).  On the top deck we are growing capsicums and long thin peppers.   The capsicum plant does not look sturdy enough to produce these but it keeps on giving more. 

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                      you can't kill cactus?

Now that I don't have to keep my leg 4" above my heart most of the time, I ventured out onto the deck today!  With the exception of 2 trips to the doctor in the last two & half weeks I have not been outside!  I sat on the lower deck with a cup of coffee, the last few chapters of "The Book Thief"  and my camera.

I took photos of my lovely very alive cactus - simply because it is alive and it's a good record to have of it being so:

But, then I thought - oh Emjay, why not show the true state of your cacti collection: 

I especially like the way this one just sort of keeled over:  Then I have one that can't quite decide whether it is worth the effort to live at my place: The tops of the alive and the dead - both beautiful in their own way:
 

I have a friend in England who calls July 4, Colonial Ingrates Day (I suspect many British do likewise - in jest of course!).

This was our first July 4 in the 'hood and it was very different to the other side of town.  Just about everyone in our row had a barbie and it felt like we were all just hanging out together even though we were separated by fences.

The neighbourhood was lit up with illegal (to DC) fireworks until 2 o'clock in the morning!   We, somewhat apprehensively, watched for escaping embers trying to light up our awning or wooden deck. 

 

The kid from across the alley tried very hard to set our timber fence on fire by lighting all his fireworks right next to it. His house has a back fence of wire cyclone fencing - obviously not nearly as exciting as the prospect of burning a neighbour's fence!   Luckily he ran out of fireworks before he damaged property or his limbs.

 

We could not see the fireworks on the National Mall but we could see the red glow in the sky over the houses across the alley from us.  I think that "feathery" line is part of a local firework:

 

Our gun shot triangulation system must have been going nuts - all those bangs & pops!  And smoke everywhere: 

I know these shots are not as spectacular as some people have posted of fireworks displays but remember these are just in my city neighbourhood!

 

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I kept waiting for this kid to set himself on fire - I'm pretty sure these canisters are supposed to be placed on the ground to be lit ....

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How do stilt walkers get up on their stilts?

This guy was actually dancing!  Now that must take some talent!

It was amazing how quickly they were walking  - is "stilting" a word?

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I took these photos with a Canon PowerShot SD850 set on Manual with black & white setting:

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In May last year we had 16 days in China - most of that time was spent in Nanjing. It was hot and humid and disgustingly smoggy - apparently it gets REALLY REALLY hot & humid and REALLY disgustingly smoggy in July & August!!  Nanjing is one of the three hottest cities in China with temperatures regularly over 105 F in summer - but then it drops to 19F in winter - so quite a range.  

So ...  because the astro-dweeb was there working on a project with a Purple Mountain scientist he went to work in the observatory offices each morning with our host Jianghui, and I got to roam the city on my own & loved every minute. Then, on many afternoons Jianghui took us to places he thought were interesting or must-see in Nanjing. One such outing was a trip up Purple Mountain.  Purple Mountain is China's first modern observatory - started in 1929, completed 1934 - and one of only 3 in China.  It is considered the "cradle of the modern astronomy in China'.

There is a cable car which goes to the top of the mountain but I have a fear of cable cars, made in China, swinging free of their wire and hurtling down some mountainous gully - so I chose to walk up. It only took about 25 minutes to walk to the top but it was grueling in the heat and smog!   

  Purple Mountain is about 870 feet high and on a clear day you would be able to see Nanjing.  I'm not sure when they last had a clear day!   There is a museum with astronomical displays which have descriptions in Chinese -  Jianghui translated them for us and pointed out what he thought were the more important things - like the meteorite that Chairman Mao had touched in the 1960's!  Many of these instruments and artifacts are actually replicas as the originals were stolen by the British, French, Germans, Americans and later the Japanese.
This is an Armillary Sphere, designed by Zhang Heng in the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220), and used to locate celestial bodies and define their movements. It is an impressive work of art. Its four poles are engraved with entwining dragons and the four sides of the base are cast with flowers and animals. The bronze one kept here was made in 1437 during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).  Using an instrument like this, China was the first to determine that there are 365.25 days in a year.
This is a Celestial Globe - Invented by Zhang Heng, an astronomer in the Eastern Han Dynasty (25 A.D.-220 A.D.).  The one displayed here was made during the Qing Dynasty (1644- 1911). Measuring one meter in diameter, it is inlaid with 1449 stars, the ecliptic and the equator. Celestial globes were used to represent the stars and constellations of the night sky and record their positions with respect to each other and a co-ordinate system.

Nowadays only Solar Studies research is performed on the Solar Telescope at Purple Mountain as the air quality is bad and there is light pollution and radio noise from Nanjing.  There are 4 remote observing stations under the auspices of Purple Mountain: Delingha, Qingdao, Ganyu and the Xuyi station where we spent 3 days.