Saturday 6 February 2016

SOPPY SUNDAY

1: Doodlebug, an orphaned kangaroo won't
be separated from his teddy.
2: Dudhope Castle, Dundee.
3: Ice Canyon, Greenland.
4: Haven't forgotten you, PP.
5:Loch Creran, Argyll, (courtesy of Frank).
6: Never seen a robin catch a fish?
7: Bathtime for the babies.
8: Switzerland. Well, where else would it be?
9: Orphaned baby elephant.
10: What an amazing outlook.
11: Lake Bled, Slovenia.
12: Il n'y a rien d'aussi beau, qu'une vallée à l'abri du temps, où les oiseaux font leurs nids dans les cœurs des arbres géants.
(There's nothing so beautiful as a valley shaded from time, where birds make their nests in the hearts of giant trees.)
Sweet Swiss Valley. Il fait bon vivre chez toi!
13: More?
14: Morning...
15: What's this then?
16: Another poor orphan who just needs a cuddle.
17: Ahhhhchoooo!!
18 : Iceland.
19: Got a worm?
20: Nuts!

28 comments:

  1. Doesn't seem like those train tracks over bridges in Switzerland that are a thousand feet in the air could really be all that safe. ;)

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    1. Aye, Danny. You'd think that. And certainly in many countries you'd think to yourself, 'I'm not going over that'. But this is Switzerland. I'd certainly risk it. It will have been well built and it will be maintained by professionals.

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    2. Yes, I wouldn't worry much about a Swiss built and maintained bridge. I wouldn't be so sure about some of the old spans on American railways. It brings to mind some of the hastily built....sometimes "temporary"......wooden trestles that were thrown together in record time to complete the historic transcontinental railroad in 1869. Such as the "Big Trestle" which was built in just 38 days near Promontory Summit, where the tracks being built from East and West met north of the Great Salt Lake in Utah.

      http://image.slidesharecdn.com/bridgestothegildedage-120625081907-phpapp02/95/bridges-to-the-gilded-age-9-728.jpg?cb=1340612450

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    3. Ouch. That looks lethal.

      I'm a bit of a railway fanatic in a kinda laid back way... in that I love watching documentaries about railways. I've seen some horrifically unsafe looking lines, perilously close to sheer drops in various countries, ones I wouldn't touch with a tarry pole (Scottish expression), but I'd have no fear of Swiss engineering.

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    4. Some time back, I watched an interesting documentary on the building of the Trans-Siberian railroad. Lots of interesting old film. The American transcontinental railroad was one of the landmark engineering achievements of the nineteenth century, but it was a piece of cake compared with the Trans-Siberian.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTjsAhYwljs

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    5. Thanks Danny. That's tonight's entertainment.

      :)

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  2. OMG that was primate-alious. Loved the gorilla and the chimp. And lots of orange people, yeah. Do you think that kangaroo would mind if I stole its teddy? Yeah, probably!

    Some lovely views too, that ice canyon was amazing. Greenland has proper devo-max from Denmark and it took ages for it to negotiate a withdrawal from the EU. It wanted to leave and the EU were reluctant. But still, Scotland would have been banished to the outer darkness, wouldn't it.

    Sorry I've sullied Soppy Sunday with politics! Great pictures though. I wonder if Helena is still having problems with windows 10.

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    1. We've not heard from Helena all week, so I expect she must be. Although she managed a few "anon" comments a while ago.

      You are quite right. Greenland saw very little benefit from the EU. There wasn't at that time enough farming to make the farm subsidies worthwhile. The common fisheries policy simply allowed other countries to fish in the vast Greenlandic waters, and as a very rich country, it got little in the way of social grants.

      So it left, but as you say, it was a struggle for it to leave and took a couple of years. As you say, it would all have been different for Scots. We'd have been dumped the next day! Or maybe UKOK lied?

      I suspect the wee kangaroo would be pretty upset to loose his teddy. It's all he's got.

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  3. Definitely one of the weeks best bits Tris. Tell Munguin Panda got his bath at last. Trusted him up in a sock and smuggled him into a dark wash( even though he's got white bits). Mankiness gone he can't wait to get back in about the bamboo.

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    1. Munguin says that the day that that happens to him, there will be trouble enough in Munguin Towers. And Tris will pay dearly!

      Thanks for your kind words Gerry. It's fun looking for the pics.

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  4. No 2 - amazing. Not a broken window in sight. (Sorry, couldn't resist!).

    No 10 - if only the world followed that outlook. We wouldn't need politicians.

    No 12 - incredible views, but I'd be wary about living in the bottom of the valley.

    No 15 - new management consultants review Labour policies.

    No 18 - my garden ends up looking like that sometimes......

    zog

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    1. Hmmmm.

      You have to realise that that was taken on the day the builders finished the revamp! I'm not sure we need politicians anyway. Like most idyllic places, there are drawbacks... flooding being one we know all too much about. I think No 15 demonstrated at least as much intellect, and a good deal more cuteness than Labour could muster. Somehow in Iceland that sorta thing looks pretty cool!

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  5. Nice photo of your castle in Dundee? Stunning photo of the Ice Canyon. What a golf-course the Swiss Valley would make? Did I mention that a survey of 300,000 voted the Western Isles as the happiest place in the UK? Perhaps 'old grumpy' Niko should move here instead of Cyprus?

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    1. Yes, that's our Castle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dudhope_Castle

      Greenland is beautiful. I'd love to be standing where that bloke is now. Imagine how fresh the air is, and the water.

      I guess the results of that survey must have been influenced by the fact that you live there. We could arrange for Niko to come up and live with you for a while? :) :)

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  6. I like the valley in Switzerland, and that amazing mirror-like photograph of the loch in Argyll. It must have been a wind free day to get such great reflection on the water.

    It's all very well wanting to be that guy on the Ice canyon photograph Tris, but if you slipped it would be a cold landing!

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    1. Yes, lovely reflections, Peter.

      I hadn't thought about slipping into the water... perhaps you're right. Far better to observe from a distance.

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  7. Replies
    1. I knew you would.

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    2. I am because, we are.
      What's not to like, if only the human race, as a whole, would adopt that belief system; simply beautiful.

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    3. Completely agree. And put in the the context of that picture with the lads saying it over a treat, it's perfect.

      Now expand it to the millions of refugees fleeing horrific persecution, starvation, floggings, death. Or the people who are suffering in the wake if IDS's austerity for the poor. How on earth can we sit down to a huge four course meal, or a night out on the town costing £100+, or even a holiday in Paris, knowing that there are little kids with empty bellies?

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    4. My thoughts exactly.
      We try, every day, to do our bit, but I'm afraid we may be losing the battle, ultimately the human race needs to win the war.
      The war against it's excesses, and indifference. Uniting in a common goal; a man's a man, for aw that.

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    5. The thing is that, in a world where some ridiculously small number of people own some fantastically large amount of the wealth, it will never happen.

      Vast amounts of that wealth are ill-gotten. Stolen from weaker people, whether that's nations or just people within nations... in the past by physical means, or today, by electronic means.

      There is an unfairness.

      People will fight for it, when it comes to life and death.

      The rich should be wary of making too much of a chasm between the haves and the have nots.

      So should nations.

      Oh for the simplicity of these boys.

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  8. Replies
    1. A world of dew,
      and within every dewdrop
      a world of struggle

      Issa

      braco

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  9. Hey, some superb pictures! love the Iceland one. Thanks for sharing these, will be back to view your blog in more detail, Cheers. Ross from Edinburgh.

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    1. HI Ross from Edinburgh

      Thanks...you will be very welcome.

      Iceland is my favourite place on Earth.

      It's often more political, but we try to put something nice in, form time to time :)

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