Saturday 2 April 2016

Soppy Sunday

1: Hello: I'm in hospital, but I'm getting better.
Enjoy Soppy Sunday!
2: I think you'll find this is OUR bed!
3: From Gerry. Stratheck, Argyll
4: Wombat!
5: Ben Nevis
6: From Panda Paws.
7: Daffodils at night.
8: Have a nice swim!
9: Never mind the match, there's a wee bird who needs a drink.
10: What kind of cat are you?
11: So true
12: Everyone needs a helping trunk sometimes.
13: Well I only have little legs...
14: So what was it you wanted?
15: Ancient Olive Tree
16: Reykjavik on a summer's night.
17: Tuscany.
18: How'd ya like them teeth!?
19: Tuscany again.
20: No idea where, but it's surely beautiful.
21: That's it then. I'll see you next week.
Do you like my tongue, by the way?

49 comments:

  1. No.10 I think that's my favourite cat picture of all time, and I'm a dog person.

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    1. Yeah, I'm a dog person, or if not BIG cat person, but no one can resist kittens.. and that's a corker.

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    2. The rabbit looks shit scared though.

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    3. Well, wouldn't you if someone mistook you for a cat?

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    4. I no longer can comment only reply, what's that about? But the kittie and the bunnie are great - well done the person that sent them...

      The white lion is so cute and LOVE the elephants.I think the last picture has been told there is a chance Boris J could be PM and Don Trump President.

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    5. Heaven knows, PP.

      Blogger has a mind of its own.

      Some people's comments have completely disappeared over the last few days. Munguin is taking a dim view of it, and it he hadn't jetted off to New York, I'm sure he would have had something to say.

      The elephant pic is one of my favourites this weekend.

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  2. I enjoy letting my mind wander for awhile on each photograph and see what happens.
    An excellent selection once again, some good in a technical way, some humourous and some snaps(like mine)

    You should take Munguin to Argyll sometime, beautiful part of the country (when the weather's good and the midgies are sleepin')

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    1. Gerry I always enjoy your contributions. I think you take excellent photos!

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    2. Good heavens Gerry...yours are anything but snaps.

      I'd love to do a Soppy Sunday of your views alone, or those of Frank, or David...or a combination.

      I'd love to take Munguin over that way, and he wants to go to the islands too. He's been practising his Gaelic.

      We're hoping to get over that way this summer.

      As for your first suggestion, yes, that's a great idea... Imagine being there.

      As ever, thank you for your contribution.

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  3. The olive tree looks familiar and at first glance I thought Reykjavik was the Stornoway harbour! 14 looks like Niko after the General election...

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    1. The Olive Tress is in Aegina, Greece. http://en.ellet.gr/node/567

      I think it's the oldest living thing in Europe, several thousands of years old. (Older even than Niko? Or maybe it IS Niko!!!))

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    2. If Stornoway is as lovely as that, it's high time that Munguin and I made a trip there. That actually not the harbour, but a lake in Reykjavikurtjorn, a suburb.

      http://www.livefromiceland.is/webcams/reykjavikurtjorn/

      It's busy on this side of the lake, but on the other side are very beautiful houses and gardens. It's obviously upmarket... Heaven knows what that means in Iceland.

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    3. Tris, my in-laws neighbour have olive trees in their garden and they certainly look ancient. Surprisingly there are no cedars in the area possibly due to deforestation for housing over the years. The picture looks a bit like Stornoway taken from the castle with a similar water-front and buildings. Come and see for yourself?

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    4. I think olives have to be old before they produce anything, I'm sure I read that if you plant olive trees, it's not for you, but for your children. They seem to go on producing fruit even in to extreme old age.

      I've wanted to go to the Western Isles for a long time. I was on Skye a few years ago and, apart from the midges, I loved it. (Oh boy was I bitten!!!)

      Maybe this year, maybe it will be next... it depends on the plans of friends who want to see Sweden, Norway and Denmark this year. Munguin is saving hard.

      I know you are on a wee island. Is it far from Stornoway?

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  4. Great photos. The lights in the background of 20 are fascinating. I wonder what caused them?

    Thanks again.

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    1. You're welcome, Douglas.

      I thought it was just sunlight through the trees, but on reflection, I dunno... It's a bit too "spread" for that.

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  5. Soppy Sunday always makes me smile.

    Ben Nevis, with the lenticular clouds, is spectacular.

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    1. We can't ask for more than that we've put a smile on the faces of our dear readers, Jim.

      Well, that's what Munguin said, anyway.

      I'm glad you liked them.

      I thought the clouds were fantastic. Oh to have a camera that can catch that kind of thing. There are so many fantastic cloud potential pictures, but every time I try to catch one on my phone camera, it comes out a sort of vague grey colour.

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  6. Ben Nevis That'll be the place you visit in a pair of shorts
    and carrying a selfie stick ........and of course almost die

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    1. Nah, that'll be the place you stand at the bottom and look up and think.... Ewww, that's high... shall we have a McDonalds?

      :)

      PS Munguin, having his personal photographer, wouldn't use anything as crass as a selfie stick.

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    2. The Ben Nevis pic is lovely. The problem with mountains is that it's usually a long physically taxing UPHILL walk to the top. Better to just chow down on a nice McDonalds burger and admire the view from the bottom.

      We have a mountain in Colorado where you can get to the top without walking. You can drive to the top of Pike's Peak in your car. Lots of lovely sights up there. Trouble is, the altitude at the top is 14,115 ft (4,302 meters), and when you get out of the car and do anything physically taxing......like say, WALKING across the parking lot (car park)......you may faint, because there is very little actual AIR to breath.

      Speaking of McDonalds, I posted a comment on a YouTube video which shows a climb (requiring rock climbing ropes, etc) to the top of Grand Teton Peak in Wyoming. (13,776 ft) I innocently asked if the US Park Service maintains restroom facilities at the top, and perhaps a concession stand for snacks and beverages). You'd be amazed at the abuse that the mountain climbing community can heap on someone asking perfectly reasonable questions on YouTube. ;-)

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    3. True Danny, it's a bit of a bind. I'd g further. It's not usually a long taxing walk... it's ALWAYS a long physically taxing walk to the top.

      I'm wondering about the safety of the Colorado mountain with its thin air. Even if you stay in the car, doesn't the air get in through the ventilation system, and it's there a chance that you could get very sick and dizzy whilst driving?

      You are a troublemaker!!! The Wyoming mountain is hardly smaller than the Colorado one. I'm wondering if the parks Service (is that a federal service?) shouldn't open a stall selling oxygen masks.

      I may have mentioned to you before that Téton is the French word for Nipples!

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    4. Tris....I do remember you mentioning that fact about the word "Teton." And I've never felt quite the same way about Grand Teton Peak....and for that matter the whole Teton Range.....ever since. You see a tiny picture of Grand Teton Peak and a bit of the Teton Range in my MR avatar. I think that the East front of the Teton Range as seen from the high meadow of "Jackson Hole" (in northwestern Wyoming, just south of Yellowstone National Park,) is one of the most beautiful spots in America. Grand Teton National Park (a federal national park) is maintained by the National Park Service. Much of the land was formerly owned by the Rockefeller family as a vacation getaway, and was deeded to the nation by the family.

      I think you probably have to get a permit from the Park Service to climb the mountains there, but as far as I know, you have to bring your own air...LOL. Actually, mountain climbers get acclimated to those altitudes and wouldn't think of needing oxygen at such paltry altitudes.

      I'm a lowlander, but have never had trouble driving in a car at 12,000 feet and more. But when I get out of the car and walk around, that's when the rapid heavy breathing occurs. Some people do get some altitude sickness at the top of Pike's peak.

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    5. Ah well, we have nothing like that in Scotland, so we largely don;t know much about it.

      A few years ago my brother went to base camp in Everest. I'm not sure whether that was in Nepal or Tibet. The air was thin there. But a friend of mone had to do some work in Colorado, maybe in Denver, and he was terribly sick for a few days...

      We have hills (and that's all they are) in Fife in Scotland, called the Paps of Fife. Paps = breasts!

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lomond_Hills

      We're a bit coarse in Scotland!

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    6. Tris.....Isn't there a state religion in Scotland? And yet they allow THAT sort of hill naming? ;-))

      How great it would be to visit the Everest base camp! (About as high as I would want to go on Everest though.)

      In the 2012 presidential campaign, the first televised debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney was held at Denver. Obama sleep-walked his way through it. He was AWFUL! The White House and the Democratic party immediately launched into damage control spin. My favorite "explanation" they advanced was that he was affected by the thin air at Denver. Thin air that didn't affect Romney apparently.....LOL.



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    7. LOL Yes, and strangely it was quite influential until recently. However they must have been named in the days when fire and brimstone were preached from the pulpit every week.

      It's a mystery.

      I was wondering... about the debate and Romney's resistance to the thin air...

      Do they have air in Utah? Just wondering.

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    8. @ Tris: I think you have it! Salt Lake City and the floor of the Salt Lake Valley are on the Rocky Mountain uplift.....only about 900 ft lower than Denver. Also, among Mitt's many homes, must be something in the high mountain ski resorts east of town where he could acclimate to the altitude of Denver. ;-))

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    9. There you are Danny. Problem solved! :)

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  7. I am in order to stop all the constant media speculation
    declaring I am in a same sex relationship with another male.

    there you go anything for a few more votes and wrong foot
    your snpBAD opponents so if they dare to slag me off makes them look
    well snpBAd

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    1. LOL @ Niko. I hope you broke the news to Spook gently.

      I think well done to Kez for saying out loud what, apparently everyone except me, already knew.

      It is a source of some pride that Scotland is such an open minded nation that 3 of our 5 main political party leaders are gay and 3 are women adn that these facts are never mentioned, or thought of as being that important.

      Kezia's revelation went almost unnoticed, except I think in the Daily Mail.

      Incidentally, Munguin is in a same sex relationship with himself. He loves himself far too much to be in the least interested an anyone else.

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    2. I am sure that a lot of politicians have love bites on their mirrors. The American comedian, Steve Allan did a vox pop in New York many years ago, 'If you found out that your local vicar was a practising heterosexual, how would you feel...? The answers were hilarious.

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    3. In fairness I guess you have to have a bit of an ego to put yourself forward to represent either the public, or your party (whichever is your personal priority). No one could argue the likes of Blair or Salmond or Johnson have/had egos... then some.

      LOl... good one about the vox pop.

      It's something that never occurs to me to think about what someone's sexual preferences are. I'm always amazed by people who obsess over it. I mean seriously, I can't help thinking it's plain weird and somewhat unhealthy.

      I remember some guest house owner carrying on about how he wouldn't have gays in his rooms. "I can't bear to think about what they would be doing on my sheets" he said in his defence. I wondered if he enjoyed thinking about what his heterosexual customers did on these same sheets.

      There are so many things in life to obsess about. That one is one of the least important, and least healthy or wholesome.

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    4. conan


      spook devastated ? why he being my own dear boy.



      tris


      "Love that dare not speak its name" only nowadays its a bit more open to some

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    5. Does Spook know about this, Niko?

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    6. Having a daughter that is openly gay, all I can say to Kez is. What took you so long?

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    7. Yes, and (and I don't mean this in a bad way, Kez) but who cares?

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  8. Great photos as usual, thanks

    I've decided to call the burd(14) Jackie. Something about the eyes

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    1. Thanks Fairfor.

      Aye. Union Jackie Burd! I see the resemblance.

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  9. The first photo reminds me of an audience listening to Jenny Marra. Miaowww.

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    1. Ha ha ha..

      I've never actually listened to her for long. But I remember several years ago, when she was first elected, she made a huge fuss, including producing videos which she put on Youtube, about various issues in Dundee.

      One, I seem recall, was about Tennis courts and the lack thereof (that's the tennis counts that get used every year over the Wimbledon fortnight and lie unused for the rest of the year). The SNP council should have more of them apparently. In an ideal world we'd have any number of tennis courts and each town would produce several Andy Murrays but of course, we live in a far form ideal world!

      And the other was school buses.

      I can't really remember much of the conversations we had, but she finally seemed to fold her tent and forget it. Or maybe she just got fed up arguing with us.

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    2. Tried adding a comment but no box, loved them all from the little kitten with Mum? to the face on that "sparrowhawk" fingers crossed. Reykjavick looks wonderful, it is in consideration for next years holiday though I think it will lose out to the South of France.
      The Bunny and the kitten is super, my friend's daughter has a menagery which includes Rabbit cat and guinea pigs. I doubt though that the cat gets anywhere near the rabbit. Helena

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    3. Panda Paws had the same trouble Helena. Heaven knows what Google Blogger is up to at the moment. It seems to be pretty unstable.

      Iceland is a great place to visit, but beware! It is horrifically expensive. They can easily afford it, but for us it's hard going.

      It is a bit like Norway, where my friend and one of his mates visited for a weekend, and lived on some bread and some sweets they had taken with them until they got back in to much cheaper Sweden, where they fell upon the first restaurant and gorged! No chance of doing that in Iceland though. The next country is a LONG way off, and almost as expensive anyway!

      I sometimes wonder if these animals together photos aren't photoshopped, but even if they are it's nice to imagine.

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    4. Just don't watch their telly programmes!

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    5. Well, if Mr Finlay is to be believed, they are awful.

      It would be interesting to know just how fluently Mr Finlay speaks Icelandic and to find out the dates when he was there making his study of television there...

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  10. Och I know anthropomorphism is frowned upon, but there's something of the, well Kezia frankly on that first Orang. Its the eyes maybe, or the general facial demeanour. I noticed it right away, but I resisted posting. Til now anyway.

    Getting to love Orang pics. Less so Kez pics....

    S.A.,

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    1. Spare some feelings for the wee Ornag.

      I like them too. I'm scared to miss them out in case PP gives me grief.

      :)

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  11. I don't care what Ken Whatsisname says, Reykjavik looks lovely. So does Tuscany but I'd be worried about bumping into Tony effing Blair. That would spoil anyone's holiday.

    The Elephant picture is my favourite this Sunday, why people want to harm these magnificent creatures is beyond me.

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    1. Yes, it's a beautiful city, and so clean. I think you'd be safe from Tony in Reykjavik. It's so expensive. He likes making money, not spending it.

      I can't understand why anyone would hurt any animal. I got a huge buzz the other day when I fished a tiny little fly out of a glass of water, blew on him gently till his wings dried out. I was just about to give him up as dead (he certainly looked it) when he moved just a little. Within 5 minutes he was flying around.

      I was as happy as a surgeon who had just performed a successful operation. Why not? The fly has as much right to life as anything else.

      I should never go into the bush with a gun, becasue if I found someone who'd just shot a beast, the shooter would be joining them tout de suite!

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