Wednesday 30 April 2008

WEB LEARNING CURVE - Part 1

It is better to light and candle than complain about the dark.

– Old Chinese Proverb

Tuesday 29 April 2008

CHERRY ON THE BOUGH


Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.

And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.

A E Housman

Thursday 24 April 2008

A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE

You like to walk in the mountains?

Heights don't bother you?

Well, take a look at this, but remember ... don't look down ....



Originally built in 1901, this walkway now serves as an approach to makinodromo, the famous climbing sector of El Chorro, a limestone gorge in Andalusia in southern Spain.

The path gets its name from the fact that is was officially opened by King Alfonso XIII of Spain.
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Photo: Wikipedia.


Wednesday 23 April 2008

THE RETURN OF THE GREEN

At our latitude

This is the week the trees are come into leaf.

The best week

Of the fifty-two.


Photo: an Arbutus tree? on Savary Island* Taken last September as described here.

*Captain George Vancouver records in his journal for June 1792 that he sailed past an island off the B.C. coast "having beauty such as we have seldom enjoyed", which he named Savary's Island. Maybe it reminded him of home?

Tuesday 22 April 2008

A 'THORN' AMONG THE ROSES

Left to right are: Dawn, Alastair, Deborah and Heather



Sunday 20 April 2008

VANCOUVER VISITORS

Alastair and Dawn joined us over the Easter weekend for Mairi's birthday and a general family get-together. The 2 babes enjoyed all the fun and attention. It was Alastair's first visit to his namesake, Alastair John.

Thursday 17 April 2008

RETURNING ... WITH A TREE


There is nothing like a tree to lift the spirits.
One tree.
The oak tree in the field.
At Dunira.
(Photo by Alastair at Easter)


BUT

for a proper poem, the old ones are still the best ones:

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

By Joyce Kilmer