Where are the Words For Wednesday?

Words for Wednesday has become a moveable feast.  A big thank you to everyone who has stepped up and provided the prompts to keep it going.

Not only do we have the whole year covered - we have a back-up ready in case life gets in someone's way.

January 2018:  Cindi posted some great challenges.
February 2018:  River will post the prompts on her blog. 
March 2018: Delores will post the prompts on her blog.
April 2018:  The prompts will be here.
May (and October) 2108: The prompts will be here, but provided by  Margaret Adamson and her friend Sue Fulton.  The prompts will include photographs taken by her Margaret's friend Bill.
June:  Lee will post the prompts on her blog
July 2018:  Vest will post the prompts on his blog
August 2018: River will post the prompts on her blog
September 2018:  Delores is stepping up to the plate again.
October 2018:  Margaret Adamson and her friend Sue Fulton.  The prompts will include photographs taken by her Margaret's friend Bill.  The prompts will be here.
November 2018:The prompts will be here.
December 2018:  River is again posting the prompts on her blog.

And C. Lee McKenzie has offered to act as backup if we should need her assistance.

Thank you, one and all.  

Sunday Selections #364

Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files.
 
The meme is now continued by River at Drifting through life.  The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent.  Post some photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to River.  Clicking on any of the photos will make them embiggen. 
 
Like River I usually run with a theme.  Our summer has been hot.  Sometimes brutally hot.  To add insult to injury a little while ago I contracted a lurgy.  A coughing, aching sort of lurgy, complete with pounding head and appallingly sore throat.  I have been running a temperature and have spent much of the last week going from

HOT

  
To COLD (to the extent I was shivering in the shower).

To HOT

To COLD

And back again.   And of the two extremes the wintry one (though all the images were taken in  the summer 0f 2004 at Antarctica) was much the best.
MS likes the heat.  MS thrives in the heat and it doesn't matter whether the heat is external or internal.  Some of its manifestations were familiar, some were new, and none were welcome.

The lurgy is in retreat now.  Most of the time.  My throat is still sore (but no longer bleeding), I am still coughing and still unwell but the temperature has mostly diminished.  For which I am truly grateful.

A summer spent skulking inside away from the heat has meant I have let a few things slip.  Some don't matter (much) and some do require attention.  So I think I will take a leave of absence from the blogosphere for the month of February.   I hope that it treats you kindly, and look forward to catching up when I return.  And March is festival month in my city.  Enlighten and the Balloon Spectacular.  Both must see events on our calendar.

Back in a bit

I feel like I have been gargling with gravel, my head is pounding, and my temperature dwarfs that of the city.  Not to mention a cough which scares dogs.  And Jazz.

Sunday Selections #363

Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files.
 
The meme is now continued by River at Drifting through life.  The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent.  Post some photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to River.  Clicking on any of the photos will make them embiggen.  River is having a blog break at the moment (and will be missed), so I am keeping the meme warm in her absence.  She did post for Sunday Selections last week, and I am hoping she will again today.
 
Like River I usually run with a theme.  January is birthday month for rather a lot of my family and extended family.  My partner, my middle brother, several nephews and me.  My middle brother had a significant birthday and his family liked the smaller portion's birthday treat of last year so much that the brother was also given a night at Jamala Wildlife Lodge.  He loved it.  The youngest brother and I clubbed together and gave him a 'Meet the Cheetah' experience to go with the zoo stay.  He loved that too.  The cheetah, Jura, purred the whole way through the encounter.  And I suspect that if the brother and his wife could purr they would have joined him.

As an aside.  This is the zoo where my youngest brother has volunteered for a number of years.  He tells me that while the zoo has several cheetahs not all of them enjoy interacting with people.  If they don't like it, it doesn't happen. Which is protection for the people of course, but also for the cheetah.  Which I think is excellent.  And I really like that the zoo donates rather a lot of the profit from the animal encounter experiences to animal conservation projects.

The youngest brother and I made a surprise visit to the zoo to watch the interaction.  

The keeper went in first, and Jura trotted over to meet him.  Colour me jealous.

My brother and his wife (and another keeper) joined them.  The second keeper took photos for the lucky pair to cherish.  Just as well, because Jura changed position and we couldn't get any photos from the front.

Despite it being a stinking hot day, of course I looked in on some of the other animals while we were waiting for the cheetah encounter.

This is Hannah, a very old wombat.

The red-browed finches were more interested in Hannah's food than she was.  Much more.  If you click on the photo you will see that they are very pretty little birds.

The peacock was just outside the cheetah's enclosure, hunkered down in the vegetation.  I hope it is smarter than its offspring.  I gather the zoo no longer has peahens because the youngsters were going into the big cat's enclosures and being eaten. 

Sunday Selections #362

Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files.
 
The meme is now continued by River at Drifting through life.  The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent.  Post some photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to River.  Clicking on any of the photos will make them embiggen.  River is having a blog break at the moment (and will be missed), so I am keeping the meme warm in her absence. 
 
Like River I usually run with a theme.  This week?  Sort of.  I was on call for Lifeline one night last week.  It was long, tiring and stressful.  When I got up the next morning after less than four hours sleep I felt jaded.  And disinclined to do much.  So we went down to a park beside the lake.  I was hoping for a kangaroo fix, but the lake is always calming.  And beautiful.

Win/win.

  
Kangaroos relax well.

And then we spotted a poor over-burdened mama kangaroo and her joey.  Who was most definitely a pouch potato.  In the twenty minutes or so we watched them, the joey looked outside the pouch but didn't bother emerging.  And its head and a leg or two hung outside.  It looked most uncomfortable (for the mother) and that pouch was FULL.

The joey's head looks almost as big as his mother's doesn't it?  And it didn't matter whether she was standing, lying down or moving, that joey wasn't getting out.

 

They didn't seem bothered by our presence but we left them in peace to soak up the peace and quiet...

Sunday Selections #361

Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files.
 
The meme is now continued by River at Drifting through life.  The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent.  Post some photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to River.  Clicking on any of the photos will make them embiggen.  River is having a blog break at the moment (and will be missed), so I am keeping the meme warm in her absence. 
 
Like River I usually run with a theme.  This week?  Like last, a bit of a hotch potch.

Starting with some more images from the Hyper Real Exhibition.  These figures faced each other and were huge.  Seven feet tall?  At least that.

Both are by Ron Mueck.  The first is simply titled 'pregnant woman' and the second 'wild man'.   Neither of them looked comfortable, though I could see more reason for her discomfort.

Then to another mini excursion.  We are baking at the moment (though not as hot as some parts of Oz) and we headed off one cloudy morning to visit the lake.  In the couple of hours we were out the temperature increased by 15 degrees Celsius ( nearly 60 degrees Fahrenheit).

So we headed into the Nara Peace Park gardens for some cool respite.  

 

Doesn't this pathway call for running water?

I suspect the garden is designed for spring and autumn displays when the cherry trees and the maples would be at their most spectacular, but it is a haven of peace at any time of the year.

And finishing up in our garden, which is being neglected a bit at the moment.  I go out in it as little as possible in the heat of the day.  Which I will pay for when the weather cools down again.