DESKTOP 2190 - DAISIES

Euryops chrysanthemoides (with the common names African bush daisy or bull's-eye) is a small shrub native to Southern Africa that is also grown as a horticultural specimen in tropical to subtropical regions around the world. It occurs in the Eastern Cape, along the coast and inland, to KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Swaziland.

It is usually found on forest edges, in riverine bush and in ravines, as well as in coastal scrub, grassland and disturbed areas. It is a compact, densely branched, leafy, evergreen shrub, 0.5 to 2m in height. The species was moved to Euryops from the genus Gamolepis on the basis of chromosome counts.

It is a ruderal weed in New South Wales, although it is not weedy in all places where it is cultivated or has naturalised. This particular variety is Euryops chrysanthemoides 'African Sun'. As you can see it is blooming profusely in our Winter here in Melbourne.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,

and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme,

and also part of the Nature Notes meme.

DESKTOP 2189 - CAPPADOCIA, TURKEY

Cappadocia (from Ancient Greek: Καππαδοκία) is a historical region in Central Anatolia, largely in the Nevşehir, Kayseri, Aksaray, and Niğde Provinces in Turkey. In the time of Herodotus, the Cappadocians were reported as occupying the whole region from Mount Taurus to the vicinity of the Euxine (Black Sea). Cappadocia, in this sense, was bounded in the south by the chain of the Taurus Mountains that separate it from Cilicia, to the east by the upper Euphrates and the Armenian Highland, to the north by Pontus, and to the west by Lycaonia and eastern Galatia.

The name Cappadocia, traditionally used in Christian sources throughout history, continues in use as an international tourism concept to define a region of exceptional natural wonders, in particular characterised by geological structures known as 'fairy chimneys' and a unique historical and cultural heritage.

A hoodoo (also called a tent rock, fairy chimney, and earth pyramid) is a tall, thin spire of rock that protrudes from the bottom of an arid drainage basin or badland. Hoodoos, which may range from 1.5–45 metres, typically consist of relatively soft rock topped by harder, less easily eroded stone that protects each column from the elements. They generally form within sedimentary rock and volcanic rock formations. Hoodoo shapes are affected by the erosional patterns of alternating hard and softer rock layers. Minerals deposited within different rock types cause hoodoos to have different colours throughout their height.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

DESKTOP 2188 - TIME

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,
and also part of the Seasons meme,
and also part of the Macro Monday meme.

DESKTOP 2187 - REEDS

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme.

DESKTOP 2186 - BLACK COCKATOOS

The yellow-tailed black cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus funereus) is a large cockatoo native to the south-east of Australia measuring 55–65 cm in length. It has a short crest on the top of its head. Its plumage is mostly brownish black and it has prominent yellow cheek patches and a yellow tail band. The body feathers are edged with yellow giving a scalloped appearance. The adult male has a black beak and pinkish-red eye-rings, and the female has a bone-coloured beak and grey eye-rings.

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme,

and also part of the Camera Critters meme.

DESKTOP 2185 - MORNING

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

DESKTOP 2184 - XEROCHRYSUM

Xerochrysum bracteatum, commonly known as the golden everlasting or strawflower, is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae native to Australia. Described by Étienne Pierre Ventenat in 1803, it was known as Helichrysum bracteatum for many years before being transferred to a new genus Xerochrysum in 1990. It grows as a woody or herbaceous perennial or annual shrub up to a metre tall with green or grey leafy foliage. Golden yellow or white flowerheads are produced from spring to autumn; their distinctive feature is the papery bracts that resemble petals.

The species is widespread, growing in a variety of habitats across the country, from rainforest margins to deserts and subalpine areas. The golden everlasting serves as food for various larvae of lepidopterans (butterflies and moths), and adult butterflies, hoverflies, native bees, small beetles and grasshoppers visit the flower heads. The golden everlasting has proven very adaptable to cultivation. It was propagated and developed in Germany in the 1850s, and annual cultivars in a host of colour forms from white to bronze to purple flowers became available. Many of these are still sold in mixed seed packs.

In Australia, many cultivars are perennial shrubs, which have become popular garden plants. Sturdier, long-stemmed forms are used commercially in the cut flower industry. Shown here is Xerochrysum 'Dargan Hill Monarch' was a natural form collected around 1.6 km inland from Cunningham's Gap in Southern Queensland in May 1961, and registered in February 1977. It is a low perennial shrub 60 to 80 cm high and 1.5 m across. The foliage is grey and the large flowers are 7–9 cm in diameter and golden yellow in colour. It grows best in full sun and fair drainage. Cuttings strike readily, and seed germinate well, although with the latter, seedlings may differ from the parent.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

DESKTOP 2183 - CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate change occurs when changes in Earth's climate system result in new weather patterns that last for at least a few decades, and maybe for millions of years. The climate system comprises five interacting parts, the atmosphere (air), hydrosphere (water), cryosphere (ice and permafrost), biosphere (living things), and lithosphere (earth's crust and upper mantle). The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun, with a relatively tiny amount from earth's interior. The climate system also gives off energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth's energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth's energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling.

Human activities can also change earth's climate, and are presently driving climate change through global warming. There is no general agreement in scientific, media or policy documents as to the precise term to be used to refer to anthropogenic forced change; either "global warming" or "climate change" may be used. The first describes the average effect on a global scale, whilst the second describes how different geographical regions are affected differently.

Human-caused global warming results from the increased use of fossil fuels in transportation, manufacturing and communications. Internet induced climate change is newest contributor to human-induced climate change. Some of the impacts include the altering of ecosystems (with a few extinctions), threat to food production and water supplies due to extreme weather, changes to the spread of climate-sensitive diseases, and the dislocation of human communities due to sea level rise and other climate factors. Taken together these hazards also exacerbate other stressors such as poverty.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,

and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme,

and also part of the Nature Notes meme.

DESKTOP 2182 - GOLDEN TEMPLE, INDIA

Sri Harmandir Sahib (The abode of God), also Sri Darbar Sahib and informally referred to as the “Golden Temple”, is the holiest Gurdwara (place of worship) of Sikhism, located in the city of Amritsar, Punjab, India. Amritsar (literally, the tank of nectar of immortality) was founded in 1577 by the fourth Sikh guru, Guru Ram Das. The fifth Sikh Guru, Guru Arjan, designed the Harmandir Sahib to be built in the centre of this holy tank, and upon its construction, installed the Adi Granth, the holy scripture of Sikhism, inside the Harmandir Sahib.

The Harmandir Sahib complex is also home to the Akal Takht (the throne of the timeless one, constituted by the Sixth Guru, Guru Hargobind). While the Harmandir Sahib is regarded as the abode of God's spiritual attribute, the Akal Takht is the seat of God's temporal authority. The construction of Harmandir Sahib was intended to build a place of worship for men and women from all walks of life and all religions to come and worship God equally. Accordingly, as a gesture of this non-sectarian universalness of Sikhism, Guru Arjan had specially invited Muslim Sufi saint, Hazrat Mian Mir to lay the foundation stone of the Harmandir Sahib. The four entrances (representing the four directions) to get into the Harmandir Sahib also symbolise the openness of the Sikhs towards all people and religions.

Over 100,000 people visit the holy shrine daily for worship, and also partake jointly in the free community kitchen and meal (Langar) regardless of any distinctions, a tradition that is a hallmark of all Sikh Gurdwaras. The present-day gurdwara was renovated in 1764 by Jassa Singh Ahluwalia with the help of other Sikh Misls. In the early nineteenth century, Maharaja Ranjit Singh secured the Punjab region from outside attack and covered the upper floors of the gurdwara with gold, which gives it its distinctive appearance and its English name.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

DESKTOP 2181 - TRANSITIONS

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,
and also part of the Seasons meme,
and also part of the Blue Monday meme.

DESKTOP 2180 - ART

Detail of a painting I recently completed.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme.

DESKTOP 2179 - GALAH

The galah (Eolophus roseicapilla), also known as the rose-breasted cockatoo, galah cockatoo, roseate cockatoo or pink and grey, is one of the most common and widespread cockatoos, and it can be found in open country in almost all parts of mainland Australia. It is endemic on the mainland and was introduced to Tasmania, where its distinctive pink and grey plumage and its bold and loud behaviour make it a familiar sight in the bush and increasingly in urban areas.

It appears to have benefited from the change in the landscape since European colonisation and may be replacing the Major Mitchell's cockatoo in parts of its range. The term galah is derived from gilaa, a word found in Yuwaalaraay and neighbouring Aboriginal languages. Galahs are about 35 cm long and weigh 270–350 g. They have a pale grey to mid-grey back, a pale grey rump, a pink face and chest, and a light pink mobile crest. They have a bone-coloured beak and the bare skin of the eye rings is carunculated. They have grey legs. 

The genders appear similar, however generally adult birds differ in the colour of the irises; the male has very dark brown (almost black) irises, and the female has mid-brown or red irises. The colours of the juveniles are duller than the adults. Juveniles have greyish chests, crowns, and crests, and they have brown irises and whitish bare eye rings, which are not carunculated.

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme,

and also part of the Camera Critters meme.

DESKTOP 2178 - BIRD

A noisy miner (Manorina melanocephala), a bird in the honeyeater family, Meliphagidae, enjoying the sunrise in Melbourne.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Friday Photo Journal meme.

DESKTOP 2177 - PETUNIA

Petunia is genus of 35 species of flowering plants in the family Solanaceae, of South American origin, closely related to tobacco, cape gooseberries, tomatoes, deadly nightshades, potatoes and chili peppers. The popular flower of the same name derived its epithet from the French, which took the word petun, meaning "tobacco," from a Tupi–Guarani language.

An annual, most of the varieties seen in gardens are hybrids (Petunia × hybrida). Here is one of the Surfinia series of petunia, called 'Purple Vein'. It is perfect for creating colourful summer displays in containers and hanging baskets. It is also a good ground cover plant, making a carpet of lavender blooms with contrasting veins. For the best displays, feed and water regularly.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

DESKTOP 2176 - BLACK SWAN

The Black Swan (Cygnus atratus) is a large waterbird, a species of swan, which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. The species was hunted to extinction in New Zealand, but later reintroduced. Within Australia they are nomadic, with erratic migration patterns dependent upon climatic conditions. Black Swans are large birds with mostly black plumage and red bills. They are monogamous breeders that share incubation duties and cygnet rearing between the sexes. We very often see black swans on Melbourne waterways and the Yarra at Southbank is no exception, where this beauty was photographed.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,

and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme,

and also part of the Nature Notes meme.

DESKTOP 2175 - SAN FRANCISCO, USA

San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural, commercial, and financial centre of Northern California and the only consolidated city-county in California. San Francisco is about 121 km2 in area. It is located on the north end of the San Francisco Peninsula. It is the smallest county in the state. It has a density of about 7,124 people per km2, making it the most densely settled large city (population greater than 200,000) in the state of California and the second-most densely populated major city in the United States after New York City. The city and its surrounding areas are known as the San Francisco Bay Area, and are a part of the larger OMB-designated San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland combined statistical area, the fifth most populous in the nation with an estimated population of 8.7 million.

San Francisco (Spanish for Saint Francis) was founded on June 29, 1776, when colonists from Spain established Presidio of San Francisco at the Golden Gate and Mission San Francisco de Asís named for St. Francis of Assisi a few miles away. The California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time. San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856. After three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later.

In World War II, San Francisco was the port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theatre. After the war, the confluence of returning servicemen, massive immigration, liberalising attitudes, along with the rise of the “hippie” counterculture, the Sexual Revolution, the Peace Movement growing from opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, and other factors led to the Summer of Love and the gay rights movement, cementing San Francisco as a centre of liberal activism in the United States. Politically, the city votes strongly along liberal Democratic Party lines.

A popular tourist destination, San Francisco is known for its cool summers, fog, steep rolling hills, eclectic mix of architecture, and landmarks, including the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, the former Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, Fisherman’s Wharf, and its Chinatown district. San Francisco is also the headquarters of five major banking institutions and various other companies such as Levi Strauss & Co., Gap Inc., Salesforce.com, Dropbox, Reddit, Square, Inc., Dolby, Airbnb, Weebly, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Yelp, Pinterest, Twitter, Uber, Lyft, Mozilla, Wikimedia Foundation, and Craigslist. It has several nicknames, including “The City by the Bay”, “Fog City”, “San Fran”, and “Frisco”, as well as older ones like “The City that Knows How”, “Baghdad by the Bay”, “The Paris of the West”, or simply “The City”. As of 2015, San Francisco was ranked high on world livability rankings.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

DESKTOP 2174 - APARTMENTS

Higgledy-piggledy in Southbank, Melbourne, Australia...

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,
and also part of the Seasons meme,
and also part of the Blue Monday meme.

DESKTOP 2173 - LAND MINE

A land mine is an explosive device concealed under or on the ground and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it. Such a device is typically detonated automatically by way of pressure when a target steps on it or drives over it, although other detonation mechanisms are also sometimes used. A land mine may cause damage by direct blast effect, by fragments that are thrown by the blast, or by both.

The use of land mines is controversial because of their potential as indiscriminate weapons. They can remain dangerous many years after a conflict has ended, harming civilians and the economy. 78 countries are contaminated with land mines and 15,000–20,000 people are killed every year while countless more are maimed. Approximately 80% of land mine casualties are civilian, with children as the most affected age group. Most killings occur in times of peace.

With pressure from a number of campaign groups organised through the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, a global movement to prohibit their use led to the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, also known as the Ottawa Treaty. To date, 164 nations have signed the treaty.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme.

DESKTOP 2172 - CAT

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme,
and also part of the Camera Critters meme.

DESKTOP 2171 - WINTER MORNING

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Friday Photo Journal meme.

DESKTOP 2170 - BIRD OF PARADISE

Strelitzia reginae, commonly known as the crane flower or bird of paradise, is a species of flowering plant indigenous to South Africa. An evergreen perennial, it is widely cultivated for its dramatic flowers. In temperate areas it is a popular houseplant. 

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

DESKTOP 2169 - AIRPLANE

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,

and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme.

DESKTOP 2168 - QUEBEC, CANADA

Quebec, also Québec, City of Québec, is the capital of the province of Quebec in Canada. In 2015 the city had a population of 540,994, and the metropolitan area had a population of 806,400, making it Canada’s seventh-largest metropolitan area and Quebec’s second-largest city after Montreal, which is about 260 kilometres to the southwest, respectively. Quebec is the second-largest French-speaking city in Canada after Montréal.

The narrowing of the Saint Lawrence River proximate to the city’s promontory, Cap-Diamant (Cape Diamond), and Lévis, on the opposite bank, provided the name given to the city, Kébec, an Algonquin word meaning “where the river narrows”. Founded in 1608 by Samuel de Champlain, Quebec City is one of the oldest cities in North America. The ramparts surrounding Old Quebec (Vieux-Québec) are the only fortified city walls remaining in the Americas north of Mexico, and were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985 as the ‘Historic District of Old Québec’.

According to the federal and provincial governments, Québec is the city’s official name in both French and English, although Quebec City (or its French equivalent, Ville de Québec) is commonly used, particularly to distinguish the city from the province. In French, the names of the province and the city are distinguished grammatically in that the province takes the definite article (le Québec, du Québec, au Québec, respectively ‘the Quebec’, ‘from the Quebec’, ‘in the Quebec’) and the city does not (Québec, de Québec, à Québec, respectively ‘Quebec City’, ‘from Quebec City’, ‘in Quebec City’).

The city’s famous landmarks include the Château Frontenac, a hotel which dominates the skyline, and La Citadelle, an intact fortress that forms the centrepiece of the ramparts surrounding the old city. The National Assembly of Quebec (provincial legislature), the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec), and the Musée de la civilisation (Museum of Civilisation) are found within or near Vieux-Québec.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

DESKTOP 2167 - SHADED

Taking a photo through the window over which a fine mesh shade was drawn. The light and shadows as the sun shines through the vegetation and shade make a good mosaic.

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme, 
and also part of the Seasons meme,
and also part of the Blue Monday meme.

DESKTOP 2166 - YELLOWBOX BARK

The gumtrees are shedding their bark at the moment and the Yellowbox Gum is no exception. 

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme.

DESKTOP 2165 - WINTER REFLECTION

This post is part of the Weekend Reflections meme.

DESKTOP 2164 - SKYLINE

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,

and also part of the Friday Photo Journal meme.

DESKTOP 2163 - APTENIA

Aptenia cordifolia is a species of succulent plant in the Aizoaceae (iceplant) family known by the common names heartleaf iceplant and baby sun rose. Perhaps the most common plant seen under this name is actually Aptenia 'Red Apple', a hybrid with red flowers and bright green leaves, whose parents are A. cordifolia and A. (Platythyra) haeckeliana. The true species of A. cordifolia has magenta purple flowers and more heart-shaped, mid-green, textured leaves.

Native to southern Africa, this species has become widely known as a hardy ornamental plant. This is a mat-forming perennial herb growing in flat clumps on the ground from a woody base. Stems reach up to about 60 centimeters long. The bright green leaves are generally heart-shaped and up to 3 centimeters long. They are covered in very fine bumps. 

Bright pink to purplish flowers appear in the leaf axils and are open during the day. The fruit is a capsule just over a centimetre long. The hybrid, Aptenia 'Red Apple', has, in some areas, escaped cultivation and now grows as an introduced species. Its far more vigorous growth and ability to root from small bits of stem makes it a poor choice for planting adjacent to wild lands as it can prove to be quite invasive and can become weedy.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

DESKTOP 2162 - ZEBRAS

Zebras at the Royal Melbourne Zoo. A zebra is an African wild horse with black-and-white stripes and an erect mane. It belongs to the genus Equus, family Equidae and there are three species, the common zebra (E. burchellii) seen here.

Melbourne Zoo is mindful that the welfare of the world’s wildlife is paramount, so the welfare of the animals in its care is of the utmost importance. The zoo's Animal Welfare Code sets out the zoo's animal welfare commitments and obligations. Zoos Victoria have a life-long duty of care to animals and are committed to ensuring that they are given the very best of care, provided with stimulation and housed in facilities that provide for their natural behaviours.

In association with other zoos around the world and with animal conservation groups, Zoos Victoria takes part in programs that foster animal species under threat of extinction and collaborates such that animal breeding programs in zoos helps to conserve animal diversity and species longevity around the world.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,

and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme,

and also part of the Nature Notes meme.

DESKTOP 2161 - VALETTA, MALTA

Malta, officially known as the Republic of Malta (Maltese: Repubblika ta' Malta), is a Southern European island country consisting of an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. It lies 80 km south of Italy, 284 km east of Tunisia, and 333 km north of Libya. The country covers just over 316 km2, with a population of just under 450,000 (despite an extensive emigration programme since the Second World War), making it one of the world’s smallest and most densely populated countries.

Malta has two official languages: Maltese and English. Malta’s location has historically given it great strategic importance as a naval base, and a succession of powers, including the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Moors, Normans, Sicilians, Spanish, Knights of St. John, French and British, have ruled the islands.

Valletta is the capital city of Malta, colloquially known as Il-Belt (“The City”) in Maltese. Geographically, it is located in the South Eastern Region, in the central-eastern portion of the main island of Malta having its western coast with access to the Marsamxett Harbour and its eastern coast in the Grand Harbour.

The historical city has a population of 6,444 as of March 2014, while the metropolitan area around it has a population of 393,938. Valletta is the southernmost capital of Europe and the second southernmost capital of the European Union after Nicosia. Valletta contains buildings from the 16th century onwards, built during the rule of the Order of St. John also known as Knights Hospitaller. The city is essentially Baroque in character, with elements of Mannerist, Neo-Classical and Modern architecture in selected areas, though the Second World War left major scars on the city, particularly the destruction of the Royal Opera House. The City of Valletta was officially recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1980.

The official name given by the Order of Saint John was Humilissima Civitas Valletta—The Most Humble City of Valletta, or Città Umilissima in Italian. The city's fortifications, consisting of bastions, curtains and cavaliers, along with the beauty of its Baroque palaces, gardens and churches, led the ruling houses of Europe to give the city its nickname Superbissima—Most Proud.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

DESKTOP 2160 - BENCHES

A superimposition of three different images of the same location, with the one bench acquiring a phantom twin, materialising from some other dimension perhaps?

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,
and also part of the Seasons meme,

and also part of the Blue Monday meme.