Macro Monday.
Author: eklastic
Zu alt, um nur zu spielen. Zu jung, um ohne Wunsch zu sein.
How much is that vroom-vroom in the window?
Linked to Brian’s Last on the Card Challenge for February 2021.
Bahraini Collage
I know Aino has asked for a colour collage based on the flag of Qatar. But when I saw it I immediately thought of the flag of Bahrain. It is basically the same except the shade of red is a tad lighter than the one from Qatar. When we lived in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia, we were a bare 20 kilometres (and a causeway and a border on an artificial island) away from Bahrain. In those days my photos were analog, of course, but I made collages in the photo albums and I thought I share one such page today.
I think I can get away with it but I’ll add another collage with details from Bahrain and colours from Oman.
Linked to Värikollaasit #273.
Not in My Backyard
We all need power. Hence there are power stations. This particular one – a bare 40km as the crow flies from where I live – is a nuclear one. It’s more than half an hour’s drive away, on clear days it kind of looms on the horizon but I had given it little thought until the earthquake and tsunami and consequent radiation at Fukushima happened.
The Ragtag Daily Prompt: Yard.
For a more traditional understanding of the word yard, you can also look at my One Word Sunday contribution from today. It is, however, just as ugly (if not as dangerous).
Grey Gardening
For years a growing trend in front yards has been to do away with most of the soil and just leave a few plants as focal points. It appears tidy, means a lot less work for the gardener, and looks terrible. I guess the house owners in the above picture thought so too so they started dotting plant pots around to make it a bit greener.
This garden architecture has come under severe criticism in the last few years not just for aesthetic reasons but because it is an ecological disaster for insects and other small creatures. As a results some communities have started to fine these “gardens of death” as they have come to be called, others have started incentive schemes to encourage people to revert their yards into green oases amongst grey streets and buildings.
This home owner in our neighbourhood is obviously not amongst the converted yet. He has taken the concept a step further and dotted his pebble desert not with plants but with rocks and metal ornaments. So much so that I looked around for a sign, thinking that maybe they were selling them. Some are actually not ugly taken by themselves, and could be a feature in a green garden but in this abundance they are just ugly as hell.
One Word Sunday: Ugly.
African sky
Within a week we went from sub zero temperatures and snowy landscapes to springy 20° C with people walking around in t-shirts and shorts. But with this surge in temperature came another phenomenon which can be observed particularly during sunrise and sunset. Gone is the pink and orange glow instead the sky turns a dusky yellow.
The photos are not photoshopped (except for a little cropping). The last one is a close-up of the sun just before it dips behind the hills of the Palatium.
The reasons for these conditions is wind bringing sand from the Sahara to Europe. Dust from 3000 – 5000 km away is in the air and settling (thus, by the way, enriching our soil and has been doing so for hundreds of thousands years – thank you Afrika!). Here is a link to NASA showing this from high above: NASA.
Weekend Sky #18.
I bet it will rip bad.
Sandy asked for something different for the Friendly Friday Challenge she runs together with Amanda. I thought I share something which I’ve just started: making words and sentences out of street signs. The idea is a derivative from a scavenger hunt organised by a group of friends. I haven’t got many signs yet and I am not 100% happy yet about how to display and highlight the words but in the end – I bet it will rip bad.
The Friendly Friday Challenge: Something Different.
It’s not the Fox and Hound
In Germany “The Lamb” (often with the addition “golden” or “white”) is a traditional name for inns.
The two examples are “Hotel Das Lamm” in Handschuhsheim and “Gasthaus zum weißen Lamm” in Heiligkreuzsteinach.
The Ragtag Daily Prompt: Lamb.
pictures imperfect blog 