Weekly Photo Challenge: Community (I)

A community or flamboyance of American Flamingoes at the Toronto Zoo, doing the one-legged tree pose on a hot summer day in July 2008. No amount of time on the Wii Balance Board would make it possible for me to achieve such Zen, and I’m particularly envious of those who can do it, and bury their heads backwards into their wings, too. Although having learned that it is done for homeostatic reasons, I’m wondering if they realize that they are under a blazing midday sun.

Flamingoes are pink because of their diet. I wonder if that would work for humans. I’ve always been amenable to the colour purple.

Daily Prompt: Necessity is the Mother of Invention

photo credit: BazzaDaRambler via flickr CC-BY-4.0

Pollution in the sky, ocean, and earth is prevalent. We breathe, eat and drink it in some many ways. Humans leave huge carbon footprints even when we make something that we consider “simple.” Just how many gallons of water is used in the production process of a single t-shirt (never mind a car)? Read this article to find out.

But there are even more causes: the simple and thoughtless act of littering, even in countries that we consider developed and first world, causes pollution in our oceans. 

Daily Prompt: Practice Makes Perfect?

photo credit: bartmaguire via flickr CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

What does Farm Washing Tuna have in common with Fun With Anagrams? They have the same letters, but re-arranged, and that is a talent I’d love to have: to be able to create anagrams on the fly. As a form of wordplay, anagrams are like the cousins third time removed of spoonerisms (another cool, and sometimes unintentional ability; to wit Dorothy Parker, “I’d rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy”), and ranks right up with my fascination with Chicktionary, Text Twist, and kangaroo words (Scrabble, less so). Anagrams intrigue me. 

Clivia Miniata in Bloom

Up close and personal with a blooming Clivia lily. It’s pretty, but the roots contain poisonous alkaloids. I’ve read that the flowers need to be pollinated, but as we’ve always kept these as houseplants, exactly who or what pollinates it is a bit of a mystery–it ain’t bees!

This is the mother Clivia plant from which countless children have budded off. They are long-lived plants, and this one may be 20 years old.