Lavender Fields of Kent

Lavender fields in Kent

This photograph was taken on a trip to a lavender festival in Kent. Yes, you heard me correctly. A festival of lavender. Definitely one of the more obscure annual jamborees I've attaneded, and I speak as one who's been to the Ely Eel Festival not just once but twice.

The lavender festival offered all kind of purple-flowered fun. There were a wide selection of lavender-based foods to try, including (but not limited to) jams, pickles, ice cream, cakes, cheeses and sausages. Some were definitely leaning to the "weird" rather than the "delicious" end of the food spectrum, but as Heston Blumenthal would (probably) tell you, no-one ever got anywhere by keeping herbaceous plants out of the jampot.

Outside of the kitchen, there were other lavender-themed delights on offer as well, like soaps, perfumes, little pillows stuffed with lavender, massage oil and more. But the best part was the fields and fields of lavender plants, which were absolutely gorgeous, smelled amazing and were crammed with bees. You should know by now that I love taking photographs of bees anyway, but I have to say I think they look best against a purple background. possibly because I think everything looks best against a purple background. I love purple.

Living the Dream

This photo makes me laugh and cry in equal measure. Cry, because it's just a bit too darn unclear and if I'd only been standing about a foot further forward in the crowd it would have been a really awesome picture because you'd be able to see the guy's face properly instead of just a weirdly bright nose and mouth. In case you can't tell, it's a guy sitting on his friend's shoulders at a concert, facing into the stage lighting and getting overexcited. Laugh, because the band in question were S Club 3, the last survivors of S Club 7, who were actually surprisingly good, considering. Bradley, Paul and Jo brought the house down with their renditions of such classic songs as "Reach (For the Stars)" and "Bring It All Back", to an ecstatic audience of twentysomethings. Paul may now looks like a chubby builder straight off the site, but their enduring appeal would seem to live on.

The Mermaid Inn

The Mermaid Inn

After my gap year travels were over, I went with my family on a summer holiday to Wittersham, in Kent. This is a photograph I took in Rye, another nearby town of the Mermaid Inn pub (see the silhouette of its sign?). I can't remember if we even went in the pub, but I do recall darting back to take a picture as the sun was setting and my family were heading off up the road.

Sunset on the Lake

Sunset over Lake Garda

Another old picture, this time from a family holiday to the town of Bardolino by Lake Garda in Italy. It's a really lovely area and a great spot for a holiday - this fact was reinforced when I went to uni and the subject came up in conversation one night, it turned out that of the four people in the room, three of us had been holiday to the exact same town!

Most curious moment of the holiday: going for an evening walk by the lakeside we came across a concert being held by an Italian Pink Floyd tribute band, in aid of the orphans of the Chernobyl crisis. It also featured one of the orphans rapping in Ukrainian. The ceremonies were conducted in both Italian and German, and I was just about able to get the gist of what was going on and explain to my family. Never have I felt so proud of my dodgy grasp of the German language.

Island Paradise

Sunset over an island in Fiji

Another old photograph from my gap year travels, this time from Fiji. One of the most relaxed days we spent on our travels was on this Fijian island; we were taken out there one morning by boat and then got to spend the whole day on a little island, lounging on the beach, snorkelling with amazingly brightly-coloured fish (and I saw two cuttlefish! Probably sepia latimanus, the broadclub cuttlefish, which is very common on coral reefs) and even doing a spot of sea kayaking which proved rather more strenuous than we had anticipated.

Fiji is totally beautiful and you should go there. Although, take insane amounts of insect repellant because I was eaten alive by mosquitos and managed to snag a spider bite that made my foot swell up like a pufferfish into the bargain.

Queenstown, NZ

By Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown, New Zealand

And we're back to our regular every-other-day photography service! I've been kicking myself lately because there's been a few times when I've been out and about and seen opportunities for some really interesting photos...and I haven't had my camera with me. Fail! But along with a new resolution to try to carry a camera with me more often, that's also inspired me to dig out some old pictures from before I started this blog. This one, as with several upcoming photographs, was taken on my old camera which was nowhere like as good as my current one. For a fairly reasonably-priced non-DSLR camera, my current one is great, but my previous one was not as good - but it would be a shame to let all the nice pictures I've taken on it languish on my hard drive, so I'm posting them anyway.

This photograph was taken on my gap year, when I was staying at a youth hostel by the shore of Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown, on New Zealand's South Island. I was there in May/June 2007, right as the winter season was beginning. Queenstown's a big spot for adventure tourism; me and the friend I was travelling with wanted to go hang-gliding, but the weather wasn't good enough. But we did manage a trip to an ice bar, a cruise around the incredibly beautiful Milford Sound and a speed boat trip.

Oh, and a canyon swing, which was terrifying. I refused to go bungee jumping, because I can't think of anything worse that doesn't involve actual bodily dismemberment. But we wanted to do something adventurous, and as hang-gliding was off, we settled on the canyon swing as a good alternative. I thought I could probably cope better with falling off a cliff if I was at least the right way up.

What the hell is a canyon swing? I hear you cry. Well, in this case it's a platform 360ft (109m, if you're feeling metric) above the Shotover River. You stand on said platform, after being tied into a harness, and then you jump off it, freefalling for 60m and then the "swing" aspect kicks in and you're transformed into a giant pendulum swinging wildly back and forth above the river. If you're a complete mentalist - like my friend - you can mix it up by, say, tipping yourself backwards off the platform while tied to a plastic chair. If like me you're terrified of heights, you can just jump off, though I should warn you that a split second after doing so you will be genuinely convinced that you've just accidentally committed suicide.

Blue Morpho Butterfly



Peleides Blue Morpho Butterfly

This photograph makes me highly annoyed that my hands are so wobbly. I tried so many times to get this shot and this is sadly the best one I have, I still completely failed to centre it nicely and managed to chop the tip of the butterfly's wing right off. I need a tripod or something!

Anyway, even if it's far from perfect, I just love the colours in this picture. Blue Morpho butterflies are completely stunning anyway. I hadn't realised that there are actually three species of butterfly which are commonly referred to as the "blue morpho" - morpho rhetenor, morpho menelaus, and morpho peleides. This one is a peleides blue morpho, also known as the Common Morpho, also known as The Emperor. Of course, controversy is rife in lepidopteric circles and some believe that morpho peleides is merely a subspecies of morpho helenor.

The Common Morpho is found in Central and South America, and the amazing blue colour in its wings is created by the diffraction of light from tiny scales which cover its wings. The underside of the wings is brown and much less exciting, so when it folds up and settles on a tree trunk, it's highly camouflaged.

Alice The Camel

A Bactrian Camel at London Zoo

This is a photo of a Bactrian camel, and a very handsome one too, even if he does have straw all over his face. Bactrian camels are super fluffy and have two humps, while dromedary camels are less fluffy and only have one. Strangely, although there are over two million Bactrian camels alive today, they are listed as critically endangered because most of these camels are domesticated, and only about 800 still live in the wilds of China and Mongolia.

Hay There

It's a photograph of a giraffe eating hay. Hurrah! The giraffes at London Zoo were a little sad when we saw them, because they weren't able to go outside as the ground was just covered in ice. I've never seen a giraffe slip over, but I imagine it's not something to be desired.

Simba...

Asian lion cub at London Zoo

One of the main reasons I wanted to go to London Zoo was to see the baby Asian lions they have at the minute. They were born in October 2011 so they're growing up fast but they are ludicrously cute. When we got to the lion house, it was late afternoon and they were snuggled up in a big pile of fur with their mum in a patch of sunshine, right up against one of the viewing windows in their enclosure.

Asian lions are super endangered. Although they used to have a range that continued as far west as Greece and Italy, these days they are only found in the wild in the Gir forest of Gujarat, India; a census of the lion population in 2011 indicated that there were about 411 Asiatic lions in the world, up from a total of 234 in 1936 when the first ever census was taken. They are threatened by habitat destruction, and are killed by electric fences and open wells.

Flutter By

Butterfly in London Zoo's Butterfly Paradise

It's a butterfly! And a very pretty one too. I like going in butterfly houses and admiring the pretties (and also, they're really warm and cosy, which is nice when there's snow on the ground outside). Admittedly I am less keen when they flap in my face, but as long as they're hanging off leaves looking pretty/eating rotten fruit, I'm happy.

While we were in the butterfly house, my boyfriend told me that some butterflies drink blood. Thinking he had gone briefly mad, I laughed and said he was confusing them with bats. But no! I was entirely wrong. It was there in black-and-white on one of the signs in the exibit. I googled it, and found this picture of butterflies drinking blood from a sock. Yes, you heard me. A sock. If you didn't know already, it turns out that butterflies are one of the sock's few natural predators. Also, here is a National Geographic article about vampire moths. Apparently in Slavic folklore, vampires were able to take the form of butterflies.

This whole discovery has rather changed the way I view these insects. I used to think they were nice decorative creatures to have around the place, sort of like nature's bunting. Now I know they are opportunistic greedy blood-sucking horrors. The butterfly house will never be the same again.

Tell Me A Tail

Squirrel Monkeys at London Zoo

And... we're back to the squirrel monkeys. Because they're oh so adorable. I took a frankly worrying number of photos in their enclosure, and I don't regret it for a moment. Although the foolish lady who tried to prod one and got a nip on the finger for her trouble may do. Seriously, there are signs everywhere that say "Don't touch the monkeys. The monkeys will bite you. Just don't touch them. They bite. No really, they do. LOOK AT THIS PICTURE OF A BLEEDING HAND-STUMP. THAT IS WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF YOU TOUCH A MONKEY".

And what did she do? Tried to touch a monkey. Oi vey.

High Speed Sloth

Linnaeus's Two-toed Sloth

It's a Linnaeus's two-toed sloth! The silly thing about two-toed sloths is that they have three toes. They have two fingers. You'd really think biologists would know the difference. It's like the sperm whale all over again, except somewhat less gross.

Sloths are amazing because they're the only living mammal that looks more realistic in CGI than in real life. The way they move is so laboured, it's like every moment they're wondering if they really want to get to where they're going at all. That or they're stop-motion animated.

It's not a particularly exciting photograph, and it wasn't helped by the fact that the rainforest building's accurate recreation of a rainforest environment steamed up both my glasses and my camera. But who cares. Sloths are cool.

Mineral or Vegetable?

Brief break from my zoo pictures with a quick return to the snowy days of February. Fret not: more animals coming soon!

Peck

Juvenile penguin at London Zoo's Penguin Beach

Another photograph of the very fine juvenile penguin I mentioned in this previous post. I'm not sure quite what he hoped to achieve by pecking this rock, but penguins are not known for their intellectual capacity so I guess we'll just have to cut him some slack and hope he learns to distinguish rocks from fish sometime soon.

Furball

Photograph of a prarie dog at London Zoo

This prarie dog was a tricky character; (s)he kept doing entirely adorable poses in parts of the enclosure that I couldn't get on camera. Outrageous!
And the keeper was most rude when I complained about it. Really, you'd think they'd train the animals to be more photogenic.

FUN FACTS ABOUT PRARIE DOGS:

1. Prarie dogs are rodents, not dogs, as I was surprised to learn aged eleven, having assumed they were America's equivalent of the dingo.*

2. According to Professor Con Slobodchikoff, prarie dogs may have the most sophisticated language of any animal, able to communicate the news of predators approaching as well as describing the colour, type of predator, and the direction it's coming from.

3. Prarie dogs are social creatures and are very affectionate, greeting one another with a prarie dog kiss.

4. Black-tailed prarie dogs live in large communities known as "towns". The largest known prarie dog town covered 25,00 square miles in Texas and was home to perhaps as many as four hundred million prarie dogs.

Who knew?
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*Without the baby eating.

Diorama of Iguana

Green Iguana at London Zoo

A photo of a Green Iguana at London Zoo. Although this one is extremely and obviously green, apparently these iguanas come in a range of colours, from multicoloured to red. These iguanas are pretty awesome; they have an extra photosensory organ on the top of their heads which is known as the parietal eye. While it's nowhere as developed as their actual eyes, it can detect movement and changes in light and dark, thus helping the iguana to detect predators coming in from above - a useful feature in a tree climbing lizard. Their actual eyes are able to see into ultraviolet wavelengths, so the iguana is easily able to ensure it gets enough UV light to produce sufficient vitamin D.

It's admittedly not an amazing photograph, but it's darn tricky getting a good picture through a scratched glass tank!

Hey Hey We're The Monkeys

Two squirrel monkeys

And we're back to photos of squirrel monkeys! This photograph was taken, as you've already worked out, at London Zoo.

The most famous squirrel monkey of them all was of course Miss Baker, one of the first two animals who were launched into space in 1959 and survived, along with the rhesus monkey Miss Able. She went on to live for twenty five years afterwards, receiving copious amounts of fanmail from children who'd heard of her exploits, and when she died of kidney failure in 1984, over 300 people attended her funeral.

Who knew!

The Miscreant

Escaped Pelican at London Zoo

In my last post, I mentioned that when I visited the Penguin Beach at London Zoo there were two naughty Eastern White Pelicans who sneaked into the penguin enclosure; here's a picture of one of them. Apparently the pond that the pelicans usually live in had frozen over, so they were moved to temporary accomodation next to the penguins, from which they promptly escaped, climbed onto the roof of a shed by the penguin beach, and proceeded to jump over and flap across to the pool.

Various keepers were on hand to herd the mischevious pelicans back to their temporary home, and they were both recaptured fairly quickly! It was highly entertaining though, I must admit.

Funny Looking Penguin

Juvenile Penguin at London Zoo

This photograph is of what I can only describe as a funny looking penguin at London Zoo's Penguin Beach. Penguin Beach contains four species; the rockhopper penguin, blackfooted penguin, humboldt penguin and macaroni penguin. I've looked up  pictures of each of these species, and this penguin looks like none of them. (On the day I visited, Penguin Beach also contained two pelicans who had escaped from their own accomodation and jumped into the penguin pool, but clearly this is not a pelican either.)

So on balance, I suspect this photograph is of a juvenile humboldt or blackfooted penguin, but who knows which! It's tricky to judge before their adult feathers come in. Alas, I obviously make a poor ornithologist. Ho hum! He was an obligingly photogenic fellow, whatever he is, unlike all his friends who were waddling and splashing and zooming around the pool with no thought for the humans vainly trying to get a good shot of them.

Squirrel Monkey

Common Squirrel Monkey

As promised, another squirrel monkey photograph, taken on my recent trip to London Zoo. Whilst I took dozens of photos of the monkeys, it was admittedly tricky to get pictures of them that weren't crazily blurry. They don't like to sit still (probably because in the wild this might result in being eaten).

The Common Squirrel Monkey comes from the Amazon Basin in South America, and lives in the middle canopy of the rainforest. At first, when I saw the monkey in this photo carefully examining and later nibbling his tail I wondered what he was doing, but apparently squirrel monkeys have a habit of smearing food onto their tails, and may smear urine all over themselves as well. A charming habit! I suspect that advertising that particular fact in the squirrel monkey enclosure would actually be more effective at persuading people not to try to touch the monkeys than all the signs warning that they bite.

An interesting fact about squirrel monkeys relates to their colour vision; in these monkeys, one gene on the X chromosome codes for colour vision, and there are three versions of this gene, each of which produces a pigment sensitive to a different wavelength of light. Because male squirrel monkeys have only one X chromosome, they are dichromatic (i.e. any colour which they can see can be created using a mixture of just two pure spectral lights - similar to what we call colour blindness in humans); however, because female squirrel monkeys have two X chromosomes, about two-thirds of them have trichromatic vision like humans (i.e. a mixture of three pure spectral lights is required to create all the colours which they are able to see). Researchers have successfully used gene therapy to give adult male squirrel monkeys trichromatic colour vision.

Welcome to the Jungle

Squirrel monkey at London Zoo

It's a monkey!

This weekend I went to ZSL London Zoo with my boyfriend. We had been meaning to go for about a year, because last year for his birthday present I adopted a squirrel monkey for him from the zoo,* but obviously we had to wait until the coldest weekend in the year. Being a naturally chilly person (both in temperature and personality), I wore eight layers of clothing to ensure I wouldn't get too cold. I was so bundled up I couldn't lift my arms above shoulder-height. But it was worth it!

But anyway, we had an awesome day! It was the first day of half-term, so I had expected it would be pretty busy, but in fact it was fairly quiet - I think the cold kept people at home. It was really nice being able to walk around the zoo without being buffeted by hordes of people. We went to visit my boyfriend's adopted squirrel monkey, Bounty, who lives with his monkey clan in an awesome exhibit which you can walk through. It's highly entertaining to watch them all bouncing around the place, and consequently I have a whole lot of monkey photos which will probably take over this blog for some time! Prepare to learn more than you ever needed to know about squirrel monkeys...

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*Because I kept asking what he wanted for his birthday and he kept giving me silly answers like "a monkey". I am nothing if not literal :D

Snowy Gates

Not as wonky as my previous offering, happily! If you look closely you can see the nubbins of snowmen that appeared to have been decapitated by the time I got there.

Wonky Architecture in the Snow

There's a reason why I hardly ever post pictures of architecture or buildings or even landscapes on this blogs, and it's because I struggle like a small child to take pictures that are even vaguely level. The even sadder thing is that my camera actually does have a "grid" function that you can turn on, superimposing a grid onto the screen, and then you can line up the picture with the lines on the screen and not take photos that look like they've been captured by a seasick photographer on the high seas. Alas, I have only ever turned the grid function on by mistake, and I have no idea how to do it on purpose. Consequently I fear that my photographs will continue to be as ludicrously wonky as this one.

Another snowy architecture photo. I do like the colours in the photo, especially the weirdly green trees, covered in lichen. If only my hands weren't so ludicrously wobbly!

Dark Archway

If only it had been really sunny I think this could have been a good photo. We've had copious amounts of snow here for the past week, and as I missed the first day of snow, when it's all pristine as nice, due to being a hundred and fifty miles away, I was determined to catch up with the photographic opportunities as soon as possible. I went on a mad rampage of snowy photography on a very overcast day, and then today, when it is still snowy but also very sunny… I forgot to take my camera as I left the house. Facepalm! It's even more inexcusable because I got some nice pictures of snowy rooftops from my window this morning, after last night deposited another inch or so of fresh snow across the landscape. Ho hum!

I am going to the zoo at the weekend, so look out for some blurry pictures of exotic animals coming your way very soon...

Tangled Up In Blue

The latest controversy to strike the office at my place of work is the vexed issue of tea scum. One half of the office insists it's caused by leaving the teabag in too long; the other half have an unshakeable belief that scum will occur if you put the milk in last.

 I once had the formation of tea scum explained to me by a scientist friend, so when the debate got heated for the second time and my opinion was canvassed, I couldn't stop myself from pointing out that although I couldn't remember the scientific explanation, I knew that neither camp was right and that the scum could be reduced by introducing acidity to the tea in the form of a drop or two of lemon juice.

This was met with a stony silence and then my colleagues resumed the debate. But my curiosity was piqued again and so I had to Google it. Turns out that tea scum was unexplained by science until the 1990s when research was conducted into the question that concluded that the calcium carbonate found in hard water is what allows scum to form in tea through oxidation at the tea's surface, and that scum can be eliminated either by using soft water or by introducing acid to the mix, for example with a drop or two of lemon juice.

Who knew?

Wax & Wane

A photograph of a candle, in case you had difficulty working that out. Wikipedia, my trusty guide, tells me that while modern candles are usually made of paraffin, back in the day they could be made from beeswax, tallow, or even spermaceti extracted from the head of a sperm whale. Poor sperm whales. I was amused to note that their scientific name is physeter macrocephalus. I confess don't know what "physeter" means, but "macrocephalus" translates as "bloody big head".

I was also intrigued to discover that sperm whales have the largest mammalian brain both in proportion to its body size and mass, and is the only living creature that has a gullet large enough to swallow a human whole. The most famous sperm whale is obviously Moby Dick, but I have to admit that I wasn't a fan of the book. The only aspects of it that I really enjoyed were the ones in which Herman Melville got into the scientific aspects of whaling. There's nothing like the smug feeling of reading an author whose book you're not enjoying strenuously denying the existence of the blue whales we now know really do exist. Okay, so Melville was a Victorian living in the pre-Attenborough age, but that's not the point.

On the Hedge Of Glory

Regular service is resumed! I apologise profusely for the break, I hadn't realised it was almost a week since my last post. That is most disgraceful of me. I need to head outside in the sunshine again and get snapping some new wintery pictures! Although the only real hint that this photo of a hedge was taken in the depths of January is the profusion of brown twiglet leaves (this is a technical botanical term).

Hedges do not normally strike me as something particularly photo-worthy, I have to admit, but sometimes you just have to strike out in a fresh direction and risk looking like a hedge-obsessed madwoman. For the sake of art!

Jolly Jack Tar

A close-up photograph of some tar or similar crud on a telephone pole near my house. Hurrah for that!

Filaments and Fronds

I believe this is a picture of some Old Man's Beard a.k.a.clematis vitalba although I'm not actually sure. But the delicate little fronds and filaments make an interesting picture when they shine in the light of a setting sun.

Little Bit of Lichen

A photograph of a rather lichen-covered bit of wood (in fact, it's the top of the same wooden post in the same stile as a previous photograph). I like the texture and the colours - really I have to admit I'm all about colours when it comes to photography. Some monochrome photography does appeal, but on the whole I'm definitely drawn to pictures where the colours are particularly intense, or unusual, or contrasting.

Dew on the Grass

A photograph of dew droplets on grass stalks underfoot. I almost trod on this particular one before noticing that it was unusually dewy and deciding to take a picture. This is the reason I'm always late everywhere.

The colours of the grass in the photograph are so lush and vibrant, and I like the contrast of the greens and browns. Even in winter, good sunlight can really bring out the colours of nature.

And on the subject of dew-based photography, much though it pains me to link to a Daily Mail article, I just had to post a link to these incredible pictures of insects covered in dew droplets that look like diamonds.

I really wanted to post this link as well, to a photographyblogger article called "20 Spectacular Dew On Grass Pictures". Obviously, if you look at the link you will be struck by the hideous contrast between these amazing photos of dew and my poor offering, but I liked some of the pictures so much that I just can't force myself not to post it. I love this photo by Tico, in which all the dewdrops reflect the greenery around them, and this photo by ecstaticist - the huge glimmering globules of dew remind me of a pair of frog's eyes.

Sunlit Holly

I like this picture because of the way the edges of the holly leaf seem to glow in the sunlight. Also, it reminds me of Christmas. Ah, if only I had two weeks off work to sit around eating delicious starchy foods more often. Once a year just isn't enough.

Natural Decor

Out for a wander one day, I came across this plant, which had twined itself around a rather hideous chain link fence and then sprouted some nice red berries, greatly improving the look of the thing. It was rather as though nature had decided to put up its own Christmas decorations, albeit rather late.

Tree Trunk

Oh, how I wish this was in better focus! It was just a bit too dark for the camera to cope well with it, but the colour of the wood was what I wanted to capture and using the flash just deadened it completely. So it remains, a teeny bit too blurry to be good, but still alright, I guess. This was a particularly cool piece of fallen wood, anyhow, and the red ferns and blue-green lichen are an interesting contrast. I guess I shall just have to return to the tree trunk on a sunnier day.

Winter Berries

Lovely red winter berries on a sunny (yet extremely cold) day. It's enough to make you want to cook some kind of delicious red berry strudel.

Except I didn't know whether or not they were poisonous.

Wood Grain

I like the texture of old, weathered wood; it's always interesting. This is a shot of a wooden stile post on the way to a nearby pub.

The Moon in the Afternoon

A picture of the moon in the afternoon: does what it says on the tin. I was actually impressed that my camera was good enough to take more than a blurry picture of the moon really - you can see the seas and everything. If only it had been a full moon, my day would have been made!

Metal Implant

I have no idea what this random yet very specifically shaped piece of metal was doing on the top of a wooden post near my house, but I rather liked the colours it's made as it gently rusts away. It's hard to find nice flowers to photograph in the winter, but I guess that doesn't mean there's nothing at all of interest around and about.

White Bobble

Some kind of cool white berry type thing that I discovered on a recent walk in the wintertime. The wind was blowing like the blazes while I was trying to take this damn picture, but I got there in the end. If only I knew what kind of plant it was, I would share said information!

Incidentally, this is my one hundredth post on this blog! That is quite a few. How exciting :D

The World In A Drop of Water

This is a teeny version of the whole picture, alas. It's a shame the whole thing is so blurry but I was rather proud of managing to get the focus on the reflection of the plants in the droplet of dew, even if I couldn't actually keep my hands still while doing so.

Tidings of Comfort and Joy

Another angel! This time, the silhouette of one of the angels on a cute little candle decoration we have; my mother bought it in Germany. You light the candle and the heat rising from it sends several little angels spinning around above it. No doubt further pictures will follow because it cries out for photography (at the same time as it sets something of a challenge....)

P.S. Happy New Year! Hurrah for my first post of 2012. I think this is a suitably chirpy start to the year.