Staying on a wildlife theme, I am a regular reader of the Guardian which appears in my letter box Monday to Saturday. Having the Guardian there each morning is one of the ways in which I judge that the world is a) civilised and b) in reasonable shape. On the few occasions that the paper is late or has gone astray (e.g. new paper boy/girl), I know for a fact that the world is not right. One excellent feature of the Guardian is its Country Diary which features observations by a range of writers across the UK. This week’s entry by Paul Evans struck me as very poetic in its descriptions of bees at Wenlock Edge. Evans refers to the bees as “bombastic majesties” and writes ” The carder bumblebee hovered at the mouths of flowering currants with the precision of a docking satellite, a furry ginger blur against carmine pink flowers”. The phrase “a docking satellite” is startling and the rest of the article gives the reader an excellent feel for the environment, as well as the writer’s enthusiasm for his topic.

Recently, a good friend introduced me to Libribvox. The website states that “LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and release the audio files back onto the net”. You can listen to audi0books, short stories or plays on your laptop or you can download books or plays. I have been listening to Hedda Gabler while riding my bike. One of the added value aspects of Librivox plays is that you get the stage directions as well as the voices of the characters in the plays e.g. it tells you that Hedda Gabler has just entered the room or that Hedda Gabler looks aghast. A great new resource for travellers, walkers, bike riders – and everyone else.

Eider cascade by Tim Wootton

Winter sun by Tim Wootton

I’ve seen geckos in many parts of the world and I love watching them. Photo 2 shows a larger gecko on a limestone wall in Cyprus. Geckos have ability to cling on to rock surfaces and you often see them soaking up the sun on the rocks. They are fairly tame creatures and will willing sit and pose for your camera shots, ony daring into crevices if you get too near. You can also spot geckos in rocks as they often leave their tails sticking out of the crevice. They dart about very quickly and have great acceleration for their size.

In my garden recently, a dozen double headed tulips appeared. I had forgotten that I had planted them in the autumn, so this was a pleasant surprise. What is fascinating about these flowers is that they change colour, being brighter and predominantly white, with pink lines, during the day when the sun is out. However, when the sun goes down or it’s dull, they become more predominantly pink. Photos 3 and 4 show a close up and a group of these charming flowers. It is thought that tulips – so often associated with Holland – originated in Turkey, thus giving a nice symmetry to this posting.

North Nicosia

Gecko

Double headed tulip

Double headed tulips

Sleeping in Uranquinty

This was taken in Uranquinty, 10K from Wagga Wagga (pronounced Wogga Wogga). This man was travelling to a job in Victoria and having a sleep after a long drive.

The main purpose of our visit was to attend a Greek Cypriot wedding party in Nicosia. Our friends’ daughter Fiona married Costa and the were married in Scotland on the previous Sunday. The Scottish wedding’s meal was followed by speeches from the bride’s father, the groom and the best man, another Costa. the best man stole the show as at the end of his speech, he asked the bride and groom to look into each other’s eyes. He then said that he had been studying statistics of marriage. to the newly wedded couple he said “You are now looking at the person (pause) most likely to murder you!”. In the evening , there was traditional Scottish dancing including Strip the Willow. The Cypriot wedding party had an excellent meal but no speeches, but it did involve us in traditional Greek dances such as the Syrtos. This was danced properly by a group of guests but then everyone else was invited to join in. (Photos 3 and 4). It was a great evening and an introduction to a different culture. More on Nicosia in the next posting.

Coral Bay Cyprus

Tomb of the Kings Cyprus

Greek dancing – proper version

Greek dancing – others invited

Building work in Venice

This photo shows building workers in Venice – no roads here, so materials are loaded from the boat.

Lifting seaweed in Coral Bay, Cyprus

This photo shows 3 young men manually lifting piles of seaweed on the beach at Coral Bay, near Paphos in Cyprus.

Out on my bike yesterday, for a 27 mile (44K) ride and a fairly hilly route after the first 5 miles, to Cockburnspath (pronounced Coburnspath or Co’path), up the Abbey St Bathans road, up the hill to Oldhamstocks, then another hill as you leave the hamlet, on to Innerwick and then up a big hill to The Brunt farm, then (thankfully) down Starvation Brae (Photo 4) and back home against a cold east wind. On the bike, I was listening to, amongst others, Ben Waters’ Boogie 4 Stu. Waters is a fabulous piano player in the boogie woogie style and he features heavily on the alblum. There are also tracks featuring Mick Jagger singing Bob Dylan’s Watching the river flow and the final track is Ian Stewart (to whom the album is a tribute) sings a great version of Bring it on home.

On Tuesday, my pal Roger and I had our monthly meet up and we’ve been trying out food and beer in a range of pubs in Edinburgh. We started in Teuchters for lunch and some excellent Timothy Taylor Landlord beer. Across the road is Bert’s Bar where we had the tasty April Theses. This bar has several exhibits relating to the law on the walls, as well as account books from the pub dating back to the 1940s, so it’s an unusual bar and well worth a visit, although I’d avoid days when there are rugby internationals in Edinburgh.

Craning day in Dunbar harbour

The yacht is strapped up and ready to lift.

Craning day in Dunbar harbour

Swinging the yacht over the harbourside

Craning day in Dunbar harbour

Lowering the yacht into the water

Looking down Starvation Brae

I took some photos of tulips which my wife bought last week – see photos 1 and 2 – and today, in my poetry calendar, there is a poem by Grace Schulman entitled Celebration and it contains the phrase “.. tulips, white cups inscribed by licks of flame”. I’ve said before on this blog that I have a penchant for close up photography and that these close-ups often show an abstract image. The insides of the tulips can appear to be something completely different from what they are e.g. in photo 2, what does the 3 pronged white feature remind you of? An animal’s skull, perhaps? And the weird pollen topped structures – skyscrapers? There are certainly “licks of flame” in the first photo.

I’m reading Don Dellilo’s 1980s novel The Names which is set in Greece, in and near Athens. It features American ex-pats working in Greece and in the Middle East and is often a reflection of how Americans view other countries and how these countries see the USA. Although published in the 1980s, it still feels very relevant today. At the end of one chapter, De Lillo writes about Athens as a city which brings in people from elsewhere in the world and these people have different backgrounds e.g. escaping terror, seeking a better standard of life or gaining employment in the city. Athens absorbs these people and their histories and is “A compass rose of memory”. On reading this, I had to look up the words compass rose, as it was new to me. Was it a type of rose and an analogy to the multipetalled flower reflecting the backgrounds of Athens’ citizens, for example. I was wrong. A compass rose is a compass designed in the shape of a rose and dates back to the 13th century. You live and learn as you make your way on the road ahead of you.

Tulips with bursting centre

Tulip with intriguing centre

I’ve just finished reading Alan Furst’s Spies of the Balkans which is set mainly in Salonika in Greece during the 2nd World War. I’m not usually keen on spy novels e.g. would never read Le Carre or writers of that ilk but this novel (picked up in a local charity shop) was very well written and maybe more of a crime thriller in my eyes. Alan Furst is a very well reviewed author e.g. “Complex,, intelligent and highly intriguing – Alan Furst is in a class of his own” wrote William Boyd, a writer I much admire. The Furst book has an excellent plot, a complex hero in Costa Zannis, atmospheric description of Greece in WW2, passion and humour. I must try another one sometime.

Out for a walk along the shore at my back door and on towards Dunbar Golf Club where there is a path along the course. I put my Tamron AF70-300mm lens on my Canon 1000D camera. Now, I give you these details just in case you are a much more technically aware photographer than I am. I am a very keen photographer and yes, one day I will read all the instructions,and I’m sure that it would improve my technique. So maybe soon – no breath should be held regarding this happening. I must use this zoom lens more often as I got some good photos of both turnstones (photos 3 and 4) and a curlew (photo 5). I’m just getting into bird photography and it’s fine when you have cooperative species like the turnstones or the kittiwakes which nest on Dunbar Castle. Curlews, like many other species, are very wary and fly off at the first sign of an amateur camera approaching. I often watch the turnstones through my scope in my house. They are energetic little birds which are very well camouflaged as the scuttle around the rocks and seaweed. They dip their beaks and lift up the seaweed to find food, and it’s entertaining to watch them.

Courtesy of Sonas MacLean

Courtesy of Sonas MacLean

Turnstone

Turnstones

Curlew