Zarya, Zvezda, etc ...

So ... "What on Earth are Zarya and Zvezda?" you ask? Well - actually they are NOT on Earth! They are 2 modules of the International Space Station (ISS) that is orbiting around the Earth ;-)

Zarya was the first module launched, then Unity, then Zvezda (If you are interested, there is more info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zarya ... and from there you can follow the links to Zvezda and other stuff ) This website - http://www.zarya.info/ - has some interesting info on the use/history of the name Zarya (it was initially the call sign of mission control for the flight when Yuri Gargarin orbited the Earth ;-)

Zvezda means "Star" ... which is about how bright the ISS now looks when you watch it fly over!
Zarya means Sunrise/Dawn ... symbolising the dawn of a new age of space exploration or something ... and I guess there are definitely some exciting things happening at the moment (like the failed Phobos-Grunt in a decaying orbit and due re-enter the Earth's atmospehre at some random time in approximately 2 days time, and the MSL mission (Curiosity rover) due to land on Mars this August ... I hope they have another CSIROTweetup for that, and if they do - I hope I can sneak off from work to go to it!)

Talking about Dawn ... that is when I went to bed "last night" - LOL  but - there is one advantage in having been still up at that stupid hour of the morning - I got to go outside and see the ISS fly overhead at 4:12am ;-)
(it has also been visible here in the evenings this week - but either I forget to look until too late, or it is too cloudy ... sigh)

To find out when you can look up and see the ISS fly over, one can just search on Google/etc for ISS sightings or something ... or go to http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/ or http://www.heavens-above.com/
If you are into Twitter - you can also follow @twisst to get sent alerts when it is due to be visible flying overhead ;-)
And if you have an iPhone or an Android phone ... there is at least one App that tracks satellites/etc and tells you where to look in the sky (the app I have on my phone tracks lots of stuff, including ISS, and the doomed and soon to re-enter Phobos-Grunt)

I did take a photo of the ISS with my phone - but it just looks like a tiny white dot on a black background - not worth uploading here ;-)
I don't have any recent/new photos of a Sunrise either, but I did take a photo of this Sunset over the house as we drove off to have tea at a pizza place with a name starting with Z, a couple of days ago.  lol


[the next day] ... seeing this was meant to be my Z post for ABC Wednesday, I probably should have uploaded the photo and posted this yesterday (seeing it was already late then, and is now even later) ... but I kind of never got that far ... sigh ... but I might have a couple more Sunset photos now ;-)  I took some on my phone when I was walking the dog this evening ... and then the dog and I got home just as the ISS was flying overhead ... not directly overhead, and some thin cloud - so not bright enough for any decent photos (besides - I would probably need to set up the camera on a tripod to get any photos that actually looked like anything other than a white dot in a black background - lol)


Anyway ... Here is the Sunset over the house the other day:

 yes - it really was that colour!

And here are the other Sunset/etc photos I took, with my phone, while waking the dog this evening:
(I took some with my camera too, but they are not on the computer yet)

pink sky and hills

this is what normally happens when trying to take photos of the dog, or the cat:
photo of said animal at least part way OUT of the photo!

orange Sunset

closer up (taken just after other one)

a few minutes later (from a slightly different place)

Sunset reflected in the pond

more Sunset reflections in the pond

Diesel, wishing I would let him jump in the pond  and chase the swan that has come over  - probably to see  if we have any food ;-)

Just for fun - the same photo after I played with it in GIMP (a very useful bit of  photo editing software that can is free to download from the www) I was going to make it a bit lighter because the original (above) is rather dark ... but it didn't look any good when I made it lighter (all the colours became distracting and ruined the effect - the darkness is part of what makes it a photo I like - kind of moody looking, or something ;-) but I quite like the effect in this one too.

While I was playing with photos in GIMP ... I decided to play with the lightness and contrast of another photo I took this evening - I was trying to take one of the ISS as if flew over (using my phone ;-) but it was way too dark and the photo just turned out black, with no sign of the ISS or even the stars in the sky ... but when I upped the contrast as far as it would go, and same with the brightness, but one number less - I got this rather interesting "noise" effect, which I quite like - it kind of looks like an abstract art quilt or something ;-)

oh ... one more Z thing I just have to mention seeing this is meant to be a post for the letter Z ... something that someone Tweeted reminded me ... a piece of music that I love, partly because it was used as the theme song in the film "2001 A Space Oddesy" but also because I like it anyway - is a rather dramatic piece called "Also Spake Zarathustra" ... LOL
Oddly enough ... I just looked it up (at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Also_sprach_Zarathustra_(Strauss) ) and it says that the initial fanfare - the bit that was used in the film - is called "Sunrise" - which ties in nicely with where this post started - the name that I already knew, that gave me the idea for this blog post - Zarya, which means "Sunrise" ;-)

(so now that I have gone full circle, maybe it is time I hit the "post" button before I bore you all so much that you turn into Zombies? ;-)

"Purple Mountain's Majesty"? - Looks Like Lavender To Me

I guess there is more to making something look majestic than just telling the browser to display it in a particular hexadecimal colour code - LOL
Ok - so what am I waffling on about this time?! - I found a link to Project 64 on someone else's ABC Wednesday post, and that looked fun too, so I posted something for that a week or 2 ago, then forgot about it until I went looking at my blog to see what photos I posted recently so I would not post the same ones again for my ABC Wednesday letter "R" post (which I was doing, but the photo uploading seems to have decided to work for a while then have a really big go slow) so I decided to see what colour Project 64 was after for this week, and noticed that if I get in quick enough (and the photo uploading actually works) I can post a photo or 3 of my Lavender bush for "Purple Mountains Majesty" which is this colour of Crayola crayon, #9D81BA, according to the colour lovers website ... (yes - working our way through the colours of Crayola's box of 64 crayons sounds like a weird idea for a meme - but I think it is a good one - LOL)
I also think it is a bit pale to keep typing in that colour (if it is too pale against my background colour and you can't read that bit - highlight it with the mouse and you should be able to read what it says - lol)

Actually ... when I went hunting in my photos, I found a whole pile of purple ones that are the right colour - but I posted most of them in my ABC Wendesday letter "P" post - here ;-)

These 2 were not in there though:

Diesel the dog next to the rather bushy lavender bush ... which I am sure I have a better photo of - have taken lots of close ups with bees and stuff, and I am sure I was looking at one I took of a butterfly on a flower, that is the right colour for this, just today ... but do you think I can find it now?!

I must like laveder bush colours - lavender/purple and grayish green - becuase I seen to und up using those colours in all sorts of odd things - including this experimenting with acrylic pains and hair gel that we did at the art quilt group I am part of (which I intend to post about on that blog sometime in the next week or 2)


Ok ... found the one I was looking for ;-)

a cabbage white butterfly on my lavender plant

and a photo of the whole plant, taken just after the butterfly one.

 But ... somehow I think this one I posted in that other blog post is the one I want to submit to the linky thingy for Project 64 ... who else is going to have a photo of a sky this colour?! ;-)

A rather weird coloured sky - and yes it really did look that colour - that is why I took the photo!!!



Perhaps I Should Post Something Interesting?

Actuallly I can Possibly think of a whole Pile of P things to Post (and ended up finding a Pile of Photos)  for a letter P Post for ABC Wednesday ... some of them are Probably not Particularly interesting to most, and a few could be downright Peculiar, but Perhaps most People will find at least some of them may, Perchance, Pique their interest ...

One thing I Particularly want to Put in here is this:
 I have a friend who has, over the last few years, Published some Particularly good/interesting blog Posts - about the People and Places she has been ... after enough people said to her "you should write a book" - she has done so! It is called "Pack and Follow" and she has Published it with one of those Print on demand type websites ... it can be found here - http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/2578726
(perhaps I should Produce a book and Publish it? ... not sure anyone would want to read it though - lol)

I Put a (small) pile of ideas in here before I went and did other things, then came back a few days later ... so I will leave them in whatever colour the text defaults to, and add the rest in this Peculiar Pink ...

Peas +/or Pies  er ... yes - I like Peas and/or Pies ... and yes the "and/or" does mean I like either one, or both together ... I could go a Pie floater about now ;-)

Puppy
Pussycat
I have lots of photos and stuff about those in this blog ... Probably have enough other Photos to add to this Post that I don't need any more ...

have a Party and invite my Pants down ... the pants I was wearing at the time were a bit short ... they were second hand, and had shrunk a bit more too ... original Plan was to add some Patchwork or something to the bottoms, but I never got there ...

Pumpkin beetles - Piles of the things!
Actually they were/are not Pumpkin beetles (that was what one person I knew called them once, but after some quick research on the www I noticed that is not what they are ... they are soldier beetles ... in fact if they are the Particular species I think they are - they are known as "Plague soldier beetles" ... which kind of does describe them:


bazillions of beetles flying in from who knows where ...

beetles being beetles? ... with a blurry Patch (Possibly a finger Print) on the lens ... oops ... I wiped it off after that Photo, but this one was still better than the others to show close up detail of what the beetles look like.

not so close up of the beetles in the tree - this is our "street tree" - they are planted in front of most of the houses in our street ... I am not sure what they are, but later in the year they grow big brown seed Pods ...

beetles in the tree in the dark - when I got back from walking the dog ;-)


While walking the dog I also found a few more of what I thought were the same beetles flying around ... caught one to get another photo - and noticed they are not the same at all ... these are Lycid beetles:


Lycid beetle on some grass



Lycid beetle on my hand

 

oops ... I was trying to take a photo just before/as it flew off ... but ended up with what I often get instead - an empty hand/finger where the beetle/other flying insect WAS ... lol
(btw - the blue thing is the dog's lead ... dog is a blurry blob in this photo - just above my "pinky" finger)

 .. another day, another Pretty (or is this one also Peculiar?) colour ... (half those beetle photos uploaded then stopped, by which time I was off doing other things, so now it is the next day)
For those who want more information on those beetles/want to know what website I used to work out what they Probably are - I went to this Page - http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_beetles/index.html - the Lycid beetles and soldier beetles are about half way down the page.
btw ... what have beetles got to do with the letter P? ... nothing really, except I had heard someone call one that looked a bit like these 2 (but may have been another species of orange and/or green/black beetle ;-) a Pumpkin beetle ... but those are something else, and there are lots of web Pages about them because they are a garden Pest. That, and the fact that most black and yellow/organge insects are either Poisonous to eat, have a Poison sting, or are Pretending to be one of those that are ...

now for the other P Pictures I was Planning to Post:
(and some that I wasn't, but found while digging around in my Photos ;-)

purple sky ... I took the photo because it really did look that colour ... but it wasn't until I had Put it here that I noticed it is almost a Pefect match for the Purple text!



Pink bits on the trunk of a gum tree (Eucalyptus sp.)

 

Pink bottle bush and Purple .. er .. hardenbergia I think.

 

Pink Person ... I made 2 of these - one to keep, and one for a swap ... the @ was because I spend a lot of time online, and is even more apt now that i am on Twitter ( @UTLAU if you want to find/follow me there ;-)  but I made this before Twitter was even invented ... lol

Pincushions ... made at the quilt retreat I went on recently ... I wasn't going to make the hat one, but I just happened to have a circular bit of green fabric that was exactly the right size we needed (had to fit over an old CD) the other one at the top was meant to be a cupcake, but I had brown and yellow fabric and decided to make mine a Christmas themed chocolate cupcake with custard icing (hmmm I must try baking something like that one day - it could taste good ... or not ... lol) the other one was meant to be made with a lot bigger hexagons ... but me being me - I used really small ones, because I did not want a huge pincushion!

 

Pink (and black) gloves ... garden gloves I got from Aldi ... but bought because I think they will be quite good to use when doing machine quilting (they actually sell "quilting gloves" similar to this, but those cost a lot more money)



I took this Photo at work ... they often use Plasticiene in high school science classes, and sometimes I find Peculiar things when (if) it comes back ... (this lot has a blue Pony and a Pink snail shape and a Person ... lol)


Of course, Procrastinating about Posting this meant I had more days to Photograph a few more P things:

Pink flowers, Photographed while walking the dog ...

bright Pink bottlebrush flowers.

Pink and white and green leaves ... quite Pretty ;-)

the dog looking Pretty in the late afternoon sunlight
(instead of clouds with siver linings - a Golden Retriever with a golden lining? lol)

pink grevillias

Pink flowers ... quite Pretty, but some of these look a bit Peculiar

Purple daisys

bright Pink roses

red hot Pokers

a wattle tree with a Profusion of Pinkish looking Pods (and Pinkish looking leaves)

more Pink/Purple daisys

Peculiar Pinkish clouds

a Plot ... Part of a study of grass species or something ... in the nature Park I went on a walk in yesterday.
(I was Probably too busy taking Photos to Pay Proper attention to what the Person leading the walk was saying about these Plots ... ooops?)

Poo ... on a rock
(I am not sure why, but if I go somewhere that I end up taking more than just a few photos - I always seem to end up with at least one Poo Photo!)

a cow Pat - yes - another Poo!
(with a couple of tiny Pink flowers)

Pretty Purple flowers ... not sure what ... and no I did not Pick them - I had to Put my hand around them to stop them blowing around in the wind, so they were still enough to take the Photo

Pretty Prickles! (a scotch thistle)

Pink flowers, and pretty grass.

Peculiar flowers ...

more Prickles - this time on the Echidna that someone spotted over on the wall of the dam.

the Echidna near the Pond - after a few of us took photos it walked over to the grass and hid ... "I can't see you so you can't see me"? LOL

a Praying mantis on a Plantago Plant

Pink flowers on the edge of the driveway when I got home and Parked the car



and another photo of the soldier beetles ... not really a P photo - except they do look Pretty ;-)

I am sure I had a whole Pile of other P things I was going to Post about ... but after that Profusion of Photos ... maybe enough is enough?

I Pondered upon the idea of Posting a Picture of DD's Pigtails - she just got home, and was telling me all about how she got Pulled over by the Police (who were driving around doing random breath tests/etc) ... and how the Police officer gave her some Peculiar looks and they ended up having a Particularly long conversation about why she had Pigtails and how good they looked (and no - she did not get "Pinged" ... she tends to obey the speed limits and road rules, and doesn't drink and drive). I decided not to Put a Photo here though - it looked a bit Peculiar, and I can't be bothered Putting it onto the computer anyway ... not at "stupid o'clock" at night when I should have gone to bed 2 or 3 hours ago, because I have to go to work in the morning!

btw - as Per usual - clicking on a photo should take you to the lightbox thingy where you can look at all the photos, or a right click and choosing "open in new tab" (or new window) should take you to the original size version of that photo, if you want to see it bigger (yes - they are quite a bit bigger than they show up in here).