Parhelia ... and other Peculiar Photos.

well ... I said that last Photo from my Previous Post might kind of lead to this one ... and if I actually Publish this in time for it to be my P Post for ABC Wednesday - then it Probably will - LOL

the last photo was a Peculiar looking sunset ... with a link to a page on this website - http://www.atoptics.co.uk/ ... I originally found that website when I went searching for some other weird thing on there, which I read about on some blog (no I can't remember what one - I look at rather too many, and once I got lost looking up the thing I saw mentioned I probably never went back to the one I had been reading at the time) ... anyway ... I ended up looking around on that site, and noticed something about Parhelia - otherwise know as "sundogs" ... which I think I had seen mentioned in some book I read once ... and had never known what they were (I do now ;-)   
The odd thing was - not long after I read that info about them - I actually saw some! (I don't recall seeing them before that ... and I am sure it is the sort of thing I would have noticed/remembered even if I had not known what they were - in fact I would probably have been more likely to remember seeing something like that if I didn't know what it was).
so ... it strikes me as a bit Peculiar (or maybe it is just Me who is Peculiar?) that I have seen them several times since ... and also a few other odd things that are on that website (although I do remember seeing some of those in the past, before I knew what caused them).
Anyway ... this is probably all a bit boring ... time for some Photos?

actually - it is time to save this Post for later, seeing it is not quite time to Publish it yet anyway, and go do some more imPortant things ...

but first ... while I am in the right folder of Photos - here is a Photo I took just before the last Photo on the Previous Post:

yes - there were sundogs (Parhelia) that time too ... well Possibly only one Parhelion (they often come in Pairs, one each side of the sun, but only if there are hexagonal ice crystals on both sides of the sun for the light to be reflected in) ... a very faint one, but it was there ... for a few minutes ... then the Parhelia faded and the upper tangent arc appeared.
(the sundog is the rainbow coloured patch, level with the sun on the edge of the dark ring around the sun, a bit below and to the left of the middle of the photo ... it is only a very faint one so you will probably have to click through to the full size Photo to see it)

Ok ... Off to do that Other stuff now ...

[later]

... but when I added a bit of the stuff below (a link and a photo or 3) it was only a little while later ... although I have added most of it now - a few days later ...
I kind of kept Playing around - stuck a photo here, and used it for my blog background ... but it was the wrong size so I stuck another one here and used that ... and it was also the wrong size ... (I just deleted those ... they were almost the same as the next one, but with a grotty grey background instead of the Pretty green and grey)

I also ended up Pasting the Photobucket URL/etc (below) into this Post:

http://i545.photobucket.com/albums/hh371/aykayem/Blog%20Stuff/PA041091.jpg (used to be bg b4 I put the above there

... and I didn't even put another ) at the end - lol
(and "bg" is my abbreviation for background ... I knew what I meant ... I tend to use a lot of those sort of abreviations if I am writing/typing notes to/for myself ... and if I am writing/typing stuff for others to read I have to remember NOT to use them - lol)

Peculiar? - yes, Perhaps - but it was a good Place to Put the link in case the 3rd Photo did not work either and I wanted to Put the link back in the thingy so that it could still be the background.

But I did a bit more fiddling, and re-sizing of the Photo, and came up with this:

... which, as you can see (well - until such time as I change it again ;-) is now the background image on this blog.

ok ... this is Probably all getting a bit too Peculiar ... so Perhaps I should get back to the Point of this Post and Put a few more Photos of Parhelia or something in here and then Post this ... ?



Problem is ... where did I Put the Photos of Parhelia ... it would help if I knew what dates I had actually taken Photos of them! LOL

oh well - I will Peruse a few folders and see what I can find:

er ... Piles of Photos! ... and I only looked in 2 folders of Photos (which is about half of October - I take LOTs of Photos ;-)

Anyway ...

here is a Pretty Pink Peony:

 That was at a meeting I was at - and my tea cup (beside it) has a Pink Pig on it (but you can only see Part of it - the Posterior Part - ie its rear end!). That reminds me - a Person wants me to e-mail her this Photo (and/or the other one - I took a couple) ... I don't Put Personal details about People on my blog (unless they want me to ;-) but it just struck me as a bit of a Peculiar coincidence that her first name and surname both start with P ... and, so I had her e-addy to send it to - she gave me her Pretty Purple buisness card!

ok ... I had better Pick up the pace here, if I want to get through Prattling on about the Pile of Photos I have just uploaded, and actually Post this ... lol

Some Pine trees...

 with wallaby/kangaroo Poo in the foreground ;-)

another Photo of the Pine trees - looking quite Pretty in the light

 those 2 Photos, and the next 2, were taken on my morning walk on the Sunday of the quilt retreat.

... the Pine trees/etc looked quite Pretty in the early morning light:

 ... not so sure about this Puff ball in a Pile of Poo (rabbit Poo I think)

a Pretty Pink grevillia flower somewhere near home

and our Peculiar "Puppy" dog:

 what IS he eating?

- yes - soggy wet dirt!

 I guess it tasted Particulary interesting ...

A Power Pole ... but that is not the reason I uploaded this Photo

the clouds have rainbow colours in them!

 there is stuff about this sort of thing on that website I mentioned - the one with the info about Parhelia ...

... and talking about Parhelia (sundogs) - yes - I saw, and Photographed, a parhelion (sundog) that day too!

 it is only a very faint one - on the left hand side of the photo (level with the sun) ... the sundog did not last as long as the rainbow colours in the clouds did.

this photo technically is't a P one at all ... but it does have a Purpose - I found it in the same folder and decided to Put it here while I was thinking about it/knew where it was.

 it is a photo of a wattle tree in flower, and the Purpose of Putting it here is because it shows what I used for my inspiration was for some fabric Postcards that I made for a Spring Postcard swap on an art quilt e-mail list. I can't seem to find a photo of the Postcards either ... maybe I forgot to take one before I Posted them? ... I do still have the spare ones I made, so I can take a Photo of those I guess)

Here are some Pretty Pink flowers at the base of our "street tree" (the one that "they" planted on out nature strip)

I think they are actually sprouting from the rootstock, below the graft - lots of ornamental/etc trees are actually grafted onto stronger (but less pretty) rootstock so that they have nice strong roots/etc to grow a better tree on top .. or something like that ... lol

here is a close up veiw of them:

More Peculiar clouds, with colours in them:

if one was to Paint a sky like this in a Picture - People would think it was a bit Peculiar!

in fact they might wonder what Planet the artist was on ...

 ... or what kind of Pills they had been taking!

 er ... no wonder I have a Pile of Photos on here ...

Pretty Purple Plants (lavender) with a bee ...

and this is where I should be - in bed!

 yes - this was after a bath (which he needed after I took him for a walk and let him have a swim ... and I let him swim in the Pond because he kind of needed a bath anyway). Note that he has his head on MY Pillow!

no - we not quite at the end of the Photos yet - LOL

Here are some Pink flowers that I have in the garden

 and if you Put your mouse Pointer on the Photo and click to get the full size Picture - you will notice there is lots of Pollen on them.

ok - we have had some dog Photos - here is our Peculiar cat:

 sound asleep in a box (with Polyester quilt batting in it) that is only just on the coffee table! (I decided to be a nice Person and Pushed the box a bit further onto the table after I took the Photo - Poor thing would have been a bit Peeved if she had rolled over and the box fallen off with her still IN it ;-)

and ... this seems like a good Picture to finish with - a Pink sunset:

yes - that is the tower at the top of Black Mountain (where I took that huge Pile of wildflower Photos) ... but this Photo was taken from some Place down the bottom of the hill ... where I had just been and watched a rather Peculiar Performance ... (I am not sure how long this link will still work for - but it was this is what I had just been to see ... or if that link it dead this one might work ... the Person did say there was a blog with stuff on it but a search didn't find anything except one blog that had nothing on it yet and more was "coming soon" ... rather a long time ago).

Perhaps I had better Post this?

oh Poop! - it is way Past "stupid o'clock" and I am still up ... should be going to bed ... and I have just noticed I am getting hungry ... lol

I wonder what else I WAS going to Prattle on about in this letter P Post?

Perhaps I will never know ...

if you hear a "Plop" or "Plonk" sound shortly - it will be me "yawning my head off" ...

.... goodnight.

Oops? Or something ...

... I was going to call this ABC Wednesday O post "Odds and Sods" ... but I have already used that one!

I could have called it "Oh Dear" ... but - that particular video I took got fried when one of my camera memory cards died while trying to upload the stuff from it ... which is probably a good thing for you lot because it wasn't suitable to post here anyway - it was just a bit ... er ... Off - lol
(someone else took a video of the same thing, and their version is, or at least was, online somewhere ... but I am not going looking for it - lets just say it involved a rather drunk person at a Christmas party, and a reindeer decoration on someone's lawn, and leave it to the imagination)

Ok ... so what shall I post about ... any Old thing? ... all sorts of Odd things?

or should I take the Opportunity to find something that I wanted to post about anyway, that I can make fit the letter O?

Of course what I should do, seeing I am still UP after 3am On a night where I have to get up for work in the morning, is head Off to bed and get some sleep!

I seem to have done what I Often do, and got "lost in cyberspace" again - Ooops?

[One day later?  ... er no - forget that - I am still here - LOL ... I threw these photos up while I knew where they were, then curiosity got the better of me and I just had to see if I could find out what they were]

How about some Odd little plants

... they are very Old ... well these particular ones are young - but they are Old as in - this type of plant has been On this planet for a long long time ... longer than flowering plants etc ... Ooops - I forgot what they were called ... they were more things I saw on that wildflower walk ... and the expert who showed them to us did say what they were, but I forgot the name ... but I remember him saying they were primative plants ... not sure if he said they were related to or came before mosses and ferns ... methinks I might have to google ... but google what? "weird plants" probably won't find them - LOL
hmmm ... I might have actually found it! ... it could be something called Austral Adders' tounge - Ophioglossum sp. ... a couple of websites about that plant genus mentioned that it has rather a lot of chromosomes ... and I think I remember the bloke saying something about that when we were looking at the plant ... it is a type of fern ... an Odd, but fortuitous?, coincidence that it should be a plant with a name that starts with an O ... LOL ... in fact both the Genus and Family are O names Ophioglossum genus in the Ophioglossaceae family ... but Oh what a mouthful those botannical names can be ... lol

... and I should add a few more Orchid photos?

but first ... Oooooops again - it is now stupid O'clock and I am still Out of bed ...

Off I go ...

[a few days later - yes really - I did go to bed, eventually, and now it is probably time I was thinking about, perhaps even writing, the next ABC Wednesday post - because in another day or 2 it will be too late to add this one to the linky thingy]

Ok ... what else WAS I going to add to this?
(besides Orchid photos - seeing I have mentioned those - lol)

Orchids would be nice I guess - I don't Often post Orchid photos to my blog ... probably because One doesn't Often see them ... except  seem to have seen Oodles of them lately - lol

[Andrea goes hunting around in her photos]

Oh - that nearly gave the blogger editor a heart attack ... adding all 18 photos (that I just uploaded as I found them) all at the same time ... lol

Ok - I promised Orchids:

Here is One I had forgotten about - growing in Mum's garden (I took the photo while I was up there a few weeks back)

 now ... back to the photos I took On that wildflower walk:
- a few purple Orchids

 One can see why these Often get stood On without being noticed underfoot - One leaf and a bud comes up, and becomes One flower ... sticking up On its Ownsome ...

Or in this case 2 - because they came u side by side ...

 ... and a spider seems to have made its home in them.

Ok - here is an Odd number of Orchids ...

 3 pinkish Ones.

... and 2 white Ones ...

 seen from the Other side than most Of my photos Of Orchids - lol

this Odd thing isn't an Orchid

 Or a poo (which is kind of what it looks like) - it is a puffball (a kind of fungus).

another Odd thing - and Old cocoon from a case moth

 fallen/dropped on the path and stood On by passing feet.

another Odd looking Orchid

it kind of looks like a rubber monster finger puppet I used to own ...

some hood Orchids

 I was going to put this photo in the Other post but I missed it (which is Ok because I can use it now instead - lol)

another one of my Odd photos

 I take lots of ODD photos ...lol

Ok ... you have probably noticed I am not On the wilflower walk any more - now looking in the next folder or 2
and I found an Orange sunset

 this is One of the paths I Often walk the dog down (or up)

One of my Own flowers in my Own garden

 (not an Orchid - a daisy)

another Odd photo - looks like a rather Odd audience for One Odd pigeon?

 actually the pigeon just happend to be there too - the swans were looking at me, and the 2 blokes fishing - hoping someone would feed them.

another Odd photo

 I took lots like this - for a rather Odd reason - I am involved with an art quilt project where a group of us are all making A3 sized quilts Of different parts of the shoreline of Lake Burley-Griffin - and this is my bit - the bit with the "bird on a stick" (also known by various other names - most a bit rude) 
Once upon a time I used to work in a building near that bird (I think it might be just out of the photo on the left somewhere).

Another Odd photo ... On my desk at work actually!

 it was a collection of gum leaves I had picked up ... they were wet so I spread them out on my desk to dry out a bit before I stuck them between some paper to press them ... and I couldn't help myself - had to arrange them in a pattern ... which may (if I get around to it) eventually end up being my blog header or something ... lol

One more Orchid - this was while I was On the quilt retreat a couple Of weeks ago

 I saw it (and a few Others) while Out On my morning walk.

This is the dog - heading Off home at the end of a walk

 no that is not Our house in the photo (which is why this one is not clickable to get the original size - not sure the neighbours would want people peering at a close up veiw of their front door/yard on the www ;-) we live a few houses down the street from there(in the direction the dog is heading ;-)
I like this as an idea for a quilt ... but with a different house in the background ... maybe one done with a log cabin block or something ...

and last (but actually taken before a few of the other photos here) ... One photo that might sort of lead On to the next post/letter of the alphabet ...

a rather Odd sunset ... note the interesting v shaped rainbow like thingy above the sun (a tangent arc, actually) ... and the "ring" ( 22º halo) around the sun too ... both caused by sunlight reflecting off ice crystals in the sky, according to this website. (I pointed that link to a page that shows both the things in this photo - but there is a menu on the left that takes you to all sorts of interesting stuff - I have "lost myself" there for hours at a time - lol)

I could have kept digging around in my photos (I didn't even look in the Other lot of photos I took - the day I climbed to the top of Black Mountain) ... and I have even more photos that are not even On the computer ... but enough is enough I think ... lol

I probably should post shorter posts, more Often? - lol

time I went anyway - not Only do I still have the Other stuff I was going to do this weekend and didn't - I also have a load of washing to hang Out On the line, and small  pile of boxes Of fabric and stuff to sort Out (Or at least move) - they are kind of sitting in a pile in the way beside the doorway in a space that needs to be clear so that the new lounge can be delivered tomorrow ;-)

and ... the dog will need a walk - I can't make him miss Out today - it is his birthday! - he is now 8 years Old!

Oh - One more thing - if you want to see more Orchid photos (or find Out a bit more about them - they really are quite intersting plants) - there are lots Of photos Of them, and lots of pages of information about them, Online ;-)

Nature parks ... and a Nice walk or 2 ...

... IN the Nature parks, of course!

Yes - this is my slightly  VERY late N post for Wednesday ABC

I did have one saved (from the last time around the alphabet, or maybe one or 2 before that) but it would take me ages to find all the photos I would want to put in that one (because it is about stuff that has been made and photographed over several years) ... and I was thinking about posting about some quilts I have Not finished ... but I have also Not taken photos of them ... although I should be out working on at least one of them Now! (Naughty me - in here on the Net again ... lol)

but ... I decided to post about a couple of Nice walks I recently went on, in one of our local Nature parks - while the subject is still sort of New ...

We have a few Nature parks here in Canberra ... the Nearest one is the Dunlop Grasslands - where some of this Nice walk with the dog happened ... but this post is about another one - Near where I work actually ... after living in Canberra for a few years, and then working Nearby (and moving up this end of town as well) I had still Never got around to walking around in the Aranda bushland, or on that side of Black Mountain, until Now (well a month or so ago actually)  ... in the last month or 2 I have been for about 3 walks in the area!

The first one was just the opening of that Garden Tea Party textile art exhibition, Nearly 2 months ago Now - I actually walked there from work - through some of the Aranda bushland/foothills of Black Mountain (I am Not sure where the Aranda Bushland ends and the Black Mountain part starts - lol)

The Next one was about 2 weeks ago - when there was an annual wildflower walk that someone organises (not sure who - I think I found out about it from a landcare newsletter or something - I have known about it in the past but it has always been when had somewhere else I had to be at the time - this time I didn't ;-)
There were lots of orchids and other wilflowers (even more than when I had walked through there a few weeks before) ... I think I only took about 600 photos! - I LOVE digital cameas!!! LOL

Then ... one day last week I decided to get DH to drop me off at work and then when I finished work I would walk through the bushland and around/over one or other side of Black Mountain and in towards the middle of town (where we went to a rather Nice little resteraunt for tea) and get him to pick me up from wherever I had got to when he rang to say he was on his way in - which just happend to be up on TOP of Black Mountain - LOL (well - by the time I got to a track that I knew would go to a road I could be met at, it was just as quick/close to go to the top of the hill as it would be to go around it ... so up I went ... talk about a good work out though! - it gets steeper up near the top)

I also took a fair few photos that day ... so I have rather a lot to choose from, to put in here - LOL
(hmmm - I suppose I should actually put that last lot ON to the computer or I will Not be putting any of those here Now ;-)

[Andrea goes and fiddles with photos, hits "publish" on this post that I just typed up for one of my other rather Neglected blogs (which could have been an N post, but I wanted to post this one so I didn't Need to use that one) and goes and puts on another load of washing, hangs up the other one ... probably Need to hurry up and mow the lawn Now - before it gets dark - too ... and by then the dog will "Need" his walk, and I have some other stuff that Needs doing ... so it will probably be later in the Night (or maybe even the Next day before I get back to this]

It is now a day or 2 later ... and I am still doing a coupld of those things ... just sticking a photo on that post on that other blog before I publish it (it is uploading at the moment) ... some washing got done, and a few of the other things, and the dog got a walk (in fact he has had 2 or 3 walks since I typed the first half of this post) ... but the lawn still needs mowing - lol

Ok ... now for the photos ... which I could have put in amongst the text I suppose ... but I wrote all that before I dug around in my photos so it is probably easier, and will make more sense, to just do it this way ...

So ... starting with the wildflower walk a couple of weeks back ...

btw - yes I took a LOT of photos, but I will not try and put too many dozen here - LOL

- I have dug around and chosen a few that were pretty and/or interesting, and in focus ... (some of the close up ones are not - what the camera thinks I want to focus on and what I actually do want it to focus on are not always the same thing - lol)

These should all be clickable - so you can click on them and see the full size photo (or you might want to right click and open them in a new tab/window so you can flick between the big photo(s) and this page (to read my descriptions/etc.)

anyway ...
here are some Wattle flowers

half in focus and half out ... that tends to happen with macro shots - because of the shallow depth of field.

hmmmm - I didn't notice when I took the photo (was probably in a hurry to take that and dash over to the next flower or something - lol) but those yellow fuzzy balls are not just evenly round fuzzy balls ... they have thick and thin patches and longer spikey bits. hmmm - I would have to look at one more closely to be sure, but I think the shorter fuzz is probably the stamens (the male bits) and the fewer longer bits the pistils (female bits) ... but because I am only looking at the photo and guessing - I could be wrong - whatever part of the anatomy - they are quite pretty actually ...

and next ... these look like something I grew up calling "egg and bacon flowers"

 I guess one can see where that name came from - lol
(drats ... now I am starting to feel hungry!)

and here is a photo of a pile of trees ... because I like trees ... and because this is sort of what the area mostly looks like, but more flowers (and mabye a few less trees) in some patches.

and ... not only were there interesting and pretty flowers - there are also funghi - quite tiny, these ones ...

 I think they were less than an inch tall. (those sticks in the photo are leaf stems and very tiny twigs/bits of dry grass/etc.)

there was some Lichen too ...

and ... something ...

 ... which doesn't look like it has flowered yet - the interesting purplish brown bits look like buds where whatever it is will eventually have flowers.

There were lots of orchids - like this spider orchid (I think that is what one of the experts said this one was - so many plant names and only one brain to store them in - lol)

 and ... right where a group of people sat down (and nearly sat ON them) for morning tea:

 ... some other variety of orchid, quite a rare one apparently.

I guess one could be forgiven for not noticing them in amongst the grassy stuff:

 (yes - there are orchids hiding in amongst that other stuff, which isn't actually grass, btw)

but whatever it is - this spider seemed to be happy living there:

and talking about almost sitting, or stepping on, flowers and stuff - this was the walk where I almost stood on that Lizzard - there is a photo of that in my recent "L" post (a couple of weeks ago) ...


   - I was sneaky - because it was already uploaded for that other post, I could just use the "add image" thingy to grab it and put it here - because it just puts in the link to wherever blogger already has it stored (in my picassa web album, which blogger/google created for me when they decided to make blogger images work that way ... I think I might have even gone and looked at it once ... lol)

now ... where was I?

here is another photo of trees ... and a lot of flowers ...

 ...which kind of don't look that spectacular in the photo? - but - as is the case with a lot of flowers that often go unnoticed - when one looks more closely ...

... they are really quite pretty:

 (yes - these are the same as the blue ones in the bottom left hand corner of the photo before this one)

and here - a couple more things that an unsuspecting person might step on, without even realising they are there:

 - some kind of interesting green orchid (might be a hood orchid?) ... and a parrot feather ... and - also a reddish colour - some Drosera - otherwise known as Sundew

ah ... I uploaded all the photos that are on this post, then had another dig around and found a couple more photos of  sundew ... but the photo uploading thingy seems to be having a hissy fit and won't let me browse to actually find and select any more photos to upload ... pity ... there was a nice one of sundew with purple flowers ...
oh well - back to the pile of photos I had already uploaded/put in here:

... some more Sundew:

I am not sure if this is the same species as the red ones or not ... well I wasn't - but now that I have just googled it and read about them (on the wikipedia page that I have now linked to above) and noticed the flowers in my photos are different colours - I am sure they are at least 2 different species - there were both red and green leaved ones where we went on the wildflower walk, but I took this photo a week or so later while walking the dog down near a local pond. (this lot may be a 3rd species, different than either of the ones at the bottom of Black Mountain)

... Here is some more - closer up - showing the sticky droplets of whatever it is on what I think are actually leaves (they are not flowers - you can see the white flowers on the green one in the previous photo) - the sticky stuff is what they use to help catch insects - yes - this tiny and rather pretty thing is a carnivorous plant!

 That close up photo is one I took a few days ago (Friday, I think) when I got dropped off at work in the morning, and then when I finished work I walked back toward the area where I had gone on the wildflower walk ... and took another hundred or so photos.

Here are some more orchids

and here I am most of the way up Black Mountain ... that tower is at the top ...

(the path is steeper than it looks in this photo too!)
and this is a veiw from the carpark at the top (yes - there is a road up the other side - that is where DH drove up to collect me ;-) One can also go up inside the tower and look out, but I didn't this time - because that costs money - lol

if you look in almost the middle of this photo, there are buildings ... and if you click on the photo so that you get to see the full size version, then you might be able to see a bunch of buildings with dark green roofs (right in the middle of the photo - closest to where I am taking the photo from - to the left of the green oval, which doesn't look oval but you can see the patch of green grass colour) - those green roofed buildings are the school where I work - where I had just walked from!

(btw, there are some roundish hills behind that dead tree branch - I live over in that direction somewhere in the dark green stuff this side of the hills)

er - talking about where I work ... I have to get up and go there in the morning ... so why am I still UP? LOL

oh bother ... just went to check the ABC Wednesday page and I have missed the chance to add this to the linky thingy - O is already there and the N one is closed ... oh well ... if I do my O post really soon (like maybe tomorrow) then people might notice this one is before it - lol
... not that it matters - most of my reason for posting these silly alphabet posts was because it is a good way to motivate me to at least try and post something to my blog every week or so, rather than ever few months or "whenever" ...
I guess I don't HAVE to blog ... but I want to - I have about 10 ideas for things that I really want to post to my blog, and have been meaning to for ages but have kind of not got around to it yet (for most of them it is because I need to either take photos to go in those posts, or spend ages digging around in my photos trying to find the photos to go in them, but a couple are just because I kind of never went got around to it). I also have a few other ideas half written/etc and saved as drafts (again - mostly waiting for me to take/add photos or something) ... and I have a few ABC ideas saved as half written drafts too ...

anyway ... this is Not the hour I meant to be still awake at ... Ooops - Naughty me? lol

- time for this Night Owl to say Night Night ...