Sometimes I Forget (Part 3)

This is the third and final installment in my "Sometimes I forget" series of pictures. Want to see the first two entries? Click Part 1 and/or Part 2 .

This is a picture of Cobe (pronounced like Coby). Doesn't he just have the sweetest eyes? Cobe is a reticulated giraffe. He is 16 foot tall, and standing eye to eye with him is quite a feat <g>. He loves it when you feed him cut up carrots, but his favorite treat is a 'cookie' with peanut butter and bananas on it. The 'cookie' is actually a graham cracker! He reaches out with his 18 inch long tongue and takes it right out of your hand.

Cobe has an older half-brother named Boris, who is a year older than he is. Think Cobe is tall? Well, Boris is 19 feet tall! Boris just recently arrived, and didn't offer me the photo-op that Cobe did, but I plan to show a picture of him in the future.

Sometimes I Forget... (Part 2)

Remember when I wrote the entry about sometimes forgetting how lucky I am?  At that time I promised that it was the first of a series of pictures from that particular day.... Then came the Fourth of July holiday, followed by 2 weeks when I managed to put in a total of 23 hours of overtime. (14 of which I did this last week!) So the idea for the entries got put on hold till I had a few minutes to sit down, compose an entry, and edit the picture. Today you get Part 2!

This second picture is of one of the Southern White Rhino that have recently joined the ranks of animals featured in the African area. This little girl came over here from Africa to join the gene pool over here. Although the Southern White Rhino have made a comeback from the dwindling numbers of the early 20th century, it doesn't do to become complacent, and the more spread out the gene pool is, the less chance of these magnificent animals disappearing. She and her buddies are becoming wonderfully friendly. She loves her alfalfa!

Update: Someone asked me for her name... I thought I had included it in the original post, but I guess I didn't <g>. Her name is Kudoko (spelling may not be correct, but that is how it sounds like it should be spelled ;p), which means little bit in Swahili.

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Take pictures of fireworks!

John Scalzi offers up the following for our enjoyment:

Monday Photo Shoot: July 4 Fireworks

This is a no-brainer photo shoot:

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Take pictures of fireworks!

Don't worry, I don't expect you upload most of these until later tonight or tomorrow, so don't let the fact it's a "Monday photo shoot" discourage you from posting on Tuesday (or Wednesday, or Thursday...)

(Note to people posting fireworks picture for this week's Weekend Assignment -- no fair reposting. I know, I know. But I'm sure you've got other pictures, too.)

First, I have to say that trying to take fireworks pictures with an older digital camera is NO fun! The minor inconvenience of shutter lag is often annoying, but with fireworks.... well, let's just say that I took about 40 pictures and got a couple of o.k. ones, but nothing particularly worthy of posting for this assignment. Sooooo... being the creative person I am (note the tongue in cheek here <g>) I took and cropped from 8 or so pics, put them together in a file, gave the background a black fill and VOILA!

All the pictures used in the above collage are mine... Got some cool fireworks pics from Monday? Why not play along. Go Here to see how.

Fireworks!

Glitter Palm, Chrysanthemum, Phoenix and Birds, Crackle, Waterfall, Poinsettia, Brocade.....

What are these? Names of Fireworks shells, of course Have you ever wanted to be the person who could sit there and authoritatively talk about the fireworks show you just saw? Or just wanted to describe the wonderful shell you enjoyed, but didn't have the correct vocabulary to do so???? Well, this is your luck day! Go to this web site : Fireworks! And you will be given a quick lesson in what each kind of shell is called.

Today's site brought to you by NOVA Online!

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Happy Fourth of July!

In the Spirit of the Day...

                                The Star Spangled Banner
                                   By Francis Scott Key

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave! 

                                  

              Happy July 4th to all my friends in Journal Land!

 

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