Stars, ash, clouds and fire god of the mountain

When I saw todays APOD I was amazed at the interplay of nature's forces then I saw what legends are made off, look closely at the ash plume and you will se the fire god of the mountain crouched down on his haunches, with a mane of wild hair blown to the left and arms folded over his knees. If I were a primitive man I would have thought I had just seen the fire god of the mountain!
So I cropped the image to make it clearer...
Do you see him now?

Amazing...

"What is life? An illusion, a shadow, a story,And the greatest good is little enough:for all life is a dream, and dreams themselves are only dreams." Pedro Calderon de la Barca, Life is a Dream

Sub-Sun's or Who needs luggage...

when flying with Mango... looking back at the day all I can see is the humour and beauty of the day. Boarded and ready to go... sans luggage...
M got me to the airport on time, I checked in and said "There... that's my luggage booked in, now it's your problem"... and Murphy smirked an evil smirk! I will let the reader use their imagination what happened when I got to Cape Town... it was not pretty. But I digress...

The flight was awesome, some say it was bumpy but they have never flown in a single engine plane coming in for a landing at Marydale in the Northern Cape... that is bumpy!

The clouds were awesome and as we took of the Captain mentioned that it had started snowing in Bloem Zoo! and that it was 2degrees C... We almost had wall to wall cloud all the way, some breaks in the cloud gave us amazing sights. This was at 13:00 as we passed over Van der Kloof Dam.
Van der Kloof dam as a pool of quicksilver.
There were even more amazing things to be seen as we winged our way over the seemingly endless sea of clouds...
Sub-Sun on the starboard... an APOD picture!
banking to Port for Cape Town approach...
Braking with reverse thrust after touchdown...

Table Mountain through the window after being reunited with my bags...
Thanks Chris
The Green won my heart...
After selecting some kit and a top box with the help of Jan, Graham and gang opened up a celebratory beer to toast the Beast, then Chris dropped me off at my digs at Spook and Erica... the most delightfull hosts a tired traveler could wish for. Thanks guys! The bike would be prepped next morning and Graham would get the paperwork done so that we could get out on the highway...
So off to bed it was to dream of things to come... but I first read the first chapter of Charlie Boorman's Race to Dakar... The book on the bedside table, inpiring me to keep working on my 2T2 dream. He and Ewan McGregor are busy with the Long Way Down, riding from John O'Groats to Cape Town... Dream Big Guys!
"The scientific theory I like best is that the rings of Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline luggage."
Mark Russell (1932 - )
Day 1 of 12 Days with Shrek

Fireworks panorama

Awesome! For more from Atti go to the site!

Todays quote brings things of nature into perspective as well...

"You think Nature is some Disney movie? Nature is a killer. Nature is a bitch. It's feeding time out there 24 hours a day, every step that you take is a gamble with death. If it isn't getting hit with lightning today, it's an earthquake tomorrow or some deer tick carrying Lime disease. Either way, you're ending up on the wrong end of the food chain."
Jeff Melvoin, Northern Exposure, Bolt from the Blue, 1994

Gonna get me a Comet

Found this beauty on APOD today. "McNaught Now Brightest Comet in Decades Credit & Copyright: Jens Hackmann."
I think I will try and hunt this down tonight or tomorrow vith my camera and tripod.
Update 19/01/2007:
I got my first picture at last but Murphy played a horrible trick! My batteries for the camere were not all charged as I thought! More to follow.

Update to Follow... I will be adding a Comet playlist later...
Not every day that one can find a quote to fit so perfectley as this one!
“Sensual pleasures have the fleeting brilliance of a comet; a happy marriage has the tranquility of a lovely sunset.” Ann Landers

Unfamiliar view of the familiar

From where I live the Southern Cross is not nearly as low on the horizon, still an amazing picture of our southern stellar guide...
This picture makes me think of Karen Zoid's song Southern Skies... Cool lyrics that I as a South African can relate..
Doom da da da da doomda doo da
Doom da da da da doomda dee
Doom da da da da doomda da da da da da
Stop everything
Look up to the sky
These cries
Solstice born
Thoughts of you

Doom da da da da doomda doo da
Doom da da da da doomda dee
Doom da da da da doomda da da da da da

Stop everything
Look up to the stars
Sometimes you need them
Sunshine requiem

There’s a hole in the southern sky tonight
As I watch you smile
These things that supposedly happen for reasons
Got none at all
All your friends…
They come to see the show
As I watch you smile
Walking away with my heart and my smile (x2)

Hope that you’ll find your soul
Hope you’re there to remind me of mine
Hope that you find yourself again
There’s a hole in the southern sky tonight
As I watch you smile
Leaves falling indefinitely after the season
Something small
All your friends
They came to see the show
All those things I wish I didn’t know
Someone teach me how to let this go
Let it go
Walking away with my heart and my smile (x2)
"We are bits of stellar matter that got cold by accident, bits of a star gone wrong." Sir Arthur Eddington (1882 - 1944)

Inside the Eagle Nebula - Genesis in action

And God said, let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: God divided the light from the darkness.
Genesis 1:3-4
When I saw this picture and read what was going on in that part of the Universe I realize that Genesis is still in action. We humans have but a tiny grasp of the workings of God and that one has to be blind in a spiritual sense not to realise that He exists.
Been listening to my gospel music today and this one from Tree63 stands out as being suitable for the image and thoughts here;
Be All, End All - Tree63
Center of attention night and day
I just hang on every word You say
With worlds revolving 'round You silently
How come You have all this time for me?

'Cos You spend all day inside my brain
I'm overcome - hard to explain
So what am I supposed to do?
I must have You

Chorus:
Be All End All
Start me finish me

You've been walking down my street again
Now everybody wants to be my friend
Beginning and the end of everything
You're the only song I want to sing

I'm absolutly in pursuit
Of something absolutly true
And all around has come undone: You're the 1*0*1

(Chorus)

*"Man's ultimate destiny is to become one with the Divine Power which governs and sustains the creation and its creatures."
Alfred A. Montapert

Earthlight

Earthlight:
Another Apod picture to be amazed by. Something else that amazes me is the smell of summer, mowed grass, rain, the scent of flowers, a virtual smorgasbord of smells... I got all that when I put my car in the garage this evening.

Today's recipe is another plonk and roast dish, I think one should call it Le poulet fumé avec les légumes rôtis or in plain english Smoked Chicken with Roasted Vegetables. (French thanks to Free Translations.Com.) Very easy to make and quite quick if one harnesses the Microwave to pre-cook the veggies.
Ingredients:
1 Smoked chicken, one could substitute this with one of those roasted chickens from your Spar/P&P/Woolies deli department.
Assorted packs of prepared veggies of your choice, I picked baby spuds/medeteranian veggie mix with sundried tomatoes/sweet potatoes/butternut/snap peas. You can mix and match as your tastebuds/hunger dictate.
1 Pack button mushrooms
1 Handfull asparagus
1 Large onion
1 Large red sweet pepper
2 Large tomatoes
2 cans tomato & onion mix, one per baking dish.
250 ml fresh cream
Herbs and spices to suit your taste, my choice was 2 tsp paprika, 2 tsp Italian herb, 1 tsp majoram, 1 tsp celery salt, 1 tbl spn Veggie sprinkle, dried garlic (one clove fresh) and 2 tsp Coriander seeds. These were all ground together in a mortar and pestle (my new kitchen toy)
Preperation:
Cut the chicken into portions and place in a baking pan/dish and grill for a few minutes, this helps cook out any excess fat...
Put all the veggie packs into the microwave and nuke for 8 minutes or untill semi cooked...
My ingredients were enough for 2 baking dishes, it may vary according to your requirements or amount of ingredients you have.
Remove chicken from grill and set oven on max, drain any fat from the chicken and divide between the baking dishes if needed.
Arrange veggies amongst chicken, slice onion and tomatoes and plonk among the rest of the veggies, cut up the asparagus and mushrooms to spread about likewise.
Spread your spice/herb mix over ingredients followed by the tomato/onion mix and then divide the cream between the dishes.
Return to oven for about 10 minutes, stir and turn bigger vegetables and bake another 10 minutes.
Set oven on Grill and grill the dish for another 10 minutes or until veggies start showing brown... Do not Incinerate!
By this time you should have finished a tossed salad to complement your Le poulet fumé avec les légumes rôtis.
This is a thumb suck recipe as it can be chopped and changed depending on ingredients available. Will serve four comfortably.
The picture and theme remind me of Tree63 and A Million Lights:
Can we hang out tonight underneath your ceiling
I could stare up at a million lights and listen to you breathing
If I fall fast asleep it's just because I feel so safe in you
It won't take much to wake me up

Could i walk out to sea way beyond these breakers
We have no place amongst the movers and the shakers
Yours is the only throne I'll ever get down on my knees before
You have the whole of me

Lover come away
Come away my lover

I heard you say you've stolen my heart with one glance of your
eyes
When I fell down you raised me up
That's gravity

Yours is the only throne I'll ever get down on my knees before
You have the whole of me

Lover come away
When I fell down you were standing there waiting for me
You picked me up, welcomed me home
That's gravity

Won't you come away
Won't you come away with me
Lover of my soul

"Ever since we crawled out of that primordial slime, that's been our unifying cry, "More light." Sunlight. Torchlight. Candlelight. Neon, incandescent lights that banish the darkness from our caves to illuminate our roads, the insides of our refrigerators. Big floods for the night games at Soldier's field. Little tiny flashlights for those books we read under the covers when we're supposed to be asleep. Light is more than watts and foot candles. Light is metaphor. Light is knowledge, light is life, light is light." Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, Northern Exposure, Northern Lights, 1993

Seven sisters

Nothing at all to do with any romance in my life! Just another beautiful image from Apod that I was looking at recently.
The Pleiades star cluster.
This makes me think of the words to the Our Lady Peace song Starseed...
I let go of the world that was holding
A passenger that could not fly
In search of souls
Souls in search of something
Let it go
Let it slide

When I find out what went on
I’ll bring it back
It won’t be easy
They won’t believe how a man
He could drown
In a starseed

I hoped to find why this world wasn’t glowing
Glowing it darkens as we end this ride
I’ve fallen back under the equator
I’m back inside
I’m back inside

When I find out what went on
I’ll bring it back but it won’t be easy
They won’t believe the man he could
But I’d choose starseed over nothing
Nothing
"The lights of stars that were extinguished ages ago still reaches us. So it is with great men who died centuries ago, but still reach us with the radiations of their personalities." Kahlil Gibran (1883 - 1931)

Missed! SN 2004dj Supernova

The closest and brightest supernova in over a decade was recorded just over a month ago in the outskirts of nearby galaxy NGC 2403... and I missed this one! It sure takes one's breath away.
SN 2004dj in all its glory...
2004dj NGC 2403 2004 07 31 07 37.3 36 160E 10N 11.2 IAUC 8377 07 37 17.02 35 57.8 IAUC 8377 II-P Itagaki

Mmmm, almost the time of my supernova experience! There must be some significance in this? Just got some more music sorted out as well, should have my full collection back onboard the pc in a few weeks...

As this is related I have just been listening to Jessica Simpson and her version of Take my Breath Away, the Berlin song from the movie Top Gun, another song with a similar title was done by Surreal - You take my breath away and here are the lyrics;

Take My Breath Away - Sureal
You take my breath away...
You take my breath away...
You take my breath awaaaay...

You take my breath away
Don't leave me out this way

What more can I say...
You take my breath away...(repeat)

You left me in this way
There's nothing left to say
Nothing left to say...

Nothing to say
Cause you
Take my breath
Awaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy....

Going to get to bed early again as it is still chilly... best place to be when the night is cold. Now for probably the funniest space/breath related quote I have ever come across... bear in mind this man said he invented the Internet as well... I cannot believe he was a vice president, and they say Bush is dumb! God help America if Kerry is anywhere near as cloddish...
"Mars is essentially in the same orbit... Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe." Dan Quayle (1947 - ), 8/11/89

So you wanna be a Botanist?

I have decided... next year I am starting a degree course... will be doing an aptitude test to make sure my choice is compatible with my abilities... crazy? Botany would be my first choice but let us see what the experts say...
I was wondering today why I felt so tired, obviously the weekend had taken its toll but it seems more than that, then I checked my biorythm... waay down the scale... ah well they start turning upside next week, so there is something to look foreward to again. The older I get the more I come to realise there is more out there than meets the eye.

This image reminds me of Tree63 and The Darkness Between the Stars, or even Roxette and Stars in any case the Universe is an awesome place, interesting to hear that some astrophysicists believe that our solar system is unique... makes me think that the Bible has more truth in than most people believe. David wrote in Psalm 8:3, "When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained." and Psalm 147:4 tells us that "He counts the number of the stars, He calls them all by name." It is impossible for mankind to know how many stars there are, not to mention the *name* of every star! Yet God does. Amazing concept! Amazing truth!
Stars - Roxette
You keep on walkin' on the other side
Other side, other side
You keep on walkin' on the other side
Other side, other side
Wherever you go, I'm going with you
Shouldn't you know I'm bound to follow
Whatever you say, whatever you do I give you a clue,
I'm gonna follow

And the stars will show
Where the waters flow
Where the gardens grow
That's where I'll meet you

Why don't you let me, let me come along
Na na na, na na na
Why don't you open, make me come along
Na na na, na na na
Wherever you go, I'm going for you
Oh, I was truly born to follow
Like fire and wood and paper and glue
Only a few were born to follow

And the stars will show
Where the waters flow
Where the gardens grow
That's where I'll meet you
And the sun will glow
Melting all the snow
Knowing all I know
That's where I'll meet you

Stars will show
Where the waters flow
Where the gardens grow
That's where I'll meet you
And the sun will glow
Melting all the snow
Knowing all I know
That's where I'll meet you

And the stars will show
Every breeze will blow
Knowing all I know
That's where I'll meet you
By the way... I fixed the comments section, you do not need to belong to Blogger.com to send me a comment...
**The wisest mind has something yet to learn.**
George Santayana (1863 - 1952)

The Giant and the Glory

This is amazing, found this on APOD today,
as well as a link to the next one.

This is one site I visit each day to see the latest in nature's wonders. Well worth bookmarking imho. The images there make one realise how Great God is, truly His Glory is revealed in nature and all we witness in our lives.
I also notice I have new neighbours on the Ageless project site, welcome to Master Of The House above me and Uncommon Thought and Waar was ik? below me, great to have you there.
Been to see Hidalgo again, enjoyed it even more than the first time, most probably because of the fine company as well.
Tonight I sign out with Delta Goodrem a lass from Australia that has been making some beautifull music. Here is a snipper from Not me not I;
You mixed me up for someone
Who'd fall apart without you
Yeah you broke my heart for the first time
But I'll get over that too
It's hard to find the reasons
Who can see the rhyme?
I guess that we where seasons out of time
I guess you didn't know me

If you think love is blind
That I wouldn't see the flaws between the lines
Surprised that I caught you out
On every single time that you lied
Did you think that every time I see you I would cry
No not me, not I, not I, no not me, not I
"Life is full of obstacle illusions." Grant Frazier