A picture speaks a thousand words... a video speaks to the heart.

Thanks to Rather be riding... I'll leave you with this thought...Be a Dream Ranger!
We all have our own life to pursue, our own kind of dream to be weaving. And we all have some power to make wishes come true, as long as we keep believing. Louisa May Alcott

Tasted a dragon lately?

Being somewhat adventurous when it comes to food I saw these in Checkers yesterday...

Dragon Fruit or Pitaya... and when I opened it up we had this! Tasted a bit like Kiwi with a smattering of Prickly Pear!

Being epiphytic they are grown on top of posts as in this picture from the ABC Rural site...

Here one can see that inside they resemble their cousin prickly pears, almost the same shade of purple/red that the better known Cactus have but with smaller seeds. One peels them just the same and not like pineapples as the lady in Checkers mentioned though...

So would I buy them again? At R59 per Kg they are expensive but I think for that special occasion where you want to add striking colour or texture there is nothing to beat a slice of Dragon Fruit... it contrasts very well with Kiwi by the way.
Now I can also say I know what Dragons Fruit tastes like.
A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love. St Basil

Enough already

Woke up at 6 am to more rain... it is now 10 am and it has not let up for a moment... this is 1988 deja vu! Many parts of the country are now flooded! We need a rainbow or two!
We have been having good, nay extraordinary good rains since before Christmas but since last Friday it has become Noachian rain!
While fitting new crashbars to Shrek I had to duck back inside a few times as the rain was flooding the carport... thankfully no tools or parts got washed away.

The black box was brim full by midday Saturday... and it is once again overflowing!

The access road has been a river on and off for the past few days...

So it seems we may need those rubber ducks and gumboots soon just to get to work...
I also had the resident engineer check out the new crash bars, L's kitten Misha is extremely inquisitive...

apparently they met her approval after a thorough looking over and nuzzle!

In between showers I was able to take the new bars for a test ride... Must say the new bars have tamed the vibes a lot... I can even see out of the bikes mirrors at 5000rpm... with the old bars it became a blur... Thanks to Harold and Matthew at Bike Gear for letting me be a Guinea pig...
"The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain." Dolly Parton

Dear Stray

A guy I know only from his postings on Wild Dogs posted a poignant story today... here it is, I hope Andrew does not mind me borrowing it...

"We have a stray that has hung around our offices for many years. She was already old when I first saw her.

Over the last 2 years she has tamed up a bit but doesn’t like to be picked up and will only tolerate being scratched in small amounts. Some of the staff here feed her now and then. She is not what you'd call a "house cat". I have had to answer more than a few ADT alerts as a result of her being locked in the offices and was half keen to “get rid” of her on those occasions where 3am on a Sunday wasn’t funny anymore.

She was never what you’d call a good looking thing; always thin, ribs and the left overs pelt from a bad dose of mange years ago had seen to that. She was not the brightest and unusually, for a cat, looked it too. She’d always half look at one as if it was always a bit of a struggle to put two and two together.

Recently she slowed down a lot and over the last week gave up on eating. She had a large cyst in between her front legs and only walked with clear discomfort.

I had to take her in for her first and last ride in the car this morning. She was unexpectedly very calm and easy going into the cat carrier.

When asked by the front desk lady her name, I was a bit stumped, we’d never given her one, nobody had owned her, “will Skin and Bones do?”

We sat quietly for 10 minutes or so while I was worked into the queue.

Finally, after a bit of a honest conversation with the Vet about options, the humane thing was decided.

The vet asked, “did I want to stay during her last moments?”

I hadn’t thought about this as it was all a bit unexpected. It seemed very cowardly to leave her to it on her own. She’d never asked for much, just a few 3am callouts.

I couldn’t talk on the way out and thank goodness for dark glasses. Who would have thought a stray would be that hard on the plumbing? That was a tough morning. I couldn't be a Vet for sure!


Dear Stray

I knew you long but lightly.
I am sorry that you had to go.
The lightest of touches, away.

I’ll miss your light time here
Come back how you wish
Anytimes fine, Dear Stray


Cheers Girl, come visit when you have time."
I still have tears in my eyes... good on you Andrew.
"If animals could speak the dog would be a a blundering outspoken fellow, but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much." - Mark Twain

The wonders like You

Who is like You?
Who is like the wonders, the wonders, the wonders, the wonders of You?

From alpha to Omega
No Ones greater
While your cutting the wax
And cross up the fader
You can cross the fade
But can't fade the cross
Divine blood drops
Can set free the lost
Love personified
Makes seas divide
Eyes of the storm
Of the tempest ride
Who can compare
Who can dare to stare in the eyes of the Most High and die

Often imitated
Never duplicated
Only One original
Underrated
Perfect in ways in which we could be
Others like Him
Never will be

Ancient of days
In mysterious ways
Works wonders
Setting bushes a blaze
40 years in a maze
With a pillar of fire
Dancing on waves
My life's desire
Who is like you
Who was, is and will be
Who can do what you can do simply?
He who has an ear, let him hear
Speaking through the speaker to your ears
Is my transmission clear?
I have nothing to add... but this...
"God loves each of us as if there were only one of us." ~St. Augustine

Scooting around fallen branches

Sometime I am amazed how pretty some of the dirt roads are around Bloemfontein, this is on the way back fro Krugersdrift dam today, I went out to see if it had started overflowing from the recent rains we have been having.

I don't know what it is about trees falling in the roads I travel... but this time it seems this branch broke off a day or two ago, it had been cut up and dragged out of the road where it had come crashing down.

Glad it did not happen as someone drove past in the dark... it fell from quite high up on the tree. One of the reasons I also think we should do away with eucalyptus trees, after a few years they shed branches like leaves.

A little further down the road I turned off a trail and ended up at this abandoned ruin, sad to see what was once a home so shattered and broken.

As you can see the recent rains are starting to add up, more and more standing water after each shower we have...

The countryside is greener than I can ever remember for this time of year as well. A bit further on I saw the house mentioned in the paper a few days ago that had lost a roof in one of our storms, the folks seem to be re-organizing their lives as they have the place rebuilt. Although camping in a caravan in one's own back yard is probably not what they would have wanted to start 2011 with.
"A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease." John Muir

Another Tuesday Twit

Sounds more like a...

"Scientists from the department could perhaps help us and come up with instruments that could help community members protect themselves against lightning." It already exists! It is called a lightning rod Numsa... a simple metal pole taller than the thatch hut placed a a few meters away to cause the lightning to pass harmlessly down the pole instead of setting fire to the thatch and burning the people inside...
The punch line must be this quote:
"The department has dealt with floods and fires, but lightning was new to us," said Dube.

Dear Nomsa... do yourself a favor and learn how to Google a subject before making a Twit of yourself in public. This may come in handy, seems like the interwebs have the answer to your question already! What really puzzles me rather is that people voted for her? This is more evidence that we humans are losing our common sense as well as becoming more stupid it seems. Loved the movie by the way...
Now let me go and wipe the spilled coffee off my shirt, my laughing caused the spill while reading this news item...
"If you are caught on a golf course during a storm and are afraid of lightning, hold up a 1-iron. Not even God can hit a 1-iron." Lee Trevino .

Art or a Trainsmash

One of the Artworks recently put up on Campus is this one from Willie Bester that went up opposite our office building...



An African Don Quixote maybe?



Some of the detail is amazing!


This Campus artwork project also includes some wood carvings that have function built into the form in the way of seats... will take some pics of them as well soon.
Oh... do I think it is Art? very much so, it makes me want to tackle the scrapheap with my welder and grinder...
"The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection." Michelangelo.

We are not stupid sheep

One of the most common statements in the Christian vs Aethiest argument is that Christians follow a Bronze Age faith believed by goat herders, very derogatory and of course totally untrue when one sees the lists of scientists that believe in Jesus and his Gospel. I should know... I am involved with one!.
Lists that show this is a fallacy can be found all over the Internet such as the following;
Famous Scientists Who Believed in God
List of Christian thinkers in science
So to denigrate and stereotype us Christians as stupid sheep is an insult but at the same time a compliment as we follow the Greatest Shepherd of all time!
"In comparing religious belief to science, I try to remember that science is belief also." ~Robert Brault

Junk Science

Seems as if NASA blew it again... so much for alien life forms.
When I read about their "discovery" I had a small smidgen of doubt, mainly because I know that South African gold mines use a arsenic tolerant bug developed by the Microbiology Dept of Stellenbosh University under Prof. Douglas E. Rawlings, this bug has been un use for many years in fact in the gold extraction process. Australia also developed similar technology. Something did not ring true... I suppose the NASA team never used Google...
I have a feeling NASA was using this to garner favor for more funding.
This is not the only junk science NASA has had a part of... the AGW scandal has used false data from faulty satellites to try an prop up their failing cause among others.
A real shame that an organization that managed to put a footprint on the moon is now stooping to cheap sensationalism to stay afloat. Just like the Global Warming Fanatics...
In fact organisms that thrive on Arsenic are more commonplace than we think. Life has a way of finding the strangest places to thrive in it seems.
"Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool." Richard Feynman