Winter has arrived, the frost is taking all the green and turning it into dead.

There are those few who can withstand the cold, I'm not one of them.

Many things keep me busy - I have tried boredom once, it was boring - not for me, I would rather do nothing and enjoy it.

The world is like a large jig-saw puzzle.

"So many worlds, so much to do, so little done, such things to be." (We Two:Lord Tennyson)

One of my all time favorite entertainment pieces is the music from the theater and movies.

Many times it is a case of - seen the movie, got the music, and still have to read the book. Then sometimes the book was read before the movie was seen.

Rummaging around at the flea market the other day, like a fat, well-fed pig looking for a tasty morsel, after saying 'no' to a few interesting items, and having sniffed at it; paged through it; put it back a few times; the book went home with me - The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux, an abridged translation Charles Dickens' great granddaughter Doris Dickens.

I have seen the movie, got the dvd and music, now the book was read as well, and that makes me .... a what ?

The real art to life is to enjoy what-ever life dishes up.
If it is pooh, plant flowers in it.
Anything else is a bargain.

---- and if the pooh-heap gets too much, pass it on to others, always share, there are others who can use it.





 

Man's quest for knowledge is unending.

The previous log about Tolkien came about as a result of a young man who decided he wants to know more about things, in particular, the Sungazer.

In his quest he landed in my world, where the sungazer roams free and carefree, since way back when.

He is working on improving his knowledge about the well being of this lizard, and the knowledge of all who would be concerned.

The best part is, he is getting paid to do it - a bursary is pay ?

As a 'nature peep' to have such a visitor was a treat to me.

And my knowledge improved as a result. Hopefully - his did as well.

What will I do with mine, I will add it to my hoard, to all my other 'Preciouss' memories, as Sméagol would say.

The battle of the blog continues. I am still having a hard time of it. Somethings cannot be clear to me, as I keep on repeating the basic instructions, and not getting the results I would expect.

Fortunately, as the billy-goat, I keep on butting my head, again and again, I must win, I have to, my sanity depends on it. I may still drive myself mad, or am I there already ?

As they say, '' Are we there yet ? ''

Winter is peeking at me, I am not looking forward to this winter, it has been a dry summer, and it could create the danger of veld-fires being a major headache.

The rain was not too much, yet, it was frequent enough to assure a good growth of grazing and all planted produce.

As always, we hope for the best and expect the worst.




 

For the record; J.R.R. Tolkien was born a South African. (John Ronald Reuel. Knew you wanted to know )

3rd January 1892 in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State, South Africa.

He passed away on 2nd September 1973 after a brief illness at Oxford, England.

He wrote a few books, and one in particular was very popular, so much so, it became an icon amongst stories about 'dragons', 'hobbits', and myths and legends. 'The Lord of the Rings' was a great success in the year 1954 and ever since.

Now why is this important, well ...

to be cont.......

A while later; the story continuesbr />
At some stage, there evolved a lizard, this lizard likes to sit on a rock, or an opening in the grassland, or against an anthill, and bask in the sun.
One day a man passed its way, saw its habit, and called it a Sungazer.
Still later, there was another person, he decided all animals should have a 'Latin' name to stop confusion. His was Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 - 10 January 1778) and he devised a system, then from 1758, the system was in use, till today.

By the way, his original name was Carl Nilsson Linnæus, also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné. He was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature.( Mostly Wiki)

Smaug is the name of the dragon encountered by Bilbo Baggins, the protagonist of J.R.R. Tolkien’s book The Hobbit. According to Tolkien the name is derived from the Old German verb smeugen – to squeeze through a hole. Like the type species, Smaug lived underground and was heavily armored. Appropriately Tolkien was born in the Free State province, South Africa, the core area of distribution of the type species. The name is masculine. - (http://www.reptile-database.org/)

Cordylus giganteus SMITH 1844: 35
Zonurus derbianus GRAY 1845
Zonurus giganteus — BOULENGER 1885: 253
Cordylus giganteus — ABRAHAM 1981
Cordylus giganteus — BONETTI 2002
Smaug giganteus — STANLEY et al. 2011

Carl Nilsson Linnæus, who has three names, made a system thereby made it easier for everything to have a name which could be used by any person of any other language.

Referring to the above list, it is clear how simple things are.

I still call it a Sungazer, and it does not mind.

and a few other names in a different language.

A Sungazer, by any other name will still be a Sungazer.
 

Found another nest of a creep.

There were 14 eggs; 6 tortoises were out of the eggs, the others are either rotten or we may still get a straggler or two. I doubt it though. Their timing seems to be perfect, every one gets out at the same time.

will cont later, Duty called, gotto go to town ...

Trips to town should be banned !

The reasons are legion; it sucks my bank account to a shadow of its former self; it tempts me with all types of goods, and then I want, I want more than I need.

I have been dancing around those books for a while now. This bookshop has a shelf with second hand books, and 'those' books are still there ....

Maybe next time ....

Had to renew my driver's license. My eyes were not good enough, now I may need glasses. How did I get it last time before my eyes were fixed ?
 

On a side note - yesterday, afternoon, the Prince and I was standing, chewing fat about this and that, when he saw a rock pigeon on the ground - alive, yet hurt. It flew off rather lopsided, as Prince tried to catch it, and landed in a tree a little way off. Consider the fact, the hunt took place on the 2nd April, and still the wounded are trying to get home.

Heard of the Japanese soldier who was still fighting WW2, many, many years after the war ended ?

----- The last Japanese soldier from World War 2 to surrender was Captain Fumio Nakahira, who held out until 1980 (35 years after Japan surrendered to the US) before being discovered at Mt. Halcon, Mindoro Island, in the Philippines. ----- This blog is written and edited by Michael N. Marcus, a writer specializing in telecommunications, and president of AbleComm, Inc, "the telecom department store."

Some never give up.

Today, one solitary baby tortoise was found. There are signs which indicate there should be more roaming around. The way to see where they have bred out is a oblong hole in the ground, about one inch wide by two inch long. Then the digging starts, and sometimes more will be found, some still in eggs, or trapped by stones, or busy getting out.

The one nest had a lot of eggs, most were attacked by ants, which fed on the egg's inner food. Only the outer shells, filled with debris and sand were still there.
 

This is magenta - the color. There is no purple - I wanted purple !

Thanks to fellow people (we will not name names) I now know tortoises go around in 'Creeps'.

A gaggle of geese I can hear, a murder of crows sounds correct, see the flocks and swarms, all of these make sense - then, a creep of tortoises ?

This is hunter - the color.

Knows an off color joke, quite a few actually, jokes that make one to be looked at - once you have told it; you can see the other mind churning, and the expression of "okay, now I know about his madness".
No, I'm not about to tell any.
The fact that I know way too many jokes, is bad enough as it is.

This time the joke is on me.

I have my wife in a bottle ! No, not the ashes, don't be silly ! This is no joke.

Actually, that is not correct, it a by-product of her (the kids are fine, ty) no - not one of the kids !

She has produced a (? - cluster) of cholestrol which is commonly called a gall-stone.

Apparently she was secretly producing this oddity or her body has - now, we never discussed it.

There it is on display for all to see, our latest conversation piece, and it cost a pretty penny !

What next ?

To be con't ...............
 

Another birthday, another year, another milestone.

Took a bit of time to think back on one of the worst years of my life.

The good, the bad, and the ugly.

The good: Everyday was a good day, except the very wet days when the baby chicks didn't not make it, that was not such a hot day. Or the day when the dogs killed the meerkat - that was not a very good day.

Oh, I got a new lesson in life; as I have the radio on most of the time (one forgets what value a radio has) - no - I have clothes on, and the radio is also on!

Some one was talking about how we should view the incidents of our lives, (using all the words which Kipling taught me - the why ; the what; the where; the when; the who; the how; (and my own addition) how much), after much reflection we should approach all incidents in such a way.

Control.
Sway.
Acceptance.

Which gives C.S.A.

Control:
Can one, should one, is one, in control of a situation, or incident, even a person ?

Sway.
Can one sway, influence, affect, whatever is happening in a positive way ? (There are negative aims in life; let us pass these for now.)

Acceptance:
Then accept the end result. Resign to the fact of the situation. Do what is required to get peace. It may be moving on, grieving, starting over or start again. Maybe simply; get stuck in and do it!

Easy peasy - as they say.

Rule number one: Is it your problem ?

The bad ....

The darkness called a few times.

Lost a few 'Near and Dear'. It is the way, it is the road, it is life - still - we ask; "Why?"

There were other losses in stock and pets.

The ugly !

For the love of money is the root of all evil. 1Timothy 6:10

Maybe it is debatable, yet, there is much truth here.

There are many other ugliness out there.

On the 6th and 7th, the baby tortoise came into this world. 25 of them at this stage.

It is autumn, this is very late in this unusual year.

Found another nest, it was empty, the other nest still had eggs in it.

Time will tell if more will be found.

One can have a bale of turtles, a dule of turtles, even a turn of turtles, no one seems to know the collective of tortoises

I'll settle for a basin of tortoises - see my face of book or is it book of face ? - funny !


 

My neighbor has decided to keep cattle, (this is not the good part - I will say when it is) the law states that a keeper of animals is responsible for the actions of what he keeps.

So new fences were called for, as the old fences were in a mess.

Years have passed since the last fence was tended to, it required earthworks, de-bushing, the works. Quite an undertaking.

Fire was used to get rid of the undergrowth, which caused a runaway fire, and I did say it has been years since ...

Everything ended well, eventually.

That evening - All the bird-life which have slept in the neighbor's copse, decided to overnight in our Eucalyptus plantation.

The copse is situated next to a swamp-area.

There was a swarm of stork, the likes of which I have never seen, flying in low and seeking a site to stay over.

Now - that was the best part!

Like proper tourists, they stayed the one night only.


 

KARMA:

That which bites you, may eat you ?

Or - that which you bite, you may have to eat ?

First - this is a re-do of a 'lost entry', the reason for the loss is simple - Me !

I forgot, ignored, did not note, the exact thing I was spouting about.

KISS

There I was carrying on about keeping things simple.

After-all, the periodic table start at 1 (one) and proceeds on, allowing for changes, adapting as situations arise.

Even the earth was created in orderly fashion, starting with day one ...

The bones follow the law, 'the hip bone is connected to the next, and the next, so forth'

This excludes certain groups; children, goats, women, and computer programmers.

Somehow, Karma ignores them !