Sunday, March 20, 2011

Butterfly


I went walking in our Church garden this morning to gather my thoughts before the service. I spotted this butterfly ... or is it a a moth? I took this photo at about 5cm (two inch) distance, with my Leica. You may click on the photo to enlarge to VGA.
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NOTE: A reader notes that this is a Zebra Blue butterfly -- belonging to the family of lycaenid or gossamer-winged butterflies.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

My "Tens Of Millions" Of Readers

This week one of my publishers wrote to me: "Thank you for taking part in our expanded marketREACH distribution initiative. Right now, tens of millions of new readers are discovering your book throughout the Amazon Marketplace and eBay." OBSERVATION: I do rather suspect that my publisher has suffered an attack of hyperbole -- that is, hoopla. However, I haven't checked my sales in about a year. Maybe they know something that I don't ... ! (I think this refers to my Electronics Scrapbook. Several electronics publishers turned over copyrights to me -- for love -- and I put them together in a book).

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Dunking Stool


This is the Church where my father worshiped, and his parents before him -- if not their parents, too. Note the stone on the left, at bottom. This is the fulcrum for a dunking stool. A wife who was a "scold" was dunked here -- or witches were drowned here. This was common practice just 200 years ago. I took the photo in 2004.

Disturbing The Peace

I went to visit another Church. With single-cylinder diesel engine pounding, I pulled up in the street outside. An elder hurried across to my vehicle. He shouted and gesticulated, but I only saw his lips moving -- I couldn't hear a word he was saying. I jumped out of my cab. Now I could hear him. He said: "Could you shut that engine down? There's a service in progress!" OBSERVATION: My "mechanic" (see a recent post) said: "I never heard such a noisy vehicle!"