"Horse manure's not that bad. I don't even mind the word manure. It's newer, which is good, and a ma in front of it. Ma-Newer. When you consider the other choices, manure is actually pretty refreshing." - George Costanza

Thursday greetings! Thought I'd favor you with a quote from the man I love to hate. Today will be a bit of this and that - a sort of stream of consciousness if you will. Let's see where it takes us...

Well, you would never have known it was June here yesterday - it was so cold and grey, it felt more like October. I did manage another very long walk (close to 5 km) and a bit of puttering in my yard, including spreading around my last bag of sheep manure. It's supposed to rain here today, (again) so at least I don't have to bother with watering it in... so I guess it's all good, depending how you look at it.

All this poo talk has reminded me that one of the gift shops at the African Lion Safari, which I visited last month, was selling paper products made from elephant dung. The line is called The Great Elephant Poo Poo Paper. These are not my pictures though, for some reason I didn't take any - even though I spent quite a bit of time admiring the product line.

I considered purchasing a few of these, but didn't

Are you a migraine sufferer? I am and it can turn a perfectly good day into a really shi#%y one (hehe - that's a pretty good segway, if I say so myself!) 

Painting of a migraine aura - Kathryn Beals

Last week I read in the news (and one faithful reader also sent me the link) that scientists have recently determined migraines have a genetic link. Interestingly, one of the three genes discovered are exclusive to women. I find this fascinating and while it's still not a cure, or even a diagnostic tool at this point, it is one more piece in the puzzle.

And lastly, further to yesterday's post, I watched video footage of the eclipse on a number of websites last evening, and happened to find this interesting mosaic of the event compiled by Marko Posavec in Koprivnica, Croatia in my travels.

Hoping you have a great day!

Greetings! I stumbled across this darling pic and accompanying story in the Daily Mail yesterday. The chipmunk, who has been named Eleanor by photographer Barbara Lynne, pounced on this tasty treat within minutes of her hanging it in her back garden for the birds. Gorging on as many kernels as possible, Eleanor returned to her den to empty her pouches and then dashed back for another mouthful until the entire cob had been stripped bare, all within half an hour! This is the fourth year this chipmunk has been visiting Barbara Lynne's garden in Ontario.

Our third and final chapter on our safari! I apologize for the heavy picture load, 

but I whittled it down to as few possible, considering how many I started with!

So gorgeous!

Owls are amazing creatures.

You can have an elephant ride at the park.

This was a great show.

Feats of strength!

Well, this concludes our tour folks, we hope you enjoyed the show. It's been our supreme pleasure - we hope to see you all again real soon!! As you go, please remember:

You can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals - Immanual Kant

Happy Friday :) A few jewels before we get to the second part of our African Lion Safari tour. A faithful reader forwarded me this video. I don't think I would have envisioned this design if I'd tried. Innovation never stops - I guess it is at the heart of man.

In science/space news, the uncanny resemblance of a galaxy about 30 million light years 

away from Earth, to our own Milky Way has astounded astronomers.

This is the best-yet picture of NGC 6744, a spiral galaxy described as a "sibling" of our own Milky Way.

The image was snapped by the European Southern Observatory's MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope in Chile.

The galaxy lies 30 million light-years away, in the constellation Pavo.

While it is almost twice as large as the Milky Way, it exhibits the same sharply-defined spiral arms and stretched central region.

There is even a small companion galaxy, visible at the lower right of the image, which is analogous to our own galactic neighbours the Magellanic Clouds.

Those arms host many star-forming regions; the glow coming from hydrogen gas in these active regions shows up as red in the image.

This is the second installment in our African Lion Safari tour
(a backrest on a chair in the restaurant)

Fyi: the monkey in the background is playing with someone's side mirror..!

Hate to admit it, but I am not the Monkey's biggest fan!

Perhaps we are the main attraction but don't realize it?

The ostrich above was chasing off one of these characters.

These guys made me kind of nervous...
They could make mincemeat out of any vehicle. 

After our lunch, we moved on to the petting zoo

I didn't try to pet this one lol!

Greetings! As promised, here are a few pics of my day at the African Lion Safari in Cambridge, Ontario. I was a child the last time I visited this attraction and so it was fitting that my brother, sister (and mom :) were also along for the adventure! I highly encourage you to follow the link above to the official website. A short video plays as soon as the page opens, so have your speakers turned up. There are a lot of animals at this park, so many in fact, that this post has been turned into a 3-part mini-series lol! Today the big cats (my personal favorite) and giraffes, tomorrow a plethora of various animals and Saturday, the birds of prey and elephant shows.

You don't have to tell me twice...!

The King of the Jungle

We were treated to some vocalizations that I think were calls
for the pride to gather at the lookout.

The first lioness took her place.

Rounding up the rest of the girls...

One by one they gathered by his side.

It's good to be King :)

We couldn't help noticing that most of the giraffes had sticks in their mouths, 
I've since found out that in the wild giraffes browse on the twigs of trees, 
preferring trees of the genera Acacia, Commiphora and Terminalia, 
and also eat grass and fruit.

 They can eat 65 pounds (29 kg) of leaves and twigs daily!

I liked this sign on the restroom :)