Weekly Photo Chalenge: Chaos Reigned / Chaos Rained

A contribution to this week’s photo challenge on the theme  of Chaos. Taken just over a year ago on the morning the heavy rains arrived just as people were heading of to work. The ensuing torrents of water turned roads into rivers and chaos reigned (and rained!).

So far we have not had a repeat – the rains though probably now started have been overnight, but they are getting heavier – it’s only a matter of time before chaos reigns again.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Chaos Reigned / Chaos Rained

A contribution to this week’s photo challenge on the theme  of Chaos. Taken just over a year ago on the morning the heavy rains arrived just as people were heading of to work. The ensuing torrents of water turned roads into rivers and chaos reigned (and rained!).

So far we have not had a repeat – the rains though probably now started have been overnight, but they are getting heavier – it’s only a matter of time before chaos reigns again.

Weekly Photo Challenge: H2O of Life

We are approaching the end of the dry season here and have the odd storm – but water still remains scarce away from the Lake. This summer we have had constructed a bird bath, comprising a wheel hub, pole and some metal prongs it resembles a hat stand but the bind lid sitting upon the prongs reveals it’s true purpose. It took several weeks to attract it’s first customers but is now in use by birds of all sizes including the Yellow-billed Black Kites which swoop in for a drink.

Other birds include house sparrows, yellow-vented bulbuls, african thrushes and red-billed fire finches, a grey-headed kingfisher- all seeking H2O

Weekly Photo Challenge: H2O (of Life)

We are approaching the end of the dry season here and have the odd storm – but water still remains scarce away from the Lake. This summer we have had constructed a bird bath, comprising a wheel hub, pole and some metal prongs it resembles a hat stand but the bin lid sitting upon the prongs reveals it’s true purpose. It took several weeks to attract it’s first customers but is now in use by birds of all sizes including the Yellow-billed Black Kites which swoop in for a drink.

Other birds include house sparrows, yellow-vented bulbuls, african thrushes and red-billed fire finches, a grey-headed kingfisher- all seeking H2O

WPC – Look Up To The Skies

A submission to this week’s photo challenge :Look Up – looking up to see the birdlife around us in Tanzania and across Africa.

Black headed Gonolek

Roller Turn

Little Bee-eater

Black and White Casqued Hornbill

Roller Landing

Roller Close Up

Common Bul Bul

Bronze Mannikin

Hamerkop in flight

African Paradise Flycatcher

White Throated Bee-eater

Red Kite

Klaas’s Cuckoo

Swamp Flycatcher

Palm Nut Vulture

Red-billed Firefinch

Yellow-billed Black Kite in the sun

Spotted Morning Thrush

Yellow-billed Black Kite

Grey-headed Kingfisher

Weekly Photo Challenge: Opposites (1)

A submission to this week’s photo challenge : opposites

The bee-eater stands out a vibrant green and blue against the drab brown background of the scrubland.

Weekly Photo Challenge: (Feathered) Partners

A submission to this week’s photo challenge: Partners this one focus on the birds seen in our garden – part of my bird a day in June series

Mourning Doves

WPC: Spare (A Thought for the Rhino)

This week’s photo challenge is on the theme of Spare in all it’s connotations.

1. (adjective) Additional to what is required for ordinary use.
2. (adjective) Elegantly simple.
3. (verb) To refrain from harming.

As far as the first definition – this really does not apply – there are far too few Rhinos and certainly not additional to anything

The second definition applies in part to these amazing animals – simple grey colour and in it’s own sense elegantly designed. They are also extremely scarce in their landscape – so sparcely are they distributed having been hunted to near extinction.

The final definition is perhaps the most poignant -we should stop harming these creatures before it’s too late.

These photos taken from our trip to Uganda last year – not in the wild sadly but in a Zoo – one which seeks to bring ordinary Ugandans face to face with their own wildlife and to educate them on the threats to their wildlife. There are very few Rhinos left in East Africa where once 500,000 Rhinos existed there are now 29,000 or so. In Uganda the White Rhino was wiped out and is only now being re-introduced.

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Earth (Below)

A final submission to this week’s photo challenge: Earth. If possible I like to get some snaps of the earth from the plane whenever I go flying – these were taken at various points on the journey from Qatar to London in 2013 at the end of my trip to Vietnam  and Cambodia (the first half of the journey having taken place overnight). Pictures here from Qatar, Iraq, Turkey, Central Europe and UK (London)

Qatar

Qatar

Iraq

Iraq / Turkey

Turkey

Turkey

England

English Coast

Bangkok

London

London – Olympic Park

London Olympic Park

London

London

London

London

London

Weekly Photo Challenge : Earth – 1

This is my contribution to this weeks Weekly Photo Challenge :Earth.

Our earth is an amazing place So I thought I’d share some pictures of the fabulous places I have visited across this planet in recent years in Europe, Africa and Asia.

Dhow at Sunset

TAZARA Train

Gibraltar

Rwanda Mountains

On Elephant Back

Jinja

Tanga Sunrise

Vatican St Peter’s

Murchison

Serengeti Dawn

Kigoma Sunset

Gisenyi Overlooking Volcano

Looking down on Tallinn Old City from Toompea Castle

Zanzibar Coral Island

Copenhagen – Little Mermaid

Murchison Falls

Sunset over Lake Victoria

Phnom Penh Palace

Zanzibar Coast

Usumbara Mountains

Paris from Eiffel Tower

Lizard – Jan ’00

Elephant Dust Trio

Victoria Falls

Kilimanjaro Sunset

Jakobsen Zebra

Seville – Torre Del Oro

Overlooking Colosseum

Angkor Temple

Lanzarote Lava Flow

Lanzarote Evening

Prague Skyline

Sipi Falls

Weekly Photo Challenge: Abstract Flight

A second submission to this week’s photo challenge on the theme of Abstract.

Taken on the return journey from Rwanda as we crossed the Busisi Ferry we were bombarded by tens of thousands of Lake Flies. These were swarming around the floodlights on the boats and at the suggestion of my son we took a long exposure picture of their flight paths.

 Each insect illuminated by the beams and blurred into a mesh of patterns, almost fur like.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Dinnertime (for the Birds)

A submission to this weeks photo challenge Dinnertime. With a little artistic license as these photos were taken at Breakfast – but the African Pied Kingfisher certainly enjoyed his fish ‘dinner’.

Taken at Mwanza Docks –  on route to Rubondo Island February 2015.

A second Dinnertime a few months later at Wag Hill Lodge near Mwanza – this time a Swap Fly Catcher eating a Dragonfly for ‘dinner’.

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Millennial Future

Another submission to this week’s photo challenge.

Each New Year we towards the Future with hope and anticipation. No New Year was more anticipated than that of the new millennium which as far as we were concerned was Dec 31st 1999/Jan 1st 2000 (I know there is debate about whether it really should have been a year later!).

We travelled with the family to Penzance in Cornwall for a family celebration. This was early in the days of the Internet, before Social Media and Smartphones (we had one mobile phone between us and it was a Nokia 8210, on which the most advanced technology was texting!). We still used film in our cameras and played music on the newly invented CD or old fashioned tape/vinyl.

Looking to the future in 1999 we thought hopefully on the future – the Cold War was over and we had not imagined the horrors of 9/11 or 7/7 etc.

We were a family of three and lived in the UK – little did we anticipate that we would be living and working in Africa  with two teenage children less than 15 years on.

New Year’s Eve 1999 – Family Celebration in Penzance, Cornwall

Millennial Candle

New Year’s Day Walk 2000 – Cornwall

Who know  what the future holds – it is an  unknown factor over which we have only a little control.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Looking into the Future by Looking into the Past

These photos taken on Lake Kivu in Rwanda last week are a second submission to this week’s photo challenge: Future.

When we look at anything we are looking into the past as the light from the event, even an event like a lightning strike, takes time to reach our eyes. Yet we could also be observing our future – in this case the oncoming storm which hit just after we landed our boat.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Kigali – Looking to the Future

More than any other country I have yet seen in Eastern or Central Africa, Rwanda and in particular Kigali is a city looking to its Future. This is as much as to be drawing a line under its past but the futuristic architecture of the centre of Kigali is a testament to the distance this country has come in 22 years and its vision of a different Rwanda. Here are a selection of photos from our visits last week. Here is my submission to this week’s photo challenge.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Rwandan Landscape 1

A submission to this week’s photo challenge: Landscape

Crossing the border from Tanzania into Rwanda there is a change of landscape. Rwanda is a mountainous country, lush and green. Much agricultural land is confined to the valley floors, but is well used.Paddy fields predominate. Here are some pictures of our journey to Kigali.

Weekly Photo Challenge: (Uncertain) State of Mind

For my second contribution to this week’s photo challenge on the theme State of Mind I have chosen a completely opposite image to the tranquility of the last one.

In so doing I am perhaps sharing something hitherto unmentioned in this blog and in truth I will not obviously state it even here but maybe one day I will. We remain happy here in Mwanza in lots of ways but not in every aspect. There are big frustrations and even road blocks. Suffice to say the images of the much repaired but obviously decaying road bridge taken in Malawi last summer convey this aspect of life in Mwanza. It used to carry vehicles but is no longer fit for purpose. Not every road runs smoothly and sometimes the road is ahead is rough and perhaps is ultimately impassable, at which point you need to find another road. Personally I am hoping the road will eventually run smoothly again but for now the road bridge is a suitable image.

If this  is all a bit cryptic  – sorry I can’t be more forthcoming!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Seasons (What Seasons?)

A submission to the WPC:Seasons

There are I real seasons here – wet and dry seasons are the nearest we get but there is dry and sunny in the wet and vice versa in the dry, just more of the expected weather.

This week we have taken a break at Peponi on the Indian Ocean Coast of Tanzania, south of Tanga. The weather has been very hot and largely sunny. Here are some pictures of our week in the sun.

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
 

Weekly Photo Challenge: (Most of My) Time

 This post is linked to the weekly photo challenge:Time

 This is where I spend most of my time. My waking time at least. This is my classroom – the ICT room known as Babbage. I am Head of ICT here in a faculty consisting of Business and Economics too. 

 Today I have spent a lot of time in this room, having arrived at 6:30am, courtesy of an early morning swimming lesson for my daughter. It gives me an opportunity to put to bed the Reporting Templates for the forthcoming whole school reports. 

As Assessment Co-ordinator my role is to organize the system, so that colleagues can report on their subjects in Years 7-13 across the school. The spreadsheet system is simple enough to fill in but behind the scenes fiendish calculations process the data into reports. I enjoy working on it and I’m pleased with the result it there are glitches to iron out.

The start of school at 7:55am follows with classes in Years 8, 10 and 11. Currently years 12 and 13 are on exams, so a little more time solving glitches on the reports, during my ‘frees’.

Lunch time -and a heavy downpour means I’m not going any further than the Staff Room, two doors down.

   
I have an after school ‘club’ with my  year 11’s, aiming to give them greater practice and confidence in their practical skills ahead of their exams. This runs until 4:30pm.  

 The clock runs about 45mins slow!
The kids here are brilliant and so much better behaved than in the UK – my job is enjoyable most of the time and certainly working here in Africa has been an amazing experience.

Over 10 hours after my arrival I’m heading home. 

I’m sure many of you work in darker dingier places for longer hours so no pleas for sympathy just a recognition that  we teachers work longer hours than you might imagine. 😉

P.S I still need to mark those A2 and AS exams tonight – at home until late!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Vibrant Lizards

Here is a submission to the Weekly Photo Challenge:  Vibrant Lizards

The Agama Lizard is a vibrantly coloured reptile – one species is named after our home town in Tanzania – the Mwanza Flat Headed Agama is bright pink and blue.