Wordless Wednesday: Farm Animals

March 4, 2015March 4, 2015 / El Rolyat / 11 Comments

A Muddy Road

February 27, 2015 / El Rolyat / 12 Comments

It’s been almost unbearably hot this last week. I think the rains have gone, so there’s no promise of relief until winter comes. Even that doesn’t mean much around here – winter is pretty hot too.

It’s been a relatively dry season this year but we’ve had a few spectacular storms which wreaked havoc on the farm roads, making access somewhat tricky at times.

I took this picture last winter, the quagmire caused by runoff water from the centre pivot. Imagine what a 60mm thunderstorm can do to this road!

2015 #8

One Word Photo Challenge: Bittersweet

February 25, 2015 / El Rolyat / 12 Comments

Thanks to Jennifer Nichole Wells’ One Word Photo Challenge (and Google) I now know that the beautiful pinkish-orange colour you sometimes see at sunset has its own name – bittersweet.

Bittersweet

Here is my contribution for the challenge.

Pictures 006

Pictures 014

Pictures 087

Sit Down and Tell Me a Story

February 12, 2015February 12, 2015 / El Rolyat / Leave a comment

Cee's Black and White Photo Challenge: Open Topic

Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge: Tables and Chairs

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday: Which Way Namibia?

February 12, 2015February 12, 2015 / El Rolyat / 6 Comments

I meant to publish this post yesterday (Wordless Wednesday). However, after a series of thunderstorms our internet connection has been intermittent (as has our electricity supply!) so I didn’t manage to get away with being lazy and saying nothing about the photos.

These pictures continue with my Namibia theme and I thought them quite fitting for this week’s Which Way Photo Challenge.

2015 #6

Let’s Go Fly a Kite

February 10, 2015 / El Rolyat / 7 Comments

With tuppence for paper and strings, You can have your own set of wings, With your feet on the ground, You’re a bird in a flight, With your fist holding tight, To the string of your kite. Oh, oh, oh! Let’s go fly a kite, Up to the highest height! Let’s go fly a kite and send it soaring, Up through the atmosphere, Up where the air is clear, Oh, let’s go fly a kite!

Parcels With a Difference

February 9, 2015 / El Rolyat / 4 Comments

Around here it is the norm for most stores to have a parcel counter outside the shop where you drop off any parcels or shopping bags you may be carrying before you enter to do your shopping. You are given a ticket for your goods and when you have finished your business inside you produce your ticket and get your bags back.

I wasn’t sure if this shopper was dropping off or collecting her chicken.

2015 #5

A Fire Rainbow Evening

February 8, 2015 / El Rolyat / 2 Comments

Apparently fire rainbows (fancy name circumhorizontal arc or lower symmetric 46 degree plate arc) are rarely seen, which is a pity because this natural phenomenon is incredibly beautiful, almost ethereal.

Two main things have to happen for a fire rainbow to occur. The sun has to reach at least 58 degrees in the sky and cirrus clouds have to be present. In addition, fire rainbows only occur between 55 degrees N and 55 degrees S, so if you live above or below those latitudes you would have to travel to see one.

Cirrus clouds are fine, feathery clouds that occur at high altitudes where it is very cold. So cold that these clouds are actually made of ice crystals. These ice crystals act as prisms and when sunlight shines through them the light is refracted (or bent) and rainbows are formed in the clouds.

This afternoon the sun reached the perfect height, there were plenty of clouds and I was in just the right place to witness one of Nature’s miracles.

As a bonus I’m including this remarkable photo that Piet took on New Years Eve a few years ago.

It’s All About Scale

February 7, 2015 / El Rolyat / 14 Comments

One of the (many) things that struck me about Namibia was the size of the landscape. Everything towers or is vast and after a while you begin to realise how small we all are in the general scheme of things.

This Land: Namibia

February 7, 2015February 7, 2015 / El Rolyat / 13 Comments

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge for this week asks us to find a theme in the second and third verses of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land”.

In 1999 my family and I went on a camping trip to Namibia. Three weeks and seven thousand kilometers later I was convinced that country is one of the most beautiful places on Earth, and I’ve selected a few of the pictures I took for my contribution.

NOTE: These are scanned copies of photos I took with my ancient Canon A1, before I owned a digital camera (had they even been invented then?). Unfortunately the quality is not great (and I am completely clueless when it comes to picture enhancing programs like Photoshop) but hopefully you will get an idea of the grandeur and beauty from the few I have chosen for this post.

As I was walking that ribbon of highway