SATURDAY SILHOUETTES #45

Welcome to the Saturday Silhouettes meme! This is a weekly meme that looks at SILHOUETTES in photography.

SILHOUETTE |ˌsɪlʊˈɛt| noun: The dark shape and outline of someone or something visible in restricted light against a brighter background.
ORIGIN - late 18th century: Named (although the reason remains uncertain) after Étienne de Silhouette (1709–67), French author and politician.

This post is also part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

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FALLEN

This post is part of the Friday Greens meme.

MIRANDA LAMBERT ROSE

Rosa hybrida "Miranda Lambert" is a wonderfully scented, bright pink tea rose. Named for country music star and Grammy Award winner Miranda Lambert, this rose lives up to its name. It is a beautiful rose with blossoms reaching more than 12 cm diameter and radiate a strong scent of rose and fruit. Petals are saturated with an intense deep pink and foliage is a complementary rich deep green.

Miranda Lambert blooms are double and old fashioned in form. The petal count is about 35 and the flowers have neat pointed buds. The hot pink colour is sure to be a stand out in the garden. Nurseries selling this rose donate a portion of all proceeds to the MultiNation Foundation, an animal rescue organisation co-founded by Miss Lambert.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

POINSETTIA

The poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) is a commercially important plant species of the diverse spurge family. The species is indigenous to Mexico. It is particularly well known for its red and green foliage and is widely used in Christmas floral displays. It derives its common English name from Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first United States Minister to Mexico, who introduced the plant to the US in 1825.

This post is part of the Outdoor Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Nature Footstep Creative Playroom Meme.

PORT PIRIE

Port Pirie is the sixth most populous city (2006 population: 13,206) in South Australia after Adelaide, Mount Gambier, Whyalla, Murray Bridge and Port Lincoln. It is a seaport on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf, 223 km north of Adelaide. The settlement was founded in 1845 and is the site of the world's largest lead smelter, operated by Nyrstar. It also produces refined silver, zinc, copper and gold.

The town was originally called Samuel's Creek after the discovery of Muddy Creek by Samuel Germein. In 1846, Port Pirie Creek was named by Governor Robe after the John Pirie, the first vessel to navigate the creek when transporting sheep from Bowman's Run near Crystal Brook. In 1848, Matthew Smith and Emanuel Solomon bought 85 acres (34 ha) and subdivided it as a township to be known as Port Pirie.

On 28 September 1876, Port Pirie was declared a municipality, with a population of 947. With the discovery of rich silver-, lead- and zinc-bearing ore at Broken Hill in 1883, and the completion of a narrow gauge railway from Port Pirie to close to the Broken Hill field in 1888, the economic activities of the town shifted. In 1889 a lead smelter was built by the British Blocks company to treat Broken Hill ore. Broken Hill Proprietary initially leased the smelter from British Blocks and then began constructing their own smelter from 1892. In 1915 the smelter was taken over by a major joint venture of Broken Hill-based companies, Broken Hill Associated Smelters (BHAS). Led by the Collins House Group, BHAS became the biggest lead smelter in the world by 1934.

The smelter gradually passed to Pasminco, then Zinifex, and is now operated by Nyrstar. By 1921 the town's population had grown to 9801 living in 2308 occupied dwellings. By this date there were also 62 boarding houses to cater for the labour demands at the smelter and on the increasingly busy waterfront. Port Pirie was declared South Australia's first provincial city in 1953, and today it is South Australia's second largest port. It is characterised by a gracious main street and some interesting and unusual historic buildings.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Trees & Bushes meme,
and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme.

ANZAC POPPIES

A solemn day today, as on 25 April every year, Anzac Day is commemorated by Australians and New Zealanders. It is the anniversary of the landing of Australian and New Zealand troops at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. The date, 25 April, was officially named ANZAC Day in 1916. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

In 1917, the word ANZAC meant someone who fought at Gallipoli and later it came to mean any Australian or New Zealander who fought or served in the First World War. During the Second World War, ANZAC Day became a day on which the lives of all Australians lost in war time were remembered. The spirit of ANZAC recognises the qualities of courage, mateship and sacrifice which were demonstrated at the Gallipoli landing.

Commemorative services are held at dawn on 25 April, the time of the original landing, across the nation, usually at war memorials. This was initiated by returned soldiers after the First World War in the 1920s as a common form of remembrance. The first official dawn service was held at the Sydney Cenotaph in 1927, which was also the first year that all states recognised a public holiday on the day.

Initially dawn services were only attended by veterans who followed the ritual of 'standing to' before two minutes of silence was observed, broken by the sound of a lone piper playing the 'Last Post'. Later in the day, there were marches in all the major cities and many smaller towns for families and other well wishers. Today it is a day when Australians reflect on the many different meanings of war. Gatherings are held at war memorials across the country.

The Flanders poppy has long been a part of Remembrance Day, the ritual that marks the Armistice of 11 November 1918, and is also increasingly being used as part of Anzac Day observances. During the First World War, red poppies were among the first plants to spring up in the devastated battlefields of northern France and Belgium. In soldiers' folklore, the vivid red of the poppy came from the blood of their comrades soaking the ground. The sight of poppies on the battlefield at Ypres in 1915 moved Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae to write the poem "In Flanders Fields". In English literature of the nineteenth century, poppies had symbolised sleep or a state of oblivion; in the literature of the First World War a new, more powerful symbolism was attached to the poppy – the sacrifice of shed blood.

LEST WE FORGET...

This post is part of the Through my Lens meme,
and also part of the Seasons meme.

BLACKBIRD

The common blackbird (Turdus merula) is a species of true thrush. It is also called Eurasian blackbird (especially in North America, to distinguish it from the unrelated New World blackbirds), or simply blackbird where this does not lead to confusion with a similar-looking local species. It breeds in Europe, Asia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to Canada, United States, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, the Falkland Islands, Chile, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

It has a number of subspecies across its large range; a few of the Asian subspecies are sometimes considered to be full species. Depending on latitude, the common blackbird may be resident, partially migratory, or fully migratory. The male of the nominate subspecies, which is found throughout most of Europe, is all black except for a yellow eye-ring and bill and has a rich, melodious song; the adult female and juvenile have mainly dark brown plumage.

This species breeds in woods and gardens, building a neat, mud-lined, cup-shaped nest. It is omnivorous, eating a wide range of insects, earthworms, berries, and fruits. Both sexes are territorial on the breeding grounds, with distinctive threat displays, but are more gregarious during migration and in wintering areas. Pairs stay in their territory throughout the year where the climate is sufficiently temperate. This common and conspicuous species has given rise to a number of literary and cultural references, frequently related to its song.

This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme,
and also part of the Camera Critters meme.

SATURDAY SILHOUETTES #44

Welcome to the Saturday Silhouettes meme! This is a weekly meme that looks at SILHOUETTES in photography.

SILHOUETTE |ˌsɪlʊˈɛt| noun: The dark shape and outline of someone or something visible in restricted light against a brighter background.

ORIGIN - late 18th century: Named (although the reason remains uncertain) after Étienne de Silhouette (1709–67), French author and politician.

This post is also part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

Please add your contribution below, using the Linky tool.

This is a small but select meme so please visit other contributors and add a comment - they like comments as much as you do!

AUSTRALIAN BUSH

"Gum tree", is a common name for smooth-barked trees and shrubs in three closely related genera of Eucalypt:
Eucalyptus spp, which includes the majority of species of gum trees.
Corymbia spp, which includes the Ghost gums and Spotted gums.
Angophora spp, which includes the Sydney red gum.

Gum trees are highly characteristic native flora of Australia. There are more than 700 species of Eucalyptus and are mostly native of Australia, and a very small number are found in adjacent areas of New Guinea and Indonesia. Corymbia is a genus of about 113 species of tree that were classified as Eucalyptus species until the mid-1990s. Angophora is the smallest group of eucalypts with less than 20 species.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Friday Greens meme.

MARIGOLDS

Tagetes patula, the French marigold, is a species in the daisy family (Asteraceae). It is native to Mexico and Guatemala[5] with several naturalised populations in many other countries.

The flower is an annual, occasionally reaching 0.5 m by 0.3 m. In some climates it flowers from July to October. In its native habitat of the highlands of central Mexico, blooms are produced from September to killing frost. Achenes ripen and are shed within two weeks of the start of bloom. The heads contain mostly hermaphrodite (having both male and female organs) florets and are pollinated primarily by beetles in the wild, as well as by tachinid flies and other insects. The leaves of all species of marigold include oil glands. The oils are pungent.

Used mainly as an edging plant on herbaceous borders, it is a low-growing plant with flowers of blended red and yellow in most varieties. French marigolds are commonly planted in butterfly gardens as a nectar source. Medicinally, many cultures use infusions from dried leaves or florets. Tagetes grow well in almost any sort of soil. Most horticultural selections grow best in soil with good drainage.

The dried and ground flower petals constitute a popular spice in the Republic of Georgia in the Caucasus, where they are known as imeruli shaphrani (= 'Imeretian Saffron') from their pungency and golden colour and particular popularity in the Western province of Imereti. The spice imparts a unique,rather earthy flavour to Georgian cuisine, in which it is considered especially compatible with the flavours of cinnamon and cloves. It is also a well-nigh essential ingredient in the spice mixture khmeli-suneli,which is to Georgian cookery what garam masala is to the cookery of North India - with which Georgia shares elements of the Mughlai cuisine.

Tagetes patula florets are grown and harvested annually to add to poultry feed to help give the yolks a golden colour. The florets can also be used to colour human foods.  A golden yellow dye is used to colour animal-based textiles (wool, silk) without a mordant, but a mordant is needed for cotton and synthetic textiles.

The whole plant is harvested when in flower and distilled for its essential oil. The oil is used in perfumery; it is blended with sandalwood oil to produce 'attar genda' perfume. About 35 kg of oil can be extracted from one hectare of the plant (yielding 2,500 kg of flowers and 25,000 kg of herbage).

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

THE OLGAS

Kata Tjuta, sometimes written Tjuṯa (Kata Joota), and also known as Mount Olga (or colloquially as The Olgas), are a group of large domed rock formations or bornhardts located about 365 km southwest of Alice Springs, in the southern part of the Northern Territory, central Australia. Uluru (2nd photo), 25 km to the east, and Kata Tjuta / Mount Olga form the two major landmarks within the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.

The 36 domes that make up Kata Tjuta / Mount Olga cover an area of 21.68 km2, are composed of conglomerate, a sedimentary rock consisting of cobbles and boulders of varying rock types including granite and basalt, cemented by a matrix of sandstone. The highest point, Mount Olga, is 1,066 m above sea level, or approximately 546 m  above the surrounding plain (198 m higher than Uluru).

This post is part of the Outdoor Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme.

NEW YORK CITY

The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. Located at the southern tip of the State of New York, the city is the centre of the New York metropolitan area, one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. A global power city, New York City exerts a significant impact upon commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and entertainment, its fast pace defining the term New York minute. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important centre for international diplomacy and has been described as the cultural and financial capital of the world.

Situated on one of the world's largest natural harbours, New York City consists of five boroughs, each of which is a separate county of New York State. The five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over a land area of just 790 km2, New York is the most densely populated major city in the United States. The city and its metropolitan area constitute the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States, and as many as 800 languages are spoken in New York,making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world.

We have visited New York City several times and each time we have enjoyed it, with always something new to see and always meeting interesting people and feeling very welcome. These photos are from a trip in July 2003.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.