WUNDERKAMMER

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,
and also part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
and also part of the BlueMonday2 meme,
and also part of the Macro Monday meme,
and also part of the Through my Lens meme,
and also part of the Seasons meme.

UZBEKISTAN

bucket list: noun informal - a number of experiences or achievements that a person hopes to have or accomplish during their lifetime: Making this trip is the first thing on my bucket list. ORIGIN: Early 21st century: From the phrase "kick the bucket" = ‘die’, popularised by the 2007 film "The Bucket List".

Well, on my bucket list is to visit Uzbekistan! Uzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan (Uzbek: Oʻzbekiston Respublikasi, Ўзбекистон Республикаси), is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia. It is a unitary, constitutional, presidential republic, comprising twelve provinces, one autonomous republic and a capital city. Uzbekistan is bordered by five countries, Kazakhstan to the north; Tajikistan to the southeast; Kyrgyzstan to the northeast; Afghanistan to the south; and Turkmenistan to the southwest.

Once part of the Turkic Khaganate and later Timurid Empires, the region that today includes the Republic of Uzbekistan was conquered in the early 16th century by Eastern Turkic-speaking nomads. The area was gradually incorporated into the Russian Empire during the 19th century, and in 1924 what is now Uzbekistan became a bordered constituent republic of the Soviet Union, known as the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (Uzbek SSR).

Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, it declared independence as the Republic of Uzbekistan on 31 August 1991 (officially celebrated the following day). Uzbekistan is officially a democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic with a diverse cultural heritage. The country's official language is Uzbek, a Turkic language written in the Latin alphabet and spoken natively by approximately 85% of the population; however, Russian remains in widespread use. Uzbeks constitute 81% of the population, followed by Russians (5.4%), Tajiks (4.0%), Kazakhs (3.0%), and others (6.5%). A majority of Uzbeks are non-denominational Muslims.

Uzbekistan's economy relies mainly on commodity production, including cotton, gold, uranium, and natural gas. Despite the declared objective of transition to a market economy, its government continues to maintain economic controls which imports in favour of domestic "import substitution".

Illustrated is Bukhara, which is a city-museum, with about 140 architectural monuments. The nation's fifth-largest city, it had a population as of 31 August 2016 of approximately 247,644. Humans have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and the city has existed for half that time. Located on the Silk Road, the city has long served as a centre of trade, scholarship, culture, and religion. UNESCO has listed the historic centre of Bukhara (which contains numerous mosques and madrassas) as a World Heritage Site.

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.

SEDUM KALEIDOSCOPE

Sedum flowers mangled through a kaleidoscope...

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

YELLOW MOON

This is an image I constructed in a program called 'Mojoworld', where one may create graphic representations of planets according to parameters that are inputted. One may then zoom in on views of the surface. The planet here I've called 'Winterblue' and it is a world of perpetual ice and snow of methane. The sole big moon is getting closer and closer to the planet surface and physics says it will eventually collide with the planet...

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
and also part of the Blue Monday meme,
and also part of the Seasons meme.

ALIEN WORLD

This is an image I created in a program called Mojoworld, where one may synthesise different planets and then zoom in and capture views of the surface.

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
and also part of the Blue Monday meme.

BUTTERFLIES

The first image is a photo from a Melbourne Shopping mall, Eastland. The second image is my edit with a little help from Photoshop.

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,

and also part of the Monday Murals meme,

and also part of the Blue Monday meme.

ARTICHOKES

This post is part of the Blue Monday meme,
and also part of the Macro Monday meme,
and also part of the Mellow Yellows meme,
and also part of the Through my Lens meme.