Bluebirds! Yea!

     This year has been a tough one for MY bluebirds. I use the word MY because I have had bluebirds in one and many years two boxes for as long as we have lived here (since 1997). But this year has been difficult. There was a pair trying to use the box in the backyard in May, but the tree swallows were protective of that box, even though tree swallows don't nest until later and only raise one brood. But apparently they like to stake out a box in advance of their needs. Now I don't evict tree swallows because they are desirable birds also. In the end they didn't even use this box, perhaps because sparrows took over.
      My two boxes in front were also commandeered by sparrows. I have faithfully evicted the house sparrows from all three boxes for the last 6 weeks but they just wouldn't give up. I would open the box and scrape out the nest materials and within a few hours the box was full again. So no bluebirds in either of the two boxes in our front yard. Finally the sparrows did give up but now there has been a male wren filling the boxes with sticks. A male wren will fill every box in the area to the brim with sticks and then only use one box when the female joins him. I was out in my "wild" area in my front yard (My husband calls it my jungle.) and I heard and saw the male bluebird just last week, so I knew he was again in the market for a house. This is probably he and his mate's second nesting. Bluebirds will nest 2 to 3 times in a summer raising usually 4-5 young each time. Sometimes that summer's first brood will even help raise the second brood and so on. What was I going to do with the wrens? So I found an old box without a hook on it and just laid it atop my trellis near the bluebird house and just kept emptying the bluebird box of sticks. Finally as I drove out of the drive this morning, I saw a flutter of blue around the blue bird house and the wren was singing from the trellis box and going in and out of it. So maybe I have finally made peace in the bird world in my yard.
     I miss the bluebirds when they are not here. They are such gentle birds and I love their soft bubbly call. Both help build the nest. The female incubates the eggs for about 14 days. But the male is ever attentive. He sits watch in a nearby tree, and occasionally brings the female an insect. Every evening at dusk, the male goes to the box hole and checks on the female before he goes to his night roost. Sometimes he will bring her one last insect before he disappears. Both parents feed the hungry young. They are often seen on various of their hunting perches around the area of the box, from which their sharp eyes spot insects on the ground. Then they flutter down and catch the insect and take it to the young. Shortly after we had moved into our new house, there were a couple of 2 X 2 inch stakes in the backyard put there as markers for the landscapers when they finally came to seed our grass. The bluebirds began using those stakes as hunting perches in the middle of the yard. I always said I was going to make a fortune producing these 2 X 2 stakes, paint them blue and print on them in black: Bluebird Hunting Stick. But I never made good on my plans.
     Being a bluebird landlord can be demanding. Some years ago we were having a lot of trouble with predation. I lost two females as they were sitting on the eggs; found her feathers on the ground around the nestbox pole one morning. That made me begin to use a 1 1/2 inch extra block of wood with the hole drilled through it on the front of the boxes as a predator guard. I presumed the predator was a raccoon. But over time I found that the bluebirds did not like using the boxes with the wooden predator block on them.
      One year we had quite a bit of trauma. I lost a female who had 1 or 2 day old hatchlings in the nest. I watched the nestbox and the male did try to feed the four little ones for a day. But on Saturday morning as I observed, I saw the male with another female at another empty box. He had decided it was more energy efficient and more likely to be successful if he just started over with another mother. I decided to bring the young nestlings into the house and see what I could do. I got on the Internet and learned that I could feed them moistened puppy chow in little pieces and I already had some meal worms on hand which I sometimes use in rainy cold weather to help the parents out. When I brought the little guys in they were so weak that they could barely raise their head and open their mouth. But I was able to get some food into their throat and they rapidly gained strength. I fed them about every half hour to an hour. This went on through the weekend. But on Monday I had to go to work. My husband said, "I'll feed them 4 times while you're at work, but that's the best I can do for you." Well, I knew that was not going to be enough. My assistant at work called a friend who was a certified animal rescuer and she recommended the Wisconsin Humane Society. They have a baby bird room where they rescue just such orphaned birds. When yy husband took them down to the Humane Society and turned them over, those little ones were strong and energetically begging for food with stretched necks and open mouths. I got a postcard from the Humane Society several weeks later that they had fledged my 4 bluebirds successfully.
     Meanwhile, back at home I knew I had to do something else for predation prevention. I already had "squirrel" baffles around the poles, but that wasn't stopping the raccoons. Of course the predator could have been a snake or an owl also. Again I went to the Internet. An article there advised to take hardware cloth and make a rectangular tunnel about 4 inches long and staple it to the house around the hole. This should keep all predators out including owls and snakes. So that is what I did for the next couple years. The only problem was that the bluebirds would not choose that box for their nest if the tunnel was on it ahead of time. So I had to wait until the female had laid some eggs. Then I would staple the tunnel onto the house. She had such urgency to get to those eggs that though confused at first, figured out the way in in about half an hour. The male on the other hand with less urgency took about 2 days to figure it out. But he did learn and entered through the tunnel to help feed the young when they had hatched. I did this for about two years. Then we decided to raise the level of the houses and put a squirrel baffle higher about half way up the pole. This might prevent the raccoons from being able to jump over the baffle and ascend the pole. The problem is that sparrows then will try to nest in the box. At 3 feet high, sparrows do not like to nest. Hence this year I am fighting the sparrows. At one point through the years I set aside one box as a sparrow trap and I have also tried a wire live trap for birds, but neither of these worked very well. You really have to keep your eyes on these traps to be successful. And I found that the sparrows often outsmarted me and just avoided these traps. Right now I am depending on the height of the pole and its baffle and hopefully my new bluebird tenants will be safe. As you can see it is a lot of work being a bluebird landlord.

There is a great site that answers lots of questions about nesting bluebirds and competition from other birds, especially wrens and house sparrows. I always liked having house wrens around but I have learned that maybe I have too many from all the years I have hung little houses for them. Now they are taking over the bluebird nest houses also at least with dummy nests. I think next year I will not put out any house wren houses and will evict the sticks from my bluebird houses. Maybe after a year or two the population around here will go down.

http://www.sialis.org/

Entertaining at Two of my Yearly Gatherings!

     What Else Do You Do When You're Not Blogging?  
     I like to take advantage of my June garden with the perennials: iris, peony, poppy, lupine, and clematis to hold parties for a couple of the groups to which I belong. Last Thursday morning I held the yearly retreat at my home of my Spirit MindBodyGroup. We met at the usual time and meditated for about 20 minutes Several people sat at my dinette table and meditated while looking out over Lake Michigan. This location is certainly transcendental. At 8:00 AM sharp, my "bird clock" went off with the chime for that hour: a cardinal's song, to bring the group out of meditation. Breakfast was served: quiche, bagels with various flavors of cream cheese, cut up fruit, orange juice, crullers, and coffee.  Then I presented a talk about Three Kinds of Spirituality as postulated by Ken Wilber and Andrew Cohen, in an article from Enlightenment Next Magazine. I plan to post my talk on this site in the next few days or weeks. Watch for my talk. The first type of Spirituality is called polytheism, or animism, or the idea that spirit is in everything -- we humans, animals and in even in rocks -- much like what Native Americans believe. Therefore I presented several of my collection of camouflage prints which have a Native American theme. tune in to one of the next few posts to read the whole summary of my presentation. After an hour, the group went outside to my property and did some walking meditation along the Lake and among my flower beds. Afterwards, I presented Ken Wilbur's Theory of Everything, from his book by the same name. We closed at about 11 AM -- another successful retreat!
     Last Friday I entertained my water aerobics group, the Water Wonders,  at my home. I had 22 ladies and 3 brave men for a potluck lunch. Everyone brought a dish to share so we had lots and lot of food. I made some punch--one spiked with vodka and the other identical but without vodka- containing blenderized strawberries, frozen lemonade mix, orange juice, club soda, and sliced kiwi for garnish. As I was shopping for condiments for this potluck at MetroMarket, they were giving free tastes of an appetizer that I thought had a great taste combination. If you can believe it, the sample lady was actually stuffing green grapes cut in half with a tiny bit of a Gorgonzola cheese and chopped pistachio mixture. I loved the taste, but hated the idea of the work involved. So I just cut the grapes in half, and combined them with 7 oz of crumbled Gorgonzola, and a similar amount of chopped pistachios, all together in a bowl and added a tablespoon of a sweet orange sesame salad dressing to hold the mixture together. I served it on some pita crackers. This provided that same taste sensation with a lot less work. The mixture of potluck dishes was extraordinary. I had enough seating at the dining room table, the dinette table and the outdoor patio table. At 1 PM sharp I presented my Powerpoint presentation of "La Folia" -- the history of a classical music piece dating from the 1600s, and moving forward to the score of the movie 1492, Conquest of Paradise. This is a very moving presentation that I have presented in various venues. Sometime I might post that presentation on this blog, if I can figure out how to transfer PowerPoint slides to a blog. In the mean time, use the following link to find the music, sung by Dana Winner, that culminated my presentation. I think you will find it very moving. I did!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T9ipPkr6Xo    

What Do You Do When You're Not Blogging?

     This is the month of June. I recall what busy outdoor months May and June were when I was growing up. Both my mother and my grandmother kept huge vegetable gardens, and May June were planting months. When I was a toddler, I know I was involved because I recall a story being told repeatedly. I was in my walker out in the yard next to the garden. Strawberries were coming on and mother had picked some into a pan which sat on the grass next to her large garden. Well, little Ann in her walker, "walked" right through that pan of strawberries. Instant strawberry compote! As I got older, I thought I had a very important job of holding the string taught between the posts as a marker for the straight trench my mother made with the hoe along that string. This made sure that the rows of veggies not only grew well, but the garden looked neat and orderly. Straight rows were very important. When I got still older, I was even allowed to plant the beans because they were large seeds and could be handled by little fingers quite effectively. When I was a preteen, the garden wasn't as much fun. One of my jobs then was weeding which I regarded then and still regard today as pretty tedious.

     Well, I don't plant veggies like my mother and grandmother, but I do plant a lot of flowers. And I have a lot of perennials which often need dividing, weeding, fertilizing and deadheading. So that is what I have been doing with my May and June. This spring has been even colder than it usually is in Wisconsin. I think that the flowering shrubs and bulbs were and still are about 3 weeks behind. On Lake Michigan, the leaves on the trees were not out fully until the first week of June. This is truly a phenological record in my memory. No leaves until May 24 -- ridiculous. Well, that is Wisconsin on the lakefront. I actually regard this year as special for me. I thought I would miss the spring, traveling as we did for the whole month of April. But due to the cold, I didn't miss a thing. Our forsythia bloomed for a full 3 weeks -- as did the magnolia. The daffodils sat fully open also for several weeks. Our flowering pear bloomed in June and so did the apple tree. Lilacs were very late as well. I usually like to find a bush somewhere isolated along the road and steal a few blooms. The only bush I saw in bloom was located on the south wall of a house where no doubt there is a warmer micro climate. In other words, the cold spring though annoying has stretched out some of my favorite flowering periods and allowed me to both travel and then return and enjoy this wonderful season.

     Here are some snapshots of my perennial borders with their current blooms and some of the annuals that I have planted. I think these photos show how much I enjoy getting dirt underneath my fingernails.

Apricot colored scented iris.



An unusual red and white columbine.



On left is a cream colored foxglove; right is iris, and behind, some dame's rocket that I allow to grow in my bed and then removed after they have finished blooming.

Some of my potted plants. I usually go with a color combination of shades of pink, and deep purple, combined with chartreuse potato vine and an occasionally yellow or orange accenting marigold or Osteospermia (African daisy).

This clematis vine went berserk flowering this season. The cold must have made it think that an ice age is coming and it better set seed this year.

Lupine. These nicely seed themselves and allow me to have plants to move around the garden.

Somewhat unusual: white bleeding heart. It blooms a little later and lasts a little longer than the pink and white variety.

A dahlia. I dig up the tubers and overwinter them. Some dry up but I often have some to plant.

Irises also went berserk this year. All of my friends are reporting this as well. Several of these beds last year didn't produce any blooms or very few. I was planning on dividing them this year and then, Wow! There is this huge show this year. Again I don't know what made them bloom so profusely this year. Perhaps the tubers were able to grow and spread beneath the snow cover this year. This is only a guess.

Got quite a nice show this year from a very dark purple, almost black iris I had purchased several years ago.

Here is my wild area; my husband calls it the jungle. I have neglected it for several years. Now I am going to re-establish paths through it. There is a lot of dame's rocket as you can see. But there is also a lot of cone flowers, cup plant, rattle snake master, and Echinacea. I am going to rejuvenate it by adding more echinacea from other places in my garden, some shasta daisy, and some of the baby lupine plants.



Our front door flanted by irises, shastas coming into bloom, and potted rose standards.



My back sidewalk.



Auschwitz: another moving event!

      I don't put things about Judaism very often on this blog. That is probably because I was raised Christian -- Protestant, Congregational. But I began to question religious belief and dogma even as a late adolescent. Even in college I was searching for other spiritual answers. I took a course in comparative religion in order to try to get some answers. But then came medical school, marriage, children, and there was no time to seek or determine what I believed. I became somewhat of an agnostic. But I was tolerant of most belief systems as long as they were not intolerant themselves. Now I am actively seeking by becoming an integral part of a local small group of doctors, social workers, counselors, healers, a Jewish clergy, a Catholic priest, several Buddhists. We call ourselves SpiritMindBody Group. We take turns presenting items that have a spiritual value and we try to teach each other what we have learned. I am also the blog author for that group.
     Over my years of marriage to an Israeli Jew, I have come to identify with Jewish thought processes in many ways. Unlike many other religions, a Jew is a Jew is a Jew. He doesn't have to practice his religion to be a Jew. He is born one and remains one. There is a strong identity that connects Jews living today to all those ancestors that went before, all the way back to the Old Testament. And as I often tell my husband, "that fellow is one of your tribesmen."  Because they were originally a tribe and I think their identity still remembers that. I am not a Jew and will never be one, but I am about as close as you can get and still be goyim.
     Hence it is right and fitting that I have posted a moving remembrance here allowed by Poland to be held by Israeli Defense Force members and the Israeli Air Force at and over Auschwitz camp in Poland. It brought a tear to my eye. We received this URL site from a "tribesman" in South Africa, Clive, our guide for 6 days when we toured South Africa 3 years ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfv3jsLGzL0

Please do not offer any justification to the Holocaust deniers comments below by reading them. Ignore them!

Here is another Youtube video about Auschwitz that might be worth watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6d-aKJCUqY

Moving Anniversary!!

On Friday June 10, my husband and I celebrated our 44th Wedding Anniversary. And there is also a celebration if you will, or more correctly a remembrance of the Israeli 6 day war. Yes, indeed the two anniversaries coincide. My husband and I were married on June 10, 1967 by a traffic judge in Madison, WI at the City Hall. My parents and sisters came up and we had some Israeli friends there as witnesses. I recall that the day before I had found time to go to a department store and buy a new dress to be married in. On that Saturday morning, my husband went over to Lowell Hall, the girls' dorm where he worked for meals for both of us. He took care of the swimming pool and needed to make sure the chemicals were correct for the weekend. Meanwhile I was back at our apartment doing my hair and painting my fingernails. I went down on the street when I saw my parents' car on State Street. Our appointment in the judge's chambers at the City Hall was at 11 AM. One of our Israeli friends photographed our hands with the marriage rings on them, and then a photo of us signing the marriage certificate. In the background on the wall of the judge's chambers was a white faced, black rimmed round institutional clock. As we signed the certificate, the ceremony was over and the clock read 11:09. Short and sweet!
     After that we all went out to a restaurant out at a shopping mall on the west side of town. Then my family left to go home. My husband had spent the week before the marriage getting our apartment organized, painted and with some new living room Danish modern pieces. We were having a party that night of all of our Israeli friends who were going to school, or who were on postdocs at UW in Madison. People brought food, and I had purchased beverages and paper plates, and cups, and made perhaps a dish to pass as well. But there was really not much celebration of our wedding because it was an evening in the 1967 Six Day war in Israel. The Israelis were keeping up to date with the occurrences as well as they could back in Israel and all wanted to share the latest information. I remember that the War was winding down on June 10 and so generally news was good. But our party was not a wedding celebration but rather an information and social occasion for Israelis, to share worries and commiserate about that war.

     From the Israeli News Service at the 40th Anniversary of the Six Day War.

1967 Six Day War - 40th Anniversary of Jewish Rebirth  (celebrated 4 years ago in Jerusalem)
by Daryl Temkin, Ph.D.
I wonder who will remember one of the most important events in modern Jewish history?


I am afraid that for most of the Jewish world, yet alone the non-Jewish world, this calendar date will lapse with barely a blink.


In Israel, events are marked by their Hebrew calendar date, and this year, the anniversary of the Six Day War comes out on May 15th, one day following the historic May 14th, 1948 date of Israel's creation. This is significant only because in the Arab world and for Arab student organizations on university campuses across America, May 14th is commemorated as the "Catastrophe Day". At many universities, there will be a week-long series of fiery anti-Israel speeches along with heated anti-Israel marches and vulgarity screaming anti-Israel demonstrations.

In contrast, in Jerusalem, the celebration for the "The Day of Jerusalem" marking the fortieth anniversary of the 1967 - Six Day War and the reunification of Jerusalem is commemorated by one of the most beautiful and moving ceremonies one can imagine. The main streets of Jerusalem's center city are closed to traffic. Tens of thousands of young and old fill the streets briskly waving hundreds of full size Israeli flags, and musicians are posed every few blocks with loud speakers filling the air with their songs. As the musicians play popular Jewish melodies, the streets become a dance stage for well choreographed circle dances and line dances -- each song with its own special dance steps. The joyous group singing on the street and the intense community dancing is a unique sight. Following the hours of this street event a community singing march to Jerusalem's Old City begins. The march proceeds through the Old City's ancient gates and cobblestone streets leading to the Western Wall - Kotel Plaza. It is estimated that several thousands of people file through the Old City's picturesque and narrow passageways to join in the hours of singing, dancing, and speeches commemorating the Jewish return to a united Jerusalem.


In Jewish tradition, the number 40 has its own significance. It often refers to a stage of maturation and accomplishment. The biblical Flood rains stopped after 40 days, Moses was 40 when he confronted the Egyptian taskmaster, Moses was 80 when he confronted Pharaoh. The Jews were in the desert for 40 years prior to entering the Land of Israel, Rabbi Akiba was 40 when he began his study of Torah, and 40 is the number of weeks leading to human birth. And now, this forty years of Jerusalem's unification is a monumental and historic moment marking the miraculous victorious Six Day War.


1967 was quite a different time. Israel had yet to reach its 20th anniversary. It had already experienced two wars. One, upon its creation, by neighbors who demanded that the nascent state be destroyed immediately and the second war, eight years later, when its neighbors decided to cut off and strangulate Israel's supply lines.

Prior to 1967, relatively few American Jews even expressed an interest to visit Israel. Israel's first decades watched an immigrant absorbing country developed at a slow and struggling pace. With minimal resources, Israel invested in military protection knowing that its Arab neighbors were preparing for another attempt to destroy it.


During the 1960's, international support for Israel was tenuous at best. Israel's neighbors were actively buying the most sophisticated weapons available. The world knew this but continued to make it difficult for Israel to compete. Prior to 1967, the volume of belligerence and anti-Israel hate speech from the Arab world was becoming more and more deafening. Egypt's President Nassar made his intent clear to the world -- that Israel's days were numbered. The theme of pushing the Jews into the sea became a steady crescendo on the Arab street. Time, Newsweek, and other publications reported military statistics comparing Israel's military strength to that of her threatening Arab neighbors. Israel was heavily outnumbered and out-armed in every military category. The military comparison charts appeared as if an ant was being compared to an elephant.


The American Jewish community, as well as much of the world, was bracing for the annihilation of the Jewish state. There was no imaginable way for Israel to survive the sheer numbers and mighty force of the expected Arab attack without the military support of the United Kingdom or America. But that super power support was not to be found.


Once again, the Arabs cut off the supply lines to Israel, a clear act of war, and without hesitation, the leadership of Israel commanded the Israeli Defense Forces to launch their attack.


Within hours, the entire Egyptian air force and all Egyptian air fields were disabled. In days of fighting, the vast number of Jordanian, Egyptian, and Syrian tanks became useless heaps of scrap metal. And then the Israeli forces entered the Old City of Jerusalem. After very costly and deadly hand to hand combat battles against the Jordanian Old City soldiers, in shock and awe, the Israeli paratroopers found themselves standing victorious in front of the ancient Western Wall of the Temple Mount. The famous and emotional phrase spoken into the Israeli army radio transmitter was the announcement, "Jerusalem is in our hands."


The world had gone to bed envisioning that by the next morning Israel would have been wiped off the face of the map. The resulting news was quite different. In six days, the Sinai Desert, the Gaza Strip, the Jordan West Bank, the Golan Heights, Jerusalem's Old City, and its surrounding areas were fully under Israeli control. All of the menacing Arab armies had been destroyed or forced to retreat.


West Point military analysts speak of the Six Day War as an inexplicable military victory. "Miraculous" was the West Point officer's explanation for the Israeli Defense Force's victory over what was believed to be impossible odds.


In 1967, it was still okay for an army to achieve an absolute victory. Subsequent to that date, Israel has not been allowed to defeat its enemy. In future wars and conflicts Israel would unbelievably be pressured by world powers not to accomplish a full military victory, to neglect enemy aggressions, and to even provide the enemy with guns and ammunition.


1967 was a time that Israelis were not told that they are "tired of fighting and tired of winning battles". Jews at that time understood that when their enemy says that they are going to kill them, the enemy means what it says and Israel does not wait to be attacked.


During that time, no one believed that the enemy could be appeased or that, if victorious, the enemy would responsibly stop fighting at the original 1947 UN lines. It was understood throughout Israel that there was only one thing that the Arabs had hoped to achieve, and now after 40 years, that goal of the destruction of Israel has not been relinquished.
Following 1967, respect for Israel and the Jews soared throughout the world. Slumbering and even non-identifying Jews began to proudly identify with the Jewish people and the Jewish State. Israel had accomplished a victory of good over evil, and few in the world had any doubt about it.


Forty years is a time of great significance. It is a time of reflection and rebirth -- 1967 marked the rebirth of the Jewish people, their values, their mission, and their right to exist and to contribute to this world. World politics has tried to reframe this Jewish Israeli victory into a defeat, and it is up to us to prevent history from being erased, eroded, or confused. The 1967 victory was a victory for humankind. The lessons of that era have not changed and therefore must not be forgotten.
--------------------


Daryl Temkin, Ph.D. is the founder and director of the Israel Institute which is devoted to teaching the historic and spiritual importance of Israel as well as presenting discussions concerning contemporary issues confronting the Jewish State and the Middle East.


(IsraelNationalNews.com)
 
This year the number for both our marriage and the Six-Day War was 44 -- 44 years ago these occurrences happened. Unlike the introduction of the above newspaper article, I will never forget that historical event in Israel, because it was so intertwined with my own personal life celebration -- a wedding.

Mystery Photo 10 Water Falls: Victoria, Iguasu, and Niagara

     Didn't see anyone gutsy enough to guess at these waterfalls. Well, I will tell you. The first two photos are from Victoria Falls located between Zambia, and Zimbabwe, Africa. These falls are unusual in that the very broad Zambezi River falls into a narrow gorge that runs at right angles to the river above the falls. This creates a falls that can not be viewed well in its entirety, except by looking up the length of the falls. Such a view obscures some of the sections of water because they are behind rock outcroppings. But this structure also allows the viewer to be quite close to the falls. We visited in the dry season. In the wet season, the falls would not even be visible so close up. There would just be clouds of mist and a deep thrumming in your chest as you felt the power of the water falling into the gorge.
     The 3rd and 4th photos are of Iguasu Falls in South America, located between Argentina and Brazil on the Iguasu River which forms a border between these two countries. The name Iguasu means "big water" and indeed it is a big waterfalls, stretching for 1.7 miles. Along that broad cliff, there are many small islands that divide the falls into 275 individual falls. But about half the water flow goes over a horseshoe shaped falls called the Devil's Throat. Each side of this large cataract can be viewed from each country, Argentina and Brazil. Some of the areas of falls are two tiered or even three tiered. The gorge broadens and boats can be taken from below up to the bottom of the falls. It is notable that when Eleanor Roosevelt visited Iguasu she was noted to remark, "Oh, poor Niagara!"
     The 5th and 6th photos are of Niagara. We are probably all more familiar with this falls, on the Niagara River on the border between New York State, and Canada. Of course we know that the Canadian side of the falls, the Horseshoe Falls is the larger separated from the American Falls by Goat Island which belongs to the US. The gorge for Niagara Falls is very broad and very large, such that quite large tour boats can be taken to the base of the falls. Further downstream on the Niagara River there are other sites including a large whirlpool over which one can ride in a cable car.
     There are taller waterfalls than these three in the world, but most are much smaller in breadth and often more wispy. I believe these three falls to be the most magnificent in the world. Put them on your "Bucket List" to see before you leave this earth.

Guess the city depicted in these photos?

     Here is another photo mystery. This is not of my creation. My husband and I have not traveled there. The city pictured here is spoken of in the media very often and certainly the image we have of this location in the United States media is far different than what is shown in these photos. Look at all the photos, try to guess the city (the name of the city appears at the bottom of the line of photos.) Then ask yourself if our newsmedia in this country is publishing complete and truthful information.

http://britanniaradio.blogspot.com/2010/08/can-you-guess-location-of-these.html

     Enough said. This post needs to be sent all over the world to educate people where the national Western newsmedias have failed.

     What do you think"

Mystery Photo 10

     There are three very famous water falls in the world. We have traveled to each one of them. They are Iguasu Falls, Victoria Falls, and Niagara Falls. Below are several photos of waterfalls. Please match the photo with the waterfall name. There are two photos for each of these major water falls. For this one, I need you to answer in the comment section please.