It’s Blog Action Day today, and the topic this year is Water…

I didn’t go anywhere special today that had water… but when I got to my mom’s house and saw that Connor was washing his dishes, I knew this would be my photo and post for the day.
Connor, at the age of 3, is already conscious about the amount of water he uses at home. Part of the reason, is that TV advert on Ceebeebees which is a cartoon and warns kids about turning the taps off while brushing their teeth. I didn’t actually think he understood it, until I was running bath water a few weeks ago, and he said we mustn’t use too much because then there wouldn’t be enough water for the fishes in the sea!!

Bradley and Lance went to the movies, so I decided that Connor needed a special one on one treat too.  We decided to go to the Bird Park at Montecasino. The last time I took him there was when he was very very little, and in a pram and in nappies… and he doesn’t remember the place.  It was time! I knew he’d enjoy the Flight of Fantasy show now, and he’s old enough to sit through it.  And I was right… we had a ball together.  In fact, I think we need to do this more often… he never gets to do something special on his own.

We went into the lorikeet aviary first with a dish of nectar, hoping to feed them.  Here I have a problem… very exciting for Connor… yet idiotic to sell me a tub of syrupy stuff in the afternoon when the birds have clearly had their fill! Anyhoo, he enjoyed trying anyway.

And then it was 3pm and time for the show in the amphitheatre.

I just loved the Eagle Owl   And I LOVE the photos I managed to get this time… what a difference a proper lens makes… and 3 years more photo experience .  I used the 70-200mm f2.8 for the whole show.

This cape vulture is a rescued bird, and was a victim of poisoning.

And see this massive burmese python?  Well, the handler let Connor and I touch it.  Connor touched it so very quickly that I didn’t even manage to get a photo

and what’s an outing without ice cream?

See the full set of 2010 photo-a-day photos on my Project 365 Flickr Set.

The highlight of my evening last night (it was a quiet one) was taking photos of the moon!

I’d read in the newspaper earlier in the day, that it was a Blue Moon and that there was a partial eclipse expected around 8:30pm.  And then I promptly forgot about it!

Then, I took Bradley outside last night to see if we could see the fireworks that were going beserk in the area… but all we saw was this beautiful moon.  So of course I had to rush inside, get my camera and tripod and see if I could capture it!

For those that don’t know, a Blue moon is a full moon, when there’s already been a full moon during that month.  The next time it’ll occur is in August 2012.   It’s extremely rare for it to occur on New Years Eve, and even more rare for a lunar eclipse on the same night!

Edited to add the link to the Atronomy photo of the day from that date… now that’s how to take a photo of the moon!

I signed up for Blog Action Day this year as soon as I got wind of the site being online.  This is the third annual Blog Action Day I’ve taken part in, and it really is a challenge considering this is a photoblog… especially because the theme this year is not very conducive to photos that I can take at home… or so I thought, until I read an article about how even the succulents are being affected by the change in climates around the world.

For some reason, I assumed that because succulents thrive in hot and dry areas in South Africa, that the prevalence of these plants would be increasing because of the change in climates.

Turns out I was wrong… I seriously didn’t realise how much water is required to farm aloes and to grow other succulents.

For example, an Aloe Vera plant required 150l of water a month to live. Aloe Vera plants that survive drought conditions end up with bitter and strong smelling gel which renders them useless for farming because the gel cannot be used.  As a result, the aloe farms in Australia for example, have mostly shut down.  It’s not only in Australia, populations of Aloe dichotoma are declining the northern areas in South Africa as I type.

In fact, according to the one article I found this evening, the entire Karoo succulent population is under threat!!

And in response… there’s a website that seems to be aimed at the people that live in the Karoo area that deals primarily with the climate change issues in the area!

This has been quite an interesting topic to blog about actually, and I’ve enjoyed reading through other bloggers’ interpretations of the theme, and I’ve learnt quite a bit today.  Do yourself a favour, and visit the Blog Action Day site, watch this video explaining more about this event and learn about how our world is changing…. and then blog about it too!

Not only was today Election day in South Africa, but it’s also Earth Day, and as I mentioned a few days ago, there’s a little project on the go called Earthmosaic.  I just had to play along, and take some photos today to submit to the mosaic.

I took the first one at home in my garden.  It’s an indigenous flower called a Osteopermum.

Then after lunch (my mom and sister came over for a braai/barbeque), my mom and I hopped in the car to Honeydew to find a spot to take some photos.  A guy who owns a plot next to the strip of veld where we were taking photos, chatted to us and said we should wait for the sunsets… but we’ll have to go back for those shots another day… we needed to get to the polling station to cast our vote!

I just love the light in the photos… these are basically SOOC just with a little contrast added.