Last of May what a lovely start to this day

Been up all night, fed the birds at 4:30, worth waiting for this sunrise...the view from my bed.

Tinariwen

Tinariwen

I went to see this band when they toured Scotland, wonderfully earthy feel and truly hypnotic, their performance and message truly kindled my spirit and deeply touched my soul.

Saharan band Tinariwen tour Scotland in March as part of the Tune Up programme.


Background

Tinariwen originated in the Sahara regions of north Africa during its decades of political upheaval.


tinariwen.com

Band Members It's often said that every Touareg in the southern Sahara is a member of Tinariwen, such is the reach and importance of the band in their home territory. It’s true that dozens of different people have played, danced and sung with the band during their long history. Various crucial participants in the Tinariwen story are now for various reasons no longer permanent fixtures in the band. These include founder member Inteyeden, who died of a mysterious illness in 1994, legendary rebel and fearless desert groover Kheddou, who along with rhythm-guitarist extraordinaire Djarra have now formed a new band called Terakaft (‘The Caravan’), singer Wounou Wallet Oumar, sister of Mina, who died of a kidney infection in 2005 and bassist Sweiloum, who is taking vacation from music.

Meanwhile, here are the active members of Tinariwen:

Ibrahim AG ALHABIB aka ‘Abaraybone’ – Lead Vocals & Lead Guitar
The man who invented the Tamashek electric guitar style whilst a young exile in Tamanrasset in Southern Algeria. The inspiration and the source of the whole Tinariwen story.



Hassan AG TOUHAMI aka ‘Abin Abin’ aka ‘Le Lion du D..sert’ aka ‘Aharr’ – Lead Vocals, Guitar & Dance
The best dancer and vibemaster between Algiers and the banks of the Niger River, Hassan co-founded the group with Ibrahim back in 1979…favourite saying: “..a c’est pour les oiseaux ..a…n’a vaut rien!!”



Abdallah AG ALHOUSSEYNI aka ‘Catastrophe’ – Lead Vocals & Acoustic Guitar
Unlike Ibrahim and Hassan, who come from Tessalit, Abdallah is a from a clan of marabouts or holymen who live in nomad camps in the Tamesna, a vast arid desert east of Kidal. Abdallah joined Tinariwen in the late 1980s, when they were living in the military camp near Tripoli in Libya. He fought the Touareg rebellion of 1990-1 alongside Ibrahim, Hassan, Kheddou and Japonias.



Mohammed AG ITLALE aka ‘Japonais’
One of the most respected and revered poets in northeastern Mali, but too wild to be part of the touring party, Japonais contributed two tracks to the latest album ‘Aman Iman’ and spends his time with his three daughters in Tessalit.



Eyadou AG LECHE – Bass, Backing Vocals, Calabash
Eyadou has been Tinariwen’s bassist since 2003, and taking more of a central role in the creative process.



Said AG AYAD – Percussion & Backing Vocals
The man who can make a djembe sound like a fulll rock’n’roll drumkit.



Elaga AG HAMID – Rhythm Guitar & Backing Vocals
As self-effacing as his guitar chopping is cutting, and spot-on. You have to strain hard to see Elaga in concert, hiding behind Said and Eyadou.



Abdallah AG LAMIDA aka ‘Intidao’ – Guitar & Backing Vocals
The most recent addition to the Tinariwen line-up, and learning super-fast.



Mina WALET OUMAR – Backing vocals & Hand-claps
Since the sad loss of her sister Wounou, Mina has been treading the boards bravely as Tinariwen’s sole female member. She’s taking a break later in 2007 to have a baby (good luck)

The 1960s saw the first Touareg rebellion against the central Mali government. Ibrahim’s father was killed by soldiers for helping the rebels, and the young boy fled the Adrar des Iforas region (northeast Mail) with his grandmother into exile in southern Algeria. He became a wanderer, travelling Algeria and Libya doing odd jobs.

From a young age Ibrahim had been making music on self-made bush guitars, usually made out of a jerry-can, bicycle brake-wire and a stick. He played ancient Touraeg melodies and also imitated the north Malian blues guitar style that was taking off through musicians like Ali Farka Touré and Boubacar Traoré. He was also influenced by the musics of other regions he’d travelled through in his youth.

In 1979, he arrived in the southern Algerian desert oasis of Tamanrasset, a place favoured by exiled Touareg men at the time. It was also where he saw his first ever acoustic guitar, which he persuaded its owner to give it to him. In Tamanrasset he met two other Touaregs from his home region, Hassan Touhami and Inteyeden Ag Ableline. Together with them and two other women singers, Ibrahim formed a band. Its first name included the words 'Taghreft' (a complex word meaning 'the rebuilding', 'the reconstruction' or 'edification', but also the crew or the community who carry out this regeneration) and 'Tinariwen' (simply the plural of 'Ténéré', which means 'desert', 'land' or 'empty place'). Taghreft Tinariwen started to play for the exiled Touareg community and performed at a festival in Algiers. They asked another local band, Sawt El Hoggar, to help them out with equipment, and it was then that Ibrahim played an electric guitar for the first time.

Taghreft Tinariwen started to take on the role of the musical voice of the ishumaren, the exiled Touareg driven from their homes by droughts, political conflict and poverty in the 1970s and 1980s. The revolutionary Touareg movement, the MPA (Mouvement Populaire de l'Azawad), saw the potential in fostering the group's talent, and provided them with money for basic equipment and a rehearsal space. Tinariwen's songs of hope, struggle, pain, exile and nostalgia were carried to the Tamashek-speaking people by a ‘cassette-to-cassette ghetto-blaster grapevine’.

The older members of Tinariwen including Ibrahim, Hassan, Japonais, Kheddou, Inteyeden and Abdallah, took part in the rebellion which broke out in Niger in the summer of 1990.


When peace came to the southern Sahara in 1996, many of the band members refused offers of reintegration into the Malian army or administration and decided to become full time musicians.

Tinariwen’s music began spreading beyond their southern Saharan home, starting with a brief tour of France in 1999 and the first Festival in the Desert, followed by their debut CD, Radio Tisdas, and tours of Europe and USA. Their latest album, Aman Iman: Water Is Life was released worldwide in February and March 2007.

Red Sky at night my delight

Bedroom window view on Wednesday night.

North Eastern Sky



Northern Sky

Unicorn

Unicorn

An imaginary animal like a horse but having a single horn in the middle of its forehead, the hind legs of an antelope, and the tail of a lion. [< Latin unicornis < unus one + cornu horn] - from the Thorndike-Barnhart Student Dictionary

"The unicorn is the only fabulous beast that does not seem to have been conceived out of human fears. In even the earliest references he is fierce yet good, selfless yet solitary, but always mysteriously beautiful. He could be captured only by unfair means, and his single horn was said to neutralize poison." -Marianna Mayer, The Unicorn and the Lake

The Myth of the Unicorn

The Unicorn is found throughout world legends. His appearance has changed over time as writers and artists have taken poetic license and used their imaginations. The Myth of the Unicorn can be traced back to early pagan mythology. Oddly enough, this pagan creature was accepted in Medieval Europe, which was strictly dominated by Christianity, and the Unicorn even became a symbol of Christ Himself.

The Unicorn of European Myth was actually a small goat-like creature. He had cloven hooves, the tail of a lion, and a large spiraling horn growing from his forehead. This horn was said to have medicinal properties, and it was sought by many a rich nobleman. This creature would have been far too small to ever support the weight of a human. There are several sources from which the Myth could be derived. The most popular theory is that of explorers returning home bearing the tusk of the narwhal, which has an uncanny resemblance to the horn of the Unicorn. Also, sightings of the rhinoceros have been attributed to the growing of this Myth in Europe. Marco Polo returned to Italy to write of a beast with the head of a pig, the body of an elephant, and a single horn growing from its nose.

The Lady of the Unicorn was a predominant part of the European Myth. It was said that only the purest of maidens could tame this beast. When a Unicorn saw a maid sitting in the wood, he would came forward and docilely lay his head in her lap, as innocent as a child. This was the Unicorn's one weakness. Some tales tell of a Lady residing in a cave with the Unicorn. These tales portray the Virgin which loved the Unicorn. However there are more....

The Unicorn Hunt is a truly tragic tale. The horn of the Unicorn was believed to have healing properties, as well as to neutralize poison. This horn was a prize sought by noblemen for many different reasons. Now, the Hunt is where the Virgin comes into play. The Unicorn would only approach the purest of humans. So, these greedy noblemen would have a beautiful young maiden sit under a tree in a forest and wait. At time's the forest is known as the King's Forest. The Unicorn, who could sense a virgin -it is never told how - would come and docilely lay his head in her lap, completely trusting. At this moment, the nobleman and his soldiers would spring from hiding, and cut the horn from the Unicorn's head. There prize was gained at the expense of the Unicorn's life.


The Modern Unicorn

The Modern Unicorn is result of many different people's imaginations. He has changed from the delicate, goat-like creature to one of simple equine beauty. A beast ridden by a Virgin who he can actually trust not to lead him to the Hunter. He comes in every color and size, from the purest ivory to the darkest ebony and every shade of the rainbow in between the two. He can have the wings of Pegasus and take the name of Alicorn, or he can be given the leathery wings of a Demon and be a creature yet unnamed. Today's Unicorn is special to each of his followers, but he still holds the basic principles of nobility, selflessness, and purity. And he shall always be one of the most beautiful creatures conceived by the mind of Man.

"Today it is said that the unicorn never existed. However, it is marvelously clear that when the unicorn was first described and centuries later when the tapestries were woven, everyone believed in unicorns." -Marianna Mayer, The Unicorn and the Lake

Mermaid

Mermaids - Spirits or Goddesses?

Lorelei

For thousands of years, men have told tales of beautiful and dangerous creatures that inhabit the waters of the world. But what do we really know about them? Are Mermaids goddesses or spirits? In European folklore, Mermaids (and more rarely, Mermen) were natural beings that, like fairies, had magical and prophetic powers. Although very long-lived, they were mortal and had no souls. There’s more to the story than this, though. So many creation myths concern female sea dragons and/or serpents that I feel that there could be a connection in these beliefs and myths to the Mermaid legends. It was later, in the Old Testament, that serpents and dragons became associated with the Devil and Satan - dragons are potent symbols of good fortune in Eastern religions. The fish is a covert Christian symbol 'ichthys', the initials of Jesus Christ, the Fisher of Men, and the ritual food - the Christian canon draws connections between Mary Magdalene and the ocean. Throughout, we see a pattern of sexual tension and mystery. So who are the Mermaids?

In ‘particularistic’ religions there are no gods but a range of spirits, from sojourning ghosts and mortal witches to perennial beings, whose natures and dispositions to man are attributed by categories. For example, Mermaids and leprechauns are both usually pictured as irresponsible. Many folktales record marriages between men and Mermaids who might assume human form. In most the man steals the Mermaid’s cap, belt, comb, or mirror – some object which represents both her magic and her sexuality. If she finds the stolen item, she returns at once to the sea; but whilst the object remains hidden, she lives with him. In some variants, the marriage lasts while certain agreed-upon conditions are fulfilled and it ends when the conditions are broken. Thus the Mermaid’s fishy attributes represent her dual nature, neither wholly magical nor wholly mortal.

Though sometimes kindly, Mermaids were often dangerous to man. Some legends say that, if offended, they caused floods or other disasters; their gifts brought misfortune. To see one on a voyage meant an omen of shipwreck. Sometimes, like Lorelei of the Rhine, they lured mortals to death by drowning or enticed young people to live with them underwater, as did the "Merrymaid" whose image is carved on a bench in the church of Zennor in Cornwall. The Sirens of Greek mythology were half-bird rather than half-fish, but they sang with such unearthly sweetness that sailors wrecked their ships on the rocks while listening; this likely gave rise to the popular motif of Mermaids singing men to their doom or otherwise enchanting them.

Similar divine or semi-divine beings appear in other ancient mythologies, such as the Chaldean sea-god Ea, or Oannes, a Merman; sea monsters also occur in panels of Maori ancestral carvings, and they are occasionally female with fish tails and long hair. Of course there are many other legends of mythological hybrid creatures that frighten and fascinate, such as Echidna (snake-woman), Sphinx (woman-lion-bird), Chimera (lion-goat-serpent), Faun/Satyr (goat-man), Minotaur (bull-man), Centaur (horse-man), Pegasus (horse-bird), Hippocampus (fish-horse), Empusa (animal-metal), Griffin/Wyvern (lion-eagle), Barnacle Goose (mollusc-bird), Basilisk/Cockatrice (cock-serpent) and Mandrake (plant-man).

Rainbow

The World of Atmospheric Optics – Part One
by John Flannery SDAS


My heart leaps up when I behold
A Rainbow in the sky:

-- The Rainbow by William Wordsworth

Painters, poets, and photographers have long tried to convey to us through pictures and prose the beauty of that delicate brushstroke of colour we term a rainbow. But rainbows are just one of the many classes of phenomena that fall into a grey area between meteorology and astronomy – the world of atmospheric optics.

Rainbows, along with the “ring” we sometimes see around the Moon, are our most familiar and frequent types of optical phenomena in the atmosphere but a new and refreshing appreciation of the daytime sky is revealed by becoming being aware of the many other classes that exist. Many of the complex and beautiful patterns result, in most cases, from the interplay of light with two simple substances – air and water.

Mythology
Early peoples must have marvelled at the sight of the mysterious arch of a rainbow spanning the heavens. Just as many celestial phenomena became part of their folklore, so too we find wonderful tales relating to rainbows.

To a tribe in South America the rainbow was a serpent who grew out of control and threatened Heaven and Earth. An army of millions of birds came to the rescue and pecked it to death. The serpent’s multicoloured blood flowed over its body and also dyed the plumage of the birds. Those birds that did not help remain, to this day, dark-coloured.

In Scandinavian cultures, the rainbow was a bridge between Heaven and Earth. This was the Bifrost of Norse mythology that lead from the realm of mortals (Midgard) to the abode of the gods (Asgard). The red of the rainbow was an eternal fire that protected Asgard against the giants (Jotnar). Bifrost is destroyed in the great battle Ragnarok at the end of time.

How rainbows form
Let us explore though a little of the physics of rainbows and their many forms so we become more aware of how to look for them.

The French philosopher Rene Descartes performed a simple experiment in 1637 to show how a rainbow was produced. However, he did not understand the nature of light and it was left to Isaac Newton to explain its composition thirty years later. Contrary to popular opinion, Newton did not see seven colours but five. He assumed that there were seven colours because it fitted in with the scheme of the Solar System at that time – Sun, Moon, and the five then known planets (excluding Earth). This magical number could also be identified with the seven knows of the music scale!

Basically, a rainbow is a reflection and refraction phenomenon. Sunlight shines on the raindrops and the light is reflected within the drops back towards the observer. It is also refracted because the light is passing from one medium to another – in this case, from water to air. The various wavelengths of the constituent colours of white light are refracted differently thus giving us a spectrum which we call a rainbow.

A primary rainbow is always centred around an imaginary point directly opposite to the Sun in the sky – the so-called anti-solar point. When the Sun is on the horizon, this point is on the opposite horizon, but as the Sun gains in altitude, this point is displaced below the horizon. A ray of sunlight is reflected and refracted within a raindrop, leaving at an angle of 42 degrees – this is the angle it subtends from the anti-solar point. From this, we can infer that for a primary rainbow to be visible the Sun must be less than 42 degrees above the horizon. A handy rule of thumb is the higher the Sun, the lower in the sky the rainbow appears. A rainbow at sunset arches high across the sky but may actually just display a range of reddish-pink hues, taking on the colours of the setting Sun.

If the beam of light undergoes two internal reflections in a water droplet it exits at an angle of 51 degrees to give a secondary, or second-order rainbow. If you see this bow you will see that the colour sequence is the reverse of that of the primary. In a primary bow, red is on the outside edge of the arch while in a secondary the same colour is on the inside edge.

I referred to rainbows as “primary” or “second-order” because you can get even higher-order bows occurring. People looked for these for centuries but without any success. It was when Edmund Halley computed the position of the third-order bow that a surprising result appeared; the third-order bow is 140 degrees from the anti-solar point. In other words, it is in the direction of the Sun and so people had been looking in the wrong place for this bow all along! The fourth-order bow also appears in a similar direction but a fifth-order bow is partially superimposed on the secondary bow. Third- and higher-order bows have rarely been observed in nature but some reliable sightings exist.

Each time the beam of light is reflected the intensity of the resultant bow is one-tenth that of the lesser-order one. Thus, a second-order bow is only one-tenth as bright as a primary rainbow. It’s an important point to remember and one reinforced when you see both rainbows.

The many aspects of rainbows
The strength of colours in a rainbow are directly related to the size of the water droplets reflecting and refracting light. If are the droplets are fine enough – such as in mist or fog – you may witness a ghostly arch around the anti-solar point. This is the fog bow, often seen looming ahead of you in mist as a car races by with headlights blazing. A strong streetlight can also serve as the light source to see fog bows.

Droplets between 1mm and 2mm in diameter give rise to the most vivid colours in a bow. Smaller than this and some of the colours are less pure. Droplets less than 1mm may also give rise to supernumerary arcs. These arcs are interference patterns created within the raindrops and cause colour overlap. Depending on how the rays mesh together, the interference can be constructive, in which case the rays produce a brightening, or destructive, in which case there is a reduction in brightness. The arcs appear at the outer and inner edges of the primary bow.

When you see a primary rainbow you may notice the sky inside the bow is brighter than the outside. This is because light reflected from a raindrop is scattered more towards the inside of the bow. In the secondary, light is scattered more towards the outside because of the two internal reflections. When the two bows appear together this preferential scattering gives rise to a dark strip of sky between the two bows that is termed Alexander’s Dark Band. The phenomenon is so-called after Alexander of Aphrodisias who first described it nearly two millennia ago. The stronger the sunlight and rain, the more intense the rainbow and the more likely you will see a prominent display of the dark band.

As you can see, rainbows come in many different forms but there are some even more fantastic aspects to rainbows.

What about reflected bows? Remember what was said earlier about the rainbow being centred on the anti-solar point? Well, if the light source is reflected in water, it has the effect of creating a second anti-solar point higher in the sky. If conditions are right a bow may form around this point – a reflection of a true rainbow. What a sight that must be.

Formed in the same way as the daytime bow, the light from the Moon cannot match the brilliance of the solar disk so a moon rainbow is but a pale relative of its daytime counterpart. While sometimes we can see some colour, the moon rainbow normally appears whitish; the colours are just too faint to distinguish properly except with a time-exposure photograph. It is because of this faintness that we normally only see a moon rainbow near time of Full Moon.

Rainbows in my rear-view mirror
Because a rainbow forms from water droplets falling as rain it means that the bow you see will be as distant as the rain shower. This leads to the intriguing question as to how close they can appear. I once saw part of a rainbow just 30 feet from me, projected against the white backdrop of a billboard. That meant the rain droplets were falling between me and the billboard with the Sun directly behind my back. A beautiful and personal sight as other commuters rushed by oblivious to the display.

We have all seen rainbows caused by spray watching the bow waves of a boat cutting through the water, standing near a waterfall, or creating our own rainbows with the garden hose. I witnessed a more recent spray rainbow driving home from Dublin to Nenagh before Christmas 2006. The road was wet after a recent rain shower and the Sun was sinking towards the western sky line. Glancing in my rear view mirror as I left Roscrea I noticed the spray being thrown up by my car was causing two separate splashes of colour. What a fantastic sight; it was almost as if the bows were racing me home! Obviously I couldn’t admire these for long with careful attention to what was ahead of me on the road being more important!

Finally, if you are an occasional hill-walker you may have seen your shadow projected against low cloud or a bank of fog. Look more closely and you may see a ring of light encircling the shadow. Sometime this circle may be coloured. This is a glory, or Brockenspectre, caused by the diffraction of light in water droplets. It can also be seen from an aircraft as it breaks through a layer of cloud after taking off.

We’ve covered a lot of ground in our discussion of bows but still only just scratched the surface in our study of their different forms. We did not cover coronas (not to be confused with the Sun’s corona visible during a total solar eclipse), aureoles, 360 degree bows, or iridescent cloud, to name some other phenomena. Let us not forget though what the true crock of gold is at the rainbow’s end; it’s what we experience as we watch all these magical sights that nature weaves, a source of riches that material wealth cannot match.

wild flowers

"

David Webb photography

David Webb is a fantastic photographer and he has an great eye for beauty, also I'm bias as he's chosen nearly all my favourite flowers and nature scenes. He lives in Australia and it's great to see some pics from his environment. I thought I'd share some of his beautiful work here as it brightens this blog up too....Jasmine, orchid and bird of paradise are all Davids. There are plenty more to view on his blog at Davids-pics.blogspot.com... if anyone is interested in having a wee peek!

violet orchids

Martin Luther King Jr

In the spring of 1968, Martin Luther King went to Memphis, Tennesse, to work with a group of garbage collectors. They were among the poor people King wanted to help. He stayed at the Lorraine Motel near down town Memphis.

On the night of April 3rd, King spoke to two thousand people. He told the people to keep working for equal rights. He said "I've been to the mountain top...and I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we as people will get to the promised land!"

That was Martin Luther Kings last speech.


The following night, King stepped out on the balcony of his motel room. A loud bang rang out. King fell backwards. He had been shot.

The entire world was stunned by Kings death. A march King had planned took place the next day. It turned into a memorial march of thirty thousand people. People everywhere felt they had lost a powerful voice for peace and justice. But the gunman did not silence Kings message.

Kings dream for equality lives on in people all over the world. People still find hope and inspiration in his powerful words!

Taken from a biography focusing on the beliefs and accomplishments of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Junior written by Mary Winget.

Publisher
Lerner publications company
241 First Avenue North
Minneapolis MN 55401 U.S.A

Website www.lernerbooks.com

Bird of Paradise Flower

Rose

Jasmine

lily

cherry blossom

Dolphin

Lotus Flower

BatmansJet Ski Yipee

St Magdalenes on Sunday in May

St Magdalenes on Sunday in May

What a beautiful eve in May by the Tay

What a beautiful day in May by the Tay

What a beautiful day in May by the Tay

What a beautiful day in May by the Tay

What a beautiful day in May by the Tay

What a beautiful day in May by the Tay

What a beautiful day in May by the Tay

What a beautiful day in May by the Tay

What a beautiful day in May by the Tay