Fibonaci Spiral

Mathematics has been around since before man learned how to use his fingers to count to 10, (I was always under the impression that it had been invented by sadistic teachers to torture math's illiterates like myself) the whole of the universe is one great mathematical equation, and the Fibonaccci spiral is part of it.

Fibonacci an 15th century  Italian mathematician who discovered this spiral.

For those of you who are not mathematically illiterate like myself, above the spiral and the maths formula that goes with it.

In the left of the picture is a diagram of how it looks and a close up photo of a flower where you can see the spirals clearly, 34 to the right and 21 to the left.

Fibonacci spiral in a hurricane moving over what looks to me like Florida below.

In a spiral galaxy.

In a snail's shell. Look closely at things, another of millions of examples, is a pine cone.

Photos and diagrams from Wikipedia.

Up close and persona.

Used my magnifying lenses (not quite macro) and got this shot. Magnification x 6.

Click to enlarge.

End of an era.

All good things come to an end eventually. After nine years of teaching Drakensview Primary School, the governing body decided that all teacher 65 years and over had to go, well I was nearing the end of my 68th year so I was one of three that had to go. The first two years that I was there I taught English and History to grade 7, at the beginning of 2009 I took over the library. I have had no formal teacher training, lots experience though (been teaching since 1996) but I do have two library degrees a B.Bibl degree in Library and Information Science, a four year degree, and I have a post graduate Honours Bachelor of Library Science (B.Bibl Hons) from the University of South Africa, (UNISA) a distance learning institute. 

I enjoyed every day that I worked at Drakensview, I can't remember one day where I thought I'm not in the mood to face another day at school, work was a pleasure! Actually I can't remember one job in my working life that I didn't enjoy.

Come end of year and at the last assembly of the year for the Foundation Phase, gd's 1 - 3, I was invited to attend and given a certificate and a gift bag full of goodies.

Click on image to enlarge.

Above is the certificate I was given, if you enlarge the image and look in the bottom left hand corner you will see Worm Fixations and right at the bottom left Glow-worm. This refers to a comment I made in November. On the 3rd of December I had to go to hospital for what the medical profession calls a "procedure", in real English an operation. The "procedure" was Brachy-therapy, which is where they implant radio active pellets into the prostate glad to combat prostate cancer, (seems to have worked). Well before I went in for the "procedure", I told everyone in the staff room during tea time one day that when I'm radio active I will have a Light Sabre like Luke Sky-Walker in Star Wars, and at night when I go to toilet I won't have to switch on any lights, all I need to do is take out my Light Sabre and light my way. Someone muttered under their breath, "he means his glow-worm". Who needs enemies when you've got friend like that.

Above is the gift bag specially made for me, the fish and the lettering were cut out and carefully pasted on to the bag.

At our year end function at one of the posh Berg hotels I was presented with this clock. Here again all the letters and numbers were carefully cut out and glued onto the clock face. This was done by one of the school secretaries, Lindy Naude, in her spare time at home. To say that I was deeply touched by these tokens of affection would be putting it mildly.

I will write about my new career in a following post, just to say I'm now a member of the SAVF. What is the SAVF? The SAVF is an NPO (non profit charity organisation) that has almost 400 institutions under it's wing, old age homes, frail care centers, orphanages, creches, etc,. And what do the letters SAVF stand for? Suid Afrikaanse Vroue Federasie, translation South African Women's Federation, founded in 1903. Google SAVF South Africa for the whole history.

How come a man is member of a women's organisation, as I said more about that later just to say I'm still involved in education.

Photography.

When you look at a photo sometimes what you see is not always what really was, with photo editing programs you can do wonderful things.

Click on photo to enlarge.

The photo above is actually the blending of two separate photos, I also enhanced the colours  a bit. Below are the two photos I used to create the one above.

This is the flower on the left in the first photo, here the change in colour is very noticeable.

This is the flower on the right.

This photo is as it was taken. 

Garden flowers.

These photos are of flowers that grow on the edge of my front veranda, how they got there I don't know, but I enjoy them very much. Don't ask me what the name of this flower is, I just don't know, maybe someone out there can tell me.

Click on the photos to enlarge.

The photo above was taken two weeks ago. The rest were taken day before yesterday.

All these photos were taken in the middle of the day in bright sunlight. Not the best time of day to take photos according to the experts.

The secret is to under expose, my exposure was set for the light coming of the flower itself, not the background, which is much darker . I used a Canon  85mm zoom lens with the camera on a tripod and zoomed in up close.

One can't believe that a common fly can have beauty, but enlarge this photo and look at the fly in the middle of this flower.

My F stop for all these photos was F20, gives a nice depth of field, with a very high shutter speed. The fast shutter speed excludes most of the background clutter.

For most of the photos I was down low, actually sitting on the ground.

Bella, a happy pup.

Bella is a small Scottish terrier, not a pup any more, but a dog of at least a year old, she belongs to my land lord's grand daughters. Bella knows that every afternoon, +- 4 pm,  I take my three dogs and Bear, my landlords Alsatian, and go for a long walk around the farm, 4 - 5 km every afternoon. At about 3:30 Bella turns up at my cottage and watches every move I make so that when I walk out the back gate she's there with me and the other dogs. 

Small, I doubt she ways a kilogram wet, but plucky. She should be sitting on a velvet cushion with a pink bow in her hair,(the normal picture of Scotties) not her, the African veld is her heaven, loves to hunt and chase things, no matter how big. Her cuteness is all put on, in her heart she is a killer dog.

Bella in a rain puddle after a hot 4 km walk. Click to enlarge picture. (Photo by Enrico Bucceri aka the Italian Leprechaun). 

  

Life.

No comment needed.

My photo, Mother Teresa's words.

Doreen.

Doreen that's the name of the scale model steam engine pictured below. 

While my friend Jane and I were staying at Lemon wood, we went to a place called "Pigley Wigley", I kid you not that's it's name. One of the tourist spots on the Natal Midlands Meander.  

There was a time when the smallest "Dorp" (village) was connected to the national railroad system. The South African Railways was a state owned railway with thousands of kilometers of railroad track covering the whole country. Until the 1970's most of it was used by steam trains except the mainlines between major cities which was electrified.
  

By the 1990's most of the branch lines had closed. In most small towns you will still find old forlorn and dilapidated station buildings, a sad reminder of the golden age of steam.

I still remember the excitement of my brother and I (we lived in Durban, early 1950's)  when our parents took my brother and I to visit my mothers grandfather who had a farm near the small town of Donnybrook in  the East Grigualand land area of southern Natal. We loved to ride on the "Donnybrook train". Today the trip by car would take you 3 or 4 hours, back then it was an overnight journey, nothing beats sleeping on a train. These trips were made two or three time a year and could hardly wait for the next one.

On the side of the side of the locomotive is the emblem of the South African Railways. During my lifetime I have traveled thousands of kilometers by train.

One of South Africa's tourist icons is Rovos rails passenger steam train a five star hotel on wheels. Google Rovos rail and see for yourself.  

Cosmos flowers.

The cosmos season only lasts a few weeks here, but while it does there are thousands of photo opportunities.

Click to enlarge.

I can almost imagine fairies dancing around this flower.

They appear suddenly in the 2nd week of March and by the 3rd week of April the show is over.

You hardly ever find these flowers out in the open fields but always next to farm and country dirt roads.

Profusion or prolific doesn't even begin to describe the the billions of these flowers that line South Africa's highways and byways in autum!

Lemonwood cottages.

A couple of weeks ago a friend and I spent a weekend at a small holiday resort on the "Midlands Meander", in the Natal midlands. The Midlands Meander is a tourism promotion entity which promotes tourism in the area between the towns of Mooi River and Howick on the N3 highway heading east to the harbour city of Durban. Howick is about 40km eat of Mooi River.

All sorts of artist and crafts people have settled here, you can buy hand made furniture, pottery, leather work, paintings, etc., etc.You can have you're pick of the kind of accommodation or holiday you would like to have, from five star hotels and spas to very basic camping facilities. My favourite place is the second hand bookshop at "Piggly Wiggely", promise you that's the place's name and more about that in the next post.

It covers a huge area and as you travel on the winding roads through lush farm lands you see signs directing you to Wedding and Conference resorts, I counted about six, (it's the in thing to have your wedding at one of these places), Golf resorts, health spas, beauty spas, you name it they've got it.

My friend and I choose one of the smaller and cheaper places called Lemonwood at R325 per person per night, (less than $30 US dollars).Two bedrooms two bathrooms, loung/dining room and fully fitted kitchen. You do you're own cooking, (if you don't feel like cooking there are restaurants that cater for every taste, and pocket, in every direction). The cottages come with bedding, towels, crockery, cutlery, etc. You don't have to clean up or make your bed as the cottages are serviced every day, just bring your own food and drink.

Click to enlarge.

A view from Lemonwood, looking over lush, intensely cultivated farm land.

The road leading into the resort.

One of the smaller cottages.

The cottage we stayed in, large swimming pool right in front.

Indigenous forest behind the cottages. Lemonwood is part of the Dargle conservancy. A conservancy is where the land owners get together and protect the fauna and flora of an area, like in the Dargle distrct.

Google Natal Midlands Meander, a great place to spend some time.

A different angle.

A cosmos flower taken from the side.

Click to enlarge.

Did not know how it would come out when took this photo.

Cosmos

Went out at sunrise yesterday and took these photos. Getting to know my new camera.

Click to enlarge:

A flower of a vine growing among'st the ripening maize.

Cosmos.

A weed, one of the few good things to come out of our 2nd War of Independence, (Boer War 1899 - 1902). Came with British imported horse feed from Argentina. 

Took the British Empire, at the high't of it's Imperial power, three years to defeat a handful of peasant farmers.

Cosmos flowers come in white and purple, and various shades of pink.

Still Life.

Spent four afternoons last week doing a photography course with a professional photographer. The last lesson was a still life photograph. To get the following photo took about 40 photos. The object was placed on a black cloth backdrop and the photo had to look as if it was floating in space. I eventually got it (almost) right!.

Click to enlarge,

It's not 100%, (slight blue tinge left back, (but I think I got the idea). The roses were slightly wilted but I liked the motto. 

Festive season??

This time of the year is called the "festive season" here in the good old R of SA. Well for many it becomes a season of tragedy and immense sadness due to the carnage on our roads at this time of the year.

Last Saturday the Italian Leprechaun and I went to fetch a friend from hospital in Pietermaritzburg. As we got on to the N3 highway heading south I knew this drive was going to be no picnic. The traffic was bumper to bumper on both the south bound lanes and and almost as bad on the north bound. There is no room for evasive action if someone should do something stupid in front of you.

At the small town of Mooi River (Pretty River) +- 30km south of this point in the photo below is the "Mooi toll plaza". Traffic south bound going through the toll was +- 6,000 an hour, not counting the heavy trucks which average 5,000 a day on this road. Heading north the count was +- 3000 an hour.

Looking south, from here the N3 stretches 200 km to the port city of Durban on the Indian ocean. At Durban the N3 crosses the N2 highway heading north and south just inland of the coast and all the seaside holiday resorts, the destination of all the inland holiday makers. People pay thousands of rands for a few days stay at these resorts, some never get there or if they get there some never get home.

 I took this photo on Sunday morning and the traffic has reduced to a trickle. The day before was a totally different story, the south bound on ramp where we joined the flow is just around the corner on the left.

Looking north, the N3 stretches for more than 400 km to the city of Johannesburg, after that still further north to our capital city Pretoria, and the further north still for hundreds of kilometers further.

No one drives a small car any more, the bigger the better and it had better be a 4 X 4 SUV or you are a nobody. The speed limit on our main roads is 120 km and hour, about 70 mph, but few obey this rule. Most of the highway is under average speed camera coverage. The authorities collect millions, (maybe billions) of rands in traffic fine, never seems to change any-ones speeding.  

In spite of cars being bumper to bumper on both lanes there are the weavers who look for the slightest gap and weave from left to right into these gaps as they pass others at excessive speeds. Even when you have no where for you to go, you will get some fool behind you flashing his head lights at you to get out of the way.

After collecting our friend at the hospital we took the N3 heading north. We were about 20 km north of Pietermaritzburg when the first ambulance passed us red light flashing and sirens howling then a police car, another ambulance. I lost count of the emergency vehicles that had passed. 

About 30 km further we came to the scene of the accident on the south bound lanes, shattered  vehicles scattered in all directions, bodies lying everywhere. One large SUV was lying on it's side with it's roof ripped off and the bodies of two children still strapped in the back seat. One amazing thing though is the fast reaction time by the emergency service in situations like this, (lots of practice I suppose). At this time of the year all emergency services are on high alert 24/7.

How did this happen? Well people are stupid, selfish and think they own the road. Hundreds die on our roads during the so called "festive season." During the June/July school holidays the results are the same. 

At the moment the road authorities are adding a third lane, especially on steeper parts of the road, eventually the whole of the N3 highway will be a 6 lane highway, doubt it will make much difference though.

South Africa has one of the most stringent learner drive laws in the world. You have to been trained by a register'd and licensed driving school, then you get tested and get your learner drivers licence, more training by the driving school then tested for your drivers licence, fail one part of the test and you start from the beginning again. But once behind the wheel of their own car all this seems to be forgotten at once.

My father taught me to drive and told me that the most dangerous part of the car is the "nut" holding the steering wheel.

Will be travelling north about 600 km on this highway myself on the 2nd January, not looking forward to the trip.

Magic moment.

On Saturday the Italian leprechaun and I did our monthly trip to the big city, or the mall to be exact. We got there just after 8 am, the huge parking lot was still empty, inside all the shops were still closed, but the "Mug $ Bean" coffee shop was open.

We took a table right at the opposite side of the coffee shop where the class partitions were rolled back. Just outside, about 10 meters from our table, was the kiddies play area, with all sorts of ride on, or ride in machines, that rock and sway, and have lights that flash once the necessary token has been inserted.

While we were eating I looked down to my right and there right next to the table looking at all these kids delights stood a little black toddler, not two years old. I looked around and saw his parents sitting a few tables away watching him.

The little one stood there quite still while we ate, babbling away in his baby Zulu at us and we babbled back. We finished our breakfast, paid our bill and stood up to leave. As I was about to walk off I felt a small warm hand take mine, he was coming with me. 

What to do now? 

The Leprechaun saw my dilemma and held out his arms to the little one, who reached up and happily allowed himself to be picked up, he then carried him back to his parents. Well the little guy was not happy about that, he thought we were going to take him to all those magical rides.

Wish I'd thought to take a photo of him, cute as a button. 

Wheat.

Ears of ripening wheat in the last rays of the sun.

Click to enlarge.

Food for the nation.

Standing tall.

Rain.

It rained buckets last night, from about 6pm until just before midnight, one of our typical summer storms. All the weather "fundis", pronounced fundees, (  self proclaimed experts,from the the Zulu word mFundis, meaning teacher or preacher, and now very much part of SA's colloquial English) predicted a long drought, so much for their prediction!

But my post is about the flower photos I took yesterday.

Click to enlarge.

We had a light shower the night before.

Rose leaves with rain drops.

My camera's lens was touching the bottom petals of this flower.

The epitome of "delicate".

Mauve beauty.

One of my aphorisms is "nature is hairy", and most of my photo's show it.

Very small but pretty.