Sunday, November 27, 2011

Magnificent Monday: Quirky.


Welcome to Magnificent Monday and this week's theme is 'Quirky'.

Let's have a fun week. You are bound to have some quirky photos, know some quirky facts, or have photos of people or animals in strange moments: let's see them!

Things around here are a little quirky at the moment, but to tantalise and entertain you I have pulled out a few photos from our travels of quirky trees. Yep that's right - trees! The quirky kind!
Check these out.


As expeditionary tree-huggers, we had to hug this tree! 
A place we had always dreamed about, Dead Vlei, Sossusvlei in Namibia is a dried up lake pan, formed when the nearby Tsauchab River receded as the climate changed and the surrounding massive sand dunes caused it to deviate. 1,000 year old camelthorn trees remain standing, the very dry environment arresting the decomposition process.
Dead Vlei is a spectacular photography opportunity, the skeletal weather-blackened trunks contrasting starkly against the towering reddish sand dunes topped with the most intense clear blue skies. It is weird  seeing a whole valley of dead trees standing against the passage of time in such a bare but beautiful place.
The above photo won me a top 10 placing in a Tripadvisor Avatar competition...back when I was more active there and I used it as my avatar.





Not trees but this photo is so quirky! Solitaire, Namibia.

A quirky shower tree! Porcupine Ridge Guest Lodge, near Kruger Park, South Africa. The water flows through the trunk!

Quirky shapes of the Candelabra Euphorbia trees, found in many parts of Africa. This was taken in Ethiopia.

Bret Love reminded me about the quirkiest tree of all- the Baobab. Here we see the baobabs of Nxai Pans, Botswana, made famous by artist and explorer Thomas Baines' painting of 22nd May 1862. When we saw them I can assure you they haven't changed much in 150 years!
This has got to be the quirkiest baobab ever... and the saddest! Up near Broome, northern Western Australia, you'll find the Baobab Jail. This massively swollen ancient baobab bottle, being hollow inside was used to lock up prisoners, during the sad part of early Australian history when Aboriginal men were kidnapped for the mother-of-pearl diving industry. Captives from raids upon Aboriginal settlements inland were held here before continuing on their way to the luggers based in Broome, where they were forced to dive for the pearl shells. The mother-of-pearl shell was very important for combs, buttons, decorative inlays, etc, before the advent of plastics: pearls being a by-product. Today the revival of the industry there is due to the pearl itself, grown with modern techniques.

We're all aware of the quirky tree root covered ruins of Angkor Wat, Cambodia, but how about the root covered walls of the Fasilides' Baths at Gondar, Ethiopia? Looks like a crowd of partying spectators sitting with legs crossed watching the water sports!

Great Wall, China. Now that is the resilience of Nature!

This doorway made famous by Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft in 'Tomb Raider', the ruins of the temple complex of Angkor Wat are covered in quirky tree roots.

A quirky toilet tree! A perfect 'U' bend! Spotted squatting beside the road near Maun, Botswana. Definitely been squashed by an elephant when a young sapling.

All above photos I have taken on our travels. But this following one I came across while reading a site on the net. 
 photograph of the Crooked Forest by Maciej Sokolowski
Poland's quirky Crooked Forest. 
Thought to have been done in the 1930's by humans wanting trees to grow with the grain for specific shapes for carpentry, young trees held down then forced to grow into curved shapes. I reckon escaped circus elephants crashed through the forest flattening these trees which then grew crooked! Quirky eh?

How's that for fun quirkiness? Let's see what quirky posts you can link in this week for a fun week.

Next week, our theme for Magnificent Monday, as we are entering the Christmas Season will be - 'Goodwill'.
An opportunity to highlight any article about charities, giving, joy of helping some one or whatever you choose as we enjoy the season of Goodwill, which in my life carries on all year round.

To join in this week's Magnificent Monday-
1. Paste your name and a link to your 'Quirky' article in the Mr Linky tool below.
2. Leave a comment to show you care.
3. It's good etiquette to edit into your article a reference to this article to let your readers know also.
4. Visit each post, leave a comment and share Stumble, Digg, Tweet and Facebook etc so we can all benefit.



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25 comments:

Bret @ Green Global Travel said...

Cool photos, Jim! We're quirky tree-lovers as well, from Africa's massive baobabs and the huge banyan tree of the Ford-Edison Estate in Florida to the wind-swept divi divi trees of Aruba.

Our quirky post is a round-up of intriguing historical facts about Santa Claus from different cultures around the world.

Jim said...

Thanks Bret. Loved your quirky article- very timely.
Hey you reminded me about the baobabs- I better edit some in.

Nelieta said...

Love the photos Jim! Really good :)

Simon Fenton said...

Great pics and they've inspired me to put my own tree photos together for a blog. There's some great ones here, including baobabs.

Bret @ Green Global Travel said...

YAY for Baobabs! Never heard about the one used for locking up prisoners-- that's crazy!

John in France said...

Thanks for these great photos!

Micamyx|Senyorita said...

LOL haha what a good compilation! I think i have some here hmmm

Savira Gupta said...

Great photos!

Easy Hiker said...

Wow! Amazing growths. And you've collected quite a number of them. I particularly like the ones in Poland. Quirky indeed.

Unknown said...

Wow Jim! Those are fabulous photos, some of which I had to go back and look at again! Great post :)

Emme Rogers @ Roamancing said...

Love this post! So many delightfully quirky pics that made me smile.

Thanks for that!

Jim said...

I want to see that baobab blog Simon!

Jim said...

Hi John, just spreading a bit of greenery around this week! I had been going through our pics and was surprised how many were of trees, strange ones.

Jim said...

Thanks Senorita. I'll head over and see what quirkiness you have conspired to weave!

Cathy Sweeney said...

Awesome selection of quirky trees! Love that tree shower -- Fun photos, Jim.

Jim said...

Thanks Savira. I was surprised to find so many interesting tree photos when I started looking them out.

Jim said...

Hi Michael, yeah, the Polish tree picture is not mine, but it created the idea for a photo blog about quirky trees.

Jim said...

Glad you liked them Anna. They are rather hilarious!

Jim said...

Thamks Emme, Amazing how over time you can collect so many weird pictures which by themselves are not noteable but put a stream together and it can bring the smiles.

Phil said...

Jim,
Love this post. A shower tree? So cool. Love the shots from Namibia. Some day, I will get there. Now I need to find a quirky post ;)

Jim said...

Yep Phil, when you get there, Dead Vlei is a must for any photographer. I have several great pics that I have always intended to post up. One of those great scenic places on earth.

Nancie said...

All of these shots are great Jim. I remember the trees at Angkor Wat; definitely quirky!

Jim said...

Hi Nancie, sadly I lost a lot of our Angkor Wat photos as thought they had been saved to cd but hadn't so re-fornatted the card and whoops- gone!'Managed to find some stills that I had taken with my video camera though.
The tree root covered ruins are so fascinating.

Rachel Hoyt said...

Really, really, REALLY cool photos Jim! I'm sad I'm just seeing this prompt. I love the Quirky theme! Perhaps I'll still have time to come up with something...

I can't decide if I like the cactus growing in the ruins of the car or the tree shower the best. Both are just so cool. :)

danneromero said...

you got my attention with all the trees... i love the symbolism them...

i am a new follower...

stop by and read a few of my stories about how my husband and i are managing to hold on to our relationship even though we are living in two different states...

thanks for sharing the photos...