ABC Wednesday, B for Botanic Gardens

Cooktown Botanic Gardens. Established in 1878 the Gallop Botanic Reserve encompases 62.3 Ha (154 acres) on the edge of Cooktown and contains the Cooktown Botanic Gardens and walking trails to Finch Bay and Cherry Tree Bay.

Natures Powerhouse

Nature’s Powerhouse is an innovative building located in the beautiful, heritage listed Cooktown Botanic Gardens and includes the Cooktown and Cape York Peninsula Visitor Information Centre, Vera’s café, a shop, Charles Tanner Gallery and the Vera Scarth-Johnson Gallery.

The Cooktown and Cape York Peninsula Visitor Information Centre provides comprehensive visitor information and accommodation and tour booking services.

The Vera Scarth-Johnson Gallery displays the only collection of original botanical illustrations of flora from the region. Many plants can be found in the gardens.

 Walking with my daughter in these gardens is always a wonderful experience. She tells me about the trees and bushes. In all the years she has lived in Cooktown she has learned a lot about the vegetation of Queensland .

Foxtail Palm

 Everywhere we see those signs with extra information. The gardens have changed every time I came to see them.

Vanilla Orchid, the vine of which grows in a zigzag pattern.

Like many orchids, the vanilla bean orchid is an epiphyte, and lives on a host tree without drawing nutrients from it. The vine clambers up to the treetops in a zigzag fashion, exhibiting long succulent lance-shaped leaves. Each blooming branch will bear one to two dozen creamy blooms, for a total of several hundred flowers on a mature vine.

Native Country
Mexico
Size
In its native habitat, a mature vanilla orchid vine can grow to 300 feet or greater. However, you can keep your vine to a manageable 20 feet in greenhouse conditions. Training the vine laterally instead of straight up allows you to get more vine in a smaller space.
Growing Conditions
The vanilla orchid grows best in bright filtered shade and high humidity. Ideal temperatures are between 60-70 degrees F at night, and 80-95 degrees F during the day. The plants are not frost tolerant.

Corkwood tree

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Bush Food of the Corkwood, Freshwater Mangrove.

With thanks to Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC.For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar. This week we are looking for words beginning with B.

We often have a meal here in the Nature Powerhouse

 This is my favourite part of the Botanical Gardens

ABC Wednesday, B for Bergambacht

Bergambacht is a typically Dutch village in the south of Holland. It starts with B, therefore I have chosen this for ABC Wednesday. In this place our choir decided to have a pancake party here! Our choir consists of 16 sopranos, 16 altos, 3 tenors and 8 basses. Once a year we have dinner together.  The restaurant was situated next to this mill. Dinner consisted of pancakes, all kind of salades, icecream and coffee. It was nice and delicious.

 

With thanks to Denise Nesbitt,  who created ABC, and Roger, who took over from her. For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar. This week we are looking for words beginning with B.

 

 

 

Our World Tuesday., ABC Wednesday, B for Bicycle

This bicycle is meant as a joke. It says: "I am back in  a minute"....

  I got my first bike when I was seven and lived in Indonesia. For me it has been my main means of transport. Later when I lived in the Netherlands I used my bike to go to school and for my holidays. Once my sister and I went to England by bike.We cycled from youth hostel to youth hostel along the south coast of England, from Dover to Longwell Green, which lies between Bath and Bristol. It took us a week. We worked in a workcamp for a month and met many campers from all over the world.



Wikipedia says: "A bicycle, often called a bike (and sometimes referred to as a "pushbike", "pedal bike", "pedal cycle", or "cycle"), is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A bicycle rider is called a cyclist, or bicyclist.
Bicycles were introduced in the 19th century in Europe and now number more than a billion worldwide, twice as many as automobiles^. They are the principal means of transportation in many regions. They also provide a popular form of recreation, and have been adapted for use as children's toys, general fitness, military and police applications, courier services, and bicycle racing."

The first bikes!



A very important topic has been the "Tour de France" these past few weeks. Daily we see and hear news of our cyclists, how they are doing and whether or not they use drugs . The weather is perfect and fortunately there have been no accidents in the mountains on those steep roads. I am not interested in this race, but in spite of that I have to listen to the news, read the papers and see this event on TV.

I can't miss it. This year's winner is Chris Froome.(born 20 May 1985) is a Kenyan-born British professional road racing cyclist

The present bikes are built in various shapes and sizes.

The tricycle for my grandson. ( 1-10-2002)

A bike for three

Welcome to Our World Tuesday! This meme continues in memory of the work of Klaus Peter, whose "that's My World" brought people together from around the world every Monday to share the wonders therein--big and small.Please click on our  logo for "Our World Tuesday" in the sidebar.







With thanks to Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC.For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar. This week we are looking for words beginning with B. Please join us!

A tandem for a parent and child

A carrier-tricycle for two children.

Our King with two of his children in the carrier-tricycle

Kangaroo carrier-tricycles

tandems

ABC Wednesday, B for Beaches

To enlarge press on the rectangle in the right bottom corner of the slide  .

 Here are a few of the beaches of north west Tasmania. Our temporary beach house is marked with a X. We had a great view of the sea and the beach. The sea was different every day. 

We thank Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC, and we must thank Roger too for the weekly job to find  ten bloggers for each of the ABC Team members  to visit and to read their posts. For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar . This week we are looking for words    beginning with B, in our new round. Round 12 has begun, promising a lot of fun!

ABC Wednesday, B for Benjamin

There are two Benjamins  among my relatives. One of them is my one but youngest grandchild in Australia.
The meaning of Benjamin is Son of my Righthand or Son of my Happiness.


Benjamin was the youngest son of Jacob and Rachel. His mother died in childbirth. He was her second child and brother of Joseph. When Jacob was dying, he blessed all his sons, and said this about Benjamin: “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf;
   in the morning he devours the prey,
   in the evening he divides the plunder.”

Marc Chagall has succeeded in picturing these words in the window dedicated to Benjamin. 

With thanks to Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC.For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar . This week we are looking for words beginning with B.

ABC Wednesday, B for Birthdays

Birthdays need to be celebrated. I think it is more important to celebrate a birthday than a successful exam, a promotion, or a victory. Because to celebrate a birthday means to say to someone: “Thank you for being you.” Celebrating a birthday is exalting life and being glad for it. On a birthday we do not say: “Thanks for what you did, or said, or accomplished.” No, we say: “Thank you for being born and being among us.”
…
Celebrating a birthday reminds us of the goodness of life, and in this spirit we really need to celebrate people’s birthdays every day, by showing gratitude, kindness, forgiveness, gentleness, and affection. These are ways of saying: “It’s good that you are alive; it’s good that you are walking with me on this earth. Let’s be glad and rejoice. This is the day that God has made for us to be and to be together.
Questions:
1 How were you given your name? Do you like it?
2 Do you have a "name day"in your culture?
3 Does your name have an equivalent in English?

Various cultures name their children in different ways.In many Catholic countries children are often named after saints. There was even a time that some priests would not allow parents to name their children after film stars or football players. In the past parents were only allowed to name their children after excisting names in my country, but now we often see the strangest names, which are all invented by the parents. In many countries, where infant mortality is very high, parents only name their children when they reach the age in which the chances of survival begin to increase. Until that time they are referred to by the number of years they are.

With thanks to Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC.For more interesting posts in the tenth round of ABC Wednesday, click on the logo in the sidebar or Here. This week we are looking for words beginning with B.

that's My World, ABC Wednesday, B for Brinker

 

The legend of the brave Dutch boy - by others thought to be named Hans Brinker - who supposedly put his finger in the dyke to prevent a flood, was actually a literary invention by the American writer Mary Elizabeth Mapes Dodge (1831-1905), who was born in New York.

 

Hans Brinker was made famous in the USA by her children’s novel Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates, dating from 1865. In the chapter called ‘Friends in Need’ there is this story read out in class called 'The Hero of Haarlem'. This is the story - quoted above - of the heroic boy who saves the land from drowning by putting his finger in the dyke all night long. The adventure is situated near Haarlem, not yet in Spaarndam (both in the province of North-Holland). Actually, the hero in the story remains anonymous, but still the adventure is mostly attributed to Hans Brinker, Hansie Brinkers or Peter of Haarlem.

That's my World is hosted by Klaus, Sandy, Wren, Fishing Guy and Sylvia - a Team of experienced bloggers, whom we thank for this wonderful meme. You can see more of the world of other bloggers by clicking on the logo in the side bar or on that's My World

With thanks to Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC.For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar or

Here. This week we are looking for words beginning with B.

ABC Wednesday, B for Bergen in Norway

Between 1066 and 1093 Olav Kyrre, king of Norway is said to have founded Bergen, the largest city in the country for the next 600 years. It became a vital link in the Hanseatic League( a chain of European and Baltic cities with shared trading agreements, one of them was the Dutch town of Deventer).

Its harbour front Bryggen was a scene of thriving trading activities. It is also the oldest part of Bergen.It is now on UNESCO's World Heritage List.
The famous composer Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) was born here and lateron lived in his beautiful house "Troldhaugen"(the Hill of the Trolls). Edvard and his wife Nina are buried in a cliffhewn tomb in the grounds.
The old stave church at Fantoft, originally built in Fortun in 1150 and moved to Fantoftin in 1883, burnt down in 1992.Fantoft stave church has been rebuilt just as it was before.
 

The open air museum Old Bergen shows us 40 characteristic wooden houses from a couple of centuries ago.


With thanks to Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC.We started a new round of the fascinating meme of ABC. For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar or Here. This week we are looking for words beginning with B.

ABC Wednesday, B for Blois

This was the castle where Joan of Arc was blessed before setting off to defeat the English at Orléans, the turning point in the Hundred Years War.


Visit our site:
www.castlesoftheworld.com

Dominating the Loire River, the royal castle of Blois is not only one of the most prestigious Renaissance monuments in France but also a brilliant illustration of the evolution of the French architecture from the Middle ages to the 17th century.

About the middle of the 10th century, the name of Thibaud I is recorded Count of Blois, he was the founder of the family who remained in power until 1230. Blois became the most important town in the region. The first stone castle was built to protect the town dates back to that period. An independent bastion surrounded the castle, and followed the line of the headland on which it was erected. The numerous medieval remains still exists. The best preserved medieval tower is situated on a terrace overlooking the Loire.

While the Franco-Anglo was (named the Hundred Years War) raged in the real, an event took place that determined the future of the county of Blois, the ancient fortress became a royal castle. At the end of the 14th. century, the county of Blois was sold to Prince Louis of Orleans, son of the king of France Charles V. He lived in the castle for 25 years attracting a small court of scholars and poets. His grandson, Louis XII became king of France in 1498 and decided to move to Blois, in this way, the small town became a royal town and the capital of the Kingdom.

Under Louis XII and Francis I the town of Blois grew considerably. But after the disaster of Pavia in 1525, Francis I never returned to Blois and his successors only paid short visits to the town.

With thanks to Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC.For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar .This week we are looking for words beginning with B.