Sunday, 1 March 2015

Amazing lake

This is Lake Retba (or Lac Rose), in Senegal. The colour is caused by Dunaliella salina algae, which produces a pink pigment, and it changes depending on the seasons. It's more pronouncedly pink in the dry season (Nov - June) and duller in the rainy season (July - Oct). The lake is separated from the Atlantic Ocean only by a narrow corridor of dunes and has a very high salt content, up to 40% in places. Salt is exported across the region by up to 3,000 collectors, men and women from all over Western Africa, who work 6–7 hours a day and protect their skin with "Beurre de Karité" (shea butter), produced from Shea nuts, which is an emollient used to avoid tissue damage.









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Today I'm introducing a new way of celebrating readers' birthdays. There are only so many relevant cakes and cupcakes I can find for each person and I risk repeating myself, so on the first day of each month, I'll wish all readers, including lurkers, a very simple but heartfelt Happy Birthday! The bonus are the zodiac cookies...



Saturday, 28 February 2015

Sarah Moon

Sarah Moon used to be a model, known as Marielle Hadengue, who turned fashion photographer and changed her name in the 70s. I've never been a model (hahaha), but was very interested in photography in the 70s. Here are some examples of Moon's work in that decade. What impressed me was the ethereal quality of her photos, the large grain making them look like paintings. I still find them very beautiful.








Wednesday, 25 February 2015

White creatures

The idea for this post started when one of my cousins in Brazil posted a photo of her dog on Facebook a few weeks ago. I've been collecting photos of white animals since then and now I have enough nice pictures for a post. They're quite striking, eh?








Tuesday, 24 February 2015

Cats can be so rude!

I follow George Takei and God on Facebook. They post funny stuff, but there are inevitable trolls disrupting the comments. They're everywhere on the internet! Some of the really clever responses to trolls involve another internet phenomenon: cats. I collected a few of the clean cat memes that accompanied the comments. Grumpy cat makes several appearances, of course... and the poor dogs are always at the receiving end. Enjoy!















Sunday, 22 February 2015

Everything fits, everything in their right places...















CC sent me the last picture, then I came across the others in one of those Facebook compilations. They fitted perfectly together... Thank you, CC. 

[I must confess that some of the photos look attractively harmonious, but the one before last, with the two cups, makes me shudder!]