XYLEM

xylem | ˈzʌɪləm |
noun [mass noun] Botany
The vascular tissue in plants which conducts water and dissolved nutrients upwards from the root and also helps to form the woody element in the stem. Compare with phloem.
ORIGIN
late 19th century: from Greek xulon ‘wood’ + the passive suffix -ēma.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme.

VIOLET CRUMBLE

Violet Crumble is an Australian chocolate bar made in Adelaide, South Australia by Robern Menz. The bar is a crumbly honeycomb toffee centre coated in compound chocolate. It is similar to the Crunchie made by British firm Cadbury. Its advertising slogan is "It's the way it shatters that matters", and previously was "Nothing else matters". Aside from Australia, it is common in Hawaii and a selection of other places, such as Hong Kong and Mollie Stone's Markets in California. They can also be found in some import speciality stores such as Cost Plus World Market in the United States.

It was one of my favourite chocolate bars in my childhood here in Australia and occasionally I still manage to crunch through one of these, the nostalgia neatly enclosed in the violet and yellow shiny wrapper.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,

and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme,

and also part of the My Corner of the World.

TWILIGHT

By the Yarra River in Melbourne, Australia.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme.

SINGER SARGENT'S SPAIN AT THE SALON

John Singer Sargent (January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925)[1] was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings. His oeuvre documents worldwide travel, from Venice to the Tyrol, Corfu, the Middle East, Montana, Maine, and Florida.

Here is his "El Jaleo (Spanish Dancer)", c. 1879–82, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, USA. His evocation of Spain through images of Spanish dancing and music is very effective. The painting was inspired by a five-month trip Sargent made through Spain and North Africa in 1879, which also yielded a smaller oil painting, "The Spanish Dance" (Hispanic Society of America).

After the initial exhibition of El Jaleo in 1882 at the French Salon, John Singer Sargent became, as one writer put it, "the most talked-about painter in Paris." Some critics in 1882 said that the painting caused Sargent to join the ranks of the French Impressionists. A critic for the Le Figaro called the painting "one of the most original and strongest works of the present Salon." Some writers hailed the painting as clever, while others dismissed it as a vagary of the artist. Today El Jaleo is considered to be one of John Singer Sargent's most memorable works.

This post is part of the ABC Wednesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

RAKU

Raku ware (楽焼 raku-yaki) is a type of Japanese pottery traditionally used in Japanese tea ceremonies, most often in the form of chawan tea bowls. It is traditionally characterised by being hand-shaped rather than thrown, fairly porous vessels, which result from low firing temperatures, lead glazes and the removal of pieces from the kiln while still glowing hot. In the traditional Japanese process, the fired raku piece is removed from the hot kiln and is allowed to cool in the open air. The familiar technique of placing the ware in a container filled with combustible material is not a traditional Raku practice.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,

and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme.

QUAIL

The buff-breasted buttonquail (Turnix olivii) is the largest and possibly the rarest of the buttonquail. This species is endemic to Cape York Peninsula, in Queensland, Australia.

The buff-breasted buttonquail measures from 18–23 cm and usually weighs over 110 g. Both the tail and wings are short. The back is chestnut. The sides of the head are marked with chestnut on an otherwise plain grey head; while the breast is warm buff-coloured. The painted buttonquail and the brown quail both coexist with this species. The buff-breasted is larger (and longer-legged) than either and is quite different from the all-dark quail. The painted species is almost totally mottled, with bold white spotting on the breast and no warm buff coloration.

The most similar species to the buff-breasted is the chestnut-backed buttonquail, which does not overlap in the wild. The advertising (or booming) call made by the female is ooom-oom-oom, repeated up to 20 times. The notes are almost inaudible initially, then become gradually louder, higher-pitched and shorter until they are far-carrying. The males will respond with a deep, rapid chu-chu-chu whistle. Other calls, perhaps in reaction to danger, include gug-gug-gug, a soft chirp-chirp-chirp and a loud kwaare-kwaare.

The buff-breasted buttonquail is an endangered species, with a population estimated at 500 individuals and a historical range of 2,070 km2. They have been extirpated from large portions of their original range, probably due in part due to cattle overgrazing, sites made unsuitable by fire regimes and general habitat clearances to make way for human habitation. Very few people see the buff-breasted buttonquail due partially to its tiny range and also due to its inconspicuous disposition. They usually walk or run in areas where they are well camouflaged, almost never leaving the ground except when absolutely needed. They reside in the same areas usually, but local movements have been recorded, probably in response to seasonal habitat changes.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,

and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Nature Notes meme.

PIGEONS

The native Crested Pigeon (Ocyphaps lophotes) is a common bird found widely throughout mainland Australia except for the far northern tropical areas. Only two Australian pigeon species possess an erect crest, the crested pigeon and the spinifex pigeon. The crested pigeon is the larger of the two species, shown here in the Darebin Parklands, a nature reserve in suburban Melbourne.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,

and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme.

and also part of the Nature Notes meme.

OLYMPIA, GREECE

Olympia (Greek: Ὀλυμπία), a sanctuary of ancient Greece in Elis on the Peloponnese peninsula, is known for having been the site of the Olympic Games in classical times. The Olympic Games were held every four years throughout Classical Antiquity, from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD. The first Olympic Games were in honour of Zeus.

The sanctuary, known as the Altis, consists of an unordered arrangement of various buildings. Enclosed within the temenos (sacred enclosure) are the Temple of Hera (or Heraion/Heraeum), the Temple of Zeus, the Pelopion, and the area of the altar, where the sacrifices were made. To the north of the sanctuary can be found the Prytaneion and the Philippeion, as well as the array of treasuries representing the various city-states. The Metroon lies to the south of these treasuries, with the Echo Stoa to the east. The hippodrome and later stadium were located east of the Echo Stoa. To the south of the sanctuary is the South Stoa and the Bouleuterion, whereas the Palaestra, the workshop of Pheidias, the Gymnasion, and the Leonidaion lie to the west.

Olympia was also known for the gigantic ivory and gold statue of Zeus that used to stand there, sculpted by Pheidias, which was named one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World by Antipater of Sidon. Very close to the Temple of Zeus which housed this statue, the studio of Pheidias was excavated in the 1950s. Evidence found there, such as sculptor's tools, corroborates this opinion. The ancient ruins sit north of the Alfeios River and south of Mount Kronos (named after the Greek deity Kronos). The Kladeos, a tributary of the Alfeios, flows around the area.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,

and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme.

LEAF

Spring is the time of new growth and green is the colour that predominates in the young burgeoning foliage, especially vivid as the sun shines through it.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Nature Notes meme.

KAYAK

A kayak is a small, narrow boat primarily designed to be manually propelled by means of a double-bladed paddle. The word kayak originates from the Greenlandic Inuktitut language, where it is the word 'qajaq'. The traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or more cockpits, each seating one paddler. The cockpit is sometimes covered by a spray deck that prevents the entry of water from waves or spray and makes it possible for suitably skilled kayakers to roll the kayak: That is, to capsize and right it without it filling with water or ejecting the paddler. The kayak was first used by the indigenous Aleut, Inuit, Yupik and possibly Ainu hunters in subarctic regions of the world.

Kayaking on the Yarra River in Melbourne is a very popular pastime and there are many clubs catering to this sport. Most of the Yarra is navigable, but this area close to Dights Falls in Collingwood provides a barrier between the upper and lower reaches of the River. The man in the blue kayak had a little mishap here, but the experienced instructor in the red kayak had him right soon again. The trees in yellow bloom are wattles (= mimosas/acacias).

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,

and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme.

JELLYFISH

Jellyfish and sea jellies are the informal common names given to the medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals with umbrella-shaped bells and trailing tentacles, although a few are not mobile, being anchored to the seabed by stalks. The bell can pulsate to provide propulsion and highly efficient locomotion. The tentacles are armed with stinging cells and may be used to capture prey and defend against predators. Jellyfish have a complex life cycle; the medusa is normally the sexual phase, the planula larva can disperse widely and is followed by a sedentary polyp phase.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,

and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme,

and also part of the Nature Notes meme.

ITALY

Italy is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe, covering an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate climate. Due to its shape, it is often referred to in Italy as Lo Stivale (the Boot). With 61 million inhabitants, it is the 5th most populous country in Europe and a very highly developed country, having the third largest economy in the Eurozone and the eighth-largest in the world.

Since ancient times, Etruscan, Magna Graecia and other cultures have flourished in the territory of present-day Italy, being eventually absorbed by Rome, that has for centuries remained the leading political and religious centre of Western civilisation, capital of the Roman Empire and Christianity. During the Dark Ages, the Italian Peninsula faced calamitous invasions by barbarian tribes, but beginning around the 11th century, numerous Italian city-states rose to great prosperity through shipping, commerce and banking (indeed, modern capitalism has its roots in Medieval Italy).

Especially during The Renaissance, Italian culture thrived, producing scholars, artists, and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. Italian explorers such as Polo, Columbus, Vespucci, and Verrazzano discovered new routes to the Far East and the New World, helping to usher in the European Age of Discovery. Nevertheless, Italy would remain fragmented into many warring states for the rest of the Middle Ages, subsequently falling prey to larger European powers such as France, Spain, and later Austria.

Italy would thus enter a long period of decline that lasted until the mid 19th century. After various unsuccessful attempts, the second and the third wars of Italian Independence resulted in the unification of most of present-day Italy between 1859-66. From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, the new Kingdom of Italy rapidly industrialised and acquired a colonial empire becoming a Great Power. However, Southern and rural Italy remained largely excluded from industrialisation, fuelling a large and influential diaspora. 

Despite victory in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil, which favoured the establishment of a Fascist dictatorship in 1922. The subsequent participation in World War II at the side the Axis ended in military defeat, economic destruction and civil war. In the years that followed, Italy abolished the monarchy, reinstated democracy, and enjoyed a prolonged economic boom, thus becoming one of the most developed nations and the 5th largest economy in the world by 1990.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,

and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme.

HEMLOCK

Conium maculatum (hemlock or poison hemlock) is a highly poisonous biennial herbaceous flowering plant in the carrot family Apiaceae, native to Europe and North Africa. It is a herbaceous biennial plant that grows to 1.5–2.5 m, with a smooth, green, hollow stem, usually spotted or streaked with red or purple on the lower half of the stem. All parts of the plant are hairless (glabrous).

The leaves are two- to four-pinnate, finely divided and lacy, overall triangular in shape, up to 50 cm long and 40 cm broad. The flowers are small, white, clustered in umbels up to 10–15 cm across. When crushed, the leaves and root emit a rank, unpleasant odour often compared to that of parsnips. It produces a large number of seeds that allow the plant to form thick stands in modified soils. The toxicity of the plant has inspired many of its common names: In addition to the English poison hemlock, the Australian Carrot Fern, and the Irish devil's bread or devil's porridge, poison parsley, spotted corobane, and spotted hemlock are used.

Eight piperidinic alkaloids have been identified in C. maculatum. Two of them, gamma-coniceine and coniine, are generally the most abundant, and they account for most of the plant's acute and chronic toxicity. Due to high potency, the ingestion of seemingly small doses can easily result in respiratory collapse and death. Coniine causes death by blocking the neuromuscular junction in a manner similar to curare; this results in an ascending muscular paralysis with eventual paralysis of the respiratory muscles which results in death due to lack of oxygen to the heart and brain. Death can be prevented by artificial ventilation until the effects have worn off 48–72 hours later. For an adult, the ingestion of more than 100 mg (0.1 gram) of coniine (about six to eight fresh leaves, or a smaller dose of the seeds or root) may be fatal.

In ancient Greece, hemlock was used to poison condemned prisoners. The most famous victim of hemlock poisoning is the philosopher Socrates. After being condemned to death for impiety and corrupting the young men of Athens, in 399 BC, Socrates was given a potent infusion of the hemlock plant. Plato described Socrates' death in 'Phaedo'.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,

and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme,

and also part of the Nature Notes meme.

The Death of Socrates (French: La Mort de Socrate) is an oil on canvas painted by French painter Jacques-Louis David in 1787. The painting focuses on a classical subject like many of his works from that decade, in this case the story of the execution of Socrates as told by Plato in his Phaedo. In this episode, Socrates has been convicted of corrupting the youth of Athens and introducing strange gods, and has been sentenced to die by drinking poison hemlock. Socrates uses his death as a final lesson for his pupils rather than fleeing when the opportunity arises, and faces it calmly

GALAXY

Galaxy | ˈɡaləksi | noun (plural galaxies)

A system of millions or billions of stars, together with gas and dust, held together by gravitational attraction.

• (the Galaxy) the galaxy of which the solar system is a part; the "Milky Way" as is seen in the dark night sky.

• a large group of impressive people or things: The four musicians have played with a galaxy of stars.

The Galaxy in which the earth is located is a disc-shaped spiral galaxy with approximately 100,000 million stars. The sun is located about two thirds of the way out from the centre.

ORIGIN

Late Middle English (originally referring to the Milky Way): Via Old French from medieval Latin galaxia, from Greek galaxias (kuklos) ‘milky (vault)’, from gala, galakt- ‘milk’.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,

and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme.

FRUIT SALAD

Fruit Salad

Ingredients

1 punnet of ripe strawberries

1 orange

1 honey Murcott mandarin

2 kiwi fruit

1 large, ripe pear

Juice of an orange

Juice of a lemon

2 tbsp raw sugar (or honey) – optional, but advisable as the fruit can be quite sour

1 tbsp of orange liqueur (Cointreau, Grand Marnier, Curaçao or Triple Sec)

Method

Hull the strawberries and cut them in quarters. Peel the orange, removing the rind and pith, leaving the exposed flesh. Cut into small pieces removing the core and seeds in the process. Do likewise for the mandarin.

Peel the kiwi fruit and cut into slices and then quarter them. Peel the pear and cut into small pieces. Mix all fruit together in the bowl.

Dissolve the sugar (or honey) in the mixed citrus juices and add the liqueur. Pour over the fruit in the bowl and chill the fruit salad.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,

and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme,

and also part of the Nature Notes meme.

ENVIRONMENT

Environment | ɪnˈvʌɪrənm(ə)nt, ɛnˈvʌɪrənm(ə)nt | noun
1 The surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or operates: Survival in an often hostile environment.
• [usually with modifier] The setting or conditions in which a particular activity is carried on: A good learning environment.
• [with modifier] Computing the overall structure within which a user, computer, or program operates: A desktop development environment.
2 (The environment) The natural world, as a whole or in a particular geographical area, especially as affected by human activity: The impact of pesticides on the environment | [as modifier] : A parliamentary environment committee.

The Darebin Parklands in Melbourne is a nature reserve where the natural environment has been more or less preserved and maintained around the Darebin Creek. This beautiful nature reserve is about 10 minutes walk from our house, so we frequently visit it.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Nature Notes meme.

CLOCKTOWER

South Melbourne Town Hall is a civic building located on Bank Street in South Melbourne, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. It is of state heritage significance to Victoria being listed on the Victorian Heritage Register. The Town Hall was built between 1879-80 to the design of noted Melbourne architect Charles Webb. It was built to house what was then known as the Emerald Hill Town Council, as well as a Public Hall, a Mechanics Institute and Library, the Post and Telegraph Department, the Police Department and Courthouse and Fire Brigade. 

In the 1930s some interior elements were refurbished and new council chamber furniture was installed, designed by Oakley and Parkes. The Town Hall was built on an elevated site, the centrepiece of a formally planned block, with a forecourt in the form of a small curved park. It was built in the Victorian Academic Classical style with French Second Empire features, dominated by a very tall multi-stage clocktower. The building is on the Victorian Heritage Register, along with the park and the 1905 Boer War memorial in front.

In 1994, the Cities of South Melbourne, Port Melbourne and St Kilda were amalgamated to form the new City of Port Phillip. The new council administration was centred at the St Kilda Town Hall, with only secondary offices retained at the South Melbourne Town Hall. That same year, the Federal Government created the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM), which became the main occupant of the building. ANAM is the national centre for the further development of musicians with outstanding talent in Australia, and the hall has become a concert venue.

The building was restored in 2004 thanks to a state government heritage grant, enabling the reinstatement of the decorative roof and iron cresting (removed in 1945), and restoration of the original ochre exterior colour. In 2012 Multicultural Arts Victoria, Victoria's peak arts organisation promoting cultural diversity in the arts, moved their home to the South Melbourne Town Hall. In 2018, a significant part of the internal roof collapsed and parts of the building were closed off for many months whilst significant construction works were carried out (earlier that year, substantial works were completed on updating the lift which broke down frequently).

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,

and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme.

BAROQUE

The Baroque is a highly ornate and often extravagant style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th until the mid-18th century. It followed Renaissance art and Mannerism and preceded the Rococo (in the past often referred to as "late Baroque") and Neoclassical styles. It was encouraged by the Catholic Church as a means to counter the simplicity and austerity of Protestant architecture, art and music, though Lutheran Baroque art developed in parts of Europe as well.

The Baroque style used contrast, movement, exuberant detail, deep colour, grandeur and surprise to achieve a sense of awe. The style began at the start of the 17th century in Rome, then spread rapidly to France, northern Italy, Spain and Portugal, then to Austria and southern Germany. By the 1730s, it had evolved into an even more flamboyant style, called rocaille or Rococo, which appeared in France and Central Europe until the mid to late 18th century.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini (7 December 1598 – 28 November 1680) was an Italian sculptor and architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was, also and even more prominently, the leading sculptor of his age, credited with creating the Baroque style of sculpture, a typical and grandiose example of which is the Four Rivers Fountain (see below) in the Piazza Navona in Rome.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,

and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme.

ADELAIDE, SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. As at June 2013, Adelaide had an estimated resident population of 1.29 million. The demonym "Adelaidean" is used in reference to the city and its residents. Adelaide is north of the Fleurieu Peninsula, on the Adelaide Plains between the Gulf St Vincent and the low-lying Mount Lofty Ranges which surround the city. Adelaide stretches 20 km from the coast to the foothills, and 90 km from Gawler at its northern extent to Sellicks Beach in the south. 

Named in honour of Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, queen consort to King William IV, the city was founded in 1836 as the planned capital for a freely settled British province in Australia. Colonel William Light, one of Adelaide's founding fathers, designed the city and chose its location close to the River Torrens, in the area originally inhabited by the Kaurna people. Light's design set out Adelaide in a grid layout, interspaced by wide boulevards and large public squares, and entirely surrounded by parklands. Early Adelaide was shaped by religious freedom and a commitment to political progressivism and civil liberties, which led to the moniker "City of Churches".

As South Australia's seat of government and commercial centre, Adelaide is the site of many governmental and financial institutions. Most of these are concentrated in the city centre along the cultural boulevard of North Terrace, King William Street and in various districts of the metropolitan area. Today, Adelaide is noted for its many festivals and sporting events, its food and wine, its long beachfronts, and its large defence and manufacturing sectors. It ranks highly in terms of liveability, being listed in the Top 10 of The Economist's World's Most Liveable Cities index in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,

and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme.

YARROW

Achillea millefolium, commonly known as yarrow or common yarrow, is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in Asia, Europe, and North America. It has been introduced as a feed for live stock in places like New Zealand and Australia. However, it is a weed in those places and sometimes also in its native regions.

In New Mexico and southern Colorado, it is called plumajillo (Spanish for 'little feather') from its leaf shape and texture. In antiquity, yarrow was known as herba militaris, for its use in stanching the flow of blood from wounds. Other common names for this species include gordaldo, nosebleed plant, old man's pepper, devil's nettle, sanguinary, milfoil, soldier's woundwort, thousand-leaf, and thousand-seal.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,

and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme,

and also part of the Nature Notes meme.