Mioriţa (“The Little Ewe”) is an old Romanian pastoral ballad and considered one of the most important pieces of Romanian folklore. It has several, quite different in content versions, one of which was selected by Vasile Alecsandri to the form the textbook reference. The setting is a simple one: three shepherds (a Moldavian, a Transylvanian and a Vrâncean) meet while attending to their flocks. An apparently enchanted ewe belonging to the Moldavian tells its master that the other two are plotting his murder and the plundering of his assets.  The shepherd replies that, were this to happen, the ewe is to ask his killers to bury his body by the sheep’s pen. She is to then tell the rest of his sheep that he had in fact married a princess during a ceremony attended by the elements of nature themselves, and marked by the falling of a star. However, the rite of passage metaphor discards all celestial reference in the version of the story the ewe is to depict to the shepherd’s mother: she is to hear only of her son having married a princess.

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Ooty is a town, a municipality and the district capital of the Nilgiris district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Ootacamund is a popular hill station located in the Nilgiri Hills. Originally occupied by the Todas, the area came under the rule of the East India Company at the end of the 18th century. Today the town’s economy is based on tourism and agriculture, with manufacturing of medicines and photographic film also present. The town is connected to the rest of India by road and rail, and its historic sites and natural beauty attract tourists. The first mention of the place occurs in a letter of March 1821 to the Madras Gazette by an unknown correspondent as Wotokymund. In early times it was called OttaikalMandu “mund” is the Tamil word for a Toda village, and the first part is probably a corruption of the local name for the central region of the Nilgiri Plateau. Another likely origin of the stem of the name (Ootaca) comes from the local language where Otha-Cal literally means Single Stone. This is perhaps a reference to a sacred stone revered by the local Toda people. The name probably changed under British rule from Udhagamandalam to Ootacamund, later shortened to Ooty. Ooty is well connected by good roads. It is 535 km from Chennai (via Salem,Erode), 105 km from Coimbatore, 18 km from Coonoor, 155 km from Mysore (via Gudalur), 187 km from Calicut, 290 km from Bangalore, 281 km from Kochi (via Coimbatore and Palakkad), 236 km from Kodaikanal (via Coimbatore and Palani). Ooty is situated on National Highway 67. It is connected by road to travelers from the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka via the five main accepted Nilgiri Ghat Roads. There is also a road from Mettupalayam(Coimbatore District) to Ooty via Kotagiri.

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Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world. There are eight different genera in the family classified as rabbits, including the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), cottontail rabbits (genus Sylvilagus; 13 species), and the Amami rabbit (Pentalagus furnessi, an endangered species on Amami Ōshima, Japan). There are many other species of rabbit, and these, along with pikas and hares, make up the order Lagomorpha. The male is called a buck and the female is a doe; a young rabbit is a kitten or kit.

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Today was a real spring weather, so I did another walk with Max and Lord, part II . It was very warm for this time of year,  as you’ll see some pictures Max found the solution to cool slightly. I hope you will enjoy and this part 2 of the tour.

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Some time ago I was walking on the Mures River, in Aurel Vlaicu. As a company I had the Lord and Max, along with their owner. On departure they were very eager to walk freely in the wild,  the smell of wild animals! In the pictures that can be seen below, they were able to see a few rabbits, ducks and other birds flying, i repeat … to see . Being the weekend, the dogs had little desire to chase wild animals. The first who gave up hunting was Lord. In any case it was a very pleasant ride, I hope to do in other seasons these rides together.

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The first lambs seen and photographed this year. They worked very well with me and I decided that deserves to be posted on the internet, true models .

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The first wooden chapel was established on this placement in 1520. In 1723 a new church was built, much smaller than the present one. In 1756 the basilica began to be raised from the basement. Built in baroque style the basilica was consecrated in 1767. The building of the towers followed (1767-1778) up to the altitude of the church clock, ending with a Baroque roof. 30 meters were added in height to each of the two towers, in 1911. The new construction belonged to the historicist style. For this phase, concrete was used – a newer material for the time being. In 1992 the church was raised to the dignity of Papal “Basilica Minor” by John Paul II.

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Poker is a family of card games involving betting and individualistic play whereby the winner is determined by the ranks and combinations of their cards, some of which remain hidden until the end of the game. Poker games vary in the number of cards dealt, the number of shared or “community” cards and the number of cards that remain hidden. The betting procedures vary amongst different poker games in such ways as betting limits and splitting the pot between a high hand and a low hand. The most popular form of poker is Texas Hold’em. In most modern poker games, the first round of betting begins with some form of forced bet by one of the players. In standard poker, each player is betting that the hand he has will be the highest ranked. The action then proceeds clockwise around the table and each player in turn must either match the maximum previous bet or fold, losing the amount bet so far and all further interest in the hand. A player who matches a bet may also “raise,” or increase the bet. The betting round ends when all players have either matched the last bet or folded. If all but one player fold on any round, then the remaining player collects the pot and may choose to show or conceal their hand. If more than one player remains in contention after the final betting round, the hands are revealed and the player with the winning hand takes the pot. With the exception of initial forced bets, money is only placed into the pot voluntarily by a player who, at least in theory, rationally believes the bet has positive expected value. Thus, while the outcome of any particular hand significantly involves chance, the long-run expectations of the players are determined by their actions chosen on the basis of probability, psychology and game theory. Poker has gained in popularity since the beginning of the twentieth century, and has gone from being primarily a recreational activity confined to small groups of mostly male enthusiasts, to a widely popular spectator activity with international audiences and multi-million dollar tournament prizes, with women being a constantly growing part of that audience.

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Saint Valentine’s Day, commonly shortened to Valentine’s Day, is a holiday observed on February 14 honoring one or more early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine. It is traditionally a day on which lovers express their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as “valentines”). The day first became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. It was first established by Pope Gelasius I in 496 AD, and was later deleted from the General Roman Calendar of saints in 1969 by Pope Paul VI.

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Laugh, and the world laughs with you;Weep, and you weep alone.
For the sad old earth must borrow it’s mirth,But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;Sigh, it is lost on the air.
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,But shrink from voicing care.
Rejoice, and men will seek you;Grieve, and they turn and go.
They want full measure of all your pleasure,But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;Be sad, and you lose them all.
There are none to decline your nectared wine,But alone you must drink life’s gall.
Feast, and your halls are crowded;Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure For a long and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file onThrough the narrow aisles of pain.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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Jon Allen – In Your Light.

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