Joshua Trees

Dated back to March, 2011, Tony found a few mysterious-looking Joshua trees before the gate of University of Berkeley, so he took a few photos of these trees and their shadows on the ground. My wife and I saw quite a great many such trees with rough barks on the way through the desert land to Grand Canyon, Arizona in 2006.

To explore more about these trees, we better refer to Wikipedia:

Joshua trees are supposed to be fast growers for the desert. The trunk of a Joshua tree is made of thousands of small fibres and lacks annual growth rings, making it difficult to determine the tree's age. This tree has a top-heavy branch system, but also has a "deep and extensive" root system. If it survives the rigors of the desert, it can live for hundreds of years with some specimens surviving up to a thousand years. The tallest trees reach about 15 m tall. New plants can grow from seeds, but in some populations, new stems grow from underground rhizomes that spread out around the Joshua tree.

The evergreen leaves are dark green, linear, bayonet-shaped, 15–35 cm long and 7–15 mm broad at the base, tapering to a sharp point; they are borne in a dense spiral arrangement at the apex of the stems. The leaf margins are white and serrate.

The flowers are produced in spring from February to late April, in panicles 30–55 cm tall and 30–38 cm broad, the individual flowers erect, 4–7 cm tall, with six creamy white to green tepals. The tepals are lanceolate and are fused to the middle. The fused pistils are 3 cm tall and the stigma cavity is surrounded by lobes. The semi-fleshy fruit that is produced is green-brown, elliptical, and contains many flat seeds. Joshua trees usually do not branch until after they bloom (though branching may also occur if the growing tip is destroyed by the yucca-boring weevil), and they do not bloom every year. Like most desert plants, their blooming is dependent on rainfall at the proper time. They also need a winter freeze before they will bloom.

Once the trees bloom, they are pollinated by the yucca moth, which spreads pollen while laying her eggs inside the flower. The moth larvae feed on the seeds of the tree, but enough seeds are left behind to produce more trees. The Joshua tree is also able to actively abort ovaries in which too many eggs have been laid.

Swinging Together

Together Elly and sister Abby swung in our public park this Monday, August 29, 2011.

To my surprise, Elly uttered “swing” to me as she first saw it. It was the very first game she chose for the morning. Abby played with other children for a while before she joined her younger sister at the swing.

變身男女 Chok Chok Chok

In one of the segments in the TVB programme “Chok Chok Chok”, the faces of the guests are split up, dragged and fused together again at a new new angle to make up funny faces.

Here they are.

Please match the face of each guest in the game with the new face formed.

必經之路

這些都是我以前讀書時走過的必經之「路」

[1]用copy book學寫大小階英文字母
[2]用鉛筆在大格簿上寫中文字
[3]用細格簿去計數，橫式直式都有
[4]當時用九因歌記乘數表是一件痛苦的事
[5]用中華牌鉛筆─紅黑或黃黑相間，其擦膠是擦不清鉛筆痕蹟的東西；從鉛筆刨刨出來成圓形的木屑片可以構成美麗的圖案
[6]因節儉的關係，把快要用完的短小鉛筆塞進去鉛筆接駁套裏面，直到無法再寫為止。

Opera House

The Opera House in Sydney looks beautiful from all sides. The tourist guide told us at time of visit that the idea of the design of the House came from slices of orange.

Here you may see the “Lego” Opera House as well as the real one.

To me, the actual Opera House looks smooth and the curvature of each “slice” of orange is perfect. The plastic one has rough, fish-scale like curvatures.

The colour of the base of the real Opera House is brown while the “Lego” one is yellow.

There are quite a number of steps on the staircase of the real, but there is none on the model.

The sizes of people are out of proportion when they are compared with the plastic house. It means that the people look too large in the model.

The lamp-posts in the model are too thick.

On the whole, the “Lego” Opera House does not look too bad in itself.

Women’s Water-polo Final at Universiade 2011

It was stunning to see the Chinese Women’s Water-polo team beat the U.S.A. team in the Final at Universiade 2011 on August 22.

A water-polo game, mixed with swimming and handball skills, is played in 4 sessions, 2 for the first half and 2 for the second half. There are seven players on each side, one of whom is the goal-keeper. If anyone who is fouled, he or she has to swim to the penalty area, a "shoulder" of the goal of his/her side (see the double white lines) and stay there for 20 seconds. For a severe penalty, there will be a penalty goal like one at the football field.

In this match between China (in blue hats) and U.S.A.(in white hats), China was on the upper hand because the goal keeper on the Chinese side was, like an “iron” door, able to catch the ball or strike it out of the way. The Chinese players should be praised for their ability to shoot the ball into the net, by bouncing it on the water surface before it went into the net or at the spot where the goal-keeper of the opponent side could not reach.

The score extended to 9:0 in the first half. The game became tighter when the Americans scored its first goal. Both sides won several goals until the end of the game. The final result was that the Chinese team won by 14: 4. The Gold medals went into the hands of this young and energetic Water-polo team of China.

Summer Activities for Elly

To two year-old Elly, her legs are not long enough to pedal a tricycle herself, but she never fails to ride on one.

On Thursday, August 4, 2011, I helped her mount onto a modern powerful-like toy tricycle and pushed her all the way from behind. I thought it was too early to teach her the rules of driving at this playground.

Besides riding, Elly likes to swing herself on a cross bar of a slide. At one time, Elly speaks into a simple communication system through the trumpet-like loudspeaker which I suppose has connected to an underground pipe that leads to another loudspeaker near by. Voices are transmitted in this way from one side to the other. Unfortunately Sister Abby was at that moment out with her mother and could not speak to Elly at the other side.

Elly gave me a big surprise that morning because she walked behind the board of a clown with three holes automatically. She jutted her face near holes one by one so that I could take a photo of her. This was her second time of showing her face for photos. Last time, I remember, she took photos with grandma through two different holes.

In one photo, Elly was playing “Up and down”. What do you think "it" should be normally called?

At home, Elly watched her favourite programme, “Sesame Street”. She loves to see “Elmo”. See her smiling face here!

At last, Abby returned with her mother, so the babysitting of Elly ended and the two kids took turns mounting onto the beautiful tricycle before they left for home.

跳水新星

今次在深圳舉行大學生運動會出現了很多跳水新星，他們都是為了明年在倫敦舉行的奧運會作熱身賽。 跳水強國中國今年不能拿盡所有跳水金牌，原因是其他國家引入中國跳水教練，令自己的國家隊跳水實力增加了不少。

所見今年跳水運動員,有很多新面孔湧現。
以下是幾位樣子不錯的女子運動員出現在鏡頭前面，尤其面貌清秀,足以參加選美有餘。

這裡有中國、墨西哥、美國、俄羅斯和烏克蘭的女子三米彈板跳水選手，當中中國和墨西哥選手囊括了金銀銅牌。 她們的名字及所得分數是:

HE Zi (何姿) (384.70分)
WANG Han (王涵) (370.00分)
ESPINOSA Paola (323.60分)

泡沫圖案

在一杯 Cappuccino 咖啡泡沫上面做出這個簡單又賞心悅目的圖案，可說是另一番藝術。

帶著笑容的太陽會令飲用咖啡者心花怒放，一切愁緒都暫時消失得無影無踪。

對上一次我在麥記見到的圖案是一個充滿愛的「心」，我希望日後可以見更多可愛的咖啡圖案就好了。

The Seventh day at Universiade 2011

China hosts Universiade 2011 at Shenzhen this year. It is still the leading country in sweeping gold medals.

Yesterday, Wang Xin (王鑫) and Chen Ruo Lin (陳若琳) if China won in the Women’s 10 m Synchro Platform. Their opponents were from Mexico and Malaysia. Thanks to their perfect “twin” match that they performed extremely well in their synchronized jumps.

Lin Jin and Sun Zhi Yi came first and second respectively in the Men’s 1m Springboard. The former beat the latter by 16.8 points which meant that Lin Jin had great performance in his jumps.

Women’s Table-tennis Doubles Final was played by two Chinese teams in which the members in yellow suits beat their opponents in red ones by 4:0.

Sun Ye won in the 100m breaststroke women swimming final with a record of 1:07.53. She had beaten her Canadian and Japanese opponents by short distances.

生日會的歡樂時光

艾莉參加Jasmine表姐的生日會，間接自己也做了主角之一，因為兩個小妮子是同日不同年出世的。艾莉的大伯婆真好記性，記得艾莉也是在八月三日這個日子出生，告訴給親家聽聽。

第一樣艾莉參與的玩意是自己最愛的波波池，從上梯級至滑下來的動作，都顯得很純熟。心想艾莉一定覺得這個約兩米直徑的池是迷你型，而她玩慣的大池面積足足有三米乘七米那麼大。這裡有一張艾莉上到滑梯頂的時候的照片，她笑得那麼燦爛，露出潔白的牙齒，足以給牙膏商賣廣告用。

對於艾莉來說，她對玩具紋身貼紙是陌生的。她初時看了幾看手中的那一張貼紙，沒有多大興趣就遞給了我。及後因阿比家姐手腕給印上一個貼紙公仔，艾莉也茫然接受這種玩意。後來她叫婆婆把手腕上的「紋身」抺去，我們相信她不大喜歡有這麼樣的「外來物」依附在身上吧。

艾莉對於真動物有點怕，例如狗隻。她對不會動的動物是一概不怕的，所以她在這個生日會騎上一隻又一隻，大概是紅鹿和鱷魚吧。

會中，阿比家姐在四處出現，和妹妹及表妹們跳舞，入波波池，也有參與音樂傳遞生日禮物遊戲─禮物是「重重疊疊」的報紙包紮著。艾莉不識玩集體遊戲，一早就退到婆婆的懷抱中。遊戲中，阿比拿到的是頭箍，而Hayley表妹弄到手的禮物巧合地是一樣；阿比曾經跑出廳外獨自看維港風景，不要我的「監視」；對於生日會的食物，阿比沒有多大興趣，相反來說，艾莉就吃了不少。到手拉糖果的環節時，阿比除了自己一份之外，也很關愛妹妹，拿多一份給她。

喜見今次參加生日會的每一位小朋友都可以得到一個美麗米奇老鼠系列氫氣球。艾莉及阿比都非常喜歡手中的氣球，一刻都沒有放開繫著氣球的繩子。

2011世界大學生運動會開幕式

上星期六，八月十二日晚上2011世界大學生運動會開幕式在深圳「春繭」舉行。
今次運動會有152國家或地區參加，運動員約八千人。
開幕式中有升旗禮、運動員列隊進場、傳遞火炬 點火儀式、運動員宣言及五花八門的表演。
文藝表演的四個偏章為:
第一章: 世界在這裡相逢
第二章: 未來在這裡剪綵。
第三章: 文明在這裡交融
第四章: 夢想在這裡起航

Sunset Apples

Today, I discover some attractive apples called Sunset apples (日落蘋果) from a nearby "W" supermarket.

Let us look briefly at these apples:

Sunset is a popular Cox-style apple, which is much easier to grow. Disease resistance is far better, and cropping is good. It is also self-fertile, which is fairly unusual in apples and means it can be grown without the usual requirement for a pollination partner.

Like Cox it is a mid-season variety, ripening slightly ahead of Cox - so ready to be picked around mid-September in northern Europe. Sunset does not keep especially well, and is best stored in a refrigerator, where it will last a month or so.

The fruit tends to be small, often with a slightly more yellow hue to the characteristic orange flush, but here the apples blended beautifully with red and green.

The flavour of Sunset apples can be very variable. There is no doubt that in principle it is quite close to Cox, with similar aromatic qualities and good sweetness. It remains a crisp and sweet apple though the flavour can be very disappointing in a poor year.

However, taking it purely on its own merits, Sunset is undoubtedly a good apple for the northern European gardener, crisp, sweet-flavoured, reliable cropping, easy to grow ... and in a good year the promise of some of the aromatic flavours of Cox too.

The quality of these apples is still a mystery to me, but I dare to find out. To fulfill my curiosity, I can’t wait to taste one before ending up my investigation report, so I cut one. Although it takes some strength to peel off the skin with a knife, it promises me with a crisp feeling to each bite, totally sweet to my satisfaction. The apples come from South Africa and from now on, I consider them as first-class apples which beat the tastes of Washington apples, Canadian apples, Chinese Fuji apples and even New Zealand crunch apples.

愛心生日餅

這個充滿愛心的生日餅是母親康妮為艾莉親手製作的，所用的蛋糕粉是由加拿大帶回來的。康妮對做這類餅富有經驗，舊年一月她特別為我和阿比做了一個生日餅，當然我和阿比尤其吃得開心。

今次餅面設計是艾莉心愛的芝麻街卡通人物Elmo。康妮用紅色糖漿做Elmo的面，白色棉花糖做眼球的部分，再用朱古力色糖漿做瞳孔和咀唇。我覺得全個餅最吸引的部分是黃色蜜桃作鼻子，因為它是最突出，軟和甜的部分；如果Elmo有多幾個鼻子，那麼就好了。我個人覺得餅面糖漿的顏色稍怪，太甜，相信美國人是喜歡的。我現在還未知道艾莉是否喜歡這個充滿愛心的生日餅呢。

Flamingos

Flamingos (紅鶴) are large long-legged, long necked wading birds with pink feathers. They live in Africa and areas eastward to NW India, Southern Europe, SW Asia, South America such as Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Argentina and the Caribbean Islands.

Flamingos often stand on one leg, the other tucked beneath the body. Some people suggest that the flamingo has the ability to have half of its body go into a state of sleep, and when one side is rested, the flamingo will swap legs and then let the other half sleep, but this has not been proved. Recent research has indicated that standing on one leg may allow the birds to conserve more body heat, given that they spend a significant amount of time wading in cold water. As well as standing in the water, flamingos may stamp their webbed feet in the mud to stir up food from the bottom.

Flamingos filter-feed on brine shrimp and blue-green algae. Their beaks are specially adapted to separate mud and silt from the food they eat, and are uniquely used upside-down. The filtering of food items is assisted by hairy structures called lamellae which line the mandibles, and the large rough-surfaced tongue. The pink or reddish color of flamingos comes from carotenoid proteins in their diet of animal and plant plankton. These proteins are broken down into pigments by liver enzymes. The source of this varies by species, and affects the saturation of color. Flamingos whose sole diet is blue-green algae are darker in color compared to those who get it second hand. Zoo-fed flamingos, which often lack the color enhancer in their diet, may be given food with the additive canthaxanthin.

Flamingos are very social birds that live in colonies that can number in the thousands (see the photos here). These large colonies are believed to serve three purposes for the flamingos:
[1] predator avoidance, [2] maximizing food intake and [3] exploiting scarce suitable nesting sites.

The most basic and stable social unit of flamingos are pair bonds which are made up of one male and one female. The bond between them tends to be strong, however in larger colonies, where there are more mates to choose from, mate changes will occur. In pair bonds, both the male and the female contribute to building the nest for their egg and defending it. Before breeding, flamingo colonies split into breeding groups of around 15-50 birds. Both males and females in these groups perform synchronized ritual displays. These displays serve to both stimulate synchronous nesting and establish pair formation for birds that do not already have mates. A flamingo group stands together and display to each other by raising neck, followed by calling with head-flagging and then wing flapping. The displays do not seem to be directed towards an individual but instead occur randomly.

A Grand Birthday Party

It is like a miracle that two cousins, Jasmine and Elly have the same birthday on August 3. Mother Karen and Father Innes held a birthday party for three-year-old Jasmine yesterday.

It was a big party for about 12 children and their parents and the first time that four cousins could together meet in this occasion.

Besides food, there were games and lots of presents for the children. Taking photos was one of my jobs, but I found it difficult to take good, sharp and beautiful shots because the four cousins (all girls) took part indifferent activities – Elly stuck to the ball-pool with a slide, Abby and Jasmine wandered about and Hayley sitting quietly or eating beside her mother.

Calling for a group photo, Dr. Sung was able to collect all the relatives together. With this “union”, all the four cousins could have a photo together with their parents or grand-parents.

At one time, Abby and Jasmine miraculously danced in the centre of the room. Dr. Sung and some others created the beats by hand-clapping and shouts like “AB-BY, JAS-MINE, HAY-LEY, AB-BY, JAS-MINE, HAY-LEY……” to encourage the children to dance together. Hayley with her ballet legs also joined in. Elly was too young or may be a little shy. She held her grandma’s hands to dance as well.

Another big chance came when Jasmine and Elly were sitting on a rocking sea-saw. Abby joined them by sitting in the middle. We grasped this golden moment of asking Hayley to sit in front her three cousins. This photo was taken fast because I never knew when they would stand up, dismiss and mix with the other children.

The Dreamliner

The first flight of a Dreamliner (夢幻客機), Boeing 787, will be launched this October by ANA (全日空). It will fly from Tokyo to Hong Kong. From then on, these medium-sized long-distance planes will fly to and from different cities of Japan.

On December 15, 2009, Boeing conducted the Dreamliner's maiden flight with the first 787-8, originating from Snohomish County Airport in Everett, Washington at 10:27 am PST, and landing at Boeing Field in King County, Washington at 1:35 pm PST. Originally scheduled for four hours, the test flight was shortened to three hours because of bad weather.

Boeing claimed the 787 would be lighter, faster, quieter and near to 20% more fuel-efficient than the 767, with one-third of the efficiency gain from the engines, another third from aerodynamic improvements and the increased use of lighter-weight composite materials such as titanium, aluminium and carbon fibre, and the final third from advanced systems.

The planes can carry about 300 passengers each and the cabins are newly designed.

馴斑馬記

艾莉的騎術一向都不俗的，話說她歲幾的年紀在加拿大已經可以輕而易舉駕馭她那匹有彈力的木馬(有橡膠繩索把木馬凌空繫在一個架上面)。最初她是需要別人參扶上去的，稍後她已經像一位小小柔軟體操選手似的攀上馬背去了。看她騎馬時那種滿足及自信感，我也替她開心不已。

艾莉一早已經辨別出斑馬這種動物，我猜想她一定是從家中的英文ABC的書籍學回來的。

相中這匹氫氣球斑馬是韋亦信叔叔及蘇珊娜嬸嬸早一個禮拜六送結她的生日禮物，幾天來它都是精神奕奕，飄浮在半空，由下面兩塊膠片持著的；艾莉只可以看著它，想騎上它上面簡直無可能的，因為它是懸掛在空中及身太軟。

昨天早上氣球斑馬已經洩了一些氣，軟下來。在客廳坐著的我突然間發現艾莉將這軟體斑馬一下子拉了下來，極力將它按下去，情景像大力士在古代鬥獸場與獅子老虎搏鬥一樣。畢竟這塑膠斑馬飄浮不定，艾莉弄了一陣子都無辦法制服它。我耐心地看艾莉怎樣馴服這隻馬呢？結果是：艾莉把斑馬塞入去她面前姐姐做功課用藍色小桌子下面，然後跑開了。虧艾莉可以想出這個好辦法來，我真欣賞她努力不懈、絕不放棄的精神，佩服！佩服！

Looking at San Francisco from mid-air

By chance, Tony took a few photos of San Francisco from a north-bound plane to Canada on March 4, 2011. Here they are.

The sea water in San Francisco Bay looked like a mirror at that time. It reflected the clouds in the sky and everything remained peaceful. The skyscrapers in the city centre did not look tall any more, but there were lots of people working inside. The north-east shore-line of San Francisco was filled with piers. It was interesting to see some ships kept sailing in or out of the Bay area.

A Guessing Game

We had dinner at eight with our family members on August 3, 2011.

Please study the photo and guess the answers to the following three questions:
[1] There were four people in the photo. Who were they?
[2] There were eight dishes of food on the table. What are they?
[3] I learn the term “Lazy Susan” recently from TV. It appeared on the table in the photo. What is it?