‘perhaps in every respect the most delightful in Europe… a glorious Eden.’ – Lord Byron.

‘the most blessed spot on the whole inhabitable globe.’ – Robert Southey.

Looking south standing under a mountain-top cross surrounded by lush vegetation in Sintra’s Romantic-period Pena Palace park I wondered if the human construction in the distance was Lisbon. Then I saw a red bridge glinting in the sun, confirming it was Portugal’s capital city twenty-five miles away on the Tagus estuary. It could have been the Golden Gate bridge signalling San Francisco, but I was a long way from California; and the previous day I’d passed the 25 April bridge and a Rio-style Christ statue on the way to Belem, where Portuguese sailors departed on their most famous voyages of discovery.

Turning around, I took a last look at the breathtakingly colourful and elaborate palace from its level. It was also visible from Sintra town, and the Sintra-Lisbon train; and is said to be visible from Belem on a clear day. Perched atop a mountain containing trees from around the world, the palace looks like a Disney castle resting in an environmentalist’s dream.

http://www.travelthruhistory.com/html/cities49.html

Planet in Crisis

There was a worrying report from WWF today. It suggests:

1. Wildlife numbers have fallen 30% over the last forty years.
2. Tropical species have fallen 60%.
3. Humanity’s ecological footprint is 50% over the planet’s capacity.

We first read it via Yahoo-Sky, and it is also available on the WWF site.

Hi, it’s Greenygrey. Here’s the story of Grey’s time in Bunbury, Western Australia, which was first told in the Werewolf of Oz blog, and is now available to download on Kindle as an epic comedy-fantasy digital book from the image above.

4.  BRUNCHING ON BUNS BURIED IN BUNBURY

I bade farewell to Margaret Rivers at first light, and Margaret River at third; refreshed after wonderful winks that far exceeded forty.

Roadrunner to Bunbury

It was a beautiful sunny morning and I felt like cruising down the highway with the wind in my hair. So I shapeshifted into a roadrunner and picked up some speed. However, this of course meant the wind was in my feathers, which wasn’t quite the same; and I also felt like a bit of a turncoat against my ol’ hero, Wile E. Coyote.

There They Go-Go-Go! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Nevertheless, it was a most enjoyable journey down the freeway, and I arrived in Bunbury in time for brunch. The name of the city made me bun hungry, and I looked for a bakery after changing into a human. I thought a roadrunner looking for food in the middle of a surprisingly large metropolis would have raised at least one eyebrow too many.

Buried Buns in the Bunbury Basement

I thought Bunbury would be full of bakeries, but a local called Rose Hotel told me they were called bunneries in Bunbury; and they were all underground on the edge of town to keep them cool in the hot summers.

So I hiked to the edge of town, and lo and behold, found big basement bunneries serving the most delicious cool fresh buns. The benefit of burying buns was confirmed on first bite.

Dipping into the Dolphin Discovery Centre

While bun-munching by the counter I got talking to a dolphin called Dolly; she had swum up from Koombanna Bay (the bunnery had land, sea and air entrances). Dolly said Koombanna is an idyllic spot, and invited me over.

So I shapeshifted into a dolphin after my last bite of bun, and spent a wonderful evening swimming in the cool Koombanna waters with a dozen dolphins.

Yes, it had been some day, fitting in roadrunning and dolphining either side of biting through a baker’s dozen of Bunbury’s best buried buns.

As I drifted on the ocean waves under a starry moonlit night in that twilight time between sleepiness and slumber I could hear the cetaceans clicking under the water and thought I heard dogs barking above it from the distant shore. The latter would soon lead me on another amazing adventure.

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Notes

Cetacean – large marine mammal, such as whale, dolphin and porpoise.
There is a Rose Hotel in Bunbury.
Wile E. Coyote (cartoon coyote).

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By destroying the planet,
and the animals we share it with,
we also constrain and deny,
the human brain’s future opportunities.
While we will always be able to create,
one day we may run out of skills to replicate…

Art Changes

I noticed that Marc Latham’s latest Folding Mirror poem has had its title and middle line changed. The new poem and changes are below:

Living in the Middle-Ages

remember my rebellion
things I believed
were destroying my soul
that I wanted to escape
the age old enemy within
individual in society
always being true
to what you are
trying to die
before something kills you

political systems spin around, humanity remains upside down

adapting to slowing down
landing at sea
who am I now
ideas used up
festivals need cleaners
keeping it real each day
survival in the wild means
other life making way
my inner thoughts
combined with conservation

*In case you’ve returned after first viewing the poem yesterday, when it was published, and think you remember a different poem, the title has been changed from World Turned Upside Down Over Time, and the folding middle line from political systems shapeshift, humanity remains insideout.

Life Changes, Brain Adapts

I was interested to see that a new blog was following fmpoetry, and had a look. It has a strong subject matter about a life on the streets, and includes the statement:

‘Trauma changes your brain.    Your hippocampus, where you form narrative memory in the brain, shrinks.  This is a symptom of PTSD –  a neurophysiologic response to repetitive trauma…’

I googled it, and found a great website about surviving and thriving that discusses how trauma can change the structures of the brain, and how the brain can recover by forming new neural connections.

Brain structures involved in dealing with stress and fear. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the time before modern science, mental changes or abnormalities which could have been due to abuse or poverty  were often put down to God or magic. If people were then persecuted, their conditions were likely to deteriorate further.

Environment Changes, Life Adapts

The way the brain changes reminded me of our planet, and how it also adapts to external factors; whether human, weather or extraterrestrial. Planets and brains seem lifeless forms, but they are absorbing and adapting all the time; surviving negative forces and thriving with positive.

Two stone flounders (Kareius bicoloratus) blend into their environment by changing their color. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

That reminded me of a recent story I read in the Daily Mirror that reminded me of the Greenygrey ability to chameleonise. Apparently, there might be better camouflage uniforms available soon after scientists were inspired by squid and zebrafish; the animals can change colour thanks to chromatophore cells with central sacs containing pigment surrounded by muscles.

Scientists copied the cells using synthetic materials and found they changed colour at a flick of a switch when electrical currents passed through. So, looks like humanity has learnt a new trick from an animal that has evolved the skill over thousands of years.

Marc Latham’s new Folding Mirror poem needs no introduction. Should the middle-aged be true to what they were or are? Are they what they were? Were they what they are?

Rebel Without a Cause (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

World Turned Upside Down Over Time

remember my rebellion
things I believed
were destroying my soul
that I wanted to escape
the age old enemy within
individual in society
always being true
to what you are
trying to die
before something kills you

political systems shapeshift, humanity remains insideout

adapting to slowing down
landing at sea
who am I now
ideas used up
festivals need cleaners
keeping it real each day
survival in the wild means
other life making way
my inner thoughts
combined with conservation

Ursula Andress in Dr. No (film) (cropped) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hi, it’s Greenygrey. Here’s the latest instalment of Grey’s epic solo ozyssey ramble across Oztralia, where it swam with some friendly whale sharks and a hospitable local in Margaret River. Here it is:

3.  MARGARET RIVERs in margaret River

Vombat sent me off with a bombastic brekkie, and I started my second day on the road in high spirits. It didn’t last long; but that’s not to say the day went downhill. It’s just that the sea looked so serene I jumped in and shapeshifted into a whale shark to swim up the coast; so I didn’t spend much time on the road. The new shape took a little getting used to, and I was flapping around on the surface for a while, looking more wombat than whale.

Whale of a Time with Whale Sharks

I met a genus of whale sharks in deep water. Winona, Walter, Wendy, William and Dweezil made me feel right at home; Dweezil seemed different to the others for some reason, but was especially funny in an oddball way. They swam quite slowly, but the relaxed pace meant I could see more of the coral and fish.

We reached Margaret River by tea-time, and after changing into human form to emerge onto the beach I felt like Ursula Andress in Dr. No. I didn’t know at the time that I’d forgotten to shake myself out of a side fin.

Margaret is Most Welcoming

A woman called Margaret Rivers was there to welcome me.  Margaret looked a lot like Joan Rivers, and I wondered if she might be a long-lost relation.  She said she’d heard I was on my way while listening to whale sound.

Margaret showed me around the picturesque post-surfie community, and then made me dinner. She also let me use her computer, and I was delighted to see Green had read my previous blog and relayed it to readers of the Greenygrey website.

We also managed to contact my whale shark companions. They sent greetings on their return journey as I prepared for bed, and their relaxing melodies guaranteed me a good night’s kip.

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Notes

kip – slang for sleep.
Ursula Andress (actress).
Dr. No (Bond film).
Joan Rivers (comedienne).

—————————————————————————————————-

Whale Shark (Photo credit: fishgirl7)

Hubble Space Telescope (Photo credit: Abraxas3d)

Hi, it’s Andy Wolfhol. The Martin Rees quote about our place in the universe at the end of the previous blog: ’We’re not directly aware of the big picture, any more than a plankton whose universe is a litre of water would be aware of the world’s topography and biosphere’ reminded us of Marc Latham’s ant theory of humanity, so we thought we’d bring you a few more theories about our place in the universe. It ends with a Buddhist theory from 2500 years ago, which is eerily similar to some of the most popular scientific theories of the present day.

Images of the spiral galaxy Messier_100 demonstrate the improvement in Hubble images after corrective optics were installed during Servicing Mission 1 in 1993. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Isaac Newton, Mathematician and Physicist, 1642-1727:

“I was like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”

Albert Einstein, Theoretical Physicist, 1879-1955:

“The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn’t know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see the universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws but only dimly understand these laws.”

Alan Watts, Philosopher, 1915-1973:

"Imagine a multidimensional spider's web in the early morning covered with dew drops. And every dew drop contains the reflection of all the other dew drops. And, in each reflected dew drop, the reflections of all the other dew drops in that reflection. And so ad infinitum. That is the Buddhist conception of the universe in an image." --Alan Watts Alan Watts Podcast - Following the Middle Way #3 alanwattspodcast.com. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Amount of Galaxies in Space is Astounding

The article about telescopes by Hal Amen featured an image by the Hubble telescope showing an area in space a tenth the diameter of the full moon as we see it from Earth. They found 10,000 galaxies in the image. If that random part of space is typical, then there are 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe.

Our Milky Way galaxy is one amongst billions, as our sun is one star amongst billions and our planet one amongst billions; with many exo-planets and moons thought to be ideal for harbouring life. This image shows our sun’s position in our galaxy:

Image from the Atlas of the Universe website.

Beyond the Observable Universe

Although our brains and technology have obviously not seen what is beyond the observable universe, scientists have some theories. Martin Rees believes that we may be one universe among many. He proposed this in an article on the Prospect website, which began and ended with these paragraphs:

An astonishing concept has entered mainstream cosmological thought: physical reality could be hugely more extensive than the patch of space and time traditionally called “the universe.” We’ve learnt that we live in a solar system that is just one planetary system among billions, in one galaxy among billions. But there are signs that a further Copernican demotion confronts us. The entire panorama that astronomers can observe could be a tiny part of the aftermath of our Big Bang, which is itself just one bang among a potentially infinite ensemble. In this grander perspective, what we’ve traditionally called the laws of nature may be no more than parochial bylaws—local manifestations of “bedrock” laws that must be sought at a still deeper level.

Our cosmic environment could be richly textured, but on scales so vast that our purview is restricted to a tiny fragment. We’re not directly aware of the big picture, any more than a plankton whose universe is a litre of water would be aware of the world’s topography and biosphere. It is sensible for cosmologists to start off by exploring the simplest models. But there is no more reason to expect simplicity on the grandest scale than in the terrestrial environment, where intricate complexity prevails. It is exhilarating that this wonderful concept is now within the scope of scientific enquiry.

Hi, it’s Greenygrey. Thanks to all those who downloaded Grey’s epic Werewolf of Oz: Fantasy Travel by Google Maps on the weekend. We hope you enjoyed reading it if you got around to it. Here’s the next instalment, where  Grey landed and started its almost two-year ‘fantastic Mr. Fox’ rambling quest. It remembered some more detail since its blog, so it’s hopefully an improvement on its original Werewolf of Oz blog.

2.  aRRIVAL AND RAMBLE

Alone in a new land down under, old world turned upside down.

The mounting sound of dogs barking made me think that Mount Barker would be as good a place as any to land. I wouldn’t say it was a perfect landing, but it had been a long journey, and I am new to this solo space flight malarkey. A last minute shapeshift into a Swedish vallhund – schnauzer – shih tzu cross on the approach didn’t help matters either.

I was delighted to find that a cacophonous crowd of canines had turned out to greet me; it was cool to have charming company again. A diligent dingo called Digger told me Sirius had told them I was on my way. They had also prepared a fantastic feast, and all the anxiety I had felt on the journey quickly receded.

Digger and Aussie

I had itchy paws after the food. Although I was sorry to be leaving so soon, I thought I should get rambling, as the sooner you start the sooner you should finish. I told Digger, and it announced my departure to the crowd. They all wished me a safe journey, and I thanked them for their hospitality. I hoped everywhere would be so easy; while I didn’t think it would be, I never imagined how difficult and dangerous it would become.

Digger escorted me out of town, and showed me the road to Denmark. It was a nice relaxing journey, and I reached there a few hours later. It was a nice liberal place to relax. I met an Australian Shepherd dog called Aussie there, and it gave me a guide for Australia’s south-west after showing me around town.

Aussie accompanied me to Greens Pool, and on the way told me it had arrived from overseas as well. It wasn’t a natural Australian, but is now known as an Aussie. While Aussie was great company, Greens Pool of course brought back memories of pool swims with my dear ol’ other half, Green.

Wombat of Walpole

It was already late afternoon when I bade Aussie farewell and set off north-west. It was a lovely ramble through 400-year-old red and yellow tingle trees on the way to Walpole.

I fancied a shapeshift along the way, so I changed into an Australian animal; my choice turned out to be quite fortunate, because after arriving in Walpole I made the acquaintance of a very distinguished old Wombat. And guess what animal I’d shapeshifted into?

Yes, if you guessed wombat you’d be right.

My wombat friend introduced itself as Vombatus Ursinus, but said I could call it Vombat; it was a local dignitary, and arranged for me to stay at the best burrow in town. We feasted on burritos in the dining room that night, and drank burdock and dandelion. We talked about our lives thus far, and had a lot in common for creatures from such different worlds. It was a highly enjoyable evening, but that of course meant that time flew, and it was soon time to say goodnight. Vombat said he’d arrange for me to have breakfast in burrow the next morning: a refried-beans burrito.

I thought about the wonders of travel before dropping off to sleep. I’d started the day reluctant to leave Green, and unsure of what lay ahead, but I’d had a Fantastic Mr. Fox time, and met some wonderful new friends along the way.

——————————————————————————————-

Notes

Sir Robert Walpole (Britain’s first Prime-Minister).
Fantastic Mr. Fox (cartoon film).
————————————————————————————————-

Hi, it’s Andy Wolfhol, creator extraordinaire at the Greenygrey. Our Werewolf of Oz digital book is now on free download for the weekend on Amazon Kindle. Moreover, I just saw that its editor, Marc Latham, has just published a new Folding Mirror poem on fmpoetry. As it is very topical, with a spring theme, we thought we’d import it into our world straight away, and share it with you. Here it is, followed by Marc’s explanation:

Sacrifice and Celebration

cherry blossom
flower flotsam
wind’s caress
trees undress
flying free
spring confetti

independent, resplendent

earth decoration
feeling liberation
underneath ume
picnic hanami
ephemeral time
sakura rhyme

Marc Latham’s latest Folding Mirror poem was first inspired by observing nature, and finished off with research on Wikipedia. In the wiki world he discovered that ume is a type of tree, hanami is the tradition of picnicking under blooming blossoms and sakura is another name for cherry blossoms and a folk song. The short flowering of cherry blossoms symbolises the transience of life in Japan.