The Dawn Chorus

One of the most serene and pleasing sounds is the dawn chorus of wild and garden birds.  Sit back and listen to the first clip.

This one has comments by the sound archivist at the British Library.

Pig Cam

Francis Bacon, Pig Cam, definitely makes me smile.  He carries a tiny camera and flies from a kite above interesting places and he has his very own viewpoint of the world and of us.

Elephants

I don't know why it has taken me until now to get round to posting some pictures about Elephants.  They have always been my favourite animal and have kept me smiling since I was a very little girl.

 I grew up with pictures from Africa in my dad's albums and then have a very vivid memory of the Blue Peter team, especially Valerie Singleton going to the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage in Sri Lanka as one of their expeditions in 1969.  It was still Ceylon then.

I started to collect elephants and now have a lots.  On our last long travels I bought a new elephant in every country that we visited and I intend to do the same when we set off this time too.

In 2010 we were lucky enough to go to Sri Lanka ourselves and we got to visit the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage.  I got to feed a baby elephant milk and we got prime seats on the edge of the river to watch as they all came down to bathe.

But not only did we do that.  We hapened to be in the ancient capital, Kandy, at the same time as the start of the Perahra.  This is a Festival which lasts for several days linked to the display of the Tooth of the Buddha which is normally housed in the Temple of the Tooth in the city.  Elephants come from every corner of the country to take part in this prestigious event.  As do dancers and families and travellers.   It was like a dream to sit and watch as the elephants paraded with dancers and drums and fabulous howdahs, their beautiful costumes all lit with electric lighting.  An amazing sight.

You can watch a video of the Perahara here.

Films for Life Part 2

Thought I'd add these into the mix as well.   The first is something we enjoyed at the cinema.  We don't go very often; normally we wait for things to come out on DVD.  partly because when we were at Fellside it was at least a 70 mile round trip to get to the cinema and back.  So we would often go to watch two or three films at the same time.  That used to make quite long trips when we would watch a Harry Potter, a Lord of the Rings and one other film!

The Artist

This second film we saw on DVD a while ago but recently followed up with the second part.  It's not an easy watch, so possibly not immediately recognisable as something that makes you smile, but the acting was fantastic, and the directing and the writing equally so.  You really get the sense of this group of people and their relationships and I found that the original and the second part have stayed with me for a long time.  Now have to get hold of part three.

This is England

 

Pets at Home Advert

There seems to be a run of happy animal adverts at the moment in our recession ridden society.  Thank goodness.

Enjoy!  (And look out for the frog...)

Everybody needs a Harvey

Harvey the Dog is becoming a star.  He takes the lead role in the advertising campaign being run by Thinkbox and today saw him appearing in his second ad.

They certainly achieve their aim of showing you the power of advertising.

Here is todays advert.  Watch it and smile: a lot.

This was the first time we saw Harvey.

I want this dog.....

Thinkbox have put together a great gallery of other ads which have an impact.  Have a look here.