Posts Tagged ‘environment’

Urgent Appeal !!!

Posted: 26/07/2012 in Africa, Bunny Chow, Rhodesia, Zimbabwe
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As many of you know I’m a Zimbabwean by birth and still have a great draw to my homeland. I have made Britain my home but left my heart in Africa.

As such when I see things like this post below from my father on his own blog www.birdingzimbabwe.com I feel not only outraged but saddened at the continued rape and pillaging still being wrought on so much of Africa in order to make that elusive quick buck. Please read the post and sign the petition regardless of where in the world you might be.

Many thanks and TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

Hi All

Well the Hwange trip Post will have to wait because something else has come up.

Harare is well-known internationally as a fantastic city for birding for the “special” vlei species (a vlei is a natural wetland or seep).  Various Cisticola’s, Crake’s, Flufftail’s and the more colourful Bishop’s and Widow’s.

Vlei’s are enormously important for much more than just the birdlife !! The torrential tropical rainwater is held back by the ‘sponge’ action of the vlei and then released slowly into the downstream waterways over a period of many months. This water is cleaned and purified in the process and of course flooding is also averted.

One of the biggest vlei’s is the Borrowdale Vlei.

It is under threat !!

See below……….  please assist………….

Here’s the petition for forwarding to your friends:

Stop Loss of Borrowdale Vlei

Plans are underway for construction of a massive shopping centre called the Mall of Zimbabwe on what is left of one of Harare’s few remaining wetland areas, the Borrowdale Vlei. These plans are going ahead despite the fact that an independent environmental impact assessment has not been undertaken.

The ecosystem services of flood attenuation and water purification are being over looked and the full environmental ramifications need to be carefully considered. In addition, wetlands play an important role in absorbing water in the wet season and then releasing this water in dry seasons. There are 6.5 million people living within the catchment system linked to the Borrowdale Vlei who are dependent upon the water it stores and then releases. We therefore urge Vice President Mujuru to consider an alternative site for the Mall of Zimbabwe.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Stop_Loss_of_Borrowdale_Vlei/?tta

Reblogged with permission from Tony Wood (c) www.birdingzimbabwe.com

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Birding in Zimbabwe

Posted: 17/05/2012 in Africa, Zimbabwe
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My father is dragging himself into the 21st century,

for those of you who don’t know the back story he semi retired after many years working in IT a few years back and set himself up as a handyman come maintenance man with the real intention of earning enough money to pursue his true passion which is bird watching. Having established his little we’ll fix anything business he has at last been able to settle into a management role and get on with what he really wants to do which is guiding.

He has now passed his Zimbabwe learner guides exams (in reality a formality as he’s a very experienced and competent Bushman anyway) he’s now licensed to take paying clients into Zimbabwe’s still excellent national parks and having now led several succesful expeditions he’s looking to establish his brand and start finding some more clients.

This is where the 21st century bit comes in, he’s joined Facebook/google+ and now even WordPress with his shiny new blog www.birdingzimbabwe.com now up and running his business is there for the world to find. He’s able to put together custom itineraries for people seeking the ultimate birding experience across Southern Africa.

Please pay his site a visit and even better get in touch and find out if he could take you on the holiday of a lifetime.

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

P.S. he didn’t even ask me to write this gushing post, but following his lead I as a non birder have been incredibly privileged to experience some of the most incredible site that the African continent is able to deliver.  Thanks Dad

 

 

 

Quotography # 3

Posted: 03/05/2012 in photography, quotography
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this is the last post that I’ll be doing showing my quotography efforts but I do plan to share some stuff from Nick Exposed and Seeing Spots as well as whoever else from the project takes my fancy.

Part one of my own posts can be found here and part two here

The third and final quote I had to work with was “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” which was from Thomas Edison the commonly agreed inventor of the carbon filament light bulb as well as being the man who brought electricity to the masses.

My thought process here initially was to find something like an abandoned shop or discarded book or guitar, but the more I thought about where this quote had come from I realised that I had to do something with light, Edison himself tried hundreds if not thousands of different filament materials before settling on carbonized bamboo threads.

As many of my regular readers will know by now I have recently had access to a decent DSLR thanks to The Falklandislander and decided to try my hand at a little light painting, something that would never have been possible without the efforts of Thomas Edison. 

The technique is really quite simple, take a long exposure shot, in this case 30 seconds and either move the camera or light source around to create the light trails you can see.

You can get very technical with it but I chose to keep it very simple just going for a shaken look.

I hope you’ve all enjoyed my take on these quotes and I can’t wait to see what other people come up with for theirs.

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow