Washing the Elephants.

My mother loved elephants! So I’m sure that was one of the reasons I took these. I have to admit though that going for a ride was somewhat exciting for me. Since these were taken I’ve been on safari in Kenya and seen how different zoo/tame elephants are from the magnificent beasts that you see in the wild. Consequently it’s a bit hard for me to look back on these pictures and realize that to a certain extent I’ve endorsed keeping these animals in captivity. The first two pictures were taken at Ayutthya and the third at Bang Pa In. I don’t recall where the final one was taken – presumably part of an elephant show. I do remember that one part of the show involved getting volunteers to lie down while an elephant stepped over them. I also remember hearing that not too long afterwards an elephant misjudged its stride, stepped on and killed someone (can’t verify this though). That’s why I wasn’t one of the volunteers.

On the road. Clearly I was on one of the elephants when this was taken.

Topiary elephants at Bang Pa In.

Up!

Many years ago (in the 1980s) when we were still living in Dix Hills, Long Island we had a cat called Ginger. Then I was transferred to Switzerland and the cat went with us. Five years later we moved to France. The cat went with us. Eventually in 1998 we came back to New York and, of course, the cat came with us. Eventually Ginger passed away at a pretty ripe old age. The house seemed empty without her (this was before we got a dog) so we decided to go to the local ASPCA to find another cat. I liked a small long haired calico female, but my wife preferred a large male white shorthair. We couldn’t decide so we decided to take both.

For some reason my wife wanted to call the white cat Lester, but our elder daughter said that he didn’t look like a Lester – he looked like a Sammy. So we decided to name him Samson, although we always called him Sammy. Not surprisingly we decided to call the calico Delilah.

Sammy was certainly not lacking in personality. The very first day we had him we couldn’t find him in the house, eventually discovering him in the unfinished ceiling of our laundry room. He endeared himself to the people building our new kitchen by going up onto the roof and lying there watching them – with half of him overhanging. He would disappear for days and neighbors some distance away told us that they had seen him wandering around. He seemed to like a good fight and on occasion would come back covered in blood (particularly noticeable because he was pure white) – and with a look on his face that appeared to say “you should have seen the other guy”.

Although we didn’t know it when this picture was taken he wasn’t to be with us much longer. You can see in the picture that he’s rather ‘pear shaped’. It turned out that this was a result of fluid accumulation resulting from a failing hear and we lost him not too long afterward. We still have the great memories though.

I was sitting in the garden reading one day when this extremely persistent wasp appeared. I don’t like killing things – even stinging insects so I brushed it away. It disappeared for a while and then returned. I brushed it away again, and again, and again…and it just kept coming back. Since it seemed determined to be there I decided to take a picture of it. Once I’d taken the picture it flew away, never to return. Must have been just coincidental – right?

I liked the way the picture came out. The ridged surface of our patio table looks to me a little like waves. The wasp is a bit fuzzy, but then not everything needs to be in focus.