This first comes from Strider of Life Quest, a new friend. I'm sorry Strider that it's taken quite so long for me to get around to posting this.
And this one is from Claudie of Lazaza, a dear friend from France.
Thank you both very much for thinking of me. I am greatly honoured. I know I'm supposed to pass the awards on, but I'm going to break the rules because I have so many good friends whose blogs I love to read. How could I possibly choose some above others?
It was a dark day yesterday, one of those days when things go wrong, and the weather lives up to it. But one bright point was that I ended up visiting the Sir Harold Hillier gardens where they were having the annual Art in the Garden exhibition. There I found the following two dark bronzes in the undergrowth.
I'd love to have the sort of garden which would accommodate a piece of art like this one, half-hidden amongst the bushes.
This one makes me feel rather chilly (you can tell what the weather is like here), but it is equally beautiful.
Finally when the sun was going down, and the skies were darkening, there was the first hint of blue sky between the dark clouds.
Remember Free Rice? In the same manner, Free Poverty is a (n addictive) game, a game that benefits a charity.
Instead of testing your spelling, you are tested on your geography. You merely have to place cities and well known sites on a map of the world. Easy peasy.
Let me tell you, they are VERY picky, most especially if you don't know the US of A too terribly well. You can be three countries out in Asia (THREE COUNTRIES) but woe betide you if you're three millimetres out in the USA. Still, I did get to super-hard level (yes I did) where I was very much helped by all the questions being placed in Algeria. Happily I know where that is. Can anyone beat 250?
Try it. Donate some water to Water Aid, one of my favourite charities. They do the dirty work.
Working in very much the same way as Kiva, a new micro-finance initiative called Babyloan (pronounced in French more like Babylon than baby loan) has been set up, which links European donors with micro entrepreneurs in developing countries. European internet users can look at the profiles of micro entrepreneurs, choose who they want to support and by how much, then lend money, in Euros, directly to them. The loan is paid back and the original sum can be either taken out of the scheme or re-lent.
The beneficiaries are selected by MFIs (Micro Finance Institutions) who are partners of Babyloan. Legally, the lenders are lending to the MFI who will repay the loan in case of default.
Babyloan are hoping to develop the site into a social community, so that lenders can meet others and share experiences, even electing representatives to the board of directors.
The site is still showing a beta version, but, although it is primarily a French site, it does have an English version. Of sorts. Someone needs to tell them that "Vêtements pour hommes" doesn't translate as "Men's dresses".
The Llanthony lift bridge opening at Gloucester Docks, to allow the return of a boat trip to the National Waterways Museum. It leads out to the Gloucester and Sharpness canal.
The first bridge at this site was a wooden swing bridge built to carry Llanthony Road over the new docks when they were constructed in 1794. This was replaced in the 1860s with an iron swing bridge, which carried a rail line linking the Midland Railway which had a line on the east of the docks with the Great Western Railway which ran into the west of the docks.
The survival of the old warehouses in the dockyard has made an ideal location for filming historical drama, and many scenes for the popular television series The Onedin Line were filmed in front of Biddle Warehouse. In recent years new uses have been found for the warehouses and the docks are developing as a popular leisure area. A pleasant place to visit.
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