Tag Archives: animals

Rishikesh! For me, that is a name that conjures up the sound of sitars, images of pastel-coloured Hindu Gods, and memories of songs from the Beatles’ post-hallucinogenic phase. Can you believe it? It was 50 years ago, this February-past, that the Beatles followed their guru – their teacher – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to his ashram […]

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(Double click for: Elkesh Herself by Kugyershin Family’s Songs) It is said that if you want to see traditional Kazakh culture, you should go to Bayan-Ölgii province in Mongolia, rather than to Kazakhstan. In the 1800s, the expanding Russian Empire pushed the semi-nomadic Kazakh tribes into neighboring countries, including Mongolia – where members of the Middle Jüz Kazakhs […]

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It is always a joy to meet someone who loves their work! Brett Weingarth is an oyster farmer who is so excited about oysters, and the environment they grow in, that he conducts regular tours of the oyster leases on the tidal waters of Pambula Lake (Broadwater), just off Australia’s southeastern Sapphire Coast. Brett grew […]

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She’s not the first, and she’s not the only one, but she is still a rarity these days: a female Kazakh eagle hunter. Hunting with golden eagles is a long-standing custom among the Turkic peoples (particularly the Kazakh and Kyrgyz) across the Eurasian steppe. During the 1930s, large numbers of Kazakhs fled from communist-controlled Kazakhstan through the Altai Mountains to Bayan-Ölgii Province in […]

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There is an irony in being able to see animals better in the wild than you can at a zoo. My husband and I had grandchildren visiting over the Christmas break, so we took the opportunity to spend a day at Sydney’s beautiful Taronga Zoo. Now, I love this particular zoo (see: A Tale of […]

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