PHOTO DIARY

Xin gửi sự cảm thông và chia sẻ tới tất cả đồng bào miền Trung - nơi vừa hứng chịu cơn bão Ketsana và đang phải chống đỡ những con lũ lớn sau bão. Ở đây, lúc này mới cảm nhận được phần nào ý nghĩa của những từ 'quê hương', 'tổ quốc' và 'đồng bào'.

Trung Thu buồn./.

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The dandelion

Dandelions are thought to have evolved about thirty million years ago in Eurasia; they have been used by humans for food and as a herb for much of recorded history. They were introduced to North America by early European immigrants.

The dandelion clock

Origin of the name

The English name dandelion is a corruption of the French 'dent de lion' meaning "lion's tooth", referring to the coarsely toothed leaves. The names of the plant have the same meaning in several other European languages, such as the Italian 'dente di leone', Spanish 'diente de león', Portuguese 'dente-de-leão', Norwegian 'Løvetann', and German 'Löwenzahn'.

In modern French the plant is named 'pissenlit', which means "piss in bed", apparently referring to its diuretic properties. Likewise, "pissabeds" is an English folk-name for this plant, as is 'piscialletto' in Italian and the Spanish 'meacamas'. In various north-eastern Italian dialects the plant is known as pisacan ("dog pisses"), referring to how common they are found at the side of pavements.

Inside the clock

In several European languages the plant, or at least its parachute ball stage, is named after the popular children's pastime of blowing the parachutes off the stalk: 'Pusteblume' (German for "blowing flower"), 'soffione' (Italian for "blowing"; in some northern Italian dialects), 'dmuchawiec' (Polish, derived from the verb "blow"), одуванчик (Russian, derived from the verb "blow").

The dandelion seed dispersal

In other languages the plant is named after the white sap found in its stem, e.g. 'Mlecz' (derived from the Polish word for "milk"), 'kutyatej' (Hungarian for "dog milk"), маслачак (derived from the Serbian word 'маслац', meaning "butter")).[citation needed] Also the Lithuanian name 'kiaulpienė' can be translated as "sow milk", and similarly, in Latvian it is called 'pienene', the word being derived from 'piens' - milk.

Three seeds

The alternative Hungarian name 'gyermekláncfű' ("child's chain grass"), refers to the habit of children to pick dandelions, remove the flowers, and make links out of the stems by "plugging" the narrow top end of the stem into the wider bottom end. In Turkish the dandelion is called 'karahindiba' meaning "black endive". In Swedish, it is called maskros ("worm rose"). In Finnish and Estonian, it is called 'voikukka' and 'võilill', respectively, meaning "butter flower", referring to its buttery colour. In Dutch it is called paardebloem, meaning "horse-flower".[citation needed] In Chinese it is called '蒲公英' (pronounced pu gong ying), meaning flower that grows in public spaces by the riverside. In Vietnamese it is called 'bồ công anh'.

The Blue Mountains is a mountainous region in New South Wales, Australia. It borders on Sydney's metropolitan area, its foothills starting approximately 50 kilometres west of the state capital. The area begins on the west side of the Nepean River and extends westward as far as Cox's River
Panorama view of Blue Mountains National Park
Closer view of Three Sisters formation and Kedumba Valley
Kedumba Valley (photo taken from Three Sisters formation)
Three Sisters (photo taken from Queen Victoria look out)
Another overview of Blue Mountains (taken from Echo Point)