US ambassador Barry White playing catch with a football with John Grimes at the US Independence Day celebration in Frogner Park, Oslo, Norway.
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Today was a 17km bike trip in the hills north of Oslo for a bunch of students from the Oslo International School. They started and finished at Sognsvann.  All kitted up for the ride.  A close up.  Lots of kids, lots of bikes.  After they left, I found a family of Mallards in the weeds.  And after they returned, nearly six hours later, I took a short detour to a different part of the forest to have a look at an old iron mine.  Of interest, on June 12 there were still some big chunks of ice at the bottom of the mine. There are five ponds on the FCRE property. One is down by the Ecology Center, and four are up at the top of the property. Water hyacinth has been a problem taking over some of the ponds. The largest pond, generally known as the basilisk pond, was in the worst condition, and a team was sent to open it up a bit. 
Chucking hyacinth out of the pond.
Here is Laura Sauvage swimming while pushing a massive pile of weeds toward the chuckers. Look closely, she is in there.
And here is Don McFarlane, in a camo cap so have to use an arrow.
And so the story of the turtle. It would seem that this pond turtle was fleeing the scene, either after being accidentally chucked out along with a gob of plants, or voluntarily leaving due to silly people all over the place. But I found it huddled up in its shell just past the growing pile of hyacinth on the shore. I spent much of the time watching it and hoping it would come out for a picture. It did not. So, I put it by the pile of packs and forgot about it. Then, after everyone was out of the water, it was discovered still tightly closed. Laura actually started to pet it and it quickly opened up and started walking away! I went for my camera but it was buried in leaves before I got back. Go figure. So here is a picture of the turtle that dislikes being photographed but jumps around if Laura pets it. 
The turtle that would not have its picture taken.
Laura Sauvage, after taming the turtle, with an hourglass frog (Dendropsophyus ebraccatus) on her shoulder.
So, after all the pond fun in the rain, I thought since I was on top of the hill where the big fruit-eating birds come in in the evening, I would hang around and hope the rain stopped. It didn't but I got this picture of a Chestnut mandibled toucan. It was taken from 60-meters away, in the rain, so only as good as such a picture can be. 
Chestnut mandibled toucan.
A preying mantis egg case.
Yes, I was unsuccessfully waiting out the rain in the bamboo pavilion on top of the hill, so found this mantid egg case. Or so I think. This seems correct, but there are enough ridiculously weird insects in Costa Rica that I could be wrong.
May 17 is National Day in Norway. Everyone gets dressed up and heads out and just has a blast. At the Palace, the king and his close family wave to the the children's parade from the Palace balcony. And the children's parade goes on for hours, with lots of flags, marching bands, and much hoopla. Many of the Norwegians dress in their bunads, which are wonderful and each unique and often with a story of their own about who sewed them and what the colors and details mean. It is always a highlight of Spring here, and some photos from the Oslo celebration follow. 
Most of the roads are closed in the central part of town, so everyone just walks down the streets.
The children's parade is here coming by a packed audience.
There is a little overlook at one point, where this couple is enjoying the view of the festivities.
Children running around the gardens in town.
There is a rule that all the children get to eat lots of ice cream and hot dogs. Here are some twins working on the ice cream end of that rule.
Young couples all dressed up are not the norm, but can be found.
While there is a lot of fun going on, this bit was an odd addition to the day.
If you aren't Norwegian, or your bunad is at the cleaners, you still get dressed up and show off.
Tropical water warrior! Just having a reflection moment about when H2O wasn't mostly represented as ice.
Today was supposed to be a kid's festival in Oslo. The promo promised: Spectacular Youth Show with air acrobatics, Bollywood, Hip Hop, parkour, extreme acrobatics, juggling, dance shows and acoustic gigs Well, I wasn't there the whole time, but while there listened to a number of Hip Hop/Rap artists using much rude language not typically associated with kid events. Ah well. Did take some pictures, which will be quite off-topic from the usual stuff here.  This guy was pretty impressive, with his fire-breathing and hanging by some pins in the flesh of his back.  But just a few shots of the folks in the area should also be interesting. A very mixed crowd indeed.      And on the way out of town, saw the most cute baby and just had to take this picture (with permission from the mother).  |
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