Our main server crashed horribly last Friday. Tsk, tsk, what a shame. Don’t pity me. It’s been sitting in the corner feeling neglected for a long time. It’s been subjected to countless installs and uninstalls of programs. It started out life as Windows 2000, got upgraded to W2000 Server, then Windows 2003 Server all without so much as a whimper. Now its boot disk is showing symptoms of severe senility. A CHKDSK took an entire night. I didn’t expect to see it on line this morning, but there it is – bravely carrying on carrying on.

I’m demoting it to herding the telephones and serving the printers for a few more days while I put the finishing touches on a pair of back-to-back Windows 2008 servers. Then I’m going to retire it and give it an honourable burial without even dismembering it. Long faithful service deserves honour. I wish our financial backers had the same attitude. But, that’s another story.

All that technical junk bores me these days. It’s just a drudge. I’m going to forget about it for a few minutes and enjoy showing you some images.

This morning we had some new Bird of Paradise blooms next to our orchid draped Flame Tree. Aren’t they pretty:

As I looked up to see if there were any orchid flowers, I noticed some interesting lichens growing on the tree:You can also see the snaky tendrils of the orchids attempting to strangle the tree. I don’t know if they could be properly called roots. They don’t go clear to the ground. Most orchids are epiphytes – they grow attached to another plant, but do not gain nourishment from it directly.

On the way to the office the Finisterre Mountains were calling to my camera. I stopped for a minute to get this seven-frame panorama shot:

It looks about as moody as I feel today. I have more Finisterre Mountain panoramas here and here.

These clouds will also pass.

Related posts:

1. Orchids, Orchids, Orchids Here in Paradise, we have so many species of orchids that it’s ridiculous. Orchids are everywhere. You can’t swing a dead cat without damaging a priceless orchid plant. I found some good orchid information on an Australian site, OrchidsOnline.com.  We have our own PNG orchid site at Papua New Guinea...
2. Back to Nob Nob Mountain Let's take a trip back to Nob Nob Mountain in Madang, Papua New Guinea. Trippy pink fungi, massive Staghorn Ferns, and funky orchids....
3. Big Fat Mountains Simple cameras & software can do amazing things. A cheap Canon and Photoshop is all you would need to show to a 19th century landscape artist to make him weep....
4. Sunshine and Orchids Dweebs and nerds bought wrist corsages for their dates, because they were too shy to pin one on the bosom. I preferred the full-pinning ceremony....
5. Mountains on Mountains If you’re seeing this it may be because I’m On The Road. I’ve prepared a few posts to be automatically published unless I intercept them and substitute a travel post. When I leave my house each morning, I pass through a gate at the edge of our compound and this...
6. A Little Nature Walk in My Garden It's good to get out in the morning to catch the sunrise and think about what the day may bring. A quiet walk in the garden is just the ticket!...
7. The Secrets of Leper Island Leper Island doesn't really have any secrets, except that there were never any lepers there. However, the surrounding reefs are rich beyond imagination....

Tags: bird of paradise, chkdsk, epiphyte, epiphytes, finisterre mountains, flame tree, lichen, lichens, orchid, orchids

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 at 14:47 and is filed under Mixed Nuts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.