Let me begin today’s mashup of disorganised visual and verbal clutter by wishing myself a happy birthday. This has, indeed, been an interesting year. Having lived through my 66th year, I now embark on my 67th. In the past year, as a result of a New Year’s Resolution,  I have banished foul language from my daily speech (almost  completely), made an unexpected trip to North America without busting the bank and begun to reverse the devastating financial situation at Casa MadDog.

So many blessings . . .  And now, it’s almost Christmas, a time of year that inevitably depresses me. So many reasons . . . No snow or cold weather (which would probably kill me anyway) Don’t get to see my son and his family, my beautiful, smart granddaughters. Never mind. I’m not going to whine on my birthday. Eunie will bake me a pineapple upside-down cake tomorrow, a family tradition. I’ll eat the whole thing. It will take me about two or three weeks, according to how rapidly my spare tire inflates.

And now for your daily Christmas Tree. Here is a cute little mob of them:

If you move your hand over these they will disappear down their hidy-holes in an instant. No, I’m not guaranteeing that it will happen on your computer screen. Hey, I could do that with a mouse-over. I wish I had time to try it. First I’d have to have the exact same shot with the worms retracted. Never mind. I didn’t think of that while I was under the water.

Here is the star Christmas Tree Worm (Spirobranchus giganteus)  for today:I like the little magenta stars on top.

Here is another “what I actually saw” shot. The murky water at Barracuda Point  last Saturday lends a spooky effect to this shot of Divaricate Tree Coral (Dendronephthya roxasia)  with Carol Dover in the background checking out some Pickhandle Barracuda (Sphyraena jello):It’s not pretty, but it’s what I saw.

Here is something that has puzzled me for some time. We often see these Solitary Corals, sometimes called Mushroom Corals, with damaged edges and colourful stains. This one is a deep form, that is it grows in deeper water, of Fungia fungites:If anybody out there knows anything about this, please enlighten me.

The contortionist of starfish is Choriaster granulatus  or, as we sometimes call it, the Dirty Starfish. I’ll let you wonder why:Another common name for this one is the Granulated Starfish. I don’t know how they manage to squeeze themselves into such awkward positions. This one looks as if it is trapped under a coral ledge.

Sticking with water, but on the surface now, here is yet another water drop image:

I wonder what that means?

Related posts:

1. The Big Blue Finger I’m sitting here wondering what to say while I listen to some very cool East London Jazz from Seal, which dates my taste in music somewhere in the Early Bronze Age. Later I’m going to do some Steely Dan, maybe Babylon Sisters.  So, I’m all moody and overworked and and...
2. Christmas Presents on a Coral Reef Well, it’s Christmas Day here. Most of the world will not catch up with us for a few hours. In the spirit of the season, I’ve prepared a modest, hastily constructed Christmas present for you. I honestly had something much more elaborate planned, but we all know how plans go...
3. Barracuda Point Peculiarities A small collection of peculiar images from Barracuda Point at Pig Island near Madang, Papua New Guinea....
4. Christmas Trees – Already? Since we’re approaching the season to be jolly like a runaway freight train, why don’t I show you some Christmas trees that you might want to put up in your lounge. Well, maybe not. You’d have to flood your house with sea water. Christmas Tree Worms are fun to photograph...
5. 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....
6. Hungry? Have a Delicious Sea Cucumber (Bêche-de-mer) Just after we entered the water we saw this huge Sea Cucumber (Thelenota ananas). This species is also known as the Prickly Redfish or the Pineapple Fish. Of course, it's not a fish at all, neither is it a pineapple....
7. I Bet That You Have Never Eaten One of These Things that are exceedingly unlikely to find their way to your dinner plate during the holiday season - unless you're coming to my house....

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 at 08:51 and is filed under Under the Sea. 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.