Odd Sports and Flowers

Just when I thought I had nothing “cool” to report today I got an idea! It jumped at me from an email message sent by my daughter’s primary school. They are listing all the sports teams and special groups (choir, environment club, etc) at the school, asking parents to reply with what team/group picture they want their kids to be in. At the end of the month a photographer will take pictures of these teams/groups for a fee (always substantial!). I felt compelled to share with you some of the sports names, which I had no idea existed and whose name I had to search in the dictionary. They are: bat tennis, bootball, Danish Rounders, hooptime, Kanga cricket, and matball. Even my spell-check function on the computer sees them as typos and kanga cricket didn’t make it yet to Wikipedia! I was not sure why school kids need to play sports like this, so I did a little search for kanga cricket. I found out that “the aim of Kanga Cricket is to enable EVERY player to have a chance of success, as well as participating in an enjoyable game. To achieve this, game Coordinators should adopt a flexible attitude and be prepared to adjust wicket length, speed of bowling, etc to suit each player’s size, strength and ability. Coordinators should be prepared to offer ON THE SPOT coaching/assistance when the need arises – this also includes encouragement and reinforcement.” This introduction to the summary of rules turned me off from trying to find out anything about the other sports. I thought all sports enable EVERY player to have a chance to success and all are enjoyable to those who decided to participate. However, to adjust a sport to suit the players’ abilities sounds less like sports and more like ordering from a restaurant menu, where there is “something” for everyone. Gluten-free, vegan, peanut-free, etc… Today's picture is that of an unusual flower that is actually called "tree echium" as the blooms can reach 3-4 meters in height! I have never seen it in the US, but apparently it is cultivated and it grows there, too.