Carnivals and Calabash

So having failed to contribute to this fortnight's IATB, I finally got round to contributing to a couple of other carnivals I've enjoyed for a while.

Circus of the Spineless #17 is up at The Voltage Gate and the Eighth Festival of the Trees is hosted by Gingko Dreams so if you like bugs and/or trees (and who doesn't?) you know where to go.

It may be these two carnivals or it may be that I'm finally getting accurate data after redoing my statcounter code but I seem to have a few more visitors today so if you're uncovering E, W & W for the first time, welcome, dive in and make yourself at home and don't be afraid to say hello.

Speaking of trees and carnivals here's one you may see at a carnival down here. This is a calabash tree.

These enormous fruit (thats about twice the size of my head (and my head is fairly average sized)) have hard thin skins and when dried and hollowed can be used to make bowls, drums, percussion instrument thingies and the like. They look kind of Alice-in-wonderland on the slightly runty tree though.