View allAll Photos Tagged Associated
Book cover design by Kuhlman Associates for Left-Handed Liberty: a Play about Magna Carta by John Arden. New York: Grove Press, 1966. PR6001.R44 L4 1966
A portrait of the ‘UK's national bird, an adult Robin caught out and about in West Yorkshire collecting nesting material with an Oak leaf in its bill, April 14th 2022.
Many thanks for visiting my Flickr pages...Your visits, interest, comments and kindness to 'fave' my photos is very much appreciated, Steve.
Why do we associate Robins with Christmas?
The legends of our Christmas Robin…
If you have ever wondered why red Robins are associated with Christmas, postmen in Victorian Britain were nicknamed “Robins” because of their red-breasted coloured uniforms. So the Robin on the Christmas card came to represent the postman who delivered the card yet there are links that pre date this explanation.
Legend has it that the Robin’s redbreast provides a direct link to Christianity as the Robin pulled a thorn from the crown of Christ whilst he was on the cross and sang to relieve his suffering, it was Christ’s blood that created the Robins red breast.
Other folklore indicates that when the baby Jesus was in his manger in the stable, the fire which had been lit to keep him warm started to blaze up very strongly. A brown Robin, noticing that Mary had been distracted by the inn-keeper’s wife, placed himself between the fire and the face of baby Jesus. The Robin fluffed out its feathers to protect the baby, but in so-doing its breast was scorched by the fire. This red plumage was then passed onto future generations of Robins.
Have you noticed a Robin’s red-breast is actually orange? The bird was named before the English language had a word for the colour ‘orange’. Many things that were really orange were called red instead even though we did have the word for ‘orange’ as in the fruit. The colour orange was not named as a colour in English until the 16th century. The name for the colour comes from the fruit.
Our affection for the Robin was cemented in 1960 when it was voted our national bird. Christmas Robins will forever be commemorated on Christmas cards so let's hope they remain a common sight in our gardens for future generations to appreciate their fabled history. Garden bird notes.
Notes:-
The Robin is the most familiar and most loved of all our garden birds. Indeed, even folk not especially interested in birds will still talk about ‘their’ Robin in their garden. Actually though, it’s the predictable, tame and trusting nature of Robins which fools people into thinking it’s the same bird they see year-after-year, when in fact it’s almost certainly a different individual – Robins have an average lifespan of only around one year (domestic cats are their biggest predator) and about one in four never even reach the age of one. Both male and female adult Robins have the same distinct red breast and can’t be confused with any other UK bird, though youngsters have a speckled brown breast. Interestingly, the behaviour we see in Robins on our shores is very different to mainland Europe, where they’re a shy and secretive species of the forest.
Robin diet and food
Small worms, insects, insect larvae and spiders make up much of the diet, plus also seeds, soft fruit and berries in the winter months. In the garden, suggested foods for bird table feeding are: Sunflower Heart Chips, Chopped Peanuts, Robin and Friends Seed Mix, plus Live Mealworms – especially in the breeding season as adult birds will feed them to their young.
Robin nesting and breeding habits
Nests are nearly always built in some sort crevice, hole, or tucked behind something. So walls, dead trees, banks, piles of logs, in climbing plants against a wall or fence etc. Open-fronted nest boxes will be used but only if they’re well hidden – e.g. in a climbing wall plant. The nest is usually close to the ground or even on it. The female Robin takes care of the nest building, which is a neat cup made up of dead grass, leaves and moss, then lined with hair. There are two, sometimes three, broods per season, with 4-6 eggs in the clutch which the female alone incubates. The male bird provides much of the female’s food during nest building, egg laying and the incubation period.
Behaviour traits of Robins
The Robin’s territorial instincts are the most notable aspect of the species’ behaviour: Firstly, resident birds will hold their territories for a whole year (very rare for any species of bird), with the mated pair defending their territory in the breeding season (an area usually about 0.55 of a hectare), then male and female birds defending smaller and separate territories in the autumn and early and mid-winter months. This strong territorial behaviour is the reason why Robins will sing outside of the breeding season (albeit the song outside the breeding season is different and not as strong), whereas most other species of songbird don’t (because they have no reason to). Also of note is the way that a Robin will often appear close to you when you start a gardening job such as digging or clearing up leaves, and will then follow you around the garden as you work. Of course it’s doing this because your activity is uncovering food such as worms and insects. This behaviour reflects how the species has adapted differently in the UK to get value from human habitation, whereas in mainland Europe Robins are shy and secretive birds of woodland and forest only, vine house farm notes.
The Scripps Center is a high-rise office building located at 312 Walnut Street at the corner of 3rd Street in the Central Business District of Cincinnati, Ohio. At the height of 468.01 feet (142.65 m), with 36 stories, it is the fourth tallest building in the city, and the tallest added between the building of the Carew Tower in 1931 and the opening of the Great American Tower at Queen City Square – the tallest building in Cincinnati – in 2011. It was completed in 1990, and includes 500,000 square feet (46,000 m2) of office space. The building was designed by Houston architects Hoover & Furr; Glaser & Associates was architect of record. Space Design International was also involved with the building's design.
The headquarters of the E. W. Scripps Company is located in the Scripps Center.
In connection with the 2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Game played in Cincinnati, the upper exterior of the Scripps Center was decorated with a gigantic hat and mustache, giving it the appearance of a 19th century Cincinnati Redlegs player. Despite public support for keeping the decorations permanently, the mustache and hat were removed after the game. Television cameras were also mounted on the building's roof to provide aerial views of the game.
Credit for the data above is given to the following websites:
www.emporis.com/buildings/122088/scripps-center-cincinnat...
The associated video with this picture series is Our Trip to Crete on YouTube.
This part of our adventures on our Grand Tour of Europe is in episode three of the Take Flight with Scott video series on YouTube. Please join us there for even more content from this trip. Part one is our time on Crete, Greece with our teen nieces Madeline and Emily.
Also, you can follow my personal ZiffedTraveler Instagram or the TakeFlight with Scott Instagram pages for more content and news. We are on Facebook, too.
www.buymeacoffee.com/scottalanmiller
^^^^ You Can Support My Work ^^^^
The Rivergate Tower is a 454 ft tall skyscraper in downtown Tampa, Florida with 31 floors. It is also known as the Sykes building and commonly referred to as the Beer Can Building.
Building Facts:
The architects of this skyscraper were recognized with an Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects in 1993.
The building is one of the tallest limestone structures in the world.
At sunset, the building's limestone facade glows yellow-orange over the Tampa skyline.
The building's cylindrical design was intended to look like a lighthouse on the Tampa skyline.
The building's only exterior lighting are two skyward facing lights, which further the building's lighthouse symbolism.
Concentric circles located in the building's lobby mark distances of time and space.
Despite the building's apparent cylindrical design, a linear grid wraps around the building's facade.
The building's measurements and numerical seaquences are based on the Fibonacci series (where each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers).
The building's 1,880 windows and 13 feet from floor to floor resemble the building's mathematical basis on the Fibonacci series.
The building was built as the NCNB state headquarters, which was formerly located in the city of Miami.
At the base of the tower are two 6-story cubes where bank tellers used to work.
The building's top five floors have thin rose-colored glass notches that offer views over the city.
The building has floor to ceiling windows with a thick concrete band horizontally separating them, which gives the appearance of two smaller windows.
The building has a 26-foot high entrance way that faces the park across.
Credit for the data above is given to the following websites:
www.emporis.com/buildings/128611/rivergate-tower-tampa-fl...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rivergate_Tower
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
Wonderfully wet winter and spring produced prodigious amounts of color in the Tomichi valley.
Worthy of note in this picture is the absence of the color brown.
PLEASE, NO invitations or self promotions, THEY WILL BE DELETED. My photos are FREE to use, just give me credit and it would be nice if you let me know, thanks.
Chebucto Head has had four different lighthouses and many keeper's houses. The first lighthouse at Chebucto Head, was built in 1872.
The 3rd and wartime lighthouse had to be constructed when the Chebucto Head gun battery was built at the site. At this time a lighthouse at the head was needed to help guide the convoy vessels in and out of Halifax Harbour. Built to safeguard the movement of Battle of the Atlantic Convoys, it is directly associated with an important national event in Canadian history.
The lighthouse today (4th) is a very popular destination for hikers, shipwreck divers and people for a great view of the ocean, passing ships and whales.
Lighthouse Location: west entrance to Halifax Harbour
Lighthouse Structure: Octagonal concrete tower, red aluminum lantern
The lighthouse was built and first lit in 1967
Tower height: 13.7 m (45ft)
Light height: 62ft (18.9ft)
Light range: 25.75 km (16 m)
Light characteristic: Flashing White (20sec).
Light automated (destaffed): 1980
The associated video with this picture series is Our Trip to Crete on YouTube.
This part of our adventures on our Grand Tour of Europe is in episode three of the Take Flight with Scott video series on YouTube. Please join us there for even more content from this trip. Part one is our time on Crete, Greece with our teen nieces Madeline and Emily.
www.buymeacoffee.com/scottalanmiller
^^^^ You Can Support My Work ^^^^
“The Associate”
Cinematic Photography
A collaboration between Blake and I portraying two men, one Italian and another caucasian political official with different ties to the city having a secret meeting overlooking an industrial part of town, also often referred to as “Steeltown”.
model: Blake @focalblake
All rights reserved
© 2024 Roger Ouellette
Harlequin Swimming Crab seeks refuge in a Stinging Anemone
(Lissocarcinus laevis in Actinodendron sp.)
A former Bullock's vehicle, Bullock having been associated with the Ambassador venture.
Manchester, Mosley Street, 04/08/1994.
Kiyomizu-dera (清水寺), formally Otowa-san Kiyomizu-dera (音羽山清水寺), is an independent Buddhist temple in eastern Kyoto. The temple is part of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities) UNESCO World Heritage site.
The place is not to be confused with Kiyomizu-dera in Yasugi, Shimane, which is part of the 33-temple route of the Chūgoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage through western Japan, or the Kiyomizu-dera temple associated with the Buddhist priest Nichiren.
The temple is currently covered entirely by semi-transparent scaffolding while it is undergoing restoration works in preparation for the 2020 Olympics.
Class 47/3 47333 approaches Llandudno Junction with a train of empty HJV wagons used for the transfer of raw sulphur from Mostyn Dock to Associated Octel at Amlwch.
All images on this site are exclusive property and may not be copied, downloaded, reproduced, transmitted, manipulated or used in any way without expressed written permission of the photographer. All rights reserved – Copyright Don Gatehouse
Some view the calla lily positively, as used in weddings, others view it negatively, associating it with death. I think of the calla lily differently, as a natural beauty, part of the many beautiful things to be seen in nature.
Matter of fact, flowers brighten our day and bring good cheer. We use them to decorate our house, our garden, our landscape. Just think how much a display of flowers can beautify the cold concrete of a city, if the residents just add flowers to the scene. Yet flowers decorate the natural world without us even lending a hand. No wonder the natural beauty of parks and wilderness areas, beaches, lush valleys and all the other varied features of the earth draw us away when we need refreshment.
The Brickell World Plaza, also known as 600 Brickell, and formerly known as the Brickell Financial Center, is an office skyscraper in Miami, Florida, United States in the Downtown neighborhood and financial district of Brickell at 600 Brickell Avenue. The former Brickell Financial Centre Phase I, the Brickell World Plaza, is a 520-foot (160 m) skyscraper, one of the tallest buildings in Miami. 600 Brickell is located between the Fifth Street and Eighth Street Metromover stations.
The building contains 600,000 square feet (56,000 m2) of leasable floor space, an eleven-story parking garage with 927 spaces, and a 30,000-square-foot (2,800 m2) ground level public plaza, and was also supposed include an outdoor area with a stage.
The 40 story building was topped out in early 2009 but construction was suspended or greatly slowed, as the building was still not completed over two years later as of March, 2011. The building lost an anchor tenant, a law firm that had a $58 million, 10.5-year lease for 15 percent of the building (115,000 sq ft), in early 2009.
With the new name of Brickell World Plaza, the building has a scheduled opening date of August 2011. The building developers, the Foram Group, have claimed that this slowed construction was strategic for the purpose of detail and that after completion they will move their corporate offices into the building. However, the near halt in construction and the loss of a major tenant suggests that the delay was not strategic, but due to the 2008 economic crisis and the falling demand for office space due to the excessive construction in Miami at that time.
Early in 2011, 600 Brickell got a $130 million construction mortgage loan from Los Angeles-based Canyon Capital Reality Advisors that will fund the rest of the construction. This was one of the largest loans issued in the city of Miami since the real estate crisis.
When 600 Brickell came online in August–September 2011, it increased Miami's downtown office vacancy to nearly 25%, and Class A Brickell vacancy to over 30%.
That could change with the arrival of a new leasing team. Foram has hired Jones Lang LaSalle, led by veteran brokers Glenn Gregory and Noël Steinfeld, to handle leasing for the nearly 615,000-square-foot (57,100 m2) building. Gregory and Steinfeld said a full-court press to land tenants is finally under way. Shortly before Foram hired Jones Lang, the developer signed a pair of new-to-market tenants — New York-based lender Doral Money and Irvine, California-based mediation and arbitration services firm JAMS — to occupy a combined 30,090 square feet (2,795 m2) at the building. Gregory and Steinfeld said they are in discussions with prospective tenants for about 300,000 square feet (28,000 m2), although that includes some space being marketed to multiple companies.
Gunster (law firm) moved its Miami office to the building's 35th floor.
The building will be South Florida's first Cisco Connected Commercial Office Building in partnership with Cisco Systems Inc. Essentially it will have its own dedicated hub connecting it to the Internet with a secure and flawless connection. The project was designed by the global architecture firm RTKL and its developer was the Foram Group. The Foram Group's intended goal was to set a new gold-standard for technology and sustainability in international commercial property development by creating the most innovative and forward thinking office building in Miami.
"We designed the building from the inside out, not the outside in," said Loretta H. Cockrum, Foram's founder, chairman and CEO. "We wanted the most efficient office building ever designed, with no wasted space or wasted energy. This is a building of the future more than a building of the present. A lot of love has gone into that building, and a lot of pride."
The Brickell World Plaza is the state of Florida's first building to be pre-certified under the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. In addition to this, it is one of very few buildings in the world of its size to receive the LEED Platinum rating, the highest available from the US Green Building Council. Another feature that contributed to this precertification is the water program: the building collects all rainfall and condensed water from the cooling towers in a 10,000 US gallons (38,000 L) tank to be reused for irrigation and makeup water for the fountains at Brickell World Plaza.
It will also be the first building in South Florida to be a part of Cisco Systems "Cisco Connected Commercial Office Building", which basically means it has a fast and secure, dedicated internet connection. The originally planned Brickell Financial Centre (two buildings) was to include office space, a hotel, luxury condominiums and a public plaza. The Brickell World Center will not feature the hotel or condominiums, but the ground level plaza will be a 30,000-square-foot (2,800 m2) public space as well as 18,000 square feet (1,700 m2) of ground level restaurants and cafes, as well as an outdoor stage where events may be held, probably taking up the rest of the property where the Brickell Financial Centre II would have gone.
The first eleven floors of the building above the plaza are a parking garage, while the remaining 28 floors are all office space. The outside of Brickell World Plaza is lit up at night similar to the Miami Tower. This began before Christmas in December 2011 with a ceremony with governor Rick Scott where a 40-foot wreath was hung on the building.
Credit for the data above is given to the following websites:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brickell_World_Plaza
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
CORSEWALL LIGHTHOUSE IS LOCATED ON CORSEWALL POINT ON THE ROCKY NORTH COAST OF THE RHINS OF GALLOWAY, THE CATEGORY A-LISTED CORSEWALL LIGHTHOUSE LIES 9 MILES (14.5 KM) NORTH NORTHWEST OF STRANRAER, PROVIDING A BEACON FOR SHIPS APPROACHING THE MOUTH OF LOCH RYAN.
BUILT BETWEEN 1815-17 BY THE NOTED ENGINEER ROBERT STEVENSON (1772 - 1850) ON THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE NORTHERN LIGHTHOUSE BOARD, ITS WHITE-PAINTED MASONRY TOWER RISES TO 34M (111 FEET) AND ITS LIGHT CAN BE SEEN AT A DISTANCE OF 22 MILES (35 KM). THE ASSOCIATED LIGHTHOUSE KEEPERS' COTTAGES ARE OF THE USUAL STYLE FOR THE TIME, CONSTRUCTED OF WHITE-PAINTED ASHLAR WITH RAISED QUOINS.
THE FIRST KEEPER WAS REMOVED WHEN THE LIGHT STOPPED ROTATING AFTER HE HAD FALLEN ASLEEP ON DUTY. ORIGINALLY ILLUMINATED BY OIL LAMPS, THE LIGHTHOUSE WAS MODERNISED IN 1891 AND 1910. IN NOVEMBER 1970, SEVERAL PANES OF GLASS IN THE LAMP-ROOM WERE BROKEN WHEN THE SUPERSONIC AIRLINER CONCORDE PASSED BY ON TEST FLIGHT.
THE LIGHTHOUSE WAS AUTOMATED IN 1994 AND IS NOW REMOTELY MONITORED FROM EDINBURGH. THE FORMER KEEPERS' COTTAGES HAVE BEEN SOLD BY THE BOARD AND NOW FORM THE CORSEWALL LIGHTHOUSE HOTEL.
Amedeo Modigliani
Italian, 1884 - 1920
Woman with a Necklace, 1917
Oil on canvas
(closeup)
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (July 12, 1884 – January 24, 1920) was a Jewish-Italian painter and sculptor who pursued his career for the most part in France. Modigliani was born in Livorno, Italy and began his artistic studies in Italy before moving to Paris in 1906. Influenced by the artists in his circle of friends and associates, by a range of genres and movements, and by primitive art, Modigliani's oeuvre was nonetheless unique and idiosyncratic. He died in Paris of tubercular meningitis—exacerbated by a lifestyle of excess—at the age of 35.
Early life
Modigliani was born into a Jewish family in Livorno, Italy.
Livorno was still a relatively new city, by Italian standards, in the late nineteenth century. The city on the Tyrrhenian coast dates from around 1600, when it was transformed from a swampy village into a seaport. The Livorno that Modigliani knew was a bustling centre of commerce focused upon seafaring and shipwrighting, but its cultural history lay in being a refuge for those persecuted for their religion. His own maternal great-great-grandfather was one Solomon Garsin, a Jew who had immigrated to Livorno in the eighteenth century as a religious refugee.
Modigliani was the fourth child of Flaminio Modigliani and his wife, Eugenia Garsin. His father was in the money-changing business, but when the business went bankrupt, the family lived in dire poverty. In fact, Amedeo's birth saved the family from certain ruin, as, according to an ancient law, creditors could not seize the bed of a pregnant woman or a mother with a newborn child. When bailiffs entered the family home, just as Eugenia went into labour, the family protected their most valuable assets by piling them on top of the expectant mother.
Modigliani had a particularly close relationship with his mother, who taught her son at home until he was ten. Beset with health problems after a bout of typhoid at the age of fourteen, two years later he contracted the tuberculosis which would affect him for the rest of his life. To help him recover from his many childhood illnesses, she took him to Naples in Southern Italy, where the warmer weather was conducive to his convalescence.
His mother was, in many ways, instrumental in his ability to pursue art as a vocation. When he was eleven years of age, she had noted in her diary that:
“The child's character is still so unformed that I cannot say what I think of it. He behaves like a spoiled child, but he does not lack intelligence. We shall have to wait and see what is inside this chrysalis. Perhaps an artist?"
Art student years
Modigliani is known to have drawn and painted from a very early age, and thought himself "already a painter", his mother wrote, even before beginning formal studies. Despite her misgivings that launching him on a course of studying art would impinge upon his other studies, his mother indulged the young Modigliani's passion for the subject.
At the age of fourteen, while sick with the typhoid fever, he raved in his delirium that he wanted, above all else, to see the paintings in the Palazzo Pitti and the Uffizi in Florence. As Livorno's local museum only housed a sparse few paintings by the Italian Renaissance masters, the tales he had heard about the great works held in Florence intrigued him, and it was a source of considerable despair to him, in his sickened state, that he might never get the chance to view them in person. His mother promised that she would take him to Florence herself, the moment he was recovered. Not only did she fulfil this promise, but she also undertook to enroll him with the best painting master in Livorno, Guglielmo Micheli.
Micheli and the Macchiaioli
Modigliani worked in the studio of Micheli from 1898 to 1900. Here his earliest formal artistic instruction took place in an atmosphere deeply steeped in a study of the styles and themes of nineteenth-century Italian art. In his earliest Parisian work, traces of this influence, and that of his studies of Renaissance art, can still be seen: artists such as Giovanni Boldini figure just as much in this nascent work as do those of Toulouse-Lautrec.
Modigliani showed great promise while with Micheli, and only ceased his studies when he was forced to, by the onset of tuberculosis.
In 1901, whilst in Rome, Modigliani admired the work of Domenico Morelli, a painter of melodramatic Biblical studies and scenes from great literature. It is ironic that he should be so struck by Morelli, as this painter had served as an inspiration for a group of iconoclasts who went by the title, the Macchiaioli (from macchia—"dash of colour", or, more derogatively, "stain"), and Modigliani had already been exposed to the influences of the Macchiaioli. This minor, localised art movement was possessed of a need to react against the bourgeois stylings of the academic genre painters. While sympathetically connected to (and actually pre-dating) the French Impressionists, the Macchiaioli did not make the same impact upon international art culture as did the followers of Monet, and are today largely forgotten outside of Italy.
Modigliani's connection with the movement was through Micheli, his first art teacher. Micheli was not only a Macchiaioli himself, but had been a pupil of the famous Giovanni Fattori, a founder of the movement. Micheli's work, however, was so fashionable and the genre so commonplace that the young Modigliani reacted against it, preferring to ignore the obsession with landscape that, as with French Impressionism, characterised the movement. Micheli also tried to encourage his pupils to paint en plein air, but Modigliani never really got a taste for this style of working, sketching in cafes, but preferring to paint indoors, and especially in his own studio. Even when compelled to paint landscapes (three are known to exist), Modigliani chose a proto-Cubist palette more akin to Cézanne than to the Macchiaioli.
While with Micheli, Modigliani not only studied landscape, but also portraiture, still-life, and the nude. His fellow students recall that the latter was where he displayed his greatest talent, and apparently this was not an entirely academic pursuit for the teenager: when not painting nudes, he was occupied with seducing the household maid.
Despite his rejection of the Macchiaioli approach, Modigliani nonetheless found favour with his teacher, who referred to him as "Superman", a pet name reflecting the fact that Modigliani was not only quite adept at his art, but also that he regularly quoted from Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra. Fattori himself would often visit the studio, and approved of the young artist's innovations.
In 1902, Modigliani continued what was to be a life-long infatuation with life drawing, enrolling in the Accademia di Belle Arti (Scuola Libera di Nudo, or "Free School of Nude Studies") in Florence. A year later while still suffering from tuberculosis, he moved to Venice, where he registered to study at the Istituto di Belle Arti.
It is in Venice that he first smoked hashish and, rather than studying, began to spend time frequenting disreputable parts of the city. The impact of these lifestyle choices upon his developing artistic style is open to conjecture, although these choices do seem to be more than simple teenage rebellion, or the cliched hedonism and bohemianism that was almost expected of artists of the time; his pursuit of the seedier side of life appears to have roots in his appreciation of radical philosophies, such as those of Nietzsche.
Early literary influences
Having been exposed to erudite philosophical literature as a young boy under the tutelage of Isaco Garsin, his maternal grandfather, he continued to read and be influenced through his art studies by the writings of Nietzsche, Baudelaire, Carduzzi, Comte de Lautréamont, and others, and developed the belief that the only route to true creativity was through defiance and disorder.
Letters that he wrote from his 'sabbatical' in Capri in 1901 clearly indicate that he is being more and more influenced by the thinking of Nietzsche. In these letters, he advised friend Oscar Ghiglia,
“(hold sacred all) which can exalt and excite your intelligence... (and) ... seek to provoke ... and to perpetuate ... these fertile stimuli, because they can push the intelligence to its maximum creative power.”
The work of Lautréamont was equally influential at this time. This doomed poet's Les Chants de Maldoror became the seminal work for the Parisian Surrealists of Modigliani's generation, and the book became Modigliani's favourite to the extent that he learnt it by heart. The poetry of Lautréamont is characterised by the juxtaposition of fantastical elements, and by sadistic imagery; the fact that Modigliani was so taken by this text in his early teens gives a good indication of his developing tastes. Baudelaire and D'Annunzio similarly appealed to the young artist, with their interest in corrupted beauty, and the expression of that insight through Symbolist imagery.
Modigliani wrote to Ghiglia extensively from Capri, where his mother had taken him to assist in his recovery from the tuberculosis. These letters are a sounding board for the developing ideas brewing in Modigliani's mind. Ghiglia was seven years Modigliani's senior, and it is likely that it was he who showed the young man the limits of his horizons in Livorno. Like all precocious teenagers, Modigliani preferred the company of older companions, and Ghiglia's role in his adolescence was to be a sympathetic ear as he worked himself out, principally in the convoluted letters that he regularly sent, and which survive today.
“Dear friend
I write to pour myself out to you and to affirm myself to myself. I am the prey of great powers that surge forth and then disintegrate... A bourgeois told me today - insulted me - that I or at least my brain was lazy. It did me good. I should like such a warning every morning upon awakening: but they cannot understand us nor can they understand life...”
Paris
Arrival
In 1906 Modigliani moved to Paris, then the focal point of the avant-garde. In fact, his arrival at the epicentre of artistic experimentation coincided with the arrival of two other foreigners who were also to leave their marks upon the art world: Gino Severini and Juan Gris.
He settled in Le Bateau-Lavoir, a commune for penniless artists in Montmartre, renting himself a studio in Rue Caulaincourt. Even though this artists' quarter of Montmartre was characterised by generalised poverty, Modigliani himself presented - initially, at least - as one would expect the son of a family trying to maintain the appearances of its lost financial standing to present: his wardrobe was dapper without ostentation, and the studio he rented was appointed in a style appropriate to someone with a finely attuned taste in plush drapery and Renaissance reproductions. He soon made efforts to assume the guise of the bohemian artist, but, even in his brown corduroys, scarlet scarf and large black hat, he continued to appear as if he were slumming it, having fallen upon harder times.
When he first arrived in Paris, he wrote home regularly to his mother, he sketched his nudes at the Colarossi school, and he drank wine in moderation. He was at that time considered by those who knew him as a bit reserved, verging on the asocial. He is noted to have commented, upon meeting Picasso who, at the time, was wearing his trademark workmen's clothes, that even though the man was a genius, that did not excuse his uncouth appearance.
Transformation
Within a year of arriving in Paris, however, his demeanour and reputation had changed dramatically. He transformed himself from a dapper academician artist into a sort of prince of vagabonds.
The poet and journalist Louis Latourette, upon visiting the artist's previously well-appointed studio after his transformation, discovered the place in upheaval, the Renaissance reproductions discarded from the walls, the plush drapes in disarray. Modigliani was already an alcoholic and a drug addict by this time, and his studio reflected this. Modigliani's behaviour at this time sheds some light upon his developing style as an artist, in that the studio had become almost a sacrificial effigy for all that he resented about the academic art that had marked his life and his training up to that point.
Not only did he remove all the trappings of his bourgeois heritage from his studio, but he also set about destroying practically all of his own early work. He explained this extraordinary course of actions to his astonished neighbours thus:
“Childish baubles, done when I was a dirty bourgeois."
The motivation for this violent rejection of his earlier self is the subject of considerable speculation. The self-destructive tendencies may have stemmed from his tuberculosis and the knowledge (or presumption) that the disease had essentially marked him for an early death; within the artists' quarter, many faced the same sentence, and the typical response was to set about enjoying life while it lasted, principally by indulging in self-destructive actions. For Modigliani such behavior may have been a response to a lack of recognition; it is known that he sought the company of other alcoholic artists such as Utrillo and Soutine, seeking acceptance and validation for his work from his colleagues.
Modigliani's behavior stood out even in these Bohemian surroundings: he carried on frequent affairs, drank heavily, and used absinthe and hashish. While drunk he would sometimes strip himself naked at social gatherings. He became the epitome of the tragic artist, creating a posthumous legend almost as well-known as that of Vincent van Gogh.
During the 1920s, in the wake of Modigliani's career and spurred on by comments by Andre Salmon crediting hashish and absinthe with the genesis of Modigliani's style, many hopefuls tried to emulate his 'success' by embarking on a path of substance abuse and bohemian excess. Salmon claimed—erroneously—that whereas Modigliani was a totally pedestrian artist when sober,
“...from the day that he abandoned himself to certain forms of debauchery, an unexpected light came upon him, transforming his art. From that day on, he became one who must be counted among the masters of living art.”
While this propaganda served as a rallying cry to those with a romantic longing to be a tragic, doomed artist, these strategies did not produce unique artistic insights or techniques in those who did not already have them.
In fact, art historians suggest that it is entirely possible for Modigliani to have achieved even greater artistic heights had he not been immured in, and destroyed by, his own self-indulgences. We can only speculate what he might have accomplished had he emerged intact from his self-destructive explorations.
Output
During his early years in Paris, Modigliani worked at a furious pace. He was constantly sketching, making as many as a hundred drawings a day. However, many of his works were lost - destroyed by him as inferior, left behind in his frequent changes of address, or given to girlfriends who did not keep them.
He was first influenced by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, but around 1907 he became fascinated with the work of Paul Cézanne. Eventually he developed his own unique style, one that cannot be adequately categorized with other artists.
He met the first serious love of his life, Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, in 1910, when he was 26. They had studios in the same building, and although 21-year-old Anna was recently married, they began an affair. Tall (Modigliani was only 5 foot 5 inches) with dark hair (like Modigliani's), pale skin and grey-green eyes, she embodied Modigliani's aesthetic ideal and the pair became engrossed in each other. After a year, however, Anna returned to her husband.
Experiments with sculpture
In 1909, Modigliani returned home to Livorno, sickly and tired from his wild lifestyle. Soon he was back in Paris, this time renting a studio in Montparnasse. He originally saw himself as a sculptor rather than a painter, and was encouraged to continue after Paul Guillaume, an ambitious young art dealer, took an interest in his work and introduced him to sculptor Constantin Brancusi.
Although a series of Modigliani's sculptures were exhibited in the Salon d'Automne of 1912, he abruptly abandoned sculpting and focused solely on his painting.
Question of influences
In Modigliani's art, there is evidence of the influence of primitive art from Africa and Cambodia which he may have seen in the Musée de l'Homme, but his stylisations are just as likely to have been the result of his being surrounded by Mediaeval sculpture during his studies in Northern Italy (there is no recorded information from Modigliani himself, as there is with Picasso and others, to confirm the contention that he was influenced by either ethnic or any other kind of sculpture). A possible interest in African tribal masks seems to be evident in his portraits. In both his painting and sculpture, the sitters' faces resemble ancient Egyptian painting in their flat and masklike appearance, with distinctive almond eyes, pursed mouths, twisted noses, and elongated necks. However these same chacteristics are shared by Medieval European sculpture and painting.
Modigliani painted a series of portraits of contemporary artists and friends in Montparnasse: Chaim Soutine, Moise Kisling, Pablo Picasso, Diego Rivera, Marie "Marevna" Vorobyev-Stebeslka, Juan Gris, Max Jacob, Blaise Cendrars, and Jean Cocteau, all sat for stylized renditions.
At the outset of World War I, Modigliani tried to enlist in the army but was refused because of his poor health.
The war years
Known as Modì, which roughly translates as 'morbid' or 'moribund', by many Parisians, but as Dedo to his family and friends, Modigliani was a handsome man, and attracted much female attention.
Women came and went until Beatrice Hastings entered his life. She stayed with him for almost two years, was the subject for several of his portraits, including Madame Pompadour, and the object of much of his drunken wrath.
When the British painter Nina Hamnett arrived in Montparnasse in 1914, on her first evening there the smiling man at the next table in the café introduced himself as Modigliani; painter and Jew. They became great friends.
In 1916, Modigliani befriended the Polish poet and art dealer Leopold Zborovski and his wife Anna.
Jeanne Hébuterne
The following summer, the Russian sculptor Chana Orloff introduced him to a beautiful 19-year-old art student named Jeanne Hébuterne who had posed for Foujita. From a conservative bourgeois background, Hébuterne was renounced by her devout Roman Catholic family for her liaison with the painter, whom they saw as little more than a debauched derelict, and, worse yet, a Jew. Despite her family's objections, soon they were living together, and although Hébuterne was the love of his life, their public scenes became more renowned than Modigliani's individual drunken exhibitions.
On December 3, 1917, Modigliani's first one-man exhibition opened at the Berthe Weill Gallery. The chief of the Paris police was scandalized by Modigliani's nudes and forced him to close the exhibition within a few hours after its opening.
After he and Hébuterne moved to Nice, she became pregnant and on November 29, 1918 gave birth to a daughter whom they named Jeanne (1918-1984).
Nice
During a trip to Nice, conceived and organized by Leopold Zborovski, Modigliani, Tsuguharu Foujita and other artists tried to sell their works to rich tourists. Modigliani managed to sell a few pictures but only for a few francs each. Despite this, during this time he produced most of the paintings that later became his most popular and valued works.
During his lifetime he sold a number of his works, but never for any great amount of money. What funds he did receive soon vanished for his habits.
In May of 1919 he returned to Paris, where, with Hébuterne and their daughter, he rented an apartment in the rue de la Grande Chaumière. While there, both Jeanne Hébuterne and Amedeo Modigliani painted portraits of each other, and of themselves.
Last days
Although he continued to paint, Modigliani's health was deteriorating rapidly, and his alcohol-induced blackouts became more frequent.
In 1920, after not hearing from him for several days, his downstairs neighbor checked on the family and found Modigliani in bed delirious and holding onto Hébuterne who was nearly nine months pregnant. They summoned a doctor, but little could be done because Modigliani was dying of the then-incurable disease tubercular meningitis.
Modigliani died on January 24, 1920. There was an enormous funeral, attended by many from the artistic communities in Montmartre and Montparnasse.
Hébuterne was taken to her parents' home, where, inconsolable, she threw herself out of a fifth-floor window two days after Modigliani's death, killing herself and her unborn child. Modigliani was interred in Père Lachaise Cemetery. Hébuterne was buried at the Cimetière de Bagneux near Paris, and it was not until 1930 that her embittered family allowed her body to be moved to rest beside Modigliani.
Modigliani died penniless and destitute—managing only one solo exhibition in his life and giving his work away in exchange for meals in restaurants. Had he lived through the 1920s when American buyers flooded Paris, his fortunes might well have changed. Since his death his reputation has soared. Nine novels, a play, a documentary and three feature films have been devoted to his life.
A few more of these and that'll about do it for the autumn shots. I did tell you after all l when I put up the first one, that I intended to inundate you with them. :-)
If you like you can View On Black
Don't know if you've ever come across this rvision site. I guess it's associated with Flickr, but I never knew it existed until a week or so ago. If you want to see all in one place the autumn shots that I've recently uploaded so that you can get a slightly more overall view of this area, then you could check this out:
The associated video with this picture series is Our Trip to Crete on YouTube.
This part of our adventures on our Grand Tour of Europe is in episode three of the Take Flight with Scott video series on YouTube. Please join us there for even more content from this trip. Part one is our time on Crete, Greece with our teen nieces Madeline and Emily.
www.buymeacoffee.com/scottalanmiller
^^^^ You Can Support My Work ^^^^
Spirit Island is a tiny tied island in Maligne Lake in Jasper National Park. This landmark is the destination of boat trips across Maligne Lake, a view many people associate with the Canadian Rockies.
The associated video with this picture series is Our Trip to Crete on YouTube.
This part of our adventures on our Grand Tour of Europe is in episode four of the Take Flight with Scott video series on YouTube. Please join us there for even more content from this trip. Part four is our time on Crete, Greece with our teen nieces Madeline and Emily, including a trip to the ruins in Ancient Aptera, and a visit to the freshwater flowing through Glyka Nera Beach.
www.buymeacoffee.com/scottalanmiller
^^^^ You Can Support My Work ^^^^
The associated video with this picture series is Our Trip to Crete on YouTube.
This part of our adventures on our Grand Tour of Europe is in episode four of the Take Flight with Scott video series on YouTube. Please join us there for even more content from this trip. Part four is our time on Crete, Greece with our teen nieces Madeline and Emily, including a trip to the ruins in Ancient Aptera, and a visit to the freshwater flowing through Glyka Nera Beach.
Also, you can follow my personal ZiffedTraveler Instagram or the TakeFlight with Scott Instagram pages for more content and news. We are on Facebook, too.
The associated video with this picture series is Our Trip to Crete on YouTube.
This part of our adventures on our Grand Tour of Europe is in episode three of the Take Flight with Scott video series on YouTube. Please join us there for even more content from this trip. Part one is our time on Crete, Greece with our teen nieces Madeline and Emily.
www.buymeacoffee.com/scottalanmiller
^^^^ You Can Support My Work ^^^^
A small pool of heavy oil sits in a ~ 3 foot by 1 foot hole on the south side of CA 58 just west of McKittrick in Kern County, Califonia. This natural seep is one of the many that make up an area known as The McKittrick Tar Pits. In some areas, one of the first clues that oil is present in the subsurface is the fact that it sometimes finds its way to the surface through faulting or porous rock. Places where oil, asphalt or tar naturally comes to the surface are called an oil / tar seep or brea. Sands that are saturated with heavy asphalt or tar are called tar sands. The tar pits here lie on the western flank of the Temblor Range where alluvium covers Holocene alluvial gravels, fluvial sandstone, and lacustrine shales. These in turn overlie the kerogen-rich Miocene Monterey Formation. Most of the kerogen represent the preserved bodies of microscopic organism such as diatoms that live in the upper few meters of the ocean. The Monterey has many diatom rich beds called diatomaceous shales. Heat and time changed the soft body parts into liquid hydrocarbon and associated gas. About the same time, movement of the San Andres and associated faults help form the Temblor Range. Faulting and cracking of the rocks formed pathways for the oil to migrate up out of the Monterey, Some of the oil became trapped beneath an impermeable cap of Monterey Formation that slid of the Mountains. Most of the tar seeps occur in place where erosion has removed the Monterey cap (deposited by the landslide) and allowed the porous sandstone beds to be exposed and leak the oil.
As with its famous cousin, the La Brea Tar Pits, to the south, McKittrick's oil seeps also trapped its fair share of animals. Paleontologic studies of these seeps began in the early 1900's. Both the University of California and the Kern County Museum excavated the site in the 1940s. As of 1968, paleontologists identified over 43 different mammals and 58 different bird species. Bison, saber-toothed cat, dire wolf, camel and elephant, as well as smaller animals have been identified. Some of these species are now extinct. Most of the animal remains date back to the Pliestocene (10000 to 40000 years ago).
The Tulumne Yokut were the first people known to exploit the tar. Spanish explorers noted that they used it as a glue, a waterproofing agent, and related uses. It was so useful they found other tribes willing to trade for it. Early European settlers found similar uses, In the early 1860's the Buena Vista Petroleum Company began digging the tar at the seeps. In some cases Mining techniques were employed. A worker would be lowered down into the mine, then would fill buckets with the asphalt, while someone at the surface would pull it up. It was incredibly dirty and hot, As a result many miners chose to work naked and be washed at the end of the day. The Job had it dangers too, The workers not only had to contend with the tar in the pits, but also the hot weather of the San Joaquin Valley and noxious fumes from the oil, tar and gas. In the end, the mines were not very economical. The first oil well, The Standard Oil No. 1, was drilled in 1899. The well discovered oil and McKittrick Field was born. It became a major oil producer and is still producing today,
Hair Ice associated with the fungus Exidiopsis effusa on the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, East Sussex England
Focus Stacked Image, 14 image files, f11, iso100
The first of two early mornings in a frozen woodland, Hair Ice is very temperature and environment dependant, and the associated fungus must be present to help deliver this amazing phenomena, more on this here
The Mount Elliott Mining Complex is an aggregation of the remnants of copper mining and smelting operations from the early 20th century and the associated former mining township of Selwyn. The earliest copper mining at Mount Elliott was in 1906 with smelting operations commencing shortly after. Significant upgrades to the mining and smelting operations occurred under the management of W.R. Corbould during 1909 - 1910. Following these upgrades and increases in production, the Selwyn Township grew quickly and had 1500 residents by 1918. The Mount Elliott Company took over other companies on the Cloncurry field in the 1920s, including the Mount Cuthbert and Kuridala smelters. Mount Elliott operations were taken over by Mount Isa Mines in 1943 to ensure the supply of copper during World War Two. The Mount Elliott Company was eventually liquidated in 1953.
The Mount Elliott Smelter:
The existence of copper in the Leichhardt River area of north western Queensland had been known since Ernest Henry discovered the Great Australia Mine in 1867 at Cloncurry. In 1899 James Elliott discovered copper on the conical hill that became Mount Elliott, but having no capital to develop the mine, he sold an interest to James Morphett, a pastoralist of Fort Constantine station near Cloncurry. Morphett, being drought stricken, in turn sold out to John Moffat of Irvinebank, the most successful mining promoter in Queensland at the time.
Plentiful capital and cheap transport were prerequisites for developing the Cloncurry field, which had stagnated for forty years. Without capital it was impossible to explore and prove ore-bodies; without proof of large reserves of wealth it was futile to build a railway; and without a railway it was hazardous to invest capital in finding large reserves of ore. The mining investor or the railway builder had to break the impasse.
In 1906 - 1907 copper averaged £87 a ton on the London market, the highest price for thirty years, and the Cloncurry field grew. The railway was extended west of Richmond in 1905 - 1906 by the Government and mines were floated on the Melbourne Stock Exchange. At Mount Elliott a prospecting shaft had been sunk and on the 1st of August 1906 a Cornish boiler and winding plant were installed on the site.
Mount Elliott Limited was floated in Melbourne on the 13th of July 1906. In 1907 it was taken over by British and French interests and restructured. Combining with its competitor, Hampden Cloncurry Copper Mines Limited, Mount Elliott formed a special company to finance and construct the railway from Cloncurry to Malbon, Kuridala (then Friezeland) and Mount Elliott (later Selwyn). This new company then entered into an agreement with the Queensland Railways Department in July 1908.
The railway, which was known as the 'Syndicate Railway', aroused opposition in 1908 from the trade unions and Labor movement generally, who contended that railways should be State-owned. However, the Hampden-Mount Elliott Railway Bill was passed by the Queensland Parliament and assented to on the 21st of April 1908; construction finished in December 1910. The railway terminated at the Mount Elliott smelter.
By 1907 the main underlie shaft had been sunk and construction of the smelters was underway using a second-hand water-jacket blast furnace and converters. At this time, W.H. Corbould was appointed general manager of Mount Elliott Limited.
The second-hand blast furnace and converters were commissioned or 'blown in' in May 1909, but were problematic causing hold-ups. Corbould referred to the equipment in use as being the 'worst collection of worn-out junk he had ever come across'. Corbould soon convinced his directors to scrap the plant and let him design new works.
Corbould was a metallurgist and geologist as well as mine/smelter manager. He foresaw a need to obtain control and thereby ensure a reliable supply of ore from a cross-section of mines in the region. He also saw a need to implement an effective strategy to manage the economies of smelting low-grade ore. Smelting operations in the region were made difficult by the technical and economic problems posed by the deterioration in the grade of ore. Corbould resolved the issue by a process of blending ores with different chemical properties, increasing the throughput capacity of the smelter and by championing the unification of smelting operations in the region. In 1912, Corbould acquired Hampden Consols Mine at Kuridala for Mount Elliott Limited, followed with the purchases of other small mines in the district.
Walkers Limited of Maryborough was commissioned to manufacture a new 200 ton water jacket furnace for the smelters. An air compressor and blower for the smelters were constructed in the powerhouse and an electric motor and dynamo provided power for the crane and lighting for the smelter and mine.
The new smelter was blown in September 1910, a month after the first train arrived, and it ran well, producing 2040 tons of blister copper by the end of the year. The new smelting plant made it possible to cope with low-grade sulphide ores at Mount Elliott. The use of 1000 tons of low-grade sulphide ores bought from the Hampden Consols Mine in 1911 made it clear that if a supply of higher sulphur ore could be obtained and blended, performance, and economy would improve. Accordingly, the company bought a number of smaller mines in the district in 1912.
Corbould mined with cut and fill stoping but a young Mines Inspector condemned the system, ordered it dismantled and replaced with square set timbering. In 1911, after gradual movement in stopes on the No. 3 level, the smelter was closed for two months. Nevertheless, 5447 tons of blister copper was produced in 1911, rising to 6690 tons in 1912 - the company's best year. Many of the surviving structures at the site were built at this time.
Troubles for Mount Elliott started in 1913. In February, a fire at the Consols Mine closed it for months. In June, a thirteen week strike closed the whole operation, severely depleting the workforce. The year 1913 was also bad for industrial accidents in the area, possibly due to inexperienced people replacing the strikers. Nevertheless, the company paid generous dividends that year.
At the end of 1914 smelting ceased for more than a year due to shortage of ore. Although 3200 tons of blister copper was produced in 1913, production fell to 1840 tons in 1914 and the workforce dwindled to only 40 men. For the second half of 1915 and early 1916 the smelter treated ore railed south from Mount Cuthbert. At the end of July 1916 the smelting plant at Selwyn was dismantled except for the flue chambers and stacks. A new furnace with a capacity of 500 tons per day was built, a large amount of second-hand equipment was obtained and the converters were increased in size.
After the enlarged furnace was commissioned in June 1917, continuing industrial unrest retarded production which amounted to only 1000 tons of copper that year. The point of contention was the efficiency of the new smelter which processed twice as much ore while employing fewer men. The company decided to close down the smelter in October and reduce the size of the furnace, the largest in Australia, from 6.5m to 5.5m. In the meantime the price of copper had almost doubled from 1916 due to wartime consumption of munitions.
The new furnace commenced on the 16th of January 1918 and 77,482 tons of ore were smelted yielding 3580 tons of blister copper which were sent to the Bowen refinery before export to Britain. Local coal and coke supply was a problem and materials were being sourced from the distant Bowen Colliery. The smelter had a good run for almost a year except for a strike in July and another in December, which caused Corbould to close down the plant until New Year. In 1919, following relaxation of wartime controls by the British Metal Corporation, the copper price plunged from about £110 per ton at the start of the year to £75 per ton in April, dashing the company's optimism regarding treatment of low grade ores. The smelter finally closed after two months operation and most employees were laid off.
For much of the period 1919 to 1922, Corbould was in England trying to raise capital to reorganise the company's operations but he failed and resigned from the company in 1922. The Mount Elliott Company took over the assets of the other companies on the Cloncurry field in the 1920s - Mount Cuthbert in 1925 and Kuridala in 1926. Mount Isa Mines bought the Mount Elliott plant and machinery, including the three smelters, in 1943 for £2,300, enabling them to start copper production in the middle of the Second World War. The Mount Elliott Company was finally liquidated in 1953.
In 1950 A.E. Powell took up the Mount Elliott Reward Claim at Selwyn and worked close to the old smelter buildings. An open cut mine commenced at Starra, south of Mount Elliott and Selwyn, in 1988 and is Australia's third largest copper producer producing copper-gold concentrates from flotation and gold bullion from carbon-in-leach processing.
Profitable copper-gold ore bodies were recently proved at depth beneath the Mount Elliott smelter and old underground workings by Cyprus Gold Australia Pty Ltd. These deposits were subsequently acquired by Arimco Mining Pty Ltd for underground development which commenced in July 1993. A decline tunnel portal, ore and overburden dumps now occupy a large area of the Maggie Creek valley south-west of the smelter which was formerly the site of early miner's camps.
The Old Selwyn Township:
In 1907, the first hotel, run by H. Williams, was opened at the site. The township was surveyed later, around 1910, by the Mines Department. The town was to be situated north of the mine and smelter operations adjacent the railway, about 1.5km distant. It took its name from the nearby Selwyn Ranges which were named, during Burke's expedition, after the Victorian Government Geologist, A.R. Selwyn. The town has also been known by the name of Mount Elliott, after the nearby mines and smelter.
Many of the residents either worked at the Mount Elliott Mine and Smelter or worked in the service industries which grew around the mining and smelting operations. Little documentation exists about the everyday life of the town's residents. Surrounding sheep and cattle stations, however, meant that meat was available cheaply and vegetables grown in the area were delivered to the township by horse and cart. Imported commodities were, however, expensive.
By 1910 the town had four hotels. There was also an aerated water manufacturer, three stores, four fruiterers, a butcher, baker, saddler, garage, police, hospital, banks, post office (officially from 1906 to 1928, then unofficially until 1975) and a railway station. There was even an orchestra of ten players in 1912. The population of Selwyn rose from 1000 in 1911 to 1500 in 1918, before gradually declining.
Source: Queensland Heritage Register.
Having been uploadng Grand Palace shots for a while it seems a shame to move onto Wat Po next as the photos will be somewhat similar. Given I generally upload photos from my trip in chronological order I guess it does make sense though not least because Wat Po is liternally across the road from the Grand Palace. (oh, and also I've not processed my other Bangkok shots yet......).
Click here to see photos from this and a previous trip to Thailand : www.flickr.com/photos/darrellg/albums/72157600177340620
From Wikipedia : "Wat Pho (Thai: วัดโพธิ์), also spelt Wat Po, is a Buddhist temple complex in the Phra Nakhon District, Bangkok, Thailand. It is on Rattanakosin Island, directly south of the Grand Palace. Known also as the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, its official name is Wat Phra Chetuphon Vimolmangklararm Rajwaramahaviharn (Thai: วัดพระเชตุพนวิมลมังคลารามราชวรมหาวิหาร; rtgs: Wat Phra Chettuphon Wimonmangkhlaram Ratchaworamahawihan; The more commonly known name, Wat Pho, is a contraction of its older name Wat Photaram (Thai: วัดโพธาราม; rtgs: Wat Photharam).
The temple is first on the list of six temples in Thailand classed as the highest grade of the first-class royal temples. It is associated with King Rama I who rebuilt the temple complex on an earlier temple site, and became his main temple where some of his ashes are enshrined. The temple was later expanded and extensively renovated by Rama III. The temple complex houses the largest collection of Buddha images in Thailand, including a 46 m long reclining Buddha. The temple is considered the earliest centre for public education in Thailand, and the marble illustrations and inscriptions placed in the temple for public instructions has been recognised by UNESCO in its Memory of the World Programme. It houses a school of Thai medicine, and is also known as the birthplace of traditional Thai massage which is still taught and practiced at the temple."
My Website : Twitter : Facebook : Instagram : Photocrowd
© D.Godliman
Vessel Details
Name:STORM SIREN II
Flag: United Kingdom
MMSI:232056713
Call sign:MPUF7
AIS transponder class:Class B
General vessel type:Pilot Vessel
Previously
Name:RNLI LIFEBOAT 12-13 Keep Fit Association
Flag: United Kingdom
MMSI:232004395
Call sign:VQP19
AIS transponder class:Class A
General vessel type:SAR
O/N: 1170
Built:1990
All-weather Lifeboat Centre in Poole
On Station 1991–2021 Filey, North Yorkshire
2021–2024 Relief fleet
N/B: Sold May 2024. Pilot Boat with Teignmouth Harbour Authority
Lifeboat category:
All-weather Lifeboat
Name:Mersey Class
Operator: Royal National Lifeboat Institution
Preceded by:Rother Class & Oakley Class
Succeeded by:Shannon Class
Cost£350,000
Completed:38
Active:10
Retired:28
Year introduced to the RNLI fleet: 1988
Last built: 1993
Launch type: Carriage, slipway or afloat
Crew: 6
Survivor capacity:
Self-righting – 21
Non self-righting – 43
Maximum speed: 17 knots (20 mph; 31 km/h)
Manoeuvrability: Propellers and rudders in partial tunnels in the hull
Range:240 nmi (440 km)
Endurance:10.25 hours approx. at cruising speed
Length: 11.62m
Beam / width: 4m
Draught / depth: 1.02m
Displacement / weight: 14.3 tonnes (maximum)
Fuel capacity: 1,110 litres
Engines
2 x Caterpillar 3208T 10.4 litre V6 turbocharged 280hp diesel engines, propulsion via Twin Disc MG506-1 gearboxes, shafts and propellers
Steering positions
2 – an elevated upper steering position for 360º views and one inside the wheelhouse
Construction: Aluminium or fibre-reinforced composite (FRC)
Number in fleet: Currently 12 in total, 7 at stations and 5 in repair or awaiting disposal
Identification
All lifeboats have a unique identification number.
The first part indicates the class. Mersey class lifeboats start with 12 because they are almost 12m in length.
The numbers after the dash refer to the build number. So the first Mersey built was given the number 12-001.
A build number with three digits indicates a hull constructed of aluminium. Two digits indicate a hull constructed of fibre-reinforced composite (FRC).
Communications and navigation
VHF (very high frequency) and MF (medium frequency) radio with digital selective calling (DSC)
VHF direction finder (DF)
global positioning system (GPS) with electronic chart system
radar..
REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE METIS
Spectacular view associated with wind gust.
Beautiful flowers at Reford Gardens.
Visit : www.refordgardens.com/
VERTICAL LINE GARDEN 2017
Julia Jamrozik, Coryn Kempster
Buffalo, United States.
Visit: www.ck-jj.com
From the plaque:
Drawing on the formal language of historical garden design, and the contemporary means of mass-produced safety and construction material, the project is a strong graphic intervention that aims to produce an abstract field.
Defining a geometric zone out of tightly spaced parallel lines of stretched commercial barrier tape , the installation introduces ordered man-made elements into the cultivated natural environment of the Reford Gardens. Through this juxtaposition, a dialogue between the two spheres is created based on the shared theme of protection and necessary safe-guarding while questioning the definition of what is truly natural.
As one approaches and then walks around and through the installation the changing viewpoint will allow the shifting of the tape lines in space and thus varied views of the overall composition. Further the movement of the lines with the changing of the climate, the wind and the sun will ensure a dynamic optical and auditory engagement for the audience. As visitors enter and inhabit the space by occupying the provided loungers, the fluctuating appearance of the installation is further enhanced.
In the 2015 version of the garden, we have decided to alter the colours of the field and provide and to provide canpy elements which will not only provide shade but also give a different experiential perspective of the banner tape.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Texte de la plaque:
S'appuyant sur le langage formel de la conception du jardin historique, sur des moyens modernes de sécutité et sur des matériaux de construction produits en massa, le projet se veut une intervention graphique cherchant à créer un champs abstrait.
Des lignes parallèles de rubans de sécurité étroitement espacés définissent une zone géométrique. Cette installation d’éléments ordonnés prend place dans un milieu d’aspect naturel. Par cette juxtaposition, un dialogue entre les deux se crée basé sur le thème commun de la protection et de la sauvegarde , tout en s’interrogeant sur la définition de ce qui est vraiment naturel.
En s’approchant, en marchant autour et au travers le jardin, le point de vue change, ce qui permet le déplacement des lignes dans l’espace pour offrir de nouvelles perspectives sur la composition globale. Outre le mouvement des lignes, les changements de climat, le vent et le soleil procurent aux visiteurs des expériences visuelles et auditives dynamiques. Lorsque les visiteurs entrent et habitent l’espace en s’assoyant sur les chaises, l’aspect fluctuant de l’installation est renforcé.
Dans la version 2015 du jardin, les couleurs des rubans sont différentes et trois canopées ont été ajoutés. Ce qui va non seulement fournir de l’ombre mais aussi offrir une perspective expérientielle différente sur les rubans de sécurité.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Visit : www.refordgardens.com/
From Wikipedia:
Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.
Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.
Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.
She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.
In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.
During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.
In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.
Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.
To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.
Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.
In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)
Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford
Visit : www.refordgardens.com/
LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS
Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.
Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.
Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada
Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.
Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada
© Copyright
This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.
Happy Halloween, my friends! This is a day that is often associated with darkness, but I'd like to use the opportunity to share the light instead!
The cross is more than just a cool-looking shape to me. It symbolizes what my perfect, loving, amazing, gracious heavenly Father did for me. He sent his only son Jesus (God in the flesh), who lived a blameless life, to die and take on the punishment I deserve. Isaiah 53 describes Jesus's death this way:
"He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each one of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth ... He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer."
That's pretty heavy. In other words, Jesus took on our sin and the punishment for it when he went to the cross. How can you read that and still think God isn't loving? He loves you SO MUCH that he's sparing you from the punishment you so rightly deserve, if you will choose to accept him. If there's any chance at all that the Bible is true, then this is of the utmost importance. If you choose to repent of your sins and give your life to Jesus, you WILL LIVE FOREVER! Death will no longer be this awful thing to fear, but rather your gateway to live in a perfect amazing place in the presence of Him who created you and loves you. You will also be changed while you are on earth. I am not who I used to be, only by the grace of God. Of course, I still fail him every day. I return to sin even though I know all of this. But every time, he is gracious to FORGIVE. I am not guilty because Jesus has washed me clean! You guys, it sounds too good to be true...but it is. Won't you give him a try?
The associated video with this picture series is Our Trip to Crete on YouTube.
This part of our adventures on our Grand Tour of Europe is in episode three of the Take Flight with Scott video series on YouTube. Please join us there for even more content from this trip. Part one is our time on Crete, Greece with our teen nieces Madeline and Emily.
Also, you can follow my personal ZiffedTraveler Instagram or the TakeFlight with Scott Instagram pages for more content and news. We are on Facebook, too.