On a typically sunny San Diego day you might be drawn to the sights and the sounds of the Balboa Park Carousel. As you approach, you see the horses, frogs, dogs and pigs bobbing up and down on their brass poles.

 

Most of us who grew up in San Diego took a spin on it at one time or another. But for me, it had even more significance. You could say it was a member of the family.

 

Balboa Park: Heart Of San Diego

Special Feature Balboa Park: Heart Of San Diego

My grandfather started working there in 1925. My parents bought it in the '50s. I got to ride endlessly as a child in the 1960s, and I spent many days in the '70s sitting in that small white ticket box, selling tickets to help put me through college.

 

Bill Steen, the carousel's owner, told me that its history started five years before the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park — an event whose centennial is being celebrated this year.

 

“The carousel is a 1910 Herschell-Spillman menagerie carousel, and it was made in North Tonawanda, New York, and shipped to California,” Steen said.

 

It was initially sent to Los Angeles, then turned up at the resort called Tent City in Coronado in 1915. As Balboa Park grew into a popular spot, the original carousel owner decided to place it near where the Plaza de Balboa & Bea Evenson Fountain sits today on the eastern edge of the park.

 

The carousel "finally settled down in the park in about 1922,” Steen said.

 

It remained in that location until 1968 when it was moved to its current spot, he said, adjacent to the San Diego Zoo.

 

KPBS news ancher Sally Hixson takes a trip down memory lane by taking a ride on the Balboa Park Carousel, Jan. 19, 2015. Her family used to own the carousel.

By Roland Lizarondo

KPBS news ancher Sally Hixson takes a trip down memory lane by taking a ride on the Balboa Park Carousel, Jan. 19, 2015. Her family used to own the carousel.

For me, that move in 1968 stands out. The city asked my mom to move her carousel three blocks, near the zoo. It was done to make way for the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center and the fountain.

 

Now 92, my mom, Virginia Long, owned the carousel for nearly 30 years. She still speaks with pride of its features, especially the craftsmanship on each animal.

 

“They’re hand carved. And I know the kind of wood — Lindenwood — from the Linden trees in London, England,” she told me.

 

Many of the horses have real horsetails, which raises an interesting story for both my mom and me: The story of where they came from.

 

“The zoo was very kind, and they kill horses when they’re old and feed the meat to the tigers and lions. And they would cut off the pretty tails,” Mom said.

 

Virginia Long, the former owner of the Balboa Park Carousel, sits near the center of the historic merry-go-round, Jan. 19, 2015.

Richard Klein

Virginia Long, the former owner of the Balboa Park Carousel, sits near the center of the historic merry-go-round, Jan. 19, 2015.

What my mom didn’t say is that she hated to see the bloody tails that had just been removed from the horses. So I would go with her, then take the tails to the tanner, where I watched them clean them up for the carousel. I was a kid and I didn’t care.

 

The carousel was a fount of stories for our family. Here’s one.

 

A standard rule is that only the employees can move about the carousel during a ride. As a kid, I remember hearing how actor Robert Preston — who played Professor Harold Hill in the movie “The Music Man” — rode the carousel and wouldn’t stay still. My father gave him several warnings, and finally he stopped the carousel and kicked Preston off.

 

As a kid, I couldn’t believe my father kicked a famous actor off our merry-go-round. Dad later told me Preston had too much to drink.

 

The merry-go-round had an added feature for kids, and this one that was special among carousels: the ring toss. A bunch of rings, loaded into a hollow stake, would be extended just within reach of carousel riders. The lucky rider who grabbed the brass ring would win a free ride.

 

“And I believe we’re the only active ring toss game west of the Mississippi,” said Steen, who now owns the carousel.

 

The Balboa Park Carousel, brought to the park in 1922, allows its riders to straddle anything from a horse to a tiger or a frog, Jan. 19, 2015.

By Roland Lizarondo

The Balboa Park Carousel, brought to the park in 1922, allows its riders to straddle anything from a horse to a tiger or a frog, Jan. 19, 2015.

Almost everything on the carousel is original, including the “band organ” and the hand-painted murals above the animals. The upkeep is extensive.

 

My mom calls owning it a year-round labor of love.

 

“It’s a well-loved merry-go-round,” she said, “and I’m so glad’s there’s a variety of animals: tigers and lions and pigs and cats. I painted the animals, and if they were all horses I would’ve been very bored!”

 

Steen sees it the same way.

 

“It’s been 35 years of loving care, carrying on the fine traditions that Virginia and (her dad) Clarence Wilcken set up for the merry-go-round. So little has changed over these, gosh, 90 years that the two families have owned or operated the merry-go-round,” Steen said.

 

So as you head to Balboa Park to celebrate its history, take a spin on the carousel, which truly can take you back in time.

it's not my hair it's my hood's fur trim

Kind of hard to tell, but Luna is resting her head on Butters, not grooming, but kind of using him as a pillow, and it’s adorable!

Taken 25/10/18; I'm off my home turf here, but a couple of snaps whilst walking around the Lee Valley Country Park with Mrs. G', one of her brothers and his family. Waltham Town Lock dates from 1768 and the area to the left is the site of a former show ground which is now part of the Lee Country Park. Within in the park is the Lee Valley White Water Canoe Centre which hosted canoeing events in the 2012 Summer Olympics.

 

Some notes from the internet on the River Lee Navigation:

 

"The river Lee (or Lea) runs from the Thames to Hertford, with a branch along the Stort Navigation. Unlike the other canals in London it was not constructed in one primary phase of building, and also unlike the other canals it is a canalised river, not an entirely new canal. Navigation took place in the first millennium, with the Vikings apparently taking the opportunity to plunder the unfortunate people of Hertford. Work on improving the river's navigability is recorded as early as the fourteenth century and in 1425 there was an Act of Parliament to provide for further improvements. The River lea Commissioners, who used to run it, date back to this period. As was so often the case, where rivers were improved for navigation, there were arguments between barge owners and mill owners who preferred the available water to be used to mills rather than locks. The navigation was much used for carrying grain for beer and bread making and those who might lose their livelihoods from the lower prices that became possible as a result of cheaper transport also objected to improvements. Disputes over the right of navigation reached the Star Chamber, a superior court of justice, in 1594, which ruled in favour of the boats.

The canal era was marked by the passage of the River Lea Act 1766 which authorised much more extensive improvement works and the construction of locks, new sections, and the Limehouse Cut, a connecting canal at the southern end. The locks were, of course, single gate locks which relied on a build-up of water and its sudden release to enable boats to pass. The type of lock we know today is a pound lock, with gates at each end, which is far less wasteful of water. Pound locks were introduced to the river Lea in 1771.

There were substantial improvements in the nineteenth century with a further act being passed in 1850 to authorise new sections and locks. The Lea Conservancy Act 1868 placed the navigation in the hands of a new conservancy board. The twentieth century also saw great improvements, with a major scheme being started in 1922 to enlarge and rebuild locks to enable larger vessels to use the navigation. There was further work carried out in the 1930's to provide for flood relief. On nationalisation of the canal system, the navigation passed to the British Transport Commission and later British Waterways."

But didn't realise that beneath the few inches of water was about a foot of mud!

But a bit old hat.

but maybe off key? IG 2025

Ok, I was tagged by I think everyone in my contact list haha! Old pic, but here goes! I tag....

 

1. I'm extremely self conscious about me and everything I do.

 

2. I'll be 29 next month and not sure I'm looking forward to it.

 

3. I'm obsessed with street graffiti and lowbrow art.

 

4. I've worn glasses since 1991.

 

5. I have a severe phobia of the dentist, severe. My wisdom teeth tried coming in and cracked 5 of my molars... 4 are now missing because of it.

 

6. One of my favorite things in the world is my cat Cha Cha.

 

7. I love documentaries, independent and foreign films.

 

8. I believe my calling is life is to be a toy designer, just wish I had more time to make plush and plastic.

 

9. I'm currently working on a plush book, slowly. But recently had some good luck and have my fingers crossed.

 

10. My favorite music is Radiohead, Bjork and Damien Rice.

 

11. I'm obsessed with art by Jeff Soto and Buff Monster.

 

12. Most of my customs, plush and art is inspired by street graffiti.

 

13. I love color but my wardrobe consists of black tee's, jeans and black flip flops. I hate wearing color.

 

14. I'm addicted to iced chai and chocolate milk, it's sickening. haha!

 

15. My dream when I was younger was to be a Paleontologist but never stayed in college.

 

16. I am a big hippie :)

 

17. I used to paint a LOT but stopped when my hands began to shake. Everyone once in a while I will have a good day and can paint.

 

18. I have self taught myself in everything I do from sewing to knitting.

 

19. Stupid people make me cringe and I HATE when I see people use the term FML (f* my life).

 

20. I am not religious or spiritual but would like to one day find something that makes sense to me.

Schweiz / Wallis - Matterhorn

 

seen from Gornergrat

 

gesehen vom Gornergrat

 

The Matterhorn (/ˈmætərhɔːrn/, German: [ˈmatɐˌhɔʁn]; Italian: Cervino, [tʃerˈviːno]; French: Cervin, [sɛʁvɛ̃]; Romansh: Mont(e) Cervin(u)) is a mountain of the Alps, straddling the main watershed and border between Switzerland and Italy. It is a large, near-symmetric pyramidal peak in the extended Monte Rosa area of the Pennine Alps, whose summit is 4,478 metres (14,692 ft) high, making it one of the highest summits in the Alps and Europe. The four steep faces, rising above the surrounding glaciers, face the four compass points and are split by the Hörnli, Furggen, Leone/Lion, and Zmutt ridges. The mountain overlooks the Swiss town of Zermatt, in the canton of Valais, to the northeast; and the Italian town of Breuil-Cervinia in the Aosta Valley to the south. Just east of the Matterhorn is Theodul Pass, the main passage between the two valleys on its north and south sides, which has been a trade route since the Roman Era.

 

The Matterhorn was studied by Horace-Bénédict de Saussure in the late eighteenth century, and was followed by other renowned naturalists and artists, such as John Ruskin, in the 19th century. It remained unclimbed after most of the other great Alpine peaks had been attained and became the subject of an international competition for the summit. The first ascent of the Matterhorn was in 1865 from Zermatt by a party led by Edward Whymper, but during the descent, a sudden fall claimed the lives of four of the seven climbers. This disaster, later portrayed in several films, marked the end of the golden age of alpinism. The north face was not climbed until 1931 and is among the three biggest north faces of the Alps, known as "The Trilogy". The west face, the highest of the Matterhorn's four faces, was completely climbed only in 1962. It is estimated that over 500 alpinists have died on the Matterhorn, making it one of the deadliest peaks in the world.

 

The Matterhorn is mainly composed of gneisses (originally fragments of the African Plate before the Alpine orogeny) from the Dent Blanche nappe, lying over ophiolites and sedimentary rocks of the Penninic nappes. The mountain's current shape is the result of cirque erosion due to multiple glaciers diverging from the peak, such as the Matterhorn Glacier at the base of the north face. Sometimes referred to as the Mountain of Mountains (German: Berg der Berge), it has become an indelible emblem of the Alps in general. Since the end of the 19th century, when railways were built in the area, the mountain has attracted increasing numbers of visitors and climbers. Each year, numerous mountaineers try to climb the Matterhorn from the Hörnli Hut via the northeast Hörnli ridge, the most popular route to the summit. Many trekkers also undertake the 10-day-long circuit around the mountain. The Matterhorn has been part of the Swiss Federal Inventory of Natural Monuments since 1983.

 

Names

 

The name Matterhorn derives from the German words Matte ("meadow") and Horn ("horn"), and is often translated as "the peak of the meadows".

 

In the Schalbetter map, printed by Sebastian Münster in 1545, the valley is labelled Mattertal, but the mountain has the Latin name Mons Silvius as well as the German name Augstalberg, in concord with the Aosta Valley (German Augstal). The 1548 map by Johannes Stumpf gives only Mons Silvius.

 

The French name Cervin, from which the Italian term Cervino derives, stems from the Latin Mons Silvanus (or Mons Sylvanus), where silva means "forest"; this was corrupted to Selvin and then Servin. The change of the first letter "s" to "c" is attributed to Horace Bénédict de Saussure, who thought the word was related to "deer" (French: cerf and Italian: cervo).

 

Josias Simler hypothesized in De Alpibus Commentarius (1574) that the name Mons Silvius was readopted by T. G. Farinetti: "Silvius was probably a Roman leader who sojourned with his legions in the land of the Salassi and the Seduni, and perhaps crossed the Theodul Pass between these two places. This Silvius may have been that same Servius Galba whom Caesar charged with the opening up of the Alpine passes, which from that time onward traders have been wanting to cross with great danger and grave difficulty. Servius Galba, in order to carry out Caesar's orders, came with his legions from Allobroges (Savoy) to Octodurum (Martigny) in the Valais, and pitched his camp there. The passes which he had orders to open from there could be no other than the St. Bernard, the Simplon, the Theodul, and the Moro; it therefore seems likely that the name of Servius, whence Silvius and later Servin, or Cervin, was given in his honour to the famous pyramid." It is unknown when the new name of Servin, or Cervin, replaced the old, from which it seems to be derived.

 

The Matterhorn is also named Gran Bècca ("big mountain") by the Valdôtains and Horu by the local Walliser German speaking people.

 

Because of its recognizable shape, many other similar mountains around the world were named or nicknamed the 'Matterhorn' of their respective countries or mountain ranges.

 

Height

 

The Matterhorn has two distinct summits, situated at either end of a 100-metre-long (330 ft) exposed rocky crest which forms the Italian/Swiss border. In August 1792, the Genevan geologist and explorer Horace Bénédict de Saussure made the first measurement of the Matterhorn's height, using a sextant and a 50-foot-long (15 m) chain spread out on the Theodul glacier. He calculated its height as 4,501.7 m (14,769 ft). In 1868 the Italian engineer Felice Giordano measured a height of 4,505 m (14,780 ft) by means of a mercury barometer, which he had taken to the summit. The Dufour map, which was afterwards followed by the Italian surveyors, gave 4,482 m (14,705 ft) as the height of the Swiss summit. 

 

In 1999, the summit height was precisely determined to be at 4,477.54 m (14,690 ft) above sea level by using Global Positioning System technology as part of the TOWER Project (Top of the World Elevations Remeasurement) and to an accuracy of less than one centimetre, which allows future changes to be tracked.

 

The topographic prominence of the Matterhorn is 1,042 metres (3,419 ft) as the ridge connecting it with a higher summit (in this case the Weisshorn, which is the culminating point of the range west of the Mattertal valley) sinks to a height of 3,436 m (11,273 ft) at the Col Durand, a saddle between the Pointe de Zinal and the Mont Durand. The topographic isolation is 13.9 km (8.6 mi), as the nearest point of higher elevation is the one-metre (3 ft 3 in) higher Western Liskamm

 

Considering mountains with a topographic prominence of at least 300 m (980 ft), the Matterhorn is the sixth-highest summit in the Alps and Europe outside the Caucasus Mountains. It is the fifth-highest summit of Valais and Switzerland and the third highest summit of the Aosta Valley and Italy. Locally, it is the third-highest summit in the municipality of Zermatt and the highest summit in the municipality of Valtournenche. On the official International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation list of Alpine four-thousanders, which also includes subsidiary summits of higher mountains such as the nearby Monte Rosa, the Matterhorn is the 12th highest summit in the Alps.

 

Geography

 

The Matterhorn has a pyramidal shape with four faces nearly facing the four compass points. Three of them (north, east and west) are on the Swiss side of the border and watershed (Mattertal valley) and one of them (south) is on the Italian side of the border (Valtournenche valley). The north face overlooks the Ober Gabelhorn (7 km away) across the Zmutt Glacier and valley (above Zermatt), the east face overlooks the Gorner Glacier system between the Gornergrat and Monte Rosa (respectively 10 and 17 km away) across the Theodul Pass, the west face overlooks the upper basin of the Zmutt Glacier between the Dent Blanche and the Dent d'Hérens (respectively 7 and 4 km away) and the south face fronts the resort town of Breuil-Cervinia and overlooks a good portion of the Valtournenche. The Matterhorn does not form a perfect square pyramid, as the north and south faces are wider than the west and east faces. Moreover, the latter faces do not actually meet on the summit but are connected by a 100-metre-long horizontal west–east ridge between the north and south faces.

 

The Matterhorn's faces are steep, and only small patches of snow and ice cling to them; regular avalanches send the snow down to accumulate on the glaciers at the base of each face, the largest of which are the Tiefmattengletscher to the west, part of the Zmutt Glacier, and the Matterhorn Glacier to the north. Smaller glaciers lie at the base of the south face (the Lower Matterhorn Glacier) and the east face (unnamed). In this area, the border between Switzerland and Italy coincides with the main Alpine watershed, separating the drainage basin of the Rhone on the north (Mediterranean Sea) and that of the Po on the south (Adriatic Sea). The north side is drained by the Zmuttbach (west and north faces) and the Gornera through the Furggbach (east face), tributaries of the Rhone through the (Matter) Vispa. The south side and face is drained by the Marmore torrent, a tributary of the Po through the Dora Baltea (or Doire baltée). The Theodul Pass, located on the watershed between the Matterhorn and the Breithorn, at 3,295 metres, is the easiest passage between the two valleys and countries (the slightly lower Furggjoch not being used as a pass). The pass was used as a crossover and trade route for the Romans and the Romanised Celtic population Salassi between 100 BCE and 400 CE. The area is now heavily glaciated and covered on the north side by the Theodul Glacier.

 

Well-known faces are the east and north, visible from the area of Zermatt, although mostly hidden from the Mattertal by the chain of the Weisshorn. The east face is 1,000 metres high and, because it is "a long, monotonous slope of rotten rocks", presents a high risk of rockfall, making its ascent dangerous. The north face is 1,200 metres high and is one of the most dangerous north faces in the Alps, in particular for its risk of rockfall and storms. The south face, well visible from the Valtournenche, is 1,350 metres high and offers many different routes. The west face, the highest at 1,400 metres, has the fewest ascent routes and lies in a more remote area than the other faces.

 

The four main ridges separating the four faces are the main climbing routes. The least difficult technical climb and the usual climbing route, the Hörnli ridge (Hörnligrat), lies between the east and north faces and is aligned towards the Oberrothorn above Zermatt. To its west lies the Zmutt ridge (Zmuttgrat), between the north and west faces and aligned towards the Wandfluehorn; this is, according to Collomb, "the classic route up the mountain, its longest ridge, also the most disjointed." The Lion ridge (Cresta del Leone / Arête du lion), lying between the south and west faces and aligned towards the Dent d'Hérens is the Italian normal route and goes across Pic Tyndall; Collomb comments, "A superb rock ridge, the shortest on the mountain, now draped with many fixed ropes, but a far superior climb compared with the Hörnli." Finally the south side is separated from the east side by the Furggen ridge (Furggengrat), which is aligned towards the Klein Matterhorn. It is, according to Collomb, "the hardest of the ridges [...] the ridge still has an awesome reputation but is not too difficult in good conditions by the indirect finish".

 

While the Matterhorn is the culminating point of the Valtournenche on the south, it is only one of the many 4000 metres summits of the Mattertal valley on the north. Its height is exceeded by four major summits: the Weisshorn (4,505 m), the Dom (4,545 m), the Liskamm (4,527 m) and the second-highest in the Alps, Monte Rosa (4,634 m). This section of the Pennine Alps, including the Matterhorn, the Zinalrothorn, the Dent Blanche, the Dent d'Hérens, the Breithorn, the Strahlhorn, the Rimpfischhorn and the Alphubel, concentrates most of western Europe's highest mountains and forms a crown of peaks around Zermatt. The deeply glaciated region between the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa (named Dent Blanche-Matterhorn-Monte Rosa) is listed in the Federal Inventory of Landscapes and Natural Monuments since 1983.

 

Weather

 

The Matterhorn is an isolated mountain. Because of its position on the main Alpine watershed and its great height, the Matterhorn is exposed to rapid weather changes. In addition, the steep faces of the mountain and its isolated location make it prone to banner clouds formation, with the air flowing around the mountain producing condensation of the air on the lee side and also creating vortices.

 

Geology

 

The Matterhorn's pyramid is composed of Paleozoic rocks, which were thrusted over the Matterhorn's Mesozoic base during the Cenozoic. Quaternary glaciation and weathering give the mountain its current shape.

 

Apart from the base of the mountain, the Matterhorn is composed of gneiss belonging to the Dent Blanche klippe, an isolated part of the Austroalpine nappes, lying over the Penninic nappes. The Austroalpine nappes are part of the Apulian plate, a small continent that broke up from Africa before the Alpine orogeny. For this reason, the Matterhorn has been popularized as an African mountain. The Austroalpine nappes are mostly common in the Eastern Alps.

 

The Swiss explorer and geologist Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, inspired by the view of the Matterhorn, anticipated modern theories of geology:

 

What power must have been required to shatter and to sweep away the missing parts of this pyramid; for we do not see it surrounded by heaps of fragments; one only sees other peaks - themselves rooted to the ground - whose sides, equally rent, indicate an immense mass of débris, of which we do not see any trace in the neighbourhood. Doubtless, this is that débris which, in the form of pebbles, boulders, and sand, fills our valleys and our plains.

 

Formation

 

The formation of the Matterhorn (and the whole Alpine range) started with the break-up of the Pangaea continent 200 million years ago into Laurasia (containing Europe) and Gondwana (containing Africa). While the rocks constituting the nearby Monte Rosa remained in Laurasia, the rocks constituting the Matterhorn found themselves in Gondwana, separated by the newly formed Tethys Ocean.

 

100 million years ago the extension of the Tethys Ocean stopped and the Apulian plate broke from Gondwana and moved toward the European continent. This resulted in the closure of the western Tethys by subduction under the Apulian plate (with the Piemont-Liguria Ocean first and Valais Ocean later). The subduction of the oceanic crust left traces still visible today at the base of the Matterhorn (accretionary prism). The orogeny itself began after the end of the oceanic subduction when the European continental crust collided with the Apulian continent, resulting in the formation of nappes.

 

The Matterhorn acquired its characteristic pyramidal shape in much more recent times as it was caused by natural erosion over the past million years. At the beginning of alpine orogeny, the Matterhorn was only a rounded mountain like a hill. Because its height is above the snowline, its flanks are covered by ice, resulting from the accumulation and compaction of snow. During the warmer period of summer, part of the ice melts and seeps into the bedrock. When it freezes again, it fractures pieces of rock because of its dilatation (freeze-thaw), forming a cirque. Four cirques led to the shape of the mountain.

 

Rocks

 

Most of the base of the mountain lies in the Tsaté nappe, a remnant of the Piedmont-Liguria oceanic crust (ophiolites) and its sedimentary rocks. Up to 3,400 metres the mountain is composed of successive layers of ophiolites and sedimentary rocks. From 3,400 metres to the top, the rocks are gneisses from the Dent Blanche nappe (Austroalpine nappes). They are divided into the Arolla series (below 4,200 m) and the Valpelline zone (the summit). Other mountains in the region (Weisshorn, Zinalrothorn, Dent Blanche, Mont Collon) also belong to the Dent Blanche nappe.

 

Tourism and trekking

 

Since the eighteenth century, the Alps have attracted more and more people and fascinated generations of explorers and climbers. The Matterhorn remained relatively little known until 1865, but the successful ascent followed by the tragic accident of the expedition led by Edward Whymper caused a rush on the mountains surrounding Zermatt.

 

The construction of the railway linking the village of Zermatt from the town of Visp started in 1888. The first train reached Zermatt on 18 July 1891 and the entire line was electrified in 1930. Since 1930 the village is directly connected to St. Moritz by the Glacier Express panoramic train. However, there is no connection with the village of Breuil-Cervinia on the Italian side. Travellers have to hire mountain guides to cross the 3,300-metre-high glaciated Theodul Pass, separating the two resorts. The town of Zermatt remains almost completely free of internal combustion vehicles and can be reached by train only. (Apart from the local police service which uses a Volkswagen car, and the refuse collection lorry, only electric vehicles are used locally).

 

Rail and cable-car facilities have been built to make some of the summits in the area more accessible. The Gornergrat railway, reaching a record altitude of 3,100 metres, was inaugurated in 1898. Areas served by cable car are the Unterrothorn and the Klein Matterhorn (Little Matterhorn) (3,883 m, highest transportation system in Europe). The Hörnli Hut (3,260 m), which is the start of the normal route via the Hörnli ridge, is easily accessible from Schwarzsee (2,600 m) and is also frequented by hikers. The Zermatt and Breuil-Cervinia resorts function as separate ski resort all year round and are connected by skilifts over the Theodul Pass. In 2015 it was expected that there would be constructed a cable car link between Testa Grigia (or Tête grise) and Klein Matterhorn. It will finally provide a link between the Swiss and Italian side of the Matterhorn.

 

The Matterhorn Museum (Zermatt) relates the general history of the region from alpinism to tourism. In the museum, which is in the form of a reconstituted mountain village, the visitors can relive the first and tragic ascent of the Matterhorn and see the objects that belonged to the protagonists.

 

The Tour of the Matterhorn can be effected by trekkers in about 10 days. Considered by some as one of the most beautiful treks in the Alps, it follows many ancient trails that have linked the Swiss and Italian valleys for centuries. The circuit includes alpine meadows, balcony trails, larch forests and glacial crossings. It connects six valleys embracing three different cultures: the German-speaking high Valais, the French-speaking central Valais and the bilingual French/Italian-speaking Aosta Valley. Good conditions are necessary to circumnavigate the peak. After reaching Zinal from Zermatt by the Augstbord and Meiden passes, the trekker crosses the Col de Sorebois and the Col de Torrent before arriving at Arolla. Then the Arolla Glacier and the Col Collon must be crossed on the way to Prarayer, followed by the Col de Valcournera to Breuil-Cervinia. In the last and highest section, the Theodul Pass must be crossed before returning to Zermatt. In total, seven passes between 2,800 and 3,300 metres must be crossed on relatively difficult terrain.

 

As of 2015, almost two million visitors arrive at Zermatt annually. An average of around twelve people per year have died on Matterhorn in the ten years from 2005 to 2015.

 

Climbing history

 

The Matterhorn was one of the last of the main Alpine mountains to be ascended, not because of its technical difficulty, but because of the fear it inspired in early mountaineers. The first serious attempts were all from the Italian side, although, despite appearances, the southern routes are technically harder. The main figures were Jean-Antoine Carrel and his uncle Jean-Jacques Carrel, from the Valtournenche area, who made the first attempts in 1857 and 1858, reaching 3,800 m (12,500 ft) on the latter occasion. In July 1860, three brothers from Liverpool attempted the mountain, Alfred, Charles and Sandbach Parker, but they turned back at about 3,500 m (11,500 ft). In August of the same year, Jean-Jacques Carrel returned to guide, with Johann Joseph Bennen , Vaughan Hawkins and John Tyndall to about 3,960 m (12,990 ft) before turning back. In 1861 the Carrels managed to reach the Crête du Coq at 4,032 m (13,228 ft). In July 1862, Jean-Antoine, together with César Carrel, accompanied as porters (sic) John Tyndall, Anton Walters and J.J. Bennen to Matterhorn's Shoulder at 4,248 m (13,937 ft), which was subsequently named Pic Tyndall in honor of the client.

 

Edward Whymper joined the efforts in August 1861, but in his first 7 attempts with a variety of companions could only reach a maximum height of 4,100 m (13,500 ft). However, on 14 July 1865, in what is considered the last ascent of the golden age of alpinism, he was able to reach the summit by an ascent of the Hörnli ridge in Switzerland, guided by the famed French mountaineer Michel Croz and the Swiss father and son Peter Taugwalder Sr. and Jr., and accompanied by the British gentlemen Charles Hudson, Lord Francis Douglas, Douglas Robert Hadow. Upon descent, Hadow, Croz, Hudson and Douglas fell to their deaths on the Matterhorn Glacier, and all but Douglas (whose body was never found) are buried in the Zermatt churchyard.

 

Just three days later, on 17 July 1865, Jean-Antoine Carrel and Jean-Baptiste Bich reached the summit from the Italian side.

 

Before the first ascent

 

In the summer of 1860, Edward Whymper came across the Matterhorn for the first time. He was an English artist and engraver who had been hired by a London publisher to make sketches of the mountains in the region of Zermatt. Although the unclimbed Matterhorn had a mixed reputation among British mountaineers, it fascinated Whymper. Whymper's first attempt was in August 1861, from the village of Breuil on the south side. In Châtillon he hired a Swiss guide, who remained anonymous in his accounts, and in Valtournanche he almost hired Jean-Antoine Carrel as well, but, disliking the looks of Carrel's uncle, he changed his mind. The Carrels decided to give Matterhorn a try by themselves again, and caught up with Whymper at nightfall. Whymper now had "a strong inclination to engage the pair; but, finally, decided against it" and the Carrels went alone to reach a new high on Matterhorn of 4,032 m (13,228 ft) the next day. Whymper and his guide camped one more night on the Col du lion (= Col Tournanche) 3,479 m (11,414 ft) and were forced to turn around only an hour above this pass the day after.

 

In 1862 Whymper made further attempts, still from the south side, on the Lion ridge (or Italian ridge), where the route seemed easier than the Hörnli ridge (the normal route today). On his own, he reached above 4,000 metres, but was injured on his way down to Breuil. In July John Tyndall with Johann Joseph Bennen and another guide overcame most of the difficulties of the ridge that seemed so formidable from below and successfully reached the main shoulder; but at a point not very far below the summit they were stopped by a deep cleft that defied their utmost efforts. The Matterhorn remained unclimbed.

 

Whymper returned to Breuil in 1863, persuading Carrel to join forces with him and try the mountain once more via the Italian ridge. On this attempt, however, a storm soon developed and they were stuck halfway to the summit. They remained there for 26 hours in their tent before giving up. Whymper did not make another attempt for two years.

 

In the decisive year 1865, Whymper returned with new plans, deciding to attack the Matterhorn via its south face instead of the Italian ridge. On 21 June, Whymper began his ascent with Swiss guides, but halfway up they experienced severe rockfall; although nobody was injured, they decided to give up the ascent. This was Whymper's seventh attempt.

 

During the following weeks, Whymper spent his time climbing other mountains in the area with his guides, before going back to Breuil on 7 July. Meanwhile, the Italian Alpine Club was founded and its leaders, Felice Giordano and Quintino Sella, established plans to conquer the Matterhorn before any non-Italian could succeed. Felice Giordano hired Carrel as a guide. He feared the arrival of Whymper, now a rival, and wrote to Quintino Sella

 

I have tried to keep everything secret, but that fellow whose life seems to depend on the Matterhorn is here, suspiciously prying into everything. I have taken all the best men away from him; and yet he is so enamored of the mountain that he may go with others...He is here in the hotel and I try to avoid speaking to him.

 

Just as he did two years before, Whymper asked Carrel to be his guide, but Carrel declined; Whymper was also unsuccessful in hiring other local guides from Breuil. When Whymper discovered Giordano and Carrel's plan, he left Breuil and crossed the Theodul Pass to Zermatt to hire local guides. He encountered Lord Francis Douglas, a Scottish mountaineer, who also wanted to climb the Matterhorn. They arrived later in Zermatt in the Monte Rosa Hotel, where they met two other British climbers — the Reverend Charles Hudson and his young and inexperienced companion, Douglas Robert Hadow — who had hired the French guide Michel Croz to try to make the first ascent. These two groups decided to join forces and try the ascent of the Hörnli ridge. They hired another two local guides, a father and son, both named Peter Taugwalder.

 

First ascent

 

Whymper and party left Zermatt early in the morning of 13 July 1865, heading to the foot of the Hörnli ridge, which they reached 6 hours later (approximately where the Hörnli Hut is situated today). Meanwhile, Carrel and six other Italian guides also began their ascent of the Italian ridge.

 

Despite its appearance, Whymper wrote that the Hörnli ridge was much easier to climb than the Italian ridge:

 

We were now fairly upon the mountain, and were astonished to find that places which from the Riffel, or even from the Furggen Glacier, looked entirely impracticable, were so easy that we could run about.

 

After camping for the night, Whymper and party started on the ridge. According to Whymper:

 

The whole of this great slope was now revealed, rising for 3,000 feet like a huge natural staircase. Some parts were more, and others were less, easy; but we were not once brought to a halt by any serious impediment, for when an obstruction was met in front it could always be turned to the right or left. For the greater part of the way there was, indeed, no occasion for the rope, and sometimes Hudson led, sometimes myself. At 6.20 we had attained a height of 12,800 feet and halted for half an hour; we then continued the ascent without a break until 9.55, when we stopped for fifty minutes, at a height of 14,000 feet.

 

When the party came close to the summit, they had to leave the ridge for the north face because "[the ridge] was usually more rotten and steep, and always more difficult than the face". At this point of the ascent Whymper wrote that the less experienced Hadow "required continual assistance". Having overcome these difficulties the group finally arrived in the summit area, with Croz and Whymper reaching the top first.

 

The slope eased off, and Croz and I, dashing away, ran a neck-and-neck race, which ended in a dead heat. At 1.40 p.m. the world was at our feet, and the Matterhorn was conquered. Hurrah! Not a footstep could be seen.

 

Precisely at this moment, Carrel and party were approximatively 400 metres below, still dealing with the most difficult parts of the Italian ridge. When seeing his rival on the summit, Carrel and party gave up on their attempt and went back to Breuil.

 

After building a cairn, Whymper and party stayed an hour on the summit. Then they began their descent of the Hörnli ridge. Croz descended first, then Hadow, Hudson and Douglas, the elder Taugwalder, Whymper, with the younger Taugwalder coming last. They climbed down with great care, only one man moving at a time. Whymper wrote:

 

As far as I know, at the moment of the accident no one was actually moving. I cannot speak with certainty, neither can the Taugwalders, because the two leading men were partially hidden from our sight by an intervening mass of rock. Poor Croz had laid aside his axe, and in order to give Mr. Hadow greater security was absolutely taking hold of his legs and putting his feet, one by one, into their proper positions. From the movements of their shoulders it is my belief that Croz, having done as I have said, was in the act of turning round to go down a step or two himself; at this moment Mr. Hadow slipped, fell on him, and knocked him over.

 

The weight of the falling men pulled Hudson and Douglas from their holds and dragged them down the north face. The Taugwalders and Whymper were left alive when the rope linking Douglas to the elder Taugwalder broke. They were stunned by the accident and for a time could not move until the younger Taugwalder descended to enable them to advance. When they were together Whymper asked to see the broken rope and saw that it had been employed by mistake as it was the weakest and oldest of the three ropes they had brought. They frantically looked, but in vain, for traces of their fallen companions. They continued their descent, including an hour in the dark, until 9.30 p.m. when a resting place was found. The descent was resumed at daybreak and the group finally reached Zermatt, where a search of the victims was quickly organized. The bodies of Croz, Hadow and Hudson were found on the Matterhorn Glacier, but the body of Douglas was never found. Although the elder Taugwalder was accused of cutting the rope to save himself and his son, the official inquest found no proof of this.

 

Second ascent

 

On 16 July, two days after the first ascent and the catastrophe, Jean-Antoine Carrel set out to crown Whymper's victory by proving that the Italian side was not unconquerable. He was accompanied by Amé Gorret, a priest who had shared with him the first attempt on the mountain back in 1857. Jean-Baptiste Bich and Jean-Augustin Meynet completed the party. Giordano would have joined them, but Carrel refused absolutely to take him with them; he said he would not have the strength to guide a traveller, and could neither answer for the result nor for any one's life. After hearing Sunday mass at the chapel of Breuil, the party started. Amé Gorret has described this ascent with enthusiasm: "At last we crossed the Col du Lion and set foot upon the pyramid of the Matterhorn!" On the following day, the 17th, they continued the ascent and reached Tyndall's flagstaff. "We were about to enter unknown country," wrote Gorret, "for no man had gone beyond this point." Here opinions were divided; Gorret suggested ascending by the ridge and scaling the last tower straight up. Carrel was inclined to traverse to the west of the peak, and thence go up on the Zmutt side. Naturally the wish of Carrel prevailed, for he was the leader and had not lost the habit of command, notwithstanding his recent defeat.

 

They made the passage of the enjambée, and traversed the west face to reach the Zmutt ridge. A false step made by one of the party and a fall of icicles from above warned them to return to the direct line of ascent, and the traverse back to the Lion ridge was one of the greatest difficulty. A falling stone injured Gorret in the arm.

 

At last they reached the base of the final tower. "We stood," wrote Gorret, "in a place that was almost comfortable. Although it was not more than two yards wide, and the slope was one of 75 percent, we gave it all kinds of pleasant names : the corridor, the gallery, the railroad, &c., &c." They imagined all difficulties were at an end; but a rock couloir, which they had hitherto not observed, lay between them and the final bit of ridge, where progress would be perfectly easy. It would have been unwise for all four to descend into the couloir, because they did not know where to fix the rope that would be needed on their return. Time pressed: it was necessary to reduce the numbers of the party; Gorret sacrificed himself, and Meynet stopped with him. Very soon afterwards Carrel and Bich were finally on the top. Meanwhile, Giordano at Breuil was writing in his diary as follows: "Splendid weather; at 9.30 saw Carrel and his men on the Shoulder, after that saw nothing more of them. Then much mist about the summit. Lifted a bit about 3.30, and we saw our flag on the western summit of the Matterhorn."

 

Other ascents

 

Ridges

 

The first direct ascent of the Italian (south-west) ridge as it is climbed today was by J. J. and J. P. Maquignaz on 13 September 1867.Julius Elliott made the second ascent via the Hörnli (north-east) ridge in 1868, and later that year the party of John Tyndall, J. J. and J. P. Maquignaz was the first to traverse the summit by way of the Hörnli and Italian ridges. On 22 August 1871, while wearing a white print dress, Lucy Walker became the first woman to reach the summit of the Matterhorn, followed a few weeks later by her rival Meta Brevoort. The first winter ascent of the Hörnli ridge was by Vittorio Sella with guides J. A. Carrel, J. B. Carrel and L. Carrel on 17 March 1882, and its first solo ascent was made by W. Paulcke in 1898. The first winter solo ascent of the Hörnli ridge was by G. Gervasutti in 1936.

 

The Zmutt (north-west) ridge was first climbed by Albert F. Mummery, Alexander Burgener, J. Petrus and A. Gentinetta on 3 September 1879. Its first solo ascent was made by Hans Pfann in 1906, and the first winter ascent was made by H. Masson and E. Petrig on 25 March 1948.

 

The last of the Matterhorn's four ridges to be ascended was the Furggen (south-east) ridge. M. Piacenza with guides J. J. Carrel and J. Gaspard on 9 September 1911, climbed most of the ridge but bypassed the overhangs near the top to the south. Not until 23 September 1942, during the Second World War, did Alfredo Perino, along with guides Louis Carrel (nicknamed "The Little Carrel") and Giacomo Chiara, climb the complete ridge and the overhangs directly.

 

In 1966, René Arnold and Joseph Graven made the first solo enchainement of the four Matterhorn ridges in 19.5 hours. Beginning at the 3,300m Bossi Bivouac hut, the pair followed the normal route up the Furggen Ridge and then descended the Hornli Ridge. After crossing the Matterhorn Glacier at the base of the north face, they ascended the Zmutt Ridge and then descended the Italian (Lion) Ridge to the village of Breuil. In 1985, Marco Barmasse repeated their achievement, but this time his route included the first solo ascent of the Furggen overhangs. He completed the enchainement, reaching the Abruzzi Hut after 15 hours.

 

On 20 August 1992, Italian alpinist Hans Kammerlander and Swiss alpine guide Diego Wellig climbed the Matterhorn four times in just 23 hours and 26 minutes. The route they followed was: Zmutt ridge–summit–Hörnli ridge (descent)–Furggen ridge–summit–Lion ridge (descent)–Lion ridge–summit–Hörnli ridge (descent)–Hörnli ridge–summit–Hörnli Hut (descent). However the Italian route (Lion Ridge), was not climbed from Duca degli Abruzzi Refuge at 2802 m, but from Carrel Hut, at 3830 m, both uphill and downhill.

 

In 1995, Bruno Brunod climbed Matterhorn from the village Breuil-Cervinia in 2 h 10 min. and from Breuil-Cervinia to Matterhorn and back, in 3:14:44

 

On 21 August 2013, the Spanish mountain runner Kilian Jornet broke Brunod's record as it took him 1 hour, 56 min to the top from Breuil-Cervinia - a round-trip time of 2 hours 52 minutes to return to his starting point.

 

Faces

 

William Penhall and guides made the first (partial) ascent of the west face, the Matterhorn's most hidden and unknown, one hour after Mummery and party's first ascent of the Zmutt ridge on 3 September 1879. It was not until 1962 that the west face was completely climbed. The ascent was made on 13 August by Renato Daguin and Giovanni Ottin. In January 1978 seven Italian alpine guides made a successful winter climb of Daguin and Ottin's highly direct, and previously unrepeated, 1962 route. But a storm came during their ascent, bringing two metres of snow to Breuil-Cervinia and Zermatt, and their accomplishment turned bitter when one of the climbers died during the descent.

 

The north face, before it was climbed in 1931, was one of the last great big wall problems in the Alps. To succeed on the north face, good climbing and ice-climbing technique and route-finding ability were required. Unexpectedly it was first climbed by the brothers Franz and Toni Schmid on 31 July – 1 August 1931. They reached the summit at the end of the second day, after a night of bivouac. Because they had kept their plans secret, their ascent was a complete surprise. In addition, the two brothers had travelled by bicycle from Munich and after their successful ascent they cycled back home again. The first winter ascent of the north face was made by Hilti von Allmen and Paul Etter on 3-4 February 1962. Its first solo ascent was made in five hours by Dieter Marchart on 22 July 1959. Walter Bonatti climbed the "North Face Direct" solo on 18-22 February 1965. The same year, Yvette Vaucher became the first woman to climb the north face. Bonatti's direct route was not repeated solo until 29 years later, in winter 1994 by Catherine Destivelle.

 

Ueli Steck set the record time in climbing the north face (Schmid route) of Matterhorn in 2009 with a time of 1 hour 56 minutes.

 

After Bonatti's climb, the best alpinists were still preoccupied with one last great problem: the "Zmutt Nose", an overhang lying on the right-hand side of the north face. In July 1969 two Italians, Alessandro Gogna and Leo Cerruti, attempted to solve the problem. It took them four days to figure out the unusual overhangs, avoiding however its steepest part. In July 1981 the Swiss Michel Piola and Pierre-Alain Steiner surmounted the Zmutt Nose by following a direct route, the Piola-Steiner.

 

The first ascent of the south face was made by Enzo Benedetti with guides Louis Carrel and Maurice Bich on 15 October 1931, and the first complete ascent of the east face was made by Enzo Benedetti and G. Mazzotti with guides Louis and Lucien Carrel, Maurice Bich and Antoine Gaspard on 18-19 September 1932.

 

Casualties on the Matterhorn

 

The four men lost in 1865 have not been the only fatalities on the Matterhorn. In fact, several climbers die each year due to a number of factors including the scale of the climb and its inherent dangers, inexperience, falling rocks, and overcrowded routes. The Matterhorn is thus amongst the deadliest mountains in the world. By the late 1980s, it was estimated that over 500 people have died whilst attempting its summit since the 1865 ascent, with an average of about 12 deaths each year.

 

In the 2000s, there was a trend of fewer people dying each year on the mountain. This has been attributed partly to a greater awareness of the risks, and also due to the fact that a majority of climbers now use local guides. However, in the summer of 2018, at least ten people died on the mountain.

 

Here is a list of people who died on the mountain whose bodies were not recovered until later:

 

1954 French skier Henri le Masne went missing on the Matterhorn. In 2005 remains were found, identified as le Masne in 2018

1970 Two Japanese climbers missing; remains found after 45 years in 2015

1979 British climber missing; remains found after 34 years in 2014

2014 Japanese hiker missing; remains found 2018

2016 Two British climbers missing; remains found 2016

 

Legacy: beginning of mountain culture

 

The first ascent of the Matterhorn changed mountain culture. Whymper’s book about his first ascent, Scrambles Amongst the Alps, published in 1871, was a worldwide bestseller. Tourists began to visit Switzerland in the summer to see the Alps and often hired locals as guides. With the beginning of alpine skiing in the early 20th century, tourists began traveling to Switzerland in winter also. Mountaineering, in part, helped transform Switzerland’s mountain regions from poor rural areas to tourist destinations. This combination of mountain climbing, skiing and tourism, was used in the western United States, creating Sun Valley, Vail, Jackson Hole, and other mountain towns around the world.

 

Climbing routes

 

Today, all ridges and faces of the Matterhorn have been ascended in all seasons, and mountain guides take a large number of people up the northeast Hörnli route each summer. In total, up to 150 climbers attempt the Matterhorn each day during summer. By modern standards, the climb is fairly difficult (AD Difficulty rating), but not hard for skilled mountaineers according to French climbing grades. There are fixed ropes on parts of the route to help. Still, it should be remembered that several climbers may die on the mountain each year.

 

The usual pattern of ascent is to take the Schwarzsee cable car up from Zermatt, hike up to the Hörnli Hut elev. 3,260 m (10,700 ft), a large stone building at the base of the main ridge, and spend the night. The next day, climbers rise at 3:30 am so as to reach the summit and descend before the regular afternoon clouds and storms come in. The Solvay Hut located on the ridge at 4,003 m (13,133 ft) can be used only in a case of emergency.

 

Other popular routes on the mountain include the Italian (Lion) ridge (AD+ Difficulty rating) and the Zmutt ridge (D Difficulty rating). The four faces, as well as the Furggen ridge, constitute the most challenging routes to the summit. The north face is amongst the six most difficult faces of the Alps, as well as ‘The Trilogy’, the three hardest of the six, along with the north faces of the Eiger and the Grandes Jorasses (TD+ Difficulty rating).

 

Overcrowding on the several routes have become an issue and guides and local authorities have struggled with how to regulate the numbers. In 2015 the Hörnli hut became the first mountain shelter in Europe to limit beds.

 

History

 

Aegidius Tschudi, one of the earliest Alpine topographers and historians, was the first to mention the region around the Matterhorn in his work, De Prisca ac Vera Alpina Raethi, published in Basel in 1538. He approached the Matterhorn as a student when in his Alpine travels he reached the summit of the Theodul Pass but he does not seem to have paid any particular attention to the mountain itself.

 

The Matterhorn remained unstudied for more than two centuries, until a geologist from Geneva, Horace Benedict de Saussure, travelled to the mountain, which filled him with admiration. However, de Saussure was not moved to climb the mountain, and had no hope of measuring its altitude by taking a barometer to its summit. "Its precipitous sides," he wrote, "which give no hold to the very snows, are such as to afford no means of access." Yet his scientific interest was kindled by "the proud peak which rises to so vast an altitude, like a triangular obelisk, that seems to be carved by a chisel." His mind intuitively grasped the causes which gave the peak its present precipitous form: the Matterhorn was not like a perfected crystal; the centuries had laboured to destroy a great part of an ancient and much larger mountain. On his first journey de Saussure had come from Ayas to the Col des Cimes Blanches, from where the Matterhorn first comes into view; descending to Breuil, he ascended to the Theodul Pass. On his second journey, in 1792, he came to the Valtournanche, studying and describing it; he ascended to the Theodul Pass, where he spent three days, analysing the structure of the Matterhorn, whose height he was the first to measure, and collecting stones, plants and insects. He made careful observations, from the sparse lichen that clung to the rocks to the tiny but vigorous glacier fly that fluttered over the snows and whose existence at such heights was mysterious. At night he took refuge under the tent erected near the ruins of an old fort at the top of the pass. During these days he climbed the Klein Matterhorn (3,883 metres), which he named the Cime Brune du Breithorn.

 

The first inquirers began to come to the Matterhorn. There is a record of a party of Englishmen who in the summer of 1800 crossed the Great St. Bernard Pass, a few months after the passage of Bonaparte; they came to Aosta and thence to Valtournenche, slept at the chalets of Breuil, and traversed the Theodul Pass, which they called Monte Rosa. The Matterhorn was to them an object of the most intense and continuous admiration.

 

The Matterhorn is mentioned in a guide-book to Switzerland by Johann Gottfried Ebel, which was published in Zürich towards the end of the eighteenth century, and translated into English in 1818. The mountain appeared in it under the three names of Silvius, Matterhorn, and Mont Cervin, and was briefly described as one of the most splendid and wonderful obelisks in the Alps. On Zermatt there was a note: "A place which may, perhaps, interest the tourist is the valley of Praborgne (Zermatt); it is bounded by huge glaciers which come right down into the valley; the village of Praborgne is fairly high, and stands at a great height above the glaciers; its climate is almost as warm as that of Italy, and plants belonging to hot countries are to be found there at considerable altitudes, above the ice."

 

William Brockedon, who came to the region in 1825, considered the crossing of the Theodul Pass from Breuil to Zermatt a difficult undertaking. He gave, however, expression to his enthusiasm on the summit. When he arrived exhausted on the top of the pass, he gazed "on the beautiful pyramid of the Cervin, more wonderful than aught else in sight, rising from its bed of ice to a height of 5,000 feet, a spectacle of indescribable grandeur." In this "immense natural amphitheatre, enclosed from time immemorial by snow-clad mountains and glaciers ever white, in the presence of these grand walls the mind is overwhelmed, not indeed that it is unable to contemplate the scene, but it staggers under the immensity of those objects which it contemplates."

 

Those who made their way up through the Valtournanche to the foot of the mountain were few in number. W. A. B. Coolidge, a diligent collector of old and new stories of the Alps, mentions that during those years, besides Brockedon, only Hirzel-Escher of Zürich, who crossed the Theodul Pass in 1822, starting from Breuil, accompanied by a local guide. The greater number came from the Valais up the Visp valley to Zermatt. In 1813, a Frenchman, Henri Maynard, climbed to the Theodul Pass and made the first ascent of the Breithorn; he was accompanied by numerous guides, among them J. M. Couttet of Chamonix, the same man who had gone with de Saussure to the top of the Klein Matterhorn in 1792. The writings of these pioneers make much mention of the Matterhorn; the bare and inert rock is gradually quickened into life by men's enthusiasm. "Stronger minds," remarked Edward Whymper, "felt the influence of the wonderful form, and men who ordinarily spoke or wrote like rational beings, when they came under its power seemed to quit their senses, and ranted and rhapsodised, losing for a time all common forms of speech."

 

Among the poets of the Matterhorn during these years (1834 to 1840) were Elie de Beaumont, a famous French geologist; Pierre Jean Édouard Desor, a naturalist of Neuchâtel, who went up there with a party of friends, two of whom were Louis Agassiz and Bernhard Studer. Christian Moritz Engelhardt, who was so filled with admiration for Zermatt and its neighbourhood that he returned there at least ten times (from 1835 to 1855), described these places in two valuable volumes, drew panoramas and maps, and collected the most minute notes on the mineralogy and botany of the region. Zermatt was at that time a quiet little village, and travellers found hospitality at the parish priest's, or at the village doctor's.

 

In 1841 James David Forbes, professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, came to see the Matterhorn. A philosopher and geologist, and an observant traveller, he continued the work of De Saussure in his journeys and his writings. He was full of admiration for the Matterhorn, calling it the most wonderful peak in the Alps, unsealed and unscalable. These words, pronounced by a man noted among all his contemporaries for his thorough knowledge of mountains, show what men's feelings then were towards the Matterhorn, and how at a time when the idea of Alpine exploration was gaining ground in their minds, the Matterhorn stood by itself as a mountain apart, of whose conquest it was vain even to dream. And such it remained till long after this; as such it was described by John Ball twenty years later in his celebrated guide-book. Forbes ascended the Theodul Pass in 1842, climbed the Breithorn, and came down to Breuil; as he descended from the savage scenery of the Matterhorn, the Italian landscapes of the Valtournanche seemed to him like paradise. Meanwhile, Gottlieb Samuel Studer, the geographer, together with Melchior Ulrich, was describing and mapping the topographical features of the Zermatt peaks.

 

Rodolphe Töpffer, who first accompanied and guided youth to the Alps for purposes of education and amusement, began his journeys in 1832, but it is only in 1840 that he mentions the Matterhorn. Two years later Töpffer and his pupils came to Zermatt. He has described this journey of his in a chapter entitled Voyage autour du Mont Blanc jusqu'à Zermatt, here he sings a hymn of praise to the Matterhorn, comparing its form with a "huge crystal of a hundred facets, flashing varied hues, that softly reflects the light, unshaded, from the uttermost depths of the heavens". Töpffer's book was illustrated by Alexandre Calame, his master and friend, with drawings of the Matterhorn, executed in the romantic style of the period. It is an artificial mountain, a picture corresponding rather with the exaggerated effect it produces on the astonished mind of the artist, than with the real form of the mountain.

 

About this time there came a man who studied the Matterhorn in its structure and form, and who sketched it and described it in all its parts with the curiosity of the artist and the insight of the scientist. This was John Ruskin, a new and original type of philosopher and geologist, painter and poet, whom England was enabled to create during that period of radical intellectual reforms, which led the way for the highest development of her civilisation. Ruskin was the Matterhorn's poet par excellence. He went to Zermatt in 1844, and it is to be noticed as a curious fact, that the first time he saw the Matterhorn it did not please him. The mountain on its lofty pedestal in the very heart of the Alps was, perhaps, too far removed from the ideal he had formed of the mountains; but he returned, studied and dreamt for long at its feet, and at length he pronounced it "the most noble cliff in Europe." Ruskin was no mountaineer, nor a great friend to mountaineering; he drew sketches of the mountains merely as an illustration of his teaching of the beauty of natural forms, which was the object of his whole life. In his work on Modern Painters he makes continual use of the mountains as an example of beauty and an incentive to morality. The publication of Ruskin's work certainly produced a great impression at the time on educated people in England, and a widespread desire to see the mountains.

 

It is a fragment of some size; a group of broken walls, one of them overhanging; crowned with a cornice, nodding some hundred and fifty feet over its massive flank, three thousand above its glacier base, and fourteen thousand above the sea, — a wall truly of some majesty, at once the most precipitous and the strongest mass in the whole chain of the Alps, the Mont Cervin.

 

Other men of high attainments followed, but in the years 1850 scientists and artists were about to be succeeded by real climbers and the passes and peaks around Zermatt were explored little by little. In the preface to the first volume of the Alpine Journal, which appeared in 1863, the editor Hereford Brooke George wrote that: "While even if all other objects of interest in Switzerland should be exhausted, the Matterhorn remains (who shall say for how long?) unconquered and apparently invincible." Whymper successfully reached the summit in 1865, but four men perished on the descent. The English papers discussed it with bitter words of blame; a German newspaper published an article in which Whymper was accused of cutting the rope between Douglas and Taugwalder, at the critical moment, to save his own life.

 

In 1890 the Federal Government was asked simultaneously by the same contractor for a concession for the Zermatt-Gornergrat railway, and for a Zermatt-Matterhorn one. The Gornergrat railway was constructed in 1896-1898 and has been working since August 1898, but there has been no more talk of the other. The project essentially consisted of a line which went up to the Hörnli, and continued thence in a rectilinear tunnel about two kilometres long, built under the ridge, and issuing near the summit on the Zmutt side. Sixty years later in 1950, Italian engineer Count Dino Lora Totino planned a cable car on the Italian side from Breuil-Cervinia to the summit. But the Alpine Museum of Zermatt sent a protest letter with 90,000 signatures to the Italian government. The latter declared the Matterhorn a natural wonder worthy of protection and refused the concession to the engineer.

 

2015 marked the 150th anniversary of the first ascent. Events and festivities were held throughout the year. A completely renewed Hörnli Hut opened the same year in the month of July.

 

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, light artist Gerry Hofstetter started projecting country flags and messages of endurance onto the mountain peak as part of a nightly series designed to show support and spread hope for everyone suffering and those fighting the pandemic.

 

Other mountains

 

Hundreds of other mountains have been compared with the Matterhorn, either for their resemblance to it or because of their apparent inaccessibility.

 

Mountains named after the Matterhorn

Little Matterhorn (1,480 m), Australia

Matterhorn (1,600 m), in Antarctica

Matterhorn (3,305 m), in Nevada

Matterhorn Peak (3,744 m), in California

Matterhorn Peak (4,144 m), in Colorado

Matterhorn Peak (2,636 m), in British Columbia

Neny Matterhorn (1,125 m), Antarctica

 

In culture

 

During the 20th century, the Matterhorn and the story of the first ascent in particular, inspired various artists and film producers such as Luis Trenker and Walt Disney. Large-scale replicas can be found at Disneyland and Window of the World. In 2021, a Matterhorn-related attraction opened in the Swiss Museum of Transport, enabling visitors to climb it virtually from the Solvay Hut to the summit.

 

Designed in 1908 by Emil Cardinaux, a leading poster artist of the time, the Matterhorn poster for the Zermatt tourist office is often considered the first modern poster. It has been described as a striking example of a marriage of tourism, patriotism and popular art. It served as decoration in many Swiss military hospices during the war in addition to be found in countless middle-class living rooms. Another affiche depicting the Matterhorn was created by Cardinaux for the chocolate brand Toblerone in the 1920s. The image of the Matterhorn first appeared on Toblerone chocolate bars in 1960. Since then, the Matterhorn has become a reference that still inspires graphic artists today and has been used extensively for all sort of publicity and advertising.

 

Paintings

 

The Matterhorn (1849), John Ruskin

The Matterhorn (1867), Albert Bierstadt

Matterhorn (1879), Edward Theodore Compton

Le Cervin (1892), Félix Vallotton

 

Filmography

 

Struggle for the Matterhorn (1928)

The Mountain Calls (1938)

The Challenge (1938)

Climbing the Matterhorn (1947)

Third Man on the Mountain (1959)

Im Banne des Berges (2015)[90]

Soarin' Around the World/Soaring Over the Horizon (2016)

The Horn (2016) - Documentary series following the mountain rescue teams in the Swiss Alps.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Das Matterhorn (italienisch Monte Cervino oder Cervino, französisch Mont Cervin oder Le Cervin, walliserdeutsch Hore oder Horu) ist mit 4478 m ü. M. einer der höchsten Berge der Alpen. Wegen seiner markanten Gestalt und seiner Besteigungsgeschichte ist das Matterhorn einer der bekanntesten Berge der Welt. Für die Schweiz ist es ein Wahrzeichen und eine der meistfotografierten Touristenattraktionen.

 

Der Berg steht in den Walliser Alpen zwischen Zermatt und Breuil-Cervinia. Ost-, Nord- und Westwand liegen auf schweizerischem, die Südwand auf italienischem Staatsgebiet.

 

Wissenswertes über das Matterhorn vermittelt das Matterhorn Museum in Zermatt.

 

Geschichte des Namens

 

Im Allgemeinen kamen im Gebirge die Bergspitzen erst spät zu ihren Namen, die daruntergelegenen Passübergänge und Alpen jedoch meist früher. So nannte Johannes Schalbetter 1545 den heutigen Theodulpass als «Mons Siluius» (deutsch übersetzt Salasser-berg) oder deutsch Augsttalberg. Mit Augsttal ist dabei das Tal von Aosta (lateinisch Augusta Praetoria Salassorum) gemeint, das Aostatal.

 

«Siluius» wurde dann sehr wahrscheinlich volksetymologisch falsch interpretiert über vermeintlich lateinisch «silvius» und «silvanus» zu französisch und italienisch «Cervin/Cervin(i)». 1581 wurde das Matterhorn erstmals als Mont Cervin erwähnt, wie später Mons Silvanus und Mons Silvius. Im Jahr 1682 nannte Anton Lambien das heutige Matterhorn Matter Dioldin h[orn] (Matterhornspitze) zur Abgrenzung vom gleichnamigen Pass, der bis Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts (beispielsweise auf der Dufourkarte) noch «Matterjoch» genannt wurde.

 

In der Lokalbevölkerung wird der Berg auch einfach ds Hore («das Horn», Zermatter Dialekt) oder ds Horu («das Horn», Oberwalliser Dialekt) genannt.

 

Geologie

 

Das Matterhorn ist ein Karling, und seine charakteristische Form entstand durch Erosion und Gletscherschliff in den Eiszeiten. Das Matterhorn ist Teil der Dent-Blanche-Decke des Unter-Ostalpins, also eines weit nach Westen auf die penninischen Decken der Westalpen aufgeschobenen Trümmerstücks eines ostalpinen Deckgesteins. Die untere Gesteinsschicht des Matterhorns, die bis zur Höhe der Hörnlihütte reicht, ist penninisch, also westalpin. Das im Vergleich dazu kleine Horn selbst sitzt auf dieser Basis auf und gehört zur Dent-Blanche-Decke, und zwar der untere Teil bis zur «Schulter» zur Arolla-Serie aus Orthogneisen und Metagabbros und der oberste Teil zur Valpelline-Serie aus hochmetamorphen Paragneisen der Dent-Blanche-Decke. Einfach ausgedrückt, besteht das Matterhorn aus zwei verschiedenen, schräg aufeinanderliegenden Gesteinspaketen. Der heutige Matterhorngletscher entstand erst wieder im Pessimum der Völkerwanderungszeit nach dem Optimum der Römerzeit.

 

Eine Besonderheit ist die charakteristische «Matterhorn-Wolke». Sie ist ein herausragendes Beispiel für einen Wolkentyp, den Meteorologen als Bannerwolke bezeichnen: Wie eine mächtige Fahne bildet sich die Wolke auf der windabgewandten Seite (Lee-Seite) des Gipfels als fast ständiger Begleiter des Berges. Die plausibelste Erklärung für ihr Entstehen ist die folgende: Das Matterhorn überragt das umgebende Gebirge wie ein Turm, so dass sich an ihm Leewirbel bilden, die feuchte Luft aus dem Tal nach oben führen, wo es zur Kondensation und Wolkenbildung kommt. Ist das Gipfelniveau erreicht, so wird die Wolke von einem waagerechten Ast des Leewirbels erfasst, der zu der typischen Fahnen-Form führt (Leewirbel-Hypothese).

 

Erstbesteigungen

 

Seit 1857 wurden mehrere erfolglose Versuche unternommen, das Matterhorn zu besteigen, zumeist von der italienischen Seite her. 1862 erstieg John Tyndall mit den Führern Johann Josef Benet, Anton Walter, Jean-Jacques und Jean-Antoine Carrel erstmals die Südwestschulter, den heutigen Pic Tyndall. Die Fortsetzung des Aufstiegs entlang des Liongrates erschien ihnen unmöglich.

 

Dem Erstbesteiger des Matterhorns, Edward Whymper, erschien der Liongrat weiterhin als nicht machbar. Insgesamt war er bereits sieben Mal gescheitert und überlebte u. a. einen Sturz über 60 Meter. Whymper versuchte daher, seinen Freund Jean-Antoine Carrel zu einer Besteigung von der Zermatter Seite zu überreden. Carrel beharrte darauf, von Italien her aufzusteigen.

 

Im Juli 1865 erfuhr Whymper zufällig von einem Gastwirt in Breuil-Cervinia, dass Carrel sich – ohne Whymper zu benachrichtigen – wieder zum Liongrat aufgemacht hatte. Whymper fühlte sich getäuscht und eilte nach Zermatt, um dort eine Gruppe für einen sofortigen Versuch über den Hörnligrat zusammenzustellen. Am 14. Juli 1865 gelang der 7er-Seilschaft Whympers die Erstbesteigung. Die Gruppe stieg über den Hörnligrat auf die Schulter; weiter oben, im Bereich der heutigen Fixseile, wich sie in die Nordwand aus. Edward Whymper erreichte als erster den Gipfel, weil er sich vor dem Gipfel vom Seil losschnitt und vorauslief. Ihm folgten der Bergführer Michel Croz (aus Chamonix), Reverend Charles Hudson, Lord Francis Douglas, D. Robert Hadow (alle aus England) sowie die Zermatter Bergführer Peter Taugwalder Vater und Peter Taugwalder Sohn. Sie sahen Carrel und seine Gruppe weit unterhalb am Pic Tyndall.

Beim Abstieg der Erstbesteiger stürzten die vorderen vier der Seilschaft (Croz, Hadow, Hudson und Douglas) noch oberhalb der «Schulter» über die Nordwand tödlich ab. Josef Marie Lochmatter brach ab dem 15. Juli 1865 mehrmals mit Rettungsmannschaften auf, um den vier Abgestürzten Erste Hilfe zu leisten. Am 19. Juli barg ein Bergungstrupp die Leichen von Croz, Hadow und Hudson auf dem Matterhorngletscher. Douglas' Leiche wurde nie gefunden.

 

Am 17. Juli gelang auch Carrel zusammen mit Jean-Baptiste Bich und Amé Gorret der Aufstieg über den Liongrat bis zum Gipfel. Die drei traversierten vom Nordende der italienischen Schulter durch die oberste Westwand auf den Zmuttgrat (sog. Galleria Carrel) und schlossen die Besteigung über diesen ab.

 

Runde Jahrestage der Erstbesteigung des Matterhorns sind feierlich begangen worden. So zeigte das Schweizer Fernsehen zum 100. Jahrestag am 14. Juli 1965 eine internationale Live-Sendung einer Matterhornbesteigung mit Beteiligung von Berg-Reportern der BBC und der RAI. Am 30. Juni 1965 zeigte das Schweizer Fernsehen den eigens produzierten Dokumentarfilm Bitterer Sieg: Die Matterhorn Story (Regie: Gaudenz Meili). Anlässlich des 150. Jahrestages wurde am 14. Juli 2015 auf dem Bahnhofplatz in Zermatt eine Countdown-Uhr aufgebaut, im Dezember 2014 wurde im Zentrum der Stadt («Matterhorn Plaza») ein Treffpunkt für das Jubiläumsjahr ins Leben gerufen.

 

Am 22. Juli 1871, sechs Jahre nach Whymper, bestieg die britische Alpinistin Lucy Walker als erste Frau das Matterhorn. 1869 hatten Isabella Straton und Emmeline Lewis Lloyd als reine Frauenseilschaft die Besteigung versucht; sie scheiterten kurz vor dem Gipfel. 1871 bestieg auch Anna Voigt aus Frankfurt das Matterhorn; sie war damals eine der ersten Frauen in der Sektion Frankfurt am Main des Deutschen Alpenvereins. Yvette Vaucher (* 1929) ist die erste Frau, die die Nordwand des Matterhorns bestiegen hat.

 

Routen

 

Der am weitaus häufigsten begangene Aufstiegsweg ist der Hörnligrat von Zermatt aus über die Hörnlihütte (Nordostgrat, ZS+). Er stellt den sogenannten Normalweg, also den leichtesten Aufstieg, dar. Auf 4003 Metern Höhe, nordöstlich unterhalb des Gipfels, gibt es als Biwak für Notfälle, wie Wettersturz und Zeitverzug, die von der Hörnlihütte aus betreute Solvayhütte mit zehn Notlagern. Weitere Aufstiegsrouten gibt es am Südwestgrat über den kirchendachartigen Pic Tyndall (auch Liongrat oder Italienerweg genannt, ZS+), am Nordwestgrat (Zmuttgrat, S) und am Südostgrat (Furggengrat, SS, wenig begangen). Auch durch die abweisende Nordwand verläuft eine Aufstiegsroute, die hin und wieder von Spezialisten, z. B. Walter Bonatti, gewählt wird.

 

(Wikipedia)

Huey Lewis

 

I used to be a renegade, I used to fool around

But I couldnt take the punishment, and had to settle down

Now Im playing it real straight, and yes I cut my hair

You might think Im crazy, but I dont even care

Because I can tell whats going on

Its hip to be square

 

I like my bands in business suits, I watch them on tv

Im working out most everyday and watching what I eat

They tell me that its good for me, but I dont even car

I know that its crazy

I know that its nowhere

But there is no denying that

Its hip to be square

 

Its not too hard to figure out, you see it everyday

And those that were the farthest out have gone the other way

You see them on the freeway, it dont look like a lot of fun

But dont you try to fight it; an idea whos time has come.

 

Dont tell me that Im crazy

Dont tell me Im nowhere

Take it from me

Its hip to be square

 

From the outside St Matthew's Church is extraordinarly dull, but step inside and a remarkable world of glass is revealed - and not just any glass, because the church is decorated with masterpieces created by French artist Rene Lalique.

 

Lalique was a neighbour in the South of France of Florence Boot, Lady Trent, the widow of Jesse Boot, founder of the British chemists' chain. Lady Trent's money and Lalique's extraordinary skill with glass were to combine to create a fitting memorial to her late husband, creating unique fixtures and fittings for the church which stands across the road from her principal residence, Villa Millbrook.

 

The glass front doors are a clue, but only a small clue to what lies beyond them, fantastic glass creations started by Lalique between 1932 and 1934, which have made the church famous throughout the world as The Glass Church.

 

Opalescent panels, a magnificent altar cross, a glass font – probably unique – the Jersey lily motif, and wonderful Art Deco angels make the church a peerless treasure.

 

The oak pews, pulpit and lectern, were created by Jersey architect A B Grayson.

 

History

From the church website St Matthew’s started life in the 1840s as a modest chapel of ease, built at the foot of Mont Felard to spare parishioners the long uphill trek to the ancient Parish Church of St Lawrence. Over the next century the hamlet of Millbrook flourished, from the coming of the Jersey Railway to the age when seaplanes landed in St Aubin’s Bay.

 

A generous gift changed everything. Millbrook resident Florence Boot decided to honour her late husband Jesse, the founder of Boots the Chemist, by rebuilding the church in his memory. Alongside St Matthew’s, she gifted the beautiful Coronation Park to the people of Jersey. She conjured the talents of René Lalique, artisan extraordinaire and the foremost glassmaker of the age, to decorate the entire church with his finest work. No similar Lalique commission survives anywhere else in the world.

 

In September 1934, St Matthew’s became the Glass Church. Two frosted glass angels set in the double doors welcome visitors to this astonishing work of art. The centrepiece is a shining, towering cross over three metres high, festooned with lilies and soaring over the altar. It is flanked by twin illuminated pillars and framed by four glass screens that shimmer like a wall of ice.

 

In the Lady Chapel, four immense crystalline angels, illuminated as if by heavenly fire, survey the worshippers. Their eyes are clear and wide, seemingly transfixed by the light that shines in the darkness, calling them home. The font is a marvel, forged in pure glass and autographed by Lalique himself. The iconic Jersey lily, a motif of purity, adorns everything. The subdued stonework of local architect A.B. Grayson beautifully complements Lalique’s work, providing an exquisitely pure canvas to magnify the power of light.

 

“Lalique’s glass has the ethereal brilliance of Arctic ice”, wrote a contemporary critic. This verdict still holds true 80 years after the miracle of Millbrook was first bequeathed to the people of Jersey.

 

René Jules Lalique (6 April 1860 – 1 May 1945) was a French jeweller, medallist, and glass designer known for his creations of glass art, perfume bottles, vases, jewellery, chandeliers, clocks, and automobile hood ornaments.

 

Life

Lalique's early life was spent learning the methods of design and art he would use in his later life. At the age of two, his family moved to the suburbs of Paris, but traveled to Aÿ for summer holidays. These trips influenced Lalique later on in his naturalistic glasswork. With the death of his father, Lalique began working as an apprentice to goldsmith Louis Aucoc in Paris. Lalique died on 1 May or 5 May 1945, in Paris. René Lalique was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, France. His daughter Suzanne Lalique was the painter and set designer for the Comédie-Française. His granddaughter, Marie Claude-Lalique (b. 1936), was also a glass maker. She died on 14 April 2003 in Fort Myers, Florida.

 

Education

In 1872, when he was twelve, he entered the Collège Turgot, where he started drawing and sketching. He attended evening classes at the Ecole des arts décoratifs. He worked there from 1874 to 1876 and subsequently spent two years at the Crystal Palace School of Art Sydenham, London. During that time, he also practised as an apprentice goldsmith to leading Parisian Art Nouveau jeweller and goldsmith Louis Aucoc. At the Sydenham Art College, his skills for graphic design were improved, and his naturalistic approach to art was further developed.

 

In 1876, at 16, René Lalique was apprenticed to the jeweler Louis Aucoc. Aucocy was among the leading jewelers working in Paris at the time, and this provided the young René Lalique with an excellent opportunity to learn jewelry production and design. During this time, Lalique also studied at the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. By 1881, Lalique worked as a freelance designer for several French jewelry firms, including Cartier and Boucheron. In 1886, he started working in his workshop in Paris, in the former workshop of Jules Destape. In 1890, René Lalique opened a jewelry store in the Opéra district of Paris. While working in this new shop, some of René Lalique's most famous jewelry designs were created, as well as his experimentation and use of glass. The main motif of Lalique's jewelry design was the natural world. He was influenced not only by the nature of the French countryside but also by the motifs of Japanese nature art. And he incorporated many materials into his jewelry that were not widely used in high-end jewelry in his time, including glass, horn, pearl, semi-precious stones, enamel, and ivory. He used typical period gemstones only for artistic appearance and not for their value. Therefore, his Lalique jewelry creations were not just holders of precious stones, they were works of art in their own right, creating worldwide interest and great demand.

 

Art Nouveau jewellery designer

When he returned from England, he worked as a freelance artist, designing pieces of jewellery for French jewelers Cartier, Boucheron, and others. In 1885, he opened his own business, designed and made his own jewellery and other glass pieces. After 1895, Lalique also created pieces for Samuel Bing's Paris shop, the Maison de l'Art Nouveau, which gave Art Nouveau its name. One of Lalique's major patrons was Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian, who commissioned more than 140 of his works over nearly 30 years.

 

Glass maker

Lalique was best known for his creations in glass art.[5] In the 1920s, he became noted for his work in the Art Deco style. He was responsible for the walls of lighted glass and elegant coloured glass columns which filled the dining room and "grand salon" of the SS Normandie and the interior fittings, cross, screens, reredos and font of St. Matthew's Church at Millbrook in Jersey (Lalique's "Glass Church"). As part of the Art Nouveau style, many of his jewellery pieces and vases showcase plants, flowers and flowing lines.

 

Both unique and commercial works of René Lalique are in the collections of a large number of public museums around the world including the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon, the Lalique Museum of Hakone in Japan, the Musée Lalique and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in France, the Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim in Germany, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum and the Corning Museum in New York State, and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

 

St Lawrence (French: Saint-Laurent; Jèrriais: St Louothains) is one of the twelve parishes of Jersey in the Channel Islands. It is located 8.0 kilometres (5.0 mi) west of St Helier. The parish covers 5,258 vergées (9.5 km2) and occupies the centre of the Island. St Lawrence Village is also the name of a village in the parish.

 

Much of the parish is inland, though it has a short stretch of coastline in St Aubin's Bay. It borders St Peter and St Mary to the west, St John to the north and east, and St Helier to the east.

 

History

As with every Jersey parish, its name derives from the name of its parish church. In this case, the church is dedicated to St Lawrence, who was martyred in Rome in 258 AD. The church was possibly situated on the site of a Celtic monastery from the Dark Age.

 

The Jersey parish system has been in place for centuries. By Norman times, the parish boundaries were firmly fixed and remain largely unchanged since.

 

In 1180 Jersey was divided by the Normans into three ministeria for administrative purposes. St Lawrence was part of de Groceio. De Groceio likely refers to the Jersey family name, de Gruchy.

 

Governance

The parish is a first-level administrative division of the Bailiwick of Jersey, a British Crown dependency. The highest official in the parish is the Connétable of St Lawrence. The incumbent office holder is Deidre Mezbourian, who has held the office since 2008 (previously a Deputy for St Lawrence since 2005). The parish administration is headquartered at the Parish Hall next to the parish church.

 

At present, the parish forms one electoral district for States Assembly elections and elects two Deputies, as well as eight Senators in an islandwide constituency. The current Deputies for St Lawrence are Kristen Morel and Gregory Guida. The Chief Minister, Senator John Le Fondré, was previously a St Lawrence Deputy (2005-2018). Under the proposed electoral reform, it will form part of the Central electoral district consisting of St John, St Lawrence and Trinity, which will collectively elect four representatives alongside the parishes' Connétables.

 

The parish is divided into vingtaines for administrative purposes:

 

La Vingtaine Haut de la Vallée

La Vingtaine Bas de la Vallée

La Vingtaine du Coin Hatain

La Vingtaine du Coin Motier

La Vingtaine du Coin Tourgis Nord

La Vingtaine du Coin Tourgis Sud

All parishes of Jersey, including St Lawrence, have an Honorary Police force.

 

Geography

The parish is mainly rural, but has some significant residential development. The village is in the centre of the parish, forming around the A10 main road, however it does not have a lot of residential development. Most of the development in the parish is in the south of the parish around Le Mont Felard and Bel Royal or in the north of the parish at Six Roads.

 

The parish has a section of Victoria Avenue, the island's main dual carriageway.

 

Demography

The parish has 5,418 residents according to the 2011 census.

 

Historical population

YearPop.±%

19914,561—

19964,773+4.6%

20014,702−1.5%

20115,418+15.2%

Landmarks

 

The arched entrance to Morel Farm, a National Trust for Jersey property in St. Lawrence, bears the date inscription 1666. Along with Hamptonne and Le Rât cottage, it is one of the notable examples of rural architecture in the parish

 

Cidermaking traditions are preserved at Hamptonne using a horse-drawn granite apple crusher and wooden two-screw press

Hamptonne, the Country Life Museum, occupies restored farm buildings in the parish. An apple orchard preserves native Jersey cider apple varieties and the preinseu (cider press house) is the focus of the annual Faîs'sie d'cidre cidermaking festival using traditional equipment and methods. The ITV drama Under the Greenwood Tree was mostly filmed here.

 

The Jersey War Tunnels (previously known as the German Underground Hospital) are a major relic of the engineering works undertaken by the occupying German forces 1940–1945. They also serve as a memorial to the many slave-workers pressed into labouring on such projects during the Second World War.

 

Education

There are two primary schools in the parish. Bel Royal school is in the south and St Lawrence School is in the north.

 

Twin towns

St Lawrence is twinned with:

 

France Barneville-Carteret, Normandy

Notes

Measured from the Parish Hall to the Royal Square

but it's not for the faint of heart!

 

Photography by Bill

But I know what is wrong

And I know what is right

And I'd die for the truth

In my secret life

 

Leonard Cohen

Having been awake for around 32 hours at this point, I had a headache, was knackered but happy to have arrived in Windhoek

This isn't my dog! :)

 

I usually take doll pictures but I wanted to share this picture set as well.

 

On April 20th '08 I visited the CACIB* international dog show in my country Slovenia to take pictures of dogs that participated in the competition. It was a completely spontaneous decision. :) Since the event was held in my hometown I had all the opportunity to check it out by myself. What a great way to have fun with my camera! :) I've never been to a show like this before.

 

Ever since my own beloved Mik (a Collie) passed away a few years ago, I really miss the company, friendship and love of dogs. My heart both sang with joy and ached at the same time when I was taking pictures of them at the show. I have never missed my dog so much... *sigh*

 

Still, it was a fun and exciting afternoon because otherwise I'd never have gotten the chance to see so many dog breeds at the same time! There were so many I just couldn't believe my eyes.

 

if you enjoy looking at pictures of different kinds of dogs, check out the rest of my set! I'll be uploading 40+ of photos.

 

* Certificat d'Aptitude au Championat International de Beauté (French: Certificate of Aptitude for International Champion of Beauty; dog show title)

but the obesity is imported from america.

Tagged by various (BUT BUGGED BY LAURAS OUO <3

1. What sculpt is/was your first doll?

Volks Syo (HYBRID) but I did buy him around the same time as my old Abio Angel San. Jangy arrived first.

 

2. Do you still own this doll?

Yas =3= I sold the San though.

 

3. Was your first doll your grail?

I don't think I knew enough about the hobby to really consider him my grail X3

 

4. How long did you have to wait from the moment you decided on the doll to actually buying?

About 3 days 8D?

 

5. Did you buy it or was it a gift?

I bought it but it was with money I was given... so both? 8D

 

6. Why did you choose the doll you did as your first?

Impulse I suppose. I just loved his big squidgy head.

 

7. Did you have a character in mind as soon as you saw the doll or did it develop after arrival?

Oh man, IDEK anymore XD At the time I was really into pixel art and I was constantly pixelling a zillion characters. I guess his design was something I planned before but he didn't have much of a personality back then.

 

8. Do any of your friends own the same sculpt?

No, WHY GUYS? WHY? I think Syo/Shou is really unpopular in general ;_;

 

9. If you could go back and change your decision to buy the doll you did as your first, would you?

Not really

 

10. How did you learn about BJDs?

A friend of mine sent me a photo of Jun and Shiro Tachibana and some custom School A's and that was it. XD OBSESSING EVER SINCE

 

I'm not going to tag anyone cause I think Laura tagged erryones already.... ;_;

I'M SORRY IF YOU DON'T CARE/THIS TOTALLY BORED YOU.ITS LAURA'S FAULT. AND AIN. AIN TAGGED ME TOO

Kayak trip with clients, but also picking rubbish from the sea.

- A festival raincoat, or possibly a medical protection suit.

- What looks like novelty teeth for a whale, patent no 2292936.

more at ablican.blogspot.com

I took today off work, so I could go to the Suffolk Show. But the Suffolk Show was cancelled due to the high winds (evidently a marquee got blown over). So I found myself with some unexpected spare time on my hands. Rather than go home and do all the usual stuff, I thought I'd pop into the Ipswich Art School and have a look at the current exhibition. This piece appealed to me - not sure why, but I like it.

 

The blurb on the sign says:

 

Steve Bishop

Christian Dior - J'adore (Mountain Goat), 2008

Taxidermied goat, concrete, chalk, 170 x 105 x 144 cm (with base)

 

Christian Dior - J'adore (Mountain Goat) is one of a series of three works. Each work is made from a taxidermy animal joined with a concrete perfume bottle shaped figurative form.

 

"I liked that they were a dual image: on one hand it's a bottle, on the other it's a figure. I saw the taxidermy and the concrete bottle as two figures melding into each other, and also as two objects overlapping. Taxidermy is as much of an object as a coffee cup or any other thing. But they were white and there's an idea of purity involved, and when you see the fur matted and embedded in the concrete it's quite jarring."

 

Bishop conceived these three pieces as "containers for something". When joined the taxidermy and concrete combine opposites: soft and hard material, real and designed forms, nature and construction. Embedding one object into another like this he has literally created an "embodiment". Relating the idea that sculpture is both an object and a vessel to the history of the religious worship of idols, where a form both represents and manifests subjects.

 

St Ann and St Laurence, Elmstead, Essex

 

I'd stopped at Great Bromley, one of the grandest of Essex churches and one I love to go back to, but my real goal for the morning was the next church, St Ann and St Laurence, Elmstead, the only church in this part of Essex which I hadn't yet visited. However, in crossing the A120 I knew I was entering locked church territory. Elmstead Market is a grotty little town in the parish of Elmstead, half a mile or so of kebab shops, second hand car lots and sports pubs in outer-Colchester suburbia, but the church is alone beside the Hall a mile to the north along a narrow lane. The A120 drones through a cutting to the north of the church.

 

A squat little thing, the truncated tower forming the south porch with a brief south aisle extending eastwards. The church itself, essentially C14, is covered with a depressing C20 render and its charm lies mainly within says Pevsner, but whether or not this is true I cannot really say. I walked around the church rattling all the doors and peering through the windows - there were box pews, Elizabethan wall texts and what looked like panels of continental glass in the east window of the south aisle. It looked nice, but it was hard to say more. A sign by the huge car park said 'the keys to the church may be obtained from the vicarage' and gave a number, but when I rang the number I was told 'the number you have dialled does not exist - please try again' which always seems a bit daft, as if it might exist if I did try again.

 

I cycled back towards the town, and about halfway there spotted 'Elmstead Vicarage' on a garden gate. I thought I'd try the door of the house, but as I closed the gate behind me, a dog as big as a small cow stepped out of the shadows and watched me interestedly. The man who opened the door had no idea about any key. He'd only moved in this week, he wasn't the vicar, this wasn't the vicarage any more, he had no idea who the churchwardens were. All very depressing. The dog started going a bit loopy at this point, possibly because of my suppressed hysteria, and he had to control it to allow me to escape.

 

Another church being let go as part of the Church of England's managed retreat? I couldn't say. But churches like this really, really shouldn't be allowed to apply for grant aid. By locking out all pilgrims and strangers, all they are doing here is maintaining a rather posh venue for their Sunday club and a cash cow for weddings. They shouldn't be able to use public money to do this - how would it be if I applied to English Heritage for money to redecorate my dining room because I wanted to eat my Sunday lunch in more salubrious surroundings? Pondering this, I pottered on for a pint on the quayside at Wivenhoe.

Welcome to Tuesday.

 

You are welcome to it.

 

And something exciting happening later, but for now, there is the usual, get up, get dressed, drink coffee and be ready for work at seven.

 

Jools wasn't going swimming, so she had a shower then got dressed before heading off just before seven.

 

When we looked out the back of the house, the sky was black with cloud, except for a small band of clear sky just above the trees on the other side of the valley, and in that gap was the blood red sliver of the waning moon.

 

And was then gone.

 

And so with Cleo watching on, I set up the office.

 

I learn that Denmark at two inches of snow and is still very cold. We actually are due to have sunshine, though ten degrees cooler than a week before.

 

Now the interesting bit.

 

At the end of the Deal Road into Dover, is the Duke of York's roundabout with the Duke of York's pub behind it. Why'd they have that name?

 

Well, behind both is the Duke of York's Military School, a huge site stretching from here to Fort Bergoyne, then to Guston. The school was founded here in 1909 and was a place where the children of military personnel were taught while their parents were posted, probably overseas.

 

It is still 100% for boarders, but no longer under the control of the MOD, but has a strong military ethic. I'm not going to judge.

 

Anyway.

 

The project to photograph Kent churches is mainly for parish church, but if I can get to see otheres: RC, Baptist or whatever, I'll take it.

 

Last September, for the first time, The Duke of Yorks Military School took part in Heritage Weekend. Sadly, I found out too late to get on a tour, but I struck up e mail correspondence with the organiser and he agreed that I could come and take shots.

 

Clashes of dates meant that I had to wait two months, but today was the day, and weather full of low winter sunshine. Although shadows inside were very striking.

 

The school was built here when it moved from Chelsea in 1909, designed by Sir Henry Tanner in the "Hampstead Garden Suburb" style. The entire complex is pretty much of all the same date and style, with the exception of two newer academic buildings.

 

Focal point is the large clock tower, which has just been renovated.

 

The chapel has several war memorials dedicated to pupils who gave their lives for their country.

 

I was met at reception after driving round the ring road past the athletics track and several of the boarding houses. I was met by the guy I had been writing to, he guessed I was Ian as I was laden with camera gear.

 

The chapel was on the other side of the road, and is a fine example of early 20th century design, the rest of the school is all of a similar style too.

 

He lets me get on with my task of taking shots, while he tells me some of the history of the school and chapel.

 

It is very well maintained, with a fairly new rood, but the rest is original and very well kept.

 

I took a 100 shots or so, said thanks and was gone, all in under an hour.

 

I went to Tesco to buy unch and came away with: a turkey and stuffing sandwich, a spicy bean wrap and a pack of spicy paprika crisps. Don't shop when you're hungry, kids.

 

Back home for lunch and back to work, where not much had happened.

 

On the tellybox at the same time as working, Saudi beat Argentina 2-1 after being a goal down.

 

Football, eh?

 

And then two dull 0-0 draws, so once work was done, I decided to go out for a walk.

 

Not far, just up and down the four streets in the estate, nearly 6,000 steps.

 

Feeing better.

 

We had warmed through stuffed peppers again for dinner, and were again totes amazeballs.

 

As was the wine.

 

And there was time for one more game to watch as music played on the cat's whiskers.

 

Phew.

 

-----------------------------------------------

 

Last September, for the first time, The Duke of Yorks Military School took part in Heritage Weekend. Sadly, I found out too late to get on a tour, but I struck up e mail correspondence with the organiser and he agreed that I could come and take shots.

 

Clashes of dates meant that I had to wait two months, but today was the day, and weather full of low winter sunshine. Although shadows inside were very striking.

 

The school was built here when it moved from Chelsea in 1909, designed by Sir Henry Tanner in the "Hampstead Garden Suburb" style. The entire complex is pretty much of all the same date and style, with the exception of two newer academic buildings.

 

Focal point is the large clock tower, which has just been renovated.

 

The chapel has several war memorials dedicated to pupils who gave their lives for their country.

 

It should be open again in September 2023 for Heritage Day.

 

--------------------------------------------------

 

In 1801, His Royal Highness Frederick Duke of York laid the foundation stone in Chelsea of what was to become The Duke of York's Royal Military School, a school for the children of military personnel which opened in 1803. Then in 1909, the school relocated to its present site in Dover, Kent and in 2010, we became the first full state boarding academy, opening our doors to any family wishing to choose this unique and iconic school for their child’s secondary education.

 

www.doyrms.com/about-us

I already did this one year ago, but I did change a little so I decided to do it again ;p

 

Random Questions:

_______________________________________

 

Fave color? Orange and Blue.

Biggest dream? I don't really have one, though I think it would be awesome to be able to bend elements.

Lucky or favorite number? 7 and 2.

Celeb crush? Marthe De Pillecyn xD I don't even know if you can call her a celeb, but most Flemish and Dutch people will know her.

Sexuality? Straight. I've already had a girlfriend so I'm pretty sure I'm straight.

If you could meet anyone on earth, who would it be? Marthe De Pillecyn ;D

Middle name? Daniël.. I know it's ugly ;)

Believe in love at the first sight? Not really to be honest.

Allergies? I have an allergy for some kind of glue.

Addiction? F.C. De Kampioenen and Minecraft.

Fave serial killer? I don't really have one, though I do like to watch Horror/Thriller movies.

Birthday? 03/09

Best friends? My ex-girlfriend, two of my friends I met when I was 2, and a friend I met 4 years ago. (All of them are girls, 'cause I always feel like I can tell much more to them. I also have a lot of friends that are guys, but I don't think they're thé friends for the rest of my life)

Fave food? Pizza from Dr. Oetker.

Milkshakes or yoghurt? None.

Cheetos or fritos? Cheetos.

Favorite social media site? Facebook, Flickr and Youtube.

Current mood? Normal.

Age? 13.

Have you ever stolen anything? When I was little, I've stolen some stuff for my dolls.

When did you get your first kiss? I think when I was 4, but I'm not sure. But i did get my first kiss around that age.

What is the weirdest food you like? It depends on what you call weird, though I mostly only like Belgian and Italian food.

Have you ever cheated on somebody? No.

How long have you waited before you took a shower? I take a shower everyday, so i took my last shower yesterday.

Ever been in love with 'just a friend'? Yeah :/ At the moment I'm in love with a girl of my class, but we're just friends... :( :p

How many girls have you dated? Only 1 I think.

What is your favorite movie? The movies of F.C. De Kampioenen, The Conjuring and Interstellar.

Do you remember a lot of your dreams? I only remember my dreams when it was a nightmare.

What do you like about yourself? I'm pretty good in learning languages.

What is your favorite sport? I don't really have one ;p

Do you smoke? Nope.

Do you drink? No, I'm only 13 lol.

Do you like to play video games? Hmm.. I'm not really sure, but I do like to play Minecraft :p

What do you think of Valentine's day? It's a normal day to me.

How do you feel about tattoos? They're okay.

Do you like anyone? Yes ;)

Have you ever broken a bone? Yeah, already 4 times.. :'(

If you could live anywhere, where would it be? I don't know. Belgium is fine for me ;D

What is your biggest regret? I don't really know :p

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I hate that I cry pretty fast.

What was the name of your favorite toy as a kid? Playmobil, Barbie, Winx and Lego. But I'm pretty sure I started liking that girly stuff because my best friends were girls. Because I also really liked to play with toys for guys with my older brother.

What is the name of your favorite sugary cereal? I don't really eat cereal, so i have no idea.

Boxers or Briefs? Boxers.

Do you like cheese? Yep.

Who are you talking to right now? Nobody.

When did you go to sleep last night? I think it was something around 1:30 am.

Do you have armpit hair? No xD

What is your favorite TV show? F.C. De Kampioenen, Avatar The Last Airbender/ The Legend of Korra and Hallo k3.

What is your longest relationship? 5 years.

If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be? I'd like to go to Scandinavia one day.

Favorite song(s)? Can't be tamed by Miley Cyrus, 10.000 Luchtballonnen by K3 and Smoking Gun by Natalia.

What do you want to be when you grow up? I'm not sure yet.

What is the naughtiest thing you've ever done? I don't remember xD

What is your favorite animal? Cats ;D

Would you rather have love or a million dollars? Both lol.

How many kids do you want? 3 or 4.

Do you like messages? Yes haha :D

 

I won't tag anyone. If you'd like to do it again too, you can always do it. You don't need to be tagged :p

But not going anywhere. Yet.

so i broke my camera,

i was taking these pictures - which turned out hideously and i froze to death - when it fell over on it's tripod and into the water.

i grabbed it so quickly it was unreal and nothing was cracked or physically wrong,

but the display on the screen won't show up at all, the lens is steamed and terrible and the shutter is completely broken right now. it's still got water all inside so i have to let it dry out for god knows how long and then it'll still probably be broken so right now i'm not very happy.

the worst parts are i probably can't carry on my 365 because i have no camera and i was pleased with how i was doing so far. i'm going to a concert on saturday night which i was looking forward to taking pictures galore and filming at, and basically my baby albus is possibly dead and i don't know how much it may or may not cost to fix him if i can.

so yep.

fifteen.

The day got away from me, but I knew that my last chance would present itself better if I went out following some evening light. No game plan, but the play was good.

 

95:366

Slight feelings of summer but not quite.

but not fast enough

but i'm not.

Digitalis purpurae aka foxglove.

I have never been a great fan of this whole Facebook thing.

But if it can get me an EIZO, then let's rock and open an account !

 

Please vote for me : apps.facebook.com/contestshq/contests/80235/voteable_entr...

By the mid 80's the mill was all but empty, and the former mill owner moved all the heavy, old cotton mill machinery to the center of the factory's 5th floor.

 

Two decades of water damage later, a hole tore it's way down from the 5th to 2nd floor...with a pile of machinery at the bottom.

 

Theft deterrence was cited as the reason for moving the machinery to the top floor.

 

As per the 2004-2008 apartment renovations, new beams were installed to repair floor. The hole was approximately located just above the pool table in the community room.

Windhoek is a quiet place, but every now and then a performance brings much of the music-loving public in the country together. So you end up with 300 people packed in the diminutive Warehouse Theatre on Tal Street. The venue's name comes from its previous incarnation as a brewery warehouse. The brewery was decomissioned a long ago and the building was divided between the Crafts Centre and the Warehouse Theatre. The Crafts Centre is a hub for businesses marketing local and not-so-local artifacts to visiting tourists and the only decent coffee terrace in Namibia. Amazingly, neither places has much of a web presence, although the Theater maintains a Facebook page, www.facebook.com/WarehouseTheatreWindhoek.

 

The Theater started its February 2013 schedule with a performance by Albert Frost, a South African blues guitar musician. Albert's solo style was quite unlike anything I've seen before in that he would use a guitar to create a loop that he would use as a background for the next guitar, with which he would make an intro and then create another loop, and so on. To the end, each song envolved into a complex performance, but had to work hard for it, too - Windhoek's evenings rarely go below 35C these days and the venue was steaming. Albert can be found online here www.albertfrost.co.za and on Facebook www.facebook.com/pages/Albert-Frost/22944713621.

I saw this man from a distance talking with some other men and I thought: "Wow, he's great, an aged black man, with a pigtail of white hair!". But I was on the phone with my brother and I let him go. Luckily he stopped again few meters later in front of a man recycling and re-painting an old wood table. I came by and I stopped too, without saying anything. I thought it was a hard job to get a picture of him.

 

He said "Hi!". I said "Hi!". He smiled me saying: "We don't have to throw away things, we must recycle them! It's a fortune there are people who throw them away so we can pick them up!". I agreed with my head and a smile but didn't say anything. "What is your name?", I asked after a couple of minutes. "Ban Maharaj", he answered, "I'm a Hindu spiritual father. I belong to the Hare Krishna movement" he added. "It would be nice if I could take a portrait of you", I hazarded. "Why?", he asked. "Now comes the hardest part ...", I thought. "Because I'd like to win my shyness, and since I like photography I'd like to do that using a camera, that helps me to talk with people that I don't know. There there's a project called 100 Strangers and ...". I must have scored a hit because he stopped me saying: "It's enough, you can take the photo", but being a spiritual father used to speak a lot, he added many other things: he's native of Suriname but he's been living in Rome since 38 years, he's a master of Bakhty Yoga and he had to fight against his shyness too when he was younger because he had to speak in front of thousands of people. To do that he had to transcend the materiality of things. I'm not sure I caught the whole concept ...

 

Before going away he asked me if I had family: I answered I was going to pick up the kids at school, so he said: "You're a good father", and blessed me.

 

Thanks a lot Ban Maharaj for participating in my project! It's been touching to talk with you!

 

This picture is #37 in my 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page

 

i know, i know... another photo of yourself... but this one is ok because you can see my new tattoo

But wait! They had to draw blood a second time. Check out www.flickr.com/photos/chrisandbabs/4292302383/in/set-7215...

Unbelievable but true: A Tuk-Tuk-Line is part of the Zurich Transport Network!

Due to track construction, a part of the tram line 13 is out of order from July 2012 to August 2012. In this time Electro-Tuk-Tuks are connecting the Meierhofplatz with the Winzerstrasse stop in Zurich Höngg.

 

Unglaublich aber wahr: Wegen einer Gleisbaustelle ist ein Teil der Tramlinie 13 in den Monaten Juli und August 2012 ausser Betrieb. Während dieser Zeit verkehrt zwischen den Haltestellen Meierhofplatz und Winzerstrasse ein Ersatzbetrieb mit Elektro-Tuk-Tuks. Eine wirklich aussergewöhnliche Lösung des Zürcher Verkehrsverbundes!

 

Further pictures: www.flickr.com/photos/hrs51/sets/72157630882209406/with/7...

BudgetsAreSexy.com

 

A cool five dollar bill with red labeling! I wish I could say I found this randomly through getting cash back, but I'll admit I cheated and bought this for $12.50 ;) It sure looks good in my currency collection though!

 

(colored and cropped using Instagram)

but nothing beats beer with lobsters on a hot day

The Chair

See that thing over there? That, my friend, is a chair.

 

It might be made out of wood. It has four legs like it should.

It is there for moments such you don’t feel like standing very much.

 

At the table while you eat use your chair to take a seat!

At the office working fast your chair is there to make your feet last.

 

While at school learning stuff your chair will keep you comfortable enough.

 

But the best thing about a chair it’s made to hold your derriere.

 

Birdtown Comics – Birdtown2020.blogspot.com

 

TAKEN at Colleton County Courthouse. Walterboro, SC

Presented by: Michael Coppel

 

Special Guest: Lady GaGa

 

Teasing and tantalizing Australia with brief but dazzling appearances in Sydney and Melbourne last month, global pop superstars Pussycat Dolls will bring their Doll Domination Tour to Australia in May 2009!

 

Hot on the heels of their second album release Doll Domination (Universal), Pussycat Dolls kick off their 2009 world tour in the UK before heading down under to play all-ages arena shows featuring the same spectacular production that Europe will see in February.

 

There has been no escape from the super catchy Platinum hit When I Grow Up, the first single lifted from Doll Domination, quickly followed by the top 10 hit I Hate This Part.

 

Joining the bill is Lady GaGa.

 

Performing intimate, exclusive club shows in Melbourne and Sydney last September, singer, songwriter, musician Lady GaGa thrilled fans lucky enough to attend! Showcasing her Top 10 album The Fame, the debut release now boasts two infectious Number 1 singles - Just Dance, and Poker Face which is currently residing at the top of the ARIA Singles Chart.

 

Don’t miss Pussycat Dolls - Nicole, Ashley, Jessica, Melody, and Kimberly - and Lady GaGa live!

 

TOUR DATES:*

Tue 19 May - Brisbane Entertainment Centre

Fri 22 & Sat 23 May - Acer Arena, Sydney

Tue 26 & Wed 27 May - Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne

Thu 28 May - Adelaide Entertainment Centre

Sat 30 May - Burswood Dome, Perth

  

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. -- Second Continental Congress, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, July 4, 1776.

 

Sadly it seems to me that a huge number of people don't understand the concept of freedom. You see, Freedom is not exclusive, it is inclusive. Your Freedom ends where mine begins and vice versa, but so many people seem to think theirs doesn't end, only mine. I have to wonder, just how many Independence Days are left for the U.S.A.

Not really, but drama pays off for some.

 

I really really love how these Zenzanons flare.

 

Glutin.

  

Bronica SQ-A, Zenzanon 50mm f/3.5 PS, Kodak Portra 400NC.

9/366 - Happiness

 

It is not the place, nor the condition, but the mind alone that can make anyone happy or miserable. -- Roger L'Estrange

 

Happiness is not in our circumstance but in ourselves. It is not something we see, like a rainbow, or feel, like the heat of a fire. Happiness is something we are. -- John B. Sheerin

  

Doesn't this turtle seem so happy, just basking in the sun? Here he is, all alone, without an apparent care in the world. He isn't just hanging out. He seems to be actually saluting the sun and smiling.

 

Oh, to be happy as a turtle!!

 

What do most people want for their lives? To be happy. They chase after one thing or the next, certain that once they catch up to it, happiness will be waiting for them. Only, over time, they realize that they have been chasing ghosts or looking for a pot at the end of the rainbow, only to find corn flakes.

 

Or, they are so focused on wanting a better life, (a better log to stand on or maybe more turtle friends to hang out with) that they don't even notice the sun. They obsess over what needs to be fixed and end up falling into the cold water, becoming more miserable every second.

 

What most people fail to understand is that happiness is not a place. You can't buy it. Or catch it. You must become it. You must choose to be content with the life you have today. You must appreciate the here and now. You must accept that happiness comes from within--from yourself--and not from anything outwardly.

 

It's OK to have good days and bad days. Ambition is encouraged. But you must not wait to be happy until all of the variables are perfect. Otherwise, you will find that you have wasted the moments that could have been happy. You will have wasted the opportunity to spread your happiness and allow your happiness to infect others.

 

Remember the turtle. Be happy now. What are you waiting for?

www.redcarpetreportv.com

 

Mingle Media TV and our Red Carpet Report host, Rachel Greninger, were invited to come out to the DIRECTV & Endemol Shine Studios’ KINGDOM Season Two Premiere Event at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood.

 

For video interviews and other Red Carpet Report coverage, please visit www.redcarpetreporttv.com and follow us on Twitter and Facebook at:

twitter.com/TheRedCarpetTV

www.facebook.com/RedCarpetReportTV

www.youtube.com/MingleMediaTVNetwork

About DirecTV’s New Series Kingdom from Endemol Studios

Kingdom stars Frank Grillo (Captain America: The Winter Soldier; The Purge: Anarchy; Warrior) as Alvey Kulina, a Mixed Martial Arts legend and owner of Navy St. MMA gym based in Venice, CA; Kiele Sanchez (The Glades; Lost) as Lisa Prince, Alvey’s girlfriend; Matt Lauria (Friday Night Lights) as Ryan “The Destroyer” Wheeler, the world-class athlete who had it all, including Lisa Prince, until his spiraling drug addiction landed him in prison; Jonathan Tucker (Parenthood) as Jay Kulina, Alvey’s eldest son; Nick Jonas as Nate Kulina, Alvey’s youngest son and the prized fighter at the gym; Joanna Going (House of Cards; Mad Men) as Christina Kulina, Alvey’s estranged wife and mother to Jay and Nate and Natalie Martinez (Secrets and Lies), as Alicia Mendez, an impulsive but skilled female fighter who is training at Navy St. MMA Gym.

 

“Kingdom” premieres Wednesday, October 14th at 9pm ET/PT on DIRECTV’s Audience Network. For more info visit www.facebook.com/KingdomDIRECTV or watch on Channel 239, Directv’s Audience channel.

 

For more of Mingle Media TV’s Red Carpet Report coverage, please visit our website and follow us on Twitter and Facebook here:

www.facebook.com/minglemediatvnetwork

www.flickr.com/MingleMediaTVNetwork

www.twitter.com/minglemediatv

Follow our host, Rachel on Twitter at twitter.com/RachelOnTV

but still observing

But i'm coming to relize that maybe the reason that I change so much is because i'm trying to drop what is and run away. Yes, it makes me feel weak. But I can't help but feel free.

Pomegranetes are tasty but didn't get as red before starting to split, or as large. I think the rain was a bit too much for them this year. I just looked at the new flickr changes. When I looked a couple of days ago I had lots to vote on that I didn't like. I like it quite a bit now. The photos look even better than the last changes though I will have to get used to not having to scroll as much.