9/52 - Having a voice yet feeling compressed to not use it. This was last weeks 52 and it was a busy weeks! I think this photo is pretty self explanatory!

Canyonlands National Park, Utah

Thassos White Marble

The word Thassos White Marble came into existence from the name of Thassos Island in North Greece which is the main place since ancient times from where marble is being excavated.It is a natural rock which is made up of small crystals and is strong, bright, sparkling and crystal snow white in color. It is mainly exported to the whole of Asia and Europe. It is used for a variety of purposes including decoration, sculpting, flooring, building and construction of various monuments. FHL Group Marble Company in Greece- has made use of Thassos Marble in many of its big projects such as Tashkent Conference Hall, Tbilisi Sameba Cathedral and Mecca and Medina.

Thassos White Marble is available in different qualities which include- Thassos A1, Thassos A2, Thassos A3, Thassos Extra and Thassos Commercial. Thassos White Marble is unique in its appearance and color, its trade mark is long lasting and has worldwide recognition. It has different properties which make its use advantageous in many ways-some of them are:

•White Marble Reflectance

•Countries which have high temperatures find this marble very useful due to its low heat absorbing quality

•The consideration of the white color of the Thassos White Marble as holy in Islam

•Floor covered with cold temperature useful for religious purposes

It is also made use by rich countries such as Russia, Japan and USA as it is famous for its exclusiveness which can also be used in hotels and other complexes such as reception area, big entrances, carpet floorings, staircase, etc.There are different shapes in which Thassos White Marble is available for use. One of them is Hexagon Tile-this can be used for various kinds of exterior and interior projects and construction such as flooring of bathrooms, dining hall, area surrounding the shower, pool area, corridor and terrace, etc.Another shape can be Penny Round Tile. These 2 types of tiles-Hexagon Tile and Penny Round Tile are available in any size or diameter and can be used in various combinations in different construction works. The Hexagon and the Penny Pound Tile are somewhat similar in shape and when used in combinations can make the newly built things look attractive.

A Republic YF-105B Thunderchief (54-0102) in the process of being refurbished at Battleship Memorial Park near Mobile, Alabama.

From the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park Facebook page:

The Republic F-105 Thunderchief entered active service with the US Air Force on 27 May 1958. It served extensively in the Vietnam War. The example at Battleship Memorial Park is special, however. It is YF-105B-1-RE, her tail number is 54-0102. What does this mean? Our Thunderchief is the oldest in existence, the fifth built, and the first F-105 demonstrated to the American public. The YF prefix in YF-105 prefix means it is a pre-production prototype fighter aircraft. This airframe is currently undergoing repairs and restoration.

mE

Montebello Castle is located in Bellinzona . Its previous names were "Small Castle", "New Castle" and "Middle Castle" from the 14th to 1506 , then Schwyz Castle until 1818 and finally St. Martin's Castle. The medieval complex of which it is part, which includes Castelgrande , Sasso Corbaro and the walls that connect them, has been part of the UNESCO world heritage site since 2000 . Today it houses the Archeology and History of the Origins of the City section of the Civic Museum.

The construction of the castle, the second oldest in Bellinzona, probably dates back to the 13th century , when it was built by the Rusca family , lordship of Como , who took refuge there during the Milanese occupation, on a rock overlooking the oldest part of the city . However, the first mention dates back to 1313 , when its existence was indirectly reported. At the time, however, only the trapezoid-shaped keep , two courtyards and some houses existed in the castle . In the 14th century the Ghibelline battlements were built, which underwent a further expansion between 1462 and 1490 , when new walls were built with round or polygonal towers with the opening facing inwards. During the same intervention, the ravelin , a second ditch and a patrol walkway into which some machicolations opened were built .

Close to the oldest moat there is a parapet and a pentagon-shaped tower which marks the beginning of the walls, which surround it to the south, north-west and in the part that separates it from the village.

In the 17th century, an oratory dedicated to San Michele was added to the existing structures, which in 1934 was renovated by Giuseppe Weith. In the 20th century , moreover, the castle underwent important interventions: the original keep was completed and between 1902 and 1910 it was consolidated by a commission led by Eugen Probst. The last intervention dates back to 1974 , when a suspended steel structure was built to house the civic museum.

Bellinzona is a Swiss municipality in the Canton of Ticino , of which it is the capital city , as well as the capital of the district of the same name ; has 45,897 inhabitants, while the agglomeration and district have over 54,900 inhabitants .

The city is crossed from the north and west by the Ticino river.

In 2017, 11 former municipalities of the district ( Camorino , Giubiasco , Gnosca , Gorduno , Gudo , Moleno , Monte Carasso , Pianezzo , Preonzo , Sant'Antonio , Sementina ) and Claro (formerly the Riviera district ) were merged into the municipality of Bellinzona . The population of the municipality in 2017 therefore increased from approximately 18,000 to over 45,000 inhabitants, and the surface area from 19 km² to almost 165 km².

The history of the city begins with the codification of some archaeological excavations in the court of Castelgrande, in the 1980s , which confirm the presence of a Neolithic village among the oldest in Switzerland and originally dating back to the second half of the 6th millennium BC. In the second half of the 5th millennium BC , as archaeological remains prove, the Neolithic settlement was part of the culture of square-mouthed vases , present uniformly throughout northern Italy. Some recent archaeological finds from the Bronze Age in the Claro district, walls and menhirs , dating back to 2300-2500 BC, belonging to a probable place of worship or burial, have confirmed the presence of settled populations in the district since the Neolithic.

Since the area is located at the entrance to the valleys that lead to the main Alpine passes: Lucomagno , San Bernardino , Passo San Jorio , Greina and the San Gottardo pass it has always attracted the military and strategic interests of the various populations that have succeeded, in sequence, since ancient times: Neolithic peoples , Canegrate culture , Golasecca culture ( Leponzi and Insubri) and Romans .

During the excavations conducted by Werner Meyer in 1967 , the remains of the ancient city walls built by the Romans were uncovered, the origin of that Castrum Bilitio dating back to the mid- 4th century .

The ancient Latin name Bilitio has never been found or cited in any historical document from the Roman era and there are not even specific sources on the Celtic and pre-Roman populations present in the area, as demonstrated by the various necropolises that have emerged in the area, even in recent times and which have allowed us to improve knowledge of the pre-Roman civilizations that colonized and inhabited the area. The first necropolis discovered at the beginning of the 20th century in the Giubiasco district represents a sort of Rosetta Stone for the archeology and history of Bellinzona and the entire region; for the size of the necropolis, with its 557 confirmed burials, and for the importance of the finds found which overlap several eras, from the Bronze Age , Iron Age , La Tène culture and Roman times . In 1969, during an excavation in the Roman necropolis of Carasso , a bronze digital ring was found, the bezel of which was engraved with the Christian monogram . This type of ring represents one of the oldest testimonies of Christianity in the Canton of Ticino and therefore attests to the presence of the first Christians in Bellinzona, and in the region, at least from the 4th century AD. From the same historical period is the coin with the effigy of the emperor Constantine found in the excavations conducted in 1986, in the churchyard of the nearby Sant'Antonino.

If to see Bilitio mentioned in historical sources we had to wait until the Middle Ages with the famous comment by Gregory of Tours , the Campi Canini, near Bellinzona, have on the other hand been mentioned since Roman times, as the scene of countless documented battles already starting from 355 AD and therefore in archaeological correspondence with the Roman city wall built and found to the south of the city fortress, probably belonging to a Roman castrum . In that year, Emperor Constantius II , son of Constantine the Great , personally headed a military expedition to the borders of Rhaetia against the Lentienses , a population of Alemannic lineage that threatened the borders; as documented by the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus. Ammianus, in fact, quotes:

Bishop Sidonio Apollinare then provides indications on the very origin of the name and partially circumscribes their position. Much later, in the 17th century , the geographer and humanist Cluverio would propose the historical episode again in his "Italia Antiqua, cum Sicilia, Sardinia & Corsica":

" They (the Alemanni), through Switzerland and the St. Gotthard pass, passed the Alps and descended onto the Italian side and reached the Campi Canini ". In this case Cluverio cites the San Gottardo Pass as a passage towards the south of the Alemanni, even if the aforementioned pass was "officially" opened to the passage of goods only in the 13th century, it is possible that, already in Roman times , it could have been crossed by a relatively small armed contingent. His predecessor, Sidonius Apollinaris, cited the steps of Rhaetia as the path taken by the Alemanni.

In this tumultuous and eventful era, Bellinzona found itself at the center of military and commercial interests, it was contested first by the powerful city states of northern Italy and, later, also by the confederates and the kingdom of France; all seeking hegemony and control of the central Alpine passes, fundamental connecting arteries to and from the rich trade managed by the Duchy of Milan. Duchy which will trace, in the late Middle Ages, historically and architecturally, the distinctive features of Bellinzona, still visible today in various military, religious and civil works, with the three fortresses and the imposing walls recognized as a UNESCO heritage site in 2000. The banner of the City, with the Visconti snake, in turn, takes up the ducal origins of medieval Bellinzona.

In the High Middle Ages , the Gothic and Byzantine transition , which followed the fall of the Western Roman Empire, left no archaeological traces and much less written texts, despite the Ostrogoths and, later, the Roman Empire from the east had concentrated their forces and controls through the southern Alpine defensive system inherited from the Romans, of which Bellinzona and the Canine fields were part. So we will have to wait for the arrival of the Lombards and the dispute with the Franks to have the first historical reference on Bellinzona. The fortress "ad Bilitionem" is in fact mentioned, for the first time, in a well-known passage by Gregory of Tours in his Historia Francorum , which describes the descent, in 590 AD, of the Franks descending from Lukmanier and at war against the Lombards barricaded in the fortress of Bellinzona. Gregory precisely, after naming Milan, in describing the place where the Frankish fighter Olon was killed wrote:

"Olo autem dux ad Bilitionem huius urbis castrum, in campis situm Caninis, inportunae accessens, iaculo sub papilla sauciatus, cecidit et mortuus est"

"in fact the commander Olo, imprudently pushed under the castle of Bellinzona, in the Campi Canini, was wounded and died"

Gregory therefore qualified Bellinzona as a fortress belonging to the city of Sant'Ambrogio.

The archaeological excavations of Castelgrande have found traces of a fire on the ancient walls, dating back to the 8th century / 9th century , precisely in correspondence with the period in which the Franks definitively ousted the Lombards from the peninsula (774 AD).

After the death of Charlemagne (814 AD) and his son Louis the Pious (840 AD), the Frankish Carolingian empire experienced a long period of upheavals, divisions and struggles for power. Between 1002 and 1004 the Germanic rulers successors of Charlemagne, Arduin of Ivrea , crowned King of Italy in 1002, but more probably his contender Henry II the Holy , more inclined to the consolidation of the imperial ecclesiastical system through l Como's ally, compared to the rebel Milan, took away from the latter and ceded to the bishop of Como the entire Bellinzona district (territory delimited to the north by Preonzo and Castione to the south by Gudo and Sant'Antonino ).

To outline the history and origins of a place, particularly in antiquity and the early Middle Ages, reference is often made to places of worship. The original Parish Church of Bellinzona was probably located inside the Court of Castelgrande, where the remains of a medieval Christian cemetery were found during the archaeological excavations of 1967 . The first transcription on stone that speaks of a place of worship in Bellinzona, already named after Saint Peter , Patron Saint of the City, dates back to 1168 , even if the Christian presence in Bellinzona was already attested in Roman times (4th century AD) .

In 1176, still under the Como countryside, during the Italian campaign, the army led by the German Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Frederick I known as Barbarossa , of whom Como and therefore Bellinzona were faithful allies, he stationed himself for a certain period, resting his troops and waiting for reinforcements, within the walls of the fortress of Bellinzona. The final offensive against the Lombard league then started from here , which ended with the defeat of the imperial army in the famous battle of Legnano; thus putting an end to Frederick I's dreams of glory, military conquest and hegemony over northern Italy.

Consequently to the variable alliances and geopolitical strategies of the period, between 1242 and 1249 there will be the brief reconquest of Bellinzona by the Milanese who saw in the front row, alongside the Chapter of the Cathedral of Milan and Henry III the Black , the troops of Enrico De Sacco lord of Mesolcina and the mayor of Locarno Simone Orelli who, together, will remove Bellinzona from the control of Como and the imperial power of Frederick II (Barbarossa's nephew). The Chapter then appointed Simone Orelli and Enrico De Sacco as captains of the castle and county of Bellinzona until 12 July 1249, when peace was stipulated with Como and Bellinzona would once again return under the aegis of the Como city. Bellinzona will permanently enter the Milanese and Visconti orbit starting from the 14th century . In 1340, in fact, after a two-month siege, the Milanese army of Luchino Visconti (lord of Milan) , forced the surrender of the diehard Rusca di Como (builders of the Montebello Castle) and their loyalists, barricaded inside the walls of what , after the fall of Como and Locarno, represented their last bastion. From the Bellinzona bastion the Viscontis will therefore control the important San Gottardo Pass , recently made passable for goods, and all the main passes then passable. The three stupendous castles , the very symbol of the city and its imposing city walls, date back to this period, first under the Comasco dominion of the Rusca and then the Visconti family, between the 14th and 15th centuries . Important palaces, city walls, homes and tombs of the period continue to resurface in the meantime in some areas recognized for their archaeological importance, such as in the Palasio area in the Giubiasco district, confirming how the region represented an important commercial crossroads , religious and strategic also of the late Middle Ages.

In this tumultuous era, the rough Swiss mountaineers attempted several times to undermine the Visconti power of Bellinzona and to take possession of the city and manors to control the transit routes south of the Alpine passes. They succeeded in 1419 , not by force. of the arms, but with the purchase of the castles of Bellinzona from the Lords De Sacco [82] , who had come into possession of them again in 1403, taking advantage of the turbulent period in the Duchy following the death of Gian Galeazzo Visconti. It was therefore the last Duke of the dynasty, Filippo Maria Visconti , son of Gian Galeazzo who, having taken power upon the death of his brother Giovanni Maria Visconti and felt threatened by this Swiss expansion towards the south, after having attempted in vain the diplomatic and economic path, in spring of 1422 he placed the commander Francesco Bussone , Count of Carmagnola , at the head of an army of 16,000 soldiers and decided to wage battle to reconquer Bellinzona and the neighboring valleys of Riviera, Leventina and Blenio. The Swiss attempted a reaction by placing the castles under siege again but the battle of Arbedo , fought on 30 June 1422, once again at the Campi Canini, and the harsh defeat of the confederates, sanctioned the definitive reconquest of Bellinzona by the Duchy Milanese at least until the end of the Middle Ages.

Skirmishes and clashes between the duchy and the confederates were repeated during the century and the armies faced each other again in 1449 in the battle of Castione , in which the Swiss had to quickly retreat towards the Mesolcina to avoid the massacre and, again, in 1478 with the 2-week siege of Bellinzona with looting and devastation in the surroundings of the fortress. The confederate army, probably mindful of what happened in 1422 at the hands of Carmagnola and in 1449 with the battle of Castione, as well as due to the adverse weather conditions of that cold December of 1478, retreated further when the Milanese reinforcement armies arrived. Gotthard. A small garrison of confederates and Leventina remained to follow the maneuvers of the enemy, who in the meantime decided to continue the expedition towards the nearby Riviera and the Leventina . On 28 December , with the ducal army in difficulty in the narrow frozen valleys crossed by the Ticino river, the small Swiss contingent began to attack from above with stones and logs, sending the ducals to rout and giving life to what is still today known as the battle of the large stones of Giornico [85] . Since then the Duchy decided to further strengthen the defenses of Bellinzona with the construction of the Castle of Sasso Corbaro and a new city wall that connected it to the Castle of Montebello and Castelgrande , preventing the bypassing of the fortified village upstream and which was followed by the construction of the famous Torretta bridge , inaugurated in 1489 by Ludovico il Moro himself and considered the most beautiful Lombard bridge of the time.

A few more decades and history would have experienced a fundamental turning point, with extraordinary events for global macro-history and the history of Bellinzona; the Middle Ages were coming to an end.

At the dawn of the modern age, in the midst of the Renaissance, Bellinzona was mentioned and even represented iconographically by one of the main geniuses of humanity: In the 16th century , describing the road and pass of San Jorio, Leonardo da Vinci in his Codex Atlanticus made it a I mention: " ... the mountains of Lecco and Gravidonia, towards Bellinzona ... ", leaving the suspicion that he may have traveled there and perhaps arrived there in passing. A further mention in the Atlantic Code refers to the Crenone landslide, the resulting damming and the subsequent birth of Lake Malvaglia (ca. 1513) which, when the natural dam collapsed on 22 May 1515, caused that known catastrophic event like the buzza of Biasca. The catastrophe, with its 600 deaths and the destruction of the Torretta Bridge, so impressed the people of the time and the "media" echo was such that it went beyond regional borders and reached the European courts. It was probably Leonardo da Vinci who represented the first iconography of the event in his Windsor Codex.

Alberto Vignati, a military cartographer from Lodi [88] [89] at the beginning of the sixteenth century confirmed " the distance of 16 miles between Dunc and Berinzona, the pass can also be accessed from Gravadona , the number of horses that can be accommodated in each intermediate station and the intervening distances ."

In 1499 , following the complex political-military events of the Duchy of Milan , Bellinzona first fell prey to the French and shortly thereafter into the hands of the Swiss . In fact, in that September at the end of the century, the King of France Louis XII conquered Lombardy and the Ticino lands because he considered himself the heir of the duchy. The French sent soldiers and also occupied the Castles of Bellinzona; a year later, in 1500, Ludovico il Moro temporarily reconquered Milan , the Bellinzonesi, loyal to Ludovico, taking advantage of the favorable moment and with the French probably concentrated on driving the ducals back from Milan, rebelled by removing the occupiers and barricading themselves inside the impregnable castles . Ludovico Maria Sforza was later defeated by the French in Novara, he attempted to retreat by mingling with the troops retreating towards Bellinzona, but was betrayed by a Confederate mercenary, captured and transferred prisoner to France [90] . The local authorities of Bellinzona therefore decided to ask the Swiss for help and protection. Uri, Schwyz and Unterwaldo, who had been eyeing Bellinzona for some time, were happy to subjugate the village and take possession of the military fortresses. Later, to be precise in 1503, the king of France, through the Treaty of Peace of Arona , recognized the possession of Bellinzona, the Riviera and Blenio to the three original cantons. The transition from Milanese domination to Confederate domination therefore took place at the end of the Middle Ages, when the Milanese duchy was on its way into decline. Bellinzona thus became the military bridgehead of the confederates and their attempted expansion into Lombardy, which after a few years, in 1515 , resulted in the famous battle of Marignano , which marked the end of the Swiss expansionist aims towards the south.

The confederates, probably to consolidate their presence in their new dominion south of the Alps, asserting economic control and to facilitate trade with the powerful states of northern Italy, activated a Mint in the City. The same remained active from 1503, the year of France's recognition of the Bellinzona dominion to the three primitive cantons, until 1529 and minted money on behalf of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden. The coins were inspired by those used in the Duchy of Milan, as they were mainly to be used in exchanges with the Duchy itself and with the Republic of Venice. The best-known pieces are the Bissolo , which was also used in the region, and the Grosso , a unique piece which is part of the rare examples also used north of the Alps and purchased in 2018 by the Canton.

Around 1600 the Bilitio Castrum was cited by the geographer and humanist Philip Clüver:

"BILITIO castrum, sive castellum hodieque in ordinibus Alpium Raeticarum supra lacum Verbanum, qui vulgo codicil adcolis Lago Maggiore, ad Ticinum amnem situm, detorto paullüm vocabulo codicil Belizona"

"The fortified center, or castle of BILITIO, at the foot of the Rhaetian Alps, above Lake Maggiore, located on the Ticino river, and today called Bellinzona"

The city remained controlled as a bailiwick (a kind of colony ) until the end of the 18th century , when Napoleon 's intervention and a series of internal upheavals led to the birth of the Canton of Bellinzona in 1798 , including the entire Bellinzona area and the Three Valleys. within the Helvetic Republic . Subsequently, in 1803 the new canton was united with the Canton of Lugano to form the current Canton of Ticino, of which Bellinzona became the capital. After 1815 this role was also attributed in turn to Locarno and Lugano . Only in 1878 , not without controversy, did Bellinzona definitively become the seat of the Ticino cantonal government

In the 19th century, Ticino was a republican and democratic island in Lombardy under Austro-Hungarian rule, diplomatic relations between Switzerland , the Canton of Ticino and Austria were not exactly friendly, in fact Ticino hosted a large number of liberal and anti-Austrian dissidents from Lombardy . Tension rose when Ticino expelled 22 Lombard Capuchin friars accused of espionage and the Austrians, in response, repatriated 6,000 Ticinese who had emigrated to Lombardy to work, also imposing a trade blockade. In 1853, to cope with this difficult period for Ticino and its people, the Confederation decided to invest in public works and military fortifications south of the Alps, thus taking shape between Camorino, Giubiasco and Sementina, the defense line of the so-called Hunger blockhouses, which had the dual role of providing work to the unemployed and acting as a deterrent to a possible Austrian invasion from the south.

If the first half of the nineteenth century still had predominantly agricultural and in some ways primitive characteristics, with widespread poverty and infant mortality, inhabited centers distant on average 5 km from each other and little or no literacy , with the arrival of the railway Ticino embarked on a new course, effectively marking the beginning of industrial development. The first railway opened across the Alps with a 15 km tunnel, a pharaonic work for the time, was in fact the Gotthard one in 1882, while the first railway line arrived in the city in 1874 with the opening of the Bellinzona- Biasca lines and Bellinzona- Locarno . The symbol of the new industrial profile of Bellinzona was ideally represented by the Officine, a center specialized in the maintenance of railway wagons and locomotives, which started their activity in 1874 in the current locomotive depot and, following the need for expansion, in the new warehouses completed in 1899; factories where the workshops are still active today .

The railway first and the roads later, will therefore represent for years and up to the present day the pillars of a new economy, which will make Bellinzona the southern gateway to the western Alps for people and goods, a bit as happened in ancient times and in the Middle Ages, but now on a large scale and with ever shorter travel times.

During the First World War , Switzerland, even though it declared itself neutral, thought it best to mobilize the army in preparation for the worst; in this sense Bellinzona would have once again represented an important military stronghold [107] , to counter any invasion attempts coming from the Kingdom of Italy .

In the Second World War, the propaganda proclamations of Mussolini and fascism on the annexation of the territories of the Alpine line (Ticino, Grisons , Valais ), considered the natural line of the Italian border and the plan of conquest of the VI Army of the Po , still worried and led to speculation once an attempted invasion. In 1939, studies began on the works for the creation of a defense line which would later take the name LONA ( LOdrino - OsogNA ). The line, a complex of fortifications and a valley anti-tank barrier was then established in Riviera, between Bellinzona and Biasca

Bellinzona today gives us one of the most significant examples of defensive architecture in the Alpine area, thrilling modern guests with castles , battlements and walls , all carefully restored and integrated into its historical core.

Starting from the second half of the twentieth century , the urban area of ​​Bellinzona went beyond the city limits, embracing a large part of the agglomeration. The City has slowly strengthened its role as a development hub, not only for the Bellinzone area, but also for the nearby Riviera and Moesano .

In November 2012, in Sementina , 17 Municipalities of the Bellinzonese Municipalities, excluding Isone, with the addition of Claro (Riviera district), signed the formal request for aggregation addressed to the Council of State, as required by the Law on aggregation of Municipalities.

The Council of State appointed the study commission responsible for developing the project which would be submitted to the population of the municipalities involved in a consultative vote. The law therefore establishes that based on the outcome of this vote, the Council of State issues a government message to the Grand Council, which is formally responsible for the decision for the aggregation of Municipalities.

On 18 October 2015 the consultative vote took place in the municipalities affected by the project. Of the 17 municipalities that participated in the aggregation project, 13 had a positive outcome: Bellinzona, Camorino , Claro , Giubiasco , Gnosca , Gorduno , Gudo , Moleno , Monte Carasso , Pianezzo , Preonzo , Sant'Antonio and Sementina . While four municipalities voted to remain independent: Arbedo-Castione , Cadenazzo , Lumino and Sant'Antonino .

After the approval of the merger of the Council of State of the Republic and the Canton of Ticino, there was an appeal to the Federal Court by some citizens, who considered the vote null and void as it was bound to the aggregation of 17 instead of 13 municipalities, as instead emerged from the polls. The Federal Court, with a ruling dated 17 November 2016, definitively rejected the appeal against the aggregation of the 13 municipalities. The municipal vote to define the composition of the new Municipality and City Council took place on 2 April 2017, resulting in an urban reality with a population of 42,084 inhabitants, the twelfth largest city in Switzerland .

Please look at my photos also other than lastest 5 photos! 最初の5枚以外も見てください！

Burnin' some more film. Cherry blossoms and concrete in the Stockholm springtime.

(Olympus OM2/Zuiko 50mm/f1.4 on Kodak Portra 400 for anyone who cares about such things)

life near the moscow metro

Visit this location at RFL Acceptance - Sponsor: Seekers of Hope-In memory all we lost in Second Life

MESSAGE FROM THE DRUM

I am Mother Earth's heartbeat and the sacred gift of Creation.

I am the universal heartbeat of the secular and supernatural worlds.

I help you reconnect to the memories in your ancient brain and heal your spirit.

I reduce stress, help bring your body, mind, emotions, and spirit into peaceful alignment as you walk your often complex earth walk.

I help ground you to the truth of your existence.

I put you in touch with creation itself.

I speak to all people equally and peacefully.

I am a powerful non-verbal form of peaceful communication.

I am the practice of peace.

I am renewal, regrowth and fulfillment.

I am the pulse of the Universe and the ancient wisdom of our Ancestors.

I am alert, alive and ready to move to another state of conciousness. The Lakota call it "Hanta Ho (Clearing the Way); Objwe "Menedoh" (State of

Revitalization).

When you hear the rhythm of unison group drumming and contribute your beat and your breath, you are listening, playing, open, receptive and creative

at the same time.

When you play me together you play as one heartbeat. One heartbeat can heal everything.

My top represents Father Sky - Grandfather Sun.

My bottom represents Mother Earth.

The top of centre of me represents self, along with North South East and West make up the Seven Sacred Directions.

My stitching connects the two and represents the warriors for peace who play me.

Your hand should never be raised high above the shoulder and slammed down - for that is the male ego.

The hand of the drummer should not be raised above the heart for I am peace.

I release tension, emotional stress, and mental fatigue.

I reconnect with the natural rhythms of the drummer.

I take you to the dream world where your unconcious self speaks with your concious self in safety and harmony.

When you play me there is an synchronization of energy, a unity of common purpose.

I heal disconnects and sing songs for all the brave tomorrows.

Drums are like humans and as such there is unspoken etiquette.

1. A drum is in the keeping of the person who made it OR purchased it OR traded for it OR had it given to them as a gift OR prayed for it. It is not community

property. If the drum belongs to an individual permission must be given by that individual to anyone to even touch much less play it.

2. Remind yourself that the drum is human and ones does not fondle other humans without permission. Accord the drum the same respect.

3. When playing a drum it should never be hammered in any aggressive way. This suggests giving it a beating and one must never hit a woman. The drum

mallet is called a Grandmother's Arm.

4. The hand drum is a sacred object, therefore, when not in use it should sleep in its own bag made of natural materials, cotton, animal hide. Hanging a

drum on the wall as art piece to be admired diminishes its voice and purpose. It would be the same as hanging our mother on the wall.

5. The drum should always be placed skin side up when at rest as a sign of respect.

6. No drinking, no smoking, drugs, foul language or any other behaviour that is disrespectful to yourself others and the drum is allowed.

Eli is epic at all times. Nuff said.

kathedral

Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach live at The Wellmont Theater, Montclair NJ 01.17.15

Sarnath is the deer park where Gautama Buddha first taught the Dharma, and where the Buddhist Sangha came into existence through the enlightenment of Kondanna. Sarnath is located 13 kilometres north-east of Varanasi, in Uttar Pradesh, India.

The Buddha went from Bodhgaya to Sarnath about 5 weeks after his enlightenment. Before Gautama (the Buddha-to-be) attained enlightenment, he gave up his austere penances and his friends, the Pañcavaggiya monks, left him and went to Isipatana.

Isipatana is the name used in the Pali Canon, and means the place where holy men (Pali: isi, Sanskrit: rishi) landed.

After attaining Enlightenment the Buddha, leaving Uruvela, travelled to the Isipatana to join and teach them. He went to them because, using his spiritual powers, he had seen that his five former companions would be able to understand Dharma quickly. While travelling to Sarnath, Gautama Buddha had to cross the Ganges. Having no money with which to pay the ferryman, he crossed the Ganges through the air. When King Bimbisāra heard of this, he abolished the toll for ascetics. When Gautama Buddha found his five former companions, he taught them, they understood and as a result they also became enlightened. At that time the Sangha, the community of the enlightened ones, was founded. The sermon Buddha gave to the five monks was his first sermon, called the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta. It was given on the full-moon day of Asalha Puja. Buddha subsequently also spent his first rainy season at Sarnath at the Mulagandhakuti. The Sangha had grown to 60 in number (after Yasa and his friends had become monks), and Buddha sent them out in all directions to travel alone and teach the Dharma. All 60 monks were Arahants.

Several other incidents connected with the Buddha, besides the preaching of the first sermon, are mentioned as having taken place in Isipatana. Here it was that one day at dawn Yasa came to the Buddha and became an Arahant. It was at Isipatana, too, that the rule was passed prohibiting the use of sandals made of talipot leaves. On another occasion when the Buddha was staying at Isipatana, having gone there from Rājagaha, he instituted rules forbidding the use of certain kinds of flesh, including human flesh. Twice, while the Buddha was at Isipatana, Māra visited him but had to go away discomfited.

A stone pillar marks the spot where the Buddha preached his first sermon. Nearby was another stupa on the site where the Pañcavaggiyas spent their time in meditation before the Buddha's arrival, and another where five hundred Pacceka Buddhas entered Nibbāna. Close to it was another building where the future Buddha Metteyya received assurance of his becoming a Buddha.

Buddhism flourished in Sarnath in part because of kings and wealthy merchants based in Varanasi. By the third century Sarnath had become an important center for the arts, which reached its zenith during the Gupta period (4th to 6th centuries CE). In the 7th century by the time Xuan Zang visited from China, he found 30 monasteries and 3000 monks living at Sarnath.

Sarnath became a major centre of the Sammatiya school of Buddhism, one of the early Buddhist schools. However, the presence of images of Heruka and Tara indicate that Vajrayana Buddhism was (at a later time) also practiced here. Also images of Brahminist gods as Shiva and Brahma were found at the site, and there is still a Jain temple (at Chandrapuri) located very close to the Dhamekh Stupa.

At the end of the 12th century Sarnath was sacked by Turkish Muslims, and the site was subsequently plundered for building materials.

Sarnath has been developed as a place of pilgrimage, both for Buddhists from India and abroad. A number of countries in which Buddhism is a major (or the dominant) religion, among them Thailand, Japan, Tibet, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, have established temples and monasteries in Sarnath in the style that is typical for the respective country. Thus, pilgrims and visitors have the opportunity to experience an overview of Buddhist architecture from various cultures.

WIKIPEDIA

This image, like many of mine, happened completely by accident! It was taken in front of the Louvre in Paris. I was trying to get a long daytime exposure but forgot to put my ND filter on so it blew out the image and left these faint, blurred outlines of people.

The ghostly outlines of the crowds made me think about all the millions of people that had passed through the square and stood in the same place I was standing but having left no trace of their existence at all. I often think about random things like that when I go places. I think it's what gives me a buzz about history..thinking who had touched this wall thousands of years ago etc.. mmm sad but true!!

from the book

STRATEGIES d'EXISTENCE"

www.colonel.dk

’art est un cadeau (Kunst ist ein Geschenk), anlässlich der FIAC, Paris.

T.G./C. kooperiert mit den Radiostationen Europe 2, Radio Tour Eiffel, Radio Enghien, Radio Latino und Radio Beaubourg. Er fordert die Hörer auf, Fotografien aus dem Privatbesitz auf ihrem Rücken zu dem jeweiligen Sender zu tragen. Ca. 30 Hörer kommen.

T.G./C. krönt sie mit Burger King Kronen paris fiac

chronologie by Inka Schube.Sprengel Museum Hannover.

conclusionism.com/dictionary/exhibition_vieuw/0_1988_fiac...

Sarnath is the deer park where Gautama Buddha first taught the Dharma, and where the Buddhist Sangha came into existence through the enlightenment of Kondanna. Sarnath is located 13 kilometres north-east of Varanasi, in Uttar Pradesh, India.

The Buddha went from Bodhgaya to Sarnath about 5 weeks after his enlightenment. Before Gautama (the Buddha-to-be) attained enlightenment, he gave up his austere penances and his friends, the Pañcavaggiya monks, left him and went to Isipatana.

Isipatana is the name used in the Pali Canon, and means the place where holy men (Pali: isi, Sanskrit: rishi) landed.

After attaining Enlightenment the Buddha, leaving Uruvela, travelled to the Isipatana to join and teach them. He went to them because, using his spiritual powers, he had seen that his five former companions would be able to understand Dharma quickly. While travelling to Sarnath, Gautama Buddha had to cross the Ganges. Having no money with which to pay the ferryman, he crossed the Ganges through the air. When King Bimbisāra heard of this, he abolished the toll for ascetics. When Gautama Buddha found his five former companions, he taught them, they understood and as a result they also became enlightened. At that time the Sangha, the community of the enlightened ones, was founded. The sermon Buddha gave to the five monks was his first sermon, called the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta. It was given on the full-moon day of Asalha Puja. Buddha subsequently also spent his first rainy season at Sarnath at the Mulagandhakuti. The Sangha had grown to 60 in number (after Yasa and his friends had become monks), and Buddha sent them out in all directions to travel alone and teach the Dharma. All 60 monks were Arahants.

Several other incidents connected with the Buddha, besides the preaching of the first sermon, are mentioned as having taken place in Isipatana. Here it was that one day at dawn Yasa came to the Buddha and became an Arahant. It was at Isipatana, too, that the rule was passed prohibiting the use of sandals made of talipot leaves. On another occasion when the Buddha was staying at Isipatana, having gone there from Rājagaha, he instituted rules forbidding the use of certain kinds of flesh, including human flesh. Twice, while the Buddha was at Isipatana, Māra visited him but had to go away discomfited.

A stone pillar marks the spot where the Buddha preached his first sermon. Nearby was another stupa on the site where the Pañcavaggiyas spent their time in meditation before the Buddha's arrival, and another where five hundred Pacceka Buddhas entered Nibbāna. Close to it was another building where the future Buddha Metteyya received assurance of his becoming a Buddha.

Buddhism flourished in Sarnath in part because of kings and wealthy merchants based in Varanasi. By the third century Sarnath had become an important center for the arts, which reached its zenith during the Gupta period (4th to 6th centuries CE). In the 7th century by the time Xuan Zang visited from China, he found 30 monasteries and 3000 monks living at Sarnath.

Sarnath became a major centre of the Sammatiya school of Buddhism, one of the early Buddhist schools. However, the presence of images of Heruka and Tara indicate that Vajrayana Buddhism was (at a later time) also practiced here. Also images of Brahminist gods as Shiva and Brahma were found at the site, and there is still a Jain temple (at Chandrapuri) located very close to the Dhamekh Stupa.

At the end of the 12th century Sarnath was sacked by Turkish Muslims, and the site was subsequently plundered for building materials.

Sarnath has been developed as a place of pilgrimage, both for Buddhists from India and abroad. A number of countries in which Buddhism is a major (or the dominant) religion, among them Thailand, Japan, Tibet, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, have established temples and monasteries in Sarnath in the style that is typical for the respective country. Thus, pilgrims and visitors have the opportunity to experience an overview of Buddhist architecture from various cultures.

WIKIPEDIA

Pura Tanah Lot, Bali - Mai 2011

The temple, Pura Tanah Lot, owes its existence to a religious leader from the Javanese kingdom of Majapahit in the late 15th century: Danghyang Niratha, also called Danghyang Dwijendra, and known in Bali as Ida Pedanda Sakti Wawu Rawuh. The temple was originally a sacred site where local people came to worship God as the master of the ocean, seeking safety and success for their work as fishermen. It became better known after Danghyang Niratha came to meditate there. Beraban village was suffering an epidemic at the time, and the holy man’s presence was a blessing for them; with his religious/magical powers, he helped the community recover, and from then on, he provided them with religious guidance, as well as instruction on right livelihood in farming and fishing. From this relationship between the community and the holy man, this place of worship was no longer solely for the people of Beraban village but came to be used by everyone throughout Bali. Since then, Pura Tanah Lot has been considered one of the Sad Khayangan, the six temples of the world.

Another legend about this temple states that the coral rocks were placed in the sea by Danghyang Niratha using his spiritual powers. He then named it "Tengah Lot," meaning land located in the sea. Still according to the same legend, he then transformed the scarf he was wearing into a black-striped sea snake to protect the holy place. All these miracles were meant to demonstrate his sincerity in serving as a religious guide to the community. Whether the legend is true or not, black-and-white striped sea snakes are still found in the coral caves around Tanah Lot.

Designer: Kristina Tops

Model: Kristina Shavlokhova

•Children without Borders

Children without Borders provides a safe and educational environment for children after school, and provides the opportunity for these children to discover their God given talent. The program targets children whose families are affected by poor housing and living conditions, drug addiction, shattered family relationships and lack of space and cultural facilities. Children without Borders emphasizes the six C’s: critical thinking, creativity, cooperation, co-existence, commitment, and courage.

Each month, each of the three branches of Children without Borders arranges its own social and cultural activities, such as picnics, sports activities, tournaments, and social visits. The FFHL pays for coaches, assistant coaches, and other activities. There are branches of Children Without Borders in Jerusalem, Gaza, Jericho, Jenin, and Bethlehem.

In 2014, FFHL provided $54,300 for 300 children to participate in Children Without Borders.

•Franciscan Family Centers

Franciscan Family Centers in Nazareth and in Bethlehem assist families in their social needs, including providing professional counseling to those Christian families who have suffered psychological trauma. The Centers also provide sponsored educational programs for children and adults. Counseling helps families to develop social skills and create new ways of solving family, adult, teenager, and children’s problems. The Family Centers also help independent businesses by providing economic and financial counseling to employees.

In 2014, the FFHL provided $75,000 to the Franciscan Family Centers to provide professional counseling and support to 110 participating families (60 families in Nazareth and 50 families in Bethlehem).

•Franciscan Boys Home – Bethlehem

Boys, 6-18 years of age, live at the Franciscan Boys Home six days a week and return to their families on Sunday. The boys come from dysfunctional families residing in Bethlehem and receive psychological and emotional assistance. The FFHL runs the home for boys in a caring place where neighborhood youth can feel the safety and nurturing needed to survive.

FFHL has hired a full time staff which includes a cook, several teachers, a child psychologist, a social worker, a housekeeper, a club supervisor, as well as maintenance and security personnel. Both a Franciscan priest and a Franciscan nun serve as Directors of the Boys Home. The boys come from many local communities including Bethlehem, Beit Sahour, and Beit Jala, and attend the local Catholic school. The costs of salaries of staff, food, maintenance of the building, and yearly school tuition are fully funded by the FFHL.

In 2014, 34 boys resided at the Franciscan Boys Home, and the FHHL provided $130,000 to fund the Boys Home.

•March for Peace for West Bank/Palestine

Each year, some 150 Christian children are bused from Jerusalem to the outskirts of Bethlehem in the West Bank. There is then a public parade with music where the children from Jerusalem bring gifts to the children of Bethlehem waiting in Manger Square in Bethlehem. In 2014, about 150 children from the Israeli side (Jerusalem) and 200 children from the West Bank (Bethlehem) participated, and the FFHL provided $15,000 to fund the annual event.

•Assistance to Franciscan Social Services Organization

The FFHL supports the Franciscan Social Services Organization in Bethlehem by paying for medicines for individuals unable to pay. In 2014, FFHL provided $25,000 to the FSSO to pay for medicines for 20 individuals.

www.ffhl.org

Saturday afternoon, worker who work

Sad to see such an elegant aircraft essentially rotting away in Paris.

Lone flower in a Rain Forest of Costa Rica.

Tujague's

823 Decatur Street

Vieux Carré

French Quarter

New Orleans, Louisiana

est 1856

In existence before "New Orleans" even bore its name, and having served as a Spanish armory, Tujague’s restaurant has survived decades of war, depression, fire and plague to bring you a tradition of culinary excellence undiminished today.

Prosperity had never smiled more broadly on New Orleans than it did in the period when Tujague’s first opened its doors. The city’s growth during the 1850’s was immense, and, for European emigrants in search of success in the New World, opportunity was everywhere for the taking.

Guillaume and Marie Abadie Tujague took this advantage in 1852 when they married and set sail for America from Bordeaux France. Guillaume Tujague became a butcher in the French Market for three years before they established Tujague’s Restaurant in 1856. They began by serving breakfast and lunch to the dock workers, market laborers and seamen who crowded that part of the riverfront. The South was still recovering from the Civil War, but Tujague’s never missed serving a meal!

The lunches were seven course affairs, but tradition says the reputation of Tujague’s from the beginning was built on two dishes – a piquant remoulade sauce flavoring spicy cold shrimp, and succulent chunks of beef brisket boiled with aromatic vegetables and served with a horseradish sauce.

Already 56 years old, horse and buggies still traveled on cobblestone streets outside of the restaurant, although an occasional automobile would be seen. Inside, a beer was only 4 cents.

Sometime before Guilliaume Tujague died in 1912, he sold the restaurant to Phlibert Guichet, who had come to work there from Guichetville, a community near Raceland in Lafourche Parish. Tujague’s closest competition always had been Begue’s, a few doors up Decatur at the corner of Madison. The proprietor-chef there was the legendary Elizabeth Kettenring Dutreuil Begue, a Bavarian emigrant who had been cooking for the French Market crowd since 1863.

In 1906, Madame Begue, died and her restaurant was taken over by her daughter and son-in-law, the Anouilles. One of the employees at Madame Begue’s was Jean-Dominic Castet, who had come to New Orleans from France in 1905. Castet and Philibert Buichet decided to join forces, and in 1914 they bought Elizabeth Begue’s restaurant from her now-widowed daughter and hung out a new sign reading "Tujague’s".

And Tujague’s it’s been for the past 72 years.

As per www.tujaguesrestaurant.com/history.html

Bury St Edmunds Cathedral for most of its existence was simply the parish church of St James until the foundation of the new diocese of St Edmundsbury in 1914 when it was raised to cathedral status, one of the many new dioceses formed in the early 20th century that elevated existing parish churches to diocesan rank rather than purpose building a new cathedral. Many of these 'parish church cathedrals' sit slightly awkwardly with their new status, lacking in the scale and grandeur that befits such a title, but of all of them Bury St Edmunds has been adapted to its new role the most successfully, with in my opinion the most beautiful results.

The medieval church consisted of the present nave, built in 1503-51 under master mason John Wastell, with an earlier chancel that was entirely rebuilt in 1711 and again in 1870. Originally it would have seemed a fairly minor building at the entrance to the monastic precinct, overshadowed by the enormous abbey church that once stood immediately behind it. The absence of this magnificent church since the Dissolution and the scant remains of this vast edifice always sully my visits here with a sense of grievous loss, had history been kinder it would have served as the cathedral here instead and likely be celebrated as one of the grandest in the country.

The church never had a tower of its own since the adjacent Norman tower of the Abbey gateway served the role of a detached campanile perfectly. It is an impressive piece of Romanesque architecture and one of the best preserved 12th century towers in the country.

Upon being raised to cathedral status in 1914 the building underwent no immediate structural changes but plans were made to consider how best to transform a fairly ordinary church into a worthy cathedral. This task was appointed to architect Stephen Dykes Bower and work began in 1959 to extend the building dramatically. Between 1963-1970 the entire Victorian chancel was demolished and replaced with a much grander vision of a lofty new choir and shallow transepts, remarkably all executed in traditional Gothic style in order to harmonize with the medieval nave. It is incredible to think that this was done in the 1960s, a period in which church and cathedral buildings were otherwise constructed in the most self consciously modern forms ever seen, with delicate neo-medieval masonry in place of brick and concrete.

The new crossing of transepts and choir however remained crowned by the stump of a tower for the remainder of the century as funds were not available to finish Dykes Bower's complete vision of a lantern tower over the crossing: this was only realised at the beginning of the 21st century, aided by a legacy left in the architect's will and some subtle design changes under his successor as architect Hugh Matthews. The transformation from church to cathedral was finally completed in 2005 with most satisfactory results. A stunning fan-vault was installed within the new tower in 2010, an exquisite finishing touch.

Whilst it isn't a large building by cathedral standards its newer parts do much to give it the shape and dignity of one. This is especially apparent within, where the cruciform eastern limb draws the eye. The interior is enlivened by much colour, with the ceilings of Dykes Bower's choir and transepts adorned with rich displays of stencilling, whilst the nave ceiling (a Victorian replacement for the medieval one) was redecorated in similarly lively colours in the 1980s which helps to unify the old and new parts of the church.

Few fittings or features remain from the medieval period, most of the furnishings being Victorian or more recent, but one window in the south aisle retains a rich display of early 16th century stained glass, very much Renaissance in style. The remaining glass is nearly all Victorian, some of the windows in the new choir having been transferred from the previous chancel.

St Edmundsbury Cathedral is not filled with the monuments and fittings that make other great churches so rewarding to linger in but it is a real architectural delight and cannot fail to uplift the spirit.

stedscathedral.org/visit/

Black Canyon of the Gunnison.National Park, CO

Baku is the capital of Azerbaijan Republic, which was also the capital of Shirvan (during the reigns of Akhsitan I and Khalilullah I), Baku Khanate, Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and Azerbaijan SSR and the administrative center of Russian Baku governorate. Baku is derived from the old Persian Bagavan, which translates to "City of God". A folk etymology explains the name Baku as derived from the Persian Bādkube (بادکوبه ), meaning "city where the wind blows", due to frequent winds blowing in Baku. However, the word Bādkube was invented only in the 16th or 17th century, whereas Baku was founded at least before the 5th century AD.

Starting from the 13th century AD the name of Baku begins to appear in mediaeval European Sources. Spelling of the name varies from Vahcüh (Pietro Della Valle), to Bakhow, Baca, Bakuie and Backu.

On the coins minted by Shirvanshahs name appears as Bakuya.

Various different hypotheses have been proposed to explain the etymology of the word Baku. According to L.G.Lopatinski[3] and Ali Huseynzade "Baku" is derived from Turkic word for "hill". K.P. Patkanov, a specialist in Caucasian history, also explains the name as "hill" but in Lak language.

Around 1000 years ago, the territory of modern Baku and Absheron was savanna with rich flora and fauna. Traces of human settlement go back to the Stone Age. From the Bronze Age there have been rock carvings discovered near Bayil, and a bronze figure of a small fish discovered in the territory of the Old City. This have led some to suggest the existence of a Bronze Age settlement within the city's territory. Near Nardaran in a place called Umid Gaya, a prehistoric observatory was discovered, where on the rock the images of sun and various constellations are carved together with a primitive astronomic table. Further archeological excavations revealed various prehistoric settlements, native temples, statues and other artifacts within the territory of the modern city and around it.

In the 1st century, Romans organized two Caucasian campaigns and reached Baku. Near Baku, in Gobustan, Roman inscriptions dating from 84–96 AD were discovered. The remnant of this period is the village of Ramana in the Sabunchu district of Baku.

In the Life of the Apostle Bartholomew, Baku is identified as Armenian albanus. Some historians assume that during the existence of Caucasian Albania Baku was called Albanopolis. Local church traditions record the belief that Bartholomew's martyrdom occurred at the bottom of the Maiden Tower within the Old City, where according to historical data, a Christian church was built on the site of the pagan temple of Arta.

A record from the 5th-century historian Priscus of Panium was the first to mention the famous Bakuvian fires (ex petra maritima flamma ardet – from the maritime stone flame emerges). Owing to these eternal fires Baku became a major center of ancient Zoroastrianism. Sassanid shah Ardashir I gave orders "to keep an inextinguishable fire of the god Ormazd" in the city temples.

There is little or no information regarding Baku in medieval sources until the 10th century. The earliest numismatic evidence found in the city is an Abbasid coin dating from the 8th century AD. At that time Baku was a domain of the Arab Caliphate and later of Shirvanshahs. During this period, they frequently came under assault of the Khazars and (starting from the 10th century) the Rus. Shirvanshah Akhsitan I built a navy in Baku and successfully repelled another Rus assault in 1170. After a devastating earthquake struck Shamakhy, the capital of Shirvan, Shirvanshah's court moved to Baku in 1191. A mint was put into operation.

Between the 12th and 14th centuries, a massive fortification was undertaken in the city and around it. The Maiden Tower, castles of Ramana, Nardaran, Shagan and Mardakan, and also famous Sabayel castle on the island of the Baku bay was built during this period. The city walls were also rebuilt and strengthened.

The biggest problem of Baku during this time was the transgression of the Caspian Sea. The rising levels of the water from time to time engulfed much of the city and the famous castle of Sabayel went completely into the sea in the 14th century. These led to several legends about submerged cities such as Shahriyunan ("Greek city").

Hulagu Khan occupied Baku under the domain of the Shirvan state during the third Mongol campaign in Azerbaijan (1231–1239) and it became a winter residence for Ilkhanids. In the 14th century, the city prospered under Muhammad Oljeitu who relieved it from some of the heavy taxes. Bakuvian poet Nasir Bakui wrote a panegyric to Oljeitu thus creating the first piece of poetry in Azerbaijani language.

Marco Polo had written of Baku oil exports to Near Eastern countries. The city also traded with the Golden Horde, the Moscow Princedom, and European countries.

In 1501, Safavid shah Ismail I laid siege to Baku. The besieged inhabitants resisted, relying for defense on their fortifications. Due to the resistance, Ismail ordered part of the fortification's wall to be undermined. The fortress's defense was destroyed and many inhabitants were slaughtered. In 1538, the Safavid Shah Tahmasp I put an end to the Shirvanshahs' reign and in 1540, Baku was recaptured by Safavid troops again.

Between 1568 and 1574 there is a record of six English missions to Baku. English men named Thomas Bannister and Jeffrey Duckett described Baku in their correspondence. They wrote that the "...town is a strange thing to behold, for there issueth out of the ground a marvelous quantity of oil, which serveth all the country to burn in their houses. This oil is black and is called nefte. There is also by the town of Baku, another kind of oil which is white and very precious, and it is called petroleum." The first oil well outside of Baku was drilled in 1594 by a craftsman named A. Mamednur oglu. This man finished the construction of a high-efficiency oil well in the Balakhany settlement. This area was historically outside city territory.

In 1636, German diplomat and traveler Adam Olearius described Baku's 30 oil fields, noting that there was a great quantity of brown oil.[citation needed] In 1647, famous Turkish traveler Evliya Çelebi visited Baku. In April 1660, Cossacks under Stepan Razin attacked the Baku coast and plundered the village of Mashtaga. In 1683, Baku was visited by the ambassador of the Kingdom of Sweden, Engelbert Kaempfer. In the following year, Baku was temporarily recaptured by the Ottoman Empire.

Baku is noted for being a focal point for traders from all across the world during the Early modern period, commerce was active and the area was prosperous. Notably, traders from the Indian subcontinent established themselves in the region. These Indian traders built the Ateshgah of Baku during 17th–18th centuries; the temple was used as a Hindu, Sikh, and Parsi place of worship.

The fall of the Safavid dynasty in 1722 caused widespread chaos.[citation needed] Baku was invaded by the Russian and Ottoman empires.

On 26 June 1723, after a long siege, Baku surrendered to the Russians and the Safavids were forced to cede the city alongside many other of their Caucasian territories. In accordance with Peter the Great's decree, the soldiers of two regiments (2,382 people) were left in the Baku garrison under the command of Prince Baryatyanski, the commandant of the city. Peter the Great, while equipping a new military expedition commanded by General Mikhail Matyushkin, charged him with sending more oil from Baku to St. Petersburg, "which is a basis of an eternal and sacred flame"—Old Russian: "коя является основой вечного и священного пламени". However, due to Peter's death, this order was not carried out.

In 1733, Baku was visited by physician Ioann Lerkh, an employee of the Russian embassy and, like many others before him, described the city oil fields. By 1730, the situation had deteriorated for the Russians as Nadir Shah's successes in Shirvan forced the Russians to make an agreement near Ganja on 10 March 1735, ceding the city and all other conquered territories in the Caucasus back to Persia.

After the disintegration of the Safavid Empire and after the death of Nader Shah, the semi-independent principality of Baku Khanate was formed in 1747 following the power vacuum which had been created. It was ruled by Mirza Muhammed Khan and soon became a dependency of the much stronger Quba Khanate. The population of Baku was small (approximately 5,000), and the economy was ruined as a result of constant warfare, banditry, and inflation. The khans benefited, however, from the sea trade with the rest of Iran. Feudal infighting in the 1790s resulted in the dominance of an anti-Russian faction in the city resulting in the Russian-leaning brother of the Khan being exiled to Quba.

By the end of the 18th century, Tsarist Russia now began a more firm policy with the intent to conquer all of the Caucasus at the expense of Persia and Ottoman Turkey. In the spring of 1796, by Yekaterina II's order, General Valerian Zubov's troops started a large campaign against Qajar Persia following the sack of Tbilisi and Persia's aim to restore its suzerainty over Georgia and Dagestan. Zubov had sent 13,000 men to capture Baku, and it was overrun subsequently without any resistance. On 13 June 1796, a Russian flotilla entered Baku Bay, and a garrison of Russian troops was placed inside the city. Later, however, Pavel I ordered the cessation of the campaign and the withdrawal of Russian forces following the death of his predecessor, Yekatarina II. In March 1797, the tsarist troops left Baku.

Prince Pavel Tsitsianov was shot to death when he tried to make Baku surrender during the Russo-Persian War (1804–1813).

Coat of arms of Baku Governorate

Tsar Alexander I set out to conquer Baku once again during the Russo-Persian War (1804-1813) during which Pavel Tsitsianov tried to capture Baku in January 1806. But aide-de-camp and cousin of Huseyngulu Khan suddenly shot Tsitsianov to death during the presentation of the city's keys to him. Left without a commander, the Russian Army left Baku and the occupation of Baku Khanate was delayed for a year. Baku was captured on October of the same year and eventually absorbed into the Russian Empire after formal ceding of the city amongst other integral territories in the North Caucasus and South Caucasus by Persia in the Treaty of Gulistan, in 1813. However, it was not until the aftermath of the Russo-Persian War (1826-1828) and the Treaty of Turkmenchay that Baku came under nominal Russian rule, as the city was retaken by Persia during the war.

When Baku was occupied by the Russian troops during the war of 1804–1813, nearly the entire population of some 8,000 people was ethnic Tat.

In 1809, at the time of the Russian conquest, the Muslim population grew to become 95% of the city's population.

On 10 July 1840, the Russian Duma approved "The Principles of Ruling of the Transcaucasian Region", and Baku uyezd was turned into an administrative region of the Russian Empire.

Fortstadt, a new suburb, grew from the dispersed buildings scattered within the city's fortifications. Medieval seaside fortifications were demolished in 1861 to allow for the creation of the port and a customs house in the quay.

Baku became a center of the eponymous province after the devastating earthquake of 1859 in Shamakha. The population of Baku Governorate began to increase steadily. It is recorded that the number of police stations increased. The first Baku stock exchange had ten brokers, all of Russian nationality.

In 1823, the world's first paraffin factory was built in the city, and in 1846, the world's first oil well was drilled in Bibi-Heybat. Javad Melikov from Baku had built the first kerosene factory in 1863. In 1873, the Russian government offered competition for free land, and Baku caught the eye of the Nobel brothers. In 1882, Ludvig Nobel invited technical staff to Baku from Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Germany and founded a colony that he called Villa Petrolea. This colony was located in the "Black City". Bullock-cart drivers used wineskins and flasks to transport oil until the 1870s. In 1883, a Rothschild's plenipotentiary arrived from Paris and created the "Caspian-Black Sea Joint-Stock Company". Famous Baku oil magnates of the era included Musa Nagiyev, Murtuza Mukhtarov, Shamsi Asadullayev, Seid Mirbabayev, and many others.

The companies owned by Musa Nagiyev and Shamsi Asadullayev were the largest of Baku's oil producers. Established respectively in 1887 and 1893, they produced between 7 million and 12 million poods (110 to 200 Gg) of oil annually. The companies owned oil fields, refineries, and tankers. By the beginning of the next century, more than a hundred oil firms operated in Baku.

The oil boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries contributed to massive growth of Baku. Between 1856 and 1910 Baku's population grew at a faster rate than that of London, Paris or New York.

The second half of the 19th century was notable for its advancement in communication. In 1868, the first telegraph line to Tiflis was established, and in 1879, an under-sea telegraph line connected Baku with Krasnovodsk. In the same year, the Baku-Sabunchi-Surakhany was in operation. The tracks were 520 versts (555 kilometres) from Tiflis and was completed in a relatively short time on 8 May 1883. The first telephone line was in operation in 1886. In 1899, the first horse tramway appeared.

In 1870, a Lutheran-Evangelical community was established in Baku. However, in 1937, the clerics as well as the representatives of other religious communities were banished or shot. The Lutheran community was not revived until 1994, after the fall of the Soviet Union.

In the 1870s, the number of administrative and public institutions had grown, among them a provincial court and arbitration. In the first years of the 20th century, a case considered in the district court won great popularity and lawyers from Petersburg, Moscow, Tiflis, and Kiev became involved because of fabulous fees often received there.[clarification needed] The loudest litigations passed with the participation of a certain Karabek, who knew by heart the extensive code of laws of the Russian Empire and remembered all decrees of the Sacred Synod with exact reference numbers and dates.

In the beginning of October 1883, tsar Alexander III with his wife and two sons, accompanied by a huge retinue, arrived to Baku from Tiflis. The railway station had been prepared for the solemn ceremony. The city authorized Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev to welcome Alexander. The visitors examined the oil storage of Nobel brothers, the pump station, and three powerful oil wells of Shamsi Asadullayev. Beginning from the 1890s, Baku provided 95% of the oil production in the Russian Empire and approximately half of world oil production. Within ten years, the city had become the foremost producer of oil overtaking the United States.

In 1914–1917, Baku produced 7 million tons of oil each year, totaling 28,683,000 tons of oil , which constituted 15% of world production at the time. Germany did not trust Turkey in oil matters and transferred General Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein from the Middle Eastern front with his troops to Georgia in order to enter Baku, through Ukraine, the Black Sea and Georgia. Great Britain, in February 1918, urgently sent General Lionel Dunsterville with troops to Baku through Anzali to block the German troops. Having studied the Caucasus from the strategic point of view, Dunsterville concluded: "Those who capture Baku, will control the sea. That's why it was necessary for us to invade this city." On 23 August 1918, Lenin in his telegram to Tashkent wrote: "Germans agree to attack Baku provided that we would kick the British out of Baku".

Having been defeated in World War I, Turkey had to withdraw its forces from the borders of Azerbaijan in the middle of November 1918. Led by General William Thomson, British troops of 5,000 soldiers arrived in Baku on 17 November, and martial law was implemented on the capital of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic until "the civil power would be strong enough to release the forces from the responsibility to maintain the public order".

In the same year, Thompson was faced with an enormous challenge to recreate confidence in the economy. His fundamental requirement was to recreate a sound and reliable banking system. He wrote, however: "the political situation in Baku does not permit the opening of a British Bank because this would have increased suspicion and jealousy as to British intentions".

In the spring of 1918, Armenian interests in Baku were protected by the Baku Soviet of People's Commissars, who became known as the 26 Baku Commissars.

In February 1920, the 1st Congress of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan legally took place in Baku and made a decision about preparation of the armed revolt. On 27 April of the same year, units of the Russian 11th Red Army crossed the border of Azerbaijan and began to march towards Baku. Soviet Russia presented the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic with an ultimatum to surrender, and the troops entered Baku the next day, accompanied by Grigory Ordzhonikidze and Sergey Kirov of the Bolshevik Kavbiuro. The city became a capital of the Azerbaijan SSR and underwent many major changes. As a result, Baku played a great role in many branches of the Soviet life. Since about 1921, the city was headed by the Baku City Executive Committee, commonly known in Russian as Bakgorispolkom. Together with the Baku Party Committee (known as the Baksovet), it developed the economic significance of the Caspian metropolis. From 1922 to 1930, Baku was the venue for one of the major Trade fairs of the Soviet Union, serving as a commercial bridgehead to Iran and the Middle East.

On 8 February 1924, the first tram line and two years later the electric railway Baku-Surakhany—the first in the USSR—started to operate.

While being in Baku in May 1925 Russian poet Sergei Yesenin wrote a verse "Farewell to Baku":

Farewell to Baku! I'll see you no more

A sorrow and fright are now in the soul

And a heart under the hand is more painful and closer

And I feel the simple word "friend" more distinctly.

However Yesenin returned to the city on 28 July of the same year.

Maxim Gorkiy wrote after visiting Baku: "The oil fields remained in my memory as a perfect picture of the grave hell. This picture suppressed all the fantastic ideas of depressed mind, I was aware of." Well-known—at that time—industrialist V. Rogozin noted, in relation with the Baku oil fields, that everything there was done "without counting and calculating". In 1940, 22.2 million tons of oil were extracted in Baku which comprised nearly 72% of all the oil extracted in the entire USSR.

In 1941, the trolley bus line started to operate in the city, meanwhile the first buses appeared in Baku in 1928.

The US Ambassador to France, W. Bullitt, dispatched a telegram to Washington concerning "the possibilities of bombing and demolition of Baku" which were being discussed in Paris at the time. Charles de Gaulle was extremely critical of the plan according to both his wartime and postwar statements. Such ideas, he believed, were made by some "crazy heads that were thinking more of how to destroy Baku than of resisting Berlin". In his report submitted on 22 February 1940, to French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier, General Maurice Gamelin believed the Soviets would fall into crisis if those resources were lost. However, during the Soviet-German War, ten defense zones were built around the city to prevent possible German invasion, planned within the Operation Edelweiss.

Even a cake for Hitler was adorned by a map of the Caspian Sea with the letters B-A-K-U spelled out in chocolate cream. After eating the cake, Hitler said: "Unless we get Baku oil, the war is lost".

The first offshore oil platform in the world, originally called "The Black Rocks", was built in 1947 within the city's metropolitan area. In 1960, the first Caucasus house-building plant was built in Baku, and on 25 December 1975, the only plant producing air-conditioners in the Soviet Union was turned over for operation.

In 1964–1968, the level of oil extraction rose to the stable level and comprised about 21 million tons per year. By the 1970s, Azerbaijan became one of the largest producers of grapes, and a champagne factory was subsequently constructed in Baku. In 1981, a record quantity of 15 billion m³ of gas was extracted in Baku.

In 1990, Shaumyan rayon of Baku was renamed to Khatai and Ordzhonikidze rayon to Narimanov. In 1991, following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Bakgorispolkom as a result, the first independent city mayor Rafael Allahverdiyev was appointed. On 29 April 1992, the names of some more city rayons were changed:

With the initiatives for saving the city in the 2000s, Baku embarked on a process of restructuring on a scale unseen in its history. Thousands of buildings from Soviet Period were demolished to make way for a green belt on its shores; parks and gardens were built on the land claimed by filling up the beaches of the Baku Bay. Improvements were made in the general cleaning, maintenance, garbage collection fields and these services are now at Western European standards. The city is growing dynamically and developing at full speed on an east-west axis along the shores of the Caspian Sea.

Most Soviet era street names have been replaced after the collapse of the Soviet Union. More than 225 streets have been renamed since 1988; however, some people still use the old names. Namely, the first street ever to be built outside the Inner City, originally called Nikolayevskaya after Nicolas I, was renamed to Parlaman Kuchesi, because the Parliament of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic held its meeting in a building located at that street, then during soviet era it became Kommunisticheskaya Ulitsa and now is called İstiqlaliyyet Kuchesi (Azeri: "independence").

ca. 1925

Other Name: Peter Donahue Building

Tiburon, Marin County, CA

Listed: 08/04/1996

The Peter Donahue Building, a Tiburon designated landmark, is the old station house of the ferry-railroad terminus of the San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad and its successor, the Northwestern Pacific, a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Railway Company. The simple, almost spartan two-story structure is utilitarian in nature, having been constructed to house the railroad's passengers, baggage, and the station agent and his family. Named for Col. Peter Donahue, the founder of the S.F. and N.P.R.R., the Tiburon depot, the communications center and heart of the S.F. and N.P., is virtually all that remains of the unique railway that once dominated the growth and development of Northern California.

The Donahue Building has remained, throughout its long life, amazingly intact despite the many alterations deemed necessary to fit the needs of the railroad. Incredibly this has included moving the building on and off the wharf in Tiburon, to a final place 20 feet from where it started.

The Donahue depot is believed to be one of the oldest station houses in the Farwestern United States. The building, the communications center of a once huge ferry-rail-land terminus in Tiburon, Marin County, linked the cattle and agricultural produce of the Bay Area, Harin and Sonoma Counties and the vast, rich forest lands of Northern California to the port of San Francisco, which shipped those goods around the world. The Donahue Building is significant because it is the only architectural reminder of Tiburon and Harin County's importance in ferry and rail transportation history. The forerunner of "piggybacking", the method of lifting loaded transport directly on to rail, was originated by the S.F. & N.P. in Tiburon.

The history of the S.F. & N.P., from its incorporation in 1869 to the last train run by the NWP in 1967, is the history of the very existence and growth of Tiburon, the regional growth of commerce of the Bay Area and is reflective of the growth of California's economic history and industry. The Donahue Building is the last symbol of the community's struggle in perfecting its unique ferry-rail system.

National Register of Historic Places

maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sol%20Existence/88/123/21

House sparrow pair and male Northern Flicker sharing a feeder

Illustration to an article Public Fiction

* Implied Theme * Beautiful Existence: Existence is really a festival, a great celebration, which is only the moment we’re now experiencing. * Popular Elements * The necklace combines a silver orchid-formed cz having a Swarovski heart-formed crimson very, perfectly given a minimalist feeling of art. * Specs * Chain Length: 45cm+5cm/17.7in+2in Pendant Size: 2.6cm*1.8cm/1.02in*.71in Weight: 5.73g/.2oz. * Audience * A flexible piece for ladies,ladies,women. Appropriate as Love Day Gifts, Moms day gifts, Christmas presents, wedding anniversary gifts, birthday gifts, wedding gifts, party gifts, graduation gifts, back-to-school gifts, or perhaps a special gift! * Feature of product * Alex Perry

www.inspiredbycreativityjewels.co.uk/product/alex-perry-s...

Very necessary, important existence.

But, it wishes that it want to do so if possible and to keep

quiet indefinitely.

email me at ashleymcfall1@gmail.com for usage

The hidden truth about man existence

drown people from black and white lines on the life canvas

trying to gain nothing but nothing for nothing..............

i'm going camping for the weekend, but it's going to rain. wonderful.

For Trish (Trish Mayo)

The Athlone 10KM and 5KM road races were held in Clonown Village, Co. Roscommon, Ireland on Sunday 28th of April 2013 at 14:30 and 15:00. Clonown is a small townland on the west bank of the River Shannon and is situated about 3 miles south of the town of Athlone. Whilst the townland is almost completely rural it is accessed easily from major routes and towns by the M6 motorway.

This race completely defied the fact that it is only the second year of it's existence. Every aspect of the organisation was professional: from stewarting, registration, start of races exactly on time, car-parking, and post race refreshments. The 10KM route followed an anti-clockwise loop. The race started on the L2035 Togher Road (about 100m from Clonown Centre) and heads towards the old Ballinasloe Rd and back via Creggan with the finish at the Clonown Community Centre. The 5KM run was added this year to provide a managable challenge for people who are following programmes such as Operation Transformation. The 5KM race route follows a meandering around the townland. The race starts at the church in Clonown and head clockwise around the Ballinaculla townland which offers lovely views of the River Shannon. The route then goes to the Drumlosh road and runs for 1.5 km before the roundabout which is the 3km mark. The race then turns around and returns back to the village and finish at Clonown Community Centre. Both races share some of the race route for the Flatline Athlone Half held in September (www.athlonehalfmarathon.com/) which makes the race routes very fast and flat.

Overall Race Summary

Participants: Approximately 400 people took part in both events with runners, joggers, walkers, and families involved.

Weather: This was a wonderfully bright dry afternoon but a very strong wind made difficult running conditions in places.

Course: Very flat accurately measured course on rural roads and bog roadway. There were waterstops provided at various points and by locals along the route. Very well stewarded.

Refreshments: There were lots of refreshments served in the community center aftwards.

Location Map: This is the start/finish area on Google StreetView [goo.gl/maps/W0Hxc]

Some Useful Links

The Clonown area on Google Streetview [goo.gl/maps/W0Hxc]

Facebook Page for the Athlone 10KM Race 2013 www.facebook.com/Athlone10krun?fref=ts

How can I get a full resolution copy of these photographs?

All of the photographs here on this Flickr set have a visible watermark embedded in them. All of the photographs posted here on this Flickr set are available, free, at no cost, at full resolution WITHOUT watermark. We take these photographs as a hobby and as a contribution to the running community in Ireland. We do not know of any other photographers who operate such a policy. Our only "cost" is our request that if you are using these images: (1) on social media sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter,LinkedIn, Google+, Google Orkut etc or (2) other websites, web multimedia, commercial/promotional material that you provide a link back to our Flickr page to attribute us. This also means the use of these images for Facebook profile pictures. In these cases please make a wall post with a link to our Flickr page. If you do not know how this should be done for Facebook or other media please email us and we will be happy to help suggest how to link to us.

Please email petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com with the links to the photographs you would like to obtain a full resolution copy of. We also ask race organisers, media, etc to ask for permission before use of our images for flyers, posters, etc. We reserve the right to refuse a request.

In summary please remember - all we ask is for you to link back to our Flickr set or Flickr pages. We are not posting photographs to Flickr for commercial reasons. If you really like what we do please spread the link around, send us an email, leave a comment beside the photographs, send us a Flickr email, etc.

I ran the race - but my photograph doesn't appear here in your Flickr set!

As mentioned above we take these photographs as a hobby and as a voluntary contribution to the running community in Ireland. Very often we have actually ran in the same race and then switched to photographer mode after we finished the race. Consequently, we have no obligations to capture a photograph of every participant in the race. However, we do try our very best to capture as many participants as possible. But this is sometimes not possible for a variety of reasons:

    You were hidden behind another participant as you passed our camera

    Weather or lighting conditions meant that we had some photographs with blurry content which we did not upload to our Flickr set

    There were too many people - some races attract thousands of participants and as amateur photographs we cannot hope to capture photographs of everyone

    We simply missed you - sorry about that - we did our best!

You can email us petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com to enquire if we have a photograph of you which didn't make the final Flickr selection for the race. But we cannot promise that there will be photograph there. As alternatives we advise you to contact the race organisers to enquire if there were (1) other photographs taking photographs at the race event or if (2) there were professional commercial sports photographers taking photographs which might have some photographs of you available for purchase. You might find some links for further information above.

If you want to contribute something for these images?

We do not charge for these images. We take these photographs as our contribution to the running community in Ireland. If you feel that the image(s) you request are good enough that you would ordinarily pay for their purchase we would suggest that you can provide a donation to any of the great charities in Ireland who do work for Cancer Care or Cancer Research in Ireland.

Don't like your photograph here?

That's OK! We understand!

If, for any reason, you are not happy or comfortable with your picture appearing here in this photoset on Flickr then please email us at petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com and we will remove it as soon as possible.

pencil, 70 x 100 cm, See it better at: ingriharaldsen.com/

Processed with VSCOcam with 5 preset

A close up of a cozy bead and bedside table with lamp and small birds

I thought about whether to upload and map this shot, because people steal peregrine eggs. But these birds aren't hard to find if you have Google, so I'm just adding to what's already out there.

A tramp saw me looking at the church, so I explained I was looking for the falcons. He fetched some binoculars from another tramp and showed me where he thought the birds were nesting. I think he was just seeing pigeons flying in and out of the arches, but I might be wrong. He said that to see them you have to be a bit "slowly slowly catchy monkey". Yep, that's true - it's best to be patient. He asked my name, so I told him. He shook my hand. I asked his name. He laughed, tapped his nose, and said "Sly".

He tried to recruit me into tramping too. He asked me what I did for a living. I told him about my PhD. He then said "you don't like it though do you!" "You want to be a travelling tramp like me!" ;-) I'll stick with my PhD I reckon. Thomas Pynchon wrote some nice stuff about tramping in The Crying of Lot 49. It's like a whole flipside existence. (Tramps have binoculars!!!). Some people choose it too. It's not for me though.

There was also a very loud fight going on with some tramps while I was taking this shot. As I was shooting the peregrine, someone was on the ground getting kicked. Lots of shouting and swearing. Lots of kicking.

(After thinking about this shot... I can find a much better vantage point next time. Hope to get on an eyeline with the bird! Might mean I have to stand around with the tramps though. Maybe that would work out okay. A dozen pairs of eyes are better than just one pair. Maybe. Maybe not.)

A weird thing was that pigeons were nesting right underneath the peregrines. I've heard the phrase 'keep your friends close but your enemies closer', but that's taking it too far. Pigeons should create their own saying: Never ever nest underneath a peregrine.