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Ebook alert!
This image taken at Hopetoun falls is one of over 50 which feature in our new ebook entitled "EP's essential field guide".
It is full of tips for you to put into practice in the field. For this image for instance, the tip is to consider taking polarised and unpolarised images of the same scene for waterfalls to achieve vibrant glareless foilage as well as a reflection. Follow the link below to the ebook and preview 4 pages which should hopefully persuade you to keep this as a companion :)
A pair of modern-day EMDs leads a southbound blade train through Colorado Springs, CO.
This wider-angle shot shows the length of these blades quite nicely...longer than a couple of ACe. This was the first instance I've seen blades with orange tips like this.
From the same evening I posted a sunset over urban trees is this instance, focusing on a fence instead of the trees :) Happy Fenced Friday everyone!
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My technique is alway the same:
Three exposures -2EV, 0, +2EV and then temperature adjustement using Lightroom and layering with luminosity mask using photoshop. Removal of distracting stuff with the stamp tool or patch tool. High pass filter to enhance details. Then saturation, contrast selectively control, dodge and burn where need...
DRI stand for Dynamic Range Increase. Three RAW files are used to achieve this. Rather than using a software like Photomatix for instance, I simply use mask to blend, my own way, the light, dark and normal shot with Photoshop and Lightroom.. To me, It looks more natural than the usual HDR treatment that I would normally applied.
Merci pour les visites, commentaires, récompenses, invitations et favoris. S.V.P. n'utilisez pas mes images sur des sites web, blogs ou autres médias sans ma permission.
Merci!
© Tous droits réservés
Ma technique est toujours la même:
Trois prises de vue -2EV, 0, +2EV. Ensuite ajustement de la température de couleur avec Lightroom et usage de calques et masques de luminosités avec Photoshop. Retrait d'éléments de distraction avec l'outil tampon. Filtre High pass pour le rehaussement des détails. Ensuite saturation et contraste ajustés de façon sélectives et locales. Dodge and burn là où requis...
DRI vient de l'anglais Dynmic Range Increase, qui pourrait se traduire par étendue dynamique améliorée. Les même 3 fichiers RAW entrent dans la composition d'un DRI. Plutôt que de se servir d'un logiciel comme Photomatix qui fait tout le travail, je me sers plutôt de masques pour filtrer l'éclairage dans photoshop et Lightroom. De mon point de vue, cette façon de faire donne une image plus naturel que le traitement HDR que j'employais auparavant.
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The Northern Lights of The Aurora Borealis form amazing displays. As humans through identify threat and food we begin to see all sorts of things within all sorts of often none related things. Pareidolia is the term applied to our making sense of shapes and patterns that brings an acceptance of a structure in an image that many will be also able to see such as either a face for instance, or maybe here a Dragon? The Dragon was visible forming and flying on all through one area of The Northern Lights of The Aurora Borealis that were dancing and continually moving.
As for the title, “is it better either One, Number Two, or Three, maybe Four,” would it be of no surprise to mention that I have seen an Optician recently?
© PHH Sykes 2024 also edited © PHH Sykes 2025
phhsykes@gmail.com
A rural 7.9 miles up the road from my home, this was taken from a turnout where I’ll occasionally go to watch the sun set from my car. The sun sets behind me, projecting an alpenglow, the magenta color you see here from the indirect sunlight, onto the mountain range in front of me. For as long as there aren’t any clouds blocking the sun at sunset, you’ll get these vivid colors that slowly fade the mountains to sleep. Then I go home.
Magenta is a pigment of your imagination. When you blend the light waves from opposite ends of the visible color spectrum, purple and red, you get magenta. Magenta does not have a wavelength, and therefore it does not exist. Magenta is a very uncommon color to interpret in nature, but alpenglow is one way to interpret an abundance of it.
Another way to ‘see’ this made-up color is to stare at a loud lime-greenish color for a while and then look away. Since our brain adjusts input from the cones in our eyes for color temperature, everything should look magenta briefly when looking away from the green – in much of the same way being outside for a while can turn everything in your home blue briefly when you first return inside. Intensely staring at a color and then looking away will introduce its complimentary color around you until the brain readjusts.
In this instance, the mountain’s color is so bold and vast that it becomes the primary influencer in how we perceive the other colors in this photo because our brain is using the mountain as the main subject for color temperature interpretation. Look at those trees in your peripheral while you continue to focus on the mountain. Do the trees look forest-green? Now just focus on the trees without looking at the mountain. They should look grey. The trees are actually a de-saturated blue color.
So, are the mountains actually magenta or are our eyes just adjusting for how green nature is at sunset creating magenta as a result?
"High authorities"
Le Monument international de la Réformation, généralement connu sous le nom de Mur des réformateurs (Genève - Suisse)
Website : www.fluidr.com/photos/pat21
www.flickriver.com/photos/pat21/sets/
"Copyright © – Patrick Bouchenard
The reproduction, publication, modification, transmission or exploitation of any work contained here in for any use, personal or commercial, without my prior written permission is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved."
Excerpt from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississauga_Civic_Centre:
The Mississauga Civic Centre is the seat of local government of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. The 37,280 square metre complex is a prominent example of postmodern architecture in Canada, finished in 1987 by Jones and Kirkland. It stands at 92 metres or 302 feet. The design was influenced by farmsteads which once occupied much of Mississauga as well as historical features of city centres. The building, for instance, includes a prominent clock tower. It was chosen as the winner of a design competition that included 246 submissions. Mississauga Civic Centre is located in the City Centre near Square One Shopping Centre and is home to the Mississauga City Council. The civic center building is considered one of the most iconic and recognizable buildings and cultural icons of Mississauga city.
It's interesting how scarcity alters the perception. For instance, I happen to think that the magpie (Pica pica) is one of the absolutely most beautiful birds we have in Sweden with that high contrast white and black plumage and a metallic green shimmer hiding in the black parts - but since it's an extremely common bird, people seem to rarely notice its beauty.
This here is a bee beetle (Trichius fasciatus) which if not common, at least not rare around these parts. I posted a shot of one of these several years back and got an impressed comment from someone in the UK as I in his eyes had shot an extremely rare beetle - as it is much more scarce in the UK than here.
This of course works both ways as there are loads of cool UK bugs that would be awesome to come across up here.
This particular bee beetle was enjoying pollen on a tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) near the boat pier at Lillsved in the northern part of the peninsula of Värmdö, just east of Stockholm, Sweden.
There's quite a few instances where GP40TCs led trains 29 & 30, the Capitol Limited during the early 1990s. Witness #193 leading 29 at 4:47pm on September 13th 1992. AD Saleker took this shot at Washington Grove, MD. This same pair of engines led #30 which came east earlier that day, of which I have the companion AD Saleker shot taken at Metropolitan Grove. JL Sessa collection.
living the dream at outer perimeter fence of the nurrungar US satellite tracking base, near woomera, south australia, circa 1993
(not just 7 years in prison, also a fine of $50,000, as my, um, souvenired version of a different instance of the sign makes clear!)
kodak gold 200 colour negative film, plustek opticfilm 8200i scanner
Over this summer the Hungarian State Railways have been testing a new revolutionary solution for diesel locomotives to reduce carbon emission.
The system is called NatuRail™ and can be retrofitted to any diesel engine: Here for instance it is running inside a 1978 class M41 on the UltraECO setting, making the red beast spit out hay bales instead of the ugly CO2.
So jokes aside, this is rerouted IC #12182, slowly reaching Hidasnémeti station where the engine will be swapped for a ZSSK electric locomotive to bring the train to its final destination, Kosice in Slovakia.
A disused factory is keeping the vandals busy. The saying, "the devil finds work for idle hands" seems apt in this instance. It isn't a quote from the Bible, but there's perhaps a grain of truth in it.
We all have a fallen, sinful nature. Whilst I am sure that, at times, the devil is only too willing to capitalise on that fact, we really don't need to blame the devil for inspiring our bad behaviour.
You and I might never have been tempted to break windows and spray-paint the walls of someone else's building, but, when left to our own devices, we often tend towards selfish, indulgent and destructive behaviour.
If we are honest, I think we can admit that we rarely live up to the standards we set for ourselves, nor the standards we expect of others. How much less, then, do we measure up against the standards God has set?
Romans 3:23 says: "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
Now, if your property was the target of vandalism, I'm sure you would like to see the perpetrators caught and punished. If there were any justice in the world they would be. Well, God is just. And He has promised a final judgement for all of us:
"It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." (Hebrews 9:27)
On judgement day, none of us will be able to claim that we measure up to God's standards. Let's face it, we don't even live up to our own!
Whether we realise it or not, we are all 'guilty as charged' in God's courtroom and awaiting sentencing. Justice demands punishment, but God has already paid the penalty. He has made it possible for us to have our 'charge sheet' wiped clean:
"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)
We cannot pay for a life of rebellion towards God, but we can exercise "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21) in order to accept God's gift of forgiveness.
"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:23)
Taken from Yari Hut. Routes to tackle are separated in 2ways, for instance, the left-hand side ladders are for ascending, the right-hand side descending. Each route takes 30min to complete (standard duration time, so give or take a few/some min, depending on your pace when you're at it).
A photo that's been sat in the box for years and never seen the light of day is one of National Power's 59204 during a crew change at Gloucester whilst hauling 4Z91 Aberthaw to Ferrybridge on 18th November 1996. Bit of a challenge to get the slide looking correct and even after some slider bar activity in Photoshop its still way off in my eyes.
Very few pictures or information seems to exist of this and it's associated working. It started out as 4Z90 Ferrybridge to Avonmouth BHT on 16th November 1996. It was then loaded with coal at the bulk terminal and worked over to Aberthaw as 4Z93 13.35 Avonmouth to Aberthaw on the 17th. Once at Aberthaw it was named "Vale of Glamorgan" on the 18th as Aberthaw was a National Power power station. After unloading it worked back to Ferrybridge as per photograph.
Working at the BBHT the day it turned up it was the first instance I came across of a privatised railway. The loco had a number of National Power staff on board and we were told it was nothing to do with us and they would do all the run/round, loading and paperwork themselves. They had no idea what they were doing with little or no training but this was the start of the modern railfreight railway as we know today. Progress!
The loco entered service for National Power in October 1995. It eventually became a EWS machine after NP sold out of the rail haulage business and in time became a regular at Westbury where I was to spend 100's of hours with it on Mendip services before it transferred (sold) to Freightliner after they won the MRL contract.,
Pentax 6 x 7 Scan
© Neil Higson
Crail... is a former royal burgh, parish and community council area (Royal Burgh of Crail and District) in the East Neuk of Fife, Scotland. The civil parish has a population of 1,812 (in 2011). The name Crail was recorded in 1148 as Cherel and in 1153 as Karel. The first element is the Pictish *cair (c.f. Welsh caer) meaning "fort", though this word seems to have been borrowed into Gaelic. The second element may be either Gaelic ail, "rocks", or more problematically Pictish *al; no certain instance of this word exists in P-Celtic. However, if the generic element were Pictish, then this is likely of the specific. Quoted from Wikipedia
Forest pictures are something i really find difficult. The light is often difficult, and it is difficult to cast the feeling you have when walking in it. The size of the trees for instance hardly can be expressed (by me).
When I was walking to the Butze Rapids (see www.flickr.com/photos/115540984@N02/20187529544/) these plants, with the obscure and not so inviting name of Skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus), were lit by the sun in a great way. The plant belongs to the family of the Araceae, which is very common in the tropics, and also lots of them are houseplant. It took quite some time to puzzle how I could make the best picture. In the field, how to catch the light in the best way, and afterwards how to process it. In the end I decided to crop it somewhat to have a better balance between the light and the dark parts, and to focus more on the flower. I hope you like this one.
From the 11th of June till the 25th of July, I traveled in Canada. Starting in Brighton Ontario, where my sister lives at the border of an amazing part of lake Ontario, I flew to Vancouver, and Vancouver island where I took the boat at Port Hardy to take part 1 of the Inside passage, to Prince Rupert in BC. Two days later I took part 2 to Skagway in Alaska. When coming from Skagway Alaska, you can take the train to Carcross. it is a very scenic train ride that halts at Bennet lake.
And then to Whitehorse and further on by car to Kluane National park in the Yukon district. Whitehorse is situated at the border of the Yukon. Frow there I flew back to Vancouver, rented a car, and traveled three weeks in the BC- and Alberta Rockies, visiting the famous, and less famous Nature parks like Banff and Jasper. Last few days back to Brighton Ontario to enjoy lake Ontario once more, before going home. A picture of my itinerary can be found on Facebook (www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152940536581759&set...).
4000 pictures later, it is quite a task to show the right stuff, although the stunning scenery guarantees at least a few great shots to share. Objective will be to make a book (for myself mainly), and that might take a while.
I hope you will enjoy the impression of my travel, one that equals earlier journeys to Alaska and south America, this journey was the first in the digital era, and equally intensive because of all the hiking activities every day on and on. I loved every minute of it.
We "meandered" on our way back from Shelby, stopping in every small town. Each place had something different to offer.
Take the tiny town of Champion, for instance. It should have been called "Halloweenville." Or maybe "Laststopforstupidcitypeoplewhodrivedownbackalleys-ton." This was a seriously creepy place...so creepy that you could feel...ummmm..."creepy" in the air, sort of like the way a carnival feels when the people have all gone home. Everything looked brown or dead.
There's an abandoned hotel, with clapboard walls bowing with age, a surreal display of a scarecrow doll in tiny park that rustles with the dueling corpses of brittle branches. (Both of these photos somehow showed up on Larry Talbot's photostream.) Even the obligatory small town Alberta Chinese restaurant had a sinister look that would leave you wondering if you'd ever walk out again...after dining on moo shoo pork that would undoubtedly taste just a little funny.
Sheree and I decided to drive down a couple of back alleys. Of course. That's where we saw this garage.
To the immediate left, just out of the frame, is a hulking pickup truck, battered and rusting with a license plate that says "Evil, Wicked Mean and Nasty." I've seen this plate before, of course. But it seemed to fit here, looking like a vehicle direct from a Stephen King novel, parked in a back yard where they do unspeakable things late at night while late autumn leaves dance in the wind.
We paused to look at this building and take some shots because it is, well...a really interesting building.
"Someone's coming," said Sheree...rather suddenly, I thought.
I was about 40% freaked out by Champion so I drove away with as much nonchalance as I could muster under the circumstances, trying hard not to spin the tires because everyone knows that the jerk who spins his tires as he drives away from the cannibal hillbilly is the first to die. (Right before the brain-dead-heroine-who-for-reasons-only-a-brain-dead-heroine-could-possibly-understand-goes-down-into-the-basement-of-an-abandoned-building-in-her-underwear-carrying-a-flashlight-powered-by-dubious-batteries-even-though-she-freaking-KNOWS-some-nut-with-a-chainsaw-has-just-murdered-all-of-her-friends gets killed.)
"Did you see that guy?" asked Sheree. She went on to describe a guy in a cowboy hat who looked like one of the inbred wild eyed psychopaths from "The Hills Have Eyes."
"Why did you drive away?" she asked.
It seemed pretty obvious to me, so I just looked at her, as visions of my own head mounted on the wall just under the STOP sign came to mind.
I love road trips.
'In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.' (Auden) 😊
There have been a few instances a while back last year when I posted a picture that got almost no hits for a couple days, as if it was not showing up correctly on Flickr. Once such case is the STL 673, which I am reposting here in the D&H album. Thanks to those who saw it before; for those who didn't, I present the RPPY of 11 November 1985, heading west at BD in Binghamton, part of the great tunnel detour that routed all D&H traffic over the Penn Division in one last blaze of glory. Leading a bunch of Alco power is C-424m No. 456.
Sélestat (Bas-Rhin) - Tribunal d'instance (1900, style néogothique)
fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A9lestat#Lieux_et_monuments
fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribunal_d%27instance_de_S%C3%A9lestat
Some photographs communicate the photographer's state of mind to the viewer. For instance, a majestic mountain top sunrise might convey the photographer's state of awe, whereas a placid lake conveys his or her feelings of tranquility and calm, or a solitary leaf conveys feelings of loneliness or isolation.
This is probably not one of those photographs.
As a photographer, it's impossible to totally isolate yourself afterwards from the experience of taking the photograph and view it entirely objectively, like any other person would viewing it fresh for the first time.
But I can try.
Looking at this photo, I think most folks would see the zig-zag trail heading into a bright clearing and, perhaps depending on whether they are optimists or pessimists, think about the phrases "light at the end of the tunnel" or "not out of the woods yet," respectively. The soft snow looks sleepy and comfortable, but the shadowy woods along the path are a little spooky and mysterious. And the cool blue tones are icy and refreshing, like a stick of winterfresh gum.
While those thoughts may have subconsciously played a part in me making this photograph, I can assure you that is not what was going through my head at the time. This was the day after my three-year-old daughter's birthday party, which was Beauty and the Beast themed, and the only thing running through my head on loop all day -- throughout my entire 4.5 hour hike -- was that little candlestick singing "Be our Guest."
But please, if I am wrong and that got through to anyone viewing this photo, please let me know.
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Licence disponible sur [ GETTY IMAGES ]
Licence available at
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Thanks for the visits, comments, awards, invitations and favorites. Please don't use my images on websites, blogs or others medias without my explicit permission.
Thanks!
© All rights reserved
My technique is alway the same:
Three exposures -2EV, 0, +2EV and then temperature adjustement using Lightroom and layering with luminosity mask using photoshop. Removal of distracting stuff with the stamp tool or patch tool. High pass filter to enhance details. Then saturation, contrast selectively control, dodge and burn where need...
DRI stand for Dynamic Range Increase. Three RAW files are used to achieve this. Rather than using a software like Photomatix for instance, I simply use mask to blend, my own way, the light, dark and normal shot with Photoshop and Lightroom.. To me, It looks more natural than the usual HDR treatment that I would normally applied.
Merci pour les visites, commentaires, récompenses, invitations et favoris. S.V.P. n'utilisez pas mes images sur des sites web, blogs ou autres médias sans ma permission.
Merci!
© Tous droits réservés
Ma technique est toujours la même:
Trois prises de vue -2EV, 0, +2EV. Ensuite ajustement de la température de couleur avec Lightroom et usage de calques et masques de luminosités avec Photoshop. Retrait d'éléments de distraction avec l'outil tampon. Filtre High pass pour le rehaussement des détails. Ensuite saturation et contraste ajustés de façon sélectives et locales. Dodge and burn là où requis...
DRI vient de l'anglais Dynmic Range Increase, qui pourrait se traduire par étendue dynamique améliorée. Les même 3 fichiers RAW entrent dans la composition d'un DRI. Plutôt que de se servir d'un logiciel comme Photomatix qui fait tout le travail, je me sers plutôt de masques pour filtrer l'éclairage dans photoshop et Lightroom. De mon point de vue, cette façon de faire donne une image plus naturel que le traitement HDR que j'employais auparavant.
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Follow me on FACEBOOK
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WEBSITE .......: www.jeansurprenant.com
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My GETTY IMAGES work
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Licence disponible sur [ GETTY IMAGES ]
Licence available at
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A rare instance, the beach boxes at Brighton with virtually no one around. Mind you I had to choose my moment, there was a busload of tourists around when I first arrived.
These two Welsh flags fly atop the greatest of all the towers at Caernarfon Castle. We visited there and left exhausted but exhilerated after climbing about a thousand stairs in this massive place, often in almost complete darkness ! It was quite perilous in some parts, because of the twisting narrow stone stairs. Go up and come down at your own risk ! But who can resist?
Completed in 1283 as part of a war between Edward 1st and the then Welsh Princes. Here Edward and his military architect Master James of St George erected a castle, town walls and a quay all at the same time on the banks of the River Seiont. It's now the site of the Investiture of the Prince of Wales and has World Heritage status.
Fabulous views from the towers and battlements. Lots of things to fascinate - for instance, arrow slits up the stairways of the stone towers. I would love to have been a 'fly on the wall' to see how the people lived there back then. Dangerous times in England and Wales.
~ Processed in Topaz Studio with a texture of my own applied for dramatic effect ! ~
Thanks as always for every view and comment - always so appreciated. Happy new week my Flickr friends !
Throughout Cirque du Mystère, there are instances that will damage your health. Your health will restore over time, but for instant gains, Health Potions are available.
There are 3 levels of potions. Your game HUD comes with a few potions already preloaded to help you get started! Additional potions can be purchased with Circus Coins.
Find the Circus Coins and Potions vendor at the Game Start: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/MadPea%20Mad%20City/90/86/25
I recently returned from a four week long photography trip to such places as Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska and Wyoming. I shot around 270 sheets and 70 rolls of 120 film using mostly two cameras.
I have arranged my life in such a way that makes doing a trip like this possible. It's a bit of sacrifice, but it's worth it.
For this trip, I experimented with almost ever shot. This naturally means that I'll have many photos that simply didn't work out. For instance, out of the first eight sheets that I've developed only three or four are worth looking at. And maybe only two are worth sharing.
This is one of them.
The location was the Sink House in North Dakota. It was recommended to me by photographic friend, Taylor. I saw a photo that incorporated the sink and then wondered how I might do it differently.
Then I forgot what that photo looked like and did it this way.
I used a 90mm lens - my widest in 4x5 - to incorporate the sink and the tree, as well as the sky.
Wanting it to be dark and dramatic, I shot HP5 at 1600, but used a few ND filters to tamp it down. This brough reciprocity failure into the picture (literally) and darked up the edges of the frame. But it also allowed me to shoot it at f/64 AND get a long exposure (one second).
This allowed the still objects - the sink and the tree - to remain still, but to show how there is an endless amount of motion on the prairie. A faster shutter would represent the place as calm, and it really wasn't.
A deep yellow filter handled the sky, which was lovely, but not nearly as dramatic. I wanted drama.
This is a photo that should be seen in a larger version, but what can be done?
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'Predicate'
Camera: Chamonix 45F-2
Lens: Schneider-Kreuznach Super-Angulon 8/90mm
Film: Ilford HP5+ at 1600iso
Exposure: f/64; 1sec; Yellow Filter
Process: HC-110B; 11min
North Dakota
July 2022
This is a Rufous-banded Owl, found in the cloud forests of the Andes. Sometimes these owls materialize out of the night to hunt the moths that swarm to the buildings of research stations. This one was still focused on his quarry despite my light and the excited chatter of our group at the dinner table.
These owls can be quite curious, something I was fortunate enough to experience on multiple nights. Their booming hoots can be heard for kilometers, and occasionally I would imitate them. On a few occasions, the owl would fly right in close and I would get to converse with one of these great beasts for a few minutes! I am always humbled by moments like these, moments where I feel so connected to nature. The beauty of the wild is that if you take a moment to try and understand it, to listen to it, sometimes you can speak back in a magical way. Maybe this is just whimsy, but I always feel a little closer to some proverbial home in these instances.
Yanayacu Biological Station, EC
‘Always do what you are afraid to do.’
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
When I was a child, I would love to say that I was fearless, but that would be a lie. Growing up in the 60’s and 70’s I was blessed with a childhood blanketed with adventure in a region teaming with kids who were always looking for something to throw a rock at or poke with a stick. Our proximity to the Ohio River provided immeasurable shenanigans and adventures. Being chased by snakes, muskrats and in a few cases angry old guys, I may well have come off as just another fearless, dirt covered kid of the day. That certainly was not the case as I was scared to death of heights and truly hated that about myself.
When God places your soul in the last generation that lived to climb trees and build really crappy, OSHA nightmare style treehouses and you are afraid of heights, you learn to joke, hide and adapt. There was a reason that I was always the “ground crew” in charge of finding dropped nails and handing up boards. I would always suck up the fear enough to climb up to the rickety newly constructed platform, look around and exclaim how great it was, then climb down as quickly as possible…never to return.
When I was about 11-12 years old my parents decided to build a large room addition on the back of our house. My father was a wonderful father in every aspect of the word. He did all the work himself as he was a jack of all trades. I can still see him with a hammer in his hand, a cigarette in this mouth and a pencil behind his ear working away. I can only remember him asking for help one time…the worse possible time for me…when it was time to shingle the roof.
As I watched my father and brother scurry up the ladder and onto the boarded roof like direct descendants of Tarzan, I stood below petrified. When dad asked me to start bringing up shingles, soiling myself became an option!
I only made it about 2/3rds of the way up the ladder before I froze in place and started shaking. I can still shut my eyes right now and see my father’s face, a mere 52 years later. The look of disappointment as he truly needed our help, was matched in his voice as he released me from my curse with the words “Just go inside and help your mother!” Just for reference, his look and tone perfectly matched the father (Darren McGavin) in “A Christmas Story” when Ralphie spills the lug nuts on the side of the road. Unlike Ralphie, I did not drop the F-bomb. However, when dad said to go help my mother, what I heard in my heart was “Get the hell off my ladder you little female sex organ!”
Isn’t it funny how what seems to be unkind words at the time can become THE most impactful, life changing words…a blessing of truth from a loved one to another. Never wanting to see his face in that light again coupled with just being tired of the fear lead me to start working on my problem that day. After dinner that evening when everyone was inside, I went out and climbed atop the small coral behind our garage. It was probably only 7-8 feet up, but it was my start. Within a week or so, I had graduated to the garage roof. Later that summer when no one was home, I conquered my Everest, the roof that started it all. As any corrective therapy goes, it took time, but when embarrassment outweighs fear, great things can happen!
Over the years that followed, I was blessed with hundreds of instances that never could have happened if I had allowed the fear to rule. From climbing our high school football field light poles in a thunderstorm to hang inappropriate sheet banners our senior year to countless high-altitude opportunities in my 20 years in the Navy. In the summer of 1992 (best guess) for Father’s Day, I asked my bride for a lone skydiving trip. She thought I was nuts, but a big part of my request was to put the final nail in the coffin of my fear of heights. When my jump master told me to “Exit the aircraft” for my jump, I did so without hesitation.
When my shoot popped open at 3000 ft, I had been instructed to immediately take the toggles and start to maneuver the parashoot. I decided it was much more important to take a few seconds to throw my arms in the air, Rocky style as the fear became that thing who would never be allowed to return.
Today, I seek out encounters that provide a fraction, maybe 1/100th of what was my fear of heights. I never feel more alive than when I am in the presence of something that can kill me. I long for the thrill of danger coupled with the blessing of being in the presence of might. Whether it is in the company of bears, bison, snakes or in this case a medium sized (8-9’) alligator, I love it!
Adventure before dementia includes the thrill of being in harm’s way.
And yes, I have Ralph Waldo Emerson and Ralphie from 'A Christmas Story' in the same tale!
This shot is from the archives and taken on the Juniper River, Florida on 09 October 2023.
F'r instance, how am I gonna stop some big, mean Mother Hubbard from tearing me a structurally superfluous new behind? The answer, is a gun. And if that don't work? Use more gun. Like this heavy caliber tripod mounted little old number designed by me, built by me, and you best hope...
...not pointed at you.
A portrait that in it's instance loses it's real time and is transformed into a perfect analogon of reality, sculpting her beauty through light.
Two light Setup. One 3x4 Profoto and a 5' Octa, with Giant Reflector panel from the right. Profoto acute 2400 generator.
Hasselblad H3D 31 with Hasselblad 210 HCD.
Photography John Magas & Anthea Blanas
Model Evangelia Gkountroumpi
Retouch John Magas
Find me on Facebook www.facebook.com/johnmagasdesign
This is one of those photographic instances when you wish the sun was not out and it is a bright but cloudy day. The sunshine and long autumn shadows caused some awkward lighting conditions on the initial colour result. However, after a number of attempts and iterations with todays technology and conversion to black and white I have managed to achieve an acceptable image.
Northern 158869 stands in the single remaining platform at Bishop Auckland having just arrived working 2D07. 10:57 Saltburn – Bishop Auckland, 7th November 2021.
At its height after its 1905 rebuild Bishop Auckland was an extensive station with platforms on all three sides of the triangle of lines and substantial station buildings in the middle of the triangle. The current single platform is on the site of the original platform 1 which had an overall roof.
yet another instance of this pedestrian passage in Edinburgh, which is find utterly wonderful and scifiesque.
Pieris rapae (cabbage butterfly, cabbage white) on a Linaria maroccana (Moroccan toadflax) in one of our wildflower lawns.
Christchurch, New Zealand.
When it first landed, it has its tongue extended so was at least having a taste - however I haven't observed them drinking nectar from these. Bumblebees and bees also check them out from time to time, but I suspect they are attracted by the bright colours but don't find them appealing.
By this point it was simply using the flower as a perching place, likely in order to observe me while trying to decide whether or not I was a cabbage and hence good eating for its prospective caterpillars.
UPDATE - actually, have seen a few more instances of them landing to feed, and bumblebees also (though they weigh them down to the ground making photographing them tricky!)
Grass Snake (Natrix natrix). Woodwalton Fen National Nature Reserve, Cambridgeshire. Saturday 25th March 2017.
A photomosaic of three images, merged using Adobe Photoshop Elements 12. Can be viewed large (left click or press Z), but no bigger.
One of the more instantly recognisable grass snakes at WWF, this one has a nasty scar on its right flank just behind the collar (not immediately obvious from this angle though) and appears to be missing the tip of its tail. I've nicknamed it Lucky, as in 'Lucky to be alive'.
Lucky can normally be found basking close to Cyclops (see: www.flickr.com/photos/julianhodgson/32759851664/), but is usually tightly coiled amongst the vegetation. In this instance however, Cyclops was nowhere to be seen and Lucky had nicked his place, offering the opportunity for a reasonably unobstructed shot.
The holly bears a berry
As red as any blood
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
To do poor sinners good.
O, the rising of the sun
And the running of the deer
The playing of the merry organ
Sweet singing in the choir.
The holly bears a prickle
As sharp as any thorn
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
On Christmas Day in the morn.
A lot of berries on these this year. The saying is that if the birds don't eat them early it means it will be a hard winter and they are leaving them for when it gets really cold. Today I think that has changed for they are getting so well fed by people that they are not bothering to seek out food for themselves. I find it sad when I see over fat robins for instance, for it means they are becoming clumsy and less free in their movements making them more likely to be attacked by predators. The science tells us that birds have spent millenium refining their body shapes and weight to make them the best possible for the long distance flights that migratory ones undertake. We need to be careful not to overfeed them.
Information from: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Cod
Cape Cod
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This article is about the area of Massachusetts. For other uses, see Cape Cod (disambiguation).
For other uses, see Cod (disambiguation).
Coordinates: 41°41′20″N 70°17′49″W / 41.68889°N 70.29694°W / 41.68889; -70.29694
Map of Massachusetts, with Cape Cod (Barnstable County) indicated in red
Dunes on Sandy Neck are part of the Cape's barrier beach which helps to prevent erosion
Cape Cod, often referred to locally as simply the Cape, is an island and a cape in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States. It is coextensive with Barnstable County. Several small islands right off Cape Cod, including Monomoy Island, Monomoscoy Island, Popponesset Island, and Seconsett Island, are also in Barnstable County, being part of municipalities with land on the Cape. The Cape's small-town character and large beachfront attract heavy tourism during the summer months.
Cape Cod was formed as the terminal moraine of a glacier, resulting in a peninsula in the Atlantic Ocean. In 1914, the Cape Cod Canal was cut through the base or isthmus of the peninsula, forming an island. The Cape Cod Commission refers to the resultant landmass as an island; as does the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in regards to disaster preparedness.[1] It is still identified as a peninsula by geographers, who do not change landform designations based on man-made canal construction.[citation needed]
Unofficially, it is one of the biggest barrier islands in the world, shielding much of the Massachusetts coastline from North Atlantic storm waves. This protection helps to erode the Cape shoreline at the expense of cliffs, while protecting towns from Fairhaven to Marshfield.
Road vehicles from the mainland cross over the Cape Cod Canal via the Sagamore Bridge and the Bourne Bridge. The two bridges are parallel, with the Bourne Bridge located slightly farther southwest. In addition, the Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge carries railway freight as well as tourist passenger services.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Geography and political divisions
o 1.1 "Upper" and "Lower"
* 2 Geology
* 3 Climate
* 4 Native population
* 5 History
* 6 Lighthouses of Cape Cod
* 7 Transportation
o 7.1 Bus
o 7.2 Rail
o 7.3 Taxi
* 8 Tourism
* 9 Sport fishing
* 10 Sports
* 11 Education
* 12 Islands off Cape Cod
* 13 See also
* 14 References
o 14.1 Notes
o 14.2 Sources
o 14.3 Further reading
* 15 External links
[edit] Geography and political divisions
Towns of Barnstable County
historical map of 1890
The highest elevation on Cape Cod is 306 feet (93 m), at the top of Pine Hill, in the Bourne portion of the Massachusetts Military Reservation. The lowest point is sea level.
The body of water located between Cape Cod and the mainland, bordered to the north by Massachusetts Bay, is Cape Cod Bay; west of Cape Cod is Buzzards Bay. The Cape Cod Canal, completed in 1916, connects Buzzards Bay to Cape Cod Bay; it shortened the trade route between New York and Boston by 62 miles.[2] To the south of Cape Cod lie Nantucket Sound; Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, both large islands, and the mostly privately owned Elizabeth Islands.
Cape Cod incorporates all of Barnstable County, which comprises 15 towns: Bourne, Sandwich, Falmouth, and Mashpee, Barnstable, Yarmouth, Dennis, Harwich, Brewster, Chatham, Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro, and Provincetown. Two of the county's fifteen towns (Bourne and Sandwich) include land on the mainland side of the Cape Cod Canal. The towns of Plymouth and Wareham, in adjacent Plymouth County, are sometimes considered to be part of Cape Cod but are not located on the island.
In the 17th century the designation Cape Cod applied only to the tip of the peninsula, essentially present-day Provincetown. Over the ensuing decades, the name came to mean all the land east of the Manomet and Scussett rivers - essentially the line of the 20th century Cape Cod Canal. Now, the complete towns of Bourne and Sandwich are widely considered to incorporate the full perimeter of Cape Cod, even though small parts of these towns are located on the west side of the canal. The canal divides the largest part of the peninsula from the mainland and the resultant landmass is sometimes referred to as an island.[3][4] Additionally some "Cape Codders" – residents of "The Cape" – refer to all land on the mainland side of the canal as "off-Cape."
For most of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, Cape Cod was considered to consist of three sections:
* The Upper Cape is the part of Cape Cod closest to the mainland, comprising the towns of Bourne, Sandwich, Falmouth, and Mashpee. Falmouth is the home of the famous Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and several other research organizations, and is also the most-used ferry connection to Martha's Vineyard. Falmouth is composed of several separate villages, including East Falmouth, Falmouth Village, Hatchville, North Falmouth, Teaticket, Waquoit, West Falmouth, and Woods Hole, as well as several smaller hamlets that are incorporated into their larger neighbors (e.g., Davisville, Falmouth Heights, Quissett, Sippewissett, and others).[5]
* The Mid-Cape includes the towns of Barnstable, Yarmouth and Dennis. The Mid-Cape area features many beautiful beaches, including warm-water beaches along Nantucket Sound, e.g., Kalmus Beach in Hyannis, which gets its name from one of the inventors of Technicolor, Herbert Kalmus. This popular windsurfing destination was bequeathed to the town of Barnstable by Dr. Kalmus on condition that it not be developed, possibly one of the first instances of open-space preservation in the US. The Mid-Cape is also the commercial and industrial center of the region. There are seven villages in Barnstable, including Barnstable Village, Centerville, Cotuit, Hyannis, Marstons Mills, Osterville, and West Barnstable, as well as several smaller hamlets that are incorporated into their larger neighbors (e.g., Craigville, Cummaquid, Hyannisport, Santuit, Wianno, and others).[6] There are three villages in Yarmouth: South Yarmouth, West Yarmouth and Yarmouthport. There are five villages in Dennis including, Dennis Village(North Dennis), East Dennis, West Dennis, South Dennis and Dennisport.[7]
* The Lower Cape traditionally included all of the rest of the Cape,or the towns of Harwich, Brewster, Chatham, Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro, and Provincetown. This area includes the Cape Cod National Seashore, a national park comprising much of the outer Cape, including the entire east-facing coast, and is home to some of the most popular beaches in America, such as Coast Guard Beach and Nauset Light Beach in Eastham. Stephen Leatherman, aka "Dr. Beach", named Coast Guard Beach the 5th best beach in America for 2007.[8]
[edit] "Upper" and "Lower"
The terms "Upper" and "Lower" as applied to the Cape have nothing to do with north and south. Instead, they derive from maritime convention at the time when the principal means of transportation involved watercraft, and the prevailing westerly winds meant that a boat with sails traveling northeast in Cape Cod Bay would have the wind at its back and thus be going downwind, while a craft sailing southwest would be going against the wind, or upwind.[9] Similarly, on nearby Martha's Vineyard, "Up Island" still is the western section and "Down Island" is to the east, and in Maine, "Down East" is similarly defined by the winds and currents.
Over time, the reasons for the traditional nomenclature became unfamiliar and their meaning obscure. Late in the 1900s, new arrivals began calling towns from Eastham to Provincetown the "Outer Cape", yet another geographic descriptor which is still in use, as is the "Inner Cape."
[edit] Geology
Cape Cod and Cape Cod Bay from space.[10]
East of America, there stands in the open Atlantic the last fragment of an ancient and vanished land. Worn by the breakers and the rains, and disintegrated by the wind, it still stands bold.
“
”
Henry Beston, The Outermost House
Cape Cod forms a continuous archipelagic region with a thin line of islands stretching toward New York, historically known by naturalists as the Outer Lands. This continuity is due to the fact that the islands and Cape are all terminal glacial moraines laid down some 16,000 to 20,000 years ago.
Most of Cape Cod's geological history involves the advance and retreat of the Laurentide ice sheet in the late Pleistocene geological era and the subsequent changes in sea level. Using radiocarbon dating techniques, researchers have determined that around 23,000 years ago, the ice sheet reached its maximum southward advance over North America, and then started to retreat. Many "kettle ponds" — clear, cold lakes — were formed and remain on Cape Cod as a result of the receding glacier. By about 18,000 years ago, the ice sheet had retreated past Cape Cod. By roughly 15,000 years ago, it had retreated past southern New England. When so much of Earth's water was locked up in massive ice sheets, the sea level was lower. Truro's bayside beaches used to be a petrified forest, before it became a beach.
As the ice began to melt, the sea began to rise. Initially, sea level rose quickly, about 15 meters (50 ft) per 1,000 years, but then the rate declined. On Cape Cod, sea level rose roughly 3 meters (11 ft) per millennium between 6,000 and 2,000 years ago. After that, it continued to rise at about 1 meter (3 ft) per millennium. By 6,000 years ago, the sea level was high enough to start eroding the glacial deposits that the vanished continental ice sheet had left on Cape Cod. The water transported the eroded deposits north and south along the outer Cape's shoreline. Those reworked sediments that moved north went to the tip of Cape Cod.
Provincetown Spit, at the northern end of the Cape, consists largely of marine deposits, transported from farther up the shore. Sediments that moved south created the islands and shoals of Monomoy. So while other parts of the Cape have dwindled from the action of the waves, these parts of the Cape have grown.
Cape Cod National Seashore
This process continues today. Due to their position jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean, the Cape and islands are subject to massive coastal erosion. Geologists say that, due to erosion, the Cape will be completely submerged by the sea in thousands of years.[11] This erosion causes the washout of beaches and the destruction of the barrier islands; for example, the ocean broke through the barrier island at Chatham during Hurricane Bob in 1991, allowing waves and storm surges to hit the coast with no obstruction. Consequently, the sediment and sand from the beaches is being washed away and deposited elsewhere. While this destroys land in some places, it creates land elsewhere, most noticeably in marshes where sediment is deposited by waters running through them.
[edit] Climate
Although Cape Cod's weather[12] is typically more moderate than inland locations, there have been occasions where Cape Cod has dealt with the brunt of extreme weather situations (such as the Blizzard of 1954 and Hurricane of 1938). Because of the influence of the Atlantic Ocean, temperatures are typically a few degrees cooler in the summer and a few degrees warmer in the winter. A common misconception is that the climate is influenced largely by the warm Gulf Stream current, however that current turns eastward off the coast of Virginia and the waters off the Cape are more influenced by the cold Canadian Labrador Current. As a result, the ocean temperature rarely gets above 65 °F (18 °C), except along the shallow west coast of the Upper Cape.
The Cape's climate is also notorious for a delayed spring season, being surrounded by an ocean which is still cold from the winter; however, it is also known for an exceptionally mild fall season (Indian summer), thanks to the ocean remaining warm from the summer. The highest temperature ever recorded on Cape Cod was 104 °F (40 °C) in Provincetown[13], and the lowest temperature ever was −12 °F (−24.4 °C) in Barnstable.[14]
The water surrounding Cape Cod moderates winter temperatures enough to extend the USDA hardiness zone 7a to its northernmost limit in eastern North America.[15] Even though zone 7a (annual low = 0–5 degrees Fahrenheit) signifies no sub-zero temperatures annually, there have been several instances of temperatures reaching a few degrees below zero across the Cape (although it is rare, usually 1–5 times a year, typically depending on locale, sometimes not at all). Consequently, many plant species typically found in more southerly latitudes grow there, including Camellias, Ilex opaca, Magnolia grandiflora and Albizia julibrissin.
Precipitation on Cape Cod and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket is the lowest in the New England region, averaging slightly less than 40 inches (1,000 mm) a year (most parts of New England average 42–46 inches). This is due to storm systems which move across western areas, building up in mountainous regions, and dissipating before reaching the coast where the land has leveled out. The region does not experience a greater number of sunny days however, as the number of cloudy days is the same as inland locales, in addition to increased fog. Snowfall is annual, but a lot less common than the rest of Massachusetts. On average, 30 inches of snow, which is a foot less than Boston, falls in an average winter. Snow is usually light, and comes in squalls on cold days. Storms that bring blizzard conditions and snow emergencies to the mainland, bring devastating ice storms or just heavy rains more frequently than large snow storms.
[hide]Climate data for Cape Cod
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Average high °C (°F) 2.06
(35.7) 2.5
(36.5) 6.22
(43.2) 11.72
(53.1) 16.94
(62.5) 23.5
(74.3) 26.39
(79.5) 26.67
(80.0) 25.06
(77.1) 18.39
(65.1) 12.56
(54.6) 5.44
(41.8) 26.67
(80.0)
Average low °C (°F) -5.33
(22.4) -5
(23.0) -1.33
(29.6) 2.72
(36.9) 8.72
(47.7) 14.61
(58.3) 19.22
(66.6) 20.28
(68.5) 15.56
(60.0) 9.94
(49.9) 3.94
(39.1) -2.22
(28.0) -5.33
(22.4)
Precipitation mm (inches) 98
(3.86) 75.4
(2.97) 95
(3.74) 92.5
(3.64) 83.6
(3.29) 76.7
(3.02) 62.2
(2.45) 65
(2.56) 74.7
(2.94) 84.8
(3.34) 90.7
(3.57) 92.7
(3.65) 990.9
(39.01)
Source: World Meteorological Organisation (United Nations) [16]
[edit] Native population
Cape Cod has been the home of the Wampanoag tribe of Native American people for many centuries. They survived off the sea and were accomplished farmers. They understood the principles of sustainable forest management, and were known to light controlled fires to keep the underbrush in check. They helped the Pilgrims, who arrived in the fall of 1620, survive at their new Plymouth Colony. At the time, the dominant group was the Kakopee, known for their abilities at fishing. They were the first Native Americans to use large casting nets. Early colonial settlers recorded that the Kakopee numbered nearly 7,000.
Shortly after the Pilgrims arrived, the chief of the Kakopee, Mogauhok, attempted to make a treaty limiting colonial settlements. The effort failed after he succumbed to smallpox in 1625. Infectious diseases such as smallpox, measles and influenza caused the deaths of many other Kakopee and Wampanoag. They had no natural immunity to Eurasian diseases by then endemic among the English and other Europeans. Today, the only reminder of the Kakopee is a small public recreation area in Barnstable named for them. A historic marker notes the burial site of Mogauhok near Truro, although the location is conjecture.
While contractors were digging test wells in the eastern Massachusetts Military Reservation area, they discovered an archeological find.[citation needed] Excavation revealed the remains of a Kakopee village in Forestdale, a location in Sandwich. Researchers found a totem with a painted image of Mogauhok, portrayed in his chief's cape and brooch. The totem was discovered on property on Grand Oak Road. It is the first evidence other than colonial accounts of his role as an important Kakopee leader.
The Indians lost their lands through continued purchase and expropriation by the English colonists. The documentary Natives of the Narrowland (1993), narrated by actress Julie Harris, shows the history of the Wampanoag people through Cape Cod archaeological sites.
In 1974, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council was formed to articulate the concerns of those with Native American ancestry. They petitioned the federal government in 1975 and again in 1990 for official recognition of the Mashpee Wampanoag as a tribe. In May 2007, the Wampanoag tribe was finally federally recognized as a tribe.[17]
[edit] History
Cranberry picking in 1906
Cape Cod was a landmark for early explorers. It may have been the "Promontory of Vinland" mentioned by the Norse voyagers (985-1025). Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524 approached it from the south. He named Martha's Vineyard Claudia, after the mother of the King of France.[18] The next year the explorer Esteban Gómez called it Cape St. James.
In 1602 Bartholomew Gosnold named it Cape Cod, the surviving term and the ninth oldest English place-name in the U.S.[19] Samuel de Champlain charted its sand-silted harbors in 1606 and Henry Hudson landed there in 1609. Captain John Smith noted it on his map of 1614 and at last the Pilgrims entered the "Cape Harbor" and – contrary to the popular myth of Plymouth Rock – made their first landing near present-day Provincetown on November 11, 1620. Nearby, in what is now Eastham, they had their first encounter with Native Americans.
Cape Cod was among the first places settled by the English in North America. Aside from Barnstable (1639), Sandwich (1637) and Yarmouth (1639), the Cape's fifteen towns developed slowly. The final town to be established on the Cape was Bourne in 1884.[20] Provincetown was a group of huts until the 18th century. A channel from Massachusetts Bay to Buzzards Bay is shown on Southack's map of 1717. The present Cape Cod Canal was slowly developed from 1870 to 1914. The Federal government purchased it in 1928.
Thanks to early colonial settlement and intensive land use, by the time Henry Thoreau saw Cape Cod during his four visits over 1849 to 1857[21], its vegetation was depauperate and trees were scarce. As the settlers heated by fires, and it took 10 to 20 cords (40 to 80 m³) of wood to heat a home, they cleared most of Cape Cod of timber early on. They planted familiar crops, but these were unsuited to Cape Cod's thin, glacially derived soils. For instance, much of Eastham was planted to wheat. The settlers practiced burning of woodlands to release nutrients into the soil. Improper and intensive farming led to erosion and the loss of topsoil. Farmers grazed their cattle on the grassy dunes of coastal Massachusetts, only to watch "in horror as the denuded sands `walked' over richer lands, burying cultivated fields and fences." Dunes on the outer Cape became more common and many harbors filled in with eroded soils.[22]
By 1800, most of Cape Cod's firewood had to be transported by boat from Maine. The paucity of vegetation was worsened by the raising of merino sheep that reached its peak in New England around 1840. The early industrial revolution, which occurred through much of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, mostly bypassed Cape Cod due to a lack of significant water power in the area. As a result, and also because of its geographic position, the Cape developed as a large fishing and whaling center. After 1860 and the opening of the American West, farmers abandoned agriculture on the Cape. By 1950 forests had recovered to an extent not seen since the 18th century.
Cape Cod became a summer haven for city dwellers beginning at the end of the 19th century. Improved rail transportation made the towns of the Upper Cape, such as Bourne and Falmouth, accessible to Bostonians. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Northeastern mercantile elite built many large, shingled "cottages" along Buzzards Bay. The relaxed summer environment offered by Cape Cod was highlighted by writers including Joseph C. Lincoln, who published novels and countless short stories about Cape Cod folks in popular magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post and the Delineator.
Guglielmo Marconi made the first transatlantic wireless transmission originating in the United States from Cape Cod, at Wellfleet. The beach from which he transmitted has since been called Marconi Beach. In 1914 he opened the maritime wireless station WCC in Chatham. It supported the communications of Amelia Earhart, Howard Hughes, Admiral Byrd, and the Hindenburg. Marconi chose Chatham due to its vantage point on the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded on three sides by water. Walter Cronkite narrated a 17-minute documentary in 2005 about the history of the Chatham Station.
Much of the East-facing Atlantic seacoast of Cape Cod consists of wide, sandy beaches. In 1961, a significant portion of this coastline, already slated for housing subdivisions, was made a part of the Cape Cod National Seashore by President John F. Kennedy. It was protected from private development and preserved for public use. Large portions are open to the public, including the Marconi Site in Wellfleet. This is a park encompassing the site of the first two-way transoceanic radio transmission from the United States. (Theodore Roosevelt used Marconi's equipment for this transmission).
The Kennedy Compound in Hyannisport was President Kennedy's summer White House during his presidency. The Kennedy family continues to maintain residences on the compound. Other notable residents of Cape Cod have included actress Julie Harris, US Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis, figure skater Todd Eldredge, and novelists Norman Mailer and Kurt Vonnegut. Influential natives included the patriot James Otis, historian and writer Mercy Otis Warren, jurist Lemuel Shaw, and naval officer John Percival.
[edit] Lighthouses of Cape Cod
Race Point Lighthouse in Provincetown (1876)
Lighthouses, from ancient times, have fascinated members of the human race. There is something about a lighted beacon that suggests hope and trust and appeals to the better instincts of mankind.
“
”
Edward Rowe Snow
Due to its dangerous constantly moving shoals, Cape Cod's shores have featured beacons which warn ships of the danger since very early in its history. There are numerous working lighthouses on Cape Cod and the Islands, including Highland Light, Nauset Light, Chatham Light, Race Point Light, and Nobska Light, mostly operated by the U.S. Coast Guard. The exception is Nauset Light, which was decommissioned in 1996 and is now maintained by the Nauset Light Preservation Society under the auspices of Cape Cod National Seashore. These lighthouses are frequently photographed symbols of Cape Cod.
Others include:
Upper Cape: Wings Neck
Mid Cape: Sandy Neck, South Hyannis, Lewis Bay, Bishop and Clerks, Bass River
Lower Cape: Wood End, Long Point, Monomoy, Stage Harbor, Pamet, Mayo Beach, Billingsgate, Three Sisters, Nauset, Highland
[edit] Transportation
Cape Cod is connected to the mainland by a pair of canal-spanning highway bridges from Bourne and Sagamore that were constructed in the 1930s, and a vertical-lift railroad bridge. The limited number of access points to the peninsula can result in large traffic backups during the tourist season.
The entire Cape is roughly bisected lengthwise by U.S. Route 6, locally known as the Mid-Cape Highway and officially as the Grand Army of the Republic Highway.
Commercial air service to Cape Cod operates out of Barnstable Municipal Airport and Provincetown Municipal Airport. Several bus lines service the Cape. There are ferry connections from Boston to Provincetown, as well as from Hyannis and Woods Hole to the islands.
Cape Cod has a public transportation network comprising buses operated by three different companies, a rail line, taxis and paratransit services.
The Bourne Bridge over the Cape Cod Canal, with the Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge in the background
[edit] Bus
Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority operates a year-round public bus system comprising three long distance routes and a local bus in Hyannis and Barnstable Village. From mid June until October, additional local routes are added in Falmouth and Provincetown. CCRTA also operates Barnstable County's ADA required paratransit (dial-a-ride) service, under the name "B-Bus."
Long distance bus service is available through Plymouth and Brockton Street Railway, with regular service to Boston and Logan Airport, as well as less frequent service to Provincetown. Peter Pan Bus Lines also runs long distance service to Providence T.F. Green Airport and New York City.
[edit] Rail
Regular passenger rail service through Cape Cod ended in 1959, quite possibly on June 30 of that year. In 1978, the tracks east of South Dennis were abandoned and replaced with the very popular bicycle path, known as the Cape Cod Rail Trail. Another bike path, the Shining Sea Bikeway, was built over tracks between Woods Hole and Falmouth in 1975; construction to extend this path to North Falmouth over 6.3 miles (10.1 km) of inactive rail bed began in April 2008[23] and ended in early 2009. Active freight service remains in the Upper Cape area in Sandwich and in Bourne, largely due to a trash transfer station located at Massachusetts Military Reservation along the Bourne-Falmouth rail line. In 1986, Amtrak ran a seasonal service in the summer from New York City to Hyannis called the Cape Codder. From 1988, Amtrak and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation increased service to a daily frequency.[24] Since its demise in 1996, there have been periodic discussions about reinstating passenger rail service from Boston to reduce car traffic to and from the Cape, with officials in Bourne seeking to re-extend MBTA Commuter Rail service from Middleboro to Buzzards Bay[25], despite a reluctant Beacon Hill legislature.
Cape Cod Central Railroad operates passenger train service on Cape Cod. The service is primarily tourist oriented and includes a dinner train. The scenic route between Downtown Hyannis and the Cape Cod Canal is about 2½ hours round trip. Massachusetts Coastal Railroad is also planning to return passenger railroad services eventually to the Bourne-Falmouth rail line in the future. An August 5, 2009 article on the New England Cable News channel, entitled South Coast rail project a priority for Mass. lawmakers, mentions a $1.4-billion railroad reconstruction plan by Governor Deval Patrick, and could mean rebuilding of old rail lines on the Cape. On November 21, 2009, the town of Falmouth saw its first passenger train in 12 years, a set of dinner train cars from Cape Cod Central. And a trip from the Mass Bay Railroad Enthusiasts on May 15, 2010 revealed a second trip along the Falmouth line.
[edit] Taxi
Taxicabs are plentiful, with several different companies operating out of different parts of the Cape. Except at the airport and some bus terminals with taxi stands, cabs must be booked ahead of time, with most operators preferring two to three hours notice. Cabs cannot be "hailed" anywhere in Barnstable County, this was outlawed in the early nineties after several robbery attempts on drivers.
Most companies utilize a New York City-style taximeter and charge based on distance plus an initial fee of $2 to $3. In Provincetown, cabs charge a flat fare per person anywhere in the town.
[edit] Tourism
Hyannis Harbor on Nantucket Sound
Although Cape Cod has a year-round population of about 230,000, it experiences a tourist season each summer, the beginning and end of which can be roughly approximated as Memorial Day and Labor Day, respectively. Many businesses are specifically targeted to summer visitors, and close during the eight to nine months of the "off season" (although the "on season" has been expanding somewhat in recent years due to Indian Summer, reduced lodging rates, and the number of people visiting the Cape after Labor Day who either have no school-age children, and the elderly, reducing the true "off season" to six or seven months). In the late 20th century, tourists and owners of second homes began visiting the Cape more and more in the spring and fall, softening the definition of the high season and expanding it somewhat (see above). Some particularly well-known Cape products and industries include cranberries, shellfish (particularly oysters and clams) and lobstering.
Provincetown, at the tip of Cape Cod, also berths several whale watching fleets who patrol the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Most fleets guarantee a whale sighting (mostly humpback whale, fin whale, minke whale, sei whale, and critically endangered, the North Atlantic Right Whale), and one is the only federally certified operation qualified to rescue whales. Provincetown has also long been known as an art colony, attracting writers and artists. The town is home to the Cape's most attended art museum, the Provincetown Art Association and Museum. Many hotels and resorts are friendly to or cater to gay and lesbian tourists and it is known as a gay mecca in the summer.[26]
Cape Cod is a popular destination for beachgoers from all over. With 559.6 miles (900.6 km) of coastline, beaches, both public and private, are easily accessible. The Cape has upwards of sixty public beaches, many of which offer parking for non-residents for a daily fee (in summer). The Cape Cod National Seashore has 40 miles (64 km) of sandy beach and many walking paths.
Cape Cod is also popular for its outdoor activities like beach walking, biking, boating, fishing, go-karts, golfing, kayaking, miniature golf, and unique shopping. There are 27 public, daily-fee golf courses and 15 private courses on Cape Cod.[27] Bed and breakfasts or vacation houses are often used for lodging.
Each summer the Naukabout Music Festival is held at the Barnstable County Fair Grounds located in East Falmouth,(typically) during the first weekend of August. This Music festival features local, regional and national talent along with food, arts and family friendly activities.
[edit] Sport fishing
Cape Cod is known around the world as a spring-to-fall destination for sport anglers. Among the species most widely pursued are striped bass, bluefish, bluefin tuna, false albacore (little tunny), bonito, tautog, flounder and fluke. The Cape Cod Bay side of the Cape, from Sandwich to Provincetown, has several harbors, saltwater creeks, and shoals that hold bait fish and attract the larger game fish, such as striped bass, bluefish and bluefin tuna.
The outer edge of the Cape, from Provincetown to Falmouth, faces the open Atlantic from Provincetown to Chatham, and then the more protected water of Nantucket and Vineyard Sounds, from Chatham to Falmouth. The bays, harbors and shoals along this coastline also provide a robust habitat for game species, and during the late summer months warm-water species such as mahi-mahi and marlin will also appear on the southern edge of Cape Cod's waters. Nearly every harbor on Cape Cod hosts sport fishing charter boats, which run from May through October.[28]
[edit] Sports
The Cape has nine amateur baseball franchises playing within Barnstable County in the Cape Cod Baseball League. The Wareham Gatemen also play in the Cape Cod Baseball League in nearby Wareham, Massachusetts in Plymouth County. The league originated 1923, although intertown competition traces to 1866. Teams in the league are the Bourne Braves, Brewster Whitecaps, Chatham Anglers (formerly the Chatham Athletics), Cotuit Kettleers, Falmouth Commodores, Harwich Mariners, Hyannis Harbor Hawks (formerly the Hyannis Mets), Orleans Firebirds (formerly the Orleans Cardinals), Wareham Gatemen and the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox. Pro ball scouts frequent the games in the summer, looking for stars of the future.
Cape Cod is also a national hot bed for baseball and hockey. Along with the Cape Cod Baseball League and the new Junior Hockey League team, the Cape Cod Cubs, many high school players are being seriously recruited as well. Barnstable and Harwich have each sent multiple players to Division 1 colleges for baseball, Harwich has also won three State titles in the past 12 years (1996, 2006, 2007). Bourne and Sandwich, known rivals in hockey have won state championships recently. Bourne in 2004, and Sandwich in 2007. Nauset, Barnstable, and Martha's Vineyard are also state hockey powerhouses. Barnstable and Falmouth also hold the title of having one of the longest Thanksgiving football rivalries in the country. The teams have played each other every year on the Thanksgiving since 1895. The Bourne and Barnstable girl's volleyball teams are two of the best teams in the state and Barnstable in the country. With Bourne winning the State title in 2003 and 2007. In the past 15 years, Barnstable has won 12 Division 1 State titles and has won the state title the past two years.
The Cape also is home to the Cape Cod Frenzy, a team in the American Basketball Association.
Soccer on Cape Cod is represented by the Cape Cod Crusaders, playing in the USL Premier Development League (PDL) soccer based in Hyannis. In addition, a summer Cape Cod Adult Soccer League (CCASL) is active in several towns on the Cape.
Cape Cod is also the home of the Cape Cod Cubs, a new junior league hockey team that is based out of Hyannis at the new communtiy center being built of Bearses Way.
The end of each summer is marked with the running of the world famous Falmouth Road Race which is held on the 3rd Saturday in August. It draws about 10,000 runners to the Cape and showcases the finest runners in the world (mainly for the large purse that the race is able to offer). The race is 7.2 miles (11.6 km) long, which is a non-standard distance. The reason for the unusual distance is that the man who thought the race up (Tommy Leonard) was a bartender who wanted a race along the coast from one bar (The Cap'n Kidd in Woods Hole) to another (The Brothers Four in Falmouth Heights). While the bar in Falmouth Heights is no longer there, the race still starts at the front door of the Cap'n Kidd in Woods Hole and now finishes at the beach in Falmouth Heights. Prior to the Falmouth race is an annual 5-mile (8.0 km) race through Brewster called the Brew Run, held early in August.
[edit] Education
Each town usually consists of a few elementary schools, one or two middle schools and one large public high school that services the entire town. Exceptions to this include Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School located in Yarmouth which services both the town of Yarmouth as well as Dennis and Nauset Regional High School located in Eastham which services the town of Brewster, Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro, and Provincetown (optional). Bourne High School is the public school for students residing in the town of Bourne, which is gathered from villages in Bourne, including Sagamore, Sagamore Beach, and Buzzards Bay. Barnstable High School is the largest high school and is known for its girls' volleyball team which have been state champions a total of 12 times. Barnstable High School also boasts one of the country's best high school drama clubs which were awarded with a contract by Warner Brothers to created a documentary in webisode format based on their production of Wizard of Oz. Sturgis Charter Public School is a public school in Hyannis which was featured in Newsweek's Magazine's "Best High Schools" ranking. It ranked 28th in the country and 1st in the state of Massachusetts in the 2009 edition and ranked 43rd and 55th in the 2008 and 2007 edition, respectively. Sturgis offers the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme in their junior and senior year and is open to students as far as Plymouth. The Cape also contains two vocational high schools. One is the Cape Cod Regional Technical High School in Harwich and the other is Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical High School located in Bourne. Lastly, Mashpee High School is home to the Mashpee Chapter of (SMPTE,) the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. This chapter is the first and only high school chapter in the world to be a part of this organization and has received much recognition within the Los Angeles broadcasting industry as a result. The officers of this group who have made history are listed below:
* President: Ryan D. Stanley '11
* Vice-President Kenneth J. Peters '13
* Treasurer Eric N. Bergquist '11
* Secretary Andrew L. Medlar '11
In addition to public schools, Cape Cod has a wide range of private schools. The town of Barnstable has Trinity Christian Academy, Cape Cod Academy, St. Francis Xavier Preparatory School, and Pope John Paul II High School. Bourne offers the Waldorf School of Cape Cod, Orleans offers the Lighthouse Charter School for elementary and middle school students, and Falmouth offers Falmouth Academy. Riverview School is located in East Sandwich and is a special co-ed boarding school which services students as old as 22 who have learning disabilities. Another specialized school is the Penikese Island School located on Penikese Island, part of the Elizabeth Islands off southwestern Cape Cod, which services struggling and troubled teenage boys.
Cape Cod also contains two institutions of higher education. One is the Cape Cod Community College located in West Barnstable, Barnstable. The other is Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Buzzards Bay, Bourne. Massachusetts Maritime Academy is the oldest continuously operating maritime college in the United States.
[edit] Islands off Cape Cod
Like Cape Cod itself, the islands south of the Cape have evolved from whaling and trading areas to resort destinations, attracting wealthy families, celebrities, and other tourists. The islands include Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, as well as Forbes family-owned Naushon Island, which was purchased by John Murray Forbes with profits from opium dealing in the China trade during the Opium War. Naushon is one of the Elizabeth Islands, many of which are privately owned. One of the publicly accessible Elizabeths is the southernmost island in the chain, Cuttyhunk, with a year-round population of 52 people. Several prominent families have established compounds or estates on the larger islands, making these islands some of the wealthiest resorts in the Northeast, yet they retain much of the early merchant trading and whaling culture.
10,000 view on 10th April 2014
9,000 views on 23rd March 2014
4, 000 views on 17th August 2013
3,000 views on 18th December 2012
2,000 views on 2nd June 2010
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In December 1998, to mark the Centenary of the Murder in line of duty of Constable Thomas KIng, at Northern Constabulary Headquarters, a new memorial plaque for Constable King was unveiled by Dr John Mann, great great grandson of PC King, and Councillor Major Nigel Graham, Chairman of the Northern Joint Police Committee.
Pictured here (L-R) are Northern Constabulary Historian (then Constable) David Conner, Major Graham, and Constable Malcolm Taylor, Boat of Garten (dressed in turn-of-the-century uniform of Inverness-shire Constabulary ).
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There follows a report on the event produced by me at the time:-
Abernethy Cemetery is a lonely but peaceful place, lying in beautiful Strathspey - the wide valley of the famous River Spey, one of Scotland's most renowned salmon rivers. Abernethy is a rural parish including the village of Nethybridge, some four miles from the Victorian resort of Grantown on Spey.
On Sunday 20 December 1998 a group of serving and retired police officers, and elected members, from around the Highlands of Scotland gathered in the snow-clad churchyard to remember an event which, though long before and of very much less national consequence than Lockerbie, probably had a similar effect upon the local population in 1898.
One hundred years before, to the day, Constable Thomas King a 46-year old police officer who was the resident beat officer from the village of Nethybridge had gone to the rural Tulloch area to effect the area on a Sheriff Court warrant of one Allan MacCallum. The wanted man, residing with a mother and her daughter in a small but-and-ben two roomed cottage in the woodland of Tulloch, was wanted to appear before the court on a charge of poaching.
MacCallum, well known to the officer as a rebel, was a man who considered that any game running free on the hills and moors of the Cairngorm foothills was as much his as of the landowner. In fact MacCallum's father had been a gamekeeper in the area for many years before his death.
MacCallum was violent and unstable, as the officer well knew. nonetheless there appeared to have been an element of mutual respect between the two. For that reason, while Constable King was doubtless apprehensive of the work to be done, he would not show his concern to the junior officer, John MacNiven of Boat of Garten, who accompanied him to make the arrest.
After many hours of search and 'cat and mouse' the unarmed officers closed on the cottage in which MacCallum had taken lodgings. The wanted man was within, and King went into the small building followed by MacNiven. A shot rang out and Alan MacCallum ran from the house.
PC MacNiven groped around the darkened building and found his colleague, lying dead of a gunshot would to the chest. He tired to revive his fallen comrade but to no avail. Death was instantaneous.
Constable King left a widow and a sizeable young family, who emigrated to Australia to start a new life.One of his sons, in his twilight years, made a pilgrimage back to Scotland to trace his heritage in the 1960's. When Thomas King (junior) died, his ashes were flown back to Scotland and interred in the grave of his father in Abernethy Churchyard.
Twenty years before PC King was shot, and four miles distant in Grantown on Spey, which was then in another Police force's area, another officer had paid the supreme sacrifice.
Constable James Fraser of the Elginshire (later Morayshire) Constabulary went to a hotel in the town to deal with a disturbance and received severe knife wounds from which he died two days later.
These two tragedies remain the only two instances where police officers in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland have died from violence in the line of duty.
So it was that last Sunday the little group gathered in that small churchyard to remember these sacrifices and to give thanks that it had been one hundred years since an officer had been murdered on duty.
A brief but poignant service, led by the local Church of Scotland Minister, heard details of events of that fateful day exactly one century before. The local Member of Parliament, Mr David Stewart, spoke of the sacrifice and the debt of gratitude which the community owed to the Police Service. Retired Superintendent Alan Moir spoke on behalf of the Northern Constabulary branch of the Retired Police Police Officers Association, and three descendants of Constable King were also present.
Constable David Conner, Force Historian, produced a uniform of the period, which had unfortunately shrunk in the interim(!), preventing him from wearing it. Constable Malcolm Taylor, Boat of Garten, whose beat now covers the area of Tulloch where Constable King fell, kindly deputised and wore the uniform with pride. The gravestone was rededicated, complete with added wording to the effect that the officer had been killed in the execution of his duty.
The force was represented by Deputy Chief Constable Keith Cullen, and local officers were also present. The two surviving officers - now long retired - who had been present when Thomas King Junior's ashes were interrred - also braved the elements to attend the service.
Ex-Superintendent Jimmy MacIntyre - now a spritely 85 years young - and ex-Constable Bobby Owen reflected upon the previous service in 1977.
A booklet written by PC Conner, telling the story of Constable King's career, death and family, was distributed at the service. Retired Inspector Sandy Mackenzie, an accomplished piper, played a lament at the graveside, including that haunting melody 'Flowers of the Forest', which would be held across the world the next day from memorial services for the dead of the Lockerbie Disaster.
The group then moved to Inverness, where at Northern Constabulary Headquarters, a new memorial plaque for Constable King was unveiled by Dr John Mann, great great grandson of PC King, and Councillor Major Nigel Graham, Chairman of the Northern Joint Police Committee.
Major Graham paid tribute the work of Constable Conner in his research and the quality of the commemorative booklet he had produced. He also lauded the Police Service of the Highlands and Islands for their commitment and dedication over the years, and gave thanks for the fact that it had been 100 years since an officer had been murdered on duty in the Force's Area.
May 11th 2024 was one of the biggest Aurora events in recent history. I'm usually to only person at this location in the past but on this night, it was standing room only. Everyone was going crazy and fixated on getting their shots, as was I.
What I didn't realise until everyone started posting, was that I was standing in the company of all my Instagram/Facebook hero's. Other really good astro photographers I had been following for years but never met in person. What a lost opportunity to meet and chat face to face. But I can't blame anyone, it was night for amazing photography, not chatting.
I must also apologise for the age of this post. I'm about a year behind in my Flickr posts at the moment but will try to catch up over the next month or so.
That's what he would like you to think but don't believe it for a moment. He has spent about 5 minutes in his cage for the entire 10 days of his boarding experience (his family takes him home tomorrow). Yesterday, he finally got his one suture removed and even better, got rid of his cone. Until he ripped ripped open the suture site 2 minutes later. so, although the abscess site is nearly healed, and will continue to heal without replacing the suture, the vet decided to put the cone back on Moustache in an attempt to slow him down a bit. The bite was right behind his "armpit" where the skin stretches every time this crazy kitten jumps, climbs, sprints, belly crawls, pounces... In reality, the cone doesn't slow him down at all - it just makes him more clumsy.
We are all going to miss Moustache when he goes home but we also feel quite confident we'll be seeing him again. There's no way that this outgoing, adventurous, clumsy, playful kitten isn't going to pick another fight with the wrong cat, like, for instance, the big black cat who lives next door, fall off a banister, land wrong when jumping down from a tree, scratch his eye, rip out a claw, eat something that makes him sick or gets stuck in his GI system... the list goes on and on.
Happy Caturday: Comedians
Q is not so difficult as I first imagined. I actually thought of QUITE a number of things beginning with Q. For instance, QUEEN, QUARRY, QUEUE, QUINAG and QUIRAING (The last 2 are Scottish mountains).
Or I could have used a picture (if I had one) of fish and chips, or roast beef and Yorkshire Pudding. Two things which are QUINTESSENTIALLY English!!!!!
Maybe I will post another one later........
But back to the image at hand. (excuse the pun!!! lol) Why quarter to four and not quarter to five or eleven or any other? Well, there are four quarters in a whole so it was a logical choice!! Notice also the position of the second hand!! - I removed the battery to achieve that!! :-))
If you're wondering why not quarter past, well that would have made things a bit crowded on that side, giving a less well balanced image!!! It's all about the composition!!
I have hidden the hand for setting the alarm out of sight behind the minute hand. Maybe I should have set it for half eight as that is also 4!!!!! LOL
The more perceptive among you will also notice that there is something else beginning with Q. I won't spoil the fun. Let's see if you can spot it! I wonder who will be first to add a note to it!!!! :-)))
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Day 17 of a 26 day challenge to post something each day that begins with a different letter of the alphabet, from A through to Z (in order)
My friends Saint-Exupery (www.flickr.com/photos/38025693@N06/) and Cluster One (www.flickr.com/photos/21517311@N06) will endeavour to do the same. But our results should all be very different as they shall do it in Spanish and Italian respectively and I shall do it in English!
We are also joined by Sunrise-sunrise (www.flickr.com/photos/naita29/) who will do the same in French.
I am now joined by my friend Western Dreamer (www.flickr.com/photos/lawanda_wilson-candid_captures_phot...) who will also do it in (American) English!