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As real autumn leaves aren't available in the garden yet, I wanted Linus to pose with my illuminated autumn decoration instead but he rather flattened it. A little bit more training required, I guess, or more treats. :)
Clue: It was an accident!
Using a reversed 55-200mm lens
This photo is as it came off the camera,, 100% completely inedited, which I'm quite chuffed about, as it happens all too rarely despite always being my goal.
This red disk-shaped phenomenon, is another member of the TLEs (Transient Luminous Events, happening in the middle and upper atmosphere, above thunderstorms) family and is called sprite halo. Under it, there is a group of, relatively small, sprites. Sprite halo is short-lived (some ms) and its color comes from the same physical process as in red sprites (de-excitation of 1st positive group of mol. nitrogen). Halos appear close to sprite tops (alt. ~80-85 km), over active thunderstorms, like sprites. Sprite halos are usually triggered by -CGs, in contrast to sprites which are related to +CGs (99%). There is also a faint stripe of high clouds in front of the halo. The yellow light is a distant ship.
The event happened over the thunderstorms south of Crete (on the east side of the Medicane on 28/10) as seen from S. Attica during the night of Oct. 28, 2021. Faint parent lightning flash at the bottom, behind a cloud layer, can be seen as well. I've used a Sigma 85 mm lens at f/1.4, for 1/4'' with 51.2k iso. More about the Greek Team chasing red sprites and TLEs in general: antisimvatikos.blogspot.com/2019/05/tles-greek-archive-of...
What is a red sprite? Info here: antisimvatikos.blogspot.com/2017/04/red-sprite.html
Photography and Licensing: doudoulakis.blogspot.com/
My books concerning natural phenomena / Τα βιβλία μου σχετικά με τα φυσικά φαινόμενα: www.facebook.com/TaFisikaFainomena/
life is uncertain and messy. i can be lured into wide-ranging yet fruitless tidying--my attempt to control the uncertainty. but it's when i let go, when i allow for the messiness of life, that i see most clearly and feel most connected.
[9:52, on the ground]
Leipzig is a beautiful old town, but presently while walking through it, we get an “under construction” feeling. This is special apparent at the main square, where in front of the beautiful Old Town Hall (Altes Rathaus), major civil works are going on, with the blue pipes conveying a feeling of a major surgery ...
“Leipzig's Old Town Hall was built in 1556 in the Renaissance style and remains one of Germany's largest. Located on the pretty main square of the city, it's a good orientation point
The Old City Hall was built 1556 by Hieronymus Lotter on basements of two Patrician houses. It is a beautiful Renaissance style building, 90 metres long with arcades (1906 - 09), six gables and a tower. In the 18th century the tower was enlarged and it received a Baroque spire. Till 1904 the Old City Hall was home of the city administration. Then it became home of the city museum.”
No I’m not a foot fetish sort of guy. But the foot is a photographic challenge. How do you take something pretty unattractive and shoot it in a way as to make it sort of ok?
I know that I am a bit late to the party, but here is my take of the close encounter of Mars with the Pleiades open cluster.
I would have loved to shoot this as a deepscape from a dark sky location with some nice landscape in the foreground, but first I was clouded out and when it finally cleared, I had to fly the other day and was only able to shoot from my light polluted backyard.
Sometimes, you have to take what you can, even if it means to shoot a reflection nebula under a bortle 5 sky. Hope I will have better conditions in 17 years, when this encounter will happen again.
EXIF
Canon EOS 7D mkii
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8
Skywatcher AZ-GTI
Controlled with ASIair
120 x 30s + 60 x 15s @ ISO800 @ 200mm f/2.8
Unryu paper is also known as mulberry paper. Unryu is lightweight and translucent enough for light to shine through it highlighting the fibers that are embued in it. I fell back on the two origami creatures I know how to fold to highlight the fibers.
For February Alphabet Fun Month.
"Love will draw an elephant through a key-hole." - Samuel Richardson
-----
Lots of ice kept me close to home today; freezing rain does not make for ideal driving conditions and judging by all the sirens I could hear all day, I think I made the safe choice.
Maybe tomorrow will be nicer and I'll be able to go back to the woods. This is my last week off before going back to work after being away for quiet a while and I'd really like to make the most of it, if I can.
Anyway, if you follow my stream, you might remember the two baby squirrels that my neighbour found abandoned last August, they were taken to a rehabilition centre outside of the city and when they were old enough, they were brought back and given a home in the tree outside my house.
They've managed to fit in with the other squirrels well, but they both retreat to their house with the slightest scare. I've been trying to catch a photo of one of them poking their head out of their home for a while now, and finally today I lucked out and caught one of them peeking!
Hope everyone has had a good day.
Click "L" for a larger view.
© Leanne Boulton, All Rights Reserved
Candid street photography from Glasgow, Scotland. The title comes from her 'Ouija' necklace which creates some curious questions in my mind. Slightly missed focus but I love the mood of the shot - enjoy!
This image is a labor of love. Originally begun in 2022 and finally finished this year. It is comprised of images from 2 different telescopes, 2 different cameras, two types of binning, and 9 different exposure lengths. I had no idea how difficult it would be to marry all this data together. Finally, here it is.
Discovered in 1702 by the German astronomer Gottfried Kirch, M5 is one of the oldest globular clusters in the Milky Way galaxy. With an apparent magnitude of 6.7 and a location 25,000 light-years away in the constellation Serpens, M5 appears as a patch of light with a pair of binoculars and is best viewed during May.
A majority of M5’s stars formed more than 12 billion years ago, but there are some unexpected newcomers on the scene, adding some vitality to this aging population.
Stars in globular clusters are believed to form in the same stellar nursery and grow old together. The most massive stars age quickly, exhausting their fuel supply in less than a million years, and end their lives in spectacular supernova explosions. This process should have left the ancient cluster M5 with only old, low-mass stars.
Yet astronomers have spotted many young, blue stars amongst the ancient stars in this cluster. Astronomers think that these laggard youngsters, called blue stragglers, were created either by collisions between stars or other stellar interactions. Such events are easy to imagine in densely populated globular clusters, in which up to a few million stars are tightly packed together. Text from NASA/Goddard
Taken from Santa Rosa CA and Blue Canyon CA, May 2022 and June 2023.
Scopes: Tec 140 and Vixen VC200L (Courtesy of Larry Parker)
Cameras: QSI 683 and ASI 2600M
Mount: Paramount MYT
Processed in Pixinsight and Photoshop
L:R:G:B = 5.5h:1.5h:1.5h:1.5h:
M5 V2 is perhaps slightly better. V2 used a masked stretch, which made the stars smaller but resulted in a clouded overall look. In V3 I decided to go with a more conventional stretch for better clarity. Now in V4 I've used all my tricks, and its made a marked improvement.
Exif:
Canon EOS 60D
Canon EF100mm f/2.8 Macro IS USM
Shutter speed 1/320, Aperture 2.8
ISO 400, Aperture priority, No flash
Photo taken at the PALACE PARK of the palace Het Loo
The Palace Park is open to visitors throughout the year from 9 am in the morning to half an hour after sunset, but no later than 6 pm.
The Palace Park is part of the Crown Lands of Het Loo together with the extensive stretches of forest and heath land belonging to the Crown Estate. The total area covers more than 10,000 hectares and has a rich cultural history, great biological diversity and beautiful landscapes.
More information: www.kroondomeinhetloo.nl.
Het Loo Palace
Het Loo Palace (Dutch: Paleis Het Loo, IPA: [pɑlˈɛi̯s ˌɦɛt ˈloʊ̯], meaning "The Woods Palace") is a palace in Apeldoorn, Netherlands. The symmetrical Dutch Baroque building was designed by Jacob Roman and Johan van Swieten and was built between 1684 and 1686 for stadtholder-king William III and Mary II of England. The garden was designed by Claude Desgotz.
The palace was a residence of the House of Orange-Nassau from the 17th century until the death of Queen Wilhelmina in 1962. The building was renovated between 1976 and 1982. Since 1984, the palace is a state museum open for the general public, showing interiors with original furniture, objects and paintings of the House of Orange-Nassau.
The building is a rijksmonument and is among the Top 100 Dutch heritage sites.
This is probably the most common hawk in North America. If you’ve got sharp eyes, you’ll see several individuals on almost any long car ride, anywhere. Red-tailed Hawks soar above open fields, slowly turning circles on their broad, rounded wings. Other times you’ll see them atop telephone poles, eyes fixed on the ground to catch the movements of a vole or a rabbit.
West Kelowna BC
Canada
Julia is out
Oskar, next week (I hope so)
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sunlight%20Beach/159/194/2131
And in honour of that momentous occasion, I present to you a fence. Hallelujah and praise the Lord Jesus, our savior! Thank you for Friday and let there many more just like it... umm, or maybe even better! (One should always wear their optimism loudly and proudly on their sleeve... however, if you're wearing something like a muscle shirt, or for the ladies a slinky nightgown with those strappy things holding it up, a bracelet or tattoo will suffice.)
Lily is always full of happiness, a huge cut up with all that gets to know her. Here she does a victory stance in accomplishment of an acrobatic feat done, Once you overcome it is all happiness.
Deep in the Swamps of Northern Kalifornia.
----------------------------- JESUS ✝️ SAVES-------------------------------
SALVATION THROUGH FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST - ALONE!
12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
❤️❤️ IT'S ALL JESUS AND NONE OF OURSELVES! ❤️❤️
16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the SALVATION of everyone WHO BELIEVES: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel a RIGHTEOUSNESS FROM GOD IS REVEALED, a righteousness that is by FAITH FROM FIRST TO LAST, just as it is written: "THE RIGHTEOUS WILL LIVE BY FAITH." (Romans 1:16-17)
16 KNOW that a man is NOT justified by observing the law, but by FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be JUSTIFIED BY FAITH in CHRIST and NOT by observing the law, BECAUSE BY OBSERVING THE LAW NO ONE WILL BE JUSTIFIED. (Galatians 2:16)
1. Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2. BY THIS GOSPEL YOU ARE SAVED, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4. that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5. and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8. and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
9. For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11. Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed. (1 Corinthians 15:1-11)
7. Therefore Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9. I am the gate; whoever enters through me WILL BE SAVED. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10. The thief comes only to STEAL and KILL and DESTROY; I have come that they may have LIFE, and have it to the FULL. (John 10:7-10)
1 Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. 2 For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. 3 Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. 4 Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.
5 Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law: "The man who does these things will live by them." 6 But the righteousness that is by faith says: "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 "or 'Who will descend into the deep?'" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: 9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11 As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile--the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Romans 10:1-13)
Jesus came to bring spiritual LIFE to the spiritually dead and set the captives FREE! FREE from RELIGION, ERROR and outright LIES, so WE might serve THE LIVING GOD! In SPIRIT and in TRUTH!
So you'll KNOW, and not think you're to bad for God to love. The Christian LIFE isn't about how good WE are, because NONE of us are! It's about how GOOD JESUS IS! Because JESUS LOVES US, so much he died in our place and took the punishment for all of our sins on himself. The wages of sin is DEATH, and Jesus took the death WE so richly deserved for us and died in our place. The good news is, there's no more punishment for sin left. WE, you and I were all born forgive as a result of the crucifixion of God himself on the cross that took away the sins of the whole world. All we have to do is believe it, and put your Faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. That my friends is REAL UNCONDITIONAL LOVE! YOU ARE LOVED. ❤️ ✝️ ❤️
For the best Biblical teaching in the last 2 centuries! Please listen to and down load these FREE audio files that were created with YOU in mind. It's ALL FREE, if you like it, please share it with others. ❤️
archive.org/details/PeopleToPeopleByBobGeorgeFREE-ARCHIVE...
CLICK ON THE LETTER "L" TO ENLARGE.
My THANK'S to all Flickr friends who fave and/or commented on my photos, I very much appreciate it! ❤️
© All Rights reserved no publication or copying without permission from the author.
“MS Pride of America is a cruise ship operated by NCL America, a division of Norwegian Cruise Lines, to sail itineraries in the Hawaiian Islands. Construction of the ship began in 2000 in the United States as part of a plan for a U.S.-built and U.S.-flagged cruise ship under Project America, but the project failed and she was eventually purchased by Norwegian Cruise Lines and completed in Germany. She was inaugurated in 2005, and was the first new U.S. flagged, U.S.-built (aside from the outfitting) deep water passenger ship in nearly fifty years since the SS Argentina of 1958.”
Read More:
This is my good friend Colby.. who i've known ever since i created Lily. He's always been there for me.. even when i chickened out on meeting him RL O.o
Background is a free one from here on Flickr... i just don't have the link >.<
Autumn at Stourhead ... this is something I've wanted to photograph since I moved to Wiltshire. I got up early and travelled to deepest West Wiltshire, hoping that if I arrived for the opening of the gardens, it'd just be me and the trees ... no such luck! It was me and the trees and about a hundred other photographers, all wanting to capture those autumn colours.
Oh well. I still had fun!
Sony α7 II
Tokina 20-35mm lens
This is a creative commons image, which you may freely use by linking to this page. Please respect the photographer and his work.
The beginning of a snow, the 2nd in 5 days in Charlotte Court House, Virginy--taken at my former residence there.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
HAPPINESS IS EASY
by Talk Talk
Makes you feel much older
Sublime the blind parade
It wrecks me how they justify their acts of war
They assemble, they pray
Take good care of what the priests say
'After death it's so much fun'
Little sheep don't let your feet stray
Happiness is easy
Joy be written on the earth
And the sky above
Jesus star that shines so bright
Gather us in love
Guilt upon their shoulders
How well the cause evades
Infecting your religions, claiming pacts
It's easy to shoulder the blame
Happiness is easy
Try to teach my children
To recognise excuse before it acts
From love & conviction to pray
Unorthodox Rio Afro [unpk]
Available
Badwolf - Guss Earrings
Memento Mori Earrings
Miskiar Piercings Set
Grab My!! Joint & Blunt
*Tristano*:: Set Armor Rings
everywhere around is magic, in every tree, flower, bird ….
in every person you get to know in your live ……
everything gives you a little magic as you give magic to them …
that is what i believe in … this is my religion ….
I am a Wicca!
The Head: GENUS Project – Genus Head – Baby Face
The Skin: TRES BEAU GENUS AVA SKIN (GOLDEN) GIFT
The Bodyskin: Studio.Exposeur MAITREYA VOLUPTOUS BODY SKIN
The Body: Maitreya Mesh Body – Lara
The Shape: My Own
The Ears: ^^Swallow^^ Kawaii Ears 2.0
The Hair: TRUTH Elixir – Selection
The Romper: *OA-MEO* =Malla=
The Orb: aii – + Specter Orb Censor + {egosumaii}
The Background: *OA-MEO* OccultCave GACHA
This leaf covered path reminds me that the autumn may just be around the corner!
Best view in large!
(shot with Canon 100/2.8 lens, file IMG_6981_neo2)
Almighty God's Word "God Is the Source of Man's Life"
Introduction
Almighty God says, "The greatness and power of the life of God cannot be fathomed by any creature. It is thus now, was thus then, and will be thus in time to come. The second secret I shall impart is this: The source of life comes from God, for all creation, whatever the difference in form or structure. Whatever kind of living being you are, you cannot move counter to the path of life that God has set. In any case, all I wish is for man to understand that without the care, keeping, and provision of God, man cannot receive all that he was meant to receive, no matter how great the effort or struggle. Without the supply of life from God, man loses the sense of value in living and loses the sense of purpose in life."
"Morning is wonderful. Its only drawback is that it comes at such an inconvenient time of the day." Glen Cook, author of the science fiction novel Sweet Blues.
It's a new year that is set to be filled with vision puns and I'm totally okay with that.
Scott decided that he'd bring in the new year with a 2020 sign for Sock to poke his nose through and well, I couldn't let them have all the fun so I borrow the sign (that I made) and had Fyero pose for her happy new year shot too.
Family time, it's the best time.
Hope everyone has had a great start to their new year.
Click "L" for a larger view.
#streetphotography #urbanphotography #streetlife #streettogs #leica #streetcolors #london #uk #britain
For my friend NatuurfotoRien/Rien in Holland, who loves corvids.
I had this odd notion that when I retire I would carve a totem pole, and so over the years, I learned more and more about northwest coast art, culture, and carving. One of the pieces I studied was this - a huge cedar sculpture carved by the great sculptor, Bill Reid, to whom the telling of this ancient story is credited.
Bill Reid was a Haida indian (Haida is their word for “human”). The Haida tribe lives in the Queen Charlotte Islands off the coast of northern Canada (below Alaska), in a special place they call Haida Gwaii. Bill is widely credited for reviving the arts of the northwest coast - he was an amazing sculptor. I am disappointed I will never meet him.
The northwest coast tribes have many gods - all animals. Raven is the Haida equivalent of “fox”. Tricky, playful, smart, inquisitive - these are all qualities of Raven, whose play and trickery created the stars in the sky, the sun, the ocean and man.
The man-size (literally) sculpture is inside the University of British Columbia museum in Vancouver, Canada. When it was installed, Bill had the children of Haida Gwaii come to the installation - each with bottles of sand from the beach at Haida Gwaii, so Raven, could be installed in his native soil.
Here is his telling of their genesis myth - one of the most sacred stories in Haida culture:
The Story of the Raven Creating Man by Bill Reid
The great flood which had covered the earth for so long had receded, and even the thin strip of sand now called Rose Spit, stretching north from Naikun village lay dry. The Raven had flown there to gorge himself on the delicacies left by the receding water, so for once he wasn't hungry. But his other appetites - lust, curiosity and the unquenchable itch to meddle and provoke things, to play tricks on the world and its creatures - these remained unsatisfied.
He had recently stolen the light from the old man who kept it hidden in a box in his house in the middle of the darkness, and had scattered it throughout the sky. The new light spattered the night with stars and waxed and wane in the shape of the moon. And it dazzled the day with a single bright shining which lit up the long beach that curved from the spit beneath Raven's feet westward as far as Tao Hill. Pretty as it was, it looked lifeless and so to the Raven quite boring. He gave a great sigh, crossed his wings behind his back and walked along the sand, his shiny head cocked, his sharp eyes and ears alert for any unusual sight or sound. Then taking to the air, he called petulantly out to the empty sky. To his delight, he heard an answering cry - or to describe it more closely, a muffled squeak.
At first he saw nothing, but as he scanned the beach again, a white flash caught his eye, and when he landed he found at his feet, buried in the sand, a gigantic clamshell. When he looked more closely still, he saw that the shell was full of little creatures cowering in terror of his enormous shadow.
Well, here was something to break the monotony of his day. But nothing was going to happen as long as the tiny things stayed in the shell, and they certainly weren't coming out in their present terrified state. So the Raven leaned his great head close to the shell, and with the smooth trickster's tongue that had got him into and out of so many misadventures during his troubled and troublesome existence, he coaxed and cajoled and coerced the little creatures to come out and play in his wonderful, shiny new world. As you know the Raven speaks in two voices, one harsh and strident, and the other, which he used now, a seductive bell-like croon which seems to come from the depths of the sea, or out of the cave where the winds are born. It is an irresistible sound, one of the loveliest sounds in the world. So it wasn't long before one and then another of the little shell-dwellers timidly emerged. Some of them immediately scurried back when they saw the immensity of the sea and the sky, and the overwhelming blackness of the Raven. But eventually curiosity overcame caution and all of them had crept or scrambled out. Very strange creatures they were: two-legged like the Raven, but there the resemblance ended. They had no glossy feathers, no thrusting beak. Their skin was pale, and they were naked except for the long black hair on their round, flat-featured heads. Instead of strong wings, they had thin stick-like appendages that waved, and fluttered constantly. They were the original Haidas, the first humans.
For a long time the Raven amused himself with his new playthings, watching them as they explored their much expanded-world. Sometimes they helped one another in their new discoveries. Just as often, they squabbled over some novelty they found on the beach. And the Raven taught them some clever tricks, at which they proved remarkably adept. But the Raven's attention span was brief, and he grew tired of his small companions. For one thing, they were all males. He had looked up and down the beach for female creatures, hoping to make the game more interesting, but females were nowhere to be found. He was about to shove the now tired, demanding and quite annoying little creatures back into their shell and forget about them when suddenly - as happens so often with the Raven - he had an idea.
He picked up the men, and in spite of their struggles and cries of fright he put them on his broad back, where they hid themselves among his feathers. Then the Raven spread his wings and flew to North Island. the tide was low, and the rocks, as he had expected, were covered with those large but soft-lipped molluscs known as red chitons. The Raven shook himself gently, and the men slid down his back to the sand. The he flew to the rock and with his strong beak pried a chiton from its surface.
Now, if any of you have ever examined the underside of a chiton, you may begin to understand what the Raven had in his libidinous, devious mind. He threw back his head and flung the chiton at the nearest of the men. His aim was as unerring as only a great magician's can be, and the chiton found its mark in the delicate groin of the startled, shell-born creature. There the chiton attached itself firmly. Then as sudden as spray hitting the rocks from a breaking wave, a shower of chitons broke over the wide-eyed humans, as each of the open-mouthed shellfish flew inexorably to its target.
Nothing quite like this had ever happened to the men. They had never dreamed of such a thing during their long stay in the clamshell. They were astounded, embarrassed, confused by a rush of new emotions and sensations. They shuffled and squirmed, uncertain whether it was pleasure or pain they were experiencing. They threw themselves down on the beach, where a great storm seemed to break over them, followed just as suddenly by a profound calm. One by one the chitons dropped off. The men staggered to their feet and headed slowly down the beach, followed by the raucous laughter of the Raven, echoing all the way to the great island to the north which we now call Prince of Wales.
That first troop of male humans soon disappeared behind the nearest headland, passing out of the games of the Raven and the story of humankind. Whether they found their way back to the shell, or lived out their lives elsewhere, or perished in the strange environment in which they found themselves, nobody remembers, and perhaps nobody cares. They had played their roles and gone their way.
Meanwhile the chitons had made their way back to the rock, where they attached themselves as before. But they too had been changed. As high tide followed low and the great storms of winter gave way to the softer rains and warm sun of spring, the chitons grew and grew, many times larger than their kind had ever been before. Their jointed shells seemed about to fly apart from the enormous pressure within them. And one day a huge wave swept over the rock, tore them from their footholds and carried them back to the beach. As the water receded and the warm sun dried the sand, a great stirring began among the chitons. From each emerged a brown skinned, black-haired human. This time there were both males and females among them, and the Raven could begin his greatest game: the one that still goes on.
They were no timid shell-dwellers these, but children of the wild coast, born between the sea and land, challenging the strength of the stormy North Pacific and wresting from it rich livelihood. Their descendants built on its beaches the strong, beautiful homes of the Haidas and embellished them with the powerful heraldic carvings that told of the legendary beginnings of great families, all the heros and heroines and the gallant beasts and monsters who shaped their world and their destinies. For many generations they grew and flourished, built and created, fought and destroyed, living according to the changing seasons and the unchanging rituals of their rich and complex lives.
It's nearly over now. Most of the villages are abandoned, and those which have not entirely vanished lie in ruins. The people who remain are changed. The sea has lost much of its richness, and great areas of land itself lie in waste. Perhaps it's time the Raven started looking for another clamshell.