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There is so much snow in this photo it's hard to tell, but this is two VIA trains combined into one. Until Hervey Junction in northern Quebec, VIA 601 to Jonquière and VIA 603 to Senneterre run as a combined train. Each train has an F40, a stainless steel coach and a stainless steel baggage car. VIA 6437 is at the head end and barely visible two cars back is VIA 6446.
North Korean soldier at the DMZ, in front of the table which separate North and South.
The Korean Demilitarized Zone is a strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula that serves as a buffer zone between North and South Korea. The DMZ cuts the Korean Peninsula in half, crossing the 38th parallel on an angle, with the west end of the DMZ lying south of the parallel and the east end lying north of it. It is 155 miles (248 km) long and approximately 2.5 miles (4 km) wide, and is the most heavily armed border in the world.
This isolation has created as a byproduct one of the most well-preserved pieces of temperate land in the world!!
The 2 countries have signed armistice but NOT the peace...
La Korean Demilitarized Zone, KMZ, est une bande de terre qui court le long de la péninsule coréenne pour séparer le nord et le sud le long du 38eme parallèle. Les deux pays ont signés l’armistice, mais pas la Paix. La frontière est marquée par une bordure en béton. Seuls les coréens du nord continuent à assurer une présence physique, les américains et les sud coréens ont construit un immense bâtiment d’où ils surveillent via cameras les mouvements du Nord.
Franchir la frontière revient à se faire tirer dessus. Peu de nord coréens osent franchir le 38eme parallèle car les représailles envers la famille restante, les voisins et les collègues de travail sont immédiates.
© Eric Lafforgue
©Jane Brown2016 All Rights Reserved. This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without explicit written permission
after Elsie had perfected her reindeer face makeup (see previous two photos) she turned to me and said it was time to have my face painted. Oh no, I thought, and held out my hand. Please paint something beautiful on my hand. Taking a photo iwth my left hand only wasn't easy, but I sat down to supper as Grangran and not as something from Elsie's imagination!
And now, something completely different.
No, it is not an M38 Sherman tank scope, it is not to be mounted on a Sterling submachine gun. It is a slightly different M38A2 scope that was supposed to be mounted on a project raygun.
But it won't be.
What this does not fit on is a fictional Sci-Fi handgun, or a raygun, if you like, I have been working on (and off) for two years now. It's a completely handcrafted custom gun of my original design, it has an all-steel construction with walnut grips and electronics from Erv' of the Plecterlabs. Every bit of the gun is handmade, even some of the screws keeping it together, the only thing that isn't custom made is the sighting scope.
I wanted to use a real scope, partially as a nod to movie prop guns, but mostly to keep in touch with reality. I went for an old Weaver rifle scope because it's simple sleek tubular form (and cheap price, it cost only $14). The M38, which is all too familiar from the Stormtrooper blaster, is a gorgeous piece of vintage optics and I kept wondering if it would work despite the Star Wars connection. I kept an eye on those for about 18 months on eBay, and boy, were they expensive! Then I found this equivalent with fair price and thought, damn, I gotta try this.
I removed the Weaver and tried the M38A2 on instead. I immediately realized that it just doesn't work. Too heavy, too Star Wars, too obvious. So, it's back with the Weaver.
At the moment the raygun (visible in the background) has almost all the steel parts fitted in place, it still needs some serial and other numbers punched in before it can be polished, blued and worn to look like a hudred+ years old well oiled vintage handgun behind museum glass. Electronics will be fitted in last.
For the record: I do not own any guns or weapons of any kind, never have. This is just a raygun project, albeit a serious one in some levels. I will upload more photos with more info & detail as the project nears it's completion, but it'll be slow, I have too many projects going on. You know what it's like.
The Dassault Rafale is a French twin-engine, canard delta wing, multirole fighter aircraft designed and built by Dassault Aviation. Equipped with a wide range of weapons, the Rafale is intended to perform air supremacy, interdiction, aerial reconnaissance, ground support, in-depth strike, anti-ship strike and nuclear deterrence missions. The Rafale is referred to as an "omnirole" aircraft by Dassault.
In the late 1970s, the French Air Force and Navy were seeking to replace and consolidate their current fleets of aircraft. In order to reduce development costs and boost prospective sales, France entered into an arrangement with UK, Germany, Italy and Spain to produce an agile multi-purpose fighter, the Eurofighter Typhoon. Subsequent disagreements over workshare and differing requirements led to France's pursuit of its own development program. Dassault built a technology demonstrator which first flew in July 1986 as part of an eight-year flight-test programme, paving the way for the go-ahead of the project. The Rafale is distinct from other European fighters of its era in that it is almost entirely built by one country, involving most of France's major defence contractors, such as Dassault, Thales and Safran.
Many of the aircraft's avionics and features, such as direct voice input, the RBE2 AA active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar and the optronique secteur frontal infra-red search and track (IRST) sensor, were domestically developed and produced for the Rafale programme. Originally scheduled to enter service in 1996, the Rafale suffered significant delays due to post-Cold War budget cuts and changes in priorities. The aircraft is available in three main variants: Rafale C single-seat land-based version, Rafale B twin-seat land-based version, and Rafale M single-seat carrier-based version.
Introduced in 2001, the Rafale is being produced for both the French Air Force and for carrier-based operations in the French Navy. The Rafale has been marketed for export to several countries, and was selected for purchase by the Indian Air Force, the Egyptian Air Force, and the Qatar Air Force. The Rafale has been used in combat over Afghanistan, Libya, Mali, Iraq and Syria. Several upgrades to the weapons and avionics of the Rafale are planned to be introduced by 2018.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
Airbus Helicopters Tiger, formerly known as the Eurocopter Tiger, is a four-bladed, twin-engined attack helicopter, which first entered service in 2003. It is manufactured by Eurocopter (now Airbus Helicopters), the successor company to Aérospatiale's and DASA's respective helicopter divisions, which designate it as the EC665. In Germany and Australia it is known as the 'Tiger'; in France and Spain it is called the 'Tigre'.
Development of the Tiger started during the Cold War and it was initially intended as a dedicated anti-tank helicopter platform to be used against a Soviet ground invasion of Western Europe. During its prolonged development period, the Soviet Union collapsed, but France and Germany chose to proceed with the Tiger, developing it instead as a multirole attack helicopter. It achieved operational readiness in 2008 and since the type's introduction to service, Tigers have been used in combat in Afghanistan, Libya, and Mali.
The Tiger has the distinction of being the first all-composite helicopter developed in Europe. Even the earliest models also incorporated other advanced features such as a glass cockpit, stealth technology and high agility to increase its survivability. The Tiger has a tandem-seat cockpit and is operated by a two-man crew; the pilot is placed in the forward position, with the gunner seated behind. Either of the crew members can manage the weapon systems or the primary flight controls, switching roles if necessitated. In addition to flying the aircraft, the Tiger's pilot would typically be in control of the self-defense systems and communications, as well as some secondary weapon functions.
Amongst the Tiger's notable qualities, it possesses very high levels of agility, much of which is attributed to the design of its 13-meter four-bladed hinge-less main rotor; the Tiger can perform full loops and negative g manoeuvers. Power is provided by a pair of FADEC-controlled MTU Turbomeca Rolls-Royce MTR390 turboshaft engines.
In Germany, the EC 665 is also known as the PAH-2 (Panzerabwehrhubschrauber 2 for “Second Anti-tank helicopter, the Bo 105 was PAH-1) and UHT (from Unterstützungshubschrauber Tiger German for "Support Helicopter Tiger"). As delivered, the German Tiger was originally a medium-weight multi-role fire support helicopter. The UHT can carry PARS 3 LR "fire and forget" and/or HOT3 anti-tank missiles as well as 70 mm (2.8 in) Hydra 70 air-to-ground fire support rockets. Four AIM-92 Stinger missiles (two on each side) can be mounted to the stub wings' tips for air-to-air combat. Unlike the HAP/HCP version (operated by France) it has no integrated gun turret, but a 12.7 mm (0.50 in) gunpod can be fitted if needed. The weapon configuration was designed to be multirole and easily convertible to cover the whole spectrum of possible mission scenarios and to be effective against a broad range of targets. Another difference is the use of a mast-mounted sight, which has second-generation infrared and CCD TV cameras (range 18 km).
Its introduction was not without trouble, though. In fact, the 68 ordered German EC 665s were hardly operational at all: In August 2009, the German magazine Der Spiegel reported that the ten operational Tigers in the German Army were only suitable for pilot training, while others had not been accepted due to defects. In May 2010, Germany suspended deliveries over "serious defects particularly with wiring"; in response Eurocopter stated that "Corrective measures related to wiring problems have been developed, agreed by the customer and are being implemented". These problems lasted, though, and under an agreement between the German government and Eurocopter made in March 2013, only a total of 51 Tiger UHs would remain in service – effectively, a 40 were operated in the helicopter's original role in a single unit, the Kampfhubschrauberregiment 36 (KHR 36) „Kurhessen“ in Fritzlar.
In order to mend the program and widen the helicopter’s capabilities, Eurocopter launched in 2014 an upgrade program for the rest of the German Tiger order, the so-called Tiger KWS (Kampfwertsteigerung, for combat capabilities update). A central upgrade was the introduction of more powerful engines, primarily for a better performance under hot/high climatic conditions. Further modifications of the Tiger KWS included a new tail section with a 10 blade Fenestron rotor system with a variable angular spacing, so that the noise was distributed over different frequencies and overall noise reduced The ducted tail rotor was also shielding both the tail rotor itself from collision damage and ground personnel from the hazard posed by a traditional spinning rotor. The stabilizing tail surfaces had to be re-located, though, but overall the helicopter became more compact thorugh this change.
The core of the program was the integration of the Artemis millimeter-wave fire-control radar (FCR) target acquisition system and the Radar Frequency Interferometer (RFI), housed in a dome located above the main rotor, replacing the UHT’s optical Osiris system, which was relocated to a chin position. The radome's raised position enables 360° target detection while the helicopter is behind obstacles (e.g. terrain, trees or buildings). The Artemis system is capable of simultaneously tracking up to 128 aerial and ground targets and engaging up to 16 at once; an attack could be initiated within 30 seconds. A radio modem integrated with the sensor suite allowed data to be shared with ground units and other helicopters, allowing them to fire on targets detected by a single helicopter. In fact, this coordinating role was the Tiger KWS' prime role within the Bundeswehr structure, so only a small number of these machines was eventually necessary.
Beyond the UHT’s standard armament, the Tiger KWS could be equipped with a wide range of guided air-to-ground missiles, including the AGM-65 Maverick against small targets and the Sea Skua ASM for anti-ship duties (for which the Marineflieger helicopters, designated KWS-M, had a GEC-Ferranti Seaspray I illumination radar installed in a thimble radome above the Osiris system).
The Artemis system also allowed full-fledged air-to-air missiles to be effectively deployed. Beyond the AIM-9 Sidewinder for self-defense, the UHT KWS could also fire the mid-range AIM-120 and therefore fulfill air space surveillance duties and point defense against incoming aircraft, even against low-flying targets like cruise missiles. The integration of air-to-air missiles was a major step forward for the Tiger’s mission envelope, and was requested especially by the German Navy as a protection measure for its ships on worldwide NATO and UN peacekeeping missions. Heavier gun pods, carrying a Mauser BK 27 machine cannon with 150 RPG, were introduced, too, as a more effective weapon against both ground and air targets and with a longer range.
In February 2016, the first of twelve newly built Tiger KWS was delivered to the German Bundeswehr and allocated to Luftwaffe and the Marineflieger units (each receiving six). Eight standard UHTs were to be updated until 2019, too. After initial trials 2016 on board of the German fregate "Bayern" in the course of the peacekeeping Operation Atalanta against pirates at the coast of Somalia, France became interested in the Artemis system, too, and considered the procurement of eight navalized and updated Tigers for the Aéronavale.
General characteristics:
Crew: Two (pilot and weapon systems officer)
Length: 13.21 m fuselage (43 ft 3 1/4 in)
Rotor diameter: 13.00 m (42 ft 8 in)
Disc area: 133 m² (1,430 ft²)
Height: 5.18 m (17 ft 11 in) with radome mast,
3.83 m (12 ft 7 in) w/o
Internal fuel capacity: 1,080 kg (2,380 lb)
Empty weight: 3,060 kg (6,750 lb)
Loaded weight: 5,090 kg (11,311 lb)
Max. takeoff weight: 6,000 kg (13,000 lb)
Powerplant:
2× MTU Turbomeca Rolls-Royce MTR390-G turboshaft engines, 1.102 kW (1.500 shp) each
Performance:
Maximum speed: 290 km/h (157 knots, 181 mph)
Range: 800 km (430 nm, 500 mi) in combat configuration
1,300km with external tanks at the inboard stations
Service ceiling: 4,000 m (13,000 ft)
Rate of climb: 10.7 m/s (2,105 ft/min)
Power/mass: 0.23 hp/lb (0.38 kW/kg)
Armament:
Four stub wing hardpoints for e.g. 12.7mm or 27 mm autocannon pods, 68 mm (2.68 in) SNEB or
70 mm (2.75 in) Hydra 70 unguided rockets pods, AGM-65 Maverick guided missiles or starters with 4x
PARS 3 LR and/or HOT3 anti-tank missiles; additionally, the German navy helicopters could carry up to
four Sea Skua missiles against sea targets
The kit and its assembly:
The second of my Italeri Tiger helicopters that I had purchased in a lot without a real plan some years ago. This one was simply spawned by the question what a) an updated UHT with a radar system like the AH-64D and b) a German Marineflieger UHT would look like? After the German navy got rid of their Tornados, what could be the more compact and economical alternative? This model combines these questions, and as a whif there was even a bit more to it.
The Italeri kit itself ain’t bad, but it has raised details and fit, esp. around the engines and the rotor mast, is rather dubious. PSR is a must. Anyway, it was built more or less OOB, the only changes are the Fenestron (transplanted wholesale from a Revell EC 135) with a corresponding movement of the stabilizers forward, the radome from an Academy AH-64D and the re-located Osiris optical system to the chin. The latter necessitated a fairing, which consists of a piece from a drop tank half.
Since I wanted to add Sea Skuas under the stub wings (taken from an Italeri 1:72 NATO weapon set), I also added a small thimble radome for an illumination radar on top of the nose. This subtly changes the Tiger's profile and adds a purposeful, Mi-28-ish look. Some blade antennae were re-located and radar warning sensors added, as well as a pitot made from thin wire in front of the cockpit.
Beyond the Sea Skuas I gave the model a single AIM-9 Sidewinder with a mathcing launch rail and a scratched gun pod, made from a Soviet GSh-23-2 pod with a single gun barrel (a hollow steel needle).
For later display and beauty pics, a vertical styrene tube was added into the model's center of gravity as an adapter for a holder.
Painting and markings:
The late German Marineflieger Tornados wore some interesting camouflage schemes under the Norm 87 scheme, and I wanted something similar for this navalized Tiger. However, a direct adaptation of the Tornados' scheme and its murky colors (RAL 7009, 7012 and 5008) appeared too dark for the smaller helicopter, lacking contrast that would help breaking up the outlines against sky and ground.
An alternative would have been RAL 7030, 7009 and 7012, but I used this one already on another Marineflieger whif (an Aero L-39 target tug). Another potential option was RAL 7030, 7000 and 7012 (incl. a bluish grey tone "Fehgrau", which is used uniformly on the German navy's ships and on some Marineflieger Do-28D Skyservants and Do 228s operated in the pollution control role), but this would rather have been suitable for a fighter aircraft, operating at medium to high altitudes. For "ground work", both options were IMHO too bright.
I eventually went back to the Tornado colors and replaced the RAL 7012 (Basaltgrau, very similar to Dark Sea Grey) with RAL 7030 (Steingrau, a brownish light grey). This resulted in a good contrast with the RAL 7009 (Grüngrau) and RAL 5008 (Graublau), and I kept the more or less naval color palette with grey/green/blue tones - even though and AFAIK, no German naval aircraft ever carried such a scheme. Still looks quite convincing.
The camouflage pattern was adopted from the land-based German Tigers, just the colors were replaced. I used Revell 75, 67 and a 1:1 mix of Humbrol 77 and 79. The cockpit interior became medium grey (Revell 47), the rotor blades Anthrazit (Revell 9).
The kit received a light wash with black ink and some panel post-shading.
The German roundels, flags as well as the tactical codes were created with material from TL Modellbau. The "MARINE" marking on the IR dampers was made up with single black 3mm letters, also with TL Modellbau material. A few stencils were taken from the OOB sheet, and some additional inscriptions were gathered from an 1:72 MiG-21 sheet from Begemot or simply painted. Finally, everything was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.
An apparently simpel build, but the intergration (and choice) of the Fenestron tail rotor caused some headaches and PSR sessions. But I am happy with the result: fist of all, I finally found a use for the surplus kit (reducing the stash height, marginally...), and the resulting helicopter does not look bad or unrealistic at all.
*Project Neverland is a way for us to show our love for Movies, TV Shows and Books in a Fashion way. We make references, not cosplays.
Model: Jenniré Narváez.
Team:
-Daniela Salvador
-Jenniré Narváez
-Julia Olivo
Project Neverland Instagram: instagram.com/projectneverlandpn/
Project Neverland Twitter: twitter.com/ProjNeverland
Facebook: www.facebook.com/jennireanarvaez
Twitter: twitter.com/TheJennire
Instagram- Jenniré: instagram.com/thejennire
Instagram- Daniela: instagram.com/danisalvador/
Instagram- Julia: instagram.com/olivojulia/
Instragram 2: instagram.com/jennirenarvaezphotography
Tumblr: thejennire.tumblr.com/
This is a photo of the new Bull's Garage after the original site was demolished due to the opening of RAF Swinderby.
A pub was demolished to make way for this garage which in the present day is the A46 Lincoln to Newark road.
I don't know how long the garage operated under the name Bull's Garage as in later years this became more of a service station between the two locations.
In 1989 this was a Heron filling station, later selling Elf before it closed around 1994 and was decomissioned.
The buildings still stand in the present day and has been home to a plumbing & heating company for some time.
In the early 2000's this road was made dual carriageway.
The site in the present day
www.google.com/maps/place/Green+Ln,+Lincoln/@53.1465521,-...
Thanks to Geoff Lloyd for permission to reproduce this photo.
Paul Farrows photo from 1989 as well as a recent photo from me are in the comments below.
The store is in pretty good shape, but little was done to it when Acme took over. At first, the store was crowded (as Pathmark always was)...but as Albertsons has raised prices and cut products left and right, "sales have fallen off a cliff", as one employee told me.
------------------------
The Acme (former Pathmark) of Ferry Street in Newark, NJ is having a going-out-of-business sale. The closing was announced by the UFCW local 1262 a few weeks back. Unfortunately, the closing is not surprising. In a gentrifying neighborhood full of immigrants from Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Ecuador and lots of other places--Pathmark, with its deep expertise in ethnic merchandising--was a perfect fit; by contrast, Acme makes little effort to carry the products that the people of the neighborhood want to buy. It’s like the company has one model for supermarkets, and they plop them down no matter what neighborhood they operate in.
The sad part is that Pathmark was so successful and high-volume in this neighborhood that, in 1995, they replaced an older store next door with this 65,000 sq. ft. super center. Once A&P took over, prices went up, but at least the store still carried the wide selection of fresh and dry goods that the neighborhood wanted. Acme cut tons of these products and greatly reduced the selection. They replaced the once vibrant international flavor of Pathmark with a WASPy supermarket that your grandmother might have shopped at.
I am sure this is only the first of many former A&P/Pathmark stores that will close under Acme's leadership. The stores are mostly devoid of customers. The owners of New Albertson’s never had a long-term strategy to be in the grocery business. This is a company run by Wall-Street money men who buy up companies, leech money out of them to make themselves rich, saddle the companies with debt, and then try to sell them quickly. And believe me, they are saddling New Albertsons with billions of dollars of debt, financing all these acquisitions and store renovations. Unfortunately for them, there has been low interest in an Albertsons IPO the two times they have tried to offer the company up for sale, and now that same-store sales are tanking, it seems even more unlikely. To top it off, the company still hasn’t had a single profitable quarter since it was formed and is losing tens of millions every quarter.
Employees are being offered opportunities to relocate to other stores, but the ones I spoke to said many of the stores are too far away, and after being put through the wringer over the years, I think they are ready to move on. No one has yet signed on to takeover the supermarket, but the buzz was that ShopRite was interested in the store. The Kearny ShopRite operates 3 miles away.
The Miami Beach Post Office is a historic 1937 Art Moderne U.S. Post Office building in Miami Beach, Florida, designed by Howard Lovewell Cheney and built under the patronage of the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression.
This building is a historic building primarily in the Art Moderne style, closely related to Art Deco, known for its circular lobby, glass blocks, and distinctive cupola.
Key Architectural Features:
Style: Art Moderne (sometimes called Depression Moderne or Streamline Moderne), blending with Miami's Art Deco
surroundings.
Materials: Constructed with limestone and concrete.
Interior: Features murals by Charles Hardman depicting Florida history. While the main public area is on the ground floor, the central rotunda has a second level, topped by a cupola.
Significance: A notable example of Depression-era federal architecture, built under the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
Cheney designed the post office with a tall circular lobby with a cone-shaped roof and a thin tall cupola; a small round fountain directly beneath it and murals by Charles Hardman depicting Ponce de Leon's invasion of Florida on the wall above gold-colored post office boxes.
The building features a noteworthy main entrance with double doors topped by a ten-foot-high wall of glass blocks that allow natural light to fill the lobby. Just above the doorway a large stone eagle dominates the entrance. From the main lobby, the post office branches off to the rear service area and the side lobby where customers are received.
Charles Hardman, a native Floridian, was commissioned to paint a mural in 1940 by the Section of Fine Arts of the Works Progress Administration. He created a three-section mural that adorns the lobby wall. The sections are entitled Discovery, which shows Ponce de Leon’s arrival in Florida in 1513; de Soto and the Indians, showing Hernando de Soto and his men engaged in battle with Native Americans in 1539; and Conference, which shows General Thomas Jesup negotiating with Native Americans after the Second Seminole War in 1837. Hardman also painted a mural entitled Indians Receiving Gifts for the post office in Guntersville, Alabama.
for the data above is given to the following websites:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_Beach_Post_Office
www.google.com/search?q=what+architectural+style+is+the+p...
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
The humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) is a species of baleen whale. One of the larger rorqual species, adults range in length from 12–16 metres (39–52 ft) and weigh approximately 36,000 kilograms (79,000 lb).
The humpback has a distinctive body shape, with unusually long pectoral fins and a knobbly head. An acrobatic animal known for breaching and slapping the water with its tail and pectorals, it is popular with whale watchers off the coasts of Australasia and the Americas.
Males produce a complex song lasting 10 to 20 minutes, which they repeat for hours at a time. Its purpose is not clear, though it may have a role in mating. Found in oceans and seas around the world, humpback whales typically migrate up to 25,000 kilometres (16,000 mi) each year.
Humpbacks feed only in summer, in polar waters, and migrate to tropical or subtropical waters to breed and give birth in the winter. During the winter, humpbacks fast and live off their fat reserves. Their diet consists mostly of krill and small fish.
Humpbacks have a diverse repertoire of feeding methods, including the bubble net feeding technique. Like other large whales, the humpback was and is a target for the whaling industry. Once hunted to the brink of extinction, its population fell by an estimated 90% before a moratorium was introduced in 1966. While stocks have since partially recovered, entanglement in fishing gear, collisions with ships, and noise pollution continue to impact the 80,000 humpbacks worldwide.
A humpback whale can easily be identified by its stocky body with an obvious hump and black dorsal coloring. The head and lower jaw are covered with knobs called tubercles, which are hair follicles, and are characteristic of the species. The fluked tail, which it lifts above the surface in some dive sequences, has wavy trailing edges.
The four global populations, all under study, are: North Pacific, Atlantic, and Southern Ocean humpbacks, which have distinct populations which complete a migratory round-trip each year, and the Indian Ocean population, which does not migrate, prevented by that ocean's northern coastline.
The long black and white tail fin, which can be up to a third of body length, and the pectoral fins have unique patterns, which make individual whales identifiable. Several hypotheses attempt to explain the humpback's pectoral fins, which are proportionally the longest fins of any cetacean.
The two most enduring mention the higher maneuverability afforded by long fins, and the usefulness of the increased surface area for temperature control when migrating between warm and cold climates. Humpbacks have 270 to 400 darkly colored baleen plates on each side of their mouths.
The plates measure from a mere 18 inches (46 cm) in the front to approximately 3 feet (0.91 m) long in the back, behind the hinge. Ventral grooves run from the lower jaw to the umbilicus about halfway along the underside of the whale. These grooves are less numerous (usually 14–22) than in other rorquals but are fairly wide.
The stubby dorsal fin is visible soon after the blow when the whale surfaces, but disappears by the time the flukes emerge. Humpbacks have a 3 metres (9.8 ft), heart-shaped to bushy blow, or exhalation of water through the blowholes.
Because humpback whales breathe voluntarily, the whales possibly shut off only half of their brains when sleeping. Early whalers also noted blows from humpback adults to be 10–20 feet (3.0–6.1 m) high.
This image was taken on a Elding Whale Watch trip from Akureyri in Iceland
Now summer is over and my lack of photographs being uploaded has continued despite my many attempts and many apology's. I do wish I had more time to upload my photographs but I have been working extra shifts and focusing on my Alevels as it is my last year before university. I hope sincerly that my efforts are being put to good use although I miss my efforts put in sharing my photographs on Flickr and I regret my neglect for it deeply. I enjoy sharing my photographs as photography is my biggest passion as is what I strive to study beyond Alevel, thus being my chosen course in which I want to study at university next year. With the thought of university and actually applying to university I am going to have to have to take an extra focus in on my photography and do everything I can to improve my chances of receiving an offer to my particular choices. Needless to say that Flickr plays a big role in this therefore I hope but do not promise that photo's will be being uploaded more frequently and more regularly.
Aside from my personal life and goals this is another awaited image from my vist to Stratford-Upon-Avon in April earlier this year. It only seems appropriate that I continue to upload these photographs before any recent ones as they have been sitting on my computer without a purpose. I want to give these images a purpose as the weekend was beautiful and one which the memories will live on forever. I enjoyed taking these photographs and I am proud to say that these photographs are mine.
After a few last busy weeks having a little time for Flickr. I bought a new umbrella to try portraits of my niece. This is my "test model" Indy :)
Equipment:
40d + Tamron 17-50 + Speedlite 540EZ + white umbrella
Processing:
APs - lucisart, tiffen
Thanks for your visit and have a great week everybody!!!
Rusty Bear is an amazing Dawg-Father. He had double knee surgery last November to help his dislocated bones after the massive abuse he endured before getting rescued. But the way he struts today, you'd never believe what difficult painful times he has been through in his life. He's a true role model to the world. We are writing his heroic story and we'll keep you updated when it's published.
This is the memorial to not one but two mining disasters at Auchengeich. In 1931 six miners were killed by an explosion - a number of their comrades tried to go back to save them, but were overcome by fumes and had to be rescued themselves.
The second disaster was in 1959, when 47 men were trapped by a blaze, a thousand feet below the surface of the Earth. So severe was the fire and smoke (most were overcome by the smoke, it is thought) that the rescue attempts could not get close, and eventually they were left with no choice but to flood the put to dowse the flames.
47 men gone just like that, dozens of families shattered. My mother was a wee girl when it happened, but she remembered some of the children whose family members were in the pit being taken out of school, wailing and screaming their grief. The history books like to talk about the Great Events - the Industrial Revolution, exploration, empire and all of that, but often neglects that everything was built on the broad backs of men who laboured in such dangerous conditions for little reward.
Brügge - Grote Markt
The Markt ("Market Square") of Bruges is located in the heart of the city and covers an area of about 1 hectare. Some historical highlights around the square include the 12th-century belfry and the West Flanders Provincial Court (originally the Waterhall, which in 1787 was demolished and replaced by a classicist building that from 1850 served as provincial court and after a fire in 1878 was rebuilt in a neo-Gothic style in 1887. In the center of the market stands the statue of Jan Breydel and Pieter de Coninck.
In 1995 the market was completely renovated. Parking in the square was removed and the area became mostly traffic-free, thus being more celebration friendly. The renovated market was reopened in 1996 with a concert by Helmut Lotti.
(Wikipedia)
Der Grote Markt ist der zentrale Platz der belgischen Stadt Brügge, um den herum sich ab dem 13. Jahrhundert die Siedlung im Zusammenhang mit dem lebhaften Warenhandel entwickelte.
Die Fläche des Grote Markt (Großer Markt) wird durchschnitten von der halbkreisförmig geführten Markt(-Straße). Im Südwestbereich geht ein Teil der Marktstraße nordwärts an der Hallestraat ab und schließt dann südöstlich an die Wollstraat wieder an. Die Platzfläche bildet ein unregelmäßiges Trapez, das in West-Ost-Richtung im Mittel 84 m breit und in Nord-Richtung etwa 110 m lang ist. Die eigentliche Platzbegrenzung entsteht durch die vorhandene Bebauung.
Um das Jahr 1220 errichteten die Bürger an der Südseite des Marktes kleine Verkaufshäuschen, die eine zusammenhängende Verkaufsfläche bildeten. Weil der Marktplatz zu Anfang noch auf dem Wasserweg erreichbar war, kamen hier bald allerhand Waren aus der Umgebung und auch von weiter her in das Angebot der Händler. Ein höherer hölzerner Turm ergänzte um 1240 die Bebauung. Nachdem er durch ein Feuer im Jahr 1280 zerstört worden war, entstand der Turm aus Steinen neu.
Die Ratsversammlung beschloss Anfang des 13. Jahrhunderts, eine Lagerhalle über der nahe gelegenen Reie (dem damaligen Fluss durch Brügge) auf der Ostseite des Marktes zu errichten. Wegen ihres Standortes und ihrer Nutzung hieß das Gebäude auch Waterhalle, es war ein überdachter Entlade- und Beladeort für die Lastschiffe von außerhalb. Zuvor waren die Waren am Reiekaai auf dem Markt im Freien be- und entladen worden.
Im Jahr 1396 etablierte sich auf dem Markt ein Fischhandel. Die Fischerinnung hatte ihr Haus auf der Nordseite des Platzes in der Nähe der Sint-Jans-Kerk. Knapp zweihundertfünfzig Jahre später verlagerte sich der Fischhandel zu einer 1745 errichteten überdachten steinernen Halle. Dort befindet er sich noch immer. Der Gemüsehandel zog nun seinerseits vom Braamberg auf den Zentralmarkt.
Fischmarkt
Wenn nicht gehandelt wurde, diente der Platz für Großveranstaltungen, Turniere und auch für öffentliche Hinrichtungen; alle Aktivitäten zogen ein großes Publikum an.
In der Zeit zwischen 1807 und 1810 hieß der Platz Place Napoléon, nachdem dieser besiegt worden war, bekam der Platz den Namen Grote Markt. Im Jahr 1936, während der Besetzung Belgiens durch deutsche Truppen, hieß er einfach Markt. Nach 1945 erhielt er die in anderen flandrischen Städten verbreitete Bezeichnung Grote Markt zurück.
Im Jahr 1887 stellte die Stadtverwaltung im Zentrum des Platzes ein aus Bronze gegossenes Denkmal für die Freiheitskämpfer Jan Breydel und Pieter de Coninck auf.
Zahlreiche Bürgerhäuser, die alle mit ihren Schmuckgiebeln zum Platz und eng nebeneinander errichtet wurden, bilden die westliche und die nördliche Bebauungsgrenze des Marktplatzes.
Auf der Ostseite stehen frühere Kommunalbauten, dazu gehören das Historium, der Provinzialhof und ein Postamt.
Das Historium entstand im 19. Jahrhundert als Residenz für einen Gouverneur, wurde aber nie zu diesem Zeck genutzt. Es besitzt einen schmalen hohen Treppenturm, eine mit blauen Steinen verkleidete Fassade und in der zweiten und dritten Etage offene Arkaden. Nach Fertigstellung diente es mehreren Stadtverwaltungsabteilungen, bis es zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts verkauft wurde.
Der Provinzialpalast (Provinciaalhof) wurde in zwei Bauphasen 1887–1892 und 1914–1921 errichtet und mit weißem Naturstein verkleidet. Er entstand als Landgerichtsgebäude. Seine Renaissancefassade ist aus feinem Sandstein herausgearbeitet. Alle Schmuckelemente wie Ziertürmchen, Fenstereinfassungen und das Portal sind im Baustil der Neugotik gehalten. Das repräsentative Haus dient der Stadtverwaltung für offizielle Empfänge, für Ausstellungen, und zur Abhaltung bedeutender Sitzungen.
Architekten für das Gebäudeensemble des Historiums und des Provinzialhofes waren Louis Delacenserie und René Buyck.
Dem Gerichtsgebäude schließt sich südlich davon in gleicher Bauhöhe ein historisches Postamt an, das aus roten unverputzten Backsteinen errichtet wurde. Um die Ecke, in der Breidelstraat, ist das anschließende Bruges Beer Experience zu erwähnen, ein interaktives Biermuseum.
Die südliche Platzbebauung wird von den Stadthallen mit dem vorgelagerten Belfried dominiert.
Auf allen Seiten des Marktplatzes finden sich Gaststätten, Bars, Cafés, Schokoladenmanufakturen oder Eisstuben sowie Souvenirläden. Auch Modesalons fehlen nicht.
Im Zentrum des Platzes steht das Denkmal für die Volkshelden Jan Breydel und Pieter de Coninck, die den Flamen im Kampf gegen französische Besatzungstruppen im Jahr 1302 zum Sieg verholfen haben. Das Denkmal wurde 1887 geschaffen und auf dem Platz eingeweiht. Der Schöpfer der Skulptur war der belgische Bildhauer Paul de Vigne.
Die beiden Männer waren Vorsteher der Metzger- und der Weberzunft und führten ihre Zunftmitglieder in den Kampf; die Auseinandersetzung ist auch als Brügger Frühmette bekannt. Die Bronzefiguren stützen sich gemeinsam auf ein großes Schwert und halten eine Fahne hoch. Einer trägt eine enge Arbeitshose, der andere ist als Denker mit einem gerollten Dokument in der Hand dargestellt und in einen wehenden Mantel gekleidet.
Das umlaufende Relief am Marmorpostament zeigt Kampfszenen aus der Sporenschlacht um Kortrijk, die zwei Monate nach dem Aufstand in Brügge stattgefunden hat. – Vier in gleichen Abständen um die Denkmalsbasis aufgestellte Frauen-Statuen aus Sandstein, die je einen mittelalterlichen Dreieckschild tragen, repräsentieren jeweils eine flämische Stadt: Kortijk, Gent, Ypern und Brügge.
Die Städte sind mit ihren im 14. Jahrhundert gebräuchlichen Stadtwappen auf den Schilden erkennbar. Die Symbolträgerin für Kortrijk hält einen goldenen Reitersporn mit Stachelrädchen in der Hand und soll damit an den Namen der Schlacht erinnern. Außerdem ist in der nächsten Etage des Denkmalfußes genau über den Köpfen der Frauenfiguren je ein typisches Bauwerk dieser Städte als kleines 3-D-Modell platziert. Über der Kampfszene verläuft rundherum ein plastisches Schmuckband, das an eine Krone oder an Zinnen denken lässt. Unmittelbar unter der Plinthe sind Wappen angeordnet, die den beiden Kämpfern zugeordnet werden. Der Wappenschild für Jan Breydel zeigt in Rot drei (2:1) silberne Pferdeköpfe mit blauem Zaumzeug. Der Wappenschild für Pieter de Coninck zeigt in Rot ein großflächig symmetrisch aufgebrachtes goldenes Kreuz, zwischen dessen Ecken je eine goldene Krone dargestellt ist.
Das Rathaus befindet sich nicht unmittelbar am Marktplatz, sondern in der Blinde-Ezelstraat 1, Burg 12.
(Wikipedia)
VOS Pace is a new platform supply vessel (PSV) built for the Dutch company, Vroon Offshore Services. The vessel, built at the Cosco Guangdong Shipyard in China, was launched in June 2014 and delivered to her owners in February 2015.
It is the first of the six PX121-type PSVs designed by Ulstein for Vroon Offshore and is outfitted to support drilling activities with longer and deeper boreholes and other offshore activities in European waters.
Storage capacities of the PX121 vessel
The PX121 is equipped with tanks for carrying oil, water and drilling fluids along with two stainless steel tanks for carrying flammable liquids or corrosive chemicals. Onboard tanks can store up to 1,035m3 of fresh water, 1,674m3 of drill water, 1,464m3 of fuel, 1,294m3 of liquid mud or brine and 255m3 of dry bulk. The vessel also features 391.7m3 heeling tanks, and can carry a 257m3 of base oil and 150m3 of methanol.
Accommodation and deck machinery aboard the platform service vessel
VOS Pace is outfitted to provide accommodation to 26 people in 14 single crew cabins and six double cabins dedicated for 12 passengers.
The vessel features two 10t tugger winches with a pulling speed of 35m/min, two capstans with a safe working load (SWL) of 10t each, and a deck crane with a SWL of 3t at a maximum outreach of 18m.
Communication and navigation equipment
Communication systems fitted to the PSV include JRC JSS-2150 MF/HF radio, JRC JHS-770S Very High Frequency Radio (VHF), three Entel HT8982 portable VHF radio for general and distress communications, McMurdo Model E5 Satellite emergency position-indicating radio beacon (EPIRB), JRC NCR-333 navigational telex (NAVTEX) receiver, JRC JUE-251 Fleet Broad Band, and JRC JAX-9B Weather Facsimile.
Other communication equipments fitted on the vessel include Inmarsat-C packet data service operated by Inmarsat for Ship Security Alert System (SSAS) and long-range identification and tracking (LRIT) of ships. The ship also incorporates two McMurdo S4 search and rescue transponders (SART) and JHS-183 Automatic Identification System (AIS).
Navigation equipment includes S-band JMCJMA -9132-SA ARPA radar and X-band JRC JMA -9122-9XA ARPA radar. Also fitted are two Mc Murdo S4 Radar Transponder Units, JRC JAN-901B-FOR Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS), JRC JFE-680 Echo sounder and YOKOGAWA PT500A-P-Analog auto pilot.
The PSV is further equipped with YOKOGAWA CMZ900d +1 x 900S gyro compass, YOKOGAWA SR-165 magnetic compass, Integrated Joystick Control, JRC Navi-Sailor 4000 electronic chart display and information system (ECDIS) with multi-functional (MFD) system, and a JRC JCY-1800 Voyage Data Recorder (VDR).
Life saving and fire-fighting systems
The PSV is fitted with two 20-man life rafts on each side and a man overboard boat (MOB) to carry six people.
"The PSV is fitted with two 20-man life rafts on each side and a man overboard boat (MOB) to carry six people."
External fire-fighting systems of the ABS FiFi Class vessel make it capable of dispersing 3,820m3 of water an hour. Manual fire-fighting equipment include two fire monitors. The high-capacity water jets are capable of releasing 1,200m3 of water every hour to a distance of more than 120m.
Engine and propulsion
VOs Pace PSV is powered by a diesel electric propulsion system comprising of two 1,630kW diesel engines and a pair of two diesel engines generating 990kW of power each.
The propulsion system includes two 1,600kW azimuthing twin propellers and two bow thrusters, each generating 880kW of power. The ship is also fitted with a 130ekW emergency generator set for shipboard electricity. The propulsion system ensures a maximum speed of 15kt.
This is the open star cluster NGC 2420 (also known as Collinder 154, Melotte 69) located in the constellation Gemini and it has an estimated age of 2.5 ± 0.5 billion years. The cluster counts about 685 member stars within a radius of 20 arc minutes, which corresponds to about 39 light years.
Designation: NGC 2420
Right Ascension (J2000.0): 07h 38m 23.8s
Declination (J2000.0): +21° 34' 27"
Visual magnitude: 8.3 mag
Tech Specs: Orion 8” RC Telescope, ZWO ASI2600MC camera running at -10F, 54 x 60 seconds, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ZWO EAF and ASIAir Pro, processed in DSS and PixInsight. Image Date: February 5, 2024. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W59), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
Skandasashti is a Hindu festival celebrated all over India,of course,with different names in different Regions.In Tamilnadu it is to worship Lord Muruga who annihilated the evil demon king Soorapadman ,his two powerful brothers and the entire lot of Asuras who represent evils.The celebration concludes on the 6th day when Lord Murugan killed Soorapadman and released the devas from incarceration.The entire celebrations are marked by special poojas,alankarams and cultural programs.
Covent Garden (/ˈkɒvənt/) is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as "Covent Garden". The district is divided by the main thoroughfare of Long Acre, north of which is given over to independent shops centred on Neal's Yard and Seven Dials, while the south contains the central square with its street performers and most of the elegant buildings, theatres and entertainment facilities, including the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and the London Transport Museum.
Though mainly fields until the 16th century, the area was briefly settled when it became the heart of the Anglo-Saxon trading town of Lundenwic. After the town was abandoned, part of the area was walled off by 1200 for use as arable land and orchards by Westminster Abbey, and was referred to as "the garden of the Abbey and Convent". The land, now called "the Covent Garden", was seized by Henry VIII, and granted to the Earls of Bedford in 1552. The 4th Earl commissioned Inigo Jones to build some fine houses to attract wealthy tenants. Jones designed the Italianate arcaded square along with the church of St Paul's. The design of the square was new to London, and had a significant influence on modern town planning, acting as the prototype for the laying-out of new estates as London grew. A small open-air fruit and vegetable market had developed on the south side of the fashionable square by 1654. Gradually, both the market and the surrounding area fell into disrepute, as taverns, theatres, coffee-houses and brothels opened up; the gentry moved away, and rakes, wits and playwrights moved in. By the 18th century it had become a well-known red-light district, attracting notable prostitutes. An Act of Parliament was drawn up to control the area, and Charles Fowler's neo-classical building was erected in 1830 to cover and help organise the market. The area declined as a pleasure-ground as the market grew and further buildings were added: the Floral Hall, Charter Market, and in 1904 the Jubilee Market. By the end of the 1960s traffic congestion was causing problems, and in 1974 the market relocated to the New Covent Garden Market about three miles (5 km) south-west at Nine Elms. The central building re-opened as a shopping centre in 1980, and is now a tourist location containing cafes, pubs, small shops, and a craft market called the Apple Market, along with another market held in the Jubilee Hall.
Covent Garden, with the postcode WC2, falls within the London boroughs of Westminster and Camden, and the parliamentary constituencies of Cities of London and Westminster and Holborn and St Pancras. The area has been served by the Piccadilly line at Covent Garden tube station since 1907; the journey from Leicester Square, at 300 yards, is the shortest in London.
Early history
The route of the Strand on the southern boundary of what was to become Covent Garden was used during the Roman period as part of a route to Silchester, known as "Iter VII" on the Antonine Itinerary. Excavations in 2006 at St Martin-in-the-Fields revealed a Roman grave, suggesting the site had sacred significance. The area to the north of the Strand was long thought to have remained as unsettled fields until the 16th century, but theories by Alan Vince and Martin Biddle that there had been an Anglo-Saxon settlement to the west of the old Roman town of Londinium were borne out by excavations in 1985 and 2005. These revealed Covent Garden as the centre of a trading town called Lundenwic, developed around 600 AD, which stretched from Trafalgar Square to Aldwych. Alfred the Great gradually shifted the settlement into the old Roman town of Londinium from around 886 AD onwards, leaving no mark of the old town, and the site returned to fields.
Around 1200 the first mention of an abbey garden appears in a document mentioning a walled garden owned by the Benedictine monks of the Abbey of St. Peter, Westminster. A later document, dated between 1250 and 1283, refers to "the garden of the Abbot and Convent of Westminster". By the 13th century this had become a 40-acre (16 ha) quadrangle of mixed orchard, meadow, pasture and arable land, lying between modern-day St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane, and Floral Street and Maiden Lane. The use of the name "Covent"—an Anglo-French term for a religious community, equivalent to "monastery" or "convent" —appears in a document in 1515, when the Abbey, which had been letting out parcels of land along the north side of the Strand for inns and market gardens, granted a lease of the walled garden, referring to it as "a garden called Covent Garden". This is how it was recorded from then on.
The Bedford Estate (1552–1918)
After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1540, Henry VIII took for himself the land belonging to Westminster Abbey, including the convent garden and seven acres to the north called Long Acre; and in 1552 his son, Edward VI, granted it to John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford. The Russell family, who in 1694 were advanced in their peerage from Earl to Duke of Bedford, held the land from 1552 to 1918.
Russell had Bedford House and garden built on part of the land, with an entrance on the Strand, the large garden stretching back along the south side of the old walled-off convent garden. Apart from this, and allowing several poor-quality tenements to be erected, the Russells did little with the land until the 4th Earl of Bedford, Francis Russell, an active and ambitious businessman, commissioned Inigo Jones in 1630 to design and build a church and three terraces of fine houses around a large square or piazza. The commission had been prompted by Charles I taking offence at the condition of the road and houses along Long Acre, which were the responsibility of Russell and Henry Carey, 2nd Earl of Monmouth. Russell and Carey complained that under the 1625 Proclamation concerning Buildings, which restricted building in and around London, they could not build new houses; the King then granted Russell, for a fee of £2,000, a licence to build as many new houses on his land as he "shall thinke fitt and convenient". The church of St Paul's was the first building, begun in July 1631 on the western side of the square. The last house was completed in 1637.
The houses initially attracted the wealthy, though when a market developed on the south side of the square around 1654, the aristocracy moved out and coffee houses, taverns, and prostitutes moved in. The Bedford Estate was expanded in 1669 to include Bloomsbury, when Lord Russell married Lady Rachel Vaughan, one of the daughters of the 4th Earl of Southampton.
By the 18th century, Covent Garden had become a well-known red-light district, attracting notable prostitutes such as Betty Careless and Jane Douglas. Descriptions of the prostitutes and where to find them were provided by Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies, the "essential guide and accessory for any serious gentleman of pleasure". In 1830 a market hall was built to provide a more permanent trading centre. In 1913, Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford agreed to sell the Covent Garden Estate for £2 million to the MP and land speculator Harry Mallaby-Deeley, who sold his option in 1918 to the Beecham family for £250,000.
Modern changes
Charles Fowler's 1830 neo-classical building restored as a retail market.
The Covent Garden Estate was part of Beecham Estates and Pills Limited from 1924 to 1928, after which time it was managed by a successor company called Covent Garden Properties Company Limited, owned by the Beechams and other private investors. This new company sold some properties at Covent Garden, while becoming active in property investment in other parts of London. In 1962 the bulk of the remaining properties in the Covent Garden area, including the market, were sold to the newly established government-owned Covent Garden Authority for £3,925,000.
By the end of the 1960s, traffic congestion had reached such a level that the use of the square as a modern wholesale distribution market was becoming unsustainable, and significant redevelopment was planned. Following a public outcry, buildings around the square were protected in 1973, preventing redevelopment. The following year the market moved to a new site in south-west London. The square languished until its central building re-opened as a shopping centre in 1980. An action plan was drawn up by Westminster Council in 2004 in consultation with residents and businesses to improve the area while retaining its historic character. The market buildings, along with several other properties in Covent Garden, were bought by a property company in 2006.
Geography
Historically, the Bedford Estate defined the boundary of Covent Garden, with Drury Lane to the east, the Strand to the south, St. Martin's Lane to the west, and Long Acre to the north. However, over time the area has expanded northwards past Long Acre to High Holborn, and since 1971, with the creation of the Covent Garden Conservation Area which incorporated part of the area between St Martins Lane and Charring Cross Road, the Western boundary is sometimes considered to be Charring Cross Road. Shelton Street, running parallel to the north of Long Acre, marks the London borough boundary between Camden and Westminster. Long Acre is the main thoroughfare, running north-east from St Martin's Lane to Drury Lane.
The area to the south of Long Acre contains the Royal Opera House, the market and central square, and most of the elegant buildings, theatres and entertainment facilities, including the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and the London Transport Museum; while the area to the north of Long Acre is largely given over to independent retail units centred on Neal Street, Neal's Yard and Seven Dials; though this area also contains residential buildings such as Odhams Walk, built in 1981 on the site of the Odhams print works, and is home to over 6,000 residents.
Governance
The Covent Garden estate was originally under the control of Westminster Abbey and lay in the parish of St Margaret. During a reorganisation in 1542 it was transferred to St Martin in the Fields, and then in 1645 a new parish was created, splitting governance of the estate between the parishes of St Paul Covent Garden and St Martin, both still within the Liberty of Westminster. St Paul Covent Garden was completely surrounded by the parish of St Martin in the Fields. It was grouped into the Strand District in 1855 when it came within the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Board of Works.
In 1889 the parish became part of the County of London and in 1900 it became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Westminster. It was abolished as a civil parish in 1922. Since 1965 Covent Garden falls within the London boroughs of Westminster and Camden, and is in the Parliamentary constituencies of Cities of London and Westminster and Holborn and St Pancras. For local council elections it falls within the St James's ward for Westminster, and the Holborn and Covent Garden ward for Camden.
Economy
The area's historic association with the retail and entertainment economy continues. In 1979, Covent Garden Market reopened as a retail centre; in 2010, the largest Apple Store in the world opened in The Piazza. The central hall has shops, cafes and bars alongside the Apple Market stalls selling antiques, jewellery, clothing and gifts; there are additional casual stalls in the Jubilee Hall Market on the south side of the square. Long Acre has a range of clothes shops and boutiques, and Neal Street is noted for its large number of shoe shops. London Transport Museum and the side entrance to the Royal Opera House box office and other facilities are also located on the square. During the late 1970s and 1980s the Rock Garden music venue was popular with up and coming punk rock and New Wave artists.
The market halls and several other buildings in Covent Garden were bought by CapCo in partnership with GE Real Estate in August 2006 for £421 million, on a 150-year head lease. The buildings are let to the Covent Garden Area Trust, who pay an annual peppercorn rent of one red apple and a posy of flowers for each head lease, and the Trust protects the property from being redeveloped. In March 2007 CapCo also acquired the shops located under the Royal Opera House. The complete Covent Garden Estate owned by CapCo consists of 550,000 sq ft (51,000 m2), and has a market value of £650 million.
Landmarks
The Royal Opera House, often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", was constructed as the "Theatre Royal" in 1732 to a design by Edward Shepherd. During the first hundred years or so of its history, the theatre was primarily a playhouse, with the Letters Patent granted by Charles II giving Covent Garden and Theatre Royal, Drury Lane exclusive rights to present spoken drama in London. In 1734, the first ballet was presented; a year later Handel's first season of operas began. Many of his operas and oratorios were specifically written for Covent Garden and had their premières here. It has been the home of The Royal Opera since 1945, and the Royal Ballet since 1946.
The current building is the third theatre on the site following destructive fires in 1808 and 1857. The façade, foyer and auditorium were designed by Edward Barry, and date from 1858, but almost every other element of the present complex dates from an extensive £178 million reconstruction in the 1990s. The Royal Opera House seats 2,268 people and consists of four tiers of boxes and balconies and the amphitheatre gallery. The stage performance area is roughly 15 metres square. The main auditorium is a Grade 1 listed building. The inclusion of the adjacent old Floral Hall, previously a part of the old Covent Garden Market, created a new and extensive public gathering place. In 1779 the pavement outside the playhouse was the scene of the murder of Martha Ray, mistress of the Earl of Sandwich, by her admirer the Rev. James Hackman.
Covent Garden square
Balthazar Nebot's 1737 painting of the square before the 1830 market hall was constructed.
The central square in Covent Garden is simply called "Covent Garden", often marketed as "Covent Garden Piazza" to distinguish it from the eponymous surrounding area. Laid out in 1630, it was the first modern square in London, and was originally a flat, open space or piazza with low railings. A casual market started on the south side, and by 1830 the present market hall was built. The space is popular with street performers, who audition with the site's owners for an allocated slot. The square was originally laid out when the 4th Earl of Bedford, Francis Russell, commissioned Inigo Jones to design and build a church and three terraces of fine houses around the site of a former walled garden belonging to Westminster Abbey. Jones's design was informed by his knowledge of modern town planning in Europe, particularly Piazza d'Arme, in Leghorn, Tuscany, Piazza San Marco in Venice, Piazza Santissima Annunziata in Florence, and the Place des Vosges in Paris. The centrepiece of the project was the large square, the concept of which was new to London, and this had a significant influence on modern town planning in the city,[56] acting as the prototype for the laying-out of new estates as the metropolis grew. Isaac de Caus, the French Huguenot architect, designed the individual houses under Jones's overall design.
The church of St Paul's was the first building, and was begun in July 1631 on the western side of the square. The last house was completed in 1637. Seventeen of the houses had arcaded portico walks organised in groups of four and six either side of James Street on the north side, and three and four either side of Russell Street. These arcades, rather than the square itself, took the name Piazza; the group from James Street to Russell Street became known as the "Great Piazza" and that to the south of Russell Street as the "Little Piazza". None of Inigo Jones's houses remain, though part of the north group was reconstructed in 1877–79 as Bedford Chambers by William Cubitt to a design by Henry Clutton.
Covent Garden market
The first record of a "new market in Covent Garden" is in 1654 when market traders set up stalls against the garden wall of Bedford House. The Earl of Bedford acquired a private charter from Charles II in 1670 for a fruit and vegetable market, permitting him and his heirs to hold a market every day except Sundays and Christmas Day. The original market, consisting of wooden stalls and sheds, became disorganised and disorderly, and the 6th Earl requested an Act of Parliament in 1813 to regulate it, then commissioned Charles Fowler in 1830 to design the neo-classical market building that is the heart of Covent Garden today. The contractor was William Cubitt and Company. Further buildings were added—the Floral hall, Charter Market, and in 1904 the Jubilee Market for foreign flowers was built by Cubitt and Howard.
By the end of the 1960s, traffic congestion was causing problems for the market, which required increasingly large lorries for deliveries and distribution. Redevelopment was considered, but protests from the Covent Garden Community Association in 1973 prompted the Home Secretary, Robert Carr, to give dozens of buildings around the square listed-building status, preventing redevelopment. The following year the market relocated to its new site, New Covent Garden Market, about three miles (5 km) south-west at Nine Elms. The central building re-opened as a shopping centre in 1980, with cafes, pubs, small shops and a craft market called the Apple Market. Another market, the Jubilee Market, is held in the Jubilee Hall on the south side of the square. The market halls and several other buildings in Covent Garden have been owned by the property company Capital & Counties Properties (CapCo) since 2006.
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The current Theatre Royal on Drury Lane is the most recent of four incarnations, the Second of which opened in 1663, making it the oldest continuously used theatre in London. For much of its first two centuries, it was, along with the Royal Opera House, a patent theatre granted rights in London for the production of drama, and had a claim to be one of London's leading theatres. The first theatre, known as "Theatre Royal, Bridges Street", saw performances by Nell Gwyn and Charles Hart. After it was destroyed by fire in 1672, English dramatist and theatre manager Thomas Killigrew engaged Christopher Wren to build a larger theatre on the same spot, which opened in 1674. This building lasted nearly 120 years, under leadership including Colley Cibber, David Garrick, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan. In 1791, under Sheridan's management, the building was demolished to make way for a larger theatre which opened in 1794; but that survived only 15 years, burning down in 1809. The building that stands today opened in 1812. It has been home to actors as diverse as Shakespearean actor Edmund Kean, child actress Clara Fisher, comedian Dan Leno, the comedy troupe Monty Python (who recorded a concert album there), and musical composer and performer Ivor Novello. Since November 2008 the theatre has been owned by composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and generally stages popular musical theatre. It is a Grade I listed building.
London Transport Museum
The London Transport Museum is in a Victorian iron and glass building on the east side of the market square. It was designed as a dedicated flower market by William Rogers of William Cubitt and Company in 1871, and was first occupied by the museum in 1980. Previously the transport collection had been held at Syon Park and Clapham. The first parts of the collection were brought together at the beginning of the 20th century by the London General Omnibus Company (LGOC) when it began to preserve buses being retired from service. After the LGOC was taken over by the London Electric Railway (LER), the collection was expanded to include rail vehicles. It continued to expand after the LER became part of the London Passenger Transport Board in the 1930s and as the organisation passed through various successor bodies up to TfL, London's transport authority since 2000. The Covent Garden building has on display many examples of buses, trams, trolleybuses and rail vehicles from 19th and 20th centuries as well as artefacts and exhibits related to the operation and marketing of passenger services and the impact that the developing transport network has had on the city and its population.
St Paul's Church
St Paul's, commonly known as the Actors' Church, was designed by Inigo Jones as part of a commission by Francis Russell in 1631 to create "houses and buildings fitt for the habitacons of Gentlemen and men of ability". Work on the church began that year and was completed in 1633, at a cost of £4,000, with it becoming consecrated in 1638. In 1645 Covent Garden was made a separate parish and the church was dedicated to St Paul. It is uncertain how much of Jones's original building is left, as the church was damaged by fire in 1795 during restoration work by Thomas Hardwick; though it is believed that the columns are original—the rest is mostly Georgian or Victorian reconstruction.
Culture
The Covent Garden area has long been associated with both entertainment and shopping, and this continues. Covent Garden has 13 theatres, and over 60 pubs and bars, with most south of Long Acre, around the main shopping area of the old market. The Seven Dials area in the north of Covent Garden was home to the punk rock club The Roxy in 1977, and the area remains focused on young people with its trendy mid-market retail outlets.
Street performance
Street entertainment at Covent Garden was noted in Samuel Pepys's diary in May 1662, when he recorded the first mention of a Punch and Judy show in Britain. Impromptu performances of song and swimming were given by local celebrity William Cussans in the eighteenth century. Covent Garden is licensed for street entertainment, and performers audition for timetabled slots in a number of venues around the market, including the North Hall, West Piazza, and South Hall Courtyard. The courtyard space is dedicated to classical music only. There are street performances at Covent Garden Market every day of the year, except Christmas Day. Shows run throughout the day and are about 30 minutes in length. In March 2008, the market owner, CapCo, proposed to reduce street performances to one 30-minute show each hour.
Pubs and bars
The Covent Garden area has over 60 pubs and bars; several of them are listed buildings, with some also on CAMRA's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors; some, such as The Harp in Chandos Place, have received consumer awards. The Harp's awards include London Pub of the Year in 2008 by the Society for the Preservation of Beers from the Wood, and National Pub of the Year by CAMRA in 2011. It was at one time owned by the Charrington Brewery, when it was known as The Welsh Harp; in 1995 the name was abbreviated to just The Harp, before Charrington sold it to Punch Taverns in 1997. It has been owned by the landlady since 2010.
The Lamb and Flag in Rose Street has a reputation as the oldest pub in the area, though records are not clear. The first mention of a pub on the site is 1772 (when it was called the Cooper's Arms – the name changing to Lamb & Flag in 1833); the 1958 brick exterior conceals what may be an early 18th-century frame of a house replacing the original one built in 1638.[94] The pub acquired a reputation for staging bare-knuckle prize fights during the early 19th century when it earned the nickname "Bucket of Blood". The alleyway beside the pub was the scene of an attack on John Dryden in 1679 by thugs hired by John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, with whom he had a long-standing conflict.
The Salisbury in St. Martin's Lane was built as part of a six-storey block around 1899 on the site of an earlier pub that had been known under several names, including the Coach & Horses and Ben Caunt's Head; it is both Grade II listed, and on CAMRA's National Inventory, due to the quality of the etched and polished glass and the carved woodwork, summed up as "good fin de siècle ensemble". The Freemasons Arms on Long Acre is linked with the founding of the Football Association in 1896; however, the meetings took place at The Freemasons Tavern on Great Queen Street, which was replaced in 1909 by the Connaught Rooms.
Other pubs that are Grade II listed are of minor interest, they are three 19th century rebuilds of 17th century/18th century houses, the Nell Gwynne Tavern in Bull Inn Court, the Nag's Head on James Street, and the White Swan on New Row; a Victorian pub built by lessees of the Marquis of Exeter, the Old Bell on the corner of Exeter Street and Wellington Street; and a late 18th or early 19th century pub the Angel and Crown on St. Martin's Lane.
Cultural connections
Covent Garden, and especially the market, have appeared in a number of works. Eliza Doolittle, the central character in George Bernard Shaw's play, Pygmalion, and the musical adaptation by Alan Jay Lerner, My Fair Lady, is a Covent Garden flower seller. Alfred Hitchcock's 1972 film Frenzy about a Covent Garden fruit vendor who becomes a serial sex killer, was set in the market where his father had been a wholesale greengrocer. The daily activity of the market was the topic of a 1957 Free Cinema documentary by Lindsay Anderson, Every Day Except Christmas, which won the Grand Prix at the Venice Festival of Shorts and Documentaries.
Transport
Covent Garden is served by the Piccadilly line at Covent Garden tube station on the corner of Long Acre and James Street. The station was opened by Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway on 11 April 1907, four months after services on the rest of the line began operating on 15 December 1906. Platform access is only by lift or stairs; until improvements to the exit gates in 2007, due to high passenger numbers (16 million annually), London Underground had to advise travellers to get off at Leicester Square and walk the short distance (the tube journey at less than 300 yards is London's shortest) to avoid the congestion. Stations just outside the area include the Charing Cross tube station and Charing Cross railway station, Leicester Square tube station, and Holborn tube station. While there is only one bus route in Covent Garden itself—the RV1, which uses Catherine Street as a terminus, just to the east of Covent Garden square—there are over 30 routes which pass close by, mostly on the Strand or Kingsway.
this is the ferry but it's not the ferry's captain. this is a captain but this isn't his ferry. anyway, the other captain spotted the lake monster from this ferry. in this swath of water. looking for the plesiosaur or 40 ft. carp or rubber blow-up head keeps me very preoccupied when i cross on this ferry and i'm not busy taking pictures of other ferry's captains.
The entire Tree of Life is amazing; from it's sheer size to the multitude of all the sculptures/carvings on its trunk. The owl is one of my favorites.
Disney's Animal Kingdom | Discovery Island | Tree of Life
Thanks for looking. I appreciate feedback!
4 little Liccas wandered out the doors to feel a fresh, cool air, as they walked along a ground slightly dampened by melting snow.
I think this is the first time I've brought 4 dolls outside. :P
L->R: Koda, Poland, Mona, and Nona
Here is a complete set of orders with clearance card from LaCrosse, Wisconsin on February 1st, 1977. Reads as follows:
Clearance Card (white paper)
CMStP&P RR Co. Clearance
Station-LaCrosse, Wisconsin
Date-February 1st, 1977
Addressed to C&E Extra 155 East
Clearance No.-103
To-Portage
"4 Orders for your train, #'s 102, 838, 864 & 866.
OK time was 0118 am
Supt.-NHM
Opr-Proksch
Train Order #102 (yellow paper)
At LaCrosse
Date-February 1st, 1977
Addressed to C&E eastward trains reads:
"Men and equipment on Eastward track between MP 280 and MP 279 Between LaCrosse and Medary From 8:01 am until 401 pm.
All trains on this track proceed through these limits at reduced speed unless a different speed is verbally authorized by employee in charge or entire train has passed a green flag."
Supt-NHM
Made complete at 0115 am by operator Proksch
Train Order #838 (bottom left)
At LaCrosse
Date-January 19th, 1977
Addressed to C&E eastward trains reads:
"The trailing point crossover east of Depot Sparta and the west switch of the eastward siding at Sparta is out of service."
Supt-NHM
Made complete at 1017 pm by operator King
Train Order #864 (center bottom)
At LaCrosse
Date-January 27th, 1977
Addressed to C&E eastward extra trains reads:
"On westward track between Portage and LaCrosse frt trains do not exceed
Between MP 179 and MP 215 40 MPH
Between MP 215 and MP 223 35 MPH
Between MP 223 and MP 256 40 MPH
Between MP 256 and MP 257 35 MPH
Between MP 257 and MP 266 40 MPH
Between MP 266 and MP 273 35 MPH
Between MP 273 and MP 278 40 MPH"
Supt.-NHM
Made complete at 341 pm by operator Ristow
Train Order #866 (bottom right)
At LaCrosse
Date-January 27th, 1977
Addressed to C&E eastward extra trains reads:
"On eastward track between LaCroose and Portage frt trains do not exceed:
Between MP 278 and MP 273 40 MPH
Between MP 273 and MP 266 35 MPH
Between MP 266 and MP 257 40 MPH
Between MP 257 and MP 256 35 MPH
Between MP 256 and MP 243 40 MPH
Between MP 243 and MP 239 35 MPH
Between MP 239 and MP 223 40 MPH
Between MP 223 and MP 208 35 MPH
Between MP 208 and MP 190 40 MPH
Between MP 190 and MP 179 35 MPH"
Supt.-NHM
Made Complete at 341 pm by operator Ristow
The Krupa is a 2.5 km (1.6 mi) river in White Carniola (Bela krajina), southeastern Slovenia. Its source is a karst spring in the village of Krupa below a rock wall. The bed has canyon characteristics in some places. At Klošter, the river joins the Lahinja river from the left side. Its drop from the source to the outflow is only 6 meters (20 ft). The average flow capacity is about 1000 liters per second.
The river is protected as a natural monument and has been included in the Natura 2000 ecological network. It is the main feature of the Karst nature trail from Lebica to Krupa (Slovene: Kraška učna pot od Lebice do Krupe). Its source lake is the only habitat of the cave mollusk Congeria kusceri in Slovenia. It is also home to some cave snails and the olm (Proteus anguinus).
3x2 project.
That is, three targets for two astrophotographers (or self-styled so), myself and Alessandro Bucci.
Second target of the joint project, in fact the main subject, what pushed us to "join forces" for this project was the reflection nebula M78, in Orion. Beautiful subject, yet difficult if not taken from sufficiently dark skies, which requires a lot of care even in the processing phase. It took me about a week of attempts and "pauses for reflection" before reaching the result below, which seems to me quite satisfactory overall.
Unfortunately we were unable to dedicate the two entire evenings to shooting, due to the atmospheric problems I mentioned in the previous post, but 13 hours of shooting still proved to be enough to finally obtain a good photo on this target which I had never shot in optimal conditions.
Hope you like it as well!
Techinical data:
159x300s T-20°/-10° Gain 100 (13h25m Total Integration Time)
Bortle 3 rural sky, Pietralunga, PG (Italy)
Equipment:
Skywatcher Newton 254/1200 @F4.5 1140mm
Tecnosky 0.95x Coma Corrector
Omegon veTEC571C Color
ZWO OAG + ASI290MM Mini
Ioptron CEM70
Skywatcher Newton 254/1200
Skywatcher Coma Corrector 1x
Toupteck 571c Color
ZWO OAG + ASI224MC
Skywatcher Eq6-R
Software:
N.I.N.A., PHD2
Processing(Francesco Radici):
Pixinsight, Photoshop
Progetto 3x2.
Ovvero, tre target x due astrofotografi (o sedicenti tali), il sottoscritto ed Alessandro Bucci.
Secondo obiettivo del progetto congiunto, nonché il soggetto principale, quello che ci ha spinto ad "unire le forze" per questo progetto era la nebulosa a riflessione M78, nella costellazione di Orione. Soggetto bellissimo, quanto ostico se non ripreso da cieli sufficientemente bui, che richiede molte accortezze anche in fase di elaborazione. Ho impiegato circa una settimana tra tentativi e "pause di riflessione" prima di giungere al risultato qui sotto, che mi sembra abbastanza soddisfacente, nel complesso.
Purtroppo non siamo riusciti a dedicare le due intere serate alle riprese, per i problemi atmosferici di cui accennavo nel precedente post, ma 13 ore di riprese si sono rivelate comunque abbastanza per ottenere finalmente una buona foto su questo target che non avevo mai ripreso in condizioni degne.
Spero piaccia anche a voi!
Dati di ripresa:
159x300s T-20°/-10° Gain 100 (13h25m Total Integration Time)
Cielo rurale Bortle 3 Località Pietralunga (PG)
Questi i due setup:
Skywatcher Newton 254/1200 @F4.5 1140mm
Tecnosky 0.95x Coma Corrector
Omegon veTEC571C Color
ZWO OAG + ASI290MM Mini
Ioptron CEM70
Skywatcher Newton 254/1200
Skywatcher Coma Corrector 1x
Toupteck 571c Color
ZWO OAG + ASI224MC
Skywatcher Eq6-R
Software di ripresa:
N.I.N.A., PHD2
Elaborazione (Francesco Radici):
Pixinsight, Photoshop
Lily is ready to wrap up our year of 52 weeks and is looking forward to having a little break from modeling.
I have really enjoyed this project and am so thankful for the photos I have of her. Thank you to everyone who commented, I've been inspired by many of you! Happy 2014 to all!
"The saints—consider the example of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta—constantly renewed their capacity for love of neighbour from their encounter with the Eucharistic Lord, and conversely this encounter acquired its realism and depth in their service to others. Love of God and love of neighbour are thus inseparable, they form a single commandment. But both live from the love of God who has loved us first"
– Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, 18.
My sermon for today, the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time can be read here.
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in St Gertrude's, Cincinnati.
Harder Hall is a historic hotel in Sebring, Florida. It is located on Little Lake Jackson, at 3300 Golfview Drive. On June 20, 1990, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
The hotel was designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival Style architecture popular during the period and contained 134 rooms. It had approximately 50,000 square feet (4,600 m2) square feet of rooms and halls, 35,000 square feet (3,300 m2) of public areas including a mezzanine lobby. The 4,200-square-foot (390 m2) great room and banquet room both had 22-foot (7 m) ceilings with large french doors that overlook the lake.
Harder Hall was named for its developers, Lewis F. Harder and Vincent Hall, both of West Palm Beach. Prior to the Wall Street Crash of 1929, Florida experienced a boom in real estate and tourism. It was during this period that many Spanish style hotels, such as Harder Hall, were built. Construction of the hotel began in 1925, prior to the end of the Florida land boom of the 1920s. The firm responsible for the construction of the building, Schultze and Weaver, were also responsible for the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Florida. In 1927, the classic Spanish Style hotel and golf resort, opened on the shore of Little Lake Jackson. Harder Hall was built in Sebring because the city was a stop on the Atlantic Coast Line railroad. In 1953 it was bought by Victor and David Jacobson and partners Larry Tennenbaum and Sam Levy. In 1954 Victor commissioned golf course architect Dick Wilson to transform the golf course into a championship layout. Among the major tournaments held at Harder Hall Hotel were the Haig & Haig Scotch Foursome, a PGA Tour/LPGA Tour event. Other famous guests of the hotel were Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Ali MacGraw and Mario Andretti. With head pro Ben Roman Victor started the first golf school in the world. Victor and Eva Jacobson also operated Harder Hall Golf and Tennis Camp at the hotel between 1967 and at least 1982. This was the first and last co-ed, teenage golf and tennis camp in a resort hotel ever and drew campers from all over the world. Victor operated this hotel until the 1982 when he sold it to a group of investors who went bankrupt, unable to convert their plan to convert the structure to timeshares. The building has been unoccupied ever since. Several times different groups tried their luck on the extensive renovation project but never got far. A few times this classic building barely escaped demolition, before being put on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 2004 the building was acquired by another investor from Florida, who in 2005 through 2006 gave the ambitious restoration project another try. This one witnessed more work done than all other previous attempts combined, but ran out of funds in 2006. Currently the half-finished project is awaiting new owners to finally finish the restoration. Harder Hall was purchased at auction by the city of Sebring in July 2007.
The golf course is in great condition and remains open to the public on a fee for play basis.
Data above originated from the following website:
Akhet is an Egyptian hieroglyph that represents the sun rising over a mountain. It is translated as "horizon" or "the place in the sky where the sun rises".
Late Period
Valley of the Queens, tomb of Prince Khaemwaset QV 44
Egypt of Glory exhibition, Amos Rex Art Museum, Helsinki
From the collection of Museo Egizio, Turin, Italy
9.10.2020-21.3.2021
This is one of my favourite shots of my son from a few years ago. He absolutely loved to ride these cars that go up and around a railed track. You can see the seriousness in his face, the rareing to go! This is what I try to do in every shot, capture the decisive moment.
Beamish Museum is the first regional open-air museum, in England, located at Beamish, near the town of Stanley, in County Durham, England. Beamish pioneered the concept of a living museum. By displaying duplicates or replaceable items, it was also an early example of the now commonplace practice of museums allowing visitors to touch objects.
The museum's guiding principle is to preserve an example of everyday life in urban and rural North East England at the climax of industrialisation in the early 20th century. Much of the restoration and interpretation is specific to the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, together with portions of countryside under the influence of Industrial Revolution from 1825. On its 350 acres (140 ha) estate it uses a mixture of translocated, original and replica buildings, a large collection of artefacts, working vehicles and equipment, as well as livestock and costumed interpreters.
The museum has received a number of awards since it opened to visitors in 1972 and has influenced other living museums.[citation needed] It is an educational resource, and also helps to preserve some traditional and rare north-country livestock breeds.
In 1958, days after starting as director of the Bowes Museum, inspired by Scandinavian folk museums, and realising the North East's traditional industries and communities were disappearing, Frank Atkinson presented a report to Durham County Council urging that a collection of items of everyday history on a large scale should begin as soon as possible, so that eventually an open air museum could be established. As well as objects, Atkinson was also aiming to preserve the region's customs and dialect. He stated the new museum should "attempt to make the history of the region live" and illustrate the way of life of ordinary people. He hoped the museum would be run by, be about and exist for the local populace, desiring them to see the museum as theirs, featuring items collected from them.
Fearing it was now almost too late, Atkinson adopted a policy of "unselective collecting" — "you offer it to us and we will collect it." Donations ranged in size from small items to locomotives and shops, and Atkinson initially took advantage of a surplus of space available in the 19th-century French chateau-style building housing the Bowes Museum to store items donated for the open air museum. With this space soon filled, a former British Army tank depot at Brancepeth was taken over, although in just a short time its entire complement of 22 huts and hangars had been filled, too.
In 1966, a working party was established to set up a museum "for the purpose of studying, collecting, preserving and exhibiting buildings, machinery, objects and information illustrating the development of industry and the way of life of the north of England", and it selected Beamish Hall, having been vacated by the National Coal Board, as a suitable location.
In August 1970, with Atkinson appointed as its first full-time director together with three staff members, the museum was first established by moving some of the collections into the hall. In 1971, an introductory exhibition, "Museum in the Making" opened at the hall.
The museum was opened to visitors on its current site for the first time in 1972, with the first translocated buildings (the railway station and colliery winding engine) being erected the following year. The first trams began operating on a short demonstration line in 1973. The Town station was formally opened in 1976, the same year the reconstruction of the colliery winding engine house was completed, and the miners' cottages were relocated. Opening of the drift mine as an exhibit followed in 1979.
In 1975 the museum was visited by the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and by Anne, Princess Royal, in 2002. In 2006, as the Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England, The Duke of Kent visited, to open the town masonic lodge.
With the Co-op having opened in 1984, the town area was officially opened in 1985. The pub had opened in the same year, with Ravensworth Terrace having been reconstructed from 1980 to 1985. The newspaper branch office had also been built in the mid-1980s. Elsewhere, the farm on the west side of the site (which became Home Farm) opened in 1983. The present arrangement of visitors entering from the south was introduced in 1986.
At the beginning of the 1990s, further developments in the Pit Village were opened, the chapel in 1990, and the board school in 1992. The whole tram circle was in operation by 1993. Further additions to the Town came in 1994 with the opening of the sweet shop and motor garage,Beamish Museum 2014 followed by the bank in 1999. The first Georgian component of the museum arrived when Pockerley Old Hall opened in 1995, followed by the Pockerley Waggonway in 2001.
In the early 2000s two large modern buildings were added, to augment the museum's operations and storage capacity - the Regional Resource Centre on the west side opened in 2001, followed by the Regional Museums Store next to the railway station in 2002. Due to its proximity, the latter has been cosmetically presented as Beamish Waggon and Iron Works. Additions to display areas came in the form of the Masonic lodge (2006) and the Lamp Cabin in the Colliery (2009). In 2010, the entrance building and tea rooms were refurbished.
Into the 2010s, further buildings were added - the fish and chip shop (opened 2011) band hall (opened 2013) and pit pony stables (built 2013/14) in the Pit Village, plus a bakery (opened 2013) and chemist and photographers (opened 2016) being added to the town. St Helen's Church, in the Georgian landscape, opened in November 2015.
John is responsible for everything to do with fishing off the west and east harbour walls. On dismal days like today there aren't many people fishing but come the sunny days the wall is packed. Elly, his dog, was gorgeous but, even when she looked at the camera her eyes didn't get through her floppy coat.
Canyonlands National Park is an American national park located in southeastern Utah near the town of Moab. The park preserves a colorful landscape eroded into numerous canyons, mesas, and buttes by the Colorado River, the Green River, and their respective tributaries. Legislation creating the park was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on September 12, 1964.
The park is divided into four districts: the Island in the Sky, the Needles, the Maze, and the combined rivers—the Green and Colorado—which carved two large canyons into the Colorado Plateau. While these areas share a primitive desert atmosphere, each retains its own character. Author Edward Abbey, a frequent visitor, described the Canyonlands as "the most weird, wonderful, magical place on earth—there is nothing else like it anywhere."
In the early 1950s, Bates Wilson, then superintendent of Arches National Monument, began exploring the area to the south and west of Moab, Utah. After seeing what is now known as the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park, Wilson began advocating for the establishment of a new national park that would include the Needles. Additional explorations by Wilson and others expanded the areas proposed for inclusion into the new national park to include the confluence of Green and Colorado rivers, the Maze District, and Horseshoe Canyon.
In 1961, Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall was scheduled to address a conference at Grand Canyon National Park. On his flight to the conference, he flew over the Confluence (where the Colorado and Green rivers meet). The view apparently sparked Udall's interest in Wilson's proposal for a new national park in that area and Udall began promoting the establishment of Canyonlands National Park.
Utah Senator Frank Moss first introduced legislation into Congress to create Canyonlands National Park. His legislation attempted to satisfy both nature preservationists' and commercial developers' interests. Over the next four years, his proposal was struck down, debated, revised, and reintroduced to Congress many times before being passed and signed into creation.
In September, 1964, after several years of debate, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Pub.L. 88–590, which established Canyonlands National Park as a new national park. Bates Wilson became the first superintendent of the new park and is often referred to as the "Father of Canyonlands."
The Colorado River and Green River combine within the park, dividing it into three districts called the Island in the Sky, the Needles, and the Maze. The Colorado River flows through Cataract Canyon below its confluence with the Green River.
The Island in the Sky district is a broad and level mesa in the northern section of the park, between the Colorado and Green rivers. The district has many viewpoints overlooking the White Rim, a sandstone bench 1,200 feet (370 m) below the Island, and the rivers, which are another 1,000 feet (300 m) below the White Rim.
The Needles district is located south of the Island in the Sky, on the east side of the Colorado River. The district is named for the red and white banded rock pinnacles which are a major feature of the area. Various other naturally sculpted rock formations are also within this district, including grabens, potholes, and arches. Unlike Arches National Park, where many arches are accessible by short to moderate hikes, most of the arches in the Needles district lie in backcountry canyons, requiring long hikes or four-wheel drive trips to reach them.
The Ancestral Puebloans inhabited this area and some of their stone and mud dwellings are well-preserved, although the items and tools they used were mostly removed by looters. The Ancestral Puebloans also created rock art in the form of petroglyphs, most notably on Newspaper Rock along the Needles access road.
The Maze district is located west of the Colorado and Green rivers. The Maze is the least accessible section of the park, and one of the most remote and inaccessible areas of the United States.
A geographically detached section of the park located north of the Maze district, Horseshoe Canyon contains panels of rock art made by hunter-gatherers from the Late Archaic Period (2000-1000 BC) pre-dating the Ancestral Puebloans. Originally called Barrier Canyon, Horseshoe's artifacts, dwellings, pictographs, and murals are some of the oldest in America. The images depicting horses date from after 1540 AD, when the Spanish reintroduced horses to America.
Since the 1950s, scientists have been studying an area of 200 acres (81 ha) completely surrounded by cliffs. The cliffs have prevented cattle from ever grazing on the area's 62 acres (25 ha) of grassland. According to the scientists, the site may contain the largest undisturbed grassland in the Four Corners region. Studies have continued biannually since the mid-1990s. The area has been closed to the public since 1993 to maintain the nearly pristine environment.
Mammals that roam this park include black bears, coyotes, skunks, bats, elk, foxes, bobcats, badgers, ring-tailed cats, pronghorns, desert bighorn sheep, and cougars. Desert cottontails, kangaroo rats and mule deer are commonly seen by visitors.
At least 273 species of birds inhabit the park. A variety of hawks and eagles are found, including the Cooper's hawk, the northern goshawk, the sharp-shinned hawk, the red-tailed hawk, the golden and bald eagles, the rough-legged hawk, the Swainson's hawk, and the northern harrier. Several species of owls are found, including the great horned owl, the northern saw-whet owl, the western screech owl, and the Mexican spotted owl. Grebes, woodpeckers, ravens, herons, flycatchers, crows, bluebirds, wrens, warblers, blackbirds, orioles, goldfinches, swallows, sparrows, ducks, quail, grouse, pheasants, hummingbirds, falcons, gulls, and ospreys are some of the other birds that can be found.
Several reptiles can be found, including eleven species of lizards and eight species of snake (including the midget faded rattlesnake). The common kingsnake and prairie rattlesnake have been reported in the park, but not confirmed by the National Park Service.
The park is home to six confirmed amphibian species, including the red-spotted toad, Woodhouse's toad, American bullfrog, northern leopard frog, Great Basin spadefoot toad, and tiger salamander. The canyon tree frog was reported to be in the park in 2000, but was not confirmed during a study in 2004.
Canyonlands National Park contains a wide variety of plant life, including 11 cactus species,[34] 20 moss species, liverworts, grasses and wildflowers. Varieties of trees include netleaf hackberry, Russian olive, Utah juniper, pinyon pine, tamarisk, and Fremont's cottonwood. Shrubs include Mormon tea, blackbrush, four-wing saltbush, cliffrose, littleleaf mountain mahogany, and snakeweed
Cryptobiotic soil is the foundation of life in Canyonlands, providing nitrogen fixation and moisture for plant seeds. One footprint can destroy decades of growth.
According to the Köppen climate classification system, Canyonlands National Park has a cold semi-arid climate ("BSk"). The plant hardiness zones at the Island in the Sky and Needles District Visitor Centers are 7a with an average annual extreme minimum air temperature of 4.0 °F (-15.6 °C) and 2.9 °F (-16.2 °C), respectively.
The National Weather Service has maintained two cooperative weather stations in the park since June 1965. Official data documents the desert climate with less than 10 inches (250 millimetres) of annual rainfall, as well as hot, mostly dry summers and cold, occasionally wet winters. Snowfall is generally light during the winter.
The station in The Neck region reports an average January temperature of 29.6 °F and an average July temperature of 79.3 °F. Average July temperatures range from a high of 90.8 °F (32.7 °C) to a low of 67.9 °F (19.9 °C). There are an average of 45.7 days with highs of 90 °F (32 °C) or higher and an average of 117.3 days with lows of 32 °F (0 °C) or lower. The highest recorded temperature was 105 °F (41 °C) on July 15, 2005, and the lowest recorded temperature was −13 °F (−25 °C) on February 6, 1989. Average annual precipitation is 9.33 inches (237 mm). There are an average of 59 days with measurable precipitation. The wettest year was 1984, with 13.66 in (347 mm), and the driest year was 1989, with 4.63 in (118 mm). The most precipitation in one month was 5.19 in (132 mm) in October 2006. The most precipitation in 24 hours was 1.76 in (45 mm) on April 9, 1978. Average annual snowfall is 22.8 in (58 cm). The most snowfall in one year was 47.4 in (120 cm) in 1975, and the most snowfall in one month was 27.0 in (69 cm) in January 1978.
The station in The Needles region reports an average January temperature of 29.7 °F and an average July temperature of 79.1 °F.[44] Average July temperatures range from a high of 95.4 °F (35.2 °C) to a low of 62.4 °F (16.9 °C). There are an average of 75.4 days with highs of 90 °F (32 °C) or higher and an average of 143.6 days with lows of 32 °F (0 °C) or lower. The highest recorded temperature was 107 °F (42 °C) on July 13, 1971, and the lowest recorded temperature was −16 °F (−27 °C) on January 16, 1971. Average annual precipitation is 8.49 in (216 mm). There are an average of 56 days with measurable precipitation. The wettest year was 1969, with 11.19 in (284 mm), and the driest year was 1989, with 4.25 in (108 mm). The most precipitation in one month was 4.43 in (113 mm) in October 1972. The most precipitation in 24 hours was 1.56 in (40 mm) on September 17, 1999. Average annual snowfall is 14.4 in (37 cm). The most snowfall in one year was 39.3 in (100 cm) in 1975, and the most snowfall in one month was 24.0 in (61 cm) in March 1985.
National parks in the Western US are more affected by climate change than the country as a whole, and the National Park Service has begun research into how exactly this will effect the ecosystem of Canyonlands National Park and the surrounding areas and ways to protect the park for the future. The mean annual temperature of Canyonlands National Park increased by 2.6 °F (1.4 °C) from 1916 to 2018. It is predicted that if current warming trends continue, the average highs in the park during the summer will be over 100 °F (40 °C) by 2100. In addition to warming, the region has begun to see more severe and frequent droughts which causes native grass cover to decrease and a lower flow of the Colorado River. The flows of the Upper Colorado Basin have decreased by 300,000 acre⋅ft (370,000,000 m3) per year, which has led to a decreased amount of sediment carried by the river and rockier rapids which are more frequently impassable to rafters. The area has also begun to see an earlier spring, which will lead to changes in the timing of leaves and flowers blooming and migrational patterns of wildlife that could lead to food shortages for the wildlife, as well as a longer fire season.
The National Park Service is currently closely monitoring the impacts of climate change in Canyonlands National Park in order to create management strategies that will best help conserve the park's landscapes and ecosystems for the long term. Although the National Park Service's original goal was to preserve landscapes as they were before European colonization, they have now switched to a more adaptive management strategy with the ultimate goal of conserving the biodiversity of the park. The NPS is collaborating with other organizations including the US Geological Survey, local indigenous tribes, and nearby universities in order to create a management plan for the national park. Right now, there is a focus on research into which native plants will be most resistant to climate change so that the park can decide on what to prioritize in conservation efforts. The Canyonlands Natural History Association has been giving money to the US Geological Survey to fund this and other climate related research. They gave $30,000 in 2019 and $61,000 in 2020.
A subsiding basin and nearby uplifting mountain range (the Uncompahgre) existed in the area in Pennsylvanian time. Seawater trapped in the subsiding basin created thick evaporite deposits by Mid Pennsylvanian. This, along with eroded material from the nearby mountain range, became the Paradox Formation, itself a part of the Hermosa Group. Paradox salt beds started to flow later in the Pennsylvanian and probably continued to move until the end of the Jurassic. Some scientists believe Upheaval Dome was created from Paradox salt bed movement, creating a salt dome, but more modern studies show that the meteorite theory is more likely to be correct.
A warm shallow sea again flooded the region near the end of the Pennsylvanian. Fossil-rich limestones, sandstones, and shales of the gray-colored Honaker Trail Formation resulted. A period of erosion then ensued, creating a break in the geologic record called an unconformity. Early in the Permian an advancing sea laid down the Halgaito Shale. Coastal lowlands later returned to the area, forming the Elephant Canyon Formation.
Large alluvial fans filled the basin where it met the Uncompahgre Mountains, creating the Cutler red beds of iron-rich arkose sandstone. Underwater sand bars and sand dunes on the coast inter-fingered with the red beds and later became the white-colored cliff-forming Cedar Mesa Sandstone. Brightly colored oxidized muds were then deposited, forming the Organ Rock Shale. Coastal sand dunes and marine sand bars once again became dominant, creating the White Rim Sandstone.
A second unconformity was created after the Permian sea retreated. Flood plains on an expansive lowland covered the eroded surface and mud built up in tidal flats, creating the Moenkopi Formation. Erosion returned, forming a third unconformity. The Chinle Formation was then laid down on top of this eroded surface.
Increasingly dry climates dominated the Triassic. Therefore, sand in the form of sand dunes invaded and became the Wingate Sandstone. For a time climatic conditions became wetter and streams cut channels through the sand dunes, forming the Kayenta Formation. Arid conditions returned to the region with a vengeance; a large desert spread over much of western North America and later became the Navajo Sandstone. A fourth unconformity was created by a period of erosion.
Mud flats returned, forming the Carmel Formation, and the Entrada Sandstone was laid down next. A long period of erosion stripped away most of the San Rafael Group in the area, along with any formations that may have been laid down in the Cretaceous period.
The Laramide orogeny started to uplift the Rocky Mountains 70 million years ago and with it, the Canyonlands region. Erosion intensified and when the Colorado River Canyon reached the salt beds of the Paradox Formation the overlying strata extended toward the river canyon, forming features such as The Grabens. Increased precipitation during the ice ages of the Pleistocene quickened the rate of canyon excavation along with other erosion. Similar types of erosion are ongoing, but occur at a slower rate.
Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It borders Colorado to its east, Wyoming to its northeast, Idaho to its north, Arizona to its south, and Nevada to its west. Utah also touches a corner of New Mexico in the southeast. Of the fifty U.S. states, Utah is the 13th-largest by area; with a population over three million, it is the 30th-most-populous and 11th-least-densely populated. Urban development is mostly concentrated in two areas: the Wasatch Front in the north-central part of the state, which is home to roughly two-thirds of the population and includes the capital city, Salt Lake City; and Washington County in the southwest, with more than 180,000 residents. Most of the western half of Utah lies in the Great Basin.
Utah has been inhabited for thousands of years by various indigenous groups such as the ancient Puebloans, Navajo, and Ute. The Spanish were the first Europeans to arrive in the mid-16th century, though the region's difficult geography and harsh climate made it a peripheral part of New Spain and later Mexico. Even while it was Mexican territory, many of Utah's earliest settlers were American, particularly Mormons fleeing marginalization and persecution from the United States via the Mormon Trail. Following the Mexican–American War in 1848, the region was annexed by the U.S., becoming part of the Utah Territory, which included what is now Colorado and Nevada. Disputes between the dominant Mormon community and the federal government delayed Utah's admission as a state; only after the outlawing of polygamy was it admitted in 1896 as the 45th.
People from Utah are known as Utahns. Slightly over half of all Utahns are Mormons, the vast majority of whom are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), which has its world headquarters in Salt Lake City; Utah is the only state where a majority of the population belongs to a single church. A 2023 paper challenged this perception (claiming only 42% of Utahns are Mormons) however most statistics still show a majority of Utah residents belong to the LDS church; estimates from the LDS church suggests 60.68% of Utah's population belongs to the church whilst some sources put the number as high as 68%. The paper replied that membership count done by the LDS Church is too high for several reasons. The LDS Church greatly influences Utahn culture, politics, and daily life, though since the 1990s the state has become more religiously diverse as well as secular.
Utah has a highly diversified economy, with major sectors including transportation, education, information technology and research, government services, mining, multi-level marketing, and tourism. Utah has been one of the fastest growing states since 2000, with the 2020 U.S. census confirming the fastest population growth in the nation since 2010. St. George was the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the United States from 2000 to 2005. Utah ranks among the overall best states in metrics such as healthcare, governance, education, and infrastructure. It has the 12th-highest median average income and the least income inequality of any U.S. state. Over time and influenced by climate change, droughts in Utah have been increasing in frequency and severity, putting a further strain on Utah's water security and impacting the state's economy.
The History of Utah is an examination of the human history and social activity within the state of Utah located in the western United States.
Archaeological evidence dates the earliest habitation of humans in Utah to about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Paleolithic people lived near the Great Basin's swamps and marshes, which had an abundance of fish, birds, and small game animals. Big game, including bison, mammoths and ground sloths, also were attracted to these water sources. Over the centuries, the mega-fauna died, this population was replaced by the Desert Archaic people, who sheltered in caves near the Great Salt Lake. Relying more on gathering than the previous Utah residents, their diet was mainly composed of cattails and other salt tolerant plants such as pickleweed, burro weed and sedge. Red meat appears to have been more of a luxury, although these people used nets and the atlatl to hunt water fowl, ducks, small animals and antelope. Artifacts include nets woven with plant fibers and rabbit skin, woven sandals, gaming sticks, and animal figures made from split-twigs. About 3,500 years ago, lake levels rose and the population of Desert Archaic people appears to have dramatically decreased. The Great Basin may have been almost unoccupied for 1,000 years.
The Fremont culture, named from sites near the Fremont River in Utah, lived in what is now north and western Utah and parts of Nevada, Idaho and Colorado from approximately 600 to 1300 AD. These people lived in areas close to water sources that had been previously occupied by the Desert Archaic people, and may have had some relationship with them. However, their use of new technologies define them as a distinct people. Fremont technologies include:
use of the bow and arrow while hunting,
building pithouse shelters,
growing maize and probably beans and squash,
building above ground granaries of adobe or stone,
creating and decorating low-fired pottery ware,
producing art, including jewelry and rock art such as petroglyphs and pictographs.
The ancient Puebloan culture, also known as the Anasazi, occupied territory adjacent to the Fremont. The ancestral Puebloan culture centered on the present-day Four Corners area of the Southwest United States, including the San Juan River region of Utah. Archaeologists debate when this distinct culture emerged, but cultural development seems to date from about the common era, about 500 years before the Fremont appeared. It is generally accepted that the cultural peak of these people was around the 1200 CE. Ancient Puebloan culture is known for well constructed pithouses and more elaborate adobe and masonry dwellings. They were excellent craftsmen, producing turquoise jewelry and fine pottery. The Puebloan culture was based on agriculture, and the people created and cultivated fields of maize, beans, and squash and domesticated turkeys. They designed and produced elaborate field terracing and irrigation systems. They also built structures, some known as kivas, apparently designed solely for cultural and religious rituals.
These two later cultures were roughly contemporaneous, and appear to have established trading relationships. They also shared enough cultural traits that archaeologists believe the cultures may have common roots in the early American Southwest. However, each remained culturally distinct throughout most of their existence. These two well established cultures appear to have been severely impacted by climatic change and perhaps by the incursion of new people in about 1200 CE. Over the next two centuries, the Fremont and ancient Pueblo people may have moved into the American southwest, finding new homes and farmlands in the river drainages of Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico.
In about 1200, Shoshonean speaking peoples entered Utah territory from the west. They may have originated in southern California and moved into the desert environment due to population pressure along the coast. They were an upland people with a hunting and gathering lifestyle utilizing roots and seeds, including the pinyon nut. They were also skillful fishermen, created pottery and raised some crops. When they first arrived in Utah, they lived as small family groups with little tribal organization. Four main Shoshonean peoples inhabited Utah country. The Shoshone in the north and northeast, the Gosiutes in the northwest, the Utes in the central and eastern parts of the region and the Southern Paiutes in the southwest. Initially, there seems to have been very little conflict between these groups.
In the early 16th century, the San Juan River basin in Utah's southeast also saw a new people, the Díne or Navajo, part of a greater group of plains Athabaskan speakers moved into the Southwest from the Great Plains. In addition to the Navajo, this language group contained people that were later known as Apaches, including the Lipan, Jicarilla, and Mescalero Apaches.
Athabaskans were a hunting people who initially followed the bison, and were identified in 16th-century Spanish accounts as "dog nomads". The Athabaskans expanded their range throughout the 17th century, occupying areas the Pueblo peoples had abandoned during prior centuries. The Spanish first specifically mention the "Apachu de Nabajo" (Navaho) in the 1620s, referring to the people in the Chama valley region east of the San Juan River, and north west of Santa Fe. By the 1640s, the term Navaho was applied to these same people. Although the Navajo newcomers established a generally peaceful trading and cultural exchange with the some modern Pueblo peoples to the south, they experienced intermittent warfare with the Shoshonean peoples, particularly the Utes in eastern Utah and western Colorado.
At the time of European expansion, beginning with Spanish explorers traveling from Mexico, five distinct native peoples occupied territory within the Utah area: the Northern Shoshone, the Goshute, the Ute, the Paiute and the Navajo.
The Spanish explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado may have crossed into what is now southern Utah in 1540, when he was seeking the legendary Cíbola.
A group led by two Spanish Catholic priests—sometimes called the Domínguez–Escalante expedition—left Santa Fe in 1776, hoping to find a route to the California coast. The expedition traveled as far north as Utah Lake and encountered the native residents. All of what is now Utah was claimed by the Spanish Empire from the 1500s to 1821 as part of New Spain (later as the province Alta California); and subsequently claimed by Mexico from 1821 to 1848. However, Spain and Mexico had little permanent presence in, or control of, the region.
Fur trappers (also known as mountain men) including Jim Bridger, explored some regions of Utah in the early 19th century. The city of Provo was named for one such man, Étienne Provost, who visited the area in 1825. The city of Ogden, Utah is named for a brigade leader of the Hudson's Bay Company, Peter Skene Ogden who trapped in the Weber Valley. In 1846, a year before the arrival of members from the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints, the ill-fated Donner Party crossed through the Salt Lake valley late in the season, deciding not to stay the winter there but to continue forward to California, and beyond.
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as Mormon pioneers, first came to the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. At the time, the U.S. had already captured the Mexican territories of Alta California and New Mexico in the Mexican–American War and planned to keep them, but those territories, including the future state of Utah, officially became United States territory upon the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2, 1848. The treaty was ratified by the United States Senate on March 10, 1848.
Upon arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormon pioneers found no permanent settlement of Indians. Other areas along the Wasatch Range were occupied at the time of settlement by the Northwestern Shoshone and adjacent areas by other bands of Shoshone such as the Gosiute. The Northwestern Shoshone lived in the valleys on the eastern shore of Great Salt Lake and in adjacent mountain valleys. Some years after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley Mormons, who went on to colonize many other areas of what is now Utah, were petitioned by Indians for recompense for land taken. The response of Heber C. Kimball, first counselor to Brigham Young, was that the land belonged to "our Father in Heaven and we expect to plow and plant it." A 1945 Supreme Court decision found that the land had been treated by the United States as public domain; no aboriginal title by the Northwestern Shoshone had been recognized by the United States or extinguished by treaty with the United States.
Upon arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormons had to make a place to live. They created irrigation systems, laid out farms, built houses, churches, and schools. Access to water was crucially important. Almost immediately, Brigham Young set out to identify and claim additional community sites. While it was difficult to find large areas in the Great Basin where water sources were dependable and growing seasons long enough to raise vitally important subsistence crops, satellite communities began to be formed.
Shortly after the first company arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, the community of Bountiful was settled to the north. In 1848, settlers moved into lands purchased from trapper Miles Goodyear in present-day Ogden. In 1849, Tooele and Provo were founded. Also that year, at the invitation of Ute chief Wakara, settlers moved into the Sanpete Valley in central Utah to establish the community of Manti. Fillmore, Utah, intended to be the capital of the new territory, was established in 1851. In 1855, missionary efforts aimed at western native cultures led to outposts in Fort Lemhi, Idaho, Las Vegas, Nevada and Elk Mountain in east-central Utah.
The experiences of returning members of the Mormon Battalion were also important in establishing new communities. On their journey west, the Mormon soldiers had identified dependable rivers and fertile river valleys in Colorado, Arizona and southern California. In addition, as the men traveled to rejoin their families in the Salt Lake Valley, they moved through southern Nevada and the eastern segments of southern Utah. Jefferson Hunt, a senior Mormon officer of the Battalion, actively searched for settlement sites, minerals, and other resources. His report encouraged 1851 settlement efforts in Iron County, near present-day Cedar City. These southern explorations eventually led to Mormon settlements in St. George, Utah, Las Vegas and San Bernardino, California, as well as communities in southern Arizona.
Prior to establishment of the Oregon and California trails and Mormon settlement, Indians native to the Salt Lake Valley and adjacent areas lived by hunting buffalo and other game, but also gathered grass seed from the bountiful grass of the area as well as roots such as those of the Indian Camas. By the time of settlement, indeed before 1840, the buffalo were gone from the valley, but hunting by settlers and grazing of cattle severely impacted the Indians in the area, and as settlement expanded into nearby river valleys and oases, indigenous tribes experienced increasing difficulty in gathering sufficient food. Brigham Young's counsel was to feed the hungry tribes, and that was done, but it was often not enough. These tensions formed the background to the Bear River massacre committed by California Militia stationed in Salt Lake City during the Civil War. The site of the massacre is just inside Preston, Idaho, but was generally thought to be within Utah at the time.
Statehood was petitioned for in 1849-50 using the name Deseret. The proposed State of Deseret would have been quite large, encompassing all of what is now Utah, and portions of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona, Oregon, New Mexico and California. The name of Deseret was favored by the LDS leader Brigham Young as a symbol of industry and was derived from a reference in the Book of Mormon. The petition was rejected by Congress and Utah did not become a state until 1896, following the Utah Constitutional Convention of 1895.
In 1850, the Utah Territory was created with the Compromise of 1850, and Fillmore (named after President Fillmore) was designated the capital. In 1856, Salt Lake City replaced Fillmore as the territorial capital.
The first group of pioneers brought African slaves with them, making Utah the only place in the western United States to have African slavery. Three slaves, Green Flake, Hark Lay, and Oscar Crosby, came west with this first group in 1847. The settlers also began to purchase Indian slaves in the well-established Indian slave trade, as well as enslaving Indian prisoners of war. In 1850, 26 slaves were counted in Salt Lake County. Slavery didn't become officially recognized until 1852, when the Act in Relation to Service and the Act for the relief of Indian Slaves and Prisoners were passed. Slavery was repealed on June 19, 1862, when Congress prohibited slavery in all US territories.
Disputes between the Mormon inhabitants and the federal government intensified after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' practice of polygamy became known. The polygamous practices of the Mormons, which were made public in 1854, would be one of the major reasons Utah was denied statehood until almost 50 years after the Mormons had entered the area.
After news of their polygamous practices spread, the members of the LDS Church were quickly viewed by some as un-American and rebellious. In 1857, after news of a possible rebellion spread, President James Buchanan sent troops on the Utah expedition to quell the growing unrest and to replace Brigham Young as territorial governor with Alfred Cumming. The expedition was also known as the Utah War.
As fear of invasion grew, Mormon settlers had convinced some Paiute Indians to aid in a Mormon-led attack on 120 immigrants from Arkansas under the guise of Indian aggression. The murder of these settlers became known as the Mountain Meadows massacre. The Mormon leadership had adopted a defensive posture that led to a ban on the selling of grain to outsiders in preparation for an impending war. This chafed pioneers traveling through the region, who were unable to purchase badly needed supplies. A disagreement between some of the Arkansas pioneers and the Mormons in Cedar City led to the secret planning of the massacre by a few Mormon leaders in the area. Some scholars debate the involvement of Brigham Young. Only one man, John D. Lee, was ever convicted of the murders, and he was executed at the massacre site.
Express riders had brought the news 1,000 miles from the Missouri River settlements to Salt Lake City within about two weeks of the army's beginning to march west. Fearing the worst as 2,500 troops (roughly 1/3rd of the army then) led by General Albert Sidney Johnston started west, Brigham Young ordered all residents of Salt Lake City and neighboring communities to prepare their homes for burning and evacuate southward to Utah Valley and southern Utah. Young also sent out a few units of the Nauvoo Legion (numbering roughly 8,000–10,000), to delay the army's advance. The majority he sent into the mountains to prepare defenses or south to prepare for a scorched earth retreat. Although some army wagon supply trains were captured and burned and herds of army horses and cattle run off no serious fighting occurred. Starting late and short on supplies, the United States Army camped during the bitter winter of 1857–58 near a burned out Fort Bridger in Wyoming. Through the negotiations between emissary Thomas L. Kane, Young, Cumming and Johnston, control of Utah territory was peacefully transferred to Cumming, who entered an eerily vacant Salt Lake City in the spring of 1858. By agreement with Young, Johnston established the army at Fort Floyd 40 miles away from Salt Lake City, to the southwest.
Salt Lake City was the last link of the First Transcontinental Telegraph, between Carson City, Nevada and Omaha, Nebraska completed in October 1861. Brigham Young, who had helped expedite construction, was among the first to send a message, along with Abraham Lincoln and other officials. Soon after the telegraph line was completed, the Deseret Telegraph Company built the Deseret line connecting the settlements in the territory with Salt Lake City and, by extension, the rest of the United States.
Because of the American Civil War, federal troops were pulled out of Utah Territory (and their fort auctioned off), leaving the territorial government in federal hands without army backing until General Patrick E. Connor arrived with the 3rd Regiment of California Volunteers in 1862. While in Utah, Connor and his troops soon became discontent with this assignment wanting to head to Virginia where the "real" fighting and glory was occurring. Connor established Fort Douglas just three miles (5 km) east of Salt Lake City and encouraged his bored and often idle soldiers to go out and explore for mineral deposits to bring more non-Mormons into the state. Minerals were discovered in Tooele County, and some miners began to come to the territory. Conner also solved the Shoshone Indian problem in Cache Valley Utah by luring the Shoshone into a midwinter confrontation on January 29, 1863. The armed conflict quickly turned into a rout, discipline among the soldiers broke down, and the Battle of Bear River is today usually referred to by historians as the Bear River Massacre. Between 200 and 400 Shoshone men, women and children were killed, as were 27 soldiers, with over 50 more soldiers wounded or suffering from frostbite.
Beginning in 1865, Utah's Black Hawk War developed into the deadliest conflict in the territory's history. Chief Antonga Black Hawk died in 1870, but fights continued to break out until additional federal troops were sent in to suppress the Ghost Dance of 1872. The war is unique among Indian Wars because it was a three-way conflict, with mounted Timpanogos Utes led by Antonga Black Hawk fighting federal and Utah local militia.
On May 10, 1869, the First transcontinental railroad was completed at Promontory Summit, north of the Great Salt Lake. The railroad brought increasing numbers of people into the state, and several influential businessmen made fortunes in the territory.
Main article: Latter Day Saint polygamy in the late-19th century
During the 1870s and 1880s, federal laws were passed and federal marshals assigned to enforce the laws against polygamy. In the 1890 Manifesto, the LDS Church leadership dropped its approval of polygamy citing divine revelation. When Utah applied for statehood again in 1895, it was accepted. Statehood was officially granted on January 4, 1896.
The Mormon issue made the situation for women the topic of nationwide controversy. In 1870 the Utah Territory, controlled by Mormons, gave women the right to vote. However, in 1887, Congress disenfranchised Utah women with the Edmunds–Tucker Act. In 1867–96, eastern activists promoted women's suffrage in Utah as an experiment, and as a way to eliminate polygamy. They were Presbyterians and other Protestants convinced that Mormonism was a non-Christian cult that grossly mistreated women. The Mormons promoted woman suffrage to counter the negative image of downtrodden Mormon women. With the 1890 Manifesto clearing the way for statehood, in 1895 Utah adopted a constitution restoring the right of women's suffrage. Congress admitted Utah as a state with that constitution in 1896.
Though less numerous than other intermountain states at the time, several lynching murders for alleged misdeeds occurred in Utah territory at the hand of vigilantes. Those documented include the following, with their ethnicity or national origin noted in parentheses if it was provided in the source:
William Torrington in Carson City (then a part of Utah territory), 1859
Thomas Coleman (Black man) in Salt Lake City, 1866
3 unidentified men at Wahsatch, winter of 1868
A Black man in Uintah, 1869
Charles A. Benson in Logan, 1873
Ah Sing (Chinese man) in Corinne, 1874
Thomas Forrest in St. George, 1880
William Harvey (Black man) in Salt Lake City, 1883
John Murphy in Park City, 1883
George Segal (Japanese man) in Ogden, 1884
Joseph Fisher in Eureka, 1886
Robert Marshall (Black man) in Castle Gate, 1925
Other lynchings in Utah territory include multiple instances of mass murder of Native American children, women, and men by White settlers including the Battle Creek massacre (1849), Provo River Massacre (1850), Nephi massacre (1853), and Circleville Massacre (1866).
Beginning in the early 20th century, with the establishment of such national parks as Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park, Utah began to become known for its natural beauty. Southern Utah became a popular filming spot for arid, rugged scenes, and such natural landmarks as Delicate Arch and "the Mittens" of Monument Valley are instantly recognizable to most national residents. During the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, with the construction of the Interstate highway system, accessibility to the southern scenic areas was made easier.
Beginning in 1939, with the establishment of Alta Ski Area, Utah has become world-renowned for its skiing. The dry, powdery snow of the Wasatch Range is considered some of the best skiing in the world. Salt Lake City won the bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics in 1995, and this has served as a great boost to the economy. The ski resorts have increased in popularity, and many of the Olympic venues scattered across the Wasatch Front continue to be used for sporting events. This also spurred the development of the light-rail system in the Salt Lake Valley, known as TRAX, and the re-construction of the freeway system around the city.
During the late 20th century, the state grew quickly. In the 1970s, growth was phenomenal in the suburbs. Sandy was one of the fastest-growing cities in the country at that time, and West Valley City is the state's 2nd most populous city. Today, many areas of Utah are seeing phenomenal growth. Northern Davis, southern and western Salt Lake, Summit, eastern Tooele, Utah, Wasatch, and Washington counties are all growing very quickly. Transportation and urbanization are major issues in politics as development consumes agricultural land and wilderness areas.
In 2012, the State of Utah passed the Utah Transfer of Public Lands Act in an attempt to gain control over a substantial portion of federal land in the state from the federal government, based on language in the Utah Enabling Act of 1894. The State does not intend to use force or assert control by limiting access in an attempt to control the disputed lands, but does intend to use a multi-step process of education, negotiation, legislation, and if necessary, litigation as part of its multi-year effort to gain state or private control over the lands after 2014.
Utah families, like most Americans everywhere, did their utmost to assist in the war effort. Tires, meat, butter, sugar, fats, oils, coffee, shoes, boots, gasoline, canned fruits, vegetables, and soups were rationed on a national basis. The school day was shortened and bus routes were reduced to limit the number of resources used stateside and increase what could be sent to soldiers.
Geneva Steel was built to increase the steel production for America during World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had proposed opening a steel mill in Utah in 1936, but the idea was shelved after a couple of months. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States entered the war and the steel plant was put into progress. In April 1944, Geneva shipped its first order, which consisted of over 600 tons of steel plate. Geneva Steel also brought thousands of job opportunities to Utah. The positions were hard to fill as many of Utah's men were overseas fighting. Women began working, filling 25 percent of the jobs.
As a result of Utah's and Geneva Steels contribution during the war, several Liberty Ships were named in honor of Utah including the USS Joseph Smith, USS Brigham Young, USS Provo, and the USS Peter Skene Ogden.
One of the sectors of the beachhead of Normandy Landings was codenamed Utah Beach, and the amphibious landings at the beach were undertaken by United States Army troops.
It is estimated that 1,450 soldiers from Utah were killed in the war.
The Fogg Dam Conservation Reserve is a protected area consisting of wetlands and surrounding monsoon and dry forests approximately 70 km (43 mi) east of Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia (a comfortable 1 hour drive from Darwin CBD or suburbs).
The Reserve lies within the Adelaide and Mary River Floodplains, which is an Important Bird Area.
Fogg Dam Conservation Reserve was created after the demise of an unsuccessful rice farming project which operated in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The dam was originally created as dry season water storage facility for the rice crop.
The reserve attracts a wide range of local and migratory water birds and other wildlife including one of the largest populations of snakes within Australia (including the Water Python and Death Adder), and includes a several raised observation platforms.
Saltwater Crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) and Freshwater Crocodiles (Crocodylus johnstoni) can be seen at Fogg Dam all year around.
Fogg Dam is open 24 hrs per day all days of the year. The only limitation is that during very heavy monsoon rain periods, water may overflow the dam wall (which serves as a road through the reserve) and limit traffic to high-clearance vehicles.
In some years, the dam wall may be temporarily damaged by monsoon rain overflows and be impassable for a short section.
The open nature of the reserve along the dam wall makes it an excellent site for birds in flight (BIF) photography.
The highest bird activity for BIF photography occurs later in the wet and early dry season (say March to June) when thousands of waterbirds and other water-attracted species are moving around the reserve.
Passerine species can be best photographed from treed areas, and the Woodlands and Monsoon Forest tracks.
Mr. Kevin Tse doing his thing!, If you want a clean car here in Hong Kong, he is the master with his www.facebook.com/contempoconcept shop.
I decided to sit down and think of all the things I was so lucky for or so lucky to get or had the help of friends and really there was so much More than I even realized.
I am going to try to make a point to Feel LUCKY For everything Rather than feel like Sometimes Im missing out! So that Missing out feeling STOPS now.
Here is 2012 Lucky in review!
1. Baklava, I wanted a Tiina Icy so bad and I kept missing them, I finally got Lucky in January and got Baklava <3 I love her she is one of my serious Keepers!
2. Prism, I was Longing for this girl and her rainbow hair, I probably would have cried if I didnt get her, I got her in February and she is still a total IT Girl for me <3
3. Down in the dumps and having such a crappy 2011 a Wonderful Wataru and his Owner Sent Kohl the most fantastic Christmas Gift <3 We sure were lucky!
4. I was so lucky that my Steampunk headbands were a success, we sold them successfully for several months, I Feel like the Steampunk Look has died down a bit but would still take one on commission :D
5. Another Wonderful Friend helped me get a Pink Mimsy, this was before the INSANE really Insane Mimsy Trend, Mimsy Deserves it these hats are wonderful but Im glad I got some before they went totally viral!
6. I am lucky that my Lawdeda girls were always adopted this year, you cant ask for better love and luck than that!
7. I got to see a Beautiful Tiina Custom in person before her girls also went Viral!
8. That LaViri made a beautiful Custom With Teeth for me, I know she is SOOO Busy now so I thank my Lucky Stars I got Maple when I did!
9. That the Most perfect Susie in all the Susie world walked into my door and my Heart this year, She became my Muse!
10. And With Susie's Help I finally wrote my First Book, However Getting it Published in the Format I want and not cost an arm and a leg is still in the works :/
11. That a doll was Named after me by a HUGE Corporation -- Hahah just kidding :P that was just a coinkydink
12. That I became the wayward home for Vampoodles, I do love those little bloodsuckers!
13. that a WONDERFUL And AMAZING Lady Helped me get Derpy at Comic Con, I will never forget that :D
14. That Melly Kay always surprises me with the most amazing Customs <3 I got very Lucky to be on her list this year <3333
15. that Tole Tole Did a Trade with me to get Sweetums, I am SOOO Lucky to have her now that Raquel is very sought after I dont think I would have that luck again!
16. That my Idea for Halloween Armies sold so well, THANK You to the Dear friends that got them, you are awesome!
17. That Melacacia helped me get a Schoolgirl Dress, this is a style that I just love, this dress is a Forever Keeper :D
18. Another Dear Soul and Awesome Guy hooked me up with the Pirate Sheep! I wont forget how awesome and nice that was <333 xoxo
19. Uli. Named after a Friend that helped me get her <3 I would not have been able to get Uli without her help xoxoxoxo Love you! You know who you are ;)
20. Finally getting the Yellow Lalatroop helmet for Uli <3 :D
21. This is a Two Parter.. 1, I have been trying to get a Pink Anemone since March, I kept missing out or had Empty Pockets, most of the Blythe I got this year were some kind of trade or a better priced commission so it was just LUCKY LUCKY LUCKY to finally get Truly <3333 and then to Top it off I FINALLY Got a Trade for the MForMonkey Lederhosen,,, There is no way I could get them on the Secondhand Market so this was Lucky as it gets!
22. That I got a Tiina Vampire :D I have wanted one for awhile but again never for a Price I could pay so this was a LUCKY Surprise! Thank you Tibi <3
23. A dear lovely Lady helped me find a little Evangelione Angel <3 that is my Last and most Special Want of the year :) WOOT!
To all of you that helped me, or to all of you that are still loving and friendly about this Hobby, THANK YOU < you are the Reason Blythe Still Rocks <3 Happy Holidays!
Now TAG show us what you are lucky for this year :D
Happy New Year!
You see that "1/365" up there in the title? Yes, this is my attempt at another 365 Project. Third time lucky and all that...
This time I am widening the horizon, and saying I will take a photo a day. Not a self portrait a day. Just a photo. Sure, there will be some selfies in there, but this way I'm taking a little of the pressure off for myself. I *will* complete it!
So... a new dawn, a new day, a new decade. When I think about my life now, to what it was the last decade, so much has changed. In 1999 I was living at home, just left school, going out with someone that wasn't right for me, causing havok. Here I am now, engaged, 2 kids, a house, 2 cars and my own business. That excites me for what this decade has in store.
I don't remember if I made any resolutions last year, but this year I want to make sure I complete this project.
Other things I'd like to try to achieve this year:
- get the business rocking
- try to be as positive as possible
- try to not get stressed out; remember the silver linings
- cook more
- don't be lazy; be inspired
- be more environmentally aware
- sort out a routine for the housework
- be happpppppyyyyyyyy!
Oh, almost forgot to explain why the Cilit Bang.... Jack took the kids round to his mums today, and I spent the entire time cleaning - it felt so good, I chucked out 2 bags of stuff and have 3 bags for the charity shop. I wish he'd have been out longer so I could have got more done - Christmas took it's toll on this house!
Anyway, I look forward to joining in with the Flickr community once again. Happy new year to one and all