©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!

Desi Deli & Grocery

89-06 Eliot Avenue, Rego Park, Queens, New York

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, Ufford, Suffolk

 

Upper Ufford is a pleasant place, and known well enough in Suffolk. Pretty much an extension northwards of Woodbridge and Melton, it is a prosperous community, convenient without being suburban. Ufford Park Hotel is an enjoyable venue in to attend professional courses and conferences, and the former St Audrey's mental hospital grounds across the road are now picturesque with luxury flats and houses. And I am told that the Ufford Park golf course is good, too, for those who like that kind of thing.

 

But as I say, that Ufford is really just an extension of Melton. In fact, there is another Ufford. It is in the valley below, more than a mile away along narrow lanes and set in deep countryside beside the Deben, sits Lower Ufford. To reach it, you follow ways so rarely used that grass grows up the middle. You pass old Melton church, redundant since the 19th century, but still in use for occasional exhibitions and performances, and once home to the seven sacrament font that is now in the plain 19th century building up in the main village. Eventually, the lane widens, and you come into the single street of a pretty, tiny hamlet, the church tower hidden from you by old cottages and houses. In one direction, the lane to Bromeswell takes you past Lower Ufford's delicious little pub, the White Lion. A stalwart survivor among fast disappearing English country pubs, the beer still comes out of barrels and the bar is like a kitchen. I cannot think that a visit to Ufford should be undertaken without at least a pint there. And, at the other end of the street, set back in a close between cottages, sits the Assumption, its 14th century tower facing the street, a classic Suffolk moment.

 

The dedication was once that of hundreds of East Anglian churches, transformed to 'St Mary' by the Reformation and centuries of disuse before the 19th century revival, but revived both here and at Haughley near Stowmarket. In late medieval times, it coincided with the height of the harvest, and in those days East Anglia was Our Lady's Dowry, intensely Catholic, intimately Marian.

 

The Assumption was almost certainly not the original dedication of this church. There was a church here for centuries before the late middle ages, and although there are no traces of any pre-Conquest building, the apse of an early-Norman church has been discovered under the floor of the north side of the chancel. The current chancel has a late Norman doorway, although it has been substantially rebuilt since, and in any case the great glories of Ufford are all 15th century. Perhaps the most dramatic is the porch, one of Suffolk's best, covered in flushwork and intriguing carvings.

 

Ufford's graveyard is beautiful; wild and ancient. I wandered around for a while, spotting the curious blue crucifix to the east of the church, and reading old gravestones. One, to an early 19th century gardener at Ufford Hall, has his gardening equipment carved at the top. The church is secretive, hidden on all sides by venerable trees, difficult to photograph but lovely anyway. I stopped to look at it from the unfamiliar north-east; the Victorian schoolroom, now a vestry, juts out like a small cottage. I walked back around to the south side, where the gorgeous porch is like a small palace against the body of the church. I knew the church would be open, because it is every day. And then, through the porch, and down into the north aisle, into the cool, dim, creamy light.

 

On the afternoon of Wednesday, 21st August 1644, Ufford had a famous visitor, a man who entered the church in exactly the same way, a man who recorded the events of that day in his journal. There were several differences between his visit and the one that I was making, one of them crucial; he found the church locked. He was the Commissioner to the Earl of Manchester for the Imposition in the Eastern Association of the Parliamentary Ordinance for the Demolishing of Monuments of Idolatry, and his name was William Dowsing.

 

Dowsing was a kind of 17th century political commissar, travelling the eastern counties and enforcing government legislation. He was checking that local officials had carried out what they were meant to do, and that they believed in what they were doing. In effect, he was getting them to work and think in the new ways that the central government required. It wasn't really a witch hunt, although God knows such things did exist in abundance at that time. It was more as if an arm of the state extended and worked its fingers into even the tiniest and most remote parishes. Anyone working in the public sector in Britain in the early years of the 21st century will have come across people like Dowsing.

 

As a part of his job, Dowsing was an iconoclast, charged with ensuring that idolatrous images were excised from the churches of the region. He is a man blamed for a lot. In fact, virtually all the Catholic imagery in English churches had been destroyed by the Anglican reformers almost a hundred years before Dowsing came along. All that survived was that which was difficult to destroy - angels in the roofs, gable crosses, and the like - and that which was inconvenient to replace - primarily, stained glass. Otherwise, in the late 1540s the statues had been burnt, the bench ends smashed, the wallpaintings whitewashed, the roods hauled down and the fonts plastered over. I have lost count of the times I have been told by churchwardens, or read in church guides, that the hatchet job on the bench ends or the font in their church was the work of 'William Dowsing' or 'Oliver Cromwell'. In fact, this destruction was from a century earlier than William Dowsing. Sometimes, I have even been told this at churches which Dowsing demonstrably did not visit.

 

Dowsing's main targets included stained glass, which the pragmatic Anglican reformers had left alone because of the expense of replacing it, and crosses and angels, and chancel steps. We can deduce from Dowsing's journal which medieval imagery had survived for him to see, and that which had already been hidden - not, I hasten to add, because people wanted to 'save' Catholic images, but rather because this was an expedient way of getting rid of them. So, for example, Dowsing visited three churches during his progress through Suffolk which today have seven sacrament fonts, but Dowsing does not mention a single one of them in his journal; they had all been plastered over long ago.

 

In fact, Dowsing was not worried so much about medieval survivals. What concerned him more was overturning the reforms put in place by the ritualist Archbishop Laud in the 1630s. Laud had tried to restore the sacramental nature of the Church, primarily by putting the altar back in the chancel and building it up on raised steps. Laud had since been beheaded thanks to puritan popular opinion, but the evidence of his wickedness still filled the parish churches of England. The single order that Dowsing gave during his progress more than any other was that chancel steps should be levelled.

 

The 21st of August was a hot day, and Dowsing had much work to do. He had already visited the two Trimley churches, as well as Brightwell and Levington, that morning, and he had plans to reach Baylham on the other side of Ipswich before nightfall. Much to his frustration, he was delayed at Ufford for two hours by a dispute between the church wardens over whether or not to allow him access.

 

The thing was, he had been here before. Eight months earlier, as part of a routine visit, he had destroyed some Catholic images that were in stained glass, and prayer clauses in brass inscriptions, but had trusted the churchwardens to deal with a multitude of other sins, images that were beyond his reach without a ladder, or which would be too time-consuming. This was common practice - after all, the churchwardens of Suffolk were generally equally as puritan as Dowsing. It was assumed that people in such a position were supporters of the New Puritan project, especially in East Anglia. Dowsing rarely revisited churches. But, for some reason, he felt he had to come back here to make sure that his orders had been carried out.

 

Why was this? In retrospect, we can see that Ufford was one of less than half a dozen churches where the churchwardens were uncooperative. Elsewhere, at hundreds of other churches, the wardens welcomed Dowsing with open arms. And Dowsing only visited churches in the first place if it was thought there might be a problem, parishes with notorious 'scandalous ministers' - which is to say, theological liberals. Richard Lovekin, the Rector of Ufford, had been turned out of his living the previous year, although he survived to return when the Church of England was restored in 1660. But that was in the future. Something about his January visit told Dowsing that he needed to come back to Ufford.

 

Standing in the nave of the Assumption today, you can still see something that Dowsing saw, something which he must have seen in January, but which he doesn't mention until his second visit, in the entry in his journal for August 21st, which appears to be written in a passion. This is Ufford's most famous treasure, the great 15th century font cover.

 

It rises, six metres high, magnificent and stately, into the clerestory, enormous in its scale and presence. In all England, only the font cover at Southwold is taller. The cover is telescopic, and crocketting and arcading dances around it like waterfalls and forests. There are tiny niches, filled today with 19th century statues. At the top is a gilt pelican, plucking its breast.

 

Dowsing describes the font cover as glorious... like a pope's triple crown... but this is just anti-Catholic innuendo. The word glorious in the 17th century meant about the same as the word 'pretentious' means to us now - Dowsing was scoffing. But there was no reason for him to be offended by it. The Anglicans had destroyed all the statues in the niches a century before, and all that remained was the pelican at the top, pecking its breast to feed its chicks. Dowsing would have known that this was a Catholic image of the Sacrifice of the Mass, and would have disapproved. But he did not order the font cover to be destroyed. After all, the rest of the cover was harmless enough, apart from being a waste of good firewood, and the awkwardness of the Ufford churchwardens seems to have put him off following through. He never went back.

 

Certainly, there can have been no theological reason for the churchwardens to protect their font cover. I like to think that they looked after it simply because they knew it to be beautiful, and that they also knew it had been constructed by ordinary workmen of their parish two hundred years before, under the direction of some European master designer. They protected it because of local pride, and amen to that. The contemporary font beneath is of a type more familiar in Norfolk than Suffolk, with quatrefoils alternating with shields, and heads beneath the bowl.

 

While the font cover is extraordinary, and of national importance, it is one of just several medieval survivals in the nave of the Assumption. All around it are 15th century benches, with superbly characterful and imaginative images on their ends. The best is the bench with St Margaret and St Catherine on it. This was recently on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum as part of the Gothic exhibition. Other bench end figures include a long haired, haloed woman seated on a throne, which may well be a representation of the Mother of God Enthroned, and another which may be the Coronation of the Queen of Heaven. There is also a praying woman in a butterfly headdress, once one of a pair, and a man wearing what appears to be a bowler hat, although I expect it is a helmet of some kind. His beard is magnificent. There are also a number of finely carved animals.

 

High up in the chancel arch is an unusual survival, the crocketted rood beam that once supported the crucifix, flanked by the grieving Mary and John, with perhaps a tympanum behind depicting the last judgement. These are now all gone, of course, as is the rood loft that once stood in front of the beam and allowed access to it. But below, the dado of the screen survives, with twelve panels. Figures survive on the south side. They have not worn well. They are six female Saints: St Agnes, St Cecilia, St Agatha, St Faith, St Bridget and, uniquely in England, St Florence. Curiously, the head of this last has been, in recent years, surrounded by stars, in imitation of the later Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. Presumably this was done in a fit of Anglo-catholic enthusiasm about a century ago.

 

The arrangement is similar to the south side of the screen at Westhall, and it may even be that the artist was the same. While there is no liturgical reason for having the female Saints on one side and, presumably, male Saints on the other, a similar arrangement exists on several Norfolk screens in the Dereham area.

 

Much of the character of the church today comes from it embracing, in the early years of the 20th century, Anglo-catholicism in full flood. As at Great Ryburgh in Norfolk, patronage ensured that this work was carried out to the very highest specification under the eye of the young Ninian Comper. Comper is an enthusiast's enthusiast, but I think he is at his best on a small scale like here and Ryburgh. His is the extraordinary war memorial window in the south aisle chapel, dedicated to St Leonard. It depicts Christ carrying his cross on the via dolorosa, but he is aided by a soldier in WWI uniform and, behind him, a sailor. The use of blues is very striking, as is the grain on the wood of the cross which, incidentally, can also be seen to the same effect on Comper's reredos at Ryburgh.

 

Comper's other major window here is on the north side of the nave. This is a depiction of the Annunciation, although it is the figures above which are most extraordinary. They are two of the Ancient Greek sibyls, Erythrea and Cumana, who are associated with the foretelling of Christ. At the top is a stunning Holy Trinity in the East Anglian style. There are angels at the bottom, and all in all this window shows Comper at the height of his powers.

 

Stepping into the chancel, there is older glass - or, at least, what at first sight appears to be. Certainly, there are some curious roundels which are probably continental 17th century work, ironically from about the same time that Dowsing was here. They were probably acquired by collectors in the 19th century, and installed here by Victorians. The image of a woman seated among goats is curious, as though she might represent the season of spring or be an allegory of fertility, but she is usually identified as St Agnes. It is a pity this roundel has been spoiled by dripping cement or plaster. Another roundel depicts St Sebastian shot with arrows, and a third St Anthony praying to a cross in the desert. However, the images in 'medieval' glass in the east window are entirely modern, though done so well you might not know. A clue, of course, is that the main figures, St Mary Salome with the infants St James and St John on the left, and St Anne with the infant Virgin on the right, are wholly un-East Anglian in style. In fact, they are 19th century copies by Clayton & Bell of images at All Souls College, Oxford, installed here in the 1970s. I also think that the images of heads below may be modern, but the angel below St Anne is 15th century, and obviously East Anglian, as is St Stephen to the north.

 

High above, the ancient roofs with their sacred monograms are the ones that Dowsing saw, the ones that the 15th century builders gilt and painted to be beautiful to the glory of God - and, of course, to the glory of their patrons. Rich patronage survived the Reformation, and at the west end of the south aisle is the massive memorial to Sir Henry Wood, who died in 1671, eleven years after the end of the Commonwealth. It is monumental, the wreathed ox heads a severely classical motif. Wood, Mortlock tells us, was Treasurer to the Household of Queen Henrietta Maria.

 

There is so much to see in this wonderful church that, even visiting time and time again, there is always something new to see, or something old to see in a new way. It is, above all, a beautiful space, and although it no longer maintains its high Anglo-catholic worship tradition, it is is still kept in high liturgical style. It is at once a beautiful art object and a hallowed space, an organic touchstone, precious and powerful.

There is a trail on the north side of Piatra Craiului mountain, mainly in the valley where the forest keeps good shade and also hides the most incredible views, if you just hike up on the opposite side you get this view, it's so big and beautiful so I took 10 shots and merged them into one big panorama full of details. Enjoy.

Piatra Craiului, Romania 2018

 

Where are you going for hike this week?

Comments and feedback are welcome!

 

#mountain #romania #piatracraiului #hike #travel #fresh #air

Remembrance Day 2022 - 4 (of 9) - Canon EOS 1D Mark II with Canon EF 28-135mm 1:3.5-5.6 IS USM (EOS mount) & Polarizer - Photographer Russell McNeil PhD (Physics) lives on Vancouver Island, where he works as a writer.

Is it day 21 already? Closing in fast on the end of the calendar this year.

 

Tonight's wee bottle is Wemyss Malt's "Gardener's Biscuit Break" bottling of an 18-year-old Linkwood, finished in what is only described as a butt (I'm guessing a refill sherry butt, but I don't know for sure.) The color is a pale gold, and the nose is a bit musty, with a hint of citrus. The palate is honey sweet, with a bit of shortbread and a fruit I can't quite place. Maybe quince, maybe pear. The finish is rather short, and a bit peppery. Nice enough, but not something I'd seek out again.

 

Another relatively quick setup and search for as-yet-unused props tonight, since I was out at my alumni board meeting for the first part of the evening. Had a bit of a hand from Thing One to hold a makeshift reflector (a.k.a. a new-ish aluminum sheet pan) to get a bit of light, but not too much, on the typewriter.

 

This card is for the Hero Arts June challenge (thinking of you cards) and for a World-Wide Stamping Week challenge at the Stamping Board on Two Peas to use a kraft background. The Radiant Banner was stamped with Colorbox Frost White. The owls were stamped with Archival Jet Black and then coloured with coloured pencils. I love how the look that gives on kraft. Using a stamp positioner, I stamped the owl stamp on the base cardstock and then cut out and layered only the owl bodies on top. The hearts were coloured with pencils and then coated with Glossy Accents. I made a quick and simple card, which I don't do often. TFL!!

 

Blogpost: layersofink.blogspot.com/2012/06/krafty-owls.html

 

Supplies: Hero Arts stamps: Radiant Banner CG446, Heart Owls D5302, All Occasion Messages CL272; ColorBox Frost White ink; Archival Ink Jet Black, Derwent coloured pencils; Kaisercraft rhinestones.

Taken somewhere in Qassime - Saudi Arabia. Loved the place.

 

تم إلتقاطها في مدينة القصيم ، المملكة العربية السعودية

She is my favorite Poppy from the Supermodel convention. She is wearing a model life silkstone lingerie, ABS Kyori peignoir. Jewels and perfume bottles by me.

www.etsy.com/shop/IsabelleParisJewels

 

“A university is just a group of buildings gathered around a library.” ~ Shelby Foote

 

Library at the University of Michigan.

  

Every step I take, the earth is shakin'.

Pic is the CD Cover "The Collection"....Alanis Morissette

 

Fuck you....

I don't mean anything to you

I never have and never will

I don't know why I waste my time

Waste my fucking time on earth

You only care about YOU and what you need

What the fuck about me?!?!

You have your fucking life and I wait here for you

Waiting like the stupid bitch I am

Like a fucking fool

I gave my heart to you

And you fucking stomp it on the ground?

Throw it in the fucking trash, rip it to pieces?

Squish it with your bare hands?

Just because you can!!

 

WTF was I thinking!?!?!?!

I sit here in grief.....heart broken

And you can't take the time out of your

Fucking day!!!!

You want me to hate you!?!

Cuz you can't be man enough to tell me!?!?!

Well here ya fucking go....

 

Fuck it! Fuck you! Fuck it All!

Fuck the world...and FUCK YOU AGAIN!

 

I don't need this shit or want it....

I'm threw

   

Casa del Sol

 

***Sun is shining-Bob Marley***

 

Sun is shining, the weather is sweet, yeah

Make you wanna move your dancing feet now

To the rescue, here I am

Want you to know, yall, can you understand?

 

When the mornin gather the rainbow, yeah, yeah

Want you to know, Im a rainbow too now

To the rescue, here I am

Want you to know, yall, can you, can you, can you understand?

 

Sun is shining, the weather is sweet now

Make you wanna move your dancing feet, yeah

But to the rescue, here I am

Want you to know just if you can, here I stand, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no

 

Can you understand me now, baby?

Do you believe me?

Brugge is an outstanding example of a medieval historic settlement, which has maintained its historic fabric as this has evolved over the centuries, and where original Gothic constructions form part of the town's identity. As one of the commercial and cultural capitals of Europe, Brugge developed cultural links to different parts of the world. It is closely associated with the school of Flemish Primitive painting.

Yes it is, but it doesn't seem at all.

Here rain doesn't stop and I've started to lock myself into the house so that I can begin to study for my July exams...

anyway I feel instantly better looking back at my Zanzibar memories. This is from last september, one of the most delicious fruit drink I've ever tasted.

 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Tiny Wild Clover,is not easy to Shoot,because you have to get down to ground level for the best Angel.

© 2015 Thousand Word Images by Dustin Abbott

 

I have been nothing but impressed with Canon's newest telephoto zoom - the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM II. I have just completed my thorough review of the lens and found very little to criticize. Here is a series of shots OF the lens. My review of the new Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM II is now live:

Read it: bit.ly/1zgDghN

Watch it: bit.ly/16ibRAv

Image Gallery: bit.ly/16BbzFW

Direct Comparison with Tamron 150-600 VC: bit.ly/1F77jJt

  

Technical information Canon EOS 6D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM, Processed in Adobe Lightroom 5, Photoshop CC, and Alien Skin Exposure 7 (use code "dustinabbott" to get 10% off)

 

Want to know more about me or make contact? Take a look at my website and find a lot of ways to connect and view my work.

2005

PHOTOGRAPHERS THOUGHTS …

Contrast is about light, and photography is painting with light …

When the colours of a scene are just not working, look to creating a B&W. So many times, photographing towards to sun destroys the colour, but creates good B&W.

Here was just that situation, and using my 9mm lens for field-of view, allowed me to capture the drama unfolding in the sky. Remember, getting a black and white image to work requires the image to have black & white elements …

AMBIENT LIGHT

5.30pm pm at the end of January, with light radiating in from top left

COMPOSITION ELEMENTS

B&W, Contrast, Leading lines, Vanishing point, Dramatic, Field-of-view, Scale, Graded light, Light & shade, Texture, Anchoring point (bottom right), Telling a story, Pano crop.

LOCATION

Long Jetty, Central Coast, N.S.W.

SETTINGS

1/1250th, f11 (within sweet spot range of lens), 200 ISO, Manual Exposure based on blinking highlights in viewfinder, exposure meter, and histogram, to expose correctly for the brightest element in the image, EV 0, Manual Focus, RAW, Fuji X-T2, Laowa 9mm Lens (35mm format – 14mm). Note that this is a manual lens and does not record exif data correctly ...

ENHANCEMENT (Lightroom)

Tweaked image using Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, Blacks, Texture, Clarity & Dehaze, sliders, as well as brushing in some Whites & Blacks

 

These ‘Photographers Thoughts’ are posted to aid photographers to recognise compositional elements, as well as the camera settings used, so you might learn from what worked, or through my mistakes … enjoy Greg

 

The surface is my car. But what is this on it? And on the ground. And on the balcony, and front steps. Start guessing -- I will reveal the answer tomorrow!

Protea is both the botanical name and the English common name of a genus of South African flowering plants, sometimes also called sugarbushes or fynbos. In local tradition, the protea flower represents change and hope. The extraordinary richness and diversity of species characteristic of the Cape flora are thought to be caused in part by the diverse landscape, where populations can become isolated from each other and in time develop into separate species. The main vectors responsible for the transfer of pollen in protea cultivation are birds, insects, and wind. Some Protea species exhibit both self-pollination and cross-pollination as a method of reproduction. Cross-pollination is preferred, though, as a method of reproduction because it provides genetic diversity in the population. When cultivating proteas, breeders use hand pollination as a controlled method to transfer pollen from one flower to another. Proteas usually flower during spring. The general structure of their flower heads consists of a mass of flowers on a woody receptacle. The ovary is protected by the receptacle, thus is not seen when looking at the flower, but the anthers are present at the top of the flower, which can then easily transfer the pollen to the vectors. 11073

The Ochre Trail in Roussillon is a good way to discover the geological phenomenon of the ochre sands.

Ochre is a natural pigment that is in the sandy soil which makes up the cliffs around Roussillon. Iron oxides colour the sands with shades ranging from yellow to violet. The mineral landscape reflects the effects of erosion and mining work done by man.

Two different trails, one short, one long take you through the ochre lands on a 30-minute or 60-minute walk.

An original geological formation

230 million years ago, Provence lay under the seas, and remained underwater for a long, long period.

Several thousand meters of sediments washed away from the surrounding land masses and slowly built up on the sea floor. This sediment later formed the white limestone so characteristic of this region – Mont Ventoux, the Luberon range, Sainte Victoire, Verdon canyon, the calanques etc.

Then, approximately 110 million years ago, the sea grew deeper. Grey clay formed a new sediment which deposited on top of the limestone, creating a formation which geologists later called the “Aptian stratotype” .

Little by little the sea filled in. The water became very shallow and turbulent, and green sand containing small mineral grains known as glauconite settled on top of the grey clay.

Then, approximately 100 million years ago, major upheavals took place in the land masses around what is now Provence.

After the long period of marine life, the earth shifted and the area that is now Provence found itself totally out of the water.

The climate was tropical at the time. Strong and steady rainfall leached the green sands from the newly emerged land mass. The rain slowly transformed the green sand into ochre sands, then into white sand in several long steps. First the groundwater produced by the heavy rains dissolved all the elements in the green sand except for the sand itself, which was highly resistant. The minerals in this solution, such as kaolinite and goethite, crystallised and filled the empty spaces between the grains of sand, creating the ochre sands.

The iron hydroxide concentrated on the surface, forming a hard, impervious layer similar to laterite.

The red, yellow and orange colours in the ochre sands continue to be somewhat of a mystery. We know that goethite is involved, but what mechanisms has nature applied to create such a profusion of shades? Our work continues !

  

The legend

 

Lady Sermonde and Lord Raymond d'Avignon lived in the castle in Roussillon. Guillaume de Cabestan, son of the Lord of Cabestan in the Hautes Alpes was taken on at Roussillon castle to work as a page and to apprentice to a knight in order to learn knightly ways.

Raymond d'Avignon, who was an avid hunter, preferred the company of his horses and huntsmen, and often left his wife alone. And with time, Dame Sermonde and Guillaume fell in love.

The young page’s songs became more insistent and obvious, and the domestics at the castle reported their suspicions to Lord Raymond d'Avignon.

Wanting to know more about the situation, Lord Raymond invited young Guillaume on a hunting party, and turned the conversation to his wife. So as not to betray Dame Sermonde, Guillaume told Lord Raymond that indeed he was in love, but with Dame Sermonde’s sister, Agnès.

To be sure, Raymond d'Avignon decided to travel to the nearby town of Tarascon, with Guillaume, in order to have confirmation of Guillaume’s story. Agnès quickly understood all that was at stake, and to save the two lovers, she played along. Dame Sermonde learned of her husband’s actions, and was both furious with his behaviour and indignant that her love for Guillaume went unacknowledged. She demanded that Guillaume tell their story in one of his songs.

Guillaume sang of their love and, hearing the truth, Raymond d'Avignon flew into a rage and took his revenge. During a hunting party, he stabbed Guillaume in the back, cut off his head, and cut out his heart.

He returned to the castle with the heart and had his cook prepare it with a spicy sauce.

Dame Sermonde delighted in the dish, until her husband informed her that she had just partaken in dining on the heart of her lover. "Seigneur”, she said, “you have given me such a good meal, that I never want to taste anything else again”.

Realising that his wife was escaping his control, Raymond d'Avignon drew his sword, but Dame Sermonde fled out of the castle to the edge of the cliff, and threw herself over the top. It is said that her blood coloured the lands all around, and that a spring gushed forth at the point where her fall ended.

  

Castle Campbell is a medieval castle situated above the town of Dollar, Clackmannanshire, in central Scotland. It was the lowland seat of the earls and dukes of Argyll, chiefs of Clan Campbell, from the 15th to the 19th century, and was visited by Mary, Queen of Scots, in the 16th century.

 

History

 

The castle was originally known as Castle Gloom, possibly deriving from the Scottish Gaelic: glom, meaning a chasm, and referring to the narrow gorges to either side of the site. The naturally defended position may have been the site of a motte in the 12th century. The present tower was built in around 1430 for John Stewart, Lord Lorn, (d.1463) or one of his kinsmen.

In 1465 the property was acquired by Colin Campbell, 1st Earl of Argyll, (d.1493) on his marriage to Isabel, Lord Lorn's daughter. The first historical record of the castle dates from the following year, when Pope Paul II issued a bull against Walter Stewart, son of Lord Lorn, for attacking and damaging the "Place of Glowm". Argyll, who was at the papal court at the time, may have been instrumental in arranging the Pope's intervention. The tower shows signs of early rebuilding following this episode.

 

The acquisition of Gloom expanded the power of the Campbells from Argyll in the west into central Scotland, and suited his position as Master of the Household to James III, which required his frequent presence at court. In 1488 Argyll petitioned the newly crowned James IV to formally change the name of Gloom to Castle Campbell, and this was done by an act of parliament. The change in name may imply that the term "castle" was seen as particularly prestigious, requiring royal approval for its use. At this time, the castle would have comprised the tower house, with other buildings arranged around the courtyard, and gardens outside. The east range was probably added first, and some time after the accession of the 2nd Earl in 1493 the large south range was begun. This building shows the influence of the contemporary works at Stirling Castle, now known as the King's Old Building. It included a state apartment of hall, outer chamber and bedchamber, with large south-facing windows overlooking the gardens and the view across the Devon Valley. The range also provided additional private lodgings, and was accessed via two symmetrically placed stairways facing the courtyard

  

16th century

In the 16th century, the 4th Earl of Argyll (d.1558) embraced the cause of religious Reformation, and became one of the leading Protestant lords of his day. His family supported the Calvinist preacher John Knox while he was in Scotland in the 1550s. Knox visited Castle Campbell and preached there, some time in 1556. In January 1563 Mary, Queen of Scots, stayed at Castle Campbell on the occasion of the marriage of Margaret, sister to the 5th Earl of Argyll, and James Stewart, Lord Doune. However, on the marriage of Queen Mary and Lord Darnley two years later, Argyll joined other Protestant lords in rebellion. During the Chaseabout Raid which followed, Mary and Darnley received the surrender of Castle Campbell. In the more peaceful 1590s Archibald Campbell, 7th Earl of Argyll, rebuilt the east range of the castle to link the south range with refurbished guest chambers in the tower. The new work consisted of a fine two-arched loggia facing the courtyard, with a façade of polished ashlar masonry above. Behind this were galleries, fashionable additions to the accommodation within the castle, and new stairs to north and south. The east range has been compared to the north courtyard façade at Crichton Castle which was erected around the same time. An inventory of 1595 records the furniture, tapestries, carpets and other items in each room of the castle, including a total of 47 beds.

 

Destruction and later history

 

The Earls of Argyll continued to support the Protestant cause, and in the religious conflicts of the mid-17th century Archibald Campbell, 8th Earl of Argyll, became the leader of the Presbyterian Covenanters, in opposition to the leading Royalist James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose. In 1645 Montrose's troops, on their way to the Battle of Kilsyth, laid waste to the lands around Castle Campbell, including Dollar and Muckhart. Many of Montrose's men were MacLeans, long-standing adversaries of the Campbells. The castle itself was undamaged, and no siege was attempted. In response, Argyll ordered the destruction of Menstrie Castle and Airthrie Castle, both seats of Royalists. After the execution of Charles I the Campbells initially supported Charles II, with Argyll placing the crown of Scotland on Charles' head at Scone in 1651. However, Argyll opposed Charles' invasion of England, and in 1652 he submitted to Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth. Cromwell's forces were garrisoned in Castle Campbell in 1653. In July 1654, Royalist rebels attacked and burned Castle Campbell over two nights.

 

Argyll was executed following the Restoration of 1660 and his son, the 9th Earl, built Argyll's Lodging in Stirling rather than renovate Castle Campbell. Apart from being briefly garrisoned during the Jacobite rising of 1715 the castle was abandoned, and in 1805 the 6th Duke of Argyll sold it to Crawford Tait of Harviestoun, an adjacent estate. In 1859 Harviestoun, and Castle Campbell, was bought by businessman and former Lord Provost of Glasgow Sir Andrew Orr. His son James Orr had excavations carried out at the castle in the 1870s, turning up fragments of stained glass from the windows of the south range.

 

In 1948 the then-owners of the Harviestoun estate gave Dollar Glen to the National Trust for Scotland, who arranged for the castle to be cared for by the Ministry of Works. Restoration works have included a new roof on the tower, and excavations in the 1980s which revealed charred timbers from the 1654 burning. The castle is now managed by Historic Scotland. [Wikipedia]

Is it just me or can no one else see any pictures within the new format of the groups? Why does Flick have to keep changing the layout. Takes ages to sign in, have to sign in through another website now as it wont accept on Flickr. The menus don't open properly and now the groups. What are they going to change next ???

AGHHH I LOVE THAT NEW JONAS BROTHERS SONG, LOVE IS ON ITS WAY!

 

holy guacamole! its so beautiiiiful.

i can listen to it like,

1234567890111213141516171819203333 times! :D

This is one of three (that I know of) out in our backyard. A baby. Three babies. Second time this has happened. They are sort of cute, but oh, so destructive! Say goodbye to the garden. Oh, and they are nocturnal. And this was something like 4:30 in the afternoon. Ugh.

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.

Az önhipnózis, egyrészt mint egy természetes, mélyen ellazult tudatállapot, másrészt, mint egy rendkívül lecsendesült, fókuszált figyelmi állapot rengeteg jótékony hatással bír. Tovább is megyek. Az általános jótékony hatásokon túl, ez egy olyan tudatállapot, amely képessé tesz bennünket önmagunk és magunkon keresztül az egész életünk megváltoztatására. Ez a tudatállapot a lelki "svájci bicskánk", roppant sokoldalú eszköz. Hogy mennyire? Lássuk!

1. Stresszoldó

 

A stressz lelki, fizikai hatásait mindenki ismeri, a paletta széles; közéjük tartozik az ingerültség, rosszkedvűség, izomfeszültség, hasi panaszok, vérnyomás ingadozás, fokozott verejtékezés, kedélyhullámzás, memória romlása, koncentrálási zavarok és így tovább. Egyre inkább terjed az a nézet is, hogy nagyon sok betegség kialakulásában is jelentős szerepet játszik a stressz.

 

A Wikipédia szerint:

 

"Hosszabb ideig fennálló tartós stressz hatására kialakulhat

 

Tartósan rossz közérzet

Szorongás

Pánikrohamok, esetleg pánikbetegség

Depresszió, Ingerlékenység

Soványság, elhízás

Csökkent ellenálló képesség

Menstruáció megszűnése

Hajhullás"

 

Az önhipnózis egy olyan természetes, megváltozott tudatállapot, melynek során egy rendkívül mély fizikai, érzelmi és mentális ellazulást élünk meg. Ez a szent hármas teszi lehetővé azt, hogy a testünk fellélegezzen és gyors ütemben elkezdje magát regenerálni. Egy szóval: nagyon-nagyon egészséges!

 

Az önhipnózis elsajátításakor a gyakorlók megtanulják, hogyan tudják a testüket és elméjüket gyorsan és akaratlagosan ellazítani, illetve megtanulják felismerni és tudatosan ellazítani az esetleges belső feszültségeket.

 

Az önhipnózis pusztán ezért az egy tulajdonságáért is megérdemli a helyet a kedvenc szabadidős tevékenységek között.

2. Önbizalom növelő

 

Ezt leginkább azok az emberek emelik ki, akik korábban nagyon is hadilábon álltak az önbizalommal.

 

Az önhipnózis során megtanuljuk a tudatalattink erőforrásait felismerni és felhasználni. Minél többet gyakorlunk, annál biztosabban érezzük ezt az erőt, és annál könnyebben tudjuk azt irányítani, a fejlődésünkre, illetve a céljainkra fordítani.

 

Egy idő múlva már nem lesz számunkra kérdés, hogy egy nagyszerű segítségünk van a mindennapok gondjainak leküzdésére, és fokozatosan a gondokat megtanuljuk kihívásokként értelmezni, amikhez minden eszközünk megvan, hogy megoldjuk.

 

Fokozatosan letesszük azokat a káros hiedelmeinket, miszerint kicsik és erőtlenek vagyunk a körülményekkel szemben, hiszen a belső tudatunk megadja számunkra azt a bölcsességet, amivel tisztán kezdjük látni az életünket és szerepünket.

3. Érzelmi intelligencia, empatikus képesség növekedése

 

Egyre divatosabb kifejezés manapság az érzelmi intelligencia. Mit is takar?

"Az érzelmi intelligencia (EI) az intelligencia vagy a képességek azon fajtája, ami a saját és mások érzelmeinek érzékelésével, kezelésével és pozitív befolyásolásával kapcsolatos." /Wikipédia

Ez számunkra a mindennapi életben azt jelenti, hogy az önhipnózis gyakorlásával egyre inkább tudatában leszünk érzelmeinknek, és nem csak akkor amikor már kitörtek vagy bajt okoztak. Lépésről lépésre, egyre inkább felismerjük az érzelmek valódi, mélyebben fekvő okait.

 

Egyre könnyebben észrevesszük azt, hogyan rángatnak minket ezek az érzelmek és egyre könnyebben megértjük és elfogadjuk más emberek szempontjait. Ezáltal könnyebben és tudatosabban irányítjuk az érzelmileg telített helyzeteket.

4. Problémamegoldó képesség javulása

A problémamegoldó képesség javulása egyenes következménye az érzelmi intelligencia fejlődésének. Ebben az esetben nem rohanunk vadul bele érzelmeinktől elvakítva konfliktusokba, hiszen az nem a probléma megoldását segítené csupán a feszültségek levezetését. A feszültségek kisütésének a következménye, hogy a másik fél is feszült lesz és egyre inkább a saját érzései vezérlik, mintsem a probléma mindkét fél számára való megoldásának a vágya.

 

Ugyanakkor nem is fojtjuk magunkba az érzéseket a konfliktustól való félelmünkben, vagy a "béke kedvéért", hiszen az elfojtás rengeteg negatív energiát hoz létre, ami így vagy úgy, de kihat mind a saját egészségünkre, mind a környezetünkre.

 

A két rossz megoldás helyett egyre jobban tudatában leszünk annak, hogyan hozzuk létre ezeket a negatív érzéseket, mivel hozzuk létre magunkban a feszültséget és belső tudatunk segítségével azt is elsajátítjuk, hogy hogyan lehet ezeket az érzéseket időben feloldani, transzformálni. Így energiánkat átalakítjuk, hogy inkább segítsen a probléma megoldásában, ahelyett, hogy súlyosbítaná azt.

5. Kiegyensúlyozottság, belső nyugalom erősödése

Szintén "mellékhatása" a rendszeres önhipnózis gyakorlásnak, hogy egyre nyugodtabbá válunk a hétköznapokban.

 

Mivel érzelmeink egyre jobban tudatosulnak és egyre jobban megtanuljuk ezeket az érzelmi energiákat felismerni és pozitív érzelmekké alakítani, így nem halmozódnak fel bennünk a feszültségek.

 

A nehéz helyzeteket is egyre higgadtabban tudjuk kezelni, ami ismét csak visszahat ránk, hiszen a környezetünk is csillapodik a mi hatásunkra. Ez a hatás-ellenhatás elve.

6. Öröm, felszabadultság és egyéb pozitív érzések erősödése

Ez a személyes kedvencem. Az öröm és felszabadultság érzet természetes közegünkké válik. Ez nem jelenti azt, hogy örökké rózsaszín szemüvegben röpködünk a föld felett, egyszerűen csak annyit jelent, hogy egyre több apróságban megéljük az élet szépségét. Emellett ugyanilyen tisztán megéljük a szomorúságot vagy egyéb érzelmeket, amikor azoknak jön el az ideje, de nem ragadunk bennük, nem kötjük magunkat hozzájuk, mintha minden pozitív érzelem pusztán illúzió lenne.

 

Megéljük azt, hogy az életöröm természetes állapotunk. Ez az az állapot, amikor az élet minden mozzanata jelentőséggel bír, bármily csekélynek tűnjön is. Elkezdjük észrevenni, mennyi öröm és szépség vesz minket körül, mennyi csodának vagyunk részesei.

 

Megtanultuk, hogy természetesnek vegyük, mindazt, ami minket körül vesz. Természetes, hogy van kezünk, lábunk, szeretteink vagy nap és égbolt. Mintha mindez járna nekünk, így nem is fordítunk ezekre a dolgokra különösebb figyelmet.

 

Ha visszaemlékszünk a gyerekkorunkra, akkor talán felrémlik, milyen apróságok tudtak minket elvarázsolni, mennyi örömet rejtett a pocsolyában való ugrálás (amíg valamelyik kevésbé megértő szülő véget nem vetett a röpködésnek), a homokvár építés friss sárga homokból vagy egy szarvasbogár nézegetése. Ez volt az a tudatállapot, amikor a lehetőségek még ott hemzsegtek körülöttünk, bennünk. Ehhez a tudatállapothoz térünk vissza, csak ezúttal már több megértéssel (remélhetőleg), de semmivel sem kevesebb örömmel.

7. Életcélunk, a világlátásunk tisztul

Amíg érzelmeink és a tudatalattiba száműzött energiáink nincsenek rendbe téve, úgy csetlünk-botlunk az életben, mint egy telezsúfolt, teleszemetelt, sötét lakásban. Célunk homályos, nehezen kivehető, és időnként azt vesszük észre, hogy rossz irányba megyünk, ez a cél nem is a mienk, vagy ha a mienk is volt, mégsem lettünk boldogabbak tőle. Nem beszélve a keresgélés során összetört kis lábujjakról.

 

Amikor elkezdjük az önhipnózist rendszeresen gyakorolni és a belső tudatunkkal végre kapcsolatot felvenni, akkor az olyan, mintha elemlámpát gyújtanánk. Egyszerre ugyan csak egy kis részt világít be, de ahogy elkezdjük a szobákat apránként rendbe rakni, egyre nagyobb tér szabadul fel bennük önmagunk és a számunkra fontos emberek számára. Ezzel együtt egyre tisztábbá válnak valódi, belső lelki céljaink.

 

A lelki szobánk egyre világosabb és otthonosabb lesz, így válik életünk is egyre "otthonosabbá" önmagunk és szeretteink számára.

8. Az emberi kapcsolatok javulása

Az önhipnózis önmagunk megváltoztatásának egyik leghatékonyabb módja.

 

De mit is értünk önmagunk megváltoztatásán?

 

Belső önmagunk, lelkünk már most is tökéletes. Nem szorul változtatásra.

 

Ami változtatásra szorul az a viselkedésünk, szokásaink, berögzült hiedelmeink és ezáltal az energiánk. Az, ahogyan az energiánkat használjuk, torzítjuk és kisugározzuk. Ez kihat miránk és a környezetünkre is, és ez alapvetően meghatározza az emberi kapcsolatainkat.

 

Az önhipnózis során megtanuljuk, hogyan használjuk a saját energiánkat, hogyan merevítjük káros viselkedésmódokká, szokásokká majd jellemvonásokká.

 

"Én már csak ilyen vagyok." Ismerős? Kényelmes kifogás azért, hogy ne kelljen szembenézni önmagunkkal.

 

A tudatosítás azt jelenti, hogy megtanuljuk megkülönböztetni önmagunkat és azt a sok belső, tudatalatti programot, amely a mai személyiségünket alkotja. Egyre jobban megtanuljuk a saját káros programjainkat felismerni és átírni pozitív, hasznos módon.

 

Az emberek tudat alatt a viselkedésünkön, hozzáállásunkon és lényünkön keresztül kisugárzott energiára reagálnak.

 

"Jó kisugárzása van."

 

Ez nem más, mint valaki, aki nyitott, pozitív módon, használja az energiáját. A pozitív energia pedig vonzerővel bír, ezzel nem árultam el titkot.

9. Az önismeret rendkívüli mértékben megnő

Talán nem is kell ragozni, hogy egyenes következménye a belső énünkkel való munkának, hogy egyre többet tudunk meg magunkról.

 

Aki szereti magát abban a tévhitben ringatni, hogy már mindent tud önmagáról és már semmi újat nem lehet neki ezzel kapcsolatban mondani, annak sajnos azt kell mondanom, hogy igaz a közhely, ez egy végtelen út. Minél többet ismerünk meg önmagunkból, annál inkább rádöbbenünk arra, mennyi új megismerni való vár még ránk.

 

Ez ne riasszon meg senkit. Ez egy nagyon gyümölcsöző út, ami önmagunk felé vezet. Érdekes, izgalmas és gyönyörű, mint egy nagyon érdekesen megírt könyv. Tele van csavarokkal, és a kép egyre jobban kitágul, egyre több részlet mutatkozik meg. Lassanként rájövünk, hogy sokkal többek vagyunk, mint ahogy gondoltuk.

 

Ezzel együtt a felismeréssel együtt, érdekes módon, kialakul egy csodálattal vegyes alázat saját lényünk iránt. Minél inkább rálátunk, ráérzünk belső, isteni lényünkre, annál inkább felismerjük, milyen pici dobozba próbáltuk bepréselni téves elképzeléseinkkel. Tisztelni kezdjük önmagunkat a szó legnemesebb értelmében, mert meglátjuk a lélekben a végtelent.

10. Spirituális fejlődés

Ezzel el is érkeztünk ahhoz a ponthoz, ahova tudat alatt mindannyian törekszünk.

 

Önmagunkon, belső tudatunkon keresztül nyílik ki a kapu a belső, végtelen fény felé. Ahogy elkezdjük egyre jobban beengedni a fényt önmagunkba, megértjük, mennyi érzésünk pusztán annak a következménye volt, hogy elzártuk magunkat a saját belső fényünktől, amely a végtelen fény része.

 

A belső tudat fényében világossá válik, hogy a magány, az elhagyatottság, az elveszettség mind nem más, mint "hiánybetegség". A fény hiányának betegsége. Érezni fogjuk, hogy ezt a fényt nem vette el tőlünk senki, nem vonta meg tőlünk senki, senki nem taszított minket a sötétségbe, hanem mi zártuk ki magunkból a belső energiáinkat. Burokként összezárultunk magunk körül, kizárva a fényt és a sötétben megéltük a fény hiányát, mint végtelen magányt és elhagyatottságot.

 

Belső tudatunk segít megérteni a fontos összefüggéseket az életünkben. A látszólag kívülről ránk szakadt körülmények törvényszerűségeit. Természetesen mindezt lépésről lépésre tanuljuk meg, mindenki a saját ütemében, a saját módján, a saját fejlődési szintjén. Sürgetni nincs értelme. A belső tudat mindent a mi képességeinkhez mér.

 

Ugyanakkor biztosak lehetünk benne, hogy ez a tanulás mindannyiunknak nagyon sok hasznot hoz.

 

Annyi haszontalan dolgot megtanultunk életünkben, ideje végre életünk legfontosabb leckéinek nekilátnunk.

És +1: Az önhipnózis roppant kellemes!

Az ellazulás, illetve az érzelmek feloldása, felszabadítása egyre kellemesebb élménnyé teszi az önhipnózist.

 

Javaslom napi rendszerességgel végezni (ismerem a kifogásokat, de gondoljunk arra, hogy a számunkra igazán fontos dolgokra mégis szoktunk tudni időt szakítani!), egy idő múlva már kifejezetten igényelni fogjuk!

 

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Save www.b2s.pm/5glI27

The harsh realities of life in the desert are etched in the face of this hardy Rajasthani farmer. He is watching a small girl performing acrobatics at a fair. He is not amused, obviously!

And so is our vacation. California was great. Still there, where we left it. Weather on the coast was crappy, as it always is in the summer. We ate more than we should have, saw more people that time made appear feasible and had the best time seeing Sara enjoy every place we took her.

 

We will be back!

 

P.S. Who said nothing good comes out of jet-lag? I can finally process and upload in peace, the whole house quiet and to myself!

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.

I'm in the middle of something on Facebook.

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

   

*Published Canadian Geographic’s Ontario 2017 calendar

 

The white-tailed deer is the most common of all of North America’s large mammals. It is also the most widely distributed. A deer's home range is usually less the a square mile. Deer collect in family groups of a mother and her fawns. When a doe has no fawns, she is usually solitary. Male bucks may live in groups consisting of three or four individuals, except in mating season, when they are solitary. White-tailed deer mate in November and the female has one to three fawns after about six months after mating.

 

To read more about white-tailed deer please read my stories here

One Foggy Morning and here The Ottawa Rut

 

To purchase prints, cards, mugs, photos, shirts and more you can visit my Redbubble site

  

Jerebikovec is the highest summit in Mežaklja range, a small fore-hills group of Julian Alps. This is the view on some of the highest summits of Julian Alps from the north and east. On the left are the mountains above Pokljuka plateau, then the valley of Krma, then Triglav group and towards the right Škrlatica and Martuljek group.

This is the collection of pillow cakes made by me sometime ago. The first cake and still my favorite one (blue and white) was created for my best friends wedding 3 years ago. I used to call her "my princess" for her exquisite style and love to luxury :-) She was wearing a beatiful blue-and-white dress for her civil ceremony that inspired the colors on the cake. She, her husband and all the guests absolutely loved it and still are talking about it 3 years later :-)

 

Since then I was asked to make a couple of other pillow cakes, and even though each time I tried to convince people to go for another idea and explained the story behind this cake, sometimes I failed and had to make it once again, feeling myself bad, like I was kind of stealing from my friend :-) Even though she doesn't mind :-)

This is one of the most peaceful, beautiful, and difficult spots to photograph in Zion National Park. You are basically right up against canyon walls on three sides. Not even 11mm on crop can capture more then a fraction of the scene.

 

My friends and I had hiked up to this spot a little earlier in the day. We got hit by heavy rain right when we got to the upper emerald pool. With the stormy conditions in Zion the pool was full and covered much of the land where you can normally sit and relax. So we didn't spend long there and I didn't pull out my camera. We left and just below the middle pool the rain stopped. I told my friends I wanted to hike back to the upper pool and get some shots, and would meet them back at camp.

 

I hiked back and found I was the only person there. I started shooting and it started sprinkling. No problem I thought. Shortly after I took this shot the sprinkle turned into a flash flood. The waterfall became twice as wide, and the wind was blowing more water from the falls onto me than rain. I was completely drenched, but it was worth it.

 

Manual blend of two exposures made with my Canon 7D and Tokina 11-16 f/2.8, tripod mounted. Processed using ACR/Photoshop CS4.

This picture is #2 in my 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page

 

Today was time I got my project moving again. I had been into my local town to post my trusty a100 which had been sold and I was carrying the replacement which I am still learning how to get the best out of. Pop of built in flash.

 

I found a nice location and waited, and waited and nobody caught my eye as a suitable candidate., it was early and not many people about.

 

I had already missed one guy I had seen with an amazing beard as I had not really had the time to approach him, so when I saw Cindy I thought go for it (dont forget I'm still only on #2). Cindy had her headphones on and once I caught her up and explained the project she was happy to be part of it.

 

Cindy is in college studying Law and hopes to eventually have a career in that field. Thanks for being part of my group, and good luck with your studies.

 

Not as sharp as I would have liked, but the lens was wide open, tamron 17-50 f2.8 I think I'll close it down a little next time.

Seaside is an unincorporated master-planned community on the Florida Panhandle in Walton County, between Panama City Beach and Destin. One of the first communities in America designed on the principles of New Urbanism, the town has become the topic of slide lectures in architectural schools and in housing-industry magazines, and is visited by design professionals from all over the United States. On April 18, 2012, the American Institute of Architects's Florida Chapter placed the community on its list of Florida Architecture: 100 Years. 100 Places as the Seaside – New Urbanism Township.

 

Beach of Seaside

The idea behind Seaside came in 1946, when the grandfather of future founder Robert S. Davis bought 80 acres (32 ha) of land along the shore of Northwest Florida as a summer retreat for his family. In 1978 Davis inherited the parcel from his grandfather, and aimed to transform it into an old-fashioned beach town, with traditional wood-framed cottages of the Florida Panhandle. Davis, his wife Daryl and, the architectural partners and Driehaus Prize winners, Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company toured the south studying small towns as a basis for planning Seaside. The final plan was complete around 1985. The town was used as the main filming location of the 1998 film The Truman Show.

 

Seaside is located along County Road 30A immediately adjacent to the Gulf of Mexico. Via County Road 30A, Rosemary Beach is 8 mi (13 km) to the southeast, and Miramar Beach is 16 mi (26 km) to the northwest (via County Road 30A to US 98).

 

Seaside is one of three planned communities on Florida's Gulf coast designed by Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk. The other two are Rosemary Beach and Alys Beach. The three are examples of a style of urban planning known as New Urbanism. As Seaside is privately owned, no other municipal governments had planning jurisdiction over Seaside, and therefore the developers were able to write their own zoning codes. Seaside's commercial hub is located at the town center. The streets are designed in a radiating street pattern with pedestrian alleys and open spaces located throughout the town. There is a mix of uses and residential types throughout the community.

 

Individual housing units in Seaside are required to be different from other buildings, with designs ranging from styles such as Victorian, New Classical, Modern, Postmodern, and Deconstructivism. Seaside includes buildings by architects such as Léon Krier, Robert A. M. Stern, Steven Holl, Machado and Silvetti Associates, Deborah Berke, Gordon Burns & Associates, Thomas Christ, Walter Chatham, Daniel Solomon, Ronnie Holstead, Jeff Margaretten, Alex Gorlin, Aldo Rossi, Michael McDonough, Samuel Mockbee, David Mohney, Steve Badanes, Walker Candler, and David Coleman. Another Driehaus Prize winner, the architect Scott Merrill designed the Seaside Chapel, an interfaith chapel and local landmark.

 

Seaside has no private front lawns, and only native plants are used in front yards.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaside,_Florida

www.susanfordcollins.com

Thank you for commenting and faving my photos :-)

 

Best view by pressing "L"

www.zeitfaenger.at

 

Creative Commons License: Attribution 3.0 Unported

Here it is guys! My entry into McLaren's design competition.

 

Performance

• Acceleration: 0-100 km/h in 2.0

• Top Speed: (electronically limited): 350km/h

• Braking: 97-0 in 2.5 seconds (in 30 meters).

• Fuel Consumption: 8.3L/100km/h

 

Design

Drivetrain:

• 5 liter counter-rotating flatplane twin crank V8

• Variable ratio twin screw supercharger

• 6-speed triple clutch gearbox with KERS and hybrid 500kW electric motor

 

Chassis:

• Carbon cockpit tub with titanium rollover frame

• Titanium trellis front subframe with inboard suspension

• Rear suspension mounted directly to engine and gearbox

• Forged magnesium wheels and airless tires with internal aluminium skeleton

 

Computer:

• 1.2 Billion bit solid state optical processor with braided carbon nanotube optical paths

• Honeycomb aluminium nitrogen cooling cell in center of bonnet

 

Specs credit goes to my good friend Kieran.

 

Let me know what you think!

 

The Full Story is at www.NicholasViltrakis.blogspot.com

 

Nicholas Viltrakis

www.NicholasViltrakis.com

See them on black:

flickriver.com/photos/roae/

Facebook:

www.facebook.com/pages/Nicholas-Viltrakis-Photography/173...

STROBIST: 580 behind

 

*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/

Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCCUlbTmDg8cKnPbkojpJ8lQ

Commentary.

  

Hambledon is a scattered, linear village in the

Sandstone Weald of South-West Surrey,

in the Waverley District.

Hills and profuse woodland mean that the village seems “well off the beaten track.”

As with many Wealden villages it produced

iron artefacts from the ore in the Sandstone in Medieval times.

More recently, the Wealden Clay

was used to produce bricks.

Now it is a very quiet back-water with

some commuters travelling to London,

and others “rurally” retired.

Hambledon has a wonderfully old, and charismatic

General Store and Post Office,

a pub called the “Merry Harriers,”

and St. Peter’s Church, on a hill,

north-west of the Village Green/Cricket Pitch.

Many scenes in this “strung-out” village

would seem to have changed little, in the last few hundred years.

It truly is a veritable “Time-Machine.”

  

Marco Abud Imagens

 

www.instagram.com/marco_abud

www.flickr.com/abudesigner

 

© A reprodução não autorizada desta imagem, no todo ou em parte, constitui violação da Lei de Direito Autoral, nº 9.610 de 19 de Fevereiro de 1.998.

 

© Unauthorized attempts to upload or change information on this service are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under Law No. 9.610 of February 19, 1998, on Copyright and Neighboring Rights.

Who is ready for an outstanding night of LIVE music in SecondLife? Plan on being at Miktopia from 3-9 pm SLT as we have six amazing live acts for you to enjoy! Great music! Visit us and spend the evening listening to great tunes! SLurl: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Perfect%20Fantasy/204/9/24

Tofino is blessed with stunning sunsets this is the first of my collection of images that frankly do not do Tofino justice

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.