View allAll Photos Tagged Kermode
I wanna live
with a cinnamon girl
I could be happy
the rest of my life
With a cinnamon girl.
~Neil Young
This is the Mom to the Cinnamon Cub I posted last week. I have seen Cinnamon Bears before but this Sow & her Cub had the most gorgeous coats I've ever seen on Bears. The sun was finally out the day I took this, it glistened off their thick fur coats as they foraged on clover & sedge grass. As you can see in this frame Mom has a large chest blaze as does her Cub who is almost an identical "Mini Me" of Mom. The Cub stayed close & didn't wander off as I often see with Baby Bears but hard to get a shot of both of them with their heads up. They barely even looked up at all as they were so focused on feeding. Some of you will know it isn't easy to photograph Bears, unless they are on the move their faces are usually in the grass or berry bushes.
I had a few people ask about Cinnamon Bears on my last shot so just to clarify they are indeed Black Bears. Just as the Red Foxes may have different colored coats Black Bears can be black, brown, cinnamon, blonde or even white (the Kermode/Spirit Bear). I have seen them before but not with a matching Cub, often the Mom may be black with a cinnamon cub or vice versa. They are not very common & this was a very exciting find for us.
******All photos copyright Tony Joyce and CANNOT be used on ANY blogs or websites (inc. Reddit) without my written permission.******
Gribbell Island - Great Bear Rainforest | BC, Canada
This is my third set of Sprit Bears (seven photos) from this fantastic day-long encounter. I will post a final set in a couple of days time.
British Columbia has significant populations of American black bears and grizzly bears, with the latter found across most of their historic range in the province. The Kermode bear (Spirit Bear), a rare subspecies of the black bear, is found in the Great Bear Rainforest. Key bear-viewing areas include Knight Inlet, where salmon runs attract grizzly bears, and the Great Bear Rainforest, home to grizzly and spirit bears
As we progress through the story of the building of the Ross Bridge (1836), we'll zoom in and out on various aspects of the characters' lives and the bridge itself.
In this monochrome we see the direct work of three men, and perhaps dozens of their fellow convict labourers. The strong piers and breakwaters of the bridge (here is one example from the north face) were designed by the colonial architect of the time, John Lee Archer (1791-1852).
Archer's life began in Kent, born to an engineering family. He commenced his apprenticeship as an architect in London at the age of 18. In December of 1826 adventure beckoned, and he was recommended for the position of Colonial Architect to Van Diemen's Land. He arrived in August of the next year to take up the position and was responsible for the design of most government projects for the next ten years. His most notable achievements were the Tasmanian Parliament House and the Penitentiary Chapel at Port Arthur, designed along the lines of Jeremy Bentham's Model Prison.
In 1838, two years after the great triumph of the Ross Bridge, his position was abolished owing to a decline in colonial revenue. But Archer was a flexible man, and moved to Stanley on the north west coast to take up a position as police magistrate. Here he drew the first ever map of Circular Head. He died aged 61 in 1852 and is buried in the Old Stanley Graveyard.
The is no evidence that Archer spent much time at all in Ross or on the project for the bridge. That supervisory role was left to the military commander in Ross (we'll meet him in the next episode). But the man principally entrusted with Archer's designs and bringing them into fruition was convict stonemason, James Colbeck (1801-1852). I'll get to how Colbeck was assigned to this role soon, but when I tell you that before his arrest he worked on the building of Buckingham Palace, then you know why he was so sought after.
By pure coincidence both Archer and Colbeck died in the same year, but on different sides of the world! [I told you this story would be fascinating.] Yes, the former convict Colbeck would die a free man back in the England of his birth.
Colbeck was born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, and became a stonemason. His talent was so pronounced that at the age of just 21 he was given the opportunity of a lifetime to work on Buckingham Palace in London. He worked there from 1822 to 1825. His wife and young son remained in Dewsbury, however, and soon Colbeck decided to leave London and return to Yorkshire. It was to have near fatal consequences.
Work was hard to find, and in order to feed his family he resorted to burglary. Soon after he was caught and in 1828 sentenced to life in prison in Van Diemen's Land (the harshest sentence this side of hanging). We have no idea what happened to his poor wife and family, and it is unlikely he ever saw them again. Arriving in the colony in 1829, Colbeck was assigned various road building tasks on a chain gang, but at least he did get to help build the New Orphan School in Hobart.
In 1831 the old wooden Ross Bridge was falling down. Local grazier William Kermode (we see him immortalised on the stone bridge as well - see the tag) and several leaders petitioned the government to build a new bridge. Colbeck had done some assigned work on Kermode's property, and when it was learned that he had worked on Buckingham Palace, Kermode immediately set out to have permission granted for Colbeck to be the foreman of the new project.
So the placement of every stone you see in the photograph above was the responsibility of James Colbeck, convict. And those stone icons you see here were designed and carved by Daniel Herbert, and his story provides one of the most fascinating tales in the entire history of the colonial convict enterprise.
Both Colbeck and Herbert were emancipated after completing the bridge. In 1841 Colbeck received a free pardon. The last reference to him in Tasmanian history was the 1843 census where he was listed as living in the West Tamar. But by 1850 he had returned to Wakefield in Yorkshire and was remarried. His death is registered on 17 February 1852 and he was buried in St. Matthews burial ground, Dewsbury. [My Yorkshire Flickr friends might like to look him up.]
Before I tell you a little about the man whose name is prominently displayed on both sides of the Ross Bridge, let me describe some highlights of the opening ceremony.
On Friday the 21st October, 1836 settlers from miles around gathered in Ross to hear the Governor open the bridge that bears his name. The official report of the opening ceremony is contained in the appendix to Greener and Laird's wonderful book, "Ross Bridge and the sculpture of Daniel Herbert" (Fullers, 1971). It is full of platitudes. But Leslie Greener (who had himself endured the Japanese POW camp Changi in Singapore) gives us the real picture - and it has more in keeping with a "Carry On" movie in fact. (Carry on Convict?).
"When the Governor had ceased speaking there came a loud boom from the direction of the old (wooden) bridge, and all turned to see its central span of logs and earth lifted in a cloud of smoke. Perhaps it would have been more decent to have dismembered the old thing with some respect for old age and long service than to have put a keg of powder under her." (p. 16).
A local named Benjamin Horne gave a speech so long the governor's aide had to stop him and say that the governor needed to leave for Campbell Town (where he would lay the stone for the building of the Red Bridge - link below). A toast was quickly made (although Arthur was a teetotaler), and polite applause that ended with a cry of "May he rot!" That was William Kermode, expressing the real feelings of many of those gathered.
In all the accounts of these proceedings the two men who would ultimately win their freedom for their work were not mentioned. But today we look upon the bridge and do not think of Sir George Arthur, but see before us the work of a man of singular vision, perhaps the most creative stone carver ever to have graced these shores, and probably the greatest conceptual artist we have ever had: Daniel Herbert.
I won't repeat here all there is to say about George Arthur's biography. You can read it yourself. adb.anu.edu.au/biography/arthur-sir-george-1721
He was a brave military officer and an able administrator. He was a distinguished servant of the British Crown. Loyal to a fault, and rewarded with a Knighthood for his service. A man of strong faith and equally powerful political convictions. But in the light of all that has taken place, history must judge him as a man who when the scales of justice are applied, failed to be on the side of the right. That is precisely why Daniel Herbert places him on the "bad guys' side" in his bridge typology.
A final word here about the stone on which George Arthur is portrayed as a Puritan Divine. Remember I said how Daniel Herbert's self portrait expressed a strong and determined gaze, as if he wanted us to know that he really saw things as they were - a prophet's eyes. Look at Arthur's eyes (time has eroded much of his nose). There is an emptiness there. As if he is a man who has lost his soul.
Now lower you eyes below Arthur's face and what do you see? There is a distinct skull there; a death mask. At least it has been made home by some spiders from what we can see here. And one is reminded of the very pertinent warning of the Apostle Paul, "The wages of sin is death."
Spirit bear (ghost bear, Kermode bear, Ursus americanus kermodei) sitting placidly in a salmon river and taking a short break from fishing for the pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) that were migrating up the river to spawn. Gribbell Island Creek (Kwa), Verney Pass, British Columbia. This is an older bear, well known to Marvyn Robinson, the Gitga'at spirit bear whisperer.
It was fairly dark photographing in the deep woods so I tried a different technique for keeping the shutter speed fast enough to catch any action, and for keeping the aperture high enough to get some depth of field. I put my camera on manual, fixing both the shutter speed and aperture at the levels I wanted and put the ISO on Auto with a maximum ISO of 12800. This worked pretty well, although sometimes the ISO went up to the maximum and it never dropped below ~2000. Fortunately the Nikon D810 is pretty good with noise and the noise reduction software built into Adobe Camera Raw helped as well.
25/12/2017 www.allenfotowild.com
This is a Spirit Bear in the vicinity of Hartley Bay, British Columbia.
Our native guide, Marven Robinson, says that this bear is named Strawberry, due to her coloring (I guess?).
Anyway, she has strolled down the shoreline (feasting on Salmon carcasses) and is now starting to head up a small river to fish for spawning Salmon, or simply for more recent Salmon carcasses, as her mood suits her.
We were asked to not give specific locations of the Spirit Bears which were shown to us by Marven and we will respect that request.
However, if you'd like a view of what experiencing the bears was like back in 2016, there is a very nice little book that tells you much more about the Spirit Bear viewing experience that is available on Amazon and which has an accompanying SmugMug website that shows pics and videos of Spirit Bears in action.
I bought a copy of the book ("Spirit Bear Hartley Bay") after we returned from our recent trip and it's very illuminating with regards to what it was like to interact with the Spirit Bears a decade ago.
It's changed a bit since then, not for the worse nor the better, but it has changed, as the Bears that were around a decade ago have moved on and the younger Bears are not quite as habituated to visiting photographers as the old Bears were. I'm told that the years that this trip was not offered (during the Covid pandemic) may have caused a slight regression in the "tame-ness or habituation" of both the Black and White Kermode Bears towards people.
There is an online copy of Spirit Bear Hartley Bay at this link.
A beautiful little Pine marten (Martes americana) grabs a mouthful of salmon from a creek during the annual salmon run on Gribbell Island, British Columbia. The creek was full of salmon carcasses left on the rocks by Kermode bears who were also on the creek feasting on spawning salmon prior to their long hibernation and the pine marten was taking full advantage of the bounty.
15/01/2018 www.allenfotowild.com
British Columbia’s Gitga’at First Nation believe that the raven, creator of the rainforest, turned every 10th black bear white as a reminder of the last ice age. Geneticists understand that the white coat is the result of a double recessive gene in black bears. No one knows why the spirit bear (known locally as Moksgm’ol) only exists in a small part of Canada’s Great Bear Rain Forest. It’s just one of nature’s miracles.
Estimates of how many spirit bears exist vary. Some scientists believe there may be as many as 400. Some believe there may be as few as 200. This makes them more rare than a giant panda – and harder to find. My journey to find a spirit bear involved two plane flights, a ferry ride, a float plane ride, two zodiac trips, multiple nights on a boat, and a long hike through a rain forest. I’d willingly travel twice as far to get another glimpse of these majestic animals. Photographing this bear was, by far, the most profound thing I’ve done with my camera.
On this photograph from the Ross Bridge art there is just so much that can be said. I will provide links to further detailed historical information if you wish to pursue it - otherwise I might be writing for a week.
In the previous photograph showing both William Kermode (a strong Aboriginal sympathiser) and the dog, I will just add that Kermode is on the seventh stone up from the right hand side of the central arch of the north face of the bridge. The dog is on the ninth. Do you remember the pattern that Herbert employed for Mary Witherington, Jorgenson, etc. that we saw yesterday? None of these carved stones is placed on the bridge haphazardly. Each stone is exactly where Herbert wants it in his symbolic scheme.
The overall theme is I believe an "iconography of renewal". By using typological opposites Herbert is engaged in a dialectical struggle between the forces of "darkness" and the forces of "light". The more I look at the bridge, the more I believe this theory is correct in describing Herbert's vision (a development from the work of Greener and Laird in 1971), even if we may quibble over some of the symbolic detail.
Now in this photograph we are looking at a reversal of the pattern employed in the previous arch. And there is a good reason for this. The badly eroded face we see here (I've tagged the photo to make it easier to see) is that of an indigenous person. It may well represent Herbert's idealised form of an Aboriginal chieftain. It is the seventh stone up from the base of the arch next to the one that has Kermode's portrait. A dog figure is also here at the ninth stone up.
Now, on the other side (and in our next picture) we'll see Herbert's typological opposite: Lt. Gov. George Arthur. In arch one and arch two of the north face, Herbert's pattern is "bad guys to the left", "good guys to the right". All that is reversed on this third arch. And there is a very good reason for this which I think helps confirm my theory. It's the exception that often confirms the rule.
You see sensitive as Daniel Herbert was, there is no way he would place his friend William Kermode next to his enemy George Arthur. Rather, he'd have him alongside the Aboriginal person (at the same height in the bridge). So Herbert makes a reasonable switch, but the principle of typological opposites remains. I hope you can follow that, but when it all clicks into place the whole picture of what Herbert is trying to achieve makes complete sense. I think this is where my theory fills in the gaps in Greener and Laird (1971).
So now a brief discussion of why the Aboriginal issue is at the heart of the matter. Historian Henry Reynolds has written extensively on the subject of the "Black War" and what he calls in a challenging book, "The Fate of a Free People" (Penguin, 1995). Indigenous lawyer Michael Mansell has written a fine review and you can read it here: www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/PolemicUSyd/1995/11.pdf
The Black War is a term given to the period 1804-1830, but intensified in the 1820s when the settlers with the support of the colonial government removed indigenous people from their lands. www.britannica.com/event/Black-War
This culminated in a clergyman, George Augustus Robinson setting out to mitigate the conflict and find a solution. His plan was to re-establish the surviving indigenous people on what is now Flinders Island. adb.anu.edu.au/biography/robinson-george-augustus-2596
It is a sad fact of history, however, that only a few hundred were ever resettled, the rest having died from disease or conflict.
But by far the most infamous stage of the conflict was the establishment by Lt. Gov. George Arthur (a military Colonel as we will see in the next photograph), of the "Black Line". We saw yesterday how Jorgen Jorgenson was a part of this, and it led to the capture and deaths of many indigenous people. The purpose was simple. To eradicate any opposition and clear the lands. No wonder many of the Scottish highlander free settlers in Ross were sympathetic to the Aboriginal cause, their history told them all about land clearances.
A large black bear (Kermode bear, black phase) uses a large moss-covered rock as a dining table for its freshly caught, half-devoured salmon, Riorden Creek, Gribbell Island, British Columbia. (A line of mucus from the fish appears in the lower left).
09/01/2019 www.allenfotowild.com
Kermode bears of the mid and northern BC coast are a subspecies of black bears with a recessive gene makes them cream colour or white. They're often called spirit bears.
Mama bear left baby bear to itself close to us to baby sit while she went to work.
Great Bear Rainforest, BC, Canada
Had the absolute pleasure of seeing this spirit bear in the Great Bear Rainforest, BC. the Spirit Bear is a recessive gene of the black bear, found in a very small area of the Great Bear.
Today we are going to discuss the opening of the Ross Bridge in 1836. One of the men who was most certainly there was local grazier and prominent political opponent of Lt. Gov. George Arthur, William Kermode. We see him in profile pictured in the photograph two stones along from that lovely life-like dog figure.
Kermode, you will recall if you've been reading this story from the beginning, was instrumental in getting two of the finest convict stonemasons in the colony to come and work on the project: James Colbeck and Daniel Herbert. The portrait of Kermode here by Herbert shows a friendly man, who was tough of mind (certainly politically and business-wise), but tender of heart (he early on took a very strong stand in support of the indigenous people who were ultimately driven from their lands by Gov. Arthur's policy.)
In the next photograph I'll discuss some of the reasons why such a hard line was taken against the native inhabitants of this land.
William Kermode was born on the Isle of Man (this might help explain his independent streak). He was a free settler who came to seek his fortune. The price these settlers paid is that they may not ever see their homeland again, but the benefits were enormous. Free land grants (much more than one could ever dream of owning in Britain) and a chance to build an economic empire from scratch. Land here is the key concept both economically and in relation to the treatment of the Aborigines.
I won't tell you all the complicated details of Kermode's early days in the colony here (he made at least three trips backwards and forwards from England in the early 1820s) as you can read of this yourself: adb.anu.edu.au/biography/kermode-william-2303
But two things are important to note: (1) He "adopted" a young Aboriginal boy who had been orphaned in horrific circumstances: "The boy had been found orphaned in ‘the woods near the River Plenty’, following a clash between soldiers of the 49th Regiment and Tasmanian Aboriginal people in which by one account 17 ‘natives’ were killed. The clash had occurred after European ‘stock-keepers detained and maltreated the wife of a chief’."
(2) From the very beginning he was engaged in clashes with Gov. George Arthur, after receiving land grants of up to 2,000 acres just outside Ross. He called this property "Mona Vale" and he employed a number of convicts. He soon became a great sympathiser for the convict cause and treated his workers with respect.
In 1827 Kermode led the attack on Arthur's restrictions on the press, and Arthur responded by charging him with harbouring "runaway convicts". This charge may well have been true, given Kermode's sympathies.
The establishment of the colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land was a two pronged affair. It satisfied the need for Britain to dispose of her convicts from overflowing prisons after the loss of America in the War of Independence. It also provided enormous expansions in economic prospects. And naturally the convicts filled in for slaves in other societies.
Sheep grazing was recognised as a prime economic option. Wool was required and Australia had the land to provide massive sheep farms. It is often said that early Australia was built on the sheep's back. And that is hardly an exaggeration. But the price of all this was that the people who had been living on this land for millennia would have to go. And that is where we'll take up the discussion in the next photograph...
Just a final word on that lovely dog. Norman Laird discusses some of the symbolism:" In universal mythology, the dog is a symbol of the dawn, pathfinder, destroyer of evil, companion and so on. In a deeper sense he is the symbol of the dead and of resurrection." (p. 119). Perhaps Herbert had all these meanings in mind.
We saw yesterday how I believe he was developing an iconography of renewal, both for individuals and for the colony itself. We can be sure of one thing, both Kermode and Herbert loved dogs and believed them to be loyal companions. A dog won't betray you the way a politician will.
St. Elmo Rooms mural at 429 Campbell Avenue in Vancouver's Strathcona neighbourhood.
The mural by artist Leslie Phelan was painted in 2023 in the hope of deterring graffiti vandals.
The mural features stylized renditions of the North Shore mountains, Burrard Inlet, a sailboat, orcas, cypress trees, the white Kermode spirit bear and the Lions Gate Bridge.
The building was designed and constructed in 1911 by Campbell and Dawson. It was an inexpensive investment at $8,500.
2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics Logo - Inukshuk !?X !!?? … Made by Inuit from a single piece of local stone found in the Arctic !?!? We have so many symbols of Vancouver and BC but NO we had to borrow something from the Arctic. How many Inuits live in Vancouver. One of the factors for this to be logo of the OUR Olympics – kids can draw it easily … so they can draw “Stick Man” as well. I think absolutely perfect symbol would have been “Spirit Bear” - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kermode_bear … but instead we have Inuit “stick man” and mascots that really are more suited to Japanese cartoons www.vancouver2010.com/store-us//catmascot-catmascotpins-p...
Still I like the sculpture , plus it's in a such a perfect spot that it was a truly a pleasure to take few pictures. This was the last image of the early morning trip to Stanley Park and by that time we were done … no more pictures. I will post few more from the park but bit later.
See where this picture was taken, Vancouver 2010 Inukshuk [?]
Gribbell Island, British Columbia, Canada
I'm off to Zambia very shortly so here is a final set of ten Spirit and Black Bear images from our recent trip. The Spirit (Kermode) Bear is a white variant of the Black Bear and extremely rare. It was a real privilege to spend a day in the rain with these wonderful animals.
Undoubtedly the main focus of this trip was the hope of seeing the rare Kermode (Spirit) Bear) so it was with great anticipation that we landed on Gribbell Island, for which we had a two-day permit. The first day yielded no bears so we were understandably anxious that we would also be unlucky on the second. The Spirit Bear is not an albino but a very rare variant of the Black Bear and it is estimated that there are less than 400 left in the wild. They carry a recessive gene from both parents which causes them to be born white. Gribbell Island is managed by the local Gitga’at (a First Nations) clan, who are fiercely protective of this rare and beautiful animal. Imagine our excitement when this elderly lady appeared soon after we had arrived and had started to set up our gear. She is known as Ma’ha and is believed to be over 20 years old. She is a bit arthritic now and consequently prefers to wait for dead or dying salmon rather than to dive headlong into the water and catch herself a live and wriggling one! I can’t tell you how much of a privilege it was to spend this extraordinary day being entertained by this lovely lady and another much younger female (Warrior), and it was breathtaking to be so close to them. Several times they passed so close to us that we could have touched them - knowing we were there but seemingly totally oblivious to our presence. This wonderful day will remain as one of my happiest and most memorable wildlife experiences.
Before our task is finished in Ross we need to get to the bottom of some mysteries. Well, we can only try, because we know so little of Daniel Herbert's formative life (other than his criminal records), that establishing where all this incredible artistry and symbolism came from is next to impossible. But the effort is worthwhile, because any work of art relies on a dialogue between the artist and the viewer. So that's what we're doing here.
There seems to be no doubt that when John Lee Archer drew up the plans for the bridge he did not envisage any decorative work. Function was the order of the day for government projects, especially when speed was of the essence in getting completions. But somehow, between the architect's drawings and the appointment of James Colbeck and Herbert to the bridge project, a grand secret plan was hatched.
There literally has been nothing like it in Australian public construction since. Captain William Turner, the Commandant of Ross (a barracks town), was entrusted with the responsibility of overseeing the project and making sure it was completed on time. Word had got out that Gov. George Arthur's tenure would be up by 1837, and this bridge was to be a grand tribute to his magnificent administration. So his name was to be plastered on both sides of the bridge at the apex of the central arch.
Now the convicts mostly despised the puritanical Arthur. He was devout to a fault, to be sure. An Evangelical Anglican of the most distinctly Calvinistic dogmatic bent. Arthur put up with no nonsense and demanded obedience to God, King William IV (1830-1837), and the colony. But he made enemies, and the major fault line of disagreement can be summed up with one awful phrase, "The Black War".
I've touched on this briefly previously, so I'll put a link below to that reference. But "The Black War" was always a one-sided affair, as the poorly armed and relatively small communities of Aborigines were driven from their lands and all but exterminated by the early 1830s. This terrible period of early colonisation was enabled by Gov. George Arthur's policies, which were always dressed up as social reform, but were carried out with the ferocity of zealots. This article about Arthur is a little too forgiving in my opinion:
www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/A/...
But I say that to point out that a man as sensitive to the plight of all victims of violence as Daniel Herbert was, simply was not going to let an opportunity like this slip by. And so somewhere, somehow a plot was hatched. Colbeck and Herbert were at the centre of it, grazier and aboriginal supporter and political opponent of Arthur's, William Kermode (who instigated getting Colbeck and Herbert for the bridge building roles and is said to have frequently visited the building site to monitor progress), and possibly even Captain William Turner himself.
It was a cunning plan. As long as Herbert could guarantee that the bridge art would not slow down the construction (remember it had to be finished before Arthur left the colony), he would have carte blanche to hide his protest within the decorative patterns of flora and fauna. I think this is the key to Herbert's art.
Most previous interpretations of this art have revolved around the symbolism and grotesque qualities of the figures (Robert Hughes called them "bizarre"). Norman Laird rightly pointed out the links to archetypal psychology and a Jungian interpretation for specific imagery (I'm all for that as a Jungian myself). No doubt he is right that this prefigured many of the future movements of abstract art and even surrealism.
Most people simply looked at the bridge and didn't see! In fact even today, I guarantee most tourists take their photographs and don't pay much attention at all to the detail.
So whilst I am in agreement with much of the Greener and Laird (1971) interpretations of Daniel Herbert's vision/s, I do think the answer lies in the political climate of Van Diemen's Land at the time the bridge was built. And we know a lot more about this today than they did even in the 1960s and 70s.
This photograph (enlarge it and take a close look) illustrates my point. This is the central arch on the north face of the bridge. What do you see?
A crown, a lion's mane and a rodent - look closely, you can even make out the rat's whiskers. Now this is surrounded by panels with pineapples and plants and shapes of many kinds. Perhaps as Laird points out they are indeed taken from Celtic iconography. But my view is simpler than this. They are there to disguise the real message. And that critique goes to the very heart of the British Empire. The Crown itself!
It is unmistakable that Herbert as a signwriter and stonemason must have come into contact with William Blake's work. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Blake
Unique at the time, Blake fused artistic vision (and I mean real "visions") with poetry and disguised political criticism of social injustice. This is so clear in his most popular book of "childlike" poems, "Songs of Innocence and of Experience: Showing Two Contrary States of the Human Soul". (1792).
If Herbert was a convert to Blake's strange "Christian" mysticism (who knows he may even have read Blake in prison awaiting sentence), it would make sense of his changed demeanor after transportation. A young man who had been pushed around by authority most of his early life, would now take a stand. But not by using violence to fight violence (that would guarantee you a place on the gallows). No, like Blake, Herbert would take on the "demonic" forces through symbolic assassination.
And so the British Crown sits atop the mane of a British lion, but its face is unmistakably that of a rat. Prophet 1 - Empire 0.
I just loved the color of this meadow near Langness, Isle of Man. The normally bright yellow “Cushag” had died off and turned brown and the grass turned to hay. “Cushag” is commonly known elsewhere as Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea) and is toxic to livestock. It is however embraced by some as the unofficial flower of the Isle of Man and features in a lovely poem by Josephine Kermode;
Now, the Cushag, we know,
Must never grow,
Where the farmer's work is done.
But along the rills,
In the heart of the hills,
The Cushag may shine like the sun.
Where the golden flowers,
Have fairy powers,
To gladden our hearts with their grace.
And in Vannin Veg Veen,
In the valleys green,
The Cushags have still a place.
The façade of the Adelaide Fruit and Produce Exchange, within Grenfell, Rundle, Union streets and East Terrace in Adelaide city’s northeast corner, was South Australian state heritage listed in 1981, preserving the confident aura behind opening the market there in 1904.
Adelaide gained confidence from a new sense of independence fostered by Australian federation in 1901. The fruit and produce exchange façade expressed that confidence in robust ornament, including the symbolic cornucopia and bold rhythmic massing created by arched entrances, picked out by cantilevered gabled canopies. The exchange’s moral virtue was expressed by an inscription on Grenfell Street: “The Earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof' (Psalm 24:1)”.
Henry Cowell was the architect for a complex that was thoroughly evocative of market activities at the turn of the century and the scale of development that could be achieved by private initiative. The exchange was part of optimistic, if conservative, growth in Adelaide between the 1890s depression and World War I.
Adelaide Fruit and Produce Exchange was another in a line of early markets around Adelaide city, with surveyor general William Light putting a market site in his plan at the western end of Franklin Street. This was too far from the city's early commercial areas and a cattle market was created opposite the old Newmarket Hotel off North Terrace in about 1847.
Another market, designed by George Strickland Kingston for the South Australian Company in 1840, sold garden produce and other commodities at the corner of Rundle Street and Gawler Place. Several stockyards and livestock markets were scattered about, most close to the main trading areas such as Hindley and Rundle streets and Kermode Street, North Adelaide.
From 1841 to the 1850s, the corporation acre set aside for a town hall in King William Street was used as a market. Richard Vaughan started the original East End Market and Adelaide city corporation formed the Central Market in 1869. Vaughan roofed the East End Market in 1866 and enlarged it in 1869. By the 1890s competition for stalls from a growing gardening trade saw an overflow of traders onto to the streets. I
n about 1900, William Charlick, a proprietor of Charlick Brothers (a large fruit, potato and grocery business) decided to “remedy the evils” by buying land near the old market, between Rundle and Grenfell streets, to build an extension. Negotiations with the East End Market Company failed, so Charlick decided to establish a “new, up-to-date market”, putting his plans to investors and Adelaide city corporation, who promised their support.
The Adelaide Fruit and Produce Exchange opened in 1904, with the Cyclopedia of South Australia reported in glowing terms on the new market’s four acres, with £52,300 being spent. It had “390 stands for s-vehicles and teams, 20 large packing stores, 16 shops, 11 small stores, 10 side stores, refreshment room, and shoeing-forge”. The market was described as the best in Australia: “lofty, well ventilated, side roads, no obstacles, automatically drained, and kept wonderfully clean”.
In 1987, proposals to move the market in 1988 set off controversy concerning its future use. The scheme of development proposed retaining the street frontages of the market buildings with apartments built within. The façade had few alterations, with detailing to arches, gablets and even ground floor shop fronts still original. The heritage assessment noted there were few complexes of this size and originality remaining in capital cities: The exchange façade “also makes a major contribution to the character of this locality and exemplifies the best traditions of well-mannered street architecture”.
*Information from the Heritage of the City of Adelaide: An Illustrated Guide (1996).
Sony A7RII with Zeiss Loxia 21mm f/2.8. Panorama assembled from 3 photos taken hand held.
This is the day I have been planning for several weeks: a visit to the Grizzly Bear country - the Great Bear Rainforest - in Northern British Columbia. We are using a coast guard type of high speed boat to get there from the North of Vancouver Island.
After 1 hour we are going inside the Knight Inlet. Knight Inlet is one of the longest on the BC Coast at 125 kilometres in length; it is about 2.5 km in average width. Another 1.5 hour and we will arrive at Glendale Cove, the place where the "Tide Rip Grizzly adventures" company is taking me and another 11 persons.
If interested, consult their website at: grizzlycanada.com/
More infos on the Great Bear Rainforest - Source wikipedia:
The Great Bear Rainforest (also known as the Central and North Coast forest) is a temperate rain forest on the Pacific coast of British Columbia, Canada. Originally a name coined by environmental groups in the mid-1990s, it is a 6.4 million hectare area along British Columbia’s north and central coast. It is part of the larger Pacific temperate rain forest ecoregion, which is the largest coastal temperate rainforest in the world.
The Great Bear Rainforest was officially recognized by the Government of British Columbia in February 2016, when it announced an agreement to permanently protect 85% of the old-growth forested area from industrial logging. On February 1, 2016, Premier Christy Clark announced an agreement had been reached between the province of British Columbia, First Nations, environmentalists and the forestry industry to protect 85% of the 6.4 million hectare Great Bear Rainforest from industrial logging. The forest features 1,000-year-old western red cedar and 90-metre Sitka spruce.
The Great Bear Rainforest extends from the Discovery Islands in the south to the BC-Alaska boundary in the north. It includes all offshore islands within this range except Vancouver Island and the archipelago of Haida Gwaii.
The Great Bear Rainforest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unspoiled temperate rainforest left in the world. The area is home to species such as cougars, wolves, salmon, grizzly bears, and the Kermode ("spirit") bear, a unique subspecies of the black bear, in which one in ten cubs displays a recessive white coloured coat.
There are approximately 15,000 Grizzly bears in British Columbia; this is about a quarter of the entire North American population!
This is Boss, one of the Kermode Spirit bears protected by the Gitga'at First Nation. Thank you to Marven Robinson for allowing us to spend hours with your bears.
A beautiful spirit bear (ghost bear, Ursus americanus kermodei) comes out off the woods at the edge of a salmon river on Gribbell Island to eat the nutrition-rich salmon that sustain it throughout its winter hibernation. Gribbell is one of small number of islands in the Hartley Bear area that host this rare genetic variation of the black bear. The white colour is due to a double recessive gene unique in the subspecies and the bear is considered sacred to the Gitga'at and Kitasoo First Nations bands that live in the area.
We were guests of the Gitga'at people of Hartley Bay and their 'bear whisperer' Marven Robinson. He has made a life time work of getting to know and protect this rare wild bear species, and he trains young members of the band to help him in this special work. This is a young bear that they have named 'Warrior' for the scar on its nose.
16/10/2017 www.allenfotowild.com
It was fun to watch the Kermode bears (spirit bears, a rare white genetic variant of black bears) fishing for salmon in a creek on Gribbell Island, on north coastal British Columbia. They can only be seen in a very small area of the BC coast and occur nowhere else in the world. The bears gorge during the fall when the salmon swim up the streams to spawn and this guy had just missed catching a salmon that was swimming by.
17/12/2018 www.allenfotowild.com
Halifax Street, Adelaide
The Rob Roy Hotel consists of two separate buildings - one of whitewashed brick which dates from before 1853 and the other which was built in 1881 to the design of English and Soward, constructed from local sandstone, with a balcony and cast iron balustrade.
The Rob Roy was first licensed in 1840 and has been trading continuously to the present day which makes it significant as one of Adelaide's oldest trading pubs. It is also quite unusual for the older whitewashed brick building to have survived, particularly given the 1881 redevelopment when it was customary to totally redevelop a site. Only a handful of buildings from the first two decades of the colony exist. Comparable examples of early Adelaide pubs include the Queen's Head in Kermode Street, Prince Albert Hotel in Wright Street and the former Beresford Arms in Gilles Street.
For ucumari.
The Kermode bear, also known as the spirit bear or ghost bear, is a subspecies of the black bear living in the central coast of British Columbia. Because of their ghost-like appearance, spirit bears hold a prominent place in the Native American mythology of the area. The kermodei subspecies ranges from Princess Royal Island to Prince Rupert Island on the coast, and inland toward Hazelton, British Columbia.
: Wikipedia
(4 Photos.)
This is a Spirit Bear in the vicinity of Hartley Bay, British Columbia.
Our native guide, Marven Robinson, says that this bear is named Strawberry, due to her coloring (I guess?).
Anyway, she has strolled down the shoreline (feasting on Salmon carcasses) and is now starting to head up a small river to fish for spawning Salmon, or simply for more recent Salmon carcasses, as her mood suits her.
We were asked to not give specific locations of the Spirit Bears which were shown to us by Marven and we will respect that request.
However, if you'd like a view of what experiencing the bears was like back in 2016, there is a very nice little book that tells you much more about the Spirit Bear viewing experience that is available on Amazon and which has an accompanying SmugMug website that shows pics and videos of Spirit Bears in action.
I bought a copy of the book ("Spirit Bear Hartley Bay") after we returned from our recent trip and it's very illuminating with regards to what it was like to interact with the Spirit Bears a decade ago.
It's changed a bit since then, not for the worse nor the better, but it has changed, as the Bears that were around a decade ago have moved on and the younger Bears are not quite as habituated to visiting photographers as the old Bears were. I'm told that the years that this trip was not offered (during the Covid pandemic) may have caused a slight regression in the "tame-ness or habituation" of both the Black and White Kermode Bears towards people.
There is an online copy of Spirit Bear Hartley Bay at this link.
We were asked to not give specific locations of the Spirit Bears which were shown to us by our native guide (Marven Robinson) and we will respect that request.
However, if you'd like a view of what experiencing the bears was like back in 2016, there is a very nice little book that tells you much more about the Spirit Bear viewing experience that is available on Amazon and which has an accompanying SmugMug website that shows pics and videos of Spirit Bears in action.
I bought a copy of the book ("Spirit Bear Hartley Bay") after we returned from our recent trip and it's very illuminating with regards to what it was like to interact with the Spirit Bears a decade ago.
It's changed a bit since then, not for the worse nor the better, but it has changed, as the Bears that were around a decade ago have moved on and the younger Bears are not quite as habituated to visiting photographers as the old Bears were. I'm told that the years that this trip was not offered (during the Covid pandemic) may have caused a slight regression in the "tame-ness or habituation" of both the Black and White Kermode Bears towards people.
There is an online copy of Spirit Bear Hartley Bay at this link.
We like this pic because it shows Strawberry against the pink and purple, Barnacle and Mussel encrusted, shoreline rocks at low tide. In this area, the height of the water on this shoreline can often vary by over 15 feet.
We were asked to not give specific locations of the Spirit Bears which were shown to us by our native guide (Marven Robinson) and we will respect that request.
However, if you'd like a view of what experiencing the bears was like back in 2016, there is a very nice little book that tells you much more about the Spirit Bear viewing experience that is available on Amazon and which has an accompanying SmugMug website that shows pics and videos of Spirit Bears in action.
I bought a copy of the book ("Spirit Bear Hartley Bay") after we returned from our recent trip and it's very illuminating with regards to what it was like to interact with the Spirit Bears a decade ago.
It's changed a bit since then, not for the worse nor the better, but it has changed, as the Bears that were around a decade ago have moved on and the younger Bears are not quite as habituated to visiting photographers as the old Bears were. I'm told that the years that this trip was not offered (during the Covid pandemic) may have caused a slight regression in the "tame-ness or habituation" of both the Black and White Kermode Bears towards people.
There is an online copy of Spirit Bear Hartley Bay at this link.