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As you enter the castle at Heidelberg in Germany, you'll be treated to this scene looking over the edge of a walkway. Such a beautiful place with a history going back a very long time.
Looking at the wooden canopy over the Books of Remembrance in the Kellog Bay on the north side of the nave of the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.
The canopy was originally part of the tomb of Woodrow Wilson. Wilson died on February 3, 1924, almost three years after his second term as president ended. He was buried in a private service (per his wishes; there was no state funeral) on February 6, 1924, at the Washington National Cathedral.
Wilson's body was interred in the burial vault beneath the Bethlehem Chapel -- the only part of the cathedral constructed at that time. There are eight vaults below the chapel, four to the east and four to the west. Each vault has an upper and lower shelf. Wilson's coffin was placed on the upper shelf of the southwesternmost vault (above the body of Henry Vaughn, first architect of the cathedral). A concrete slab five inches thick, topped by a three inch thick of Alabama marble, sealed the crypt.
Directly above the body, in the chapel, was a marble sill or seat. A glass window allowed someone sitting on the sill to see out into the south corridor of the crypt level. This sill was removed, and a marble slab inscribed with Wilson's name and his date of birth and dead installed. Constantly banked with flowers, this was the "tomb" of Woodrow Wilson.
Hundreds of people visited the tomb every day. In the first year alone, more than 189,425 people had visited the chapel to see where Wilson was buried.
It quickly became apparent that a larger memorial was needed. By May or June 1924, Mrs. Edith Wilson was consulting architects and designers about a larger tomb. The architectural firm of Cram & Ferguson designed a cenotaph (empty tomb) in the shape of a sarcophagus. The Wilson family chose a crusader's sword as the only emblem to be worked into the concave lid of the cenotaph, with only Wilson's name, date of birth, and date of death inscribed into the lid. The sides of the cenotaph were plainly decorated with plinths. The cenotaph was carved in Boston, and cenotaph was quietly emplace without fanfare in November 1924.
Above the cenotaph was a richly carved wooden canopy. The words "I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord" were carved into the front of the canopy, and its major design elements incorporated thistles (a nod to Wilson's Scottish heritage). A black wrought-iron grille sealed off the cenotaph from the public.
In 1951, Wilson's grandson, Francis B. Sayre, Jr., was named Dean of the National Cathedral. Sayre's goal was to complete the cathedral, whose construction had stalled for decades. By 1956, the walls of the nave had gone up and been roofed over. Since Wilson's entombment at the cathedral, the plan had been to move his body into a sarcophagus in the nave. Sayre, Mrs. Wilson, and Wilson's surviving daughter, Eleanor, chose a bay on the south side of the nave about halfway between the crossing and the narthex. Sayre himself designed the tomb, consulting with Cram & Ferguson. The cenotaph was moved from the Bethlehem Chapel to the center of the arch facing the nave. The sarcophagus now faced inward toward the bay. New ends for the sarcophagus were fabricated to fit with the low wall helping to seal off the bay from the nave. The the cenotaph's original outward face and the lid were reused. A new back of the sarcophagus also had to be constructed. This surface, which faced the nave, contained the coat of arms of the six colleges Wilson had attended.
Two niches to the right and left of the bay were also used. The Wilson family chose four inscriptions typical of Wilson's views: To the east were quotations from his first inaugural address and his "War Message" to Congress; to the west were quotations from his submissal of the Treaty of Versailles to Congress, and his final published words.
Hungarian refugee Erwin Bessanyi designed the lancet windows in the bay, which are meditations on the theme of "Peace." A two foot wide bronze medallion depicting the Great Seal of the President of the United States was laid into the floor of the bay. Originally, three
historic flags stood in the niches to either side of the bay: the U.S. flag carried by the first detachment of troops to reach London in 1917, and the U.S. flags presented to Wilson at his inaugurals in 1913 and 1917.
The new sarcophagus cost $150,000, paid for by the Wilson family and admirers of the ex-president.
The Wilson Bay was dedicated on November 11, 1956 -- the 100th anniversary of Woodrow Wilson's birth. His body was moved from the burial vault to the new sarcophagus. His good friend, Bernard Baruch, was the keynote speaker at the event. Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt read from "Pilgrim's Progress."
Today, the Wilson Bay is almost unchanged. However, the flags have been replaced with modern nylon flags. The three flags now depict the current flag of the United States, the Presidential Flag of the United States (which depicts the Great Seal of the President on a blue background), and the flag of Princeton University.
The Birds....!!
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Desert View Watchtower Level 2 murals before the start of conservation work, July 23, 2015. NPS Photo by Michael Quinn
Grand Canyon National Park is working with area tribes and art experts to restore the Fred Kabotie murals and the rock art images, painted by Fred Geary, which have been damaged by water. The first phase of the project is being funded through a grant from American Express obtained by Grand Canyon Association.This grant will help with the evaluation, documentation and testing process that is a critical component of all historic preservation projects. The park intends to preserve the murals while remaining true to Mary Colter’s design. Over the next year, a conservation specialist will analyze and restore the murals with the help of students participating in an intern training program.
On January 1, 2015, the Watchtower was purchased from the concessionaire managing it and designated a National Park Service building. NPS plans to return the Watchtower to its intended purpose, as a tribute to the Native American tribes who have cultural ties to Grand Canyon. The park is moving forward with plans to restore the tower to reflect Mary Colter’s original vision for the building.Visitors first enter through the large, open Kiva Room. Until recently, this room was filled to capacity with a large gift shop. The gift shop has since been removed from the rotunda and reduced to a much smaller footprint. The new Grand Canyon Association Park Store fits into the original space Colter envisioned for a gift shop: a corner off to the side of the rotunda. All the proceeds support the park.
Originally the Watchtower was designed as a space where visitors could see Native American craft demonstrations by weavers and basket makers. The park will bring Native American artists back into the space to share tribal traditions, dances, songs, skills, art and oral histories with the public. The park is also considering turning the old Desert View visitor center into a Native American cultural center.The transformation of the Watchtower back to its original intent is already proving to be a dramatic experience for visitors and park staff.
Costa Rica (/ˌkɒstə ˈriːkə/ (About this sound listen); Spanish: [ˈkosta ˈrika]; "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica (Spanish: República de Costa Rica), is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Ecuador to the south of Cocos Island. It has a population of around 4.9 million, in a land area of 51,060 square kilometers; over 300,000 live in the capital and largest city, San José, which had a population of an estimated 333,980 in 2015.
Costa Rica has been known for its stable democracy, in a region that has had some instability, and for its highly educated workforce, most of whom speak English. The country spends roughly 6.9% of its budget (2016) on education, compared to a global average of 4.4%. Its economy, once heavily dependent on agriculture, has diversified to include sectors such as finance, corporate services for foreign companies, pharmaceuticals, and ecotourism. Many foreign companies (manufacturing and services) operate in Costa Rica's free trade zones (FTZ) where they benefit from investment and tax incentives.
In spite of impressive growth in the Gross domestic product (GDP), low inflation, moderate interest rates and an acceptable unemployment level, Costa Rica in 2017 was facing a liquidity crisis due to a growing debt and budget deficit. By August 2017, the Treasury was having difficulty paying its obligations. Other challenges facing the country in its attempts to improve the economy by increasing foreign investment include a poor infrastructure and a need to improve public sector efficiency.
Costa Rica was sparsely inhabited by indigenous peoples before coming under Spanish rule in the 16th century. It remained a peripheral colony of the empire until independence as part of the short-lived First Mexican Empire, followed by membership in the United Provinces of Central America, from which it formally declared independence in 1847. Since then, Costa Rica has remained among the most stable, prosperous, and progressive nations in Latin America. Following the brief Costa Rican Civil War, it permanently abolished its army in 1949, becoming one of only a few sovereign nations without a standing army.
The country has consistently performed favourably in the Human Development Index (HDI), placing 69th in the world as of 2015, among the highest of any Latin American nation. It has also been cited by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as having attained much higher human development than other countries at the same income levels, with a better record on human development and inequality than the median of the region.
Costa Rica also has progressive environmental policies. It is the only country to meet all five UNDP criteria established to measure environmental sustainability. It was ranked 42nd in the world, and third in the Americas, in the 2016 Environmental Performance Index, and was twice ranked the best performing country in the New Economics Foundation's (NEF) Happy Planet Index, which measures environmental sustainability, and was identified by the NEF as the greenest country in the world in 2009. Costa Rica plans to become a carbon-neutral country by 2021. By 2016, 98.1% of its electricity was generated from green sources particularly hydro, solar, geothermal and biomass.
HISTORY
PRE-COLUMBIAN PERIOD
Historians have classified the indigenous people of Costa Rica as belonging to the Intermediate Area, where the peripheries of the Mesoamerican and Andean native cultures overlapped. More recently, pre-Columbian Costa Rica has also been described as part of the Isthmo-Colombian Area.
Stone tools, the oldest evidence of human occupation in Costa Rica, are associated with the arrival of various groups of hunter-gatherers about 10,000 to 7,000 years BCE in the Turrialba Valley. The presence of Clovis culture type spearheads and arrows from South America opens the possibility that, in this area, two different cultures coexisted.
Agriculture became evident in the populations that lived in Costa Rica about 5,000 years ago. They mainly grew tubers and roots. For the first and second millennia BCE there were already settled farming communities. These were small and scattered, although the timing of the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture as the main livelihood in the territory is still unknown.
The earliest use of pottery appears around 2,000 to 3,000 BCE. Shards of pots, cylindrical vases, platters, gourds and other forms of vases decorated with grooves, prints, and some modelled after animals have been found.
The impact of indigenous peoples on modern Costa Rican culture has been relatively small compared to other nations, since the country lacked a strong native civilization to begin with. Most of the native population was absorbed into the Spanish-speaking colonial society through inter-marriage, except for some small remnants, the most significant of which are the Bribri and Boruca tribes who still inhabit the mountains of the Cordillera de Talamanca, in the southeastern part of Costa Rica, near the frontier with Panama.
SPANISH COLONIZATION
The name la costa rica, meaning "rich coast" in the Spanish language, was in some accounts first applied by Christopher Columbus, who sailed to the eastern shores of Costa Rica during his final voyage in 1502, and reported vast quantities of gold jewelry worn by natives. The name may also have come from conquistador Gil González Dávila, who landed on the west coast in 1522, encountered natives, and appropriated some of their gold.
During most of the colonial period, Costa Rica was the southernmost province of the Captaincy General of Guatemala, nominally part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. In practice, the captaincy general was a largely autonomous entity within the Spanish Empire. Costa Rica's distance from the capital of the captaincy in Guatemala, its legal prohibition under Spanish law from trade with its southern neighbor Panama, then part of the Viceroyalty of New Granada (i.e. Colombia), and lack of resources such as gold and silver, made Costa Rica into a poor, isolated, and sparsely-inhabited region within the Spanish Empire. Costa Rica was described as "the poorest and most miserable Spanish colony in all America" by a Spanish governor in 1719.
Another important factor behind Costa Rica's poverty was the lack of a significant indigenous population available for encomienda (forced labor), which meant most of the Costa Rican settlers had to work on their own land, preventing the establishment of large haciendas (plantations). For all these reasons, Costa Rica was, by and large, unappreciated and overlooked by the Spanish Crown and left to develop on its own. The circumstances during this period are believed to have led to many of the idiosyncrasies for which Costa Rica has become known, while concomitantly setting the stage for Costa Rica's development as a more egalitarian society than the rest of its neighbors. Costa Rica became a "rural democracy" with no oppressed mestizo or indigenous class. It was not long before Spanish settlers turned to the hills, where they found rich volcanic soil and a milder climate than that of the lowlands.
INDEPENDENCE
Like the rest of Central America, Costa Rica never fought for independence from Spain. On September 15, 1821, after the final Spanish defeat in the Mexican War of Independence (1810–21), the authorities in Guatemala declared the independence of all of Central America. That date is still celebrated as Independence Day in Costa Rica even though, technically, under the Spanish Constitution of 1812 that had been readopted in 1820, Nicaragua and Costa Rica had become an autonomous province with its capital in León.
Upon independence, Costa Rican authorities faced the issue of officially deciding the future of the country. Two bands formed, the Imperialists, defended by Cartago and Heredia cities which were in favor of joining the Mexican Empire, and the Republicans, represented by the cities of San José and Alajuela who defended full independence. Because of the lack of agreement on these two possible outcomes, the first civil war of Costa Rica occurred. The battle of Ochomogo (es) took place on the Hill of Ochomogo, located in the Central Valley in 1823. The conflict was won by the Republicans and, as a consequence, the city of Cartago lost its status as the capital, which moved to San José.
In 1838, long after the Federal Republic of Central America ceased to function in practice, Costa Rica formally withdrew and proclaimed itself sovereign. The considerable distance and poor communication routes between Guatemala City and the Central Plateau, where most of the Costa Rican population lived then and still lives now, meant the local population had little allegiance to the federal government in Guatemala. From colonial times to now, Costa Rica's reluctance to become economically tied with the rest of Central America has been a major obstacle to efforts for greater regional integration.
ECONOMIC GROWTH IN THE 19TH CENTURY
Coffee was first planted in Costa Rica in 1808, and by the 1820s, it surpassed tobacco, sugar, and cacao as a primary export. Coffee production remained Costa Rica's principal source of wealth well into the 20th century, creating a wealthy class of growers, the so-called Coffee Barons. The revenue helped to modernize the country.
Most of the coffee exported was grown around the main centers of population in the Central Plateau and then transported by oxcart to the Pacific port of Puntarenas after the main road was built in 1846. By the mid-1850s the main market for coffee was Britain. It soon became a high priority to develop an effective transportation route from the Central Plateau to the Atlantic Ocean. For this purpose, in the 1870s, the Costa Rican government contracted with U.S. businessman Minor C. Keith to build a railroad from San José to the Caribbean port of Limón. Despite enormous difficulties with construction, disease, and financing, the railroad was completed in 1890.
Most Afro-Costa Ricans descend from Jamaican immigrants who worked in the construction of that railway and now make up about 3% of Costa Rica's population. U.S. convicts, Italians and Chinese immigrants also participated in the construction project. In exchange for completing the railroad, the Costa Rican government granted Keith large tracts of land and a lease on the train route, which he used to produce bananas and export them to the United States. As a result, bananas came to rival coffee as the principal Costa Rican export, while foreign-owned corporations (including the United Fruit Company later) began to hold a major role in the national economy and eventually became a symbol of the exploitative export economy. The major labor dispute between the peasants and the United Fruit Company (The Great Banana Strike) was a major event in the country's history and was an important step that would eventually lead to the formation of effective trade unions in Costa Rica, as the company was required to sign a collective agreement with its workers in 1938.
20TH CENTURY
Historically, Costa Rica has generally enjoyed greater peace and more consistent political stability than many of its fellow Latin American nations. Since the late 19th century, however, Costa Rica has experienced two significant periods of violence. In 1917–19, General Federico Tinoco Granados ruled as a military dictator until he was overthrown and forced into exile. The unpopularity of Tinoco's regime led, after he was overthrown, to a considerable decline in the size, wealth, and political influence of the Costa Rican military. In 1948, José Figueres Ferrer led an armed uprising in the wake of a disputed presidential election between Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia (who had been president between 1940 and 1944) and Otilio Ulate Blanco. With more than 2,000 dead, the resulting 44-day Costa Rican Civil War was the bloodiest event in Costa Rica during the 20th century.
The victorious rebels formed a government junta that abolished the military altogether, and oversaw the drafting of a new constitution by a democratically elected assembly. Having enacted these reforms, the junta transferred power to Ulate on November 8, 1949. After the coup d'état, Figueres became a national hero, winning the country's first democratic election under the new constitution in 1953. Since then, Costa Rica has held 14 presidential elections, the latest in 2014. With uninterrupted democracy dating back to at least 1948, the country is the region's most stable.
GEOGRAPHY
Costa Rica is located on the Central American isthmus, lying between latitudes 8° and 12°N, and longitudes 82° and 86°W. It borders the Caribbean Sea (to the east) and the Pacific Ocean (to the west), with a total of 1,290 kilometres of coastline, 212 km on the Caribbean coast and 1,016 km on the Pacific. Costa Rica also borders Nicaragua to the north (309 km of border) and Panama to the south-southeast (330 km of border). In total, Costa Rica comprises 51,100 square kilometres plus 589 square kilometres of territorial waters.
The highest point in the country is Cerro Chirripó, at 3,819 metres; it is the fifth highest peak in Central America. The highest volcano in the country is the Irazú Volcano (3,431 m) and the largest lake is Lake Arenal. There are 14 known volcanoes in Costa Rica, and six of them have been active in the last 75 years. The country has also experienced at least ten earthquakes of magnitude 5.7 or higher (3 of magnitude 7.0 or higher) in the last century.
Costa Rica also comprises several islands. Cocos Island (24 square kilometres) stands out because of its distance from the continental landmass, 480 kilometres from Puntarenas, but Isla Calero is the largest island of the country (151.6 square kilometres). Over 25% of Costa Rica's national territory is protected by SINAC (the National System of Conservation Areas), which oversees all of the country's protected areas. Costa Rica also possesses the greatest density of species in the world.
CLIMATE
Because Costa Rica is located between 8 and 12 degrees north of the Equator, the climate is tropical year round. However, the country has many microclimates depending on elevation, rainfall, topography, and by the geography of each particular region.
Costa Rica's seasons are defined by how much rain falls during a particular period. The year can be split into two periods, the dry season known to the residents as summer (verano), and the rainy season, known locally as winter (invierno). The "summer" or dry season goes from December to April, and "winter" or rainy season goes from May to November, which almost coincides with the Atlantic hurricane season, and during this time, it rains constantly in some regions.
The location receiving the most rain is the Caribbean slopes of the Cordillera Central mountains, with an annual rainfall of over 5,000 mm. Humidity is also higher on the Caribbean side than on the Pacific side. The mean annual temperature on the coastal lowlands is around 27 °C, 20 °C in the main populated areas of the Cordillera Central, and below 10 °C on the summits of the highest mountains.
FLORA AND FAUNA
Costa Rica is home to a rich variety of plants and animals. While the country has only about 0.03% of the world's landmass, it contains 5% of the world's biodiversity. Around 25% of the country's land area is in protected national parks and protected areas, the largest percentage of protected areas in the world (developing world average 13%, developed world average 8%). Costa Rica has successfully managed to diminish deforestation from some of the worst rates in the world from 1973 to 1989, to almost zero by 2005.
One national park, the Corcovado National Park, is internationally renowned among ecologists for its biodiversity (including big cats and tapirs) and is where visitors can expect to see an abundance of wildlife. Corcovado is the one park in Costa Rica where all four Costa Rican monkey species can be found. These include the white-headed capuchin, the mantled howler, the endangered Geoffroy's spider monkey, and the Central American squirrel monkey, found only on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica and a small part of Panama, and considered endangered until 2008, when its status was upgraded to vulnerable. Deforestation, illegal pet-trading, and hunting are the main reasons for its threatened status.
Tortuguero National Park – the name Tortuguero can be translated as "Full of Turtles" – is home to spider, howler, and white-throated capuchin monkeys; the three-toed sloth and two-toed sloth; 320 species of birds; and a variety of reptiles. The park is recognized for the annual nesting of the endangered green turtle, and is the most important nesting site for the species. Giant leatherback, hawksbill, and loggerhead turtles also nest there. The Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve is home to about 2,000 plant species, including numerous orchids. Over 400 types of birds and more than 100 species of mammals can be found there.
Over 840 species of birds have been identified in Costa Rica. As is the case in much of Central America, the avian species in Costa Rica are a mix of North and South American species. The country's abundant fruit trees, many of which bear fruit year round, are hugely important to the birds, some of whom survive on diets that consist only of one or two types of fruit. Some of the country's most notable avian species include the resplendent quetzal, scarlet macaw, three-wattled bellbird, bare-necked umbrellabird, and the keel-billed toucan. The Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad is allowed to collect royalties on any biological discoveries of medical importance. Costa Rica is a center of biological diversity for reptiles and amphibians, including the world's fastest running lizard, the spiny-tailed iguana (Ctenosaura similis).
WIKIPEDIA
Siding and Front Porch are in progress on this Oceanfront One Level featuring fantastic front-row views.
Mallow to Tralee Railway Line - MP Killarney Junction 46 3/4.
Level Crossing (XT121) in Ballybrack Station, Kerry 4th April 2013.
Level corssing on Geoff William's model of Aylesbury, now in the care of the Princess Risborough model railway club.
Hilton level crossing across Egginton Road between Hilton and Egginton. 11:46, Friday 6th May 1988
(1/125, F8/11)
Hilton Crossing Ground Frame is a Torton Nomad portable building located by the Down Stoke line equipped with a 1 lever London & North Western Railway SK80 frame and an individual function switch which was opened as a non block post by British Railways on 20th November 1977, replacing a mid 1930s London & North Western Railway hut located on the opposite side of the level crossing. The lever was moved from the outside the previous hut and is electrically released by Egginton Junction signal box. The individual function switch controls emergency replacement switch for Egginton Junction signal box 10 and 12 signals
Ref no 08371
Tweaked with levels in Photoshop to get the high saturation/vignette look.
Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture: f/4
Focal Length: 22 mm
ISO Speed: 400
© All Rights Reserved
View of the South and South-West oriented facades on the garden side with the dining room terrace above the basement level and the kitchen and servants' quarters on the left
Villa Tugendhat (1928-1930)
Černopolní 45
613 00 Brno (Černá Pole)
Czech Republic
The landscape that is so important to the architecture of the villa, is the hillside expanse between Villa Tugendhat and Villa Löw-Beer, Grete’s Belle-Epoque/Art-Nouveau family home, bought around 1913 by her father, textile entrepreneur Alfred Löw-Beer. The Löw-Beer mansion is now part of the regional Brno museum.
The land was originally an orchard sloping down towards Grete’s parents’ house from the street above. Mies designed the garden for the new villa in cooperation with Brno landscape architect Grete Müller-Roder aka Markéta Roderova-Müllerová.
They used the idea of “emphasized emptiness” for the layout; large expanses of grass spaces with isolated vegetation. Mostly a meadow, the most prominent feature is the large grassed field. The paths make up a circular trail that eventually link both villas.
Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (° March 27, 1886, Aachen, Germany - Died: August 17, 1969, Chicago, Illinois, United States)
Project architect Sergius Ruegenberg ( 17 January 1903, Saint Petersburg, Russia - 23 March 1996, Berlin, Germany)
Interior architect & designer Lilly Reich (DEU, Berlin, June 16, 1885 - December 14, 1947).
Note: Lilly Reich was to Mies very much what Charlotte Perriand was for Le Corbusier: the principal designer of their iconic furniture, that was for far too long only attributed to the men.
for the floor plans see "iBSSR who loves comments on his images"'s photostream: www.flickr.com/photos/55176801@N02/11502211296/in/photost...
www.flickr.com/photos/55176801@N02/11502142065/in/photost...
Go see this blog showing some great period photos : for the interior : www.tresbohemes.com/2015/11/the-interior-design-of-villa-...
for the exterior : www.tresbohemes.com/2015/11/villa-tugendhat-exterior-and-...
Another highly entertaining blog is The Wood house on Villa Tugendhat
© picture by Mark Larmuseau
Take a look at my Villa Tugendhat book on Issuu.com and leave a comment if you've appreciated it!
An unidentified Class 47/4 heads a down mixed freight, comprising of verious coal wagons/hoppers and some engineers stock, across the Bleadon Level, in Somerset, Photo taken from the overbridge carrying Accommodation Road near Purn Hill sometime during late July-early August 1981. The large brick overbridge above the Class 47 carries Bleadon Hill road over the railway, just north if the site of Bleadon and Uphill station.
My first plot of Endor ground - mere 6 baseplates. Building a realistic forest plates requires crazy numbers of green elements, but also lots and lots of 'filling' - bricks of insignificant color or shape. I never expected I would find a good use for kilograms of dirt-cheap, dirty and scratched second-hand bricks I had bought couple of years ago :) . But guess what - now I need more.
4M34 04.26 Coatbridge - Daventry liner hauled by DRS Class 66 Co-Co no. 66412.
9th March 2010
Shot with the little FinePix E550
Desert View Watchtower Level 2 murals before the start of conservation work, July 23, 2015. NPS Photo by Michael Quinn
Grand Canyon National Park is working with area tribes and art experts to restore the Fred Kabotie murals and the rock art images, painted by Fred Geary, which have been damaged by water. The first phase of the project is being funded through a grant from American Express obtained by Grand Canyon Association.This grant will help with the evaluation, documentation and testing process that is a critical component of all historic preservation projects. The park intends to preserve the murals while remaining true to Mary Colter’s design. Over the next year, a conservation specialist will analyze and restore the murals with the help of students participating in an intern training program.
On January 1, 2015, the Watchtower was purchased from the concessionaire managing it and designated a National Park Service building. NPS plans to return the Watchtower to its intended purpose, as a tribute to the Native American tribes who have cultural ties to Grand Canyon. The park is moving forward with plans to restore the tower to reflect Mary Colter’s original vision for the building.Visitors first enter through the large, open Kiva Room. Until recently, this room was filled to capacity with a large gift shop. The gift shop has since been removed from the rotunda and reduced to a much smaller footprint. The new Grand Canyon Association Park Store fits into the original space Colter envisioned for a gift shop: a corner off to the side of the rotunda. All the proceeds support the park.
Originally the Watchtower was designed as a space where visitors could see Native American craft demonstrations by weavers and basket makers. The park will bring Native American artists back into the space to share tribal traditions, dances, songs, skills, art and oral histories with the public. The park is also considering turning the old Desert View visitor center into a Native American cultural center.The transformation of the Watchtower back to its original intent is already proving to be a dramatic experience for visitors and park staff.
1st December 2014 - OECD High-Level Policy Forum on Migration 2014. Family photo. OECD, Paris, France.
For more information, visit: www.oecd.org/migration-forum/
Photo: OECD/Julien Daniel
An enjoyable day on the undergrad sea level field trip. Somehow I ended up with a dog at one point - this is proof it didn't eat me!
Sorry Tasha, this had to beat the Extra Tuffs photo!
07:45 am.......after sitting for 40 minutes waiting for the sun to come up.
The moor is actually a completely frozen flood-plain.
Wake up to an ocean view!
KOHO's One Level Townhomes offer oceanfront living with 2 bedrooms, 2 bath and attached 2-car garage. Enjoy luxe finishes: granite, marble, travertine, maple, oak, hemlock and more.
Garve Level Crossing on the Kyle of Lochalsh Line and A835 trunk road, with red light enforcement cameras, before the crossing was upgraded with the addition of half-barriers.
48/52 for the group 2019 Weekly Alphabet Challenge
This week's theme was: V is for Variable
The river level varies a lot, depending on the rainfall. When it's in flood, all these pebbles will be submerged and the water level will be right to the top of the bank. In a dry spell, the beach will be much bigger with just a channel left for the water.
Bunchrew Level Crossing with automatic half barriers - converted from automatic open crossing (AOCL) to AOCL+B in August 2013.
Halkirk level crossing in 2014 after it had been upgraded to an automatic half-barrier crossing (ABCL), it was previously an automatic open crossing.
Desert View Watchtower Level 2 murals before the start of conservation work, July 23, 2015. NPS Photo by Michael Quinn
Grand Canyon National Park is working with area tribes and art experts to restore the Fred Kabotie murals and the rock art images, painted by Fred Geary, which have been damaged by water. The first phase of the project is being funded through a grant from American Express obtained by Grand Canyon Association.This grant will help with the evaluation, documentation and testing process that is a critical component of all historic preservation projects. The park intends to preserve the murals while remaining true to Mary Colter’s design. Over the next year, a conservation specialist will analyze and restore the murals with the help of students participating in an intern training program.
On January 1, 2015, the Watchtower was purchased from the concessionaire managing it and designated a National Park Service building. NPS plans to return the Watchtower to its intended purpose, as a tribute to the Native American tribes who have cultural ties to Grand Canyon. The park is moving forward with plans to restore the tower to reflect Mary Colter’s original vision for the building.Visitors first enter through the large, open Kiva Room. Until recently, this room was filled to capacity with a large gift shop. The gift shop has since been removed from the rotunda and reduced to a much smaller footprint. The new Grand Canyon Association Park Store fits into the original space Colter envisioned for a gift shop: a corner off to the side of the rotunda. All the proceeds support the park.
Originally the Watchtower was designed as a space where visitors could see Native American craft demonstrations by weavers and basket makers. The park will bring Native American artists back into the space to share tribal traditions, dances, songs, skills, art and oral histories with the public. The park is also considering turning the old Desert View visitor center into a Native American cultural center.The transformation of the Watchtower back to its original intent is already proving to be a dramatic experience for visitors and park staff.
The recent devastating floods seen in their best light - sunlight and the hope of it drying out. Thoughts with everyone affected.
Acrylic on canvas
This is a dream I have had several times in my life, but I was eight the first time I had it. Just the way I dreamt it was significant, I had it for three days in a row, not as in it repeated the same thing for three days. I fell asleep the first night (as soon as I hit the pillow, I was out which is unusual for me) and I dreamt the first part of the dream, then the second night again I fell asleep immediately, and first it replayed (really fast) the main points of the first part so that I would know it was a continuation, and then went on to the second part of the dream, and on the third night it did it again continuing where the second part had left off. Since then I have had it several times and everytime a different aspect of the dream has been enhanced, developed on. I'm going to recount the dream as well as I can in it's entirety as I have dreamt it thus far, more may follow...
I walk along with a large group of people and everyone is preoccupied with their own thoughts or groups of people. We are all on a "field trip" to an Ancient Temple and somewhere near the front is a teacher/tour guide boredly explaining the mundane facts that they have found about the temple, but where I am his/her voice is barely audible as a monotone drone, and there are hundreds of people in front, beside and behind me. Some of them are engaged in their surroundings, looking with interest at the artifacts along the walls, some are simply following the teacher/guide mindlessly without any real comprehension, others are talking among themselves in various group sizes (from 2 to 6 people). As we all walk along this incredibly wide and long tunnel with its white chalk walls and smell of memories undisturbed for centuries, I notice an opening up above slightly ahead of me and as I become level with it I easily raise myself up through the opening. No one in the crowd notices and the "crowd" me walks on while the conscious part of me explores my new surroundings. When I turn "back" (the opposite way than the crowd below me is traveling) the opening is there and yet not, I walk over it, stepping on it, but don't fall through. But I don't pause to think about that because something else has caught my eye. A few feet from me the passage ends in an alcove; in the alcove are three earthen jars. They are all simply made and undecorated, but the power/energy they radiate is strong. I walk toward them, after briefly looking at them, I reach out my right hand and lightly tap/touch each of them, first the middle, then the one to the right, and lastly the one on the left. As I touch them, each jar lights up as though they were colored glass instead of earthenware, and yet they remain the same... with the glow is a sound, a sort of hummm, simple but all encompassing-- first only the jars vibrate with sound (wish I knew note names, middle, up, down, middle, up, down...) I only touch each jar once but the pattern continues and gradually not only the jar are humming with sound, but the walls are humming (their pattern is slightly different), I turn around and realize that there is a long passage with several ancient things that each glow and hum as I pass them. This passage feels less used, but as I walk along each object adds its own unique tone to the increasingly intricate harmony. They glow purple, yellow, red, purple yellow red...humm, humm, humm... the further I walk the more beautiful and intricate the music becomes: everything, even the dust is vibrating/singing and glowing with ancient power and I add my voice. Then comes a sudden drop, the passage simple ends and the music stops as I stand at the edge looking into an enormous room. Far below me I see the miling crowd from before filling the space, it is a never-ending stream of people, as people leave, more and more enter, listen to the "guide" for a while and move on. The "guide" is standing by an altar of sorts, trying to explain what he/she doesn't understand and no one in the crowd is really listening... A rope appears, or maybe it was always there, leading from my feet to the "altar" (it is more like a fancy railing in the middle of the room, but no one walks to the far side of it) Without any clear plan I step unto the rope, which at first tips me over and I fall back into the crowd me, I don't know how many times, but finally I try again and make it all the way across. I cross to the other side of the altar and the crowd seems to fade as a new environment fills all the space on my side of the altar... It is a space within the temple but also a place all it's own; green hills surround me (but somehow the only thngs that exist are the things I can see) on the nearest hill is a large tree, it is so vividly colored that it looks almost like a cartoon. Under the tree a person is waiting for me; as I come closer she rises easily to her feet and smiles (up until this point in the dream I have been female, but at this point I am male. Throughout the rest of this particular part of the dream my gender changes frequently, and regardless of my gender my companion is the opposite gender, ie if I am female "she" is male, and vice versa. It made sense in the dream) When I reach her she turns and we walk together towards a large river which is now flowing at the foot of the hill. It is deep and wide and incredibly blue; without a word we derobe ourselves and dive into the water. We both swim upstream quickly and with relative ease until we reach a lake, the source of the water. But the source is not a spring welling up from underground, it is a large white tower, with a red roof shaped like an onion, and a spiral going up around it to a small window where all the water pours out and flows down the spiral into the lake which spills over becoming the river. We swim across the lake to the base of the tower, and here we meld into one person. Then we/I begin to swim up the spiral. It would be easier to walk, but I know/intuit that I won't understand the point at the end if I opt for the easy answer. Several times I slip and am carried back, sometimes to the base of the tower, sometimes only a short distance, finally I reach the window, but just as I enter it fades back to the temple. All of it becomes a green sphere of light laying on the alter/railing... The temple vanishes again and something else appears, this time I have to travel through my fears. Hmm, this part came later and I'm not fond of recounting it, but here goes... I wake up in a small gray stone church with a single beautiful stained glass window of a white dove carrying a red, red rose; the stained glass window is the reason I am here, the sunlight spilling through it is beautiful beyond description and I sit and gaze at it for the longest time. I am "only" a very small child, skinny and ragged from a hard life, I have traveled by foot a longer distance than I can remember just to see this window again. This stone building is my sanctuary from the world, here I need nothing and I am safe; until people start to come, lots of people, uninvited people, they enter and look at and touch everythng and they don't even see me, but they are hurting my space with their loud, crass energies and voices, their carelessness. i cry and run away, I want to hide until they have left, so I run into the tower, only the tower is almost completely ruined now, with large gaping holes it sways in the wind and at the top is no sanctuary only more people, strange people who aren't human but something else, I run again, I run outside hoping to find safety in the countryside, but the countryside is gone, filled with more people, people with animal heads and strange leering faces, they lean over me and lurk in shadows, they laugh cruelly and sneer, and speak in voices I don't understand and I scream and can find no way out, then a cave opens before me, a cave that is red as blood with gleaming black stalagmites and stalagtites like teeth, it is like a huge gaping maw and I have no choice but to descend into the depths, and everywhere there are candles burning, all different sizes and shapes, they are peoples lives, when the candle turns out, their life is over... Winged creatures like bats flap around, playing with the lights, sometimes only almost blowing them out, other times snuffing them completely and there are creatures here that catch me and smile like they are friends but then instead they suck my life from me, never enough that I quite die, but enough that I am weak, until finally I come to my candle and see that it has diminished to a faint glow and realize that I have to get out and leave this place before my candle is snuffed into oblivion, where there is darkness, nothing, nothing, nothing... I rest I wait I don't know what for, but then I am back at the church and all the people are gone, save one. He is watching me sleep, and he is smiling. He gives me food and clothes, and I go with him. We travel through countrysides and villages and he teaches me to control my psyche so that I don't have to fear it anymore, until I become stronger than him... I know I am stronger, but I love him so I give it to him, I let him control me. together we have a child, but he will not have it, he will not accept it, he shuns us, and leaves us to die, under an enormous old pine tree I lie with my infant child, my little girl, as the life flows out of us both.
I return to the temple, now there is yellow, orange, red, and blue/indigo next to the green sphere of light. Then there is the ocean; as I stand there I smell the salt, feel the wind and hear the waves breaking on the sand which feels dry and gritty on my bare feet. However, as I walk closer to the ocean I begin to see more in the waves, first they become moving bands of clear water and in them I can see every strand of life, then the bands become light instead of water, different colors of light, the same as the jars glowed, yellow purple red, yellow purple red, I can change it by adding the spheres of light, each sphere first gives a faint image of their lesson, and then adds their color to the ocean of light yellow purple blue green orange red up and down in and out they move and fade and strenghten, until all of them come together into a single white sphere of radiant warm brilliant light, it is bigger than my body, and then it becomes an enormous Conk shell glowing with Energy and Light; I walk toward it and realize that I am no longer wearing the simple white tunic and leggings that hitherto I had been wearing, I am dressed in Light, the same brilliant white light that is emanating from the shell is flowing from me creating raiment that flows and swishes and sways, moving tendrils about me and through me, because it is me. I walk into the conk shell and again I know/intuit that I must be careful and touch only with my feet (or my dress), not my hands, to reach the center. Several times I slip and put out my hand to steady myself and every time I am returned to the outside of the shell. Finally, on my eight try I reach the center, the Source of Light, Creation, Wisdom, Strength, and Love. And entering into it I, myself, become Light and Love, a part of the source and yet still retaining my sense of self. All of this I take with me as I return to the temple once more and must join the people and make my life.
As I wrote before, this dream has come to me several times in my life, sometimes at the beginning of a life lesson, sometimes in the middle, or the end, as if to clarify... I don't know if or when I will dream it again; it feels complete now, but I still have much more life before me in which to learn...
~Ingrid
Mont Blanc (French) or Monte Bianco (Italian), meaning "White Mountain", is the highest mountain in the Alps, Western Europe and the European Union. It rises 4,810.45 m (15,782 ft)[2] above sea level and is ranked 11th in the world in topographic prominence. It is also sometimes known as La Dame blanche (French for "the White Lady") or Il Bianco (Italian for "the White One").
The mountain lies between the regions of Aosta Valley, Italy, and Haute-Savoie, France and the location of the summit is on the watershed line between the valleys of Ferret and Veny in Italy and the Arve Valley in France.
The two most famous towns near Mont Blanc are Courmayeur in Aosta Valley, Italy, and Chamonix in Haute-Savoie, France—the site of the first Winter Olympics. A cable car ascends and crosses the mountain from Courmayeur to Chamonix.
Begun in 1957 and completed in 1965, the 11.6 km (7¼ mi) Mont Blanc Tunnel runs beneath the mountain between these two countries and is one of the major trans-Alpine transport routes.
The Mont Blanc massif is popular for mountaineering, hiking, skiing and snowboarding.
The summit of Mont Blanc is a thick, perennial ice and snow dome whose thickness varies, so no exact and permanent summit elevation can be determined. But accurate measurements have been made. For a long time its official elevation was 4,807 m (15,771 ft). Then in 2002, the IGN and expert surveyors, with the aid of GPS technology, measured it to be 4,810.40 m (15,782 ft 2 in).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_Blanc
The Aiguille du Midi (3,842 m) is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif in the French Alps.
The cable car to the summit, the Téléphérique de l'Aiguille du Midi, was built in 1955 and held the title of the world's highest cable car for about two decades. It still holds the record as the highest vertical ascent cable car in the world, from 1,035 m to 3,842 m. There are two sections: from Chamonix to Plan de l'Aiguille at 2,317 m and then directly, without any support pillar, to the upper station at 3,777 m (the building contains an elevator to the summit). The span of the second section is 2,867 m measured directly, but only 2,500 m measured horizontally. It thus still is the second longest span width, measured directly.