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White elephants are considered sacred in Buddhist countries and promise happiness and well-being. But the way in which they are kept couldn't be more contradictory, and it suggests that this is why the animals are particularly spoiled. But a visit to Burma's white elephants reveals the opposite.
Six of the nine white elephants that are in captivity in Burma are vegetating here in the elephant house in the capital Nay Pyi Taw. They eke out their lives on a few square meters.
A taxi driver explains that the tied animals are a symbol of the power of the military. So everything is under control.
In fact, a prominent Burmese elephant expert, who is afraid of being named, confirms that the highest army generals and their entourage visited the white elephants in the capital Nay Pyi Taw regularly.
One of the country's two vice presidents is also one of the weekly visitors. They all believed the animals would bring good luck and maintain power.
Weisse Elefanten gelten in buddhistischen Ländern als heilig, versprechen Glück und Wohlergehen. Doch die Art und Weise, wie sie gehalten werden, könnte widersprüchlicher nicht sein.Es läge nahe, dass die Tiere deshalb besonders verwöhnt werden. Doch ein Besuch bei Burmas weissen Elefanten entlarvt das Gegenteil.
Sechs der insgesamt neun weissen Elefanten, die in Burma in Gefangenschaft sind, vegetieren hier im Elefantenhaus in der Hauptstadt Nay Pyi Taw vor sich hin. Sie fristen ihr Leben auf ein paar Quadratmetern.
Ein Taxifahrer erklärt, die gefesselten Tiere seien ein Symbol für die Macht der Militärs. Es sei also alles unter Kontrolle.
Tatsächlich bestätigt ein prominenter burmesischer Elefantenexperte, der Angst hat, namentlich genannt zu werden: Höchste Armeegeneräle und ihre Entourage besuchten die weissen Elefanten in der Hauptstadt Nay Pyi Taw regelmässig.
Auch einer der beiden Vizepräsidenten des Landes gehöre zu den wöchentlichen Besuchern. Sie alle glaubten, die Tiere würden Glück bringen und die Macht erhalten
Male Ringed Teal in Regents Park.
The Ringed Teal is native to Paraguay, Uruguay, northern Argentina and southern Brazil, it is a small teal that is very easy to maintain in captivity on a basic waterfowl diet. When it was first available to aviculture it was considered delicate and only suitable for maintaining in a tropical house. Over many successive generations the Ringed Teal has adapted to Captivity and become very hardy and can easily withstand a UK winter with no requirement for additional protection provided some open water can be maintained. The Ringed Teal is not believed to be threatened in the wild and is one of the more common waterfowl in captivity. As with many other southern hemisphere waterfowl the Ringed Teal does not have an eclipse (non breeding) plumage so the striking colours of the males plumage are maintained throughout the year once adult plumage is assumed at about fourteen weeks of age.
Maintaining track speed, WAMX 4174 leads the pack as T6 sweeps through photogenic downtown Edgerton.
Edgerton, WI
2022.06.24
An outstanding attendant maintains a graceful demeanor at any and all times.
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This competitor in the Perth & District Motor Club - Glenalmond Trial goes all out to maintain balance and forward motion.
Dubai’s most abundant natural resource — sand — is free and prime for exploitation along the emirate’s expansive, well-maintained public beaches - JBR Beach, Dubai Marina, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
As I approached a small car show in my area, I was immediately captured by this beautifully maintained 1967 Mustang Fastback.
The owner of this fine looking classic muscle car told me that he has owned this car for 43 years. It had begun life as a six-cylinder - it now sports a 302c.i. V-8 taken out of a 85’GT Mustang. Power/torque to the rear wheels/tires is handled by a nine-inch Detroit locker differential. Amenities include; A/C, cruise control and a tilt steering wheel. Rack and pinion steering along with power disk front brakes compliment the steering and braking. Under the hood the 302 is fed by a Holly Sniper EFI with matching distributor. An aluminum radiator and electric cooling fan keep this little pony running efficiently.
I was told that originally, the car was yellow but now, as everyone can see, it's dressed in a striking rich, flawless red paint. A real “eye catcher”.
Hope ya’all enjoy ……………….
Btw- I also have front end views of this fine car that I may be posting later.
Note: I would love to have the opportunity to shoot these cars on location (a "location of my choosing") but this doesn't seem to be in the cards so I have to deal with the cards I am dealt with.
Powis Castle (Welsh: Castell Powys) is a medieval castle, fortress and grand country house near Welshpool, in Powys, Wales. The seat of the Herbert family, earls of Powis, the castle is known for its formal gardens and for its interiors, the former having been described as "the most important", and the latter "the most magnificent", in the country. The castle and gardens are under the care of the National Trust. Powis Castle is a Grade I listed building, while its gardens have their own Grade I listing on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.
The present castle was built in the 13th century. Unusually for a castle on the Marches, it was constructed by a Welsh prince, Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn, rather than by a Norman baron. Gruffydd was prince of the ancient Kingdom of Powys and maintained an alliance with the English king Edward I during the struggles of the later 13th century. He was able to secure the position of his son, Owain, although the kingdom itself was abolished by the Parliament of Shrewsbury in 1283. After his father's death, Owain was raised to the peerage as Owen de la Pole, 1st Lord of Powis. Following his own death c. 1293, and the death of his only son, he was succeeded by his daughter, Hawys Gadarn, "the Lady of Powis". Hawys married Sir John Charlton in 1309.
In the late 16th century the castle was purchased by Sir Edward Herbert, a younger son of William Herbert, 1st earl of Pembroke, beginning a connection between the family and the castle that continues today. The Herberts remained Roman Catholic until the 18th century and, although rising in the peerage to earls, marquesses and Jacobite dukes of Powis, suffered periods of imprisonment and exile. Despite these setbacks, they were able in the late 17th and early 18th centuries to transform Powis from a border fortress into an aristocratic country house, and surround it with one of the very few extant examples of a British Baroque garden.
In 1784 Henrietta Herbert married Edward Clive, eldest son of Clive of India, a match which replenished the much-depleted Herbert family fortune. In the early 20th century, George Herbert, 4th Earl of Powis, redeveloped the castle with the assistance of the architect George Frederick Bodley. Herbert’s wife, Violet, undertook work of equal importance in the garden, seeking to turn it into "one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful, in England and Wales". On the 4th Earl's death in 1952, his wife and his sons having predeceased him, the castle passed into the care of the National Trust.
History
First castles at Welshpool: 1111–1286
Unlike the castles at Conwy, Caernarfon, Harlech and nearby Montgomery, which were built by the English to subdue the Welsh, the castles at Welshpool were built by the Welsh princes of Powys Wenwynwyn as their dynastic seat.[1] In addition to the current site, two motte-and-bailey castles and a set of earthworks are located nearby.[2] The names Trallwg/Tallwm and Pola are used interchangeably in early primary sources, and it is unclear which of these sites is being referred to.[3]
The earliest reference dates from 1111, when Cadwgan ap Bleddyn is mentioned as having planned to construct a castle at Trallwng Llywelyn,[3] the oldest record of a native Welsh castle.[4] Domen Castell, a motte-and-bailey near the modern railway station, is considered the most likely site of Cadwgan's castle, although it is uncertain whether it was completed as he was assassinated the same year.[5] The first documentary account of an extant castle at Welshpool is a description of the successful 1196 siege by an English army, although the castle was retaken by the Welsh within the year.[5][6]
The earliest castle at the current site may have been a timber building constructed by Owain Cyfeiliog or his son, Gwenwynwyn (r. 1197–1216).[7] The present masonry structure contains 13th-century fabric,[8] most likely the work of Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn (r. 1241–1287) – although historians are uncertain when this took place.[a][10] In 1274, Gruffydd's "first castle" at Welshpool was destroyed by Llywelyn ap Gruffudd as punishment for his involvement in a scheme to assassinate Llywelyn.[b] The castle was documented again in 1286, when it was listed amongst Gruffydd's possessions as "la Pole Castr".[12] A detailed examination of Powis Castle's extant masonry carried out between 1987 and 1989 revealed early stonework incorporated into the later structure, putatively the remains of an early stone shell keep.[13] At the end of Edward I's conquest of Wales in 1282–83, the king permitted Gruffydd to rebuild his castle at Welshpool as a reward for his loyalty.[14]
Early history: 1286–1644
Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury[c]
In 1286, four years after the conquest of Wales, Gruffydd's son, Owain ap Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn became the last hereditary prince of Powys when he renounced his royal title, and was granted the barony of de la Pole, (i.e. "of the Pool", a reference to Welshpool, formerly called just "Pool").[d][16][17] The ancient Kingdom of Powys had once included the counties of Montgomeryshire, much of Denbighshire, parts of Radnorshire and large areas of Shropshire, but by the 13th century had been reduced to two independent principalities – Powys Wenwynwyn and Powys Fadog – roughly equivalent to Montgomeryshire and South Denbighshire (plus Maelor Saesneg), respectively; Welshpool had become the capital of Powys Wenwynwyn, of which Owain had been heir. On the death of Owain, the castle passed to his daughter Hawys, who married Sir John Charlton.[17] The Charltons continued to live at Powis until the fifteenth century when two daughters, Joyce Tiptoft and Joan Grey inherited the castle and estates. Both were equally divided, each daughter and her husband living in a portion of the castle.[18]
In 1578 an illegitimate son of the last Baron Grey of Powis, began leasing the lordship and castle to a distant relative – Sir Edward Herbert (d. 1595), second son of Sir William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke. Edward eventually bought the castle outright in 1587, beginning the connection between the Herberts and Powis Castle which continues today.[19] Sir Edward's wife was a Roman Catholic and the family's allegiance to Rome and to the Stuart kings was to shape its destiny for over a century.[16] Sir Edward began the transformation of Powis from a border fortress into an Elizabethan country house. The major remaining element of his work is the Long Gallery.[19]
Herbert's descendent William Herbert, 1st Baron Powis (c. 1573–1655), was a supporter of Charles I, and was granted the barony of Powis in 1629.[19] His loyalty during the English Civil War cost him his castle and his estates.[20] On 22 October 1644 Powis Castle was captured by Parliamentary troops and was not returned to the family until the restoration of Charles II in 1660.[21]
The Herberts: 1660–1800
The Hercules statue which stood originally in the Water Garden
On the restoration, the Herberts returned to Powis, and in 1674 William Herbert (c. 1626–1696) was created Earl of Powis (of the first creation). The state bedroom was installed in about 1665 and further improvements, including the construction of the Great Staircase followed in the 1670s. These developments were most probably carried out under the direction of William Winde, who may also have designed the terraced gardens. His employer, although restored to his estates, and raised in the peerage, was barred by his Catholic faith from high office under Charles II. On the accession of the King's brother, James in 1685, Herbert became one of the new king's chief ministers, and was again advanced in the peerage becoming Marquess of Powis in 1687, but fell at the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and followed James into exile in France.[e] William III granted the castle to his nephew, William Nassau de Zuylestein, 1st Earl of Rochford. Herbert died, still in exile, in 1696.[24]
Despite their 30-year exile, the Herberts were able to continue with developments at the castle and even to live there on an irregular basis, the Baroque water garden below the castle being completed at this time.[25] Their fortunes were also materially improved by the discovery of a lucrative lead mine on their Welsh estates.[24] The second Marquess, also William, was reinstated in 1722. On the death of his son, the third Marquess in 1748, the marquessate became extinct, while the castle and estates passed to a relative, Henry Herbert (c. 1703–1772), of Oakly Park in Shropshire, who was made 1st Earl of Powis (of the second creation) by George II.[26] Herbert married Barbara, the fifteen-year-old granddaughter of the 2nd Marquess, in 1751. Their eldest son, George Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis (1755–1801), died unmarried and the earldom of the second creation became extinct.[f][27] Powis was much neglected during his tenure. John Byng, 5th Viscount Torrington, a diarist and traveller who chronicled his journeys into Wales in the 1780s and 1790s, described the castle in 1784, "In the gardens not even the fruit is attended to; the balustrades and terraces are falling down, and the horses graze on the parterres!!!"[28] The castle itself was in no better condition, a visitor in 1774 describing it as "in Neglect and Ruin".[27] Nonetheless, the potential of the site was recognised. George Lyttelton, the politician, poet and essayist, recorded his impressions in 1756, "About £3,000 laid out upon Powis Castle would make it the most august place in the Kingdom."[29]
The Clives and Herberts: 1801–1952
The Outer Courtyard with the Fame statue in the foreground
In 1784, Henry Herbert's daughter, Henrietta, married Edward Clive (1754–1839), the eldest son of Clive of India.[30] Clive had followed his father to India, and served as Governor of Madras. Henrietta's brother died in 1801, whereupon the title lapsed; in 1804, her husband was created first Earl of Powis (of the third creation). The Clive fortune paid for long overdue repairs to the castle, which were carried out by Sir Robert Smirke.[31][32] Their son, Edward (1785–1848), inherited his late uncle's Powis estates on his 21st birthday, taking the surname Herbert in compliance with his uncle's will.[30] Edward Herbert served in a range of administrations as an Anti-Catholic Tory, his speeches in the House of Commons being "cautious and pertinent, although marred by dull delivery". He died in 1848, following a shooting accident at Powis in which he was fatally injured by his second son.[33] No further major changes were made to the Powis estate during his time, or in the long tenure of his eldest son Edward Herbert, 3rd Earl of Powis (1818–1891), although the castle was well maintained. In honour of his great-grandfather, the earl was offered the viceroyalty of India by Benjamin Disraeli but declined, writing "Not worth considering. Powis" on the envelope containing the invitation.[34]
The final alterations to Powis Castle were undertaken at the beginning of the 20th century by George Frederick Bodley for George Charles Herbert, 4th Earl of Powis (1862–1952). The rooms designed by Bodley remain his only extant decorative scheme; the longevity of the 4th Earl, the deaths of his heirs, and his bequest of the castle to the National Trust saw the early 20th-century remodelling remain largely unaltered.[g][36] The 4th earl's wife, Violet (nee Lane-Fox), undertook the final transformation of the gardens of Powis Castle, which she felt had the potential to be "the most beautiful in England and Wales".[37] The Countess died following a car accident in 1929, and Lord Powis outlived both his sons, who died on active service, Percy from wounds received at the Battle of the Somme in 1916,[38] and Mervyn in a plane crash in 1943.[39] On his own death in 1952, he bequeathed the castle and gardens to the National Trust.[h][42]
The National Trust: 1952–present
The 4th earl was succeeded by his cousin, Edward Herbert, 5th Earl of Powis (1889–1974). Edward's heir was Christian Herbert, 6th Earl of Powis (1904–1988). He was succeeded by his cousin, George Herbert, 7th Earl of Powis (1925–1993),[42] who was in turn succeeded by his son, John, the 8th and current Earl.[43] The Herbert family continue to live in part of the castle, under an arrangement with the National Trust.[44] The Trust has undertaken a number of major works of restoration during its ownership, including the Marquess Gate,[45] the Grand Staircase,[46] and the sculpture of Fame in the Outer Courtyard.[i][47] The castle and its gardens receive around 200,000 visitors annually. Wikipedia
Information from: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Cod
Cape Cod
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article is about the area of Massachusetts. For other uses, see Cape Cod (disambiguation).
For other uses, see Cod (disambiguation).
Coordinates: 41°41′20″N 70°17′49″W / 41.68889°N 70.29694°W / 41.68889; -70.29694
Map of Massachusetts, with Cape Cod (Barnstable County) indicated in red
Dunes on Sandy Neck are part of the Cape's barrier beach which helps to prevent erosion
Cape Cod, often referred to locally as simply the Cape, is an island and a cape in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States. It is coextensive with Barnstable County. Several small islands right off Cape Cod, including Monomoy Island, Monomoscoy Island, Popponesset Island, and Seconsett Island, are also in Barnstable County, being part of municipalities with land on the Cape. The Cape's small-town character and large beachfront attract heavy tourism during the summer months.
Cape Cod was formed as the terminal moraine of a glacier, resulting in a peninsula in the Atlantic Ocean. In 1914, the Cape Cod Canal was cut through the base or isthmus of the peninsula, forming an island. The Cape Cod Commission refers to the resultant landmass as an island; as does the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in regards to disaster preparedness.[1] It is still identified as a peninsula by geographers, who do not change landform designations based on man-made canal construction.[citation needed]
Unofficially, it is one of the biggest barrier islands in the world, shielding much of the Massachusetts coastline from North Atlantic storm waves. This protection helps to erode the Cape shoreline at the expense of cliffs, while protecting towns from Fairhaven to Marshfield.
Road vehicles from the mainland cross over the Cape Cod Canal via the Sagamore Bridge and the Bourne Bridge. The two bridges are parallel, with the Bourne Bridge located slightly farther southwest. In addition, the Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge carries railway freight as well as tourist passenger services.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Geography and political divisions
o 1.1 "Upper" and "Lower"
* 2 Geology
* 3 Climate
* 4 Native population
* 5 History
* 6 Lighthouses of Cape Cod
* 7 Transportation
o 7.1 Bus
o 7.2 Rail
o 7.3 Taxi
* 8 Tourism
* 9 Sport fishing
* 10 Sports
* 11 Education
* 12 Islands off Cape Cod
* 13 See also
* 14 References
o 14.1 Notes
o 14.2 Sources
o 14.3 Further reading
* 15 External links
[edit] Geography and political divisions
Towns of Barnstable County
historical map of 1890
The highest elevation on Cape Cod is 306 feet (93 m), at the top of Pine Hill, in the Bourne portion of the Massachusetts Military Reservation. The lowest point is sea level.
The body of water located between Cape Cod and the mainland, bordered to the north by Massachusetts Bay, is Cape Cod Bay; west of Cape Cod is Buzzards Bay. The Cape Cod Canal, completed in 1916, connects Buzzards Bay to Cape Cod Bay; it shortened the trade route between New York and Boston by 62 miles.[2] To the south of Cape Cod lie Nantucket Sound; Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, both large islands, and the mostly privately owned Elizabeth Islands.
Cape Cod incorporates all of Barnstable County, which comprises 15 towns: Bourne, Sandwich, Falmouth, and Mashpee, Barnstable, Yarmouth, Dennis, Harwich, Brewster, Chatham, Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro, and Provincetown. Two of the county's fifteen towns (Bourne and Sandwich) include land on the mainland side of the Cape Cod Canal. The towns of Plymouth and Wareham, in adjacent Plymouth County, are sometimes considered to be part of Cape Cod but are not located on the island.
In the 17th century the designation Cape Cod applied only to the tip of the peninsula, essentially present-day Provincetown. Over the ensuing decades, the name came to mean all the land east of the Manomet and Scussett rivers - essentially the line of the 20th century Cape Cod Canal. Now, the complete towns of Bourne and Sandwich are widely considered to incorporate the full perimeter of Cape Cod, even though small parts of these towns are located on the west side of the canal. The canal divides the largest part of the peninsula from the mainland and the resultant landmass is sometimes referred to as an island.[3][4] Additionally some "Cape Codders" – residents of "The Cape" – refer to all land on the mainland side of the canal as "off-Cape."
For most of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, Cape Cod was considered to consist of three sections:
* The Upper Cape is the part of Cape Cod closest to the mainland, comprising the towns of Bourne, Sandwich, Falmouth, and Mashpee. Falmouth is the home of the famous Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and several other research organizations, and is also the most-used ferry connection to Martha's Vineyard. Falmouth is composed of several separate villages, including East Falmouth, Falmouth Village, Hatchville, North Falmouth, Teaticket, Waquoit, West Falmouth, and Woods Hole, as well as several smaller hamlets that are incorporated into their larger neighbors (e.g., Davisville, Falmouth Heights, Quissett, Sippewissett, and others).[5]
* The Mid-Cape includes the towns of Barnstable, Yarmouth and Dennis. The Mid-Cape area features many beautiful beaches, including warm-water beaches along Nantucket Sound, e.g., Kalmus Beach in Hyannis, which gets its name from one of the inventors of Technicolor, Herbert Kalmus. This popular windsurfing destination was bequeathed to the town of Barnstable by Dr. Kalmus on condition that it not be developed, possibly one of the first instances of open-space preservation in the US. The Mid-Cape is also the commercial and industrial center of the region. There are seven villages in Barnstable, including Barnstable Village, Centerville, Cotuit, Hyannis, Marstons Mills, Osterville, and West Barnstable, as well as several smaller hamlets that are incorporated into their larger neighbors (e.g., Craigville, Cummaquid, Hyannisport, Santuit, Wianno, and others).[6] There are three villages in Yarmouth: South Yarmouth, West Yarmouth and Yarmouthport. There are five villages in Dennis including, Dennis Village(North Dennis), East Dennis, West Dennis, South Dennis and Dennisport.[7]
* The Lower Cape traditionally included all of the rest of the Cape,or the towns of Harwich, Brewster, Chatham, Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro, and Provincetown. This area includes the Cape Cod National Seashore, a national park comprising much of the outer Cape, including the entire east-facing coast, and is home to some of the most popular beaches in America, such as Coast Guard Beach and Nauset Light Beach in Eastham. Stephen Leatherman, aka "Dr. Beach", named Coast Guard Beach the 5th best beach in America for 2007.[8]
[edit] "Upper" and "Lower"
The terms "Upper" and "Lower" as applied to the Cape have nothing to do with north and south. Instead, they derive from maritime convention at the time when the principal means of transportation involved watercraft, and the prevailing westerly winds meant that a boat with sails traveling northeast in Cape Cod Bay would have the wind at its back and thus be going downwind, while a craft sailing southwest would be going against the wind, or upwind.[9] Similarly, on nearby Martha's Vineyard, "Up Island" still is the western section and "Down Island" is to the east, and in Maine, "Down East" is similarly defined by the winds and currents.
Over time, the reasons for the traditional nomenclature became unfamiliar and their meaning obscure. Late in the 1900s, new arrivals began calling towns from Eastham to Provincetown the "Outer Cape", yet another geographic descriptor which is still in use, as is the "Inner Cape."
[edit] Geology
Cape Cod and Cape Cod Bay from space.[10]
East of America, there stands in the open Atlantic the last fragment of an ancient and vanished land. Worn by the breakers and the rains, and disintegrated by the wind, it still stands bold.
“
”
Henry Beston, The Outermost House
Cape Cod forms a continuous archipelagic region with a thin line of islands stretching toward New York, historically known by naturalists as the Outer Lands. This continuity is due to the fact that the islands and Cape are all terminal glacial moraines laid down some 16,000 to 20,000 years ago.
Most of Cape Cod's geological history involves the advance and retreat of the Laurentide ice sheet in the late Pleistocene geological era and the subsequent changes in sea level. Using radiocarbon dating techniques, researchers have determined that around 23,000 years ago, the ice sheet reached its maximum southward advance over North America, and then started to retreat. Many "kettle ponds" — clear, cold lakes — were formed and remain on Cape Cod as a result of the receding glacier. By about 18,000 years ago, the ice sheet had retreated past Cape Cod. By roughly 15,000 years ago, it had retreated past southern New England. When so much of Earth's water was locked up in massive ice sheets, the sea level was lower. Truro's bayside beaches used to be a petrified forest, before it became a beach.
As the ice began to melt, the sea began to rise. Initially, sea level rose quickly, about 15 meters (50 ft) per 1,000 years, but then the rate declined. On Cape Cod, sea level rose roughly 3 meters (11 ft) per millennium between 6,000 and 2,000 years ago. After that, it continued to rise at about 1 meter (3 ft) per millennium. By 6,000 years ago, the sea level was high enough to start eroding the glacial deposits that the vanished continental ice sheet had left on Cape Cod. The water transported the eroded deposits north and south along the outer Cape's shoreline. Those reworked sediments that moved north went to the tip of Cape Cod.
Provincetown Spit, at the northern end of the Cape, consists largely of marine deposits, transported from farther up the shore. Sediments that moved south created the islands and shoals of Monomoy. So while other parts of the Cape have dwindled from the action of the waves, these parts of the Cape have grown.
Cape Cod National Seashore
This process continues today. Due to their position jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean, the Cape and islands are subject to massive coastal erosion. Geologists say that, due to erosion, the Cape will be completely submerged by the sea in thousands of years.[11] This erosion causes the washout of beaches and the destruction of the barrier islands; for example, the ocean broke through the barrier island at Chatham during Hurricane Bob in 1991, allowing waves and storm surges to hit the coast with no obstruction. Consequently, the sediment and sand from the beaches is being washed away and deposited elsewhere. While this destroys land in some places, it creates land elsewhere, most noticeably in marshes where sediment is deposited by waters running through them.
[edit] Climate
Although Cape Cod's weather[12] is typically more moderate than inland locations, there have been occasions where Cape Cod has dealt with the brunt of extreme weather situations (such as the Blizzard of 1954 and Hurricane of 1938). Because of the influence of the Atlantic Ocean, temperatures are typically a few degrees cooler in the summer and a few degrees warmer in the winter. A common misconception is that the climate is influenced largely by the warm Gulf Stream current, however that current turns eastward off the coast of Virginia and the waters off the Cape are more influenced by the cold Canadian Labrador Current. As a result, the ocean temperature rarely gets above 65 °F (18 °C), except along the shallow west coast of the Upper Cape.
The Cape's climate is also notorious for a delayed spring season, being surrounded by an ocean which is still cold from the winter; however, it is also known for an exceptionally mild fall season (Indian summer), thanks to the ocean remaining warm from the summer. The highest temperature ever recorded on Cape Cod was 104 °F (40 °C) in Provincetown[13], and the lowest temperature ever was −12 °F (−24.4 °C) in Barnstable.[14]
The water surrounding Cape Cod moderates winter temperatures enough to extend the USDA hardiness zone 7a to its northernmost limit in eastern North America.[15] Even though zone 7a (annual low = 0–5 degrees Fahrenheit) signifies no sub-zero temperatures annually, there have been several instances of temperatures reaching a few degrees below zero across the Cape (although it is rare, usually 1–5 times a year, typically depending on locale, sometimes not at all). Consequently, many plant species typically found in more southerly latitudes grow there, including Camellias, Ilex opaca, Magnolia grandiflora and Albizia julibrissin.
Precipitation on Cape Cod and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket is the lowest in the New England region, averaging slightly less than 40 inches (1,000 mm) a year (most parts of New England average 42–46 inches). This is due to storm systems which move across western areas, building up in mountainous regions, and dissipating before reaching the coast where the land has leveled out. The region does not experience a greater number of sunny days however, as the number of cloudy days is the same as inland locales, in addition to increased fog. Snowfall is annual, but a lot less common than the rest of Massachusetts. On average, 30 inches of snow, which is a foot less than Boston, falls in an average winter. Snow is usually light, and comes in squalls on cold days. Storms that bring blizzard conditions and snow emergencies to the mainland, bring devastating ice storms or just heavy rains more frequently than large snow storms.
[hide]Climate data for Cape Cod
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Average high °C (°F) 2.06
(35.7) 2.5
(36.5) 6.22
(43.2) 11.72
(53.1) 16.94
(62.5) 23.5
(74.3) 26.39
(79.5) 26.67
(80.0) 25.06
(77.1) 18.39
(65.1) 12.56
(54.6) 5.44
(41.8) 26.67
(80.0)
Average low °C (°F) -5.33
(22.4) -5
(23.0) -1.33
(29.6) 2.72
(36.9) 8.72
(47.7) 14.61
(58.3) 19.22
(66.6) 20.28
(68.5) 15.56
(60.0) 9.94
(49.9) 3.94
(39.1) -2.22
(28.0) -5.33
(22.4)
Precipitation mm (inches) 98
(3.86) 75.4
(2.97) 95
(3.74) 92.5
(3.64) 83.6
(3.29) 76.7
(3.02) 62.2
(2.45) 65
(2.56) 74.7
(2.94) 84.8
(3.34) 90.7
(3.57) 92.7
(3.65) 990.9
(39.01)
Source: World Meteorological Organisation (United Nations) [16]
[edit] Native population
Cape Cod has been the home of the Wampanoag tribe of Native American people for many centuries. They survived off the sea and were accomplished farmers. They understood the principles of sustainable forest management, and were known to light controlled fires to keep the underbrush in check. They helped the Pilgrims, who arrived in the fall of 1620, survive at their new Plymouth Colony. At the time, the dominant group was the Kakopee, known for their abilities at fishing. They were the first Native Americans to use large casting nets. Early colonial settlers recorded that the Kakopee numbered nearly 7,000.
Shortly after the Pilgrims arrived, the chief of the Kakopee, Mogauhok, attempted to make a treaty limiting colonial settlements. The effort failed after he succumbed to smallpox in 1625. Infectious diseases such as smallpox, measles and influenza caused the deaths of many other Kakopee and Wampanoag. They had no natural immunity to Eurasian diseases by then endemic among the English and other Europeans. Today, the only reminder of the Kakopee is a small public recreation area in Barnstable named for them. A historic marker notes the burial site of Mogauhok near Truro, although the location is conjecture.
While contractors were digging test wells in the eastern Massachusetts Military Reservation area, they discovered an archeological find.[citation needed] Excavation revealed the remains of a Kakopee village in Forestdale, a location in Sandwich. Researchers found a totem with a painted image of Mogauhok, portrayed in his chief's cape and brooch. The totem was discovered on property on Grand Oak Road. It is the first evidence other than colonial accounts of his role as an important Kakopee leader.
The Indians lost their lands through continued purchase and expropriation by the English colonists. The documentary Natives of the Narrowland (1993), narrated by actress Julie Harris, shows the history of the Wampanoag people through Cape Cod archaeological sites.
In 1974, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council was formed to articulate the concerns of those with Native American ancestry. They petitioned the federal government in 1975 and again in 1990 for official recognition of the Mashpee Wampanoag as a tribe. In May 2007, the Wampanoag tribe was finally federally recognized as a tribe.[17]
[edit] History
Cranberry picking in 1906
Cape Cod was a landmark for early explorers. It may have been the "Promontory of Vinland" mentioned by the Norse voyagers (985-1025). Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524 approached it from the south. He named Martha's Vineyard Claudia, after the mother of the King of France.[18] The next year the explorer Esteban Gómez called it Cape St. James.
In 1602 Bartholomew Gosnold named it Cape Cod, the surviving term and the ninth oldest English place-name in the U.S.[19] Samuel de Champlain charted its sand-silted harbors in 1606 and Henry Hudson landed there in 1609. Captain John Smith noted it on his map of 1614 and at last the Pilgrims entered the "Cape Harbor" and – contrary to the popular myth of Plymouth Rock – made their first landing near present-day Provincetown on November 11, 1620. Nearby, in what is now Eastham, they had their first encounter with Native Americans.
Cape Cod was among the first places settled by the English in North America. Aside from Barnstable (1639), Sandwich (1637) and Yarmouth (1639), the Cape's fifteen towns developed slowly. The final town to be established on the Cape was Bourne in 1884.[20] Provincetown was a group of huts until the 18th century. A channel from Massachusetts Bay to Buzzards Bay is shown on Southack's map of 1717. The present Cape Cod Canal was slowly developed from 1870 to 1914. The Federal government purchased it in 1928.
Thanks to early colonial settlement and intensive land use, by the time Henry Thoreau saw Cape Cod during his four visits over 1849 to 1857[21], its vegetation was depauperate and trees were scarce. As the settlers heated by fires, and it took 10 to 20 cords (40 to 80 m³) of wood to heat a home, they cleared most of Cape Cod of timber early on. They planted familiar crops, but these were unsuited to Cape Cod's thin, glacially derived soils. For instance, much of Eastham was planted to wheat. The settlers practiced burning of woodlands to release nutrients into the soil. Improper and intensive farming led to erosion and the loss of topsoil. Farmers grazed their cattle on the grassy dunes of coastal Massachusetts, only to watch "in horror as the denuded sands `walked' over richer lands, burying cultivated fields and fences." Dunes on the outer Cape became more common and many harbors filled in with eroded soils.[22]
By 1800, most of Cape Cod's firewood had to be transported by boat from Maine. The paucity of vegetation was worsened by the raising of merino sheep that reached its peak in New England around 1840. The early industrial revolution, which occurred through much of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, mostly bypassed Cape Cod due to a lack of significant water power in the area. As a result, and also because of its geographic position, the Cape developed as a large fishing and whaling center. After 1860 and the opening of the American West, farmers abandoned agriculture on the Cape. By 1950 forests had recovered to an extent not seen since the 18th century.
Cape Cod became a summer haven for city dwellers beginning at the end of the 19th century. Improved rail transportation made the towns of the Upper Cape, such as Bourne and Falmouth, accessible to Bostonians. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Northeastern mercantile elite built many large, shingled "cottages" along Buzzards Bay. The relaxed summer environment offered by Cape Cod was highlighted by writers including Joseph C. Lincoln, who published novels and countless short stories about Cape Cod folks in popular magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post and the Delineator.
Guglielmo Marconi made the first transatlantic wireless transmission originating in the United States from Cape Cod, at Wellfleet. The beach from which he transmitted has since been called Marconi Beach. In 1914 he opened the maritime wireless station WCC in Chatham. It supported the communications of Amelia Earhart, Howard Hughes, Admiral Byrd, and the Hindenburg. Marconi chose Chatham due to its vantage point on the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded on three sides by water. Walter Cronkite narrated a 17-minute documentary in 2005 about the history of the Chatham Station.
Much of the East-facing Atlantic seacoast of Cape Cod consists of wide, sandy beaches. In 1961, a significant portion of this coastline, already slated for housing subdivisions, was made a part of the Cape Cod National Seashore by President John F. Kennedy. It was protected from private development and preserved for public use. Large portions are open to the public, including the Marconi Site in Wellfleet. This is a park encompassing the site of the first two-way transoceanic radio transmission from the United States. (Theodore Roosevelt used Marconi's equipment for this transmission).
The Kennedy Compound in Hyannisport was President Kennedy's summer White House during his presidency. The Kennedy family continues to maintain residences on the compound. Other notable residents of Cape Cod have included actress Julie Harris, US Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis, figure skater Todd Eldredge, and novelists Norman Mailer and Kurt Vonnegut. Influential natives included the patriot James Otis, historian and writer Mercy Otis Warren, jurist Lemuel Shaw, and naval officer John Percival.
[edit] Lighthouses of Cape Cod
Race Point Lighthouse in Provincetown (1876)
Lighthouses, from ancient times, have fascinated members of the human race. There is something about a lighted beacon that suggests hope and trust and appeals to the better instincts of mankind.
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Edward Rowe Snow
Due to its dangerous constantly moving shoals, Cape Cod's shores have featured beacons which warn ships of the danger since very early in its history. There are numerous working lighthouses on Cape Cod and the Islands, including Highland Light, Nauset Light, Chatham Light, Race Point Light, and Nobska Light, mostly operated by the U.S. Coast Guard. The exception is Nauset Light, which was decommissioned in 1996 and is now maintained by the Nauset Light Preservation Society under the auspices of Cape Cod National Seashore. These lighthouses are frequently photographed symbols of Cape Cod.
Others include:
Upper Cape: Wings Neck
Mid Cape: Sandy Neck, South Hyannis, Lewis Bay, Bishop and Clerks, Bass River
Lower Cape: Wood End, Long Point, Monomoy, Stage Harbor, Pamet, Mayo Beach, Billingsgate, Three Sisters, Nauset, Highland
[edit] Transportation
Cape Cod is connected to the mainland by a pair of canal-spanning highway bridges from Bourne and Sagamore that were constructed in the 1930s, and a vertical-lift railroad bridge. The limited number of access points to the peninsula can result in large traffic backups during the tourist season.
The entire Cape is roughly bisected lengthwise by U.S. Route 6, locally known as the Mid-Cape Highway and officially as the Grand Army of the Republic Highway.
Commercial air service to Cape Cod operates out of Barnstable Municipal Airport and Provincetown Municipal Airport. Several bus lines service the Cape. There are ferry connections from Boston to Provincetown, as well as from Hyannis and Woods Hole to the islands.
Cape Cod has a public transportation network comprising buses operated by three different companies, a rail line, taxis and paratransit services.
The Bourne Bridge over the Cape Cod Canal, with the Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge in the background
[edit] Bus
Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority operates a year-round public bus system comprising three long distance routes and a local bus in Hyannis and Barnstable Village. From mid June until October, additional local routes are added in Falmouth and Provincetown. CCRTA also operates Barnstable County's ADA required paratransit (dial-a-ride) service, under the name "B-Bus."
Long distance bus service is available through Plymouth and Brockton Street Railway, with regular service to Boston and Logan Airport, as well as less frequent service to Provincetown. Peter Pan Bus Lines also runs long distance service to Providence T.F. Green Airport and New York City.
[edit] Rail
Regular passenger rail service through Cape Cod ended in 1959, quite possibly on June 30 of that year. In 1978, the tracks east of South Dennis were abandoned and replaced with the very popular bicycle path, known as the Cape Cod Rail Trail. Another bike path, the Shining Sea Bikeway, was built over tracks between Woods Hole and Falmouth in 1975; construction to extend this path to North Falmouth over 6.3 miles (10.1 km) of inactive rail bed began in April 2008[23] and ended in early 2009. Active freight service remains in the Upper Cape area in Sandwich and in Bourne, largely due to a trash transfer station located at Massachusetts Military Reservation along the Bourne-Falmouth rail line. In 1986, Amtrak ran a seasonal service in the summer from New York City to Hyannis called the Cape Codder. From 1988, Amtrak and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation increased service to a daily frequency.[24] Since its demise in 1996, there have been periodic discussions about reinstating passenger rail service from Boston to reduce car traffic to and from the Cape, with officials in Bourne seeking to re-extend MBTA Commuter Rail service from Middleboro to Buzzards Bay[25], despite a reluctant Beacon Hill legislature.
Cape Cod Central Railroad operates passenger train service on Cape Cod. The service is primarily tourist oriented and includes a dinner train. The scenic route between Downtown Hyannis and the Cape Cod Canal is about 2½ hours round trip. Massachusetts Coastal Railroad is also planning to return passenger railroad services eventually to the Bourne-Falmouth rail line in the future. An August 5, 2009 article on the New England Cable News channel, entitled South Coast rail project a priority for Mass. lawmakers, mentions a $1.4-billion railroad reconstruction plan by Governor Deval Patrick, and could mean rebuilding of old rail lines on the Cape. On November 21, 2009, the town of Falmouth saw its first passenger train in 12 years, a set of dinner train cars from Cape Cod Central. And a trip from the Mass Bay Railroad Enthusiasts on May 15, 2010 revealed a second trip along the Falmouth line.
[edit] Taxi
Taxicabs are plentiful, with several different companies operating out of different parts of the Cape. Except at the airport and some bus terminals with taxi stands, cabs must be booked ahead of time, with most operators preferring two to three hours notice. Cabs cannot be "hailed" anywhere in Barnstable County, this was outlawed in the early nineties after several robbery attempts on drivers.
Most companies utilize a New York City-style taximeter and charge based on distance plus an initial fee of $2 to $3. In Provincetown, cabs charge a flat fare per person anywhere in the town.
[edit] Tourism
Hyannis Harbor on Nantucket Sound
Although Cape Cod has a year-round population of about 230,000, it experiences a tourist season each summer, the beginning and end of which can be roughly approximated as Memorial Day and Labor Day, respectively. Many businesses are specifically targeted to summer visitors, and close during the eight to nine months of the "off season" (although the "on season" has been expanding somewhat in recent years due to Indian Summer, reduced lodging rates, and the number of people visiting the Cape after Labor Day who either have no school-age children, and the elderly, reducing the true "off season" to six or seven months). In the late 20th century, tourists and owners of second homes began visiting the Cape more and more in the spring and fall, softening the definition of the high season and expanding it somewhat (see above). Some particularly well-known Cape products and industries include cranberries, shellfish (particularly oysters and clams) and lobstering.
Provincetown, at the tip of Cape Cod, also berths several whale watching fleets who patrol the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Most fleets guarantee a whale sighting (mostly humpback whale, fin whale, minke whale, sei whale, and critically endangered, the North Atlantic Right Whale), and one is the only federally certified operation qualified to rescue whales. Provincetown has also long been known as an art colony, attracting writers and artists. The town is home to the Cape's most attended art museum, the Provincetown Art Association and Museum. Many hotels and resorts are friendly to or cater to gay and lesbian tourists and it is known as a gay mecca in the summer.[26]
Cape Cod is a popular destination for beachgoers from all over. With 559.6 miles (900.6 km) of coastline, beaches, both public and private, are easily accessible. The Cape has upwards of sixty public beaches, many of which offer parking for non-residents for a daily fee (in summer). The Cape Cod National Seashore has 40 miles (64 km) of sandy beach and many walking paths.
Cape Cod is also popular for its outdoor activities like beach walking, biking, boating, fishing, go-karts, golfing, kayaking, miniature golf, and unique shopping. There are 27 public, daily-fee golf courses and 15 private courses on Cape Cod.[27] Bed and breakfasts or vacation houses are often used for lodging.
Each summer the Naukabout Music Festival is held at the Barnstable County Fair Grounds located in East Falmouth,(typically) during the first weekend of August. This Music festival features local, regional and national talent along with food, arts and family friendly activities.
[edit] Sport fishing
Cape Cod is known around the world as a spring-to-fall destination for sport anglers. Among the species most widely pursued are striped bass, bluefish, bluefin tuna, false albacore (little tunny), bonito, tautog, flounder and fluke. The Cape Cod Bay side of the Cape, from Sandwich to Provincetown, has several harbors, saltwater creeks, and shoals that hold bait fish and attract the larger game fish, such as striped bass, bluefish and bluefin tuna.
The outer edge of the Cape, from Provincetown to Falmouth, faces the open Atlantic from Provincetown to Chatham, and then the more protected water of Nantucket and Vineyard Sounds, from Chatham to Falmouth. The bays, harbors and shoals along this coastline also provide a robust habitat for game species, and during the late summer months warm-water species such as mahi-mahi and marlin will also appear on the southern edge of Cape Cod's waters. Nearly every harbor on Cape Cod hosts sport fishing charter boats, which run from May through October.[28]
[edit] Sports
The Cape has nine amateur baseball franchises playing within Barnstable County in the Cape Cod Baseball League. The Wareham Gatemen also play in the Cape Cod Baseball League in nearby Wareham, Massachusetts in Plymouth County. The league originated 1923, although intertown competition traces to 1866. Teams in the league are the Bourne Braves, Brewster Whitecaps, Chatham Anglers (formerly the Chatham Athletics), Cotuit Kettleers, Falmouth Commodores, Harwich Mariners, Hyannis Harbor Hawks (formerly the Hyannis Mets), Orleans Firebirds (formerly the Orleans Cardinals), Wareham Gatemen and the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox. Pro ball scouts frequent the games in the summer, looking for stars of the future.
Cape Cod is also a national hot bed for baseball and hockey. Along with the Cape Cod Baseball League and the new Junior Hockey League team, the Cape Cod Cubs, many high school players are being seriously recruited as well. Barnstable and Harwich have each sent multiple players to Division 1 colleges for baseball, Harwich has also won three State titles in the past 12 years (1996, 2006, 2007). Bourne and Sandwich, known rivals in hockey have won state championships recently. Bourne in 2004, and Sandwich in 2007. Nauset, Barnstable, and Martha's Vineyard are also state hockey powerhouses. Barnstable and Falmouth also hold the title of having one of the longest Thanksgiving football rivalries in the country. The teams have played each other every year on the Thanksgiving since 1895. The Bourne and Barnstable girl's volleyball teams are two of the best teams in the state and Barnstable in the country. With Bourne winning the State title in 2003 and 2007. In the past 15 years, Barnstable has won 12 Division 1 State titles and has won the state title the past two years.
The Cape also is home to the Cape Cod Frenzy, a team in the American Basketball Association.
Soccer on Cape Cod is represented by the Cape Cod Crusaders, playing in the USL Premier Development League (PDL) soccer based in Hyannis. In addition, a summer Cape Cod Adult Soccer League (CCASL) is active in several towns on the Cape.
Cape Cod is also the home of the Cape Cod Cubs, a new junior league hockey team that is based out of Hyannis at the new communtiy center being built of Bearses Way.
The end of each summer is marked with the running of the world famous Falmouth Road Race which is held on the 3rd Saturday in August. It draws about 10,000 runners to the Cape and showcases the finest runners in the world (mainly for the large purse that the race is able to offer). The race is 7.2 miles (11.6 km) long, which is a non-standard distance. The reason for the unusual distance is that the man who thought the race up (Tommy Leonard) was a bartender who wanted a race along the coast from one bar (The Cap'n Kidd in Woods Hole) to another (The Brothers Four in Falmouth Heights). While the bar in Falmouth Heights is no longer there, the race still starts at the front door of the Cap'n Kidd in Woods Hole and now finishes at the beach in Falmouth Heights. Prior to the Falmouth race is an annual 5-mile (8.0 km) race through Brewster called the Brew Run, held early in August.
[edit] Education
Each town usually consists of a few elementary schools, one or two middle schools and one large public high school that services the entire town. Exceptions to this include Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School located in Yarmouth which services both the town of Yarmouth as well as Dennis and Nauset Regional High School located in Eastham which services the town of Brewster, Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro, and Provincetown (optional). Bourne High School is the public school for students residing in the town of Bourne, which is gathered from villages in Bourne, including Sagamore, Sagamore Beach, and Buzzards Bay. Barnstable High School is the largest high school and is known for its girls' volleyball team which have been state champions a total of 12 times. Barnstable High School also boasts one of the country's best high school drama clubs which were awarded with a contract by Warner Brothers to created a documentary in webisode format based on their production of Wizard of Oz. Sturgis Charter Public School is a public school in Hyannis which was featured in Newsweek's Magazine's "Best High Schools" ranking. It ranked 28th in the country and 1st in the state of Massachusetts in the 2009 edition and ranked 43rd and 55th in the 2008 and 2007 edition, respectively. Sturgis offers the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme in their junior and senior year and is open to students as far as Plymouth. The Cape also contains two vocational high schools. One is the Cape Cod Regional Technical High School in Harwich and the other is Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical High School located in Bourne. Lastly, Mashpee High School is home to the Mashpee Chapter of (SMPTE,) the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. This chapter is the first and only high school chapter in the world to be a part of this organization and has received much recognition within the Los Angeles broadcasting industry as a result. The officers of this group who have made history are listed below:
* President: Ryan D. Stanley '11
* Vice-President Kenneth J. Peters '13
* Treasurer Eric N. Bergquist '11
* Secretary Andrew L. Medlar '11
In addition to public schools, Cape Cod has a wide range of private schools. The town of Barnstable has Trinity Christian Academy, Cape Cod Academy, St. Francis Xavier Preparatory School, and Pope John Paul II High School. Bourne offers the Waldorf School of Cape Cod, Orleans offers the Lighthouse Charter School for elementary and middle school students, and Falmouth offers Falmouth Academy. Riverview School is located in East Sandwich and is a special co-ed boarding school which services students as old as 22 who have learning disabilities. Another specialized school is the Penikese Island School located on Penikese Island, part of the Elizabeth Islands off southwestern Cape Cod, which services struggling and troubled teenage boys.
Cape Cod also contains two institutions of higher education. One is the Cape Cod Community College located in West Barnstable, Barnstable. The other is Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Buzzards Bay, Bourne. Massachusetts Maritime Academy is the oldest continuously operating maritime college in the United States.
[edit] Islands off Cape Cod
Like Cape Cod itself, the islands south of the Cape have evolved from whaling and trading areas to resort destinations, attracting wealthy families, celebrities, and other tourists. The islands include Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, as well as Forbes family-owned Naushon Island, which was purchased by John Murray Forbes with profits from opium dealing in the China trade during the Opium War. Naushon is one of the Elizabeth Islands, many of which are privately owned. One of the publicly accessible Elizabeths is the southernmost island in the chain, Cuttyhunk, with a year-round population of 52 people. Several prominent families have established compounds or estates on the larger islands, making these islands some of the wealthiest resorts in the Northeast, yet they retain much of the early merchant trading and whaling culture.
www.massage-southampton.co.uk/sports-massage-information..... you’re athletic, it is an Ideal aid to recovery from injury as well as helping prevent injuries, Sports Massage promotes faster recovery after competing or training and maintains a healthy musculoskeletal system by supporting not just the muscles but the ligaments, joints and tendons.
While driving from Moab to Las Vegas we made a short detour to Monument Valley Tribal Park. At 6500 feet elevation it was cold but only a bit of snow was on the ground in the high desert. Of all the monoliths in the park, the "Mittens" are certainly some of the most recognized and impressive.
Camera Nikon D800
Exposure 0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture f/16.0
Focal Length 62 mm
ISO Speed 400
Exposure Bias -1/3 EV
View the entire Utah-Arizona Set
View the entire Monument Valley Set
View my - Most Interesting according to Flickr
Recent fisticuffs over someone plonking their tripod in the water right in front of everyone else apparently have led the local Council to look at ways of maintaining order at Llyn Padarn's not so lonely "Lone Tree". Growing numbers of togs are increasingly marking out their 'plot' earlier and earlier, like fans putting up tents to sleep outside Apple stores to get the lastest iPhone. Togs are resorting to sleeping as close as possible to this location in camper vans, in order to be first in line. Unfortunately there was trouble in the early hours one night recently when someone travelling from Germany found a Southerner already bedded down on the bench at the waterside by the tree. Regulars will note that the lower left branch has been broken.
The Council have discussed a permit scheme whereby togs book a slot (£ 8.00 admin fee) at a marked position. I believe only five 'pitches' marked by numbered plates set in the ground, will be available at any one time. Pitch No.3. directly in front of the tree is priced at £ 16.00 per time slot.
Unfortunately slots will be enforced rigorously to prevent rufty tufty behaviour, and if the light comes good just on the expiration of your booked period you will politely be asked to pack up and move on without hanging on a bit longer. There are plenty more people who would like to get a shot once you have moved out of the way.
The Council proposes to take funds from permits sold to invest in significant pruning of the tree and the installation of seasonal lights and baubles.
My shot, to follow soon. Still working on cloning six togs out of it.
The cutting-edge technology that keeps the Silverstone motor racing track in tip-top condition could be coming to Croydon. John Bownas spoke to the team hoping to bring it here.
Pot holes – we all hate ‘em, and Croydon certainly has its share.
But now, the borough’s highways team is taking a lead from the people responsible for maintaining Silverstone’s grand prix circuit.
New technology that is good enough for the world’s top racing drivers is being tested in Croydon to see if it is up to the council’s exacting standards.
If trials are successful, the infrared-powered Nu-Phalt repair system could become invaluable to Croydon’s road repair crews who would be the first in London to realise its potential benefits.
Apart from a significant possible cost saving, the biggest advantages that the new technique has over traditional methods are:
•speed: a typical 1 square metre repair can be completed in just 20 minutes; currently, the same job takes considerably longer, and would be only a temporary fix;
•durability: the infra-red triggered thermal bonding means that patch repairs are far more permanent and blend seamlessly into the surrounding road surface;
•environmentally friendly: the process starts by recycling the existing macadam and needs only a small amount of new material to top off the repair.
The council has recently announced a multi-million pound investment project to resurface many of its roads.
However, there will always be a need for fast and efficient repairs in those cases where small patches of tarmac work loose.
This can happen at any time of the year – although it is usually after spells of wet or cold weather that these small holes open up to create a real headache for motorists and cyclists.
In total, the council’s emergency repairs operation currently costs about £560k every year in manpower and materials – and that’s not including the money that is budgeted separately for the major road resurfacing schemes that we will be seeing a lot more of over the next few years.
Steve Iles is the council’s head of highways, and he knows better than anyone else in the borough just how big a task it is to stay on top of the thousands of road repairs that his teams have to carry out every year.
Talking to Your Croydon about this mammoth job and his hopes for the promising high-tech solution, he first ran through some of the big numbers involved.
“We’ve got nearly 3,000 roads in Croydon, and these all get inspected by the council at least twice a year.
“We look out for any problems that might have arisen since the last visit – and particularly any new holes or cracks that could pose a hazard.
“Since January our system’s logged nearly 5,000 new reports from both streetscene inspectors and those members of the public who phone or email to tell us about possible problems.”
In that same time we’ve managed to fill in or repair about 9,800 – but there’s still around 8,600 that we know about waiting to be fixed.
“That takes a lot of doing,” continued Steve, “I’ve got six full-time staff who spend the majority of their day out doing this sort of work.
“And when they can’t do road repairs, because of snow and ice, they drive the gritting lorries to try to keep the roads clear.”
Tony Whyatt is the highways engineer whose research into improved technology solutions has led to the trial of the Nu-Phalt system.
“I’m really optimistic about how this will save us time and money.
“We reuse most of the existing road material on-site and need to add only a small amount of fresh material to each repair.
“There’s no noisy compressors, and the system cuts the number of vehicles and staff involved in each repair.
“We also minimise disruption to traffic – which is good for drivers – and these repairs can be driven over again almost immediately they’re finished.”
Indeed, driving away from our meeting with Tony we drove over a number of holes that had just been filled – and the first thing we noticed was that we didn’t notice them at all.
The repaired road was as smooth as the day it was originally laid.
The Everglades put on a show, this weekend, at sunset. A thunderhead drifted south and caught the sun over the cypress. This is about 10 photos, all stitched into one to maintain the scale of the sawgrass prairie, the trees and the sky, beyond it.
It wasn't easy, but the view at the summit (at 1,004 m) and during sunset was well worth the excruciating efforts and was extremely rewarding. Mount Zas (Zeus) in Naxos is the highest mountain on the Greek Cyclades, In ancient times, the local Greeks believed that the cave on the northwest flanks of the mountain was the birthplace of the god Zeus. Zeus,the god of the sky, the king of the Olympians. The "easiest" trail starts at Aghia Marina, the name of the little chapel near the start. It is a well-maintained trail which is posted with a number of signs and cairns and is easy to follow to the summit. This route is 8 kilometers round-trip. The feeling at the summit is a most liberating one can have.
"Why did the Yearling cross the road...?"
Moose of the Canadian Rockies
Moose (Alces alces) are the largest members of the deer family, and their size is precisely why they are one of nature’s most resilient cold-climate species. Their adaptive mechanism to conserve body heat is best described by a zoological principle known as, ‘Bergmann’s Rule.’ The rule applies to the ratio of body surface to weight in warm-blooded animals. Moose have a relatively small surface area compared to their volume. Regardless of external temperatures, Moose maintain a relatively constant internal temperature—meaning they require only minor metabolic and environmental adjustments to live comfortably in North America’s lowest-temperature regions. Moose range from the Arctic coasts of North America, Europe, and Asia, down to the southern limits of the boreal forest. In North America, they reach their southern extent in New York State to the east and Utah to the west.
The Moose is a browser, or ‘eater of twigs’ as the Algonquian Native name translates. In a single day, an adult can consume about 44 pounds of vegetation. They graze on aquatic plants such as water lilies and duckweed and make use of their impressive stature to tear off twigs high in the willow trees. Summer waterways are important feeding areas and also provide escape routes from wolves, bears, and mesopredators like the red fox and coyote.
For more Info: www.nathab.com/know-before-you-go/alaska-northern-adventu...
"During the first months on Atlas, we marked out mining fields and progressively established outposts close to each field, to operate and maintain the harvesters from. My parents were stationed at one of those outposts for maintenance duty. For the remaining years of my scholarship in The Ring, before joining service as a drone operator on the sun-side, I only saw them on rare occasions. One of those was the regular medical check they would undergo, as traces of the raw materials on the machinery they were taking care of could be toxic despite all protective equipment. Our med staff quickly discovered that, curiously, not everyone reacted to such exposure.
After refining the resources, command launched unmanned carriers in closely spaced intervals towards other star systems controlled by the confederation. Given Atlas' thin atmosphere and comparably low mass, our engineers had developed highly efficient launch systems early on, halving our colony's fuel expenses for exports. The saved budget was partially redirected towards local causes, the majority however was shoved into the pockets of the Confederation."
Part III of ATLAS, a collaboration hosted in The Workshop.
This scene, like all in this series, was captured entirely in camera. Screen background with complementary light on the left; brickbuilt forced perspective foreground.
Let me know what you think!
~Arab Proverb
What's Cooking? I know I haven't been around much lately, but I wanted to share that it is with good reason: for the past few weeks I've been working with a large publishing house on a series of cooking encyclopedias! Woo-hoo! And even though I'm working with a group of folks (set assistants, editor, art director, etc.), it has been sooooo much work. Thankfully, I wasn't hired to do the actual cooking shots (those are done in a sweaty, 4-kitchen studio space)...I'm doing more of the culinary and beauty shots...such as the chapter head pages shown above (for demo purposes here, I added the "herbs" type myself—the final graphical elements will be included in the design phase).
Note: I promised myself that 2011 would be the year that I would share more info, techniques & tips with my Flickr friends, and in doing so, hopefully make my stream more than just about my photography. And that started with the inclusion of my EXIF and Strobist info with each shot, which I'm glad many of you have found useful. :) But with large projects like these, it seems like a great time to offer more detailed information...lighting configs, set-up shots and set sketches. To that end, below is a page from my always-handy moleskine that I use to frame out shots, lighting and compositional elements. It's crucial when conveying concepts to a design team and to ensure that print margins, bleeds and areas for typographical elements are maintained when shooting. Hope this is helpful!
Macro Mondays (2.21.11): "Spices & Seasonings"
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 50mm f/1.4 USM
Canon EF 25 II Extension Tube
Aperture: f/4.5
Focal Length: 50mm
ISO Speed: 100
Flash: Off-camera front, low; diffused, 2/3 power
Polarizer/Filter: None
Exposure: 1/6
RAW File Processing: Lightroom 3
Slik Sprint Pro w/ Manfrotto 496RC2 Ballhead
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© Steven Brisson. Do not use without permission.
Only a bell and a bird break the silence…
It seems that the two talk with the setting sun.
Golden colored silence, the afternoon is made of crystals.
A roving purity sways the cool trees,
And beyond all that,
A transparent river dreams that trampling over pearls
It breaks loose
And flows into infinity.
Hora Inmensa – Juan Ramon Jimenez
I quite like this picture of a pink thistle. It was as I looked at the image on the PC that I realised the spiders web had maintained a reasonable degree of sharpness. Taken at Beningbrough Hall, near York. UK
National Trust
Italy, Venice, Italy, illustrator drawing a sketch of the Canal Grande at the corner of the vegetable market near the Ponte Rialto.
The lagoon city hides many picturesque places offside the tourist roads. If the buildings would be straight, painted & well maintained, I think Venice without this patina, the gondolas & gondolieri, channels, little bridges & the at all-time busy Canal Grande; all these main ingredients altogether express the romantic charm of Venice.
👉 One World one Dream,
🙏...Danke, Xièxie 谢谢, Thanks, Gracias, Merci, Grazie, Obrigado, Arigatô, Dhanyavad, Chokrane to you & over
16 million visits in my photostream with countless motivating comments
Finally found one couple with a little modesty. As you can see in the following 2 images, they weren't quite so modest.
47776 'Respected' is captured at Hunt's Lock, along the Weaver navigation at Northwich working 5K44 Manchester Piccadilly - Crewe empty coaching stock which, instead of working direct to Crewe took a round about route via the Mid Cheshire line and reversal at Chester. I can only think to maintain driver route knowledge?
Tug 'Clifton', operated by KD Marine UK and was working on the river with hopper barges Halton & Sutton. One of which can just about be seen in the big lock behind.
South of Punta Gorda, the Fort Myers Division mainline track condition is significantly improved, allowing for trains to reach speeds of up to 40 mph ‘till Bayshore; since the SGLR’s ‘Murder Mystery Dinner Train’ operates on this stretch of track, it must be kept maintained at a higher standard to allow safe operation of the passenger service, which includes the use of 135 lbs rail and, in some sections, steel ties. The DeSoto Turn’s are permitted to operate at maximum authorized speed as well, making chases on this stretch a challenge.
As for our subject, the Seminole Gulf Railway’s Thursday-edition southbound DeSoto Turn could finally break out of the 10 mph speed restriction that had been holding them back for hours and start pushing 40 mph, the maximum authorized speed for freight trains. Passing by Best Aggregate Carriers, a frequently served SGLR customer, just south of MP AX943 at 10:38, the two ex-LMX B39-8E’s and their 41 car train continue their southbound journey at speed. 15 miles farther down the line at Bayshore, the DeSoto Turn would stop to serve customers at an industrial park before ending their run at Hanson Yard.
Dating back to 1903, the then-named Fort Myers Extension was constructed by the Atlantic Coast Line in an effort to extend the former-Florida Southern Railway’s Charlotte Harbor Division south to Tico and Fort Myers, with the first train arriving at the namesake city on May 10th, 1904. Freight traffic has always been present throughout the lines history and changes in ownership between the ACL, SCL, SBD, CSX and SGLR [starting in 1987]. Although the frequency of said services fluctuated, it still proved to be a vital link connecting southwestern Florida to the Lakeland and Tampa rail hubs, with the Seminole Gulf diligently maintaining rail customers in the greater Fort Myers area allowing for scenes like this to still exist.
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Tropical Gulf Acres, FL
SGLR Fort Myers Division
Date: 08/10/2022 | 10:38
ID: SGLR DeSoto Turn
Type: Local
Direction: Southbound
Car Count: 41
1. SGLR B39-8E #595
2. SGLR B39-8E #593
•
© Vicente Alonso 2022
Northern Shoveler / spatula clypeata. Straws Bridge, Derbyshire. 09/12/22.
'STRICTLY PAIR BONDING ON ICE.'
The ice on a local lake had started to break up a little and fragment in one sunny place.
These Shovelers looked as if they dare not risk sharing one unstable slab. Instead they chose to rest as close as they could, on separate pieces. It appears their pair bonding is strictly maintained during the winter, whatever the conditions.
A Minneapolis Northfield & Southern Ford maintainers truck is parked next to the Soo Line depot in Waukesha, Wisconsin back on April 6th, 1985. – The MN&S Railway had been acquired by the Soo Line three years prior so there had already been plenty of time for equipment to be assigned to other locations around the Soo system. ~~ A Jeff Hampton Photograph ©
The classic prairie grain elevator at Raymore, Saskatchewan witnesses the passing of an eastbound CN freight slogging along with too many cars and too little power to maintain track speed.
CN 2330 ES44DC
CN 8869 SD70M-2
Ostara V2
Created with Midjourney engine.
PP work in Adobe PS Elements 2024 Raw filters.
Jakob Grimm, in his Teutonic Mythology, maintained that "Ostara, Eástre, was goddess of the growing light of spring." Holy water in the form of the dew, or water collected from brooks, was gathered at this time; washing with it was said to restore youth. Beautiful maidens in sheer white were said to seen frolicking in the country side. Also according to Grimm, the white maiden of Osterrode was said to appear with a large batch of keys at her belt, and stride to the brook to collect water on Easter morning. Ostara is usually experienced as a young maiden wreathed in flowers or new greenery, and often dances. She is often joyous, but can just as easily turn suddenly solemn, like the spring weather that can quickly turn to rain. Like Spring itself, she is capricious, innocent and knowing by turns. Hail to the Maiden of Spring, the dawning of the year! Bring freshness into all our lives. The Wheel of the Year is an annual cycle of seasonal festivals, observed by many modern Pagans, consisting of the year's chief solar events (solstices and equinoxes) and the midpoints between them. While names for each festival vary among diverse pagan traditions, syncretic treatments often refer to the four solar events as "quarter days" and the four midpoint events as "cross-quarter days", particularly in Wicca. Differing sects of modern Paganism also vary regarding the precise timing of each celebration, based on distinctions such as lunar phase and geographic hemisphere. Observing the cycle of the seasons has been important to many people, both ancient and modern. Contemporary Pagan festivals that rely on the Wheel are based to varying degrees on folk traditions, regardless of actual historical pagan practices. Among Wiccans, each festival is also referred to as a sabbat, based on the term was passed down from the Middle Ages, when the terminology for Jewish Shabbat was commingled with that of other heretical celebrations. Contemporary conceptions of the Wheel of the Year calendar were largely influenced by mid-20th century British Paganism.
Thank you all for the visit, kind remarks and invites, they are very much appreciated! 💝 I may reply to only a few comments due to my restricted time spent at the computer.
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Dreadnought is a Hawker Sea Fury, modified for racing. Series of photos taken at Reno Air Races.The Sea Fury is a British fighter-bomber that was developed during World War II for the Royal Navy. The Sea Fury was the Royal Navy's last propeller-driven fighter and was one of the fastest single-piston-engine aircraft ever built. The Dreadnought is maintained by the Sanders family in its original racing configuration. It won the Umlimited Gold Championship in 1986.
Hey everyone,
As you may have heard one of my inspirations Vivienne Westwood passed away at the beginning of the year.
I wanted to use this opportunity to make a small dedication to her.
The black version has handwritten snippets of Vivienne's blog/diary she maintained for the causes she championed.
The red version has punk iconography consistent with parts of her career.
These are available for this weekend only at 50L and they won't be sold again.
Sizes for Maitreya, Legacy and Reborn.
Mainstore:
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Violent%20Seduction/221/13...
If you are interested in learning more about the causes Vivienne championed through her work, please visit www.viviennewestwood.com/en/sustainability/activism/
I'd highly recommend the movie "Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist " too if you're interested in learning more about her life.