View allAll Photos Tagged Porous
Jejudo is a volcanic island, so its beaches are composed of cooled lava. Lava cools down and becomes black, porous like a sponge and sharp. Walking around such a place is unrealistic, but it looks very unusual, like another planet.
The Broad is the contemporary art museum on Grand Avenue founded by Eli Broad and houses the Broad art collections. It opened in 2015, and is a LA 'must-visit' landmark.
The Broad's distinctive architecture is based on a 'veil and vault' concept. The 'vault' is the main concrete building. It is enclosed within a porous 'veil', giving the building a honeycomblike exterior, It was designed by architectural firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro.
Los Angeles; October, 2022
(This image was panorama stitched from 2 images captured with a Sony A6500.)
While the summit massif of Olševa / Uschowa mountain is made of porous dachstein limestone, the southern terrace of it and the whole main ridge of Karawanks west of it is made of much older, paleozoic slates. That is why water is flowing on the surface and on the very ridge even a small moor can be found. It has very interesting, picturesque flora and it's also too wet for a forest.
Ragnar and Freja are twins, and lately they have been feeling totally displaced. In September, Hurricane Ian hit Florida and brought devastating flooding to our area. All of the furniture the kitties usually get comfy on is gone now, as my house sustained over $62,000 worth of damage, and about $50,000 worth of contents, PLUS appliances, and even the cats' cat tree and scratch post. They wake me up about 2 hours early every day out of boredom and wanting to get in my bed! Hopefully things will get back to normal in a few months.
This photo was taken 2 days before the flood, and they were on their favorite sofa which is now gone. This was a level 3 blackwater event, which meant there was sewage and chemicals in the water, so no wood furniture or porous items could be saved due to contamination.
I have been trying to raise money on Go Fund Me to help with the expenses that insurance won't cover, like renting a place for me and the kitties while my house is being restored. If you are able to help, it would be greatly appreciated. The link to Go Fund Me is here: gofund.me/7fa597a7 Thanks!
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Spätzla, Spätzle [ˈʃpɛtslə] or Spatzen are Swabian or Alemannic pasta of an elongated shape which is served as a side dish or with other ingredients like cheese and onion as a main dish. A similar round shape, simplified in production, is native to the pre-Alpine Allgäu regions of Bavarian Swabia and Baden-Württemberg as Knöpfle.
Spätzle are egg-based pasta made with fresh egg of an irregular form with a rough, porous surface. The glutinous dough is put directly into boiling water or steam and the form varies between thin and thick, elongated and short. They are the only pasta that is cooked for the first time during the fabrication. The moist dough is either pressed through a perforated metal plate or it drips through this plate into the boiling water. Other ways to prepare Spätzle are more applicable for domestic use.
Source and more: Swabian spaetzle
The petrifying waterfall of Saint-Pierre de Livron is as beautiful as it is intriguing.Its waters are loaded with carbonates and tuff, a type of very friable limestone, which is deposited on moss and wood in the form of a crust. The disappearance of these plants by this calcareous water gives the rock a porous texture reminiscent of sponge.
"I believe the world is incomprehensibly beautiful - an endless prospect of magic and wonder." --Ansel Adams
Mono Lake is one of the Eastern Sierra's most spectacular (and perhaps most bizarre) of California's natural wonders. It's surrounded by the grand beauty of the rugged, granite-peaked Sierra Nevada Mountains, but it's not the spectacular beauty that make Mono Lake unique. Mono lake is one of the oldest lakes in North America and has been dubbed "California's Dead Sea" because it's 2 and 1/2 times as salty as the ocean. Its lack of an outlet contributes to Mono Lake's saltiness as well as its extreme alkalinity. Freshwater streams that feed Mono Lake have washed salts and minerals into the lake for years and years. As fresh water naturally evaporates into the atmosphere, the minerals are left behind, becoming increasingly concentrated over time. One of the most unique features of Mono Lakes is its tufa towers. The towers are spires of porous "rock" that looks like moon rock. They are formed when natural fresh water springs interact with the highly alkaline lake water and give Mono Lake its unique "landscape." (visitmammoth.com)
As always, a huge thanks to those who stop by to view, fave and or comment! It is truly appreciated...
A friend introduced us to a Katana (Japanese sword) maker in Seki, located at the foothills of the Gifu mountains. Seki is famous for high quality knifes and swords. Fukudome-sensei showed us the process in his workshop from the beginning. He took raw porous iron, heated it up, pounded on it, folded it, and repeated the process over and over again. It takes him 22 days to forge a high quality Katana.
I processed a balanced, a soft, and a photographic HDR photo from a RAW exposure, blended them, carefully adjusted the color balance and curves, and desaturated the image. I welcome and appreciate constructive comments.
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-- ƒ/4.0, 29 mm, 1/250 sec, ISO 1600, Sony A7 II, Pentacon 29mm / f2.8 MC Auto, HDR, 1 RAW exposure, _DSC6662_hdr1bal1sof1pho1k.jpg
-- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, © 2023 Peter Thoeny, Quality HDR Photography
15-November-2024
Lake Predil is located in the Julian Alps "Rio del Lago" meridian valley, between Sella Nevea and Tarvisio.
The stream "Rio del Lago" is the inflow and outflow of the lake, but as an inflow it is only temporary, as it flows partly on the surface only in rainy periods, while in drier periods it flows only underground, as the valley is composed of rocks of various types, with a prevalence of porous limestone and therefore partially permeable.
The lake, on the other hand, has an impermeable basin, composed of sedimentary rocks such as flysch.
The second part of the "Rio del Lago" creek, which is composed of the water exiting the lake, is instead perennial.
In ‘The Genesis Exhibition: Do Ho Suh: Walk the House’, Korean-born, London-based artist Do Ho Suh invites visitors to explore his large-scale installations, sculptures, videos and drawings in this major survey exhibition.
Is home a place, a feeling, or an idea? Suh asks timely questions about the enigma of home, identity and how we move through and inhabit the world around us.
With immersive artworks exploring belonging, collectivity and individuality, connection and disconnection, Suh examines the intricate relationship between architecture, space, the body, and the memories and the moments that make us who we are.
Source: www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/the-genesis-exhibiti...
Nest/s (2024)
Nest/s is connected to an ongoing fabric architecture series Suh calls ‘Hubs’. They form what he describes as an ‘impossible’ architecture. The Hubs serie is based on threshold, such as corridors or entryways, from spaces Suh has occupied throughout his life. In Nest/s, each section is drawn from rooms Suh has inhabited, which together create a continuous passageway. Unlike most building materials, the translucency and delicacy of the textile conveys impressions of the original space rather than acting as a precise replica. The work is made through centuries-old techniques of working with fabric in Korea. The polyester material is today used for traditional Korean summer clothing, emphasizing Suh’s interest in the relationship between architecture and the body. Nest/s breathable and porous quality allows in the surroundings of the museum and the sight of visitors passing through it, blurring the boundaries between inside and outside? Suh considers the fabric architectures to be ‘activated’ once occupied.
Source: Info in the exhibition, right next to the work
"Unspectacular spectacular - a porous dried leaf shows its structure in detail, impaled by a branch..."
„Unspektakulär spektakulär - ein poröses vertrocknetes Blatt zeigt, aufgespießt von einem Ast, detailreich seine Struktur…“
„I would like to take this opportunity to thank all followers, all new followers, and all those who just stop by. I say thank you for all previous and for all the new fav's and comments. 🙏“
„Ich danke an dieser Stelle allen Followern, allen neuen Followern, und all jenen die einfach so mal vorbeischauen. Ich sage Danke für alle bisherigen und für Sie all die neu hinzukommenden Fav‘s und Kommentare. 🙏“
My personal challenge for 2022 - I'll try - and do my very best...
Meine persönliche Herausforderung für 2022 - ich werd's versuchen - und mein Bestes geben…
Southern England where even the tower-blocks are thatched...
Well no, not really, but in a parallel universe, far, far away which I rule with an iron fist like Ming the Merciless they hopefully are...or else!
A cottage and row in the little village of Ashbury.
In the Vale of the White Horse, the village lays at the foot of White Horse Hill, but slightly above the low lying and once very soggy vale.
The building reflects the area. No decent building stone nearby, it is built of the soft, porous chalk from the nearby White Horse Hill, later windows strengthened by brick surrounds and a good roof of steeply pitched straw and reed thatch from the wet Vale of the White Horse.
THANKS FOR YOUR VISIT AND FAVES
ON THE REACTIONS I WILL TRY TO RESPOND BACK
De grote stinkzwam komt met behulp van een eiertand uit een 3–6 cm grote knol die in de volksmond met heksen- of duivelsei wordt aangeduid.
www.flickr.com/photos/105859735@N04/50472246873/in/album-...
Daaruit strekt zich in enkele uren de 10–20 cm lange poreuze en holle steel. De hoed van de paddenstoel is dan met een groene slijmerige sporenlaag (gleba) bedekt die een zeer penetrante aasgeur verspreidt, zelfs tegen de wind in te ruiken. De stank trekt vliegen en kevers als de oranje aaskever aan die voor de verspreiding van de sporen zorgen. De schone hoed is wit tot lichtgeel en heeft een kleine opening aan de top. De zwam lijkt dan wel op morieljes.
De sterke geur doet niet vermoeden dat deze paddenstoel ook eetbaar is. De steel van jonge exemplaren van de grote stinkzwam is eetbaar; naarmate hij ouder wordt neemt het psilocainegehalte toe waardoor hij te giftig wordt voor consumptie. Het heksenei, ontdaan van de sporenlaag, wordt gebakken opgediend en geldt in sommige culturen als afrodisiacum; dit vanwege de uiterlijke overeenkomst van het volwassen exemplaar, met het mannelijk lid. Deze veronderstelde werking is echter nooit aangetoond.
www.flickr.com/photos/105859735@N04/15750883306/in/album-...
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IThe large stink fungus comes with the aid of an egg tooth from a 3–6 cm large tuber, which is popularly referred to as witch's or devil's egg.
www.flickr.com/photos/105859735@N04/50472246873/in/album-...
The 10–20 cm long porous and hollow stem extends from this in a few hours. The cap of the mushroom is then covered with a green slimy spore layer (gleba) that gives off a very pungent carrion odor, even smelling against the wind. The stench attracts flies and beetles such as the orange carrion beetle that spread the spores. The clean hat is white to pale yellow and has a small opening at the top. The fungus then resembles morels.
The strong smell does not suggest that this mushroom is also edible. The stem of young specimens of the stinking fungus is edible; with age, psilocaine levels increase making it too toxic for consumption. The witch's egg, stripped of the spore layer, is served fried and is considered an aphrodisiac in some cultures; this because of the outward similarity of the adult specimen with the male member. However, this supposed effect has never been demonstrated.
www.flickr.com/photos/105859735@N04/15750883306/in/album-...
Le Cube vert, accueillant le siège mondial d’Euronews, chaîne d’information européenne, est conçu comme un immense parallélépipède transpercé par deux atriums coniques introduisant la lumière et l’air, et offrant des vues sur le paysage environnant et des accès aux berges de la Saône. Ces atriums s’apparentent à deux yeux gigantesques fixant le fleuve et son environnement. Le geste spectaculaire d’évidement du volume par deux atriums ouvre la façade et favorise la ventilation naturelle diurne et nocturne à l’intérieur de la construction. Ces espaces à ciel ouvert offrent des lieux de détente accessibles depuis les bureaux. Si le volume architectural se découvre d’abord comme un bloc monolithe, ses extrusions et sa résille enrichissent sa matérialité – graphique, coloré, poreux et aérien.
L’enveloppe est composée d’une façade légère largement vitrée, doublée d’une résille d’aluminium ajourée monochrome aux perforations irrégulières. Elle forme une double peau perméable qui scénarise les jeux de lumière à l’intérieur et enrichit les points de vue vers l’extérieur. Cette approche cinétique résonne avec les mouvements oscillants de la Saône. Le choix du vert renvoie à la couleur de la Saône et met en dialogue l’architecture et le paysage naturel des collines des Balmes, situé sur l’autre rive. L’artiste Fabrice Hyber a conçu la résille du bâtiment : “Ce sont des ondes comme les ondes sonores ou de diffusion mais aussi celles de l’eau, des flux.”
The Green Cube, hosting the global headquarters of Euronews, a European news channel, is conceived as an immense parallelepiped pierced by two conical atria introducing light and air, and offering views of the surrounding landscape and access to the riverbanks. of the Saone. These atriums are like two gigantic eyes fixing the river and its environment. The spectacular gesture of recess of the volume by two atriums opens the facade and favors natural diurnal and nocturnal ventilation inside the building. These open spaces offer relaxing spaces accessible from the offices. If the architectural volume is first discovered as a monolithic block, its extrusions and mesh enhance its materiality - graphic, colorful, porous and airy.
The envelope is composed of a largely glazed light facade, lined with monochrome openwork aluminum mesh with irregular perforations. It forms a permeable double skin that scriptures the play of light inside and enriches the points of view to the outside. This kinetic approach resonates with the oscillating movements of the Saone. The choice of green refers to the color of the Saône and puts into dialogue the architecture and the natural landscape of the hills of Balmes, located on the other side. The artist Fabrice Hyber designed the fishnet of the building: "These are waves like sound waves or diffusion but also those of water, flows."
Sourced by underground springs surrounding Mount Shasta, this section of river flows through a lust riparian corridor.
Mount Shasta typically holds a sizable snowpack that melts throughout the Spring and Summer. (The recent summer, with warmer and drier conditions, the snowpack disappeared fast.) This snow meltwater percolates through its porous volcanic geology emerging as hundreds of springs which feed cold, clear water into the Shasta River, the McCloud River and the Upper Sacramento River.
I'm fortunate to share this image with you all via Explore! Thanks so much for your feedback and encouragement!
Cheers Everyone!
I took over 80 shots of this waterfall today. I narrowed it down to two I like. If you viewers would let me know your opinion as to the strongest I would be grateful.
Downing Creek Falls is the second of at least three significant waterfalls known to occur along the stout length of spring-fueled Downing Creek. The falls drop 32 feet over a distinctly cube-shaped outcrop of basalt, pouring in three to four side-by-side channels (depending on how much extra snow melt water is present), with as many as a dozen small streams of water dribbling out of the adjacent cliff and falling parallel to the falls in tandem. Though the falls aren't terribly tall, the creek is large enough to produced a consistent cloud of mist at the base of the falls, which helps ensure the forest and cliffs all around the falls are liberally covered head to toe in a thick blanket of moss.
Downing Creek is a remarkably consistent stream with a deceivingly small drainage basin. The majority of the creek emerges from springs about one quarter mile upstream from the falls, and flows all year long with very little fluctuation as a result. Further upstream along the drainage is another waterfall which only flows during periods of prolonged snow melt in the spring months, but the upper section of the creek otherwise sinks into the porous ground and the upper falls dries out as a result.
Mørkgonga is a deep and narrow gorge that cuts through the hillside of the Krokskogsplateau in Buskerud, Norway. It was formed when a type of rock more porous than the surrounding mountains eroded away. The hike up there is very steep, there is a chain to help you up in the steepest parts.
At the top, wide views of the Steinsfjord more than 500 meters below await. And your typical selfie opportunity.
All images are copyrighted by EyeSeeLight Photography - Ron Jansen. If you want to use or buy any of my photographs, contact me. It is not allowed to download them or use them on any websites, blogs etc. etc. without asking me.
The line between the bay and the shore is kind of porous. Shot with the Hello Kitty Polaroid SLR680 on Polaroid's new Blue 600 Film.
{Best viewed on black}
Make your ego porous. Will is of little importance, complaining is nothing, frame is nothing. Openness, patience, receptivity, solitude is everything.
~Rainer Maria Rilke
Millions of years ago in the high plateau of Central Anatolia in Turkey a chain of volcanos erupted and rained ash across what would eventually become Turkey. The ash hardened into “tuff”, a porous rock. The tuff was subsequently covered by a layer of harder basaltic magma.
As millennia passed, cracks opened on the basaltic surface, allowing the forces of water and wind erosion to act on the softer tuff sub-layers. This erosion process progressed until all that was left in many areas were pillars of tuff capped with a “cap” of harder basaltic rock. The harder basalt eroded more slowly, forming a protective, mushroom-shaped cap over each tower.
Eventually the pillars, or “chimneys”, will collapse and the caps will fall to the ground until they too erode away.
Creeping water rails, singing warblers and shimmering brown trout can be found along this stretch of England's chalk-stream, Marshcourt River. England is home to more than 85% of the world’s chalk streams, with Hampshire offering some of the finest examples. The geological landscape here is dominated by chalk, a porous rock that slowly filters groundwater before storing it in reservoirs beneath the surface.
The water is then released through springs to form rivers such as the Test, Itchen and Meon, each flowing with extraordinary clarity and purity. From the main courses are numerous sidestreams and tributaries. Some remain winterbournes, rising only when the water table swells, whereas one or two are noted for their own individual beauty. One such stream slips almost unnoticed below the cottage gardens of Stockbridge, before finding space for itself on the wide meadow and marsh to the south of the town. There, for a short distance, the Marshcourt River widens and forges its own identity, running parallel with the Test before the two eventually merge.
The Marshcourt flows along the western edge of Stockbridge Common Marsh, where access is granted to the public by the National Trust. A gentle stroll offers plenty of views of this classic chalk-stream habitat and the wildlife that thrives here. Sedge, reed and Cetti’s warblers may be seen and heard, while water rails and water voles creep deep in the reedbeds and river margins.
Within the river, swathes of water crowfoot swing with the current, while in the sky above, swallows and hobbies gorge on the clouds of hatching insects. The fish also enjoy the feast, with brown trout and grayling crashing with abandon.
The area is renowned throughout the world for its dry-fly fishing and the influence is often evident. In Stockbridge, tackle shops and outfitters such as Orvis UK nestle between the cafés and pubs, and people gather beside the white-fenced barriers to feed bread to the trout, rather than the ducks.
www.countryfile.com/go-outdoors/walks/day-out-marshcourt-...
Stonehouse Court Hotel and the Severn & Thames Canal (strictly the Stroudwater Canal) at Stonehouse. A view south-eastward from the towpath adjacent to the Stonehouse Court Hotel on 16 January 2022. A few hundred yards behind the camera, a new bridge under the Birmingham to Bristol main line was installed over Christmas / New Year 2021/2022 to provide a new link in the project to restore the canal throughout.
FROM WIKIPEDIA: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_and_Severn_Canal
The Thames and Severn Canal is a canal in Gloucestershire in the south of England, which was completed in 1789. It was conceived as part of a canal route from Bristol to London. At its eastern end, it connects to the River Thames at Inglesham Lock near Lechlade, while at its western end, it connects to the Stroudwater Navigation at Wallbridge near Stroud, and thence to the River Severn. It has one short arm (branch), from Siddington to the town of Cirencester.
It includes Sapperton Tunnel, which when built was the longest canal tunnel in Britain, and remains the second-longest complete tunnel. There were always problems with water supply, as no reservoirs were built, while the summit section near the tunnel ran through porous limestone, and there were constant difficulties with leakage. Competition from the railways took much of the canal's traffic by the end of the 19th century, and most of the canal was abandoned in 1927, the remainder in 1941.
Since 1972, the Cotswold Canals Trust has been working to restore both the canal and the Stroudwater Navigation to navigably re-link the Thames and the Severn. A number of the structures have been restored, and some sections are now in water. A major step forward occurred in 2003, when a bid was made to the Heritage Lottery Fund for £82 million to restore both canals. The bid and the project had to be split into smaller sections, but £11.9 million was awarded in 2006 for phase 1a, which with matched funding will restore from 'The Ocean' at Stonehouse to Wallbridge on the Navigation, and from there to Brimscombe Port on the canal.
In 2010, British Waterways gave Inglesham Lock to the Trust, and the Inland Waterways Association mounted a national campaign to fund its restoration (and 420 yards (380 m) of canal above). To re-open the whole canal some major engineering obstacles will need to be overcome.
01-May-2025
Veliki Zavižan (1676m a.s.l., see notes) is the name of the mountain in the center of the photo, among the numerous peaks that make up this large chain/plateau it is one of the highest.
All the peaks in this view, including the first on the right, the very panoramic Velika Zavižanska Kosa (1622m) are higher than 1600m a.s.l. but appear more like hills due to the fact that the Northern Velebit chain is actually a compact massif (plateau type), over a dozen kilometers wide that maintains a height almost everywhere not less than 1500m, so the prominence of its peaks is minimal, while the dry valleys (not fluvial due to the porous calcareous soil) are not very marked.
The Zavižan weather station, next to the homonymous refuge, is located at the foot of the Vučjak peak (1645m a.s.l.), at 1592m a.s.l. and has been active since the post Second World War period.
Despite being a short distance from the Mediterranean, directly above the Kvarner islands and visible from everywhere, it has often had temperatures well below -20°C and it must be considered that the area is on a slope, not subject to local thermal inversions.
All the lowest temperatures recorded by the station, starting from -29°C on the 10th of freezing February 1956, were accompanied by continuous and furious Bora/Bura winds, with rising saturated currents, from Eastern Europe, originating in Siberia, from the Danubian valleys, therefore with 100% relative humidity, low freezing clouds, heavy hard rime and "stau" snow.
A truly extreme weather situation, especially for a place that is located in the Mediterranean area, although with an Alpine climate..but with temperatures lower than those reached in the same periods at the same altitude in the Alps, due to the Siberian currents which arrive here, through Eastern Europe, almost "intact", while in the Alps they have various obstacles, starting from the fact that these currents are generally of low thickness and the Alpine chains can slow them down or divert them.
If the station had been active in the freezing winter of 1929, given the archive isothermal maps at 850hpas, it is reasonable to assume that the temperatures in the area dropped to 30 or 32 degrees below zero with strong Bora winds, probably remaining at those values, especially between 10 and 13 February of that year, even during the day and for 48 or 72 consecutive hours.
The lowest thermal value of the last 10 years dates back to the dry January 2017 with -22°C.
Pre-dawn capture of the tufa at Mono lake. This prominent one on the shore leads you to the 'range' out in the lake.
Call them weird, call them bizarre, call them what you will, but the unusual rock formations that grace Mono Lake's shores are known to geologists as tufa (too'-fah). Tufa forms in a variety of ways at Mono Lake, but the most visible and remarkable formations are the towers that grace Mono's shoreline.
Tufa is a variety of limestone, formed by the precipitation of carbonate minerals from ambient temperature water bodies. Geothermally heated hot-springs sometimes produce similar (but less porous) carbonate deposits known as travertine.
HDR in Photomatix Pro, +/- 2 EV, layered in PSE9.
18-February-2025
In the Trnovo virgin Alpine Forest, one of the 3 in the Karst-Dinaric region (the Dinarides Karst part, that's the Northernmost part of all Dinaric Alps, is limited to Slovenia with a little part in Italy and in Croatian Istra), there is this deep karstic basin, therefore with porous permeable limestone soil, which has a great micro-climatic and botanical value.
The basin, in the photo, whose mouth is at about 1240m above sea level, is closed on all sides and the cold, heavy air accumulates towards the bottom of it (a part is visible in the center-lower), located at 1100m a.s.l., with a powerful semi-permanent thermal inversion.
Consequently, there is also a marked vegetation inversion, with the partially thermophilic Beech (Fagus sylvatica var dinarica, Bukev) from a sub-alpine climate in the upper part, at altitude (up to 1400m a.s.l.), while towards the bottom we pass to the Silver fir of Apennine origin (Abies alba, Jelka) to arrive, at the edges of the bottom, to the Spruce (Picea abies, Smreka) which loves cold and humid soils from an alpine and continental climate and is the tree that mainly makes up the Siberian taiga.
On the bottom only montana/mountain Pine (Pinus mugo, it grows naturally prostrate to cope with the adverse weather conditions of the mountain high altitude), mosses, lichens and dwarf willows grow (plants that normally are only present in high mountains, above 2000m, at this latitude), with a couple of Birches (Betula pendula) on the south-eastern edge, where there is more air mixing.
All area is wild and totally virgin.
The vegetation inversion, obviously, is better seen in the mid-seasons and without snow, so, for further information, I refer you to the photo taken a few years ago in spring (but still with the non-leafed Beech trees):
www.flickr.com/photos/22873479@N08/52115994465/in/album-7...
El agave amarillo o pita (Agave americana) es una planta perenne perteneciente a la familia Asparagaceae , subfamilia Agavaceae. Originaria de México y el sur de Estados Unidos, se ha distribuido mundialmente como planta ornamental y naturalizado en muchas regiones como Sudamérica, Cuenca mediterránea, Asia, Australia y Nueva Caledonia.
Es una planta perenne acaule resistente a terrenos áridos. Las hojas suculentas son grandes (1-2 m por 15-25 cm), lanceoladas, de color blanco-azulado, blanco-grisáceo, verde o variegadas. Se disponen en espiral alrededor del centro donde permanecen enrolladas a un corto tallo central (denominado en México cayote). Poseen espinas a lo largo de los bordes, que pueden ser ondulados o dentados, de casi 2 cm. Una espina apical de unos 5 cm de longitud y de hasta 1 cm de ancho en la base.
Florece una sola vez hacia el final de su ciclo vegetativo, fenómeno conocido como monocarpismo, produciendo una inflorescencia terminal de unos ocho o diez metros de altura y una anchura superior a los 10 cm de diámetro. Desde más de la mitad de su longitud van saliendo pequeñas ramas en forma de panícula abierta, terminando cada una en un grupo de flores bisexuales de color amarillo-verdoso. Cada flor tiene un tamaño de unos 5 a 10 cm, y son polinizadas habitualmente por murciélagos. El fruto es una cápsula trígona y alargada. A lo largo de su vida emite gran número de hijuelos o retoños de raíz.
Cristóbal Colón describió en una ocasión que él había visto en el Caribe una planta que confundió con el aloe. Otros viajeros europeos, observarían su notoria presencia en zonas semidesérticas de Las Américas (razón de su nombre). El botánico Rudolf Jakob Camerarius escribió en una de sus obras que en el jardín botánico de Pisa florecía en 1583 un aloe americano; este no era otra cosa que agave americana que efectivamente floreció por primera vez en Europa en el Jardín botánico de Pisa.
Usos
Ornamental: Se usa ampliamente como ornamental. Existen variedades, especialmente Agave marginata (con el borde de las hojas de color blanco amarillento) y A. medio-picta (con una banda en medio de la hoja en vez del extremo).
Bebida: Seguramente su uso más conocido es la producción de un licor destilado llamado mezcal, del que existen numerosas variedades, entre las que figura un mezcal conocido en todo el mundo, el tequila. El zumo azucarado extraído de la savia del tallo floral antes de la floración se fermenta para producir una bebida alcohólica, llamada pulque —una de las especies utilizada para elaborar la bebida—, que a su vez se destila para obtener el mezcal.
Terapéutico: En América Central diferentes partes de la planta se utilizan externa e internamente para diversas dolencias. La savia como cataplasmas sobre heridas. Ingerida como tratamiento para diarrea, disentería, para evitar el estreñimiento, la indigestión, flatulencia, contra la ictericia y como laxante. La infusión de hojas como purgante y la raíz como diaforético y diurético.
La savia de esta especie contiene cristales de oxalato cálcico que producen dermatitis por contacto.
Otros usos: Se cultiva aún por la fibra textil de sus hojas, llamada pita, para producir cuerda, redes y otros objetos. Su elaboración consiste en machacar las hojas de la planta hasta hacer que se desprenda su parte verde y húmeda. Así se logran las fibras que hay en su interior. Luego se encordan éstas hasta fabricarse cuerdas de textura áspera de varios grosores y de un color casi blanco. Actualmente se emplean medios mecánicos y su uso es más escaso.
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agave_americana
Agave americana, common names century plant, maguey, or American aloe, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae, native to Mexico and the United States in Texas. It is cultivated worldwide as an ornamental plant, and has been naturalized in many regions, including parts of Southern California, the West Indies, South America, Mediterranean Basin, Africa, Canary Islands, India, China, Thailand, and Australia.
Despite the common name "American aloe", it is not in the same family as aloe, though it is in the same order, Asparagales.
Although it is called the century plant, it typically lives only 10 to 30 years. It has a spread around 1.8–3.0 m (6–10 ft) with gray-green leaves of 0.9–1.5 m (3–5 ft) long, each with a prickly margin and a heavy spike at the tip that can pierce deeply. Near the end of its life, the plant sends up a tall, branched stalk, laden with yellow blossoms, that may reach a total height up to 8–9 m (25–30 ft).
Its common name derives from its semelparous nature of flowering only once at the end of its long life. The plant dies after flowering, but produces adventitious shoots from the base, which continue its growth.
A. americana was one of the many species described by Carl Linnaeus in the 1753 edition of Species Plantarum, with the binomial name that is still used today.
A. americana is cultivated as an ornamental plant for the large dramatic form of mature plants—for modernist, drought-tolerant, and desert-style cactus gardens—among many planted settings. It is often used in hot climates and where drought conditions occur. The plants can be evocative of 18th-19th-century Spanish colonial and Mexican provincial areas in the Southwestern United States, California, and xeric Mexico. It is also a popular landscape plant in dry beach gardens in Florida and coastal areas of the Southeastern United States.
When grown as a house plant, A. americana is tolerant of light levels ranging from direct sunlight to shade and requires little watering. It does require a winter resting period at temperatures around 10 to 12 °C (50 to 54 °F). It should be grown in a very porous, sandy potting soil, allowed to dry out between waterings, and repotted every spring.
Cuisine
If the flower stem is cut before flowering, a sweet liquid called aguamiel ("honey water") gathers in the hollowed heart of the plant. This can be fermented to produce the alcoholic drink called pulque or octli in pre-Columbian Mexico.
In the tequila-producing regions of Mexico, agaves are called mezcales. The high-alcohol product of fermented agave distillation is called mezcal; A. americana is one of several agaves used for distillation. A mezcal called tequila is produced from Agave tequilana, commonly called "blue agave". The many different types of mezcal include some which may be flavored with the very pungent mezcal worm.
Mezcal and tequila, although also produced from agave plants, are different from pulque in their technique for extracting the sugars from the heart of the plant, and in that they are distilled spirits. In mezcal and tequila production, the sugars are extracted from the piñas (or hearts) by heating them in ovens, rather than by collecting aguamiel from the plant's cut stalk. Thus, if one were to distill pulque, it would not be a form of mezcal, but rather a different drink.
Agaves are also found throughout Latin America, and are used similarly. In Ecuador, the analog of pulque is guarango, and more recently this has been distilled as miske.
Agave nectar is marketed as a natural form of sugar with a low glycemic index that is due to its high fructose content.
Fibers
The leaves yield fibers, known as pita, which are suitable for making rope, nets, bags, sacks, matting, or coarse cloth. They are also used for embroidery of leather in a technique known as piteado. Both pulque and maguey fiber were important to the economy of pre-Columbian Mexico.
It is used in traditional medicine to treat several ailments, and as a laxative, diuretic and diaphoretic, although a systematic review did not find enough data to support its effectiveness or safety. A. americana is known to be able to cause severe allergic dermatitis.
The about 60,000 year old Henri Knoll lava flow is in the foreground. The Navajo lake is at a 9000feet (2700m) altitude and through underground sinkholes feeds into two different drainage, one is north towards the Sevier river. ending up in the Sevier lake in the Basin and Range, the other one drains into the Virgin river, joining the Colorado river in the Gulf of California in Mexico.
This end of the lake is rarely under water, a dam across the lake separates this more porous part from the rest that serves as a reservoir. Because of the ample winter snow, helped by the rainy monsoon season, the entire lake is filled, and the dam is under several feet of water.
Photographed at midnight on Mid Summers Day in Western Iceland.
Hraunfossar (Borgarfjörður, western Iceland) is a series of waterfalls formed by rivulets streaming over a distance of about 900 metres out of the Hallmundarhraun, a lava field which flowed from an eruption of one of the volcanoes lying under the glacier Langjökull. The waterfalls pour into the Hvítá river from ledges of less porous rock in the lava. The name comes from the Icelandic word for lava (hraun) and the word for waterfalls (fossar).[1] The Hraunfossar are situated near Húsafell and Reykholt and lava-tube cave Víðgelmir is close by.
The 4,535-tonne weight of the Roman concrete dome is concentrated on a ring of voussoirs 9.1 metres in diameter that form the oculus, while the downward thrust of the dome is carried by eight barrel vaults in the 6.4-metre-thick drum wall into eight piers. The thickness of the dome varies from 6.4 metres at the base of the dome to 1.2 metres around the oculus. The materials used in the concrete of the dome also vary. At its thickest point, the aggregate is travertine, then terracotta tiles, then at the very top, tufa and pumice, both porous light stones. At the very top, where the dome would be at its weakest and vulnerable to collapse, the oculus lightens the load.
No tensile test results are available on the concrete used in the Pantheon; however, Cowan discussed tests on ancient concrete from Roman ruins in Libya, which gave a compressive strength of 20 MPa. An empirical relationship gives a tensile strength of 1.47 MPa for this specimen. Finite element analysis of the structure by Mark and Hutchison found a maximum tensile stress of only 0.128 MPa at the point where the dome joins the raised outer wall.
The stresses in the dome were found to be substantially reduced by the use of successively less dense aggregate stones, such as small pots or pieces of pumice, in higher layers of the dome. Mark and Hutchison estimated that, if normal weight concrete had been used throughout, the stresses in the arch would have been some 80% greater. Hidden chambers engineered within the rotunda form a sophisticated structural system. This reduced the weight of the roof, as did the oculus eliminating the apex.
The top of the rotunda wall features a series of brick relieving arches, visible on the outside and built into the mass of the brickwork. The Pantheon is full of such devices – for example, there are relieving arches over the recesses inside – but all these arches were hidden by marble facing on the interior and possibly by stone revetment or stucco on the exterior.
The height to the oculus and the diameter of the interior circle are the same, 43.3 metres, so the whole interior would fit exactly within a cube (or, a 43.3-m sphere could fit within the interior). These dimensions make more sense when expressed in ancient Roman units of measurement: The dome spans 150 Roman feet; the oculus is 30 Roman feet in diameter; the doorway is 40 Roman feet high. The Pantheon still holds the record for the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome. It is also substantially larger than earlier domes. It is the only masonry dome to not require reinforcement. All other extant ancient domes were either designed with tie-rods, chains and banding or have been retrofitted with such devices to prevent collapse.
Though often drawn as a free-standing building, there was a building at its rear which abutted it. While this building helped buttress the rotunda, there was no interior passage from one to the other.
Excerpt from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dongdaemun_Design_Plaza:
Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) is a major urban development landmark in Seoul, South Korea, designed by Zaha Hadid and Samoo, with a distinctively neo-futuristic design characterized by the "powerful, curving forms of elongated structures." The landmark is the centerpiece of South Korea's fashion hub and popular tourist destination, Dongdaemun, featuring a walkable park on its roofs, large global exhibition spaces, futuristic retail stores, and restored parts of the Seoul fortress.
The DDP has been one of the main reasons for Seoul's designation as the World Design Capital in 2010. Construction started in 2009, and it was officially inaugurated on March 21, 2014. It is physically connected to Seoul Subway via Dongdaemun History & Culture Park Station on Line 2, 4, and 5.
The Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) was designed by British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, winner of the 2004 Pritzker Prize, with the concept of "Metonymic Landscape". Metonymy refers to a method of describing a specific object indirectly, and Hadid integrated historical, cultural, urban, social, and economic aspects of Seoul deduced from this method in order to create a scene of the landscape. Designed as a cultural hub in the historical district of Seoul, South Korea's largest fashion district, the DDP is composed of undulating surfaces that resemble the flow of liquid and allow flexibility in space. The state-of-the-art BIM (Building Information Modeling), mega-truss (extra-large roof truss) system, and space frame system are the key features in terms of creating grand-scale spaces. According to Hadid, the fundamental features of her design were "transparency, porousness, and durability." Many ecological features, including a double-skin facade, solar panels, and a water recycling system, are included in the building.
The construction project for replacing Dongdaemun Stadium with a public park has been discussed in the media since 2000, and the city of Seoul established a basic master plan for alternating the function of Dongdaemun Stadium in 2005. Upon the advice of architects, and in order to secure a high-quality design for the new landmark of Seoul, the city invited architects in February 2007 to participate in a design competition. The city requested that the architects include a design plaza, underground spaces, a history park, and a culture park in the project, according to the guidelines. Zaha Hadid's Metonymic Landscape won the competition.
The exterior envelope of the DDP, a smooth and giant mushroom-like structure floating above ground level, is made of concrete, aluminum, steel, and stone. The interior of the building is finished with plaster reinforced with synthetic fiber, acoustic tiles, acrylic resin, stainless steel, and polished stone in the interior.
I have been dreaming of visiting Joshua Tree for a long time and finally made it there.
I am glad to report it was even more beautiful than I thought it would be.
My pictures will not do it justice.
I still remember watching the 50's era movie called "It Came From Outer-Space".
There were some really good scenes in that movie that showed the Joshua Trees so very well. I remember thinking how Alien they looked as I had never seen them before. I was Perhaps 6 or 8 years old when I first seen that movie and have wanted to see visit ever since.
The Joshua Tree isn't even a tree, it is a species of Yucca. No tree rings and very porous inside, almost stringy like.
Megalodon (Otodus megalodon), meaning "big tooth", is an extinct species of mackerel shark that lived approximately 23 to 3.6 million years ago (Mya), from the Early Miocene to the Pliocene epochs. It was formerly thought to be a member of the family Lamnidae and a close relative of the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias). However, it is now classified into the extinct family Otodontidae, which diverged from the great white shark during the Early Cretaceous. While regarded as one of the largest and most powerful predators to have ever lived, the megalodon is only known from fragmentary remains, and its appearance and maximum size are uncertain. Scientists differ on whether it would have more closely resembled a stockier version of the great white shark, the whale shark (Rhincodon typus), the basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus) or the sand tiger shark (Carcharias taurus).
Scientific classification:
Domain:Eukaryota
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Chondrichthyes
Subclass:Elasmobranchii
Subdivision:Selachimorpha
Order:Lamniformes
Family:Otodontidae
Genus:Otodus
Species:O. megalodon
The most recent estimate with the least error range suggests a maximum length estimate up to 20 m, although the modal lengths are estimated at 10.5 m. Estimates suggest that a megalodon about 16 m long weighs up to 48 MT, 17 m long weighs up to 59 MT, and 20.3 m long (the maximum length) weighs up to 103 MT. Their teeth were thick and robust, built for grabbing prey and breaking bone, and their large jaws could exert a bite force of up to 108,500 to. Megalodon probably had a major impact on the structure of marine communities. The fossil record indicates that it had a cosmopolitan distribution. It probably targeted large prey, such as whales, seals and sea turtles. Juveniles inhabited warm coastal waters and fed on fish and small whales. Unlike the great white, which attacks prey from the soft underside, megalodon probably used its strong jaws to break through the chest cavity and puncture the heart and lungs of its prey. The animal faced competition from whale-eating cetaceans, such as Livyatan and other macroraptorial sperm whales and possibly smaller ancestral killer whales. As the shark preferred warmer waters, it is thought that oceanic cooling associated with the onset of the ice ages, coupled with the lowering of sea levels and resulting loss of suitable nursery areas, may have also contributed to its decline. A reduction in the diversity of baleen whales and a shift in their distribution toward polar regions may have reduced megalodon's primary food source. The shark's extinction coincides with a gigantism trend in baleen whales.
Megalodon teeth are similar in shape but larger and broader than the teeth of the modern great white shark. Teeth are triangular, broad at the base, and thin toward the peak, like a chisel or wedge, although sometimes they curve toward the cusp. Teeth have a root, which has a V-shaped notch at its base, and an enamel-covered crown. The root has a rough, porous, bone-like texture, whereas the enamel is smooth and polished, but sometimes broken by vertical cracks. The outward-facing (lingual) side of the tooth bulges outward. The inward-facing (labial) side of the tooth is generally flat to slightly curved. The border between the crown and root on the lingual side of the tooth is marked by a chevron-shaped feature called the bourlette or dental band. The edges of the teeth are serrated like steak knives.
Size: 71 x 62mm
Specimen bought in Japan
Hraunfossar (Borgarfjörður, western Iceland) is a series of waterfalls formed by rivulets streaming over a distance of about 900 metres out of the Hallmundarhraun, a lava field which flowed from an eruption of one of the volcanoes lying under the glacier Langjökull. The waterfalls pour into the Hvítá river from ledges of less porous rock in the lava. The name hraun comes from the Icelandic word for lava. The Hraunfossar are situated near Húsafell and Reykholt .
From late Spring to early Fall melting snow percolates through Mount Shasta's porous volcanic geology emerging as hundreds of springs like the one pictured here. These springs feed cold, clear water into the Shasta River, the McCloud River and the Upper Sacramento River helping to cool flows throughout the warmer months.
I'm fortunate to share this image with you via Explore! As always - really appreciate your feedback and encouragement!
Writing-On-Stone, Archaeological Site
From the Blackfoot word Áísínai'pi, meaning "it is written," Writing-On-Stone is both a provincial park and a place of great archaeological significance. Located in south-central Alberta, Writing-On-Stone contains one of the most important collections of ancient rock art found anywhere in North America. The erosional action of the Milk River has carved an elaborate network of sheer sandstone bedrock walls and exotic column and pillar formations called Hoodoos. It is on these bedrock surfaces that the aboriginal inhabitants of southern Alberta have inscribed thousands of individual images.
Ancient Pictographs and Petroglyphs
Although the ancient inhabitants of the Plains [...] had no written language, they developed a sophisticated form of rock art, or picture writing. Two methods were used to make the ancient images at Writing-On-Stone. In some cases, the soft bedrock was carved or etched to form the outline form of humans, animals, geometric shapes and different artifacts such as bows, arrows and shields. These carved images are called petroglyphs. The other method was to paint images onto the rock surface with the ironstone mineral hematite, also called red ochre. These images are called pictographs. The paint was applied to the rock with fingers or with a brush made from the soft, porous ends of certain buffalo bones.
A packrat midden is encased in the porous stone that forms the southern wall of an ephemeral stream that occasionally issues into McDonald Canyon. McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area, Colorado.
Packrats collect seemingly random objects from their territories--piñon needles, cactus spines, cones, seeds--and bring them back to their caves. They then urinate on the new treasures, and the urine dries, encasing the objects in something like brown glass that seals them from the air. These middens can store plant materials for up to 40,000 years, giving botanical biogeographers a window into the distant past. Packrats can tell us what sorts of communities occupied this site 20,000 years ago, before the first Native Americans arrived.
Hraunfossar is a series of waterfalls formed by rivulets streaming over a distance of about 900 metres out of the Hallmundarhraun, a lava field which flowed from an eruption of one of the volcanoes lying under the glacier Langjökull. The waterfalls pour into Hvítá, from ledges of less porous rock in the lava. The name comes from the Icelandic word for lava (hraun) and the word for waterfalls (fossar)
Airports these days have designated areas to regather one’s belongings and wits after security check-ins. Such areas also exist in nature, but on a grander and primal scale. Rishabh and I were at such a recombobulation area the other month, where deep time is trapped in delicate fibers of life on Isle Royale islands.
Isle Royale is a remote archipelago of 400+ islands surrounded by cold waters of Lake Superior. Indigenous Ojibwe refer to Isle Royale as Minong, ‘the good place’. Minong punctuates the otherwise endless lake as parallel chains of fringing, fingerlike promontories (islands). The bedrock, made of thick layers of flood basalt from old lava flows and sedimentary rocks, is tiled southeast, scooping as a syncline to form the Lake Superior basin. The jutting end of the basin (fold), that sticks out of water as islands of Isle Royale, was clawed and sculped by icy gnawing of four glacier periods, the recent one being only 12,000 years ago. Today, most of the island landmass is verdant with hardy plants. But the shorelines, which hold little water due to their inclination, are rocky and bare. As if, the land bares itself on these shores to be caressed eternally by lapping waves of the motherly lake.
On this day, we came across the above view during our hike back from the Scoville Point on the Stoll Memorial Trail. The legion of clouds was scattered that late afternoon as if it lacked leadership to form organized battlelines. The sun made its way through cracks in this porous army and set up theatrical lightning for an aboriginal play to unveil. We took our seats. Unlike their oceanic counterparts, waves of Lake Superior were unrushed and attended the rocks tenderly. These rocks have been forever in melee with elements; broiled in summers and frost-bitten in atrocious northerly winters. At first glance, these battled-hardened rocks appeared heavily amygdaloidal (rock cavities filled with different minerals to form dotted patterns). A patient inspection however, revealed them as homestead for an ancient pioneer couple, the lichen.
There were lichens of many colors that painted these shores in multi-chrome. Lichens are colorful beings after all. The alga in the lichen is the sorcerer alchemist who converts air and light into sugar, whereas the fungus dissolves rocks to nourish the partnership with essential salts and minerals. Interdependence. Scientist have noted that the algae and fungi do not engage each other in laboratories when conditions are of abundance. But when resources become limiting and food becomes scarce, they rely on each other, enter a primordial partnership, and behave as a single entity, the lichen. To live on, interdependence supersedes independence. I leaned in close. These inclined rocks cannot hold rainwater, but they hold life. Frail actors of fragile life here dissolve in each other and create a sum that is bigger than the parts. Recombobulation!
It was time to head back. The only restaurant here served dinner until 7:00pm and we were an hour away. Gathering my gear and thoughts, I smiled. Until the glaciers come again in an inevitable future ice age, the order of things outside and within felt harmoniously reoriented here in Minong, the recombobulation place.
Excerpt from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dongdaemun_Design_Plaza:
Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) is a major urban development landmark in Seoul, South Korea, designed by Zaha Hadid and Samoo, with a distinctively neo-futuristic design characterized by the "powerful, curving forms of elongated structures." The landmark is the centerpiece of South Korea's fashion hub and popular tourist destination, Dongdaemun, featuring a walkable park on its roofs, large global exhibition spaces, futuristic retail stores, and restored parts of the Seoul fortress.
The DDP has been one of the main reasons for Seoul's designation as the World Design Capital in 2010. Construction started in 2009, and it was officially inaugurated on March 21, 2014. It is physically connected to Seoul Subway via Dongdaemun History & Culture Park Station on Line 2, 4, and 5.
The Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) was designed by British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, winner of the 2004 Pritzker Prize, with the concept of "Metonymic Landscape". Metonymy refers to a method of describing a specific object indirectly, and Hadid integrated historical, cultural, urban, social, and economic aspects of Seoul deduced from this method in order to create a scene of the landscape. Designed as a cultural hub in the historical district of Seoul, South Korea's largest fashion district, the DDP is composed of undulating surfaces that resemble the flow of liquid and allow flexibility in space. The state-of-the-art BIM (Building Information Modeling), mega-truss (extra-large roof truss) system, and space frame system are the key features in terms of creating grand-scale spaces. According to Hadid, the fundamental features of her design were "transparency, porousness, and durability." Many ecological features, including a double-skin facade, solar panels, and a water recycling system, are included in the building.
The construction project for replacing Dongdaemun Stadium with a public park has been discussed in the media since 2000, and the city of Seoul established a basic master plan for alternating the function of Dongdaemun Stadium in 2005. Upon the advice of architects, and in order to secure a high-quality design for the new landmark of Seoul, the city invited architects in February 2007 to participate in a design competition. The city requested that the architects include a design plaza, underground spaces, a history park, and a culture park in the project, according to the guidelines. Zaha Hadid's Metonymic Landscape won the competition.
The exterior envelope of the DDP, a smooth and giant mushroom-like structure floating above ground level, is made of concrete, aluminum, steel, and stone. The interior of the building is finished with plaster reinforced with synthetic fiber, acoustic tiles, acrylic resin, stainless steel, and polished stone in the interior.
#AbFav_A_LOT_OF
#AbFav_PHOTOSTORY
how visually literate are you??? LOL
These are the tops and bottoms of colour felt pens/ colour markers!
Sometimes I just have some fun in the studio and play with some props...
A bit more info here:
Lee Newman patented a felt-tipped marking pen in 1910.
A marker pen, fineliner, marking pen, felt-tip marker, felt-tip pen, flow marker, texta (in Australia), sketch pen (in India) or koki (in South Africa), feutre (in FRANCE),is a pen which has its own ink-source and a tip made of porous, pressed fibers such as felt.
I wish you all a very good day and thanks for all your kind words, time, comments and likes. Very much appreciated. Magda, (*_*)
For more here: www.indigo2photography.com
IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN (BY LAW!!!) TO USE ANY OF MY image or TEXT on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved
Colourful, backs, tops, "Felt Pens", triangle, design, graphic, minimalism, "conceptual art", square, colour, black-background, "Magda indigo"
Friends and family have taken turns creating their own pottery. At a time when we are required to remain at home anyway, we took time to do this project.
We placed their works in the kiln in the garage and fired this furnace up to 1,940 F (1,060 C) to harden, burn off organic matter, and dry any remaining water in the clay. It was a process that took about 12 hours.
The finished products currently are unglazed and white with a matte appearance and texture to touch. Each item can be used in this condition or can be glazed and re-fired for layers of color. It is always fascinating to witness how people are proud of what they made and how these works become items for discussion and usefulness.
We look forward to handing out these pieces once it is safe to regather with friends and loved ones.
Athens
The 'Agoranomeion', a mysterious fragment of the past
The identification of this public building is not yet ascertained. It was built with porous ashlar masonry higher than the level of the east propylon of the Roman Agora. A wide staircase leading to a facade with three archways and parts of the north and south walls are preserved.
Located on the east side of the Roman Agora, with a triple arched entrance, it is so far unidentified. Initially it was thought this was the Agoranomeion - the headquarters of the market inspectors - but today it is thought it was possibly a temple dedicated to an emperor or deity.
According to the inscription on the epistyle of the facade the building was dedicated to Athena Archegetis and the divi Augusti (middle 1st c. A.D.)
Classic view of the Wallstreet section of the Zion Narrows. The spring-fed North Fork of the Virgin River cascades its way through the slot canyon, with towering sandstone walls on either side. The 'weeping' effect is prominently seen on the walls of the canyon here, at places where water permeating through the porous rock is slowly expelled. Such locations create green lushness on the canyon walls (more so in other spots, because here flash floods wash away any soil and new trees). I had to patiently wait for the steady stream of hikers through the canyon to disappear for just a second before getting this shot. Afternoon seems to be the time to be here, when the sun overhead creates the wonderful glowing phenomena on the canyon walls.
The streets of the old city are paved with Limestone, a local stone that is porous. The shine you see is from the centuries of use, worn down by the feet, carriages and tyres.
I took this photo on our first trip to Iceland this summer. It was one of our last days that my boyfriend and I spent on this stunning island. We saw many impressive spots, visited countless glaciers, lava fields and waterfalls. This picture here shows a part of the so called Hraunfossar. For me it was one of the most beautiful waterfalls in this impressive country. On the one hand, because the water makes its way directly out of the porous, dark, almost black lava rock, and on the other hand, because it then cascades down in hundreds of small waterfalls into the foaming, turquoise river. I was so impressed that we even stayed a few hours at this place to enjoy this natural spectacle and capture it with our camera. Already at this point we knew that we would come back sometime.