Do Ho Suh's polyester and stainless steel installation replicates a stairway in the artist's apartment in New York. This installation is one of a number of works Suh has made based on his personal memories of architectural spaces.... Suh uses a distinctive red polyester fabric, whose flexibility, translucence and porousness contrasts with the solidity of the original architectural structure. (from www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks?rid=6819&ws=date&wv=...)

Male Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris ciris) - The Space Coast of Florida

 

OK! OK!? I admit it!!!

The reason I decided to set up a bird feeder out back was for this!

Yeah, yeah it's trite and trivial, but I just couldn't help myself.

So there it is, a male Painted bunting on a bird feeder!

Sue me! :{(

 

Note (04/09/18):

In the comment section, I noticed there were some folk who thought this guy was an escapee (i.e. no way he was a native North American bird). Funny how we tend to think that beauty is unnatural! Yeah, not funny ha ha, but that it was too good to be true. Well. . . in my opinion, beauty is everywhere, and all you have to do to see it, is ease-up on your definition of beauty!

Ooops, she deleted her comment.

I guess I must have embarrassed her. Sorry . . .

 

Appended (04/09/18):

I also posted this image on FaceBook where I got a lot of questions about the feeder perch extensions.

The “extensions” are pieces of ¼” irrigation tubing.

The tubing allows the birds to get far enough away from the feeding port so they can get their heads into the port without having to contort their bodies to do it. The tubing is available in 50 foot lengths at most garden centers. I like the porous drip irrigation tubing for this since it has a porous grippy surface that grips tightly to the short aluminum perch as well as giving birds a better grip on the perch.

Shame on you “Droll Yankee” for simply shrinking down a “good” design without giving any thought to how the smaller perches affected the utility of the design. Feel free to sell “Large bird adapter kits” to your unhappy customers. You can send the check for this idea to me by messaging me through Flickr mail for an address. LOL

  

Outra vista da (do?) cenote. Um pouco mágico :) Ou ando sugestionada pelas minhas leituras :x

Another view of the cenote. A bit magical, and then again maybe I've been reading to much fantasy books :D

__________________________

The natural wonders of the state of Yucatan are innumerable and some of the most important and unusual are the cenotes (say-NOH-tays) or sink holes. In the Yucatan there are over 3000 cenotes, with only 1400 actually studied and registered.

 

The Maya called them dzonot (ZO-note), which the conquering Spaniards translated as cenote (say– NO–tay.) Giraldo Diaz Alpuche, was a military commander in the 16th Century who was greatly impressed with these underground caverns and pools, and he tried to explain the meaning of the word cenote in the Spanish language as meaning "deep thing". The Motul dictionary, a dictionary of Mayan hieroglyphics, defines dzonot as "abysmal and deep".

 

Cenotes are magical, enigmatic and unique in the world and were once the only resource for fresh, sweet water in the local Yucatecan jungle. They were the sacred places of the Maya for that reason, but also because they represented the entrance to the underworld.

 

The Yucatan Peninsula is a porous limestone shelf with no visible rivers; all the fresh water rivers are underground. Being porous, caverns and caves formed where the fresh water collects – hence the cenotes or water sink holes. The water that gathers in these subterranean cenotes is a crystal clear turquoise color with a very pleasant temperature of 78°.

 

The stalactites and stalagmites that form inside the cenotes are true natural works of art. In many, holes in the ceiling allow the sunlight to filter into the cenotes, giving the scene a magical feeling. The cenotes of Yucatan are a natural treasure that should be seen by all, keeping in mind that they should be protected so that man does not destroy in a few days what nature took millions of years to create.

 

There are four different types of cenotes - those that are completely underground, those that are semi-underground, those that are at land level like a lake or pond, like the one at Dzibilchaltun and those that are open wells, like the one in Chichen Itza. Some of them are accessible for swimming and cave diving, but this is a sport that should ONLY be practiced with a professional guide.

in Yucatan Today

England has three-quarters of the world's chalk streams. Rain falling on the porous chalk emerges as springs, filtered and crystal clear. Here the River Alre is about 1 metre deep in the centre but the water is so clear it is difficult to see and fish can look to be swimming in air! There is a brown trout on the left and I'll make a note on the image.

A view from the Eel Trap about half mile downstream of the Fulling Mill, New Alresford, Hampshire

Northern part of the Quiraing, Isle of Skye, Scotland. Over the ages, the hill and many even larger blocks have slid downhill from the rampart behind the viewer. This one has impounded Loch Hasco. The lake doesn't have an obvious outlet; my guess is that the rocks at the left end are porous enough to let it drain toward the valley beyond. Sheep trails and terraces evident on the slopes; the ubiquitous sheep keep everything accessible trimmed down, and largely prevent shrubs and trees from growing.

Luxor - Colossi of Memnon 17,90m

The Colossi of Memnon (known to locals as el-Colossat, or es-Salamat) are two massive stone statues of Pharaoh Amenhotep III. For the past 3400 years they have stood in the Theban necropolis, across the River Nile from the modern city of Luxor.

 

The twin statues depict Amenhotep III (fl. 14th century BC) in a seated position, his hands resting on his knees and his gaze turned eastward toward the river and the rising sun. Two shorter figures are carved into the front throne alongside his legs: these are his wife Tiy and mother Mutemwiya. The side panels depict the Nile god Hapy.

 

The statues are made from blocks of quartzite sandstone which was stone quarried at el-Gabal el-Ahmar (near modern-day Cairo) and transported 420 miles over land without using the Nile to Thebes. They are too heavy to transport upstream on the Nile. The blocks used by the engineers of Septimius Severus to reconstruct the north colossus may have come from Edfu (north of Aswan). Including the stone platforms on which they stand, they reach a towering 18 metres (approx. 60 ft) in height. They weigh an estimated 700 tons each. [1] [2] [3]

 

The original function of the Colossi was to stand guard at the entrance to Amenhotep's memorial temple (or mortuary temple): a massive cult centre built during the pharaoh's lifetime, where he was worshipped as a god-on-earth both before and after his departure from this world. In its day, this temple complex was the largest and most opulent in Egypt. Covering a total of 35 ha, even later rivals such as Ramesses II's Ramesseum or Ramesses III's Medinet Habu were unable to match it in area; even the Temple of Karnak, as it stood in Amenhotep's time, was smaller.

Side panel detail

 

With the exception of the Colossi, however, very little remains today of Amenhotep's temple. Standing on the edge of the Nile floodplain, successive annual inundations gnawed away at the foundations – a famous 1840s lithograph by David Roberts shows the Colossi surrounded by water – and it was not unknown for later rulers to dismantle, purloin, and reuse portions of their predecessors' monuments.

 

The Greek historian and geographer Strabo, writing in the early years of the 1st century, tells of an earthquake (in 27 BC) that shattered the northern colossus, collapsing it from the waist up.

 

Following its rupture, this statue was then reputed to "sing" every morning at dawn: a light moaning or whistling, probably caused by rising temperatures and the evaporation of dew inside the porous rock. The legend of the "Vocal Memnon", the luck that hearing it was reputed to bring, and the reputation of the statue's oracular powers, travelled the length of the known world, and a constant stream of visitors, including several Roman Emperors, came to marvel at the statues. The mysterious vocalisations of the broken colossus ceased in 199, however, when Emperor Septimius Severus, in an attempt to curry favour with the oracle, reassembled the two shattered halves.

 

Memnon was a hero of the Trojan War, a King of Ethiopia who led his armies from Africa into Asia Minor to help defend the beleaguered city but was ultimately slain by Achilles. Whether associating the Colossi with his name was whimsy or wishful thinking on the part of the Greeks — they generally referred to the entire Theban Necropolis as the Memnonium — the name has remained in common use for the past 2000 years. The name Memnon means "Ruler of the Dawn."

Sometimes the beauty of a stone can cause it to seem softer, more welcoming and receiving than it actually is. Sometimes the hardness of a stone can make it seem hopeless and impenetrable, despite it’s beauty and strength. It takes patience and understanding to look through the beauty and at the nature of the hardness to find that the stone is actually quite porous. It is not always easy to learn that perseverance over time will find the object welcoming, accepting, even cherishing.

Fortunately, the perseverance required to give to the hard stone is not lost on the receiver. Gratitude is born of the nourishment and knowledge of the challenge that was overcome in its giving.

Once the stone has received, its very hardness and strength will help protect what has been absorbed. It’s beauty will make it more attractive to other beautiful, but hard stones, and it will better understand the challenge faced in sharing what it has been given.

 

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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 .

The lake/tarn Spákonuvatn in the Reykjanes peninsula in SW-Iceland. Big parts of the peninsula are an almost untouched volcanic and somewhat forbidding landscape, with craters, mossy lava fields and hyaloclastite ridges and cones. Lakes are few and most have no outlet; the water simply seeps into the porous lava bedrock.

 

A wonderful site to visit and all the more impressive viewed from the sea.

 

This is the most impressive archaeological site on the island of Rhodes.

 

The first ruins you will encounter after the long climb are the mediaeval walls, built by the Crusaders (early 14th century) on the remains of earlier defenses, both Byzantine and ancient. Along the mediaeval walls are a very small number of towers, which follow the natural contours of the high ground. On the area of level ground where the mediaeval steps begin you will see to your left an ancient triimolia (a kind of ship) carved in the rock circa 180-170 B.C.

 

The great mediaeval steps lead up to the Governors Palace of the Crusader castle, which consisted of three buildings, of which two have survived. It was first restored in the early 20th century by the Danish Archaeological Mission and then, during the period between the world wars, by the Italian authorities. As you come out of the Governor’s Palace you will see a series of vaulted constructions supporting the “andiro”, a man-made terrace which opens out in front of the Hellenistic stoa. A number of the columns are still standing.

 

It was built in the shape of the Greek letter fl, in the late 3rd century BC, with protruding wings to the side, each with a frontage of four columns. It was 88 m. long, 9 m. wide and had 42 columns. The terrace was laid out later and two underground cisterns were also constructed to collect rainwater from the roof of the stoa and from the steps of the Propylaea. The scattered plinths with their inscriptions remind us of the time when the whole area was full of statues dedicated to the goddess. Next to the Governor’s Palace stands the church of Agios loannis, built on the inscribed cruciform plan. It is not clear precisely when it was built; some assign it to the late 11th – early 12th century, others to the 13th – 14th century. It was constructed on the remains of an earlier church, judging from the architectural fragments found on the Acropolis and dating from the 6th century AD.

 

A monumental flight of steps, behind the eight central columns of the Hellenistic stoa, leads up to the Propylaea of the temple of Undia Athena, another stoa structure in the same shape. Only the foundations have survived. At the two ends of the Propylaea there were areas where the votive offerings made to the goddess were stored. The stoa was built of porous stone at the end of the 4th century B.C. At the highest point of the Acropolis, on the edge of the cliff, stands the temple of Lindia Athena. This is an unexpectedly small Doric temple, with a stoa of four columns at each end. There still remain in the interior the votive altar and the plinth of the worshipped statue of the goddess. This building too was of porous stone, with mortar facing, and dates from the end of the 4th century B.C.

 

(Source: www.rhodos.gr)

 

Vanishing Soul in Development

Porous, filamented structure within the slab of clear ice.

© Leanne Boulton, All Rights Reserved

 

Captured while out on a Covid lockdown exercise walk in February 2021. Of course, at that moment, with vaccination pending and not long to go, the outlook seemed bright. Sadly, with borders completely porous to disease variants and opening up with rapid exponential growth of cases and high likelihood of long Covid (for me at least) the light at the end of the tunnel has been snuffed out. I don't need to tell you all how hopeless this situation feels. I am shielding once again.

 

I want to thank each and every one of you for supporting my photography during these difficult times. It genuinely means a huge amount to me. I want to ride on a wave of optimism expressed in the title of this shot but my boat, right now, has too many holes in it. Stay safe my Flickr Friends.

Large cuttlebone at 35 cm

Coonarr Beach Bundaberg

Australia

 

Cuttlefish or cuttles are marine molluscs of the order Sepiida. They belong to the class Cephalopoda, which also includes squid, octopuses, and nautiluses. Cuttlefish have a unique internal shell, the cuttlebone, which is used for control of buoyancy.

 

Cuttlefish possess an internal structure called the cuttlebone, which is porous and is made of aragonite. The pores provide it with buoyancy, which the cuttlefish regulates by changing the gas-to-liquid ratio in the chambered cuttlebone via the ventral siphuncle. Each species' cuttlebone has a distinct shape, size, and pattern of ridges or texture. The cuttlebone is unique to cuttlefish, and is one of the features that distinguish them from their squid relatives.

"The world is incomprehensibly beautiful -- an endless prospect of magic and wonder." --Ansel Adams

 

As always, a huge thanks to those who stop by to view, fave and or comment! It is truly appreciated...

 

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)

Somewhere in the Sahara, trying to go somewhere else...

Note the bags hanging in front of the cars. They are goat skins, called Guerba, filled with water. The water seeps through the porous skin and evaporates, thus cooling the water inside. This gives fairly fresh water to drink, with a very peculiar taste.

 

1990, scanned from slides.

Nashville, take note.

 

Since the 1960s when they discovered the problem, a foundational problem, the Army Corp of Engineers has tried to reinforce this remote Kentucky dam that was built over porous and erodible limestone rock. It turns out this was the wrong place to build a dam. The karst geology of extremely porous and cracked limestone that surrounds this area has resulted in a constant dissolution of the dam's rock foundation when water is above it. Over the years, the dam has had near failures. So far, no matter how much engineers have tried to fix it by adding safety structures to the dam, uncontrolled water seepage erodes the dam's geological foundation. In its defense, the dam has lasted some 70 years without collapse. The ultimate solution is either to have no dam, which would result in a loss of flood control and hydroelectric power; or, build another dam somewhere else on better ground. But that would be very expensive. Tax payer dollars.

 

Way down the Cumberland River lies the bustling downtown of Nashville, Tennessee. Music City.

 

This is a lovely lake though. Scenic. Kentucky boaters love it.

This lightning storm happened just after I had finished teaching a Night Photography class. It was between 3-4 a.m.

 

>>>TUFA: a porous rock composed of calcium carbonate and formed by precipitation from water, e.g., around mineral springs.

 

Mono Lake is a majestic body of water covering about 65 square miles. It is an ancient lake, over 1 million years old -- one of the oldest lakes in North America. It has no outlet.

 

Throughout its long existence, salts and minerals have washed into the lake from Eastern Sierra streams. Freshwater evaporating from the lake each year has left the salts and minerals behind so that the lake is now about 2 1/2 times as salty and 80 times as alkaline as the ocean.

 

Position: This photo has been taken on the coast of lake Lago di Garda, Lombardy, Italy.

Hraunfossar (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

Porous ice on Glomma.

This panorama was stitched together from 17 vertical frames shot with my Canon 6D and Sigma 15mm EX DG at 25 sec f/2.8 ISO 3200.

 

The Trona Pinnacles are an unusual geological feature in the California Desert National Conservation Area. The unusual landscape consists of more than 500 tufa spires (porous rock formed as a deposit when springs interact with other bodies of water), some as high as 140 feet (43 m), rising from the bed of the Searles Lake (dry) basin. The pinnacles vary in size and shape from short and squat to tall and thin, and are composed primarily of calcium carbonate (tufa). They now sit isolated and slowly crumbling away near the south end of the valley, surrounded by many square miles of flat, dried mud and with stark mountain ranges at either side.

 

The Pinnacles are recognizable in more than a dozen hit movies. Over thirty film projects a year are shot among the tufa pinnacles, including backdrops for car commercials and sci-fi movies and television series such as Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Disney's Dinosaur, The Gate II, Lost in Space, and Planet of the Apes.

Hraunfossar (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 the Tell Brak site in northern Syria on display behind glass in the Fitzwilliam museum in Cambridge. Most eye-idols are made from fine Gypsum (Alabaster) which is porous so it changes colour easily. Rare examples in animal bone also exist. Unlike spectacle idols, eye idols do not seem to have been made in clay. Paint to emphasise the eyes is an additional detail. Syria

 

About 5200 – 5100 ybp

 

Perhaps we see aspects of the sky rising above a hill - a sky God - with the sun and the moon like eyes and a God with parallels to, for example, Horus.

 

There is only one moor on the Swabian Alps' porous surface. It's just a small place about five kilometers from where I live. But it's amazing how different this small space is from all the rest of the landscape around.

A grotto pavilion decorated inside with seashells and tufa (porous limestone) was an invariably feature in Western European regular parks of the eighteenth century. The project for the construction of the Grotto on the bank of the Great Pond in the Catherine Park was drawn up by the architect Rastrelli. Most of the work to construct it was carried out in 1755–56 under Empress Elizabeth, but it was completed in the 1760s under Catherine II.

 

Both the ground plan and the treatment of volumes – with rounded corners, niches for statues and large semicircular exedrae forming projections on the end walls – are typical of Baroque architecture. The rich opulence of the Baroque also characterizes the facades that are decorated with elaborately grouped columns supporting broken pediments. Rising above the central part of the pavilion is a dome with four lucarne windows that used to be topped by pyramidical figured pediments made of wood (the carving, produced by Okhta craftsmen, has survived and is in the stores of the museum-preserve). Masks of Neptune on the keystones of the windows, capitals with dolphins instead of volutes and figures of tritons underline the pavilion’s link to the watery element. But Rastrelli’s plan to decorate the interior of the Grotto with seashells and tufa was not implemented.

 

In 1771 a new project for the interior decoration of the pavilion was drawn up by the architect Antonio Rinaldi (1709–1794). The lightweight exquisitely drawn décor of the walls that was done to his designs has survived down to the present. In 1792 wrought-iron grilles embellished with ornament made of gilded sheet copper were installed on the windows and doors of the Grotto.

 

After it was decorated, in the 1780s, the pavilion became known as the Morning Hall. At that time, in accordance with Catherine II’s wishes, ancient sculptures and vases made of coloured stone were installed here, as well as Houdon’s statue of Voltaire that is now on display in the State Hermitage Museum. This pavilion was glorified by the poet G. Derjavin in the 18th century. The landing-stage in front of the Grotto was reconstructed in 1830 and 1872. During the Second World War it was almost completely destroyed and it was rebuilt in granite in 1971–72 to a new design.

 

At present the pavilion is used as a venue for temporary exhibitions.

It seems that small perching birds attempt to stay out of the direct view of intruders. They seem to accomplish this "safety" by sitting behind twigs and leaves or by flying to higher perches in the tree when approached by the ever-hopeful photographer. Even this brightly colored Northern Cardinal stayed in place after retreating to the porous protection of the spike-like leaves. Maybe this observation explains why I end up with so many pictures of birds obscured by branches ; -)

 

This picture was taken at Corkscrew Swamp, Florida (but Cardinals are relatively common throughout the Eastern half of the United States, including my home State, Michigan.).

At Sedona's elevation and amount of rainfall the conifer trees dominate - Arizona Cypress, Pinon Pine and the Juniper. These trees keep their leaves year round and are more oil based and aromatic.

 

Many of the larger trees and bushes secrete acids from their roots which can eat through soft rock and allow the tree to search for water in the porous rock. This is one reason that you may notice an abundance of bushes growing from the sides of some of the red rocks. In fact, the mesquite tree can have a taproot which extends almost 75 feet down into the ground.

 

Many trees need high temperatures from fires to open up their seed cones but the Arizona Cypress uses lightening. You find these red barked trees in low lying areas around washes as they need extra water. The red in the bark is due to iron content, which attracts lightening. As these trees get struck, the top will start on fire and the sap gets vaporized into steam which runs down to the root system. The roots are so deep and the ground so hard that the steam is forced back up the tree which puts the fire out and heats up the tree to open its seed cones.

 

Yu Garden or Yuyuan Garden (豫园 literaly Garden of Happiness) is an extensive Chinese garden located beside the City God Temple in the northeast of the Old City of Shanghai at Huangpu District, Shanghai. It abuts the Yuyuan Tourist Mart, the Huxinting Teahouse and the Yu Garden Bazaar.

This garden is accessible from the Shanghai Metro's Line 10 and Line 14 Yuyuan Garden station.

A centerpiece is the Exquisite Jade Rock (玉玲珑) a porous 3.3-m, 5-ton boulder. Rumours about its origin include the story that it was meant for the Huizong Emperor (Northern Song Dynasty from 1100 to 1126 AD) the imperial garden in Bianjing, but was salvaged from the Huangpu River after the boat carrying it had sunk.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yu_Garden

 

El Jardín Yu o Jardín Yuyuan (豫园 literalmente Jardín de la Felicidad) es un extenso jardín chino ubicado junto al Templo del Dios de la Ciudad en el noreste de la Ciudad Vieja de Shanghai en el distrito de Huangpu, Shanghai. Colinda con el Yuyuan Tourist Mart, la casa de té Huxinting y el Yu Garden Bazaar.

Se puede acceder a este jardín desde la estación Yuyuan Garden de las líneas 10 y 14 del metro de Shanghai.

Una pieza central es la Exquisita Roca de Jade (玉玲珑), una roca porosa de 3,3 m y 5 toneladas. Los rumores sobre su origen incluyen la historia de que estaba destinado al emperador Huizong (dinastía Song del Norte de 1100 a 1126 d. C.) el jardín imperial en Bianjing, pero que fue rescatado del río Huangpu después de que el barco que lo transportaba se hundiera.

 

Yu Garden or Yuyuan Garden (Garden of Happiness) is an extensive Chinese garden located beside the City God Temple in the northeast of the Old City of Shanghai at Huangpu Qu, Shanghai Shi. It abuts the Yuyuan Tourist Mart, the Huxinting Teahouse and the Yu Garden Bazaar. This garden is accessible from the Shanghai Metro's Line 10 Yuyuan Garden Station. A centerpiece is the Exquisite Jade Rock porous 3.3-m, 5-ton boulder. Rumours about its origin include the story that it was meant for the Huizong Emperor (Northern Song Dynasty from 1100-1126 AD) at the imperial palace in Beijing, but was salvaged from the Huangpu River after the boat carrying it had sunk. Yu Garden was first built in 1559 during the Ming Dynasty by Pan Yunduan as a comfort for his father, the minister Pan En, in his old age. Pan Yunduan began the project after failing one of the imperial exams, but his appointment as governor of Sichuan postponed construction for nearly twenty years until 1577. The garden was the largest and most prestigious of its era in Shanghai, but eventually its expense helped ruin the Pans. Today, Yu Garden occupies an area of 2 hectares, and is divided into six general areas laid out in the Suzhou style.

Chinese gardens are constructed to recreate and miniaturize larger natural landscapes. Traditionally, Chinese gardens blend unique, ornate buildings with natural elements. Just about every Chinese garden contains architecture, like a building or pavilion; decorative rocks and a rock garden; plants, trees and flowers; and water elements, like ponds. Most Chinese gardens are enclosed by a wall and some have winding paths. Chinese gardens aren’t just thrown together. Instead, they’re deliberately designed and visitors should walk through them in the particular order that the garden was laid out. A95_194

Water weeps through the porous lava rock at Mcarthur-Burney Falls State Park, N. CA.

One more reason to love Flickr:

 

Earlier today, I posted an old IR pic and said I wished I knew how to set the correct white balance. Szmytke left me a comment with instructions and... whaddya know... it's a whole freakin' infranew world!

 

This one is suffering from too much processing. (Reminds me of those girls in high school with their hair so coarse and porous and brittle from repeated bleachings and permings. ) Anyway... yes, overprocessed... but one of many interesting results I got today. Not great pics, but learning experiences. And... just when I needed it... a new avenue of shooting to explore.

 

There's not a lot of standing water in the Mono Basin due to the deep, porous pumice deposits, but there are some small reflecting ponds you can find near springs that flow after a wet winter.

In 1908 Wheeler National Monument was established in the name of explorer George Wheeler who first surveyed the area, it was the first national monument in Colorado. The monument was later downgraded to a geologic area when visitors greatly decreased after World War II.

 

The Wheeler Geologic Area sits in the La Garita Caldera, a huge crater that was formed about 28 million years ago during one of the largest known volcanic eruptions on Earth. The volcano spewed an estimated 1,200 cubic miles of ash over much of what is now Colorado, and collapsed, forming the roughly 22-mile-by-47-mile crater. Over time, natural forces compressed the ash into a rock called tuff, which is porous and highly erodible. Wheeler’s strange hoodoos and spires are the results of millions of years of erosion of this soft tuff.

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. "Wikipedia"

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

The whole 10 Yuan – Todo por 10 Yuan

 

Yu Garden or Yuyuan Garden (豫园 literaly Garden of Happiness) is an extensive Chinese garden located beside the City God Temple in the northeast of the Old City of Shanghai at Huangpu District, Shanghai. It abuts the Yuyuan Tourist Mart, the Huxinting Teahouse and the Yu Garden Bazaar.

This garden is accessible from the Shanghai Metro's Line 10 and Line 14 Yuyuan Garden station.

A centerpiece is the Exquisite Jade Rock (玉玲珑) a porous 3.3-m, 5-ton boulder. Rumours about its origin include the story that it was meant for the Huizong Emperor (Northern Song Dynasty from 1100 to 1126 AD) the imperial garden in Bianjing, but was salvaged from the Huangpu River after the boat carrying it had sunk.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yu_Garden

 

El Jardín Yu o Jardín Yuyuan (豫园 literalmente Jardín de la Felicidad) es un extenso jardín chino ubicado junto al Templo del Dios de la Ciudad en el noreste de la Ciudad Vieja de Shanghai en el distrito de Huangpu, Shanghai. Colinda con el Yuyuan Tourist Mart, la casa de té Huxinting y el Yu Garden Bazaar.

Se puede acceder a este jardín desde la estación Yuyuan Garden de las líneas 10 y 14 del metro de Shanghai.

Una pieza central es la Exquisita Roca de Jade (玉玲珑), una roca porosa de 3,3 m y 5 toneladas. Los rumores sobre su origen incluyen la historia de que estaba destinado al emperador Huizong (dinastía Song del Norte de 1100 a 1126 d. C.) el jardín imperial en Bianjing, pero que fue rescatado del río Huangpu después de que el barco que lo transportaba se hundiera.

 

One of the most beautiful hikes in Bryce canyon is to Mossy cave waterfall. The water you see here and that pours over the waterfall are the result of a manmade ditch which pulls water from the side of Bryce canyon which normally drains into the Great Basin via the Sevier river and augments the drainage into the paria river a part of the Colordao River drainage on the eastern side of Bryce Canyon. This greatly helped the pioneers to this desert area to grow crops and persist in the basin below where even with this augmented water supply, most of the water flows under ground due to the very porous nature of the river bed.

After our morning session at Draycott Sleights we drove the short distance across to Priddy Mineries, where we found that the top pool, known as Waldegrave Pool, was completely dry :-((. This has happened before - I remember dragonfly people trying to rescue Downy Emerald larvae when I first started going there about 15 years ago. I think the problem is that the barrage is very porous, so the pond relies on being constantly re-filled from above, and when that's not happening due to lack of rain it dries out unusually quickly.

 

Fortunately the bottom pond was absolutely fine (which tends to support the theory above) and there were lots of dragons and damsels as well as swallows skimming the water to drink (or catch flies on the surface? - I'm never really sure). Graham spotted this damsel, which turned out to be our only Emerald Damselfly of the day. They are normally quite numerous at the top pool, so let's hope they can recover.

Yu Garden or Yuyuan Garden (豫园 literaly Garden of Happiness) is an extensive Chinese garden located beside the City God Temple in the northeast of the Old City of Shanghai at Huangpu District, Shanghai. It abuts the Yuyuan Tourist Mart, the Huxinting Teahouse and the Yu Garden Bazaar.

This garden is accessible from the Shanghai Metro's Line 10 and Line 14 Yuyuan Garden station.

A centerpiece is the Exquisite Jade Rock (玉玲珑) a porous 3.3-m, 5-ton boulder. Rumours about its origin include the story that it was meant for the Huizong Emperor (Northern Song Dynasty from 1100 to 1126 AD) the imperial garden in Bianjing, but was salvaged from the Huangpu River after the boat carrying it had sunk.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yu_Garden

 

El Jardín Yu o Jardín Yuyuan (豫园 literalmente Jardín de la Felicidad) es un extenso jardín chino ubicado junto al Templo del Dios de la Ciudad en el noreste de la Ciudad Vieja de Shanghai en el distrito de Huangpu, Shanghai. Colinda con el Yuyuan Tourist Mart, la casa de té Huxinting y el Yu Garden Bazaar.

Se puede acceder a este jardín desde la estación Yuyuan Garden de las líneas 10 y 14 del metro de Shanghai.

Una pieza central es la Exquisita Roca de Jade (玉玲珑), una roca porosa de 3,3 m y 5 toneladas. Los rumores sobre su origen incluyen la historia de que estaba destinado al emperador Huizong (dinastía Song del Norte de 1100 a 1126 d. C.) el jardín imperial en Bianjing, pero que fue rescatado del río Huangpu después de que el barco que lo transportaba se hundiera.

 

“Make your ego porous. Will is of little importance, complaining is nothing, fame is nothing. Openness, patience, receptivity, solitude is everything.”

― Rainer Maria Rilke

  

Pants & Shirt from Elegance Store (Loren Pants & Loren Top)

Shoes from Azoury Store (Le Coeur des Vierges)

Beautiful Juayua Cascades in Sonsonate - El Salvador. This was our first trip to this country. I must say that I was bit worried about going there , I heard that after 12 years if very brutal civil war ( 1980 – 92 ) and history of gangs it was not very safe. We met couple that know a lot about El Salvador and they give us few pointers. I was very pleasantly surprised , it was very nice and safe.

In addition official currency of El Salvador is … $ US – so that makes it easy for most of us.

Something interesting – look at the cascades, they are starting not from the top of the cliff but from layer of porous rock that water is sipping through. That is often associated with active volcanic geology of the area ( similar to waterfalls in Iceland )

 

Cliff detail, Grand Canyon, a few miles downstream from Redwall Cavern. My guess is that the dark-colored layer at the bottom is the top of the Muav limestone, evidently a much less permeable layer than the more porous Redwall limestone above. When the water in the Redwall channels reaches the bottom, it has to go somewhere, and these portals provide an outlet. Whether this is the boundary between Muav and Redwall, these two formations are separated in time by 65 million years--an "unconformity".

I like how the cliff on the right slants in a different direction. This gives a stronger 3D effect to the shot.

 

Kandovan village is a village in East Azerbaijan Province, Iran. This village is a wonderful example of manmade cliff dwelling which is still inhabited. The troglodyte homes, excavated inside volcanic rocks and tuffs similar to dwellings in the Turkish region of Cappadocia, are locally called “Karaan”. Karaans were cut into the Lahars (volcanic mudflow or debris flow) of Mount Sahand. The cone form of the houses is the result of lahar flow consisting of porous round and angular pumice together with other volcanic particles that were positioned in a grey acidic matrix. After the eruption of Sahand these materials were naturally moved and formed the rocks of Kandovan. Around the village the thickness of this formation exceeds 100 m and with time due to water erosion the cone shaped cliffs were formed. At the 2006 census, the village population was 601, in 168 families

Mátala ist ein Dorf an der Südküste der griechischen Insel Kreta. Nach dem griechischen Mythos war Matala der Ort, an dem Zeus in Stiergestalt mit der von ihm entführten phönizischen Prinzessin Europa an Land ging. Er verwandelte sich hier in einen Adler und brachte Europa weiter nach Gortyn.

Matala zählte 2011 67 Einwohner und ist heute eine Siedlung in der Ortschaft Pitsidia im Gemeindebezirk Tymbaki der Gemeinde Festos.

In der Jungsteinzeit wurden in das weiche, poröse Gestein der Bucht zahlreiche Wohnhöhlen gegraben, die in der Zeit der römischen Besetzung Kretas als Grabstätten genutzt wurden. Bis heute sind sie die berühmteste Attraktion von Matala geblieben. In der minoischen Epoche befand sich an dieser Stelle vermutlich der Hafen von Phaistos; in römischer Zeit war Matala der Hafen von Gortyn. Die Sarazenen unter Abu Hafs Omar, die 824 Kreta eroberten, gingen zuerst in Matala an Land.

In den 1960er Jahren siedelten sich in den neolithischen Wohnhöhlen Hippies aus aller Welt an (darunter viele junge US-Bürger, die ihre Teilnahme am Vietnamkrieg verweigerten), und gründeten dort eine große Kommune.

 

Mátala is a village on the south coast of the Greek island of Crete. According to Greek mythology, Matala was the place where Zeus in the shape of a bull went ashore with the Phoenician princess Europa, who he kidnapped. Here he transformed himself into an eagle and brought Europa further to Gortyn.

Matala had 67 inhabitants in 2011 and is now a settlement in the village of Pitsidia in the Tymbaki district of the municipality of Festos.

In the Neolithic Age, numerous residential caves were dug into the soft, porous rock of the bay, which were used as burial sites during the Roman occupation of Crete. Until today they have remained the most famous attraction of Matala. In the Minoan era, the port of Phaistos was probably located on this site; in Roman times Matala was the port of Gortyn. The Saracens under Abu Hafs Omar, who conquered Crete in 824, first landed in Matala.

In the 1960s, hippies from all over the world (including many young US citizens who refused to participate in the Vietnam War) settled in the Neolithic caves and founded a large commune there.

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Christopher Dresser (1835-1904)

for Minton

Cast and glazed flintware with overglaze decoration in enamel color and gold embellishment.

 

Dimensions:

 

Height: 15 cm

Depth: 5.5 cm

Width: 14.1 cm

Diameter: 4.3 cm

 

Inventory No. OK-1985-0002

Norwegian National Museum, Oslo, aka the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design

www.nasjonalmuseet.no/en/collection/object/OK-1985-0002

=========================

This boldly colored vessel is an outstanding example of Victorian designer Christopher Dresser’s pioneering modernism. Drawing on Asian and Middle Eastern influences, the flask’s flattened round body is supported by two footed extensions, referencing Islamic pilgrim flasks while incorporating a stylized butterfly motif framed by a vibrant geometric border. The use of saturated pink, cobalt, and gold reflects Dresser’s fascination with Japanese and Chinese ornament, filtered through his own radically abstract visual language.

 

Dresser’s work was translated into ceramic art via a highly organized and collaborative factory process—he designed the motifs and compositions, but trained decorators at Minton’s carried out the work with precision tools, stencils, and painted enamel techniques.

 

This was typical of Dresser’s revolutionary role as a designer, not a craftsman. He was among the first in Britain to insist that design and production could be separated, bringing industrial methods to artistic

 

Though designed in 1865, the piece was produced by Minton & Co. in Stoke-on-Trent around 1880, at the height of Dresser’s collaboration with the firm. Dresser, trained in botany and steeped in design theory, rejected historical pastiche in favor of clarity, asymmetry, and cultural synthesis—hallmarks of his proto-modern aesthetic.

 

Now in the collection of the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design (Nasjonalmuseet) in Oslo, this flask exemplifies the fusion of industrial production and avant-garde design that Dresser championed decades before the Bauhaus.

 

About the clay: Flintware is a type of highly refined earthenware ceramic, developed in England in the 18th century and widely used by potteries like Minton, Wedgwood, and others. Despite the name, it does not contain actual flint nodules—rather, it uses calcined (heated and crushed) flint as a key ingredient in the clay body.

 

🔍 Key characteristics of flintware:

 

Smooth, white, fine-textured body

– More refined than common earthenware

– Ideal for crisp decoration and enamel painting

 

Made from white clay + ground flint (silica)

– Flint improves strength and whiteness

– Allows for finer detail and thinner walls than coarse pottery

 

Fired at lower temperatures than porcelain or stoneware

– Still porous and needs a glaze to be watertight

 

Often used by Minton for decorative wares in the mid-19th century

 

– Especially for enamel-painted, gilt, or orientalist-inspired designs like the Dresser flask

 

⚱️ Why flintware for the Pilgrim Flask?

 

Christopher Dresser’s flask demanded:

 

Bold color contrasts

 

Smooth surface for fine enamel work

 

A base light enough to be painted in vivid opaque glazes

 

Flintware offered all of this. It was cheaper than porcelain, but could imitate its delicacy when handled expertly—which Minton certainly did.

 

So in essence, flintware was a refined, decorator-friendly earthenware: not quite fine porcelain, but purpose-built for colorful, detailed, industrial art objects like the one you’re photographing.

 

=======================

The Pilgrim Flask designed by Christopher Dresser for Minton was not a one-off—there was indeed a limited production run, though pieces like this remained rare and expensive, aimed at the upper-middle-class and elite market for avant-garde decorative art.

 

Here’s the breakdown:

 

🎨 Design Origins

 

Dresser designed this flask in 1865, and Minton began producing examples around 1880, during the height of the Aesthetic Movement.

 

It reflects Dresser’s interest in Japanese, Islamic, and botanical motifs, and his pioneering role as a professional designer working in collaboration with industry.

 

🏭 Production Context

 

Minton produced such flasks as part of their Art Pottery line, which aimed to combine industrial techniques with high artistic value.

 

These pieces were typically:

 

Molded (not wheel-thrown), allowing small-batch replication

 

Hand-enamelled, meaning each was hand-decorated and slightly unique

 

Intended for exhibition, wealthy domestic interiors, or export

 

📊 Rarity

 

Though not unique, this flask would have been:

 

Produced in small numbers, likely dozens rather than hundreds

 

Expensive, due to the enameling labor and Dresser’s reputation

 

Not mass-market—sold through luxury retailers or at exhibitions (e.g. the South Kensington Museum)

 

️ Surviving Examples

 

Versions of this flask are now in several major collections:

 

Victoria and Albert Museum (London)

 

National Museum (Oslo)

 

Cooper Hewitt (New York)

 

Private collections and design auctions

 

Each has variations in enamel color and finishing, which supports the idea of artisanal decoration atop a common mold.

Summary

 

The flask is best described as a limited-series art object—designed for production, but with each unit finished by hand to stand as a distinct work of decorative art. This hybrid model was central to Dresser’s legacy as a bridge between art and industry.

  

This text is a collaboration with Chat GPT.

 

Do deer antlers grow back if broken?

If it happens in the fall after the velvet is off it is pretty much dead bone like material. It is a little porous in the center and much denser around the periphery. The deer will eventually shed the remaining portion of the antler the fall and spring and regrow a normal set of Antlers afterwards.

 

Deer Age Plays a Factor in Antler Growth

 

The whitetail male deer usually reach adult size when they are 5 or 6 years old. After that, their antlers generally do not increase in size each year. They also grow back the same shape, or close to it, every regrowth.

 

Can you tell a deer's age by the antlers?

There is really no precise way to accurately do deer aging while hunting, other than looking at the teeth. Despite the many stories hunters tell each other, the size of the antlers and the number of points on the antlers is not a reliable age guide. Antler size is more a function of diet and heredity than it is of age.

  

Thank you so much for visiting my stream, whether you comments , favorites or just have a look.

I appreciate it very much, wishing the best of luck and good light.

  

© All rights reserved R.Ertug Please do not use this image without my explicit written permission. Contact me by Flickr mail if you want to buy or use Your comments and critiques are very well appreciated.

 

Lens - With Nikon TC 14E II hand held - Monopod and SPORT VR on. Aperture is f8 and full length. All my images have been converted from RAW to JPEG.

 

I started using Monopod on long walks. Here is my Carbon Monopod details : Really Right Stuff MH-01 Monopod Head with Standard Lever - Release Clamp - Nikkor AF-S 200-500mm f/5.6 ED VR fitted MPR-113 Multi-Purpose Rail lens foot and Gitzo GM2542 Series 2 4S Carbon Monopod.

 

Thanks for stopping and looking :)

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