Les Invalides contains museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans, the building's original purpose. The buildings house the Musée de l'Armée (the military museum of the Army of France), the Musée des Plans-Reliefs and the Musée d'Histoire Contemporaine, as well as the Dôme des Invalides, a large church, the tallest in Paris at a height of 350 feet. It houses tombs of some of France's war heroes, most notably Napoleon. The architect of Les Invalides was Libéral Bruant. By the time the enlarged project was completed in 1676, the river front measured 643 feet, and the complex had 15 courtyards, the largest being the cour d'honneur ("court of honor") for military parades. Jules Hardouin-Mansart assisted the aged Bruant, and the chapel for veterans was finished in 1679. This chapel was known as Église Saint-Louis des Invalides, and daily attendance of the veterans in the church services was required. Shortly after the veterans' chapel was completed, Louis XIV commissioned Mansart to construct a separate private royal chapel referred to as the Église du Dôme. The domed chapel was finished in 1708. The building retained its primary function of a retirement home and hospital for military veterans until the early 20th century. In 1872 the musée d'artillerie (Artillery Museum) was located within the building to be joined by the musée historique des armées (Historical Museum of the Armies) in 1896. The two institutions were merged to form the present Musée de l'Armée in 1905. At the same time, the veterans in residence were dispersed to smaller centers outside Paris, as the building became too large for its original purpose. The modern complex includes facilities about a hundred elderly or incapacitated former soldiers, including one gentleman sitting outside in full World War II army dress.

I can relate to Frankenstein's monster..there are times when I feel like I've been piecemealed together, my body is a mess. My feet are a size and half different from one another, My left arm is contorted from injury, my spine does not properly align... it goes on and on. But the villagers haven't gathered yet so I'm doing pretty good! LOL

On a pleasant day in August I took mum out for a visit to Erddig Hall, a National Trust owned stately home just over the border into Wales. After much walking about the Hall, stables and gardens (lots of stairs and steps), and even though mum has bionic hips and a knee joint, she needed to rest, and so took a relaxing break inside one of two arbours that sit facing each other across the ornate gardens in front of the Hall. It was late afternoon so the crowds had gone, leaving the two of us in peace and quiet with only bird song and flower scents to distract our senses. I hadn't realised that she was quietly watching me faffing about with my camera as I prowled around the flower beds and statuary looking for targets, so when I turned around and saw her steady, thoughtful gaze I quickly took a shot before she became too self-conscious and fidgety as she is wont do when faced with a camera pointed directly at her.

Without wishing to sound maudlin, I think this image – unintentionally on my part – encapsulates the dominant issue that someone with Alzheimer's faces, namely the sense of isolation and detachment from a world they are increasingly failing to comprehend or relate to. At present, mum's symptoms are very poor short-term memory and an inability to correctly use technology like TV remotes, mobile phones, etc or deal with anything that involves numbers such as, money, time and calendar dates. Having said all that, she does still have a full grip on who she is, and is fully cognisant of, and able to interact with, everyone around her – her family, friends, etc – and the world she moves in. What touches me profoundly, though, is that she is also fully aware of her condition but has an equanimity towards it that borders on that of a Zen monk. Her ability to deal with her distressing illness and still be able to smile and enjoy life to the full, even on her physically off-days when her joints play up, is something I find very humbling and puts my own issues and problems into perspective. I've said it before, but I'll never fail to stop learning how to be a better human being from this amazing woman with an ever youthful soul. She is my Buddha in sensible shoes. :-)

Best in L.

[polska wersja niżej]

This photo relates to the story told some time ago at this picture. Here ST43-395 with sugarbeet train is closing up to Raciąż station. Surprisingly SM30-277 appeared after the loco. This small shunter of the first Polish diesel locomotive class with appliance of diesel-electric transmission was detached from the consist in Raciąż and taken by sugar factory's shunting locomotive TEM2 to the factory. I don't know whether it was a loco's renting or wnything else.. October 9, 2005.

Photo by Jarek / Chester

ST43-395 wraz z niespodziewaną w takich okolicznościach SM30-277 oraz składem pełnym buraków cukrowych wjeżdżają do Raciąża rankiem 9 października 2005 roku. Tutaj SM30 została wypięta i wzięta na zakład do cukrowni - nie wiem, czy była to forma wypożyczenia lokomotywy manewrowej, czy coś innego.

Fot. Jarek / Chester

brown relates to decay, growth and aging.

this was an amazing panorama but my computer crashed twice today and corrupted everything (y), i i started from scratch.

fantastic.

Seen arriving as 'QUADRIGA 606D'. The callsign QUADRIGA relates to a Roman racing chariot drawn by four horses. Nice !

blazer pattern downloaded with undercollar :) pattern pieces cut out, assembled and sellotaped, transferred onto pattern paper and then onto the ironed calico for the toile, test garment, and finally calico edges zigzag stitched ready to be assembled. masking tape on the calico shows it is the reverse side of the fabric, only removed when the blazer is finished

much happier now i have the undercollar :) the other jacket was not the blazer, hence no undercollar flic.kr/p/2qDqSu7 i have the updated edition of the dressmaking book and the instructions i have only relate to the blazer. for now the previous downloaded jacket will be put to one side. it's all a learning curve :)

i'm following the classic blazer pattern downloaded from this reference book flic.kr/p/2q55djV

'the dressmaking book' by alison smith mbe publisher dk

alongside the reference book i use you tube tutorials that i search for when more explanation is needed

How to Sew Darts | Beginner & Advanced www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9x-i-txyfo

5 Tips on how sew non-pointy darts! www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8M_TLn_do4

How to Sew an Invisible Zipper

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaza9t-CAiQ

How to Sew an Invisible Zipper - Updated

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG8CSr11kjA

How To Sew Invisible Zipper On Shirt / Dress | Sewing Technique Tutorial

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHNrRoCSxaE

Invisible Zipper

www.youtube.com/shorts/npDSSAMzNNc

Super clever invisible zip trick

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UyfKL5G-Bw

how to understitch www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFz4tsplENI

what is understitching?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnRDeKqKgto

ten top stitching tips www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDRXfYgkU4k

Top and Dress

Detailed Sewing Tutorial For A Beginner : Simple Linen Top, Bias Binding Neckline【Free Pattern】

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cFiT8UcU54

Download the Pattern

www.madebysachi.com/2021/09/27/super-simple-top/

LINEN DRESS DIY【Free Pattern +Easy Draft】Step by Step Guide for Beginner /back opening /Skirt Pleats

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDFRlF_yEtA&t=0s

Download the Pattern

www.madebysachi.com/2021/09/27/super-simple-top/

BASIC SEAM POCKET

www.madebysachi.com/2022/07/09/basic-seam-pocket/

How to Sew Pleats | Box Pleat, Knife Pleat, Inverted Box Pleat

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRlHcPh38MY

Forming Box Pleats

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNXJ_BIsb1E

Inverted Pleat

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfdE3DlJdFQ

setting the sleeve www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqo-SIy8MXY&t=178s

coat pattern instructions www.sewmag.co.uk/free-sewing-patterns/serena-wool-coat#lo...

How to properly sew a shawl collar jacket/sewing techniques for beginners www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjeqgIfSt9c

Easy Way To Sewing shawl collar | Coat Collar Tutorial Cutting and Stitching | Sewing Tutorial www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsUZjA9JErI

my sewing machine JL220 flic.kr/p/2odruLA from john lewis www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-jl220-sewing-machine-pepperm...

sewing machine maintenance flic.kr/p/2q9GVTh

How to Use your SEWING MACHINE (for Beginners)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmaZBTMzkoY

A Beginners' Guide To Using Your Sewing Machine

www.youtube.com/watch?v=imryOl_LNaw

Beginners Sewing Course - Day 1 - The Basics

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGITrkYdjJs

Seam Finishes

10 SEAM FINISHES Without a Serger || Basic to Couture

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYt7JxC_bIc&t=596s

7 Seam Types and How to Make it- Sewing Lesson for Beginner

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax6JDDP_6O8

French Seam Pockets

How to Add Pockets to a Side Seam using French Seams

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aatWJL_aAYY

Lining

How to add lining to ANY dress pattern | Sewing Tutorial

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENKI3fSBQBo

How To Sew a Slip Stitch by Hand

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjky55Cp1_I

Buttonholes

3 Sewing Tips to Make Buttonholes Neatly and Quickly

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oOz28Ybk8I

How to Machine-Sew and Custom-sized Buttonhole

www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6P-TKK3tjg&t=135s

Place and Sew Hooks and Eyes Correctly

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d06GhQx_Wg

How to Fix a Low Neckline

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U-W6W5fh-4

Interfacing

How to fuse iron-on interfacing to fabric

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7idVbAkUBTU

reference books

flic.kr/p/2q55djV

i'm a complete beginner at dressmaking. posting photos of progress to encourage myself to continue www.flickr.com/photos/connect2012/albums/72177720305370633/ i'm not making any recommendations ...

This relates to the previous photo I posted. The following night I dressed up in a velvet body shirt and black leather mini skirt and went out to a large Disco! I did have fun even though I was nervous with the big crowd.

Overview

Great Minds is a dynamic monument that praises the birth of ideas and relates to all creative people. Light work appears in the form of two monumental brains in dialogue, performing active, luminous brainstorming – the unavoidable phase of each creative process – and figuratively using light to emphasize births of unique ideas and sparkling activities of all great minds. Great Minds was first presented in 2021 at Nobel Week Lights in Stockholm, Sweden with the support of GVA, Control Dept and Rebel Light. About Aleksandra Stratimirovic

Aleksandra Stratimirovic graduated in Applied Arts and Design at the University of Arts in Belgrade. She completed her studies in specialized lighting design at the University of Arts, Crafts and Design, Konstfack and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Stratimirovic has broad knowledge and understanding of light and lighting technologies, and she is also the author of temporary and permanent light-art installations for numerous public places in Sweden and abroad. Her works include “Transmission” for the World Heritage Grimeton Radio Station, Sweden, “You Are The Dream” in Gothenburg, “Northern Lights” Jardin du Palais Royal, Paris and participation in the Amsterdam Light Festival. She has received numerous awards and recognitions. Her light works are exhibited worldwide, most recently at the NOOR Riyadh Festival, the National Museum in Stockholm and the Skopje Light Art District.

Partnership Festival: Nobel Week Lights

Nobel Week Lights is initiated and produced by Annika Levin, Alexandra Manson and Lara Szabo Greisman from Troika. The initiative collaborates with the Nobel Prize Museum with support from the City of Stockholm, the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce and the Swedish Space Agency, and many other partners and lighting companies. Inspired by Nobel Prize-awarded discoveries and laureates, stunning artworks light up the darkness of the streets of Stockholm each year during the Nobel Week.

About Fjord Studio

Fjord Studio is a creative studio dedicated to bringing the magic of light art into people’s lives. Fjord Studio curates and produces light art projects for cultural events, urban spaces, architecture and stage. Based in Oslo, the studio works globally and produces the best in light art. The studio collaborates with renowned Norwegian and international light artists and new talents, experienced technical teams and international partners. With projections on buildings, intimate installations, site-specific light sculptures and immersive video art, the studio’s work is a broad exploration of light art. Together with their artists and customers, the studio works towards a shared vision to create meaningful, inspiring and memorable experiences of light and art. Fjord Studio has been developed by artist and curator Anastasia Isachsen and producer Frank Isachsen, the team behind the light art festival Fjord Oslo. Since 2020, their work has expanded to conceptualize, produce and communicate various types of temporary and permanent projects at the intersection of art and technology – in Norway and internationally. Ongoing projects include the annual light art festival Fjord Oslo, the new light art initiative Fjord Geiranger in Geiranger and Nordic Lights – a collaborative project with Harbourfront Centre and light art festivals in Denmark, Sweden and Finland, in addition to several smaller projects. Source: harbourfrontcentre.com/event/great-minds/

When I cry, I secretly hope that you will run all the way to mah doorstep in the rain, wipe mah tear, kiss me on the forehead and stay w/ me through the night...

P.s: It's Romantic rite ;)) keke

The last photo from The Medieval Mining Settlement in Złoty Stok and then we'll be going to the mine :)

The Medieval Mining Settlement is a very precise replica of a medieval settlement, including machines and devices reconstructed in a 1:1 scale. They are all in working order, as every visitor can find out. All the machines and devices were built very precisely on the basis of medieval illustrations by Georgius Agricola. This is the only this type attraction in Europe. Visiting the Park is very much like a travel in time back to the Middle Ages. In addition, visitors to the Mining Settlement can walk through a mysterious and scary underground tunnel leading to the cottage of the local executioner. This attraction relates to the medieval office and profession of executioner in Złoty Stok - he played an important role in punishing miners who stole gold or other criminals.

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Ostatni rzut oka na średniowieczną osadę górniczą i teraz będziemy szli zwiedzać kopalnię :)

Średniowieczny Park Techniki, stanowi bardzo dokładną replikę średniowiecznej osady górniczej wyposażonej w urzadzenia skonstruowane w skali 1:1 na podstawie rycin oraz opisów Georgiusa Agricoli. Wszystkie urządzenia działają o czym może przekonać się każdy zwiedzający. Jest to jedyna tego typu atrakcja w Europie. Zwiedzanie Parku można spokojnie określić jako podróż w czasie do średniowiecza. Dodatkowo w Osadzie Górniczej zwiedzający natrafiają na pełen tajemnic i strachów podziemny tunel, który kończy się wizytą w Chacie złotostockiego Kata. Atrakcja ta nawiązuje do średniowiecznego Urzędu Kata w Złotym Stoku jak i do jego zawodu – kat odgrywał ważną rolę przy karaniu m.in. górników, którzy kradli złoto.

Relating to bygone days when things were tough.

I often relate odd shots I take to memories of my younger days. One of the first trips my wife and I did overseas was to the USA where we visited Disneyland and LA before heading north to San Francisco where some of my Mum's family lived and still live.

I remember being on one of those iconic Disney rides that always seemed to be more well known than they are today, perhaps Small World or the Pirates of the Caribbean. These rides were and still are world class and for innocents like us, they were just fantastic. Anyway, we had this family in the car behind us on whatever ride we were on, staring in awe while one of the young sons in that family just kept on with his mantra "It's fake Daddy!". Grrr, I mean! I wonder what he would say today in the brave new electronic and digital world. Forty years on, he would have his own kids by now, perhaps adults themselves.

Every time I look at this, now damaged concrete sculpture in Humpybong Creek at Redcliffe in SE Queensland, I can't help recalling that kid's words. I just wonder if the two Cormorants drying their feathers were thinking that also in the warm sun?

Happy 3eeD For aLL

^^ Say ,, mashallah PLZ :)

Sorry, comments that doesn't relate to the photo & copy paste will be deleted.

For a Better Flickr ،،

don't using my photo without permission ^^

Adapting a popular song from the 1970s I often find myself singing 'sometimes I want to be a woman' I do also sing the actual line 'sometimes it's hard to be a woman' too as I can relate to both sentiments. I frequently segue into the chorus line of 'stand by your man' unconsciously then a sudden awareness of what I just sang brings me to a halt! Realisation I'm not a woman crashes in and I feel a mix of regret, sadness and fear yet at the same time I feel contentment, delight and real joy.

My relationship with my transvestism is something that fascinates me greatly and is something I really enjoy analysing and on rare occasions get to discuss, I am completely fascinated by my transgender feelings. I do often question my motives as being a transvestite brings with it a lot of emotions and satisfaction, indeed a sense of fulfilment yet it also carries for me doubt and guilt and confusion.

One of the things that causes me fear is the sheer joy I experience when I dress up as a woman, I absolutely love it and find part of me willing to assume the persona of a female with great eagerness. I really want it and to completely cross the gender line and no longer be a man. That part of me is something I feel I fight and suppress as I have fears of what it may set free. The big fear is it may well destroy my actual life with my wife, family, colleagues and work.

For me to appear, or more accurately attempt to appear as a woman is a heady powerful emotional desire that I will openly admit I am drawn to. I simply adore dressing up as a woman and trying to pass myself off as a female. Surely this is not what a man should be doing? Well, that's what society may tell us yet I live as a man and love to be a woman.

There are for me undoubted thrills that accompany the initial cross-dressing such as I may on occasion become sexually aroused by the act of transforming myself into the opposite gender. There is of course the thrill of performance and creating an illusion, in fact the act of attempting female impersonation (albeit not on stage or for theatrical entertainment) gives me a real buzz despite the fact it I only ever cross-dress in private.

I am keen to pass as a woman and to act the role convincingly. As I love female impersonation and acting I constantly challenge myself to try and become the woman I am appearing as and not let any of the man be evident. As a consequence I try to think myself into believing I am female. To try and feel and act more realistically female I create back stories for my female alter-ego and really try to become her as I find the challenge something that is incredibly adventurous.

Sometimes I almost pass out with fear when I act like I find men attractive or talk about my (imaginary) ex husband and boyfriends. The man in me is repelled by this yet the woman I am attempting to portray feels at home. I do try to get over my male fears as I do dream of one day passing convincingly in every way as a woman. I kind of believe if I want to appear realistically to be female then I need to become female in my thinking and interaction.

I have found, despite my male fears, I do feel more like a female by thinking of the camera as my boyfriend and trying to act a bit flirty. Somehow it adds an extra element of femininity to the vibe and hopefully to the photos.

I rationalise this by telling myself I am supposed to be a woman when I have gone to all of the effort to become Helene so I need to switch over into being her. My body is shaved, my genitals are tucked, I have false breasts, my face is painted in make-up, I'm wearing a wig with a female hair style and I'm wearing knickers and bra and a dress and high heels with painted nails...I am trying to look like a woman so I really should try and make the whole ensemble come together and try and fulfil those efforts in a way that makes the illusion feel convincing and real to those who see her. I want my alter-ego to pass as a woman in every way, it's an ambition I harbour as a transvestite.

My vanity, indeed I'm sure more my ego, would love to one day experience being taken out for dinner as Helene by a man. As a transvestite trying to pass as a woman that surely has to be rewarding? To be wined and dined and treated as a lady and spend the evening as a woman being admired by men is the ultimate in passing. It has nothing to do with sex, it is all to do with an inner dream of being able to pass convincingly as a female.

I feel more at ease talking abut such scenarios now as I know my own sexuality and I know I would have enjoyed working as a female impersonator and acting as a convincing looking transvestite in films when I was younger. I enjoy those films when a woman is revealed to be a man and every body is surprised as they never saw it coming. The same with female impersonation, I am in awe of men who look, sound and can behave like women yet the audience know that she is in fact a man performing as a woman. I have been ridiculed, indeed at times humiliated in the past for expressing these personal views and ambitions but as I get older I now think why not be honest about my own motivations and issues related to why I engage in transvestism.

In this photo from early June I was totally getting into being a woman and would happily have posed with a man on my arm to sell the illusion I was female. I enjoyed wearing this outfit and if I am honest felt very much at home appearing like this. The intensity of the moment was quite something to cope with, I wanted nothing more than to remain female forever. However, about four hours after this photo was taken I returned to being a man and was quite happy to do so. I think the knowledge I desire to dress up and look female and act as if I am female is something I get a buzz from. The fact I rarely get to cross-dress is probably what I find attractive about being a transvestite. If I was a woman full time I would not likely get the rewards I have emotionally and physically that I get from the occasional cross-dressing experiences. Yet, I feel there is a part of me that wishes I was female.

To be a cross-dresser is quite a mixed bag of emotions and motivations, nothing is that clear cut and I confess I rather like this often confusing exciting and worrying mix that goes on within me. I am addicted to it, I really am.

The Hôtel des Invalides (English: "house of invalids"), commonly called Les Invalides (French pronunciation: ​[lezɛ̃valid]), is a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans, the building's original purpose. The buildings house the Musée de l'Armée, the military museum of the Army of France, the Musée des Plans-Reliefs, and the Musée d'Histoire Contemporaine. The complex also includes the former hospital chapel, now national cathedral of the French military, and the adjacent former Royal Chapel known as the Dôme des Invalides, the tallest church building in Paris at a height of 107 meters. The latter has been converted into a shrine of some of France's leading military figures, most notably the tomb of Napoleon.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Invalides

The Hôtel des Invalides (English: "house of invalids"), commonly called Les Invalides (French pronunciation: ​[lezɛ̃valid]), is a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans, the building's original purpose. The buildings house the

, the military museum of the Army of France, the Musée des Plans-Reliefs, and the Musée d'Histoire Contemporaine. The complex also includes the former hospital chapel, now national cathedral of the French military, and the adjacent former Royal Chapel known as the Dôme des Invalides, the tallest church building in Paris at a height of 107 meters. The latter has been converted into a shrine of some of France's leading military figures, most notably the tomb of Napoleon.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Invalides

Primavera, is a large panel painting in tempera paint by the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli made in the late 1470s or early 1480s (datings vary). It has been described as "one of the most written about, and most controversial paintings in the world", and also "one of the most popular paintings in Western art".

The painting depicts a group of figures from classical mythology in a garden, but no story has been found that brings this particular group together. Most critics agree that the painting is an allegory based on the lush growth of Spring, but accounts of any precise meaning vary, though many involve the Renaissance Neoplatonism which then fascinated intellectual circles in Florence. The subject was first described as Primavera by the art historian Giorgio Vasari who saw it at Villa Castello, just outside Florence, by 1550.

Although the two are now known not to be a pair, the painting is inevitably discussed with Botticelli's other very large mythological painting, The Birth of Venus, also in the Uffizi. They are among the most famous paintings in the world, and icons of the Italian Renaissance; of the two, the Birth is even better known than the Primavera. As depictions of subjects from classical mythology on a very large scale, they were virtually unprecedented in Western art since classical antiquity.

The history of the painting is not certainly known; it may have been commissioned by one of the Medici family, but the certainty of its commission is unknown. It draws from a number of classical and Renaissance literary sources, including the works of the Ancient Roman poet Ovid and, less certainly, Lucretius, and may also allude to a poem by Poliziano, the Medici house poet who may have helped Botticelli devise the composition. Since 1919 the painting has been part of the collection of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.

The painting features six female figures and two male, along with a cupid, in an orange grove. The movement of the composition is from right to left, so following that direction the standard identification of the figures is: at far right "Zephyrus, the biting wind of March, kidnaps and possesses the nymph Chloris, whom he later marries and transforms into a deity; she becomes the goddess of Spring, eternal bearer of life, and is scattering roses on the ground." Chloris the nymph overlaps Flora, the goddess she transforms into.

In the centre (but not exactly so) and somewhat set back from the other figures stands Venus, a red-draped woman in blue. Like the flower-gatherer, she returns the viewer's gaze. The trees behind her form a broken arch to draw the eye. In the air above her a blindfolded Cupid aims his bow to the left. On the left of the painting the Three Graces, a group of three females also in diaphanous white, join hands in a dance. At the extreme left Mercury, clothed in red with a sword and a helmet, raises his caduceus or wooden rod towards some wispy gray clouds.

The interactions between the figures are enigmatic. Zephyrus and Chloris are looking at each other. Flora and Venus look out at the viewer, the Cupid is blindfolded, and Mercury has turned his back on the others, and looks up at the clouds. The central Grace looks towards him, while the other two seem to look at each other. Flora's smile was very unusual in painting at this date.

The pastoral scenery is elaborate. There are 500 identified plant species depicted in the painting, with about 190 different flowers, of which at least 130 can be specifically identified. The overall appearance, and size, of the painting is similar to that of the millefleur ("thousand flower") Flemish tapestries that were popular decorations for palaces at the time.

These tapestries had not caught up by the 1480s with the artistic developments of the Italian Renaissance, and the composition of the painting has aspects that belong to this still Gothic style. The figures are spread in a rough line across the front of the picture space, "set side by side like pearls on a string". It is now known that in the setting for which the painting was designed the bottom was about at eye level, or slightly above it, partly explaining "the gently rising plane" on which the figures stand.

The feet of Venus are considerably higher than those of the others, showing she is behind them, but she is at the same scale, if not larger, than the other figures. Overlapping of other figures by Mercury's sword and Chloris' hands shows that they stand slightly in front of the left Grace and Flora respectively, which might not be obvious otherwise, for example from their feet. It has been argued that the flowers do not grow smaller to the rear of the picture space, certainly a feature of the millefleur tapestries.

The costumes of the figures are versions of the dress of contemporary Florence, though the sort of "quasi-theatrical costumes designed for masquerades of the sort that Vasari wrote were invented by Lorenzo de' Medici for civic festivals and tournaments." The lack of an obvious narrative may relate to the world of pageants and tableaux vivants as well as typically static Gothic allegories.

Various interpretations of the figures have been set forth, but it is generally agreed that at least at one level the painting is "an elaborate mythological allegory of the burgeoning fertility of the world." It is thought that Botticelli had help devising the composition of the painting and whatever meanings it was intended to contain, as it appears that the painting reflects a deep knowledge of classical literature and philosophy that Botticelli is unlikely to have possessed. Poliziano is usually thought to have been involved in this, though Marsilio Ficino, another member of Lorenzo de' Medici's circle and a key figure in Renaissance Neoplatonism, has also often been mentioned.

One aspect of the painting is a depiction of the progress of the season of spring, reading from right to left. The wind of early Spring blows on the land and brings forth growth and flowers, presided over by Venus, goddess of April, with at the left Mercury, the god of the month of May in an early Roman calendar, chasing away the last clouds before summer. As well as being part of a sequence over the season, Mercury in dispelling the clouds is acting as the guard of the garden, partly explaining his military dress and his facing out of the picture space. A passage in Virgil's Aeneid describes him clearing the skies with his caduceus. A more positive, Neoplatonist view of the clouds is that they are "the benificent veils through which the splendour of transcendent truth may reach the beholder without destroying him."

Venus presides over the garden – an orange grove (a Medici symbol). It is also the Garden of the Hesperides of classical myth, from which the golden apples used in the Judgement of Paris came; the Hellenistic Greeks had decided that these were citrus fruits, exotic to them. According to Claudian, no clouds were allowed there. Venus stands in front of the dark leaves of a myrtle bush. According to Hesiod, Venus had been born of the sea after the semen of Uranus had fallen upon the waters. Coming ashore in a shell she had clothed her nakedness in myrtle, and so the plant became sacred to her. Venus appears here in her character as a goddess of marriage, clothed and with her hair modestly covered, as married women were expected to appear in public.

The Three Graces are sisters, and traditionally accompany Venus. In classical art (but not literature) they are normally nude, and typically stand still as they hold hands, but the depiction here is very close to one adapting Seneca by Leon Battista Alberti in his De pictura (1435), which Botticelli certainly knew. From the left they are identified by Edgar Wind as Voluptas, Castitas, and Pulchritudo (Pleasure, Chastity and Beauty), though other names are found in mythology, and it is noticeable that many writers, including Lightbown and the Ettlingers, refrain from naming Botticelli's Graces at all.

Botticelli's Pallas and the Centaur (1482) has been proposed as the companion piece to Primavera.

Cupid's arrow is aimed at the middle Grace — Chastity, according to Wind — and the impact of love on chastity, leading to a marriage, features in many interpretations. Chastity looks towards Mercury, and some interpretations, especially those identifying the figures as modelled on actual individuals, see this couple as one to match Chloris and Zephyrus on the other side of the painting.

In a different interpretation the Earthy carnal love represented by Zephyrus to the right is renounced by the central figure of the Graces, who has turned her back to the scene, unconcerned by the threat represented to her by Cupid. Her focus is on Mercury, who himself gazes beyond the canvas at what many believe hung as the companion piece to Primavera: Pallas and the Centaur, in which "love oriented towards knowledge" (embodied by Pallas Athena) proves triumphant over lust (symbolized by the centaur).

The basic identification of the figures is now widely agreed,but in the past other names have sometimes been used for the females on the right, who are two stages of the same person in the usual interpretation. The woman in the flowered dress may be called Primavera (a personification of Spring), with Flora the figure pursued by Zephyrus. One scholar suggested in 2011 that the central figure is not Venus at all, but Persephone.

In addition to its overt meaning, the painting has been interpreted as an illustration of the ideal of Neoplatonic love popularized among the Medicis and their followers by Marsilio Ficino. The Neoplatonic philosophers saw Venus as ruling over both Earthly and divine love and argued that she was the classical equivalent of the Virgin Mary; this is alluded to by the way she is framed in an altar-like setting that is similar to contemporary images of the Virgin Mary. Venus' hand gesture of welcome, probably directed to the viewer, is the same as that used by Mary to the Archangel Gabriel in contemporary paintings of the Annunciation.

Punning allusions to Medici names probably include the golden balls of the oranges, recalling those on the Medici coat of arms, the laurel trees at right, for either Lorenzo, and the flames on the costume of both Mercury (for whom they are a regular attribute) and Venus, which are also an attribute of Saint Laurence (Lorenzo in Italian). Mercury was the god of medicine and "doctors", medici in Italian. Such puns for the Medici, and in Venus and Mars the Vespucci, run through all Botticelli's mythological paintings.

The origin of the painting is unclear. Botticelli was away in Rome for many months in 1481/82, painting in the Sistine Chapel, and suggested dates are in recent years mostly later than this, but still sometimes before. Thinking has been somewhat changed by the publication in 1975 of an inventory from 1499 of the collection of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici.

The 1499 inventory records it hanging in the city palace of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici and his brother Giovanni "Il Popolano". They were the cousins of Lorenzo de' Medici ("Lorenzo il Magnifico"), who was effectively the ruler of Florence, and after their father's early death had been his wards. It hung over a large lettuccio, an elaborate piece of furniture including a raised base, a seat and a backboard, probably topped with a cornice. The bottom of the painting was probably at about the viewer's eye-level, so rather higher than it is hung today.

In the same room was Botticelli's Pallas and the Centaur, and also a large tondo with the Virgin and Child. The tondo is now unidentified, but is a type of painting especially associated with Botticelli. This was given the highest value of the three paintings, at 180 lire. A further inventory of 1503 records that the Primavera had a large white frame.

In the first edition of his Life of Botticelli, published in 1550, Giorgio Vasari said that he had seen this painting, and the Birth of Venus, hanging in the Medici country Villa di Castello. Before the inventory was known it was usually believed that both paintings were made for the villa, probably soon after it was acquired in 1477, either commissioned by Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco or perhaps given to him by his older cousin and guardian Lorenzo de' Medici. Rather oddly, Vasari says both paintings contained female nudes, which is not strictly the case here.

Most scholars now connect the painting to the marriage of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici. Paintings and furniture were often given as presents celebrating weddings. The marriage was on 19 July 1482, but had been postponed after the death of the elder Lorenzo's mother on 25 March. It was originally planned for May. Recent datings tend to prefer the early 1480s, after Botticelli's return from Rome, suggesting it was directly commissioned in connection with this wedding, a view supported by many.

Another older theory, assuming an early date, suggests the older Lorenzo commissioned the portrait to celebrate the birth of his nephew Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici (who later became Pope), but changed his mind after the assassination of Giulo's father, his brother Giuliano in 1478, having it instead completed as a wedding gift for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco.

It is frequently suggested that Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco is the model for Mercury in the portrait, and his bride Semiramide represented as Flora (or Venus). In older theories, placing the painting in the 1470s, it was proposed that the model for Venus was Simonetta Vespucci, wife of Marco Vespucci and according to popular legend the mistress of Giuliano de' Medici (who is also sometimes said to have been the model for Mercury); these identifications largely depend on an early date, in the 1470s, as both were dead by 1478. Simonetta was the aunt of Lorenzo's bride Semiramide. Summarizing the many interpretations of the painting, Leopold Ettlinger includes "descending to the ludricous – a Wagnerian pantomime enacted in memory of the murdered Giuliano de' Medici and his beloved Simonetta Vespucci with the Germanic Norns disguised as the Mediterranean Graces."

Whenever this painting and the Birth of Venus were united at Castello, they have remained together ever since. They stayed in Castello until 1815, when they were transferred to the Uffizi. For some years until 1919 they were kept in the Galleria dell'Accademia, another government museum in Florence. Since 1919, it has hung in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. During the Italian campaign of World War Two, the picture was moved to Montegufoni Castle about ten miles south west of Florence to protect it from wartime bombing.

It was returned to the Uffizi Gallery where it remains to the present day. In 1978, the painting was restored.[66] The work has darkened considerably over the course of time

I have a 90 year old neighbor who has hiked the 890 km length of the Bruce Trail three or four times. In the heyday of his 70's and even 80's, walking 30 or even 50 km was just a walk in the park for him. In the last year, his hips started giving out it's been one of the most difficult things he's had to leave behind. He still goes out for a walk around the block every day, just one step at a time, with a crutch under one arm and a cane in the other. Seeing him hobble down the street, I can completely relate to his determination as our own time feels the most grounded somewhere on a hiking trail. I'm also very blessed having someone to share that passion with and we're both looking forward to the day when the trails reopen after the current pandemic.

To welcome in the new work week for many of you out there, thought that I would share an appropriate image. :-) I'm sure that many can relate to feeling like this on this Monday ... OK, on pretty much any Monday morning. I know that I used to. I remember having weekends that were so filled with activities and photography that I was literally this exhausted come Monday morning. However, isn't the weekend supposed to be for relaxation and unwinding? LOL

As many of you know, I recently had the opportunity to travel to the arctic to photograph the polar bears. Each day was so different with regards to the weather, the lighting, the bears activities, etc. What a thrill!

On this particular morning, the bears were a bit sluggish. At least this one was. We found it resting along the shoreline of the spit ... just chillin'. We stayed on it for some time and all that it would do was lift its head and survey the "goings on" around it every so often. I remember thinking ... don't they just have the life. This period of time spent on the landscape waiting for the ice to freeze, was truly the polar bears holiday. :-)

These bears are so incredibly beautiful and quite honestly, seemed both peaceful and playful. Not for one moment did I fear being near them and at times, I felt the urge to snuggle up with them. Urge, I said, never would I really do anything like that of course. Like other bears, they simply seemed to accept us in their world with not much reaction out of the adults, but a sense of curiosity out of the cubs.

Hope that this lifted your Monday morning blues a bit. Funny because sure enough (for I just checked), guess what day it was that this image was captured? Yep, you guessed it Monday! Guess we're not the only ones that suffer from that affliction. LOL

Thanks for stopping by to view and especially for sharing your thoughts and comments.

© 2015 Debbie Tubridy / TNWA Photography

A new blog post will be published tonight featuring the burrowing owls of south Florida. Check it out after 6:30 pm EST tonight.

www.tnwaphotography.wordpress.com

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A giant tortoise at the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz

Galapagos Giant Tortoise

The Galápagos tortoise or Galápagos giant tortoise (Geochelone nigra) is the largest living tortoise, native to seven islands of the Galápagos archipelago. The Galápagos tortoise is unique to the Galápagos Islands. Fully grown adults can weigh over 300 kilograms (661 lb) and measure 1.2 meters (4 ft) long. They are long-lived with a life expectancy in the wild estimated to be 100-150 years. Populations fell dramatically because of hunting and the introduction of predators and grazers by humans since the seventeenth century. Now only ten subspecies of the original twelve exist in the wild. However, conservation efforts since the establishment of the Galápagos National Park and the Charles Darwin Foundation have met with success, and hundreds of captive-bred juveniles have been released back onto their home islands. They have become one of the most symbolic animals of the fauna of the Galápagos Islands. The tortoises have very large shells (carapace) made of bone. The bony plates of the shell are integral to the skeleton, fused with the ribs in a rigid protective structure. Naturalist Charles Darwin remarked "These animals grow to an immense size ... several so large that it required six or eight men to lift them from the ground.". This is due to the phenomenon of island gigantism whereby in the absence of natural predation, the largest tortoises had a survival advantage and no disadvantage in fleeing or fending off predators. When threatened, it can withdraw its head, neck and all forelimbs into its shell for protection, presenting a protected shield to a would-be predator. The legs have hard scales that also provide armour when withdrawn. Tortoises keep a characteristic scute pattern on their shell throughout life. These have annual growth bands but are not useful for aging as the outer layers are worn off. There is little variation in the dull-brown colour of the shell or scales. Physical features (including shape of the shell) relate to the habitat of each of the subspecies. These differences were noted by Captain Porter even before Charles Darwin. Larger islands with more wet highlands such as Santa Cruz and the Alcedo Volcano on Isabela have lush vegetation near the ground. Tortoises here tend to have 'dome-back' shells. These animals have restricted upward head movement due to shorter necks, and also have shorter limbs. These are the heaviest and largest of the subspecies.Smaller, drier islands such as Española and Pinta are inhabited by tortoises with 'saddleback' shells comprising a flatter carapace which is elevated above the neck and flared above the hind feet. Along with longer neck and limbs, this allows them to browse taller vegetation. On these drier islands the Galápagos Opuntia cactus (a major source of their fluids) has evolved a taller, tree-like form. This is evidence of an evolutionary arms race between progressively taller tortoises and correspondingly taller cacti. Saddlebacks are smaller in size than domebacks. They tend to have a yellowish color on lower mandible and throat. At one extreme, the Sierra Negra volcano population that inhabits southern Isabela Island has a very flattened "tabletop" shell. However, there is no saddleback/domeback dualism; tortoises can also be of 'intermediate' type with characteristics of both. The tortoises are slow-moving reptiles with an average long-distance walking speed of 0.3 km/h (0.18 mph). Although feeding giant tortoises browse with no apparent direction, when moving to water-holes or nesting grounds, they can move at surprising speeds for their size. Marked individuals have been reported to have traveled 13 km in two days. Being cold-blooded, the tortoises bask for two hours after dawn, absorbing the energy through their shells, then becoming active for 8–9 hours a day. They may sleep for about sixteen hours in a mud wallow partially or submerged in rain-formed pools (sometimes dew ponds formed by garua-moisture dripping off trees). This may be both a thermoregulatory response and a protection from parasites such as mosquitoes and ticks. Some rest in a 'pallet'- a snug depression in soft ground or dense brush- which probably helps to conserve heat and may aid digestion. On the Alcedo Volcano, repeated use of the same sites by the large resident population has resulted in the formation of small sandy pits. Darwin observed that: "The inhabitants believe that these animals are absolutely deaf; certainly they do not overhear a person walking near behind them. I was always amused, when overtaking one of these great monsters as it was quietly pacing along, to see how suddenly, the instant I passed, it would draw in its head and legs, and uttering a deep hiss fall to the ground with a heavy sound, as if struck dead." The tortoises can vocalise in aggressive encounters, whilst righting themselves if turned upside down and, in males, during mating. The latter is described as "rhythmic groans". The tortoises are herbivorous animals with a diet comprising cactus, grasses, leaves, vines, and fruit. Fresh young grass is a favorite food of the tortoises, and others are the 'poison apple' (Hippomane mancinella) (toxic to humans), the endemic guava (Psidium galapageium), the water fern (Azolla microphylla), and the bromeliad (Tillandsia insularis). Tortoises eat a large quantity of food when it is available at the expense of incomplete digestion. Its favorite food is grasses. The tortoise normally eat an average of 70 to 80 pounds a day. Tortoises have a classic example of a mutualistic symbiotic relationship with some species of Galápagos finch. The finch hops in front of the tortoise to show that it is ready and the tortoise then raises itself up high on its legs and stretches out its neck so that the bird can pick off ticks that are hidden in the folds of the skin (especially on the rear legs, cloacal opening, neck, and skin between plastron and carapace), thus freeing the tortoise from harmful parasites and providing the finch with an easy meal. Other birds, including Galápagos Hawk and flycatchers, use tortoises as observation posts from which to sight their prey. Mating occurs at any time of the year, although it does have seasonal peaks between January and August. When two mature males meet in the mating season they will face each other, rise up on their legs and stretch up their necks with their mouths open to assess dominance. Occasionally, head-biting occurs, but usually the shorter loser tortoise will back off, leaving the other to mate with the female. In groups of tortoises from mixed island populations, saddleback males have an advantage over domebacks. Frustrated non-dominant males have been observed attempting to mate with other males and boulders. The male sniffs the air when seeking a female, bellows loudly, and bobs his head. The male then rams the female with the front of his shell and bites her exposed legs until she withdraws them, immobilizing her. Copulation can last several hours with roaring vocalisations from the males. Their concave shell base allows males to mount the females from behind. It brings its tail which houses the penis into the female's cloaca. After mating (June-December), the females journey up to several kilometres to reach nesting areas of dry, sandy ground (often near the coast). Nest digging can last from hours to days and is elaborate and exhausting. It is carried out blindly using only the hind legs to dig a 30 cm deep hole, into which she lays up to sixteen hard-shelled eggs the size of tennis balls. The female makes a muddy plug for the nest hole out of soil mixed with urine and leaves the eggs to incubate. In rocky areas, the eggs are deposited randomly into cracks. The young emerge from the nest after 120 to 140 days gestation later (December-April) and may weigh only 80 grams (2.8 oz) and measure 6 centimetres (2.4 in). Temperature plays a role in the sex of the hatchling: if the nest temperature is lower, more males will hatch; if it is high, more females will hatch. When the young tortoises emerge from their shells, they must dig their way to the surface, which can take up to a month. All have domed carapaces, and subspecies are indistinguishable. Galápagos Hawk used to be the only native predator of the tortoise hatchlings, as Darwin remarked: "The young tortoises, as soon as they are hatched, fall prey in great numbers to buzzards". Sex can be determined only when the tortoise is 15 years old, and sexual maturity is reached at 20 to 25 years old. The tortoises grow slowly for about 40 years until they reach their full size. Reproductive prime is considered to be from the ages of 60–90. The shape of the carapace of some subspecies of the tortoises is said to have reminded the early Spanish explorers of a kind of saddle they called a "galápago," and for these saddle-shaped tortoises they named the archipelago. Up to 250,000 tortoises inhabited the islands when they were discovered. Today only about 15,000 are left.

The inhabitants...state that they can distinguish the tortoise from different islands; and that they differ not only in size, but in other characters. Captain Porter has described those from Charles and from the nearest island to it, namely Hood Island, as having their shells in front thick and turned up like a Spanish saddle, whilst the tortoises from James Island are rounder, blacker, and have a better taste when cooked.---Charles Darwin 1845

There were probably twelve subspecies of Geochelone nigra in the Galápagos Islands, although some recognise up to 15 subspecies. Now only 11 subspecies remain, five on Isabela Island, and the other six on Santiago, Santa Cruz, San Cristóbal, Pinzón, Española and Pinta. Of these, the Pinta Island subspecies is extinct in the wild and is represented by a single individual (Lonesome George). In the past, zoos took animals without knowing their island of origin. Production of fertile offspring from various pairings of tortoises largely confirmed that they are subspecies and not different species. All the subspecies of giant tortoise evolved in Galápagos from a common ancestor that arrived from the mainland, floating on the ocean currents (the tortoises can drift for long periods of time as they are buoyant and can stretch head upwards to breathe). Only a single pregnant female or breeding pair needed to arrive in this way, and then survive, for Galápagos to be colonised. In the seventeenth century, pirates started to use the Galápagos islands as a base for resupply, restocking on food, water and repairing vessels before attacking Spanish colonies on the South American mainland. The tortoises were collected and stored live on board ships where they could survive for at least a year without food or water, providing valuable fresh meat, whilst their diluted urine and water stored in their neck bags could also be used as drinking water. Of the meat, Darwin wrote: "the breast-plate roasted (as the Gauchos do 'carne con cuero'), with the flesh on it, is very good; and the young tortoises make excellent soup; but otherwise the meat to my taste is indifferent." In the nineteenth century, whaling ships and fur-sealers collected tortoises for food and many more were killed for high grade 'turtle oil' from the late 1800s onward. Darwin described this process thus: "beautifully clear oil is prepared from the fat. When a tortoise is caught, the man makes a slit in the skin near its tail, so as to see inside its body, whether the fat under the dorsal plate is thick. If it is not, the animal is liberated and it is said to recover soon from this strange operation." A total of over 15,000 tortoises is recorded in the logs of 105 whaling ships between 1811 and 1844. As hunters found it easiest to collect the tortoises living round the coastal zones, the least decimated populations tended to be those in the highlands. Population decline accelerated with the early settlement of the islands, when they were hunted for meat, their habitat was cleared for agriculture and alien mammal species were introduced. Feral pigs, dogs, cats and black rats are effective predators of eggs and young tortoises, whilst goats, donkeys and cattle compete for grazing. In the twentieth century, increasing human settlement and urbanisation and collection of tortoises for zoo and museum specimens depleted numbers even more. The Galápagos giant tortoise is now strictly protected. Young tortoises are raised in a programme by the Charles Darwin Research Station in order to bolster the numbers of the extant subspecies. Eggs are collected from places on the islands where they are threatened and when the tortoises hatch they are kept in captivity until they have reached a size that ensures a good chance of survival and are returned to their original ranges. The Galápagos National Park Service systematically culls feral predators and competitors where necessary such as the complete eradication of goats from Pinta. The conservation project begun in the 1970s successfully brought 10 of the 11 endangered subspecies up to guarded population levels. The most significant recovery was that of the Española Tortoise, whose breeding stock comprised 2 males and 11 females brought to the Darwin Station. Fortuitously, a third male was discovered at the San Diego Zoo and joined the others in a captive breeding program. These 13 tortoises gave rise to over 1000 tortoises now released into their home island. In all, 2500 individuals of all breeds have been reintroduced to the islands. However, persecution still continues on a much smaller scale; more than 120 tortoises have been killed by poachers since 1990 and they have been taken hostage as political leverage by local fishermen.

Santa Cruz

With the largest human population in the Galapagos archipelago, Isla Santa Cruz is the most important of the Galapagos Islands. Meaning Holy Cross in Spanish, this island is also known as Indefatigable, after the HMS Indefatigable landed here long ago. The second largest island terms of land area at 986 sq km, Isla Santa Cruz is home to the key town of Puerto Ayora, the Charles Darwin Research Station and the headquarters of the Galapagos National Park Service. With its own airport on Isla Baltra a few miles away, Isla Santa Cruz is where most visitors who come to the Galapagos Islands usually stay. With a number of bars, hotels, restaurants and shops in Puerto Ayora, most tours of the Archipelago also usually begin from here.

Galapagos Islands

The Galápagos Islands (official name: Archipiélago de Colón; other Spanish names: Islas de Colón or Islas Galápagos) are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed around the equator in the Pacific Ocean, some 900 km west of Ecuador. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site: wildlife is its most notable feature. Because of the only very recent arrival of man the majority of the wildlife has no fear of humans and will allow visitors to walk right up them, often having to step over Iguanas or Sea Lions.The Galápagos islands and its surrounding waters are part of a province, a national park, and a biological marine reserve. The principal language on the islands is Spanish. The islands have a population of around 40,000, which is a 40-fold expansion in 50 years. The islands are geologically young and famed for their vast number of endemic species, which were studied by Charles Darwin during the voyage of the Beagle. His observations and collections contributed to the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection.

Blog relating to this story ... peterjemmett.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-year-that-was-part-...

Only Greats Relate, MISFIT MOB & SAVKREW

127 comments under the Facebook posting, to a province-wide group, of a photo that a photographer took of three people, one of them myself - angry, rude, critical, judgemental comments, by people who don't even know me or my ethics, including when they relate to photography! Last night, I found the posting again and took a long time going through all 127 comments. Made me feel sick to the stomach. This can't be right, though I know this kind of thing does happen on Facebook. I want the photo removed or for the photographer, whom I don't know, to at the very least completely blur me out of the shot. Though his comment, when he first posted his photo, was about people staying safe when taking photos, he has allowed the posting to develop into an endless bashing.

I wasn't going to post this again, but I have changed my mind after reading all those comments. I sent the man a link to one of my owl photos that has this long description with it, asking him to read, when he has time, what I have written. The link was sent only two or three days ago, so he may not have seen it yet.

"I think the very first Long-eared Owl that I ever saw was seen on 13 October 2006. SInce then, I have been very fortunate to have seen several other individuals - including the day before yesterday. These owls are very secretive and many birders go years between sightings. It is so important not to give the location of this species. Be careful that there is nothing in your photos that gives away the location.

Various people had been posting photos of a Long-eared Owl recently, but I had no idea where they were seeing it. Someone had posted a photo and labelled it "Calgary" (totally untrue!), so I had thought it must have been seen in one of our local city parks. Two days ago, I decided to go for a short drive and get a bit of sunshine and fresh air. Our deep freeze has lasted for more than four weeks, and I have been home for most of that time. It was a milder day, so I decided to make the most of it, especially with more snow forecast for today.

Imagine my surprise when a stranger told me just where it was, and my absolute horror when I came upon a huge crowd of photographers with their lenses raised! So how did they all know about this owl?? Apparently, Facebook has such a bad reputation for people trolling everyone's photostream there, finding out locations for all sorts of things (old barns included!). Then, of course, some people phone others, to ask or to tell. Others follow ebird religiously, dashing out to see every more 'special' bird that is reported and location given. I don't post many photos on Facebook and I certainly don't post the same photo to three groups. It gets so very boring to see the same photos everywhere. These people flood their own Facebook pages and the groups! The only reason I can see is to get as many Likes as possible. Anyway, most people were down in the ditch at the fenceline, so no doubt they were able to get stunning close shots, especially those with enormous lenses. My photos were taken from the road, which was twice as far away, with a point-and-shoot. I'm not out to try and get better photos than anyone else : ) As always, there is so much competition among photographers. I was also not out there all day, like various people always are, and often day after day after day.

So, after saying those things, perhaps you can imagine how extremely upset (devastated, actually) I am to have been told (when I arrived at the owl) by a couple of friends (both of whom are superb photographers) that my photograph had been taken, along with two other people in it, standing at the edge of a road earlier in February. These friends thought it was hilarious and I sure was teased a lot. As they said, my "goody two-shoes" image was gone. They both know I have very high ethics, including when it comes to photography. This photo was posted on Facebook on a provincial birding page, pointing out how dangerous it is for people to stand by the road. This thread turned into a string of comments about people harassing the owls, etc., etc., etc. Actually, the other two people in the photo are both seen taking photos (when I was told they already had taken thousands). There's me, camera not raised, looking disgusted that an owl had been flushed so that they could take flight images. The reason I was out of my vehicle was that these two people were out of theirs and racing down the road at top speed to get yet more shots. When I was sitting in my car, these photographers blocked my view of the owl, so out I got and caught up with them. To prove that I was not planning on getting out of my car this trip, I was wearing just my thin summer jacket (over fleece) in a windchill in the minus 20C's. Two minutes later, I was back in my car!

Sorry to rant, but it just upsets me so much that this photo was taken and posted on Facebook. Have barely slept the last two nights! The very last thing I would ever want is to be connected with bad ethics!! Of course, I must be such a bad person to actually stand by the road - ha, you should see all the dozens of people who do exactly the same (without being photgraphed)!

That day, I took maybe 30 photos of the Long-eared Owl, and maybe a couple of dozen of a Short-eared Owl, almost every single one of the latter needing to be deleted, because they were all totally blurry, thanks to taking the photos from inside my car. You can be sure that most of the others went home with yet another memory card containing thousands of photos.

I am hoping that now I won't be stressing out over it quite as much, every second of the day! Ain't life fun? To the man who took my photo (as far as I know, I have never met him), how about taking a few photos of the crowds of people, especially those who were as close as they could get to the LEO. Or those who stress out the owls day after day after day, often from morning till evening!

PS: I rarely allow people (i.e. friends) to photograph me. Not sure what right this man thinks he has, to take my photo and especially to then post it on a very popular Facebook group page. I want it removed from Facebook, or at the very least, to have myself totally blurred out of the image. When this sort of thing happens, it can totally destroy a person's joy of photography!

Actually, on a more serious note, something that I'm sure most people don't think of. You really need to be careful about taking a photo of someone and then posting it (without signing a consent form). For various security reasons, doing this could actually put someone in danger. For example, a woman (or vice versa) might not want their photo being advertised in this way, not wanting an abusive spouse/partner to know where they go sometimes or what they do. Just something to keep in mind."

Uses: Anything relating to finance and money.

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doesn't relate, I just really love this song. My aunt got me an iTunes gift card for my birthday and I went ahead and bought a bunch of songs that had been sitting in my shopping cart for a while. Including Fleet Foxes, by Fleet Foxes, which is amazing.

I think I'm joining a music club if Dialecticals doesn't whip itself back into shape.

Speaking of school, I shouldn't be online right now. I have to take six tests in three days, and not complain to anyone about it, because after all, I did take an eight day vacation. BACK TO WORK.

I'm addicted to film. Every image comes out so much more epheral than I could ever expect from digital.

Canon AE-1 | Kodak Gold | ISO 200

She lived on the curve in the road

In an old tar paper shack

On the south side of the town

On the wrong side of the tracks.

Sometimes on the way into town

We'd say, "Mama can we stop and give her a ride?"

Sometimes we did but her hands flew from her side,

Wild eyed Crazy Mary.

Take a bottle drink it down. Pass it around.

Pass it around.

Next morning on the way into town

Saw some skid marks and followed them around.

Over the curve, through the fields,

Into the house of Mary.

...Pearl Jam

newspaper covered walls

Uses: Anything relating to finance and money.

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I've never been able to relate to many people. I've always been the outcast child. I don't follow the rules. That's kind of how I do everything. Through my music, I've found a place in the world where I'm accepted, so I'm happy. "Neon Hitch"

Shirt - [AK] - Andrew Shirt Black

shorts - PBM Mens [Saggin' Shorts] Camo

bracelet - Izzie's - 2 Say It With A Bracelet (Loved)

watch - = REBELLION = "MAGNUS" CUFF WATCH

Shirt - [AK] - Andrew Shirt Black) I got this shirt just as a quick outfit change the other day, I half expected it to be bad, not a slight on [AK] but I've not had great success with shirts lately, I have to dig and dig to find ones I like. This one however surprised me, or I wouldn't be doing a post on it. The texture is subtle, and well done, the shadows are fantastic, not over done, just perfect. The only thing I have an issue with is fitting the shirt over jeans, most of my jeans poke through at the waist area.. However I needed a good shirt with the shorts I have on here, and this fits the bill. So if you want a Deep DEEP V, go pick this up!

Shorts - PBM Mens [Saggin' Shorts] Camo) - Okay so I'm kind of a snob when it comes to pants/jeans/shorts, I admit that freely. I will trash a pair of jeans if the texture is not perfect. So when I looked at PBM, I grabbed the demo and like [AK] shirt I expected these to also be shit. I couldn't have been more wrong, PBM Keep up the good work guys! Love these, they fit perfectly and look great!

The Bracelet and watch I'll do together, you can't really see them well in the photo, but both are very well textured, and both resizable! if you are in need of some accessories give Rebellion and Izzie's a shot! (special thanks to Hope for the bracelet! <3)

Blog Link - normalattireblog.wordpress.com/

the myth retelling Typhon's murder and dismemberment of his brother Osiris.. For alchemists, the myth of Isis and Osiris was a myth of the alchemical process. One of this myths relates him vanquishing Typhon, the dragon of ignorance ...

Set (Seth, Setekh, Sut, Sutekh, Suty) was one of ancient Egypt’s earliest gods, a god of chaos, confusion, storms, wind, the desert and foreign lands. In the Osiris legends, he was a contender to the throne of Osiris and rival to Horus, but a companion to the sun god Ra. Originally worshiped and seen as an ambivalent being, during the Third Intermediate Period the people vilified him and turned him into a god of evil.

Depicted as a man with the head of a ‘Sut animal’ (or a ‘Typhonian animal’ because of the Greek identification with Typhon), or as a full ‘Set animal’ the god is unrecognizable as any one particular animal today. He was also identified with other animals, such as the hippopotamus, the pig and the donkey, which were often abhorred by the Egyptians. These animals were sacred to him. Set’s followers took the form of these animals, as well as crocodiles, scorpions, turtles and other ‘evil’ or dangerous creatures. Some fish were sacred to Set, too – the Nile carp, the Oxyrynchus or the Phagrus fish – because they were thought to have eaten the phallus of Osiris after Set chopped him to pieces.

The ‘Set animal’ has long, squared ears and a long, down-turned snout, a canine-like body with an erect forked tail. He may have been a composite animal that was part aardvark (the aardvark that the ancient Egyptians would have seen was the nocturnal Orycteropus aethiopicus which was between 1.2-1.8 meters long and almost 1 meter tall, and was generally a reddish color because of the thin hair, allowing the skin to show through), part canine (perhaps the salawa, a desert dwelling creature) or even a camel or an okapi. The sign for his name, from the Middle Kingdom hieratic onwards, tended to replace the sign for ‘donkey’ and ‘giraffe’, so he was possibly linked to the giraffe, as well.

He was also believed to have white skin and red hair, with the Egyptians comparing his hair to the pelt of a donkey. Due to his association with red, red animals and even people with red hair were thought to be his followers. These animals were sometimes sacrificed, while the link between Set and red-heads – usually foreigners – gave him godhood over foreign lands. With the relationship to foreign peoples, Set was also a god of overseas trade of oils, wood and metals from over the sea and through desert routes. He was given lordship over western Asia because of this.

As Set was a god of the desert and probably symbolized the destructive heat of the afternoon sun, and thus was thought to be infertile. The hieroglyph for Set was used in words such as ‘turmoil’, ‘confusion’, ‘illness’, ‘storm’ and ‘rage’. Strange events such as eclipses, thunderstorms and earthquakes were all attributed to him.

Horus has seized Set, he has put him beneath you so that he can lift you up. He will groan beneath you as an earthquake…

– Pyramid Texts, Spell 356

He was also thought to have rather odd sexual habits, another reason why the Egyptian believed that abnormalities were linked to Set. In a land where fatherhood makes the man, Set’s lack of children, related to the tale where Horus tore off his testicles (while Set tore out Horus’ eye) would have been one reason why he was looked down on. His favorite – some say only – food was the lettuce (which secreted a white, milky substance that the Egyptians linked to semen and was sacred to the fertility god Min), but even with this aphrodisiac, he was still thought to have been infertile.His bisexuality (he was married and given concubines to appease him, yet he also assaulted Horus sexually starting with the come-on line “How lovely your backside is!”) and his pursuit of Isis were reasons why Set could never have been a ruler of Egypt instead of Osiris, despite originally being a lord of Upper Egypt.When Set saw Isis there, he transformed himself into a bull to be able to pursue her, but she made herself unrecognizable by taking the form of a bitch with a knife on her tail. Then she began to run away from him and Set was unable to catch up with her. Then he ejaculated on the ground, and she said, “It’s disgusting to have ejaculated, you bull!” But his sperm grew in the desert and became the plants called bedded-kau.

– Jumilhac PapyrusIn the Old and Middle Kingdoms there are depictions of these two gods together either leading the prisoners of the pharaoh or binding the plants of Upper and Lower Egypt together (as does the twin Hapi gods) to symbolize the union of Upper and Lower Egypt. He was regarded as an equal to the hawk god. This was Horus the Elder, a god of the day sky while Set was seen as a god of the night sky. When these two gods were linked, the two were said to be Horus-Set, a man with two heads – one of the hawk of Horus, the other of the Set animal.“Homage to thee, O divine Ladder! Homage to thee O Ladder of Set! Stand thou upright, O divine Ladder! Stand thou upright, O Ladder of Set! Stand thou upright, O Ladder of Horus, whereby Osiris came forth into heaven.”

– Pyramid Texts, Pepi I

In the Pyramid Texts he was believed to be a friend to the dead, and he helped Osiris ascend to heaven on a ladder. On one of Seti I’s reliefs, it shows Set and Horus offering the symbol of life to the pharaoh, with Set saying “I establish the crown upon thy head, even like the Disk on the head of Amen-Ra, and I will give thee all life, strength and health.” Thothmose III had a scene showing Set teaching him the use of the bow, while Horus taught him yet another weapon.

As for his role as a friend of the dead, it was believed that “Horus purifies and Set strengthens, and Set purifies and Horus strengthens” the deceased while the backbone of the deceased becomes the backbone of Set and Set has “joined together my neck and my back strongly, and they are even as they were in the time that is past; may nothing happen to break them apart.”Ramesses II, as did his father Seti I, both had red hair and so aligned themselves with the god of chaos. Both were famous warrior pharaohs, using Set’s violent nature to help with their war efforts. In Ramesses II’s campaign against the Hittites, he split his army into four divisions and named them after four gods. One was for Amen, one for Ra, one for Ptah and one for Set. But it was the pharaoh himself who won the battle:Thereupon the forces of the Foe from Khatti surrounded the followers of his majesty who were by his side. When his majesty caught sight of them he rose quickly, enraged at them like his father Mont. Taking up weapons and donning his armor he was like Set in the moment of his power. He mounted ‘Victory-in-Thebes,’ his great horse, and started out quickly alone by himself. His majesty was mighty, his heart stout. one could not stand before him.All his ground was ablaze with fire; he burned all the countries with his blast. His eyes were savage as he beheld them; his power flared like fire against them. He heeded not the foreign multitude; he regarded them as chaff. His majesty charged into the force of the Foe from Khatti and the many countries with him. His majesty was like Seth, great-of-strength, like Sekhmet in the moment of her rage. His majesty slew the entire force of the Foe from Khatti, together with his great chiefs and all his brothers, as well as all the chiefs of all the countries that had come with him, their infantry and their charioteers falling on their faces one upon the other. His majesty slaughtered them in their places; they sprawled before his horses; and his majesty was alone, none other with him.It is likely that the cult of Horus overtook the cult of Set in ancient times, and started to remove his positive sides to give the god Horus more status. The two gods, Horus the Elder and Horus the son of Osiris and Isis were confused, so Set changed from being an equal to his brother, Horus the Elder, to the enemy of Isis’s son. It was only after the Hyksos took Set as their main god, after the Egyptians god rid of the foreigners, he stopped symbolizing Lower Egypt and his name was erased and his statues destroyed.

Set has been worshiped since predynastic times. The first representation of Set that has been found was on a carved ivory comb, an Amratian artifact. He was also shown on the Scorpion macehead. He was worshiped and placated through Egyptian history until the Third Intermediate Period where he was seen as an evil and undesirable force. From this time on, some of his statues were re-carved to become the statues of other gods, and it was said that he had actually been defeated by the god Horus.In the original tale of the fight between Set and Horus, the Egyptians believed that the two would continue their battle until the end of time itself, when chaos overran ma’at and the waters of Nun would swallow up the world. It was only when Set was vilified that this changed, and the Egyptians began to believe that Horus won the battle, defeating Set as a version of good triumphing over evil.

In the tale of Osiris, Set was the third of the five children of Nut, thought to have been born in the Nubt (Naqada) area. Instead of being born in the normal manner, as his siblings were born, he tore himself violently from his mother’s womb.

You whom the pregnant goddess brought forth when you clove the night in twain -You are invested with the form of Set, who broke out in violence.Jealous of his older brother Osiris – either because of the birth of his sister-wife’s son, Anubis, or because of Osiris’ rulership of Egypt – Set made a plan to murder his childless brother and take the throne. He made a great feast, supposedly in honor of Osiris, and with 72 accomplices ready, he tricked Osiris into laying down in a coffer – whoever fitted into the richly ornamented chest would win it – and considering that he’d measured it to fit his brother exactly, Osiris fit perfectly… and Set’s accomplices nailed down the lid and threw it into the Nile.When Isis found out about this, she went on a search through the world to find her husband. Bringing him back, Set happened on the coffer, and tore it open and cut up his brother’s corpse, spreading body parts through the land of Egypt. Isis and Set’s wife Nephthys (who had left him to join her sister) went on a quest to restore Osiris. They succeeded enough so that Isis conceived Osiris’ son and eventually bore the child Horus in the Delta region where he grew up.

By this time Horus had reached manhood … Horus thereupon did battle with Set, the victory falling now to one, now to the other … Horus and Set, it is said, still do battle with one another, yet victory has fallen to neither.Yet Set was thought to be a follower of Ra. It was he who defended the Solar Barque each night as it traveled through the underworld, the only Egyptian deity who could kill the serpent Apep – Ra’s most dangerous enemy – each night as it threatened to swallow the Barque.Then Set, the strong one, the son of Nut, said “As for me, I am Set, the strongest of the Divine Company. Every day I slay the enemy of Ra when I stand at the helm of the Barque of Millions of Years, which no other god dare do.”Even here, though, Set was thought to be a braggart, taunting Ra and threatening that if he wasn’t treated well, that he would bring storms and thunder against the sun god. At this point in The Book of the Dead, Ra drives Set away from the Barque for his insolence, and proceeds on course without the god of storms.Other than Nephthys, Set had other wives/concubines. He was believed to live in the northern sky by the constellation of the Great Bear. To the Egyptians, the north symbolized darkness, cold and death. It was there that his wife Taweret, the hippo goddess of childbirth, was believed to keep him chained. He seemed to have bad luck with women – as with Nephthys, Taweret followed Osiris.At one part in the tale of Set’s argument with Horus over rulership, the company of the gods asked the goddess Neith, rather than Ra – who sided with Set – who should be given the throne of Osiris. Her reply was this:“Give the office of Osiris to his son Horus! Do not go on committing these great wrongs, which are not in place, or I will get angry and the sky will topple to the ground. But also tell the Lord of All, the Bull who lives in Heliopolis, to double Set’s property. Give him Anat and Astarte, your two daughters, and put Horus in the place of his father.”– Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt, RT Rundle ClarkSo he was given the two foreign goddesses Anat and Astarte, both war goddesses from the Syria-Palestine area and daughters of Ra. The two were often interchangeable, yet they had their own distinct cults. Anat and Taweret, though they were fertility goddesses, never bore Set any children.Despite his wicked side, Set was still a god of Egypt, and worshiped – and feared – as such. His image changed through time, due to politics, yet he was still a powerful god, the only one who could slay Ra’s worst enemy. To the Egyptians he was the god who ‘ate’ the moon each month – the black boar who swallowed its light – and the god who created earthquakes and heavy, thunderous rain storms. He was a friend of the dead, helping them to ascend to heaven on his ladder, and the crowner of pharaohs and leader of warriors.Despite his bad reputation, he was still a divine being – an equal of Horus, no less – who could be invoked by his followers or warded off by those who were afraid of him. Yet without chaos and confusion there would be no order; without the heavy, thunderous storms there would be no good weather; without the desert and foreign lands there would be no Egypt. Set was a counterbalance to the ‘good’ side of the Egyptian universe, helping to keep everything in balance.

www.crystalwind.ca/mystical-magical/pantheons-and-myths/e...

Typhon (/ˈtaɪfɒn, -fən/; Greek: Τυφῶν, Tuphōn [typʰɔ̂ːn]), also Typhoeus (/taɪˈfiːəs/; Τυφωεύς, Tuphōeus), Typhaon (Τυφάων, Tuphaōn) or Typhos (Τυφώς, Tuphōs), was a monstrous giant and the most deadly being of Greek mythology. Typhon was the last son of Gaia, and was fathered by Tartarus. Typhon and his mate Echidna were the progenitors of many famous monsters.Typhon was the son of Gaia (Earth) and Tartarus: "when Zeus had driven the Titans from heaven, huge Earth bore her youngest child Typhoeus of the love of Tartarus, by the aid of golden Aphrodite".[1] The mythographer Apollodorus (1st or 2nd century AD) adds that Gaia bore Typhon in anger at the gods for their destruction of her offspring the Giants.Numerous other sources mention Typhon as being the offspring of Gaia, or simply "earth-born", with no mention of Tartarus.However, according to the Homeric Hymn to Apollo (6th century BC), Typhon was the child of Hera alone. Hera, angry at Zeus for having given birth to Athena by himself, prayed to Gaia to give her a son as strong as Zeus, then slapped the ground and became pregnant. Hera gave the infant Typhon to the serpent Python to raise, and Typhon grew up to become a great bane to mortals.

Depiction by Wenceslas Hollar

Several sources locate Typhon's birth and dwelling place in Cilicia, and in particular the region in the vicinity of the ancient Cilician coastal city of Corycus (modern Kızkalesi, Turkey). The poet Pindar (c. 470 BC) calls Typhon '"Cilician",and says that Typhon was born in Cilicia and nurtured in "the famous Cilician cave",[7] an apparent allusion to the Corycian cave.[8] In Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, Typhon is called the "dweller of the Cilician caves",[9] and both Apollodorus and the poet Nonnus (4th or 5th century AD) have Typhon born in Cilicia.The b scholia to Iliad 2.783, preserving a possible Orphic tradition, has Typhon born in Cilicia, as the offspring of Cronus. Gaia, angry at the destruction of the Giants, slanders Zeus to Hera. So Hera goes to Zeus' father Cronus (whom Zeus had overthrown) and Cronus gives Hera two eggs smeared with his own semen, telling her to bury them, and that from them would be born one who would overthrow Zeus. Hera, angry at Zeus, buries the eggs in Cilicia "under Arimon", but when Typhon is born, Hera, now reconciled with Zeus, informs him.

According to Hesiod, Typhon was "terrible, outrageous and lawless", and on his shoulders were one hundred snake heads, that emitted fire and every kind of noise:

Strength was with his hands in all that he did and the feet of the strong god were untiring. From his shoulders grew a hundred heads of a snake, a fearful dragon, with dark, flickering tongues, and from under the brows of his eyes in his marvellous heads flashed fire, and fire burned from his heads as he glared. And there were voices in all his dreadful heads which uttered every kind of sound unspeakable; for at one time they made sounds such that the gods understood, but at another, the noise of a bull bellowing aloud in proud ungovernable fury; and at another, the sound of a lion, relentless of heart; and at another, sounds like whelps, wonderful to hear; and again, at another, he would hiss, so that the high mountains re-echoed.The Homeric Hymn to Apollo describes Typhon as "fell" and "cruel", and neither like gods nor men. Three of Pindar's poems have Typhon as hundred-headed (as in Hesiod),while apparently a fourth gives him only fifty heads, but a hundred heads for Typhon became standard. A Chalcidian hydria (c. 540–530 BC), depicts Typhon as a winged humanoid from the waist up, with two snake tails below. Aeschylus calls Typhon "fire-breathing". For Nicander (2nd century BC), Typhon was a monster of enormous strength, and strange appearance, with many heads, hands, and wings, and with huge snake coils coming from his thighs.

Apollodorus describes Typhon as a huge winged monster, whose head "brushed the stars", human in form above the waist, with snake coils below, and fire flashing from his eyes:

In size and strength he surpassed all the offspring of Earth. As far as the thighs he was of human shape and of such prodigious bulk that he out-topped all the mountains, and his head often brushed the stars. One of his hands reached out to the west and the other to the east, and from them projected a hundred dragons' heads. From the thighs downward he had huge coils of vipers, which when drawn out, reached to his very head and emitted a loud hissing. His body was all winged: unkempt hair streamed on the wind from his head and cheeks; and fire flashed from his eyes.

The most elaborate description of Typhon is found in Nonnus's Dionysiaca. Nonnus makes numerous references to Typhon's sepentine nature, giving him a "tangled army of snakes", snaky feet, and hair.According to Nonnus, Typhon was a "poison-spitting viper",whose "every hair belched viper-poison",and Typhon "spat out showers of poison from his throat; the mountain torrents were swollen, as the monster showered fountains from the viperish bristles of his high head",and "the water-snakes of the monster's viperish feet crawl into the caverns underground, spitting poison!".

Following Hesiod and others, Nonnus gives Typhon many heads (though untotaled), but in addition to snake heads,Nonnus also gives Typhon many other animal heads, including leopards, lions, bulls, boars, bears, cattle, wolves, and dogs, which combine to make 'the cries of all wild beasts together',and a "babel of screaming sounds".Nonnus also gives Typhon "legions of arms innumerable", and where Nicander had only said that Typhon had "many" hands, and Ovid had given Typhon a hundred hands, Nonnus gives Typhon two hundred.According to Hesiod's Theogony, Typhon "was joined in love" to Echidna, a monstrous half-woman and half-snake, who bore Typhon "fierce offspring". First, according to Hesiod, there was Orthrus, the two-headed dog who guarded the Cattle of Geryon, second Cerberus,[36] the multiheaded dog who guarded the gates of Hades, and third the Lernaean Hydra,[37] the many-headed serpent who, when one of its heads was cut off, grew two more. The Theogony next mentions an ambiguous "she", which might refer to Echidna, as the mother of the Chimera (a fire-breathing beast that was part lion, part goat, and had a snake-headed tail) with Typhon then being the father.

While mentioning Cerberus and "other monsters" as being the offspring of Echidna and Typhon, the mythographer Acusilaus (6th century BC) adds the Caucasian Eagle that ate the liver of Prometheus,[39] the mythographer Pherecydes of Leros (5th century BC), also names Prometheus' eagle,[40] and adds Ladon (though Pherecydes does not use this name), the dragon that guarded the golden apples in the Garden of the Hesperides (according to Hesiod, the offspring of Ceto and Phorcys).[41] while the lyric poet Lasus of Hermione (6th century BC), adds the Sphinx.Later authors mostly retain these offspring of Typhon by Echidna, while adding others. Apollodorus, in addition to naming as their offspring Orthrus, the Chimera (citing Hesiod as his source) the Caucasian Eagle, Ladon, and the Sphinx, also adds the Nemean lion (no mother is given), and the Crommyonian Sow, killed by the hero Theseus (unmentioned by Hesiod).Hyginus (1st century BC),[44] in his list of offspring of Typhon (all by Echidna), retains from the above: Cerberus, the Chimera, the Sphinx, the Hydra and Ladon, and adds "Gorgon" (by which Hyginus means the mother of Medusa, whereas Hesiod's three Gorgons, of which Medusa was one, were the daughters of Ceto and Phorcys), the Colchian Dragon that guarded the Golden Fleece and Scylla.The Harpies, in Hesiod the daughters of Thaumas and the Oceanid Electra, in one source, are said to be the daughters of Typhon.The sea serpents which attacked the Trojan priest Laocoön, during the Trojan War, were perhaps supposed to be the progeny of Typhon and Echidna.According to Hesiod, the defeated Typhon is the source of destructive storm winds.Battle with Zeus

Typhon challenged Zeus for rule of the cosmos.The earliest mention of Typhon, and his only occurrence in Homer, is a passing reference in the Iliad to Zeus striking the ground around where Typhon lies defeated.Hesiod's Theogony gives us the first account of their battle. According to Hesiod, without the quick action of Zeus, Typhon would have "come to reign over mortals and immortals".In the Theogony Zeus and Typhon meet in cataclysmic conflict:[Zeus] thundered hard and mightily: and the earth around resounded terribly and the wide heaven above, and the sea and Ocean's streams and the nether parts of the earth. Great Olympus reeled beneath the divine feet of the king as he arose and earth groaned thereat. And through the two of them heat took hold on the dark-blue sea, through the thunder and lightning, and through the fire from the monster, and the scorching winds and blazing thunderbolt. The whole earth seethed, and sky and sea: and the long waves raged along the beaches round and about at the rush of the deathless gods: and there arose an endless shaking. Hades trembled where he rules over the dead below, and the Titans under Tartarus who live with Cronos, because of the unending clamor and the fearful strife.Zeus with his thunderbolt easily overcomes Typhon,who is thrown down to earth in a fiery crash:So when Zeus had raised up his might and seized his arms, thunder and lightning and lurid thunderbolt, he leaped from Olympus and struck him, and burned all the marvellous heads of the monster about him. But when Zeus had conquered him and lashed him with strokes, Typhoeus was hurled down, a maimed wreck, so that the huge earth groaned. And flame shot forth from the thunderstricken lord in the dim rugged glens of the mount, when he was smitten. A great part of huge earth was scorched by the terrible vapor and melted as tin melts when heated by men's art in channelled crucibles; or as iron, which is hardest of all things, is shortened by glowing fire in mountain glens and melts in the divine earth through the strength of Hephaestus. Even so, then, the earth melted in the glow of the blazing fire.Defeated, Typhon is cast into Tartarus by an angry Zeus.Epimenides (7th or 6th century BC) seeminly knew a different version of the story, in which Typhon enters Zeus' palace while Zeus is asleep, but Zeus awakes and kills Typhon with a thunderbolt.[58] Pindar calls Typhon the "enemy of the gods",[59] apparently knew of a tradition which had the gods transform into animals and flee to Egypt, says that Typhon was defeated by Zeus' thunderbolt,has Typhon being held prisoner by Zeus under Etna,and in Tartarus stretched out under ground between Mount Etna and Cumae. However, the historian Herodotus (5th century BC), equating Typhon with the Egyptian god Set, reports that Typhon was supposed to be buried instead under Lake Serbonis in Egypt, near the Egyptian Mount Kasios, (modern Ra Kouroun).According to Pherecydes of Leros, during his battle with Zeus, Typhon first flees to the Caucasus, which begins to burn, then to the volcanic island of Pithecussae (modern Ischia), off the coast of Cumae, where he is buried under the island.Apollonius of Rhodes (3rd century BC), like Pherecydes, presents a multi-stage battle, with Typhon being struck by Zeus' thunderbolt on mount Caucasus, before fleeing to the mountains and plain of Nysa, and ending up, as in Herodotus, buried under Lake Serbonis.Like Pindar, Nicander has all the gods but Zeus and Athena, transform into animal forms and flee to Egypt: Apollo became a hawk, Hermes an ibis, Ares a fish, Artemis a cat, Dionysus a goat, Heracles a fawn, Hephaestus an ox, and Leto a mouse.[The geographer Strabo (c. 20 AD) gives several locations which were associated with the battle. According to Strabo, Typhon was said to have cut the serpentine channel of the Orontes River, which flowed beneath the Syrian Mount Kasios (modern Jebel Aqra), while fleeing from Zeus,[68] and some placed the battle at Catacecaumene ("Burnt Land"),[69] a volcanic plain, on the upper Gediz River, between the ancient kingdoms of Lydia, Mysia and Phrygia, near Mount Tmolus (modern Bozdağ) and Sardis the ancient capital of Lydia.No early source gives any reason for the conflict, but Apollodorus' account[71] seemingly implies that Typhon had been produced by Gaia to avenge the destruction, by Zeus and the other gods, of the Giants, a previous generation of offspring of Gaia. According to Apollodorus "Zeus pelted Typhon at a distance with thunderbolts, and at close quarters struck him down with an adamantine sickle" Wounded, Typhon fled to the Syrian Mount Kasios, where Zeus "grappled" with him. But Typhon, twining his snaky coils around Zeus, was able to wrest away the sickle and cut the sinews from Zeus' hands and feet. Typhon carried the disabled Zeus across the sea to the Corycian cave in Cilicia where he set the she-serpent Delphyne to guard over Zeus and his severed sinews, which Typhon had hidden in a bear skin. But Hermes and Aegipan (possibly another name for Pan)[73] stole the sinews and gave them back to Zeus. His strength restored, Zeus chased Typhon to mount Nysa, where the Moirai tricked Typhon into eating "ephemeral fruits" which weakened him. Typhon then fled to Thrace, where he threw mountains at Zeus, which were turned back on him by Zeus' thunderbolts, and the mountain where Typhon stood, being drenched with Typhon's blood, became known as Mount Haemus (Bloody Mountain). Typhon then fled to Sicily, where Zeus threw Mount Etna on top of Typhon burying him, and so finally defeated him.Oppian (2nd century AD) says that Pan helped Zeus in the battle by tricking Typhon to come out from his lair, and into the open, by the "promise of a banquet of fish", thus enabling Zeus to defeat Typhon with his thunderbolts.The longest and most involved account of the battle appears in Nonnus's Dionysiaca.Zeus hides his thunderbolts in a cave, so that he might seduce the maiden Plouto, and so produce Tantalus. But smoke rising from the thunderbolts, enables Typhon, under the guidance of Gaia, to locate Zeus's weapons, steal them, and hide them in another cave.[76] Immediately Typhon extends "his clambering hands into the upper air" and begins a long and concerted attack upon the heavens.Then "leaving the air" he turns his attack upon the seas. Finally Typhon attempts to wield Zeus' thunderbolts, but they "felt the hands of a novice, and all their manly blaze was unmanned."Now Zeus' sinews had somehow – Nonnus does not say how or when — fallen to the ground during their battle, and Typhon had taken them also. But Zeus devises a plan with Cadmus and Pan to beguile Typhon.Cadmus, desguised as a shepherd, enchants Typhon by playing the panpipes, and Typhon entrusting the thuderbolts to Gaia, sets out to find the source of the music he hears.[82] Finding Cadmus, he challenges him to a contest, offering Cadmus any goddess as wife, excepting Hera whom Typhon has reserved for himself.Cadmus then tells Typhon that, if he liked the "little tune" of his pipes, then he would love the music of his lyre – if only it could be strung with Zeus' sinews. So Typhon retrieves the sinews and gives them to Cadmus, who hides them in another cave, and again begins to play his bewiching pipes, so that "Typhoeus yielded his whole soul to Cadmos for the melody to charm".With Typhon distracted, Zeus takes back his thunderbolts. Cadmus stops playing, and Typhon, released from his spell, rushes back to his cave to discover the thunderbolts gone. Incensed Typhon unleashes devastation upon the world: animals are devoured, (Typhon's many animal heads each eat animals of its own kind), rivers turned to dust, seas made dry land, and the land "laid waist".The day ends with Typhon yet unchallenged, and while the other gods "moved about the cloudless Nile", Zeus waits through the night for the coming dawn.[87] Victory "reproaches" Zeus, urging him to "stand up as champion of your own children!"Dawn comes and Typhon roars out a challenge to Zeus.And a catyclismic battle for "the sceptre and throne of Zeus" is joined. Typhon piles up mountains as battlements and with his "legions of arms innumerable", showers volley after volley of trees and rocks at Zeus, but all are destroyed, or blown aside, or dodged, or thrown back at Typhon. Typhon throws torrents of water at Zeus' thunderbolts to quench them, but Zeus is able to cut off some of Typhon's hands with "frozen volleys of air as by a knife", and hurling thunderbolts is able to burn more of typhon's "endless hands", and cut off some of his "countless heads". Typhon is attacked by the four winds, and "frozen volleys of jagged hailstones." Gaia tries to aid her burnt and frozen son.Finally Typhon falls, and Zeus shouts out a long stream of mocking taunts, telling Typhon that he is to be buried under Sicily's hills, with a cenotaph over him which will read "This is the barrow of Typhoeus, son of Earth, who once lashed the sky with stones, and the fire of heaven burnt him up".

Burial under Etna and Ischia]

Most accounts have the defeated Typhon buried under either Mount Etna in Sicily, or the volcanic island of Ischia, the largest of the Phlegraean Islands off the coast of Naples, with Typhon being the cause of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.Though Hesiod has Typhon simply cast into Tartarus by Zeus, some have read a reference to Mount Etna in Hesiod's description of Typhon's fall:And flame shot forth from the thunderstricken lord in the dim rugged glens of the mount when he was smitten. A great part of huge earth was scorched by the terrible vapor and melted as tin melts when heated by men's art in channelled crucibles; or as iron, which is hardest of all things, is shortened by glowing fire in mountain glens and melts in the divine earth through the strength of Hephaestus. Even so, then, the earth melted in the glow of the blazing fire.The first certain references to Typhon buried under Etna, as well as being the cause of its eruptions, occur in Pindar:Son of Cronus, you who hold Aetna, the wind-swept weight on terrible hundred-headed Typhon,and: among them is he who lies in dread Tartarus, that enemy of the gods, Typhon with his hundred heads. Once the famous Cilician cave nurtured him, but now the sea-girt cliffs above Cumae, and Sicily too, lie heavy on his shaggy chest. And the pillar of the sky holds him down, snow-covered Aetna, year-round nurse of bitter frost, from whose inmost caves belch forth the purest streams of unapproachable fire. In the daytime her rivers roll out a fiery flood of smoke, while in the darkness of night the crimson flame hurls rocks down to the deep plain of the sea with a crashing roar. That monster shoots up the most terrible jets of fire; it is a marvellous wonder to see, and a marvel even to hear about when men are present. Such a creature is bound beneath the dark and leafy heights of Aetna and beneath the plain, and his bed scratches and goads the whole length of his back stretched out against it.Thus Pindar has Typhon in Tartarus, and buried under not just Etna, but under a vast volcanic region stretching from Sicily to Cumae (in the vicinity of modern Naples), a region which presumably also included Mount Vesuvius, as well as Ischia.Many subsequent accounts mention either Etnaor Ischia. In Prometheus Bound, Typhon is imprisoned underneath Etna, while above him Hephaestus "hammers the molten ore", and in his rage, the "charred" Typhon causes "rivers of fire" to pour forth. Ovid has Typhon buried under all of Sicily, with his left and right hands under Pelorus and Pachynus, his feet under Lilybaeus, and his head under Etna; where he "vomits flames from his ferocious mouth". And Valerius Flaccus has Typhon's head under Etna, and all of Sicily shaken when Typhon "struggles". Lycophron has both Typhon and Giants buried under the island of Ischia. Virgil, Silius Italicus and Claudian, all calling the island "Inarime", have Typhon buried there. Strabo, calling Ischia "Pithecussae", reports the "myth" that Typhon lay buried there, and that when he "turns his body the flames and the waters, and sometimes even small islands containing boiling water, spout forth."Others said to be buried under Etna were the Giant Enceladus, the volcano's eruptions being the breath of Enceladus, and its tremors caused by the Giant rolling over from side to side beneath the mountain,and the Hundred-hander Briareus."Couch of Typhoeus" Homer describes a place he calls the "couch [or bed] of Typhoeus", which he locates in the land of the Arimoi (εἰν Ἀρίμοις), where Zeus lashes the land about Typhoeus with his thunderbolts. Presumably this is the same land where, according to Hesiod, Typhon's mate Echida keeps guard "in Arima" (εἰν Ἀρίμοισιν).But neither Homer nor Hesiod say anything more about where these Arimoi or this Arima might be. The question of whether an historical place was meant, and its possible location, has been, since ancient times, the subject of speculation and debate.Strabo discusses the question in some detail.[everal locales, Cilicia, Syria, Lydia, and the island of Ischia, all places associated with Typhon, are given by Strabo as possible locations for Homer's "Arimoi".

Pindar has his Cilician Typhon slain by Zeus "among the Arimoi",[106] and the historian Callisthenes (4th century BC), located the Arimoi and the Arima mountains in Cilicia, near the Calycadnus river, the Corycian cave and the Sarpedon promomtory.[107] The b scholia to Iliad 2.783, mentioned above, says Typhon was born in Cilicia "under Arimon",[108] and Nonnus mentions Typhon's "bloodstained cave of Arima" in Cilicia.Just across the Gulf of Issus from Corycus, in ancient Syria, was Mount Kasios (modern Jebel Aqra) and the Orontes River, sites associated with Typhon's battle with Zeus,[110] and according to Strabo, the historian Posidonius (c. 2nd century BC) identified the Arimoi with the Aramaeans of Syria.[Alternatively, according to Strabo, some placed the Arimoi at Catacecaumene,[112] while Xanthus of Lydia (5th century BC) added that "a certain Arimus" ruled there.Strabo also tells us that for "some" Homer's "couch of Typhon" was located "in a wooded place, in the fertile land of Hyde", with Hyde being another name for Sardis (or its acropolis), and that Demetrius of Scepsis (2nd century BC) thought that the Arimoi were most plausibly located "in the Catacecaumene country in Mysia".[114] The 3rd-century BC poet Lycophron placed the lair of Typhons' mate Echidna in this region.[115]

Another place, mentioned by Strabo, as being associated with Arima, is the island of Ischia, where according to Pherecydes of Leros, Typhon had fled, and in the area where Pindar and others had said Typhon was buried. The connection to Arima, comes from the island's Greek name Pithecussae, which derives from the Greek word for monkey, and according to Strabo, residents of the island said that "arimoi" was also the Etruscan word for monkeys.[116]

Etymology and origins Typhon's name has a number of variants.[117] The earliest forms of Typhoeus and Typhaon, occur prior to the 5th century BC. Homer uses Typhoeus, Hesiod and the Homeric Hymn to Apollo use both Typhoeus and Typhaon. The later forms Typhos and Typhon occur from the 5th century BC onwards, with Typhon becoming the standard form by the end of that century. Though several possible derivations of the name Typhon have been suggested, the derivation remains uncertain.[118] Consistent with Hesiod's making storm winds Typhon's offspring, some have supposed that Typhon was originally a wind-god, and ancient sources associated him with the Greek words tuphon, tuphos meaning "whirlwind".Other theories include derivation from a Greek root meaning "smoke" (consistent with Typhon's identification with volcanoes),from an Indo European root meaning "abyss" (making Typhon a "Serpent of the Deep"),and from Sapõn the Phoenician name for the Ugaritic god Baal's holy mountain Jebel Aqra (the classical Mount Kasios) associated with the epithet Baʿal Zaphon.

As noted by Herodotus, Typhon was traditionally identified with the Egyptian Set, who was also known to the Greeks as Typhon. As early as pre-dynastic Egypt, Set's mascot or emblem was the Set animal; the Greeks and later classicists referred to this unidentified aardvark-like creature as the Typhonic beast. In the Orphic tradition, just as Set is responsible for the murder of Osiris, Typhon leads the Titans when they attack and kill Dionysus, who also became identified with the earlier Osiris.Mythologist Joseph Campbell also makes parallels to the slaying of Leviathan by YHWH, about which YHWH boasts to Job.[123] Ogden calls the Typhon myth "the only Graeco-Roman drakōn-slaying myth that can seriously be argued to exhibit the influence of Near Eastern antecedents", connecting it in particular with Baʿal Zaphon's slaying of Yammu and Lotan, as well as with the Hittite myth of Illuyankas.From its first reappearance, this latter myth has been seen as a prototype of the battle of Zeus and Typhon.Walter Burkert and Calvert Watkins each note the close agreements.Comparisons can also be drawn with the Mesopotamian monster Tiamat and her slaying by Babylonian chief god Marduk. The similarities between the Greek myth and its earlier Mesopotamian counterpart do not seem to be merely accidental. A number of west Semitic (Ras Shamra) and Hittite sources appear to corroborate the theory of a genetic relationship between the two myths.In works of culture. Dante Alighieri's Inferno mentions him amongst the Biblical and mythological giants frozen onto the rings outside of Hell's Circle of Treachery. Dante and Virgil threatened to go to Tityos and Typhon unless Antaeus lowers them into the Circle of Treachery. Typhon (as Typhoeus) appears in Gustav Klimt's 1902 Beethoven Frieze as one of "the Hostile Forces".

Typhon is a recurring character in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, where he is a friend and ally to Hercules, and a calming influence on Echidna and their children. Typhon appears in the 2007 video game, God of War II where the main character Kratos tries to enlist his aid. The Titan refuses and Kratos blinds Typhon and takes his magical bow, Typhon's Bane.Swedish symphonic metal band Therion dedicated a song to Typhon in their year 2004 album Lemuria.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhon

Uses: Anything relating to finance and money.

Free Creative Commons Finance Images... I created these images in my studio and have made them all available for personal or commercial use. Hope you like them and find them useful.

To see more of our CC by 2.0 finance images click here... see profile for attribution.

Did You Read And Did You Relate To Catcher In The Rye, Now 75! - IMRAN®

Catcher in the Rye turns 75 this year. Growing up in Pakistan in a British/Cambridge‑style school system, J.D. Salinger’s novel was never part of my curriculum — so I didn’t read it and get to know about it’s protagonist Holden Caulfield until I came to the United States in the late ’80s.

What struck me then, and still does, is how Holden sees the world with a mix of sharp skepticism and aching vulnerability. His obsession with “phoniness” isn’t just teenage rebellion — it’s a complex lens on authenticity, loneliness, and growing up.

Have you read it or revisited it recently? What stayed with you?

© 2026 IMRAN®

#IMRAN #CatcherInTheRye #JDSalinger #HoldenCaulfield #Literature #Books #Reading

WHAT DOES DOG DAY AFTERNOON RELATE TO

"the dog days of summer." Dog days are not about or connected to the loveable canines which many of us enjoy. Dog days are actually referring to the star "Sirius", also known as the dog star, found in the constellation of Canis Major, deriving its name from the Greek word '"seirios", which means "scorching".

The star sirius is most visible in our hemisphere during the summer months as the brightest star in the heavens (not Polaris, the northern star).

So, "dog day afternoon" actually means nothing more than a hot summer afternoon.

LIVERPOOL CITY CENTRE HOT SUMMERS DAY

See where this picture was taken. [?]

is liking someone through the fondness of familiarity, family members or people who relate in familiar ways that have otherwise found themselves bonded by chance. An example is the natural love and affection of a parent for their child

Today is the ninth day of a 30 day challenge. The objective is to shoot one shot per day on subject matter provided by the local camera club.

Today's subject matter is, "something relating to a car".

Discourse points toward

An interpretative turn

Inscribed articulation

Excerpt from artgalleryofburlington.com:

Division of Labour is an exhibition bringing together artists who address issues of class, race, and labour as they relate to cultural waste. Including the works of nine artists who utilize recycled material in their work to illustrate the power and potential of reused matter for artistic production, the exhibition and ancillary programming are designed to educate about the scarcity of resources, labour rights, and the lack of living wages in the arts.

Featuring ro Barragan (Buenos Aires), Patrick Cruz (Toronto), Atom Cianfarani (Montreal), Nicolas Fleming (Toronto), Marlene Jess (Vancouver), Lisa Meecham (Burlington), Joaquin Wall (Buenos Aires), Allyson Vieira (New York), and Shellie Zhang (Toronto).

We are living in a time of increasing economic uncertainty, wage gaps, and class divides. Barter economy systems, critical discourse about consumption, and circuits of solidarity exchange are more present than ever in the daily working lives of artists and cultural producers. Division of Labour uses this moment to consider the true cost of artists’ labour and economic parity through their recovery of and access to excess material. The exhibition is not simply a display of objects constructed from trash, but works to support the building of new networks, resources, and methods for the sustainability of artists’ work. It goes beyond accessing free material to open dialogue about the systemic issues inherent in class dynamics, underemployment, and labour exploitation that plague the cultural industry.

'Culture relates to objects and is a phenomenon of the world; entertainment relates to people and is a phenomenon of life.'

Hannah Arendt

Lights of the Las Vegas strip, Aria curvilinear towers resort and hotel complex and MGM resort and hotel complex and the blue light in the background shining straight up is from the Fremont Street Experience (FSE) . The FSE is a light show quite a few miles away from the strip. Uploaded for the Geometric Shapes challenge. The curvilinear towers were quite fascinating, even captivating in appearance

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Thanks very kindly to all my visitors for any gracious comment, views and invites. Much appreciated! .... Peace and love be with you.

Namaste.

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All rights reserved. Copyright © Aum Kleem All my images are protected under international authors copyright laws and may not be downloaded, reproduced, copied, transmitted or manipulated without my written explicit permission.

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The chapel features, on its three walls, frescoed scenes relating to the Universal Flood, the Entrance of the Animals into the Ark, the End of the Flood and Noah's Drunkenness. The compositions are characterised by outdoor visions marked by the presence of human figures and animals, both depicted on a small scale. The painter's attention seems to be focused on the description of the variety of animals and birds, without, however, failing to dwell on the more intensely dramatic scenes, such as the cases of those who drown, going as far as the cold analysis of the corpses strewn on the ground after the Flood. The stories of the Flood are linked to the fresco of the Baptism of Christ that faces them in the cloistered church, as a foreshadowing of that moment of salvation, according to what St Peter makes clear in the First Epistle (3:20-21): "God in his longsuffering waited in the days of Noah for the ark to be built, in which eight people in all found escape from the water, a figure, this one, of the Baptism that now saves us".

Historical-critical information: In these frescoes, Aurelio Luini displays an unprecedented propensity for storytelling and narration for its own sake, which results in a smug amusement directed above all at the descriptive rendering of the various animal species, rendered with an almost lenticular meticulousness. As the son of Bernardino Luini, who was active for many years in San Maurizio, Aurelio showed undisputed talent for painting, which led him to collaborate with his older brother Giovan Pietro from 1555 onwards. Here, as in other cases, Aurelio exhibits the peculiar characteristics of his painting, sustained by an exuberant expressive emphasis that is fully in line with contemporary 'Mannerism'. The naturalistic taste manifested in the frescoes of the Noah's Ark chapel also reflects the interest that Aurelio, a member of the Accademia della Val di Blenio (run by Giovan Paolo Lomazzo), had always shown in Leonardo's research.

Always interesting to observe these behemoths, their behavioural complexity relatable to our own in some ways. Among the megafauna that persists (along with India's healthiest population of wild tigers), albeit amidst increasing conflict with humans as a result of habitat modification, in South India's Hill forests.

Please see link below for a trip report from a mammal and birdwatching guided trip to some of south India's best wildlife destinations ficustours.blogspot.com/2018/12/western-ghats-of-south-in...

www.ficuswildlife.net

www.instagram.com/ficustours1

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Blog post - litasbabygirladventures.blogspot.com/

This one can relate to all kinds of things. Sass and I are in Manoa Falls. There is a spot off the trail where the river water settles a bit and we are able to get nice reflection shots.

I brought back the camera stats for the convenience of the curious ones. Even if it helps only one person, it's worth the extra time.

CRAZY WEATHER

There was a huge storm here last night. Check out this picture that a fellow hawaii photographer took near Waikiki. Man I would have loved to set up a shoot with that in the background! I was stuck at work though :(

NEW SERIES COMING SOON!

I've got ideas for a new series. Twelve different shots over a three month span. I'm still getting together some ideas, but stay tuned!

Find me on facebook, tumblr, twitter, formspring,or my website.

Camera: Canon EOS 60D

Focal Length: 50mm

Lens: Canon 50mm 1.4

Aperture: f/2.0

Exposure: 1/200 sec

ISO Speed: 100

Filter: n/a

Editing Software: CS5

Flash: Canon 430ex II with Lumiquest Ltp Softbox camera left.

imgur.com/account/favorites/hgbi3vZ

91/365

My first overseas collaboration and there wouldn't be a better artist than Laura Vanzo (aka. Pensa Art)

The project is about how two people who had never meet, can be connected through a common cause. This photo is the first in the series which I hope many of you can relate to.

Facebook / Twitter / Tumblr / Vogue Italia / Instagram: mc_cheung88

Rick Mercer's video "Plus 1 in Canada". I can so relate to this - so funny! And, yes, it's snowing AGAIN today, heavily. Temperature this morning is -19C (windchill -27C). Wish I could say that it will be yet another day at home, but I have to somehow drive half way across the city for a regular dental appointment. I can barely tell where the road is. We are still under a Winter Storm Warning, with a total of up to 35 cm of snow expected.

youtu.be/wkDvqQKGgDA

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Needless to say, this is not a photo that was taken in the wild! I would never be able to get such a close shot or even a close view like this, unless the bird was captive for one reason or another. This bird had just had some flight training and was given a hosepipe shower to cool off.

This particular Bald Eagle resides at the Alberta Birds of Prey Centre in Coaldale, southern Alberta. This is a wonderful place that rehabilitates and releases (whenever possible) various birds of prey - hawks, owls, Bald Eagles, Turkey Vultures,and Golden Eagles. Some of these birds act as Wildlife Ambassadors, too, including educating the public away from the Centre. Sometimes, a bird is also used as a foster parent.

I often see Bald Eagles flying wild, both in the city and in the surrounding areas. Usually when I see one, it is flying or perched far away. Too far away to see any detail at all, which is why I love going to this Centre, to see raptors up close.

"Once a common sight in much of the continent, the bald eagle was severely affected in the mid-20th century by a variety of factors, among them the thinning of egg shells attributed to use of the pesticide DDT. Bald eagles, like many birds of prey, were especially affected by DDT due to biomagnification. DDT itself was not lethal to the adult bird, but it interfered with the bird's calcium metabolism, making the bird either sterile or unable to lay healthy eggs. Female eagles laid eggs that were too brittle to withstand the weight of a brooding adult, making it nearly impossible for the eggs to hatch. It is estimated that in the early 18th century, the bald eagle population was 300,000–500,000,[118] but by the 1950s there were only 412 nesting pairs in the 48 contiguous states of the US. Other factors in bald eagle population reductions were a widespread loss of suitable habitat, as well as both legal and illegal shooting. DDT was completely banned in Canada in 1989, though its use had been highly restricted since the late 1970s." From Wikipedia.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald_eagle

Last summer (2017), we had practically no 'normal' summer days. Most were too hot thanks to an almost endless heatwave, and also too smoky thanks to all the wildfires in British Columbia and Alberta. The weather forecast for 3 August 2017 looked good; sunshine all day, with rain forecast on several of the coming days. I decided to finally do a drive all the way down south to near Lethbridge, so that I could again visit the Alberta Birds of Prey Centre in Coaldale. The previous year (2016), I did this drive for the very first time on my own and I wanted to make sure I didn't lose my courage to do it again. During the 511 kms that I drove, I had to ask for help with directions twice - both times in the same small hamlet. It was a hot day, with a temperature of 31C when I was at the Centre.

Though the forecast was for sun all day, there was no mention of the smoke haze that completely blocked out the mountains and pretty much the foothills, too. Very quickly, I was almost tempted to turn around and come home, but I had noticed rain in the forecast for the coming days. I reckoned I would still be able to photograph the fairly close birds at the Centre, which worked out fine.

Amazingly, I managed to make myself get up early that morning, and set off just before 8:30 am. My intention was to drive straight to Coaldale without stopping anywhere en route. Not an easy thing for me to do, as I much prefer driving slowly along the back roads rather than the less interesting highways. However, I knew it would take me a few hours to get there and I wanted to have as much time as possible down there. On the way home, I drove one dusty, gravel road, but saw nothing but a couple of Horned Larks perched on fence posts. A couple of old barns (that I had seen before) and a few scenic shots, were more or less all I took.

I finally arrived home at 8:30 pm, after a 12-hour day, totally tired out, and my car was just about out of gas. So happy to have been down there again, though.

ift.tt/1L2Qu9W @trunkieygm collabs with @georgethepoet on the song entitled Pavements/Relate. Out 3pm on @linkuptv #UKMUSIC #CAM #LINKUPTV #PavementsRelate

Sure, it's not clever, and sure, I'm not actually gonna buy it.

But it’s relatable. :P

Honestly I just wanted to use this drawing I did a little while ago. Enjoy.

The Moon has reached the first quarter of it's phase, but it's been

so cloudy, misty, foggy and rainy that I haven't been able to see it!

I took this photo on leap day 29th February 2012 when the Moon was at a similar phase as it is now. I love the way that the craters show up so well on the terminator when the sun is shining at an angle.

Highest position in Explore: 112 on Thursday, November 22, 2012

#29 - Leap Day (Any shot to be taken on, or relating to 29th February 2012) in 112 pictures in 2012