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The fossil record shows that American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) has been around for at least 8 million years. Some suggest much longer as the family of alligators seems to have evolved quite slowly. The fossil record shows many quite similar species going back at least 100 million years.
They are reasonably common in Texas. This individual was photographed at Sheldon Lake State Park, some 17 miles east of downtown Houston.
Today it looks like a low-key, benign island scene off the west coast of Scotland. However, the back story is very dark and different.
Gruinard Island, just over a mile in length and half a mile wide, is situated between Gairloch and Ullapool. In 1942, Porton Down, one of Britain's most secretive military research facilities, requisitioned the island to test the idea of using anthrax as a biological weapon against German cities in WW2. Sheep were taken to the island and anthrax bombs detonated. It is no surprise that the sheep began dying within days. The experiment was deemed so 'successful' that the weapon was never used. This was not because of the expected death toll but because the level of contamination was such that the cities would be uninhabitable for the foreseeable future.
After the war, it took decades and direct action to get the clean-up started and the island returned to the original owners. That in itself didn't go well because the run-off from the formaldehyde solution used created significant marine pollution.
You can read the full horror story here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruinard_Island
This week's Saturday Flashback features Warrington Transporter Bridge (aka Bank Quay or Crosfield Transporter Bridge). This is what WikiWhoKnowsAlmostEverything has to say :
"The Warrington Transporter Bridge across the River Mersey is a structural steel transporter bridge with a span of 200 feet. It is 30 feet wide and 76 feet above high water level, with an overall length of 339 feet. It was built in 1915 and although it has been out of use since about 1964, it is still standing. It was designed by William Henry Hunter and built by William Arrol.
It was originally one of two such bridges across the Mersey at Warrington, the other having been erected in 1905 slightly to the north of the existing bridge, and described in The Engineer in 1908. A third transporter bridge over the Mersey was the Widnes-Runcorn Transporter Bridge built in 1905 and dismantled in 1961.
The bridge is privately owned and was built to connect the two parts of the large chemical and soap works of Joseph Crosfield and Sons. It was originally used to carry rail vehicles up to 18 tons in weight, and was converted for road vehicles in 1940. In 1953 it was modified to carry loads of up to 30 tons.
The bridge is designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building and because of its poor condition it is on their Buildings at Risk Register. The bridge is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument"
Thanks to tarboat www.flickr.com/photos/93173492@N00/8490008464/in/photostream for another good day out. Amazingly, as I only live 10 miles away, I had never heard of let alone visited this remarkable structure. Perhaps that is due to the access being on a legal public right of way that actually runs straight through an active chemical works, where access in practice is heavily discouraged. "Your presence on site is being monitored by security" said a loudspeaker voice as we passed through a gate. No, we didn't get arrested!
Eilean Donan Castle, nr Kyle of Lochalsh, is at the meeting point of three lochs - Loch Duish, Loch Long and Loch Alsh. Originally built in the 13th century, it was destroyed by the Royal Navy in 1719 after the local Mackenzies involvement in the Jacobite rebellions. The present building is a 20th century reconstruction of the castle with the addition of a footbridge to the mainland. To me is the very definition of 'dour'.
Mosses are an incredibly old genus that have been around on Earth for some 450 million years. This sphagnum moss (one of c30 sphagnum moss species in the UK) is found on wet boggy areas of Dorset's lowland heaths as well as elsewhere around the British Isles and also the world.
In the distance is the mighty Hambledon Hillfort taken from Shillingstone heritage railway station on the defunct Somerset & Dorset Railway. The hill is not as well known as Maiden Castle but is just as impressive and you can be assured it is one heck of a lot harder to climb to the top than the main tourist hillfort close to Dorchester. I can just imagine defending forces chanting "come and have a go if you think you're hard enough" !
Note : Not being anything like an expert on the subject, I have gone with the traditional view of this and other hillforts being from the Iron Age. I am aware that other theories are gaining ground that they were even more ancient trading centres and that the ditches and ramparts were more to do with water management than defence.
City of Wells (34092) departs Swanage Station during this long weekend's Strictly Bullied 11 event. In all the heritage line has managed to get eight Bulleid Pacifics together in steam for the first time since 1967. City of Wells, built in 1949 is one of them.
This week's Saturday Flashback goes back to Amsterdam circa 1725. I've always liked old maps and certainly from this one you can fairly easily pick out the structure of the old city as it still is today. One major change is that the course of the Amstel River was changed and it no longer flows down what is shown as Dam Rak to approximately where Centraal Station is today. Also note the ring of windmills around the outer ring of the city. This map is on show at The Hidden Church.
Kenney, TX, has never had a large population. I've seen a figure of just 200 at the start of this century. With the towns of Brenham to the north and Bellville not far to the south, it is perhaps not too surprising that another classic old country store has bit the dust.
Note the two horse hitching posts out front. There were 6 in total giving an indication of the clientele.
(I don't know about the rest of the world but flickr has been out of action all day in Texas. Someone must have chucked another lump of coal in the boiler as it is just getting going again!)
I've always found photos that show the same place from very different eras of interest. The main photo here was taken in the small town of Potes, Spain. I do not have an accurate date but would guess the 1920s or 1930s. It could easily have been taken in the Forties or Fifties. I recall a friend of mine telling his tale of cycling back to the UK from Gibraltar after World War 2 and hardly encountering a tarmac road the whole way across Spain. Even today, this northern part of Spain remains something of a welcome backwater compared to the rest of Europe.
The photo below shows the same location in 2014!
As always with fossils, I stress that we are very much amateurs on the subject and welcome alternative identification suggestions .
Found by Kim on Charmouth beach, we had no clue as to what this was. So, as you do, we asked a man who clearly knew a lot more than we did. We can only take his word but straight away he said it is in chert rock so therefore from the Cretaceous period, approximately 145 to 66 million years ago and was a sponge.
Even on large size it is hard to see numerous tiny pits. However, they can be clearly seen through a hand lens. The diameter of the central ring is c10mm / around half and inch. The coin is a British 5p piece.
We think the central 'depression' might be where the water used to flow out through what is known as the osculum.
...literally.
Another in the currently topical series concerning the final curtain for the Weymouth Tramway that ran from the current mainline Weymouth Station to Weymouth Quay station. In this photo you can clearly seen where the tracks have been cut and removed behind the barriers.
On Feb 20th this year, it was announced that funding of £1.1 million had been granted by the Department of Transport, with a balance of £0.4 million to be provided by Dorset Council and Network Rail so that the full removal of the tracks could be carried out.
As you can see, work began almost immediately, removing up to 50m of track next to the old station platform on the harbourside, Apparently, this initial work will help determine how best to complete the rest of the line.
Weymouth tramway first opened in 1865 to link the railway station with Channel Island ferries. It was last used in 1999. A petition by Weymouth Quay Heritage Campaign to save and preserve the line gained almost 4,000 signatures. Naturally, that was totally ignored.
Although franchises have now spread to states other than TX, Shipley Donuts is a Houston institution going back almost 80 years, firstly as a wholesale and then retail operation. Luckily this outlet, always regarded as the best in town, is just up the road on Ella. It has been there since the late 50's or early 60's and as far as I can see has changed little since then. Queues for the drive-thru window regularly block the adjacent junction whilst foot traffic often queues outside the door. What do I have? ALWAYS, hot glazed donuts straight out of the fryer.
A quirk. This is the only branch named "Shipley's" with an apostrophe. All others are "Shipley".
No, not the well known heritage railway in Hampshire!
This week's Saturday Timewatch features a follow-up to a post frpm a few years ago. The location are the wash ponds at Broadmayne, Dorset. With little vegetation growth in winter, you can see two metal rails, one at the bottom right partially out of the water and one underwater running diagonally across the photo. Not visible in this photo, two more lengths of rail were further out in midstream. So what are they?
I can find no reference to them online. However, knowing something of the history of the area, we believe it is the remains of an old watercress railway. Fortunately, a local gentleman to whom we have spoken before confirmed this to likely be correct.
His father, from whom he inherited the house by the wash ponds, moved in during 1986 by which time the watercress operation had ceased, probably in the late 70s. He told us the house previously belonged to the owners of the watercress company. However, they only visited from Hertfordshire during holidays leaving a local old lady living there as caretaker. At least part of the gentleman's current garage was the packing shed for the cress. The assumption is that the watercress was transported the few hundred yards from the cress beds to that shed along the rail line. He didn't know the means of propulsion. It may well have been manpower or perhaps horse-drawn. This remnant of track almost certainly followed a slightly different line to where it is occasionally visible today.
Could there possibly have been a small locomotive? It is impossible to say. However, at least one such railway existed around 12 miles away at Bere Regis. I'm not sure when it was built but I know it was still in partial use until recent times. Bedford & Jesty Ltd used an 18in gauge locomotive powered by an Austin 7 engine to haul watercress from Dodding's Farm watercress beds to the washing shed and dispatch building beside the Bere Water. A local confirmed that there were several branches along the beds and the distance down to the washing shed was almost one mile.
You can see two photos of the Dodding's Farm operation below.
This week's Saturday Flashback was only taken a few weeks ago. However, the American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) really is a flashback to another age. The species has survived everything that can be thrown at it since at least the Pleistocene, where it is well represented in fossil records. The Pleistocene age started approximately 2 1/2 million years ago. So 2 1/2 million years without doubt though some scientists suggest 14 million years whilst National Geographic, no less, reckons it has been around for 160 million years, avoiding extinction when their prehistoric contemporaries, dinosaurs, died out. Whichever way you look at it and however ancient it actually is, to me the American Alligator definitely looks prehistoric.
This survivor was photographed at Brazos Bend State Park, TX, which is towards the western end of its current range.
Saturday Timewatch features what many consider to be the golden age of rail travel in America, the 1950s. The above is a ticket cover from that era.
I wish it was! However, this is not my photo, just my photo of a photo (or painting?) by K. Walden, date unknown.
The associated caption reads "Nickel Plate Road ; Berkshire ; 2-8-4 ; circa 1940". As I understand it 779 was photographed somewhere along the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway that connected Fort Worth and Dallas with Houston and Galveston.
Apparently, close relative Nickel Plate Road # 765 is still running at Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society, Ohio. Another close relative is under restoration, also in Ohio.
They must have been a sight to see and a sound to hear.
This week's Saturday Flashback goes back c150 million years to show what is definitely the footprint of a dinosaur, thought to be an Allosaurus, a meat eater that could run upto 30mph. The three toes / claws are especially noticeable in this photo. The creature was crossing the sandbar of a river and left its imprint.
The photo below shows at least 8 footprints of a large Sauropod (possibly a Camarasaurus) as it made tracks across the same sandbar. This large dinosaur was a plant eater that probably weighed around 18 tons!
I love sites like this. Not a National, State or even Local Park, just a two-mile drive down a very rough track and then a walk to a single interpretation board.
Less well known than Portland Rock, Purbeck Stone has been quarried in the vicinity of Swanage for hundreds of years and that practice carries on today in several opencast quarries. The material has been used in buildings, both structurally and decoratively, in the local area as well as further afield in places such as London.
This abandoned mine can be found on the south-facing slopes of the Purbeck Ridge. The stone was likely brought to the surface by a horse or donkey turning a capstan at the shaft entrance.
This week's Saturday Timewatch goes back to 1879 and a list of items coming into or out of the small harbour at Lyme Regis. You'll have to look on large size to see the fascinating detail and how much was charged on each item. The sign hangs on one of the Cobb buildings.
The regulars will know that I'm not much of a pub person partly because I don't drink and drive but also because a night out at a pub now costs rather a lot. Even a couple of pints or two glasses of can cost up to £10, an insane price that has spelt the end for many pubs across Britain.
However, Saturday Timewatch seems a suitable place to record the closure of Portland Bill's Pulpit Inn, a place we have been to a couple of times for b-side's annual music and history events. Like so many pubs it has clearly struggled in recent years and from chatting to several locals, didn't have the best reputation for either food or drink. They also claimed it was much more loved in past decades.
Originally The Devenish Arms, supplied by Weymouth's Devenish Brewery, the mid 1950's building is now likely to be demolished and rebuilt to become holiday homes with some sort of bar and restaurant on the ground floor. I would imagine that with sea views all around, the cost of staying there will be very high.
NOTE : During a short break away from Dorset, internet access is likely to be sporadic for the next few days.
Alongside and in little or no conflict with all the electronic neon of modern Japan, deep layers of history, tradition and culture lie intact.
You see lots of people in traditional dress. However, I had about two seconds to grab this instant and single flash of a photo. It shows two maiko walking quickly to their next appointment and they don't hang around in any way for tourists who happen to cross their path.
For a foreigner, trying to distinguish between a geisha aka geiko in Kyoto Gion and a maiko (apprentice) is full of pitfalls. Apologies if any of the information is wrong. However, if I've understood at least some of the intricacies, there are several clues in their dress. In no particular order :
#1 Their hair looks to be their own, not a wig.
#2 The girls have numerous ornaments in their hair, including "November" kanzashi featuring autumnal leaf colours
#3 They are wearing long rectangular obi, the belts around the waist. A geisha's would be square.
#4 The girl on the right is possibly more senior as she appears to have at least thin red lines of lipstick on both lips. Also her kimono is edged with white around the neck, which I admit thought signified a geisha but then as I wrote above, trying to understand the minutiae of Japanese society is really quite difficult.
So just how far back do some of these traditions go? The kanzashi hair ornaments were first recorded about 14,000 years ago. The general concept of a "serving girl" is about 1500 years old, whilst the actual word "geisha" seems to be about 250 years old. Nowadays the girls are hired to attend parties and gatherings, at tea houses or traditional Japanese restaurants. The customer is usually a top-hierarchy businessman showing off to clients as this is all to do with high status and wealth.
With so many old rural buildings now redeveloped as second homes and holiday lets, it is increasingly difficult to find scenes like this. In deepest Dorset, the location is Looke Farmhouse, Puncknowle. The farmhouse itself has been a listed building since 1952 and looks in reasonable condition, despite dating from around 1700.
What intrigued me was round the back where this bridge crossed a small tributary to the River Bride to a doorway suitable for pedestrians but nothing more. My best guess is this was a workers' entrance, perhaps for the gardeners. I am also guessing that the bridge dates from a similar period to the main house.
The photo features the sluice gates related to the building in the distance which is Fiddleford Mill, Calf Close Lane, near Sturminster Newton. Despite being a Grade 11 listed building, the old water mill that probably dates from the 18th century is not in good condition.
It is just one of many in Dorset. In fact there is another historic water mill in much better condition just a mile upstream
Of course, it is each to their own tipple. However, I do remember the time when you simply asked for a pint of best or half a mild.
This week's Saturday Timewatch compares that to the modern way with a myriad of alcoholic choices. These are courtesy of an Asda promotional flyer that came through the door. Thanks but no thanks. I'll just stick to my glass of Spanish red wine.
EDIT : August 25th 2012 : I've just heard that Neil Armstrong has passed away. RIP Neil Armstrong - you inspired generations to look beyond Earth.
My picture was taken at Space Center Houston in November 2010, during my first ever visit there. However today's "Saturday Flashback" is to July 20 1969 and the moment Apollo 11 touched down on the surface of the Moon as the whole world, including myself, watched and listened and held it's collective breath.
The "Earthrise" photo was taken on a different date but to me it remains one of "the" photographs of the 20th century.
Time has a way of moving forward whether it is counted in months, weeks, hours, or plancks -- make the most of your Time.
Most often people destroy, neglect, or completely abuse the time they have and hardly notice as it flutters silently past. Some fill their time wisely with earnest intent while others fill their time plotting the downfall of someone. I've had people plot against me and use their time to fulfill their fantasies and pleasures while stealing my time and sealing it with pain and fear.
The time that has been taken from me can never be given back; that is one of the worst things that you can do to a person, steal their Time.
Photographs are © Copyright Galactic Dreams (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on blogs, websites, or in other media without advance written permission from Galactic Dreams.
You may remember that last year three posts were uploaded comparing Constable paintings then and now? John Constable is best known for his landscape paintings around Dedham Vale, Suffolk. Less well known are the series of paintings from October and November 1816 when he and his bride took a 6 week honeymoon in Osmington, Dorset.
This is the last in the series. Although recognisable in the photo below, the village of Osmington has expanded sufficiently to make a modern comparison difficult. However by waiting until a sunny winter morning, the lack of foliage on the trees at least made a 'then and now' comparison possible....which it wasn't in the summer!
Here is one of the earlier posts www.flickr.com/photos/99303089@N00/30310655723/in/datepos...
There are variations on the flatbread theme right around the world for those who need to eat but don't have much money.
Oatcakes are the Potteries' (Stoke-on-Trent) version. They have been around since the 18th century and there are still several dozen shops that sell nothing else in the region.
But what a surprise! I rarely go in Sainsbury's so was amazed to find the genuine article on sale and even yellow-stickered. When living in the Potteries I did eat rather a lot of them as there was an oatcake shop just around the corner. However, they are so uncommon down south that when a neighbour used to visit up north, she always brought me a pack back down to Dorset. As far as i am concerned there is only one *proper* filling.......bacon and cheese!
Here is a post, with typically great comments, from 2010 showing an actual oatcake shop flic.kr/p/7Ay8GT
This week's late-running Timewatch features bluesman Lightnin' Hopkins en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightnin%27_Hopkins
The short version is that he was born in Centerville, TX, about 30 miles west of Crockett where this sculpture by Jim Jeffries is to be found along Camp Street. It commemorates the fact that Lightnin' Hopkins often played there, both on the street and in the street's establishments when it was the center of the Black Business District in Houston County (circa 1940). The bluesman died in Houston, aged 69, in 1982.
bithbox # 227 Lightnin' Hopkins "Baby Please Don't Go"
Before you ask, yes, Crockett was named after Davy. Apparently he camped nearby on his way to the Alamo.
(This is the fourth of a weekly series of flashback photos. I apologise in advance for the inevitable poor quality. This one is scanned from a rather faded 35mm slide).
My 1985 photo shows Radio Caroline's last ever offshore radio vessel "Ross Revenge" anchored some miles off Felixstowe, Suffolk and being approached by an 'illegal' tender. Using a massive 300' (90 metre) tower and with a transmitter capable of 50kw, the 'new' Radio Caroline introduced the concept of an all-day album station to Britain and Europe. Of many Caroline Classics, this is one that has not previously featured on The Jukebox.
The lawyers got to the first video within days. So here is a replacement!
BITH'S JUKEBOX #207
BOB DYLAN "HURRICANE"
Drop a coin in the slot :
EDIT : YOU CAN HAVE YER COIN BACK. EVERY TIME THIS TRACK GETS POSTED DYLAN'S LAWYERS GO APESHIT.
On this link, you can read an outline history of UK Pirate Radio (including offshore) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_pirate_radio
The 17th century Bridge House was built over Stock Beck in Ambleside. Rumour has it that it was sited there to avoid any Land Tax though I really don't know whether that is true or not. It has had a number of commercial uses as well as being a dwelling house for a family of eight people. It is now owned by the National Trust.
Others may have more success. However, I can't find any information about a series of large paintings displayed high up in what must have been the old ticket booking hall of Portsmouth and Southsea Station. I was particularly taken with this one with the prominent 35 sign in the bottom corner.
Any information on either the series of paintings or the locomotive depicted here would be welcome.
In England, i've seen a 'reverse' Archimedes screw operate a community power plant. There, water is diverted from a river, through the screw mechanism and that generates electricity. However, the apparatus in this photo, two of three screws forming the J.U. Smitgemaal pumping station in the Netherlands, performs what is thought to be the original historic concept of taking water from lower to higher levels.
In this instance, water is taken up from the low-lying Albasserwaard polders, discharged into the River Lek and hence to the North Sea. Opened in 1972, the station has a capacity of 1.500 cubic litres per minute...which is a lot! It replaced the work of eight traditional windmills.
This week's Saturday Timewatch features another artefact from the vaults. I'm not going to show the other side of the document which has all the family "names and numbers". However, this is something my granny bought in 1934 with the beneficiary named as my mum.
This week's Saturday Timewatch, combined as a Sunday Landscape, shows an example of just how extreme clif erosion is along Dorset's Jurassic Coast. The most obvious sign here is the mudslide in the bottom half of the photo. The small tree or large bush gives some idea of scale. However, look carefully and you can see where the major fall has exposed a somewhat golden cliff face of what is known as Upper Greensand. To each side there remain grey rocks of clays. Major falls such as this happen several times every year along this coastline acting as a conveyor belt for fossils hidden for millions of years within.
(I have no idea whether this post will be visible via your Activity Feed or not. I'd appreciate you letting me know either way!)
American Airlines A319 N744P taxiing in at George Bush Intercontinental, Houston, having arrived from Los Angeles. The aircraft is one of several in their fleet that wears a special heritage livery harking back to previous airlines that now operate under the American brand.
As ever, the twists and turns of ownership are complicated. In this instance extremely complicated as there seems to be two different "Piedmont" Airlines both of which ended up under the US Airways umbrella. That airline was itself later taken over /merged with American Airlines.
So I'll leave it be and just enjoy this special livery.
This week's Saturday Flashback features a photo of a photo. In 1893 a four mile rail link was constructed from Texas City to join the Galveston and Henderson Railroad inland at Texas City Junction. A single track trestle-like pier was also built out into Galveston Bay that could be used by small bay craft. The first rail and water shipment was handled in September 1894, which is when I assume this photo was taken.