View allAll Photos Tagged Unique
Unique, rare, or otherwise odd leaders can be found on any train on any railroad, really, but there are few times when something special appears on the last of the roadrailers. NS256 is one of only two surviving roadrailer trains, and it is almost always headed by NS AC44C6M rebuilds, however this time we got something a bit special. The BNSF Fakebonnet 751 took the charge of the eastbound roadrailer, which was a real treat. With the longevity of these two roadrailer trains heavily in question these days, getting a fun leader like this made for a nice change of pace. The faded red and purple henbit in a field near Sidney are a nice change of the usual black and white of the NS-led Triple Crowns. A fine treat for sure.
Union Pacific is situated in the up and coming design district of downtown Victoria in one of the newly revitalized Chinatown alleyways know as "Dragon Alley". This unique architectural setting of brick and beam construction gives Union Pacific its foundation of it's character location.
CN's unique northern Minnesota captive ore operations are home to the last major fleet of standard cab GE units still in service on any Class 1 railroad. While the rumors of their imminent demise continue, the replacement rebuilt AC446Ms with straight air have been delayed for reasons I don't know. This bodes well for me anyway, because when I'm back up in less than a month the C40-8s will still be reigning supreme.
They are the dominant power on the Iron Range Sub running in sets of three between Minntac and Two Harbors where in this view no less than SEVEN can be seen by the yard office. CN 2040 up front was built by GE in Aug. 1990 as CNW 8541for hauling coal out of the Powder River Basin. Later renumbered and repainted as UP 9063 , she was part of a large group retired by UP more than 24 years ago. The group then served as Citirail lease units for a time until CN purchased the entire fleet between 2010-2012, and later modified a portion of those with straight air for Iron Range ore train service which has explained their unexpected longevity.
Two Harbors, Minnesota
Wednesday October 4, 2023
A unique moment in Ha Noi when this young lady isn't hemmed in by motorcycles and bicycles and other pedestrians. Most of the time the traffic is so chaotic that it makes for a very cluttered and unpleasant picture.
I have always waned to see the strange and unique landscape of Dungeness. Finally, I saw it. Also a great home to wildlife as well!
www.rspb.org.uk/reserves-and-events/find-a-reserve/reserv...
If you haven't been to Dungeness, nothing can quite prepare you for the landscape – mile after mile of shingle, which is wild and a little weird! On a cold winter's day, it is a delight to sit snug in the visitor centre and look out through a huge picture window at all the waterbirds on the large gravel pit just outside. Often a rare grebe or diver is among them, and it is perhaps the best place in the UK for watching the delightful smew.
The nature trails lead around a series of hides where there is an excellent chance of seeing bitterns and bearded tits in winter. There is plenty to be seen at other times too. Dungeness's position, jutting into the English Channel, makes it ideally placed to watch for migrant birds arriving or departing, with wheatears, swallows, martins and warblers regularly seen.
In summer, redshanks, lapwings and reedbed birds breed, including, in 2007, two pairs of marsh harriers for the first time.
Dungeness is a great place for children to become 'wildlife detectives' and enjoy learning about nature at one of our regular family events. And with recently added hides and trails overlooking new wetland areas, there's more than ever to see.
Opening times
The reserve is open daily (except December 25 and 26) from 9 am-9 pm (or sunset if earlier). The visitor centre is open from 10 am-5 pm (4 pm November - February).
Entrance charges
RSPB and Wildlife Explorer members free. Non-members: adults £4, student £3, under 16s £2, under 5s free, carers free (when accompanying registered disabled visitors)
If you are new to birdwatching...
A good variety of waterfowl and seabirds can be easily seen from the visitor centre and hides. Staff usually on hand in the visitor centre to help with identification. Identification charts in all hides. Four beginners' walks run each year.
Information for families
Families are always welcome at RSPB Dungeness and a huge range of family friendly activities goes on throughout the year. Use a Wildlife Explorer rucksack (free of charge) to explore the reserve and the children's trail on your own or join one of our events to get expert tuition on activities such as pond dipping, minibeasts, bird watching or being a nature detective to name just a few. Family events run throughout the school holidays; children must be accompanied by an adult.
Information for dog owners
No dogs allowed, except registered assistance dogs. However, dogs can be exercised on a lead in the car park.
Star species
Our star species are some of the most interesting birds you may see on your visit to the reserve.
Bittern
Bitterns come to Dungeness in Britain from Europe when cold weather forces them to move to sites where they can still catch fish.
Little ringed plover
The first little ringed plovers arrive at Dungeness in March. Look for them on the islands on the pits and feeding around the muddy edges until early autumn when they head back to Africa.
Slavonian grebe
Slavonian grebes are scarce, but regular visitors to Dungeness. A small number of them can be seen diving for food on the pits in winter.
Smew
Look for small parties of smews diving on the pits between late November and March. The hides overlooking Burrowe's Pit should produce good views. The stunning adult drakes are outnumbered by 'redheads' - females and immature males.
Wheatear
The arrival of wheatears from March is a sure sign that spring has arrived at Dungeness. Large arrivals - 'falls' - of this migrant can occur here in both spring and autumn.
Read more at www.rspb.org.uk/reserves-and-events/find-a-reserve/reserv...
Seasonal highlights
Each season brings a different experience at our nature reserves. In spring, the air is filled with birdsong as they compete to establish territories and attract a mate. In summer, look out for young birds making their first venture into the outside world. Autumn brings large movements of migrating birds - some heading south to a warmer climate, others seeking refuge in the UK from the cold Arctic winter. In winter, look out for large flocks of birds gathering to feed, or flying at dusk to form large roosts to keep warm.
Spring
The first sand martins of the season should be seen in mid-March, closely followed by wheatears, black redstarts and yellow wagtails. Cuckoos should be present from mid-April whilst there will be a large increase in warblers. Sedge and reed warblers and whitethroats all nest on the reserve whilst willow warblers, chiffchaffs, and blackcaps pass through on migration. Wader passage should be noticeable with bar-tailed and black-tailed godwits, whimbrels, greenshanks, green and common sandpipers, little ringed plovers, avocets and ruffs all likely. Look for lapwings displaying over the fields and listen for marsh frogs calling from the lakes and ditches.
Summer
In June, our resident cormorants will be busy feeding their chicks whilst cygnets, goslings and ducklings will be much in evidence. Hobbies may be seen hunting insects over Hooker's pits - it is always a joy to watch these fantastic falcons performing their aerial acrobatics. Throughout July the reserve will be ablaze with the colourful flowers of viper's bugloss and yellow-horned poppy. Butterflies and dragonflies will be on the wing. Species of the former most likely to be seen include red admiral, small tortoiseshell and common blue but there may also be influxes of migrant species such as clouded yellow and painted lady.
Autumn
Wildfowl numbers will increase as September progresses. Hundreds of sand martins, along with smaller numbers of swallows and house martins, can be seen feeding over Burrowes' pit throughout September. Migrating passerines such as whinchats, redstarts, wheatears and ring ouzels, will all be present in varying numbers. In October we expect to see our first goldeneyes of the season, whilst November brings the first smews and goosanders. Marsh harriers will be seen regularly and by November will be joined by their cousin the hen harriers. Finch sightings will increase as the colder weather sets in, with linnets forming flocks, and sightings of greenfinches, goldfinches, siskins, and chaffinches all likely.
Winter
Waterbirds are the main attraction during the winter months. Large numbers of wigeons, gadwalls, teals, mallards, pintails, shovelers, pochards and tufted ducks will be present whilst smews, goldeneyes and pintails will also be seen. Bewick's and whooper swans may roost on the Hanson ARC pit. Large flocks of greylag geese may be joined by white-fronted geese. Merlins, peregrines, hen harriers and marsh harriers should be seen regularly. Barn, short-eared and long-eared owls may also be found during the winter months. Amongst the passerines stonechats, goldcrests and greenfinches will be regular features and Cetti's warblers and bearded tits should be present, particularly around Hooker's pits.
Facilities
Visitor centre
Information centre
Car park :
Car parks: Two, one at visitor centre, one at Hanson ARC site. Cycle racks outside visitor centre
Toilets
Disabled toilets
Picnic area
Binocular hire
Group bookings accepted
Guided walks available
Good for walking
Pushchair friendly
Viewing points
There are six hides on the main nature trail, plus viewing from the visitor centre. There is a hide and viewing screen at the Hanson ARC site.
Nature trails
A circular nature trail 3.2 km (2 miles) in length starts at the visitor centre. The track surface is largely hard-packed shingle with two stretches of short grass. The trail is generally suitable for wheelchairs and pushchairs although there are occasional patches of more loose shingle. At the Hanson ARC site there are two tracks (both 380 m in length), one leading to a hide, one to a viewing screen. Both tracks are suitable for both wheelchairs and pushchairs. All hides and the viewing screen are wheelchair accessible.
Refreshments available
Hot drinks
Cold drinks
Confectionery
Shop
The shop stocks:
Binoculars and telescopes
Books
Bird food
Gifts
Educational facilities
Please see the school visits page for information on the educational facilities we offer at Dungeness.
Accessibility
28 June 2012
This is a Summary Access Statement.
Before you visit
Clear print site leaflet available from our reserve reception
Free entry to members. Entrance charge for Non-members. Carer or essential companion admitted free with disabled visitor
Registered Assistance Dogs welcome. Other dogs are restricted to exercise in the car park
The Visitor Centre is open from 10 am to 5 pm (4 pm November-March) daily, except 25-26 December. The nature trail is open from 9 am to 9 pm or sunset if earlier
Check accessibility for events and activities.
How to get here
Rye railway station, 10 miles (16 km) away. Taxis usually available
Bus stop on request at the reserve entrance from where there is a one-mile walk to the Visitor Centre.
Car parking
60 spaces and two Blue Badge spaces, 10 m from visitor centre
Surface hard-packed shingle, occasional potholes. Cement surface for Blue Badge
No height restriction
No formal drop off point
No lighting.
Visitor centre and shop
Ground floor with step free level access throughout and carpeted flooring. Lowered counter section. Good lighting and ample space. Several seating areas and four seats have arms. A magnifying glass, pen and paper. Binoculars for hire. Some goods may be difficult to reach. Staff available to assist.
Nature trails
Three signposted routes, generally flat with some gentle undulations. A variety of benches, perches and occasional bench provided.
Viewing facilities
Six hides. Four with single Blue Badge Parking space. Hides have adapted wheelchair spaces. Paths hard packed shingle or gravel with some loose stones. Great views from visitor centre. A hide and screen opposite to main reserve at Hanson-ARC site is accesed on compact aggregate with some loose stones, occasionally muddy.
Toilets and baby changing facilities
Across the car park from the visitor centre entrance. A unisex accessible toilet. Baby changing facility.
Catering
Hot and cold drinks and confectionery in the visitor centre. Staff available to assist.
Picnic area
Three tables in the car park, all with wheelchair spaces. Three tables, two with wheelchair spaces at Dennis's Hide. A table 45m from the visitor centre with a view over the pond-dipping area. Visitors are welcome to consume their own food and drink here.
Education facilities
Ground floor, step-free, level, large flexible space. Good lighting. Carpet flooring.
Help us improve accessibility by sending feedback to the Site Manager.
For more information
Dungeness
E-mail: dungeness@rspb.org.uk
Telephone:01797 320588
How to get here
By bicycle (Sustrans cycle route)
Route 2
By train
Rye (16 km/10 miles), then bus 100 to Lydd and bus 11/11A/11B (not Sundays) from Lydd to reserve. Folkestone (32 km/20 miles), then bus service 101 to Lydd and bus 11/11A/11B (not Sundays) from Lydd to reserve. Ashford (25 km/16 miles) then bus service 11/11A/11B (not Sundays) to reserve.
By bus
Bus services 11/11A/11B from Ashford via Lydd (not Sundays) stop on request at the reserve entrance from where there is a one-mile walk to the Visitor Centre. There is a limited service on bus 102 from Lydd or Folkestone. The nearest stops on Sundays are at either Lydd or Lydd-on-Sea (The Pilot Inn). For more detailed information please contact the reserve.
By road
One mile out of Lydd on the Dungeness Road turn right for the the main site. The visitor centre and car park are one mile along the entrance track. The entrance to the Hanson ARC site and car park is opposite the main reserve entrance on the left of the Dungeness Road.
Our work here
18 July 2011
Dungeness was declared a National Nature Reserve in order to protect its unique shingle ridges. Other habitats include wetlands, grasslands and farmland.
The reserve is a haven for breeding and wintering water birds, and an important stopover for migrants. It is also home to many unusual plants and invertebrates.
The RSPB is managing the reserve for the benefit of all its wildlife.
Saving shingle
Dungeness's shingle ridges support an internationally important community of plants and animals. These include the endemic leafhopper Aphrodes duffieldi, and the scarce Nottingham catchfly, which is the food plant of several rare moth species.
We are managing this fragile habitat in order to preserve its unique character and biodiversity.
Flourishing fens
Behind the shingle ridges are a series of natural freshwater pits that have been colonised by fen vegetation. These support several uncommon plants, including the regionally scarce great fen sedge, as well as great crested newts and medicinal leeches.
We are encouraging the fens to recover and spread by cutting back willow scrub and other invasive plants. This enhances the overall biodiversity of the pits.
Reedbed creation
We have recently carried out major landscaping on Denge Marsh to create a 20 ha reedbed which links to the reedbed at Hooker's Pit. This will provide habitat for bitterns, bearded tits and marsh harriers.
Pit stop
The reserve also has over 90 flooded gravel pits. These offer an important refuge for wintering wildfowl, including black-necked grebe, goosander and smew, and support breeding colonies of gulls and cormorants.
We are managing the pits for their biodiversity. In particular, we aim to increase the numbers of seabirds, including Mediterranean gulls and common terns, that breed on the islands.
Grassland and farmland
Dungeness has both wet and dry grassland. We are managing these habitats in order to provide suitable breeding conditions for birds such as lapwings, redshanks and garganeys, as well as two uncommon species of bumblebee, Bombus humilis and Bombus ruderarius.
Visitor attraction
We will continue to promote the reserve to visitors and maintain our network of facilities, which includes hides, nature trails and a visitor centre. However, we will be careful not to exceed 40,000 visitors per year, since any more might inhibit conservation work.
Funding
RSPB Dungeness has developed into a fantastic home for nature, helped by the tremendous support of many individuals, groups and organisations. In addition to RSPB members and supporters, local community members and a tireless team of volunteers, we would particularly like to thank the following organisations for their financial support:
Affinity Water
Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund, a Defra grant distributed by Natural England
Brett
Countryside Agency
Environment Agency
EU Life Nature
Hanson Environment Fund through the Landfill Community Fund
Heritage Lottery Fund
Ibstock Cory Environment Trust through the Landfill Community Fund
Kent County Council
Mid-Kent Leader+
Natural England through Defra
The Oliver Coppin Memorial Trust
Roger de Haan Charitable Trust
SEEDA
Tory Family Foundation
WREN/FCC Environment through the Landfill Community Fund
quelques dessins et pastels, faits dans ma jeunesse, retrouvés dans un coin de ma cave.
some drawings and pastels, made in my youth, found in a corner of my cellar.
This rear three-quarters view of Greenfield Village Locomotive No.3 departing from Firestone Stations shows the unusual 0-6-4 arrangement of the Mason Bogie type. Mason Locomotive Works of Taunton MA gained a licence to produce Single Fairlie patent locomotives: these featured an articulated design of a power bogie beneath the single boiler, with an unpowered bogie under the cab and tender. The design found favour with mining and logging railroads, with their preponderance of sharp curves. Mason built 146 bogie locomotives, but No.3 is now the sole survivor.
Traditional music,ambient and traditional food, a very good combination
Taken @KatehMas, Shiraz, Iran
This is a fascinating design for a restaurant and bar. The placement of the wood in the ceiling gives an interesting visual display. The theme of wood is continued in the rest of the room. The lighting setup is such that the main counter is the focal point and the periphery is less of the focal point. This gives it a more calm and relaxing feel.
I snapped this picture early in the morning in a field in the central area of Mallorca. I edited out a couple of small bushes to accentuate the tree´s isolation in that field.
"If everyone would look for that uniqueness then we would have a very colorful world." ~ Michael Schenker
The name of this area escapes me at the moment, but I do recall it being located between Capitol Reef & Bryce Canyon National Parks. A truly unique & colorful desert landscape that captured our attention & left us mesmerized by its sheer beauty. View On Black
Hope everyone has a wonderful week.....43 days & counting to the Carribean.....thanks for taking the time to comment; your kind words are always appreciated.
Unique rover, which is equipped with an ultraviolet lamp, water tank and other essentials to keep plants alive. The rover has a high maneuverability due to the chassis, codenamed DUPL-0, on which it is based
Bow and a fishing boat in the southern part resembles a ship with a plank by the length of the header and footer of the hull up to look beautiful. All painted and decorated with a colorful striped pattern Thailand or Indonesia. Which is applied to match the hull bow and two types of short head and a long head. There are four sizes of vessel size based on the length of the hull as the basis for the share is large, long, medium length, 22 cubits 25 cubits long, 20 cubits smaller and smaller, so-called. "The Governor and crew" long and about 6 feet by a hammer up to the outer edge of the board. Be convex outer edge.
As a buffer for the entire length of the ship called "Spa Award" at the bottom of the spa แpto Walk to track SAE wood with frogs, as long as the ship is called a "clump" The whole ship is divided into two parts. is called "Wear Blue" end call "Boo Bare, but" if the header is divided into three parts known as the "oil of" the global (hull) called "Metallica knock off" the end is called "spread it". : credit siamsouth
They modified to use for the tourists to sight seeing and enjoy the islands.
www.darckr.com/username?username=11569107%40N06
bighugelabs.com/scout.php?username=11569107%40N06&sor...
www.flickr.com/photos/kornrawiee/8241418424/lightbox/
..............
Do not note on my images.
The Black Gray Squirrel came from Canada, specifically from Rondeau Provincial Park, a peninsula in Morpeth, Ontario, that juts into Lake Erie.
The first batch of black squirrels — eight in number — was sent to the National Zoo in 1902 by Thomas W. Gibson, Ontario’s superintendent for parks. Smithsonian secretary Samuel P. Langley, in his report to Congress that year, wrote that the squirrels were accepted “in exchange,” and, indeed, checking Canadian records, the Washington Post discovered that Rondeau Park received an unspecified number of gray squirrels from the Smithsonian.
The black squirrel and the gray squirrel are the same species of squirrel: Sciurus carolinensis, a.k.a. the Eastern gray squirrel, the only difference being a color variation. The black squirrels evince a “melanistic color phase,” the recessive gene for black coloration coming to the fore.
The Canadian squirrels were released in the northwestern part of the zoo, “where they were very much at home,” according to the 1923 Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. “They have since been constantly in the Park, especially from the vicinity of Klingle Valley, and they have spread northward to Cleveland Park and nearly to Chevy Chase.”
The zoo also released a second batch of black squirrels, which arrived in May 1906.
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October 1992 and Cummins L10 Engined Bombardier (Ireland) Double Deck KD146 is seen on Abbey Street on a 66 to Maynooth County Kildare
One of these things is not like the others...
The American River Bike Trail (Official Name: Jedediah Smith Memorial Trail) is a 23-mile paved trail that meanders along the American River from Sacramento to Folsom.
This summer, as well as the previous few, we have seen multiple devastating fires, exacerbated by the drought, but likely arson or related to the camping of a tenacious population of homeless people.
There's ample overgrowth of dry tinder and weeds to feed these fires. So this year, all along the trail, the Weed Patrol has been set to work on reducing the vegetation. It's a win-win: the sheep get an all-you-can-eat buffet, the undergrowth gets trimmed back, and the users of the trail are delighted to see thousands of sheep and their little lambs. As I ride home in the evenings, it's hard to carry any of the tension from the day when I get to stop and listen to the cacaphony of bleets and bahs.
All of this is under the watchful eyes of their tenders, like this guy, who posed so nicely for me.
Norwegen / Nordland - Helgelandskysten
Ågskardet
Helgeland is the most southerly district in Northern Norway. Generally speaking, Helgeland refers to the part of Nordland county that is located south of the Arctic Circle. It is bordered in the north by the Saltfjellet mountains and Svartisen glacier, which form a natural border with the Salten district. In the south, Helgeland borders Trøndelag county.
The district covers an area of about 18,832 square kilometres (7,271 sq mi), with nearly 79,000 inhabitants. There are four towns in the district: from south to north these are Brønnøysund, Mosjøen, Sandnessjøen, and Mo i Rana.
Name
The Old Norse form of the name was Hálogaland (see Hålogaland).
Geography
Helgeland is commonly divided into three or four sections:
Southern Helgeland (actually southwest), which consists of the municipalities Bindal, Sømna, Brønnøy, Vega and Vevelstad.
Central Helgeland, which is sometimes further divided into the regions:
Inner Helgeland, which consists of the municipalities Grane, Hattfjelldal and Vefsn.
Outer Helgeland, which consists of the municipalities Leirfjord, Alstahaug, Herøy and Dønna.
Northern Helgeland, which consists of the municipalities Hemnes, Rana, Nesna, Lurøy, Træna and Rødøy.
Helgeland is characterized by pointed mountains and Strandflaten, a shallow lowland area, sometimes just above the sea surface, and sometimes just below the surface. People living on the coast have settled on this lowland (while inland towns, such as Mo and Mosjøen, are situated in valleys). A consequence of the Strandflaten is thousands of islands, and shallow waters going far into the sea. This has provided some shelter from stormy weather, which might occur in winter. Some islands are fairly large, often with unique mountains, such as Torghatten, De syv søstre (The Seven Sisters), Hestmannen, Rødøyløva (in Rødøy), Dønnamannen (picture), and Træna. There are several sea bird colonies, such as Lovund with thousands of puffins. The Solvær Islands (Solværøyene) in Lurøy consists of about 300 small and flat islands and has the highest densities of Eurasian eagle-owls in Europe.
The highest mountains, are located inland, where Oksskolten is the highest mountain in Northern Norway. There are many valleys inland, such as the Dunderland Valley, Vefsndalen, and Hattfjelldal. Røssvatnet is the second largest lake in Norway. There are three large national parks in Helgeland: Saltfjellet–Svartisen National Park (partly), Børgefjell National Park (partly), and Lomsdal–Visten National Park (created in May 2009).
Cultural references
Helgeland is the scene for Henrik Ibsen's 1857 historical play "The Vikings at Helgeland" (Hærmændene paa Helgeland), whose plot takes place at this region during the time of Erik Blood-axe (c. 930–934).
Helgeland Kammerkor, a mixed choir with members from all parts of Helgeland, have recorded an album of folk music from Helgeland (Folketoner fra Helgeland, 2005). The album contains 27 folk tunes from Helgeland, recorded in collaboration with folk musicians from the area. The album was recorded in Alstahaug Church, a 900-year-old stone church located near Sandnessjøen.
(Wikipedia)
Ågskardet is a village in Meløy Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is located on the southern side of the Holandsfjorden, about 3.5 kilometres (2.2 mi) north of the village of Tjong (in neighboring Rødøy Municipality). There were 127 inhabitants in 2008.
The village lies along Norwegian County Road 17, with a ferry connection to a port, just west of the village of Halsa. The ferry is the only connection to the rest of Meløy Municipality to the north. The village is situated just north of the border with Rødøy Municipality. The village has its own school, chapel/community centre, and some private companies.
(Wikipedia)
Helgeland (im Mittelalter Hålogaland) ist eine Landschaft im Norden Norwegens, die heute den südlichen Teil des Fylkes Nordland bis zum Saltfjellet umfasst. Die Region hat 78.400 Einwohner und eine Fläche von 17.936 km². Die Region hat ungefähr 15.000 Inseln.
Im Mittelalter bezeichnete Hålogaland das gesamte Territorium nördlich von Trøndelag und war vor der Christianisierung Norwegens ein selbständiges Königreich, das auch den größten Teil von Troms umfasste und sich zeitweilig bis in das von Samen dominierte Gebiet (Finnmark, Schwedisch-Lappland, Nord-Finnland und Nordwest-Russland) erstreckte. Hålogaland nimmt einen hervorragenden Platz in den Sagas ein. Die Göttinnen Þorgerðr Hölgabrúðr und Irpa der Jómsvíkinga saga stammen wahrscheinlich aus Hálogaland und wurden wohl vor allem dort verehrt. Der vermutlich bekannteste Einwohner Hålogalands war der Seefahrer und Kaufmann Ottar, dessen Bericht über seine Heimat einen Platz in Alfreds des Großen Übersetzung der Weltgeschichte des Orosius fand.
Der Name stammt nicht von derselben Wurzel wie heilig, wie es schon Adam von Bremen behauptete, sondern von einer Volksbezeichnung háleygir. In Snorri Sturlusons Jüngerer Edda wird er von einem mythischen König Holgi abgeleitet. Holgi wiederum soll ein Nachfolger von Odins Sohn Sæming (Säming) gewesen sein.
Die jüngere Form des Namens findet sich ab 1380, die ältere besteht weiter in den Namen der Bistümer Sør-Hålogaland (Nordland) und Nord-Hålogaland (Troms und Finnmark) und im Namen des Obergerichtes (Hålogaland lagmannsrett), das für die drei nördlichen Provinzen Nordland, Troms und Finnmark sowie für Spitzbergen zuständig ist.
In Helgeland befand sich bei Bratland und der Insel Aldra ein Sender des Omega-Funknavigationssystems. In der Nähe von Bratland befindet sich auch der Marinesender JXN, der wie einst der Omegasender eine Drahtantenne verwendet, die über einen Fjord gespannt wurde.
(Wikipedia)
Yesterday I was invited to take some photos for the Norwegian Wildlife Hospital, which got this beautiful young golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) the day before.
It was found on Jæren, and needed to get treatment for its left eye.
Even though it's sad when birds and animals are injured, it is always special to get the chance to meet a raptor this close, and gratifying that there are vets who spend their spare time saving them.
(Ung kongeørn in Norwegian)
Check out many more photos of it in the links below the line!
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C&NW inspired Metra F59 #90 highballs Lockport Depot on Metra's Southwest Service, formerly the GM&O Alton Route, with the 2022 AAPRCO Special. This was a dead head positioning move after the days festivities and excursions had completed.
The special excursion on this day road the rails of the CP C&M/Elgin and Fox Lake Subdivisions bringing out a unique character to the territory. C&NW Heritage F59 METX 90 with the Chicago inspired F40PH 104, leading 8 Privately-Owned passenger cars all over Chicagoland. The car owners were being shuffled all over town for the weekend and into the new week for Annual Convention Festivities.
Lockport, IL
2022.09.03
Chandra's unique ability to precisely locate and resolve individual X-ray sources in 12 globular clusters in our Galaxy has given astronomers a crucial clue as to the origin of these sources. Two clusters, known as NGC 6266 (or M62) and NGC 7099 (or M30), are shown here in this 2003 image.
A globular cluster is a spherical collection of hundreds of thousands and even millions of stars buzzing around each other in a gravitationally bound stellar beehive that is about a hundred light years in diameter. The stars in a globular cluster are often only about a tenth of a light year apart. For comparison, the nearest star to the Sun, Proxima Centauri, is 4.2 light years away.
Most of the point-like sources in these images are binary star systems containing a collapsed star, such as a neutron star or a white dwarf star, that is pulling matter off a normal companion star. While direct, head-on collisions between stars are rare even in these crowded circumstances, close encounters occur and can lead to the formation of binary star systems containing a collapsed star.
The images illustrate a general trend observed for globular clusters. Clusters such as M62 where the stars are packed very closely together and the rate of close encounters is high have more X-ray binaries than those such as M30 in which close encounters occur less often. This is strong evidence that the X-ray binaries in globular clusters are formed by close encounters.
Image credit: NASA/CXC/MIT/D.Pooley et al.
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #chandraxrayobservatory #ChandraXRay #cxo #chandra #astronomy #space #astrophysics #nasamarshallspaceflightcenter #solarsystemandbeyond #globularcluster
Amedeo Modigliani
Italian, 1884 - 1920
Woman with a Necklace, 1917
Oil on canvas
(closeup)
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (July 12, 1884 – January 24, 1920) was a Jewish-Italian painter and sculptor who pursued his career for the most part in France. Modigliani was born in Livorno, Italy and began his artistic studies in Italy before moving to Paris in 1906. Influenced by the artists in his circle of friends and associates, by a range of genres and movements, and by primitive art, Modigliani's oeuvre was nonetheless unique and idiosyncratic. He died in Paris of tubercular meningitis—exacerbated by a lifestyle of excess—at the age of 35.
Early life
Modigliani was born into a Jewish family in Livorno, Italy.
Livorno was still a relatively new city, by Italian standards, in the late nineteenth century. The city on the Tyrrhenian coast dates from around 1600, when it was transformed from a swampy village into a seaport. The Livorno that Modigliani knew was a bustling centre of commerce focused upon seafaring and shipwrighting, but its cultural history lay in being a refuge for those persecuted for their religion. His own maternal great-great-grandfather was one Solomon Garsin, a Jew who had immigrated to Livorno in the eighteenth century as a religious refugee.
Modigliani was the fourth child of Flaminio Modigliani and his wife, Eugenia Garsin. His father was in the money-changing business, but when the business went bankrupt, the family lived in dire poverty. In fact, Amedeo's birth saved the family from certain ruin, as, according to an ancient law, creditors could not seize the bed of a pregnant woman or a mother with a newborn child. When bailiffs entered the family home, just as Eugenia went into labour, the family protected their most valuable assets by piling them on top of the expectant mother.
Modigliani had a particularly close relationship with his mother, who taught her son at home until he was ten. Beset with health problems after a bout of typhoid at the age of fourteen, two years later he contracted the tuberculosis which would affect him for the rest of his life. To help him recover from his many childhood illnesses, she took him to Naples in Southern Italy, where the warmer weather was conducive to his convalescence.
His mother was, in many ways, instrumental in his ability to pursue art as a vocation. When he was eleven years of age, she had noted in her diary that:
“The child's character is still so unformed that I cannot say what I think of it. He behaves like a spoiled child, but he does not lack intelligence. We shall have to wait and see what is inside this chrysalis. Perhaps an artist?"
Art student years
Modigliani is known to have drawn and painted from a very early age, and thought himself "already a painter", his mother wrote, even before beginning formal studies. Despite her misgivings that launching him on a course of studying art would impinge upon his other studies, his mother indulged the young Modigliani's passion for the subject.
At the age of fourteen, while sick with the typhoid fever, he raved in his delirium that he wanted, above all else, to see the paintings in the Palazzo Pitti and the Uffizi in Florence. As Livorno's local museum only housed a sparse few paintings by the Italian Renaissance masters, the tales he had heard about the great works held in Florence intrigued him, and it was a source of considerable despair to him, in his sickened state, that he might never get the chance to view them in person. His mother promised that she would take him to Florence herself, the moment he was recovered. Not only did she fulfil this promise, but she also undertook to enroll him with the best painting master in Livorno, Guglielmo Micheli.
Micheli and the Macchiaioli
Modigliani worked in the studio of Micheli from 1898 to 1900. Here his earliest formal artistic instruction took place in an atmosphere deeply steeped in a study of the styles and themes of nineteenth-century Italian art. In his earliest Parisian work, traces of this influence, and that of his studies of Renaissance art, can still be seen: artists such as Giovanni Boldini figure just as much in this nascent work as do those of Toulouse-Lautrec.
Modigliani showed great promise while with Micheli, and only ceased his studies when he was forced to, by the onset of tuberculosis.
In 1901, whilst in Rome, Modigliani admired the work of Domenico Morelli, a painter of melodramatic Biblical studies and scenes from great literature. It is ironic that he should be so struck by Morelli, as this painter had served as an inspiration for a group of iconoclasts who went by the title, the Macchiaioli (from macchia—"dash of colour", or, more derogatively, "stain"), and Modigliani had already been exposed to the influences of the Macchiaioli. This minor, localised art movement was possessed of a need to react against the bourgeois stylings of the academic genre painters. While sympathetically connected to (and actually pre-dating) the French Impressionists, the Macchiaioli did not make the same impact upon international art culture as did the followers of Monet, and are today largely forgotten outside of Italy.
Modigliani's connection with the movement was through Micheli, his first art teacher. Micheli was not only a Macchiaioli himself, but had been a pupil of the famous Giovanni Fattori, a founder of the movement. Micheli's work, however, was so fashionable and the genre so commonplace that the young Modigliani reacted against it, preferring to ignore the obsession with landscape that, as with French Impressionism, characterised the movement. Micheli also tried to encourage his pupils to paint en plein air, but Modigliani never really got a taste for this style of working, sketching in cafes, but preferring to paint indoors, and especially in his own studio. Even when compelled to paint landscapes (three are known to exist), Modigliani chose a proto-Cubist palette more akin to Cézanne than to the Macchiaioli.
While with Micheli, Modigliani not only studied landscape, but also portraiture, still-life, and the nude. His fellow students recall that the latter was where he displayed his greatest talent, and apparently this was not an entirely academic pursuit for the teenager: when not painting nudes, he was occupied with seducing the household maid.
Despite his rejection of the Macchiaioli approach, Modigliani nonetheless found favour with his teacher, who referred to him as "Superman", a pet name reflecting the fact that Modigliani was not only quite adept at his art, but also that he regularly quoted from Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra. Fattori himself would often visit the studio, and approved of the young artist's innovations.
In 1902, Modigliani continued what was to be a life-long infatuation with life drawing, enrolling in the Accademia di Belle Arti (Scuola Libera di Nudo, or "Free School of Nude Studies") in Florence. A year later while still suffering from tuberculosis, he moved to Venice, where he registered to study at the Istituto di Belle Arti.
It is in Venice that he first smoked hashish and, rather than studying, began to spend time frequenting disreputable parts of the city. The impact of these lifestyle choices upon his developing artistic style is open to conjecture, although these choices do seem to be more than simple teenage rebellion, or the cliched hedonism and bohemianism that was almost expected of artists of the time; his pursuit of the seedier side of life appears to have roots in his appreciation of radical philosophies, such as those of Nietzsche.
Early literary influences
Having been exposed to erudite philosophical literature as a young boy under the tutelage of Isaco Garsin, his maternal grandfather, he continued to read and be influenced through his art studies by the writings of Nietzsche, Baudelaire, Carduzzi, Comte de Lautréamont, and others, and developed the belief that the only route to true creativity was through defiance and disorder.
Letters that he wrote from his 'sabbatical' in Capri in 1901 clearly indicate that he is being more and more influenced by the thinking of Nietzsche. In these letters, he advised friend Oscar Ghiglia,
“(hold sacred all) which can exalt and excite your intelligence... (and) ... seek to provoke ... and to perpetuate ... these fertile stimuli, because they can push the intelligence to its maximum creative power.”
The work of Lautréamont was equally influential at this time. This doomed poet's Les Chants de Maldoror became the seminal work for the Parisian Surrealists of Modigliani's generation, and the book became Modigliani's favourite to the extent that he learnt it by heart. The poetry of Lautréamont is characterised by the juxtaposition of fantastical elements, and by sadistic imagery; the fact that Modigliani was so taken by this text in his early teens gives a good indication of his developing tastes. Baudelaire and D'Annunzio similarly appealed to the young artist, with their interest in corrupted beauty, and the expression of that insight through Symbolist imagery.
Modigliani wrote to Ghiglia extensively from Capri, where his mother had taken him to assist in his recovery from the tuberculosis. These letters are a sounding board for the developing ideas brewing in Modigliani's mind. Ghiglia was seven years Modigliani's senior, and it is likely that it was he who showed the young man the limits of his horizons in Livorno. Like all precocious teenagers, Modigliani preferred the company of older companions, and Ghiglia's role in his adolescence was to be a sympathetic ear as he worked himself out, principally in the convoluted letters that he regularly sent, and which survive today.
“Dear friend
I write to pour myself out to you and to affirm myself to myself. I am the prey of great powers that surge forth and then disintegrate... A bourgeois told me today - insulted me - that I or at least my brain was lazy. It did me good. I should like such a warning every morning upon awakening: but they cannot understand us nor can they understand life...”
Paris
Arrival
In 1906 Modigliani moved to Paris, then the focal point of the avant-garde. In fact, his arrival at the epicentre of artistic experimentation coincided with the arrival of two other foreigners who were also to leave their marks upon the art world: Gino Severini and Juan Gris.
He settled in Le Bateau-Lavoir, a commune for penniless artists in Montmartre, renting himself a studio in Rue Caulaincourt. Even though this artists' quarter of Montmartre was characterised by generalised poverty, Modigliani himself presented - initially, at least - as one would expect the son of a family trying to maintain the appearances of its lost financial standing to present: his wardrobe was dapper without ostentation, and the studio he rented was appointed in a style appropriate to someone with a finely attuned taste in plush drapery and Renaissance reproductions. He soon made efforts to assume the guise of the bohemian artist, but, even in his brown corduroys, scarlet scarf and large black hat, he continued to appear as if he were slumming it, having fallen upon harder times.
When he first arrived in Paris, he wrote home regularly to his mother, he sketched his nudes at the Colarossi school, and he drank wine in moderation. He was at that time considered by those who knew him as a bit reserved, verging on the asocial. He is noted to have commented, upon meeting Picasso who, at the time, was wearing his trademark workmen's clothes, that even though the man was a genius, that did not excuse his uncouth appearance.
Transformation
Within a year of arriving in Paris, however, his demeanour and reputation had changed dramatically. He transformed himself from a dapper academician artist into a sort of prince of vagabonds.
The poet and journalist Louis Latourette, upon visiting the artist's previously well-appointed studio after his transformation, discovered the place in upheaval, the Renaissance reproductions discarded from the walls, the plush drapes in disarray. Modigliani was already an alcoholic and a drug addict by this time, and his studio reflected this. Modigliani's behaviour at this time sheds some light upon his developing style as an artist, in that the studio had become almost a sacrificial effigy for all that he resented about the academic art that had marked his life and his training up to that point.
Not only did he remove all the trappings of his bourgeois heritage from his studio, but he also set about destroying practically all of his own early work. He explained this extraordinary course of actions to his astonished neighbours thus:
“Childish baubles, done when I was a dirty bourgeois."
The motivation for this violent rejection of his earlier self is the subject of considerable speculation. The self-destructive tendencies may have stemmed from his tuberculosis and the knowledge (or presumption) that the disease had essentially marked him for an early death; within the artists' quarter, many faced the same sentence, and the typical response was to set about enjoying life while it lasted, principally by indulging in self-destructive actions. For Modigliani such behavior may have been a response to a lack of recognition; it is known that he sought the company of other alcoholic artists such as Utrillo and Soutine, seeking acceptance and validation for his work from his colleagues.
Modigliani's behavior stood out even in these Bohemian surroundings: he carried on frequent affairs, drank heavily, and used absinthe and hashish. While drunk he would sometimes strip himself naked at social gatherings. He became the epitome of the tragic artist, creating a posthumous legend almost as well-known as that of Vincent van Gogh.
During the 1920s, in the wake of Modigliani's career and spurred on by comments by Andre Salmon crediting hashish and absinthe with the genesis of Modigliani's style, many hopefuls tried to emulate his 'success' by embarking on a path of substance abuse and bohemian excess. Salmon claimed—erroneously—that whereas Modigliani was a totally pedestrian artist when sober,
“...from the day that he abandoned himself to certain forms of debauchery, an unexpected light came upon him, transforming his art. From that day on, he became one who must be counted among the masters of living art.”
While this propaganda served as a rallying cry to those with a romantic longing to be a tragic, doomed artist, these strategies did not produce unique artistic insights or techniques in those who did not already have them.
In fact, art historians suggest that it is entirely possible for Modigliani to have achieved even greater artistic heights had he not been immured in, and destroyed by, his own self-indulgences. We can only speculate what he might have accomplished had he emerged intact from his self-destructive explorations.
Output
During his early years in Paris, Modigliani worked at a furious pace. He was constantly sketching, making as many as a hundred drawings a day. However, many of his works were lost - destroyed by him as inferior, left behind in his frequent changes of address, or given to girlfriends who did not keep them.
He was first influenced by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, but around 1907 he became fascinated with the work of Paul Cézanne. Eventually he developed his own unique style, one that cannot be adequately categorized with other artists.
He met the first serious love of his life, Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, in 1910, when he was 26. They had studios in the same building, and although 21-year-old Anna was recently married, they began an affair. Tall (Modigliani was only 5 foot 5 inches) with dark hair (like Modigliani's), pale skin and grey-green eyes, she embodied Modigliani's aesthetic ideal and the pair became engrossed in each other. After a year, however, Anna returned to her husband.
Experiments with sculpture
In 1909, Modigliani returned home to Livorno, sickly and tired from his wild lifestyle. Soon he was back in Paris, this time renting a studio in Montparnasse. He originally saw himself as a sculptor rather than a painter, and was encouraged to continue after Paul Guillaume, an ambitious young art dealer, took an interest in his work and introduced him to sculptor Constantin Brancusi.
Although a series of Modigliani's sculptures were exhibited in the Salon d'Automne of 1912, he abruptly abandoned sculpting and focused solely on his painting.
Question of influences
In Modigliani's art, there is evidence of the influence of primitive art from Africa and Cambodia which he may have seen in the Musée de l'Homme, but his stylisations are just as likely to have been the result of his being surrounded by Mediaeval sculpture during his studies in Northern Italy (there is no recorded information from Modigliani himself, as there is with Picasso and others, to confirm the contention that he was influenced by either ethnic or any other kind of sculpture). A possible interest in African tribal masks seems to be evident in his portraits. In both his painting and sculpture, the sitters' faces resemble ancient Egyptian painting in their flat and masklike appearance, with distinctive almond eyes, pursed mouths, twisted noses, and elongated necks. However these same chacteristics are shared by Medieval European sculpture and painting.
Modigliani painted a series of portraits of contemporary artists and friends in Montparnasse: Chaim Soutine, Moise Kisling, Pablo Picasso, Diego Rivera, Marie "Marevna" Vorobyev-Stebeslka, Juan Gris, Max Jacob, Blaise Cendrars, and Jean Cocteau, all sat for stylized renditions.
At the outset of World War I, Modigliani tried to enlist in the army but was refused because of his poor health.
The war years
Known as Modì, which roughly translates as 'morbid' or 'moribund', by many Parisians, but as Dedo to his family and friends, Modigliani was a handsome man, and attracted much female attention.
Women came and went until Beatrice Hastings entered his life. She stayed with him for almost two years, was the subject for several of his portraits, including Madame Pompadour, and the object of much of his drunken wrath.
When the British painter Nina Hamnett arrived in Montparnasse in 1914, on her first evening there the smiling man at the next table in the café introduced himself as Modigliani; painter and Jew. They became great friends.
In 1916, Modigliani befriended the Polish poet and art dealer Leopold Zborovski and his wife Anna.
Jeanne Hébuterne
The following summer, the Russian sculptor Chana Orloff introduced him to a beautiful 19-year-old art student named Jeanne Hébuterne who had posed for Foujita. From a conservative bourgeois background, Hébuterne was renounced by her devout Roman Catholic family for her liaison with the painter, whom they saw as little more than a debauched derelict, and, worse yet, a Jew. Despite her family's objections, soon they were living together, and although Hébuterne was the love of his life, their public scenes became more renowned than Modigliani's individual drunken exhibitions.
On December 3, 1917, Modigliani's first one-man exhibition opened at the Berthe Weill Gallery. The chief of the Paris police was scandalized by Modigliani's nudes and forced him to close the exhibition within a few hours after its opening.
After he and Hébuterne moved to Nice, she became pregnant and on November 29, 1918 gave birth to a daughter whom they named Jeanne (1918-1984).
Nice
During a trip to Nice, conceived and organized by Leopold Zborovski, Modigliani, Tsuguharu Foujita and other artists tried to sell their works to rich tourists. Modigliani managed to sell a few pictures but only for a few francs each. Despite this, during this time he produced most of the paintings that later became his most popular and valued works.
During his lifetime he sold a number of his works, but never for any great amount of money. What funds he did receive soon vanished for his habits.
In May of 1919 he returned to Paris, where, with Hébuterne and their daughter, he rented an apartment in the rue de la Grande Chaumière. While there, both Jeanne Hébuterne and Amedeo Modigliani painted portraits of each other, and of themselves.
Last days
Although he continued to paint, Modigliani's health was deteriorating rapidly, and his alcohol-induced blackouts became more frequent.
In 1920, after not hearing from him for several days, his downstairs neighbor checked on the family and found Modigliani in bed delirious and holding onto Hébuterne who was nearly nine months pregnant. They summoned a doctor, but little could be done because Modigliani was dying of the then-incurable disease tubercular meningitis.
Modigliani died on January 24, 1920. There was an enormous funeral, attended by many from the artistic communities in Montmartre and Montparnasse.
Hébuterne was taken to her parents' home, where, inconsolable, she threw herself out of a fifth-floor window two days after Modigliani's death, killing herself and her unborn child. Modigliani was interred in Père Lachaise Cemetery. Hébuterne was buried at the Cimetière de Bagneux near Paris, and it was not until 1930 that her embittered family allowed her body to be moved to rest beside Modigliani.
Modigliani died penniless and destitute—managing only one solo exhibition in his life and giving his work away in exchange for meals in restaurants. Had he lived through the 1920s when American buyers flooded Paris, his fortunes might well have changed. Since his death his reputation has soared. Nine novels, a play, a documentary and three feature films have been devoted to his life.
Today we *FINALLY* made it to Ullapool to take a look at the Creel Tree, a rather unique Christmas Tree made of lobster pots! It's just over an hour from Drumnadrochit to Ullapool so not *really* all that close, but not too far away!
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