My friend Kelvin couldn't resist the temptation of Polapremium's big discount on the "Polaroid Pogo Moleskine Special Edition" and despite the not so good reviews all over the net, I said "count me in" knowing that I will need a real small photo printer for my travel journals. We both regretted on the day we received the package.

 

The price is amazingly attractive. A PoGo alone costs US$80 to $150, but Polapremium is selling this special set at US$72, you get a free Moleskine too. I love both brands and the packaging is great. The size of it is a little bigger than an iPhone and about double the thickness of an iPhone. The first thing I did was to charge it up but to my surprise the power socket on PoGo is kind of shaky probably because of it not being soldered to the circuit board strong enough by design. The power button on the machine is hard to press and located right beside the USB cable which is very inconvenient. After more than 6 hours of charging, the printer printed 6 photos and the battery indicator became red and refused to print another one. Yeah I know, I was warned about battery life but this is not portable at all.

 

Print quality.... totally unacceptable. It looks like a result of laser print out (you can actually see the contours of color layers especially in dark areas), but resolution of an inkjet (I know, I'm not able to describe it properly but this is how I feel). You can also see faint white vertical lines every 3mm on the print, not a good sight as a photo. The paper gives you an impression of cheap labels instead of a photo print with glue on the back. I cannot find any information about the acidity of the paper and glue.

 

I know these are pretty crude comments, considering the amazing zero ink technology by Zink behind this. I think it has great potential, just that both the paper and the machine are not mature enough to give end user a good photo print coz it is natural for us to compare print quality with a lab or a typical photo printer despite high admiration of its technology behind. I love the size, bluetooth printing and pictbridge support. I hate the battery and print quality. For serious photo journaling people, I cannot recommend PoGo.

 

More on Scription blog: moleskine.vox.com/library/post/pogo-no-go.html

In Spain "café cortado" is a (double) espresso with a little milk to reduce the acidity. It's my favourite way of preparing coffee and I can't function properly if I don't have one in the morning.

The half-timbered building at the end of this street is thought to have been built in the 1600s.

 

"Bernkastel-Kues (German pronunciation: [ˌbɛɐ̯nkastəlˈkuːs]) is a town on the Middle Moselle in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a well-known winegrowing centre. The town is a state-recognized health resort (Erholungsort), seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of Bernkastel-Kues and birthplace of one of the most famous German polymaths, the mediaeval churchman and philosopher Nikolaus von Kues (Cusanus).

 

Bernkastel-Kues is located in the Moselle valley, about 50 kilometers from Trier. The highest elevation is Mount Olympus (415 m above sea level), the lowest point (107 m above sea level) is on the banks of the Moselle. The urban area covers a total area of ​​23.71 km², of which 5.93 km² is used for agriculture. This makes Bernkastel-Kues one of the largest cities in the Middle Moselle in terms of area. Immediately neighboring local communities are (clockwise, starting from the north) Zeltingen-Rachtig, Graach an der Mosel, Longkamp, ​​Monzelfeld, Mülheim an der Mosel, Lieser, Maring-Noviand and Platten.

 

Left tributaries of the Moselle are Heldengraben, Thelengraben, Waldgraben, Krausbach and the stream from the Wehlener Forest. The right tributaries of the Moselle are Goldbach, Heidesheimgraben, Tiefenbach and Schadbach.

 

Archaeologists discovered the first evidence of human settlement (3000 BC) in Cusa. Around 370, Decimus Magnus Ausonius, Roman poet and teacher at the imperial court, wrote his poem Mosella. Adalbero of Luxembourg, provost of the Trier Monastery of St. Paulin, became Lord of Bernkastel. The first documented mention of Bernkastel dates back to the first half of the 11th century. At the turn of the 7th and 8th centuries a geographer named a place Princastellum. This is considered evidence of a Roman fort in the 4th century near today's Landshut castle ruins; This is indicated, among other things, by fittings, ceramics and iron finds below the castle. The form of the name in the 12th century Beronis castellum was a learned relatinization that referred to the Trier provost Adalbero of Luxembourg (11th century). The third castle construction began in 1277 under the rule of Trier Archbishop Heinrich II von Finstingen . On May 29, 1291, King Rudolf I of Habsburg granted Berrincastel city rights. The Landshut Castle, which was built at that time, only received this name in the 16th century. In 1332 the city rights were reconfirmed by Emperor Ludwig of Bavaria's collecting privilege. Archbishop Boemund II became elector through the Golden Bull. According to legend, he was cured of a serious illness by a glass of wine - the legend of the Berncastler Doctor began. In 1401, Nicolaus Cusanus was born in the house of the Moselle boatman Henne Cryfftz (Krebs), which can be visited. In 1451, the St. Nicholas Hospital (Cusanusstift), a hospital for the poor, was built. In 1505, the name Landshut appeared for the first time for the archbishop's castle in a sovereign decree from James II. In 1512, Emperor Maximilian stayed in Bernkastel on his way to the Reichstag in Trier. The plague raged in Bernkastel in 1627 and in Kues in 1641. In 1692, Landshut Castle fell victim to a fire and has been in ruins ever since. In 1787 the Electorate of Berncastel had 4,743 inhabitants. From 1794 to 1814 Bernkastel was a cantonal town under French rule; at the Congress of Vienna (1815) Bernkastel and Kues were added to the Kingdom of Prussia. Bernkastel became the seat of the Bernkastel mayor's office and in 1821 the seat of the Bernkastel district . In 1848 the revolution also came to Bernkastel: the black, red and gold flag was hoisted at the town hall and a vigilante group was formed. The first road bridge between Bernkastel and Kues was built in 1872/74, and the first rail connection in 1882/83.

 

The town in its current form was created on April 1, 1905 through the merger of the town of Bernkastel with the wine-growing village of Kues opposite. In 1926 there were major wine unrests on the Moselle, the tax office in Bernkastel and the customs office in Kues were stormed. During the Reichspogromnacht on November 9, 1938, there were serious riots against Jewish fellow citizens; the synagogue was destroyed. Towards the end of the Second World War, the city was bombed several times. On February 19, 1945, numerous houses around the market square in Bernkastel were destroyed and 41 people were killed. In an attack on March 2nd, large parts of the old town hall and other buildings were destroyed and 29 people were killed. On March 11th the Moselle bridge was blown up and the bombardment by American artillery began the following day. On March 15th the Americans moved into Kues and on the 16th into Bernkastel.

 

The first democratic elections after the war took place in 1946; Hans Weber became city mayor. On November 7, 1970, Andel and Wehlen were incorporated. As a result of the Rhineland-Palatinate administrative reform, the Verbandsgemeinde of Bernkastel-Kues was formed through the merger of the offices of Bernkastel-Land, Lieser, Mülheim, Zeltingen and the city of Bernkastel-Kues. The Burgberg Tunnel was officially opened in 1997. In 2000 the partnership between Bernkastel-Kues and Karlovy Vary (Karlovy Vary) began. In 2005 the city celebrated the 100th anniversary of the merger of Bernkastel and Kues; The community became a climatic health resort.

 

Mosel (German: [ˈmoːzl̩]) is one of 13 German wine regions (Weinbaugebiete) for quality wines (Qualitätswein, formerly QbA and Prädikatswein), and takes its name from the Mosel River (French: Moselle; Luxembourgish: Musel). Before 1 August 2007 the region was called Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, but changed to a name that was considered more consumer-friendly. The wine region is Germany's third largest in terms of production but some consider it the leading region in terms of international prestige.

 

The region covers the valleys of the rivers Mosel, Saar, and Ruwer from near the mouth of the Mosel at Koblenz and upstream to the vicinity of Trier in the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The area is known for the steep slopes of the region's vineyards overlooking the river. At 65° degrees incline, the steepest recorded vineyard in the world is the Calmont vineyard located on the Mosel and belonging to the village of Bremm, and therefore referred to as Bremmer Calmont. The Mosel is mainly famous for its wines made from the Riesling grape, but Elbling and Müller-Thurgau also contribute to the production, among others.

 

In the past two decades red wine production, especially from the Spätburgunder (Pinot noir), has increased in the Mosel and throughout the German vignoble and has become of increasing interest to the international wine community. Because of the northerly location of the Mosel, the Riesling wines are often light, tending to lower alcohol, crisp and high in acidity, and often exhibit "flowery" rather than or in addition to "fruity" aromas. Its most common vineyard soil is derived in the main from various kinds of slate deposits, which tend to give the wines a transparent, mineralic aspect, that often exhibit great depth of flavor. In the current era of climate change much work has been done to improve and gain acceptance for completely dry ("Trocken") Rieslings in this region, so that most of the more famous makers have found acceptance for such wines, particularly in Europe." - info from Wikipedia.

 

Summer 2019 I did a solo cycling tour across Europe through 12 countries over the course of 3 months. I began my adventure in Edinburgh, Scotland and finished in Florence, Italy cycling 8,816 km. During my trip I took 47,000 photos.

 

Now on Instagram.

 

Become a patron to my photography on Patreon or donate.

Apple, (Malus domestica), fruit of the domesticated tree Malus domestica (family Rosaceae), one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits. The apple is a pome (fleshy) fruit, in which the ripened ovary and surrounding tissue both become fleshy and edible. The apple flower of most varieties requires cross-pollination for fertilization. When harvested, apples are usually roundish, 5–10 cm (2–4 inches) in diameter, and some shade of red, green, or yellow in colour; they vary in size, shape, and acidity depending on the variety.

COUNTRY: Spain

REGION: Basque Country

SUB REGION: Basque Country

APPELLATION/AVA: Getariako Txakolina DO

ESTATE GROWN WINE: Yes

VINTAGE: 2020

GRAPE(S): 100% Hondarrabi Beltza

TYPE: Wine - Rose

BOTTLE SIZE: 750 ml

PACK: 12

CLOSURE: Cork

ALC BY VOL(%): 11

SOIL TYPE: Clay

 

Tasting Notes: This rosé wine is naturally slightly sparkling. The high acidity of this wine brings freshness to the palate. It displays potent and wild fruit aromas and silky strawberries. This wine is clean, bright and expressive. It is a great wine to drink alone or pair with cheese, rice, poultry, white meats and fish. ~ www.creamwine.com/product.php?id=15335

 

Food Pick-up Day / Social Distancing, Day 48, 05/02/2020, Bushwick, NY

 

Apple iPhone 7 Plus

iPhone 7 Plus back dual camera 3.99mm f/1.8

ƒ/1.8 4.0 mm 1/15 50

 

Instagram in B&W Only | Instagram in Color | Lens Wide-Open

Chun Quoit, nr. Pendeen, Cornwall

Picture taken 8th October 2012

 

Taken on a very misty morning, the monument stands in open ground near the Chun Castle Hillfort (a related area of archeological interest) and can be accessed via public footpath leading from the main B3306 between St Just & Zennor - past Chun Farm.

 

‘Quoit’ is the Cornish name for a type of megalithic structure comprising a number of large stones set upright to support a massive horizontal capstone forming a small chamber. Also knows as cromlechs, the stone chambers thus formed were used for communal burials in the Neolithic period.

 

According to www.historic-cornwall.co.uk, Chûn Quoit is one of a small group of similar monuments restricted in distribution largely to Penwith, though there are two or three further east in Cornwall and they are also common in Wales, Ireland and Brittany. Archaeologists call such sites chambered tombs or portal dolmens, and date them to the 3rd or 4th millennia BC.

 

The quoit is surrounded by traces of a large low stony mound and is ringed with a low kerb of relatively small boulders and other stones that have been interpreted as the remains of burial boxes or cists. There may have been a ‘forecourt’ in front of the entrance to the chamber which would have provided the setting for funerary rites and rituals.

 

No artefacts or human remains have been found at Chûn Quoit, and finds generally from these kinds of monuments are almost unknown in Cornwall due to the acidity of the moorland soils.

 

Comparison with similar monuments elsewhere suggest that they functioned as repositories for safeguarding ancestral remains. There is some evidence - from Neolithic tombs in Wessex for example - that bones were periodically removed and returned or re-arranged. The bones may have featured in ceremonies associated with an ancestor cult; communities at this time were becoming increasingly settled and stable and such rites are thought to represent the attempt to establish hereditary ‘ownership’ of a territory and to develop a communal or tribal identity.

The pomegranate (/ˈpɒmᵻɡrænᵻt/), botanical name Punica granatum, is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub or small tree growing between 5 and 8 m tall.

 

In the Northern Hemisphere, the fruit is typically in season from September to February, and in the Southern Hemisphere from March to May. As intact arils or juice, pomegranates are used in cooking, baking, meal garnishes, juice blends, smoothies, and alcoholic beverages, such as cocktails and wine.

 

The pomegranate originated in the region of modern-day Iran and has been cultivated since ancient times throughout the Mediterranean region and northern India. It was introduced into America (Spanish America) in the late 16th century and California by Spanish settlers in 1769.

 

Today, it is widely cultivated throughout the Middle East and Caucasus region, north Africa and tropical Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia, the drier parts of southeast Asia, and parts of the Mediterranean Basin. It is also cultivated in parts of California and Arizona. In recent years, it has become more common in the commercial markets of Europe and the Western Hemisphere.

 

ETYMOLOGY

The name pomegranate derives from medieval Latin pōmum "apple" and grānātum "seeded". Perhaps stemming from the old French word for the fruit, pomme-grenade, the pomegranate was known in early English as "apple of Grenada" - a term which today survives only in heraldic blazons. This is a folk etymology, confusing Latin granatus with the name of the Spanish city of Granada, which derives from Arabic.

 

Garnet derives from Old French grenat by metathesis, from Medieval Latin granatum as used in a different meaning "of a dark red color". This derivation may have originated from pomum granatum describing the color of pomegranate pulp or from granum referring to "red dye, cochineal".

 

The French term for pomegranate, grenade, has given its name to the military grenade.

 

DESCRIPTION

A shrub or small tree growing 6 to 10 m high, the pomegranate has multiple spiny branches, and is extremely long-lived, with some specimens in France surviving for 200 years. P. granatum leaves are opposite or subopposite, glossy, narrow oblong, entire, 3–7 cm long and 2 cm broad. The flowers are bright red and 3 cm in diameter, with three to seven petals. Some fruitless varieties are grown for the flowers alone.

 

The edible fruit is a berry, intermediate in size between a lemon and a grapefruit, 5–12 cm in diameter with a rounded shape and thick, reddish skin. The number of seeds in a pomegranate can vary from 200 to about 1400. Each seed has a surrounding water-laden pulp — the edible sarcotesta that forms from the seed coat — ranging in color from white to deep red or purple. The seeds are "exarillate", i.e., unlike some other species in the order, Myrtales, no aril is present. The sarcotesta of pomegranate seeds consists of epidermis cells derived from the integument. The seeds are embedded in a white, spongy, astringent membrane.

 

CULTIVATION

P. granatum is grown for its fruit crop, and as ornamental trees and shrubs in parks and gardens. Mature specimens can develop sculptural twisted-bark multiple trunks and a distinctive overall form. Pomegranates are drought-tolerant, and can be grown in dry areas with either a Mediterranean winter rainfall climate or in summer rainfall climates. In wetter areas, they can be prone to root decay from fungal diseases. They can be tolerant of moderate frost, down to about −12 °C.

 

Insect pests of the pomegranate can include the pomegranate butterfly Virachola isocrates and the leaf-footed bug Leptoglossus zonatus, and fruit flies and ants are attracted to unharvested ripe fruit. Pomegranate grows easily from seed, but is commonly propagated from 25– to 50-cm hardwood cuttings to avoid the genetic variation of seedlings. Air layering is also an option for propagation, but grafting fails.

 

VARIETIES

P. granatum var. nana is a dwarf variety of P. granatum popularly planted as an ornamental plant in gardens and larger containers, and used as a bonsai specimen tree. It could well be a wild form with a distinct origin. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. The only other species in the genus Punica is the Socotran pomegranate (P. protopunica), which is endemic to the island of Socotra. It differs in having pink (not red) flowers and smaller, less sweet fruit.

 

CULTIVARS

P. granatum has more than 500 named cultivars, but evidently has considerable synonymy in which the same genotype is named differently across regions of the world.[15]

 

Several characteristics between pomegranate genotypes vary for identification, consumer preference, preferred use, and marketing, the most important of which are fruit size, exocarp color (ranging from yellow to purple, with pink and red most common), seed-coat color (ranging from white to red), hardness of seed, maturity, juice content and its acidity, sweetness, and astringency.

 

CULTURAL HISTORY

Pomegranate is native to a region from Iran to northern India. Pomegranates have been cultivated throughout the Middle East, South Asia, and Mediterranean region for several millennia, and also thrive in the drier climates of California and Arizona.

 

Carbonized exocarp of the fruit has been identified in early Bronze Age levels of Jericho in the West Bank, as well as late Bronze Age levels of Hala Sultan Tekke on Cyprus and Tiryns.[citation needed] A large, dry pomegranate was found in the tomb of Djehuty, the butler of Queen Hatshepsut in Egypt; Mesopotamian cuneiform records mention pomegranates from the mid-third millennium BC onwards.

 

It is also extensively grown in South China and in Southeast Asia, whether originally spread along the route of the Silk Road or brought by sea traders. Kandahar is famous in Afghanistan for its high-quality pomegranates.

 

Although not native to Korea or Japan, the pomegranate is widely grown there and many cultivars have been developed. It is widely used for bonsai because of its flowers and for the unusual twisted bark the older specimens can attain. The term "balaustine" (Latin: balaustinus) is also used for a pomegranate-red color.

 

The ancient city of Granada in Spain was renamed after the fruit during the Moorish period and today the province of Granada uses pomegranate as a charge in heraldry for its canting arms.

 

Spanish colonists later introduced the fruit to the Caribbean and America (Spanish America), but in the English colonies, it was less at home: "Don't use the pomegranate inhospitably, a stranger that has come so far to pay his respects to thee," the English Quaker Peter Collinson wrote to the botanizing John Bartram in Philadelphia, 1762. "Plant it against the side of thy house, nail it close to the wall. In this manner it thrives wonderfully with us, and flowers beautifully, and bears fruit this hot year. I have twenty-four on one tree... Doctor Fothergill says, of all trees this is most salutiferous to mankind."

 

The pomegranate had been introduced as an exotic to England the previous century, by John Tradescant the elder, but the disappointment that it did not set fruit there led to its repeated introduction to the American colonies, even New England. It succeeded in the South: Bartram received a barrel of pomegranates and oranges from a correspondent in Charleston, South Carolina, 1764. John Bartram partook of "delitious" pomegranates with Noble Jones at Wormsloe Plantation, near Savannah, Georgia, in September 1765. Thomas Jefferson planted pomegranates at Monticello in 1771: he had them from George Wythe of Williamsburg.

 

CULINARY USE

After the pomegranate is opened by scoring it with a knife and breaking it open, the seeds are separated from the peel and internal white pulp membranes. Separating the seeds is easier in a bowl of water because the seeds sink and the inedible pulp floats. Freezing the entire fruit also makes it easier to separate. Another effective way of quickly harvesting the seeds is to cut the pomegranate in half, score each half of the exterior rind four to six times, hold the pomegranate half over a bowl, and smack the rind with a large spoon. The seeds should eject from the pomegranate directly into the bowl, leaving only a dozen or more deeply embedded seeds to remove. The entire seed is consumed raw, though the watery, tasty sarcotesta is the desired part. The taste differs depending on the variety or cultivar of pomegranate and its ripeness.

 

Pomegranate juice can be sweet or sour, but most fruits are moderate in taste, with sour notes from the acidic tannins contained in the juice. Pomegranate juice has long been a popular drink in Europe, the Middle East and is now widely distributed in the United States and Canada.

 

Grenadine syrup long ago consisted of thickened and sweetened pomegranate juice, now is usually a sales name for a syrup based on various berries, citric acid, and food coloring, mainly used in cocktail mixing. In Europe, Bols still manufactures grenadine syrup with pomegranate. Before tomatoes, a New World fruit, arrived in the Middle East, pomegranate juice, molasses, and vinegar were widely used in many Iranian foods, and are still found in traditional recipes such as fesenjān, a thick sauce made from pomegranate juice and ground walnuts, usually spooned over duck or other poultry and rice, and in ash-e anar (pomegranate soup).

 

Pomegranate seeds are used as a spice known as anardana (from Persian: anar + dana‎‎, pomegranate + seed), most notably in Indian and Pakistani cuisine. Dried whole seeds can often be obtained in ethnic Indian subcontinent markets. These seeds are separated from the flesh, dried for 10–15 days, and used as an acidic agent for chutney and curry preparation. Ground anardana is also used, which results in a deeper flavoring in dishes and prevents the seeds from getting stuck in teeth. Seeds of the wild pomegranate variety known as daru from the Himalayas are regarded as quality sources for this spice.

 

Dried pomegranate seeds, found in some natural specialty food markets, still contain some residual water, maintaining a natural sweet and tart flavor. Dried seeds can be used in several culinary applications, such as trail mix, granola bars, or as a topping for salad, yogurt, or ice cream.

 

In the Caucasus, pomegranate is used mainly for juice. In Azerbaijan, a sauce from pomegranate juice narsharab, (from Persian: (a)nar + sharab‎‎, lit. "pomegranate wine") is usually served with fish or tika kabab. In Turkey, pomegranate sauce (Turkish: nar ekşisi) is used as a salad dressing, to marinate meat, or simply to drink straight. Pomegranate seeds are also used in salads and sometimes as garnish for desserts such as güllaç. Pomegranate syrup or molasses is used in muhammara, a roasted red pepper, walnut, and garlic spread popular in Syria and Turkey.

 

In Greece, pomegranate (Greek: ρόδι, rodi) is used in many recipes, including kollivozoumi, a creamy broth made from boiled wheat, pomegranates, and raisins, legume salad with wheat and pomegranate, traditional Middle Eastern lamb kebabs with pomegranate glaze, pomegranate eggplant relish, and avocado-pomegranate dip. Pomegranate is also made into a liqueur, and as a popular fruit confectionery used as ice cream topping, mixed with yogurt, or spread as jam on toast. In Cyprus and Greece, and among the Greek Orthodox Diaspora, ρόδι (Greek for pomegranate) is used to make koliva, a mixture of wheat, pomegranate seeds, sugar, almonds, and other seeds served at memorial services.

 

In Mexico, they are commonly used to adorn the traditional dish chiles en nogada, representing the red of the Mexican flag in the dish which evokes the green (poblano pepper), white (nogada sauce) and red (pomegranate seeds) tricolor.

 

IN TRADITIONAL MEDICINE

In the Indian subcontinent's ancient Ayurveda system of traditional medicine, the pomegranate is frequently described as an ingredient in remedies.

 

In folk medicine pomegranate has been thought a contraceptive and abortifacient when the seeds or rind are eaten, or when as a vaginal suppository.

 

NUTRITION

A 100-g serving of pomegranate seeds provides 12% of the Daily Value (DV) for vitamin C, 16% DV for vitamin K and 10% DV for folate (table).

 

Pomegranate seeds are an excellent source of dietary fiber (20% DV) which is entirely contained in the edible seeds. People who choose to discard the seeds forfeit nutritional benefits conveyed by the seed fiber and micronutrients.

 

Pomegranate seed oil contains punicic acid (65.3%), palmitic acid (4.8%), stearic acid (2.3%), oleic acid (6.3%), and linoleic acid (6.6%).

 

RESEARCH

JUICE

The most abundant phytochemicals in pomegranate juice are polyphenols, including the hydrolyzable tannins called ellagitannins formed when ellagic acid and/or gallic acid binds with a carbohydrate to form pomegranate ellagitannins, also known as punicalagins.

 

The red color of juice can be attributed to anthocyanins, such as delphinidin, cyanidin, and pelargonidin glycosides. Generally, an increase in juice pigmentation occurs during fruit ripening.

 

The phenolic content of pomegranate juice is adversely affected by processing and pasteurization techniques.

 

PEEL

Compared to the pulp, the inedible pomegranate peel contains as much as three times the total amount of polyphenols, including condensed tannins, catechins, gallocatechins and prodelphinidins.

 

The higher phenolic content of the peel yields extracts for use in dietary supplements and food preservatives.

Health claims

 

Despite limited research data, manufacturers and marketers of pomegranate juice have liberally used evolving research results for product promotion. In February 2010, the FDA issued a Warning Letter to one such manufacturer, POM Wonderful, for using published literature to make illegal claims of unproven anti-disease benefits.

 

SYMBOLISM

ANCIENT EGYPT

Ancient Egyptians regarded the pomegranate as a symbol of prosperity and ambition. According to the Ebers Papyrus, one of the oldest medical writings from around 1500 BC, Egyptians used the pomegranate for treatment of tapeworm and other infections.

 

ANCIENT GREECE

The Greeks were familiar with the fruit far before it was introduced to Rome via Carthage. In Ancient Greek mythology, the pomegranate was known as the "fruit of the dead", and believed to have sprung from the blood of Adonis.

 

The myth of Persephone, the goddess of the underworld, prominently features the pomegranate. In one version of Greek mythology, Persephone was kidnapped by Hades and taken off to live in the underworld as his wife. Her mother, Demeter (goddess of the Harvest), went into mourning for her lost daughter, thus all green things ceased to grow. Zeus, the highest-ranking of the Greek gods, could not allow the Earth to die, so he commanded Hades to return Persephone. It was the rule of the Fates that anyone who consumed food or drink in the underworld was doomed to spend eternity there. Persephone had no food, but Hades tricked her into eating six pomegranate seeds while she was still his prisoner, so she was condemned to spend six months in the underworld every year. During these six months, while Persephone sits on the throne of the underworld beside her husband Hades, her mother Demeter mourns and no longer gives fertility to the earth. This was an ancient Greek explanation for the seasons. Dante Gabriel Rossetti's painting Persephona depicts Persephone holding the fatal fruit. The number of seeds Persephone ate varies, depending on which version of the story is told. The number ranges from three to seven, which accounts for just one barren season if it is just three or four seeds, or two barren seasons (half the year) if she ate six or seven seeds.

 

The pomegranate also evoked the presence of the Aegean Triple Goddess who evolved into the Olympian Hera, who is sometimes represented offering the pomegranate, as in the Polykleitos' cult image of the Argive Heraion (see below). According to Carl A. P. Ruck and Danny Staples, the chambered pomegranate is also a surrogate for the poppy's narcotic capsule, with its comparable shape and chambered interior. On a Mycenaean seal illustrated in Joseph Campbell's Occidental Mythology 1964, figure 19, the seated Goddess of the double-headed axe (the labrys) offers three poppy pods in her right hand and supports her breast with her left. She embodies both aspects of the dual goddess, life-giving and death-dealing at once. The Titan Orion was represented as "marrying" Side, a name that in Boeotia means "pomegranate", thus consecrating the primal hunter to the Goddess. Other Greek dialects call the pomegranate rhoa; its possible connection with the name of the earth goddess Rhea, inexplicable in Greek, proved suggestive for the mythographer Karl Kerenyi, who suggested the consonance might ultimately derive from a deeper, pre-Indo-European language layer.

 

In the 5th century BC, Polycleitus took ivory and gold to sculpt the seated Argive Hera in her temple. She held a scepter in one hand and offered a pomegranate, like a 'royal orb', in the other. "About the pomegranate I must say nothing," whispered the traveller Pausanias in the 2nd century, "for its story is somewhat of a holy mystery." In the Orion story, Hera cast pomegranate-Side (an ancient city in Antalya) into dim Erebus — "for daring to rival Hera's beauty", which forms the probable point of connection with the older Osiris/Isis story.[citation needed] Since the ancient Egyptians identified the Orion constellation in the sky as Sah the "soul of Osiris", the identification of this section of the myth seems relatively complete. Hera wears, not a wreath nor a tiara nor a diadem, but clearly the calyx of the pomegranate that has become her serrated crown.[citation needed] The pomegranate has a calyx shaped like a crown. In Jewish tradition, it has been seen as the original "design" for the proper crown. In some artistic depictions, the pomegranate is found in the hand of Mary, mother of Jesus.

 

A pomegranate is displayed on coins from the ancient city of Side, Pamphylia.

 

Within the Heraion at the mouth of the Sele, near Paestum, Magna Graecia, is a chapel devoted to the Madonna del Granato, "Our Lady of the Pomegranate", "who by virtue of her epithet and the attribute of a pomegranate must be the Christian successor of the ancient Greek goddess Hera", observes the excavator of the Heraion of Samos, Helmut Kyrieleis.

 

In modern times, the pomegranate still holds strong symbolic meanings for the Greeks. On important days in the Greek Orthodox calendar, such as the Presentation of the Virgin Mary and on Christmas Day, it is traditional to have at the dinner table polysporia, also known by their ancient name panspermia, in some regions of Greece. In ancient times, they were offered to Demeter[citation needed] and to the other gods for fertile land, for the spirits of the dead and in honor of compassionate Dionysus.[citation needed] When one buys a new home, it is conventional for a house guest to bring as a first gift a pomegranate, which is placed under/near the ikonostasi (home altar) of the house, as a symbol of abundance, fertility, and good luck. Pomegranates are also prominent at Greek weddings and funerals.[citation needed] When Greeks commemorate their dead, they make kollyva as offerings, which consist of boiled wheat, mixed with sugar and decorated with pomegranate. It is also traditional in Greece to break a pomegranate on the ground at weddings and on New Years. Pomegranate decorations for the home are very common in Greece and sold in most home goods stores.

 

ANCIENT ISRAEL AND JUDAISM

Pomegranates were known in Ancient Israel as the fruits which the scouts brought to Moses to demonstrate the fertility of the "promised land". The Book of Exodus describes the me'il ("robe of the ephod") worn by the Hebrew high priest as having pomegranates embroidered on the hem alternating with golden bells which could be heard as the high priest entered and left the Holy of Holies. According to the Books of Kings, the capitals of the two pillars (Jachin and Boaz) that stood in front of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem were engraved with pomegranates. Solomon is said to have designed his coronet based on the pomegranate's "crown" (calyx).

 

It is traditional to consume pomegranates on Rosh Hashana because, with its numerous seeds, it symbolizes fruitfulness. Also, it is said to have 613 seeds, which corresponds with the 613 mitzvot or commandments of the Torah.[61] This particular tradition is referred to in the opening pages of Ursula Dubosarsky's novel Theodora's Gift.

 

The pomegranate appeared on the ancient coins of Judea. When not in use, the handles of Torah scrolls are sometimes covered with decorative silver globes similar in shape to "pomegranates" (rimmonim). Some Jewish scholars believe the pomegranate was the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.[60] Pomegranates are one of the Seven Species (Hebrew: שבעת המינים, Shiv'at Ha-Minim) of fruits and grains enumerated in the Hebrew Bible (Deuteronomy 8:8) as being special products of the Land of Israel. The pomegranate is mentioned in the Bible many times, including this quote from the Songs of Solomon, "Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely: thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within thy locks." (Song of Solomon 4:3). Pomegranates also symbolize the mystical experience in the Jewish mystical tradition, or kabbalah, with the typical reference being to entering the "garden of pomegranates" or pardes rimonim; this is also the title of a book by the 16th-century mystic Moses ben Jacob Cordovero.

 

IN EUROPEAN CHRISTIAN MOTIFS

In the earliest incontrovertible appearance of Christ in a mosaic, a 4th-century floor mosaic from Hinton St Mary, Dorset, now in the British Museum, the bust of Christ and the chi rho are flanked by pomegranates. Pomegranates continue to be a motif often found in Christian religious decoration. They are often woven into the fabric of vestments and liturgical hangings or wrought in metalwork. Pomegranates figure in many religious paintings by the likes of Sandro Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci, often in the hands of the Virgin Mary or the infant Jesus. The fruit, broken or bursting open, is a symbol of the fullness of Jesus' suffering and resurrection.

 

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, pomegranate seeds may be used in kolyva, a dish prepared for memorial services, as a symbol of the sweetness of the heavenly kingdom.

 

IN THE QUR´AN

According to the Qur'an, pomegranates grow in the gardens of paradise (55:68). The Qur'an also mentions pomegranates three times.(6:99, 6:141, 55:68)

 

AFGHANISTAN

Pomegranate, a favorite fall and winter fruit in Afghanistan, has mainly two varieties: one that is sweet and dark red with hard seeds growing in and around Kandhar province, and the other that has soft seeds with variable color growing in the central/northern region. The largest market for Afghan pomegranates is India followed by Pakistan, Russia, United Arab Emirates and Europe.

 

ARMENIA

The pomegranate is one of the main fruits in Armenian culture (the others being apricot and grapes). Its juice is famous with Armenians in food and heritage. The pomegranate is the symbol of Armenia and represents fertility, abundance and marriage. For example, the fruit played an integral role in a wedding custom widely practiced in ancient Armenia: a bride was given a pomegranate fruit, which she threw against a wall, breaking it into pieces. Scattered pomegranate seeds ensured the bride future children. In Karabakh, it was customary to put fruits next to the bridal couple during the first night of marriage, among them the pomegranate, which was said to ensure happiness. It is likely that newlyweds also enjoyed pomegranate wine. The symbolism of the pomegranate is that it protected a woman from infertility and protected a man's virility. Both homemade and commercial wine is made from pomegranate in Armenia. The Color of Pomegranates (1969) is a movie directed by Sergei Parajanov. It is a biography of the Armenian ashug Sayat-Nova (King of Song) which attempts to reveal the poet's life visually and poetically rather than literally.

 

AZERBAIJAN

Pomegranate is considered one of the symbols of Azerbaijan. Annually in October, a cultural festival is held in Goychay, Azerbaijan known as the Goychay Pomegranate Festival. The festival features Azerbaijani fruit-cuisine mainly the pomegranates from Goychay, which is famous for its pomegranate growing industry. At the festival, a parade is held with traditional Azerbaijani dances and Azerbaijani music. Pomegranate was depicted on the official logo of the 2015 European Games held in Azerbaijan. Nar the Pomegranate was one of the two mascots of these games. Pomegranates also featured on the jackets worn by Azerbaijani male athletes at the games' opening ceremony.

 

IRAN AND ANCIENT PERSIA

Pomegranate was the symbol of fertility in ancient Persian culture.[citation needed] In Persian mythology, Isfandiyar eats a pomegranate and becomes invincible. In the Greco-Persian Wars, Herodotus mentions golden pomegranates adorning the spears of warriors in the phalanx. Even in today's Iran, pomegranate may imply love and fertility.

 

Iran produces pomegranates as a common crop.[citation needed] Its juice and paste have a role in some Iranian cuisines, e.g. chicken, ghormas and refreshment bars. Pomegranate skins may be used to stain wool and silk in the carpet industry.

 

Pomegranate Festival is an annual cultural and artistic festival held during October in Tehran[citation needed] to exhibit and sell pomegranates, food products and handicrafts.

 

PAKISTAN

The pomegranate (known as "anār" in Urdu) is a popular fruit in Pakistan. It is grown in Pakistan and is also imported from Afghanistan.

 

INDIA

In some Hindu traditions, the pomegranate (Hindi: anār) symbolizes prosperity and fertility, and is associated with both Bhoomidevi (the earth goddess) and Lord Ganesha (the one fond of the many-seeded fruit). The Tamil name maadulampazham is a metaphor for a woman's mind. It is derived from, maadhu=woman, ullam=mind, which means as the seeds are hidden, it is not easy to decipher a woman's mind.

 

CHINA

Introduced to China during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), the pomegranate (Chinese: 石榴; pinyin: shíliu) in olden times was considered an emblem of fertility and numerous progeny. This symbolism is a pun on the Chinese character 子 (zǐ) which, as well as meaning seed, also means "offspring" thus a fruit containing so many seeds is a sign of fecundity. Pictures of the ripe fruit with the seeds bursting forth were often hung in homes to bestow fertility and bless the dwelling with numerous offspring, an important facet of traditional Chinese culture.

 

WIKIPEDIA

  

#AbFav_The_COLOUR_GREEN_🍀

#AbFav_PHOTOSTORY

 

Not all from my garden, most from my travels.

All the plants had a name tag... except this one!

Hydrangea, the name, comes from the Greek words "hydro" or water, and "angeion," or vase = water vase, they prefer a lot of water.

 

A very ancient plant, found in fossils going back thousands of years.

 

In most species the flowers are white, but in some species (notably H. macrophylla), they are blue, red, pink, light purple, or dark purple.

 

In these species the colour is affected by the presence of aluminium ions which are available or tied up depending upon the soil’s pH content.

 

For H. macrophylla and H. serrata cultivars, the flower colour can be determined by the relative acidity of the soil: an acidic soil (pH below 7), will have available aluminium ions and typically produce flowers that are blue to purple, whereas an alkaline soil (pH above 7) will tie up aluminium ions and result in pink or red flowers.

 

I wish you all the very best and thank you for all your kind words, time, comments, likes and faves.

 

Very much appreciated. M, (*_*)

 

For more: www.indigo2photography.com

 

IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN (BY LAW!!!) TO USE ANY OF MY image or TEXT on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved

   

Hydrangea, blooms, green, leaves, flowers, garden, Nature, outdoors, colour, "conceptual art", design, studio, colour, black-background, square, "Nikon D7000", "Magda indigo"

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Mariahilferstraße

Mariahilferstraße, 6th, 7th, 14th and 15th, since 1897 (in the 6th and 7th district originally Kremser Sraße, then Bavarian highway, Laimgrubner main road, Mariahilfer main street, Fünfhauserstraße, Schönbrunnerstraße and Penzinger Poststraße, then Schönbrunner Straße), in memory of the old suburb name; Mariahilf was an independent municipality from 1660 to 1850, since then with Gumpendorf, Magdalenengrund, Windmühle and Laimgrube 6th District.

From

aeiou - the cultural information system of the bm: bwk

14,000 key words and 2000 pictures from history, geography, politics and business in Austria

www.aeiou.at

Mariahilferstraße, 1908 - Wien Museum

Mariahilferstraße, 1908

Picture taken from "August Stauda - A documentarian of old Vienna"

published by Christian Brandstätter - to Book Description

History

Pottery and wine

The first ones who demonstrably populated the area of ​​today's Mariahilferstraße (after the mammoth) were the Illyrians. They took advantage of the rich clay deposits for making simple vessels. The Celts planted on the sunny hills the first grape vines and understood the wine-making process very well. When the Romans occupied at the beginning of our Era Vienna for several centuries, they left behind many traces. The wine culture of the Celts they refined. On the hill of today's Mariahilferstraße run a Roman ridge trail, whose origins lay in the camp of Vindobona. After the rule of the Romans, the migration of peoples temporarily led many cultures here until after the expulsion of the Avars Bavarian colonists came from the West.

The peasant Middle Ages - From the vineyard to the village

Thanks to the loamy soil formed the winery, which has been pushed back only until the development of the suburbs, until the mid-17th Century the livelihood of the rural population. "Im Schöff" but also "Schöpf - scoop" and "Schiff - ship" (from "draw of") the area at the time was called. The erroneous use of a ship in the seal of the district is reminiscent of the old name, which was then replaced by the picture of grace "Mariahilf". The Weinberg (vineyard) law imposed at that time that the ground rent in the form of mash on the spot had to be paid. This was referred to as a "draw".

1495 the Mariahilfer wine was added to the wine disciplinary regulations for Herrenweine (racy, hearty, fruity, pithy wine with pleasant acidity) because of its special quality and achieved high prices.

1529 The first Turkish siege

Mariahilferstraße, already than an important route to the West, was repeatedly the scene of historical encounters. When the Turks besieged Vienna for the first time, was at the lower end of today Mariahilferstrasse, just outside the city walls of Vienna, a small settlement of houses and cottages, gardens and fields. Even the St. Theobald Monastery was there. This so-called "gap" was burned at the approach of the Turks, for them not to offer hiding places at the siege. Despite a prohibition, the area was rebuilt after departure of the Turks.

1558, a provision was adopted so that the glacis, a broad, unobstructed strip between the city wall and the outer settlements, should be left free. The Glacis existed until the demolition of the city walls in 1858. Here the ring road was later built.

1663 The new Post Road

With the new purpose of the Mariahilferstrasse as post road the first three roadside inn houses were built. At the same time the travel increased, since the carriages were finally more comfortable and the roads safer. Two well-known expressions date from this period. The "tip" and "kickbacks". In the old travel handbooks of that time we encounter them as guards beside the route, the travel and baggage tariff. The tip should the driver at the rest stop pay for the drink, while the bribe was calculated in proportion to the axle grease. Who was in a hurry, just paid a higher lubricant (Schmiergeld) or tip to motivate the coachman.

1683 The second Turkish siege

The second Turkish siege brought Mariahilferstraße the same fate. Meanwhile, a considerable settlement was formed, a real suburb, which, however, still had a lot of fields and brick pits. Again, the suburb along the Mariahilferstraße was razed to the ground, the population sought refuge behind the walls or in the Vienna Woods. The reconstruction progressed slowly since there was a lack of funds and manpower. Only at the beginning of the 18th Century took place a targeted reconstruction.

1686 Palais Esterhazy

On several "Brandstetten", by the second Turkish siege destroyed houses, the Hungarian aristocratic family Esterhazy had built herself a simple palace, which also had a passage on the Mariahilferstrasse. 1764 bought the innkeeper Paul Winkelmayr from Spittelberg the building, demolished it and built two new buildings that have been named in accordance with the Esterhazy "to the Hungarian crown."

17th Century to 19th Century. Fom the village to suburb

With the development of the settlements on the Mariahilferstraße from village to suburbs, changed not only the appearance but also the population. More and more agricultural land fell victim to the development, craftsmen and tradesmen settled there. There was an incredible variety of professions and trades, most of which were organized into guilds or crafts. Those cared for vocational training, quality and price of the goods, and in cases of unemployment, sickness and death.

The farms were replaced by churches and palaces, houses and shops. Mariahilf changed into a major industrial district, Mariahilferstrasse was an important trading center. Countless street traders sold the goods, which they carried either with them, or put in a street stall on display. The dealers made themselves noticeable by a significant Kaufruf (purchase call). So there was the ink man who went about with his bottles, the Wasserbauer (hydraulic engineering) who sold Danube water on his horse-drawn vehicle as industrial water, or the lavender woman. This lovely Viennese figures disappeared with the emergence of fixed premises and the improvement of urban transport.

Private carriages, horse-drawn carriages and buggies populated the streets, who used this route also for trips. At Mariahilferplatz Linientor (gate) was the main stand of the cheapest and most popular means of transport, the Zeiselwagen, which the Wiener used for their excursions into nature, which gradually became fashionable. In the 19th Century then yet arrived the Stellwagen (carriage) and bus traffic which had to accomplish the connection between Vienna and the suburbs. As a Viennese joke has it, suggests the Stellwagen that it has been so called because it did not come from the spot.

1719 - 1723 Royal and Imperial Court Stables

Emperor Charles VI. gave the order for the construction of the stables to Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. 1772 the building was extended by two houses on the Mariahilferstrasse. The size of the stables still shows, as it serves as the Museum Quarter - its former importance. The Mariahilferstraße since the building of Schönbrunn Palace by the Imperial court very strongly was frequented. Today in the historic buildings the Museum Quarter is housed.

The church and monastery of Maria Hülff

Coloured engraving by J. Ziegler, 1783

1730 Mariahilferkirche

1711 began the renovation works at the Mariahilferkirche, giving the church building today's appearance and importance as a baroque monument. The plans stem from Franziskus Jänkl, the foreman of Lukas von Hildebrandt. Originally stood on the site of the Mariahilferkirche in the medieval vineyard "In Schoeff" a cemetery with wooden chapel built by the Barnabites. Already in those days, the miraculous image Mariahilf was located therein. During the Ottoman siege the chapel was destroyed, the miraculous image could be saved behind the protective walls. After the provisional reconstruction the miraculous image in a triumphal procession was returned, accompanied by 30,000 Viennese.

1790 - 1836 Ferdinand Raimund

Although in the district Mariahilf many artists and historical figures of Vienna lived , it is noticeable that as a residence they rather shunned the Mariahilferstraße, because as early as in the 18th Century there was a very lively and loud bustle on the street. The most famous person who was born on the Mariahilferstrasse is the folk actor and dramatist Ferdinand Raimund. He came in the house No. 45, "To the Golden deer (Zum Goldenen Hirschen)", which still exists today, as son of a turner into the world. As confectioners apprentice, he also had to visit the theaters, where he was a so-called "Numero", who sold his wares to the visitors. This encounter with the theater was fateful. He took flight from his training masters and joined a traveling troupe as an actor. After his return to Vienna, he soon became the most popular comedian. In his plays all those figures appeared then bustling the streets of Vienna. His most famous role was that of the "ash man" in "Farmer as Millionaire", a genuine Viennese guy who brings the wood ash in Butte from the houses, and from the proceeds leading a modest existence.

1805 - 1809 French occupation

The two-time occupation of Vienna by the French hit the suburbs hard. But the buildings were not destroyed fortunately.

19th century Industrialization

Here, where a higher concentration of artisans had developed as in other districts, you could feel the competition of the factories particularly hard. A craftsman after another became factory worker, women and child labor was part of the day-to-day business. With the sharp rise of the population grew apartment misery and flourished bed lodgers and roomers business.

1826

The Mariahilferstraße is paved up to the present belt (Gürtel).

1848 years of the revolution

The Mariahilferstraße this year was in turmoil. At the outbreak of the revolution, the hatred of the people was directed against the Verzehrungssteuerämter (some kind of tax authority) at the lines that have been blamed for the rise of food prices, and against the machines in the factories that had made the small craftsmen out of work or dependent workers. In October, students, workers and citizens tore up paving stones and barricaded themselves in the Mariahilfer Linientor (the so-called Linienwall was the tax frontier) in the area of ​​today's belt.

1858 The Ring Road

The city walls fell and on the glacis arose the ring-road, the now 6th District more closely linking to the city center.

1862 Official naming

The Mariahilferstraße received its to the present day valid name, after it previously was bearing the following unofficial names: "Bavarian country road", "Mariahilfer Grund Straße", "Penzinger Street", "Laimgrube main street" and "Schönbrunner Linienstraße".

The turn of the century: development to commercial street

After the revolution of 1848, the industry displaced the dominant small business rapidly. At the same time the Mariahilferstraße developed into the first major shopping street of Vienna. The rising supply had to be passed on to the customer, and so more and more new shops sprang up. Around the turn of the century broke out a real building boom. The low suburban houses with Baroque and Biedermeier facade gave way to multi-storey houses with flashy and ostentatious facades in that historic style mixture, which was so characteristic of the late Ringstrasse period. From the former historic buildings almost nothing remained. The business portals were bigger and more pompous, the first department stores in the modern style were Gerngross and Herzmansky. Especially the clothing industry took root here.

1863 Herzmansky opened

On 3 March opened August Herzmansky a small general store in the Church Lane (Kirchengasse) 4. 1897 the great establishment in the pin alley (Stiftgasse) was opened, the largest textile company of the monarchy. August Herzmansky died a year before the opening, two nephews take over the business. In 1928, Mariahilferstraße 28 is additionally acquired. 1938, the then owner Max Delfiner had to flee, the company Rhonberg and Hämmerle took over the house. The building in Mariahilferstrasse 30 additionally was purchased. In the last days of the war in 1945 it fell victim to the flames, however. 1948, the company was returned to Max Delfiner, whose son sold in 1957 to the German Hertie group, a new building in Mariahilferstrasse 26 - 30 constructing. Other ownership changes followed.

1869 The Pferdetramway

The Pferdetramway made it first trip through the Mariahilferstraße to Neubaugasse.

Opened in 1879 Gerngroß

Mariahilferstraße about 1905

Alfred Gerngross, a merchant from Bavaria and co-worker August

Herzmanskys, founded on Mariahilferstrasse 48/corner Church alley (Kirchengasse) an own fabric store. He became the fiercest competitor of his former boss.

1901 The k.k. Imperial Furniture Collection

The k.k. Hofmobilien and material depot is established in Mariahilferstrasse 88. The collection quickly grew because each new ruler got new furniture. Today, it serves as a museum. Among other things, there is the office of Emperor Franz Joseph, the equipment of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico from Miramare Castle, the splendid table of Charles VI. and the furniture from the Oriental Cabinet of Crown Prince Rudolf.

1911 The House Stafa

On 18 August 1911, on the birthday of Emperor Franz Joseph, corner Mariahilferstraße/imperial road (Kaiserstraße) the "central palace" was opened. The construction by its architecture created a sensation. Nine large double figure-relief panels of Anton Hanak decorated it. In this building the "1st Vienna Commercial sample collective department store (Warenmuster-Kollektivkaufhaus)", a eight-storey circular building was located, which was to serve primarily the craft. The greatest adversity in the construction were underground springs. Two dug wells had to be built to pump out the water. 970 liters per minute, however, must be pumped out until today.

1945 bombing of Vienna

On 21 February 1945 bombs fell on the Mariahilferstrasse, many buildings were badly damaged. On 10th April Wiener looted the store Herzmansky. Ella Fasser, the owner of the café "Goethe" in Mariahilferstrasse, preserved the Monastery barracks (Stiftskaserne) from destruction, with the help other resistance fighters cutting the fire-conducting cords that had laid the retreating German troops. Meanwhile, she invited the officers to the cafe, and befuddled them with plenty of alcohol.

www.wien-vienna.at/blickpunkte.php?ID=582

 

French postcard, no. 32. Photo: Tony Frank (Sigma).

 

Belgian-Portuguese singer Lio (1962) had a huge success in 1979 in France and Belgium with her song 'Banana Split'. With more than 1 million singles sold, it became one of the most popular hits in French-language music of the 1980s. She had further pop hits with 'Amoureux solitaires' (1980), 'Amicalement votre' (1981) and 'Mona Lisa' (1982). She also appeared in several French films.

 

Lio was born as Vanda Maria Ribeiro Furtado Tavares de Vasconcelos in 1962 in Mangualde, a small town in Portugal. Her parents were politically left-wing, and Lio has remained true to this social vision. Her parents divorced and, in 1968, Vanda moved with her mother and new stepfather to Brussels, Belgium, where her sister, actress Helena Noguerra, was born. In her teens, she was determined to become a singer, and she was encouraged by singer-songwriter Jacques Duvall (né Eric Verwilghem), a family friend. She took her stage name, Lio, from a character in the Barbarella comic books by Jean-Claude Forest. Lio is a lolitesque teenager that Barbarella must save from the bad guys. In 1979, together with songwriter Jay Alanski, she and Duvall began working with Marc Moulin and Dan Lacksman from the electro-trio Telex. According to Dutch Wikipedia, she owed her record deal to the Belgian tax laws, which obliged her music company to take on Belgian artists as well. To the amazement of everyone, including Lio herself, her song 'Banana Split (1979)' became a big hit in Belgium and France. 'The follow-up 'Amoureux solitaires' (1980), a song originally by punk rock band Stinky Toys, also became a hit in the Netherlands. Moulin and Lacksman also produced her self-titled first album which estabilished Lio as the perfect European Electro Pop starlet. Other songs like 'Amicalement votre' (1981) and 'Mona Lisa' (1982). also sold well. Lio has, in her own words, "a voice with a high acidity content". Her repertoire meets this requirement by its lack of sentimentality, which is quite exceptional in French light music. In 1982 the American music duo Ron and Russell Mael, of Sparks, worked with her on the album Suite sixtine, on which some of her previous songs were translated into English. In 1985, she met record company executive and producer Michel Esteban, of ZE Records. She continued to have hit singles in Europe, including 'Les brunes comptent pas pour des prunes', and travelled to Los Angeles with Esteban to record her next album 'Pop model' (1986). Several of the tracks were co-produced by John Cale, formerly of the Velvet Underground, and the album produced the hits 'Fallait pas commencer', 'Je casse tout ce que je touche'. and 'Chauffeur'. Lio performed four days of concerts at the Olympia of Paris and in 1987, she gave birth to Nubia, the first of her six children.

 

Lio entered the film world in 1983. She played a carefree hairdresser in Golden Eighties (Chantal Akerman, 1986), a lighthearted, humorous French pop musical about the people who work together in a Parisian shopping centre. It was followed by the romantic comedy Elsa, Elsa (Didier Haudepin, 1985) with François Cluzet. Then followed Itinéraire d'un enfant gâté/Itinerary of a Spoiled Child (Claude Lelouch, 1988), the last big hit of the career of Jean-Paul Belmondo. After Lio's album 'Can Can' (1988) flopped, she decided to become a fashion designer. It became a commercial success and from 1988 to 1990 she was allowed to design for Prisunic. In 1990, she stopped designing and resumed making films. She played with Michel Blanc and Jacques Dutronc in the comedy Chambre à part (Jacky Cukier, 1989). Her next films were Jalousie/Jealousy (Kathleen Fonmarty, 1991), the romantic drama Sale come un ange/Dirty Like an Angel (Catherine Breillat, 1991) with Claude Brasseur, and the drama Sans un cri (Jeanne Labrune, 1991). In Après l'amour (Diane Kurys, 1992) she co-starred with Isabelle Huppert and Bernard Giraudeau. Lio also appeared in various men's magazines, such as the French Playboy. In 1991, she recorded her album 'Des fleurs pour un caméléon' which had little more success than 'Can Can'. Around her 30th birthday, Lio decided that it was time to get rid of her babydoll image, but the studios did not agree. She starred in the Spanish film La Madre muerta/The Dead Mother (Juanma Bajo Ulloa, 1993). the French film Personne ne m'aime (Marion Vernoux, 1994) opposite Bernadette Lafont and Bulle Ogier, and the Spanish-French coproduction Niña de tus sueños (Jesús R. Delgado, 1995). Her 1996 album 'Wandatta' was more mature, but the general public was not very interested in her new style. Lio's singing career took an unexpected turn in 1999 with her album 'Lio chante Prévert', with classical chansons based on texts by the French literary great Jacques Prévert. The album received good reviews, and earned Lio some major concerts, in Paris and Spa. In 1999 she also appeared in 50 performances of the French adaptation of 'Seven Brides For Seven Brothers', a musical staged at the Folies Bergère. But her success never became what it was in the 1980s. In 1999 she divorced her husband, singer Zad and also sued him for assault. In 2004, the then 42-year-old Lio published her autobiography 'LIO popmodel' in collaboration with the journalist Gilles Verlant. she released the live album Cœur de rubis in 2004. That year, she also appeared in over 250 performances of the theatre play 'Le Bébé', an adaptation of a book by Marie Darrieussecq staged by Marc Goldberg. She also continued to appear in films such as Pas douce/A Parting Shot (Jeanne Waltz, 2007), Une vieille maîtresse/The Last Mistress (Catherine Breillat, 2007) with Asia Argento, and La robe du soir (Myriam Aziza, 2009). Since 2008, Lio has been a judge on the French "pop idol" show Nouvelle Star. In 2009, she returned to music with the rock band Phantom. In 2011, she became a judge on The Voice Belgique. In the following years, several of Lio's songs, like 'Mona Lisa' (1982) have been rediscovered and used as samples in songs by artists in the Nu-disco, House and EDM genres. Later films include Un poison violent/Love like poison (Katell Quillévéré, 2010) with Michel Galabru, Stars 80 (Frédéric Forestier, Thomas Langmann, 2012) with Richard Anconina, and the TV film Elle m'a sauvée/She saved me (Ionut Teianu, 2022). Her most recent album is 'Lio canta Caymmi' (2018). It consists of half-Portuguese, half-French covers of songs by the Brazilian composer Dorival Caymmi. It was the first time she recorded an entire album in Portuguese, her mother tongue. Lio has six children.

 

Sources: ZE Records, Wikipedia (Dutch and English), and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

A bit early for fall foliage but the color of the water was most striking.

 

Not photoshopped. Such a beautiful aquamarine color (high acidity )

A mummy is a deceased human or an animal whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay further if kept in cool and dry conditions. Some authorities restrict the use of the term to bodies deliberately embalmed with chemicals, but the use of the word to cover accidentally desiccated bodies goes back to at least 1615 AD (See the section Etymology and meaning).

 

Mummies of humans and other animals have been found on every continent, both as a result of natural preservation through unusual conditions, and as cultural artifacts. Over one million animal mummies have been found in Egypt, many of which are cats.

 

In addition to the well-known mummies of ancient Egypt, deliberate mummification was a feature of several ancient cultures in areas of America and Asia with very dry climates. The Spirit Cave mummies of Fallon, Nevada in North America were accurately dated at more than 9,400 years old. Before this discovery, the oldest known deliberate mummy is a child, one of the Chinchorro mummies found in the Camarones Valley, Chile, which dates around 5050 BCE. The oldest known naturally mummified human corpse is a severed head dated as 6,000 years old, found in 1936 CE at the site named Inca Cueva No. 4 in South America.

 

ETYMOLOGY AND MEANING

The English word mummy is derived from medieval Latin mumia, a borrowing of the medieval Arabic word mūmiya (مومياء) and from a Persian word mūm (wax), which meant an embalmed corpse, and as well as the bituminous embalming substance, and also meant "bitumen". The Medieval English term "mummy" was defined as "medical preparation of the substance of mummies", rather than the entire corpse, with Richard Hakluyt in 1599 CE complaining that "these dead bodies are the Mummy which the Phisistians and Apothecaries doe against our willes make us to swallow".

 

THESE SUBSTANCES WERE DEFINED AS MUMMIES

The OED defines a mummy as "the body of a human being or animal embalmed (according to the ancient Egyptian or some analogous method) as a preparation for burial", citing sources from 1615 CE onward. However, Chamber's Cyclopædia and the Victorian zoologist Francis Trevelyan Buckland define a mummy as follows: "A human or animal body desiccated by exposure to sun or air. Also applied to the frozen carcase of an animal imbedded in prehistoric snow".

 

Wasps of the genus Aleiodes are known as "mummy wasps" because they wrap their caterpillar prey as "mummies".

 

HISTORY OF MUMMY STUDIES

While interest in the study of mummies dates as far back as Ptolemaic Greece, most structured scientific study began at the beginning of the 20th century. Prior to this, many rediscovered mummies were sold as curiosities or for use in pseudoscientific novelties such as mummia. The first modern scientific examinations of mummies began in 1901, conducted by professors at the English-language Government School of Medicine in Cairo, Egypt. The first X-ray of a mummy came in 1903, when professors Grafton Elliot Smith and Howard Carter used the only X-ray machine in Cairo at the time to examine the mummified body of Thutmose IV. British chemist Alfred Lucas applied chemical analyses to Egyptian mummies during this same period, which returned many results about the types of substances used in embalming. Lucas also made significant contributions to the analysis of Tutankhamun in 1922.

 

Pathological study of mummies saw varying levels of popularity throughout the 20th century. In 1992, the First World Congress on Mummy Studies was held in Puerto de la Cruz on Tenerife in the Canary Islands. More than 300 scientists attended the Congress to share nearly 100 years of collected data on mummies. The information presented at the meeting triggered a new surge of interest in the subject, with one of the major results being integration of biomedical and bioarchaeological information on mummies with existing databases. This was not possible prior to the Congress due to the unique and highly specialized techniques required to gather such data.

 

In more recent years, CT scanning has become an invaluable tool in the study of mummification by allowing researchers to digitally "unwrap" mummies without risking damage to the body. The level of detail in such scans is so intricate that small linens used in tiny areas such as the nostrils can be digitally reconstructed in 3-D. Such modelling has been utilized to perform digital autopsies on mummies to determine cause of death and lifestyle, such as in the case of Tutankhamun.

 

TYPES

Mummies are typically divided into one of two distinct categories: anthropogenic or spontaneous. Anthropogenic mummies were deliberately created by the living for any number of reasons, the most common being for religious purposes. Spontaneous mummies, such as Ötzi, were created unintentionally due to natural conditions such as extremely dry heat or cold, or anaerobic conditions such as those found in bogs. While most individual mummies exclusively belong to one category or the other, there are examples of both types being connected to a single culture, such as those from the ancient Egyptian culture.

 

EGYPTIAN MUMMIES

The earliest ancient Egyptian mummies were created naturally due to the environment in which they were buried. In the era prior to 3500 BCE, Egyptians buried the dead in pit graves, without regard to social status. Pit graves were often shallow. This characteristic allowed for the hot, dry sand of the desert to dehydrate the bodies, leading to natural mummification.

 

The natural preservation of the dead had a profound effect on ancient Egyptian religion. Deliberate mummification became an integral part of the rituals for the dead beginning as early as the 2nd dynasty (about 3400 BCE). New research of an 11-year study by University of York, Macquarie University and University of Oxford suggests mummification occurred 1,500 years earlier than first thought. Egyptians saw the preservation of the body after death as an important step to living well in the afterlife. As Egypt gained more prosperity, burial practices became a status symbol for the wealthy as well. This cultural hierarchy lead to the creation of elaborate tombs, and more sophisticated methods of embalming.

 

By the 4th dynasty (about 2600 BCE) Egyptian embalmers began to achieve "true mummification" through a process of evisceration, followed by preserving the body in various minerals and oils. Much of this early experimentation with mummification in Egypt is unknown.

 

The few documents that directly describe the mummification process date to the Greco-Roman period. The majority of the papyri that have survived only describe the ceremonial rituals involved in embalming, not the actual surgical processes involved. A text known as The Ritual of Embalming does describe some of the practical logistics of embalming, however, there are only two known copies and each is incomplete. With regards to mummification shown in images, there are apparently also very few. The tomb of Tjay designated TT23, is one of only two known which show the wrapping of a mummy (Riggs 2014).

 

Another text that describes the processes being used in latter periods is Herodotus' Histories. Written in Book 2 of the Histories is one of the most detailed descriptions of the Egyptian mummification process, including the mention of using natron in order to dehydrate corpses for preservation. However, these descriptions are short and fairly vague, leaving scholars to infer the majority of the techniques that were used by studying mummies that have been unearthed.

 

By utilizing current advancements in technology, scientists have been able to uncover a plethora of new information about the techniques used in mummification. A series of CT scans performed on a 2,400-year-old mummy in 2008 revealed a tool that was left inside the cranial cavity of the skull. The tool was a rod, made of an organic material, that was used to break apart the brain to allow it to drain out of the nose. This discovery helped to dispel the claim within Herodotus' works that the rod had been a hook made of iron. Earlier experimentation in 1994 by researchers Bob Brier and Ronald Wade supported these findings. While attempting to replicate Egyptian mummification, Brier and Wade discovered that removal of the brain was much easier when the brain was liquefied and allowed to drain with the help of gravity, as opposed to trying to pull the organ out piece-by-piece with a hook.

 

Through various methods of study over many decades, modern Egyptologists now have an accurate understanding of how mummification was achieved in ancient Egypt. The first and most important step was to halt the process of decomposition, by removing the internal organs and washing out the body with a mix of spices and palm wine. The only organ left behind was the heart, as tradition held the heart was the seat of thought and feeling and would therefore still be needed in the afterlife. After cleansing, the body was then dried out with natron inside the empty body cavity as well as outside on the skin. The internal organs were also dried and either sealed in individual jars, or wrapped to be replaced within the body. This process typically took forty days.

 

After dehydration, the mummy was wrapped in many layers of linen cloth. Within the layers, Egyptian priests placed small amulets to guard the decedent from evil. Once the mummy was completely wrapped, it was coated in a resin in order to keep the threat of moist air away. Resin was also applied to the coffin in order to seal it. The mummy was then sealed within its tomb, alongside the worldly goods that were believed to help aid it in the afterlife.

 

Aspergillus niger has been found in the mummies of ancient Egyptian tombs and can be inhaled when they are disturbed.

 

MUMMIFICATION AND RANK

Mummification is one of the defining customs in ancient Egyptian society for people today. The practice of preserving the human body is believed to be a quintessential feature of Egyptian life. Yet even mummification has a history of development and was accessible to different ranks of society in different ways during different periods. There were at least three different processes of mummification according to Herodotus. They range from "the most perfect" to the method employed by the "poorer classes".

 

"MOST PERFECT" METHOD

The most expensive process was to preserve the body by dehydration and protect against pests, such as insects. Almost all the actions Herodotus described serve one of these two functions.

 

First, the brain was removed by passing an iron hook through the nose into the cranium and retracting it by the same pathway; the gray matter was discarded. Modern mummy excavations have shown that instead of an iron hook inserted through the nose as Herodotus claims, a rod was used to liquefy the brain via the cranium, which then drained out the nose by gravity. The embalmers then rinsed the skull with certain drugs that mostly cleared any residue of brain tissue and also had the effect of killing bacteria. Next, the embalmers made an incision along the flank with a sharp blade fashioned from an Ethiopian stone and removed the contents of the abdomen. Herodotus does not discuss the separate preservation of these organs and their placement either in special jars or back in the cavity, a process that was part of the most expensive embalming, according to archaeological evidence.

 

The abdominal cavity was then rinsed with palm wine and an infusion of crushed, fragrant herbs and spices; the cavity was then filled with spices including myrrh, cassia, and, Herodotus notes, "every other sort of spice except frankincense," also to preserve the person.

 

The body was further dehydrated by placing it in natron, a naturally occurring salt, for seventy days. Herodotus insists that the body did not stay in the natron longer than seventy days. Any shorter time and the body is not completely dehydrated; any longer, and the body is too stiff to move into position for wrapping. The embalmers then wash the body again and wrapped it with linen bandages. The bandages were covered with a gum that modern research has shown is both waterproofing agent and an antimicrobial agent.

 

At this point, the body was given back to the family. These "perfect" mummies were then placed in wooden cases that were human-shaped. Richer people placed these wooden cases in stone sarcophagi that provided further protection. The family placed the sarcophagus in the tomb upright against the wall, according to Herodotus.

 

AVOIDING EXPENSE

The second process that Herodotus describes was used by middle-class people or people who "wish to avoid expense". In this method, an oil derived from cedar trees was injected with a syringe into the abdomen. A rectal plug prevented the oil from escaping. This oil probably had the dual purpose of liquefying the internal organs, but also of disinfecting the abdominal cavity. (By liquefying the organs, the family avoided the expense of canopic jars and separate preservation). The body was then placed in natron for seventy days. At the end of this time, the body was removed and the cedar oil, now containing the liquefied organs, was drained through the rectum. With the body dehydrated, it could be returned to the family. Herodotus does not describe the process of burial of such mummies, but they were perhaps placed in a shaft tomb. Poorer people used coffins fashioned from terracotta.

 

INEXPENSIVE METHOD

The third and least-expensive method the embalmers offered was to clear the intestines with an unnamed liquid, injected as an enema. The body was then placed in natron for seventy days and returned to the family. Herodotus gives no further details.

 

CHRISTIAN MUMMIES

In Christian tradition some bodies of Saints are naturally conserved, and venerated.

 

MUMMIFICATION IN OTHER CULTURES

AFRICA

In addition to the mummies of Egypt, there have been instances of mummies being discovered in other areas of the African continent. The bodies show a mix of anthropogenic and spontaneous mummification, with some being thousands of years old.

 

LIBYA

The mummified remains of an infant were discovered during an expedition by archaeologist Fabrizio Mori to Libya during the winter of 1958–1959 in the natural cave structure of Uan Muhuggiag. After curious deposits and cave paintings were discovered on the surfaces of the cave, expedition leaders decided to excavate. Uncovered alongside fragmented animal bone tools was the mummified body of an infant, wrapped in animal skin and wearing a necklace made of ostrich egg shell beads. Professor Tongiorgi of the University of Pisa radiocarbon-dated the infant to between 5,000–8,000 years old. A long incision located on the right abdominal wall, and the absence of internal organs, indicated that the body had been eviscerated post-mortem, possibly in an effort to preserve the remains. A bundle of herbs found within the body cavity also supported this conclusion. Further research revealed that the child had been around 30 months old at the time of death, though gender could not be determined due to poor preservation of the sex organs.

 

SOUTH AFRICA

The first mummy to be discovered in South Africa was found in the Baviaanskloof Wilderness Area by Dr. Johan Binneman in 1999. Nicknamed Moses, the mummy was estimated to be around 2,000 years old. After being linked to the indigenous Khoi culture of the region, the National Council of Khoi Chiefs of South Africa began to make legal demands that the mummy be returned shortly after the body was moved to the Albany Museum in Grahamstown.

 

ASIA

The mummies of Asia are usually considered to be accidental. The decedents were buried in just the right place where the environment could act as an agent for preservation. This is particularly common in the desert areas of the Tarim Basin and Iran. Mummies have been discovered in more humid Asian climates, however these are subject to rapid decay after being removed from the grave.

 

CHINA

Mummies from various dynasties throughout China's history have been discovered in several locations across the country. They are almost exclusively considered to be unintentional mummifications. Many areas in which mummies have been uncovered are difficult for preservation, due to their warm, moist climates. This makes the recovery of mummies a challenge, as exposure to the outside world can cause the bodies to decay in a matter of hours.

 

An example of a Chinese mummy that was preserved despite being buried in an environment not conducive to mummification is Xin Zhui. Also known as Lady Dai, she was discovered in the early 1970s at the Mawangdui archaeological site in Changsha. She was the wife of the marquis of Dai during the Han dynasty, who was also buried with her alongside another young man often considered to be a very close relative. However, Xin Zhui's body was the only one of the three to be mummified. Her corpse was so well-preserved that surgeons from the Hunan Provincial Medical Institute were able to perform an autopsy. The exact reason why her body was so completely preserved has yet to be determined.

 

Some of the more infamous mummies to be discovered in China are those termed Tarim mummies because of their discovery in the Tarim Basin. The dry desert climate of the basin proved to be an excellent agent for desiccation. For this reason, over 200 Tarim mummies, which are over 4,000 years old, were excavated from a cemetery in the present-day Xinjiang region. The mummies were found buried in upside-down boats with hundreds of 13-foot long wooden poles in the place of tombstones. DNA sequence data shows that the mummies had Haplogroup R1a (Y-DNA) characteristic of western Eurasia in the area of East-Central Europe, Central Asia and Indus Valley. This has created a stir in the Turkic-speaking Uighur population of the region, who claim the area has always belonged to their culture, while it was not until the 10th century when the Uighurs are said by scholars to have moved to the region from Central Asia. American Sinologist Victor H. Mair claims that "the earliest mummies in the Tarim Basin were exclusively Caucasoid, or Europoid" with "east Asian migrants arriving in the eastern portions of the Tarim Basin around 3,000 years ago", while Mair also notes that it was not until 842 that the Uighur peoples settled in the area. Other mummified remains have been recovered from around the Tarim Basin at sites including Qäwrighul, Yanghai, Shengjindian, Shanpula, Zaghunluq, and Qizilchoqa.

 

IRAN

As of 2012, at least eight mummified human remains have been recovered from the Douzlakh Salt Mine at Chehr Abad in northwestern Iran. Due to their salt preservation, these bodies are collectively known as Saltmen. Carbon-14 testing conducted in 2008 dated three of the bodies to around 400 BCE. Later isotopic research on the other mummies returned similar dates, however, many of these individuals were found to be from a region that is not closely associated with the mine. It was during this time that researchers determined the mine suffered a major collapse, which likely caused the death of the miners. Since there is significant archaeological data that indicates the area was not actively inhabited during this time period, current consensus holds that the accident occurred during a brief period of temporary mining activity

 

SIBERIA

In 1993, a team of Russian archaeologists led by Dr. Natalia Polosmak discovered the Siberian Ice Maiden, a Scytho-Siberian woman, on the Ukok Plateau in the Altai Mountains near the Mongolian border. The mummy was naturally frozen due to the severe climatic conditions of the Siberian steppe. Also known as Princess Ukok, the mummy was dressed in finely detailed clothing and wore an elaborate headdress and jewelry. Alongside her body were buried six decorated horses and a symbolic meal for her last journey. Her left arm and hand were tattooed with animal style figures, including a highly stylized deer.

 

The Ice Maiden has been a source of some recent controversy. The mummy's skin has suffered some slight decay, and the tattoos have faded since the excavation. Some residents of the Altai Republic, formed after the breakup of the Soviet Union, have requested the return of the Ice Maiden, who is currently stored in Novosibirsk in Siberia.

 

Another Siberian mummy, a man, was discovered much earlier in 1929. His skin was also marked with tattoos of two monsters resembling griffins, which decorated his chest, and three partially obliterated images which seem to represent two deer and a mountain goat on his left arm.

 

PHILIPPINES

Philippine mummies are called Kabayan Mummies.They are common in Igorot culture and their heritage.The mummies are found in some areas named Kabayan, Sagada and among others. The mummies are dated between the 14th and 19th centuries.

 

EUROPE

The European continent is home to a diverse spectrum of spontaneous and anthropogenic mummies. Some of the best-preserved mummies have come from bogs located across the region. The Capuchin monks that inhabited the area left behind hundreds of intentionally-preserved bodies that have provided insight into the customs and cultures of people from various eras. One of the oldest, and most infamous, mummies (nicknamed Ötzi) was discovered on this continent. New mummies continue to be uncovered in Europe well into the 21st Century.

 

BOG BODIES

The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark have produced a number of bog bodies, mummies of people deposited in sphagnum bogs, apparently as a result of murder or ritual sacrifices. In such cases, the acidity of the water, low temperature and lack of oxygen combined to tan the body's skin and soft tissues. The skeleton typically disintegrates over time. Such mummies are remarkably well preserved on emerging from the bog, with skin and internal organs intact; it is even possible to determine the decedent's last meal by examining stomach contents. A famous case is that of the Haraldskær Woman, who was discovered by labourers in a bog in Jutland in 1835. She was erroneously identified as an early medieval Danish queen, and for that reason was placed in a royal sarcophagus at the Saint Nicolai Church, Vejle, where she currently remains. Another famous bog body, also from Denmark, known as the Tollund Man was discovered in 1950. The corpse was noted for its excellent preservation of the face and feet, which appeared as if the man had recently died. To this day, only the head of Tollund Man remains, due to the decomposition of the rest of his body, which was not preserved along with the head.

 

CANARY ISLANDS

The mummies of the Canary Islands belong to the indigenous Guanche people and date to the time before 14th Century Spanish explorers settled in the area. All deceased people within the Guanche culture were mummified during this time, though the level of care taken with embalming and burial varied depending on individual social status. Embalming was carried out by specialized groups, organized according to gender, who were considered unclean by the rest of the community. The techniques for embalming were similar to those of the ancient Egyptians; involving evisceration, preservation, and stuffing of the evacuated bodily cavities, then wrapping of the body in animal skins. Despite the successful techniques utilized by the Guanche, very few mummies remain due to looting and desecration.

 

CZECH REPUBLIC

The majority of mummies recovered in the Czech Republic come from underground crypts. While there is some evidence of deliberate mummification, most sources state that desiccation occurred naturally due to unique conditions within the crypts.

 

The Capuchin Crypt in Brno contains three hundred years of mummified remains directly below the main altar. Beginning in the 18th Century when the crypt was opened, and continuing until the practice was discontinued in 1787, the Capuchin monks of the monastery would lay the deceased on a pillow of bricks on the ground. The unique air quality and topsoil within the crypt naturally preserved the bodies over time.

 

Approximately fifty mummies were discovered in an abandoned crypt beneath the Church of St. Procopius of Sázava in Vamberk in the mid-1980s. Workers digging a trench accidentally broke into the crypt, which began to fill with waste water. The mummies quickly began to deteriorate, though thirty-four were able to be rescued and stored temporarily at the District Museum of the Orlické Mountains until they could be returned to the monastery in 2000. The mummies range in age and social status at time of death, with at least two children and one priest. The majority of the Vamberk mummies date from the 18th century.

 

The Klatovy catacombs currently house an exhibition of Jesuit mummies, alongside some aristocrats, that were originally interred between 1674–1783. In the early 1930s, the mummies were accidentally damaged during repairs, resulting in the loss of 140 bodies. The newly updated airing system preserves the thirty-eight bodies that are currently on display.

 

DENMARK

Apart from several bog bodies, Denmark has also yielded several other mummies, such as the three Borum Eshøj mummies, the Skrydstrup Woman and the Egtved Girl, who were all found inside burial mounds, or tumulus.

 

In 1875, the Borum Eshøj grave mound was uncovered, which had been built around three coffins, which belonged to a middle aged man and woman as well as a man in his early twenties. Through examination, the woman was discovered to be around 50–60 years old. She was found with several artifacts made of bronze, consisting of buttons, a belt plate, and rings, showing she was of higher class. All of the hair had been removed from the skull later when farmers had dug through the casket. Her original hairstyle is unknown. The two men wore kilts, and the younger man wore a sheath of which contained a bronze dagger. All three mummies were dated to 1351–1345 BCE.

 

The Skrydstrup Woman was unearthed from a tumulus in Southern Jutland, in 1935. Carbon-14 dating showed that she had died around 1300 BCE; examination also revealed that she was around 18–19 years old at the time of death, and that she had been buried in the summertime. Her hair had been drawn up in an elaborate hairstyle, which was then covered by a horse hair hairnet made by sprang technique. She was wearing a blouse and a necklace as well as two golden earrings, showing she was of higher class.

 

The Egtved Girl, dated to 1370 BCE, was found also inside a sealed coffin inside of a tumulus, in 1921. She was wearing a bodice and a skirt, including a belt and bronze bracelets. Also found with the girl were the cremated remains of a child at her feet, and by her head a box containing some bronze pins, a hairnet, and an awl.

 

HUNGARY

In 1994, 265 mummified bodies were found in the crypt of a Dominican church in Vác, Hungary from the 1729–1838 period. The discovery proved to be scientifically important, and by 2006 an exhibition was established in the Museum of Natural History in Budapest. Unique to the Hungarian mummies are their elaborately decorated coffins, with no two being exactly alike.

 

ITALY

The varied geography and climatology of Italy has led to many cases of spontaneous mummification. Italian mummies display the same diversity, with a conglomeration of natural and intentional mummification spread across many centuries and cultures.

 

The oldest natural mummy in Europe was discovered in 1991 in the Ötztal Alps on the Austrian-Italian border. Nicknamed Ötzi, the mummy is a 5,300-year-old male believed to be a member of the Tamins-Carasso-Isera cultural group of South Tyrol. Despite his age, a recent DNA study conducted by Walther Parson of Innsbruck Medical University revealed Ötzi has 19 living genetic relatives.

 

The Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo were built in to the 16th century by the monks of Palermo’s Capuchin monastery. Originally intended to hold the deliberately mummified remains of dead friars, interment in the catacombs became a status symbol for the local population in the following centuries. Burials continued until the 1920s, with one of the most famous final burials being that of Rosalia Lombardo. In all, the catacombs host nearly 8000 mummies.

 

The most recent discovery of mummies in Italy came in 2010, when sixty mummified human remains were found in the crypt of the Conversion of St Paul church in Roccapelago di Pievepelago, Italy. Built in the 15th Century as a cannon hold and later converted in the 16th Century, the crypt had been sealed once it had reached capacity, leaving the bodies to be protected and preserved. The crypt was reopened during restoration work on the church, revealing the diverse array of mummies inside. The bodies were quickly moved to a museum for further study.

 

NORTH AMERICA

The mummies of North America are often steeped in controversy, as many of these bodies have been linked to still-existing native cultures. While the mummies provide a wealth of historically-significant data, native cultures and tradition often demands the remains be returned to their original resting places. This has led to many legal actions by Native American councils, leading to most museums keeping mummified remains out of the public eye.

 

CANADA

Kwäday Dän Ts'ìnchi ("Long ago person found" in the Southern Tutchone language of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations), was found in August 1999 by three First Nations hunters at the edge of a glacier in Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park, British Columbia, Canada. According to the Kwäday Dän Ts'ìnchi Project, the remains are the oldest well preserved mummy discovered in North America. (It should be noted that the Spirit Cave mummy although not well preserved, is much older.) Initial radiocarbon tests date the mummy to around 550 years-old.

 

GREENLAND

In 1972, eight remarkably preserved mummies were discovered at an abandoned Inuit settlement called Qilakitsoq, in Greenland. The "Greenland Mummies" consisted of a six-month-old baby, a four-year-old boy, and six women of various ages, who died around 500 years ago. Their bodies were naturally mummified by the sub-zero temperatures and dry winds in the cave in which they were found.

 

MEXICO

Intentional mummification in pre-Columbian Mexico was practiced by the Aztec culture. These bodies are collectively known as Aztec mummies. Genuine Aztec mummies were "bundled" in a woven wrap and often had their faces covered by a ceremonial mask. Public knowledge of Aztec mummies increased due to traveling exhibits and museums in the 19th and 20th centuries, though these bodies were typically naturally desiccated remains and not actually the mummies associated with Aztec culture. (See: Aztec mummy)

 

Natural mummification has been known to occur in several places in Mexico, though the most famous are the mummies of Guanajuato. A collection of these mummies, most of which date to the late 19th century, have been on display at El Museo de las Momias in the city of Guanajuato since 1970. The museum claims to have the smallest mummy in the world on display (a mummified fetus). It was thought that minerals in the soil had the preserving effect, however it may rather be due to the warm, arid climate. Mexican mummies are also on display in the small town of Encarnación de Díaz, Jalisco.

 

UNITED STATES

Spirit Cave Man was discovered in 1940 during salvage work prior to guano mining activity that was scheduled to begin in the area. The mummy is a middle-aged male, found completely dressed and lying on a blanket made of animal skin. Radiocarbon tests in the 1990s dated the mummy to being nearly 9,000 years old. The remains are currently held at the Nevada State Museum. There has been some controversy within the local Native American community, who began petitioning to have the remains returned and reburied in 1995.

 

AUSTRALIA

The aboriginal mummification traditions found in Australia are thought be related to those found in the Torres Strait islands, the inhabitants of which achieved a high level of sophisticated mummification techniques (See:Torres Strait). Australian mummies lack some of the technical ability of the Torres Strait mummies, however much of the ritual aspects of the mummification process are similar. Full-body mummification was achieved by these cultures, but not the level of artistic preservation as found on smaller islands. The reason for this seems to be for easier transport of bodies by more nomadic tribes.

 

NEW ZEALAND

Some Māori tribes from New Zealand would keep mummified heads as trophies from tribal warfare. They are also known as Mokomokai. In the 19th Century, many of the trophies were acquired by Europeans who found the tattooed skin to be a phenomenal curiosity. Westerners began to offer valuable commodities in exchange for the uniquely tattooed mummified heads. The heads were later put on display in museums, 16 of which being housed across France alone. In 2010, the Rouen City Hall of France returned one of the heads to New Zealand, despite earlier protests by the Culture Ministry of France.

 

There is also evidence that some Maori tribes may have practiced full-body mummification, though the practice is not thought to have been widespread. The discussion of Maori mummification has been historically controversial, with some experts in past decades claiming that such mummies have never existed. Contemporary science does now acknowledge the existence of full-body mummification in the culture. There is still controversy, however, as to the nature of the mummification process. Some bodies appear to be spontaneously created by the natural environment, while others exhibit signs of deliberate practices. General modern consensus tends to agree that there could be a mixture of both types of mummification, similar to that of the ancient Egyptian mummies.

 

SOUTH AMERICA

The South American continent contains some of the oldest mummies in the world, both deliberate and accidental. The bodies were preserved by the best agent for mummification: the environment. Rather than developing elaborate processes such as later-dynasty ancient Egyptians, the early South Americans often left their dead in naturally dry or frozen areas, though some did perform surgical preparation when mummification was intentional. Some of the reasons for intentional mummification in South America include memorialization, immortalization, and religious offerings.

 

INCA MUMMIES

Several naturally-preserved, unintentional mummies dating from the Incan period have been found in the colder regions of Argentina, Chile, and Peru. These are collectively known as "ice mummies". The first Incan ice mummy was discovered in 1954 atop El Plomo Peak in Chile, after an eruption of the nearby volcano Sabancaya melted away ice that covered the body. The Mummy of El Plomo was a male child who was presumed to be wealthy due to his well-fed bodily characteristics. He was considered to be the most well-preserved ice mummy in the world until the discovery of Mummy Juanita in 1995.

 

Mummy Juanita was discovered near the summit of Ampato in the Peruvian section of the Andes mountains by archaeologist Johan Reinhard. Her body had been so thoroughly frozen that it had not been desiccated; much of her skin, muscle tissue, and internal organs retained their original structure. She is believed to be a ritual sacrifice, due to the close proximity of her body to the Incan capital of Cusco, as well as the fact she was wearing highly intricate clothing to indicate her special social status. Several Incan ceremonial artifacts and temporary shelters uncovered in the surrounding area seem to support this theory.

 

More evidence that the Inca left sacrificial victims to die in the elements, and later be unintentionally preserved, came in 1999 with the discovery of the Llullaillaco mummies on the border of Argentina and Peru. The three mummies are children, two girls and one boy, who are thought to be sacrifices associated with the ancient ritual of qhapaq hucha. Recent biochemical analysis of the mummies has revealed that the victims had consumed increasing quantities of alcohol and coca, possibly in the form of chicha, in the months leading up to sacrifice. The dominant theory for the drugging reasons that, alongside ritual uses, the substances probably made the children more docile. Chewed coca leaves found inside the eldest child's mouth upon her discovery in 1999 supports this theory.

 

SELF-MUMMIFICATION

Monks whose bodies remain incorrupt without any traces of deliberate mummification are venerated by some Buddhists who believe they successfully were able to mortify their flesh to death. Self-mummification was practiced until the late 1800s in Japan and has been outlawed since the early 1900s.

 

Many Mahayana Buddhist monks were reported to know their time of death and left their last testaments and their students accordingly buried them sitting in lotus position, put into a vessel with drying agents (such as wood, paper, or lime) and surrounded by bricks, to be exhumed later, usually after three years. The preserved bodies would then be decorated with paint and adorned with gold.

 

Bodies purported to be those of self-mummified monks are exhibited in several Japanese shrines, and it has been claimed that the monks, prior to their death, stuck to a sparse diet made up of salt, nuts, seeds, roots, pine bark, and urushi tea.

 

PLASTINATION

Plastination is a technique used in anatomy to conserve bodies or body parts. The water and fat are replaced by certain plastics, yielding specimens that can be touched, do not smell or decay, and even retain most microscopic properties of the original sample.

 

The technique was invented by Gunther von Hagens when working at the anatomical institute of the Heidelberg University in 1978. Von Hagens has patented the technique in several countries and is heavily involved in its promotion, especially as the creator and director of the Body Worlds traveling exhibitions, exhibiting plastinated human bodies internationally. He also founded and directs the Institute for Plastination in Heidelberg.

 

More than 40 institutions worldwide have facilities for plastination, mainly for medical research and study, and most affiliated to the International Society for Plastination.

Treatment of ancient mummies in modern times

 

In the Middle Ages, based on a mistranslation from the Arabic term for bitumen, it was thought that mummies possessed healing properties. As a result, it became common practice to grind Egyptian mummies into a powder to be sold and used as medicine. When actual mummies became unavailable, the sun-desiccated corpses of criminals, slaves and suicidal people were substituted by mendacious merchants. The practice developed into a wide-scale business that flourished until the late 16th century. Two centuries ago, mummies were still believed to have medicinal properties to stop bleeding, and were sold as pharmaceuticals in powdered form as in mellified man. Artists also made use of Egyptian mummies; a brownish pigment known as mummy brown, based on mummia (sometimes called alternatively caput mortuum, Latin for death's head), which was originally obtained by grounding human and animal Egyptian mummies. It was most popular in the 17th century, but was discontinued in the early 19th century when its composition became generally known to artists who replaced the said pigment by a totally different blend -but keeping the original name, mummia or mummy brown-yielding a similar tint and based on ground minerals (oxides and fired earths) and or blends of powdered gums and oleoresins (such as myrrh and frankincense) as well as ground bitumen. These blends appeared on the market as forgeries of powdered mummy pigment but were ultimately considered as acceptable replacements, once antique mummies were no longer permitted to be destroyed. Many thousands of mummified cats were also sent from Egypt to England to be processed for use in fertilizer.

 

During the 19th century, following the discovery of the first tombs and artifacts in Egypt, Egyptology was a huge fad in Europe, especially in Victorian England. European aristocrats would occasionally entertain themselves by purchasing mummies, having them unwrapped, and holding observation sessions. These sessions destroyed hundreds of mummies, because the exposure to the air caused them to disintegrate.

 

WIKIPEDIA

"The Schweich Moselle Bridge (Landesstraße 141) is a road bridge over the Moselle between the town of Schweich and the municipality of Longuich, district of Kirsch, in the Trier-Saarburg district in Rhineland-Palatinate. In the immediate vicinity is the Moselle Valley Bridge Schweich (Federal Motorway 1 / European Route 44), which also leads over the Moselle.

 

After the ferry tower on the right of the Moselle near Longuich-Kirsch was demolished in order to build the Moselle railway line (small railway), ferry operations across the Moselle near Schweich were only possible to a limited extent. In 1902 it was therefore decided to build a road bridge. The bridge was completed in 1906. The bridge was blown up by German troops in March 1945, and the newly built bridge was put into operation in November 1948.

 

Today it is part of State Road 141. A replacement building is planned, as of 2019.

 

Mosel (German: [ˈmoːzl̩]) is one of 13 German wine regions (Weinbaugebiete) for quality wines (Qualitätswein, formerly QbA and Prädikatswein), and takes its name from the Mosel River (French: Moselle; Luxembourgish: Musel). Before 1 August 2007 the region was called Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, but changed to a name that was considered more consumer-friendly. The wine region is Germany's third largest in terms of production but some consider it the leading region in terms of international prestige.

 

The region covers the valleys of the rivers Mosel, Saar, and Ruwer from near the mouth of the Mosel at Koblenz and upstream to the vicinity of Trier in the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The area is known for the steep slopes of the region's vineyards overlooking the river. At 65° degrees incline, the steepest recorded vineyard in the world is the Calmont vineyard located on the Mosel and belonging to the village of Bremm, and therefore referred to as Bremmer Calmont. The Mosel is mainly famous for its wines made from the Riesling grape, but Elbling and Müller-Thurgau also contribute to the production, among others.

 

In the past two decades red wine production, especially from the Spätburgunder (Pinot noir), has increased in the Mosel and throughout the German vignoble and has become of increasing interest to the international wine community. Because of the northerly location of the Mosel, the Riesling wines are often light, tending to lower alcohol, crisp and high in acidity, and often exhibit "flowery" rather than or in addition to "fruity" aromas. Its most common vineyard soil is derived in the main from various kinds of slate deposits, which tend to give the wines a transparent, mineralic aspect, that often exhibit great depth of flavor. In the current era of climate change much work has been done to improve and gain acceptance for completely dry ("Trocken") Rieslings in this region, so that most of the more famous makers have found acceptance for such wines, particularly in Europe." - info from Wikipedia.

 

Summer 2019 I did a solo cycling tour across Europe through 12 countries over the course of 3 months. I began my adventure in Edinburgh, Scotland and finished in Florence, Italy cycling 8,816 km. During my trip I took 47,000 photos.

 

Now on Instagram.

 

Become a patron to my photography on Patreon or donate.

Terraced iron-sulphate-stromatolites formed by acid leachates from pyrite-bearing mine wastes, Tintillo river (Iberian Pyrite Belt, Riotinto Mining Basin, Huelva, Spain)

 

Terraced iron formations of millimetric to metric scale are usually developed during the oxidation and hydrolysis/precipitation of dissolved iron in the acidic solutions after they emerge from waste piles, tailings, or mine portals, and they display a morphological pattern similar to that observed in travertines formed in Ca2+-HCO3 ––rich spring waters. TIFs differ from calcareous travertines, however, in their mineralogical composition, which is characterized by hydrous iron (oxy)hydroxides and/or hydroxysulfates, in agreement with the typical Fe(II)/Fe(III)-SO4 2– chemical composition of most acid mine drainage solutions. These spectacular formations are the result of the interaction between (1) highly acidic and Fe(II)-enriched waters, (2) atmospheric oxygen, and (3) acidophilic microbes that have found perfect habitats for their Fe-oxidizing metabolisms in these extreme environments. The abiotic processes could be more important than the biotic factors in winter (higher flow, lower temperature), and conversely, the bacterial activity could play a major role in summer (lower flow, higher temperature).

 

The water from the Tintillo river (and other rivers and creeks from Riotinto Mining Basin, Huelva, Spain) has a nearly unique red and orange colour derived from its extremely acidic chemical makeup, with very high levels of iron and heavy metals. There are a number of subsurface sulfide (mainly pyrite) bodies responsible for this acidity. These mineral bodies belong to the Iberian Pyrite Belt, formed 350 My ago in the Devonian Period, connected to active and hydrothermal volcanism that led to the formation of a volcanic-sedimentary complex. Volcanic activity in the region led to eight giant volcanogenic massive sulfide ore deposits associated with polymetallic massive flanks of volcanic cones in the form of pyrite, but also chalcopyrite, sphalerite, galena and cassiterite.

 

References:

 

Iron terraces in acid mine drainage systems: A discussion about the organic and inorganic factors involved in their formation through observations from the Tintillo acidic river (Riotinto mine, Huelva, Spain)

 

pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geosphere/article-pdf/3/3/13...

  

The Tintillo acidic river (Rio Tinto mines, Huelva, Spain): an example of extreme environmental impact of pyritic mine wastes on the environment or an exceptional site to study acid-sulphate mine drainage systems?

 

www.researchgate.net/publication/235355068_The_Tintillo_a...

 

"The curtain wall is the largely preserved city fortifications around the archbishop's part of Pfalzel. It was built by 1539 incorporating a medieval predecessor from the late 14th century, particularly the artillery wall with six roundels. The rampart wall (earth wall between two walls) with bastions protruding from the wall was probably built by Master Peter (builder of the Red Tower on Kaiserstrasse in Trier). The fortress was rendered unusable by the French in 1673/74. The fortification begins on the Moselle with Bastion 1, runs behind the houses east and north of Klosterstrasse, Scholasterei and Golostrasse, reinforced by Bastions 2 to 5, to the end bastion 6 behind Golostrasse 3 and 5 or Residenzstrasse 25. The moat area The outside along the rampart is now largely occupied by gardens and the cemetery. In 1961 a breakthrough was created between Bastion 5 and 6, and the system was repaired from 1970 to 1992.

  

Pfalzel is one of the 19 districts of the city of Trier in Rhineland-Palatinate.

 

Pfalzel lies in the northeast of the city, west of the Moselle. It has around 3,450 inhabitants.

 

The Steigenberg in the Pfalzel district is 350 m high. The Wallenbach (Kyll) rises at its northeast foot.

 

Similar to the Ruwer district opposite, Pfalzel is located in the flood area of ​​the Moselle. For several years now, a partially mobile flood protection system that can be installed quickly has protected houses on the Moselle up to a water level of over eleven meters. The massive protective gates on the Moselle cycle path cannot be overlooked.

 

Hardly any of Trier's previously independent districts can look back on a history as diverse as Pfalzel. The name goes back to the Latin word “palatiolum” (= little Palatinate) and was originally the name for a palatial castle complex from the 4th century, which was most likely closely related to the imperial court in Trier. Some of the walls of the complex that have been preserved to this day extend up to the second floor.

 

In the 7th century, a nunnery was founded in the building, which was de facto dissolved in 1016/17 by Archbishop Poppo von Babenberg and converted into a canon monastery. The monastery ring was supplemented with a gatehouse, cloister, chapels and farm buildings. Until the 16th century, the castle and monastery were surrounded by an impressive rampart wall that has been preserved to this day and was supplemented by a tithe barn, an Electoral Trier office building, a mint and a mill.

 

Under Archbishop Albero of Montreuil (1131–1152) work began on building a castle complex in the western part of the Palatiolum. A previous castle construction cannot be determined from the written sources. The Palatinate Castle repeatedly served as an alternative and “counter-residence” for the Archbishops of Trier when there were disputes with the municipality of Trier.

 

A civil farming settlement developed in the area around the castle, which, secured with its own defensive wall, gained town status in 1346.

 

During Electoral Trier times, the Pfalzel district comprised 54 towns around Trier. In French times, the canton of Pfalzel existed with several mairie.

 

In the Prussian period from 1815 onwards, Biewer and Ehrang, among others, belonged to the Pfalzel mayor's office. Biewer was separated in 1930 and incorporated into Trier, but Pfalzel initially remained independent.

 

On March 1, 1968, the two independent communities of Ehrang and Pfalzel were united to form one large community. Just a year later, however, on June 7, 1969, the municipality of Ehrang-Pfalzel was incorporated into the city of Trier. Since then, Pfalzel and Ehrang/Quint have been districts of the city of Trier.

 

Mosel (German: [ˈmoːzl̩]) is one of 13 German wine regions (Weinbaugebiete) for quality wines (Qualitätswein, formerly QbA and Prädikatswein), and takes its name from the Mosel River (French: Moselle; Luxembourgish: Musel). Before 1 August 2007 the region was called Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, but changed to a name that was considered more consumer-friendly. The wine region is Germany's third largest in terms of production but some consider it the leading region in terms of international prestige.

 

The region covers the valleys of the rivers Mosel, Saar, and Ruwer from near the mouth of the Mosel at Koblenz and upstream to the vicinity of Trier in the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The area is known for the steep slopes of the region's vineyards overlooking the river. At 65° degrees incline, the steepest recorded vineyard in the world is the Calmont vineyard located on the Mosel and belonging to the village of Bremm, and therefore referred to as Bremmer Calmont. The Mosel is mainly famous for its wines made from the Riesling grape, but Elbling and Müller-Thurgau also contribute to the production, among others.

 

In the past two decades red wine production, especially from the Spätburgunder (Pinot noir), has increased in the Mosel and throughout the German vignoble and has become of increasing interest to the international wine community. Because of the northerly location of the Mosel, the Riesling wines are often light, tending to lower alcohol, crisp and high in acidity, and often exhibit "flowery" rather than or in addition to "fruity" aromas. Its most common vineyard soil is derived in the main from various kinds of slate deposits, which tend to give the wines a transparent, mineralic aspect, that often exhibit great depth of flavor. In the current era of climate change much work has been done to improve and gain acceptance for completely dry ("Trocken") Rieslings in this region, so that most of the more famous makers have found acceptance for such wines, particularly in Europe." - info from Wikipedia.

 

Summer 2019 I did a solo cycling tour across Europe through 12 countries over the course of 3 months. I began my adventure in Edinburgh, Scotland and finished in Florence, Italy cycling 8,816 km. During my trip I took 47,000 photos.

 

Now on Instagram.

 

Become a patron to my photography on Patreon or donate.

I like the buttery oak spice nuances and silky layer of baked apples and pears which expands across the palate into rich silky layers, with a hint of minerality appearing mid palette. An exquisite balance of lemon acidity and creamy complexity. The crisp, clean, Chablis-like styles go well with simple seafood, light chicken dishes, and salads.-----

DSC_3595_Art Koch

Wetenschappelijk: lycaena dispar batava

Scientific name: lycaena dispar batava

  

lycaena dispar batava are about 500-700 ex worldwide (only in the Netherlands)

L. dispar batava is a near threatened specie.

 

The large copper (Lycaena dispar batava) is a butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. L. dispar has been commonly arranged into three subspecies: L. dispar dispar, (single-brooded) which was commonly found in England, but is now extinct, L. d. batavus, (single-brooded) can be found in the Netherlands and has been reintroduced into the United Kingdom, and lastly, L. d. rutilus, (double-brooded) which is widespread across central and southern Europe.] The latter has been declining in many European countries, due to habitat loss. Currently L. dispar is in severe decline in northwest Europe, but expanding in central and northern Europe.

 

It is regionally extinct in the United Kingdom, due to habitat loss. As well it has been extinct in the British Isles, since the 1860s, with declining numbers occurring across numerous, other western European countries.

 

Reintroduction

Britain first attempted to reintroduce L. dispar in 1901, when G.H. Verbal released a number of caterpillars in Wicken Fen; however, due to a lack of host plants, the reintroduction was not viable. The first successful reintroduction of the species came in 1913, when W.B. Purefoy, established a colony of L. d. rutilus in Greenfields, Tipperary, a small bog made suitable for L. diapar through the planting of preferred food plants.

 

In 1915, L. d. batavus was described in the Netherlands, despite being almost indistinguishable from extinct L. d. dispar. L. d. batavus populations in Britain, occurred in the fenland area around Whittlesea Mere, extending to Yaxley and Holme Fens, all are characterized by acidic peat bogs, however this population is currently extant.

 

England, Ireland and the Netherlands

The British subspecies of this butterfly (L. d. dispar) has been extinct since 1864. Most of our knowledge of its life cycle and ecology comes from studies of the similar subspecies (L. d. batava') found in the Netherlands. The species can be identified by the silvery hindwing undersides, from the large specimens of the related, more common, drier habitat species Caena virgaureae and Lycaena hippothoe.

 

Habitat

L. dispar is a wetland species in decline throughout Europe. The primary habitat of this butterfly has been drained for agricultural and other land usage, limiting their habitat. When it can, L. dispar will utilize plants growing away from watersides and among reed-fen vegetation. In this way L. dispar can avoid possible flooding that can occur in lower lying areas closer to the waters edge. The species prefers, undisturbed, grasslands along the riverbanks and stream banks, where its larval food plant, the greater water dock, (R. hydrolapathum) can be found.

 

Warmer microclimates, as well as warmer regions in general are preferred by L. dispar, allowing for faster growth time of larvae.

 

Land disturbances through agriculture, primarily the mowing of grass, and other foliage has a negative influence on populations of L. dispar, such that mowing shortly after egg-laying, will result in disastrous losses, due to the eggs being destroyed and the newly hatched larvae being deprived of host plants, for food: L. dispar lays its eggs on, host food plants, commonly low-lying, with larval migration limited to the area around their birth, host plant. For conservation purposes, it is highly recommended that L. dispar habitats be closely managed, with promotion in increased habitat heterogeneity, being most important: this strategy has proven beneficial for many other species of butterfly.

 

Host plants

The greater water dock, (Rumex) is host plant of L. dispar, with a broad range of species in the Eastern part of its distribution, and a more limited range of species in its Western distribution.[3] Plant specifications, such as height, size, phonological stages (increase in variables is preferable) and nutrition, as L. dispar is sensitive to its host plants acidity, are all conditions that are taken into consideration when a females chooses host plants to lay her eggs on: these plant will also provide emerging larvae with a source of food.

 

Favourable host plants include R. cripus, the preferred food plant in southwest Germany and Austria, R. obtusifolius, being the preferred food plant in Southwest France, R. patientia, and the lesser common R. hydrolapathum, which is the main food plant in the butterflies northwestern range (Poland and North Germany, where decline in populations has been most severe, and R. stenophyllus. Other commonly distributed Rumex species, that are used by L. dispar are: R. obtusifolius, R. conglomeratus, R. sanguineus, R. aquaticus, R. patientia, and R. stenophyllus. The sorrels, the Rumex species containing oxalic acid, Rumex acetosa, have less commonly been reported as host plants for L. dispar.

 

Life cycle

L. dispar has a bivoltine life cycle, throughout most of its European distribution, stretching from May to June, and from the end of July to early September, with peak flight occurring in July] Two generations of L. dispar are standard, the first is characterized by fewer numbers, with the second generation producing more offspring that overwinter, as half-grown, third instar larvae. In the warmer parts (southern distribution) of its European habitat range, L. dispar can be capable of third generations. During the winter months, larvae enter diapause, a period of metabolic inactivity, that is characterized by the development of physiological tolerance to various environmental stressors: cold temperatures, starvation, in order to survive winter conditions. Overwinter survival can be greatly reduced due to flooding for prolonged periods of time, resulting in high mortality of L. dispar larvae in diapause.

 

L. dispar larvae have three characteristic stages: pre-diapause in the autumn, winter diapause and post-diapause in the spring. Heavy mortality is common between oviposition (when females lay their eggs) in the late summer and the resumption of larval feeding in late spring: larvae begin feeding again in early may. In order to enter diapause, L. dispar uses temperature and photoperiodic indicators to determine when to start the overwinter process: entering diapause at low temperatures (25°C).

 

Females

L. dispar females are capable of producing, on average 32 chorionated eggs, per egg load, with an average of 714 eggs being laid in their lifetime. Ovipositing females are specific about the quality of host plant they chose to lay their larvae on, with plants preferably, lacking flowering or fruiting stems, and having inflorescences.[3] Plants that receive greater sunlight allow for larvae to grow faster, and develop within a shorter period, females, for this reason prefer warmer microclimates, where host plant conditions are optimal. Notably herbivore leaf damage and fungal infections of host plants, are not significant in reducing egg densities, laid by females. In late June, the L. dispar larvae leave their host, food plant, migrating to vegetation no further than 25cm away from their original host and roughly 10cm above ground.[8] Once there larvae begin to change color, from bright green to pale yellow-brown, allowing them to blend in better with their surroundings during pupation, which lasts between 10 to 14 days.

 

This species was formerly classified as a priority for protection and re-introduction in the UK under its national Biodiversity Action Plan.The species was driven to extinction in Britain by drainage and consequent great reduction of fen habitat. In the rest of the Western Europe, the draining of wetlands and building and agricultural activity on shallow riverbanks has caused a strong decline. In eastern Europe, undeveloped riverbanks and deltas are a habitat for the species, though even there it is somewhat threatened due increasing human influence on these areas.

 

There have been several reintroduction attempts to sites in both Britain and Ireland, but these have all ultimately failed. This is largely due to L. dispar stock being raised in captivity for long periods of time, before being released into the wild, resulting in adults that are maladapted to their natural environment, and ultimately do not survive. Research is now being conducted to see whether a further attempt is worthwhile in more extensive habitats available in the Great Fen project and the Norfolk Broads.

 

Today, L. dispar is a near threatened species in some regions, leading to a growing concern over its conservation] It is listed in the Bern Conservation on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats, and is protected through Annexes II and IV of the European Community Habitats Directive. In order to boost population numbers, mass rearing would be beneficial, therefore further research is needed to improve survivorship of mass-reared, L. dispar individuals. Conservation efforts need to address the species high sensitivity to climate and land usage, such as reclamation of wetlands for agricultural purposes and intensive management of grasslands through mowing of vegetation, having a negative influences on population numbers of L. dispar

Looking southeast.

 

"Traben-Trarbach is a town on the Middle Moselle in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district, Rhineland-Palatinate and the administrative seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of the same name. The city is a state-recognized spa and designated as a medium-sized center according to state planning.

 

Traben-Trarbach is located about 40 km northeast of Trier and about 60 km southwest of Koblenz in the Middle Moselle valley; North of the city is the Moselschleifenberg Mont Royal. Hahn im Hunsrück Airport is about 10 km (as the crow flies ) away to the east. The urban area covers a total area of ​​3,135 hectares with a large proportion of forest. This makes Traben-Trarbach the largest city on the Middle Moselle in terms of area.

 

The Traben district lies to the left of the Moselle at the foot of the former Mont Royal fortress and Trarbach to the right of the river on the Hunsrück side. The two districts are connected by the Traben-Trarbach Moselle bridge. The Enkirch barrage lies between Traben and Enkirch.

 

While Traben lies on a large stretch of land on the banks of the Moselle, Trarbach stretches long between the quite steep mountains, especially into the Kautenbach valley. There is a spring in the Bad Wildstein district whose water emerges from the depths of the slate rock at a temperature of 33° and is used by a thermal bath.

 

At the end of the 19th century, Traben and Trarbach were, along with Bad Reichenhall, the first places in Germany to have electric street lighting built instead of gas lamps by the Edison company, today's AEG, after individual streets in Berlin had previously been equipped with it.

 

Mosel (German: [ˈmoːzl̩]) is one of 13 German wine regions (Weinbaugebiete) for quality wines (Qualitätswein, formerly QbA and Prädikatswein), and takes its name from the Mosel River (French: Moselle; Luxembourgish: Musel). Before 1 August 2007 the region was called Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, but changed to a name that was considered more consumer-friendly. The wine region is Germany's third largest in terms of production but some consider it the leading region in terms of international prestige.

 

The region covers the valleys of the rivers Mosel, Saar, and Ruwer from near the mouth of the Mosel at Koblenz and upstream to the vicinity of Trier in the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The area is known for the steep slopes of the region's vineyards overlooking the river. At 65° degrees incline, the steepest recorded vineyard in the world is the Calmont vineyard located on the Mosel and belonging to the village of Bremm, and therefore referred to as Bremmer Calmont. The Mosel is mainly famous for its wines made from the Riesling grape, but Elbling and Müller-Thurgau also contribute to the production, among others.

 

In the past two decades red wine production, especially from the Spätburgunder (Pinot noir), has increased in the Mosel and throughout the German vignoble and has become of increasing interest to the international wine community. Because of the northerly location of the Mosel, the Riesling wines are often light, tending to lower alcohol, crisp and high in acidity, and often exhibit "flowery" rather than or in addition to "fruity" aromas. Its most common vineyard soil is derived in the main from various kinds of slate deposits, which tend to give the wines a transparent, mineralic aspect, that often exhibit great depth of flavor. In the current era of climate change much work has been done to improve and gain acceptance for completely dry ("Trocken") Rieslings in this region, so that most of the more famous makers have found acceptance for such wines, particularly in Europe." - info from Wikipedia.

 

Summer 2019 I did a solo cycling tour across Europe through 12 countries over the course of 3 months. I began my adventure in Edinburgh, Scotland and finished in Florence, Italy cycling 8,816 km. During my trip I took 47,000 photos.

 

Now on Instagram.

 

Become a patron to my photography on Patreon or donate.

Elegant ripe aromas of banana, melon, fig, pear, apple, strawberry, pineapple, passion fruit and mango carry through onto the palate and integrate well. This Sake has good acidity that supports the freshness of the tropical fruit flavours, it is well rounded and balanced with a well integrated sweet bitterness, clean, dry finish and long aftertaste.

A red wine with powerful aromas of cherry and black plum. Complex aromas and flavours from prolonged aging in barrels, giving notes of vanilla, toast, a smoky edge, and traces of fruits such as raspberry and plum; great body and length, balanced acidity, and pleasant, rounded tannins.

These is my first apples of the year. Reliably ready to eat first week in August and today already falling from the tree and getting loads of interest from the wasps.

 

I took this box of them to the honeyshow (Hillsborough Honey Fair) today. Good as a talking point - apples and pollinators makes a good conversation starter and something to hand to folk to try.

 

This very early early dessert apple. Bright, crisp and a balance of acidity and sweetness. No complex aromatic qualities that later apples have just a simple, refreshing and familiar "apply" zing.

 

Originally grown from seed in 1923 by the eponymous George Cave himself and then marketed successfully immediately after the second World War as a garden apple tree, it became very popular in England in the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was widely grown in gardens, very self fertile so ideal if there was room for only one tree and tapped into the enthusiasm for growing your own food at a household level that emerged from wartime necessity.

 

The first apple of the new season - in those days, there were no imports of apples so most people hadnt eaten a dessert apple since February and that first bite in the first week of August was a wonderful new reminder of what a fresh apple tasted like.

 

Today we are used to apples everyday of the year. The M&S apples from New Zealand in May and June taste superb. I am as guilty as anyone in enjoying the 2 modern New Zealand varieties "Scrumptious" and "Envy" - I love them. ...but they do spoil us and these superb out-of-season apple varieties make it hard to feel like someone in 1950, in post war austerity, taking a bite of a George Cave apple after not tasting an apple for 6 months. When i take my fist bite of them I try hard to imagine I have not eaten an apple in ages and what I would feel in that context.

 

Today George Cave is an unpopular apple tree, available from only a few specialist nurseries. I planted this tree in 2004. it is on rootstock MM106 so is a pretty big tree now. A reliable cropper.

  

Best eaten immediately after picking, it doesnt store, quickly changes texture to something a bit unpleasant 2 weeks after picking. It bruises very easily so picking and handling needs to be done with care.

 

Buzzcocks - Nostalgia

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEXN0Jv-3w4

   

Looking northeast of Kesten.

 

"Mosel (German: [ˈmoːzl̩]) is one of 13 German wine regions (Weinbaugebiete) for quality wines (Qualitätswein, formerly QbA and Prädikatswein), and takes its name from the Mosel River (French: Moselle; Luxembourgish: Musel). Before 1 August 2007 the region was called Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, but changed to a name that was considered more consumer-friendly. The wine region is Germany's third largest in terms of production but some consider it the leading region in terms of international prestige.

 

The region covers the valleys of the rivers Mosel, Saar, and Ruwer from near the mouth of the Mosel at Koblenz and upstream to the vicinity of Trier in the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The area is known for the steep slopes of the region's vineyards overlooking the river. At 65° degrees incline, the steepest recorded vineyard in the world is the Calmont vineyard located on the Mosel and belonging to the village of Bremm, and therefore referred to as Bremmer Calmont. The Mosel is mainly famous for its wines made from the Riesling grape, but Elbling and Müller-Thurgau also contribute to the production, among others.

 

In the past two decades red wine production, especially from the Spätburgunder (Pinot noir), has increased in the Mosel and throughout the German vignoble and has become of increasing interest to the international wine community. Because of the northerly location of the Mosel, the Riesling wines are often light, tending to lower alcohol, crisp and high in acidity, and often exhibit "flowery" rather than or in addition to "fruity" aromas. Its most common vineyard soil is derived in the main from various kinds of slate deposits, which tend to give the wines a transparent, mineralic aspect, that often exhibit great depth of flavor. In the current era of climate change much work has been done to improve and gain acceptance for completely dry ("Trocken") Rieslings in this region, so that most of the more famous makers have found acceptance for such wines, particularly in Europe." - info from Wikipedia.

 

Summer 2019 I did a solo cycling tour across Europe through 12 countries over the course of 3 months. I began my adventure in Edinburgh, Scotland and finished in Florence, Italy cycling 8,816 km. During my trip I took 47,000 photos.

 

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The geothermal areas of Yellowstone include several geyser basins in Yellowstone National Park as well as other geothermal features such as hot springs, mud pots, and fumaroles. The number of thermal features in Yellowstone is estimated at 10,000. A study that was completed in 2011 found that a total of 1,283 geysers have erupted in Yellowstone, 465 of which are active during an average year. These are distributed among nine geyser basins, with a few geysers found in smaller thermal areas throughout the Park. The number of geysers in each geyser basin are as follows: Upper Geyser Basin (410), Midway Geyser Basin (59), Lower Geyser Basin (283), Norris Geyser Basin (193), West Thumb Geyser Basin (84), Gibbon Geyser Basin (24), Lone Star Geyser Basin (21), Shoshone Geyser Basin (107), Heart Lake Geyser Basin (69), other areas (33). Although famous large geysers like Old Faithful are part of the total, most of Yellowstone's geysers are small, erupting to only a foot or two. The hydrothermal system that supplies the geysers with hot water sits within an ancient active caldera. Many of the thermal features in Yellowstone build up sinter, geyserite, or travertine deposits around and within them.

 

The various geyser basins are located where rainwater and snowmelt can percolate into the ground, get indirectly superheated by the underlying Yellowstone hotspot, and then erupt at the surface as geysers, hot springs, and fumaroles. Thus flat-bottomed valleys between ancient lava flows and glacial moraines are where most of the large geothermal areas are located. Smaller geothermal areas can be found where fault lines reach the surface, in places along the circular fracture zone around the caldera, and at the base of slopes that collect excess groundwater. Due to the Yellowstone Plateau's high elevation the average boiling temperature at Yellowstone's geyser basins is 199 °F (93 °C). When properly confined and close to the surface it can periodically release some of the built-up pressure in eruptions of hot water and steam that can reach up to 390 feet (120 m) into the air (see Steamboat Geyser, the world's tallest geyser). Water erupting from Yellowstone's geysers is superheated above that boiling point to an average of 204 °F (95.5 °C) as it leaves the vent. The water cools significantly while airborne and is no longer scalding hot by the time it strikes the ground, nearby boardwalks, or even spectators. Because of the high temperatures of the water in the features it is important that spectators remain on the boardwalks and designated trails. Several deaths have occurred in the park as a result of falls into hot springs.

 

Prehistoric Native American artifacts have been found at Mammoth Hot Springs and other geothermal areas in Yellowstone. Some accounts state that the early people used hot water from the geothermal features for bathing and cooking. In the 19th century Father Pierre-Jean De Smet reported that natives he interviewed thought that geyser eruptions were "the result of combat between the infernal spirits". The Lewis and Clark Expedition traveled north of the Yellowstone area in 1806. Local natives that they came upon seldom dared to enter what we now know is the caldera because of frequent loud noises that sounded like thunder and the belief that the spirits that possessed the area did not like human intrusion into their realm. The first white man known to travel into the caldera and see the geothermal features was John Colter, who had left the Lewis and Clark Expedition. He described what he saw as "hot spring brimstone". Beaver trapper Joseph Meek recounted in 1830 that the steam rising from the various geyser basins reminded him of smoke coming from industrial smokestacks on a cold winter morning in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In the 1850s famed trapper Jim Bridger called it "the place where Hell bubbled up".

 

The heat that drives geothermal activity in the Yellowstone area comes from brine (salty water) that is 1.5–3 miles (7,900–15,800 ft; 2,400–4,800 m) below the surface. This is actually below the solid volcanic rock and sediment that extends to a depth of 3,000 to 6,000 feet (900 to 1,800 m) and is inside the hot but mostly solid part of the pluton that contains Yellowstone's magma chamber. At that depth the brine is superheated to temperatures that exceed 400 °F (204 °C) but is able to remain a liquid because it is under great pressure (like a huge pressure cooker).

 

Convection of the churning brine and conduction from surrounding rock transfers heat to an overlaying layer of fresh groundwater. Movement of the two liquids is facilitated by the highly fractured and porous nature of the rocks under the Yellowstone Plateau. Some silica is dissolved from the fractured rhyolite into the hot water as it travels through the fractured rock. Part of this hard mineral is later redeposited on the walls of the cracks and fissures to make a nearly pressure-tight system. Silica precipitates at the surface to form either geyserite or sinter, creating the massive geyser cones, the scalloped edges of hot springs, and the seemingly barren landscape of geyser basins.

 

There are at least five types of geothermal features found at Yellowstone:

 

Fumaroles: Fumaroles, or steam vents, are the hottest hydrothermal features in the park. They have so little water that it all flashes into steam before reaching the surface. At places like Roaring Mountain, the result is loud hissing of steam and gases.

Geysers: Geysers such as Old Faithful are a type of geothermal feature that periodically erupt scalding hot water. Increased pressure exerted by the enormous weight of the overlying rock and water prevents deeper water from boiling. As the hot water rises it is under less pressure and steam bubbles form. They, in turn, expand on their ascent until the bubbles are too big and numerous to pass freely through constrictions. At a critical point the confined bubbles actually lift the water above, causing the geyser to splash or overflow. This decreases the pressure of the system and violent boiling results. Large quantities of water flash into tremendous amounts of steam that force a jet of water out of the vent: an eruption begins. Water (and heat) is expelled faster than the geyser's recharge rate, gradually decreasing the system's pressure and eventually ending the eruption.

Hot springs: Hot springs such as Grand Prismatic Spring are the most common hydrothermal features in the park. Their plumbing has no constrictions. Superheated water cools as it reaches the surface, sinks, and is replaced by hotter water from below. This circulation, called convection, prevents water from reaching the temperature needed to set off an eruption. Many hot springs give rise to streams of heated water.

Mudpots: Mudpots such as Fountain Paint Pots are acidic hot springs with a limited water supply. Some microorganisms use hydrogen sulfide (rotten egg smell), which rises from deep within the earth, as an energy source. They convert the gas into sulfuric acid, which breaks down rock into clay.

Travertine terraces: Travertine terraces, found at Mammoth Hot Springs, are formed from limestone (a rock type made of calcium carbonate). Thermal waters rise through the limestone, carrying high amounts of dissolved carbonate. Carbon dioxide is released at the surface and calcium carbonate deposited as travertine, the chalky white rock of the terraces. These features constantly and quickly change due to the rapid rate of deposition.

Geyser basins

 

The Norris Geyser Basin 44°43′43″N 110°42′16″W is the hottest geyser basin in the park and is located near the northwest edge of Yellowstone Caldera near Norris Junction and on the intersection of three major faults. The Norris-Mammoth Corridor is a fault that runs from Norris north through Mammoth to the Gardiner, Montana, area. The Hebgen Lake fault runs from northwest of West Yellowstone, Montana, to Norris. This fault experienced an earthquake in 1959 that measured 7.4 on the Richter scale (sources vary on exact magnitude between 7.1 and 7.8; see 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake). Norris Geyser Basin is so hot and dynamic because these two faults intersect with the ring fracture zone that resulted from the creation of the Yellowstone Caldera of 640,000 years ago.

 

The Basin consists of three main areas: Porcelain Basin, Back Basin, and One Hundred Springs Plain. Unlike most of other geyser basins in the park, the waters from Norris are acidic rather than alkaline (for example, Echinus Geyser has a pH of ~3.5). The difference in pH allows for a different class of bacterial thermophiles to live at Norris, creating different color patterns in and around the Norris Basin waters.

 

The Ragged Hills that lie between Back Basin and One Hundred Springs Plain are thermally altered glacial kames. As glaciers receded the underlying thermal features began to express themselves once again, melting remnants of the ice and causing masses of debris to be dumped. These debris piles were then altered by steam and hot water flowing through them. Madison lies within the eroded stream channels cut through lava flows formed after the caldera eruption. The Gibbon Falls lies on the caldera boundary as does Virginia Cascades.

 

Algae on left bacteria on right at the intersection of flows from the Constant & Whirlgig Geysers at Norris Geyser Basin

The tallest active geyser in the world, Steamboat Geyser,[11] is located in Norris Basin. Unlike the slightly smaller but much more famous Old Faithful Geyser located in Upper Geyser Basin, Steamboat has an erratic and lengthy timetable between major eruptions. During major eruptions, which may be separated by intervals of more than a year (the longest recorded span between major eruptions was 50 years), Steamboat erupts over 300 feet (90 m) into the air. Steamboat does not lie dormant between eruptions, instead displaying minor eruptions of approximately 40 feet (12 m).

 

Norris Geyser Basin periodically undergoes a large-scale, basin-wide thermal disturbance lasting a few weeks. Water levels fluctuate, and temperatures, pH, colors, and eruptive patterns change throughout the basin. During a disturbance in 1985, Porkchop Geyser continually jetted steam and water; in 1989, the same geyser apparently clogged with silica and blew up, throwing rocks more than 200 feet (61 m). In 2003 a park ranger observed it bubbling heavily, the first such activity seen since 1991. Activity increased dramatically in mid-2003. Because of high ground temperatures and new features beside the trail much of Back Basin was closed until October. In 2004 the boardwalk was routed around the dangerous area and now leads behind Porkchop Geyser.

 

North of Norris, Roaring Mountain is a large, acidic hydrothermal area (solfatara) with many fumaroles. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the number, size, and power of the fumaroles were much greater than today. The fumaroles are most easily seen in the cooler, low-light conditions of morning and evening.

 

The Gibbon Geyser Basin 44°41′58″N 110°44′34″W includes several thermal areas in the vicinity of the Gibbon River between Gibbon Falls and Norris. The most accessible feature in the basin is Beryl Spring, with a small boardwalk right along the Grand Loop Road. Artists' Paintpots is a small hydrothermal area south of Norris Junction that includes colorful hot springs and two large mudpots.

 

The Monument Geyser Basin 44°41′03″N 110°45′14″W has no active geysers, but its 'monuments' are siliceous sinter deposits similar to the siliceous spires discovered on the floor of Yellowstone Lake. Scientists hypothesize that this basin's structures formed from a hot water system in a glacially dammed lake during the waning stages of the Pinedale Glaciation. The basin is on a ridge reached by a very steep one-mile (1.6 km) trail south of Artists' Paint Pots. Other areas of thermal activity in Gibbon Geyser Basin lie off-trail.

 

South of Norris along the rim of the caldera is the Upper Geyser Basin 44°27′52″N 110°49′45″W, which has the highest concentration of geothermal features in the park. This complement of features includes the most famous geyser in the park, Old Faithful Geyser, as well as four other predictable large geysers. One of these large geysers in the area is Castle Geyser which is about 1,400 feet (430 m) northwest of Old Faithful. Castle Geyser has an interval of approximately 13 hours between major eruptions, but is unpredictable after minor eruptions. The other three predictable geysers are Grand Geyser, Daisy Geyser, and Riverside Geyser. Biscuit Basin and Black Sand Basin are also within the boundaries of Upper Geyser Basin.

 

The hills surrounding Old Faithful and the Upper Geyser Basin are reminders of Quaternary rhyolitic lava flows. These flows, occurring long after the catastrophic eruption of 640,000 years ago, flowed across the landscape like stiff mounds of bread dough due to their high silica content.

 

Evidence of glacial activity is common, and it is one of the keys that allows geysers to exist. Glacier till deposits underlie the geyser basins providing storage areas for the water used in eruptions. Many landforms, such as Porcupine Hills north of Fountain Flats, are made up of glacial gravel and are reminders that 70,000 to 14,000 years ago, this area was buried under ice.

 

Signs of the forces of erosion can be seen everywhere, from runoff channels carved across the sinter in the geyser basins to the drainage created by the Firehole River. Mountain building is evident on the drive south of Old Faithful, toward Craig Pass. Here the Rocky Mountains reach a height of 8,262 feet (2,518 m), dividing the country into two distinct watersheds.

 

Midway Geyser Basin 44°31′04″N 110°49′56″W is much smaller than the other basins found alongside the Firehole River. Despite its small size, it contains two large features, the 200-by-300-foot-wide (60 by 90 m) Excelsior Geyser which pours over 4,000 U.S. gallons (15,000 L; 3,300 imp gal) per minute into the Firehole River. The largest hot spring in Yellowstone, the 370-foot-wide (110 m) and 121-foot-deep (37 m) Grand Prismatic Spring is found here. Also in the basin is Turquoise Pool and Opal Pool.

 

Lower Geyser Basin

Blue spring with steam rising from it; irregular blotches of red and orange residue are on the banks, along with dead tree trunks.

Silex Spring at Fountain Paint Pot

 

Farther north is the Lower Geyser Basin 44°32′58″N 110°50′09″W, which is the largest geyser basin in area, covering approximately 11 square miles. Due to its large size, it has a much less concentrated set of geothermal features, including Fountain Paint Pots. Fountain Paint Pots are mud pots, that is, a hot spring that contains boiling mud instead of water. The mud is produced by a higher acidity in the water which enables the spring to dissolve surrounding minerals to create an opaque, usually grey, mud. Also there is Firehole Spring, Celestine Pool, Leather Pool, Red Spouter, Jelly spring, and a number of fumaroles.

 

Geysers in Lower Geyser Basin include Great Fountain Geyser, whose eruptions reach 100 to 200 feet (30–61 m) in the air, while waves of water cascade down its sinter terraces., the Fountain group of Geysers (Clepsydra Geyser which erupts nearly continuously to heights of 45 feet (14 m), Fountain Geyser, Jelly Geyser, Jet Geyser, Morning Geyser, and Spasm Geyser), the Pink Cone group of geysers (Dilemma Geyser, Labial Geyser, Narcissus Geyser, Pink Geyser, and Pink Cone Geyser), the White Dome group of geysers (Crack Geyser, Gemini Geyser, Pebble Geyser, Rejuvenated Geyser, and White Dome Geyser), as well as Sizzler Geyser.

 

Clepsydra Geyser erupting. July 2019

Fountain Paint Pots

White Dome Geyser

West Thumb Geyser Basin

Several pools of blue water in ashen rock basin.

West Thumb Geyser Basin

Blackened basin with orange streaks; steam is rising from it with fir trees in the background.

Overflow areas of Silex springs

 

The West Thumb Geyser Basin 44°25′07″N 110°34′23″W, including Potts Basin to the north, is the largest geyser basin on the shores of Yellowstone Lake. The heat source of the thermal features in this location is thought to be relatively close to the surface, only 10,000 feet (3,000 m) down. West Thumb is about the same size as another famous volcanic caldera, Crater Lake in Oregon, but much smaller than the great Yellowstone Caldera which last erupted about 640,000 years ago. West Thumb is a caldera within a caldera.

 

West Thumb was created approximately 162,000 years ago when a magma chamber bulged up under the surface of the earth and subsequently cracked it along ring fracture zones. This in turn released the enclosed magma as lava and caused the surface above the emptied magma chamber to collapse. Water later filled the collapsed area of the caldera, forming an extension of Yellowstone Lake. This created the source of heat and water that feed the West Thumb Geyser Basin today.

 

The thermal features at West Thumb are not only found on the lake shore, but extend under the surface of the lake as well. Several underwater hydrothermal features were discovered in the early 1990s and can be seen as slick spots or slight bulges in the summer. During the winter, the underwater thermal features are visible as melt holes in the icy surface of the lake. The surrounding ice can reach three feet (one yard) in thickness.

 

Perhaps the most famous hydrothermal feature at West Thumb is a geyser on the lake shore known as Fishing Cone. Walter Trumbull of the 1870 Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition described a unique event while a man was fishing adjacent to the cone: "...in swinging a trout ashore, it accidentally got off the hook and fell into the spring. For a moment it darted about with wonderful rapidity, as if seeking an outlet. Then it came to the top, dead, and literally boiled." Fishing Cone erupted frequently to the height of 40 feet (12 m) in 1919 and to lesser heights in 1939. One fisherman was badly burned in Fishing Cone in 1921. Fishing at the geyser is now prohibited.

 

Early visitors would arrive at West Thumb via stagecoach from the Old Faithful area. They had a choice of continuing on the stagecoach or boarding the steamship Zillah to continue the journey by water to Lake Hotel. The boat dock was located near the south end of the geyser basin near Lakeside Spring.

 

Backcountry Geyser Basins

The Heart Lake 44°18′00″N 110°30′56″W, Lone Star 44°24′50″N 110°49′04″W, and Shoshone Geyser Basins 44°21′16″N 110°47′57″W are located away from the road and require at least several miles of hiking to reach. These areas lack the boardwalks and other safety features of the developed areas. As falling into geothermal features can be fatal, it is usually advisable to visit these areas with an experienced guide or at the very least, travelers need to ensure they remain on well-marked trails.

 

The Heart Lake Geyser Basin contains several groups of geysers and deep blue hot springs near Heart Lake in the south-central portion of Yellowstone, southeast of most of the main geyser basins. Lying in the Snake River watershed east of Lewis Lake and south of Yellowstone Lake, Heart Lake was named sometime before 1871 for Hart Hunney, a hunter. Other explorers in the region incorrectly assumed that the lake's name was spelled 'heart' because of its shape. The Heart Lake Geyser Basin begins a couple miles from the lake and descends along Witch Creek to the lakeshore. Five groups of hydrothermal features comprise the basin, and all of them contain geysers, although some are dormant.

 

Between Shoshone Lake and Old Faithful is the Lone Star Geyser Basin, of which the primary feature is Lone Star Geyser, named for its isolation from the nearby geysers of the Upper Geyser Basin. The basin is reachable on foot or bicycle via a 3 mile road that is closed to vehicles.

 

The Shoshone Geyser Basin, reached by hiking or by boat, contains one of the highest concentrations of geysers in the world – more than 80 in an area 1,600 by 800 feet (490 by 240 m). Hot springs and mudpots dot the landscape between the geyser basin and Shoshone Lake.

 

Hot Spring Basin is located 15 miles (24 km) north-northeast of Fishing Bridge and has one of Yellowstone's largest collections of hot springs and fumaroles. The geothermal features there release large amounts of sulfur. This makes water from the springs so acidic that it has dissolved holes in the pants of people who sit on wet ground and causes mounds of sulfur three feet (1 m) high to develop around fumaroles. The very hot acidic water and steam have also created voids in the ground that are only covered by a thin crust.

 

Mammoth Hot Springs is a large complex of hot springs on a hill of travertine in Yellowstone National Park adjacent to Fort Yellowstone and the Mammoth Hot Springs Historic District. It was created over thousands of years as hot water from the spring cooled and deposited calcium carbonate (over two tons flow into Mammoth each day in a solution). Because of the huge amount of geothermal vents, travertine flourishes. Although these springs lie outside the caldera boundary, their energy has been attributed to the same magmatic system that fuels other Yellowstone geothermal areas.

 

The thermal features at Mud Volcano and Sulphur Caldron are primarily mud pots and fumaroles because the area is situated on a perched water system with little water available. Fumaroles or "steam vents" occur when the ground water boils away faster than it can be recharged. Also, the vapors are rich in sulfuric acid that leaches the rock, breaking it down into clay. Because no water washes away the acid or leached rock, it remains as sticky clay to form a mud pot. Hydrogen sulfide gas is present deep in the earth at Mud Volcano and is oxidized to sulfuric acid by microbial activity, which dissolves the surface soils to create pools and cones of clay and mud. Along with hydrogen sulfide, steam, carbon dioxide, and other gases explode through the layers of mud.

 

A series of shallow earthquakes associated with the volcanic activity in Yellowstone struck this area in 1978. Soil temperatures increased to nearly 200 °F (93 °C). The slope between Sizzling Basin and Mud Geyser, once covered with green grass and trees, became a barren landscape of fallen trees known as "the cooking hillside".

 

Yellowstone National Park is a national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872. Yellowstone was the first national park in the U.S. and is also widely held to be the first national park in the world. The park is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features, especially the Old Faithful geyser, one of its most popular. While it represents many types of biomes, the subalpine forest is the most abundant. It is part of the South Central Rockies forests ecoregion.

 

While Native Americans have lived in the Yellowstone region for at least 11,000 years, aside from visits by mountain men during the early-to-mid-19th century, organized exploration did not begin until the late 1860s. Management and control of the park originally fell under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of the Interior, the first Secretary of the Interior to supervise the park being Columbus Delano. However, the U.S. Army was eventually commissioned to oversee the management of Yellowstone for 30 years between 1886 and 1916. In 1917, the administration of the park was transferred to the National Park Service, which had been created the previous year. Hundreds of structures have been built and are protected for their architectural and historical significance, and researchers have examined more than a thousand archaeological sites.

 

Yellowstone National Park spans an area of 3,468.4 sq mi (8,983 km2), comprising lakes, canyons, rivers, and mountain ranges. Yellowstone Lake is one of the largest high-elevation lakes in North America and is centered over the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest super volcano on the continent. The caldera is considered a dormant volcano. It has erupted with tremendous force several times in the last two million years. Well over half of the world's geysers and hydrothermal features are in Yellowstone, fueled by this ongoing volcanism. Lava flows and rocks from volcanic eruptions cover most of the land area of Yellowstone. The park is the centerpiece of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the largest remaining nearly intact ecosystem in the Earth's northern temperate zone. In 1978, Yellowstone was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

 

Hundreds of species of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians have been documented, including several that are either endangered or threatened. The vast forests and grasslands also include unique species of plants. Yellowstone Park is the largest and most famous megafauna location in the contiguous United States. Grizzly bears, cougars, wolves, and free-ranging herds of bison and elk live in this park. The Yellowstone Park bison herd is the oldest and largest public bison herd in the United States. Forest fires occur in the park each year; in the large forest fires of 1988, nearly one-third of the park was burnt. Yellowstone has numerous recreational opportunities, including hiking, camping, boating, fishing, and sightseeing. Paved roads provide close access to the major geothermal areas as well as some of the lakes and waterfalls. During the winter, visitors often access the park by way of guided tours that use either snow coaches or snowmobiles.

 

Teton County is a county in the U.S. state of Wyoming. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 23,331. Its county seat is Jackson. Its west boundary line is also the Wyoming state boundary shared with Idaho and the southern tip of Montana. Teton County is part of the Jackson, WY-ID Micropolitan Statistical Area.

 

Teton County contains the Jackson Hole ski area, all of Grand Teton National Park, and 40.4% of Yellowstone National Park's total area, including over 96.6% of its water area (largely in Yellowstone Lake).

 

Wyoming is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the south. With a population of 576,851 in 2020, Wyoming is the least populous state despite being the 10th largest by area, with the second-lowest population density after Alaska. The state capital and most populous city is Cheyenne, which had an estimated population of 63,957 in 2018.

 

Wyoming's western half consists mostly of the ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountains; its eastern half consists of high-elevation prairie, and is referred to as the High Plains. Wyoming's climate is semi-arid in some parts and continental in others, making it drier and windier overall than other states, with greater temperature extremes. The federal government owns just under half of Wyoming's land, generally protecting it for public uses. The state ranks sixth in the amount of land—-and fifth in the proportion of its land—-that is owned by the federal government. Its federal lands include two national parks (Grand Teton and Yellowstone), two national recreation areas, two national monuments, and several national forests, as well as historic sites, fish hatcheries, and wildlife refuges.

 

Indigenous peoples inhabited the region for thousands of years. Historic and currently federally recognized tribes include the Arapaho, Crow, Lakota, and Shoshone. Part of the land that is now Wyoming came under American sovereignty via the Louisiana Purchase, part via the Oregon Treaty, and, lastly, via the Mexican Cession. With the opening of the Oregon Trail, the Mormon Trail, and the California Trail, vast numbers of pioneers travelled through parts of the state that had once been traversed mainly by fur trappers, and this spurred the establishment of forts, such as Fort Laramie, that today serve as population centers. The Transcontinental Railroad supplanted the wagon trails in 1867 with a route through southern Wyoming, bringing new settlers and the establishment of founding towns, including the state capital of Cheyenne. On March 27, 1890, Wyoming became the union's 44th state.

 

Farming and ranching, and the attendant range wars, feature prominently in the state's history. Today, Wyoming's economy is largely based on tourism and the extraction of minerals such as coal, natural gas, oil, and trona. Its agricultural commodities include barley, hay, livestock, sugar beets, wheat, and wool.

 

Wyoming was the first state to allow women the right to vote (not counting New Jersey, which had allowed it until 1807), and the right to assume elected office, as well as the first state to elect a female governor. In honor of this part of its history, its most common nickname is "The Equality State" and its official state motto is "Equal Rights". It is among the least religious states in the country, and is known for having a political culture that leans towards libertarian conservatism. The Republican presidential nominee has carried the state in every election since 1968.

Built in the 1600's or 1700's.

 

"Stately baroque plastered building with hipped mansard roof, original roof structure; characterizing the space.

 

Pfalzel is one of the 19 districts of the city of Trier in Rhineland-Palatinate.

 

Pfalzel lies in the northeast of the city, west of the Moselle. It has around 3,450 inhabitants.

 

The Steigenberg in the Pfalzel district is 350 m high. The Wallenbach (Kyll) rises at its northeast foot.

 

Similar to the Ruwer district opposite, Pfalzel is located in the flood area of ​​the Moselle. For several years now, a partially mobile flood protection system that can be installed quickly has protected houses on the Moselle up to a water level of over eleven meters. The massive protective gates on the Moselle cycle path cannot be overlooked.

 

Hardly any of Trier's previously independent districts can look back on a history as diverse as Pfalzel. The name goes back to the Latin word “palatiolum” (= little Palatinate) and was originally the name for a palatial castle complex from the 4th century, which was most likely closely related to the imperial court in Trier. Some of the walls of the complex that have been preserved to this day extend up to the second floor.

 

In the 7th century, a nunnery was founded in the building, which was de facto dissolved in 1016/17 by Archbishop Poppo von Babenberg and converted into a canon monastery. The monastery ring was supplemented with a gatehouse, cloister, chapels and farm buildings. Until the 16th century, the castle and monastery were surrounded by an impressive rampart wall that has been preserved to this day and was supplemented by a tithe barn, an Electoral Trier office building, a mint and a mill.

 

Under Archbishop Albero of Montreuil (1131–1152) work began on building a castle complex in the western part of the Palatiolum. A previous castle construction cannot be determined from the written sources. The Palatinate Castle repeatedly served as an alternative and “counter-residence” for the Archbishops of Trier when there were disputes with the municipality of Trier.

 

A civil farming settlement developed in the area around the castle, which, secured with its own defensive wall, gained town status in 1346.

 

During Electoral Trier times, the Pfalzel district comprised 54 towns around Trier. In French times, the canton of Pfalzel existed with several mairie.

 

In the Prussian period from 1815 onwards, Biewer and Ehrang, among others, belonged to the Pfalzel mayor's office. Biewer was separated in 1930 and incorporated into Trier, but Pfalzel initially remained independent.

 

On March 1, 1968, the two independent communities of Ehrang and Pfalzel were united to form one large community. Just a year later, however, on June 7, 1969, the municipality of Ehrang-Pfalzel was incorporated into the city of Trier. Since then, Pfalzel and Ehrang/Quint have been districts of the city of Trier.

 

Mosel (German: [ˈmoːzl̩]) is one of 13 German wine regions (Weinbaugebiete) for quality wines (Qualitätswein, formerly QbA and Prädikatswein), and takes its name from the Mosel River (French: Moselle; Luxembourgish: Musel). Before 1 August 2007 the region was called Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, but changed to a name that was considered more consumer-friendly. The wine region is Germany's third largest in terms of production but some consider it the leading region in terms of international prestige.

 

The region covers the valleys of the rivers Mosel, Saar, and Ruwer from near the mouth of the Mosel at Koblenz and upstream to the vicinity of Trier in the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The area is known for the steep slopes of the region's vineyards overlooking the river. At 65° degrees incline, the steepest recorded vineyard in the world is the Calmont vineyard located on the Mosel and belonging to the village of Bremm, and therefore referred to as Bremmer Calmont. The Mosel is mainly famous for its wines made from the Riesling grape, but Elbling and Müller-Thurgau also contribute to the production, among others.

 

In the past two decades red wine production, especially from the Spätburgunder (Pinot noir), has increased in the Mosel and throughout the German vignoble and has become of increasing interest to the international wine community. Because of the northerly location of the Mosel, the Riesling wines are often light, tending to lower alcohol, crisp and high in acidity, and often exhibit "flowery" rather than or in addition to "fruity" aromas. Its most common vineyard soil is derived in the main from various kinds of slate deposits, which tend to give the wines a transparent, mineralic aspect, that often exhibit great depth of flavor. In the current era of climate change much work has been done to improve and gain acceptance for completely dry ("Trocken") Rieslings in this region, so that most of the more famous makers have found acceptance for such wines, particularly in Europe." - info from Wikipedia.

 

Summer 2019 I did a solo cycling tour across Europe through 12 countries over the course of 3 months. I began my adventure in Edinburgh, Scotland and finished in Florence, Italy cycling 8,816 km. During my trip I took 47,000 photos.

 

Now on Instagram.

 

Become a patron to my photography on Patreon or donate.

Looks like the perfect place for enchanted creatures. Can't you just see the pixies playing? Hydrangeas in different acidity, creating both blue and pink flower colors.

 

Explore #446 May 6, 2007

French postcard by Editions NLS, Paris, no. A-6. Caption: Lio en concert à L'Olympia.

 

Belgian-Portuguese singer Lio (1962) had a huge success in 1979 in France and Belgium with her song 'Banana Split'. With more than 1 million singles sold, it became one of the most popular hits in French-language music of the 1980s. She had further pop hits with 'Amoureux solitaires' (1980), 'Amicalement votre' (1981) and 'Mona Lisa' (1982). She also appeared in several French films.

 

Lio was born as Vanda Maria Ribeiro Furtado Tavares de Vasconcelos in 1962 in Mangualde, a small town in Portugal. Her parents were politically left-wing, and Lio has remained true to this social vision. Her parents divorced and, in 1968, Vanda moved with her mother and new stepfather to Brussels, Belgium, where her sister, actress Helena Noguerra, was born. In her teens, she was determined to become a singer, and she was encouraged by singer-songwriter Jacques Duvall (né Eric Verwilghem), a family friend. She took her stage name, Lio, from a character in the Barbarella comic books by Jean-Claude Forest. Lio is a lolitesque teenager that Barbarella must save from the bad guys. In 1979, together with songwriter Jay Alanski, she and Duvall began working with Marc Moulin and Dan Lacksman from the electro-trio Telex. According to Dutch Wikipedia, she owed her record deal to the Belgian tax laws, which obliged her music company to take on Belgian artists as well. To the amazement of everyone, including Lio herself, her song 'Banana Split (1979)' became a big hit in Belgium and France. 'The follow-up 'Amoureux solitaires' (1980), a song originally by punk rock band Stinky Toys, also became a hit in the Netherlands. Moulin and Lacksman also produced her self-titled first album which estabilished Lio as the perfect European Electro Pop starlet. Other songs like 'Amicalement votre' (1981) and 'Mona Lisa' (1982). also sold well. Lio has, in her own words, "a voice with a high acidity content". Her repertoire meets this requirement by its lack of sentimentality, which is quite exceptional in French light music. In 1982 the American music duo Ron and Russell Mael, of Sparks, worked with her on the album Suite sixtine, on which some of her previous songs were translated into English. In 1985, she met record company executive and producer Michel Esteban, of ZE Records. She continued to have hit singles in Europe, including 'Les brunes comptent pas pour des prunes', and travelled to Los Angeles with Esteban to record her next album 'Pop model' (1986). Several of the tracks were co-produced by John Cale, formerly of the Velvet Underground, and the album produced the hits 'Fallait pas commencer', 'Je casse tout ce que je touche'. and 'Chauffeur'. Lio performed four days of concerts at the Olympia of Paris and in 1987, she gave birth to Nubia, the first of her six children.

 

Lio entered the film world in 1983. She played a carefree hairdresser in Golden Eighties (Chantal Akerman, 1986), a lighthearted, humorous French pop musical about the people who work together in a Parisian shopping centre. It was followed by the romantic comedy Elsa, Elsa (Didier Haudepin, 1985) with François Cluzet. Then followed Itinéraire d'un enfant gâté/Itinerary of a Spoiled Child (Claude Lelouch, 1988), the last big hit of the career of Jean-Paul Belmondo. After Lio's album 'Can Can' (1988) flopped, she decided to become a fashion designer. It became a commercial success and from 1988 to 1990 she was allowed to design for Prisunic. In 1990, she stopped designing and resumed making films. She played with Michel Blanc and Jacques Dutronc in the comedy Chambre à part (Jacky Cukier, 1989). Her next films were Jalousie/Jealousy (Kathleen Fonmarty, 1991), the romantic drama Sale come un ange/Dirty Like an Angel (Catherine Breillat, 1991) with Claude Brasseur, and the drama Sans un cri (Jeanne Labrune, 1991). In Après l'amour (Diane Kurys, 1992) she co-starred with Isabelle Huppert and Bernard Giraudeau. Lio also appeared in various men's magazines, such as the French Playboy. In 1991, she recorded her album 'Des fleurs pour un caméléon' which had little more success than 'Can Can'. Around her 30th birthday, Lio decided that it was time to get rid of her babydoll image, but the studios did not agree. She starred in the Spanish film La Madre muerta/The Dead Mother (Juanma Bajo Ulloa, 1993). the French film Personne ne m'aime (Marion Vernoux, 1994) opposite Bernadette Lafont and Bulle Ogier, and the Spanish-French coproduction Niña de tus sueños (Jesús R. Delgado, 1995). Her 1996 album 'Wandatta' was more mature, but the general public was not very interested in her new style. Lio's singing career took an unexpected turn in 1999 with her album 'Lio chante Prévert', with classical chansons based on texts by the French literary great Jacques Prévert. The album received good reviews, and earned Lio some major concerts, in Paris and Spa. In 1999 she also appeared in 50 performances of the French adaptation of 'Seven Brides For Seven Brothers', a musical staged at the Folies Bergère. But her success never became what it was in the 1980s. In 1999 she divorced her husband, singer Zad and also sued him for assault. In 2004, the then 42-year-old Lio published her autobiography 'LIO popmodel' in collaboration with the journalist Gilles Verlant. she released the live album Cœur de rubis in 2004. That year, she also appeared in over 250 performances of the theatre play 'Le Bébé', an adaptation of a book by Marie Darrieussecq staged by Marc Goldberg. She also continued to appear in films such as Pas douce/A Parting Shot (Jeanne Waltz, 2007), Une vieille maîtresse/The Last Mistress (Catherine Breillat, 2007) with Asia Argento, and La robe du soir (Myriam Aziza, 2009). Since 2008, Lio has been a judge on the French "pop idol" show Nouvelle Star. In 2009, she returned to music with the rock band Phantom. In 2011, she became a judge on The Voice Belgique. In the following years, several of Lio's songs, like 'Mona Lisa' (1982) have been rediscovered and used as samples in songs by artists in the Nu-disco, House and EDM genres. Later films include Un poison violent/Love like poison (Katell Quillévéré, 2010) with Michel Galabru, Stars 80 (Frédéric Forestier, Thomas Langmann, 2012) with Richard Anconina, and the TV film Elle m'a sauvée/She saved me (Ionut Teianu, 2022). Her most recent album is 'Lio canta Caymmi' (2018). It consists of half-Portuguese, half-French covers of songs by the Brazilian composer Dorival Caymmi. It was the first time she recorded an entire album in Portuguese, her mother tongue. Lio has six children.

 

Sources: ZE Records, Wikipedia (Dutch and English), and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Le cratère du Kawah Ijen abrite un lac acide ovale d'un kilomètre de longueur, de 600 m de largeur et couleur turquoise due à l'extrême acidité de ses eaux, ce qui lui vaut d'être considéré comme le lac le plus acide du monde avec un potentiel hydrogène avoisinant 0,22,3. À proximité des berges de ce lac se trouve une solfatare produisant de grandes quantités de minerai de soufre qui se cristallise en concrétions après avoir été émis sous forme de vapeurs.

The crater of the Kawah Ijen acid is a lake oval kilometer long, 600 m wide and turquoise color due to the extreme acidity of waters, which it is to be considered the most acidic lake world with a potential hydrogen nearby. Near the banks of this lake is a solfatara producing large quantities of sulfur ore concretions which crystallizes after being emitted in the form of vapor.

是搭配夏天，換了繽紛的杯墊？

Fraser Island has over 100 freshwater lakes; the freshwater lakes on Fraser Island are some of the cleanest lakes in the world. A popular tourist area is Lake McKenzie, a perched lake sitting on top of compact sand and vegetable matter 100 metres (330 ft) above sea level. Lake McKenzie has an area of 150 hectares and is just over 5 metres (16 ft) in depth. The beach sand of Lake McKenzie is nearly pure silica. Because of the organic acids in the water, a pH level of 3.7 has been measured in some of the island's perched lakes. The high acidity levels prevent many species from living in the lakes.

  

All the charm of Provence. A blend of Cinsault, Grenache, Syrah and Carignan. Reminiscent of grapefruit, cinnamon and red berries . On the palate there are notes of orange blossom, strawberries, cooked oranges and zest of lemons. There is a firm but well balanced acidity ending with a slight saltiness

Soak some chickpeas (garbanzo beans?) overnight, put them in your pressure cooker — don't have one? You should, they're great! — add at east 3 cups (750 ml) of water, a couple of peeled cloves of garlic, a couple of bay leaves, lock it up, and cook for 40 mins on high pressure. Then let it cool naturally for 15 mins. If you're using a soup pot, cook the peas until just 'al dente' in a couple of cups of water.

 

Meanwhile, thoroughly wash a bunch of spinach (probably 8-10 stalks? Ours here in Aus is really sandy) cut off the roots, and set aside to drain in a colander.

 

Finely chop 1/2 of an onion, a clove of shallot, a couple of cloves of garlic, and 1/2 stalk of celery. (If you like chilli, add it here, finely chopped). Set aside at the ready.

 

Rinse 3 or 4 tomatoes, 4 or 5 small potatoes, let drain. I suppose one could use canned tomatoes, if no good, ripe ones are available...

 

When you can open the pressure cooker, do so and pour the chickpeas into a sieve over a bowl, to conserve the liquid (it's great for soup stock!).

 

Rinse your pressure cooker or pot, dry it, and pour in some oil — I usually use rice bran oil, rather than olive, but use whatever suits your taste.

 

Sauter the onion, garlic, shallot, and celery in the oil until translucent, before finely dicing the tomatoes and adding them.

 

Add salt, pepper, Maggi sauce, as many curry powders as you have to taste, a splash of V8 juice, and anything else you'd like: like maybe a bit of ground coriander, turmeric, some soy sauce, or whatever you like to spice things up with.

 

Chop the potatoes into bite-sized pieces and add to the mix.

 

Simmer and stir occasionally, so that things don't stick and the flavours blend well. Maybe 20 minutes?

 

When the potatoes are getting a bit tender, roughly chop the drained spinach and add to the mixture.

 

Add the juice of 1/2 lime or lemon, as you prefer. (Spinach always likes a bit of acidity...)

 

When the spinach is well wilted, add the chickpeas and warm the whole dish before serving in dishes you've warmed in the microwave or oven...

 

I don't suppose this dish needs anything else, since it's pretty well balanced, but one could add pickles & poppadoms, if you like...

 

Once a year Coral spawning provides a spectacular event on the Great Barrier Reef. It’s often called the world’s largest orgasm on the world’s largest organism. Coral polyps release billions of tiny eggs and sperm into the water simultaneously creating a perfect environment for fertilization to take place.

The above images show Polups about to let go of their eggs, eggs floating to the surface. and a slick of eggs floating on the surface the next day

Coral spawning usually occurs at night, when most plankton feeders are asleep, in order to give the eggs a good shot at survival.

When fertilized by sperm, an egg floats around in the water for days or weeks before settling onto the ocean floor. Soon it begins to grow and a new coral colony develops.

Let us hope that ocean temperatures and acidity can be kept to a minimum so the incredible corals found all around the world can survive.

GBR

FNQ

 

To read our story about Mackay reef click below

www.cruisingtheedge.com/photographing-mackay-reef-nth-qld/

(further information and pictures you can get by clicking on the link at the end of page!)

Mariahilferstraße

Mariahilferstraße, 6th, 7th, 14th and 15th, since 1897 (in the 6th and 7th district originally Kremser Sraße, then Bavarian highway, Laimgrubner main road, Mariahilfer main street, Fünfhauserstraße, Schönbrunnerstraße and Penzinger Poststraße, then Schönbrunner Straße), in memory of the old suburb name; Mariahilf was an independent municipality from 1660 to 1850, since then with Gumpendorf, Magdalenengrund, Windmühle and Laimgrube 6th District.

From

aeiou - the cultural information system of the bm: bwk

14,000 key words and 2000 pictures from history, geography, politics and business in Austria

www.aeiou.at

Mariahilferstraße, 1908 - Wien Museum

Mariahilferstraße, 1908

Picture taken from "August Stauda - A documentarian of old Vienna"

published by Christian Brandstätter - to Book Description

History

Pottery and wine

The first ones who demonstrably populated the area of ​​today's Mariahilferstraße (after the mammoth) were the Illyrians. They took advantage of the rich clay deposits for making simple vessels. The Celts planted on the sunny hills the first grape vines and understood the wine-making process very well. When the Romans occupied at the beginning of our Era Vienna for several centuries, they left behind many traces. The wine culture of the Celts they refined. On the hill of today's Mariahilferstraße run a Roman ridge trail, whose origins lay in the camp of Vindobona. After the rule of the Romans, the migration of peoples temporarily led many cultures here until after the expulsion of the Avars Bavarian colonists came from the West.

The peasant Middle Ages - From the vineyard to the village

Thanks to the loamy soil formed the winery, which has been pushed back only until the development of the suburbs, until the mid-17th Century the livelihood of the rural population. "Im Schöff" but also "Schöpf - scoop" and "Schiff - ship" (from "draw of") the area at the time was called. The erroneous use of a ship in the seal of the district is reminiscent of the old name, which was then replaced by the picture of grace "Mariahilf". The Weinberg (vineyard) law imposed at that time that the ground rent in the form of mash on the spot had to be paid. This was referred to as a "draw".

1495 the Mariahilfer wine was added to the wine disciplinary regulations for Herrenweine (racy, hearty, fruity, pithy wine with pleasant acidity) because of its special quality and achieved high prices.

1529 The first Turkish siege

Mariahilferstraße, already than an important route to the West, was repeatedly the scene of historical encounters. When the Turks besieged Vienna for the first time, was at the lower end of today Mariahilferstrasse, just outside the city walls of Vienna, a small settlement of houses and cottages, gardens and fields. Even the St. Theobald Monastery was there. This so-called "gap" was burned at the approach of the Turks, for them not to offer hiding places at the siege. Despite a prohibition, the area was rebuilt after departure of the Turks.

1558, a provision was adopted so that the glacis, a broad, unobstructed strip between the city wall and the outer settlements, should be left free. The Glacis existed until the demolition of the city walls in 1858. Here the ring road was later built.

1663 The new Post Road

With the new purpose of the Mariahilferstrasse as post road the first three roadside inn houses were built. At the same time the travel increased, since the carriages were finally more comfortable and the roads safer. Two well-known expressions date from this period. The "tip" and "kickbacks". In the old travel handbooks of that time we encounter them as guards beside the route, the travel and baggage tariff. The tip should the driver at the rest stop pay for the drink, while the bribe was calculated in proportion to the axle grease. Who was in a hurry, just paid a higher lubricant (Schmiergeld) or tip to motivate the coachman.

1683 The second Turkish siege

The second Turkish siege brought Mariahilferstraße the same fate. Meanwhile, a considerable settlement was formed, a real suburb, which, however, still had a lot of fields and brick pits. Again, the suburb along the Mariahilferstraße was razed to the ground, the population sought refuge behind the walls or in the Vienna Woods. The reconstruction progressed slowly since there was a lack of funds and manpower. Only at the beginning of the 18th Century took place a targeted reconstruction.

1686 Palais Esterhazy

On several "Brandstetten", by the second Turkish siege destroyed houses, the Hungarian aristocratic family Esterhazy had built herself a simple palace, which also had a passage on the Mariahilferstrasse. 1764 bought the innkeeper Paul Winkelmayr from Spittelberg the building, demolished it and built two new buildings that have been named in accordance with the Esterhazy "to the Hungarian crown."

17th Century to 19th Century. Fom the village to suburb

With the development of the settlements on the Mariahilferstraße from village to suburbs, changed not only the appearance but also the population. More and more agricultural land fell victim to the development, craftsmen and tradesmen settled there. There was an incredible variety of professions and trades, most of which were organized into guilds or crafts. Those cared for vocational training, quality and price of the goods, and in cases of unemployment, sickness and death.

The farms were replaced by churches and palaces, houses and shops. Mariahilf changed into a major industrial district, Mariahilferstrasse was an important trading center. Countless street traders sold the goods, which they carried either with them, or put in a street stall on display. The dealers made themselves noticeable by a significant Kaufruf (purchase call). So there was the ink man who went about with his bottles, the Wasserbauer (hydraulic engineering) who sold Danube water on his horse-drawn vehicle as industrial water, or the lavender woman. This lovely Viennese figures disappeared with the emergence of fixed premises and the improvement of urban transport.

Private carriages, horse-drawn carriages and buggies populated the streets, who used this route also for trips. At Mariahilferplatz Linientor (gate) was the main stand of the cheapest and most popular means of transport, the Zeiselwagen, which the Wiener used for their excursions into nature, which gradually became fashionable. In the 19th Century then yet arrived the Stellwagen (carriage) and bus traffic which had to accomplish the connection between Vienna and the suburbs. As a Viennese joke has it, suggests the Stellwagen that it has been so called because it did not come from the spot.

1719 - 1723 Royal and Imperial Court Stables

Emperor Charles VI. gave the order for the construction of the stables to Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. 1772 the building was extended by two houses on the Mariahilferstrasse. The size of the stables still shows, as it serves as the Museum Quarter - its former importance. The Mariahilferstraße since the building of Schönbrunn Palace by the Imperial court very strongly was frequented. Today in the historic buildings the Museum Quarter is housed.

The church and monastery of Maria Hülff

Coloured engraving by J. Ziegler, 1783

1730 Mariahilferkirche

1711 began the renovation works at the Mariahilferkirche, giving the church building today's appearance and importance as a baroque monument. The plans stem from Franziskus Jänkl, the foreman of Lukas von Hildebrandt. Originally stood on the site of the Mariahilferkirche in the medieval vineyard "In Schoeff" a cemetery with wooden chapel built by the Barnabites. Already in those days, the miraculous image Mariahilf was located therein. During the Ottoman siege the chapel was destroyed, the miraculous image could be saved behind the protective walls. After the provisional reconstruction the miraculous image in a triumphal procession was returned, accompanied by 30,000 Viennese.

1790 - 1836 Ferdinand Raimund

Although in the district Mariahilf many artists and historical figures of Vienna lived , it is noticeable that as a residence they rather shunned the Mariahilferstraße, because as early as in the 18th Century there was a very lively and loud bustle on the street. The most famous person who was born on the Mariahilferstrasse is the folk actor and dramatist Ferdinand Raimund. He came in the house No. 45, "To the Golden deer (Zum Goldenen Hirschen)", which still exists today, as son of a turner into the world. As confectioners apprentice, he also had to visit the theaters, where he was a so-called "Numero", who sold his wares to the visitors. This encounter with the theater was fateful. He took flight from his training masters and joined a traveling troupe as an actor. After his return to Vienna, he soon became the most popular comedian. In his plays all those figures appeared then bustling the streets of Vienna. His most famous role was that of the "ash man" in "Farmer as Millionaire", a genuine Viennese guy who brings the wood ash in Butte from the houses, and from the proceeds leading a modest existence.

1805 - 1809 French occupation

The two-time occupation of Vienna by the French hit the suburbs hard. But the buildings were not destroyed fortunately.

19th century Industrialization

Here, where a higher concentration of artisans had developed as in other districts, you could feel the competition of the factories particularly hard. A craftsman after another became factory worker, women and child labor was part of the day-to-day business. With the sharp rise of the population grew apartment misery and flourished bed lodgers and roomers business.

1826

The Mariahilferstraße is paved up to the present belt (Gürtel).

1848 years of the revolution

The Mariahilferstraße this year was in turmoil. At the outbreak of the revolution, the hatred of the people was directed against the Verzehrungssteuerämter (some kind of tax authority) at the lines that have been blamed for the rise of food prices, and against the machines in the factories that had made the small craftsmen out of work or dependent workers. In October, students, workers and citizens tore up paving stones and barricaded themselves in the Mariahilfer Linientor (the so-called Linienwall was the tax frontier) in the area of ​​today's belt.

1858 The Ring Road

The city walls fell and on the glacis arose the ring-road, the now 6th District more closely linking to the city center.

1862 Official naming

The Mariahilferstraße received its to the present day valid name, after it previously was bearing the following unofficial names: "Bavarian country road", "Mariahilfer Grund Straße", "Penzinger Street", "Laimgrube main street" and "Schönbrunner Linienstraße".

The turn of the century: development to commercial street

After the revolution of 1848, the industry displaced the dominant small business rapidly. At the same time the Mariahilferstraße developed into the first major shopping street of Vienna. The rising supply had to be passed on to the customer, and so more and more new shops sprang up. Around the turn of the century broke out a real building boom. The low suburban houses with Baroque and Biedermeier facade gave way to multi-storey houses with flashy and ostentatious facades in that historic style mixture, which was so characteristic of the late Ringstrasse period. From the former historic buildings almost nothing remained. The business portals were bigger and more pompous, the first department stores in the modern style were Gerngross and Herzmansky. Especially the clothing industry took root here.

1863 Herzmansky opened

On 3 March opened August Herzmansky a small general store in the Church Lane (Kirchengasse) 4. 1897 the great establishment in the pin alley (Stiftgasse) was opened, the largest textile company of the monarchy. August Herzmansky died a year before the opening, two nephews take over the business. In 1928, Mariahilferstraße 28 is additionally acquired. 1938, the then owner Max Delfiner had to flee, the company Rhonberg and Hämmerle took over the house. The building in Mariahilferstrasse 30 additionally was purchased. In the last days of the war in 1945 it fell victim to the flames, however. 1948, the company was returned to Max Delfiner, whose son sold in 1957 to the German Hertie group, a new building in Mariahilferstrasse 26 - 30 constructing. Other ownership changes followed.

1869 The Pferdetramway

The Pferdetramway made it first trip through the Mariahilferstraße to Neubaugasse.

Opened in 1879 Gerngroß

Mariahilferstraße about 1905

Alfred Gerngross, a merchant from Bavaria and co-worker August

Herzmanskys, founded on Mariahilferstrasse 48/corner Church alley (Kirchengasse) an own fabric store. He became the fiercest competitor of his former boss.

1901 The k.k. Imperial Furniture Collection

The k.k. Hofmobilien and material depot is established in Mariahilferstrasse 88. The collection quickly grew because each new ruler got new furniture. Today, it serves as a museum. Among other things, there is the office of Emperor Franz Joseph, the equipment of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico from Miramare Castle, the splendid table of Charles VI. and the furniture from the Oriental Cabinet of Crown Prince Rudolf.

1911 The House Stafa

On 18 August 1911, on the birthday of Emperor Franz Joseph, corner Mariahilferstraße/imperial road (Kaiserstraße) the "central palace" was opened. The construction by its architecture created a sensation. Nine large double figure-relief panels of Anton Hanak decorated it. In this building the "1st Vienna Commercial sample collective department store (Warenmuster-Kollektivkaufhaus)", a eight-storey circular building was located, which was to serve primarily the craft. The greatest adversity in the construction were underground springs. Two dug wells had to be built to pump out the water. 970 liters per minute, however, must be pumped out until today.

1945 bombing of Vienna

On 21 February 1945 bombs fell on the Mariahilferstrasse, many buildings were badly damaged. On 10th April Wiener looted the store Herzmansky. Ella Fasser, the owner of the café "Goethe" in Mariahilferstrasse, preserved the Monastery barracks (Stiftskaserne) from destruction, with the help other resistance fighters cutting the fire-conducting cords that had laid the retreating German troops. Meanwhile, she invited the officers to the cafe, and befuddled them with plenty of alcohol.

www.wien-vienna.at/blickpunkte.php?ID=582

Although no specific mention has been made for this species, there have been reports that some members of this genus can cause photo-sensitivity in susceptible people.

Many species also contain oxalic acid (the distinctive lemony flavour of sorrel) - whilst not toxic this substance can bind up other minerals making them unavailable to the body and leading to mineral deficiency. Having said that, a number of common foods such as sorrel and rhubarb contain oxalic acid and the leaves of most members of this genus are nutritious and beneficial to eat in moderate quantities. Cooking the leaves will reduce their content of oxalic acid. People with a tendency to rheumatism, arthritis, gout, kidney stones or hyper-acidity should take special care if including this plant in their diet since it can aggravate their condition.

 

The whole plant is antiseptic and astringent. An infusion has been used in the treatment of stomach complaints, VD and fevers.

The plant produces a soft white mass, a froth like that of soap. It can be applied externally to burns or used to bathe and wash clothes.

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If you are interested in my photos, they are available for sale. Please contact me by email: aragaofrancisco@gmail.com. Do not use without permission.

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Portuguese

A água da bacia do rio Negro apresenta um elevado grau de acidez, com pH 3,8 a 4,9 devido à grande quantidade de ácidos orgânicos provenientes da decomposição da vegetação. Isso faz também com que a água apresente uma coloração escura (parecida com a do chá preto). Em alguns pontos o reflexo das árvores na água é como a de um espelho. A visibilidade varia entre 1,50 e 2,50 metros. Devido a esse baixo pH, os insetos não se proliferam e quase não há mosquitos para nos incomodar.

 

English

The water of the Negro River basin has a high degree of acidity, with pH 3.8 to 4.9 due to the large amount of organic acids from decaying vegetation. This also makes the water with a dark color (similar to black tea). In some spots the reflection of trees in water is like a mirror. Visibility varies between 1.50 and 2.50 meters. Due to this low pH, the insects do not proliferate and almost no mosquitoes to bother us.

 

From: www.pmm.am.gov.br

Looking northeast from the southwestern terminus.

 

"Zell (Mosel) is a town in the Zeller Hamm (Moselle loop) and is located in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate. It is the administrative seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of Zell, of which it is also a member. Zell is a state-recognized resort and designated as a medium-sized center according to state planning.

 

Zell (Mosel) is an hour's drive from both Koblenz and Trier, almost exactly in the middle between these two cities. The neighboring town towards Koblenz is Cochem, neighboring towns towards Trier are Traben-Trarbach and Bernkastel-Kues. To Frankfurt-Hahn Airport on the Hunsrück and to the health resort of Bad Bertrich in the Voreifel: ½ hour by car each. The riverside districts, the old town, Kaimt and Merl are at an altitude of around 100 m above sea level. NHN on a striking Moselle loop, the Zeller Hamm.

 

Zell was founded by the Romans after 70 AD. The district of Kaimt was first mentioned in documents in 732/33. In 1222 Zell received city rights. Since 1332, Zell was an Electoral Trier town and until 1794 the Electoral Trier seat of the Zell district. With the occupation of the left bank of the Rhine by French revolutionary troops in 1794, the place became French, and in 1815 the city was assigned to the Kingdom of Prussia at the Congress of Vienna. Fires in 1848 and 1857 destroyed a large part of the old town. Since 1946, the city has been part of the then newly formed state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Kaimt was incorporated in 1950. Until 1969, Zell was the district town of the Zell (Mosel) district of the same name. As part of the Rhineland-Palatinate administrative reform, this became the Cochem-Zell district with the administrative headquarters in Cochem. With the district headquarters, Zell also lost numerous other government offices and other institutions. At the same time, Merl was incorporated. The city also achieved compensation through the settlement of numerous commercial companies, particularly in the high-altitude district of Barl.

 

On June 7, 1969, the previously independent municipality of Merl was incorporated.

 

Mosel (German: [ˈmoːzl̩]) is one of 13 German wine regions (Weinbaugebiete) for quality wines (Qualitätswein, formerly QbA and Prädikatswein), and takes its name from the Mosel River (French: Moselle; Luxembourgish: Musel). Before 1 August 2007 the region was called Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, but changed to a name that was considered more consumer-friendly. The wine region is Germany's third largest in terms of production but some consider it the leading region in terms of international prestige.

 

The region covers the valleys of the rivers Mosel, Saar, and Ruwer from near the mouth of the Mosel at Koblenz and upstream to the vicinity of Trier in the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The area is known for the steep slopes of the region's vineyards overlooking the river. At 65° degrees incline, the steepest recorded vineyard in the world is the Calmont vineyard located on the Mosel and belonging to the village of Bremm, and therefore referred to as Bremmer Calmont. The Mosel is mainly famous for its wines made from the Riesling grape, but Elbling and Müller-Thurgau also contribute to the production, among others.

 

In the past two decades red wine production, especially from the Spätburgunder (Pinot noir), has increased in the Mosel and throughout the German vignoble and has become of increasing interest to the international wine community. Because of the northerly location of the Mosel, the Riesling wines are often light, tending to lower alcohol, crisp and high in acidity, and often exhibit "flowery" rather than or in addition to "fruity" aromas. Its most common vineyard soil is derived in the main from various kinds of slate deposits, which tend to give the wines a transparent, mineralic aspect, that often exhibit great depth of flavor. In the current era of climate change much work has been done to improve and gain acceptance for completely dry ("Trocken") Rieslings in this region, so that most of the more famous makers have found acceptance for such wines, particularly in Europe." - info from Wikipedia.

 

Summer 2019 I did a solo cycling tour across Europe through 12 countries over the course of 3 months. I began my adventure in Edinburgh, Scotland and finished in Florence, Italy cycling 8,816 km. During my trip I took 47,000 photos.

 

Now on Instagram.

 

Become a patron to my photography on Patreon or donate.

The white-rumped vulture (Gyps bengalensis) is an Old World vulture native to South and Southeast Asia. It has been listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2000, as the population severely declined. White-rumped vultures die of renal failure caused by diclofenac poisoning. In the 1980s, the global population was estimated at several million individuals, and it was thought to be "the most abundant large bird of prey in the world".As of 2016, the global population was estimated at less than 10,000 mature individuals.

   

White-rumped vultures usually become active when the morning sun is warming up the air so that thermals are sufficient to support their soaring. They were once visible above Calcutta in large numbers.

   

When they find a carcass, they quickly descend and feed voraciously. They perch on trees nearby and are known to sometimes descend also after dark to feed. At kill sites, they are dominated by red-headed vultures Sarcogyps calvus. In forests, their soaring often indicated a tiger kill.They swallow pieces of old, dry bones such as ribs and of skull pieces from small mammals. Where water is available they bathe regularly and also drink water. A pack of vultures was observed to have cleaned up a whole bullock in about 20 minutes. Trees on which they regularly roost are often white from their excreta, and this acidity often kills the trees. This made them less welcome in orchards and plantations.

Folkloric

Infusion of the seed used for insomina.

Infusion also used for stomach acidity, flatulence, dyspepsia, colic.

The seed boiled in olive oil and applied warm over furuncles hastens suppuration and provides pain relief.

Nursing mothers use the dill to increase milk flow.

Chewing of the seeds helpful in halitosis.

Decoction of the herb used for colic in babies. Seed decoctions are more potent and should be adjusted accordingly.

Prepared> 5 to 10 grams in 1 liter of water, 4 to 5 cups daily.

  

source: stuart xchange

Looking north from the church.

 

"Zell (Mosel) is a town in the Zeller Hamm (Moselle loop) and is located in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate. It is the administrative seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of Zell, of which it is also a member. Zell is a state-recognized resort and designated as a medium-sized center according to state planning.

 

Zell (Mosel) is an hour's drive from both Koblenz and Trier, almost exactly in the middle between these two cities. The neighboring town towards Koblenz is Cochem, neighboring towns towards Trier are Traben-Trarbach and Bernkastel-Kues. To Frankfurt-Hahn Airport on the Hunsrück and to the health resort of Bad Bertrich in the Voreifel: ½ hour by car each. The riverside districts, the old town, Kaimt and Merl are at an altitude of around 100 m above sea level. NHN on a striking Moselle loop, the Zeller Hamm.

 

Zell was founded by the Romans after 70 AD. The district of Kaimt was first mentioned in documents in 732/33. In 1222 Zell received city rights. Since 1332, Zell was an Electoral Trier town and until 1794 the Electoral Trier seat of the Zell district. With the occupation of the left bank of the Rhine by French revolutionary troops in 1794, the place became French, and in 1815 the city was assigned to the Kingdom of Prussia at the Congress of Vienna. Fires in 1848 and 1857 destroyed a large part of the old town. Since 1946, the city has been part of the then newly formed state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Kaimt was incorporated in 1950. Until 1969, Zell was the district town of the Zell (Mosel) district of the same name. As part of the Rhineland-Palatinate administrative reform, this became the Cochem-Zell district with the administrative headquarters in Cochem. With the district headquarters, Zell also lost numerous other government offices and other institutions. At the same time, Merl was incorporated. The city also achieved compensation through the settlement of numerous commercial companies, particularly in the high-altitude district of Barl.

 

On June 7, 1969, the previously independent municipality of Merl was incorporated.

 

Mosel (German: [ˈmoːzl̩]) is one of 13 German wine regions (Weinbaugebiete) for quality wines (Qualitätswein, formerly QbA and Prädikatswein), and takes its name from the Mosel River (French: Moselle; Luxembourgish: Musel). Before 1 August 2007 the region was called Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, but changed to a name that was considered more consumer-friendly. The wine region is Germany's third largest in terms of production but some consider it the leading region in terms of international prestige.

 

The region covers the valleys of the rivers Mosel, Saar, and Ruwer from near the mouth of the Mosel at Koblenz and upstream to the vicinity of Trier in the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The area is known for the steep slopes of the region's vineyards overlooking the river. At 65° degrees incline, the steepest recorded vineyard in the world is the Calmont vineyard located on the Mosel and belonging to the village of Bremm, and therefore referred to as Bremmer Calmont. The Mosel is mainly famous for its wines made from the Riesling grape, but Elbling and Müller-Thurgau also contribute to the production, among others.

 

In the past two decades red wine production, especially from the Spätburgunder (Pinot noir), has increased in the Mosel and throughout the German vignoble and has become of increasing interest to the international wine community. Because of the northerly location of the Mosel, the Riesling wines are often light, tending to lower alcohol, crisp and high in acidity, and often exhibit "flowery" rather than or in addition to "fruity" aromas. Its most common vineyard soil is derived in the main from various kinds of slate deposits, which tend to give the wines a transparent, mineralic aspect, that often exhibit great depth of flavor. In the current era of climate change much work has been done to improve and gain acceptance for completely dry ("Trocken") Rieslings in this region, so that most of the more famous makers have found acceptance for such wines, particularly in Europe." - info from Wikipedia.

 

Summer 2019 I did a solo cycling tour across Europe through 12 countries over the course of 3 months. I began my adventure in Edinburgh, Scotland and finished in Florence, Italy cycling 8,816 km. During my trip I took 47,000 photos.

 

Now on Instagram.

 

Become a patron to my photography on Patreon or donate.

What’s spookier than the ‘largest acid cauldron on Earth?’ In East Java, Indonesia, lies the Kawah Ijen Crater Lake – the world’s largest acidic lake, a chilling spectacle perfect for Halloween.

 

The image here has been captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission which provides optical images of Earth’s surface.

 

This image takes on a horror-style palette for Halloween. It has been processed including a specific band from Sentinel-2 that is often used for coastal water and ocean colour observation. By using this band combination, the Kawah Ijen Crater Lake shows a higher reflectance compared to their surroundings, with the lake’s waters appearing electric blue.

 

The lake's unnaturally high acidity is not its sole frightening characteristic. It also emits hot, flammable sulphurous gases that ignite as they enter Earth’s oxygen-rich atmosphere. These then burn with an eerie, blue flame, creating an enchanting nighttime spectacle.

 

Also seen in the image is the Raung, or Gunung Raung Volcano, one of the most active volcanoes on the island of Java. With an impressive height of 3332 m, it looms in the immediate southwest vicinity.

 

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2023), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Lunch time at Pegasus Bay Winery in the Waipara Valley Canterbury, New Zealand. October 6, 2013.

 

The food is great here as well as the wines!

 

The Waipara Valley is in the South Island of New Zealand, 30 minutes drive north of Christchurch.

 

To the east Waipara Valley is separated from the ocean (Pegasus Bay) by a range of hills which protect it from the cooling winds of the Pacific.

 

To the west lie the Southern Alps (Main Divide), from whence the region's hot nor'west winds derive. Its sheltered position and proximity to the sea give it warm days, cool nights and a dry autumn, resulting in a very prolonged ripening period. This promotes intense flavour development and optimal ripeness, while retaining good natural acidity.

 

Within the Waipara Valley Pegasus Bay vineyard gets maximum protection from the Pacific's easterly breezes by being tucked up under the lee of the Teviotdale Range.

 

Heat summation during the day is promoted by smooth stones and gravels left behind by an ice age glacier. The soil is free draining and of low fertility, resulting in naturally reduced vine vigour. This produces low yields of optimally ripened, high quality, flavourful grapes, which fully express the qualities of this unique setting.

 

An unusually large vineyard staff allows operations such as shoot thinning, crop thinning, bunch exposure and fruit selection, to be carried out meticulously.

 

Pegasus Bay is an accredited member of the NZWG sustainable viticulture program and are firm believers of using natural methods to combat pests and diseases rather than the application of unnecessary pesticides and herbicides.

For More Info: www.pegasusbay.com/about-wine-making-styles

 

A Haiku Note:

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

Special iPhone lens

helped me take this macro shot

Symbol of the Dao

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

A gift from Leslie

a fellow theosophist

Philadelphia

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

Yin --- Yang

0 --- 1

abdomen --- back

absorbing --- penetrating

acidity --- alkalinity

afternoon --- morning

autumn --- spring

back --- front

backward --- forward

belly --- head

below --- above

black --- white

bottom --- top

broken --- solid

calm --- chaos

center --- extreme

centripetal force --- centrifugal force

chills --- fever

cinnabar --- lead

clockwise --- counter-clockwise

cold --- hot

contracting --- expanding

copper--- tin

dark --- light

death --- life

diffuse --- focused

down --- up

earth --- sky

eight --- nine

emotional --- logical

empty --- full

end of motion --- beginning of motion

even --- odd

fat --- muscle

female --- male

feminine --- masculine

flexible --- firm

fluid --- static

follower --- leader

forgiveness --- anger

freezing water --- boiling water

fruits --- cereals

ice --- fire

introvert --- extrovert

intuitive --- logical

involuntary --- voluntary

inward --- outward

left --- right

low --- high

me --- I

minus --- plus

momentum ---position

moon --- sun

mother --- father

night --- day

non-action --- action

north --- south

northwest --- southeast

off --- on

open --- close

orange --- azure

passion --- reason

passive --- active

potassium --- sodium

process --- structure

pull --- push

quiet --- loud

receiving --- giving

receptive --- creative

relaxed --- tense

salt --- pepper

sensitivity --- firmness

short --- tall

six --- seven

slow --- fast

small --- large

soft --- hard

spiritual --- physical

static --- energetic

stillness --- motion

subconscious --- conscious

subjective --- objective

submissive --- dominant

sugar --- salt

sunset --- sunrise

sweet --- sour

taking --- giving

tiger --- dragon

tranquil --- active

valley --- mountain

venus --- jupiter

water --- fire

weak --- strong

west --- east

wet --- dry

winter --- summer

wisdom --- intelligence

woman --- man

xue-blood --- qi-energy

yielding --- aggressive

zero --- one

 

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

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuDY8m72tgk

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

 

Looking east from Zum Herrenberg.

 

"Enkirch is a local community on the Moselle, below Traben-Trarbach. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Traben-Trarbach, in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district, in Rhineland-Palatinate.

 

Enkirch is located about 9 km northeast of Bernkastel-Kues and 19 km south of Cochem on the right side of the Moselle at Moselkilometer 102. A widely branched stream (Ahringsbach and Großbach) from the Hunsrück flows there. The Enkirch barrage is located at Moselle kilometer 103.

 

The name of the place developed from ANCHIRIACUM via ANKARACHA - ANCKIRCHA - ENKRICHA to ENKIRCH.

 

The area of ​​Enkirch was inhabited long before it was first mentioned in documents in 733. This is proven by numerous finds that are exhibited in the Enkircher Heimatstuben. Accordingly, the first traces of settlement can be classified in the 3rd millennium BC, a period that experts refer to as the Neolithic or Neolithic period. At that time, people who had previously roamed around as hunters and gatherers gradually became settled. Numerous finds from later centuries have now been collected, which can also be seen in the local history rooms.

 

The first documented mention came when Adela, the daughter of the Merovingian nobles Hugobert and Irmina von Oeren, mentioned the Pfalzel monastery, which she had founded, in her will. In this document dated “1. April in the 12th year of the reign of King Theodericus "(732/733) it says: "I also give to the already mentioned monastery my shares in the houses of Anchiriacum, Ursiacum and Caimitas (Kaimt), which are located above the Moselle.“

 

In the book celebrating the town's 1250th anniversary, Enkirchen local historian and honorary citizen Hans Immich-Spier writes that the original document is considered lost. When the history of the Oeren monastery was recorded at the beginning of the 11th century, “there was a reading error, which turned “Adela, filia Hugoberti” into filia Dagoberti and thus also made Adela’s mother Irmina “von Oeren” her sister. Both became daughters of Dagobert II, who was murdered in 679. All later documents use this version.” It was later proven by the Luxembourg regional expert Prof. Wampach based on the introductory dating of the will (see above) that this version is incorrect. “Previous editors of the document believed that it was Theuderic III. (673–691), hence the earlier dating of 690,” Immich-Spier continues.

 

Mosel (German: [ˈmoːzl̩]) is one of 13 German wine regions (Weinbaugebiete) for quality wines (Qualitätswein, formerly QbA and Prädikatswein), and takes its name from the Mosel River (French: Moselle; Luxembourgish: Musel). Before 1 August 2007 the region was called Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, but changed to a name that was considered more consumer-friendly. The wine region is Germany's third largest in terms of production but some consider it the leading region in terms of international prestige.

 

The region covers the valleys of the rivers Mosel, Saar, and Ruwer from near the mouth of the Mosel at Koblenz and upstream to the vicinity of Trier in the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The area is known for the steep slopes of the region's vineyards overlooking the river. At 65° degrees incline, the steepest recorded vineyard in the world is the Calmont vineyard located on the Mosel and belonging to the village of Bremm, and therefore referred to as Bremmer Calmont. The Mosel is mainly famous for its wines made from the Riesling grape, but Elbling and Müller-Thurgau also contribute to the production, among others.

 

In the past two decades red wine production, especially from the Spätburgunder (Pinot noir), has increased in the Mosel and throughout the German vignoble and has become of increasing interest to the international wine community. Because of the northerly location of the Mosel, the Riesling wines are often light, tending to lower alcohol, crisp and high in acidity, and often exhibit "flowery" rather than or in addition to "fruity" aromas. Its most common vineyard soil is derived in the main from various kinds of slate deposits, which tend to give the wines a transparent, mineralic aspect, that often exhibit great depth of flavor. In the current era of climate change much work has been done to improve and gain acceptance for completely dry ("Trocken") Rieslings in this region, so that most of the more famous makers have found acceptance for such wines, particularly in Europe." - info from Wikipedia.

 

Summer 2019 I did a solo cycling tour across Europe through 12 countries over the course of 3 months. I began my adventure in Edinburgh, Scotland and finished in Florence, Italy cycling 8,816 km. During my trip I took 47,000 photos.

 

Now on Instagram.

 

Become a patron to my photography on Patreon or donate.

(further information and pictures you can get by clicking on the link at the end of page!)

Mariahilferstraße

Mariahilferstraße, 6th, 7th, 14th and 15th, since 1897 (in the 6th and 7th district originally Kremser Sraße, then Bavarian highway, Laimgrubner main road, Mariahilfer main street, Fünfhauserstraße, Schönbrunnerstraße and Penzinger Poststraße, then Schönbrunner Straße), in memory of the old suburb name; Mariahilf was an independent municipality from 1660 to 1850, since then with Gumpendorf, Magdalenengrund, Windmühle and Laimgrube 6th District.

From

aeiou - the cultural information system of the bm: bwk

14,000 key words and 2000 pictures from history, geography, politics and business in Austria

www.aeiou.at

Mariahilferstraße, 1908 - Wien Museum

Mariahilferstraße, 1908

Picture taken from "August Stauda - A documentarian of old Vienna"

published by Christian Brandstätter - to Book Description

History

Pottery and wine

The first ones who demonstrably populated the area of ​​today's Mariahilferstraße (after the mammoth) were the Illyrians. They took advantage of the rich clay deposits for making simple vessels. The Celts planted on the sunny hills the first grape vines and understood the wine-making process very well. When the Romans occupied at the beginning of our Era Vienna for several centuries, they left behind many traces. The wine culture of the Celts they refined. On the hill of today's Mariahilferstraße run a Roman ridge trail, whose origins lay in the camp of Vindobona. After the rule of the Romans, the migration of peoples temporarily led many cultures here until after the expulsion of the Avars Bavarian colonists came from the West.

The peasant Middle Ages - From the vineyard to the village

Thanks to the loamy soil formed the winery, which has been pushed back only until the development of the suburbs, until the mid-17th Century the livelihood of the rural population. "Im Schöff" but also "Schöpf - scoop" and "Schiff - ship" (from "draw of") the area at the time was called. The erroneous use of a ship in the seal of the district is reminiscent of the old name, which was then replaced by the picture of grace "Mariahilf". The Weinberg (vineyard) law imposed at that time that the ground rent in the form of mash on the spot had to be paid. This was referred to as a "draw".

1495 the Mariahilfer wine was added to the wine disciplinary regulations for Herrenweine (racy, hearty, fruity, pithy wine with pleasant acidity) because of its special quality and achieved high prices.

1529 The first Turkish siege

Mariahilferstraße, already than an important route to the West, was repeatedly the scene of historical encounters. When the Turks besieged Vienna for the first time, was at the lower end of today Mariahilferstrasse, just outside the city walls of Vienna, a small settlement of houses and cottages, gardens and fields. Even the St. Theobald Monastery was there. This so-called "gap" was burned at the approach of the Turks, for them not to offer hiding places at the siege. Despite a prohibition, the area was rebuilt after departure of the Turks.

1558, a provision was adopted so that the glacis, a broad, unobstructed strip between the city wall and the outer settlements, should be left free. The Glacis existed until the demolition of the city walls in 1858. Here the ring road was later built.

1663 The new Post Road

With the new purpose of the Mariahilferstrasse as post road the first three roadside inn houses were built. At the same time the travel increased, since the carriages were finally more comfortable and the roads safer. Two well-known expressions date from this period. The "tip" and "kickbacks". In the old travel handbooks of that time we encounter them as guards beside the route, the travel and baggage tariff. The tip should the driver at the rest stop pay for the drink, while the bribe was calculated in proportion to the axle grease. Who was in a hurry, just paid a higher lubricant (Schmiergeld) or tip to motivate the coachman.

1683 The second Turkish siege

The second Turkish siege brought Mariahilferstraße the same fate. Meanwhile, a considerable settlement was formed, a real suburb, which, however, still had a lot of fields and brick pits. Again, the suburb along the Mariahilferstraße was razed to the ground, the population sought refuge behind the walls or in the Vienna Woods. The reconstruction progressed slowly since there was a lack of funds and manpower. Only at the beginning of the 18th Century took place a targeted reconstruction.

1686 Palais Esterhazy

On several "Brandstetten", by the second Turkish siege destroyed houses, the Hungarian aristocratic family Esterhazy had built herself a simple palace, which also had a passage on the Mariahilferstrasse. 1764 bought the innkeeper Paul Winkelmayr from Spittelberg the building, demolished it and built two new buildings that have been named in accordance with the Esterhazy "to the Hungarian crown."

17th Century to 19th Century. Fom the village to suburb

With the development of the settlements on the Mariahilferstraße from village to suburbs, changed not only the appearance but also the population. More and more agricultural land fell victim to the development, craftsmen and tradesmen settled there. There was an incredible variety of professions and trades, most of which were organized into guilds or crafts. Those cared for vocational training, quality and price of the goods, and in cases of unemployment, sickness and death.

The farms were replaced by churches and palaces, houses and shops. Mariahilf changed into a major industrial district, Mariahilferstrasse was an important trading center. Countless street traders sold the goods, which they carried either with them, or put in a street stall on display. The dealers made themselves noticeable by a significant Kaufruf (purchase call). So there was the ink man who went about with his bottles, the Wasserbauer (hydraulic engineering) who sold Danube water on his horse-drawn vehicle as industrial water, or the lavender woman. This lovely Viennese figures disappeared with the emergence of fixed premises and the improvement of urban transport.

Private carriages, horse-drawn carriages and buggies populated the streets, who used this route also for trips. At Mariahilferplatz Linientor (gate) was the main stand of the cheapest and most popular means of transport, the Zeiselwagen, which the Wiener used for their excursions into nature, which gradually became fashionable. In the 19th Century then yet arrived the Stellwagen (carriage) and bus traffic which had to accomplish the connection between Vienna and the suburbs. As a Viennese joke has it, suggests the Stellwagen that it has been so called because it did not come from the spot.

1719 - 1723 Royal and Imperial Court Stables

Emperor Charles VI. gave the order for the construction of the stables to Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. 1772 the building was extended by two houses on the Mariahilferstrasse. The size of the stables still shows, as it serves as the Museum Quarter - its former importance. The Mariahilferstraße since the building of Schönbrunn Palace by the Imperial court very strongly was frequented. Today in the historic buildings the Museum Quarter is housed.

The church and monastery of Maria Hülff

Coloured engraving by J. Ziegler, 1783

1730 Mariahilferkirche

1711 began the renovation works at the Mariahilferkirche, giving the church building today's appearance and importance as a baroque monument. The plans stem from Franziskus Jänkl, the foreman of Lukas von Hildebrandt. Originally stood on the site of the Mariahilferkirche in the medieval vineyard "In Schoeff" a cemetery with wooden chapel built by the Barnabites. Already in those days, the miraculous image Mariahilf was located therein. During the Ottoman siege the chapel was destroyed, the miraculous image could be saved behind the protective walls. After the provisional reconstruction the miraculous image in a triumphal procession was returned, accompanied by 30,000 Viennese.

1790 - 1836 Ferdinand Raimund

Although in the district Mariahilf many artists and historical figures of Vienna lived , it is noticeable that as a residence they rather shunned the Mariahilferstraße, because as early as in the 18th Century there was a very lively and loud bustle on the street. The most famous person who was born on the Mariahilferstrasse is the folk actor and dramatist Ferdinand Raimund. He came in the house No. 45, "To the Golden deer (Zum Goldenen Hirschen)", which still exists today, as son of a turner into the world. As confectioners apprentice, he also had to visit the theaters, where he was a so-called "Numero", who sold his wares to the visitors. This encounter with the theater was fateful. He took flight from his training masters and joined a traveling troupe as an actor. After his return to Vienna, he soon became the most popular comedian. In his plays all those figures appeared then bustling the streets of Vienna. His most famous role was that of the "ash man" in "Farmer as Millionaire", a genuine Viennese guy who brings the wood ash in Butte from the houses, and from the proceeds leading a modest existence.

1805 - 1809 French occupation

The two-time occupation of Vienna by the French hit the suburbs hard. But the buildings were not destroyed fortunately.

19th century Industrialization

Here, where a higher concentration of artisans had developed as in other districts, you could feel the competition of the factories particularly hard. A craftsman after another became factory worker, women and child labor was part of the day-to-day business. With the sharp rise of the population grew apartment misery and flourished bed lodgers and roomers business.

1826

The Mariahilferstraße is paved up to the present belt (Gürtel).

1848 years of the revolution

The Mariahilferstraße this year was in turmoil. At the outbreak of the revolution, the hatred of the people was directed against the Verzehrungssteuerämter (some kind of tax authority) at the lines that have been blamed for the rise of food prices, and against the machines in the factories that had made the small craftsmen out of work or dependent workers. In October, students, workers and citizens tore up paving stones and barricaded themselves in the Mariahilfer Linientor (the so-called Linienwall was the tax frontier) in the area of ​​today's belt.

1858 The Ring Road

The city walls fell and on the glacis arose the ring-road, the now 6th District more closely linking to the city center.

1862 Official naming

The Mariahilferstraße received its to the present day valid name, after it previously was bearing the following unofficial names: "Bavarian country road", "Mariahilfer Grund Straße", "Penzinger Street", "Laimgrube main street" and "Schönbrunner Linienstraße".

The turn of the century: development to commercial street

After the revolution of 1848, the industry displaced the dominant small business rapidly. At the same time the Mariahilferstraße developed into the first major shopping street of Vienna. The rising supply had to be passed on to the customer, and so more and more new shops sprang up. Around the turn of the century broke out a real building boom. The low suburban houses with Baroque and Biedermeier facade gave way to multi-storey houses with flashy and ostentatious facades in that historic style mixture, which was so characteristic of the late Ringstrasse period. From the former historic buildings almost nothing remained. The business portals were bigger and more pompous, the first department stores in the modern style were Gerngross and Herzmansky. Especially the clothing industry took root here.

1863 Herzmansky opened

On 3 March opened August Herzmansky a small general store in the Church Lane (Kirchengasse) 4. 1897 the great establishment in the pin alley (Stiftgasse) was opened, the largest textile company of the monarchy. August Herzmansky died a year before the opening, two nephews take over the business. In 1928, Mariahilferstraße 28 is additionally acquired. 1938, the then owner Max Delfiner had to flee, the company Rhonberg and Hämmerle took over the house. The building in Mariahilferstrasse 30 additionally was purchased. In the last days of the war in 1945 it fell victim to the flames, however. 1948, the company was returned to Max Delfiner, whose son sold in 1957 to the German Hertie group, a new building in Mariahilferstrasse 26 - 30 constructing. Other ownership changes followed.

1869 The Pferdetramway

The Pferdetramway made it first trip through the Mariahilferstraße to Neubaugasse.

Opened in 1879 Gerngroß

Mariahilferstraße about 1905

Alfred Gerngross, a merchant from Bavaria and co-worker August

Herzmanskys, founded on Mariahilferstrasse 48/corner Church alley (Kirchengasse) an own fabric store. He became the fiercest competitor of his former boss.

1901 The k.k. Imperial Furniture Collection

The k.k. Hofmobilien and material depot is established in Mariahilferstrasse 88. The collection quickly grew because each new ruler got new furniture. Today, it serves as a museum. Among other things, there is the office of Emperor Franz Joseph, the equipment of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico from Miramare Castle, the splendid table of Charles VI. and the furniture from the Oriental Cabinet of Crown Prince Rudolf.

1911 The House Stafa

On 18 August 1911, on the birthday of Emperor Franz Joseph, corner Mariahilferstraße/imperial road (Kaiserstraße) the "central palace" was opened. The construction by its architecture created a sensation. Nine large double figure-relief panels of Anton Hanak decorated it. In this building the "1st Vienna Commercial sample collective department store (Warenmuster-Kollektivkaufhaus)", a eight-storey circular building was located, which was to serve primarily the craft. The greatest adversity in the construction were underground springs. Two dug wells had to be built to pump out the water. 970 liters per minute, however, must be pumped out until today.

1945 bombing of Vienna

On 21 February 1945 bombs fell on the Mariahilferstrasse, many buildings were badly damaged. On 10th April Wiener looted the store Herzmansky. Ella Fasser, the owner of the café "Goethe" in Mariahilferstrasse, preserved the Monastery barracks (Stiftskaserne) from destruction, with the help other resistance fighters cutting the fire-conducting cords that had laid the retreating German troops. Meanwhile, she invited the officers to the cafe, and befuddled them with plenty of alcohol.

www.wien-vienna.at/blickpunkte.php?ID=582

Hydrangeas

are popular garden shrubs with delicate heads of flowers in shades of pink, white or blue and pretty autumn colour and leaf shape. The mophead and lace-cap hydrangeas are most well-known for their ability to change colour in different soils.

FOR MORE INFORMATIONS, PLEASE, FOLLOW THIS LINK:

www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=122

 

THE MEANING & SYMBOLISM OF

First discovered in Japan, the name hydrangea comes from the Greek “hydor,” meaning water, and “angos,” meaning jar or vessel. This roughly translates to “water barrel,” referring to the hydrangea’s need for plenty of water and its cup-shaped flower. With its wooden stems and lacy, star-shaped flowers packed closely together in a pompom, the hydrangea’s color ranges from white to blue to pink and purple, determined by the acidity level of the soil.

 

There remains some debate over the hydrangea’s symbolism – with some connecting it to vanity and boastfulness (perhaps reflecting its abundance of petals and lavish, rounded shape) and others suggesting that a bouquet of hydrangea expresses the giver’s gratefulness for the recipient’s understanding. Still others suggest it represents anything that’s sincerely heartfelt. Despite this variation in flower meaning, there appears to be an overwhelming consensus that this 4th wedding anniversary flower possesses enduring grace and beauty.

  

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The pomegranate (/ˈpɒmᵻɡrænᵻt/), botanical name Punica granatum, is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub or small tree growing between 5 and 8 m tall.

 

In the Northern Hemisphere, the fruit is typically in season from September to February, and in the Southern Hemisphere from March to May. As intact arils or juice, pomegranates are used in cooking, baking, meal garnishes, juice blends, smoothies, and alcoholic beverages, such as cocktails and wine.

 

The pomegranate originated in the region of modern-day Iran and has been cultivated since ancient times throughout the Mediterranean region and northern India. It was introduced into America (Spanish America) in the late 16th century and California by Spanish settlers in 1769.

 

Today, it is widely cultivated throughout the Middle East and Caucasus region, north Africa and tropical Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia, the drier parts of southeast Asia, and parts of the Mediterranean Basin. It is also cultivated in parts of California and Arizona. In recent years, it has become more common in the commercial markets of Europe and the Western Hemisphere.

 

ETYMOLOGY

The name pomegranate derives from medieval Latin pōmum "apple" and grānātum "seeded". Perhaps stemming from the old French word for the fruit, pomme-grenade, the pomegranate was known in early English as "apple of Grenada" - a term which today survives only in heraldic blazons. This is a folk etymology, confusing Latin granatus with the name of the Spanish city of Granada, which derives from Arabic.

 

Garnet derives from Old French grenat by metathesis, from Medieval Latin granatum as used in a different meaning "of a dark red color". This derivation may have originated from pomum granatum describing the color of pomegranate pulp or from granum referring to "red dye, cochineal".

 

The French term for pomegranate, grenade, has given its name to the military grenade.

 

DESCRIPTION

A shrub or small tree growing 6 to 10 m high, the pomegranate has multiple spiny branches, and is extremely long-lived, with some specimens in France surviving for 200 years. P. granatum leaves are opposite or subopposite, glossy, narrow oblong, entire, 3–7 cm long and 2 cm broad. The flowers are bright red and 3 cm in diameter, with three to seven petals. Some fruitless varieties are grown for the flowers alone.

 

The edible fruit is a berry, intermediate in size between a lemon and a grapefruit, 5–12 cm in diameter with a rounded shape and thick, reddish skin. The number of seeds in a pomegranate can vary from 200 to about 1400. Each seed has a surrounding water-laden pulp — the edible sarcotesta that forms from the seed coat — ranging in color from white to deep red or purple. The seeds are "exarillate", i.e., unlike some other species in the order, Myrtales, no aril is present. The sarcotesta of pomegranate seeds consists of epidermis cells derived from the integument. The seeds are embedded in a white, spongy, astringent membrane.

 

CULTIVATION

P. granatum is grown for its fruit crop, and as ornamental trees and shrubs in parks and gardens. Mature specimens can develop sculptural twisted-bark multiple trunks and a distinctive overall form. Pomegranates are drought-tolerant, and can be grown in dry areas with either a Mediterranean winter rainfall climate or in summer rainfall climates. In wetter areas, they can be prone to root decay from fungal diseases. They can be tolerant of moderate frost, down to about −12 °C.

 

Insect pests of the pomegranate can include the pomegranate butterfly Virachola isocrates and the leaf-footed bug Leptoglossus zonatus, and fruit flies and ants are attracted to unharvested ripe fruit. Pomegranate grows easily from seed, but is commonly propagated from 25– to 50-cm hardwood cuttings to avoid the genetic variation of seedlings. Air layering is also an option for propagation, but grafting fails.

 

VARIETIES

P. granatum var. nana is a dwarf variety of P. granatum popularly planted as an ornamental plant in gardens and larger containers, and used as a bonsai specimen tree. It could well be a wild form with a distinct origin. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. The only other species in the genus Punica is the Socotran pomegranate (P. protopunica), which is endemic to the island of Socotra. It differs in having pink (not red) flowers and smaller, less sweet fruit.

 

CULTIVARS

P. granatum has more than 500 named cultivars, but evidently has considerable synonymy in which the same genotype is named differently across regions of the world.[15]

 

Several characteristics between pomegranate genotypes vary for identification, consumer preference, preferred use, and marketing, the most important of which are fruit size, exocarp color (ranging from yellow to purple, with pink and red most common), seed-coat color (ranging from white to red), hardness of seed, maturity, juice content and its acidity, sweetness, and astringency.

 

CULTURAL HISTORY

Pomegranate is native to a region from Iran to northern India. Pomegranates have been cultivated throughout the Middle East, South Asia, and Mediterranean region for several millennia, and also thrive in the drier climates of California and Arizona.

 

Carbonized exocarp of the fruit has been identified in early Bronze Age levels of Jericho in the West Bank, as well as late Bronze Age levels of Hala Sultan Tekke on Cyprus and Tiryns.[citation needed] A large, dry pomegranate was found in the tomb of Djehuty, the butler of Queen Hatshepsut in Egypt; Mesopotamian cuneiform records mention pomegranates from the mid-third millennium BC onwards.

 

It is also extensively grown in South China and in Southeast Asia, whether originally spread along the route of the Silk Road or brought by sea traders. Kandahar is famous in Afghanistan for its high-quality pomegranates.

 

Although not native to Korea or Japan, the pomegranate is widely grown there and many cultivars have been developed. It is widely used for bonsai because of its flowers and for the unusual twisted bark the older specimens can attain. The term "balaustine" (Latin: balaustinus) is also used for a pomegranate-red color.

 

The ancient city of Granada in Spain was renamed after the fruit during the Moorish period and today the province of Granada uses pomegranate as a charge in heraldry for its canting arms.

 

Spanish colonists later introduced the fruit to the Caribbean and America (Spanish America), but in the English colonies, it was less at home: "Don't use the pomegranate inhospitably, a stranger that has come so far to pay his respects to thee," the English Quaker Peter Collinson wrote to the botanizing John Bartram in Philadelphia, 1762. "Plant it against the side of thy house, nail it close to the wall. In this manner it thrives wonderfully with us, and flowers beautifully, and bears fruit this hot year. I have twenty-four on one tree... Doctor Fothergill says, of all trees this is most salutiferous to mankind."

 

The pomegranate had been introduced as an exotic to England the previous century, by John Tradescant the elder, but the disappointment that it did not set fruit there led to its repeated introduction to the American colonies, even New England. It succeeded in the South: Bartram received a barrel of pomegranates and oranges from a correspondent in Charleston, South Carolina, 1764. John Bartram partook of "delitious" pomegranates with Noble Jones at Wormsloe Plantation, near Savannah, Georgia, in September 1765. Thomas Jefferson planted pomegranates at Monticello in 1771: he had them from George Wythe of Williamsburg.

 

CULINARY USE

After the pomegranate is opened by scoring it with a knife and breaking it open, the seeds are separated from the peel and internal white pulp membranes. Separating the seeds is easier in a bowl of water because the seeds sink and the inedible pulp floats. Freezing the entire fruit also makes it easier to separate. Another effective way of quickly harvesting the seeds is to cut the pomegranate in half, score each half of the exterior rind four to six times, hold the pomegranate half over a bowl, and smack the rind with a large spoon. The seeds should eject from the pomegranate directly into the bowl, leaving only a dozen or more deeply embedded seeds to remove. The entire seed is consumed raw, though the watery, tasty sarcotesta is the desired part. The taste differs depending on the variety or cultivar of pomegranate and its ripeness.

 

Pomegranate juice can be sweet or sour, but most fruits are moderate in taste, with sour notes from the acidic tannins contained in the juice. Pomegranate juice has long been a popular drink in Europe, the Middle East and is now widely distributed in the United States and Canada.

 

Grenadine syrup long ago consisted of thickened and sweetened pomegranate juice, now is usually a sales name for a syrup based on various berries, citric acid, and food coloring, mainly used in cocktail mixing. In Europe, Bols still manufactures grenadine syrup with pomegranate. Before tomatoes, a New World fruit, arrived in the Middle East, pomegranate juice, molasses, and vinegar were widely used in many Iranian foods, and are still found in traditional recipes such as fesenjān, a thick sauce made from pomegranate juice and ground walnuts, usually spooned over duck or other poultry and rice, and in ash-e anar (pomegranate soup).

 

Pomegranate seeds are used as a spice known as anardana (from Persian: anar + dana‎‎, pomegranate + seed), most notably in Indian and Pakistani cuisine. Dried whole seeds can often be obtained in ethnic Indian subcontinent markets. These seeds are separated from the flesh, dried for 10–15 days, and used as an acidic agent for chutney and curry preparation. Ground anardana is also used, which results in a deeper flavoring in dishes and prevents the seeds from getting stuck in teeth. Seeds of the wild pomegranate variety known as daru from the Himalayas are regarded as quality sources for this spice.

 

Dried pomegranate seeds, found in some natural specialty food markets, still contain some residual water, maintaining a natural sweet and tart flavor. Dried seeds can be used in several culinary applications, such as trail mix, granola bars, or as a topping for salad, yogurt, or ice cream.

 

In the Caucasus, pomegranate is used mainly for juice. In Azerbaijan, a sauce from pomegranate juice narsharab, (from Persian: (a)nar + sharab‎‎, lit. "pomegranate wine") is usually served with fish or tika kabab. In Turkey, pomegranate sauce (Turkish: nar ekşisi) is used as a salad dressing, to marinate meat, or simply to drink straight. Pomegranate seeds are also used in salads and sometimes as garnish for desserts such as güllaç. Pomegranate syrup or molasses is used in muhammara, a roasted red pepper, walnut, and garlic spread popular in Syria and Turkey.

 

In Greece, pomegranate (Greek: ρόδι, rodi) is used in many recipes, including kollivozoumi, a creamy broth made from boiled wheat, pomegranates, and raisins, legume salad with wheat and pomegranate, traditional Middle Eastern lamb kebabs with pomegranate glaze, pomegranate eggplant relish, and avocado-pomegranate dip. Pomegranate is also made into a liqueur, and as a popular fruit confectionery used as ice cream topping, mixed with yogurt, or spread as jam on toast. In Cyprus and Greece, and among the Greek Orthodox Diaspora, ρόδι (Greek for pomegranate) is used to make koliva, a mixture of wheat, pomegranate seeds, sugar, almonds, and other seeds served at memorial services.

 

In Mexico, they are commonly used to adorn the traditional dish chiles en nogada, representing the red of the Mexican flag in the dish which evokes the green (poblano pepper), white (nogada sauce) and red (pomegranate seeds) tricolor.

 

IN TRADITIONAL MEDICINE

In the Indian subcontinent's ancient Ayurveda system of traditional medicine, the pomegranate is frequently described as an ingredient in remedies.

 

In folk medicine pomegranate has been thought a contraceptive and abortifacient when the seeds or rind are eaten, or when as a vaginal suppository.

 

NUTRITION

A 100-g serving of pomegranate seeds provides 12% of the Daily Value (DV) for vitamin C, 16% DV for vitamin K and 10% DV for folate (table).

 

Pomegranate seeds are an excellent source of dietary fiber (20% DV) which is entirely contained in the edible seeds. People who choose to discard the seeds forfeit nutritional benefits conveyed by the seed fiber and micronutrients.

 

Pomegranate seed oil contains punicic acid (65.3%), palmitic acid (4.8%), stearic acid (2.3%), oleic acid (6.3%), and linoleic acid (6.6%).

 

RESEARCH

JUICE

The most abundant phytochemicals in pomegranate juice are polyphenols, including the hydrolyzable tannins called ellagitannins formed when ellagic acid and/or gallic acid binds with a carbohydrate to form pomegranate ellagitannins, also known as punicalagins.

 

The red color of juice can be attributed to anthocyanins, such as delphinidin, cyanidin, and pelargonidin glycosides. Generally, an increase in juice pigmentation occurs during fruit ripening.

 

The phenolic content of pomegranate juice is adversely affected by processing and pasteurization techniques.

 

PEEL

Compared to the pulp, the inedible pomegranate peel contains as much as three times the total amount of polyphenols, including condensed tannins, catechins, gallocatechins and prodelphinidins.

 

The higher phenolic content of the peel yields extracts for use in dietary supplements and food preservatives.

Health claims

 

Despite limited research data, manufacturers and marketers of pomegranate juice have liberally used evolving research results for product promotion. In February 2010, the FDA issued a Warning Letter to one such manufacturer, POM Wonderful, for using published literature to make illegal claims of unproven anti-disease benefits.

 

SYMBOLISM

ANCIENT EGYPT

Ancient Egyptians regarded the pomegranate as a symbol of prosperity and ambition. According to the Ebers Papyrus, one of the oldest medical writings from around 1500 BC, Egyptians used the pomegranate for treatment of tapeworm and other infections.

 

ANCIENT GREECE

The Greeks were familiar with the fruit far before it was introduced to Rome via Carthage. In Ancient Greek mythology, the pomegranate was known as the "fruit of the dead", and believed to have sprung from the blood of Adonis.

 

The myth of Persephone, the goddess of the underworld, prominently features the pomegranate. In one version of Greek mythology, Persephone was kidnapped by Hades and taken off to live in the underworld as his wife. Her mother, Demeter (goddess of the Harvest), went into mourning for her lost daughter, thus all green things ceased to grow. Zeus, the highest-ranking of the Greek gods, could not allow the Earth to die, so he commanded Hades to return Persephone. It was the rule of the Fates that anyone who consumed food or drink in the underworld was doomed to spend eternity there. Persephone had no food, but Hades tricked her into eating six pomegranate seeds while she was still his prisoner, so she was condemned to spend six months in the underworld every year. During these six months, while Persephone sits on the throne of the underworld beside her husband Hades, her mother Demeter mourns and no longer gives fertility to the earth. This was an ancient Greek explanation for the seasons. Dante Gabriel Rossetti's painting Persephona depicts Persephone holding the fatal fruit. The number of seeds Persephone ate varies, depending on which version of the story is told. The number ranges from three to seven, which accounts for just one barren season if it is just three or four seeds, or two barren seasons (half the year) if she ate six or seven seeds.

 

The pomegranate also evoked the presence of the Aegean Triple Goddess who evolved into the Olympian Hera, who is sometimes represented offering the pomegranate, as in the Polykleitos' cult image of the Argive Heraion (see below). According to Carl A. P. Ruck and Danny Staples, the chambered pomegranate is also a surrogate for the poppy's narcotic capsule, with its comparable shape and chambered interior. On a Mycenaean seal illustrated in Joseph Campbell's Occidental Mythology 1964, figure 19, the seated Goddess of the double-headed axe (the labrys) offers three poppy pods in her right hand and supports her breast with her left. She embodies both aspects of the dual goddess, life-giving and death-dealing at once. The Titan Orion was represented as "marrying" Side, a name that in Boeotia means "pomegranate", thus consecrating the primal hunter to the Goddess. Other Greek dialects call the pomegranate rhoa; its possible connection with the name of the earth goddess Rhea, inexplicable in Greek, proved suggestive for the mythographer Karl Kerenyi, who suggested the consonance might ultimately derive from a deeper, pre-Indo-European language layer.

 

In the 5th century BC, Polycleitus took ivory and gold to sculpt the seated Argive Hera in her temple. She held a scepter in one hand and offered a pomegranate, like a 'royal orb', in the other. "About the pomegranate I must say nothing," whispered the traveller Pausanias in the 2nd century, "for its story is somewhat of a holy mystery." In the Orion story, Hera cast pomegranate-Side (an ancient city in Antalya) into dim Erebus — "for daring to rival Hera's beauty", which forms the probable point of connection with the older Osiris/Isis story.[citation needed] Since the ancient Egyptians identified the Orion constellation in the sky as Sah the "soul of Osiris", the identification of this section of the myth seems relatively complete. Hera wears, not a wreath nor a tiara nor a diadem, but clearly the calyx of the pomegranate that has become her serrated crown.[citation needed] The pomegranate has a calyx shaped like a crown. In Jewish tradition, it has been seen as the original "design" for the proper crown. In some artistic depictions, the pomegranate is found in the hand of Mary, mother of Jesus.

 

A pomegranate is displayed on coins from the ancient city of Side, Pamphylia.

 

Within the Heraion at the mouth of the Sele, near Paestum, Magna Graecia, is a chapel devoted to the Madonna del Granato, "Our Lady of the Pomegranate", "who by virtue of her epithet and the attribute of a pomegranate must be the Christian successor of the ancient Greek goddess Hera", observes the excavator of the Heraion of Samos, Helmut Kyrieleis.

 

In modern times, the pomegranate still holds strong symbolic meanings for the Greeks. On important days in the Greek Orthodox calendar, such as the Presentation of the Virgin Mary and on Christmas Day, it is traditional to have at the dinner table polysporia, also known by their ancient name panspermia, in some regions of Greece. In ancient times, they were offered to Demeter[citation needed] and to the other gods for fertile land, for the spirits of the dead and in honor of compassionate Dionysus.[citation needed] When one buys a new home, it is conventional for a house guest to bring as a first gift a pomegranate, which is placed under/near the ikonostasi (home altar) of the house, as a symbol of abundance, fertility, and good luck. Pomegranates are also prominent at Greek weddings and funerals.[citation needed] When Greeks commemorate their dead, they make kollyva as offerings, which consist of boiled wheat, mixed with sugar and decorated with pomegranate. It is also traditional in Greece to break a pomegranate on the ground at weddings and on New Years. Pomegranate decorations for the home are very common in Greece and sold in most home goods stores.

 

ANCIENT ISRAEL AND JUDAISM

Pomegranates were known in Ancient Israel as the fruits which the scouts brought to Moses to demonstrate the fertility of the "promised land". The Book of Exodus describes the me'il ("robe of the ephod") worn by the Hebrew high priest as having pomegranates embroidered on the hem alternating with golden bells which could be heard as the high priest entered and left the Holy of Holies. According to the Books of Kings, the capitals of the two pillars (Jachin and Boaz) that stood in front of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem were engraved with pomegranates. Solomon is said to have designed his coronet based on the pomegranate's "crown" (calyx).

 

It is traditional to consume pomegranates on Rosh Hashana because, with its numerous seeds, it symbolizes fruitfulness. Also, it is said to have 613 seeds, which corresponds with the 613 mitzvot or commandments of the Torah.[61] This particular tradition is referred to in the opening pages of Ursula Dubosarsky's novel Theodora's Gift.

 

The pomegranate appeared on the ancient coins of Judea. When not in use, the handles of Torah scrolls are sometimes covered with decorative silver globes similar in shape to "pomegranates" (rimmonim). Some Jewish scholars believe the pomegranate was the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.[60] Pomegranates are one of the Seven Species (Hebrew: שבעת המינים, Shiv'at Ha-Minim) of fruits and grains enumerated in the Hebrew Bible (Deuteronomy 8:8) as being special products of the Land of Israel. The pomegranate is mentioned in the Bible many times, including this quote from the Songs of Solomon, "Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely: thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within thy locks." (Song of Solomon 4:3). Pomegranates also symbolize the mystical experience in the Jewish mystical tradition, or kabbalah, with the typical reference being to entering the "garden of pomegranates" or pardes rimonim; this is also the title of a book by the 16th-century mystic Moses ben Jacob Cordovero.

 

IN EUROPEAN CHRISTIAN MOTIFS

In the earliest incontrovertible appearance of Christ in a mosaic, a 4th-century floor mosaic from Hinton St Mary, Dorset, now in the British Museum, the bust of Christ and the chi rho are flanked by pomegranates. Pomegranates continue to be a motif often found in Christian religious decoration. They are often woven into the fabric of vestments and liturgical hangings or wrought in metalwork. Pomegranates figure in many religious paintings by the likes of Sandro Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci, often in the hands of the Virgin Mary or the infant Jesus. The fruit, broken or bursting open, is a symbol of the fullness of Jesus' suffering and resurrection.

 

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, pomegranate seeds may be used in kolyva, a dish prepared for memorial services, as a symbol of the sweetness of the heavenly kingdom.

 

IN THE QUR´AN

According to the Qur'an, pomegranates grow in the gardens of paradise (55:68). The Qur'an also mentions pomegranates three times.(6:99, 6:141, 55:68)

 

AFGHANISTAN

Pomegranate, a favorite fall and winter fruit in Afghanistan, has mainly two varieties: one that is sweet and dark red with hard seeds growing in and around Kandhar province, and the other that has soft seeds with variable color growing in the central/northern region. The largest market for Afghan pomegranates is India followed by Pakistan, Russia, United Arab Emirates and Europe.

 

ARMENIA

The pomegranate is one of the main fruits in Armenian culture (the others being apricot and grapes). Its juice is famous with Armenians in food and heritage. The pomegranate is the symbol of Armenia and represents fertility, abundance and marriage. For example, the fruit played an integral role in a wedding custom widely practiced in ancient Armenia: a bride was given a pomegranate fruit, which she threw against a wall, breaking it into pieces. Scattered pomegranate seeds ensured the bride future children. In Karabakh, it was customary to put fruits next to the bridal couple during the first night of marriage, among them the pomegranate, which was said to ensure happiness. It is likely that newlyweds also enjoyed pomegranate wine. The symbolism of the pomegranate is that it protected a woman from infertility and protected a man's virility. Both homemade and commercial wine is made from pomegranate in Armenia. The Color of Pomegranates (1969) is a movie directed by Sergei Parajanov. It is a biography of the Armenian ashug Sayat-Nova (King of Song) which attempts to reveal the poet's life visually and poetically rather than literally.

 

AZERBAIJAN

Pomegranate is considered one of the symbols of Azerbaijan. Annually in October, a cultural festival is held in Goychay, Azerbaijan known as the Goychay Pomegranate Festival. The festival features Azerbaijani fruit-cuisine mainly the pomegranates from Goychay, which is famous for its pomegranate growing industry. At the festival, a parade is held with traditional Azerbaijani dances and Azerbaijani music. Pomegranate was depicted on the official logo of the 2015 European Games held in Azerbaijan. Nar the Pomegranate was one of the two mascots of these games. Pomegranates also featured on the jackets worn by Azerbaijani male athletes at the games' opening ceremony.

 

IRAN AND ANCIENT PERSIA

Pomegranate was the symbol of fertility in ancient Persian culture.[citation needed] In Persian mythology, Isfandiyar eats a pomegranate and becomes invincible. In the Greco-Persian Wars, Herodotus mentions golden pomegranates adorning the spears of warriors in the phalanx. Even in today's Iran, pomegranate may imply love and fertility.

 

Iran produces pomegranates as a common crop.[citation needed] Its juice and paste have a role in some Iranian cuisines, e.g. chicken, ghormas and refreshment bars. Pomegranate skins may be used to stain wool and silk in the carpet industry.

 

Pomegranate Festival is an annual cultural and artistic festival held during October in Tehran[citation needed] to exhibit and sell pomegranates, food products and handicrafts.

 

PAKISTAN

The pomegranate (known as "anār" in Urdu) is a popular fruit in Pakistan. It is grown in Pakistan and is also imported from Afghanistan.

 

INDIA

In some Hindu traditions, the pomegranate (Hindi: anār) symbolizes prosperity and fertility, and is associated with both Bhoomidevi (the earth goddess) and Lord Ganesha (the one fond of the many-seeded fruit). The Tamil name maadulampazham is a metaphor for a woman's mind. It is derived from, maadhu=woman, ullam=mind, which means as the seeds are hidden, it is not easy to decipher a woman's mind.

 

CHINA

Introduced to China during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), the pomegranate (Chinese: 石榴; pinyin: shíliu) in olden times was considered an emblem of fertility and numerous progeny. This symbolism is a pun on the Chinese character 子 (zǐ) which, as well as meaning seed, also means "offspring" thus a fruit containing so many seeds is a sign of fecundity. Pictures of the ripe fruit with the seeds bursting forth were often hung in homes to bestow fertility and bless the dwelling with numerous offspring, an important facet of traditional Chinese culture.

 

WIKIPEDIA