Sometimes the simplest of things in life are the hardest things to do. Like clicking send on an email...

 

Today I did that twice, but those emails represented something far greater, something that has been a long, long time in the making.

 

One email was addressed to my colleagues (about 120 people), the other addressed to people I deal with regularly through work (another 100+). They both explained my intention go fulltime as Siân in the near future!

 

Having plucked-up the courage to click 'send', I then sat there weeping as a constant flow of emails and texts piled-in with messages of support, admiration and love. It was just an amazing moment.

 

For those interested, I have set out below my message.

 

Another (BIG) step forward...

 

Siân x

  

I feel now is an appropriate time to share with you all a deeply personal issue that I have wrestled with for many years, and to advise you of some changes that will take place in the not-so-distant future.

 

Whilst I recognise that this may well come as a shock to many of you (or maybe not?), I wish to advise you all that I am transgender and that I intend on transitioning, living full time as a female.

 

The last few years in particular have been very difficult for me, and you will appreciate, I hope, that this isn’t a decision I’ve taken lightly.

 

Until recently, I didn’t believe that I would ever have the strength to discuss openly my gender dysphoria. But of late, I have come to realise that there is a way forward for me, however to achieve that, I need to be honest about my feelings.

 

Getting to this stage hasn’t been easy. Since my early teenage years, I felt a deep sense of shame about my dysphoria, fearing that my life would be over if anyone were ever to find out. However, after much soul searching, of late I have come to accept my feelings, and in doing so, develop a strong sense of personal pride.

 

I recognise that many of you may well be struggling to comprehend why I feel the way I do and why I’ve opted to go public. The truth is really quite simple... It is about me leading the life that I want to lead, not leading the life that others want me to lead.

 

It’s not about drawing attention to myself. Quite the opposite actually; I want to be able to walk down the street and go about my day-to-day life un-noticed.

 

It’s not a hobby. And it’s not about fulfilling sexual desires.

 

Instead, it’s about feeling good about myself. About feeling content.

 

And I would hope that you all recognise those basic needs to some degree.

 

Over the last three years, I have made some great strides forward, initially opening-up to my family and thereafter my friends.

 

My family – I’m sad to say – initially struggled to accept it, with my Dad first suggesting “Why don’t you just stop doing it?” If only it were that simple…

 

But we’re making progress, which is great, and credit to them for finally engaging in a very difficult situation.

 

My friends have been wonderfully supportive and have encouraged me on my journey. And I’ve also received much-welcome support recently from those colleagues in whom I have already confided.

 

I’m sorry to say that I haven’t received the same level of support from the NHS. Whilst my GP has been a fantastic ally, unfortunately the rest of the system has been found wanting. To illustrate, I was referred to a Gender Identity Clinic (GIC) in Summer 2017 – so, coming up on two years ago – and suspect I’ve still got at least another 18 months to wait until my first appointment!

 

Clearly this is hugely frustrating, but if nothing else, illustrates the scale of gender dysphoria within society.

 

Having received my referral, I foresaw the GIC process as providing much needed support and guidance in helping me conclude these important life decisions. However, given the timescales involved, I came to realise that I couldn’t wait and would instead need to make decisions unassisted, based ultimately on what felt right.

 

A little over a year ago, I opted to start a slow transition, not least growing my hair in order to achieve a more feminine appearance. I know that a number of you have queried what’s been going on with me over recent months, so now you know!

 

The most important consideration in all of this are my children. Whilst I have had an initial conversation with them, until such time as they are comfortable with the new situation, I will continue to present at work as [ ], so please (for now), continue to refer to me as [ ], using the pronouns he and his.

 

However, ultimately, it is my intention to present fulltime as a female, going by the name of Siân (pronounced ‘Sharn’) and using the pronouns she and her. At present, I am unable to be more specific with regards timings, but at least now you know my intentions.

 

Clearly there are a lot of logistics still to address, but with the help of the Board and HR, I would hope these are sorted in good order. We will, of course, keep you appraised as to the next steps and when I intend to present fulltime as Siân.

 

I have worked with some of you for more than 15 years and recognise that these changes – as and when they materialise – may cause some confusion initially, so please don’t feel bad if you accidentally call me [ ] or mis-gender me, and please don’t treat me any differently.

 

One important point I’m keen to leave you with is to stress that I am – and will remain – the same person, with the same morals and the same principles. I just look a little bit different; a bit like when Marathon bars became Snickers, as a close friend once described it.

 

I’ve chosen to share this with you as a trusted colleague and would appreciate your discretion in this matter. I would ask that you do not share this more broadly without my permission as my children’s mother and I are trying to support our children through this change in a gradual and considered way, and I therefore trust that you will respect our wishes.

 

If you’re unsure on anything I’ve explained herein – whatever it may be – please do come and speak to me; believe me, I’ve answered many embarrassing questions already, so you probably won’t be the first to ask!

 

In the meantime, you may find the following information resources of use:

 

www.livescience.com/54949-transgender-definition.html - what does ‘Transgender’ mean?

 

www.glaad.org/transgender/allies - tips for allies of transgender people

 

thinkgrowth.org/how-to-support-a-trans-colleague-641f0b34... - how to support a transgender colleague

 

transequality.org/sites/default/files/docs/resources/Unde... - frequently asked questions about transgender people

 

In closing, I simply ask for your support and understanding in the coming months and years, thank you.

 

Kind regards

 

[ ]

(soon to be Siân)

 

 

Building 3 (Robert H. McCabe Hall) at the Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus is the central hub for student services.

 

A wide range of student support departments are located in Building 3, including:

Admissions & Registration: Assists students with applying to and enrolling at the campus.

 

Advisement & Career Services: Provides students with essential academic advising.

 

Bursar's Office: Handles student finances and billing.

 

Financial Aid: Helps students navigate financial assistance options.

 

New Student Center: Specifically helps newly enrolling students with information and support.

 

International Student Services: Provides assistance to international students.

 

Dean of Students: An administrative office for student affairs.

 

Some academic support and departments are also housed within Building 3, such as:

Business Studies: The Business Studies department is based in Building 3.

 

Academic Affairs: The administrative office for academic oversight is located here.

 

Meeting and event space: Building 3 also features a 5th-floor terrace that can be rented for event

 

Credit for the data above is given to the following website:

www.google.com/search?q=how+to+change+the+dns+server+on+w...

 

© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.

once again if you're not one for reading, i advise you not to read this haha

 

when I was in grade 5, there was a carnival at our school. I helped out with my friends at one of the booths. When I was younger (and now) I always LOVED to slack off haha so me and my friends would always close down our booth for random reasons just so we could look around other booths. I was walking with my best friend around the carnival and we came across this cute booth selling handmade crafts. I remember both of us looking at the gorgeous handmade swans. She asked me if I thought they were nice, and of course I said yes because they were. Then she asked me why I’m not buying one, and I said I didn’t have money on me so I couldn’t. I told her I’d meet her later after the last few hours of “working” at the booth (haha). When the carnival was finally finished she met me at my booth and showed me 2 blue swan crafts. I was so happy for her that she got it because they were really gorgeous. Then she did what I absolutely did NOT expect. She put one on the table of my booth and told me, ”this one is yours.”

 

Thanks for everyone who read my personal memories that I included in the description yesterday and today. They are both absolutely true and are my few favourite memories (:

 

so I’ve decided I’m closing the giveaway early next week instead of the end of august, and I will announce the winners shortly after, but sadly I will still be sending the prints out at the beginning of September. Sorry ):

 

ENTER MY GIVEAWAY, IT WILL BE CLOSING NEXT WEEK

 

p.s thanks for the explored once again guys! very grateful for it! ♥

Still trying out the 100-300mm lens. Read in the manual that at 300mm it will not use OIS ! Why not ? So I kept the focal length to 250 mm and also I have been advised that f6.3 has a sweeter focus spot.

 

The Robins were around and were much more accomodating.

Siguiendo con la investigación y los misterios en los carteles en los edificios de Salamanca, encontré este... "Los que dan consejos ciertos a los vivos son los muertos".

 

***** Bigger and better pressing [L] ******** ;-) *********** Más grande y mejor pulsando [L] *****

 

Following my investigation and the misteries on the signs in the buildings of Salamanca, I found this one... "Those who give true advises to the alive ones are the dead ones".

Building instructions and .ldr file available freely here. I strongly advise to have a look at it before doing anything.

 

Credits inside the building instructions. Enjoy!

Note: this account contains adult themes. Reader discretion is advised!

  

I've been pretty forward about my fascination with the age-old "art" of pickpocketing. I have several items that pertain to the subject (which I'd be happy to share in photos for anyone interested), but there's something about this Happy Anniversary greeting card that I recently purchased that I could specifically identify with....

 

When I was first old enough to go out and drink socially, a group of co-workers and I gathered at a local bar on a random Friday evening for some bowling and dancing. Included in the group was our manager, an affable man named Bruce. At one point he got up to buy a round for us, his wife right beside him going to the bartender. After placing the order he reached for his wallet and pulled out a wad of cash, then put his billfold back in his right-side rear pocket, but leaving it partially sticking out. Paying the bill with some money left from the wad, Bruce's wife returned the remaining cash to his front pocket, then kept her hand nestled inside there in a playful manner.

 

Just afterward, a mutual friend of theirs approached from behind and greeted both of them with an embrace; I heard Bruce's wife call her Denise. As Bruce started collecting the drinks, Denise joked about his wife with her hand in his pocket. "Keep him distracted Cindy, he won't notice me do this." With a smooth motion, Denise nipped the corner of Bruce's wallet and slipped it out of his pocket, a triumphant smile on her face. The two women laughed with one another over the lift as Bruce walked over with the drinks, unaware that his pocket had just been picked. As Bruce passed out the liquor, Denise held up his wallet and asked, "You mind treating me to a drink too, honey?" Bruce gasped then laughed, shaking his head and stating, " I didn't even feel you take that! " as she returned the wallet to his pocket with a kiss on his cheek.

 

I had never met Denise before; she was a voluptuous, middle-aged beauty with salt and pepper hair and a very outgoing personality. She looked especially attractive in a blue silk blouse and black leather skirt. Her lift on Bruce caught my attention, and I found myself flirting with her every time I caught her eye. At one point she came up behind me, gently caressing my shoulders and leaned in. "How about a dance, handsome?" she asked with a whisper in my ear, a slow song playing in the background . I was more than happy to oblige.

 

As we placed our hands on each other, I complimented her on the playful lift she had done on Bruce. Denise laughed and replied, "Well, he made it easy for me; I did that more to warn him that his wallet was poking out precariously from his pocket. My husband has the same problem, always leaving his sticking out for someone to steal. I guess you could say I've had some practice at it." I chuckled at the last sentence, since her technique suggested that she'd done it before. "So if my wallet goes missing tonight, I'll know who the culprit is, right?" We both giggled at first, then she nestled in to my body and responded with, "Let me in close, and we'll see if I can get your wallet or not". As the music ceased, she asked if I could get her a drink and join her at a private table.

 

(It should be noted that her husband was in the vicinity during all of this. I found out through various conversations with others that Denise and her spouse were practicing an open marriage; he had his eye on a particular waitress that evening. And to confirm this, while Denise was in the restroom he came over to me, shook my hand and thanked me for keeping his wife company for the evening at one point!)

 

With the two of us already buzzed, we both accommodated a table away from the small gathering. I made a remark about how sexy she looked; that's all it took for her to sit on my lap, wrap her arms around my neck and start enthusiastically kissing me. She was fantastic, a sensual combination of pouty lips and vigorous tongue with the flavor of the drinks she'd had mixed in. Denise guided my hands under her silky top, and my fingers had the pleasure of being between the soft fabric and the smooth skin of her chest. She unbuttoned her blouse and firmly placed my head on her breasts, and I kissed and licked the insides of her cleavage. Denise moaned loud enough for us to become an item of attention in the lounge, but neither of us had our inhibitions at this point to care.

 

We spent what must have been half an hour together, locked in a passionate embrace. My hands explored more of her body, rubbing her back before descending into the back pockets of her skirt. I pulled her in even closer as her hand slipped inside my trousers, teasing the area of my groin with a graceful hand. She asked if I was ready to cum for her, and that she'd happily give me fellatio to help blow my load. I completely admit that I wanted it, told her I was ready. However, Bruce decided that this would be the moment to interrupt us...he sheepishly approached our table and timidly stated, "Guys, I hate to spoil this time for you, but people are starting to complain about your actions, and the bouncer might throw the two of you at any minute." While we were both upset by this, we reluctantly made ourselves presentable for our group once more. Raising myself up, I felt somewhat dizzy; the combination of the booze, sexual energy and sudden stop left me disoriented. Denise wrapped an arm around my waist and leaned into my side, asking if I was okay. I insisted I was, and she kissed my mouth, then told me not to go too far.

 

Getting back to the group, I was the target of several jokes, mostly about being Denise's new boy toy. I took it in stride; at that time I'd wondered what being with an older, experienced woman was like, and Denise had given me an answer that exceeded my wildest dreams. My best friend at the time, a good natured fellow named Mike, speculated that I'd gotten in good with her, and that a long-term relationship with Denise was possible. Even in my inebriated state, I wasn't believing that notion: we were two people enjoying a brief span of crazy lust for one another, nothing more. Denise was already using her natural talents of flirting to gain the eye of another man at the bar.

 

The rest of the evening was almost uneventful, mainly much storytelling and sharing work stories with others. I took that time to let the effects of the alcohol wear off. I glanced at Denise every so often, observing her socialize with others while theorizing in my head why she'd chosen me to have such an erotic make-out session with. My educated guess was that I was nothing more than a conquest for her, being much younger and greener on the ways of the world; perhaps she got a thrill from seducing someone like me.

 

As members of our party started to disperse for the evening, I told Mike I was leaving as well. Making my rounds of saying good-bye, Denise beckoned me towards her. Holding me in a sweet embrace, she gave me a now familiar wet kiss. Separating our lips, she then gleefully told me, "You can't leave without a certain something." At first I thought this was a hint at more amorous activity, even more so when she placed her mouth next to my ear. But then she uttered the words, "Check your back pocket", and in a quick instant I knew what she was implying.

 

Sure enough, my hand felt in my rear pocket to find it empty. Grinning from ear to ear, Denise turned her back towards me and pulled her blouse up. Tucked in her own back pocket was a wallet-shaped lump, and she wiggled her behind in a taunting fashion. Helping myself to my own billfold, Denise explained that she'd taken it when we left our private table....She had intentionally put her hand behind me and leaned her weight against my side as a distraction to sneak my wallet out. "I'm actually proud of that lift", she told me. "I had to work my fingers in your pocket to get it out. I'm surprised you didn't feel me take it!" I told her my dizziness at the time was the perfect distraction, and that she'd planned and executed the steal flawlessly. Giving each other a final kiss, I told her that I'd enjoyed her company, even the pickpocketing. She winked at me and responded that we should do this again....especially the pickpocketing!

The Golden Temple Amritsar India (Sri Harimandir Sahib Amritsar) is not only a central religious place of the Sikhs, but also a symbol of human brotherhood and equality. Everybody, irrespective of cast, creed or race can seek spiritual solace and religious fulfilment without any hindrance. It also represents the distinct identity, glory and heritage of the Sikhs. To pen-down the philosophy, ideology, the inner and outer beauty, as well as the historical legacy of Sri Harimandir Sahib is a momentous task. It is a matter of experience rather than a of description.

 

As advised by Sri Guru Amar Dass Ji (3rd Sikh Guru), Sri Guru Ram Dass Ji (4th Sikh Guru) started the digging of Amrit Sarovar (Holy Tank) of Sri Harmandir Sahib in 1577 A.D., which was later on brick-lined by Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji (5th Sikh Guru) on December 15, 1588 and He also started the construction of Sri Harimandir Sahib. Sri Guru Granth Sahib (scripture of the Sikhs), after its compilation, was first installed at Sri Harimandir Sahib on August 16, 1604 A.D. A devout Sikh, Baba Budha Ji was appointed its first Head Priest.

 

The Golden Temple Amritsar India (Sri Harmandir Sahib Amritsar) has a unique Sikh architecture. Built at a level lower than the surrounding land level, The Gurudwara teaches the lesson of egalitarianism and humility. The four entrances of this holy shrine from all four directions, signify that people belonging to every walk of life are equally welcome.

You might want to take it easy on the beer, honey....it would be a shame if I had to put you on a diet. 😘💖

... advised to stay indoors unless your journey is really necessary ...

What3words provides a precise and incredibly simple way to talk about location. They have divided the world into a grid of 3m x 3m squares and assigned each one a unique 3 word address. For my 2019 photography project #johns2019photoproject, I will be using #what3words to find locations where at least one of the three word description has some relevance to the scene.

This blend..collage thing is so not my cup of tea...but my neighbor really wants something like this! So...what do you think? This would be the front of a 16x24 canvas.

Someone advised that no comments can be added in this picture. However, I have no idea what's happened since I uploaded this foto as usual. I just deleted the old one and uploaded again.......Thanks again for those visited and added it as favorite......appreciated.....

 

赤坎古鎮, Kaiping (開平), China

 

What I had to endure to get this shot unless they watch the video. Viewer discretion is advised if you do...

crop advised by mary claire.

 

whenever i upload, it makes me happy.

 

the weather + the SAT this saturday + a terrible weekend + the fact that i'm not getting my digital for 3 months = me not being a happy camper

 

taken with a disposable camera

This street view, which is probably a Mr. Brainwash copy of original Banksy art, has popped up in New York and other cities before. I think it was once found somewhere in the East Village.

 

Now these actual words of Albert Einstein greet park goers walking along the High Line at West 14th Street.

 

In an attempt to verify I came across "Einstein’s Last Answer." Well, it's food for thought.

First piloted convoy for commercial vehicles left Lake Cowichan this morning at 5 am. Detour for BC Hwy 4 remains in place but only essential travel is advised at this time. Check DriveBC.ca for updates.

Some kind advise from our friendly hosts Joanne and Dennis, we took the Tekapo-Pukaki Canal Road enroute to Mt. Cook for our mini hike to Sealy Tarns.

 

The road which leads you through the Salmon Farm, sits between the plains and the canal itself.

 

We took 3 hours to Reach the Camp Site to begin our hike, after making a thousand stops every few hundred meters to capture this beautiful scenery.

 

The road will be closed when there are strong winds, and on our way back, we decided to take the suggested route by the GPS and saw the entrance of road closed! Talk about luck...

 

For those planning to take the similar road, suggest doing it early in the morning when the light is at its best, and winds are calm....

This duck is a treat to see in Florida, and never in large numbers!! This photo was taken at St Marks National Wildlife Refuge on a cold winter day!!! Thanks for looking and we will see everyone on Thursday !!

  

Please be advised that our images are fully protected by US Copyright Law. The images may not be downloaded for personal, commercial or educational use, copied to blogs, personal websites, used as wallpaper, screensavers, or be deeplinked, etc. With NO Exceptions. If you would like to use an image, you MUST contact us to obtain written permission. Acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining written permission.

 

If you would like to use one of our images for commercial use or if you find a picture that you would like for framing, please contact us at klshells@mindspring.com for services we have available.

   

I was pleased a friend advised me to book a ticket for the Reichstag building in advance, so I'd be sure I could visit the dome! It is a large glass dome with a 360 degree view of the surrounding Berlin cityscape. The debating chamber of the Bundestag, the German parliament, can be seen below. A mirrored cone in the center of the dome directs sunlight into the building, and so that visitors can see the working of the chamber.

 

The Dome symbolizes that the people are above the government, as was not the case during National Socialism.

 

The glass dome was also designed to be environmentally friendly. Energy efficient features involving the use of the daylight shining through the mirrored cone were applied, effectively decreasing the carbon emissions of the building.

 

The futuristic and transparent design of the Reichstag dome is intended to symbolize Berlin's attempt to move away from a past of Nazism and instead towards a future with a heavier emphasis on a united, democratic Germany.

Helsby Junction Signal Box, Helsby, Cheshire.

 

Tuesday 13th February 2018. 20.15 Hrs.

View towards Warrington.

 

Note the replica totems advising of best kept station awards gained over the years.

  

I've been very quiet on Flickr since my move to Merseyside 25 months ago but I'm currently trying to remedy that in some small way.

Having passed out Frodsham Junction on the 25th January 2018 the next in my sites was Helsby Junction.

Helsby is a cracking spot.

A lovely 45 lever LNW box situated on the platform located between platforms 2 & 3.

 

The service is primarily operated by units provided by Arriva Trains Wales with an hourly Manchester to Chester and North Wales service.

 

In addition to this however there are a few notable exceptions.

 

Twice a day a Northern Trains' unit arrives and runs a little shuttle between Helsby and Ellesmere Port before heading off elsewhere.

At six in the morning a service arrives from Warrington and does two return trips from Helsby to the port before heading off back to Bank Quay.

In the afternoon another service does something similar. An ECS arrives from Chester and sets back into Platform 4 and then forms a 15.17 to Ellesmere Port before returning and doing a second shuttle at 15.45. Upon returning to Helsby the second time the service continues on back to Warrington B.Q.

 

The Arriva units are supplemented by a loco hauled rake of 4 Mark III's and a DVT which are timed primarily to ease the peak loadings into and out of Manchester but which of course shuttle to and fro throughout the day.

 

Freight is very sparse but is interesting.

 

The demise of King Coal has seen the end of power station coal off Ellesmere Port and the long standing flow of coal to Penyffordd Cement Sidings has also not been seen for some time.

What is seen however is a relatively new flow of sand from Middleton Towers to Ince & Elton operated by DBC. Specifically the traffic is to the Encirc Glass factory which produces glass containers (jars and bottles basically).

The sidings into the plant are controlled by Helsby Junction and generally one train a day is becoming the norm. In addition to sand there is now a relatively new flow of crushed (I assume re-cycled) glass from Tilbury Docks which seems to arrive once a week.

 

The train arrives around 07.20 Hrs and is booked away at 14.00'ish but is often an hour or two early away as it only has to trip back to Arpley Yard, finding it a margin for the short hop to Warrington is not normally an issue.

 

The only other regular booked freight is 6J37 which will need little introduction to most. The Colas Carlisle Yard - Chirk Kronospan log train which is a favourite on the S & C.

 

Clearly the location offers many opportunities but when I'm on duty my options are limited but these are a couple or four shots taken during my unexpected call from the roster clerk to attend on Monday 12 and Tuesday 13th February which saw me flying the box solo after passing out on Tuesday 6th February.

Drivers are advised Highway 4 is closed at Cameron Lake Bluff, near Koen Road, because of wildfire in the area. Travellers are asked to avoid travel in this area.

 

Drivers should expect lengthy delays. Detour options are being assessed. Emergency signage and traffic-control personnel will alert travellers to the closure.

 

Information checkpoints for travellers are being set up at Lake Cowichan, in Coombs near the Port Alberni Visitors Centre and at Chatsworth Road to alert people to the closure.

 

Drivers are reminded to obey all signage and traffic-control personnel as crews respond to the changing situation.

 

For up-to-date information about driving conditions, visit: www.DriveBC.ca

  

“I don't advise a haircut, man. All hairdressers are in the employment of the government. Hairs are your aerials. They pick up signals from the cosmos, and transmit them directly into the brain. This is the reason bald-headed men are uptight.”

―(Bruce Robinson: Withnail and I)―

 

The obligatory post-haircut-reflected-in-the-mirror snap, at the G St Barber Co in Grants Pass, with the master of sartorial elegance, Chase Danielle.

Yosemite Winter Fine Art Landscapes! Sony A7RII yosemite National Park Winter Snow! Dr. Elliot McGucken Fine Art Landscape Photography! Ansel Adams Tribute!

 

Follow me on Instagram! instagram.com/45surf

 

John Muir: "When I reached the [Yosemite] valley, all the rocks seemed talkative, and more lovable than ever. They are dear friends, and have warm blood gushing through their granite flesh; and I love them with a love intensified by long and close companionship. … I … bathed in the bright river, sauntered over the meadows, conversed with the domes, and played with the pines."

 

"Between every two pine trees there is a door leading to a new way of life."--John Muir

 

"I would advise sitting from morning till night under some willow bush on the river bank where there is a wide view. This will be "doing the valley" far more effectively than riding along trails in constant motion from point to point. The entire valley is made up of "points of interest." --John Muir on Yosemite!

  

Follow me on instagram for more!

 

instagram.com/45surf

 

Had a great time waking up at 5 AM every day to shoot tunnel view and then driving around down in the valley to Half Dome, Bridalviel Falls, Cook's Meadow and the glorious Cook's Meadow elm tree, Sentinel Bridge, Valley View, Swinging Bridge, and more! Yosemite winters are made for black and whites, and Ansel Adam's ghost haunts the brilliant landscape scenery!

 

The most epic "Ansel Adams" view is tunnel view where one can see El Capitan, Bridalviel Falls, and Half Dome over magnificent trees, snow, rising fogs, and breaking mists. Enjoy!

 

Been busy traveling and shooting landscapes and working on my books The Golden Hero's Odyssey about the golden rectangle and divine proportion I use in a lot of my compositions! Also working on my physics book on Dynamic Dimensions Theory! The equation dx4/dt=ic is on a lot of the 45surf swimsuit and shirts and all! :)

  

Follow me & 45surf!!

www.facebook.com/45surfAchillesOdysseyMythology/

 

www.facebook.com/elliot.mcgucken

 

instagram.com/45surf

  

My fine art landscape lenses for the A7RII are the Sony 16-35mm Vario-Tessar T FE F4 ZA OSS E-Mount Lens and the Sony FE 24-240mm f/3.5-6.3 OSS Lens ! Love the Carl Zeiss and super sharp Sony Glass!

 

Winter fine art landscapes!

 

Epic Yosemite valley village winter snowstorm!

 

Yosemite Winter Fine Art Landscapes! Sony A7RII yosemite National Park Winter Snow! Dr. Elliot McGucken Fine Art Landscape Photography

SIGN ADVISEING A DOG NOT TO DOGGY DOO OR IS IT NOT TO DROP IT'S LIT CIGAR BUT ON THE GRASS SEEN IN A LONDON STREET PARK ENGLAND

"Shitty advise...$1"

I knew the instant that I came around the corner on State Street in downtown Madison and saw the sign it was definately a signal for me to click photos and push my strangers project. As transients go (L-R) Thomas, Katherine, Christopher, and Bently the dog: were the most friend I have come across in a long time. They were all more then happy to pose for photos while talking to my friend John about his camera and t-shirt. I guess they had no interest in Star Wars, but just passing through Madison for a few days before heading onward to wherever the road takes them. Coming from Chicago I was informed by Thomas that Madison is full of much more free spirited people, I can't say I have ventuerd and attempted stranger photos in Chicago but will hope to in the next month.

 

What made these guys fun was their since of humor, you may read the sign as "advise" and see it as a spelling error. But the truth of the matter is they took it in stride and ran with it, smiles and jokes filled the gap of our time together and when all was said and done I did in fact donate a couple dollars in change to the cause. No, I don't have shitty advise* for you but I can suggest to stop and take a moment to snap a photo of a stranger as you never know where it will lead you! Check out more awesome stories and stranger photos in the 100 strangers group on flickr!

007/100

 

50mm 1.4g

f2.8 1/500

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David was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the third king of the United Kingdom of Israel. Historians of the Ancient Near East agree that David probably lived c. 1000 BCE, but little more is known about him as a historical figure.

 

According to Jewish works such as the Seder Olam Rabbah, Seder Olam Zutta, and Sefer ha-Qabbalah (all written over a thousand years later), David ascended the throne as the king of Judah in 885 BCE. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Damascus in the late 9th/early 8th centuries BCE to commemorate a victory over two enemy kings, contains the phrase bytdwd (), which is translated as "House of David" by most scholars. The Mesha stele, erected by King Mesha of Moab in the 9th century BCE, may also refer to the "House of David", although this is disputed. Apart from this, all that is known of David comes from biblical literature, the historicity of which has been extensively challenged, and there is little detail about David that is concrete and undisputed.

 

In the biblical narrative of the Books of Samuel, David is described as a young shepherd and harpist who gains fame and becomes a hero by killing Goliath. He becomes a favorite of Saul, the first king of Israel, but is forced to go into hiding when Saul suspects that David is trying to take his throne. After Saul and his son Jonathan are killed in battle, David is anointed king by the tribe of Judah and eventually all the tribes of Israel. He conquers Jerusalem, makes it the capital of a united Israel, and brings the Ark of the Covenant to the city. He commits adultery with Bathsheba and arranges the death of her husband, Uriah the Hittite. David's son Absalom later tries to overthrow him, but David returns to Jerusalem after Absalom's death to continue his reign. David desires to build a temple to Yahweh, but he is denied because of the bloodshed in his reign. He dies at age 70 and chooses Solomon, his son with Bathsheba, as his successor instead of his eldest son Adonijah. David is honored as an ideal king and the forefather of the future Hebrew Messiah in Jewish prophetic literature and many psalms are attributed to him.

 

David is also richly represented in post-biblical Jewish written and oral tradition and referenced in the New Testament. Early Christians interpreted the life of Jesus of Nazareth in light of references to the Hebrew Messiah and to David; Jesus is described as being directly descended from David in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke. In the Quran and hadith, David is described as an Israelite king as well as a prophet of Allah. The biblical David has inspired many interpretations in art and literature over the centuries.

 

Biblical account

The First Book of Samuel and the First Book of Chronicles both identify David as the son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite, the youngest of eight sons. He also had at least two sisters: Zeruiah, whose sons all went on to serve in David's army, and Abigail, whose son Amasa served in Absalom's army, Absalom being one of David's younger sons. While the Bible does not name his mother, the Talmud identifies her as Nitzevet, a daughter of a man named Adael, and the Book of Ruth claims him as the great-grandson of Ruth, the Moabite, by Boaz.

 

David is described as cementing his relations with various political and national groups through marriage. According to 1 Samuel 17:25, King Saul said that he would make whoever killed Goliath a very wealthy man, give his daughter to him and declare his father's family exempt from taxes in Israel. Saul offered David his oldest daughter, Merab, a marriage David respectfully declined. Saul then gave Merab in marriage to Adriel the Meholathite. Having been told that his younger daughter Michal was in love with David, Saul gave her in marriage to David upon David's payment in Philistine foreskins (ancient Jewish historian Josephus lists the dowry as 100 Philistine heads). Saul became jealous of David and tried to have him killed. David escaped. Then Saul sent Michal to Galim to marry Palti, son of Laish. David then took wives in Hebron, according to 2 Samuel 3; they were Ahinoam the Yizre'elite; Abigail, the widow of Nabal the Carmelite; Maacah, the daughter of Talmay, king of Geshur; Haggith; Abital; and Eglah. Later, David wanted Michal back and Abner, Ish-bosheth's army commander, delivered her to him, causing Palti great grief.

 

The Book of Chronicles lists his sons with his various wives and concubines. In Hebron, David had six sons: Amnon, by Ahinoam; Daniel, by Abigail; Absalom, by Maachah; Adonijah, by Haggith; Shephatiah, by Abital; and Ithream, by Eglah. By Bathsheba, his sons were Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, and Solomon. David's sons born in Jerusalem of his other wives included Ibhar, Elishua, Eliphelet, Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia, Elishama and Eliada. Jerimoth, who is not mentioned in any of the genealogies, is mentioned as another of his sons in 2 Chronicles 11:18. His daughter Tamar, by Maachah, is raped by her half-brother Amnon. David fails to bring Amnon to justice for his violation of Tamar, because he is his firstborn and he loves him, and so Absalom (her full brother) murders Amnon to avenge Tamar. Despite the great sins they had committed, David showed grief at his sons' deaths, weeping twice for Amnon [2 Samuel 13:31–26] and seven times for Absalom.

 

Narrative

God is angered when Saul, Israel's king, unlawfully offers a sacrifice and later disobeys a divine command both to kill all of the Amalekites and to destroy their confiscated property. Consequently, God sends the prophet Samuel to anoint a shepherd, David, the youngest son of Jesse of Bethlehem, to be king instead.

 

After God sends an evil spirit to torment Saul, his servants recommend that he send for a man skilled in playing the lyre. A servant proposes David, whom the servant describes as "skillful in playing, a man of valor, a warrior, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence; and the Lord is with him." David enters Saul's service as one of the royal armour-bearers and plays the lyre to soothe the king.

 

War comes between Israel and the Philistines, and the giant Goliath challenges the Israelites to send out a champion to face him in single combat. David, sent by his father to bring provisions to his brothers serving in Saul's army, declares that he can defeat Goliath. Refusing the king's offer of the royal armour, he kills Goliath with his sling. Saul inquires the name of the young hero's father.

 

Saul sets David over his army. All Israel loves David, but his popularity causes Saul to fear him ("What else can he wish but the kingdom?"). Saul plots his death, but Saul's son Jonathan, one of those who loves David, warns him of his father's schemes and David flees. He goes first to Nob, where he is fed by the priest Ahimelech and given Goliath's sword, and then to Gath, the Philistine city of Goliath, intending to seek refuge with King Achish there. Achish's servants or officials question his loyalty, and David sees that he is in danger there. He goes next to the cave of Adullam, where his family joins him. From there he goes to seek refuge with the king of Moab, but the prophet Gad advises him to leave and he goes to the Forest of Hereth, and then to Keilah, where he is involved in a further battle with the Philistines. Saul plans to besiege Keilah so that he can capture David, so David leaves the city in order to protect its inhabitants. From there he takes refuge in the mountainous Wilderness of Ziph.

 

Jonathan meets with David again and confirms his loyalty to David as the future king. After the people of Ziph notify Saul that David is taking refuge in their territory, Saul seeks confirmation and plans to capture David in the Wilderness of Maon, but his attention is diverted by a renewed Philistine invasion and David is able to secure some respite at Ein Gedi. Returning from battle with the Philistines, Saul heads to Ein Gedi in pursuit of David and enters the cave where, as it happens, David and his supporters are hiding, "to attend to his needs". David realises he has an opportunity to kill Saul, but this is not his intention: he secretly cuts off a corner of Saul's robe, and when Saul has left the cave he comes out to pay homage to Saul as the king and to demonstrate, using the piece of robe, that he holds no malice towards Saul. The two are thus reconciled and Saul recognises David as his successor.

 

A similar passage occurs in 1 Samuel 26, when David is able to infiltrate Saul's camp on the hill of Hachilah and remove his spear and a jug of water from his side while he and his guards lie asleep. In this account, David is advised by Abishai that this is his opportunity to kill Saul, but David declines, saying he will not "stretch out [his] hand against the Lord's anointed". In the morning, David once again demonstrates to Saul that, despite ample opportunity, he did not deign to harm him. Saul, despite having already reconciled with David, confesses that he has been wrong to pursue David, and blesses him.

 

In 1 Samuel 27:1–4, David begins to doubt Saul's sincerity, and reasons that the king will eventually make another attempt on his life. David appeals to king Achish of Gath to grant him and his family sanctuary. Achish agrees, and upon hearing that David has fled to Philistia, Saul ceases to pursue him, though no such pursuit seemed to be in progress at the time. Achish permits David to reside in Ziklag, close to the border between Philistia and Judah. To further ingratiate himself to Achish and the Philistines, David and his men raid the Geshurites, the Girzites and the Amalekites, but lead the royal court to believe they are attacking the Israelites, the Jerahmeelites and the Kenites. While Achish comes to believe that David had become a loyal vassal, the princes or lords of Gath remain unconvinced, and at their request, Achish instructs David to remain behind to guard the camp when the Philistines march against Saul. David returns to Ziklag and saves his wives and the citizens from an Amalekite raid. Jonathan and Saul are killed in battle with the Philistines, and after hearing of their deaths, David travels to Hebron, where he is anointed king over Judah. In the north, Saul's son Ish-Bosheth is anointed king of Israel, and war ensues until Ish-Bosheth is murdered.

 

With the death of Saul's son, the elders of Israel come to Hebron and David is anointed king over all of Israel. He conquers Jerusalem, previously a Jebusite stronghold, and makes it his capital. He brings the Ark of the Covenant to the city, intending to build a temple for God, but the prophet Nathan forbids it, prophesying that the temple would be built by one of David's sons. Nathan also prophesies that God has made a covenant with the house of David stating, "your throne shall be established forever". David wins additional victories over the Philistines, Moabites, Edomites, Amalekites, Ammonites and king Hadadezer of Aram-Zobah, after which they become tributaries. His fame increases as a result, earning the praise of figures like King Toi of Hamath, Hadadezer's rival.

 

During a siege of the Ammonite capital of Rabbah, David remains in Jerusalem. He spies a woman, Bathsheba, bathing and summons her; she becomes pregnant. The text in the Bible does not explicitly state whether Bathsheba consented to sex. David calls her husband, Uriah the Hittite, back from the battle to rest, hoping that he will go home to his wife and the child will be presumed to be his. Uriah does not visit his wife, however, so David conspires to have him killed in the heat of battle. David then marries the widowed Bathsheba. In response, Nathan, after trapping the king in his guilt with a parable that actually described his sin in analogy, prophesies the punishment that will fall upon him, stating "the sword shall never depart from your house." When David acknowledges that he has sinned, Nathan advises him that his sin is forgiven and he will not die, but the child will. In fulfillment of Nathan's words, the child born of the union between David and Bathsheba dies, and another of David's sons, Absalom, fueled by vengeance and lust for power, rebels. Thanks to Hushai, a friend of David who was ordered to infiltrate Absalom's court to successfully sabotage his plans, Absalom's forces are routed at the battle of the Wood of Ephraim, and he is caught by his long hair in the branches of a tree where, contrary to David's order, he is killed by Joab, the commander of David's army. David laments the death of his favourite son: "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!" until Joab persuades him to recover from "the extravagance of his grief" and to fulfill his duty to his people. David returns to Gilgal and is escorted across the River Jordan and back to Jerusalem by the tribes of Judah and Benjamin.

 

When David is old and bedridden, Adonijah, his eldest surviving son and natural heir, declares himself king. Bathsheba and Nathan go to David and obtain his agreement to crown Bathsheba's son Solomon as king, according to David's earlier promise, and the revolt of Adonijah is put down. David dies at the age of 70 after reigning for 40 years, and on his deathbed counsels Solomon to walk in the ways of God and to take revenge on his enemies.

 

Psalms

The Book of Samuel calls David a skillful harp (lyre) player and "the sweet psalmist of Israel."[c] Yet, while almost half of the Psalms are headed "A Psalm of David" (also translated as "to David" or "for David") and tradition identifies several with specific events in David's life (e.g., Psalms 3, 7, 18, 34, 51, 52, 54, 56, 57, 59, 60, 63 and 142), the headings are late additions and no psalm can be attributed to David with certainty.

 

Psalm 34 is attributed to David on the occasion of his escape from Abimelech (or King Achish) by pretending to be insane. According to the parallel narrative in 1 Samuel 21, instead of killing the man who had exacted so many casualties from him, Abimelech allows David to leave, exclaiming, "Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?"

 

Interpretation in Abrahamic tradition

David is an important figure in Rabbinic Judaism, with many legends about him. According to one tradition, David was raised as the son of his father Jesse and spent his early years herding his father's sheep in the wilderness while his brothers were in school.

 

David's adultery with Bathsheba is interpreted as an opportunity to demonstrate the power of repentance, and the Talmud says it was not adultery at all, citing a Jewish practice of divorce on the eve of battle. Furthermore, according to Talmudic sources, Uriah's death was not murder, because Uriah had committed a capital offense by refusing to obey a direct command from the King. However, in tractate Sanhedrin, David expressed remorse over his transgressions and sought forgiveness. God ultimately forgave David and Bathsheba but would not remove their sins from Scripture.

 

In Jewish legend, David's sin with Bathsheba is the punishment for David's excessive self-consciousness. He had besought God to lead him into temptation so that he might give proof of his constancy like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who successfully passed the test and whose names later were united with God's, while David failed through the temptation of a woman.

 

According to midrashim, Adam gave up 70 years of his life for the life of David. Also, according to the Talmud Yerushalmi, David was born and died on the Jewish holiday of Shavuot (Feast of Weeks). His piety was said to be so great that his prayers could bring down things from Heaven.

 

Christianity

King David in Prayer, by Pieter de Grebber (c. 1640)

Holy Monarch, Prophet, Reformer, Spiritual Poet and Musician, Vicegerent of God, Psalm-Receiver

Venerated inRoman Catholicism

Eastern Orthodoxy

Oriental Orthodoxy

FeastDecember 29, 6 October – Roman Catholicism

AttributesPsalms, Harp, Head of Goliath

 

The Messiah concept is fundamental in Christianity. Originally an earthly king ruling by divine appointment ("the anointed one", as the title Messiah had it), in the last two centuries BCE the "son of David" became the apocalyptic and heavenly one who would deliver Israel and usher in a new kingdom. This was the background to the concept of Messiahship in early Christianity, which interpreted the career of Jesus "by means of the titles and functions assigned to David in the mysticism of the Zion cult, in which he served as priest-king and in which he was the mediator between God and man".

 

The early Church believed that "the life of David foreshadowed the life of Christ; Bethlehem is the birthplace of both; the shepherd life of David points out Christ, the Good Shepherd; the five stones chosen to slay Goliath are typical of the five wounds; the betrayal by his trusted counsellor, Ahitophel, and the passage over the Cedron remind us of Christ's Sacred Passion. Many of the Davidic Psalms, as we learn from the New Testament, are clearly typical of the future Messiah." In the Middle Ages, "Charlemagne thought of himself, and was viewed by his court scholars, as a 'new David'. [This was] not in itself a new idea, but [one whose] content and significance were greatly enlarged by him".

 

Western Rite churches (Lutheran, Roman Catholic) celebrate David's feast day on 29 December or 6 October Eastern-rite on 19 December. The Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches celebrate the feast day of the "Holy Righteous Prophet and King David" on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers (two Sundays before the Great Feast of the Nativity of the Lord) and on the Sunday of the Holy Fathers (Sunday before the Nativity), when he is commemorated together with other ancestors of Jesus. He is also commemorated on the Sunday after the Nativity, together with Joseph and James, the Brother of the Lord and on 26 December (Synaxis of the Mother of God).

 

Middle Ages

In European Christian culture of the Middle Ages, David was made a member of the Nine Worthies, a group of heroes encapsulating all the ideal qualities of chivalry. His life was thus proposed as a valuable subject for study by those aspiring to chivalric status. This aspect of David in the Nine Worthies was popularised first through literature, and thereafter adopted as a frequent subject for painters and sculptors.

 

David was considered a model ruler and a symbol of divinely ordained monarchy throughout medieval Western Europe and Eastern Christendom. He was perceived as the biblical predecessor to Christian Roman and Byzantine emperors and the name "New David" was used as an honorific reference to these rulers. The Georgian Bagratids and the Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia claimed direct biological descent from him. Likewise, kings of the Frankish Carolingian dynasty frequently connected themselves to David; Charlemagne himself occasionally used "David" his pseudonym.

 

Islam

David (Arabic: داوود Dā'ūd or Dāwūd) is an important figure in Islam as one of the major prophets God sent to guide the Israelites. He is mentioned several times in the Quran with the Arabic name داود, Dāwūd or Dā'ūd, often with his son Solomon. In the Quran, David killed Goliath (Q2:251), a giant soldier in the Philistine army. When David killed Goliath, God granted him kingship and wisdom and enforced it (Q38:20). David was made God's "vicegerent on earth" (Q38:26) and God further gave David sound judgment (Q21:78; Q37:21–24, Q26) as well as the Psalms, regarded as books of divine wisdom (Q4:163; Q17:55). The birds and mountains united with David in uttering praise to God (Q21:79; Q34:10; Q38:18), while God made iron soft for David (Q34:10), God also instructed David in the art of fashioning chain mail out of iron (Q21:80); this knowledge gave David a major advantage over his bronze and cast iron-armed opponents, not to mention the cultural and economic impact. Together with Solomon, David gave judgment in a case of damage to the fields (Q21:78) and David judged the matter between two disputants in his prayer chamber (Q38:21–23). Since there is no mention in the Quran of the wrong David did to Uriah nor any reference to Bathsheba, Muslims reject this narrative.

 

Muslim tradition and the hadith stress David's zeal in daily prayer as well as in fasting. Quran commentators, historians and compilers of the numerous Stories of the Prophets elaborate upon David's concise quranic narratives and specifically mention David's gift in singing his Psalms, his beautiful recitation, and his vocal talents. His voice is described as having a captivating power, weaving its influence not only over man but over all beasts and nature, who would unite with him to praise God.

 

Historicity

Biblical literature and archaeological finds are the only sources that attest to David's life. Some scholars have concluded that this was likely compiled from contemporary records of the 11th and 10th centuries BCE, but that there is no clear historical basis for determining the exact date of compilation. Other scholars believe that the Books of Samuel were substantially composed during the time of King Josiah at the end of the 7th century BCE, extended during the Babylonian exile (6th century BCE), and substantially complete by about 550 BCE. Old Testament scholar Graeme Auld contends that further editing was done even after then—the silver quarter-shekel Saul's servant offers to Samuel in 1 Samuel 9 "almost certainly fixes the date of the story in the Persian or Hellenistic period" because a quarter-shekel was known to exist in Hasmonean times. The authors and editors of Samuel drew on many earlier sources, including, for their history of David, the "history of David's rise" and the "succession narrative". The Book of Chronicles, which tells the story from a different point of view, was probably composed in the period 350–300 BCE, and uses Samuel and Kings as its source.

 

Biblical evidence indicates that David's Judah was something less than a full-fledged monarchy: it often calls him negid, meaning "prince" or "chief", rather than melek, meaning "king"; the biblical David sets up none of the complex bureaucracy that a kingdom needs (even his army is made up of volunteers), and his followers are largely related to him and from his small home-area around Hebron.

 

Beyond this, the full range of possible interpretations is available. A number of scholars consider the David story to be a heroic tale similar to King Arthur's legend or Homer's epics, while others find such comparisons questionable. One theme that has been paralleled with other Near Eastern literature is the homoerotic nature of the relationship between David and Jonathan. The instance in the Book of Jashar, excerpted in Samuel 2 (1:26), where David "proclaims that Jonathan's love was sweeter to him than the love of a woman", has been compared to Achilles' comparison of Patroclus to a girl and Gilgamesh's love for Enkidu "as a woman". Others hold that the David story is a political apology—an answer to contemporary charges against him, of his involvement in murders and regicide. The authors and editors of Samuel and Chronicles aimed not to record history but to promote David's reign as inevitable and desirable, and for this reason there is little about David that is concrete and undisputed.

 

Some other studies of David have been written: Baruch Halpern has pictured him as a brutal tyrant, a murderer and a lifelong vassal of Achish, the Philistine king of Gath; Steven McKenzie argues that David came from a wealthy family, and was an "ambitious and ruthless" tyrant who murdered his opponents, including his own sons. Joel S. Baden has called him "an ambitious, ruthless, flesh-and-blood man who achieved power by any means necessary, including murder, theft, bribery, sex, deceit, and treason". William G. Dever described him as "a serial killer".

 

Jacob L. Wright has written that the most popular legends about David, including his killing of Goliath, his affair with Bathsheba, and his ruling of a United Kingdom of Israel rather than just Judah, are the creation of those who lived generations after him, in particular those living in the late Persian or Hellenistic periods.

 

Isaac Kalimi wrote about the 10th century BCE: "Almost all that one can say about King Solomon and his time is unavoidably based on the biblical texts. Nevertheless, here also one cannot always offer conclusive proof that a certain biblical passage reflects the actual historical situation in the tenth century BCE, beyond arguing that it is plausible to this or that degree."

 

Archaeological findings

The Tel Dan Stele, discovered in 1993, is an inscribed stone erected by Hazael, a king of Damascus in the late 9th/early 8th centuries BCE. It commemorates the king's victory over two enemy kings, and contains the phrase , bytdwd, which most scholars translate as "House of David". Other scholars have challenged this reading, but it is likely that this is a reference to a dynasty of the Kingdom of Judah which traced its ancestry to a founder named David.

 

Two epigraphers, André Lemaire and Émile Puech, hypothesised in 1994 that the Mesha Stele from Moab, dating from the 9th century, also contain the words "House of David" at the end of Line 31, although this was considered as less certain than the mention in the Tel Dan inscription. In May 2019, Israel Finkelstein, Nadav Na'aman, and Thomas Römer concluded from the new images that the ruler's name contained three consonants and started with a bet, which excludes the reading "House of David" and, in conjunction with the monarch's city of residence "Horonaim" in Moab, makes it likely that the one mentioned is King Balak, a name also known from the Hebrew Bible. Later that year, Michael Langlois used high-resolution photographs of both the inscription itself, and the 19th-century original squeeze of the then still intact stele to reaffirm Lemaire's view that line 31 contains the phrase "House of David". Replying to Langlois, Na'aman argued that the "House of David" reading is unacceptable because the resulting sentence structure is extremely rare in West Semitic royal inscriptions.

 

Besides the two steles, Bible scholar and Egyptologist Kenneth Kitchen suggests that David's name also appears in a relief of Pharaoh Shoshenq, who is usually identified with Shishak in the Bible. The relief claims that Shoshenq raided places in Palestine in 925 BCE, and Kitchen interprets one place as "Heights of David", which was in Southern Judah and the Negev where the Bible says David took refuge from Saul. The relief is damaged and interpretation is uncertain.

 

Archaeological analysis

Of the evidence in question, John Haralson Hayes and James Maxwell Miller wrote in 2006: "If one is not convinced in advance by the biblical profile, then there is nothing in the archaeological evidence itself to suggest that much of consequence was going on in Palestine during the tenth century BCE, and certainly nothing to suggest that Jerusalem was a great political and cultural center." This echoed the 1995 conclusion of Amélie Kuhrt, who noted that "there are no royal inscriptions from the time of the united monarchy (indeed very little written material altogether), and not a single contemporary reference to either David or Solomon," while noting, "against this must be set the evidence for substantial development and growth at several sites, which is plausibly related to the tenth century."

 

In 2007, Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman stated that the archaeological evidence shows that Judah was sparsely inhabited and Jerusalem no more than a small village. The evidence suggested that David ruled only as a chieftain over an area which cannot be described as a state or as a kingdom, but more as a chiefdom, much smaller and always overshadowed by the older and more powerful kingdom of Israel to the north. They posited that Israel and Judah were not monotheistic at the time and that later 7th-century redactors sought to portray a past golden age of a united, monotheistic monarchy in order to serve contemporary needs. They noted a lack of archeological evidence for David's military campaigns and a relative underdevelopment of Jerusalem, the capital of Judah, compared to a more developed and urbanized Samaria, capital of Israel during the 9th century BCE.

 

In 2014, Amihai Mazar wrote that the United Monarchy of the 10th century BCE can be described as a "state in development". He compared David to Labaya, a Caananite warlord living during the time of Pharaoh Akhenaten. While Mazar believes that David reigned over Israel during the 11th century BCE, he argues that much of the Biblical text is of "literary-legendary nature". According to William G. Dever, the reigns of Saul, David and Solomon are reasonably well attested, but "most archeologists today would argue that the United Monarchy was not much more than a kind of hill-country chiefdom".

 

Lester L. Grabbe wrote in 2017: "The main question is what kind of settlement Jerusalem was in Iron IIA: was it a minor settlement, perhaps a large village or possibly a citadel but not a city, or was it the capital of a flourishing—or at least an emerging—state? Assessments differ considerably". Isaac Kalimi wrote in 2018, "No contemporaneous extra-biblical source offers any account of the political situation in Israel and Judah during the tenth century BCE, and as we have seen, the archaeological remains themselves cannot provide any unambiguous evidence of events."

 

The view of Davidic Jerusalem as a village has been challenged by Eilat Mazar's excavation of the Large Stone Structure and the Stepped Stone Structure in 2005. Mazar proposed that these two structures may have been architecturally linked as one unit and that they date to the time of King David. Mazar supports this dating with a number of artifacts, including pottery, two Phoenician-style ivory inlays, a black-and-red jug, and a radiocarbon-dated bone, estimated to be from the 10th century. Dever, Amihai Mazar, Avraham Faust, and Nadav Na'aman have argued in favour of the 10th-century BCE dating and responded to challenges to it. In 2010, Eilat Mazar announced the discovery of part of the ancient city walls around the City of David, which she believes date to the 10th century BCE. According to Mazar, this would prove that an organized state did exist in the 10th century. In 2006, Kenneth Kitchen came to a similar conclusion, arguing that "the physical archaeology of tenth-century Canaan is consistent with the former existence of a unified state on its terrain."

 

Scholars such as Israel Finkelstein, Lily Singer-Avitz, Ze'ev Herzog and David Ussishkin do not accept these conclusions. Finkelstein does not accept the dating of these structures to the 10th century BCE, based in part on the fact that later structures on the site penetrated deep into underlying layers, that the entire area had been excavated in the early 20th century and then backfilled, that pottery from later periods was found below earlier strata, and that consequently the finds collected by E. Mazar cannot necessarily be considered as retrieved in situ. Aren Maeir said in 2010 that he has seen no evidence that these structures are from the 10th century BCE and that proof of the existence of a strong, centralized kingdom at that time remains "tenuous."

 

Excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa by archaeologists Yosef Garfinkel and Saar Ganor found an urbanized settlement radiocarbon dated to the 10th century, which supports the existence of an urbanised kingdom. The Israel Antiquities Authority stated: "The excavations at Khirbat Qeiyafa clearly reveal an urban society that existed in Judah already in the late eleventh century BCE. It can no longer be argued that the Kingdom of Judah developed only in the late eighth century BCE or at some other later date."[160] But other scholars have criticized the techniques and interpretations to reach some conclusions related to Khirbet Qeiyafa, such as Israel Finkelstein and Alexander Fantalkin of Tel Aviv University, who have instead proposed that the city is to be identified as part of a northern Israelite polity.

 

In 2018, Avraham Faust and Yair Sapir stated that a Canaanite site at Tel Eton, about 30 miles from Jerusalem, was taken over by a Judahite community by peaceful assimilation and transformed from a village into a central town at some point in the late 11th or early 10th century BCE. This transformation used some ashlar blocks in construction, which they argued supports the United Monarchy theory

 

Jerusalem is an ancient city in West Asia, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the oldest cities in the world, and is considered holy to the three major Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Both Israel and Palestine claim Jerusalem as their capital; Israel maintains its primary governmental institutions there, and the State of Palestine ultimately foresees it as its seat of power. Neither claim, however, is widely recognized internationally.

 

Throughout its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, captured and recaptured 44 times, and attacked 52 times. The part of Jerusalem called the City of David shows first signs of settlement in the 4th millennium BCE, in the shape of encampments of nomadic shepherds. During the Canaanite period (14th century BCE), Jerusalem was named as Urusalim on ancient Egyptian tablets, probably meaning "City of Shalem" after a Canaanite deity. During the Israelite period, significant construction activity in Jerusalem began in the 10th century BCE (Iron Age II), and by the 9th century BCE, the city had developed into the religious and administrative centre of the Kingdom of Judah. In 1538, the city walls were rebuilt for a last time around Jerusalem under Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire. Today those walls define the Old City, which since the 19th century has been divided into four quarters – the Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim quarters. The Old City became a World Heritage Site in 1981, and is on the List of World Heritage in Danger. Since 1860, Jerusalem has grown far beyond the Old City's boundaries. In 2022, Jerusalem had a population of some 971,800 residents, of which almost 60% were Jews and almost 40% Palestinians. In 2020, the population was 951,100, of which Jews comprised 570,100 (59.9%), Muslims 353,800 (37.2%), Christians 16,300 (1.7%), and 10,800 unclassified (1.1%).

 

According to the Hebrew Bible, King David conquered the city from the Jebusites and established it as the capital of the United Kingdom of Israel, and his son, King Solomon, commissioned the building of the First Temple. Modern scholars argue that Jews branched out of the Canaanite peoples and culture through the development of a distinct monolatrous—and later monotheistic—religion centred on El/Yahweh. These foundational events, straddling the dawn of the 1st millennium BCE, assumed central symbolic importance for the Jewish people. The sobriquet of holy city (Hebrew: עיר הקודש, romanized: 'Ir ha-Qodesh) was probably attached to Jerusalem in post-exilic times. The holiness of Jerusalem in Christianity, conserved in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, which Christians adopted as their own "Old Testament", was reinforced by the New Testament account of Jesus's crucifixion and resurrection there. In Sunni Islam, Jerusalem is the third-holiest city, after Mecca and Medina. The city was the first qibla, the standard direction for Muslim prayers (salah), and in Islamic tradition, Muhammad made his Night Journey there in 621, ascending to heaven where he speaks to God, according to the Quran. As a result, despite having an area of only 0.9 km2 (3⁄8 sq mi), the Old City is home to many sites of seminal religious importance, among them the Temple Mount with its Western Wall, Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

 

Today, the status of Jerusalem remains one of the core issues in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, West Jerusalem was among the areas captured and later annexed by Israel while East Jerusalem, including the Old City, was captured and later annexed by Jordan. Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War and subsequently effectively annexed it into Jerusalem, together with additional surrounding territory.[note 6] One of Israel's Basic Laws, the 1980 Jerusalem Law, refers to Jerusalem as the country's undivided capital. All branches of the Israeli government are located in Jerusalem, including the Knesset (Israel's parliament), the residences of the Prime Minister (Beit Aghion) and President (Beit HaNassi), and the Supreme Court. The international community rejects the annexation as illegal and regards East Jerusalem as Palestinian territory occupied by Israel.

 

Etymology

The name "Jerusalem" is variously etymologized to mean "foundation (Semitic yry' 'to found, to lay a cornerstone') of the pagan god Shalem"; the god Shalem was thus the original tutelary deity of the Bronze Age city.

 

Shalim or Shalem was the name of the god of dusk in the Canaanite religion, whose name is based on the same root S-L-M from which the Hebrew word for "peace" is derived (Shalom in Hebrew, cognate with Arabic Salam). The name thus offered itself to etymologizations such as "The City of Peace", "Abode of Peace", "Dwelling of Peace" ("founded in safety"), or "Vision of Peace" in some Christian authors.

 

The ending -ayim indicates the dual, thus leading to the suggestion that the name Yerushalayim refers to the fact that the city initially sat on two hills.

 

Ancient Egyptian sources

The Execration Texts of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt (c. 19th century BCE), which refer to a city called rwšꜣlmm or ꜣwšꜣmm, variously transcribed as Rušalimum, or Urušalimum, may indicate Jerusalem. Alternatively, the Amarna letters of Abdi-Heba (1330s BCE), which reference an Úrušalim, may be the earliest mention of the city.

 

Hebrew Bible and Jewish sources

The form Yerushalem or Yerushalayim first appears in the Bible, in the Book of Joshua. According to a Midrash, the name is a combination of two names united by God, Yireh ("the abiding place", the name given by Abraham to the place where he planned to sacrifice his son) and Shalem ("Place of Peace", the name given by high priest Shem).

 

Oldest written mention of Jerusalem

One of the earliest extra-biblical Hebrew writing of the word Jerusalem is dated to the sixth or seventh century BCE and was discovered in Khirbet Beit Lei near Beit Guvrin in 1961. The inscription states: "I am Yahweh thy God, I will accept the cities of Judah and I will redeem Jerusalem", or as other scholars suggest: "Yahweh is the God of the whole earth. The mountains of Judah belong to him, to the God of Jerusalem". An older example on papyrus is known from the previous century.

 

In extra-biblical inscriptions, the earliest known example of the -ayim ending was discovered on a column about 3 km west of ancient Jerusalem, dated to the first century BCE.

 

Jebus, Zion, City of David

An ancient settlement of Jerusalem, founded as early as the Bronze Age on the hill above the Gihon Spring, was, according to the Bible, named Jebus. Called the "Fortress of Zion" (metsudat Zion), it was renamed as the "City of David", and was known by this name in antiquity. Another name, "Zion", initially referred to a distinct part of the city, but later came to signify the city as a whole, and afterwards to represent the whole biblical Land of Israel.

 

Greek, Roman and Byzantine names

In Greek and Latin, the city's name was transliterated Hierosolyma (Greek: Ἱεροσόλυμα; in Greek hieròs, ἱερός, means holy), although the city was renamed Aelia Capitolina for part of the Roman period of its history.

 

Salem

The Aramaic Apocryphon of Genesis of the Dead Sea Scrolls (1QapGen 22:13) equates Jerusalem with the earlier "Salem" (שלם), said to be the kingdom of Melchizedek in Genesis 14. Other early Hebrew sources, early Christian renderings of the verse and targumim, however, put Salem in Northern Israel near Shechem (Sichem), now Nablus, a city of some importance in early sacred Hebrew writing. Possibly the redactor of the Apocryphon of Genesis wanted to dissociate Melchizedek from the area of Shechem, which at the time was in possession of the Samaritans. However that may be, later Rabbinic sources also equate Salem with Jerusalem, mainly to link Melchizedek to later Temple traditions.

 

Arabic names

In Arabic, Jerusalem is most commonly known as القُدس, transliterated as al-Quds and meaning "the holy" or "the holy sanctuary", cognate with Hebrew: הקדש, romanized: ha-qodesh. The name is possibly a shortened form of مدينة القُدس Madīnat al-Quds "city of the holy sanctuary" after the Hebrew nickname with the same meaning, Ir ha-Qodesh (עיר הקדש). The ق (Q) is pronounced either with a voiceless uvular plosive (/q/), as in Classical Arabic, or with a glottal stop (ʔ) as in Levantine Arabic. Official Israeli government policy mandates that أُورُشَلِيمَ, transliterated as Ūrušalīm, which is the name frequently used in Christian translations of the Bible into Arabic, be used as the Arabic language name for the city in conjunction with القُدس, giving أُورُشَلِيمَ-القُدس, Ūrušalīm-al-Quds. Palestinian Arab families who hail from this city are often called "Qudsi" (قُدسي) or "Maqdasi" (مقدسي), while Palestinian Muslim Jerusalemites may use these terms as a demonym.

 

Given the city's central position in both Jewish nationalism (Zionism) and Palestinian nationalism, the selectivity required to summarize some 5,000 years of inhabited history is often influenced by ideological bias or background. Israeli or Jewish nationalists claim a right to the city based on Jewish indigeneity to the land, particularly their origins in and descent from the Israelites, for whom Jerusalem is their capital, and their yearning for return. In contrast, Palestinian nationalists claim the right to the city based on modern Palestinians' longstanding presence and descent from many different peoples who have settled or lived in the region over the centuries. Both sides claim the history of the city has been politicized by the other in order to strengthen their relative claims to the city, and that this is borne out by the different focuses the different writers place on the various events and eras in the city's history.

 

Prehistory

The first archaeological evidence of human presence in the area comes in the form of flints dated to between 6000 and 7000 years ago, with ceramic remains appearing during the Chalcolithic period, and the first signs of permanent settlement appearing in the Early Bronze Age in 3000–2800 BCE.

 

Bronze and Iron Ages

The earliest evidence of city fortifications appear in the Mid to Late Bronze Age and could date to around the 18th century BCE. By around 1550–1200 BCE, Jerusalem was the capital of an Egyptian vassal city-state, a modest settlement governing a few outlying villages and pastoral areas, with a small Egyptian garrison and ruled by appointees such as king Abdi-Heba. At the time of Seti I (r. 1290–1279 BCE) and Ramesses II (r. 1279–1213 BCE), major construction took place as prosperity increased. The city's inhabitants at this time were Canaanites, who are believed by scholars to have evolved into the Israelites via the development of a distinct Yahweh-centric monotheistic belief system.

 

Archaeological remains from the ancient Israelite period include the Siloam Tunnel, an aqueduct built by Judahite king Hezekiah and once containing an ancient Hebrew inscription, known as the Siloam Inscription; the so-called Broad Wall, a defensive fortification built in the 8th century BCE, also by Hezekiah; the Silwan necropolis (9th–7th c. BCE) with the Monolith of Silwan and the Tomb of the Royal Steward, which were decorated with monumental Hebrew inscriptions; and the so-called Israelite Tower, remnants of ancient fortifications, built from large, sturdy rocks with carved cornerstones. A huge water reservoir dating from this period was discovered in 2012 near Robinson's Arch, indicating the existence of a densely built-up quarter across the area west of the Temple Mount during the Kingdom of Judah.

 

When the Assyrians conquered the Kingdom of Israel in 722 BCE, Jerusalem was strengthened by a great influx of refugees from the northern kingdom. When Hezekiah ruled, Jerusalem had no fewer than 25,000 inhabitants and covered 25 acres (10 hectares).

 

In 587–586 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar II of the Neo-Babylonian Empire conquered Jerusalem after a prolonged siege, and then systematically destroyed the city, including Solomon's Temple. The Kingdom of Judah was abolished and many were exiled to Babylon. These events mark the end of the First Temple period.

 

Biblical account

This period, when Canaan formed part of the Egyptian empire, corresponds in biblical accounts to Joshua's invasion, but almost all scholars agree that the Book of Joshua holds little historical value for early Israel.

 

In the Bible, Jerusalem is defined as lying within territory allocated to the tribe of Benjamin though still inhabited by Jebusites. David is said to have conquered these in the siege of Jebus, and transferred his capital from Hebron to Jerusalem which then became the capital of a United Kingdom of Israel, and one of its several religious centres. The choice was perhaps dictated by the fact that Jerusalem did not form part of Israel's tribal system, and was thus suited to serve as the centre of its confederation. Opinion is divided over whether the so-called Large Stone Structure and the nearby Stepped Stone Structure may be identified with King David's palace, or dates to a later period.

 

According to the Bible, King David reigned for 40 years and was succeeded by his son Solomon, who built the Holy Temple on Mount Moriah. Solomon's Temple (later known as the First Temple), went on to play a pivotal role in Jewish religion as the repository of the Ark of the Covenant. On Solomon's death, ten of the northern tribes of Israel broke with the United Monarchy to form their own nation, with its kings, prophets, priests, traditions relating to religion, capitals and temples in northern Israel. The southern tribes, together with the Aaronid priesthood, remained in Jerusalem, with the city becoming the capital of the Kingdom of Judah.

 

Classical antiquity

In 538 BCE, the Achaemenid King Cyrus the Great invited the Jews of Babylon to return to Judah to rebuild the Temple. Construction of the Second Temple was completed in 516 BCE, during the reign of Darius the Great, 70 years after the destruction of the First Temple.

 

Sometime soon after 485 BCE Jerusalem was besieged, conquered and largely destroyed by a coalition of neighbouring states. In about 445 BCE, King Artaxerxes I of Persia issued a decree allowing the city (including its walls) to be rebuilt. Jerusalem resumed its role as capital of Judah and centre of Jewish worship.

 

Many Jewish tombs from the Second Temple period have been unearthed in Jerusalem. One example, discovered north of the Old City, contains human remains in a 1st-century CE ossuary decorated with the Aramaic inscription "Simon the Temple Builder". The Tomb of Abba, also located north of the Old City, bears an Aramaic inscription with Paleo-Hebrew letters reading: "I, Abba, son of the priest Eleaz(ar), son of Aaron the high (priest), Abba, the oppressed and the persecuted, who was born in Jerusalem, and went into exile into Babylonia and brought (back to Jerusalem) Mattathi(ah), son of Jud(ah), and buried him in a cave which I bought by deed." The Tomb of Benei Hezir located in Kidron Valley is decorated by monumental Doric columns and Hebrew inscription, identifying it as the burial site of Second Temple priests. The Tombs of the Sanhedrin, an underground complex of 63 rock-cut tombs, is located in a public park in the northern Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sanhedria. These tombs, probably reserved for members of the Sanhedrin and inscribed by ancient Hebrew and Aramaic writings, are dated to between 100 BCE and 100 CE.

 

When Alexander the Great conquered the Achaemenid Empire, Jerusalem and Judea came under Macedonian control, eventually falling to the Ptolemaic dynasty under Ptolemy I. In 198 BCE, Ptolemy V Epiphanes lost Jerusalem and Judea to the Seleucids under Antiochus III. The Seleucid attempt to recast Jerusalem as a Hellenized city-state came to a head in 168 BCE with the successful Maccabean revolt of Mattathias and his five sons against Antiochus IV Epiphanes, and their establishment of the Hasmonean Kingdom in 152 BCE with Jerusalem as its capital.

 

In 63 BCE, Pompey the Great intervened in a struggle for the Hasmonean throne and captured Jerusalem, extending the influence of the Roman Republic over Judea. Following a short invasion by Parthians, backing the rival Hasmonean rulers, Judea became a scene of struggle between pro-Roman and pro-Parthian forces, eventually leading to the emergence of an Edomite named Herod. As Rome became stronger, it installed Herod as a client king of the Jews. Herod the Great, as he was known, devoted himself to developing and beautifying the city. He built walls, towers and palaces, and expanded the Temple Mount, buttressing the courtyard with blocks of stone weighing up to 100 tons. Under Herod, the area of the Temple Mount doubled in size. Shortly after Herod's death, in 6 CE Judea came under direct Roman rule as the Iudaea Province, although the Herodian dynasty through Agrippa II remained client kings of neighbouring territories until 96 CE.

 

Roman rule over Jerusalem and Judea was challenged in the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), which ended with a Roman victory. Early on, the city was devastated by a brutal civil war between several Jewish factions fighting for control of the city. In 70 CE, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Second Temple. The contemporary Jewish historian Josephus wrote that the city "was so thoroughly razed to the ground by those that demolished it to its foundations, that nothing was left that could ever persuade visitors that it had once been a place of habitation." Of the 600,000 (Tacitus) or 1,000,000 (Josephus) Jews of Jerusalem, all of them either died of starvation, were killed or were sold into slavery. Roman rule was again challenged during the Bar Kokhba revolt, beginning in 132 CE and suppressed by the Romans in 135 CE. More recent research indicates that the Romans had founded Aelia Capitolina before the outbreak of the revolt, and found no evidence for Bar Kokhba ever managing to hold the city.

 

Jerusalem reached a peak in size and population at the end of the Second Temple Period, when the city covered two km2 (3⁄4 sq mi) and had a population of 200,000.

 

Late Antiquity

Following the Bar Kokhba revolt, Emperor Hadrian combined Iudaea Province with neighbouring provinces under the new name of Syria Palaestina, replacing the name of Judea. The city was renamed Aelia Capitolina, and rebuilt it in the style of a typical Roman town. Jews were prohibited from entering the city on pain of death, except for one day each year, during the holiday of Tisha B'Av. Taken together, these measures (which also affected Jewish Christians) essentially "secularized" the city. Historical sources and archaeological evidence indicate that the rebuilt city was now inhabited by veterans of the Roman military and immigrants from the western parts of the empire.

 

The ban against Jews was maintained until the 7th century, though Christians would soon be granted an exemption: during the 4th century, the Roman emperor Constantine I ordered the construction of Christian holy sites in the city, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Burial remains from the Byzantine period are exclusively Christian, suggesting that the population of Jerusalem in Byzantine times probably consisted only of Christians.

 

Jerusalem.

In the 5th century, the eastern continuation of the Roman Empire, ruled from the recently renamed Constantinople, maintained control of the city. Within the span of a few decades, Jerusalem shifted from Byzantine to Persian rule, then back to Roman-Byzantine dominion. Following Sassanid Khosrau II's early 7th century push through Syria, his generals Shahrbaraz and Shahin attacked Jerusalem (Persian: Dej Houdkh) aided by the Jews of Palaestina Prima, who had risen up against the Byzantines.

 

In the Siege of Jerusalem of 614, after 21 days of relentless siege warfare, Jerusalem was captured. Byzantine chronicles relate that the Sassanids and Jews slaughtered tens of thousands of Christians in the city, many at the Mamilla Pool, and destroyed their monuments and churches, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This episode has been the subject of much debate between historians. The conquered city would remain in Sassanid hands for some fifteen years until the Byzantine emperor Heraclius reconquered it in 629.

 

Middle Ages

After the Muslim conquest of the Levant, Byzantine Jerusalem was taken by Umar ibn al-Khattab in 638 CE. Among the first Muslims, it was referred to as Madinat bayt al-Maqdis ("City of the Temple"), a name restricted to the Temple Mount. The rest of the city "was called Iliya, reflecting the Roman name given the city following the destruction of 70 CE: Aelia Capitolina". Later the Temple Mount became known as al-Haram al-Sharif, "The Noble Sanctuary", while the city around it became known as Bayt al-Maqdis, and later still, al-Quds al-Sharif "The Holy, Noble". The Islamization of Jerusalem began in the first year A.H. (623 CE), when Muslims were instructed to face the city while performing their daily prostrations and, according to Muslim religious tradition, Muhammad's night journey and ascension to heaven took place. After 13 years, the direction of prayer was changed to Mecca. In 638 CE the Islamic Caliphate extended its dominion to Jerusalem. With the Muslim conquest, Jews were allowed back into the city. The Rashidun caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab signed a treaty with Christian Patriarch of Jerusalem Sophronius, assuring him that Jerusalem's Christian holy places and population would be protected under Muslim rule. Christian-Arab tradition records that, when led to pray at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, one of the holiest sites for Christians, the caliph Umar refused to pray in the church so that Muslims would not request conversion of the church to a mosque. He prayed outside the church, where the Mosque of Umar (Omar) stands to this day, opposite the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. According to the Gaullic bishop Arculf, who lived in Jerusalem from 679 to 688, the Mosque of Umar was a rectangular wooden structure built over ruins which could accommodate 3,000 worshipers.

 

When the Arab armies under Umar went to Bayt Al-Maqdes in 637 CE, they searched for the site of al-masjid al-aqsa, "the farthest place of prayer/mosque", that was mentioned in the Quran and Hadith according to Islamic beliefs. Contemporary Arabic and Hebrew sources say the site was full of rubbish, and that Arabs and Jews cleaned it. The Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik commissioned the construction of a shrine on the Temple Mount, now known as the Dome of the Rock, in the late 7th century. Two of the city's most-distinguished Arab citizens of the 10th-century were Al-Muqaddasi, the geographer, and Al-Tamimi, the physician. Al-Muqaddasi writes that Abd al-Malik built the edifice on the Temple Mount in order to compete in grandeur with Jerusalem's monumental churches.

 

Over the next four hundred years, Jerusalem's prominence diminished as Arab powers in the region vied for control of the city. Jerusalem was captured in 1073 by the Seljuk Turkish commander Atsız. After Atsız was killed, the Seljuk prince Tutush I granted the city to Artuk Bey, another Seljuk commander. After Artuk's death in 1091 his sons Sökmen and Ilghazi governed in the city up to 1098 when the Fatimids recaptured the city.

 

A messianic Karaite movement to gather in Jerusalem took place at the turn of the millennium, leading to a "Golden Age" of Karaite scholarship there, which was only terminated by the Crusades.

 

Crusader/Ayyubid period

In 1099, the Fatimid ruler expelled the native Christian population before Jerusalem was besieged by the soldiers of the First Crusade. After taking the solidly defended city by assault, the Crusaders massacred most of its Muslim and Jewish inhabitants, and made it the capital of their Kingdom of Jerusalem. The city, which had been virtually emptied, was recolonized by a variegated inflow of Greeks, Bulgarians, Hungarians, Georgians, Armenians, Syrians, Egyptians, Nestorians, Maronites, Jacobite Miaphysites, Copts and others, to block the return of the surviving Muslims and Jews. The north-eastern quarter was repopulated with Eastern Christians from the Transjordan. As a result, by 1099 Jerusalem's population had climbed back to some 30,000.

 

In 1187, the city was wrested from the Crusaders by Saladin who permitted Jews and Muslims to return and settle in the city. Under the terms of surrender, once ransomed, 60,000 Franks were expelled. The Eastern Christian populace was permitted to stay. Under the Ayyubid dynasty of Saladin, a period of huge investment began in the construction of houses, markets, public baths, and pilgrim hostels as well as the establishment of religious endowments. However, for most of the 13th century, Jerusalem declined to the status of a village due to city's fall of strategic value and Ayyubid internecine struggles.

 

From 1229 to 1244, Jerusalem peacefully reverted to Christian control as a result of a 1229 treaty agreed between the crusading Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and al-Kamil, the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt, that ended the Sixth Crusade. The Ayyubids retained control of the Muslim holy places, and Arab sources suggest that Frederick was not permitted to restore Jerusalem's fortifications.

 

In 1244, Jerusalem was sacked by the Khwarezmian Tatars, who decimated the city's Christian population and drove out the Jews. The Khwarezmian Tatars were driven out by the Ayyubids in 1247.

 

Mamluk period

From 1260 to 1516/17, Jerusalem was ruled by the Mamluks. In the wider region and until around 1300, many clashes occurred between the Mamluks on one side, and the crusaders and the Mongols, on the other side. The area also suffered from many earthquakes and black plague. When Nachmanides visited in 1267 he found only two Jewish families, in a population of 2,000, 300 of whom were Christians, in the city. The well-known and far-traveled lexicographer Fairuzabadi (1329–1414) spent ten years in Jerusalem.

 

The 13th to 15th centuries was a period of frequent building activity in the city, as evidenced by the 90 remaining structures from this time. The city was also a significant site of Mamluk architectural patronage. The types of structures built included madrasas, libraries, hospitals, caravanserais, fountains (or sabils), and public baths. Much of the building activity was concentrated around the edges of the Temple Mount or Haram al-Sharif. Old gates to the Haram lost importance and new gates were built, while significant parts of the northern and western porticoes along the edge of the Temple Mount plaza were built or rebuilt in this period. Tankiz, the Mamluk amir in charge of Syria during the reign of al-Nasir Muhammad, built a new market called Suq al-Qattatin (Cotton Market) in 1336–7, along with the gate known as Bab al-Qattanin (Cotton Gate), which gave access to the Temple Mount from this market. The late Mamluk sultan al-Ashraf Qaytbay also took interest in the city. He commissioned the building of the Madrasa al-Ashrafiyya, completed in 1482, and the nearby Sabil of Qaytbay, built shortly after in 1482; both were located on the Temple Mount. Qaytbay's monuments were the last major Mamluk constructions in the city.

 

Modern era

In 1517, Jerusalem and its environs fell to the Ottoman Turks, who generally remained in control until 1917.[180] Jerusalem enjoyed a prosperous period of renewal and peace under Suleiman the Magnificent—including the rebuilding of magnificent walls around the Old City. Throughout much of Ottoman rule, Jerusalem remained a provincial, if religiously important centre, and did not straddle the main trade route between Damascus and Cairo. The English reference book Modern history or the present state of all nations, written in 1744, stated that "Jerusalem is still reckoned the capital city of Palestine, though much fallen from its ancient grandeaur".

 

The Ottomans brought many innovations: modern postal systems run by the various consulates and regular stagecoach and carriage services were among the first signs of modernization in the city. In the mid 19th century, the Ottomans constructed the first paved road from Jaffa to Jerusalem, and by 1892 the railroad had reached the city.

 

With the annexation of Jerusalem by Muhammad Ali of Egypt in 1831, foreign missions and consulates began to establish a foothold in the city. In 1836, Ibrahim Pasha allowed Jerusalem's Jewish residents to restore four major synagogues, among them the Hurva. In the countrywide Peasants' Revolt, Qasim al-Ahmad led his forces from Nablus and attacked Jerusalem, aided by the Abu Ghosh clan, and entered the city on 31 May 1834. The Christians and Jews of Jerusalem were subjected to attacks. Ibrahim's Egyptian army routed Qasim's forces in Jerusalem the following month.

 

Ottoman rule was reinstated in 1840, but many Egyptian Muslims remained in Jerusalem and Jews from Algiers and North Africa began to settle in the city in growing numbers. In the 1840s and 1850s, the international powers began a tug-of-war in Palestine as they sought to extend their protection over the region's religious minorities, a struggle carried out mainly through consular representatives in Jerusalem. According to the Prussian consul, the population in 1845 was 16,410, with 7,120 Jews, 5,000 Muslims, 3,390 Christians, 800 Turkish soldiers and 100 Europeans. The volume of Christian pilgrims increased under the Ottomans, doubling the city's population around Easter time.

 

In the 1860s, new neighbourhoods began to develop outside the Old City walls to house pilgrims and relieve the intense overcrowding and poor

Today 11th April 2018 I had visited Aberdeen Harbour to capture supply ships arrive and leave , however after an hour or so I heard through my radio scanner VTS (vessel traffic services) advise scheduled vessels due to arrive or leave that tide levels are lower than predicted and that no movement would be possible until 19pm, with a few hours to spare I decided to visit Donmouth Nature Reserve , on arriving I could see Paragliders in the distance , I loaded my Nikon and set off to capture the scene.

 

I captured a number of shots before two of the gliders landed on the cliffs, I went over to them for a chat , friendly guys who obviously loved their hobby / sport , as I usually do , I asked for permission to post the photos I had taken, "no problem" was their reply .

 

It was exciting to see the guys take off and land on the cliffs , in fact it made me feel like having a go , honestly it was a magnificent view seeing them all glide along the clifftops, one of them told me they can reach speeds of 50 mph .

 

The guys are all members of Aberdeen Hang Gliding and Paragliding club, thanks to them for a great and unpredicted shoot , it made my day .

 

Donmouth Local Nature Reserve is a beach site in the historic Old Aberdeen part of the City where the River Don meets the sea.

 

A great place to see seals and a range of interesting birds. The beach area has changed over time as the river has changed its course. There are lots of interesting plants in the dunes and beach area. Bird hide is an excellent shelter from which to watch the wildlife. The paths run across King Street to the Brig 'o Balgownie., the original bridge in to the City from the North, then down the other side of the river to the sea.

 

The site was designated a Local Nature Reserve in 1992

 

Paths are good although wheelchair access to the beach would be difficult as the boardwalk can get covered with sand.

 

There is plenty of free car parking on the Beach Esplanade and at the car park in Donmouth Road. There are cycle racks on Beach Esplanade

 

Bridge Of Don has five spans of dressed granite, and rounded cutwaters that carry up to road level to form pedestrian refuges. The spans are 75 feet (23 m), with a rise of 25 feet (7.6 m).

 

It was widened in 1958-59, from 24 feet (7.3 m), to 66 feet (20 m) by the construction of a new concrete bridge adjacent to the old one.

 

It now carries four lanes of the A956 road, and is the last bridge on the River Don before it meets the sea. The bridge is just downstream from a substantial island in the river. Around the area of the bridge is the Donmouth Local Nature Reserve, designated as a LNR in 1992.

Near to the bridge are a number of World War II era coastal defences, including a pill box.

Mudflats

Mudflats are formed when fine particles carried downstream by the river are deposited as it slows down before entering the sea, and to a lesser extent by fine particles washed in by the tide. The sand spit at the mouth of the Don provides shelter from the wind and waves allowing this material to build up. The mud flats are a very rich and fertile environment. Despite their rather barren appearance they support a surprisingly diverse invertebrate fauna which includes; worms, molluscs and crustacea. These invertebrates are vitally important to wildfowl and wading birds within the estuary.

 

Salt marsh

Along the upper shore of the south bank saltmarsh has developed. This habitat would once have been much more extensive prior to the tipping of domestic and other refuse in the area and the formation in 1727 of an artificial embankment to prevent flooding of the river into the Links. This habitat is now reduced to a narrow strip of vegetation along the river margins upstream from the Powis Burn.

 

The species composition of the salt marsh varies according to the salinity of the water i.e. the proximity to the sea. Close to the Powis Burn this habitat is dominated by reed sweet-grass (Glyceria maxima) with reed canary-grass (Phalaris arundinacea), sea club-rush (Scirpus maritimus), spike-rush (Eleocharis palustris), hemlock water-dropwort (Oenanthe crocata) and common scurvygrass (Chochlearia officinalis).

Further inland reed sweet-grass continues to dominate but hemlock water-dropwort is more abundant with meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) and valarian (Valariana officinalis),

 

Sand dunes

Sand dunes are found in the more exposed parts of the estuary at the river mouth. Again, this habitat was once much more extensive in this locality with dune grasslands stretching from Aberdeen Beach inland as far as King Street, southwards from the estuary of the Dee, northwards to the Sands of Forvie and beyond. Many of the dunes formed part of Seaton Tip, and following tipping the area was grassed over. Other areas have been formally landscaped to form golf courses or planted with native trees in 2010 to create a new woodland area.

 

Some remnants of the natural dune flora can be seen in the 'roughs' on the Kings Links golf course and near the mouth of the river.

 

Above the high water mark, fore dunes with thick clumps of the pioneer grass species including sea lyme grass (Elymus arenarius) and marram grass (Ammophila arenaria) occur. Few other species are able to cope with the shifting sand. The largest area of these young dunes is to the north and west of the headland. Further inland where the dunes are sheltered from the actions of the wind and waves, and soils are more developed, more stable dunes are present supporting a more diverse grassland habitat.

 

Strand line plants which are able to tolerate occasional coverage by sea water include sea rocket (Cakile maritima), frosted orache (Atriplex laciniata), sea sandwort (Honkenya peploides) and knotgrass (Polygonum aviculare). Bur-reed (Sparganium sp.) has been recorded; presumably washed down by the river.

 

Marram grass (Ammophila arenaria) and sea lyme grass (Elymus arenarius) dominate the fore dunes. The latter species is not native to this area but appeared in 1802. It is thought to have been unintentionally introduced into the area by fishing boats. For a number of years it remained uncommon but from 1870 onwards it spread rapidly along the coastline (Marren, 1982).

 

In the more stable dunes red fescue (Festuca rubra), sand sedge (Carex arenaria), yellow rattle (Rhinanthus minor), wild pansy (Viola tricolour), harebell (Campanula rotundifolia), bird's-foot-trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) and lesser meadow-rue (Thalictrum minus) are abundant. Small amounts of kidney vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria), valerian (Valeriana officinalis) and spring vetch (Vicia lathyroides) are present.

 

Scattered willows (Salix sp.) and sycamore (Acer pseudoplantanus) have seeded into this area. Gorse (Ulex europaeus) scrub has colonised the dunes in some areas and appears to be spreading.

 

Scrub

This habitat is almost entirely artificial with only the gorse scrub on the inner dunes being a semi-natural habitat. Alder and willow were planted along the south bank of the river in about 1970 and these shrubs are now generally well established. Further shrub planting on the south bank was carried out in 1990.

 

Willow (Salix sp.) and alder (Alnus glutinosa) were planted in the 1970's along the south bank of the River Don eastwards of the Bridge of Don. The trees to the west of this strip are doing considerably better than those to the east. More recent planting was carried out in 1990 with hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) elder (Sambucus nigra), goat willow (Salix caprea) and alder.

 

Underneath the scrub neutral grassland is present with cocksfoot (Dactylis glomerata), false oat-grass (Arrhenatherum elatius), cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris), sweet cicely (Myrrhis odorata), hedge woundwort (Stachys sylvatica) and hedge bindweed (Calystegia sepium).

 

Grassland

Much of the grassland within the reserve is formed on imported soil and is intensively managed. This includes grassland on the north and south sides of the Esplanade. Daffodils are present in the grassland on the north side of the road. On the north bank to the east of the Bridge of Don is rank grassland on a steep south-facing slope. This is unmanaged and contains some patches of scrub.

 

Rough grassland is present on the headland. This area has been modified by tipping, with rubble to the east and with grass cuttings to the west. The grassland contains a mixture of neutral grassland, dune grassland, ruderal, and introduced garden species. This area attracts flocks of seed eating birds in late summer and autumn.

 

Improved grassland is present on the headland and along the south bank of the estuary downstream from the bridge of Don. Much of this vegetation has developed on imported soil and contains a high proportion of ruderal species and garden escapes. On the headland, broadleaved dock (Rumex obtusifolius), nettle (Urtica dioica), coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara), spear thistle (Cirsium vulgare), cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris), hemlock (Conium maculatum) and hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) are abundant. Sweet cicely (Chaerophyllum bulbosum) is widespread and in late summer fills the air with the scent of aniseed.

 

To the south of the Esplanade the grassland is managed with an annual cut.. The grassland does flood to form pools. Early in the year cuckoo flower (Cardamine pratensis) is common, meadow foxtail (Alopecuris pratensis)is known to occur around the margins of these pools.

 

Woodland

Semi-mature woodland is present on the steep sided south bank of the river upstream from the Bridge of Don. Most of this woodland has been planted in the mid 1930's though some older oak and elm trees are present. These may be relicts of former woodland cover. The woodland in the reserve is part of a strip of woodland along the River Don corridor which continues upstream from the Brig 'o' Balgownie.

 

Woodland is present on the south bank upstream from the Bridge of Don.

 

Much of the woodland consists of even aged stands with willow (Salix sp.), sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus), ash (Fraxinus excelsior), beech (Fagus sylvatica) and alder (AInus glutinosa). At the top of the slope mature oak (Quercus sp.) and elm (Ulmus glabra) are present. The ground flora contains tufted hair-grass (Deschampsia caespitosa), red campion (Silene dioica), ramsons (Allium ursinum) and lady fern (Athyrium felix-femina) .In a few areas dense shading is caused by the trees and in these areas the ground flora is poor.

 

On the north bank scattered trees are present, mainly willow and sycamore with some scrub.

 

1995 Audi Coupe 2.6E auto.

 

Anglia Car Auctions, King's Lynn -

 

"Five keepers from new, the previous owner registered from 2010 to 2017. The vendor advises that during 2016 this Audi Coupe had a cambelt change and new water pump fitted and over the winter of 2017 was subject to some light restoration. The history file contains the original service book with five stamps from 1997 to 2004 and two in 2015, some invoices and the MoT history print-out dating from 2006. Mileage recorded at 70,824. Chasis number WAUZZZ8BZTA001973.

 

V5 present

MoT August 2018

Estimate: £2,000 - 2,500

Result: £2,332."

In the 1870’s, carpet-manufacturing innovator Stephen Sanford was advised by his physician to “buy a farm and a couple horses” and enjoy the relaxing atmosphere of life in the country in order to escape from the stressful environment of his busy internationally acclaimed carpet business. It was a “therapeutic” decision that would lead to one of the largest and most recognized thoroughbred breeding facilities in the nation.

The purple and gold colors of Sanford Stud Farm, also known as Hurricana for the winds that blew over the farm from the Mohawk Valley below, would grace the Winner’s Circle of the Kentucky Derby with George Smith. Sanford Stud Farm was also the first American stable to win the prestigious English Grand National Steeplechase.

Today, only a few of the magnificent buildings remain. The training track is a shopping mall and the monuments memorializing Sanford winners have all been removed from their original places of honor.

 

www.sanfordstudfarm.org/livingston.html

THIS IS A GOOD SITE ALSO:

 

www.lostlandmarks.org/hurricanefarm.html

  

SoulRider.222 / Eric Rider © 2016

 

In 1922, community leaders in Sellwood organized to pursue the construction of a bridge to replace the aging Sellwood ferry, but this plan was opposed by the Portland Planning Bureau, noting that the “proposed bridge would only serve a sparsely settled area largely outside of the city limits” (The Oregonian, March 23, 1922). The report advised careful scrutiny of all major investments in the post-war era, noting that a new bridge at Sellwood was not as high a priority as other bridges closer to the city’s business center (The Oregonian, March 22, 1922).

 

However, the Sellwood Club remained active in promoting the idea of a bridge to replace the ferry, and petitioned the county commissioners to place the issue on the ballot.

 

In July 1922 there were plans for a $1 million dollar span at Sellwood, but by September economics led to a shift to save money by re-using spans from the 1894 Burnside Bridge, which was to be replaced by a new bascule bridge (The Oregonian, October 1, 1922). Sellwood Bridge proponents noted that a crossing at Sellwood – at a narrow section of the Willamette River - could be significantly cheaper than competing bridge options at other locations, (The Oregonian, September 15, 1922) and the ability to reuse the spans from the old Burnside bridge would be a cost effective way to create two river crossings. It was also argued that the new Sellwood Bridge would actually save money in the long run, with annual maintenance costs being $7,000 per year cheaper than the current "antiquated and inadequate" ferry service (The Oregonian, October 24, 1923).

 

Voters passed several bonds between 1922 and 1924 to pay for three spans across the Willamette: a rebuilt Burnside Bridge and two new "high spans" to be located at Sellwood and Ross Island. The $5 million bridge program was reputed to be “the most extensive bridge programme of any city in America” (The Oregonian, January 1, 1924).

 

The original designs for the new bridges came from the firm Hedrick & Kremers. The Sellwood Bridge was to make use of the recycled through-truss spans from the Burnside Bridge, while the Ross Island Bridge would be a “high and massive [causeway] of reinforced concrete.” The new Burnside span was also to be made of concrete (The Oregonian, January 1, 1924).

 

Although many members of the public preferred the concrete designs, the Ross Island and Burnside bridges would later be changed to steel due to concrete’s higher cost.

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Moving the 1100-foot long truss span to set up a detour bridge was another milestone in the effort to replace Multnomah County’s 87-year old Sellwood Bridge. The truss span was moved on Saturday, January 19, 2013. Moving it north created space for the new Sellwood Bridge to be built in the alignment of the old bridge.

 

The 3400-ton truss span was one of the longest bridge parts ever moved. The age and shape of the truss combined with the curved path of the move made it a highly complex undertaking.

 

Setting up the detour bridge required the Sellwood Bridge to be closed to all users – motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists – from January 17 to January 23. Originally, the project team had planned for the bridge to be closed until January 24, but it opened one day early after a successful move.

 

The actual move only took about 14 hours, but the extra closure days were needed to install road connections at each end of the truss span and complete an in-depth inspection of the detour bridge before it opened to traffic. The detour bridge is now carrying motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians across the river until the new Sellwood Bridge opens in the summer of 2015.

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Sellwood’s Steel Truss Span:

 

The existing steel truss span is a continuous structure about 1100 feet long.

 

The structure is a four-span continuous truss. The steel structure consists of four spans between support piers but is continuous over the entire 1100-foot length with no hinges or expansion joints.

 

Four-span continuous trusses are exceedingly rare. We’re aware of only a couple of others in the United States. Sellwood’s designer, Gustav Lindenthal (world-famous bridge engineer from New York), chose a continuous truss design to minimize the amount of steel. A small budget required an economical design.

 

In its original position the truss was supported on five concrete piers, three in the river and two at the east and west shorelines. Lengths of the four spans from west to east are about 245 feet, 300 feet, 300 feet and 246 feet.

 

At each of the five piers, the truss was supported on two large steel bearings, with one bearing under the north side of the truss and one under the south side.

 

The individual parts of the steel truss were fabricated in 1924 at Judson Manufacturing Company in Emeryville, California. Sellwood was one of the first large steel bridges in the Portland area that was fabricated on the West Coast. Steel bridges older than Sellwood were generally fabricated in Pennsylvania or other eastern states.

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Why Move the Truss?

 

The Sellwood truss was moved (or “translated,” as engineers and construction crews say) sideways to a new location north of the existing bridge to serve as a temporary detour structure while the new Sellwood Bridge is built at the original bridge location.

 

At the new location, the truss is supported on five temporary steel “bents” or piers. The contractor installed the new bents at the same spacings as the existing concrete piers. The new bents support the truss at the same 10 bearing points (two per bent) where the original concrete piers supported it.

 

The entire 1100-foot long, four-span truss was moved sideways to its new location as a single unit. The bridge was moved in a horizontal slide, rather than a vertical pick-and-move.

While translation of shorter bridges is quite common, it is highly unusual to translate a multi-span bridge of this length in one piece. Considering the rarity of four-span bridges, the Sellwood move could be the first time such an operation has been performed for a structure of this type. Comparisons with similar projects have been difficult to find.

 

Due to the necessary locations of the temporary east and west approaches to the detour bridge, the location of the truss after its move is at a “skew” to its original alignment. The east end of the truss moved north about 33 feet and the west end moved north about 66 feet. This means that the truss traveled along a curved path as it was translated.

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Who Moved the Truss Span?

 

The translation operation was carried out by two contractors working together: the Slayden/Sundt Joint Venture and Omega Morgan. Omega Morgan is an Oregon subcontractor that worked for Slayden/Sundt.

 

The Slayden/Sundt Joint Venture is Construction Manager/General Contractor (CMGC) for the entire Sellwood Bridge replacement project. The joint venture consists of Slayden, a Stayton, Oregon-based heavy construction contractor, and Sundt, an Arizona-based general contractor.

 

Slayden/Sundt (SSJV) had overall responsibility for the translation operation and performed portions of the translation-related work with their own crews and equipment.

 

Omega Morgan is a Hillsboro-based contractor involved in transporting and handling heavy equipment and structures. As a subcontractor, Omega Morgan provided specialized equipment for the translation and planned and directed the translation operation.

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Methods and Equipment:

 

Since the truss span is continuous over its full 1100-foot length, it was important to support the truss at its 10 main bearing points (two per pier) throughout the move. Otherwise the load-carrying capacity of truss parts could have been exceeded.

 

To support the truss at all 10 bearing points during translation, the contractor installed steel “translation beams” from the five old concrete piers to the five new temporary steel piers.

 

Two translation beams were used at each pier to accommodate Omega Morgan’s “skidding” (or sliding) equipment. One translation beam was positioned on either side (east and west) of the bearings that support the truss on the piers.

 

Omega Morgan’s equipment lifted the truss off the concrete piers, then slid the truss along the translation beams to the steel temporary bents. Hydraulic jacks pushed the truss on its journey. Omega Morgan has used this equipment regularly for operations such as moving newly-built barges at the Port of Portland and loading container cranes on barges at ports.

 

Some of the same equipment was used to load the arch span for the new Sauvie Island Bridge onto a barge in 2007 in preparation for moving it to the bridge site.

 

To prepare for the truss-sliding operation, Omega Morgan first installed U-shaped “track beams” on top of the translation beams from the concrete piers to the steel bents. Teflon pads were glued to the track beams to provide slick sliding surfaces.

 

To actually lift and slide the bridge truss, Omega Morgan used their standard “skid beams.” The skid beams were 14-foot long ski-shaped steel units that slid on the Teflon pads in the track beams. Four skid beams were used at each of the concrete piers, with two of the skid beams located at the north side bridge bearing and two at the south side bearing. At each bridge bearing, the two skid beams sat on the track beams on the east and west sides of the bearing.

 

For the Sellwood operation, each skid beam had two vertically-oriented 150-ton capacity hydraulic jacks for lifting the truss off the concrete piers and lowering it onto the temporary steel piers. With two skid beams at each bearing, this meant that four jacks lifted the truss at each bearing.

 

Since there are 10 bearings in total (two per pier), 40 jacks were used to lift the truss. At each of the three river piers, the weight of the truss (including concrete roadway deck) was about 900 tons. At each of the end piers, the bridge weight was about 340 tons. The total weight of the truss span was estimated to be about 3400 tons.

 

In preparation for the lifting and translation operations, the contractor installed custom-designed steel “cradles” at each truss bearing (10 cradles total). The cradles carried the weight of the truss from the bearing to the four lifting jacks.

 

To move the skid beams and truss along the track beams, Omega Morgan used 10 horizontally-oriented 75-ton capacity hydraulic jacks to push on the south side skid beams. The north skid beams and south skid beams were tied together to assure that they moved together.

 

The pushing jacks were pinned to the rear ends of the skid beams and pushed against clips on the sides on the track beams. Due to the slick surface provided by the Teflon pads in the track beams, only a small part of the pushing jack capacity was needed to move the truss. The pushing jacks could also have been used to pull back in case a skid beam moved too far.

 

The truss moved along a curved path due to the skewed alignment of the detour bridge relative to the original bridge. The steel translation beams were designed to account for this curve. The truss shifted sideways about 33 feet northward at the east end and 66 feet at the west end.

 

To move the truss along the curved path, Omega Morgan controlled the pushing jacks such that the jacks at the west end pushed twice as fast as the east end jacks, with the jacks at the other three points pushing at proportional rates. To accomplish this, Omega Morgan used a “digitally-controlled power pack” that controlled the amount of hydraulic fluid going to each jack.

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Monitoring the Move:

 

The truss moved at different rates along each of the translation beam pairs in order to move on a curved path. Omega Morgan and the general contractor monitored the progress of the truss in two ways:

 

With marks on the translation beams or track beams. Before translation started, each beam was marked to show how far the truss had progressed at any given point in time. During translation, Omega Morgan stopped moving the truss periodically to allow staff to determine the truss location on each beam. The actual locations were compared to figures on an “offset table” to make sure the truss was moving at the desired rate at each beam.

 

A surveying subcontractor on land monitored locations of targets at the bearing points on the truss.

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Additional Monitoring for the Truss:

 

The Sellwood truss is a long, slender structure with a finite amount of inherent strength. Truss members could have been damaged if the truss was bent or twisted excessively during translation. A number of measures were taken to minimize the potential for damage:

 

An engineering firm on the County’s team analyzed the truss to see how much it could be bent or twisted without causing damage. Based on results of the analysis, “tolerance limits” were established for the permissible amount of deformation from vertical bending, horizontal bending and twist.

 

During translation, the contractor team used three methods to check the amount of deformation in the truss:

Marks on the translation beams or track beams as described above. The contractor team periodically checked the actual location of the truss along the beams against numbers on the “offset table” to see if the truss was within tolerance for sideways bending.

 

Laser instruments attached to the truss itself with laser beams aligned along the truss. The contractor monitored the laser beams at each truss support point to make sure the truss stayed in a straight line up and down as well as sideways.

 

Visual surveying by a subcontractor with an instrument set up on shore. The survey program mentioned above provided data on truss shape as well as on truss location.

 

In addition to deformation checks by the contractor team, Multnomah County staff also did the following:

GPS surveying by a County engineering team.

Strain gauge measurements on truss members. A local engineering firm specializing in monitoring stresses in bridges and other structures installed electrical strain gauges on critical truss members. These gauges measured deformations in the members during translation. Engineers on the County team set limits on the amount of allowable strain.

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Attaching the Truss to the Detour Bridge Piers:

 

Once the truss reached its final location over the detour bridge piers, the span was lowered about two inches onto temporary bearings. The 150-ton vertical jacks on the skid beams were used to lower the truss span. The temporary bearings are steel plates installed at the correct heights to support the truss span.

 

At Detour Bridge Pier 19 (in the center of the truss and river), steel guide bars attached to the pier top bearings surround the truss bearings to keep them from moving in any direction. At the other four temporary piers, the truss bearings are held in place with guide bars on the north and south sides but are allowed to slide back and forth in the east/west direction as the truss expands and contracts due to temperature changes. To allow the truss bearings to slide freely on the pier top bearings, Teflon pads ride on stainless steel sheets between the bearing surfaces.

 

The old Sellwood Bridge was also designed to allow for this natural expansion and contraction of several inches. For the old bridge, steel rockers were used to allow east/west movement rather than Teflon pads.

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Safety Inspection After the Move:

 

Immediately after the translation was completed and before public traffic was allowed on the truss, a team of experienced bridge inspectors from a Northwest consulting firm inspected the structure to see if any damage occurred during the move.

 

This inspector team was very familiar with the Sellwood truss since they had inspected it numerous times over the years, including a “pre-translation” inspection to establish a baseline for the post-translation inspection.

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The New Sellwood Bridge was built to withstand a major earthquake:

 

The March 11, 2011 earthquake in Japan is a reminder of the importance of building structures so they can survive a major earthquake. Many scientists believe that the Pacific Northwest is overdue for the same type of seismic event that struck the

 

Japanese coast (a subduction zone or "megathrust" earthquake) where sustained shaking of the ground can cause extensive damage to buildings and infrastructure. The recent Japanese earthquake was magnitude 9.0. The last megathrust earthquake in this region was the Cascadia earthquake in 1700, which had a magnitude 8.7 to 9.2.

 

In the event of a megathrust earthquake in Portland, it's possible that many of the existing Willamette River bridges would be un-usable for a period of time afterward. The fastest recent major bridge replacement in the U.S. took 13 months (following the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge collapse in Minneapolis in 2007). All of our existing Willamette River bridges were built before local seismic risks were well understood.

 

Both the Burnside and Marquam bridges have had seismic upgrades in recent decades, but no upgrade can match the built-in strength of a new bridge designed to today's modern seismic standards.

 

The good news is that the new Sellwood Bridge was designed to the latest seismic standards and construction engineering. Bridge engineers took into account all the potential seismic conditions in the region and at the Sellwood Bridge's specific site.

 

The new Sellwood Bridge was designed to address both 500 and 1,000-year recurrence period earthquakes. The seismic goal is for the new Sellwood Bridge to remain standing through an earthquake that is equal to the largest felt here in the last 1,000 years. The 500-year standard is for a smaller earthquake. In that case, the bridge would not only remain standing after the earthquake but would need only moderate repairs after the event.

 

A major earthquake in Portland is a scary scenario. We all depend on safe travel across the bridges in our region. Those that are built to modern seismic standards – such as the new Sellwood Bridge – offer the best hope for continued safe river crossings following a major earthquake.

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The old bridge's deficiencies were linked to the past:

 

The Sellwood Bridge was constructed in 1925 to replace the Spokane Street Ferry, which shuttled passengers across the Willamette River between Sellwood and West Portland. The bridge was designed by Gustav Lindenthal, a noted bridge engineer of the time, and--like the Ross Island and Burnside bridges--was built with funds from a $4.5 million local bond measure.

 

In response to public outcry at budget overruns on the Burnside Bridge, the Sellwood Bridge design was scaled back to minimize cost. With a construction cost of just $541,000, the scaled-down design resulted in a number of limitations. The bridge is extremely narrow: two lanes, no shoulders or median, and one 4-foot-wide sidewalk.

 

The Sellwood Bridge was the only four-span continuous truss highway bridge in Oregon and possibly in the nation. (A continuous truss requires fewer parts and is cheaper to construct than other bridge types.) It was also Portland’s first “fixed span” bridge across the Willamette (meaning it was high enough to avoid the need to “open” for river traffic). It was Portland’s first Willamette bridge without trolley tracks. Because it was not designed for the additional weight of streetcars, the structure itself was not as substantial as the city’s other river crossings.

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Geological challenges that affected the bridge structure:

 

In addition to these design limitations, the bridge also had topographical challenges. The west end of the bridge was constructed on fill material and was located in an area that is geologically unstable. The hillside above the bridge is slowly sliding toward the river, exerting pressure on the west end of the bridge. In fact, in the late 1950s, the hillside actually slid several feet toward the bridge. As a result, a section of the bridge had to be removed and foundations were reinforced. The west end interchange with Highway 43 was completely rebuilt in 1980. Since then, ground movement has caused the west end approach girders to crack. The bridge was also not designed to withstand a significant earthquake.

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Continued problems and short-term solutions:

 

Multnomah County continued to take steps to prolong the safe use of the bridge until a long-term solution could be found. In June 2004 after the discovery of the cracks in both the east and west concrete approaches, cracks were restrained with steel clamps and the weight limit for vehicles traveling across the bridge was reduced from 32 tons to 10 tons. This limit caused the diversion of 94 daily TriMet bus trips (a loaded bus weighs about 19 tons), which formerly crossed the bridge. A 2005 engineering study recommended short-term safety improvements for the bridge, which resulted in epoxy being injected into cracks in the girders and columns. The county also inspected the Sellwood Bridge every 3 months to monitor the cracks and slope to ensure the bridge was safe to use.

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Existing Bridge Deficiencies:

 

Buses and trucks are restricted from using the bridge

Narrow lanes

Narrow sidewalk

No shoulders

No bike facilities and poor connections to trail system

Bridge not designed to withstand earthquakes

Tight turns at west end

Unstable slope at west end

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The New Bridge and Interchange:

 

Steel Deck Arch

A detour bridge carried traffic until the new bridge opened in 2016.

The new Sellwood Bridge has a steel deck arch design, with three arches supporting the deck of the main river spans.

The new bridge is 1,976 feet long, including the main river spans and the east and west approaches. The three main river spans alone are 1,275 feet long.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why a Steel Deck Arch?

 

A steel deck arch design was recommended by the Community Advisory Committee and confirmed by the Board of County Commissioners. Benefits of the design that were noted include:

 

Arched form fits the natural setting

Appropriate to neighborhood scale

Open steel structure echoes character of the first bridge

Top-ranked bridge type in public on-line survey

Adds to city's unique bridge collection

Can be built within the established budget

Has high technical performance

Sustainable – components are made of recycled steel

Provides employment opportunities for local firms to build

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Locally Preferred Alternative:

 

The Locally Preferred Alternative, selected in 2009, determined that the new Sellwood Bridge would:

 

Be built in its current alignment and widened 15 feet to the south to allow for continuous traffic flow during construction

Be 64 feet at a cross-section of its narrowest point: two 12-foot travel lanes, two 12-foot shared use sidewalks, and two 6.5-foot bike lanes/emergency shoulders

Include a grade-separated and signalized interchange at the OR 43 (SW Macadam Avenue) intersection on the west end

Include a pedestrian-activated signal at the intersection of SE Tacoma Street and SE 6th Avenue on the east end

Be consistent with the Tacoma Main Street Plan

Restore bus and truck traffic; and accommodate possible future streetcar

Extensive public outreach occurred during the selection of the Locally Preferred Alternative to ensure that the public was involved in the process in a meaningful way.

 

After the planning process was complete, including the necessary approvals from state and federal agencies, Multnomah County and its partners sought to reduce the project costs and shrink the overall footprint, particularly at the west end connection with Highway 43. Planners succeeded in trimming the project back and reducing environmental impacts while maintaining multimodal functionality, safety and traffic performance.

 

Refinements made to the Locally Preferred Alternative, approved by the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners in 2011, include:

 

Compressed interchange design that saves money and shifts project away from hillside

Reduction in size of the west end rock cut by 50% (40 feet high rather than 80 feet high)

Alignment revision to accommodate future streetcar at a safer location

Bicycle/pedestrian spiral ramps replaced with switchback ramps

Less impact to Riverview Cemetery

The Full Moon Skinny Dip is a flyer easily recognizable flyer around campus. Many think, very few participate. Naturally Tallahassee invites college students every full moon, of every month to indulge in some nude recreation. As a fashion enthusiast, I consume myself with the latest trends, textiles, and designers. Obviously, I love clothes.

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........*****All images are copyrighted by their respective authors .......

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... message header for item 2... Common sense, planning make a safer campus

 

Incoming students should be aware of the emergency blue light system, which functions as a means of contacting FSUPD for immediate assistance. There are over 400 of these blue light telephones throughout campus, so noting their locations is a way to be ready in case of an emergency.

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... message header for item 1. Leftover rice makes a last-minute meal

 

I love fried rice not only for its taste and versatility, but also because it’s so easy to make at the last minute. I almost always have most of the core ingredients stocked in my pantry, refrigerator and freezer. If a carton of leftover take-out restaurant rice suddenly appears on a shelf next to the milk, I’m good to go.

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.....item 1).... Leftover rice makes a last-minute meal ...

 

.... The Miami Herald ... www.miamiherald.com/ ...

 

The Miami Herald > Living > Food ... FRIED RICE ...

 

BY SARA MOULTON

ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/25/3360267/leftover-rice-make...

 

Starchy, crunchy and flavorful, fried rice is a deeply satisfying dish no matter what you add to it. And you can add just about any vegetable or protein you care to name, fresh or left over.

 

I love fried rice not only for its taste and versatility, but also because it’s so easy to make at the last minute. I almost always have most of the core ingredients stocked in my pantry, refrigerator and freezer. If a carton of leftover take-out restaurant rice suddenly appears on a shelf next to the milk, I’m good to go.

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..........................

 

img code photo ... Shrimp fried rice

 

media.miamiherald.com/smedia/2013/04/23/16/00/OnksA.Em.56...

 

Shrimp fried rice with pickled radishes MATTHEW MEAD / AP

 

Main dish

 

--- Shrimp Fried Rice with Pickled Radishes

 

... 2 eggs

... Kosher salt and ground pepper

... 2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil, divided

... 1 cup finely chopped yellow onion

... 1/2 pound peeled and deveined raw shrimp

... 2 garlic cloves, minced

... 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger

... 3 cups cooked brown rice

... 2 cups coarsely shredded radishes (about 10 large radishes)

... 2 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar

... 1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce

... 2 tablespoons sake or dry sherry

... 2 teaspoons sesame oil

... 1 cup blanched fresh or thawed frozen peas

... 1 cup blanched sugar snap peas, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

 

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high. Coat the pan with cooking spray.

 

In a small bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add a pinch of salt and some pepper to the eggs, then add them to the pan. Tilt the pan to spread the egg all around to make a flat pancake. Cook for 30 to 45 seconds, or until almost set. Turn over the egg (you can cut it in a few pieces to make it easier, using the side of a nonstick pan-safe spatula) and cook for another 10 seconds. Transfer the egg to a cutting board.

 

Add 1/2 tablespoon of the oil to the pan. Once the oil is hot, add the onion. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is lightly golden, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the shrimp and cook, stirring, until almost cooked through, about another 3 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and return the skillet to the heat.

 

Add the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil to the skillet, then add the rice, pressing it flat with the back of the spatula. Cook until the rice is slightly crispy, turning it over with the spatula, about 8 to 10 minutes.

 

While the rice is cooking, in a small bowl combine the radishes, vinegar and salt to taste. In a small bowl combine the soy sauce, sake and sesame oil. Chop the egg and add it along with the peas and sugar snap peas to the bowl with the shrimp.

 

When the rice is nicely crisped, add the contents of the shrimp bowl and the soy sauce mixture to the skillet and cook, stirring, until the mixture is heated through. Transfer the fried rice to 4 bowls and top each portion with some of the radishes. Makes 4 servings.

 

Per serving: 440 calories; 120 calories from fat (27 percent of total calories); 14 g fat (2 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 175 mg cholesterol; 50 g carbohydrate; 7 g fiber; 9 g sugar; 22 g protein; 670 mg sodium.

 

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I’ve never been all that great at cooking rice. I just can’t seem to get the ratio and timing right, and I always forget when you’re supposed to leave it alone and when you’re supposed to stir it. I finesse this handicap by leaning on a little trick I learned during my restaurant days: boiling the rice in a big pot of salted water as if it was pasta. That way there’s no rice-to-water ratio to worry about. For brown rice, 45 minutes does the trick.

 

And if you’re in a particular rush, you can swap in instant brown rice, which is almost as nutritious as regular brown rice and cooks up quicker, as advertised.

 

This being spring, I made sure that the stars of the recipe were seasonal ingredients, starting with peas. Fresh peas are heavenly, of course, but they start turning to starch as soon as they’re harvested, so be sure to cook them right away. I also incorporated two other spring vegetables— sugar snap peas and radishes, though I left the radishes raw. Saute a radish and this spicy, crispy root vegetable becomes sweet and tender.

 

But I like the kick of a raw radish, so I simply shredded them, then tossed them with a little seasoned rice vinegar. Sprinkled on top of the finished dish, these raw radishes are similar to a pickle.

 

Protein-wise, this recipe calls for shrimp, but you can use any protein you choose, or toss in mushrooms instead and call it a vegetarian’s delight.

 

As is typical in Chinese cuisine, this dish requires little cooking time. But you must have all the ingredients measured and chopped before you toss them in the pan. If you want to streamline the process even further, you can leave out the sauce, simply serving the finished dish with soy sauce and hot sauce on the side. For that matter, you could lose the radish garnish, though even suggesting such a thing makes me sad.

 

In the end, I can pretty much guarantee that if you try this recipe even once, you’ll be inspired to make it again and again, changing it slightly every time to make room for whichever delicious seasonal ingredients happen to be at hand or whichever leftovers are crying out to be used up.

  

READ MORE FOOD STORIES FROM THE MIAMI HERALD

 

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.....item 2).... Common sense, planning make a safer campus ...

 

... FSU News ... www.fsunews.com/ ...

 

Be in the know with FSU Guardian, the Night Nole and more protection from FSUPD

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img code photo ... The Blue Light Trail

 

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The Blue Light Trail is one of the numerous precautions Florida State has implemented to increase campus safety. / Zachary Goldstein / FSView

 

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May 22, 2013

 

Written by

Brittany Lyons

Staff Writer @Bhl11Lyons

 

FILED UNDER

FSU News

FSU News Life

 

www.fsunews.com/article/20130523/FSVIEW0101/130522030/Com...

 

With so much else to focus on when students move in and get settled for the school year, safety may be the last thing that Seminoles are thinking about. The good news is that FSU already has several measures in place that maintain safety on campus.

 

Incoming students should be aware of the emergency blue light system, which functions as a means of contacting FSUPD for immediate assistance. There are over 400 of these blue light telephones throughout campus, so noting their locations is a way to be ready in case of an emergency. In addition, students that provide their cell phone numbers will be able to receive emergency notifications through FSU Alert, and university police offer a free new service called FSU Guardian—if you sign up, an emergency call from your cell phone would allow FSUPD to have quick access to your information as well as GPS coordinates of your location in order to help them respond more quickly.

 

FSUPD also allows students to register their personal and valuable property online in case of theft or loss. Lieutenant Hank Jacob of FSUPD’s Support Services Division advises students to record the serial numbers of their valuables. According to Jacob, this information is especially valuable if property ends up at a pawn shop or advertised on Craigslist. Of course, taking caution with your belongings is important as well.

 

“A lot of it is common sense,” Jacob said. “One of the biggest things we get is people leaving their stuff around. You can’t expect it to be there when you get back. You can’t leave your residence hall unlocked or your car unlocked. You have to do the most you can to secure and safeguard your property.”

 

Common sense also applies to keeping safe at night. Students have several night-time transportation options. The S.A.F.E. Connection—a project by the Student Government Association in affiliation with FSUPD—offers free transportation to any location on-campus and several off-campus locations as well. It is available from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. nearly every night during the fall, spring, and summer semesters.

 

During the fall and spring, the Night Nole also provides transportation to even more off-campus locations but does not operate on Sunday or Monday nights. It is designed to transport students from the Tennessee Strip to over 32 apartment complexes.

 

For those students living in residence halls on campus, University Housing provides Night Staff for safety concerns that may arise between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 7:30 a.m. In addition, female students can take a Rape Aggression Defense (RAD) program that is free if not taken for credit.

 

There are many ways to prevent crime and maintain safety while at FSU, but students who are conscious of their habits and their surroundings will be able to decrease their risk even further. Common sense knowledge like letting a friend know your whereabouts and not walking alone at night is essential to abide by at college because of the unique and riskier environment. It is essential for incoming students to exercise caution as they adjust to college life.

 

Finally, Jacob offered advice on how to stay safe and be responsible at FSU.

“Don’t break the law,” Jacob said. “Don’t drink. Don’t do pot. Don’t be so trusting or naïve.”

 

Important Phone Numbers:

 

FSUPD Emergency Situation: 911

FSUPD Urgent Situation: 311

S.A.F.E. Connection: 644-7233

 

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.....item 3).... Get the skinny on Tallahassee Naturally

 

... FSU News ... www.fsunews.com/ ...

 

Jun. 26, 2013 7:56 PM |

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img code photo ... Taking minimalism to the extreme

 

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Taking minimalism to the extreme, Custom Content Editor Tammy Noel throws fashion, and her clothes, to the wind in favor of nude naturism. / Tammy Noel and Katie Dolciato / FSView

 

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Written by

Tammy L. Noel

Custom Content Editor

 

FILED UNDER

FSU News

FSU News Campus

 

www.fsunews.com/article/20130627/FSVIEW1/130626026/Get-sk...

 

So we’re supposed to just take our clothes off now? Cool.

 

My comrades and I jumped out of my Jetta and walked on the dirt beaten path toward the lake. Our first sight: Chuck from Pensacola, standing in bare flesh with a brewski waving hey.

 

The Full Moon Skinny Dip is a flyer easily recognizable flyer around campus. Many think, very few participate. Naturally Tallahassee invites college students every full moon, of every month to indulge in some nude recreation. As a fashion enthusiast, I consume myself with the latest trends, textiles, and designers. Obviously, I love clothes.

 

What I appreciate most about clothing is the actual textile. My favorite is leather. Whether its pebbled, saffiano, or patent leather, authentic animal hide maintains a caliber that is unmatched to the over popularized poly-cotton blends, most college students are accustomed to it. It’s tough. It’s durable. Yet, it’s restrictive. And no matter how much I enjoy my leather trousers, what’s even better than putting it on, is taking it off.

 

Clothing dictates opinions. They do. That blonde who sits in the front row with her Tory Brunch flats and Michael Kors tote, what do you really know of her? Or that hipster that wears tight skinnies with a graphic tee, what do you really know of him? Nothing. You actually think you know more than you do. Clothing protects us, but always restricts our frame of judgment. Shedding free of that restrictive material may allow us to witness a clarity that we wouldn’t normally see. Well, I needed some clarity.

 

But wait—the closest thing to being “natural” is the Nature Valley bars I snag from the vending machine. I hate the outdoors so much my dream home resides in the heart of metropolitan city with the rooftop garden.

 

I was predictably nervous. Was I going to be hit on? I mean how could they possibly resist themselves. Or at least I’d like to believe that to be the case. But, quite possibly, this wasn’t about me, maybe it was something deeper than the stereotypical notions we all cling to. “Now you start asking people why and everybody will give you a different reason, high on most peoples’ list is the freedom of it,” LeValley said. “To me, it’s a way of getting in touch with ancestral roots. This is the way people were for thousands and thousands of years—connected with all of history.”

 

A frequent guest lecturer at FSU and FAMU, over a warm fire and s’mores, LeValley, amongst others, dissected the reason why. However, in order to understand why, I needed to understand how. “Back in the early 80s a whole lot of students got to skinny dipping at [Sam Allen Lake] off Springhill Road. There might have been 100 students there,” LeValley shared. “Then one day the police did a very stupid thing. They raided the place and arrested seven people. One of them demanded a jury trial, went to court and won.”

 

Seriousness overcame everyone standing around the fire. Like a Kanye interview, LeValley had our attention. All that could be heard was the crunch of graham crackers and the crackle of the fire. “The jury said, ‘well everyone knows that’s a skinny dipping place. Why are you surprised?’ It became totally unenforceable.”

After being displaced, the unclad crusaders decided to find another lake. Yet again, the police raided that pond and left the nudists…well, naked.

 

“Then finally three of us got to together and developed a strategy of finding so many lakes and sinkholes, and rivers that we could meet in the parking lot Sunday morning and decided then and there which one we were going to. We didn’t have to worry about the police stalking the place out,” said LeValley. “So we did that for 4 years. Rob had just joined us and he started looking for some places in this area and he went to a lake. There was an old man fishing and Rob decided to be honest and tell him what he was looking for.”

 

Luck struck. That old man fishing had a brother with a lake and for a small rental fee the unclad crusaders had a haven to call their own—equipped with trees, a lake, a hiking trail and campfire. Perseverance created the retreat that I was sitting in the heart of smacking on s’mores and sharing stories.

 

To my left, stood Monty. A decorated retired pilot, who chose to not reveal his last name, but his reason for becoming a nudist was simple—he wanted freedom from judgment.

 

“That’s one of the things that I’ve always thought was really beautiful about nudism. It destroys the textile classes that our society sets up because I’m not wearing K-Mart and you’re not wearing Gucci,” Monty said. “We’re wearing nothing.”

 

As the night aged, in the midst of the rainy weather, I bonded with complete strangers. We swam together in the lake and talk about everything: Blackboard, tattoos, and careers—normal topics. The water was perfect, as if the temperature was set to stimulate conversation. Though it was pitch black, the full moon illuminated their faces. When the mosquitoes decided it was feeding time, I witness the grimaces—a normal expression. I observed as the vets coyly smiled at the rookies’ pain—a normal expression. Around the campfire, in between light rain showers, we discussed politics, music and sports. Well, I didn’t really participate in the latter.

 

During the NBA finals, I caught up on Project Runway. Anyhow, I had normal conversation, about normal topics, with normal people.

 

It made me wonder why, though, isn’t this considered normal? “I find it interesting that everyone laughs and pokes fun at nudists’ resorts, which is not a sexually thing, yet sex with a lot of different people is so accepted in our society,” Monty said.

 

“You’re just sitting around with friends nude and just enjoying the elements. I didn’t feel like it was a brilliant brainchild that I came up with. I just felt like it’s a question that begs to be asked, since I’ve become a nudist.”

 

Nudity may be subculture, though it’s a factor that connects humans. Clothing is a necessity. Hell, I would be without a passion without them but at times clothing is somewhat of a necessary evil.

 

“When a girl is in clothes, whether she’s dressed provocatively or just in business clothes, there are people that are always looking at your attire to see how you present yourself,” Naturally FSU chapter president Nina Vallad said. “Here you are completely nude, so you don’t have to worry about ‘is this popping out or makes me look fat.’ You’re just here and you’re experiencing what it feels like to be completely beautiful. Everyone is basically accepted at face value.”

 

Now, did I look? Yes, at times maybe too long. Bodies are different shapes, shades and sizes. Many of those shapes I’ve never seen prior to that night. Yet the hippie weirdo scene I thought I was getting myself into wasn’t so weird after all.

 

Am I now a self-proclaimed nudist? No and I have the bug bites to prove why.

 

However, at the end of the night, it suddenly dawned on me that I was just like them—bare; stripped of clothes and judgment, yet undoubtedly myself.

 

My new friend Monty agrees: “You find that when you’re down to absolutely nothing but just your body than you get to know people for who they really are.”

 

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Until last week I was unaware of this memorial garden and only visited because a fellow passenger on the train from Cork to Cobh advised me to visit the park but he did warn me that it was a long walk from the station.

 

Unfortunately, as it began to rain very heavy I decided to abandon my visit to the town of Cobh with the intention of returning when the weather improved. At this stage I should mention that it has rained every time that I have visited Cobh [I have visited six times in as many years].

 

Two days later the weather was beautiful when I woke up in the morning so I took the opportunity to return to Cobh. The walk to the memorial was pleasant but the park was not what exactly what I had expected but the it was pleasant and provided lots of information.

 

On 11th April 1912 the final 123 passengers boarded the majestic Ocean Liner. The focal point of the garden is a Glass Memorial Wall onto which the names of those 123 passengers are inscribed.

 

There is a memorial stone to Bruce Ismay, the chairman of White Star Line in 1912 and a survivor of the sinking.

 

The view of Cork Harbour was amazing especial as the harbour was full of beautiful yachts.

 

On my walk back to the town it began to rain.

 

The park is well worth a visit but I would be inclined to avoid it if the weather is not good. There is no parking within the memorial park but to the best of my knowledge you may park on the road 100 metres from the memorial.

Today 11th April 2018 I had visited Aberdeen Harbour to capture supply ships arrive and leave , however after an hour or so I heard through my radio scanner VTS (vessel traffic services) advise scheduled vessels due to arrive or leave that tide levels are lower than predicted and that no movement would be possible until 19pm, with a few hours to spare I decided to visit Donmouth Nature Reserve , on arriving I could see Paragliders in the distance , I loaded my Nikon and set off to capture the scene.

 

I captured a number of shots before two of the gliders landed on the cliffs, I went over to them for a chat , friendly guys who obviously loved their hobby / sport , as I usually do , I asked for permission to post the photos I had taken, "no problem" was their reply .

 

It was exciting to see the guys take off and land on the cliffs , in fact it made me feel like having a go , honestly it was a magnificent view seeing them all glide along the clifftops, one of them told me they can reach speeds of 50 mph .

 

The guys are all members of Aberdeen Hang Gliding and Paragliding club, thanks to them for a great and unpredicted shoot , it made my day .

 

Donmouth Local Nature Reserve is a beach site in the historic Old Aberdeen part of the City where the River Don meets the sea.

 

A great place to see seals and a range of interesting birds. The beach area has changed over time as the river has changed its course. There are lots of interesting plants in the dunes and beach area. Bird hide is an excellent shelter from which to watch the wildlife. The paths run across King Street to the Brig 'o Balgownie., the original bridge in to the City from the North, then down the other side of the river to the sea.

 

The site was designated a Local Nature Reserve in 1992

 

Paths are good although wheelchair access to the beach would be difficult as the boardwalk can get covered with sand.

 

There is plenty of free car parking on the Beach Esplanade and at the car park in Donmouth Road. There are cycle racks on Beach Esplanade

 

Bridge Of Don has five spans of dressed granite, and rounded cutwaters that carry up to road level to form pedestrian refuges. The spans are 75 feet (23 m), with a rise of 25 feet (7.6 m).

 

It was widened in 1958-59, from 24 feet (7.3 m), to 66 feet (20 m) by the construction of a new concrete bridge adjacent to the old one.

 

It now carries four lanes of the A956 road, and is the last bridge on the River Don before it meets the sea. The bridge is just downstream from a substantial island in the river. Around the area of the bridge is the Donmouth Local Nature Reserve, designated as a LNR in 1992.

Near to the bridge are a number of World War II era coastal defences, including a pill box.

Mudflats

Mudflats are formed when fine particles carried downstream by the river are deposited as it slows down before entering the sea, and to a lesser extent by fine particles washed in by the tide. The sand spit at the mouth of the Don provides shelter from the wind and waves allowing this material to build up. The mud flats are a very rich and fertile environment. Despite their rather barren appearance they support a surprisingly diverse invertebrate fauna which includes; worms, molluscs and crustacea. These invertebrates are vitally important to wildfowl and wading birds within the estuary.

 

Salt marsh

Along the upper shore of the south bank saltmarsh has developed. This habitat would once have been much more extensive prior to the tipping of domestic and other refuse in the area and the formation in 1727 of an artificial embankment to prevent flooding of the river into the Links. This habitat is now reduced to a narrow strip of vegetation along the river margins upstream from the Powis Burn.

 

The species composition of the salt marsh varies according to the salinity of the water i.e. the proximity to the sea. Close to the Powis Burn this habitat is dominated by reed sweet-grass (Glyceria maxima) with reed canary-grass (Phalaris arundinacea), sea club-rush (Scirpus maritimus), spike-rush (Eleocharis palustris), hemlock water-dropwort (Oenanthe crocata) and common scurvygrass (Chochlearia officinalis).

Further inland reed sweet-grass continues to dominate but hemlock water-dropwort is more abundant with meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) and valarian (Valariana officinalis),

 

Sand dunes

Sand dunes are found in the more exposed parts of the estuary at the river mouth. Again, this habitat was once much more extensive in this locality with dune grasslands stretching from Aberdeen Beach inland as far as King Street, southwards from the estuary of the Dee, northwards to the Sands of Forvie and beyond. Many of the dunes formed part of Seaton Tip, and following tipping the area was grassed over. Other areas have been formally landscaped to form golf courses or planted with native trees in 2010 to create a new woodland area.

 

Some remnants of the natural dune flora can be seen in the 'roughs' on the Kings Links golf course and near the mouth of the river.

 

Above the high water mark, fore dunes with thick clumps of the pioneer grass species including sea lyme grass (Elymus arenarius) and marram grass (Ammophila arenaria) occur. Few other species are able to cope with the shifting sand. The largest area of these young dunes is to the north and west of the headland. Further inland where the dunes are sheltered from the actions of the wind and waves, and soils are more developed, more stable dunes are present supporting a more diverse grassland habitat.

 

Strand line plants which are able to tolerate occasional coverage by sea water include sea rocket (Cakile maritima), frosted orache (Atriplex laciniata), sea sandwort (Honkenya peploides) and knotgrass (Polygonum aviculare). Bur-reed (Sparganium sp.) has been recorded; presumably washed down by the river.

 

Marram grass (Ammophila arenaria) and sea lyme grass (Elymus arenarius) dominate the fore dunes. The latter species is not native to this area but appeared in 1802. It is thought to have been unintentionally introduced into the area by fishing boats. For a number of years it remained uncommon but from 1870 onwards it spread rapidly along the coastline (Marren, 1982).

 

In the more stable dunes red fescue (Festuca rubra), sand sedge (Carex arenaria), yellow rattle (Rhinanthus minor), wild pansy (Viola tricolour), harebell (Campanula rotundifolia), bird's-foot-trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) and lesser meadow-rue (Thalictrum minus) are abundant. Small amounts of kidney vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria), valerian (Valeriana officinalis) and spring vetch (Vicia lathyroides) are present.

 

Scattered willows (Salix sp.) and sycamore (Acer pseudoplantanus) have seeded into this area. Gorse (Ulex europaeus) scrub has colonised the dunes in some areas and appears to be spreading.

 

Scrub

This habitat is almost entirely artificial with only the gorse scrub on the inner dunes being a semi-natural habitat. Alder and willow were planted along the south bank of the river in about 1970 and these shrubs are now generally well established. Further shrub planting on the south bank was carried out in 1990.

 

Willow (Salix sp.) and alder (Alnus glutinosa) were planted in the 1970's along the south bank of the River Don eastwards of the Bridge of Don. The trees to the west of this strip are doing considerably better than those to the east. More recent planting was carried out in 1990 with hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) elder (Sambucus nigra), goat willow (Salix caprea) and alder.

 

Underneath the scrub neutral grassland is present with cocksfoot (Dactylis glomerata), false oat-grass (Arrhenatherum elatius), cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris), sweet cicely (Myrrhis odorata), hedge woundwort (Stachys sylvatica) and hedge bindweed (Calystegia sepium).

 

Grassland

Much of the grassland within the reserve is formed on imported soil and is intensively managed. This includes grassland on the north and south sides of the Esplanade. Daffodils are present in the grassland on the north side of the road. On the north bank to the east of the Bridge of Don is rank grassland on a steep south-facing slope. This is unmanaged and contains some patches of scrub.

 

Rough grassland is present on the headland. This area has been modified by tipping, with rubble to the east and with grass cuttings to the west. The grassland contains a mixture of neutral grassland, dune grassland, ruderal, and introduced garden species. This area attracts flocks of seed eating birds in late summer and autumn.

 

Improved grassland is present on the headland and along the south bank of the estuary downstream from the bridge of Don. Much of this vegetation has developed on imported soil and contains a high proportion of ruderal species and garden escapes. On the headland, broadleaved dock (Rumex obtusifolius), nettle (Urtica dioica), coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara), spear thistle (Cirsium vulgare), cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris), hemlock (Conium maculatum) and hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) are abundant. Sweet cicely (Chaerophyllum bulbosum) is widespread and in late summer fills the air with the scent of aniseed.

 

To the south of the Esplanade the grassland is managed with an annual cut.. The grassland does flood to form pools. Early in the year cuckoo flower (Cardamine pratensis) is common, meadow foxtail (Alopecuris pratensis)is known to occur around the margins of these pools.

 

Woodland

Semi-mature woodland is present on the steep sided south bank of the river upstream from the Bridge of Don. Most of this woodland has been planted in the mid 1930's though some older oak and elm trees are present. These may be relicts of former woodland cover. The woodland in the reserve is part of a strip of woodland along the River Don corridor which continues upstream from the Brig 'o' Balgownie.

 

Woodland is present on the south bank upstream from the Bridge of Don.

 

Much of the woodland consists of even aged stands with willow (Salix sp.), sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus), ash (Fraxinus excelsior), beech (Fagus sylvatica) and alder (AInus glutinosa). At the top of the slope mature oak (Quercus sp.) and elm (Ulmus glabra) are present. The ground flora contains tufted hair-grass (Deschampsia caespitosa), red campion (Silene dioica), ramsons (Allium ursinum) and lady fern (Athyrium felix-femina) .In a few areas dense shading is caused by the trees and in these areas the ground flora is poor.

 

On the north bank scattered trees are present, mainly willow and sycamore with some scrub.

 

Smoky skies prevailed obscuring some of the mountain views due to nearby wildfires such as the Dixie and Caldor in North/Central California.

 

Interstate 80,

Sierra Nevada (Mountain Range), Nevada, USA

Original Caption: Billboard Advising Passing Motorists of the Seriousness of the Energy Shortage in Oregon During the Fall of 1973. Taken on Interstate #5 09/1973

 

U.S. National Archives’ Local Identifier: 412-DA-12928

 

Photographer: Falconer, David

 

Subjects:

Salem (Marion county, Oregon, United States) inhabited place

Environmental Protection Agency

Project DOCUMERICA

 

Persistent URL: arcweb.archives.gov/arc/action/ExternalIdSearch?id=555380

 

Repository: Still Picture Records Section, Special Media Archives Services Division (NWCS-S), National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD, 20740-6001.

 

For information about ordering reproductions of photographs held by the Still Picture Unit, visit: www.archives.gov/research/order/still-pictures.html

 

Reproductions may be ordered via an independent vendor. NARA maintains a list of vendors at www.archives.gov/research/order/vendors-photos-maps-dc.html

   

Access Restrictions: Unrestricted

Use Restrictions: Unrestricted

 

Seen in Marburg

Advised by Circe the sorceress, Odysseus and his companions are carried by the winds to the island of the Sirens, somewhere near the west coast of Italy.

The Sirens sat on the shore, and with their sweet voices attracted all that passed by, and then destroyed them. Odysseus, in order to escape the danger, filled the ears of his companions with wax, and fastened himself to the mast of his ship, until he was out of the reach of the Seirens' song.

 

Circe advises Odysseus how to deal with the Sirens.

… Then royal Circe said: “So, it all came to pass. Well listen now to what I tell you, and let some god remind you of it. Next you will come to the Sirens who beguile all men that approach them. Whoever encounters them unawares and listens to their voices will never joy at reaching home, his wife and children to greet him. Instead the Sirens’ tempt him with their limpid song, as they sit there in the meadow with a vast heap of mouldering corpses, bones on which hangs the shrivelled skin. Plug your comrades’ ears with softened beeswax lest they listen, and row swiftly past. And if you must hear, then let them first tie you hand and foot and stand you upright in the mast housing, and fasten the rope ends round the mast itself, so you can delight in hearing the Sirens’ voices. And should you beg your crew to free you, let them only bind you more tightly. ”

 

The Odyssey XII vv. 36 – 54

English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D., 1919.

 

Etruscan alabaster urn

3rd – 2nd century BC

Volterra, Museo Guarnacci

  

Large Atlantic Noble Triton Trumpet shell (One Flickr member advised me that the description Charonia Nobilis does not actually exist) about a foot long. I'm giving serious consideration to turning this shell into a horn. As a teenager I dabbled at playing the French horn, a one valve bugle in a Boy Scout/Legion marching band and a trumpet in high school. This would have a totally different aesthetic.

 

SOME BASICS ON SHELL TRUMPETS

AND SOME VERY BASICS ON HOW TO MAKE THEM:

 

By Mitchell Clark © 1996

 

Two views of an end-blown shell trumpet made by the author from a Cassis cornuta ("horned helmet"); length 8 1/4"; pitch B3 (open) or A3 (hand-stopped).

At the request of the editor of Experimental Musical Instruments, to whom I once casually mentioned that I had made a few shell trumpets, I will write something about the process of making such an instrument. But, to the possible disappointment of the editor, there's not an awful lot for me to say about their construction, as the simple forms of shell trumpets are quite easy to make. So, in the style of an entry in a cookbook where the author gives lots of history, lore, and anecdotes, and then finally gets down to the recipe, somewhere in what follows are some basic instructions for making shell trumpets. Endnotes - often referring to illustrations which may be consulted in other sources - are included, and contribute additional texture.

 

I'll start by saying that when I was young, I knew about shell trumpets but obviously did not quite understand the principle of how they worked. I thought that no alteration was made to a conch's shell, which I thought was very beautiful and that it would be a shame to deface it. Rather, it seemed that getting the shell to sound was a matter simply of blowing very, very, very hard. Fortunately I did not rupture any blood vessels trying out this theory.1

 

But the shell trumpet (an instrument in the domain of study of the organologist) has indeed been altered from the animal's natural shell (a natural object in the domain of study of the conchologist) in such a way that would make life uncomfortable for the actual mollusk itself (an animal in the domain of study of the malacologist) - that is, a hole's been poked in the shell. A shell trumpet will obviously have to made after the mollusk has (willingly or unwillingly) vacated.

 

There are two basic places this hole may be placed, and so there are two basic approaches that can be taken for making a conch shell into a shell trumpet. A hole is made either at the apex (the tip of the spire) of the shell, or, alternatively, in one of the whorls to the side of the spire. The mouth hole may be at the apex if the spire is shallow, as on a Strombus gigas ("queen conch" or "pink conch," common in the Caribbean), 2 Cassis cornuta ("horned helmet," found in the Indo-Pacific region), or Cassis tuberosa ("king helmet," found in the Caribbean). The mouth hole may be on the side of the spire if the spire is more steep, as on a Charonia tritonis ("Triton's trumpet," distributed throughout most of the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans). In some cases the hole itself forms the mouth hole; in others, a mouthpiece is added. Mouthpieces seem to be a matter of what tradition has evolved, as sometimes the same species of shell may be found with or without a mouthpiece. For instance, a variety of approaches will be found with Charonia tritonis. In Polynesia, a mouth hole cut into the side of the spire is the norm. 3 Occasionally a side-blown tritonis will have a mouthpiece added, as found in the Marquesas Islands; 4 this appears to be a rare arrangement. Concerning end-blown tritonis, on the Hawaiian pu 5 and on the Korean na, 6 a mouth hole is cut into the apex. On the Japanese hora, the tritonis (called horagai) is given a mouthpiece, placed at the apex. 7 Other shells used for trumpets usually have the hole in the apex, with a mouthpiece or (perhaps more commonly) without.

 

The qualities of sounds which shell trumpets can produce are varied, and also layered in the meanings and responses such sounds evoke. As children we learn of one of the poetic associations of shells - that if you hold a conch shell to your ear, you will hear (however far away from the coastline you may be) the sound of the sea. 8 Yes, perhaps it is indeed the air column enclosed by the shell filtering the ambient level of noise to create a faint roaring sound. But the association of shells with water, and the sea especially, is also at the basis of the many of the ceremonial uses of shell trumpets around the world. Shell trumpets have often been used at great distances from the sea, and this has contributed to the sacredness of their sounds. Thus the hearing the of sea in a shell may be a vestige of these older, profound associations. Shell trumpets produce a profound sound in every sense of the word - there is a sense of the sound coming from the deep past. This is both true as regards the actual antiquity of the use of shell trumpets, which dates to the Neolithic era, 9 and in the very shell itself. The apex of a univalve gastropod such as a conch or a snail is the oldest part of the shell (the place where the young animal started growing): in blowing a shell trumpet the sound is passing from the oldest place to the youngest - from the past towards the present.

 

Concerning this antiquity of the use of shell trumpets, the etymologist Eric Partridge puts forth the idea that the word "conch" may be of echoic - that is, onomatopoeic - origin. 10 Echoic, I suppose, of the sound of the blast of a shell trumpet, and thus - given the early Greek roots of the work "conch" - indicating the great antiquity of their use. A common term applied in a number of parts of Polynesia to the shell trumpet - pu - would certainly also seem, in its own way, to be echoic.

 

The most common use of shell trumpets in many parts of the world - and they have a remarkably wide distribution - is as a signaling device. A shell trumpet may announce curfew in Samoa, or announce that fresh fish is for sale in Fiji, or may serve as a foghorn on the Mediterranean. The shell trumpet often has a magical role in relation to weather. It may be used on the one hand be used to calm rough seas, or on the other to summon wind when seas are becalmed. 11 Shell trumpets are also used in musical contexts, most often in conjunction with ritual. The Indian shanka has held a place in the Hindu religion for millennia. There it may be used as a ritual vessel as well as a trumpet. 12 The shanka is also of significance in Buddhism, where, besides its musical uses, it figures importantly into Buddhist iconography. Befitting their role in Tibetan ritual music, where they are called dung-dkar, shell trumpets made from shanka receive detailed decoration, with carving on the surface of the shell itself and with added ornamentation in metal and semi-precious stone. 13 Shell trumpets were also important ritual instruments in Pre-Columbian South and Central America and in Minoan Crete. In these latter areas, skeuomorphic reproductions ("the substitution of products of craftsmanship for components or objects of natural origin") of shell trumpets, in ceramic and stone, are found archaeologically. The details of their exact purposes remain a mystery. 14 Generally a shell trumpet is used to produce one note; harmonics are possible but seldom utilized. One exception is the Japanese hora, where three, sometimes even four, pitches of the harmonic series may be employed. 15 On the end-blown Fijian shell trumpet made from the Bursa bubo ("giant frog shell"), there is a fingerhole which will allow for a whole-tone change in pitch. 16 Shell trumpets with several fingerholes have also been explored. 17 Occasionally pitch is modified by the player inserting his or her hand into the aperture. Although shell trumpets would seem to lend themselves to being played in a musical context in homogenous ensembles, along the lines of ensembles of panpipes and stamping tubes in Oceania (particularly Melanesia), such an approach is actually very rare. Tonga (in Polynesia) is the only place where conch ensembles have been found, and then only in the more remote areas (some of the northern islands) and only in a few musical contexts (for recreation and for cricket matches). 18 In contemporary music and jazz, however, ensembles of shell trumpets have been used by trombonists Stuart Dempster and Steve Turre.

 

Now, to get to work. I've made a few shell trumpets with the mouth-hole at the apex. A simple basic recipe is:

 

Ingredients:

The shell of a large univalve gastropod

A file

Jeweler's files for finishing work (optional)

Procedure:

File off the tip of the spire.

Smooth out the perimeter of the hole (optional).

That's it. But to be more specific: from my experience, for making a shell trumpet it seems that a conch of some size - something like seven inches or greater in length - is needed. My attempt at making an instrument with the shell of a young Strombus gigas (perhaps 5-6 inches long) did not work out: I just couldn't get a sound out of the thing. Perhaps a smaller shell such as that might work with a mouthpiece. I've made end-blown trumpets from Cassis cornuta (my shell of choice; see photos above), Cassis tuberosa, and adult Strombus gigas. My construction approach with the Cassis has been to file off the tip with an 8" mill bastard file and a lot of elbow grease, getting it to the point where the opening is about 5/8" in diameter. With the jeweler's files, I'll smooth down the insides of the opening. For a Strombus gigas, which has a steeper spire, I first cut off an inch or so of the tip with a saw, and then proceeded as with the Cassis.

 

It is certainly possible to get the job done more quickly. A friend once made a trumpet from a Strombus gigas by forcibly breaking off the tip - he's a percussionist - with little or no filing. In this case, it appears that the irregularities of the edges of the mouth-hole allowed for a more pronounced array of upper partials to the shell trumpet's tone. To remove the tip of a Strombus gigas, D.Z. Crookes (describing the process in his "How to make a shelly hautbois") supported the shell's tip "on an anvil, and nipped it off with a cold chisel," later carving a "half-civilized" mouthpiece. 19 I suppose one could also use a power grinder or sander to quickly get through the early stage on a Cassis, for instance, but I think a couple of hours or so of manual filing is not too big a price to pay (however, see photo below). Of course, being physically involved with the stages of the manufacture of a shell trumpet, as with any musical instrument, increases one's connection with the instrument and its sounds.

 

As regards side-blown shell trumpets, I've made one, from a Charonia tritonis (see photo below). For such a shell, a basic recipe could be:

 

Ingredients:

The shell of a large conch with a steep spire, especially a Charonia tritonis

A drill

Jeweler's files for expanding the hole and for finishing work

Procedure:

Drill a small hole into the side of the spire.

Expand the size of the hole and smooth out the edges.

Again, a little more detail. I placed the hole in the second whorl out from, and on the same side of the spire as, the aperture. With this arrangement the aperture faces backwards from the player when the trumpet is played. I used photographs of side-blown Charonia tritonis as my guide. 20 I used a drill bit of about l/8" diameter to get the hole started and then followed with a 1/4" bit. I expanded the hole to about 5/8" with a half-round jeweler's file. A larger rat-tail file would also be possible (although one needs to be careful of a bulkier tool damaging the interior of the shell), before following up with the jeweler's file.

 

Although I've made a few shell trumpets, I have not yet made musical use of them in any concerted way. I do have a piece - forthcoming in my series of Anthems for ensembles of "peacefully co-existing" sustained sounds - for a plurality of shell trumpets and pre-recorded tape. Also, when you've got a shell trumpet around, blowing it every once in a while does impress neighbors and passers-by alike.

 

Again, these are the most basic of recipes. I look forward to other writers who have more background in the individual traditions of these instruments, and who are more acquainted with the acoustics and detailed construction, 21 to contribute further on the subject of these fascinating instruments.

 

END NOTES:

 

1. Despite the fact that a large conch does need to be modified to make a trumpet, a small snail shell can be used, unmodified, as a whistle. An intact snail shell is essentially a stopped pipe, and if the aperture is of an appropriate size - so the player is able to create an embouchure - the shell can be an effective whistle. Unaltered large conch shells filled with water were used for their gurgling sounds by John Cage in his pieces Inlets (1977, which also makes use of a shell trumpet) and Two3 (1991, which also includes a Japanese shô reed organ). A single such large water-filled conch was used by the present author in his "concerning an aspect..." (1988). Return to text

 

2. In general usage, the word "conch" is used to describe large spiral univalve gastropods even when it is not referring to what is, strictly speaking, a conch (the "true conchs" are members of the genus Strombus). This seems to be especially true in relation to shell trumpets, where the term "conch trumpet" is used quite freely. Return to text

 

3. See Richard M. Moyle, Polynesian Sound-producing Instruments (Princes Risborough, England: Shire Publications, 1990), 39 and figure 25, which shows several side-blown tritonis being played in Tonga. Return to text

 

4. Richard M. Moyle, Polynesian Sound-producing Instruments, 39 and lower portion of figure 23. Return to text

 

5. Te Rangi Hiroa (Peter H. Buck), Arts and Crafts of Hawaii, IX: Musical Instruments (Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press, 1957, reprinted 1964), figure 256a. Return to text

 

6. See Chang Sa-hun, Uri yet Akki ("Our Traditional Musical Instruments"; Seoul: Daewonsa, 1990), 31. Return to text

 

7. See Hajime Fukui, "The Hora (Conch Trumpet) of Japan" in Galpin Society Journal 47 (1994): 47-62, where several photographs and a diagram of the mouthpiece are shown. For a full-size color photograph of a hora, see Jane Fearer Safer and Frances McLaughlin Gill, Spirals from the Sea: An Anthropological look at Shells (New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1982), 174-5. Concerning the hora, one of its less-documented uses is in a rite called Shunie associated with the Tôdai-ji Temple in Nara (see Hajime Fukui's essay, 52). A shell-trumpet ensemble portion of the Shunie can be heard on the album Harmony of Japanese Music, mentioned in the attached discography. Return to text

 

8. Note that terminology relating to the human ear is rich in shell imagery. The cochlea (a Latin word derived from the Greek kokhlos, land snail) is the spiral, shell-shaped portion of the inner ear which transmits the signals to the brain which are interpreted as sound. As a word referring to a shell-like structure, concha (from the Greek konkhe - a shell-bearing mollusk in general - which, via Latin, is the ancestral form of "conch") is a term used to describe the human external ear, also known as pinna. And pinna, from the Latin word for "wing" or "feather," is also the name for a genus of large - and wing- or feather-shaped - bivalve mollusks (family Pinnidae). Return to text

 

9. John M. Schechter and Mervyn McLean, "Conch-shell trumpet" in Stanley Sadie, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments (London: Macmillan. 1954), I:461. Note that it is conjectured that the earliest use of the instrument was as a voice modifier - a megaphone of sorts. Return to text

 

10. Eric Partridge, Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English (2nd edition, New York: MacMillan, 1959), 114. Note especially one Middle English spelling, conk. Return to text

 

11. A recorded example of the former, from Chuuk, Micronesia, is included on the album Spirit of Micronesia, mentioned in the attached discography. The latter is mentioned in the entry for the shell trumpet ntuantuangi, of the Poso Toradja of Celebes, in Sibyl Marcuse, Musical Instruments: A Comprehensive Dictionary (2nd edition, New York & London: W.W. Norton & Co., 1975), 368. Return to text

 

12. Note that the Sanskrit word shanka (which may be romanized in various ways, with or without diacritics; the English common name for the shell is "chank") does share the same Indo-European root as konkhe, and ultimately, "conch." The Latin scientific name for the shanka is Turbinella pyrum. Return to text

 

13. See Safer and Gill, Spirals from the Sea, 176-7, for two views of a specimen dated 1400. Return to text

 

14. Jeremy Montagu, "The conch in prehistory: pottery, stone and natural" in World Archaeology 12/3 (1981): 273-9, which focuses on these shell-trumpet skeuomorphs. Return to text

 

15. Hajime Fukui "The Hora (Conch Trumpet) of Japan," 51-2. Return to text

 

16. Moyle, Polynesian Sound-producing Instruments, 39 and figure 24. Return to text

 

17. See D.Z. Crookes, "How to make a shelly hautbois" in FoMRHI Quarterly 80 (July 1995): 43, where he experiments with up to seven (?) fingerholes on Strombus gigas. Return to text

 

18. Richard M. Moyle, "Conch Ensemble: Tonga's Unique Contribution to Polynesian Organology" in Galpin Society Journal 28 (1975): 98-106. Also, his Polynesian Sound-producing Instruments, 41-2 and figure 25. Ensembles of three to seven, or more, side-blown Charonia tritonis are used. Return to text

 

19. Crookes, "How to make a shelly hautbois," 43. Return to text

 

20. For instance, Eric Metzgar, Arts of Micronesia (Long Beach, Calif.: FHP Hippodrome Gallery, 1987 {exhibition catalogue}), figure G, and Safer and Gill, Spirals from the Sea, 168. Return to text

 

21. See Montagu, "The conch in prehistory: pottery, stone and natural," 274-5, for a brief discussion of shell-trumpet acoustics which outlines some of the basic issues. Concerning shell-trumpet construction, note that Hajime Fukui's "The Hora (Conch Trumpet) of Japan" goes into a great amount of detail concerning making this particular instrument. Return to text

 

SOME SHELL TRUMPET DISCOGRAPHY:

 

Following is a handful of recordings including shell trumpets. Occasionally, recordings of shell trumpets will appear on collections of music from Oceania. An example is Spirit of Micronesia (Saydisc CD-SDL 414), which includes a conche (note this alternate spelling) introducing two chants (track 20) and a conche used for warding off storm clouds (track 22; a photo on page 20 of the booklet shows a player of a trumpet made from a Cassis species). Though brief, this latter track beautifully captures, against a backdrop of storm waves, the shell trumpet's evocative qualities. Pan Records' Fa'a-Samoa: The Samoan way... between conch shell and disco (PAN 2066CD) includes a recording (track 1) of a conch-shell pu being used to announce curfew; on track 13, an animal horn used for the same purpose is also called pu. (The "disco" of the title is actually a brass band performance.) Another album on Pan, Tuvalu: A Polynesian Atoll Society (PAN 2055CD), has an impressive photograph of a shell-trumpet player on the cover, but does not include any shell-trumpet recordings.

 

A Japanese Buddhist ritual-music use of shell trumpets - as part of O-Mizu Tori ("a water-drawing rite") of the Shunie rite at Tôdai-ji Temple, Nara - may be heard on Harmony of Japanese Music (King Records [Japan] KICH 2021).

 

Steve Turre's Sanctified Shells (Antilles 314 514 186-2) and Stuart Dempster's Underground Overlays from the Cistern Chapel (New Albion NA076) include some contemporary creative uses of shell trumpets in ensemble. Colin Offord's Pacific Sound (Move Records [Australia] MD 3 105) makes use of shell trumpets in ensemble with instruments of his own construction. Together with other sound-makers made of shells, a shell trumpet may be heard on the track "Sea Language" on The Art of Primitive Sound's Musical Instruments from Prehistory (Hic Sunt Leones [Italy] HSL 003).

 

Baoding Balls:

 

An on-line description of one:

This Japanese vintage Samurai Horagai is a trumpet shell of yoroi, or armour. It is about 50 years old, and is like the real thing used during the age of the Samurai. It is made from a real trumpet shell like the shells we have had before and found in many oceans including the Pacific, this one being from Japan. A mouth piece had been attached and it can be used just like in the old days when it was used to communicate during wars. Horagai was used as a command and signal of the old times during Samurai battles. Now it is used for decorating armour.

Should by ID be incorrect happy to be advised.

Thank you.

 

Advises beautiful Hollywood actress and Miss Universe of 1964 Corinna Tsopei.

Title: Beyond the Pale

  

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This is the final part of the story Started with Carpe Diem, and continued with Uncanny

 

Caution, The tale told below is not for the squeamish. It is both dark and disturbing. It is only recorded in these chronicles to serve as a caution tale…..

 

Remember… You have been Advised.

 

Follow the innocence, for whom the darkness dealt,

Swishing vibrancy vanished into the cruel abyss so very svelte,

Who dare to enter, without any fear felt?

Unbeknownst what beyond the pale dwelt.

 

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This recorded incident occurred at the now eastside Walden Oak Social Club. A once respectable west end private club founded almost 150 years ago. But due to the now decrepit neighborhood its reputation and membership has lessened. But it is a beautiful building, and its cheap rent for it’s still lavishly regal ballrooms will always attract upscale events for those too wealthy to know better.

 

It was late fall, when the evening light fades, rather early that this tale of woe takes place. The year will remain shrouded, as will the known names of the players.

 

A wedding reception had been going on since late afternoon. Anyone who had noticed the guests ( and they were watched) would have seen by their dress, the manner upon which they carried themselves, and the jewels of the gowned ladies, that this was a gathering of the wealthy privileged.

 

The girl (Marissa) was clad in the flowing designer gown her mother had bought for her when she entered her daughter in a American Hollywood style Children’s beauty Pageant.

 

It was a long gown of rich red satin with rhinestone straps and a large shimmering broach. Marissa had promised that if she was allowed to wear it to the reception that she would not soil it. She was to wear it in a Children’s beauty pageant to be held in Surry the next month ( and try to do better than third this time, Marissa, she was lectured) Marissa was also wearing the Swarovski crystal diamond set she would be wearing at that pageant ( her mother had bought it hoping it would give her daughter an added edge).

 

Marissa had done her best to behave, but as the party grew old, and her mother grew less watchful, she began to join into play with her younger cousin ( Samuel). Sam was quite a rumbustious lad who had been in the bridal party as a ring bearer, although he was a lot older than normal for the role. The pair soon started chasing each other around the spacious ballroom. And then down the hall, and finally out the double front doors and running around the twilight lit building.

 

At one point Sam chased Marissa to the corner, tagging her and then running back, with Marissa giving chase. He turned the corner, circled the building, outdistancing poor Marissa. He reached the front door, panting, waiting to let Marissa see him before running off. But Marissa did not reappear around the building.

 

He soon went looking for her, retracing his steps, but no sign of Marissa was to be had. There was nothing for it, he had to tell Marissa’s, mother, a task he did not relish. So after calling one last time, with still no response, he headed inside. Finally he admitted defeat and went inside to tell Marissa’s Mother( he never called her Aunt) that Marissa would not come inside.

 

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This tale has been brought to the light of day for two reasons:

Number One:

For the opportunity to have a rant at the type of parents who take a fairly immature child and with heavy makeup and costuming try to make them look and act like young adults, which they are most assuredly not. Then these same parents appear angry when the child does not seem to conform , accept or feel gratitude for their parents actions, especially when she is caught acting like her real age.

Not only can this be emotionally stressful, but as seen in the story about to be told, downright dangerous when they fall victim to those dwelling on the outer fringes of society.

Number Two:

Due to the names and influence of the victim’s relatives, the whole affair was hushed up.

Which in itself is a crime, but not apparently for the wealthy.

 

A final Caution:

The following is a darkly disturbing sequence of events. Please do not read further unprepared!!!!!

 

What happened to Marissa was not pleasant…

 

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In her words:

 

Marissa had been running full tilt after Sam when she passed an old alley that had been an old coal and ice delivery path back in the day when those things needed to be brought in. It was now overgrown and deserted. She had already passed thrice as she had been chased by Sam.

 

This time, as her eyes were on Sam disappearing around the corner, someone moved from the shadows and grabbed her, pulling her struggling. slippery figure back into the shadows of the path. Marissa had disappeared totally without trace. She was dragged squirming up the path, a cold, roughly hard hand pressed over her mouth, stifling any sound she may have produced. Soon they left the path and entered into some old patch of woods.

 

Inside an old shed he dragged her, where she was grabbed by a second figure, that of an old haggish lady who’s body ordure smelled strongly of old cigars and booze.

  

The first figure( a man) left her to the simpering woman. Who then ordered the whimpering girl, writhing in her grasp, to shut up, with a wickedly lisping snarl.

  

The haggish lady took the petrified girls purse and looked through it, eagerly eyeing its contents. Then she looked over at Marissa, smiling wickedly. She dragged herself over, placing her grubby hands upon Marissa and began to pluck off the shiny Jewels she had been wearing. Searching her meticulously afterwards to make sure nothing had been missed.. Placing the purloined, glimmering pieces she found into Marissa’s satin handbag, like trick or treating in reverse.

  

The witchy lady than loomed over the girl, pinching and prodding the sobbing poor soul, as she prized Marissa’s gown. Slipping the rhinestone straps over Marissa’s shoulders, she carefully pulled off the gown, like a gamekeeper skinning the fancy pelt off some desirable creature he caught in a snare. Then the matching shoes went next. Shivering in her silken slip, Marissa could do nothing, paralyzed by fear. As she watched the hag letting her shiny gown flow through her grimy hands, a chilling thought swept along her body, she wasn’t the first person this ugly hag had stripped valuables from. She wondered what had happened to the others, and who they had been.

  

The old Hag reached over and pulled over an old ratty bag to her and rummaging through it she pulled out a decrepit old long coat. She made Marissa put it on, now looking like a pauper rather than the princess she had resembled only a ½ hour ago. Then, taking the child’s hands, she roughly tied them in front of her, and attached a short length of rope. Then the girl was gagged mute.

  

Grabbing the Bag and a few other odds and ends, the hag grabbed the rope and started to drag her captive behind her. They had started down a path when they both heard two people talking, moving along the path. The old lady tied Marissa to a tree. They both watched, soon the beggar who had grabbed Marissa, came down the path, Marissa’s mother in tow. They both went into the shack, passing only a few feet by the pair watching from the darkness. The old hag, leaving her prize tied to a tree, while she squirmed trying to call her mother, than followed the pair inside the shack.

 

Muffled yelling could be heard, and then all was silent, as Marissa watched in horror. Soon the beggar and the old hag came out, he was holding her mother’s gown, the old hag held her mother’s priceless jewelery. Placing the jewels In Marissa’s silk purse, and stuffing their victims gown into the bag. Grabbing Marissa they hurriedly headed off into the woods.

  

Eventually they dragged Marissa into the back of an old saloon. She was thrown onto a smelly old couch, and bound hand to foot. The pair went out into another room, the door failed to catch properly had opened a crack. Marissa could see the pair showing the gowns to a rather nicely dressed man. He did not question where shiny articles of clothing came from. She could overhear them haggling over a price as the man examined them, the haggish lady pointing out the desirable attributes of the two expensive satin gowns. He took them off their hands, Coins were exchanged and Marissa overheard him asked what else they had to show em. Cackling the old hag opened Marissa’s purse, spilling its contents, glittery with flickers of colour, onto the table. He picked up the pieces, examining them. Then with a start, Marissa heard the man explain to the pair that they were all cheap trinkets, not worth anything. He offered them a sum for the purses, and pittance for the jewels. They took him at his word, and again, money was given and the loot handed over. Marissa squirmed, wanting to say something, but couldn’t. She knew her Mother’s jewels alone had cost too much, or so her father had mumbled on more than one occasion.

  

The pair then leaned towards the man and they all began to talk in undertones. Marissa only made out the words scuttlery maid, as the haggish old lady seemed to try to make a selling point over something. With cold fear, Marissa realized the item trying to be sold was her, and a cold sweat broke over her bound figure. The man seemed hesitant at first, but then his eyes lit up, and he whispered something into their eager ears.

  

They rose, the man shaking hands with the pair, the nicely dressed man took Marissa’s and her mother’s purloined possessions, and left. The two, after talking amongst themselves for a minute or two, came back into the room where Marissa was laying bound, and the man, throwing her easily onto his shoulder, followed the old hag out the back door. Scampering down pair of long back steps, then into a series of dark alleys, they came to the back of an old abandoned apt house. Going inside via a broken door, they went into the celler where they dumped Marissa in a corner, mice, and worse, scurried from view at their appearence. The two fell fast asleep on either side of her. Marissa spent an extremely uncomfortable night. For they were not the only ones there, and as her captors slept, more than one shadowy form crept up and checked Marissa over, it is assumed for any valuables such an obviously upper-class child should posses. Her captors never even budging their slumber during the night.

  

Marissa eventually did fall asleep, only to be rudely awakened as she was once again hoisted up unto the mans shoulder. She became aware of the klaxon horns of police vehicles, and she was dropped in a hallway as her captors left her behind making good their escape…..

  

And so… by the mere coincidence of a man hunt for a suspected tavern robber, the police literally stumbled up a totally different scenario.

 

The constables found Marissa, deserted by her captors. They quickly were able to reunite her with her mother, who was resting in the hospital, on the mend from the blow that had rendered her helplessly unconscious.

  

No one, as was stated earlier, was ever caught or brought to trial, none of Marissa’s or her Mother’s valuable possessions were ever recovered.

  

Marissa, having been fitted for a new gown and bought new shiny frills, still performed in the beauty pageant, finishing fifth. It is to be believed that her Mother,ignorantly not understanding why her daughter had not managed to do better, made good on her promise to punish her.

 

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This is the true story that inspired the two tale versions we based Mae ( the fortune teller ) on.

(See Album Mae)

 

Possibly we are wrong for our reasons to bring this story to light.

If so, we do apologize for any upset our opinions may have caused to arise.

 

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Courtesy of Chatwick University Archives

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The purpose of these chronological photos and accompanying stories, articles is to educate, teach, instruct, and generally increase the awareness level of the general public as to the nature and intent of the underlying criminal elements that have historically plagued humankind.

 

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All rights and copyrights observed by Chatwick University, Its contributors, associates and Agents

 

The purpose of these chronological photos and accompanying stories, articles is to educate, teach, instruct, and generally increase the awareness level of the general public as to the nature and intent of the underlying criminal elements that have historically plagued humankind.

 

No Part of this can reprinted, duplicated, or copied be without the express written permission and approval of Chatwick University.

These photos and stories are works of fiction. Any resemblance to people, living or deceased, is purely coincidental.

As with any work of fiction or fantasy the purpose is for entertainment only, and should never be attempted in real life.

We accept no responsibility for any events occurring outside this website.

  

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Today 11th April 2018 I had visited Aberdeen Harbour to capture supply ships arrive and leave , however after an hour or so I heard through my radio scanner VTS (vessel traffic services) advise scheduled vessels due to arrive or leave that tide levels are lower than predicted and that no movement would be possible until 19pm, with a few hours to spare I decided to visit Donmouth Nature Reserve , on arriving I could see Paragliders in the distance , I loaded my Nikon and set off to capture the scene.

 

I captured a number of shots before two of the gliders landed on the cliffs, I went over to them for a chat , friendly guys who obviously loved their hobby / sport , as I usually do , I asked for permission to post the photos I had taken, "no problem" was their reply .

 

It was exciting to see the guys take off and land on the cliffs , in fact it made me feel like having a go , honestly it was a magnificent view seeing them all glide along the clifftops, one of them told me they can reach speeds of 50 mph .

 

The guys are all members of Aberdeen Hang Gliding and Paragliding club, thanks to them for a great and unpredicted shoot , it made my day .

 

Donmouth Local Nature Reserve is a beach site in the historic Old Aberdeen part of the City where the River Don meets the sea.

 

A great place to see seals and a range of interesting birds. The beach area has changed over time as the river has changed its course. There are lots of interesting plants in the dunes and beach area. Bird hide is an excellent shelter from which to watch the wildlife. The paths run across King Street to the Brig 'o Balgownie., the original bridge in to the City from the North, then down the other side of the river to the sea.

 

The site was designated a Local Nature Reserve in 1992

 

Paths are good although wheelchair access to the beach would be difficult as the boardwalk can get covered with sand.

 

There is plenty of free car parking on the Beach Esplanade and at the car park in Donmouth Road. There are cycle racks on Beach Esplanade

 

Bridge Of Don has five spans of dressed granite, and rounded cutwaters that carry up to road level to form pedestrian refuges. The spans are 75 feet (23 m), with a rise of 25 feet (7.6 m).

 

It was widened in 1958-59, from 24 feet (7.3 m), to 66 feet (20 m) by the construction of a new concrete bridge adjacent to the old one.

 

It now carries four lanes of the A956 road, and is the last bridge on the River Don before it meets the sea. The bridge is just downstream from a substantial island in the river. Around the area of the bridge is the Donmouth Local Nature Reserve, designated as a LNR in 1992.

Near to the bridge are a number of World War II era coastal defences, including a pill box.

Mudflats

Mudflats are formed when fine particles carried downstream by the river are deposited as it slows down before entering the sea, and to a lesser extent by fine particles washed in by the tide. The sand spit at the mouth of the Don provides shelter from the wind and waves allowing this material to build up. The mud flats are a very rich and fertile environment. Despite their rather barren appearance they support a surprisingly diverse invertebrate fauna which includes; worms, molluscs and crustacea. These invertebrates are vitally important to wildfowl and wading birds within the estuary.

 

Salt marsh

Along the upper shore of the south bank saltmarsh has developed. This habitat would once have been much more extensive prior to the tipping of domestic and other refuse in the area and the formation in 1727 of an artificial embankment to prevent flooding of the river into the Links. This habitat is now reduced to a narrow strip of vegetation along the river margins upstream from the Powis Burn.

 

The species composition of the salt marsh varies according to the salinity of the water i.e. the proximity to the sea. Close to the Powis Burn this habitat is dominated by reed sweet-grass (Glyceria maxima) with reed canary-grass (Phalaris arundinacea), sea club-rush (Scirpus maritimus), spike-rush (Eleocharis palustris), hemlock water-dropwort (Oenanthe crocata) and common scurvygrass (Chochlearia officinalis).

Further inland reed sweet-grass continues to dominate but hemlock water-dropwort is more abundant with meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) and valarian (Valariana officinalis),

 

Sand dunes

Sand dunes are found in the more exposed parts of the estuary at the river mouth. Again, this habitat was once much more extensive in this locality with dune grasslands stretching from Aberdeen Beach inland as far as King Street, southwards from the estuary of the Dee, northwards to the Sands of Forvie and beyond. Many of the dunes formed part of Seaton Tip, and following tipping the area was grassed over. Other areas have been formally landscaped to form golf courses or planted with native trees in 2010 to create a new woodland area.

 

Some remnants of the natural dune flora can be seen in the 'roughs' on the Kings Links golf course and near the mouth of the river.

 

Above the high water mark, fore dunes with thick clumps of the pioneer grass species including sea lyme grass (Elymus arenarius) and marram grass (Ammophila arenaria) occur. Few other species are able to cope with the shifting sand. The largest area of these young dunes is to the north and west of the headland. Further inland where the dunes are sheltered from the actions of the wind and waves, and soils are more developed, more stable dunes are present supporting a more diverse grassland habitat.

 

Strand line plants which are able to tolerate occasional coverage by sea water include sea rocket (Cakile maritima), frosted orache (Atriplex laciniata), sea sandwort (Honkenya peploides) and knotgrass (Polygonum aviculare). Bur-reed (Sparganium sp.) has been recorded; presumably washed down by the river.

 

Marram grass (Ammophila arenaria) and sea lyme grass (Elymus arenarius) dominate the fore dunes. The latter species is not native to this area but appeared in 1802. It is thought to have been unintentionally introduced into the area by fishing boats. For a number of years it remained uncommon but from 1870 onwards it spread rapidly along the coastline (Marren, 1982).

 

In the more stable dunes red fescue (Festuca rubra), sand sedge (Carex arenaria), yellow rattle (Rhinanthus minor), wild pansy (Viola tricolour), harebell (Campanula rotundifolia), bird's-foot-trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) and lesser meadow-rue (Thalictrum minus) are abundant. Small amounts of kidney vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria), valerian (Valeriana officinalis) and spring vetch (Vicia lathyroides) are present.

 

Scattered willows (Salix sp.) and sycamore (Acer pseudoplantanus) have seeded into this area. Gorse (Ulex europaeus) scrub has colonised the dunes in some areas and appears to be spreading.

 

Scrub

This habitat is almost entirely artificial with only the gorse scrub on the inner dunes being a semi-natural habitat. Alder and willow were planted along the south bank of the river in about 1970 and these shrubs are now generally well established. Further shrub planting on the south bank was carried out in 1990.

 

Willow (Salix sp.) and alder (Alnus glutinosa) were planted in the 1970's along the south bank of the River Don eastwards of the Bridge of Don. The trees to the west of this strip are doing considerably better than those to the east. More recent planting was carried out in 1990 with hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) elder (Sambucus nigra), goat willow (Salix caprea) and alder.

 

Underneath the scrub neutral grassland is present with cocksfoot (Dactylis glomerata), false oat-grass (Arrhenatherum elatius), cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris), sweet cicely (Myrrhis odorata), hedge woundwort (Stachys sylvatica) and hedge bindweed (Calystegia sepium).

 

Grassland

Much of the grassland within the reserve is formed on imported soil and is intensively managed. This includes grassland on the north and south sides of the Esplanade. Daffodils are present in the grassland on the north side of the road. On the north bank to the east of the Bridge of Don is rank grassland on a steep south-facing slope. This is unmanaged and contains some patches of scrub.

 

Rough grassland is present on the headland. This area has been modified by tipping, with rubble to the east and with grass cuttings to the west. The grassland contains a mixture of neutral grassland, dune grassland, ruderal, and introduced garden species. This area attracts flocks of seed eating birds in late summer and autumn.

 

Improved grassland is present on the headland and along the south bank of the estuary downstream from the bridge of Don. Much of this vegetation has developed on imported soil and contains a high proportion of ruderal species and garden escapes. On the headland, broadleaved dock (Rumex obtusifolius), nettle (Urtica dioica), coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara), spear thistle (Cirsium vulgare), cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris), hemlock (Conium maculatum) and hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) are abundant. Sweet cicely (Chaerophyllum bulbosum) is widespread and in late summer fills the air with the scent of aniseed.

 

To the south of the Esplanade the grassland is managed with an annual cut.. The grassland does flood to form pools. Early in the year cuckoo flower (Cardamine pratensis) is common, meadow foxtail (Alopecuris pratensis)is known to occur around the margins of these pools.

 

Woodland

Semi-mature woodland is present on the steep sided south bank of the river upstream from the Bridge of Don. Most of this woodland has been planted in the mid 1930's though some older oak and elm trees are present. These may be relicts of former woodland cover. The woodland in the reserve is part of a strip of woodland along the River Don corridor which continues upstream from the Brig 'o' Balgownie.

 

Woodland is present on the south bank upstream from the Bridge of Don.

 

Much of the woodland consists of even aged stands with willow (Salix sp.), sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus), ash (Fraxinus excelsior), beech (Fagus sylvatica) and alder (AInus glutinosa). At the top of the slope mature oak (Quercus sp.) and elm (Ulmus glabra) are present. The ground flora contains tufted hair-grass (Deschampsia caespitosa), red campion (Silene dioica), ramsons (Allium ursinum) and lady fern (Athyrium felix-femina) .In a few areas dense shading is caused by the trees and in these areas the ground flora is poor.

 

On the north bank scattered trees are present, mainly willow and sycamore with some scrub.

 

The stories below are flood stories from the world's folklore. I have included stories here if they are stories; they are folklore, not historical accounts or fiction by a known author; and they involve a flood. In most borderline cases, I included the story here anyway. For example, one story (Hopi) tells of a flood which was avoided and never occurred. The stories are summarized both to save space and to avoid copyright infringements, but I have attempted to preserve all the motifs and all the names that were given in the cited account. However, where the story gives intricate account of events before and/or after the flood (such as in the Zhuang story of Bubo vs. the Thunder God), some of the details peripheral to the flood itself may have been summarized out of existence. In a few cases, two or more overlapping and non-contradictory fragments from the same culture were combined into one summary. Complete references are given at the end; consult them for more details. Within each continent or region, stories are grouped by language family. See Language Grouping for Flood Stories for elaboration of the language groups which, as best I can determine, the stories belong to.

Zeus sent a flood to destroy the men of the Bronze Age. Prometheus advised his son Deucalion to build a chest. All other men perished except for a few who escaped to high mountains. The mountains in Thessaly were parted, and all the world beyond the Isthmus and Peloponnese was overwhelmed. Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha (daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora), after floating in the chest for nine days and nights, landed on Parnassus. When the rains ceased, he sacrificed to Zeus, the God of Escape. At the bidding of Zeus, he threw stones over his head; they became men, and the stones which Pyrrha threw became women. That is why people are called laoi, from laas, "a stone." [Apollodorus, 1.7.2]

 

The first race of people was completely destroyed because they were exceedingly wicked. The fountains of the deep opened, the rain fell in torrents, and the rivers and seas rose to cover the earth, killing all of them. Deucalion survived due to his prudence and piety and linked the first and second race of men. Onto a great ark he loaded his wives and children and all animals. The animals came to him, and by God's help, remained friendly for the duration of the flood. The flood waters escaped down a chasm opened in Hierapolis. [Frazer, pp. 153-154] An older version of the story told by Hellanicus has Deucalion's ark landing on Mount Othrys in Thessaly. Another account has him landing on a peak, probably Phouka, in Argolis, later called Nemea. [Gaster, p. 85] The Megarians told that Megarus, son of Zeus, escaped Deucalion's flood by swimming to the top of Mount Gerania, guided by the cries of cranes. [Gaster, p. 85-86] An earlier flood was reported to have occurred in the time of Ogyges, founder and king of Thebes. The flood covered the whole world and was so devastating that the country remained without kings until the reign of Cecrops. [Gaster, p. 87] Nannacus, king of Phrygia, lived before the time of Deucalion and foresaw that he and all people would perish in a coming flood. He and the Phrygians lamented bitterly, hence the old proverb about "weeping like (or for) Nannacus." After the deluge had destroyed all humanity, Zeus commanded Prometheus and Athena to fashion mud images, and Zeus summoned winds to breathe life into them. The place where they were made is called Iconium after these images. [Frazer, p. 155] "Many great deluges have taken place during the nine thousand years" since Athens and Atlantis were preeminent. Destruction by fire and other catastrophes was also common. In these floods, water rose from below, destroying city dwellers but not mountain people. The floods, especially the third great flood before Deucalion, washed away most of Athens' fertile soil. [Plato, "Timaeus" 22, "Critias"

 

The gods had decided to destroy mankind. The god Enlil warned the priest-king Ziusudra ("Long of Life") of the coming flood by speaking to a wall while Ziusudra listened at the side. He was instructed to build a great ship and carry beasts and birds upon it. Violent winds came, and a flood of rain covered the earth for seven days and nights. Then Ziusudra opened a window in the large boat, allowing sunlight to enter, and he prostrated himself before the sun-god Utu. After landing, he sacrificed a sheep and an ox and bowed before Anu and Enlil. For protecting the animals and the seed of mankind, he was granted eternal life and taken to the country of Dilmun, where the sun rises. [Hammerly-Dupuy, p. 56; Heidel, pp. 102-106]

 

Three times (every 1200 years), the gods were distressed by the disturbance from human overpopulation. The gods dealt with the problem first by plague, then by famine. Both times, the god Enki advised men to bribe the god causing the problem. The third time, Enlil advised the gods to destroy all humans with a flood, but Enki had Atrahasis build an ark and so escape. Also on the boat were cattle, wild animals and birds, and Atrahasis' family. When the storm came, Atrahasis sealed the door with bitumen and cut the boat's rope. The storm god Adad raged, turning the day black. After the seven-day flood, the gods regretted their action. Atrahasis made an offering to them, at which the gods gathered like flies, and Enki established barren women and stillbirth to avoid the problem in the future. [Dalley, pp. 23-35]

 

The gods, led by Enlil, agreed to cleanse the earth of an overpopulated humanity, but Utnapishtim was warned by the god Ea in a dream. He and some craftsmen built a large boat (one acre in area, seven decks) in a week. He then loaded it with his family, the craftsmen, and "the seed of all living creatures." The waters of the abyss rose up, and it stormed for six days. Even the gods were frightened by the flood's fury. Upon seeing all the people killed, the gods repented and wept. The waters covered everything but the top of the mountain Nisur, where the boat landed. Seven days later, Utnapishtim released a dove, but it returned finding nowhere else to land. He next returned a sparrow, which also returned, and then a raven, which did not return. Thus he knew the waters had receded enough for the people to emerge. Utnapishtim made a sacrifice to the gods. He and his wife were given immortality and lived at the end of the earth. [Sandars, chpt. 5] Sharur destroyed Asag, demon of sickness and disease, by flooding his abode. In the process, "The primeval waters of Kur rose to the surface, and as a result of their violence no fresh waters could reach the fields and gardens." [Kramer, p. 105]

 

The god Chronos in a vision warned Xisuthrus, the tenth king of Babylon, of a flood coming on the fifteenth day of the month of Daesius. The god ordered him to write a history and bury it in Sippara, and told him to build and provision a vessel (5 stadia by 2 stadia) for himself, his friends and relations, and all kinds of animals. Xisuthrus asked where he should sail, and Chronos answered, "to the gods, but first pray for all good things to men." Xisuthrus built a ship five furlongs by two furlongs and loaded it as ordered. After the flood had come and abated somewhat, he sent out some birds, which returned. Later, he tried again, and the birds returned with mud on their feet. On the third trial, the birds didn't return. He saw that land had appeared above the waters, so he parted some seams of his ship, saw the shore, and drove his ship aground in the Corcyraean mountains in Armenia. He disembarked with his wife, daughter, and pilot, and offered sacrifices to the gods. Those four were translated to live with the gods. The others at first were grieved when they could not find the four, but they heard Xisuthrus' voice in the air telling them to be pious and to seek his writings at Sippara. Part of the ship remains to this day, and some people make charms from its bitumen. [Frazer, pp. 108-110; G. Smith, pp. 42-43] According to accounts attributed to Berosus, the antediluvians were giants who became impious and depraved, except one among them that reverenced the gods and was wise and prudent. His name was Noa, and he dwelt in Syria with his three sons Sem, Japet, Chem, and their wives Tidea, Pandora, Noela, and Noegla. From the stars, he foresaw destruction, and he began building an ark. 78 years after he began building, the oceans, inland seas, and rivers burst forth from beneath, attended by many days of violent rain. The waters overflowed all the mountains, and the human race was drowned except Noa and his family who survived on his ship. The ship came to rest at last on the top of the Gendyae or Mountain. Parts of it still remain, which men take bitumen from to make charms against evil. [H. Miller, pp. 291-292]

 

God, upset at mankind's wickedness, resolved to destroy it, but Noah was righteous and found favor with Him. God told Noah to build an ark, 450 x 75 x 45 feet, with three decks. Noah did so, and took aboard his family (8 people in all) and pairs of all kinds of animals (7 of the clean ones). For 40 days and nights, floodwaters came from the heavens and from the deeps, until the highest mountains were covered. The waters flooded the earth for 150 days; then God sent a wind and the waters receded, and the ark came to rest in Ararat. After 40 days, Noah sent out a raven, which kept flying until the waters had dried up. He next sent out a dove, which returned without finding a perch. A week later he set out the dove again, and it returned with an olive leaf. The next week, the dove didn't return. After a year and 10 days from the start of the flood, everyone and everything emerged from the ark. Noah sacrificed some clean animals and birds to God, and God, pleased with this, promised never again to destroy all living creatures with a flood, giving the rainbow as a sign of this covenant. Animals became wild and became suitable food, and Noah and his family were told to repopulate the earth. Noah planted a vineyard and one day got drunk. His son Ham saw him lying naked in his tent and told his brothers Shem and Japheth, who came and covered Noah with their faces turned. When Noah awoke, he cursed Ham and his descendants and blessed his other sons. [Genesis 6-9]

 

Men lived at ease before the flood; a single harvest provided for forty years, children were born after only a few days instead of nine months and could walk and talk immediately, and people could command the sun and moon. This indolence led men astray, especially to the sins of wantonness and rapacity. God determined to destroy the sinners, but in mercy he instructed Noah to warn them of the threat of a flood and to preach to them to mend their ways. Noah did this for 120 years. God gave mankind a final week of grace during which the sun reversed course, but the wicked men did not repent; they only mocked Noah for building the ark. Noah learned how to make the ark from a book, given to Adam by the angel Raziel, which contained all knowledge. This book was made of sapphires, and Noah put it in a golden casket and, during the flood, used it to tell day from night, for the sun and moon did not shine at that time. The flood was caused by male waters from the sky meeting the female waters from the ground. God made holes in the sky for the waters to issue from by removing two stars from the Pleiades. He later closed the hole by borrowing two stars from the Bear. That is why the Bear always runs after the Pleiades. The animals came to the ark in such numbers that Noah could not take them all; he had them sit by the door of the ark, and he took in the animals which lay down at the door. 365 species of reptiles and 32 species of bird were taken. Since seven pairs of each kind of clean animal were taken, the clean animals outnumbered the unclean after the flood. One creatures, the reem was so big it had to be tethered outside the ark and follow behind. The giant Og, king of Bashan, was also too big and escaped the flood sitting atop the ark. In addition to Noah, his wife Naamah, and their sons and sons' wives, Falsehood and Misfortune also took refuge on the ark. Falsehood was initially turned away when he presented himself without a mate, so he induced Misfortune to join him and returned. When the flood began, the sinners gathered around it and rushed the door, but the wild beasts aboard the ark guarded the door and set upon them. Those which escaped the beasts drowned in the flood. The ark, and the animals in it, were tossed around on the waters for a year, but Noah's greatest difficulty was feeding all the animals, for he had to work day and night to feed both the diurnal and nocturnal animals. When Noah once tarried in feeding the lion, the lion gave him a blow which made him lame for the rest of his life and prevented him from serving as a priest. On the tenth day of the month of Tammuz, Noah sent forth a raven, but the raven found a corpse to devour and did not return. A week later Noah sent out a dove, and on its third flight it returned with an olive leaf plucked from the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, for the Holy Land had not suffered from the flood. Noah wept at the devastation when he left the ark, and Shem offered a thank-offering; Noah could not officiate due to his encounter with the lion. [Ginzberg, pp. 319-335; see also Frazer, pp. 143-145] Aprocryphal scripture tells that Adam directed that his body, together with gold, incense, and myrrh, should be taken aboard the Ark and, after the flood, should be laid in the middle of the earth. God would come from thence and save mankind. [Platt, p. 66, 80 (2 Adam 8:9-18, 21:7-11)] A woman "clothed with the sun" gave birth to a man child who was taken up by God. The woman then lived in the wilderness, where the Devil-dragon, cast down to earth, persecuted her. At one time he cast a flood of water from his mouth trying to wash her away, but the earth helped the woman and swallowed the flood. [Revelation 12]

 

Yima, under divine superintendence, reigned over the world for 900 years. As there was no disease or death, the population increased so that it was necessary to enlarge the earth after 300 years; Yima accomplished this with the help of a gold ring and gold-inlaid dagger he had received from Ahura Mazda, the Creator. Enlargement of the earth was necessary again after 600 years. When the population became too great after 900 years, Ahura Mazda warned Yima that destruction was coming in the form of winter, frost, and subsequent melting of the snow. He instructed Yima to build a vara, a large square enclosure, in which to keep specimens of small and large cattle, human beings, dogs, birds, red flaming fires, plants and foodstuffs, two of every kind. The men and cattle he brought in were to be the finest on earth. Within the enclosure, men passed the happiest of lives, with each year seeming like a day. [Frazer, pp. 180-182; Dresden, p. 344]

 

In early times, the earth was full of malign creatures fashioned by the evil Ahriman. The angel Tistar (the star Sirius) descended three times, in the form of man, horse, and bull respectively, causing ten days and nights of rain each time. Each rain drop became as big as a bowl, and the water rose the height of a man over the whole earth. The first flood drowned the creatures, but the dead noxious creatures went into holes in the earth. Before returning to cause the second flood, Tistar, in the form of a white horse, battled the demon Apaosha, who took the form of a black horse. Ormuzd blasted the demon with lightning, making the demon give a cry which can still be heard in thunderstorms, and Tistar prevailed and caused rivers to flow. The poison washed from the land by the second flood made the seas salty. The waters were driven to the ends of the earth by a great wind and became the sea Vourukasha ("Wide-Gulfed"). [Carnoy, p. 270; Vitaliano, pp. 161-162; H. Miller, p. 288]

 

Allah sent Noah to warn the people to serve none but Allah, but most of them would not listen. They challenged Noah to make good his threats and mocked him when, under Allah's inspiration, he built a ship. Allah told Noah not to speak to Him on behalf of wrongdoers; they would be drowned. In time, water gushed from underground and fell from the sky. Noah loaded onto his ship pairs of all kinds, his household, and those few who believed. One of Noah's sons didn't believe and said he would seek safety in the mountains. He was among the drowned. The ship sailed amid great waves. Allah commanded the earth to swallow the water and the sky to clear, and the ship came to rest on Al-Judi. Noah complained to Allah for taking his son. Allah admonished that the son was an evildoer and not of Noah's household, and Noah prayed for forgiveness. Allah told Noah to go with blessings on him and on some nations that will arise from those with him. [Koran 11:25-48]

 

Manu, the first human, found a small fish in his washwater. The fish begged protection from the larger fishes, in return for which it would save Manu. Manu kept the fish safe, transferring it to larger and larger reservoirs as it grew, eventually taking it to the ocean. The fish warned Manu of a coming deluge and told him to build a ship. When the flood rose, the fish came, and Manu tied the craft to its horn. The fish led him to a northern mountain and told Manu to tie the ship's rope to a tree to prevent it from drifting. Manu, alone of all creatures, survived. He made offerings of clarified butter, sour milk, whey, and curds. From these, a woman arose, calling herself Manu's daughter. Whatever blessings he invoked through her were granted him. Through her, he generated this race. [Gaster, pp. 94-95; Kelsen, p. 128; Brinton, pp. 227-228]

 

The great sage Manu, son of Vivasvat, practiced austere fervor. He stood on one leg with upraised arm, looking down unblinkingly, for 10,000 years. While so engaged on the banks of the Chirini, a fish came to him and asked to be saved from larger fish. Manu took the fish to a jar and, as the fish grew, from thence to a large pond, then to the river Ganga, then to the ocean. Though large, the fish was pleasant and easy to carry. Upon being released into the ocean, the fish told Manu that soon all terrestrial objects would be dissolved in the time of the purification. It told him to build a strong ship with a cable attached and to embark with the seven sages (rishis) and certain seeds, and to then watch for the fish, since the waters could not be crossed without it. Manu embarked as enjoined and thought on the fish. The fish, knowing his desire, came, and Manu fastened the ship's cable to its horn. The fish dragged the ship through roiling waters for many years, at last bringing it to the highest peak of Himavat, which is still known as Naubandhana ("the Binding of the Ship"). The fish then revealed itself as Parjapati Brahma and said Manu shall create all living things and all things moving and fixed. Manu performed a great act of austere fervor to clear his uncertainty and then began calling things into existence. [Frazer, pp. 185-187]

 

The heroic king Manu, son of the Sun, practiced austere fervor in Malaya and attained transcendent union with the Deity. After a million years, Brahma bestowed on Manu a boon and asked him to choose it. Manu asked for the power to preserve all existing things upon the dissolution of the universe. Later, while offering oblations in his hermitage, a carp fell in his hands, which Manu preserved. The fish grew and cried to Manu to preserve it, and Manu moved it to progressively larger vessels, eventually moving it to the river Ganga and then to the ocean. When it filled the ocean, Manu recognized it as the god Janardana, or Brahma. It told Manu that the end of the yuga was approaching, and soon all would be covered with water. He was to preserve all creatures and plants aboard a ship which had been prepared. It said that a hundred years of drought and famine would begin this day, which would be followed by fires from the sun and from underground that would consume the earth and the ether, destroying this world, the gods, and the planets. Seven clouds from the steam of the fire will inundate the earth, and the three worlds will be reduced to one ocean. Manu's ship alone will remain, fastened by a rope to the great fish's horn. Having announced all this, the great being vanished. The deluge occurred as stated; Janardana appeared in the form of a horned fish, and the serpent Ananta came in the form of a rope. Manu, by contemplation, drew all creatures towards him and stowed them in the ship and, after making obeisance to Janardana, attached the ship to the fish's horn with the serpent-rope. [Frazer, pp. 188-190] At the end of the past kalpa, the demon Hayagriva stole the sacred books from Brahma, and the whole human race became corrupt except the seven Nishis, and especially Satyavrata, the prince of a maritime region. One day when he was bathing in a river, he was visited by a fish which craved protection and which he transferred to successively larger vessels as it grew. At last Satyavrata recognized it as the god Vishnu, "The Lord of the Universe." Vishnu told him that in seven days all the corrupt creatures will be destroyed by a deluge, but Satyavrata would be saved in a large vessel. He was told to take aboard the miraculous vessel all kinds of medicinal herbs, food esculant grains, the seven Nishis and their wives, and pairs of brute animals. After seven days, the oceans began to overflow the coasts and constant rain began flooding the earth. A large vessel floated in on the rising waters, and Satyavrata and the Nishis entered with their wives and cargo. During the deluge, Vishnu preserved the ark by again taking the form of a giant fish and tying the ark to himself with a huge sea serpent. When the waters subsided, he slew the demon who had stolen the holy books and communicated their contents to Satyavrata. [H. Miller, pp. 289-290; Howey, pp. 389-390; Frazer, pp. 191-193] One windy day, the sea flooded the port city of Dwaravati. All its occupants perished except Krishna, an avatar of Vishnu, and his brother Balarama, who were walking in the forests of Raivataka Hill. Krishna left his brother alone. Sesha, the serpent who supports the world, withdrew his energy from Balarama; in a jet of light, Balarama's spirit entered the sea, and his body fell over. Krishna decided that tomorrow he would destroy the world for all its evils, and he went to sleep. Jara the hunter passed by, mistook Krishna's foot for the face of a stag, and shot it. The wound to Krishna's foot was slight, but Jara found Krishna dead. He had saffron robes, four arms, and a jewel on his breast. The waters still rose and soon lapped at Jara's feet. Jara felt ashamed but helpless; he left deciding never to speak of the incident. [Buck, pp. 408-409]

 

The Supreme Sovereign ordered the water god Gong Gong to create a flood as punishment and warning for human misbehavior. Gong Gong extended the flood for 22 years, and people had to live in high mountain caves and in trees, fighting with wild animals for scarce resources. Unable to persuade the Supreme Sovereign to stop the flood, and told by an owl and a turkey about _Xirang_ or Growing Soil, the supernatural hero Gun stole Growing Soil from heaven to dam the waters. Before Gun was finished, however, the Supreme Sovereign sent the fire god Zhu Rong to execute him for his theft. The Growing Soil was taken back to heaven, and the floods continued. However, Gun's body didn't decay, and when it was cut apart three years later, his son Yu emerged in the form of a horned dragon. Gun's body also transformed into a dragon at that time and thenceforth lived quietly in the deeps. The Supreme Sovereign was fearful of Yu's power, so he cooperated and gave Yu the Growing Soil and the use of the dragon Ying. Yu led other gods to drive away Gong Gong, distributed the Growing Soil to remove most of the flood, and led the people to fashion rivers from Ying's tracks and thus channel the remaining floodwaters to the sea. [Walls, pp. 94-100] The goddess Nu Kua fought and defeated the chief of a neighboring tribe, driving him up a mountain. The chief, chagrined at being defeated by a woman, beat his head against the Heavenly Bamboo with the aim of wreaking vengeance on his enemies and killing himself. He knocked it down, tearing a hole in the sky. Floods poured out, inundating the world and killing everyone but Nu Kua and her army; her divinity made her and her followers safe from it. Nu Kua patched the hole with a plaster made from stones of five different colors, and the floods ceased. [Werner, p. 225; Vitaliano, p. 163]

 

www.talkorigins.org/faqs/flood-myths.html

ARGORY AND THE BOND BRIDGE NEAR MOY CO TYRONE23-05-2022 ... The ground at Bond’s Bridge and the river path formed part of the original Argory estate which was given to the National Trust in 1979.

 

The carpark and jetty at Bonds Bridge is for local fishermen use, and not for walkers to access the estate and walks. Visitors are advised to use the main entrance to The Argory and then follow the River Walk in order to view the bridge.

I received an email this morning from Kevin Norbie who was kind enough to advise me of developments in Superior, Wisconsin on this the 24th day of August, 2016. The last remnants of the Terminal's roundhouse, located at the corner of Oakes Avenue and Belknap Street, were being torn down as Kevin drove to work today.

 

(I'd love to see some images of this project if anyone has time to drive over there and shoot a few pictures they can share with me.)

 

I'd like to share an image and some information about this roundhouse and its original "inhabitants". I can do that thanks to the collective input that I received from Kevin Norbie, David Guay, and Wayne C. Olsen who's efforts rounded out my own research on this topic.

 

In my humble estimation the rarest image that I have in my archive is probably the one you're looking at right now. The Terminal was incorporated on June 13, 1884. The line always operated completely within the limits of the City of Superior. It opened for business in June 1887. So the roundhouse we see in this picture (the first roundhouse constructed in Superior and the last remaining one being torn down today) was likely built during 1885 as a 7-stall structure to hold the first 7 of its steam locomotives. That's how we see them here, lined up left to right, numbered 1 through 7.

 

The biggest mystery about this small railroad was the origin of these first locomotives. That's due mostly to the fact that when the first Superior Union Depot burned down in July 1904, it took with it all of the Terminal's paper records and photographs. Superior Union Depot was built, owned and operated by The Lake Superior Terminal & Transfer Railway of the State of Wisconsin (its official name) and all of the Terminal's records were contained inside of this, their headquarters building. Since these locomotives and even the records of this roundhouse predate that fire, most evidence of their origins or very existence are really quite scarce if not impossible to locate.

 

Each of these first engines was built by Schnectady Locomotive Works. They were all of the 0-6-0 wheel arrangement. The first six of them had 17x24 inch cylinders and 52 inch drivers, while the seventh had larger 18x24 cylinders and 52 inch drivers. Number 7 also sported a peculiar polished stainless steel star on its smoke box front, visible in this image.

 

Builders numbers and dates for the LST&T's first seven (7) steam locomotives were as follows:

 

Number One: Construction No. 2956 built November 1889

Number Two: Construction No. 2995 built December 1889

Number Three: Construction No. 3071 built April 1890

Number Four: Construction No. 3227 built August 1890

Number 5: Construction No. 3518 built July 1891

Number 6: Construction No. 3519 built July 1891

Number 7: Construction No. 3520 built July 1891

 

I listed them out as "Number One, Two, etc. for a reason. During this early period of railroading the only actual number on the first four of their locomotives was painted on the side of the tender and emblazoned on the smoke box front. The side numbers in the headlight awnings (front and rear) were actually spelled out on translucent glass that flanked each side of the headlight. So engine 1 had "ONE" spelled out on the glass on either side of the headlight; engine 2 had "TWO" spelled out; and so forth. It seems that they did that up to and including engine number FOUR. Subsequent locomotives had numerical digits all the way around. Special thanks to Kevin for pointing that out to me last year when he showed me his lovely portrait of locomotive FOUR.

 

The Terminal ran with these seven locomotives until 0-8-0s number 8 and 9 arrived from Baldwin in 1907. The roundhouse was enlarged prior to that to make it a total of 10 stalls and the Terminal's steam roster had an eventual total of 23 engines though these earliest 0-6-0s left the roster after 1900 as larger and more powerful 0-8-0s and 0-6-0s came in to replace them between 1907 and 1945. While the line bought most of their steam new from the factories, they did buy several engines second hand during and after the war. The Terminal leased steam too including at minimum Great Northern Railway A9 0-6-0 No. 80, and possibly several others (I'm still researching this topic).

 

So it is the combination of my great admiration for this little railroad and Kevin's message to me this morning that stirs the historian in me to bring these seven locomotives out of the dark at long, long last. I think it's a fitting way to honor them posed inside of their original roundhouse. It is a structure that has stood the test of time and change in Superior, Wisconsin right up until today anyway.

 

This little 10-stall roundhouse has been a cornerstone of railroad history in Superior (albeit forgotten by most passers by) since 1885. Even though it has been living out its last years as a recycling center I'd say that a 130+ life span is a pretty good run for any building made from simple bricks and wooden beams. But this is an especially good run for this structure considering that it hadn't seen a locomotive or even a railroader inside of it since late 1974 when it was permanently closed. This building at 1425 Oakes Avenue in Superior actually remained in railroad hands until it was sold in January 1980 by controlling owner Burlington Northern. It became the Superior Recycling Center later in 1980 which today functions as a part of the larger Waste Management corporation. No doubt, they have plans for a more modern recycling facility on this same site.

 

Once the roundhouse was closed in 1974, all locomotive maintenance on LST&T Railway diesel locomotives was transferred over to Burlington Northern at their Belknap Street roundhouse. That one was located at the opposite end of the Belknap Street viaduct on the west side of the rail yards in Superior. It was the largest and by far the most modern of the five roundhouses built in Superior. It was built by the Eastern Railway of Minnesota in 1900 that became a part of the Great Northern in 1907. It actually replaced an even earlier roundhouse that was located about 200 feet south of Winter Street right where the coal main crosses the road today. This big GN roundhouse was partially leveled in 1952, with an equal amount torn down again in 1982, and then the rest of it came down in its entirety during August/September of 1986. Superior's other railroads, the Omaha and Soo Line, followed suit by tearing down their roundhouses too. Now, none remain.

 

The LST&T Railway went from 23 locomotives and 24 miles of track at its peak to just a few tracks that remain today used by BNSF to move grain cars down to Tower Bay and out onto Connor's Point. A few pieces of their equipment do remain, though not here. Their Jordan spreader snow plow still functions at the museum in North Freedom, Wisconsin. Several of their diesel-electric locomotives are still running on on a tourist line in St. Paul. And one lonely caboose sits on stilts on a farm in Wisconsin. I guess that's something.

 

But who would have ever guessed that the first railroad roundhouse constructed in the City of Superior in 1885 would also end up being the last one standing more than 130 years later?

 

As of this afternoon, I imagine that the only remains in Superior of this long forgotten railroad will be what had to be its proudest achievement—the second Superior Union Depot built in 1905. Constructed of Lake Superior brownstone at 933 Oakes Avenue, I'd like to think that THIS former Terminal building could make a triumphant comeback with some kind of grand re-purposing. But if it doesn't, then all memory of the Terminal line and its buildings and trains will only be found in pictures, and stories, such as this one.

 

I hope to share many more of my pictures and stories about the LST&T Railway with you soon. If I don't, and you have questions in the mean time, feel free to write and ask. I'm happy to dig out the answers. As Otto Dobnick once put it to me, "Jeff, you are the LST&T Railway Historical Society!"

 

Possibly, but that didn't happen without a lot of contributions from other people. Such as the ones who enabled me to write this story over a few cups of coffee this morning. It's been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. I went over a little as this one took 1,474 of them. Sorry if I ran a little long today.

 

Long live the Lake Superior Terminal & Transfer Railway of the State of Wisconsin.

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