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Desolation Imperial Oyster Stout was brewed with a blend of ten malts and a shuck load of Okeover Organic Oysters farmed by Andre and Chris in the pristine waters of Okeover Inlet, Desolation sound
Charles Dickens used the churchyard of St James' Church as his inspiration in the opening chapter of Great Expectations, where the hero Pip meets Magwitch the convict. The site - on the Hoo Peninsula with marshes stretching north to the Thames estuary, is dramatically desolate and bleak in winter, recalling the sinister opening scene in David Lean's 1946 film of the book.
Here, you can find what have become known as Pip's Graves - the forlorn gravestones of 13 babies that Dickens describes in the chapter as "little stone lozenges each about a foot and a half long, which were arranged in a neat row beside their [parents'] graves".
Inside, the church is light and spacious. There is a 500-year-old timber door that still swings on its ancient hinges - even though it now leads to a blocked north doorway! Another quirky feature is the 19th-century vestry - its walls are lined from top to bottom with thousands of cockle shells - the emblem of St James.
The monuments in the church walls and floor are a fascinating record of those who once lived here. They include a slab with a brass effigy of Feyth Brook, who died in 1508 and was the wife of Lord Cobham, of nearby Cooling Castle.
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St James' Church dates from the late 13th century. No evidence of an earlier building survives. It seems likely that the de Cobham family, who held the manor from 1241, were instrumental in its construction. The nave, chancel and the lower part of the tower were part of the initial building phase stretching into the 14th century. The tower was completed to the height at which it now stands by about 1400.
St James' Church seems to have been little altered until the 19th century, when there was a sustained burst of activity in and around the church. The vestry was built onto the south wall, and the porch took on its present appearance. There was also a new pine reading desk, banners for the altar, carpets for the chancel, pulpit stairs and altar kneelers. In the space of a few years, the church was thoroughly renovated.
he church itself is built of a characteristic Kentish mixture of ragstone and flint, with a variety of other stone, including chalk, also to be seen. The tower was probably the final part of the church to be completed, at the end of the 14th century.
The small stone lean-to structure on the south wall is the 19th century vestry. The interior walls of the vestry are covered from floor to ceiling in the most unusual, yet appropriate form of decoration; they are lined with hundreds of cockle shells, mounted here in the 19th century. This shell was worn as an emblem by pilgrims to one of the most renowned holy sites in Western Europe, the shrine at Santiago de Compostela of St James - the patron saint of Cooling church.
The porch over the current entrance was also rebuilt in the 19th century, after many hundreds of years during which access to the church was through a porch over the north door, which is now blocked up. Inside the church, the large north door is still swinging on its hinges before its blocked-up doorway! Although this north door has not been in use for many years, its construction of braced panels, long hinge arms and huge lock make it an intriguing survivor.
There are six heavily-worn benches inside the church at the west end; these are possibly the original furniture dating back to the 14th century (the other benches inside the church were replaced in 1869).
Halfway between the north and south doors stands the 13th-century font, perhaps the oldest unaltered feature of the church.
The nave gangway is paved with four memorial slabs, one plain and uninscribed, the others of some interest. The first has a brass inscription to a man called Thomas Woodycare, who died in 1611; the second has no brass but only the recess where the plates have been lost, revealing the absence of four figures, an inscription and perhaps a badge. The final memorial displays both an inscription and a brass figure, of Feyth Brook, the wife of John Brook, Lord Cobham, who died in 1508.
St James' Church is well known for its association with Charles Dickens, who lived nearby in Higham, and who is thought to have set the opening to Great Expectations in its churchyard, complete with the row of children's tombstones now inevitably referred to as Pip's graves.
Dickens pictures them as '....five little stone lozenges each about a foot and a half long which were arranged in a neat row ... and were sacred to the memory of five little brothers of mine....'
In fact the Cooling graves belong to the children of two families, aged between 1 month and about a year and a half, who died in the late 18th and 19th centuries.
It is impossible to stand in the churchyard and not feel the impact of that 'dark, flat wilderness ... intersected with dykes and mounds and gates' and the 'distinct savage lair' of the sea (Great Expectations).
Creek inlet to Wrights Lake on the edge of Desolation Wilderness in the Sierra Nevada- fall is a beautiful and quiet time of year here, but before long it will all be blanketed in snow...
looks nice viewed on black, click here on black
Desolation Sound Aug 2008
Desolation Sound Aug 2008
desolation sound aug 2008
desolation sound aug 2008
Such a desolate landscape on the way to Alstrom Point, Utah. Nothing is growing here. The movie Planet Of The Apes was film here.
December 16th
Steam pools in Rotorua from my road-trip in New Zealand. It was raining. Same day as this photo.
I made a book like a travel log on this road trip, it's 94 pages and you can purchase it here: www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/580077?__r=185953
From The Canyon's Ninety-Nine 90 lift I snapped a photo of the Desolation Peak ridge line. Although this ridge is accessible from the resort, the normal danger and warnings of avalanches in the backcountry are presented before you enter over.
With just a few dozen lines taken as you see here, the snow was plenty deep enough and tracks untouched to make the extra hike over along the ridge certainly worth the work before I give up on my snowboarding season completely.
Milia beach, Skopelos island
Once cared for travellers while waiting for the bus, offering shade and rest..
Three models of Southern Pacific EMD power handle an eastbound train through the desolate terrain of Northern Nevada about 12 rail miles west of Carlin. The train is about to enter the Palisade Tunnels. In the background the train is crossing the Humbolt River. The other track is Union Pacific’s former Western Pacific line, but the two railroads shared the tracks with directional running. It’s all Union Pacific now, but BNSF utilizes trackage rights over the former WP.
Bedrock City, Arizona. The barber shop.
Located on a broad, flat, desolate plain to the south of the Grand Canyon, Bedrock City was built in 1972 (with a sister version near Mount Rushmore), as a combination kitschy tourist stop and campground. And aside from the garish, brightly-colored touch-up paint, the theme park is showing all of its thirty-plus years of the ravages of the harsh Arizona weather. A couple dozen squat, sturdy, shaped concrete buildings forming the town of Bedrock, with assorted kiddie rides, like a dinosaur slide and go-kart track. An interesting example of tourist-Americana of a bygone era, and equally amazing that it is still puttering along after all these years. For more information, see the Roadside America entry on Bedrock City. An absolute must-see if you're the kind of person to keep an eye out for the next Stuckey's on the side of the highway, or always on the lookout for the occasional Muffler Man.
Picture taken December 1, 2007. Photo #17 of 50 of my 'Bedrock City' photoset.
The Sutro Highlands.
I hosted a small workshop last month on the western edge of San Francisco - along the cypress trees and paths that lead visitors above and among the Sutro Baths. The baths were built by the eponymous mayor of San Franciso, who owned the nearby Cliff House (visible in the last photograph of this post). The baths eventually closed and the buildings burnt during demolition, their ruins now part of the Golden Gate Recreation Area managed by the U.S. Park Service.
The three of us spent about two to three hours walking from the hills, through groves of Cypress, down to the ruins, taking photographs and chatting. Some part of us was shocked that such a monumental structure would be allowed to simply rot here on what seems like valuable property. Perhaps another entrepreneur would have put something here had not the area been taken over by the NPS. In the end, the tranquility of the area overwhelmed us all and we stopped wondering why and focused on using these ruins to frame some beautiful photographs. Contrasting anthropic and natural textures within the frame is a simple and effective recipe for a good photograph and Sutro provides no shortage of opportunities.
This simple frame makes it look as though this image were taken at the end of the world, the last frayed finger of civilization turning to sand before the drumbeat of the waves. It's a quick study in how to compose to alter perception. Turn the camera a few degrees and you see the light pollution from and the buildings of a massive urban center, but, framed correctly, the illusion of isolation and desolation is complete, the end of the sidewalk crumbling in the foreground and the vast, empty and cold, blue sea beyond.
A few minutes earlier and the light was equally beautiful, but much more dramatic. There is a simplicity to making photographs after blue hour has set in, a simplicity I love. It lacks the thrill and pace of trying to immortalize a stunning but fragile sunset, but has all the serenity one can handle. The trick is to wait for the "right" part of blue hour, to wait when the Earth's shadow is deep enough to let through only the foreward scattered, shorter wavelengths of deep blue and violet. Here is an image from the same staircase before the sun had set.
We all learned (and I continue to learn) how quickly sea spray accumulates on the front element. I wished I had brought some glass cleaner and a few wipes with me, as my T-shirt was beginning to prove inadequate towards the end of the night. The wind was whipping chill and water and salt from the tips of the waves onto the glass of my 14mm faster than I could clean it off. Making these images became an exercise in compose, clean, cover and wait. I would get things set, clean the lens quickly, cover it with the lens cap and wait until the waves looked to be just right before quickly removing the cap and exposing before big drops of sea spray had ruined the frame. Here you can see the iconic bows of the Monterey Cypress along the highlands above the baths. The edges of the cliffs are bramble, radiant with small, yellow flowers and the sky in the background is shrouded in fog whipped like cream from California-current-cooled winds.
A few steps down the path and you get a wonderful view of the Marin headlands on the horizon and the setting sun. The two figures on the right, enjoying a peaceful moment together at the western edge of America, make this photograph for me.
An image of the Seal Rocks in the very last moments of twilight, a 3+ minute exposure. One of the things we spoke about during the workshop was how to remove everything you can that distracts from the frame. When you can't remove anything at all, you're done.
Finally, a view from the north of the Sutro Bath ruins - you can see Cliff House above. There is a fisherman down there on the edge of the baths and another photographer walking around somewhere in the frame.
Bedrock City, Arizona. The nurse's office.
Located on a broad, flat, desolate plain to the south of the Grand Canyon, Bedrock City was built in 1972 (with a sister version near Mount Rushmore), as a combination kitschy tourist stop and campground. And aside from the garish, brightly-colored touch-up paint, the theme park is showing all of its thirty-plus years of the ravages of the harsh Arizona weather. A couple dozen squat, sturdy, shaped concrete buildings forming the town of Bedrock, with assorted kiddie rides, like a dinosaur slide and go-kart track. An interesting example of tourist-Americana of a bygone era, and equally amazing that it is still puttering along after all these years. For more information, see the Roadside America entry on Bedrock City. An absolute must-see if you're the kind of person to keep an eye out for the next Stuckey's on the side of the highway, or always on the lookout for the occasional Muffler Man.
Picture taken December 1, 2007. Photo #39 of 50 of my 'Bedrock City' photoset.
The label on the back of this image says Damage of the A-Bomb at hiroshima city - View towards Shiro Shima District
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A series of Postcards and photographs from my Great Uncle taken at Hiroshima in late 1945 during his service with the Occupation forces.
Even now these images provide a stark reminder of the hell unleashed on that day and the power of Atomic Weapons. It would be easy to condemm Truman for unleashing this power but in war things are not always so clear cut. If images like these accomplish anything we can only hope its that this scene is never seen again.
The irony to me is the very existance of these postcards - I cant conceive of a time when someone, anyone, would want to send an image like this home to their family?
Was there a time when we were ever proud of images like these? God help us.
some of my sculptures in the show IT"S PAINTING SO IT MUST BE GERMAN at Silvershot, Flinders Lane, Melbourne.
made of papier mache, wood, wire, more paper, fabric and threads, etc.
More on desolation row at spectrescope.blogspot.com/
Catalog #: Iraq_01071
Collection: Edwin Newman Collection
Album #: AL38
Page #: 21
Picture on Page: 2
Description : Desolate and Barren
Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive
The Desolation Canyon Wilderness Area is a true crown jewel in Utah and all public lands managed by the BLM. It was one of the areas that was expanded due to the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act, signed into law on March 12, 2019 by President Trump.
The 84-mile segment of the Green River winds through pristine views of the towering Desolation and Gray Canyons. It is perfect for white water enthusiasts looking to glide through the very same vistas that none other than John Wesley Powell and his crew traversed 150 years ago. The Wilderness area has an extensive system of deep canyons and soaring walls including Rock Creek that is more than 1 mile deep. Desolation Canyon contains arches, pinnacles, and other erosional remnants not known to occur elsewhere in the Wasatch Formation in similar concentrations or settings.
Learn more about the Area: www.blm.gov/visit/desolation-canyon
Photo by Bob Wick, BLM.
Het ziet eruit als een verlaten gebied ergens in Rusland, maar deze omgevallen silo ligt toch echt in de uiterwaarden tussen Bemmel en Nijmegen. Hoe en waarom dit ding hier zo lag ben ik wel benieuwd naar.
Bemmel, Nederland
It looks like a deserted place somewhere in Russia, but this silo is really in the floodplain between Bemmel and the city of Nijmegen. I don't know how and why this thing is laying there, but I'm a bit curious.
Bemmel, The Netherlands