This mama is clearly ready to give birth at any moment.

Dark turquoise is a very cool Lego color. Don't expect any more of these, but it was quite a worthwhile challenge to pull this off. A couple of liberties were taken, but overall the color scheme and build are true to the original. It does work on Lego track, but I didn't build the trucks to meter gauge scale yet. That would require me to build my own track and I haven't decided to do that so far. The pilot stairs are connected to the trucks in this version.

 

The original.

I know most of you propably expected more from this vid, but this was a rushjob. Started at 6 in the evening, finished before midnight. And now I'm pretty much dead. It's for Lowlug's Star Wars contest. Look at the other entries here: www.flickr.com/groups/1488573@N25/

His life, his being, his soul.... is greatness.

He is my air and God's gift to me. He is my Satire.

A bit of rough-around-the-edges flash photography with delightful fortysomething redhead Hanneke, now caught in black and white mode, expecting some good work by the photographer while posing somewhere in the heart of Amsterdam.

My beautiful wife expecting our baby boy! <3

Canon EOS 350D

Isco-Gottingen Berolina Westromat 135mm f:3.5

Time for another much anticipated Movie Night, and as expected, Stormtrooper Bruce is still watching the P’s nephew while his parents are away; and keeping things fun and interesting is still a challenge. But now STB, the guys and even said nephew can relax, unwind and have a bit of fun.

 

TK-432: So glad we could make it, it’s been a long month this week! And I see you still have a little guest. So, hello little dude, what’s your name tonight?

 

PP: Hello again! It's so nice to see you two! I’m still practicing my manners when I can. I was hoping you would show up tonight accause I have gifts for you two! You’re so funny, I just got your joke. Oh, and tonight my name is Ping Pong!

 

TK-1110: Hello, Ping Pong! What a fun name. You have a gift for us? What a coincidence, since we brought you a gift for your Christmas in July, but you have to wait to open it.

 

STB: Well this IS a coincidence, since I sneaked a gift under the tree for Ping Pong this morning – for later, too. However, his gifts are for now. Ping Pong, I think it’s time for Show and Tell.

 

PP: Okie Dokie Unka Dude. I’ve been practicing what to say accause I get nervous making public speeches, but here goes. When we had our Drive-In you mentioned how uncomfortable it was sitting on those car seats. Well, this week, Unka Dude has been teaching me Arts & Crafts, so I cided to make us all cushions to sit on. No more ouchy cabooses!

 

TK-432: Well, this is an unexpected surprise. I, for one, love the idea. My very own cushion? Why, thank you Ping Pong!

 

STB: And – being the master of survival skills that I am, I deduced how Troopers with cushions on transports could be um, unsafe. So, I’ll store them here, so they won’t get “lost.” And, you can enjoy them for ever and ever.

 

TK-1110: Dude, I find your ability to foresee the future impressive. If the other Troopers saw us carrying these they’d …, we’d ..., well, never mind. And thank you Ping Pong for this most unexpected gift. You did a great job!

 

STB: Yes, well, let’s just say what happens in my quarters stays in my quarters. And having said that, lets get this Movie Night started. We’re going to have a great week tonight!

 

Ping Pong: Wowzer Unka Dude! Gifts, grub and movies, I never spected the unexpected could be so fun! Where’s my camera?

 

________________________________________

Viewing Large is always fu. Just click on the image.

Model Liiz Meza

CN L516 rolls through Griffith, Indiana with a surprise lash up of classic EMD power, with an ex-MoPac SD40-2 in charge.

The "golden" mountain of Drápuhlíð in Snæfellsnes is covered with ice but rain is coming from the south and the clouds are piling up on the Snæfellsnes ridge

Note: this photo was published in a Nov 2, 2011 issue of Everyblock Los Angeles zipcodes blog titled "90012."

 

**************************************

 

After visiting the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protest gathering in Zuccotti Park last week (which you can see in this Flickr site), I thought I would have a good idea of what to expect when I decided to visit the Occupy Los Angeles gathering outside City Hall in Los Angeles early Saturday morning. And to some extent, I was right: the protest was still focused on the excesses of the richest and most powerful 1% of the population, as well as corruption and paralysis in Washington.

 

But New York and Los Angeles are obviously on opposite sides of the country -- and in some respects, the two protests were completely different. It was already pleasantly warm when I showed up at 8:30 in the morning, and the previous evening had been seasonably mild; by contrast, it wet and freezing cold in New York City, with the earliest snow-fall in over 150 years making life somewhat miserable for the hundreds of shivering protesters who squatted under a long blue tarp that had been stretched over the food kitchen.

 

The mild weather may explain the first visible difference that I saw between the two "occupy" gatherings: there were many more tents in Los Angeles, each one seeming to hold three or four people who were just beginning to poke their heads out, sniffing the air for the presence of coffee or food that they could use to break their overnight fast. There was no need for heavy coats or hats or mittens; all I saw in Los Angeles was a few sweaters and light jackets. A visitor to my Flickr site jokingly asked why I had not photographed one of the (female) protesters in a topless outfit, and why none of the people were nude. Well, if that was going to happen, it would have happened in Los Angeles, not New York; and as for Los Angeles, the most extreme clothing I saw was one woman wearing a fairly un-revealing bikini top. Hardly the stuff of Woodstock; so much for the idea of sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll at these gatherings.

 

Speaking of rock-n-roll: there was none. But in Los Angeles, there were a lot more people with guitars. And mandolins, and fiddles, and even someone with a flute. Some of them played quietly, for their own amusement; but several of them drifted together beneath a statue that led up the stairs to the front entrance of City Hall, and jammed extemporaneously, with several simple, but enjoyable songs. I video-recorded several of these musical efforts, and I'll combine all of them together into a "composite" music-video on YouTube.

 

Another difference between Los Angeles and New YOrk involved the presence of cameras. Quite simply, there were many more in New York, and while I did not see any major-media journalists or reporters, there did seem to be a number of quasi-professional independent journalists who were not only photographing and recording everything they could see, but also interviewing everyone who looked interesting. Not so, in Los Angeles; yes, there were a few people with video cameras and DSLR still cameras (including me), but I only saw one or two interviews taking place. Ironically, I was one of the people interviewed: an earnest young man told me he was taking a class that required him to interview photographers at the protest gathering, and he wanted to know what I thought of the whole scene.

 

So I told him, in a summary fashion, what I had already written in the notes accompanying my OWS Flickr set, and I told him that I thought the Los Angeles gathering was quieter, with less energy, and more people just wandering around somewhat aimlessly. There were no speeches, there was no shouting, and there was almost no police presence. I did see two cops standing at the top of the stairs leading to the front entrance of of City Hall, but they vanished about half an hour after I arrived.

 

One last note, which may strike some readers as biased or unfair -- but I saw what I saw: several people wandered down the various sidewalks leading out of City Hall Park ... and then returned via the same sidewalks, ten or fifteen minutes later, carrying a large cup of Starbucks coffee. The revolution, it seems, runs on Starbucks.

 

That's when I began focusing on the clothing worn by the protesters. As noted above, it was obviously much warmer than it was in New York City, so perhaps I should not have been surprised to see half a dozen or more people wandering around barefoot. But the other thing that struck me was how carefully several of the people were dressed, and how much attention they seemed to have spent to make their physical appearance look appropriately fashionable, while simultaneously being disheveled and hippy. Like I said, I might be biased: you can look at the pictures and judge for yourself.

 

I spent more time here than I did in New York -- roughly three hours before I decided that I had seen everything there was to see. But as a result, I got a lot more pictures - some 700+ still pictures, and a dozen video clips. I've winnowed it down, as best I could, to 200 keepers. Enjoy!

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Did not expect to see an MPD still operational under the Arriva Buses Wales books. The first examples were introduced to Llandudno Junction depot in June 1999 and, well, might as well eke another six months out of LJ51 DDF (921) so the once perennial staples of the North Walian roads can celebrate a 20 year association with the welsh based chapter of the Arriva corporation. Pertaining to Bangor specifically, I think the year 2000 was when an MPD trod its wheels for the first time around the bustling 'Cloc' terminus and 18 years into the future, 921 was caught in the subsiding rainfall on a wholly miserable day. The service is the Bangor circular, taking in the Maesgeirchen estate and Tesco in the industrial park.

 

19th December 2018.

Did a camera upgrade yesterday, and am now working through the settings. I've done Fuji -> Fuji -> Fuji to this one (also a Fuji), and although the menu system has been consistent through the previous ones, they've replaced menu settings with buttons, so expect a load of crap until I've got my head around it all :)

 

33896 - SN14 TRV

Alexander Dennis E40D, ADL Enviro 400 (H45/29F)

First Solent (HD)

Queen Street, Portsmouth

08 June 2016

Not expecting to see more young Grebes at Westport I'd left the big lens and tripod at home! Doh..

 

Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve and Visitor Centre. 15/08/2019

 

www.staffs-wildlife.org.uk/explore/our-visitor-centres/we...

I wasn't expecting it to have rained overnight but as it hadn't done for quite a while I knew the mixture of warmth, humid air and rain would send my garden into overdrive and mother nature too.

 

Went thorn hunting in the park again and already it was full up with dog walkers, push chairs and expectant wedding guests at the Ashton memorial.

 

Whilst heading towards the giant chamelia we found a couple more laurel bushes so I took a twig in case I decided to repeat the theme of yesterday, in anticipation of that company I mentioned yesterday wanting some images.

 

While we were there two boys came over to us, they were probably 8 or so, and said "there's a dead bird over there."

 

They looked worried.

 

"Is it a blackbird?" I said.

 

"It's black and white" they replied.

 

I wandered over to have a look at it was a juvenile magpie and it had probably been there a while. I told them that and then said that a fox will probably scavenge it and they shouldn't worry.

 

"A fox in here?" one of the exclaimed.

 

"There's only one thing for it" he shouted "run!"

 

And off they went making a very loud aeroplane noises.

 

I felt as excitable as they did as the maples had started to reveal new leaves and soon the pallete available to me would be huge.

 

We went back home and then onto the University campus as I wanted a good stretch of water to experiment with reflections.

 

Down by the lake a lot of work had been done: the lake had been extended, a station for barbecues replete with hobs, taps and bins has been set up, it looked an effort to reduce the burnt patches on the grass, the scattered beer cans, disposable barbecues and general waste. This intention had only been partially successful and the rubbish was now festooned around the barbecue station. overflowing out of the bins, in the lake and all around that area. The amount of rubbish in and around the lake was a real shocker and I tempted to go down there and clean it up myself but I am sure 20,000 students should be able to organise something! Or perhaps not.

 

Two groups of ducklings were present, one lot older and twice the size of the other. The youngest group numbered fifteen ducklings and they were the cutest of the cute. Like little motorboats zooming over the water and everytime they went on a excursion the big daddy goose ensured they were protected which was quite interesting to see. Obviously he was not their father but he guarded them wherever they went.

 

Later a white duck was desperately trying to get its end away with the mallard mother of the older ducklings. He was extremely rampant in his advances and the poor female was extremely distressed. Soon 10 or so mallard males joined in and tried to attack the white male, whilst the ducklings scattered. I could see why the big daddy goose wanted to protect them, they are some unruly characters amongst the coots, chickens, geese and ducks that live on that pond.

 

Three young lads were checking out the bird life and the eldest threw stones at the ducklings and got a ticking off from me. So he then started throwing them at the three territorial geese that had chased and hissed at me when I arrived (to everyone's amusement), so I thought twice before ticking him off again but of course I did anyway!

 

They came over to me and asked what I was doing, "making a sculpture" I said.

 

"What's a sculpture?"

 

"It is art made out of something like wood or stone or plasticine"

 

This piece of information was met with more aeroplane noises and running away. I have that effect on most people.

 

After we had been there a while several more barbecues had been lit, not one of them at the barbecue station and all around the field smoke billowed and individual piles of rubbish grew. But of course as we all know fairies/goblins/imaginary friends etc pick up litter so it is fine to chuck whatever you have wherever you want.

 

No-one except the aeroplane boys came to see what we were doing, the only visitors were an endless supply of pond scum, lily pads, weed and catkins all of which I didn't want in my shot. Each time I waded back into the water I sunk a little lower into the mud and the water nearly reached the top of my wellies.

 

But the more I do this, make sculptures and photograph them somewhere especially in public, the more I don't care what people think. That oft quoted Andy Goldsworthy line (that he said when handling ice in sub zero temps) "good art keeps you warm" isn't apt on a warm spring day. I prefer "my art means I don't care whether you think I am a weirdo."

 

This attitude comes in very handy standing in ponds, retrieving thorns from the middle of bushes and going everywhere with a plastic bag of leaves.

 

What won't be evident to you in these pictures is what I experienced with reflections. Through photography you pick out a moment in time, captured in an image. That snapshot can be a millisecond or several minutes. The ripples and reflections of the water left me mesmerised, each moment captured within my camera. I've decided to purchase a pair of waders and I think I will spend a lot more time standing in water, fighting off geese and being mesmerised by the water's surface all around me. Now is that weird?!

 

It wasn't over yet, there was more thing thign of weirdness to encounter. 'The tale of the bumless chicken.'

 

Whether he had had an accident or was born like I don't know but despite my amusement he wasn't so amused at my attempts to get a blurry shot of his missing bottom! It isn't nice to mock (or photograph) the afflicted! So I left him alone and went home.

  

I bet eDDie was not expecting the truly curious along the old Wild Basin cut off loop. Wild Basin is now one of the more serene spots in the Rockies and there we found old logging equipment and this freakish specimen. It might have been the best old Wild Basin Inn's tourist draw when all traffic had to drive past Jasper's den across from the inn. It is a bit overgrown now. It has accumulated a lot of moss over the years, but then, so did Jasper!

 

On that day, we back tracked around the loop past the new Wild Basin Inn that is now primarily a wedding and event destination. As a sprat, I could access the Park with a quick walk from my grannies cabin and the old Matlack cabin, just east of the inn. Jim Coolihan built the original Wild Basin Inn on the north side of the road, across from the new Lodge. The big old lodge was often called a "buffalo barn." Jim also moved and built onto the old Copeland Lake ice house, turning it into my grannies cabin. It had no insulation on the roof of the main room and summer showers were always great to hear on the roof.

 

I knew Jim Coolihan; a true mountain man and builder, constructed St.Catherine's and the original Wild Basin Lodge, now gone to a probable insurance fire. It is claimed Jim had a still up behind the original lodge, hic. I hope the Catholics had a barrel of holy water to bless St.Catherine's; I am sure a lot would have boiled off. I'll bet the Catholics beat a wide berth around Jim and his mouth. I did too! He was an original mountain man and jack-off-all-trades. He had a walk like the Doh Dah man and a hell of a stride per step. I always got a kick from watching my cousins striding around behind him like goose and gooselings.

 

One of the curiosities of the old Wild Basin Inn was the early 50s bear den constructed across the road, here by the saw and that was another curiosity for eDDie who said there were a lot of bones inside. I said that considering the diet of the black bear cub, they were probably all chicken bones. I bet his diet was atrocious with folks stuffing anything through the chain link fence. They say the bear came over the mountain to see what he could see but I think I will fix the door on my camper before a bear chews on my feets. Could be the ghost of Jasper the cub.

  

Expect four days of heavy rain--that was the weather forecast. It was accurate for the first day. Yesterday, the second day, the weather vacillated between a sort of lazy drizzle and scattered cloudiness. In case the rest of the forecast was accurate, I decided to take a short walk along the creek during one of the less cloudy periods.

 

I had an unpleasant moment with a feral cat, saw a pair of deer looking at me with that 'who invited you' look, watched a brace of Canada Geese make a hash of landing in the creek, got lots of mud on my shoes, and made it back to the house just as the rain began again. I call that a successful walk.

Really wasn't expecting to find this in the countrytside!, and this was the best I could do without trespassing and was taken through an open gate, and this vehicle is now used by Vinson Farms to transport farm workers around Graveney and Faversham, and came to this area from YMS Travel of Aylesham near Canterbury, back in April 2017!

 

And be sure to check by my other acount: www.flickr.com/photos_user.gne?path=&nsid=77145939%40..., to see what else I saw Last Week!!

 

Yes I'm back again.

However due to my main computer on which I edit my work being struck down with a big bad virus, this picture and all the others I am uploading, were Unedited but have now been replaced with Edited versions. So enjoy and Thanks for your patience and understanding.

 

I do still hate everything about this shit that is new Flickr and always will, but an inability to find another outlet for my work that is as easy for me to use as the Old BETTER Flickr was, has forced me back to Flickr, even though it goes against everything I believe in.

 

I don't generally have an opinion on my own work, I prefer to leave that to other people and so based on the positive responses to my work from the various friends I had made on Flickr prior to the changes I have decided to upload some more of my work as an experiment and to see what happens.

 

So make the most of me before they delete my acount: www.flickr.com/photos/69558134@N05/?details=1, to stop me complaining!!

Bradford, PA. September 2020.

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If you would like to use THIS picture in any sort of media elsewhere (such as newspaper or article), please send me a Flickrmail or send me an email at natehenderson6@gmail.com

With high tides expected on the Dawlish Sea Wall stretch of line, down CrossCountry services were terminated at Exeter St Davids on the evening of Monday 3rd October 2016 due to the Voyager unit's well publicised dislike of salt water!

 

In this view 221140 and 220001 share platform 5 at Exeter St Davids before coupling to form an ECS which departed once high tide had passed.

A1(M) Bramham 21/04/2021

That first turn, i expect my stomach to do cartwheels and to get into a fistfight with the urge to throw up everywhere. My adrenaline spikes thinking of what’s about to happen, which makes what actually happens a glorious surprise, because we don’t lurch to a stop or encounter a nauseating change in altitude.

 

What we do, instead, is drift around the corner, the tires burning and squealing, I’m feeling the soreness in my right forearm two days later, holding onto that little strap comes from the roof, it’s keeping me in my seat, I’m elated, I’ve never done THIS in a car before, except for that one time in an ambulance and that was terrifying because it was raining and not on purpose and I had zero control of the vehicle and it’s a miracle we didn’t crash into anyone.

 

Whereas here, this drift is actually On Purpose.

 

Shea had invited me a month ago, right after he’d posted some photos from a drift event. I’d seen the Fast & Furious movies, I like driving fast, he said I could come through if I wanted, and it sounded like fun, something different. I’d take pictures, it’d be low-intensity.

 

Instead it's an addictive rush, struggling to take Good photos while also making sure I don't get whipped around the inside of the vehicle, trying out different cameras, stuffing them under my butt when it was time to switch, don't want to destroy these little antiques, also have to figure out what to DO with Polaroids, not even sure they won't get sucked out of the window with every exposure.

 

(I'm saving those for Polaroid week, they're coming, they're coming soon)

 

I occasionally hear a cackling while we're on the track, a laugh of unbridled joy...only to realize that's my cackle, that's my laugh.

Wasn't expecting to see this in Dover today, and this Newly Aquried ex Wiltshire Faresavers Buses vehicle is now with Crosskeys Coaches of Cheriton in Folkestone, and was seen at Dover Eastern Docks on their P&O Ferries Passenger Shuttle Bus Contract that Crosskeys has been running since 2021, and may be a replacement for their Streetlite Bus MX62GXZ which I had previously seen in use here.

 

And be sure to check by my other acount: www.flickr.com/photos_user.gne?path=&nsid=77145939%40..., to see what else I saw 2 Weeks Ago!!

Was expecting a bit more of a train to fill up the scene here along Highway 14 on the west side of Auburn. Add a caboose to this M527 and it looks like it would be ready pop out of the Lionel box to run around the Christmas tree!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_heron

  

The grey heron (Ardea cinerea) is a long-legged predatory wading bird of the heron family, Ardeidae, native throughout temperate Europe and Asia and also parts of Africa. It is resident in much of its range, but some populations from the more northern parts migrate southwards in autumn. A bird of wetland areas, it can be seen around lakes, rivers, ponds, marshes and on the sea coast. It feeds mostly on aquatic creatures which it catches after standing stationary beside or in the water or stalking its prey through the shallows.

 

Standing up to a metre tall, adults weigh from 1 to 2 kg (2.2 to 4.4 lb). They have a white head and neck with a broad black stripe that extends from the eye to the black crest. The body and wings are grey above and the underparts are greyish-white, with some black on the flanks. The long, sharply pointed beak is pinkish-yellow and the legs are brown.

 

The birds breed colonially in spring in "heronries", usually building their nests high in trees. A clutch of usually three to five bluish-green eggs is laid. Both birds incubate the eggs for a period of about 25 days, and then both feed the chicks, which fledge when seven or eight weeks old. Many juveniles do not survive their first winter, but if they do, they can expect to live for about five years.

 

In Ancient Egypt, the deity Bennu was depicted as a heron in New Kingdom artwork. In Ancient Rome, the heron was a bird of divination. Roast heron was once a specially-prized dish; when George Neville became Archbishop of York in 1465, four hundred herons were served to the guests.

  

Description

  

The grey heron is a large bird, standing up to 100 cm (39 in) tall and measuring 84–102 cm (33–40 in) long with a 155–195 cm (61–77 in) wingspan.[2] The body weight can range from 1.02–2.08 kg (2.2–4.6 lb).[3] The plumage is largely ashy-grey above, and greyish-white below with some black on the flanks. Adults have the head and neck white with a broad black supercilium that terminates in the slender, dangling crest, and bluish-black streaks on the front of the neck. The scapular feathers are elongated and the feathers at the base of the neck are also somewhat elongated. Immature birds lack the dark stripe on the head and are generally duller in appearance than adults, with a grey head and neck, and a small, dark grey crest. The pinkish-yellow beak is long, straight and powerful, and is brighter in colour in breeding adults. The iris is yellow and the legs are brown and very long.[4]

 

The main call is a loud croaking "fraaank", but a variety of guttural and raucous noises are heard at the breeding colony. The male uses an advertisement call to encourage a female to join him at the nest, and both sexes use various greeting calls after a pair bond has been established. A loud, harsh "schaah" is used by the male in driving other birds from the vicinity of the nest and a soft "gogogo" expresses anxiety, as when a predator is nearby or a human walks past the colony. The chicks utter loud chattering or ticking noises.[4]

  

Taxonomy and evolution

  

Herons are a fairly ancient lineage and first appeared in the fossil record in the Paleogene period; very few fossil herons have been found however. By seven million years ago (the late Miocene), birds closely resembling modern forms and attributable to modern genera had appeared.[5]

 

Herons are members of the family Ardeidae, and the majority of extant species are in the subfamily Ardeinae and known as true or typical herons. This subfamily includes the herons and egrets, the green herons, the pond herons, the night herons and a few other species. The grey heron belongs in this subfamily and is placed in the genus Ardea, which also includes the cattle egret and the great egret.[5] The grey heron was first described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus who gave it the name Ardea cinerea. The scientific name comes from Latin ardea "heron", and cinerea , "ash-grey" (from cineris ashes).[6]

 

Four subspecies are recognised:[7]

 

A. c. cinerea – Linnaeus, 1758: nominate, found in Europe, Africa, western Asia

A. c. jouyi – Clark, 1907: found in eastern Asia

A. c. firasa – Hartert, 1917: found in Madagascar

A. c. monicae – Jouanin & Roux, 1963: found on islands off Banc d'Arguin, Mauritania.

It is closely related and similar to the North American great blue heron (Ardea herodias), which differs in being larger, and having chestnut-brown flanks and thighs, and to the cocoi heron (Ardea cocoi) from South America that forms a superspecies with. Some authorities believe that the subspecies A. c. monicae should be considered a separate species.[8] It has been known to hybridise with the great egret (Ardea alba), the little egret (Egretta garzetta), the great blue heron and the purple heron (Ardea purpurea).[9] The Australian white-faced heron is often incorrectly called a grey heron.[10] In Ireland, the grey heron is often colloquially called a "crane".[11]

  

Distribution and habitat

  

The grey heron has an extensive range throughout most of the Palearctic ecozone. The range of the nominate subspecies A. c. cinerea extends to 70° North in Norway and 66° North in Sweden, but otherwise its northerly limit is around 60° North across the rest of Europe and Asia eastwards as far as the Ural Mountains. To the south, its range extends to northern Spain, France, central Italy, the Balkans, the Caucasus, Iraq, Iran, India and Myanmar (Burma). It is also present in Africa south of the Sahara Desert, the Canary Islands, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and many of the Mediterranean Islands. It is replaced by A. c. jouyi in eastern Siberia, Mongolia, eastern China, Hainan, Japan and Taiwan. In Madagascar and the Aldabra Islands, the subspecies A. c. firasa is found, while the subspecies A. c. monicae is restricted to Mauritania and offshore islands.[4]

 

Over much of its range, the grey heron is resident, but birds from the more northerly parts of Europe migrate southwards, some remaining in central and southern Europe, others travelling on to Africa south of the Sahara Desert.[4]

 

Within its range, the grey heron can be found anywhere with suitable watery habitat that can supply its food. The water body needs to be either shallow enough, or have a shelving margin in which it can wade. Although most common in the lowlands it also occurs in mountain tarns, lakes, reservoirs, large and small rivers, marshes, ponds, ditches, flooded areas, coastal lagoons, estuaries and the sea shore. It sometimes forages away from water in pasture, and it has been recorded in desert areas, hunting for beetles and lizards. Breeding colonies are usually near feeding areas but exceptionally may be up to 8 kilometres (5 mi) away, and birds sometimes forage as much as 20 kilometres (12 mi) from the nesting site.[4]

  

Behavior

  

The grey heron has a slow flight, with its long neck retracted (S-shaped). This is characteristic of herons and bitterns, and distinguishes them from storks, cranes, and spoonbills, which extend their necks.[4] It flies with slow wing-beats and sometimes glides for short distances. It sometimes soars, circling to considerable heights, but not as often as the stork. In spring, and occasionally in autumn, birds may soar high above the heronry and chase each other, undertake aerial manoeuvres or swoop down towards the ground. The birds often perch in trees, but spend much time on the ground, striding about or standing still for long periods with an upright stance, often on a single leg.[4]

  

Diet and feeding

  

Fish, amphibians, small mammals and insects are taken in shallow water with the heron's long bill. It has also been observed catching and killing juvenile birds such as ducklings, and occasionally takes birds up to the size of a water rail.[12] It may stand motionless in the shallows, or on a rock or sandbank beside the water, waiting for prey to come within striking distance. Alternatively, it moves slowly and stealthily through the water with its body less upright than when at rest and its neck curved in an "S". It is able to straighten its neck and strike with its bill very fast.[4]

 

Small fish are swallowed head first, and larger prey and eels are carried to the shore where they are subdued by being beaten on the ground or stabbed by the bill. They are then swallowed, or have hunks of flesh torn off. For avian prey such as small birds and ducklings, the prey is held by the neck and either suffocated or killed by having its neck snapped with the heron's beak, before being swallowed whole. The bird regurgitates pellets of indigestible material such as fur, bones and the chitinous remains of insects. The main periods of hunting are around dawn and dusk, but it is also active at other times of day. At night it roosts in trees or on cliffs, where it tends to be gregarious.

  

Breeding

  

This species breeds in colonies known as heronries, usually in high trees close to lakes, the seashore or other wetlands. Other sites are sometimes chosen, and these include low trees and bushes, bramble patches, reed beds, heather clumps and cliff ledges. The same nest is used year after year until blown down; it starts as a small platform of sticks but expands into a bulky nest as more material is added in subsequent years. It may be lined with smaller twigs, strands of root or dead grasses, and in reed beds, it is built from dead reeds. The male usually collects the material while the female constructs the nest. Breeding activities take place between February and June. When a bird arrives at the nest, a greeting ceremony occurs in which each partner raises and lowers its wings and plumes.[11] In continental Europe, and elsewhere, nesting colonies sometimes include nests of the purple heron and other heron species.[4]

  

Building nest

  

Courtship involves the male calling from the chosen nesting site. On the arrival of the female, both birds participate in a stretching ceremony, in which each bird extends its neck vertically before bringing it backwards and downwards with the bill remaining vertical, simultaneously flexing its legs, before returning to its normal stance. The snapping ceremony is another behaviour where the neck is extended forward, the head is lowered to the level of the feet and the mandibles are vigorously snapped together. This may be repeated twenty to forty times. When the pairing is settled, the birds may caress each other by attending to the other bird's plumage. The male may then offer the female a stick which she incorporates into the nest. At this, the male becomes excited, further preening the female and copulation takes place.[4]

  

The clutch of eggs usually numbers three to five, though as few as two and as many as seven eggs have been recorded. The eggs have a matt surface and are greenish-blue, averaging 60 mm × 43 mm (2.36 in × 1.69 in). The eggs are normally laid at two-day intervals and incubation usually starts after the first or second egg has been laid. Both birds take part in incubation and the period lasts for about twenty-five days. Both parents bring food for the young. At first the chicks seize the adult's bill from the side and extract regurgitated food from it. Later the adult disgorges the food at the nest and the chicks squabble for possession. They fledge at seven to eight weeks. There is usually a single generation each year, but two broods have been recorded.[4]

 

The oldest recorded bird lived for twenty-three years but the average life expectancy in the wild is about five years. Only about a third of juveniles survive into their second year, many falling victim to predation.[11]

  

City life

  

Grey herons have the ability to live in cities where habitats and nesting space are available. In the Netherlands, the grey heron has established itself over the past decades in great numbers in urban environments. In cities such as Amsterdam, they are ever present and well adapted to modern city life. They hunt as usual, but also visit street markets and snackbars. Some individuals make use of people feeding them at their homes or share the catch of recreational fishermen. Similar behaviour on a smaller scale has been reported in Ireland.[13] Garden ponds stocked with ornamental fish are attractive to herons, and may provide young birds with a learning opportunity on how to catch easy prey.[14]

 

Herons have been observed visiting water enclosures in zoos, such as spaces for penguins, otters, pelicans, and seals, and taking food meant for the animals on display.[15][16][17][18]

  

Predators and parasites

  

Being large birds with powerful beaks, grey herons have few predators as adults, but the eggs and young are more vulnerable. The adult birds do not usually leave the nest unattended, but may be lured away by marauding crows or kites.[19] A dead grey heron found in the Pyrenees is thought to have been killed by an otter. The bird may have been weakened by harsh winter weather causing scarcity of its prey.[20]

 

A study performed by Sitko and Heneberg in the Czech Republic between 1962 and 2013 suggested that central European grey herons host 29 species of parasitic worms. The dominant species consisted of Apharyngostrigea cornu (67% prevalence), Posthodiplostomum cuticola (41% prevalence), Echinochasmus beleocephalus (39% prevalence), Uroproctepisthmium bursicola (36% prevalence), Neogryporhynchus cheilancristrotus (31% prevalence), Desmidocercella numidica (29% prevalence) and Bilharziella polonica (5% prevalence). Juvenile grey herons were shown to host fewer species, but the intensity of infection was higher in the juveniles than in the adult herons. Of the digenean flatworms found in central European grey herons, 52% of the species likely infected their definitive hosts outside central Europe itself, in the pre-migratory, migratory, or wintering quarters, despite the fact that a substantial proportion of grey herons do not migrate to the south.[21]

  

In human culture

  

"The Heron. Common Heron, Heronsewgh, or Heronshaw. (Ardea cinerea, Lath.—Héron cendré, Temm.)" wood engraving by Thomas Bewick in his History of British Birds, volume 2, 1804

In Ancient Egypt, the bird deity Bennu, associated with the sun, creation, and rebirth, was depicted as a heron in New Kingdom artwork.[22]

 

In Ancient Rome, the heron was a bird of divination that gave an augury (sign of a coming event) by its call, like the raven, stork, and owl.[23]

 

Roast heron was once a specially-prized dish in Britain for special occasions such as state banquets. For the appointment of George Neville as Archbishop of York in 1465, four hundred herons were served to the guests. Young birds were still being shot and eaten in Romney Marsh in 1896. Two grey herons feature in a stained glass window of the church in Selborne, Hampshire.[24]

 

The English surnames Earnshaw, Hernshaw, Herne, and Heron all derive from the heron, the suffix -shaw meaning a wood, referring to a place where herons nested.

© abeephotoos

 

© All rights reserved. Use without permission is illegal

 

as in 'nobody expects...' I was certainly not expecting to find a mature Bolete on a roastingly hot day on top of a chalk hillside in Oxfordshire in the middle of summer, but there it was, or rather there were two, where I had been hoping to find a frog orchid or two... If anyone can narrow down the species that would be much appreciated : ) Update, Lurid Bolete, many thanks Chris(s)!!

I expect all you Tubologists will know much more about this antique bit of kit than me. I've always noticed it when using Epping station and idly thought of trying to get a snap. Unfortunately it stands on the other side of a wire mesh fence from the station car park and the mesh is of exactly that annoying gauge that is just too small to point a camera's lens through. The other day I made a point of parking the Bentosmobile as close as possible so that I could have a good nose. A chap appeared and unlocked a gate in the fence. I thought of dashing down and asking if I could get a shot from the open gate, but chickened out.

Returning in the afternoon I saw that there were now three or four blokes on the opposite side of the fence. One emerged and went to the boot of his car, which was parked next to mine. Life rarely sends a second chance so, egged on by Mrs B, I diffidently approached and asked if I could get my photo. Well, of course, he couldn't have been nicer about it. If I didn't mind wearing his spare hi-viz ..."the drivers'll report it if they see you without one"... he'd take me in and show me around. As I understood it this is a locomotive formed by welding together two motor compartments from tube stock of 1930ish date. It's rather like the working ends of a train without the passenger accommodation in between. The two halves were united in 1964 and the locomotive used for shunting in Acton Yard. The blokes I met were now restoring it ...presumably in their own time, this being a Sunday afternoon. There's some interesting extra info at:-

 

l11.org.uk/l11/

by therealjasonbird ift.tt/1SVbWz8

Stinson Beach, California USA

NASA file photo posted September 20, 2011

 

NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, or UARS, is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere Sept. 23, plus or minus a day.

 

NASA's UARS satellite, launched in 1991 from the Space Shuttle, was the first multi-instrumented satellite to observe numerous chemical constituents of the atmosphere with a goal of better understanding atmospheric photochemistry and transport.

 

To read more about the re-entry go here: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/uars/index.html

 

About this image: This STS-48 onboard photo is of the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) in the grasp of the RMS (Remote Manipulator System) during deployment, September 1991. UARS gathers data related to the chemistry, dynamics, and energy of the ozone layer. UARS data is used to study energy input, stratospheric photo chemistry, and upper atmospheric circulation. UARS helps us understand and predict how the nitrogen and chlorine cycles, and the nitrous oxides and halo carbons which maintain them, relate to the ozone balance. It also observes diurnal variations in short-lived stratospheric chemical species important to ozone destruction. Data from UARS enables scientists to study ozone depletion in the upper atmosphere.

 

Credit: NASA

 

NASA image use policy.

 

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.

 

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Fortunately the Hike Inn had power after the tornados hit, Nancy Hoch said, if she didn’t have power she wouldn’t have been able to accommodate me there.

Her husband Jeff was out of town. Sadly, I would have loved to talk with him about his extraordinary first people collection of arrowheads and spear tip points and other Native artifacts. They had no internet there and all I could do was upload my photos and videos to my laptop from my camera. The processing of a video to my laptop takes a while; I just splice the segments together in chronological order, that’s it. No editing. I shoot; I talk and try to keep it interesting, and speak correctly about all the facts and science in my head.

I have no script to follow. I just shoot from the hip, sort of speaking.

 

It was sunny and warm, enabling me to dry out all my gear. After resupplying in Robbinsville I was given a ride back to the Fontana Dam Marina. My next resupply point was over 100 miles away, past the Smokey Mountains to Hot Springs North Carolina, where I mailed my laptop to the Bluff Mountain Outfitter. This will be my longest leg of my journey so far. If I get jammed-up, there are points along the way I can stop, like Gatlinburg Tennessee.

 

The Fontana Lodge had a restaurant, so at the dam I called for a pickup to have one last good meal, while I still smelled nice, then off to the Smokey Mountains.

I hiked to Birch Spring Gap, the only tent site with no shelter in the Smokey’s.

In the great Smokey mountain National Park you can‘t setup a tent anywhere you want to, and I knew I would have to start sleeping in the crowded shelters soon, so I stopped at Birch Spring to be alone after my resupply. The Appalachian Trail in the Smokey Mountains is very heavily visited, so to reduce the impact on the natural surroundings, it’s pretty mandatory, that you stay in the shelters.

Birch Spring was a beautiful camp site, the best water I ever had came from the Smokey’s, and this spot was no exception. I carried the SteriPEN….Adventure to purify my water, I highly recommend it. But to tell you the truth, when the water from a spring came right out of the side of a mountain, I just drank it. Up from the blue blaze trail they had a hitching post for horses; the Smokey’s is the only place where people with horses share the Appalachian Trail. Many hikers have mixed feelings about sharing the trail with them. I do not. . I love horses so much; they have such a beautiful power. I love to touch them and hold them in my arms and really feel them.

 

That night I heard my first bear in the middle of the night going down the hill very close to my tent, it was big and noisy, obviously not very worried about being heard.

My plan was to hike to Spence Field Shelter for the night, I was excited to camp up on a grassy bald and take in some grand views. I fell short of my goals many times during my hike, but I wasn’t going to let that get me down, I just want to go with the flow of the cosmos, wherever it lead me was fine too.

It took me longer than I expected to hike through the Smokey’s, the shelter weren’t spaced right for my speed. I found much later, when I could hike much faster, that I didn’t like to go faster than 16 miles a day. The reason was, when I went faster than that I noticed, I would’nt take many photos, shoot many videos, I just wasn’t observing nature like I wanted to.

 

Up the trail just before Mollies Ridge Shelter I ran into some guys that said Mollies Ridge was dry, and I should take water down a side trail, that was poorly marked and I did just that. Coming up on Mollies Ridge Shelter it started to get real dark again, I could hear the thunder for the last two hours and although it was early for a lunch I thought, I would eat and wait the incoming storm that will be here at any moment. I went around to the front of the shelter to see someone’s gear, an old mid 1980’s Jan-sport external frame backpack and in the lower left corner a sleeping bag opened.

I called out and with no reply I went back to the side where the built-in table was, to have lunch and then came the rain. After a light snack I propped my pack up and laid down against it for some rest. After a short while and the rain was coming down, I could feel something, like someone was watching me, my hair rose up on my neck.

I looked over my left shoulder at a guy, wearing a ski-mask, was coming up behind me with one hand behind his back. Swiftly I jumped up and cut him off with the angle of the table. Instinctively my left hand went into my pocket, holding my knife with my thumb on the bolt that would quickly open my blade. If he would have came up with a weapon behind his back I would have cut his throat and he would have bleed-out dead before his corpse hit the ground.

 

Kitea, off to the side in the brush, was watching the whole thing go down from the very start. She saw him sneaking up on his blind side, with her body stretched out and on the tips of her paws, her tail straight and the tip whipping with fast short strokes back and forth ready to pounce. „What is this crazy bastard doing with a ski-mask in this heat?“

She felt much better, when Puma saw him and jumped for cover, with the posture of his hand in his pocket she assumed he had a weapon, and said „I got your back, big boy…“

His senses are very in-tuned she said, he has developed his 6th sense very well, very intuitive, it must have been all that Marine Corps training, he is so hot…. A Natural Borne Killer….

I remember several nights ago, when I was sleeping next to his tent, he talked to me in his sleep. He said, “I make the sound of the deer well, I grunt softly and they come to me...I’m a killer and I feel my prey like a ghost walking among them…”

 

The guy held out his other hand and in it was a very old leather glove, cheaply made, worn out and only one. He was saying something….. „wouwoouwo“… with his ski- mask it was hard to understand him and I said to him with a loud voice….. “I cant hear a damn word you are saying…. WITH YOUR SKI-MASK ON”…

Then he said it again….. it was something like…… he found this glove and was it mine. His speech was distorted and I could tell he had mental health issues….

Still crazy or not he had his other hand hidden behind his back and I’m on guard…

I told him one more time I cant hear him with his ski-mask on. It is not my glove and I don’t care, and for him to go away from me, I lunged at him just to give him a bit of a scare and yelled …..GO…OOOOOO ……

 

My heart was pounding, and I said to myself as soon as the rain lets up I’m so freaking out of here. Two days later I ran into a work party at Derrick Knob Shelter and a young man in charge had a radio and called it in, two days after that, I ran into a Ridge runner, and he said, they went up and got him out and that he was removed a few weeks before that too. They had to counsel with lawyers, to find out what to do with a homeless person, living in the shelters.

The rain let up and I was gone, but that was just the first band of the storm. The events, that occurred after that, were incredible, this will be the third biggest storm I was in during my hike, it sure was a season for storms and tornados. The winds, heavy rain, hail and thunder once again, unbelievable. Trees were being uprooted, snapping into and falling everywhere. I had to step off trail, the water ran down the trail like a river and I shot a video of it for my youtube channel.

 

When I got to the Russell Field Shelter, it was still early, two men from Atlanta Georgia where settling down there for the day. They were out for the weekend and this will be their last night out. We talked for a while, they were very nice, I like them very much so. They loved to hear my stories of my hike, the storms, the crazy’s…. hikers where coming by from the north, talking about the guy with the ski-mask, they had heard from other hikers north bound, I thought it was funny, the hikers, that told me about the water, never mentioned him.

 

The traffic south bound talked about a backpacking guide from REI, that would tell all the hikers, that stayed in “Her Shelter” for the night up the trail what to do, where to cook, where to sleep and where to hang there packs, she was even giving my dear sweet friend Susan a hard time about where she can cook. Susan argued with her, that she came from Springer Mountain, and that she has been backpacking for many years, and she will not tell her what to do. It hurt me to hear such things, its always about power and control, humans trying to force their will on others.

She was some kind of “Hiker Nazi”, cutting all the dangly bits of rope that people hung their packs on, really, they were in every shelter, I have seen during my entire hike. I wanted to hike on, it was still early and I could have made it to Spence Field Shelter like I had planned. The news was, that the REI guide was there with her party and my new friends begged me to stay with them. Why put yourself through the stress of having her around me like that. Relax here with us, we love to hear your stories…. Oh yes, I was a story teller my whole life, since childhood I could spin a good yarn….. it’s a gift.

Although it was probably a good call, I did stay, but I had no idea that it was a Saturday and the shelter was filling up fast. I took a spot on the upper left side with my back to the wall.

That night I woke up, packed close with so many people. I couldn’t breathe, I was having a panic attack. I sat up for a bit and then went for a walk. It always took me some time to put weight on my feet when I first get up, my feet where chronically sore the whole time I was on trail, and I had to move my feet a bit every morning so I could walk, hiker hobble they call it.

I’m sure the people, that were awake, when I had my episode during the night, were shocked; I knew I would have trouble sleeping in the packed shelters here in the Smokey’s.

The next day I was up and out early, said my goodbyes to my new friends, who were going down to their car and back home. They gave me some of their extra food, some fancy backpacking meals. I hiked to Derrick Knob Shelter, where a group of volunteers were camped, doing trail maintenance.

I tell you, if they didn’t maintain the trail like they do, nature would claim it back in a year or two, that’s it….

 

It was fun sitting with all the young people, talking about Religion and Politics, two of my favorite subjects. There was a photo-journalist there writing a story about trail maintenance.

It was love at first sight…… he was in the Navy and loved to call me Jar-head, affectionately of course…… and I referred to him as Squidly…….

They all stayed in their tents and with the weekend over it wasn’t too crowded.

I loved their youthful energy, they had a fire going all the time, cutting and splitting wood, gave me a chance to dry my boots or make them not as wet. Most of the kids were taking a break from their studies in the universities. The young women were quite attractive and it was fun watching them all jockeying for position, guided by their hormones running wild.

 

In the evening we sat around the fire and talked, I’m sure it was me, that started the conversation about religion and politics and how closely they are related. It’s all about power and control, I said.

Separatism is the major flaw in human development, we are so busy discounting everyone’s believes, that we are missing the big picture. Religion has killed more people than all the plagues; I think religion caused some of the plagues. Then the social class system of the rich and poor, money is the cause of all evil the in world. We should do away with it, its all a big lie anyway. Our monetary system is flawed by corruption; they have juggled the numbers for so long, it was just a matter of time when it would all come crashing down like a house of cards. We went back and forth through the night in interesting debate.

Before the emergence of the big three monotheistic religions Judaism, Islam and Christianity, there was no “Gender Assignment” for a god, in fact men and women were equally represented with gods and goddesses and a balance of power was achieved, men and women were equal.

What if, way after the death of Jesus and Christianity became legal and rose to power in Europe, with The Church” in their struggle for power made an allegiance with the monarchy to control and rule over the people. What a head trip to say “ you better be good for goodness sake” or you will spend eternity burning in hell. Anyone, who has ever had a bad burn, knows, its an endless pain to be burned, many hours and days even after the burn it still feels like your burning. What a brilliant physiological torture to impose on the masses to keep them in line.

What if, they could cut half of the population right out, by making women second class citizens with no say so what so ever. If Eve, beguiled by the serpent, went against god and ate from the tree of wisdom, ruining mans great life in paradise, then she was maid to serve man as a punishment. It sounds like a lie to enslave half of the population.

 

Who ever said, god was a he anyway, I bet it was a man. I bet a man wrote the book of genesis too, just that in itself needs to be addressed, the serpent was a pagan goddess deity, how coincidental is that. I think, if Jesus was alive in the here and now, he would be very upset how his good work has been tarnished for the sake of power and control.

Women have been victimized and still are all over the world in places like China, Japan, Africa.

In China they have a astrological calander and the Chinese Zodiac here women born under the sign “Fire horse Women“ In Japan it’s called Hinoeuma

Fire Horse women are called dangerous, headstrong, and are seen as deadly to men. This may sound quaint to western ears, but the 1906 Japanese women were subjected to poverty and starvation because they could not marry. According to the Chinese Zodiac, girls who were born in the year of the horse were said to be stubborn and short tempered.

Fire Horses are seen as outgoing, people-loving, ambitious, rebellious, and independent. They are supposedly freedom-loving and impossible to contain.

While ambition and independence are prized as ingredients for success nowadays, they were never seen as ideal female qualities. The proper woman was seen as submissive, quiet, and dependent, not rebellious and strong. This prejudice against fire horse women kept the 1906 women wracked by poverty in Japan, since no one would risk marrying a woman with these qualities. Now over 90 years old, many of the surviving hinoeuma women are poor and homeless.

 

Out spoken women in Europe were taken care of by saying they were witches in league with the devil and simply murdered in the name of Christ. Thousands of women were hiked this way, in the New World too.

It wasn’t long ago, when women couldn’t vote in this great country. Women in Europe and in America around the middle to late 1800’s started to protest, woman like writer and poet Renee Vivien from Paris France will always be rememberd as one of the “First Wave Feminist” and many others too,

 

Separatism….. we have to stop the insanity of this odious behavior, inherent in all of us, if we wish to evolve into better human beings, after all we are from the same “Human Family”

We have lived in tyranny long enough and people will rise up around the world and say we will not take this anymore.

Everyone stood and cheered, I love young people, they are willing to see things in a different light not afraid of change, unlike us old folks, well that’s a different story. The passion of my thoughts exhausted me and I said good night.

 

Kitea, thinking of all that was said, lay in the woods, unable to sleep all night. She said, his great burden never was about his pack weight, it’s what’s in his head. He sees the world as one, united in a common good for the entire world to share equally. The end of separatism and equality for all…..how great life could be for all…

 

Feeling quite well and rested, my boots and socks were the driest they have been in a few days I hit the trail. Silers Bald was covered in fog, hiking the trail reminded of being in a rain forest all morning the fog and mist would rise to the heavens, in the afternoon it would come down again as rain everyday after day….

 

As I got close to the highest peak on the Appalachian Trail Clingmans Dome, I got lost again. The trail got tight along a ridge, then widened but started to go down, it didn’t feel right but I followed for a little bit then turned around. I went back to where a sign was and saw a white blaze up on a rock cliff, it was a bit of a scramble then the trail leveled out on a beautiful ridge. I loved to hike the ridges, you could see very well where you were going… you could see for miles and miles, it truly my favorite hiking. The bad part was, if you were up on a ridge when a storm came in the lightning was very dangerous

You were so exposed; I was caught up on a ridge twice and hiked very fast to drop down for shelter. The trail got tricky close to the Dome and I slowed not to miss the trail.

Getting low on water but not wanting to go off trail to the Dome I pressed on not sure where I would find water. It was getting quite late when I arrived at the Mt. Collins Shelter and water. Two guys both named Dave and heading in opposite directions had a fire going when I approached the shelter. The north bound Dave and I talked a bit in the morning; I had hiked 13 miles the day before, climbed the highest peak on the AT and was so tired when I made it to camp the night before. Every night my feet were so sore and I was so tired, having to setup camp and make supper, gathering wet wood for my Zip-stove I took my time in the mornings enjoying my coffee rested and could really relax and take it all in.

 

South bound Dave was up a gone early, while north bound Dave was on his final day.

He was getting off trail at Newfound Gap heading down to Gatlinburg and home to Florida his journey ended. We hiked together for a bit, the smells in the conifer forest were incredible, very sweet and spicy like cinnamon, gorgeous and the shades of green with all the moss covered rocks and fallen trees were on of my fondest memories.

Dave talked about the town below and I decided to go down to Gatlinburg for pizza and cheeseburgers.

 

Kitea following closely as she always had since she found Puma thought what a great opportunity she had to go home and see her Grandmother Capote. Puma didn’t plan to stop in Gatlinburg and it wasn’t a thought for her but now she was excited to talk to grandmother about him and read the smoke and her dreams.

Newfound Gap was right in-between Gatlinburg and Cherokee town and Reservation.

She figured it’s only 30 miles away, Puma will probably stay for two days, she could catch-up with him on the trail by picking up his scent.

 

When I got close to the Gap I could hear the traffic first, then I got to the road and could see it was an overlook across the road. Tired, wet, hungry for a proper meal, I smelt like a wild animal I thought as I crossed the highway to the parking lot full of people. They had all pulled over to rest and take photos of the mountain views. When some people saw me coming I was swarmed by them, like I was some kind of celebrity or something. A man came up to me by the restrooms asking about my hike, then asked if we could pray.

I said sure, I love all good people and respect everyone’s right to worship in there own way. He asked Jesus to watch over me, protect me while on my journey as we held hands

and tears fell from my eyes it was so beautiful. A man asked if I would like some granola bars I said sure. People came up to me so curious and full of love, wanting to have their photo taken with me.

 

Four beautifully stout southern black women came up to me in their Sunday dresses and hats with very colorful flower prints. They just dazzled me, they were so beautiful and smelt so nice, touching me, hugging me and kissing me on my cheeks. I went to apologized, for I smelt so badly, one of the women whispered in my ear you don’t smell so bad. I did change my shirt to my camp shirt to get ready to hitch hike a ride to town.

Their husbands where taking photos of the spectacle or I think one was making a video,

when one of the women asked if she could go and hike with me. I said to her,

baby I will cook for you every night……. If you will carry my backpack.

Her husband looked away from the viewfinder of his camera and at me winking and smiling at me, it was truly a beautiful experience. Newfound Gap was like a melting pot of tourist, it was like the whole world was being represented.

 

Even the bikers, both the men and the women looked my way in appreciation.

Bikers and I are very similar in a way, we are a bit standoffish, loners and rebels, if you ever met me in person I have a look

about me that is somewhat threatening and somewhat loving, people can feel me and I can feel them without ever saying a word….it’s a gift

 

Perhaps because I’m so sensitive….

Or maybe when I was electrocuted by 5,000 volts at work one day…

Or when I was shot….

Or when I was stabbed…..

Or when I was bitten by a rattlesnake as a child…..

Or maybe when I was struck by lightning….

I feel much differently since I was hit by lightning, it scrambled my brain

Sometimes things get so mixed-up in my head and random thoughts

bounce around like electrons, neutrons and protons in a pattern like a spider web

all connecting, yet random like the cosmos.

Whatever it is……

People can feel me when I write too…..

I write with my soul…..

 

Oberndorf / Germany

Wet-folded from a square of tant paper.

This was the highlight and reason for my Southern Arizona Adventure 2024. This is stage 8 of 9.

I was lucky to secure permits for the once monthly photography tour of Kartchner Caverns. Kartchner Caverns State Park strictly forbids any cameras or cellphones in the Caverns. Except for one trip per month for 12 to 15 photographers currently $125. I planned a 4 day 3 night road trip around Southern Arizona anchored by my Kartchner Cavern permit.

 

I was expecting dark conditions. The State Park turned on all the lights in the Big Room. They don't like turning on all the lights since can cause an increase in algae. This is the reason they only have one photography tour a month.

I found myself adjusting my histograms to not clip the highlights. Adapt, Improvise, and Overcome. Next time I am going to bracket my shots. I almost wish I had brought a ND filter or tried a handheld GND filter.

 

I don't know speleothems so I won't even try to identify. If anyone can help me with the identification, I will appreciate it.

www.nps.gov/subjects/caves/speleothems.htm#:~:text=The%20...)%20when%20needed.

The features that arouse the greatest curiosity for most cave visitors are speleothems. These stone formations exhibit bizarre patterns and other-worldly forms, which give some caves a wonderland appearance. Caves vary widely in their displays of speleothems because of differences in temperature; overall wetness; and jointing, impurities, and structures in the rocks. In general, however, one thing caves do have in common is where speleothems form. Although the formation of caves typically takes place below the water table in the zone of saturation, the deposition of speleothems is not possible until caves are above the water table in the zone of aeration. As soon as the chamber is filled with air, the stage is set for the decoration phase of cave building to begin.

 

The term speleothem refers to the mode of occurrence of a mineral—i.e., its morphology or how it looks—in a cave, not its composition (Hill, 1997). For example, calcite, the most common cave mineral, is not a speleothem, but a calcite stalactite is a speleothem. A stalactite may be made of other minerals, such as halite or gypsum.

 

Classifying speleothems is tricky because no two speleothems are exactly alike. Nevertheless, speleologists have taken three basic approaches: classification by morphology, classification by origin, and classification by crystallography. All three of these approaches have their problems (Hill, 1997), so cavers often take a more practical approach that primarily uses morphology (e.g., cave pearls) but includes whatever is known about origin (e.g., geysermites) and crystallography (e.g., spar) when needed.

 

nocache.azcentral.com/travel/arizona/southern/articles/20...

The Kartchner Caverns, rated one of the world's 10 most beautiful caves, is an eerie wonderland of stalactites and stalagmites still growing beneath the Whetstone Mountains 40 miles southeast of Tucson.

The limestone cave has 13,000 feet of passages and hundreds of formations built over the past 200,000 years, including some that are unique and world-renowned. It's a "living cave," with intricate formations that continue to grow as water seeps, drips and flows from the walls and slowly deposits the mineral calcium carbonate.

The caverns were discovered by amateur spelunkers Randy Tufts and Gary Tenen in 1974 on land owned by the Kartchner family. They kept the cave a secret until 1988, when the Kartchners sold it to the state to become a state park.

 

The highlights of the Big Room tour are a stretch of strawberry flowstone, which has been colored red by iron oxide (rust) in the water, and a maternity ward for 1,800 female cave myotis bats, with black grime on the ceiling where the bats hang and piles of guano on the floor. Visitors who look closely will see a bat's body embedded in one of the cave's formations.

Though not all are available on the tours, the caverns' unique features include a 21-foot, 2-inch soda straw that's one the world's largest (Throne Room), the world's most extensive formation of brushite moonmilk (Big Room), the first reported occurrence of "turnip" shields (Big Room), the first cave occurrence of "birdsnest" needle quartz formations (Big Room) and the remains of a Shasta ground sloth from the Pleistocene Age (Big Room).

 

azstateparks.com/Kartchner

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kartchner_Caverns_State_Park

Kartchner Caverns State Park is a state park of Arizona, United States, featuring a show cave with 2.4 miles (3.9 km) of passages.[1] The park is located 9 miles (14 km) south of the town of Benson and west of the north-flowing San Pedro River. Long hidden from view, the caverns were discovered in 1974 by local cavers, assisted by state biologist Erick Campbell who helped in its preservation.

The park encompasses most of a down-dropped block of Palaeozoic rocks on the east flank of the Whetstone Mountains.

The caverns are carved out of limestone and filled with spectacular speleothems which have been growing for 50,000 years or longer, and are still growing. Careful and technical cave state park development and maintenance, initially established by founder Dr. Bruce Randall "Randy" Tufts, geologist, were designed to protect and preserve the cave system throughout the park's development, and for perpetuity.[3]

 

The two major features of the caverns accessible to the public are the Throne Room and the Big Room. The Throne Room contains one of the world's longest (21 ft 2 in (6.45 m))[5] soda straw stalactites and a 58-foot (18 m) high column called Kubla Khan, after the poem. The Big Room contains the world's most extensive formation of brushite moonmilk. Big Room cave tours are closed during the summer for several months (April 15 to October 15) each year because it is a nursery roost for cave bats, however the Throne Room tours remain open year-round.[8]

 

Other features publicly accessible within the caverns include Mud Flats, Rotunda Room, Strawberry Room, and Cul-de-sac Passage. Approximately 60% of the cave system is not open to the public.[9]

 

Many different cave formations can be found within the caves and the surrounding park. These include cave bacon, helictites, soda straws, stalactites, stalagmites and others.[12] Cave formations like the stalactites and stalagmites grow approximately a 16th of an inch every 100 years.[13]

 

Haiku thoughts:

Beneath earth's cool veil,

Stalactites in silence grow,

Whispers of stone deep.

 

Kartchner

Southern Arizona Adventure 2024

I wasn't expecting this example to be that old. I was expecting it to be from around 1990 or so. 1985 is the first for this model, so it's a first-year model. It's condition doesn't look too bad, the bonnet paint seen better days but that's not too surprising. The later models can still be seen occasionally, but these earlier ones have thinned out somewhat, I don't see them as much these days.

 

On a 2002-issue plate.

Carter and I are so happy!

More 'Memories from June', this one of my son and his bride having just announced the birth of my first grandchild in November...