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7 February 2021: Yesterday’s numbers show slight increases in the 7-day rolling averages for hospitalisations and people testing positive for the virus. Meanwhile the number of deaths among people with COVID-19 continues to fall. In the week to 3 February on average 2,339 people tested positive each day in Belgium. The figure is up 3% on the week. Also, yesterday, the vaccination taskforce announced that the first shipment of 443,000 AstraZeneca has been delivered. As the British-Swedish vaccine will not be administered to people over 55 years old for the time being, Belgium had to slightly adapt its vaccination strategy. The vaccine will be given to people between 18 and 55 years old of following groups: healthcare workers, residents and staff of care institutions (i.e., rehabilitation centers, psychiatric institutions, etc.), high risk groups with underlying conditions and police officers. People over 55 will receive a Covid-19 vaccine by Pfizer/BioNtech or Moderna. The government claims that it will accelerate the vaccination of the more vulnerable people but I’m still unclear what it exactly means for the timing of the roll-out of the vaccination campaign in the various age groups. I guess I should no longer worry about it and continue to enjoy documenting how life unfolds during these unprecedented times. I don’t know why this street corner in disrepair caught my attention. I decided to label it as an abstract urban composition – Rembert Dodoensdreef, Ghent, Belgium
March Point. Padilla Bay/Fidalgo Bay.
"The Washington population of the Black Oystercatcher is estimated to be roughly 400 birds. This number is probably not significantly different from the historical population, as these birds require fairly specialized habitat, which is not evenly distributed. Oystercatchers are highly vulnerable to human disturbance, oil spills, and pollution of the intertidal zone. Numbers of Black Oystercatchers on the outer coast may be higher than in the past, in part due to decreased human disturbance resulting from lighthouse automation. Numbers in inland areas, however, have declined in response to increased human activity. The Northern Pacific Coast Regional Shorebird Management Plan has identified the Black Oystercatcher as a regional species of high concern."
"The Black Oystercatcher is restricted in its range, never straying far from shores, in particular favoring rocky shorelines. It has been suggested that this bird is seen mostly on coastal stretches which have some quieter embayments, such as jetty protected areas. It forages in the intertidal zone, feeding on marine invertebrates, particularly molluscs such as mussels, limpets and chitons. It will also take crabs, isopods and barnacles. It hunts through the intertidal area, searching for food visually, often so close to the water's edge it has to fly up to avoid crashing surf. It uses its strong bill to dislodge food and pry shells open."
The Quarantine Station at Point Nepean, Victoria..
History:.
The discovery of gold in Victoria was a mixed blessing to the settlement at The Heads. Increasing numbers of ships, with their great numbers of passengers, provided more trade for the supply of fresh meat and vegetables. However the unsanitary and overcrowded conditions not only on board ship, but also in the homes, boarding houses and points of embarkation, aggravated the incidence of disease, and increasing numbers of infected persons were entering the colony..
The Ticonderoga 1852.
The full impact of this latter condition was felt when the “Ticonderoga” from Liverpool, with 795 passengers and 48 crew on board at sailing time, anchored off The Heads on the 3rd of November 1852, carrying scores of fever stricken passengers. Word of their plight reached Melbourne on the same day through a report from the skipper of a brig which had overtaken the “Ticonderoga”..
Every effort was made to prevent the spread of the epidemic and the worst cases were placed aboard the “Lysander”. However, there were 70 deaths while the ‘Ticonderoga” was in quarantine, the victims being interred in an improvised cemetery near the foreshore. Later some remains were re-interred in the New Cemetery about a mile away towards Point Nepean. Here also are buried many of the first settlers, including Ford and Edward Skelton as well as sailors from the ships “Tornado” (1868) and “Cheviot” (1887) which were wrecked at The Heads. It was used by local residents until the new General Cemetery at Sorrento was opened to the public in 1890..
Quarantine Early 1850s.
The early timber buildings both built and requisitioned with accommodation under canvas. Difficulties in disposing of the dead. The Quarantine Station was gazetted in 1854 and from this time isolation was enforced by police supervision..
See Nepean Historical Society website for much more information.
Photography without poses
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www.youtube.com/channel/UCkNYo1uLNy67xCfeyc1h-ZQ?sub_conf... The purpose of creating and assigning 5G networks
Previous generation mobile communication networks had the following purposes and functionality:
1G: Analog Voice Service
2G: Voice over digital network services, low speed data services (GPRS, EDGE)
3G: High-speed data services (HSPA), with the ability to transmit voice over IP, mobile Internet access MBB (Mobile Broadband).
4G: LTE, LTE-A Mobile Broadband MBB, Voice over Voice (VoLTE)
5G networks greatly expand the limited functionality of previous generation mobile networks. The main functional features of 5G networks are as follows:
EMBB Advanced Mobile Broadband (enhanced MBB)
Ultra-Low Latency Reliable Communication (ULLRC) Massive IoT / IIoT, mMTC (massive Machine Type Communication)
Based on these three generalized types of functionality, the whole variety of services and capabilities of IMT2020 (5G) networks is built, the most characteristic of which are shown in the figure below:
The variety of functional capabilities of IMT2020 / 5G networks. Source: Emerging Trends in 5G / IMT2020, 2016, ITU
Gigabytes per second. 5G networks can significantly increase the speed of data transmission through various radio access technologies (RAT), and by using the new 5G NR radio frequency spectra (New Radio). The user gets almost unlimited bandwidth, both for home use of various services, and for the purposes of enterprises (Immersive Telepresence, Industrial IoT, etc.)
Smart House. A wide range of different Internet of Things (IoT) services will be available for the Smart Home and Smart Building solutions: video surveillance, control and automation of household appliances, security systems management, content storage, climate control, etc.
Smart city. The Smart City solution is a horizontal and vertical scaling of the functionality and range of Smart Home services. Main services of Smart City: Safe City, e-Government e-Government, e-Health e-Health, e-Education e-Education, e-Banking e-banking, Smart Meters utilities electronic collection, Smart Grid smart grids, etc. .
New 4K / 8K video services: Volumetric video, ultra-high definition (UHD) screen, presence effect option.
Work in the cloud. The service makes it possible not only to store data in a cloud storage and retrieve it from there, but also to use application programs that work directly from the cloud. Moreover, with the possibility of them but also use applications that work directly from the cloud. Moreover, with the possibility of them
use on any device and from any location. In addition, it is possible to use APIs through which cloud service providers can provide their services to subscribers of a 5G network operator.
Augmented and virtual reality (AR / VR). The virtual reality service VR (Virtual Reality) immerses a person in another world, influencing his senses, especially his vision (VR glasses). Augmented Reality AR (Augmented Reality) service combines a real environment for a user with virtual objects. These services are suitable not only for entertainment, games, virtual communication in the "telepresence" mode, but can also significantly improve the learning process, when students using VR glasses can, for example, visually see the internal structure of a person at a lecture on anatomy, a master in the workshop can study the assembly order of a complex unit, etc.
Industrial Automation. The 5G network, coupled with the technology of the Internet of things IoT, with the help of industrial sensors IIoT (Industrial Internet of things), as well as with the help of artificial intelligence, AI (AI, Artificial Intelligence) can significantly increase the degree of automation of production. At the same time, it becomes possible in real time to analyze large volumes of heterogeneous data (Big Data) both based on the findings (insights) and using machine and deep learning (Machine learning, Deep learning).
Business Critical Applications These applications may include, for example, electronic medicine (e-Health), emergency communications (Mission Critical Communication), tactile Internet (Tactile Internet) and others.
Unmanned vehicles (Driverless Vehicles). Unmanned transport can act as part of the Smart City service, however, it can be provided on its own platform. It includes not only unmanned vehicles (driverless cars), but also unmanned tractors for “smart agriculture” (Smart Agriculture), unmanned trains for the metro and suburban railways, drones and other types of public and special transport. In addition, on the 5G platform, the implementation of ADAS (Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems) driver assistance systems is possible.
It should be emphasized that the figure above shows only some of the services and solutions of the 5G platform. Unlike the networks of previous generations, the range of services of which was strictly limited and somewhat expanded in 4G, the services of the 5G platform are synergistic and scalable, and are not limited to once defined functionality. In fact, 5G plays the role of a platform for the development of new services and DevOps applications, when new functions are created by developers (Development) in close coordination with the teams who are responsible for their implementation and operation (Operation).
In general, we can say that the 5G network incorporates not only mobile, but also fixed communication services, as well as high-speed Internet access with low latency and, in addition, specialized and corporate networks for vertical industries.
5G / IMT2020 platform versatility
Due to the fifth generation networks, it will also be possible to improve the quality of the use of existing services where large volumes of traffic are involved.
Theodore Sizer, vice president of wireless technology at Bell Labs, noted that there will be a wide variety of devices running on 5G networks. Smartphones and tablets will not go anywhere, but besides them, a whole “zoo” of various devices will appear on the network, including CCTV cameras, weather sensors, sensors of “smart” electric networks, “smart” houses and cars.
Ericsson said that 5G will usher in the long-term development of the Networked Society:
South Korean operator SK Telecom, one of the first companies to demonstrate 5G technology in action, at the initial stage of deployment of new generation networks focuses on ordinary users as the main consumers of services, company representatives told TAdviser in February 2016. Thanks to 5G, users can watch 3D-TV without glasses, download in seconds or watch UltraHD video online at high speed.
It will also be possible to use virtual and augmented reality applications at a new level, according to SK Telecom. For example, include elements of augmented reality in the educational process, creating virtual museums and models of the universe in the classrooms.
In the projects of “smart cities” 5G will allow real-time transmission of information from a much larger number of sensors at various objects. Qualcomm's senior director of product management for mobile technology, Sanjeev Athalye, notes that it will be possible to deploy a thousand sensors instead of a hundred, for servicing which there will be a sufficiently smaller number of base stations than with existing networks. These can be, for example, sensors for monitoring the state of housing and communal services objects, sensors for “smart lighting” or sound sensors installed for safety and order in the city. In the latter case, the sensors can detect suspicious or too loud sounds, and this information will be automatically transmitted to law enforcement.
New services using 5G can also be implemented in medicine. For example, to organize remote monitoring of patients. The doctor will be able to quickly receive information from special sensors and monitor the condition of patients around the clock.
Thanks to its very low latency, 5G will also open up more possibilities for remote operations using the robot. Such a service is especially relevant for small settlements where there are no surgeons in the field: controlling the manipulations of the robot, the operation can be performed by a specialist located in a completely different place. Due to 5G, such a service can be deployed in wireless networks.
The low data latency that next-generation networks can provide is also important for the deployment of smart power networks. Using sensors will allow you to instantly detect damage on the power line and block the spread of the consequences of damage further along the line. Thus, damage will affect fewer consumers of electricity.
In large manufacturing companies, in retail, logistics, 5G will make it possible to use more industrial robots that perform various functions instead of people and drones. The latter are already used in some industries, but are most often managed using Wi-Fi networks. 5G will allow you to cover a greater distance than Wi-Fi networks, and due to the low latency - increase the stability of such systems. For example, Amazon has a project to deploy a system for delivering goods using drones.
An example of services for which 5G will have an advantage is urban surveillance systems. 5G will help simplify their deployment and use. Now traffic from thousands of cameras in cities is mainly transmitted via fixed networks. To deploy such an infrastructure is not an easy task, since it is necessary to lay many wires. With 5G, you can receive terabytes of high-quality video
permissions without the use of wires.
Another example is a vehicle monitoring service in companies. Qualcomm’s Sanjeev Atali believes that with the advent of a new generation of networks, operators who provide such a service will be able to reduce its cost. This will be possible due to the fact that the cost of one 5G base station will be lower than the cost of stations for existing networks, and also due to the fact that one base station can simultaneously serve more devices, respectively, less base stations will be required for the service.
This is a highly unusual Laughing Gull in that its bill and legs show a greatly increased amount of red pigment- and the result in striking. While an adult Laugher's bill and legs show a little dark red overtones during breeding season, they're still just black legs and bill- with a dark red tinge. Not so, this bird- which appears to be a second cycle bird.
The interesting thing is- I have seen this bird here on four separate occasions over the course of the past eight days. Now, there are thousands of Laughing Gulls in this area, and hundreds that can be seen daily at this little patch. With the way they busily come and go, I never really give any thought to whether or not it's the same 150 that hang out in a particular spot, or if they are all new birds you see every time you go there. This would be impossible to know, as they are all so much alike in appearance, and are constantly coming in and out of the roosts and feeding patches. Enter this bird- which is acting like a living dye marker, and teaching me a little bit about 'local patch' fidelity within this species. Plus, it poses well. Good bird.
I always say- there's a gift a day out there. It's just up to you to recognize it as such. This bird and the insight it gave me regarding this species' behavior- was such a gift. The fact that I was able to capture it with the 'matching' reflection of a channel marker off the water in the nice morning Sun is, as they say- priceless.
KHXGx
An increase in traffic between the quarries at Tunstead/Hindlow and the West Midlands in connection with the HS2 project has meant additional freight services across the Mid-Cheshire lines.
On Wednesday 9th March, 66775 “HMS Argyll” complete with F231 decals (denoting the type 23 frigate she’s named after) is in charge of 4H89 05:45 Bescot Down Sdgs - Hindlow stone empties past Plumley Signalbox.
Copyright Ken Davies. All rights reserved.
While the Aardwolf II continued proving its worth throughout the first few years of the Second Greco-Roman War, with the debut of the Hastati II and rumors of more experimental NGRF units an upgrade was inevitable. Aardwolf III units were first fielded in late AD 2102, but it was not until the following year that models carrying their now iconic "Hauberk" maneuvering gear saw action.
The Aardwolf III was designed primarily to bridge the gap between the older Aardwolf II normal and space types. Instead of having to produce two different variants, now one unit was equally adept at fighting both on land and in space. In addition to the general increase in thrust power and verniers, the recently developed Hauberk gear easily makes the Aardwolf III faster and more maneuverable than the Hastati II, if not quite as heavily armored.
Yeah, I'm not dead. I've been building a decent amount, but again, I just have a bunch of WIPs that I've been working on now and then. Also I've been sightseeing across Europe for the past month, so of course I haven't had the chance to post anything.
The old Aardwolf II was a solid model which is why I left it as is for so long. (about a year! Time flies I guess...) There were a few things that bugged me about it though; the proportions were still not exactly correct, and some of the joints were pretty iffy. This version features a shortened torso (at the cost of articulation but I didn't use that much anyway), shorter thighs, longer (lower) legs, and different hands (now with poseable fingers!). The knee joints now use ball joints like most of my other recent mecha, and the elbows use that other design that I use all the time. Other than that, I reworked some of the armor slightly (especially on the legs), and bulked out the ankle armor.
The Hauberk equipment is obviously GM III inspired, and I think it works pretty well. The shoulder armor was the toughest part to build, but I'm happy with how it looks now.
I have a few WIP shots that I may or may not post soon, along with some (nearly) finished stuff. Keep an eye out for that!
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This picture was shot hand held with three exposures (-2..0..+2EV). I used only the +2 and -2 EV shots (see below) to digitally blend the image. This is the first time I'm using the digital blending technique and creating the planets, lightning, and nebula from scratch in Photoshop. After blending the two images, I ncreased the overall saturation with Hue/Saturation in Photoshop. Curve adjustment to increase the overall contrast. Unsharp Mask. Using dozens of layers, I created the lightning strikes and the planets, using tools and filters available in Photoshop like Clouds, Gradient, Eraser, Emboss, Add Noise, setting layers to Screen and Overlay, etc.
Since I have thousands of images in my archives, I've decided to use some to create something new. This house on a hill shot was taken on our drive to Central Oregon earlier this year. I decided to use this shot for this because of the stormy sky. Thanks for looking!
media-sl.com/2020/09/15/stephanel-ebento-event-new-2/
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I help aspiring and established photographers get noticed so they can earn an income from photography or increase sales. My blog, Photographer’s Business Notebook is a wealth of information as is my Mark Paulda’s YouTube Channel. I also offer a variety of books, mentor services and online classes at Mark Paulda Photography Mentor
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An experiment with rangefinder macro. Leica M10-P with EVF, M-macro adaptor and 75mm Elmarit lens. Next attempt will be to increase depth of field.
COUSIN PADDINGTON: “So you see Paddy, with not many planes flying around the world, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’d better just stay here, even when they do increase frequency.”
PADDY: “Oh that is good news, Cousin Paddington. I can’t wait to te…”
SCOUT: *Wheeling pram.* “Sssshhhhhh!” *Puts paw to mouth.* “You’ll wake my baby!”
PADDY: “You’re what, Scout?” *Looks at pram Scout is wheeling.*
SCOUT: “My baby, Paddy!” *Points to small teddy in the pram. “And I’ll thank you not to call my charge a what. He’s a whom. It’s Caramel Teddy, thank you very much. And today I am Nanny Scout, thank you!”
COUSIN PADDINGTON: “Oh, so today you are playing at being a nanny, Scout… er… I mean Nanny Scout?”
SCOUT: “That’s right Cousin Paddington.” *Nods affirmatively.*
PADDY: “And why are you wearing your yellow cape, Nanny Scout?”
SCOUT: “Well, all good nannies need a cape, Paddy. Just look at Mary Poppins! She had a very fetching blue and red cape.”
COUSIN PADDINGTON: “That’s true Paddy.”
SCOUT: “Oh!” *Looks at Caramel Teddy.* “Now my baby is awake with all your loud chatter.”
PADDY: “Our loud chatter, Nanny Scout? You’ve been ch…”
SCOUT: “Sssshhhhhh!” *Puts paw to mouth.* “Baby is saying something to me. What’s that, Caramel Bear?”
PADDY, SCOUT and COUSIN PADDINGTON: *Lean over the pram to listen.*
PADDY: “I can’t hear anything.”
SCOUT: “And that’s why you aren’t a nanny, Paddy! I can hear him perfectly.”
COUSIN PADDINGTON: “I must confess, Nanny Scout, that I can’t hear anything either.”
PADDY: “What does he say, Nanny Scout?”
SCOUT: “My baby says that now he is awake he has a grumbly tummy.”
COUSIN PADDINGTON: “Well, did you bring a bottle of milk for him?”
SCOUT: “No I didn’t, Cousin Paddington. However, he says he doesn’t want any milk.”
PADDY: “Well, what does he want, Nanny Scout?”
SCOUT: *Looks longingly at bowl of Easter Eggs next to Paddy.* “He wants a chocolate Easter Egg, Paddy.” *Walks over and takes an Easter Egg from the bowl.* “And come to think of it, I have a grumbly tummy too, so I’d better have one as well.” *Selects a second chocolate Easter Egg.* “Thank you Paddy and Cousin Paddington.” *Puts Easter Eggs in the pram.* “Goodbye!” *Wheels pram away.*
PADDY and COUSIN PADDINGTON: “Goodbye Nanny Scout.” *Look bewilderingly at one another.*
My bears Paddy and Scout have made very good friends with two bears in Holland called Peter and Oleg (www.flickr.com/photos/40262251@N03/galleries/721577154558...) and their Mummy (Marian Kloon (on and off)) . Peter and Scout are very similar and have become best friends. Peter recently found a pram in the doll house that he lives in and it was just the perfect size for his teddy bear. (You can see the picture here www.flickr.com/photos/66094586@N06/51111796504/in/datepos..., or in the first comment below). Scout has decided to follow suit, with his own agenda about Easter Eggs in mind.
This beautiful nursery tea set is made by the Shell China company in the 1910s. It features six cups, saucers (not all the set is being used today) as well as a teapot, milk jug and sugar bowl, all gilt and featuring different nursery rhymes including: "See Saw Margery Daw", "Jack and Jill", "This Little Pig Went to Market", "Taffy was a Welshman", "Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross", "Little Jack Horner", “Pat-A-Cake, Pat-A-Cake”, "Old Mother Goose", "Little Miss Muffett" and "I Saw a Ship a Sailing" amongst others. It is the prequel set to the Shell China nursery and faerie tale tea sets I have from the 1920s and 1930s. The designs are very Edwardian and the set is made up of smaller pieces. I also came across a large, adult sized sugar bowl with the same "Taffy was a Welshman" pattern from an unknown maker on EBay, which is what the Easter Eggs are contained in. There are also doll (bear) sized tea spoons which are sterling silver salt spoons.
The blue and white metal pram and the teddy are 1:12 size miniatures from my miniatures collection. The pram is made of metal with a retractable hood made of fabric and decorated with lace. The teddy has reticulated arms and legs and is beautifully made. Both are made in England and come from a specialist 1:12 miniature dollhouse stockist in the United Kingdom.
My Paddington Bear came to live with me in London when I was two years old (many, many years ago). He was hand made by my Great Aunt and he has a chocolate coloured felt hat, the brim of which had to be pinned up by a safety pin to stop it getting in his eyes. The collar of his mackintosh is made of the same felt. He wears wellington boots made from the same red leather used to make the toggles on his mackintosh.
He has travelled with me across the world and he and I have had many adventures together over the years. He is a very precious member of my small family.
Scout was a gift to Paddy from my friend. He is a Fair Trade Bear hand knitted in Africa. His name comes from the shop my friend found him in: Scout House. He tells me that life was very different where he came from, and Paddy is helping introduce him to many new experiences. Scout catches on quickly, and has proven to be a cheeky, but very lovable member of our closely knit family.
Travelling all the way from London, Cousin Paddington was caught in transit thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic, so it looks like he is stopping with us for a long while. That makes me happy, as the more I look into his happy, smiling face, the more attached I am becoming to him. This seems to be a good thing, as it now appears that Cousin Paddington has decided to make our home his forever home!
Scout's pretty yellow and white cape has been kindly knitted by a close friend's mother-in-law especially for him. I even had to measurements so that it would fit nicely. It is based on a Jacobean Puss in Boots design.
Large view!
Wyoming is a state in the western United States. The easternmost section of the state is a region known as the High Plains due to its altitude above sea level, while the majority of the state is dominated by the mountain ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountain West. Wyoming is the least populous U.S. state. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the state population was 515,004 in 2006, a 4.3% increase since 2000. The capital and the most populous city of Wyoming is Cheyenne. Residents of Wyoming are known as Wyomingites.
Geography
Wyoming is bordered on the north by Montana, on the east by South Dakota and Nebraska, on the south by Colorado, on the southwest by Utah, and on the west by Idaho. Wyoming is one of three states bounded only by lines of latitude and longitude, Utah and Colorado are the others. It is the tenth largest state in the United States in total area, containing 97,818 square miles (253,348 km²) and is made up of 23 counties. From the north border to the south border it is 276 miles (444 km); and from the east to the west border is 375 miles (603 km).
The Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming. The state is a great plateau broken by a number of mountain ranges. In the northwest are the Absaroka, Owl Creek, Gros Ventre, Wind River and the Teton ranges. In the north central are the Big Horn Mountains; in the northeast, the Black Hills; and in the southern region the Laramie, Snowy and Sierra Madre ranges.
Wyoming is an arid state with much of the land receiving less than 10 inches (25 cm) of rainfall per year. Consequently, the land supports few opportunities for farming. Ranching is widespread, especially in areas near the numerous mountain chains. The Snowy Range in the south central part of the state is an extension of the Colorado Rockies in both geology and appearance. The Wind River Range in the west central part of the state is remote and includes Gannett Peak, the highest peak in the state. The Big Horn Mountains in the north central portion are somewhat isolated from the bulk of the Rocky Mountains.
The Teton Range in the northwest extends for 50 miles (80 km) and represents the most impressive section of mountains in the state. It is home to Grand Teton, the second highest peak in Wyoming, and to Grand Teton National Park, which preserves the most scenic section of the Teton range.
Several rivers begin or flow through the state, including the Yellowstone River, Powder River, Green River, and the Snake River.
The Continental Divide forks in the south central part of the state. The waters that flow or precipitate into this area, known as the Great Divide Basin, do not flow to any ocean. Instead, because of the overall aridity of Wyoming, they simply sink into the soil or evaporate. Rivers east of the Divide drain into the Missouri River Basin and eventually the Atlantic Ocean. They are the Platte, Wind, Big Horn and the Yellowstone rivers. The Snake River in northwest Wyoming eventually drains into the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean, as does the Green River through the Colorado River Basin.
History
The region known today as the state of Wyoming was originally inhabited by several Native American groups. The name Wyoming is derived from the Delaware (Munsee) name xwé:wamənk, meaning "at the big river flat", originally applied to the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania. The Crow, Arapaho, Lakota, and Shoshone were but a few of the original inhabitants encountered when white explorers first entered the region. Although French trappers may have ventured into the northern sections of the state in the late 1700s, John Colter, a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, was probably the first white American to enter the region in 1807. His reports of the Yellowstone area were considered at the time to be fictional. Robert Stuart and a party of five men returning from Astoria discovered South Pass in 1812. The route was later followed by the Oregon Trail. In 1850, Jim Bridger located what is now known as Bridger Pass, which was later used by both the Union Pacific Railroad in 1868, and in the 20th century by Interstate 80. Bridger also explored the Yellowstone region and like Colter, most of his reports on that region of the state were considered at the time to be tall tales.
After the Union Pacific Railroad reached the town of Cheyenne, which later became the state capital, in 1867, the population began to grow steadily in the Wyoming Territory, which was established on July 25, 1868.[2] Unlike Colorado to the south, Wyoming never experienced a rapid population boom from any major mineral discoveries such as gold or silver. Copper was found in some areas of the state.
Once government sponsored expeditions to the Yellowstone country were undertaken, the previous reports by men like Colter and Bridger were found to be true. This led to the creation of Yellowstone National Park, which became the world's first National Park in 1872. It is located in the far northwestern portion of the state. Most of the territory that comprises Yellowstone National Park is located in Wyoming.
Wyoming was admitted to the Union on July 10, 1890. It was named after the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania, made famous by the 1809 poem Gertrude of Wyoming by Thomas Campbell. The name was suggested by Representative J. M. Ashley of Ohio.
In 1869, Wyoming extended much suffrage to women, at least partially in an attempt to garner enough votes to be admitted as a state. In addition to being the first U.S. state to extend suffrage to women, Wyoming was also the home of many other firsts for U.S. women in politics. For the first time, women served on a jury in Wyoming (Laramie in 1870). Wyoming had the first female court bailiff (Mary Atkinson, Laramie, in 1870) and the first female justice of the peace in the country (Esther Hobart Morris, South Pass City, in 1870). In 1924, Wyoming became the first state in the Union to elect a female governor, Nellie Tayloe Ross, who took office the following January.
Wyoming was the location of the Johnson County War of 1892 which was fought between large cattle operators and free ranging interest groups. This war was fought because of the new ranchers moving in following the passage of the homestead act.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In the late 1950s, Wolverhampton Council proposed a controversial and costly project to build a ring road around the town, to divert ‘through traffic’ away from the town centre. As with most towns in Britain, the huge increase in private car ownership was becoming a headache for the town’s planners.
As part of the town’s future road planning, it was decided that the building of the ‘Ring Road’ would also force the abandonment of the town’s trolleybus system, as the council wanted ‘no trolleybuses or trolleybus infrastructure’ to encounter the new Ring Road! This commitment would become a huge finical burden on the local rate-payers, so budgetary restraints were made where possible. Construction of the Ring Road began in 1961, but took almost three decades to complete.
Between June 1963 and March 1967, Wolverhampton Corporation Transport purchased 146 new double-deck motorbuses to replace the post-war trolleybus fleet. The financial enormity of funding the conversion program impacted on the quality of the new motorbus purchases, with savings having to be made. From 1965 – 1967, the Transport Department’s budget constraints forced them to opt for cheaper bus bodies to be fitted to the locally built Guy Arab V motorbus chassis that the council were duty-bound to purchase. Strachan (Coachbuilders) Ltd of Hamble, Hampshire became the new bus body supplier, but these budget built bus bodies for the Guy Arabs would soon prove to be sub-standard, resulting in short service lives due to structural fatigue.
On the demise of the town's last trolleybuses in March 1967, came the news that twelve high-capacity single-deck buses had been ordered. In July 1967, the ‘Transport Department’ took delivery of six AEC Swifts (708-713) and six Daimler Roadliners (714-719), all having Strachan built dual-doored bodies. This may have been seen as an extravagant purchase in lieu of the tax payers money recently spent on the trolleybus replacement fleet?
The buses appeared very modern looking, with large windows and spacious high-roofed interiors, being very similar in design to London Transport’s Strachan bodied ‘Red Arrow’ buses that had been new to the capital in 1966. The intension from the outset was to trial the concept of ‘pay-on-entry’ buses, with passengers paying the driver on boarding the bus.
The new buses were initially put to work on the No1 Tettenhall service to gauge public reaction to 'pay-on-entry, and assessing operational issues. However, after a few weeks the experiment was ended and crew-operated double-deckers reinstated to the route. Against all expectations, the costly experiment hadn’t been a success, having been met with mixed reactions from the travelling public who were not used to paying the driver on boarding, much preferring bus conductors to take their fares. It was also found that the ‘Cummins V6’ engined Daimler ‘Roadliners’ in particular, didn’t like the intense ‘stop and start’ work on this short urban service. Therefore a decision was made to redeploy these buses to rural services, such as the lengthy No17 and No31 routes to Bridgnorth in Shropshire. In this setting, the stops were fewer and the average speeds were higher, but as a cost saving measure the buses continued to be used as ‘pay-on-entry’ vehicles.
In October 1969, 708-719, along with the rest of the former Wolverhampton Corporation bus fleet, became part of the newly formed West Midlands PTE, whereupon they were renumbered 708N - 719N.
The first victim to early withdrawal was Roadliner 714N, which was lost to fire when working the No17 Bridgnorth service in November 1971. The following year, AEC Swifts 708, 711 were withdrawn and sold to Northampton Transport for further use.
The remaining buses continued to be allocated to Wolverhampton’s Bilston Garage, their duties staying much the same until the loss of the rural bus network in December 1973. The Midland Red taking over these services from WMPTE as part of a wider operational agreement between the two concerns.
Being relatively modern buses and suitable for one-man-operation, WMPTE continued to use the remaining Roadliners and Swifts, but with an eye to disposing of them when the opportunity arose as they did not fit the general fleet profile. Despite the Roadliners continuing to be mechanically troublesome, 716-719 received repaints into WMPTE livery in 1972 and 1973, and may have received body strengthen modifications in preparation? However, the AEC Swifts were never repainted out of their Wolverhampton colours.
Following the premature exit of 708N, 711N (pictured) and 714N, the next to go was Roadliner 715N in July 1973 suffering structural faults to its Strachan built body. It was sold for scrap in May 1974 still wearing WCT green and yellow.
The remaining AEC Swifts came out of service between 1973 to 1974, and the last Roadliners were finally withdrawn between the end of 1974 and January of 1975. Some of these buses found new owners, but all eventually ended up being scrapped with the exception of 719N. Today, 719(N) survives at the Transport Museum Wythall, restored into WCT livery.
The picture taken by the late Dave Everitt, show AEC Swift 711N pulling out onto Railway Drive, as it departs Victoria Square Bus Station for Cheslyn Hay in July 1970.
As for the previously mentioned ‘Ring Road’, that has further relevance to this picture, as part of its Eastern section runs right through the location where this picture was taken.
Image scanned from the original 35mm colour slide.
. . . Hoffmaster State Park used to have a Trillium Festival every spring, but increasing numbers of White Tailed Deer brought that to an end, since their population boom resulted in the deer eating all of the flowers!
I took a quick drive through the park this morning and only spotted 3 or 4 of them, this one close to the Nature Center where aluminum pie plates dangling from strings scare away the deer!
Have a great spring weekend Facebook, Flickr, and 500px friends!
Salt print on Saunders Waterford HP High White (!?), circa 8x10".
Chemicals as in previous salt prints.
Untoned.
White PS border.
At the moment I have some error in my salt printing process, not yet troubleshooted. To get some kind of (but still very low) contrast/density in this one I increased the exposure time almost 100%, warm dried it in a cabinet and finally pressed it in my Seal Jumbo 160M @ 125°C.
It's supposed to be the front part of a 2008 Harley-Davidson 105th Anniversary model...
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My London set
www.flickr.com/photos/jup3nep/sets/72157607342117095/
London is the largest urban area and the capital of England and the United Kingdom. An important settlement for two millennia, London's history goes back to its founding by the Romans. Since its settlement, London has been part of many important movements and phenomena throughout history, such as the English Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, and the Gothic Revival. The city's core, the ancient City of London, still retains its limited medieval boundaries; but since at least the 19th century the name "London" has also referred to the whole metropolis which has developed around it. Today the bulk of this conurbation forms the London region of England and the Greater London administrative area, with its own elected mayor and assembly.
London is one of the world's leading business, financial, and cultural centres, and its influence in politics, education, entertainment, media, fashion and the arts all contribute to its status as a major global city. London boasts four World Heritage Sites: The Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey and St. Margaret's Church; the Tower of London; the historic settlement of Greenwich; and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The city is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, and its popularity has increased over the years due to economic growth.
London's diverse population draws from a wide range of peoples, cultures, and religions, and over 300 languages are spoken within the city. As of 2006, it has an official population of 7,512,400 within the boundaries of Greater London and is the most populous municipality in the European Union. As of 2001, the Greater London Urban Area has a population of 8,278,251 and the metropolitan area is estimated to have a total population of between 12 and 14 million.
The 2012 Summer Olympic Games will be held in London from 27 July to 12 August 2012, followed by the 2012 Paralympic Games from 29 August to 9 September. I hope this aerial photos of London will help you during your stay in this beautiful metropolis!
23 December 2020: Update on The Corona Pandemic – The latest figures show a slowing down in the rate of increase in the number of people testing positive for coronavirus, still an average of 2,529 people tested positive for the coronavirus every day over the last week. The data also reported a stagnation in the number of new hospital admissions and a further fall in the number of people with the virus that are dying. It’s probably too early to claim victory but as a minimum these numbers are generating hopes that we are beginning to regain control over the third surge of the coronavirus before it started to eclipse the first and second wave. Yesterday it was also announced that travel between the UK and Belgium will resume on Wednesday under stricter conditions. The ban was brought in amid fears about a new variant of coronavirus that the authorities in the UK say is more infectious that other strains of the virus detected so far. Hoping for continued good news I’m carrying on with my daily corona walks. This lonely man with a face mask feeding the birds in a deserted city center reminded me of the pictures of the desolated landmarks we saw during the first wave of the pandemic – Korenlei, Ghent, Belgium.
Tomb Raider Temple
For those of you who are familiar with the “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” movie, this was the site for a number of the temple scenes. It is the partially restored ruins of the Ta Prom Temple located in the Angkor Wat temple complex in Cambodia. Yes, that is a real strangler fig tree growing over the temple structure. The threatening rain clouds pierced by the sunlight helped to increase the drama feel of the scene.
The West Highland Way (Scottish Gaelic: Slighe na Gàidhealtachd an Iar) is a linear long distance footpath in Scotland, with the official status of Long Distance Route. It is 154.5 km long, running from Milngavie north of Glasgow to Fort William in the Scottish Highlands, with an element of hill walking in the route. It is managed by the West Highland Way Management Group (WHWMG) consisting of West Dunbartonshire Council, Stirling Council, Argyll & Bute Council, Highland Council and Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park Authority. About 80,000 people use the path every year, of whom over 15,000 walk the entire route.
The trail was approved for development in 1974 and was completed and opened on 6 October 1980 by Lord Mansfield so becoming the first officially designated long distance footpath in Scotland. In June 2010, the West Highland Way was co-designated as part of the International Appalachian Trail.
The path uses many ancient roads, including drovers' roads, military roads and old coaching roads, and is traditionally walked from south to north. As well as increasing the sense of adventure, taking the route in this direction keeps the sun from one's eyes.
The route is commonly walked in seven to eight days, although many fitter and more experienced walkers do it in five or six. The route can be covered in considerably less time than this, but a less hurried progress is the choice of the majority of walkers, allowing for appreciation of the countryside along the Way. Enjoyment of the natural surroundings of the walk is the primary motivating factor for many people following the route.
(Wikipedia)
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In April, I solo-hiked on and around the northern part of the famous West Highland Way, starting in Ardlui and finishing in Fort William five days later after a set of detours from the main trail.
The itinerary was as follows: Ardlui -> pass below Ben Lui -> Inveroran -> Kingshouse -> Luibelt ruin -> Fort William.
During the fourth day, I enjoyed a beautiful morning in Kingshouse, walked on West Highland Way to Kinlochleven across the well-known Devil's Staircase pass, and continued hiking to Luibelt ruin close to which I stayed (camping) overnight.
Thanks to an increased speed limit of Mach 0.95 at RIAT 2025 and some perfect atmospheric conditions, shockwaves could be seen around many of the the high performance jets on their high speed passes.
Typically, you see shockwaves on photos in the form of vapor cones. But in this instance, the actual shockwaves are visible without the vapor, and light can be seen being distorted by them.
It always amazes me that shockwaves look just like they do in textbooks. The shockwave heading down below the exhaust being a prime example of that. -20/07/2025
Sony A7Cii with 35mm f1.4 GM
Shot at f1.8; 1/800; ISO of 80
LR Edit: shadows +10, reduced highlights and brought up whites, increased vibrance, reduced clarity
Unlike the Rusties which are declining, the Red-winged Blackbird population has increased. They are considered the most abundant bird in North America at 0.25B. Lake St. Clair.
Synergy Stage 2 ENB
Increased Contrast and decreased saturation through Imaginator.
I did say I would reinstall,maybe sooner than I intended but not many games have the creativity of Skyrim for screenshots. So far everything is smooth a few bug fixes and lots of mod cleaning. Lol I just left Skyrim only groups only to reinstall so soon, I will probably only post Skryim images into groups that will accept any game not just Skryim (since I was in too many groups for me to keep track of) and only on Flickr, but will allow admins to invite shots if they so wish to any group.
An afternoon filled with changable weather and increasing clouds suddenly lit up as the sunset. Visit loveoflandscape.com for more or follow me on facebook www.facebook.com/chrisnewhamphoto
The Bagby Depot is in the process of being dismantled for future removal. Facing boards have been removed between the two stories. The Stationhouse and the water tanks here at Bagby in 1966 were moved to the Yosemite Valley Railway museum in El Portal. The move was necessary because this area would soon be flooded by the increased size of Exchequer Reservoir. Ted Benson's 1962 Ford Falcon station wagon, "Auntie Grizelda", with his dad behind the wheel, stands about where the house track to the loading dock would have been.
Das Logo bezieht sich auf die vielfältigen Veranstaltungen und Ausstellungen im Jahr 2025, für das Chemnitz zu einer der zwei Kulturhauptstädte Europas gewählt worden war.
The logo refers to the diverse events and exhibitions in 2025, for which Chemnitz was chosen as one of the two European Capitals of Culture.
The imperial city of Chemnitz was founded in the 12th century, emerging from a Benedictine monastery. Its rise as an important trading centre in the foothills of the Ore Mountains was followed by the establishment of the city as a commercial and later industrial location in the wake of the emerging mining industry in the Ore Mountains in the 16th century. Supported primarily by coal mining in western Saxony, Chemnitz developed into one of the most important centres of German mechanical engineering and the textile industry in the 19th century. During this period, Chemnitz was also known as Little Manchester or Rußchemnitz. In the 1920, it was a leading city in the European textile market. Auto Union (today Audi) was founded 1932 in Chemnitz. In the 1930s, the three busiest squares in the Greater German Reich were Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, Stachus in Munich and Johannisplatz in Chemnitz, of which nothing remains today except the name. Its economic importance made Chemnitz a primary target for Allied air forces during the Second World War, resulting in the city being almost completely destroyed in February 1945. Even after the Second World War and the reconstruction of the destroyed industrial plants, Chemnitz remained one of the most important industrial centres in the GDR, the East German state founded in 1949.. On 10 May 1953, the city was renamed by decision of the East German government to Karl-Marx-Stadt (Karl Marx City) after Karl Marx, in recognition of its industrial heritage and the Karl Marx Year marking the 135th anniversary of his birth and the 70th anniversary of his death.After the city centre was destroyed in World War II, the East German authorities attempted to rebuild it to symbolise the conceptions of urban development of a socialist city. The historic layout of the city centre at that time was rejected in favour of a new road network. However, the original plans were not completed.. After the peaceful revolution of 1989 in the GDR, but still before the German reunification, a referendum on the future name of the city was held on 23 April 1990, : 76% of the voters voted for the old name "Chemnitz". On 1 June 1990, the city was officially renamed. After the reunification of Germany on 3 October 1990, the city of Chemnitz faced several difficult tasks. Many inhabitants migrated to the former West Germany and unemployment in the region increased sharply..Since than, the layout of the city centre has been changed fundamentally with the collaboration of renowned international architects Most of its industry is now gone and the core of the city has been rebuilt with many shops as well as huge shopping centres. . Chemnitz has had to reinvent itself, like so many times before in its long history. This process has led to ithe election of the city as one of the two Capitals of European Culture in 2025.
Sources:
wikitravel.org/de/Chemnitz and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemnitz
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The Birmingham Main Line Canal in Westside, Birmingham, West Midlands.
On 24 January 1767 a number of prominent Birmingham businessmen, including Matthew Boulton and others from the Lunar Society, held a public meeting in the White Swan, High Street, Birmingham to consider the possibility of building a canal from Birmingham to the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal near Wolverhampton, taking in the coalfields of the Black Country. They commissioned the canal engineer James Brindley to propose a route. Brindley came back with a largely level route via Smethwick, Oldbury, Tipton, Bilston and Wolverhampton to Aldersley.
On 24 February 1768 an Act of Parliament was passed to allow the building of the canal, with branches at Ocker Hill and Wednesbury where there were coal mines. The first phase of building was to Wednesbury whereupon the price of coal sold to domestic households in Birmingham halved overnight. Vested interests of the sponsors caused the creation of two terminal wharves in Birmingham. The 1772 Newhall Branch and wharf (now built upon) originally extended north of, and parallel to Great Charles Street. The 1773 Paradise Street Branch split off at Old Turn Junction and headed through Broad Street Tunnel, turned left at what is now Gas Street Basin and under Bridge Street to wharves on a tuning fork-shaped pair of long basins: Paradise Wharf, also called Old Wharf. The Bir-mingham Canal Company head office was finally built there, opposite the western end of Paradise Street.
By 6 November 1769, 10 miles (16 km) had been completed to Hill Top collieries in West Bromwich, with a one mile summit pound at Smethwick. Brindley had tried to dig a cutting through the hill at Smethwick but had encountered ground too soft to cope with. The canal rose through six narrow (7 ft) locks to the summit level and descended through another six at Spon Lane.
In 1770 work started towards Wolverhampton. On 21 September 1772 the canal was joined with the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal at Aldersley Junction via another 20 locks (increased to 21 in 1784 to save water). Brindley died a few days later. The canal measured 22 miles and 5 fur-longs (22⅝ miles), mostly following the contour of the land but with deviations to factories and mines in the Black Country and Birmingham.
Over the next thirty years, as more canals and branches were built or connected it became necessary to review the long, winding, narrow Old Main Line. With a single towpath boats passing in opposite directions had to negotiate their horses and ropes. In 1824 Thomas Telford was commissioned to examine alternatives.
Telford proposed major changes to the section between Birmingham and Smethwick, widening and straightening the canal, providing towpaths on each side, and cutting through Smethwick Summit to bypass the locks, allowing lock-free passage from Birmingham to Tipton.
By 1827 the New Main Line passed straight through, and linked to, the loops of the Old Main Line, creating Oozells Loop, Icknield Port Loop, Soho Loop, Cape Loop and Soho Foundry Loop, allowing continued access to the existing factories and wharves.
A year earlier he had built an improved Rotton Park Reservoir (Edgbaston Reservoir) on the site of an existing fish pool, bringing its capacity to 300 million imperial gallons (1,400,000 m3). A canal feeder took water to, and along, a raised embankment on the south side of the New Main Line to his new Engine Arm branch canal and across an elegant cast iron aqueduct to top up the higher Wolverhampton Level at Smethwick Summit. The reservoir also fed water to the Birmingham Level at the adjacent Icknield Port Loop.
The Smethwick Summit was bypassed by 71 ft cutting through Lunar Society member, Samuel Galton's land, creating the Galton Valley, 70 feet deep and 150 feet wide, running parallel to the Old Main Line. Telford's changes here were completed in 1829.
By 1838 the New Main Line was complete: 22⅝ miles of slow canal reduced to 15⅝; between Birmingham and Tipton, a lock-free dual carriageway. It was also called the Island Line as it was cut straight through the hill at Smethwick known as the Island.
Warmer temperatures and thawing soils may be driving an increase in emissions of carbon dioxide from Alaskan tundra to the atmosphere, particularly during the early winter, according to a new study supported by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). More carbon dioxide released to the atmosphere will accelerate climate warming, which, in turn, could lead to the release of even more carbon dioxide from these soils.
A new paper led by Roisin Commane, an atmospheric researcher at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, finds the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from northern tundra areas between October and December each year has increased 70 percent since 1975. Commane and colleagues analyzed three years of aircraft observations from NASA’s Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment (CARVE) airborne mission to estimate the spatial and seasonal distribution of Alaska’s carbon dioxide emissions. They also studied NOAA’s 41-year record of carbon dioxide measured from ground towers in Barrow (the name recently changed back to Utqiagvik), Alaska. The aircraft data provided unprecedented spatial information, while the ground data provided long-term measurements not available anywhere else in the Arctic. Results of the study are published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Charles Miller
In the Middle Ages there were several population movements due to a significant demographic increase and the desire to conquer new land to cultivate and possess. It is within this context that the Walser migration took place. This German-speaking ethnic group from the northern areas of Valais, from which the origin of the Walser name, left their native settlements to move gradually and extremely peacefully towards the Alps and the area of Grisons, Liechtenstein, Vorarlberg and Tyrol. Evidence of the first settlements of this population in Valsesia date back to the beginning of the 13th notably in Rimella, Rima and Alagna.The community, made up of shepherds, settled in cottages scattered along side the mountain and with hard work they transformed woodlands into productive pastures. This new form of economy created new grounds for personal freedom and community autonomy, unusual for a time when taxes and servitude were part of everyday life.Their houses were examples of extraordinary architecture, which are still considered as engineering masterpieces, studied and structured in minute detail in order to gain maximum functionality because of the harsh environmental conditions. Normally arranged on three storeys, there is a stone basement, generally dry, with an upper area made out of wood and divided according to the use. The sloping roof is made out of local stone slabs, whose noteworthy weight is supported by a brilliant structure of roof beams.Not to be overlooked are the roof gutters, made from partial, dug out larch logs. Of notable ingenious is also the space allocation: the basement hosts the stables which are equipped with drainage canals for the manure and there is also a living room and kitchen as well as an area for processing milk and for the preparation of yarn and hemp fabrics. Above the stable, on the ground floor, is the bedroom and next to it the storage room for the carpentry tools.The first floor consists of the barn, where agricultural tools are stored and a closed area with shelves and racks used as a pantry for grains and other food goods. Outside, running completely around the structure, is a large and elegant balcony made out of horizontal poles used for drying hay, rye and hemp. Alagna, over the years, has been able to preserve the Walser cultural heritage - the characteristic houses, fountains and bread ovens that can be used again today, old mills, the renewed sawmill and water wheel. the Tittschu language and with this, the traditions and customs of these people represent a priceless treasure, which has always been protected and passed down through the generations.
Control tower. 1939-40, to 1939 Watch Office with Meteorological Section design by Air Ministry's Directorate of Works. Drawing no. 5845/39. Painted brickwork walls, reinforced concrete floors and roof, with asphalt finish.
PLAN: a near-square plan on three floors with wide glazed balconies facing the flying field. The ground floor has the main watch office and pilots' room, forecast and teleprinters, and WCs; at first floor is the main control room backed by the meteorological and signals offices; the rear staircase gives access also to the glazed observation room at second floor level.
EXTERIOR: the original steel casements with horizontal glazing bars have been retained almost throughout, including those to the long observation frontages. At ground floor the front has three large 4-light windows separated by brick piers, under a concrete balcony cantilevered out to semi-circular ends, and with a 'nautical' style steel balustrade in four horizontal bars and handrail to simple uprights; at this level is a continuous multi-light window returned to quadrants at each end, above a low breast wall, and with a deep parapet wall taken up as a balustrade to the top deck, which has a further range of full-width glazing to a set-back observation room. The return walls each have a series of tall casements, linked at the upper level by a 'frieze band' under the cantilevered flat slab with the nautical balustrade continued to the rear to the stair tower. The rear faÎade has a single light each side of the projecting stair tower, with a small bulls-eye above a deep stair light, and small lights on the return.
Later alterations comprise timber-framed and glazed observation room, and extension over rear doorway. The building is flanked at each side by two-bay and three-bay fire tender and flare stores.
INTERIOR: original doors and joinery; solid concrete staircase.
HISTORY: This is the best example of this type of control tower after Swanton Morley. It is the most sophisticated Air Ministry design of the inter-war period both in terms of its planning, with a meteorological section incorporated into the design behind the control room. Its distinctly Art Deco treatment strongly recalls the Bauhaus tradition from which this style was evolved. In the second half of the 1930s, increasing attention was being given to the dispersal and shelter of aircraft from attack, ensuring serviceable landing and take-off areas, and the control of movement: the result was the development of the control tower, from the simple watch office of the 1920s, and the planning from 1938 of the first airfields with runways and perimeter tracks. The development of radio communication, and the increasing need to organise the flying field into different zones for take-off, landing and taxiing, brought with it an acceptance that movement on the airfield needed to be controlled from a single centre: control towers thus evolved from the simple duty pilot's watch office to the tower design of 1934 and integration of traffic control and weather monitoring in the Art Deco horizontality of the Watch Office with Meteorological Section of 1939. The control tower became the most distinctive and instantly recognisable building associated with military airfields, particularly in the Second World War when they served as foci for base personnel as they awaited the return of aircraft from operations.
From 1930 the Maidstone School of Flying used the area as a private landing ground, which was registered as Maidstone airport in 1932. A satellite of Biggin Hill within Fighter Command's strategically critical 11 Group, West Malling was opened as a fighter station in June 1940, although a series of raids in August and September 1940 rendered the airfield unserviceable for much of the Battle of Britain. It reopened in October of that year, although the station was able to accept a full station only in April 1941. It became a nightfighter station at this time, its Bristol Beaufighter pilots including Guy Gibson and Don Parker - both becoming famous names in Bomber Command, the former for his leadership of 617 Squadron in the Dams Raid and other precision attacks. It was later used by Mosquitos and Typhoons in operations against occupied Europe, including the support of 'D' Day, and became the principal station during 'Operation Diver' in 1944, the name given to the defence of the east and south-eastern coasts against the V1 bomb. It is significant, in this context, that there are no other fighter stations associated with 'Operation Diver' that have survived in a sufficiently complete state of preservation to merit listing: the other key sites in the London area - Northolt, Biggin Hill and Kenley - were placed behind the balloon barrage erected for the operation. With the end of the war, West Malling became the main rehabilitation centre for POWs returning from Germany to Britain. The base was put into 'care and maintenance' in August 1960, and was acquired in 1970 by Kent County Council: in 1972 it became a centre for dispossessed Ugandan Asians, and eventually some of the major buildings were adapted for Local Authority use (notably the Officers' Mess and Building 60), whilst others were retained and incorporated as part of a larger commercial park.
Piglet, pinhole 6x6 camera. I increased the contrast in PSE.
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Another walk along the shore tonight as the weather was just glorious. None of the birds would come near us because, so I just took some photos of my husband throwing stones into the water!
"Lord Jesus, increase my hunger for you and show me the way that leads to everlasting peace and happiness. May I desire you above all else and find perfect joy in doing your will."
Copyright© 2010 Kamoteus/RonMiguel RN
This image is protected under the United States and International Copyright laws and may not be downloaded, reproduced, copied, transmitted or manipulated without written permission.
Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It was incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on natural and man-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter of which separates the Beach from the mainland city of Miami. The neighborhood of South Beach, comprising the southernmost 2.5 square miles (6.5 km2) of Miami Beach, along with downtown Miami and the Port of Miami, collectively form the commercial center of South Florida. Miami Beach's estimated population is 92,307 according to the most recent United States census estimates. Miami Beach is the 26th largest city in Florida based on official 2017 estimates from the US Census Bureau. It has been one of America's pre-eminent beach resorts since the early 20th century.
In 1979, Miami Beach's Art Deco Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Art Deco District is the largest collection of Art Deco architecture in the world and comprises hundreds of hotels, apartments and other structures erected between 1923 and 1943. Mediterranean, Streamline Moderne and Art Deco are all represented in the District. The Historic District is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the East, Lenox Court on the West, 6th Street on the South and Dade Boulevard along the Collins Canal to the North. The movement to preserve the Art Deco District's architectural heritage was led by former interior designer Barbara Baer Capitman, who now has a street in the District named in her honor.
Miami Beach is governed by a ceremonial mayor and six commissioners. Although the mayor runs commission meetings, the mayor and all commissioners have equal voting power and are elected by popular election. The mayor serves for terms of two years with a term limit of three terms and commissioners serve for terms of four years and are limited to two terms. Commissioners are voted for citywide and every two years three commission seats are voted upon.
A city manager is responsible for administering governmental operations. An appointed city manager is responsible for administration of the city. The City Clerk and the City Attorney are also appointed officials.
In 1870, a father and son, Henry and Charles Lum, purchased the land for 75 cents an acre. The first structure to be built on this uninhabited oceanfront was the Biscayne House of Refuge, constructed in 1876 by the United States Life-Saving Service at approximately 72nd Street. Its purpose was to provide food, water, and a return to civilization for people who were shipwrecked. The next step in the development of the future Miami Beach was the planting of a coconut plantation along the shore in the 1880s by New Jersey entrepreneurs Ezra Osborn and Elnathan Field, but this was a failed venture. One of the investors in the project was agriculturist John S. Collins, who achieved success by buying out other partners and planting different crops, notably avocados, on the land that would later become Miami Beach. Meanwhile, across Biscayne Bay, the City of Miami was established in 1896 with the arrival of the railroad, and developed further as a port when the shipping channel of Government Cut was created in 1905, cutting off Fisher Island from the south end of the Miami Beach peninsula.
Collins' family members saw the potential in developing the beach as a resort. This effort got underway in the early years of the 20th century by the Collins/Pancoast family, the Lummus brothers (bankers from Miami), and Indianapolis entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher. Until then, the beach here was only the destination for day-trips by ferry from Miami, across the bay. By 1912, Collins and Pancoast were working together to clear the land, plant crops, supervise the construction of canals to get their avocado crop to market, and set up the Miami Beach Improvement Company. There were bath houses and food stands, but no hotel until Brown's Hotel was built in 1915 (still standing, at 112 Ocean Drive). Much of the interior land mass at that time was a tangled jungle of mangroves. Clearing it, deepening the channels and water bodies, and eliminating native growth almost everywhere in favor of landfill for development, was expensive. Once a 1600-acre, jungle-matted sand bar three miles out in the Atlantic, it grew to 2,800 acres when dredging and filling operations were completed.
With loans from the Lummus brothers, Collins had begun work on a 2½-mile-long wooden bridge, the world's longest wooden bridge at the time, to connect the island to the mainland. When funds ran dry and construction work stalled, Indianapolis millionaire and recent Miami transplant Fisher intervened, providing the financing needed to complete the bridge the following year in return for a land swap deal. That transaction kicked off the island's first real estate boom. Fisher helped by organizing an annual speed boat regatta, and by promoting Miami Beach as an Atlantic City-style playground and winter retreat for the wealthy. By 1915, Lummus, Collins, Pancoast, and Fisher were all living in mansions on the island, three hotels and two bath houses had been erected, an aquarium built, and an 18-hole golf course landscaped.
The Town of Miami Beach was chartered on March 26, 1915; it grew to become a City in 1917. Even after the town was incorporated in 1915 under the name of Miami Beach, many visitors thought of the beach strip as Alton Beach, indicating just how well Fisher had advertised his interests there. The Lummus property was called Ocean Beach, with only the Collins interests previously referred to as Miami Beach.
Carl Fisher was the main promoter of Miami Beach's development in the 1920s as the site for wealthy industrialists from the north and Midwest to and build their winter homes here. Many other Northerners were targeted to vacation on the island. To accommodate the wealthy tourists, several grand hotels were built, among them: The Flamingo Hotel, The Fleetwood Hotel, The Floridian, The Nautilus, and the Roney Plaza Hotel. In the 1920s, Fisher and others created much of Miami Beach as landfill by dredging Biscayne Bay; this man-made territory includes Star, Palm, and Hibiscus Islands, the Sunset Islands, much of Normandy Isle, and all of the Venetian Islands except Belle Isle. The Miami Beach peninsula became an island in April 1925 when Haulover Cut was opened, connecting the ocean to the bay, north of present-day Bal Harbour. The great 1926 Miami hurricane put an end to this prosperous era of the Florida Boom, but in the 1930s Miami Beach still attracted tourists, and investors constructed the mostly small-scale, stucco hotels and rooming houses, for seasonal rental, that comprise much of the present "Art Deco" historic district.
Carl Fisher brought Steve Hannagan to Miami Beach in 1925 as his chief publicist. Hannagan set-up the Miami Beach News Bureau and notified news editors that they could "Print anything you want about Miami Beach; just make sure you get our name right." The News Bureau sent thousands of pictures of bathing beauties and press releases to columnists like Walter Winchell and Ed Sullivan. One of Hannagan's favorite venues was a billboard in Times Square, New York City, where he ran two taglines: "'It's always June in Miami Beach' and 'Miami Beach, Where Summer Spends the Winter.'"
Post–World War II economic expansion brought a wave of immigrants to South Florida from the Northern United States, which significantly increased the population in Miami Beach within a few decades. After Fidel Castro's rise to power in 1959, a wave of Cuban refugees entered South Florida and dramatically changed the demographic make-up of the area. In 2017, one study named zip code 33109 (Fisher Island, a 216-acre island located just south of Miami Beach), as having the 4th most expensive home sales and the highest average annual income ($2.5 million) in 2015.
South Beach (also known as SoBe, or simply the Beach), the area from Biscayne Street (also known as South Pointe Drive) one block south of 1st Street to about 23rd Street, is one of the more popular areas of Miami Beach. Although topless sunbathing by women has not been officially legalized, female toplessness is tolerated on South Beach and in a few hotel pools on Miami Beach. Before the TV show Miami Vice helped make the area popular, SoBe was under urban blight, with vacant buildings and a high crime rate. Today, it is considered one of the richest commercial areas on the beach, yet poverty and crime still remain in some places near the area.
Miami Beach, particularly Ocean Drive of what is now the Art Deco District, was also featured prominently in the 1983 feature film Scarface and the 1996 comedy The Birdcage.
The New World Symphony Orchestra is based in Miami Beach, under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas.
Lincoln Road, running east-west parallel between 16th and 17th Streets, is a nationally known spot for outdoor dining and shopping and features galleries of well known designers, artists and photographers such as Romero Britto, Peter Lik, and Jonathan Adler. In 2015, the Miami Beach residents passed a law forbidding bicycling, rollerblading, skateboarding and other motorized vehicles on Lincoln Road during busy pedestrian hours between 9:00am and 2:00am.
Credit for the data above is given to the following website:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_Beach,_Florida
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"the artists of the "Casa del Musical" group (House of Musical)".
“gli artisti del gruppo "Casa del Musical".
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A history of Taormina: chronicles of a forbidden love and its great secret (not only Paolo and Francesca) with an unexpected "scoop".
This story is an integral part of the story previously told, the historical period is the same, the place is the same, the various characters often meet each other because they know each other; Taormina, between the end of the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s, in an ever increasing growth, became the place of residence of elite tourism, thanks to the international interest aroused by writers and artists, such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , or great personalities like Lady Florence Trevelyan: Taormina becomes so famous, thanks to the paintings of the painter Otto Geleng and the photographs of the young Sicilian models by Wilhelm von Gloeden; in the air of Taormina there is a sense of libertine, its famous and histrionic visitors never fail to create scandal, even surpassing the famous Capri, in which, to cite just one example, the German gunsmith Krupp, trying to recreate the he environment of Arcadia that one breathed in Taormina (thanks to the photos of von Gloeden) was overwhelmed by the scandal for homosexuality, and took his own life. Taormina thus becomes a heavenly-like place, far from industrial civilizations, where you can freely live your life and sexuality; this is the socio-cultural environment in which the two protagonists of this story move, the British painter Robert Hawthorn Kitson (1873 - 1947) and the painter Carlo Siligato (born in Taormina in 1875, and died there in 1959). Robert H. Kitson, born in Leeds in England, belonged to a more than wealthy family, as a young engineer he had begun to replace his father in the family locomotive construction company (Kitson & Co.), on the death of his father in 1899 sells everything and decides to move very rich in Sicily to Taormina (he had been there the previous year with a trip made with his parents, here he had met, in addition to Baron von Gloeden, also the writer and poet Oscar Wilde who came to Italy, immediately after having served two years in prison in forced labor, on charges of sodomy); Kitson settled there because he was suffering from a severe form of rheumatic fever (like von Gloeden was advised to treat himself in the Mediterranean climate milder), and because as a homosexual, he leaves England because the Labouchere amendment considered homosexuality a crime. The other protagonist of this story is Carlo Siligato, he was from Taormina, he had attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, a very gifted painter, he was very good at oil painting (he exhibited his paintings in an art workshop, even now existing, in via Teatro Greco in Taormina), the meeting with the painter Robert Kitson, led him to adopt the watercolor technique: almost to relive Dante's verses on Paolo and Francesca "Galeotto was the book and who wrote it" the common passion for painting led the two artists to live an intense love story. Kitson built his home in the "Cuseni" district of Taormina, called for this "Casa Cuseni", the house was built between 1900 and 1905, its decorations were entrusted to the artists Alfred East (realist landscape painter, president of the Royal Society ), and Frank Brangwyn (painter, decorator, designer), he was a pupil of William Morris, leader of the English movement "Arts and Crafts" which spread to England in the second half of the nineteenth century (the Arts and Crafts was a response to the industrialization of Europe, of mass production operated by factories, all this at the expense of traditional craftsmanship, from this movement originated the Art Nouveau, in Italy also known as Liberty Style or Floral Style, which distinguished itself for having been a artistic and philosophical movement, which developed between the end of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century, whose style spread in such a way as to be present everywhere). Casa Cuseni has kept a secret for 100 years that goes far beyond the forbidden love lived by Robert and Carlo, a secret hidden inside the "secret room", that dinning room that was reopened in 2012; entering the dining room, you can witness a series of murals painted on the four walls by Frank Brangwyn, in Art Nouveau style, which portray the life and love story between the painter Robert Kitson, and his life partner, the Carlo Siligato from Taormina, but the thing that makes these murals even more special, full of tenderness and sweetness, is that "their secret" (!) is represented in them, it is described visually, as in an "episodic" story that really happened in their lives: Messina (and Reggio Calabria) are destroyed by the terrible earthquake with a tsunami on December 28, 1908, Carlo Siligato, Robert Kitson, Wilhelm von Gloeden and Anatole France leave for Messina, to see and document in person the tragedy, the city was a pile of rubble, many dead, Robert and Carlo see a baby, Francesco, he is alone in the world, without parents who died in the earthquake, abandoned to a certain and sad destiny, a deep desire for protection is born in the two of them, a maternal and paternal desire is born, they decide to takes that little child with them even knowing that they are risking a lot ... (!), what they want to do is something absolutely unthinkable in that historical period, they are a homosexual couple, what they are about to do is absolutely forbidden ..(!) but now there is Francesco in their life, thus becoming, in fact, the first homogenitorial family (with a more generic term, rainbow family) in world history: hence the need to keep the whole story absolutely hidden, both from an artistic point of view , represented by the murals (for more than 100 years, the "dinning room" will be kept hidden), both of what happens in real life, with little Francesco cared for lovingly, but with great risk or. I have allegorically inserted, in the photographic story, some photographs of the artists of the company "Casa del Musical", who came to Taormina to perform during the Christmas period: today as yesterday, Taormina has always been (starting from the last 20 years of the 19th century) center of a crossroads of artists and great personalities, Casa Cuseni also in this has an enormous palmares of illustrious guests, too long to state. The young boys painted on the murals of Casa Cuseni, wear white, this is a sign of purity, they wanted to represent their ideal homosexual world, fighting against the figure dressed in black, short in stature, disturbing, which acquires a negative value, an allegorical figure of the English society of the time, indicating the Victorian morality that did not hesitate to condemn Oscar Wilde, depriving him of all his assets and rights, even preventing him from giving the surname to his children. The boys are inspired by the young Sicilian models photographed by Wilhelm von Gloeden, dressed in white tunics, with their heads surrounded by local flowers. The only female figure present has given rise to various interpretations, one could be Kitson's detachment from his motherland, or his detachment from his mother. On the third wall we witness the birth of the homogenitorial family, both (allegorically Carlo and Kitson with the child in their arms) are in profile, they are walking, the younger man has a long, Greek-style robe, placed on the front, next to him behind him, the sturdier companion holds and gently protects the little child in his arms, as if to spare the companion the effort of a long and uncertain journey, there is in the representation of the family the idea of a long journey, in fact the man holding the child wears heavy shoes, their faces are full of apprehension and concern: in front of them an empty wall, so deliberately left by Frank Brangwin, since their future is unknown, in front of them they have a destiny full of unknowns (at the same time, their path points east, they go towards the rising sun: opening the large window the sun floods everything in the room). In the "secret room" there is the picture painted in 1912 by Alfred E. East, an oil on canvas, representing Lake Bourget. Carlo Siligato later married Costanza, she was my father's grandmother's sister, they had a son, Nino, who for many years lived and worked as a merchant in his father's art workshop. I sincerely thank my colleague Dr. Francesco Spadaro, doctor and esteemed surgeon, owner and director of the "Casa Cuseni" House-Garden-Museum, who, affectionately acting as a guide, gave me the precious opportunity to create "this photographic tour" inside the house- museum and in the "metaphysical garden" of Casa Cuseni. … And the scoop that I announced in the title ..? After photographing the tomb of Carlo Siligato, in the Catholic cemetery of Taormina, I started looking for that of Robert Kitson, in the non-Catholic cemetery of Taormina: when I finally found it (with him lies his niece Daphne Phelps, buried later in 2005) ... I felt a very strong emotion, first of all I was expecting a mausoleum, instead I found a small, very modest tomb on this is not a photo of him, not an epitaph, not a Cross, not a praying Angel to point it out, but ... unexpectedly for a funerary tombstone ... a small bas-relief carved on marble (or stone) depicting ... the Birth ... (!), obviously , having chosen her could have a very specific meaning: a desire to transmit a message, something very profound about him, his tomb thus testified that in his soul, what was really important in life was having a family, with Carlo and baby Francesco, certainly beloved, saved from a certain and sad fate, in the terrible Messina earthquake-tsunami of 28 December 1908 ... almost recalling in an absolute synthesis, at the end of his life, what had already been told in the "secret murals" of Casa Cuseni.
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Una storia di Taormina: cronache di un amore proibito e del suo grande segreto (non solo Paolo e Francesca) con inaspettato “scoop”.
Questa storia fa parte integrante della storia precedentemente raccontata, il periodo storico è lo stesso, il luogo è lo stesso, i vari personaggi spesso si frequentano tra loro poiché si conoscono; Taormina, tra la fine dell’800 e l’inizio del’900, in un sempre maggiore crescendo, diventa luogo di residenza del turismo d’élite, grazie all’interesse internazionale suscitato ad opera di scrittori ed artisti, come Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, o grandi personalità come Lady Florence Trevelyan: Taormina diventa così famosa, complici i quadri del pittore Otto Geleng e le fotografie dei giovani modelli siciliani di Wilhelm von Gloeden; nell’aria di Taormina si respira un che di libertino, i suoi famosi ed istrionici frequentatori non mancano mai di creare scandalo, superando persino la famosa Capri, nella quale, per citare solo un esempio, l’armiere tedesco Krupp, cercando di ricreare l’ambiente dell’Arcadia che si respirava a Taormina (grazie alle foto di von Gloeden) viene travolto dallo scandalo per omosessualità, e si toglie la vita. Taormina diviene quindi un luogo simil-paradisiaco, lontana dalle civiltà industriali, nella quale poter vivere liberamente la propria vita e la propria sessualità; questo è l’ambiente socio-culturale nel quale si muovono i due protagonisti di questa vicenda, il pittore britannico Robert Hawthorn Kitson (1873 – 1947) ed il pittore Carlo Siligato (nato a Taormina nel 1875, ed ivi morto nel 1959). Robert H. Kitson, nacque a Leeds in Inghilterra, apparteneva ad una famiglia più che benestante, da giovane ingegnere aveva cominciato a sostituire il padre nell’impresa familiare di costruzioni di locomotive (la Kitson & Co.), alla morte del padre nel 1899 vende tutto e decide di trasferirsi ricchissimo in Sicilia a Taormina (vi era stato l’anno precedente con un viaggio fatto coi suoi genitori, qui aveva conosciuto, oltre al barone von Gloeden, anche lo scrittore e poeta Oscar Wilde venuto in Italia, subito dopo aver scontato due anni di prigione ai lavori forzati, con l’accusa di sodomia); Kitson vi si stabilisce perché affetto da una grave forma di febbre reumatica (come von Gloeden gli fu consigliato di curarsi nel clima mediterraneo più mite), sia perché in quanto omosessuale, lascia l’Inghilterra perché l’emendamento Labouchere considerava l’omosessualità un crimine. L’altro protagonista di questa storia è Carlo Siligato, egli era taorminese, aveva frequentato l’Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, pittore molto dotato, era bravissimo nel dipingere ad olio (esponeva i suoi quadri in una bottega d’arte, ancora adesso esistente, in via Teatro Greco a Taormina), l’incontro col pittore Robert Kitson, lo portò ad adottare la tecnica dell’acquarello: quasi a rivivere i versi di Dante su Paolo e Francesca “Galeotto fu ‘l libro e chi lo scrisse” la comune passione per la pittura condusse i due artisti a vivere una intensa storia d’amore. Kitson costruì nel quartiere “Cuseni” di Taormina la sua abitazione, detta per questo “Casa Cuseni”, la casa fu costruita tra il 1900 ed il 1905, le sue decorazioni furono affidate agli artisti Alfred East (pittore verista paesaggista, presidente della Royal Society), e Frank Brangwyn (pittore, decoratore, designer, progettista), egli era allievo di William Morris, leader del movimento inglese “Arts and Crafts” (Arti e Mestieri) che si diffuse in Inghilterra nella seconda metà del XIX secolo (l’Arts and Crafts era una risposta alla industrializzazione dell’Europa, della produzione in massa operata dalle fabbriche, tutto ciò a scapito dell’artigianato tradizionale, da questo movimento ebbe origine l’Art Nouveau, in Italia conosciuta anche come Stile Liberty o Stile Floreale, che si distinse per essere stata un movimento artistico e filosofico, che si sviluppò tra la fine dell’800 ed il primo decennio del ‘900, il cui stile si diffuse in tal modo da essere presente dappertutto). Casa Cuseni ha custodito per 100 anni un segreto che va ben oltre quell’amore proibito vissuto da Robert e Carlo, segreto celato all’interno della “stanza segreta”, quella dinning room che è stata riaperta nel 2012; entrando nella sala da pranzo, si assiste ad una serie di murales realizzati sulle quattro pareti da Frank Brangwyn, in stile Art Nouveau, che ritraggono la vita e la storia d’amore tra il pittore Robert Kitson, ed il suo compagno di vita, il pittore taorminese Carlo Siligato, ma la cosa che rende questi murales ancora più particolari, carichi di tenerezza e dolcezza, è che in essi viene rappresentato “il loro segreto” (!), viene descritto visivamente, come in un racconto “ad episodi” quello che è realmente avvenuto nella loro vita: Messina (e Reggio Calabria) vengono distrutte dal terribile sisma con maremoto il 28 dicembre del 1908, partono per Messina, Carlo Siligato, Robert Kitson, Wilhelm von Gloeden ed Anatole France, per vedere e documentare di persona la tragedia, la città era un cumulo di macerie, moltissimi i morti, Robert e Carlo vedono un piccolo bimbo, Francesco, egli è solo al mondo, privo dei genitori periti nel terremoto, abbandonato ad un certo e triste destino, nasce in loro due un profondo desiderio di protezione, nasce un desiderio materno e paterno, decidono di prende quel piccolo bimbo con loro pur sapendo che stanno rischiando moltissimo…(!) , quello che vogliono fare è una cosa assolutamente impensabile in quel periodo storico, loro sono una coppia omosessuale, quello che stanno per fare è assolutamente proibito..(!) ma oramai c’è Francesco nella loro vita, divenendo così, di fatto, la prima famiglia omogenitoriale (con termine più generico, famiglia arcobaleno) nella storia mondiale: da qui la necessità di tenere assolutamente nascosta tutta la vicenda, sia dal punto di vista artistico, rappresentata dai murales (per più di 100 anni, la “dinning room” verrà tenuta nascosta), sia di quanto accade nella vita reale, col piccolo Francesco accudito amorevolmente, ma con grandissimo rischio. Ho inserito allegoricamente, nel racconto fotografico, alcune fotografie degli artisti della compagnia “Casa del Musical”, giunti a Taormina per esibirsi durante il periodo natalizio: oggi come ieri, Taormina è sempre stata (a partire dagli ultimi 20 anni dell’800) al centro di un crocevia di artisti e grandi personalità, Casa Cuseni anche in questo ha un enorme palmares di ospiti illustri, troppo lungo da enunciare. I giovani ragazzi dipinti sui murales di Casa Cuseni, vestono di bianco, questo è segno di purezza, si è voluto in tal modo rappresentare il loro mondo ideale omosessuale, in lotta contro la figura vestita di nero, bassa di statura, inquietante, che acquista un valore negativo, figura allegorica della società inglese dell’epoca, indicante la morale Vittoriana che non ha esitato a condannare Oscar Wilde, privandolo di tutti i suoi beni e diritti, impedendogli persino di dare il cognome ai suoi figli. I ragazzi sono ispirati ai giovani modelli siciliani fotografati da Wilhelm von Gloeden, vestiti con tuniche bianche, col capo cinto dei fiori locali. L’unica figura femminile presente, ha dato spunto a varie interpretazioni, una potrebbe essere il distacco da parte di Kitson dalla sua madre patria, oppure il distacco da sua madre. Sulla terza parete si assiste alla nascita della famiglia omogenitoriale, entrambi (allegoricamente Carlo e Kitson col bimbo in braccio) sono di profilo, sono in cammino, l’uomo più giovane ha una veste lunga, alla greca, posto sul davanti, accanto a lui, alle sue spalle, il compagno più robusto sostiene in braccio e protegge con dolcezza il piccolo bimbo, quasi a voler risparmiare al compagno la fatica di un lungo ed incerto percorso, vi è nella rappresentazione della famiglia l’idea di un lungo percorso, infatti l’uomo che regge il bimbo indossa delle calzature pesanti, i loro volti sono carichi di apprensione e preoccupazione: davanti a loro una parete vuota, così volutamente lasciata da Frank Brangwin, poiché il loro futuro è ignoto, davanti hanno un destino pieno di incognite (al tempo stesso, il loro cammino indica l’est, vanno verso il sole nascente: aprendo la grande finestra il sole inonda ogni cosa nella stanza).
Nella “stanza segreta” c’è il quadro dipinto nel 1912 da Alfred E. East, un olio su tela, rappresentante il lago Bourget.
Carlo Siligato, successivamente si sposò con Costanza, una sorella della nonna di mio padre, da lei ebbe un figlio, Nino, il quale per tantissimi anni ha vissuto e lavorato come commerciante nella bottega d’arte del padre. Ringrazio di cuore il mio collega dott. Francesco Spadaro, medico e stimato chirurgo, proprietario e direttore della Casa-Giardino-Museo “Casa Cuseni”, il quale, facendomi affettuosamente da cicerone, mi ha dato la preziosa opportunità di realizzare “questo tour fotografico” all’interno dell’abitazione-museo e nel “giardino-metafisico” di Casa Cuseni.
…E lo scoop che ho annunciato nel titolo..? Dopo aver fotografato la tomba di Carlo Siligato, nel cimitero cattolico di Taormina, mi sono messo alla ricerca di quella di Robert Kitson, nel cimitero acattolico di Taormina: quando finalmente l’ho trovata (insieme a lui giace sua nipote Daphne Phelps, seppellita successivamente nel 2005)…ho provato una fortissima commozione, innanzitutto mi aspettavo un mausoleo, invece ho trovato una tomba piccola, molto modesta, su questa non una sua foto, non un epitaffio, non una Croce, non un Angelo pregante ad indicarla, ma … inaspettatamente per una lapide funeraria…un piccolo bassorilievo scolpito su marmo (o su pietra) raffigurante…la Natalità…(!), evidentemente, l’averla scelta potrebbe avere un significato ben preciso: un desiderio di trasmettere un messaggio, qualcosa di molto profondo di lui, la sua tomba testimoniava così che nel suo animo, ciò che in vita fu davvero importante fu l’aver avuto una famiglia, con Carlo e col piccolo Francesco, certamente amatissimo, salvato da un molto probabile triste destino, nel terribile terremoto-maremoto di Messina del 28 dicembre del 1908…quasi rievocando in una sintesi assoluta, al termine della sua vita, ciò che era già stato raccontato nei “murales segreti” di Casa Cuseni.
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Paper printed Wind horse. Erecting prayer flags (dar lcog) printed with an image of a wind-horse, or throwing to the wind small pieces of paper printed with the same image is one of the most popular ritual activities among Tibetans (such as on high mountain passes) / and is performed to increase well-being or good luck. These flags and printed papers are commonly called rlung rta / though technically speaking rlung rta refers to the concept of good luck itself རླུང་རྟ lungta,
Well-being or good luck. A horse riding on the wind, with a wish-fulfilling jewel on its back, is a common symbol of well being (khams) or good luck (lam 'gro). The term rlung rta is thus frequently used to refer to these concepts.
The order of colors from left to right are Blue, White, Red, Green, & Yellow.