REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE METIS

 

MECONOPSIS BETONICIFOLIA

 

Himalayan flower imported by Elsie Reford in the early 1930s that has since become the floral emblem of the Gardens.

  

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

 

From Wikipedia:

 

Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.

 

Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.

  

Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.

 

She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.

 

In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.

 

During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.

 

In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.

 

Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.

 

To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.

 

Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.

 

In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)

 

Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford

  

LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS

 

Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.

 

Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.

 

Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada

 

© Copyright

This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.

REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE METIS

 

Beautiful flowers at Reford Gardens.

 

Mrs Elsie Reford loved visiting that village (Saint Octave de Metis) close to Reford Gardens.

 

Reference: Elsie's Paradise, The Reford Gardens, Alexander Reford, 2004, ISBN 2-7619-1921-1, That book is a must for Reford Gardens lovers!

 

''Elsie often ventured into the back country near the gardens, admiring the hilly country behind the village of St. Octave.'' (page 99)

  

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

 

From Wikipedia:

 

Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.

 

Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.

  

Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.

 

She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.

 

In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.

 

During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.

 

In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.

 

Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.

 

To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.

 

Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.

 

In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)

 

Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford

 

LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS

 

Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.

 

Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.

 

Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada

 

© Copyright

This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.

There is a danger of running out of superlatives when trying to describe Beverley Minster. It is not only the second finest non-cathedral church in the country but is architecturally a far finer building than most of our cathedrals themselves! It will come as a surprise to many visitors to find this grand edifice simply functions today as a parish church and has never been more than collegiate, a status it lost at the Reformaton. What had added to its mystique and wealth was its status as a place of pilgrimage housing the tomb of St John of Beverley, which drew visitors and revenue until the Reformation brought an end to such fortunes and the shrine was destroyed (though the saint's bones were later rediscovered and reinterred in the nave). That this great church itself survived this period almost intact is little short of a miracle in itself.

 

There has been a church here since the 8th century but little remains of the earlier buildings aside from the Saxon chair near the altar and the Norman font in the nave. The present Minster's construction spans the entirety of the development of Gothic architecture but forms a surprisingly harmonious whole nevertheless, starting with Early English in the 13h century choir and transepts (both pairs) with their lancet windows in a building phase that stopped at the first bays of the nave. Construction was then continued with the nave in the 14th century but only the traceried windows betray the emergent Decorated style, the design otherwise closely followed the work of the previous century which gives the Minster's interior such a pleasingly unified appearance (the only discernable break in construction within can be seen where the black purbeck-marble ceased to be used for certain elements beyond the eastern bay of the nave). Finally the building was completed more or less by 1420 with the soaring west front with its dramatic twin-towers in Perpendicular style (the east window must have been enlarged at this point too to match the new work at the west end).

 

The fabric happily survived the Reformation intact aside from the octagonal chapter-house formerly adjoining the north choir aisle which was dismantled to raise money by the sale of its materials while the church's fate was in the balance (a similar fate was contemplated for the rest of the church by its new owners until the town bought it for retention as a parish church for £100). The great swathes of medieval glass alas were mostly lost, though seemingly as much to neglect and storm-damage in the following century than the usual iconoclasm. All that survived of the Minster's original glazing was collected to form the patchwork display now filling the great east window, a colourful kaleidoscope of fragments of figures and scenes. Of the other furnishings the choir stalls are the major ensemble and some of the finest medieval canopied stalls extant with a full set of charming misericords (though most of these alas are not normally on show).

 

There are suprisingly few monuments of note for such an enormous cathedral-like church, but the one major exception makes up for this, the delightful canopied Percy tomb erected in 1340 to the north of the high altar. The tomb itself is surprisingly plain without any likeness remaining of the deceased, but the richly carved Decorated canopy above is alive with gorgeous detail and figurative embellishments. There are further carvings to enjoy adorning the arcading that runs around the outer perimeter of the interior, especially the north nave aisle which has the most rewarding carved figures of musicians, monsters and people suffering various ailments, many were largely restored in the 19th century but still preserve the medieval spirit of irreverent fun.

 

To summarise Beverley Minster would be difficult other than simply adding that if one enjoys marvelling at Gothic architecture at its best then it really shouldn't be missed and one should prioritise it over the majority of our cathedrals. It is a real gem and a delight to behold, and is happily normally open and welcoming to visitors (who must all be astonished to find this magnificent edifice is no more than a simple parish church in status!). I thoroughly enjoyed this, my second visit here (despite the best efforts of the poor weather!).

beverleyminster.org.uk/visit-us-2/a-brief-history/

White Sands National Monument is in the northern Chihuahuan Desert in the U.S. state of New Mexico. It's known for its dramatic landscape of rare white gypsum sand dunes.

[There are 11 images in this set] This is a creative commons image, which you may freely use by linking to this page. Please respect the photographer and his work.

 

The Capehart Crocker House (apparently most commonly called Capehart House) is a fine example of Queen Anne-style architecture, constructed in 1898 for Lucy Catherine Capehart and her second husband, B. A. Capehart, who died in 1899 shortly after moving in. Mrs. Capehart died in 1908. The house eventually was the home of sheriff H. G. Crocker. In 1947 it was turned into apartments and then used as offices for state government in 1971. In 1979 when much of the neighborhood was being torn down, the house was moved from Wilmington Street to Blount Street, an area associated with the well-to-do. A sign in front indicates it’s now the offices of the North Carolina State Ethics Commission.

 

From virtually any angle, the roofline is a wonderland of shapes and lines. The National Register website states “Its dramatic massing of towers, turrets, dormers and pediments is complemented by a rich combination of colors and textures, including pressed tan brick, rough stone, patterned slate shingles, stained glass and elaborate wood ornamentation.”

 

The architect is Adolphus G. Bauer (1858-1898), a local architect, whose life could form the basis of a fascinating book (fiction or non-fiction); it even has enough dramatic possibilities for a movie. He committed suicide before the home was completed. Mostly demolished, his structures showed a flair for the elaborate asymmetrical design of that period. Perhaps his most notable achievement was the Baptist Female Seminary of Raleigh, which later evolved into Meredith College. Another standing example is the North Carolina School for the Deaf at Morganton.

 

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places 17 January 1975, NRHP Reference #75001293

 

Major sources of information:

www.nps.gov/nr/travel/raleigh/cpe.htm

ncarchitects.lib.ncsu.edu/people/P000040

 

A beautiful sunny day image of the home donated to public domain is at

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Capehart-House-20080321.jpeg

 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

   

Today was a fine opportunity to have a photo of the Majestetic mountain Canigou down here in South of France. As you can see the first snow is already in place and it is reported from the ski-resort Les Angles that they are ready to open the skilifts and start the ski season. This photo is shot on the road between Elne and Thuir.

 

Some info from the net:

The Canigou, el. 2,784.66 m.is a mountain located in the Pyrenees of southern France.

Due to its sharp flanks and its dramatic location close to the coast, until the 18th century the Canigou was believed to be the highest mountain in the Pyrenees.

 

Spectacular jeep tracks on the north side of the massif lead to the Chalet de Cortalets (at 2150 m.) which is a popular outpost for walkers.

There are two ancient monasteries at the foot of the mountain, Martin-du-Canigou and Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa.

 

This mountain has symbolical significance for Catalan people. On its summit there is a cross that is often decorated with the Catalan flag. Every year on 23 June, the night before St. John's day (nit de Sant Joan), there is a ceremony called Flama del Canigó (Canigou Flame), where a fire is lit at the mountaintop. People keep a vigil during the night and take torches lit on that fire in a spectacular torch relay to light bonfires somewhere else.Some estimates conclude that about 30,000 bonfires are lit in this way all over Catalonia on that night.

..wow..what a place. Imagine the effort in building this town..the scale is huge. Despite being a growing town, Ronda retains much of its historic charm, particularly its old town. It is famous worldwide for its dramatic escarpments and views, and for the deep El Tajo gorge that carries the rio Guadalevín through its centre. The bridge joins the old Moorish town and the newer, El Mercadillo parts of the city. It is, by far in a way, Ronda’s most famous landmark. One of Spain’s most famous Parador hotels sits adjacent to the bridge and is a well worth a visit. The views of the El Tajo gorge are unforgettable. Absolutely unforgettable!!

Grimsthorpe Castle stands in rolling parkland north-west of Bourne in Lincolnshire. The core of the house goes back to the early 1200s when a fortified manor with King John’s Tower guarded routes between the Fen edge and the Great North Road. Later medieval owners included the de Gant and Lovell families before the estate was taken into Crown hands.

 

In 1516 Henry VIII granted Grimsthorpe to William Willoughby, 11th Lord Willoughby de Eresby, as a wedding gift when he married Maria de Salinas, lady-in-waiting to Katherine of Aragon. Their daughter Katherine Willoughby inherited the estate and married Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, one of Henry’s closest friends. Brandon rebuilt and enlarged the house in grand Tudor style using stone from the dissolved Vaudey Abbey and Henry VIII stayed here in 1541 on his northern progress.

 

In the early 18th century Robert Bertie, 1st Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, commissioned Sir John Vanbrugh to redesign the north front. Vanbrugh created the great Baroque façade with its central hall and corner towers which still gives the castle its dramatic outline. A little later Lancelot “Capability” Brown reshaped the surrounding park with lakes, long avenues, woodland belts and sweeping lawns so the house sat at the heart of a designed landscape.

 

Through the female line the property passed to the Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby family who still hold the historic title of Baron Willoughby de Eresby. The castle and park saw military use in both world wars, then returned fully to family occupation in the mid-20th century. Notable later residents include Nancy, Viscountess Astor, who spent her final years here with her daughter.

 

Today Grimsthorpe remains the country seat of Jane Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby, 28th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby. The house, formal gardens and wider park are managed by the Grimsthorpe and Drummond Castle Trust which looks after the buildings, collections and landscape, opens them to visitors on selected days and uses events, filming and weddings to help support the upkeep of this long-lived Lincolnshire castle.

 

Aerial - Grimsthorpe Castle

Los urros es una formación petrea de la costa de cantabria entre liencres y la virgen del mar. Sus espectaculares cortados y paredes practicamente perpendiculares erosionadas hasta el límite por el mar hacen de este paraje un espectáculo de ocres, grises y azules cuando se combinan con el azul cielo y mar.

 

The rock formation is a urros the coast of Cantabria between liencres and the virgin of the sea. Its dramatic cut and eroded walls almost perpendicular to the edge of the sea make this place a show of ochres, grays and blues when combined with the blue sky and sea.

 

Durante el paseo en el que hice esta foto conté con la fantástica y agradable compañía de jcruiz.

Commentary.

 

Leith Hill is the highest point of the

High Weald in South-East England.

The backslope of this Sandstone escarpment

Climbs steadily but gently from Wotton

to the tower at the summit.

The south-facing Scarp slope, however, is much steeper.

Its dramatic rise from the Weald below,

presents views such as this.

A chequerboard of woodland and fields spreads southwards

as far as the South Downs.

On a clear day even the English Channel

can be seen through the Shoreham Gap.

On this peak it is as if life continues

uninterrupted below with roads, traffic, farms, houses

and villages, but here, at the summit,

a still, silent breath of fresh air

creates a welcome peace, just for a while.

 

The Postcard

 

A view of Piccadilly Circus in 1958 on a postally unused postcard published by The Photographic Greeting Card Co. Ltd. of London. Three different clocks record the time of the photograph as 12.05.

 

The side of the bus is advertising Vernons Pools, and stating that it is possible to win £75,000 - a huge sum of money at the time. Cope's (to the right of the Eros statue) was another football pools company.

 

Joseph May Ltd. (on the side of the furniture van) were removal contractors of Howland Street, Tottenham Court Road in London. The business was founded in 1893 by Joseph May of Great Clacton. Joseph died in 1931.

 

For a much older and very different view of Piccadilly Circus taken from a similar angle, please search for the tag 34LNP76

 

Piccadilly Circus

 

Piccadilly Circus is a road junction and public space in London's West End. It was built in order to connect Regent Street with Piccadilly. In this context, a circus, from the Latin word meaning "circle", is a round open space at a street junction.

 

The Circus now connects Piccadilly, Regent Street, Shaftesbury Avenue, the Haymarket, Coventry Street (onwards to Leicester Square) and Glasshouse Street.

 

Piccadilly Circus is close to major shopping and entertainment areas, and its status as a major traffic junction has made the Circus a busy meeting place and a tourist attraction in its own right.

 

Piccadilly Circus is particularly known for its video display and neon signs mounted on the corner building on the northern side, as well as the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain and statue of Anteros (which is popularly, though mistakenly, believed to represent Eros).

 

Piccadilly Circus is surrounded by several notable buildings, including the London Pavilion and Criterion Theatre. Underneath the plaza is Piccadilly Circus Underground Station, part of the London Underground system.

 

-- History of Piccadilly Circus

 

Piccadilly Circus connects to Piccadilly, a thoroughfare whose name first appeared in 1626 as Piccadilly Hall, named after a house belonging to one Robert Baker, a tailor famous for selling piccadills, a term used for various kinds of collars.

 

The street was named Portugal Street in 1692 in honour of Catherine of Braganza, the queen consort of King Charles II, but by 1743 it was being referred to as Piccadilly.

 

Piccadilly Circus was created in 1819, at the junction with Regent Street, which was then being built under the planning of John Nash on the site of a house and garden belonging to a Lady Hutton.

 

The intersection was then known as Regent Circus South (just as Oxford Circus was known as Regent Circus North), and it did not begin to be known as Piccadilly Circus until the mid 1880's, with the construction of Shaftesbury Avenue. In the same period, the Circus lost its circular form.

 

The junction has been a very busy traffic interchange since construction, as it lies at the centre of Theatreland, and handles exit traffic from Piccadilly, which Charles Dickens Jr. described as follows in 1879:

 

"Piccadilly, the great thoroughfare

leading from the Haymarket and

Regent Street westward to Hyde

Park Corner, is the nearest

approach to the Parisian

boulevard of which London can

boast."

 

Piccadilly Circus tube station was opened on the 10th. March 1906, on the Bakerloo line, and on the Piccadilly line in December of that year. In 1928, the station was extensively rebuilt to handle an increase in traffic.

 

Piccadilly Circus's first electric advertisements appeared in 1908, and, from 1923, electric billboards were set up on the façade of the London Pavilion. Electric street lamps, however, did not replace the gas ones until 1932.

 

The circus became a one-way roundabout on the 19th. July 1926, and traffic lights were first installed on the 3rd. August 1926.

 

During World War II many servicemen's clubs in the West End served American soldiers based in Britain. So many prostitutes roamed the area approaching the soldiers that they received the nickname "Piccadilly Commandos", and both Scotland Yard and the Foreign Office discussed possible damage to Anglo-American relations.

 

-- The Holford Plan for the Circus

 

At the start of the 1960's, it was determined that the Circus needed to be redeveloped to allow for greater traffic flow. In 1962, Lord Holford presented a plan which would have created a "double-decker" Piccadilly Circus; the upper deck would have been an elevated pedestrian concourse linking the buildings around the perimeter of the Circus, with the lower deck being solely for traffic, most of the ground-level pedestrian areas having been removed to allow for greater vehicle flow.

 

This concept was kept alive throughout the rest of the 1960's. A final scheme in 1972 proposed three octagonal towers (the highest 240 feet (73 m) tall) to replace the Trocadero, the Criterion and the "Monico" buildings.

 

Fortunately the plans were permanently rejected by Sir Keith Joseph and Ernest Marples; the key reason given was that Holford's scheme only allowed for a 20% increase in traffic, and the Government required 50%.

 

The Holford plan is referenced in the documentary film "Goodbye, Piccadilly", produced by the Rank Organisation in 1967 as part of their Look at Life series when it was still seriously expected that Holford's recommendations would be acted upon.

 

Piccadilly Circus has since escaped major redevelopment, apart from extensive ground-level pedestrianisation around its south side in the 1980's.

 

-- Terrorist Bombs

 

Piccadilly Circus has been targeted by Irish republican terrorists multiple times. On the 24th. June 1939 an explosion occurred, although no injuries were caused, and on the 25th. November 1974 a bomb injured 16 people. A 2lb bomb also exploded on the 6th. October 1992, injuring five people.

 

-- The Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain

 

The Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain in Piccadilly Circus was erected in 1893 to commemorate Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th. Earl of Shaftesbury. Lord Shaftesbury was a Victorian politician, philanthropist and social reformer.

 

It was removed from the Circus twice and moved from the centre once.

 

The first time was in 1922, so that Charles Holden's new tube station could be built directly below it. The fountain returned in 1931. During the Second World War, the fountain was removed for the second time and replaced by advertising hoardings. It was returned again in 1948.

 

When the Circus underwent reconstruction work in the late 1980's, the entire fountain was moved from the centre of the junction at the beginning of Shaftesbury Avenue to its present position at the southwestern corner.

 

The subject of the Memorial is the Greek god Anteros, and was officially given the name The Angel of Christian Charity, but it is generally mistakenly believed to be his brother Eros.

 

-- Location and Sights

 

Piccadilly Circus is surrounded by tourist attractions, including the Criterion Theatre, London Pavilion and retail stores. Nightclubs, restaurants and bars are located in the area and neighbouring Soho, including the former Chinawhite Club.

 

-- Illuminated Signs

 

Piccadilly Circus was surrounded by illuminated advertising hoardings on buildings, starting in 1908 with a Perrier sign, but only one building now carries them, the one in the northwestern corner between Shaftesbury Avenue and Glasshouse Street. The site is unnamed (usually referred to as "Monico" after the Café Monico, which used to be on the site); it has been owned by property investor Land Securities Group since the 1970's.

 

The earliest signs used incandescent light bulbs; these were replaced with neon lights and with moving signs (there was a large Guinness clock at one time). The first Neon sign was for the British meat extract Bovril.

 

From December 1998, digital projectors were used for the Coke sign, the square's first digital billboard, while in the 2000's there was a gradual move to LED displays, which by 2011 had completely replaced neon lamps.

 

The number of signs has reduced over the years as the rental costs have increased, and in January 2017 the six remaining advertising screens were switched off as part of their combination into one large ultra-high definition curved Daktronics display, turning the signs off during renovation for the longest time since the 1940's. On the 26th. October 2017, the new screen was switched on for the first time.

 

Until the 2017 refurbishment, the site had six LED advertising screens above three large retail units facing Piccadilly Circus on the north side, occupied by Boots, Gap and a mix of smaller retail, restaurant and office premises fronting the other streets.

 

A Burger King located under the Samsung advert, which had been a Wimpy Bar until 1989, closed in 2008, and was converted into a Barclays Bank.

 

Coca-Cola has had a sign at Piccadilly Circus since 1954. In September 2003, the previous digital projector board and the site that had been occupied by Nescafé was replaced with a state-of-the-art LED video display that curves round with the building.

 

From 1978 to 1987 the spot had been used by Philips Electronics, and a neon advertisement for Foster's used the location from 1987 until 1999.

 

For several months in 2002, the Nescafé sign was replaced by a sign featuring the quote "Imagine all the people living life in peace" by Beatle John Lennon. This was paid for by his widow Yoko Ono, who spent an estimated £150,000 to display an advert at this location. Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Zero, Fanta, Sprite and Vitamin Water have all been advertised in the space.

 

The Hyundai Motors sign launched on the 29th. September 2011. It replaced a sign for Sanyo which had occupied the space since 1988, the last to be run using neon lights rather than Hyundai's computerised LED screen.

 

Earlier Sanyo signs with older logos had occupied the position since 1978, although these were only half the size of the later space.

 

McDonald's added its sign in 1987, replacing one for BASF. The sign was changed from neon to LED in 2001. A bigger, brighter screen was installed by Daktronics in 2008.

 

Samsung added its sign in November 1994, the space having been previously occupied by Canon Inc. (1978–84) and Panasonic (1984–94). The sign was changed from neon to LED in summer 2005, and the screen was upgraded and improved in autumn 2011.

 

L'Oreal, Hunter Original and eBay had signs in the Piccadilly Circus billboards since October 2017. One Piccadilly, the highest resolution of all the LED displays was installed by Daktronics in late 2013, underneath the Samsung and McDonald's signs. It allowed other companies to advertise for both short- and long-term leases, increasing the amount of advertising space but using the same screen for multiple brands.

 

The Curve, a similar space to One Piccadilly, was added in 2015, replacing a space previously occupied by Schweppes (1920–61), BP (1961–67), Cinzano (1967–78), Fujifilm (1978–86), Kodak (1986–90) and TDK (1990–2015).

 

On special occasions the lights are switched off, such as the deaths of Winston Churchill in 1965 and Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997. On the 21st. June 2007, they were switched off for one hour as part of the Lights Out London campaign.

 

Other companies and brands that have had signs on the site include Bovril, Volkswagen, Max Factor, Wrigley's Spearmint, Skol, Air India and Will's Gold Flake Cigarettes.

 

By way of a summary, and to aid the dating of other photographs of Piccadilly Circus, major brands and dates are as follows:

 

-- BASF up to 1987

-- Bovril from 1923

-- BP 1961 to 1967

-- Canon 1978 to 1984

-- Cinzano 1967 to 1978

-- Coca Cola from 1954

-- eBay from 2017

-- Fosters 1987 to 1999

-- Guinness from 1930 - see below

-- Fujifilm 1978 to 1986

-- Hyundai from 2011

-- Kodak 1986 to 1990

-- l'Oréal from 2017

-- McDonald's from 1987

-- Nescafé from 1999

-- Panasonic 1984 to 1994

-- Perrier from 1908

-- Philips 1978 to 1987

-- Samsung from 1994

-- Sanyo 1978 to 2011

-- Schweppes 1920 to 1961

-- TDK 1990 to 2015

 

-- Guinness Advertising

 

-- From 1930 to 1932, a Guinness ad showed a pint of Guinness and stated that 'Guinness is Good For You.'

-- From 1932 to 1953 the Guinness ad featured a clock and stated 'Guinness Time' as well as 'Guinness is Good For You.'

-- From 1954 to 1959 the Guinness clock had two sealions under it.

-- From 1959 to 1972 the Guinness ad featured a cuckoo clock with a swinging pendulum featuring two back-to-back toucans.

 

-- The Criterion Theatre

 

The Criterion Theatre, which is a Grade II* listed building, stands on the south side of Piccadilly Circus. Apart from the box office area, the entire theatre, with nearly 600 seats, is underground, and is reached by descending a tiled stairway. Columns are used to support both the dress circle and the upper circle, restricting the views of many of the seats inside.

 

The theatre was designed by Thomas Verity, and opened as a theatre on the 21st. March 1874, although original plans were for it to become a concert hall.

 

In 1883, the Criterion was forced to close in order to improve ventilation and to replace gaslights with electric lights, and was re-opened the following year. The theatre closed in 1989 and was extensively renovated, re-opening in October 1992.

 

-- The London Pavilion

 

On the northeastern side of Piccadilly Circus is the London Pavilion. The first building bearing the name was built in 1859, and was a music hall. In 1885, Shaftesbury Avenue was built through the former site of the Pavilion, and a new London Pavilion was constructed, which also served as a music hall. In 1924 electric billboards were erected on the side of the building.

 

In 1934, the building underwent significant structural alteration and was converted into a cinema. In 1986, the building was rebuilt, preserving the 1885 façade, and converted into a shopping arcade.

 

In 2000, the building was connected to the neighbouring Trocadero Centre, and signage on the building was altered in 2003 to read "London Trocadero". The basement of the building connects with the Underground station.

 

-- Major Shops

 

The former Swan & Edgar department store on the west side of the Circus was built in 1928–29 to a design by Reginald Blomfield. Since the closure of the department store in the early 1980's, the building has been successively the flagship London store of music chains Tower Records, Virgin Megastore and Zavvi. The current occupier is clothing brand The Sting.

 

Lillywhites is a major retailer of sporting goods located on the corner of the circus and Lower Regent Street, next to the Shaftesbury fountain. It moved to its present site in 1925. Lillywhites is popular with tourists, and they regularly offer sale items, including international football jerseys at up to 90% off.

 

Nearby Fortnum & Mason is often considered to be part of the Piccadilly Circus shopping area, and is known for its expansive food hall.

 

-- The County Fire Office

 

Dominating the north side of the Circus, on the corner of Glasshouse Street, is the County Fire Office building, with a statue of Britannia on the roof. The original building was designed by John Nash as the extreme southern end of his Regent Street Quadrant.

 

Its dramatic façade was clearly influenced by Inigo Jones's old Somerset House. Although Robert Abraham was the County Fire Insurance Company's architect, it was probably Nash who was instrumental in choosing the design.

 

In 1924 the old County Fire Office was demolished and replaced with a similar but much coarser building designed by Reginald Blomfield, but retaining the statue of Britannia. During the London Blitz it was the only building in the Circus to be damaged, although only a few window panes were blown out. The building is Grade II listed.

 

-- Piccadilly Circus Underground Station

 

Piccadilly Circus station on the London Underground is located directly beneath Piccadilly Circus itself, with entrances at every corner. It is one of the few stations to have no associated buildings above ground, and is fully underground. The below-ground concourse and subway entrances are Grade II listed.

 

The station is on the Piccadilly line between Green Park and Leicester Square, and the Bakerloo line between Charing Cross and Oxford Circus.

 

-- Demonstrations at Piccadilly Circus

 

The Circus' status as a high-profile public space has made it the location for numerous political demonstrations, including the 15th. February 2003 anti-war protest and the "Carnival Against Capitalism" protest against the 39th. G8 summit in 2013.

 

-- Piccadilly Circus in Popular Culture

 

The phrase 'It's like Piccadilly Circus' is commonly used in the UK to refer to a place or situation which is extremely busy with people. It has been said that a person who stays long enough at Piccadilly Circus will eventually bump into everyone they know.

 

Probably because of this connection, during World War II, "Piccadilly Circus" was the code name given to the Allies' D-Day invasion fleet's assembly location in the English Channel.

 

Piccadilly Circus has inspired both artists and musicians. Piccadilly Circus (1912) is the name and subject of a painting by British artist Charles Ginner, part of the Tate Britain collection.

 

Sculptor Paul McCarthy produced a 320-page two-volume edition of video stills by the name of Piccadilly Circus.

 

In the lyrics of their song "Mother Goose", on the Aqualung album from 1971, the band Jethro Tull tells:

 

"And a foreign student said to me:

'Was it really true there were

elephants, lions too, in Piccadilly

Circus?'".

 

Bob Marley mentioned Piccadilly Circus in his song "Kinky Reggae", on the Catch a Fire album in 1973.

 

L. S. Lowry's painting Piccadilly Circus, London (1960), part of Lord Charles Forte's collection for almost three decades, sold for £5,641,250 when auctioned for the first time at Christie's on the 16th. November 2011.

 

Contemporary British painter Carl Randall's painting 'Piccadilly Circus' (2017) is a large monochrome canvas depicting the area at night with crowds, the making of which involved painting over 70 portraits from life.

 

In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019), the second campaign mission takes place at Piccadilly Circus, where the game has the player intervene during a terrorist attack by the fictional terrorist group Al-Qatala. There is also a multi-player map called Piccadilly, which appears to take place in the aftermath of the terrorist attack.

 

-- 'Circa'

 

Circa is an art platform based at London's Piccadilly Circus. They commission and stream a monthly programme of art and culture, every evening at 20:21, across a global network of billboards in London, Tokyo and Seoul.

 

Established in October 2020 by British-Irish artist Josef O'Connor, the daily and free public art programme pauses the world famous advertisements in Piccadilly Circus and across a global network of screens for three minutes every evening.

 

They commission new work to fill the space that considers the world in response to the present year. It is the largest digital art exhibition in Europe. O'Connor recalls:

 

‘I first had the idea when I was 19, but it was only

about three years ago that I acted on it and reached

out to the screen owner, Landsec, via Twitter.

I was inspired by Piccadilly’s kinetic architecture -

how it morphed and changed with time to reflect

the world - from neon lights in 1908 to the iconic

red and white Sanyo sign in the 1990's, etc.

You could accurately guess the decade by just

looking at a photo or postcard of the landmark.

This inspired the concept for Circa, to pause time

and commission artists to create new work that

considers the world around them, circa 2020/21, etc.’

 

The first artist to fill the three-minute daily slot was Ai Weiwei, who is quoted as saying in an interview with The Art Newspaper that:

 

"Circa 2020 offers a very important

platform for artists to exercise their

practice and to reach out to a

greater public”.

 

Other notable artists and curators whose works have been exhibited as part of the Circa programme include Cauleen Smith, Eddie Peake, Patti Smith, James Barnor curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Vivienne Westwood, David Hockney, Alvaro Barrington and Anne Imhof.

 

Each commission for the project is approved by an independent council chaired by the British independent curator and ex-director of The Royal Academy, Norman Rosenthal.

 

On the 1st. January 2021, Circa commissioned two live performances from Patti Smith to help put an end to 2020 and beckon in the New Year. The New Year's Eve screening in Piccadilly Circus was eventually cancelled due to Covid restrictions, but the performance was still broadcast for free via the Circa YouTube Channel on the 31st. December to an audience of over 1.5million people around the world.

 

Circa and Serpentine Galleries' collaborative presentation of James Barnor’s work in April 2021 completed a journey that began more than half a century ago, when Barnor photographed BBC Africa Service presenter Mike Eghan against the backdrop of Piccadilly Circus’s neon signs in 1967.

 

The iconic image is held within the Tate collection, and was the inspiration behind Ferdinando Verderi’s Italian Vogue cover, with Barnor remote-shooting model Adwoa Aboah standing in the exact same location to create a present reflection on the past.

 

To celebrate her 80th. Birthday, British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood was commissioned by Circa to present a new video work in Piccadilly Circus created with her brother entitled 'Don't Buy a Bomb,' an anti-war message presented for ten minutes on the Piccadilly Lights screen.

 

In the ten-minute film, the punk icon performed a re-written rendition of ‘Without You’ from My Fair Lady to offer a stark warning of societal indifference to looming environmental catastrophes, a cry against the arms trade, and its link to climate change.

 

In May 2021, British artist David Hockney's 2.5 minute iPad drawing of a sunrise entitled “Remember you cannot look at the sun or death for very long,” was broadcast by Circa across digital billboard screens in London's Piccadilly Circus, New York's Times Square and prominent locations in Los Angeles, Tokyo and the largest outdoor screen in Seoul.

Arches National Park is known for its dramatic contrast in color and texture.

Skyline Arch

Arches National Park

Moab, Utah

The Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile has captured the best image so far of the star cluster NGC 3572, a gathering of young stars, and its spectacular surroundings. This new image shows how the clouds of gas and dust around the cluster have been sculpted into whimsical bubbles, arcs and the odd features known as elephant trunks by the stellar winds flowing from the bright stars. The brightest of these cluster stars are heavier than the Sun and will end their short lives as supernova explosions.

 

More information: www.eso.org/public/images/eso1347a/

 

Credit:

ESO/G. Beccari

REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE METIS

 

Our two granddaughters ''exploring'' Cyclops Garden.

 

Beautiful flowers at Reford Gardens.

 

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

  

FROM THE PLAQUE:

 

CYCLOPS, 2016

Craig Chapple

Phoenix, Arizona, USA.

 

Formerly trained as an architect at Yale University but with a deep commitment to creating art, Craig Chapple has pursued both architecture and the visual arts simultaneously throughout his career. Craig’s work is born from the synergy of these two disciplines, producing work that focuses on the overlap of the line, pattern, texture and process. He works in analog and digital practices in drawing, painting and sculpture.

  

Cyclops is a singular object on the landscape as well as a singular frame of the landscape. Made up of 255 8-meter long tapering planks held in the shape of an inverted cone around a central opening for the user to occupy . These planks are fastened to each other at the innermost diameter and held upright by a 150 mm steal ring beam at the outer diameter.

 

At first approach, Cyclops is an object on the landscape, seen as a clear , platonic form. Through its transparency and porosity, however, it is an object one that is also dynamic and changing, blending with the environment.

 

By entering the central 1.5 m opening at the bottom of the cone, the user enters into a different relationship with the object and the landscape. By experiencing it from the inside-out, the object acts to frame the surrounding landscape and sky for the viewer in this same dynamic , temporal way by blending the man-made, platonic clarity of the frame with the organic and natural.

 

The viewer plays the central role of the work in rediscovering the relationship between the object, the frame and the natural landscape.

  

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From Wikipedia:

 

Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.

 

Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.

  

Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.

 

She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.

 

In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.

 

During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.

 

In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.

 

Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.

 

To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.

 

Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.

 

In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)

 

Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford

  

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LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS

 

Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.

 

Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.

 

Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada

 

© Copyright

This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.

 

Mystical Bronze Age site of Bryn Cader Faner

 

"Bryn Cader Faner is a small cairn just 8m across and less than 1m high, but around the edge is a ring of tall, thin slabs set at an angle, projecting from the mass of the cairn like the rays of the sun, or as some say the "Welsh Crown of Thorns". The monument may be classified as a cairn circle, and was probably a site of burial rather than ceremonial function. It has been disturbed and a hole in the centre no doubt indicates the position of a cist or grave, the content of which is unknown. The army, on manoeuvres before the second world war, pulled out stones on the east side but, miraculously, the striking silhouette remained intact.

 

It is a monument of simple but brilliantly effective design, placed with sophisticated precision in its dramatic setting so as to achieve maximum impact on travellers approaching from the south. It is arguably the most beautiful Bronze Age monument in Britain."

 

Acknowledgement: A guide to ancient and historic Wales by Frances Lynch

 

A Genuine Example of One of the Eleven 1971 Hemi ‘Cuda Convertibles

 

500+hp, 425hp rated, 426 cu. in. vee eight-cylinder engine, dual four-barrel carburetors, four-speed manual transmission, Hurst pistol grip shifter, independent front suspension with torsion bars, live axle rear suspension with semi-elliptical leaf springs, front disc, rear drum power assisted hydraulic brakes. Wheelbase: 108"

 

Three times Chrysler Corporation has relied upon the Hemi to transform its products and image from dull to sparkling, and three times the Hemi has delivered. In an American car market that has been characterized by glitz, fins and bulk, the technical sophistication of Chrysler’s hemispherical combustion chamber V8 engine has been a refreshing demonstration of the appeal of elegant, thoughtful engineering.

 

In the late 60’s and early 70’s it also acquired a bad boy image of politically incorrect power and performance, establishing a mythical presence that has made the Hemi a legend.

 

Hemi History

 

During development work on World War II aircraft engines, Chrysler’s engineers had seen firsthand the potential for hemispherical combustion chamber engines. In addition to the thermal efficiency of the hemi chamber’s low surface area and its low-restriction cross-flow porting, the angle between the valves ideally disposed the ports for efficient breathing in a

vee-layout engine.

 

Chrysler was the ideal company to pursue the hemispherical combustion chamber V8. It had a longstanding tradition of investigating, developing and perfecting advanced engineering ideas. Unlike its major competitors, Chrysler had neither overhead valve nor vee-configuration engine history, and thus no preconceived notions of how it should be done. Its engine designers could – and did – explore every conceivable engine idea. Their research showed that the hemispherical combustion chamber not only gave better performance than a comparable wedge-chamber head but also tolerated appreciably higher compression ratios.

 

The hemispherical head V8 was introduced in the Chrysler line in 1951. With 331 cubic inches displacement in a short stroke oversquare design, Chrysler’s FirePower V8 delivered 180 horsepower at 4,000 rpm and 312 lb-ft torque at 2,000 rpm. The performance potential of the Hemi was quickly recognized, most famously with the Chrysler C300 and its successors, which set the pace both on the highway and on NASCAR’s speedways. By 1958, however, manufacturing economics swung the pendulum in favor of the wedge-chamber V8s. The Hemi was phased out in 1959 … but not for long.

 

In the early 60s the 413 and 426 Wedge engines were dominant in drag racing but lacked the continuous high rpm performance needed on NASCAR’s speedways. Dodge and Plymouth were being trounced, a situation that couldn’t be allowed to stand. Faced with a need to develop a high performance, free-breathing engine quickly, Chrysler’s engineers turned to the solution they already knew worked, the Hemi. They stuck with the overall dimensions of the Raised Block 426 Wedge so existing fixturing and machining setups could be employed and maintained the original Hemi’s dual rocker shafts and 58° valve included angle. To adapt the Hemi head to the Raised Block engine, the ingenious Chrysler engineers rotated the combustion chamber toward the engine’s centerline about 8 1/2°.

 

Completed and delivered to the track just days before the 1964 Daytona 500’s green flag, the 426 Hemis proved to be invincible, sweeping the top three places in NASCAR’s most important race.

 

Production of the second generation Hemi ended after the 1971 model year as emission restrictions and insurance surcharges gave horsepower, which had never been entirely socially acceptable, a distinctly antisocial taint. Chrysler would twice more resurrect the Hemi, however, first as a crate engine program for hot rodders and later as a third generation production engine that brought DaimlerChrysler back to the forefront of performance at the beginning of the 21st century. Like some other forms of antisocial behavior, horsepower has proven to be addictive.

 

The Hemi ‘Cuda

 

Of all the Street Hemis built, the most famous, attractive and desirable are the 1970-1971 E-body Plymouth ‘Cudas, combining the visceral delight of the Hemi’s power and torque with the ‘Cuda’s lightweight, streamlined and refined 2+2 platform.

 

The first Barracuda was introduced in 1964 and in the late 60’s Chrysler engineering and Hurst performance shoehorned Race Hemi engines into the Barracuda’s engine compartment for NHRA drag racing. Seventy-five were built, sold and successfully campaigned around the country. When the Barracuda was redesigned for the 1970 model year the engine compartment was made large enough for the legendary 425 horsepower 426 cubic inch Street Hemi.

 

The Plymouth Barracuda was the cleanest, most refined and elegant of all the pony car designs. Distinguished by its wide grille, long, flat hood, short rear deck and ominously raised rear fenders – deliberately shaped like the haunches of an animal crouching before a leap – the appearance of the ‘Cuda left no doubt that this was a serious performance car.

 

Hemi-powered ‘Cudas are surpassingly rare. Built for only two years, 1970 and 1971, their low production numbers reflect the undeniable fact that the combination of the ‘Cuda platform and the Street Hemi engine was irrationally fast. It also was expensive: $871.45 in 1970 and $883.90 in 1971, a prohibitive 70% more than the 390 horsepower 440 Six Barrel.

 

A Hemi ‘Cuda was not for the faint of heart nor for the cautious of pocketbook. Buying one took serious commitment, backed up by an ample budget. In 1971 there were only 119 souls brave and prosperous enough to make the commitment to check off E74, the Street Hemi’s order code, on the ‘Cuda order form.

 

• 108 of them ordered hardtops

• Only eleven stepped up for the top-of-the-line ‘Cuda convertible powered by the 426 cubic inch, 425 horsepower dual quad Street Hemi.

• Only three of those were confident enough of their driving skills to opt for the Hurst pistol grip shifted four-speed manual transmission.

• Only two of those were delivered in the U.S.

• Both U.S.-delivered ’71 Hemi ‘Cuda convertibles were B5 Blue with

matching interiors.

 

That’s only three, in all the world, that combined the Street Hemi engine with the ‘Cuda convertible body and 4-speed transmission in 1971. One of them is the car offered here, BS27R1B269588, the only one with white soft top and elastomeric front bumper cover.

 

The “Mountain Mopar” Hemi ‘Cuda Convertible

 

Built in February of 1971, this Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda convertible’s first owner, Ronald Ambach, lived in St. Louis, Missouri. He owned it only until the fall, accumulating the car’s only street miles, before selling it to its next owner, Nick Masciarelli, in Ohio. He decided to take the Hemi ‘Cuda Stock Eliminator drag racing and turned to renowned Detroit-area engine builder Tom Tignanelli for a hot Hemi V8. The new owner was in a hurry, and the quickest way to meet his request was to swap the original engine for a fresh race-prepared Tignanelli Hemi.

 

In May of 1973, the Hemi ‘Cuda convertible was sold to John Book and partner John Oliverio in West Virginia who raced it in East Coast and Mid-Atlantic events during 1973 and 1974. Its dramatic appearance, complete with gold-leaf “Mountain Mopar” identification, is documented in several period photos in the car’s documentation file.

 

Fortunately for today’s collectors, the “Mountain Mopar” Hemi ‘Cuda convertible was retired after 1974 and stored in a climate-controlled building in West Virginia. In 1989 it was sold to the Painter brothers. Two years later it was acquired by Milt Robson in Atlanta, Georgia, still in its as-raced condition. Robson commenced a comprehensive restoration using original or new-old-stock parts to its original, as-delivered condition in his shops, which was completed in the early 90’s. Stored inside for virtually its entire life, 269588 was never subjected to the vicissitudes of the elements which afflicted most of its siblings; its original sheet metal and interior are carefully restored and retained. The engine was rebuilt around a correct 1/19/1970 date-coded Chrysler NOS block.

 

In addition to the 426/425 horsepower dual quad Street Hemi and pistol grip Hurst shifted four-speed manual transmission, this unique 1971 Hemi ‘Cuda convertible is equipped with power steering, power brakes, Dana Super Track Pack and AM-FM radio. Importantly, it is the only ’71 Hemi ‘Cuda convertible known to have been delivered with the body-colored Elastomeric front bumper cover. Its original configuration is verified by two separate original build sheets; the ownership history is documented with a continuous sequence of titles. It has been personally viewed by Galen Govier and authenticated by him as one of the seven US-delivered ’71 Hemi ‘Cuda convertibles which have been included in the Chrysler Registry.

 

Finished in B5 Blue inside and out with a white vinyl top, it has been restored to better than showroom condition. Particular attention has been paid to the accuracy of its components and finishes and to the preservation of as much as possible of its almost unbelievable originality, including the carefully preserved original interior.

 

It has been shown only in local shows around Atlanta in the mid 90s, was featured a decade ago in a May 1995 Car Collector magazine article by Dennis Adler and has appeared in several books, copies of which come with the car.

 

Putting a free-breathing, high-rpm engine like the 426 Hemi in a lithe, frisky chassis like the ‘Cuda was exactly what the forces of political correctness inveighed against in the early 70s. In 1972 the Hemi was gone for the second time, its visceral appeal buried in a cascade of social responsibility, “net” horsepower and Highway Fuel Economy ratings. There is nothing politically correct, nothing socially responsible about a Hemi ‘Cuda. The 1971 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda convertible is wretched excess in a nearly unimaginably limited production package.

 

This is absolutely the most desirable, rare and handsome of all the American Muscle and Pony Cars. Combining the brute power and torque of the legendary dual quad Street Hemi engine with the sleek, aggressive lines of the ‘Cuda convertible, it is the ultimate combination of personal car style and Muscle Car performance, a singular example and the quintessential muscle car of all time.

 

[Text from RM Auctions]

 

www.rmauctions.com/lots/lot.cfm?lot_id=132126

 

This Lego miniland-scale Plymouth HEMI ' Cuda Convertible (1971), has been created for Flickr LUGNuts' 89th Build Challenge, - "Over a Million, Under a Thousand", - a challenge to build vehicles valued over one million (US) dollars, or under one thousand (US) dollars.

 

This particular vehicle was auctioned by the RM Auction house for US$2,420,000)

Alexander Reford, a great-grandson of Elsie Reford, has managed the Reford Gardens since 1995, taking responsibility for their preservation and development. An historian by profession, educated at the universities of Oxford and Toronto, he has published many articles relating to Canadian history. He is chairman of the Association des jardins du Québec and a co-founder of the International Garden Festival, held each year at the Reford Gardens.

 

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

  

Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.

 

Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.

  

Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.

 

She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.

 

In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.

 

During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.

 

In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.

 

Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.

 

To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.

 

Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.

 

In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)

 

Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford

 

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

 

LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS

 

Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.

 

Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.

 

Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada

 

© Copyright

This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.

REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE METIS

 

Visit: www.refordgardens.com

 

Photo taken at ESTEVAN LODGE, REFORD GARDENS on July 28, 2016.

 

George Stephen's mansion on Drummond Street in Montreal, was bought by Elsie's parents, Robert and Elsie Meighen, in 1900. It became the Mount Stephen Club in 1926.

 

The Meighens (Elsie's parents) held a garden party in honour of the visit of Field Marshall Lord Roberts to Montreal in 1908.

 

Reference: Elsie's Paradise, The Reford Gardens, Alexander Reford, 2004, ISBN 2-7619-1921-1, page 38. That book is a must for Reford Gardens lovers!

 

Lovely Estevan Lodge! It's definitely worth a visit! Great restaurant inside. Excellent cuisine! The four of us had an excellent meal over there.

 

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

 

From Wikipedia:

  

Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.

 

Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.

  

Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.

 

She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.

 

In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.

 

During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.

 

In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.

 

Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.

 

To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.

 

Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.

 

In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)

 

Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford

  

LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS

 

Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.

 

Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.

 

Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada

 

© Copyright

This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.

REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE METIS

 

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

 

From Wikipedia:

 

Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.

 

Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.

  

Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.

 

She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.

 

In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.

 

During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.

 

In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.

 

Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.

 

To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.

 

Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.

 

In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)

 

Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford

 

LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS

 

Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.

 

Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.

 

Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada

 

© Copyright

This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.

Our two granddaughters are moving it.

 

REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE METIS

 

Beautiful flowers at Reford Gardens.

  

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

 

A Japanese Tree Lilac / Lilas du Japon / Syringa Reticulata

  

I LIKE TO MOVE IT, 2015

 

DIXNEUFCENTQUATREVINGTSIX Architecture

 

Mathilde Gaudemet & Arthur Ozenne

 

PARIS, FRANCE

  

Visit: www.19-86.fr

 

(From the plaque)

 

In this garden, the visitor will face a seemingly wild meadow.Grasses and a few birch trees grow together against the backdrop of dense greenery. There seem to be little going on there.

 

But the straight lines at ground level, punctuating the space , create a rythm and attract the visitor's attention. On approaching one turns around, scans, wonders and finaly touches. This when the trees begin to move. Visitors can slide the trees along their tracks and create their own garden, The banal becomes strange. Nature domesticated transform the landscape into a garden.

 

Trees, immobile and mute, are rootless and move as living beings. All due to human interaction.

 

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

 

Texte de la plaque:

 

Dans ce jardin, le visiteur se retrouve face à une parcelle en friche. De l'herbe, quelques bouleaux se fondant aux autres et au loin, une densité végétale. L'intervention de l'homme y semble inexistante.

 

Mais des lignes régulières , rythmant la perspective, attirent l'oeil du visiteur. Il se rapproche, tourne autour, scrute, s'interroge, finit par le toucher. Et l'arbre se met à bouger. Le visiteur peut le faire glisser et ainsi créer son propre jardin. Le banal devient insolite. La nature ainsi domestiquée transforme le paysage en jardin.

 

Les arbres, immobiles et muets, quintessence même de l'enracinement se déplacent tel des êtres vivants. À la merci de l'homme.

 

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

 

REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE METIS

 

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/english/

 

From Wikipedia:

 

Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.

 

Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.

  

Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.

 

She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.

 

In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.

 

During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.

 

In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.

 

Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.

 

To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.

 

Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.

 

In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)

 

Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford

 

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

 

LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS

 

Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.

 

Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.

 

Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada

 

© Copyright

This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.

Smailholm Tower is located at Smailholm, around five miles (8 km) west of Kelso in the Scottish Borders. Its dramatic situation, atop a crag of Lady Hill, commands wide views over the surrounding countryside. The tower is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument in the care of Historic Scotland. In June 2007 it was awarded the maximum "five-star" status as a tourist attraction from VisitScotland, a rating bestowed on only eight other sites in Scotland.

Pershore Abbey, Worcestershire dedicated to the Holy Cross, was part of an Anglo-Saxon abbey complex and is now the parish church www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/1F0Pz6

It is an amazing survivor, a triumphant remnant of a much larger building which was an important Benedictine monastery in medieval times.

Evidence of its dramatic over thousand year history can be seen throughout the building which has survived fires in 1002, 1223 and 1288, storms and earthquake

Rebuilding, remodelling and repair have produced a fascinating mixture of Norman, Early English, Decorated , Gothic and Victorian architecture we see today. The exterior pink stonework is caused by the fire damage.

The earliest reference of a religious foundation here is in 681 when the King of Mercia gave land to fund a Christian community. It was attacked by the Vikings in the 900s and in 972 the Abbey introduced the Benedictine Rule, However in 976 a local earl seized two-thirds of the Abbey’s land and in 1065 Edward the Confessor gave this land to fund his new abbey at Westminster. The parish was split in two, and the tenants of Westminster Abbey worshipped at St Andrew’s church nearby.

The saxon church was destroyed by fire (1001 & earthquake (106) and the present building probably dates from c1090 .

The c1100 south transept contains the oldest work

In 1288 there was another fire which caused much damage, and the chancel was rebuilt shortly afterwards It is of four bays with piers surviving from the early 13c and above the clerestory windows with vaulted ceiling and fine roof bosses are from the rebuilding .

After the dissolution of the monastery in 1539 , Henry VIII’s commissioners visited and ordered its demolition . The people of Pershore however raised £400 to buy the quire , the c1330 four stage tower and the north and south transepts. The rest including the nave and monastic buildings were demolished causing future instability .

The north transept collapsed in the 17c and the crossing tower was shored up on that side.

The Victorians had a major restoration in 1862 under George Gilbert Scott who opened up the c1330 lantern tower and installed a unique ringing platform suspended high in the tower. www.holmerbells.co.uk/Pershore%202018photos.html The eastern apse was also built.

The huge buttresses by the main door were added in 1913 to stop the four stage tower collapsing

A north west vestry was added in 1936 on the site of the Norman north transept

There are several effigies and monuments including a 13c cross-legged Knight of the Harley family www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/SnQ27D , Abbot Edmund Hert 1479 www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/e1L9gs ; and 2 monuments to the 17c Haselwood family www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/Y2rf95 www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/M1NKT0

The font is Norman showing Christ and the apostles under intersecting arches. www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/5ZQA60

  

REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE METIS

 

GIANT HIMALAYAN LILY: up to 3.5 meters tall, flowers blossom about once every 7 years.

 

From Wikipedia:

 

Cardiocrinum giganteum, the giant Himalayan lily, is the largest species of any of the lily plants, growing up to 3.5 metres high. It is found in the Himalayas, China and Myanmar (Burma).

 

Two varieties are recognized.

C. giganteum var. giganteum - up to 3 metres tall, the outer part of the flower greenish and the inside streaked with purple - Tibet, Bhutan, Assam, Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim

C. giganteum var. yunnanense - 1–2 metres tall, the outer part of the flower white and the inside streaked with purplish red - Myanmar, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan

 

The plant was first described scientifically in 1824 by Nathaniel Wallich. The species was introduced into commercial production (as Lilium giganteum) in Britain in the 1850s. A bulb grown from seed collected by Major Madden flowered in Edinburgh in July 1852, while those collected by Thomas Lobb were first exhibited in flower in May 1853.

 

See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiocrinum_giganteum

 

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

 

From Wikipedia:

 

Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.

 

Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.

 

Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.

 

She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.

 

In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.

 

During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.

 

In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.

 

Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.

 

To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.

 

Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.

 

In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)

 

Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford

 

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

 

LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS

 

Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.

 

Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.

 

Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada

 

© Copyright

This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.

Arnarstapi or Stapi is a small fishing village at the foot of Mt. Stapafell between Hellnar village and Breiðavík farms on the southern side of Snæfellsnes, Iceland

 

The Snæfellsnes Peninsula is a region in western Iceland known for its dramatic landscapes. At its western tip, Snæfellsjökull National Park is dominated by Snæfellsjökull Volcano, which is topped by a glacier. Nearby, a trail leads through lava fields to black-pebble Djúpalónssandur Beach. In Stykkishólmur fishing village, the 19th-century wood-frame Norwegian House is a regional museum with a craft shop.

 

EOS R - Canon RF 16mm f/2.8 STM

Arnarstapi or Stapi is a small fishing village at the foot of Mt. Stapafell between Hellnar village and Breiðavík farms on the southern side of Snæfellsnes, Iceland

 

The Snæfellsnes Peninsula is a region in western Iceland known for its dramatic landscapes. At its western tip, Snæfellsjökull National Park is dominated by Snæfellsjökull Volcano, which is topped by a glacier. Nearby, a trail leads through lava fields to black-pebble Djúpalónssandur Beach. In Stykkishólmur fishing village, the 19th-century wood-frame Norwegian House is a regional museum with a craft shop.

 

EOS R - Canon RF 16mm f/2.8 STM

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

  

Excellent ouvrage écrit par Alexander Reford, arrière-petit-fils de Madame Elsie Reford. Cet ouvrage est la traduction française de l'original REFORD GARDENS: ELSIE'S PARADISE.

 

Les très jolies photos sont de Mme Louise Tanguay.

 

Arrière-petit-fils d'Elsie Reford, Alexander Reford assume depuis 1995 la direction des Jardins de Métis en veillant à leur préservation et à leur développement. Historien formé à l'Université d'Oxford et à l'Université de Toronto, il a écrit de nombreux articles relatifs à l'histoire du Canada. Il préside l'Association des jardins du Québec et est le cofondateur du Festival international de jardins qui a lieu chaque année aux Jardins de Métis.

  

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

  

Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.

 

Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.

  

Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.

 

She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.

 

In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.

 

During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.

 

In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.

 

Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.

 

To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.

 

Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.

 

In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)

 

Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford

 

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

 

LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS

 

Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.

 

Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.

 

Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada

 

© Copyright

This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.

 

Pedestrian footbridge is part of the Calvin S. Hamilton Pedway:

 

"The Calvin S. Hamilton Pedway, as the system is formally known, is a network of elevated walkways that was first presented in the 1970 Concept Los Angeles: The Concept for the Los Angeles General Plan. Hamilton was the city planning director at the time, having taken the position in 1964. The plan, adopted by the city in 1974, promoted dense commercial developments connected to one another by a rapid transit system. The plan was abandoned in 1981 when federal funding for the project was eliminated. Hamilton stepped down from his position in 1985 after a criminal investigation."

www.kcet.org/socal/departures/landofsunshine/block-by-blo...

 

"The pedways fall within the Downtown Center Business Improvement District, but the organization's CEO says its strained resources can only cover maintenance crews on the pedways about once a week."

articles.latimes.com/2013/may/23/opinion/la-ed-pedways-20...

 

----

 

Los Angeles World Trade Center:

350 South Figueroa Street

Built 1974

Original Developer: Edward K. Rice (general partner of Bunker Hill Center Associates)

 

ZIMAS:

Central City Community Plan Area, Freeway Adjacent Advisory Notice for Sensitive Uses, Greater Downtown Housing Incentive Area, Los Angeles State Enterprise Zone, General Plan Land Use ="Regional Center Commercial", Downtown Adaptive Reuse Incentive Area, Bunker Hill Redevelopment Project, w/in 500 ft of USC Hybrid High, Downtown Center Business Improvement District, Central City Revitalization Zone.

 

Assessment:

Use Code: 2730 - Parking Structure (Commercial)

Assessed Land Val.: $1,154,591

Assessed Improvement Val.: $1,500,967

Last Owner Change: 07/14/06

Last Sale Amount: $9

...

Year Built: 1974

 

It was decertified by the World Trade Centers Association in 1983, but limped along anyway. A "Greater Los Angeles World Trade Center" was subsequently built in Long Beach. The two merged into one organization in 1989. This latter is now a subsidiary of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC).

 

In the early 1990s there was an attempt to reorganize the space as a more public retail space oriented at evening uses and take advantage of the pedestrian infrastructure:

 

"Haseko's revitalization plans include three full-service restaurants--Italian, French and Japanese--stages for live performances, a video rental store, an art gallery and a newsstand. The restaurants would open onto the center's mall-like main concourse, which is connected through pedestrian bridges to the Bonaventure and Sheraton Grande hotels, Security Pacific Plaza and Bunker Hill Towers. 'We want to create a streetscape here,' said Haseko Vice President and General Manager Terry Tornek. 'This is a logical crossroads.'"

articles.latimes.com/1991-01-11/local/me-8359_1_bunker-hi...

 

This was opposed by residents of Bunker Hill Towers who had grown to quite like the quietness of downtown at that time.

 

Apparently part of the building is now (2013) being used for a charter school.

 

wtca-lalb.org

laedc.org

www.emporis.com/building/losangelesworldtradecenter-losan...

articles.latimes.com/1988-09-26/business/fi-1869_1_trade-...

articles.latimes.com/1988-09-26/business/fi-1867_1_world-...

articles.latimes.com/1989-03-20/business/fi-201_1_trade-c...

 

----

 

Citi Building:

aka CitiGroup Center aka 444 Flower aka 444 Flower Building aka Flower Building aka L.A. Law Building aka 444 aka 444 Building

444 S. Flower Street

Built ca. 1976–81.

Architect: A.C. Martin & Associates

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citigroup_Center_(Los_Angeles)

www.hines.com/property/detail.aspx?id=2243

www.emporis.com/building/citigroupcenter-losangeles-ca-usa

forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=154492

 

----

 

United California Bank Building / First Interstate Tower building / Aon Center:

707 Wilshire Boulevard

Built 1970–73.

Architect: Charles Luckman (or at least The Luckman Partnership)

Client: United California Bank (with note of the particular influence of Norman Barker Jr.), financed by United California Bank and the Equitable Group

Project management for post-fire clean-up and other work ca. 1988–89: Abraxas Architecture

Renovated: 2008 by Johnson Fain Architects

 

In 1988, part of the building caught on fire, injuring 40 people and killing one.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aon_Center_(Los_Angeles)

articles.latimes.com/keyword/aon-center

brighamyen.com/2012/02/17/did-you-know-downtown-los-angel...

articles.latimes.com/2010/sep/16/local/la-me-norman-barke...

www.glasssteelandstone.com/BuildingDetail/3624.php

forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=152120

skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=1291

articles.latimes.com/keyword/united-california-bank

digital.lib.washington.edu/architect/structures/6162/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Interstate_Tower_fire

blogdowntown.com/2009/09/4647-downtowns-history-light-on-...

www.lafire.com/famous_fires/1988-0504_1stInterstateFire/0...

www.lafire.com/famous_fires/1988-0504_1stInterstateFire/E...

www.drj.com/drworld/content/w1_119.htm

www.abraxasarchitecture.com/fitfire.html

www.aon.com/default.jsp

www.emporis.com/building/aoncenter-losangeles-ca-usa

www.mkp-us.com/building.php?portfolioID=4&building=AO...

 

----

 

Westin Bonaventure:

404 South Figueroa Street

Built: 1974–76.

Architect: John Portman

 

ZIMAS data:

Central City Community Plan Area, Los Angeles State Enterprise Zone, Freeway Adjacent Advisory Notice for Sensitive Uses, Greater Downtown Housing Incentive Area, General Plan Land Use ="Regional Center Commercial", Downtown Adaptive Reuse Incentive Area, Bunker Hill Redevelopment Project, w/in 500 feet of USC Hybrid High, Downtown Center Business Improvement District, Central City Revitalization Zone

 

Assessment:

Assessed Land Val.: $31,878,705

Assessed Improvement Val.: $20,033,803

Last Owner Change: 12/18/95

Last Sale Amount: $260,002

...

Year Built: 1976

 

Famous for the elevators, the revolving cocktail lounge, the mirror glass exterior, et cetera et cetera, and for being the star of a famous essay by Fredric Jameson on postmodernism.

 

Before I get into that, let me just say that what I currently find interesting about the Westin Bonaventure and the urbanism of this section of Figueroa and Bunker Hill in general are the really complex histories about what was happening with and against modernism from the 1950s through the 1980s, especially in Los Angeles, especially with regards to Bunker Hill, housing, car culture, et cetera.

 

But with the Westin Bonaventure in particular, I'm also interested in visual/formal comparisons with both Prentice Women's Hospital in Chicago (1975), the BMW headquarters in Munich (1968–73), and LaForet Harajuku (1975–80).

www.nytimes.com/2012/10/18/arts/design/adapting-prentice-...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_Headquarters

www.mori.co.jp/en/img/article/en081121.pdf

 

Or in terms of textures and materials, there's the more local Samuel Goldwyn Theater:

www.flickr.com/photos/jannon/4653822940/

(There used to be a lot more examples in Los Angeles of mirror glass facades combined with concrete, but I feel like a lot have been torn down.)

 

Because of its dramatic qualities and because of how Jameson explicated them, people don't really talk about this building in the context of Brutalism, even though that style arguably was just as interested in dramatic effects and complexity. (There's also the totally different social uses of the "main" buildings of each style as well, of course.)

 

Of course, I'm probably just massively ignorant and there are a ton of good books already out there that are full of chapters that explicitly talk about connections between architecture and urban planning in Los Angeles and the UK, with lovely details about Victor Gruen Associates and Milton Keynes and the Barbican and the Glendale Galleria. Even better if they also bring in Metabolism and connections with what was going on in Japan. Particularly since Mori Yoshiko seems a lot more important and successful at building the massive city-in-a-city projects than John Portman, on the whole. Anyway, if so, let me know what they are?

 

Jameson's essay (or at least the beginning of it):

newleftreview.org/I/146/fredric-jameson-postmodernism-or-... (original version, 1984, sub required)

books.google.com/books?id=oRJ9fh9BK8wC&lpg=PA39&v... (book version, first few pages of the part on the Westin Bonaventure)

books.google.com/books?id=wfd-c0blcb0C&lpg=PA103&... (another book version, w/ an intro by Asa Berger, again the first few pages about the Westin Bonaventure)

 

More of other people quoting Jameson:

" In Frederick Jameson’s essay on the utterly bizarre Westin Bonaventure in Los Angeles, he describes a 'postmodern hyperspace,' an emblem of the 80s trend in which building design hoped to create hermetically sealed miniature cities. At the Bonaventure, human activity is directed in a space threaded with fitness centers, plants that thrive without any natural light and functionless open spaces offering the blank hyperreality of grandeur and respite contained in concrete."

www.newmediacaucus.org/wp/a-room-to-view/

 

"Citing the example of the Westin Bonaventure hotel in Los Angeles, Jameson argues that 'this latest mutation in space -- postmodern hyperspace -- has finally succeeded in transcending the capacities of the individual human body to locate itself, to organize its immediate surroundings perceptually, and cognitively to map its position in a mappable external world'. The effect on cultural politics, according to Jameson, is that the subject 'submerged' by this postmodern hyperspace is deprived of the 'critical distance' that makes possible the 'positioning of the cultural act outside of the massive Being of capital.'"

muse.jhu.edu/journals/dia/summary/v029/29.3reynolds.html

 

"Its reflective glass façades seemed to disappear into their surroundings. Behind them (for those who could afford it) there opened up a city within a city. Portman’s Hotels—where client, financier, and architect were all one and the same—are for Jameson the epitome of late-capitalist space. He writes of the lobby: 'I am tempted to say that such space makes it impossible for us to use the language of volume or volumes any longer, since these are impossible to seize. ... A constant busyness gives the feeling that emptiness is here absolutely packed, that it is an element within which you yourself are immersed, without any of that distance that formerly enabled the perception of perspective or volume. You are in this hyperspace up to your eyes and your body.'"

www.olafureliasson.net/studio/pdf/Ursprung_Taschen_S.pdf

 

Or drawing on Jameson:

"In his book Postmodern Geographies: the reassertion of space in critical social theory (1989), Edward W. Soja describes the hotel as 'a concentrated representation of the restructured spatiality of the late capitalist city: fragmented and fragmenting, homogeneous and homogenizing, divertingly packaged yet curiously incomprehensible, seemingly open in presenting itself to view but constantly pressing to enclose, to compartmentalize, to circumscribe, to incarcerate. Everything imaginable appears to be available in this micro-urb but real places are difficult to find, its spaces confuse an effective cognitive mapping, its pastiche of superficial reflections bewilder co-ordination and encourage submission instead. Entry by land is forbidding to those who carelessly walk but entrance is nevertheless encouraged at many different levels. Once inside, however, it becomes daunting to get out again without bureaucratic assistance. In so many ways, its architecture recapitulates and reflects the sprawling manufactured spaces of Los Angeles' (p. 243-44)."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westin_Bonaventure_Hotel

See also Soja on Jameson on the Westin Bonaventure for the BBC: www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWlu3OlvL58

 

"Writing from California, Jameson imagined the whole new era was summed up in the alienating 'disorientation' one felt in hotels like John Portman's Westin Bonaventure in Los Angeles. Lost in its lobby, without any 'cognitive map,' Jameson found an allegory of a supposedly late phase in capitalism (coming before what?), which explained the kind of space to which French theory had unwittingly been leading us. For architecture, the art closest to capitalism, was the one best able to point out late capitalism's 'totality.' Frank Gehry, for one, was not pleased; more generally, at the very moment Jameson was confidently offering his allegory, architects like Gehry were departing from so-called po-mo (quotationalist, historicist) architecture, often to rediscover modernist strategies. Indeed, the architects that the Museum of Modern Art would group together in a 1988 exhibition as 'deconstructivists' (e.g., Gehry, Rem Koolhaas, and Peter Eisenman) were linked less by any sustained interest in Derrida than by their contempt for postmodernism. Jameson, though, was unable or unwilling to give up the 'totality-allegory' view of works, and in the face of this and other difficulties, he was gradually forced to admit that he no longer knew what to do with the categories modernity and postmodernity. In the absence of new works or ideas to 'totalize,' he tried to look back and reassert the Marxist sources of critical theory, now itself in a late or disappointed state."

—John Rajchman, "Unhappy Returns: John Rajchman on the Po-Mo Decade. (Writing the '80s)," Artforum International, Vol. 41 (2003), No. 8

www.questia.com/library/1G1-101938549/unhappy-returns-joh...

 

"The programmed music of the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles follows patterns of use typical to that of most programmed music. In the large open expanse of the lobby/atrium, music is always playing in the background. During the mornings and early afternoon typical small jazz group arrangements are played, never with vocals, and as the day progresses and the bar opens for the evening the music slowly shifts towards a more upbeat genre, signaling to the guests that the objectified content of the contemporary nightlife experience is beginning. Speaking to the maître d’ at the reception desk, however, he informed me that the neither the amplitude of the music nor its aesthetic intensity ever crosses above a consciousness level threshold where any guest would be forced to acknowledge its presence."

music.columbia.edu/~alec/page2/assets/Muzak%20as%20the%20...

 

"Downtown Los Angeles is notoriously quiet in the evening; the streets develop an abandoned, out-of-season feel, and the BonaVista Lounge shared some of this atmosphere. At first we were the only customers. Two people drinking alone in a revolving restaurant -- now there's an existential image for you. . . . It had been a clear, sunny day and now the sky was coalescing into a spectacular sunset. Because we were downtown we had a close-up view of some very untypical Los Angeles features: the few skyscrapers in this essentially low-rise city, shiny corporate blocks; then beyond them were the more familiar Los Angeles sights -- mountains, interweaving freeways, the vast ground-hugging grids of street lights, all bathed in a deep orange light. I wasn't so naïve, or so easily satisfied, as to think that I'd really found the perfect revolving restaurant; but for an hour or so, with the city far below, with a Cloud Buster in my hand, I found it hard to imagine anything better."

www.nytimes.com/2003/07/13/travel/done-to-a-turn-at-360-d...

 

"The Westin Bonaventure Hotel looks like something out of Robocop. Typical of architect John C. Portman Junior's style, at its heart is a large atrium and multi-story labyrinth of walkways, shops, and mostly empty seating pods. The building's inward orientation and imposing exterior make it feel, if not as impregnable as a fortress ideally is, something like an arcology, biosphere or space station. It's designed to provide everything one would need for tourists and business travelers within its walls, although most of it shuts down after lunch. I just managed to grab a bánh mì from Mr. Baguette before its closing time of 3:00 pm. Forced to order my food to-go, after wandering around the building I ventured back out into the lawless outlands."

www.kcet.org/socal/departures/landofsunshine/block-by-blo...

 

www.thebonaventure.com

www.thebonaventure.com/history/

www.starwoodhotels.com/westin/property/overview/index.htm...

www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/architecture/events/kreider-oleary...

www.nytimes.com/2006/06/22/travel/22iht-hotdesign.html?pa...

www.artslant.com/ny/articles/show/11785

memory.loc.gov/phpdata/pageturner.php?type=contactminor&a...

 

John Portman:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Portman,_Jr.

www.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/garden/john-portman-symphonic-...

 

----

 

Paul Hastings Building (the old ARCO Tower, one part of City National Plaza):

515 South Flower Street

Built 1970–72.

Architects: Albert C. Martin & Associates (A.C. Martin & Associates)

Renovated: 1994.

Owner: Thomas Properties Group Inc.

 

Also formerly known as: ARCO Center, ARCO Plaza, Atlantic Richfield Tower, ARCO Tower, ARCO building.

 

Built controversially on the former site of the Richfield Tower.

  

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_National_Plaza

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richfield_Tower

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hastings

www.cnp-la.com

www.cnp-la.com/building/history.htm

www.emporis.com/building/paulhastingstower-losangeles-ca-usa

www.paulhastings.com

skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=2730

www.southlandarchitecture.com/Building/3656/Paul-Hastings...

articles.latimes.com/2001/dec/14/business/fi-14660

In the evening, more cars park along Praed Street, Paddington. This makes it more difficult for buses exiting Norfolk Place to sight oncoming traffic to give right of way to before turning because of the distance of having to sight whether or not vehicles are approaching. Inevitably, the 205 pictured ahead of the 27 turned in too early, leaving itself and a 436 stationary to create standstill traffic behind them.

 

Observing the matter from a 27 behind the 436, it was interesting to see a bus come out of Norfolk Place, after waiting for traffic to move, give up and divert itself right, back towards Edgware Road to rejoin its routing elsewhere.

 

Eventually, after many cars stuck in traffic U-turned their escape from the malarkey, the 436 driver used the now vacant spaces left by these cars to reverse, allowing the 205 to duck into an available parking space to correctly complete giving right of way before finishing its dramatic end to terminus at Cleveland Terrace.

 

With drivers having to regain time after this, I would not mind being on any of the buses involved in the delay.

 

©London Bus Breh 2016.

Arnarstapi or Stapi is a small fishing village at the foot of Mt. Stapafell between Hellnar village and Breiðavík farms on the southern side of Snæfellsnes, Iceland

 

The Snæfellsnes Peninsula is a region in western Iceland known for its dramatic landscapes. At its western tip, Snæfellsjökull National Park is dominated by Snæfellsjökull Volcano, which is topped by a glacier. Nearby, a trail leads through lava fields to black-pebble Djúpalónssandur Beach. In Stykkishólmur fishing village, the 19th-century wood-frame Norwegian House is a regional museum with a craft shop.

 

EOS R - Canon RF 16mm f/2.8 STM

The Miami Tower is a 47-story, landmark office skyscraper in Miami, Florida, United States. It is located in central Downtown. It is currently the 8th tallest building in Miami and Florida. On April 18, 2012, the AIA's Florida Chapter placed it on its list of Florida Architecture: 100 Years. 100 Places as the Bank of America Tower.

 

Built for CenTrust Bank in 1987, the 47-story building ranks in the top ten tallest skyscrapers in Miami and in Florida at a height of 625 feet (191 m) and is known for its elaborate night-time illuminations and its dramatic three glass tiers. Designed by the Pei Cobb Freed & Partners architectural firm, the tower consists of two separate structures: A 10-story parking garage owned by the city and the 47-story office tower built upon the air rights of the garage. Preliminary planning for the tower began in February 1980; construction on the garage began by November. The garage was completed in February 1983 and the tower began construction a year later. On August 1984, while the tower was under construction, a 5-alarm fire began on the ninth floor; construction was subsequently delayed for several weeks. On December 15, 1985, the tower was lit for the first time in Miami Dolphins aqua and snowflakes.

 

By mid-1986, the tower's exterior was complete and the grand opening for the complex was set for early fall that same year. Due to the uneven settling of the tower's foundation to one side by several inches, and the resulting misalignment of the tower's elevator rails, the grand opening for the complex was delayed until February 1987. The complete complex featured the world's only elevated metro station in a skyscraper (Knight Center station). It also gained notoriety for its luxurious interiors, including a skylobby on the 11th floor covered in marble and gold and a 10,000 sq ft (930 m2) outdoor terrace. Also its indoor gym features mahogany cabinets. The tower is connected to the James L. Knight Center by a pedestrian walkway and on the first floor is a retail spine covered with green marble. The tower contains 1,160,000 sq ft (108,000 m2) with 503,000 sq ft (46,700 m2) of office space and a 535,000 sq ft (49,700 m2), 1,500 space parking garage.

 

The building appears during the end credits of the 1986 movie Flight Of The Navigator in an aerial shot of Miami. The very top floors can clearly be seen still under construction.

The roof of the building was the set of Gloria Estefan's 1994 video for "Turn The Beat Around". The building is also one of many featured on the backdrop of the stage on The Tonight Show.

 

On January 1, 2010, the building was renamed the Miami Tower.

 

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

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_Tower

 

~~e.e. cummings

 

Mizen Head (Irish: Carn Uí Néid), is located at the extremity of a peninsula in the district of Carbery in County Cork, Ireland. It is one of the extreme points of the island of Ireland and is a major tourist attraction, noted for its dramatic cliff scenery

View from Mt Difficulty Vineyard in Bannockburn where we are having lunch. April 27, 2016 Central Otago in the South Island of New Zealand.

 

The Cellar Door at Mt Difficulty Wines is known as much for its dramatic views of rugged rock and thyme landscapes as it is for its stylish wine and food.

 

The unique microclimate of the Bannockburn area is partially created by the presence of Mount Difficulty which overlooks the southern Cromwell basin, and is the namesake of Mt Difficulty Wines. Mount Difficulty is integral in providing low rainfall and humidity for the region. Bannockburn enjoys hot summers, a large diurnal temperature variation and long cool autumns; conditions which bring the best out of the Pinot Noir grapes. These conditions, along with soils which are ideal for viticulture, provide an excellent basis not only for Pinot Noir, but also for Pinot Gris, Riesling, and Chardonnay. The soils are a mix of clay and gravels, but all feature a high pH level; grapes produce their best wines on sweet soils.

 

For More Info: www.mtdifficulty.co.nz/aboutus/ourstory.html

REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE METIS

 

Beautiful flowers at Reford Gardens.

 

Mrs Elsie Reford loved visiting that village (Saint Octave de Metis) close to Reford Gardens.

 

Reference: Elsie's Paradise, The Reford Gardens, Alexander Reford, 2004, ISBN 2-7619-1921-1, That book is a must for Reford Gardens lovers!

 

''Elsie often ventured into the back country near the gardens, admiring the hilly country behind the village of St. Octave.'' (page 99)

  

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

 

From Wikipedia:

 

Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.

 

Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.

  

Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.

 

She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.

 

In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.

 

During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.

 

In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.

 

Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.

 

To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.

 

Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.

 

In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)

 

Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford

  

LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS

 

Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.

 

Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.

 

Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada

 

© Copyright

This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.

REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE METIS

 

Coucher de soleil, Sainte-Flavie.

 

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

 

Photo taken close to REFORD GARDENS.(Sainte-Flavie)

 

Mrs Elsie Reford loved those beautiful sunsets.

 

Reference: Elsie's Paradise, The Reford Gardens, Alexander Reford, 2004, ISBN 2-7619-1921-1, That book is a must for Reford Gardens lovers!

 

''I shall always, all my life, want to come back to those sunsets.'' Elsie Reford, July 20, 1913. (page 25)

 

" It is just after 8 o'clock and I am sitting in front of my big window with the gorgeous panorama of a glorious afterglow from a perfect sunset. There is every hue of blue on the water of 'the Blue Lagoon' while Pointe-aux-Cenelles is bathed in pink and crimson and the dark hills of the north shore seem no further than two or three miles distant. I don't think in the whole world at this moment there could be anything more beautiful." Elsie Reford, June 2, 1931. (page 81)

  

Beautiful flowers at Reford Gardens.

 

''One thing I can do that no one else can is to pass the love that I feel for this place and this woman'' Alexander Reford

  

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

 

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

 

From Wikipedia:

 

Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.

 

Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.

  

Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.

 

She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.

 

In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.

 

During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.

 

In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.

 

Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.

 

To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.

 

Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.

 

In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)

 

Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford

  

LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS

 

Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.

 

Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.

 

Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada

 

© Copyright

This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.

FRANCESCO DAZZI PHOTOGRAPHY

 

The Colorado River is the principal river of the southwestern United States and northwest Mexico. The 1,450-mile (2,330 km) river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. and two Mexican states. Rising in the central Rocky Mountains in the U.S., the river flows generally southwest across the Colorado Plateau before reaching Lake Mead on the Arizona–Nevada line, where it turns south towards the international border. After entering Mexico, the Colorado forms a large delta, emptying into the Gulf of California between Baja California and Sonora.

 

Known for its dramatic canyons and whitewater rapids, the Colorado is a vital source of water for agricultural and urban areas in the southwestern desert lands of North America.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_River

All Saints Church on the High Street, in Hereford, Herefordshire.

 

It has been a focus of Hereford life for over 800 years. Its dramatic twisted spire dominates the skyline, and the medieval interior is an inspired meeting of the sacred and the secular: we aim to serve the human need for physical and social as well as spiritual nourishment.

 

The original All Saints, probably dating from 1200, did not last long and it may well have been damaged by an earthquake. Rebuilding was soon started but took a long time and it was not until about 1330AD that the new church was completed, very much as we see it today.

 

It seems that the tower and spire had always leant over (until the straightening of the 1990s), because the builders did not realise until it was too late that they were laying the foundations of one side very close to one and possibly more rubbish pits. In later years the spire was given a further twist at the top, as metal fixing for the stones rusted badly and pushed the stones out of place. There is a ring of eight bells, which regularly peal out over the city.

 

Information Source:

www.westherefordteam.org.uk/allsaints/

 

See: www.refordgardens.com/

 

Beautiful flowers at Reford Gardens.

 

CYCLOPS, 2016

Craig Chapple

Phoenix, Arizona, USA.

 

From the plaque:

 

Formerly trained as an architect at Yale University but with a deep commitment to creating art, Craig Chapple has pursued both architecture and the visual arts simultaneously throughout his career. Craig’s work is born from the synergy of these two disciplines, producing work that focuses on the overlap of the line, pattern, texture and process. He works in analog and digital practices in drawing, painting and sculpture.

  

Cyclops is a singular object on the landscape as well as a singular frame of the landscape. Made up of 25508-meter long tapering planks held in the shape of an inverted cone around a central opening for the user to occupy . These planks are fastened to each other at the innermost diameter and held upright by a 150 mm steal ring beam at the outer diameter.

 

At first approach, Cyclops is an object on the landscape, seen as a clear , platonic form. Through its transparency and porosity, however, it is an object one that is also dynamic and changing, blending with the environment.

 

By entering the central 1.5 m opening at the bottom of the cone, the user enters into a different relationship with the object and the landscape. By experiencing it from the inside-out, the object acts to frame the surrounding landscape and sky for the viewer in this same dynamic , temporal way by blending the man-made, platonic clarity of the frame with the organic and natural.

 

The viewer plays the central role of the work in rediscovering the relationship between the object, the frame and the natural landscape.

 

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

 

See: www.refordgardens.com/

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

  

From Wikipedia:

 

Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.

 

Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.

  

Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.

 

She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.

 

In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.

 

During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.

 

In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.

 

Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.

 

To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.

 

Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.

 

In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)

 

Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford

 

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

 

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

 

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

 

LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS

 

Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.

 

Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.

 

Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada

 

© Copyright

This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.

The southeastern UTAH and its dramatic scenery!

REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE METIS

 

MECONOPSIS BETONICIFOLIA

  

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

 

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

 

From Wikipedia:

 

Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.

 

Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.

  

Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.

 

She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.

 

In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.

 

During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.

 

In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.

 

Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.

 

To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.

 

Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.

 

In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)

 

Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford

 

Visit : www.refordgardens.com

 

LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS

 

Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.

 

Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.

 

Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada

  

© Copyright

This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.

Excerpt from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itsukushima_Shrine:

 

Itsukushima Shrine (厳島神社, Itsukushima-jinja) is a Shinto shrine on the island of Itsukushima (popularly known as Miyajima), best known for its "floating" torii. It is in the city of Hatsukaichi, in Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan, accessible from the mainland by ferry at Miyajimaguchi Station. The shrine complex is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the Japanese government has designated several buildings and possessions as National Treasures.

 

The Itsukushima shrine is one of Japan's most popular tourist attractions. It is most famous for its dramatic gate, or torii on the outskirts of the shrine, the sacred peaks of Mount Misen, extensive forests, and its ocean view. The shrine complex itself consists of two main buildings: the Honsha shrine and the Sessha Marodo-jinja, as well as 17 other different buildings and structures that help to distinguish it.

Wrapping up my Southern Arizona Adventure 2024 with a visit to Amerind Foundation and Texas Canyon. This is stage 9 of 9.

The light and shadows were very dynamic and I was chasing them.

 

www.amerind.org/texascanyonnaturepreserve/

Chat GPT

Texas Canyon is a striking natural area located in Cochise County, southeastern Arizona, along Interstate 10 between Benson and Willcox. It is renowned for its dramatic landscape, characterized by massive granite boulders scattered across the desert terrain, creating a rugged and picturesque environment.

The granite boulders in Texas Canyon were formed through millions of years of erosion and weathering. These formations, often precariously balanced, provide a unique and photogenic sight, making the canyon a popular stop for travelers and photographers.

The area is surrounded by the Chiricahua Mountains to the south and other nearby ranges, offering expansive views of the Sonoran Desert with its mix of desert vegetation, including cacti and mesquite trees. The light, especially at sunrise and sunset, enhances the golden hues of the rocks, adding to the area's charm.

Texas Canyon has a rich history tied to the Chiricahua Apache people, who once roamed these lands. Later, it became home to early settlers.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Canyon

Texas Canyon is a valley in Cochise County, Arizona,[1] about 20 miles east of Benson on Interstate 10. Lying between the Little Dragoon Mountains to the north and the Dragoon Mountains to the south and known for its giant granite boulders, the canyon attracts rockhounds and photographers.

 

www.arizonahighways.com/article/texas-canyon-nature-preserve

The giant granite boulders along Interstate 10 in Southeastern Arizona have been gracing postcards for decades, but that otherworldly landscape was always off-limits to the general public. Not anymore. Thanks to the Amerind Foundation, 6 miles of trails in the brand-new Texas Canyon Nature Preserve are now available to those who want a closer look.

 

By Suzanne Wright

Zipping past Texas Canyon, an hour southeast of Tucson, it's impossible not to notice the boulders - giant, eye-catching piles of granite, like something out of The Flintstones. But other than providing scenery along Interstate 10 â particularly at a rest area just down the highway from the kitschy attraction known as The Thing â the area has long been off-limits to curious travelers who wanted to stretch their legs and get a closer look.

There are several private landowners in Texas Canyon, including Triangle T Guest Ranch, which has some trails for its guests. But none had opened its trails to the public until this past October, when the portion of the area owned and managed by the Amerind Foundation had its ribbon-cutting. After a multi-year campaign that raised $250,000, the Texas Canyon Nature Preserve â on land previously closed to the public for 85 years, and where the organization's founding family raised quarter horses until 1968 â is open to all.

The idea had been percolating with the Amerind Foundation board and management for years, says Eric Kaldahl, the president, CEO and chief curator of the foundation. The response from the surrounding community has been very enthusiastic. We welcomed more visitors last October than we've seen for the past 10 years.

The preserve, located just off I-10 between Benson and Willcox, is part of a 1,900-acre campus that includes the Amerind Museum. More than 6 miles of trails wind past balanced rocks, fantastical shapes and rocky spires in open, sun-warmed high-desert grasslands studded with cactuses, wildflowers and trees. The trail is self-guided, although Kaldahl hopes to offer guided sunrise and sunset hikes in the next year. Visitors can pay a $12 admission fee for just the trails or $20 to visit both the trails and the museum.

Trail designer Sirena Rana knows the landscape can look intimidating, but she purposely designed the trails to be perfect little morsels. Rana didn't grow up hiking, so she aimed to make the trails a comfortable experience for all ages and abilities. There are no steep elevation gains, and dirt, rather than gravel, makes for more stability. And Rana recalls walking for miles and miles over several months to understand the land and ensure the trails were constructed to shed water, limit erosion and provide firebreaks.

 

Texas Canyon is one of the most unique landscapes in the Southwest, formed by millions of years of wind and rain weathering the granite, she says, likening it to Joshua Tree National Park and the Wilderness of Rock on Mount Lemmon. It's very unusual that it's right off a major interstate and just an hour from a major metropolitan area, she adds. This is one of the greatest outdoor sculpture gardens in the world designed by Mother Nature. I'm so pleased with how it turned out.

Elsewhere along the trail, signage reflects the Amerind Museum's mission of fostering knowledge and understanding of Indigenous peoples. Acknowledging that these are ancestral lands, the signs feature O'odham, English and Spanish text, in that order â and Kaldahl hopes to add Apache, too.

Additionally, Indigenous people have collected basket-weaving materials from these lands for generations, and they remain free to access the grounds.

 

Haiku Thoughts:

Stone giants whisper,

Texas Canyon's quiet grace,

Time's hand carves the sky.

 

Southern Arizona Adventure 2024

REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE METIS

 

Coucher de soleil, Sainte-Flavie.

 

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

 

Photo taken close to REFORD GARDENS. (Sainte-Flavie)

 

Mrs Elsie Reford loved those beautiful sunsets.

 

Reference: Elsie's Paradise, The Reford Gardens, Alexander Reford, 2004, ISBN 2-7619-1921-1, That book is a must for Reford Gardens lovers!

 

''I shall always, all my life, want to come back to those sunsets.'' Elsie Reford, July 20, 1913. (page 25)

 

" It is just after 8 o'clock and I am sitting in front of my big window with the gorgeous panorama of a glorious afterglow from a perfect sunset. There is every hue of blue on the water of 'the Blue Lagoon' while Pointe-aux-Cenelles is bathed in pink and crimson and the dark hills of the north shore seem no further than two or three miles distant. I don't think in the whole world at this moment there could be anything more beautiful." Elsie Reford, June 2, 1931. (page 81)

 

Beautiful flowers at Reford Gardens.

 

''One thing I can do that no one else can is to pass the love that I feel for this place and this woman'' Alexander Reford

  

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

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

 

From Wikipedia:

 

Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.

 

Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.

  

Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.

 

She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.

 

In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.

 

During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.

 

In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.

 

Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.

 

To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.

 

Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.

 

In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)

 

Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford

  

LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS

 

Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.

 

Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.

 

Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada

 

© Copyright

This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.

I read in one of Aberdeen's local newspaper that a new plaque celebrating Bram Stokers first writings of Dracula on his visit to Cruden Bay while he stayed at the Kilmarnock Arms Hotel in the village is now on display, I decided to visit today myself to capture the plaque and archive here on my Flickr account, posting a few of the shots I captured today Sunday 10th Feb 2019.

 

News Paper item 8th February 2019.

A plaque has been installed at the north-east hotel where Bram Stoker began writing his most famous work.

 

The Dracula author arrived in Cruden Bay on a walking holiday in 1893 and a year later he checked into the Kilmarnock Arms Hotel.

 

Mr Stoker wrote a message in the guestbook. It read: “Second visit to Port Erroll. Delighted with everything & everybody & hope to come again to the Kilmarnock Arms.”

 

In 1896 he went back to the inn and began writing the early chapters of his novel on the mysterious Transylvanian aristocrat.

 

Nearby Slains Castle provided the inspiration for many of the scenes that ended up in the book.

 

Mike Shepherd from the Port Errol Heritage Group nominated the Bridge Street hotel for a plaque to help highlight the role it played in the early days of one of the greatest horror tales of all time.

 

The commemorative plate was placed on the hotel yesterday and Mr Shepherd was there to see it.

 

He said: “What’s great about is it is that first commemoration for Bram Stoker’s visit to Cruden Bay.

 

“There were quite a lot of people who didn’t realise there was a connection between Bram Stoker and the Kilmarnock Arms Hotel.”

 

Martin Taylor, owner and manager at the Kilmarnock Arms Hotel, said having the plaque on the side of the building makes their links with Mr Stoker “official”.

 

The plaque is part of a Historic Environment Scotland scheme celebrating the lives of significant people by erecting plaques on the buildings where they lived or worked.

 

Stoker’s plaque is the 57th announced under the initiative since it began in 2012.

 

Caroline Clark, head of grants at Historic Environment Scotland, said: “This commemorative plaque highlights Bram Stocker’s connection to Scotland’s heritage.

 

“We hope that this will encourage fans of Bram Stoker to visit Cruden Bay and the Kilmarnock Arms Hotel – the hotel he stayed in while creating his most famous novel, Dracula.”

 

Historic Scotland Info

Aberdeenshire inn Bram Stoker stayed at while writing famous novel will house new plaque commemorating the author’s visits

 

The Scottish hotel that accommodated renowned Irish author Bram Stoker while he created Dracula will be recognised under Historic Environment Scotland’s 2018 Commemorative Plaque Scheme.

 

The annual scheme celebrates the lives of significant people by erecting plaques on the buildings where they lived or worked. Stoker’s plaque is the 57th announced under the scheme since it began in 2012. The plaque will be unveiled in the near future at the Kilmarnock Arms Hotel.

 

Born near Dublin in 1847, Bram Stoker was a part-time writer for most of his life. Later in his career, for 11 months out of every year, he worked as the business manager at the Lyceum Theatre in London and as the personal manager for the famous English stage actor, Henry Irving. After 1894, he spent the other month on holiday in Cruden Bay - then known as Port Erroll - where he wrote his books.

 

He first discovered Cruden Bay on a walking holiday to Aberdeenshire in 1893, writing: "When first I saw the place I fell in love with it." He returned in 1894, booking into the Kilmarnock Arms Hotel and writing in the guest book: "Second visit to Port Erroll. Delighted with everything & everybody & hope to come again to the Kilmarnock Arms."

 

He checked-in again in 1895 with the aim of writing the early chapters of his definitive work, Dracula. The Transylvanian vampire, Count Dracula, rose from the page in the hotel known locally as 'the Killie'. Stoker returned to Aberdeenshire in 1896 to complete the later chapters.

 

New Slains Castle, with its dramatic cliff-top setting nearby, is believed to have acted as the visual palette to prompt the dramatic scenes set in the fictional 'Castle Dracula'. The castle contains a room that has a look-alike in the novel - the octagonal hall used as a reception room for visitors - with the following observation from the novel's protagonist, Jonathan Harker, containing a clue: "The Count halted, putting down my bags, closed the door, and crossing the room, opened another door which led into a small octagonal room lit by a single lamp, and seemingly without a window of any sort."

  

Mike Shepherd, a member of the Port Erroll Heritage Group who nominated Stoker for a plaque to bring attention to the Kilmarnock Arms Hotel's role in the early days of the novel's creation, said:

 

"When the journalist Gordon Casely visited Cruden Bay in the 1960s to interview those who knew Bram Stoker, they told him they were immensely proud that the famous author had picked their village to write his books.

 

"Bram's special place is our special place. The new plaque is the first-ever celebration of the link between Bram Stoker and Cruden Bay. As such, it will provide a focus for that pride."

 

The remaining 13 successful plaque nominations under the 2018 Commemorative Plaque Scheme will be announced over the coming months.

  

Wikipedia -

 

Abraham "Bram" Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912) was an Irish author, best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel Dracula. During his lifetime, he was better known as the personal assistant of actor Sir Henry Irving and business manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London, which Irving owned.

 

Early life

 

Stoker was born on 8 November 1847 at 15 Marino Crescent, Clontarf, on the northside of Dublin, Ireland.

 

His parents were Abraham Stoker (1799–1876) from Dublin and Charlotte Mathilda Blake Thornley (1818–1901), who was raised in County Sligo.

 

Stoker was the third of seven children, the eldest of whom was Sir Thornley Stoker, 1st Bt..

 

Abraham and Charlotte were members of the Church of Ireland Parish of Clontarf and attended the parish church with their children, who were baptised there, and Abraham was a senior civil servant.

 

Stoker was bedridden with an unknown illness until he started school at the age of seven, when he made a complete recovery. Of this time, Stoker wrote, "I was naturally thoughtful, and the leisure of long illness gave opportunity for many thoughts which were fruitful according to their kind in later years." He was educated in a private school run by the Rev. William Woods.

 

After his recovery, he grew up without further serious illnesses, even excelling as an athlete (he was named University Athlete, participating in multiple sports) at Trinity College, Dublin, which he attended from 1864 to 1870. He graduated with a BA in 1870, and purchased his MA in 1875. Though he later in life recalled graduating "with honours in mathematics," this appears to have been a mistake.

 

He was auditor of the College Historical Society (the Hist) and president of the University Philosophical Society, where his first paper was on Sensationalism in Fiction and Society.

 

Early career

Stoker became interested in the theatre while a student through his friend Dr. Maunsell. While working for the Irish Civil Service, he became the theatre critic for the Dublin Evening Mail, which was co-owned by Sheridan Le Fanu, an author of Gothic tales.

 

Theatre critics were held in low esteem, but he attracted notice by the quality of his reviews. In December 1876, he gave a favourable review of Henry Irving's Hamlet at the Theatre Royal in Dublin. Irving invited Stoker for dinner at the Shelbourne Hotel where he was staying, and they became friends.

 

Stoker also wrote stories, and "The Crystal Cup" was published by the London Society in 1872, followed by "The Chain of Destiny" in four parts in The Shamrock. In 1876 while a civil servant in Dublin, Stoker wrote the non-fiction book The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland (published 1879) which remained a standard work.

 

Furthermore, he possessed an interest in art, and was a founder of the Dublin Sketching Club in 1879.

 

Lyceum Theatre

 

Bram Stoker's former home, Kildare Street, Dublin

In 1878 Stoker married Florence Balcombe, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel James Balcombe of 1 Marino Crescent. She was a celebrated beauty whose former suitor was Oscar Wilde.

 

Stoker had known Wilde from his student days, having proposed him for membership of the university's Philosophical Society while he was president. Wilde was upset at Florence's decision, but Stoker later resumed the acquaintanceship, and after Wilde's fall visited him on the Continent.

 

The Stokers moved to London, where Stoker became acting manager and then business manager of Irving's Lyceum Theatre, London, a post he held for 27 years. On 31 December 1879, Bram and Florence's only child was born, a son whom they christened Irving Noel Thornley Stoker.

 

The collaboration with Henry Irving was important for Stoker and through him he became involved in London's high society, where he met James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (to whom he was distantly related). Working for Irving, the most famous actor of his time, and managing one of the most successful theatres in London made Stoker a notable if busy man.

 

He was dedicated to Irving and his memoirs show he idolised him. In London Stoker also met Hall Caine, who became one of his closest friends – he dedicated Dracula to him.

 

In the course of Irving's tours, Stoker travelled the world, although he never visited Eastern Europe, a setting for his most famous novel. Stoker enjoyed the United States, where Irving was popular.

 

With Irving he was invited twice to the White House, and knew William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.

 

Stoker set two of his novels there, using Americans as characters, the most notable being Quincey Morris. He also met one of his literary idols, Walt Whitman.

 

Stoker visited the English coastal town of Whitby in 1890, and that visit was said to be part of the inspiration for Dracula.

 

He began writing novels while working as manager for Henry Irving and secretary and director of London's Lyceum Theatre, beginning with The Snake's Pass in 1890 and Dracula in 1897.

 

During this period, Stoker was part of the literary staff of The Daily Telegraph in London, and he wrote other fiction, including the horror novels The Lady of the Shroud (1909) and The Lair of the White Worm (1911).

 

He published his Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving in 1906, after Irving's death, which proved successful] and managed productions at the Prince of Wales Theatre.

 

Before writing Dracula, Stoker met Ármin Vámbéry, a Hungarian writer and traveller. Dracula likely emerged from Vámbéry's dark stories of the Carpathian mountains.

 

Stoker then spent several years researching European folklore and mythological stories of vampires.

 

The 1972 book In Search of Dracula by Radu Florescu and Raymond McNally claimed that the Count in Stoker's novel was based on Vlad III Dracula.[12] At most however, Stoker borrowed only the name and "scraps of miscellaneous information" about Romanian history, according to one expert, Elizabeth Miller; further, there are no comments about Vlad III in the author's working notes.

 

Dracula is an epistolary novel, written as a collection of realistic but completely fictional diary entries, telegrams, letters, ship's logs, and newspaper clippings, all of which added a level of detailed realism to the story, a skill which Stoker had developed as a newspaper writer

 

At the time of its publication, Dracula was considered a "straightforward horror novel" based on imaginary creations of supernatural life. "It gave form to a universal fantasy . . . and became a part of popular culture."

 

Stoker was a deeply private man, but his almost sexless marriage, intense adoration of Walt Whitman, Henry Irving and Hall Caine, and shared interests with Oscar Wilde, as well as the homoerotic aspects of Dracula have led to scholarly speculation that he was a repressed homosexual who used his fiction as an outlet for his sexual frustrations.[16] In 1912, he demanded imprisonment of all homosexual authors in Britain: it has been suggested that this was due to self-loathing and to disguise his own vulnerability.

 

Possibly fearful, and inspired by the monstrous image and threat of otherness that the press coverage of his friend Oscar's trials generated, Stoker began writing Dracula only weeks after Wilde's conviction.

 

According to the Encyclopedia of World Biography, Stoker's stories are today included in the categories of "horror fiction", "romanticized Gothic" stories, and "melodrama."

 

They are classified alongside other "works of popular fiction" such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein,394 which also used the "myth-making" and story-telling method of having multiple narrators telling the same tale from different perspectives, according to historian Jules Zanger. "'They can't all be lying,' thinks the reader."

 

The original 541-page typescript of Dracula was believed to have been lost until it was found in a barn in northwestern Pennsylvania in the early 1980s It consisted of typed sheets with many emendations and handwritten on the title page was "THE UN-DEAD."

 

The author's name was shown at the bottom as Bram Stoker. Author Robert Latham remarked: "the most famous horror novel ever published, its title changed at the last minute.[

 

The typescript was purchased by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

 

Stoker's inspirations for the story, in addition to Whitby, may have included a visit to Slains Castle in Aberdeenshire, a visit to the crypts of St. Michan's Church in Dublin, and the novella Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu.

 

Stoker's original research notes for the novel are kept by the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia

 

A facsimile edition of the notes was created by Elizabeth Miller and Robert Eighteen-Bisang in 1998.

 

Death

 

After suffering a number of strokes, Stoker died at No. 26 St George's Square, London on 20 April 1912.

 

Some biographers attribute the cause of death to tertiary syphilis, others to overwork.

 

He was cremated, and his ashes were placed in a display urn at Golders Green Crematorium in north London. The ashes of Irving Noel Stoker, the author's son, were added to his father's urn following his death in 1961. The original plan had been to keep his parents' ashes together, but after Florence Stoker's death, her ashes were scattered at the Gardens of Rest.

 

Beliefs and philosophy

 

Stoker was raised a Protestant in the Church of Ireland. He was a strong supporter of the Liberal Party and took a keen interest in Irish affairs.

 

As a "philosophical home ruler," he supported Home Rule for Ireland brought about by peaceful means.

 

He remained an ardent monarchist who believed that Ireland should remain within the British Empire, an entity that he saw as a force for good. He was an admirer of Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, whom he knew personally, and supported his plans for Ireland.

 

Stoker believed in progress and took a keen interest in science and science-based medicine. Some Stoker novels represent early examples of science fiction, such as The Lady of the Shroud (1909). He had a writer's interest in the occult, notably mesmerism, but despised fraud and believed in the superiority of the scientific method over superstition. Stoker counted among his friends J. W. Brodie-Innis, a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and hired member Pamela Colman Smith as an artist for the Lyceum Theatre, but no evidence suggests that Stoker ever joined the Order himself.

REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE METIS

 

COUCHER DE SOLEIL - Sainte-Flavie

 

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

 

Photo taken close to REFORD GARDENS. (Sainte-Flavie)

 

Mrs Elsie Reford loved those beautiful sunsets.

 

Reference: Elsie's Paradise, The Reford Gardens, Alexander Reford, 2004, ISBN 2-7619-1921-1, That book is a must for Reford Gardens lovers!

 

''I shall always, all my life, want to come back to those sunsets.'' Elsie Reford, July 20, 1913. (page 25)

 

" It is just after 8 o'clock and I am sitting in front of my big window with the gorgeous panorama of a glorious afterglow from a perfect sunset. There is every hue of blue on the water of 'the Blue Lagoon' while Pointe-aux-Cenelles is bathed in pink and crimson and the dark hills of the north shore seem no further than two or three miles distant. I don't think in the whole world at this moment there could be anything more beautiful." Elsie Reford, June 2, 1931. (page 81)

 

Beautiful flowers at Reford Gardens.

  

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

 

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

 

From Wikipedia:

 

Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.

 

Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.

  

Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.

 

She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.

 

In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.

 

During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.

 

In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.

 

Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.

 

To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.

 

Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.

 

In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)

 

Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford

 

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

 

LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS

 

Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.

 

Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.

 

Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada

 

© Copyright

This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.

Generally speaking, the order that our trip through Israel took.

 

Here was our full schedule:

Saturday, May 25 – NEW YORK

Sunday, May 26 – WELCOME TO ISRAEL

 

•Bus departs Ben Gurion International Airport to Moshav Givat Chen

•Arrive Hendal’e Restaurant, Moshav Givat Chen

oIntroductions and welcome dinner

•Depart Hendal’e to Prima Millennium Hotel

On arrival, all alight from bus and proceed to group check in area

Overnight bags preferred

Overnight Prima Millennium, Ra’anana, 2 Ha-Tidhar St, Ra’anana (t: +972-9-763-6363)

 

Monday, May 27 – CENTRAL ISRAEL and GALILEE

•Breakfast at hotel

•08:00amCheck out and bags on bus

•08:10amDepart to Hod Hasharon

•08:30amWelcome to Israel -Israel 101- with Rabbi Leor Sinai, Co-Executive Director, Alexander Muss High School in Israel

•Depart Hod Hasharon

•Fureidis

oGuest Speaker: Ibtissam Machmeed, Womens Rights and Interfaith Activist

oGuest Speaker: Professor Esther Herzog, Beit Berl College

•Proceed north

•Arrive to Daliat El-Carmel

oLunch at Nora’s Kitchen

oGuest Speaker: Druze community

•Depart Daliat El-Carmel

•Visit to Capernaum (proper attire required)

•Depart Capernaum

•Arrive at Ramot Hotel

•Evening Presentation – Special in Uniform

oGuest Speaker: Lt Col (Res.) Tiran Attia

 

•Dinner

oGuest: Efi Talbi - “Mom, it’s me”

oGuest: Lt Col (Res.) Tiran Attia

•OvernightRamot Resort and Hotel, Moshav Ramot (t:011-972-4-673-2636)

  

Tuesday, May 28 –GOLAN HEIGHTS and NORTHERN ISRAEL

•06:30amGrab and go Breakfast at hotel

 

•Mt Bental on the Golan Heights – Briefing with Lt Col (Res.) Tiran Attia

•Depart Mt Bental

•Stop at Beit Asher site, Kiryat Shmona

•Academic visit to Tel Hai Academic College

oWelcome and introduction

oIndividual meetings with Tel Hai Faculty

•Depart Tel Hai Academic College

•Sandwich lunch en route on bus

•Buza Ice Cream – Coexistence in a cup

•Continue to Galilee Medical Center (GMC)

•Visit to Galilee Medical Center (GMC)

oGuest Speaker: Dr. Eyal Sela

oGuest Speaker: Dr. Masad Barhoum

•Proceed to Akko

•Mini tour of Akko with Michal Shiloah-Galnoor, Western Galilee Now

•Return to bus and depart to Haifa

•Arrival to Haifa and check in to Dan Panorama Hotel

 

•07:00pmAs applicable, individual meetings with Technion and University of Haifa Faculty

•OvernightDan Panorama Hotel, 107 HaNassi Blvd 107, Haifa (t:011-972-4-835-2222)

 

Wednesday, May 29 – HAIFA

•07:00amBreakfast at hotel

•07:30amBags on bus and check out

•07:45amDepart by foot to Promenade

•Bahá’i Gardens and view of Shrine from Terrace 19 See Appendix A

oGuest Speaker: Carmel Irandoust, Deputy Secretary General of the Baha’i International Community Secretariat See Appendix A

•08:50amDepart to The Technion

•Arrival to The Technion–Polak Visitors Center

•Academics escorted to meetings at Technion.

•As applicable, bus departs Technion to University of Haifa and Hecht Museum

•10:30amAcademic meetings at the Technion

oIndividual meetings with Technion Faculty

•10:40amAcademic meetings at University of Haifa

oIndividual meetings with University of Haifa Faculty

•12:00pmPick up from Technion and University of Haifa

•Sandwich lunch en route on bus

•Brief stop at Roman Aqueduct - Caesaria

•Arrival to Jerusalem

•Proceed to Knesset – view of government quarter

•03:00pmArrival at Knesset

•Visit to Knesset (Israel’s Parliament)

•Passports required to proceed thru security

•Visitors should note that in accordance with the Knesset dress code, entrance to the Knesset is permitted only in dignified and appropriate attire (no tank/spaghetti tops, crop tops, clothing with political slogans, shorts or ¾–length trousers, ripped trousers, short skirts and dresses, tracksuits or sweatpants, flip-flops, or clogs).

oTour of the Knesset

oMeeting with Member of Knesset, Sharren Haskell, Likud Party

oMeeting with Member of Knesset, Yehiel Tropper, Blue & White Party

•Visit and meetings at Jewish National Fund, USA Jerusalem office

oLight buffet style dinner

oIndividual academic meetings

•07:20pmA journalist’s perspective on the Middle East

oGuest Speaker: Khaled Abu Toameh, Israeli /Palestinian independent journalist

•Depart to hotel

•Arrive at Dan Jerusalem Hotel and check in

•OvernightDan Jerusalem Hotel, 32 Lehi Street, Jerusalem (t: +972-2-533-1234)

Thursday, May 30 – JERUSALEM - HEBREW UNIVERSITY and YAD VASHEM

•06:45amBreakfast discussion at hotel

•07:15amDepart hotel

•Overlook at Mt Scopus

•08:00amDepartures (as applicable) from overlook to Hebrew University Agricultural School and Weizmann Institute, Rehovot

•08:30amDepartures (as applicable) from overlook to Jerusalem area

oAs applicable, transfer to Hebrew University Mt Scopus campus

oAs applicable, transfer to Hebrew University Givat Ram campus

oAs applicable, transfer to Hadassah Medical School, Ein Kerem

oAs applicable, transfer to Jerusalem College of Technology (JCT)

•09:30amIndividual meetings with Hebrew University Faculty (Mt Scopus and Givat Ram)

oIndividual meetings with Weizmann Institute Faculty

oIndividual meetings with Hebrew University Agricultural School Faculty

oIndividual meetings with Hadassah Medical School, Ein Kerem, Faculty

oIndividual meetings with Jerusalem College of Technology Faculty

oTour of Hebrew University Mt Scopus with Faith Segal

•11:00am Commencement of multi-campus collections

•Light sandwich lunch at bus

•01:00pm Yad Vashem International Institute for Holocaust Research

oGuest Speaker, Holocaust Survivor and discussion

oGuided tour

•Visit and tour of City of David

•Optional dinner at hotel

•Overnight Dan Jerusalem Hotel, 32 Lehi Street, Jerusalem (t: 011-972-2-533-1234)

 

Friday, May 31 – JERUSALEM

•06:30amBreakfast at hotel

•07:15am Depart hotel

•Visit to and tour of Western Wall and Tunnels See Appendix A

•Tour of the Old City

oJewish, Christian, Muslim and Armenian Quarters, Via Dolorosa, Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Arab Shuk and Jaffa Gate

•Dome of the Rock (entry for Muslim faith adherents only)

•Lunch in a Pita – A traditional on-the-go Israeli lunch in the Jewish Quarter

•Individual academic meetings at Dan Jerusalem Hotel See Appendix B

•King David’s Tomb and Room of the Last Supper

•Mahane Yehuda market (schedule and time permitting)

•Return to hotel – free time

•06:59pmLighting of Candles before Shabbat (Sabbath) begins at sunset

•07:30pm Shabbat dinner at hotel - private room

oGuest Shabbat Hosts: Rabbi Dov and Mrs. Dina Lipman

oGuest: Ilan Regenbaum

oAfter dinner, informal discussion on terrace overlooking Jerusalem

•Overnight Dan Jerusalem Hotel, 32 Lehi Street, Jerusalem (t: 011-972-2-533-1234)

 

Saturday, June 1 – MASADA and DEAD SEA

•06:45amShabbat breakfast at hotel

•07:20amCheck out and bags on bus

•07:30am Depart hotel

•Photo stop at Sea Level

•Visit to Jordan River – Qasr Al Yahud

•Visit and tour of Masada National Park

•Visit to Dead Sea Premier Beach

oLunch

oDead Sea swim experience (bring swimwear and flip flops – it is recommended not to shave at least 24 hours prior to entry into the Dead Sea

•Depart to Be’er Sheva

•View of Be’er Sheva River Park, Amphitheatre, Promenade and site of future Alexander Muss High School in Israel

•Ethiopian Experience at Ronald Lauder Employment Center, Old City

oGuest Speaker: Naftali Aklum

oGuest Speaker: Tamar Gil

 

•OvernightLeonardo Be’er Sheva , 4 Henrietta Szold St, Be’er Sheva (t:011-972-8-640-5444)

Sunday, June 2 – BE’ER SHEVA

•07:30amBreakfast at hotel

•08:10amCheck out and bags on bus

•Meet JNF Shorashim Birthright participants

•08:20amDepart hotel

•08:30amArrive Ben Gurion University

•09:00amAcademic Visit to Ben Gurion University See Appendix A

oGreetings and address by Professor Limor Aharonson-Daniel, Vice Rector for International Academic Affairs

oWelcome by Shai Kaplan, ASU-BGU Partnership project manager

oArrange take away sandwiches for bus from BGU

•Depart Ben Gurion University. Proceed to Hura

•Visit to Hura and Project Wadi Attir and visit to Bedouin Traditional Hospitality Tent See Appendix A

oGuest Speaker: Dr. Lina Alatawna

oGuest Speaker: Dr. Yasmeen Abu Fraiha

oGuest Speaker: Ghadir Hani on the status and role of Bedouin women with Project Wadi Attir

•Depart Hura and proceed to Rahat

•Visit and tour of SodaStream

•Depart Rahat

•Visit to Kibbutz Nirim

oGuest Speaker: Adele Raemer

•Depart Nirim and proceed to Sderot

•Visit and tour of Jewish National Fund’s Sderot Indoor Recreation Center

oSpeaker: Yedidya Harush

oSpeaker: Michal Uziyahu

oLight dinner

•Depart Sderot and proceed to Ashkelon

•OvernightLeonardo Ashkelon, Golani Street (t:011-972-8-911-1111)

 

Monday, June 3 – SDEROT and NORTHERN NEGEV

•Optional - Morning walk along beach with guide

•08:00amBreakfast at hotel

•08:40amCheck out and bags on bus

•08:50amDepart hotel

•09:30amAcademic visit to Sapir College See Appendix A

oWelcome greeting by Dr. Ronen Arbel

oGuest Speaker: Dr. Willy Abraham

oPTSD – the effects of long term trauma living on the border

•Depart Sderot to Sde Boker

•Academic Visit to Ben Gurion University - Zuckerberg Water Institute at Sde Boker

oTour of institute

oIndividual academic meetings with Zuckerberg Water Institute Faculty

oLunch

•Visit to Ben Gurion’s grave

•Proceed to Mitzpe Ramon

•View of Machtesh Mitzpe Ramon

•Proceed to Kibbutz Ketura (via rest stop at Neot Smadar)

•Arrive Kibbutz Ketura

•Free time

•07:30pmBBQ Dinner with AIES staff and kibbutz residents

•OvernightKeren Kolot Guest House, Kibbutz Ketura (c: 011-972-53-941-9109)

 

Tuesday, June 4 – ARAVA

•06:45amBags on bus

•07:00amBreakfast on Kibbutz Ketura

oTour of kibbutz

oMethusaleh tree and new trees

•08:30amAcademic visit to Arava Institute of Environmental Studies (AIES) See Appendix A

oGreetings and introduction by Executive Director, David Lehrer and Director of Diplomacy, Cathie Granit

oAIES Faculty David Lehrer, Dr Tareq Abu Hamed, Academic Director and Director for Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation, Dr Elaine Soloway, Director of the Center for Sustainable Agriculture, and Suleiman Halassah, research for the Center of Transboundary Water Management

oIndividual academic meetings with AIES faculty

oTour of Solar off-grid Village

•10:30amDepart Kibbutz Ketura

•Academic visit to Arava International Center for Agricultural Training (AICAT)

oDiscussion with Hanni Arnon, Director of Arava International Center for Agricultural Training

oIntroduction to Msc Plant Biology students from Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and Kenya

oPresentation with AICAT Faculty and students

•12:30pmContinue to Vidor Center, Hatzeva

•12:50pmVisit to Vidor Visitors Center/Research and Development Station

oGuest speaker: Noa Zer, Regional Council Resources Development Director

oTour of research hothouses

oSandwich lunch on terrace

•02:30pmDepart Hatzeva to Tel Aviv (with rest stop en route)

•05:30pmArrive Nahlat Binyamin Arts and Crafts pedestrian precinct and Carmel Market, Tel Aviv

•Walking tour to hotel

•Check in

•07:30pmGuest Speaker in Private room – Former Member of Knesset, Merav Michaeli, Zionist Union/Labor Party (TBC)

•Free night

•Overnight Dan Panorama Hotel, 10 Kaufmann St, Tel Aviv (t: 011-972-3-519-0190)

 

Wednesday, June 5 – TEL AVIV

•07:00amBreakfast at hotel and informal discussion

•07:40amDepartures from hotel to:

oAs applicable, transfer to IDC Herzliya

oAs applicable, transfer to Volcani Institute

oAs applicable, transfer to Netanya Academic College

•07:45amBus departs to Tel Aviv University and Bar Ilan University

•08:30amAcademic visit to Tel Aviv University (TAU) See Appendix A

oGroup visit to Cymbalista Synagogue

oIndividual academic meetings with Tel Aviv University Faculty

•09:00amAcademic visits to Bar Ilan University, IDC Herzliya,and Holon Institute of Technology (as applicable)

oIndividual academic meetings with Tel Aviv University Faculty

oIndividual academic meetings with Bar Ilan University Faculty See Appendix B

oIndividual academic meetings with IDC Herzliya

oIndividual academic meetings with Netanya Academic College

oIndividual academic meetings with Volcani Institute

•10:30amCollections from IDC Herzliya, Volcani Institute, Netanya Academic College and Bar Ilan University to Ramat Aviv (as applicable)

•11:30amVisit and Guided Tour of Peres Center See Appendix A

oIntroduction and Guest Speaker: Nadav Tamir

•Quick bite on own at beachside kiosk

•01:45pmDepartures from Jaffa to (as applicable):

oTransfers to Tel Aviv University See Appendix A and Tel Hashomer

•02:05pmBus with remainder of group departs to Volcani Institute

•02:30pmAcademic visits to Tel Aviv University and Tel HaShomer,(as applicable)

oIndividual academic meetings with Tel Aviv University Faculty

oIndividual academic meeting with Tel HaShomer See Appendix B

•02:35pmArrive Volcani Institute

•Academic Visit to Volcani Institute

oGroup presentation

oIndividual academic meetings with Volcani Faculty

•04:00pmDepartures from Tel Aviv University and Tel HaShomer

•04:15pmBus departs Volcani Institute

•05:00pmTour of Old Jaffa (all vehicles meet and rejoin)

•06:30pmProceed to Dan Gourmet Cooking School

•Overnight Dan Panorama Hotel, 10 Kaufmann St, Tel Aviv (t: 011-972-3-519-0190)

Thursday, June 6 – TEL AVIV

•08:00amBreakfast at hotel

•08:30amGuest Speaker Joe Hyams – Start Up Nation – Honest Reporting

oChuck Fax – Positively Israel

•09:45amBags on bus and check out

•Walk Shalom Building/Bauhaus

•11:00amDepart Tel Aviv

•11:30amVisit to Rabin Center

oPrivate tour of center with Rabin Center guide

oPrivate room - Guest Speaker: Dalia Rabin, Chair of the Yitzhak Rabin Center and daughter of former Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin.

•Depart to Tel Aviv

•Pass by Rabin Memorial at City Hall

•02:00pmArrive Sarona

oOverview of Sarona and area by Jacob

oIndividual academic meetings at Sarona

oQuick bite on own at Sarona Food Hall/Market/Outdoor cafes

•03:00pmDepart Sarona

•03:30pmVisit to Biblical Forest at Neot Kedumim

•Opportunity for each participant to plant a tree

•Return to Tel Aviv

•06:00pmFarewell dinner – Keren and Yael at Lilienblum

oSpecial Guest: Titi Ayenew – Former Miss Israel and international model

oSpecial Guests: Israel's Gold medal Judo winners, Ori Sasson, Peter Palchik and Sagi Muki. The three will share their individual experiences, including having Israel's national anthem, Hatikvah, played for the first time in Abu Dhabi, and having games forfeited, decisions made by Iranian and Egyptian officials who would not allow their players to compete with an Israeli.

 

Appendix A

APPENDIX A: Program Component Background Information

 

Monday, May 27th

 

•Fureidis

Fureidis is a town situated on the coastal plain with approximately 10,000 predominantly Arab residents.

 

•Daliat El-Carmel

Sitting high on the slopes of Mt Carmel, this Druze town has an exceptionally unique character. It is a colorful town that offers wonderful hospitality with a smile and is also very interesting. The Druze is an ethnic group that split off from Islam in Egypt about 1,000 years ago. According to the Druze, their religion is the renewal of an ancient faith that became a secret known only to the group’s sages. Daliat El-Carmel was founded in the 17th century by Druze from Mt. Lebanon.

 

•Tiran Attia

Lt. Col. (Res.) Tiran Attia serves as Director of Special in Uniform, an innovative program that aims to integrate young people with autism and other disabilities into the IDF and, in turn, into Israeli society. After their service, Special in Uniform helps usher its graduates toward a self-sufficient life, through employment or other meaningful societal involvement, once they are discharged from the army.

 

Over the course of his distinguished 28-year career in the Israel Defense Forces, Lt. Col. Attia commanded a tank, the IDF's Technology and Logistics Forces training program, and the Sar-El program for army volunteers from around the world.

                 

Tuesday, May 28th

 

•Tel Hai College

Tel-Hai College is the leading public academic college in Israel and an engine of change for the educational, economic and social development of the Upper Galilee. Since becoming an independent academic institution in 1996, Tel-Hai's innovative curriculum, diverse student life and pluralistic atmosphere, and growing reputation for academic excellence have attracted students from across the country to join in building our unique community of learning and gained the attention of scholars and researchers around the world. Tel-Hai strives for the best where it is needed most - doing our utmost to serve the people of the northern periphery of Israel and tap into the region's extraordinary potential. We believe we can see the future from here, and that we are building it every day in both the classroom and the community. We invite you to explore that work with us by learning more about our courses, our faculty and our wonderful students, as well as our passion to make the Galilee a place where more Tel-Hai graduates - and more Israelis - will want to live, work and make their home.

 

•Galilee Medical Center

Galilee Medical Center is a hospital located in the coastal city of Nahariya, and is the second largest hospital in northern Israel (after Rambam Hospital in Haifa). It was established in 1956.

 

The hospital located on the outskirts of Nahariya, three kilometers from the city center, serving half a million residents of the western Galilee, from Karmiel to the coast.

 

Since its modest beginning as a small maternity hospital, The WGH has grown into a 651-bed facility. The emergency room receives about 400 people every day and the number of hospitalizations is about 60,000 a year. Approximately 420 physicians’ practice in this government owned hospital, while the total number of employees is about 2200. The hospital staff is a reflection of the Multi-ethnic demography of the Western Galilee; consisting of Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze and others. In 2007, the Western Galilee Hospital was the first to appoint an Arab Israeli, Dr. Masad Barhoum, as its director.

 

•Dr. Eyal Sela

Dr. Eyal Sela, Director of Otolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery, joined Galilee Medical Center’s administration in 2013. Since then Dr. Sela and his inspiring staff have been leaders in the medical revolution sweeping the Western Galilee by providing new and innovative services to the residents of Israel’s northern periphery.

 

As Head of the Ear, Nose, Throat, and Head and Neck (ENT) Student Program, Bar-Ilan University Faculty of Medicine in the Galilee, Dr. Sela is leading the training of Israel’s newest ENT practitioners. Formerly a lecturer at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology Medical School in Haifa, Israel (the "Technion"), Dr. Sela was recognized for his excellence in teaching for three consecutive academic years as an outstanding lecturer at Bar-Ilan University and the Technion.

 

Dr. Sela graduated medical school at the Technion in 1997 followed by a residency at the Carmel Medical Center in Haifa. Moreover, he completed a two-year Fellowship in Head and Neck Oncologic and Reconstructive Surgery at Jewish General Hospital, McGill

University, in Montreal, Canada during 2010 – 2012. Prior to his Fellowship, he was an

ENT Specialist on the full-time staff in the Otolaryngology Department at Carmel

Medical Center in Haifa, Israel from 2006 – 2010. Additionally, he served as a Facial Cosmetic Consultant and Surgeon, for Clalit Aesthetics during 2009 and 2010.

 

Dr. Sela has published numerous studies and presented at many national and international conferences. As the Head of the department of ENT, Dr. Sela is leading vast prospective and retrospective academic research along with his senior and junior staff and engaging medical students at the cutting-edge of medicine for new treatments.

 

Dr. Sela also acts as a key speaker for visitors and media outlets wishing to understand the treatment of victims of Syrian violence as head of one of the main departments caring for many of the more than 2,000 patients who have escaped Syrian violence to seek care at Galilee Medical Center since March 2013. Dr. Sela has received wide international attention for his presentation, highlighting some of the Department’s more unique trauma cases to arise from the care of Syrian patients. Dr. Sela is a shining beacon for Galilee Medical Center’s driving focus, “Adam l’Adam, Adam” meaning a "Person should relate to another person as a human being" or “People to People” medicine.

 

• Dr. Masoud Barhoum

Dr. Masoud Barhoum was born in Shefaram, Israel, to Arab Christian parents who emphasized the human values of moral integrity. Dr. Barhoum is married to Dr. Marie Barhoum, a pediatric endocrinologist, and they are the parents of 3 daughters.

 

Dr. Barhoum began his medical studies in 1979 at Rappaport Faculty of Medicine,

Technion Institute of Technology, and in 1985 completed his internship at Rambam Medical Center, Haifa. He was an internal medicine resident from 1986-1990, but chose to transfer to family medicine, partially in order to take upon himself an equal part of the tasks at home, including child-rearing.

 

In 1990, Dr. Barhoum and his family took up residence in Kibbutz Ramat Hashofet for the next 10 years, living as an integral part of the kibbutz family, while completing his residency in family medicine and receiving a Maste's Degree in Public Health

Administration from Haifa University. In the latter years of the 1990's, Dr. Barhoum was appointed director of the Clalit HMO’s Home Care System in Haifa and the Western Galilee, followed by director of its northern region Home Hospitalization Unit.

 

Wednesday, May 29th

 

•Bahá’i Temple and Gardens

Haifa is the international headquarters for the Bahá’í Faith, which began amidst persecution in Persia in the mid-19th century. They believe in the unity of all religions and believe that messengers of God like Moses, Jesus and Muhammad have been sent at different times in history with doctrines varying to fit changing social needs but bringing substantially the same message.

 

The beautiful gardens were originally planned by Shoghi Effendi, the late Guardian of the Faith, and they have recently undergone a massive redesign aimed at putting them on the world's horticultural map.

 

The Bahá’í gardens are now a geometric cascade of hanging gardens and terraces down to Ben Gurion Boulevard -a gift of visual pleasure to the city that gave the Baha'i religion its home and headquarters.

 

•Technion – Israel’s Institute of Technology

After some years of intense pioneering activities, with which Prof. Albert Einstein's deep involvement, the Technion opened its doors in 1924, becoming Israel’s first modern university.

 

The developing state created new demands on the veteran university. To meet these needs, Technion launched a variety of ambitious projects, including the establishment of the Department of Aeronautical Engineering in 1949, which laid the foundation for Israel’s successful aerospace industries and Air Force.

 

Recognizing the growing trend in interdisciplinary activity, Technion established several new departments, including Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, and the SolidState Institute. Throughout the upheaval and change, Technion remained at the forefront of the nation's activities – from producing technologies for guaranteeing Israel's future security, to planning cooperative regional research projects in subjects such as desalination and nuclear energy. The Technion's world-wide reputation for excellence has been strengthened through intensified research in various fields spanning from nuclear power options for Israel to a new program in marine engineering, and pioneer work in the field of industrial robotics. In 1998, Technion successfully launched the "Gurwin TechSat II" microsatellite, making Technion one of five universities with a student program that designs, builds, and launches its own satellite.

     

•Haifa University

The campus of the University of Haifa spreads along the Carmel Mountain ridge southeast of the city of Haifa and is surrounded by the Carmel National Park. The University was established in 1963 under the joint auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Haifa Municipality. In 1972, it gained academic accreditation as a separate institution from the Council for Higher Education. The University of Haifa is the most pluralistic institution of higher education in Israel: sons and daughters of both veteran cities and development towns, kibbutzim and moshavim, new immigrants, Jews, Arabs, and Druze, IDF officers and security personnel—all sitting together on the bench of knowledge in an atmosphere of coexistence, tolerance, and mutual respect. The University considers the link-up between academic excellence and social responsibility as its flagship, and service to the community as one of its important goals.

 

There are over 17,000 students studying towards a degree (B.A., M.A., or Ph.D.). The University offers six Faculties: Humanities, Social Sciences, Sciences and Science Education, Law, Social Welfare and Health Studies, and Education and five Schools: Business Administration.

 

•Member of Knesset Sharren Haskel

Sharren Haskel is an Israeli member of the Knesset for Likud. She is the youngest member of Likud and the second youngest member of the 20th Knesset.

 

Haskel lived in Australia and volunteered at WIRES, an organization that rescue wild animals, treat them and release them back into the wild. She is active on environmental and animal rights issues, with a particular focus on water pollution coming out of areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority.

 

Haskel has been labeled the most active and influential Member of Knesset for civil freedom, individual rights and economic freedom in Israel for 2016. In May 2016 MK Haskel was recognized by the "Jewish Journal" the United States as a leader of new generation of woman in politics, mainly for her extensive work around the world to defend Israel’s policy and government.

 

•Member of Knesset Yehiel Tropper

MK Tropper was born in Jerusalem, one of nine children of Rabbi Daniel Tropper. During his national service in the Israel Defense Forces, he was part of the Duvdevan Unit. He subsequently became a social worker and earned a BA in humanities from the Open University and an MA in Jewish history and education from the Lander Institute. He worked for the Bat Yam municipality and also ran the Branco Weiss School in Ramle.

Prior to the 2013 Knesset elections Tropper was placed twenty-third on the Labor Party list but the party won only 15 seats. He was subsequently appointed as an advisor to Minister of Education Shai Piron. When Piron left the government in 2015, Tropper became Director of the Education, Welfare and Culture Division in Yeruham.

In the build-up to the 2019 elections he joined the new Israel Resilience Party founded by his friend Benny Gantz. He was elected to the Knesset as Blue and White.

Tropper is married with four children and lives in Nes Harim.

• Khaled Abu Toameh

Khaled Abu Toameh is the West Bank and Gaza correspondent for The Jerusalem Post and U.S. News and World Report. He previously served as a senior writer for the Jerusalem Report, and was a correspondent for Al-Fajr. He has produced several documentaries on the Palestinians for the BBC and many other networks, including ones that exposed the connection between Arafat and payments to the armed wing of Fatah and the financial corruption within the Palestinian Authority.

 

Mr. Abu Toameh was born in the West Bank city of Tulkarem in 1963 to an Israeli Arab father and a Palestinian Arab mother from the West Bank. AbuToameh received his BA in English Literature from the Hebrew University.

                             

Thursday, May 30th

 

•Hebrew University

The dream of establishing a "University of the Jewish People" in the Land of Israel formed an integral part of the early Zionist vision. With the acquisition of the Gray Hill estate atop Mount Scopus, and the laying of the cornerstone for the university-to-be in 1918, the realization of the dream was on its way. Seven years later, on April 1, 1925, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem was opened.

 

Today, HUJI researchers figure at the forefront of international science - from biotechnology and computer science to astrophysics and cancer research, from microbiology to solar energy and genetic engineering, as well as the humanities, including Jewish studies, social sciences and law. Nearly 40% of all civilian scientific research in Israel is conducted at the Hebrew University. The University is home to 100 subject-related and interdisciplinary research centers. Thirty percent of all doctoral candidates in Israel are enrolled at HUJI. Sixteen percent of all the research conducted at the University finds application in high-tech industry.

 

More than 24,000 students are enrolled at the University, including 12,000 undergraduates, 7600 master's degree students, 2,600 doctoral candidates, and 1000 at the Rothberg School for Overseas Students.

 

•Yad Vashem

Yad Vashem, Israel’s national Holocaust museum, presents a profoundly Jewish memorial of the Shoah. You will listen to survivors’ testimonies, view personal possessions belonging to victims and examine state-of-the-art displays aimed at preserving the story of each of the six million victims. From its dramatic structure designed by world-renowned architect Moshe Sadie – which cuts through the mountain in the form of a spike – to its powerful exhibits, such as the labyrinthine Valley of the Communities.

 

The tour of Yad Vashem will be a special experience which will both allow you to explore the museum in a more independent manner.

           

Friday, May 31st

 

•City of David

The story of the City of David, known in Hebrew as Ir David, began over 3,000 years ago, when King David left the city of Hebron for a small hilltop city known as Jerusalem, establishing it as the unified capital of the tribes of Israel.

 

Years later, David's son, King Solomon, built the First Temple next to the City of David on top of Mount Moriah, the site of the binding of Isaac, and with it, this hilltop became one of the most important sites in the world.

 

Today, the story of the City of David continues. Deep underground, the City of David is revealing some of the most exciting archeological finds of the ancient world. While above ground, the city is a vibrant center of activity with a visitor's center that welcomes visitors for an exciting tour to the site where much of the Bible was written.

 

•The Old City

The Old City in Jerusalem, is a 0.9 square kilometers (0.35 sq. mi) walled area within the modern city of Jerusalem. Until 1860, when the Jewish neighborhood, Mishkenot Sha'ananim, was established, this area constituted the entire city of Jerusalem. The Old

City is home to several sites of key religious importance: the Temple Mount and its Western Wall for Jews, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher for Christians, and the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque for Muslims.

 

Traditionally, the Old City has been divided into four quarters, although the current designations were introduced only in the 19th century. Today, the Old City is roughly divided into the Muslim Quarter, the Christian Quarter, the Jewish Quarter and the Armenian Quarter. Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the Old City was occupied by Jordan and the Jewish residents were evicted. Today, Israel controls the entire area, which it considers as part of its national capital. In 2010, Jerusalem's oldest fragment of writings was found outside of the Old City's walls.

 

•Western Wall and Tunnels

The Western Wall in the midst of the Old City in Jerusalem is the section of the Western supporting wall of the Temple Mount which has remained intact since the destruction of the Second Jerusalem Temple (70 C.E.). It became the most sacred spot in Jewish religious and national consciousness and tradition by virtue of its proximity to the Western Wall of the Holy of Holies in the Temple, from which, according to numerous sources, the Divine Presence never departed. It became a center of mourning over the destruction of the Temple and Israel's exile, on the one hand, and of religious - in 20th century also national - communion with the memory of Israel's former glory and the hope for its restoration, on the other.

 

The Western Wall Tunnel is an underground tunnel exposing the full length of the Western Wall. The tunnel is adjacent to the Western Wall and is located under buildings of the Old City of Jerusalem, Israel. While the open-air portion of the Western Wall is approximately 60 meters (200 ft.) long, the majority of its original length is hidden underground. The tunnel allows access to an additional 485 meters (1,591 ft.) of the wall.

 

•Shabbat

Six days a week, we compete with the natural world, building, subduing and struggling to overcome. On Shabbat, we experience a rest from this effort – it becomes a time for the spirit to rejuvenate, study, reconnect with family, friends and, just as important as oneself.

 

Shabbat offers the Jews a powerful spiritual opportunity to develop as individuals and as a nation. On the Sabbath, when we cease our daily activities, we allow our soul to dominate and perhaps, ascend to a higher spiritual plane. In a sense, each Sabbath is a chance for each individual to bring about the kabalistic principle of tikunolam, the mending of the universe. Shabbat is often referred to as the Shabbat Kallah, the Sabbath bride, a theme found throughout the traditional night prayers. Sixteenth century mystics of Safed created the Friday evening service, called in Hebrew, Kabalat Shabbat, which means Welcoming the Sabbath

 

•MK Dov Lipman

Dov, born in Washington D.C., served as a member of Knesset (2013-2015) with the Yesh Atid party. Lipman was the first American-born member in nearly 30 years. During this time, he served on several committees including the Finance Committee, The Immigration Committee, the Absorption and Dispora Affairs Committee, the Knesset

House Committee, and the special committee for the legislation drafting the ultraOrthodox into military and national service. Lipman earned his Master’s in Education at John Hopkins University and is an ordained Rabbi.

 

•Lone Soldiers

In the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), a lone soldier is defined as a serviceman or woman without immediate family in Israel. Lone soldiers serve in regular units and receive various forms of support from the IDF, Israeli government ministries and other organizations.

 

Their exact number fluctuates over time, but is consistently in the thousands; the Jewish

Telegraphic Agency reported in April 2012 that there were an "estimated 5,000". About 40% of them serve in combat units. According to an IDF spokeswoman, 8,217 personnel born outside Israel enlisted between 2009 and August 2012. The most represented countries of origin were Russia and the United States, with 1,685 and 1,661 recruits respectively.

 

Saturday, June 1st

• Masada

Masada (Hebrew for fortress), is situated atop an isolated rock cliff at the western end of the Judean Desert, overlooking the Dead Sea. It is a place of gaunt and majestic beauty.

 

Some 75 years after Herod’s death, at the beginning of the Revolt of the Jews against the Romans in 66 CE, a group of Jewish rebels overcame the Roman garrison of Masada. After the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple (70 CE) they were joined by zealots and their families who had fled from Jerusalem. With Masada as their base, they raided and harassed the Romans for two years. Then, in 73CE, the Roman governor Flavius Silva marched against Masada with the Tenth Legion, auxiliary units and thousands of Jewish prisoners-of-war. The Romans established camps at the base, laid siege to it and built a circumvallation wall. They then constructed a rampart of thousands of tons of stones and beaten earth against the western approaches of the fortress. In the spring of 74 CE, they moved a battering ram up the ramp and breached the wall of the fortress.

 

The defenders, approx. 1,000 men, women and children, led by Eleazar ben Yair, decided to burn the fortress and end their own lives, rather than be taken alive. They cast lots to choose 10 men to kill the remainder. They then chose the one man who would kill the survivors. That last Jew then killed himself.

 

The heroic story of Masada and its dramatic end attracted many explorers to the Judean desert in attempts to locate the remains of the fortress. To the Israelis, Masada symbolizes the determination of the Jewish people to be free in its own land.

 

• Dead Sea

The Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth, roughly 1,300 feet (400 meters) below sea level. It is 34 miles (55 km.) long and varies between 11 miles (18 km.) and 2 miles (3 km.) in width. The Sea is 1,400 feet (430 m.) deep. This unique sea is fed by the Jordan River. There is no outflow; and the exceptionally high rate of evaporation (high temperatures, low humidity) produces large quantities of raw chemicals. These are extracted and exported throughout the world for use in medicine, agriculture and industry.

 

The Dead Sea is actually shrinking. The southern end is now fed by a canal maintained by the Dead Sea Works, a company that converts the Sea's raw materials, particularly phosphates, into commercial products

    

Naftali Aklum

Naftali Aklum was born in Ethiopia in 1979. The following year, in 1980, Aklum’s parents were among the first groups to make Aliya to Israel via Sudan in what later became known as “Operation Moses.” Aklum is the youngest of twelve brothers and sisters, his late brother Ferede Aklum was the first Ethiopian Jew to make the journey to Jerusalem via Sudan, with Ferede then setting the stage for others to follow: after reaching Sudan in 1978, the letter Ferede wrote requesting assistance to make Aliya found its way to Menachem Begin, who then set in motion the remarkable, secret operation in which

North America Jewry played such a vital role. In his footsteps, literally, over 8,000 – off 12,000 successfully reached Jerusalem after 2,500 years of yearning

 

Aklum was raised and educated in Beersheba. In the army he served as a firefighter. Afkum graduated from Ben Gurion University in 2008 with a concentration in politics, government, history and Middle Eastern Studies.

 

Aklum participated in a number of delegations, including a 1996 visit to the United

States with the Anti-Defamation League, and in 2002, he spent a year with “Israel at Heart,” sharing the story of Israel and Ethiopian Jewry. Aklum volunteeres to help children in the city of Beersheba through its Council for the Well-Being of Children, and he served as a mentor to other Ethiopian-Israeli academics to assist them in their job placement efforts

 

Since 2010, Aklum have played a critical role in ENP’s SPACE (School Performance and

Community Empowerment) Scholastic Assistance Program. In his capacity as Director of

Educational Programs. He is responsible for the emotional and social well-being of 150 7th through 12th graders and oversees 15 teachers who provide intensive scholastic assistance to ENP participants.

 

Through Naftali’s work over the years, thousands of children have been inspired and motivated to succeed, knowing they have a mentor, a friend and a big brother who will do everything in his power to help them succeed.

             

Sunday, June 2nd

 

• Ben Gurion University

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev was established with the aim to spearhead the development of the Negev, a desert area comprising more than sixty percent of the country. The University was inspired by the vision of Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, who believed that the future of the country lay in this region.

 

Today, Ben-Gurion University is a major center for teaching and research, with over

17,000 students enrolled in the faculties of Engineering Sciences, Health Sciences, Natural Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences, the Guilford Glazer School of Business and Management and the Kreitman School of Advanced Graduate Studies.

 

Ben-Gurion University is a world leader in arid zone research, offering its expertise to many developing countries. Its world-famous Joyce and Irving Goldman Medical School has become a model for community-oriented and global medicine. In keeping with its mandate, it plays a key role in promoting industry, agriculture and education in the Negev. Its students are known for their activities in the community, and thousands of them take part in special tutoring projects.

 

• Professor Limor Aharonson-Daniel

Prof. Limor Aharonson-Daniel, Vice-Rector for International Academic Affairs is the founding director of the PREPARED Center for Emergency Response Research at BenGurion University of the Negev. Limor has a BSc in Statistics from Tel-Aviv University and a PhD in Community Medicine from The University of Hong Kong. She joined BGU in 2008 after being the deputy director of The Israel National Center for Trauma and Emergency Medicine Research. In 2009 she opened and headed the Masters’ Program in Emergency Preparedness and Response (Dept. of Emergency Medicine). She then became head of the department of Emergency Medicine (2011-2016).

 

Limor is an expert in injury epidemiology. Apart from her contribution to international classification of injury, several of her studies resulted in innovative approaches and instruments to facilitate practically oriented studies of disasters and emergency situations. Among these are the Barell Matrix and the Conjoint Community Resiliency Assessment Measure (CCRAM). Limor has published extensively in peer reviewed journals and authored several book chapters both on Injury Research Methods and on Disaster Preparedness Assessment.

 

As Vice Rector for International Academic Affairs and head of BGU International, Limor strives to increase the number of courses and programs taught in English at BGU, and to increase student and staff academic mobility and exchange.

   

Project Wadi Attir

Located near the Bedouin town of Hura, Project Wadi Attir seeks to develop and demonstrate a model for sustainable, community-based agricultural enterprise, adapted to a desert environment.

 

It is designed to combine Bedouin aspirations, values and experience with sustainability principles, modern day science and cutting-edge technologies. The project was initiated in order to showcase a breakthrough approach to environmentally-sound sustainable development. It will make a real difference locally and will serve as a model for arid regions in other parts of the world.

 

•Ghadir Hani

Director, Public Relations, Project Wadi Atir and Organizer, Department of Economic Development, Arab-Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment and Cooperation, Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Development.

 

•SodaStream

SodaStream International Ltd. is an Israeli drinks company best known as the maker of the consumer home carbonation product of the same name. The device, like a soda syphon, carbonates water by adding carbon dioxide from a pressurized cylinder to create soda water (or carbonated water) to drink. The company also sells more than 100 types of concentrated syrups and flavorings to make carbonated drinks.

 

The company was founded in 1903 in England. After the company merged with SodaClub in 1998, it was relaunched with an emphasis on healthier drinks. It went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange in November 2010. SodaStream is headquartered in Lod, Israel and has 13 production plants. Until 2015 its principal manufacturing facility was located in the Mishor Adumim Industrial Park in the West Bank, creating controversy and a boycott campaign. The boycott campaign resulted in the closing of the

SodaStream factory in Ma'ale Adumim in October 2015, with more than 500 Palestinian workers losing their jobs. The factory moved to a new facility in Lehavim.

 

•Adele Raemer

Born and raised in the Bronx, Adele Raemer, a former member of Young Judea Zionist Youth Movement, made Aliyah in 1973. She has lived in Kibbutz Nirim, on the border with the Gaza Strip since 1975, when she moved there as part of her IDF service. In recent years, Adele has become the unofficial voice of Israelis living in the Western Negev’s border communities. She gives talks about her region and tours of her borderlying kibbutz, helping visitors to understand the realities of living in the shadow of rockets and on the frontlines every day. During Operation Pillar of Defense, Adele became an unwitting war correspondent, being interviewed by various news media outlets. During Operation Protective Edge, she had the harrowing experience of escorting areporter into a terror tunnel located near her home.

 

Adele is a teacher of English as a Foreign Language, as well as a teacher trainer and counselor for the Israeli Ministry of Education. She blogs for The Times of Israel, and is the founder and moderator of the Facebook page “Life on the Border with Gaza.” Here Adele and her neighbors depict what life is really like in the Gaza envelope.

 

•Sderot

Sderot lies one kilometer (0.62 miles) from the Gaza Strip and town of Beit Hanoun. Since the beginning of the Second Intifada in October 2000, the city has been under constant rocket fire from Qassam rockets launched by Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Despite the imperfect aim of these homemade projectiles, they have caused deaths and injuries, as well as significant damage to homes and property, psychological distress and emigration from the city. The Israeli government has installed a "Red Dawn" alarm system to warn citizens of impending rocket attacks, although its effectiveness has been questioned. Citizens only have 15 seconds to reach shelter after the sounding of the alarm. Thousands of Qassam rockets have been launched since Israel's disengagement from the Gaza Strip in September 2005.

 

In May 2007, a significant increase in shelling from Gaza prompted the temporary evacuation of thousands of residents. Over 6,300 rockets have fallen on the city.

 

•Sderot Indoor Playground

In 10 short months Jewish National Fund (JNF) did what no one thought could be done – built the largest secure indoor recreation center for the children of Sderot.

 

Over the past few years, the Israeli communities on the border with Gaza have endured continual Kassam rocket attacks. These attacks are untargeted, but some have hit residences and schools, killing 11 citizens and hurting hundreds more. The city of Sderot, located on the border with Gaza, has been hardest hit — its children growing up in the shadow of violence, fear, and uncertainty.

 

To directly impact the lives of the children of Sderot and provide them with the chance to simply be kids, Jewish National Fund embarked on a massive project: building the largest indoor playground in Israel in Sderot. The all-inclusive Indoor Recreational Center opened on March 10, 2009 to provide Sderot’s youth, (also its senior citizens), with a place to have fun, connect with friends, enjoy stimulating classes, and be children, beyond the conflict. A place to feel strong and free, away from their daily helplessness and anxiety and parents can have peace of mind knowing that their children are playing and learning in an environment that is safe and secure.

      

Yedidyah Harush

Yedidya Harush is the community representative for Israeli residents living on the GazaEgypt border in the Halutza region, which was established after Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip (Gush Katif) in 2005. Growing up there, Yedidya was recruited to play basketball in the New York Yeshiva league, in a joint effort to help the children and young adults of Gush Katif evacuees lead a normal life while their families and homes were in distress.

 

Last year, during Operation Protective Edge, when repeated rocket attacks struck southern Israel, Yedidya’s reserve elite IDF unit and Halutza’s residents helped secure the local border and protect the country.

 

Yedidya is inspired to make Ben Gurion's dream in the Negev a reality. The community faces many challenges in this remote area, and building a medical center is a high priority.

 

• Michal Uziyahu

Michal Uziyahu is now the executive assistant to the Mayor of Eshkol regional council who is located on the border triangle with Gaza and Egypt. During the last four years she served as the Israeli Emissary in the Jewish Community in Colorado.

 

Michal was born and raised in Negev. After earning her Bachelors’ degree and her MBA, Michal and her husband decided to stay in the Negev and raise their three wonderful children.

 

Michal worked for the Negev Development Authority for six years and collaborated with JNF on developing the Negev. Michal’s Jewish identity was strengthened during her stay in the US. In addition, she was made aware of the importance of the US and Israel’s relationship.

               

Monday, June 3rd

 

•Sapir College

Sapir College is in the northern Negev. The beautifully landscaped campus is composed of dozens of buildings, in the rural setting of the surrounding kibbutzim.

 

Among members of Sapir’s teaching faculty are outstanding lecturers from Israel’s leading universities. Over 8,000 students, from Israel and overseas, are currently attending Sapir. Many of the Israeli students are from the Galilee, central Israel and, of course, from the south. They are offered a wide range of applied study tracks that assure graduates quick inclusion in the job market and admission to post-graduate degrees in universities in Israel and elsewhere.

 

•Ben Gurion University – Zuckerberg Institute of Water Research

ZIWR scientists use experimental and theoretical approaches to conduct fundamental research related to water in order to understand wide-ranging phenomena.

 

Our broad-based research encompasses nanoscience and pore scale phenomena and extends to pilot projects and field studies

.

Our interdisciplinary team includes hydrologists, soil scientists, geologists, chemists, microbiologists, and engineers. The result is a unique scientific environment facilitating the investigation of environmental challenges and the development of engineering solutions for water-related problems. Young and dynamic, the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research is open to change, and research topics are “fine-tuned" to remain responsive to constantly evolving needs and challenges

.

ZIWR members are actively engaged in research projects within Israel and collaborate with other scientists worldwide. Emphasis is placed on research and development of water resources in drylands in general, and on the local conditions of the Negev in particular. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev remains mindful of its founding mission to spearhead development of Israel's southern region while taking its place in the global scientific community.

 

• Machtesh Ramon

Machtesh Ramon is a geological feature of Israel's Negev desert. Located at the peak of Mount Negev 85 km south of the city of Beersheba, the landform is not an impact crater from a meteor nor a volcanic crater formed by a volcanic eruption but rather is the world's largest "erosion cirque" (steep head valley or box canyons). The formation is 40 km long, 2–10 km wide and 500 meters deep, and is shaped like an elongated heart. The only settlement in the area is the small town of Mitzpe Ramon ("Ramon Lookout") located on the northern edge of the depression. Today the area forms Israel's largest national park, the Ramon Nature Reserve.

 

Kibbutz Ketura

Ketura was founded by a small group of young North Americans, graduates of the Young Judaea Year-In-Israel Course, at the close of the Yom Kippur War in November 1973. The first years of the kibbutz's existence were marked by great difficulties and frustrations, leading many of the founders to leave. In time, the core group of these who remained were joined by other Young Judaeans, a variety of immigrants, and graduates of the Israeli Scout movement. As Ketura grew, a more stable lifestyle was created, and the members began raising families in this, their new home. Today, Ketura has grown to be the second largest settlement in the region, with 140 members and candidates and over 147 children. One-third of the members are native Israelis; most immigrants come from English-speaking countries, with a smaller number from Europe and the former USSR.

                                 

Tuesday, June 4th

 

• Arava Institute

The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies (AIES) is the premier environmental education and research program in the Middle East, preparing future Jewish and Arab leaders to cooperatively solve the region's environmental challenges.

 

Affiliated with Ben-Gurion University, AIES’s academic programs, research, and international cooperation initiatives cover environmental concerns and challenges.

 

Students at AIES study a range of environmental issues from a trans-boundary and interdisciplinary perspective while learning peace-building and leadership skills. With a student body comprised of Jordanians, Palestinians, Israelis, and students from around the world, the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies offers students a unique opportunity to study and live together for an extended period of time; building networks and developing understanding that will enable future cooperative work and activism in the Middle East and beyond.

 

Here, the idea that nature knows no political borders is more than a belief. It is a fact, a curriculum, and a way of life.

 

•Cathie Granit

Cathie immigrated to Israel from New Zealand. She currently holds the position of Director of Diplomacy at the Arava Institute of Environmental Studies. Cathie lives on Kibbutz Ketura with her husband and children.

 

•Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed

Dr. Abu Hamed from East Jerusalem holds a Bachelor and a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering from Gazi University (Turkey), and a Ph.D in Chemical Engineering from Ankara University (Turkey), and has completed two terms of postdoctoral research at the Environmental Science and Energy Research Department of the Weizman Institute (Israel), and the University of Minnesota’s Mechanical Engineering Department Solar Energy Lab.

 

In 2008, he established the Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation

(CREEC) at the Arava Institute. He left the Institute in 2013 to become the Israeli Ministry of Science’s Deputy Chief Scientist, and later the Acting Chief Scientist, the highest ranking Palestinian in the Israeli government. He returned to the Arava Institute in 2016 as Director of CREEC and Academic Director.

     

Dr. Elaine M. Solowey

Dr. Solowey was born in 1953. She has studied commercial horticulture, desert agriculture, land reclamation, and tree surgery. She received her BSc from the University of California-Davis, her MSc from Penn State University, and her PhD from Weber State University. A member of Kibbutz Ketura since 1975 she has planted and managed orchards, introduced new crops, and founded the Center for Sustainable Agriculture at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies. In 2005, she notoriously cultivated a date tree from a biblical age-seed found in the excavations of Masada. Dr. Solowey has been teaching at Institute since 1996, and she continues to work on the cultivation and domestication of rare medicinal plants.

 

•Suleiman Halasah

Acting Associate Director, Center for Trans-Boundary Water Management

Suleiman Halasah is an electrical engineer with a BSc. from the University of Jordan, and a MSc. from Ben Gurion University. After completing his first degree, Suleiman worked as a research assistant for the Department of Computer Engineering at the University of Jordan. He also served as a control engineer for the Jordan Valley Authority in the Jordanian Ministry of Water and Irrigation. In this position, he was responsible for the SCADA System in the Southern Ghors Irrigation Project.

 

While working on his M Sc., Suleiman continued his professional work in the field of renewable energy, water and the environment. Suleiman became a cofounder of Global Sun Partners, a renewable energy company that works on building solar energy PV power plants in several countries in the world. Suleiman has served as a panel member on the topic of water security and climate change at the UN Department of Public Information/ NGO Conference in New York in 2007. In the same year, he was invited to speak at the First International Conference on Sustainable Energy as a Catalyst for Regional Development at the Eilat/Eilot Regional Council. Suleiman established Integrated GREEN Solutions (i.GREENs) which aims to improve the environmental awareness and introduce green solutions in Jordan and the Middle East.

 

•Arava International Center for Agricultural Training (AICAT)

Located in Sapir, the regional service center for Central Arava, AICAT aims to establish itself as the national and international leading authority in sophisticated arid lands agricultural studies and training and is a central platform for global collaborations in the agriculture arena. AICAT provides not only an invaluable contribution to developing countries and their students who attend it, but also provides additional workplaces for residents and extra working hands to the local agricultural industry. Under a single roof, with a multitude of cultures and shared human attributes, students receive professional agricultural training and live a unique experience that enables them to discover their capabilities and the means for fulfilling their potential.

 

Over the years the Center has received students from various Asian countries, including

Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Nepal, Vietnam, Laos, Philippines, India, Ethiopia,

Southern Sudan, Jordan and Tibet. As the number of participating countries increases and the center becomes the global hub for agricultural training, the student population will more than triple over the next five years bringing the need for a larger campus.

 

•Hanni Arnon

Hanni Arnon is the founder and director of AICAT. AICAT was established in 1994. Hanni has lived on Moshav Idan since 1986.

 

•Vidor Center

The Vidor Center introduces you to the Arava in all its variety, covering topics such as the region's uniquely advanced agriculture alongside its water and soil challenges, the history of the Arava communities, geology, aquaculture, the local fascinating colorful crops and much more.

 

•Noa Zer

Born and raised in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, Noa Zer moved to Moshav Paran in the

Central Arava in April 2011 and heads the Resource Development Department at the Central Arava Regional Council, where she is responsible for fundraising as well as foreign affairs and connections to Jewish communities in the Diaspora. Zer is married to a second-generation farmer from Paran and together they are starting their second agricultural season as pepper growers. She is also writing her master’s thesis for the department of public policy at Tel Aviv University.

 

•Hatzeva

Hatzeva is a moshav in southern Israel. Located in the Arava, 12 kilometers north of Ein Yahav. It falls under the jurisdiction of Central Arava Regional Council. In 2017 it had a population of 584.

 

Hatzeva was founded in 1965 as a Nahal settlement near the Arava Road and became a moshav in 1968. It was named after the nearby Hatzeva Fortress. In 1971 its location changed slightly. Near the moshav's access road lies the Hatzeva field school (Gidron), located where the moshav was until 1971.

 

•Merav Michaeli

Merav Michaeli was a Member of Knesset where she served as faction head of the Labor

Party and Opposition Whip. Former MK Michaeli played an active role as Chair of the Caucus for Female Knesset Members and was a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committees.

 

Her legislative agenda focused on economic justice and women’s rights, with successes in revising bankruptcy law and increasing financial support for Holocaust survivors. As a prominent journalist, TV anchor, radio broadcaster, and activist, she is known for her powerful feminist voice, her ability to challenge conventional views, and as a fierce defender of minority rights, equality and democracy in Israel.

 

Wednesday, June 5th

 

•The Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya (IDC)

IDC Herzliya was established in 1994 by Prof. Uriel Reichman, as the first private institution of higher education in Israel. Now in its second decade of activity, its schools and research institutes have won renown internationally.

 

Since its establishment, IDC Herzliya has been an academic avant-garde. As such, its faculty takes part in the fascinating process that is reshaping Israel. They deal with constitutional and governmental reconstruction, economic growth, reevaluation of Israel’s strategy and policies of foreign relations, as well as the country’s social and moral agenda.

 

IDC Herzliya is unique in its educational methods, which are based on an interdisciplinary approach, teaching of information technology and global markets. IDC combines theory with real world experience and provides its students with proficiencies. Its basic outlook, which is rooted in the twin concepts of individual freedom and responsibility, emphasizes student’s entrepreneurship and leadership alongside commitment to community service.

 

•Tel Aviv University

Located in Israel's cultural, financial and industrial heartland, Tel Aviv University is the largest university in Israel and the biggest Jewish university in the world. It is a major center of teaching and research, comprising nine faculties, 106 departments, and 90 research institutes. Its origins go back to 1956, when three small education units - The Tel Aviv School of Law and Economics, an Institute of Natural Sciences, and an Institute of Jewish Studies - joined together to form the University of Tel Aviv.

 

In addition to its basic functions of research and teaching, Tel Aviv University contributes its expertise to the welfare of society at large; plays a part in all aspects of national life; and addresses regional and international issues.

 

Faculty members serve in the Knesset and the Cabinet, in government agencies, and in professional organizations and public bodies. Students are encouraged to tutor disadvantaged children, volunteer services to the elderly, and aid the community through a broad range of social involvement programs, such as TAU's wide-scale Price-Brodie

Initiative in Jaffa.

 

Middle Eastern history, strategic studies, and the search for peace are central concerns for Tel Aviv University researchers. The Institute for Diplomacy and Regional Cooperation, founded by the Peres Center for Peace, the Armand Hammer Fund for Economic Cooperation in the Middle East, the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African History, the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, the Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research and the Morris E. Curiel Center for International Studies are respected sources of information for government and private institutions, the press and the public.

 

•Bar Ilan University

Bar Ilan University is the second largest university in Israel, with a student population of approximately 24,500 at the main campus in Ramat Gan, and at the four regional colleges operating under its auspices – in the Jordan Valley, in Safed, in the western Galilee and in Ashkelon.

 

The university regards the sacred principles of Judaism as the manifestation of the Jewish people's uniqueness, in accordance with the principles defined upon its establishment. The university's basic roles include supporting the safeguarding of these principles out of love and with the purpose of training and producing scholars, researchers and men of science knowledgeable in the Torah and imbued with the original Jewish spirit and love of one's brethren. Aiming to excel in research, in recent years Bar-Ilan University has placed ma

The Sleeping Giant (Nanibijou) silhouette. A Storm reinforcing the name "Thunder Bay " . Sheets of heavy rain blanketing the Peninsula.

  

The Sleeping Giant is a formation of mesas and sills on Sibley Peninsula which resembles a giant lying on its back when viewed from the west to north-northwest section of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. As one moves southward along the shoreline toward Squaw Bay the Sleeping Giant starts to separate into its various sections. Most distinctly in the view from the cliffs at Squaw Bay the Giant appears to have an Adam's Apple. The formation is part of Sleeping Giant Provincial Park. Its dramatic steep cliffs are among the highest in Ontario (250 m). The southernmost point is known as Thunder Cape, depicted by many early Canadian artists such as William Armstrong.

 

One Ojibway legend identifies the giant as Nanabijou, who was turned to stone when the secret location of a rich silver mine now known as Silver Islet was disclosed to white men.

Sony NEX-6, Touit 2.8/12, f/7,1, 1/160 sec, ISO 200, Dome-Port, 2 dedicated flash systems

© Kevin Palmer

 

Dag 11: Nagar and Hopper Valleys - Ganish village.

 

Nagar Valley.

 

Nagar Valley is a stunning high-altitude region in Gilgit-Baltistan, known for its dramatic mountains, glaciers and rich cultural heritage.

REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE METIS

 

GIANT HIMALAYAN LILY: up to 3.5 meters tall, flowers blossom about once every 7 years.

 

From Wikipedia:

 

Cardiocrinum giganteum, the giant Himalayan lily, is the largest species of any of the lily plants, growing up to 3.5 metres high. It is found in the Himalayas, China and Myanmar (Burma).

 

Two varieties are recognized.

C. giganteum var. giganteum - up to 3 metres tall, the outer part of the flower greenish and the inside streaked with purple - Tibet, Bhutan, Assam, Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim

C. giganteum var. yunnanense - 1–2 metres tall, the outer part of the flower white and the inside streaked with purplish red - Myanmar, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan

 

The plant was first described scientifically in 1824 by Nathaniel Wallich. The species was introduced into commercial production (as Lilium giganteum) in Britain in the 1850s. A bulb grown from seed collected by Major Madden flowered in Edinburgh in July 1852, while those collected by Thomas Lobb were first exhibited in flower in May 1853.

 

See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiocrinum_giganteum

 

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

 

From Wikipedia:

 

Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.

 

Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.

 

Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.

 

She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.

 

In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.

 

During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.

 

In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.

 

Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.

 

To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.

 

Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.

 

In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)

 

Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford

 

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

 

LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS

 

Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.

 

Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.

 

Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada

 

© Copyright

This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.

The Colorado River is the principal river of the Southwestern United States and northwest Mexico. The 1,450-mile (2,330 km) river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. and two Mexican states. Rising in the central Rocky Mountains in the U.S., the river flows generally southwest across the Colorado Plateau and through the Grand Canyon before reaching Lake Mead on the Arizona–Nevada line, where it turns south toward the international border. After entering Mexico, the Colorado approaches the large Colorado River Delta where it naturally emptied into the Gulf of California between Baja California and Sonora, though it no longer reaches its delta or the sea.

 

Known for its dramatic canyons and whitewater rapids, the Colorado is a vital source of water for agricultural and urban areas in the southwestern desert lands of North America. The river and its tributaries are controlled by an extensive system of dams, reservoirs, and aqueducts, which divert 90% of its water in the U.S. alone to furnish irrigation and municipal water supply for almost 40 million people both inside and outside the watershed. The Colorado's large flow and steep gradient are used for generating hydroelectric power, and its major dams regulate peaking power demands in much of the Intermountain West. Since the mid-20th century, intensive water consumption has dried the lower 100 miles (160 km) of the river such that it has not consistently reached the sea since the 1960s.

 

Beginning with small bands of nomadic hunter-gatherers, Native Americans have inhabited the Colorado River basin for at least 8,000 years. Between 2,000 and 1,000 years ago, the river and its tributaries fostered large agricultural civilizations, which may have been some of the most sophisticated indigenous cultures in North America. These societies are believed to have collapsed because of a combination of severe drought and poor land use practices. Most native peoples that inhabit the basin today are descended from other groups that settled in the region beginning about 1,000 years ago. Europeans first entered the Colorado Basin in the 16th century, when explorers from Spain began mapping and claiming the area, which later became part of Mexico upon its independence in 1821. Early contact between foreigners and natives was generally limited to the fur trade in the headwaters and sporadic trade interactions along the lower river.

 

After the greater Colorado River basin became part of the U.S. in 1846, the bulk of the river's course was still largely the subject of myths and speculation. Several expeditions charted the Colorado in the mid-19th century, one of which, led by John Wesley Powell in 1869, was the first to run the rapids of the Grand Canyon. American explorers collected valuable information that would later be used to develop the river for navigation and water supply. Large-scale settlement of the lower basin began in the mid- to late-19th century, with steamboats providing transportation from the Gulf of California to landings along the Colorado River that linked to wagon roads into the interior of New Mexico Territory. Lesser numbers settled in the upper basin, which was the scene of major gold strikes in Arizona and Nevada in the 1860s and 1870s.

 

Major engineering of the river basin began around the start of the 20th century, with many guidelines established in a series of domestic and international treaties known as the "Law of the River". The U.S. federal government was the main driving force behind the construction of hydraulic engineering projects in the river system, although many state and local water agencies were also involved. Most of the major dams in the river basin were built between 1910 and 1970, and the system keystone, Hoover Dam, was completed in 1935. The Colorado is now considered among the most controlled and litigated rivers in the world, with every drop of its water fully allocated.

 

The damming and diversion of the Colorado River system have been flashpoint issues for the environmental movement in the American Southwest because of their impacts on the ecology and natural beauty of the river and its tributaries. During the construction of Glen Canyon Dam, environmental organizations vowed to block any further development of the river, and a number of later dam and aqueduct proposals were defeated by citizen opposition. As demands for Colorado River water continue to rise, the level of human development and control of the river continues to generate controversy.

 

The Colorado begins at La Poudre Pass in the Southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado, at more than 2 miles (3 km) above sea level. After a short run south, the river turns west below Grand Lake, the largest natural lake in the state. For the first 250 miles (400 km) of its course, the Colorado carves its way through the mountainous Western Slope, a sparsely populated region defined by the portion of the state west of the Continental Divide. As it flows southwest, it gains strength from many small tributaries, as well as larger ones including the Blue, Eagle and Roaring Fork rivers. After passing through De Beque Canyon, the Colorado emerges from the Rockies into the Grand Valley, a major farming and ranching region where it meets one of its largest tributaries, the Gunnison River, at Grand Junction. Most of the upper river is a swift whitewater stream ranging from 200 to 500 feet (60 to 150 m) wide, the depth ranging from 6 to 30 feet (2 to 9 m), with a few notable exceptions, such as the Blackrocks reach where the river is nearly 100 feet (30 m) deep. In a few areas, such as the marshy Kawuneeche Valley near the headwaters and the Grand Valley, it exhibits braided characteristics.

 

Arcing northwest, the Colorado begins to cut across the eponymous Colorado Plateau, a vast area of high desert centered at the Four Corners of the southwestern United States. Here, the climate becomes significantly drier than that in the Rocky Mountains, and the river becomes entrenched in progressively deeper gorges of bare rock, beginning with Ruby Canyon and then Westwater Canyon as it enters Utah, now once again heading southwest. Farther downstream it receives the Dolores River and defines the southern border of Arches National Park, before passing Moab and flowing through "The Portal", where it exits the Moab Valley between a pair of 1,000-foot (300 m) sandstone cliffs.

 

In Utah the Colorado flows primarily through the "slickrock" country; characterized by its narrow canyons and unique "folds" created by the tilting of sedimentary rock layers along faults, this is one of the most inaccessible regions of the continental United States. Below the confluence with the Green River, its largest tributary, in Canyonlands National Park, the Colorado enters Cataract Canyon, named for its dangerous rapids, and then Glen Canyon, known for its arches and erosion-sculpted Navajo sandstone formations. Here, the San Juan River, carrying runoff from the southern slope of Colorado's San Juan Mountains, joins the Colorado from the east. The Colorado then enters northern Arizona, where since the 1960s Glen Canyon Dam near Page has flooded the Glen Canyon reach of the river, forming Lake Powell for water supply and hydroelectricity generation.

A narrow river flows through a narrow gorge flanked by high rocky bluffs

 

In Arizona, the river passes Lee's Ferry, an important crossing for early explorers and settlers and since the early 20th century the principal point where Colorado River flows are measured for apportionment to the seven U.S. and two Mexican states in the basin. Downstream, the river enters Marble Canyon, the beginning of the Grand Canyon, passing under the Navajo Bridges on a now southward course. Below the confluence with the Little Colorado River, the river swings west into Granite Gorge, the most dramatic portion of the Grand Canyon, where the river cuts up to one mile (1.6 km) into the Colorado Plateau, exposing some of the oldest visible rocks on Earth, dating as long ago as 2 billion years. The 277 miles (446 km) of the river that flow through the Grand Canyon are largely encompassed by Grand Canyon National Park and are known for their difficult whitewater, separated by pools that reach up to 110 feet (34 m) in depth.

 

At the lower end of Grand Canyon, the Colorado widens into Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the continental United States, formed by Hoover Dam on the border of Arizona and Nevada. Situated southeast of metropolitan Las Vegas, the dam is an integral component for management of the Colorado River, controlling floods and storing water for farms and cities in the lower Colorado River basin. Below the dam the river passes under the Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge – which at nearly 900 feet (270 m) above the water is the highest concrete arch bridge in the Western Hemisphere – and then turns due south towards Mexico, defining the Arizona–Nevada and Arizona–California borders.

 

After leaving the confines of the Black Canyon, the river emerges from the Colorado Plateau into the Lower Colorado River Valley (LCRV), a desert region dependent on irrigation agriculture and tourism and also home to several major Indian reservations. The river widens here to a broad, moderately deep waterway averaging 500 to 1,000 feet (150 to 300 m) wide and reaching up to 1⁄4 mile (400 m) across, with depths ranging from 8 to 60 feet (2 to 20 m). Before channelization of the Colorado in the 20th century, the lower river was subject to frequent course changes caused by seasonal flow variations. Joseph C. Ives, who surveyed the lower river in 1861, wrote that "the shifting of the channel, the banks, the islands, the bars is so continual and rapid that a detailed description, derived from the experiences of one trip, would be found incorrect, not only during the subsequent year, but perhaps in the course of a week, or even a day."

 

The LCRV is one of the most densely populated areas along the river, and there are numerous towns including Bullhead City, Arizona, Needles, California, and Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Here, many diversions draw from the river, providing water for both local uses and distant regions including the Salt River Valley of Arizona and metropolitan Southern California. The last major U.S. diversion is at Imperial Dam, where over 90 percent of the river's remaining flow is moved into the All-American Canal to irrigate California's Imperial Valley, the most productive winter agricultural region in the United States.

 

Below Imperial Dam, only a small portion of the Colorado River makes it beyond Yuma, Arizona, and the confluence with the intermittent Gila River – which carries runoff from western New Mexico and most of Arizona – before defining about 24 miles (39 km) of the Mexico–United States border. At Morelos Dam, the entire remaining flow of the Colorado is diverted to irrigate the Mexicali Valley, among Mexico's most fertile agricultural lands. Below San Luis Río Colorado, the Colorado passes entirely into Mexico, defining the Baja California–Sonora border; in most years, the stretch of the Colorado between here and the Gulf of California is dry or a trickle formed by irrigation return flows. The Hardy River provides most of the flow into the Colorado River Delta, a vast alluvial floodplain covering about 3,000 square miles (7,800 km2) of northwestern Mexico. A large estuary is formed here before the Colorado empties into the Gulf about 75 miles (120 km) south of Yuma. Before 20th-century development dewatered the lower Colorado, a major tidal bore was present in the delta and estuary; the first historical record was made by the Croatian missionary in Spanish service Father Ferdinand Konščak on July 18, 1746. During spring tide conditions, the tidal bore – locally called El Burro – formed in the estuary about Montague Island in Baja California and propagated upstream.

 

The Colorado is joined by over 25 significant tributaries, of which the Green River is the largest by both length and discharge. The Green takes drainage from the Wind River Range of west-central Wyoming, from Utah's Uinta Mountains, and from the Rockies of northwestern Colorado. The Gila River is the second longest and drains a greater area than the Green, but has a significantly lower flow because of a more arid climate and larger diversions for irrigation and cities. Both the Gunnison and San Juan rivers, which derive most of their water from Rocky Mountains snowmelt, contribute more water than the Gila did naturally.

  

In its natural state, the Colorado River poured about 16.3 million acre feet (20.1 km3) into the Gulf of California each year, amounting to an average flow rate of 22,500 cubic feet per second (640 m3/s). Its flow regime was not at all steady – indeed, "prior to the construction of federal dams and reservoirs, the Colorado was a river of extremes like no other in the United States." Once, the river reached peaks of more than 100,000 cubic feet per second (2,800 m3/s) in the summer and low flows of less than 2,500 cubic feet per second (71 m3/s) in the winter annually. At Topock, Arizona, about 300 miles (480 km) upstream from the Gulf, a maximum historical discharge of 384,000 cubic feet per second (10,900 m3/s) was recorded in 1884 and a minimum of 422 cubic feet per second (11.9 m3/s) was recorded in 1935. In contrast, the regulated discharge rates on the lower Colorado below Hoover Dam rarely exceed 35,000 cubic feet per second (990 m3/s) or drop below 4,000 cubic feet per second (110 m3/s). Annual runoff volume has ranged from a high of 22.2 million acre feet (27.4 km3) in 1984 to a low of 3.8 million acre feet (4.7 km3) in 2002, although in most years only a small portion of this flow, if any, reaches the Gulf.

The average annual discharge of the Colorado River has shown a slight but noticeable decreasing trend between 1895 and 2004.

Annual Colorado River discharge volumes at Lee's Ferry between 1895 and 2004

 

Between 85 and 90 percent of the Colorado River's discharge originates in snowmelt, mostly from the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and Wyoming. The three major upper tributaries of the Colorado – the Gunnison, Green, and San Juan – alone deliver almost 9 million acre feet (11 km3) per year to the main stem, mostly from snowmelt. The remaining 10 to 15 percent comes from a variety of sources, principally groundwater base flow and summer monsoon storms. The latter often produces heavy, highly localized floods on lower tributaries of the river, but does not often contribute significant volumes of runoff. Most of the annual runoff in the basin occurs with the melting of Rocky Mountains snowpack, which begins in April and peaks during May and June before exhausting in late July or early August.

 

Flows at the mouth have steadily declined since the beginning of the 20th century, and in most years after 1960 the Colorado River has run dry before reaching the sea. Irrigation, industrial, and municipal diversions, evaporation from reservoirs, natural runoff, and likely climate change have all contributed to this substantial reduction in flow, threatening the future water supply. For example, the Gila River – formerly one of the Colorado's largest tributaries – contributes little more than a trickle in most years due to use of its water by cities and farms in central Arizona. The average flow rate of the Colorado at the northernmost point of the Mexico–United States border (NIB, or Northerly International Boundary) is about 2,060 cubic feet per second (58 m3/s), 1.49 million acre feet (1.84 km3) per year – less than a 10th of the natural flow – due to upstream water use. Below here, all of the remaining flow is diverted to irrigate the Mexicali Valley, leaving a dry riverbed from Morelos Dam to the sea that is supplemented by intermittent flows of irrigation drainage water. There have been exceptions, however, namely in the early to mid-1980s, when the Colorado once again reached the sea during several consecutive years of record-breaking precipitation and snowmelt. In 1984, so much excess runoff occurred that some 16.5 million acre feet (20.4 km3), or 22,860 cubic feet per second (647 m3/s), poured into the sea.

 

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) operates or has operated 46 stream gauges to measure the discharge of the Colorado River, ranging from the headwaters near Grand Lake to the Mexico–U.S. border. The tables at right list data associated with eight of these gauges. River flows as gauged at Lee's Ferry, Arizona, about halfway along the length of the Colorado and 16 miles (26 km) below Glen Canyon Dam, are used to determine water allocations in the Colorado River basin. The average discharge recorded there was approximately 14,800 cubic feet per second (420 m3/s), 10.72 million acre feet (13.22 km3) per year, from 1921 to 2010. This figure has been heavily affected by upstream diversions and reservoir evaporation, especially after the completion of the Colorado River Storage Project in the 1970s. Prior to the completion of Glen Canyon Dam in 1964, the average discharge recorded between 1912 and 1962 was 17,850 cubic feet per second (505 m3/s), 12.93 million acre feet (15.95 km3) per year.

 

from Wikipedia