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From the Wipers Times. If you haven't caught the new BBC dramatised story of The Wipers Times it's available on i-player. I was bought the reproductions by my Mum about ten years ago as a Christmas present. Good stuff. :-)
**Optimism**
Even as dark clouds seek to obscure the light, the power that is optimism keeps us moving forward until the sun shines again.
Stepped out to replenish the squirrel corn cob feeder while ago. Felt so nice to get outside, been down with flu for a couple of days, you know the drill, fever(102°, aches, delirium, sleeplessness, thinking you're dying stuff...anyway just felt good to get outside. So I began hearing what I thought was a woodpecker. The pounding sounded as if it were on a hollow tree right next to me but I scanned all the sweetgums and oaks to no avail. Then I happened to see a furtive movement . . . inside my "squirrel proof" bird feeder. Yep . . . a little chick-a-dee was trapped inside and tapping to let me know he wanted out! After opening the top he acted like he couldn't quite decide to make his great escape in the vertical so I laid it across the bird wash where he then waddled out and hit the ground wobbling. Guess he had been in there too long and was too stiff to fly right off the bat? Anyway I left him to his ground wanderings in my unraked yard . . . then once back inside I started thinking, what about the neighborhood cats. Were they going to be the recipients of my random act of kindness? Sigh . . . sometimes Nature is cruel. Hope the little guy survives.
I am amazed at and thankful for all the folks helping to recreate the Jersey Shore. Four months have past, the rebuilding has begun and is moving along at warp speed. We are all full with hope of the boardwalk being operational by Memorial Day weekend, the official unofficial opening of summer season here “down the shore“. Next weekend the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade will go on. This was unimaginable four months ago.
There are still so many homes sitting in limbo, tear down or rebuild? People waiting on help from FEMA and or insurance monies. The red tape is miles long. At last count my small town had nearly 100 homes/families with lives still up in the air. However, on the bright side, businesses are repairing and reopening at a rapid rate.
Sandy’s winds may have destroyed our homes, our boardwalk and our beaches. But she did not blow away all the memories we carry with us.
“Restore the Shore”. I, personally, don’t think it can be restored to what it was. I will remain optimist and believe it will be rebuilt. We will all create new memories.
submitted to ODC/ topic ~ Optimism or Pessimism
Seen & Posted for Critique To The Photo-Focus Group
To my Photo ~ Focus group, I have been playing around again in Photoshop. I had been wanting to create a photo out of some of the 100s I have of our now destroyed boardwalk. I had several different ideas but wasn’t certain exactly how to produce it. I need to learn more about the power of the program. Does this work in conveying the story? Is there something you think I should have added? Deleted? Or is it ok as is?
Oh and thanks to everyone's input from one of my other photos, I paid a little attention to shadowing and a few of the other details. I'm not sure about the photo on the edge of the basket. hmmmmm
Mixed Media Frenzy on this one! Paint dabbers, watercolor and salt, distress inks, graphite pencil, alcohol inks, glazing varnish, glossy accents, holographic sticker dots, and bronze jewels. August 2011
Optimism is an Essential Ingredient for Innovation
Robert N. Noyce
This cat’s optimistic about getting lunch. Amur leopard, Panthera pardus orientalis, leaping. CA Why it Works: The intensity of the leopard’s focus and its mid-air position. Reference number: TDal_1304_031
Outside of the Town Hall theater on West 43rd Street in Manhattan, a crowd of smiling and optimistic people Friday overflowed into the one-way street. Delivery trucks and yellow taxi cabs creeped by, their engines engaged in a shouting match with Bennet Weiss, a man who bore a fleeting resemblance to the Democratic presidential candidate they were all there to support.
"We don't have billions of dollars! All we have are people wearing Bernie pins," Weiss yelled, a large black umbrella covered in Bernie Sanders campaign pins at his feet, catching drops of sweat from his brow. The Occupy Wall Street protester-turned-Sanders supporter urged the crowd to wear the pins at all times with no exception -- even in the shower -- and gave them away freely to anyone who said they didn't have enough cash to afford to pay the suggested donation.
That's the kind of populist support Sanders' campaign has steadily been attracting since the U.S. senator from Vermont formally announced his candidacy in late April. Friday was no exception, with passion-filled people who think Sanders has proved himself the worthy champion of causes they care about the most, such as income inequality, climate change, Wall Street reform and further healthcare reforms. But, perhaps most importantly, they also think he can win the White House.
"Absolutely" he can win, said Joe Trinolone, 30, a former finance industry worker from Long Island, New York, who is studying mathematics at St. Joseph's University. "I mean, he's winning right now."
Sanders, during a fundraising speech Friday, ticked through the policies he cares about and areas of change he wants to see in Washington should he become president. At each turn, his blend of outrage, optimism and sly sarcasm brought raucous cheers from the crowd of 1,100. He rejected recent Wall Street Journal criticism of the high price tag of his proposals, including making public colleges and universities free, lowering so-called real unemployment by pumping funding into infrastructure repairs for the nation’s roads and bridges and implementing a universal healthcare system.
Instead, he pointed to European nations that already have those programs. He implored the crowd to think about what many of them were already talking about: that taking on the big-money interests in the United States that impede those sorts of policy changes is a shared moral obligation.
“Welcome to the revolution,” Sanders said, describing what he believes must happen to American politics. “We can accomplish all of this and more.” And the crowd ate it up.
When asked why they support Sanders, many described his candidacy as a movement. They love his policies, and have a hard time thinking of much they don’t like about him. They especially like that he has been a consistent voice during his time in Washington. That’s a big perceived difference between Sanders and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Those "feeling the Bern" were split on whether they would consider voting for her if she becomes the nominee. Many were newcomers to political action but felt compelled to join the fray when they heard Sanders and his message.
“I’ve never been excited about a politician my entire life,” said Meira Marom, 34, a Brooklyn third-grade teacher with a master's degree in creative writing. When Marom started seeing social media posts about Sanders and reading about him, she decided to stop focusing her personal time on writing for herself. She now writes and publishes something about Sanders every day -- Dr. Seuss themes every Sunday, poems and parodies. “I decided this is the most worthy cause to put my rhymes to use.”
Sanders has seen an unexpected rise in the polls since he joined the race for the Democratic nomination shortly after the current national front-runner Clinton announced her candidacy. While Sanders was trailing Clinton by 21.4 percent in national averages of polls compiled by Real Clear Politics, a look at early nominating states like Iowa and New Hampshire paints a different picture of vulnerability for Clinton and strength for Sanders.
The two candidates are tied in Iowa, which constitutes a dramatic drop for Clinton and an impressive surge for Sanders, who has been distancing himself from Clinton in New Hampshire at the top of the Democratic pack since Aug. 25, when he jumped past her in the state for the first time. He currently leads there by 10.5 points.
The candidates are noticeably different in many ways, from policy prescription to fundraising strategy.
Clinton has moved leftward since announcing her candidacy, but she is still threatened by the populist appeal of Sanders, who has long championed the causes that seem to be coming into grace for the Democratic Party. While the candidates currently hold some very similar positions on issues such as immigration reform, gay rights, gun control and campaign finance reform, Sanders has been able to stake out positions to the left of Clinton on other issues that excite some vocal voters.
Among them are his strong anti-war and anti-government surveillance positions as well as his distaste for President Barack Obama's Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal. Sanders also has been a vocal critic of Wall Street and champion of financial reforms, and his stance on those issues has drawn attention to Clinton's cozy relationship with Wall Street executives and the huge paychecks she has received for speeches to large banks since leaving the U.S. State Department. For some Sanders supporters, though, the perception that Sanders has been a consistent proponent of these liberal policies, and cares about them more than winning, is key.
“It’s the message that supporting Bernie Sanders is not just voting on a horse in the race” that attracts Brian Dillon, a 28-year-old self-employed Web designer and developer for e-commerce, said Friday. Dillon has voted just one time in his life, but he has been organizing meetings to drum up support for Sanders.
Sanders's fundraising portfolio also is the reverse of Clinton's. While the former secretary of state is expected to spend somewhere north of $1 billion should she win the primary and head into the general election for 2016, the same has not been said of Sanders. Currently, Clinton has raised, through her campaign committee and super PACs associated with the campaign, $47.5 million, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. Sanders, on the other hand, has raised just shy of $16.5 million, according to CRP data.
Their most startling difference in fundraising, however, can be seen in the size of the donations they're receiving. The Clinton campaign received 82 percent of its donations from large contributors, and her top industry donors, not including retired people, so far have been lawyers, business services and the financial industry.
In contrast, Sanders relies much more on small donations, which are defined as donations totaling $200 or less. So far, 69 percent of his contributions have come from small donors, and the biggest industries that have given to his campaign have been from the education, legal and healthcare sectors.
Who are those small donors? The types of people who showed up Friday. Some said they donate $25 to $30 a month to Sanders. Some said they have donated several hundred dollars since he jumped into the presidential race. Nearly all of them mentioned they don't earn a ton of money personally. One in particular, Machumu Sakulira, said he donated $500 before attending Friday’s event.
There is “no way” he would support a Clinton ticket, said Sakulira, a 31-year-old senior political science student at the University at Buffalo. He got on a bus Thursday night at 11 p.m. and arrived in New York at 7 a.m. for the Sanders speech. He said he was going back Friday night. “Bernie represents my interest. My vote is a moral choice, I don’t give it to somebody who doesn’t deserve it.”
www.ibtimes.com/election-2016-bernie-sanders-nyc-fundrais...
Decided to DIY another veggie - here's a zucchini plant...
Read more here: artbybernadette.com/optimism/
Aspen Gardens estate in Hammersmith, also photographed here and here by Nicobobinus, tireless chronicler of London housing estates.
The slums [that dominated this area in the late 19th and early 20th century] stretched from the river to King Street, an area now bisected by the A4. Histories of the area comment on the stark contrast between the slums and the grand buildings in King Street.
Riverside Gardens was part of the homes fit for heroes building program as slum clearance by the Council and completed in 1928. Neighbouring Aspen Gardens was built for returning soldiers after the 2nd World War and was opened in 1948 by Nye Bevin. At the fifty years celebration a plaque was unveiled by Michael Foot to his mentor.
The estate was the first to defy a local council and vote against voluntary stock transfer in the 1980's.
That's from the Radical History Walk of Hammersmith, archived online at Past Tense. From the same walk is this colourful description of those slums that used to exist in this area:
Furnival Gardens: Originally the Creek ran from Stamford Brook to the river, and this was the site of slums, factories and wharves, an area known as Little Wapping. On the riverside was the centre of heavy industry: Oil mills, lead works and Boat building. Behind this teeming slums where workers lived, in overcrowded and terrible conditions. Narrow alleys wove between factories, sheds and mills, each with their fumes and effluent.
In 1846 the District Medical Officer wrote: "Almost every house is visited with epidemic diarrhoea, so violent as to be mistaken for Asiatic cholera". The same report recorded that: “The scanty supply of water, the crowded state of the dwellings, the overflow of privies and cesspools, all combine to poison and destroy the health of the poorer inhabitants of Hammersmith and are allowed to create and perpetuate more than half of the diseases which are incidental to human nature itself.”
The Creek was filled in in 1936 but the Furnival Gardens were not created until created in 1951.
Summertime sunset view along the Oregon Trail at Keeney Historic Site, July 31, 2018, by Greg Shine, BLM.
At Keeney Historic Site, a one-third mile walk to the overlook of the Keeney Pass footpath provides an excellent panorama of one day's journey for the Oregon Trail emigrants.
Their day typically began at Fort Boise on the Snake River and ended fifteen miles north at the Malheur River. Fort Boise, built in 1834 and initially supervised by the Hudson's Bay Company as a trading post, served to provide the emigrants with a few supplies and a place to make wagon repairs. It was there that the wagons forded the Snake River.
Upon crossing the river, the emigrants took their first steps in a frontier which later became the State of Oregon in 1859. Many rested and camped at Fort Boise before traveling on to the next source of water, the Malheur River and its hot springs at present day Vale, Oregon.
The emigrants' journey from the Snake River to the Malheur Crossing was not an extremely difficult day's passage as compared to other legs of the journey. The pass was gentle, but there was no water along the way and the trail was hot and dusty. The words of John T. Kerns in 1852 reflect the thoughts of those who passed this way:
"Had an unusual allowance of dust to the mile today, but got the most of it off before night...The girls have as dirty faces as any body...Thanks be to the rewarder of troubles, 460 more miles will get us dirty-faced boys and girls out of this dirty faced kingdom.”
Through these tired words one can still sense the optimism which lies behind them. The majority of their trip was over, but the end was not yet in sight. To the emigrants, it was just another day and they were that much closer to their final destination.
The hot springs at the Malheur Crossing provided the opportunity to bathe and wash clothes at the end of the long day's travel. There was also suitable water for the cattle and oxen. Some might stay for an extra day to better rest themselves and their livestock, yet, the need to move on was still critical. Still ahead of them lay one of the most torturous portions of their journey...the Blue Mountains.
The threat of an early snowfall and the need to build a winter's shelter at journey's end pushed the emigrants on to their destination and the beginning of a new life in western Oregon.
Remnants of the original grass and shrub communities encountered by the Oregon Trail emigrants at Keeney Pass can still be seen. In the bottom of the draw, the tall giant wildrye grass and basin big sagebrush occupies deep soils. Today, annual species such as cheatgrass and tumblemustard have replaced many of these native plants.
Rising out of the drainage to the east, across Lytle Boulevard, a native upland plant community consists of Wyoming big sagebrush, numerous grasses, and herbaceous forbs. Scattered shrubs of bitterbrush, rabbitbrush, spiny hopsage, and purple sage also dot this area. In May, flowers of red Indian paintbrush, yellow Oregon sunshine, and blue sand penstemon brighten the landscape.
As you walk up the footpath, note the crested wheatgrass on the hillslope to your left. A native of Russia, it was seeded here in the 1960's to restore vegetative cover and help prevent erosion. It is favored as a nutritional feed by cattle and certain wildlife species.
The Oregon Trail pioneers saw less wildlife here, in contrast to what they observed during their travels through forests and wetlands along their way. A welcome sight may have been mule deer or antelope in small scattered groups. Black-tailed jackrabbits, badgers, and coyotes were the main species commonly encountered by the weary travelers. The non-native chukar partridge and pheasant seen here today were not introduced until the twentieth century.
The site is named for Jonathan Keeney. In 1831, at the age of 19, Keeney left Missouri to explore the Rocky Mountains with a company of men. Shortly after, he joined Jim Bridger of the American Fur Company and traveled throughout the west trapping and trading.
In 1846, after returning to Missouri, Keeney took his family and headed across the plains, serving as a guide to the wagons which accompanied them. In the following years, he traveled several different places, practicing such professions as gold panning and cattle driving. Keeney came to eastern Oregon, and in 1863, established a ferry along the Snake River just above the site where Fort Boise stood.
In fall of the same year, he acquired some land and built a wayside inn at the site of present day Vale. Although no rooms were rented, the log cabin provided a place for travelers to rest. The inn was later sold to Louis B. Rinehart.
In 1872, Rinehart replaced the log structure with a stone house which became known as the Vale Inn and was a gathering place for social activities. The stone house still stands today, and can be visited in the town of Vale.
Today, the site is part of the Oregon National Historic Trail and is protected as the Oregon Trail - Keeney Pass Area of Critical Environmental Concern. The area is also designated a Historic District and registered in the National Register of Historic Places since 1975.
More information:
The National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center
22267 Oregon Hwy 86
Baker City, OR 97814
541-523-1843
BLM_OR_NH_Mail@blm.gov
boatsbeaton.wordpress.com/ - reaaaaaaaad pls
it's a blog I made dedicated to my short fiction pieces and poems, etc
Optimism is the one quality more associated with success and happiness than any other. #optimism #happiness #inspiration