Biscayne Park, FL

www.susanfordcollins.com

Banteay Srei or Banteay Srey is a 10th-century Cambodian temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. Located in the area of Angkor, it lies near the hill of Phnom Dei, 25 km (16 mi) north-east of the main group of temples that once belonged to the medieval capitals of Yasodharapura and Angkor Thom. Banteay Srei is built largely of red sandstone, a medium that lends itself to the elaborate decorative wall carvings which are still observable today. The buildings themselves are miniature in scale, unusually so when measured by the standards of Angkorian construction. These factors have made the temple extremely popular with tourists, and have led to its being widely praised as a "precious gem", or the "jewel of Khmer art."

 

The temple's modern name, Bantãy Srĕi—citadel of the women, or citadel of beauty—is probably related to the intricacy of the bas relief carvings found on the walls and the tiny dimensions of the buildings themselves. Some have speculated that it relates to the many devatas carved into the walls of the buildings. Apsaras, divine nymphs or celestial dancing girls, are characters from Indian mythology. Apsaras and devatas are ubiquitous at Angkor, but are most common in the foundations of the 12th century. Depictions of true (dancing) apsaras are found, for example, in the Hall of Dancers at Preah Khan, in the pillars that line the passageways through the outer gallery of the Bayon, and in the famous bas-relief of Angkor Watdepicting the churning of the Ocean of Milk.

 

Dvarapalas are human or demonic temple guardians, generally armed with lances and clubs. They are presented either as a stone statues or as relief carvings in the walls of temples and other buildings, generally close to entrances or passageways. Their function is to protect the temples. Dvarapalas may be seen, for example, at Preah Ko, Lolei, Banteay Srei, Preah Khanand Banteay Kdei. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banteay_Srei)

 

A rare visitor to EMA on a cargo flight. Global International only existed between 1981 and 1984 and was allegedly involved in illegal arms shipments relating to the Iran-Contra scandal.

 

Delivered to American Airlines as N8417 on 30Aug68. It had two spells in 1971 and 1972 leased to BCAL as G-AYZZ. To Global International on 22Apr81. Repossessed Dec84. To Davis-Monthan AFB 21Nov85 for parts for the KC-135 program.

“Urban art is a style of art that relates to cities and city life. In that way urban art combines street art and graffiti and is often used to summarize all visual art forms arising in urban areas, being inspired by urban architecture or thematizing urban live style.

 

The notion of 'Urban Art' developed from street art that is primarily concerned with graffiti culture. Urban art represents a broader cross section of artists that as well as covering traditional street artists also covers artists using more traditional media but with a subject matter that deals with contemporary urban culture and political issues.”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_art

 

“Wild Flowers are not weeds"

Street Art is the modern, urban wildflowers

What's the difference between Graffiti Tagging and Street Art?

1. Street Art is constructive, Graffiti Tagging is destructive.

2. Street Art adorns the urban landscape, Graffiti Tagging scars it and accelerates urban decay.

3. Street Art stretches your mind, Graffiti Tagging is a slap in your face.

4. Street Art is about the audience, Graffiti Tagging is about the tagger.

5. Street Art says "Have you thought about this?", Graffiti Tagging says "I tag, therefore I exist".

6. Street Art was done with a smile, Graffiti Tagging was done with a scowl.

7. Street Art takes skill, Graffiti Tagging takes balls.

8. We mourn losing Street Art and celebrate losing Graffiti Tagging.

Good Street Art is great, good Graffiti Tagging is gone!

”http://www.graffitiactionhero.org/graffiti-tag-vs-street-art.html

 

Additional interesting sites

www.osnatfineart.com/urban-art.jsp

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_art

 

DSC_0247 final.jpg

A set of photos dedicated to a very special person in my family and also for his wife...missing you guys.

>>>>>E & family/friends>>>> 😃💕✨The value of family life lies in the fact we can all relate to each other; no need for competition or jealousy; we\'re a team with one common goal: To make it to the end!😃💕✨👍😎😊✌😁😜👌

 

good ol\' home boy in action!😃💕✨

  

Four Little Words👍

 

Four little words have stuck in my mind

From the time I was just a small child

“There’s a good feller” is what he would say

When he talked of the men he admired😎😊

 

I remember those men he talked about

Sure ‘nuff cowboys, tough, but kind

They said what they meant and meant what they said

These men are gettin’ harder to find😜👌

 

“There’s a good feller,” meant he was true to his word

That’s all you expect of a man

You knew for sure he was proud to meet you

By the genuine shake of his hand😃💕

 

“There’s a good feller,” meant you could depend

On this man no matter the task

Never got too tough, too cold, or too late

For his help, all you need do is ask

 

“There’s a good feller,” meant he had a light hand

Be it with horses or cattle or crew

He spent most of his life learning this cowboy trade

And he’d be honored to teach it to you

 

“There’ a good feller” meant don’t ask him to do

What ain’t on a true and honest track

He knows it’s easier to keep a good reputation

Than it is to try to build one back

 

“There’s a good feller,” meant he’s a fair-minded man

He helped write cowboyin’s unwritten laws

He won’t ask you to do what he wouldn’t do

Yet knows, at times, the short end you’ll draw

 

“There’s a good feller,” meant, when he’s down on his luck

He can still hold his head way up high

‘Cause he did his best and gave it his all

He knows with faith and God’s help he’ll get by

 

“There’s a good feller,” just four little words

And their meaning won’t run all that deep

But when Dad would use ‘em to describe certain men

You knew they were at the top of the heap

 

“There’s a good feller,” just four little words

But they’ve always been favorites of mine

If after my trails end, my name’s brought up

“There’s a good feller” would suit me just fine

😃💕😃💕😃💕😃💕😃💕😃💕😃💕

  

THA_END!!

  

  

 

Wishing you a fine day!

 

Les Invalides contains museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans, the building's original purpose. The buildings house the Musée de l'Armée (the military museum of the Army of France), the Musée des Plans-Reliefs and the Musée d'Histoire Contemporaine, as well as the Dôme des Invalides, a large church, the tallest in Paris at a height of 350 feet. It houses tombs of some of France's war heroes, most notably Napoleon. The architect of Les Invalides was Libéral Bruant. By the time the enlarged project was completed in 1676, the river front measured 643 feet, and the complex had 15 courtyards, the largest being the cour d'honneur ("court of honor") for military parades. Jules Hardouin-Mansart assisted the aged Bruant, and the chapel for veterans was finished in 1679. This chapel was known as Église Saint-Louis des Invalides, and daily attendance of the veterans in the church services was required. Shortly after the veterans' chapel was completed, Louis XIV commissioned Mansart to construct a separate private royal chapel referred to as the Église du Dôme. The domed chapel was finished in 1708. The building retained its primary function of a retirement home and hospital for military veterans until the early 20th century. In 1872 the musée d'artillerie (Artillery Museum) was located within the building to be joined by the musée historique des armées (Historical Museum of the Armies) in 1896. The two institutions were merged to form the present Musée de l'Armée in 1905. At the same time, the veterans in residence were dispersed to smaller centers outside Paris, as the building became too large for its original purpose. The modern complex includes facilities about a hundred elderly or incapacitated former soldiers, including one gentleman sitting outside in full World War II army dress.

  

I can relate to Frankenstein's monster..there are times when I feel like I've been piecemealed together, my body is a mess. My feet are a size and half different from one another, My left arm is contorted from injury, my spine does not properly align... it goes on and on. But the villagers haven't gathered yet so I'm doing pretty good! LOL

I can't believe that the first Harry Potter book came out 20 years ago today! To celebrate I just had to take out a few of my old, original Potter LEGO minifigures, which I guess at this point are almost as old as the books.

 

I can't even put into words how much this series means to me. Harry Potter changed and influenced my life in countless ways. I felt very alone as a kid, and found a lot to relate to in Harry. I was 11 when I started reading the books - the same age Harry is when his adventure starts - and literally grew up alongside him and the Wizarding World.

A long exposure, with a mag-mini flashlight (top taken off).

 

I dig the acidity (Urban Acid) and grit in this, relates a little better to rock n roll...

The fourth stage relates to the history, the 'story' we are witnessing, and it's social, spiritual and political implications. - Jay Ramsay - The Sacred Way

 

Paul Simon- The Rhythm of the Saints

 

REQUEST - a thought, a prayer please for my dear Georgian friend Laliko, who's daughter Nino has been missing for some 10 days ..........

Place: Guangzhou, Guangdong Province

 

Chinese name: 荣威RX5 (róngwēi RX5)

Year of launch: 2016

 

The Roewe brand emerged after SAIC failed to acquire the Rover marque from BMW in 2005, instead it was sold to Ford in 2006. The carmakers probably feared SAIC would make SUVs competing with Land Rover... SAIC purchased technology relating to the Rover 75, but most assets were bought by Nanjing Automobile (NAC). NAC had the rights on the MG brand. In 2007 Nanjing Automobile merged with the much larger SAIC Group, which means SAIC is now controlling both Roewe and MG. Roewe's first product was the 750 launched in 2006, a revised and extended sedan based on the Rover 75. It was followed by the 550 based on the same underpinnings in 2008 and the new compact sedan 350 in 2010.

 

The Roewe RX5 SUV was launched in 2016, succeeding the SsangYong Kyron-based W5. Unlike its predecessor, the RX5 is selling like mad, with almost 20,000 units a month. Last week Roewe launched a more compact SUV (4,40 m), the RX3.

 

Sales figures: carsalesbase.com/china-car-sales-data/roewe/roewe-rx5/

~Holden Rinehart

 

Sometimes I try to relate the quotes I use to my uploads and sometimes I just find one that I like! This just happened to be one that I found that sounded interesting!

 

This is a shot overlooking the Beer Garden at the Hofbrauhaus along the Monongahela River. For this one I used 6 exposures from my S90.

 

Thank you for all the support my friends!

  

I don't mind invitations, but please no big, shiny, flashing, glitter graphics, they will be deleted. Also, please contact me if you would like to use my pictures for any reason, as all rights are reserved. Thanks!

 

Follow me on Twitter

 

My Facebook Page - HDR Exposed Become a fan!!!

 

My blog: HDR Exposed

 

Post Processing Workflow

Sun flare tutorial

Regular HDR tutorial

 

When I cry, I secretly hope that you will run all the way to mah doorstep in the rain, wipe mah tear, kiss me on the forehead and stay w/ me through the night...

 

P.s: It's Romantic rite ;)) keke

Life Ball 2013, Vienna, Austria, The Life Ball 2013 was the place to be for stars from all across the world, right after the Cannes Film Festival 2013 concluded over the weekend. Regarded as one of the largest charity events on the continent, the Life Ball in the Austrian capital of Vienna was celebrated on 25 May, amidst much fanfare.

 

Co-founded in 1992 by Gery Keszler, the Life Ball provides fund raising opportunities for research into HIV and also acts to promote issues relating to and the spread of HIV and AIDS. The A-list of celebrities who are normally regular attendees include British musician Sir Elton John, Hollywood star Sharon Stone, supermodels Heidi Klum and Naomi Campbell and burlesque star Dita von Teese.

 

The Life Ball 2013 was no different, with former US president Bill Clinton, Oscar-winning Hollywood actress Hilary Swank, former Miss World and Bollywood diva Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, former actress Barbara Eden (she of I Dream Of Jeanie fame from the 60s) and the heavily pregnant Fergie, who is expecting her first child with Transformers star Josh Duhamel, in attendance. P5250142 copy

I often relate odd shots I take to memories of my younger days. One of the first trips my wife and I did overseas was to the USA where we visited Disneyland and LA before heading north to San Francisco where some of my Mum's family lived and still live.

 

I remember being on one of those iconic Disney rides that always seemed to be more well known than they are today, perhaps Small World or the Pirates of the Caribbean. These rides were and still are world class and for innocents like us, they were just fantastic. Anyway, we had this family in the car behind us on whatever ride we were on, staring in awe while one of the young sons in that family just kept on with his mantra "It's fake Daddy!". Grrr, I mean! I wonder what he would say today in the brave new electronic and digital world. Forty years on, he would have his own kids by now, perhaps adults themselves.

 

Every time I look at this, now damaged concrete sculpture in Humpybong Creek at Redcliffe in SE Queensland, I can't help recalling that kid's words. I just wonder if the two Cormorants drying their feathers were thinking that also in the warm sun?

Adapting a popular song from the 1970s I often find myself singing 'sometimes I want to be a woman' I do also sing the actual line 'sometimes it's hard to be a woman' too as I can relate to both sentiments. I frequently segue into the chorus line of 'stand by your man' unconsciously then a sudden awareness of what I just sang brings me to a halt! Realisation I'm not a woman crashes in and I feel a mix of regret, sadness and fear yet at the same time I feel contentment, delight and real joy.

 

My relationship with my transvestism is something that fascinates me greatly and is something I really enjoy analysing and on rare occasions get to discuss, I am completely fascinated by my transgender feelings. I do often question my motives as being a transvestite brings with it a lot of emotions and satisfaction, indeed a sense of fulfilment yet it also carries for me doubt and guilt and confusion.

 

One of the things that causes me fear is the sheer joy I experience when I dress up as a woman, I absolutely love it and find part of me willing to assume the persona of a female with great eagerness. I really want it and to completely cross the gender line and no longer be a man. That part of me is something I feel I fight and suppress as I have fears of what it may set free. The big fear is it may well destroy my actual life with my wife, family, colleagues and work.

 

For me to appear, or more accurately attempt to appear as a woman is a heady powerful emotional desire that I will openly admit I am drawn to. I simply adore dressing up as a woman and trying to pass myself off as a female. Surely this is not what a man should be doing? Well, that's what society may tell us yet I live as a man and love to be a woman.

 

There are for me undoubted thrills that accompany the initial cross-dressing such as I may on occasion become sexually aroused by the act of transforming myself into the opposite gender. There is of course the thrill of performance and creating an illusion, in fact the act of attempting female impersonation (albeit not on stage or for theatrical entertainment) gives me a real buzz despite the fact it I only ever cross-dress in private.

 

I am keen to pass as a woman and to act the role convincingly. As I love female impersonation and acting I constantly challenge myself to try and become the woman I am appearing as and not let any of the man be evident. As a consequence I try to think myself into believing I am female. To try and feel and act more realistically female I create back stories for my female alter-ego and really try to become her as I find the challenge something that is incredibly adventurous.

 

Sometimes I almost pass out with fear when I act like I find men attractive or talk about my (imaginary) ex husband and boyfriends. The man in me is repelled by this yet the woman I am attempting to portray feels at home. I do try to get over my male fears as I do dream of one day passing convincingly in every way as a woman. I kind of believe if I want to appear realistically to be female then I need to become female in my thinking and interaction.

 

I have found, despite my male fears, I do feel more like a female by thinking of the camera as my boyfriend and trying to act a bit flirty. Somehow it adds an extra element of femininity to the vibe and hopefully to the photos.

 

I rationalise this by telling myself I am supposed to be a woman when I have gone to all of the effort to become Helene so I need to switch over into being her. My body is shaved, my genitals are tucked, I have false breasts, my face is painted in make-up, I'm wearing a wig with a female hair style and I'm wearing knickers and bra and a dress and high heels with painted nails...I am trying to look like a woman so I really should try and make the whole ensemble come together and try and fulfil those efforts in a way that makes the illusion feel convincing and real to those who see her. I want my alter-ego to pass as a woman in every way, it's an ambition I harbour as a transvestite.

 

My vanity, indeed I'm sure more my ego, would love to one day experience being taken out for dinner as Helene by a man. As a transvestite trying to pass as a woman that surely has to be rewarding? To be wined and dined and treated as a lady and spend the evening as a woman being admired by men is the ultimate in passing. It has nothing to do with sex, it is all to do with an inner dream of being able to pass convincingly as a female.

 

I feel more at ease talking abut such scenarios now as I know my own sexuality and I know I would have enjoyed working as a female impersonator and acting as a convincing looking transvestite in films when I was younger. I enjoy those films when a woman is revealed to be a man and every body is surprised as they never saw it coming. The same with female impersonation, I am in awe of men who look, sound and can behave like women yet the audience know that she is in fact a man performing as a woman. I have been ridiculed, indeed at times humiliated in the past for expressing these personal views and ambitions but as I get older I now think why not be honest about my own motivations and issues related to why I engage in transvestism.

 

In this photo from early June I was totally getting into being a woman and would happily have posed with a man on my arm to sell the illusion I was female. I enjoyed wearing this outfit and if I am honest felt very much at home appearing like this. The intensity of the moment was quite something to cope with, I wanted nothing more than to remain female forever. However, about four hours after this photo was taken I returned to being a man and was quite happy to do so. I think the knowledge I desire to dress up and look female and act as if I am female is something I get a buzz from. The fact I rarely get to cross-dress is probably what I find attractive about being a transvestite. If I was a woman full time I would not likely get the rewards I have emotionally and physically that I get from the occasional cross-dressing experiences. Yet, I feel there is a part of me that wishes I was female.

 

To be a cross-dresser is quite a mixed bag of emotions and motivations, nothing is that clear cut and I confess I rather like this often confusing exciting and worrying mix that goes on within me. I am addicted to it, I really am.

 

Tradition relates that a castle was first constructed on this site by Rhodri the Great, but there are no remains from this period. Dinefwr later became the chief seat of Rhodri's grandson Hywel Dda, first ruler of Deheubarth and later king of most of Wales. Rhys ap Gruffydd, ruler of Deheubarth from 1155 to 1197, is thought to have rebuilt the castle. Giraldus Cambrensis tells a story about a plan by King Henry II of England to assault the castle during a campaign against Rhys. One of Henry's most trusted followers was sent on reconnaissance, guided by a local Welsh cleric, who was asked to lead him to the castle by the easiest route, but instead took the most difficult route he could find, ending the performance by stopping to eat grass with the explanation that this was the diet of the local people in times of hardship. The planned attack was duly abandoned.

 

Rhys ap Gruffydd also built the spectacular castle at Carreg Cennen, about four miles away to the south. It is not visible from Dynefwr, but Dryslwyn Castle can just be seen on a hill blocking the Tywi valley to the south-west. Rhys also founded two religious houses during this period. Talley Abbey was the first Premonstratensian abbey in Wales, while Llanllyr was a Cistercian nunnery, only the second nunnery to be founded in Wales and the first to prosper.

 

On Rhys ap Gruffydd's death the castle passed to his son Rhys Gryg, and the earliest parts of the present castle are thought to derive from this period. Llywelyn the Great of Gwynedd was now extending his influence to this area, and Rhys, finding himself unable to resist, dismantled the castle. Llywelyn however had it restored and held it until his death in 1240. In 1255 Llywelyn the Last gave Dinefwr to Rhys Fychan, then later gave it to Maredudd ap Rhys before later returning it to Rhys Fychan. Maredydd now allied himself to King Edward I of England, and helped Edward capture Dinefwr in 1277. Maredudd had apparently been promised Dinefwr in return for his help, but Edward did not keep his promise and had Maredudd executed in 1291.

I have a 90 year old neighbor who has hiked the 890 km length of the Bruce Trail three or four times. In the heyday of his 70's and even 80's, walking 30 or even 50 km was just a walk in the park for him. In the last year, his hips started giving out it's been one of the most difficult things he's had to leave behind. He still goes out for a walk around the block every day, just one step at a time, with a crutch under one arm and a cane in the other. Seeing him hobble down the street, I can completely relate to his determination as our own time feels the most grounded somewhere on a hiking trail. I'm also very blessed having someone to share that passion with and we're both looking forward to the day when the trails reopen after the current pandemic.

Blog relating to this story ... peterjemmett.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-year-that-was-part-...

Only Greats Relate, MISFIT MOB & SAVKREW

127 comments under the Facebook posting, to a province-wide group, of a photo that a photographer took of three people, one of them myself - angry, rude, critical, judgemental comments, by people who don't even know me or my ethics, including when they relate to photography! Last night, I found the posting again and took a long time going through all 127 comments. Made me feel sick to the stomach. This can't be right, though I know this kind of thing does happen on Facebook. I want the photo removed or for the photographer, whom I don't know, to at the very least completely blur me out of the shot. Though his comment, when he first posted his photo, was about people staying safe when taking photos, he has allowed the posting to develop into an endless bashing.

 

I wasn't going to post this again, but I have changed my mind after reading all those comments. I sent the man a link to one of my owl photos that has this long description with it, asking him to read, when he has time, what I have written. The link was sent only two or three days ago, so he may not have seen it yet.

 

"I think the very first Long-eared Owl that I ever saw was seen on 13 October 2006. SInce then, I have been very fortunate to have seen several other individuals - including the day before yesterday. These owls are very secretive and many birders go years between sightings. It is so important not to give the location of this species. Be careful that there is nothing in your photos that gives away the location.

 

Various people had been posting photos of a Long-eared Owl recently, but I had no idea where they were seeing it. Someone had posted a photo and labelled it "Calgary" (totally untrue!), so I had thought it must have been seen in one of our local city parks. Two days ago, I decided to go for a short drive and get a bit of sunshine and fresh air. Our deep freeze has lasted for more than four weeks, and I have been home for most of that time. It was a milder day, so I decided to make the most of it, especially with more snow forecast for today.

 

Imagine my surprise when a stranger told me just where it was, and my absolute horror when I came upon a huge crowd of photographers with their lenses raised! So how did they all know about this owl?? Apparently, Facebook has such a bad reputation for people trolling everyone's photostream there, finding out locations for all sorts of things (old barns included!). Then, of course, some people phone others, to ask or to tell. Others follow ebird religiously, dashing out to see every more 'special' bird that is reported and location given. I don't post many photos on Facebook and I certainly don't post the same photo to three groups. It gets so very boring to see the same photos everywhere. These people flood their own Facebook pages and the groups! The only reason I can see is to get as many Likes as possible. Anyway, most people were down in the ditch at the fenceline, so no doubt they were able to get stunning close shots, especially those with enormous lenses. My photos were taken from the road, which was twice as far away, with a point-and-shoot. I'm not out to try and get better photos than anyone else : ) As always, there is so much competition among photographers. I was also not out there all day, like various people always are, and often day after day after day.

 

So, after saying those things, perhaps you can imagine how extremely upset (devastated, actually) I am to have been told (when I arrived at the owl) by a couple of friends (both of whom are superb photographers) that my photograph had been taken, along with two other people in it, standing at the edge of a road earlier in February. These friends thought it was hilarious and I sure was teased a lot. As they said, my "goody two-shoes" image was gone. They both know I have very high ethics, including when it comes to photography. This photo was posted on Facebook on a provincial birding page, pointing out how dangerous it is for people to stand by the road. This thread turned into a string of comments about people harassing the owls, etc., etc., etc. Actually, the other two people in the photo are both seen taking photos (when I was told they already had taken thousands). There's me, camera not raised, looking disgusted that an owl had been flushed so that they could take flight images. The reason I was out of my vehicle was that these two people were out of theirs and racing down the road at top speed to get yet more shots. When I was sitting in my car, these photographers blocked my view of the owl, so out I got and caught up with them. To prove that I was not planning on getting out of my car this trip, I was wearing just my thin summer jacket (over fleece) in a windchill in the minus 20C's. Two minutes later, I was back in my car!

 

Sorry to rant, but it just upsets me so much that this photo was taken and posted on Facebook. Have barely slept the last two nights! The very last thing I would ever want is to be connected with bad ethics!! Of course, I must be such a bad person to actually stand by the road - ha, you should see all the dozens of people who do exactly the same (without being photgraphed)!

 

That day, I took maybe 30 photos of the Long-eared Owl, and maybe a couple of dozen of a Short-eared Owl, almost every single one of the latter needing to be deleted, because they were all totally blurry, thanks to taking the photos from inside my car. You can be sure that most of the others went home with yet another memory card containing thousands of photos.

 

I am hoping that now I won't be stressing out over it quite as much, every second of the day! Ain't life fun? To the man who took my photo (as far as I know, I have never met him), how about taking a few photos of the crowds of people, especially those who were as close as they could get to the LEO. Or those who stress out the owls day after day after day, often from morning till evening!

 

PS: I rarely allow people (i.e. friends) to photograph me. Not sure what right this man thinks he has, to take my photo and especially to then post it on a very popular Facebook group page. I want it removed from Facebook, or at the very least, to have myself totally blurred out of the image. When this sort of thing happens, it can totally destroy a person's joy of photography!

 

Actually, on a more serious note, something that I'm sure most people don't think of. You really need to be careful about taking a photo of someone and then posting it (without signing a consent form). For various security reasons, doing this could actually put someone in danger. For example, a woman (or vice versa) might not want their photo being advertised in this way, not wanting an abusive spouse/partner to know where they go sometimes or what they do. Just something to keep in mind."

This shot was not intended to relate to the disaster on the East Coast, but I cannot look at this image without thinking about it. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected by Hurricane Sandy.

 

I took this from the parking deck at the University of Illinois-Chicago. I recommend that you find this parking deck and make a morning out of shooting here. I spent an hour or two here last weekend. I gave a bit of a description of how to get here in this post.

 

As for the processing on this shot, I ran four different exposures through Nik HDR Efex Pro 2 and used the "Sinister" preset. I combined that image with an original exposure for the sky and tweaked in CS5.

 

Thanks to everyone that visited, commented, and "favorited" my Halloween moon shot from this summer on Flickr. It ended up going to #1 on Explore for October 31st. That is definitely a first for me. If you haven't seen it, check out Full Moon Over the Waves on Flickr.

Uses: Anything relating to finance and money.

 

Free Creative Commons Finance Images... I created these images in my studio and have made them all available for personal or commercial use. Hope you like them and find them useful.

 

To see more of our CC by 2.0 finance images click here... see profile for attribution.

doesn't relate, I just really love this song. My aunt got me an iTunes gift card for my birthday and I went ahead and bought a bunch of songs that had been sitting in my shopping cart for a while. Including Fleet Foxes, by Fleet Foxes, which is amazing.

 

I think I'm joining a music club if Dialecticals doesn't whip itself back into shape.

 

Speaking of school, I shouldn't be online right now. I have to take six tests in three days, and not complain to anyone about it, because after all, I did take an eight day vacation. BACK TO WORK.

 

I'm addicted to film. Every image comes out so much more epheral than I could ever expect from digital.

 

Canon AE-1 | Kodak Gold | ISO 200

I've never been able to relate to many people. I've always been the outcast child. I don't follow the rules. That's kind of how I do everything. Through my music, I've found a place in the world where I'm accepted, so I'm happy. "Neon Hitch"

 

Shirt - [AK] - Andrew Shirt Black

shorts - PBM Mens [Saggin' Shorts] Camo

bracelet - Izzie's - 2 Say It With A Bracelet (Loved)

watch - = REBELLION = "MAGNUS" CUFF WATCH

 

Shirt - [AK] - Andrew Shirt Black) I got this shirt just as a quick outfit change the other day, I half expected it to be bad, not a slight on [AK] but I've not had great success with shirts lately, I have to dig and dig to find ones I like. This one however surprised me, or I wouldn't be doing a post on it. The texture is subtle, and well done, the shadows are fantastic, not over done, just perfect. The only thing I have an issue with is fitting the shirt over jeans, most of my jeans poke through at the waist area.. However I needed a good shirt with the shorts I have on here, and this fits the bill. So if you want a Deep DEEP V, go pick this up!

 

Shorts - PBM Mens [Saggin' Shorts] Camo) - Okay so I'm kind of a snob when it comes to pants/jeans/shorts, I admit that freely. I will trash a pair of jeans if the texture is not perfect. So when I looked at PBM, I grabbed the demo and like [AK] shirt I expected these to also be shit. I couldn't have been more wrong, PBM Keep up the good work guys! Love these, they fit perfectly and look great!

 

The Bracelet and watch I'll do together, you can't really see them well in the photo, but both are very well textured, and both resizable! if you are in need of some accessories give Rebellion and Izzie's a shot! (special thanks to Hope for the bracelet! <3)

 

Blog Link - normalattireblog.wordpress.com/

この吉祥天のお姿は、「無常」の精神を静かに映し出しているように感じます。舞い散る桜の花びらは、すべてのものが移ろいゆくことを語りかけています。永遠に咲き続ける花ではなく、やがて散るからこそ、その美しさはいっそう心に響くのでしょう。無常とは、失われることを嘆く思想ではなく、一瞬一瞬を大切に生きるための智慧です。この作品は、変化を恐れるのではなく、穏やかな心で受け入れることの尊さを静かに教えてくれるようです。

 

Mujō (無常): Impermanence at the Heart of Japanese Culture

 

The Japanese word Mujō (無常) literally means "impermanence" or "the absence of permanence." Rooted in Buddhist philosophy, it expresses a fundamental truth: everything that exists is constantly changing. Nothing remains the same forever. People are born, grow old, and die. The seasons come and go. Emotions arise and fade. Joy and sorrow alike are temporary.

 

Rather than presenting this reality as something tragic or pessimistic, Mujō invites us to accept it with clarity, humility, and serenity.

 

In Buddhist thought, much of our suffering comes from our desire to hold on to what cannot be held—youth, loved ones, success, beauty, possessions, or even our own identity. Mujō reminds us that trying to freeze the world in place is an illusion. Accepting change does not mean giving up on life or love; it means learning to embrace each moment fully while understanding that everything is in motion.

 

This philosophy permeates Japanese culture.

 

One of its most beautiful expressions is found in the sakura, the cherry blossoms of spring. For only a few brief days, the trees burst into bloom before a gentle breeze scatters their petals across the ground. Their fleeting nature does not diminish their beauty—it enhances it. If cherry blossoms lasted forever, they would lose much of the wonder they inspire.

 

Autumn offers another reflection of Mujō through the momiji, the brilliant red maple leaves. Their breathtaking colors already foreshadow their inevitable fall. Once again, beauty is found not in permanence, but in transformation.

 

The concept also runs deeply through Japanese literature. The famous Heike Monogatari, written in the early thirteenth century, begins with one of the most celebrated passages in Japanese literature:

 

"The sound of the Gion Shōja bells echoes the impermanence of all things; the color of the sāla flowers reveals the truth that the prosperous must decline."

 

From its opening lines, the tale reminds readers that kingdoms, power, wealth, and human achievements are all destined to pass away.

 

This awareness of impermanence has shaped several uniquely Japanese aesthetic ideals.

 

Mono no aware refers to the gentle, bittersweet awareness of the transience of things. It is the quiet emotion we feel when we recognize that something is beautiful precisely because it will not last. It is not despair, but a profound appreciation of life's fragile moments.

 

Another related concept is wabi-sabi, which celebrates the beauty of imperfection, simplicity, aging, and incompleteness. A cracked tea bowl repaired with care, weathered wood, or a stone covered in moss tells the story of time rather than trying to conceal it. Beauty lies not in flawless perfection, but in authenticity and change.

 

Mujō also offers a path toward inner freedom. If everything changes, then neither our hardships nor our happiness can last forever. This simple truth encourages us to cherish joyful moments without clinging to them, while reminding us that painful times are also temporary.

 

In everyday life, this philosophy can be experienced through the simplest moments: watching a sunset without feeling the need to photograph it, listening to the rain, observing leaves carried away by the wind, or sharing a meal with the awareness that this exact moment will never occur again.

 

Mujō is therefore not a philosophy of resignation. It is a philosophy of presence.

 

It teaches us that the value of a moment does not depend on how long it lasts, but on our ability to experience it fully.

 

Like cherry blossom petals drifting through the spring air, every encounter, every smile, every season, and every moment is unique precisely because it will never return in exactly the same way.

 

Ultimately, Mujō teaches us that impermanence is not the opposite of beauty—it may well be its very foundation. Because everything passes, every moment becomes infinitely precious.

 

Have you ever been caught in a sakura fubuki?

 

It happens when the wind lifts thousands of cherry blossom petals into the air at once. For a brief moment, everything is moving. Then it's over. The petals fall. People pause, almost surprised by how quickly it passed.

 

In Japanese, this moment is called 桜吹雪 (sakura fubuki). Literally, a cherry blossom snowstorm.

 

I grew up with this. Every spring, the same ritual — gathering under the trees, knowing the window was short, watching for that moment when the wind would send everything loose at once. What stays with me isn't the bloom itself. It's the blizzard. The sudden rush, and then the quiet.

 

That feeling has a name: 無常 (mujō).

   

What Mujō Means

Mujō means impermanence.

 

It is the understanding that nothing stays the same. Not joy. Not beauty. Not difficulty. Everything is always changing, even when it feels stable.

 

This idea comes from Buddhist thought, but in Japan it extends far beyond religion. Mujō shapes how people relate to seasons, relationships, objects, and stages of life. It softens attachment — not by asking us to stop caring, but by reminding us that change is not a failure. It's a condition.

   

Why Cherry Blossoms Matter

Cherry blossoms are not admired simply because they bloom. Many flowers bloom.

 

They are admired because they fall.

 

Their beauty peaks just as it begins to disappear. That narrow window is what draws people out year after year, knowing they might miss it if they wait too long. Sakura fubuki makes this especially clear — the moment is striking, but unrepeatable. You cannot hold onto it. You can only notice it as it passes.

 

That is mujō, made visible.

   

Impermanence Without Pessimism

It's easy to read impermanence as loss. If something doesn't last, it can feel fragile, incomplete, not worth investing in.

 

Mujō offers a different angle. Because things do not last, they matter more. Because moments are limited, they deserve attention. Impermanence is not a reason to pull back. It is a reason to be present.

 

This way of thinking connects naturally to wabi sabi — the appreciation of things that age, weather, and carry the marks of time. A crack in a bowl. Fabric that softens with use. Wood that darkens slowly. These are not flaws. They are evidence of time passing. You can read more about this in Wabi Sabi and the Art of Kintsugi.

   

Living With It

Mujō doesn't ask us to detach. It asks us to hold things more gently.

 

A moment can be meaningful without being permanent. A connection can matter even if it changes. A season can be complete even if it ends.

 

The next time something feels fleeting — try noticing it instead of resisting it. That small shift is often enough.

midorimaki.com/%F0%9F%8D%82-%F0%9D%97%A0%F0%9D%98%82%F0%9...

 

This illustration is a contemporary interpretation, in the style of Japanese woodblock prints (ukiyo-e), of a classical statue of the Buddhist goddess Kichijōten (吉祥天), the deity of beauty, fortune, and prosperity.

The work explores the Buddhist concept of impermanence (mujō). The richly adorned figure emerges from a dark, textured background that evokes antique paper, weathered by time and scattered with maple leaves and cherry blossoms—symbols of the ephemeral nature of all forms.

The garment (the material), though subject to the erosion of time, becomes here the vessel for an imperishable spiritual truth. The sash and the central motifs of the robe glow with an inner light, like vital energy that persists beyond the degradation of physical form. It is a representation of the inner, eternal beauty that resides at the heart of all transient reality.

The caption at the bottom of the image features the Japanese inscription: 「図442 — 吉祥天（きっしょうてん）」.

Technique: Ink and digital watercolor on aged paper.

#Kichijōten #吉祥天 #BuddhistArt #JapaneseArt #UkiyoE #Mujô #Impermanence #InnerBeauty #Esotericism #JapaneseMythology #WoodblockPrintStyle #Spirituality

I actually relate to this piece a bit. Thoughts at times can be more harmful than any food or drug (sometimes). We tend to be a bit harsh on ourselves, hurting ourselves with negative thinking. I think this could be a fun tee though! :-)

the myth retelling Typhon's murder and dismemberment of his brother Osiris.. For alchemists, the myth of Isis and Osiris was a myth of the alchemical process. One of this myths relates him vanquishing Typhon, the dragon of ignorance ...

Set (Seth, Setekh, Sut, Sutekh, Suty) was one of ancient Egypt’s earliest gods, a god of chaos, confusion, storms, wind, the desert and foreign lands. In the Osiris legends, he was a contender to the throne of Osiris and rival to Horus, but a companion to the sun god Ra. Originally worshiped and seen as an ambivalent being, during the Third Intermediate Period the people vilified him and turned him into a god of evil.

Depicted as a man with the head of a ‘Sut animal’ (or a ‘Typhonian animal’ because of the Greek identification with Typhon), or as a full ‘Set animal’ the god is unrecognizable as any one particular animal today. He was also identified with other animals, such as the hippopotamus, the pig and the donkey, which were often abhorred by the Egyptians. These animals were sacred to him. Set’s followers took the form of these animals, as well as crocodiles, scorpions, turtles and other ‘evil’ or dangerous creatures. Some fish were sacred to Set, too – the Nile carp, the Oxyrynchus or the Phagrus fish – because they were thought to have eaten the phallus of Osiris after Set chopped him to pieces.

The ‘Set animal’ has long, squared ears and a long, down-turned snout, a canine-like body with an erect forked tail. He may have been a composite animal that was part aardvark (the aardvark that the ancient Egyptians would have seen was the nocturnal Orycteropus aethiopicus which was between 1.2-1.8 meters long and almost 1 meter tall, and was generally a reddish color because of the thin hair, allowing the skin to show through), part canine (perhaps the salawa, a desert dwelling creature) or even a camel or an okapi. The sign for his name, from the Middle Kingdom hieratic onwards, tended to replace the sign for ‘donkey’ and ‘giraffe’, so he was possibly linked to the giraffe, as well.

He was also believed to have white skin and red hair, with the Egyptians comparing his hair to the pelt of a donkey. Due to his association with red, red animals and even people with red hair were thought to be his followers. These animals were sometimes sacrificed, while the link between Set and red-heads – usually foreigners – gave him godhood over foreign lands. With the relationship to foreign peoples, Set was also a god of overseas trade of oils, wood and metals from over the sea and through desert routes. He was given lordship over western Asia because of this.

As Set was a god of the desert and probably symbolized the destructive heat of the afternoon sun, and thus was thought to be infertile. The hieroglyph for Set was used in words such as ‘turmoil’, ‘confusion’, ‘illness’, ‘storm’ and ‘rage’. Strange events such as eclipses, thunderstorms and earthquakes were all attributed to him.

Horus has seized Set, he has put him beneath you so that he can lift you up. He will groan beneath you as an earthquake…

– Pyramid Texts, Spell 356

He was also thought to have rather odd sexual habits, another reason why the Egyptian believed that abnormalities were linked to Set. In a land where fatherhood makes the man, Set’s lack of children, related to the tale where Horus tore off his testicles (while Set tore out Horus’ eye) would have been one reason why he was looked down on. His favorite – some say only – food was the lettuce (which secreted a white, milky substance that the Egyptians linked to semen and was sacred to the fertility god Min), but even with this aphrodisiac, he was still thought to have been infertile.His bisexuality (he was married and given concubines to appease him, yet he also assaulted Horus sexually starting with the come-on line “How lovely your backside is!”) and his pursuit of Isis were reasons why Set could never have been a ruler of Egypt instead of Osiris, despite originally being a lord of Upper Egypt.When Set saw Isis there, he transformed himself into a bull to be able to pursue her, but she made herself unrecognizable by taking the form of a bitch with a knife on her tail. Then she began to run away from him and Set was unable to catch up with her. Then he ejaculated on the ground, and she said, “It’s disgusting to have ejaculated, you bull!” But his sperm grew in the desert and became the plants called bedded-kau.

– Jumilhac PapyrusIn the Old and Middle Kingdoms there are depictions of these two gods together either leading the prisoners of the pharaoh or binding the plants of Upper and Lower Egypt together (as does the twin Hapi gods) to symbolize the union of Upper and Lower Egypt. He was regarded as an equal to the hawk god. This was Horus the Elder, a god of the day sky while Set was seen as a god of the night sky. When these two gods were linked, the two were said to be Horus-Set, a man with two heads – one of the hawk of Horus, the other of the Set animal.“Homage to thee, O divine Ladder! Homage to thee O Ladder of Set! Stand thou upright, O divine Ladder! Stand thou upright, O Ladder of Set! Stand thou upright, O Ladder of Horus, whereby Osiris came forth into heaven.”

– Pyramid Texts, Pepi I

In the Pyramid Texts he was believed to be a friend to the dead, and he helped Osiris ascend to heaven on a ladder. On one of Seti I’s reliefs, it shows Set and Horus offering the symbol of life to the pharaoh, with Set saying “I establish the crown upon thy head, even like the Disk on the head of Amen-Ra, and I will give thee all life, strength and health.” Thothmose III had a scene showing Set teaching him the use of the bow, while Horus taught him yet another weapon.

As for his role as a friend of the dead, it was believed that “Horus purifies and Set strengthens, and Set purifies and Horus strengthens” the deceased while the backbone of the deceased becomes the backbone of Set and Set has “joined together my neck and my back strongly, and they are even as they were in the time that is past; may nothing happen to break them apart.”Ramesses II, as did his father Seti I, both had red hair and so aligned themselves with the god of chaos. Both were famous warrior pharaohs, using Set’s violent nature to help with their war efforts. In Ramesses II’s campaign against the Hittites, he split his army into four divisions and named them after four gods. One was for Amen, one for Ra, one for Ptah and one for Set. But it was the pharaoh himself who won the battle:Thereupon the forces of the Foe from Khatti surrounded the followers of his majesty who were by his side. When his majesty caught sight of them he rose quickly, enraged at them like his father Mont. Taking up weapons and donning his armor he was like Set in the moment of his power. He mounted ‘Victory-in-Thebes,’ his great horse, and started out quickly alone by himself. His majesty was mighty, his heart stout. one could not stand before him.All his ground was ablaze with fire; he burned all the countries with his blast. His eyes were savage as he beheld them; his power flared like fire against them. He heeded not the foreign multitude; he regarded them as chaff. His majesty charged into the force of the Foe from Khatti and the many countries with him. His majesty was like Seth, great-of-strength, like Sekhmet in the moment of her rage. His majesty slew the entire force of the Foe from Khatti, together with his great chiefs and all his brothers, as well as all the chiefs of all the countries that had come with him, their infantry and their charioteers falling on their faces one upon the other. His majesty slaughtered them in their places; they sprawled before his horses; and his majesty was alone, none other with him.It is likely that the cult of Horus overtook the cult of Set in ancient times, and started to remove his positive sides to give the god Horus more status. The two gods, Horus the Elder and Horus the son of Osiris and Isis were confused, so Set changed from being an equal to his brother, Horus the Elder, to the enemy of Isis’s son. It was only after the Hyksos took Set as their main god, after the Egyptians god rid of the foreigners, he stopped symbolizing Lower Egypt and his name was erased and his statues destroyed.

Set has been worshiped since predynastic times. The first representation of Set that has been found was on a carved ivory comb, an Amratian artifact. He was also shown on the Scorpion macehead. He was worshiped and placated through Egyptian history until the Third Intermediate Period where he was seen as an evil and undesirable force. From this time on, some of his statues were re-carved to become the statues of other gods, and it was said that he had actually been defeated by the god Horus.In the original tale of the fight between Set and Horus, the Egyptians believed that the two would continue their battle until the end of time itself, when chaos overran ma’at and the waters of Nun would swallow up the world. It was only when Set was vilified that this changed, and the Egyptians began to believe that Horus won the battle, defeating Set as a version of good triumphing over evil.

In the tale of Osiris, Set was the third of the five children of Nut, thought to have been born in the Nubt (Naqada) area. Instead of being born in the normal manner, as his siblings were born, he tore himself violently from his mother’s womb.

You whom the pregnant goddess brought forth when you clove the night in twain -You are invested with the form of Set, who broke out in violence.Jealous of his older brother Osiris – either because of the birth of his sister-wife’s son, Anubis, or because of Osiris’ rulership of Egypt – Set made a plan to murder his childless brother and take the throne. He made a great feast, supposedly in honor of Osiris, and with 72 accomplices ready, he tricked Osiris into laying down in a coffer – whoever fitted into the richly ornamented chest would win it – and considering that he’d measured it to fit his brother exactly, Osiris fit perfectly… and Set’s accomplices nailed down the lid and threw it into the Nile.When Isis found out about this, she went on a search through the world to find her husband. Bringing him back, Set happened on the coffer, and tore it open and cut up his brother’s corpse, spreading body parts through the land of Egypt. Isis and Set’s wife Nephthys (who had left him to join her sister) went on a quest to restore Osiris. They succeeded enough so that Isis conceived Osiris’ son and eventually bore the child Horus in the Delta region where he grew up.

By this time Horus had reached manhood … Horus thereupon did battle with Set, the victory falling now to one, now to the other … Horus and Set, it is said, still do battle with one another, yet victory has fallen to neither.Yet Set was thought to be a follower of Ra. It was he who defended the Solar Barque each night as it traveled through the underworld, the only Egyptian deity who could kill the serpent Apep – Ra’s most dangerous enemy – each night as it threatened to swallow the Barque.Then Set, the strong one, the son of Nut, said “As for me, I am Set, the strongest of the Divine Company. Every day I slay the enemy of Ra when I stand at the helm of the Barque of Millions of Years, which no other god dare do.”Even here, though, Set was thought to be a braggart, taunting Ra and threatening that if he wasn’t treated well, that he would bring storms and thunder against the sun god. At this point in The Book of the Dead, Ra drives Set away from the Barque for his insolence, and proceeds on course without the god of storms.Other than Nephthys, Set had other wives/concubines. He was believed to live in the northern sky by the constellation of the Great Bear. To the Egyptians, the north symbolized darkness, cold and death. It was there that his wife Taweret, the hippo goddess of childbirth, was believed to keep him chained. He seemed to have bad luck with women – as with Nephthys, Taweret followed Osiris.At one part in the tale of Set’s argument with Horus over rulership, the company of the gods asked the goddess Neith, rather than Ra – who sided with Set – who should be given the throne of Osiris. Her reply was this:“Give the office of Osiris to his son Horus! Do not go on committing these great wrongs, which are not in place, or I will get angry and the sky will topple to the ground. But also tell the Lord of All, the Bull who lives in Heliopolis, to double Set’s property. Give him Anat and Astarte, your two daughters, and put Horus in the place of his father.”– Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt, RT Rundle ClarkSo he was given the two foreign goddesses Anat and Astarte, both war goddesses from the Syria-Palestine area and daughters of Ra. The two were often interchangeable, yet they had their own distinct cults. Anat and Taweret, though they were fertility goddesses, never bore Set any children.Despite his wicked side, Set was still a god of Egypt, and worshiped – and feared – as such. His image changed through time, due to politics, yet he was still a powerful god, the only one who could slay Ra’s worst enemy. To the Egyptians he was the god who ‘ate’ the moon each month – the black boar who swallowed its light – and the god who created earthquakes and heavy, thunderous rain storms. He was a friend of the dead, helping them to ascend to heaven on his ladder, and the crowner of pharaohs and leader of warriors.Despite his bad reputation, he was still a divine being – an equal of Horus, no less – who could be invoked by his followers or warded off by those who were afraid of him. Yet without chaos and confusion there would be no order; without the heavy, thunderous storms there would be no good weather; without the desert and foreign lands there would be no Egypt. Set was a counterbalance to the ‘good’ side of the Egyptian universe, helping to keep everything in balance.

www.crystalwind.ca/mystical-magical/pantheons-and-myths/e...

Typhon (/ˈtaɪfɒn, -fən/; Greek: Τυφῶν, Tuphōn [typʰɔ̂ːn]), also Typhoeus (/taɪˈfiːəs/; Τυφωεύς, Tuphōeus), Typhaon (Τυφάων, Tuphaōn) or Typhos (Τυφώς, Tuphōs), was a monstrous giant and the most deadly being of Greek mythology. Typhon was the last son of Gaia, and was fathered by Tartarus. Typhon and his mate Echidna were the progenitors of many famous monsters.Typhon was the son of Gaia (Earth) and Tartarus: "when Zeus had driven the Titans from heaven, huge Earth bore her youngest child Typhoeus of the love of Tartarus, by the aid of golden Aphrodite".[1] The mythographer Apollodorus (1st or 2nd century AD) adds that Gaia bore Typhon in anger at the gods for their destruction of her offspring the Giants.Numerous other sources mention Typhon as being the offspring of Gaia, or simply "earth-born", with no mention of Tartarus.However, according to the Homeric Hymn to Apollo (6th century BC), Typhon was the child of Hera alone. Hera, angry at Zeus for having given birth to Athena by himself, prayed to Gaia to give her a son as strong as Zeus, then slapped the ground and became pregnant. Hera gave the infant Typhon to the serpent Python to raise, and Typhon grew up to become a great bane to mortals.

Depiction by Wenceslas Hollar

Several sources locate Typhon's birth and dwelling place in Cilicia, and in particular the region in the vicinity of the ancient Cilician coastal city of Corycus (modern Kızkalesi, Turkey). The poet Pindar (c. 470 BC) calls Typhon '"Cilician",and says that Typhon was born in Cilicia and nurtured in "the famous Cilician cave",[7] an apparent allusion to the Corycian cave.[8] In Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, Typhon is called the "dweller of the Cilician caves",[9] and both Apollodorus and the poet Nonnus (4th or 5th century AD) have Typhon born in Cilicia.The b scholia to Iliad 2.783, preserving a possible Orphic tradition, has Typhon born in Cilicia, as the offspring of Cronus. Gaia, angry at the destruction of the Giants, slanders Zeus to Hera. So Hera goes to Zeus' father Cronus (whom Zeus had overthrown) and Cronus gives Hera two eggs smeared with his own semen, telling her to bury them, and that from them would be born one who would overthrow Zeus. Hera, angry at Zeus, buries the eggs in Cilicia "under Arimon", but when Typhon is born, Hera, now reconciled with Zeus, informs him.

According to Hesiod, Typhon was "terrible, outrageous and lawless", and on his shoulders were one hundred snake heads, that emitted fire and every kind of noise:

Strength was with his hands in all that he did and the feet of the strong god were untiring. From his shoulders grew a hundred heads of a snake, a fearful dragon, with dark, flickering tongues, and from under the brows of his eyes in his marvellous heads flashed fire, and fire burned from his heads as he glared. And there were voices in all his dreadful heads which uttered every kind of sound unspeakable; for at one time they made sounds such that the gods understood, but at another, the noise of a bull bellowing aloud in proud ungovernable fury; and at another, the sound of a lion, relentless of heart; and at another, sounds like whelps, wonderful to hear; and again, at another, he would hiss, so that the high mountains re-echoed.The Homeric Hymn to Apollo describes Typhon as "fell" and "cruel", and neither like gods nor men. Three of Pindar's poems have Typhon as hundred-headed (as in Hesiod),while apparently a fourth gives him only fifty heads, but a hundred heads for Typhon became standard. A Chalcidian hydria (c. 540–530 BC), depicts Typhon as a winged humanoid from the waist up, with two snake tails below. Aeschylus calls Typhon "fire-breathing". For Nicander (2nd century BC), Typhon was a monster of enormous strength, and strange appearance, with many heads, hands, and wings, and with huge snake coils coming from his thighs.

Apollodorus describes Typhon as a huge winged monster, whose head "brushed the stars", human in form above the waist, with snake coils below, and fire flashing from his eyes:

In size and strength he surpassed all the offspring of Earth. As far as the thighs he was of human shape and of such prodigious bulk that he out-topped all the mountains, and his head often brushed the stars. One of his hands reached out to the west and the other to the east, and from them projected a hundred dragons' heads. From the thighs downward he had huge coils of vipers, which when drawn out, reached to his very head and emitted a loud hissing. His body was all winged: unkempt hair streamed on the wind from his head and cheeks; and fire flashed from his eyes.

The most elaborate description of Typhon is found in Nonnus's Dionysiaca. Nonnus makes numerous references to Typhon's sepentine nature, giving him a "tangled army of snakes", snaky feet, and hair.According to Nonnus, Typhon was a "poison-spitting viper",whose "every hair belched viper-poison",and Typhon "spat out showers of poison from his throat; the mountain torrents were swollen, as the monster showered fountains from the viperish bristles of his high head",and "the water-snakes of the monster's viperish feet crawl into the caverns underground, spitting poison!".

Following Hesiod and others, Nonnus gives Typhon many heads (though untotaled), but in addition to snake heads,Nonnus also gives Typhon many other animal heads, including leopards, lions, bulls, boars, bears, cattle, wolves, and dogs, which combine to make 'the cries of all wild beasts together',and a "babel of screaming sounds".Nonnus also gives Typhon "legions of arms innumerable", and where Nicander had only said that Typhon had "many" hands, and Ovid had given Typhon a hundred hands, Nonnus gives Typhon two hundred.According to Hesiod's Theogony, Typhon "was joined in love" to Echidna, a monstrous half-woman and half-snake, who bore Typhon "fierce offspring". First, according to Hesiod, there was Orthrus, the two-headed dog who guarded the Cattle of Geryon, second Cerberus,[36] the multiheaded dog who guarded the gates of Hades, and third the Lernaean Hydra,[37] the many-headed serpent who, when one of its heads was cut off, grew two more. The Theogony next mentions an ambiguous "she", which might refer to Echidna, as the mother of the Chimera (a fire-breathing beast that was part lion, part goat, and had a snake-headed tail) with Typhon then being the father.

While mentioning Cerberus and "other monsters" as being the offspring of Echidna and Typhon, the mythographer Acusilaus (6th century BC) adds the Caucasian Eagle that ate the liver of Prometheus,[39] the mythographer Pherecydes of Leros (5th century BC), also names Prometheus' eagle,[40] and adds Ladon (though Pherecydes does not use this name), the dragon that guarded the golden apples in the Garden of the Hesperides (according to Hesiod, the offspring of Ceto and Phorcys).[41] while the lyric poet Lasus of Hermione (6th century BC), adds the Sphinx.Later authors mostly retain these offspring of Typhon by Echidna, while adding others. Apollodorus, in addition to naming as their offspring Orthrus, the Chimera (citing Hesiod as his source) the Caucasian Eagle, Ladon, and the Sphinx, also adds the Nemean lion (no mother is given), and the Crommyonian Sow, killed by the hero Theseus (unmentioned by Hesiod).Hyginus (1st century BC),[44] in his list of offspring of Typhon (all by Echidna), retains from the above: Cerberus, the Chimera, the Sphinx, the Hydra and Ladon, and adds "Gorgon" (by which Hyginus means the mother of Medusa, whereas Hesiod's three Gorgons, of which Medusa was one, were the daughters of Ceto and Phorcys), the Colchian Dragon that guarded the Golden Fleece and Scylla.The Harpies, in Hesiod the daughters of Thaumas and the Oceanid Electra, in one source, are said to be the daughters of Typhon.The sea serpents which attacked the Trojan priest Laocoön, during the Trojan War, were perhaps supposed to be the progeny of Typhon and Echidna.According to Hesiod, the defeated Typhon is the source of destructive storm winds.Battle with Zeus

Typhon challenged Zeus for rule of the cosmos.The earliest mention of Typhon, and his only occurrence in Homer, is a passing reference in the Iliad to Zeus striking the ground around where Typhon lies defeated.Hesiod's Theogony gives us the first account of their battle. According to Hesiod, without the quick action of Zeus, Typhon would have "come to reign over mortals and immortals".In the Theogony Zeus and Typhon meet in cataclysmic conflict:[Zeus] thundered hard and mightily: and the earth around resounded terribly and the wide heaven above, and the sea and Ocean's streams and the nether parts of the earth. Great Olympus reeled beneath the divine feet of the king as he arose and earth groaned thereat. And through the two of them heat took hold on the dark-blue sea, through the thunder and lightning, and through the fire from the monster, and the scorching winds and blazing thunderbolt. The whole earth seethed, and sky and sea: and the long waves raged along the beaches round and about at the rush of the deathless gods: and there arose an endless shaking. Hades trembled where he rules over the dead below, and the Titans under Tartarus who live with Cronos, because of the unending clamor and the fearful strife.Zeus with his thunderbolt easily overcomes Typhon,who is thrown down to earth in a fiery crash:So when Zeus had raised up his might and seized his arms, thunder and lightning and lurid thunderbolt, he leaped from Olympus and struck him, and burned all the marvellous heads of the monster about him. But when Zeus had conquered him and lashed him with strokes, Typhoeus was hurled down, a maimed wreck, so that the huge earth groaned. And flame shot forth from the thunderstricken lord in the dim rugged glens of the mount, when he was smitten. A great part of huge earth was scorched by the terrible vapor and melted as tin melts when heated by men's art in channelled crucibles; or as iron, which is hardest of all things, is shortened by glowing fire in mountain glens and melts in the divine earth through the strength of Hephaestus. Even so, then, the earth melted in the glow of the blazing fire.Defeated, Typhon is cast into Tartarus by an angry Zeus.Epimenides (7th or 6th century BC) seeminly knew a different version of the story, in which Typhon enters Zeus' palace while Zeus is asleep, but Zeus awakes and kills Typhon with a thunderbolt.[58] Pindar calls Typhon the "enemy of the gods",[59] apparently knew of a tradition which had the gods transform into animals and flee to Egypt, says that Typhon was defeated by Zeus' thunderbolt,has Typhon being held prisoner by Zeus under Etna,and in Tartarus stretched out under ground between Mount Etna and Cumae. However, the historian Herodotus (5th century BC), equating Typhon with the Egyptian god Set, reports that Typhon was supposed to be buried instead under Lake Serbonis in Egypt, near the Egyptian Mount Kasios, (modern Ra Kouroun).According to Pherecydes of Leros, during his battle with Zeus, Typhon first flees to the Caucasus, which begins to burn, then to the volcanic island of Pithecussae (modern Ischia), off the coast of Cumae, where he is buried under the island.Apollonius of Rhodes (3rd century BC), like Pherecydes, presents a multi-stage battle, with Typhon being struck by Zeus' thunderbolt on mount Caucasus, before fleeing to the mountains and plain of Nysa, and ending up, as in Herodotus, buried under Lake Serbonis.Like Pindar, Nicander has all the gods but Zeus and Athena, transform into animal forms and flee to Egypt: Apollo became a hawk, Hermes an ibis, Ares a fish, Artemis a cat, Dionysus a goat, Heracles a fawn, Hephaestus an ox, and Leto a mouse.[The geographer Strabo (c. 20 AD) gives several locations which were associated with the battle. According to Strabo, Typhon was said to have cut the serpentine channel of the Orontes River, which flowed beneath the Syrian Mount Kasios (modern Jebel Aqra), while fleeing from Zeus,[68] and some placed the battle at Catacecaumene ("Burnt Land"),[69] a volcanic plain, on the upper Gediz River, between the ancient kingdoms of Lydia, Mysia and Phrygia, near Mount Tmolus (modern Bozdağ) and Sardis the ancient capital of Lydia.No early source gives any reason for the conflict, but Apollodorus' account[71] seemingly implies that Typhon had been produced by Gaia to avenge the destruction, by Zeus and the other gods, of the Giants, a previous generation of offspring of Gaia. According to Apollodorus "Zeus pelted Typhon at a distance with thunderbolts, and at close quarters struck him down with an adamantine sickle" Wounded, Typhon fled to the Syrian Mount Kasios, where Zeus "grappled" with him. But Typhon, twining his snaky coils around Zeus, was able to wrest away the sickle and cut the sinews from Zeus' hands and feet. Typhon carried the disabled Zeus across the sea to the Corycian cave in Cilicia where he set the she-serpent Delphyne to guard over Zeus and his severed sinews, which Typhon had hidden in a bear skin. But Hermes and Aegipan (possibly another name for Pan)[73] stole the sinews and gave them back to Zeus. His strength restored, Zeus chased Typhon to mount Nysa, where the Moirai tricked Typhon into eating "ephemeral fruits" which weakened him. Typhon then fled to Thrace, where he threw mountains at Zeus, which were turned back on him by Zeus' thunderbolts, and the mountain where Typhon stood, being drenched with Typhon's blood, became known as Mount Haemus (Bloody Mountain). Typhon then fled to Sicily, where Zeus threw Mount Etna on top of Typhon burying him, and so finally defeated him.Oppian (2nd century AD) says that Pan helped Zeus in the battle by tricking Typhon to come out from his lair, and into the open, by the "promise of a banquet of fish", thus enabling Zeus to defeat Typhon with his thunderbolts.The longest and most involved account of the battle appears in Nonnus's Dionysiaca.Zeus hides his thunderbolts in a cave, so that he might seduce the maiden Plouto, and so produce Tantalus. But smoke rising from the thunderbolts, enables Typhon, under the guidance of Gaia, to locate Zeus's weapons, steal them, and hide them in another cave.[76] Immediately Typhon extends "his clambering hands into the upper air" and begins a long and concerted attack upon the heavens.Then "leaving the air" he turns his attack upon the seas. Finally Typhon attempts to wield Zeus' thunderbolts, but they "felt the hands of a novice, and all their manly blaze was unmanned."Now Zeus' sinews had somehow – Nonnus does not say how or when — fallen to the ground during their battle, and Typhon had taken them also. But Zeus devises a plan with Cadmus and Pan to beguile Typhon.Cadmus, desguised as a shepherd, enchants Typhon by playing the panpipes, and Typhon entrusting the thuderbolts to Gaia, sets out to find the source of the music he hears.[82] Finding Cadmus, he challenges him to a contest, offering Cadmus any goddess as wife, excepting Hera whom Typhon has reserved for himself.Cadmus then tells Typhon that, if he liked the "little tune" of his pipes, then he would love the music of his lyre – if only it could be strung with Zeus' sinews. So Typhon retrieves the sinews and gives them to Cadmus, who hides them in another cave, and again begins to play his bewiching pipes, so that "Typhoeus yielded his whole soul to Cadmos for the melody to charm".With Typhon distracted, Zeus takes back his thunderbolts. Cadmus stops playing, and Typhon, released from his spell, rushes back to his cave to discover the thunderbolts gone. Incensed Typhon unleashes devastation upon the world: animals are devoured, (Typhon's many animal heads each eat animals of its own kind), rivers turned to dust, seas made dry land, and the land "laid waist".The day ends with Typhon yet unchallenged, and while the other gods "moved about the cloudless Nile", Zeus waits through the night for the coming dawn.[87] Victory "reproaches" Zeus, urging him to "stand up as champion of your own children!"Dawn comes and Typhon roars out a challenge to Zeus.And a catyclismic battle for "the sceptre and throne of Zeus" is joined. Typhon piles up mountains as battlements and with his "legions of arms innumerable", showers volley after volley of trees and rocks at Zeus, but all are destroyed, or blown aside, or dodged, or thrown back at Typhon. Typhon throws torrents of water at Zeus' thunderbolts to quench them, but Zeus is able to cut off some of Typhon's hands with "frozen volleys of air as by a knife", and hurling thunderbolts is able to burn more of typhon's "endless hands", and cut off some of his "countless heads". Typhon is attacked by the four winds, and "frozen volleys of jagged hailstones." Gaia tries to aid her burnt and frozen son.Finally Typhon falls, and Zeus shouts out a long stream of mocking taunts, telling Typhon that he is to be buried under Sicily's hills, with a cenotaph over him which will read "This is the barrow of Typhoeus, son of Earth, who once lashed the sky with stones, and the fire of heaven burnt him up".

Burial under Etna and Ischia]

Most accounts have the defeated Typhon buried under either Mount Etna in Sicily, or the volcanic island of Ischia, the largest of the Phlegraean Islands off the coast of Naples, with Typhon being the cause of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.Though Hesiod has Typhon simply cast into Tartarus by Zeus, some have read a reference to Mount Etna in Hesiod's description of Typhon's fall:And flame shot forth from the thunderstricken lord in the dim rugged glens of the mount when he was smitten. A great part of huge earth was scorched by the terrible vapor and melted as tin melts when heated by men's art in channelled crucibles; or as iron, which is hardest of all things, is shortened by glowing fire in mountain glens and melts in the divine earth through the strength of Hephaestus. Even so, then, the earth melted in the glow of the blazing fire.The first certain references to Typhon buried under Etna, as well as being the cause of its eruptions, occur in Pindar:Son of Cronus, you who hold Aetna, the wind-swept weight on terrible hundred-headed Typhon,and: among them is he who lies in dread Tartarus, that enemy of the gods, Typhon with his hundred heads. Once the famous Cilician cave nurtured him, but now the sea-girt cliffs above Cumae, and Sicily too, lie heavy on his shaggy chest. And the pillar of the sky holds him down, snow-covered Aetna, year-round nurse of bitter frost, from whose inmost caves belch forth the purest streams of unapproachable fire. In the daytime her rivers roll out a fiery flood of smoke, while in the darkness of night the crimson flame hurls rocks down to the deep plain of the sea with a crashing roar. That monster shoots up the most terrible jets of fire; it is a marvellous wonder to see, and a marvel even to hear about when men are present. Such a creature is bound beneath the dark and leafy heights of Aetna and beneath the plain, and his bed scratches and goads the whole length of his back stretched out against it.Thus Pindar has Typhon in Tartarus, and buried under not just Etna, but under a vast volcanic region stretching from Sicily to Cumae (in the vicinity of modern Naples), a region which presumably also included Mount Vesuvius, as well as Ischia.Many subsequent accounts mention either Etnaor Ischia. In Prometheus Bound, Typhon is imprisoned underneath Etna, while above him Hephaestus "hammers the molten ore", and in his rage, the "charred" Typhon causes "rivers of fire" to pour forth. Ovid has Typhon buried under all of Sicily, with his left and right hands under Pelorus and Pachynus, his feet under Lilybaeus, and his head under Etna; where he "vomits flames from his ferocious mouth". And Valerius Flaccus has Typhon's head under Etna, and all of Sicily shaken when Typhon "struggles". Lycophron has both Typhon and Giants buried under the island of Ischia. Virgil, Silius Italicus and Claudian, all calling the island "Inarime", have Typhon buried there. Strabo, calling Ischia "Pithecussae", reports the "myth" that Typhon lay buried there, and that when he "turns his body the flames and the waters, and sometimes even small islands containing boiling water, spout forth."Others said to be buried under Etna were the Giant Enceladus, the volcano's eruptions being the breath of Enceladus, and its tremors caused by the Giant rolling over from side to side beneath the mountain,and the Hundred-hander Briareus."Couch of Typhoeus" Homer describes a place he calls the "couch [or bed] of Typhoeus", which he locates in the land of the Arimoi (εἰν Ἀρίμοις), where Zeus lashes the land about Typhoeus with his thunderbolts. Presumably this is the same land where, according to Hesiod, Typhon's mate Echida keeps guard "in Arima" (εἰν Ἀρίμοισιν).But neither Homer nor Hesiod say anything more about where these Arimoi or this Arima might be. The question of whether an historical place was meant, and its possible location, has been, since ancient times, the subject of speculation and debate.Strabo discusses the question in some detail.[everal locales, Cilicia, Syria, Lydia, and the island of Ischia, all places associated with Typhon, are given by Strabo as possible locations for Homer's "Arimoi".

Pindar has his Cilician Typhon slain by Zeus "among the Arimoi",[106] and the historian Callisthenes (4th century BC), located the Arimoi and the Arima mountains in Cilicia, near the Calycadnus river, the Corycian cave and the Sarpedon promomtory.[107] The b scholia to Iliad 2.783, mentioned above, says Typhon was born in Cilicia "under Arimon",[108] and Nonnus mentions Typhon's "bloodstained cave of Arima" in Cilicia.Just across the Gulf of Issus from Corycus, in ancient Syria, was Mount Kasios (modern Jebel Aqra) and the Orontes River, sites associated with Typhon's battle with Zeus,[110] and according to Strabo, the historian Posidonius (c. 2nd century BC) identified the Arimoi with the Aramaeans of Syria.[Alternatively, according to Strabo, some placed the Arimoi at Catacecaumene,[112] while Xanthus of Lydia (5th century BC) added that "a certain Arimus" ruled there.Strabo also tells us that for "some" Homer's "couch of Typhon" was located "in a wooded place, in the fertile land of Hyde", with Hyde being another name for Sardis (or its acropolis), and that Demetrius of Scepsis (2nd century BC) thought that the Arimoi were most plausibly located "in the Catacecaumene country in Mysia".[114] The 3rd-century BC poet Lycophron placed the lair of Typhons' mate Echidna in this region.[115]

Another place, mentioned by Strabo, as being associated with Arima, is the island of Ischia, where according to Pherecydes of Leros, Typhon had fled, and in the area where Pindar and others had said Typhon was buried. The connection to Arima, comes from the island's Greek name Pithecussae, which derives from the Greek word for monkey, and according to Strabo, residents of the island said that "arimoi" was also the Etruscan word for monkeys.[116]

Etymology and origins Typhon's name has a number of variants.[117] The earliest forms of Typhoeus and Typhaon, occur prior to the 5th century BC. Homer uses Typhoeus, Hesiod and the Homeric Hymn to Apollo use both Typhoeus and Typhaon. The later forms Typhos and Typhon occur from the 5th century BC onwards, with Typhon becoming the standard form by the end of that century. Though several possible derivations of the name Typhon have been suggested, the derivation remains uncertain.[118] Consistent with Hesiod's making storm winds Typhon's offspring, some have supposed that Typhon was originally a wind-god, and ancient sources associated him with the Greek words tuphon, tuphos meaning "whirlwind".Other theories include derivation from a Greek root meaning "smoke" (consistent with Typhon's identification with volcanoes),from an Indo European root meaning "abyss" (making Typhon a "Serpent of the Deep"),and from Sapõn the Phoenician name for the Ugaritic god Baal's holy mountain Jebel Aqra (the classical Mount Kasios) associated with the epithet Baʿal Zaphon.

As noted by Herodotus, Typhon was traditionally identified with the Egyptian Set, who was also known to the Greeks as Typhon. As early as pre-dynastic Egypt, Set's mascot or emblem was the Set animal; the Greeks and later classicists referred to this unidentified aardvark-like creature as the Typhonic beast. In the Orphic tradition, just as Set is responsible for the murder of Osiris, Typhon leads the Titans when they attack and kill Dionysus, who also became identified with the earlier Osiris.Mythologist Joseph Campbell also makes parallels to the slaying of Leviathan by YHWH, about which YHWH boasts to Job.[123] Ogden calls the Typhon myth "the only Graeco-Roman drakōn-slaying myth that can seriously be argued to exhibit the influence of Near Eastern antecedents", connecting it in particular with Baʿal Zaphon's slaying of Yammu and Lotan, as well as with the Hittite myth of Illuyankas.From its first reappearance, this latter myth has been seen as a prototype of the battle of Zeus and Typhon.Walter Burkert and Calvert Watkins each note the close agreements.Comparisons can also be drawn with the Mesopotamian monster Tiamat and her slaying by Babylonian chief god Marduk. The similarities between the Greek myth and its earlier Mesopotamian counterpart do not seem to be merely accidental. A number of west Semitic (Ras Shamra) and Hittite sources appear to corroborate the theory of a genetic relationship between the two myths.In works of culture. Dante Alighieri's Inferno mentions him amongst the Biblical and mythological giants frozen onto the rings outside of Hell's Circle of Treachery. Dante and Virgil threatened to go to Tityos and Typhon unless Antaeus lowers them into the Circle of Treachery. Typhon (as Typhoeus) appears in Gustav Klimt's 1902 Beethoven Frieze as one of "the Hostile Forces".

Typhon is a recurring character in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, where he is a friend and ally to Hercules, and a calming influence on Echidna and their children. Typhon appears in the 2007 video game, God of War II where the main character Kratos tries to enlist his aid. The Titan refuses and Kratos blinds Typhon and takes his magical bow, Typhon's Bane.Swedish symphonic metal band Therion dedicated a song to Typhon in their year 2004 album Lemuria.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhon

Uses: Anything relating to finance and money.

 

Free Creative Commons Finance Images... I created these images in my studio and have made them all available for personal or commercial use. Hope you like them and find them useful.

 

To see more of our CC by 2.0 finance images click here... see profile for attribution.

Did You Read And Did You Relate To Catcher In The Rye, Now 75! - IMRAN®

 

Catcher in the Rye turns 75 this year. Growing up in Pakistan in a British/Cambridge‑style school system, J.D. Salinger’s novel was never part of my curriculum — so I didn’t read it and get to know about it’s protagonist Holden Caulfield until I came to the United States in the late ’80s.

 

What struck me then, and still does, is how Holden sees the world with a mix of sharp skepticism and aching vulnerability. His obsession with “phoniness” isn’t just teenage rebellion — it’s a complex lens on authenticity, loneliness, and growing up.

 

Have you read it or revisited it recently? What stayed with you?

 

© 2026 IMRAN®

 

#IMRAN #CatcherInTheRye #JDSalinger #HoldenCaulfield #Literature #Books #Reading

WHAT DOES DOG DAY AFTERNOON RELATE TO

 

"the dog days of summer." Dog days are not about or connected to the loveable canines which many of us enjoy. Dog days are actually referring to the star "Sirius", also known as the dog star, found in the constellation of Canis Major, deriving its name from the Greek word '"seirios", which means "scorching".

 

The star sirius is most visible in our hemisphere during the summer months as the brightest star in the heavens (not Polaris, the northern star).

 

So, "dog day afternoon" actually means nothing more than a hot summer afternoon.

 

LIVERPOOL CITY CENTRE HOT SUMMERS DAY

  

See where this picture was taken. [?]

Today is the ninth day of a 30 day challenge. The objective is to shoot one shot per day on subject matter provided by the local camera club.

 

Today's subject matter is, "something relating to a car".

'Culture relates to objects and is a phenomenon of the world; entertainment relates to people and is a phenomenon of life.'

Hannah Arendt

 

Lights of the Las Vegas strip, Aria curvilinear towers resort and hotel complex and MGM resort and hotel complex and the blue light in the background shining straight up is from the Fremont Street Experience (FSE) . The FSE is a light show quite a few miles away from the strip. Uploaded for the Geometric Shapes challenge. The curvilinear towers were quite fascinating, even captivating in appearance

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Thanks very kindly to all my visitors for any gracious comment, views and invites. Much appreciated! .... Peace and love be with you.

Namaste.

 

________________________________________________________________________________________

 

All rights reserved. Copyright © Aum Kleem All my images are protected under international authors copyright laws and may not be downloaded, reproduced, copied, transmitted or manipulated without my written explicit permission.

________________________________________________________________________________________

  

I can relate to having those people in your life that you feel are moving on to this great, big, normal life and you're like, 'What's wrong with me?'

Kristen Wiig

 

Follow me on Instagram:

www.instagram.com/davidmarconcini/

 

I love conversing with seaweed farmers. It is business for me so I can relate to the woes in cultivating the "gold of the sea." This woman was under the shelter of a cove at Lembongan, tending to her seaweed harvest. She was cleaning out the green epiphytic algae that was parasitically clinging on the cottonii (the clean ones are in the basket already). Was she sweet to give me that smile.

 

Lembongan, Lembongan Island, Bali, Indonesia

 

more pics and journeys in colloidfarl.blogspot.com/

BODY:

Maitreya Mesh Body v.4.1

CatWa Head - Kimberly

CatWa Eyes

CatWa Add-on TEETH B [Default]

CatWa Tongue Piercing for Teeth B [Default]

^^Swallow^^ Princess ears

[West End] Shapes - Reese

Izzie's - Whiskey Eyes (applier)

 

SKIN:

. MILA . Paloma Skin [Ivory] CATWA

. MILA . Body Skin Appliers V3

 

TATTOOS:

RedFish - Ouija tattoo

 

JEWELRY:

**RE**Envy Tags

**RE** Rebel Faith Bracelets

+AH+ Casual Goth Piercing CATWA Kimberly 2.1

~~ Ysoral ~~ .:Luxe Ring Veronica:. Engagement

~~ Ysoral ~~ .:Luxe Ring Veronica:. Wedding

^^Swallow^^ Ear Cuff Cross

^^Swallow^^ Princess Bento Rings

[ bubble ] Stars Collarbone Dermals

  

COLLAR (BDSM):

Cae :: Bound :: Collar

 

OUTFIT:

Blueberry - Can't Relate Set - Mega Pack

 

HAIR:

TRUTH Livia - Brunette

 

Blog post - litasbabygirladventures.blogspot.com/

This one can relate to all kinds of things. Sass and I are in Manoa Falls. There is a spot off the trail where the river water settles a bit and we are able to get nice reflection shots.

I brought back the camera stats for the convenience of the curious ones. Even if it helps only one person, it's worth the extra time.

 

CRAZY WEATHER

There was a huge storm here last night. Check out this picture that a fellow hawaii photographer took near Waikiki. Man I would have loved to set up a shoot with that in the background! I was stuck at work though :(

 

NEW SERIES COMING SOON!

I've got ideas for a new series. Twelve different shots over a three month span. I'm still getting together some ideas, but stay tuned!

 

Find me on facebook, tumblr, twitter, formspring,or my website.

 

Camera: Canon EOS 60D

Focal Length: 50mm

Lens: Canon 50mm 1.4

Aperture: f/2.0

Exposure: 1/200 sec

ISO Speed: 100

Filter: n/a

Editing Software: CS5

Flash: Canon 430ex II with Lumiquest Ltp Softbox camera left.

imgur.com/account/favorites/hgbi3vZ

Harsh reality that Nature is Metal!

 

Also see

Karen Carlson's capture of Spider and Monarch

 

Link above relates to my comment below

The genesis of modern understanding of Greek mythology is regarded by some scholars as a double reaction at the end of the 18th century against "the traditional attitude of Christian animosity mixed with disdain, which had prevailed for centuries", in which the Christian reinterpretation of myth as a "lie" or fable had been retained.[1] In Germany, by about 1795, there was a growing interest in Homer and Greek mythology. In Göttingen Johann Matthias Gesner began to revive Greek studies and a new humanistic spirit. His successor, Christian Gottlob Heyne, worked with Johann Joachim Winckelmann, and laid the foundations for mythological research both in Germany and elsewhere. Heyne approached the myth as a philologist and shaped the educated Germans' conception of antiquity for nearly half a century, during which ancient Greece exerted an intense influence on intellectual life in Germany.The development of comparative philology in the 19th century, together with ethnological discoveries in the 20th century, established the science of myth. Since the Romantics, all study of myth has been comparative. Wilhelm Mannhardt, Sir James Frazer, and Stith Thompson employed the comparative approach to collect and classify the themes of folklore and mythology.In 1871 Edward Burnett Tylor published his Primitive Culture, in which he applied the comparative method and tried to explain the origin and evolution of religion.] Tylor's procedure of drawing together material culture, ritual and myth of widely separated cultures influenced both Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell. According to Robert Segal, however, Campbell’s "romantic view of myth is the opposite of a rationalist view, one epitomized by the Victorian anthropologists Edward Tylor and James Frazer".J.F. del Giorgio has added a new turn to the comparative approach, insisting in The Oldest Europeans about present Greek myths being generated by the clash between a Paleolithic European population and the incoming Indo-European tribes.Max Müller applied the new science of comparative mythology to the study of myth, in which he detected the distorted remains of Aryan nature worship. Bronisław Malinowski emphasized the ways myth fulfills common social functions. Claude Lévi-Strauss and other structuralists have compared the formal relations and patterns in myths throughout the world.Evans himself, while studying the Minoan world, drew regularly on Egyptian and Near Eastern evidence for comparison, and the discovery of the Hittite and Ugaritic civilizations has uncovered texts as well as monuments which offer comparative material for ritual and mythology.Sigmund Freud put forward the idea that symbolic communication does not depend on cultural history alone but also on the workings of the psyche. Thus Freud introduced a transhistorical and biological conception of man and a view of myth as an expression of repressed ideas. Dream interpretation is the basis of Freudian myth interpretation and Freud's concept of dreamwork recognizes the importance of contextual relationships for the interpretation of any individual element in a dream. This suggestion would find an important point of rapprochment between the structuralist and psychoanalytic approaches to myth in Freud's thought.Carl Jung extended the transhistorical, psychological approach with his theory of the "collective unconscious" and the archetypes (inherited "archaic" patterns), often encoded in myth, that arise out of it.According to Jung, "myth-forming structural elements must be present in the unconscious psyche".[10] Comparing Jung's methodology with Campbell's theory, Segal concludes that "to interpret a myth Campbell simply identifies the archetypes in it. An interpretation of the Odyssey, for example, would show how Odysseus’s life conforms to a heroic pattern. Jung, by contrast, considers the identification of archetypes merely the first step in the interpretation of a myth".[5] For Jung, myth is no more about gods than about the physical world; it is about the human mind and must be read symbolically. Karl Kerenyi, one of the founders of modern studies in Greek mythology, gave up his early views of myth, in order to apply Jung's theories of archetypes to Greek myth.The origins of Greek mythology are an open question. In antiquity, historians such as Herodotus theorized that the Greek gods had been stolen directly from the Egyptians. Later on, Christian writers tried to explain Hellenic paganism through degeneration of Biblical religion. According to the Scriptural theory, all mythological legends (including Greek mythology) are derived from the narratives of the Scriptures, though the real facts have been disguised and altered. Thus Deucalion is another name for Noah, Hercules for Samson, Arion for Jonah etc.] According to the Historical Theory all the persons mentioned in mythology were once real human beings, and the legends relating to them are merely the additions of later times. Thus the story of Aeolus is supposed to have risen from the fact that Aeolus was the ruler of some islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea.The Allegorical theory supposes that all the ancient myths were allegorical and symbolical. According to the Physical theory the elements of air, fire, and water were originally the objects of religious adoration, and the principal deities were personifications of the powers of nature.The sciences of archaeology and linguistics have been applied to the origins of Greek mythology with some interesting results. Historical linguistics indicates that particular aspects of the Greek pantheon were inherited from Indo-European society (or perhaps both cultures borrowed from another earlier source), as were the roots of the Greek language. Prominent Sanskritist Max Müller attempted to understand an Indo-European religious form by tracing it back to its Aryan, Vedic, "original" manifestation. In 1891, he claimed that "the most important discovery which has been made during the nineteenth century with respect to the ancient history of mankind [...] was this sample equation: Sanskrit Dyaus-pitar = Greek Zeus = Latin Jupiter = Old Norse Tyr".[16] Philologist Georges Dumezil draws a comparison between the Greek Uranus and the Sanskrit Varuna, although there is no hint that he believes them to be originally connected.In other cases, close parallels in character and function suggest a common heritage, yet lack of linguistic evidence makes it difficult to prove, as in the case of the Greek Moirai and the Norns of Norse mythology.Archaeology and mythography, on the other hand, has revealed that the Greeks were inspired by some of the civilizations of Asia Minor and the Near East. Adonis seems to be the Greek counterpart — more clearly in cult than in myth — of a Near Eastern dying god. His name is related to the Semitic invocation "adon" (Lord) and appears in other cultures as Dumuzi, Tammuz or Attis. Cybele is rooted in Anatolian culture, and much of Aphrodite's iconography springs from the Semitic goddesses Inanna, Ishtar and Astarte. The theogonic myths current in the Near East in the second millennium BC, such as the myth of Anu, Kumarbi, and Teshub, contain significant stories of generational conflict. Meyer Reinhold argues that "such Near Eastern theogonic concepts, involving divine succession through violence and generational conflicts for power, found their way — the route is not certain — into Greek mythology. Our prime source is the great theogonic poem of Hesiod".Parallels between the earliest divine generations (Chaos and its children) and Tiamat in the Enuma Elish are also possible.In addition to Indo-European and Near Eastern origins, some scholars have speculated on the debts of Greek mythology to the still poorly understood pre-Hellenic societies of Greece, such as the Minoans and so-called Pelasgians. This is especially true in the case of chthonic deities and mother goddesses. Historians of religion were fascinated by a number of apparently ancient configurations of myth connencted with Crete: the god as bull — Zeus and Europa; Pasiphaë who yields to the bull and gives birth to the Minotaur; agrarian mysteries with a sacred marriage (Demeter's union with Iasion) etc. Crete, Mycenae, Pylos, Thebes and Orchomenus figure so large in later Greek mythology.For some, the three main generations of gods in Hesiod's Theogony (Uranus, Gaia, etc.; the Titans and then the Olympians) suggest a distant echo of a struggle between social groups, mirroring the three major high cultures of Greek civilization: Minoan, Mycenaean and Hellenic. Martin P. Nilsson, Professor of Classical Archaeology, worked on the structure, origins and relationships of the Indo-European languages, and concluded that all great classical Greek myths were tied to Mycenaen centres and were anchored in prehistoric times.Nevertheless, according to Walter Burkert, the iconography of the Cretan Palace Period has provided almost no confirmation of all these theories; nothing points to a bull, sexual symbols are absent and a single seal impression from Knossos showing a boy beneath a sheep is regarded as a scant evidence for the myth of Zeus' childhood.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_understanding_of_Greek_mytho...

07/08/2014. The rear of Marshall Capital X383 HLR.

 

I presume the letters in front of the fleet numbers relate to the depot's the vehciles are stationed at, B standing for Bridgend and P standing for Port Talbot.

I eventually found out what this mysterious place is, and that it is actually a 'scheduled monument' of historic importance. It's amazing how in less than 100 years an industrial site has been transformed by nature to become such a mysterious place. It's been hard enough to find any information on this, so it has made me wonder how difficult it is for archaeologists to establish the correct history of sites that might be thousands of years old.

 

See historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1450800

 

The standing and buried remains of a chemical plant of 1908 producing soda ash (sodium bicarbonate) by the Solvay method, and of 1915 for the experimental manufacture and then production of calcium nitrate as an ingredient of munitions explosives.

 

Reasons for Designation:

The former soda ash and calcium nitrate works at Plumley is scheduled for the following principal reasons:

 

Rarity: the site is a rare example of a surviving ammonia-soda works (a key element of the alkali industry, one of the most important chemical industries in England with many technological developments made here), in particular as a competitor to the pre-eminent Brunner Mond company;

 

Diversity: also including remains relating to calcium nitrate manufacture on an experimental and production basis, making a very significant national contribution to the manufacture of explosives for the First World War;

 

Survival: the remains of both works survive well and are readable as earthworks and upstanding structures, with some buried remains;

 

Potential: the surviving remains have strong potential to yield further information to specialist analysis and investigation, enhancing our understanding of both works.

 

History:

The alkali industry is defined as the harvesting or mining of sources of potassium and sodium, and the processing of these materials to produce carbonates or hydroxides of the metals (known as potash or soda, for potassium and sodium respectively). Alkali was mainly required for the production of soap and glass. The combustion of wood or bracken in a potash kiln (also known as an elling hearth) originally supplied the need for alkali. In the C17 the production of alkali from seaweed was introduced into this country, burning the dried seaweed in a kelp pit, commonly situated just above the shoreline. From 1795 the LeBlanc process was introduced on Tyneside from France, producing soda (in this case, sodium carbonate) from salt (sodium chloride); thereafter, making soda using salt was firmly the basis of bulk alkali production. In the C19 salt was largely provided by salt workings in Cheshire, although later in the century Teesside salt supplied the alkali industry in north-east England. The alkali industry soon became one of the most important chemical industries in this country and many technological developments were made here.

 

The ammonia-soda alkali industry was based on a process first discovered in 1810, and first made commercially successful by a Belgian - Ernest Solvay - in 1865. It was introduced to this country by John Brunner and Ludwig Mond (Brunner Mond) in 1872, with production starting at their Winnington (Cheshire) works in 1873. It was based in the Northwich area of Cheshire, with only three works established elsewhere. The Solvay process carbonated brine (which first had been saturated with ammonia), to give sodium bicarbonate and ammonium chloride, from which the ammonia was recovered, leaving calcium chloride and water. The key feature of Solvay-type ammonia-soda plants were the distinctive carbonation towers, between 70 and 90 feet tall.

 

AMMONIA-SODA PLANT Prior to 1926 (and the formation of the conglomerate ICI by the merger of Brunner Mond with three other companies), five other ammonia-soda works were built in addition to Winnington, Plumley being one of these. Most were short-lived, being either bought out by Brunner Mond, or closed down due to competition with them. The works at Plumley (also known as Plumbley) were established by the Ammonia Soda Company Ltd (Ascol) which was formed in 1908 by Ivan Levinstein, Arthur Chamberlain and others for that purpose. (It appears to be coincidence, given the later use of the site for manufacturing ingredients for explosives, that Chamberlain was the chairman of the Birmingham ammunition manufacturers G Kynoch & Co, as there is no known application for soda in the manufacture of ammunition propellant). In 1912 the firm became a public company. Brunner Mond bought out the land around this works, sank two brine shafts on the other side of the railway and pumped brine from there for their Lostock works, and also daily sampled the stream below the works in the hope of finding evidence of pollution. Possibly due to these activities, Ascol struggled and profits were disappointing.

 

CALCIUM NITRATE PLANT The production of nitric acid (used in producing TNT) required ammonium nitrate, which was also used directly as an admixture for finished TNT to create Amatol, a cheaper alternative. The outbreak of the First World War and demand for high explosives therefore dramatically increased the requirement for ammonium nitrate. The conversion of sodium nitrate (mainly from Chile) into ammonium nitrate became a primary aim. In 1910 Dr FA Freeth (chief chemist at Brunner Mond) had devised a method which combined sodium nitrate and ammonium sulphate to give ammonium nitrate plus sodium sulphate. This was difficult in unpredictable English temperatures, and although a plant at Swindon produced over 24,000 tons in 1918, the Americans produced much more by this method, which was freely granted to them.

 

An alternative was to use sodium nitrate and calcium chloride to create calcium nitrate. This could then be treated with ammonia (in which Britain was rich) and carbonic acid to give ammonium nitrate. The Solvay process created calcium chloride as a by-product, and an experimental plant to produce calcium nitrate was established in 1915 at Plumley, which had come under the control of the Ministry of Munitions. This was quickly followed, beginning in 1916, by large-scale production, which was also established at the Salt Union’s Victoria Works near Northwich (Cheshire). These plants supplied Brunner Mond’s ammonium nitrate production, mainly at Lostock-Gralam, near Plumley. Overall, Plumley produced slightly less calcium nitrate than Victoria, but was only overtaken in 1918.

 

The importance of the supply of explosives has led the First World War to be dubbed ‘a chemist’s war’. The skill of a nation’s scientists was now as important as the valour of its soldiers in determining the outcome of the war. The size and sophistication of its chemical industry and research facilities were as critical as the size of its armies. After the First World War, Lord Moulton (Director-General of Explosives Supply in the Ministry of Munitions) wrote to Brunner Mond’s chairman, 'We have been indebted to your Company for the manufacture of the bulk of the largest component of the high explosives used by this country in the war.' (Dick 1973, 35). In total 216,120 tons of ammonium nitrate were made during the war (almost 90 per cent of it by Brunner Mond). The calcium nitrate process was used to create just under 60 per cent of the national ammonium nitrate output. The Plumley works manufactured 43 per cent of the calcium nitrate used, and thus directly provided vital ingredients for 25 per cent of all the ammonium nitrate used by this country to manufacture high explosives for the war. The manufacture of calcium nitrate at the Victoria works was only possible due to the successful initial demonstration and then scaling-up of the process at Plumley.

 

LATER HISTORY The calcium nitrate plant was demolished immediately after the war, in 1919, but there was no attempt to level the site. Plumley continued in ammonia-soda production but Ascol was voluntarily liquidated in 1919 and Brunner Mond bought the site outright. Production continued until 1926, when much of the Solvay plant was probably demolished, again with no attempt to level the site. The railway sidings were removed between 1938 and the mid-1950s. From the mid-C20 the large warehouse which is the only standing building on the site was used by Associated Octel for storing sodium salts. This involved the demolition of the bagging plant in the southern extension. This use continued until the 1980s, since when the site has been disused.

 

Although annotated by the Ordnance Survey as a nature reserve, the site was never designated and the Cheshire Wildlife Trust never took over its management as was intended early in the C21. The eastern part of the industrial landholdings was used in the 1960s for dumping earth excavated in the construction of the M6. However, this is not thought to have affected the scheduled area, where the large pond that is still extant accords closely with that shown on the 1918 drainage plan and marked ‘effluent from ASC’. The soil tipping is thought to have been restricted to the easternmost part of the site which has since become agricultural land.

 

HISTORY OF INVESTIGATIONS The site was identified as a former soda plant in the Monuments Protection Programme Step 1 report for the chemical industry, as part of the alkali industry. The Plumley site’s role as a test-bed for a new process by which the raw ingredients for high explosives could be obtained, and then as a major producer of those materials, has been underplayed in accounts given by the chemists responsible for munitions supply. Consequently it is not fully elucidated in the principal text on the archaeology of gunpowder and explosives manufacture (Dangerous Energy, Cocroft 2000), although this did note that the site had been used for the production of calcium nitrate to supply high explosives manufacture. The growing diversity of linkages with commercial chemical-industrial activity is characteristic of this period and leaves few monumental remains that can be isolated as specifically relevant to explosives production.

 

An initial archaeological survey completed in December 2001 and a detailed survey of the calcium nitrate plant carried out in 2002 established the detailed character of the site. The remains of both plants accorded to a high degree with the buildings shown on historical mapping, including a plan drawn by AW Tangye and dated 1910-1914, and a drainage plan and sketch plan, both of 1918. These plans allow the layout of surviving earthworks and building remains to be clearly understood and the detailed character of the plant, if not the full detailed processes, to be appreciated.

 

The ammonia-soda works stood on the western part of the site, although brine was pumped from a shaft in the south-east corner. The main building housed saturators and finishing machines. A boiler house attached to the west provided the heat for the processes. Attached to the north was a range annotated on the Tangye plan as ‘distiller tower shed’, which was in turn abutted on its north side by a ‘blowing and vacuum engine house’. To the east of these, running north-south and attached to the main building at the south, were the four Solvay towers where the ammoniated brine was carbonated. Railway sidings to the east and west separated the main building complex from a repair shed to the west and a crystallisation plant to the north-east. These sidings also led to the beds to the north-east where residual waste was dumped. An office and dressing rooms/canteen were sited to the north and north-east of the main plant. A long, shallow reservoir approximately 40x5m is also associated with the Ascol plant although its exact purpose is unknown. An effluent pond was sited to the north of the brine shaft, probably draining the waste beds.

 

The calcium nitrate plant is largely sited to the south-east of the Ascol works. It principally comprised five or six linear buildings running north-south, annotated on the 1918 sketch plan. The westernmost housed boilers, mixers and salt pans. Here brine from boreholes, which had been pumped via six-inch pipes, was passed through a succession of salt pans. Settling and evaporation purified and concentrated the brine until it was rich in sodium nitrate. From here it passed eastwards to another salt-pans building, where it was treated with calcium chloride (presumably recovered from the waste of the ammonia-soda plant) to give a solution of calcium nitrate and sodium chloride. The brine, now rich in calcium nitrate, was pumped back westwards for further refinement. Here it might also have been preheated before being pumped into the crystalliser building, which also had workshops and a laboratory to its south. Heavier waste material was discharged during these processes into cross-ditches and thence into two large north-south ditches.

 

The large warehouse was built for storage of the calcium chloride that was required in large quantities for these reactions, and of the finished calcium nitrate. The external buttresses were added soon after construction due to the inadequate strength of the thin walls, and quickly followed by a southwards extension with a bagging plant. The railway sidings allowed for efficient delivery and movement around the plant of raw and waste materials, and despatching of finished products to other works via the main line.

 

Details

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS: an ammonia-soda plant of the Solvay type, and First World War experimental and production plant for making calcium nitrate, surviving above and below ground as steel floor joists, concrete building beds, some upstanding concrete structures, banks and ditches of evaporation beds, and drainage structures, comprising most elements of both plants.

 

DESCRIPTION: now (2018) largely unmanaged woodland, the site is located approximately 1km east of Plumley village and 500m south of the A556, from which it is served by a road named Ascol Drive, named after the company which founded the factory. It is approximately 500 x 500m, thus occupying approximately 25ha. A railway line runs along the south side of the site, which originally had sidings running from this line. The majority of buildings and infrastructure are in the western part of the site.

 

The ammonia-soda works mostly comprises the tight group of buildings clustered around a main building approximately 75 x 52m, aligned roughly north-south. The northern edge of this group is approximately 80m to the south-east of the site entrance at the end of Ascol Drive. In addition the crystal plant, office and dressing rooms/canteen are approximately 40m to the north and north-east of the main plant while the repair shed and reservoir (approximately 40 x 5m) are approximately 80-100m to the south-west. Extensive remains of most of these structures survive in the woodland, primarily as concrete beds (some with holding-down bolts and arched passageways running through them), metal I beams or low brick structures, with some stone footings; many stand approximately 1m high, but some of the concrete structures are up to 4m high. The brine shaft stands approximately 300m to the east, topped by an L-shaped building footing approximately 11 x 7m and 1m high, with smaller buildings nearby. The lime waste forms a large kidney-shaped mound approximately 150 x 100m and 8-9m high immediately to the east of the crystal plant.

 

The calcium nitrate plant is largely sited to the east and south-east of the Ascol works, in an area approximately 150 x 100m, aligned roughly north-south. The layout of the five or six linear buildings annotated on the 1918 sketch plan can be recognised in the pattern of earth and concrete platforms, ditches and banks, and large concrete blocks up to 4.5m high with internal chambers and passageways. To the west the line of the former railway siding now forms a linear depression approximately 100m in length, with the large warehouse to its west at the southern end. The warehouse stands to its full height of approximately 15m.

 

EXTENT OF SCHEDULING: this is focused on the known surviving remains of the ammonia-soda and calcium nitrate plants including their railway sidings, ancillary buildings, waste tips and effluent ponds. The scheduled area is drawn to the local authority boundary in the south-west corner and follows the property boundary for most of the western and northern boundary. To the east the boundary follows the eastern edge of the path around the waste beds and the woodland boundary to the east of the effluent ponds, taking in an area of managed woodland at the south-east corner on the site of a former railway siding spur. The southern boundary follows the northern boundary of the railway line.

 

This relates to the theme ninjago because it’s’s based on Old Asian warriors

Rick Mercer's video "Plus 1 in Canada". I can so relate to this - so funny! And, yes, it's snowing AGAIN today, heavily. Temperature this morning is -19C (windchill -27C). Wish I could say that it will be yet another day at home, but I have to somehow drive half way across the city for a regular dental appointment. I can barely tell where the road is. We are still under a Winter Storm Warning, with a total of up to 35 cm of snow expected.

 

youtu.be/wkDvqQKGgDA

 

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

 

Needless to say, this is not a photo that was taken in the wild! I would never be able to get such a close shot or even a close view like this, unless the bird was captive for one reason or another. This bird had just had some flight training and was given a hosepipe shower to cool off.

 

This particular Bald Eagle resides at the Alberta Birds of Prey Centre in Coaldale, southern Alberta. This is a wonderful place that rehabilitates and releases (whenever possible) various birds of prey - hawks, owls, Bald Eagles, Turkey Vultures,and Golden Eagles. Some of these birds act as Wildlife Ambassadors, too, including educating the public away from the Centre. Sometimes, a bird is also used as a foster parent.

 

I often see Bald Eagles flying wild, both in the city and in the surrounding areas. Usually when I see one, it is flying or perched far away. Too far away to see any detail at all, which is why I love going to this Centre, to see raptors up close.

 

"Once a common sight in much of the continent, the bald eagle was severely affected in the mid-20th century by a variety of factors, among them the thinning of egg shells attributed to use of the pesticide DDT. Bald eagles, like many birds of prey, were especially affected by DDT due to biomagnification. DDT itself was not lethal to the adult bird, but it interfered with the bird's calcium metabolism, making the bird either sterile or unable to lay healthy eggs. Female eagles laid eggs that were too brittle to withstand the weight of a brooding adult, making it nearly impossible for the eggs to hatch. It is estimated that in the early 18th century, the bald eagle population was 300,000–500,000,[118] but by the 1950s there were only 412 nesting pairs in the 48 contiguous states of the US. Other factors in bald eagle population reductions were a widespread loss of suitable habitat, as well as both legal and illegal shooting. DDT was completely banned in Canada in 1989, though its use had been highly restricted since the late 1970s." From Wikipedia.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald_eagle

 

Last summer (2017), we had practically no 'normal' summer days. Most were too hot thanks to an almost endless heatwave, and also too smoky thanks to all the wildfires in British Columbia and Alberta. The weather forecast for 3 August 2017 looked good; sunshine all day, with rain forecast on several of the coming days. I decided to finally do a drive all the way down south to near Lethbridge, so that I could again visit the Alberta Birds of Prey Centre in Coaldale. The previous year (2016), I did this drive for the very first time on my own and I wanted to make sure I didn't lose my courage to do it again. During the 511 kms that I drove, I had to ask for help with directions twice - both times in the same small hamlet. It was a hot day, with a temperature of 31C when I was at the Centre.

 

Though the forecast was for sun all day, there was no mention of the smoke haze that completely blocked out the mountains and pretty much the foothills, too. Very quickly, I was almost tempted to turn around and come home, but I had noticed rain in the forecast for the coming days. I reckoned I would still be able to photograph the fairly close birds at the Centre, which worked out fine.

 

Amazingly, I managed to make myself get up early that morning, and set off just before 8:30 am. My intention was to drive straight to Coaldale without stopping anywhere en route. Not an easy thing for me to do, as I much prefer driving slowly along the back roads rather than the less interesting highways. However, I knew it would take me a few hours to get there and I wanted to have as much time as possible down there. On the way home, I drove one dusty, gravel road, but saw nothing but a couple of Horned Larks perched on fence posts. A couple of old barns (that I had seen before) and a few scenic shots, were more or less all I took.

 

I finally arrived home at 8:30 pm, after a 12-hour day, totally tired out, and my car was just about out of gas. So happy to have been down there again, though.

ift.tt/1L2Qu9W @trunkieygm collabs with @georgethepoet on the song entitled Pavements/Relate. Out 3pm on @linkuptv #UKMUSIC #CAM #LINKUPTV #PavementsRelate

Watching over the Canyon in sort of a protective manner. I can relate to just how overwhelming looking out over this canyon can be! What an IMMENSELY awesome thing to see! :-)

 

The Trip to the Grand Canyon from Vegas seemed like it took FOREVER! I had left Vegas after midnight after a very long day! I had started off the day in the northern area of Death Valley after spending the night in a tent at a campsite that Darren and I had grabbed the day before. During the night I just knew that the Mountain Lions were ganging up and circling the tents and planning their strategy for some tasty meals! Okay... so it could have been just a few Kangaroo Mice instead! Or maybe just the wind! :-D Anyway, I had passed out on Darren the previous night at Racetrack Playa basically from being so totally exhausted that I just couldn't go anymore. So I could have just been dreaming! ;-)

 

After a restless night, Darren and I got up and made our way south and stopped along the way to see some of the other sites in Death Valley. It was getting very HOT in the middle of the day but we did make it to the Devil's Golf course and a few other places as well. I needed to start heading back towards Dallas and at about 2 or so in the afternoon, I bid farewell to Darren and started heading east.

 

That evening I stopped in Vegas to meet up with Marisa and one other photographer that lives there in Vegas as well. We spent a little time at the Red Rock Park just on the Northeast side of Las Vegas. After dropping off Marisa at her car and thanking her for the time she spent with us, I started making my way towards the Grand Canyon. At least my plan was to drive for as long as I could and then pull over to get some sleep somewhere. I was not in Arizona too long before I had to stop and found a parking area with a scenic overlook area and laid back the seat to get some rest.

 

I woke up the next morning as the sun was rising and got back on the road shortly thereafter. Still didn't get much sleep but I was ready to hit the Grand Canyon and see if I could find a secluded area to get some Light Painting Shots in that evening.

 

I arrived at the Grand Canyon at about noon after a few pit stops for food and fuel and there were people EVERYWHERE! As I walked around the Grand Canyon Village area taking pics here and there, I was also watching the people that were obviously here from all over the world to see this awesome spectacle of nature! So many different languages being spoken that I could not even start to guess what most of them were. It was pretty cool to be standing in the middle of this big melting pot of people from every corner of the planet.

 

With all of the people around this main area, I decided it was best to venture to the east a bit and see if I could find a nice overlook area not only to catch a nice sunset with the canyon in view, but a spot that would be a good place for some light painting a little later when the moon came up. It was now Monday, May 7th and the full moon occurred two days prior to this. So it would rise roughly two hours after sunset... Plenty of time to get settled! :-)

 

I drove down East Rim Drive towards Cameron, Arizona. (Cameron loved the fact that "the town was named after him!" when we made a trip to the Grand Canyon in 2001!) Ha! I was so busy looking at the forest and the occasional views over the canyon that I didn't pay much attention to the signs along road as I went. This would come back to bite me a little later! ;-) I stopped at several overlook areas along the way and finally made my way to Navajo Point which is about 20 miles away from the main visitor center. The view from this point was awesome! The canyon made a bend here and the sun would set over the canyon to my west, and you could see the Colorado River at the bottom of the canyon in spots towards the west and in a large area heading to the north east from here. I took a few photos and looked around a bit and found a spot where I could do some Light Painting without fear of falling off into the dark canyon below. At least not TOO much fear! ;-)

 

So after a little more exploring of the area, I settled down in a good spot to get some shots of the sun setting and just kicked back for a while enjoying the view. Off to the east, I noticed some clouds and it looked like they might have some rain mixed in with them as well. Rain is sort of an unusual thing and you really don't see clouds that often here either so I didn't think much about them other than the fact that I thought it would be cool if some clouds would make an appearance in some of my shots. Well, be careful what you wish for! As the sun was getting closer to the horizon, an overcast moved in and caught up with the sun as well and it was starting to look like there wasn't going to be any sunset shots at this point. It was also looking pretty bad for the Light Painting shoot that I had planned for later as well since this would block the moon from making the landscape visible during the session! 8-O Wow!

 

Well, just as the sun was getting close to the horizon, it broke back out of the cloud bank and did end up putting on a bit a a show for us. I say "US" because at this point, there were probably 50 other people gathered at the same area hoping to get a shot of the sunset also! ;-)

 

Anyway… After getting some shots of the sunset and letting it get a bit dark, I headed back towards Grand Canyon Village to see if I could find a place to get some food and do some waiting to see if the clouds would break up at all. On my way back though, I spotted some of the signs that I had missed on the way in! There was one that REALLY stood out and was on the road near the point I had chosen for my Light Painting session that night! It was like the familiar Deer Crossing warning signs that most everyone has seen before, but this was different! Instead of the silhouette of a deer on the sign, it was the silhouette of a Mountain Lion!!! 8-O A Cougar! A Puma! A BIG Cat!! One that HAS been known to attack and kill humans!! I distinctly remember reading that these cats are normally shy and solitary animals, BUT, they DO occasionally attack people, usually children or solitary adults, and that there are about four attacks per year with one fatality each year!!! Great!!! Here I am, in an area where they thought it NECESSARY to put up a sign warning drivers about them and I was going to be a SOLITARY ADULT out in the middle of the night in the middle of NOWHERE!!

 

I have said it before and I will say it again! One my biggest fears is being eaten alive! Particularly by one of these cats!! It is not the first time I have been in an area where they are known to be, and I am sure it wont be the last! But usually I am with someone else! This time, it was just me! So.. as I dwelled on that thought all the way back to civilization and on through dinner while waiting for the moon to pop out of the clouds, I wondered if I should try to find a different area in the dark or go through with my plans. Things were really not looking too good anyway with the cloud cover so I was starting to think that I would not get any Light Painting shots at the Grand Canyon this go around anyway. :-\

 

As it starting getting close to midnight, I was getting ready to give up on the moon when I noticed it lighten up a bit outside! Sure enough! The clouds were breaking! Cool! I was at least going to see if I could get a few shots in before hitting the road again to get back to Dallas! So... I made my way back out to Navajo Point and was reminded of the Mountain Lion threat several times along the way! I had convinced myself that I would just try to play it as safe as possible and keep aware of my surroundings as much as possible, but if it was my time to go at the claws of a big cat, then I guess it was time! :-)

 

When I reached Navajo Point, I got all my gear together and made the short hike over to the rim of the canyon and got things set up. I kept a very bright flashlight turned on and searched the area for glowing eyes at every chance as I got everything ready to shoot. The moon was still at an angle that was causing some unwanted shadows but I just had to deal with the situation I had at the moment and started shooting. Each shot was a little over a 10 minute exposure and it was difficult to NOT turn on the spotlight to look for eyes during the exposures but I refrained. The wind was blowing fairly strong as well, so it was hard to hear anything but the wind blowing through the trees. As soon as I would end an exposure, I would turn on the spotlight to scan for glowing eyes and keep it on the entire time that I was checking the shot. I would scan the trees again before taking the next shot and this went on like this for the next two hours.

 

After I had created several shots, and at about 2:30 in the morning, my nerves were shot and I was exhausted once again! So I packed things up and high tailed it away from any further threat of being eaten alive that night! I still felt good about the fact that I was FINALLY able to Light Paint the Grand Canyon! :-)

 

Light Painting - Single Exposure

In the style of Denis Smith (biskitboy)