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Named for its rigorous patrol of hedges and woodland rides, the gatekeeper butterfly is a prime pollinator. Look for them sipping nectar on sunny days in the summer.
Adults: medium-sized orange and brown butterflies. They are easy to identify - look out for the black spot near the wing tip that usually contains two tiny white dots. Male and female gatekeepers are similar in appearance, but male gatekeepers have a prominent band of dark scales running diagonally across the forewings. They are also noticeably smaller than the females.
Young peregrine falcon chicks.
About 6 weeks old, flopping their wings rigorously, preparing to take to the skies. All the white below them, is down feathers and some poop, of course😀
The last rays of a wonderful day in Banff warms Castle Mountain and it's southern pinnacle: "Eisenhower Tower."
Not long ago the whole mountain was named Eisenhower:
"Castle Mountain in Canada’s Banff National Park is a 9,000-foot-tall ridge of limestone that assumed its current proportions sometime during the Cambrian Period. The spot has delighted mountaineers since time immemorial with its pure alpine air and breathtaking views. For a spell however, a misguided change in nomenclature by faraway bureaucrats plunged the peak into a uniquely Canadian scandal.
The story begins on January 10th, 1946, when General (and not yet president) Dwight D. Eisenhower was due to arrive at the Ottawa Canadian Club as the guest of honor. World War II had just come to an end the summer before, and the tremendously popular general was completing an international victory lap across the Allied nations.
Ike’s reception by the Canadian government presented something of a dilemma for Prime Minister Mackenzie King: What do you get as a gift for the five-star general who has everything?
Medals and traditional state presents wouldn’t cut it here; before coming to Ottawa Eisenhower had been given an entire Scottish Castle for heaven’s sake. This last piece of information sparked a logical (if laughably simplistic) connection in King’s mind. Canada had a castle too… Castle Mountain!
And so it were, on that day the spot known as Castle Mountain since the 1858 Palliser Expedition came to be rechristened Mount Eisenhower. “We have no ancient castles in Canada,” King told his audience in Ottawa, “but we have something more enduring, we have ancient mountains - mountains of towering eminence not only in this country but in the whole world.”
Mountain honorifics in Canada are normally subject to a rigorous review by the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names. In this case, Prime Minister King bypassed the experts and ordered the Geographical Board to alter the name immediately. The end run ignited a three-decade-long grassroots campaign to strike the decision and restore the Castle mount.
In line with Canadian stereotypes, the protestors were a polite and self-dignified bunch.“There is no disrespect meant for General Eisenhower,” one objector patiently explained to the Calgary Herald. “But Castle Mountain was the traditional name and an appropriate physiogrammatical name,” he continued. “It looks like a castle”.
Year after year the petitions before the Alberta Heritage Sites Board piled up, and finally in 1979 they agreed to revert to the name Castle Mountain. A smaller pinnacle on the eastern side became “Eisenhower Tower” as something of a consolation prize to the then-deceased American general." altasobscura.com
Sounds right to me.
A different perspective in comments.
Thanks for looking!
Here some curiosities about the most emblematic figures of Venice: the gondolier and his gondola;)
The Gondola
To build a gondola it takes 8 types of wood in 280 pieces that spend more than 500 hours to be properly assembled.
The tip of the gondola has the shape that resembles the hat of the Doge, the first magistrate and all powerful of the Republic of Venice. Made of iron, it helps maintain the balance of the gondola, and also represents the "6 sestieri", that is, the neighborhoods of the city: San Marco, San Polo, Santa Croce, Castello, Dorsoduro and Cannaregio. The other small tip on the opposite side represents the island of Giudeca.
In 1580, around 10,000 gondolas circulated around Venice, since the gondola was the main mean of transport of the population. Today, the 500 gondolas that sail through the city are of exclusive use of tourism.
The Gondolier
Being a gondolier in Venice is a sought-after profession but difficult to achieve. In the past the profession was passed from father to son, but today there is a rigorous preparation to be fulfilled and tests of ability among others.
So the gondolier must be in good health, know how to swim, have a beautiful voice, besides undergoing a training that includes:
- 60 hours of theoretical classes including naval law, knowledge of Venetian arts and history, behavior with tourists, as well as being able to speak English and Spanish.
- 10 hours of hands-on lessons with professional gondoliers.
As you can see from the photos, it should have balance and good physical condition, because the channels are narrow, often full of gondolas. It must be defiance to pass under the little bridges, and the gondolier never, but NEVER must let the gondola touch the walls of the houses.
I watched a documentary on TV about the test, and really leaning against the wall is a an elimination item. I remembered this when I saw the scene from the first picture here, the gondolier leaning his leg against the wall to push away her gondola, so that it would not touch the wall. This maneuver is also used in the curves.
Did my Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) on Sheriffmuir this morning early. Still plenty of these on the road up, but unfortunately none on the square itself. BBS involves walking two 1km transects 500m apart and recording all the species you see and hear. Administered by the British Trust for Ornithology it is our flagship survey and provides trends in bird populations as the survey is carried out with rigorous methodology and is long term - I have been doing this square for 12 years now.
My rigorous exercise schedule took me today to Wells Harbour. The sunset was fabulous. I watched a seal swimming in the harbour and listened to the curlews. It was definitely what I think of as a ‘Norfolk, wow’ moment, when the beauty of the county takes my breath away. This is the first photograph with the new iPhone.
Ode to Cassandre - Rosier Pierre de Ronsard
Happy Ascension weekend everyone
Mignonne, allons voir si la rose
Qui ce matin avait éclose
Sa robe de pourpre au Soleil,
N'a point perdu cette vêprée
Les plis de sa robe pourprée,
Et son teint au votre pareil.
Las ! voyez comme en peu d'espace,
Mignonne, elle a dessus la place
Las ! las ses beautés laissé choir !
Ô vraiment marâtre Nature,
Puisqu'une telle fleur ne dure
Que du matin jusques au soir !
Donc, si vous me croyez, mignonne,
Tandis que votre âge fleuronne
En sa plus verte nouveauté,
Cueillez, cueillez votre jeunesse :
Comme à cette fleur la vieillesse
Fera ternir votre beauté.
Pierre de Ronsard (à Cassandre)
Cassandre Salviati n’avait pas 14 ans quand elle fit chavirer le cœur de Ronsard, alors dans sa 21e année. Issue d’une famille noble de banquiers italiens, elle le rencontre lors d’un bal donné à la cour du roi François Ier. Ronsard en fait son égérie et lui dédie tout un recueil : Les Amours de Cassandre qui paraîtra en 1552. Le poème « Mignonne » fait partie, quant à lui, du recueil Les Odes, paru en 1550.
Néanmoins, Ronsard ne put demander la main de la belle, étant devenu clerc tonsuré et ayant donc renoncé au monde. La demoiselle épouse Jean Peigné, seigneur de Pray, l’année suivante.
Ronsard, qui a rencontré du Bellay au collège de Coqueret, devient l’un des instigateurs du fameux groupe des auteurs de la Pléiade. Il défend ainsi la langue française qu’il affectionne à travers sa poésie. Au service de Madeleine de France qui a épousé le roi Jacques d’Écosse, il a eu l’occasion de voyager et de vivre également à Londres et en Flandres. Il ambitionnait alors une carrière diplomatique. Mais la maladie l’a rappelé en France où il découvre la poésie à laquelle il s’adonne.
L’auteur de « Mignonne, allons voir si la rose » livre ainsi un poème sous une forme construite selon des codes rigoureux tout en utilisant le lyrisme pour faire l’éloge de la femme aimée. L’ensemble est construit sur des bases de philosophie épicurienne et humaniste : la Renaissance a pointé son nez.
Source Langue Française.com
------------------------------
Sweetheart let see if the Rose
Who this morning had hatched
Her purple dress in the Sun,
Has not lost this evening
The folds of her purple robe,
And her complexion is like yours.
The ace ! see how in a short space,
Cute, she has the place
The ace ! weary of its beauties let fall!
O truly stepmother Nature,
Since such a flower does not last
That from morning until evening!
So if you believe me, cutie,
As your age blooms
In its greenest novelty,
Pick, pick your youth:
Like this flower old age
Will tarnish your beauty.
Pierre de Ronsard (to Cassandre)
Cassandre Salviati was not 14 when she capsized Ronsard's heart, then in his 21st year. Coming from a noble family of Italian bankers, she met him at a ball given at the court of King Francis I. Ronsard made her his muse and dedicated an entire collection to her: Les Amours de Cassandre which was published in 1552. The poem “Mignonne” was part of the collection Les Odes, published in 1550.
Nevertheless, Ronsard could not ask for the hand of the beautiful, having become a tonsured clerk and having therefore renounced the world. The young lady marries Jean Peigné, Lord of Pray, the following year.
Ronsard, who met du Bellay at the Collège de Coqueret, became one of the instigators of the famous group of authors of the Pléiade. He thus defends the French language that he loves through his poetry. In the service of Madeleine of France who married King James of Scotland, he had the opportunity to travel and also live in London and Flanders. He then aspired to a diplomatic career. But the disease called him back to France where he discovered the poetry to which he devoted himself.
The author of "Mignonne, let's see if the rose" thus delivers a poem in a form constructed according to rigorous codes while using lyricism to praise the beloved woman. The whole is built on the foundations of epicurean and humanist philosophy: the Renaissance has pointed its nose.
Source Langue Française.com
------------------------------
A North American Elk (Cervus canadensis) bull browses on the leaves of a Poplar or Trembling Aspen Tree growing along a sandy ridge by the Athabasca River. It feeds heavily on what ever is nutritious and available in an effort to regain some of the weight it lost during the rigorous breeding season in the Rocky Mountain region of Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada.
There is alot of stress on these bulls, especially the more dominant bulls, in warding off competitors as well as herding his females which results in a loss of fat reserves put on during the summer. If it does not replenish these fat reserves and it is a severe winter, a number of these bulls with not survive. It is the natural way of maintaining the strong for the survival of the species.
26 October, 2012.
Slide # GWB_20121026_7627.CR2
Use of this image on websites, blogs or other media without explicit permission is not permitted.
© Gerard W. Beyersbergen - All Rights Reserved Worldwide In Perpetuity - No Unauthorized Use.
A Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus) male takes a break during the rigorous action of courtship in the mixed woods near Thorhild, Alberta, Canada.
14 April, 2016.
Slide # GWB_20160414_8158.CR2
Use of this image on websites, blogs or other media without explicit permission is not permitted.
© Gerard W. Beyersbergen - All Rights Reserved Worldwide In Perpetuity - No Unauthorized Use.
For me, photography is the exploration in reality of the rhythm of surfaces, lines, or values; the eye carves out its subject, and the camera has only to do its work. That work is simply to print the eye’s decision on film :-)
Henri Cartier-Bresson
HPPT! Truth Matters!
rose, 'Dream Come True', little theater rose garden, raeigh, north carolina
Architecture is the skilful, rigorous and magnificent play of volumes assembled in light. (Le Corbusier)
Saint Louis University is one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious Catholic universities. For more than 200 years, it has been providing students with a rigorous, transformative education of the whole person.
Saint Louis University is a private institution that was founded in 1818. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 7,167, its setting is urban, and the campus size is 282 acres. It utilizes a semester-based academic calendar.
t is the oldest university west of the Mississippi River and the second-oldest Jesuit university in the United States. It is one of 28 member institutions of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universitiy 121
One of my artworks from the Exhibition FRAGMENTS showed at our new Gallery THE EDGE.
The poem by Eli Medier makes it talk, ty Eli :)
"No more dreams
lead now I am
anchored to the ground
by gray children
of gray ideologies
of power and death
I live in a separate reality
spend my days
to count the days
I aspire to heaven
and sink into the abyss
Nothing more distinguishable
trapped now
in this semblance
deceptive of life
I float in hyperbolic spaces
negative geometries
the existence curve
on the infinite limit circle
I find a crack
and disperse in myriads
of subtle vibrations
Diaphanous strings
envelop me
in narrow universes
The heart dries up
with rigorous metrics
We are peripheral numbers
sobs of ancient gods
indifferent anthropophages
Inhuman tangential presences
mark the solitude
of incomprehensible absences
Forced into this garden
multitude of fools
we are in labels
of white coats
Imperfect mechanisms
aspirants to human
Our disease
is in a divine folder
an irrevocable judgment"
© Eli Medier
Thanks to our friends Inara and Oema for their kind attention :)
modemworld.me/2020/05/25/the-edge-a-new-home-in-second-life/
Even from a distance, when I saw Chicago's Millennium Park, I knew I wanted to be there. The park covers 24.5-acre (99,000 m2) and features the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Cloud Gate, the Crown Fountain, the Lurie Garden, and various other attractions.
Millennium Park is considered one of the largest green roofs in the world, having been constructed on top of a railroad yard and large parking garages. The park, which is known for being user friendly, has a very rigorous cleaning schedule with many areas being swept, wiped down or cleaned multiple times a day.
The manor house of Woolsthorpe in Lincolnshire, England. Isaac Newton was born here on Christmas Day 1642 (Old Calendar).
Part of 1665 and 1666 were spent back here because Cambridge University was closed by the bubonic plague. Those years of ‘lockdown’ were, for Newton, a tranquil time of great creativity.
He developed his mathematics and invented the calculus. At one of the windows at far right he projected sunlight from a hole in the blind into a small room where he examined with prisms the composition of colour and light.
Most famously he is said to have been prompted to ponder the nature of gravity after being struck by a falling apple while in the (foreground) orchard. A pleasant myth that rather trivializes Newton’s achievement. The concept of gravity extending to the moon and beyond - a force acting at a distance throughout the universe - took him years of intensive work to develop into a rigorous mathematical theory. Nonetheless, some of its foundations were laid in the little village of Woolsthorpe.
The winter in Brazil will begin tomorrow...I confess that our winter is not as rigorous as in other continents. It is possible to have sunny days during the day...enjoing the entrance of the seasons.
* I'm grateful for visit, favs and comments of my photo.
“Beauty has often overpowered the resolutions of the firm, and the reasonings of the wise, roused the old to sensibility, and subdued the rigorous to softness”
Samuel Johnson
Bernardo Bellotto called Canaletto after his uncle Antonio (Venice, January 30, 1721 - Warsaw, October 17, 1780) - Nymphenburg Palace, Munich (1781) - Oil on canvas 64 x 120 - Residence, Munich
Bernardo Bellotto di distingue da suo zio, il Canaletto per le prospettive rigorose, per il realismo e la precisione dei dettagli delle architetture descritte. Le sue città sono immerse nella luce e le figure sono delineate da contorni decisi.
A Varsavia realizza ventisei vedute della città e del castello Wilanow, che si sono rivelate preziose per la ricostruzione della città dopo i bombardamenti della Seconda Guerra Mondiale.
Bernardo Bellotto differs from his uncle, Canaletto in his rigorous perspectives and the realism and precision of the details of the architectures described. His cities are bathed in light and the figures are outlined by decisive contours.
In Warsaw he produced twenty-six views of the city and Wilanow Castle, which proved invaluable in the reconstruction of the city after the bombings of World War II.
The manor house of Woolsthorpe in Lincolnshire, England. Isaac Newton was born here on Christmas Day 1642 (Old Calendar).
Part of 1665 and 1666 were spent back here because Cambridge University was closed by the bubonic plague. Those years of ‘lockdown’ were, for Newton, a tranquil time of great creativity.
He developed his mathematics and invented the calculus. At one of the windows at far right he projected sunlight from a hole in the blind into a small room where he examined with prisms the composition of colour and light.
Most famously he is said to have been prompted to ponder the nature of gravity after being struck by a falling apple while in the (foreground) orchard. A pleasant myth that rather trivializes Newton’s achievement. The concept of gravity extending to the moon and beyond - a force acting at a distance throughout the universe - took him years of intensive work to develop into a rigorous mathematical theory. Nonetheless, some of its foundations were laid in the little village of Woolsthorpe.
The grounds feature a garden and pond, in which turtles and koi swim. The grounds also house an academically rigorous private school, Rakunan, from which many students are sent to elite universities.
Recognizing the historical and spiritual significance of Tō-ji, UNESCO designated it, along with several other treasures in Kyoto Prefecture, as part of the "Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto" World Heritage Site.
Blackberries grow wild throughout most of Europe. They are an important element in the ecology of many countries, and harvesting the berries is a popular pastime. However, their rigorous growth and tendency to grow unchecked if not managed correctly means that the plants are also considered a weed
LNER B12 8572 works past the Old Pig Farm in Northwood Lane. With the Office of Road and Rail ceasing its ‘light touch’ approach to heritage railways, and beginning to apply more rigorous standards to all heritage railway operations. This will inevitable have an in pact on lineside photography like this.
Bee-eaters spend around 10% of their day on comfort activities. These include sunning themselves, dust bathing and water bathing. Sunning behaviour helps warm birds in the morning, reducing the need to use energy to raise their temperature. It also has a social aspect, as multiple birds adopt the same posture. Finally, it may help stimulate parasites in the feathers, making them easier to find and remove.
Due to their hole-nesting lifestyle, bee-eaters accumulate a number of external parasites such as mites and flies. Together with sunning, bouts of dust bathing (or water bathing where available), as well as rigorous preening, keep the feathers and skin in good health. Bathing with water involves making shallow dives into a water body and then returning to a perch to preen
This male brook trout recently completed his rigorous fall spawning duties as seen here by his rather gaunt lean look since the vital spawning ritual consumed all his time and energy for a few frenetic weeks. Now he's famished and ready to find as much food as possible before winter's cold weather slows him down. His ancestors have been living and reproducing here in the Driftless Region since the Pleistocene Period and it's a real special treat to see this cycle continue in a few select pristine streams.
The Sassenpoort (English: Sassen gate) is a gatehouse in the citywall of Zwolle, Netherlands. It was built in 1409 out of dimension stone, mostly trachyte and tuff, and restoration work was done in 1893-1898. The gatehouse is a rijksmonument and is part of the Top 100 Dutch heritage sites.
History
The city of Zwolle experienced her highdays during the 15th century. It became a member of the Hanseatic League in 1407, and the city gates represent the wealth of this period. In 1893 the city government of Zwolle gave the Sassenpoort to the Dutch national government, as location to store the national archives. A function the building no longer serves. The building remains to this day property of the national government.
Building
In the period between 1893 and 1898 restoration work took place. The dormers were made, and a neogothic spire clock tower was installed, replacing an earlier 18th century spire. In between the corner towers is a machicolation. From holes in the floor of this outer work, boiling oil could be thrown at enemies.
National monument
The gatehouse is a rijksmonument since 13 February 1967 and is part of the Top 100 Dutch heritage sites. The national building service classifies the gate as "category I". This category contains monuments of which ownership and preservation by the state is considered of extraordinary cultural historic importance. In order to prevent damage by exhaust gasses, driving under the gate has been prohibited since 2010. The gate now serves as a pedestrian road.
In 2006 TPG Post brought out a stamp in the series Mooi Nederland (beautiful Netherlands) with an image of the Sassenpoort.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sassenpoort
____________ ____________
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About Zwolle
History of Zwolle
Archaeological findings indicate that the area surrounding Zwolle has been inhabited for a long time. A woodhenge that was found in the Zwolle-Zuid suburb in 1993 was dated to the Bronze Age period. During the Roman era, the area was inhabited by Salian Franks.
The modern city was founded around 800 A.D. by Frisian merchants and troops of Charlemagne. The name Zwolle is derived from the word Suolle, which means "hill" (cf. the English cognate verb "to swell"). This refers to an incline in the landscape between the four rivers surrounding the city, IJssel, Vecht, Aa and Zwarte Water. The hill was the only piece of land that would remain dry during the frequent floodings of the rivers. Zwolle was established on that incline.
On August 31, 1230, the bishop of Utrecht granted Zwolle city rights. Zwolle became a member of the Hanseatic league in 1294, and in 1361 joined the war between the Hanseatic League and Valdemar IV of Denmark. In the 1370 Treaty of Stralsund that ended the war, Zwolle was awarded a vitte, a trade colony, in Scania, then part of Denmark. Zwolle's golden age came in the 15th century. Between 1402 and 1450, the city's Gross Regional Product multiplied by about six.
In July 1324 and October 1361, regional noblemen set fire to Zwolle. In the 1324 fire, only nine buildings escaped the flames.
Zwolle was also, with Deventer, one of the centers of the Brethren of the Common Life, a monastic movement. Three miles from Zwolle, on a slight eminence called the Agnietenberg, (hill of St Agnes), once stood the Augustinian convent in which Thomas à Kempis spent the greatest part of his life and died (in 1471).
At least as early as 1911, Zwolle had a considerable trade by river, a large fish market, and the most important cattle market in the Netherlands after Rotterdam. The more important industries comprised cotton manufactures, iron works, boat-building, dyeing and bleaching, tanning, rope-making, and salt-making.
In World War II, Zwolle was single-handedly liberated from the Germans by Canadian soldier Léo Major. He was made an honorary citizen of Zwolle in 2005 and a street is named for him.(See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9o_Major)
Blauwvingers (Bluefingers)
Citizens of Zwolle are colloquially known as Blauwvingers (Bluefingers). This dates back to 1682, when the St Michael's church tower collapsed. The authorities were strapped for cash and saw no option but to sell the church bells to neighbouring city Kampen. To make sure that Kampen would not make too much profit from the deal, the local authorities asked a high price for the church bells. Kampen accepted, yet after the arrival of the bells it became clear, they were too damaged to be played. In revenge, Kampen paid in copper coins of four duiten (the equivalent of two-and-a-half cents). Zwolle distrusted Kampen and wanted to be sure they truly paid the entire price. After the rigorous counting of this vast amount of money, their fingers had turned blue from the copper.
I'm somebody I used to be. Part of the mystic. Unfocused to some extent. Random to mystery. Late for anything you want to do. Or maybe not. Once. Sometimes s/m-ad. Standing on a stage mostly. Wrapped in a number of bizarre layers. Always involved and forever alone. Alive at login (I try not to miss it. I swear). I had a dream. Phenomenal. Then I woke up. Terrible. Then I see black. Yeah. Abra Cadaver. Unconsciously and endlessly here. Or maybe not quite so. I can't see you. If I see you, I'll never leave you. Maybe I'll talk to you. Or maybe not. I dunno anymore. But I have a lot of wishes. No, impossible. I sometimes act like a Demo. Other times I have a Lucky Strike. No, not the cigarettes, I'm thinking. But sometimes thoughts grow into pain. And it hurts. Unfailingly. A bit obscene. When I feel like it. Or rigorously shy. I throw words at the world to make it stop. I have an interest. Microscopic. And emotions. And a syndrome. But I don't have skin unless you touch me.
Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
La Bomboniera is a typical Austro-Hungarian pastry shop dating back to 1836, in Art Nouveau style, which has remained intact for more than a century where time seems to have stopped.
Here you can taste typical Trieste sweets of Austro-Hungarian culture such as Rigojansci, Pischinger, Sacher, Linzer, Dobos cakes but also putizze, presnitz, pincers and homemade chocolate eggs, Jewish marzipan sweets, fave dei morti triestini or the almonds in a white and brown checkerboard... all rigorously cooked in the original wood-burning oven.
La Bomboniera è una pasticceria tipica austro-ungarica risalente al 1836, in stile liberty, rimasta intatta per più di un secolo dove il tempo sembra essersi fermato.
Qui si possono gustare dolci tipici triestini della cultura austro-ungarica come la Rigojansci, le torte Pischinger, Sacher, Linzer, Dobos ma anche putizze, presnitz, pinze e ad uova di cioccolata fatte in casa, dolci ebraici di marzapane, le fave dei morti triestini o i mandorlati a scacchiera bianca e marrone… tutto rigorosamente cotto nell'originale forno a legna.
The confusion of all nonhuman living creatures within the general and common category of the animal is not simply a sin against rigorous thinking, vigilance, lucidity, or empirical authority; it is also a crime. Not against animality precisely, but a crime of the first order against the animals, against animals.
Jacques Derrida
Clear demarcations and clear distinctions are something that gives us security because order creates orientation. In many areas of life this is absolutely necessary in order to be able to deal with the huge amount of information without losing your mind.
However, here, as everywhere, there is a dark side of the force. If we draw the limits too rigorously, we take away many opportunities for personal unfolding and development. In addition, we are much easier to manipulate and thus to be controled.
Sometimes the true miracle and the greatest opportunity lies in the actually unthinkable. As in this union between a birch and a spruce. Because even if they are fundamentally different and their crowns are a long way apart, they are still firmly connected to their roots.
So my dear friends, always keep an open mind!
Klare Abgrenzungen und eindeutige Unterscheidungen sind etwas, was uns Sicherheit verleiht, denn Ordnung schafft Orientierung, In vielen Bereichen des Lebens ist dies auch nötig, um mit der riesigen Menge an Informationen umgehen zu können ohne den Verstand zu verlieren.
Allerdings gibt es auch hier, wie überall, eine dunkle Seite der Macht. Ziehen wir die Grenzen zu rigoros, so nehmen wir uns viele Möglichkeiten der persönlichen Entwicklung und Entfaltung. Außerdem sind wir deutlich leichter zu manipulieren und damit zu kontrollieren.
Manchmal steckt im eigentlich Undenkbaren das wahre Wunder und die größte Chance. Wie in dieser Vereinigung zwischen einer Birke und einer Fichte. Denn auch wenn sie Grund verschieden und ihre Kronen einen ganzes Stück von einander entfernt sind, so sind sie Ihren Wurzeln doch fest miteinander verbunden.
Also meine lieben Freunde, immer schön offen bleiben !
more of this on my website at: www.shoot-to-catch.de
Rocky mountain bull elk harem boss.. seen running toward an interloper. Short time later these two were rigorously engaged in dueling.
Visitors: Invited to explore my photostream & albums for various seasonal captures of wildlife/scenics/florals. Other: comments (or) favs always welcomed.. at your discretion.
Церковь была построена в середине XIX века для шведской общины Санкт-Петербурга, которая насчитывала сотни человек и играла заметную роль в жизни молодой столицы империи.
Проект храма разработал архитектор Юрий Матвеевич Фельтен, один из ключевых представителей русского классицизма. Существенную роль в организации строительства сыграл представитель шведской общины Карл Карлович Андерсон, участвовавший в сборе средств и переговорах с властями. Архитектура церкви сочетает строгость формы и элегантность деталей: скромный и уравновешенный фасад гармонично вписывается в окружающую застройку, а интерьер отражает протестантскую традицию простоты и сосредоточенности на богослужении.
Церковь с самого начала служила не только религиозным, но и культурным центром шведской диаспоры. Здесь проходили службы на шведском языке, действовали школа, библиотека, хор и благотворительные инициативы. Помимо этнических шведов, церковь посещали финны и немцы, говорящие на шведском, а также дипломаты и купцы.
При Советской власти храм был закрыт и впоследствии использовался под различные административные и хозяйственные нужды. В конце XX века здание было возвращено лютеранской общине, и богослужения здесь возобновились. Сегодня церковь вновь выполняет свои изначальные функции, объединяя потомков старой общины и новых прихожан.
Построена в 1863-1867 гг.
The church was built in the mid-19th century for the Swedish community of St. Petersburg, which numbered hundreds and played a significant role in the life of the young imperial capital.
The church was designed by architect Yuri Matveevich Felten, one of the key representatives of Russian classicism. A representative of the Swedish community, Karl Karlovich Andersen, played a significant role in organizing the construction, participating in fundraising and negotiations with the authorities. The church's architecture combines rigorous form with elegant details: the modest and balanced façade blends harmoniously with the surrounding buildings, while the interior reflects the Protestant tradition of simplicity and focus on worship.
From the very beginning, the church served not only as a religious but also as a cultural center for the Swedish diaspora. Services were held in Swedish, and a school, library, choir, and charitable initiatives were active there. In addition to ethnic Swedes, the church was also visited by Swedish-speaking Finns and Germans, as well as diplomats and merchants. Under Soviet rule, the church was closed and subsequently used for various administrative and economic purposes. At the end of the 20th century, the building was returned to the Lutheran congregation, and services resumed there. Today, the church once again fulfills its original functions, uniting the descendants of the old congregation and new parishioners.
Built in 1863-1867.
Photographed at the Japanese Art Museum, Haifa, during the exhibition Spirit of the Way.
The exhibition explores the concept of “dō” — the Way — in Japanese arts, and reflects on mushin and zanshin, the awareness that continues beyond action.
“This exhibition covers a wide range of Japanese arts that carry the suffix “dō” (道), which have shaped the cultural and spiritual landscape of Japan. Dō, meaning “way,” originates from the Chinese concept of Dao, which was integrated over the generations into Zen Buddhism. Both traditions sought to understand the essence of the “way” as an inner and spiritual journey.
This view has profoundly influenced the evolution of many Japanese arts, including shodo (書道), “the way of writing”; chado (茶道), “the way of tea”; and budo (武道), the martial arts. Each invites the practitioner to a process of meditation in action, beginning with the quieting of the mind and continuing with performance of the movement with complete attention and full presence, without expectation of a result and without striving for a goal. The action itself is the purpose and the reward.
The connection between these arts and the spirit of Zen Buddhism is embodied in the concept of mushin (無心), a consciousness “without grasping”. This is a state in which thoughts and expectations do not disrupt the action, and the action occurs as second nature, for example, when drawing the sword freely without hesitation in martial arts, the line that emerges during a single breath in calligraphy, or the meticulous movements of the tea ceremony. Mushin is not passive emptiness. It is complete clarity and the simplicity of harmonious action, which is done as if by itself.
Alongside stands the principle of zanshin (残心, “the remaining heart”), an awareness that continues even after the action is finished. This is the moment after the action, whose importance is no less than that of the action itself. It is the calming of inner vibration after swinging the sword, the gentle tremor that remains on the paper after the brush is lifted, the silence after pouring the tea into its bowl. Zanshin returns the gaze to the state of being that continues beyond the movement itself.
The arts that carry the suffix “dō” offer a complete way of life – shugyō (修行, “rigorous training”) – and practitioners themselves become the “way”. The way unfolds in every moment and every action. It is a path for personal development throughout life, and a complete dedication to continuous practice that is inseparable from life itself.”
Мини-скульптура проекта «Шукай» посвящена киевским шахматистам и установлена в парке Шевченко в месте, где киевляне проводят время за этой игрой уже более 50 лет. Скульптор – Ольга Колесник.
Проєкт «Шукай» — це історія Києва у бронзових мініскульптурках.
«In the 60-s of the previous century, when the interest in playing chess became massive, you could see a lot of followers of the game in the small public gardens, in the courtyards of high-rise buildings and even on the beaches of many Ukrainian cities during summer. At that time the street chess club was spontaneously formed in Kyiv. For that you only needed one chess-board, two chess players and… weather without precipitation. In case the activity attracted leisurely passers-by – tourists, chess players and other activists, they immediately turned into friendly advisers, rigorous judges, eminent grand masters and dedicated supporters.» Y. Bevzenko
Built in 1820 to pump water from the surrounding marshes, by the 1940s it had become derelict and was saved from loss by Bob Morse, who restored it. It is currently owned by Mrs Nicholson who has rigorously followed a programme of maintenance including recent painting. It is an iconic structure visible from miles around.
On a recent photo trip to Swabian Alb (a mountain range near Stuttgart, Germany) I was lucky to observe and capture this impressive and beautiful beetle.
The alpine longhorn beetle spends most of its life hidden in beech deadwood (Buchen-Totholz). There it lives as a larva for about 2 to 4 years, then pupates and finally squeezes itself into the open as a hatched beetle. It grows up to 4 cm long and lives only for 3 to 4 weeks after hatching. During this short time it comes to the mating. The females use old and sunny beech deadwood for laying their eggs,
The intensive use of the beech forests for the production of firewood and furniture wood, but also a mistaken forest management with its rigorous removal of any dead wood, have deprived the alpine longhorn of its livelihood in large parts of Europe and brought it to the brink of extinction.
Partial focus stack of 15 (out of a total of 22) captures, to intentionally let the right antenna disappear in blur to provide some depth to the image.
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The Church of San Sebastiano (Tempio Leon Battista Alberti)
Begun in 1460, the Church of San Sebastiano is one of the earliest Renaissance examples of a central-plan building (specifically a Greek cross). Here, Alberti broke away from medieval traditions, aiming to revive the geometric perfection of classical antiquity.
The structure is divided into two levels: a lower crypt, intended for the Gonzaga family burials, and the upper church. The facade is austere and rigorous, notable for the central break in the pediment (the "broken arch") and five openings leading to the portico. Although it remained partially unfinished and underwent controversial restorations in the 20th century (such as the addition of the lateral staircases), it remains a vital symbol of the Renaissance quest for proportion and symmetry.
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Iniziata nel 1460, la Chiesa di San Sebastiano (Tempio Leon Battista Alberti) rappresenta uno dei primi esempi rinascimentali di edificio a pianta centrale (a croce greca). Alberti rompe con la tradizione medievale, cercando di rievocare la perfezione geometrica dell'antichità classica.
L'edificio è diviso in due livelli: una cripta inferiore, destinata a ospitare le sepolture della famiglia Gonzaga, e la chiesa superiore. La facciata è austera e rigorosa, caratterizzata da un'interruzione centrale del frontone (il cosiddetto "arco spezzato") e da cinque aperture che conducono al portico. Sebbene sia rimasta parzialmente incompiuta e abbia subìto restauri controversi nel XX secolo (come l'aggiunta delle scalinate laterali), resta un simbolo fondamentale della ricerca sulla proporzione e sulla simmetria.
Captured mid-step in the ceremonial march outside his sentry box in Syntagma Square, this Evzone embodies the imposing presence of the Greek presidential guard. What might look like pure theater is actually a living monument in motion — a rigidly coordinated display where the traditional uniform and every calculated step carry the symbolism of two centuries of national history.
The name Evzone (Εύζωνας) comes from the ancient Greek eúzōnos, "well-girt" or "lightly equipped," once used for agile, light-armed warriors. The modern unit was formally established by royal decree in 1868, but its deeper roots lie with the klephts and armatoloi — the mountain guerrillas who fought Ottoman rule during the Greek War of Independence from 1821. Their dress and fierce independence became the founding myth of Greek military identity, later formalized as official national attire. Before becoming purely ceremonial after World War II, Evzone units fought in the Balkan Wars, the First World War, and the Asia Minor campaign — history that still gives the guard its particular gravity.
Selection is rigorous and entirely voluntary. Candidates come from the regular army, must stand at least 1.87 meters tall, and need to raise a fully extended leg to shoulder height during the march. The month-long training focuses on physical conditioning, mental endurance, and the ability to stand completely motionless — with a widely reported high dropout rate.
Their primary post is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, honoring Greece's unidentified fallen. Two Evzones stand guard there around the clock, every day of the year, while every Sunday at 11am a full platoon marches from the barracks with a military band for the Grand Changing of the Guard. They also raise and lower the flag at the Acropolis each Sunday and represent Greece at state ceremonies abroad.
The uniform is entirely handmade in a small workshop within the Presidential Guard compound, taking more than eighty days to complete. The foustanella — the white pleated kilt that defines the silhouette — uses thirty meters of fabric and holds four hundred pleats, popularly said to mark each year of Ottoman rule (1453–1821). Historians note the garment predates independence and that the symbolism was likely assigned afterward, tied to legendary fighter Theodoros Kolokotronis — but the meaning has since become inseparable from the uniform. The white represents the purity of the independence struggle; the blue-and-white krossia fringes echo the Greek flag.
The pharion, the red cap with its black tassel, carries a double mourning: red for the blood of the fallen, black for the grief of those left behind. The fermeli vest, hand-embroidered in gold and white with patterns from Orthodox iconography, is the most labor-intensive piece, taking over a month to make. Beneath the foustanella: a cotton undershirt, woolen stockings, and black silk garters.
The tsarouchia — heavy red leather shoes with a black pompom — often surprise first-time observers most. Each pair weighs about three kilos and carries sixty to one hundred twenty nails in the sole, originally meant for grip on mountain terrain and now producing the sharp sound of every step. The pompom has been explained as insulation, decoration, or — in folklore with no historical backing — a hiding place for a small blade.
Every movement is deliberate. Guards stand motionless for a full hour, then perform the changeover in exaggerated slow motion — a pace that lets circulation return gradually after prolonged stillness. The heavy stamp of the tsarouchia against stone is said, in a tradition shared by Greeks and Guard members alike, to signal the dead below that Greece endures. Popular accounts also describe the choreography as tracing the Greek word "Όχι" ("No") — Prime Minister Metaxas's answer to Mussolini's 1940 ultimatum — through the positions of arms, legs, and rifle. It's a beloved reading, though more interpretation than documented origin.
Born from the memory of mountain guerrillas fighting for a nation's survival, the Evzones have become, over two centuries, one of the world's most recognizable ceremonial institutions — soldiers carrying the weight of national memory, one deliberate step at a time.
Syntagma, Athens, Greece
The architects of the schloss and its complex of outbuildings were Gottfried Laurenz Pictorius, Peter Pictorius the Younger (from 1706) and Johann Conrad Schlaun, from 1724. The taller corps de logis is flanked by symmetrical lower wings, one of which contains the chapel. The wings are rigorously symmetrical and enclose the cour d'honneur in a U shape. Dutch precedents, such as the palace Het Loo near Apeldoorn, make their presence felt, but the sandstone facing of Schloss Nordkirchen is purely Westphalian.