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I'll show this one to my barber next time I want something specific.

 

Okay, I lied, I don't go to the barber.

 

2,5x magnification of a robber fly

 

One shot, handheld, diffused twin flash.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asilidae

 

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raubfliegen

Santa Cruz es un barrio del distrito Casco Antiguo de Sevilla (Andalucía, España). En él se encuentran la catedral, el Archivo de Indias y el Alcázar. En la Baja Edad Media la judería de la ciudad estaba situada en los barrios de Santa Cruz y de San Bartolomé.

 

es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Cruz_(Sevilla)

 

Santa Cruz, is the primary tourist neighborhood of Seville, Spain, and the former Jewish quarter of the medieval city. Santa Cruz is bordered by the Jardines de Murillo, the Real Alcázar, Calle Mateos Gago, and Calle Santa María La Blanca/San José. The neighborhood is the location of many of Seville's oldest churches and is home to the Cathedral of Seville, including the converted minaret of the old Moorish mosque Giralda.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Cruz,_Seville

  

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Canyon

 

The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is 277 miles (446 km) long, up to 18 miles (29 km) wide and attains a depth of over a mile (6,093 feet or 1,857 meters).

 

The canyon and adjacent rim are contained within Grand Canyon National Park, the Kaibab National Forest, Grand Canyon–Parashant National Monument, the Hualapai Indian Reservation, the Havasupai Indian Reservation and the Navajo Nation. The surrounding area is contained within the Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument. President Theodore Roosevelt was a major proponent of the preservation of the Grand Canyon area and visited it on numerous occasions to hunt and enjoy the scenery.

 

Nearly two billion years of Earth's geological history have been exposed as the Colorado River and its tributaries cut their channels through layer after layer of rock while the Colorado Plateau was uplifted. While some aspects about the history of incision of the canyon are debated by geologists, several recent studies support the hypothesis that the Colorado River established its course through the area about 5 to 6 million years ago. Since that time, the Colorado River has driven the down-cutting of the tributaries and retreat of the cliffs, simultaneously deepening and widening the canyon.

 

For thousands of years, the area has been continuously inhabited by Native Americans, who built settlements within the canyon and its many caves. The Pueblo people considered the Grand Canyon a holy site, and made pilgrimages to it. The first European known to have viewed the Grand Canyon was García López de Cárdenas from Spain, who arrived in 1540.

 

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Canyon_National_Park

 

Grand Canyon National Park is a national park of the United States located in northwestern Arizona, the 15th site to have been named as a national park. The park's central feature is the Grand Canyon, a gorge of the Colorado River, which is often considered one of the Wonders of the World. The park, which covers 1,217,262 acres (1,901.972 sq mi; 4,926.08 km2) of unincorporated area in Coconino and Mohave counties, received more than 4.7 million recreational visitors in 2023. The Grand Canyon was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979. The park celebrated its 100th anniversary on February 26, 2019.

 

Source: www.nps.gov/grca/index.htm

 

Entirely within the state of Arizona, the park encompasses 278 miles (447 km) of the Colorado River and adjacent uplands. Located on the ancestral homelands of 11 present day Tribal Communities, Grand Canyon is one of the most spectacular examples of erosion anywhere in the world—a mile deep canyon unmatched in the incomparable vistas it offers visitors from both north and south rims.

 

Additional Foreign Language Tags:

 

(United States) "الولايات المتحدة" "Vereinigte Staaten" "アメリカ" "米国" "美国" "미국" "Estados Unidos" "États-Unis" "ארצות הברית" "संयुक्त राज्य" "США"

 

(Arizona) "أريزونا" "亚利桑那州" "אריזונה" "एरिजोना" "アリゾナ州" "애리조나" "Аризона"

 

(Grand Canyon) "جراند كانيون" "大峡谷" "גרנד קניון" "ग्रांड कैन्यन" "グランドキャニオン" "그랜드 캐니언" "Гранд-Каньон" "Gran Cañón"

From Wiki:

The yellow-rumped cacique has benefited from the more open habitat created by forest clearance and ranching. It is not considered threatened. It is a colonial breeder, with up to 100 bag-shaped nests in a tree, which usually also contains an active wasp nest. The females build the nests, incubate, and care for the young. Each nest is 30–45 cm long and widens at the base, and is suspended from the end of a branch. Females compete for the best sites near the protection of the wasp nest. The normal clutch is two dark-blotched pale blue or white eggs. Females begin incubating after laying the second egg; hatching occurs after 13 or 14 days. The young fledge in 34 to 40 days, usually only one per nest. Eats large insects, spiders, fruit, and nectar.

Taken on a Awesome trip with Juan Carlos Vindas (Neotropic photo tours) www.neotropicphototours.com

Catalogo # 042

... damn it, holographic world!

 

The Song: Brain Damage-Eclipse, Pink Floyd

 

Technique: Light painting

 

E X P L O R E #165 Thanks to all!!!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forum_Groningen

  

YouTube

youtu.be/cxnlVCVw3hI

  

 

Handheld

Tonemapped

cropped

  

Portfolio ;

www.google.nl/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=aheroy&source=...

  

Darckr;

aheroy(2Busy)

  

DSMP

(Dont Steal My Pictures)

  

© Copyright : You cannot use my photos !

© Copyright : Você não pode usar !

© Derecho de Autor : No se puede usar !

© Copyright : Sie dürfen es nicht kopieren !

© Copyright : Vous ne pouvez pas utiliser mes photos !

© Copyright: Δεν μπορείτε να χρησιμοποιήσετε τις φωτογραφίες μου χωρίς την άδειά μου!

© حقوق النشر محفوظة. لا يمكنك استخدام الصو

New Farm is an affluent, riverside inner suburb of Brisbane, Australia. The suburb is located 2 kilometres east of the Brisbane CBD on a large bend of the Brisbane River. New Farm is partly surrounded by the Brisbane River, with land access from the north-west through Fortitude Valley and from the north through Newstead. Merthyr is a neighbourhood within New Farm; until 1975 it was a separate suburb.

 

At the 2011 Australian Census the suburb recorded a population of 11,330. It has the highest population density in Greater Brisbane with approximately 5,861.7 people per square kilometre. SOURCE: en.wikipedia.org

Source:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamberlain,_South_Dakota

 

Chamberlain is a city in Brule County, South Dakota, United States. It is located on the eastern bank of the Missouri River, at the dammed section of the Lake Francis Case, close to where it is crossed by Interstate 90.

 

The population of Chamberlain was 2,473 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Brule County.

 

Chamberlain is home to the South Dakota Hall of Fame.

 

Source:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dignity_(statue)

 

Dignity (a.k.a. Dignity of Earth & Sky) is a sculpture on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River near Chamberlain, South Dakota. The 50-foot (15.24 meter) high stainless steel statue by South Dakota artist laureate Dale Claude Lamphere depicts an Indigenous woman in Plains-style dress receiving a star quilt. According to Lamphere, the sculpture honors the culture of the Lakota and Dakota peoples who are indigenous to South Dakota. Assisting Lamphere were sculptors Tom Trople, Jim Maher, Andy Roltgen, and Grant Standard. Automotive paint expert Brook Loobey assisted with the colors for the quilt, and Albertson Engineering of Rapid City, SD ensured the sculpture would endure the strong winds common in the area.

 

Source:

www.travelsouthdakota.com/trip-ideas/story/dignity-earth-sky

 

Representing the rich Native American culture of South Dakota, the 50-foot Native American woman gracefully wears a dress patterned after a two-hide dress of the 1850s. She holds outstretched a quilt featuring 128 stainless steel blue diamond shapes designed to flutter in the wind. During the day, her star quilt – a representation of respect, honor and admiration in Native American culture – glitters in the sun with color-changing pieces that move with the wind. At night, LED lights cause the diamond shapes to glow in the night sky, casting a peaceful presence easily visible from the Interstate.

  

Additional Foreign Language Tags:

 

(United States) "الولايات المتحدة" "Vereinigte Staaten" "アメリカ" "美国" "미국" "Estados Unidos" "États-Unis"

 

(South Dakota) "داكوتا الجنوبية" "南达科他州" "Dakota du Sud" "दक्षिण डकोटा" "サウスダコタ" "사우스다코타" "Южная Дакота" "Dakota del Sur"

 

(Chamberlain) "تشامبرلين" "张伯林" "चैंबरलिन" "チェンバリン" "チェンバリン" "Чемберлен"

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Canyon

 

The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is 277 miles (446 km) long, up to 18 miles (29 km) wide and attains a depth of over a mile (6,093 feet or 1,857 meters).

 

The canyon and adjacent rim are contained within Grand Canyon National Park, the Kaibab National Forest, Grand Canyon–Parashant National Monument, the Hualapai Indian Reservation, the Havasupai Indian Reservation and the Navajo Nation. The surrounding area is contained within the Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument. President Theodore Roosevelt was a major proponent of the preservation of the Grand Canyon area and visited it on numerous occasions to hunt and enjoy the scenery.

 

Nearly two billion years of Earth's geological history have been exposed as the Colorado River and its tributaries cut their channels through layer after layer of rock while the Colorado Plateau was uplifted. While some aspects about the history of incision of the canyon are debated by geologists, several recent studies support the hypothesis that the Colorado River established its course through the area about 5 to 6 million years ago. Since that time, the Colorado River has driven the down-cutting of the tributaries and retreat of the cliffs, simultaneously deepening and widening the canyon.

 

For thousands of years, the area has been continuously inhabited by Native Americans, who built settlements within the canyon and its many caves. The Pueblo people considered the Grand Canyon a holy site, and made pilgrimages to it. The first European known to have viewed the Grand Canyon was García López de Cárdenas from Spain, who arrived in 1540.

 

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Canyon_National_Park

 

Grand Canyon National Park is a national park of the United States located in northwestern Arizona, the 15th site to have been named as a national park. The park's central feature is the Grand Canyon, a gorge of the Colorado River, which is often considered one of the Wonders of the World. The park, which covers 1,217,262 acres (1,901.972 sq mi; 4,926.08 km2) of unincorporated area in Coconino and Mohave counties, received more than 4.7 million recreational visitors in 2023. The Grand Canyon was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979. The park celebrated its 100th anniversary on February 26, 2019.

 

Source: www.nps.gov/grca/index.htm

 

Entirely within the state of Arizona, the park encompasses 278 miles (447 km) of the Colorado River and adjacent uplands. Located on the ancestral homelands of 11 present day Tribal Communities, Grand Canyon is one of the most spectacular examples of erosion anywhere in the world—a mile deep canyon unmatched in the incomparable vistas it offers visitors from both north and south rims.

 

Additional Foreign Language Tags:

 

(United States) "الولايات المتحدة" "Vereinigte Staaten" "アメリカ" "米国" "美国" "미국" "Estados Unidos" "États-Unis" "ארצות הברית" "संयुक्त राज्य" "США"

 

(Arizona) "أريزونا" "亚利桑那州" "אריזונה" "एरिजोना" "アリゾナ州" "애리조나" "Аризона"

 

(Grand Canyon) "جراند كانيون" "大峡谷" "גרנד קניון" "ग्रांड कैन्यन" "グランドキャニオン" "그랜드 캐니언" "Гранд-Каньон" "Gran Cañón"

Wiki's version for Our Daily Challenge topic 'Air' for one of the 4 Elements . Wiki likes to leap and has let me catch her mid-air quite a few times. These are in the album 'Wiki Leaps.'

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grasmere_(lake)

  

Grasmere is one of the smaller lakes of the English Lake District, in the county of Cumbria. It gives its name to the village of Grasmere, famously associated with the poet William Wordsworth, which lies immediately to the north of the lake.[1]

The lake is 1680yd (1540m) long and 700yd (640m) wide, covering an area of 0.24 mi² (0.62 km²). It has a maximum depth of 70 ft (21m) and an elevation above sea level of 208 ft (62m). The lake is both fed and drained by the River Rothay, which flows through the village before entering the lake, and then exits downstream into nearby Rydal Water, beyond which it continues into Windermere.[1][2]

The waters of the lake are leased by the Lowther Estate to the National Trust. The waters are navigable, with private boats allowed and rowing boats for hire, but powered boats are prohibited. The lake contains a single island, known as The Island.[1]

Since 2012 the lake's north-easterly inlet has been home to the Daffodil Hotel, which is overseen by the Harwood and Brady families.

 

Etymology

 

" 'The lake flanked by grass'; 'gres', 'mere'. Early spellings in 'Grys-', 'Gris(s)-' might suggest ON 'griss' 'young pig' as 1st el.[ement], but the weight of the evidence points to OE/ON 'gres' 'grass', with the modern form influenced by Standard English....The medial '-s(s)e-' may, as suggested by Ekwall in DEPN,[4] point to ON 'gres-saer' 'grass-lake' as the original name...".[5] Plus the element "'mere' OE, ModE 'lake, 'pool'".[6](OE is Old English up to c1100 A.D.; ON is Old Norse).

 

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devils_Tower

 

Devils Tower (also known as Bear Lodge Butte) is a butte, possibly laccolithic, composed of igneous rock in the Bear Lodge Ranger District of the Black Hills, near Hulett and Sundance in Crook County, northeastern Wyoming, above the Belle Fourche River. It rises 1,267 feet (386 m) above the Belle Fourche River, standing 867 feet (265 m) from summit to base. The summit is 5,112 feet (1,559 m) above sea level.

 

Devils Tower was the first United States national monument, established on September 24, 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt. The monument's boundary encloses an area of 1,347 acres (545 ha).

 

Source: www.nps.gov/deto/index.htm

 

Many People, Many Stories, One Place

 

The Tower is an astounding geologic feature that protrudes out of the prairie surrounding the Black Hills. It is considered sacred by Northern Plains Indians and indigenous people. Hundreds of parallel cracks make it one of the finest crack climbing areas in North America. Devils Tower entices us to learn more, explore more and define our place in the natural and cultural world.

 

Source: www.blackhillsbadlands.com/parks-monuments/devils-tower-n...

 

Devils Tower National Monument, a unique and striking geologic wonder steeped in Native American legend, is a modern-day national park and climbers' challenge. Devils Tower sits across the state line in northeast Wyoming. The Tower is a solitary, stump-shaped granite formation that looms 1,267 feet above the tree-lined Belle Fourche River Valley, like a skyscraper in the country. Once hidden below the earth’s surface, erosion has stripped away the softer rock layers revealing the Tower.

 

The two-square-mile park surrounding the tower was proclaimed the nation’s first national monument by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. The park is covered with pine forests, woodlands, and grasslands. While visiting the park you are bound to see deer, prairie dogs, and other wildlife. The mountain’s markings are the basis for Native American legend. One legend has it that a giant bear clawed the grooves into the mountainside while chasing several young Indian maidens. Known by several northern plains tribes as Bears Lodge, it is a sacred site of worship for many American Indians. Devils Tower is also remembered as the movie location for “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”

 

The stone pillar is about 1,000 feet in diameter at the bottom and 275 feet at the top and that makes it the premier rock climbing challenge in the Black Hills. Hikers enjoy the Monument’s trails. The 1.25-mile Tower Trail encircles the base. This self-guided hike offers close-up views of the forest and wildlife, not to mention spectacular views of the Tower itself. The Red Beds Trail covers a much wider three-mile loop around the tower.

 

Source: travelwyoming.com/places-to-go/destinations/national-park...

 

While America’s first national monument garnered significant attention as the backdrop to the 1977 Stephen Spielberg movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the tower is sacred to Northern Plains Indian tribes and the Black Hills region Kiowa Tribe. With oral storytelling and a history that dates back thousands of years, today, American Indian tribes continue to hold sacred ceremonies at the tower, including sweat lodges and sun dances. There is more to this monument than its rich history. You can stop at the visitor’s center to learn about one of the ranger-led programs, night sky viewing, hiking and even climbing to the top of Devils Tower. If one day isn’t enough to explore this unforgettable area, bring your camping gear to stay within the monument, or stay just outside or in accommodations at one of the nearby towns.

  

Additional Foreign Language Tags:

 

(United States) "الولايات المتحدة" "Vereinigte Staaten" "アメリカ" "美国" "미국" "Estados Unidos" "États-Unis"

 

(Wyoming) "وايومنغ" "怀俄明州" "व्योमिंग" "ワイオミング州" "와이오밍" "Вайоминг"

 

(Devils Tower National Monument) "النصب التذكاري الوطني لبرج الشياطين" "魔鬼塔国家纪念碑" "डेविल्स टॉवर राष्ट्रीय स्मारक" "デビルズタワー国定公園" "데빌스 타워 국립천연기념물" "Национальный монумент «Башня дьявола»" "Monumento Nacional Torre del Diablo"

Owned by the National Trust this is one of the oldest inns in Britain first documented in 1455 but with much older cellars dating to the 13th century.

I assume it once held pride of place on the market place, but is now accessed by alleyways, hidden behind later buildings that have encroached on the open space, a common practice over the centuries.

Grade II* listed.

A good Wikipedia page at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_Head_Inn,_Aylesbury

Mönch, 4'107 m, in the beautiful morning sun.

nl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watertoren_(Rotterdam_De_Esch)

 

The old water tower of Rotterdam in De Esch was designed by architect C.B. van der Tak and was built in 1871-1873. A number of workshop halls also designed by him are part of the complex. Height is 48 meters, content 1000 m3 water.

 

This water tower is the oldest surviving water tower in the Netherlands. The water tower has a height of 48 meters and has seven water reservoirs. The tower had a water reservoir with a capacity of more than a million liters. This made the tower one of the largest water towers in the Netherlands. The tower is designed in an eclectic mix of Romanesque Revival, Neo-Renaissance and Oriental styles. Below the water reservoir were the residences of the staff of the water company who worked on the site.

 

When the water company moved to another location in 1978, the homes and workshops were replaced by a cooperative association, wood, metal workshop, photo studio and sound studio.

 

In 1986, Rotterdam Public Works renovated the tower. The water tank has been replaced by office spaces.

 

The tower currently houses a cafe and restaurant called De Watertoren. The top floor is used as an office. The tower is located on the Watertorenweg.

 

The water tower and outbuildings were recognized as a national monument in 1981.

6395

Visit: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peggys_Cove,_Nova_Scotia

 

Peggys Point Lighthouse (also known as Peggy's Cove Lighthouse) is in Peggys Cove and is an iconic Canadian image. It is one of the busiest tourist attractions in Nova Scotia and is a prime attraction on the Lighthouse Trail scenic drive. The lighthouse marks the eastern entrance of St. Margarets Bay and is officially known as the Peggys Point Lighthouse.

 

Peggys Cove is a classic red-and-white lighthouse still operated by the Canadian Coast Guard. The light station is situated on an extensive granite outcrop at Peggys Point, immediately south of the village and its cove. This lighthouse is one of the most-photographed structures in Atlantic Canada and one of the most recognizable lighthouses in the world.

 

Visitors may explore the granite outcrop on Peggys Point around the lighthouse; despite numerous signs warning of unpredictable surf (including one on a bronze plaque on the lighthouse itself), several visitors each year are swept off the rocks by waves, sometimes drowning.

 

Peggys Cove is 43 kilometers (26 miles) southwest of downtown Halifax and comprises one of the numerous small fishing communities located around the perimeter of the Chebucto Peninsula. The community is named after the cove of the same name, a name also shared with Peggy's Point, immediately to the east of the cove. The village marks the eastern point of St. Margaret's Bay.(Wikipedia)

  

Visit: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swissair_Flight_111

 

Swissair Flight 111

 

Swissair Flight 111 (SR111, SWR111) was a Swissair McDonnell Douglas MD-11 on a scheduled airline flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, United States to Cointrin International Airport in Geneva, Switzerland. This flight was also a codeshare flight with Delta Air Lines.

 

On Wednesday, 2 September 1998, the aircraft used for the flight, registered HB-IWF, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean southwest of Halifax International Airport at the entrance to St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia. The crash site was 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) from shore, roughly equidistant from the tiny fishing and tourist communities of Peggys Cove and Bayswater. All 229 people on board died—the highest death toll of any aviation accident involving a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 and the second-highest of any air disaster to occur in Canada, after Arrow Air Flight 1285. This is one of only two hull losses of the passenger configured MD-11, along with China Airlines Flight 642.

 

The initial search and rescue response, crash recovery operation, and resulting investigation by the Government of Canada took over four years and cost CAD 57 million (at that time approximately US$38 million). The Transportation Safety Board of Canada's (TSB) official report of their investigation stated that flammable material used in the aircraft's structure allowed a fire to spread beyond the control of the crew, resulting in a loss of control and the crash of the aircraft.

 

Swissair Flight 111 was known as the "UN shuttle" due to its popularity with United Nations officials; the flight often carried business executives, scientists, and researchers

 

Aircraft

The aircraft, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11, serial number 48448 registered HB-IWF, was manufactured in 1991 and Swissair was its only operator. It bore the title of Vaud, in honor of the Swiss canton of the same name. The airframe had a total of 36,041 hours. The three engines were Pratt & Whitney 4462s. The cabin was configured with 241 seats (12 six-abreast first-, 49 seven-abreast business-, and 180 nine-abreast economy-class). First- and business-class seats were equipped with an in seat in-flight entertainment system, installed at some point after initial entry into service. (Wikipedia)

  

© Copyright

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

Sea Holly /Mikołajek Nadmorski

 

pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miko%C5%82ajek_nadmorski

  

Wybrzeże Bałtyku posiada swój unikalny symbol – Mikołajek Nadmorski.

Niestety coraz trudniej jest zobaczyć go na żywo, bo jest rzadki i zagrożony wyginięciem. Niegdyś charakterystyczny kwiat mikołajka nagminnie zrywali turyści jako pamiątkę z wakacji.

Teraz sadzą go ekolodzy z Kosakowa.

W Polsce roślina ta objęta jest ścisłą ochroną. Na terenie Zatoki Gdańskiej jest chroniona już od 1902 roku.

O istocie walki o dalszy jego byt może świadczyć fakt, iż roślina jest jednym z ulubionych motywów haftu kaszubskiego szkoły puckiej i symbolem nadmorskiego wybrzeża.

W celu odtworzenia populacji mikołajka na terenie Kosakowa, Związek Międzygminny Zatoki Puckiej przy współpracy z Nadmorskim Parkiem Krajobrazowym realizuje projekt pt. „Reintrodukcja mikołajka nadmorskiego na historycznych stanowiskach na terenie Nadmorskiego Parku Krajobrazowego”. – Projekt ma na celu odtworzenie i wzmocnienie ginącej populacji mikołajka nadmorskiego na terenie parku, a także rozpowszechnienie wiedzy dotyczącej statusu ochronnego tego gatunku oraz zmniejszenie zainteresowania zrywaniem mikołajka na jego naturalnych siedliskach przez turystów.

 

Na efekty nasadzeń trzeba poczekać 2 lata. – Sadzonki mikołajka uzyskane zostały z namnożenia metodą in vitro z fragmentów 5 osobników mikołajka nadmorskiego o rodzimym genotypie, pozyskanych przy miejscowości Mechelinki, gdzie znajduje się największa populacja tej rośliny w rejonie Zatoki Gdańskiej. Nasadzenia zostały wykonane przy współudziale pracowników Nadmorskiego Parku Krajobrazowego.

 

♡ Legenda o Mikołajku ♡

 

Dawno temu, mieszkał nad morzem chłopiec o imieniu Mikołajek. Lubił psocić i dokuczać rybakom, poszukiwaczom bursztynu, nimfom z orszaku Goska (kaszubskiego Neptuna), a nawet jego żonie. Pewnego razu, kiedy królowa mórz zażywała kąpieli słonecznej, zabrał jej szaty i ukrył je w zaroślach. Rozgniewana królowa kazała ukarać Mikołajka, więc Gosk zmienił chłopca w piękną roślinę. Ludzie zrywając ją, zadają mu okropny ból. Klątwa będzie zdjęta, kiedy przez całe lato na całym wybrzeżu nikt nie zerwie nawet kawałeczka rośliny.

  

For Our Daily Challenge topic - 'Ritual.' Every morning early Wiki and I walk together down the street and into the field that surrounds where we live. We go at her speed and mostly I follow her and pause when she pauses, notice what see sees and every single day I see something new. We've been doing this for almost two years and there's a large set of photos in 'Walking With Wiki'

 

Today was the first time I laid down in the field to watch her. She thought it was all wrong and worried about me until I was up on my feet again.

 

my 352 nd image to make it into Explore. Many many thanks to everyone.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_Dam

 

Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona. Constructed between 1931 and 1936, during the Great Depression, it was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Its construction was the result of a massive effort involving thousands of workers, and cost over 100 lives. In bills passed by Congress during its construction, it was referred to as the Hoover Dam, after President Herbert Hoover, but was named Boulder Dam by the Roosevelt administration. In 1947, the name Hoover Dam was restored by Congress.

 

Since about 1900, the Black Canyon and nearby Boulder Canyon had been investigated for their potential to support a dam that would control floods, provide irrigation water, and produce hydroelectric power. In 1928, Congress authorized the project. The winning bid to build the dam was submitted by a consortium named Six Companies, Inc., which began construction in early 1931. Such a large concrete structure had never been built before, and some of the techniques used were unproven. The torrid summer weather and lack of facilities near the site also presented difficulties. Nevertheless, Six Companies turned the dam over to the federal government on March 1, 1936, more than two years ahead of schedule.

 

Hoover Dam impounds Lake Mead and is located near Boulder City, Nevada, a municipality originally constructed for workers on the construction project, about 30 mi (48 km) southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada. The dam's generators provide power for public and private utilities in Nevada, Arizona, and California. Hoover Dam is a major tourist attraction, with 7 million tourists a year. The heavily traveled U.S. Route 93 (US 93) ran along the dam's crest until October 2010, when the Hoover Dam Bypass opened.

 

Source: hoover.archives.gov/hoovers/hoover-dam

 

85 years after its completion, Hoover dam is still considered an engineering marvel. It is named in honor of President Herbert Hoover, who played a crucial role in its creation.

 

For many years, residents of the American southwest sought to tame the unpredictable Colorado River. Disastrous floods during the early 1900’s led residents of the area to look to the federal government for aid, and experiments with irrigation on a limited scale had shown that this arid region could be transformed into fertile cropland, if only the river could be controlled. The greatest obstacle to the construction of such a dam was the allocation of water rights among the seven states comprising the Colorado River drainage basin. Meetings were held in 1918, 1919 and 1920, but the states could not reach a consensus.

 

Herbert Hoover had visited the Lower Colorado region in the years before World War I and was familiar with its problems and the potential for development. Upon becoming Secretary of Commerce in 1921, Hoover proposed the construction of a dam on the Colorado River. In addition to flood control and irrigation, it would provide a dependable supply of water for Los Angeles and Southern California. The project would be self-supporting, recovering its cost through the sale of hydroelectric power generated by the dam.

 

In 1921, the state legislatures of the Colorado River basin authorized commissioners to negotiate an interstate agreement. Congress authorized President Harding to appoint a representative for the federal government to serve as chair of the Colorado River Commission and on December 17, 1921, Harding appointed Hoover to that role.

 

When the commission assembled in Santa Fe in November 1922, the seven states still disagreed over the fair distribution of water. The upstream states feared that the downstream states, with their rapidly developing agricultural and power demands, would quickly preempt rights to the water by the “first in time, first in right” doctrine. Hoover suggested a compromise that the water be divided between the upper and lower basins without individual state quotas. The resulting Colorado River Compact was signed on November 24, 1922. It split the river basin into upper and lower halves with the states within each region deciding amongst themselves how the water would be allocated.

 

A series of bills calling for Federal funding to build the dam were introduced by Congressman Phil D. Swing and Senator Hiram W. Johnson between 1922 and 1928, all of which were rejected. The last Swing-Johnson bill, titled the Boulder Canyon Project Act, was largely written by Hoover and Secretary of the Interior Hubert Work. Congress finally agreed, and the bill was signed into law on December 21, 1928 by President Coolidge. The dream was about to become reality.

 

On June 25, 1929, less than four months after his inauguration, President Herbert Hoover signed a proclamation declaring the Colorado River Compact effective at last. Appropriations were approved and construction began in 1930. The dam was dedicated in 1935 and the hydroelectric generators went online in 1937. In 1947, Congress officially "restored" Hoover's name to the dam, after FDR's Secretary of the Interior tried to remove it. Hoover Dam was built for a cost of $49 million (approximately $1 billion adjusted for inflation). The power plant and generators cost an additional $71 million, more than the cost of the dam itself. The sale of electrical power generated by the dam paid back its construction cost, with interest, by 1987.

 

Today the Hoover Dam controls the flooding of the Colorado River, irrigates more than 1.5 million acres of land, and provides water to more than 16 million people. Lake Mead supports recreational activities and provides habitats to fish and wildlife. Power generated by the dam provides energy to power over 500,000 homes. The Hoover Compromise still governs how the water is shared.

 

Additional Foreign Language Tags:

 

(United States) "الولايات المتحدة" "Vereinigte Staaten" "アメリカ" "美国" "미국" "Estados Unidos" "États-Unis"

 

(Nevada) "نيفادا" "内华达州" "नेवादा" "ネバダ" "네바다" "Невада"

 

(Arizona) "أريزونا" "亚利桑那州" "एरिजोना" "アリゾナ州" "애리조나" "Аризона"

 

(Hoover Dam) "سد هوفر" "胡佛水坝" "हूवर बांध" "フーバーダム" "후버 댐" "Гувера" "Presa Hoover"

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin

 

Dublin (Irish: Baile Átha Cliath) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. It is on the east coast of Ireland, in the province of Leinster, at the mouth of the River Liffey, and is bordered on the south by the Wicklow Mountains. It has an urban area population of 1,173,179, while the population of the Dublin Region (formerly County Dublin), as of 2016, was 1,347,359, and the population of the Greater Dublin area was 1,904,806.

 

There is archaeological debate regarding precisely where Dublin was established by the Gaels in or before the 7th century AD. Later expanded as a Viking settlement, the Kingdom of Dublin, the city became Ireland's principal settlement following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire before the Acts of Union in 1800. Following the partition of Ireland in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, later renamed Ireland.

 

Dublin is a historical and contemporary centre for education, the arts, administration and industry. As of 2018 the city was listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) as a global city, with a ranking of "Alpha −", which places it amongst the top thirty cities in the world.

 

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Liffey

 

The River Liffey (Irish: An Life) is a river in Ireland, which flows through the centre of Dublin. Its major tributaries include the River Dodder, the River Poddle and the River Camac. The river supplies much of Dublin's water and a range of recreational activities.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg_Gate

 

The Brandenburg Gate (German: Brandenburger Tor) is an 18th-century neoclassical monument in Berlin, built on the orders of Prussian king Frederick William II after the (temporarily) successful restoration of order during the early Batavian Revolution. One of the best-known landmarks of Germany, it was built on the site of a former city gate that marked the start of the road from Berlin to the town of Brandenburg an der Havel, which used to be capital of the Margraviate of Brandenburg.

 

It is located in the western part of the city centre of Berlin within Mitte, at the junction of Unter den Linden and Ebertstraße, immediately west of the Pariser Platz. One block to the north stands the Reichstag building, which houses the German parliament (Bundestag). The gate is the monumental entry to Unter den Linden, the renowned boulevard of linden trees, which led directly to the royal City Palace of the Prussian monarchs.

 

Throughout its existence, the Brandenburg Gate was often a site for major historical events and is today considered not only as a symbol of the tumultuous history of Europe and Germany, but also of European unity and peace.

 

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin

 

Berlin is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3,723,914 (2018) inhabitants make it the second most populous city proper of the European Union after London. The city is one of Germany's 16 federal states. It is surrounded by the state of Brandenburg, and contiguous with its capital, Potsdam. The two cities are at the center of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region, which is, with 6,004,857 (2015) inhabitants and an area of 30,370 square km, Germany's third-largest metropolitan region after the Rhine-Ruhr and Rhine-Main regions.

 

Berlin straddles the banks of the River Spree, which flows into the River Havel (a tributary of the River Elbe) in the western borough of Spandau. Among the city's main topographical features are the many lakes in the western and southeastern boroughs formed by the Spree, Havel, and Dahme rivers (the largest of which is Lake Müggelsee). Due to its location in the European Plain, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. About one-third of the city's area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers, canals and lakes. The city lies in the Central German dialect area, the Berlin dialect being a variant of the Lusatian-New Marchian dialects.

 

First documented in the 13th century and situated at the crossing of two important historic trade routes, Berlin became the capital of the Margraviate of Brandenburg (1417–1701), the Kingdom of Prussia (1701–1918), the German Empire (1871–1918), the Weimar Republic (1919–1933), and the Third Reich (1933–1945). Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world. After World War II and its subsequent occupation by the victorious countries, the city was divided; West Berlin became a de facto West German exclave, surrounded by the Berlin Wall (1961–1989) and East German territory. East Berlin was declared capital of East Germany, while Bonn became the West German capital. Following German reunification in 1990, Berlin once again became the capital of all of Germany.

 

Berlin is a world city of culture, politics, media and science. Its economy is based on high-tech firms and the service sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, research facilities, media corporations and convention venues. Berlin serves as a continental hub for air and rail traffic and has a highly complex public transportation network. The metropolis is a popular tourist destination. Significant industries also include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, clean tech, biotechnology, construction and electronics.

 

Berlin is home to world-renowned universities, orchestras, museums, and entertainment venues, and is host to many sporting events. Its Zoological Garden is the most visited zoo in Europe and one of the most popular worldwide. With the world's oldest large-scale movie studio complex, Berlin is an increasingly popular location for international film productions. The city is well known for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts and a very high quality of living. Since the 2000s Berlin has seen the emergence of a cosmopolitan entrepreneurial scene.

Rainbow Lorikeet (Trichoglossus moluccanus), Dundas Valley, NSW, Australia

 

The rainbow lorikeet (Trichoglossus moluccanus) is a species of parrot found in Australia. It is common along the eastern seaboard, from northern Queensland to South Australia.

 

Source: Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_lorikeet

wiki - St Peter's Church, Lowick

 

Lowick is a charming village located in the East Northamptonshire district of England. It is known for its picturesque countryside, historical landmarks, and vibrant community. The village boasts a beautiful 13th-century church, a historic manor house, and a range of traditional cottages. Lowick has a strong sense of community with various local organizations, clubs, and events bringing people together. The village is surrounded by rolling hills, lush meadows, and ancient woodlands, offering ample opportunities for outdoor activities and relaxation.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg

 

Nuremberg (German: Nürnberg) is the second-largest city of the German federal state of Bavaria after its capital of Munich, and its 511,628 (2016) inhabitants make it the 14th largest city of Germany. On the Pegnitz River (from its confluence with the Rednitz in Fürth onwards: Regnitz, a tributary of the River Main) and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it lies in the Bavarian administrative region of Middle Franconia, and is the largest city and the unofficial capital of Franconia. Nuremberg forms a continuous conurbation with the neighbouring cities of Fürth, Erlangen and Schwabach with a total population of 787,976 (2016), while the larger Nuremberg Metropolitan Region has approximately 3.5 million inhabitants. The city lies about 170 kilometres (110 mi) north of Munich. It is the largest city in the East Franconian dialect area (colloquially: "Franconian"; German: Fränkisch).

 

There are many institutions of higher education in the city, most notably the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg), with 39,780 students (2017) Bavaria's third and Germany's 11th largest university with campuses in Erlangen and Nuremberg and a university hospital in Erlangen (Universitätsklinikum Erlangen); Technische Hochschule Nürnberg Georg Simon Ohm; and Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg. Nuremberg Airport (Flughafen Nürnberg „Albrecht Dürer“) is the second-busiest airport of Bavaria after Munich Airport, and the tenth-busiest airport of Germany.

 

Staatstheater Nürnberg is one of the five Bavarian state theatres, showing operas, operettas, musicals, and ballets (main venue: Nuremberg Opera House), plays (main venue: Schauspielhaus Nürnberg), as well as concerts (main venue: Meistersingerhalle). Its orchestra, Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg, is Bavaria's second-largest opera orchestra after the Bavarian State Opera's Bavarian State Orchestra in Munich. Nuremberg is the birthplace of Albrecht Dürer and Johann Pachelbel.

 

Nuremberg was the site of major Nazi rallies, and it provided the site for the Nuremberg trials, which held to account many major Nazi officials.

I am so happy to announce that one of my photos placed second position in the Wiki Loves Monuments in the United States photo contest.

 

Link: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Purbeck

  

The Isle of Purbeck, not a true island but a peninsula, is in the county of Dorset, England. It is bordered by the English Channel to the south and east, where steep cliffs fall to the sea; and by the marshy lands of the River Frome and Poole Harbour to the north. Its western boundary is less well defined, with some medieval sources placing it at Flower's Barrow above Worbarrow Bay.[1] The most southerly point is St Alban's Head (archaically St. Aldhelm's Head). It is suffering erosion problems along the coast.

 

The whole of the Isle of Purbeck lies within the local government district of Purbeck, which is named after it. However the district extends significantly further north and west than the traditional boundary of the Isle of Purbeck along the River Frome.

 

In terms of natural landscape areas, the southern part of the Isle of Purbeck and the coastal strip as far as Ringstead Bay in the west, have been designated as National Character Area 136 - South Purbeck by Natural England. To the north are the Dorset Heaths and to the west, the Weymouth Lowlands.[

  

Geology

  

The geology of the Isle is complex. It has a discordant coastline along the east and concordant coastline along the south. The northern part is Eocene clay (Barton Beds), including significant deposits of Purbeck Ball Clay. Where the land rises to the sea there are several parallel strata of Jurassic rocks, including Portland limestone and the Purbeck beds. The latter include Purbeck Marble, a particularly hard limestone that can be polished (though mineralogically, it is not marble). A ridge of Cretaceous chalk runs along the peninsula creating the Purbeck Hills, part of the Southern England Chalk Formation that includes Salisbury Plain, the Dorset Downs and the Isle of Wight. The cliffs here are some of the most spectacular in England, and of great geological interest, both for the rock types and variety of landforms, notably Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door, and the coast is part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site because of the unique geology.

 

In the past quarrying of limestone was particularly concentrated around the western side of Swanage, the villages of Worth Matravers and Langton Matravers, and the cliffs along the coast between Swanage and St. Aldhelm's Head. The "caves" at Tilly Whim are former quarries, and Dancing Ledge, Seacombe and Winspit are other cliff-edge quarries. Stone was removed from the cliff quarries either by sea, or using horse carts to transport large blocks to Swanage. Many of England's most famous cathedrals are adorned with Purbeck marble, and much of London was rebuilt in Portland and Purbeck stone after the Great Fire of London.

 

By contrast, the principal ball clay workings were in the area between Corfe Castle and Wareham. Originally the clay was taken by pack horse to wharves on the River Frome and the south side of Poole Harbour. However in the first half of the 19th century the pack horses were replaced by horse-drawn tramways. With the coming of the railway from Wareham to Swanage, most ball clay was dispatched by rail, often to the Potteries district of Staffordshire.

 

Quarrying still takes place in Purbeck, with both Purbeck Ball Clay and limestones being transported from the area by road. There are now no functioning quarries of Purbeck Marble.

  

Wild flowers

  

The isle has the highest number of species of native and anciently introduced wild flowers of any area of comparable size in Britain.[3] This is largely due to the varied geology. The species most frequently sought is Early Spider Orchid (Ophrys sphegodes), which in Britain, is most common in Purbeck. Nearly 50,000 flowering spikes were counted in 2009. Late April is the best time, and the largest population is usually in the field to the west of Dancing Ledge. Smaller numbers can be seen on a shorter walk in Durlston Country Park. This orchid is the logo of the Dorset Wildlife Trust. Cowslip meadows (Primula veris and Primula deorum) are at their best shortly afterwards and Durlston Country Park has several large ones.

 

In early May several woods have carpets of Wild Garlic (Allium ursinum). King's Wood and Studland Wood, both owned by the National Trust, are good examples. At around the same time and later some Downs have carpets of yellow Horseshoe Vetch (Hippocrepis comosa) and blue Chalk Milkwort (Polygala calcarea). In late May the field near Old Harry Rocks has a carpet of yellow Kidney Vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria).

 

Blue and white flowers of Sheep's bit (Jasione montana) and pink and flowers of Sea Bindweed (Calystegia soldanella) lend colour to Studland dunes in June. Both Heath Spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata) and Southern Marsh Orchid (Dactylorhiza praetermissa) are frequent on Corfe Common that month, and Harebells (Campanula rotundifolia) and Purple Betony (Stachys officinalis) flowers add colour to the Common in July.

 

Dorset Heath (Erica ciliaris), the county flower, can be found in July and August in large numbers, especially on and around Hartland Moor, in damper parts of the heathland. Bog Asphodel (Narthecium ossifragum) gives displays of yellow flowers there in early July. Marsh Gentian (Gentiana pneumonanthe) is found less frequently in similar areas from mid August to mid September.[3]

  

Roman, Saxon and Norman

  

A number of Romano-British sites have been discovered and studied on the Isle of Purbeck, including a villa at Bucknowle Farm near Corfe Castle, excavated between 1976 and 1991.[4] The Kimmeridge shale of the isle was worked extensively during the Roman period, into jewellery, decorative panels and furniture.[5]

 

At the extreme southern tip of Purbeck is St Aldhelm's Chapel which is Norman work but built on a Pre-Conquest Christian site marked with a circular earthwork and some graves. In 1957 the body of a 13th century woman was found buried NNE of the chapel which suggests there may have been a hermitage in the area. In 2000 the whole chapel site was declared a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The precise function of the chapel building is disputed with suggestions that it may have been a religious retreat, a chantry for the souls of sailors who had drowned off St Aldhelm's Head or even a lighthouse or warning bell to warn sailors. Victorian restoration work of the chapel found signs that a beacon may have adorned the roof. The present cross on the roof is Victorian.

 

The town of Wareham retains its Saxon earth embankment wall and it churches have Saxon origins. One of these, St Martins-on-the-Walls was built in 1030 and today contains traces of medieval and later wall paintings.

 

At Corfe Castle village is the great castle which gives the village its modern name. The castle commands the strategic gap in the Purbeck Ridge. The present castle dates from after the Conquest of 1066 but this may replace Saxon work as the village was the place where Saxon King Edward the Martyr had been murdered in 978. The supposed place of his murder is traditionally on, or near, the castle mound. Corfe was one of the first English castles to be built in stone - at a time when earth and timber were the norm. This may have been due to the plentiful supply of good building stone in Purbeck.

 

Sir John Bankes bought the castle in 1635, and was the owner during the English Civil War. His wife, Lady Mary Bankes, led the defence of the castle when it was twice besieged by Parliamentarian forces. The first siege, in 1643, was unsuccessful, but by 1645 Corfe was one of the last remaining royalist strongholds in Southern England and fell to a siege ending in an assault. In March that year Corfe Castle was demolished ('slighted') on Parliament's orders. Owned by the National Trust, the castle is open to the public. It is protected as a Grade I listed building and a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

  

The isle

  

A large part of the district is now designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), but a portion of the coast around Worbarrow Bay and the ghost village of Tyneham is still, after nearly 60 years, in the possession of the Ministry of Defence who use it as a training area. Lulworth Ranges are part of the Armoured Fighting Vehicles Gunnery School at Lulworth Camp. Tanks and other armoured vehicles are used in this area and shells are fired. Due to safety reasons, right of entry is only given when the army ranges are not in operation. Large red flags are flown and flashing warning lamps on Bindon Hill and St Alban's Head are lit when the ranges are in use.[6] At such times the entrance gates are locked and wardens patrol the area.

  

Other places of note are:

  

Swanage, at the eastern end of the peninsula, is a seaside resort. At one time it was linked by a branch railway line from Wareham; this was closed in 1972, but has now reopened as the Swanage Railway, a heritage railway.

 

Studland: This is a seaside village in its own sandy bay. Nearby, lying off-shore from The Foreland (also Handfast Point), are the chalk stacks named Old Harry Rocks: Old Harry and his Wife.

 

Poole Harbour is popular with yachtsmen; it contains Brownsea Island, the site of the first-ever Scout camp.

 

Corfe Castle is in the centre of the isle, with its picturesque village named after it.

 

Langton Matravers, which was once the home of several boys preparatory schools until 2007 when the Old Malthouse closed.

 

Kimmeridge Bay, with its fossil-rich Jurassic shale cliffs, and site of the oldest continually working oil well in the world.

The correct name is Grand Central Terminal (not Grand Central Station, which is the name of the U.S. Post Office station on Lexington Avenue).

Outside, above the main entrance, the clock is quite a piece of work, embedded in a sculpture where the Roman god Mercury is the main figure, but he's not alone: Minerva and Hercules are there to keep him company. French sculptor Jules-Félix Coutan was commissioned to create this statue that goes by a few names: Glory of Commerce, Progress with Mental and Physical Force, and even simply Transportation. Anyway, you can learn all about it here. It's a good read :)

 

New York City - USA

 

O nome correcto é Grand Central Terminal (e não Grand Central Station, que é o nome da estação dos Correios dos EUA na Lexington Avenue).

No exterior, por cima da entrada principal, o relógio é uma obra de arte, incrustado numa escultura onde o deus romano Mercúrio é a figura principal, mas que não está sozinho: Minerva e Hércules também lá estão para lhe fazerem companhia. O escultor francês Jules-Félix Coutan foi contratado para criar esta estátua que tem vários nomes: Glória do Comércio, Progresso com Força Mental e Física, e até simplesmente Transporte. De qualquer forma, pode ficar a saber tudo sobre esta escultura aqui. É uma leitura interessante :)

 

Nova Iorque - EUA

Excerpt from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Mount_Carmel_Church_(Hong_Kong):

 

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church (聖母聖衣堂) is a Roman Catholic church in the Diocese of Hong Kong. It is located in the Wanchai district at 1 Star Street. The church is unique being located within a private multi-storey residential building, rather than a stand-alone structure.

 

The current church situated in the historical site of St. Francis Xavier Chapel, which was the place of worship for Catholic faithful in the Wanchai area as early as 1845. There were religious communities, Catholic hospital, and homes for abandoned babies and blind women. As the number of faithful grew, the parish priest, Father James Zilioli, and the Wanchai faithful were determined to build a new church.

 

The preparation effort started from 1934, but due to financial difficulty, construction work could only be able to start by the end of February 1949. The new church, named as named “Holy Souls Church”, was finally opened on 19 July 1950, which was the feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. In 1957, the church was renamed to "Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church”.

 

In the 1990s, the Diocese sold the property to secure funding for other purposes. With the dedication of the Diocese and assistance of local parishioners, agreement was reached with the developer to accommodate a church within the new premises.

 

The new church was officially opened and consecrated on 10 November 2001 by Cardinal John Baptist Wu Cheng-chung. The Bishop of Hong Kong.

 

The signature design of the church is a big skylight above the altar, with small sparkling pieces of crystal beads hanging down and a suspended golden cross. On the wall behind the altar, there is a mosaic depicting the scene in the Wedding at Cana by Mexican artist, Francisco Borboa. There are also flowing water running from the altar to the baptismal font at the entrance of the church.

Wiki arrived when I answered the phone.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_of_Bowland

 

The Forest of Bowland, also known as the Bowland Fells, is an area of barren gritstone fells, deep valleys and peat moorland, mostly in north-east Lancashire, England. A small part lies in North Yorkshire, and much of the area was historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. It has been designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) since 1964, and is used for grouse shooting, walking and cycling, though it is relatively unfrequented by tourists. One of the best known features of the area is Pendle Hill, which is separated from the main part of the Forest of Bowland AONB by the Ribble Valley.

13% of the AONB is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest for its important areas of heather moorland and blanket bog. The area is nationally and internationally important for its upland bird populations – the hen harrier is the symbol of the AONB. There are over 500 listed buildings and 18 scheduled monuments within the AONB.

The name 'forest' is used in its traditional sense of 'a royal hunting ground', and much of the land still belongs to the British Crown as part of the Duchy of Lancaster. In the past wild boar, deer, wolves, wild cats and game roamed the forest.

 

Heather moorland on Clougha, in the north west of the Forest of Bowland, looking towards the Yorkshire three peaks

Bowland remains as the northwestern remainder of the ancient wilderness that once stretched over a huge part of England, encompassing the Forest of Bowland, Sherwood Forest (Nottinghamshire), the New Forest (Hampshire) and Savernake Forest (Wiltshire). While the Trough of Bowland (the valley and high pass connecting the Wyre (at Marshaw) and Langden Brook and dividing the upland core of Bowland into two main blocks) represents the area, to many, on account of its popularity, it is in fact only a small part of the wider Forest of Bowland area.

The hills on the western side of the Forest of Bowland attract walkers from Lancaster and the surrounding area. Overlooking Lancaster is Clougha Pike, the western-most hill. The hills form a large horseshoe shape with its open end facing west. Clockwise from Lancaster the hills are Clougha Pike (413 m), Grit Fell (468 m), Ward's Stone (561 m), Wolfhole Crag (527 m), White Hill (544 m), Whins Brow (476 m), Totridge (496 m), Parlick (432 m), Fair Snape Fell (510 m), Bleasdale Moor (429 m), and Hawthornthwaite fell (478 m).

The area is home to the geographic centre of Great Britain which is close to the Whitendale Hanging Stones, around 4 miles (6.4 km) north of Dunsop Bridge.

The Forest of Bowland is home to an annual challenge event: The Bowland Challenge where teams of walkers navigate around a series of grid references over a ten hour period. Proceeds of the event go to support Bowland Pennine Mountain Rescue Team.

 

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wentworth_Castle

  

Wentworth Castle is a grade I listed country house, the former seat of the Earls of Strafford, at Stainborough, near Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. It is now home to the Northern College for Residential and Community Education.

 

An older house existed on the estate, then called Stainborough, when it was purchased by Thomas Wentworth, Baron Raby (later Earl of Strafford), in 1711. It was still called Stainborough in Jan Kip's engraved bird's-eye view of parterres and avenues, 1714, and in the first edition of Vitruvius Britannicus, 1715 (illustration, left). The name was changed in 1731. The original name survives in the form of Stainborough Castle, a sham ruin constructed as a garden folly (illustration below) on the estate.

 

The Estate has been in the care of the Wentworth Castle Heritage Trust since 2001 and is open to the public year round 7 days a week. The castle's gardens were restored in the early 21st century, and are also open to visitors.

  

History

  

The original house, known as the Cutler house, was constructed for Sir Gervase Cutler (born 1640) in 1670. Sir Gervase then sold the estate to Thomas Wentworth, later the 1st Earl of Strafford. The house was remodelled in two great campaigns, by two earls, in remarkably different styles, each time under unusual circumstances.

  

The first building campaign

  

The first building campaign to upgrade the original structure was initiated c.1711 by Thomas Wentworth, Baron Raby (1672-1739). He was the grandson of Sir William Wentworth, father of Thomas Wentworth, the attainted 1st Earl. Raby was himself created 1st Earl of Strafford (second creation) in 1711.

 

The estate of Wentworth Woodhouse, which he believed was his birthright, was scarcely six miles distant and was a constant bitter sting, for the Strafford fortune had passed from William Wentworth, 2nd Earl of Strafford, the childless son of the great earl, to his wife's nephew, Thomas Watson; only the barony of Raby had gone to a blood-relation. M.J. Charlesworth surmises that it was a feeling that what by right should have been his that motivated Wentworth's purchase of Stainborough Castle nearby and that his efforts to surpass the Watsons at Wentworth Woodhouse in splendour and taste motivated the man whom Jonathan Swift called "proud as Hell".[1]

 

Wentworth had been a soldier in the service of William III, who made him a colonel of dragoons. He was sent by Queen Anne as ambassador to Prussia in 1706-11 and on his return to Britain, the earldom was revived when he was created Viscount Wentworth and Earl of Strafford in the Peerage of Great Britain. He was then sent as a representative in the negotiations that led to the Treaty of Utrecht, and was brought before a commission of Parliament in the aftermath. With the death of Queen Anne, he and the Tories were permanently out of power. Wentworth, representing a clannish old family of Yorkshire, required a grand house consonant with the revived Wentworth fortunes, he spent his years of retirement completing it and enriching his landscape.

 

He had broken his tour of duty at Berlin to conclude the purchase of Stainborough in the summer of 1708, and returned to Berlin, armed with sufficient specifications of the site to engage the services of a military architect who had spent some years recently in England, Johann von Bodt. who provided the designs.[2] Wentworth was in Italy in 1709, buying paintings for the future house: "I have great credit by my pictures," he reported with satisfaction: "They are all designed for Yorkshire, and I hope to have a better collection there than Mr. Watson."[3] To display them a grand gallery would be required, for which James Gibbs must have provided the designs, since a contract for wainscoting "as desined by Mr Gibbs" survives among Wentworth papers in the British Library (Add. Mss 22329, folio 128). The Gallery was completed in 1724.[4] There are designs, probably by Bodt, for an elevation and a section showing the gallery at Wentworth Castle in the Victoria and Albert Museum (E.307-1937), in an album of mixed drawings which belonged to William Talman's son John.[5] the gallery extends one hundred and eighty feet, twenty-four feet wide, and thirty high, screened into three divisions by veined marble Corinthian columns with gilded capitals, and with corresponding pilasters against projecting piers: in the intervening spaces four marble copies of Roman sculptures on block plinths survived until the twentieth century.[6] Construction was sufficiently advanced by March–April 1714 that surviving correspondence between Strafford and William Thornton concerned the disposition of panes in the window sashes: the options were for windows four panes wide, as done in the best houses Thornton assured the earl, for which crown glass would do, or for larger panes, three panes across, which might requite plate glass: Strafford opted for the latter.[7] The results, directed largely by letter from a distance,[8] are unique in Britain. Sir Nikolaus Pevsner found the east range "of a palatial splendour uncommon in England."[9] The grand suite of parade rooms on the ground floor extended from the room at the north end with a ceiling allegory of Plenty to the south end, with one of a Fame.

 

Bodt's use of a giant order of pilasters on the front and other features, suggested to John Harris that Bodt, who had been in England in the 1690s, had had access to drawings by William Talman. Talman was the architect of Chatsworth, considered to be England's first truly Baroque house. Indeed there are similarities of design between Wentworth's east front and Chatsworth. Both have a distinctly Continental Baroque frontage. Wentworth has been described as "a remarkable and almost unique example of Franco-Prussian architecture in Georgian England".[10] The east front was built upon a raised terrace that descended to sweeps of gravelled ramps that flanked a grotto and extended in an axial vista framed by double allées of trees to a formal wrought iron gate, all seen in Jan Kip's view of 1714, which if it is not more plan than reality, includes patterned parterres to the west of the house and an exedra on rising ground behind, all features that appear again in Britannia Illustrata, (1730).[11] An engraving by Thomas Badeslade from about 1750 still shows the formal features centred on Bodt's façade, enclosed in gravel drives wide enough for a coach-and-four. The regular plantations of trees planted bosquet-fashion have matured: their edges are clipped, and straight rides pierce them.[12] All these were swept away by the second earl after mid-century, in favour of an open, rolling "naturalistic" landscape in the manner of Capability Brown.[13]

  

The first earl's landscape

  

Strafford planted avenues of trees in great quantity in this open countryside, and the sham castle folly (built from 1726 and inscribed "Rebuilt in 1730", now more ruinous than it was at first) that he placed at the highest site, "like an endorsement from the past"[14] and kept free of trees (illustration, left) missed by only a few years being the first sham castle in an English landscape garden.[15] For its central court where the four original towers were named for his four children, the earl commissioned his portrait statue in 1730 from Michael Rysbrack, whom James Gibbs had been the first to employ when he came to England;[16] the statue has been moved closer to the house.

 

A staunch Tory,[17] Lord Strafford remained in political obscurity during Walpole's Whig supremacy, for the remainder of his life. An obelisk was erected to the memory of Queen Anne in 1736, and a sitting room in the house was named "Queen Anne's Sitting Room" until modern times. Other landscape features were added, one after the other, with the result that today there are twenty-six listed structures in what remains of the parkland.

  

The second earl at Wentworth Castle

  

The first earl died in 1739 and his son succeeded him. William Wentworth, 2nd Earl of Strafford (1722-1791) rates an entry in Colvin's Biographical Dictionary of British Architects as the designer of the fine neo-Palladian range, built in 1759-64 (illustration, upper right). He married a daughter of the Duke of Argyll[18] and spent a year on the Grand Tour to improve his taste; he eschewed political life. At Wentworth Castle he had John Platt (1728–1810)[19] on the site as master mason and Charles Ross ( -1770/75) to draft the final drawings and act as "superintendent"; Ross was a carpenter and joiner of London who had worked under the Palladian architect and practiced architectural ammanuensis, Matthew Brettingham, at Strafford's London house, 5, St James's Square, in 1748-49. Ross's proven competency in London in London doubtless recommended him to the Earl for the building campaign in Yorkshire.[20] At Wentworth Castle it was generally understood, as Lord Verulam remarked in 1768, "'Lord Strafford himself is his own architect and contriver in everything."[21] Even in the London house, Walpole tells us, "he chose all the ornaments himself".

 

Horace Walpole singled out Wentworth Castle as a paragon for the perfect integration of the site, the landscape, even the harmony of the stone:

 

"If a model is sought of the most perfect taste in architecture, where grace softens dignity, and lightness attempers magnificence... where the position is the most happy, and even the colour of the stone the most harmonious; the virtuoso should be directed to the new front of Wentworth-castle:[22] the result of the same judgement that had before distributed so many beauties over that domain and called from wood, water, hills, prospects, and buildings, a compendium of picturesque nature, improved by the chastity of art."[23]

  

Later history

  

With the extinction of the earldom with the third earl in 1799, the huge family estates were divided into three, one third going to the descendants of each daughter of the 1st Earl. Wentworth Castle was left in trust for Lady Henrietta Vernon's grandson Frederick Vernon, (of Hilton Hall, Staffordshire) whose trustees were William, 4th Earl Fitzwilliam, and Walter Spencer Stanhope. Frederick Vernon added Wentworth to his surname and took charge of the estate in 1816. Between 1820 and 1840 the old chapel of St. James was replaced with the current building and the windows of the Baroque Wing were lowered on either side of the entrance hall. Frederick Vernon Wentworth also amalgamated two ground floor rooms to make what is now the blue room. In July of 1838 a freak hail storm badly damaged the cupola and windows of the house as well as all the greenhouses within the walled gardens, yet this pales into insignificance when compared with the nearby Huskar Colliery disaster where 26 child miners lost there lives due to flooding following the hail storm. In May of 1853 a freak snow storm also caused severe damage, particularly to the mature trees within the gardens, some of them rare species from America planted by the 1st and 2nd earls. Frederick Vernon Wentworth was succeeded by his son Thomas in 1885 who added the iron framed Conservatory and electric lighting by March of the following year. The Victorian Wing also dates from this decade and its construction allowed the Vernon-Wentworths to entertain the young Duke of Clarence and his entourage during the winters of 1887 and 1889. The estate was inherited by Thomas' eldest son Captain Bruce Canning Vernon Wentworth, M.P. for Brighton, in 1902. Preferring his Suffolk estates, the Captain put the most valuable of his Wentworth Castle house contents up for sale at auction with Christies after the First World War. The paintings sold at Christie's on 13 November 1919.[24] Bruce Vernon-Wentworth, who had no direct heirs, sold the house and its gardens to Barnsley Corporation in 1948, while the rest of his estates, in Yorkshire, Suffolk and Scotland were left to a distant cousin.[25] The remaining contents of Wentworth Castle were emptied at a house sale,[26] and the house became a teacher training college, the Wentworth Castle College of Education, until 1978. It was then used by Northern College.[27] It was featured in the Victoria and Albert Museum's exhibition "The Country House in Danger". The great landscape that Walpole praised in 1780 was described in 1986 as now "disturbed and ruinous", the second earl's sinuous river excavated in the 1730s reduced to a series of silty ponds,.[28]

 

Wentworth Castle is the only Grade I Listed Gardens and Parkland in South Yorkshire. The Wentworth Castle Heritage Trust was formed in 2002 as a charity with the aim “To undertake a phased programme of restoration and development works which will provide benefit to the general public by providing extensive access to the parkland and gardens and the built heritage, conserving these important heritage assets for future generations”. Today, the landscape is gradually being restored by the Trust. The restoration of the Rotunda was completed in 2010, the parkland has been returned to deer park. The restoration of the Serpentine will form a future project as funding allows.

 

The estate opened fully to visitors in 2007, following the completion of the first phase of restoration, which cost £15.2m.[29] The Gardens at Wentworth Castle and Stainborough Park are open 7 days a week year round (closed Christmas Day and Boxing Day). Information for visitors, groups and schools and the latest information on restoration progress is available from the Trust's website. Tours of the house are available by arrangement.

 

Wentworth Castle was featured on the BBC TV show Restoration in 2003, when a bid was made to restore the Grade II* Listed Victorian conservatory to its former glory, though it[30] did not win in the viewers' response. Subsequently, the Wentworth Castle Heritage Trust took the decision in 2005 to support the fragile structure further with a scaffold in order to prevent its total collapse. The Trust succeeded in raising the £3.7 million needed to restore the conservatory in 2011 and work began in 2012, with grants from English Heritage, the Country Houses Foundation, the Heritage Lottery Fund and the European Regional Development Fund. The Trust completed the restoration of its fragile Victorian glasshouse in October 2013 – 10 years after its first TV appearance the Restoration series. It was opened by the Mayor of Barnsley on 7 November 2013 and opened to the general public the following day.

Wiki put the scrunched up wrapping paper in the chair with her bears. Jolly, jingle and crackle to you too. This fits nicely with Our Daily Challenge topic 'What are you doing today?'

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_Valley

 

Monument Valley (Navajo: Tsé Biiʼ Ndzisgaii, pronounced [tsʰépìːʔ ǹtsɪ̀skɑ̀ìː], meaning "valley of the rocks") is a region of the Colorado Plateau characterized by a cluster of sandstone buttes, with the largest reaching 1,000 ft (300 m) above the valley floor. The most famous butte formations are located in northeastern Arizona along the Utah–Arizona state line. The valley is considered sacred by the Navajo Nation, the Native American people within whose reservation it lies.

 

Monument Valley has been featured in many forms of media since the 1930s. Famed director John Ford used the location for a number of his Westerns. Film critic Keith Phipps wrote that "its five square miles [13 km2] have defined what decades of moviegoers think of when they imagine the American West".

 

Sourc: navajonationparks.org/navajo-tribal-parks/monument-valley/

 

History

 

Before human existence, the Park was once a lowland basin. For hundreds of millions of years, materials that eroded from the early Rock Mountains deposited layer upon layer of sediment which cemented a slow and gentle uplift, generated by ceaseless pressure from below the surface, elevating these horizontal strata quite uniformly one to three miles above sea level. What was once a basin became a plateau.

 

Natural forces of wind and water that eroded the land spent the last 50 million years cutting into and peeling away at the surface of the plateau. The simple wearing down of altering layers of soft and hard rock slowly revealed the natural wonders of Monument Valley today.

 

From the visitor center, you see the world-famous panorama of the Mitten Buttes and Merrick Butte. You can also purchase guided tours from Navajo tour operators, who take you down into the valley in Jeeps for a narrated cruise through these mythical formations. Places such as Ear of the Wind and other landmarks can only be accessed via guided tours. During the summer months, the visitor center also features Haskenneini Restaurant, which specializes in both native Navajo and American cuisines, and a film/snack/souvenir shop. There are year-round restroom facilities. One mile before the center, numerous Navajo vendors sell arts, crafts, native food, and souvenirs at roadside stands.

 

Additional Foreign Language Tags:

 

(United States) "الولايات المتحدة" "Vereinigte Staaten" "アメリカ" "米国" "美国" "미국" "Estados Unidos" "États-Unis" "ארצות הברית" "संयुक्त राज्य" "США"

 

(Arizona) "أريزونا" "亚利桑那州" "אריזונה" "एरिजोना" "アリゾナ州" "애리조나" "Аризона"

 

(Utah) "يوتا" "犹他州" "יוטה" "यूटा" "ユタ州" "유타" "Юта"

 

(Monument Valley) "وادي النصب التذكاري" "纪念碑谷" "Vallée des monuments" "מוניומנט ואלי" "स्मारक घाटी" "モニュメントバレー" "모뉴먼트 밸리" "Долина Монументов" "Valle de los Monumentos"

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

 

Hung Hom (紅磡) is a passenger railway station in Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong. It is an interchange station between the East Rail line and the Tuen Ma line domestic services of the MTR network, as well as the southern terminus of cross-border through-trains to mainland China which has been discontinued. This station serves the southern terminus of the East Rail Line in early morning before the first northbound train from Admiralty arrives. As the station is located next to the Cross-Harbour Tunnel's northern portal, it is also served by many cross-harbour bus routes.

 

Opened as the new southern terminus of the Kowloon–Canton Railway (KCR) on 24 November 1975, the station was substantially expanded in the 1990s, at which time it was given its present name. The KCR British Section was also renamed KCR East Rail in order to differentiate it from the new KCR West Rail, which opened on 20 December 2003 and was extended to Hung Hom station on 16 August 2009.

 

As part of the Sha Tin to Central Link project, the East Rail line was extended across Victoria Harbour to Admiralty via a new immersed tube tunnel to the south of Hung Hom. The West Rail line was also extended via eastern Kowloon to connect to the former Ma On Shan line, with the combined line being renamed "Tuen Ma line".

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruges

 

Bruges (Dutch: Brugge; French: Bruges; German: Brügge) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country.

 

The area of the whole city amounts to more than 13,840 hectares (138.4 sq km; 53.44 sq miles), including 1,075 hectares off the coast, at Zeebrugge (from Brugge aan zee, meaning "Bruges by the Sea"). The historic city centre is a prominent World Heritage Site of UNESCO. It is oval in shape and about 430 hectares in size. The city's total population is 117,073 (1 January 2008), of whom around 20,000 live in the city centre. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of 616 km2 (238 sq mi) and has a total of 255,844 inhabitants as of 1 January 2008.

 

Along with a few other canal-based northern cities, such as Amsterdam, it is sometimes referred to as the Venice of the North. Bruges has a significant economic importance, thanks to its port, and was once one of the world's chief commercial cities. Bruges is well known as the seat of the College of Europe, a university institute for European studies.

 

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belfry_of_Bruges

 

The Belfry of Bruges (Dutch: Belfort van Brugge) is a medieval bell tower in the centre of Bruges, Belgium. One of the city's most prominent symbols, the belfry formerly housed a treasury and the municipal archives, and served as an observation post for spotting fires and other danger. A narrow, steep staircase of 366 steps, accessible by the public for an entry fee, leads to the top of the 83 m (272 feet) high building, which leans 87 centimetres to the east.

 

To the sides and back of the tower stands the former market hall, a rectangular building only 44 m broad but 84 m deep, with an inner courtyard. The belfry, accordingly, is also known as the Halletoren (tower of the halls).

 

The belfry is a key component of the UNESCO world heritage site of the historic centre of Bruges.

 

The building is a central feature of the 2008 film In Bruges and is also mentioned in the novel Cloud Atlas.

 

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markt_(Bruges)

 

The Markt ("Market Square") of Bruges is located in the heart of the city and covers an area of about 1 hectare. Some historical highlights around the square include the 12th-century belfry and the West Flanders Provincial Court (originally the Waterhall, which in 1787 was demolished and replaced by a classicist building that from 1850 served as provincial court and after a fire in 1878 was rebuilt in a neo-Gothic style in 1887. In the center of the market stands the statue of Jan Breydel and Pieter de Coninck.

 

In 1995 the market was completely renovated. Parking in the square was removed and the area became mostly traffic-free, thus being more celebration friendly. The renovated market was reopened in 1996 with a concert by Helmut Lotti.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Canyon

 

The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is 277 miles (446 km) long, up to 18 miles (29 km) wide and attains a depth of over a mile (6,093 feet or 1,857 meters).

 

The canyon and adjacent rim are contained within Grand Canyon National Park, the Kaibab National Forest, Grand Canyon–Parashant National Monument, the Hualapai Indian Reservation, the Havasupai Indian Reservation and the Navajo Nation. The surrounding area is contained within the Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument. President Theodore Roosevelt was a major proponent of the preservation of the Grand Canyon area and visited it on numerous occasions to hunt and enjoy the scenery.

 

Nearly two billion years of Earth's geological history have been exposed as the Colorado River and its tributaries cut their channels through layer after layer of rock while the Colorado Plateau was uplifted. While some aspects about the history of incision of the canyon are debated by geologists, several recent studies support the hypothesis that the Colorado River established its course through the area about 5 to 6 million years ago. Since that time, the Colorado River has driven the down-cutting of the tributaries and retreat of the cliffs, simultaneously deepening and widening the canyon.

 

For thousands of years, the area has been continuously inhabited by Native Americans, who built settlements within the canyon and its many caves. The Pueblo people considered the Grand Canyon a holy site, and made pilgrimages to it. The first European known to have viewed the Grand Canyon was García López de Cárdenas from Spain, who arrived in 1540.

 

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Canyon_National_Park

 

Grand Canyon National Park is a national park of the United States located in northwestern Arizona, the 15th site to have been named as a national park. The park's central feature is the Grand Canyon, a gorge of the Colorado River, which is often considered one of the Wonders of the World. The park, which covers 1,217,262 acres (1,901.972 sq mi; 4,926.08 km2) of unincorporated area in Coconino and Mohave counties, received more than 4.7 million recreational visitors in 2023. The Grand Canyon was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979. The park celebrated its 100th anniversary on February 26, 2019.

 

Source: www.nps.gov/grca/index.htm

 

Entirely within the state of Arizona, the park encompasses 278 miles (447 km) of the Colorado River and adjacent uplands. Located on the ancestral homelands of 11 present day Tribal Communities, Grand Canyon is one of the most spectacular examples of erosion anywhere in the world—a mile deep canyon unmatched in the incomparable vistas it offers visitors from both north and south rims.

 

Additional Foreign Language Tags:

 

(United States) "الولايات المتحدة" "Vereinigte Staaten" "アメリカ" "米国" "美国" "미국" "Estados Unidos" "États-Unis" "ארצות הברית" "संयुक्त राज्य" "США"

 

(Arizona) "أريزونا" "亚利桑那州" "אריזונה" "एरिजोना" "アリゾナ州" "애리조나" "Аризона"

 

(Grand Canyon) "جراند كانيون" "大峡谷" "גרנד קניון" "ग्रांड कैन्यन" "グランドキャニオン" "그랜드 캐니언" "Гранд-Каньон" "Gran Cañón"

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Air_Force_Base

 

Scott Air Force Base (IATA: BLV, ICAO: KBLV, FAA LID: BLV) is a United States Air Force base in St. Clair County, Illinois, near Belleville and O'Fallon, 17 miles east-southeast of downtown St. Louis. Scott Field was one of thirty-two Air Service training camps established after the United States entered World War I in April 1917. It is headquarters of Air Mobility Command (AMC), and is also the headquarters of the U.S. Transportation Command, a Unified Combatant Command that coordinates transportation across all the services.

 

The base is operated by the 375th Air Mobility Wing (375 AMW) and is also home to the Air Force Reserve Command's 932d Airlift Wing (932 AW) and the Illinois Air National Guard's 126th Air Refueling Wing (126 ARW), the latter two units being operationally gained by AMC.

 

The base currently employs 13,000 people, 5,100 civilians with 5,500 active-duty Air Force, and an additional 2,400 Air National Guard and Reserve personnel. It was announced in June 2014 that two new cybersecurity squadrons will be added to the three currently on base.

 

Its airfield is also used by civilian aircraft, with civilian operations at the base referring to the facility as MidAmerica St. Louis Airport. MidAmerica has operated as a Joint Use Airport since beginning operations in November 1997. Allegiant Air, the only commercial airline with scheduled flights at the airport, pulled out of the airport on January 3, 2009, but now has multiple nonstop destinations.

 

Additional Foreign Language Tags:

 

(United States) "الولايات المتحدة" "Vereinigte Staaten" "アメリカ" "美国" "미국" "Estados Unidos" "États-Unis"

 

(Illinois) "الينوي" "伊利诺伊州" "इलिनोइस" "イリノイ" "일리노이" "Иллинойс"

 

(Scott Air Force Base) "قاعدة سكوت الجوية" "斯科特空军基地" "Base aérienne de Scott" "स्कॉट एयर फोर्स बेस" "スコット空軍基地" "스콧 공군 기지" "База ВВС Скотт" "Base de la Fuerza Aérea Scott"

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rushmore

 

Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a national memorial centered on a colossal sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore (Lakota: Tȟuŋkášila Šákpe, or Six Grandfathers) in the Black Hills near Keystone, South Dakota, United States. Sculptor Gutzon Borglum created the sculpture's design and oversaw the project's execution from 1927 to 1941 with the help of his son, Lincoln Borglum. The sculpture features the 60-foot-tall (18 m) heads of four United States Presidents recommended by Borglum: George Washington (1732–1799), Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) and Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865). The four presidents were chosen to represent the nation's birth, growth, development and preservation, respectively. The memorial park covers 1,278 acres (2.00 sq mi; 5.17 km2) and the mountain itself has an elevation of 5,725 feet (1,745 m) above sea level.

 

The sculptor and tribal representatives settled on Mount Rushmore, which also has the advantage of facing southeast for maximum sun exposure. Doane Robinson wanted it to feature American West heroes, such as Lewis and Clark, their expedition guide Sacagawea, Oglala Lakota chief Red Cloud, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Oglala Lakota chief Crazy Horse. Borglum believed that the sculpture should have broader appeal and chose the four presidents.

 

Peter Norbeck, U.S. senator from South Dakota, sponsored the project and secured federal funding. Construction began in 1927 and the presidents' faces were completed between 1934 and 1939. After Gutzon Borglum died in March 1941, his son Lincoln took over as leader of the construction project. Each president was originally to be depicted from head to waist, but lack of funding forced construction to end on October 31, 1941.

 

Sometimes referred to as the "Shrine of Democracy", Mount Rushmore attracts more than two million visitors annually.

 

Source: www.blackhillsbadlands.com/parks-monuments/mount-rushmore...

 

Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a large-scale mountain sculpture by artist Gutzon Borglum. The figures of America's most prominent U.S. presidents--George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt—represent 150 years of American history.

 

The Memorial is located near Keystone in the Black Hills of South Dakota, roughly 30 miles from Rapid City.

 

Each year, approximately three million tourists from all over the world visit Mount Rushmore to experience this patriotic site. Today, the wonder of the mountain reverberates through every visitor. The four "great faces" of the presidents tower 5,725 feet above sea level and are scaled to men who would stand 465 feet tall.

 

There are many amenities at the site including the Mount Rushmore Audio Tour, Lincoln Borglum Visitor Center & Museum, the Presidential Trail, Youth Exploration Area, Sculptor’s Studio, a parking garage with R.V. parking, pet exercise areas, , the Carvers Café, Memorial Ice Cream Shop, Gift Shop and the Mount Rushmore Bookstores.

 

Additional Foreign Language Tags:

 

(United States) "الولايات المتحدة" "Vereinigte Staaten" "アメリカ" "美国" "미국" "Estados Unidos" "États-Unis"

 

(South Dakota) "داكوتا الجنوبية" "南达科他州" "Dakota du Sud" "दक्षिण डकोटा" "サウスダコタ" "사우스다코타" "Южная Дакота" "Dakota del Sur"

 

(Mount Rushmore) "جبل رشمور" "拉什莫尔山" "Mont Rushmore" "माउंट रशमोर" "ラシュモア山" "러시모어 산" "Гора Рашмор" "Monte Rushmore"

Wiki

Prince Oscar of Sweden, Duke of Skåne (Oscar Carl Olof; born 2 March 2016) is a Swedish prince and the younger child and only son of Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden and her husband Prince Daniel. He is the fourth grandchild and second grandson of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia. He is third in the line of succession to the Swedish throne, after his mother, and his sister Princess Estelle, Duchess of Östergötland.

 

Prince Oscar was christened on on 27 May 2016 at the Royal Chapel of Stockholm Palace in Stockholm, Sweden.[8] His godparents are Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark; Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway; his maternal aunt, Princess Madeleine of Sweden; his mother's cousin Oscar Magnuson; and his father's cousin Hans Åström.

 

From left

Hans Åström

Mette-Marit, Crown Princess of Norway

Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark

Prince Oscar, Duke of Skåne

Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

Prince Daniel, Duke of Västergötland

Princess Estelle, Duchess of Östergötland

Princess Leonore, Duchess of Gotland

Princess Madeleine, Duchess of Hälsingland and Gästrikland

DRAGON'S MOUTH: Temperature 170.2°F Dimensions 18x30 feet. Depth 16 feet. Dragon's Mouth is a turbulent hot spring with a cavernous mouth. Water sloshes rhythmically in and out of the cavern giving the impression of a large overflow; however, the actual discharge is quite small. Much of the activity and energy is located within the cavern. As hot water rises to the surface, hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, and water vapor gases expand creating a pressure explosion in the cavern. The resulting activity is sloshing, belching, and steaming. [Source: www.yellowstonenationalpark.com/mudvolcano.htm]

 

Yellowstone National Park is a national park located in the U.S. states of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. It was established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872. Yellowstone was the first National Park in the U.S. and is also widely held to be the first national park in the world. The park is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features, especially Old Faithful Geyser, one of its most popular features. It has many types of ecosystems, but the subalpine forest is the most abundant. It is part of the South Central Rockies forests ecoregion. [Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_National_Park]

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The BNSF Railway (reporting mark BNSF), formerly known as the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway, is an American freight railroad company headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas; it is one of four remaining transcontinental railroads, and one of the largest freight railroad networks, in North America. Only the Union Pacific Railroad, its primary competitor for Western U.S. freight, is larger in size. The BNSF Railway moves more intermodal freight traffic than any other rail system in the world.

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