Pix Of The Day: Shameless 'Cool Site' Poll Plug
CREDITS: © Erik Gauger/Notes from the Road

Originally this entry was only intended to stand as a temporary item: if you visited earlier today, you will have seen it already. However, we decided we would be able to turn it into a permanent entry, thus allowing us to pour cold beers while we retired onto the patio to enjoy the Autumn sunshine. At some point the poll we link to later in this entry will no longer be for voting on today's entry, though the link should work to allow you to exercise your democratic rights on something. The only certainty is change. Cheers!

One of the web sites we frequent is Erik Gauger's Notes from the Road (NFR). Erik has been selected as today's Cool Site of the Day (CSD), on the famous web site of the same name, created by Internet veteran Mike Corso. This is a well deserved honor: the site features creative travel writing of the highest caliber, accompanied by excellent photographs. You may visit Erik at the NFR home page, or go direct to the latest update, Atomic Agriculture on the Rio Grande.

If you enjoy this fine site, and would like to contribute to its success before a wider audience, then please go to the CSD submission page to cast your vote: the poll is quick, easy, and anonymous; nothing is requested except your score and vote.

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On This Day In 2002: Maddening Crowds - Mon 30 Sep 2002

It is a while since we featured one of Charles Winpenny's pictures: this one caught our eye because we imagine that house must be a very peaceful place to live.

The scene is Towan Beach, Newquay, in the English county of Cornwall. A number of lines from the 'Seinfeld' series spring to mind, especially Mr. Costanza senior clenching his teeth and yelling for "Serenity Now!". The Seinfeld characters always become nervous when their 'significant other' relationships reach that dangerous 'unannounced drop-in' stage. None of these problems exist here, in what we imagine to be a haven of serenity. If only that bridge was a drawbridge! Madding or maddening, both are equally repellant.

Never read 'Far from the Madding Crowd', Thomas Hardy's 19th century novel of courtships and relationships between the rustics in the fictitious English countryside of 'Wessex'? There is no need to need to trouble yourself by making the effort, just pop along to AWERTY.com for an almost effortless literary summary. The author claims Hardy was censored for his descriptions of sexual relationships: I think that what may have been meant was censured, but if I am wrong that in itself sounds like a very interesting line of enquiry. There are 68,999 other essays to choose from, so with this bluffers guide you may become erudite in only a few days.

One of us was pontificating to she who must be obeyed that like his father he despised instant erudition. Herself did manage to deflate the significant other somewhat by pointing out that he had said exactly that same thing, at exactly the same point on our journey to the nearby town on the previous Saturday. A lesser man might have taken this to be a clear sign of boring decrepitude. However, we take it as a sign that we are at least consistent in our expressed beliefs. That aside, how we wish this resource had been available when we were cramming for English Literature examinations. Needs must when the Devil drives hardest, which was often the case in our misspent youths.

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Pix Of The Day: Onion Johnnies & Roscoff Pinks
CREDITS: © Peter Turner/MaccCAM.co.uk MAP: Portsmouth-Roscoff.
When clicked, thumbnails popup enlarged versions of the images.

Peter Turner's Macclesfield based MaccCAM.co.uk crew recently went on vacation to Brittany, in the northwest of France. Travelling on the quieter and more dignified Plymouth to Roscoff route, rather than following the crowds on the ferry routes leaving Dover on the shortest cross channel routes, they arrived in the early morning.

Visit the CAM for a two part gallery starting on the English coast, and continuing on French soil for some pictures of the quiet port town of Roscoff in the low morning light. A shot of a plaque commemorating the 'Onion Johnnies' brought memories flooding back. Back in the 50s, at the end of the last millennium, the Autumn (or 'back end' as it was often called) brought exotic looking men in berets, pushing bicycles heavily laden with delicious pink onions from the fields around Roscoff.

The trade began in 1828 when Henri Ollivier, a 20 year old Roscovite, filled a boat with onions and headed for Great Britain. In a few days he had sold all his crop of pink Breton onions. Other were encouraged to emulate his success, and a regular trade was built. For more than a century, thousands of young Roscovites crossed the Channel to stay in Great Britain. They would leave in September and return the following Spring. It was not an easy life. It began by crossing the channel, often in inclement weather conditions, in schooners. Accommodation on the boats, and on land in Great Britain, was often rudimentary. Payment was usually made at the end of the trip, and unsold stock was deducted from the payment. Disaster was always a possibility, and in 1905 the 'Hilda' foundered at Roscoff, and 70 Johnnies perished.

The story of the Johnnies is told in an article on Brittany-Bretagne.com, which includes a regrettably small picture of horse drawn onion carts on the dockside. Philip Delves Broughton, a correspondent for Telegraph.co.uk, has an article on the Johnnies, and another Telegraph correspondent Yvonne Thomas adds her own spin to the story. William Chisholm at TheScotsman.co.uk follows one of the Johnnies, and mentions a book recording the history of the Johnnies by Ian MacDougall, a secretary and researcher for the Scottish Working People's History Trust. In late 2002 the British TV company Meridian aired a program in the 'Last of…' series entitled The French Onion Sellers, which one may hope they will repeat.

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On This Day In 2002: Vlad the Impaler - Sun, 29 Sep 2002

Weblog favorite Tony Richards has been on vacation all last week in Whitby, said to be the place that inspired Bram Stoker's 'Count Dracula'. Tony's picture of Whitby Harbour just makes us wonder what Stoker had been taking to conjure up such warped nonsense. The historical 15th century figure who was the inspiration behind the Gothic novels main character must have been a far more frightening prospect for those around him at the time.

Author Benjamin H. Leblanc has a concise biography of the life of Vlad Tepes Dracula. He was also known as 'Vlad the Impaler' for reasons that will become apparent if you read his story. Maybe not a good way to make friends, but certainly an effective way to influence people. His rule was so firm that it is said that he placed a golden drinking goblet in the central square of Tirgoviste so that travellers might refresh themselves. It was never stolen. His answer to poverty in his kingdom will probably appeal to you if you have extreme right wing views.

Tony is now back in Lakeland, well away from such dark fantasies. Although come to think of it, Croglin village in the nearby Eden Valley did once have an outbreak of vampirism, and heaven alone knows what stories Col. Lacey and Long Meg and Her Daughters might have to tell.

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Pix Of The Day: Grey Turning Red Just For You
CREDITS: © Ann Bowker/Mad About Mountains MAP: Keswick and Dockwray.
When clicked, thumbnails popup enlarged versions of the images.

If you followed the link to a John Peel story from yesterday's Herdwick picture, you may be confused to see today's red sheep. Even a Herdwick ewe likes to look her best, especially in the Herdwick beauty parade at Keswick Show, in northwest England's Lake District.

The effect is achieved using special beauty products, such as those manufactured by Battles, who rejoice in the full name of Battle, Hayward & Bower Limited. The original red color was known as 'rudd' and was made from a paste using the local red sandstone, traditionally also used to redden the steps at house doorways. Beautiful products, made of fine local Herdwick wool, may be obtained from Helvellyn Herdwicks, where you will also find more information. The Ruskin Museum has a Herdwick page.

An article in a local area magazine, Cumbria Life, entitled 'Herdwick - the hardiest of them all', quotes Derick & Jean Wilson, of Penfold Farm, Dockray, near Ullswater, who run a flock of 800 Herdwick ewes, "You wash their faces and legs, so that they are as white as possible," says Derick, "and then put Herdwick show red on their backs; the red is a tradition in these parts when showing Herdwick sheep. Nothing looks nicer than a Herdwick ready for showing; they look absolutely beautiful."

In addition to glamorous Herdwick ewes, Ann Bowker's web page has pictures of the sheep judging (the mountain behind is Skiddaw, the town of Keswick's local signature mountain), rosette winning Herdwick tups (an old word derived from the Norse, which indicates a male sheep), men in brightly patterned skirts squeezing music from pigs' skins and bladders, and boys in white tights with their velvet knickers donned as over garments, embracing each other in a such a way that it would probably be considered illegal in many less liberal jurisdictions.

There are days when I despair of my former countrymen!

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On This Day In 2002: More Pictures from Space - Sat 28 Sep 2002

This is the extra picture provided by Dr. Jay Apt, as an addition to yesterday's feature. The picture shows another view of Mt. Everest taken from the international space station, and is also available as a high [1] resolution image, suitable for viewing on larger monitors. Jay has also provided a corrected version of the image, which may be viewed at normal [2] resolution, or at a higher [3] resolution, depending on the size of monitor you are using.

We thought visitors might also like to see a picture of Jay from his days as an astronaut. If you go to the OrbitExperience web site there are many more pictures, including some of Jay on the unscheduled space walk when the malfunctioning Gamma Ray Observatory had to be deployed manually. The web site also has a news section so you can keep up to date with current developments, and a 'This Week in Space' history of the exploration events. A very rich site, well worth a full investigation.

We would like to thank Dr. Apt for his kindness in allowing us to use his pictures and link to his web site, and for his help in preparing this feature.

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Pix Of The Day: Lake District Grey Eminences
CREDITS: © Tony Richards/LakelandCAM.co.uk
When clicked, thumbnails popup enlarged versions of the images.

We were astounded to discover that this weblog makes only one brief and passing reference to John Peel, about whom the famous hunting song 'D'Ye Ken John Peel' was written. Peel was a denizen of the northwestern corner of the English Lake District in our own homeland. His fame has spread out of all proportion to his real importance as an historical figure, and he has his boozing buddy, John Woodcock Graves who wrote the song, to thank for that fame.

We will try to make amends for our shortcoming with a dedicated article, after we have had time to recover from the shock of our neglect, and have had time to gather some research and provide our readers with interesting web resources.

Meanwhile, to our chagrin, we found the most entertaining piece about Peel on an Australian web site, albeit one published on a South African web server! References to Eric Shackle, and his 'World's First Multi-National eBook', have appeared here before, but here is a great yarn, connecting Clarissa Dickson Wright (she of the 'Two Fat Ladies' television cookery series), and Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania)… OH! and not to forget John Peel himself, of course.

After you have read that piece, you will understand why today we have featured a gray sheep, one of the thousands of the Herdwick breed that roam the fells of Lakeland. Tomorrow we will explore the implications of being 'dyed in the wool'.

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Pix of the Day: Mt. Everest from Space - Fri, 27 Sep 2002

Dr. Jay Apt has walked in space! It happened when Jay flew as a member of the crew of the space Shuttle Atlantis on the STS-37 mission, which launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida on April 5 1991. During the mission, the crew deployed the Gamma Ray Observatory to study the universe by observing the most energetic form of radiation. Jay and crewmate Jerry Ross performed an unscheduled space walk during which they manually deployed the observatory's large radio antenna when remotely controlled motors failed to do so. The following day they did another space walk, scheduled this time, to perform research.

This stunning picture comes from Jay's OrbitExperience web site, which has two photo galleries with pictures of the earth taken from space, and much more besides. The picture of Mt. Everest makes it easy to see why the Nepalese call it 'Sagarmatha' (a Sanskrit word meaning "Abode of Snow'), and the Tibetans call it 'Qomolangma' (Chomolangma meaning 'Goddess-Mother'). If you find these images as awe inspiring as I do then you may want to read how Jay and others reviewed all 286,000 NASA photographs taken over a 30 year period, then selected the most spectacular 156 for a book entitled 'Orbit: NASA Astronauts Photograph the Earth'. Pictures in the book are scanned and corrected from the originals, so the quality is superb.

Dr. Apt's biography reads like the fulfillment of a young boy's dreams: four space missions with 35 days in space; a visit to the Russian Mir space station; recipient of NASA's highest medal; former museum director; and professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He now divides his time between lecturing and his work as Managing Director and Chief Technology Officer of iNetworks LLC, a venture capital firm.

For those further interested in Mt. Everest PBS/Nova has an interesting web site, which includes the Mallory find. For a more first hand experience of trekking in the Himalayas, Gordon Cook (as part of 'The Cook Report on the Internet') has an interesting selection of maps and pictures. Today's feature picture is also available at a higher resolution, suitable for viewing on large monitors. Dr. Apt has also kindly contributed another picture for this article, Mt. Everest taken at a later date from the international space station. That picture will be featured tomorrow.

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Pix Of The Day: Gruesome Gift To Aid Researchers
CREDITS: © Bruce Dale/National Geographic
Thumbnails links to source pages; [T] to feature text page; [P] to full picture.

On 26 September 2002 (repeated below in the next item), we published the third, and final part of a trilogy respecting the life and work of John Wesley Powell. In his will Powell left his brain to researchers, and it is now preserved in the Smithsonian Institution. The picture comes from the NGS (National Geographic Society) feature POD (Photo of the Day) for 2 Feb [T] [P] 2002.

One day earlier on 1 Feb [T] [P] 2002, the NGS featured POD was Powell's favorite spot, Dutton Point in the Grand Canyon, a magnificent viewing platform that may be seen in our second picture. As Powell is quoted as saying, "You cannot see the Grand Canyon in one view, as if it were a changeless spectacle from which a curtain might be lifted ", and if anyone should know that, then it would be Powell.

All four ODAAT articles in this series have now been gathered together for convenience in a John Wesley Powell archive. The articles appear in chronological order (ie the reverse of this presentation). We have only skimmed the surface of the available Powell information, and barely scratched the arid surface of the issues raised by his work. Below are some links that readers may like to follow to learn more: the order does not indicate excellence or importance.

Click the appropriate blue bullet point to visit any of these web resources:

• The Powell Museum in Page, Arizona
• DesertUSA.com web site presentation
• Songbird.com web site presentation
• University of North Texas - repository of fascinating resources in PDF format
• Canyon-Country.com web site presentation
• NPR feature 'The Vision of John Wesley Powell'
• One of Susannah Abbey's 'Explorer Heroes' on the MyHero.com web site
• Margaret S. Bearnson's article on the 'Utah History To Go' web site
• PBS feature 'Lost in the Grand Canyon', part of 'American Experience'
• Grand Canyon National Park photo gallery on Powell
• Epilogue from 'The Romance Of The Colorado River' by Frederick S. Dellenbaugh
• Burial details from the Arlington National Cemetery web site
• Smithsonian presentation '150 Years of Adventure, Discovery, and Wonder'
• Photo portrait of Powell on the 'American Memory' web site
• Powell section of 'Grand Canyon Explorer' on Kaibab.org

What if we could only choose one item? Our personal selection is the resource created by Luke Griffin, currently maintained by Valerie Glenn, on the University of Texas web site. Though not instantly accessible as web pages, the downloadable PDF 8.8Mb file 'Images from Exploration of the Colorado' contains a wide selection of contemporary illustrations that we thought gave a connection to those times: although relatively low resolution, in some ways this adds to their effect.

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On This day In 2002: JWP's Bitter Harvest - Thu, 26 Sep 2002

There are a number of pictures of John Wesley Powell to be found on the web. Earlier pictures show him as a young soldier with the extravagant whiskering of the day. Later pictures show him as a late 19th century administrator with a grizzled beard. However, these are my two favorite pictures of Powell. He was a driving force behind the institution that eventually became the 'Bureau of American Ethnography'. Lasting from 1879 to 1965 the Bureau was established under the Smithsonian Institution to sponsor and publish research about Native Americans. Powell must have met many Native Americans, and these two pictures seem to sum that up nicely. Both pictures, 'The Mirror Case' with Powell talking with a Ute woman Tau-ruv in the Uintah Valley, UT in 1873 or 1874 taken by John K. Hillers, and Powell on horseback speaking to a Native American, are courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.

In 1893 John Wesley Powell, addressing the International Irrigation Congress, said, "I tell you gentlemen you are piling up a heritage of conflict and litigation over the water rights for there is no sufficient water to supply the land." The man who had measured the water flows, determined that an acre-foot of water was needed to support a family of four, was saying there was not enough to go round. The audience rose to boo and jeer at the man who was telling them something they did not want to hear. You may read and hear on the NPR website historian and land manager William deBuys talking about Powell's legacy, and how his work is relevant today. The Missoulian has an interview with deBuys about his book 'Seeing Things Whole: The Essential John Wesley Powell', a reassessment of Powell's life and work.

The Arizona Republic has a whole section devoted to drought topics. There are declared emergencies in several states, but still the spirit of free enterprize demands that restrictions are not placed into legislation. Instead the authorities 'turn up the volume' on public service messages. Charles F. Hutchinson is a professor in the Office of Arid Land Studies, College of Agriculture, the University of Arizona, and has a page on the Cosmos Club website (Powell was a founding member) about the legacy of the rush to exploit the arid west. The Biography of America website tells how the 1862 'Homestead Act' spurred on the notion of 'Manifest Destiny' so that Powell's warnings were ignored, leading to his retirement, a defeated man.

In 'A River No More: the Colorado River and the West'
(1981, now out of print) author Philip L. Fradkin had this to say:

"The Canyon Ditch is the first diversion of water from the Green River. It is the highest man-made interference with the natural flow of the Colorado River system and thus of great, although virtually unnoticed, significance to the seven states in the watershed. From the headgate of the ditch, it is almost 1,700 miles to the last diversion of water from the river - the headgate of a similarly unlined ditch the Mexicans have dug through the sands of the delta to divert the last flow of the river north into Laguna Salada. Between these two ditches, dug with the same knowledge available to ancients - that water runs safely downhill if the incline is steady but slight - is gathered the most technically complex assemblage of waterworks in the world, run by such complex gadgetry as computers and laser beams and all girdled by a dense network of treaties, laws, and administrative decisions of such talmudic proportions that they are known only to a few."

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Pix Of The Day: Vast Biomes Made Of Bubble Wrap
CREDITS: © Martyn Button/CalvertonCAM
MAPS: Calverton, Nottinghamshire and St. Austell & Fowey, Cornwall.
When clicked, thumbnails popup enlarged versions of the images.

Another misleading headline created from our sense of wonder at the world about us. These are 'biomes', which is not a word coined to mean 'biological domes' as we guessed, but is a word with a proper definition as a scientific discipline: 'the world's major communities, classified according to the predominant vegetation and characterized by adaptations of organisms to that particular environment'; and they are certainly not made of bubble wrap.

These structures are big enough to contain the Tower of London, and are engineered buildings of advanced design and materials. The source for the picture was Martin Button's CalvertonCAM, from the northern English county of Nottinghamshire. Like so many of the CAM site owners recently, Martin was on vacation for this feature; his destination for the day was the Eden Project, near St. Austell in Cornwall, in the far southwest of England. Visit Martin's web site to see the giant bee that dwarfs the visiting children! There are other shots inside the biomes, and a site panorama.

Also available is a page of images recorded in nearby Fowey, and a pulldown menu that links to Martin's galleries on the Pbase service. We chose a picture of our faraway homeland, the Langdale Pikes taken from Hawk Rig.

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On This Day In 2002: Men of Action - Wed, 25 Sep 2002

This picture, courtesy of Philip Greenspun, was shot during a 1999 re-enactment of Major John Wesley Powell's epic exploration of the great river that drains the arid Southwest United States. A superb higher resolution version of the picture is also available if you have a big monitor, showing the boat shooting the Lava Rapids in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River. Philip is a modern day adventurer in the Powell manner: his Travels With Samantha is an Internet classic (winner of a Best of the Web '94 award), the story of an extended journey through America with a laptop computer, seeing places and meeting people. The web site eventually became a lavish book that arouses in me the sin of covetousness. You may check out the progress of Philip's current adventure, which is piloting a small airplane on a route from Boston to Alaska and back again… the long way.

The Grand Canyon expeditions, there were two of them in 1869 and 1871, established Powell's reputation. He was the first man to navigate the vast river system, and the first man to sail through the Grand Canyon: an earlier claimant, if in fact he managed to succeed, did so by floating down the river to escape capture. There are several excellent web resources available if you want to read summaries of Powell's life and achievements. Check out the John Wesley Powell Memorial Museum in Page, Arizona at the foot of the reservoir that was created when the Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado was built, and named Lake Powell in his honor.

The Smithsonian has a page with other details, a picture of Powell's life preserver worn on the first expedition, and details about Powell's later fight to establish the now world famous USGS (United States Geological Survey). Canyon-Country.com has another biographical summary, with details of Page, Lake Powell, and the surrounding area. GrandHikes has the story of the passage through the Grand Canyon illustrated with some of the sketches from Powell's own account of the journey. The John Wesley Powell River History Museum, in Green River, Utah, has an excellent reputation, so may be worth a visit if you are in the area.

There is such an abundance of information about Powell on the web that I found it difficult to marshall it all into a readable account. One web site stands out as a way to get a sense of how the explorer went into the last uncharted territories of the new country that had become the United States: Bob Robokas' Grand Canyon Explorer details the journey in way that is succinct yet brings the story vividly to life. This is a very rich site, worthy of extended exploration, much as Powell himself would have done. For regular readers of this weblog the photo gallery is of special interest.

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Pix Of The Day: Little And Large Steaming Parade
CREDITS: © Ian Davey/SuffolkCAM.co.uk
MAPS: Henham Park (plus detail) and Norwich with Halesworth/Southwold.
When clicked, thumbnails popup enlarged versions of the images.

We thought this picture to be one of the most delightful we have featured. It comes from Ian Davey's SuffolkCAM.co.uk as part of a gallery covering the 29th Grand Henham Steam Rally. Though retaining its name the show has now moved from its home on the Henham Estate in the English county of Suffolk, to the showground for the county of Norfolk, which is in the city of Norwich. We cannot help but think that a grander name is now deserved.

Check out Ian's web site for a Wolf Brewery liveried famous 1918 Sentinel steam truck; a 1906 Rover shows its paces ahead of a Jaguar; there is a rack saw, cider, a miniature train and tractors in every imaginable tractor color; there are even vintage bicycles… HEY! what does the 'vintage' label mean? Surely they can't be that old? We clearly remember those red bicycles doing their rounds in the United Kingdom before Lance Armstrong popularized them for USPS postie boys!

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On This Day In 2002: One-Armed River Runner - Tue 24 Sep 2002
Thumbnails popup enlarged images. The first picture is available full size.

23 September 2002 was the 100th anniversary of the death of Major John Wesley Powell, who was a Civil War hero, an explorer of the American Southwest, and a government official whose work is even more relevant today than in his own lifetime. The featured picture above, by Earl & Gail Cook, is of Green River Lake, near the source of the Green River. The Green begins high in the Wind River Mountains on the west slopes, close to where seven of the largest glaciers in the Rocky Mountains are located. The picture comes from the Green River Rendezvous 2000 web site by Earl & Gail, which is highly recommended if you have any interest in the Old West, or even just enjoy a good yarn with pictures. Little Dale Lake is the official source, a lake that is half frozen most of the year. Powell was the first man to navigate the 1,500 mile length of the Colorado River basin, and his journey began on the Green, ending where the Colorado leaves the Grand Canyon.

[Smithsonian Institute: BAE Negative #64-2-13] Powell is pictured left, in a photograph by Wells Sawyer taken around 1886, sitting in his Adams Building office. The picture is courtesy of the Smithsonian Institute from their story of the founding of the National Museum. After a distinguished military career, he lost his right arm at the Battle of Shiloh, Powell returned to his academic life as a geologist.

Powell became an explorer, but his contribution to modern life was his work as the man who understood that the future development of the arid Southwest United states was wholly dependent on water supply. He measured water resources (the terms 'run-off' and 'acre-foot' were developed from his work), trained other water specialists, and took his ideas into high office. He became a victim of the political in-fighting of his day, and his fall from power was rapid. He is buried in Arlington Cemetery, as befits a war veteran.

Over the next two days we will retell his life story, and try to relate his work and ideas to a modern context. Powell is now attracting attention in a time when overstretched water resources, and the impact of water management of the environment, are becoming an increasingly urgent topic.

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Pix Of The Day: Save Grandma From White Slavery
CREDITS: © Garth Newton/IlkCAM.com MAP: Alton Towers (and detail).
When clicked, thumbnails popup enlarged versions of the images.

I have a very jaundiced view of the British landowning aristocracy. In former times they devoted considerable energy to keeping trash like me from their hallowed grounds, but in harder times with death duty to be paid and generations of profligacy bringing them to their financial knees, they invite me to tour their former glories… ahem, a small fee is payable at the gate. That said, I visit away with almost no attitude while on the job, and have even chatted amiably with some of these very clubable fellows.

Alton Towers is probably the most successful of all these enterprises that keep the wolf from the drawbridge, and save Grandma from being sold into white slavery. It was the first major theme park in the UK, and has kept its reputation for having the latest rides and amusements. I have always avoided the place as though the plague was rampant across its endless green swards, though I often passed close by on the A50 road while heading for other destinations.

Garth Newton at IlkCAM.com set me right on my usual inexcusable, unjust, and indefensible ignorance, intolerance, bigotry, and prejudice. Alton Towers has a whole other side, the antithesis of white knuckle rides, hot dogs, flashing lights, and booming sound systems. Whatever their other shortcomings, the aristos certainly knew the best sites for houses, and how to beautify them with parklands and gardens. If you visit Garth's current photo gallery (content may change before you visit) you will see a blaze of plant color, and landscape gardening at its most abandoned. Just like Alton Towers, there are lots of other treats in store on the site!

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On This Day In 2002: Geomarginalism is Dead - Mon 23 Sep 2002

Several myths became unsustainable in the post-Internet world: one of these was that some places were central and other places were marginal. Now everywhere is at the center of somewhere, and we may hope that geomarginalism is buried along with all the other bad isms.

Map makers beginning with Mercator, whose projection puts London firmly at the center of the known world by increasingly distorting the margins, only give credence to such absurd notions. We are able to correspond daily with people who are right at the center of both their own world, and the wider world.

Australian journalist Eric Shackle, (WHOOPS! there goes another myth, because at the age of 79 years Eric defied the ageists by launching a new career as an Internet web publisher), drew our attention to the works of Margie and Chris McClelland. The photograph is taken from Margie's gallery, and the drawing is taken from one of Chris's galleries. The couple live and work among the 40,000 sheep on the vast 185,000 acre Tupra Station, near Hay, New South Wales, Australia. Chris has also done a small number of Australian drawings: you may marvel, as we did, at the drawing of the Eastern Bearded Dragon, done only with ink dots. The web site offers prints from Chris's award winning work at very affordable prices.

Those of you who are paying attention will have realized that hornbills and elephants are not creatures that one readily associates with the Australian outback. The McClellands have an abiding passion for Africa and its wildlife, which provide the inspiration for their work. They obviously look beyond their immediate location to a continent that is part of their family history, so they are certainly not in any sense guilty of some form of geomarginalism. The family name taken in conjunction with naming their son Lochiel might be another clue to their history: to this day when Cameron of Lochiel enters the City of Glasgow, Scotland, the bells are rung in thanksgiving for the Lochiel who prevented the sacking of the city in the 1745 uprising.

The McClelland web site does not neglect local interests either, but provides some great links to other local artists, businesses, and organizations. The nearby town of Hay (50 miles is nearby in this big country) has an interesting history, and lots of activities currently in progress. I found a definitely non-geomarginalist map that clearly puts Hay at the midway point of the Sturt Highway between Sydney and Adelaide. The area is part of the Riverina district, which includes names that may be more familiar to you than you might imagine: Wagga Wagga and the Barossa wine growing area fall within its purlieus. A famous location nearby is One Tree Plain, with the eponymous One Tree Hotel. Regrettably the tree blew down in a gale on New Years Eve 1987: a terrible loss when there is only one!

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Pix Of The Day: Admiral Horatio Nelson & Batman
CREDITS: © Terry Smith/Trekking Scenes MAP: Pembrokeshire Coast NP
When clicked, thumbnails popup enlarged versions of the images.

Three of our regular CAM calls have vacationed in Pembrokeshire, Wales, in recent weeks: first to be featured was Peter Turner from MacclesfieldCAM, who was closely followed by Tony Richards from LakelandCAM, and finally Terry Smith from Trekking Scenes. We had to take them in that order, despite the actual chronology, because Terry covered his trip in a two part article, with a short delay between parts. We think that there may be even more pictures to follow! Both parts [1] [2] are now available.

Remembering a recent feature that included Poulnabrone Portal Dolmen, County Clare, Ireland, for this feature we chose Terry's shot of Carreg Samson (also known as Longhouse Cromlech), a Neolithic burial chamber built 5,000 years ago. Wales has many such ancient sites worth visiting, for both their historical importance and the woowoo energy, if you are receptive to either influence.

For history try David Nash Ford on the derivation of the place name, and for several good background pages try Pembroke Online. For the woowoo energy you must make your own arrangements: one writer in our research claimed to feel those giant rocks moving to and fro when he sat among them.

Visit Terry for some other great shots, and more details about the places he visited, including a cathedral and a hermitage, rock arches and stacks, George Eliot and on the plaque her unmentioned spiritual husband George Henry Lewes, Admiral (later Viscount) Horatio Nelson and Lady Emma Hamilton with old Sir William in tow, and… Batman. Batman? Holy holiday happenings, whatever next?

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On This Day In 2002: Family Picnic Nightmare - Sun 22 Sep 2002

It's a long story… visitors with larger monitors will be able to see the really big picture. We saw this extended limo parked across four bays at our local shopping mall, while the driver tried to figure out how to get it running again. A nightmarish scenario passed before our eyes: a party of whinging kids and disgruntled relatives, demanding to know when the transport would be fixed so they could continue on to their picnic.

A similar misfortune once befell us on a paupers' vacation to Yorkshire, England with a tiny Mini, converted from a van to a sedan, which was bad enough. On this scale we would have freaked… actually, we think we probably did.

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Pix Of The Day: Moyne And Liffey Architecture
CREDITS: (1+2) © Warrnambool.com and (3+4) © Images of Dublin
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Moyne and Liffey in the headline are the rivers with those names, respectively flowing through a town that was once called Dublin, but had its name changed to Port Fairy by an act of the Australian Parliament, and the other through Dublin in Ireland. The architectural comparison between the two places began when we visited Bruce Henderson's Australian web site at Warrnambool.com (content may have changed by the time you visit) and read in the caption for the picture on the left , 'Dublin House built in 1855 is a good example of the local architecture of the time…'. Visit for an interesting historical explanation of the how and why of the place names.

The second picture has a caption that held our attention: 'Construction of the Caledonian Hotel commenced in 1844 with the upstairs accommodation added in the early 1850's, however the work was interrupted as workmen downed tools to join the rush to the Ballarat goldfields - the upstairs section of the pub remains incomplete to this day. The Caledonian also holds the distinction of being Victoria's oldest continuously licenced hotel.' Everywhere we turn there is somewhere with an interesting history to be told to those who take the time to listen.

Check out Bruce's home page for more details, pictures of other buildings, and pictures of the boat moorings along the river. The Port Fairy web site has its own history page, and Dublin House is represented on the web. Although hundreds of web sites touted rooms at the Caledonian as a Best Western® hotel (THE WORLD'S LARGEST HOTEL CHAIN®), the hotel was curiously absent from the company's own web site. Perhaps the web site, like the upper storey, is unfinished.

Searching for architectural photographs of the original Dublin, we found Images of Dublin. This delightful tour of the city had us swithering over the most representative architecture, but finally we chose the O'Connell Bridge on the left, and the Customs House on the right. In a city with a wealth of Georgian architecture, it was not an easy choice. Visit the web site for many more pictures, all neatly categorized into galleries to give a virtual tour of the Irish capital.

Don't just take our word on the quality of this site: it won a Golden Spider award in 2002 for Best Personal Website in Ireland's longest running internet competition, which is sponsored by Esat BT, the national telecommunications service.

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On This Day Day In 2002: Sublime and Subliminal - Sat 21 Sep 2002

I confess at the start that I am not a lover of the grandiose, not even for temples or cathedrals. The picture on the left is the LDS Temple in St. George, UT. That on the right is the east facade of La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain. I have seen a big enough sampling of famous religious buildings to say that for me the intended effect just does not happen. I always have a niggling suspicion that the architects are celebrating the worldly achievements of their patrons rather than the divinities in whose name the buildings are erected.

I apologize unreservedly if that causes offence to anyone in southern Utah, where people have been openly welcoming to this heathen from a far off shore. The nearby Tabernacle does get full marks! That's not to say that within their own terms of reference many of the buildings do not work at some level. At night the LDS Temple burns like a beacon in the center of the surrounding town. The medieval cathedrals of Rouen, Orvietto, Mont St. Michel, Durham, Salisbury, Lincoln, and Wells are each splendid in their own way. Even the stumpy, much knocked about, truncated cathedral of my home town of Carlisle is not without its own endearing features.

I have never seen Antonin Gaudi's Barcelona Cathedral, but I think that may just work for me because of the playful, capricious nature of its surrealist references. The picture was taken by Angus McIntyre whose site is well worth a visit. Click on the handy site map and there are six galleries for areas all round the world. The specialist sections for Petra, and the Inca Trail are absorbing… but there's much more; poetry, writing, and collecting to name just some. Everything is nicely ordered on the site, which is as neat and well implemented as anything you will find on the net. Dig deep enough and you will even find a recipe for Greek style spinach pies!

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Pix Of The Day: Modern City Made In 2,000 Years
CREDITS: © Darren Hoyle/CheshireCAM.co.uk MAP: Chester (and detail).
When clicked, thumbnails popup enlarged versions of the images.

We found these pictures of Chester city center and the city's Festival of Transport in Darren Hoyle's CheshireCAM.co.uk web site archives: the current gallery on the web site was shot in the Yorkshire Dales, and recently we decided that featuring these CAM sites when they were vacationing elsewhere might cause confusion for our visitors from around the world. We thought that the Ford Motor Company's celebration of its 100 year history made an interesting perspective check in a city with a 2,000 year history that hosts the oldest horse, and rowing, racing in the UK.

On the official CCC (Chester City Council) web site we checked out a page entitled 'Chester's Claim To Fame' and found this information:

Chester has a host of great treasures from its 2000 years of history, including:
• The City Walls, the most complete in Britain, offering a fascinating 3 kilometre circular walk around Chester - the best way to see its attractions.
• The unique, world-famous Rows - two-tier medieval galleries with superb shops of international renown.
• The Eastgate Clock- the most photographed time-piece in the world after Big Ben
• The Roman Amphitheatre - the largest arena ever uncovered in Britain.
• Chester's Flamboyant Town Crier declares mid day proclamation every Tuesday to Saturday at the Cross from May to August. Chester is the only City in Britain to boast such a regular spectacle. Visit the Chester Town Criers web site for more information.
• The annual Regatta on the River Dee - the oldest rowing races in the world.
•Chester Races - the oldest in Britain, staged on the Roodee, once the site of the massive Roman harbour - meetings throughout the year.
• Chester Zoo - the largest and best in Britain with an international reputation for animal conservation.
• Chester Mystery Plays - the oldest and most complete cycle of medieval religious dramas in Britain, next to be held in July 2003. See the CCC mystery plays web page for more details.
• Chester Cathedral - the fourth most visited Cathedral in Britain. Visit the official Cathedral web site at chestercathedral.org.uk
• Chester's Minerva Shrine is the only known Roman rock shrine in Britain.
• Chester's Weir on the River Dee was built by the Normans and is the oldest surviving mill dam in Britain.
• The Three Old Arches is the oldest Shop Front in Britain.

For an unofficial web site with plenty of links to all sorts of activities and places of interest in and around Chester, we recommend Steve Howe's Black & White Picture Place, which has a thorough Virtual Stroll around the walls of the city.

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On This Day In 2002: IN•2•IT West Coast Cool - Fri 20 Sep 2002

This picture is of Donna & Robin, who jointly are IN•2•IT. You can catch their next gig in Springdale, UT on Sept. 27+28 2002 from 12-3pm and again from 6-9pm at the Sol Foods Restaurant. Springdale is at the entrance to the Zion National Park, set among awesome scenery.

From the terrace where IN•2•IT will be performing you may watch the sun go down on the Zion cliffs. The music is 'tasty, bluesy, and jazzy'. Being uncultured in such matters, at their last appearance I asked a fan what type of music they were playing, to which he responded 'West Coast Cool, Man'. I thought Donna's voice had more than a hint of Bonnie Raitt, and that the way Robin swings his axe at the end of the riffs was early Claptonesque. That sentence probably explains why 'Rolling Stone' has never featured any of my work. There is a fan size of the picture available for larger monitors.

Perfumery In The Early 20th Century

These delightful Geraniums at Hackett Forge, Little Langdale in the English Lake District, are from Tony Richards' update for today on his LakelandCAM.co.uk website. The essential oil of this plant was a late arrival, though a close relation Herb Robert had been used medicinally for centuries. Adolphe Saafeld of Manchester in England was a surviving passenger on the Titanic, on his way to New York carrying a satchel containing sample ampoules of perfume. The satchel was recovered in 2000 and it is said that the perfume in Adolphe's ampoules is as fragrant today as it was when it went down with the ship. RMS Titanic, Inc. in association with Quest International are planning to create a perfume based on Adolphe's samples. David Pybus, who is a Perfume Historian for Quest International, has a web page with the story of perfumery in the first decade of the 20th century.

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Pix Of The Day: Days Of Remembrance
CREDITS: © Andrew Leaney/Leaney.org MAP: Howtown (and walk map).
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Ian Scott-Parker writes: Lucky me: I once worked down there, where the trees fringe that small bay. The place is Howtown, and the lake is Ullswater, in the English Lake District, just southwest of Penrith. When I started to write the notes to accompany this picture, I had little idea of the web of memories it would call forth. My buddy Robert and I had parked at Martindale Church, intending to do the same walk as Andrew and Anne Leaney did earlier this month. I found a walking pole leaning in the church porch, and after some detective work in the visitors' book, finally tracked down the owner a few days later. Dismissively, in the sort of voice the aristocracy use to the servants when they are being difficult, she told me I might keep the pole because it was old, worn out, and of little use: with a cheery, "That will make three of us!", I hung up the phone.

We trudged along the same route as the Leaneys, swathed in waterproofs against the rain. By the time we reached the ridge that ascends to Arthur's Pike we were almost as wet from sweat within, as from rain without: this was Sunday 31 August 1997, which was still officially summer.

Robert is like Captain Tennille (it is a joke), in the Simpsons cartoon: he is a man of few words; any questions? The poor fellow always suffered my constant chatter with fortitude, and on that day even ventured a few sociable remarks of his own, in the short pauses while I fought to recover breath. When it ceased raining, we stopped to remove our waterproofs. Robert eyed me suspiciously, and observed, "You didn't listen to the news before we left this morning?", asked more as a statement than a question. It was the day that Princess Diana died in a car accident in Paris.

Checking back for the exact date, I found an archived BBC site (here is the link they forgot to provide to the follow-up) site, which included a 'What Were You Doing When…?' page. Another page deals with the controversy surrounding the actions of the paparazzi, in particular one named Romuald Rat.

I remember that at the time I was unable to join in the general sense of loss: I did feel that a tragedy had happened, but a tragedy that was probably one of many that same day, all of them more painful than this one for those directly involved. I had never heard of Monsieur Rat until today, though his name is one of those ironic twists that encapsulates the whole sorry mess.

As I finished writing this piece, I discovered that today's archive piece was also a walk down a similar memory lane. Happenstance seems to happen often lately.

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On This Day In 2002: Plugs of the Auvergne - Thu 19 Sep 2002

We have not been lucky enough to meet in person many of the people whose work I have featured here. However, we am fairly sure that one lovely summer's day several years ago we did bump into Tony Sainsbury, the photographer who took today's picture. We were walking on Swirral Edge in the English Lake District about four years ago with our colleague Robert, when we stepped aside, to allow a stream of younger more athletic persons to pass on the track down to Red Tarn.

Another… ahem… mature gent joined us, and we passed the time of day: we think that was Tony, but cannot be sure until he has checked his walking diary. Unfortunately we have only our memories to rely on, a method fraught with problems of unreliability. Tony descended at that point because he had an appointment to keep, but with Robert we continued along the ridge to the deserted summit of Catstycam, to enjoy the wonderful name of the place also known as Catstye Cam and Catchedicam, for some quiet uncrowded reflection.

Meanwhile, Tony has been on vacation in the mountainous areas of France. Today's picture is of two denuded volcanic plugs near to Le Mont Dore in the region to the south of Clermont-Ferrand, part of the Massif central, in the Auvergne region of France. From our own window we can see a volcanic plug named Molly's Nipple, one of six topographical features in the area to bear that name: as local guide 'Ranger' Bart Anderson remarks in his lectures, "She must have been one interesting woman". There is an excellent site about volcanoes at ThinkQuest.org, which is clear and concise for non specialists. Graeme and his son Alasdair walked south through the wonderful countryside of the Auvergne. Their web site records the journey with excellent maps and pictures. You may accompany them (perhaps after adjusting your browser's text size) and be accompanied by the strains of Marie Joseph Canteloube de Calaret's 'Bailèro' from the wonderful 'Songs of the Auvergne'; beautiful music for the female voice.

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Pix Of The Day: Unexpected Victorian Excitement
CREDITS: © Bruce Henderson/WarrnamboolCAM.com
When clicked, thumbnails popup enlarged versions of the images.

We often visit the state of Victoria, Australia, virtually speaking of course, to enjoy the resolutely ordinary images of life in Warrnambool as portrayed by Bruce Henderson on the WarrnamboolCAM.com web site. The headline and first picture looked promising: Wangoom, Framlingham nature reserve, and the Hopkins River. Winter rains have swollen the river to its highest level in ten years, however, so suddenly today's planned entry became something more dramatic than we expected.

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On This Day In 2002: Gold Panning in Georgia - Wed 18 Sep 2002

This, Ladies and Gentlemen, is Gold Standard panning! If you have ever used the panning technique to swing the camera so that a fast moving subject is captured pin sharp against a blurred background, then you will know that it is not as easy as the instruction manuals make it sound. Click the picture for the original, unsullied by the usual compression I apply for a fast download. This fine example comes from Cyber Motorsports coverage of the 2001 'Petit le Mans' event at the Road Atlanta Motor Sports Center in Georgia, USA. Earl & Gail Cook, otherwise know as LaserSol, are the husband and wife team behind this and many other interesting sites. The 2002 Petit Le Mans is scheduled for 9-12 October, so look out for more action shots then.

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Pix Of The Day: Blackpool To Las Vegas In A Step
CREDITS: © National Geographic/POD MAP: Blackpool (and detail).

When clicked, thumbnails load image original source page.
Click here (L to R) for larger versions [1] [2] [3] of the images.

Yesterday we added another National Geographic POD (Picture Of The Day) to others featured here in previous 2003 issues, on [9 June] [2 July] [6 July]. The images yesterday represented the part of the USA where we now live. Today we thought it was fun to represent where we lived before we came to the USA… well almost: we now live about the same distance from Las Vegas as we previously lived from Blackpool. The contrasts over those miles are much the same too, though both towns have the same vulgar energy, albeit with differently colored collars.

Blackpool grew apace with the cotton towns of northwestern England, providing a cheap vacation destination for the mill workers. We will not try too hard to draw a parallel between Vegas and Blackpool. However, one very obvious difference is that gambling in Blackpool though not illegal, is controlled by the UK's nationwide laws, so is relatively small scale and low key. Visitors who enjoyed a game of keno in Nevada's Sin City may enjoy a game of bingo in Blackpool, though the prizes may be a trifle disappointing. By way of recompense, Blackpool lies beside a temperate ocean, rather than in the middle of a hot and arid desert.

Clicking on the thumbnails will take you to the source page with a background introduction to the pictures; clicking on the numbered keys in the header will open the page with a larger image.

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On This Day In 2002: Far Out Farr - Tue 17 Sep 2002

Regular readers of this weblog will be familiar with John H. Farr, whose photographs of Taos, NM have often graced these pages. Indeed, today's featured picture, Taos Mountain, was taken by John as the seasons changed at 7,000 feet of altitude in the high Rocky Mountains around Taos. John is also a writer, one who fell in love with northern New Mexico, and abandoned his comfortable life in lush green Maryland to pursue his dreams in the harsher environment of Taos, with some harsher realities to be learned. Now he has published an account of his experiences, called Buffalo Lights. Interestingly he has chosen the e-book format, which is being released in advance of the paperback edition. Follow that link and you may read three sample chapters with a full synopsis of the contents. Then for a paltry $9.99 you may download the e-book; payment includes free updates as material is revised or added.

Taos has attracted writers since the early part of the last century. The full list contains luminaries like Spud Johnson, Myron Brinig, and perhaps the most revered of them all Frank Waters. English writer DH Lawrence tried to start a community there under the patronage of heiress Mabel Dodge Luhan, whose stellar lifestyle attracted a whole coterie of the literati and glitterati of her day. John's going to have his work cut out to follow in those footsteps! The list of Taos artists is equally impressive: our favorites are Georgia O'Keefe and Lady Dorothy Brett (only the less whimsical paintings), who was the only person, with the exception of Lawrence's wife Frieda, to join him in the Rananim Community.

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