Morning all…Erm, I don’t suppose you’d have a spare cup of milk, would you?Brrrrrrrrrr!Hainan, China.Alstroemeria.Adélie Penguins, by request of Panda Paws, to remind us that thousands of Adélie chics were wiped out this year in Antarctica due to unusually thick sea ice, meaning that the parent birds had to travel much farther than usual to forage for food.Blackhouse. Anyone make a guess?Une belle rose… pour vous.Cheetah.Lovely wee fox hoping that we have given up the barbary of fox hunting.Ice cream shop in Edinburgh…Mull of Oa.The path to Dron today. Look at the colours of that beech!Did someone say “nuts”?What’s the password? You can’t get past without the password.Seal Pup.Strokker about to blow. (Strokker is Icelandic for “churn”.)Icelandic skies…Tower Bridge , London.What a fantastic tramcar.OK…that’s yer lot. You must have something else you could be getting on with. Before you go, did you know little orangutans are very partial to banana ice cream? Just thought I’d mention it!
I used to live in the area of Broughton Street, which is in Edinburgh for those of you that don’t know already, and I don’t know how often I must have walked past the site of that Italian-Scottish ice cream shop. This is it today – well, October last year – I’m pretty certain. As you can see, it’s still an Italian café.
Eddya got there before me with Broughton St, yon place is responsible for the myth of the Deep Fried Mars Bar in Edinburgh. Amongst others, fair doos.
Was Tris being a wee bit sly wi the tram? It’s no the Tollcross in Edinburgh for sure. There must be another place with the same name somewhere, but buggered if I ken where…
Blast, you mean I spent all that time looking for it and someone already found it? I recognized the building on the right on the gusset – it’s Parkhead Cross, that junction. http://tinyurl.com/y98cjcjx
Conan says……. “yon place is responsible for the myth of the Deep Fried Mars Bar in Edinburgh. Amongst others, fair doos.”
Translation into American English please!
So this place claimed to be the place where the Fried Mars Bar originated? But the claim is a myth? Or the Fried Mars bar is a myth? And what about “others” and “fair doos?”
Some time ago, the BBC said that a place in Aberdeenshire claims to be the birthplace of the Fried Mars Bar. Then it was reported: “It proudly displays a banner on the side of the building claiming staff there invented the snack. But Aberdeenshire Council has now said it must come down ‘for the good of the wider community'”.
It says something that the democratic socialist governing authorities in Scotland are apparently hostile to the culinary concept of deep fried chocolate and are busy dithering about the teeth of children and the health of the people, while two-fisted, free-enterprise, gun-totin America would by now have patented and mass marketed the product, and McMars franchise locations would span the globe. (Our Mr. Trump quite enjoys food of this sort and is probably exploring the business possibilities as we speak.)
We here in the states do try to help you people, but I think you may be hopeless. Haggis is simply never going to catch on as a world-wide franchise BTW.
It’s a wee bit complicated Danny. The media jumped on the story that the Jocks love to deep fry everything and to an extent they were right, Scotch pies and pizzas were indeed done that way, but consider this, how else could you heat them up on a winters day when all you had in the shop was a deep fat fryer?
So, like the Loch Ness monster, nobody had ever seen it, or heard of anyone seeing it, but chip shops all over Scotland soon cashed in on it… this place has a sign advertising “Deep Fried Mars Bars Sold Here” . “Fair doos” means to be fair.
Conan……thanks for the translation of “fair doos.” I didn’t know about the stereotype of Scottish love for deep frying. McDonald’s, years ago, had fried pies, which were pretty good. Now the McDonald’s pies are “baked” some way, and I don’t like them as well. I had to Google “Fried Mars Bars,” since I’d never heard of that either.
Now I understand the joke about “deep fried highland fudge” in a Tracey Ullman parody of Angela and Nicola:
Erm, ‘others’ just means ‘others’, Danny. As you point out, there’s a place in Aberdeen that claims the distinction for itself.
Not sure that Dundee claims that. Our culinary tastes being more Parisian in nature.
“fair doos” = “fair enough”.
Please, next time you are speaking to Fatty Trump, do not mention the possibility of deep fried Mars Bars. We really don’t want him, or one of his family members coming over here and … well, we just don’t want them over here. Period.
Tris…….yes I actually had “others” figured out……LOL. It was what it meant with “fair doos” that was the problem. 😉 With his help, I now have Conan’s comment about Fried Mars Bars sorted out. The stereotype of Scottish fried chocolate had previously escaped me. I learn all these things on MR. (BTW, I liked McDonald’s old style fried pies better than the current baked versions.)
I’ll not mention the additional business possibilities in Scotland to Trumpy or any of his brood. 😉
A distant flag is seen directly between the towers at the top of the bridge. Anybody know what building the flag is mounted on? And what’s the big pointed tower to the right of the bridge left of the sunset?
Hi, Danny. I think that the flag is actually mounted on the walkway that links the two towers of Tower Bridge. The big pointed tower is The Shard, Europe’s tallest building: the architect was Renzo Piano. Some say it’s only Europe’s 4th tallest but they include 3 buildings in Moscow, which many people do not consider to be Europe.
Thanks Andi…….I see what you mean about the flag.
That’s an amazing building. Somehow, I’d never noticed it in any pictures of London that I’d seen before. Reminds me of a similarly shaped building in San Francisco, the “Transamerica Pyramid,” that was very controversial at the time it was built in 1969-1972. But the San Francisco building is only half as tall, and doesn’t have the glass facade.
So the Otranto was not the Armed Merchant Cruiser which escaped the Battle of Coronel (when it was sent packing before battle was engaged since AMC’s couldn’t realistically engage warships) ?
You confused me by calling it a backhouse, but I assumed a typo and that it should have been “blackhouse”.
By the clothes I was guessing it to be original and not a modern day interpretive reconstruction of a blackhouse.
So I guessed Erskine Beveridge as the photographer. That gives a date window of 1880’s to maybe 1919.
Blackhouses are typically Argyll ,Western Isles, Hebrides.
Beveridge visited those areas in the late 1880’s up to early 1900’s.
The building looks “odd” though. It has two doors and 3 chimneys. Not a typical blackhouse. That confused me.
This description though looked right and was a possible explanation for the odd door/chimney arrangement: https://canmore.org.uk/collection/746875.
Reminds me of a photographer named Edward Curtis who photographed and documented Native American life at the turn of the twentieth century, at a time when the historical culture of the Native Americans was passing from the scene.
Tris……Although some of Canyon de Chelly was inundated by Lake Powell behind the Glen Canyon Dam, Canyon de Chelly National Monument is a beautiful wild place. None of it is federally owned, since it’s entirely within the huge expanse of tribal lands of the Navajo Nation. It is entirely owned by the Navajo Tribal Trust which administers it jointly with the US National park Service.
Just had a look at the size of these lands, Danny. Massive part of Arizona, and large section of New Mexico and Utah. I’m guessing far larger than Scotland!
Tris……Actually the lands of the Navajo Nation are very close to the size of Scotland. Just slightly smaller. The Navajo Nation is 27,413 square miles, and Scotland is 30,414 sq mi. Without the tiny cutout that stays with Colorado, it spans parts of the three states you mentioned of the “Four Corners” region…….the only place in the United States that four states come together at a single point. Since the Navajo Nation has sovereignty over the tribal lands, high speed motorists on their way to Las Vegas or Los Angeles are sometimes surprised to be stopped for speeding by a Navajo police car with a Navajo trooper who fines them for speeding on behalf of the Navajo Nation.
Tris……The principal East-West high speed “Interstate” routes (I-70 and I-40) to Vegas and California run north and south of the Navajo Nation, which is a relatively sparsely settled area. It mostly has two-lane highways in the federal highway system (probably lesser state highways too) that would have lower speed limits than the Interstate routes. So there would be “speeders” through the wide open “western” country for sure.
The principal tourist attraction in the Four Corners region is an area on the Utah-Arizona border in the north of Navajo Nation called “Monument Valley.” It is an area of giant sandstone “buttes” (tall rock towers caused by wind and rain erosion) that was director John Ford’s favorite location to make Hollywood Westerns of the 1930’s and 40’s. To a generation or more of Hollywood western lovers in the US (and probably Europe,) Monument Valley was their concept of what the American “WEST” looks like. US Highway 163 goes through the area and there is a Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park where you can pay a fee that gives you access to a 17 mile dirt road that winds closely around some of the big Buttes (and looks like it would beat your car up pretty good….LOL.) I’ve never been through Monument Valley on my road trips west, but would like to take the time off the main highway routes to do it sometime.
This is a beautiful video of the road through Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, and with Navajo tribal music, it’s a little spooky. I’d want to have a tough four-wheel drive vehicle with lots of road clearance to try it. I’m sure that you can’t really appreciate the size of the gigantic rock towers and formations (like the natural rock arch) unless you get close to them this way.
John Ford’s westerns filmed in Monument Valley got as many shots of John Wayne in front of the big rocks as he could manage. 😉 This is from “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” (1949)
Wow. It’s amazing. I can see what you mean about the road though. To begin with, I thought, nah, that’s not so bad. There are roads like that here… then there was that bit where the smoke was coming off the tyres and I though… Nope, I don;t think my little car could do it!
I only noticed one house in the whole film. Whoever owns it must have to try very hard not to run out of milk!
The music was beautiful, if a bit on the repetitive side!!!
Alstromeria, the plant that keeps on giving. The first variety I had was 3-4’ tall, yellow and invasive to the point of mono culture. After a 3-4 year battle I eventually got rid of it at the cost of a few perennials whose root balls had been colonised.
Fortunately though, the boffins in the horticultural world managed to breed less thuggish varieties, of which I have a few. My favourite is an apricot colour which grows to about 2-3’, starts flowering end of June and doesn’t stop until the frost kills it back.
It’s well admired, needs no tending and unlike its wilder yellow cousin, it’s manners are impeccable.
The name for some reason reminded me of Gracie Fields’ “The Biggest Aspidistra in the World.” Or Noel Coward’s version “She Had the Biggest Aspidistra in the World.”
Umm tris on a day your brother nationalists
In Catalunya are under attack from the Spanish
State.
With their dream of Independence being crushed
Under the Franco boot the sacred sovereignty
Of free people’s tossed aside .
You post pretty pics and make petty comments
On old buildings Shame on you and other nats.
A Catalonian revolution is coming and needs your
Support.
I am pretty sure that Catalans have our support. If, for no other reason than that we can’t allow the Spain – Catalonia model to be the model for UK – Scotland.
And then of course, there is the moral dimension.
Sometimes you have to lay back and look at nature and stuff and enjoy it rather than being angry that some aspects of life are good. If everything was to hell in a handcart I would prefer to look at beauty and nature whilst I went down the tubes.
I got fed up hearing the news this afternoon, so I went for a walk in the woods and got lost… However, as you can see I got found again and am back making Munguin’s dinner.
Niko, that is enough. I have been writing about the situation in Catalunya for hours today, in the hope that my knowledge of international law might be of some use to someone, in the hope that what I write will help people understand the situation in Catalunya in the light of my experience at the UN, and trying to predict what is likely to happen next so that we are not taken by surprise, at least. Like all the other human beings on here, I abhor what is going on in Catalunya. I am upset by it. I am appalled by it. It makes me feel physically ill.
I am not fit to be anything other than a keyboard warrior any more, alas. And if I want a break from all that, I shall post as many petty comments about old buildings as I damn well please when I’m looking at petty old photos of our petty old shared history as petty old Scots.
If you set out to rile me, and everyone else, Niko, you succeeded.
We all need a break from the heartbreaking things that happen in the world for Catalunya to Puerto Rico.
I think we all know that Spain is behaving abominably. Maybe it is illegal what they are doing.
But within their country there’s not a lot we can do to stop them. Of course until this is resolved I will not go to Spain, and I rather expect that many other people feel like that. I would happily go to Catalunya, but not to Spain.
I rather suspect that the Catalans will not take this lying down. They have shown incredible spirit. They will win in the end.
My temper is a little fragile today, Tris, and easily windable up. We are fragile, tired, and grumpy here at Schloß Freeman, and feeling both sorry for ourselves and Sisyphean. Sorry for flying off the handle, I shall smear it with nougat so it doesn’t happen again.
I can’t see the penguins but as long as everyone else can, and it’s the thought that counts. Lovely selection of photos, those flowers are pretty and the Heilan coos are great. Thanks for the cheetah – they really are beautiful creatures and my joint second favourite animals along with elephants. If anyone can guess my favourite animal there is a prize – which will be distributed by Munguin…. 🙂
That’s unfair, especially as the picture of the Adélie penguins was there at your request. I hope you can see this one.
Munguin is happy to sponsor your competition. There will, of course, be a small prize, the nature of which Munguin is yet to decide.
One of the suggestions he put to me on reading your comment was that some of the readers might like have the honour of doing a day’s work in the grounds of Munguin Towers… How does that sound?
That sounds marvellous, Tris! If Mr. Munguin selects me, he will be taking on a loyal employee who is extremely good at watching other people work, and telling them how they ought to be doing it. That would make myself the ideal choice for the post of Outdoor Staff Supervisor.
I thrive in warm, sheltered locations, preferably with a southern exposure in partial shade, and am a low maintenance but not very hardy annual. I do, however, require frequent feeding and watering.
Panda Paws…….I’m guessing that you can now see the picture of the Penguins in Tris’ COMMENT just fine. My experience with disappearing pictures on a Windows computer and Windows-type browsers (don’t know about Apple computers and browser) is that pictures posted in the Comments section always show up just fine.
On the other hand in my case, ALL (or sometimes just most) of the pictures in the text of one article disappear as soon as a NEW article is posted. EXCEPT when I use Internet Explorer. In IE, the pictures always show up and stay there. So it involves the way that the browser interface with WordPress. For some reason, IE deals with WordPress pictures just fine, but the others have problems (at least that’s the way it works for me on my computer here in the states.) People in Scotland apparently get most of the pictures OK…….but not necessarily this penguin picture it seems.
HI Danny No I can’t see it in the comment either. Ach well at least I already know what they look like. But if I’d not been able to see the orangs or the cheetah – well heads would roll at wordpress I can tell you!
Panda Paws…….Hmmmmm……something about that penguin picture! I’ll repost below the JPG picture link from Tris’ Comment and see if that works……and on all browsers. You might try opening MR in Internet Explorer if you have Windows and IE. It was more or less by accident that I discovered that IE would show the WordPress pictures when Firefox, Chrome, and Opera would not (for me.)
Panda Paws…..As you see, it came up in my comment as a link…….no picture. But when I click on the link, I see the picture. Strange! It doesn’t usually work that way.
OK……I’ll try it now with the JPG link from the blog itself, and not from Tris’ comment.
Edd…..I did notice that the JPG link I lifted from Tris’s comment had “zoom=2” attached to it, whereas the JPG link from the text of the blog had no such thing. That seemed to be the difference between WordPress posting the link on one hand, and actually showing the picture on the other. However, using Chrome now, I see BOTH the actual picture in one comment and see it by clicking on the link in the other.
I’m sorry about that. Have you been paying your electricity bills?
I hadn’t noticed that face till you mentioned it. I’ve no idea what it is, but rest assured I shall find out. It’s only 10 miles or so from home. Munguin and I will venture out tomorrow and inform you!
Tris, about the swan that’s asking for a password. That’s maybe going to be a wee bit difficult. The river behind is the Vltava and that’s the Charles Bridge spanning it, so the swan is probably looking for a password in its native language – Czech-swan. But, I suppose it might be a word like “Prague-matic”, or am I, like the swan, sticking my neck out?
Maybe I should haud ma wheesht, not say boo to a goose and keep mute, but if I wanted to have a quack at diving into his online accounts, I’d start with Jsemkrásnábílálabut’.
As someone whose lack of foreign language skills extends to English, and who couldn’t find Bletchley Park on a map, I haven’t a scooby what Jsemkrásnábílálabut could possibly mean. Still, two up votes from our more intelligent (than me) commentators.
Douglas – I just checked this, so I know it works – stick Jsemkrásnábílálabut’ into Google Translate and it will come out with the English for what it says in Czech – splitting it into actual words, it’s jsem krásná bílá labut’, which is quite recognizable to speakers of other Slavic languages because it’s got ancient Slavic root words in it. Slovak would be Som krásna biela labuť, Russian Я – красивый белый лебедь /Ya – krasivy byely lyebyed’.
Russian always looks even more peculiar if you transliterate it.
I’m sorry, languages are my thing, but if I get all snotty snooty with it, please smack me down instantly.
And no, you are neither snotty nor snooty. I think we all learn a lot from interacting on here. My knowledge of, say, Latin has increased ten fold, from approximately three words to a bigger number. Did I mention that arithmetic wasn’t one of my strong points either?
MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 
Excellent as usual, Tris!
I used to live in the area of Broughton Street, which is in Edinburgh for those of you that don’t know already, and I don’t know how often I must have walked past the site of that Italian-Scottish ice cream shop. This is it today – well, October last year – I’m pretty certain. As you can see, it’s still an Italian café.
The image is pulled from Google Maps, I expect it may take some time to load… http://tinyurl.com/y8vhcqpo
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Ohhhhhh I love Edinburgh.
It’s just so…. Edinburgh.
Thanks for the photo, Ed.
It’s changed a bit… I bet the staff don’t wear the same sort of uniform!
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Ed, I was on a wee jaunt to Enbra for a couple of days (penance, of course 🙂 and walked past this very place – well spotted!
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Oh, the hardship…
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Eddya got there before me with Broughton St, yon place is responsible for the myth of the Deep Fried Mars Bar in Edinburgh. Amongst others, fair doos.
Was Tris being a wee bit sly wi the tram? It’s no the Tollcross in Edinburgh for sure. There must be another place with the same name somewhere, but buggered if I ken where…
Western Isles 1900’s.
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Its Glasgow. Its the first one of his pictures I recognise. It looks exactly the same today except there’s no tramlines. Or industry. Corner of Westmuir Street and Tollcross Road. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@55.8512062,-4.1973458,3a,75y,73.81h,91.06t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sOfNr_6RBx92MdH1UmgS6ug!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Oh, I see no penguins. And the Iceland pic is spectacular.
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Penguins back now. And impressive! Must be a glitch here.
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Great to see the comparison now, David.
That sky in Iceland reminds me of one in Scotland only last week.
I’m glad the penguins’ picture has rectified itself.
WordPress, Huh!
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Still no penguins here in the City of Discovery. I feel inclined to sulk.
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Edd……do you have a computer with Internet Explorer? As we’ve discussed, I get better picture results with IE.
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Is that working>?
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Blast, you mean I spent all that time looking for it and someone already found it? I recognized the building on the right on the gusset – it’s Parkhead Cross, that junction. http://tinyurl.com/y98cjcjx
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Conan says……. “yon place is responsible for the myth of the Deep Fried Mars Bar in Edinburgh. Amongst others, fair doos.”
Translation into American English please!
So this place claimed to be the place where the Fried Mars Bar originated? But the claim is a myth? Or the Fried Mars bar is a myth? And what about “others” and “fair doos?”
Some time ago, the BBC said that a place in Aberdeenshire claims to be the birthplace of the Fried Mars Bar. Then it was reported: “It proudly displays a banner on the side of the building claiming staff there invented the snack. But Aberdeenshire Council has now said it must come down ‘for the good of the wider community'”.
It says something that the democratic socialist governing authorities in Scotland are apparently hostile to the culinary concept of deep fried chocolate and are busy dithering about the teeth of children and the health of the people, while two-fisted, free-enterprise, gun-totin America would by now have patented and mass marketed the product, and McMars franchise locations would span the globe. (Our Mr. Trump quite enjoys food of this sort and is probably exploring the business possibilities as we speak.)
We here in the states do try to help you people, but I think you may be hopeless. Haggis is simply never going to catch on as a world-wide franchise BTW.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-33588382
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It’s a wee bit complicated Danny. The media jumped on the story that the Jocks love to deep fry everything and to an extent they were right, Scotch pies and pizzas were indeed done that way, but consider this, how else could you heat them up on a winters day when all you had in the shop was a deep fat fryer?
So, like the Loch Ness monster, nobody had ever seen it, or heard of anyone seeing it, but chip shops all over Scotland soon cashed in on it… this place has a sign advertising “Deep Fried Mars Bars Sold Here” . “Fair doos” means to be fair.
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Conan……thanks for the translation of “fair doos.” I didn’t know about the stereotype of Scottish love for deep frying. McDonald’s, years ago, had fried pies, which were pretty good. Now the McDonald’s pies are “baked” some way, and I don’t like them as well. I had to Google “Fried Mars Bars,” since I’d never heard of that either.
Now I understand the joke about “deep fried highland fudge” in a Tracey Ullman parody of Angela and Nicola:
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Erm, ‘others’ just means ‘others’, Danny. As you point out, there’s a place in Aberdeen that claims the distinction for itself.
Not sure that Dundee claims that. Our culinary tastes being more Parisian in nature.
“fair doos” = “fair enough”.
Please, next time you are speaking to Fatty Trump, do not mention the possibility of deep fried Mars Bars. We really don’t want him, or one of his family members coming over here and … well, we just don’t want them over here. Period.
🙂
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That looks like the Hilltown.
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That’s where it is, Marica. (Or was… I’m not certain if it is still there.)
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Tris…….yes I actually had “others” figured out……LOL. It was what it meant with “fair doos” that was the problem. 😉 With his help, I now have Conan’s comment about Fried Mars Bars sorted out. The stereotype of Scottish fried chocolate had previously escaped me. I learn all these things on MR. (BTW, I liked McDonald’s old style fried pies better than the current baked versions.)
I’ll not mention the additional business possibilities in Scotland to Trumpy or any of his brood. 😉
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I’m relieved to hear it, Danny.
If they came here and made as much of a mess of it as they are of the White House (I’m reading the stuff you emailed me) then we’d be sunk in days.
What a bloody lunatic he is.
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Tris…..and of course he already has a contentious relationship with the Government of Scotland over his golf resorts anyway. 😉
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https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/90/240938947_4be948313e_z.jpg?zz=1
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Ha ha. I wasn’t being sly Conan. I didn’t know where it was either. 🙂
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I knew where it was, I was just being an Edinbugger 👿
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https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weegies-Edinbuggers-Edinburgh-Slightly-Superior/dp/1902927923
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Looks fun…
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Aye, if yer daft enough tae buy inty it. Let them slug it oot. It’s jist thir usual attenshin seekin.
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LOL. It sounds pretty good humoured…
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A distant flag is seen directly between the towers at the top of the bridge. Anybody know what building the flag is mounted on? And what’s the big pointed tower to the right of the bridge left of the sunset?
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PS: Tris…..Mull of Oa…….I think I found the distant feature on the horizon behind the cattle.
http://www.islayinfo.com/american-monument.html
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Hi, Danny. I think that the flag is actually mounted on the walkway that links the two towers of Tower Bridge. The big pointed tower is The Shard, Europe’s tallest building: the architect was Renzo Piano. Some say it’s only Europe’s 4th tallest but they include 3 buildings in Moscow, which many people do not consider to be Europe.
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Thanks Andi…….I see what you mean about the flag.
That’s an amazing building. Somehow, I’d never noticed it in any pictures of London that I’d seen before. Reminds me of a similarly shaped building in San Francisco, the “Transamerica Pyramid,” that was very controversial at the time it was built in 1969-1972. But the San Francisco building is only half as tall, and doesn’t have the glass facade.
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http://www.islayinfo.com/american-monument.html
Commemoration of two American troop ships from WWI, Danny.
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So the Otranto was not the Armed Merchant Cruiser which escaped the Battle of Coronel (when it was sent packing before battle was engaged since AMC’s couldn’t realistically engage warships) ?
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May seem odd to reply to my own post, but I have found out that it was indeed the same ship, converted tomtroopship use.
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Well, you got a better/more accurate answer from yourself than you would have got from me…LOL
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Ah love Heilin coos’
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Me too. …well, from a distance.
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You confused me by calling it a backhouse, but I assumed a typo and that it should have been “blackhouse”.
By the clothes I was guessing it to be original and not a modern day interpretive reconstruction of a blackhouse.
So I guessed Erskine Beveridge as the photographer. That gives a date window of 1880’s to maybe 1919.
Blackhouses are typically Argyll ,Western Isles, Hebrides.
Beveridge visited those areas in the late 1880’s up to early 1900’s.
The building looks “odd” though. It has two doors and 3 chimneys. Not a typical blackhouse. That confused me.
This description though looked right and was a possible explanation for the odd door/chimney arrangement:
https://canmore.org.uk/collection/746875.
and ….follow the links
https://canmore.org.uk/collection/746878
https://canmore.org.uk/site/171913/north-uist-tigharry-former-inn
bingo!
So, it’s the Tigharry Inn, North Uist, 1897
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Jake……Very nice identification of the 120 year old photograph! (Including the name of the photographer no less!)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackhouse
Reminds me of a photographer named Edward Curtis who photographed and documented Native American life at the turn of the twentieth century, at a time when the historical culture of the Native Americans was passing from the scene.
Navajo Tribe – Canyon de Chelly Arizona – 1904
https://www.littlethings.com/edward-curtis-native-americans/
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Love these pics Danny. Particularly
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Tris……Although some of Canyon de Chelly was inundated by Lake Powell behind the Glen Canyon Dam, Canyon de Chelly National Monument is a beautiful wild place. None of it is federally owned, since it’s entirely within the huge expanse of tribal lands of the Navajo Nation. It is entirely owned by the Navajo Tribal Trust which administers it jointly with the US National park Service.
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Just had a look at the size of these lands, Danny. Massive part of Arizona, and large section of New Mexico and Utah. I’m guessing far larger than Scotland!
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https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Navajo+Nation+Reservation,+Utah,+USA/@35.2988386,-119.5347181,5.96z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x872538e0dfdd873d:0x64330822ef7f044c!8m2!3d36.0672173!4d-109.1880047
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Tris……Actually the lands of the Navajo Nation are very close to the size of Scotland. Just slightly smaller. The Navajo Nation is 27,413 square miles, and Scotland is 30,414 sq mi. Without the tiny cutout that stays with Colorado, it spans parts of the three states you mentioned of the “Four Corners” region…….the only place in the United States that four states come together at a single point. Since the Navajo Nation has sovereignty over the tribal lands, high speed motorists on their way to Las Vegas or Los Angeles are sometimes surprised to be stopped for speeding by a Navajo police car with a Navajo trooper who fines them for speeding on behalf of the Navajo Nation.
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Are the speed limits different in that region?
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Tris……The principal East-West high speed “Interstate” routes (I-70 and I-40) to Vegas and California run north and south of the Navajo Nation, which is a relatively sparsely settled area. It mostly has two-lane highways in the federal highway system (probably lesser state highways too) that would have lower speed limits than the Interstate routes. So there would be “speeders” through the wide open “western” country for sure.
The principal tourist attraction in the Four Corners region is an area on the Utah-Arizona border in the north of Navajo Nation called “Monument Valley.” It is an area of giant sandstone “buttes” (tall rock towers caused by wind and rain erosion) that was director John Ford’s favorite location to make Hollywood Westerns of the 1930’s and 40’s. To a generation or more of Hollywood western lovers in the US (and probably Europe,) Monument Valley was their concept of what the American “WEST” looks like. US Highway 163 goes through the area and there is a Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park where you can pay a fee that gives you access to a 17 mile dirt road that winds closely around some of the big Buttes (and looks like it would beat your car up pretty good….LOL.) I’ve never been through Monument Valley on my road trips west, but would like to take the time off the main highway routes to do it sometime.
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This is a beautiful video of the road through Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, and with Navajo tribal music, it’s a little spooky. I’d want to have a tough four-wheel drive vehicle with lots of road clearance to try it. I’m sure that you can’t really appreciate the size of the gigantic rock towers and formations (like the natural rock arch) unless you get close to them this way.
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https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/culture/arts-entertainment/12-movies-shot-in-monument-valley-on-the-navajo-nation/
John Ford’s westerns filmed in Monument Valley got as many shots of John Wayne in front of the big rocks as he could manage. 😉 This is from “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” (1949)
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Wow. It’s amazing. I can see what you mean about the road though. To begin with, I thought, nah, that’s not so bad. There are roads like that here… then there was that bit where the smoke was coming off the tyres and I though… Nope, I don;t think my little car could do it!
I only noticed one house in the whole film. Whoever owns it must have to try very hard not to run out of milk!
The music was beautiful, if a bit on the repetitive side!!!
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Yep, every cowboy movie I’ve seen features these rock formations!!
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Very clever detective work there Jake. Munguin likes to make readers work on a Sunday.
Sorry about throwing you off with the typo (which I shall now correct before Munguin sees it and docks my wages).
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Alstromeria, the plant that keeps on giving. The first variety I had was 3-4’ tall, yellow and invasive to the point of mono culture. After a 3-4 year battle I eventually got rid of it at the cost of a few perennials whose root balls had been colonised.
Fortunately though, the boffins in the horticultural world managed to breed less thuggish varieties, of which I have a few. My favourite is an apricot colour which grows to about 2-3’, starts flowering end of June and doesn’t stop until the frost kills it back.
It’s well admired, needs no tending and unlike its wilder yellow cousin, it’s manners are impeccable.
It’s one of my favourites.
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He he… I love it, but I don’t have any.
Does it grow in shaded areas. I’ve got a kinda wild, woodland section in the garden, and I’d love to have some there for colour.
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It’ll tolerate a bit of shade but I reckon it needs 3-4 hours of full sun to do well.
I’ve not had so much success with the short varieties either.
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OK, Thanks. Probably not right for where I had in mind.
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The name for some reason reminded me of Gracie Fields’ “The Biggest Aspidistra in the World.” Or Noel Coward’s version “She Had the Biggest Aspidistra in the World.”
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LOL. Rather different though:
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Umm tris on a day your brother nationalists
In Catalunya are under attack from the Spanish
State.
With their dream of Independence being crushed
Under the Franco boot the sacred sovereignty
Of free people’s tossed aside .
You post pretty pics and make petty comments
On old buildings Shame on you and other nats.
A Catalonian revolution is coming and needs your
Support.
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Seriously, Niko, this lot would march on Munguin Towers if Soppy Sunday didn’t appear.
That doesn’t mean that I don’t abhor the actions of the Fascist government in Madrid.
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Niko,
I am pretty sure that Catalans have our support. If, for no other reason than that we can’t allow the Spain – Catalonia model to be the model for UK – Scotland.
And then of course, there is the moral dimension.
Sometimes you have to lay back and look at nature and stuff and enjoy it rather than being angry that some aspects of life are good. If everything was to hell in a handcart I would prefer to look at beauty and nature whilst I went down the tubes.
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That’s a good attitude, Douglas.
I got fed up hearing the news this afternoon, so I went for a walk in the woods and got lost… However, as you can see I got found again and am back making Munguin’s dinner.
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Niko, that is enough. I have been writing about the situation in Catalunya for hours today, in the hope that my knowledge of international law might be of some use to someone, in the hope that what I write will help people understand the situation in Catalunya in the light of my experience at the UN, and trying to predict what is likely to happen next so that we are not taken by surprise, at least. Like all the other human beings on here, I abhor what is going on in Catalunya. I am upset by it. I am appalled by it. It makes me feel physically ill.
I am not fit to be anything other than a keyboard warrior any more, alas. And if I want a break from all that, I shall post as many petty comments about old buildings as I damn well please when I’m looking at petty old photos of our petty old shared history as petty old Scots.
If you set out to rile me, and everyone else, Niko, you succeeded.
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Never let Niko wind you up, Ed.
We all need a break from the heartbreaking things that happen in the world for Catalunya to Puerto Rico.
I think we all know that Spain is behaving abominably. Maybe it is illegal what they are doing.
But within their country there’s not a lot we can do to stop them. Of course until this is resolved I will not go to Spain, and I rather expect that many other people feel like that. I would happily go to Catalunya, but not to Spain.
I rather suspect that the Catalans will not take this lying down. They have shown incredible spirit. They will win in the end.
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My temper is a little fragile today, Tris, and easily windable up. We are fragile, tired, and grumpy here at Schloß Freeman, and feeling both sorry for ourselves and Sisyphean. Sorry for flying off the handle, I shall smear it with nougat so it doesn’t happen again.
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eddjasfreeman,
I think nougat on the door handle is a very bad idea. Far better to let it all out!
Respect.
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Hope you feel better soon!
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apologies edddy mea culpa !
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Nice one Niko!
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I can’t see the penguins but as long as everyone else can, and it’s the thought that counts. Lovely selection of photos, those flowers are pretty and the Heilan coos are great. Thanks for the cheetah – they really are beautiful creatures and my joint second favourite animals along with elephants. If anyone can guess my favourite animal there is a prize – which will be distributed by Munguin…. 🙂
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That’s unfair, especially as the picture of the Adélie penguins was there at your request. I hope you can see this one.
Munguin is happy to sponsor your competition. There will, of course, be a small prize, the nature of which Munguin is yet to decide.
One of the suggestions he put to me on reading your comment was that some of the readers might like have the honour of doing a day’s work in the grounds of Munguin Towers… How does that sound?
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That sounds marvellous, Tris! If Mr. Munguin selects me, he will be taking on a loyal employee who is extremely good at watching other people work, and telling them how they ought to be doing it. That would make myself the ideal choice for the post of Outdoor Staff Supervisor.
I thrive in warm, sheltered locations, preferably with a southern exposure in partial shade, and am a low maintenance but not very hardy annual. I do, however, require frequent feeding and watering.
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Ed. It will only be me that you will see working. Munguin is on an economy drive!
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Panda Paws…….I’m guessing that you can now see the picture of the Penguins in Tris’ COMMENT just fine. My experience with disappearing pictures on a Windows computer and Windows-type browsers (don’t know about Apple computers and browser) is that pictures posted in the Comments section always show up just fine.
On the other hand in my case, ALL (or sometimes just most) of the pictures in the text of one article disappear as soon as a NEW article is posted. EXCEPT when I use Internet Explorer. In IE, the pictures always show up and stay there. So it involves the way that the browser interface with WordPress. For some reason, IE deals with WordPress pictures just fine, but the others have problems (at least that’s the way it works for me on my computer here in the states.) People in Scotland apparently get most of the pictures OK…….but not necessarily this penguin picture it seems.
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HI Danny No I can’t see it in the comment either. Ach well at least I already know what they look like. But if I’d not been able to see the orangs or the cheetah – well heads would roll at wordpress I can tell you!
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Bah… Munguin is seriously cross now.
We shall try again next week!
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Panda Paws…….Hmmmmm……something about that penguin picture! I’ll repost below the JPG picture link from Tris’ Comment and see if that works……and on all browsers. You might try opening MR in Internet Explorer if you have Windows and IE. It was more or less by accident that I discovered that IE would show the WordPress pictures when Firefox, Chrome, and Opera would not (for me.)
https://munguin.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/n-ad1.jpg?w=749&zoom=2
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Panda Paws…..As you see, it came up in my comment as a link…….no picture. But when I click on the link, I see the picture. Strange! It doesn’t usually work that way.
OK……I’ll try it now with the JPG link from the blog itself, and not from Tris’ comment.
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PP…..OK, NOW see the actual picture (in the comment above.)
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PP……That is to say that now I MYSELF can see the picture in my comment. You may not be able to see it at all….LOL.
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I’ve emailed the pic just in case this isnt working…
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Tris……BTW, that looks like a really high dive to the water for those Penguins.
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They are fearless wee animals.
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At last! Now I can see penguins. Very cute. I love ’em.
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… I can see them when I click on your link (ends with …zoom=2), but nowhere else.
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Edd…..I did notice that the JPG link I lifted from Tris’s comment had “zoom=2” attached to it, whereas the JPG link from the text of the blog had no such thing. That seemed to be the difference between WordPress posting the link on one hand, and actually showing the picture on the other. However, using Chrome now, I see BOTH the actual picture in one comment and see it by clicking on the link in the other.
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Utterly bizarre
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This whole WordPress thing just amazes me.
I wonder if other people have these problems, or has Munguin upset the WP bigwigs?
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Tris……I think that Trumpy may have something to do with it. 😉
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Man does not live by bread alone Niko. Even Che Guevara played chess and read poetry sometimes…
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I’ve not been able to seem images on this site for a few days now. Wherever the glitch was (probably my end), it got fixed in time for Sunday.
The fence post on the bottom left on the path to Dron has a little face on it. Did someone etch that or is it natural? It is really, really funny.
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I’m sorry about that. Have you been paying your electricity bills?
I hadn’t noticed that face till you mentioned it. I’ve no idea what it is, but rest assured I shall find out. It’s only 10 miles or so from home. Munguin and I will venture out tomorrow and inform you!
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Tris, about the swan that’s asking for a password. That’s maybe going to be a wee bit difficult. The river behind is the Vltava and that’s the Charles Bridge spanning it, so the swan is probably looking for a password in its native language – Czech-swan. But, I suppose it might be a word like “Prague-matic”, or am I, like the swan, sticking my neck out?
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Maybe I should haud ma wheesht, not say boo to a goose and keep mute, but if I wanted to have a quack at diving into his online accounts, I’d start with Jsemkrásnábílálabut’.
Just sayin’.
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LOL, Ed.
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As someone whose lack of foreign language skills extends to English, and who couldn’t find Bletchley Park on a map, I haven’t a scooby what Jsemkrásnábílálabut could possibly mean. Still, two up votes from our more intelligent (than me) commentators.
?
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Douglas – I just checked this, so I know it works – stick Jsemkrásnábílálabut’ into Google Translate and it will come out with the English for what it says in Czech – splitting it into actual words, it’s jsem krásná bílá labut’, which is quite recognizable to speakers of other Slavic languages because it’s got ancient Slavic root words in it. Slovak would be Som krásna biela labuť, Russian Я – красивый белый лебедь /Ya – krasivy byely lyebyed’.
Russian always looks even more peculiar if you transliterate it.
I’m sorry, languages are my thing, but if I get all snotty snooty with it, please smack me down instantly.
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Aliquando et insanire iucundum est… 😉
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Sane sanissime, one might almost say!
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Thanks edd..
All is now clear.
And no, you are neither snotty nor snooty. I think we all learn a lot from interacting on here. My knowledge of, say, Latin has increased ten fold, from approximately three words to a bigger number. Did I mention that arithmetic wasn’t one of my strong points either?
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Mathematica facit stulti omnes ex nobis
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Ha ha ha ha ha… One of your best yet!
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