Wednesday, 30 September 2015

Theme Day - Shelter


A snail from my garden, Garden Snail Cantareus aspersus.


My grand-daughter perched within the camellia tree outside my parlour window.


My 15 year-old ginger, Sylvie, takes up her position in the front garden as soon as the sun breaks the horizon. Along the front wall of our house, there is a row of Murraya paniculata, under which she waddles a bowl, in the sun, yet out of the wind.

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This is my contribution to the City Daily Photo Monthly Theme Day. To see further contributions to the October Theme of "Shelter" please visit the CDP Gallery

This theme was chosen by Linda Ball and Forrest Preece (LB and FFP) who have been posting for the Austin, Texas Daily Photo blog since May 17, 2007. Please pay them a courtesy visit.

City Daily Photo Theme Day: Shelter

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Interrupting the balloons for City Daily Photo theme day. This month's topic is shelter.

I posted this picture earlier this year but it's worth another look. It's not from the city I live in now but it's my home town. Good enough. The inscription on the Statue of Liberty says:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door! 
Three of my grandparents, immigrants from Ireland and Poland, sailed by this statue seeking shelter. They found it. May our country continue the tradition.
          

The Awakening

After nearly five decades of inactivity, the Calbuco volcano in southern Chile spews a violent blast of ash and smoke, the energy generating a tangle of volcanic lightning. Situated along the Ring of Fire, Chile has a chain of about 2,000 volcanoes, most of which are dormant or extinct.

This photograph was submitted to the 2015 National Geographic Photo Contest. Submit your best photo for a chance to win.

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Port Elizabeth's Hop on Beer Route Tour

The Western Cape has it's various winelands where one can take daily tours to taste wines and learn more about how they are made.  Port Elizabeth does have it's share of wine lovers, but the closest wines they can taste at source are in Plettenberg Bay so they usually end up having wine tasting events with Western Cape wines.  But how about beer?  Craft beer in particular.  This is probably what Tony Neveling of Gecko Tours here in the Bay was thinking when he came up with the idea of a craft beer route in the city.  More exactly, the Hop On Beer Route tour.
 
I joined a few journo's, photographers and tourism peeps for the launch of the tour and although I'm not a big beer drinker, had a fab time tasting what is being brewed right here in Port Elizabeth.  The tour starts in the parking area at Bridge Street Brewery where we left our cars and hopped onto a bus that was to shuttle us around to the three breweries that we were going to be visiting.
 
Out first stop was at the BeerYard in Richmond Hill.  The BeerYard has become one of the city's most popular gathering places for lovers of beer, where they may not always know your name (hope you get the Cheers reference) but you can write it on the walls with pleasure.  The venue is extremely laid back with the pool in the backyard even stating that bikini's are optional.  Ok, so it's probably not that laidback, but I'm sure that pool gets thoroughly used in summer.  At this stage BeerYard produces two of their own beers, namely Car Park John and Two Rand Man, with a new micro brewery being built next door that will allow them to expand on their offering.  They do offer what is probably the biggest variety of craft beers in the city so you will be truly spoilt for choice when visiting for a cold one.  We didn't just have a cold one, but rather four cold ones, tasting their own two brews as well as another beer and a cider.  Then it was time to head back to the bus and move on to brewery number two.
 
Our second stop was at an extraordinary brewery which I hadn't heard of before.  Dockside Brewery in the lower Baakens Valley is a true artisans brewery producing extreme, exotic and extraordinary beers for a small but extraordinary niche market.  Notice how I have used the work extraordinary three times (four time now) in this paragraph.  It is because that is what Dockside Brewery is.  

I had never heard of Dockside Brewery before the tour, but I won't forget it any time soon.  They are located just behind the Herald in the Baakens Valley and have been producing beer for just over a year now.  Their beers are very unique and not to everybody's taste, but those who appreciate a proper craft beer will really enjoy it.  Personally I prefer ciders or a pilsner, but tasting their beers was an experience.  They don't compromise on quality, make sure they don't skimp on the ingredients and take much more time to produce a lot less beer than most other breweries.  Most other breweries produce ales in 11 days.  At Dockside they take between 42 and 56 days.  The other unique ingredient they use is spring water from the Elands River Valley.  So no municipal water going into their beers.  Another thing to note is that Dockside don't produce their craft beer in kegs as draft.  Their beer gets bottled and thus also allowing them to be sold directly to the public through the shop on the premises.

Except for getting to taste not just four (as planned) but all five of their beers, we also got to try beer bread baked with beer from Dockside Brewery.  They found the very first beer they produced not really to anybody's liking and decided to bake beer bread with it.  The beer bread turned out to be a winner and the decision was made to continue brewing that beer specifically for bread.  Now Dockside doesn't only sell beer, but also beer bread kits which we tried at home and was very impressed with the result.  Tour guide Tony couldn't keep up cutting the bread as the group was tucking in.
 
The last stop on the tour, eight (or was it nine) beer tasters and some beer bread later, was back at Bridge Street Brewery where we left our cars earlier.  In the few years since opening, Bridge Street has become an iconic spot where one gets to not just have excellent craft beer, but also scrumptious food.  We started off with a tour led by master brewer Lex Mitchell himself before we got to make ourselves comfortable in the tasting room.
 

At Bridge Street we got to taste all four of their own craft brews; three beers and a cider.  Amongst them the Celtic Cross Pilsner, my favorite beer.  These were accompanied by their lip smacking, hot out the oven pizzas.  The beer tour includes a meal so it wasn't a case of trying to impress us but rather to show us exactly what people on the tour would experience.  This would also be the end of the tour, but most people would probably opt to spend the rest of the afternoon or evening here at Bridge Street or perhaps head back to BeerYard.  Just make sure you keep to the limit or have a dedicated driver on hand if you are going to enjoy a few too many.  All in all the Hop on Beer Route tour was a huge hit with everybody present and I am sure as word gets out it will become a very popular tour not just with visitors but also for corporate and end of year groups.  Cheers.
 
Disclosure: I got to go on the Hop on Beer Route Tour as guest of Gecko Tours and Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism.  I received no further remuneration, wasn't asked to write a positive post and keep full editorial control.

A Grand Entrance


I'm seeing sheep everywhere this week.   

Tuesday, 29 September 2015

How To Launch A Hot Air Balloon

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Apparently with some difficulty, depending on the wind and the proximity and the proximity of your tutu-wearing neighbors.                  

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High Light

Early morning sunbeams pierce the clouds over a valley in Yangshuo County, China. Matthew Richardson captured the dramatic scene from his vantage point atop Xianggong Hill, just one of the many karst peaks that fill the region.

John Hancock


This is the headquarters of the John Hancock Insurance Co. in Boston. Their previous building was the 62 story tower in the Back Bay on Clarendon St. You can see the 62 story glass tower and the original Hancock building in this 2008 picture. Hancock sold the tower in 2004 and downsized to this new building on Congress St. in the Seaport District. More from the Boston Globe.

A century-old reservoir

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I discovered this beautiful mysterious old structure at the top of a hill near Bondi Junction, Australia.


Now that I'm back home in Israel I have time to research what it was that I saw.
Turns out that this is Waverley Reservoir (Elevated) (WS 136) and its story is here.

The water supply reservoir was built a century ago, completed in 1917.
I hope the heritage people will take good care of it.
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(Linking to Watery Songlines meme in Australia.)
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The mouth of the Bushmans River

The coastal Sunshine Coast town of Kenton-on-Sea is flanked by two tidal river, the Bushmans River and the Kariega River.  Normally the area is a quite and peaceful area until the summer holiday arrive.  That is when mostly inland holiday makers flock to the area with a lot of them bringing their boats to enjoy the river with.  The Bushman's River, on the western side of Kenton, is the 2nd-longest navigable river in South Africa and offers a 22km stretch of open water.  The river is ideal for water sports or just a leisurely cruise upstream.  What makes it even more attractive is that fact that most of it is unspoiled and undeveloped due to a number of game reserves along its upper reaches. 
 
A trip out to the area a week or two three ago gave me the opportunity to snap this pic of the river mouth.  I know it's not the most exciting picture, but it does show how beautiful the place is.

The Knight of Bishopsgate









Monday, 28 September 2015

The Great Forest Park Balloon Race, Abstracted

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I shoot the Great Forest Park Balloon Race almost every year. It is usually very crowded and full of color. We'll get to that but sometimes all those gaudy tones could use paring down.
                      
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Transit

Durchgang von der Theodor-Heuss-Straße zum Schlossplatz.
Passage way from Theodor-Heuss-Straße to Schlossplatz.

March of Pines

Staggered by snow, Norway spruces bend with the weather in northern Sweden’s Laponia, one of the largest wilderness areas in Europe at 3,630 square miles. “Solitude and spectacle—that’s the essence of Laponia,” says John Utsi, a writer from the town of Jokkmokk.

See more pictures from the October 2015 feature story “Wild Heart of Sweden.”


Saddle Lake Today......yup.....Many Gold Fish


Anthony's Pier 4 Restaurant


At one time, one of the busiest restaurants in the country, Anthony's Pier 4 Restaurant on Northern Avenue is closed and soon scheduled for demolition. It will be replaced by a 21 story apartment and retail tower in the rapidly changing Seaport district of Boston.

What Lifts You, at Bondi beach

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Not a great photo but I had to shoot fast (and into the sun)  because a constant line of tourists was waiting to get their picture taken posing with the wings.
It is found along the line of murals at beautiful Bondi beach, Australia.
(Was it only ten days ago that I was there, in Sydney . . . ?)

Apparently these #whatliftsyou angel wings by Kelsey Montague are appearing in cities all over the world. 
Mashable talks about What Lifts You as "The intersection of street art and social media."
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(Linking to Monday Mural at Oakland Daily Photo.)
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Ancient Rites


Yep its a bunch of sheep that trip tropped across London Bridge yesterday, much to the amusement of several American tourists that were passing by.

Quirky, but it has it roots in hard won rights back in the 12th century.  The freemen and liverymen were allowed to bring their produce to market without having to pay the onerous taxes of the day.

For the Woolmen  this meant they had the right to drive their sheep to market, crossing London Bridge (the only bridge at the time) without having to pay the hefty wool taxes.  Nowadays it is purely ceremonial.  Every year they dress up in their robes and march a dozen (or so) sheep back and forth across the bridge.  Its a fun day and a chance for the company to remind the public where meat and wool comes from whilst raising money for their charitable activities.

Sunday, 27 September 2015

A Small Performance

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This Japanese man performed in a quiet corner of the garden. He had a modest pushcart that proved to be full of tricks and delights.Things to juggle and balance, disguises and odd bits of materials. In the second and third pictures he fashions flowers from globs of spun sugar on a stick, finally handing one to a member of the audience.

I'll end the series from the Japanese festival here - it's been going on a long time. There are more pictures to edit, particularly of the taiko drummers on the amphitheater stage, and photos that have not been posted to the blog. I particularly recommend two shots of a blind Iraqi-American judo practitioner who is trying to make the team for the Special Olympics. He took on the sumo giants in photos here and here.       

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Diagonal

Das Bülow-Carre von der Ecke Lautenschlager- und Thouretstraße aus fotografiert... 
The "Bülow Carre" is a modern office building in the centre. This corner was shot from Lautenschlager Straße and Thouretstraße.
... und hier von der Stephanstraße aus gesehen. Gleich nebenan befinden sich die Gloriapassage und das "Brauhaus Schönbuch".
The diagonal corner is at Stephanstraße. Next door there are Gloriapassage and the restaurant named "Brauhaus Schönbuch".

A Standout

A brightly hued Labord’s chameleon clings to a branch, standing in stark contrast to the surrounding dry brush. It’s a popular myth that chameleons take on the color of what they touch. Though some color changes do help them blend into their surroundings, the skin’s changing hue is in fact a physiological reaction that’s mostly for communication.

See more pictures from the September 2015 feature story “The Colorful Language of Chameleons.”


Sept 27 The Blood Moon over Observation Mountain