'Tis The Season

 

Tomorrow is opening day of the baseball season, when the St. Louis Cardinals will take on the defending champion and arch rival Chicago Cubs. There will be a big rally across the street from the stadium in the afternoon that I hope to shoot. All the crazies will be out in red. As noted here before, veneration of the Cardinals is the state religion around these parts.  

Above, the statue of Stan Musial, sometimes referred to as the greatest Cardinal of them all, watches over a main entrance to the ball park.       

Government Center: Another View

Full view of the Government Center T station.

Hey, Man

That unmistakable smell was strangely absent from this section of the flood wall. I'm not aware that Cheech and Chong ever drove through St. Louis, dodging the attention of the police. Somebody still remembers them. There was an interview with Cheech Marin on National Public Radio earlier this month.     

Government Center

Boston City Hall reflected in the new MBTA Blue Line subway station.

Thursday Arch Series

The main reason the snooze button has been on the TAS is the massive construction around and below it, all part of a major renovation. The entrance to the underground museum and the funicular to the top used to be from the base of the legs. As the work nears completion, you can see how the new entrance has been turned toward the city under the center of the monument. 

It's not ready yet, but there should be more new views as the weeks pass.               

James Michael Curley

James Michael Curley, by artist Lloyd Lillie, on Congress Street, along the Freedom Trail in Boston.

One of the most colorful figures in Massachusetts politics in the first half of the 20th century, Curley served four terms as Democratic Mayor of Boston, including part of one while in prison. He also served a single term as Governor of Massachusetts

Curley became famous when as he was elected, in 1904, to the Boston Board of Alderman while serving time in prison on a fraud conviction. His colorful career included an indictment for influence peddling in 1943. He won a fourth term as mayor of Boston in 1945; despite a second indictment by a federal grand jury, for mail fraud. In 1947, he was sentenced to 6–18 months on the mail fraud conviction and spent five months at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, CT before his sentence was commuted by President Truman. He was defeated for mayor in the 1949 election, thus ending his long political career.

Curley is considered the inspiration for the protagonist Frank Skeffington in the novel The Last Hurrah by Edwin O'Connor, on which director John Ford based his film with the same title.

Golden West

John Wayne wouldn't recognize it.  Nor would Giacomo Puccini. I don't know if the name and logo on this hopper car has something to do with the corporate owner or whether, perhaps, it carries grain. The graffiti looks sort of like the style of Pacific Northwest Native American art.

I threw some flash on this, which is what makes those reflective bars really pop out. We are into trains here in the heartland.                       

Charles River Esplanade

House On Haunted Hill

That's what the light made me think of. I was walking around the area that will become the new entrance to the Arch grounds and museum, seeing if there was anything to shoot yet. It's taking shape but has a way to go. When I turned around I saw the sun peeking through dark late afternoon clouds onto the surrounding buildings. The Hyatt hotel and Old Court House had an ominous look.              

Going digital at the Owl House

The last time I was at the Owl House in Nieu-Bethesda I got a nice picture of a gent standing in contemplation between the cement figures.  On this visit to the village I was at the Owl House with two friends and colleagues and I really thought there would be a good chance to catch one of them in deep contemplation at some stage.  Curse the digital age... Bwhahahahahaha.... The best I got was while one was taking a picture to post to Instagram and the other was taking a selfie. I love it!!!! They'll probably put out a hit on me when they see this post.

Come in and look -- Open Houses weekend sale

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This weekend was our town's Open Houses event.
About 18 Meitar residents opened their yards or houses to sell all kinds of crafts, art, and clothing.
The old balance scales were fascinating.
In back of the table, on the ground, you can see beautiful old Persian carpets, SO expensive.

Actually the lady at this house was selling the nice pottery that she makes, but she was happy to explain that the antique sewing machine still works fine.

In this other yard, what I thought looked like a fancy scarecrow led the way to other "vintage treasures."
But my favorite house was the woodworker's.  He creates wonderful toys, eating utensils, benches, and artistic things, and even a Pinocchio!
Wish I could be his apprentice.
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Hanging Around

Sometimes if you hang around too long you get caught. Or maybe it's the other way around?

Everyone's A Critic

Everyone and everything that walks by an art display becomes a reviewer in one way or another. You might measure the degree of interest by the amount of time spent before each work. 

As with many similar photos, this is on the Mississippi flood wall south of downtown. The display constantly changes and evolves.                  

The Delightful Indira

Please pop over here to read the story of Indira and Marimuthu.

Footbridge

Why have you never visited Nieu-Bethesda?

It feels like most people I speak to about travelling in the Karoo Heartland of the Eastern Cape have been to Graaff-Reinet, yet many didn't venture much further to also visit Nieu-Bethesda.  Nieu-Bethesda truly is a very special village located barely 30 minutes from Graaff-Reinet and have a truly off the beaten track feeling to it.  I say off the beaten track because that is literally what it is.  No tar roads in the village, no street lights, no ATM, no petrol station and no night life other than crickets in the dark and the cow you have to swerve out for when it suddenly appears in your headlights.  What the village does have are tons of character (the good kind), history, interesting nooks and crannies, even more interesting people, good food and nostalgia that will stick to you like blackjacks to wool socks long after you have left.

I was going to do a long and detailed post about Nieu-Bethesda but decided that my pictures could easily do most of the talking.  For the rest you will have to visit the village yourself to discover.

Nieu-Bethesda, a town of Karoo landscapes, history, owls, dirt roads and (rusting in) piece

Not a tarred road or street light in sight where a traffic jam means two cars reaching an intersection at the same time perhaps twice a day

Nieu-Bethesda is one of the few places that still have leivore (farrows) with water flowing in them

The Owl House is what put Nieu-Bethesda on the map and well worth a visit

The late Helen Martins spent most of her life in the town and the latter part of it transforming her ordinary Karoo home into a place of colour and light.  Over the years she and her assistant Koos Malgas, used concrete and glass to create a multi-coloured house and fantasy garden.  In the Camel Yard visitors will find statues of owls, camels, wise men and much more and one can literally get lost In your own thoughts trying to take all of this in.  Shortly before her 79th birthday, Helen Martins committed suicide by drinking caustic soda.  It is said that at the time her eyesight was failing because of damage from ground glass and that depression was getting the better of her.  

Doesn't matter how many times I visit the Owl House, there is always something different to discover or some new angle to photograph 

One can't simply visit Nieu-Bethesda and not buy one of the hand made cement owls being sold outside the Owl House.  I still have the owl I bought on my first visit to the village in my garden.

The Nieu-Bethesda cemetery has graves dating back to the early days of the village with the one of Helen Martins with its cement owl headstone standing out 

The Karoo is famous for the fossils found there and Nieu-Bethesda seems to be right in the thick of things when it comes to fossil records.  The Kitching Fossil Centre in the village is well worth a visit.  The guide shows visitors how they clean the rock off the fossils and do a walking tour to the river bed to show you fossils in the rocks.

If you really want to learn more about fossils, Khoi San artifacts and rock paintings then you have to visit Ganora Guest Farm a little outside the village.  Ganora has one of the biggest private fossil collections in the country in their fossil museum and if they ever established a Jurassic Park in the Karoo then I would want to be with owner JP Steynberg as he knows everything there is to know about the prehistoric animals found in that area. 

Yes, that is the fossilised skull of a very small dinosaur

Don't think that a tour through the Ganora Fossil Museum would be a boring affair

The Karoo Heartland is known for it's amazing hospitality and farm stays are becoming more and more popular.  At Ganora our little group were just in time to help bottle feed the hanslammers (hand reared lambs).  Not the kind of experience that us city slickers are used to or get to do every day.  

My visit to Nieu-Bethesda was way too short, taking up only a Sunday afternoon and Monday morning before the meeting I had to attend.  Way too little to explore and experience properly.  One needs at least a weekend, arriving on the Friday afternoon and leaving on Sunday after lunch, to have a chance to get to know the town properly and visit at least a few places.  If you do want to know more, do check out this very comprehensive list of things to do in Nieu-Bethesda on the ECTOUR website. 

Soldiers and Sailors Monument

The Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Boston Common was erected in memory of Massachusetts soldiers and sailors who died in the American Civil War. Designed by Martin Milmore and dedicated on September 17, 1877. Union Generals George B. McClellan and Joseph Hooker were among the estimated 25,000 people attending the dedication on Boston Common. The Monument is located on a rise called Flag Staff Hill and rises to a height of 126 feet on its base. The column is topped by a figure representing the Genius of America. Four statues at the base represent Peace, the Sailor, the Muse of History, and the Soldier. Bas-relief plaques depict the departure and return of the forces, the Navy, and the work of the Boston Sanitary Commission. In one plaque, Longfellow can be seen accompanying the governor. The figures at the base of the column represent the sections of the country: North, South, East, and West. Here is another view of the monument I took seven years ago.

Esplanade

Another view of the Charles River.

Another decade . . . need something local

Well, ten years down and whatever to go. Seems appropriate to have something local and seasonal to restart the timer. Opening day for the beloved Cardinals is only ten days away. These variations on the mascot were on the ever-changing part of the Mississippi flood wall where graffiti is permitted.

Those facial expressions, even as cartoons, are saying very different things.          

Forest to Plate in Kfar Sallama, Galilee

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The most delicious vegetarian lunch I've ever tasted!

This young Bedouin brought huge trays to our tour group directly from the kitchen window of the family preparing all these fresh dishes.

Here the basket of hot pita came.
All the ingredients were local, in season, organic, and -- did I say? -- delicious!
Some were grown right there in the yard where we ate, while some were gathered in the wild.
In fact, the business card of  the family enterprise reads  FOREST to PLATE.

Right there in the yard, between the modern houses of this village in the Galilee, is a diwan, a Bedouin tent of hospitality.
If our tour group from Meitar had been a few decades younger, we could have eaten inside, sitting on the ground.
You can see video of guests dancing there to live Arab flute music at The Bedouin Experience in the Galilee page on Facebook.
Their website is in Hebrew but has photos and music.

The old traditional Bedouin embroidered dresses are always nice to see.

The Galilee is covered with olive trees and still the oil production does not meet the local demand.
So many foods are made with olive oil.
In the garden an old olive crushing stone was on display.

Right under an olive tree!

One of the village's mosques.

Kfar Sallama has more than 3,100 inhabitants.

A photo of the village from 2008, from Wikipedia.  I'm sure Kfar Sallama has expanded since then.
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Very interesting is this list and map of Arab localities in Israel.
Check out the Northern District (ya'ani, the Galilee) especially.
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(Linking to ABC Wednesday K-day.)
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