Dry-stone walls, Derbyshire April 6, 2009
Posted by shortfinals in British Isles, Derbyshire, England, New England, Peak District, Prehistory.Tags: agriculture, architectural design, caravan, Carl Giles, cartoon, cartoonist, cattle, cattle pen, cultural link, Derbyshire, Dry Stone Walling Association, dry-stone wall, England, field boundaries, fields, flocks, foundation, France, frost, garden design, Germany, Giles family, Great Britain, harsh weather, herders, horizontal 'key', ice, key, livestock, maze, Middleton by Wirksworth, Millenium Wall, mobile studio, National Stone Center, Neolithic, New England, Peak District, Peak District National Park, predators, sheep, sheep folds, Sweden, thorn hedge, tour
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- Dry-stone walls, Derbyshire
Since Neolithic times, herders of sheep and cattle have sought to construct sheep folds and cattle pens to defend their livestock against predators. They also wished to define the limits of their own fields. Planting thorn hedges worked to an extent, but in harsh weather a dry-stone wall is best.
Central Park, Clinton – not so much passive, as passive-aggressive? March 28, 2009
Posted by shortfinals in New England, United States, baseball, textiles.Tags: New England, dogs, baseball, New York, churches, Central Park, textiles, Victorian, Boston, Massachusetts, United States, Worcester County, Clinton, MA, architectural design, textile industry, public buildings, housing stock, baseball diamond, Fuller Field, oldest baseball field in the world, statuary, fountain, Town Hall, ointment, ball playing, frisbee, football, soccer, golf, skateboard, rollerblading, bicycles, swimming, wading, metal detecting, littering, prohibitions, park, carpet
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Sign, Central Park, Clinton, MA
Clinton is a small city, in Worcester County in the western portion of Massachusetts, which was incorporated in 1850. It is about 42 miles from Boston, and therefore 30 miles from where I live. A visit to Clinton is usually most enjoyable, if you appreciate architectural design, as the prosperity of the 19th century caused by its booming textile industry (especially carpets), allowed the town to erect many impressive public buildings. Also, the housing stock contains fine examples of homes in the New England Victorian style. As an aside, it also is home to the oldest baseball diamond in continuous use in the world (dating from 1878), Fuller Field.
At the core of the town is Central Park, a fine public space with paths, seats, statuary and a fountain, which has many mature trees. The park is surrounded on three sides by a variety of notable homes, churches, the Town Hall and other buildings. Like its much bigger and more famous counterpart in New York, Central Park should be a haven of rest, relaxation and recreation.
There is, however, one fly in the ointment. As you can see from the above notice, Central Park has been designated a ‘passive park for the enjoyment of all’, with the authorities banning virtually ALL forms of activity. No dogs allowed, no ball playing, no frisbee, no football, no soccer, no golf, no skateboards, no rollerblading, no bicycles, no swimming, no wading, no metal detectors, no littering. A couple of these are fairly standard (and useful) prohibitions, but the main aim of the city seems to be to forbid almost anything that makes a park a park! Not so much ‘passive’ as ‘passive-aggressive’, in my opinion.
Perhaps, on my next visit, I should enquire at the Town Hall to see if I can go into the park and breathe a little?
Town snowplough – ‘It’s The End Of The World As We Know It’ March 2, 2009
Posted by shortfinals in New England, United States.Tags: 'It's The End Of The World As We Know It', Atlantic, Boston, Canada, Carolinas, circulation, commute, low pressure, Maritime Provinces, Massachusetts, moist air, New England, New England states, Nor'easter, ski resorts, skiers, Snow, snowboaders, snowplough, storm
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- Town snowplough
Well, maybe not the end of the world, but..it is a nasty ‘Nor’easter’. This is a particularly savage type of winter storm that we get here in New England. It starts with an area of low pressure moving up the coast from the Carolinas up towards the Maritime Provinces of Canada. As the centre of the storm passes just off the coast, the circulation picks up moist air from the (relatively) warm Atlantic, which is dumped at fairly impressive rates over the New England states. Snow at the rate of 2 to 3 inches per hour is not uncommon. Nor’easters are one of the reasons why the Boston area averages around 50 inches of snow per year.
We have just been told that the next 8 hours will see another 12 – 18 inches of snow in our part of Massachusetts (on top of that already on the ground). It is going to be a trying commute, that is for sure! Possibly the only ones clapping their hands with glee are the owners of various ski resorts, just to the north of Boston; and, of course, the legions of skiers and snowboarders who flock to them.
Car vs building…….and the winner is….. February 16, 2009
Posted by shortfinals in New England, United States, car crash.Tags: accelerator, ambulance, atrium, brick, car, car crash, carpeted, concrete, condominium, elderly driver, elevator shaft, firemen, footpath, front door, glass, glass doors, glass particles, high velocity, Lay-Z-Boy recliner, Mercury, New England, paramedics, police, shoe heel, steel, tow truck
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Mercury vs condominium
Occasionally, bad things happen to good people…..like the driver of this car.
I was sitting in my Lay-Z-Boy recliner, when the whole building shook, then there was a splattering sound as if someone had thrown a shovelful of gravel against the front door of the condominium. When I opened the door, I found that a car had entered the building THROUGH the two glass doors and across the carpeted atrium, impacting the steel-reinforced brick elevator shaft. I was able to render first aid to the elderly driver (her shoe heel had got caught under the accelerator pedal, and she had sped across the car park, up a concrete footpath, and through two glass and metal sets of doors). I stayed with her until the ambulance and the paramedics arrived…..THEN started shaking! This photograph was taken later, as the police and firemen (aided by a tow truck) began the process of removing the car from the building. Anyone crossing the atrium at the moment of the crash would have stood little chance, as a cloud of metal pieces and glass particles was sprayed across it at high velocity – I was still picking pieces of glass out of our front door days later; ten feet to the left and my Laz-Z-Boy would have needed to be a two-seater…………
In praise of the corrugated iron hut……… February 8, 2009
Posted by shortfinals in Aviation, British Isles, England, New England, Royal Air Force, Second World War, aircraft.Tags: 29th Company, 81st Airdrome Squadron, AAF Station 471, Army Air Corps, corrugated iron, Davisville, Davisville Naval Construction Battalion Center, displaced persons, DSO, England, farm animals, First World War, former airfield, Gliders, GSA Gliding Club, Herbert Hawkes, Keevil, Keevil Airfield, Major Peter Norman Nissen, New England, Nissen hut, North Kingstown, PoW, Quonset hut, Quonset Point, RAF, RAF Lyneham, Rhode Island, Romney hut, Royal Air Force, Royal Engineers, Second World War, US Army Air Corps, Wiltshire
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- Corrugated iron huts, Keevil
It all started with an officer in the 29th Company, Royal Engineers. Major Peter Norman Nissen (1871-1930), needed a fast, easy-to-erect building which would offer storage and living space in the field. Since this was 1916, the need was great indeed, and production of the hut, made from curved sheets of corrugated iron was approved immediately. A single hut took 54 sheets of curved corrugated iron, 10 ft 6 ins high and 2 ft 2 ins wide, and a specially braced framework. By the end of the First World War, around 100, 000 units had been manufactured.
Athough small scale production continued between the wars, it was only the outbreak of World War Two that caused a massive expansion of the building programme. Although the huts could be taken apart, and moved to new locations as required, many formed the backbone of ‘permanent’ buildings on airfields, army barracks, and naval bases worldwide. There were various versions of the hut built, including the Romney Hut (British) and the Quonset Hut (US). The Quonset Hut was named after Quonset Point, where the Davisville Naval Construction Battalion Center was located (Davisville being a part of North Kingstown, Rhode Island).
These huts are located on Keevil Airfield, Wiltshire, and look to be modified Quonset huts, as these were considerably larger than the British versons, and I have seen a photograph of similar huts at Keevil in 1943. This is possible as Keevil was, at one time, Army Air Force Station 471, home to several US Army Air Corps units. These included the 81st Airdrome Squadron, providing communications and other support to AAC flying units. Herbert Hawkes, who served with the 81st described the conditions at Keevil in 1943 as, ‘mud’!
The huts now serve a variety of uses, the one on the left of the photograph being used by Bannerdown Gliding Club, an RAF GSA Gliding Club, affliated to nearby RAF Lyneham.
Postwar, huts of all three types continued in use in the UK, and in other countries. They housed farm animals and equipment, many when former airfields reverted to agricultural use; they were used to house PoWs, as well as ‘displaced persons’, and, above all, they continued their military careers on bases both large and small. As for Major Nissen, he received a small payment for his efforts, but the Distinguished Service Order from a grateful nation.
A Derbyshire ‘traitor’? February 4, 2009
Posted by shortfinals in British Isles, Derbyshire, England, London, Museums, New England, United States.Tags: 'Father of the American Industrial Revolution', apprentice, Belper, Blackstone River, Blackstone River National Heritage Corridor, carding, cotton, Cromford, Derbyshire, Derwent Mills World Heritage Site, factory system, indenture, Jedediah Strutt, London, Milford, Moses Brown, museum, New England, New York, Pawtucket, President Andrew Jackson, Quaker, Rhode Island, River Derwent, Samuel Slater, Sir Richard Arkwright, spinning, textiles, UNESCO, USA, water power, World Heritage Site
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- Slater Mill, Pawtucket, Rhode Island
When is a ‘traitor’ not a ‘traitor’? When he’s ‘The Father of the American Industrial Revolution’?
Stained glass window February 1, 2009
Posted by shortfinals in New England.Tags: artist, buttoned boots, computer terminal, Elizabeth, hospital, lead, lily, Louis Comfort Tiffany, medical library, New England, New York, stained glass, Tiffany, tinted glass
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- Stained glass window
If I look up from my computer terminal at work, and glance across the room, this is what I see. A memorial window to a young girl who died in 1898, it stood for many years in a children’s ward endowed by the family. Elizabeth is depicted wearing a white dress, black buttoned boots, and carrying a lily. Eventually, after many years in sortage, it ended up with us, in the Medical Library.
Autumn display – hospital grounds January 13, 2009
Posted by shortfinals in New England.Tags: autumn, bricks, corn stalks, cupola, Emergency Department, Fall, gardens, hospital, New England, pumpkin, scarecrow
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Fall display
The hospital where I work has some very pretty gardens scattered about the campus, and one of them is close by the new Emergency Department. Each autumn, there are various displays organized to mark the coming of Fall. Here is one of them, complete with scarecrow, cornstalks and a pumpkin. Both the pumpkin and the cornstalks are typical of New England during the autumn, and you can even buy them at roadside farmstands.
The cupola behind the display is from one of the hospital’s buildings, dating from the 1890s, and forms the centre of a walk of inscribed bricks. One of these bricks is dedicated to my parents.
Fall…or autumn, as I still call it January 12, 2009
Posted by shortfinals in New England.Tags: autumn, Fall, leaves, maple, New England, Nikon, Nikon D40
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Maple, outside my bedroom window
One compensation for the sticky, hot, summers in New England is the autumnal colours. Quite spectacular in most years.
On a certain morning, in late September, I awoke to a strange pinkish/orange light reflecting from the white-painted ceiling. Looking outside, I could scarcely believe my eyes, for there was a perfect example of a flaming, red maple tree not 40 feet from my bedroom.
Needless to say, I was outside and snapping away as fast as I could. The colour was so fantastic, that motorists were actually sreeching to a halt, and taking pictures with anything they had, phones, PDAs, some even had cameras!
Anyway, here we are – Fall in New England
The first photograph with the ‘new’ Nikon… January 12, 2009
Posted by shortfinals in New England.Tags: Common Reed, invasive species, New England, Nikon, Nikon D40, Phragmites australis, reeds, rhizome
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- Common Reed
The first photograph I took with my new Nikon was this…..it shows a reedbed of the Common Reed (Phragmites australis) not far from where I live in New England. This is an impressive plant, growing up to 14 feet in height, and is very opportunistic, in that it can grow either via the spread of rhizomes, just under the surface, or seeds which can be distributed on the wind or by birds.
