FLOWERS FOR THE UNKNOWN SOLDIERS

Armistice Day is the anniversary of the symbolic end of World War I on 11 November 1918. It commemorates the armistice signed between the Allies and Germany at Rethondes, France, for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front, which took effect at eleven o'clock in the morning — the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month". While this official date to mark the end of the war reflects the cease fire on the Western Front, hostilities continued in other regions, especially across the former Russian Empire and in parts of the old Ottoman Empire.

The date was declared a national holiday in many allied nations to commemorate those members of the armed forces who were killed during war. Called Armistice Day in many countries, it was known as National Day in Poland (also a public holiday) called Polish Independence Day. After World War II, the name of the holiday was changed to Veterans Day in the United States and to Remembrance Day in countries of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Armistice Day remains an official holiday in France. It is also an official holiday in Belgium, known also as the Day of Peace in the Flanders Fields.

In many parts of the world people take a two minute moment of silence at 11:00 a.m. as a sign of respect for the roughly 20 million who died in the war, as suggested by Edward George Honey in a letter to a British newspaper although Wellesley Tudor Pole established two ceremonial periods of remembrance based on events in 1917. Beginning in 1939 the two-minute silence was moved to the Sunday nearest 11 November in order not to interfere with wartime production should 11 November fall on a weekday. Since the 1990s a growing number of people have observed a two-minute silence on 11 November, resulting in both Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday being commemorated formally in the UK (although in 2007 they fell on the same day).

11 November 2008 is the 90th anniversary of Armistice Day. 2018 will be the 100th anniversary.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armistice_Day

LLORET DE MAR, SPAIN

BARCELONA - FOOD MARKET

TOSSA DE MAR, SPAIN

Tossa de Mar is a holiday resort located in Catalonia on the Costa Brava, about 33 kilometres north of Barcelona and 100 kilometres south of the French border.

There is ample evidence of settlements dating back to the Neolithic period, and it is believed that the area has been continuously populated since that time. Between the 4th century BC and the 1st century BC appeared the first settlementsof the Iberians , followed shortly after by the Romans in the 1st century.

In 966 Tossa is ceded by Count Miró of Barcelona to the Abbey of Ripoll. Some two centuries latter, in 1187 Tossa is granted its charter by the Abbot of Ripoll, coinciding with the building of a church atop Mount Guardí, the remnants of which can still be seen today.

Sometime in the 12th century the mediaeval town was walled off and a castle was built on the highest point of Mt. Guardí, this castle was to be subsequently replaced by a wind mill, and this in turn by a lighthouse which is still operational.

By the year 1500 the first houses were built extra-muros to accommodate population growth. This process was greatly accelerated during the 17th and 18th centuries, shaping an urban configuration which was to remain practically unchanged until the arrival of mass tourism in the 1950s.

Contrary to popular belief that Tossa has traditionally been a fishing town, in mediaeval times and until the arrival of tourism, the local economy was mostly based on agricultural production, principally Grape vine and cork (material). There was a thriving export market of the latter (in the form of cork taps shipped to the Americas) during the 18th century and early 19th century.

Fishing has traditionally been a relatively minor contributor to the village's economy, although it has consistently provided an alternative source of income in times of economic crisis. A small fishing industry is still active as of 2005 and occupies a few members of local fishing families. Most of their captures are sold to local restaurants and in the fish markets in neighbouring Blanes and Sant Feliu de Guíxols.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tossa_de_Mar

BLANES BOTANICAL GARDEN FLORA

Blanes is a tourist town with a population of 38,368 (as of 2007) on the Costa Brava of Girona, in Catalonia, Spain.

The coast of Blanes has 4 km of different kinds of beaches, the most famous are Blanes beach and S'Abanell beach. Steep rocky cliffs and small inviting coves alternate within its scenery. The most well-known town nearby is Lloret de Mar.

SILVIA AND DAVID AT THE NIKKO SHRINE

Nikkō Tōshō-gū (日光東照宮?) is a Shinto shrine located in Nikkō, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. It is part of the "Shrines and Temples of Nikkō", a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Tōshō-gū is dedicated to Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate. Initially built in 1617, during the Edo period, while Ieyasu's son Hidetada was shogun, it was enlarged during the time of the third shogun, Iemitsu. Ieyasu is enshrined here, and his remains are entombed here.

During the Edo period, the Tokugawa shogunate carried out stately processions from Edo to the Nikkō Tōshō-gū along the Nikkō Kaidō. The shrine's annual spring and autumn festivals reenact these occasions, and are known as "processions of a thousand warriors."

Five structures at Nikkō Tōshō-gū are categorized as National Treasures of Japan, and three more as Important Cultural Properties. Additionally, two swords in the possession of the shrine are National Treasures, and numerous other objects are Important Cultural Properties. Famous buildings at the Tōshō-gū include the Yōmei-mon, a gate that is also known as "higurashi-no-mon." The latter name means that one could look at it until sundown, and not tire of seeing it. Carvings in deep relief, painted in rich colors, decorate the surface of the structure. The next gate is the Kara-mon, named for its carvings in the Chinese style. The decorations on this one are painted white. Nearby, a carving of the sleepy cat, "Nemuri-Neko", is attributed to Hidari Jingorō.

The stable of the shrine's sacred horses bears a carving of the three wise monkeys, who hear, speak and see no evil, a traditional symbol in Chinese and Japanese culture.

The original five-story pagoda was donated by a daimyo in 1650, but it was burned down during a fire, and was rebuilt in 1818. Each story represents an element - earth, water, fire, wind and heaven - in ascending order.

Hundreds of stone steps lead through the cryptomeria forest up to the grave of Ieyasu. A torii at the top bears calligraphy attributed to Emperor Go-Mizunoo. A bronze urn contains the remains of Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikk%C5%8D_T%C5%8Dsh%C5%8D-g%C5%AB

TSUKIJI FISH MARKET

Tsukiji fish market (Japanese: 築地市場, Tsukiji shijō) is the biggest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world and also one of the largest wholesale food markets of any kind. The market is located in Tsukiji in central Tokyo, and is a major attraction for foreign visitors (few Japanese casually visit the market).

The Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market, commonly known as The Tsukiji fish market is located near the Tsukijishijō Station on the Toei Ōedo Line and Tsukiji Station on the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line. There are two distinct sections of the market as a whole. The "inner market" (jonai shijo) is the licensed wholesale market, where the auctions and most of the processing of the fish take place, and where licensed wholesale dealers (approximately 900 of them) operate small stalls. The "outer market" (jogai shijo) is a mixture of wholesale and retail shops that sell Japanese kitchen tools, restaurant supplies, groceries, and seafood, and many restaurants, especially sushi restaurants. Most of the shops in the outer market close by the early afternoon, and in the inner market even earlier.

The market opens most mornings except Sundays and holidays and some infrequent closing days within the week at 3:00 a.m. with the arrival of the products by ship, truck and plane from all over the world. Particularly impressive is the unloading of tons of frozen tuna. The auction houses (wholesalers known in Japanese as oroshi gyōsha) then estimate the value and prepare the incoming products for the auctions. The buyers (licensed to participate in the auctions) also inspect the fish to estimate which fish they would like to bid for and at which price.

The auctions start around 5:20 a.m. Bidding can only be done by licensed participants. These bidders include intermediate wholesalers [nakaoroshi gyousha] who operate stalls within the marketplace, and other licensed buyers who are agents for restaurants, food processing companies, and large retailers.

The auctions usually end around 7:00 a.m. Afterwards, the purchased fish is either loaded onto trucks to be shipped to the next destination, or on small carts and moved to the many shops located inside of the market. There the shop owners cut and prepare the products for retail. In case of large fish, for example tuna and swordfish, cutting and preparation is elaborate. Frozen tuna and swordfish are often cut with large band saws, and fresh tuna is carved with extremely long knives (some well over a meter in length) called Oroshi hocho, maguro-bocho, or Hancho hocho.

The market is most busy between 5:30 and 8:00 a.m., and the activity declines significantly afterwards. Many shops start to close around 11:00 a.m., and the market closes for cleaning around 1:00 p.m. Tourists may visit the market daily between 5 AM and 6:15 AM and watch the proceedings from a designated area.

Inspectors from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government supervise activities in the market to enforce the Food Hygiene Law.

More on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsukiji_Fish_Market

LE MANDUKHAI - HOULDILCOURT, FRANCE

The word yurt is originally from the Turkic word meaning "dwelling place" in the sense of "homeland"; the term came to be used in reference to the physical tent-like structures only in other languages. In Russian the structure is called "yurta" (юрта), whence the word came into English.

In Kazakh (and Uyghur) the term for the structure is kiyiz üy (киіз үй, lit. "felt home"). In Kyrgyz the term is boz üý (боз үй), literally "grey house", because of the colour of the felt. In Mongolian it is called a ger (гэр). Afghans call them "Kherga"/"Jirga" or "ooee". In Pakistan it is also known as gher (گھر).

Traditional yurts consist of a circular wooden frame carrying a felt cover. The felt is made from the wool of the flocks of sheep that accompany the pastoralists. The timber to make the external structure is not to be found on the treeless steppes, and must be traded for in the valleys below.

The frame consists of one or more lattice wall-sections, a door-frame, roof poles and a crown. Some styles of yurt have one or more columns to support the crown. The (self-supporting) wood frame is covered with pieces of felt. Depending on availability, the felt is additionally covered with canvas and/or sun-covers. The frame is held together with one or more ropes or ribbons. The structure is kept under compression by the weight of the covers, sometimes supplemented by a heavy weight hung from the center of the roof. They vary regionally, with straight or bent roof-poles, different sizes, and relative weight.

It is designed to be dismantled and the parts carried on camels or yaks to be rebuilt on another site.

More on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yurt

MEDIEVAL 2008 - BRUSSELS, BELGIUM

SBANDIERATORI SANSEPOLCRO - ITALY

FLOWER CARPET - GRAND PLACE, BRUSSELS

Belgium, 15 August 2008

The Grote Markt (Dutch) or Grand Place (French) is the central market square of Brussels. It is surrounded by guild houses, the city's Town Hall and the Bread House (Dutch: Broodhuis, French: Maison du Roi).

The Grand Place was named by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1998. One of the houses was owned by the brewers' guild, and is now the home of a brewers' museum.

The Grand Place is well known for its large "flower carpet". This display of begonias is arranged on the square every two years for a few days in the middle of August, and attracts many tourists.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Place#Flower_carpet

CONTESA DEL SECCHIO

Sant'Elpidio a Mare, Italy - 10 August 2008

Sant'Elpidio a Mare is a town and commune in the province of Ascoli Piceno, in the Marche region of Italy. It is famous for having one of the oldest and most prestigious historical re-enactments in the region of the “Contesa del Secchio”.

The town was originally named Cluana. The village of Cluana acquired Saint Elpidius' relics in the 7th century in exchange for the donation of a piece of land. The relics of Elpidius and his companions Eustace and Ennesius were consigned to the local inhabitants, and the town later acquired the new name of Sant'Elpidio a Mare.

The relics of Elpidius are considered to have saved the town from a Lombard siege; tradition states that the saint appeared in the sky asking the inhabitants to defend the village.

GIOSTRA DELLA QUINTANA - ASCOLI PICENO

Ascoli Piceno, Italy - 3 August 2008

The Giostra della Quintana is a knight ring jousting tournament based on a historical event. It takes place in the Town of Ascoli Piceno, in central Italy.

The events take place in July during a Saturday night and the first Sunday of August.

The definition of Quintana comes from the 5th road of the Roman military Camps, where the soldiers were trained to the lance fighting. They run against a dummy-soldier, trying to catch a ring hanging from an arm of the dummy. Here the origin of the Tournament's name, but the first definition and documented "Quintana" as a knights' jousting tournament during a festival, dates back to 1448.

In 1613 the Priors included the Quintana in the events of Carnival festivals, and all has been hystorically documented.

During the events period, a number of happenings involve the whole town. A parade takes place with 1500 characters dressed in original-like precious dresses: a historically documented walk in the town during the day before the Ring Joust.



Il torneo cavalleresco della Quintana o giostra della Quintana è una rievocazione storica medioevale con giostra equestre che si tiene ad Ascoli Piceno.

Si svolge la prima domenica di agosto in occasione della festa di Sant'Emidio, patrono e primo vescovo della città marchigiana. Da qualche tempo vi è anche una edizione della Quintana in notturna il secondo sabato di luglio. Questa manifestazione si rinnova, ogni anno, dal 1955 quando, dopo un periodo di sospensione, ebbe nuovamente luogo su iniziativa di storici come Carlo Cardarelli, Carlo Baiocchi, Giuseppe Fabiani, dello scenografo Danili Ciampini, del professore Alberto Costantini, di Giulio Franchi, Aldighiero Batini, e Nazzareno Peci.

Ogni edizione ha visto l'aggiungersi di nuovi costumi e nuove figure fino a raggiungere l'attuale composizione dell'imponente e sfarzoso corteo storico che si muove, con il passo cadenzato dell'antica arte militare, accompagnato, per tutto il percorso della sfilata, dallo squillo delle chiarine, dal rullo dei tamburini e dagli sbandieratori che si esibiscono quasi ininterrottamente.

Di particolare intensità, suggestione e destrezza è lo spettacolo che i portatori dei vessilli offrono all'interno del campo dei giochi.

L'intero evento della Quintana si compone di più momenti che hanno svolgimento nei giorni che precedono la competizione dei cavalieri quali: la lettura del bando, l'offerta dei ceri, il palio degli arcieri, il palio degli sbandieratori ed infine la sfilata del corteo e la giostra nel campo.

Per la città di Ascoli rappresenta l'espressione e la sintesi delle tradizioni, della sua storia e dell'indissolubile legame al territorio ricordato dagli antichi patti di alleanza di cui, alla Quintana, se ne conserva la memoria. La manifestazione è molto seguita e sentita da tutti gli ascolani che si preparano per questo evento durante tutto l'anno. Nei sei sestieri cittadini si ascoltano sovente i suoni delle chiarine ed il rullare dei tamburi.

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torneo_cavalleresco_della_Quintana

THE COUNTDOWN...

DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN YOU WERE A KID AND YOUR PARENTS LINED YOU UP AGAINST A DOOR FRAME TO MARK HOW TALL YOU WERE AND DATED THE MARK?

WELL, THIS CARTOON BRINGS A WHOLE NEW PERSPECTIVE TO THAT EXERCISE!

LAUGHTER WILL KEEP YOU YOUNG AT HEART!

TILL WE MEET AGAIN

Without you I could not have been the one who I was expected to be when
All you had to do is show me that I was the love in your life

As I try to learn to live without your friendship that I have grown accustomed too
I feel a great emptiness inside that is swelling more and more each day from this void
I have inside that use to be where your love use to fill

While the time passes, every second seems like an hour and every hour seems like a day
As I walk aimlessly through the places we always felt happiest when we just needed to
Be there for each other at the end of everyday

Now that you are gone I wish I was there with you to guide you and be beside you
Until you get to where you were are going now even though you have to do it alone
And my only conciliation is that we will be together again somewhere someday
With you there to guide me to where we can be together again


With the kind courtesy and permission of Sean Davis
http://seanspoemsandstories.blogspot.com/

THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN IN THE METRO

Metro Stockel - Brussels, Belgium

The Adventures of Tintin (French: Les Aventures de Tintin) is a series of comic books created by Belgian artist Hergé, the pen name of Georges Remi (1907–1983). The series first appeared in French in a children's supplement to the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle on January 10, 1929. Set in a painstakingly researched world closely mirroring our own, The Adventures of Tintin presents a number of characters in distinctive settings. The series has continued as a favourite of readers and critics alike for over 70 years.

The hero of the series is Tintin, a young Belgian reporter and traveller. He is aided in his adventures from the beginning by his faithful fox terrier dog Snowy (Milou in French). Later, popular additions to the cast included the brash, cynical and grumpy Captain Haddock, the bright but hearing-impaired Professor Calculus (Professeur Tournesol in French) and other colourful supporting characters such as the incompetent detectives Thomson and Thompson (Dupond et Dupont in French).

The success of the series saw the serialised strips collected into a series of albums (23 in all), spun into a successful magazine and adapted for both film and theatre. The series is one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century, with translations published in over 50 languages and more than 200 million copies of the books sold to date.

The comic strip series has long been admired for its clean, expressive drawings in Hergé's signature ligne claire style. Engaging, well-researched plots straddle a variety of genres: swashbuckling adventures with elements of fantasy, mysteries, political thrillers, and science fiction. The stories within the Tintin series always feature slapstick humour, offset in later albums by sophisticated satire and political/cultural commentary.

Tintin is a young Belgian reporter who becomes involved in dangerous cases in which he takes heroic action to save the day. Almost every adventure features Tintin hard at work at his investigative reporting, but he is rarely seen actually turning in a story without first getting caught up in some misadventure. He is a young man of more or less neutral attitudes and is less colourful than the supporting cast. In this respect, he represents the everyman.

Snowy, a white Fox terrier, is Tintin's four-legged companion. They regularly save each other from perilous situations. Snowy frequently "speaks" to the reader through his thoughts (often displaying a dry sense of humour), which are supposedly not heard by the characters in the story except in Tintin in America where he explains Tintin about his absence for a period of time in the book.

Like Captain Haddock, Snowy is fond of the Loch Lomond brand of whisky, and his occasional bouts of drinking tend to get him into trouble, as does his raging arachnophobia. The French name of Snowy, "Milou", has nothing to do with snow or the color white. It has been widely credited as an oblique reference to a girlfriend from Hergé's youth, Marie-Louise Van Cutsem, whose nickname was "Milou".

Another explanation to the origins of the two characters is possible. The first 3 adventures of Tintin visit places originally visited by photographer-reporter Robert Sexé, recorded in the Belgian press from the mid to late 1920s. At that time Sexé had made numerous trips round the world on a motorcycle, in collaboration with Grand-Prix champion and motorcycle record holder René Milhoux, and these trips were highly publicised at the time. Sexé has also been noted to have a similar appearance to Tintin, and the Hergé Foundation in Belgium has admitted that it is not too hard to imagine how Hergé could have been influenced by the exploits of Sexé. In 1996, a biography of Robert Sexé by Janpol Schulz was published, titled "Sexé au pays des Soviets" (Sexé in the Land of the Soviets) to mimic the name of the first Tintin Adventure.

More on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Tintin

THE FLOWERS OF THE BRUSSELS BOTANICAL GARDEN

THE INCREDIBLE SNAKE-EATING SPIDER

An office receptionist got the shock of her life earlier this week when she found a 14cm long snake entangled in the web of a deadly spider. Tania Robertson, a receptionist at an electrical firm, came in to work on Tuesday and spotted the sight next to a desk in her office. The snake, which had obviously died from the spider's poisonous bite, was off the ground and caught up in the web.

Leon Lotz of the arachnology department at the National Museum said it was only the second time that he had heard of a snake getting caught in a spider's web. It is believed the snake got caught in the web on Monday night. But it did not take the spider long to bite it. A red mark on the snake's stomach was evidence of where the spider had started eating it.

Throughout Tuesday, the spider checked on her prey, but on Wednesday she rolled it up and started spinning a web around it. She also kept lifting it higher off the ground, while continually snacking on it.

BRUSSELS ZINNEKE PARADE 2008 SLIDESHOWS

Zinneke Parade was born within the framework from Brussels 2000, European Ville of the Culture. It is the expression of a will to organize a great festival in the city, which would throw bridges between the 18 communes and the downtown area and which would mobilize all associations (socio) cultural.

The first Parade was in charge with emotions and joy and marked many memories. The idea was to show at the great day the multicultural richness districts and to cross the barriers of the fragmentation of the Area. It was one of the rare events created at the time of Brussels 2000 to perennialize the adventure. In 2002, the Parade crossed the capital of the south to north around the topic of the “Zinnergie”. In 2004, it followed the way of Zinnodrôme (the boulevard starting from Brouckère until Anneessens) and it was articulated around the topic `the body in the ville'.