Sunday, March 26, 2017

Skies / Spring / Postcards / Shipping

Recent March Skies

March 20th  7:04 PM
(First Spring Sunset)

March 19th  3:36 PM

March 19th  3:42 PM

March 19th  3:16 PM

March 19th  2:42 PM

March 23rd  7:29 PM

March 20th  7:30 PM


Spring has Sprung 

One of four cards celebrating the seasons.
Artwork by St. John (no, not this John, ha ha)
Early 1900s.

Back of the unused card.
Google home page doodle on March 20th.

Clicking on the doodle landed us on this page.


Postcards for the Weekend #30

For Maria's Postcards for the Weekend we have chosen to share our card from New Zealand featuring Mitre Peak, Milford Sound. The theme for this weekend is a card "from a country you would want to live in if you have the chance/choice." If you enjoy postcards be sure to check out the link. Thanks to Maria for hosting.





Shipping

(For first time visitors, we like to include something "maritime" in our posts as we are located near the waters of Puget Sound, Washington.)

Brand new fishing vessel Araho
undergoing initial testing near Pier 91

Another shot of the Araho
One website calls this a "Factory Trawler"

China Shipping Line's Bohai Sea
March 22nd  7:07 AM
Departing for Qingdao China
ETA April 5, 2017

How Vessel Finder helps identify ships and
destinations.

Several Foss Tugs
tied up at Pier 90
March 19th

Bulk Carrier with loading underway.
Taurus Ocean
Singapore
March 19th

Note the Emergency Lifeboat ready for launch.

Closing thought ...
After the game, the king and pawn go into the same box.
     Italian Proverb

Saturday, March 18, 2017

Mt Rainier 1911 / Postcards / SkyWatch / Ships

1.  From Our Collection of Vintage Memorabilia 
A booklet published in 1911 ...

Our Greatest Mountain
and Alpine Regions of Wonder
by A. H. Barnes
Rainier National Park Series
1911

Typical interior page.

"Painting made especially for this book."

Trail just below Camp of the Clouds
(All photos from the book copyright ca. 1910 by A H Barnes)

Indian Painted Cup
(Indian Paintbrush)

Gentian
A flower of autumn.

Mimulus (Monkey Flower)

Original Stage Road

Valerian

Mt Rainier as viewed from prairie out from Tacoma
Copyright 1908 by A H Barnes
Camp Reese and Eagle Cliff ---
the west end of the Tatoosh Mountains

Reese's Hotel at Camp of the Clouds, 5,600 feet altitude.

Arch Paradise Glacier

Leaving Camp Muir at sun rise.
"The climb gets steeper from here on."

Caverns along the way above Camp Muir
A September Afternoon in Upper Paradise Valley.
(Possible painting just for this book?)
Our own photo of Mt Rainer
taken January 3, 2017
From a spot about 12 miles south of Seattle.



2.  Postcards for the Weekend #29



The theme for this week’s Postcards for the Weekend is a card "from a country you wish to visit." It is surprising how much fun we’ve had with these themes, going through our collection of old postcards to find cards that fit to share here on the blog. Since we hope to visit Germany one of these days we settled on this week’s card, from Bremen, which resulted in research into another of our interest areas: ocean shipping. Today’s card was probably published around the late 1800s or early 1900s. The card was issued by a German shipping company, Norddeutscher Lloyd. (Roughly translated that’s North German Shipping. In the mid 1800s the word “Lloyd” became common for referring to shipping companies.) The image on the front of the card shows the cross-Atlantic shipping lanes for Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL)  from Europe to North and South America. As you can see from the image those were the days when steam ruled!

German Shipping Company postcard
showing ocean shipping lanes.
Published late 1800s/early 1900s
Norddeutscher Lloyd
Bremen, Germany

Back of the unused card.

Further researching the image we found the artwork to be by German artist, Karl von Eckenbrecher (1842—1921). You can purchase posters of the art on this card. For example, Kmart offers it on canvas, 18 x 24 inches, ready to hang, and it is colorful! See below. We'll stick with our postcard! :-)



NDL was founded by German merchants Hermann Meier and Eduard Crüsemann on 20 February 1857. By 1890, with 66 ships, NDL was the second largest shipping company in the world. So, although our card might have been commonplace at the time it was published, today it is fairly rare! We don’t see another like it on the WWW. How do you like it?

Enjoy more Postcards for the Weekend and thanks to Maria for hosting!


3. Curiosity of the Week

While surfing the web this past week we stumbled upon the photo below.

The Pencil, New York City

Have you seen the new building in New York City called "The Pencil"? It's the super tall building in the photo, 432 Park Avenue.

At a height of 1,396 ft (425.5 m) it is more than twice the height of Seattle's Space Needle at 605 ft (184 m). It features 104 condominium apartments. Construction began in 2012 and was completed on December 23, 2015. Per Wikipedia, it is the third tallest building in the United States, and the tallest residential building in the world. It is the second tallest building in New York City, behind One World Trade Center, and ahead of the Empire State Building.

Our curiosity lead us to the Official Website 432 Park Avenue.  The pictures of the views are fascinating and it's interesting to see what asking prices are for available units ... yes, there are a few! The top-floor resident of 432 Park who makes one daily round-trip will log about 178 elevator miles in a year. The elevators are super fast and make the trip in just under one minute. If you find skyscrapers interesting there is more info on this building at Skyscraper Center.


4. SkyWatch

Colorful twilight
March 16th 6:41 PM

Sunset into clouds
March 16th  6:07 PM


5. Ships Spotted

(For first time visitors, we like to include something "maritime" in our posts as we are located near the waters of Puget Sound, Washington.) Three recent spottings below.  We know bulk carriers are not necessarily pretty, but we're seeing lots of them and that's a good sign for the economy.

Bulk Carrier Oak Harbour
Pacific Basin Shipping
Arriving March 16th  6:51 AM

Container Vessel Cap Jervis
Hamburg Süd Shipping
Arriving March 15th  12:55 PM

BSL Limassol
(Hamburg, Germany)
Smaller Container Vessel
Arriving March 18th  6:25 AM







Closing thought ...
Consider how hard it is to change yourself and you'll understand what little chance you have of trying to change others.
     Jacob M. Braude

Saturday, March 11, 2017

Yellowstone Postcards / Tall Sails / SkyWatch

This week's theme for Postcards for the Weekend is "from a country you have visited or a favorite place in your country that you have visited." Really like this theme as it gives us a chance to share a few postcards from our favorite place in the USA, Yellowstone National Park. Here are a few cards from our collection that are not too common, and a couple of favorites that are!

Obsidian Cliff and Beaver Lake
Haynes # 10082
F. J. Haynes was designated as the "Official
Photographer" of Yellowstone Park and had stores, in
the Park, where his photos were sold.

Morning Glory Pool
Haynes # 16049

Bull Elk, Tower Fall Area
Haynes # 37700K

Yellowstone Lake and Mt Sheridan
# 4308

Buffalo Herd Near Fort Yellowstone
Detroit Photographic Co. 1905
Fairly rare and in the days when
Mammoth was called Fort Yellowstone

An Old Time Stage Coach
By Asahel Curtis for Northern Pacific Ry. Co.
# Y. P. 47

Northern Pacific Railroad Station
Gardiner, Montana
This is the first of two major railroad stations
that served Yellowstone Park.
By Asahel Curtis
# Y. P. 56

Handkerchief Pool
The story goes that tourists placed handkerchiefs into
this pool which pulled them below, washed them, and
returned them to the top. Today tourists would not
be allowed close to a feature like this!
Haynes # 20136

Bighorn Mountain Sheep
Haynes # 35487
These "critter cards" will qualify to link up with another of our favorite memes, Saturday's Critters. Thank you, Eileen, for hosting!

A Park Bear
Haynes # 13053

Union Pacific Railroad Station
West Yellowstone, Montana
This is the second of two major railroad stations
that served the Park.
By D. S. Spencer #s Y. P. 39 and 91061

A Park Deer
Haynes # 10138
How do you like the reflection?

Oblong Geyser Crater
Haynes #s 10100 and 4A-H285

Automobile Stages at Sylvan Lake
Haynes # 16414

Tourists and Bears
Haynes # 13054
The story is that scraps from the evening meal were taken
out behind the hotel and left for the bears. Tourists were
allowed to come out and watch. Today there is no feeding
of the bears!

Fishing Cone
By Asahel Curtis #s Y. P. 5 and 91049
The story goes like this: Fish could be caught in the lake and you
could then swing around and cook the fish in the hot water of the cone.
True story but no more walking out on the cone today!

Elk Stalled in Snow
Haynes #s 10135 and 5A-H494
Winter scenes in the Park are fairly unusual on postcards.

Ten Minutes for Lunch
# 4504
It's hard to say but it looks like the bear is
licking honey out of a jar.

Lone Star Geyser
# 4270

Madonna of the Wilds
Famous Haynes photograph #s 16343 and 4A-H272
Mother bear and two cubs.
This photo was one of Haynes most popular
sold as a larger poster.

A Buffalo Head
Haynes # 10137
One of Haynes most popular postcards.
Have you been to Yellowstone? Be sure to check out other blogger's postcards from their country or favorite place in their country at Postcards for the Weekend #28! Thanks to Maria for hosting!

Tall Sails

For first time visitors, we like to include something "maritime" in our posts as we are located near the waters of Puget Sound, Washington.


Matson Container Vessel arriving Seattle
March 10  10:00 AM
  
Probably should put this one under the SkyWatch category.
A Washington State Ferry looks small way out there.
March 11  4:59 PM




This photo is from the archives.
Wish I knew the name of the vessel. Liked the way it
looked as it was out in Elliott Bay last August for Seafair.

SkyWatch

Yesterday evening's cloud filtered sunset.
Can't believe how far north the sun is setting is on the western
horizon as compared to December and January! Of course, Spring
Equinox is just a few days away.
If you enjoy sky photos don't miss SkyWatch Friday! and thanks to Yogi♪♪♪ for hosting! By the way, the link will take you to the "Time Change Edition" of SkyWatch so named in recognition of our switch to Daylight Saving Time on Sunday. Don't forget to set your clocks ahead TONIGHT if you're in (most of) the USA and/or Canada.

Bird Watch


Sparrow story: Yesterday's wonderful afternoon weather made my walk especially nice. Spotted several sparrows in a shrub right along the sidewalk and next to an apartment building. It seemed possible they had selected this spot to check out for a nest. Some of them did not want to leave despite my stopping right next to the shrub. Moving slowly, got the camera out, got as close as possible and snapped this photo. Of course, it isn't perfect but we do like this little bird! How about you?

Closing thought ...
Fear less, hope more; eat less, chew more; whine less, breathe more; talk less, say more; hate less, love more; and all good things are yours.
     Swedish proverb

Picturesque Scenery - 1910

Souvenir Folder - Picturesque Scenery Souvenir Folder Picturesque Scenery along the line of Great Northern Railroad, Montana, Idaho, and Was...