Family Christmas Dinner in the mid-1950s
Get your hands off my sister bubba. (editor’s note: classic raven!)
Even the 7th Infantry DIvision in 1967 was part of the “War on Christmas.
Season Greetings indeed!
Christmas Tree in Southeast Asia
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This post is in: Ghost of Holidays Past, On The Road After Dark, Open Threads
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This post is in: Albatrossity, New Zealand, On The Road, Photo Blogging
It is often said, and not entirely in jest, that if you drop your camera in New Zealand and it accidentally takes a picture, the picture will be stunning. There are indeed some beautiful landscape photo opportunities in that country, and although none of these were the result of a dropped camera, I hope you enjoy them anyway!
Map of places mentioned in today’s post.
The Southern Alps run down the spine of the South Island, and dominate the scenery in much of it. This is a view on the road from Christchurch to the west coast of that island, via Arthur’s Pass, Midsummer snow is still on much of the alpine landscape, and a glacial river valley is in the foreground.
On The Road – Albatrossity – New Zealand #3Post + Comments (19)
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This post is in: Ghost of Holidays Past, On The Road, Photo Blogging
Wonderful flashes from the past from ET and AliceBlue
Wonderful flash from the past, in 1970-something, from ET:
It was the year of the stove. Was it a portent of the future? No. I don’t so much remember it but remember that I loved it.
Ghosts of Holidays Past: Flashes From The Past EditionPost + Comments (24)
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This post is in: Albatrossity, New Zealand, On The Road, Photo Blogging
The next set in this series is non-native animals in New Zealand. And there are a lot of those, from insects to fish to birds to large mammals, thanks to the intervention of the so-called Acclimitisation Societies in the 19th Century. It is almost directly across the globe from England, and the early European settlers missed their native land, so they set about to make it as much like England as possible. Besides clearing forests and planting crops and fighting with the Maori, they imported English and North American creatures. Some were to be hunted (moose, deer, quail, turkeys), some were to provide native birdsong (thrushes), some were to provide good fishing (salmon and trout), and some merely escaped or went feral (rats, cats, stoats, etc.).
All of these animals, if they persisted in this strange part of the world, had a deleterious effect on the native birds. In fact, the only known specimens of an endemic (and now extinct) NZ bird, the Stephens Island Wren, were collected by a single cat that belonged to the lighthouse keeper. Stoats and rats were the primary predators that nearly exterminated the Takahe. And the non-native birds and insects compete for nesting habitat, insect food, nectar, and other items that are important to the survival of the native birds. This scenario has been repeated on islands around the world, but nowhere was it as purposeful and widespread as it was in New Zealand.
Map of places mentioned in this post.
European birds were imported many times, and although not all of them became established, enough did so that the English settlers could hear birdsong reminiscent of their native England in woods and gardens throughout New Zealand. This European Blackbird (Turdus merula), photographed in Auckland, was introduced multiple times in multiple locations starting in 1862, and is now probably the most widespread bird in the country. Four-and-twenty of them are needed to make a pie, I recall.
On The Road – Albatrossity – New Zealand #2Post + Comments (10)
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This post is in: Albatrossity, Ghost of Holidays Past, On The Road, On The Road After Dark, Photo Blogging
For the next couple of weeks, we are having Ghosts of Holidays Past instead of the usual On the Road After Dark.
So send in your pictures! Either as a full set for a post, or just send one or two that will go into a group post. Be sure to include some text so we know what we’re looking at. If you want to send photos but not have them identified as yours, let me know that, too.
We haven’t declared war on Christmas, but we did switch to Holidays so all celebrations are welcome!
My father was a professional photographer, so there are lots of pictures of the family Christmases, as well as home movies etc. It’s hard to pick just a few, and I also don’t want to embarrass myself or my siblings, so here some that I chose with that parameter in mind. Be forewarned, I’m officially old, and grew up in the middle of the country, so some of these items and customs might be novel for some of you youngsters! But I’m still impressed by Kodachrome; some of these slides are over 60 years old, and they look great, color and tone-wise!
One of the family traditions when I was young was a Christmas Day trip to my aunts house in the tiny town of Montezuma KS, about a half hour away. Here we would gather with my dad’s parents and some of his siblings (most of whom were still in that part of KS), have Christmas dinner, wash a lot of dishes, and open presents. We took turns opening one present at a time, starting with the youngest and proceeding to the oldest, so my grandfather was always the last to get to open his first present. But he always had more than anybody, so he could keep opening presents long after the kids had completed theirs. Here’s a pic of my sister “helping” my grandmother open a present; other relatives can be seen in the background.
Ghosts of Holidays Past: Albatrossity Christmas EditionPost + Comments (24)
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This post is in: Albatrossity, New Zealand, On The Road, Photo Blogging
As a special holiday treat, we have a week in New Zealand, courtesy of Albatrossity.
Starting tonight, for this week and next week: Ghosts of Holidays Past. Send in your photos! You can send a full set with the On the Road form, or just send one or two that will go into a group post. Be sure to include some text so we know what we’re looking at. If you want to send photos but not have them identified as yours, let me know that, too.
I have been fortunate to visit New Zealand 5 times. The first in the early 1990’s, to attend a scientific conference, and it was in August (mid-winter in the Antipodes). I remember marveling at the cold drippy weather, the American TV shows that seemed popular there (e.g., WKRP in Cincinnati, why?), and the fact that sporting events being broadcast included lots and lots of sheep dog trials. The people were incredibly friendly, the scientific conference was productive, and I wanted to go back sometime.
Several years ago my brother-in-law and his wife emigrated there, and are now permanent residents. The process of immigrating to NZ is long and arduous, but they decided (most presciently) that US politics was in a continuous down-spiral and they wanted to be in a civilized country instead. They settled in Nelson, which is at the north end of the South Island and at a latitude similar to that of Arcata CA, or Providence RI for you east-coasters. It is a lovely city, and, as the locals will tell you even without you asking, it is supposedly in the sunniest part of New Zealand.
Since they moved there we have spent four Christmases with them, and a trip to the Southern Hemisphere in late December is indeed a holiday treat in itself. We have spent time on the North Island, the South Island, and several of the other islands in the archipelago that calls itself New Zealand. Some of the place we saw were the standard tourist stops (Auckland, the Southern Alps, Wellington), others were more idiosyncratic (wildlife sanctuaries and coastal towns with interesting opportunities like birdwatching trips or penguin colonies).
Lots of folks go to NZ to see Lord of the Rings sites or trivia; others go for the adventuring venues like spelunking, fishing, or bungee jumping. We did none of those; if you were hoping to hear about that sort of thing, there are other venues. So here are five OTR posts with my photos and commentary about the parts of that beautiful country that I have visited and even re-visited. I hope you enjoy them, and I urge you all to find a way to get to New Zealand if you can, no matter what attractions you wish to visit there. Here is a map showing all the places mentioned in this post.
Today’s post is about the native landbirds of NZ. You may not know this, but the landmass that would become New Zealand split off from Gondwanaland before the extinction of the dinosaurs, and mammals at that time were small and rare. None of them survived in New Zealand; the only land mammals are three species of bats. The descendants of the dinosaurs that we know as birds filled all of the available niches, and, in a land without mammalian predators, evolved in interesting ways.
Many nested on the ground. Many were flightless. Many have a detectable odor, which would be disadvantageous if olfactorily-adept predators were around. Many were huge. All of which became immediate disadvantages when the Maori arrived, only 800 years ago. So a lot of them are now extinct, either at the hands of the Maori or the later European arrivals, and many as a result of the introduction of rats, cats, stoats, and other mammalian predators. Although depleted by these extinctions, the avifauna is rich, unique, and a great attraction for birders and biologists around the world.
It would be hard to pick an iconic bird for New Zealand, but this one, the Tui (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae) might be at the top of my list. It is endemic to NZ, and the only species in the genus). It is a honeyeater, dependent on nectar from flowering plants, and is found throughout the country in areas both urban and rural. Loud and attention-getting, unlike most New Zealanders, this one was defending its territory from a juvenile interloper on Tiritiri Matangi Island, a wildlife sanctuary in the Auckland area.
On The Road – Albatrossity – New Zealand #1Post + Comments (25)
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This post is in: On The Road, On The Road After Dark, Parks After Dark, Photo Blogging
A bit of Hawaii, Monument Valley, and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
I spent a week visiting Hawaii, spending time in Honolulu to hike to the top of Diamond Head, boating along the Na Pali Coast State Park on Kauai, and Maui to take the Road to Hana, tour the Island via helicopter, and visit Haleakalā National Park. The crest of the volcano is at 10,023 feet above sea level. When I visited in 2004, you would encounter dozens of bicyclists at the top, waiting for the sunrise. Which meant that you had to avoid them as you made the drive down the volcano.