PORTRAITS AND PHOTO STORIES

of science and conservation in the Headwaters of the Everglades

the first (main pic) is in Cornwall—Penzance

This is London—-One from my first trip to the UK (this One) and the other from my 3rd.

8 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Throw Out Your Brown Paper Bags

Here something you can try while you’re contemplating another rerun on the tube.

and now something entirely different to spend some time with:

Browse: The World in Bookshops

Enjoy A Summer Of Spacious Cinema Under The Stars

another London activity that allows socialization while keeping that distancing that is quickly becoming the norm rather than the unusual

There’s more than one way to sport a plaid:

check them out at Scottish Gourmet USA

Canterbury | Attractions & Tourist Information VisitBritain

There’s so much in the UK to see what would I recommend—How about Canterbury which is said to date back to the 1st century  and the name is said to be Celtic.  Then came the Romans who built the original walls but they were gone by the early 5th century and the city wouldn’t have had much tourist appeal until St. Augustine arrived a couple of hundred years after that and  there was all manner of buildings and it became a prime site for the Christian traveler seeking blessings —I like to think of them as the original tourist as they went from local site to further afield some going as far as Jerusalem—which was  the ultimate destination back then.

Of course there were all matter of events in the town—the foremost in my minds was when a group of nobles in the 12th century,  trying to please Henry II (father of Richard The Lion Heart-–a prominent visitor to Jerusalem too.  And who can forget his other son and  the reputedly worse king that ever ruled England—his youngest son John–so bad no other king has since borne that name)  But back to Henry 2 who had appointed a friend he thought he knew to  a position of Archbishop much to his regret, as the friend took his position seriously and stood against Henry —and  some of the nobles trying to gain favor went to  Canterbury and murdered the Holyman, who since has become quite famous Thomas Becket–which the king denied he ever gave a direct order for the murder,  but did admit he did indicate he wouldn’t miss him.  In fact they murdered him at the altar in the cathedral—creating a worse mess for the king and a new saint for the church and a shrine for many pilgrims, including Chaucer in the 14th c which he wrote about in The Canterbury Tales.

So what would I recommend:

How about some historical movies on the subject:

The Lion in Winter

with an unbelievable cast is a good introduction to Henry II, and his entire crazy family, including the two sons we’ve  already discussed (did I mention that John had lost all the crown jewels include the crown in a bay some where around the British Isle—and his wife Elanor  who is said to have (or have had) his mistress murdered.

Becket

Another excellent cast

then visit it virtually

And here several Places there to look into:

Westgate Towers (picture above)

14th c city gate which now houses a museum and overlooks the Adjacent Westgate Gardens among other things housed here.

Canterbury Cathedral  (picture below)

The mother church of England with  its 235 foot fan-vaulted tower and don’t forget the largest amount of original Medieval stained glass windows in the entire of Britain and much of Europe. And a shrine to Becket––but not the original, Henry VIII had it torn down while reforming the church-–his reform like the majority of his life merely a means to see that he had the ending he wanted—but that’s a whole other story.

A Canterbury trail: exploring the city’s medieval streets on foot

9 HIDDEN GEMS YOU MUSTN’T MISS AROUND LOCH NESS

The lake has a lot more than a monster to see–check it out

A Pack of Great Werewolf Books

Those who are changed into the demon werewolf suddenly fall to the ground as if seized with epilepsy, and there they lie without life or motion.  Their actual bodies do not move from the pt where they have fallen, nor do their limbs turn to the hairy limbs of a wolf but the soul or spirit by some fascination quits the inert body and enters the spectrum or paoua of a wolf, and whey they have glutted their foul lupine lusts and cravings by the Devil’s power, the soul  renters the former human body

De Tgeniibabtria (1553)

Gaspar Peucer

THE 25 ESSENTIAL WEREWOLF MOVIES TO WATCH RIGHT NOW

Birdwatching Is a Bright Spot in a Pandemic-Stricken Economy

and you can even do it from your back and/or front yard

Delhi and Agra: A Traveller’s Reader / Kindle Edition

Discover where you want to go

5 Ways Maps Have Warped Your View of the World

This is something I hadn’t realized before  and really amazed me

10 places to learn more about Central Florida’s black history

Eatonville

The town of Eatonville is said to be one of the first where the city was from the start a place where Black Lives mattered:  a Black city governed by it’s Blacks citizens..

The town is however named for a white man Captain Joshua (or Josiah) C. Eaton of Maine, who was a retired Navy paymaster who settled in Maitland after the Civil War.  The town was largely ex-military and Tony Taylor, a black man, was elected as the town’s first mayor. And another black man, Joe Clarke, was elected town marshal.  Joe Clark along with Eaton an two other white Union veteran worked together and secured a 500 acre tract just a mile west of Maitland, and the town of Eatonville was born.

But it was a later settler John Hurston, a master carpenter and Baptist minister who was to contribute to the town’s fame–-as after arriving here his daughter Zora Neale Huston was born and she would go on to write about the town in her autobiography “Dust Tracks on the Road”  

Zora has in fact been described as “only first-class native-born Florida author.”  (Theodore Pratt)

Maybe you want to consider it for your list of places to visit and enjoy.

Orlando’s African-American Guide

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State adds, upgrades kayaking access on Elk River

Check out which state

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2nd Home 

Thrift Shop

601 E Highway 50,

Across from Winn Dixie

in the old Babcock Furniture Store

Clermont, FL 34711

(352) 242-0357

Clermont, Florida, a great day trip from Orlando