For an update on what a Mise Tale is then please see Mise Tales One.
I saw this first item and immediately liked it. It is a screen print from Marcus Walters Shop. The website says:
A two colour water based screen print – featuring Marcus Walters’ distinctive artwork. Each print is a limited edition and is signed and numbered by the artist, and hand printed in our studio on 310gsm Arboreta paper. Size: 297mm x 420mm (A3)
CHINCOTEAGUE — What does one do with piles of broken, historic glass?
Beth Hanback asked herself that question in 2009 after 145-year-old window panes were removed from Assateague Lighthouse’s lantern room.
“I thought, ‘Well, I can melt it down and make something out of it,'” said Hanback, executive director of the Chincoteague Natural History Association, a nonprofit group involved with lighthouse restoration. Continue reading Mise Tales Ten→
One of the nicest things about night shift on McInnes Island lighthouse was observing the sky on a clear night. It was always the same, and always different.
The same stars were always there, but the moon waxed and waned, comets streaked across at intervals, sometimes an airplane’s navigation lights blinked in the south, or sometimes the Northern Lights flashed in the north. Below are some more shots.
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One of the problems with seeing such sights in the city is the city lights, often called light pollution. The graphic below ill show you what is seen and not seen as light pollution decreases.
I must confess, that is what the night sky looks like at night from a lighthouse, but not having a photo from my experiences on McInnes lighthouse as my camera was too amateurish for such detail, I added the lighthouse silhouette to the photos from the gallery below. Are the photos below fantastic or not?
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But, when looking at the full-sized photo at the top, turn off your lights and imagine what it was like. Sometimes we would take a foam mat and lay down on the helicopter pad and just watch the night sky. It was fascinating. For meteor showers and comets it was unbeatable. Continue reading A Lighthouse at Night→
Two children’s books by the same author came across my desk today. Both books are available in paperback and in an omnibus e-book collection. The author is Nell Wise Wechter,1 a native of the Carolina Coast. She wrote the young adult novel Taffy of Torpedo Junction and Teach’s Light. Click the links for book reviews from UNC.
The books and the e-books are available from Amazon worldwide. A special offer by the University of North Carolina Press (UNC) makes the e-book a better buy as it includes the two books for a special price.
I just ordered the e-book omnibus collection as a special present for my fiancé on my Kindle. It sure makes ordering books easy.
A quick note on each book:
Taffy of Torpedo Junction by Nell Wise Wechter
A longtime favorite of several generations of Tar Heels, Taffy of Torpedo Junction is the thrilling adventure story of thirteen-year-old Taffy Willis, who, with the help of her pony and dog, exposes a ring of Nazi spies operating from a secluded house on Hatteras Island, North Carolina, during World War II. – UNC
Teach’s Light – Tale of Blackbeard the Pirate by Nell Wise Wechter
The legend of Teach’s Light has been handed down by the people of Stumpy Point village in coastal North Carolina for nearly three centuries. – UNC
What is lighthouse about these books? The North Carolina coast is host to a raft of lighthouses!
Please let the readers know what you think of the books. I will also add a note later when I have finished them.
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FOOTNOTES:
1 About the Author
The late Nell Wise Wechter, an Outer Banks native, was a widely admired author, storyteller, historian, and journalist. As a schoolteacher near Cape Hatteras during World War II, she could look out her classroom window to see ships being sunk by the Germans. Her story of Taffy was inspired by these real events and the courage of the people who lived through them.
The story below is completely fictitious, but is very well done. From her idea the author has created a delightful lighthouse home! Maybe one of my readers can create another one which we can reprint here. How would you decorate your own fictitious lighthouse?
reprinted with permission from paperbean(AT)gmail(DOT)com
The storm sent the waves rolling and the rain pelting down… She banged and banged on the solid door, hoping for some respite from the high winds and slashing rains…
The door swung open to reveal a gruff man…
I remember the setting. I don’t remember the name of the book or the author… but I remember the setting. It’s probably been 10 years since I read that book (which I no longer have!).
The gruff man lived in a renovated/restored lighthouse.
What would my lighthouse be like?
Via kopishke - http://www.kopishke.org/
(Normally I eschew homes with stairs, preferring the single storied kind. But as we all know, lighthouses are/were built extra-solidly to weather storms, gales, winds… so I think I could live there!) Continue reading Reprint – Lighthouse Homes→
This article appeared in the Business Mirror (Philippines). Take a look at why they are refurbishing old lighthouses:
Lighthouses serve as aids to navigation, working as visual guides to ports and harbors especially for fishermen and even for larger types of vessels already equipped with global positioning system.
Any more questions why Canada’s lighthouses cannot be retained?
The amount in the title is 246 million Philippine Pesos (PHP) or about $5,904,000 Canadian Dollars (CDN).
“The DOTC is inviting providers to participate in the open and transparent bidding process for the P246 million procurement of aids to navigation equipment,” said the agency in a published bid notice. (The amount is 246 million Philippine Pesos (PHP) or about $5,904,000 Canadian Dollars (CDN).)
The government will procure in bulk the lighting and other component of this project to efficiently utilize its funds.
The civil works for the project will be bid out separately.
The DOTC and the PCG will repair and upgrade 194 lighthouses. Lighthouses serve as aids to navigation, working as visual guides to ports and harbors especially for fishermen and even for larger types of vessels already equipped with global positioning system.
In particular, the PCG listed lighthouses in the following areas where repairs and upgrade should be carried out at the soonest time possible. These are the lighthouses in Northern Luzon, National Capital Region, Southern Tagalog, Palawan, Bicol, Western and Eastern Visayas, Southwestern, Northern and Southeastern Mindanao. Continue reading DOTC Opens Bidding for P246-M Lighthouse Repair Project→
After writing the article on Model Lighthouse Working Plans for lawn ornaments or household decorations, I was told of another place in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania called the Lighthouse Man.who offers custom crafted lawn lighthouses – kits and ready-made stucco, stone, wood and plastic lighthouses. Wow, I do not know where to begin! Take a look at some of the beautiful creations in the photo below. Click the photo to take you directly to the page. For others follow the links on the left. Enjoy!
If India can do it, why cannot Canada? India is refurbishing thirteen (13) lighthouses! Canada is demolishing hundreds! Why is India doing it? For tourism! Tourism is not important to Canada?
India is doing this even though they have just installed a new Automatic Identification System (AIS) for most vessels on their coast. Lighthouses are still needed they said.
What happens when most of Canada’s beautiful lighthouses are demolished and the next government in ten years decides they are needed. Build more? Not likely knowing the Canadian government mentality. You will have a light atop a pole. So much for history!
Some of the famous lighthouses in the country are getting a facelift.
The Government plans to develop 13 lighthouses into tourism spots through the private-public-partnership.
IL&FS has prepared a feasibility report on the project which is likely to cost over Rs 300 crore.
The iconic lighthouse on the Marina beach in Chennai and the Mamallapuram lighthouse, are among the famous lighthouses that will get a facelift. The lighthouse on Marina will house a lighthouse museum, said the Union Shipping Minister, G.K. Vasan. Continue reading Reprint – Lighthouses To Get a Facelift→
A very interesting history and a description of present day Triple appears on the Lighthouses of British Columbia webpages under Triple Island. But what about the earlier days before radio, central heating, monthly helicopter transportation and paid vacations?
The light was first manned on January 1st 1921 and has been occupied by families and single men ever since that time despite Nature’s wish to destroy the place and it’s people.
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The photos above were taken summer of 1945 when Joe Osborne was radio operator on Triple for three months along with Gordon and Jean Odlum.
“Quite an experience for a 19 year old,” he said. “I used to enjoy getting out fishing after a ride down the high line with Gordon running the winch using a pair of binoculars to see when to drop the boat. His eyesight was not too good.”
The photo below shows Triple about 1950. The highline is still in place but the buildings and landings are not erected as shown in the 1955 photo below this one.
Triple Island c. 1950 – photo Canadian Dept. of Fisheries & Oceans
Triple Island c. 1955 Photo – Dennis Hull
The photo above was taken about 1955 when lightkeeper Ed Hartt and his family were living there together with an assistant keeper. All those wooden buildings and wharves. The two single guys now on station sometimes find it hard to get along. What happened back then?
See the Hartt family photos from the above era in the album below:
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Now take a look at the next two photos which show the station approximately twenty years later. Where are the docks and outbuildings?
Triple Island c. 1970s Lightkeeper Larry Golden standing at left Photo – Rand Grant Flickr pages.
Triple Island c. 1970s Photo – Rand Grant Flickr pages.
By the 1960s Triple had no more families. Two single men rotating on a twenty-eight day shift from Prince Rupert, BC replaced them. They were transported by helicopter when weather permitted. In the two photos above, note the direction-finding (DF) radio beacon antenna on the roof (now discontinued).
The original helicopter pad was on another one of the Triple Islands separated by a gully which was filled with surging seawater at high tide or in storms. To get to the helicopter pad when you could not walk through the gully the staff rode the cage.
Many people lost their lives in the construction and maintenance of Triple Island. The last was Prince Rupert Coast Guard mechanic Paul Pouliot in February 1978 when he was swept away by a freak wave while walking across the gully to repair the cage.
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Now, the helicopter landing pad has been moved closer to the tower as can be seen in the present day photos below.
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There are many stories of damage to Triple Island light. Things like logs through bathroom windows, light tower windows and other damage from storm and wave-driven projectiles.
The photos below show some of the damage inflicted by a storm in September 2005.
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The duties of the lightkeepers on Triple are now reduced to minor maintenance and painting and the all-important weather reports. The foghorns are silent, the radio direction-finding beacon dismantled, and the main light has been reduced to a flashlight; as someone called it. The lightstation has been designated as a Canadian National Historic Site.
Have you ever wanted to build your own lighthouse for a lawn display, sitting in the house, or maybe on the beach as a decoration, or how about a bird lighthouse? I received a notice about free lighthouse plans. Following the lead I came to a website that asked for US $67 for their free plans. Not really wanting to spend that much money, I started a Google Search. I found this model lighthouse below at U-Bild.com. Not a bad price either.
Lighthouse (Plan #860)
But it does not end there. They have a Lighthouse Value Plans package that gives you three lighthouses to build – Lighthouse Plan #C159. This package includes the plan above Continue reading Model Lighthouse Woodworking Plans→
Earlier this month, we revealed that the Northern Lighthouse Board was selling off three lighthouses near Stonehaven, Lossiemouth and Thurso, with price tags ranging from £75,000 to £270,000 – along with a foghorn at Girdleness, in Aberdeen. All the buildings, once a beacon for sailors and fishermen, would be ideal for those willing to spend some time and money creating an unusual home.
Rua Reidh Lighthouse, on the other hand, is ready to move in to. The keepers’ accommodation, at the foot of the tower, has been run as a successful home and holiday accommodation for years.
This B-listed home sits in a stunning location, on the cliff edge at Melvaig, around 12 miles from Gairloch on the west coast – officially named as the happiest place in the UK last week – and overlooking the Isle of Skye to the south-west, Harris to the west and Lewis to the north. It is for sale at offers over £325,000. Building of the lighthouse was started by David Stevenson, one of the famous family of lighthouse engineers, in 1910. Two years later, it was helping steer boats safely through the seas. Continue reading Reprint – Finders Keepers→
I saw this first item and immediately liked it. It is a screen print from Marcus Walters Shop. The website says:
145-year-old window panes turned into medallions
