Amelia's photos

Fire Dance

The Tay Bridge (or Tay Rail Bridge) is a railway bridge about two and a quarter miles (three and a half kilometres) long that spans the Firth of Tay in Scotland, between the city of Dundee and Wormit in Fife. It was opened on 20 June 1887. This 'new' double-track bridge was designed by William Henry Barlow. It was built by William Arrol & Co. 18 metres (59 ft) upstream of, and parallel to, the original bridge. The foundation stone was laid on 6 July 1883 and construction involved 25,000 metric tons of iron and steel, 70,000 metric tons of concrete, ten million bricks (weighing 37,500 metric tons and three million rivets. Fourteen men lost their lives during its construction, most by drowning. The original Tay Bridge was designed by noted railway engineer Thomas Bouch, It was a lattice-grid design, combining cast and wrought iron. The bridge was opened for passenger traffic on 1 June 1878. On the night of 28 December 1879 at 7.15 pm, the bridge collapsed after its central spans gave way during high winter gales. A train with six carriages carrying seventy-five passengers and crew, crossing at the time of the collapse, plunged into the icy waters of the Tay. All seventy-five were lost. The stumps of the original bridge piers, seen here, are still visible above the surface of the Tay even at high tide.

For Macro Monday. Have a look in Full Size if you have time.

TSC: Challenge: Butts, Bums & Behinds 21 Jan 2018 One Day International Series First innings Australia 286 - for 6 wickets First innings England 302 - for 6 wickets England win by 16 runs

Three of the slab-work pots were made by myself under the tuition of Tove Sieierstad Wiik. One of the pots was made by our youngest grandson, and the table mats were crocheted by my aunt who was born in the late 18th century. I have a favourite piece. ;-) The PiPs show Tove at her potters wheel and some of her work displayed in her studio.

The Elan Valley Reservoirs are a chain of man-made lakes created from damming the Elan and Claerwen rivers within the Elan Valley in Mid Wales. The reservoirs, which were built by the Birmingham Corporation Water Department, provide clean drinking water for Birmingham in the West Midlands of England. The five lakes are known as the Claerwen, Craig-goch, Pen-y-garreg, Garreg-ddu, and Caban-coch. The Elan dam scheme was developed in the 19th century following rapid growth of the population of Birmingham in England due to the Industrial Revolution. The city's expansion resulted in regular outbreaks of water-borne diseases and major epidemics such as typhoid, cholera and dysentery because of the lack of clean water. Victorian politician, Joseph Chamberlain, the leader of Birmingham City Council began a campaign to get clean water from the Elan and Claerwen valleys in mid Wales. The area, which had been identified by civil engineer James Mansergh, would be ideal for water reservoirs because: 1. it had an average annual rainfall of 1,830 millimetres (72 in). 2. dams could be easily built in the narrow valleys. 3. the bedrock was impermeable to water. This photo shows a Foel Tower on the Gerreg-ddu reservoir is built in a style which, like many of the other structures of the waterworks scheme, is known as' Birmingham Baroque'. The elegant stone tower houses a system of valves and cylinders which can be raised and lowered hydraulically to draw water off from the reservoir at various depths as required. This water is then directed into the start of the aqueduct, controlled by valves.

The chain of seven radio-astronomy dishes across England, including Knockin, make up the existing Merlin network (Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network). Signals from the seven dishes are combined to create a clearer picture of the universe. The seven telescopes which make up the array are sited at Knockin, Defford, Pickmere, Darnhall and Cambridge, together with the Lovell telescope (third largest of its kind in the world) and Jodrell Bank's smaller Mark II telescope. Knockin is a 'robotic' site. The telescope is remotely controlled from Jodrell Bank. It's visited once a week by engineers who carry out routine maintenance work. The telescope was built in 1976, sending back the first data a year later, and was part of the phase one development of Merlin. The Cambridge dish was the last to be added to the network in 1991.

Northern Rock was built at Ravenglass The boiler was the last ever made by the Hunslet Engine Company in Leeds, but virtually every other component came to Ravenglass as a piece of flat steel plate, or a rough raw casting, to be machined to size and fitted in the railway’s own workshops. The work took Chief Engineer Ian Smith and his assistants, David Clay and Ian Page, three years from 1973 and when they lit the very first fire in her boiler, she raised steam and was taken up the line without further adjustments The Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway is one of the oldest and longest narrow gauge railways in England, known affectionately as La’al Ratty meaning “ little railway “ in olde Cumbrian dialect. It was 104 years ago in April 1913 that the original 3ft line closed and in 1915 the new 15in La’al Ratty was born. The heritage steam engines transport passengers from Ravenglass, the only coastal village in the Lake District National Park and of huge significance in Roman times, being an important last defence point of the infamous Hadrians Wall, to Dalegarth for Boot some 210ft above sea level. There are turntables at either end of the line, one of which can be seen here and the other in the PiPs. The journey takes 40 minutes, through beautiful scenery, up the line from the protected nature reserves of the Ravenglass Estuary through ancient woodlands to the fells of the Eskdale Valley. We enjoyed every minute of our trip there and back, with a stop for coffee at Dalegarth. </a

I have a little box which emits heat and UV light to clean and sterilise my hearing aids. This photo is taken of two different sized batteries inside the box, with the UV light switched on. The batteries are finished and ready to be safely disposed of. The PiP shows other batteries ready for collection

This is the fruit of a Japanese quince. It was an easy challenge this week as I didn't have to move anything or even place the fruit. I did have big ideas of superimposing one image onto another, but quailed at the work involved. No worms were disturbed or harmed for this challenge. :-))))

We do a lot of walking and gardening. I only have 2 pairs of stylish shows that I wear to weddings. ;-)

This week's challenge is: 'Selective Colour' I found this a bit difficult, but eventually managed the Photoshop instructions. I hate following instructions. :-) The PiP shows my new Christmas boots, my summer walking boots and my old boots which I now use for gardening. Nancy Sinatra - These Boots Are Made For Walking

The Chalmers Lighthouse was built in 1880 at the harbour entrance, to commemorate Dr Thomas Chalmers, a mathematician and professor of theology. The octagonal Lighthouse seen today was built to mark the end of the breakwater and stands 9 metres high. Most of the tower is painted white, whilst the service room below the unusually small lantern is painted black. A light is no longer shown from the tower, although it still operates a nautophone fog signal, housed in one of the window holes around the top of the tower, and a decorative white light is still shown from it's lantern. A new light, seen in the photo, was established in front of the Lighthouse, consisting of a plain unpainted metal pole with two LED units.