One of my favourite ancient sites is Pompeii. Among the ruins is pieces of art that have remained intact since the fateful eruption of Mt Vesuvius in AD 79. Take a bit of a scroll with me and have a poke around the houses and buildings of Pompeii.
Mt Vesuvius in the distance
One of the grand buildings
The courtyard of a wealthy citizens house
Birds figured in a number of designs on the walls
Repeating patterns on many of the walls decorating the houses
Becky’s Photo Challenge: Past Squares Ragtag Daily Prompt Thursday: Vessel Life in Colour October: Orange
I am getting so lucky with photo challenges lining up for me, although it’s a bit of a stretch for Jude’s Orange challenge where she asked “Where have you seen orange?” It is a Past Square from #SquareTime and it is from the distant past. A wonderful vessel at Pompeii which held the families food. A bit big for my pantry though.
If the vessel isn’t orange enough, maybe the columns from down the road a bit are?
On a drive on the weekend, we came across this cute little building. There was a woman in her garden so I asked if I could take a few photos. She told us the history of the building. It was the dairy milking shed and had not been used for many many years and was in disrepair. She was going to have it pulled down but the bloke said it was worth doing a few repairs as a lot of it was still solid. He did a great job on the building and left the window as it was.
The wooden window was lifted and the ring on the bottom was hooked onto the chain to keep it open. I was going to open the window but it was heavy and I wasn’t sure it was going to work.
“The seventeenth of March. In other words, spring. Desmond, people who think themselves smart, I mean those in the height of fashion, women or men – can they afford to wait any longer before buying their spring wardrobes?”.
So the theme/prompt is History. I thought I would delve back into my history and re-post one of my first posts, some 2,790 posts ago in May 2012.
On my recent travels, I managed to visit a farm in the mountains behind Verona, Italy, in the Valpolicella Valley a well known wine growing region in Italy.
No, it wasn’t a winery I visited but a dairy. The dairy was very old and when I asked the owner how long the family had owned the farm (me in English/Italian – her in Italian/English – most comical conversation!!!) she shook her head and just said many many many grandfathers…..and perhaps it did look that way as well…..
Behind those doors are many a good thing but more of that later.
Can you imagine running a dairy where your herd is kept in barns for 7 to 8 months of the year? The only time they get out onto pasture is in late Spring and Summer and the pasture they go to is quite well grassed.
The yellow are a sort of Dandelion. Lake Garda is in the distance.
The conditions that the part of the herd I saw was rather boggy, but they weren’t all the milkers, just the calves and a few of the milkers. A shed nearby was still stacked with hay and covered.
The milking bales were rather old but worked and it would take a while even though the herd was around sixty cows
But the product that came from the milk – cheese – was some of the best cheese I have ever tasted. They make ten different types of cheese – all unpasteurised – which means they can only sell from the farm gate or at some markets, but what cheese!!! Of the eight I sampled there was only two that I didn’t really enjoy. The two year old mature cheese was so good as were the softer cheeses, some with added flavours…the chilli one was divine!!!
The fresh cheese just made that morning
The cheese room complete with mould.
The food produced from the farm was always value added and not much went to waste. Remember that doorway
Yes THIS door.
Behind that door was an array of salami, some of which had also been haging for a number of years. The smell was surprisingly pleasant and the taste…juicy and tender, full of flavour.
Just hangin’ ’round
Everyone on the farm just hung around together outside as well
I did like to see that chooks are the same all around the world in how they view that anywhere you want to is where you can sit and lay an egg!!!!
No I didn’t check to see if she had laid or was sitting on a clutch!!!
I hope you enjoyed my dairy farm visit as much as I did
For Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge: Lines and Angles I would like to show you the bridge in my town. The rail line is straight but the bridge has a number of bends, giving the local name of the Bendy Bridge. It was built in 1932 and the design is unique to Australia as it has a it has a railway line on the lower deck and the road is the upper deck. It used to open until the water main was built onto the structure and shipping stopped going up river, now the bridge no longer opens. There is another bridge being built along side the old bridge as in the mornings and afternoons there is quite a build up of traffic crossing the river. Large vehicles and buses have a hard time negotiating the bends and traffic coming in the opposite direction usually stop to allow the larger vehicles get around the bends.
A bit of the steel structure
Some of the steel used came from Scotland
The little office where the operator operated the controls to open the bridge.
One of the bends of the bridge
The walkway with the rail line on the left. There is another walkway on the other side. The crane on the right is where the new bridge is being built. The cranes used in the building of the new bridge
On a recent mini holiday, we went to Inverell. Inverell has a Pioneer Village which has building and artifacts from the bygone era.
I though as I was back in time I should take some photos in black and white. Here are a couple of photos from inside the houses as they would have been in the 1800’s.
This is the bathroom of one house
Out the back was of course the outhouse or dunny as they are called in Australia
Laying there
upon the sea floor
exposed by tides
not alone
with the rest
of her kind
a chance
discovery
Look, I say
there…..
can you see?
Now encrusted
with age
she tells tales
of long ago
of friends
long gone
of battles
and life
now in her
final resting place
she says
look at me.
The Verona Arena, built in the first century, is an open-air Roman amphitheater still in use today. The Arena is one of the best-preserved ancient structures worldwide. These stones have seen everything from gladiator games to rock concerts, from medieval jousts to Puccini operas.
From above
“The place held over 20,000 people in its heyday, hosting festivals that would draw visitors from all over. It was a complex and demanding entertainment industry, powered by the labor of hundreds of slaves in the underground tunnels. Grandiose stage sets would be erected in the central space. The elliptical shape gives the space excellent acoustics.
There were processions, circus acts, dancing and music, but, above all, the citizens came to see blood sports. Fierce wild animals from faraway places in the empire were brought in to be hunted, and condemned prisoners were executed in bloody and inventive ways. The feature presentation was always a gladiator show, in which two trained combatants would fight one another to the death. The word “arena” means sand, and it refers to the sand that covered the floor of the ring to absorb the blood spilled during the fights.” https://theculturetrip.com/europe/italy/articles/a-brief-history-of-the-verona-arena/
From below – a tunnel leading to the outside
I wonder how many people have walked this corridor below the Arena
What is a mountain with a past you ask. The mountain I chose for Bren’s photo challenge #17 is that well know mountain with a historical past.
Going back in time to 79AD some people were going about their daily life when the ground rumbled and suddenly an explosion sent ash and hot lava raining down upon the people and “buried the cities of Pompeii, Oplontis, and Stabiae under ashes and lapilli and the city of Herculaneum under a mudflow.” (https://www.britannica.com/place/Vesuvius) The last eruption was in 1944 and the volcano is still active. Vesuvius is very closely monitored today.
Yes, I chose Mt Vesuvius. This is the view of Vesuvius that people of Pompeii would have seen although before the eruption, the mountainside was forested with Oak and Chestnut trees.
This is the view over the Bay of Naples, across the Plain of Campania and Naples to Vesuvius
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