A friendly little dog is such a pleasure to meet. Co-co and her owner were happy to let me take her photo in the parking lot the other day.
Today's quote:
“A man travels the world in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.” novelist George Augustus Moore
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Today's quote:
Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds.
-Henry Adams, historian and teacher (1838-1918)
Today's quote:
Come, live in my heart and pay no rent. -Samuel Lover, songwriter, composer, novelist, and artist (1797-1868)
Today's quote:
“Most readers think that a novel is, first of all, a story. Well, it really isn’t … A novel is an evolution of life. Its story is merely a means to an end.” educator and writer Mary Ellen Chase
People who drive down this hill probably get a glimpse of the mural...Doughtery St. goes steeply down from State St.
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Amazing cities of the Amazon jungle...
Kunguints site, Upano Valley, Ecuador. Dug streets cross the urban area where they are bordered by complexes of rectangular platforms arranged around low squares. The site is framed by two rivers.
I'm quite excited to see another civilization which existed!
If someone were to ask you what you know about the history of the Amazon, what would you say? Archaeologist Stéphen Rostain, who knows a thing or two about the region, insists in a recent profile that the answer is “nothing, because the history that we think we know is wrong.” In a study recently published in Science, Rostain chronicles a 30-year research project and the astonishing discovery of a 2,500-year-old metropolis in the Ecuadorian rainforest, a “lost valley of cities.”
While previous expeditions to the area have documented large mounds and monuments throughout the area, the enormity and complexity of this find exceeded expectations with the discovery of thousands of houses, complex roads, plazas, ceremonial sites, and drainage canals. More than 6,000 rectangular earthen platforms, which were likely homes and communal buildings, are connected by a vast and sophisticated road network connecting 15 urban centers, surrounded by terraced agricultural fields.
Rostain and his colleagues used aerial Lidar, which stands for light detection and ranging, to scan an ancient network of cities extending across 115 square miles in the Amazon. Built around 500 B.C.E. and occupied for hundreds of years until the population began to migrate away between 300 and 600 C.E., the Upper Amazon site’s immense scale places it in league with comparable Maya urban systems recently found in Mexico and Guatemala.
You may also enjoy exploring Vinicius Peripato and Luiz Aragão’s recent survey of earthworks in Brazil that suggest thousands still hidden in the forest. (via Kottke)
Source: Colossal In the World's Largest Rainforest...
My guess is that the roads were worn down by feet, animals and human. There's no evidence of wheeled vehicles, beyond some toys, in the "new world" before Europeans came there. But it isn't logical to me that roadways would be built lower than houses...though maybe they were shallow canals. There are many more questions than answers!
Today's quote:
The souls of emperors and cobblers are cast in the same mold. The same reason that makes us wrangle with a neighbor creates a war between princes. -Michel de Montaigne, essayist (1533-1592)
Black Mountain Inn
Postcard: This divided back era postcard shows a lightly colored depiction of the Black Mountain Inn. The postmark on the back of the postcard is not entirely legible, but we believe it to read "July of 1910." Nestled within a tree preserve dating back to the 1700s, the Black Mountain Inn has nearly 200 years of history in Black Mountain. The building itself is three stories and almost 5,000 square feet with eight bedrooms and eight baths sitting on five acres. The Inn was originally built as a stagecoach stop by John Stepp around 1830 and was renovated and expanded in 1940. At its peak, the Inn had would host as many as 16-20 people for breakfast that were staying in the eight available rooms. Today, the Black Mountain Inn is still in operation off of Old US Highway 70.
Source: Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center facebook page
My post from 2020 follows:
It's set back from the road, up on a tall hill, overlooking both Old US 70, and the newer US 70, and the railroad running from east to west and back. Many trees are on the slope up to the old building, but they were cleared out a bit a few years ago, so you can now see the building from the road. For many years it was wild looking land, and only some brave folks would go up the gravel road to see it.
This sign shows a favorite gathering place, the Dynamite Coffee Shop with its red roof. It lies very close to the junction of the 2 US 70 highways. I live in the other direction a couple hundred feet also off Old US 70. This was the first time I drove up the steep driveway to take some photos.
Here's the link to their own internet site.
And I wanted to find out a bit of the history of the building, so I'm quoting from their web-page.
Originally designed as a stagecoach stop, the inn was built circa 1830 and for more than 100 years it underwent several transformations. At the turn of the 20th century it operated for several years as the Franklin Humanitarian Home (a TB sanatorium).
Notably, in 1940, as the famed Black Mountain College approached its zenith, the property was purchased by Mary Aleshire and Daisey Erb. Mrs. Aleshire was the manager of the Norton Art Gallery in Palm Beach, Florida. She artfully restored and updated the historic property. In 1942, the house was opened as the Oak Knoll Art Studio, which served primarily as a summer artist's retreat for Mrs. Aleshire and her many famous guest; Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Norman Rockwell, Helen Keller, Anne Sullivan and Joan Sutherland among them.
In 1965, wishing to preserve the house, and prevent commercial development the Aleshires sold the house to their caretaker Jim Reid.
The house was purchased again in 1989 and lovingly restored by its current owners, who transformed it into the Black Mountain Inn. Since then, we have been privileged to return this wonderful inn to the tradition of welcoming guests to the magnificent Blue Ridge Mountains.
I think when they say "prevent commercial development" they were referring to something besides a B&B...maybe?
The following photos are all from their web site.
Today's quote:
In the stillness of the quiet, if we listen, we can hear the whisper in the heart giving strength to weakness, courage to fear, hope to despair. |
HOWARD THURMAN |
Why not say Otter Otter for the first of things to wish good luck?
