humanity – Page 53 – Michael Stephen Wills Photography

La Girona II

Historical Background to the wreck of La Girona

July 24, 2020July 26, 2020 MichaelStephenWills

Pam and I woke early on June 8 for that 138 mile drive to my cousin’s farm on the Cooley peninsula, County Louth, Republic of Ireland. Learning the day before, from the Giants Causeway visitor center, of treasure recovered from a shipwreck off that coast, we planned to visit Belfast, where the Ulster Museum has a permanent exhibit, “Treasures from the Girona”. This is just a taste of the historical provided by this excellent exhibit….if you visit Northern Ireland make time to visit the Ulster Museum.

In this post we explore, using my photographs of the museum exhibits, how the Spanish galleass La Girona came to be in the North Atlantic off the Irish coast. The ship was part of a fleet supporting an invasion of England from Flanders.

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Religion was the crux, Catholic Spain wanted to forestall Queen Elizabeth I’s establishment of Protestantism initiated by her father King Henry VII and support of Dutch protestants against Spain. State sponsored piracy of Spanish ships was a secondary justification.

To be continued….. (Click for the first post of this series)

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La Girona I

Shipwreck!!!

July 23, 2020July 23, 2020 MichaelStephenWills17 Comments

Seen here on the afternoon of June 6, 2014 against the foreground of Giants Causeway pavement stones, Lacada Point is where on the morning of October 26, 1588 the Spanish galleass “La Girona” foundered and sank at Port na Spaniagh (the bay to the east of the point). Five souls of the 1,300 on board survived the wreck.

Our time at the Giants Causeway visitor center yielded this new fact. While it was only Pam who ventured close to the Lacada Point, the following day we were able to view the treasure recovered from the site 379 years later. A portion is on permanent display at the Ulster Museum, Belfast. We visited “Treasures from the Girona” the following day.

To be continued…..

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Creeping up on 900 Readers….

….and a photographic gallery.

June 20, 2020June 15, 2020 MichaelStephenWills7 Comments

As of June 9, 881 is the count of subscribers to this blog, an interesting number. The individual numerals sum to a prime number, 17. I appreciate each and every “1” added together, you readers. Thank You.

Today, June 20, 5:44 pm Eastern Daylight Time, is the Summer Solstice for our Northern Hemisphere, the longest day of the year.

Here is a selection of images from past posts.

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The trail at Petrohue Falls is packed with tourists on a sunny summer afternoon.

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Dunseverick Castle Ruin, roadside info

Pride of History on display

May 26, 2020May 25, 2020 MichaelStephenWills2 Comments

On Causeway Road there is a turnoff an information placard for Dunseverick Castle near a cottage. This is the left side of the placard with the historical context. The right side is natural history of the area.

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Reference: Wikipedia “Dunseverick Castle.”

First Water Trailhead, repost

A desert garden with plans

May 25, 2020May 22, 2020 MichaelStephenWills

….Click me to visit this post of the Sonora Desert in bloom.

Copyright 2020 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Dunseverick Castle Ruin, closer

Recollections of Saint Patrick

May 24, 2020May 9, 2020 MichaelStephenWills8 Comments

Slight pangs of regret recalled in my first Dunseverick Castle post are recalled this morning on remembering the long Slige Midluachra (aka “High King’s Road”) of which Dunseverick Castle was the terminus, beginning from the Hill of Tara. Walk the High King’s Road, “why not?.”

Here we can see the two partial wall, remains of a gate house, destroyed in the 17th century. I can imagine making the climb up the foot path, examine the earthworks from before the Viking invasions, middle of the first millennium A.D. Recall a visit by Saint Patrick, trodding the path from his Easter fire on the Hill of Slane.

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Reference: Wikipedia “Dunseverick Castle.”

Mouse Collection

Happy Mother’s Day

May 10, 2020May 9, 2020 MichaelStephenWills12 Comments

Here is a project completed for a “Fundamentals of Photography” refresher course. The task is to use a variety of lenses of my choice to document scene from my surroundings. These photographs document a family heirloom, mouse figurines collected by my wife, Pam’s, mother, Patricia Crist, assembled by Pam into two display cases with assorted figures created by Pam’s daughter, Denna.

70 – 300 variable lens used for macro photography

Bullet Dodge Finale

EPCOT Forever(?)

May 9, 2020May 9, 2020 MichaelStephenWills2 Comments

Our last “FastPass” was for the EPCOT Forever fireworks and special effects spectacular. COVID-19 rendered the “forever” to be futile pretension, though during our wait Pam struck up a conversation with a couple who returned year after years to EPCOT, people who miss it and look forward to reopening.

We found the “FastPass” venue lacking, as there were many structures in the line of sight, as you can see from the IPhone 7 videos in this post. In retrospect, the area in front of the Canada Pavilion was open and might be a better location — when Epcot reopens, you’d need to get their early to grab a space.

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“Dodge the bullet” is rather too active for our EPCOT experience as we did nothing to social distance, cover our faces and, even, attended a sit down restaurant. “Dumb luck” is a better characterization, but it makes a poor chapter heading.

As our time in Florida passed more information leaked from China, posted by their citizens on-line. I recalled the chaotic scenes from the hospital, frightened people screaming in packing halls. Seeking to protect ourselves during the flight home, we sought out N95 masks and all medical masks were sold out. We found packs of N95 masks marketed for auto body work, in Walmart. Wore them on the 2 hour flight home as the only “wierdos” wearing masks as several fellow passengers coughed uncontrollably.

Bullet Dodge Series 8

Japan Pavilion

May 7, 2020April 30, 2020 MichaelStephenWills2 Comments

Epcot is a different experience at night, in many ways an enhancement, a gathering of glamour, smoothing of edges.

These few photographs and one video of the Japan Pavilion exemplify this effect. We were blessed with a full moon.

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Tokyo Dining is a traditional sushi restaurant featuring served by native Japanese. Our service was efficient and attentive from a premium seat acquired through our on-line reservation through a smart phone Disney app. Traffic is immense. I can only think of the research from China that demonstrated transmission of COVID-19 to nine diners by one infected person. We learned in April 2020 a high percentage of infections are non-symptomatic.

After dinner Pam and I enjoyed views from the spacious terrace. All photos for this post are from that time. Many of our family gifts from the trip were from the large and well stocked Mitsukoshi Department Store. It is the only remaining branch of the company in North America.

A blurry Torii Gate, the pond, Spaceship Earth

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Sea Turtle

Bullet Dodge Series 7

Oh Canada!!

May 6, 2020April 25, 2020 MichaelStephenWills7 Comments

Several times in the “aughts” (2000 – 2009) Pam and I visited Ottawa, the capital of Canada, for work. We’d leave on a weekend to enjoy some personal time before the appointments.

It is sad, I could find no photographs of Ottawa to share with this post. We loved the European feel of the city.

Our exposure to the Canada pavilion was a walk by at sunset on the way to our Japan dinner reservation.

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