#thompson canyon

[vintagecamping]

Train spotting while hiking in Thompson Canyon

British Columbia

1968

[rabbitcruiser]

The Colony of British Columbia (1858 – 66) was established on 2 August 1858 by the Parliament of the United Kingdom.  

[thomaswaynewolf]

[aisling-saoirse]

Thompson Wash, Utah - May 20th 2023

[herpsandbirds]

Arizona Woodpecker (Leuconotopicus arizonae), male, family Picidae, order Piciformes, Madera Canyon, AZ, USA

photograph by Mick Thompson

[unteriors]

Thompson Canyon Road, Curlew, Washington.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Environment Canada has issued 25 air quality alerts for British Columbia, amid raging wildfires and a provincial state of emergency. The federal weather agency is warning that the smoke will last another 24 to 48 hours. Even in low concentrations, wildfire smoke can be harmful to human health. The alerts cover virtually all of Vancouver Island south of Port McNeill, all of the Sunshine Coast apart from Howe Sound, the entire Lower Mainland, and all of the Fraser Valley and Fraser Canyon. It also includes the Lakes District, Stuart-Nechako and North Thompson regions, as well everything south of that in B.C.’s Interior, the Okanagan, and the Kootenays.

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[heavenlybackside]

Snowing really good in the Big Thompson Canyon..🌨🌨🌨

Big Thompson River 💦❄️

Big Thompson Canyon 🏔

3/14/24

💙🌨❄️🌨🩵✨️

[fatehbaz]

In early August of 1864, a contingent of thirty-six U.S. soldiers, led by an army captain named John Thompson, left Fort Defiance in the northeastern corner of Arizona Territory and trudged north under the hot sun through the sprawling homeland of the Navajos. Diné Bikéyah, as Navajos call their land [...]. He and his thirty-six men headed straight from Fort Defiance to the deep gorge at the heart of Diné Bikéyah -- Tséyi’ or Canyon de Chelly, the now-famous canyon lined with swaying cottonwoods and pockmarked with ancient Pueblo ruins. As Thompson and his men marched through the canyon, [...] they engaged in a fierce, and roundly victorious, battle against an unlikely enemy: the peach orchards that had been cultivated over hundreds of years by Diné families. In the course of his march, Thompson and his soldiers felled a remarkable 4,150 fruit- bearing peach trees and, for good measure, “effectually destroyed” at least eleven acres of corn and beans. Oddly, these binges of violence against Navajo peaches, corn, and beans came after the majority of Diné in the area had already surrendered to the army, following an aggressive and violent campaign for their removal from the canyon. [...]

---

We can ask, of course, just what it was about these peach trees, corn stalks, and bean plants that invited such unnecessary violence, such “systematic eradication” of fruits, grains, and legumes.

Historian Peter Iverson muses, “perhaps the army simply wanted to remove evidence that contradicted the image of Navajos as full-time nomadic wanderers,” which had provided the (quite effective) rationale for their removal in the first place. Perhaps, too, the orchards and fields evidenced a Diné proficiency at agriculture in the high arid climes of the New Mexico territory that surprised Americans who expected Navajo country to be useless for agricultural purposes, a sprawling wasteland described in 1868 by William Tecumseh Sherman, the general of Union Army fame, as “utterly unfit for white civilization.” It is not implausible to venture a guess that these binges of violence against peach trees occurred as proxy to settler and soldier frustrations about the newly conquered Southwest and the challenges it presented to American notions of what good agricultural land should look like. Indeed, ideas about landscape and people, throughout this notorious removal campaign, served as the primary and most powerful impetus for colonial violence against people and peaches alike. Notions that the Colorado Plateau was uninhabited wasteland unfit for farming draw us quite a clear map of how we get from Thompson and his vexed tree felling to more contemporary cases of the interplay between nature, people, colonization, and power. [...]

---

The social construction of the high, arid landscapes of the Southwest as “more or less worthless” has been a fundamental component of colonization of the Diné, as well as other southwestern and Great Basin tribes. In fact, the inhabitation of dry, arid landscapes by Native nations was used as evidence of their low status on the Western hierarchy of civilization, following a kind of environmental determinism that posited that “barren” landscapes supported villainous and savage peoples. [...]

The surviving Diné were to return to Diné Bikéyah, and General Sherman, who made the final decision to permit the Diné to return to their homeland, did so believing that he was sending them to what he considered, as one historian put it, a “waterless worthless waste” -- certainly not the kind of land [...] that would support fine orchards of thousands of fruit trees and scores of acres of beans and corn. In fact, upon returning to Diné Bikéyah, the Navajos of Canyon de Chelly masterfully regrew their orchards and, by the 1880s, were harvesting peaches once more.

---

Text by: Traci Brynne Voyles. “In Search of Treasure.” Wastelanding: Legacies of Uranium Mining in Navajo Country. 2015. [Some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

[na-bird-of-the-day]

BOTD: Canyon Wren

Photo: Mick Thompson

"One of the best songsters in the west, the Canyon Wren is usually heard before it is seen. Surprisingly elusive and skulking even in open terrain, this dark rusty wren disappears and reappears as it creeps about the jumbled rocks of an eroded cliff or steep canyon wall. If the observer waits, the bird will eventually jump to the top of an exposed boulder to pour out another song, a rippling and musical cascade of notes, well suited to beautiful wild canyons."

- Audubon Field Guide

[azurezfiction]

Power Rangers ship list

Because everyone seems to be doing it; here is my ship list!

Everything under the read more because it's a ton:

MMPRS1-Turbo 1: Tommy x Kimberly Zack x Trini Billy x Trini Jason x Tommy Billy x Skull (because of augment-techs) Stone Canyon Trio Rocky x Adam Aisha x Shawna Bulk x Connie David Truehart x Trey Tanya x Kat Tanya x Adam Tanya x Zack Aisha x Zack Turbo II - Lost Galaxy: Ashley x Cassie Andros x Ashley Zhane x Andros Zhane x Astronema/Karone Karone x Maya Mike Corbett x Carlos Vallerte Kai x Damon Leo x Andros TJ x Damon Lightspeed Rescue - Wild Force Joel x Miss Fairweather Kelsey Winslow x Nancy Thompson Carter x Ryan Dana x Taylor Taylor x Alyssa Merrick x Cole Eric x Wes Wes x Jen x Eric Katie x Trip Eric x Trip Danny x Max

Ninja Storm - SPD Dustin x Hunter Tori x Blake Blake x Trent Tori x Kira Dustin x Conner x Hunter Ethan x Cassidy

Mystic Force - RPM Nick x Xander Chip x Vida Udonna x Leanbow Leelee x Phineas Claire x Xander RJ x Casey Lilly x Theo Jarrod x Camilla Casey x Jarrod (x RJ) Ziggy x Dillion Flynn x Gemma

Samurai - Dino Charge Antonio x Jayden Lauren x Mia Troy x Jordan Noah x Orion Gia x Emma One-sided Jake x Noah (Jake crushing on Noah). Tyler x Shelby Tyler x Ivan Ivan x Tyler x Matt Koda x Phillip

Ninja Steel - Cosmic Fury Brody x Preston Calvin x Preston Calvin x Men. Sarah x Hayley Devon x Blaze Ravi x Roxy Ollie x Javi Amelia x Javi Izzy x Fern Zayto x Aiyon Zayto x Javi

Comics: Ace x Gent* Trek x Ace* Violet x Zack Ellarien x Remi Nikolai x Daniel Grace x Jamie x Terona Grace x Terona Matt Cook x Billy Cranston Crossover ships: Andrew Hartford x Mr Kelman (1995 Movie) x Dane Romero Fred Kelman x Justin Stewart Cam x Kimberly Conner McKnight x muscular guys Merrick x RJ Chad x Danny Chad x Aurico Delphine x Hayley Ziktor

*I have so many headcanons about these two ships and how it connects to canon, I'm really hoping to get it out soon!

[xtruss]

Poinsettias adorn the Zocalo, the main square in modern Mexico City. Indigenous to Mexico and Central America, the plant became a symbol of Christmas with a little help from European missionaries and an American diplomat named Joel Poinsett. Photograph By Carrie Thompson, Alamy Stock Photo

How The Rugged Poinsettia became Our Favorite Holiday Flower

Long before a clever marketer turned it into a Christmas staple, the Aztec and Maya celebrated the colorful shrub for its medicinal value.

— By Bill Newcott | Published: December 22, 2022

Think “Poinsettia” and you think “Christmas,” right? Well, think again. At the time of the first Christmas, the closest poinsettia to the little town of Bethlehem was 8,000 miles away, clinging to life in a rocky canyon in what’s now southwestern Mexico.

“The Aztec called the plant cuetlaxochitl (brilliant flower), and the Maya referred to it as k’alul wits (ember flower),” says Mark Hoddle of the University of California Riverside’s department of entomology. He became fascinated with the poinsettia while working on his doctoral dissertation in the 1990s, exploring ways to control whiteflies, a common scourge of the holiday plants.

There’s evidence the indigenous peoples of Central America appreciated the plant for its seasonal red leaves, he says, but mostly they saw medicinal value.

“When you break a leaf or branch of a poinsettia, it leaks a milky white sap,” Hoddle says. “The cultures believed that sap had healing properties.” Aztecs applied the sap to the breasts of nursing mothers to increase milk production. They also used the sap as a depilatory.

Even today, Hoddle says, descendants of the ancient Maya in Mexico boil the leaves to create a remedy for obstetrical or gynecological hemorrhaging. And if you happen to be bitten by a snake, the locals say, there’s nothing better than boiled root of k’alul wits.

The poinsettia is named in honor of Joel Roberts Poinsett, an American diplomat and avid amateur botanist who introduced the plant to the United States in the 1820s. Library of Congress

The First Christmas Poinsettias

Franciscan missionaries arrived in Mexico in the 16th century and eventually began setting up elaborate manger scenes at Christmastime. Holly, Europe’s holiday flora of choice, was nowhere to be found for the dioramas, but when the missionaries saw the red and green colors of this local plant—that happened to burst into color every December—they knew they had the perfect stand-in.

By the time an American diplomat named Joel Poinsett arrived in Mexico in the 1820s, those bright leaves were a common sight in local churches at Christmastime. A swashbuckling U.S. congressman from Charleston, South Carolina, Poinsett spoke six languages, dined with Russia’s czar, served President James Madison as a covert agent to protect U.S. business interests in South America, and somewhere along the way became, for a short time, a general in the Chilean army.

Yet despite all his exploits, Poinsett is remembered primarily as the amateur botanist who became fascinated with those red and green plants from Mexico. He sent some home to Charleston, where people began growing them in their gardens. Their notoriety grew under a variation of Poinsett’s name.

Poinsettias Become A Christmas Star

For the first 100 years or so after those first transplants arrived in Charleston, fragile poinsettias were nearly impossible to keep alive in a pot. They were sold primarily as cut flowers.

“That all changed with these guys,” says Fred Clarke, keeper of what’s likely the world’s only poinsettia library. He’s leading me toward a large, translucent white shed tucked into a corner of the Flower Fields at Carlsbad Ranch, a bit north of San Diego, California.

Each spring Carlsbad’s famous Flower Fields become a fantasia of red, yellow, and white ranunculus flowers. Clarke is the horticulturalist in charge of making sure those 80 million flowers grow and get to market, but it’s clear his passion plant grows inside this shed.

“Here we are!” he enthuses as we step inside. Sitting on a series of low, tiered risers are scores of potted poinsettias arranged chronologically in order of their historical development.

Clarke doesn’t have a sample of Joel Poinsett’s iteration, but his chronology does include a close relative: the legendary St. Louis Red. The first mass-produced poinsettia, it was introduced in 1924 by Louis Bordet of Missouri.

Long-stemmed and fragile, the St. Louis Red was still primarily a cut flower. But a self-taught Southern California agriculturalist named Paul Ecke started toying with the Red’s genetics, breeding varieties that exploded with multiple colored leaves, didn’t mind growing in a greenhouse, and, most importantly, could be shipped in pots.

Following the lead of those long-ago missionaries, Ecke began marketing poinsettias as “The Christmas Flower.” He convinced Hollywood to use them as decorations on seasonal TV specials. (Ecke’s son personally saw to it that Johnny Carson had an extravagant display behind his Tonight Show desk each year.)

For decades, the Ecke family grew nearly all their poinsettias on what’s now Carlsbad’s Flower Fields. Today, poinsettias are grown primarily outside the U.S., so the Ecke family focuses on developing and patenting new varieties. The results are on proud display in Clarke’s poinsettia library.

Ushering me through the collection, Clarke—who started working with the Ecke family 42 years ago—ticks off the subsequent varieties. They include the Flaming Sphere (1950), a floppy version that never caught on. The C-1 (1968) was the first poinsettia that could withstand the rigors of transport. The Limo (1988) introduced the deep red of present-day poinsettias. Freedom Family (1991) was the first with rounded, elephant-ear-shaped bracts rather than long, pointy ones. And the Prestige (2002), known for its rich color and stamina, is now the most popular poinsettia on the planet.

After touring the poinsettia library, Clarke invites me to enjoy one of the Flower Fields’ famous strawberry milkshakes. As we head for a small stand, he suddenly stops and turns back toward the shed and his red-leafed congregation. He smiles.

“These guys have come a long way,” he says.

[dimsilver]

tagged to share a good song for each letter of my url - thanks @accidental-spice! this list is heavily slanted towards my summer playlist :)

Daylight by Watchouse

It Would Be You by Ben Rector

Man in Room 39 by The Arcadian Wild

Summerland by half•alive

I’ll Fly Away by The Gray Havens

Like the Dawn by the Oh Hellos

Venice by Canyon City

Eden Bound by Jac Thompson

Round Prairie Road by Jamestown Revival

open tag - please share some music if you’re so inclined :)

[readjthompson]

Shamrock Rebellion was a lot of fun. Here are some clips I filmed of Gen and the Degenerates, Face to Face, Buzzcocks, Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls, Flogging Molly, pit people, and me. Cheers.

[katblu42]

Day 11 - Rocky Mountaineer part 1

I'm behind again! Mostly because I've been busy experiencing stuff, and not connected to tech!!

Anyway, Day 10 started pretty early - coach pick up at the hotel was 7:50am, but our luggage had to be outside our rooms for collection an hour before that.

Our coach was the first to arrive at the station, so we had about half an hour to hang around before the welcome (which involved bagpipes), and then boarding.

(This is a Gold Leaf carriage - I was travelling on Silver Leaf)

We set off at 8am, and while we were still slowly trundling out of Vancouver the first refreshments were served - coffee and tea, then a 2 course breakfast!

We had an unexpected and sudden stop when the emergency brake was pulled due to "an issue with the crossing ahead." Not sure what the issue was, but when the emergency brake is pulled the whole length of train has to be walked to check the brake has been released. I think we were stopped for about 10 minutes.

(The stop also caused a service cart at the back of our carriage to topple. These carts basically never to that, so this was definitely unusual according to our 3 cabin hosts!)

Not long after that we had a glimpse of Mt Barker (which is over the border in the US - Washington).

At this point I feel the need to point out 2 important things: 1. I took over 200 photos today 2. All photos were taken through the windows of the train, and are therefore subject to reflections off the glass - watch out for the little UFOs, they are reflections of the lights in the carriage ceiling!

I also should point out seeing mountains like these is kinda exciting for me - Australia's mountains aren't like this! And the train follows the Fraser River pretty closely. The grey-green colour of the water is apparently due to the sediments it carries - they never get a chance to settle.

Speaking of colours . . . this mixture of blues and greens is because it's part of where the Fraser meets the Thomson River, which the train then follows to our eventual overnight stop in Kamloops.

This train trip is like being in a moving restaurant - we were supplied with drinks and a snack, then a 3 course lunch by the time we hit this point!

Rainbow Canyon - the colours of the rocks caused by oxidation of iron, copper and sulfur (I think that's what they said!)

I was really on the wrong side of the train to get shots of the rapids on the Thompson, where some of the rocks have names! Can you spot the rock called the frog? (right pic above)

Murray Creek Falls . . .

On one of our many stops while waiting on a siding for a freight train to pass in the opposite direction, we had a Bald Eagle circling beside us. Not easy to snap pics!

Somewhere near Black Canyon we had one of the best chances to shoot pics of the front of the train - my carriage was the second last of 22 "pieces of equipment" (engine, carriages inc non-passenger cars), and the last passenger car. (I still had trouble getting a decent shot without reflections or telephone wires in the way!)

We spent much of the day spotting Osprey nests! (And one or two eagle nests)

Does anyone recognise Rainbow Bluffs? Apparently they appeared in the X-Files. (right pic above)

After many, many delays pulling into sidings for freight trains (the two I counted cars for were 150 and 194 cars long - so not short trains!), and our afternoon snack and drink, we finally came up along Kamloops Lake. Lots of winding track as the train closely follows the shoreline.

And that's my 30 image limit!

We were late getting into Kamloops - so many stops along the way we even got a second afternoon snack!! So, when we finally reached our hotels it was around 9pm. That's basically a 13hr train trip! Certainly not boring though.

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Doom & Gloom 2022: The Year In Bootlegs

So many bootlegs! If you need to get caught up, here's a handy list of these Doom & Gloom exclusives. Some of the old standbys, some new faces. Thanks to all the tapers out there, you are the real heroes.

What will 2023 bring?! I don't know, but I'll still be here. Oh and hey, have you signed up for the Doom & Gloom Substack yet? It's a good time.

#SummerOfPavement

John Fahey - Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, California, July 14, 1976

Through Hills and Valleys, Over Creeks and Rivers: Crazy Horse’s Deep Cut Epics, 1984-2013

Public Image Limited - Toad’s Place, New Haven, Connecticut, April 4, 1983

Low - Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, February 1, 2016

The Velvet Underground - Music Hall, Cleveland, December 1, 1968

Sonic Youth - Cat’s Cradle, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, November 14, 1982

Lou Reed - Mile End Sundown, London, United Kingdom, November 1, 1972

Richard Thompson - Toad’s Place, New Haven, Connecticut, October 16, 1994

John Cale - Lady Mitchell Hall, Cambridge, England, May 13, 1975

Elkhorn - Volume 2 at Never Ending Books, New Haven, Connecticut, September 12, 2022

Lou Reed - Shibuya Kokaido, Tokyo, Japan, October 26, 2000

Lou Reed - Palace Theater, New Haven, Connecticut, March 7, 1996

Lou Reed - The Bottom Line, New York City, February 25, 1983

Neil Young & The Transband - Westfalenhalle, Dortmund, West Germany, October 11, 1982

The Necks - Bimhuis, Amsterdam, Netherlands, September 26, 1998

R.E.M. - Toad’s Place, New Haven, Connecticut, April 14, 1982 / October 6, 1982 / July 17, 1983

jaimie branch’s FLY or DIE - Boot and Saddle, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, December 18, 2016

John Cale - Oxford Ale House, New Haven, Connecticut, June 20, 1979

Silver Jews - 40 Watt Club, Athens, Georgia, March 10, 2006

Air with Amiri Baraka - WDR Studio, Köln, Germany, March 20, 1982

King Sunny Adé - Toad’s Place, New Haven, Connecticut, February 7, 1983

Patti Smith w/ Lou Reed - Central Park, New York City, June 27, 1977

John Fahey - Unknown Venue, Santa Barbara, California, January 1968

Neil Young - Acoustic H.O.R.D.E.

The Willies - The Peanut Gallery, Haledon, New Jersey, April 24, 1983

The Slits - Dingwalls, London, United Kingdom, May 13, 1977

Neil Young with Poncho and the MG’s - Rock Am Ring Festival, Nürburgring, Germany, May 18, 2002

Neil Young with Booker T. & the MGs - Warfield Theater, San Francisco, California, June 9, 1993

Lou Reed - Glastonbury Festival, Worthy Farm, Pilton, England, June 27, 1992

The Feelies - World Cafe Live, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 19, 2022

Robyn Hitchcock - Robyn Sings Again

Wilco - Toad’s Place, New Haven, Connecticut, September 16, 2000

The Feelies - The Grotto, New Haven, Connecticut, August 30, 1986 / Toad’s Place, New Haven, Connecticut, May 11, 1991

Sonic Youth - This Ain’t No Picnic Festival, Oak Canyon Ranch, Irvine, California, July 4, 1999

Lou Reed - ZigZag Magazine, Conversation with John Tobler, December 1971

Television - Toad’s Place, New Haven, Connecticut, December 1, 1992

Tom Verlaine - Toad’s Place, New Haven, Connecticut, October 10, 1981 / May 26, 1982

Jerry Jeff Walker & David Bromberg - WBAI-FM, New York City, 1969

The Replacements - 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 5, 1981

Lou Reed - The Robinson Apartment, New York City, March 1971