The Law

The most famous police station in Britain is New Scotland Yard in London. The police they've all got a blue light outside to show they are police stations. For most people the police are the face of the law. They can arrest people in the street, but they also give information. We visited a new police station in Lewisham, an area in south-east London. A suspected criminal is being charged with a crime. Next they take fingerprints to check the person's identity. They also take mouth swabs for analysis of DNA. Suspects can be kept in the cells at the police station for several hours. This suspect spent a whole night in the cells.
Next day he went to court. Here three magistrates listen to evidence from the police and witnesses. They then decide if the person is guilty or not guilty.
The evidence that the police collect from a crime scene is analysed in the laboratories like this. They can examine and analyse material from the crime scene to find out exactly what happened.
The police are the most obvious part of the law in Britain.

A barge going through the locks at Keokuk

The barge floating into the lock. There are large cables tied to either side to keep it on a straight course. It takes about 10 minutes to get all the way from the back to the front.

The railroad and road swings back. This is the old road before the new bridge was built, but the railroad still uses the track, so they can't just take it out.

The gates of the lock swing open. That is so amazing to see such large gates open up!

The gates begin to open. They swing back into an indentation that allows the barge to float through freely.

The front of the barge starts to move through the gates. At first, it looked like it only had about one foot clearance on each side, but upon closer examination, it had a whole three feet on each side.

Finally, the tug comes through. It's amazing how much smaller it looks out in the middle of the river as opposed to standing on top of it.

The final phase is that it pulls off into the Mississippi River in the deepest part and moves on downriver to New Orleans where most of the cargo will be sent overseas.

Maker Monday - Tiny Details

Photo from Core77
[Charles] Sometimes it's the small details that make all the difference. These light up numbers don't look like much when they are in use, but taken apart they have a really beautiful and timeless look. I love the idea that these were made by engineers years ago and they took the time to not only think of their function but also their form.

Here's a link to the Core77 article...

Friday Forecast - Museum Free Day Tomorrow!

[Charles] Tomorrow it is supposed to rain, if you live in Tampa and believe in 60% chances of rain which isn't very committal anyway but whatever. So instead of having a yard sale or going for a run on the beach, why don't you check out that museum you haven't forked over the cash for yet?Most museums these days run in the $15 range for tickets so we're talking $30 savings easy. How does it work? Just head over to the Smithsonian's website and find your museum of interest. Type in some details about yourself and decline all those helpful ads they want to send you and 30 seconds later you'll have a printable flyer in your little inbox. So, if you haven't checked out the new Tampa Museum of Art because "it's too small" or "there's too many greek pots" or whatever, now's your no obligation chance. I am finally going to try and cross that bridge to the St. Pete side of our little bay and check out the Museum of Fine Arts there. I've heard it's really nice, but I'm too cheap to drive over there and drop the coin on it. Here's the link to check out your local options. H/T to Recreating Tampa for the kind words about our shop (lord rest her soul) and the reminder about this event. In Tampa you've got the Ybor History Museum, The Museum of Photographic Arts, The Plant Museum, and the Scarfone Gallery at UT in addition to the TMA so why not take your rainy day on the inside? Insider tip, I know the TMA has a fantastic cafe with gelato on the ground floor. Have a great weekend!

Oh yeah and if you've still got some energy to burn after that, you should really check out Los Amigos Invisibles over at the Crowbar on Saturday. This Venezuelan group is known for a super danceable show that should be a great time. Don't plan to lean on the rail and sip beer at this one.

Supermarket

Supermarkets are an important part of daily life in Britain. The five biggest supermarkets sell 80% of all groceries - that's food and drink. Tesco is the biggest. It's got nearly 2.000 shops in GBritatin and is the third biggest supermarket in the world.

In the larger supermarkets you can buy just about anything. The very big supermarkets are usually on the edge of towns and most people drive to them. And while they are there with their car, customers can buy petrol too. There are many more supermarkets now than 20 years ago. People find it very convenient to do all their shopping in one place. Tesco online delivers over 100.000 orders each week in Britain and Sainsbury's delivers 30.000. It's becoming a very popular way to shop.

But not everyone likes supermarkets. So people without cars have less choice. As a result, the big supermarkets have started to open small shops in town and city centres. Many supermarkets are open 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

Soap Opera

The most popular British soap operas are Eastenders and Coronation Street. These are popular dramas about the lives of ordinary people. Many people are addicted to soap operas. The soap opera contain previews of the next week's shows, so that fans can find out what's going to happen next. Soap operas have got information about the actors and stories from future episodes.

Eastenders is set in the east end of London and has been broadcast since 1985. It was first broadcast in 1960. Then there's also Emmerdale which takes place in a village in the Yorkshire countryside. It started in 1972 and is on TV every evening from Monday to Friday.

Treehugger Tuesday: US Pledges $50M for Cookstoves

Photo from Adriana Lukas on Flickr

[Charles] In the news today there was a subject that we've talked about a little here on the TSM blog. Let's hope that this money is used wisely. Inefficient cookstoves are in use in millions of homes around the world where families and children are exposed to toxic soot that causes shortened lifespans to the users and environmental damage for the area. The research going into the area of efficient cookstoves is helping to cause less fuel to be used and to generate less soot in the process. Most homes in places like Ethiopia in the picture use an open fire to cook food and boil water. The women and children are most often the wood carriers and their bent backs show the strain of this daily job. Rapid deforestation which leads to erosion and floods is just one of the environmental problems from this practice. The recent NASA study discussed in Treehugger today also talks about soot and its effects on glacier melting and cloud formation. Check it out if you'd like more info. This is definitely something that needs more research and testing. It is one thing to spend money to build a better stove but it is still an uphill battle to have them accept it and use it.

Maker Monday - Nightwood

Photos from Nightwoodny.com
[Charles] Strange and beautiful mixes of old wood and fabric are incorporated into Nightwood's collections. This dreamy mix of pieces takes salvage and leaves it rough enough to appreciate where it came from and to show how cool it can be to let it all hang out - if you're a coffee table. Check em out. I like it a lot. From NYC of course...

Nightwood's site is definitely worth checking out.

Friday Music Forecast: So much music!

[Charles] This weekend has lots of good musical options for you. The best deal has to be WMNF's birthday bash for an awesome array of bands at the Ritz Ybor. Read on to hear the whole forecast:

Friday night: If you just want to walk in Seminole Heights then you have a few choices...

My top pic tonight is a band of young musicians called The Sun Society - a four piece band led by a pair of sisters with one on keys and the other on bass. They sound to me a little like Florence and the Machine with a really strong Regina Spektorish vocal. They start at 9 pm so forecast is... 90% that this show will be the best show you've seen by people young enough to be your kids that doesn't suck in some Jonas Brothers/Miley Cyrus kind of way.

Also, check out Ted Lukas and the Misled over at Ella's tonight if you want something rockin with your award-winning Best New Restaurant dinner!

If you're up for a drive then you couldn't do much better than heading to Skipper's to see Paul Thorn tonight in a solo acoustic show. I've heard his live stuff on the radio and he is hilarious and quite a rocker. Also, Rebekah Pulley and Ronnie Elliott are opening so ya know it's good.

Saturday night: 85% chance of your head exploding by the diverse group of musicians that WMNF has amassed at the Ritz. Paul Thorn with his full band. Suenalo jamming out and the Hip Abduction which packed the Orpheum at Heatwave will be great. The band you should be watching for is Sleepy Vikings. They sprung from the break up of one of my previous favorite rockers Giddy Up Helicopter. Check em out before they hit it big and you can't see em here any more. Hit the link below to check em out on Paste.

http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/av/2010/08/live-at-paste-sleepy-vikings.html

Also, if you're in Ybor, sneak over to New World Brewery and check out a really cool florida band that reminds a little of the Avett Brothers - Greenland is Melting - this is definitely the "Nicole's Pic" of the weekend so don't miss out!

Sunday's forecast includes a 50% chance of sleeping in late and needing something a little light to keep you going through the day like the Independent's bluegrass Sunday School for Sinners from 4:30 to 7:30. If you didn't overdo it on Saturday then you should probably grab some barbecue or chicken and waffles at Ella's and check out blues rocker Kaleigh Baker.

How's that? Pretty awesome right?! No excuses folks so have some fun out there and congratulate all those Best of the Bay winners!

Here's your homework to get you going for the weekend...

Tampa Street Market at Creative Loafing's Best of the Bay

Love this photo from Clark at the Loafies

[Charles] We purposefully avoided campaigning this year for BOTB for lots of reasons but when I got in today, I had to know the outcome. I'm curious right? Well apparently we got the most votes for eco-friendly store but they didn't give us the award because we are closed. Fair enough. Actually it's really cool that they even mentioned us because they didn't have to. I kind of always felt like we operated our little corner of the world in the shadow of much more interesting developments as far as the published world of Tampa was concerned. So much to my surprise, as I'm reading along the rest of the winners and newsmakers, I come across a little note titled "Saddest Loss to Seminole Heights". I almost went right past it before I saw "Tampa Street Market". Then I read on, and it was good, really good. It was like they finally got it. Not cheesy and they actually even mentioned our little blog. All I can say is thanks. It really does mean a lot to us. Oh yeah and I've always wanted to say this - "They like us, they really like us!?"

The text here:

Tampa Street Market owners Amy and Charles Haynie embody the best
qualities of Seminole Heights: They look to the future while
respecting the past; they have an eye for cool trends without
compromising warmth and rustic comfort; they give back to their ‘hood
and to the planet with salvaged and refurbished furniture painted with
low VOC paints or pieces built from salvaged and sustainable
materials. Their furniture and gift store at Florida and Osborne
specialized in eco-friendly, fair trade and local products, and was
open for 3 1/2 years with a brief hiatus in 2008, and, sadly, closed
at the end of last month. But examples of the Haynies’ work live on in
the community, including metal tabletops and fixtures at Ella’s Folk
Art Cafe and a bench featured in a 2008 exhibition at the Tampa Museum
of Art. And the couple maintain a cool, artsy-community-minded blog at
tampastreetmarket.blogspot.com.

Scotland

There are four main regions in Britatin. Scotland is in the north of the Britain. Its famous for this lakes. There are a lot of plants and nature. The majory people of Scotland live in Glasgow and Edinburgh. There are a lot of historic buildings. There are a party's in Scotland, too. There are a rare instruments. Scottish people have got a traditional sports. Glasgow it's a good city, because there are a lot of architects. The Scottish wiscky it's a good wiscky. The tourists enjoy with the fishing and the castles.

Tuesday Treehugger: Sign-O-Bike Turn Signal Belt?

Today's featured Treehugger article concerns this invention from the bike safety obsessed and creative geniuses from California company Sign-O-Bike. This thing fits on your waist and has light up turn signals with batteries that will apparently last "3-4 years" according to them (unless you leave your blinker on). It looks like a great idea and with the daily news in Tampa reporting accident after accident involving bicyclists and cars, I definitely am looking for more visibility. It does remind me a bit of Hulk Hogan's champion ship belt though and hopefully it can do double duty this year for my costume...

Here's the Treehugger link to the full article on visibility devices.

Also, the local bike blog - Bicycle Stories which had an insider's view of a bike accident involving a fellow rider this week.

Friday's Forecast - Weekend Music Planner

Well here you go - I got nothing better to do than try and talk you into seeing some live music this weekend. Don't miss out kids. I'll post some links and stop rambling on...

Friday - El Ten Eleven at Orpheum - Forecast 30% chance I'll actually get out to Ybor and go

Saturday - Legendary JC's at Skipper's - Forecast 90% chance of smoking funk and blues

Sunday - Cristabel and the Jons @ Ella's - Forecast 75% chance of tasty barbecue and beer accompaniment

A City called Zerahemla

The Lord said in D & C 125 "Let them build up a city unto my name upon the land opposite the city of Nauvoo, and let the name of Zerahemla be named upon it." I have read this in the Doctirne and Covenants and now I have been there. The Last House on the Road to Zerahemla sounds like something that should be written as a book. Mike showed us where the Zerahemla Road was, and then marked off where the last house on the road was located before it went in to the cemetery. I pondered about the family that would have lived there. I'm guessing it would have been their responsibility to care for the cemetery. I wondered what they were thinking when they packed up their wagons and moved west or what they were thinking when they saw their friends and family pack up and move west and they stayed.

Using the divining rods--otherwise known as 2 metal coat hangers, I was able to find a grave. It was so amazing to walk along and watch those two rods cross and then walk a little further and see them separate. I did it about three times, and then called Mike, who is with the sledge hammer, over and asked him to verify what I had found. Sure enough, I had found a grave of an adult. It was about 6 feet long and 3 feet wide. There was also evidence of a fence having been pitched around the grave. Mike took his sledge hammer and drove in a stake marking the grave. One of the people said, "Maybe it was your ancestor." I said that I didn't think so, but even if wasn't, I have such a strong connection to the early Saints of Nauvoo that they all seem like my family.

The cemetery at Zerahemla. I don't know why, but it makes much more sense to me that a place really did exist if there is a cemetery there. There are only about 8 headstones left, but Mike has been able to come up with many more graves as you can see the wooden markers that have been placed. Unfortunately, we don't know the names of the individuals.

As we pulled up to this site, Mike Foley, our director, said, "Somewhere behind those trees was where Zerahemla (the modern version) was located. I thought that's all we were going to get, but then we started walking and got back to Zerahemla.

Montrose and the Mormon Trail west

I wish I knew how to mark pictures on the computer, but if you look right in the center of the picture, you see a white blip in the middle of the green and blue. That is the Nauvoo Temple. It is the very last view the Saints would have had of the temple as they climbed the bluff and headed toward Sugar Creek (which will be another posting). This road is very steep, and it took some extra "horses" from the van in which we were riding to get up it. It made the trek more realistic to me thinking of how those oxen had to pull harder to get up that steep hill. And then I pondered the feeling of loss they must have felt as they looked over at Nauvoo, not knowing where they were being taken, just that they were following the Lord's annointed to "a place which God for us prepared, far away in the west".

A view of the temple from the Linger Longer (otherwise known as the Mormon Trail). There are 130 documented wagon trails into this area, where the early Saints would have crossed by ferry or would have walked or driven across in their wagons when the river froze over. We always ask people to turn around on Parley Street and to look at the temple and imagine what the Saints would have been feeling knowing they would never see their beloved temple again. As I looked across the river, it was amazing how much that temple represents home to me.

There used to be five islands off the banks of Montrose. One of those islands is trying to resurface after the dam at Keokuk was built and raised the water level. You can see some brush sticking up through the water off in the distance. This is the island where the last 606 Saints who were driven from Nauvoo at gunpoint because they would not deny their testimonies of the prophet nor of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, were dumped. They had not time to prepare provisions or the means, which is why they were still in Nauvoo. Because they had nothing to eat, just as the children of Israel, the Lord sent quail among them to feed them. A river boat captain confirmed this miracle, writing that so many were landing on the decks of his boat that he could hardly make it down river.

The barracks for the enlisted men were located where the cement slab is just the other side of the railroad tracks (which would not have been here in 1838). In their histories, Mary Ann Young, and Leonora Taylor describe some memorable events here. It wasn't a well built barracks and was 14x14. Leonora said that there were holes in the wall so large that a skunk would stop in every night to sleep with them. It was from these barracks that Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball waved goodbye to their very ill wives and headed for England. In order to comfort his wife, Heber C. requested that they stand in the wagon and cheer, "Hoorah for Israel!" Vilate and Mary Ann came to the door and waved goodbye to them. Mary Ann made several trips across the river in a small row boat. Growing tired of that fun with six small children, she procured the land where the Brigham Young home is currently located, but they had a wooden shack until Brigham got home and drained the swamp and built their fine brick home.

In the early 1830's an army unit was sent to Montrose to guard the area because there were lead deposits here that the nation needed. The river was not as wide or as deep as it is now. In fact, there were rapids here believe it or not. Where the log lies is where the Captain's quarters were originally located and extended out into what is now the Mississippi River. Captain Kearney who later had a city and a fort named after him was the officer in charge for a time. Another famous General came here and made a drawing which helped those came behind to place where things were. His name? Robert E. Lee. This was in 1838.

This bluff in Montrose rises above the Mississippi River. This had been called the Half Breed Tract in an agreement with the Sac and Fox Indian Tribes. It was named Montrose because of this bluff. It had been covered with wild roses and so they named it Mount Rose or Montrose.

The Iceman Cometh

Tools of the ice trade of the 1800 and early 1900's. One of the most amazing of which is the horse hair coat up in the corner of the picture. When I first looked at it, I thought it was something else. Aren't we lucky we live in a day of refridgeration? All of these pictures are taken at the Museum in Montrose, Iowa.

The ice company from Montrose. This is such a great picture even though it's so full of reflections. My Grandpa Geilmann used to be an ice man. He told me the story of his boss's wife who wanted him. One day he came in to deliver the ice and she was standing there stark naked. Grandpa quickly put the ice in the ice box and hurried out to his wagon. She followed him to the porch and quarried, "Hank, don't ya have nothing to say to a naked lady?" Grandpa jiggled on the reins to give the horses the signal to "getty up" and said without looking back, "Put your clothes on, lady, you're scarin the horses."

Picture of people from 1880 cutting the frozen Mississippi River to put into wood shavings to be kept cold for the "long hot summer"

Pictures of various ice tools used in the 1800's and early 1900's

Equipment for gettting ice out of the frozen Mississippi River.