S. Peter At Court -A Monument To Visit In Salerno

One of the most interesting monuments you can find open in Salerno is S. Peter At Court. A must to visit for those who wants to see in one place all the history of Salerno from the time when it was a building of Roman public baths, than Paleochristian church and cemetery, than a private chapel of Longobard Prince Areki II, than oratorium...

You see the entrance on the photo. The building is on the right. We are voluntaries of the Archeological Group of Salerno and come here every morning to open the monument. It is difficult for many of us, for those who studys or works. But it is really very important for the town where only 2 or 3 other monuments are open every day.

There is other room over the place of archeological excavation where we are but this room is closed for visits.

When the visitors comne we tell them the story of this building and what the archeologists discovered in the site. Most persons are very impressed not only to have a free guide but to meet so much dedication of the volunteers.



Here, 7 meters under the actual street level, are the rests of the Roman baths. The ceiling is reconstructed, but it was it's natural hight and form. In the attached S. Anna chapel we expose books, magazines etc.

Memorable Golf Vacations In Myrtle Beach

Myrtle Beach Golf is one of the attractions for those, who comes in this splendid location on the ocean, year-round. If you like golf, this is the right place for your vacations. Because there is a really great collection of more than 100 courses there. The professionals will introduce you in different traditions of this game, even in the true Scottish tradition.

The best is that you can book your Myrtle Beach Golf Vacations directly online. There is a very simple form to choose the course, time when you want to come there and number of golfers. Notice that if you are interested in tee times, there are some restrictions to observe.

If you want to choose a Myrtle Beach Golf Package you don't need to book a hotel too. There are golf only packages that offer different course designs and the joy to improve your skills with legendary players.

You can confront Golf Packages Myrtle Beach visiting Ttimes Only, where you will find descriptions of every course, their rates, news and events, and all the other informations you can need to plan and organize your memorable vacation.

Wreck Of The Celtic

Twenty-five years ago this week, the tugboat Celtic sank  about a mile-and-a-half south of Sheffield Island. Towing 1400 tons of scrap metal from Bridgeport to Newark, she sank in 75 feet of water, taking along with her the seven crewmembers. An investigation later revealed that the barge she was towing, the Cape Race, had recently undergone repairs to fix several leaks. They concluded that the repairs failed, the barge filled with water, then sank, pulling the Celtic down on the evening of November 17, 1984.

Built in 1958 at the Jakobson Shipyard in Oyster Bay, the tug was named Russell 10 (above), then the Judith McAllister, and eventually the Celtic.

I have never been scuba-diving, but a few years ago I bought a book at a yard sale entitled Shipwrecks of  Long Island Sound (or something to that effect). There are many more wrecks on the bottom of the Sound than I imagined. This past year I discovered the Wreckhunters website, and Dave Clancy was kind enough to provide me with some background information on the Celtic.



Wreckhunter: Hunting New England Shipwrecks

Jakobson Shipyard: Shipbuilding Registry

CT Harbor Management: Salvage 2008 (page 4)

AquaExplorers: Celtic Shipwreck

Map

photo credit: Tugster

Fab walk

We had a lovely walk yesterday at St Thois in good weather and fine autumnal countryside. Thanks to everyone who came and made it such a nice occasion.

Don't forget - Quimper trip (17 December) booking essential, limited places.

The Bronze Door Of The Cathedral Of Salerno

What you see on the photo is the yard of the Cathedral of Salerno. And one of the most important manufacts of this Dom and of the Middle Ages generally is it's bronze door (in center).

This door was made in Constantinople at the end of the XI century. There are not many similar doors in Europe and the first of them were made in Constantinople.

The very first was the door of Pantheon in Rome made by Romans in 125. This one inspired merchants resident of Amalfi, Pantaleone and his son, and they donated similar door to the cathedral of Amalfi in 1060. The other they ordined for the abbey of Montecassino in 1066. The cathedral of Salerno was a copy of that of Montecassino. It's clear that it had to have similar door too. So one of the rich donators, Landolfo Butromile, ordined this door in Constantinople . This last is more beautiful as previous. It contains figures of the Saints. Near S. Mattheus you can see the figures of the donators, Landolfo and his wife, Gisana.



I was very curious why there are so many churches in Salerno and so many donated pieces.
In Middle Ages, the people believed they will go in the paradise if they donatre something important to the God. The cathedral needed this door, and so Landolfo and his wife could live happily insured their places in paradise.

After the death, both were burried in the cathedral, and you can see their gravestones preserved near the door they donated, today.

Greenwich Point

This is the epicenter of the coastal access debate. Permission to enter the 147-acre Greenwich Point has been an issue brought to the courts several times these past two decades. For those of you unfamiliar with the story, here is a brief history.

In the 1990's, Stamford resident and law school student  Brenden Leydon was denied entry to Greenwich Point while jogging. The town maintained a policy that restricted entry to residents only. He filed suit in 1995, and the case made it's way to the State Supreme Court in 2001. The court ruled that Greenwich could not deny Mr Leydon access to a public space. Problem solved? Not so fast.

Greenwich opened their beach and park to nonresidents, but made sure to put in place a series of obstacles  for anyone who tried to visit. Fees for nonresidents were extremely high, plus a permit was required for entry. This nonresident permit could only be purchased at the town offices, which were miles away. Sure enough, the office was only open till 3:45 PM on weekdays, and closed on weekends. Take that,.. Supreme Court!

In 2005, 75 year old Paul Kempner rode his bike into Greenwich Point and was fined $92 for trespassing. He filed suit claiming that the fees charged for nonresidents were prohibitive. The town responded by lowering their fees, and allowing free entry for retirees. The permit requirement remains in effect.



Another case in 2005 involved three female residents of Greenwich who were excercising in the park.The black and Hispanic women (wives of former major league baseball players) were told that 3 people constituted a group, which requires a permit, and therefor they had to leave. Some incriminating emails from a town official later surfaced,  confirming the women's suspicions.

Greenwich has tried to portray themselves as a victim in this saga, but they have brought most of this bad publicity upon themselves.



From November 1 through April 30, Greenwich Point (aka Tod's Point) is open to all with no fees or residency permit required. The photos above show the south portion of the park between the lake and Bluff Point. A walkway curves along the shoreline, and is dotted with several wooden bridges that cross the tidal outlets of some nearby salt ponds.



Map

Connecticut Post: Public Access Not Always Easy

New York Times: One Man's Crusade

New York Times: In Greenwich, Group Hugs Are Few

CT Coastal Access Guide: Greenwich Point Park

Sphere: Don't Expect A Warm Welcome

And So It Goes

What goes, you might ask? The days, the weeks, the months....and soon, the first decade of this millennium. Amazing to think that not that long ago, we were contemplating the whole Y2K deal. Crazy! Now we are asking how people will refer to the new year. Will it be "Two-thousand-ten" or "Twenty-ten"? My personal favorite is "twenty-o-ten." However you say it, it seems way to soon to be here already.

I've been saying that a lot this year, it seems. Mostly I have been referring to the fact that soon we will be joining the empty-nester crowd. Both boys left us in the last three years. Addie is now a senior, and may even be starting college in January. It's getting pretty quiet in these parts. I've had some people ask me how we will cope with that empty nest....The way I figure it, by the time we truly would be without kids, where they no longer return for summer vacation, or holiday breaks... about that time, someone will be ready to move back. And that is fine with me, as there is plenty of work to go around.

That said, a quick update for everyone, since I haven't written since last May. As many of you know, it was a different type of summer at Heston�s Lodge, as Greg took a job outside of the resort. From early May until mid-October, he left to go to work installing wildfire sprinkler systems. It was challenging, for the both of us, as we had worked together for the last twenty-three years. Now I understand a bit more what it is like for people when a longtime co-worker leaves and gets a new job. I�d joke about his job, and also about the fact that he now had a boss, and it wasn�t me! I also got back into the routine of making lunches, something I hadn�t done since the kids came home to homeschool. But those were just the small changes.

The bigger change for me was that suddenly I had more hats to wear. Not only was I trying to do my own work, but each day found me at some point trying to do Greg�s job, too. I have to admit that I learned a lot, and most times I enjoyed it. It is good to cross over like that. I can�t say that he is ready to do my job, but that�s a story for a different day.

Some days I would pretend I was Greg, like when neighbors would stop by to borrow a tool or something. I would walk around to the various shop locations, and try to figure out where Greg would choose to store that particular tool. Most times I was successful. That doesn�t mean that I can decipher his system of organization in his shop any better than I could before! Most of the time, it was probably dumb luck that caused me to stumble on what I needed. But now I know where a few more things are kept, and that is useful.

I also learned more about the running of the boats and motors. One would think that after all of these years, I would be fairly proficient at this. Not so. If someone wanted to rent a boat in the past, I would send Greg, or Robert, or Paul to get it ready. Easy as that. Now I had to send me. I�d get down there, and do whatever was needed to minimize embarrassing myself. For example, I find that it is much better if I start a motor while the boat is tied up to the dock. That way, the wind isn�t pushing me into shore while I am struggling to remember all of the steps it takes to simply start a motor. One time I failed to tie up, and though I got the motor started fairly easily and got going, I narrowly missed running into the dock! I don�t think that I ever flooded a motor, but I know that I came close. Each day I would have at least one question for Greg when he got home from work. The question of the day, I called it. One particular question stands out in my mind, and I know that now I will never forget it. Do you pump the gas line first, and then prime the engine? Or do you prime and then pump? Doesn�t matter, he told me. That will be good knowledge to have next summer, when we start things up again.

For now, the motors are all stored away in the boathouse, and the boats and canoes are pulled up on land. The docks have been taken in, and it looks like it is all ready for winter. Whether I am ready for winter has yet to be seen. We�ve seen some early snows, while the leaves were still on the trees. Most of October was a cold, wet month. That is actually a good thing, as it means we have some fine ground moisture as we head into winter. That in turn helps in the spring, when we dearly need it before the leaves come out. But now I am getting way ahead of myself, thinking two seasons down the road. For now, I�ll concentrate on continuing the winter prep work.

And I will do my best to start to catch up with this blog. Lots of fun stories from this summer to share�.Stay tuned.