MAYTE & EL CASTELL DE SANTA FLORENTINA IN CANET

Today, The Grandma has received news from Mayte, one of her closest friends, who is spending some days in Canet de Mar in El Maresme.

Canet de Mar is a municipality in the comarca of the Maresme in Catalonia.

It is situated on the coast between Arenys de Mar and Sant Pol de Mar and el Corredor and el Montnegre ranges. It is a tourist centre, but is also known for the cultivation of flowers and strawberries and for having several modernist style buildings. Canet de Mar is in the province of Barcelona, 43 kilometers from Barcelona.

Its coast consists of a sandy due to the decomposition of granite rocks which form the basement Canetenc; beaches are flat and with an average width of 50m mainly golden sand and thick, and have easy access on foot or cycling.

The quality of the beach strip is the protection of coastal vegetation, where there are native plants of coastal Catalonia and Maresme. They are marked with buoys 200 meters, and there are input and output channel for boats.

More information: Ajuntament de Canet de Mar

The Castle of Santa Florentina, in Catalan Castell de Santa Florentina, is an 11th-century medieval castle in Canet de Mar, Catalonia.

It was built on the foundations of an Ancient Roman villa by Guadimir de Canet (born 1024). In the 16th century, it passed into the hands of Dimas Muntaner. In 1908, it hosted King Alfonso XIII, who made the castle's owner Ramon de Montaner i Vila count of Canet.

In 1910, the castle was expanded and renovated by the modernist architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner, and its facade acquired some gargoyles by the sculptor Carles Flotats i Galtés. The magazine Architectural Digest covered the castle as among the most beautiful houses in the world in 1998 on account of its harmonious fusion of Gothic and Modernist designs.

The castle is listed as a cultural heritage monument. It is private property and hosts a museum that can be visited by appointment, as well as a yearly festival of classical music. Among the museum's collections are many works by Catalan artists dating back to the early 20th century.

In 2015, the castle was a setting for the sixth season of the fantasy television series Game of Thrones.

More information: Castell de Santa Florentina

I was always fascinated, even as a child,
by antiques and ancient times.
I always felt I should have been born
in the 17th or 18th century.
They really had a big stone castle
with authentic furniture.

Margaret O'Brien

MELHUS & THE ENIGMATIC PORTRAIT OF PETTER DASS

Today, The Grandma has been organizing some souvenirs, memories and photos of her last trip to Melhus, the wonderful municipality in Trøndelag, Norway, site of the enigmatic portrait of Petter Dass, the Norwegian Baroque poet and hymn writer, whose works are deeply admired by The Grandma.

Melhus is the administrative centre of Melhus Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The village is located in the lower Gauldalen valley, along the river Gaula, about 15 kilometres south of the city of Trondheim. The 2.93-square-kilometre village has a population (2024) of 7,224 and a population density of 2,466 inhabitants per square kilometre.

The village lies along the European route E06 highway as well as the Dovrebanen railway line. The railroad stops at the Melhus Station in the central part of the village. The historic Melhus Church is located about 1.5 kilometres south of Melhus in the village of Storsand. 

Melhus is the largest urban area in the municipality, so it has a mall, many stores and businesses, restaurants, banks, a medical centre, a school, and the municipal government offices.

Melhus was the site of many important events during the Viking Age. It was the site of the Rimul farm in Melhus at which Jarl Haakon was killed by his slave, Tormod Kark. Jarlshola is the location in Melhus thought to have been the hiding place of Jarl Haakon and Tormod Kark on their last night before the infamous murder at Rimul.

The village, originally the parish, is named after the old Melhus farm, in Old Norse Meðalhúsar since the first Melhus Church was built there. The first element is meðal which means middle. The last element is the plural form of hús which means house. The farm is one part of a greater and older farm, which had the name Óðinssalr which means the salr (mead hall) of Odin.

Melhus Church, in Norwegian Melhus kirke, also known as the Gauldal Cathedral, is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Melhus Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. 

It is located in the village of Storsand, about 2 kilometres south of the village of Melhus. It is the church for the Melhus parish which is part of the Gauldal prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Nidaros. The gray, stone church was built in a cruciform design in 1892 using plans drawn up by the architect Carl Julius Bergstrøm. The church seats about 500 people. The churchyard contains a cemetery.

The church contains a controversial oil painting, which has been thought to be a portrait of Petter Dass.

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1533, but the church was built much earlier. The first church in Melhus was a medieval stone church that was constructed in stages from about 1150 to 1190. Construction probably began shortly before the year 1150, and the chancel was probably completed around 1160. Based on stylistic features, the nave should have been completed around the year 1190. The church was originally dedicated to St. Andreas. It had a rectangular nave and a narrower, rectangular chancel with a lower roof line. There was a tall tower on the west end of the roof of the nave. There was also a small wooden entry porch on the west end of the church.

In 1589, there were five churches in the Melhus prestegjeld, more or less equivalent to a parish, and Melhus Church was the main one. The annex chapels were scattered about the parish. Two of the five were located in Leinstrand and Flå and the remaining two churches were in Hølonda.

In 1814, this church served as an election church, in Norwegian valgkirke. Together with more than 300 other parish churches across Norway, it was a polling station for elections to the 1814 Norwegian Constituent Assembly which wrote the Constitution of Norway. This was Norway's first national elections. Each church parish was a constituency that elected people called electors who later met together in each county to elect the representatives for the assembly that was to meet at Eidsvoll Manor later that year.

In 1889, a Royal Decree was issued which ordered that the old medieval Melhus Church be demolished. During this demolition in 1890, a perfectly preserved hatchet dating from about 1100 was discovered in a wall of the medieval church. This axe was identified as the country's only preserved tool for cutting stone, in Norwegia steinhuggerøks from that period, and it is now located in the Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology. The new church was designed by Carl Julius Bergstrøm. The new building was consecrate on 10 November 1892. It is a neo-Gothic cruciform church in stone with around 500 seats.

Although the old church was torn down, several architectural elements of the medieval building were saved and incorporated into the new building. Much woodwork from the old church was included in the newer one. The old portal was also reused in the new church. Apparently, a few artifacts from the old church were not moved to the new church, and instead ended up in other places. When Gerhard Schøning visited the old medieval church he noted this: At the southern side of the entrance to the choir, there is an epitaph that Karen and Anders Helkands have erected to their parents and children. When the medieval church was demolished in 1890, the epitaph was no longer there. Few people knew that the epitaph was hidden on Søndre Melhuus farm.

The newer church building has been carefully maintained for over one hundred years; it has had several renovations.

In 1999, Medieval runic inscriptions were discovered on the medieval portal. These inscriptions were professionally examined in 2001.

Melhus Church houses a collection of painted portraits, primarily of clergymen. The most well-known painting is one that has traditionally been considered to be a portrait of Petter Dass, a 17th-century Norwegian poet and hymn writer. The painting was thought to be the only existing portrait of the poet.

More information: Melhus Kommune

Melhus Idrettslag is a Norwegian sports club from Melhus Municipality in Trøndelag county. It has sections for association football, team handball, volleyball, orienteering, Nordic skiing, weightlifting, and powerlifting. It was established on 28 February 1898.

The men's football team last played in the Second Division in 1996. The football teams of Melhus IL and Tiller IL started a cooperation after the 2012 season, and the team that was known as Melhus/Tiller in the 2013 season was promoted to the Second Division. Ahead of the 2014 season, the cooperation evolved into an own club which was named Rødde FK.

More information: Melhus Idrettslag

Den som intet våger, intet vinner.

He who dares nothing, gains nothing.

Norwegian Proverb

HARPER LEE, CLASSIC MODERN OF AMERICAN LITERATURE

Today, The Grandma has been reading about Harper Lee, the American novelist who was born on a day like today in 1926.

Nelle Harper Lee (April 28, 1926-February 19, 2016) was an American novelist whose 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and became a classic of modern American literature. She assisted her close friend Truman Capote in his research for the book In Cold Blood (1966). Her second and final novel, Go Set a Watchman, was an earlier draft of Mockingbird, set at a later date, that was published in July 2015 as a sequel.

The plot and characters of To Kill a Mockingbird are loosely based on Lee's observations of her family and neighbours in Monroeville, Alabama, as well as a childhood event that occurred near her hometown in 1936. The novel deals with racist attitudes and the irrationality of adult attitudes towards race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s as depicted through the eyes of two children.

Lee received numerous accolades and honorary degrees, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007, which was awarded for her contribution to literature.

Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926, in Monroeville, Alabama.

In 1949, Lee moved to New York City and took jobs -first at a bookstore, then as an airline reservation agent- while writing in her spare time. After publishing several long stories, Lee found an agent in November 1956; Maurice Crain would become a friend until his death decades later. The following month, at Michael Brown's East 50th Street townhouse, friends gave Lee a gift of a year's wages with a note: You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas.

In the spring of 1957, a 31-year-old Lee delivered the manuscript for Go Set a Watchman to Crain to send out to publishers, including the now-defunct J. B. Lippincott Company, which eventually bought it. At Lippincott, the novel fell into the hands of Tay Hohoff. Hohoff was impressed. [T]he spark of the true writer flashed in every line, she would later recount in a corporate history of Lippincott. But as Hohoff saw it, the manuscript was by no means fit for publication. It was, as she described it, more a series of anecdotes than a fully conceived novel. During the next couple of years, she led Lee from one draft to the next until the book finally achieved its finished form and was retitled To Kill a Mockingbird.

Like many unpublished authors, Lee was unsure of her talents. I was a first-time writer, so I did as I was told, Lee said in a statement in 2015 about the evolution from Watchman to Mockingbird. Hohoff later described the process in Lippincott's corporate history: After a couple of false starts, the story-line, interplay of characters, and fall of emphasis grew clearer, and with each revision -there were many minor changes as the story grew in strength and in her own vision of it- the true stature of the novel became evident. 

In 1978, Lippincott was acquired by Harper & Row, which became HarperCollins which published Watchman in 2015.

Hohoff described the give and take between author and editor: When she disagreed with a suggestion, we talked it out, sometimes for hours ... And sometimes she came around to my way of thinking, sometimes I to hers, sometimes the discussion would open up an entirely new line of country.

One winter night, as Charles J. Shields recounts in Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee, Lee threw her manuscript out her window and into the snow, before calling Hohoff in tears. Shields recollected that Tay told her to march outside immediately and pick up the pages.

When the novel was finally ready, the author opted to use the name Harper Lee rather than risk having her first name Nelle be misidentified as Nellie.

Published July 11, 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird was an immediate bestseller and won great critical acclaim, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961. It remains a bestseller, with more than 40 million copies in print. In 1999, it was voted Best Novel of the Century in a poll by the Library Journal.

Lee died in her sleep on the morning of February 19, 2016, aged 89. Prior to her death, she lived in Monroeville, Alabama.

On February 20, her funeral was held at First United Methodist Church in Monroeville. The service was attended by close family and friends, and the eulogy was given by Wayne Flynt.

After her death, The New York Times filed a lawsuit that argued that since Lee's will was filed in a probate court in Alabama that it is part of the public record and that Lee's will should be made public. An Alabama court unsealed the will in 2018.

More information: 'To Kill a Mockingbird' A Harper Lee's Masterpiece

You never really understand a person
until you consider things from his point of view.

Harper Lee

'SQUEEZE THE ORANGE', THE BIODEGRADABLE FASHION

Today, The Grandma has visited the Ateneu de Fabricació de Gràcia in Barcelona with her closest friends Tonyi Tamaki and Claire Fontaine. They have been invited by Susana Squeeze and Elisenda Orange, creators of Squeeze the Orange, who are working strongly in creating biodegradable fashion made with oranges. It has been an amazing visit to learn about materials and take conscience about where and how clothes are made.

The orange, also called sweet orange to distinguish it from the bitter orange (Citrus × aurantium), is the fruit of a tree in the family Rutaceae. Botanically, this is the hybrid Citrus × sinensis, between the pomelo (Citrus maxima) and the mandarin orange (Citrus reticulata). The chloroplast genome, and therefore the maternal line, is that of pomelo. There are many related hybrids including of mandarins and sweet orange. The sweet orange has had its full genome sequenced.

The orange originated in a region encompassing Southern China, Northeast India, and Myanmar; the earliest mention of the sweet orange was in Chinese literature in 314 BC. Orange trees are widely grown in tropical and subtropical areas for their sweet fruit. The fruit of the orange tree can be eaten fresh or processed for its juice or fragrant peel. 

Oranges, variously understood, have featured in human culture since ancient times. They first appear in Western art in the Arnolfini Portrait by Jan van Eyck, but they had been depicted in Chinese art centuries earlier, as in Zhao Lingrang's Song dynasty fan painting Yellow Oranges and Green Tangerines. By the 17th century, an orangery had become an item of prestige in Europe, as seen at the Versailles Orangerie. More recently, artists such as Vincent van Gogh, John Sloan, and Henri Matisse included oranges in their paintings.

The orange tree is a relatively small evergreen, flowering tree, with an average height of 9 to 10 m, although some very old specimens can reach 15 m. Its oval leaves, which are alternately arranged, are 4 to 10 cm long and have crenulate margins.  

Sweet oranges grow in a range of different sizes, and shapes varying from spherical to oblong. Inside and attached to the rind is a porous white tissue, the white, bitter mesocarp or albedo (pith). The orange contains a number of distinct carpels (segments or pigs, botanically the fruits) inside, typically about ten, each delimited by a membrane and containing many juice-filled vesicles and usually a few pips. When unripe, the fruit is green. The grainy irregular rind of the ripe fruit can range from bright orange to yellow-orange, but frequently retains green patches or, under warm climate conditions, remains entirely green. Like all other citrus fruits, the sweet orange is non-climacteric, not ripening off the tree. The Citrus sinensis group is subdivided into four classes with distinct characteristics: common oranges, blood or pigmented oranges, navel oranges, and acidless oranges. The fruit is a hesperidium, a modified berry; it is covered by a rind formed by a rugged thickening of the ovary wall.

The word orange derives from Sanskrit  (nāraṅga), meaning orange tree. The Sanskrit word reached European languages through Persian نارنگ (nārang) and its Arabic derivative نارنج (nāranj). The word entered Late Middle English in the 14th century via Old French pomme d'orenge. Other forms include Old Provençal auranja, Italian arancia, formerly narancia. In several languages, the initial n present in earlier forms of the word dropped off because it may have been mistaken as part of an indefinite article ending in an n sound. In French, for example, une norenge may have been heard as une orenge. This linguistic change is called juncture loss. The color was named after the fruit, with the first recorded use of orange as a color name in English in 1512.

More information: NextGen Design

Biodegradation is the breakdown of organic matter by microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi. It is generally assumed to be a natural process, which differentiates it from composting.

Composting is a human-driven process in which biodegradation occurs under a specific set of circumstances.

The process of biodegradation is threefold: first an object undergoes biodeterioration, which is the mechanical weakening of its structure; then follows biofragmentation, which is the breakdown of materials by microorganisms; and finally assimilation, which is the incorporation of the old material into new cells.

In practice, almost all chemical compounds and materials are subject to biodegradation, the key element being time. Things like vegetables may degrade within days, while glass and some plastics take many millennia to decompose. A standard for biodegradability used by the European Union is that greater than 90% of the original material must be converted into CO2, water and minerals by biological processes within 6 months.

The process of biodegradation can be divided into three stages: biodeterioration, biofragmentation, and assimilation. Biodeterioration is sometimes described as a surface-level degradation that modifies the mechanical, physical and chemical properties of the material. This stage occurs when the material is exposed to abiotic factors in the outdoor environment and allows for further degradation by weakening the material's structure. Some abiotic factors that influence these initial changes are compression (mechanical), light, temperature and chemicals in the environment. 

More information: Instagram-Squeeze The Orange

While biodeterioration typically occurs as the first stage of biodegradation, it can in some cases be parallel to biofragmentation. Hueck, however, defined Biodeterioration as the undesirable action of living organisms on Man's materials, involving such things as breakdown of stone facades of buildings, corrosion of metals by microorganisms or merely the esthetic changes induced on man-made structures by the growth of living organisms.

Biofragmentation of a polymer is the lytic process in which bonds within a polymer are cleaved, generating oligomers and monomers in its place. The steps taken to fragment these materials also differ based on the presence of oxygen in the system. The breakdown of materials by microorganisms when oxygen is present is aerobic digestion, and the breakdown of materials when oxygen is not present is anaerobic digestion. The main difference between these processes is that anaerobic reactions produce methane, while aerobic reactions do not (however, both reactions produce carbon dioxide, water, some type of residue, and a new biomass).

In addition, aerobic digestion typically occurs more rapidly than anaerobic digestion, while anaerobic digestion does a better job reducing the volume and mass of the material. Due to anaerobic digestion's ability to reduce the volume and mass of waste materials and produce a natural gas, anaerobic digestion technology is widely used for waste management systems and as a source of local, renewable energy.

In the assimilation stage, the resulting products from biofragmentation are then integrated into microbial cells. Some of the products from fragmentation are easily transported within the cell by membrane carriers. However, others still have to undergo biotransformation reactions to yield products that can then be transported inside the cell. Once inside the cell, the products enter catabolic pathways that either lead to the production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) or elements of the cells structure.

More information: Wikifactory

Once shoppers become empowered,
we will facilitate industries thinking
in completely new terms; for example,
making products that are totally biodegradable.

Daniel Goleman

D-DAY, THE WINSORS & A2 CAMBRIDGE ENGLISH EXAM

Today, The Winsors & The Grandma are in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat. After some days enjoying New Zealand, the D-Day has arrived and The Winsors have an interesting adventure to live: an A2 Cambridge English Exam.

 

Good luck family!

You are the best!

 

Thanks Mima for coming!

 

Winsors forever!

 

Cambridge Assessment English or Cambridge English develops and produces Cambridge English Qualifications and the International English Language Testing System (IELTS).

The organisation contributed to the development of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), the standard used around the world to benchmark language skills, and its qualifications and tests are aligned with CEFR levels.

Cambridge Assessment English is part of Cambridge Assessment, a non-teaching department of the University of Cambridge which merged with Cambridge University Press to form Cambridge University Press & Assessment in August 2021.

Each Cambridge English Qualifications focuses on a level of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR).

English qualifications designed for adult learners. A2 Key, B1 Preliminary and B2 First have the same exam format as the schools versions of these qualifications, but use different topics and content suited to adult learners.

In the 1980s Cambridge Assessment English, the British Council and IDP Education formed the international IELTS partnership which delivers the IELTS tests.

More information: Cambridge English

In 2010 Cambridge Assessment English and the English Language Institute Testing and Certificate Division of the University of Michigan agreed to form a not-for-profit collaboration known as CaMLA (Cambridge Michigan Language Assessments). Cambridge Assessment English owns 65% of the venture.

Since 2011 Cambridge Exams Publishing, a partnership between Cambridge Assessment English and the English Language Teaching (ELT) business of Cambridge University Press, develops official Cambridge preparation materials for Cambridge English and IELTS exams.

In 2013 Cambridge Assessment English formed a joint venture with the Box Hill Institute to deliver the Occupational English Test, known as OET.

In 2019 Cambridge Assessment English acquired English Language iTutoring (ELiT), an artificial intelligence developed off technology from the University of Cambridge, to support new English language assessment products.

Cambridge Assessment English was involved in the early development of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and all Cambridge English qualifications and tests are aligned with the levels described by the CEFR.

Each Cambridge English Qualification targets specific CEFR levels but the exam also contains test material at the adjacent levels. For example B2 First is aimed at B2, but there are also test items that cover B1 and C1. This allows for inferences to be drawn about candidates’ abilities if they are a level below or above the one targeted. Candidates are encouraged to take the exam most suitable to their needs and level of ability.

More information: Cambridge English

In 1913 the exam could be taken in Cambridge or London, for a fee of £3 (approximately £293 in 2012 prices). The exam lasted 12 hours and included:

-Translation from English into French or German: 2 hours.

-Translation from French or German into English, and English Grammar: 2.5 hours.

-English Essay: 2 hours.

-English Literature: 3 hours.

-English Phonetics: 1.5 hours.

-Oral test: dictation (30 minutes); reading aloud and conversation (30 minutes).

The main influence behind the design of the exam was the grammar-translation teaching approach, which aims to establish reading knowledge, rather than ability to communicate in the language.

In 1913, the first requirement for CPE candidates was to translate texts. Translation remained prominent in foreign language teaching up until the 1960s. It was a core part of CPE until 1975 and an optional part until 1989.

However, CPE was also influenced by Henry Sweet and his book published in 1900: A Practical Study of Languages: A Guide for Teachers and Learners, which argued that the most natural method of teaching languages was through conversation. Due to this influence, speaking was part of Cambridge English exams from the very beginning.

-1209. University of Cambridge founded.

-1534. Cambridge University Press founded.

-1858. University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES) founded.

-1913. Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE) introduced. Now known as C2 Proficiency.

-1939. Lower Certificate in English (LCE) introduced. Renamed First Certificate in English (FCE) in 1975 and now known as B2 First.

-1941. Joint agreement with the British Council-British Council centres established.

-1943-1947. Preliminary English Test (PET) introduced. It was reintroduced in 1980 and is now known as B1 Preliminary.

-1971. Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) initiated.

-1988. The Royal Society of Arts (RSA) Examination Board becomes part of UCLES.

-1989. Specialist EFL research and evaluation unit established.

-1989. IELTS launched. A simplified and shortened version of ELTS launched in 1980.

-1990. Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE) founded.

-1991. Certificate in Advanced English (CAE) introduced. Now known as C1 Advanced.

-1993. Business English Certificates (BEC) launched.

-1994. Key English Test (KET) introduced. Now known as A2 Key.

-1995. University of Oxford Delegacy of Local Examinations (UODLE) becomes part of UCLES

-1997. Young Learner English Tests (YLE) introduced. Now known as Pre-A1 Starter, A1 Movers, and A2 Flyers.

-1997. BULATS launched.

-2001. CEFR published.

-2002. UCLES EFL renamed University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations (Cambridge ESOL).

-2002. One million Cambridge ESOL exam candidates.

-2010. CaMLA established (Cambridge Michigan Language Assessments).

-2011. Cambridge Exams Publishing joint venture with Cambridge University Press established.

-2013. Cambridge ESOL renamed Cambridge English Language Assessment.

-2015. Cambridge English Scale introduced.

-2016. Linguaskill reading and listening introduced.

-2016. Linguaskill writing introduced.

-2017. Cambridge English Language Assessment renamed Cambridge Assessment English.

-2020. The University of Cambridge announces it plans to merge two of its non-teaching departments, Cambridge Assessment and Cambridge University Press.

-2021. Cambridge Assessment and Cambridge University Press merge to become Cambridge University Press & Assessment.

More information: Cambridge English

Cambridge is heaven, I am convinced
it is the nicest place in the world to live.
As you walk round, most people look incredibly bright,
as if they are probably off to win a Nobel prize.

Sophie Hannah

FOX & FRANZ JOSEF GLACIERS, WESTLAND TAI POUTINI

Today, The Winsors and The Grandma are flying to Barcelona where they are going to do an A2 Cambridge exam tomorrow morning. It is long flight and they are seeing some photos sent by Tonyi Tamaki, who is spending her day visiting Fox Glacier/Te Moeka o Tuawe.

The family has thanked Tonyi for her company during this amazing travel to New Zealand that has been an unforgettable experience.

After this, they are going to sleep a little and later they are going to practise their last A2 Cambridge test on line.

More information: Cambridge Assessment

 

Fox Glacier/Te Moeka o Tuawe is a 13-kilometre-long temperate maritime glacier located in Westland Tai Poutini National Park on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island.

It was named in 1872 after a visit by then Prime Minister of New Zealand Sir William Fox. Following the passage of the Ngai Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998, the name of the glacier was officially altered to Fox Glacier/Te Moeka o Tuawe.

More information: Department of Conservation-Te Papa Atawhai

Fed by four alpine glaciers, Fox Glacier falls 2,600 m on its 13 km journey from the Southern Alps down to the coast, with it having the distinction of being one of the few glaciers to end among lush rainforest only 300 metres above sea level. 

The glacier was advancing between 1985 and 2009, although retreating throughout most of the last 100 years. In 2006 the average rate of advance was about a metre a week.

In January 2009, the terminal face of the glacier was still advancing and had vertical or overhanging faces which were continually collapsing. Since then there has been a significant retreat, with the 2009 high level clearly visible as vegetation line on the southern slope above what is left of the lower glacier today.

The outflow of the glacier forms the Fox River. During the last ice age, its ice reached beyond the present coastline, and the glacier left behind many moraines during its retreat. Lake Matheson formed as a kettle lake within one of these.

More information: New Zealand

Franz Josef Glacier/Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere is a 12 km long temperate maritime glacier located in Westland Tai Poutini National Park on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. Together with the Fox Glacier 20 km to the south, and a third glacier, it descends from the Southern Alps to less than 300 metres above sea level.

The area surrounding the two glaciers is part of Te Wahipounamu, a World Heritage Site park. The river emerging from the glacier terminal of Franz Josef is known as the Waiho River.

The first European description of one of the west coast glaciers, believed to be Franz Josef, was made in the log of the ship Mary Louisa in 1859. The glacier was later named after Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria by the German explorer, Julius von Haast in 1865.

The Māori name for the glacier is Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere, The tears of Hine Hukatere, arising from a local legend: Hine Hukatere loved climbing in the mountains and persuaded her lover, Wawe, to climb with her. Wawe was a less experienced climber than Hine Hukatere but loved to accompany her until an avalanche swept Wawe from the peaks to his death. Hine Hukatere was broken-hearted and her many, many tears flowed down the mountain and froze to form the glacier. Following the passage of the Ngai Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998, the name of the glacier was officially altered to Franz Josef Glacier/Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere.

More information: Department of Conservation-Te Papa Atawhai

Franz Josef Glacier is currently 12 km long and terminates 19 km from the Tasman Sea. Fed by a 20-square-kilometre large snowfield at high altitude, it exhibits a cyclic pattern of advance and retreat, driven by differences between the volume of meltwater at the foot of the glacier and volume of snowfall feeding the névé.

The glacier advanced rapidly during the Little Ice Age, reaching a maximum in the early eighteenth century. Having retreated several kilometres between the 1940s and 1980s, the glacier entered an advancing phase in 1984 and at times has advanced at the phenomenal, by glacial standards, rate of 70 cm a day.

The flow rate is about 10 times that of typical glaciers. Over the longer term, the glacier has retreated since the last ice age, and it is believed that it extended into the sea some 10,000 to 15,000 years ago.

This cyclic behaviour is well illustrated by a postage stamp issued in 1946, depicting the view from St James Anglican Church. The church was built in 1931, with a panoramic altar window to take advantage of its location. By 1954, the glacier had disappeared from view from the church, but it reappeared in 1997. This is due to the highly variable conditions on the snowfield, which take around 5–6 years before they result in changes in the terminus location.

More information: New Zealand

The glacier was still advancing until 2008, but since then it has entered a very rapid phase of retreat. As of 2018 it is again rapidly advancing. As is the case for most other New Zealand glaciers which are mainly found on the eastern side of the southern alps, the shrinking process is attributed to global warming.

There have been some incidents of jökulhlaups, outbreak floods from water-filled ice tunnels, at the glacier, with one destroying a bridge on the access route in 1989. Based on past variations, scientists expect that Franz Josef Glacier will retreat 5 km and lose 38% of its mass by 2100 in a mid-range scenario of warming.

The Waiho Loop is the terminal moraine of the glacier, and indicates the extent of the Franz Josef Glacier, about 12,000 years ago. Too rugged to be cleared for farming it remains covered in native forest.

More information: Glacier Country

 

The alpine environment is very delicate. 

I've been able to see change in the mountains 

in the 20 years that I've been climbing full-time. 

Glaciers have receded. The tree-line is changing. 

That's very rapid to see nature 

changing in a 20-year period.

Conrad Anker

VISITING ABEL TASMAN NATIONAL PARK & COAST TRACK

Today, The Winsors and The Grandma want to visit Abel Tasman National Park at the north end of the South Island guided by Tonyi Tamaki.

They want to kayak. They are spending the last days in New Zealand and they want to discover some natural places that they haven't visited yet.

They have got only one day to visit this wonderful site and they have decided to rent a helicopter to fly over the Abel Tasman Coast Track, a 60 kilometres long walking track within the Abel Tasman National Park.

 

During the travel to the National Park, the family has been practising a new A2 Cambridge test on line.

 

More information: Cambridge Assessment

 

Abel Tasman National Park is a New Zealand national park located between Golden Bay and Tasman Bay at the north end of the South Island. It is named after Abel Tasman, who in 1642 became the first European explorer to sight New Zealand and who anchored nearby in Golden Bay.

The park was founded in 1942, largely through the efforts of ornithologist and author Pérrine Moncrieff to have land reserved for the purpose. Moncrieff served on the park board from 1943 to 1974.

The park was opened on the 18 December 1942 to mark the 300th anniversary of Abel Tasman's visit. Those in attendance at the opening ceremony at Tarakohe included Charles van der Plas, as personal representative of the Netherlands' Queen, Wilhelmina. The Queen was made Patron of the park.

The idea for the park had been under consideration since June 1938. The Crown set aside 15,225 hectares, comprising 8,900 hectares of proposed state forest, 5,809 hectares of Crown land and 554 hectares of other reserve land for the national park. The Golden Bay Cement Company donated the land where the memorial plaque was sited. The area's primary historic interest was the visit of Tasman in 1642, D'Urville in 1827, and the New Zealand Company barques Whitby and Will Watch, and brig Arrow in 1841. The site was also of significant botanical interest.

More information: Department of Conservation-Te Papa Atawhai

By 1946 the park had reached 15,534 hectares in area with additional land purchases. A further 844 hectares at Totaranui, formerly owned by William Gibbs, was acquired from J S Campbell in 1949 and added to the park. About 6,100 hectares have been added since. In 2008 an extra 7.9 km2, including the formerly private land known as Hadfields Clearing, were added to the park.

Covering an area of 237 km2, the park is the smallest of New Zealand's national parks. It consists of forested, hilly country to the north of the valleys of the Takaka and Riwaka Rivers, and is bounded to the north by the waters of Golden Bay and Tasman Bay. It contains some of the islands off the coast including the Tata Islands in Golden Bay, and Tonga Island, Adele Island, and Fisherman Island in Tasman Bay.

The park does not extend beyond Mean High Water Mark on the adjacent coast. Between Mean High Water and Mean Low Water Springs, the beaches are gazetted as a Scenic Reserve, covering 7.74 km2 in total. The Tonga Island Marine Reserve adjoins part of the park.

Some of the birds that frequent the park are petrels, shags, penguins, gulls, terns, and herons. Possums, wild pigs, deer, and goats also frequent the park.

 

More information  Department of Conservation-Te Papa Atawhai

 

The Abel Tasman Coast Track is a popular tramping track that follows the coastline and is one of the Department of Conservation's Great Walks; the Abel Tasman Inland Track is less frequented. Other walks in the park, such as the Wainui Falls Track are considered short walks.

Access to the park is usually via the small settlement of Marahau. The nearest large town is Motueka, 20 kilometres to the south.

The Abel Tasman Coast Track is a 60 kilometres long walking track within the Abel Tasman National Park in New Zealand. It extends from Marahau in the south to Wainui in the north, with many side tracks. It is one of two main tracks through the park, the other being the Abel Tasman Inland Track, which stretches for 38 km between Tinline Bay and Torrent Bay off the main coastal track. The coastal track is well sheltered, and with mild weather in all seasons, it is accessible and open throughout the year.

As one of the New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC) Great Walks, the coastal track is well formed and easy to follow. It is the most popular tramping track in New Zealand, with most of the approximately 200,000 visitors to Abel Tasman National Park walking at least part of the track.

 

More information: New Zealand

It can be walked independently or with commercial operators with guiding, camping, lodge stay and boat stay options. Following a protected coastline, many people combine walking and sea kayaking in Abel Tasman National Park.

To walk the entire track takes from 3 to 5 days. Single-day walks are popular, as many points are accessible by boat from beaches along the track. The only road access other than the start and end points, is at Totaranui. One of the most popular sections for walkers with limited time is from Bark Bay to Torrent Bay, a distance of 7.8 kilometres, which incorporates some steep paths, beautiful views over the two bays and a crossing of the Falls River by a 47 m swing bridge.

To stay overnight in the National Park, visitors must use officially recognised accommodations. Independent travellers use DOC campsites and huts that must be reserved in advance during the most popular months. A small number of commercial properties occupy parcels of private land within the boundaries of the National Park and provide lodge-style accommodation. Some backpacker accommodation is provided by boats moored off the coast.

With one of the largest tidal ranges in New Zealand, the coastal track includes some tidal crossings that can only be negotiated at low tide. Independent walkers and sea kayakers need to have information on tides in the area to plan their trips.

More information: New Zealand

I always like to look for adventure when I go away. 

I have gone on several horse adventures with my wife. 

We also went along the Hurunui River 

on horseback in the South Island of New Zealand.

Antony Gormley

HOBBITON, ENTERING IN THE WORLD OF J.R.R.TOLKIEN

April 23, is Sant George, so Sant Jordi in Catalonia. It is a Catalan Cultural Festivity. The Grandma, Tonyi Tamaki and The Winsors want to celebrate this important day with the Catalan Community in Auckland. 

In New Zealand, there are four Catalan Communities: Auckland, Christchurch, Tauranga and Wellington. All of them are formed by Catalan expatriats and New Zealanders who are interested in Catalan culture.

 

After meeting with the Catalan community, they have travelled to Hobbiton. The Grandma is a great fan of J.R.R.Tolkien and she's very excited today visiting the world of the Hobbits.

 

More information: April, 23. Saint George, Books & Roses in Catalonia

 

During the travel, the family has practised some writings on line to prepare their new A2 Cambridge Exam test. 

 

More information: Write & Improve with Cambridge

Hobbits are a fictional, diminutive, humanoid race who inhabit the lands of Middle-earth in J.R.R. Tolkien’s fiction. They are also referred to as Halflings.

Hobbits first appeared in the novel The Hobbit, whose titular hobbit is the protagonist Bilbo Baggins. The novel The Lord of the Rings includes as major characters the hobbits Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, Peregrin Took, and Meriadoc Brandybuck, as well as several other minor hobbit characters. Hobbits are also briefly mentioned in The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales.

According to the author in the prologue to The Lord of the Rings, hobbits are relatives of the race of Men. Elsewhere, Tolkien describes Hobbits as a variety or separate branch of humans. Within the story, hobbits and other races seem aware of the similarities, hence the colloquial terms Big People and Little People used in Bree. Hobbits considered themselves a separate people.

At the time of the events in The Lord of the Rings, hobbits lived in the Shire and in Bree in the north west of Middle-earth, though by the end, some had moved out to the Tower Hills and to Gondor and Rohan.

Tolkien believed he had invented the word hobbit as a speculative derivation from Old English when he began writing The Hobbit, it was revealed years after his death that the word predated Tolkien's usage, though with a different meaning.

Tolkien's concept of hobbits, in turn, seems to have been inspired by Edward Wyke Smith's 1927 children's book The Marvellous Land of Snergs, and by Sinclair Lewis's 1922 novel Babbitt.

The Snergs were, in Tolkien's words, a race of people only slightly taller than the average table but broad in the shoulders and have the strength of ten men. Tolkien wrote to W.H. Auden that The Marvellous Land of Snergs was probably an unconscious source-book for the Hobbits and he told an interviewer that the word hobbit might have been associated with Sinclair Lewis's Babbitt, like hobbits, George Babbitt enjoys the comforts of his home.

However, Tolkien claims that he started The Hobbit suddenly, without premeditation, in the midst of grading a set of student essay exams, writing on a blank piece of paper: In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. While The Hobbit introduced this comfortable race to the world, it is only in writing The Lord of the Rings that Tolkien developed details of their history and wider society.

 

He set out a fictional etymology for the name in an appendix to The Lord of the Rings, to the effect that it was ultimately derived from holbytla, plural holbytlan, meaning hole-builder and corresponding to Old English. 

In the language of the Rohirrim the hobbits were called kûd-dûkan, which had rendered the autonym kuduk.

 

More information: Hobbiton Tours

In the prologue to The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien writes that hobbits are between two and four feet, 0.61–1.22 m, tall, the average height being three feet six inches, 107 cm. They dress in bright colours, favouring yellow and green. Nowadays, according to Tolkien's fiction, they are usually shy, but are nevertheless capable of great courage and amazing feats under the proper circumstances.

They are adept at throwing stones. For the most part, they cannot grow beards, but a few of the race of Stoor can. Their feet are covered with curly hair, usually brown, as is the hair on their heads, with leathery soles, so hobbits hardly ever wear shoes. The race's average life expectancy is 100 years. Two Hobbits, Bilbo Baggins and the Old Took, are described as living to the age of 130 or beyond, though Bilbo's long lifespan owes much to his possession of the One Ring.

Hobbits are considered to come of age on their 33rd birthday, so a 50-year-old hobbit would be regarded as entering middle-age. Hobbits are not quite as stocky as the similarly-sized dwarves, but still tend to be stout, with slightly pointed ears. Tolkien does not describe hobbits' ears in The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings, but in a 1938 letter to his American publisher, he described them as having ears only slightly pointed and elvish.

In his writings, Tolkien depicted hobbits as fond of an unadventurous, bucolic and simple life of farming, eating, and socializing, although capable of defending their homes courageously if the need arises. They would enjoy six meals a day, if they could get them. 

They were often described as enjoying simple food, though this seems to be of an Oxfordshire style, such as cake, bread, meat, potatoes, ale and tea. They claim to have invented the art of smoking pipe-weed, and according to The Hobbit and The Return of The King it can be found all over Middle-earth.

In their earliest folk tales Hobbits appear to have inhabited the Valley of Anduin, between Mirkwood and the Misty Mountains. According to The Lord of the Rings, they have lost the genealogical details of how they are related to the Big People. At this time, there were three breeds of hobbits, with different physical characteristics and temperaments: Harfoots, Stoors and Fallohides.

While situated in the valley of the Anduin River, the hobbits lived close by the Éothéod, the ancestors of the Rohirrim, and this led to some contact between the two. As a result, many old words and names in Hobbitish are derivatives of words in Rohirric.

The Harfoots, the most numerous, were almost identical to the Hobbits as they are described in The Hobbit. They lived on the lowest slopes of the Misty Mountains and lived in holes, or Smials, dug into the hillsides.

The Stoors, the second most numerous, were shorter and stockier and had an affinity for water, boats and swimming. They lived on the marshy Gladden Fields where the Gladden River met the Anduin, there is a similarity here to the hobbits of Buckland and the Marish in the Shire. It is possible that those hobbits were the descendants of Stoors. It was from these Hobbits that Déagol and Sméagol/Gollum were descended.

 

More information: Tolkien Gateway

That was the big effect Lord of the Rings had on me.
It was discovering New Zealand. 
And even more precious were the people,
not at all like the Australians.

Ian Mckellen

ENJOY AORAKI NATIONAL PARK, THE SOUTHERN ALPS

Today, The Winsors have finished their Easter holiday and they have joined Tonyi Tamaki and The Grandma to visit Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park by a four-wheel drive. They have been resting in a beautiful hut on the skirts of Mount Cook where they have practised an A2 Cambridge Test on line.

 

More information: Flo-Joe

 

Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park is in the South Island of New Zealand, near the town of Twizel. Aoraki/Mount Cook, New Zealand's highest mountain, and Aoraki/Mount Cook Village lie within the park. The area was gazetted as a national park in October 1953 and consists of reserves that were established as early as 1887 to protect the area's significant vegetation and landscape.

Even though most of the park is alpine terrain, it is easily accessible. The only road access into Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park is via State Highway 80, which starts near Twizel, at 65 kilometres distance the closest town to the park, and leads directly to Mount Cook Village, where the road ends.

The village is situated within the park, however, it consists only of a hotel and motels, as well as housing and amenities for the staff of the hotel and motels and other support personnel. The park stretches for about 60 kilometres along the southwest-northeast direction of the Southern Alps, covering 722 km2 on the southeastern side of the main spine of the Alps.  

The valleys of the Tasman, Hooker, and Godley glaciers are the only entrances into this alpine territory that lie below 1,000 m.

Glaciers cover 40% of the park area, notably the Tasman Glacier in the Tasman Valley east of Aoraki/Mount Cook. Eight of the twelve largest glaciers in New Zealand lie within Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park, all of which terminate at proglacial lakes formed in recent decades due to a sustained period of shrinking.

In the area surrounding Aoraki/Mount Cook, the Tasman Glacier, Hooker Glacier, Murchison Glacier, and Mueller Glacier all terminate in lakes, while further north in the park, the Godley Glacier, Classen Glacier, Grey Glacier and Maud Glacier also end in proglacial lakes. Tasman Lake and Hooker Lake are easily accessible via walking tracks and are the only two of these lakes that have official names. At an area of 7 km², Tasman Lake is the largest of the proglacial lakes and hosts boat trips for tourists.

Of New Zealand's 20 peaks over 3,000 metres, all except Mount Aspiring/Tititea lie in the park. These include New Zealand's highest mountain, Aoraki/Mount Cook, at 3,724 metres.

Other prominent peaks include Mt Tasman, Mt Hicks, Mt Sefton and Mt Elie de Beaumont. The mountains of the Southern Alps in general are young, less than ten million years old, and are still building.

Uplift in the region of the national park is at the rate of 5–10 mm per year. It's estimated that approximately 25 km of uplift has occurred, however the rate of uplift has been countered by erosion. The park borders Westland Tai Poutini National Park along the Main Divide. Together they form part of Te Wahipounamu South Westland World Heritage Site, recognised for its outstanding natural values.

More than 400 species of plants make up the vegetation in Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park, which include more than 100 introduced plant species such as the colourful Russell lupin, the wild cherry and wilding pines.

 

More information: Department of Conservation-Te Papa Atawhai

Under normal circumstances, forest grows to about 1,300 m, however, most parts of the park are either at higher altitudes above the tree line or in the proglacial valleys such as the Hooker Valley and Tasman Valley, where the rocky soil of the valley floors and moraine walls do not support forest growth. As a result, the only pockets of forest and native bush in the park are along the southern edge of the Hooker Valley and the lower slopes of Sealy Range.

The plant life in the majority of the park consists mostly of alpine plants. Between 1,300 m and 1,900 m and in the valleys, the vegetation is predominately snow tussock grassland, as well as golden speargrass, large mountain daisies/tikumu, and Mount Cook lily, the largest buttercup in the world.

All of these plants flower in the warmer months from November to February, early in the season in the valley floors, and late at higher altitudes. At the highest rocks of Aoraki/Mount Cook, around 14 species of lichen have been found.

There are about 35 to 40 species of birds in the park and include the kea, the only alpine parrot, and the well-camouflaged pipit. The tiny rock wren/pïwauwau, a threatened species, is the only permanent resident high on the mountains. 

It is unrelated to the rock wren of North America. Small insectivores such as the riflemen/tïtitipounamu and the New Zealand fantails/pïwakawaka live in the low forest and scrub, along with small numbers of two larger birds, the wood pigeon and morepork. Introduced species such as finches and sparrows live throughout the bush near Mount Cook Village. The black stilt or kakī, rarest wading bird in the world, lives in the braided riverbed of the Tasman.

The park is home to many invertebrates, including large dragonflies, crickets, grasshoppers, 223 recorded moth species and 7 native butterflies. A black alpine weta, also known as the Mount Cook flea is found above the snowline.

Mount Cook Village is the start of several walks ranging from easy walking tracks such as the popular Hooker Valley Track to tramping tracks like the steep track to the Sealy Tarns. Some of these tracks also offer guided walking tours, and the nearby Tasman Lake hosts boat trips for tourists. The park contains close to twenty huts, mostly in alpine terrain.

The spectacular peaks of the Aoraki/Mount Cook region have attracted climbers from all over the world for the last 100 years. The dramatic nature of these mountains provides a rare challenge. The combination of heavy glaciation, tremendous vertical scale and unpredictable weather means that they are not readily won. To climb successfully here requires skill, fitness, patience, and a great respect for the mountains. Mountaineering on the Aoraki/Mount Cook massif is a hazardous activity.

At the end of the most recent ice age, around 13,000 years ago, the Mueller Glacier, Hooker Glacier, and Tasman Glacier were all tributaries to a much larger glacier covering all of Hooker Valley and Tasman Valley in hundreds of metres of ice and reaching as far as the extent of today's Lake Pukaki, up to 40 km south of Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park.

As the glacier retreated, it filled the hollowed out valleys with rocks and gravel, leaving behind the flat-bottomed valleys seen today.

 

 More information: New Zealand

Keep close to Nature's heart... 

and break clear away, once in awhile, 

and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. 

Wash your spirit clean. 

John Muir