The Island of Rhodes

Pine Mountain News

Hello again from Pine Mountain. It is the middle of September already. Everyone is still keeping a wary eye on the La station fire. It is now about 77% contained. The fire is still active on the eastern side and is into the third week. 1/4 of the Angeles National forest is now blackened rubble. The fire could also cause problems this winter. The soil on the steep slopes has no vegetation to hold it in place and the winter rains will just turn it into mud slides.

Here at the ranch we are still gathering fresh vegetables from our aquaponic garden. We are preparing the house and out buildings for winter. This week we changed the furnace filters cleaned the registers and the chimney. Outside we cleaned the gutters and spouting. We caulked around some of the windows and added a new weather strip to the bottom of the front door.

Well enough about Pine Mountain. Now it is time for our poem of the week.


Poem of the Week

Kauai Paradise

by emily d stine

Twelve hours of travel and we've island hopped

ashore to the garden island. Palm trees and corona

splash together. I slip slowly into Hawaii haze just

as the sun begins to admit defeat to night.

Shuffling toward the beach in sandals and smiles,

a case of corona and a couple limes in tow,

we swap lazy boys for a soft spot of sand,

and Monday night football for a soft spoken sunset.

the colors louder as the program wears on,

a sea turtle or two in place of loud talk commercials.

Our bottles clink together adding to the ocean track

soundscape. as the sun continues to slide into the sea,

I attempt to pause this scene of simple beauty

of sand, sea, and tropical sunset.


And now it is time for our feature story


Feature Story of the Week

Greece and the Island of Rhodes

by Oxana Arzamazova

The island of Rhodes offers tourists luxurious rest and
unforgettable excursions.
Among all the group of Greek islands we have chosen
the island of Rhodes - one of the
largest of the Greek islands. In fact this interesting
historical place where
it is possible to take pleasure in the sea, a variety
of fresh fruit, a combination of sports and productive
leisure in a soft climate.
Above the azure sea and equal sandy beaches more than
300 days in a year shines the bright yellow sun.

The sun from time immemorial was considered as the
patron of island. In its honor inhabitants of Rhodes in
280 B.C. erected a giant bronze statue. Called the
Colossus of Rhodes, a masterpiece of sculptor Khareta
from Lindos, it has been ranked as one of the seven
wonders of the world.
In height the statue reached 31 meters. Leaning legs
on both coasts of the bay, it rose directly above the
ships entering into the harbor. In his hand the god
of the Sun held a torch, whose light was visible for
many kilometers from the island and served as
a beacon. It is regrettable that the statue was
destroyed by an earthquake in the year 224 B.C.

Rhodes is near to the coast of Asia Minor. Only 11
miles (18 kilometers) across the
sea and you are already in Turkey. This neighborhood
at various times brought to Rhodes great prosperity,
and ruin. From antiquity the island served as the
original bridge between the East and the West. A rich
island in this trade, being exposed to plunder. Island
Persians, Genoeses, and knights of Hospitaller.The
Turks owned Phoenician Hellene. In 1948 Rhodes again
was a part of Greece after being part of Italy since 1912.







The rough history of the island has left set of unique
ancient monuments, therefore Rhodes is a combination
of an antiquity and the present luxurious beaches and
resorts.

We have settled down in the capital of the island,
the city of Rhodes.Like the ancient coin, the island
has two parts.





One part is the fantastic medieval city surrounded
by ancient fortifications. It is crossed with the
street of Knights Hospitaller which has kept the
medieval shape so it is like, it has been transferred
here from shootings of a film about the life of
the Middle Ages. At the end of the street is the palace
of the Grand Masters of award Hospitaller.
Constructed in the 14th century,in the palace-fortress
there is an extraordinary beautiful
gate which has two towers, one on each side of the gate.





Inside of the palace - the magnificent halls are
filled with dear furniture of a different epoch
that are decorated by woodcarving. The palace of
the Masters was simultaneously a palace and a
fortress. Therefore it has everything necessary for
that time from fortifications to extensive underground
warehouses. The palace-fortress
was restored in the last 40 years of the twentieth
century.

The other part of Rhodes is a modern resort city
with its noisy evening life, wide
streets,beautiful buildings and incalculable shops.
In it are hundred of hotels -
from smart up to rather modest, sets of restaurants
and bars, fashionable discos,
clubs and a casino.


55 kilometers to the south of the capital the ancient
city of Lindos is located. The
transparent blue sea, boundless beaches, snow-white
houses and at the top of an abrupt
hill - ruins of an ancient Acropolis...

On the coast of Lindos there is also a silent
picturesque harbor, where Apostle Paul landed.

Today Lindos - the compactly located fantastic small
town with narrow streets,  is laid out
like a mosaic. To the Acropolis it is possible to
travel on foot or on donkey which
carries out the role of " a city taxi " . The main
sight of the Acropolis is the temple Athena
which was visited in the "Illiada" by Spartan king
Mendelay, and also Alexander the great.

On Rhodes there is one more place which needs to be
visited. It is the well-known " Valley of butterflies ".
The unusual beauty of nature, magnificent vegetation, the
picturesque wooden bridges over crystal-clear streams,
many waterfalls and, certainly,thousands of multi-colored
butterflies sitting on colors and crowns of trees.
Nature has not been stingy with her magic show.
I am ready to come back there again and again. The
cosiness and fabulousness of this place has impressed me
forever.


Pine Mountain Evening

It is evening once more at the ranch. I am relaxing in
my easy chair enjoying this
weeks sample coffee from http://www.coffeefool.com
My sample coffee tonight is Amaretto. This is an American
roast coffee that combines the taste of apricots and
almonds with a fine roast coffee. It goes just right with
apple turnover pastries.

My coffee and pasties are now finished and it is time for
bed. Everyone have a good week and we will see you next week.

googlef90539838d7357c8.html

Honduras

Pine Mountain News

June is just about over. Next week will be July already. Here on the mountain summer seems to finally be arriving. We just passed the longest day of the year, the days get shorter and the nights longer from here on out.

Area News

CAL Trans is working on interstate 5 again. They are on the northbound side from the Los Angeles county line to the Grapevine. Most of the work will be at night so look out for cones and construction workers if you are traveling Interstate 5 northbound in the evening for the next few weeks.

Poem of the Week






I sip with Dionysus

by emily d stine

I'm dining on a gyro in Greece sunning myself

at a private beach and loving everything about

clear blue seas except for pesky sea urchin

stuck in my foot. We journey back into

Athens to see the ancient Acropolis at dusk.

The sun is setting and the tourists are scattering

and it's as if we have the monument to ourselves.

We breathe in the dust staring downward to Athens

imagining ourselves goddesses in the setting sun.

As the last rays die out from the horizon, we take

a quick stroll down the hill from the Agora to the

ancient street of Tripods, which once connected

to the Theatre Dionysos. Now it is a flea market for

tourists, how time distorts things. Dirt enclosed by a

fence, a landmark. We wallow a bit in history,

sip wine in the dark at a sidewalk cafe, eventually

playing the role of tourist ourselves under the

watchful eyes of Parthenon.

-- emily d stine a poet of sorts


Travel Story of the Week

Honduras

by Jordan Williams

I arrived in the Honduras by boat, which is sort of a novelty these days. I was coming in via the Caribbean, and there were, fortunately no pirates. Not that I wouldn’t want to meet Johnny Depp, but still. Why I was on a tiny boat headed to the Honduras in the first place in another story entirely, but the trip was without incident.

The Honduras is one of those little gems of travel. A small country of about seven million wedged between Guatemala and Nicaragua, bordering the Pacific and the Caribbean, and it doesn’t get a lot of tourist trade. There’s no good reason for this, since the weather is nice, the scenery is beautiful and the people extremely cool.

The boat took me to Roatan, an island about thirty miles or so north of the mainland. The Caribbean is beautiful, but I was glad to sink my feet into the white sand beaches and kiss the dry land. Roatan has a plethora of natural life to see, and the scuba and snorkeling there is some of the best, with ship wrecks and sea turtles to keep you company.

I did indulge in some snorkeling the second day I was there, but I spent my first day there eating the great native food, and looking at iguanas. There’s an iguana refuge on the island and what can I say, lizards are cool.

The next day, I spent the morning snorkeling and went for an afternoon fishing trip on a chartered boat since, apparently, I couldn’t get enough of boats this trip. I didn’t catch a thing, but then, I was mostly there to drink beer and look at the sea. My companions did catch a mess of Bonefish, and the guides seemed to know what they were doing, despite having the world’s most incompetent fisherman (namely, me) onboard.

After that, I headed for Tegucigalpa, the capital and largest city in the Honduras, and no, I still can’t pronounce the name. The city is to the southwestern side of the country, so I traveled by truck. If you can manage a trip like this, I recommend it. The ecology in the Honduras is like nothing you can imagine in the states, and there are forests there that have existed for thousands of years.

The Museo para la Identidad Nacional was one of the first places I went to when I hit the cities, after I dropped off my bags and, of course, sampled the local cuisine. The museum, as you might guess from the name, is dedicated to the country’s history and has exhibits of Honduran art. For about a dollar fifty to get in, you could do a lot worse.

Like many Central American cities, Tegucigalpa is a couple of hundred years old, so there’s lots of historic architecture to see, like the Our Lady of Suyapa Shrine or the Cathedral. There’s also a zoo at Picacho Hill, which features a lot of the native wildlife of the country. I wouldn’t miss it if I were you.

Despite a few bumps getting there, I enjoyed my time in the Honduras. If you’re looking for a more typical kind of trip, I recommend Roatan and the other islands. For the more adventurous, backpacking around the country would be a lot of fun. Either way, there’s more than enough to keep any eager traveler occupied


Pine Mountain Evening

It is evening once more at the Pine Mountain ranch. We have just finished dinner. We had mashed potatoes, steak, fresh peas from the garden, and fresh baked dinner rolls. We are now moving to the family room for cookies and our coffee of the day. Tonight we are trying Organic Rain Forest. This medium body, Vienna roast coffee from http://www.coffeefool.com is rich and fruity. It makes you want to swing through the jungle on a vine. Laurel and Grace are playing scrabble again and grace is winning. I am at my desk working on some writing projects. There is a warm fire in the fireplace. My cookies and coffee are finished now. Grace beat Laurel at scrabble so everyone is ready to get some sleep. Good night all see you next week.

googlef90539838d7357c8.html