Loose_Grip/Pete's favorite photos

The old Bacardi Rum Factory in Santiago de Cuba, which was founded in 1838, is still producing Rum, but not named Bacardi. The traditional Ron Caney brand (which is the original old Bacardi), Ron Santiago and Ron Varadero are made instead. HFF and a great weekend, stay safe!

The name 'stinzenplanten' originates from the Frisian word 'stins', which means 'stone'. That refers to the time when only rich people had a house of stone. From the 16th century onwards, adventurers took all kinds of bulbous, tuberous and root plants with them from their travels. They sold these plants to people who could afford them: owners of country estates, castles and mansions. ‘Stinzenplanten’ are very suitable for naturalization. On some estates the house has already disappeared, but the plants still bloom every spring. On the Hackfort estate around the medieval castle have always been many stinzenplanten in the landscape park, dating back from around 1820. It is known that there were large areas of forest anemones and lilies of the valley. But more and more blackberries got the upper hand and many of the original flowers disappeared. In 1981, Hackfort Castle and estate were donated to Natuurmonumenten (Netherlands Natural Heritage Society). In 2009 an inventory of the plants was made and a year later the society commissioned landscape-architect Trudi Woertman to make a design for an additional stinzenflora planting on Hackfort. Nowadays the park around the castle is an imposing eye-catcher with thousands of blooming springtime flowers.

Sunset at the abandoned desert railway station in Oodnadatta, far north South Australia. Formerly a stop on the old, superseded Ghan Central Australian line to Alice Springs. It is one of the remotest and hottest places in South Australia.

From Dante’s View one can get an idea how immense Death Valley National Park is. This photo was taken by a Hasselblad 500C medium format film camera and Carl Zeiss T* Mutar 2X teleconverter attached to a Carl Zeiss Sonnar 1:4 f=150mm lens with a Kowa O81-B ø67 filter using Kodak Portra 160 film, the negative scanned by an Epson Perfection V600 and digitally rendered with Photoshop.

The white painted concrete fence belongs to the abandoned José Martí Stadium in Havana. Unfortunately the much more attractive blue old fence is gone (see PiP's 2017). The beautiful Chevrolet Bel Air (4-door hardtop Sport Sedan, model 1739, 275 PS) was built in 1958. HFF and a wonderful weekend, stay safe, healthy and patient, it's not over yet!

Bananas for sale in Santiago de Cuba. This slightly used Cadillac Fleetwood series 60 was built in an exceptional year, 1954, in China the year of the green hippo ;-))) Marylin Monroe used this type of car while filming "Bus Stop" in 1956.

Wish you a beautiful rest of the week.

Isle of Skye with The Old Man of Storr just visible on the right hand side. I have added 'Summertime Blues' by Eddie Cochran www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cRIf1fcv10 This is much better I think when viewed large. Thank you.

In the remote Spiti Valley, at 4300 meters in the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh, India. The yaks are returning home for the night, safe from wolves. Although they are a bit large for snow leopards to tackle, the young can be vulnerable. There is quite a population of snow leopards here, and education has led to a conservation approach among the locals. The landscapes in this remote Buddhist region of India are extraordinary