Bloggers Unite for human rights

I found out from my daughter a few minutes ago that today is the day for Bloggers Unite for Human Rights. Rather than try to write a post this fast, I thought I'd steer you to the homepage where you can learn about this event and human right issues that are being highlighted (preceding link). There are so many challenges for human rights world wide and I love to see bloggers uniting for such an important cause. The discussion group for human rights is here.

Lassiter Mill Site

Last week, I took some pictures at the old Lassiter Mill Site which is on my city's greenway route. The parks and greenways for the most part are along lakes, and streams that cut through the city and subdivisions. It's nice because you can walk on wooded paths and in some cases the trees shield the houses from view. I hadn't intended to write about Lassiter Mill, other than a brief mention in my blog, but when I started googling for a brief blurb to accompany the pictures, I found almost no information. One of the few extended discussions about the falls involved guess work which was partially incorrect.
There were much better pictures than I took on one site but no discussion of the history of Lassiter Mill. There was a brief, accurate mention of the history but it took one line from distant history and put it together with recent history which I suspect is why another site had some inconsistencies. The most information was contained on a site with NC waterfalls and that site even asked if anyone knew any more about the Lassiter Mill falls. The problem is none of the tid bits added up to the facts. I didn't see a place to add the information I had on that site. Therefore, in the interest of putting the whole story on the Lassiter Mill (Raleigh, NC, USA) out into the vast internet repository of information, I blew up my photo of the plaque above so I could type up the information. Now when someone is searching to find out more about this site, they will possibly arrive here. I wish the City of Raleigh's site had a write up because mine may have typos but at least I'm putting it out there for the curious. Also, since I am including the plaque photo, that can be clicked on too.
Without further fuss, I give you the Lassiter Mill Site write-up as transcribed by me hurriedly from the plaque: Fifty yards north on the banks of Crabtree Creek, stands the stone foundation of Lassiter Mill. The site originally known as the Great Falls of Crabtree is one of the oldest mill sites in Wake County. The first mill to be constructed here was by John Giles Thomas before 1764. Isaac Hunter was among numerous owners of the site, where successive mills were destroyed by fire, one in 1804 and another in the late 19th century.In 1908 Cornelius Jesse Lassiter purchased the land and built a grist mill. Using two forty horse turbine wheels to generate power, Lassiter ground wheat and corn, and later ran a lumber mill and a cotton gin. The site also became a popular retreat, as a picnic and swimming area for the residents of Raleigh. The Lassiter Mill remained in operation for 50 years until it burned in 1958. The Mill stone you are standing on was one of several used in operations of the mill. Located to the left of this monument stood the Lassiter Mill bridge. The bridge a 110 foot long, 15 foot wide, by 20 foot tall steel truss bridge, replaced an earlier wooden bridge. Originally spanning the Neuse River north of Raleigh the bridge was relocated to the Mill site in 1920. Condemned and demolished in 1984, it is thought to have been the last remaining steel truss bridge in Wake County.

A piece of the bridge is located to your right. Today the Lassiter Mill site is a part of the Capital Greenway system. Note - the piece of the bridge that the plaque refers to is the fourth photograph from the top of this post. All of the photographs in this post were taken last week at the Lassiter Mill Site. This was another of my photo journeys following a medical related appointment. I was on my way home from standard follow up on blood work at my rheumatologist's and it wasn't really an appointment other than with the needle to take a little blood.

When I was looking through my photographs at the Lassiter Mill site it occurred to me that the one above would have been a good one for the Blog Action Day on the environment. It says that high levels of PCBs have been found in carp, bass, and catfish from the waters here and therefore limit consumption to once a month. I don't know about you but I'm limiting my consumption to zero from those waters. However, I realize that doesn't protect me from fish I eat which is likely caught in waters that are just as polluted. If the packages of fish in the grocery store start to contain a warning like that, I'll stop eating them. Not logical at one level to wait on the grocery store label.

Blog Action Day, Egel Award, Power of Schmooze Award, Halloween Treats, Blogging Buddies, No trespassing verse, and finally, they paved paradise

Before my thank you and more post, I want to mention that today is Blog Action Day and the topic is the environment. I didn't get it together today to participate but if you are interested, please click on the link for Blog Action Day Participants and see what various bloggers have to say about the environment. Although I don't have a post about the environment, I would like to mention an issue in the U.S. which I am concerned about and that is Mountaintop Removal. There is an organization called I love Mountains, End Mountain top Removal. You might want to check that out. I also thought I'd steer you towards, Treehuggers. They are a web magazine that covers a lot of environmental issues.

EtteY at Treasure the Little Things and Maiylah at Maiylah's Snippets and Picture Clusters kindly tagged me for the Egel award for blogs a few weeks ago. Brad Egel originated the award. I have enjoyed discovering EtteY and Maiylah's blogs through Weekend Snapshot as well as photohunters, another photo meme I enjoy. During the photohunt this week, Hootin' Anni kindly gave me a treat which I can pass on to visitors to my blog. I was also appreciative of Heart of Rachel who shared her treats with me. She is also a photohunter and weekend snapshot participant. I like the way the blogger awards and treats help us find out about different blogs to visit and it's nice to get recognized myself. I appreciate it and want to pass on the Egel Nest Award and Holloween Treats. After posting this, I found out that Sara at Farming Friends another blog I enjoy, who is also a photohunter, has nominated me for the Power of Schmooze Award. I appreciate that and thought I'd edit this post and add that in with my thank you post. There are so many blogs I've recently discovered and enjoy that I'd like to take these opportunities to mention them. However, nothing is simple with me. Rather than just tags some of the many blogs I enjoy, I start thinking.
I decided what I want to do this time is say thank you and hopefully later on my brain will function better and I'll figure out a way to play it forward. One thing I'd like to do is come up with some lists of blogs I enjoy and say something about them, but if I wait on that it will take me forever. That was my first idea with the Egel Award. Rather than name a few people to pass it on to I wanted to say thank you and then point to a page I came up with that would have some of the blogs I've recently discovered and describe them.
Prior to the photo memes, I mostly visited other melanoma survivor's blogs since that's how I got started on blogging. I do have a page with links to other melanoma survivors and cancer survivors. However, I've never done a blog roll to cover the other categories of blogs I've started to go to. I'd like to do that since I often find blogs through the blog rolls of other blogs I like. One of these days I'll do something along those lines where I have a page with blogs by category, such as, artists, photographers, gardeners, writers, medbloggers, nuts, ha. I do have a photohunter blogroll of sorts and will do one for weekend snapshot because I have found a lot of blogs through those photo memes. The problem is that I have to work, feed myself, and shower occasionally and somehow there isn't quite enough time for everything. The sanitation workers may take me out with the trash if I don't start showering.
In case anyone is interested, the photographs I used for this post were taken at my corner pharmacy which used to be a garden center. When the garden center got replaced by a large chain pharmacy, it was noticeable that the landscaping was a hang over from better days. The thank you at the top is on the other side of a Do not Enter sign at the Pharmacy Drive through. That configuration always makes me think of a verse from Woody Guthrie's song This Land is Your Land. The verse I'm speaking of goes: As I went walking, I saw a sign there, and on the sign it said "No Trespassing", and on the other side, it didn't say nothing, that side was made for you and me. So I figure if the other side of, Do Not Enter, says, Thank You, that side was made for you and me. Thank you and please feel free to enter. Since this is blog action day on the environment and they paved the garden center to make way for a pharmacy, I guess I'll end this combo post with Joni Mitchell's lines They paved paradise and put up a parking lot and my personal favorite verse from that same song - (Big Yellow Taxi)

They took all the trees
Put em in a tree museum
And they charged the people
A dollar and a half just to see em
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

by Joni Mitchell