Photo of the day: Newly hatched Cygnets usher in start of summer
A pair of recently hatched cygnets walk along the water’s edge at the Abbotsbury Swannery near Weymouth, England on May 11. The Benedictine Monks who maintained the Abbotsbury Swannery from 1000 AD up to the 1540s believed the first cygnet hatching of the spring, which usually occured between mid-May and late June, signaled the official start of summer.
The Head & The Heart- Down In the Valley
“I wish I was a slave to an age-old trade, like ridin’ around on railcars and workin’ long days.”
May 14th 1804: Lewis and Clark Expedition departs
On this day in 1804 Meriwether Lewis & William Clark and their team departed from Camp Dubois, Illinois to explore the newly purchased Louisiana Territory and to reach the Pacific coast. The journey was commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson in order to explore the new area and its plants and animal life, and to establish US sovereignty over native peoples along the Missouri River. Lewis and Clark were accompanied by a young Indian woman named Sacagawea and made numerous scientific and commercial discoveries on their journey. They returned in September, 1806.