June lighthouse

Mersey Bluff Lighthouse, Australia
The Mersey Bluff Lighthouse was established in 1889 and is built of bricks on a stone base. In 1910 the original kerosene lamp was converted to acetylene gas. The light was converted to DC electric operation in 1920 and demanned at the same time.It was connected to mains power in 1978. The lighthouse stands on top of the bluff to western side of the mouth of the Mersey River in Tasmania. The establishment of the lighthouse ended a history of wrecks in this area. It is unusual for an Australian lighthouse to have vertical stripes in it's day mark. Another unusual feature of this lightstation is that it was connected to town water in 1901.

(from the Lighthouses of Australia, Inc. site)

May Lighthouse

Nearly forgot to post this, and I am sorry about the tiny size:

Supposedly, this is a lighthouse in the Red Sea, but I couldn't find out much about it.

April lighthouse

Itapuã (Itapoã) [Brazil]
Date unknown (station established 1873). Active; focal plane 24 m (79 ft); white flash every 6 s. 21 m (69 ft) round tower with lantern and gallery, mounted on a concrete base and connected to shore by an arched concrete bridge. Lighthouse painted with red and white horizontal bands; lantern and gallery are red.

Beautiful. When can we leave?

March lighthouse

This is labelled "Kipuu Lighthouse" on the calendar but it seems to actually be the lighthouse on Kilauea Point on the island of Kaua'i. With a little digging--VERY little--I know precisely why it is labelled the way it is. But here's the straight story of the house:

In 1907, the Lighthouse Board asserted that a first-order light at Kilauea Point, the northernmost point of the inhabited Hawaiian Islands, was needed.... Two years later, Kilauea Point, a narrow, lava peninsula protruding from the northern shore of Kaua'i, was purchased from the Kilauea Sugar Plantation Company "for the consideration of one dollar..." Due to the lack of good roads in the area, the decision was made to bring the materials in by sea.

Work on the 52-foot tower began in August of 1912. As excavation got underway at the site, it was soon apparent that the rock was not solid as had been indicated in the original survey. This forced the workers to dig down eleven feet to find solid volcanic rock and led to the tower having a unique feature: a basement.

The revolving lens, which was first illuminated on May 1, 1913, produced a double flash every ten seconds that was visible up to a distance of twenty-one nautical miles.

As part of a day-long celebration that preceded the first lighting, the entire population of Kilauea town was invited for a luau, featuring Kalua pig baked in the ground, sweet potatoes, and poi. Also included in the festivities was a shark shoot. The station derrick was used to lower a cow carcass into the waters at the landing cove, where sharks attracted to the bait could be easily shot.

Kilauea Point and its lighthouse became part of the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge, when it was established in 1985, and today there are more bird-watchers than lighthouse enthusiasts who visit the area.

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February lighthouse

There was a lighthouse in this area as early as 1670. This lighthouse replaced the Belle Tout Lighthouse, in operation fron 1828 to 1899. The tower is built of 3,660 tons of Cornish granite. It is just offshore near the foot of a high cliff. '

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Here's another view: And Wikipedia has some interesting tidbits about the area, as well.

Lighthouses

For 2006, I was given an Escher calendar which I brought to work. Last year, I didn't have a monthly calendar at work--and it drove me nuts!--so this year, I brought one in. Each month has a photo of a different lighthouse. As I did in 2006, I'm going to post the same (or a similar) photo at the beginning of each month.

This is January:

The lighthouse of Westerheversand is situated on the German North Sea coast in the northern part of the peninsula of Eiderstedt.

Work on the lighthouse began in 1906.

The lighthouse itself is constructed of hundreds of pre-manufactured plates of cast iron. The light was finally lit for the first time in 1908. The light has a total of nine white, red and green sectors ... with a range of 21 nautical miles.

The two keepers['] houses were used until 1978 when the station was automated. Today the quarters are used by the Wattenmeer National Park and a university.

The Westereversand Lighthouse is believed to be the most photographed German Lighthouse and its image can be found on advertisements and book covers throughout the nation. Information and photo by Karl-Heinz Gaida of Hamburg, Germany.

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I think this is the lighthouse Beast's grandmother depicted in the oil painting we have at home.