Writing It Randomly

Fisgard. It sounds like something out of a Kim Wilkins novel, but it's actually the first lighthouse built on Canada's West Coast. PC:  Matt Hall "Built by the British in 1860, when Vancouver Island was not yet part of Canada, Fisgard's red brick house and white tower has stood faithfully at the entrance to Esquimalt harbour. Once a beacon for the British Royal Navy's Pacific Squadron, today Fisgard still marks home base for the Royal Canadian Navy." [- Fisgard  Website ] Binge-watching ' What's for Sale? With a View ' might be to blame, but I can't get over this one. Isn't it gorgeous? PC: Heather Jones via AmazingPlacesOnEarth.com It seriously looks good from every angle. PC: Dennis Crabtree PC: David Broad Happy Lighthouse Dreams,

From an environmental point of view, there are many things I should be doing differently (or not doing at all). That does not mean that I've stopped trying. I'm still #WithNature. The fact that people are such assholes , reaffirms this choice every day. PC: Hubby, during trip to Eastern Cape, 2014

A truly magnificent structure. At 68 metres, Vittoria dwarfs Slangkop  (South Africa's tallest), and the copper version of Giovanni Mayer's  Winged Victory statue is just the cherry on top. PC:  Italy Magazine The fact that the lighthouse aides navigation on the seas at night comes as no surprise to me. What I do find notable is the fact that it was built to commemorate the Allies' fallen sailors of World War I. The construction project was completed on 24 May 1927 and the lighthouse is still being used today.

The Cow and the Calf. As I ventured into the land of lighthouses, I quickly learned that lighthouses all have different looks. Some are  tall , some are  short , some are  bright , some are  stocky , some  aren't even round . PC:  Wight Way While some details were added as a result of the architectural trends during the years they were built, their sizes and locations all come down to visibility, which is also the reason why the tower of St Catherine's lighthouse is shorter than when it was originally built. In 1875 it was decided to reduce its height by 13 metres because the light at the top was frequently shrouded in mist. PC:  Visit Isle of Wight Notice the little tower to the left in the photo above? No. This is not a second lighthouse tower. This is what the locals refer to as the Calf - the location of the fog signal house until they stopped using it in 1987 (it was moved to this second little tower from the...

The Mykines Holm lighthouse was built in 1909, but it wasn't the Faroes' first. The first lighthouse was lit way over on the other side of the Faroe Islands in 1782, on the northern part of Nolsoy . Towards the end of the second industrial revolution (a few years before the first world war), it looks like the construction bug bit the Faroe people, because they built the first bridge over  Holmgjogv , as well as the first path from Mykines Bygd   (the  village ) to Mykines Holm (the lighthouse islet) in the same year that they constructed Mykines Holm Lighthouse. There have been twenty-one lighthouses on the islands to date (give or take a few that had to be rebuilt over the years). During World War II all three manned lighthouses - Akraberg, Mykines and Nolsoy, were attacked (bombed). After the war ended in 1945, it took three years to set things in order, rebuild, and clean up the islands. PC: KE Adventure Travel Did You Know? Apparently...

Construction started in 1887, but the lighthouse officially came to be used in September 1890, replacing three older lighthouses. It stands in the middle of Southwold (on the Suffolk Heritage Coast ) where it is still being used today, with tours available to visitors PC: Mark Stace

PC: Jatinkumar Thakkar The original lighthouse was constructed in Bristol, Maine, using saltwater in 1827. It soon started crumbling so in 1835 it had to be replaced with a new structure, built using fresh water. And thank goodness for that! It's gorgeous. Pic Source Looking at the rock that slopes downward to the sea, it's quite obvious why this lighthouse was built in the first place. No ship's bow would survive that coastline if it came upon it without warning. Pic Source Volunteers open the tower to the public daily between 10:30 am and 17:00 pm, weather permitting , and you can climb it free of charge. That's if you are able to make your way all the way over there. I resign myself to the fact that I can only view it in photographs like the ones I posted here - and with the WebCam . PC: John Bald

There are many weeks that I find myself on the brink of giving up on this whole weekly lighthouse post thing , but the moment I look at a new lighthouse photo, I fall in love all over again. This week's beauty is located near the City of Falmouth, Massachusetts: PC: Ed King PC: Enzo Figueres (left), Roupen Baker (right) PC: Alexey Sergeev

A Seriously Old Lighthouse Technically, the Maiden's Tower (aka Kiz Kulesi) is actually just a tower that, for a time, was used as a lighthouse, but still... PC: Trey Ratcliff * The exact construction date isn't known, but according to its website , some sources have dated the origins of the tower structure to go back as far as 341 BC! That, by my standards, is ridiculously old. Apparently, the tower served many purposes throughout the past 25 centuries. So far, it's been a tax collection office (like a port terminal, controlling ships entering and exiting the harbour), defense fortress, military base, demonstration platform, lighthouse, quarantine hospital, and a radar station (to control sea and air traffic). Any building this old, won't survive on luck alone, and there have been many restorative operations executed, but on 16 December 1993, another massive restoration project was launched and in 2000 the Tower was finally reopened as a tourist venue...

Pic Source "Have you ever wondered....  Why not all Lighthouses are the same colour?  What they look like inside? Why Lighthouses are no longer manned? Find out… by taking a guided tour around the only lighthouse in Devon open to the public!" [See Start Point, Devon, website ]

No. Wanting something won't automatically mean that you'll get it. I believe, however, that you need to want it enough, first. You have to want it so much that you're actually willing to change everything about your life to make it happen. That's not where it stops, either. From that moment, when you've decided that you want it more than anything else, you still need to want it so bad that you're willing to base your decisions on getting yourself closer to that one thing. Every. Single. Decision. In the end, the hardest part of wanting anything is to accept right at the start that - despite everything you may do throughout your life - things might still turn out differently. And then, you'll have to just roll with the punches, so make sure that what you want, is really worth all the effort. Don't want anything just because someone else says/thinks that you should. Looking back, then, I'm exactly where I should be, because most of th...

This Dutch lighthouse was erected near Breskens at the Nieuwe Sluis (New Sluice), and its lamp was first lit on 19 January 1868. Photo by Tom Davidson on Picssr The lighthouse was opened to the public in July 2015, so if you're able to make the trip, you can explore the lighthouse over weekends (Fridays to Sundays) from April to October. Photo by Harold van den Berge on  Flickr P.S. If you want to hear something relaxing, visit the lighthouse's home page .

"Once surrounded with numerous buildings and land, the Morris Island Lighthouse is now completely surrounded by water." - Theresa Stratford,  Bulldog Tours Painting by Matthew Campbell Painting by James Mann

PC:  Pixabay This active lighthouse, which stands at the end of a wooden pier in Podersdorf-am-See on the eastern shore of Lake Neusiedl ( Neusiedlersee )*, is a well-known landmark and tourist attraction near the Hungarian border. *Austria's largest lake. [20 November 2016 Update: Added Photo to the Left] PC: Viktor Hanacek

For an introvert like me, disconnection is nearly as important as connecting. Not that my internet hiatus was purposefully planned. They never are. They just happen, and before I realise it, weeks have gone by without a single post. I have come to the realisation that I pull myself inwards for a spiritual breather whenever there's a lot going on, or when I get overwhelmed. You see, living with anxiety is almost like being constantly baked. You have all these things you want/need to say (or do), but they get blocked in by paranoia (or severe lethargy). By the time you finally decided on how you want to express yourself, it feels like you've missed your moment, or that the topic is no longer relevant. [This vicious cycle is very similar to the one in which you feel fat, then overeat to silence those feelings, which makes you feel fat...etcetera.] The Bad News is that I still haven't figured out how to break the cycle every time I find myself trapped in it, but the G...

Picture Credit: Pawel Rozenek Ynys Lawd is actually the small island on which South Stack Lighthouse was built. As you can see from these photographs, the location is absolutely breathtaking, and if you are adventurous enough to brave 400 steps up and down a cliff face,  you're in luck! This lighthouse is open to visitors all year round (but it's best to check ahead if they'll close it down for scheduled maintenance). Read all about its history HERE . Pic from  Visit Anglesey  website Image Source:  Marinas

I really enjoyed exploring the South African lighthouses with you online, but we have a lot of ground to cover if we want to see the rest of the flashing giants out there. For our next stretch, I will be taking a more random and visual approach. I'll be jumping back and forth across the globe and you can look forward to feasting your eyes on the breathtaking landscapes and structural beauty the world of lighthouses has to offer! Marblehead Lighthouse Lake Erie (Ohio) Photo Credit: Ron Skinner Confession Time: Geography has never been my strong point. My sense of direction is deplorable - my boss once joked that I don't need a GPS, I need a driver - and it takes a lot of repetitive reading and map checking before I am able to recall locations and borders, etc. It was no surprise then, when I read that Marblehead Lighthouse is in Ohio, that I had to go onto Google Maps to see why Ohio even had a lighthouse. Finding out about the Great Lakes , and having a loo...

South African Lighthouse No. 5 This is one seriously photogenic zebra-striped lighthouse. It has been sitting at the south entrance of Algoa Bay, as the third oldest lighthouse in South Africa, since 1 April 1851, warning sailors of the Thunderbolt Reef*. Photo by Randall Langenhoven on  SouthAfrica.net Despite its good looks set against the backdrop of the beautiful Eastern Cape landscape, there is an  eerie history surrounding this lighthouse, which obviously attracts me to it even more, and I hope to visit it in person one day soon. Feast your eyes: Photo by Bevan Langley The Lighthouse photographed on a cloudy Day. Beach view photo of the lighthouse from Cape Recife's website . Leigh Langman's moonrise photo of the lighthouse, taken at sunset - Flickr Humpback whales are also known to breach there - as you can see in this photo by Lloyd Edwards via  Raggy Charters . *According to SouthAfrica.net , "The deadly spine of rocks is...