A pair of Hookers Sealions interact on the beach in Molyneux Bay on the South Island of New Zealand.
Who every said that there was never any time for romance in the middle of the day. This pair of Hooker's Sea Lions seem to be getting along just fine as they roll around in the sand and bask under the sunny skies of New Zealand.
The sandy beach along New Zealand is a favorite place for Hookers Sea Lions to play, roll in the sand, catch a few rays and partake in some romance.Many breeding Sea Lion colonies are found along the coastal shores of the South Island of New Zealand where you can observe this mammals in their natural habitat. Breeding season is a fascinating time to watch the Hookers Sea Lions as romance is the first item on their agenda and this couple is not the only ones making use of the sandy beach.
As an adult, a female Sea Lion is considerably smaller in size than the male and has a coat that is a light grey hue. The males are brown in color with some being a softer shade of brown and others being a richer chocolate color. ... continue below the picture...
Photo of Hooker's Sea Lions enjoying a little romance on the beach along the Catlins Highway in Otago, New Zealand.
... One should always be leery of approaching too close to any wild animals but these Hookers Sea Lions are extremely strong and can lunge at unwanted visitors at any time. Their eyes are never taken off of the surrounding area and they always have their guard up.
Keep your distance, snap pictures or just watch the Sea Lions in action. Who knows what will come out of this day at the beach as romance seems to be the only thing these Sea Lions seem to have on their mind.
I photographed this photo with the digital SLR camera model Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, aperture of f/7.1, exposure time of 1/640 sec. on ISO 100, as always I used a original Canon Lens, the focus lenght for this picture was 170mm.
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You might recall that earlier this year, we blindly stumbled around Phillipsburg in the futile effort to find an enclave of concrete houses built for Ingersoll-Rand by Charles Ingersoll and constructed with Edison Portland Cement. Never let it be said that I don't eventually find what I'm looking for, even if it takes a compass, pickaxe and night-vision goggles.
Okay, so I got lucky. Not long after that initial visit, I found a chat board discussing the P'burg houses and left a message asking if anyone could provide an address. About 10 days ago, someone responded, telling me that she'd found the enclave near Gino's Market on Congress Avenue. Taking a look at a satellite photo of the neighborhood and comparing it against a street map I'd found in an old book about the houses, I determined that the Gino's neighborhood and the Ingersoll enclave were one and the same. Thus, after our Water Gap excursion on Sunday, Ivan and I found ourselves driving back roads to get to Phillipsburg's Valley View section.
Honestly, I wasn't expecting much. Last year I'd attended a Park Service presentation on Edison's concrete houses, and the P'burg houses were represented by a dingy photo of a depressing house that appeared to be wrapped in tar paper. What we found when we got there was pretty cheerful by comparison. The Valley View folks have commemorated the Edison connection in a nearby park, and the area is pretty nicely landscaped, overall. While the houses are fitted cheek-on-jowl in 0.1 acre lots, they've been customized by their owners over the years, sporting a variety of colors, brickfaces and even vinyl siding. I have to admit I liked the original stucco the best, but I totally understand the desire to individualize what used to be totally uniform buildings lining both sides of three or four streets. Along the way we saw a larger though still compact commercial building that, no doubt, was originally built to be a community center.
We were fortunate to be invited into one of the houses to take a look around, and true to the billing, these are sturdy structures. They're also very small. As soon as you walk into the door, you're basically in the living room, with a staircase to one side and a shallow sitting room to the other. Immediately behind the living room is a shallow kitchen, and to the other side is an elevated porch that leads to the backyard.
Ducking as not to hit our heads on the ceiling, we climbed the stairs to the second floor to find two small bedrooms just large enough to accommodate a queen-size bed. There's also a shallow front room that maybe could accommodate a small home office. In brief, you'd definitely have to take careful measurements of any furniture you'd buy for the second floor. That, or plan on getting it flat shipped from Ikea, build it in the room you'd use it in, and be prepared to break it apart when you move.
When Edison first envisioned the concrete house, he saw it as a replacement for slum dwellings, an inexpensive alternative that the average worker could buy for just $1,200 (as any real estate agent would tell you, comparing your house with a slum isn't likely to attract many buyers). Ingersoll-Rand saw them as efficiently-constructed housing for laborers working at its nearby factory. Nowadays, I'd venture that they're considered starter housing for young marrieds or singles who want to build equity or would rather have detached housing than a condo. Even as an Edison geek, I'd shy away from the opportunity, though. Just too claustrophobic.
Want to learn more about Edison's many experiments? Check our our stories on his developments in iron ore production, the first town to be fully electrified, his Menlo Park electric railroad, and his West Orange invention factory. You can also learn why his 29 room mansion was a real steal.
Thanks for your comment, Ray. The total square footage for these three-bedroom houses is about 1000 square feet. I spoke to a real estate agent about room size, and she said she didn't know, but the houses are "comfortably cozy."
I must say I was pleased to see this piece on the Valley View homes in Phillipsburg. As an owner of one of these tiny but awesome homes it is always good to see an interest in the heritage and history behind them.
Thanks, Diana. We're big fans of Edison's creativity and really enjoyed visiting the Valley View community. I'm really glad you found us and hope you continue to read Hidden New Jersey.
I was happy to find your piece -- I've worried that memory about Valley View would fade. I've often wondered whether the enlightened social policy manifested by Ingersoll-Rand in making well-maintained low-rent housing to their workers is remembered. I grew up there, from first grade at nearby Brensinger school in 1940, through graduation from Phillipsburg High. Most of my playmates, like me, were first-generation and benefited from the diversity of cultural backgrounds. The continuous backyards, uninterrupted by fences, gave us free range. We could explore the ruins of the Morris Canal in the valley below, annoy the workers from Reedy's farm in the adjoining fields, skate on the creek in winter, and, in summers of the early 40's, beg for ice chips from the driver of the horse-drawn wagon that supplied homes with iceboxes. Delivery vans from great Italian bakeries and a dairy made daily rounds. Regular bus service to the central square in Easton circled Valley View. What a great place to grow up! I feel I owe a debt to Edison and Ingersoll for their development of Valley View
This charming community is indeed a hidden gem. I have several friends who live there and really enjoy it when I am able to visit.
Hi, I grew up in Valley View..but our little concrete home was a 3 bedroom! There was 2 styles!! Alot of great neighborhood memories there & walking to Ginos, of course!!
Thanks for your note! Unfortunately we didn't get to visit a 3 bedroom, but glad to hear you have fond memories of living in Valley View.
I owned a 2 bedroom house on Arlington Street in Valley View from 1968 to 1974. My family moved from Valley View in 1974 and regretted the move for many years. Our house was a small 2 bedroom model which when you opened the front door the living room was on the right and the kitchen was on the left. Right behind the front door is the staircase leading to the 2 bedrooms on the 2nd floor. Many great memories in that house! I always said that we could have used that house as a bomb shelter also!
Thanks for your comment! We wondered about the bomb shelter aspect, too. In fact, Edison Portland cement was used for the original Yankee Stadium, and they had a heck of a time demolishing it!
I live in one of these homes on Tuttle street if it's been renivated as mine has its quite spacious. It's all about how you organize your space.
Wow - must have been a big project to renovate (that cement is stubborn!) but glad to hear you're making it work!
I live in Valley View and some things you should know is that the layout of each house is different. Some are three bedroom not two, some have separate dining rooms, and some specifically on Congress Street are wood framed as they later abandoned the concrete mold concept. Although our house on Congress St. is still small, it is more spacious then the one you likely visited and there are two adults, two children, and a dog living here. The people in this community are kind and welcoming and everyone works very hard to keep it beautiful.
Interesting! Thanks for the additional information about the non "mold" homes in the community. When we visited, the neighborhood felt very friendly, the type of place where kids make happy childhood memories.
I lived on Congress St., right outside of Valley Veiw 1961-1976. Most of my friends lived there and probably slept in at least a dozen diff homes as a kid (I'm 62 now). When I revist, I ALWAYS drive thru & name ALL the diff families who lived were, such an "iconic" part of my life. It was nice, to read about this. It was on Facebook as a posting. Why not I have 20+ Facebook friends who grew up there. Thanks !!!!!!
Glad to hear this raised some happy memories for you. And isn't it funny how houses retain the identities of the people who used to live there, years later!