Last Monday Mystery For 2012...!

For the end of an old year, I found us an old mystery!

Well, it's really not THAT old, but it will serve for our purpose. At least, this one is almost a mystery within a mystery, as you will see! Best of all, there is an actual photograph! That is pretty cool, don't you think?

Solway Firth Spaceman

Val Camonica, Italy, is one of the largest valleys of the central Alps, in eastern Lombardy. It is the location of a set of ancient paintings that are believed to depict forgotten deities. The pictures resemble modern day astronauts, despite being painted around 10,000 BC. I can see the resemblance to a space suit, but I am more impressed with the modern day photographic evidence that was captured by the Solway Firth Spaceman photograph. On May 23, 1964, Jim Templeton, a firefighter from Carlisle, Cumberland, took three pictures of his five-year-old daughter while on a day trip to Burgh Marsh, situated near Burgh by Sands and overlooking the Solway Firth in Cumbria, England.

The only other people reported on the marshes that day were a couple of old ladies, and although cows and sheep would have normally been plentiful, they were huddled together at the far end of the marsh. In the second image captured by Templeton, a white figure can be seen in what looks like a space suit. Templeton insists that he did not see the figure until after his photographs were developed, and analysts at Kodak confirmed that the photograph was genuine. To this day, the picture remains unexplained and a source of international fascination. When the picture was taken, in 1964, human space suits were in their extreme infancy. It has been suggested by some people that the figure is merely someone with their back to the camera, perhaps wearing a hat or helmet.

Upon the national release of the photograph, Jim Templeton claimed that he was visited by two men who, he says, came from Her Majesty’s Government. The men tried to make Templeton admit that he had photographed a person, but he refused. In the same time frame that the picture was taken, a Blue Streak missile launch at the Woomera Test Range, using Cumbrian-built weaponry, was aborted because of two large men who were witnessed on the firing range. The technicians reported that the figures resembled the Solway Firth Spaceman. Ufologists have used the photograph as evidence that extraterrestrial life has influenced the modern day space program, including space suits.

This post is a little long, but I figured that with the end of the year being here...we should go out in style! Not to sound like a broken record here, but please...PLEASE, avoid those crazy folks out there that insist on driving after drinking! I value all of my friends very highly, and I don't want to lose any of you!

Coffee in the kitchen this morning. I'm making up some cinnamon toast if you'd like some!