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In addition to the earlier photos in the bus station, I waited for 18431 to do a complete lap of the 13 to Waddington and back so I could get both sides in the sun as it arrived in off the bridge, much like I did with 19317 just under a year ago. Managed to get a bit of light sunburn while waiting, but it was worth it in the end for what I think is Stagecoach East Midlands' first Local liveried ALX400.
23.4.21
Additions to the school fleet over the last few years have been Alexander and Northern Counties bodied Volvo Olympians from various Stagecoach fleets.
Seen departing the depot in the Stagecoach Skoolbus livery is new to London Alexander RH bodied Volvo Olympian R168VPU.
In addition to the padded and lined cuffs, ALL of the cuffs have rear metal bands that are covered with leather. ALL the cuffs have been copper riveted to the rear metal bands. These are for sale as well as other CUSTOM MADE leather or leather and metal bondage devices. Contact me at my1970junk@msn.com if you are interested
Phillip Mould:
The recent rediscovery of this important portrait represents a significant addition to the iconography of Henry VIII. Holbein’s emphatically dominating mural portrait of Henry VIII in the Royal Palace at Whitehall has come to define the image of Henry VIII as the strong, statuesque Tudor monarch. Its destruction by fire in the seventeenth century has meant that only two portraits of Henry VIII by Holbein himself survive: the much smaller and more intimate head and shoulders portrait in the Thyssen Collection; and one half of the cartoon for the mural, now in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
History’s most striking images of Henry have therefore depended on a small number of highly finished portraits produced by talented followers from within Holbein’s circle, and perhaps even his own workshop. It has long been thought that were only two high quality versions of the three-quarter length portrait derived from the Whitehall mural; one in the Royal Collection, and the other in the National Gallery of Art, Rome. The Hamilton portrait now represents a third version.
A lack of comparable technical evidence makes it difficult to ascertain if all three are by the same hand. All three versions are almost identical in pose and dimensions, suggesting that the same cartoon was used for each (the presence of pouncing marks under infra-red examination confirms that the Hamilton portrait was based on a cartoon). The three portraits also share Holbein’s trademark blue smalt background – but they differ in costume, confirming the apparent rule that no two commissioned portraits of a monarch should be identical. The dendrochronological suggestion of an earliest felling date of 1538 for the panels used in this portrait dates the portrait to well within Holbein’s lifetime. It seems, therefore, that although there is insufficient evidence on Holbein’s working practice to know if he certainly employed studio assistants, this portrait was undoubtedly completed by one who was well acquainted with his techniques and designs. Certainly, the fine detailing in this example rivals that of the Rome version (considered until recently to be by Holbein himself), while the drawing seen here, such as in the dagger’s hilt, is entirely redolent of the vigour and exquisite draughtmanship of Holbein’s own designs.
The provenance of this portrait is particularly important. This picture was sold by the present Duke of Hamilton & Brandon, marking the completion of a gradual dispersal of one of the greatest picture collections yet assembled in Britain. The dispersal began with a famous sale in 1882, with more sales following the demolition of Hamilton Palace in the 1930s. Until now, the present portrait has hung at Holyroodhouse, the Queen’s official residence in Scotland, of which the Dukes of Hamilton are hereditary Keepers.
The portrait is first recorded as being in the possession of James, 3rd Marquess of Hamilton KG, and later 1st Duke of Hamilton. He was a noted favourite of Charles I, the King signing his letters ‘Your faithful friend and loving cousin, Charles R’. Hamilton was not only an ardent Royalist, but, after Charles himself, perhaps the greatest art collectors of his generation – thought it should be remembered occasionally Hamilton and Charles’ mutual art collecting had positive political benefits for the Duke. Hamilton’s father was a noted collector, and his brother-in-law, Basil Feilding, was ambassador to Venice, and acted as art agent to him and the King. Between 1634-39 Hamilton purchased over 400 pieces, mostly through acquiring entire collections in Europe. He also bought works of art while campaigning in Germany, and gave, exchanged and sold paintings to Charles I (of which more below). As Master of the Horse and Gentleman to the King’s Bedchamber, Hamilton lived in Whitehall Palace, occupying a suite of about 20 rooms, as well as maintaining accommodation at Hampton Court, which he used to house part of his picture collection. He was building a large house in Chelsea, with a gallery to house his pictures, when the approaching Civil War intervened. Unable to resist acquiring works offered him; ‘[I am] to much bewitched with those intysing things’.’
As a great collecting family, the Hamiltons were astute in keeping inventories of their pictures. The earliest inventory is dated 1624, and lists the collection of the 1st Duke’s father, the 2nd Marquess. There is no mention here of a portrait of Henry VIII, nor in the subsequent inventories from between 1634-9, entitled ‘Note of pictures for my Lord Marquis from my Lord Fielding’. This would suggest that the picture was not in the collection of the 1st Duke’s father, and nor was it acquired from abroad.
An inventory [MSS5] dated pre- 1643 of the 1st Duke’s pictures, headed ‘A Catalogue of My Lord Marquis’s pictures’ lists over thirty cases (it is possible that this refers to pictures packed in cases for Hamilton’s journey from London to Scotland c. 1638, as tensions between King and Parliament grew.) Here the ‘Thirty One Case’ contains one ‘Kinge Harry 8th’. A later inventory dated 1643-49 [MSS6] contains a similar list of cases, but not a case 31. Instead there is ‘In the Closet’ a ‘King Henry, the 8 picture’ [location unstated]. An inventory dated 1704 [MSS12] ‘A List of His Grace’s the Duke of Hamiltons pictures in the Abby of Holyrood House, taken this 5 day of October 1704,as they are now hung an numbred, the numbers being on the forepart of some, and on the back of Others’, reveals, ‘In the Great Dining Roome’ of Holyroodhouse, a ‘square picture [no. 154] of King Hnery 8th a halfe length by Holbin.’ It seems almost certain therefore that the present portrait was acquired by the 1st Duke of Hamilton in the 1630s, and has hung in Holyrood since at least 1704.
The question then arises as to where the Duke of Hamilton acquired the portrait. First, it seems certain the picture did not come from Fielding’s purchases in Italy. Germany seems a possible, though unlikely, source with Hamilton writing to Charles I about acquiring paintings and sculptures in Munich . No detailed list survives of any purchases in Germany, however, and it seems most of these were acquired for Charles I. It therefore seems most likely that an English source is the most probable.
Though there is at present no documentary evidence that suggests a direct source, it is possible that the Hamilton portrait may have come from Charles I himself, not least because we know that Hamilton was at the nexus of art collecting in England with Charles from between 1620s to 1640s. There is plenty evidence of pictures being given or exchanged with the Hamilton in Van der Doort’s inventory of Charles I’s collection . Indeed, we know that Charles gave Hamilton’s father, the 2nd Marquess of Hamilton, a portrait by Holbein; Van der Doort tells us of a picture “Chaunged with the decd Lo. Marquess of Hambleton when yor Maatie was Prince” “Item a little intire Picture with a little white dogg lying by, said to be the Lord Daker – Comprtoller to King Henry the 8ts houshould” [p.78 in the Walpole edition, St James’ Cabinet Room no. 9] Van der Doort lists 13 pictures either given, exchanged, or bought by Charles I with the 1st Duke of Hamilton. Furthermore, the presence of Rubens’ Daniel in the Lions’ Den in the 1643 Hamilton inventory confirms that exchanges either continued between Charles I and Hamilton post the 1639 date of Van der Doort’s inventory (for it appears in the 1639 inventory of the Royal Collection with no note by Van der Doort of an exchange or gift to Hamilton) or that Van der Doort’s keeping of records was not overly accurate as far as Charles’ dealings with the Hamilton’s were concerned. It seems unlikely that the exchanges of art continued between Charles and Hamilton after the latter’s move to Scotland in 1638.
Though there is no direct evidence, for example in Van der Doort’s inventory of Charles I’s collection, of a Henry VIII passing from Charles I’s collections in Whitehall - but there were many other palaces from where exchanges or gifts could have been made. It seems that there is evidence from, for example, the inventories of King Edward VI, that there were a number of paintings of Henry VIII for Charles to exchange or give away. There are at least eight contemporary examples of what we would now call ‘portraits’ of Henry VIII in the Royal Collection in the mid sixteenth century. Two are of the King when young, one is listed as a ‘physionamy’ (head and shoulders), two are listed as ‘whole stature’, and one, intriguingly, as ‘nott finished’. The two portraits of Henry VIII when young were still in the Royal Collection in 1639. However, both the ‘whole statures’, the ‘nott finished’, the ‘physionomye’, the diptych, and one other portrait of Henry VIII appear to have left the Royal Collection according to Van der Doort. This supposition would appear to be confirmed by at most four portraits of Henry VIII in the Commonwealth Sales of the Royal Collection after the execution of Charles I.
p139 Scally, Political Career of James, Duke of Hamilton PhD thesis, Cambridge 1992
30th April 1632, SRO GD406/1/158, Burnet's Memoirs, p.28.
Walpole Soceity, 27th Volume 1958-1960, Abraham Van Der Doort’s Catalogue of the Collections of Charles I, edited by Oliver Millar.
Musée du Transport Urbain Bruxellois (MTUB asbl): this non-profit association has managed the Brussels Transport Museum since 1982. It is located in the Woluwe tram depot, and occupies four of the six warehouses. The other two are still used by around thirty STIB/MIVB trams, which provide service on lines 18, 38 and 44.
The Woluwe depot was inaugurated in 1897, together with the Tervueren Avenue tram line, put into service to meet the needs of the Universal Exhibition of that year. It was expanded between 1907 and 1908, eventually having capacity for 285 trams. In 1976, the first two warehouses of the depot were decommissioned, being progressively enabled to display the heritage vehicles of the Brussels network. This fledgling museum opened to the public for the first time in June 1977. After entrusting the management of the museum to the MTUB in 1982, and after its renovation between 2006 and 2009, today it is a very complete and well-kept exhibition venue, with a large number of vehicles and objects lovingly maintained by MTUB volunteer members.
In addition to the museum's exhibits, during weekends from April to September (and one weekend a month the rest of the year), museum volunteers operate several heritage tram and bus lines. Here we see bus number 8366, type 420 HA St2/1 built by Van Hool in 1963, about to depart on the heritage line towards Tervuren Station.
James Brown 1774-79, with alterations and additions. One of a rectangular plan classical style houses forming a terrace, now a series of university departments. Numbers 55-59 Craigleith droved ashlar; number 60 (shown) has interesting squared snecked pink and cream Craigmillar rubble sandstone with blue whin pinnings. Set on ground sloping north to south and forming the north east portion of George Square. Roman Doric doorcases (some with coupled columns) with elided friezes; number 60 with later Greek Ionic doorcase. Tall corniced gable stacks with yellow clay cans.
Numbers 55-60 George Square designed by the architect James Brown in 1766 and built from 1774-79 is an important surviving component of the square. The classical details and regulated style of windows give the terrace coherence although there is considerable variation in the materials used in construction. The concept of terraces with individual houses designed for occupation by one family was relatively new in Edinburgh where tenement living had been the norm and proved an immediate success with the aristocracy and leading citizens. This part of the square is little altered externally and while there have been a number successive occupants and uses, there are many surviving 18th century interior features.
Some small scale projects such as Brown Square also designed by James Brown and John Adam's Adam Square (both now demolished) had been built in the early 1760s in Edinburgh but George Square represents a milestone in the development of planning because of its size and the coherence of its design.
The conception of James Brown's George Square probably predates James Craig's New Town plan by a number of months. The Town Council of Edinburgh resolved to set up a subcommittee to develop the New Town project and to advertise a competition for a plan in January 1766. In May of that year competition entries were received and the results became known in August. However by comparison, James Brown had acquired the lands on which George Square is built in 1761 and the first occupant had moved into the square during 1766. The scheme must have been proposed some time before.
Project Name: Three Trees
Project Type: Addition and remodel to a house
Location: Eagle Rock, CA
Status: Completed 2008
Designer: Jeremy Levine Design
<a href="http://www.jeremylevine.com" rel="nofollow">www.jeremylevine.com</a>
01_A_3
Another recent addition to the Sanders service bus fleet is Wright Pulsar bodied VDL SB200 type number 408 and in this shot we see it passing along Runton Road in Cromer whilst working the above journey on service 44A. Sanders now operate nine examples of this type of vehicle and they are numbered from 400 upwards. Originally delivered new to Arriva Bus & Coach Sales, YJ60 GDX subsequently spent time in Malta as BUS 314 as well as going on loan to a number of operators; including Shetland based John Leask & Son of Lerwick. However, I believe it was on loan to the Arriva Midlands fleet immediately prior to joining Sanders. The cordoned off section of the cliff top Runton Road car park visible behind 408 has been used by contractors repairing Cromer’s sea front and sea defences, which were severely damaged during the tidal surge of December 2013.
Sanders introduced new timetables from 27th March 2016. From Monday to Friday the number of service 44A/X44 journeys between Sheringham and Norwich is increased from 24 to 26 each way. Of these 7 journeys to and 8 journeys from Norwich now follow the former Konectbus service 2 route by omitting Suffield Park and Aylsham. All Monday to Friday journeys have been retimed by a few minutes and it appears Woodland Rise West at Sheringham is no longer served.
The final production-line model of the DH-87 "Thunderbird" as flown by crew members of the Colonial Liberation Corps. While not heavily decorated beyond the standard grey color, this craft nevertheless features a representation of the CLC flag on it's starboard wing strut.
The DH-87 Thunderbird is the standard naval gunship, which can be outfitted as the DH-87A Thunderbird Heavy (referred to by crew members as the "Heavy Birds" or sometimes just "Heavies") and is equipped with two rail guns in addition to its standard armament.
The MH-87 Angel is the med-evac variant designed to quickly retrieve wounded soldiers from the battlefield and quickly bring them back to base to receive proper medical attention. This variant features a drastically reduced offensive armament in exchange for a higher top speed.
The X-87 Specter is the stealth variant of the Thunderbird. It features most of the weaponry of the standard DH-87 but with an added long-range radar/jammer. It features anti-reflective black armor coating and its engines are low-burn silent running thrusters (slower than the standard Thunderbird, but leaves extremely minimal vapor trail). Crew members of the Specter have often taken to calling it the "Spook". There is only one Specter left in the 5th fleet and it is berthed aboard the CLN Sabre.
This build satisfied the Ground Attack Aircraft category.
About Dr. Takeshi Yamada:
Educator, medical assistant, author and artist Takeshi Yamada was born and raised at a traditional and respectable house of samurai in Osaka, Japan in 1960. He studied art at Nakanoshima College of Art in Osaka, Japan. As an international exchange student of Osaka Art University, he moved to the United States in 1983 and studied art at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, CA and Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD in 1983-85, and completed his Bachelor of Fine Art degree in 1985.
Yamada obtained his Master of Fine Art Degree in 1987 at the University of Michigan, School of Art in Ann Arbor, MI. Yamada’s “Visual Anthropology Artworks” reflects unique, distinctive and often quickly disappearing culture around him. In 1987, Yamada moved to Chicago, and by 1990, Yamada successfully fused Eastern and Western visual culture and variety of cross-cultural mythology in urban allegories, and he became a major figure of the River North (“SUHU” district) art scene. During that time he also developed a provocative media persona and established his unique style of super-realism paintings furnishing ghostly images of people and optically enhanced pictorial structures. By 1990, his artworks were widely exhibited internationally. In 2000, Yamada moved to New York City.
Today, he is highly media-featured and internationally famed for his “rogue taxidermy” sculptures and large-scale installations, which he calls “specimens” rather than “artworks”. He also calls himself “super artist” and “gate keeper” rather than the “(self-expressing) artist“. His passion for Cabinet of Curiosities started when he was in kindergarten, collecting natural specimens and built his own Wunderkammer (German word to express “Cabinet of Curiosities“). At age eight, he started creating “rogue taxidermy monsters” such as two-headed lizards, by assembling different parts of animal carcasses.
Internationally, Yamada had over 600 major fine art exhibitions including 50 solo exhibitions including Spain, The Netherlands, Japan, Canada, Columbia, and the United States. Yamada also taught classes and made public speeches at over 40 educational institutions including American Museum of Natural History, Louisiana State Museum, Laurenand Rogers Museum of Art, International Museum of Surgical Science, University of Minnesota, Montana State University, Eastern Oregon University, Illinois Institute of Technology, Mount Vernon Nazarene College, Salem State College, Osaka College of Arts, Chemeketa Community College, Maryland Institute College of Art, etc. Yamada’s artworks are collection of over 30 museums and universities in addition to hundreds of corporate/private art collectors internationally. Yamada and his artworks were featured in over 400 video websites. In addition, rogue taxidermy artworks, sideshow gaffs, cryptozoological artworks, large sideshow banners and showfronts created by Yamada in the last 40 years have been exhibited at over 100 of state fairs and festivals annually nationwide, up to and including the present.
Yamada won numerous prestigious awards and honors i.e., “International Man of the Year”, “Outstanding Artists and Designers of the 20th Century”, “2000 Outstanding Intellectuals of the 21st Century”, “International Educator of the Year”, “One Thousand Great Americans”, “Outstanding People of the 20th Century”, “21st Century Award for Achievement”, “Who’s Who in America” and “Who’s Who in The World”. The Mayors of New Orleans, Louisiana and Gary, Indiana awarded him the “Key to the City”. Yamada’s artworks are collections of many museums and universities/colleges i.e., Louisiana State Museum, New Orleans Museum of Art, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Chicago Athenaeum Museum, Eastern Oregon University, Montana State University and Ohio State University.
Yamada was profiled in numerous TV programs in the United States, Japan and Philippine, Columbia, i.e., A&E History Channel, Brooklyn Cable Access Television, “Chicago’s Very Own” in Chicago, “Takeshi Yamada’s Divine Comedy” in New Orleans, and Chicago Public Television’s Channel ID. Yamada also published 22 books based on his each major fine art projects i.e., “Homage to the Horseshoe Crab”, Medical Journal of the Artist”, “Graphic Works 1996-1999”, “Phantom City”, “Divine Comedy”, “Miniatures”, “Louisville”, “Visual Anthropology 2000”, “Heaven and Hell”, “Citizen Kings” and “Dukes and Saints” in the United States. In prints, Yamada and his artworks have been featured in numerous books, magazine and newspapers internationally i.e., The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time out New York (full page color interview), Washington Times, The Fine Art Index, New American Paintings, Village Voice 9full page interview), Chicago Art Scene (front cover), Chicago Tribune Magazine (major color article), Chicago Japanese American News, Strong Coffee, Reader, Milwaukee Journal, Clarion, Kaleidoscope, Laurel Leader-Call, The Advertiser News, Times-Picayune (front page, major color articles), Michigan Alumnus (major color article), Michigan Today (major color article), Mardi Gras Guide (major color article), The Ann Arbor News (front covers), Park Slope Courier (color pages), 24/7 (color pages), Brooklyn Free Press (front cover) and The World Tribune.
(updated November 24, 2012)
Reference (videos featuring sea rabbits and Dr. Takeshi Yamada):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ek-GsW9ay0
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJK04yQUX2o&feature=related
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrCCxV5S-EE
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0QnW26dQKg&feature=related
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpVCqEjFXk0
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NlcIZTFIj8&feature=fvw
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UPzGvwq57g
s87.photobucket.com/albums/k130/katiecavell/NYC%2008/Coney%20Island/?action=view¤t=SeaRabbitVid.mp4
www.animalnewyork.com/2012/what-are-you-doing-tonight-con...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeAdsChmSR8
Reference (sea rabbit artifacts)
www.wondersandmarvels.com/2012/06/coney-island-sea-rabbit...
www.flickr.com/photos/searabbit3/5417188428/in/photostream
www.flickr.com/photos/searabbit3/5417189548/in/photostream
www.flickr.com/photos/searabbit3/5416579163/in/photostream
www.flickr.com/photos/searabbit3/5417191794/in/photostream
www.flickr.com/photos/searabbit3/5417192426/in/photostream
www.flickr.com/photos/searabbit3/5417192938/in/photostream
Reference (flickr):
www.flickr.com/photos/searabbit15/
www.flickr.com/photos/searabbit14/
www.flickr.com/photos/searabbit13
www.flickr.com/photos/searabbit12
www.flickr.com/photos/searabbit11
www.flickr.com/photos/searabbit10
www.flickr.com/photos/searabbit9/
www.flickr.com/photos/searabbit8/
www.flickr.com/photos/searabbit7
www.flickr.com/photos/searabbit6
www.flickr.com/photos/searabbit5/
www.flickr.com/photos/searabbit4/
www.flickr.com/photos/searabbit3/
www.flickr.com/photos/searabbit2/
www.flickr.com/photos/searabbit1/
www.flickr.com/photos/museumofworldwonders3/
www.flickr.com/photos/museumofworldwonders2
www.flickr.com/photos/museumofworldwonders/
www.flickr.com/photos/takeshiyamadapaintings/
Reference (newspaper articles and reviews):
www.amctv.com/shows/immortalized/about
blogs.amctv.com/photo-galleries/immortalized-cast-photos/...
online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704828104576021750...
www.villagevoice.com/2006-11-07/nyc-life/the-stuffing-dre...
karlshuker.blogspot.com/2011/06/giant-sea-serpents-and-ch...
amusingthezillion.com/2011/12/08/takeshi-yamadas-jersey-d...
amusingthezillion.com/2010/12/07/art-of-the-day-freak-tax...
amusingthezillion.com/2010/10/27/oct-29-at-coney-island-l...
amusingthezillion.com/2010/09/18/photo-of-the-day-takeshi...
amusingthezillion.com/2009/11/07/thru-dec-31-at-coney-isl...
4strange.blogspot.com/2009/02/ten-of-takeshi-yamada-colle...
www.flickr.com/photos/museumofworldwonders/5440224421/siz...
Reference (fine art websites):
www.roguetaxidermy.com/members_detail.php?id=528
www.brooklynartproject.com/photo/photo/listForContributor...
www.bsagarts.org/member-listing/takeshi-yamada/
www.horseshoecrab.org/poem/feature/takeshi.html
www.artfagcity.com/2012/09/06/recommended-go-brooklyn-stu...
Reference (other videos):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=otSh91iC3C4
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhIR-lz1Mrs
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BttREu63Ksg
(updated November 24, 2012)
Vintage Fly In at Eagle Valley Days in Richland Oregon
A fun addition to the Eagle Valley Days festivities with this vintage fly in. Love seeing all these old planes fly in to this rural airstrip for the day.
Eagle Valley days is just one of the many small town festivals along the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway in the town of Richland, near Baker City Oregon.
Eagle Valley Days is a quintessential small town festival celebrating the community's deep agricultural and working west heritage with a parade down Main Street, community BBBQ, classic cars and airplanes, and lots of family entertainment and games. Classic Americana at its best in Baker County Oregon.
The Oregon’s Hells Canyon Scenic Byway is a loop that encircles the Wallowa Mountains, beginning and ending at Baker City. Small towns along the way including Richland, and Halfway, offer visitor services and a chance to explore small town Americana while exploring a diverse and scenic landscape including the deepest river gorge in North America, lush valleys, rolling farmlands, and the spectacular Wallowa Mountains.
For more information about the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway, or any of the three Oregon Scenic Byways in Baker County, and other small town festivals, visit the Baker County Tourism website at www.travelbakercounty.com
Just a couple hours after arriving in San Francisco, I met my friend Scott (Contimental) and we walked over to Alamo Square where we caught one of the most photographed locations in the city.
Afterwards we strolled a few blocks to " r n m " where we dined on the grilled hearts of romaine with fuji apples, saint agur blue cheese, toasted hazelnuts and champagne vinaigrette, the san danielle prosciutto and midnight moon goat cheese pizza with baby artichoke tapenade and lemon oil, and finished with the brownie sundae with vanilla, bittersweet chocolate and dulce de leche ice cream, ganache, brandied cherries and whipped cream.
An amazing city, fabulous food, in addition to enjoying the company of a fellow photographer and classic car lover, makes for one extra special evening.
Thanks again, Scott!
could it be an in-law suite? a library? a studio? an office? at first i thought that the addition might have been a converted garage like the other house i had seen (see first comment box), but on this one the foundation doesn't seem right.
ANSH scavenger6 wall/fence
Varosha - Maras is the southern quarter of the Famagusta, a de jure territory of Cyprus, currently under the control of Northern Cyprus. Varosha has a population of 226 in the 2011 Northern Cyprus census. The area of Varosha is 6.19 km2 (2.39 sq mi).
The name of Varosha derives from the Turkish word varoş (Ottoman Turkish: واروش, 'suburb'). The place where Varosha is located now was empty fields in which animals grazed.
In the early 1970s, Famagusta was the number-one tourist destination in Cyprus. To cater to the increasing number of tourists, many new high-rise buildings and hotels were constructed. During its heyday, Varosha was not only the number-one tourist destination in Cyprus, but between 1970 and 1974, it was one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world and was a favorite destination of such celebrities as Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Raquel Welch, and Brigitte Bardot.
Before 1974, Varosha was the modern tourist area of the Famagusta city. Its Greek Cypriot inhabitants fled during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, when the city of Famagusta came under Turkish control, and it has remained abandoned ever since. In 1984 a U.N. resolution called for the handover of the city to UN control and said that only the original inhabitants, who were forced out, could resettle in the town.
Entry to part of Varosha was opened to civilians in 2017.
In August 1974, the Turkish Army advanced as far as the Green Line, a UN-patrolled demilitarized zone between the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, and controlled and fenced Varosha. Just hours before the Greek Cypriot and Turkish armies met in combat on the streets of Famagusta, the entire Greek Cypriot population fled to Paralimni, Dherynia, and Larnaca, fearing a massacre. The evacuation was aided and orchestrated by the nearby British military base. Paralimni has since become the modern-day capital of the Famagusta province of Greek Cypriot-led Cyprus.
The Turkish Army has allowed the entry of only Turkish military and United Nations personnel since 2017.
One such settlement plan was the Annan Plan to reunify the island that provided for the return of Varosha to the original residents. But this was rejected by Greek Cypriots in a 2004 referendum. The UN Security Council Resolution 550 states that it "considers attempts to settle any part of Varosha by people other than its inhabitants as inadmissible and calls for the transfer of this area to the administration of the United Nations".
The European Court of Human Rights awarded between €100,000 and €8,000,000 to eight Greek Cypriots for being deprived of their homes and properties as a result of the 1974 invasion. The case was filed jointly by businessman Constantinos Lordos and others, with the principal judgement in the Lordos case dating back to November 2010. The court ruled that, in the case of eight of the applicants, Turkey had violated Article 1 of Protocol 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights on the right of peaceful enjoyment of one's possessions, and in the case of seven of the applicants, Turkey had violated Article 8 on the right to respect for private and family life.
In the absence of human habitation and maintenance, buildings continue to decay. Over time, parts of the city have begun to be reclaimed by nature as metal corrodes, windows are broken, and plants work their roots into the walls and pavement and grow wild in old window boxes. In 2014, the BBC reported that sea turtles were observed nesting on the beaches in the city.
During the Cyprus Missile Crisis (1997–1998), the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktaş, threatened to take over Varosha if the Cypriot government did not back down.
The main features of Varosha included John F. Kennedy Avenue, a street which ran from close to the port of Famagusta, through Varosha and parallel to Glossa beach. Along JFK Avenue, there were many well known high rise hotels including the King George Hotel, The Asterias Hotel, The Grecian Hotel, The Florida Hotel, and The Argo Hotel which was the favourite hotel of Elizabeth Taylor. The Argo Hotel is located near the end of JFK Avenue, looking towards Protaras and Fig Tree Bay. Another major street in Varosha was Leonidas (Greek: Λεωνίδας), a major street that came off JFK Avenue and headed west towards Vienna Corner. Leonidas was a major shopping and leisure street in Varosha, consisting of bars, restaurants, nightclubs, and a Toyota car dealership.
According to Greek Cypriots, 425 plots exist on the Varosha beach front, which extends from the Contandia hotel to the Golden Sands hotel. The complete number of plots in Varosha are 6082.
There are 281 cases of Greek Cypriots who filed to the Immovable Property Commission (IPC) of Northern Cyprus for compensation.
In 2020, Greek Cypriot Demetrios Hadjihambis filed a lawsuit seeking state compensation for financial losses.
The population of Varosha was 226 in the 2011 Northern Cyprus census.
In 2017, Varosha's beach was opened for the exclusive use of Turks (both Turkish Cypriots and Turkish nationals).
In 2019, the Government of Northern Cyprus announced it would open Varosha to settlement. On 14 November 2019, Ersin Tatar, the prime minister of Northern Cyprus, announced that Northern Cyprus aims to open Varosha by the end of 2020.
On 25 July 2019, Varosha Inventory Commission of Northern Cyprus started its inventory analysis on the buildings and other infrastructure in Varosha.
On 9 December 2019, Ibrahim Benter, the Director-General of the Turkish Cypriot EVKAF religious foundation's administration, declared all of Maraş/Varosha to be the property of EVKAF. Benter said "EVKAF can sign renting contracts with Greek Cypriots if they accept that the fenced-off town belongs to the Evkaf."
In 2019–20, inventory studies of buildings by the Government of Northern Cyprus were concluded. On 15 February 2020, the Turkish Bar Association organised a round table meeting at the Sandy Beach Hotel in Varosha, which was attended by Turkish officials (Vice President Fuat Oktay and Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gül), Turkish Cypriot officials, representatives of the Turkish Cypriot religious foundation Evkaf, and Turkish and Turkish Cypriot lawyers.
On 22 February 2020, Cyprus declared it would veto European Union funds to Turkish Cypriots if Varosha were opened to settlement.
On 6 October 2020, Ersin Tatar, the Prime Minister of Northern Cyprus, announced that the beach area of Varosha would reopen to the public on 8 October 2020. Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said Turkey fully supported the decision. The move came ahead of the 2020 Northern Cypriot presidential election, in which Tatar was a candidate. Deputy Prime Minister Kudret Özersay, who had worked on the reopening previously, said that this was not a full reopening of the area, that this was just a unilateral election stunt by Tatar. His People's Party withdrew from the Tatar cabinet, leading to the collapse of the Turkish Cypriot government. The EU's diplomatic chief condemned the plan and described it as a "serious violation" of the U.N. ceasefire agreement. In addition, he asked Turkey to stop this activity. The U.N. Secretary-General expressed concern over Turkey's decision.
On 8 October 2020, some parts of Varosha were opened from the Officers' Club of Turkish and Turkish Cypriot Army to the Golden Sands Hotel.
In November 2020, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Turkey's ambassador to Nicosia, visited Varosha. In addition, the main avenue in Varosha has been renamed after Semih Sancar, Chief of the General Staff of Turkey from 1973 to 1978, a period including the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
The European Parliament on 27 November, asked Turkey to reverse its decision to re-open part of Varosha and resume negotiations aimed at resolving the Cyprus problem on the basis of a bi-communal, bi-zonal federation and called on the European Union to impose sanctions against Turkey, if things do not change. Turkey rejected the resolution, adding that Turkey will continue to protect both its own rights and those of Turkish Cypriots. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus presidency also condemned the resolution.
On 20 July 2021, Tatar, the president of Northern Cyprus announced the start of the 2nd phase of the opening of Varosha. He encouraged Greek Cypriots to apply Immovable Property Commission of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to claim their properties back if they have any such rights.
Bilal Aga Mosque, constructed in 1821 and taken out of service in 1974, was re-opened on 23 July 2021.
In response to a decision by the government of Turkish Cyprus, the presidential statement of the United Nations Security Council dated on 23 July said that settling any part of the abandoned Cypriot suburb of Varosha, "by people other than its inhabitants, is 'inadmissible'." The same day, Turkey rejected the presidential statement of the UNSC on Maras (Varosha), and said that these statements were based on Greek-Greek Cypriot propaganda, were groundless and unfounded claims, and inconsistent with the realities on the Island. On 24 July 2021, the presidency of Northern Cyprus condemned the presidential statement of the UNSC dated on 23 July, and stated that "We see and condemn it as an attempt to create an obstacle for the property-rights-holders in Varosha to achieve their rights".
By 1 January 2022, nearly 400,000 people had visited Varosha since its opening to civilians on 6 October 2020.
On 19 May 2022, Northern Cyprus opened a 600m long X 400m wide stretch of beach on the Golden Sands beach (from the King George Hotel to the Oceania Building) in Varosha for commercial use. Sun beds and umbrellas were installed.
UNFICYP said it would raise the decision taken by Turkish Cypriot authorities to open that stretch of beach in Varosha with the Security Council, spokesperson for the peacekeeping force Aleem Siddique said on Friday. The UN announced its "position on Varosha is unchanged and we are monitoring the situation closely".
In October 2022, the Turkish Cypriots announced that public institutions will be opened in the city.
In April 2023, Cleo Hotel, the 7-floor Golden Seaside Hotel, and the 3-star Aegean Hotel were purchased by a Turkish Cypriot businessman (from their Greek Cypriot owners) who will operate them within 2025.
On 10 August 2023, the Government of Northern Cyprus decided to construct a marina and tourist facility in Varosha.
Varosha was analyzed by Alan Weisman in his book The World Without Us as an example of the unstoppable power of nature.
Filmmaker Greek Cypriot Michael Cacoyannis described the city and interviewed its exiled citizens in the film Attilas '74, produced in 1975.
In 2021, the Belarusian group Main-De-Gloire dedicated a song to this city that has become a ghostly place.
Northern Cyprus, officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is a de facto state that comprises the northeastern portion of the island of Cyprus. It is recognised only by Turkey, and its territory is considered by all other states to be part of the Republic of Cyprus.
Northern Cyprus extends from the tip of the Karpass Peninsula in the northeast to Morphou Bay, Cape Kormakitis and its westernmost point, the Kokkina exclave in the west. Its southernmost point is the village of Louroujina. A buffer zone under the control of the United Nations stretches between Northern Cyprus and the rest of the island and divides Nicosia, the island's largest city and capital of both sides.
A coup d'état in 1974, performed as part of an attempt to annex the island to Greece, prompted the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. This resulted in the eviction of much of the north's Greek Cypriot population, the flight of Turkish Cypriots from the south, and the partitioning of the island, leading to a unilateral declaration of independence by the north in 1983. Due to its lack of recognition, Northern Cyprus is heavily dependent on Turkey for economic, political and military support.
Attempts to reach a solution to the Cyprus dispute have been unsuccessful. The Turkish Army maintains a large force in Northern Cyprus with the support and approval of the TRNC government, while the Republic of Cyprus, the European Union as a whole, and the international community regard it as an occupation force. This military presence has been denounced in several United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Northern Cyprus is a semi-presidential, democratic republic with a cultural heritage incorporating various influences and an economy that is dominated by the services sector. The economy has seen growth through the 2000s and 2010s, with the GNP per capita more than tripling in the 2000s, but is held back by an international embargo due to the official closure of the ports in Northern Cyprus by the Republic of Cyprus. The official language is Turkish, with a distinct local dialect being spoken. The vast majority of the population consists of Sunni Muslims, while religious attitudes are mostly moderate and secular. Northern Cyprus is an observer state of ECO and OIC under the name "Turkish Cypriot State", PACE under the name "Turkish Cypriot Community", and Organization of Turkic States with its own name.
Several distinct periods of Cypriot intercommunal violence involving the two main ethnic communities, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, marked mid-20th century Cyprus. These included the Cyprus Emergency of 1955–59 during British rule, the post-independence Cyprus crisis of 1963–64, and the Cyprus crisis of 1967. Hostilities culminated in the 1974 de facto division of the island along the Green Line following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. The region has been relatively peaceful since then, but the Cyprus dispute has continued, with various attempts to solve it diplomatically having been generally unsuccessful.
Cyprus, an island lying in the eastern Mediterranean, hosted a population of Greeks and Turks (four-fifths and one-fifth, respectively), who lived under British rule in the late nineteenth-century and the first half of the twentieth-century. Christian Orthodox Church of Cyprus played a prominent political role among the Greek Cypriot community, a privilege that it acquired during the Ottoman Empire with the employment of the millet system, which gave the archbishop an unofficial ethnarch status.
The repeated rejections by the British of Greek Cypriot demands for enosis, union with Greece, led to armed resistance, organised by the National Organization of Cypriot Struggle, or EOKA. EOKA, led by the Greek-Cypriot commander George Grivas, systematically targeted British colonial authorities. One of the effects of EOKA's campaign was to alter the Turkish position from demanding full reincorporation into Turkey to a demand for taksim (partition). EOKA's mission and activities caused a "Cretan syndrome" (see Turkish Resistance Organisation) within the Turkish Cypriot community, as its members feared that they would be forced to leave the island in such a case as had been the case with Cretan Turks. As such, they preferred the continuation of British colonial rule and then taksim, the division of the island. Due to the Turkish Cypriots' support for the British, EOKA's leader, Georgios Grivas, declared them to be enemies. The fact that the Turks were a minority was, according to Nihat Erim, to be addressed by the transfer of thousands of Turks from mainland Turkey so that Greek Cypriots would cease to be the majority. When Erim visited Cyprus as the Turkish representative, he was advised by Field Marshal Sir John Harding, the then Governor of Cyprus, that Turkey should send educated Turks to settle in Cyprus.
Turkey actively promoted the idea that on the island of Cyprus two distinctive communities existed, and sidestepped its former claim that "the people of Cyprus were all Turkish subjects". In doing so, Turkey's aim to have self-determination of two to-be equal communities in effect led to de jure partition of the island.[citation needed] This could be justified to the international community against the will of the majority Greek population of the island. Dr. Fazil Küçük in 1954 had already proposed Cyprus be divided in two at the 35° parallel.
Lindley Dan, from Notre Dame University, spotted the roots of intercommunal violence to different visions among the two communities of Cyprus (enosis for Greek Cypriots, taksim for Turkish Cypriots). Also, Lindlay wrote that "the merging of church, schools/education, and politics in divisive and nationalistic ways" had played a crucial role in creation of havoc in Cyprus' history. Attalides Michael also pointed to the opposing nationalisms as the cause of the Cyprus problem.
By the mid-1950's, the "Cyprus is Turkish" party, movement, and slogan gained force in both Cyprus and Turkey. In a 1954 editorial, Turkish Cypriot leader Dr. Fazil Kuchuk expressed the sentiment that the Turkish youth had grown up with the idea that "as soon as Great Britain leaves the island, it will be taken over by the Turks", and that "Turkey cannot tolerate otherwise". This perspective contributed to the willingness of Turkish Cypriots to align themselves with the British, who started recruiting Turkish Cypriots into the police force that patrolled Cyprus to fight EOKA, a Greek Cypriot nationalist organisation that sought to rid the island of British rule.
EOKA targeted colonial authorities, including police, but Georgios Grivas, the leader of EOKA, did not initially wish to open up a new front by fighting Turkish Cypriots and reassured them that EOKA would not harm their people. In 1956, some Turkish Cypriot policemen were killed by EOKA members and this provoked some intercommunal violence in the spring and summer, but these attacks on policemen were not motivated by the fact that they were Turkish Cypriots.
However, in January 1957, Grivas changed his policy as his forces in the mountains became increasingly pressured by the British Crown forces. In order to divert the attention of the Crown forces, EOKA members started to target Turkish Cypriot policemen intentionally in the towns, so that Turkish Cypriots would riot against the Greek Cypriots and the security forces would have to be diverted to the towns to restore order. The killing of a Turkish Cypriot policeman on 19 January, when a power station was bombed, and the injury of three others, provoked three days of intercommunal violence in Nicosia. The two communities targeted each other in reprisals, at least one Greek Cypriot was killed and the British Army was deployed in the streets. Greek Cypriot stores were burned and their neighbourhoods attacked. Following the events, the Greek Cypriot leadership spread the propaganda that the riots had merely been an act of Turkish Cypriot aggression. Such events created chaos and drove the communities apart both in Cyprus and in Turkey.
On 22 October 1957 Sir Hugh Mackintosh Foot replaced Sir John Harding as the British Governor of Cyprus. Foot suggested five to seven years of self-government before any final decision. His plan rejected both enosis and taksim. The Turkish Cypriot response to this plan was a series of anti-British demonstrations in Nicosia on 27 and 28 January 1958 rejecting the proposed plan because the plan did not include partition. The British then withdrew the plan.
In 1957, Black Gang, a Turkish Cypriot pro-taksim paramilitary organisation, was formed to patrol a Turkish Cypriot enclave, the Tahtakale district of Nicosia, against activities of EOKA. The organisation later attempted to grow into a national scale, but failed to gain public support.
By 1958, signs of dissatisfaction with the British increased on both sides, with a group of Turkish Cypriots forming Volkan (later renamed to the Turkish Resistance Organisation) paramilitary group to promote partition and the annexation of Cyprus to Turkey as dictated by the Menderes plan. Volkan initially consisted of roughly 100 members, with the stated aim of raising awareness in Turkey of the Cyprus issue and courting military training and support for Turkish Cypriot fighters from the Turkish government.
In June 1958, the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, was expected to propose a plan to resolve the Cyprus issue. In light of the new development, the Turks rioted in Nicosia to promote the idea that Greek and Turkish Cypriots could not live together and therefore any plan that did not include partition would not be viable. This violence was soon followed by bombing, Greek Cypriot deaths and looting of Greek Cypriot-owned shops and houses. Greek and Turkish Cypriots started to flee mixed population villages where they were a minority in search of safety. This was effectively the beginning of the segregation of the two communities. On 7 June 1958, a bomb exploded at the entrance of the Turkish Embassy in Cyprus. Following the bombing, Turkish Cypriots looted Greek Cypriot properties. On 26 June 1984, the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktaş, admitted on British channel ITV that the bomb was placed by the Turks themselves in order to create tension. On 9 January 1995, Rauf Denktaş repeated his claim to the famous Turkish newspaper Milliyet in Turkey.
The crisis reached a climax on 12 June 1958, when eight Greeks, out of an armed group of thirty five arrested by soldiers of the Royal Horse Guards on suspicion of preparing an attack on the Turkish quarter of Skylloura, were killed in a suspected attack by Turkish Cypriot locals, near the village of Geunyeli, having been ordered to walk back to their village of Kondemenos.
After the EOKA campaign had begun, the British government successfully began to turn the Cyprus issue from a British colonial problem into a Greek-Turkish issue. British diplomacy exerted backstage influence on the Adnan Menderes government, with the aim of making Turkey active in Cyprus. For the British, the attempt had a twofold objective. The EOKA campaign would be silenced as quickly as possible, and Turkish Cypriots would not side with Greek Cypriots against the British colonial claims over the island, which would thus remain under the British. The Turkish Cypriot leadership visited Menderes to discuss the Cyprus issue. When asked how the Turkish Cypriots should respond to the Greek Cypriot claim of enosis, Menderes replied: "You should go to the British foreign minister and request the status quo be prolonged, Cyprus to remain as a British colony". When the Turkish Cypriots visited the British Foreign Secretary and requested for Cyprus to remain a colony, he replied: "You should not be asking for colonialism at this day and age, you should be asking for Cyprus be returned to Turkey, its former owner".
As Turkish Cypriots began to look to Turkey for protection, Greek Cypriots soon understood that enosis was extremely unlikely. The Greek Cypriot leader, Archbishop Makarios III, now set independence for the island as his objective.
Britain resolved to solve the dispute by creating an independent Cyprus. In 1959, all involved parties signed the Zurich Agreements: Britain, Turkey, Greece, and the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders, Makarios and Dr. Fazil Kucuk, respectively. The new constitution drew heavily on the ethnic composition of the island. The President would be a Greek Cypriot, and the Vice-President a Turkish Cypriot with an equal veto. The contribution to the public service would be set at a ratio of 70:30, and the Supreme Court would consist of an equal number of judges from both communities as well as an independent judge who was not Greek, Turkish or British. The Zurich Agreements were supplemented by a number of treaties. The Treaty of Guarantee stated that secession or union with any state was forbidden, and that Greece, Turkey and Britain would be given guarantor status to intervene if that was violated. The Treaty of Alliance allowed for two small Greek and Turkish military contingents to be stationed on the island, and the Treaty of Establishment gave Britain sovereignty over two bases in Akrotiri and Dhekelia.
On 15 August 1960, the Colony of Cyprus became fully independent as the Republic of Cyprus. The new republic remained within the Commonwealth of Nations.
The new constitution brought dissatisfaction to Greek Cypriots, who felt it to be highly unjust for them for historical, demographic and contributional reasons. Although 80% of the island's population were Greek Cypriots and these indigenous people had lived on the island for thousands of years and paid 94% of taxes, the new constitution was giving the 17% of the population that was Turkish Cypriots, who paid 6% of taxes, around 30% of government jobs and 40% of national security jobs.
Within three years tensions between the two communities in administrative affairs began to show. In particular disputes over separate municipalities and taxation created a deadlock in government. A constitutional court ruled in 1963 Makarios had failed to uphold article 173 of the constitution which called for the establishment of separate municipalities for Turkish Cypriots. Makarios subsequently declared his intention to ignore the judgement, resulting in the West German judge resigning from his position. Makarios proposed thirteen amendments to the constitution, which would have had the effect of resolving most of the issues in the Greek Cypriot favour. Under the proposals, the President and Vice-President would lose their veto, the separate municipalities as sought after by the Turkish Cypriots would be abandoned, the need for separate majorities by both communities in passing legislation would be discarded and the civil service contribution would be set at actual population ratios (82:18) instead of the slightly higher figure for Turkish Cypriots.
The intention behind the amendments has long been called into question. The Akritas plan, written in the height of the constitutional dispute by the Greek Cypriot interior minister Polycarpos Georkadjis, called for the removal of undesirable elements of the constitution so as to allow power-sharing to work. The plan envisaged a swift retaliatory attack on Turkish Cypriot strongholds should Turkish Cypriots resort to violence to resist the measures, stating "In the event of a planned or staged Turkish attack, it is imperative to overcome it by force in the shortest possible time, because if we succeed in gaining command of the situation (in one or two days), no outside, intervention would be either justified or possible." Whether Makarios's proposals were part of the Akritas plan is unclear, however it remains that sentiment towards enosis had not completely disappeared with independence. Makarios described independence as "a step on the road to enosis".[31] Preparations for conflict were not entirely absent from Turkish Cypriots either, with right wing elements still believing taksim (partition) the best safeguard against enosis.
Greek Cypriots however believe the amendments were a necessity stemming from a perceived attempt by Turkish Cypriots to frustrate the working of government. Turkish Cypriots saw it as a means to reduce their status within the state from one of co-founder to that of minority, seeing it as a first step towards enosis. The security situation deteriorated rapidly.
Main articles: Bloody Christmas (1963) and Battle of Tillyria
An armed conflict was triggered after December 21, 1963, a period remembered by Turkish Cypriots as Bloody Christmas, when a Greek Cypriot policemen that had been called to help deal with a taxi driver refusing officers already on the scene access to check the identification documents of his customers, took out his gun upon arrival and shot and killed the taxi driver and his partner. Eric Solsten summarised the events as follows: "a Greek Cypriot police patrol, ostensibly checking identification documents, stopped a Turkish Cypriot couple on the edge of the Turkish quarter. A hostile crowd gathered, shots were fired, and two Turkish Cypriots were killed."
In the morning after the shooting, crowds gathered in protest in Northern Nicosia, likely encouraged by the TMT, without incident. On the evening of the 22nd, gunfire broke out, communication lines to the Turkish neighbourhoods were cut, and the Greek Cypriot police occupied the nearby airport. On the 23rd, a ceasefire was negotiated, but did not hold. Fighting, including automatic weapons fire, between Greek and Turkish Cypriots and militias increased in Nicosia and Larnaca. A force of Greek Cypriot irregulars led by Nikos Sampson entered the Nicosia suburb of Omorphita and engaged in heavy firing on armed, as well as by some accounts unarmed, Turkish Cypriots. The Omorphita clash has been described by Turkish Cypriots as a massacre, while this view has generally not been acknowledged by Greek Cypriots.
Further ceasefires were arranged between the two sides, but also failed. By Christmas Eve, the 24th, Britain, Greece, and Turkey had joined talks, with all sides calling for a truce. On Christmas day, Turkish fighter jets overflew Nicosia in a show of support. Finally it was agreed to allow a force of 2,700 British soldiers to help enforce a ceasefire. In the next days, a "buffer zone" was created in Nicosia, and a British officer marked a line on a map with green ink, separating the two sides of the city, which was the beginning of the "Green Line". Fighting continued across the island for the next several weeks.
In total 364 Turkish Cypriots and 174 Greek Cypriots were killed during the violence. 25,000 Turkish Cypriots from 103-109 villages fled and were displaced into enclaves and thousands of Turkish Cypriot houses were ransacked or completely destroyed.
Contemporary newspapers also reported on the forceful exodus of the Turkish Cypriots from their homes. According to The Times in 1964, threats, shootings and attempts of arson were committed against the Turkish Cypriots to force them out of their homes. The Daily Express wrote that "25,000 Turks have already been forced to leave their homes". The Guardian reported a massacre of Turks at Limassol on 16 February 1964.
Turkey had by now readied its fleet and its fighter jets appeared over Nicosia. Turkey was dissuaded from direct involvement by the creation of a United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) in 1964. Despite the negotiated ceasefire in Nicosia, attacks on the Turkish Cypriot persisted, particularly in Limassol. Concerned about the possibility of a Turkish invasion, Makarios undertook the creation of a Greek Cypriot conscript-based army called the "National Guard". A general from Greece took charge of the army, whilst a further 20,000 well-equipped officers and men were smuggled from Greece into Cyprus. Turkey threatened to intervene once more, but was prevented by a strongly worded letter from the American President Lyndon B. Johnson, anxious to avoid a conflict between NATO allies Greece and Turkey at the height of the Cold War.
Turkish Cypriots had by now established an important bridgehead at Kokkina, provided with arms, volunteers and materials from Turkey and abroad. Seeing this incursion of foreign weapons and troops as a major threat, the Cypriot government invited George Grivas to return from Greece as commander of the Greek troops on the island and launch a major attack on the bridgehead. Turkey retaliated by dispatching its fighter jets to bomb Greek positions, causing Makarios to threaten an attack on every Turkish Cypriot village on the island if the bombings did not cease. The conflict had now drawn in Greece and Turkey, with both countries amassing troops on their Thracian borders. Efforts at mediation by Dean Acheson, a former U.S. Secretary of State, and UN-appointed mediator Galo Plaza had failed, all the while the division of the two communities becoming more apparent. Greek Cypriot forces were estimated at some 30,000, including the National Guard and the large contingent from Greece. Defending the Turkish Cypriot enclaves was a force of approximately 5,000 irregulars, led by a Turkish colonel, but lacking the equipment and organisation of the Greek forces.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations in 1964, U Thant, reported the damage during the conflicts:
UNFICYP carried out a detailed survey of all damage to properties throughout the island during the disturbances; it shows that in 109 villages, most of them Turkish-Cypriot or mixed villages, 527 houses have been destroyed while 2,000 others have suffered damage from looting.
The situation worsened in 1967, when a military junta overthrew the democratically elected government of Greece, and began applying pressure on Makarios to achieve enosis. Makarios, not wishing to become part of a military dictatorship or trigger a Turkish invasion, began to distance himself from the goal of enosis. This caused tensions with the junta in Greece as well as George Grivas in Cyprus. Grivas's control over the National Guard and Greek contingent was seen as a threat to Makarios's position, who now feared a possible coup.[citation needed] The National Guard and Cyprus Police began patrolling the Turkish Cypriot enclaves of Ayios Theodoros and Kophinou, and on November 15 engaged in heavy fighting with the Turkish Cypriots.
By the time of his withdrawal 26 Turkish Cypriots had been killed. Turkey replied with an ultimatum demanding that Grivas be removed from the island, that the troops smuggled from Greece in excess of the limits of the Treaty of Alliance be removed, and that the economic blockades on the Turkish Cypriot enclaves be lifted. Grivas was recalled by the Athens Junta and the 12,000 Greek troops were withdrawn. Makarios now attempted to consolidate his position by reducing the number of National Guard troops, and by creating a paramilitary force loyal to Cypriot independence. In 1968, acknowledging that enosis was now all but impossible, Makarios stated, "A solution by necessity must be sought within the limits of what is feasible which does not always coincide with the limits of what is desirable."
After 1967 tensions between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots subsided. Instead, the main source of tension on the island came from factions within the Greek Cypriot community. Although Makarios had effectively abandoned enosis in favour of an 'attainable solution', many others continued to believe that the only legitimate political aspiration for Greek Cypriots was union with Greece.
On his arrival, Grivas began by establishing a nationalist paramilitary group known as the National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston B or EOKA-B), drawing comparisons with the EOKA struggle for enosis under the British colonial administration of the 1950s.
The military junta in Athens saw Makarios as an obstacle. Makarios's failure to disband the National Guard, whose officer class was dominated by mainland Greeks, had meant the junta had practical control over the Cypriot military establishment, leaving Makarios isolated and a vulnerable target.
During the first Turkish invasion, Turkish troops invaded Cyprus territory on 20 July 1974, invoking its rights under the Treaty of Guarantee. This expansion of Turkish-occupied zone violated International Law as well as the Charter of the United Nations. Turkish troops managed to capture 3% of the island which was accompanied by the burning of the Turkish Cypriot quarter, as well as the raping and killing of women and children. A temporary cease-fire followed which was mitigated by the UN Security Council. Subsequently, the Greek military Junta collapsed on July 23, 1974, and peace talks commenced in which a democratic government was installed. The Resolution 353 was broken after Turkey attacked a second time and managed to get a hold of 37% of Cyprus territory. The Island of Cyprus was appointed a Buffer Zone by the United Nations, which divided the island into two zones through the 'Green Line' and put an end to the Turkish invasion. Although Turkey announced that the occupied areas of Cyprus to be called the Federated Turkish State in 1975, it is not legitimised on a worldwide political scale. The United Nations called for the international recognition of independence for the Republic of Cyprus in the Security Council Resolution 367.
In the years after the Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus one can observe a history of failed talks between the two parties. The 1983 declaration of the independent Turkish Republic of Cyprus resulted in a rise of inter-communal tensions and made it increasingly hard to find mutual understanding. With Cyprus' interest of a possible EU membership and a new UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 1997 new hopes arose for a fresh start. International involvement from sides of the US and UK, wanting a solution to the Cyprus dispute prior to the EU accession led to political pressures for new talks. The believe that an accession without a solution would threaten Greek-Turkish relations and acknowledge the partition of the island would direct the coming negotiations.
Over the course of two years a concrete plan, the Annan plan was formulated. In 2004 the fifth version agreed upon from both sides and with the endorsement of Turkey, US, UK and EU then was presented to the public and was given a referendum in both Cypriot communities to assure the legitimisation of the resolution. The Turkish Cypriots voted with 65% for the plan, however the Greek Cypriots voted with a 76% majority against. The Annan plan contained multiple important topics. Firstly it established a confederation of two separate states called the United Cyprus Republic. Both communities would have autonomous states combined under one unified government. The members of parliament would be chosen according to the percentage in population numbers to ensure a just involvement from both communities. The paper proposed a demilitarisation of the island over the next years. Furthermore it agreed upon a number of 45000 Turkish settlers that could remain on the island. These settlers became a very important issue concerning peace talks. Originally the Turkish government encouraged Turks to settle in Cyprus providing transfer and property, to establish a counterpart to the Greek Cypriot population due to their 1 to 5 minority. With the economic situation many Turkish-Cypriot decided to leave the island, however their departure is made up by incoming Turkish settlers leaving the population ratio between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots stable. However all these points where criticised and as seen in the vote rejected mainly by the Greek Cypriots. These name the dissolution of the „Republic of Cyprus", economic consequences of a reunion and the remaining Turkish settlers as reason. Many claim that the plan was indeed drawing more from Turkish-Cypriot demands then Greek-Cypriot interests. Taking in consideration that the US wanted to keep Turkey as a strategic partner in future Middle Eastern conflicts.
A week after the failed referendum the Republic of Cyprus joined the EU. In multiple instances the EU tried to promote trade with Northern Cyprus but without internationally recognised ports this spiked a grand debate. Both side endure their intention of negotiations, however without the prospect of any new compromises or agreements the UN is unwilling to start the process again. Since 2004 negotiations took place in numbers but without any results, both sides are strongly holding on to their position without an agreeable solution in sight that would suit both parties.
The tomb of Robert Curthose, eldest son of William the Conqueror and Duke of Normandy (d.1134), denied the throne of England in favour of his brothers. (for more illuminating details see here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Curthose ). He joined the first Crusade, thus this figure supports the well known legend of cross-legged effigies, though the effigy dates from the century after his death (and the tomb chest below is much later still, dating from c1500).
Gloucester Cathedral is one of England's finest churches, a masterpiece of medieval architecture consisting of a uniquely beautiful fusion of Norman Romanesque and Perpendicular Gothic from the mid 14th century onwards. Until the Reformation this was merely Gloucester's Abbey of St Peter, under Henry VIII it became one of six former monastic churches to be promoted to cathedral status, thus saving the great church from the ravages of the Dissolution.
The most obviously Norman part is the nave, immediately apparent on entering the building with it's round arches and thick columns (the exterior is the result of Gothic remodelling). Much of the remainder of the building is substantially the Norman structure also, but almost entirely modified in the later Middle Ages inside and out, the result of the great revenue brought to the abbey by pilgrims to the tomb of the murdered King Edward II in the choir. It was this transformation of the Norman church that is credited with launching the late gothic Perpendicular style in England.
The gothic choir is a unique and spectacular work, the walls so heavily panelled as to suggest a huge stone cage (disguising the Norman arches behind) crowned by a glorious net-like vault adorned with numerous bosses (those over the Altar with superb figures of Christ and angels) whilst the east wall is entirely glazing in delicate stone tracery, and still preserving most of it's original 14th century stained glass. The soaring central tower, also richly panelled with delicate pinnacles, is another testament to the abbey's increasing wealth at this time.
The latest medieval additions to the church are equally glorious, the Lady Chapel is entered through the enormous east window and is itself a largely glazed structure, though the original glass has been reduced to a few fragments in the east window, the remainder now contains beautiful Arts & Crafts stained glass by Christopher and Veronica Whall.
The early 16th century cloisters to the north of the nave are some of the most beautiful anywhere, being completely covered by exquisite fan vaulting, with a separate lavatorium (washing room) attached to the north walk as a miniature version of the main passages.
There is much more of interest, from 14th century choir stalls with misericords to the comprehensive collection of tombs and monuments of various dates, including the elaborate tomb of Edward II and that of Robert Duke of Normandy, eldest son of William the Conqueror. The stained glass also represents all ages, from the 14th century to the striking contemporary windows by Tom Denny.
Further areas of the cathedral can be accessed at certain times, such as the Norman crypt under the choir and the triforium gallery above.
Garden that bears the name of Fray Ricardo de Córdoba.
For non -Spanish. In Spain, in addition to the birthday, the day is usually celebrated in dedicated to the saint that gives name to the Spaniards.
One day Fray Ricardo asked me:
Are you Ricardo of Carnaval (carnival) or Ricardo of Azahar (orange blossom)?
I did not know what he was referring to. There are two days when San Ricardo's Day is celebrated in Spain. One is in February (mine) when carnivals are normally celebrated, and another in April (of him) when orange trees are flourished.
Para los no españoles. En España además del cumpleaños se suele festejar el día en dedicado al santo que da nombre a los españoles.
Un día Fray Ricardo me preguntó:
¿Eres Ricardo de carnaval o Ricardo de azahar?
No supe a que se refería. Hay dos días en que se celebra en españa el día de San Ricardo. Uno es en febrero (el mío) cuando se celebran normalmente los carnavales, y otro en abril ( de él) cuando los naranjos están florecidos.
An article in the local paper this past week caught my attention, not just because of an historical finding in our area but because the subject is a favorite of mine: an old house. This is a prime example of the importance of preserving these pieces of our history. When the new owners of this house began tearing away the siding and the addition that had been built 150 years ago, they discovered this treasure underneath. It is believed to be the original Rocky Station Fort House built in 1774 or 1775 by Isaac Chrisman. The logs are hand-hewn and held together by round pegs (no nails). Clay mud was used for the chinking. The fireplace was built of rocks tooled from a quarry on the farm and there is a hand-dug basement. The house was used as a hospital during the Civil War and as a courthouse for a while before one in Jonesville was built. Plans for the town of Jonesville were drawn up at this house. The piece of plastic covers a doorway that was cut in the wall to allow access to the addition (see below).
Latest addition to the D&P Coaches of Farnborough fleet is Scania K400EB6 / Irizar PB C53FT XK12AOL which arrived today (23/05/2018). It has joined the Hampshire operator from Abbott's of Leeming who bought the coach new in 2012. The 3.99m high coach will soon be re-registered as the current plate is to return to Abbott's. As usual with D&P, fleetnames will be applied by a local firm in the next few weeks.
Signalbox diagram from Whitemoor Junction in 1980.
This is the track layout and signalling immediately prior to the GN/GE Joint line closing a couple of years later. Heavy rationalisation is already well advanced and the diagram is starting to look like a shadow of its former self. Since the 1970s, the Goods Avoiding Line to March East has been removed with only a stub siding left at the north end. The signalling arrangements onto the Wisbech Branch have been simplified. On the Joint Line, the Down Reception line has been truncated to now only start after the junction and the No.2 Engine Spur and track across the junction removed. The Joint Line has also had a significant additional number of track circuits installed extending right through the junction. On the Yards themselves, the Down Hump Reception Sidings and Peterborough Road have both been removed with the leads out onto the west curve removed. In the triangle all of the track around the north curve has been removed and that part of the junction considerably simplified with new colour light signals installed.
I have carried out extensive restoration to this image. Diagrams from the 1980s used very poor quality ink and the stencil work and lines on this diagram had faded to almost completely nothing. I have used techniques closer to forensic examination to work out what was originally written and drawn before painstakingly recreating each bit over several months. I have put the text back in with a 'part faded' effect to show it in the more dilapidated later appearance, but keeping the information visible.
The two large rectangular overlays are contemporary, but the lighter irregular shaped shadows are from a later overlay that has been removed. (That version of the diagram to follow later.) In addition to all of this, dirt and smeary glue marks from where the later overlays were removed have been removed.
Base image courtesy of Nick Youngman.
State Theatre, 123 East Washington Street, Washington, Iowa. This theatre is recognized by Guinness World Records as the oldest continually operating movie theater in the world. It opened in 1893 as the Graham Opera House and screened its first film on May 14, 1897, with a cinematograph made in Paris.
A fire destroyed the original Graham Opera House in 1892. Architectural firm Foster & Liebbe drafted the plans for a replacement venue, which was constructed in 1893 at a cost of $35,000. The second Graham Opera House opened on November 27, 1893. After showing its first movie in 1897, the venue thereafter became mixed-use, retaining its live theatre programming in addition to movies.
In 1921, the Graham Opera House was purchased by Winfield Smouse, a local businessman. Smouse leased the property to Ralph and Clyde Pratt, who at the time operated an additional theater in the city. In 1931, the interior of the Graham Opera House was remodeled. In conjunction, the venue was renamed to the State Theatre. Its hosting of professional live theatre companies ceased at that time; the stage was mostly used by local productions until it was removed to make way for a newer movie screen. On the morning of November 17, 2010, the State Theatre's projection room caught on fire from a cigarette discarded in a trash can. The venue was subsequently closed for repairs and reopened in April 2011.
Another addition to my Bottles Tins Beer Wine Booze album.
Olympus OM-1
G.Zuiko Auto-W 28mm f/3.5
Rollei RPX 400@1600 ISO
1/60 Sec
f 11
" Work is the moving power of society development "
In Namibe, in an old garage, i saw this painted walls, with 70's communists slogans. Very few can still be seen i Angola. At this time, Cuba and USSR were supporting MPLA to fight UNITA party , supported by USA and South Africa.
In December 1956, in Portuguese Angola the Angolan Communist Party (PCA) merged with the Party of the United Struggle for Africans in Angola (PLUA) to form the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola with Viriato da Cruz, the President of the PCA, as Secretary General.
During 1975, before the official Portuguese withdrawal, the civil war in Angola intensifies. In fighting for control of the capital city, Luanda, the MPLA succeeds in driving out both its rivals. UNITA, which claims to enjoy wider popular support than the other groups, argues that Portugal must fulfil its last colonial duty and supervise elections.
But the Portuguese, eager to leave as quickly as possible, abandon the country without formally handing over control to any succeeding government. The MPLA, in possession of the capital and with guaranteed support from the USSR and Cuba, declared itself the government of independent Angola. Agostinho Neto, a distinguished poet who had led the MPLA since 1962, became president.
The Soviet Union supported the MPLA-PT as a liberation movement before independence and formalized its relationship with the MPLAPT government through the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation and a series of military agreements beginning in 1975. Once it became clear that the MPLA-PT could, with Cuban support, remain in power, the Soviet Union provided economic and technical assistance and granted Angola most-favored-nation status. In 1976 MPLA adopted Marxism-Leninism as the party ideology. It maintained close ties with the Soviet Union and the Communist bloc, establishing socialist economic policies and a one-party state.
For the first decade after independence, trade with communist states was not significant, but in the late 1980s dos Santos sought expanded economic ties with the Soviet Union, China, and Czechoslovakia and other nations of Eastern Europe as the MPLA-PT attempted to diversify its economic relations and reduce its dependence on the West. In October 1986, Angola signed a cooperative agreement with the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon), a consortium dedicated to economic cooperation among the Soviet Union and its allies. As part of the Comecon agreement, Soviet support for Angolan educational and training programs was increased. In 1987 approximately 1,800 Angolan students attended institutions of higher education in the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union also provided about 100 lecturers to Agostinho Neto University in Luanda, and a variety of Soviet-sponsored training programs operated in Angola, most with Cuban instructors. Approximately 4,000 Angolans studied at the international school on Cuba's renowned Isle of Youth. More Angolan students were scheduled to attend the Union of Young Communists' School in Havana in 1989.
Cuba's presence in Angola was more complex than it appeared to outsiders who viewed the Soviet Union's Third World clients as little more than surrogates for their powerful patron. The initiative in placing Cuban troops in Angola in the mid-1970s was taken by President Fidel Castro as part of his avowed mission of "Cuban internationalism." Facing widespread unemployment at home, young Cuban men were urged to serve in the military overseas as their patriotic duty, and veterans enjoyed great prestige on their return. Castro also raised the possibility of a Cuban resettlement scheme in southern Angola, and several hundred Cubans received Angolan citizenship during the 1980s. Cuban immigration increased sharply in 1988. In addition to military support, Cuba provided Angola with several thousand teachers, physicians, and civilian laborers for construction, agriculture, and industry. Angolan dependence on Cuban medical personnel was so complete that during the 1980s Spanish became known as the language of medicine.
© Eric Lafforgue
Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.
Today however we are to the west of London, in nearby Buckinghamshire, at Dorrington House, a smart Jacobean manor house of the late 1600s built for a wealthy merchant, situated in High Wycombe, where Lettice’s elder sister, Lalage (known to everyone in the family by the diminutive Lally), resides with her husband Charles Lanchenbury and their three children, Harrold, Annabelle and baby Piers. Situated within walking distance of the market town’s main square, the elegant red brick house with its high-pitched roof and white painted sash windows still feels private considering its close proximity to the centre of the town thanks to an elegant and restrained garden surrounding it, which is enclosed by a high red brick wall.
Lettice is nursing a broken heart. Lettice’s beau, Selwyn Spencely, son of the Duke of Walmsford, had organised a romantic dinner at the Savoy* for he and Lettice to celebrate his birthday. However, when Lettice arrived, she was confronted not with the smiling face of her beau, but the haughty and cruel spectre of his mother, the Duchess of Walmsford, Lady Zinnia. Lady Zinnia, and Selwyn’s Uncle Bertrand had been attempting to marry him off to his cousin, 1923 debutante Pamela Fox-Chavers. Lady Zinnia had, up until that moment been snubbing Lettice, so Selwyn and Lettice arranged for Lettice to attend as many London Season events as possible where Selwyn and Pamela were also in attendance so that Lettice and Selwyn could spend time together, and at the same time make their intentions so well known that Lady Zinnia wouldn’t be able to avoid Lettice any longer. Zinnia is a woman who likes intrigue and revenge, and the revenge she launched upon Lettice that evening at the Savoy was bitterly harsh and painful. With a cold and calculating smile Lady Zinna announced that she had packed Selwyn off to Durban in South Africa for a year. She made a pact with her son: if he went away for a year, a year during which he agreed neither to see, nor correspond with Lettice, if he comes back and doesn’t feel the same way about her as he did when he left, he agreed that he will marry Pamela, just as Bertrand and Lady Zinnia planned. If however, he still feels the same way about Lettice when he returns, Lady Zinnia agreed that she would concede and will allow him to marry her.
Leaving London by train that very evening, Lettice returned home to Glynes, where she stayed for a week, moving numbly about the familiar rooms of the grand Georgian country house, reading books from her father’s library distractedly to pass the time, whilst her father fed her, her favourite Scottish shortbreads in a vain effort to cheer her up. However, rather than assuage her broken heart, her father’s ministrations only served to make matters worse as she grew even more morose. It was from the most unlikely of candidates, her mother Lady Sadie, with whom Lettice has always had a fraught relationship, that Lettice received the best advice, which was to stop feeling sorry for herself and get on with her life: keep designing interiors, keep shopping and most importantly, keep attending social functions where there are plenty of press photographers. “You may not be permitted to write to Selwyn,” Lady Sadie said wisely. ‘But Zinnia said nothing about the newspapers not writing about your plight or your feelings on your behest. Let them tell Selwyn that you still love him and are waiting for him. They get the London papers in Durban just as much as they get them here, and Zinnia won’t be able to stop a lovesick and homesick young man flipping to the society pages as he seeks solace in the faces of familiar names and faces, and thus seeing you and reading your words of commitment to him that you share through the newspaper men. Tell them that you are waiting patiently for Selwyn’s return.”
Since then, Lettice has been trying to follow her mother’s advice and has thrown herself into the merry dance of London’s social round of dinners, dances and balls in the lead up to the festive season. However, even she could only keep this up for so long, and was welcomed home with open and loving arms by her family for Christmas and the New Year. On New Year’s Eve, Lally, sitting next to Lettice, suggested that she spend a few extra weeks resting and recuperating with her in Buckinghamshire before returning to London and trying to get on with her life. Lettice happily agreed, and since arriving at Dorrington House with her sister and brother-in-law, she has enjoyed being quiet, spending quality time with her niece and nephews in the nursery, strolling the gardens with her sister or simply curling up in a window seat and reading.
This morning we find ourselves in one of Dorrington House’s ten guest bedrooms: a pretty and cosy one overlooking the elegant rear garden in which Lettice has been accommodated since her arrival from Glynes. Lettice lies beneath the beautifully embroidered satin comforter, luxuriating in the joy of being allowed to have breakfast in bed at her sister’s house. If she were at home in Glynes, there is no way known that her mother would let her take her breakfast in her boudoir, never mind in bed, since Lettice is unmarried and therefore undeserving of such a privilege**. She sighs contentedly as she listens to the blackbirds and robins chirping in the greenery beyond the sash window of her comfortably appointed room. In the hearth a fire, lit for her by one of Lally’s lower house maids long before Lettice was awake, crackles cheerfully, its heat warming the room enough that Lettice may sit up against a nest of her pillows and have her bare arms exposed without feeling cold. In the distance she can hear the clock on the landing ticking away the minutes and hours of the day, and still further away the muffled sound of a childish squeal indicates that Lettice’s nephew and niece are awake and playing in the day nursery with their nanny. Lettice sighs again and stretches her legs beneath the covers, her left foot connecting with the wooden breakfast tray placed at the foot of the bed by Lally’s cook, Mrs. Sawyer, nudging it slightly, causing the breakfast china and the ornate Indian silver teapot on it to rattle in protest at being pushed out of the way. She picks up a current copy of Vogue that has been sent to her from London and silently peruses the latest frocks from Paris whilst she contemplates reaching down and taking up her breakfast tray to put on her lap to commence her breakfast, but just the thought of doing so seems like too much of an effort. So, she casts a desultory gaze over the newest designs by Jeanne Lanvin*** instead and dreams about dancing with Selwyn arrayed in such a gown.
As she admires a robe de style**** design in black with embroidered red poppies, Lettice’s morning daydreams are interrupted by a gentle tapping at her door.
Quickly tossing the copy of Vogue aside, Lettice snatches up her pale pink bed jacket trimmed in marabou feathers from the other side of the large bed, and drapes it across her bare shoulders and arms as the tapping begins for a second time. “Yes?” she asks as calmly as possible.
The door opens and Lally pokes her head around it. “It’s only me, Tice darling. May I come in?”
“Lally!” Lettice exclaims as she shuffles herself into a more upright position against the nest of pillows behind her. “Yes, of course! Do, do come in, darling.”
“Thank you.” Lally replies quietly, slipping into her sister’s room and closing the door behind her.
Lally looks around what she and Charles call the ‘Chinese Bedroom’ because of all the Eighteenth Century chinoiserie furnishings filling it, still unused to the best guest bedroom in the house being occupied. Traces of her little sister lie about everywhere. Her travelling set of brushes and a mirror sit on the dressing table’s surface, along with bottles of Lettice’s favourite perfumes and a selection of her cosmetics. A blue hatbox sits against the Chinese dressing screen with the hat Lettice wore to the wedding of Mary, Princess Royal***** to Viscount Lascelles in 1922 sitting atop it. Her peacock blue embroidered robe hangs from the end of the screen, whilst a row of dainty shoes sit just behind it, the latter obviously organised into neat order by one of the housemaids, since Lettice is not known for the organisation of her own wardrobe. The room is filled with the comforting fug of sleep intermixed with the scent of woodsmoke and roses brought in especially for Lettice from the Dorrington House greenhouse. And there, on the left side of the bed is Lettice, draped in her delicate bedjacket, her golden tresses spilling freely across the pillows behind her.
“I hope you don’t mind me popping in like this.” Lally says a little defensively. “Oh, you haven’t touched your breakfast.” She observes the undisturbed pot of tea, hard boiled egg, triangle of toast, square of butter from the home farm and orange from the Dorrington House orangery******. “Is everything alright?”
“Oh it’s fine, Lally, and yes,” Lettice lurches towards the breakfast tray, dragging it across the orange and yellow embroidered flowers of the counterpane towards her. “Breakfast is perfect. I was just about to start. I was just so engrossed in my latest copy of Vogue.”
“I see.” Lally purrs with a satisfied smile. “I see you received your post this morning then.”
“Yes, thank you Lally.” Lettice indicates with an open hand to the two copies of Vogue as well as a card sent down from London sitting atop a silver salver next to a silver letter opener near the raised mound of her feet beneath the covers.
“I received some post this morning too.” Lally admits, holding up a postcard featuring an idealised photographic scene of a couple in a donkey cart.
“Not a postcard from Charles, opining about me having breakfast abed, surely? He and Lord Lachenbury only left for India a few days ago.”
“Oh!” Lally says, laughing as she looks at the postcard. “No! No, Charles and Lord Lachenbury will still be en route abord the P&O*******. No, it will be ages before the arrive in Bombay.”
“Then what is it?” Lettice enquires.
“It’s an invitation for the two of us to attend a luncheon party at Mrs. Alsop’s down at Shalstone Cottage.”
“That sounds rather dull. A cottage? Who is Mrs. Alsop, Lally?”
“Head of the local branch of the WI********.” Lally pulls a face. “She’s a dreadful gossip, and rather a bore, I’m afraid. I can say you’re indisposed if you like, but as treasurer of the WI, I had better go.”
“Well,” Lettice says with a sigh, reaching down to the silver salver near the foot of the bed and snatching up the card from atop its envelope. “Even if I didn’t want to come, I’d go to support you, Lally. However, you may have to pass on my excuses anyway.” She holds the card out to her elder sister.
“What is it, Tice?”
“It’s from Aunt Egg.” Lettice wags the card in her sister’s direction. “Read it.”
Approaching the bed, Lally accepts the card from her sister. She smiles and snorts in amusement as she stares at the stylised gilt decorated Art Nouveau card featuring a woman in a long russet coloured tea gown facing away from the viewer, her old fashioned upswept hairstyle with its topknot clearly a feature of the design. “God bless Aunt Egg. Anyone would think she was living in 1904 not 1924.”
“I know.” agrees Lettice with a smile as she starts buttering her toast, the crisp scrape of her knife against the slice cutting through the air.
“She’s going to leave you all her jewellery, you know, Tice.” Lally says with a knowing look.
“Oh!” Lettice scoffs, waving her sister’s remark away dismissively with a wave of her hand. “She teases all of us with her flippant remarks about her jewellery. No, she plays her hand close to her chest.”
“But you’re the most like her, Tice: the most artistic. I’m just like all the other Chetwynd cousins – a rather pedestrian country squire’s wife who attends luncheons at the behest of the head of the WI – unlike you, who has her own successful interior design business and socialises with a smart and select London set.”
“Read the card, Lally.” Lettice hisses as she takes a bite of her toast.
Lally reads aloud, “’Dearest Lettice, I’m sorry to write like this, but I really can’t have you lolling about at Dorrington House, being pandered to, and mollycoddled by Lally.’” Lally drops her arms, the card still clenched tightly in her right hand. She stares wide eyes in astonishment at their aunt’s statement. “Mollycoddling! What a cheek, Aunt Egg!”
“Well,” Lettice indicates down to the breakfast tray across her lap as she gulps down a slice of toast. “Charles would doubtless agree with her. Let’s be honest, Lally, that whilst I have adored staying here with you, being feted, and waited upon hand and foot, you are pandering to me.”
“Well…” mutters Lally, blushing as she speaks.
“Keep reading.” Lettice insists as she takes up the silver teapot and pours hot tea into her dainty blue sprigged china teacup.
Lally takes up the card again. “Let’s see, where was I? Oh yes, ‘being pandered to, and mollycoddled by Lally. It’s time you stopped hiding away in the bucolic bosom of Buckinghamshire’,” Lally pauses again. “Aunt Egg does have a way with words, doesn’t she?” She sniggers and shakes her head.
“Keep reading!” Lettice insists.
“’And come home to London, where I will admit, you are missed by your Embassy Club coterie of friends. Only last week I heard from Cilla Carter Minnie Palmerston, and Margot Channon three times, asking when you were coming home. I simply must insist that you come back post haste. However, like me, I know you are a woman of your own will,’” Lally looks across at her sister as she sips her tea in bed. “She’s right there. The two of you are by far the most stubborn of the women in the Chetwynd family.”
“Keep reading, Lally!”
“’So, well aware of the fact that you won’t return solely upon my request, I have had to make arrangements to compel you out of your broken hearted stupor in the stultifying countryside and thrust you back into the beating heart of London society. I’ve managed to wrangle an invitation for you, and Dicke and Margot Channon, to attend one of Sir John and Lady Caxton’s amusing Friday to Monday long weekend parties at Gossington along with a host other notable Bright Young Things********. It will do you good to be with some people of your own age.’” Lally drops her arms again. “People your own age?” she blusters. “Does Aunt Egg suddenly think me ninety, rather than thirty five?”
“You know how she is, dear Lally.” She’s just trying to create a compelling reason for me to leave you and go back to London as she bids. Don’t take it personally.” Lettice implores as she takes another dainty bite of her toast. “Keep reading.”
“’The Channons will be expecting dinner at Cavendish Mews on Monday evening to discuss arrangements. Apparently, Dickie has enough money for petrol for the motor to be able to drive three of you up to Gossington! Will wonders never cease? Please wire, if indeed you can find a telegraph office in the wilds of Buckinghamshire, what train you will be arriving on at Victoria Station and I will arrange to collect you. With love, Aunt Egg.’”
“So you see, Lally darling, I’ll have to arrange a journey back to London.” Lettice says apologetically. “Perhaps you can drop me at High Wycombe railway station on your way to luncheon this afternoon, and then send Tipden back to fetch me after he drops you off at Mrs. Whatsit’s.”
“Mrs. Alsop.” Lally reiterates.
“Exactly!” Lettice sighs. “Quite right! By the time he’s back I’ll have sent a wire.”
“Well of course, Tipden and my car are at your disposal, Lettice darling,” Lally says in a disappointed voice. “But it really is too beastly of Aunt Egg to charge in and spoil our plans like this. I was arranging for us to visit Lady Verney********* at Claydon House********** in Aylesbury Vale whilst you were stopping with me. Oh well!” She sighs and raises her hands in despair. “I shall simply have to telephone her and cancel.”
“I’m sure you could still visit Lady Verney, even without me, Lally darling.”
“You’d like Lady Varney. She’s been a campaigner for girls’ education for decades now, and is really quite intelligent and independent.”
“Oh that is a pity, but I’m afraid it can’t be helped, Lally. An invitation from the Caxtons cannot be refused.”
“And who are Sir John and Lady Caxton?” Lally queries. “I don’t think I know them.”
“Oh, Sir John and Lady Gladys are very well known amongst the smarter bohemian set of London society for their amusing weekend parties at their Scottish country estate and enjoyable literary evenings in their Belgravia townhouse. Lady Gladys is a successful authoress in her own right and writes under the nom de plume of Madeline St John, so they attract a mixture of witty writers and artists mostly.”
“Oh!” Lally gasps. “So that’s who it is!”
“Who, Lally?”
“Aunt Egg mentioned to me when we were at Glynes over Christmas and New Year, that she was arranging something for you with a lady novelist. It must be this, Lady Gladys.”
“I suppose the artistic connection is how Aunt Egg knows the Caxtons, although, I didn’t actually know that they were acquainted.”
“Well she must be more than acquainted with them if Aunt Egg could,” Lally scans the message on the card in her aunt’s spidery cursive handwriting. “Wrangle you an invitation, Tice darling.” Lally sighs disappointedly before snatching the half eaten slice of toast off her sister’s plate and takes a large bite from it. After swallowing her mouthful she continues, “I don’t see why, if she has organised an invitation for Dickie and Margot Channon, why she couldn’t have arranged one for me. She knows Charles has set sail for India and that I’ll be alone without you.”
“You’re hardly alone, Lally darling. What about Mrs. Alsop?” Lettice says with a cheeky grin as she takes back what is left of her triangle of toast.
“Oh, ha-ha!” replies Lally sarcastically.
“But in all seriousness Lally, you aren’t alone here. There are Nettie Fisher and Alice Newsome, and all those other lovely friends of yours who have been so hospitable to me since I arrived. They are all quite wonderful.”
“I suppose.” Lally replies deflatedly.
“Well, this is all rather thrilling!” Lettice says excitedly, pushing aside her breakfast tray and throwing back the covers with a sudden surge of gusto. “The Caxtons are quite eccentric characters, especially Lady Gladys, and from what I’ve read of them, they are refreshingly different and amusing. Thus, there is never a shortage of guests for their Friday to Monday house parties, and invitations to Gossington are a highly desirable, yet all too rare commodity. Margot will be beside herself!”
“Well then, however sad it is, I shall bid you a fond farewell, dear Tice.”
Lettice climbs out of bed and embraces her sister lovingly, inhaling her familiar scent of Yardley’s English Lavender. “Don’t worry, Lally darling.” She kisses her affectionately on the left cheek. “I’ll come back down again as soon as this weekend with the Caxtons is over.”
“I bet you won’t, Tice!” Lally retorts resignedly. She holds her sister at arm’s length, taking in the sudden vitality that has put a sparkle back into her eyes and roses into her cheeks. “This will be the beginning of a welcome distraction for you.” Then she adds sadly, “And one that is far better than any remedy I can provide you with. Best you follow Aunt Egg’s instructions and go back to London.”
“Oh thank you, Lally Darling!” Lettice cries joyfully, throwing her hands around her elder sister’s neck and clinging tightly to her. “You are a brick!”
“Yes, you’ll get all of Aunt Egg’s jewellery, Tice darling. You are her favourite by far.”
*The Savoy Hotel is a luxury hotel located in the Strand in the City of Westminster in central London. Built by the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan opera productions, it opened on 6 August 1889. It was the first in the Savoy group of hotels and restaurants owned by Carte's family for over a century. The Savoy was the first hotel in Britain to introduce electric lights throughout the building, electric lifts, bathrooms in most of the lavishly furnished rooms, constant hot and cold running water and many other innovations. Carte hired César Ritz as manager and Auguste Escoffier as chef de cuisine; they established an unprecedented standard of quality in hotel service, entertainment and elegant dining, attracting royalty and other rich and powerful guests and diners. The hotel became Carte's most successful venture. Its bands, Savoy Orpheans and the Savoy Havana Band, became famous. Winston Churchill often took his cabinet to lunch at the hotel. The hotel is now managed by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts. It has been called "London's most famous hotel". It has two hundred and sixty seven guest rooms and panoramic views of the River Thames across Savoy Place and the Thames Embankment. The hotel is a Grade II listed building.
**Before the Second World War, if you were a married Lady, it was customary for you to have your breakfast in bed, because you supposedly don't have to socialise to find a husband. Unmarried women were expected to dine with the men at the breakfast table, especially on the occasion where an unmarried lady was a guest at a house party, as it gave her exposure to the unmarried men in a more relaxed atmosphere and without the need for a chaperone.
***The House of Lanvin was named after its founder Jeanne Lanvin in 1889. Jeanne Lanvin was born in 1867 and opened her first millinery shop in rue du Marche Saint Honore in 1885. Jeanne made clothes for her daughter, Marie-Blanche de Polignac, which began to attract the attention of a number of wealthy people, who requested copies for their own children. Soon, she was making dresses for their mothers, which were included in the clientele of her new boutique on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. In 1909, Jeanne Lanvin joined the Syndicat de la Couture, which marked her formal status as a couturière. The Lanvin logo was inspired by a photograph taken for Jeanne Lanvin as she attended a ball with her daughter wearing matching outfits in 1907. From 1923, the Lanvin empire included a dye factory in Nanterre. In the 1920s, Lanvin opened shops devoted to home decor, menswear, furs and lingerie, but her most significant expansion was the creation of Lanvin Parfums SA in 1924. "My Sin", an animalic-aldehyde based on heliotrope, was introduced in 1925, and is widely considered a unique fragrance. It would be followed by her signature fragrance, Arpège, in 1927, said to have been inspired by the sound of her daughter's practising her scales on the piano.
****The ‘robe de style’ was introduced by French couturier Jeanne Lanvin around 1915. It consisted of a basque bodice with a broad neckline and an oval bouffant skirt supported by built in wire hoops. Reminiscent of the Spanish infanta-style dresses of the Seventeenth Century and the panniered robe à la française of the Eighteenth Century they were made of fabric in a solid colour, particularly a deep shade of robin’s egg blue which became known as Lanvin blue, and were ornamented with concentrated bursts of embroidery, ribbons or ornamental silk flowers.
*****Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood (1897 – 1965), was the only daughter of King George V and Queen Mary. She was the sister of Kings Edward VIII and George VI, and aunt of Queen Elizabeth II. She married Viscount Lascelles on the 28th of February 1922 in a ceremony held at Westminster Abbey. The bride was only 24 years old, whilst the groom was 39. There is much conjecture that the marriage was an unhappy one, but their children dispute this and say it was a very happy marriage based upon mutual respect. The wedding was filmed by Pathé News and was the first royal wedding to be featured in fashion magazines, including Vogue.
******An orangery or orangerie was a room or a dedicated building on the grounds of fashionable residences of Northern Europe from the Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Centuries where orange and other fruit trees were protected during the winter, as a very large form of greenhouse or conservatory.
*******In 1837, the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company first secured a Government contract for the regular carriage of mail between Falmouth and the Peninsular ports as far as Gibraltar. The company, established in 1835 by the London shipbroking partnership of Brodie McGhie Willcox (1786-1861) and Arthur Anderson (1792-1868) and the Dublin Ship owner, Captain Richard Bourne (1880-1851) had begun a regular steamer service for passengers and cargo between London, Spain and Portugal using the 206 ton paddle steamer William Fawcett. The growing inclination of early Twentieth Century shipping enterprises to merge their interests, and group themselves together, did not go unnoticed at P&O, which made its first major foray in this direction in 1910 with the acquisition of Wilhelm Lund’s Blue Anchor Line. By 1913, with a paid-up capital of some five and half million pounds and over sixty ships in service, several more under construction and numerous harbour craft and tugs to administer to the needs of this great fleet all counted, the P&O Company owned over 500,000 tons of shipping. In addition to the principal mail routes, through Suez to Bombay and Ceylon, where they divided then for Calcutta, Yokohama and Sydney, there was now the ‘P&O Branch Line’ service via the Cape to Australia and various feeder routes. The whole complex organisation was serviced by over 200 agencies stationed at ports throughout the world. At the end of 1918, the Group was further strengthened by its acquisition of a controlling shareholding in the Orient Line and in 1920, the General Steam Navigation Company, the oldest established sea-going steamship undertaking, was taken over. In 1923 the Strick Line was acquired too and P&O became, for a time, the largest shipping company in the world. With the 1920s being the golden age of steamship travel, P&O was the line to cruise with. P&O had grown into a group of separate operating companies whose shipping interests touched almost every part of the globe. By March 2006, P&O had grown to become one of the largest port operators in the world and together with P&O Ferries, P&O Ferrymasters, P&O Maritime Services, P&O Cold Logistics and its British property interests, the company was, itself, acquired by DP World for three point three billion pounds.
*******The Women's Institute (WI) is a community-based organization for women in the United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand. The movement was founded in Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada, by Erland and Janet Lee with Adelaide Hoodless being the first speaker in 1897. It was based on the British concept of Women's Guilds, created by Rev Archibald Charteris in 1887 and originally confined to the Church of Scotland. From Canada the organization spread back to the motherland, throughout the British Empire and Commonwealth, and thence to other countries. Many WIs belong to the Associated Country Women of the World organization. Each individual WI is a separate charitable organisation, run by and for its own members with a constitution agreed at national level but the possibility of local bye-laws. WIs are grouped into Federations, roughly corresponding to counties or islands, which each have a local office and one or more paid staff.
********The Bright Young Things, or Bright Young People, was a nickname given by the tabloid press to a group of Bohemian young aristocrats and socialites in 1920s London.
*********Lady Margaret Maria Verney, was an English-born Welsh educationist. Verney was the daughter of Lady Sarah Elizabeth Amherst and her husband John Hay-Williams, 2nd Baronet Williams of Bodelwyddan. On the death of her father in 1859, she inherited his house "Rhianfa", on Anglesey, which she retained as a family home. In 1868 she married Sir Edmund Hope Verney, MP, then merely Captain Verney. She became a leading campaigner for girls' education in Britain. In 1894 she became a member of the Statutory Council of the University of Wales, holding the position until 1922.
**********Claydon House is a country house in the Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire, England, near the village of Middle Claydon. It was built between 1757 and 1771 and is now owned by the National Trust. Claydon has been the ancestral home of the Verney family since 1620. The present Verney family, are the descendants of Sir Harry Calvert, 2nd Baronet who inherited the house in 1827. He was very tenuously related to the Verneys only through marriage. However, he adopted the name Verney on inheriting. The house was given to the National Trust in 1956 by Sir Ralph Verney, 5th Baronet. His son, Sir Edmund Verney, 6th Baronet, a former High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire, lived in the house until 2019.
This cosy boudoir may look real to you, but it is in fact made up of pieces from my 1:12 miniatures collection.
Fun things to look for in this tableau include:
The mahogany stained breakfast tray came from an English stockist of 1:12 artisan miniatures whom I found on E-Bay. On its surface the crockery, serviettes with their napkin rings came from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls House Shop in the United Kingdom. The teapot also came from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls House Shop. It is sterling silver, hallmarked Birmingham 1910 and has a removable lid, so it was probably a commissioned piece of Edwardian whimsy for someone wealthy, be they an adult or child. The cutlery came from an online stockist of miniatures. The orange comes from Beautifully Handmade Miniatures in Kettering. The egg cup come from Warwick Miniatures in Ireland, who are well known for the quality and detail applied to their pieces. The egg in the egg cup is amongst some of the smallest miniatures I own, and came from Beautifully Handmade Miniatures in Kettering. The square of butter in the glass dish has been made in England by hand from clay by former chef turned miniature artisan, Frances Knight. Her work is incredibly detailed and realistic, and she says that she draws her inspiration from her years as a chef and her imagination.
The two copies of Vogue, the Art Nouveau style card and the addressed and postmarked envelope on the silver tray are 1:12 size miniatures made by the British miniature artisan Ken Blythe. Ken Blythe was famous in miniature collectors’ circles mostly for the miniature books that he made: all being authentically replicated 1:12 scale miniatures of real volumes. I have quite a large representation of Ken Blythe’s work in my collection. However, he did not make books exclusively. He also made other small pieces like the card and envelope. To create something so authentic to the original in such detail and so clearly, really does make these miniature artisan pieces. Ken Blythe’s work is highly sought after by miniaturists around the world today and command high prices at auction for such tiny pieces, particularly now that he is no longer alive. I was fortunate enough to acquire pieces from Ken Blythe prior to his death about four years ago and through his estate courtesy of the generosity of his daughter and son-in-law. His legacy will live on with me and in my photography which I hope will please his daughter.
The small silver letter salver is a 1:12 artisan miniature piece of sterling silver. The artist is unknown. Being made of silver, it is very heavy for its size. The sterling silver letter opener is made by the Little Green Workshop in England who specialise in high end, high quality miniatures.
Lettice’s comforter is in fact a piece of beautiful vintage embroidered sari silk from the 1970s, laid over a box to give the appearance of the corner of a bed. I even put my fingers under the covers to give the impression of a body as you can see in the bottom right-hand corner of the image, where the comforter is raised slightly.
Lettice’s elegant straw hat sitting on the French blue hatbox in the background is decorated with an oyster satin ribbon, three feathers and an ornamental flower. The maker for this hat is unknown, but I acquitted it through Doreen Jeffries’ Small Wonders Miniatures in the United Kingdom. 1:12 size miniature hats made to such exacting standards of quality and realism as this one is are often far more expensive than real hats are. When you think that it would sit comfortably on the tip of your index finger, yet it could cost in excess of $150.00 or £100.00, it is an extravagance. American artists seem to have the monopoly on this skill and some of the hats that I have seen or acquired over the years are remarkable.
The blue hatbox in the background on which the hat sits is a 1:12 artisan miniature and made of blue kid leather which is so soft to the touch, and small metal handles, clasps and ornamentation. It has been purposely worn around their edges to give it age. It also comes from Doreen Jeffries’ Small Wonders Miniatures in England.
The Chinese screen is made of black japanned wood and features hand painted soapstone panels, so it is very heavy. I picked it up at an auction some twenty years ago.
The dressing table featuring fine marquetry banding appears to have been made by the same unknown artisan who made the round table. This piece I acquired from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls House Shop. The brush on its surface is part of a set painted by miniature artisan Victoria Fasken, and was also acquired from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls House Shop. The vase on the dressing table surface is a 1950s Limoges piece. The vase is stamped with a small green Limoges mark to the bottom. I found this treasure in an overcrowded cabinet at the Mill Markets in Geelong. The pink roses it contains came from beautifully Handmade Miniatures in Kettering.
The Chippendale style chair pushed into the dressing table is a very special piece. It came from the Petite Elite Miniature Museum, later rededicated as the Carol and Barry Kaye Museum of Miniatures, which ran between 1992 and 2012 on Los Angeles’ bustling Wiltshire Boulevard. It is part of a dining table setting for six. One of the chairs still has a sticker under its cushion identifying which room of which dollhouse it came. The Petite Elite Miniature Museum specialised in exquisite and high end 1:12 miniatures. The furnishings are taken from a real Chippendale design.
Enhancements have been made to the Batman Armory by GeeWhiz Customs and it has been expanded to depict the Dark Knight's subterranean portside hideout in The Dark Knight Movie.
Entitled "Batcave 2.0", the scaled model set was entered into the annual diorama contest and was given the "Toycon's Choice" Award in the recently concluded 10th Philippine Toy Convention.
The new armory features a movie-accurate design with a weaponry display and an optional 1/6 scale empty cowl mask. A Second-level diorama of the Portside Ground Level featuring a Wayne Enterprises Container Van and perimeter fencing is an optional addition.
For inquiries on the Dark Knight Armory 2.0 or the Batcave 2.0 set, please eMail geewhizcustoms@gmail.com
Read more about this diorama HERE
Recent addition to the collection. What caught my eye (and hopefully yours too) was the missing face for the seated woman on the left. This is clearly a case of blown highlights, but makes for an interesting photo. No alteration, this is the way I found it. Nice Victorian interior by the way. I am not sure what they are both holding, perhaps a newspaper. Found in Ohio. Date, location and photographer unknown. Cabinet card size.
In addition to the manor house, I'm also working on a black one of set 40448 - Vintage Car (from Ideas) for Emmet and Lucy to drive around in. I HATE those loose-fitting surfboards on the sides, so I've created a workaround. Some other things have been changed in certain places (I'm looking at you, front bumper!) and those eight 1x1 double curved slopes have been replaced with the new 1x4 version for added strength.
I originally wanted to do the car in red, but the wheel arches are sadly stupid expensive in regular red. Blue was also an option, until I learned one of the 1x1 brackets needed are not available in that color yet. Thus, black was my only remaining choice.
(I sadly can't do a more completed version of this model outside of real life, as about 12 parts are missing from LDD. However: the model has been ordered, so real world pictures will be here soon!)
Kalae is the site of one of the earliest Hawaiian settlements, and it has one of the longest archaeological records on the islands evidence of human habitation dates from as early as A.D. 200.
Some archeologists believe that this is where the Polynesians first landed because the Big Island is the closest of the Hawaiian Islands to Tahiti, and Ka Lae would be the point of first landfall. Excavation of lava tubes, that were used as shelters, near Kailikii and Waiahukuni, villages four miles northwest of the Kalae, indicate people were using them by A.D.750. At Kalae itself there are rocks wall and ruins. Among them are the ruins of an ancient Hawaiian temple (heiau) and a fishing shrine. In addition, ancient Hawaiians drilled numerous holes in the rock ledges to use for mooring their canoes. Tying long ropes to their boats, they would drift out to sea to fish without fear of being carried away by the strong currents. Anthropologists from the Bishop Museum located in Honolulu excavated the area in the 1960s. The Area has been designated a National Historical Landmark.
Then as now Birmingham Moor street station was a fine building. In this 7th December 1979 picture a Tyseley class 116 DMU is waiting for 21.00 when it will leave for Leamington Spa. The platform it was taken from still has a terminal road but behind the fence to the right is the new part of the station and that is the through line to Snow Hill station, at the time of photography this was the old carriage sidings.
Behind the station the back of the High street Co-op store is dominant, the Rotunda is still there of course but the area of car parking (far left) is now a dual carriageway and Selfridges thoughtful addition to the Birmingham landscape.
Copyright Geoff Dowling; All rights reserved
This year, we welcome some new additions to the team, many of which have travelled a long way to join us. Q1 stats will be focused on productivity and performance.
I hope you'll be welcoming and friendly towards some of the older folks. I give you all permission to rip it out of that big thing top left. God only knows what that is!
In addition to the bus interest on the ground, the skies above Bury were treated to a welcome flypast by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight on this sunny May Bank Holiday weekend. A hasty exchange of lenses not long after arrival enabled this shot of the Avro Lancaster flanked by its Hurricane and Spitfire fighter escorts on the second of three circuits around the area. Great stuff !!