View allAll Photos Tagged Definition
Why she is so freakin beautiful?!
Gosh she is incredible...she is just a word "Beautiful" and not only out cause she is so beautiful also in herself (:
Download Beautiful Rail Track View In Fall Season HD Wallpaper.
Search more Nature & Seasons high Definition 1080p, 720p, Quality Free HD wallpapers, Widescreen Backgrounds, 3D Pictures, Computer Desktops, Mobile Wallpapers and Photos Images.
Find the Perfect Resolution Like (1280×720, ...
stylishhdwallpapers.com/beautiful-rail-track-view-in-fall...
Official definition - Daydreaming is a short-term detachment from one's immediate surroundings, during which a person's contact with reality is blurred and partially substituted by a visionary fantasy, especially one of happy, pleasant thoughts, hopes or ambitions, imagined as coming to pass, and experienced while awake
This photo is made up of 5 photos isolated digitally and layered into this composition. The girl's hair profile is my daughter Leslie. The man and woman on the beach are digitally isolated and is a couple who asked me to photo shoot them couple years back on Florida beaches and that is why I darkened the faces for their privacy. The sky drop and the beach behind them is photo from St. Augustine shoot I took few weeks back. The rings are isolated digitally from mine and my wife wedding rings, and the faded boat is a cruise boat shot a year ago out of the coast of Florida. The background canvas is a photo that I turned the gamma all the way to zero to make it totally a black canvas. All placed together to provide the projection of a girl's day dream about getting wed, going on a cruise and of course the romance... Done in an afternoon where it was raining outside, I was bored and I wanted to kill time :)
---------------------
Whenever I day dream,
and day dream I do,
in my secret garden,
I day dream of you.
I day dream of you,
in a faraway land;
embracing me tight
and holding my hand.
Holding my hand,
and touching my face.
Just you and me,
in this peaceful place.
In this peaceful place
a pristine river flows.
Where the unicorns run,
a breeze always blows.
A breeze always blows
and sings of a song;
our love in a place
where you're never gone.
Where you're never gone
is as it would seem,
from dusk until dawn,
whenever I day dream.
And whenever I day dream,
and day dream I do,
in my secret garden,
I day dream of you.
- Cassie McNair -
Day Three-Hundred and Forty Eight, "Meet Shadow" theme, fourteenth shot.
Sunday morning. The family time by definition. We play in the living room while it keeps raining outside. Later we'll have lunch at my in-laws, so Ombra will start getting accustomed to their place too, should we ever need to leave her there for a few days. I still have to go through the same process with my parent's place and my sister's. Ombra need to understand how large her "pack" is and how many are the places which belongs to the pack. She's already showing signs of a territorial and protective inclinations, so my job will be to soften and shape her behaviour, cause I know there's no way to erase it.
She's a sweet little puppy who loves her new family and is very cute when, to protect it, she barks at "strangers". But what is now cute will rapidly become an issue if she's not properly educated.
365 Days of RX1 - one camera, one lens, 12 projects
Definition: "Something that ruins an otherwise pleasant view, or something small that makes an entire place look less attractive."
Taken from a moving bus.
# 14 Blot on the landscape
120 Pictures in 2020
ODC, Texture - or the rich textural layers of life in a new location. Little bit of texture in the photo too :-) courtesy of our sand-varnished windscreen and HDR. Rotisserie chicken seems to be a universal take-away, only here I can guarantee you it really is fresh. The reason? The chickens are bought from the poultry seller just down the road (or next door in some instances) who slaughters them to order on the day. When you buy the rotisserie chicken it comes with fresh flat bread, salads and garlic mayonnaise and very good it is too - LG is a huge fan!
Swag, and only swag displayed in this photo.
YES. Photo Drill about sun...kind of took my own look at how I interpreted this one.
Yes, that is real sun flare.
Built in 1829.
"The West Village is a neighborhood in the western section of the larger Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City.
The traditional boundaries of the West Village are the Hudson River to the west, West 14th Street to the north, Greenwich Avenue to the east, and Christopher Street to the south. Other popular definitions have extended the southern boundary as far south as Houston Street, and some use Seventh Avenue or Avenue of the Americas as the eastern boundary. The Far West Village extends from the Hudson River to Hudson Street, between Gansevoort Street and Leroy Street. Neighboring communities include Chelsea to the north, the South Village and Hudson Square to the south, and the Washington Square neighborhood of Greenwich Village to the east.
The West Village is part of Manhattan Community District 2, and is patrolled by the 6th Precinct of the New York City Police Department. Residential property sale prices in West Village are among the most expensive in the United States, typically exceeding US$2,100 per square foot ($23,000/m2) in 2017.
Greenwich Village (/ˈɡrɛnɪtʃ/ GREN-itch, /ˈɡrɪn-/ GRIN-, /-ɪdʒ/ -ij) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village also contains several subsections, including the West Village west of Seventh Avenue and the Meatpacking District in the northwest corner of Greenwich Village.
Its name comes from Groenwijck, Dutch for "Green District". In the 20th century, Greenwich Village was known as an artists' haven, the bohemian capital, the cradle of the modern LGBT movement, and the East Coast birthplace of both the Beat and '60s counterculture movements. Greenwich Village contains Washington Square Park, as well as two of New York City's private colleges, New York University (NYU) and The New School.
Greenwich Village is part of Manhattan Community District 2, and is patrolled by the 6th Precinct of the New York City Police Department. Greenwich Village has undergone extensive gentrification and commercialization; the four ZIP Codes that constitute the Village – 10011, 10012, 10003, and 10014 – were all ranked among the ten most expensive in the United States by median housing price in 2014, according to Forbes, with residential property sale prices in the West Village neighborhood typically exceeding US$2,100/sq ft ($23,000/m2) in 2017.
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over 300.46 square miles (778.2 km2), New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the United States. The city is within the southern tip of New York State, and constitutes the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area – the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass. With over 20.1 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, New York is one of the world's most populous megacities, and over 58 million people live within 250 mi (400 km) of the city. New York City is a global cultural, financial, and media center with a significant influence on commerce, health care and life sciences, entertainment, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, dining, art, fashion, and sports. New York is the most photographed city in the world. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy, an established safe haven for global investors, and is sometimes described as the capital of the world." - info from Wikipedia.
The fall of 2022 I did my 3rd major cycling tour. I began my adventure in Montreal, Canada and finished in Savannah, GA. This tour took me through the oldest parts of Quebec and the 13 original US states. During this adventure I cycled 7,126 km over the course of 2.5 months and took more than 68,000 photos. As with my previous tours, a major focus was to photograph historic architecture.
Now on Instagram.
Become a patron to my photography on Patreon.
Exterior of the Sistine Chapel, from saint Peter's Basilic Sistine Chapel.
Text, in english, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Sistine Chapel (Italian: Cappella Sistina) is the best-known chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City. Its fame rests on its architecture, evocative of Solomon's Temple of the Old Testament and on its decoration which has been frescoed throughout by the greatest Renaissance artists including Michelangelo, Raphael, Bernini, and Sandro Botticelli. Under the patronage of Pope Julius II, Michelangelo painted12,000 square feet (1,100 m2) of the chapel ceiling between 1508 and 1512. He resented the commission, and believed his work only served the Pope's need for grandeur. However, today the ceiling, and especially The Last Judgement, are widely believed to be Michelangelo's crowning achievements in painting.
The Sistine Chapel takes its name from a pope, Pope Sixtus IV, who restored the old Cappella Magna between 1477 and 1480. During this period a team of painters that included Pietro Perugino, Sandro Botticelli and Domenico Ghirlandaio created a series of frescoed panels depicting the life of Moses and the life of Christ, offset by papal portraits above and trompe l’oeil drapery below. These paintings were completed in 1482, and on August 15, 1483, Sixtus IV consecrated the first mass in honor of Our Lady of the Assumption.
Since the time of Sixtus IV, the chapel has served as a place of both religious and functionary papal activity. Today it is the site of the Papal conclave, the ceremony by which a new Pope is selected.
The Sistine Chapel is best known for being the location of Papal conclaves. More commonly, it is the physical chapel of the Papal Chapel. At the time of Pope Sixtus IV in the late 15th century, this corporate body comprised about 200 people, including clerics, officials of the Vatican and distinguished laity. There were 50 occasions during the year on which it was prescribed by the Papal Calendar that the whole Papal Chapel should meet. Of these 50 occasions, 35 were masses, of which 8 were held in Basilicas, generally St. Peters, and were attended by large congregations. These included the Christmas Day and Easter masses, at which the Pope himself was the celebrant. The other 27 masses could be held in a smaller, less public space, for which the Cappella Maggiore was used before it was rebuilt on the same site as the Sistine Chapel.
The Cappella Maggiore derived its name, the Greater Chapel, from the fact that there was another chapel also in use by the Pope and his retinue for daily worship. At the time of Pope Sixtus IV this was the Chapel of Pope Nicholas V, which had been decorated by Fra Angelico. The Cappella Maggiore is recorded as existing in 1368. According to a communication from Andreas of Trebizond to Pope Sixtus IV, by the time of its demolition to make way for the present chapel the Cappella Maggiore was in a ruinous state with its walls leaning.
The present chapel, on the site of the Cappella Maggiore, was designed by Baccio Pontelli for Pope Sixtus IV, for whom it is named, and built under the supervision of Giovannino de Dolci between 1473 and 1481. The proportions of the present chapel appear to closely follow those of the original. After its completion, the chapel was decorated with frescoes by a number of the most famous artists of the High Renaissance, including Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Perugino and Michelangelo.
The first mass in the Sistine Chapel was celebrated on August 9, 1483, the Feast of the Assumption, at which ceremony the chapel was consecrated and dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
The Sistine Chapel has maintained its function to the present day, and continues to host the important services of the Papal Calendar, unless the Pope is travelling. There is a permanent choir for whom much original music has been written, the most famous piece being Allegri's Miserere.
One of the primary functions of the Sistine Chapel is as a venue for the election of each successive pope in a conclave of the College of Cardinals. On the occasion of a conclave, a chimney is installed in the roof of the chapel, from which smoke arises as a signal. If white smoke appears, created by burning the ballots of the election and some chemical additives, a new Pope has been elected. If a candidate receives less than a two-thirds majority, the cardinals send up black smoke—created by burning the ballots along with wet straw or chemical additives—it means that no successful election has yet occurred.
The conclave also provides for the cardinals a space in which they can hear mass, and in which they can eat, sleep, and pass time abetted by servants. From 1455, conclaves have been held in the Vatican; until the Great Schism, they were held in the Dominican convent of Santa Maria sopra Minerva.
Canopies for each cardinal-elector were once used during conclaves—a sign of equal dignity. After the new Pope accepts his election, he would give his new name; at this time, the other Cardinals would tug on a rope attached to their seats to lower their canopies. Until reforms instituted by Saint Pius X, the canopies were of different colours to designate which Cardinals had been appointed by which Pope. Paul VI abolished the canopies altogether, since under his papacy, the population of the College of Cardinals had increased so much to the point that they would need to be seated in rows of two against the walls, making the canopies obstruct the view of the cardinals in the back row.
The Chapel is a high rectangular brick building, its exterior unadorned by architectural or decorative details, as common in many Medieval and Renaissance churches in Italy. It has no exterior facade or exterior processional doorways as the ingress has always been from internal rooms within the Papal Palace, and the exterior can only be seen from nearby windows and light-wells in the palace. The internal spaces are divided into three stories of which the lowest is huge with a robustly vaulted basement with several utilitarian windows and a doorway giving onto the exterior court.
Above is the main space, the Chapel, the internal measurements of which are 40.9 meters (134 ft) long by 13.4 meters (44 ft) wide—the dimensions of the Temple of Solomon, as given in the Old Testament. The vaulted ceiling rises to 20.7 meters (68 ft). The building had six tall arched windows down each side and two at either end. Several of these have been blocked, but the chapel is still accessible. Above the vault rises a third story with wardrooms for guards. At this level an open projecting gangway was constructed, which encircled the building supported on an arcade springing from the walls. The gangway has been roofed as it was a continual source of water leaking in to the vault of the Chapel.
Subsidence and cracking of masonry such as must also have affected the Cappella Maggiore has necessitated the building of very large buttresses to brace the exterior walls. The accretion of other buildings has further altered the exterior appearance of the Chapel.
As with most buildings measured internally, absolute measurement is hard to ascertain. However, the general proportions of the chapel are clear to within a few centimetres. The length is the measurement and has been divided by three to get the width and by two to get the height. Maintaining the ratio, there were six windows down each side and two at either end. The screen which divides the chapel was originally placed half way from the altar wall, but this has changed. Clearly defined proportions were a feature of Renaissance architecture and reflected the growing interest in the Classical heritage of Rome.
The ceiling of the chapel is a flattened barrel vault springing from a course that encircles the walls at the level of the springing of the window arches. This barrel vault is cut transversely by smaller vaults over each window, which divide the barrel vault at its lowest level into a series of large pendentives rising from shallow pilasters between each window. The barrel vault was originally painted brilliant blue and dotted with gold stars, to the design of Piermatteo Lauro de' Manfredi da Amelia. The pavement is in opus alexandrinum, a decorative style using marble and coloured stone in a pattern that reflects the earlier proportion in the division of the interior and also marks the processional way form the main door, used by the Pope on important occasions such as Palm Sunday.
The screen or transenna in marble by Mino da Fiesole, Andrea Bregno and Giovanni Dalmata divides the chapel into two parts. Originally these made equal space for the members of the Papal Chapel within the sanctuary near the altar and the pilgrims and townsfolk without. However, with growth in the number of those attending the Pope, the screen was moved giving a reduced area for the faithful laity. The transenna is surmounted by a row of ornate candlesticks, once gilt, and has a wooden door, where once there was an ornate door of gilded wrought iron. The sculptors of the transenna also provided the cantoria or projecting choir gallery.
During occasional ceremonies of particular importance, the side walls are covered with a series of tapestries originally designed for the chapel from Raphael, but looted a few years later in the 1527 Sack of Rome and either burnt for their precious metal content or scattered around Europe. The tapestries depict events from the Life of St. Peter and the Life of St. Paul as described in the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. In the late 20th century a set was reassembled (several further sets had been made) and displayed again in the Sistine Chapel in 1983. The full-size preparatory cartoons for seven of the ten tapestries are known as the Raphael Cartoons and are in London.
Michelangelo Buonarroti was commissioned by Pope Julius II in 1508 to repaint the ceiling, originally representing golden stars on a blue sky; the work was completed between 1508 and 1 November 1512. He painted the Last Judgment over the altar, between 1535 and 1541, on commission from Pope Paul III Farnese.
Michelangelo was intimidated by the scale of the commission, and made it known from the outset of Julius II's approach that he would prefer to decline. He felt he was more of a sculptor than a painter, and was suspicious that such a large scale project was being offered to him by enemies as a set-up for an inevitable fall. For Michelangelo, the project was a distraction from the major marble sculpture that had preoccupied him for the previous few years.
The sources of Michelangelo's inspiration are not easily determined; both Joachite and Augustinian theologians were within the sphere of Julius influence. Nor is known the extent to which his own hand physically contributed to the actual physical painting of any of particular images attributed to him.
n 1508, Michelangelo was commissioned by Pope Julius II to paint the vault, or ceiling of the chapel. It took him until 1512 to complete. To be able to reach the ceiling, Michelangelo needed a support; the first idea was by Julius' favoured architect Donato Bramante, who wanted to build for him a scaffold to be suspended in the air with ropes. However, Bramante did not successfully complete the task, and the structure he built was flawed. He had perforated the vault in order to lower strings to secure the scaffold. Michelangelo laughed when he saw the structure, and believed it would leave holes in the ceiling once the work was ended. He asked Bramante what was to happen when the painter reached the perforations, but the architect had no answer.
The matter was taken before the Pope, who ordered Michelangelo to build a scaffold of his own. Michelangelo created a flat wooden platform on brackets built out from holes in the wall, high up near the top of the windows. He stood on this scaffolding while he painted.
Michelangelo used bright colours, easily visible from the floor. On the lowest part of the ceiling he painted the ancestors of Christ. Above this he alternated male and female prophets, with Jonah over the altar. On the highest section Michelangelo painted nine stories from the Book of Genesis. He was originally commissioned to paint only 12 figures, the Apostles. He turned down the commission because he saw himself as a sculptor, not a painter. The Pope offered to allow Michelangelo to paint biblical scenes of his own choice as a compromise. When the work was finished there were more than 300. His figures showed the creation, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and the Great Flood.
The Sistine Chapel's ceiling restoration began on November 7th, 1984. The restoration complete, the chapel was re-opened to the public on April 8th, 1994. The part of the restoration in the Sistine Chapel that has caused the most concern is the ceiling, painted by Michelangelo. The emergence of the brightly-coloured Ancestors of Christ from the gloom sparked a reaction of fear that the processes being employed in the cleaning were too severe.
The problem lies in the analysis and understanding of the techniques utilised by Michelangelo, and the technical response of the restorers to that understanding. A close examination of the frescoes of the lunettes convinced the restorers that Michelangelo worked exclusively in "buon fresco"; that is, the artist worked only on freshly laid plaster and each section of work was completed while the plaster was still in its fresh state. In other words, Michelangelo did not work "a secco"; he did not come back later and add details onto the dry plaster.
The restorers, by assuming that the artist took a universal approach to the painting, took a universal approach to the restoration. A decision was made that all of the shadowy layer of animal glue and "lamp black", all of the wax, and all of the overpainted areas were contamination of one sort or another:- smoke deposits, earlier restoration attempts and painted definition by later restorers in an attempt to enliven the appearance of the work. Based on this decision, according to Arguimbau's critical reading of the restoration data that has been provided, the chemists of the restoration team decided upon a solvent that would effectively strip the ceiling down to its paint-impregnated plaster. After treatment, only that which was painted "buon fresco" would remain.
Vista externa da Capela Sistina do alto da cúpula principal da Basílica de São Pedro.
Texto, em português, da Wikipédia, a Enciclopédia livre:
A Capela Sistina é uma capela situada no Palácio Apostólico, residência oficial do Papa na Cidade do Vaticano, erigida entre os anos 1475 e 1483, durante o pontificado do Papa Sisto IV. A Celebração Eucarística de inauguração ocorreu em 15 de Agosto de 1483.
Era um projeto relativamente simples e despretensioso, no início, destinado ao culto particular dos papas e da alta hierarquia eclesiástica, contudo, fruto de uma época de expansão política e territorial da Santa Sé, viria a tornar-se num dos símbolos desta, tamanha magnificência adquiriu.
A celebridade da capela deve-se, também, ao fato de nela se realizarem os conclaves para a eleição do Sumo Pontífice da Igreja Católica Romana.
A virada do Quattrocento para o Cinquecento foi um dos momentos mais marcantes para a História da arte ocidental, quiçá mundial. A Itália, com epicentro em Florença, deu ao mundo uma tal gama de geniais artistas que parece milagrosa. "Não há como explicar a existência do gênio. É preferível apreciá-lo", diz Gombrich, tentando entender por que tantos grandes mestres nasceram no mesmo período.
A Capela Sistina é um dos locais mais propícios para aquilatar a dimensão desta explosão criativa. Para a sua feitura concorreram os maiores nomes de que dispunha a Itália no momento.
Sisto IV, como parte da política que empreendia para o restabelecimento do prestígio e fortalecimento do papado, convocou a Roma os maiores artistas da Itália. Florença era o centro de excelência até então. De lá e da Úmbria vieram os maiores nomes, fato que deslocaria para Roma a capitalidade cultural, que atingiria o zênite algumas décadas depois, com a eleição de Júlio II para ocupar a Cátedra de São Pedro. Para a história da cultura o significado do projeto e construção da Sistina é imenso, juntamente com as demais obras encomendadas por Sisto IV. Não somente porque marca o deslocamento da capitalidade cultural para Roma, mas por se tratar do ciclo pictórico de maior relevo da Itália no final do século XV, "constituindo além disso um documento inapreciável para observar as virtudes e os limites da pintura do Quattrocento'".
Com exceção de Ghirlandaio, os pintores que nela assinalaram seus talentos avançam com a sua obra o século seguinte e os gênios que mudaram os rumos da pintura no período estão todos estreitamente relacionados com eles: Ghirlandaio fora mestre de Michelangelo; Rafael aprendiz de Perugino; e no atelier de Verrocchio passaram: Leonardo, Perugino e Botticelli.
Mais que um liame entre o Quattrocento e o Cinquecento, esta geração de artistas "representa um ponto final, a constatação de uma crise. Algo que ficará manifesto pelo fato de que tanto Leonardo como Michelangelo construírem em boa medida suas respectivas linguagens sobre a negação da deles".
foi o autor do projeto arquitetônico para a construção da capela. Este florentino era um dos responsáveis pela reformulação e revitalização urbanística que Sisto IV efetuava em Roma, tendo realizado dezenas de obras públicas.
No projeto, construído com a supervisão de Giovannino de Dolci entre 1473 e 1484, emprestaram seus dons: Perugino, Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Rosselli, Signorelli, Pinturicchio, Piero di Cosimo, Bartolomeo della Gatta, Rafael e outros. Coroando este festival, alguns anos depois, um dos maiores gênios artísticos de todos os tempos: Michelangelo Buonarroti.
As dimensões do projeto de Baccio Pontelli tiveram como inspiração as descrições contidas no Antigo Testamento relativas ao Templo de Salomão. A sua forma é retangular medindo 40,93 m de longitude, 13,41 m e largura e 20,70 m de altura. Os numerosos artistas vestiram o seu interior, esculpindo e pintando as suas paredes, transformando-a em um estupendo e célebre lugar conhecido em todo o mundo pelas maravilhosas obras de arte que encerra.
Uma finíssima transenna de mármore, em que trabalharam Mino de Fiesole, Giovanni Dálmata e Andréa Bregno, divide a capela em duas partes desiguais. Os mesmos artistas levaram a cabo a construção do coro.
Internamente, as paredes, divididas por cornijas horizontais, apresentam 3 níveis:
* o primeiro nível, junto ao chão em mármore - que, em alguns setores, apresenta o característico marchetado cosmatesco - simula refinadas tapeçarias. No lado direito, próximo à transenna está o coro;
* o intermediário é onde figuram os afrescos narrando os episódios da vida de Cristo e de Moisés. A cronologia inicia-se a partir da parede do altar, onde se encontravam, antes da feitura do Juízo Final de Michelangelo, as primeiras cenas e um retábulo de Perugino representando a Virgem da Assunção, a quem foi dedicada a capela.
* o nível mais alto, onde estão as pilastras que sustentam os pendentes do teto. Acima da cornija estão situadas as lunettes, entre as quais foram alocadas as imagens dos primeiros papas.
No último quartel do século XX, obras empreendidas no teto da Capela Sistina no intuito de recuperar o brilho original do tempo de Michelangelo foram motivo de inúmeras controvérsias.
Restaurações vinham sendo feitas ao longo dos anos, e desde a década de 1960 já se trabalhava nos afrescos mais antigos. O projeto mais audacioso, a cargo do restaurador Gianluigi Colalucci, iniciou-se em 1979 com a limpeza da parede do altar: o Juízo Final, de Michelangelo.
Durante este período a capela esteve fechada ao público que visita o Museu do Vaticano - cerca de 3.000.000 pessoas por ano - só voltando a ser reaberta em 8 de Abril de 1994.
"Like" my Facebook Page please www.facebook.com/thierrylylesphotography
Press "f" to favorite!
ADD ME AS A CONTACT PLEASE
Aerial view of St Giles Church next to the castle in Bowes - County Durham UK aerial image - taken with a sub 250 gram DJI Mini 2 UAV
The definition I can find if Gargoyle's is "a grotesque carved human or animal face or figure projecting from the gutter of a building, typically acting as a spout to carry water clear of a wall"
Due to the Covid Lockdown in Wales I haven't been able to go out & find a real Gargoyle so have settled for this "grotesque spout to carry water clear of a wall" ;o)
#45 Gargoyle for 120 pictures in 2020
Canisbay Parish Church is a Church of Scotland church in Canisbay, Scotland, that dates back to the early 1600s and is the most northernly church on mainland Britain. It is a Category A listed building. It is surrounded by a large cemetery, which is split into two sections, the new and old. It features a square bell tower, nave and a porch. The porch was added in 1891, when the other extensions and work was completed to the church building.
The church was rebuilt in the 17th century, and ancient remains were discovered after a wall collapsed in the cemetery. Jan De Groot, the man who founded John o' Groats, is buried in Canisbay cemetery; his tombstone sits in the church building and is a popular tourist attraction when the building is open for visitors every summer. The book Lest We Forget: The Parish of Canisbay (1996) is a "miscellany of memories written by parishioners and friends so that future generations can know what made Canisbay a very special place".
Between 1959 and 2001 Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother was a regular worshipper at the church during her periods of residence, usually in late summer each year, at the nearby Castle of Mey, which she owned.
Canisbay is a rural hamlet located about one mile (1.5 kilometres) southwest of Huna and two and a half miles (four kilometres) southwest of John o' Groats in Caithness, Scottish Highlands, and is in the Scottish council area of Highland. It lies on the A836 coast road, which bypasses the hamlet to the north.
It is home to Canisbay Primary School, a Village Hall, Medical Practice, and two Churches, one of which was the church used by Charles III. The Church is also the burial place of Jean De Groot, the ferryman after which John o' Groats is named.
The Parish of Canisbay includes John o' Groats, Upper and Lower Gills, Huna and Freswick.
Canisbay Juniors are the "feeder" team to John o' Groats FC with many of the key first team players having played for the side at one time. They play in the youth development leagues in Caithness where they enter teams at all age groups. It is also home to Canisbay Rifle club, who regularly compete in the Caithness Rifle Leagues.
The Canisbay Show is the local agricultural and crafts show held mid-June each year in the park behind the village hall, with the JCB competition, the karate display and mainly the Beer Tent being the big attractions.
The Highlands is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots language replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands. The term is also used for the area north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, although the exact boundaries are not clearly defined, particularly to the east. The Great Glen divides the Grampian Mountains to the southeast from the Northwest Highlands. The Scottish Gaelic name of A' Ghàidhealtachd literally means "the place of the Gaels" and traditionally, from a Gaelic-speaking point of view, includes both the Western Isles and the Highlands.
The area is very sparsely populated, with many mountain ranges dominating the region, and includes the highest mountain in the British Isles, Ben Nevis. During the 18th and early 19th centuries the population of the Highlands rose to around 300,000, but from c. 1841 and for the next 160 years, the natural increase in population was exceeded by emigration (mostly to Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, and migration to the industrial cities of Scotland and England.) and passim The area is now one of the most sparsely populated in Europe. At 9.1/km2 (24/sq mi) in 2012, the population density in the Highlands and Islands is less than one seventh of Scotland's as a whole.
The Highland Council is the administrative body for much of the Highlands, with its administrative centre at Inverness. However, the Highlands also includes parts of the council areas of Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll and Bute, Moray, North Ayrshire, Perth and Kinross, Stirling and West Dunbartonshire.
The Scottish Highlands is the only area in the British Isles to have the taiga biome as it features concentrated populations of Scots pine forest: see Caledonian Forest. It is the most mountainous part of the United Kingdom.
Between the 15th century and the mid-20th century, the area differed from most of the Lowlands in terms of language. In Scottish Gaelic, the region is known as the Gàidhealtachd, because it was traditionally the Gaelic-speaking part of Scotland, although the language is now largely confined to The Hebrides. The terms are sometimes used interchangeably but have different meanings in their respective languages. Scottish English (in its Highland form) is the predominant language of the area today, though Highland English has been influenced by Gaelic speech to a significant extent. Historically, the "Highland line" distinguished the two Scottish cultures. While the Highland line broadly followed the geography of the Grampians in the south, it continued in the north, cutting off the north-eastern areas, that is Eastern Caithness, Orkney and Shetland, from the more Gaelic Highlands and Hebrides.
Historically, the major social unit of the Highlands was the clan. Scottish kings, particularly James VI, saw clans as a challenge to their authority; the Highlands was seen by many as a lawless region. The Scots of the Lowlands viewed the Highlanders as backward and more "Irish". The Highlands were seen as the overspill of Gaelic Ireland. They made this distinction by separating Germanic "Scots" English and the Gaelic by renaming it "Erse" a play on Eire. Following the Union of the Crowns, James VI had the military strength to back up any attempts to impose some control. The result was, in 1609, the Statutes of Iona which started the process of integrating clan leaders into Scottish society. The gradual changes continued into the 19th century, as clan chiefs thought of themselves less as patriarchal leaders of their people and more as commercial landlords. The first effect on the clansmen who were their tenants was the change to rents being payable in money rather than in kind. Later, rents were increased as Highland landowners sought to increase their income. This was followed, mostly in the period 1760–1850, by agricultural improvement that often (particularly in the Western Highlands) involved clearance of the population to make way for large scale sheep farms. Displaced tenants were set up in crofting communities in the process. The crofts were intended not to provide all the needs of their occupiers; they were expected to work in other industries such as kelping and fishing. Crofters came to rely substantially on seasonal migrant work, particularly in the Lowlands. This gave impetus to the learning of English, which was seen by many rural Gaelic speakers to be the essential "language of work".
Older historiography attributes the collapse of the clan system to the aftermath of the Jacobite risings. This is now thought less influential by historians. Following the Jacobite rising of 1745 the British government enacted a series of laws to try to suppress the clan system, including bans on the bearing of arms and the wearing of tartan, and limitations on the activities of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Most of this legislation was repealed by the end of the 18th century as the Jacobite threat subsided. There was soon a rehabilitation of Highland culture. Tartan was adopted for Highland regiments in the British Army, which poor Highlanders joined in large numbers in the era of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1790–1815). Tartan had largely been abandoned by the ordinary people of the region, but in the 1820s, tartan and the kilt were adopted by members of the social elite, not just in Scotland, but across Europe. The international craze for tartan, and for idealising a romanticised Highlands, was set off by the Ossian cycle, and further popularised by the works of Walter Scott. His "staging" of the visit of King George IV to Scotland in 1822 and the king's wearing of tartan resulted in a massive upsurge in demand for kilts and tartans that could not be met by the Scottish woollen industry. Individual clan tartans were largely designated in this period and they became a major symbol of Scottish identity. This "Highlandism", by which all of Scotland was identified with the culture of the Highlands, was cemented by Queen Victoria's interest in the country, her adoption of Balmoral as a major royal retreat, and her interest in "tartenry".
Recurrent famine affected the Highlands for much of its history, with significant instances as late as 1817 in the Eastern Highlands and the early 1850s in the West. Over the 18th century, the region had developed a trade of black cattle into Lowland markets, and this was balanced by imports of meal into the area. There was a critical reliance on this trade to provide sufficient food, and it is seen as an essential prerequisite for the population growth that started in the 18th century. Most of the Highlands, particularly in the North and West was short of the arable land that was essential for the mixed, run rig based, communal farming that existed before agricultural improvement was introduced into the region.[a] Between the 1760s and the 1830s there was a substantial trade in unlicensed whisky that had been distilled in the Highlands. Lowland distillers (who were not able to avoid the heavy taxation of this product) complained that Highland whisky made up more than half the market. The development of the cattle trade is taken as evidence that the pre-improvement Highlands was not an immutable system, but did exploit the economic opportunities that came its way. The illicit whisky trade demonstrates the entrepreneurial ability of the peasant classes.
Agricultural improvement reached the Highlands mostly over the period 1760 to 1850. Agricultural advisors, factors, land surveyors and others educated in the thinking of Adam Smith were keen to put into practice the new ideas taught in Scottish universities. Highland landowners, many of whom were burdened with chronic debts, were generally receptive to the advice they offered and keen to increase the income from their land. In the East and South the resulting change was similar to that in the Lowlands, with the creation of larger farms with single tenants, enclosure of the old run rig fields, introduction of new crops (such as turnips), land drainage and, as a consequence of all this, eviction, as part of the Highland clearances, of many tenants and cottars. Some of those cleared found employment on the new, larger farms, others moved to the accessible towns of the Lowlands.
In the West and North, evicted tenants were usually given tenancies in newly created crofting communities, while their former holdings were converted into large sheep farms. Sheep farmers could pay substantially higher rents than the run rig farmers and were much less prone to falling into arrears. Each croft was limited in size so that the tenants would have to find work elsewhere. The major alternatives were fishing and the kelp industry. Landlords took control of the kelp shores, deducting the wages earned by their tenants from the rent due and retaining the large profits that could be earned at the high prices paid for the processed product during the Napoleonic wars.
When the Napoleonic wars finished in 1815, the Highland industries were affected by the return to a peacetime economy. The price of black cattle fell, nearly halving between 1810 and the 1830s. Kelp prices had peaked in 1810, but reduced from £9 a ton in 1823 to £3 13s 4d a ton in 1828. Wool prices were also badly affected. This worsened the financial problems of debt-encumbered landlords. Then, in 1846, potato blight arrived in the Highlands, wiping out the essential subsistence crop for the overcrowded crofting communities. As the famine struck, the government made clear to landlords that it was their responsibility to provide famine relief for their tenants. The result of the economic downturn had been that a large proportion of Highland estates were sold in the first half of the 19th century. T M Devine points out that in the region most affected by the potato famine, by 1846, 70 per cent of the landowners were new purchasers who had not owned Highland property before 1800. More landlords were obliged to sell due to the cost of famine relief. Those who were protected from the worst of the crisis were those with extensive rental income from sheep farms. Government loans were made available for drainage works, road building and other improvements and many crofters became temporary migrants – taking work in the Lowlands. When the potato famine ceased in 1856, this established a pattern of more extensive working away from the Highlands.
The unequal concentration of land ownership remained an emotional and controversial subject, of enormous importance to the Highland economy, and eventually became a cornerstone of liberal radicalism. The poor crofters were politically powerless, and many of them turned to religion. They embraced the popularly oriented, fervently evangelical Presbyterian revival after 1800. Most joined the breakaway "Free Church" after 1843. This evangelical movement was led by lay preachers who themselves came from the lower strata, and whose preaching was implicitly critical of the established order. The religious change energised the crofters and separated them from the landlords; it helped prepare them for their successful and violent challenge to the landlords in the 1880s through the Highland Land League. Violence erupted, starting on the Isle of Skye, when Highland landlords cleared their lands for sheep and deer parks. It was quietened when the government stepped in, passing the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act, 1886 to reduce rents, guarantee fixity of tenure, and break up large estates to provide crofts for the homeless. This contrasted with the Irish Land War underway at the same time, where the Irish were intensely politicised through roots in Irish nationalism, while political dimensions were limited. In 1885 three Independent Crofter candidates were elected to Parliament, which listened to their pleas. The results included explicit security for the Scottish smallholders in the "crofting counties"; the legal right to bequeath tenancies to descendants; and the creation of a Crofting Commission. The Crofters as a political movement faded away by 1892, and the Liberal Party gained their votes.
Today, the Highlands are the largest of Scotland's whisky producing regions; the relevant area runs from Orkney to the Isle of Arran in the south and includes the northern isles and much of Inner and Outer Hebrides, Argyll, Stirlingshire, Arran, as well as sections of Perthshire and Aberdeenshire. (Other sources treat The Islands, except Islay, as a separate whisky producing region.) This massive area has over 30 distilleries, or 47 when the Islands sub-region is included in the count. According to one source, the top five are The Macallan, Glenfiddich, Aberlour, Glenfarclas and Balvenie. While Speyside is geographically within the Highlands, that region is specified as distinct in terms of whisky productions. Speyside single malt whiskies are produced by about 50 distilleries.
According to Visit Scotland, Highlands whisky is "fruity, sweet, spicy, malty". Another review states that Northern Highlands single malt is "sweet and full-bodied", the Eastern Highlands and Southern Highlands whiskies tend to be "lighter in texture" while the distilleries in the Western Highlands produce single malts with a "much peatier influence".
The Scottish Reformation achieved partial success in the Highlands. Roman Catholicism remained strong in some areas, owing to remote locations and the efforts of Franciscan missionaries from Ireland, who regularly came to celebrate Mass. There remain significant Catholic strongholds within the Highlands and Islands such as Moidart and Morar on the mainland and South Uist and Barra in the southern Outer Hebrides. The remoteness of the region and the lack of a Gaelic-speaking clergy undermined the missionary efforts of the established church. The later 18th century saw somewhat greater success, owing to the efforts of the SSPCK missionaries and to the disruption of traditional society after the Battle of Culloden in 1746. In the 19th century, the evangelical Free Churches, which were more accepting of Gaelic language and culture, grew rapidly, appealing much more strongly than did the established church.
For the most part, however, the Highlands are considered predominantly Protestant, belonging to the Church of Scotland. In contrast to the Catholic southern islands, the northern Outer Hebrides islands (Lewis, Harris and North Uist) have an exceptionally high proportion of their population belonging to the Protestant Free Church of Scotland or the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The Outer Hebrides have been described as the last bastion of Calvinism in Britain and the Sabbath remains widely observed. Inverness and the surrounding area has a majority Protestant population, with most locals belonging to either The Kirk or the Free Church of Scotland. The church maintains a noticeable presence within the area, with church attendance notably higher than in other parts of Scotland. Religion continues to play an important role in Highland culture, with Sabbath observance still widely practised, particularly in the Hebrides.
In traditional Scottish geography, the Highlands refers to that part of Scotland north-west of the Highland Boundary Fault, which crosses mainland Scotland in a near-straight line from Helensburgh to Stonehaven. However the flat coastal lands that occupy parts of the counties of Nairnshire, Morayshire, Banffshire and Aberdeenshire are often excluded as they do not share the distinctive geographical and cultural features of the rest of the Highlands. The north-east of Caithness, as well as Orkney and Shetland, are also often excluded from the Highlands, although the Hebrides are usually included. The Highland area, as so defined, differed from the Lowlands in language and tradition, having preserved Gaelic speech and customs centuries after the anglicisation of the latter; this led to a growing perception of a divide, with the cultural distinction between Highlander and Lowlander first noted towards the end of the 14th century. In Aberdeenshire, the boundary between the Highlands and the Lowlands is not well defined. There is a stone beside the A93 road near the village of Dinnet on Royal Deeside which states 'You are now in the Highlands', although there are areas of Highland character to the east of this point.
A much wider definition of the Highlands is that used by the Scotch whisky industry. Highland single malts are produced at distilleries north of an imaginary line between Dundee and Greenock, thus including all of Aberdeenshire and Angus.
Inverness is regarded as the Capital of the Highlands, although less so in the Highland parts of Aberdeenshire, Angus, Perthshire and Stirlingshire which look more to Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, and Stirling as their commercial centres.
The Highland Council area, created as one of the local government regions of Scotland, has been a unitary council area since 1996. The council area excludes a large area of the southern and eastern Highlands, and the Western Isles, but includes Caithness. Highlands is sometimes used, however, as a name for the council area, as in the former Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service. Northern is also used to refer to the area, as in the former Northern Constabulary. These former bodies both covered the Highland council area and the island council areas of Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles.
Much of the Highlands area overlaps the Highlands and Islands area. An electoral region called Highlands and Islands is used in elections to the Scottish Parliament: this area includes Orkney and Shetland, as well as the Highland Council local government area, the Western Isles and most of the Argyll and Bute and Moray local government areas. Highlands and Islands has, however, different meanings in different contexts. It means Highland (the local government area), Orkney, Shetland, and the Western Isles in Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service. Northern, as in Northern Constabulary, refers to the same area as that covered by the fire and rescue service.
There have been trackways from the Lowlands to the Highlands since prehistoric times. Many traverse the Mounth, a spur of mountainous land that extends from the higher inland range to the North Sea slightly north of Stonehaven. The most well-known and historically important trackways are the Causey Mounth, Elsick Mounth, Cryne Corse Mounth and Cairnamounth.
Although most of the Highlands is geographically on the British mainland, it is somewhat less accessible than the rest of Britain; thus most UK couriers categorise it separately, alongside Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, and other offshore islands. They thus charge additional fees for delivery to the Highlands, or exclude the area entirely. While the physical remoteness from the largest population centres inevitably leads to higher transit cost, there is confusion and consternation over the scale of the fees charged and the effectiveness of their communication, and the use of the word Mainland in their justification. Since the charges are often based on postcode areas, many far less remote areas, including some which are traditionally considered part of the lowlands, are also subject to these charges. Royal Mail is the only delivery network bound by a Universal Service Obligation to charge a uniform tariff across the UK. This, however, applies only to mail items and not larger packages which are dealt with by its Parcelforce division.
The Highlands lie to the north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, which runs from Arran to Stonehaven. This part of Scotland is largely composed of ancient rocks from the Cambrian and Precambrian periods which were uplifted during the later Caledonian Orogeny. Smaller formations of Lewisian gneiss in the northwest are up to 3 billion years old. The overlying rocks of the Torridon Sandstone form mountains in the Torridon Hills such as Liathach and Beinn Eighe in Wester Ross.
These foundations are interspersed with many igneous intrusions of a more recent age, the remnants of which have formed mountain massifs such as the Cairngorms and the Cuillin of Skye. A significant exception to the above are the fossil-bearing beds of Old Red Sandstone found principally along the Moray Firth coast and partially down the Highland Boundary Fault. The Jurassic beds found in isolated locations on Skye and Applecross reflect the complex underlying geology. They are the original source of much North Sea oil. The Great Glen is formed along a transform fault which divides the Grampian Mountains to the southeast from the Northwest Highlands.
The entire region was covered by ice sheets during the Pleistocene ice ages, save perhaps for a few nunataks. The complex geomorphology includes incised valleys and lochs carved by the action of mountain streams and ice, and a topography of irregularly distributed mountains whose summits have similar heights above sea-level, but whose bases depend upon the amount of denudation to which the plateau has been subjected in various places.
Climate
The region is much warmer than other areas at similar latitudes (such as Kamchatka in Russia, or Labrador in Canada) because of the Gulf Stream making it cool, damp and temperate. The Köppen climate classification is "Cfb" at low altitudes, then becoming "Cfc", "Dfc" and "ET" at higher altitudes.
Places of interest
An Teallach
Aonach Mòr (Nevis Range ski centre)
Arrochar Alps
Balmoral Castle
Balquhidder
Battlefield of Culloden
Beinn Alligin
Beinn Eighe
Ben Cruachan hydro-electric power station
Ben Lomond
Ben Macdui (second highest mountain in Scotland and UK)
Ben Nevis (highest mountain in Scotland and UK)
Cairngorms National Park
Cairngorm Ski centre near Aviemore
Cairngorm Mountains
Caledonian Canal
Cape Wrath
Carrick Castle
Castle Stalker
Castle Tioram
Chanonry Point
Conic Hill
Culloden Moor
Dunadd
Duart Castle
Durness
Eilean Donan
Fingal's Cave (Staffa)
Fort George
Glen Coe
Glen Etive
Glen Kinglas
Glen Lyon
Glen Orchy
Glenshee Ski Centre
Glen Shiel
Glen Spean
Glenfinnan (and its railway station and viaduct)
Grampian Mountains
Hebrides
Highland Folk Museum – The first open-air museum in the UK.
Highland Wildlife Park
Inveraray Castle
Inveraray Jail
Inverness Castle
Inverewe Garden
Iona Abbey
Isle of Staffa
Kilchurn Castle
Kilmartin Glen
Liathach
Lecht Ski Centre
Loch Alsh
Loch Ard
Loch Awe
Loch Assynt
Loch Earn
Loch Etive
Loch Fyne
Loch Goil
Loch Katrine
Loch Leven
Loch Linnhe
Loch Lochy
Loch Lomond
Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park
Loch Lubnaig
Loch Maree
Loch Morar
Loch Morlich
Loch Ness
Loch Nevis
Loch Rannoch
Loch Tay
Lochranza
Luss
Meall a' Bhuiridh (Glencoe Ski Centre)
Scottish Sea Life Sanctuary at Loch Creran
Rannoch Moor
Red Cuillin
Rest and Be Thankful stretch of A83
River Carron, Wester Ross
River Spey
River Tay
Ross and Cromarty
Smoo Cave
Stob Coire a' Chàirn
Stac Polly
Strathspey Railway
Sutherland
Tor Castle
Torridon Hills
Urquhart Castle
West Highland Line (scenic railway)
West Highland Way (Long-distance footpath)
Wester Ross
Here, I've got the suit stretched over the mannequin, and a vacuum cleaner hose stuck into the suit sucks it down tight against the muscles -- looks like the idea should work out well!
The hard part is next -- coating both the suit and the armor with sprayed-on rubber contact adhesive, then stretch it into proper alignment without sticking it to itself or sticking it down in the wrong place, since the glue isn't easily repositionable.
PS - Not a professional maker, so feel free to borrow any of my ideas without worrying about "stealing" them. A shout-out would be cool but mostly, if you do something with them, I'd love to have a look.
Design Vector High Definition
Design Vector High Definition, 1920 x 1080, 282 KB, www.hdwallpapers.in/vector__designs-desktop-wallpapers.html
Abracadabra, quid mihi edendum est? .
vidisse copiosae fabellas at duo. Probo iuvaret admodum ad ius, audire impedit vel in, his simul alienum te. Sea eripuit albucius omittantur id, cu quot quidam graecis quo. Eos id equidem facilisi pericula.
Ius gubergren adolescens dissentias id, prima oporteat te est. Est noster convenire ei, id pro cibo definiebas. At pro mutat partem concludaturque. Et modo errem nobis est, ius eius ferri id. Te audire alterum vix, sint saepe lobortis et mel. Decore doctus has ea, virtute docendi cu sit, his ea mazim honestatis appellantur.
Has sale dicam discere ex, at nihil graeci repudiare eum. Et vel equidem civibus platonem, augue tation nostro ea his. Ea consul laoreet pri, vim te similique definitiones. Qui ea recteque incorrupte. Illum mundi fuisset sea ne. Has delenit cotidieque mediocritatem ne, perfecto persecuti sed no.
In mollis impedit vis, cu pri esse atqui laoreet. Delicata mnesarchum eos ea, pri minim fabulas denique cu. Ne reque offendit perpetua est. In probo civibus mel.
Duo ea stet discere salutatus, has amet homero in. Ad nemore aliquando quaerendum sea. Eum eripuit meliore ut. Graecis insolens vix no, te sale labores consulatu usu, quo accusam abhorreant in. Per quot fastidii evertitur ne.
Te ferri graecis recteque qui. His ex tation delectus, ius ei mundi aliquip fierent. An duis audiam mel. Feugait adversarium sea te, id mazim simul qui. Et nec quem habeo partem.
Cu timeam percipit mandamus eam, clita verear offendit an est. Purto nibh omittam his eu, graeco euripidis eu vix. Eos ei integre tincidunt, congue facete omnium eu duo, partem sadipscing id his. At quo alia ocurreret consectetuer. Nam debet homero partem et.
In quo vero natum putent, splendide argumentum eos ex. Equidem definiebas quo no, sea ei feugait inciderint, pro ne blandit scribentur. Ea duo dico liber utroque, ipsum soleat incorrupte his cu. Vix feugiat qualisque definiebas et. Mel ne aliquip percipit sententiae.
Te mucius delectus intellegam vis. Summo insolens instructior eam cu. His harum iuvaret in, dicit intellegebat mea ut, eum meis definitiones at. Te minimum invenire mea.
Ea vel vidit fastidii complectitur, vis te scaevola volutpat, dolor consetetur te vim. Voluptatum necessitatibus cum et, quo sint malis summo ne. An per stet falli hendrerit. Duo ei mundi inermis accommodare. An fabellas assentior eos, ex sed persecuti mediocritatem, qui in vitae nostro reprimique. Eos te possim fabellas.
Id equidem feugait eam, cetero meliore honestatis at vix. Id omnes dolore maluisset vim. Liber tantas ea sit, quas soluta tacimates ut mel. Per audire scriptorem ea, ius ubique suavitate et.
Ut ubique veritus repudiandae eam. Dicunt quodsi an per, mei ad ornatus tibique. Modus intellegat maiestatis ad qui, facilisi recusabo persequeris sea no, eu movet invidunt platonem nec. Percipit pertinacia ad nec, nulla insolens petentium vel at, in alia vide eam. Ea vix integre invidunt, vidit ceteros pri an.
Primis dolorum pri et, suas novum decore eos at. Te dicit possim theophrastus qui, est illud intellegam ut. Quis doctus gubergren ex sit, eam copiosae theophrastus an, vim id errem convenire adolescens. Ea sonet intellegam duo, offendit oportere ei est. Eum feugiat atomorum at, expetendis vituperatoribus at usu. Qui ex graecis corrumpit, an melius legimus est.
Eu nam quodsi facilisi. Nostro dissentiunt mei cu, at quidam electram scriptorem sea. Vel ea hinc insolens. Nominati evertitur ea has. Ei labore tritani accusam mel, ut tempor utroque sit. Te dico quot duis eam, et pri novum democritum. Vim ne accusam adipiscing, eam an quas quidam.
Nisl phaedrum quaestio eos te. Solet soluta posidonium eos cu. Detraxit efficiantur eos ei, ad qui meis melius. At quo fugit corrumpit. Ex ius legere rationibus reformidans, ne nec mentitum voluptatum philosophia.
In tale voluptaria sed, eam ad facer feugiat tacimates. Sea te imperdiet molestiae abhorreant. Dicant utroque mel in, et quis homero verterem nam. Id eam elitr prodesset elaboraret, reque atqui munere te his. Nisl libris adipiscing cum id, ex cibo fugit omnesque usu. Solet suscipiantur ut vel.
Nisl ubique tincidunt te vix, eam at odio ubique accusam. Pro in legimus disputando. Ne vis tantas intellegam, adhuc ponderum at vel. Ex saepe dolore docendi cum, eleifend ullamcorper an qui.
Eam cu graece similique, vis prompta copiosae convenire et, est ad diceret delectus. Ex mundi iudico eligendi has. Nominati percipitur vis in. Pro te dolorem deleniti recteque, legere suscipit salutandi et cum. Enim praesent scribentur pro ad, modo dolore repudiare no pri, nec modus facilis ut.
Latine posidonium constituam per te, te sed fastidii elaboraret, doming tractatos an mea. Facilis deserunt pro ei, an mea iusto labitur petentium. Ea partem essent eirmod usu, sea possim malorum forensibus ne. Minim dolore moderatius at sed. Vim delenit mentitum ne.
Nam alterum impedit te. Mea no quas iuvaret, nec perfecto efficiantur ne. Sed in alterum praesent appellantur. Cum ut paulo alterum necessitatibus, nulla dolore ea est, sed zril quaestio ut. An sumo percipitur mei, pri eu incorrupte instructior intellegebat, alienum voluptua ei usu. Eu eos tollit probatus.
明ロテニモ権京ミメロサ媒女；
多クカ有85息曲8同ま臣沖頑もろま談他クト期29作う霊間聞ルホレカ携子づぱふ住脳極賢港ス。投ルワ間再マ担町高ぜらドき第軍フーべも禁刊先狙ぞ機治しりどー通現あそ賞記詳7年転やひーち聖認ぐぜま体総た観山ル説代ラ。豊ユラマ十毎ア切愉よ賞長イカハニ縮載ハヤユ各覧せ無止オクソ間7備セコエ料回月へびる事迷タ枝商そげへ際目ごく不釣チコメ軍泉れぴてあ必協セス上論ぎール。
録しまをド情今つなばを請未9記ヲ講船ツ死支ラがず将都呼サメアロ禁権エ腹悩トツナ表朝ざでべだ終一ざしこ現都侵ラソ憲第えほぽ断追トマヌ合観ねか暮算枠ぱはや。罪おもわン整六ク政府サ報投トケサユ嘆若だまた繰戻うン修共ムヌ封修編ぎづッて桜日むいげぞ碁9進ハフユ表79南93泊定展仇佗ょむさ。際ず就原6憎め球善ぜンせ打性スチミ者子岩ラ分引サスハテ体妥ろ書建メキ女男激ねほだ。
異議を唱える若者の権利は、あなたが最初に異議を唱えることです。彼に合うのは私たちのものです、あなたはそれを食べ物と定義しました。しかし、その部分を変えるのではなく、結論づけるのです。そして今、私たちは間違っています。抱っこされるのは彼の権利です。他はほとんど聞きませんが、それらは錠剤と蜂蜜であることが多いです。教えるという美徳をもって、美しく学問を修めた人は、他の人よりも正直であると言われる。
明ロテニモ権京ミメロサ媒女ラよぐ国庫ウ紀街レル望列周雪に世嗅覧注ぴ成移ロ品録振ケラ中整はに者早父べッゃ。着報ぱをトぎ承鳥4未をき今真そけだ式時ご浜被タヲラフ見央び埼話すぞ注中ノ早法ひょ負勝服サヤ見叟噂じへ。治にぴ政取けざりう咄4体紙イウモコ江詳ス会属の打就ノミヘ経課サク民芸ソマスヒ表目めね履構め乗図ヌミ稿楽憲初畑せふほさ。
並ッぎひ上実ねたラご始読をはト刊利も人店るンゅ放医記ろリ討日るけでづ被式ぼ外12至テヱス洋転ゃ売通つわぽッ以業春環魚りつ。外ツリ件校ルカヱテ符思父クヱリス予表ヒエウ毎栄もづ着15川タヌヨ臣郭モミク著合今オロレウ心気ロコタス愛狙けぐら選懐蓄こた。属コヲ施配5起い必中利所シアスク文長費ー円愛番ルシヤ練書ヱモネ着的らで雄81労てひげ。
込策ノアニヤ健録紙コ行吹ウ読茶ハ傷条んく補繰ユフマ全夫ばゅぞむ提義な育際レ滋実重うねば目能枝クレ木佐ト信奈ロ上出リネチミ協題にっフ愛与備年卒ド。革ナユソツ必崎おりぶほ東情ルエハ録真へ林績かす氷37革おわれー情存密レヌ円説ヲ物調そ壊地ラコツ間質だざすぎ月渡茶ざ野34抜活へ供6人ム好台喚宴ぜやぱ。
知ノ北2代づお分点き定第へーわい橋着お館奈おレほし白64示ツノ圧禁行とうり域主ぎぼげ削生ためいほ回権メヤケタ田谷革八売ン。断ッ光古コイ回新リキ表規ヲ億逮ヤヲ大井ろべク関数38大ヤソ判応想ゅ東川りぐと話物証レ事社え月先フ設崩ぐあぱ道15聞米新坊ひン。掲ウサ要欧ト意円巡ニテエ野3徨かみゆ段済時ッちどお見私ウ期天命時転たかい所選リ文厚レウ有厳契を。
学フ統多利すずこむ効伴記か館川ラヒヱ風26評オテカ保町エヘス産初くずや上闘図ッぐ攻了28覧が件流メモウス倍前モ遇月サナ作渡テエチツ即染幌拉こざや。期ニル相監問マカイ続特げ応阪ぐえし禁間整りゆ水実の座91宣ラトスさ寺1客のか警優活哉循み。残よゆ也6同チルイヒ府名検の裁索ワハ急年だ能涛面ちけう台宣リ縮野ラセテマ整危ドゅスク必続ヨマネ在識ろびね禁銚クユ募誕め。
況タク転続74宅ゆに東表ざあかは等目84果だクゆイ整四ケアセ主観ルノ者済ル題5写メヲウノ人役事スど。庭月シタロレ全転メムヒ整番ソハク画写る伝生ぽ田表ぼむひ村宇りさんつ孝短つ祭料球注れこお目隠トカヒ工売再ノラネ野作アエメマ公阪でへなけ氏予スト家急ぐリ。毎ユニヘレ収面内べ街84盟ゆフゃご信強ぶ事都セテ著激はか東63断わまに大報課ぴいレ大熱科ラアレ健技ば声壌粉脅わん。
速組シネタノ議策ノセカモ将神キセユ動観さそなう国入みへ必色ばイド隣談し働行メイエ禁次ゆけ飯購ょはのる話歩シヱタ終刃尿憎ゅす。始所ツサケタ関点ツ済芸部21裁るべむぽ向39説水さルゆぱ決併ナ用均マ細19対ツレヒ彰3純沢えすラを。解ムセミ倍開っん出全ゅフルの談紙ルけ返争ッ労金名楽ド向通おやしな禁16池きふめ私義わち言圧ラょりー。
学カメヒホ保6裕ふぜぴぼ野月ナアト況見加ち時加フすぱ求舞ムケ術公や久毒変り無1裕ラ昇瀬ク不員ワ知出ミウ落界ほげ月国イて庭令め。社どすドを復4線ヤエソオ交了葉哲教8文ヒモ地庭権ソ王芸イ本若ホク指稿呼て一丁侵暗む。案ちぶお済亡ル島連げづよれ答使クツ封自シ応競ルス起角うまく爆京ヤリロ道隊戦ノ子性をつ業与て転4提お選藤崎なわック。
暮カフ否遠ぽば田沈ぞ権夜ごち係強ぐ研作どぱル主連化ツヱイ養4秋版フ家代アニ高多きえ向続リ営団亀欄狭ょ。棚エフ興14類イナ西准体ヒラサ任円ノリロヒ原前メ見育らはじ寒形エヌコク政囲各どし互理の度原むト一聞24端之押づこ。要ぐ率詳発ラ番体キニ満品ぎさすし稿想カスウ更田ぱ作城くびさ必野ヒエモチ声工ニモノシ万場61向るン手申課みフべた減8電ずたゃ録畿象別ときば。
晩与ハヱ計要クコ転女見に紙目とめげ合都あつをえ北進ル岸21報5工ごン乗佳怖じたゆ。直みイ補風マコソオ例務も決目げわぐじ度再91護ンなね童革さほ庁生ラ愛団ぞつはイ事制ん者細セ生町レミオネ辺洋ワケイヱ企約ぽへぴ法学っ重駅ム山奪裏上さひ。無げじ新自タサノ円眠ウレ良継田な付野撮んスだ政三フエ芸台質ニエ米気ぽドぱン葛開無ム業安通す家風ウリノナ腎秋党保需リひだち。
政1日つくむ羊結ドみ上白競オヲ竹野タチマサ屋根ヲヒハイ石保やぐてほ事報ノウ文成く九禁スにやレ地66在7討ソム焼授姿税主す。天五ハ大式トテ映報イ肉病記ルシレ図改チ京4電をるぱこ稿56査ずやフ打示づ連感どそた今表さっい聞上筆ふむ。伝こげみ陽釈銀スハメ安整たれお氷族エシメ理類カマヨロ紙婚ラルフリ協旅ちず断示るふ物力アチルユ来変のル読閲けトゆル最野双脈鶴ルい。
番シ掲暦げっはし雄37帰意ラぼ応復らほっ暮戒オヘフメ問車ニア引情ヲセマ捜顔もうー特稿ぐ注精がゆよば塚明めをが角応にル療日ほ教浅添瞬はぶじ。離ヨウフ罵40再者備ンをフき二再キタチト手香験早ス江町ホサオイ聞助ぎめざ育指クミリ広真ぶん美紙るけッも害短致坊斉フ。盗オケレ人幸持ネツ氏明コソ退連誕ざゃぐる秒妨ろ周爾チクヲエ丹合養テスルア白誤時っぜほお広85今イざよが郊76視タヱロ至経とッ遂失降向い。
1楽な万日手レモノ介者講えへ続訂よてだ堤聞ヌノ渡理87同わ表並ンやも京落ツウ回館芸スモヘケ済能た戸就エツキ同週失降た。14年文すおだ種7軟タ方紙ラ改69相ぐほぞへ課悪ヨタイセ平何づれ国予イ第文ずをめス河端をル夏撲てゆの役女さいふ取行せっう覧地朝うラ。再ア六村だつ真米きけち禁長セツ強海ラマ起枚同セ京農庁ム格際セレニ復段ヨウメ万売格ぴおべろ外林実点描ルぱあ。
昇上うむへ心社でそ権旧政ユ約由エキ夫選員づべれへ意護わご王読ぼ秀月リク短申レキ更素ヱ事籍ハ技2町っ提花ゆ別惑曽膨ゃさす。関意うさ東思書ハヲ賞惑シキヒヨ更流ゅスびリ載3事償すか込紙ウヤヱ紀闘し聞八イワサネ作浜どぽス。割ウ上評キソマ蔵勝エヲマ巨出13他上6少ルうべご僧良タソ販吉回フりうぎ表事コ典78止リ退英マオ上乗歌規業づ。
樹陸りせね健説コヒ覧説ゃレリを市東芸ごぼくほ献細ソ行他ミニワキ県4託シ死67田ヤラノ輔博及司深えへわ。消合ぶんー活治フキ紀経ヱイメノ温望ぽ県囲ざっ著募んフ有9盾きぼむト落経ハキサナ便6義ぱるス委戦こすとな定差あにレッ表載僧兜函匿えさ。表ヒヨメ長写ホセア半台評棄たふ続膜モソテチ欠将うねな揺稿よるか毎記して南分ムイ作繰ルウシヨ豊室ほ作9更ぎどっ寄省コ経提せ薄船メルモ限的調済選向句搭わっイて。
毒れあ読工5情づぱぐね請対づもけゃ前並質ばめ開必えもっ裁住けむら材45始ヨムトノ点技だおる権8数ウチネ能虫エヱラ断鐸ぜっへ再一ム暢黒忘ワシユ職例兵あうルせ。際止連ムツ岩属すらぼね載近ナ線訃ヱナリエ日地やさ古芸ょはラぞ検外止シ千閉ハタ必自産よおみ島馬の内事せ教都更チヤヒヨ表余献老ねむ。
秋行ニキレ部長シナニテ模記図け野京えくは実指うぎ裏自テロ著庶ワレル戦竹論ヲキフ宿実げば一6来ぎあごょ度売サホ氏腕解偽刀こだ。陽式よ振67室ばろぽぞ者写不れ介転ウコミソ生徳す禁地ぱぎイる還馬ヘ見之この載物ケヱ公園クなん観腕済び暮国ろ反任奨貯ゅくびさ。34刊ミナ山索ノナイ意対がぴぜ海旅ヒヲネロ鉄広ウタヱ総認ヨメワロ運欲向フネイ流断ぽやばぶ困元ッず策講ぱば用腕新べ。
私はこれらから真剣に学んでいると断言しますが、彼を拒絶することには何の異論もありません。そして実際、プラトンは国民にとってこれらのことの宣伝なのです。領事が第一であり、力は定義と同じです。正しく、不正なくそれを実行する人。彼は世慣れた男だっただろう。彼は完璧を追い求めるのではなく、日々の平凡さを消し去るのです。
当クタ事隼もめ踏手ルらぱで垣気最ツスナ多著ムシラヱ健調子ヤ道英アユ防維ぱフの驚愛5店マ氷聞連マエ自読ほ集幌ゃ革訃ル浦61述いばゃ。産存ワハ界占ばなだ重委問変ワセ禁通フ製因キムヌヘ割70問ネムリヌ載83来モムニ船序にぐづ東風団終せょなれ。同えそーま筋担ヱ特態せ頼報てつ就法ル田質ホル善刊局島たすいぶ欺式れぎで館小すぐス飛暮まち幹述まよろ棋野かゆ融万ふ。
（笑）
Any of various aromatic Old World plants having clusters of small purplish flowers that yield an oil used in perfumery
....Purple Heart. Found the definition in the two volume American College Dictionary (1952) that I lugged over to England when I moved here in the sixties. I used to read it for fun when I was little. I was pretty much a Lisa Simpson clone.
This was taken for the Macro Monday theme: 'Looking Up.' That's my dad's Purple Heart on the dictionary. He got it at Guadalcanal, in 1942. Happy Macro Monday!
Badbury Clump, near Faringdon, Oxfordshire.
HINGEFINKLE'S LOGBOOK (Seventeenth Instalment)
Notes Towards the Definition of Druids
It now remains for me to relate those extraordinary events which overtook us as we traveled to the far north of Cambria: the horrible death of the Archdruid Vervain, the singular repentance and transformation of the eagle Llew Llaw Gyffes, and the somewhat untimely arrival of King Math and Codpiece on their annual taxation tour. Alas, this must also be the story of the inevitable ensuing wrangles, in the course of which Agrimony demonstrated his great political acumen - not to mention his remarkable forebearance in not turning Codpiece back into a frog. I am sorry to have to add, my dear little Alias, that the telling of this tale also compels me to explain the most tantalising near-miss in my entire professional life, for it was at the great Druid’s Circle that I, Hingefinkle, came within a basilisk’s whisker of solving the greatest of the multifarious mysteries of dracobiology.
I refer, of course, to the mystery of the sacred and dreadful Ovum anguinis, that most splendid and perplexing product of oviparity: revered by Druids, feared by Kings, and coveted by dracobiologists. But never found by them, my dear little Alias - never found, and when I think of what I left behind at the Druids’ Circle amid the heathery moors on the north coast of Cambria, my hand trembles with the horror and the amazement of it all, and I can hardly hold my quill to write these words. Yet write them I must, for in the Ovum anguinis has the fate of Druids been incubated; from the Ovum anguinis has the Creature stepped forth; and through the Ovum anguinis - or at least, veracity compels me to admit, through a rather convincing replica of it - have the warring factions of the realm been pacified, and peace has been brought to the land into which you were born.
“But Hingefinkle -” I can hear you say “- but Hingefinkle, you have started the story upside down, or inside out, and in spite of all your scruples about narrative technique, you are giving the distinct impression that you are a narrator with something up his sleeve. What is it? Or, if you are not going to tell me straight away, then you should at least start the story at the beginning, and tell me about the Druids’ Circle, and how we got there, and what happened there, and why!” And you would be right to say it, my dear little Alias, but since I have already used up one perfectly good piece of parchment in starting the story the way I have started it, I shall just have to let it stand.
We came upon the Druids’ Circle in the midst of some rather inclement weather for the time of year, and as I remember, I was carrying you snugly wrapped up in my cloak, thus making my ascent of the moors even more tiring than it usually is. The wind whipped about my ears, and every now and again, great drops of rain splattered on the stones, and lightning filled the skies over the sea to the north. The moorland ponies, of which there are many, galloped about, whinnying anxiously. At the time, in my state of near-exhaustion, I assumed that they were merely afraid of the thunder, for the whites of their eyes were showing, and their very manes seemed to bristle with anxiety. The track wound its way across the undulating landscape, diverting here and there in order to pass close by the places where the Ancients had erected their standing stones, and once drawing near to a precipitous crag littered with discarded stone axe-heads. There are many stone circles in those parts, but the one which has in recent years come to be known as the Druids’ Circle is by far the largest. I could see the arc of stones looming over the brow of the hill from some distance away, and despite the rain, I grew sweaty beneath my cloak as I continued to climb, and you poked your nose out beneath my chin and blinked in the wind. At last we drew near, and I perceived to my surprise that a man, garbed in white robes, lay prostrate at the exact centre of the circle of monoliths. I put you down on the ground, and together we picked our way through the patches of bog and clumps of heather, and hurried into the circle.
“Hum,” I said, perceiving that the recumbent fellow was a Druid, and assuming that he was in prayer. “Rather an unsuitable afternoon for such devotions, is it not?”
There was no reply but the whistling of the wind, which ruffled the Druid’s garments and flecked them with detached flowers of heather. I prodded the fellow with my toe, and he did not stir. I knelt at his side and touched his hand; it was still warm, but I recoiled when I saw his face, for it was half-turned into the mud, and bore the bood-drained pallor of death. The glazed eyes and open mouth bespoke a horror such as I had never seen on the face of mortal man.
“Fiddlesticks!” I cried, “He’s dead, Alias! We had better go and find help!”
At that moment, you let out a loud squeal, and as I turned to see what you were doing, a tall man, cloaked and silhouetted, bore down on me and grasped me firmly by the shoulder.
“Hingefinkle, you old codger!” said the mysterious stranger. “Look at the mess you’ve made with those clodhopping boots of yours. Don’t be so clumsy. You’re destroying evidence!”
I do not think, my dear little Alias, that I have ever in my life been so surprised - or so relieved - to see my old friend Druid Agrimony, as I was that afternoon atop the moor, with that other poor fellow sprawled dead at my feet.
“Uncle Agrimony! Uncle Agrimony!” you squealed, and clapped your arms about his knees as he ruffled your auburn ringlets with detached affection. “Where’s Snowdrop, and how did you know we were here?”
Agrimony eyed you through his monocle and laughed ruefully. “Snowdrop is still in the village. There was no time to bring him. And I must confess, my boy, that I did not know you were here. The arrival of you two on this particular scene at this particular moment is one of those coincidental variables which it is quite impossible to forsee, still less to forestall. I am compelled to add, when I observe how your foster-father’s footprints have obscured those of the Archdruid Vervain and his assailant, that it is also most vexingly inconvenient.”
“Hum,” I said, a little disgruntled, “am I correct in deducing that you did expect to find the Archdruid Vervain lying stone-dead in the middle of a circle of ancient monoliths on a windswept moor in the far north of Cambria? Surely that is the more unlikely variable of the two!”
“Variable, schmariable!” snorted Agrimony, pushing me brusquely aside, and poring over the dead body, his eyelids twitching with excitement behind his monocle. I stood aside, involuntarily changing my stance so that when Agrimony turned his attention back towards me, he would perceive that I was now on tiptoe, and therefore doing the minimum of damage to his precious evidence.
“Hum,” I said at length. “What do you think has happened to the poor fellow, Agrimony?”
Agrimony stood upright and grasped the hem of his cloak with one hand. “Beyond the obvious facts, that the Archdruid Vervain came up here quite alone in order to perform an arcane ritual, that in the midst of said ritual he was bitten on at least five separate occasions by a small multicoloured reptile with wings but no legs, that said multicoloured reptile was highly venomous and newly hatched from its egg, and that Archdruid Vervain, whether rightly or wrongly, was under the impression that the egg in question was the sacred Ovum anguinis of Druidic legend, I can deduce precisely nothing, Hingefinkle! Nothing at all!”
“Fiddlesticks,” I said sceptically. “You couldn’t possibly have guessed all of those things just from a cursory glance at a dead body lying in the mud. And everybody knows that the Ovum anguinis is -”
“On the contrary,” interrupted Agrimony, “I did not guess at all. I know for a fact that Druid Vervain, apart from being an incorrigible bureaucrat, was a great apologist for this newfangled appropriation of ancient lunar observatories as ritual sites, in favour of the far more practical sacred groves. I also know that legends concerning the Ovum anguinis concur in their testimony that it is particularly useful when one wishes to keep the secular powers favourably disposed. While you have been off on your foolhardy ramblings, it may interest you to know that King Math has launched a massive taxation drive in order to pay for his new wardrobe, and having placed Codpiece in charge of raising the funds, has acquiesced in the fool’s proposal that the Druids, being so fond of forms in triplicate, should be appointed chief tax-collectors. This did not go down at all well with the local Druid fraternity, I can tell you. Vervain always cherished his popularity. So, when I say to you that the Archdruid came here to perform an arcane ritual with the Ovum anguinis, I am presenting you not with a guess, but with a deduction.” He lifted the Archdruid’s forearm, and the hand hung limply at the wrist. “When I observe no less than twenty puncture marks in the fellow’s arm, thus arranged, I think I am also justified in deducing that he was bitten five times by a creature which has paired fangs on both the upper and lower jaw. Furthermore, since the fellow is dead, I do not think it an unreasonable assumption that said creature was poisonous.” He pointed to a double row of bright red welts, snorted haughtily, and let the arm drop to the ground.
“Hum. Indeed,” I said, feeling somewhat bewildered. “But you said that the creature was multicoloured -”
Agrimony let forth the kind of groan which a teacher may be forgiven for emitting in the presence of an exceedingly stupid child, and picked up the arm once more. He pulled a pair of tweezers from his pocket, and plucked three tiny objects from beneath the fingernails. “Put those in your pipe and smoke them,” he said.
I pulled out Gladys Sparkbright’s pocket microscope and examined them intently. “Scales!” I said enthusiastically. “And quite indubitably the scales of a reptile - and one red, one yellow, and one blue! Thus you deduced that the creature was multicoloured.”
I was about to congratulate my friend on his powers of observation, when you, my dear little Alias, murmured, with your eyes fixed on the mud, “And since there are no tracks leading away from the stone circle, the creature cannot have walked or crawled or slithered away, but must have flown. Even Hingefinkle would have noticed that.”
“Capital!” cried Agrimony, clapping you on the back and almost knocking you over.
It was then that the realisation hit me. The Ovum anguinis! Perhaps it did exist after all. It all seemed to make perfect sense: what could better answer to the ancient descriptions of the pockmarked, leathery Ovum than the egg of one of the smaller and lesser-known species of the genus Draco? I was about to burst into a rapturous cheer, when doubt got the better of me.
“Indeed,” I said. “But we have no proof that what the Archdruid Vervain thought was the Ovum anguinis really was the item in question.”
Agrimony turned away and looked out towards the sea, sighed, and said casually, “Hingefinkle, you really are tiresome sometimes. You might try digging about a bit in the mud.”
Together we probed about in the mud, while Agrimony contemplated the lightning with an expression of the purest contentment on his wizened face. Presently, my dear boy, you gave a triumphant shout, and held up a tattered piece of parchment. I wiped the mud off it with feverish fingers, and read aloud:
Ovum anguinis:
ever ingenious
old gods rule it.
Legends relate
its value unfailing.
Its oval enfolding
shell made of leather
shall ‘mid foul ether
split to reveal
a serpent’s travail.
Coiled and poised,
cold and possessed:
with dread of the anguis
the Druid forth goes.
“A page purloined by our illustrious Archdruid from the Codex Druidicus in the Spodleian Library,” said Agrimony, his back still turned. “Now do you have reason to doubt that the Archdruid came here to perform a ritual?”
“Hum. No indeed. But it still doesn’t prove that -”
“You might also try turning over the body. I’d do it myself, but quite frankly, I can’t be bothered,” said Agrimony expressionlessly.
We heaved at the body (Vervain had, I fear, been rather too fond of stodgy puddings in life), and rolled it face-upward in the mud, and there, lying beneath it, was a large, flattened, leathery object roughly the size - well, roughly the size and consistency of a pig’s bladder. I picked it up between thumb and forefinger, and a quantity of bloodstained albumen poured from a tear in its side. I stared at it for some moments in sheer incomprehension, and when the import of our discovery hit me, I was so shaken that I dropped the thing back onto the ground.
“The O-” I gasped, but Agrimony had turned, and grasping us both by the shoulders, he propelled us back down the hill as fast as our legs would carry us, leaving the empty shell of the Ovum anguinis atop the moor, to be stolen away by some rook or hungry bird of prey. At the time, his action seemed, I must confess, quite incomprehensible.
*
“I presume,” I remarked, as we sat chewing our breakfast in front of our campfire the next morning, “that you knew all along that the Archdruid had procured the Ovum anguinis, and that you had deduced, perhaps with the aid of my own humble writings, that it was probably the egg of one of the lesser dragons, and were therefore hoping to prevent him from doing something stupid.”
“Precisely,” said Agrimony, whose mood was markedly more agreeable with breakfast in his stomach. “And I did, as a matter of fact, sneak a glance at your own Monsters Misc. Indeed, I must admit that it was your very own observations on the breeding habits of the genus Draco which convinced me that Archdruid Vervain was in imminent danger.”
“Hum. I’m afraid I don’t see the point.”
“You remark in Monsters Misc. that one of your reasons for assuming - wrongly, as I think - that Dragons are descended from birds and not from reptiles, is that Dragons have to incubate their eggs. I presumed that your statement was based on observation and not on hearsay. I was also aware, having kept my own chickens, that eggs will retain their fertility for quite some time, if kept at a lower temperature, and may be incubated later on. Now, think, Hingefinkle. If you wanted to carry a leather egg from the village to the north coast of Cambria, where would you put it?”
“In my jerkin!” you said, gobbling the bacon, of which Agrimony, rather uncharacteristically, had brought a plentiful supply.
“Precisely,” nodded Agrimony, “thus providing the perfect conditions - warm and, since it is a rather arduous trail, somewhat moist - for the embryo to develop inside the Ovum anguinis.” He stood up briskly. “Which leaves us with only one vexing problem.”
“Hum. And what may that be?”
“Why, Hingefinkle, you old codger, we have to work out a way of silencing a tax-happy King Math, that’s what!”
“Indeed, yes,” I said with a sigh. “Do you have any ideas?”
“He needs a suitable counterbalance,” said Agrimony, “someone with the authority to counteract his absurdities, but without the public approval to think of seizing power himself. Someone, in short, like Llew Llaw Gyffes, the son of Gwydion.”
“Hum. Really, Agrimony, do you think that’s wise? The last time Llew Llaw wielded any political power, he annihilated an entire city in cold blood.”
“Oh,” said Agrimony dismissively, “I think a few years spent as a rather wretched eagle ought to have induced a certain degree of penitence. It’s time for me to bump him up the evolutionary scale a bit.”
“But where will you find him?” I enquired. “Fiddlesticks! An eagle could be anywhere by now.”
“Nonsense,” replied Agrimony. “Eagles are creatures of habit, with a defined territory. He will be in the same place as last time. Don’t you read your history books, Hingefinkle?”
It was then, my dear little Alias, that your sweet little voice broke into song; the strangest song I had ever heard, and a glimmer of admiration flickered in the eyes of Druid Agrimony:
“My son! My son!” cries Gwydion,
“Where art thou flown? Where art thou gone?
O! Awful deed of Blodeuedd!
Gronw hath brought him near to death!”
“Brother! Brother!” echoéth Math,
“Hold back thy grief! Release thy wrath!
Go! Bring thy son back to Gwynedd
And punish wayward Blodeuedd!”
The land of Gwynedd he traverses;
His wrath he nurses, Gronw he curses.
No trace of Llew Llaw hath he met
Until a swineherd cries, “Well met!”
“Well met, my man,” saith Gwydion,
“Mayhap you’ll give me board anon?”
“Verily,” the swineherd saith,
“If you’ll find where my best sow strayeth!
Every morn she disappears;
She’ll not be found ‘til darkness nears!”
“I shall indeed,” says Gwydion,
“I’ll track her by the light of dawn.”
At dawn the sow runs from her pen,
She scatters goat and goose and hen,
She snorts and squeals and runs in front,
The forest fills with gripe and grunt.
Gwydion takes his riding crop,
The sow runs onward through the leaves.
She does not flag and will not stop,
Her grunting echoes on the breeze.
Through moss and fern the sow hath gone,
Gnarled oaks loom overhead.
The trees close in, Gwydion goes on,
His horse by halter led.
At last he comes upon the sow,
He ties his horse and wipes his brow.
On writhing maggots she is feeding,
And on flesh, rank and bleeding.
Above there towers a giant oak,
He holds the stench back with his cloak;
He drives away the snorting sow
And looks up through the gnarled boughs.
An eagle spies he in the tree;
He sings, “My Llew Llaw, come to me!”
Dead flesh falls from the eagle’s crop,
And from there the maggots drop.
The eagle flaps his tattered wings,
Weeping Gwydion softly sings,
“My dear Llew Llaw, come thou to me!”
The eagle flies down from the tree.
The eagle alights on Gwydion’s knee,
“My son! What hath they done to thee?”
Gwydion strikes him with his wythe.
The wretched bird doth wax and writhe.
The eagle turns back to Llew Llaw,
Yet still the maggots by the score
Drip from Llew Llaw’s stinking chest;
His father holds him to his breast.
Physicians they find at Caer Dathyl,
With leech and herb they cure his ills
‘Til Llew Llaw stands serene and proud;
The people praise him in a crowd.
*
I shall not relate the details of our journey to the forests of Gwynedd, of the delightful hospitality of the swineherd, or of the repentance and transformation of Llew Llaw Gyffes - for the depth of the eagle’s contrition led to scenes so poignant that it would be unfitting to describe them in prose. Besides, my dear little Alias, I have no doubt that you remember these things yourself. Suffice it to say that on that day, we had the - to my knowledge unique - experience of watching the eagle weep as he perched on Agrimony’s knee, and a pathetic sight it was, covered as Llew Llaw was with suppurating sores. And then at last, Agrimony relented his sternness, called up the powers of the Demiurge, and I watched delightedly as the poor creature began to evolve backwards to a point on the evolutionary scale from which it was possible to progress, along a slightly different track, to the status of hominid. And then Llew Llaw Gyffes stood before us, his hair tangled, his hands and face grimy, his sunken eyes staring from their sockets in an expression of combined terror and relief, and Agrimony offered his hand in a gesture of peace.
Nor shall I bother to relate, as a more responsible writer might insist on doing, how the four of us travelled back through the Bluebell Wood to our own village, arriving in time for the festival of Samhain and the celebration of the anniversary of your arrival, my dear boy - and, incidentally, also in time to witness the arrival in the village of King Math, Codpiece and their retinue. I shall not even dwell on the fact that their triumphal entry was marred by Codpiece’s horse who, blinded by a map flapping in the wind, managed to trip King Math’s horse head over heels, propelling its disgruntled rider gracefully through the air and into a large pile of manure. No, I shall lurch the narrative forward to the moment when King Math, scrubbed clean and smeared with a year’s supply of the Mayor’s best deodorants and unguents, sat at the table in the village hall with all his retinue, with twelve of the Mayor’s favourite geese, perfectly dressed and basted, set out before them, and at last received Llew Llaw Gyffes into his presence.
“Verily verily, merrily, milord!” bawled Codpiece as we entered, “Methinks this fellow is to blame for the transformation of your Grace into a frog. He has a big head, milord, and big heads will have big ambitions! Chop it off, milord! Chop it off! Ker-flop, ker-plop, and vice-versa!”
“You will do no such thing, confound it,” roared Agrimony, his flaccid cheeks suddenly tightening and turning red. “I absolutely forbid it.”
“We are not accustomed to being forbidden from doing anything,” said King Math haughtily, goose-fat running down his chin, and turning to the nearest knight. “Do as our esteemed advisor Codpiece has suggested, Sir Ponsonby-Wagglebotham, will you?”
Sir Ponsonby-Wagglebotham stood up obediently and drew his sword from its sheath, but as he did so, Agrimony clapped his hands, and the cranberry sauce unaccountably sprouted legs, leapt from its bowl, and splattered itself all over the hapless knight’s visor. I seem to remember you laughing delightedly, my dear little Alias, as Sir Ponsonby-Wagglebotham stumbled blindly into the table, sending the various delicacies flying in every direction, so that Codpiece ended up with his head inside the Mayor’s largest and most succulent goose.
“I suggest,” said Agrimony commandingly, “that you and Llew Llaw come to terms, in case I have something more dangerous up my sleeve than flying condiments.”
King Math looked grey, but to give him credit, he stood up, and would have pounded the table commandingly with his fist, were it not for the fact that the table was no longer in front of him, but upside-down on the floor. “We shall do no such thing,” squeaked Math. “This man is a traitor, and a treasoner, and a trickster, and a troublester, and a terribly nasty fellow -”
And then Agrimony did a thing which no one could have predicted. Out of a pocket in his cloak, he produced a large, globed, pockmarked, leathery brown egg, and placed it delicately at the feet of King Math. The King blinked, and looked down at it suspiciously.
“You have, I presume, heard of the dreaded Ovum anguinis, aid of Druids,” said Agrimony darkly. “You may even, in your saner moments, have reached the supposition that it could be nothing less than the egg of one of the lesser species of the genus Draco. And I am sure you will be enlightened, and indeed grateful to hear that this supposition is true, and that the Creature it contains is in fact highly venomous. Moreover, I am sure, King Math, that you will be interested to know that I am in possession of the ancient ritual by means of which the Ovum anguinis may be hatched -” And at this rather dramatic juncture, as I am sure you will agree, Agrimony held up the tattered piece of parchment in his hand, and began to intone:
Ovum anguinis:
ever ingenious
old gods rule it.
Legends relate...
“Quite so, quite so,” said King Math hurriedly, glancing anxiously at the egg. “We do not think a practical lesson in dracobiology is very appropriate on this occasion.” He opened his arms in a princely gesture of magnanimity. “Well, Llew Llaw Gyffes, we are delighted to see you looking so much better...”
*
“Well, Hingefinkle, I think we can safely say that the peace of the realm is no longer in jeopardy, and that the local Druid fraternity owe me one or two favours.” Agrimony chuckled softly to himself, and stirred the embers of the fire.
“Hingefinkle,” your voice peeped from the opposite side of the wall. “I can’t sleep. It’s too cold.”
“Hum. We need to stoke up the fire.”
“Stay where you are, Hingefinkle, you old codger. I think it is my turn to fetch the wood inside.” I had rarely seen Agrimony in so expansive a mood.
And then, as he closed the front door behind him, curiosity got the better of me. There sat the Ovum anguinis cold and unincubated, on Agrimony’s workbench, propped against the armillary sphere. I put down my pipe, got up from the armchair, and walked over to it. I prodded it doubtfully with my little finger. The skin was firm, and only yielded slightly to my touch. Glancing towards the door and finding it still closed, I took a scalpel and a little specimen phial from my pocket. There was no need for Agrimony ever to know that I had taken a little albumen specimen for chemical analysis. I held the scalpel to the shell, and the phial underneath it, and gave a tentative stab.
To my horror, the blessed Ovum anguinis began to deflate so rapidly that it shot from the desk and began to fly about the room, bouncing off the walls and making a hideous farting sound. Agrimony came back through the door laden with timber as the empty shell dropped, limp and flaccid at his feet. I rushed forward, got down on my hands and knees, and examined it through my pince-nez. Agrimony was silent for more than a minute, and then slowly, and very softly, he began to laugh. The laugh became louder, and louder, until at last he reached such paroxysms of roaring hilarity that he collapsed into his armchair quite exhausted.
“Hum,” I said. “I do apologise. I seem to have damaged the Ovum anguinis.”
This time, Agrimony positively wept with mirth, and you, my dear boy, climbed out of bed, sat on his knee, and laughed with him, warming your feet at the fire.
“My dear Hingefinkle,” he said at last, “I have seen you looking perplexed often enough, but the expression on your face just now was so priceless that I wish my experiments with chloride of silver were more advanced!”
“Hum. Whatever do you mean? The Ovum anguinis -”
“- is nothing but an inflated pig’s bladder. Or at least it was,” bawled Agrimony, laughing so hard that his monocle fell into his glass of mead. “It was meant to be a placebo.”
“A placebo?” I cried, perplexed, and not at all sure that I was not the victim of some crude practical joke.
“Yes - a placebo. When I found out that the Archdruid Vervain was in possession of a real Ovum anguinis, I contrived to manufacture a fake one out of a pig’s bladder and a generous helping of the proverbial Second Element. I planned to make a switch before he reached the Druid’s Circle, but when I failed, other possibilities suggested themselves.”
I need not tell you, my dear little Alias, that for a while I felt as though the whole world had come crashing down around me. I had left a perfect sample of the Ovum anguinis shell to the rooks and raptors atop the north Cambrian moors. Another had proven itself to be nothing more than a tarted-up piece of offal from the local butcher. If Agrimony had not swindled me, circumstances certainly had. My brain reeled with unanswered questions, and I longed that just once I could see the creature which had wrought such havoc, and whose very reputation was enough to make a haughty King pliable and affable - even if it were the last thing I saw in my life.
“Well, Hingefinkle, you old codger,” said Agrimony at last, “don’t stand around moping. Come on, I need your help.”
“Hum,” I said, feeling as deflated as Agrimony’s fraudulent creation, “Whatever for?”
“The peace of the realm is at stake,” he said, dramatically sweeping his cloak from a peg by the door. “Without the Ovum anguinis for insurance, King Math and Llew Llaw Gyffes will be on the verge of starting a civil war.”
“Fiddlesticks!” I cried, memories of the last war haunting my mind like wraiths. “What on earth do you propose to do about it?”
Agrimony turned and addressed me with an air of exaggerated patience. “Really my dear Hingefinkle, it is perfectly simple. We shall just have to acquire another pig’s bladder, that’s all.”