The list of airlines operating the Boeing 787 Dreamliner is ever expanding... Saudia being the more recent carrier to take delivery of the type, and the first route they operated was to Manchester from its hub in Jeddah.

Previously, Saudia had sent in Boeing 777-200ER's (with the odd Boeing 777-300ER substitution). Since the 3rd April 2016, Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners have replaced Boeing 777-200ER's on the route, however it is still not odd to see Boeing 777-300ER's substituting on the odd occasion.

Saudia operates between Manchester and Jeddah 4-times a week, SV123/124 operates on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday only.

Currently, Saudia has 4 Boeing 787's in service, all of which on the Boeing 787-9. The company has 4 more Boeing 787-9's left on-order.

Alpha Romeo Alpha is one of 4 Boeing 787's in service with Saudia, delivered new to the flag-carrier in January 2016 and she is powered by 2 General Electric GEnx-1B engines.

Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner HZ-ARA powers out of Runway 23R at Manchester (MAN) on SV124 to Jeddah-King Abdulaziz (JED).

[Tehran, Iran] Gloomy urban cityscape of Tehran, with its large highways and ever expanding metropolis and large buildings under construction, in front of the imposing Alborz snowed mountains.

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©2017 Germán Vogel - All rights reserved - No usage allowed in any form without the written consent of the photographer.

Another great Spidey fig from John and the first of this iteration commited to lego form. I'm really happy to add him to my ever expanding Spidey collection and i'll be posting another pic of that as soon as i get my hands on the Phoenix Custom Bricks Arachnid Hero.

The class leader of Norfolk Southern's DC to AC traction rebuilds, paired with paired with 4005, leads a train of CNG tankers (as an extra mixed freight) east through the massive rock cut separating Union Furnace and Pemberton. 4000 and her wrecked sister introduced the horse mane scheme that.

This section of the former PRR Broad Way was the exception in that it was only ever expanded to three tracks rather than four. This cut was, supposedly, originally a tunnel, but I have yet to see any photos of it.

Christchurch's 19th-century post office building still under restoration after the February 2011 earthquake.

Designed in Italianate style, the Chief Post Office of Christchurch was opened in 1879.

Despite all odds, it survived the earthquake and is scheduled to reopen as a hospitality and visitor complex for Christchurch's ever-expanding tourism industry.

The building was designed in the Italianate style in 1875 by William Henry Clayton who held the title of Colonial Architect.

The foundation stone was laid on 24 May 1877 and on 14 July 1879 the Post Office officially opened.

As well as the Post Office, the building also housed other government departments including Immigration, Customs and the Public Works.

The building was also the site of the first telephone exchange in New Zealand, which opened in 1881.

The clock in the tower of the building was installed in 1879 and its bell, which marked the hours, remained in operation until the 1930s.

The bell returned in 1974 for the Commonwealth Games, but fire damage in the 1980s forced it to be decommissioned.

Further additions were made in 1907 to the western end of the northern façade of the building.

In 1929 the telephone exchange vacated the building, relocating to a new building on Hereford Street to meet the Post Office’s need for working space.

In 1968 the government started the construction of the new post office building at 53 Hereford Street.

Following the completion of the new Hereford Street site in 1981.

The building later became privately owned, and from 2000 to 2011 an i-Site Visitor Information Centre was located within. Another attraction was the Southern Encounter Aquarium. Starbucks Coffee was also an occupant. In 2008 the Lotus Heart restaurant was opened in the upper floor.

The building was closed after the 22 February 2011 earthquake. Despite the damage, earthquake repairs to the building commenced in 2018.

CLOCK TOWER

The Chief Post Office clock, reputed to be a reduced model of Big Ben in London, has an interesting history of its own.

Installed in September 1879, it proved to be notoriously unreliable.

In 1888, the Christchurch City Council undertook maintenance of the clock. In 1944, and again in 1955, the Council was advised the mechanism had reached the end of its useful life, but there was a reluctance to spend money on a replacement because of the Government’s known intention to erect a new Post Office without a clock.

An electric clock was installed which controlled the four visible faces as slave clocks and since that time the clock has been more accurate.

Originally the bell struck the hours, but in the 1930s it was silenced because of complaints from a neighbouring hotel, since demolished.

However, in 1974, in time for the Commonwealth Games, the bell on the clock tower was reactivated but remained silent at night.

Since the mid 1980s, the bell has not been heard after a fire damaged the mechanism.

Should have been said by Mark Bus ... rather than Mark Twain ;-)

First Potteries (or PMT to us locals) Dennis Lance N866 CEH had originally been acquired as a potential source of spares for my own long term project, sister bus 863. The intention had been to strip it of usable bits, then weigh in the hulk as we'd been informed t o'ther one was far and away the better bus. However ... salvation came for 866 from the direction of Mr 'Dobiesx2' who wished to add it to his ever expanding collection. Recently the need to return it's rental tyres saw it extracted from our compound and whilst out it seemed daft not to see what it required for a Class V MoT. The answer was ... very little, so with a few tweaks and adjustments followed by a quick clean up and attention to the fuel system (since fully 'bottomed'), the Plaxton Verde bodied bus passed first time.

This photo, also taken on today's fuel system road test revealed that it is now the better bus of the two ... bummer!

The Silver Dagger Society had just gotten out of one of their weekly meetings, to discuss the direction of the clan, ongoing heists and jobs, and overall 'Society Business' as it happens.

Dunard and Armel sliced their way to the balcony so Vignac could provide some crossbow fire to Odvan, Peryn, and Ciel who were, to say the least, a bit overwhelmed on the ground. After Dunard and Armel Knocked over a few Skull Eaters, Vignac began shooting down every goblin he could get a shot off on. A bolt here, a bolt there, a few axe chops and even an empty bottle thrown at a goblin's head was all it took to send the remaining goblins running and clear the street of anyone looking for a fight.

This build, was both fun, and bit rushed. Not my favorite, but it gets the job done.

If you'd like to check out each of the characters and their bios, go here - www.flickr.com/photos/56307748@N02/14936697637/

This is for my LCC/LOR ( (Formerly Lands Of Classic Castle) Lands of Roawia ) character, Boethius the Exiled, and his ever expanding story. The full story can be viewed here.

All of the shadows, colors and details of our woodcut prints are created through the drawing & carving of plywood woodblocks. Oftentimes, an image will have up to 5 blocks, each printed in a different color(s), to complete the image.

The "OVERLOOK" is our largest full color collaboration to date. (28"x 46" to print bleed off the edge of archival paper) Here, the blue block for the print is being penned in. When the drawing is finished, the block will be carved in low relief for printing. The "OVERLOOK" woodcut has 5 blocks total.

At over 2 years in the making (we have been working on it for this length of time, amongst other woodcut projects) it is the longest time we've spent on a singular collaborative image and certainly the most complicated & extravagantly patterned!

The "OVERLOOK" will be unique in its ability to be singular and/or to meet up with the edge of itself to allow for an ever-expanding diptych, triptych, etc. vista landscape!

We'll have photos of that to show you shortly.

The print is currently available for pre-order, we are hoping to begin printing the edition in March (at which time the price will go up).

Details about the print & special earlybird offer at the link below:

www.tugboatprintshop.com/woodcut_overlook.htm

One of the major differences of the railway of today and that of my youth forty odd years ago is the lineside vegetation and trees. Up until the end of steam in 1968 lineside vegetation was kept to a minimum to reduce lineside fires and this policy continued for a few years afterwards. Now the lineside is a forest of bushes, trees and buddleia forming in places a green wall between the railway and its neighbours. This ever expanding “green wall” is becoming a major problem for us railway photographers as it continues to restrict locations. Illuminated in a gap in the “green wall” Freightliner 66508 approaches Long Eaton Town level crossing on the 12th October 2017 working 4O95, 12:12 Leeds – Southampton container train.

Locomotive History

66508 is one of an order of fifteen class 66 locomotives (66506 – 66520) built between May and September 2000 by General Motors, Electro Motive Division, at their factory in London, Ontario, Canada for HSBC Rail (Leasing) and leased to Freightliner

Klick here for a large view!

Shanghai is the largest city in China in terms of population and one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, with over 20 million people. Located on China's central eastern coast at the mouth of the Yangtze River, the city is administered as a municipality of the People's Republic of China with province-level status.

Originally a fishing and textiles town, Shanghai grew to importance in the 19th century due to its favourable port location and as one of the cities opened to foreign trade by the 1842 Treaty of Nanking. The city flourished as a center of commerce between east and west, and became a multinational hub of finance and business by the 1930s. However, Shanghai's prosperity was interrupted after the 1949 Communist takeover and the subsequent cessation of foreign investment. Economic reforms in 1990 resulted in intense development and financing in Shanghai, and in 2005 Shanghai became the world's largest cargo port.

The city is an emerging tourist destination renowned for its historical landmarks such as the Bund and Xintiandi, its modern and ever-expanding Pudong skyline including the Oriental Pearl Tower, and its new reputation as a cosmopolitan center of culture and design. Today, Shanghai is the largest center of commerce and finance in mainland China, and has been described as the "showpiece" of the world's fastest-growing economy.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Doel is a 700 year old village on the river Scheldt in Belgium. Near to the local nuclear powerplant, with its two giant cooling towers, it became the target for demolition not once but twice in order to make way for the ever expanding harbor. The successful protest groups of the seventies could not compete in the 90's and as residents began to leave, the government refused to rent out the properties again and instead let them fall into disrepair

The ring, a circle, is one of nature’s simplest forms. The arc of the rainbow, the halo of the moon and the smallest of raindrops simulate the circle. When a stone is cast upon a pond, it generates waves in ever expanding circles....

An ancient and widely accepted explanation as to the origin of the wedding ring refers to the early Egyptian’s belief that a circle was the symbol of eternity--a sign that life, happiness, and love have no beginning and no end....

View On Black

Bridge is not an easy word to pronounce in his ever expanding vocabulary. We were wheeling him around Coles Supermarket in a shopping trolley when he spotted the Harbour Bridge displayed on a poster.

Drummoyne, Sydney, Australia (Wednesday 1 June 2016)

This trio of Stagecoach Manchester Magic Bus liveried 'deckers are seen here on display at now ceased Trans-Lancs Rally, Heaton Park, Manchester, on 04/09/2005. This popular event was last held in 2019. This was due to COVID-19 and the now ever expanding summer fairground. Furthest from the camera is 15336, J136HMT, Northern Counties Countybus bodied Scania N113DRB. New to London Buses - East London(S36), in 07/1992, so just missing the 'K' reg. issue by a matter of weeks, this Scania was new in Docklands Express branding, being delivered in a batch of fourteen. Centre of the trio is 13215, C215CBU, a Northern Counties bodied Leyland Olympian ONLXB/1R. This Manchester resident was new to Greater Manchester PTE(3215), in 03/1986. Nearest the camera is 13641, H617LNA. This tri-axle Alexander RH bodied Leyland Olympian was new to Hong Kong Citybus registered EF8967 and was one of quite a number imported, along with Duple METSEC bodied Dennis Dragons by Stagecoach Bus. First Bus also imported a number of buses from both China Motor Bus and Hong Kong.

The camera being a Pentax MZ-M with the film being a Jessops Colourslide.

I would request, as with all my photos, that they are not copied or downloaded in any way, shape or form. © Peter Steel 2005.

I wanted to share this story of one hour in the day of the NSW, Australian delta variant lockdown - Saturday 21 August 2021.

‘WALKING HOUR: DAY 54’

On this second last Saturday of the month of August, the midmorning sunshine reminds us winter is almost done.

As we verture out on our one hour covid-safe five kilometre radius walk heading along Linthrope Street from our home in Newtown. Upon the uneven narrow path next to the cycleway, in single file we parallel the inner west railway, heading north towards our city of Sydney.

Wearing our facemasks from this Monday will become mandatory for all outdoor activities. My breathing becomes strained with each walking step, as the straps wrapped around my ears fighten there grip producing a mild throbbing pain. Yet despite this physical annoyance and because of it, there is a glorious joy in this freedom allowed.

Such a simple pleasure behind protected covering finds me in a state of kindness. projected, looking onwards as other locals alike enjoy this blissful warm winter sun.

Passing interconnected terraces only distinguishable by there families individual small front gardens of vivid colours and perfumed with early Spring Jasime. Do I encounter a fellow traveller. Hidden is her face behind patterned handmade mask.

Her silver shinning hair, ocean pool eyes and fluffy puppy dog are just waiting for connection. I smile with my eyes saying ‘Hello may I pat your dog?’ Knowing cautiously to maintain our common rule of one point five distance spacing.

This kind lovely local with her COVID-19 rescue dog, gives graciously me and her companion a gift of connection. The happy puppy enjoys my pats, as I enjoy his physical attachment, just now, for a few moments in time.

We chat about her new family member, only five Months old, the warming sunshine, while avoiding any chat of delta variant cases. With much appreciation and thankfulness expressed, we depart into each our own adventures again.

Now with pace in my steps, swiftly do I catch up with my Julian ahead, as he patiently waits for me.

Our road opens at this intersection on this corner. The new cafe busy serving takeaway customers. A family of four cyclists give way as we cross onto the recently reconstructed walkway. Heading now to Eveleigh where the Carriage Works Farmer’s Market is open once again. Producing organic providence and artisan goods, at high cost indeed.

Open each Saturday for a few hours, these grounds of what was once a pivital Industrial Railway Workshop. Established between 1880 and 1889. Then by the 1900's thousands of men worked here building and maintaining locomotive engines and carriages, while the ever expanding rail network shaped the development of Sydney for over 100 years.

Now though with rusted and preserved treasures of this place transformed into a modern space of creative endeavour. We walk to the entrance of the markets with smart phones ready, scanning, showing our compliance of entry, proving we have registered our presence with the ‘Service NSW COVID’ safe check-in-App.

As Security guards click there number counters with correct ratio of humans, as outdoor rules enforced, within Pandemic -Propper apply.

Moving in unison together, walking through well trodden, always interesting side alleyways.

With this our counting of time, of only one hour, as our moral compass in good conscience dictates.

We see in close horizon stationery men and women in distinctive New South Wales police uniforms.

Miradering through Cadigal Green, a beautifully Constructed park on the grounds of the University of Sydney in the suburb of Darlington. For today on this second last Saturday in August is a:

“Democratic Freedom Day Protest” rally. In eight locations across six States and one Terterotry for 12 midday, concurrently, collectively.

Here in New South Wales, anti-lockdown, anti-vaccination protesters are planning to meet at and march from the grounds of Victoria Park. To then walk along George Street into Sydney - this park is just around the corner, from where we are now.

In less than half an hour this protest rally will begin, as New South Wales records the largest number of delta cases Australia wide since the begining of this pandemic, as reported in the 11:00am daily news press conference.

Mencing helicopters invading, fading in and out of sound and vision, that were only just before out of mind. Snap into sharp focus this evolving new reality into narrow optic dilation.

Unmarked police cars patrolling the streets around us, as stationary vehicles of flashing blue and red highlight them; guarding invisible boundaries of entrance’s into the enchanted district of old Sydney town.

These sweeping powers from Parlement House, only 24 hours before, enacted now. We witness this power of pandemic laws fortified with: Stop and Question; Search and detain; Of on the spot monetry fines, to lawfully enforce citizens return back to there local government ‘Area of Concern’. Upon which 14 days self-emposed quarantine within there dwelling they must abide.

Because of this act of Parliament here now before us, we decide our best course of direction. Turning back along Maze Crescent, still on the grounds of Sydney University with convict Sydney sandstone heritage lecture halls, international modern architectural tall accomitations 'ghosted’ of international students.

Counting the assemblies of uniformed officers. Seven there blocking that side street access. Four over here chatting, laughing. Now another six blocking pedestrians, cyclists, cars from entry via this short cut through Redfern into Sydney.

With 1,500 general duty officers, the riot squad, highway patrol officers stopping all vehicles to question drivers and passengers intent.

A proabition on share cars and taxis, until 5pm at the conclusion of the citywide police operation. Halting so many livelihoods in the process.

This invisible ring of ‘razor-wire-fence’ keeping some citizens in and others out. Reminds me now, of the days when I worked in my profession as a Chef on contract at John Moroney Correctional Centre.

Each shift I’d collect the imates waiting behind actual ‘razor-wire-fence’. The ones I knew, with this, their privilege in minimum security correctional centre.

Of a payment per hour of $1.50, who would effectively, efficiently work in our production kitchen cooking and portioning meals.

My job of supervising them, as they portioned the meals into individual trays, blast-chilled ready for delivery into seven New South Wales jails, supplying 30,000 meals a week.

I see in my minds eye these roads and side streets as small winding creeks, brooks and rivers rushing in tidel flow - protesters towards a billabong swamp.

For prior to European settlement of 1788, the Gadigal Clans of the Eroa Nation lived along Blackwattle creek, in campsites located on the original banks of this tidal water course as a source of fresh water and a place for fishing.

This creek flowed from swampy lands in a valley thick with wattle trees, that are now within the grounds of the University of Sydney, into and through a pond, that today is know as Victory Park in the suburb of Broadway.

As the deadline to midday quickens, we walk back behind the United States Studies Centre. Here we gleam a twenty something young woman.

Her back against this convict Sandstone wall of embedded wrought iron fence that’s holding together an entwined ancient living fig tree, as its branches so strong, stretch out to shade her now.

For seven male police officers and three female police officers in physically distanced semi-circle, hovering, have her pinned with their discretionary powers displayed.

Closer now bearing witness we navigate the footpath weaving through this semi-circle of red and blue power.

Listening to her quivering voice explaining while showing her identification as proof of residency in local five kilometre approved one hour walk.

In this moment with actual and perceived force of law. I feel a strange confusion, racing, bubbling through my blood, as it manifests into a bright red flush of rage and anger upon my face.

We did not render assistance, nor did we wait, observe or know what happened.

For self preservation pushed us forward as we also had become a target of an unmarked police car with four offices in plain clothes, starring us down, as they kept pace with our deliberate slothful steps.

And so I remember this intimidating fearful moment of sweeping powers exhibited in delta variant national democratic freedom day protest.

As it fizzled into nothingness.

We walked back via King Street, Newtown safe to our home. With my fingers holding onto memory so sharp. I write this story of this, our lived experience on this ‘WALKING HOUR: DAY 54’ of 107 days of delta variant lockdown in August of 2021.

As this city crumbles under the weight of unresolved history, reminding us three things:

1. Powerful people controlling our lives;

2. There will be more variants of concern to come;

3. Legacies of homogenous liberal democracies are in decline.

How did a burly, middle-aged soldier become an enduring, homo-erotic icon? Was he playing Ignatius Loyola? Francis of Assisi? Paul of Tarsus? Not quite. The only saint who really cuts it as a cover-boy is St Sebastian, that curly-haired Roman youth shot with arrows on the orders of the emperor Diocletian. Sebastian's appeal to gay men seems obvious. He was young, male, apparently unmarried and martyred by the establishment. Unlike, say, St Augustine of Hippo, he also looks good in a loincloth and tied to a tree. And never was Sebastian more winsome than in the seven versions of him sculpted inside the choir of Saint-Maurice Church in Orschwiller..

What's going on? Well, Sebastian is living proof of the fact that if saints didn't exist, we would have to invent them. Thanks to the arrows, he's the one martyr in art everyone can spot. (Iconography is so unfair. Who now recognises St Stephen's stones or St Lawrence's griddle?) A twinky torso also helps. Yet, according to his hagiographer, Ambrose of Milan, Sebastian was a red-blooded captain in the Praetorian Guard, a centurion of middling years: he is the patron saint of soldiers and athletes, not hairdressers. Far from riling Diocletian by proselytising for same-sex love, he was killed for converting Romans to Christianity. And we all know where that led.

But there is worse. Not only was St Sebastian middle-aged and butch, he wasn't killed with arrows. Punctured, yes, but not killed. The perforated martyr was rescued from the stake and nursed back to health by St Irene of Rome – a woman, boys – before unwisely haranguing Diocletian for his paganism as he passed by on a litter. Unmoved by his tenacity, the emperor had Sebastian clubbed to death; his body was then dumped in Rome's sewers. Had history been less kind, he might have ended up as patron saint of poo.

How this would have affected his career as a gay coverboy we will never know. I can only recall one representation in art of St Sebastian thrown into the Cloaca Maxima, and that – by Reni's contemporary and fellow Bolognese, Lodovico Carracci – is safely tucked away in The Getty Center in Los Angeles. By contrast, there are more pictures of the arrow-filled Sebastian than there are of any other martyr I can think of, painted by everyone from Aleotti to Zick by way of Rubens, Botticelli, Titian and John Singer Sargent. The National Gallery alone has a dozen, including ones by Crivelli, Gerrit Honthorst and Luca Signorelli. And they're all of the same Sebastian, the one who ends up, eventually, on the cover of reFRESH: a paragon of male beauty, his toned body, prettily stuck with arrows, exposed to our gaze; the martyr described by Oscar Wilde – who, in French exile, took the alias "Sebastian Melmoth" – as "a lovely brown boy with crisp, clustering hair and red lips".

www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/arr...

Arrows of desire: How did St Sebastian become an enduring, homo-erotic icon? It’s a way? But other wise you could have a nice understanding about arrows:

The five arrows are the five pillars to design the light inside your body and the pathways to immortal soul. Passed times, actually, future are realistic two other are united in the astral and are properties of auspicious answering from ancestors and reborn of consciousness.

The Promise Revealed .The arrow association with timeline is long and varied and much must wait for a more in depth recounting, but for now let us say he opened many doors for me and was a light on the inner and outer path towards knowledge and truth, love and the secrets of the universe.

My entire life has been filled with a calling and a longing. These longings and search for love and truth have been a blessing and a curse.I have always wanted to know who am I? Where did we come from?What is our purpose here? Why is there so much suffering and discord and anxiety on our planet? Why is the world so distorted and fractured,and so caught up in wars pollution ignorance superstition and fear?

Even as a small child I could see the answers to many of the worlds problems that were simple and easy fixes – if mankind would but realize the folly of his ways! It seems every question that was answered opened up 10 more. It seems I was never satisfied.

In my youth, I could really not understand why this planet was such a bloody mess. Once when I was pondering such questions as an 8-year-old, I asked my mother, Mom what is out there in outer space? Where does it go? When does it end? She replied: It never ends.

I nervously laughed, as if to deny the responsibility of accepting an infinite ever-expanding consciousness, and replied: It has to end somewhere. She laughed and saidWhere then? At a wall?

What is on other side?”

This really got me thinking, and I shook my head as I walked down the stairs to my own room, which was in the basement.

I got into bed and laid back. I fell into a melancholy reverie of infinite space. Into this otherwise dark room,I watched with interest as a small star maneuvered into the center of myone window. This Light, which I obviously now know to be my space family, had noticed my interest in deeper truths and proceeded to talk to me!

I had a short or long, I cannot remember to be honest, informational exchange on some deep and not so deep subjects. When I finally got to the question?

Well what is going to happen to planet earth? It surely cannot go on like this or we will most definitely destroy ourselves with they way things are going now, I was given an unexpected answer.

I was shown how eventually everything would come to a head and then at some point every one, or maybe not everyone, would be lifted off the planet and find themselves in giant space ships. Then they would be taken to other beautiful new and pristine planets to try and make a fresh start. For some reason, I felt I might be left behind.

Now how accurate my remembrances are, or exactly what this means, is open for debate. I only know that later in life while coming to grips with the fact that we are not alone in the universe and that I was being contacted by intelligent life from beyond our solar system, I remembered this telepathic exchange, and as far as I can recollect, this was my first contact.

My life was pretty normal for the most part and my deep hunger for truth and search for expanded awareness led me to Carlos Castanedas teachings and writings from Don Juan. These series of books were for me the key to growth and realizing myself as an infinite being of light.

I was enthralled and could not get enough of these books. I was more interested in the actual knowledge and the seemingly magical understandings of how we perceive and what really makes our reality as opposed to the Power plants that Don Juan gave to Carlos to help him to stop the world and to perceive a separate reality. The concepts Don Juan was expounding on were the basis of quantum Physics.

I was instinctively drawn to these understandings and somehow knew we make our own reality by our beliefs and where we place our attention. I was practicing the various secrets of gaining personal power and had some profound beyond belief type of happenings. Growing up in Laguna Beach where Timothy Leary lived, it wasnt long before I was having my own experiences with Power Plants, mushrooms and eventually LSD.

LAGUNA BEACH 100 Yards FROM MY CHILDHOOD OCEAN FRONT HOME

WHAT MY OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCES FELT LIKE TRYING TO COMMUNICATE WITH SEMJASES SHIP

The details of these awakenings will be shared later, but for now suffice to say that I Saw my death, my will and realized myself as a Luminous being.

I realized that we are in essence, a luminous, nameless cluster of feelings that is held together by the binding force of life. I flew on the wings of my perception and learned how to shrink my tonal and even was visited by The Moth of Knowledge.

For some, these descriptions are metaphors, but for me these are real and accurate descriptions of the steps to becoming a man of knowledge and the path with heart. Seeing my auric egg was part and parcel of my spiritual awakening and my expanded perceptions of reality helped me to understand who we are and how we interact with the immensity of the infinite reality.

It was around this time at age 16 or so I was very interested in Psychic phenomenon and the developing of Siddhis or the powers of the mind. I developed a sort of obsession with pyramids in high school and was talking to a girl at school who upon hearing of my interest, proclaimed, I know the PYRAMID MAN.

 Pyramid Power in action!

13 - fred healing machine

Fred’s Front page of The National Examiner Article

He is holding his scale model of the X-1 healing machine and the design of a time machine / spaceship utilizing the interstellar conversion process

The pyramid man, really? I had to meet him and my first meeting was days later when I knocked on the door of Fred Bell. He was literally carrying in his very first run of 50 gold pyramids, which we would later share with the entire world.

I spent many hours and days and years of my life in close association with Fred Bell, who was my friend, teacher and benefactor and spiritual guide. We developed many healing technologies utilizing pyramids, crystals and lasers. The history of our association is long and varied and much must wait for a more in depth recounting, but for now let me say he opened many doors for me and was a light on the inner and outer path towards knowledge and truth, love and the secrets of the universe.

Our esoteric experiences and metaphysical alchemical journeys culminated in not only out-of-body experiences, which reached not only into the heart of the galaxy, but even unto the heart of creation itself.

These ineffable experiences transcend all logic and defy the intellect and spill out onto the floor of belief where only visionary mystics, impeccable warriors, saints and angels dare to tread. I must most likely be a visionary or a mystic because god knows I am no angel or saint. My flirtations with impeccability, if I dare to describe them as such, have been limited to very brief short bursts of accumulated personal power, which have enabled brief flights on the wings of my perception. I have touched infinity and knelt before the infinite light and worshiped the glory of God.

I am but a small speck of nothingness in the vastness of forever and God has made me whole and showed me the glory and the beauty of creation. I know from whence I came and I long to return to this divine source. I am ever on the path home gathering light and life immersed in the folly of men, ever seeking the truth far above and within my own self. This love and experience is so all powerful and consuming that my entire life is devoted to serving this ever living presence of love, life and light.

This eternal presence of perfection and ever expanding love, this primal relationship, this way of the eternal is right here before us and within us every step of the way. It is our souls right to follow the path of love home. On and on we must go with our inner and outer, our most innate self and awareness and consciousness as it is striving incessantly to realize this truth – this I AM .

Though many are blind to this reality for many reasons, the infinite light, the infinite love of creation waits within and without you hiding in plain sight throughout all of creation. There is no force, no power, no amount of hate, no tidal wave of fear, and no mountain of ignorance that can ever hold back this infinite being within you from realizing your self.

This is one aspect of the The Promise that I can Reveal as I try to share with you, to encourage you to make your way home. I can make a promise to you now. I know, I swear to you that one day, if you have not already realized it, that you too will share in this communion of love and the return of the spirit of truth in the very heart of your soul and you will one day share this through your life well lived, to every being throughout creation itself. We will stop all of the hate and all of the killing will stop. We will end the suffering and ignorance on this beautiful blue jewel floating in the immensity of God’s infinite light. We do have the power within us to bring Peace to this world.

The second part of The Promise is coming true before my eyes and is my lifelong calling. Today my hours of study, my intense searching for truth, my deep reflections and endless meditations are now allowing me to be of service to our beautiful planet. I have prepared and after many hard fought battles with my lower personality vehicle and accumulated scars, I now try to fly on scarred wings. Under Fred Bell’s watchful eye, after many years of leaving my body and going through various initiations of light body awareness, I was rewarded with several live contacts with my space family.

The first live contact was the culmination of a magical time with a member of the earths Resistance Movement. This was a military Special Forces brother who refused to work for the dark side and was rewarded with help from our space family. His name was Jim and I owe him a great debt of gratitude. He was sent to act as my teacher at Gabriel Greens house. The Ascended Master Hilarion, who is the Cohan of the 5th Ray of Concrete Science and Knowledge, sent Jim, who I consider my brother and teacher of light, to me.

He was instructed to teach me many things. In the course of my association, I was gifted with my first real open visit from Semjase. I was with Jim, Gabriel Green and Michael El Legion. I had a very emotional telepathic contact, which ended in me never having to see another space ship to know that they are real and there are very physical beings who ride in space ships made of matter and living light.

My second encounter with Semjase that I am allowed to remember is when I was with Fred in the living room of his house atop the Vortex in Laguna Beach. I was lying on the floor and the next moment I was standing inside a space ship. Many wonderful things and many amazing revelations were shared with me. And in the morning, I was returned to adifferent location in his living room with Fred by my side. You are the master now, he exclaimed. I could only watch in frustration as right before my eyes most of my experiences were erased from my mind. I had all the memories before me and I watched helpless to stop the eraser that slowly step-by-step removed almost all of my experience. I managed to keep one major memory and this is what I have held onto for all of my life. All that remains of the most amazing day of my entire life is my remembrance of The Promise.

THE MINI ALL SPARK IN ACTION

I made a promise to Semjase before I left the ship on the teleportation beam and I am fulfilling part of that promise by sharing with you here on this site my most intimate and personal struggles and victories of the light in my life and as I have witnessed them on the surface of the planet and in my personal life.

I promised to her that one day I would create a show, a party of love to honor the Galactic Federation of Light. This event would share the wonderful healing technologies of light color and sound that were part of my own individual awakening process. I promised to her that I would do my best to help people overcome the darkness on this planet by unifying them into a purpose and a mission to heal themselves and the planet herself. I would teach others that by invoking love and light into their beings they could realize that by entering into the silence they too can realize the living presence of God within themselves.

This picture below is of one of our Major Portal Vortexes we created in Fred’s living room! We utilized the laser light crystal sound color technology in conjunction with Pyramids. We amplified and accelerated these fields with the violet flame-tesla coils to achieve our own artificial time warp zones! These vortexes were actually accelerated Scalar field ;Event horizons that we used in the alchemical transfiguration of ourselves in activations designed to heal the timelines ourselves and the planet herself through interaction with the grid lines or vortex portals, which were accessed through the mineral kingdom and the vortexes of our own Christ Consciousness or I AM Presence.

Some of The Main Components of A Promise Pyramid System

I also promised that I would gather people in a large group or groups in a concerted effort to send this light into the heart of the mother herself. I was shown how this could change the world. I do not know if this is in an instant or if this is even a possibility. I do know that I have faith that this is true. I have prayed with all my heart and being and have thought of nothing else and never wanted anything more than to serve the light by fulfilling this promise and for me this is what I must do. I bare my soul to you, the world, and reveal this Promise.

The Promise being fulfilled at the funerary Temple in Egypt

From the source of all that is good, beautiful and true, I pray that I am successful and that my effort will bear fruit and hasten the day of the return of love and light to the world of men and upon our world. I know whether I am successful or not, that love is already here inside my heart and yours, and one day very soon this love will spread like a fire and envelope the entire world and be evident in the very nature of our reality, and we will once again be home. Living in harmony with nature and each other is not so hard to do.It is for this dream, this promise I am here to serve.

May the kingdom come quickly

Rob Potter

These Buffalo, part of a larger herd, graze on frost covered grass with the Larch covered slops of the Bitterroots in the background.

Buffalo have been domesticated by local ranchers, sort-of, and raised for their rich meat to be consumed by an ever expanding market..

russellmoreton.blogspot.com

Architectural projects and artistic researchers have explored the potential of isotropic spaces, by definition: territories where the conditions are equally distributed. Hierarchy is abandoned, the distinction between figure and ground disappears and the available land is evenly covered, being it a piece of paper or a territorial plot. In some projects the idea of field is a metaphor, the ever-expanding territory of capital materialized by infinite urban development, in other it is merely a condition, a potential to be explored.

Stan Allen, Diagrams of Field Conditions. 1996.

Few boundaries are impenetrable They are rather, semi-permeable membranes providing housing while allowing selective commerce In a world of materials, nothing is ever finished : everything may be something, but being something is always on the way to becoming something else.

Tim Ingold 2011

Gladstone Gaol.

The first Gladstone township was laid out by Matthew Moorhouse (former Protector of Aborigines) in 1872 as a private town, but a Government town was proclaimed next to it as 'Booyoolie' in 1875. The two towns merged but it was not until 1940 that the name of 'Gladstone' was officially adopted for both towns. The town was named after William Gladstone (1809-1898) a 19th century British Prime Minister. The town developed rapidly with the arrival of the railway in 1877 from Port Pirie which separated the two growing townships. Settlement occurred in the district after the government resumed much of the original Booyoolee lease land in 1869 and put it up for public auction in 1871. In Moorhouse’s town east of the railway line is the old butter factory and the original school building. West of the railway yards, with its three gauges, you can see the newer school (1929) and Grubbs Cordial Factory. Gladstone High School was one of the first rural high schools opening in 1913. Grubbs Cordial Factory has been operating continuously since 1876 but with various owners. The Grubb family were not the founders but they have been running the factory since 1914. Note the architectural style of the two banks in the Main Street of Gladstone. Both were built in the same period; one in the traditional Greek classical style with Doric columns with volutes on top and a clearly defined pediment across the roof line; the other was built in stripped classical style with no ornamentation and some remnants of classical features only. The Gladstone Courthouse was built in 1878 and it became a major regional Courthouse as it was situated mid-way between Laura and Georgetown. It was attached to the local police station. The land for the police station was purchased by the government for £120 in December 1877. The Gladstone Police Station and Court opened in March 1878. Laura and Georgetown petitioned for their own Courthouses which were duly erected in 1878 and 1879 respectively. The Courthouse in Georgetown cost nearly £1,100. The Gladstone Courthouse closed as a court many years ago. The growth of the town was further hastened with the establishment of the Gladstone Goal.

Gladstone has some fine old buildings including the two banks mentioned above .They both opened in 1937. Along the Main Street is the old Post Office which has been modernised and changed from its original appearance. It opened around 1880. The hotels include the Gladstone Hotel built in 1875 and the Commercial Hotel which was erected in 1879; and the oldest hotel is the Booyoolie Hotel built in 1873. Finlayson’s Butter Factory with its signage was built around 1890 for a skating rink and converted to a butter factory in 1922 which operated into the early 1980s partly because it produced butter for Broken Hill. The town has several fine church including the Anglican Church which was the Pro Cathedral for the Anglican Diocese of Willochra for many years. It was built in 1891. Amateur Anglican Church architect William Mallyon, manager of a Port Pirie bank designed the transept, sanctuary and chancel which was added in 1890 and although he designed the tower at that time it was not erected until 1928. The Diocese of Willochra was based in Gladstone from its inception in 1915 and the nearby Bishops House was completed in 1923. In 1999 the Diocese moved its headquarters to Port Pirie and made the church of St Peter and St Paul the Anglican Cathedral. The Anglican Sunday School hall next to the church was built in 1909. The Catholic Church is on the hill near the primary school on West Terrace on the northern fringe of the town. It was built in 1928 when the original church of 1881 became a hall before it was demolished in 1951. A Wesleyan Methodist Church opened in Gladstone in 1876. This small Wesleyan Church was connected to the current Methodist, now Uniting Church, in 1922. The former Bible Christian Methodist Church at 32 High Street was built in 1876. Upon Methodist churches Union in 1900 it was left vacant until 1919 when the Masons purchased it for £120 for use as the Masonic Hall which it still is. The funds from the sale of the church to the Masons helped fund the new 1922 Methodist church. Next to the now Masonic Temple is a grand two storey house dating from around 1900 with a small cupola on an arched entry porch. It is just south of the old Police Station and Police Court room. From here you can turn left into Fourth Street and left again into Sixth Street to reach St Albans Anglican Church. Behind the 1960s Council Chambers in Cross Street is the stone gable faced Soldiers Memorial Hall built in 1921.

Gladstone Goal was built between 1879 and 1881 at a cost of over £21,000. Tenders were called and Sara and Dunstan of Burra won the tender for its construction. Its design was based on the model prison of Bristol in England. Slate for the flooring was transported from Mintaro and stone was quarried locally for both the cell blocks and the high external prison yard walls. It was intended for debtors and inebriates and seldom housed more than 20 prisoners at any one time from when it opened in 1881 until it closed in 1939. Both men and women were incarcerated in Gladstone gaol and the first gaol keeper was Mr Pollet who had been the keeper at Redruth gaol in Burra. When opened it could accommodate 86 prisoners but with a later expansion this increased to around 200 prisoners. But given that it seldom accommodated more than 20 inmates why did they ever expand it? Criminals from around the Mid North charged with serious crimes like murder were also housed in this prison awaiting their trials. Gladstone gaol closed in 1939 and during World War Two from September 1939 to 1940 it was used to inter Italians and Germans of suspect loyalties. Then from 1942 until 1943 it was used by the Army as a Military Detention barracks. In 1953 it reopened for convicted youth offenders so that they were separated from the hardened criminals of Yatala gaol at Northfield. It opened with 90 youth offenders in 1953. Its peak year of operations was 1969 when it held 130 youth offenders. It finally closed as a youth prison in 1975. Prison life was never easy. The daily routine of the Gladstone Gaol in the early years was as follows:

7.00 am - Prisoners woken and served breakfast in their cells.

7.30 am - Leave cells, empty toilet buckets and shower.

8.00 am - Parade in exercise yard and work details issued.

11.30 am - Collect lunch and return to cells.

1.00pm - Return to work assignments.

4.15 pm - Finish work and shower. Collect evening meals from the kitchen and return to cells.

9.00 pm - Lights out. Prisoners were allowed to have visitors once a fortnight and write one letter a week and their work assignments included making metal buckets, making mops, metal garbage tins and working in the prison vegetable gardens and orchard.

19th Century Courthouses.

After full self-government in South Australia in 1857 the new government spent its money cautiously. In terms of public infrastructure they mainly built gravel roads, courthouses and police stations, and later in the 1870s public schools and railway lines and stations. The 19th century was an era of low government spending. Fortunately many of the courthouses, designed to impress and give the impression of the solidness of government and police keeping, have survived albeit with vastly different uses. Thus the Courthouse in Two Wells (1876) is now a craft shop, Balaklava Courthouse (1913) is now an art gallery, Georgetown Courthouse (1879) is now a residence, Laura Courthouse (1878) is now an art gallery and Port Pirie Courthouse (1882) is now used as state government offices.

Gladstone Gaol.

The first Gladstone township was laid out by Matthew Moorhouse (former Protector of Aborigines) in 1872 as a private town, but a Government town was proclaimed next to it as 'Booyoolie' in 1875. The two towns merged but it was not until 1940 that the name of 'Gladstone' was officially adopted for both towns. The town was named after William Gladstone (1809-1898) a 19th century British Prime Minister. The town developed rapidly with the arrival of the railway in 1877 from Port Pirie which separated the two growing townships. Settlement occurred in the district after the government resumed much of the original Booyoolee lease land in 1869 and put it up for public auction in 1871. In Moorhouse’s town east of the railway line is the old butter factory and the original school building. West of the railway yards, with its three gauges, you can see the newer school (1929) and Grubbs Cordial Factory. Gladstone High School was one of the first rural high schools opening in 1913. Grubbs Cordial Factory has been operating continuously since 1876 but with various owners. The Grubb family were not the founders but they have been running the factory since 1914. Note the architectural style of the two banks in the Main Street of Gladstone. Both were built in the same period; one in the traditional Greek classical style with Doric columns with volutes on top and a clearly defined pediment across the roof line; the other was built in stripped classical style with no ornamentation and some remnants of classical features only. The Gladstone Courthouse was built in 1878 and it became a major regional Courthouse as it was situated mid-way between Laura and Georgetown. It was attached to the local police station. The land for the police station was purchased by the government for £120 in December 1877. The Gladstone Police Station and Court opened in March 1878. Laura and Georgetown petitioned for their own Courthouses which were duly erected in 1878 and 1879 respectively. The Courthouse in Georgetown cost nearly £1,100. The Gladstone Courthouse closed as a court many years ago. The growth of the town was further hastened with the establishment of the Gladstone Goal.

Gladstone has some fine old buildings including the two banks mentioned above .They both opened in 1937. Along the Main Street is the old Post Office which has been modernised and changed from its original appearance. It opened around 1880. The hotels include the Gladstone Hotel built in 1875 and the Commercial Hotel which was erected in 1879; and the oldest hotel is the Booyoolie Hotel built in 1873. Finlayson’s Butter Factory with its signage was built around 1890 for a skating rink and converted to a butter factory in 1922 which operated into the early 1980s partly because it produced butter for Broken Hill. The town has several fine church including the Anglican Church which was the Pro Cathedral for the Anglican Diocese of Willochra for many years. It was built in 1891. Amateur Anglican Church architect William Mallyon, manager of a Port Pirie bank designed the transept, sanctuary and chancel which was added in 1890 and although he designed the tower at that time it was not erected until 1928. The Diocese of Willochra was based in Gladstone from its inception in 1915 and the nearby Bishops House was completed in 1923. In 1999 the Diocese moved its headquarters to Port Pirie and made the church of St Peter and St Paul the Anglican Cathedral. The Anglican Sunday School hall next to the church was built in 1909. The Catholic Church is on the hill near the primary school on West Terrace on the northern fringe of the town. It was built in 1928 when the original church of 1881 became a hall before it was demolished in 1951. A Wesleyan Methodist Church opened in Gladstone in 1876. This small Wesleyan Church was connected to the current Methodist, now Uniting Church, in 1922. The former Bible Christian Methodist Church at 32 High Street was built in 1876. Upon Methodist churches Union in 1900 it was left vacant until 1919 when the Masons purchased it for £120 for use as the Masonic Hall which it still is. The funds from the sale of the church to the Masons helped fund the new 1922 Methodist church. Next to the now Masonic Temple is a grand two storey house dating from around 1900 with a small cupola on an arched entry porch. It is just south of the old Police Station and Police Court room. From here you can turn left into Fourth Street and left again into Sixth Street to reach St Albans Anglican Church. Behind the 1960s Council Chambers in Cross Street is the stone gable faced Soldiers Memorial Hall built in 1921.

Gladstone Goal was built between 1879 and 1881 at a cost of over £21,000. Tenders were called and Sara and Dunstan of Burra won the tender for its construction. Its design was based on the model prison of Bristol in England. Slate for the flooring was transported from Mintaro and stone was quarried locally for both the cell blocks and the high external prison yard walls. It was intended for debtors and inebriates and seldom housed more than 20 prisoners at any one time from when it opened in 1881 until it closed in 1939. Both men and women were incarcerated in Gladstone gaol and the first gaol keeper was Mr Pollet who had been the keeper at Redruth gaol in Burra. When opened it could accommodate 86 prisoners but with a later expansion this increased to around 200 prisoners. But given that it seldom accommodated more than 20 inmates why did they ever expand it? Criminals from around the Mid North charged with serious crimes like murder were also housed in this prison awaiting their trials. Gladstone gaol closed in 1939 and during World War Two from September 1939 to 1940 it was used to inter Italians and Germans of suspect loyalties. Then from 1942 until 1943 it was used by the Army as a Military Detention barracks. In 1953 it reopened for convicted youth offenders so that they were separated from the hardened criminals of Yatala gaol at Northfield. It opened with 90 youth offenders in 1953. Its peak year of operations was 1969 when it held 130 youth offenders. It finally closed as a youth prison in 1975. Prison life was never easy. The daily routine of the Gladstone Gaol in the early years was as follows:

7.00 am - Prisoners woken and served breakfast in their cells.

7.30 am - Leave cells, empty toilet buckets and shower.

8.00 am - Parade in exercise yard and work details issued.

11.30 am - Collect lunch and return to cells.

1.00pm - Return to work assignments.

4.15 pm - Finish work and shower. Collect evening meals from the kitchen and return to cells.

9.00 pm - Lights out. Prisoners were allowed to have visitors once a fortnight and write one letter a week and their work assignments included making metal buckets, making mops, metal garbage tins and working in the prison vegetable gardens and orchard.

Sheffield to London train heads towards the ever expanding outskirts of Kibworth

Finally had a chance for another small photo session to capture some of my models which have been made over the past few months and missed during previous opportunities.

Please enjoy my ever expanding array of vehicles and emergency services.

This place has an interesting past. Built around 1800 as a cotton mill, it was soon deemed too remote from transport links and too small for the ever expanding scale required in the booming industrial revolution of the nineteenth century. A new lease of life commenced after the mill closed around 1890 when it became of all things a Victorian version of a theme park. A roller skating rink, dance hall and cinema were installed in this rather remote corner of Hebden Bridge. Times change and as the community demanded ever more exotic opportunities for their free time the mill closed again. This time it would remain that way until the end of the twentieth Century. The National Trust has owned the mill for a long time and was finally able to open it as a tourist attraction. It now provides a window on the way it acted During its second lease of life in the early twentieth century.

Gleaming in the morning sunlight at Pockerley Waggonway in Beamish Museum is this magnificently restored 1954 Gardner-engined Daimler CVG6 bus.

The Weymann bodied ex-Rotherham Corporation bus took well over twenty years to restore to an extremely high standard of finish and has been a prized part of the museum's ever expanding bus fleet since 2015. The ultimate aim is to use the bus in the proposed new 1950's area of the museum, but it is already used extensively at peak times.

Those who know Rotherham will have noticed that we have taken something of a liberty with the route number, Rotherham having never had three digit route numbers.

Copyright © 2020 Terry Pinnegar Photography. All Rights Reserved. THIS IMAGE IS NOT TO BE USED WITHOUT MY EXPRESS PERMISSION!

Showing how a city is always growing.

The Maschinengewehr 34, or MG34, was a German machine gun first issued in 1934, considered by many to be the first modern general-purpose machine gun. It was used as the primary infantry machine gun during the 1930s, and remained as the primary tank and aircraft defensive weapon. It was intended that it would be replaced in infantry service by the related MG42, but there were never enough of the new design to go around, and MG34s soldiered on in all roles until the end of World War II.

The MG34 was designed primarily by Heinrich Vollmer from Mauser Werke, based on the recently introduced Rheinmetall designed Solothurn 1930 (MG30) that was starting to enter service in Switzerland. The principle changes were to move the feed mechanism to a more convienient location on the left of the breech, and the addition of a shroud around the barrel. Changes to the operating mechanism improved the rate of fire to between 800 and 900 RPM.

The MG34 could use both magazine-fed and belt-fed 7.92mm ammunition. Belts were supplied in 50-round single strips or 250-round boxes. The drums held either 50 rounds in the standard version, or 75 in the "double drum" version. Early guns had to be modified to use the drums by replacing a part on the gun, but this modification was later supplied from the factory.

In the light machine gun role it was used with a bipod and weighed only 12.1 kg, considerably less than other machine guns of the era. In the medium machine gun role it could be mounted on one of two tripods, a smaller one weighing 6.75 kg, the larger 23.6 kg. The larger included a number of features making it useful for a number of roles. The legs could be extended to allow it to be used in the anti-aircraft role (and many were), and when lowered it could be placed to allow the gun to be fired "remotely" while it swept an arc in front of the mounting with fire, or aimed through a periscope attached to the tripod.

The new gun was accepted for service almost immediately and was generally liked by the troops. It was used to great effect by German soldiers assisting the fascists in the Spanish Civil War. At the time it was considerably more advanced than guns being used by other forces (with the exception of the MG30), both in terms of rate of fire, and in being easily man portable by a single gunner. However the MG34 was also very expensive, both in terms of construction and the raw materials needed (49 kg of steel) and it was unable to be built in the sorts of numbers required for the ever expanding German army. It also proved to be rather tempermental, jamming easily when dirty.

By the late 1930s an effort had started to simplify the MG34, leading to the MG42. The MG42's square barrel cover made it unsuitable for use in tank cupolas however, and the MG34 remained in production until the end of the war for this role.

The MG34 was also used as the basis of a new aircraft gun, the MG81. For this role the breech was slighly modified to allow feeds from either side, and in one version two guns were bolted together on a single trigger to form a weapon known as the MG81Z (for zwillig, twin in German). Production of the MG34 was never enough to satisfy any of its users, and while the MG81 was a huge improvement over the earlier MG30-based MG15 and MG17, those guns could be still found in use until the end of the war.

Damian - at last!

These large, flashy southern clubtails are the only forceptails in Georgia and have been flying at a lake near my house for the last few late-summers. This is as far north as a population has been found in the Southeast - though their range runs up the Atlantic coast as well. With the mountains a short drive to our north - will they ever expand northward? I keep an eye out for them. I noticed one record out there from Tennessee. These are at the same nearby lake where Big bluets turned up last Fall.

They do love to perch (thankfully) but they gravitate to the water's edge below vegetation and facing water - makes getting photos a bit of a challenge. They've got great faces but it's tough to get that angle.

>> at the dam down the road, yesterday - several males were perching & defending territory. They are big showy clubtails - holding their red-yellow tips raised as they fly & perch - like a candle! And those eyes!

Cyclemania's stock on display on the Danforth. Riverdale, Toronto

In visiting Toronto, the ever-expanding cycling infrastructure and the use of bikes really stand out. This cyclist is one of many making use of the dedicsted bike lanes on Bloor/Danforth - the main east/west artery in the city.

Amsterdam-Noord. April 2010

Part of ongoing project City Limits

The other side of this one

View On White

© All rights reserved. A low-res, flatbed scan of a 6x7 (2 1/4 x 2 3/4 inch) transparency

WHAT IS SHOWN HERE? Please choose the correct answer:

A: A fine example of socially-significant light-painting photography destined to change the face of art as we know it.

B: An image just sold with a usage license to the ever-expanding federal government's newest bureaucracy: The Department of Dumpster Detoxification.

C: The kind of shot that this photographer is likely to take, more and more, after every hour the low fog doesn't appear.

D: None of the above---there is no rational explanation for such behavior.

This rare and immaculate single-deck version of Daimler's more successful Fleetline double-decker was delivered to Potteries Motor Traction in a batch of twenty-one, 140-60, BEH141H etc. It was new in 05/1970. The arse end heavy 36ft. long Fleetline single-decks, no matter who they were bodied by, and who operated them, suffered from rear end structural problems. These were in essence a single-deck body on a chassis more suited to a double-deck bus and had the rear seats over the engine rather than in front of which was something similar to the GM Buses decker seen in the background. It is seen here on display at the now ceased Trans-Lancs Rally, Heaton Park, Manchester, on 04/09/2005. This popular event was last held in 2019. This was due to COVID-19 and the now ever expanding summer fairground.

The camera being a Pentax MZ-M with the film being a Jessops Colourslide.

I would request, as with all my photos, that they are not copied or downloaded in any way, shape or form. © Peter Steel 2005.

Gladstone Gaol.

The first Gladstone township was laid out by Matthew Moorhouse (former Protector of Aborigines) in 1872 as a private town, but a Government town was proclaimed next to it as 'Booyoolie' in 1875. The two towns merged but it was not until 1940 that the name of 'Gladstone' was officially adopted for both towns. The town was named after William Gladstone (1809-1898) a 19th century British Prime Minister. The town developed rapidly with the arrival of the railway in 1877 from Port Pirie which separated the two growing townships. Settlement occurred in the district after the government resumed much of the original Booyoolee lease land in 1869 and put it up for public auction in 1871. In Moorhouse’s town east of the railway line is the old butter factory and the original school building. West of the railway yards, with its three gauges, you can see the newer school (1929) and Grubbs Cordial Factory. Gladstone High School was one of the first rural high schools opening in 1913. Grubbs Cordial Factory has been operating continuously since 1876 but with various owners. The Grubb family were not the founders but they have been running the factory since 1914. Note the architectural style of the two banks in the Main Street of Gladstone. Both were built in the same period; one in the traditional Greek classical style with Doric columns with volutes on top and a clearly defined pediment across the roof line; the other was built in stripped classical style with no ornamentation and some remnants of classical features only. The Gladstone Courthouse was built in 1878 and it became a major regional Courthouse as it was situated mid-way between Laura and Georgetown. It was attached to the local police station. The land for the police station was purchased by the government for £120 in December 1877. The Gladstone Police Station and Court opened in March 1878. Laura and Georgetown petitioned for their own Courthouses which were duly erected in 1878 and 1879 respectively. The Courthouse in Georgetown cost nearly £1,100. The Gladstone Courthouse closed as a court many years ago. The growth of the town was further hastened with the establishment of the Gladstone Goal.

Gladstone has some fine old buildings including the two banks mentioned above .They both opened in 1937. Along the Main Street is the old Post Office which has been modernised and changed from its original appearance. It opened around 1880. The hotels include the Gladstone Hotel built in 1875 and the Commercial Hotel which was erected in 1879; and the oldest hotel is the Booyoolie Hotel built in 1873. Finlayson’s Butter Factory with its signage was built around 1890 for a skating rink and converted to a butter factory in 1922 which operated into the early 1980s partly because it produced butter for Broken Hill. The town has several fine church including the Anglican Church which was the Pro Cathedral for the Anglican Diocese of Willochra for many years. It was built in 1891. Amateur Anglican Church architect William Mallyon, manager of a Port Pirie bank designed the transept, sanctuary and chancel which was added in 1890 and although he designed the tower at that time it was not erected until 1928. The Diocese of Willochra was based in Gladstone from its inception in 1915 and the nearby Bishops House was completed in 1923. In 1999 the Diocese moved its headquarters to Port Pirie and made the church of St Peter and St Paul the Anglican Cathedral. The Anglican Sunday School hall next to the church was built in 1909. The Catholic Church is on the hill near the primary school on West Terrace on the northern fringe of the town. It was built in 1928 when the original church of 1881 became a hall before it was demolished in 1951. A Wesleyan Methodist Church opened in Gladstone in 1876. This small Wesleyan Church was connected to the current Methodist, now Uniting Church, in 1922. The former Bible Christian Methodist Church at 32 High Street was built in 1876. Upon Methodist churches Union in 1900 it was left vacant until 1919 when the Masons purchased it for £120 for use as the Masonic Hall which it still is. The funds from the sale of the church to the Masons helped fund the new 1922 Methodist church. Next to the now Masonic Temple is a grand two storey house dating from around 1900 with a small cupola on an arched entry porch. It is just south of the old Police Station and Police Court room. From here you can turn left into Fourth Street and left again into Sixth Street to reach St Albans Anglican Church. Behind the 1960s Council Chambers in Cross Street is the stone gable faced Soldiers Memorial Hall built in 1921.

Gladstone Goal was built between 1879 and 1881 at a cost of over £21,000. Tenders were called and Sara and Dunstan of Burra won the tender for its construction. Its design was based on the model prison of Bristol in England. Slate for the flooring was transported from Mintaro and stone was quarried locally for both the cell blocks and the high external prison yard walls. It was intended for debtors and inebriates and seldom housed more than 20 prisoners at any one time from when it opened in 1881 until it closed in 1939. Both men and women were incarcerated in Gladstone gaol and the first gaol keeper was Mr Pollet who had been the keeper at Redruth gaol in Burra. When opened it could accommodate 86 prisoners but with a later expansion this increased to around 200 prisoners. But given that it seldom accommodated more than 20 inmates why did they ever expand it? Criminals from around the Mid North charged with serious crimes like murder were also housed in this prison awaiting their trials. Gladstone gaol closed in 1939 and during World War Two from September 1939 to 1940 it was used to inter Italians and Germans of suspect loyalties. Then from 1942 until 1943 it was used by the Army as a Military Detention barracks. In 1953 it reopened for convicted youth offenders so that they were separated from the hardened criminals of Yatala gaol at Northfield. It opened with 90 youth offenders in 1953. Its peak year of operations was 1969 when it held 130 youth offenders. It finally closed as a youth prison in 1975. Prison life was never easy. The daily routine of the Gladstone Gaol in the early years was as follows:

7.00 am - Prisoners woken and served breakfast in their cells.

7.30 am - Leave cells, empty toilet buckets and shower.

8.00 am - Parade in exercise yard and work details issued.

11.30 am - Collect lunch and return to cells.

1.00pm - Return to work assignments.

4.15 pm - Finish work and shower. Collect evening meals from the kitchen and return to cells.

9.00 pm - Lights out. Prisoners were allowed to have visitors once a fortnight and write one letter a week and their work assignments included making metal buckets, making mops, metal garbage tins and working in the prison vegetable gardens and orchard.

Today's story and sketch "by me" you see for the first time knobby Gofish at one

of his 27 secret hide aways.

(The other 26 are scattered throughout the Galaxy),

Yesterday Knobby sent a Wonder World Memo to the entire staff, that he was very

happy at the round up of the herd of (Big Toe Camels, which now numbers 78), and

that they are in there super fortified "hopefully" escape proof compound in the

(Serengeti Safari Park, here at Wonder World). The memo read, he was a bit stressed and

was going to take a few days off and relax. I saw the memo myself and thought, to myself,

Self if I were Knobby and was going to take a break which, one of my 27 Hide Aways,

(if I had 27 hide aways)

which would I visit. Knowing knobby as well as I do, I knew he would take along a Moon Pie

Chef and a companion. At that moment I realized I had better head to the Wonder World

Intergalactic Airport, and be ready to follow Knobby If we were to sketch one of his Hideouts,

and got lucky, as soon as the two rookie pilots who previously were scullery maids he had an

eye for, who had been working at "Grandmas Moon Pie Deli" he promoted to pilots to

search for the Camels,, When they landed the "Big Eyes In The Sky" Surveillance Plane,

and got into Knobby's Metro Mini around the park glider,

I knew the sketch would be somewhere nearby.

And you see today for the first time the Knobby Gofish Love Shack hide away here in the

forbidden zone to all Wonder World Employees, because this is where Knobby relocated all

of the 23,713 Gators as he reclaimed the swamp, for the ever expanding Wonder World Theme Parks.

I will as soon as possible get this sketch off to print before the gators watching me

feel hungry, so till next time taa ta the Rod BLog.

Don't waste time worrying about mistakes, move on be happy, that you moved past them.

Rod

This photo was taken during a visit last month to see the superb Olafur Eliasson 'In real life' Exhibition. I would highly recommend it to you but it finished a few days ago.......

Although I've been to the Tate Modern over the years I don't think I'd ever been there after dark, probably because most of my trips to London are made during the Summer months. It was interesting to see how the lighting in the space works because during the day it has almost no effect.

More photos from various Museums and Galleries : www.flickr.com/photos/darrellg/albums/72157608768742010

From Wikipedia : "The galleries are housed in the former Bankside Power Station, which was originally designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect of Battersea Power Station, and built in two stages between 1947 and 1963. The power station closed in 1981. In 1992 The Tate Gallery at the British National Art Museum proposed a competition to build a new building for modern art. The purpose for the new building would help with the ever-expanding collection on modern and contemporary art. In 1995 itwas announced that Herzog & de Meuron had won the competition with their simple design. The architects decided to reinvent the current building instead of demolishing it. The Tate modern is an example of adaptive reuse, the process of finding new life in old buildings. The building itself still resembles the 20th century factory in style from the outside and that is reflected on the inside by the taupe walls, steel girders and concrete floors.

The façade of the building is made out of 4.2 million bricks that are separated by groups of thin vertical windows that help create a dramatic light inside. The history of the site as well as information about the conversion was the basis for a 2008 documentary Architects Herzog and de Meuron: Alchemy of Building & Tate Modern. This challenging conversion work was carried by Carillion. The southern third of the building was retained by the French power company EDF Energy as an electrical substation (in 2006, the company released half of this holding)."

My Website : Twitter : Facebook : Instagram : Photocrowd

© D.Godliman

There seems to be more new 1/64 diecast manufacturers appearing now than in my childhood of the 1980's which was probably the last decade before electronic toys became the norm. Not just the usual cheapo unlicensed stuff I normally like to collect but much more premium offerings aimed directly at the eager adult collector. Xcartoys has been around for a couple of years now with an ever expanding line up of mainly domestic vehicles. Some you'll never have heard of whilst others are far more recognisable to Western eyes such as this wonderfully crisp VW Jetta MK2. Despite its plastic baseplate this casting has a really weighty feel to it making it feel as heavy as an all metal equivalent from say Greenlight or Auto World etc... Mint and boxed.

I'm trying to use up my ever expanding stash of supplies ( Gulp!*!supplies addict"! ) and at the same time NOT make brooches.

So, I'm experimenting with necklace designs which can, if wished, be both and turned into a brooch by addition of a finding.

About 90% of the photos on a typical Wedding Photographer’s blog/website are typically posed-candids of the bride & groom and photos of detail shots. And while it is important to be able to recognize a good backdrop, proper lighting and be able to pose a couple naturally, it’s something that can be learned. Also, taking photos of details… well, honestly it was the bride & groom that designed them, or a florist, designer, etc… not the photographer. Photographers love to show off details of a wedding which they had 0 influence in creating. Photographing details doesn’t show a photographers skill level.

The most difficult photos to capture at a wedding are those once-in-a-lifetime candids, typically at the reception. The main ingredient for capturing moments like this is instinct. Not only does the photographer need to be 100% technically competent with their camera, have an understanding of the flow of a wedding, building a quick, positive report with guests, but also has to have an advanced knowledge of lighting, focusing, metering, framing and the gumption to get onto the dance floor and stalk predict when explosive emotional moments will happen. Right lens. Right timing. Right light. Right focus. Right composition/framing. And then have lighting quick fingers to get it on ONE shot (since most speedlights take a couple seconds to recharge).

Probably should add this diatribe to my ever-expanding lecture on why great wedding photographers are worth the price they ask. When shopping around for a wedding photographer, perhaps look to see if they actually can grab those once-in-a-lifetime moments of the guests, or are they all posed-candids, formals and details?

Klick here for a large view!

www.wolfgangstaudt.de

Shanghai is the largest city in China in terms of population and one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, with over 20 million people. Located on China's central eastern coast at the mouth of the Yangtze River, the city is administered as a municipality of the People's Republic of China with province-level status.

Originally a fishing and textiles town, Shanghai grew to importance in the 19th century due to its favourable port location and as one of the cities opened to foreign trade by the 1842 Treaty of Nanking. The city flourished as a center of commerce between east and west, and became a multinational hub of finance and business by the 1930s. However, Shanghai's prosperity was interrupted after the 1949 Communist takeover and the subsequent cessation of foreign investment. Economic reforms in 1990 resulted in intense development and financing in Shanghai, and in 2005 Shanghai became the world's largest cargo port.

The city is an emerging tourist destination renowned for its historical landmarks such as the Bund and Xintiandi, its modern and ever-expanding Pudong skyline including the Oriental Pearl Tower, and its new reputation as a cosmopolitan center of culture and design. Today, Shanghai is the largest center of commerce and finance in mainland China, and has been described as the "showpiece" of the world's fastest-growing economy.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

YD18WXX is another new addition to the ever expanding Bouden coach Travel fleet this VDL Futura 2 marks a. Change for the firm as everything else in the fleet is Mercedes this coach is also apprantly to C61FT spec

By the 6th of November 1958 Lake Moondarra, originally known as Leichhardt Dam, was officially supplying water to Mount Isa Residents.

A history of the Mount Isa region, like most towns in Australia's arid interior, is a story about securing reliable water for domestic and industrial development. Prior to the construction of Lake Moondarra, Mount Isa's water needs were met by a series of bores near the bed of the Leichhardt River and the old Rifle Creek Dam.

But with a burgeoning town population and ever expanding mining operations, these water supplies became inadequate for the thirsty town. Subsequently, Mount Isa Mines Limited took the unprecedented decision to construct what was at the time Australia's largest privately funded water scheme.

In late 1956 a rocky gorge on the Leichhardt River (Tharrapatha) 16kms downstream from the township was selected due to its natural bedrock attributes and proximity to town. American company Uta Construction was awarded the contract and works began without delay with the building of a bitumen road from town to the clearing of trees within the basin.

However, this ambitious project was not to progress without drama, and by December 1956 seasonal rains sent flood waters rushing through the gorge causing extensive damage to the partially completed wall. When construction did resume several months later, it was the Australian company Thiess Brothers that completed the 26.5 metre concrete-faced wall thereby concluding Operation Big Water in 1957 at a cost of 2.4 million dollars.

On the 11th of July 1962 the Mount Isa Mail announced Lake Moondarra and 'Warrina Park' as new official names selected from over 400 entries by local school children.

In 1968 Clear Water Lagoon was partition off from Lake Moondarra to address water quality issues during flood events and interestingly remains one of few examples of natural filtration reservoirs in Australia.

On average 2000 megalitres/month is filtered through Clear Water Lagoon after being pumped from Lake Moondarra. Due in part to Moondarra's high evaporation rate and the region's sustained growth and development the need to secure additional water supplies continued. In 1971 the height of Moondarra's spillway was increased and later in 1976 Lake Moondarra's sister dam Lake Julius, also on the Leichhardt River, was completed 70km downstream from Mount Isa. During times of prolonged drought, Lake Julius water can be pumped directly into Clear Water Lagoon.

Undeniably, economic growth and development are the catalysts for offering forever our inland waterways and natural, cultural landscapes.

Source: Southern Gulf NRM & Mount Isa Water Board.

One of many locations on my ever expanding list to be visited, was Cromford in Derbyshire, the opportunity to cross it off the list arose during a family visit to see friends in Buxton; on 26 April 2018, whilst our wives visited Chatsworth House, my friend and I drove to this delightful station.

In 1849, the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway opened the station here, the company operated the (then) 11-miles long railway, but soon ran out of money, something that allowed the Midland Railway to lease the line. It became part of that company's main-line between Manchester Central and London St Pancras. Unfortunately, in 1966 the line between Matlock and Buxton closed with the former up-line at this location, being removed in about 1969. Currently, there is an hourly service on the branch between Matlock and Ambergate, with many services extended to/from Newark Castle via Derby.

The ornate chalet-style building on the former up platform is now a holiday let and the buildings on the down platform are Grade 11 listed, hence this beautiful setting.

Pictured on the day of my visit is East Midlands Trains' Class 153 numbered 153357 bringing up the rear of 2A22, the 0841 Newark Castle to Matlock, out sight is 153379 leading the consist.

The Edinburgh Transport Group's final excursion of the 2012 season featured an evening tour on one of the affectionately named 'tomato soup' coloured Alexander R-type Leyland Olympians.

F367 WSC was new to LRT in 1989 and was one of six vehicles (366-371) fitted with grey coach seating and painted in white, black and blue coach livery.

The six Olympians were first used on city tours and then on the Airlink shuttle between Waverley and the Airport. Various livery alterations and internal changes took place over the next decade and in 2000 they were repainted into standard madder and white when new Dennis Tridents took over the ever expanding airport service.

In 2005 the six Leyland Olympians came into their own with this, a unique livery of Castle Cement which has been called many things over the years and they were to enjoy a long working period on Service 15 - actually being promoted as Lothian's 'Service 15 buses'. It was thought that the new, experimental livery might become a standard colour but this idea was never realised.

367's last duty with us was on the 14th of March 2009 working a Service 26 toTranent. Today 367 is owned by Bee-Line Travel of Penicuik and is preserved in just the way she was when in regular public service with Lothian - a credit to the small bus company who look after her now.

This was a great trip starting at Hillside Crescent in Central Edinburgh and working out to Penicuik as day-light turned into night during this early autumn evening.

Note the rather splendid tram-board which was used on these buses for their final running day in March 2009 and if you'd like to see more on that farewell day then do have a look at my set of photos and stories below:

Final Leyland day in Edinburgh:

www.flickr.com/photos/stuart_montgomery/sets/721576155794...

This shelf is where my Hunchback of Notre Dame dolls resided for the better part of seven years. When I first acquired the tent, I knew I wanted to have it out in my room. So I designated one entire shelf to my otherwise measly Hunchback of Notre Dame collection. At first, they shared the top shelf of this unit with my Mulan dolls. My Mulan collection also featured a horse, so I thought they'd look spiffy together. But that only lasted a few months, and later the Mulan dolls moved to their very own shelf. Anyways, later on in 2011, Dad and I finagled this tent onto the lower shelf. He had to cut a metal bracket to fit over the adjustment knobs on the shelving unit. The spacing between the notches was not adequate enough to fit the tall tent and leave space above for dolls to stand (it's all because of the darn fixed shelf in the middle of the unit).

Since this picture was taken, the dolls relocated to my art room/office area, and are now on a top shelf of the white unit that houses Moxie Girlz and Bratzillaz. This shelving area was much larger, so I figured I'd save this space for my miscellaneous Disney/character doll collection, which is ever expanding. Although it's sad that neither Mattel nor the Disney Store produced many Hunchback of Notre Dame dolls, at least I can comfortably fit everyone, including this tent and the horse, on display! It's odd seeing this setup without my funny looking Disney Store gal, who I acquired some time later. But other than that, my collection is more or less the same, since I dedicated quite a bit of effort and money into tracking the dolls all down, back in the early days of my adult doll journey. I'm so grateful to have this photo to remember my original display--it's fun to look back and reminisce!

The ever expanding collection of Asahi Optical gear. I tried to get all my Asahi screwmount cameras in one shot, but unfortunately, there are still a couple that didn't make it.

It all started with one Spotmatic I received when I started my analog photography course.

Shot with:

Canon 1D-Mark III

Canon EF 17-40L f/4 USM

© text & photos Dutch.Dennis

Kurt Weiser is Professor in Ceramics at ASU. Follow link below.

art.asu.edu/ceramics/index.html

In the hands of Kurt Weiser, (b. 1950) the centuries-old tradition of china paint on porcelain is given new life. Weiser’s sumptuous, provocative teapots and jars, resplendent with lush jungle scenes, can be both alluring and unsettling. Detailed depictions of tropical splendor become wayward reveries as radiant colors and subtle distortions transform classic porcelain vessels.

Weiser, trained in ceramics at the Kansas City Art Institute and the University of Michigan, originally worked in an abstract, non-representational style with minimal surface decoration. While director of the Archie Bray foundation in Helena, Montana from 1977-88, he began to feel limited by this approach and contemplated new ways of working. Around 1990, he took the first step towards his current style when he covered a porcelain teapot with intricate botanical imagery using black and white sgraffito. After making a series of visits to Thailand, where he was inspired by the region’s luxuriant, intensely colored flora and fauna, a black and white palette no longer satisfied him. Seeking to capture Thailand’s richness, he began to experiment with China paints. Soon his skill as a colorist became an indispensable element of his work.

With the introduction of color into his work, Weiser also began to indulge his narrative impulses by incorporating figurative elements, drawn both from fantasy and art history, into his jungle scenes. Weiser’s figures, often nude and distorted across the planes of his vessels, move through steamy, Eden-like landscapes, interacting with the natural world they encounter. Themes of lust, predation, scientific curiosities, and the vulnerability of both man and nature abound in these scenes, resonating curiously with the cultivated vessel forms and refined medium Weiser has chosen.

Although Weiser has worked in this style for more than ten years, his work continues to evolve. The technical challenge of the overglazing process he uses, which requires multiple firings for each vessel and careful attention to the order in which colors are applied, forces him to thoroughly consider each piece he creates. Through refining this method of working, he has learned to take full advantage of the three-dimensionality of his surfaces by extending his scenes to fully encompass each vessel. In his recent work, he says that the softened, amorphous forms of his vessels should blend with their seamlessly painted surfaces so that the pots fade from view and “the painting is the three dimensional reality” floating in space as would a dream or reverie. Whether Weiser’s work is interpreted as three-dimensional painting or sensuously decorated porcelain, the pots he creates are among the most vivid and decadent of modern ceramics, providing a distinctive contribution to the ever-expanding medium.

Awards

1999 Arizona Commission on the Arts, Artist Fellowship

Regents Professorship A.S.U.

1998 Asian Cultural Council, Artist Fellowship

Research and Creative Activity Award, A.S.U.

1992 Artists Fellowship: National Endowment for the Arts

1990 Artists Project Award: Arizona Commission on the Arts

1989 Artists Fellowship: National Endowment for the Arts

1986 Artists Fellowship: Montana Arts Council

Education

1976 M.F.A. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

1972 B.F.A. Kansas City Art Institute, Missouri

1967 Interlochen Arts Academy, Interlochen, Michigan

Museum Collections

Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, Montana

Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe

Carnegie Mellon Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Ceramics Monthly Magazine, Columbus, Ohio

Charles A.Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, Racine, Wisconsin

Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California

The George M. Gardiner Museum of Art, Toronto, Canada

Hallmark Cards, Inc., Kansas City, Missouri

Hamline University, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Helsinki Museum of Applied Arts, Helsinki, Finland

Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, Missouri

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles

Mesa Arts Center, Mesa, Arizona

Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina

Muscarelle Museum of Art, Williamsburg, Virginia

Museum of Contemporary Ceramics, Shigaraki, Japan

National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC

National Museum of History, Republic of China, Taipei, Taiwan

Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Utah State University, Logan, Utah

Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon

Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, Providence, Rhode Island Schien-Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art at Alfred University,

Alfred, New York

University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska

Valley National Bank, Phoenix, Arizona

Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England

Washington University Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri

Winnipeg Art Museum, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Yellowstone Arts Center, Billings, Montana

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2001 Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica

2000 Garth Clark Gallery, New York

1999 Working His Way Around China, Montgomery Museum of Art, Montgomery, Alabama

1998 Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica

1996 Garth Clark Gallery, New York

Joanne Rapp Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona

1995 Garth Clark Gallery, New York

1994 Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles

1993 Garth Clark Gallery, New York

Joanne Rapp Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona

1992 Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles

1990 Garth Clark Gallery, New York

1986 Lawrence Gallery, Portland, Oregon

Salem Art Association, Salem, Oregon

1985 White Bird Gallery, Cannon Beach, Oregon

Paris Gibson Square, Great Falls, Montana

1984 Yellowstone Art Center, Billings, Montana

Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Aspen, Colorado

Lawrence Gallery, Portland, Oregon

1983 Brentwood Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri

Hand and Spirit Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona

The Craftsmen’s Gallery, Omaha, Nebraska

1982 Surroundings Gallery, New York

The Craftsmen’s Gallery, Scarsdale, New York

Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles

1981 White Bird Gallery, Cannon Beach, Oregon

A friend said this makes him think of Yin & Yang.

The black area represents yin with the following characteristics:

Female: This energy is the opposite of masculine (yang) energy.

Passive: Yin energy is restive and receptive.

Intuitive: The inner sense of understanding life and its nuances resides in yin energy.

Creative: The yin energy builds up and bursts forth in creativity that motivates yang energy into action.

Moon: The phases of the moon and movement of the moon affect the yin energies on Earth.

Dark: The darkness represents the all the expression of yin energy.

Cold: The lack of light in darkness brings cold. Coldness becomes a respite from heat in light.

Submission: Yin energy provides a balance against aggressive yang energy.

Contracting: The ever expanding energy of yang is reined in when balanced with yin's contracting force.

Downward seeking: The yin cycling part of chic energy always seeks a downward movement.

Downward movement: Yin energy moves downward in preparation and building up of energy transforming into the rising yang energy. This is the perpetual cycle of chi.

Night: The absence of day brings the bold and darkness of night; a time of rest.

Soft: Yin energy is soft, making it flexible and capable of bending and giving.

Stillness: With the downward movement yin energy becomes quiet and still.

Still water: Yin energy rests in lakes, ponds, deep waters and only in ebbing tides.

The white area represents the yang with the following characteristics:

Male: Yang is the male energy of chi energy and the opposite of yin (female) energy. Together they complete a balance of chi energy.

Active: Yang energy is powerful and energetic. It is the energy of creation.

Active water: Yang energy drives currents in rivers, streams, oceans and the rising tides.

Logical: Yang energy resonates with the logical mind that tempers the creative mind.

Enlightenment: Yang energy motivates and inspires to understand and reach enlightenment.

Bright: A property of the light is its brightness that illuminates the dark.

Sun: The movement of the sun affects the yang energy on Earth.

Light: The light follows the dark as night gives over to day.

Creation: Yang energy is movement and burst forth with aggressive energy.

Dominance: The yang energy dominates in its strength and massive force.

Upward movement: A product of the downward movement of yin energy, yang energy blasts upwards.

Strong: The opposite of yin weakness, yang energy lifts away from yin energy towards fullness.

Hot: The friction of movement generates heat.

Expanding: As yang energy bursts free of yin energy, it grows in its upward movement, forever expanding.

Hard: Where yin is soft and flexible, yang energy is hard and unbending.

Movement: Yang energy moves upwards and expands.

Mountains: The mountains rise up from the earth just as yang energy

Shooting in locations like this at night reveals a couple of things: wide lenses become viable as there's an ever expanding supply of good looking background. Second, with the camera setup to register the dim ambient street and building lighting, your speed-lights are like mini suns and most of the of the time were around 1/32 or less. This allowed me to light up the underside of the viaduct with just one pop from a V860 - Iso 1000 at f/4, balanced on a litter bin about 50m to the right.

"As Deaths Mount, An Ever Expanding Recall" by By via NYT t.co/Fk7tEEpaaU (via Twitter twitter.com/felipemassone/status/693557079475384321)

Gladstone Gaol.

The first Gladstone township was laid out by Matthew Moorhouse (former Protector of Aborigines) in 1872 as a private town, but a Government town was proclaimed next to it as 'Booyoolie' in 1875. The two towns merged but it was not until 1940 that the name of 'Gladstone' was officially adopted for both towns. The town was named after William Gladstone (1809-1898) a 19th century British Prime Minister. The town developed rapidly with the arrival of the railway in 1877 from Port Pirie which separated the two growing townships. Settlement occurred in the district after the government resumed much of the original Booyoolee lease land in 1869 and put it up for public auction in 1871. In Moorhouse’s town east of the railway line is the old butter factory and the original school building. West of the railway yards, with its three gauges, you can see the newer school (1929) and Grubbs Cordial Factory. Gladstone High School was one of the first rural high schools opening in 1913. Grubbs Cordial Factory has been operating continuously since 1876 but with various owners. The Grubb family were not the founders but they have been running the factory since 1914. Note the architectural style of the two banks in the Main Street of Gladstone. Both were built in the same period; one in the traditional Greek classical style with Doric columns with volutes on top and a clearly defined pediment across the roof line; the other was built in stripped classical style with no ornamentation and some remnants of classical features only. The Gladstone Courthouse was built in 1878 and it became a major regional Courthouse as it was situated mid-way between Laura and Georgetown. It was attached to the local police station. The land for the police station was purchased by the government for £120 in December 1877. The Gladstone Police Station and Court opened in March 1878. Laura and Georgetown petitioned for their own Courthouses which were duly erected in 1878 and 1879 respectively. The Courthouse in Georgetown cost nearly £1,100. The Gladstone Courthouse closed as a court many years ago. The growth of the town was further hastened with the establishment of the Gladstone Goal.

Gladstone has some fine old buildings including the two banks mentioned above .They both opened in 1937. Along the Main Street is the old Post Office which has been modernised and changed from its original appearance. It opened around 1880. The hotels include the Gladstone Hotel built in 1875 and the Commercial Hotel which was erected in 1879; and the oldest hotel is the Booyoolie Hotel built in 1873. Finlayson’s Butter Factory with its signage was built around 1890 for a skating rink and converted to a butter factory in 1922 which operated into the early 1980s partly because it produced butter for Broken Hill. The town has several fine church including the Anglican Church which was the Pro Cathedral for the Anglican Diocese of Willochra for many years. It was built in 1891. Amateur Anglican Church architect William Mallyon, manager of a Port Pirie bank designed the transept, sanctuary and chancel which was added in 1890 and although he designed the tower at that time it was not erected until 1928. The Diocese of Willochra was based in Gladstone from its inception in 1915 and the nearby Bishops House was completed in 1923. In 1999 the Diocese moved its headquarters to Port Pirie and made the church of St Peter and St Paul the Anglican Cathedral. The Anglican Sunday School hall next to the church was built in 1909. The Catholic Church is on the hill near the primary school on West Terrace on the northern fringe of the town. It was built in 1928 when the original church of 1881 became a hall before it was demolished in 1951. A Wesleyan Methodist Church opened in Gladstone in 1876. This small Wesleyan Church was connected to the current Methodist, now Uniting Church, in 1922. The former Bible Christian Methodist Church at 32 High Street was built in 1876. Upon Methodist churches Union in 1900 it was left vacant until 1919 when the Masons purchased it for £120 for use as the Masonic Hall which it still is. The funds from the sale of the church to the Masons helped fund the new 1922 Methodist church. Next to the now Masonic Temple is a grand two storey house dating from around 1900 with a small cupola on an arched entry porch. It is just south of the old Police Station and Police Court room. From here you can turn left into Fourth Street and left again into Sixth Street to reach St Albans Anglican Church. Behind the 1960s Council Chambers in Cross Street is the stone gable faced Soldiers Memorial Hall built in 1921.

Gladstone Goal was built between 1879 and 1881 at a cost of over £21,000. Tenders were called and Sara and Dunstan of Burra won the tender for its construction. Its design was based on the model prison of Bristol in England. Slate for the flooring was transported from Mintaro and stone was quarried locally for both the cell blocks and the high external prison yard walls. It was intended for debtors and inebriates and seldom housed more than 20 prisoners at any one time from when it opened in 1881 until it closed in 1939. Both men and women were incarcerated in Gladstone gaol and the first gaol keeper was Mr Pollet who had been the keeper at Redruth gaol in Burra. When opened it could accommodate 86 prisoners but with a later expansion this increased to around 200 prisoners. But given that it seldom accommodated more than 20 inmates why did they ever expand it? Criminals from around the Mid North charged with serious crimes like murder were also housed in this prison awaiting their trials. Gladstone gaol closed in 1939 and during World War Two from September 1939 to 1940 it was used to inter Italians and Germans of suspect loyalties. Then from 1942 until 1943 it was used by the Army as a Military Detention barracks. In 1953 it reopened for convicted youth offenders so that they were separated from the hardened criminals of Yatala gaol at Northfield. It opened with 90 youth offenders in 1953. Its peak year of operations was 1969 when it held 130 youth offenders. It finally closed as a youth prison in 1975. Prison life was never easy. The daily routine of the Gladstone Gaol in the early years was as follows:

7.00 am - Prisoners woken and served breakfast in their cells.

7.30 am - Leave cells, empty toilet buckets and shower.

8.00 am - Parade in exercise yard and work details issued.

11.30 am - Collect lunch and return to cells.

1.00pm - Return to work assignments.

4.15 pm - Finish work and shower. Collect evening meals from the kitchen and return to cells.

9.00 pm - Lights out. Prisoners were allowed to have visitors once a fortnight and write one letter a week and their work assignments included making metal buckets, making mops, metal garbage tins and working in the prison vegetable gardens and orchard.

The contents of my "every day carry" back pack as of 2/20/11.

Romans 5:8