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Copyright © John G. Lidstone, all rights reserved.
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I took this photo just to have something for a blog entry. dennissylvesterhurd.blogspot.com/2021/06/coffee-time.html
took in a cafe in Zhouzhuang when having my breakfast.
Just back from a trip to Zhouzhuang and Suzhou, two very charming cities in China. Both of them are very close to Shanghai
more pics to come...
Un Corona Mass Ejection(CME) a frappé le bouclier magnétique de la Terre ce jeudi 12 septembre 2024. Encore un évènement plutôt rare en France. Nous sommes au pic de l'activité solaire d'une durée moyenne de 11 ans.
It's rather typical that on one of the dullest days of the year so far an exceptional working took place!
Not content with making appearances on route 489 and 499 of late the sole Sapphire Pulsar at Northfleet has now ventured deep 'off territory' when on Saturday 4th April 2015 it worked route 403 to Tunbridge Wells! Pictured here at Sevenoaks Bus Station ARRIVA Kent Thameside 3762 YJ08 DZN is seen leaving with the northbound route 403 whilst behind ARRIVA Kent & Surrey 6250 X425 FGP is seen arriving with a southbound working. Saturday 4th April 2015.
This vehicle is the sole Sapphire liveried and branded Wrightbus Pulsar based at Northfleet and is the spare vehicle to supplement the allocation of Wrightbus Streetlites used on route 480 & 490.
Route 403 which operates between Tunbridge Wells and Bluewater via Tonbridge, Sevenoaks, Swanley and Dartford is scheduled to finish on Saturday 19th April 2015.
VDL Bus SB200 - Wrightbus Pulsar
IMG_21142
Church of Santa Maria del Rosario (Church of Saint Mary of the Rosary), in Dorsoduro one of the six sestieri of Venice in Veneto, Italy.
An 18th-century Dominican church a classical style building has a well-lit interior and is exceptional in preserving its original layout and Rococo decoration intact.
The religious order of the Jesuates, formally the Clerici apostolici Sancti Hieronymi was founded in Siena in the 14th century and had a presence in Venice by 1390. Its members were known as I poveri Gesuati (the poor Jesuates) because they frequently called on the name of Jesus.
They acquired some wealth from donations and legacies and from privileges granted by the state, including a monopoly on the distillation of wine. In 1493, they commenced the building of a small church on land fronting the Zattere, which was originally dedicated to St. Jerome.
The order was suppression by Pope Clement IX in 1668, their property was put up for auction and acquired by the Dominicans. The small church was not large enough and by 1720 they had decided to build a new church, larger and of more architectural importance. They first engaged Andrea Musato, but he died in 1721 and they turned to Giorgio Massari, whose model for the new church was accepted in 1724.
Work started in 1725, while the Dominicans energetically sought to raise sufficient funds, both from charitable contributions and from religious institutions and benefactors. This enabled them not only to build a magnificent church, but to embellish it with the work of the most famous painters and sculptors of the day.
Massari left untouched the existing church of the Visitation, builing the new church around it and further along the Zattere. He was responsible not only for the building itself but also for its interior fittings and decoration and for commissioning the paintings and sculpture. The facade of the church was derived from the central portion of the facade of San Giorgio Maggiore, while the basic idea for the interior came from the Redentore.
Information Source:
French postcard by Edition P.I., offered by Les Carbones Korès, no. 353. Photo: Warner Bros, 1953. Errol Flynn in Adventures of Don Juan (Vincent Sherman, 1948).
Australian-born actor Errol Flynn (1909-1959) achieved fame in Hollywood with his suave, debonair, devil-may-care attitude. He was known for his romantic Swashbuckler roles in films like Captain Blood (1935) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), often co-starring Olivia de Havilland. In 1942, the tall, athletic and exceptionally handsome, Flynn became an American citizen. He developed a reputation for womanising, hard-drinking, and for a time in the 1940s, narcotics abuse. He was linked romantically with Lupe Vélez, Marlene Dietrich, and Dolores del Río, among many others.
Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn was born in a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, in 1909. His father, Theodore, was a lecturer and later professor of biology at the University of Tasmania. His mother was Lily Mary Young. After early schooling in Hobart, from 1923 to 1925 Flynn was educated at the South West London College, a private boarding school in Barnes, London, and in 1926 returned to Australia to attend Sydney Church of England Grammar School (Shore School) where he was the classmate of a future Australian prime minister, John Gorton. His formal education ended with his expulsion from Shore for theft. After being dismissed from a job as a junior clerk with a Sydney shipping company for pilfering petty cash, he went to Papua New Guinea at the age of eighteen, seeking his fortune in tobacco planting and metals mining. He spent the next five years oscillating between the New Guinea frontier territory and Sydney. In early 1933, Flynn appeared as an amateur actor in the low-budget Australian film In the Wake of the Bounty (Charles Chauvel, 1933), in the lead role of Fletcher Christian. Later that year he returned to Britain to pursue a career in acting and soon secured a job with the Northampton Repertory Company at the town's Royal Theatre, where he worked and received his training as a professional actor for seven months. In 1934 Flynn was dismissed from Northampton Rep. reportedly after he threw a female stage manager down a stairwell. He returned to Warner Brothers' Teddington Studios in Middlesex where he had worked as an extra in the film I Adore You (George King, 1933) before going to Northampton. With his newfound acting skills, he was cast as the lead in Murder at Monte Carlo (Ralph Ince, 1935), now considered a lost film. During its filming, he was spotted by a talent scout for Warner Bros. and Flynn emigrated to the U.S. as a contract actor.
In Hollywood, Errol Flynn was first cast in two insignificant films, but then he got his great chance. He could replace Robert Donat in the title role of Captain Blood (Michael Curtiz, 1935). Flynn's natural athletic talent and good looks rocketed him overnight to international stardom. Over the next six years, he was typecast as a dashing adventurer in The Charge of the Light Brigade (Michael Curtiz, 1936), The Prince and the Pauper (William Keighley, 1937), The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz, William Keighley, 1938; his first Technicolor film), The Dawn Patrol (Edmund Goulding, 1938) with David Niven, Dodge City (Michael Curtiz, 1939), The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (Michael Curtiz, 1939) and The Sea Hawk (Michael Curtiz, 1940). His striking good looks and screen charisma won him millions of fans. Flynn played an integral role in the re-invention of the action-adventure genre. In collaboration with Hollywood's best fight arrangers, Flynn became noted for fast-paced sword fights. He demonstrated an acting range beyond action-adventure roles in light, contemporary social comedies, such as The Perfect Specimen (Michael Curtiz, 1937) and Four's a Crowd (Michael Curtiz, 1938), and melodrama The Sisters (Anatole Litvak, 1938). During this period Flynn published his first book, 'Beam Ends' (1937), an autobiographical account of his sailing experiences around Australia as a youth. He also travelled to Spain, in 1937, as a war correspondent during the Spanish Civil War. Flynn co-starred with Olivia de Havilland a total of eight times, and together they made the most successful on-screen romantic partnership in Hollywood in the late 1930s-early 1940s in eight films. Flynn's relationship with Bette Davis, his co-star in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (Michael Curtiz, 1939), was quarrelsome. Davis allegedly slapped him across the face far harder than necessary during one scene.
In 1940, at the zenith of his career, Erroll Flynn was voted the fourth most popular star in the US. Flynn became a naturalised American citizen in 1942. As the United States had by then entered the Second World War, he attempted to enlist in the armed services but failed the physical exam due to multiple heart problems and other diseases. This created an image problem for both Flynn, the supposed paragon of male physical prowess, and for Warner Brothers, which continued to cast him in athletic roles, including such patriotic productions as Dive Bomber (Michael Curtiz, 1941), Desperate Journey (Raoul Walsh, 1942) and Objective, Burma! (Raoul Walsh, 1945). His womanizing lifestyle caught up with him in 1942 when two underage girls, Betty Hansen and Peggy Satterlee, accused him of statutory rape at the Bel Air home of Flynn's friend Frederick McEvoy, and onboard Flynn's yacht, respectively. The scandal received immense press attention. Many of Flynn's fans, assuming that his screen persona was a reflection of his actual personality, refused to accept that the charges were true. Flynn was acquitted, but the trial's widespread coverage and lurid overtones permanently damaged his carefully cultivated screen image as an idealised romantic leading player. In 1946, Flynn published an adventure novel, 'Showdown', and earned a reported $184,000. In 1947 he signed a 15-year contract with Warner Bros. for $225,000 per film. After the Second World War, the taste of the American film-going audience changed from European-themed material and the English history-based escapist epics in which Flynn excelled to more gritty, urban realism and film noir, reflecting modern American life. Flynn tried unsuccessfully to make the transition in Uncertain Glory (Raoul Walsh, 1944) with Paul Lukas and Cry Wolf (Peter Godfrey, 1947) with Barbara Stanwyck, and then increasingly passé Westerns such as Silver River (Raoul Walsh, 1948) and Montana (Ray Enright, 1950). Flynn's behaviour became increasingly disruptive during filming; he was released from his contract in 1950 by Jack L. Warner as part of a stable-clearing of 1930s glamour-generation stars. His Hollywood career over at the age of 41, Flynn entered a steep financial and physical decline.
In the 1950s, Errol Flynn became a parody of himself. He lost his savings from the Hollywood years in a series of financial disasters, including The Story of William Tell (Jack Cardiff, 1954) with Waltraut Haas. Aimlessly he sailed around the Western Mediterranean aboard his yacht Zaca. Heavy alcohol abuse left him prematurely aged and overweight. He staved off financial ruin with roles in forgettable productions such as Hello God (William Marshall, 1951), Il maestro di Don Giovanni/Crossed Swords (Milton Krims, 1954) opposite Gina Lollobrigida and King's Rhapsody (Herbert Wilcox, 1955) with Anna Neagle. He performed in such also-ran Hollywood films as Mara Maru (Gordon Douglas, 1952) and Istanbul (Joseph Pevney, 1957) with Cornell Borchers, and made occasional television appearances. As early as 1952 he had been seriously ill with hepatitis resulting in liver damage. In 1956 he presented and sometimes performed in the television anthology series The Errol Flynn Theatre which was filmed in Britain. He enjoyed a brief revival of popularity with The Sun Also Rises (Henry King, 1957); The Big Boodle (Richard Wilson, 1957), filmed in Cuba; Too Much, Too Soon (Art Napoleon, 1958); and The Roots of Heaven (John Huston, 1958) with Juliette Gréco. In these films, he played drunks and washed-out bums and brought a poignancy to his performances that had not been there during his glamorous heydays. He met with Stanley Kubrick to discuss a role in Lolita, but nothing came of it. Flynn went to Cuba in late 1958 to film the self-produced B film Cuban Rebel Girls (Barry Mahon, 1959), where he met Fidel Castro and was initially an enthusiastic supporter of the Cuban Revolution. He wrote a series of newspaper and magazine articles for the New York Journal American and other publications documenting his time in Cuba with Castro. Many of these pieces were lost until 2009 when they were rediscovered in a collection at the University of Texas at Austin's Center for American History. He narrated a short film titled Cuban Story: The Truth About Fidel Castro Revolution (1959), his last known work as an actor. He published his autobiography, My Wicked Wicked Ways. In 1959, Errol Flynn died of a heart attack in Vancouver, Canada. Flynn was married three times. His first wife was actress Lili Damita (1935-1942). They had one son, actor and war correspondent Sean Flynn (1941-1971). Sean and his colleague Dana Stone disappeared in Cambodia in 1970, during the Vietnam War, while both were working as freelance photojournalists for Time magazine. It is generally assumed that they were killed by Khmer Rouge guerrillas. Errol was married a second time to Nora Eddington from 1943 to 1949. They had two daughters, Deirdre (1945) and Rory (1947). His third wife was actress Patrice Wymore from 1950 until his death. They had one daughter, Arnella Roma (1953–1998). In 1980, author Charles Higham published a controversial biography, 'Errol Flynn: The Untold Story', in which he alleged that Flynn was a fascist sympathiser who spied for the Nazis before and during the Second World War and that he was bisexual and had multiple gay affairs. Later Flynn biographers were critical of Higham's allegations and found no evidence to corroborate them.
Sources: Charles Culbertson (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
An exceptionally clean Mk1 Accord, and the rarer hatchback variant as well. It still wears what appears to be its original dealer plate surrounds for Hawke's Bay Honda.
This Toledo was a massive surprise as it was just round the corner from my house! I originally saw the edges of the front peeking around the Mini at a distance and I thought it was gonna be a Dolly Sprint. The bodywork was exceptional; it's clearly in loving hands. The speakers on the back shelf suggest it's had a decent stereo put in hence perhaps a younger owner.
RU739 arriving in HKG from Moscow 40 minutes ahead of schedule.
The -8F looks amazing in their world-class livery and the exceptional weather conditions just highlights everything perfectly.
Carved by a sculptor of exceptional talent, this exquisite portrait bust depicts an elegant Roman woman of wealth and distinction. The subject bears a solemn expression as she looks to her left, which affords a tantalizing glimpse of her intricate hairstyle. The wavy locks that frame her face are combed to the back, where they are woven into numerous braids, nearly all of which are wound into a heavy, multitiered bun worn at the upper part of the back of the head. This coiffure emulates a type worn by Faustina the Elder (d.141 CE), wife of Emperor Antoninus Pius (r. 138–61 CE), suggesting that she lived during this period. A gem-encrusted diadem encircles the subject’s head, alluding to her elevated social standing. Her garments are similarly luxurious, including her crisply pleated, gap-sleeved tunic, which is so thinly carved that light passes through parts of the marble. Out of modesty she also wears an overgarment, its deep folds indicating a thick material, possibly wool. Draped low across her torso, the mantle reveals the gentle swell of her right breast, an unusual feature of Roman busts of this period.
Roman, ca. 140-150 CE.
Art Institute of Chicago (ARTIC 2002.11)
Voigtlander Bessa R3a + Voigtlander Ultron Aspherical 35 mm f1.7 + FlicFilm UltraPanF 400 @ 200 iso + HC 110 1:100 @ 1 Hr
Mill Network Kinderdijk NL
The Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout is a group of buildings in an exceptional human-made landscape in which the centuries-long battle of the Dutch people to drain parts of their territory and protect them against further inundation is dramatically demonstrated through the survival of all the major elements of the complex system that was devised for this purpose.
Construction of hydraulic works for the drainage of land for agriculture and settlement began in the Middle Ages and has continued uninterruptedly to the present day. The property illustrates all the typical features associated with this technology: polders, high and low-lying drainage and transport channels for superfluous polder water, embankments and dikes, 19 drainage mills, 3 pumping stations, 2 discharge sluices and 2 Water Board Assembly Houses. The beautifully preserved mills can be divided into three categories: 8 round brick ground-sailers, 10 thatched octagonal smock mills, and one hollow post mill.
The installations in the Kinderdijk-Elshout area demonstrate admirably the outstanding contribution made by the people in Netherlands to the technology of handling water. The landscape is striking in its juxtaposition of its horizontal features, represented by the canals, the dikes, and the fields, with the vertical rhythms of the mill system. There is no drainage network of this kind or of comparable antiquity anywhere else in the Netherlands or in the world.
Getting to enjoy photographing a secluded, 100% vandalism-free old weathered beauty like this in Niagara should be next to impossible with our population density... yet in the right places, these ghosts exist even here.
Chassis n° 2353GT
Zoute Sale - Bonhams
Estimated : € 400.000 - 500.000
Sold for € 592.250
Zoute Grand Prix 2021
Knokke - Zoute
België - Belgium
October 2021
This superb Ferrari 250 GTE was ordered by Garage Francorchamps in Brussels for a Belgian citizen, Mr Desoer, whose family hailed from the Liège area. This car's accompanying original Ferrari build sheet states that chassis '2353' was built as a 2+2 Coupé, body colour Bianco 12435 MM and with interior upholstery in Pelle Nera VM 8500.
The car was invoiced by Ferrari Sefac to Garage Francorchamps on 23rd March 1961 priced at 4,690,000 lire, and the owner registered it on 7th June 1961. The unusual white and black colour combination gives it an appearance of both elegance and sobriety. Although not widely used, white is one of the most flattering colours for a GTE, and Ferrari chose this colour for its catalogue illustration and for all its press photographs.
Having used his Ferrari 250 GTE but sparingly, Mr Desoer sold it to a Mercedes-Benz dealer in 1975. Shortly thereafter, it was acquired by a well-known Ferrari collector, Mr Ennio Gianaroli, another resident of the Liège area, who had amassed an impressive collection of racing and road-going Ferraris. He had '2353' repainted in grey metallic, and kept the car in his prestigious private collection for some 30 years.
In February 2005, a Belgian Ferrari collector and historic racing competitor acquired the car and decided to undertake a complete restoration, which he entrusted to the internationally renowned coachbuilders Nova Rinascente di Dino Cognolato & Figlie in Italy. Before sending the car to Italy, the perfectionist owner photographed it in great detail, recording its authenticity and excellent state of preservation.
'2353' was then treated to a complete restoration to perfect specifications ; the project took two years to complete, with no expenses spared to achieve excellence in all areas. Two other specialists, both internationally renowned, were entrusted with the restoration: Autofficina Omega di Corrado Patella & Figlio (mechanicals) and Tappezzeria Luppi (upholstery). During the two-year work, the passionately involved Ferraristi owner travelled several times to Italy to keep track of the restoration's progress.
The work is compiled in a detailed photographic report recording each step of the restoration process. It confirms the car's 'all matching numbers' authenticity; the fact that it has never been damaged; and that the bodywork is corrosion free.
The result of the restoration is quite exceptional and demonstrates an exemplary attention to details,extending to the original accessories such as the Marchal horn, etc. The paint and body are finished to perfect standards and the upholstery is magnificent, likewise the mechanicals.
Its restoration completed, '2353' received Ferrari Classiche certification in June 2009 and since then has covered only some 1,500 kilometres.
Completing the documentation of this remarkable car is its original 1961 Registration book (a very rare item); its original Ferrari Sefac-stamped build sheet; the original Garage Francorchamps invoice; a Massini Report; and Belgian Carte Grise.
On the road the car delivers pure driving pleasure, with light steering, a smooth clutch, a direct and precise gearchange, supple suspension and, most of all, a fabulous engine that responds without the slightest hesitation.
'2353' represents a unique opportunity to own a supremely elegant Ferrari 250 GTE, restored by the best in the business, and with a completely known history. There can be few, if any, better examples of this most desirable model currently available.
This was the centerpiece doll for the WClub luncheon. A wonderful new look for Tatyana, although she looks a little halloweeny to me ;)
Hamilton, Omtario
Voigtlander Bessa R3a + Voigtlander Nokton Classic SC 40mm f1.4 + Ilford HP5 @ 1600 iso + FlicFilmMq Stock @ 12.5 mins
Geoffrey’s marmoset is an exceptionally distinctive monkey, most readily recognised for its conspicuous white cheeks, forehead and throat, which contrast starkly against its elongate black ear-tufts, tan to black face, and dark coat. The body is greyish-black mottled with yellow-orange on the upperparts, brown on the underparts, and the long black tail is lightly ringed. Like all marmosets, Geoffroy’s marmoset has incisor teeth that are specially adapted to carving out small holes in the trunks of trees, through which they drink the sap and gum that oozes out ...
The geography of Heywood makes it interesting in transport terms - it's very much an 'in between' kind of a place, nestling between Bury and Rochdale.
It was once served by the steam trams of the Manchester, Bury, Rochdale and Oldham Tramway company (a company of exceptionally poor repute that didn't even go to Manchester) and after that company finally closed down, Heywood's Council even ran some steam trams in its area as 'Heywood Corporation Tramways'. But that didn't last and - although the history is a little complicated - neighbouring Bury, Rochdale and even more-distant Manchester all claimed the right to serve the town. Things settled down eventually with all three operators' buses being seen, and this one is a Bury Corporation AEC 'Reliance' on the local service to that town which traced a circle in Heywood itself so was known as the 'Circular'.
Bury's buses after the second world war were a pleasant green, while Rochdale's buses were blue and cream while Manchester's were red - so the town was quite colourful in its transport.
This site is still quite recognisable today and buses to Bury, Manchester and Rochdale still pass this spot: but Brown & Swapp's Stationers, like the bus, are long gone.
If you'd like to know more about the Museum of Transport Greater Manchester and its collection of vintage buses, go to www.motgm.uk.
© Greater Manchester Transport Society. All rights reserved. Unauthorised reproduction is strictly prohibited and may result in action being taken to protect the intellectual property interests of the Society.
It has been exceptionally hot in The Netherlands over the last few days. Heat records were thrashed, reaching temperatures of over 40 degrees Celsius for the very first time in history.
I was off work for a week, but it was almost too much to handle. I longed for a cool desk in the office!! Even at the beach it was hot until late at night. One night the temperature did not drop below 25 degrees. Now that is unheard of in this country!
The exceptional job York Depot did with 55022 also giving her back the original D9000 was worth attempting a back shot even in the most awful light.
“The Musée Cognacq-Jay is a museum located in the Hôtel Donon in the 3rd arrondissement at 8 rue Elzévir, Paris, France. It is open daily except Monday; admission is free. The nearest Metro stations are Saint-Paul and Chemin Vert.
The museum's collection was formed between 1900–1925 by Théodore-Ernest Cognacq (1839–1928) and his wife Marie-Louise Jay (1838–1925), founders of La Samaritaine department store. At his death, Cognacq gave the collection to the City of Paris, which in 1929 inaugurated the Musée Cognacq-Jay at 25 boulevard des Capucines, a building especially conceived for it by the Cognacq couple, who wished to display the collection in the intimacy of a seemingly inhabited home, without the conventions of a museum.[1] In 1990 however, the City, arguing that the Boulevard des Capucines was not part of a "cultural circuit", sought the approval of the legal heirs (the owners of La Samaritaine), and, under silent disagreement of the Cognacq-Jay family,[2] moved the collection to the ill-fitting Hôtel Donon (c. 1575) in the Marais, where the collection is displayed in twenty paneled rooms (four floors) in the styles of Louis XV and Louis XVI. The renovation work of the Hôtel Donon was led by Paris' chief architect Bernard Fonquernie, whilst the interior renovation was done by Reoven Vardi.
The museum contains an exceptional collection of fine art and decorative items, about 1200 items in total, with an emphasis on 18th century France, ranging from European and Chinese ceramics, jewels, and snuffboxes, to paintings by Louis-Léopold Boilly, François Boucher, Canaletto, Jean-Siméon Chardin, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Maurice Quentin de La Tour, Sir Thomas Lawrence, Hubert Robert, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, and Jean-Antoine Watteau; sculpture by Jean-Antoine Houdon, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, and Jacques-François-Joseph Saly; and fine furniture attributed to Jean-François Oeben and Roger Vandercruse Lacroix. 17th century is also represented, notably with two paintings by Rembrandt while 19th century is represented with works by Camille Corot, Paul Cézanne and also Edgar Degas.
The Cognacq-Jay Museum is one of the 14 City of Paris' Museums that have been incorporated since 1 January 2013 in the public institution Paris Musées.”
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musée_Cognacq-Jay
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Taken at Genoa Nervi - Passeggiata Anita Garibaldi - during the exceptional stormy sea of Thursday, October 30, 2008.
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Copyright © 2008 Carlo Natale. All Rights Reserved
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