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Grown ladies have their own smile, class and mood. They don't follow trends or opinions. They smile, they also cry a lot. They know how to keep a man in love with true essence and not just for fun. They have their own Chanel N5 natural perfume, every time they look at their only one man's eyes. Skin is Chanel N5, green eyes smell like a forest by a winter morning. They love to talk, but the words "I love you" are mostly spoken with the eyes, the own walk. "I love you" can be translated to "I trust you" most times. Grown ladies love themselves first, then the only one man comes. You can't love someone without loving you. She is truly blessed! Oh... a grown lady has a heart full of power and love. Can be Marie Antoinette, Marilyn Monroe, Frida Kahlo, Kate Moss, whatever the woman she wants to be. A grown lady knows what it means to be a grown lady. The ones who love her, love her. The ones who hate her, love her too. But it doesn't matter in the end of the day. Grown ladies know what it means to be a grown lady.
I never plan my churchcrawling to see anything in particular I have no idea what I will see when I go to visit a church, I do no research beforehand, instead prefer to let my impressions lead me to take shots.
It has served me well.
So, in planning a day out, I will look on Google maps, find churches to visit and come up with a plan, but it rarely perfect. Like last weekend, when I planned the day, I failed to include Cobham.
Thankfully, the lady at Meopham said I should go, look at the brasses and eat at the Leather Bottle opposite.
Good advice.
Cobham is a little way of the busy A2 as that road nears London. It has eight lanes and is usually a racetrack, when not jammed. Cobham is signposted, you might think it is a suburb of Gravesend.
But it is an attractve village, all timber framed houses and pubs, with a huge church on the hill overlooking the main road passing through the village.
We did park at the pub, and I walked up the hill to the church, which was open, its huge and grand interior opening up before me, and looking down the nave I could see the tomb in the middle of the chancel, with the pavement of 17 fine brasses laid out before it.
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In a county with more memorial brasses than any other, Cobham takes pride of place, with a set of nineteen, the majority of which have been grouped together in the chancel. The church consists of a thirteenth-century chancel, and fourteenth-century nave, aisles and west tower. In 1362 the church was refounded as a college by Sir John de Cobham, and the medieval domestic buildings survive to the south of the church. The south wall of the chancel displays several items of interest. There is a fine double piscina which has been moved further west of its original position. The latter is now occupied by an elaborate fourteenth-century piscina, with a finely wrought canopy of three arches and a parapet of quatrefoils and leaves. Next to it is a slightly plainer sedilia of three equal arches. The last feature of note is the stairway in the south-east corner of the chancel which led to a gallery over the altar - a unique feature in Kent. In the centre of the chancel is the alabaster table tomb of Sir George Brooke (d. 1558). It was badly damaged when a beam fell on it in the eighteenth century and is much restored. In front of the monument are sixteen of the medieval brasses, brought here from other parts of the church, the most interesting of which are: Sir John de Cobham (d. 1407), founder of the college, who is seen holding a lovely spired church in his hands; Sir Nicholas Hawkberk (d. 1407) - a super visor hinges from his face; William Tanner (d. 1418) the first master of the collegiate foundation.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Cobham
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COBHAM.
NORTHWARD from Cookstone lies Cobham, a very small part of which is within the hundred of Hoo.
THE PARISH of Cobham is rather an unfrequented place, not having any road of traffic through it. It is a healthy and rather a pleasant situation, tho' the woods and foliage in Cobham-park give it in general a gloomy appearance; it extends about two miles and a half from east to west, and a mile and a half from north to south; it contains about two thousand nine hundred and fifty acres of land, seventy houses, exclusive of the college, about seven hundred and sixty inhabitants. Cobham park, having the mansion of Cobham-hall situated in a vale within it, contains the greatest part of the parish; on an eminence in the park, about a mile from the house, is a costly mausoleum, built pursuant to the will of the late earl, as a burial place for himself and family, which being finished, his body, which was deposited in the church, was brought hither, and laid in it. The building is a conspicuous object to a considerable distance round it. It stands on Williams's-hill, on a spot of ground where it is said there was once a chapel. This elegant structure is octangular, built of Portland stone, the columns at each angle supporting a sarcophagus, the top terminating with a quadrangular pyramid over the vault, which has sixteen recesses or burial places in it, besides those for the late earl and his countess; there is a chapel elegantly sitted up, the windows of which are of stained glass, and ornamented with Brocotello marble. The soil is various; strong good mould, chalk, and some gravel, and is in general accounted a good wheat land. The village is situated on high ground, in the south west part of the parish, having the church within it, from which there is a most extensive view southwestward over the country; adjoining to the church yard is Cobham college, and at the west end of the street the parsonage, the property and residence of Mr. Pemble. At a small distance further is the estate of Outlets, and at the western boundary of the parish the manor of Henhurst; Cobham mount is situated about a quarter of a mile's distance from the Shinglewell road, which runs along the northern side of this parish, by the pales of the park. The northeast parts adjoining Cobham-park, formerly called the out park grounds, are covered with coppice woods.
The antient Roman road, or Watling-street-way, shews itself very plainly from Shinglewell hither, in its way to Rochester, with the hedges standing on it, sometimes on the right and sometimes on the left of the present road, and at other times falling in with it. It goes on to Cobham-park, where the pales seem to stand on it for some little space, soon after which it leaves them, as may be seen in the passage out of the north gate of the park, where the way crosses it, from thence it runs into a thick wood, where it is not to be followed. At the north west boundary of this parish, adjoining the above road, is a water, called St. Thomas's-well, probably from the use made of it by St. Thomas Becket in his journeyings through these parts.
Our HERBALISTS have taken notice of the following scarce plants, growing in this parish, viz.
Pneumonanthe, Calathian violet.
Trachelium majus, blue and also white Canterbury bells, found under Cobham park pales, in the road from Shinglewell to Rochester.
Chamæpitys, ground pine of several sorts.
Tragoriganum, goats marjorom, or organy, near Cobham house.
Lamium luteum etiam rubrum, the yellow archangel, as also the red, found in Cobham woods.
Lautana five viburnum, the wayfaring tree. (fn. 1)
¶Narcissus sylvestris pallidus calyce luteo, the wild English daffodil, observed by Mr. Thorpe of Bexley, in a moist place or two in Cobham park.
COBHAM is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese and deanry of Rochester. The church, which is dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen, is a handsome spacious building, consisting of three isles and a large chancel, and has a good tower at the west end of it, with a ring of bells.
¶Among other monuments and inscriptions in it, in the middle of the chancel is a most noble monument of white marble, on which lie the essigies of Sir George Brooke lord Cobham, governor of Calais, K. G. and his wife, in full proportion; the figures and names, of their children, ten sons and four daughters, were likewise cut in marble round it; he died in 1558. This fine piece of sculpture seems once to have had a canopy of marble over it, which, with the pillars that supported it, and many pieces of the figures, now lie broken and scattered upon the tomb. It was erected by his son, Sir Wm. Brooke, in 1561, arms, Brooke quartering Cobham, and seven other coats within the garter. Almost the whole of the pavement of this chancel is covered with the gravestones of the family of Cobham and Brooke, with several of the brasses remaining on them, though so very loose, that in all probability they will soon be purloined, as numbers of the same sort were by some workmen a few years ago. Those which remain are as follows: a brass plate and figure, and inscription in French, in very antient capitals, cut round the edge of the stone, for dame Joan de Cobham; a brass plate and figure in armour, with a like inscription, south of the former, for Thomas de Cobham, and for Maud, the wife of Sir Thomas Cobeham, who died in 13 3 Richard II. another of the like sort, south of the last, with the figure of a man in armour, holding a church in his hands, for John de Cobham, founder of this place. On another, south of the former, on brass, on a chevron three lions rampant, and the same impaling three roundles, a file of three points in chief, and the figure of a woman, and round the verge of the stone, a French inscription in brass, for Margaret de Cobham, daughter of the earl of Devonshire, wife of the lord of Cobham, builder of this place, obt. 1395. In like manner with the last, are the figures of two women, for dame Maud de Cobham, 13 the rest lost; south of the last a brass plate, with the figure of a man in armour, and arms of Cobham as above, and inscription round the verge of the stone, in French, for John de Cobham, ob. 1390; westward of this, on brass plates, are the figures of a man and woman, eight sons and ten daughters, and round the verge of the stone an inscription in brass, for Sir John Brooke, baron of Cobham, and Margaret his wife, daughter of Edward Nevile, lord of Burgavenny; he died in 1506, she died in 1500; arms, Cobham as above, impaling Nevile with quarterings; north of the former, brass and figure of a man in armour, and round the verge in brass, an inscription for Sir Nicholas Hawberk, husband of Joan lady Cobham, heir of John lord Cobham, founder of this college; he died at the castle of Cowling, in 1407; underneath the figure of a child, and inscription, for John their son; another, north of the last, and brass, with the figure of a woman, six sons, and four daughters, for Joan lady Cobham, wife of Sir Reginald Braybrooke, ob. 1433; arms, Cobham as above, with impalements and quarterings. Northward of the last, on brass, the figure of a man in armour, and round the verge and inscription in brass for Sir Reginald Braybrook, husband of Joan lady Cobham; he died at Middleburgh in Flanders, in 1405; on the same stone the figure of a child, and inscriptions for Reginald and Robert, their sons; northward of the former, the figures of a man in armour, his wife, five sons, and six daughters, and round the verge, in brass, an inscription for Sir Thomas Brooke, lord Cobham, and kinsman and heir of Sir Richard Beauchamp; he married first Dorothy, daughter of Sir Henry Haydon, by whom he had seven sons and six daughters; and secondly Dorothy Fowthewel, widow; and thirdly Elizabeth Hart; by neither of whom he had issue, ob. 1529, arms quarterly, 1st, on a chevron, a lion rampant, crowned; 2d, Cobham as above; 3d, seven mascles, three, three, and one; 4th, on a fess between three leopards heads an annulet. A brass plate for John Sproltle, master of this college, ob. 1498; on brass the figure of a man, and these arms, on a chevron three cross croslets bottone, in the dexter chief a star, for Ranf. de Cobham, esq. of Kent, who died in 1402; a brass plate and figure for William .......... master of this college, obt. 14. another like for Wm. Tanner, first master of it, ob. 1418. A stone and inscription for Tho. Webb, esq. secretary to James Stuart duke of Richmond, ob. 1649. In the nave a brass figure for master John Gladwyn, master of this college. In the north isle, a brass for John Gery, fellow of this college, obt. 1447; a brass, on a chevron between three trefoils as many annulets, and inscription for several of the Claverings; in the nave, now almost worn out, an inscripition for Alice, daughter of Nicholas Harpur, esq. first wife of William .......... and late to Edmond .......... There is a vault in this church, which belonged to the family of Hayes, of this parish, and being full, another was granted to them in the church yard, by the good will of the parishioners. Against the wall of the church on the outside, on the east side of the porch, is a small figure cut in stone, about two feet high, of a man to his waist, and under it an inscription, to the memory of one Robert Hoth, but the date is obliterated, and the whole of it in so perishing a condition, that a few years will entirely destroy it.
I have been experimenting with my fiance's 75-300mm lense and various photoshot techniques all day! I will upload some pictures I took of Lia later, but for now, my little treeson will have to do!
I am so glad I ordered him. I love him so much!!
Have a loveeeeeeely weekend!
Took with my Panasonic Lumix
(For Greta...hope your'e still enjoying your visit in Jo'burg)
Having a few back issues so I haven't been out and about for a few weeks. This is a mono version of a shot I took last month.
I know a lot of my recent images have been on black and are quite dark but then it's the same when I look out of my window.
I'm sure everyone who enjoyed my flower photos last year will not be disappointed (for much longer). In the meantime take joy in the fact that I included the little furry dice.
See it on black! See it on black! See it on black!
More of this little guy to come!
Gautama Buddha, also known as Siddhārtha Gautama, Shakyamuni, or simply the Buddha, was a sage on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. He is believed to have lived and taught mostly in northeastern India sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE.
The word Buddha means "awakened one" or "the enlightened one". "Buddha" is also used as a title for the first awakened being in a Yuga era. In most Buddhist traditions, Siddhartha Gautama is regarded as the Supreme Buddha (Pali sammāsambuddha, Sanskrit samyaksaṃbuddha) of the present age. Gautama taught a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and the severe asceticism found in the śramaṇa movement common in his region. He later taught throughout regions of eastern India such as Magadha and Kosala.
Gautama is the primary figure in Buddhism and accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists to have been summarized after his death and memorized by his followers. Various collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral tradition and first committed to writing about 400 years later.
CONTENTS
HISTORICAL SIDDHARTA GAUTAMA
Scholars are hesitant to make unqualified claims about the historical facts of the Buddha's life. Most accept that he lived, taught and founded a monastic order during the Mahajanapada era during the reign of Bimbisara, the ruler of the Magadha empire, and died during the early years of the reign of Ajasattu, who was the successor of Bimbisara, thus making him a younger contemporary of Mahavira, the Jain tirthankara. Apart from the Vedic Brahmins, the Buddha's lifetime coincided with the flourishing of other influential śramaṇa schools of thoughts like Ājīvika, Cārvāka, Jainism, and Ajñana. It was also the age of influential thinkers like Mahavira, Pūraṇa Kassapa , Makkhali Gosāla, Ajita Kesakambalī, Pakudha Kaccāyana, and Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta, whose viewpoints the Buddha most certainly must have been acquainted with and influenced by. Indeed, Sariputta and Moggallāna, two of the foremost disciples of the Buddha, were formerly the foremost disciples of Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta, the skeptic. There is also evidence to suggest that the two masters, Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta, were indeed historical figures and they most probably taught Buddha two different forms of meditative techniques. While the general sequence of "birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death" is widely accepted, there is less consensus on the veracity of many details contained in traditional biographies.
The times of Gautama's birth and death are uncertain. Most historians in the early 20th century dated his lifetime as circa 563 BCE to 483 BCE. More recently his death is dated later, between 411 and 400 BCE, while at a symposium on this question held in 1988, the majority of those who presented definite opinions gave dates within 20 years either side of 400 BCE for the Buddha's death. These alternative chronologies, however, have not yet been accepted by all historians.
The evidence of the early texts suggests that Siddhārtha Gautama was born into the Shakya clan, a community that was on the periphery, both geographically and culturally, of the northeastern Indian subcontinent in the 5th century BCE. It was either a small republic, in which case his father was an elected chieftain, or an oligarchy, in which case his father was an oligarch. According to the Buddhist tradition, Gautama was born in Lumbini, nowadays in modern-day Nepal, and raised in the Shakya capital of Kapilavastu, which may have been in either present day Tilaurakot, Nepal or Piprahwa, India. He obtained his enlightenment in Bodh Gaya, gave his first sermon in Sarnath, and died in Kushinagar.
No written records about Gautama have been found from his lifetime or some centuries thereafter. One Edict of Asoka, who reigned from circa 269 BCE to 232 BCE, commemorates the Emperor's pilgrimage to the Buddha's birthplace in Lumbini. Another one of his edicts mentions several Dhamma texts, establishing the existence of a written Buddhist tradition at least by the time of the Maurya era and which may be the precursors of the Pāli Canon. The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts are the Gandhāran Buddhist texts, reported to have been found in or around Haḍḍa near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan and now preserved in the British Library. They are written in the Gāndhārī language using the Kharosthi script on twenty-seven birch bark manuscripts and date from the first century BCE to the third century CE.
TRADITIONAL BIOGRAPHIES
BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES
The sources for the life of Siddhārtha Gautama are a variety of different, and sometimes conflicting, traditional biographies. These include the Buddhacarita, Lalitavistara Sūtra, Mahāvastu, and the Nidānakathā. Of these, the Buddhacarita is the earliest full biography, an epic poem written by the poet Aśvaghoṣa, and dating around the beginning of the 2nd century CE. The Lalitavistara Sūtra is the next oldest biography, a Mahāyāna/Sarvāstivāda biography dating to the 3rd century CE. The Mahāvastu from the Mahāsāṃghika Lokottaravāda tradition is another major biography, composed incrementally until perhaps the 4th century CE. The Dharmaguptaka biography of the Buddha is the most exhaustive, and is entitled the Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra, and various Chinese translations of this date between the 3rd and 6th century CE. The Nidānakathā is from the Theravada tradition in Sri Lanka and was composed in the 5th century by Buddhaghoṣa.
From canonical sources, the Jataka tales, the Mahapadana Sutta (DN 14), and the Achariyabhuta Sutta (MN 123) which include selective accounts that may be older, but are not full biographies. The Jātakas retell previous lives of Gautama as a bodhisattva, and the first collection of these can be dated among the earliest Buddhist texts. The Mahāpadāna Sutta and Achariyabhuta Sutta both recount miraculous events surrounding Gautama's birth, such as the bodhisattva's descent from the Tuṣita Heaven into his mother's womb.
NATURE OF TRADITIONAL DEPICTIONS
In the earliest Buddhists texts, the nikāyas and āgamas, the Buddha is not depicted as possessing omniscience (sabbaññu) nor is he depicted as being an eternal transcendent (lokottara) being. According to Bhikkhu Analayo, ideas of the Buddha's omniscience (along with an increasing tendency to deify him and his biography) are found only later, in the Mahayana sutras and later Pali commentaries or texts such as the Mahāvastu. In the Sandaka Sutta, the Buddha's disciple Ananda outlines an argument against the claims of teachers who say they are all knowing while in the Tevijjavacchagotta Sutta the Buddha himself states that he has never made a claim to being omniscient, instead he claimed to have the "higher knowledges" (abhijñā). The earliest biographical material from the Pali Nikayas focuses on the Buddha's life as a śramaṇa, his search for enlightenment under various teachers such as Alara Kalama and his forty five year career as a teacher.
Traditional biographies of Gautama generally include numerous miracles, omens, and supernatural events. The character of the Buddha in these traditional biographies is often that of a fully transcendent (Skt. lokottara) and perfected being who is unencumbered by the mundane world. In the Mahāvastu, over the course of many lives, Gautama is said to have developed supra-mundane abilities including: a painless birth conceived without intercourse; no need for sleep, food, medicine, or bathing, although engaging in such "in conformity with the world"; omniscience, and the ability to "suppress karma". Nevertheless, some of the more ordinary details of his life have been gathered from these traditional sources. In modern times there has been an attempt to form a secular understanding of Siddhārtha Gautama's life by omitting the traditional supernatural elements of his early biographies.
Andrew Skilton writes that the Buddha was never historically regarded by Buddhist traditions as being merely human:
It is important to stress that, despite modern Theravada teachings to the contrary (often a sop to skeptical Western pupils), he was never seen as being merely human. For instance, he is often described as having the thirty-two major and eighty minor marks or signs of a mahāpuruṣa, "superman"; the Buddha himself denied that he was either a man or a god; and in the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta he states that he could live for an aeon were he asked to do so.The ancient Indians were generally unconcerned with chronologies, being more focused on philosophy. Buddhist texts reflect this tendency, providing a clearer picture of what Gautama may have taught than of the dates of the events in his life. These texts contain descriptions of the culture and daily life of ancient India which can be corroborated from the Jain scriptures, and make the Buddha's time the earliest period in Indian history for which significant accounts exist. British author Karen Armstrong writes that although there is very little information that can be considered historically sound, we can be reasonably confident that Siddhārtha Gautama did exist as a historical figure. Michael Carrithers goes a bit further by stating that the most general outline of "birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death" must be true.
BIOGRAPHY
CONCEPTION AND BIRTH
The Buddhist tradition regards Lumbini, in present-day Nepal to be the birthplace of the Buddha. He grew up in Kapilavastu. The exact site of ancient Kapilavastu is unknown. It may have been either Piprahwa, Uttar Pradesh, present-day India, or Tilaurakot, present-day Nepal. Both places belonged to the Sakya territory, and are located only 15 miles apart from each other.
Gautama was born as a Kshatriya, the son of Śuddhodana, "an elected chief of the Shakya clan", whose capital was Kapilavastu, and who were later annexed by the growing Kingdom of Kosala during the Buddha's lifetime. Gautama was the family name. His mother, Maya (Māyādevī), Suddhodana's wife, was a Koliyan princess. Legend has it that, on the night Siddhartha was conceived, Queen Maya dreamt that a white elephant with six white tusks entered her right side, and ten months later Siddhartha was born. As was the Shakya tradition, when his mother Queen Maya became pregnant, she left Kapilvastu for her father's kingdom to give birth. However, her son is said to have been born on the way, at Lumbini, in a garden beneath a sal tree.
The day of the Buddha's birth is widely celebrated in Theravada countries as Vesak. Buddha's Birthday is called Buddha Purnima in Nepal and India as he is believed to have been born on a full moon day. Various sources hold that the Buddha's mother died at his birth, a few days or seven days later. The infant was given the name Siddhartha (Pāli: Siddhattha), meaning "he who achieves his aim". During the birth celebrations, the hermit seer Asita journeyed from his mountain abode and announced that the child would either become a great king (chakravartin) or a great sadhu. By traditional account, this occurred after Siddhartha placed his feet in Asita's hair and Asita examined the birthmarks. Suddhodana held a naming ceremony on the fifth day, and invited eight Brahmin scholars to read the future. All gave a dual prediction that the baby would either become a great king or a great holy man. Kondañña, the youngest, and later to be the first arhat other than the Buddha, was reputed to be the only one who unequivocally predicted that Siddhartha would become a Buddha.
While later tradition and legend characterized Śuddhodana as a hereditary monarch, the descendant of the Suryavansha (Solar dynasty) of Ikṣvāku (Pāli: Okkāka), many scholars think that Śuddhodana was the elected chief of a tribal confederacy.
Early texts suggest that Gautama was not familiar with the dominant religious teachings of his time until he left on his religious quest, which is said to have been motivated by existential concern for the human condition. The state of the Shakya clan was not a monarchy, and seems to have been structured either as an oligarchy, or as a form of republic. The more egalitarian gana-sangha form of government, as a political alternative to the strongly hierarchical kingdoms, may have influenced the development of the śramanic Jain and Buddhist sanghas, where monarchies tended toward Vedic Brahmanism.
EARLY LIFE AND MARRIAGE
Siddhartha was brought up by his mother's younger sister, Maha Pajapati. By tradition, he is said to have been destined by birth to the life of a prince, and had three palaces (for seasonal occupation) built for him. Although more recent scholarship doubts this status, his father, said to be King Śuddhodana, wishing for his son to be a great king, is said to have shielded him from religious teachings and from knowledge of human suffering.
When he reached the age of 16, his father reputedly arranged his marriage to a cousin of the same age named Yaśodharā (Pāli: Yasodharā). According to the traditional account, she gave birth to a son, named Rāhula. Siddhartha is said to have spent 29 years as a prince in Kapilavastu. Although his father ensured that Siddhartha was provided with everything he could want or need, Buddhist scriptures say that the future Buddha felt that material wealth was not life's ultimate goal.
RENUNCIATION AND ASCETIC LIFE
At the age of 29, the popular biography continues, Siddhartha left his palace to meet his subjects. Despite his father's efforts to hide from him the sick, aged and suffering, Siddhartha was said to have seen an old man. When his charioteer Channa explained to him that all people grew old, the prince went on further trips beyond the palace. On these he encountered a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic. These depressed him, and he initially strove to overcome aging, sickness, and death by living the life of an ascetic.
Accompanied by Channa and riding his horse Kanthaka, Gautama quit his palace for the life of a mendicant. It's said that, "the horse's hooves were muffled by the gods" to prevent guards from knowing of his departure.
Gautama initially went to Rajagaha and began his ascetic life by begging for alms in the street. After King Bimbisara's men recognised Siddhartha and the king learned of his quest, Bimbisara offered Siddhartha the throne. Siddhartha rejected the offer, but promised to visit his kingdom of Magadha first, upon attaining enlightenment.
He left Rajagaha and practised under two hermit teachers of yogic meditation. After mastering the teachings of Alara Kalama (Skr. Ārāḍa Kālāma), he was asked by Kalama to succeed him. However, Gautama felt unsatisfied by the practice, and moved on to become a student of yoga with Udaka Ramaputta (Skr. Udraka Rāmaputra). With him he achieved high levels of meditative consciousness, and was again asked to succeed his teacher. But, once more, he was not satisfied, and again moved on.
Siddhartha and a group of five companions led by Kaundinya are then said to have set out to take their austerities even further. They tried to find enlightenment through deprivation of worldly goods, including food, practising self-mortification. After nearly starving himself to death by restricting his food intake to around a leaf or nut per day, he collapsed in a river while bathing and almost drowned. Siddhartha was rescued by a village girl named Sujata and she gave him some payasam (a pudding made from milk and jaggery) after which Siddhartha got back some energy. Siddhartha began to reconsider his path. Then, he remembered a moment in childhood in which he had been watching his father start the season's ploughing. He attained a concentrated and focused state that was blissful and refreshing, the jhāna.
AWAKENING
According to the early Buddhist texts, after realizing that meditative dhyana was the right path to awakening, but that extreme asceticism didn't work, Gautama discovered what Buddhists call the Middle Way - a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification, or the Noble Eightfold Path, as was identified and described by the Buddha in his first discourse, the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta. In a famous incident, after becoming starved and weakened, he is said to have accepted milk and rice pudding from a village girl named Sujata. Such was his emaciated appearance that she wrongly believed him to be a spirit that had granted her a wish.
Following this incident, Gautama was famously seated under a pipal tree - now known as the Bodhi tree - in Bodh Gaya, India, when he vowed never to arise until he had found the truth. Kaundinya and four other companions, believing that he had abandoned his search and become undisciplined, left. After a reputed 49 days of meditation, at the age of 35, he is said to have attained Enlightenment. According to some traditions, this occurred in approximately the fifth lunar month, while, according to others, it was in the twelfth month. From that time, Gautama was known to his followers as the Buddha or "Awakened One" ("Buddha" is also sometimes translated as "The Enlightened One").
According to Buddhism, at the time of his awakening he realized complete insight into the cause of suffering, and the steps necessary to eliminate it. These discoveries became known as the "Four Noble Truths", which are at the heart of Buddhist teaching. Through mastery of these truths, a state of supreme liberation, or Nirvana, is believed to be possible for any being. The Buddha described Nirvāna as the perfect peace of a mind that's free from ignorance, greed, hatred and other afflictive states, or "defilements" (kilesas). Nirvana is also regarded as the "end of the world", in that no personal identity or boundaries of the mind remain. In such a state, a being is said to possess the Ten Characteristics, belonging to every Buddha.
According to a story in the Āyācana Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya VI.1) - a scripture found in the Pāli and other canons - immediately after his awakening, the Buddha debated whether or not he should teach the Dharma to others. He was concerned that humans were so overpowered by ignorance, greed and hatred that they could never recognise the path, which is subtle, deep and hard to grasp. However, in the story, Brahmā Sahampati convinced him, arguing that at least some will understand it. The Buddha relented, and agreed to teach.
FORMATION OF THE SANGHA
After his awakening, the Buddha met Taphussa and Bhallika — two merchant brothers from the city of Balkh in what is currently Afghanistan - who became his first lay disciples. It is said that each was given hairs from his head, which are now claimed to be enshrined as relics in the Shwe Dagon Temple in Rangoon, Burma. The Buddha intended to visit Asita, and his former teachers, Alara Kalama and Udaka Ramaputta, to explain his findings, but they had already died.
He then travelled to the Deer Park near Varanasi (Benares) in northern India, where he set in motion what Buddhists call the Wheel of Dharma by delivering his first sermon to the five companions with whom he had sought enlightenment. Together with him, they formed the first saṅgha: the company of Buddhist monks.
All five become arahants, and within the first two months, with the conversion of Yasa and fifty four of his friends, the number of such arahants is said to have grown to 60. The conversion of three brothers named Kassapa followed, with their reputed 200, 300 and 500 disciples, respectively. This swelled the sangha to more than 1,000.
TRAVELS AND TEACHING
For the remaining 45 years of his life, the Buddha is said to have traveled in the Gangetic Plain, in what is now Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and southern Nepal, teaching a diverse range of people: from nobles to servants, murderers such as Angulimala, and cannibals such as Alavaka. Although the Buddha's language remains unknown, it's likely that he taught in one or more of a variety of closely related Middle Indo-Aryan dialects, of which Pali may be a standardization.
The sangha traveled through the subcontinent, expounding the dharma. This continued throughout the year, except during the four months of the Vāsanā rainy season when ascetics of all religions rarely traveled. One reason was that it was more difficult to do so without causing harm to animal life. At this time of year, the sangha would retreat to monasteries, public parks or forests, where people would come to them.
The first vassana was spent at Varanasi when the sangha was formed. After this, the Buddha kept a promise to travel to Rajagaha, capital of Magadha, to visit King Bimbisara. During this visit, Sariputta and Maudgalyayana were converted by Assaji, one of the first five disciples, after which they were to become the Buddha's two foremost followers. The Buddha spent the next three seasons at Veluvana Bamboo Grove monastery in Rajagaha, capital of Magadha.
Upon hearing of his son's awakening, Suddhodana sent, over a period, ten delegations to ask him to return to Kapilavastu. On the first nine occasions, the delegates failed to deliver the message, and instead joined the sangha to become arahants. The tenth delegation, led by Kaludayi, a childhood friend of Gautama's (who also became an arahant), however, delivered the message.
Now two years after his awakening, the Buddha agreed to return, and made a two-month journey by foot to Kapilavastu, teaching the dharma as he went. At his return, the royal palace prepared a midday meal, but the sangha was making an alms round in Kapilavastu. Hearing this, Suddhodana approached his son, the Buddha, saying:
"Ours is the warrior lineage of Mahamassata, and not a single warrior has gone seeking alms."
The Buddha is said to have replied:
"That is not the custom of your royal lineage. But it is the custom of my Buddha lineage. Several thousands of Buddhas have gone by seeking alms."
Buddhist texts say that Suddhodana invited the sangha into the palace for the meal, followed by a dharma talk. After this he is said to have become a sotapanna. During the visit, many members of the royal family joined the sangha. The Buddha's cousins Ananda and Anuruddha became two of his five chief disciples. At the age of seven, his son Rahula also joined, and became one of his ten chief disciples. His half-brother Nanda also joined and became an arahant.
Of the Buddha's disciples, Sariputta, Maudgalyayana, Mahakasyapa, Ananda and Anuruddha are believed to have been the five closest to him. His ten foremost disciples were reputedly completed by the quintet of Upali, Subhoti, Rahula, Mahakaccana and Punna.
In the fifth vassana, the Buddha was staying at Mahavana near Vesali when he heard news of the impending death of his father. He is said to have gone to Suddhodana and taught the dharma, after which his father became an arahant.The king's death and cremation was to inspire the creation of an order of nuns. Buddhist texts record that the Buddha was reluctant to ordain women. His foster mother Maha Pajapati, for example, approached him, asking to join the sangha, but he refused. Maha Pajapati, however, was so intent on the path of awakening that she led a group of royal Sakyan and Koliyan ladies, which followed the sangha on a long journey to Rajagaha. In time, after Ananda championed their cause, the Buddha is said to have reconsidered and, five years after the formation of the sangha, agreed to the ordination of women as nuns. He reasoned that males and females had an equal capacity for awakening. But he gave women additional rules (Vinaya) to follow.
MAHAPARINIRVANA
According to the Mahaparinibbana Sutta of the Pali canon, at the age of 80, the Buddha announced that he would soon reach Parinirvana, or the final deathless state, and abandon his earthly body. After this, the Buddha ate his last meal, which he had received as an offering from a blacksmith named Cunda. Falling violently ill, Buddha instructed his attendant Ānanda to convince Cunda that the meal eaten at his place had nothing to do with his passing and that his meal would be a source of the greatest merit as it provided the last meal for a Buddha. Mettanando and Von Hinüber argue that the Buddha died of mesenteric infarction, a symptom of old age, rather than food poisoning. The precise contents of the Buddha's final meal are not clear, due to variant scriptural traditions and ambiguity over the translation of certain significant terms; the Theravada tradition generally believes that the Buddha was offered some kind of pork, while the Mahayana tradition believes that the Buddha consumed some sort of truffle or other mushroom. These may reflect the different traditional views on Buddhist vegetarianism and the precepts for monks and nuns.
Waley suggests that Theravadin's would take suukaramaddava (the contents of the Buddha's last meal), which can translate as pig-soft, to mean soft flesh of a pig. However, he also states that pig-soft could mean "pig's soft-food", that is, after Neumann, a soft food favoured by pigs, assumed to be a truffle. He argues (also after Neumann) that as Pali Buddhism was developed in an area remote to the Buddha's death, the existence of other plants with suukara- (pig) as part of their names and that "(p)lant names tend to be local and dialectical" could easily indicate that suukaramaddava was a type of plant whose local name was unknown to those in the Pali regions. Specifically, local writers knew more about their flora than Theravadin commentator Buddhaghosa who lived hundreds of years and kilometres remote in time and space from the events described. Unaware of an alternate meaning and with no Theravadin prohibition against eating animal flesh, Theravadins would not have questioned the Buddha eating meat and interpreted the term accordingly.
Ananda protested the Buddha's decision to enter Parinirvana in the abandoned jungles of Kuśināra (present-day Kushinagar, India) of the Malla kingdom. The Buddha, however, is said to have reminded Ananda how Kushinara was a land once ruled by a righteous wheel-turning king that resounded with joy:
44. Kusavati, Ananda, resounded unceasingly day and night with ten sounds - the trumpeting of elephants, the neighing of horses, the rattling of chariots, the beating of drums and tabours, music and song, cheers, the clapping of hands, and cries of "Eat, drink, and be merry!"
The Buddha then asked all the attendant Bhikkhus to clarify any doubts or questions they had. They had none. According to Buddhist scriptures, he then finally entered Parinirvana. The Buddha's final words are reported to have been: "All composite things (Saṅkhāra) are perishable. Strive for your own liberation with diligence" (Pali: 'vayadhammā saṅkhārā appamādena sampādethā'). His body was cremated and the relics were placed in monuments or stupas, some of which are believed to have survived until the present. For example, The Temple of the Tooth or "Dalada Maligawa" in Sri Lanka is the place where what some believe to be the relic of the right tooth of Buddha is kept at present.
According to the Pāli historical chronicles of Sri Lanka, the Dīpavaṃsa and Mahāvaṃsa, the coronation of Emperor Aśoka (Pāli: Asoka) is 218 years after the death of the Buddha. According to two textual records in Chinese (十八部論 and 部執異論), the coronation of Emperor Aśoka is 116 years after the death of the Buddha. Therefore, the time of Buddha's passing is either 486 BCE according to Theravāda record or 383 BCE according to Mahayana record. However, the actual date traditionally accepted as the date of the Buddha's death in Theravāda countries is 544 or 545 BCE, because the reign of Emperor Aśoka was traditionally reckoned to be about 60 years earlier than current estimates. In Burmese Buddhist tradition, the date of the Buddha's death is 13 May 544 BCE. whereas in Thai tradition it is 11 March 545 BCE.
At his death, the Buddha is famously believed to have told his disciples to follow no leader. Mahakasyapa was chosen by the sangha to be the chairman of the First Buddhist Council, with the two chief disciples Maudgalyayana and Sariputta having died before the Buddha.
While in the Buddha's days he was addressed by the very respected titles Buddha, Shākyamuni, Shākyasimha, Bhante and Bho, he was known after his parinirvana as Arihant, Bhagavā/Bhagavat/Bhagwān, Mahāvira, Jina/Jinendra, Sāstr, Sugata, and most popularly in scriptures as Tathāgata.
BUDDHA AND VEDAS
Buddha's teachings deny the authority of the Vedas and consequently [at least atheistic] Buddhism is generally viewed as a nāstika school (heterodox, literally "It is not so") from the perspective of orthodox Hinduism.
RELICS
After his death, Buddha's cremation relics were divided amongst 8 royal families and his disciples; centuries later they would be enshrined by King Ashoka into 84,000 stupas. Many supernatural legends surround the history of alleged relics as they accompanied the spread of Buddhism and gave legitimacy to rulers.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
An extensive and colorful physical description of the Buddha has been laid down in scriptures. A kshatriya by birth, he had military training in his upbringing, and by Shakyan tradition was required to pass tests to demonstrate his worthiness as a warrior in order to marry. He had a strong enough body to be noticed by one of the kings and was asked to join his army as a general. He is also believed by Buddhists to have "the 32 Signs of the Great Man".
The Brahmin Sonadanda described him as "handsome, good-looking, and pleasing to the eye, with a most beautiful complexion. He has a godlike form and countenance, he is by no means unattractive." (D, I:115)
"It is wonderful, truly marvellous, how serene is the good Gotama's appearance, how clear and radiant his complexion, just as the golden jujube in autumn is clear and radiant, just as a palm-tree fruit just loosened from the stalk is clear and radiant, just as an adornment of red gold wrought in a crucible by a skilled goldsmith, deftly beaten and laid on a yellow-cloth shines, blazes and glitters, even so, the good Gotama's senses are calmed, his complexion is clear and radiant." (A, I:181)
A disciple named Vakkali, who later became an arahant, was so obsessed by the Buddha's physical presence that the Buddha is said to have felt impelled to tell him to desist, and to have reminded him that he should know the Buddha through the Dhamma and not through physical appearances.
Although there are no extant representations of the Buddha in human form until around the 1st century CE (see Buddhist art), descriptions of the physical characteristics of fully enlightened buddhas are attributed to the Buddha in the Digha Nikaya's Lakkhaṇa Sutta (D, I:142). In addition, the Buddha's physical appearance is described by Yasodhara to their son Rahula upon the Buddha's first post-Enlightenment return to his former princely palace in the non-canonical Pali devotional hymn, Narasīha Gāthā ("The Lion of Men").
Among the 32 main characteristics it is mentioned that Buddha has blue eyes.
NINE VIRTUES
Recollection of nine virtues attributed to the Buddha is a common Buddhist meditation and devotional practice called Buddhānusmṛti. The nine virtues are also among the 40 Buddhist meditation subjects. The nine virtues of the Buddha appear throughout the Tipitaka, and include:
- Buddho – Awakened
- Sammasambuddho – Perfectly self-awakened
- Vijja-carana-sampano – Endowed with higher knowledge and ideal conduct.
- Sugato – Well-gone or Well-spoken.
- Lokavidu – Wise in the knowledge of the many worlds.
- Anuttaro Purisa-damma-sarathi – Unexcelled trainer of untrained people.
- Satthadeva-Manussanam – Teacher of gods and humans.
- Bhagavathi – The Blessed one
- Araham – Worthy of homage. An Arahant is "one with taints destroyed, who has lived the holy life, done what had to be done, laid down the burden, reached the true goal, destroyed the fetters of being, and is completely liberated through final knowledge."
TEACHINGS
TRACING THE OLDEST TEACHINGS
Information of the oldest teachings may be obtained by analysis of the oldest texts. One method to obtain information on the oldest core of Buddhism is to compare the oldest extant versions of the Theravadin Pali Canon and other texts. The reliability of these sources, and the possibility to draw out a core of oldest teachings, is a matter of dispute. According to Vetter, inconsistencies remain, and other methods must be applied to resolve those inconsistencies.
According to Schmithausen, three positions held by scholars of Buddhism can be distinguished:
"Stress on the fundamental homogeneity and substantial authenticity of at least a considerable part of the Nikayic materials;"
"Scepticism with regard to the possibility of retrieving the doctrine of earliest Buddhism;"
"Cautious optimism in this respect."
DHYANA AND INSIGHT
A core problem in the study of early Buddhism is the relation between dhyana and insight. Schmithausen, in his often-cited article On some Aspects of Descriptions or Theories of 'Liberating Insight' and 'Enlightenment' in Early Buddhism notes that the mention of the four noble truths as constituting "liberating insight", which is attained after mastering the Rupa Jhanas, is a later addition to texts such as Majjhima Nikaya 36
CORE TEACHINGS
According to Tilmann Vetter, the core of earliest Buddhism is the practice of dhyāna. Bronkhorst agrees that dhyana was a Buddhist invention, whereas Norman notes that "the Buddha's way to release [...] was by means of meditative practices." Discriminating insight into transiency as a separate path to liberation was a later development.
According to the Mahāsaccakasutta, from the fourth jhana the Buddha gained bodhi. Yet, it is not clear what he was awakened to. "Liberating insight" is a later addition to this text, and reflects a later development and understanding in early Buddhism. The mentioning of the four truths as constituting "liberating insight" introduces a logical problem, since the four truths depict a linear path of practice, the knowledge of which is in itself not depicted as being liberating:
[T]hey do not teach that one is released by knowing the four noble truths, but by practicing the fourth noble truth, the eightfold path, which culminates in right samadhi.
Although "Nibbāna" (Sanskrit: Nirvāna) is the common term for the desired goal of this practice, many other terms can be found throughout the Nikayas, which are not specified.
According to Vetter, the description of the Buddhist path may initially have been as simple as the term "the middle way". In time, this short description was elaborated, resulting in the description of the eightfold path.
According to both Bronkhorst and Anderson, the four truths became a substitution for prajna, or "liberating insight", in the suttas in those texts where "liberating insight" was preceded by the four jhanas. According to Bronkhorst, the four truths may not have been formulated in earliest Buddhism, and did not serve in earliest Buddhism as a description of "liberating insight". Gotama's teachings may have been personal, "adjusted to the need of each person."
The three marks of existence may reflect Upanishadic or other influences. K.R. Norman supposes that these terms were already in use at the Buddha's time, and were familiar to his listeners.
The Brahma-vihara was in origin probably a brahmanic term; but its usage may have been common to the Sramana traditions.
LATER DEVELOPMENTS
In time, "liberating insight" became an essential feature of the Buddhist tradition. The following teachings, which are commonly seen as essential to Buddhism, are later formulations which form part of the explanatory framework of this "liberating insight":
- The Four Noble Truths: that suffering is an ingrained part of existence; that the origin of suffering is craving for sensuality, acquisition of identity, and fear of annihilation; that suffering can be ended; and that following the Noble Eightfold Path is the means to accomplish this;
- The Noble Eightfold Path: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration;
- Dependent origination: the mind creates suffering as a natural product of a complex process.
OTHER RELIGIONS
Some Hindus regard Gautama as the 9th avatar of Vishnu. The Buddha is also regarded as a prophet by the Ahmadiyya Muslims and a Manifestation of God in the Bahá'í Faith. Some early Chinese Taoist-Buddhists thought the Buddha to be a reincarnation of Lao Tzu.
The Christian Saint Josaphat is based on the Buddha. The name comes from the Sanskrit Bodhisattva via Arabic Būdhasaf and Georgian Iodasaph. The only story in which St. Josaphat appears, Barlaam and Josaphat, is based on the life of the Buddha. Josaphat was included in earlier editions of the Roman Martyrology (feast day 27 November) — though not in the Roman Missal — and in the Eastern Orthodox Church liturgical calendar (26 August).
Disciples of the Cao Đài religion worship the Buddha as a major religious teacher. His image can be found in both their Holy See and on the home altar. He is revealed during communication with Divine Beings as son of their Supreme Being (God the Father) together with other major religious teachers and founders like Jesus, Laozi, and Confucius.
In the ancient Gnostic sect of Manichaeism the Buddha is listed among the prophets who preached the word of God before Mani.
WIKIPEDIA
They have 2 grizzly bears here in a natural 5 acre "enclosure". These two guys were orphaned as cubs and would have died in the wild so were rescued and now stay here where us tourist folks can photo them and learn about them
Some of you may have noticed that, unfortunately, owing to the fact that a certain person who sells truck photos on eBay commercially has been lifting my images from this album and selling them I have had to remove 2300 photos that didn't have a watermark. I have now run around 1700 through Lightroom and added a watermark with the intention of bulk uploading them again. Rather than watermark the existing (hidden) files in Flickr one at a time it will be easier to do it this way. I definitely won’t be adding individual tags with the make and model of each vehicle I will just add generic transport tags. Each photo is named after the vehicle and reg in any case. For anyone new to these images there is a chapter and verse explanation below. It is staggering how many times I get asked questions that a quick scan would answer or just as likely I can’t possibly answer – I didn’t take them, but, just to clarify-I do own the copyright- and I do pursue copyright theft.
This is a collection of scanned prints from a collection of photographs taken by the late Jim Taylor A number of years ago I was offered a large number of photographs taken by Jim Taylor, a transport photographer based in Huddersfield. The collection, 30,000 prints, 20,000 negatives – and copyright! – had been offered to me and one of the national transport magazines previously by a friend of Jim's, on behalf of Jim's wife. I initially turned them down, already having over 30,000 of my own prints filed away and taking space up. Several months later the prints were still for sale – at what was, apparently, the going rate. It was a lot of money and I deliberated for quite a while before deciding to buy them. I did however buy them directly from Jim’s wife and she delivered them personally – just to quash the occasional rumour from people who can’t mind their own business. Although some prints were sold elsewhere, particularly the popular big fleet stuff, I should have the negatives, unfortunately they came to me in a random mix, 1200 to a box, without any sort of indexing and as such it would be impossible to match negatives to prints, or, to even find a print of any particular vehicle. I have only ever looked at a handful myself unless I am scanning them. The prints are generally in excellent condition and I initially stored them in a bedroom without ever looking at any of them. In 2006 I built an extension and they had to be well protected from dust and moved a few times. Ultimately my former 6x7 box room office has become their (and my own work’s) permanent home.
I hope to avoid posting images that Jim had not taken his self, however should I inadvertently infringe another photographers copyright, please inform me by email and I will resolve the issue immediately. There are copyright issues with some of the photographs that were sold to me. A Flickr member from Scotland drew my attention to some of his own work amongst the first uploads of Jim’s work. I had a quick look through some of the 30 boxes of prints and decided that for the time being the safest thing for me to do was withdraw the majority of the earlier uploaded scans and deal with the problem – which I did. whilst the vast majority of the prints are Jims, there is a problem defining copyright of some of them, this is something that the seller did not make clear at the time. I am reasonably confident that I have since been successful in identifying Jims own work. His early work consists of many thousands of lustre 6x4 prints which are difficult to scan well, later work is almost entirely 7x5 glossy, much easier to scan. Not all of the prints are pin sharp but I can generally print successfully to A4 from a scan.
You may notice photographs being duplicated in this Album, unfortunately there are multiple copies of many prints (for swapping) and as I have to have a system of archiving and backing up I can only guess - using memory - if I have scanned a print before. The bigger fleets have so many similar vehicles and registration numbers that it is impossible to get it right all of the time. It is easier to scan and process a print than check my files - on three different PC’s - for duplicates. There has not been, nor will there ever be, any intention to knowingly breach anyone else's copyright. I have presented the Jim Taylor collection as exactly that-The Jim Taylor Collection- his work not mine, my own work is quite obviously mine.
Unfortunately, many truck spotters have swapped and traded their work without copyright marking it as theirs. These people never anticipated the ease with which images would be shared online in the future. I would guess that having swapped and traded photos for many years that it is almost impossible to control their future use. Anyone wanting to control the future use of their work would have been well advised to copyright mark their work (as many did) and would be well advised not to post them on photo sharing sites without a watermark as the whole point of these sites is to share the image, it is very easy for those that wish, to lift any image, despite security settings, indeed, Flickr itself, warns you that this is the case. It was this abuse and theft of my material that led me to watermark all of my later uploads. I may yet withdraw non-watermarked photos, I haven’t decided yet. (I did in the end)
To anyone reading the above it will be quite obvious that I can’t provide information regarding specific photos or potential future uploads – I didn’t take them! There are many vehicles that were well known to me as Jim only lived down the road from me (although I didn’t know him), however scanning, titling, tagging and uploading is laborious and time consuming enough, I do however provide a fair amount of information with my own transport (and other) photos. I am aware that there are requests from other Flickr users that are unanswered, I stumble across them months or years after they were posted, this isn’t deliberate. Some weekends one or two “enthusiasts” can add many hundreds of photos as favourites, this pushes requests that are in the comments section ten or twenty pages out of sight and I miss them. I also have notifications switched off, I receive around 50 emails a day through work and I don’t want even more from Flickr. Other requests, like many other things, I just plain forget – no excuses! Uploads of Jim’s photos will be infrequent as it is a boring pastime and I would much rather work on my own output.
Portraits of Renfest ~ The King and Queen
King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Castile
23rd Annual Florida Renaissance Festival
Winter 2015 - Deerfield Beach, Florida U.S.A.
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A Performer at FLARF since 2006, Adolfo Herrera is happy
to return once again as King Ferdinand, bringing all the pomp, circumstance and hilarity that are the Spanish Court. Throughout the year he performs at other area fairs and shows and just recently premiered as Don Fernando in Hopeless Romantics Loose Cannons Sword Fighting Comedy Show!
Jasmine has portrayed the role of Queen for the last six seasons and performances throughout the country with her husband, Christopher Schultz with their acclaimed "Faire Stories".
(four more photos of lovely Queen Isabella in the comments)
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This is my ninth year covering this fun festival filled with color and pageantry and beautiful people. Each year some of the regulars return and sometimes fresh new faces appear to join the renaissance family. Some are vendors or employees, and some customers dress up to fit in with the renaissance festival fun and its 16th century way of life. One big happy family of a few thousand escaping the dull-drums of their daily life for a few hours. This year's crop of new faces was lovely. Hope you enjoy the images. I try to capture their joy. Always fun, festive and very colorful. Thanks very much for looking.
Check out my 2015 Renaissance Festival album if you have time:
www.flickr.com/photos/pelicanpetesphotos/sets/72157651123...
3rd April 2018:
Mario is getting ready for his next race, so first of all Shaun (the shaving brush) mechanic had the car up on the jacks to check everything was OK underneath and then gave the car a good clean before he and Mario gave it a test run across the garden table. Everything A OK for the next race.
I could have gone out today, it's been lovely and sunny, although a little chilly in the wind. But, it was so nice to spend some time in the garden with Izzy that I stayed put. Enjoying the sun and watching Izzy trying to catch flies.
Better viewed large and thank you for your favourites. :O)
Els Jardins de Laribal
És una de les perles del Parc de Montjuïc i passejar-s'hi és una autèntica delícia. La vegetació riquíssima, juntament amb l'aigua que baixa per cascades i llisca delicadament pel mig d'amples baranes, els bancs de rajola i les placetes, creen un conjunt de bellesa excepcional. Aquest és un lloc per estar-s'hi, per contemplar-lo i per anar descobrint els mil detalls que el configuren, amb una harmonia difícil de superar.
Els Jardins de Laribal, de gran valor històric, estan configurats per terrasses, camins, placetes, bassinyols i una vegetació esponerosa i consolidada. Una sèrie de terrasses superposades estan unides entre elles per camins i dreceres de fort pendent, amb trams d'escales intercalats amb un disseny sempre diferent. Pèrgoles de maó vist, pedra i pilars blancs, ombregen les àrees més planeres. La vegetació, és majoritàriament exòtica, rica i variada en espècies.
Jardins mediterranis
Aquests jardins, inclosos dins del recinte de l'Exposició Internacional de Barcelona de 1929, van obtenir una gran anomenada. Els seus autors, Jean Claude Nicolas Forestier i Nicolau M. Rubió Tudurí, van crear un nou estil paisatgístic d'arrel mediterrània.
La vegetació preexistent -des de plantes autòctones fins als arbres fruiters del passat agrícola de la muntanya-, es va integrar en els jardins amb un concepte de jardineria renovador i original, que segueix lliurement la inspiració dels antics jardins àrabs i dels "cármenes" de Granada, amb una gran presència de rajoles ceràmiques, aigües ornamentals i el conreu de plantes de flor en testos situats en baranes i ampits.
Les escales del Generalife
L'aigua és l'essència del jardí, amb estanys i estanyols. Per connectar la part superior del parc amb els Jardins Amargós -actualment Jardins del Teatre Grec-, Forestier va fer una escala inspirada en la dels jardins del Generalife, amb cascades als passamans, estanyols amb brolladors als replans i bancs d'obra per reposar i gaudir de la fresca i el so de l'aigua.
Els jardins de la font del Gat
Unes pèrgoles mirador porten d'uns jardins als altres, units per eixos de rampes, escales i cascades que desemboquen a la font del Gat, des de la qual es poden contemplar unes magnífiques vistes de Barcelona.
Ocupen el pendent que va des de la part més alta dels Jardins Laribal fins al passeig de Santa Madrona, i integren la popular font del Gat i un edifici del segle dinou. Es tracta d'un conjunt de camins, terrasses i racons que s'adapten al relleu del terreny amb escales, rampes i una cascada monumental amb quatre seccions separades per camins i canals, que van connectant els diferents trams.
Tot està cobert d'una espessa fronda mediterrània i d'arbres fruiters, com ara nesprers i figueres, i palmeres d'enormes capçades. Si ens ho mirem des de baix, a tocar del pg. de Santa Madrona, uns xiprers altíssims situats a l'inici de la cascada accentuen la verticalitat del conjunt.
El roserar de la Colla de l'Arròs
Una glorieta de xiprers, amb una petita font al centre, marca l'inici d'un recorregut que, sota una pèrgola amb pilars de terracota, porta a un pati ovalat i reclòs, també envoltat de xiprers: és el roserar de la Colla de l'Arròs.
El jardí es configura en diversos plans, amb aire de pati, que estan vorejats per vorades, també de xiprer, i rengleres de troanes. En diversos parterres rectangulars hi ha plantades varietats antigues de rosers. Al centre destaca un bassinyol quadrangular amb rajols esmaltats, presidit a la part de dalt per Estival, un nu femení de marbre que contempla el roserar i, més enllà, Barcelona.
La plaça del Claustre
És a tocar del passeig de Santa Madrona i, de fet, es tracta del Jardí de Sant Miquel, on destaquen tres grans plàtans ja existents abans que Forestier dissenyés els jardins. Al fons, els murs del que fou una antiga pedrera confereixen a aquesta part dels jardins Laribal un aire reclòs i claustral. D'aquí el seu nom. A la dreta, un passadís comunica amb els Jardins del Teatre Grec.
Vegetació
La vegetació madura i mediterrània dóna sentit als jardins. Així, hi ha, entre d'altres espècies, pins blancs (Pinus halepensis), pins pinyers (Pinus pinea), llorers (Laurus nobilis), tarongers amargs (Citrus aurantium) i xiprers (Cupressus sempervirens).
Les escales del Generalife estan envoltades per grans acàcies (Robinia pseudoacacia) i arbustos com la troana (Ligustrum lucidum) i el pitòspor (Pittosporum tobira), una espècie arbustiva molt abundant als jardins, juntament amb el baladre (Nerium oleander) i l'evònim del Japó (Evonymus japonicus).
En testos de terracota, llueixen les elegants fulles de saló (Aspidistra elatior) i els geranis (Pelargonium sp.), i cobrint les pèrgoles, anglesines (Wisteria sinensis) i Rosa banksiae. En diferents llocs dels jardins hi ha plantes aromàtiques, com l'espígol (Lavandula angustifolia) i el romaní (Rosmarinus officinalis), i espècies entapissants com l'heura (Hedera helix)
Els Jardins de Laribal també hi ha pins australians (Casuarina cunninghamiana), eucaliptus (Eucalyptus globulus), xiprers de Lambert (Cupressus macrocarpa), cedres de l'Himàlaia (Cedrus deodara) i, a la plaça del Claustre, tres grans exemplars de plàtan (Platanus X hispanica).
Art i arquitectura
L'escultura és notable en aquests jardins, tant per la seva qualitat com per la seva bellesa. Presidint el roserar hi ha Estival, de Jaume Otero (1929), una figura femenina asseguda d'estil art déco feta de marbre.
La Noia de la trena, de Josep Viladomat (1928), és un altre nu femení, en aquest cas de bronze, i representa una noia jove recollint-se els cabells en una trena. És en una placeta ombrívola, molt a prop de les escales que comuniquen amb altres nivells dels jardins.
La tercera escultura també és d'una dona i de Josep Viladomat, que la va fer partint d'un original de Manolo Hugué. Es tracta de Repòs (1925), un nu femení de pedra de mida natural situat en una placeta circular molt a prop de l'entrada que hi ha al costat de la Fundació Joan Miró.
A prop del roserar hi ha una font de ceràmica esmaltada amb motius marins, coronada amb un brollador, obra del ceramista Llorenç Artigas.
La font del Gat
L'aigua que raja de la font del Gat ho fa des del cap d'un felí, esculpit per Joan Antoni Homs el 1918, que és quan van quedar enllestits els Jardins Laribal. Aquesta font era una de les moltes que aleshores rajava a Barcelona, i el lloc on està situada, molt popular a la ciutat a finals del segle XIX.
Tan popular era la font, que el periodista i autor teatral Joan Amich va escriure una cançó: "La Marieta de l'ull viu", que avui encara es canta i que inclou l'estrofa: "Baixant de la font del Gat, / una noia, una noia, / baixant de la font del Gat / una noia amb un soldat...".
Història
Al començament del segle passat, la zona que avui ocupen els jardins Laribal era lloc de trobades populars, sobretot a la font del Gat, o de reunions selectes, com ara les que feia la Colla de l'Arròs, un grup entre gastronòmic i polític que va tenir una certa influència a la Barcelona de la darreria del segle XIX i principi del XX, i que es reunia en un petit edifici situat on ara hi ha el Museu Etnològic.
La part alta dels actuals jardins pertanyia a la finca de Josep Laribal, un prestigiós advocat el nom del qual s'ha perpetuat als jardins. S'hi va fer construir un xalet neoàrab, envoltat d'uns jardins eclèctics, amb grans arbres.
Mort Laribal, el 1908 la finca va ser adquirida per l'Ajuntament, que hi va fundar l'Escola del Bosc, encara existent. Simultàniament, es van iniciar els estudis per urbanitzar i enjardinar la muntanya, amb un projecte global que va ser encarregat inicialment a Josep Amargós.
L'Exposició de 1929
Els Jardins de Laribal, enllestits el 1922, estan vinculats a un esdeveniment posterior: l'Exposició Internacional de Barcelona de 1929. Aquest esdeveniment va representar la culminació d'un projecte iniciat l'any 1905 per organitzar a Montjuïc una exposició sobre les indústries elèctriques, l'energia emergent d'aquell temps.
Un dels comissaris de l'Exposició Internacional de Barcelona va ser Francesc Cambó, que va encarregar els treballs d'enjardinament a l'enginyer i paisatgista francès Jean Claude Nicolas Forestier. Va ser ajudant seu el jove arquitecte Nicolau M. Rubió i Tudurí, que el 1917 es convertiria en el director de la Direcció de Parcs Públics i Arbrat, antecedent del Servei de Parcs i Jardins de Barcelona, del qual va ser primer responsable i una de les persones determinants en el futur desenvolupament dels espais verds públics de la ciutat.
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These gardens are one of the treasures of the Park of Montjuïc and taking a stroll around them is a real pleasure. The rich plant life, together with the water that flows delicately through the wide handrails; the tiled benches and the small squares all create exceptionally beautiful gardens. It is a place to be, to gaze at and to discover the thousands of details that shape a harmony that is difficult to surpass.
The historically-important Laribal Gardens are sculpted by terraces, pathways, small squares, ponds and lush, established plant life. A series of terraces are linked by paths and steeply sloped shortcuts, with stretches of differently designed stairways interspersed. The flattest areas are afforded shade by exposed brick, stone and white pillar pergolas. The mostly exotic plant life has a rich and varied range of species.
Mediterranean Gardens
These gardens, which were included in the International Exposition of Barcelona (a World's Fair) in 1929, were greatly reputed. The garden's designers, Jean Claude Nicolas Forestier and Nicolau M. Rubió Tudurí, created a new style of Mediterranean landscaping.
The pre-existing plant life, from native plants to fruit trees from the mountain's agricultural past, was integrated into the gardens with an original and innovative gardening concept that is openly inspired by the ancient Arabian gardens and from the "Carmenes" in Granada with prominent ceramic tiles, ornamental water features and flowering plants in pots on railings and parapets.
The Stairway of the Generalife Gardens
Water is the essence of this garden, with its large and small ponds. In order to connect the upper area of the park with the Amargós Gardens, now the Teatre Grec Gardens, Forestier designed a stairway inspired by the one in the Generalife Gardens, with waterfalls on the banisters, small ponds with fountains on the landings and benches for relaxing and enjoying the freshness and sound of the water.
The Gardens of the Font del Gat
Viewpoint pergolas link the gardens with ramps, stairs and waterfalls that flow into the Font del Gat ("Fountain of the Cat"), a point at which magnificent views of Barcelona can be enjoyed.
The gardens lie on the slope from the highest point of the Laribal Gardens down to the Passeig de Santa Madrona and include the popular Font del Gat and a nineteenth-century building. There are paths, terraces and corners that adapt to the terrain with stairways, ramps and a monumental waterfall with four sections separated by paths and canals that connect the different areas.
Everything is covered in a thick, Mediterranean foliage, fruit trees such as loquat and fig and enormous palm trees. From the Passeig de Santa Madrona below, some very tall cypresses by the waterfall accentuate its height.
The Rose Gardens of the Colla de l'Arròs
A circle of cypress trees with a small fountain in the centre marks the beginning of a path that, beneath a pergola with terracotta pillars, leads to an oval patio surrounded by cypresses. These are the Rose Gardens of the Colla de l'Arròs.
These gardens are arranged on different levels with the feeling of being on a patio, bordered by rows of cypresses and privets. In various rectangular parterres, many diverse old varieties of roses have been planted. At the centre is a square pool with ceramic tiles, dominated by the marble female nude sculpture "Estival", who looks over the rose garden and beyond to Barcelona.
Plaça del Claustre
From the Sant Miquel Garden, next to the Passeig de Santa Madrona, there are three large London Plane trees that existed before Forestier designed the gardens. At the end, the walls of what was once an old quarry gives this part of the Laribal Gardens a confined and cloister-like air. This is where it gets its name. On the right there is a path that connects the gardens with the Teatre Grec Gardens.
Plant Life
The mature and Mediterranean plant life gives the gardens meaning. Among other species there are Aleppo Pines (Pinus halepensis), Umbrella Pines (Pinus pinea), Bay Laurels (Laurus nobilis), Bitter Orange trees (Citrus aurantium) and Mediterranean Cypresses (Cupressus sempervirens).
The Generalife stairs are surrounded by large Black Locust trees (Robinia pseudoacacia) and shrubs such as the Chinese Privet (Ligustrum lucidum) and the Pittosporum (Pittosporum tobira), a species in abundance in the gardens along with the Oleander (Nerium oleander) and the Japanese Spindle tree (Euonymus japonicus).
The elegant leaves of an Aspidistra elatior shine in terracotta pots and Garden Geraniums (Pelargonium sp.), Chinese Wisterias (Wisteria sinensis) and Lady Banks' Roses (Rosa banksiae) cover the pergolas. In different areas around the gardens aromatic plants like Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia), Rosemary (Rosmarinus offcinalis) and climbing plants such as Ivy (Hedera helix) can be found.
In the Laribal Gardens there are also River Oaks (Casuarina cunninghamiana), Tasmanian Blue Gums (Eucalyptus globules), Monterey Cypresses (Cupressus macrocarpa) Deodar Cedar (Cedrus deodara) and in Plaça del Claustre, three large London Planes (Platanus X hispanica).
Art and Architecture
The sculptures are notable in these gardens, both for their quality and their beauty. There is an Art Deco style marble female nude, "Estival" (1929) by Jaume Otero, that dominates the rose garden.
The "Noia de la trena" (1928) by Joseph Viladomar is another female nude, in this case made of bronze, which represents a young girl plaiting her hair. It is in a small shaded square, close to the stairway that links to other areas of the gardens.
The third sculpture is again of a woman and by Joseph Viladomar and was based on the Manolo Hugué original. "Repòs" (1925) a life-sized female nude made of stone situated in a small square close to the entrance next to the Joan Miró Foundation.
Near the rose garden, there is a glazed ceramic fountain influenced by the sea, crowned by a jet, which was the work of Llorenç Artigas.
The Font del Gat
The water from the Font del Gat ("Fountain of the Cat") pours from a feline head, sculpted by Joan Antoni Homs in 1918, when the Laribal Gardens were being finished. This fountain is one of many that flowed in Barcelona at the time and is situated in a place in the city that was very popular at the end of the nineteenth century.
The fountain was so popular that the journalist and playwright Joan Amich wrote a song about it: "La Marieta de l'ull viu" that is still sung today and includes the verse: "Baixant de la font del Gat, / una noia, una noia, / baixant de la font del Gat / una noia amb un soldat..." ("Coming down from the cat Fountain / a girl, a girl / Coming down from the cat Fountain / a girl with a soldier...").
History
The area where the Laribal Gardens now lie was a popular meeting place at the beginning of the last century, in particular the Font del Gat, which was also an area for exclusive gatherings, such as those of Colla de l'Arròs, a gastronomic-political group who had a certain influence over Barcelona at the turn of the last century, would meet in a small building situated where the Museu Etnològic (Ethnological Museum) now stands.
The upper part of the current gardens once belonged to Joseph Laribal, an esteemed lawyer whose name the gardens bear. He built a neo-Arabian chalet, surrounded by eclectic gardens, with large trees.
After Laribal died in 1908, the house was acquired by the Town Council, which established the Escola del Bosc, which still exists to this day. Simultaneously, studies began for the development and gardening of the mountain, a comprehensive project that was initially the responsibility of Josep Amargós.
The 1929 World's Fair
Completed in 1922, the Laribal Gardens are linked to a later event: the International Exposition of Barcelona of 1929 (a World's Fair). This event represented the culmination of a project which began in 1905 to organise an exhibition on Montjuïc about the electrical industries, the emerging energy at the time.
One of the commissioners at the International Exhibition of Barcelona was Francesc Cambó, who was responsible for the gardening and engineering work and the work of the French landscape architect Jean Claude Nicolas Forestier. His assistant was the young architect Nicolau M. Rubió I Tudurí, who, in 1917, became the director of the Public and Wooded Parks Board, the predecessor of the Parks and Gardens Service of Barcelona, of which he was mainly responsible and one of the key people in the development of green spaces in the city.
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Es una de las perlas del Parque de Montjuïc y pasearse por ellos es un autentica delicia. La riquísima vegetación, junto con el agua que baja por cascadas y se escurre delicadamente en medio de amplias barandillas, los bancos de ladrillo y las placetas, crean un conjunto de una belleza excepcional. Es un lugar en el que estar, para contemplarlo e ir descubriendo los miles de detalles que lo configuran, con una armonía difícil de superar.
Los Jardines de Laribal, de gran valor histórico, están formados por terrazas, caminos, placetas, pequeños estanques y una vegetación lozana y consolidada. Una serie de terrazas sobrepuestas están unidas entre si por caminos y atajos de gran pendiente, con tramos de escaleras intercalados de diseño siempre diferente. Pérgolas de ladrillo visto, piedra y pilares blancos dan sombra a las zonas más llanas. La vegetación, exótica en su mayoría, es rica y variada en especies.
Jardines mediterráneos
Estos jardines, incluidos en el recinto de la Exposición Internacional de Barcelona de 1929, obtuvieron una gran reputación. Sus autores, Jean Claude Nicolas Forestier y Nicolau M. Rubió Tudurí, crearon un nuevo estilo paisajístico de raíz mediterránea.
La vegetación preexistente, desde plantas autóctonas hasta árboles frutales del pasado agrícola de la montaña, se integró en los jardines con un concepto de jardinería renovador y original, que sigue libremente la inspiración de los antiguos jardines árabes y de los "cármenes" de Granada, con una gran presencia de azulejos de cerámica, aguas ornamentales y el cultivo de plantas de flor en macetas colocadas en barandillas y alféizares.
Las escaleras del Generalife
El agua es la esencia del jardín, con pequeños y grandes estanques. Para conectar la parte superior del parque con los Jardines Amargós, actualmente Jardines del Teatre Grec, Forestier diseñó una escalera inspirada en la de los jardines del Generalife, con cascadas en los pasamanos, estanques con fuentes en los rellanos y bancos de piedra para reponerse y disfrutar del frescor y el sonido del agua.
Los jardines de la Font del Gat
Unas pérgolas mirador llevan de unos jardines a otros, unidos por ejes de rampas, escaleras y cascadas que desembocan en la Font del Gat desde donde se pueden contemplar unas magníficas vistas de Barcelona.
Ocupan la pendiente que va desde la parte más alta de los jardines Laribal hasta el paseo de Santa Madrona e integran la popular Font del Gat y un edificio decimonónico. Se trata de un conjunto de caminos, terrazas y rincones que se adaptan al relieve con escaleras, rampas y una cascada monumental con cuatro secciones separadas por caminos y canales, que van conectando los diferentes tramos.
Todo está cubierto por un espeso follaje mediterráneo y árboles frutales, como nísperos e higueras y palmeras de enormes copas. Si lo miramos desde abajo, junto al paseo de Santa Madrona, vemos que los altísimos cipreses situados al inicio de la cascada acentúan la verticalidad del conjunto.
La rosaleda de la Colla de l'Arròs
Una glorieta de cipreses, con una pequeña fuente en el centro, marca el inicio de un recorrido que, debajo de una pérgola con pilares de terracota, conduce a un patio ovalado y recluido también rodeado de cipreses: la rosaleda de la Colla de l'Arròs
El jardín se configura en diferentes planos, con aire de patio, que están rodeados de cipreses e hileras de aligustres. En diferentes parterres rectangulares se han plantado antiguas variedades de rosales. En el centro destaca un pequeño estanque cuadrangular con azulejos esmaltados, presidido en la parte superior por Estival, una escultura de un desnudo femenino en mármol que contempla la rosaleda y, más allá, Barcelona.
La plaza del Claustre
De hecho se trata del jardín de Sant Miquel, junto al paseo de Santa Madrona, en el que destacan tres grandes plataneros que ya existían antes de que Forestier diseñara los jardines. Al fondo, los muros de lo que antes había sido una antigua cantera confieren a esta parte de los jardines Laribal un aire recluido y claustral. Y de aquí viene su nombre. A la derecha encontramos un corredor que comunica con los jardines del Teatre Grec.
Vegetación
La vegetación madura y mediterránea da sentido a los jardines. Así, entre otras especies, hay pinos carrascos (Pinus halepensis), pinos piñoneros (Pinus pinea), laureles (Laurus nobilis), naranjos amargos (Citrus aurantium) y cipreses (Cupressus sempervirens).
Las escaleras del Generalife están rodeadas de grandes acacias (Robinia pseudoacacia) y arbustos como el aligustre (Ligustrum lucidum) y el pitosporo (Pittosporum tobira), una especie de arbusto muy abundante en los jardines, junto con la adelfa (Nerium oleander) y el evónimo del Japón (Evonymus japonicus).
En macetas de terracota lucen las elegantes hojas de salón (Aspidistra elatior) y los geranios (Pelargonium sp.), al tiempo que las glicinias (Wisteria sinensis) y los rosales de Banksia (Rosa banksiae) cubren las pérgolas. En diferentes lugares de los jardines encontramos plantas aromáticas, como la lavanda (Lavandula angustifolia), el romero (Rosmarinus officinalis) y otras especies tapizantes como la hiedra (Hedera helix).
En los jardines de Laribal también encontramos pinos australianos (Casuarina cunninghamiana), eucaliptos (Eucalyptus globulus), cipreses de Lambert (Cupressus macrocarpa), cedros del Himalaya (Cedrus deodara) y, en la plaza del Claustre, tres grandes ejemplares de platanero (Platanus X hispanica).
Arte y arquitectura
En estos jardines la escultura es notable, tanto por su calidad como por su belleza. Presidiendo la rosaleda tenemos el Estival, de Jaume Otero (1929), una figura femenina sentada, de estilo art decó y realizada en mármol.
La Noia de la trena, de Josep Viladomat (1928), es otro desnudo femenino, en este caso de bronce, que representa una joven que se recoge el pelo en una trenza. Se encuentra en una placeta sombría muy cerca de las escaleras que comunican con los otros niveles de los jardines.
La tercera escultura también es de una mujer y de Josep Viladomat, que la realizó en base a un original de Manolo Hugué. Se trata de Repòs (1925), un desnudo femenino de piedra, a tamaño natural, situado en una placeta circular muy cerca de la entrada que hay al lado de la Fundació Joan Miró.
Cerca de la rosaleda se encuentra una fuente de cerámica esmaltada con motivos marinos, coronada con un surtidor, obra del ceramista Llorenç Artigas.
La Font del Gat
El agua de la Font del Gat mana desde la cabeza de un felino, esculpido por Joan Antoni Homs en 1918, año en el que se terminaron los jardines Laribal. Esta fuente era una de las muchas que manaban en aquellos momentos en Barcelona y, el lugar en el que se encuentra era muy popular en la ciudad a finales del siglo XIX.
La fuente era tan popular que el periodista y autor teatral Joan Amich escribió una canción: "La Marieta de l'ull viu", que todavía hoy se canta e incluye la estrofa: "Baixant de la font del Gat, / una noia, una noia, / baixant de la font del Gat / una noia amb un soldat...".
Historia
A principios del siglo pasado, en la zona que hoy ocupan los jardines Laribal se celebraban encuentros populares, sobre todo en la Font del Gat, o reuniones selectas, como las que hacía la Colla de l'Arròs, un grupo medio gastronómico medio político que tuvo una cierta influencia en la Barcelona del final del siglo XIX y principio del XX y que se reunía en un pequeño edificio situado donde ahora se encuentra el Museo Etnológico.
La parte alta de los actuales jardines pertenecía a la finca de Josep Laribal, un prestigioso abogado cuyo nombre se ha perpetuado en los jardines. Allí se hizo construir un chalet neoárabe, rodeado de unos jardines eclécticos, con grandes árboles.
Tras la muerte de Laribal en 1908, la finca fue adquirida por el Ayuntamiento que fundó en ella la Escola del Bosc, que todavía existe. Simultáneamente, se iniciaron los estudios para urbanizar y enjardinar la montaña, con un proyecto global que inicialmente se encargó a Josep Amargós.
La Exposición de 1929
Los jardines de Laribal, terminados en el 1922, también están vinculados con un acontecimiento posterior: la Exposición Internacional de Barcelona de 1929. Este acontecimiento representó la culminación de un proyecto iniciado en 1905 para organizar en Montjuïc una exposición sobre las industrias eléctricas, la energía emergente de aquel momento.
Uno de los comisarios de la Exposición Internacional de Barcelona fue Francesc Cambó, que encargó los trabajos de ajardinamiento al ingeniero y paisajista francés Jean Claude Nicolas Forestier. Su ayudante fue el joven arquitecto Nicolau M. Rubió i Tudurí, que en 1917 se convertiría en el director de la Dirección de Parques Públicos y Arbolado, antecedente del Servicio de Parques y Jardines de Barcelona, del que fue el primer responsable y una de las personas determinantes en el futuro desarrollo de los espacios verdes públicos de la ciudad.
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Have been playing around with various light and compositions for my lunch! For this set I wanted a slightly darker look, so I used only one light coming from the back behind on the left. I used a Bowens Gemini 500 with large softbox attached. From the front I added some highlights with a small mirror just to make the salmon look a bit more appealing.
Find more information here
My Shadow
by R.L.Stevenson
I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.
The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow--
Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,
And he sometimes goes so little that there's none of him at all.
He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,
And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.
He stays so close behind me, he's a coward you can see;
I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!
One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.
found in
www.lone-star.net/mall/literature/rls/childs-garden-of-ve...
The black pot on the left was found in Mexico.
Japanese metal incense burner with a black patina, identical to another that I have with a green patina. This one is raised on a Chinese wooden base. At the bottom right corner is a cherry wood covered box which holds one of my old pocket watches.
Incense is aromatic biotic material that releases fragrant smoke when burned. The term refers to the material itself, rather than to the aroma that it produces. Incense is used for aesthetic reasons, and in therapy, meditation, and ceremony. It may also be used as a simple deodorant or insectifuge.
Incense is composed of aromatic plant materials, often combined with essential oils. The forms taken by incense differ with the underlying culture, and have changed with advances in technology and increasing number of uses.
Incense can generally be separated into two main types: "indirect-burning" and "direct-burning". Indirect-burning incense (or "non-combustible incense") is not capable of burning on its own, and requires a separate heat source. Direct-burning incense (or "combustible incense") is lit directly by a flame and then fanned or blown out, leaving a glowing ember that smoulders and releases a smoky fragrance. Direct-burning incense is either a paste formed around a bamboo stick, or a paste that is extruded into a stick or cone shape.
HISTORY:
The word incense comes from Latin incendere meaning "to burn".
Combustible bouquets were used by the ancient Egyptians, who employed incense in both pragmatic and mystical capacities. Incense was burnt to counteract or obscure malodorous products of human habitation, but was widely perceived to also deter malevolent demons and appease the gods with its pleasant aroma. Resin balls were found in many prehistoric Egyptian tombs in El Mahasna, giving evidence for the prominence of incense and related compounds in Egyptian antiquity. One of the oldest extant incense burners originates from the 5th dynasty. The Temple of Deir-el-Bahari in Egypt contains a series of carvings that depict an expedition for incense.
The Babylonians used incense while offering prayers to divining oracles. Incense spread from there to Greece and Rome.
Incense burners have been found in the Indus Civilization (3300–1300 BCE). Evidence suggests oils were used mainly for their aroma. India also adopted techniques from East Asia, adapting the formulation to encompass aromatic roots and other indigenous flora. This was the first usage of subterranean plant parts in incense. New herbs like Sarsaparilla seeds, frankincense, and cypress were used by Indians.
At around 2000 BCE, Ancient China began the use of incense in the religious sense, namely for worship. Incense was used by Chinese cultures from Neolithic times and became more widespread in the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties. The earliest documented use of incense comes from the ancient Chinese, who employed incense composed of herbs and plant products (such as cassia, cinnamon, styrax, and sandalwood) as a component of numerous formalized ceremonial rites. Incense usage reached its peak during the Song dynasty with numerous buildings erected specifically for incense ceremonies.
Brought to Japan in the 6th century by Korean Buddhist monks, who used the mystical aromas in their purification rites, the delicate scents of Koh (high-quality Japanese incense) became a source of amusement and entertainment with nobles in the Imperial Court during the Heian Era 200 years later. During the 14th-century Ashikaga shogunate, a samurai warrior might perfume his helmet and armor with incense to achieve an aura of invincibility (as well as to make a noble gesture to whoever might take his head in battle). It wasn't until the Muromachi period during the 15th and 16th century that incense appreciation (kōdō) spread to the upper and middle classes of Japanese society.
COMPOSITION:
A variety of materials have been used in making incense. Historically there has been a preference for using locally available ingredients. For example, sage and cedar were used by the indigenous peoples of North America. Trading in incense materials comprised a major part of commerce along the Silk Road and other trade routes, one notably called the Incense Route.
Local knowledge and tools were extremely influential on the style, but methods were also influenced by migrations of foreigners, such as clergy and physicians.
COMBUSTIBLE BASE:
The combustible base of a direct burning incense mixture not only binds the fragrant material together but also allows the produced incense to burn with a self-sustained ember, which propagates slowly and evenly through an entire piece of incense with such regularity that it can be used to mark time. The base is chosen such that it does not produce a perceptible smell. Commercially, two types of incense base predominate:
Fuel and oxidizer mixtures: Charcoal or wood powder provides the fuel for combustion while an oxidizer such as sodium nitrate or potassium nitrate sustains the burning of the incense. Fragrant materials are added to the base prior to shaping, as in the case of powdered incense materials, or after, as in the case of essential oils. The formula for charcoal-based incense is superficially similar to black powder, though it lacks the sulfur.
Natural plant-based binders: Gums such as Gum Arabic or Gum Tragacanth are used to bind the mixture together. Mucilaginous material, which can be derived from many botanical sources, is mixed with fragrant materials and water. The mucilage from the wet binding powder holds the fragrant material together while the cellulose in the powder combusts to form a stable ember when lit. The dry binding powder usually comprises about 10% of the dry weight in the finished incense. These include:
Makko (incense powder) made from the bark of various trees in the genus Persea (such as Persea thunbergii) Xiangnan pi (made from the bark of trees of genus Phoebe such as Phoebe nanmu or Persea zuihoensis.
Jigit: a resin based binder used in India
Laha or Dar: bark based powders used in Nepal, Tibet, and other East Asian countries.
Typical compositions burn at a temperature between 220 °C and 260 °C.
TYPES:
Incense is available in various forms and degrees of processing. They can generally be separated into "direct-burning" and "indirect-burning" types. Preference for one form or another varies with culture, tradition, and personal taste. The two differ in their composition due to the former's requirement for even, stable, and sustained burning.
INDIRECT-BURNING:
Indirect-burning incense, also called "non-combustible incense", is an aromatic material or combination of materials, such as resins, that does not contain combustible material and so requires a separate heat source. Finer forms tend to burn more rapidly, while coarsely ground or whole chunks may be consumed very gradually, having less surface area. Heat is traditionally provided by charcoal or glowing embers. In the West, the best known incense materials of this type are the resins frankincense and myrrh, likely due to their numerous mentions in the Bible. Frankincense means "pure incense", though in common usage refers specifically to the resin of the boswellia tree.
Whole: The incense material is burned directly in raw form on top of coal embers.
Powdered or granulated: Incense broken into smaller pieces burns quickly and provides brief but intense odor.
Paste: Powdered or granulated incense material is mixed with a sticky incombustible binder, such as dried fruit, honey, or a soft resin and then formed to balls or small pastilles. These may then be allowed to mature in a controlled environment where the fragrances can commingle and unite. Much Arabian incense, also called "Bukhoor" or "Bakhoor", is of this type, and Japan has a history of kneaded incense, called nerikō or awasekō, made using this method. Within the Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition, raw frankincense is ground into a fine powder and then mixed with various sweet-smelling essential oils.
DIRECT-BURNING:
Direct-burning incense, also called "combustible incense", is lit directly by a flame. The glowing ember on the incense will continue to smoulder and burn the rest of the incense without further application of external heat or flame. Direct-burning incense is either extruded, pressed into forms, or coated onto a supporting material. This class of incense is made from a moldable substrate of fragrant finely ground (or liquid) incense materials and odourless binder. The composition must be adjusted to provide fragrance in the proper concentration and to ensure even burning. The following types are commonly encountered, though direct-burning incense can take nearly any form, whether for expedience or whimsy.
Coil: Extruded and shaped into a coil without a core, coil incense can burn for an extended period, from hours to days, and is commonly produced and used in Chinese cultures.
Cone: Incense in this form burns relatively quickly. Incense cones were invented in Japan in the 1800s.
Cored stick: A supporting core of bamboo is coated with a thick layer of incense material that burns away with the core. Higher-quality variations have fragrant sandalwood cores. This type of incense is commonly produced in India and China. When used in Chinese folk religion, these are sometimes known as "joss sticks".
Dhoop or solid stick: With no bamboo core, dhoop incense is easily broken for portion control. This is the most commonly produced form of incense in Japan and Tibet.
Powder: The loose incense powder used for making indirect burning incense is sometimes burned without further processing. Powder incense is typically packed into long trails on top of wood ash using a stencil and burned in special censers or incense clocks.
Paper: Paper infused with incense, folded accordion style, is lit and blown out. Examples include Carta d'Armenia and Papier d'Arménie.
Rope: The incense powder is rolled into paper sheets, which are then rolled into ropes, twisted tightly, then doubled over and twisted again, yielding a two-strand rope. The larger end is the bight, and may be stood vertically, in a shallow dish of sand or pebbles. The smaller (pointed) end is lit. This type of incense is easily transported and stays fresh for extremely long periods. It has been used for centuries in Tibet and Nepal.
Moxa tablets, which are disks of powdered mugwort used in Traditional Chinese medicine for moxibustion, are not incenses; the treatment is by heat rather than fragrance.
Incense sticks may be termed joss sticks, especially in parts of East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia. Among ethnic Chinese and Chinese-influenced communities these are traditionally burned at temples, before the threshold of a home or business, before an image of a religious divinity or local spirit, or in shrines, large and small, found at the main entrance of every village. Here the earth god is propitiated in the hope of bringing wealth and health to the village. They can also be burned in front of a door or open window as an offering to heaven, or the devas. The word "joss" is derived from the Latin deus (god) via the Portuguese deos through the Javanese dejos, through Chinese pidgin English.
PRODUCTION:
The raw materials are powdered and then mixed together with a binder to form a paste, which, for direct burning incense, is then cut and dried into pellets. Incense of the Athonite Orthodox Christian tradition is made by powdering frankincense or fir resin, mixing it with essential oils. Floral fragrances are the most common, but citrus such as lemon is not uncommon. The incense mixture is then rolled out into a slab approximately 1 cm thick and left until the slab has firmed. It is then cut into small cubes, coated with clay powder to prevent adhesion, and allowed to fully harden and dry. In Greece this rolled incense resin is called 'Moskolibano', and generally comes in either a pink or green colour denoting the fragrance, with pink being rose and green being jasmine.
Certain proportions are necessary for direct-burning incense:
Oil content: an excess of oils may prevent incense from smoldering effectively. Resinous materials such as myrrh and frankincense are typically balanced with "dry" materials such as wood, bark and leaf powders.
Oxidizer quantity: Too little oxidizer in gum-bound incense may prevent the incense from igniting, while too much will cause the incense to burn too quickly, without producing fragrant smoke.
Binder: Water-soluble binders such as "makko" ensure that the incense mixture does not crumble when dry, dilute the mixture.
Mixture density: Incense mixtures made with natural binders must not be combined with too much water in mixing, or over-compressed while being formed, which would result in either uneven air distribution or undesirable density in the mixture, causing the incense to burn unevenly, too slowly, or too quickly.
Particulate size: The incense mixture has to be well pulverized with similarly sized particulates. Uneven and large particulates result in uneven burning and inconsistent aroma production when burned.
"Dipped" or "hand-dipped" direct-burning incense is created by dipping "incense blanks" made of unscented combustible dust into any suitable kind of essential or fragrance oil. These are often sold in the United States by flea-market and sidewalk vendors who have developed their own styles. This form of incense requires the least skill and equipment to manufacture, since the blanks are pre-formed in China or South East Asia.
Incense mixtures can be extruded or pressed into shapes. Small quantities of water are combined with the fragrance and incense base mixture and kneaded into a hard dough. The incense dough is then pressed into shaped forms to create cone and smaller coiled incense, or forced through a hydraulic press for solid stick incense. The formed incense is then trimmed and slowly dried. Incense produced in this fashion has a tendency to warp or become misshapen when improperly dried, and as such must be placed in climate-controlled rooms and rotated several times through the drying process.
Traditionally, the bamboo core of cored stick incense is prepared by hand from Phyllostachys heterocycla cv. pubescens since this species produces thick wood and easily burns to ashes in the incense stick. In a process known as "splitting the foot of the incense stick", the bamboo is trimmed to length, soaked, peeled, and split in halves until the thin sticks of bamboo have square cross sections of less than 3mm. This process has been largely replaced by machines in modern incense production.
In the case of cored incensed sticks, several methods are employed to coat the sticks cores with incense mixture:
Paste rolling: A wet, malleable paste of incense mixture is first rolled into a long, thin coil, using a paddle. Then, a thin stick is put next to the coil and the stick and paste are rolled together until the stick is centered in the mixture and the desired thickness is achieved. The stick is then cut to the desired length and dried.
Powder-coating: Powder-coating is used mainly to produce cored incense of either larger coil (up to 1 meter in diameter) or cored stick forms. A bundle of the supporting material (typically thin bamboo or sandalwood slivers) is soaked in water or a thin water/glue mixture for a short time. The thin sticks are evenly separated, then dipped into a tray of incense powder consisting of fragrance materials and occasionally a plant-based binder. The dry incense powder is then tossed and piled over the sticks while they are spread apart. The sticks are then gently rolled and packed to maintain roundness while more incense powder is repeatedly tossed onto the sticks. Three to four layers of powder are coated onto the sticks, forming a 2 mm thick layer of incense material on the stick. The coated incense is then allowed to dry in open air. Additional coatings of incense mixture can be applied after each period of successive drying. Incense sticks produced in this fashion and burned in temples of Chinese folk religion can have a thickness between 2 and 4 millimeters.
Compression: A damp powder is mechanically formed around a cored stick by compression, similar to the way uncored sticks are formed. This form is becoming more common due to the higher labor cost of producing powder-coated or paste-rolled sticks.
BURNING INCENSE:
Indirect-burning incense burned directly on top of a heat source or on a hot metal plate in a censer or thurible.
In Japan a similar censer called a egōro (柄香炉) is used by several Buddhist sects. The egōro is usually made of brass, with a long handle and no chain. Instead of charcoal, makkō powder is poured into a depression made in a bed of ash. The makkō is lit and the incense mixture is burned on top. This method is known as sonae-kō (religious burning).
For direct-burning incense, the tip or end of the incense is ignited with a flame or other heat source until the incense begins to turn into ash at the burning end. The flame is then fanned or blown out, leaving the incense to smolder.
CULTURAL VARIATIONS:
ARABIAN:
In most Arab countries, incense is burned in the form of scented chips or blocks called bakhoor (Arabic: بخور [bɑˈxuːɾ, bʊ-]. Incense is used on special occasions like weddings or on Fridays or generally to perfume the house. The bakhoor is usually burned in a mabkhara, a traditional incense burner (censer) similar to the Somali Dabqaad. It is customary in many Arab countries to pass bakhoor among the guests in the majlis ('congregation'). This is done as a gesture of hospitality.
CHINESE:
For over two thousand years, the Chinese have used incense in religious ceremonies, ancestor veneration, Traditional Chinese medicine, and daily life. Agarwood (chénxiāng) and sandalwood (tánxiāng) are the two most important ingredients in Chinese incense.
Along with the introduction of Buddhism in China came calibrated incense sticks and incense clocks. The first known record is by poet Yu Jianwu (487-551): "By burning incense we know the o'clock of the night, With graduated candles we confirm the tally of the watches." The use of these incense timekeeping devices spread from Buddhist monasteries into Chinese secular society.
Incense-stick burning is an everyday practice in traditional Chinese religion. There are many different types of stick used for different purposes or on different festive days. Many of them are long and thin. Sticks are mostly coloured yellow, red, or more rarely, black. Thick sticks are used for special ceremonies, such as funerals. Spiral incense, with exceedingly long burn times, is often hung from temple ceilings. In some states, such as Taiwan,
Singapore, or Malaysia, where they celebrate the Ghost Festival, large, pillar-like dragon incense sticks are sometimes used. These generate so much smoke and heat that they are only burned outside.
Chinese incense sticks for use in popular religion are generally odorless or only use the slightest trace of jasmine or rose, since it is the smoke, not the scent, which is important in conveying the prayers of the faithful to heaven. They are composed of the dried powdered bark of a non-scented species of cinnamon native to Cambodia, Cinnamomum cambodianum. Inexpensive packs of 300 are often found for sale in Chinese supermarkets. Though they contain no sandalwood, they often include the Chinese character for sandalwood on the label, as a generic term for incense.
Highly scented Chinese incense sticks are used by some Buddhists. These are often quite expensive due to the use of large amounts of sandalwood, agarwood, or floral scents used. The sandalwood used in Chinese incenses does not come from India, its native home, but rather from groves planted within Chinese territory. Sites belonging to Tzu Chi, Chung Tai Shan, Dharma Drum Mountain, Xingtian Temple, or City of Ten Thousand Buddhas do not use incense.
INDIAN:
Incense sticks, also known as agarbathi (or agarbatti) and joss sticks, in which an incense paste is rolled or moulded around a bamboo stick, are the main forms of incense in India. The bamboo method originated in India, and is distinct from the Nepali/Tibetan and Japanese methods of stick making without bamboo cores. Though the method is also used in the west, it is strongly associated with India.
The basic ingredients are the bamboo stick, the paste (generally made of charcoal dust and joss/jiggit/gum/tabu powder – an adhesive made from the bark of litsea glutinosa and other trees), and the perfume ingredients - which would be a masala (spice mix) powder of ground ingredients into which the stick would be rolled, or a perfume liquid sometimes consisting of synthetic
ingredients into which the stick would be dipped. Perfume is sometimes sprayed on the coated sticks. Stick machines are sometimes used, which coat the stick with paste and perfume, though the bulk of production is done by hand rolling at home. There are about 5,000 incense companies in India that take raw unperfumed sticks hand-rolled by approximately 200,000 women working part-time at home, and then apply their own brand of perfume, and package the sticks for sale. An experienced home-worker can produce 4,000 raw sticks a day. There are about 50 large companies that together account for up to 30% of the market, and around 500 of the companies, including a significant number of the main ones, including Moksh Agarbatti and Cycle Pure, are based in Mysore.
JEWISH TEMPLE IN JERUSALEM:
KETORET:
Ketoret was the incense offered in the Temple in Jerusalem and is stated in the Book of Exodus to be a mixture of stacte, onycha, galbanum and frankincense.
TIBETAN:
Tibetan incense refers to a common style of incense found in Tibet, Nepal, and Bhutan. These incenses have a characteristic "earthy" scent to them. Ingredients vary from cinnamon, clove, and juniper, to kusum flower, ashvagandha, and sahi jeera.
Many Tibetan incenses are thought to have medicinal properties. Their recipes come from ancient Vedic texts that are based on even older Ayurvedic medical texts. The recipes have remained unchanged for centuries.
JAPANESE:
In Japan incense appreciation folklore includes art, culture, history, and ceremony. It can be compared to and has some of the same qualities as music, art, or literature. Incense burning may occasionally take place within the tea ceremony, just like calligraphy, ikebana, and scroll arrangement. The art of incense appreciation, or koh-do, is generally practiced as a separate art form from the tea ceremony, and usually within a tea room of traditional Zen design.
Agarwood (沈香 Jinkō) and sandalwood (白檀 byakudan) are the two most important ingredients in Japanese incense. Agarwood is known as "jinkō" in Japan, which translates as "incense that sinks in water", due to the weight of the resin in the wood. Sandalwood is one of the most calming incense ingredients and lends itself well to meditation. It is also used in the Japanese tea ceremony. The most valued Sandalwood comes from Mysore in the state of Karnataka in India.
Another important ingredient in Japanese incense is kyara (伽羅). Kyara is one kind of agarwood (Japanese incense companies divide agarwood into 6 categories depending on the region obtained and properties of the agarwood). Kyara is currently worth more than its weight in gold.
Some terms used in Japanese incense culture include:
Incense arts: [香道, kodo]
Agarwood: [ 沈香 ] – from heartwood from Aquilaria trees, unique, the incense wood most used in incense ceremony, other names are: lignum aloes or aloeswood, gaharu, jinko, or oud.
Censer/Incense burner: [香爐] – usually small and used for heating incense not burning, or larger and used for burning
Charcoal: [木炭] – only the odorless kind is used.
Incense woods: [ 香木 ] – a naturally fragrant resinous wood.
USAGE:
PRACTICAL:
Incense fragrances can be of such great strength that they obscure other less desirable odours. This utility led to the use of incense in funerary ceremonies because the incense could smother the scent of decay. An example, as well as of religious use, is the giant Botafumeiro thurible that swings from the ceiling of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. It is used in part to mask the scent of the many tired, unwashed pilgrims huddled together in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.
A similar utilitarian use of incense can be found in the post-Reformation Church of England. Although the ceremonial use of incense was abandoned until the Oxford Movement, it was common to have incense (typically frankincense) burned before grand occasions, when the church would be crowded. The frankincense was carried about by a member of the vestry before the service in a vessel called a 'perfuming pan'. In iconography of the day, this vessel is shown to be elongated and flat, with a single long handle on one side. The perfuming pan was used instead of the thurible, as the latter would have likely offended the Protestant sensibilities of the 17th and 18th centuries.
The regular burning of direct-burning incense has been used for chronological measurement in incense clocks. These devices can range from a simple trail of incense material calibrated to burn in a specific time period, to elaborate and ornate instruments with bells or gongs, designed to involve multiple senses.
Incense made from materials such as citronella can repel mosquitoes and other irritating, distracting, or pestilential insects. This use has been deployed in concert with religious uses by Zen Buddhists who claim that the incense that is part of their meditative practice is designed to keep bothersome insects from distracting the practitioner. Currently, more effective pyrethroid-based mosquito repellent incense is widely available in Asia.
Papier d'Arménie was originally sold as a disinfectant as well as for the fragrance.
Incense is also used often by people who smoke indoors and do not want the smell to linger.
AESTHETIC:
Many people burn incense to appreciate its smell, without assigning any other specific significance to it, in the same way that the foregoing items can be produced or consumed solely for the contemplation or enjoyment of the aroma. An example is the kōdō (香道), where (frequently costly) raw incense materials such as agarwood are appreciated in a formal setting.
RELIGIOUS:
Religious use of incense is prevalent in many cultures and may have roots in the practical and aesthetic uses, considering that many of these religions have little else in common. One common motif is incense as a form of sacrificial offering to a deity. Such use was common in Judaic worship and remains in use for example in the Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican churches, Taoist and Buddhist Chinese jingxiang (敬香 "offer incense), etc.
Aphrodisiac Incense has been used as an aphrodisiac in some cultures. Both ancient Greek and ancient Egyptian mythology suggest the usage of incense by goddesses and nymphs. Incense is thought to heighten sexual desires and sexual attraction.
Time-keeper Incense clocks are used to time social, medical and religious practices in parts of eastern Asia. They are primarily used in Buddhism as a timer of mediation and prayer. Different types of incense burn at different rates; therefore, different incense are used for different practices. The duration of burning ranges from minutes to months.
Healing stone cleanser Incense is claimed to cleanse and restore energy in healing stones. The technique used is called “smudging” and is done by holding a healing stone over the smoke of burning incense for 20 to 30 seconds. Some people believe that this process not only restores energy but eliminates negative energy.
HEALTH RISK FROM INCENSE SMOKE:
Incense smoke contains various contaminants including gaseous pollutants, such as carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and adsorbed toxic pollutants (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and toxic metals). The solid particles range between ~10 and 500 nm. In a comparison, Indian sandalwood was found to have the highest emission rate, followed by Japanese aloeswood, then Taiwanese aloeswood, while Chinese smokeless sandalwood had the least.
Research carried out in Taiwan in 2001 linked the burning of incense sticks to the slow accumulation of potential carcinogens in a poorly ventilated environment by measuring the levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (including benzopyrene) within Buddhist temples. The study found gaseous aliphatic aldehydes, which are carcinogenic and mutagenic, in incense smoke.
A survey of risk factors for lung cancer, also conducted in Taiwan, noted an inverse association between incense burning and adenocarcinoma of the lung, though the finding was not deemed significant.
In contrast, epidemiologists at the Hong Kong Anti-Cancer Society, Aichi Cancer Center in Nagoya, and several other centers found: "No association was found between exposure to incense burning and respiratory symptoms like chronic cough, chronic sputum, chronic bronchitis, runny nose, wheezing, asthma, allergic rhinitis, or pneumonia among the three populations studied: i.e. primary school children, their non-smoking mothers, or a group of older non-smoking female controls. Incense burning did not affect lung cancer risk among non-smokers, but it significantly reduced risk among smokers, even after adjusting for lifetime smoking amount." However, the researchers qualified their findings by noting that incense burning in the studied population was associated with certain low-cancer-risk dietary habits, and concluded that "diet can be a significant confounder of epidemiological studies on air pollution and respiratory health."
Although several studies have not shown a link between incense and lung cancer, many other types of cancer have been directly linked to burning incense. A study published in 2008 in the medical journal Cancer found that incense use is associated with a statistically significant higher risk of cancers of the upper respiratory tract, with the exception of nasopharyngeal cancer. Those who used incense heavily also were 80% more likely to develop squamous-cell carcinomas. The link between incense use and increased cancer risk held when the researchers weighed other factors, including cigarette smoking, diet and drinking habits. The research team noted that "This association is consistent with a large number of studies identifying carcinogens in incense smoke, and given the widespread and sometimes involuntary exposure to smoke from burning incense, these findings carry significant public health implications."
In 2015, the South China University of Technology found toxicity of incense to Chinese hamsters' ovarian cells to be even higher than cigarettes.
Incensole acetate, a component of Frankincense, has been shown to have anxiolytic-like and antidepressive-like effects in mice, mediated by activation of poorly-understood TRPV3 ion channels in the brain.
J8121, 1953 DENNIS TRITON 2 WITH READING BODY. FIRST TIME I HAVE EVER SEEN A PICTURE OF ONE OF THESE.
Thank You for Your Visit, Have a Nice Day is a performance piece by Agata Olek (Facebook / Flickr / Portfolio) created for Art in Odd Places:SIGN, an annual festival exploring the odd, ordinary and ingenious in the spectacle of daily life.
Curated by Erin Donnelly and Radhika Subramaniam
Director of AIOP: Ed Woodham
Artist Statement
"Inspired by a uniformed attendant holding the sign Hold the Handrail in a Taipei metro station, I've created this moving installation/performance piece. In wearable sculptures of multicolored crocheted camouflage, my performers appear in various sites on 14th Street, displaying photographs of signs I've collected from different countries that are in emphatic, ironic or amused dialogue with their location."
See also video by Technology Artist filmed on the same day at www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfjXrKQVwPU
More information about the festival
Press
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Related SML Univese
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Having received several requests, this is my first attempt at instructions.
Follow the sequence in the full photoset, not the order that Flickr uploaded them.
Good to have the Jim Clark Rally back after a 5 year absence. Here David Bogie comes through the ford at Langton in his old Ford Escort. He finished second, surrounded by all the modern 4 wheel drive machinery. Some drive.
Fotos Nuevas Mayo 2013
© Álbum 0158
By Catedrales e Iglesias
By Cathedrals and Churches
Arquidiócesis Primada de México
Ex Convento Regina Coeli (Natividad de María Santísima)
Párroco Señor Presbítero José Cenobio Ramírez Chávez
Calle de Bolivar No 92
Colonia Centro
C.P. 6080
Delegación Cuauhtémoc
Tel. 5709-2640
Tel.
Fax. 5709-6272
En 1573 la administración virreinal cedió amplios terrenos a las religiosas concepcionistas en el viejo calpulli prehispánico de Moyotlán (más tarde barrio de San Juan) para que establecieran un convento.
La fundación, dedicada a la Reina del Cielo traducción de la expresión latina Regina Coeli y a la Natividad de la Virgen María, fue aprobada por el Papa Gregorio XIII en 1578.
El templo del monasterio se edificó en el ángulo que forman las actuales calles de Bolívar y Regina, frente a un espacio libre que ya en el siglo XVII se conocía con el nombre de Plaza Chiquita de Regina. Su forma irregular se origino en el trazo de una de las acequias que atravesaban ese baldío. El convento y el templo primitivos fueron muy pobres, con cimentación deficiente.
La reestructuración de estos edificios se realizó en 1656 a expensas de Melchor de Terreros. El templo se reformo después y se abrió el 13 de septiembre de 1731. La obra la proyectó el arquitecto Miguel Custodio Durán y la financió el arzobispo José Lanciego y Eguilaz.
Como todas las plazas y calles de la ciudad colonial anteriores a la gestión del virrey Revillagigedo, la Plaza de Regina no escapó a la suciedad y abandono en que se encontraban los espacios exteriores de la metrópoli: falta de drenaje conveniente, encharcamientos constantes, ausencia de empedrados y banquetas y carencia de iluminación nocturna, que la convertían en un lugar peligroso durante las noches. Además, en ella frecuentemente se asentaban tianguis y tablados de toda índole, habiendo sido utilizada, incluso, para matanza de animales, mezclándose a todas esas incomodidades el espectáculo de mendigos y menesterosos que se aposentaban en ella durante las funciones religiosas.
Transformación radical sufrió la plaza al ser exclaustradas las monjas concepcionistas, conjuntamente con las de otras órdenes religiosas, el 8 de marzo de 1863, y aunque estas volvieron al convento durante el imperio de Maximiliano de Habsburgo, el 14 de noviembre de 1867 se entregó el convento a la Secretaría de Guerra, sirviendo de cuartel hasta el 15 de junio de 1871, cuando el gobierno de la República lo dió, en pago de adeudos, al acaudalado Ramón Obregón.
El templo, por su parte, permaneció abierto al culto. Un informe rendido por el regidor del ramo en 1868, hace mención de las obras realizadas para que desaparecieran la insalubridad y los muladares acumulados en la plaza, donde ya existía una fuente pública que cuidaban las autoridades de la ciudad, insistiendo en que debía barrerse y regarse todos los días "por los aguadores que concurren a la fuente de Regina a sacar agua", así como para que los areneros, carboneros, zacateros o cualquier otro tratante de este género, asearan el lugar que ocupasen con sus mercaderías. Además, en febrero de ese mismo año, se instalaron faroles de hojalata con aparatos de gas líquido, de trementina, de veinte luces, sustituyendo al alumbrado de aceite instalado por la administración colonial.
Gracias a la generosidad y filantropía de la señorita María Concepción Máxima Béistegui y García, quien a su muerte, ocurrida en 1873, cedió sus bienes para la fundación de un hospital en lo que fuera el Convento de Regina, se pudieron salvar de la destrucción, que se había iniciado poco antes, el claustro principal y las crujías adyacentes al mismo. Así, el denominado Hospital Concepción Béistegui, después de laboriosa adaptación, fue inaugurado por el Gral. Porfirio Díaz el 21 de marzo de 1886.
El resto del convento fue dividido en lotes, construyéndose en su lugar varias casas y locales sin ningún valor arquitectónico. En 1967, las autoridades del Departamento del Distrito Federal, ante la necesidad de contar con amplios espacios abiertos en esta zona de la ciudad, eligieron la Plaza de Regina como una de las primeras en la restauración de los centros cívicos capitalinos.
Entonces la plaza fue cerrada al tránsito vehicular en el tramo de la calle de Regina que corría frente al templo, dejándolo fluir únicamente por la calle lateral ubicada al norte de la plaza, y llevando el pavimento pétreo, en adoquín de San Luis Potosí, hasta la fachada misma del templo. Los árboles existentes fueron reubicados al norte de la plaza para permitir mayor visibilidad al edificio.
Informacion tomada de
www.ciudadanosenred.org.mx/node/16488
Ex Convent Regina Coeli (Nativity of Mary)
Mr. Priest Pastor Jose Ramirez Chavez Cenobio
Bolivar Street No 92
Cologne Center
C.P. 6080
Cuauhtemoc
Mexico City
Phone 5709-2640
Phone
Fax. 5709-6272
In 1573 the colonial administration gave the spacious grounds of the old religious Conceptionists calpulli prehispanic Moyotlan (later district of San Juan) to establish a convent.
The foundation, dedicated to the Queen of Heaven translation of the Latin Regina Coeli and the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, was approved by Pope Gregory XIII in 1578.
The temple of the monastery was built in the angle formed by the present streets of Bolívar and Regina, compared to free space in the seventeenth century and was known by the name of Piazza Regina Chiquita. Its irregular shape originated in the stroke of one of the canals running through this wasteland. The convent and the primitive church were very poor, poor foundation.
The restructuring of these buildings was performed in 1656 at the expense of Melchor de Terreros. The temple was later reformed and opened on September 13, 1731. The work was designed by the architect Miguel Custodio Durán and funded the Archbishop Jose Lanciego and Eguilaz.
Like all the squares and streets of the colonial city prior to the management of Viceroy Revillagigedo, Plaza Regina did not escape the dirt and neglect that were outside spaces of the metropolis: lack of appropriate drainage, ponding constant, no paving and sidewalks and lack of night lighting, which became a dangerous place at night. Moreover, she often settled swap meets and tablados of all kinds, having been used, even to killing animals, mixing all these discomforts the spectacle of beggars and needy that aposentaban there for religious functions.
Square underwent radical transformation when exclaustradas the Franciscan nuns, together with those of other religious orders, the March 8, 1863, and although these returned to the monastery during the reign of Maximilian of Hapsburg, 14 November 1867 gave the convent to the Secretary of War, serving as headquarters until June 15, 1871, when the government of the Republic gave it in payment of debts, the wealthy Ramón Obregón.
The church, meanwhile, remained open for worship. A report issued by the ruler of the sector in 1868, makes mention of the work undertaken to disappear unhealthiness and middens accumulated in the square, where there was already a public source guarded the city authorities, insisting he swept and watered every day "by the watermen who attend Regina source to draw water" as well as for litter boxes, coal, or any other dealer zacateros of this kind, asearan occupy the place with their merchandise. Moreover, in February of that year, tin lanterns were installed with liquid gas appliances, turpentine, twenty lights, replacing oil lamps installed by the colonial administration.
Thanks to the generosity and philanthropy of Miss Maria Conception High Beistegui and Garcia, who at his death in 1873, transferred its assets to the foundation of a hospital in what was once the Convent of Regina, were saved from destruction, that had begun shortly before, the main cloister and the bays adjacent to it. So-called Beistegui Conception Hospital, after laborious adaptation, was inaugurated by General Porfirio Diaz on March 21, 1886.
The rest of the convent was divided into lots, built several houses in place and local architectural worthless. In 1967, the authorities of the Federal District, to the need for open spaces in this area of the city, chose Regina Square as one of the first in the restoration of civic centers in the capital.
Then the square was closed to traffic on the stretch of Regina Street that ran opposite the temple, just letting it flow down the side street just north of the square, carrying the stone pavement in San Luis Potosi cobble up the facade of the temple itself. Existing trees were relocated to the north of the square to allow greater visibility to the building.
Ryan Keen
Magazzini Generali - Milano
09 Marzo 2014
“I have much to say,” sings Ryan Keen on his track Orelia, and it’s true: he does have plenty to communicate, but then, he’s packed quite a lot into his first quarter-century. And now he’s coming to tell you his stories. The singer-songwriter with the warm, breathy voice, technically virtuosic guitar playing style and armful of confessional and/or observational material is about to become your favourite new bard.
He was born in 1987, in Totnes, to a speech therapist mother and deep sea diver dad. Growing up, he listened to an eclectic mix of music and learnt various guitar styles. He studied Commercial Music at Westminster University with the intention of pursuing a career in the music industry, either in law or management – he did work experience at a Music Management Company, who looked after Zero 7 and David Holmes – when a couple of major events had the galvanising effect of turning his dream of an alternative future as a musician into a reality.
“I lost a friend in my final year at University,” explains Ryan. “He died suddenly from heart failure. He was fit and healthy and it came totally out of the blue. That really rattled me. But that’s what got me started as a singer-songwriter. I realised how fragile and short life is. I had been nervous and shy about performing but now I really wanted to do it. It struck a chord, the realisation that anyone can go at any time, so you might as well have a go.”
It was while still at Uni that he began performing and writing songs for other musicians. His first professional gig was playing for an artist called Lily Mckenzie, and his next was for rising urban star Delilah. His first solo show was in a pub in Stockwell to a crowd of no more than 20.
“I was unbelievably terrified,” he recalls. “It was the most nervous I’ve ever been. I haven’t had stage fright like that since!”
After a period on the open-mic circuit, Ryan began writing and recording his first EP – with Josh Friend of North London dubstep heroes, Modestep – for early 2010 release. Entitled Aiming For The Sun, it featured Thank You, Chasing Shadows, Primrose Hill and the title track.
“It was completely self-released,” he explains. “I sold a few hundred copies at gigs and it helped me get to the next level.”
The next level was winning a competition that took him to annual industry new-artist showcase, South by South West in Texas, where Ryan performed in March 2011. Soon afterwards, he signed a deal with Imagem, the world’s largest independent music publishers, and he found management, enabling him to give up his day job with hip shoe company Author.
That October, he was invited to go on tour with new acoustic sensation Ed Sheeran, an opportunity that would, Ryan admits, provide him with his “first decent exposure”. The trouble was, three weeks before the dates, Ryan severed the tendons in his right hand when he tried to open a bottle of wine without a corkscrew.
“It went massively wrong, the bottle shattered and the glass severed my wrist, cutting down to the bone,” he recounts with a shudder. “It couldn’t have gone much worse. I got rushed to Homerton A&E. Ironically, I’d been sofa surfing for a year because I couldn’t afford rent and, after signing with Imagem I had a bit of money and could afford to rent my own place. It was the first night in my flat in Dalston and I was due to go into the studio the next day to work on my next EP. Instead I had to go to hospital. They had to stop the bleeding, because it was ridiculous – like a horror film, spraying everywhere. I had investigative surgery and then the day after I had surgery to stitch up the tendons. They put me in a cast and once the morphine wore off I was allowed out.”
Luckily, Ryan had an expert physiotherapist who helped him to play guitar with a modified cast still on his right hand. Against all the odds he was able to go on the Sheeran tour, which helped grow his fanbase considerably.
Finally, in January 2012, he finished the Focus EP and the tracks Orelia, See Me Now and In My Mind. The title track was accompanied by a stop-motion video courtesy of his friend Andy Shackleford, who had done similar work for Postman Pat and Fireman Sam. The resulting promo won Best Music Video at the Limelight Video Awards.
The Focus EP effectively served as an invitation to appear at many of the major festivals that summer. There, Ryan would not just perform but also spend the night in his pimped-up VW van with the sound-system and fold-out double bed. But then, he’s a hardy type who grew up surfing down in Devon and learning martial arts.
By 2013, Ryan was supporting Plan B at the iTunes festival and was the only unsigned act appearing on the whole month long bill. He also recorded a live EP and another called Back To The Ocean which featured a duet with Newton Faulkner called Reflections In The Water, which led to an invitation to join him on tour as his special guest. He embarked on his own headline tour and supported Leona Lewis, which saw him playing arenas as well as the Royal Albert Hall in London.
“That was pretty outrageous,” he laughs, “playing such a prestigious venue where a lot of my heroes have played.”
Today, after furious gigging – 260 shows in the last 14 months – Ryan has accrued a sizable fanbase. He’s been remixed by Modestep and made a cameo on a single by rapper Benny Banks. His Twitter followers include everyone from Ed Sheeran to Harry Styles and he’s got the crucial support of Radio 1. He’s also collaborating with some of the scene’s key writers and producers: The Nexus (Lana Del Rey), Craze ‘n’ Hoax (Emeli Sandé), Fink (John Legend, Pro Green) and Dan Dare (Maverick Sabre, Wretch 32). Life couldn’t be better, even if his music is often deliciously sombre and downbeat, with lyrics torn from the pages of his diary and written as a form of therapy.
“My songs can be introspective,” he agrees. “I came to this from a pretty dark place, with my mate dying. That hit me pretty hard. But I always try to write with optimism.”
He cites as an example his song Aiming For The Sun and its lyric, “I’ll keep aiming for the sun so that my shadows fall behind.” “I’m always looking for the silver lining,” he says, “even if the subject matter is dark.”
On his forthcoming debut album, Room For Light – which was self-funded and recorded, largely in a small shed with jazz pianist and producer Patrick Wood – Ryan explores the light and shade of life and love, with a series of songs that are remarkable for their subtly rich arrangements and his intimate style of playing and singing – you can hear him draw breath and feel the scrape of his fingers on the fretboard.
The songs are quietly varied. Opening track Know About Me showcases Ryan’s unusual guitar style and his husky, comforting baritone. Fans of artists from John Martyn to Ray Lamontagne will find much to enjoy here. The song increases in richness as it proceeds, the guitar enhanced by keyboards and strings. Skin And Bones is another fully arranged tune, almost Coldplay-ish, positioning Ryan less as a troubadour and more as a potential band frontman with arena appeal. You can imagine this being sung by big crowds in big venues. See Me Now opens with ambient electronic effects, and has a catchy, textured chorus. Old Scars marries a personal lyric with an infectious melody and a layered arrangement, with guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and backing vocals serving a song exploring memory and loss.
Trouble would have made a perfect way into side two of the vinyl edition of the album: it’s an uptempo, bluesy, Clapton-esque number. By contrast, All This Time is haunting, echoey, the reverb expressing Ryan’s palpable sense of anguished isolation. Body Over Mind has an unusual structure and a jazzily linear rhythm over which Ryan free-associates with shades of Tim Buckley circa Greetings From LA. When The Day Breaks finds him declaring, “I’m haunted by trouble”, and although there is a key change halfway through that strikes a note of caution, the song closes the album in an optimistic way.
The title of the album, Room For Light, was lifted from future single Skin And Bones: “A darker place has more room for light”. With a highly prestigious London show coming up at The Scala as part of his October tour, and the album due the month before, Ryan Keen has good reason to look on the bright side.
Have a good and great day, to all who pass through...
I shall endeavour to get some visits, comments and faves in when I return this evening...
If I have this ID correct, the most unusual feature of this photo is the background granite rock. Usually I find this species scurrying along dark tree branches or trunk... hard to spot and even harder to capture a good clear image. The markings of this species are said to be highly variable and I don't really have a good image match in my limited field guides. (I'm open to ID suggestions and corrections (or confirmations).
IMG_9860; Ornate Tree Lizard
Saw this on the side of a bus in Sri Lanka. Not sure what to make of it but I know that we often looked to the skies whilst being driven around Sri Lanka. Overtaking is a nightmare experience as most of the roads are very narrow and buses and lorries overtake tuk tuks, mopeds and animals whilst being overtaken themselves by cars. We quite often closed our eyes when we could see a car or bus hurtling towards us. You would definitely call it a white knuckle ride. Most vehicles are not insured: in fact some lorries have "we are insured" written on the side of their vehicle as if it was something special. I think this one is just letting you know to keep out of the way.
I have been traveling to Leuven once a month for some 17 months now, and have not, until yesterday, visited the church of St Peter.
It stands in the centre of the town, opposite the ornate Town Hall, and around most of it is a wide pedestrianised area, so it doesn't feel hemmed in.
It is undergoing renovation, and a large plastic sheet separates the chancel from the rest of the church, and in the chancel, called the treasury, are many wonderful items of art. And maybe due to the €3 entrance fee, I had the chancel to myself, and just my colleagues with me when I photographed the rest.
The naive is dominated by a huge wooden pulpit. If that were just it, a large wooden font that would enough. But the font is a carved scene an oak tree, complete with squirrels and cherubs, above a huge sounding board, and above that two palm trees.
I am sure that it wasn't carved from a single piece of wood, if not, the joins are well hidden.
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Saint Peter's Church (Dutch: Sint-Pieterskerk) of Leuven, Belgium, is situated on the city's Grote Markt (main market square), right across the ornate Town Hall. Built mainly in the 15th century in Brabantine Gothic style, the church has a cruciform floor plan and a low bell tower that has never been completed. It is 93 meters long.
The first church on the site, made of wood and presumably founded in 986, burned down in 1176.[1] It was replaced by a Romanesque church, made of stone, featuring a West End flanked by two round towers like at Our Lady's Basilica in Maastricht. Of the Romanesque building only part of the crypt remains, underneath the chancel of the actual church.
Construction of the present Gothic edifice, significantly larger than its predecessor, was begun approximately in 1425, and was continued for more than half a century in a remarkably uniform style, replacing the older church progressively from east (chancel) to west. Its construction period overlapped with that of the Town Hall across the Markt, and in the earlier decades of construction shared the same succession of architects as its civic neighbor: Sulpitius van Vorst to start with, followed by Jan II Keldermans and later on Matheus de Layens. In 1497 the building was practically complete,[1] although modifications, especially at the West End, continued.
In 1458, a fire struck the old Romanesque towers that still flanked the West End of the uncompleted building. The first arrangements for a new tower complex followed quickly, but were never realized. Then, in 1505, Joost Matsys (brother of painter Quentin Matsys) forged an ambitious plan to erect three colossal towers of freestone surmounted by openwork spires, which would have had a grand effect, as the central spire would rise up to about 170 m,[2] making it the world's tallest structure at the time. Insufficient ground stability and funds proved this plan impracticable, as the central tower reached less than a third of its intended height before the project was abandoned in 1541. After the height was further reduced by partial collapses from 1570 to 1604, the main tower now rises barely above the church roof; at its sides are mere stubs. The architect had, however, made a maquette of the original design, which is preserved in the southern transept.
Despite their incomplete status, the towers are mentioned on the UNESCO World Heritage List, as part of the Belfries of Belgium and France.
The church suffered severe damage in both World Wars. In 1914 a fire caused the collapse of the roof and in 1944 a bomb destroyed part of the northern side.
The reconstructed roof is surmounted at the crossing by a flèche, which, unlike the 18th-century cupola that preceded it, blends stylistically with the rest of the church.
A very late (1998) addition is the jacquemart, or golden automaton, which periodically rings a bell near the clock on the gable of the southern transept, above the main southern entrance door.
Despite the devastation during the World Wars, the church remains rich in works of art. The chancel and ambulatory were turned into a museum in 1998, where visitors can view a collection of sculptures, paintings and metalwork.
The church has two paintings by the Flemish Primitive Dirk Bouts on display, the Last Supper (1464-1468) and the Martyrdom of St Erasmus (1465). The street leading towards the West End of the church is named after the artist. The Nazis seized The Last Supper in 1942.[3] Panels from the painting had been sold legitimately to German museums in the 1800s, and Germany was forced to return all the panels as part of the required reparations of the Versailles Treaty after World War I.[3]
An elaborate stone tabernacle (1450), in the form of a hexagonal tower, soars amidst a bunch of crocketed pinnacles to a height of 12.5 meters. A creation of the architect de Layens (1450), it is an example of what is called in Dutch a sacramentstoren, or in German a Sakramentshaus, on which artists lavished more pains than on almost any other artwork.
In side chapels are the tombs of Duke Henry I of Brabant (d. 1235), his wife Matilda (d. 1211) and their daughter Marie (d. 1260). Godfrey II of Leuven is also buried in the church.
A large and elaborate oak pulpit, which is transferred from the abbey church of Ninove, is carved with a life-size representation of Norbert of Xanten falling from a horse.
One of the oldest objects in the art collection is a 12th-century wooden head, being the only remainder of a crucifix burnt in World War I.
There is also Nicolaas de Bruyne's 1442 sculpture of the Madonna and Child enthroned on the seat of wisdom (Sedes Sapientiae). The theme is still used today as the emblem of Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
Moustaches have long been a favourite of sailors and sea captains. This album highlights images from the museum’s collection spanning the Victorian era to the 1980s. Do you know your moustaches? This selection of photographs includes timeless classics such as the ‘Chevron’, the ‘Dali’ and the ‘Handlebar’. There will also be lesser known styles such as the ‘Walrus’, ‘Toothbrush’, ‘Horseshoe’, ‘Pencil’, and the ‘ Lampshade’.
The Australian National Maritime Museum undertakes research and accepts public comments that enhance the information we hold about images in our collection. If you can identify a person, vessel or landmark, write the details in the Comments box below. Thank you for helping caption this important historical image.
ANMM Collection 00022222.
Find out more about Maritime Moustaches on our blog and website.
By T. W. Windeatt. (Read at Torquay, July, 1893.)
The little town and ancient borough of Totnes has during its lengthened history been the birthplace of men, not a few of whom have made their mark in the world, and not the least of these is one born in the present century – Wills, the Australian explorer – whose name deserves to be enshrined in the Transactions of this Association.
William John Wills was born in Totnes on the 5th January, 1834, being the son of William Wills, a surgeon then practising in Totnes, and Sarah, youngest daughter of William Galley, an old and respected inhabitant.* They both spent the latter part of their lives in and died at Torquay. As a boy Wills seems to have early developed an enquiring and thoughtful mind. His father says he was never a child in the common acceptation of the term, as he gave early indication of diligence and discretion scarcely compatible with the helplessness and simplicity of such tender years. He was educated at the Ashburton Grammar School, where he went as a boarder when eleven years of age, and of which school Mr. Paige, who still survives, was then the head master. A deep cutting in one of the benches in the old chapel of St Lawrence, then and now the schoolhouse, “W. J. WILLS” is still to be seen and records his sojourn there. Mr. Fabyan Amery, one of his schoolfellows, speaks of him as having always been a very scientific boy, and very observant of natural phenomena, which he always tried to get some scientific reason for. There appears to have been nothing remarkable in his progress at school, though his master commended his steady diligence and uniform propriety of conduct Mr. Paige remarked on one occasion to his father, “It vexes me that John does not take a top prize, for I see by his countenance that he understands as much, if not more, than any boy in my school; yet from want of readiness in answering he allows very inferior lads to win the tickets from him.”
* Henry Le Visconte, who was first lieutenant in the Erebus, and perished in the Franklin Expedition, was first cousin to Mrs. Wills.
He left school when sixteen and commenced to study medicine in his father’s surgery. In 1852 he studied practical chemistry under Dr. John Stenhouse at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, who spoke of him as one of his most promising pupils, and ventured the assurance that in two years he would be second to none in England in practical chemistry.
In 1852 Dr. Wills determined to join the exodus then pouring out from England to Australia, engaged as medical attendant on board the Ballaarat, and arranged to take out the subject of my sketch, and a younger brother Tom with him. A few days after this arrangement was made Wills came to his father, and with that expression in his countenance so peculiarly his own, said, “My dear father, I have a favour to ask of you. I see my mother is grieving, although she says nothing, at our all leaving her together. Let Tom and me go alone. I will pledge myself to take care of him.” After a consultation this new plan was agreed upon. Dr. Wills released himself from his engagement with Messrs. Simpkins and Marshall for the Ballaarat, and secured two berths for the boys in one of Mr. W. S. Lindsay’s ships, which at that time were conveying living freights to Melbourne, their Channel port of departure being Dartmouth.
Wills’s love of knowledge in its details is evidenced by a story told by his father of him at this time. “I found,” he said, “that William had shortly before sailing expended some money on a quantity of stuff rolled up like balls of black rope-yarn, and exclaimed with astonishment, ‘In the name of goodness, are you going to chew or smoke all the way to Australia?'” for the commodity was the good old pigtail tobacco. He said smiling, “This is to make friends with the sailors. I intend to learn something about a ship by the time we reach our destination.” His mode of proceeding, as he told his father, was first to secure the good graces of the crew through the persuasive medium of the pigtail; then to learn the name and use of every rope, and of every part of the ship’s tackle from stem to stern. He thus soon acquired the art of splicing and reefing, and was amongst the first to go aloft in a storm, and to lend a hand in taking in topsails.
On arriving in Australia the two lads obtained situations as shepherds at Deniliquin, about 200 miles from Melbourne, at £30 a year and their rations. In August, 1853, Dr. Wills reached Melbourne, but it was some two months after landing before he ascertained his sons’ location, and joined them at their sheep station. William subsequently removed to Ballarat with his father, where he remained twelve months attending to patients in his father’s absence, and opening a gold office, where he perfected a plan of his own for weighing specimens containing quartz and gold in water, so as to find the quantity of each component. His thoughts and conversation were, however, constantly reverting to the interior of the great continent, and to the hope that he would some day undertake the journey to the Gulf of Carpentaria. In 1856 Wills obtained an appointment under Mr. F. Byerly, a gentleman in the Survey Department, and under him he commenced to learn surveying. A letter of advice as to the study of science written to his youngest brother at Totnes while he was engaged on a survey at an out station (St. Arnaud) evidenced his earnest love of science, and the following paragraph in it, referring to the study of astronomy, which I venture to think worth quoting, shows he had no difficulty in reconciling science and religion:
“As the great object of the science is the correction of error and the investigation of truth, it necessarily leads all those that feel an interest in it to a higher appreciation and desire for truth; and you will easily perceive that a man having a knowledge of all these vast worlds, so much more extensive than our own, must be capable of forming a far higher estimate of that Almighty Being who created all these wonders than one who knows nothing more than the comparatively trifling things that surround us on earth.”
Another paragraph at the end of this letter speaks for itself, and gives us the key to the man:
“One other piece of advice I must give you before I shut up; that is, never try to show off your knowledge, especially in scientific matters. It is a sin that certain persons we know have been guilty of. The first step is to learn your own ignorance, and if ever you feel inclined to make a display, you may be sure you have as yet learned nothing.”
In 1860 an expedition was organized by the colony of Victoria for the exploration of Australia, and to ascertain the nature of the interior of the great continent, which was then a sealed book; for up to that time the efforts towards exploration had been confined to lonely wanderings through the outer boundaries of the unknown continent, and opinions varied as to whether the interior was a vast inland sea, as Oxley and the first of the explorers believed, or whether it was a stony desert unfit for man and beast, as Sturt concluded.
Mr. Ambrose Kyte, whose name was, however, concealed from the public at the time, offered £1,000 as an inducement to the Government and others to come forward and raise funds for the exploration. Parliament voted £6,000, and subscriptions from the public raised the fund to £9,000. A Committee of the Royal Society undertook the superintendence of the arrangements. Twenty-four camels were imported from India with native drivers, and provisions and stores for twelve months were provided. After considerable delay the choice of a leader fell upon Robert O’Hara Burke. He was forty years of age, an Irishman from county Galway. When quite a youth he served in an Austrian cavalry regiment, and subsequently in the Irish Constabulary and the Police Force of Victoria; possessing bravery and dauntless courage, he had no special aptitude or scientific training to lead such an Expedition. He was enthusiastic and impulsive but was unfortunately without the indispensable experience of a seasoned bushman.
The appointment of second in command fell upon Mr. G. I. Landells, who owed his preferment to the circumstance of his having been employed to bring the camels from India, an appointment, however, which, as the sequel shows, was a most unfortunate one. Wills, who by this time was a seasoned bushman, with great powers of endurance, tendered his services as astronomer and guide without thinking of any distinct post of command, his object being exclusively scientific. Dr. Ludwick Becker was appointed naturalist and artist, Dr. Herman Beckler as botanist and medical adviser. Ten white men, among whom was John King (a private soldier) and three sepoys, were appointed to accompany the Expedition.
The explorers left Melbourne on the 20th August, 1860, amid considerable enthusiasm; nearly the whole population suspending ordinary business, and turning out to witness the start. The mayor of Melbourne publicly addressed them, and wished them God-speed, and through the settled districts their progress, which was slow, was a kind of triumphal march. The route marked out for them was to strike the river Darling, then the lower Barcoo (Cooper’s Creek), and from that point to go northwards to the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Swan Hill, on the Murray, which, properly speaking, was the northern boundary of the colony of Victoria, was reached on September 8th. At Balranald, beyond the Murray, Burke found it impossible to get on any longer with his foreman (Ferguson) and discharged him. He had, however, no sooner rid himself of this troublesome man than Mr. Landells, his second in command, began to sow dissension, and to exhibit insubordination in an unmistakable manner. This reached a crisis by the time they came to Menindie, on the Darling, and after a violent scene Landells resigned, returning to Melbourne full of violent complaints against Burke, and Dr. Beckler was foolish enough to follow Landells’ example of resigning, on the alleged ground that he did not like the way Burke spoke to Landells. Fortunately for Burke’s reputation a very full account of all that took place was written at the time by Wills to Professor Neumayer, and the committee expressed their entire approbation of Burke’s conduct, an opinion shared in by the general public, as evidenced by the newspapers of that date. Burke, on the resignation of Mr. Landells, immediately promoted Wills to the post he had vacated, which appointment the committee confirmed. Here there was perfect union and reciprocal understanding. Neither had petty jealousies or reserved views. The success of the expedition was their object, not personal glory their aim. The leader had every confidence in his second, and the second was proud of his leader. But Mr. Burke committed an error in the selection of Mr. Wright for the third position in command, without any previous knowledge or experience of his capabilities. In this he acted from his impulsive nature, and the consequences bore heavily on his own and Wills’ fate.
Burke then made his second mistake by dividing his party, and on 19th October left Menindie, where he had formed a depot, with about one half of his number, leaving the others behind, and made a rush to the Barcoo. He reached Torowota on 29th October, and from that encampment forwarded a despatch, and an exhaustive surveying report from Wills, to the secretary of the expedition. In his own despatch Burke said:
“I consider myself very fortunate in having Mr, Wills as my second in command. He is a capital officer, zealous and untiring in the performance of his duties, and I trust he will remain my second as long as I am in charge of the expedition.”
Burke sent Wright back to Menindie with instructions to follow him up with the remainder of the camels to Cooper’s Creek, and Wright himself admitted he gave Burke his word to take the remainder of the party out as soon as he arrived at Menindie. This, however, he omitted to do, and unaccountably delayed making any start until the 26th January, 1861, and to this criminal delay may be attributed the whole of the crushing disaster which subsequently overtook the expedition.
Cooper’s Creek, where a camp was formed, was reached on the 11th November. In a letter to one of his sisters from there Wills describes the place as follows:–
“To give you an idea of Cooper’s Creek, fancy extensive flat, sandy plains, covered with herbs dried like hay, and imagine a creek or river, somewhat similar in appearance and size to the Dart above the Weir, winding its way through these flats, having its banks densely clothed with gum trees and other evergreens. So far there appears to be a considerable resemblance, but now for the difference. The water of Cooper’s Creek is only a number of waterholes. In some places it entirely disappears, the water in flood-time spreading all over the flats, and forming no regular channel.”
While awaiting the arrival of the tardy Wright, short explorations of the adjoining country were made, chiefly by Wills, with the view of examining two or three promising routes to the Gulf of Carpentaria. On the last of these trips Wills penetrated eighty miles, and would have gone further, but the men in charge of the camels fell asleep and let them escape, and the return had to be done on foot in a broiling sun of 146 degrees, no shade, and very little water.
Impatient at Wright’s delay, and irritated almost to madness in waiting for him, and seeing the time slipping by, Burke and Wills determined to make a dash for the Gulf of Carpentaria while the opportunity still remained to them.
Burke again divided his small party, and taking Wills, King, and Grey, one horse, six camels, and three months’ provisions, started on Sunday, the 16th December, for a dash across the continent. Four men – Brahe, Patten, McDonnough, and Dost Mahomet – with six camels and twelve horses, were left at the camp at Cooper’s Creek, which was made a depot, and Brahe placed in charge until the arrival of Wright or some other person duly appointed by the committee to take command of the remainder of the expedition at Menindie. A surveyor was expected to be sent on to assist Wills, and plenty of work was laid out for all until the return of Burke and Wills – Brahe receiving the most positive orders to remain at Cooper’s Creek until this took place, three or four months being named as the possible time of absence.
Wills strongly advised a direct course northward for the exploring party, but Burke hesitated to adopt it unless he could feel confident of a supply of water. The more westerly course was therefore adopted at the commencement of the journey; but after a day or two they turned to the east, and scarcely deviated throughout from the 141st degree of east longitude.
Wills kept a diary giving a full account of the journey to the Gulf from the start to February, 1861, which contains very interesting details of each day’s progress. The first point the explorers made for was Eyre’s Creek, and on their first day’s journey they came upon a large tribe of blacks, who, Wills says, came pestering them to go to their camp and have a dance, and nothing but a threat to shoot them would keep them away. They were fine-looking men, but decidedly not of a warlike nature. The explorers crossed Sturt’s supposed “stony desert”, and did not find it the melancholy waste or bad travelling they were led to expect.
On 20th December they came upon a large camp of not less that forty or fifty blacks, who brought them presents of fish, for which they gave them beads and matches. On Christmas-eve they reached Gray’s Creek, and took a day’s rest to celebrate the festival. Their camp was really an agreeable place, an oasis in the desert; for there they had all the advantage of food and water attendant on the position of a large creek or river, free from the annoyance of the ants, flies, and mosquitoes invariably met with amongst timber or heavy scrub. The following day they struck a magnificent creek coming from the N.N.W., and this they followed until the 30th, by which time it had tended considerably to the N.E. This stream has since received the name of “Burke’s Creek”. The country adjacent they found an alternation of sand ridges and grassy plains. On 8th January they came into green and luxuriant country, improving at every step. Flocks of pigeons rose and flew, and fresh plants and rich vegetation met the eye on every side. On the 10th, passing over fine open plains, they came to the main creek in those flats, “Patten’s Creek”, flowing along the foot of a stony range. From here they pushed on over fairly good country, coming repeatedly upon blacks in their way, some of whom, being surprised by the explorers coming suddenly upon them, fled, dreadfully frightened. On the 30th January, 1861, having got to within a comparatively short distance of the shores of Carpentaria, Burke and Wills determined to leave Gray and King in charge of the camels, one of whom, having got logged in the creek, had already been left behind, and to proceed onwards on foot, leading the horse. The river or creek down which they passed, and which was quite salt, is named in the journal the Cloncurry. The channel making a sudden turn. Wills remarked that it might be a new river. “If it should prove so,” said Burke, “we will call it after my old friend Lord Cloncurry.”
In crossing Billy’s Creek the horse got bogged in a quicksand, and was with difficulty rescued. They came again on blacks, who shuffled off, and near their fire was a fine hut, the best they had ever seen, built on the same principle as those at Cooper’s Creek, but much larger and more complete. Hundreds of wild geese, plovers, and pelicans were enjoying themselves in the watercourses on the marshes, the water of which was too brackish to be drunk. They then soon came to a channel through which the sea-water entered. Here they passed three blacks, who pointed out unasked the best way down. Next morning they started at daybreak for the sea, leaving the horse behind short hobbled. Here Wills’ diary, from which I have been quoting, abruptly ends, and was not resumed until the 19th February, when they had already started on their fatal homeward journey. Burke did not keep any regular journal, but in his notes, under date of the 28th March, 1861, he says: “At the conclusion of the report it would be as well to say that we reached the sea, but could not obtain a view of the open ocean, although we made every endeavour to do so.” There is no doubt whatever that the two explorers reached the verge of the northern ocean.*
* In the account of McKinlay’s Expedition from Adelaide, in August, 1861, it is mentioned that when he, in the following February, found himself on the Gulf of Carpentaria, dense walls of mangrove barred his way to the shore, and there can he little doubt that it was the same obstacle which prevented Burke and Wills from viewing the open sea.
Having thus accomplished the grand object of their expedition Burke and Wills rejoined Gray and King, where they had left them with the camels, and the four proceeded together on the return journey on the 13th February. Wills’ notes on their scamper back to Cooper’s Creek are brief but powerful. An incessant rainfall made the country boggy, and added to their troubles. On the 2nd March, at Salt-bush Camp, they found Golah, the camel which they had been obliged to leave behind on the outward journey. It was thin and miserable, and had fretted at finding itself left behind, but began to eat as soon as it saw the other camels.
On 5th March Burke became ill from eating part of a large snake which they had killed, and poor Golah, being completely done up, and unable to come on, even when pack and saddle were taken off, had to be finally left behind. On 13th March it rained so heavily that Wills had to put his watch and field-book in the pack to keep them dry. All the creeks became flooded, and the poor travellers had to seek shelter under some fallen rocks. Their journey was now slow, as they had to keep on the stony ridge instead of following the flats, which were very boggy owing to the rain. On the 20th they commenced to lighten the loads of the camels by leaving 60 lbs. weight of things behind. Rain continued to fall in torrents, and the ground they passed over was at times either full of water or covered with slimy mud. The names given to some of their camps by Wills – viz., “Humid Camp”, “Muddy Camp”, “Mosquito Camp”, show some of the trials they had to encounter. Gray, who had been complaining of dysentery, stole some of the flour, and was punished by Burke. Five days after this (March 30th) the camel Boocha was killed for food at a place which by gentle irony they called “Boocha’s Rest”; and on the 10th April the horse, which was reduced and knocked up from want of food, was killed also. Down to the 17th nothing very noteworthy is recorded.
On that day – the beginning of the end – Wills records the death of Gray, whom the others had thought to be shamming. The survivors sorrowfully buried him in the lonely bush: they were so weak that it was with difficulty they could dig a grave sufficiently deep to lay him in. After a day’s delay to rest their wearied limbs they pushed on, but in a most exhausted state, straining every nerve to reach the goal of their arduous labours, their legs almost paralysed, so that it was a trying task to walk a few yards. Four days afterwards they were cheered by the sight of the familiar landmarks of their old camp at Cooper’s Creek. King describes in vivid language the delight of Burke when he thought he saw the depot camp. “There they are!” he shouted. “I see them.” But, alas! the wish was father to the thought. There was no one there. Lost and bewildered in amazement, he appeared like one stupefied when the horrible truth that the camp had been deserted burst upon him. He was quite overwhelmed, and flung himself on the ground broken-hearted. Wills looked about him in all directions, and presently turning to King said, “They are gone”, and pointing a short way off added, “There are the things they have left.” Calm and quiet as ever, he never once, as King testified, showed the slightest anger or loss of command of himself.
On a tree was marked “Dig 21st April”, and from under it a box was extracted containing provisions, and a bottle with a note from Brahe conveying the mortifying intelligence that he had only seven hours before abandoned the depot, and was encamped fourteen miles away, that he had remained four months at Cooper’s Creek, and that Wright had not turned up with the supplies. The explorers felt that, exhausted as they were, it was useless to attempt to overtake Brahe. They rested for two days, and on the morning of Thursday, April 23rd, Burke, Wills, and King, strengthened by the provisions they had found, resumed their journey. Wills and King were desirous of following their track out from Menindie, but unfortunately Burke preferred striking for the South Australian stations, having heard it positively stated at a meeting of the Royal Society that there were settlers within 100 miles of Cooper’s Creek. Wills deferred to his leader, and so they went to their destruction, making for Adelaide via Mount Hopeless (ominous name). There was, in fact, nothing to commend this route, while everything was in favour of that by the Darling. The one road they knew nothing of, the other was familiar to them, and as a matter of fact the nearest police station on the Adelaide line of march was distant between four and five hundred miles. Before starting Wills’ journals were buried in the cache, with the following note from Burke:
“Depot No. 2, Cooper’s Creek Camp, 65.
“The return party from Carpentaria, consisting of myself, Wills, and King (Grey dead), arrived here last night and found that the depot party had only started on the same day. We proceed on to-morrow, slowly down the creek towards Adelaide by Mount Hopeless, and shall endeavour to follow Gregory’s track; but we are very weak. The two camels are done up, and we shall not be able to travel faster than four or five miles a day. Grey died on the road from exhaustion and fatigue. We have all suffered much from hunger. The provisions left here will, I think, restore our strength. We have discovered a practicable route to Carpentaria, the chief position of which lies in the 140° of east longitude. There is some good country between this and the Stony Desert. From thence to the tropics the land is dry and stony. Between the Carpentaria a considerable portion is rangy, but well watered and richly grassed. We reached the shores of Carpentaria on the 11th of February, 1861. Greatly disappointed at finding the party here gone.
“(Signed) Robert O’Hara Burke, Leader.
“April 22nd, 1861.
“P.S. – The camels cannot travel, and we cannot walk, or we should follow the other party. We shall move very slowly down the creek.”
By slow stages the doomed explorers moved on day by day through what was little better than a desert. The second and third days they came upon some friendly blacks, who gave them fish. On 28th April one of the two remaining camels got bogged by the side of a water hole, and it being impossible to get him out, he was shot the next day, his flesh providing them with food. On May 7th the remaining camel would not rise even without any load on its back, and after making every attempt to get him up they had to leave him to himself. Burke and Wills then went down the creek to reconnoitre, and fortunately fell in with some blacks fishing, who gave them food and took them to their camp, where they passed two nights. Some days after, being pressed for food, several excursions were made to find the blacks again, but without success. On May 17th, however, King unexpectedly came upon the nardoo plant, the seed of which is powdered by the natives and baked into a cake. This discovery raised their spirits, as they considered that with this food they would be able to support themselves, even if they had to remain on the creek and wait for assistance from town. On 27th May Wills started alone to the depot at Cooper’s Creek to see if any relief had arrived.
Brahe – who, it will be remembered, deserted his post at the depot only seven hours before the wearied explorers returned there – fell in with Wright’s party at Balloo on his way to the Darling on the 28th or 29th April, and on the 3rd May Wright started with him for the depot, which they actually reached on the 9th. It seemed fated, however, that blunder should succeed blunder, for here they remained but a quarter of an hour, and casting but a hurried glance around came to the conclusion that the depot had not been visited in the interval, and with fatal and criminal neglect never even opened the cache. Had they done so the papers and letters deposited would have been found, and all would yet have been well. Wills, who had met natives on the way, and been given food by them, arrived at Cooper’s Creek on this return visit on the 30th May, and naturally enough failed to discover it had been re-visited by Wright and Brahe, who had left no record behind them. He opened the cache, buried the remainder of his journal and letters, with the following touching note:–
“Depot Camp, May 30th.
“We have been unable to leave the creek. Both camels are dead, and our provisions are exhausted. Mr. Burke and King are down the lower part of the creek. I am about to return to them, when we shall probably come up this way. We are trying to live the best way we can, like the blacks, but find it hard work. Our clothes are going to pieces fast. Send provisions and clothes as soon as possible.
“W. J. Wills.”
“The depot party having left contrary to instructions, has put us in this fix. I have deposited some of my journals here for fear of accident. “W. J. W.”
Wills then started to rejoin Burke and King. He received kindly assistance on the way from the blacks, and rejoined his companions on 6th June. His diary which he continued to keep was brief but expressive. They had little but nardoo to live upon, and though it allayed the pangs of hunger, it contained little nourishment; the poor fellows were literally starving to death. In his diary under date of 21st June Wills says:–
“I feel much weaker than ever, and can scarcely crawl out of the mia-mia. Unless relief comes in some form or other I cannot possibly last more than a fortnight. It is a great consolation at least, in this position of ours, to know that we have done all we could, and that our deaths were rather be the result of the mismanagement of others than of any rash act of our own. Had we come to grief elsewhere, we could only have blamed ourselves; but here we are returned to Cooper’s Creek, where we had every reason to look for provisions and clothing, and yet have to die of starvation, in spite of the explicit instructions given by Mr. Burke, that the depot party should await our return, and the strong recommendation by the Committee ‘that we should be followed up by a party from Menindie.'”
He suffered much from cold, his clothing was reduced to a wide awake, a merino shirt, a regatta shirt without sleeves, the remains of a pair of flannel trousers, two pairs of socks in rags, and a waistcoat. Wills finding his weakness increasing, it was resolved that Burke and King, as the only chance of saving the party, should go in search of natives, and having collected and pounded sufficient nardoo seed to last Wills for eight days, they constructed a rude shelter of boughs for him, placed water and firewood within his reach, and took a sorrowful farewell of him, Wills giving Burke a letter and his watch for his father, and telling King if he survived Burke to carry out his last wishes. In a postscript to this letter Wills says, “I think to live about four or five days. My spirits are excellent.” On the 29th June Wills made his last entry in his diary, shewing that he maintained his calmness of spirit and resignation to the last.
“Friday, 29th June, 1861. — Clear, cold night; slight breeze from the east; day beautifully warm and pleasant. Mr. Burke suffers greatly from the cold, and is getting extremely weak. He and King start to-morrow up the creek to look for the blacks; it is the only chance we have of being saved from starvation. I am weaker than ever, although I have a good appetite, and relish the nardoo much; but it seems to give us no nutriment, and the birds here are so shy as not to be got at. Even if we got a good supply of fish, I doubt whether we could do much work on them and the nardoo alone. Nothing now but the greatest good luck can save any of us; and as for myself I may live four or five days if the weather continues warm. My pulse is at forty-eighty and very weak, and my legs and arms are nearly skin and bone. I can only look out, like Mr. Micawber, ‘for something to turn up.’ Starvation on nardoo is by no means very unpleasant, but for the weakness one feels, and the utter inability to move one’s self; for as far as the appetite is concerned it gives the greatest satisfaction. Certainly fat and sugar would be more to one’s taste; in fact, those seem to me to be the great stand-by for one in this extraordinary continent – not that I mean to depreciate the farinaceous food, but the want of sugar and fat in all substances obtainable here is so great that they become almost valueless to us as articles of food without the addition of something else.
(Signed) “W. J. Wills.”
We are now, alas ! nearing the end of this ill-fated expedition. Burke and King had not travelled many miles when, on the second day from leaving Wills, Burke gave in from sheer weakness, and died early the next morning. King remained two days to recover strength, and then returned to where they had left Wills, taking back with him three crows he had shot, and nardoo he had discovered, and was shocked to find Wills lying dead in his gunwah, where he would appear to have sunk quietly to rest, but in utter loneliness, a few hours after Burke and King had left him. King buried the corpse with sand, and remained there some days prostrated at the death of his companions, and at being left alone in the vast wilderness. The nardoo running short, and being unable to gather it, he tracked some of the natives by their footprints in the sand, and eventually fell in with a number of them, who were kindly disposed, and so was preserved from the fate of his companions.
The Exploration Committee at Melbourne seem by their supineness to have helped on the final catastrophe. Although informed of the criminal delay of Wright at Menindie, they took no steps to urge his departure from there. Dr. Wills, our hero’s father, unable to bear the suspense in the month of June, walked with a small pack on his shoulders, and a stick in his hand, from Ballarat to Melbourne, a distance of seventy-five miles, and his energetic appeals led to a search party, under Mr. A. W. Howitt, being sent out.
Two of the three camels lost on one of the excursions at Cooper’s Creek on the way out were discovered in South Australia and brought to Adelaide. News of this reaching Melbourne excited the interest of the public, and doubtless contributed to the awakened energy of the Committee. In connection with this Mr. Fabyan Amery has contributed a strange and interesting story. He tells me that a Mr. James Wills, who had been a servant at the Ashburton Grammar School, in special attendance upon the boarders, whilst Wills was a pupil there, was, in 1861, residing with his wife, whom he had married in the Colony, on the banks of the Murray river; and one morning Mrs. Wills, casting her eyes around the horizon, spied in the far distance two animals, which with quick feminine decision she declared to be camels. This she mentioned to her husband, who ridiculed the idea, as no camels were ever known in Australia. She persisted in her opinion, and started towards them to satisfy her curiosity. Sure enough they proved to be two camels, undoubtedly two of those who had escaped from the ill-fated expedition, and which, with the wonderful instinct of their species, had sniffed the water at a great distance, and in an almost exhausted state were making for the river. Mrs. Wills went up to them, when the youngest came and ate out of her hand. Her husband immediately gave information to the police, which he understood was forwarded to the Governor of Victoria, and which he always believed led to the despatch of the Relief Expedition. Howitt started early in July, 1861, taking Brahe with him, who had come down with Wright’s despatches, and made all speed to Cooper’s Creek. On 13th September he arrived at the fatal depot, and on the 15th King was discovered sitting in a hut which the natives had made for him. He presented a melancholy appearance, wasted to a shadow, and only distinguishable as a civilized being by the remnants of clothes upon him. As soon as King was well enough to accompany them the relief party proceeded down to the place where Wills died. The remains were found, carefully collected, and interred where they lay, Howitt reading that sublime chapter – 1 Corinthians xi. – and cutting the following inscription on a tree close by to mark the spot:
W. J. WILLS
XLV Yds
W.N.W.
A. H.
Burke’s remains were subsequently discovered and buried, wrapped in a Union Jack. Howitt then returned to Melbourne, taking King with him. He subsequently went back again, disinterred the remains of Burke and Wills, and brought them to Melbourne, where, after lying solemnly in state, they were accorded a public funeral, and so –
“After life’s fitful fever they sleep well.”
No one who has read the simple records of this great expedition, with all its blunders – so successful as far as its great object was concerned, but so fatal as regards the precious lives of the explorers – but must admire the character, actions, and quiet heroism of Wills. None of the blunders which led to the disaster which befell the Expedition are traceable to him. Throughout the toilsome journey he maintained his quiet, equable temperament. Loyal to his leader he deferred to his wishes, never complained of or reflected on others, continued and carefully recorded his scientific observations to the last, and laid himself down to die in utter loneliness in the vast wilderness with perfect resignation and calmness, as if he were but falling asleep in his father’s arms; and “his works do follow him”; for they opened up the way to the march of civilization, and have been rich in results. The greater part of the country he explored is now in a state of cultivation, with homesteads containing prosperous settlers in all directions, and so early as 1867 a stage coach was running not many miles from where he and Burke laid down their lives. The testimony of the colonists to Wills was on all sides that of admiration for his devoted heroism, appreciation of the scientific results achieved by him, and deep regret at the sacrifice of his young and promising life.
Sir Henry Barkly, the Governor of Victoria, in a letter to his mother, said of Wills: “You may rely upon it that the name of William John Wills will go down to posterity, both at home and in this colony, amongst the brightest of those who have sacrificed their lives for the advancement of scientific knowledge and the good of their fellow-creatures.” Dr. Mueller, of the Melbourne Botanical Gardens, who as a tribute to his memory named a new plant in the Australian Flora Eremophila Willsii, “to record by botany the glory never to be forgotten of the intrepid and talented but most unfortunate Wills”, maintained that it was only by his skilful guidance and scientific talents that the great geographic success of the expedition was achieved.
A portion of the city was directed to be thereafter named Wills Street by order of the Governor. A massive obelisk was erected to the memory of the two martyrs in the cemetery where they were buried; and on April 21st, 1866, a monument raised to them by the Victorian Legislature at a cost of £4,000, consisting of a statue of each of these two distinguished explorers, was unveiled by the Governor in Collins Street, one of the principal thoroughfares of Melbourne. The day chosen for the ceremony was the fourth anniversary of the return of Burke and Wills to Cooper’s Creek, and their surviving companion King was present on the occasion, which to him must have been one of mingled sorrow and pleasure.
Wills was not forgotten in his native town. The inhabitants, aided by the contributions of Devonshire men in Australia, erected a granite obelisk on the plains containing this inscription:Inscription on obelisk to W. J. Wills in Totnes
And though more than thirty years have passed since his death Wills is not forgotten in the colony; for only last year one of the colonists from Devon, Mr. Angel, who returned from South Australia on a visit to Totnes, and to his native parish of Littlehempstone, finding the inscription on the memorial becoming obliterated had it renewed on a tablet of white marble let into the granite,* that the coming race may not be unmindful of the patient and courageous life and heroic death of this Devonshire hero, the martyred Wills.
* Since this paper was written Mr. F. Horn, marble mason, of Totnes, has executed a successful medallion of Wills, which has been let into the obelisk above the tablet."
devonassoc.org.uk/devoninfo/wills-the-australian-explorer...
Little cute child having a tasty breakfast
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It's not a perfect repair, by any means. Her head is still pretty wobbly (compared to normal frogs), but it WORKS. I may need to cram more stuffing in, but . . . I am so happy she looks and feels better!
Actually . . . her head now sits at a much more regular angle than it did before. I don't advocate breaking your poor Wandas if they have a wonky head angle though!
And for those of you with wonky head angle Wandas . . . DON'T keep trying to push their head back into the normal position. Just DON'T. That's what broke poor Velvet! Just enjoy their rakish charm and unique personality as they are :)
♫ www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KxKgLnlpR8 ♪
And if I was running, you'd be the one who I would be running to
And if I was crying, you would be lining the cloud that would pull me through
And if I was scared, then I would be glad to tell you and walk away
But I am not lying, I am just trying to find my way in to you
You know I'm gonna find a way to let you have your way with me
You know I'm gonna find a time to catch your hand and make you stay
I don't care what clothes you wear, it's time to love and I don't care
You know I'm gonna find a way to let you have your way with me