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This picture is #15 in my 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page
She is the barista at the coffee place near my house. She works both in Hernando and in Olive Branch Mississippi. She is going to school for Business and baking and one day wants to open her own place up. By the way, this is also my 161 st photo of the year!
Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.
Today however we are following Lettice’s maid, Edith, who together with her beau, local grocery delivery boy Frank Leadbetter, have wended their way north-east from Cavendish Mews on their Sunday off, through neighbouring Soho to the Lyons Corner House* on the corner of Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road. As always, the flagship restaurant on the first floor is a hive of activity with all the white linen covered tables occupied by Londoners indulging in the treat of a Lyon’s luncheon or early afternoon tea. Between the tightly packed tables, the Lyons waitresses, known as Nippies**, live up to their name and nip in and out, showing diners to empty tables, taking orders, placing food on tables and clearing and resetting them after diners have left. The cavernous space with its fashionable Art Deco wallpapers and light fixtures and dark Queen Anne English style furnishing is alive with colour, movement and the burbling noises of hundreds of chattering voices, the sound of cutlery against crockery and the clink of crockery and glassware fills the air brightly.
Amidst all the comings and goings, Edith and Frank sit at a table for two just adjunct to one of the glass fronted cabinets filled with delicious cakes on display, engrossed in a conversation over the film that they have just seen together in an East Ham cinema.
“Oh I did enjoy ‘The Notorious Mrs. Carrick’***, Frank.” Edith enthuses. “That Cameron Carr**** is such a handsome film star!” she sighs.
“Hey!” splutters Frank as he deposits his teacup back into its saucer. “I would hope you only have eyes for me, Edith Watsford, and not some flicker of light up on a screen at the Premier in East Ham*****.”
“Are you jealous, Frank Leadbetter?” Edith laughs, her amused giggles blending in with the vociferous chatting going on around them.
“Certainly not!” Frank retorts blusteringly, stiffening in his seat. “Don’t talk such rubbish!”
“I declare, you are!” Edith giggles.
“Am not!”
“You are, Frank, and don’t pretend you aren’t.” she teases. “I can tell when you are, and your flushing cheeks give you away.”
“Oh really?” Frank gasps, raising his hands to his cheeks and pressing his palms into them to hide the rising colour in his face.
“Oh Frank!” Edith continues to chuckle. “You know you have nothing to worry about. Those film stars are just matinee idols******. They aren’t flesh and blood like you are. They are…” She pauses for a moment to think of the right words. “They are creatures made of stardust and dreams.” She gesticulates waving her hands elegantly through the air between them. “They aren’t real. I’m just like most girls, Frank. I like the moving pictures for their fantasy and their escapism into another world, far away from the hand graft of our everyday lives.”
“Well, so long as you don’t become like those crazy girls who scream hysterically in the street about that Rudolph Valentino*******, making a scene, and fools of themselves.” Franks says with distain.
“As if I would, Frank!” Edith retorts, lifting her cup of tea to her lips. “You know me well enough to know I’d never do anything like that! If anything, Miss Lettice or some of her flapper friends strike me as being more inclined to behave like that, and even then Miss Lettice would only do it just to shock her parents.”
“Well, she does influence you,” Frank replies sagely. “Even if you don’t know it.”
“Oh, don’t talk such rubbish, Frank.” Edith scoffs with a wave of her hand. “It is true that I admire Miss Lettice - it makes it easier to work for her that I do – but I would never let her influence me like that! She already tries to fill my head with ideas about my place in this new post-war world, but I’m not prepared to be quite as revolutionary as she would have me be.”
Their conversation is interrupted by a Nippie carrying a blue and white china plate on which some dainty triangle sandwiches are prettily arranged and garnished with parsley sprigs. “Tongue and jelly sandwiches********.” she announces cheerily over the hubbub of chatter around them before lowing the plate onto the empty space on the white linen covered tablecloth between their plates and teacups.
“Thank you, Miss.” Edith says politely to the Nippie, who’s grateful smile brightens her slightly tired looking visage beneath her stiff linen cap. After the Nippie leaves, Edith turns her attention back to Frank and adds, “I was always taught that ‘pleases’ and ‘thank yous’ go a long way, in this world, and that you should always thank anyone who is serving you, whether it is a shop girl, or a Nippie.” She slips her starched linen napkin out from underneath her knife and shakes it out before draping it across her lap. “And my Mum taught me that by the way, not Miss Lettice.” she continues, as she makes a selection from the sandwiches on the plate, removing the top one from the stack.
“Well, I’m glad to hear it, Edith.” Frank says as he shakes out his own napkin and places it across his lap before selecting a sandwich for himself. “I’ve always admired you for your manners and how polite and kind you are to others. Your mother taught you well.”
“And your parents and grandmother taught you well… Francis.” Edith adds Frank’s proper name at the end of the sentence cheekily, teasing him.
“I wish Gran had never let that slip.” Frank mutters begrudgingly. “I’m Frank now. No-one at the trades union will take me seriously if I’m called Francis.”
“Oh, I’m only teasing, Frank.” Edith reaches out her right hand and grasps his left as it rests on the tablecloth next to his plate. She smiles in an assuring way towards Frank.
Edith takes a bite of her sandwich, enjoying the soft white bread and the spiced meat as she rolls it around her mouth, and sighs contentedly.
“Oh, and thinking of the trade unions, there’s something I wanted to talk to you about, Edith.” Frank remarks as he chews on a mouthful his sandwich.
Edith swallows her mouthful of sandwich hard and picks up her teacup. Sipping her tea she remarks, “That sounds very serious, Frank.”
Frank looks earnestly at Edith. “Well, I suppose it is, Edith.”
Replacing her cup into its saucer, Edith smiles sweetly at Frank. “What is it then, Frank?”
Frank reaches inside the inner breast pocket of his tweed jacket and withdraws an advertising leaflet. Slightly dogeared, he hands it over the table to Edith.
“What’s this then?” She glances at the colourful brochure. On its cover is a stylised drawing of a Tutorbethan style********* two storey house with a tiled pitched roof set amidst an idyllic and lush English cottage garden. “Metro-Land, price twopence.” she reads the golden yellow wording on a dark brown background in a vignette at the bottom of the booklet.
“How would you like to live there, Edith?” Frank asks, his voice breathy with excitement.
Edith looks up from the brochure with wide and startled eyes. “Have you broken the bank at Monte Carlo********** Frank?” she laughs. “We couldn’t afford to live in a house like this, even with my extra four shillings a month as part of our combined wages! I won’t be earning a proper wage after we get married*********** don’t forget, Frank.” she cautions. “Where is this anyway?” She flicks the pamphlet open. “Chalk Hill Estate.”
“For around five shillings a week, we could rent a nice little two-up two-down************ semi************* just like that, in the Chalk Hill Estate: maybe a little bit more if we want one that’s furnished.”
“You’re dreaming, Frank. We can’t afford this.” she scoffs as she runs her hand over the brightly coloured cover. “This is for the aspiring middle-classes, not for the likes of us.”
“Ah, but that’s where your reckoning is wrong, Edith.” Frank replies, picking up his cup and taking a sip of his milky tea. “You see, when I was at the trades union meeting the other week, I met up with my friend Richard, and well, he told me that there might be an opening or two in one of the new grocers shops being built in places like the Chalk Hill, Grange and Cedars Estates for an assistant manager position, which would lead eventually to a position where I’d be running my own corner grocer. Even as an assistant manager, I’d be earning a decent wage: we might be lower middle-class dare I suggest it.” Frank smiles proudly. “Richard gave me that pamphlet.”
“So where are these Metroland************** estates then, Frank?”
“Well, they are these new London suburbs being built north-west of London: Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Middlesex.”
“Buckinghamshire?” Edith splutters, nearly choking on the mouthful of tea she has just drunk. “But that’s where Miss Lettice’s married sister lives! That’s miles away! It’s the country!”
“Well not any more it isn’t Edith.” Frank assures her. “It’s all being subdivided now and served by the Metropolitan Railway. They are the ones who are developing it.”
“But I don’t want to move to Buckinghamshire, Frank!”
“It’s not so bad, Edith. The Chalk Hill, Grange and Cedars Estates are all being built along the railway line not too far from Wembley Park, so you’d be able to visit your parents easily, and they’d be able to come and visit us too. In fact, you’d be closer to them than you are at Cavendish Mews. We’d live in a nice little house behind the shop, with all the mod-cons like indoor plumbing and electricity, just like Miss Lettice’s flat at Cavendish Mews.”
“That all sounds splendid, Frank, but the country!”
“They aren’t the country. They are called the ‘new suburbs’. Anyway, don’t forget that Harlesden was once a country area too. You’ve heard your mother tell stories about how she and your grandparents lived on a farm when she was growing up.”
Edith contemplates what Frank says for a moment. “Well, I think they might have lived a bit further out than Harlesden, then Frank.”
“But even so, Edith, Harlesden was a rural area once. Anyway, if I were running a corner grocer, or even being an assistant manager of one to begin with, we would be right in the heart of the shopping strip, so you wouldn’t be far from anything.”
“I remember what Queenie told Hilda and I about life in a country village, and I saw it for myself,” Edith tempers, remembering the trip that she and her best friend took to visit their friend and fellow housemaid, Queenie, in Alderley Edge in Cheshire. “Everyone there knows everyone else’s business, and the ladies there were all horribly snobbish and mean to Queenie, and were equally snobbish to Hilda and I once they knew that we were maids – not that there’s anything wrong with being a humble domestic.”
“Of course there isn’t, Edith. However, Alderley Edge is different to one of these estates, Edith.” Frank assures her.
“I don’t see how, Frank.”
“Well, Alderley Edge was a village and an old one at that, and Cheshire has some very fancy people living in it. These estates like Chalk Hill,” He points to the leaflet hanging limply in Edith’s hand. “Are new. There are no existing big families with fancy titles and histories and all that. There’s no pecking order. It would be made up of working people – yes, many middle-class families looking to solve their housing problems, but aspiring working people like us, too. It would be far more…” He thinks for a moment. “Egalitarian.”
“And what does that mean, Frank?” Edith spits.
“Well, it’s a belief, a belief based on the principle that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities.”
“Hhhmmm…” Edith contemplates. “Well, we’ll see about that. That all sounds fine in theory, but in my experience there are people who look down on other people everywhere, like nasty old Widow Hounslow,” She utters the name of her parent’s doughy landlady with distaste. “In Harlesden. I think people wanting to start new lives and lord that fact over others might live in these new paradise suburbs of yours, Frank.”
“Oh now don’t be like that, Edith! You sound like your mother when you talk like that.”
“Well, you can hardly blame me, Frank. This,” She hands the pamphlet back to Frank with an air of distain. “Is a big change you’re suggesting we make.”
Frank accepts the thin booklet and slips it somewhat reluctantly back into his inner breast pocket. “But just think, we could have a lovely home together: a real home with a little garden.”
“Dad has an allotment.” Edith defends.
“I know, but imagine a proper garden for the children to run around and play in. The children we have, Edith, can grow up attending local schools and getting lots of fresh air. There would be no pea-soupers*************** for them to suffer through.”
Edith considers the great clouds of thick, dense fog enveloping the streets of London and seeping into the corners of even places as fine as Cavendish Mews during the winter months, and how everyone coughs badly during them and in their aftermath.
“Well that’s true.” she admits begrudgingly. “But…”
“And if we lived in a little house like this,” Frank pats his jacket where the pamphlet now resides. “We’d have room for Hilda or Queenie to come and stay. Wouldn’t that be nice.”
“Very nice Frank.” Edith replies a little disbelievingly. “But what about your Gran?”
“What about her, Edith?”
“Well, if we moved to one of these new Metroland estates of yours, we’d be closer to my parents, but further away from Upton Park, and your Gran is older than my parents are.”
“Oh!” Frank dismisses. “Gran will be fine with it. She’s been telling me that I should get out of London if I can for years now. Don’t forget that before she married my grandfather, Gran lived in a little Scottish village. London is the only big city she has ever lived in, and she still doesn’t like it even to this day.”
“But what about when she gets older, Frank? She’s already infirm now.”
“Well,” Frank admits a little sheepishly. “I’ve been thinking about that too.”
“And?”
“And I was thinking that she might come to live with us when the time came that she couldn’t be on her own any more, since we’d have a bit more room with a house of our own.”
“It sounds like this house of yours that you imagine for us might be made of elastic, Frank,” Edith snorts with mild amusement and disbelief. “What with our children, my parents, Hilda and Queenie visiting, and now you Gran coming to live with us. Where will everyone fit? Someone will have to sleep in the inside privy!”
“We’d make it work, Edith.” Frank assures her. “Together.”
“Well, it’s a lot to consider, Frank.” Edith says after taking a few minutes to chew another mouthful of sandwich, the bread, tongue and jelly suddenly heavy in her mouth and stomach.
“But you will consider it, Edith?” Frank asks, the hopeful lilt in his voice echoing the optimistic glint in his bright blue eyes and anticipative stance as he sits across from his sweetheart.
“Metroland.” Edith utters.
“Our future… in Metroland.”
Edith sighs heavily. “You have rather sprung this on me, Frank.”
“Well, I hadn’t even considered the idea until Richard mentioned it to me at the trade unions meeting.”
“It’s a lot for me to consider, Frank. It means a major shift in where I’d envisaged us living after we were married, and how we would live.”
“Oh, me too, Edith. The most I’d hoped for was to take a position as a buyer or merchandiser at another grocer, maybe one south of the Thames.”
“So, you have to give me time to warm to the idea.”
“I don’t see what’s to warm to, Edith. Imagine our live…”
Edith holds up her worn right hand to silence Frank’s immediate defence of his idea. “You know me, Frank. I’m not as enthused as you are about new ideas. You have to give me time, or this will never work.”
Frank smiles as he settles back more comfortably in his seat and picks up the remains of a triangle of tongue and jelly sandwich. “I’ll wait for as long as you need to be convinced that our future in Metroland will be for the best, Edith.” He takes a bite of the sandwich in his hand. “Anyway, it’s not like I’m marrying you tomorrow and whisking you away to Buckinghamshire.”
“And you won’t be, Frank Leadbetter.” Edith cautions him. “Just the other side of Wembley is one thing. Buckinghamshire is quite another.”
Edith picks up her teacup and takes a sip of her tea.
*J. Lyons and Co. was a British restaurant chain, food manufacturing, and hotel conglomerate founded in 1884 by Joseph Lyons and his brothers in law, Isidore and Montague Gluckstein. Lyons’ first teashop opened in Piccadilly in 1894, and from 1909 they developed into a chain of teashops, with the firm becoming a staple of the High Street in the United Kingdom. At its peak the chain numbered around two hundred cafes. The teashops provided for tea and coffee, with food choices consisting of hot dishes and sweets, cold dishes and sweets, and buns, cakes and rolls. Lyons' Corner Houses, which first appeared in 1909 and remained until 1977, were noted for their Art Deco style. Situated on or near the corners of Coventry Street, Strand and Tottenham Court Road, they and the Maison Lyonses at Marble Arch and in Shaftesbury Avenue were large buildings on four or five floors, the ground floor of which was a food hall with counters for delicatessen, sweets and chocolates, cakes, fruit, flowers and other products. In addition, they possessed hairdressing salons, telephone booths, theatre booking agencies and at one period a twice-a-day food delivery service. On the other floors were several restaurants, each with a different theme and all with their own musicians. For a time, the Corner Houses were open twenty-four hours a day, and at their peak each branch employed around four hundred staff including their famous waitresses, commonly known as Nippies for the way they nipped in and out between the tables taking orders and serving meals. The tea houses featured window displays, and, in the post-war period, the Corner Houses were smarter and grander than the local tea shops. Between 1896 and 1965 Lyons owned the Trocadero, which was similar in size and style to the Corner Houses.
**The name 'Nippies' was adopted for the Lyons waitresses after a competition to rename them from the old fashioned 'Gladys' moniker - rejected suggestions included ‘Sybil-at-your-service’, ‘Miss Nimble’, Miss Natty’ and 'Speedwell'. The waitresses each wore a starched cap with a red ‘L’ embroidered in the centre and a black alpaca dress with a double row of pearl buttons.
***”The Notorious Mrs. Carrick” is a 1924 British silent crime film directed by George Ridgwell and starring Cameron Carr, A.B. Imeson and Gordon Hopkirk. It was an adaptation of the novel Pools of the Past by Charles Proctor. The film was made by Britain's largest film company of the era Stoll Pictures. It was released in July 1924.
****Cameron Carr was an English actor of the silent era, born in 1876, he died in 1944. He made many films between 1918 and the early 1930s. Then like many stars of the silent era, the advent of talking pictures put an end to his career in films as he found the transition to talkies to difficult. He starred as the lead actor, of the 1924 silent film, “The Notorious Mrs. Carrick”, playing Mr. Carrick.
*****The Premier Super Cinema in East Ham was opened on the 12th of March, 1921, replacing the 800 seat capacity 1912 Premier Electric Theatre. The new cinema could seat 2,408 patrons. The Premier Super Cinema was taken over by Provincial Cinematograph Theatres who were taken over by Gaumont British in February 1929. It was renamed the Gaumont from 21st April 1952. The Gaumont was closed by the Rank Organisation on 6th April 1963. After that it became a bingo hall and remained so until 2005. Despite attempts to have it listed as a historic building due to its relatively intact 1921 interior, the Gaumont was demolished in 2009.
******A matinee idol is a handsome actor, admired for his good looks.
*******Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguella was born in May 1895, and was known professionally as Rudolph Valentino and nicknamed The Latin Lover, was an Italian actor based in the United States who starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle, and The Son of the Sheik. Valentino was a sex symbol of the 1920s, known in Hollywood as the "Latin Lover" (a title invented for him by Hollywood moguls), the "Great Lover", or simply Valentino. His early death at the age of 31 in 1926 caused mass hysteria among his fans, further cementing his place in early cinematic history as a cultural film icon. In spite of his appeal to women of the 1920s, it is now believed that Valentino was gay, or at the very least bisexual, with relationships with actress Pola Negri and actor Ramón Novarro in addition to his second wife Natacha Rambova. Despite claims of him being a “Latin Lover”, his first marriage to lesbian actress Alla Nazimova was never consummated.
********Tongue and jelly is a gelatinous food made from braided calves tongues, boiled with onions, celery, cloves, herbs, brandy and sugar which is then preserved in gelatine. Back in the 1920s, it is more likely that aspic would have been used, rather than gelatine. It was a very popular savoury topping on picnic sandwiches in the Victorian and Edwardian eras.
*********Tudor Revival architecture, also known as mock Tudor in Britain, first manifested in domestic architecture in the latter half of the Nineteenth Century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture, in reality it usually took the style of English vernacular architecture of the Middle Ages that had survived into the Tudor period. Tudorbethan is a subset of Tudor Revival architecture that eliminated some of the more complex aspects of Jacobethan in favour of more domestic styles of "Merrie England", which were cosier and quaint. It was associated with the Arts and Crafts movement.
**********"The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo" (originally titled "The Man that Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo") is a popular British music hall song published in 1891 by Fred Gilbert, a theatrical agent who had begun to write comic songs as a sideline some twenty years previously.[1] The song was popularised by singer and comedian Charles Coborn. Coborn wrote in his 1928 autobiography that to the best of his recollection he first sang the song in 'the latter part of 1891.'[6] An advertisement in a London newspaper suggests, however, that he first performed it in public in mid-February 1892. The song remained popular from the 1890s until the late 1940s, and is still referenced in popular culture today. Coborn, then aged 82, performed the song in both English and French in the 1934 British film “Say It with Flowers”.
***********Prior to and even after the Second World War, there was a ‘marriage bar’ in place. Introduced into legislation, the bar banned the employment of married women as permanent employees, which in essence meant that once a woman was married, no matter how employable she was, became unemployable, leaving husbands to be the main breadwinner for the family. This meant that working women needed to save as much money as they could before marriage, and often took in casual work, such as mending, sewing or laundry for a pittance at home to help bring in additional income and help to make ends meet. The marriage bar wasn’t lifted until the very late 1960s.
************Two-up two-down is a type of small house with two rooms on the ground floor and two bedrooms upstairs. There are many types of terraced houses in the United Kingdom, and these are among the most modest. The first two-up two-down terraces were built in the 1870s, but the concept of them made up the backbone of the Metroland suburban expansions of the 1920s with streets lined with rows of two-up two-down semi-detached houses in Mock Tudor, Jacobethan, Arts and Crafts and inter-war Art Deco styles bastardised from the aesthetic styles created by the likes of English Arts and Crafts Movement designers like William Morris and Charles Voysey.
*************A semi-detached house (known more commonly simply as a semi) is a house joined to another house on one side only by a common wall.
**************Metroland is a name given to the suburban areas that were built to the north-west of London in the counties of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Middlesex in the early part of the Twentieth Century that were served by the Metropolitan Railway. The railway company was in the privileged position of being allowed to retain surplus land; from 1919 this was developed for housing by the nominally independent Metropolitan Railway Country Estates Limited (MRCE). The term "Metroland" was coined by the Met's marketing department in 1915 when the Guide to the Extension Line became the Metro-land guide. It promoted a dream of a modern home in beautiful countryside with a fast railway service to central London until the Met was absorbed into the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933.
***************A term originating in Nineteenth Century Britain, a pea soup fog is a very thick and often yellowish, greenish or blackish fog caused by air pollution that contains soot particulates and the poisonous gas sulphur dioxide. It refers to the thick, dense fog that is so thick that it appears to be the color and consistency of pea soup. Pea-soupers were particularly common in large industrial cities like Manchester and Liverpool and populous cities like London where there were lots of coal fires either for industry and manufacturing, or for household heating. The last really big pea-souper in London happened in December 1952. At least three and a half to four thousand people died of acute bronchitis. However, in cities like Manchester and Liverpool, where the concentration of manufacturing was higher, they continued well beyond that.
An afternoon tea made up with tea and a selection of triangle sandwiches like this would be enough to please anyone, but I suspect that even if you ate everything you can see here on the table in and in the display case in the background, you would still come away hungry. This is because they, like everything in this scene are 1:12 size miniatures from my miniatures collection.
Fun things to look for in this tableau:
The plate of sandwiches in the centre of the table was made by an unknown artisan and was acquired through Kathleen Knight’s Dolls House Shop in the United Kingdom. The coffee pot with its ornate handle and engraved body is one of three antique Colonial Craftsman pots I also acquired from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls House Shop, as is the silver tray on which they stand. The milk jug and sugar bowl are made by Warwick Miniatures in Ireland, who are well known for the quality and detail applied to their pieces. The Lyons Corner House crockery is made by the Dolls’ House emporium and was acquired from an online stockist of miniatures on E-Bay. The J. Lyons & Co. Ltd. tariff in the foreground is a copy of a 1920s example that I made myself by reducing it in size and printing it. Edith’s handbag handmade from soft leather is part of a larger collection of hats and bags that I bought from an American miniature collector Marilyn Bickel.
The table on which all these items stand is a Queen Anne lamp table which I was given for my seventh birthday. It is one of the very first miniature pieces of furniture I was ever given as a child. The Queen Anne dining chairs were all given to me as a Christmas present when I was around the same age.
In the background is a display case of cakes. The Victoria sponge (named after Queen Victoria) on the cake stand is made by Polly’s Pantry Miniatures in America. Whilst the cupcakes have been made in England by hand from clay by former chef turned miniature artisan, Frances Knight. Her work is incredibly detailed and realistic, and she says that she draws her inspiration from her years as a chef and her imagination. All the cakes in the display cabinet came from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls House Shop in the United Kingdom. The glass and metal cake stands and the glass cloche came from Beautifully Handmade Miniatures in Kettering. The glass cake stands are hand blown artisan pieces. The shiny brass cash register also comes from Beautifully Handmade Miniatures.
The wood and glass display cabinet and the bright brass cash register I obtained from a seller of 1:12 miniatures on E-Bay.
Harlech is a seaside resort and community in Gwynedd within the historic boundaries of Merionethshire in north-west Wales. It lies on Tremadog Bay in the centre of Gwynedd, within the Snowdonia National Park. Of a population of 1,447, 51 per cent habitually speak the Welsh language. Its best-known landmark, Harlech Castle, was begun in 1283 by Edward I of England, captured by Owain Glyndwr, and later served as a stronghold for Henry Tudor. It was built next to the sea, but coastline changes mean it now lies on a cliff face, about half a mile (800 m) inland. The town has developed housing estates in the low town area and hillside housing in the high town around the shopping street, church, and castle. The two are linked by a steep, winding road called "Twtil".
This is one of TWO Bratz Dolls that I won off the same person on Ebay on Auction on the 19th April, 2010!!
She wasn't selling so I thought I would buy her and the other Bratz Doll that the same lady had on Auction for Resale - if she is Sweet Heart Lilee Collector's Edition, as I already have one - I really was just after the clothes in this Listing.
Here is your crown
And your seal and rings;
And here is your love
For all things.
Here is your cart,
And your cardboard and piss;
And here is your love
For all of this.
May everyone live,
And may everyone die.
Hello, my love,
And my love, Goodbye.
Here is your wine,
And your drunken fall;
And here is your love.
Your love for it all.
Here is your sickness.
Your bed and your pan;
And here is your love
For the woman, the man.
May everyone live,
And may everyone die.
Hello, my love,
And, my love, Goodbye.
And here is the night,
The night has begun;
And here is your death
In the heart of your son.
And here is the dawn,
(Until death do us part);
And here is your death,
In your daughter's heart.
May everyone live,
And may everyone die.
Hello, my love,
And, my love, Goodbye.
And here you are hurried,
And here you are gone;
And here is the love,
That it's all built upon.
Here is your cross,
Your nails and your hill;
And here is your love,
That lists where it will
May everyone live,
And may everyone die.
Hello, my love,
And my love, Goodbye.
“Junior” is a great horned owl that was struck by a car in 2003, probably while eating road kill. By the time he was found his badly damage wing was also severely infected and had to be amputated at the shoulder. Junior resides with some other rescued raptors at the Barbara J. Mapp Aviary Education Center at Radnor Lake.
Love is Blind is a self-portrait I created in 2017. I'm very grateful it received 3rd place in the Conceptual category in the 2017 International Monochrome Awards.
Spring is here in Thimphu. The flowers of peach, apple and apricot blossom and fill the air with its fragrance all over.
PRESS "L"
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Thanks for your comments and fav, my wonderful supporters !
Have a happy day !
Sonee :)
This is a photo from the 24 August 2019 Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum (FHCAM, FHC) Fly Day. Please enjoy responsibly and consider visiting Flying Heritage if you're around Paine Field: flyingheritage.org/
PHOTO CREDIT: Joe A. Kunzler Photo, AvgeekJoe Productions, growlernoise-AT-gmail-DOT-com
This picture is #14 in my 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page.
Usually, when walking down the street, I have only a spilt of a second to decide whether I want to photograph a person or not. It was raining that day so I had even less time. Jens was carrying two huge packs of toilet paper on his trolley. I think I scared him a bit with my proposal, but still he was nice enough to agree. Then I asked him to write down his name because more often than not I cannot spell the person's name. He was even more surprised, apparently 'Jens' is a typical Austrian name, but hey - I'm not from Austria.
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I was out when the sky covered up with clouds after two long hard summer months. In India, rains are always a welcome sight.
This dolmen is thought to date from 2,500 BC, it is located in a stunning valley. close by is a stream which gives you a perfect soundtrack to view this superb site. The structure consists of twin portal stones and a door stone supporting a massive capstone. the hight of the dolmen is 11 ft and the capstone weighs around 45 tons. On the top of the capstone are two deep channels which run to the side, if the capstone was used as a druids altar these may have been of use to release the flow of blood from a human sacrifice or maybe they were just rain drains.
if you do visit this site remember it is at the back of a private residence so please ask first. my thanks to our own "Stonemason" who's great site www.megalithicireland.com/index.html made finding this dolmen very easy.
Lisbon Portuguese: Lisboa, is the capital and the largest city of Portugal, with a population of 552,700 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km². Its urban area extends beyond the city's administrative limits with a population of around 2.7 million people, being the 11th-most populous urban area in the European Union. About 2.8 million people live in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (which represents approximately 27% of the country's population). It is continental Europe's westernmost capital city and the only one along the Atlantic coast. Lisbon lies in the western Iberian Peninsula on the Atlantic Ocean and the River Tagus. The westernmost areas of its metro area is the westernmost point of Continental Europe.
Lisbon is recognised as a global city because of its importance in finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts, international trade, education and tourism. It is one of the major economic centres on the continent, with a growing financial sector and one of the largest container ports on Europe's Atlantic coast. Lisbon Portela Airport serves over 20 million passengers annually, as of 2015, and the motorway network and the high-speed rail system of Alfa Pendular link the main cities of Portugal. The city is the 7th-most-visited city in Southern Europe, after Istanbul, Rome, Barcelona, Madrid, Athens and Milan, with 1,740,000 tourists in 2009. The Lisbon region contributes with a higher GDP PPP per capita than any other region in Portugal. It also ranks as the 10th highest GDP of metropolitan areas in the EU amounting to 110 billion euros and thus €39,375 per capita, 40% higher than the average European Union's GDP per capita. The city occupies 32nd place of highest gross earnings in the world. Most of the headquarters of multinationals in the country are located in the Lisbon area. It is also the political centre of the country, as its seat of Government and residence of the Head of State.
Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in the world, and the oldest in Western Europe, predating other modern European capitals such as London, Paris and Rome by centuries. Julius Caesar made it a municipium called Felicitas Julia, adding to the name Olissipo. Ruled by a series of Germanic tribes from the 5th century, it was captured by the Moors in the 8th century. In 1147, the Crusaders under Afonso Henriques reconquered the city and since then it has been a major political, economic and cultural centre of Portugal. Unlike most capital cities, Lisbon's status as the capital of Portugal has never been granted or confirmed officially – by statute or in written form. Its position as the capital has formed through constitutional convention, making its position as de facto capital a part of the Constitution of Portugal.
Lisbon enjoys a Mediterranean climate. Among all the metropoleis in Europe, it has the warmest winters, with average temperatures 15 °C (59 °F) during the day and 8 °C (46 °F) at night from December to February. The typical summer season lasts about six months, from May to October, although also in April temperatures sometimes reach around 25 °C (77.0 °F).
her hair is totally natural! awsme!! ^^
.......................
o cabelo dela é totalmente natural! Lindão!!!!!!! :D
the girl. Mariana Micai
CAMPANHA: "Mari.. atualiza seu flickr!!!!!!!"
The Protestant-Lutheran Petrikirche is a neo-Gothic church building in the Kleefeld district of Hanover. It is the seat of the superintendent of the prelacy Hannover-East. Together with the Nikodemus church, it forms a community.
History
In 1873 a first chapel was erected by Conrad Wilhelm Hase in Kleefeld. Until 1883 the chapel congregation belonged to the Garden church in the Marien street of Hanover. After that, it became an independent church community and decided to build a church of its own.
The church building with a 59 m high church tower was built from 1899 on according to designs by government building officer Rudolph Eberhard Hillebrand. In today's Petrikirche, a first service was celebrated in 1902. In 1927 the town hall was built on the grounds of the old chapel.
During the heavy air attack on Hanover on 9 October 1943 the church hit by incendiary bombs burned out. After the reconstruction in 1953, regional bishop Johannes Lilje consecrated the new house of God on 3 October 1953. In 1963 the tower was finished. In 1993 the church got a new annex. Since September 1, 2005, Thomas Höflich has been a pastor at the Petrikirche and superintendent of the Hanover East prelacy. Monthly worship takes place in English.
Organ
The organ was built in 1957 by the organ manufacturer Brothers Hillebrand Organ Building. The instrument has 39 stops on three manuals and pedal. The key actions are mechanical, the stop actions are electrical.
I Return positive C-g3
Pipe thrown 8 '
Quintade 8 '
Principal 4 '
Pipe flute 4 '
Nasat 22/3 '
Gemshorn 2 '
Terz 13/5 '
Scharff IV
Rankett 16 '
Dulzian 8 '
Tremulant
II Headquarters C-g3
Pommer 16 '
Principal 8 '
Flute 8 '
Octave 4 '
Nachthorn 4 '
Fifth line 22/3 '
Octave 2 '
Mixtur Vi-V
Octave Cymbals III
Bassoon 16 '
Trumpet 8 '
II Breast Threshold C-g3
Sing.Gedackt 8 '
Flute 4 '
Waldflöte 2 '
Sifflute 11/3 '
Octave 1 '
Scharff III
Cymbals II
Shelf 8 '
Tremulant
Pedalwork C-f1
Principal 16 '
Subbass 16 '
Octave 8 '
Gedackt bass 8 '
Octave 4 '
Nachthorn 2 '
Mixtur V
Trombone 16 '
Trumpet 8 '
Zinc 4 '
Coupling: I / II, III / II, I / P, II / P
Petrikirche (Kleefeld)
Die evangelisch-lutherische Petrikirche ist ein Kirchenbau im neugotischen Stil im hannoverschen Stadtteil Kleefeld. Sie ist Sitz der Superintendentur des Amtsbereichs Hannover-Ost. Zusammen mit der Nikodemuskirche bildet sie eine Gemeinde.
Geschichte
1873 wurde von Conrad Wilhelm Hase in Kleefeld eine erste Kapelle errichtet. Bis zum Jahr 1883 gehörte die Kapellengemeinde zur Gartenkirche in der Marienstraße von Hannover. Danach wurde sie eine eigenständige Kirchengemeinde und beschloss, eine eigene Kirche zu errichten.
Der Kirchenbau mit einem 59 m hohen Kirchturm entstand ab 1899 nach Entwürfen von Baurat Rudolph Eberhard Hillebrand. In der heutigen Petrikirche konnte 1902 ein erster Gottesdienst gefeiert werden. 1927 wurde auf dem Gelände der alten Kapelle das Gemeindehaus errichtet.
Bei dem schweren Luftangriff auf Hannover am 9. Oktober 1943 brannte die von Brandbomben getroffene Kirche aus. Nach dem Wiederaufbau 1953 weihte Landesbischof Johannes Lilje am 3. Oktober 1953 das neue Gotteshaus. Im Jahr 1963 wurde der Turm fertiggestellt. 1993 bekam die Kirche einen neuen Anbau. Seit dem 1. September 2005 ist Thomas Höflich Pastor an der Petrikirche und Superintendent des Amtsbereiches Hannover-Ost. Monatlich finden Gottesdienste in englischer Sprache statt.
Orgel
Die Orgel wurde 1957 von der Orgelbaufirma Gebrüder Hillebrand Orgelbau erbaut. Das Instrument hat 39 Register auf drei Manualen und Pedal. Die Spieltrakturen sind mechanisch, die Registertrakturen sind elektrisch.
I Rückpositiv C–g3
Rohrgedackt8'
Quintade8'
Prinzipal4'
Rohrflöte4'
Nasat22/3'
Gemshorn2'
Terz13/5'
Scharff IV
Rankett16'
Dulzian8'
Tremulant
II Hauptwerk C–g3
Pommer16'
Prinzipal8'
Spillflöte8'
Oktave4'
Nachthorn4'
Quinte22/3'
Oktave2'
Mixtur Vi-V
Oktavzimbel III
Fagott16'
Trompete8'
II Brust-Schwellwerk C–g3
Sing.Gedackt8'
Spitzflöte4'
Waldflöte2'
Sifflöte11/3'
Oktave1'
Scharff III
Zimbel II
Regal8'
Tremulant
Pedalwerk C–f1
Prinzipal16'
Subbaß16'
Oktave8'
Gedacktbaß8'
Oktave4'
Nachthorn2'
Mixtur V
Posaune16'
Trompete8'
Zink4'
Koppeln: I/II, III/II, I/P, II/P
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrikirche_(Kleefeld)
L211SBG is a Volvo Olympian new to Liverbus in October 1993. By the time this photo was taken in 2001 at Queen Square Bus Station, the vehicle was in Arriva ownership via the takeover of MTL.
Following sale to Geldards of Leeds a notable Merseyside enthusiast kept an eye on 'Andy', and is now in the process of restoring him to his former glory.
Addendum: Most of you know why L211SBG was named thusly, but for those who don't, Andy Wade was a Liverbus driver who regularly took the bus to rallies far and wide. He died at an early age following a short illness, and the lads at Liverbus named 'his' bus in his honour. The name stuck in MTL Liverbus days, but was nicked in ARRIVA ownership. Replicas were cast, and the plates were still worn in service with Geldards.
The city of Bath in Somerset.
There is a legend that Bath was founded in 860 BC when Prince Bladud, father of King Lear, caught leprosy. He was banned from the court and was forced to look after pigs. The pigs also had a skin disease but after they wallowed in hot mud they were cured. Prince Bladud followed their example and was also cured.
In reality it is not known exactly when the health giving qualities of Bath springs were first noticed. They were certainly known to the Romans who built a temple there around 50 AD. The temple was dedicated to Sul, a Celtic god and Minerva the Roman goddess of healing. They also built a public baths which was supplied by the hot springs. In the 60s and 70s AD a town grew up on the site of Bath. It was called Aquae Sulis, the waters of Sul. In the late 2nd century a ditch was dug around Roman Bath and an earth rampart was erected. It probably had a wooden palisade on top.
In the 4th century Roman civilization began to decline. The population of Roman towns decreased and trade shrank. The last Roman soldiers left England in 407 AD. What happened to Bath afterwards is not known for certain. Some people probably continued to live within the Roman walls and Bath was probably still a market for the local area. However the old, grand Roman buildings fell into disrepair and were replaced by simple wooden huts.
After the Romans left the Saxons invaded Eastern England. In 577 AD they won a battle at Dyrham. They then captured Bath, Cirencester and Gloucester. In the late 9th century Alfred the Great created a network of fortified towns across his kingdoms called burghs. If the Danes attacked all the local men could gather in the nearest burgh to fight them.
In 1088 a rebellion occurred. The rebels sacked Bath and burned the monastery but the town soon recovered. The local Bishop moved his seat to Bath and in the early 12th century a great abbey was created which dominated Medieval Bath.
In 1189 Bath was given its first charter (a document granting the townspeople certain rights). The main industry in Medieval Bath was the manufacture of woolen cloth.
In 1590 Queen Elizabeth gave Bath a new charter. From then on Bath had a mayor and aldermen. There were some improvements in the little town. Bellots almshouses were built in 1609. In 1615 a 'scavenger' was appointed to clean the streets of Bath. In 1633 thatched roofs were banned because of the risk of fire. In 1642 came civil war between king and parliament. In 1643 Bath was occupied by parliamentary troops. In July 1643 they fought a battle against the royalists north of the town. The royalists were victorious. The parliamentary army withdrew from the area and the royalists occupied Bath. However by 1645 the king was losing the civil war. In July 1645 the royalist commander in Bath surrendered to parliament.
During the Summer Georgian Bath was full of rich visitors. They played cards, went to balls and horse racing, went walking and horse riding. However the high life was only for a small minority. There were a great many poor people in Bath, as there were in every town. Despite the fine architecture there was also plenty of squalor and overcrowding in Bath.
Like all cities in the 19th century Bath was a dirty and unsanitary place and it suffered an outbreak of cholera in 1849. However conditions improved later in the 19th century. From 1880 horse drawn trams ran in the streets of Bath.
Information source www.localhistories.org/bath.html
Imagine my surprise when I turned around and saw my neighbor's cattle standing behind me waiting on feed.
Grand Cenote. Tulum, Mexico. Oct/2016
A cenote is a natural pit, or sinkhole, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater underneath. Especially associated with the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, cenotes were sometimes used by the ancient Maya for sacrificial offerings.
The term derives from a word used by the low-land Yucatec Maya — ts'onot — to refer to any location with accessible groundwater.[1][2] Cenotes are common geological forms in low latitude regions, particularly on islands, coastlines, and platforms with young post-Paleozoic limestones that have little soil development.
Cenotes are surface connections to subterranean water bodies.[3] While the best-known cenotes are large open water pools measuring tens of meters in diameter, such as those at Chichén Itzá in Mexico, the greatest number of cenotes are smaller sheltered sites and do not necessarily have any surface exposed water. The term cenote has also been used to describe similar karst features in other countries such as Cuba and Australia, in addition to the more generic term of sinkholes.
Cenote water is often very clear, as the water comes from rain water filtering slowly through the ground, and therefore contains very little suspended particulate matter. The groundwater flow rate within a cenote may be very slow. In many cases, cenotes are areas where sections of cave roof have collapsed revealing an underlying cave system, and the water flow rates may be much faster: up to 10 kilometers (6 mi) per day. Cenotes around the world attract cave divers who have documented extensive flooded cave systems through them, some of which have been explored for lengths of 100 km (62 mi) or more.
Source: Wikipedia
Um cenote é uma cavidade natural (algar) ou dolina resultado do impacto de um grande meteoro há 65.5 milhões de anos, evento que extinguiu os dinossauros da terra, fenômeno que deu origem às águas subterrâneas. Especialmente associado com a Península de Iucatã do México, os cenotes eram usados em alguns rituais de sacrifício da civilização Maia. O termo deriva de uma palavra utilizada pelos maias iucatecas das terras baixas, "Ts'onot" refere-se a qualquer local com águas subterrâneas acessíveis. Cenotes são formações geológicas comuns em regiões de baixas latitudes, particularmente em ilhas, regiões costeiras e plataformas com recentes formações calcárias pós-paleozóicas que têm pouco desenvolvimento do solo.
Cenotes são conexões entre a superfície e áreas alagadas subterrâneas.Enquanto os cenotes mais conhecidos são grandes piscinas medindo cerca de 10 metros de diâmetro, como as existentes em Chichén Itzá, o maior número de cenotes são pequenos locais abrigados e não necessariamente tem qualquer água de superfície exposta. O termo cenote também é empregado para descrever formações parecidas conhecidas como carste presentes em outros países como Cuba ou Austrália.
As águas dos cenotes geralmente são límpidas, porque esta provem de filtragem de água de chuva lentamente através do solo e, portanto, contém poucas partículas suspensas. A taxa de fluxo das água subterrânea dentro de um cenote podem ser muito lentas. Em diversos casos, cenotes são áreas onde se(c)ções do teto das cavernas cederam, revelando um sistema de cavernas subjacente e as taxas de fluxo podem ser muito mais rápidas, cerca de 10 km (6,21 mi) por dia. Cenotes ao redor do mundo atraem exploradores de cavernas, que documentaram extensos sistemas de cavernas inundadas através deles, alguns dos quais com cerca de 100 km (62,1 mi) de extensão ou mais.
Fonte: Wikipedia
This is an 8 and 5 inch round marble cake. The colors I was told to use was aqua and brown- for a GIRL....I couldn't resist- I had to add a little pink, otherwise, it just looked way to "boyish"- to me, anyway....
I had a minor problem in the back of the cake- the bottom tier was starting to "buckle", so I had a good size tear right down the backside- which is funny, since more times than not, my problems occur in the FRONT. I covered the tear with fondant (aqua) ribbons cascading down the back from top to bottom.
The Berlaymont is an office building in Brussels, Belgium that houses the headquarters of the European Commission, which is the executive of the European Union (EU). The structure is located at Schuman roundabout at 200 Rue de la Loi, in what is known as the "European district". The building has housed the European Commission since its construction, and has become a symbol of the Commission (its name becoming a metonym for the Commission) and the European presence in Brussels. The Commission itself is spread over some 60 odd buildings, but the Berlaymont is the institution's headquarters, being the seat of the President of the European Commission and its College of Commissioners. Read more here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlaymont_building
This is the sink in the painting room in my studio. It is beyond just a dripping faucet, it is a steady stream. Plus there is a crazy amount of paint crusted on everything. My studio is such an excellent place, haha.
Don't forget to check out my blog!
Stuff is happening; stuff not right and so I'm posting in an uncharacteristically out of step, anachronistic way.
This shot, this less than arty still life with jarring colours, walnuts and Atomic knobs is about chains of logic, of cause and effect and how stepping out of logic into chaos distresses everything. Douglas Adams nominated "wars, New York". Today we might add robodebt, Ukraine, Iran, Wieambilla…Don't "get me wrong" — art can and does coexist with logic. Art cannot through personal dismissal subvert logic. It cannot switch off gravity etcetera.
A former Social Security Minister, later Prime Minister will front a Royal Commission today to answer questions about the deeply flawed logic which contrived an artful justification to illegally it seems and in a punitive way, claw back welfare payments by data matching tax and welfare records. This was robodebt — bad logic, chaos and in sad truth a trigger for suicide. Sound logic won't bring them back. But the perversion needs to be explained.
Ukraine and Iran you will know about. Wieambilla has a lower profile and shouldn't be in the news. But it is and it's there because of, it is suspected, some conspiracy theorists, acolytes of the illogical, "cookers" if you wish to be so crude (Australian slang), who have gone off the rails. Now six people are dead and all because logic was abandoned and chaos embraced.
What you have here in this discordant image is at odds with these other things. It is soundly, rigidly, slavishly logical. It is cause and effect; if this, then that.
I choose to support wild creatures. Moneys have gone to the kākāpō, and have done for years. Now I'm getting behind the painted snipe. Free time and other resources pour into my garden and to citizen science. This world needs to be better than the mess we have made of it. It's the only one we have and cookers for all their zeal are not helping.
There's a limit to how far I'm prepared to go. I supplementary feed our birds, don't tidy up so much as to destroy habitat for reptiles, and keep flowering plants for insects beyond what might be a show garden.
But I draw the line at self-service. Berries are ripening now. A pied currawong began pick-your-own the other day. I ought to have been angry, that is, until I noticed two things: the berries were being carried away, not swallowed, and they were carried away by "one-eyed 'Wong", our NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) entitled and quite literally currawong with one eye. She was feeding a baby; a baby so young as to still have its yellow gape. Instead of robdebt, I instituted a diversionary process: feeding her soaked cat food so that she left the berries for me. That worked!
Her place was taken at the berries by another black bird: the unpleasantly ill-mannered male eastern koel — an hideous, indolent bird of low morals, a wastrel bird, a cuckoo making a cuckold of our red wattlebirds. He was not feeding his young. That's not what he does. He was feeding his "lifestyle". His natural yet discordant behaviour will not get my favour. There's that limit to generosity.
Same goes here with these walnuts. Cool weather makes the white cockatoos lazy. They look for the high energy wattle seeds in my trees, fruit, nuts, anything to avoid going a few extra metres to their usual habitat. Today its about 10°C below average. It's Summer and it has both been like this and forecast to not change in the immediate future. Logic says those cockies will be back looking for a hand out. From their spy perches (look up Australian slang "cockatoo") they'll see the little walnut tree. Only now, these nuts, the ones in this discordant image and following the logic that this tree was planted to feed me, not them, these nuts are headed for a delicious black as night, sharp as a harpy's tongue pickle.
That blue "colander" is a repurposed fresh ricotta strainer, the nuts are zero food miles, the coffee engine a thing of delight which sends its spent grounds to compost and no coffee pods to landfill. Here is logic, cause and effect. This image is poor, discordant, jarring, artless. It contains, instead, logical actions to make this world better, less wounded. Can the Ukraine crisis, the Iran situation, robodebt and the illogical tragedies at Wieambilla say the same?
Traveler's Press - Is "What's in My Bag" Really That Interesting?
Yes I switch gears quite often so in any given day you pick, chances are my bag's content can be entirely different. And that is interesting to me and perhaps to many people too. I decided to do "What's in my bag" posts once in a while but the last one was already August 2009, the Seminar Edition. So here you go, what's in my bag in Feb/Mar 2010.
Well click on the photo to go to the Flickr page and see more precise descriptions on the photo, previous gears are shown in this flickr set in case you want to explore more. I was traveling to Tokyo and Korea for business and these were all I needed:
Orobianco pen case, Pentel Tradio pen, Staedtler mechanical pencil, Faber Castell perfect pencil wrapped with black MT tape, Canon F1 50mm/f1.2 camera, Pilot capless fountain pen, mind.Depositor 3 with Maruman Mnemosyne, Shiny handy stamp, Kokuyo kadokeshi eraser, Monogram leather film holder, lip balm wrapped in masking tape, paper clips, book dart etc, USB memory customized with leather cover and closure, Midori brass numbered clips, Name card case with dart flight closure, Midori brass ruler, Midori Traveler's notebook, Passport cover, Midori brass pencil.
Midori/Designphil asked me to show what's in my bag back in Feb when they were planning a "TRAVELER's notebook & company" event in Aoyama. Eventually the photo and my tips to age brass items were included in the Traveler's Press which was being sold at 320 yen at the event. It looks like a very interesting event with limited edition brass pen with Traveler's Notebook logo, charms, wooden stand, calendar, postcards along side with vintage goods such as tin can, match boxes, etc. They even have a coffee bean partner creating a special Traveler's Notebook blend so customers can enjoy a cup of coffee with their notebook after the event. As usual, I wish I were there to experience everything.
More on Scription blog: scription.typepad.com/blog/2010/05/travelers-press-is-wha...
++++++ Form Wikipedia +++++
Kalaw (Burmese: ကလောမြို့; Shan: ၵလေႃး [ka lɔ]) is a hill town in the Shan State of Myanmar. It is located in Kalaw Township in Taunggyi District.
Kalaw
ကလောမြို့
Kalaw 21.jpg
Kalaw is located in Myanmar
Kalaw
Location in Myanmar
Coordinates: 20°38′N 96°34′E
Country Myanmar
Division Shan State
Districts Taunggyi District
Township Kalaw Township
Population (2005)
• Religions Buddhism
Time zone MST (UTC+6.30)
OverviewEdit
The town was popular with the British during colonial rule. Kalaw is the main setting of the novel "The Art of Hearing Heartbeats" by Jan-Philipp Sendker.
The hill station is located at an elevation of 1320 metres, 50 km from the Inle lake. Kalaw is famous for hiking and trekking.[1]
Kalaw Train station sign altitude.
Myanmar (Burmese pronunciation: [mjəmà]),[nb 1][8] officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and also known as Burma, is a sovereign state in Southeast Asia. Myanmar is bordered by India and Bangladesh to its west, Thailand and Laos to its east and China to its north and northeast. To its south, about one third of Myanmar's total perimeter of 5,876 km (3,651 mi) forms an uninterrupted coastline of 1,930 km (1,200 mi) along the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The country's 2014 census counted the population to be 51 million people.[9] As of 2017, the population is about 54 million.[10] Myanmar is 676,578 square kilometers (261,228 square miles) in size. Its capital city is Naypyidaw, and its largest city and former capital is Yangon (Rangoon).[1] Myanmar has been a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) since 1997.
Early civilisations in Myanmar included the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Pyu city-states in Upper Burma and the Mon kingdoms in Lower Burma.[11] In the 9th century, the Bamar people entered the upper Irrawaddy valley and, following the establishment of the Pagan Kingdom in the 1050s, the Burmese language, culture and Theravada Buddhism slowly became dominant in the country. The Pagan Kingdom fell due to the Mongol invasions and several warring states emerged. In the 16th century, reunified by the Taungoo Dynasty, the country was for a brief period the largest empire in the history of Mainland Southeast Asia.[12] The early 19th century Konbaung Dynasty ruled over an area that included modern Myanmar and briefly controlled Manipur and Assam as well. The British took over the administration of Myanmar after three Anglo-Burmese Wars in the 19th century and the country became a British colony. Myanmar was granted independence in 1948, as a democratic nation. Following a coup d'état in 1962, it became a military dictatorship.
For most of its independent years, the country has been engrossed in rampant ethnic strife and its myriad ethnic groups have been involved in one of the world's longest-running ongoing civil wars. During this time, the United Nations and several other organisations have reported consistent and systematic human rights violations in the country.[13] In 2011, the military junta was officially dissolved following a 2010 general election, and a nominally civilian government was installed. This, along with the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and political prisoners, has improved the country's human rights record and foreign relations, and has led to the easing of trade and other economic sanctions.[14] There is, however, continuing criticism of the government's treatment of ethnic minorities, its response to the ethnic insurgency, and religious clashes.[15] In the landmark 2015 election, Aung San Suu Kyi's party won a majority in both houses. However, the Burmese military remains a powerful force in politics.
Myanmar is a country rich in jade and gems, oil, natural gas and other mineral resources. In 2013, its GDP (nominal) stood at US$56.7 billion and its GDP (PPP) at US$221.5 billion.[6] The income gap in Myanmar is among the widest in the world, as a large proportion of the economy is controlled by supporters of the former military government.[16] As of 2016, Myanmar ranks 145 out of 188 countries in human development, according to the Human Development Index.[7]
Etymology
Main article: Names of Myanmar
In 1989, the military government officially changed the English translations of many names dating back to Burma's colonial period or earlier, including that of the country itself: "Burma" became "Myanmar". The renaming remains a contested issue.[17] Many political and ethnic opposition groups and countries continue to use "Burma" because they do not recognise the legitimacy of the ruling military government or its authority to rename the country.[18]
In April 2016, soon after taking office, Aung San Suu Kyi clarified that foreigners are free to use either name, "because there is nothing in the constitution of our country that says that you must use any term in particular".[19]
The country's official full name is the "Republic of the Union of Myanmar" (ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်, Pyidaunzu Thanmăda Myăma Nainngandaw, pronounced [pjìdàʊɴzṵ θàɴməda̰ mjəmà nàɪɴŋàɴdɔ̀]). Countries that do not officially recognise that name use the long form "Union of Burma" instead.[20]
In English, the country is popularly known as either "Burma" or "Myanmar" /ˈmjɑːnˌmɑːr/ (About this sound listen).[8] Both these names are derived from the name of the majority Burmese Bamar ethnic group. Myanmar is considered to be the literary form of the name of the group, while Burma is derived from "Bamar", the colloquial form of the group's name.[17] Depending on the register used, the pronunciation would be Bama (pronounced [bəmà]) or Myamah (pronounced [mjəmà]).[17] The name Burma has been in use in English since the 18th century.
Burma continues to be used in English by the governments of many countries, such as Canada and the United Kingdom.[21][22] Official United States policy retains Burma as the country's name, although the State Department's website lists the country as "Burma (Myanmar)" and Barack Obama has referred to the country by both names.[23] The Czech Republic officially uses Myanmar, although its Ministry of Foreign Affairs mentions both Myanmar and Burma on its website.[24] The United Nations uses Myanmar, as do the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Australia,[25] Russia, Germany,[26] China, India, Bangladesh, Norway,[27] Japan[21] and Switzerland.[28]
Most English-speaking international news media refer to the country by the name Myanmar, including the BBC,[29] CNN,[30] Al Jazeera,[31] Reuters,[32] RT (Russia Today) and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)/Radio Australia.[33]
Myanmar is known with a name deriving from Burma as opposed to Myanmar in Spanish, Italian, Romanian, and Greek – Birmania being the local version of Burma in the Spanish language, for example. Myanmar used to be known as "Birmânia" in Portuguese, and as "Birmanie" in French.[34] As in the past, French-language media today consistently use Birmanie.,[35][36]
History
Main article: History of Myanmar
Prehistory
Main articles: Prehistory of Myanmar and Migration period of ancient Burma
Pyu city-states c. 8th century; Pagan is shown for comparison only and is not contemporary.
Archaeological evidence shows that Homo erectus lived in the region now known as Myanmar as early as 750,000 years ago, with no more erectus finds after 75,000 years ago.[37] The first evidence of Homo sapiens is dated to about 11,000 BC, in a Stone Age culture called the Anyathian with discoveries of stone tools in central Myanmar. Evidence of neolithic age domestication of plants and animals and the use of polished stone tools dating to sometime between 10,000 and 6,000 BC has been discovered in the form of cave paintings in Padah-Lin Caves.[38]
The Bronze Age arrived circa 1500 BC when people in the region were turning copper into bronze, growing rice and domesticating poultry and pigs; they were among the first people in the world to do so.[39] Human remains and artefacts from this era were discovered in Monywa District in the Sagaing Division.[40] The Iron Age began around 500 BC with the emergence of iron-working settlements in an area south of present-day Mandalay.[41] Evidence also shows the presence of rice-growing settlements of large villages and small towns that traded with their surroundings as far as China between 500 BC and 200 AD.[42] Iron Age Burmese cultures also had influences from outside sources such as India and Thailand, as seen in their funerary practices concerning child burials. This indicates some form of communication between groups in Myanmar and other places, possibly through trade.[43]
Early city-states
Main articles: Pyu city-states and Mon kingdoms
Around the second century BC the first-known city-states emerged in central Myanmar. The city-states were founded as part of the southward migration by the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Pyu city-states, the earliest inhabitants of Myanmar of whom records are extant, from present-day Yunnan.[44] The Pyu culture was heavily influenced by trade with India, importing Buddhism as well as other cultural, architectural and political concepts, which would have an enduring influence on later Burmese culture and political organisation.[45]
By the 9th century, several city-states had sprouted across the land: the Pyu in the central dry zone, Mon along the southern coastline and Arakanese along the western littoral. The balance was upset when the Pyu came under repeated attacks from Nanzhao between the 750s and the 830s. In the mid-to-late 9th century the Bamar people founded a small settlement at Bagan. It was one of several competing city-states until the late 10th century when it grew in authority and grandeur.[46]
Imperial Burma
Main articles: Pagan Kingdom, Taungoo Dynasty, and Konbaung Dynasty
See also: Ava Kingdom, Hanthawaddy Kingdom, Kingdom of Mrauk U, and Shan States
Pagodas and kyaungs in present-day Bagan, the capital of the Pagan Kingdom.
Pagan gradually grew to absorb its surrounding states until the 1050s–1060s when Anawrahta founded the Pagan Kingdom, the first ever unification of the Irrawaddy valley and its periphery. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the Pagan Empire and the Khmer Empire were two main powers in mainland Southeast Asia.[47] The Burmese language and culture gradually became dominant in the upper Irrawaddy valley, eclipsing the Pyu, Mon and Pali norms by the late 12th century.[48]
Theravada Buddhism slowly began to spread to the village level, although Tantric, Mahayana, Hinduism, and folk religion remained heavily entrenched. Pagan's rulers and wealthy built over 10,000 Buddhist temples in the Pagan capital zone alone. Repeated Mongol invasions (1277–1301) toppled the four-century-old kingdom in 1287.[48]
Temples at Mrauk U.
Pagan's collapse was followed by 250 years of political fragmentation that lasted well into the 16th century. Like the Burmans four centuries earlier, Shan migrants who arrived with the Mongol invasions stayed behind. Several competing Shan States came to dominate the entire northwestern to eastern arc surrounding the Irrawaddy valley. The valley too was beset with petty states until the late 14th century when two sizeable powers, Ava Kingdom and Hanthawaddy Kingdom, emerged. In the west, a politically fragmented Arakan was under competing influences of its stronger neighbours until the Kingdom of Mrauk U unified the Arakan coastline for the first time in 1437.
Early on, Ava fought wars of unification (1385–1424) but could never quite reassemble the lost empire. Having held off Ava, Hanthawaddy entered its golden age, and Arakan went on to become a power in its own right for the next 350 years. In contrast, constant warfare left Ava greatly weakened, and it slowly disintegrated from 1481 onward. In 1527, the Confederation of Shan States conquered Ava itself, and ruled Upper Myanmar until 1555.
Like the Pagan Empire, Ava, Hanthawaddy and the Shan states were all multi-ethnic polities. Despite the wars, cultural synchronisation continued. This period is considered a golden age for Burmese culture. Burmese literature "grew more confident, popular, and stylistically diverse", and the second generation of Burmese law codes as well as the earliest pan-Burma chronicles emerged.[49] Hanthawaddy monarchs introduced religious reforms that later spread to the rest of the country.[50] Many splendid temples of Mrauk U were built during this period.
Taungoo and colonialism
Bayinnaung's Empire in 1580.
Political unification returned in the mid-16th century, due to the efforts of Taungoo, a former vassal state of Ava. Taungoo's young, ambitious king Tabinshwehti defeated the more powerful Hanthawaddy in the Toungoo–Hanthawaddy War (1534–41). His successor Bayinnaung went on to conquer a vast swath of mainland Southeast Asia including the Shan states, Lan Na, Manipur, Mong Mao, the Ayutthaya Kingdom, Lan Xang and southern Arakan. However, the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia unravelled soon after Bayinnaung's death in 1581, completely collapsing by 1599. Ayutthaya seized Tenasserim and Lan Na, and Portuguese mercenaries established Portuguese rule at Thanlyin (Syriam).
The dynasty regrouped and defeated the Portuguese in 1613 and Siam in 1614. It restored a smaller, more manageable kingdom, encompassing Lower Myanmar, Upper Myanmar, Shan states, Lan Na and upper Tenasserim. The Restored Toungoo kings created a legal and political framework whose basic features would continue well into the 19th century. The crown completely replaced the hereditary chieftainships with appointed governorships in the entire Irrawaddy valley, and greatly reduced the hereditary rights of Shan chiefs. Its trade and secular administrative reforms built a prosperous economy for more than 80 years. From the 1720s onward, the kingdom was beset with repeated Meithei raids into Upper Myanmar and a nagging rebellion in Lan Na. In 1740, the Mon of Lower Myanmar founded the Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom. Hanthawaddy forces sacked Ava in 1752, ending the 266-year-old Toungoo Dynasty.
A British 1825 lithograph of Shwedagon Pagoda shows British occupation during the First Anglo-Burmese War.
After the fall of Ava, the Konbaung–Hanthawaddy War involved one resistance group under Alaungpaya defeating the Restored Hanthawaddy, and by 1759, he had reunited all of Myanmar and Manipur, and driven out the French and the British, who had provided arms to Hanthawaddy. By 1770, Alaungpaya's heirs had subdued much of Laos (1765) and fought and won the Burmese–Siamese War (1765–67) against Ayutthaya and the Sino-Burmese War (1765–69) against Qing China (1765–1769).[51]
With Burma preoccupied by the Chinese threat, Ayutthaya recovered its territories by 1770, and went on to capture Lan Na by 1776. Burma and Siam went to war until 1855, but all resulted in a stalemate, exchanging Tenasserim (to Burma) and Lan Na (to Ayutthaya). Faced with a powerful China and a resurgent Ayutthaya in the east, King Bodawpaya turned west, acquiring Arakan (1785), Manipur (1814) and Assam (1817). It was the second-largest empire in Burmese history but also one with a long ill-defined border with British India.[52]
The breadth of this empire was short lived. Burma lost Arakan, Manipur, Assam and Tenasserim to the British in the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–1826). In 1852, the British easily seized Lower Burma in the Second Anglo-Burmese War. King Mindon Min tried to modernise the kingdom, and in 1875 narrowly avoided annexation by ceding the Karenni States. The British, alarmed by the consolidation of French Indochina, annexed the remainder of the country in the Third Anglo-Burmese War in 1885.
Konbaung kings extended Restored Toungoo's administrative reforms, and achieved unprecedented levels of internal control and external expansion. For the first time in history, the Burmese language and culture came to predominate the entire Irrawaddy valley. The evolution and growth of Burmese literature and theatre continued, aided by an extremely high adult male literacy rate for the era (half of all males and 5% of females).[53] Nonetheless, the extent and pace of reforms were uneven and ultimately proved insufficient to stem the advance of British colonialism.
British Burma (1824–1948)
Main articles: British rule in Burma and Burma Campaign
Burma in British India
The landing of British forces in Mandalay after the last of the Anglo-Burmese Wars, which resulted in the abdication of the last Burmese monarch, King Thibaw Min.
British troops firing a mortar on the Mawchi road, July 1944.
The eighteenth century saw Burmese rulers, whose country had not previously been of particular interest to European traders, seek to maintain their traditional influence in the western areas of Assam, Manipur and Arakan. Pressing them, however, was the British East India Company, which was expanding its interests eastwards over the same territory. Over the next sixty years, diplomacy, raids, treaties and compromises continued until, after three Anglo-Burmese Wars (1824–1885), Britain proclaimed control over most of Burma.[54] British rule brought social, economic, cultural and administrative changes.
With the fall of Mandalay, all of Burma came under British rule, being annexed on 1 January 1886. Throughout the colonial era, many Indians arrived as soldiers, civil servants, construction workers and traders and, along with the Anglo-Burmese community, dominated commercial and civil life in Burma. Rangoon became the capital of British Burma and an important port between Calcutta and Singapore.
Burmese resentment was strong and was vented in violent riots that paralysed Yangon (Rangoon) on occasion all the way until the 1930s.[55] Some of the discontent was caused by a disrespect for Burmese culture and traditions such as the British refusal to remove shoes when they entered pagodas. Buddhist monks became the vanguards of the independence movement. U Wisara, an activist monk, died in prison after a 166-day hunger strike to protest against a rule that forbade him to wear his Buddhist robes while imprisoned.[56]
Separation of British Burma from British India
On 1 April 1937, Burma became a separately administered colony of Great Britain and Ba Maw the first Prime Minister and Premier of Burma. Ba Maw was an outspoken advocate for Burmese self-rule and he opposed the participation of Great Britain, and by extension Burma, in World War II. He resigned from the Legislative Assembly and was arrested for sedition. In 1940, before Japan formally entered the Second World War, Aung San formed the Burma Independence Army in Japan.
A major battleground, Burma was devastated during World War II. By March 1942, within months after they entered the war, Japanese troops had advanced on Rangoon and the British administration had collapsed. A Burmese Executive Administration headed by Ba Maw was established by the Japanese in August 1942. Wingate's British Chindits were formed into long-range penetration groups trained to operate deep behind Japanese lines.[57] A similar American unit, Merrill's Marauders, followed the Chindits into the Burmese jungle in 1943.[58] Beginning in late 1944, allied troops launched a series of offensives that led to the end of Japanese rule in July 1945. The battles were intense with much of Burma laid waste by the fighting. Overall, the Japanese lost some 150,000 men in Burma. Only 1,700 prisoners were taken.[59]
Although many Burmese fought initially for the Japanese as part of the Burma Independence Army, many Burmese, mostly from the ethnic minorities, served in the British Burma Army.[60] The Burma National Army and the Arakan National Army fought with the Japanese from 1942 to 1944 but switched allegiance to the Allied side in 1945. Under Japanese occupation, 170,000 to 250,000 civilians died.[61]
Following World War II, Aung San negotiated the Panglong Agreement with ethnic leaders that guaranteed the independence of Myanmar as a unified state. Aung Zan Wai, Pe Khin, Bo Hmu Aung, Sir Maung Gyi, Dr. Sein Mya Maung, Myoma U Than Kywe were among the negotiators of the historical Panglong Conference negotiated with Bamar leader General Aung San and other ethnic leaders in 1947. In 1947, Aung San became Deputy Chairman of the Executive Council of Myanmar, a transitional government. But in July 1947, political rivals[62] assassinated Aung San and several cabinet members.[63]
Independence (1948–1962)
Main article: Post-independence Burma, 1948–62
British governor Hubert Elvin Rance and Sao Shwe Thaik at the flag raising ceremony on 4 January 1948 (Independence Day of Burma).
On 4 January 1948, the nation became an independent republic, named the Union of Burma, with Sao Shwe Thaik as its first President and U Nu as its first Prime Minister. Unlike most other former British colonies and overseas territories, Burma did not become a member of the Commonwealth. A bicameral parliament was formed, consisting of a Chamber of Deputies and a Chamber of Nationalities,[64] and multi-party elections were held in 1951–1952, 1956 and 1960.
The geographical area Burma encompasses today can be traced to the Panglong Agreement, which combined Burma Proper, which consisted of Lower Burma and Upper Burma, and the Frontier Areas, which had been administered separately by the British.[65]
In 1961, U Thant, then the Union of Burma's Permanent Representative to the United Nations and former Secretary to the Prime Minister, was elected Secretary-General of the United Nations, a position he held for ten years.[66] Among the Burmese to work at the UN when he was Secretary-General was a young Aung San Suu Kyi (daughter of Aung San), who went on to become winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.
When the non-Burman ethnic groups pushed for autonomy or federalism, alongside having a weak civilian government at the centre, the military leadership staged a coup d’état in 1962. Though incorporated in the 1947 Constitution, successive military governments construed the use of the term ‘federalism’ as being anti-national, anti-unity and pro-disintegration.[67]
Military rule (1962–2011)
On 2 March 1962, the military led by General Ne Win took control of Burma through a coup d'état, and the government has been under direct or indirect control by the military since then. Between 1962 and 1974, Myanmar was ruled by a revolutionary council headed by the general. Almost all aspects of society (business, media, production) were nationalised or brought under government control under the Burmese Way to Socialism,[68] which combined Soviet-style nationalisation and central planning.
A new constitution of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma was adopted in 1974. Until 1988, the country was ruled as a one-party system, with the General and other military officers resigning and ruling through the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP).[69] During this period, Myanmar became one of the world's most impoverished countries.[70]
Protesters gathering in central Rangoon, 1988.
There were sporadic protests against military rule during the Ne Win years and these were almost always violently suppressed. On 7 July 1962, the government broke up demonstrations at Rangoon University, killing 15 students.[68] In 1974, the military violently suppressed anti-government protests at the funeral of U Thant. Student protests in 1975, 1976, and 1977 were quickly suppressed by overwhelming force.[69]
In 1988, unrest over economic mismanagement and political oppression by the government led to widespread pro-democracy demonstrations throughout the country known as the 8888 Uprising. Security forces killed thousands of demonstrators, and General Saw Maung staged a coup d'état and formed the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). In 1989, SLORC declared martial law after widespread protests. The military government finalised plans for People's Assembly elections on 31 May 1989.[71] SLORC changed the country's official English name from the "Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma" to the "Union of Myanmar" in 1989.
In May 1990, the government held free elections for the first time in almost 30 years and the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party of Aung San Suu Kyi, won 392 out of a total 492 seats (i.e., 80% of the seats). However, the military junta refused to cede power[72] and continued to rule the nation as SLORC until 1997, and then as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) until its dissolution in March 2011.
Protesters in Yangon during the 2007 Saffron Revolution with a banner that reads non-violence: national movement in Burmese. In the background is Shwedagon Pagoda.
On 23 June 1997, Myanmar was admitted into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). On 27 March 2006, the military junta, which had moved the national capital from Yangon to a site near Pyinmana in November 2005, officially named the new capital Naypyidaw, meaning "city of the kings".[73]
Cyclone Nargis in southern Myanmar, May 2008.
In August 2007, an increase in the price of diesel and petrol led to the Saffron Revolution led by Buddhist monks that were dealt with harshly by the government.[74] The government cracked down on them on 26 September 2007. The crackdown was harsh, with reports of barricades at the Shwedagon Pagoda and monks killed. There were also rumours of disagreement within the Burmese armed forces, but none was confirmed. The military crackdown against unarmed protesters was widely condemned as part of the international reactions to the Saffron Revolution and led to an increase in economic sanctions against the Burmese Government.
In May 2008, Cyclone Nargis caused extensive damage in the densely populated, rice-farming delta of the Irrawaddy Division.[75] It was the worst natural disaster in Burmese history with reports of an estimated 200,000 people dead or missing, damage totalled to 10 billion US dollars, and as many as 1 million left homeless.[76] In the critical days following this disaster, Myanmar's isolationist government was accused of hindering United Nations recovery efforts.[77] Humanitarian aid was requested but concerns about foreign military or intelligence presence in the country delayed the entry of United States military planes delivering medicine, food, and other supplies.[78]
In early August 2009, a conflict known as the Kokang incident broke out in Shan State in northern Myanmar. For several weeks, junta troops fought against ethnic minorities including the Han Chinese,[79] Wa, and Kachin.[80][81] During 8–12 August, the first days of the conflict, as many as 10,000 Burmese civilians fled to Yunnan province in neighbouring China.[80][81][82]
Civil wars
Main articles: Internal conflict in Myanmar, Kachin Conflict, Karen conflict, and 2015 Kokang offensive
Civil wars have been a constant feature of Myanmar's socio-political landscape since the attainment of independence in 1948. These wars are predominantly struggles for ethnic and sub-national autonomy, with the areas surrounding the ethnically Bamar central districts of the country serving as the primary geographical setting of conflict. Foreign journalists and visitors require a special travel permit to visit the areas in which Myanmar's civil wars continue.[83]
In October 2012, the ongoing conflicts in Myanmar included the Kachin conflict,[84] between the Pro-Christian Kachin Independence Army and the government;[85] a civil war between the Rohingya Muslims, and the government and non-government groups in Rakhine State;[86] and a conflict between the Shan,[87] Lahu, and Karen[88][89] minority groups, and the government in the eastern half of the country. In addition, al-Qaeda signalled an intention to become involved in Myanmar. In a video released on 3 September 2014, mainly addressed to India, the militant group's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri said al-Qaeda had not forgotten the Muslims of Myanmar and that the group was doing "what they can to rescue you".[90] In response, the military raised its level of alertness, while the Burmese Muslim Association issued a statement saying Muslims would not tolerate any threat to their motherland.[91]
Armed conflict between ethnic Chinese rebels and the Myanmar Armed Forces have resulted in the Kokang offensive in February 2015. The conflict had forced 40,000 to 50,000 civilians to flee their homes and seek shelter on the Chinese side of the border.[92] During the incident, the government of China was accused of giving military assistance to the ethnic Chinese rebels. Burmese officials have been historically "manipulated" and pressured by the Chinese government throughout Burmese modern history to create closer and binding ties with China, creating a Chinese satellite state in Southeast Asia.[93] However, uncertainties exist as clashes between Burmese troops and local insurgent groups continue.
Democratic reforms
Main article: 2011–12 Burmese political reforms
The goal of the Burmese constitutional referendum of 2008, held on 10 May 2008, is the creation of a "discipline-flourishing democracy". As part of the referendum process, the name of the country was changed from the "Union of Myanmar" to the "Republic of the Union of Myanmar", and general elections were held under the new constitution in 2010. Observer accounts of the 2010 election describe the event as mostly peaceful; however, allegations of polling station irregularities were raised, and the United Nations (UN) and a number of Western countries condemned the elections as fraudulent.[94]
U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with Aung San Suu Kyi and her staff at her home in Yangon, 2012
The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party declared victory in the 2010 elections, stating that it had been favoured by 80 percent of the votes; however, the claim was disputed by numerous pro-democracy opposition groups who asserted that the military regime had engaged in rampant fraud.[95][96] One report documented 77 percent as the official turnout rate of the election.[95] The military junta was dissolved on 30 March 2011.
Opinions differ whether the transition to liberal democracy is underway. According to some reports, the military's presence continues as the label "disciplined democracy" suggests. This label asserts that the Burmese military is allowing certain civil liberties while clandestinely institutionalising itself further into Burmese politics. Such an assertion assumes that reforms only occurred when the military was able to safeguard its own interests through the transition—here, "transition" does not refer to a transition to a liberal democracy, but transition to a quasi-military rule.[97]
Since the 2010 election, the government has embarked on a series of reforms to direct the country towards liberal democracy, a mixed economy, and reconciliation, although doubts persist about the motives that underpin such reforms. The series of reforms includes the release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, the establishment of the National Human Rights Commission, the granting of general amnesties for more than 200 political prisoners, new labour laws that permit labour unions and strikes, a relaxation of press censorship, and the regulation of currency practices.[98]
The impact of the post-election reforms has been observed in numerous areas, including ASEAN's approval of Myanmar's bid for the position of ASEAN chair in 2014;[99] the visit by United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in December 2011 for the encouragement of further progress, which was the first visit by a Secretary of State in more than fifty years,[100] during which Clinton met with the Burmese president and former military commander Thein Sein, as well as opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi;[101] and the participation of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party in the 2012 by-elections, facilitated by the government's abolition of the laws that previously barred the NLD.[102] As of July 2013, about 100[103][104] political prisoners remain imprisoned, while conflict between the Burmese Army and local insurgent groups continues.
Map of Myanmar and its divisions, including Shan State, Kachin State, Rakhine State and Karen State.
In 1 April 2012 by-elections, the NLD won 43 of the 45 available seats; previously an illegal organisation, the NLD had not won a single seat under new constitution. The 2012 by-elections were also the first time that international representatives were allowed to monitor the voting process in Myanmar.[105]
2015 general elections
Main article: Myanmar general election, 2015
General elections were held on 8 November 2015. These were the first openly contested elections held in Myanmar since 1990. The results gave the National League for Democracy an absolute majority of seats in both chambers of the national parliament, enough to ensure that its candidate would become president, while NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi is constitutionally barred from the presidency.[106]
The new parliament convened on 1 February 2016[107] and, on 15 March 2016, Htin Kyaw was elected as the first non-military president since the military coup of 1962.[108] On 6 April 2016, Aung San Suu Kyi assumed the newly created role of State Counsellor, a role akin to a Prime Minister.
Geography
Main article: Geography of Myanmar
A map of Myanmar
Myanmar map of Köppen climate classification.
Myanmar has a total area of 678,500 square kilometres (262,000 sq mi). It lies between latitudes 9° and 29°N, and longitudes 92° and 102°E. As of February 2011, Myanmar consisted of 14 states and regions, 67 districts, 330 townships, 64 sub-townships, 377 towns, 2,914 Wards, 14,220 village tracts and 68,290 villages.
Myanmar is bordered in the northwest by the Chittagong Division of Bangladesh and the Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh states of India. Its north and northeast border is with the Tibet Autonomous Region and Yunnan province for a Sino-Myanmar border total of 2,185 km (1,358 mi). It is bounded by Laos and Thailand to the southeast. Myanmar has 1,930 km (1,200 mi) of contiguous coastline along the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea to the southwest and the south, which forms one quarter of its total perimeter.[20]
In the north, the Hengduan Mountains form the border with China. Hkakabo Razi, located in Kachin State, at an elevation of 5,881 metres (19,295 ft), is the highest point in Myanmar.[109] Many mountain ranges, such as the Rakhine Yoma, the Bago Yoma, the Shan Hills and the Tenasserim Hills exist within Myanmar, all of which run north-to-south from the Himalayas.[110]
The mountain chains divide Myanmar's three river systems, which are the Irrawaddy, Salween (Thanlwin), and the Sittaung rivers.[111] The Irrawaddy River, Myanmar's longest river, nearly 2,170 kilometres (1,348 mi) long, flows into the Gulf of Martaban. Fertile plains exist in the valleys between the mountain chains.[110] The majority of Myanmar's population lives in the Irrawaddy valley, which is situated between the Rakhine Yoma and the Shan Plateau.
Administrative divisions
Main article: Administrative divisions of Myanmar
A clickable map of Burma/Myanmar exhibiting its first-level administrative divisions.
About this image
Myanmar is divided into seven states (ပြည်နယ်) and seven regions (တိုင်းဒေသကြီး), formerly called divisions.[112] Regions are predominantly Bamar (that is, mainly inhabited by the dominant ethnic group). States, in essence, are regions that are home to particular ethnic minorities. The administrative divisions are further subdivided into districts, which are further subdivided into townships, wards, and villages.
Climate
Main article: Climate of Myanmar
The limestone landscape of Mon State.
Much of the country lies between the Tropic of Cancer and the Equator. It lies in the monsoon region of Asia, with its coastal regions receiving over 5,000 mm (196.9 in) of rain annually. Annual rainfall in the delta region is approximately 2,500 mm (98.4 in), while average annual rainfall in the Dry Zone in central Myanmar is less than 1,000 mm (39.4 in). The Northern regions of Myanmar are the coolest, with average temperatures of 21 °C (70 °F). Coastal and delta regions have an average maximum temperature of 32 °C (89.6 °F).[111]
Environment
Further information: Deforestation in Myanmar
Myanmar continues to perform badly in the global Environmental Performance Index (EPI) with an overall ranking of 153 out of 180 countries in 2016; among the worst in the South Asian region, only ahead of Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The EPI was established in 2001 by the World Economic Forum as a global gauge to measure how well individual countries perform in implementing the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. The environmental areas where Myanmar performs worst (ie. highest ranking) are air quality (174), health impacts of environmental issues (143) and biodiversity and habitat (142). Myanmar performs best (ie. lowest ranking) in environmental impacts of fisheries (21), but with declining fish stocks. Despite several issues, Myanmar also ranks 64 and scores very good (ie. a high percentage of 93.73%) in environmental effects of the agricultural industry because of an excellent management of the nitrogen cycle.[114][115]
Wildlife
Myanmar's slow economic growth has contributed to the preservation of much of its environment and ecosystems. Forests, including dense tropical growth and valuable teak in lower Myanmar, cover over 49% of the country, including areas of acacia, bamboo, ironwood and Magnolia champaca. Coconut and betel palm and rubber have been introduced. In the highlands of the north, oak, pine and various rhododendrons cover much of the land.[116]
Heavy logging since the new 1995 forestry law went into effect has seriously reduced forest acreage and wildlife habitat.[117] The lands along the coast support all varieties of tropical fruits and once had large areas of mangroves although much of the protective mangroves have disappeared. In much of central Myanmar (the Dry Zone), vegetation is sparse and stunted.
Typical jungle animals, particularly tigers, occur sparsely in Myanmar. In upper Myanmar, there are rhinoceros, wild water buffalo, clouded leopard, wild boars, deer, antelope, and elephants, which are also tamed or bred in captivity for use as work animals, particularly in the lumber industry. Smaller mammals are also numerous, ranging from gibbons and monkeys to flying foxes. The abundance of birds is notable with over 800 species, including parrots, myna, peafowl, red junglefowl, weaverbirds, crows, herons, and barn owl. Among reptile species there are crocodiles, geckos, cobras, Burmese pythons, and turtles. Hundreds of species of freshwater fish are wide-ranging, plentiful and are very important food sources.[118] For a list of protected areas, see List of protected areas of Myanmar.
Government and politics
Main article: Politics of Myanmar
Assembly of the Union (Pyidaungsu Hluttaw)
The constitution of Myanmar, its third since independence, was drafted by its military rulers and published in September 2008. The country is governed as a parliamentary system with a bicameral legislature (with an executive President accountable to the legislature), with 25% of the legislators appointed by the military and the rest elected in general elections.
II. 6
NOTHING IS THE BEST CONSOLATION
Best Consolation is in Naught.
If God should quench His shine, then dare
In naked Nothingness to find
Thy Consolation in despair.
Here is the latest addition to our family :) This is our Jack Russell puppy called Ned. He's very very cute.
We bought him from a pet store and the very first night we had him, we had to take him to the vet because he was sick and not drinking water.
He was dangerously dehydrated and I had to hand force water down his throat..
He ended up going back to the vet because we were so worried about him and he stayed a couple of nights on a drip..
The nurses said that by buying Ned we saved his life, and that he wouldn't have survived the weekend left in the pet store.
He's all better now and is as feisty and playful as ever, drinking water on his own, keeping down his food and biting toes!! Ouch!
First lesson in Heraldry is Tinctures, Tinctures are the colors in Heraldry. There are five main tinctures;Gules: Red, Azure: Blue, Vert: Green, Sable: Black, Purpure: Purple. There are two metal tinctures; Or: Gold, and Argent: Silver. Three color called stains exist as well; Sanguine: Blood(dark) Red, Murrey: Mulberry, Tenne: Burnt orange. Also there are non-traditional tinctures; Bleu-celeste: Sky Blue, Carnation: Skin tone(pale peach-pink), Cendree: Ash-iron gray, Orange:Orange, Rose: pink, and Metal Copper: Copper
There are meanings behind each tinctures as well. Gules-Red:Warrior, Military strength,Martyr;Azure-Blue: Loyalty, Truth, Faith, Chastity, Strength; Vert-Green: Joy, Loylty in Love, Abundance, hope; Sable-Black: Grief, Prudence, Wisdom, and Constancy; Purpure-Purple: Justice, Sovereignty, Regal, Royal Majesty, Temperance;Or-Gold; Generosity, Constancy, Wisdom, Faith, Generosity; Argent-Silver: Sincerity, Innocence, Truth, Purity, Sincerity; Sanguine-Blood Red/ Murrey-Mulberry: Victorious, Fortitude; Tenne-Burnt Orange/Orange: Ambition
Shields that are a plain tincture are called"Fields" Most have a "Charge" on it. Color on metal or metal on color as color on color or metal on metal does not allow the design to stand out.
Other Notes
Silver is sometime very pale gray but is almost always white
as in the past silver paint would oxidize(darken) and white
contrasted against the color tinctures well.
P.S. Sorry there is not a great differance in Gules and Sanguine, darkest red marker I had.
P.P.S I did more research into tinctures and discovered afew more, after I drew these.
Camellia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan and Indonesia. There are 100–300 described species, with some controversy over the exact number.
Rhs Wisley
366 2024 - The Future is Now - Day 80 March 20 - This junk store in town is really fun to wonder through!
This is a very interesting part of Dublin. St. Michael's Church was a Roman Catholic and later Church of Ireland church which was located in High Street, Dublin, Ireland.
The two remaining stretches of the City Wall visible above ground can be seen at St Audoen’s Church and at the nearby Cornmarket
Photographer is standing on the Stony Brook Branch. The Southern Division Main Line to Concord, NH is behind the station, and behind that the Merrimack River.
Digital image made from photograph in Harry A. Frye Collection, Boston & Maine Railroad Historical Society Archives. Cat. No. 2001.21.13. Frye’s source and copyright: Beverly Historical Society. Learn more about the B&MRRHS at www.bmrrhs.org. Photo 1482
This is Pullman Yard, an old freight train warehouse that is now locked down and inaccessible. That being said, it seems to be frequented by graffiti artists, druggies, the random photographer, movie crews, and odd couples on odd dates... Hit it up with a fellow Flickr buddy one Saturday afternoon. I left the entrance permit at home but I swear I had it...
It is funny how even the most manufactured artificial place can get retaken by nature if you just give it time. This is all still indoors, but this warehouse is now owned by the graffiti artists and plants.
Halloween is coming! If you are in Second Life, you can have this lovely table with a choice of 9 Halloween themed tablecloths (plus plain white you can tint any color you like, and no cloth at all.) Perfect for laying out all the Halloween goodies for guests and Trick-or-Treaters!
Get more info, or buy one, from The SL Marketplace, or see it at the R(S)W Main Store on Livingtree.
This image is a deep field of galaxies captured while Hubble was making observations of massive galaxy cluster Abell 2744 (not shown). As the Abell cluster was being photographed with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, the telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys stayed trained on this nearby section of sky to create a bonus, parallel deep field image. Afterward, the instrument positions flipped, with the Wide Field Camera 3 observing the parallel field and the Advanced Camera for surveys observing the cluster. These combined observations provided a wealth of information for astronomers.
In this field, Hubble resolved roughly 10,000 galaxies in visible light, most of which are randomly scattered galaxies. The blue galaxies are distant star-forming galaxies seen from up to 8 billion years ago; the handful of larger, red galaxies reside in the outskirts of the Abell 2744 cluster.
This parallel field was captured as part of Hubble's Frontier Fields project, which used the combined power of "gravitational lenses" and Hubble's ability to create long-exposure deep field images to see galaxies that would normally be far beyond the reach of telescopes.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and J. Lotz, M. Mountain, A. Koekemoer, and the HFF Team (STScI)
For more information, visit: hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2014/news-2014-01.html
Nanton is a town in southern Alberta, Canada. It is located south of Calgary at the junction of Highway 2 and Highway 533. Nanton is known primarily for three distinct features:
The first being its famous Lancaster museum, second being its high number of antique shops, and third being its two beautiful fully-restored Grain Elevators on north-bound Highway 2.
Source: Wikipedia
I actually think that Wikipedia missed out another thing that Nanton is famous for...It is home to Canada's largest garden railway!! I visited it and was impressed, even more so knowing that they deconstruct it in the autumn and lay it all out again diffently the following year! Link Below to a youtube video, if you want to check it out in action!!
uk.youtube.com/watch?v=NkZlBJuQltk
I personally loved Nanton, it was one of my favourite stops on my trip.
Brougham Castle is located about 3 kilometres south-east of Penrith. It was founded in the 13th century by Robert I de Vieuxpont. The site near the confluence of the Eamont and Lowther rivers had already been chosen by the Romans for a fort called Brocavum.
The Vieuxponts were a powerful family of landowners in the north-west of England. When Roger de Clifford married the granddaughter of Robert Vieuxponts in 1269, Brougham Castle fell to the Clifford family.
With the start of the Scottish Wars of Independence in 1296, Brougham Castle became an important military base and impressive stone walls and a large stone gatehouse were added. When the 2nd Baron de Clifford was executed as a traitor in 1322 the family's estates became the property of King Edward II, but were returned when Edward III came to the throne. The region was often threatened by the Scots and in 1388 they captured and plundered the castle.
The castle was passed down through the Clifford family but got neglected in the 17th and 18th century. By the 1750s, Brougham Castle served only as a source of building stone for the village of Brougham.
This is the MOST ADORABLE little stuffed Dinosaur and I think it is like a Slumber Party Toy for them to cuddle up to - do you know whose it is and what other characters there are? I think I saw a frog online somewhere, but it wasn't as cute and well made as this.
Pointe Mouillee State Game Area is a state game area located primarily in Berlin Charter Township in the northeasternmost corner of Monroe County, Michigan. It consists of 4,040 acres (16.3 km2) of coastal wetlands in Lake Erie near the mouth of the Huron River. The game area occupies only a tiny area of land on the other side of the Huron River in Wayne County, where its headquarters are located at 37205 Mouillee Road, Route 2 in Brownstown Charter Township. It is used for waterfowl hunting due to its heavy use by ducks and geese along the flyway across Lake Erie. The park is mostly utilized by bird watchers hiking or biking along the dikes or hunters in small boats. A large number of muskrats are taken yearly by trappers in the area. The Downriver area Catholics had a tradition of eating muskrat under a traditional exemption to the eating of meat during Lent.
The area was named by French fur traders in the 17th century. Mouillee is a most appropriate name for the place, as the word (mouillée) is the feminine form of mouillé, which means wet or moist.
In 1875, a group of wealthy local men bought about 2,000 acres (8.1 km2) and established the Pointe Mouillee Shooting Club which employed punters and cooks to assist the duck hunters. In 1945, the state of Michigan bought 2,600 acres (11 km2) from the club to establish the state game area. More property would be added to the initial purchase including 130-acre (0.53 km2) Celeron Island. The barrier island washed away and the marsh was heavily damaged leading to the Army Corps of Engineers building a new one; the Corps needed a site to dispose of material dredged from harbors and shipping channels which was considered contaminated and could no longer be dumped in depths of the Great Lakes. They constructed a Confined Disposal Facility with 3.5 miles (5.6 km) of dikes enclosing 700 acres (2.8 km2) which doubled as a barrier for the marsh. They later rerouted streams and partially drained the interior to assist the regrowth of vegetation. The Pointe Mouillee Waterfowl Festival has occurred yearly since 1947.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointe_Mouillee_State_Game_Area
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...