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This photo shot with my 1960's vintage Zenza Bronica S2A on Ilford film. Photo taken at Fish Lake in the mountains above Whitehorse, Southern Yukon.
Unfortunately, unbenownst to me, the old Bronica camera was suffering from a shutter problem. This is one of only two unaffected shots from the roll of 12. Each succeeding image had more and more of the frame cut off at the top. The following roll was even worse, and then the camera locked up completely.
If anyone out there has experience with this sort of issue on the S2/S2A, perhaps you could offer some suggestions in the comments, below? It really is a shame because, as you can see, this camera is capable of taking some striking images, and other than the shutter issue, it's a beautiful unit in mint condition.
I'm quite sure all of you have been caught up doing something and a thought comes into your head and you for some unknown reason feel the need to scratch your head. And your holding something or if your Italian, talking to someone........ And you don't really, really want to put down or stop talking..........
Well.... There is another way. ...
Seeeeeeeeeee......... Yoga can be used for practical things other than exercise and meditation.
Tuttles ❤️❤️❤️💋🌹🐒🐒
ROME ARCHEOLOGY: "The Tragedy of Line C: The World's Great Cities Have a Monumental Problem. By Building for the Future, Must They Erase the Past?" World Policy Journal 27, no. 4 (2010): 49-58.
Fonti / source:
Amanda Ruggeri. "The Tragedy of Line C: The World's Great Cities Have a Monumental Problem. By Building for the Future, Must They Erase the Past?" World Policy Journal 27, no. 4 (2010): 49-58.
findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6669/is_4_27/ai_n5657739... (accessed May 1, 2012).
Foto: ROMA, Largo Lorenzo Perosi - Via Giulia. in: GOOGLE / MAPS (05/2012 [date 2010-11?]).
maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl
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ROMA ARCHEOLOGIA - Roma. Centro Storico. Largo Lorenzo Perosi - Via Giulia. Indagine archeologica preventiva all’autorizzazione del P.U.P. n. 138
(2009 – 2010 in corso). SSBAR / Roma (05/2012).
archeoroma.beniculturali.it/attivita/scavi/scavo-largo-pe...
Diario dello scavo archeologico:
archeoroma.beniculturali.it/node/388
Marzo 2009
Luglio 2009
Settembre 2009
Marzo 2010
Giugno 2010
Settembre 2011
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ROME - All roads leading to Rome are measured from a patch of grass in the middle of Piazza Venezia. Overlooking the square, a 400-foot monument celebrates the reunification of Italy. It was here, at the piazza, that Mussolini hung over a balcony and declared, to the electrified crowds below, a new Italian empire. Both the republican and imperial forums, with their triumphal arches and ruined temples, stand a few steps away. And at the end of the road leading southeast from the piazza, against the sky, looms the Colosseum.
But something else in the corner of this historic city center illustrates the spirit of a place enamored with the old while striving for the new--a metro stop turned excavation site.
For the past three and a half years, Rome has been building a new subway line underground to link the city's two other underground lines. Instead of skirting the historic center, Line C will drive right through it. The plan is convenient for locals and tourists alike, who currently have to ride the bus or walk to get from, say, the Colosseum to Piazza Navona, a distance of 1.6 miles. But by carving through the underbelly of the centro storico, the line also passes beneath neighborhoods that made up Rome's commercial and political center 2,000 years ago.
Most of these ruins--the heart and soul of ancient Rome--are 12 to 35 feet underground. To avoid them, the city planned to dig the subway tunnel nearly 100 feet below street level. However, entrances into the system are problematic. One stop originally planned for Largo Argentina, the site of four Republican temples and the theater where Julius Caesar was murdered, got scrapped. And when preliminary digs found ruins where planners initially wanted a Piazza Venezia metro stop, the city judged the remains so important that the Venezia stop will be built elsewhere.
The result? The proposed Line C that was meant to serve the centro storico may make hardly any central stops at all. Some locals aren't happy. "All of Rome has underground archaeological finds. So if we remain prisoners of manic conservationists, we cannot dig anywhere. Farewell subways," Mauro Suttora, an Italian journalist and editor, wrote on his eponymous biog. "A metro without stops--what sense does that make?" asked Mario Staderini, secretary of Italy's Radical Party.
Many of Rome's residents aren't surprised by the changes to the subway plan. They know it has to be this way. In a city that's littered with historic sites--the ruins of an empire that once made the Mediterranean into its private lake--the balance between modern development and historical preservation has never been easy. Urban planners and locals alike are used to facing down an increasingly prescient question: How to develop and modernize while still preserving a rich cultural heritage?
NOT JUST FOR THE ELITES
Without a city's residents fighting to protect their cultural heritage, even the best preservation policies can founder. Given their roots among the educated and wealthier classes, preservationists have had a historically difficult time appealing beyond elites. Many assume that urban preservation is just about aesthetics, an issue for people who don't have to worry about paying their rent or putting food on the table. But urban planners and conservationists insist this is not the case. Preserved buildings and neighborhoods help more than just the upper classes.
Some of it is simple math. Since knocking down an old building to build a new one costs money, the investor is faced with the challenge of how to recoup that outlay. A new structure's purpose, therefore, will likely be commercial or residential--in both cases targeting wealthier tenants. "Just using the existing buildings means you can actually afford to have poor people living in them, and that generates greater diversity, greater variety of cultural traditions. That in itself is worth value," says Scan O'Reilly, director of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation in Edinburgh. Historic areas also tend to have a greater variety of buildings, adding to the diversity of uses. This creates a range of professions and classes coming together, all making for a vibrant neighborhood.
On a practical note, older structures tend to be built to last. Take the trend of placing "maintenance-free" plastic windows in an 18th-century building that always used glass. The plastic windows cost less, but their lifespan is often 20 years at most, whereas the glass, if maintained correctly, could last for centuries. Old buildings are "green," particularly their thick stone walls doubling as natural insulation. Even compared to sustainable architecture, some old buildings come out ahead, particularly when you factor in the cost of bulldozing one building, trucking its materials to the landfill and replacing it with a new structure.
The least tangible reasons for preservation, though, might be the most important--primarily, historians say, the cultural and social aspects. "A sense of place is critical to a healthy community. So much 'sense of place' comes out of the built environment that we inhabit," says Don Linebaugh, director of the University of Maryland architectural school's historic preservation program. "So it's a form of identity, both personal and political and national...and [it] can have a huge impact on the way we live our lives."
INTERNATIONAL CHALLENGES
In the past few decades, archaeological remains and historic sites have faced ever larger, seemingly unstoppable threats that can destroy old neighborhoods faster than any amount of water seepage. These new dangers include rapid urbanization, uncontrolled development and invasive tourism. And they all are rooted in the same modern phenomenon--globalization. Every city on earth now takes part in the world economy, and historic cities are particularly vulnerable to the real estate and tourism markets. Even in cities like Rome, where urban residents want to protect their cultural heritage, historic buildings are under threat. Residents enjoy increasingly less power over how their cities look and function.
These are relentless pressures, and conservationists hasten to argue that they aren't fighting simply to freeze cities in time. Instead, they use the catchphrase "controlled change." Controlled change means avoiding unregulated, rapid development. As long as development occurs--and, to keep a city thriving, it should--investors and urban planners need to pay close attention to how new structures fit in with the rest of the city. Instead of knocking down an old neighborhood to build a strip mall, for example, old buildings could be carefully repurposed to provide more shops.
Yet viewing urban development through the lens of preservation, while trying to wed both efforts, is relatively new and quite tricky. After all, it's not enough to have a perfectly preserved 14th-century church if its surrounding medieval neighborhoods are being razed to build skyscrapers. Nor is it a job well done to keep a medieval neighborhood, but squeeze out the residents and businesses that give it character. It's a fine balance--keeping a city modern, but not over-commercialized; preserved, but not Disneyfied.
"Cities are living bodies," says Lodovico Folin-Calabi, program specialist at the UNESCO World Heritage Centre. "You can't freeze them into museums, and you can't prevent development. What you can do is put together a platform of good principles."
International associations like UNESCO and the World Heritage Committee are adapting solutions against increasingly global urban challenges. The World Heritage Committee is compiling a new list of recommendations for cities, Folin-Calabi says. This "toolkit," set to be adopted in 2011, will update a set of 1976 recommendations. The new list aims to help cities balance preservation with development.
The United Nations created the World Heritage Committee, the most influential international preservation agency, in 1972 in reaction to two major threats. The first was Egypt's plan to build the Aswan High Dam, which would have flooded the Abu Simbel valley along with its 3,000-year-old Temple of Ramses II and 2,000-year-old Sanctuary of Isis. UNESCO launched an $80 million campaign in 1959 to move the temples higher to dry ground. The second threat was flooding that nearly destroyed Venice in 1966. Again, UNESCO stepped in. Six years later, the Heritage Convention was adopted.
All 187 countries that signed the convention promise to conserve their cultural heritage--buildings or sites deemed to be of "outstanding universal value" from a historic, artistic or scientific point of view. Properties selected by the committee's panel of experts, one from each of the 21 different member states, are placed on the World Heritage list. There are 911 World Heritage properties today, including 250 in urban areas. Signatory nations have access to the World Heritage Fund, which provides restoration and preservation assistance. Just $4 million is available annually, but the visibility as a World Heritage site can attract funds from other national and international organizations.
Listed sites also have to submit any major development projects to the committee for analysis. If the committee decides the project is detrimental to the site's "outstanding universal value," it can be removed from the list. This might seem a small price to pay for a billion-dollar development contract, but urban planners and preservationists argue that the system can work. "The World Heritage Committee is acting like a schoolmaster," says Francois Vigier, president of the nonprofit Institute of International Development, which researches urban development in emerging economies. "That's a very healthy relationship," he adds.
Vigier points to the case of Old Damascus, a World Heritage site in Syria. In 2007, the local government announced it would redevelop Damascus' ancient center. Plans included turning King Faisal Street, a road dating back to the 8th century, into a 130-foot-wide highway, destroying shops and homes along the way. Preservationists, along with the local media, erupted in protest.
So did the World Heritage Committee. Although the street would run outside the walled city center--and, therefore, outside of official World Heritage-listed property--the committee's experts saw the neighborhood as a "buffer zone" around the Old City. Undermining the historical character of that district, they argued, would irreversibly damage the city's cultural value. And, they added, the larger suburban area is linked inextricably to the World Heritage-listed Old City because of the neighborhoods' shared histories, architecture, social patterns and commercial activities.
After the committee threatened to delist the Old City if development continued apace, plans to change King Faisal Street were withdrawn. But another project to dig up Damascus' oldest road, the Via Recta, to update its sewer system, continued--destroying the Roman columns that lined the street and triggering the collapse of several houses. Although the committee demanded Damascus run archaeological impact assessments before continuing, the damage had already been done.
By contrast, that same year, construction began on a four-lane, 2,100 foot bridge across the Elbe River in Dresden, Germany. Supporters, including the municipality itself, said the bridge was necessary to ease traffic congestion. Opponents said it would damage the ecology of the area and spoil the beauty of the Elbe River Valley. Negotiations stalled. In 2009, the World Heritage Committee pulled the Elbe Valley from its list. The bridge remains under construction.
"Our international experts assessed that the outstanding universal value of the site, because of the works, was irremediably lost," says Folin-Calabi. He points out that while only two sites, the Elbe Valley and Oman's Oryx Sanctuary, have been pulled from the list, both removals occurred in the past three years. "There is a trend of being a little bit more severe," he says.
ROME: IMPERFECT PRESERVATION
In many ways, the city of Rome is one of the world's best examples of controlled change. While new construction occurs, it's only allowed after thorough review. Rome's residents are, for the most part, acutely aware of the need to preserve their ancient ruins and historic neighborhoods. This is typical of Western Europe, where most people seem to accept the importance of urban preservation, or at least carefully weigh its value against development. Even so, the battle--to raise funds, recruit personnel, and combat global pressures--is still being fought.
Much of Rome's ability to control change comes from strongly established legal protections. Italy's most recent (and exhaustive) law on heritage, passed in 2004, states that "cultural properties may not be destroyed, damaged or adapted to uses not compatible with their historic or artistic character or of such kind as to prejudice their conservation." The English translation of the law is 153 pages. The statute also defines punishments, including imprisonment of up to one year and a fine of up to 38,734.50 [euro] for removing, modifying or restoring those properties. Of course, for many sites, legal protections come too late. Since the end of the 19th century, Rome's historical center--3,460 acres in all--has lost some 250 acres of buildings and 1,730 acres of gardens, vineyards and open space.
Furthermore, developers need permits for every step of the process. Even if a builder obtains a permit to knock down one building and put up a new one, the site's subterranean value must first be surveyed. By reviewing past studies, making exploratory trenches, or (usually) both, archaeologists can get a fairly clear picture of what might be under the ground. And when they find ruins, as they nearly always do in the centro storico, construction grinds to a halt and excavation begins. Only when it's completed--and only if the ministry of culture and the municipality determine that the findings are not important enough to scrap the project--can development resume.
While the safeguards sound strong in principle, in practice, the government attempts to simplify the process and minimize protections, explains Elizabeth Fentress. Fentress, an archaeologist who has worked in Rome for 30 years and is the president of the International Association for Classical Archaeology, says that the builders' lobby in Italy is particularly influential. "The real war is between the current government, which regards antiquities as a pain, and the sopraintendenza [ministry of culture] and the public, who care," Fentress says. Some residents, for example, are upset over the planned parking lot off Largo Lorenzo Perosi in the centro storico. The underground, multistory lot is a stone's throw from Via Giulia, a road that was built by Pope Julius II in 1508, designed by Bramante and punctuated with famous buildings like the Palazzo Farnese and Church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini. Local residents protested the project, fearing damage to the area's beauty and, possibly, to the foundations of the historic buildings themselves. Some archaeologists were wincing as well, particularly since testing revealed several-hundred-year-old ruins. But after years of wrangling--the parking lot first got the tentative go-ahead back in 2004--the project was given the definitive green light this April. That surprised many, given that another multilevel car park, originally planned for the Pincian hill overlooking Piazza del Popolo, was called off in 2008 to avoid destroying ruins and undermining both the hill's Aurelian walls and its scenic 19th-century walkway.
SHREDDING THE FABRIC
Rome's major challenge, though, is not the threat of modern development--it is preserving a cultural heritage already exposed to the vagaries of a modern city. After all, as soon as a site is unearthed, it starts deteriorating. "It's not like the American situation, where most of your cultural heritage sites are in museums. These things are outside. There's a slow path of decay that's going to be taking place, no matter what," says Darius Arya, a Rome-based archaeologist and director of the American Institute for Roman Culture. "The best thing you can do, if you want to preserve these sites, is just have them buried." But that's not practical--or in line with the spirit of a city so renowned for the tangibility and accessibility of its past.
Instead, conservationists can only limit the amount of damage by fencing off delicate areas or opening sites to visitors at certain times of the year. But to undo inevitable wear and tear, restorations and repairs are necessary. And in Rome, as elsewhere, the major difficulty is resources. The cash just isn't there. Italy's current debt runs to more than 115 percent of its gross domestic product, and the ministry of culture's budget has been cut by 280 million [euro] through 2012, bringing the proportion of its budget Italy spends on culture to just 21 cents of every l00 [euro].
Rome has already witnessed the effects of these limited resources. Part of the Domus Aurea--the fantastical palace erected by Emperor Nero in the first century--collapsed earlier this year, even though the city had long been aware of water damage to the structure. The Aurelianic Walls have collapsed several times in the past decade, despite frequent calls for an overhaul. And in May, three chunks of mortar fell off the Colosseum--hurting no one, but underscoring the need to better protect the nearly 2,000-year-old site. Weeks later, Rome announced that it was searching for private sponsors for a 25 million [euro] restoration of the amphitheatre.
Meanwhile, the cultural fabric of the city is under threat. Though less tangible than the Colosseum or Forum, Rome's culture is just as important to residents and preservationists, who have widened their definition of conservation in recent years.
Sitting in his flat near Piazza del Popolo, Rome-born archaeologist Francesco Siravo details the changes he's seen to the city over the past several decades. When he first moved into his apartment more than 12 years ago, his narrow street still claimed a number of artisans' workshops. Today, with rents sky-high, all the artisans have fled. And the shops themselves, which once featured traditional decor, have been altered for modern purposes. "I don't think there is a long-term vision for what we want these areas to be," Siravo says.
He particularly fears Rome going the way of a city like Venice. While Venice has retained much of its architectural heritage, it has become a fantasy of what it once was. The rising cost of living has forced old-time residents out and shuttered schools and shops. From 136,000 inhabitants in 1978, only 60,000 are left in Venice today. "In 2030 someone will cut the ribbon of a ghost town," a reporter wrote for La Repubblica in 2006, estimating that by then, "They'll open the gates in the morning and close them in the evening, and it will not be a scandal, but will be normal, to charge a ticket to enter."
With bustling business and government sectors, it's unlikely that Rome will become a city only for show anytime soon. But as the city continues to modernize and commercialize, and as its historic sites continue to require restorations and repairs, it's not a stretch to think that the centro storico of Rome, too, will change irrevocably in the next few decades--with more international chains and modern buildings, and fewer artisanal shops. After all, even the Champs Elysees in Paris, long among the world's most fashionable addresses, is now lined with fast food parlors and airline offices.
I have just noticed this at our local bus stop. Just two days into the new busway service, Grant Palmer have had to alter their route around the Beecroft Estate in Dunstable because of badly parked cars. This means that the Co-op supermarket, Post Office and other shops are no longer served by bus. This parking problem was obviously anticipated as double yellow lines were recently painted on certain stretches of road. Odd then that the service was pulled so soon.
I walk this way to said Post Office every afternoon and have wondered why I havn't yet seen one of the new Scanias along here yet; now I know!!
The problem with fall weather of course is the variability and this week sure proved that point with only one decent day for photography. So I finally finished up Monday's shots and here is one last picture of a LeConte's Sparrow from that shoot.
I love autumn, the colors of the season, and how nicely this little sparrow fits the colors of the season.
LeConte's Sparrows observed at Prairie Green Geneva Park District in Geneva, IL
Image of boy watching wild horses at the BLM's Hines Wild Horse Corral, March 29, 2017, by Greg Shine, BLM.
As a result of amendments to the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act in 1976 and 1978 which addressed problems created by the growing populations on the range, BLM identified appropriate management levels and developed a process to remove excess animals. The need for the corrals became apparent when wild horse and burro populations on public lands increased to such numbers that more intensive management became necessary. Animals removed from the Oregon range are brought here and prepared for the adoption program. Periodically, wild burros from California and Arizona are also brought here for adoption.
Facility Operation
Wild horses are brought off the range to the corrals where they are immediately separated into pens by age and sex. The mares with foals are kept together while weanlings and yearlings, dry mares, studs, and geldings are kept in their respective, separate pens.
Within a short time of their arrival, the horses are given a health inspection by a veterinarian. Animals with any injuries or disease are treated immediately. All animals are prepared for adoption in the chute area located under the barn where they are checked for age, vaccinated against disease, wormed and freeze marked. Horses are aged by inspecting their teeth.
Wild Horse Corrals
The horses are vaccinated against such diseases as Rhinopneumonitis, influenza, tetanus, sleeping sickness, strangles, Rabies, and West Nile Virus. The animals are also wormed to rid them of internal parasites. If animals are kept for long periods of time, their hooves are trimmed periodically, as the ground in the pens and pastures is soft and hooves do not wear down as readily as they did when the horses lived on the range and roamed over rougher terrain.
Wild Horses Feeding
The pens near the barn are used as working pens where horses and burros are separated for various reasons whether for shipping, health inspections or viewing for adoption. Note the numerous gates, small side pens, wings and alleyways which make it easier to work with the animals. The larger holding pens are to the north and are connected to the working pens and alleyways. The horses and burros are kept in these pens unless they are to be shipped out in a very short time. The eastern pens are reserved for female animals and the western pens hold the males. The large barn and handling facility was built in 2001 to replace the old wooden barn which was lost to fire.
Adoption and Tours
Before horses and burros are shipped to other adoption centers or picked up by adopters at the corrals, they are given a final brand and health inspection by a veterinarian. When the adopters transport their chosen animals from the corrals, an adoption fee is collected to help defray expenses. If the animals are shipped to another location before being adopted, the fee is collected at those locations.
Organized tours of the wild horse corrals and facilities are available upon request. They can be scheduled for just a few people as well as larger groups. We welcome the opportunity to explain the various aspects of the wild horse program whether it concerns range management, roundups, preparation at the corrals or the adoption program.
If you are interested in adopting a wild horse or burro or taking a tour, please visit the corral facility, stop by the BLM office at 28910 Highway 20 West in Hines, or give us a call at (541) 573-4400. We will be glad to explain the process and requirements for adoption. A brochure is available that specifically explains the Adopt-A-Horse Program.
Acne, the utmost common skin complaint in the United States., can be a basis of worry for every teen-age. And more, the rate of acne is growing in grownups, too.Acne is caused by impassable hair follicles and oil (sebaceous) glands of the skin, frequently caused by hormonal deviations. The word acne mentions to not only pimples on the face, but nodules, cysts, and blackheads as well. Some individuals get acne on other portions of their body too, such as the chest and back.
Sunburns happen when there is too much contact to ultraviolet (UV) sunlit from the sun or sunlamps. The skin goes red, sore, burning to the touch, and may even peel away. It's tough to see how much time is harmless in the sun, however, even with sunblock shield. Repetitive sunburns, particularly as a kid, can increase the danger for skin cancer later in life. Typically sunscreen needs to be reapplied every 2 hours, but you may just need to keep yourself out of the sun, too.
Lot of us have had contact dermatitis - when we touch things that progresses into a skin reaction. Contact dermatitis is a kind of eczema, and can come from plants, jewelry, latex gloves, and cleaners like bleach, shampoos and soaps. To stop contact dermatitis, avoid the thing when possible. To evade symptoms, antihistamines and colloidal oatmeal baths are frequently useful. If your doctor doubts you have contact dermatitis.
Anybody who has a kid knows about the mutual problem of diaper rash
A wet or soiled diaper wearing on too long can be cause of red sore bumps and rash in the diaper part, the bottoms, genitals, and skin bends.
Urine and stool can breakdown skin, and substances in a disposable diaper can melt out and cause the skin.
It's an unlucky fact, but your feet are prone to fungal contagions. Athletes’ foot can principal to extreme itching, soreness, and cracked skin on the feet and in among the toes. A kind of fungi called dermatophytes are normally found in warm, soggy areas like pool decks, bath stalls, and locker rooms.
Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the utmost common type of skin cancer in the United States. BCC raises in the upper basal cells of your skin but hardly extents and is treatable. You may be prone to BCCs if you use to spend lots of time in the sun or use a tanning bed habitually.
Hives are the aware swellings (raised, red, itchy areas) that can happen on the skin. Common reasons of hives include medicine, nutrition, and bug bites or wounds. Pursue urgent treatment if your hives cover a big area of your body, your throat or face area is swelling, or they causing you to breathing. Hives typically go away in 3 to 5 hours; though, in specific people hives may persevere for months or years. A drug used to give allergic asthma, omalizumab (Xolair injection), was permitted in 2014 to treat chronic urticaria in persons with no reply to antihistamines.
Read more:https://medium.com/@menaturals890/what-are-7-common-skin-problem-82ff73a365ab
Like sea pollution, plastic waste seems to appear everywhere. This is used to protect or mulch plants. Here it appears to have been ploughed in and would be difficult to separate out. Maybe it is biodegradable in which case what sort of residue does it leave?
articles.extension.org/pages/67951/current-and-future-pro...
We decided to go for a city break rather than sun in Tenerife again this September. Other than a few days in the North East we haven’t been away since last March and wanted a change and hopefully some sun. The problem is getting flights from the north of England to the places we want to go to. We chose Valencia as we could fly from East Midlands – which was still a pain to get to as it involved the most notorious stretch of the M1 at five in the morning. In the end we had a fairly good journey, the new Ryanair business class pre-booked scheme worked quite well and bang on time as usual. It was dull when we landed with storms forecast all week, the sky was bright grey – the kiss of death to the photography I had in mind. I was full of cold and wishing I was at work. It did rain but it was overnight on our first night and didn't affect us. There has been a drought for eleven months apparently and it rained on our first day there! The forecast storms didn't materialise in Valencia but they got it elsewhere.
You May notice discrepancies in the spelling of some Spanish words or names, this is because Valencian is used on signs, in some guide books and maps. There are two languages in common use with distinct differences. There may also be genuine mistakes - it has been known!
Over the course of a Monday to Sunday week we covered 75 miles on foot and saw most of the best of Valencia – The City of Bell Towers. The Old City covers a pretty large area in a very confusing layout. There was a lot of referring to maps – even compass readings! – a first in a city for us. The problem with photography in Valencia is that most of the famous and attractive building are closely built around, some have poor quality housing built on to them. Most photographs have to be taken from an extreme angle looking up. There are no high points as it is pan flat, there are a small number of buildings where you can pay to go up on to the roof for a better view and we went up them – more than once!
The modern buildings of The City of Arts and Sciences – ( Ciutat de Las Arts I de les Ciencies ) are what the city has more recently become famous for, with tourists arriving by the coachload all day until late at night. They must be photographed millions of times a month. We went during the day and stayed till dark one evening, I gave it my best shot but a first time visit is always a compromise between ambition and realism, time dictates that we have to move on to the next destination. I travelled with a full size tripod – another first – I forgot to take it with me to TCoAaS! so It was time to wind up the ISO, again! Needless to say I never used the tripod.
On a day when rain was forecast but it stayed fine, albeit a bit dull, we went to the Bioparc north west of the city, a zoo by another name. There are many claims made for this place, were you can appear to walk alongside some very large animals, including, elephants, lions, giraffe, rhino, gorillas and many types of monkey to name a few. It is laid out in different geographical regions and there is very little between you and the animals, in some cases there is nothing, you enter the enclosure through a double door arrangement and the monkeys are around you. It gets rave reviews and we stayed for most of the day. The animals it has to be said gave the appearance of extreme boredom and frustration and I felt quite sorry for them.
The course of The River Turia was altered after a major flood in the 50’s. The new river runs west of the city flanked by a motorway. The old river, which is massive, deep and very wide between ancient walls, I can’t imagine how it flooded, has been turned into a park that is five miles long. There is an athletics track, football pitches, cycle paths, restaurants, numerous kids parks, ponds, fountains, loads of bridges, historic and modern. At the western end closest to the sea sits The City of Arts and Sciences – in the river bed. Where it meets the sea there is Valencia’s urban Formula One racetrack finishing in the massive marina built for The Americas Cup. The race track is in use as roadways complete with fully removable street furniture, kerbs, bollards, lights, islands and crossings, everything is just sat on the surface ready to be moved.
We found the beach almost by accident, we were desperate for food after putting in a lot of miles and the afternoon was ticking by. What a beach, 100’s of metres wide and stretching as far as the eye could see with a massive promenade. The hard thing was choosing, out of the dozens of restaurants, all next door to each other, all serving traditional Paella – rabbit and chicken – as well as seafood, we don’t eat seafood and it constituted 90% of the menu in most places. Every restaurant does a fixed price dish of the day, with a few choices, three courses and a drink. Some times this was our only meal besides making the most of the continental breakfast at the hotel. We had a fair few bar stops with the local wine being cheap and pleasant it would have been a shame not to, there would have been a one woman riot – or strike!
On our final day, a Sunday, we were out of bed and down for breakfast at 7.45 as usual, the place was deserted barring a waiter. We walked out of the door at 8.30 – in to the middle of a mass road race with many thousands of runners, one of a series that take place in Valencia – apparently! We struggled to find out the distance, possibly 10km. The finish was just around the corner so off we went with the camera gear, taking photos of random runners and groups. There was a TV crew filming it and some local celebrity (I think) commentating. Next we came across some sort of wandering religious and musical event. Some sort of ritual was played out over the course of Sunday morning in various locations, it involved catholic priests and religious buildings and another film crew. The Catholic tourists and locals were filling the (many) churches for Sunday mass. Amongst all of this we had seen men walking around in Arab style dress – the ones in black looked like the ones from ISIS currently beheading people – all carrying guns. A bit disconcerting. We assumed that there had been some sort of battle enactment. We were wrong, it hadn’t happened yet. A while later, about 11.30 we could hear banging, fireworks? No it was our friends with the guns. We were caught up in total mayhem, around 60 men randomly firing muskets with some sort of blank rounds, the noise, smoke and flames from the muzzles were incredible. We were about to climb the Torres de Serranos which is where, unbeknown to us, the grand, and deafening, finale was going to be. We could feel the blast in our faces on top of the tower. Yet again there was a film camera in attendance. I couldn’t get close ups but I got a good overview and shot my first video with the 5D, my first in 5 years of owning a DLSR with the capability. I usually use my phone ( I used my phone as well). Later in the day there was a bullfight taking place, the ring was almost next to our hotel, in the end we had other things to do and gave it a miss, it was certainly a busy Sunday in the city centre, whether it’s the norm or not I don’t know.
There is a tram system in Valencia but it goes from the port area into the newer part of the city on the north side, it wouldn’t be feasible to serve the historic old city really. A quick internet search told me that there are 55,000 university students in the city, a pretty big number. I think a lot of the campus is on the north side and served by the tram although there is a massive fleet of buses as well. There is a massive, very impressive market building , with 100’s of stalls that would make a photo project on its own, beautiful on the inside and out but very difficult to get decent photos of the exterior other than detail shots owing to the closeness of other buildings and the sheer size of it. Across town, another market has been beautifully renovated and is full of bars and restaurants and a bit of a destination in its own right.
A downside was the all too typical shafting by the taxi drivers who use every trick in the book to side step the official tariffs and rob you. The taxi from the airport had a “broken” meter and on the way home we were driven 22 km instead of the nine that is the actual distance. Some of them seem to view tourists as cash cows to be robbed at all costs. I emailed the Marriot hotel as they ordered the taxi, needless to say no answer from Marriot – they’ve had their money. We didn’t get the rip off treatment in the bars etc. that we experienced in Rome, prices are very fair on most things, certainly considering the city location.
All in all we had a good trip and can highly recommend Valencia.
Flickr is a mess in Firefox. It started midday on Monday. I thought it was just another problem with the system (note the uploading problems on Monday), but eventually I realized that the site was showing up just fine in IE.
So what in the world is going on? I deleted the Flickr cookies, but that didn't change anything. The css files seem to come up fine on their own, but it looks like they're not being pulled in when rendering the basic pages.
Any ideas? Thanks!
In the end, clearing the cache worked. It's something I really didn't want to have to do, but after trying several other things, it was the only idea I had left.
A fleeting visit on Sunday as I was here mainly to look for Hawfinches. But it such a fine church, and with history linking it to Jane Austen, whose brother is buried here and the memorial a thing that people come from over the world to see.
Another dull day, but bright and airy in the church, which I entered after it was opened in preparation for the eleven o'clock service.
As I was having computer problems last time I was here, some were unedited so are blurry, so all the better to redo some and post those.
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A simple, well-cared-for church which has an extremely complicated building history. The nave and western half of the chancel are Saxon in date, although there are no surviving architectural details of this period. Early in the twelfth century a northern tower with small apsidal chapel was added to the north of the nave. This has recently been restored and its round headed windows may be clearly seen. From the same period dates the remarkable stone carving of an archbishop that is now displayed in the chancel. It may be Archbishop Theobold (d. 1162) or Becket (d. 1170) and could have formed part of a tomb in Canterbury Cathedral. The church was restored by William Butterfield in the 1860s. His is the nice rood screen (painted by Gibbs) the angular font of Devonshire marble and the design for the east window. The screen is supported on thin columns so as not to destroy the congregation's view of the High Altar which the Victorians held so dear, although it is definitely in the medieval tradition. Fine Minton tiles were put in the sanctuary - the medieval tiles gathered up and carefully placed on the window-sill to preserve them. The twentieth century has done much to build upon Butterfield's restoration, including the fine south aisle east window by C.E. Kempe and Co. Ltd of 1923.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Godmersham
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LOCATION: The church is situated close to the River Stour at c. 115 ft. above O.D. just south of the now - demolished (1955) Godmersham Court Lodge. This is in the gap where the river cuts through the North Downs.
DESCRIPTION: I have written a very full history of this church (published in Arch Cant 106 (1988), 45-81), which includes a full description of the fabric, so only a summary is needed here.
The earliest part of the church is the nave and western half of the chancel, which have quoins of Roman bricks and ferruginous sandstone. This is almost certainly the church mentioned in Domesday Book, but whether it was built just before, or just after, the Norman Conquest in uncertain.
In the early 12th century, a west door was inserted (blocked in 1865) and three rounded-headed windows were put into the north side of the nave. A north transept chapel (with apsidal east end) and tower was also constructed at this time. Though heavily restored in 1865-6, this still continues its hemidome over the apse. The arch into the east end of the nave was blocked in the later Middle Ages.
By the end of the 12th century a new south aisle and arcade had been added to the nave, but this was destroyed after the Reformation. The fine mid-12th century font (similar to that at Westwell) was also destroyed, but a few fragments of it are walled up in the west doorway.
In the mid - 13th century, at about the time when the fine new Court Lodge to the north was built, the chancel was extended to the east and given three fine new lancets, as well as a sedilia. There are some fine capitals, columns and bases on the inside of these features (The sedilia also has a moulded trefoil head).
In 1363 a new Chantry chapel of St Mary was built on the south-east side of the nave, but this too was demolished after its abolition as a Chantry at the Reformation (The final traces were removed when the family pew extensions were built in the early 18th century).
In the later 14th century a piscina, various new two-light windows were put into the chancel, as well as some new oak stalls (on the ends of three of these were carved TCP Ann. Dom. 1409). These were recorded in the early 18th century, but have long since disappeared.
The west window in the nave, and the surviving crown-post roof probably date from the 15th century. The fine three-light window towards the east end of the north side of the nave probably dates to the early 16th century. A new north doorway into the chancel was perhaps also built at this time.
The doors into the Rood stair at the north-east corner of the nave (now blocked) can also be seen. These were perhaps also made in the later 15th century when a new loft was built (fragments of the screen - now gone - were found in the West gallery in 1865).
In the 1720's the south side of the nave was rebuilt in brick, and the earlier south aisle disappeared and two new brick family pews (over vaults) were built projecting southwards over the side of the former chantry chapel. All of this, however, was swept away in 1865. Various drawings of these before 1865 are available). Two new diagonal buttresses to the chancel were also built at about that time, which survive, as well as a west gallery in the nave and west and north porches (demolished 1865).
As we have seen, a very major restoration of the church took place in 1865-6 under William Butterfield. A new south aisle, porch and south transept were built, as well as an organ - chamber south of the chancel. Much earth was dug away from the western and southern sides of the church at this time. The vicar and instigator of this work (Revd. Walter Field) made very useful notes and sketches of the state of the church before the restoration (in the parish records). Most of the windows were restored at this time, and the north (chancel) and west doorways were blocked after their 'mean' porches were removed. The top stage of the tower was rebuilt in brick with a flint external face, and a pyramid roof on top. There was also a new chancel roof and screen (painted 1875), and many new pews (to re-place the box ones), as well as a new pulpit and font.
BUILDING MATERIALS (incl. old plaster, paintings, glass, tiles etc.):
Flint rubble (with ferruginous sandstone and Roman brick quoins) is used for the earliest church with Caen stone dressings from the early 12th century. Some Reigate stone was used for jambs, etc., in the 13th century chancel extension. There is also some Ragstone for later windows.
Red brick was used for 18th century repairs and buttresses (and the family pews), and the large amounts of Bath stone was used for the 1865-6 repairs, restoration, Saisle, etc.
EXCEPTIONAL MONUMENTS IN CHURCH:
Bas-relief figure of Archbishop (12th cent.) on S. wall of chancel, put here in 1933. It came from the neighbouring Court-Lodge, but was probably originally from Canterbury.
1516 brass of W. Geoffrey on S. wall of chancel.
R. Bun memorial (1682) on N.E. side of nave, and T Knight (1894) by Shout in S. aisle.
CHURCHYARD AND ENVIRONS:
Size & Shape: The churchyard of c. 1½ acres is a rough square around the church, extending down to the river on the east.
Condition: Good
Boundary walls: c. 19th cent. stone & brickwalls around it.
Building in churchyard or on boundary: Small 19th cent. shed on boundary immediately N. of the tower with Medieval gravelmarker reused in gable.
Ecological potential: Good
HISTORICAL RECORD (where known):
Earliest ref. to church: Domesday Book, 3,13.
Evidence of pre-Norman status (DB, DM, TR etc.): Paid 28d, Chrisin in D.M.
Challock was a chapel-of-ease to Godmersham.
Late med. status (vicarage/appropriation): Vicarage with formal appropriation to the Priory in 1400 (the vicarage was endowed from 1380).
Patron: Canterbury Cathedral Priory (given by Archbishop in c. 1037) till Dissolution, then, from 1546, the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury.
Other documentary sources: For wills, (Test. Cant. (E. Kent 1907), 136-8. They mention various lights, the Roodloft, 'Holy Cross before the door' etc. For the Chantry of St. Mary, see Kent Chantries (ed. A Hussey) Kent Records XII (1932-6), 131.
See also Hasted (2nd ed. 1799), 328-32.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD:
Reused materials: - Roman bricks.
Finds from church\churchyard: Some Roman bricks and pottery found by the Revd. S G Brade-Birks. One discoid grave-marker still exists to the S. of the church, by the path. Old hand-bells were also found in the churchyard in 1865.
Finds within 0.5km: Grave-marker found in Court Lodge excavation to N.
SURVIVAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL DEPOSITS: Good. The chancel floor was apparently just covered up in 1865-6.
Outside present church: ? Quite good, but disturbed in 1865-6.
RECENT DISTURBANCES\ALTERATIONS:
To structure: In 1986 the c. 1687 bell-frame was removed from the tower (this is now stored at the Canterbury Archaeologist Trust). In 1992 the later N-S cross wall in the N. apsidal chapel was demolished.
To graveyard: None (but shed in churchyard to be restored as W.C. in 1993).
Quinquennial inspection (date\architect): Feb. 1989 - George Denny.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL ASSESSMENT:
The church and churchyard: Despite very heavy restoration work in 1865-6, there are important remains here of an 11th century church with added north tower/transept with apsidal chapel of the early 12th century. Also an extended mid - 13th century chancel.
The wider context: Apsidal chapels in Kent parish churches are a very rare survival, as is the unique 12th century bas-relief now in the chancel.
REFERENCES: T. Tatton-Brown, 'The parish church of St. Lawrence, Godmersham: a history' Arch. Cant. 106 (1988), 45-81.
Guide Book: None, though there was one by an early long-serving vicar S G Brade-Birks (1930-77).
Plans & drawings: Plans before + after 1865-6 restorations, and 1865 sketches of church are in the parish records - see art. by Tim Tatton-Brown above.
DATE VISITED: 21/12/92 REPORT BY: Tim Tatton-Brown
www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/01/03/GOD.htm
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GODMERSHAM
LIES the next parish south-westward from Chartham, and is written in antient records, Godmersham, and in Domesday, Gomersham.
IT LIES in the beautiful Stour valley, a situation healthy and pleasant to the extreme, the river Stour glides through it from Ashford, in its course towards Canterbury; Godmersham house and park are the principal objects in it, both elegant and beautiful, the Ashford high road encircles the east side of the park, along which there is a sunk sence, which affords an uninterrupted view of the whole of it, and adds greatly to the beauty of this elegant scene, and leads through the village of Godmersham close to it, the whole village which contains about twenty houses, belongs to Mrs. Knight, excepting one house, as does the greatest part of the parish, excepting the lands belonging to the dean and chapter of Canterbury. There are about twenty more houses in the parish, and about two hundred and forty inhabitants in all. The church, and vicarage, a neat dwelling, pleasantly situated, stand at a small distance from the village, on the left side of the road, with the antient manor-house near the former, close to the bank of the river; the meadows in the vale are exceeding fertile, the uplands are chalk, with some gravel among them, the hills rise high on each side, those on the west being the sheep walks belonging to Godmersham-house, the summits of which are finely cloathed with wood, at proper intervals; the opposite ones are the high range of uninclosed pasture downs of Wye and Braborne. Among these hills, in the eastern part of the parish, is the seat of Eggerton, situated in a wild and bleak country of barren lands and flints.
At the southern boundary of the parish, on the Ashford road, is the hamlet of Bilting, part of which is in Wye parish. There was a family of this name who once resided here, as appears by their wills so early as 1460. Richard Mocket, gent. of Challock, died in 1565, possessed of the manor of Biltyng-court, in Godmersham, which by his will he directed to be sold. At length this estate of Bilting came into the possession of the Carters. Thomas Carter, gent. of Bilting, second son of George Carter, gent. of Winchcombe, died possessed of it in 1707, s.p. After which it at length came to his nephew Thomas Carter, gent. of Godmersham, who dying in 1744, left two daughters his coheirs, the eldest of whom Mary, marrying Mr. Nicholas Rolfe, of Ashford, he became in her right possessed of her father's estate at Bilting. After which it became the residence of Mrs. Jane, the sister of the late Mr. Knight, and after her death in 1793, of Thomas Monypenny, esq. who afterwards removing from hence sold it in 1797, to Mr. Richard Sutton, who now resides at it.
There is no fair, nor is there any one alehouse within this parish.
From the high road above-mentioned, which runs along the lower side of the western hills there is a most pleasing view over the valley beneath, in which the various beautiful objects of both art and nature combine to make it the most delightful prospect that can be imagined.
BEORNULPH, king of Mercia, in the year 822, gave Godmersham to Christ-church, in Canterbury, to the use of their refectory and cloathing, at the request of archbishop Wlfred, L.S.A. that is, Libere sicut Adisham, endowed with the same liberties and privileges that Adisham, which had been given to that church, originally was. But it appears afterwards to have been wrested from the church, and to have been again restored to it by archbishop Egelnoth, who made a new grant of it in the year 1036, having purchased it of duke Sired, for seventy-two marcs of pure silver, for the use of the monks in Christ-church; in whose possession Godmersham remained at the taking the general survey of Domesday, in which it is entered as follows, under the general title of Terra Monachorum Archiepi, i.e. the lands of the monks of the archbishop, as all the lands belonging to the monastery of Christ-church were.
In Feleberg hundred, the archbishop himself holds Gomersham. It was taxed at eight sulings. The arable land is twelve carucates. In demesne there are two, and sixty villeins, with eight cottagers, having seventeen carucates. There is a church, and two servants, and one mill of twenty-five shillings, and twelve acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of forty hogs. In the time of king Edward the Confessor, and when he received it, it was worth twelve pounds, now twenty pounds, and yet it pays thirty pounds.
In the 7th year of king Edward I. the prior claimed a fair here, on the day of St. Laurence, which was allowed; and king Edward III. in his 38th year granted to the prior another fair here on the Thursday and Friday in every Whitsun-week, together with a market to be held here on a Tuesday weekly. In the 10th year of king Edward II. the prior obtained a charter of free-warren for this manor; about which time it was, with its appurtenances, valued at thirty-six pounds. The priors of Canterbury frequently resided at the manor-house here, which appears by the present state of it to have been a mansion large and suitable to their dignity. Prior Chillenden, at the latter end of king Richard II.'s reign, made large additions and repairs here, as did prior Sellyng in that of Edward IV. The house is situated on the bank of the river, a small distance northward from the church. It appears to have been a very large mansion formerly. The old hall of it is yet remaining, with the windows, door-cases, and chimney of it, in the gothic stile. Over the porch, at the entrance of the house, is the effigies of the prior, curiously carved in stone, sitting richly habited, with his mitre and pall, and his crosier in his left hand, his right lifted up in the act of benediction, and his sandals on his feet. This, most probably, represents prior Chillenden, above mentioned, who had the privilege of wearing those ornaments, granted to him and his successors by pope Urban, and repaired this mansion as before related. In which state this manor continued till the dissolution of the priory in the 31st year of king Henry VIII. when it came, with the rest of the possessions of the monastery, into the king's hands, who in his 37th year, granted the manor, rectory, and advowson of Godmersham, in exchange for other premises, to the dean and chapter of Canterbury, in pure and perpetual alms, at the yearly rent of 10l. 1s. 8d. (fn. 1) being then valued at 80l. 11s. in exchange for which they gave the king seven valuable manors in this and other counties; Canterbury college, in Oxford, and other premises, a scandalous bargain of plunder, like most others of the king's making; and yet in the deed it is said to have been made through his most gracious favor. Since which this manor has remained part of their possessions to the present time.
The court-lodge, with the demesne lands of this manor, are let to Mrs. Coleman, who resides in it, on a beneficial lease, but the manor itself, with the profits of the courts, &c. the dean and chapter retain in their own hands. A court baron is regularly held for it.
THE MANORS OF FORD AND YALLANDE were antiently part of the inheritance of the family of Valoigns, one of whom, Robert de Valoigns, died possessed of them and much other land in this neighbourhood, in the 19th year of king Edward II. and in his descendants they continued till the latter end of king Edward III.'s reign, when Waretius de Valoigns leaving by his wife, daughter of Robert de Hougham, two daughters his coheirs, one of them, married to Thomas de Aldon, entitled her husband to these manors as part of her inheritance; and in this name of Aldon they continued for some space of time. At length they became the property of Austen, or Astyn, as they afterwards spelt their name, and they continued possessors of it, till Richard Astyn, gent. of West Peckham, conveyed them, with all lands and tenements called Halton, in Godmersham and other parishes, to Thomas Broadnax, gent. late of Hyth, though there were descendants of that family, who wrote themselves gentlemen, remaining here in the beginning of king George I.'s reign, as appears by their wills in the prerogative-office. He afterwards resided at Ford-place, as his descendants, possessors of these manors, afterwards did, without intermission, to Thomas Broadnax, esq. (fn. 2) who in the 13th year of king George I. anno 1727, pursuant to the will of Sir Thomas May, and under the authority of parhament, changed his name to May, and in 1729 kept his shrievalty here. In 1732 he rebuilt this seat, and in 1738, pursuant to the will of Mrs. Elizabeth Knight, widow of Bulstrode Peachy Knight, esq. (who was her second husband, her first being William Knight, esq. of Dean, in that county); and under the authority of another act, he again changed his name to Knight, and in 1742 inclosed a park round his seat here, afterwards called Ford park, which name it seems since entirely to have lost, this seat and park being now usually called Godmersham-park. Thomas May Knight, esq. beforementioned, died here, far advanced in years, in 1781, a gentleman, whose eminent worth is still remembered by many now living; whose high character for upright conduct and integrity, rendered his life as honorable as it was good, and caused his death to be lamented by every one as a public loss. He married Jane, eldest daughter and coheir of William Monk, esq. of Buckingham in Shoreham, in Sussex, by whom he had several children, of whom only four survived to maturity, Thomas, his heir, and three daughters, who died unmarried. Thomas Knight, esq. the son, succeeded his father in estates, and was of Godmersham, the seat and park of which he greatly improved. He married Catherine, daughter of Dr. Wadham Knatchbull, late prebendary of Durham, and died in 1794, s.p. leaving her surviving. He bore for his arms, the coat of Knight, vert, a bend fusilly, in base, a cinquefoil, argent, quartered with nineteen others; the second being, Broadnax, or, two chevronels, gules, on a chief of the second, three cinquefoils, argent; and the third, May, gules, a fess between three billets, or. By his will Mr. Knight gave this seat, with the park, the manors before-mentioned, and the lands belonging to it, to his widow Mrs. Catherine Knight, for her life, with remainder to Edward Austen, esq. of Rolling-place. She afterwards resided here, but removing to the White Friars, in Canterbury, she gave up the possession of Godmersham house and park to Edward Austen, esq. before-mentioned, who now resides at it.
EGGARTON is another manor, situated on the opposite side of the river, at the south-east boundaries of this parish, among the hills, near Crundal. It was antiently the estate of the noble family of Valence, earls of Pembroke. Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, held this manor at his death in the 17th year of king Edward II. He died s.p. and John, son of John de Hastings, by Isabel his wife, one of the earl's sisters, and John, son of John Comyn, of Badenagh, by Joane, another of his sisters, were found to be his coheirs; and upon the division of their estates, John de Hastings the son seems to have become wholly possessed of it. He died s.p. next year, leaving Joane, wife of David de Strabolgie, earl of Athol, and Elizabeth her sister, sisters and coheirs of John Comyn, of Badenagh, his next of kin. David de Strabolgie, earl of Athol, before-mentioned, died possessed of this manor, as appears by the inquisition taken after his death, in the 1st year of Edward III. leaving it to his son of the same name, who in the 7th year of Edward III. by deed settled it on his kinsman Sir Henry de Hills; which gift was confirmed by the countess his widow, in the 20th year of that reign. Gilbert de Hills, who lies buried in this church, with the marks of his figure in armour on his grave-stone, was a person of eminence in the age in which he flourished, and from him and Sir Henry de Hills, issued many worthy successors, who were proprietors of this manor till the reign of queen Elizabeth, when it was sold to Charles Scott, esq. eldest son of Sir Reginald Scott, of Scotts-hall, by his second wife. His grandson Thomas Scott, esq. of Eggarton, left a son Thomas, who died s.p. and a daughter Dorothy, married to Mr. Daniel Gotherson, who in her right at length became possessed of this manor, (fn. 3) though not without several contests at law by some collateral claimers to it. He afterwards sold it to Sir James Rushout, bart. who had been so created in 1661, and bore for his arms, Sable, two lioncels passant, guardant, within a bordure engrailed, or. He died in 1697, and by his will devised it to trustees, to sell for payment of his debts, which they accordingly soon afterwards did, to Peter Gott, esq. of Sussex, whose arms were, Per saltier argent and sable, a bordure counterchanged. His descendant Maximilian Gott, esq. resided at Eggarton, where he died in 1735; upon which this manor, with the rest of his estates in this county and in Sussex, came to his three sisters, Elizabeth, Mary, and Sarah; and on the death of the former, the two latter became entitled to the whole fee of it, as coparceners; Mrs. Sarah Gott usually residing at this mansion of Eggarton. Mary Gott died in 1768, and by will devised her moiety of her estates to Henry Thomas Greening, gent. of Brentford, in Middlesex, who afterwards, by act of parliament, assumed the name of Gott. Sarah Gott, the other sister, died at Eggarton, in 1772, and by will devised her moiety of her estates to the children of William Western Hugessen, esq. of Provender, deceased, to be equally divided between them. (fn. 4) Mr. Hugessen left three daughters his coheirs, of whom the two surviving ones, Dorothy, was afterwards married to Sir Joseph Banks, bart. and K. B. Mary, to Edward Knatchbull, esq. now Sir Edward Knatchbull, bart. who in their wives right became entitled to one moiety of this estate, they afterwards, together with Henry-Thomas Gott, esq. before-mentioned, possessor of the other moiety, joined in the sale of the entire property of this manor to Thomas Knight, esq. of Godmersham, who purchased it for the residence of his sister Jane, since deceased. He died in 1794, s. p. and by his will gave this seat, with the estate and manor, to Edward Austen, esq. before-mentioned.
Charities.
MARTIN MAYE, yeoman, of Godmersham, ordered by will in 1614, that his executors should pay to Thomas Scott, gent. and five others therein mentioned, 100l on condition that they should enter into a bond of 200l. to his executors, to settle 8l. per annum towards the maintenance of twenty of the poorest persons householders, in Godmersham, that from time to time should be there dwelling; which sum should be a perpetual payment of 8s. per annum to each of them. This charity is now vested in Mrs. Knight.
THOMAS SCOTT, ESQ. of Canterbury, by will in 1635, devised the house which he lately built in Godmersham, and ten perches of land adjoining to it, to such poor persons, born and living in Godmersham, as the heirs of his body, and for want of such heirs as the right heirs of his kinsman, Sir Edward Scott, K. B. should nominate from time to time, for ever. And if such heirs should neglect such nomination, for the space of three months, then that the churchwardens for the time being, should nominate in their room; and if they or he should fail to nominate, within one month, then that the archbishop of Canterbury should in such case nominate from time to time. And he willed one other house, with its appurtenances, which he had lately built in Godmersham, adjoining to that before limited, and 10 perches of land adjoining, in like manner as the other before-mentioned, with like nomination and limitation; and so from time to time for ever. This charity is now lost.
THOMAS CARKERIDGE. of Maidstone, by will in 1640, devised all those lands and tenements which he bought in Wye, Godmersham, and Crundal, to William Cooper and his heirs for ever, he paying out of them 6l. per annum, to the overseers of the poor of the parish of Wye, 3l. and to the overseers of the parish of Godmersham. the other 3l. for ever; and he willed that this 6l. should be every year bestowed to cloath four poor widows, two of Wye, and two of Godmersham; and if there were not such poor widows, then to cloath other poor women, each of them to have five yards and an half of good country kersey, to make a petticoat and a waistcoat, and so much lockram or other country cloth as would make every of them two smocks, and every of them a pair of hose and a pair of shoes. And he willed that this cloth and other things be given to those poor women the first Thursday in November every year; with power to distrain in any of his lands lying in Wye, Godmersham, and Crundall, &c. until the same should be paid accordingly.
JOHN FINCHE, gent. of Limne, by will in 1707, devised his messuage, tenement, and lands, containing 36 acres, in Bilting, and his messuage and tenement, and seven acres of land, and 9 acres of woodland, in Wye, Godmersham, and Crundall, and all those his six cowshares, lying in a meadow called Laines, between Ollantigh and Tremworth, in Wye and Godmersham, and a piece of meadow-ground called Temple-hope, adjoining, in Wye and Crundall, to the ministers, churchwardens, and overseers of the parishes of Wye and Godmersham, and their successors for ever, in trust, that the minister, &c. of Wye, and their successors, should dispose of the rents and profits of that land which lay in Wye, as is therein mentioned; and that the minister, &c. of Godmersham, and their successors, should dispose of the rents and profits of that land, with its appurtenances in Godmersham and Crundall, to six of the poorest and eldest people of Godmersham, or any other, half-yearly for ever. But that there should be paid out of the rents and profits of his last-mentioned lands, 40s. yearly upon Christmas-day for ever, without any deduction, to poor people of the like sort, being men; that is to say, 20s. to each of them yearly for ever. And further, that if any of the trustees, the ministers, &c. of these parishes, should at any time alter, contradict, or misapply these charities, or the rents and profits of the estates, that then the devise to such parish, the minister, &c. of which had so done, should cease and determine. And he willed that none of the said charities should be distributed to any other poor, but such as should be members of the church of England, as then by law established. This charity is now of the annual produce of 24l. 1s. 6d. and produces on an average 18l. per annum.
The present alms-houses in Godmersham-street, were erected by the father of the last Thomas Knight, esq. on the ground before devised to the parish. The building contains dwellings for eight poor people.
There is a school here, for reading and writing, supported by the voluntary benefaction of Mrs. Knight, in which about 20 children are daily taught.
The poor constantly relieved are about nineteen, casually as many.
THIS PARISH is within the ELESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Bridge.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Laurence, is a plain building, consisting of a body and a chancel, having a square low tower on the north side of the body, on which was formerly a steeple. There are five bells in it. The chancel is large and handsome. There were formerly eight stalls in it. On three of the upright end-boards of these stalls were these letters and date:P/TC An. Dom. 1409, in memory of Thomas Chillenden, prior A. D. 1409, for the use of the prior and monks of Christ church, when they came to reside at their manor here, and the other clergy who might be present at divine services, the like as they had usually in other churches where they had manors. On the south side of the church was formerly a chantry, which was dedicated to St. Mary, as appears by the will of William Geffrye, chaplain of it in 1517, who directed to be buried in it on the south side. It was suppressed in the 1st year of king Edward VI. There was a house and garden belonging to it in Godmersham-street. This chantry has been rebuilt, and is now made use of as two large pews, for the use of the owners of the mansion-houses of Ford and Eggarton. Underneath these pews, which are raised considerable higher than the level of the pavement, are vaults for the owners of these houses. In that of Eggarton lie many of the Hilles's, Scotts, and Gotts; and in that of Forde, several of the Broadnax's. The two monuments now against the south wall of the body of the church, for Thomas Carter and James Christmas, were formerly in the chantry, on the pulling down of which, they were removed hither. In the body of the church, near the steeple, is another vault for the Broadnax's, which is quite full, and the entrance closed up; and in the body of the church there are several grave-stones of them, the inscriptions of which are gone. In the church-yard, close to the wall of Mr. Knight's pew, is a small vault, built by the late Mr. Knight's father, in which he lies, with his wife and daughter Anne; and leaving only room for one more in it, in which his son was afterwards buried.
The church of Godmersham, with the chapel of Challock annexed to it, was antiently an appendage to the manor of Godmersham, and as such was part of the possessions of the priory of Christ-church, in Canterbury, to which it was appropriated in the 21st year of king Richard II. anno 1397, with the king's and pope's licence, towards the support of the fabric of their church, to which archbishop Arundel consented; for which the prior gave up to him the advowson of the two churches of St. Vedast and Amand, and St. Michael, Crooked-lane, London. (fn. 5) After which the rectory and advowson of the vicarage of this church remained with the priory of Christ church till its dissolution, in the 31st year of Henry VIII. when they were, with the manor of Godmersham, and the rest of the possessions of that priory, surrendered into the king's hands, where they remained till the 37th year of that reign, when the king granted the manor, rectory, and advowson of the vicarage of Godmersham, as has been already mentioned, to the dean and chapter of Chanterbury, in exchange for other premises, with whom the rectory remains at this time. But the advowson of the vicarage of Godmersham, with the chapel of Challock appendant to it, is now in the patronage of his grace the archbishop of Canterbury.
In the year 1254, Hugh de Mortimer, rector of this church, confirmed the exemption of the manor of Godmersham, belonging to the prior and convent of Christchurch, from the payment of small tithes arising from it; with a saving to the right of his successors.
Before the appropriation of this church archbishop Sudbury had in 1330, endowed a vicarage here, which with the chapel of Challock, is valued in the king's books at 9l. 3s. 9d. and the yearly tenths at 18s. 4¼d. It is exempt from the jurisdiction of the archdeacon.
¶In 1640 here were communicants two hundred and forty-three, and it was then valued at fifty pounds. In 1649 the parsonage was valued at one hundred and twenty pounds per annum.
There is a pension of ten pounds to the vicar yearly paid out of the parsonage.
Crutches are a great tool to heal different foot problems. Podiatrists offer in their offices crutches so patient can begin their healing process as they leave the office.
Kristen Stewart suffered a foot laceration from stepping on a glass. Crutches are offering rest to her foot so it can heal faster. Weight bearing and ambulatory make plantar wounds painful, to take longer to heal and can result many complications. Complication include: infections and painful or hyperthrophic scars.
Podiatrist use crutches to heal things like:
Achilles tendonitis
Diabetic ulcers
Surgical wounds and osteotomies
Foot and Ankle sprains
Foot and ankle fractures
Flatfoot pain
Traumatic wounds
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Cantaloupe are responsible for nearly 30 outbreaks and recalls since 1990, killing two people and sickening more than 1,200. The fruit's netted rind hides harmful pathogens like salmonella and E. coli, which can eventually penetrate the shell and infect the fleshy, nutrient-rich core. (Photo by Brandon Quester/News21)
Cantaloupe are responsible for nearly 30 outbreaks and recalls since 1990, killing two people and sickening more than 1,200. The fruit's netted rind hides harmful pathogens like salmonella and E. coli, which can eventually penetrate the shell and infect the fleshy, nutrient-rich core. (Photo by Brandon Quester/News21)
Despite the snow, 47416 is on time as it heads a diverted Newcastle - Poole service down the now closed Leamside line near Washington. February 1984.
Problems with uploading today! Photos obviously not being seen - no views. Flickr is apparently working to fix the upload issue.
Wednesday, 10 June 2020: our temperature around 2:00 pm is 20C (windchill 20C). Sunrise is at 5:21 am, and sunset is at 9:50 pm. Sun and cloud.
Yesterday, 9 June 2020, I drove SE of the city to the Frank Lake area. Though the gate has been open for a while, the water level is higher than I have ever seen it in years. Really not worth the drive at the moment, as the blind is boarded up to prevent people going in there while social-distancing is in effect. The boardwalk is totally under water and the blind looks like it is floating out in a lake. I stayed on the road, rather than walk across the grass to get closer - had visions of suddenly sinking down into flooded grass. Presumably the water level of the whole area will eventually lower. The only photos I took was when I was driving along the gravel road.
I did see one interesting thing along the gravel road - a Brown-headed Cowbird doing a head-down display. This was something I had never seen before and I was totally unaware that Brown-headed Cowbirds have this behaviour. Many times, I have seen several of these highly gregarious birds sitting together on a fence railing, with their heads all pointing upwards at the exact same angle. When I first saw this bird, it had its back to me and it was lying flat on a rock. It looked iridescent and reminded me a little of a Tree Swallow. Then it stood up and eventually put its head down and spread its wings. There were several other Cowbirds flying around. Nice to learn something new!
After checking out the blind area from my car, I drove around the lake, finding just a handful of birds to photograph. Nothing unusual, but I enjoyed seeing and photographing 'anything' right now : ) From there, I drove north and out on to the main highway back to the city.
The weather was absolutely gorgeous - blue sky with masses of white clouds. Pretty windy, but I was in my car most of the time, so it didn't matter.
www.arqueologiadelperu.com/peru-one-of-the-three-wonders-...
Peru
[caption id="attachment_414208" align="alignright" width="150"] Resembling an ornate garden maze from above, suqakollos are a patterned system of raised cropland and water-filled trenches. Photograph: Ronald Reategui[/caption]
On the hardscrabble, treeless highland plain that joins Peru with Bolivia, farmers have eked out an existence for thousands of years amid bitter winters and the harsh sun, at 4,000 metres above sea level and higher.
As scientists predict climate change will make the Altiplano’s weather even more inclement and unpredictable, today’s farmers are reviving an ancestral system of cultivation and irrigation using what looks like an intricate piece of land sculpture.
Resembling an ornate garden maze from above, suqakollos – or waru-warus – are a patterned system of raised cropland and water-filled trenches.
Alipio Canahua, an agronomist working with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), says that the ancient agricultural system, which could date back 3,000 years, actually creates its own microclimate.
“It captures water when there are droughts and drains away water when there’s too much rain, meaning that it irrigates the crops all year round,” he says. “When it comes to temperature, we’ve measured a rise of three degrees centigrade in the immediate environment around it – this can save a significant percentage of the crops from being killed in frosts.”
A suqakollo can also be a small oasis in the scorching daytime sun, which yellows even the coarse highland grass, known as ichu – the main fodder for the alpacas and llamas herded by the local Aymara people.
Canahua has been leading the resurgence of this ancient farming system with local communities, restoring old suqakollos and building new ones.
[caption id="attachment_414209" align="alignleft" width="150"] Sonia Ticona, a local indigenous Aymara leader, explains that her community are reviving techniques used by their great-great-grandfathers. Photograph: Ronald Reategui[/caption]
Sonia Ticona, a local indigenous Aymara leader who has been working with Canahua, says that in her village, the women work harder than the men to dig the trenches which are filled with water.
“Our great-great-grandfathers used the suqakollo system then at some point, and we don’t know why, they stopped. Now we are restarting it and bringing it up to date – men and women working together.”
Potatoes have been sown this season – next year it will be quinoa – in a carefully planned crop rotation, explains Canahua. While the yields are smaller than cultivating in larger fields, beating the plummeting winter temperatures, which can reach -20C, can prevent devastating crop losses.
The suqakollos project is one of several globally important agricultural heritage systems (GIAHS) funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), which is working with the regional governments of Cusco and Puno. Along with Peru’s agricultural ministry, the FAO is promoting family farming with the GIAHS methodology.
Canahua’s only frustration is that it’s not possible to make the suqakollos as big as Puno’s pre-hispanic people did. Archaeologists say that people have lived on the Altiplano – on the shores of the highest navigable lake, Lake Titicaca – for some 8,000 years, and traces of the ancient canals still mark the high plain. Roads and boundaries between communal lands, however, have limited the space available.
John Preissing, the FAO’s representative in Peru, says the pilot project has produced more than double the normal crop yields.
“We can’t isolate just the fact that we‘re using suqakollos but we can say that between the water management, the soil management and the fertiliser management, we are reaching double the harvest numbers.”
Figures for 2013-14 indicate that suqakollo’s crop yields for quinoa are 3.2 tonnes per hectare, more than double the average of 1.3 tonnes per hectare for the same crop grown on the plain.
Ancestral crops like quinoa, and its kiwicha and kaniwa varieties, could make this labour-intensive, complex farming system worthwhile; international demand for the superfoods has multiplied the price, bringing in extra income for these smallholder farmers.
Dan Collyns
India
[caption id="attachment_414210" align="alignright" width="150"] The Chand baoli near Jaipur extends almost 100ft into the ground, making it one of the deepest and largest stepwells in India. Photograph: dbimages/Alamy[/caption]
Across large swaths of the Thar desert in western India, traditional techniques for harvesting the little amount of rain that falls has helped people survive the powerful effects of the sun for centuries.
The most beautiful of these are step wells – known as baolis in Hindi – large, stone structures built to provide water for drinking and agriculture. Baolis have existed for at least 1,000 years and were constructed in towns and alongside serais (travellers’ inns), across the desert and into Delhi.
Baolis exist in all shapes and sizes and are essentially reservoirs built into the earth. Groundwater is pulled up from a circular well at the bottom and rainwater is collected from above. A set of steps – on one or more sides of the structure – lead down to the water level, which fluctuates depending on the amount of rain. More recently, electric pumps have been installed in many baolis to help retrieve the water.
“Step wells are etched into people’s collective memory so deeply, they are now part of their DNA, passed on from one generation to another,” says Farhad Contractor of the Sambhaav Trust, an ecological conservation group.
[caption id="attachment_414211" align="alignleft" width="150"] Workers carry out conservation work at Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliyas baoli in New Delhi. Photograph: Anindito Mukherjee/EPA[/caption]
Today, many baolis have fallen prey to rapid urbanisation and neglect. In Delhi only around 15 survive but local groups are fighting to protect and preserve them. While 700mm of rain falls on Delhi every year, half of the city has been declared a dark zone – where the groundwater level has depleted so much that the rate of recharge is less than the rate of withdrawal – by the groundwater authority. Rainwater harvesting, therefore, is key to a secure water supply for India’s second-biggest city.
One such baoli restored by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) was built in the 14th century in Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti, a medieval village in Delhi named after Sufi saint, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya. In 2008, parts of the baoli walls collapsed due to sewage water seeping into the structure and the local residents using it as a rubbish dump. The pool was drained and the rubbish, garbage and sludge that had accumulated over the past 700 years was removed to reach the foundation of the baoli some 80 feet below ground level. While the water in the baoli is still not potable, it can be used for cleaning and agriculture.
Experts say the baoli model can be replicated anywhere in the world with similar climatic conditions and physiological features. Contractor has been invited to Morocco where he is working on a project to build baolis and smaller wells, known as beris in Hindi.
But large baolis need large catchment areas, and in Delhi space is an issue. While the majority of the physical structures of baolis are protected – some by being sited inside historic monuments – urban development in Delhi has had a greater impact on their water levels; storm drains divert rain away from baoli catchment areas.
Diwan Singh, an activist with non-profit Natural Heritage First, says that even though many baolis in Delhi are surrounded by buildings, the wells can still be recharged. “Catchment area management is the key. In the small areas of land between the baolis and buildings, rainwater harvesting pits could be built to divert rainwater away from the storm drains,” he says. “Once in the pit, water will percolate through the soil and recharge the nearby baoli, allowing modern development and ancient structures to co-exist side by side.”
Nivedita Khandekar
Kenya
[caption id="attachment_414212" align="alignright" width="150"] The construction of a sand dam involves building a concrete barrier or wall across a seasonal river. Photograph: Geoffrey Kamadi[/caption]
Makueni County – just over 100 miles south of Nairobi – has one of the most inhospitable environments in the country.
The region’s sandy loam soil supports little else besides the thorny, stunted shrubs that stretch for miles, interspersed only by gigantic baobab trees or some species of the hardy acacia. The only food crops cultivated here are sorghum, cassava and pigeon peas – drought-tolerant crops. With an average annual rainfall of just 600mm, meaningful agriculture is nearly impossible.
Water access is a big problem. In Kenya, 63% of the population use an improved source of drinking water and 46% live below the poverty line. Women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa spend up to four hours a day fetching water, according to the One campaign.
But things are changing for the better, thanks to an ancient water harvesting technique being used in the dry regions. Sand dams, which were invented by the Romans in 400BC, have become an important source of water for domestic and agricultural needs.
Sand dams are constructed by building a concrete barrier or wall across a seasonal river with a firm bedrock. As the river flows, sand in the water is deposited behind the wall. Over time, layers of sand build into a reservoir for water, which remains stored in the sand once the river level drops. Evaporation is virtually impossible below a metre of sand – no matter how intense the sun – and the water is clean and safe for immediate drinking as the sand acts like a filter.
[caption id="attachment_414213" align="alignleft" width="150"] A woman collects water stored beneath the sand. Photograph: Geoffrey Kamadi[/caption]
The Africa Sand Dam Foundation (ASDF) has been facilitating the construction of the dams alongside Excellent Development (ED), a UK-based NGO that has enabled the construction of 838 sand dams in rural dry lands across eight countries. The work of ED has improved access to clean water for more than 800,000 people, according to Jonny McKay, the NGO’s communications manager.
Not only have the sand dams improved water security for local communities. Villagers are also coming together to form self-help groups to construct the dams with assistance from the NGOs, and to initiate agro-based economic schemes.
“We are able to practise agribusiness now that we have water available for irrigation,” says Elizabeth Ndungune, the chairwoman of the Star Thange self-help women’s group in Ulilinzi. Using water from the sand dam built on the nearby River Thange, the group can now grow kale, tomatoes, beans and other crops. They sell whatever they harvest and pool the proceeds, which help families pay for school fees.
While sand dams are a cheap and simple solution to some complex problems, they can fail if they are not applied in a way that meets the users’ needs. “The biggest challenge is ensuring that the technology is applied to specific local conditions and people’s needs, rather than simply being replicated from one place and situation to another,” says McKay.
But the initiative is gaining momentum and expanding not only to other parts of the country, but to Tanzania, Chad, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and even to India.
Geoffrey Kamadi
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.....but a penguin ain't 1? This toy belongs to a 9 year old boy. What's he know 'bout 99 problems? I HOPE he means penguin considering the lyrics to the actual Jay-Z song and all.
Supposed to be 100 metres water resistance but turned out not even survived the typical rainy day in Edinburgh
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My PRS-25 the Smiths Everest and PRS-27s the Smiths Big Date: Some second thoughts about my purchases with Time Factor
I have purchased three watches: the PRS-27A, PRS-27B, and PRS-25 from the Time Factors (by Edward Platts), and was happy to post some good comments and photos on the TZ-UK forum after getting them. I was once more than willing to recommend these watches to my watch loving friends. Unfortunately, after some incidents, I have my second thought. Here is my story:
- The PRS-25 Everest -Water resistance issue:
I had been happy and in love with my Everest, although I have many watches, I still managed to wear it at least two days a week. Nonetheless, after three months of its arrival, I was surprised to see my watch's crystal looked steamy after a walk in a typical Scottish rainy day on the streets of Edinburgh. It reminded me a cheap toy watch I had in my childhood and I could not believe it happened to my Everest, which supposed to have WR for 100 metres. Totally shocked.
I contacted Eddie at once, with detailed photos about the issue, and suspected that water was probably leaked between the crystal and the case as a drop of water was visible there. Eddie agreed to deal with the issue. I sent the watch back to the Time Factors and the watch was returned from Eddie after more than 2 months. No explanation, not to mention any apology, was given for the failure of the water resistance.
Sadly the happiness of the reunion with the Everest did not last long, upon a close look I just realised that many stains could be seen on the watch hands. I suspected those stains are fingerprints or glue left on them. I contacted Eddie right away but he replied that he had done his goodwill in replacing my battery of the PRS-27 (see below) for me, which is nothing related to this PRS-25, and he was not prepared to do anything further.
- The PRS-27s
1. The PRS-27B
Upon a closer look of my PRS-27B a few days after its arrival, I found a tiny white spot on upper side of the six o'clock dial and a tiny grey/black spot on the right-hand side of upper date window. Despite these poorly finished signs are not supposed to happen with any quality watch, I was so in love with the watch that I persuaded myself to go on with it - it turned out that truly love is blind.
2. The PRS-27A
After less than two months of its arrival, the watch hands stuck at a certain time of the day. I contacted Eddie at once. After a few email communications trying to diagnose the issue, Eddies' final reply suggested that it could be the battery and suspected THEY- the manufacturer- bought old batteries for next to nothing. He seemed to forget that HE is the owner of the brand and the seller of the watch after all. After the WR issue happened to the PRS-25, I asked Eddie if I could send the PRS-27A back together to him for a check in order to make sure it was merely a battery issue. I understood that the battery is not covered by the warranty despite I purchased the watch from the Time Factors, not the manufacturer, and it stopped just within two months of it's arrival, so I mentioned that I would attach with the watch a brand new battery on my cost in case the watch's issue was only the battery. He agreed. I sent the PRS-27A and a new battery back together with the Everest.
The watch came back to me with the PRS-25. But a scrap was found on the watch face that moves with the watch. I contacted Eddie about this issue together with the stained hands issue of the PRS-25. He seemed to be annoyed that I sent the PRS-27A back as the issue was only the battery after his check. As mentioned above, he told me that he was not prepared to do anything further to this watch either.
I chose not to believe that Eddie was telling me that getting watches from the Time Factors with stains on the watch face or hands, with scrap on the face, or with steam in the crystal is normal. Unfortunately the fact seemed to suggest otherwise.
Originally I intended to include some British brand watches in my collection as one of the many ways to remember my life in the UK, and I was glad to find that there indeed exists a British micro brand producing watches that looked good to me. Unfortunately it turned out to be a nightmare and indeed added something I would definitely remember the UK for. If someone is planing to buy any watch from the Time Factors I wish him/her the best luck. I unfortunately believe that, after getting three at least once defective watches from the Time Factors, I do not possess such good luck to dare to purchase anymore from Time Factors.
Discussions of similar issues:
forums.watchuseek.com/f2/problems-smiths-everest-800650.html
www.thewatchsite.com/index.php/topic,32035.0.html
www.thewatchsite.com/index.php?topic=37969.0
forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.php?239599-A-curious-incident-...
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the model, the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Dornier Do 319 was directly inspired by the (modest) successes experienced by the Messerschmitt Me 262 fighter, the world's first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft. Design work started before World War II began, but problems with engines, metallurgy and top-level interference kept the aircraft from operational status with the Luftwaffe until mid-1944.
However, when it became clear that the new jet engine carried the potential for aircraft that were faster than piston engine counterparts, the German Navy urged the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM) to develop an amphibian fighter, attack and reconnaissance aircraft. This was not to be a navalized Me 262 (which was regarded as impossible due to the aircraft’s layout with low wings and underslung engine nacelles, and added floats would have ruined the aircraft’s aerodynamics, too), but rather a dedicated single-seat jet aircraft. This new design was to be either operated from catapults (replacing the Marine’s standard on-board aircraft, the Arado Ar 196 floatplane) or, with foldable wings, from submarines with water-tight hangars. This concept had already been discussed in the mid-late 1930s, when German class III submarines were to be outfitted with such compartments – but at that time for small motorboats only, for covert landing operations, and no submarine was converted accordingly. But the concept still found a lot of attention.
Dornier was tasked with the development of such an aircraft, based on the experience gained with the Me 262 and its innovative means of propulsion. Dornier realized that the new turbojet engine presented an opportunity to overcome the drawback of floatplanes if it was possible to combine the light jet engine with a streamlined flying boat hull, which would impose only a small aerodynamic penalty. Such an aircraft could still be at least on par with piston-engine land-based aircraft.
Using aerodynamic research data from the Messerschmitt fighter, Dornier conceived a compact flying boat with shoulder-mounted gull wings, carried by a narrow pylon behind the single seat cockpit. The engine nacelles were placed on the wings’ upper sides, as far away from spray water as possible. Through this layout, however, stabilizer floats would have necessitated very long and draggy struts, and the relatively thin, swept wings did not allow a (favored) retracting mechanism.
As a consequence, the aircraft was designed with Dornier’s trademark stub-wing floats, which added uplift in both water and air and offered, despite a permanent drag penalty, a convenient amount of space for extra fuel and the wells for a fully retractable landing/beaching gear, which made the aircraft fully amphibious and independent from a beaching trolley. Armament consisted of four 30mm MK 108 machine guns in the aircraft’s nose section, and the aircraft’s main task would be ground attack, air defense and, as a secondary mission, fast tactical reconnaissance.
Dornier first presented the initial concept to the RLM in mid-1943. Performance with two Junkers Jumo 004 axial-flow turbojet engines was – naturally – lower than the clean Me 262 fighter, but still impressive. The Me 262 was supposed to achieve a maximum speed of 900 km/h (559 mph), while the Dornier aircraft, with basically the same engines, was expected to have a top speed of 520 mph at 40,000 ft. But this was still regarded as sufficient, and the project was officially given the RLM’s type number 319. Two prototypes were built (under the designation Do 319 A-0), the first one making its maiden flight in February 1944.
However, at that time the German navy had lost much of its power and sovereignty, and more and more resources had to be allocated to defense projects. As a consequence, the Do 319 as a combat aircraft (originally designated Do 319 A) became a secondary priority only, and the original aircraft was cancelled. Still, the small amphibious aircraft attained a lot of interest through the type’s potential as a fast reconnaissance plane and for special purpose transport duties – namely as a personal transport for high-ranking officials and for covert operations behind enemy lines and at foreign shores – was discovered and the type nevertheless ordered into small-scale production.
As a consequence and as an adaptation of the airframe to its new role, the Do 319’s design was modified: the fuselage behind the cockpit was widened into a compartment for passengers, cargo or other equipment. The cabin could hold up to two passengers, sitting vis-à-vis, and it was accessible through a watertight door on each side above the stub floats. The cabin was open to the cockpit in front of it, but the opening was blocked if the front passenger seat was in place. Alternatively, up to 300 kg (660 lb) of cargo or photo equipment could be carried, and one or both seats could also be replaced by internal auxiliary tanks. The provision for the Do 319 A’s cannon armament was retained, but the weapons were rarely mounted in order to save weight.
In this form, and now designated Do 319 B and christened “Seeschwalbe”, the aircraft entered service with the Luftwaffe and the Kriegsmarine on a limited scale. Most machines were exclusively assigned to staff units and reserved for special missions like liaison duties for high ranking officials, but they were also used in recce and other special missions. At least one Do 319 B was shot down over the American east coast, probably while deploying German agents from a submarine. How the aircraft with its limited range itself could come close to American shores remains a mystery until today, since Germany did not build or operate submarine aircraft carriers.
Production numbers remained low, though, reaching roundabout 20 aircraft (even this number is uncertain) until the end of the war, and no Do 319 survived the hostilities.
General characteristics:
Crew: 1 pilot plus up to 2 passengers
Length: 10.80 m (35 ft 4 1/2 in)
Wingspan: 12.60 m (41 ft 6 in)
Height: 3.78 m (12 ft 4 1/2 in)
Wing area: 26.8 m² (288 ft²)
Aspect ratio: 7.32
Empty weight: 4,120 kg (9,075 lb)
Loaded weight: 6,830 kg (15,044 lb)
Max. take-off weight: 7,385 kg (16,266 lb)
Powerplant:
2× Junkers Jumo 004 B-1 turbojets, 8.8 kN (1,980 lbf) each
Performance:
Maximum speed: 820 km/h (510 mph)
Range: 1,200 km (652 mi)
2,100 km (1,300 mi) with extra internal fuel cells
Service ceiling: 10,850 m (35,538 ft)
Rate of climb: 1,000 m/min (At max weight of 7,130 kg) (3,275 ft/min)
Armament:
Provisions for 4× 30 mm MK 108 cannon in the nose, but rarely mounted
The kit and its assembly:
Another entry for the “Flying Boat, Seaplane and Amphibian” Group Build at whatifmodelers.com in late 2017, and the result of a spontaneous inspiration from a drawing of a Luft’46/fantasy creation of a Me 262 fuselage with a planning bottom, a parasol(!) wing and a single jet engine exhausting right above the cockpit, and no (visible) stabilizing floats at all. Rather spurious.
Well, nevertheless, the Me 262 jet fighter has a very shark-like profile and shape, and it has already been converted into flying boats or even submarines by modelers, and I decided to create my personal interpretation of the theme. I remembered a lone He 115 float in my stash (maybe 35 years old or even more!), and when I held to a Me 262 fuselage the parts had almost the same length and width. So, creating a flying boat jet fighter seemed like a realistic task.
Things started straightforward with an 1:72 Smer Me 262 fighter, which is actually the vintage Heller two-seater night fighter with a new fuselage and canopy. My kit of choice would have been the Matchbox kit, but the Heller kit is also O.K., due to its simplicity and simple construction.
Creating something amphibian from a Me 262 is not a trivial task, though. With its low wings and underslung engine nacelles there’s a lot to be changed until you get a plausible floatplane. Another challenge is to integrate some form of stabilizer/outrigger floats, what also influences the wings’ position. Placing the engines where they are safe from spray ingestion is also a serious matter – you have to get the high and the intakes as far forward as possible.
Doing some legwork I found some similar builds, and they all did not convince me. And, after all, I wanted to create my own “design”; in order to incorporate some realism I eventually settled on Dornier’s typical WWII designs like the Do 18 and Do 24. These elegant aircraft had a common, elegant trait: low stub wings as stabilizer floats, paired with high wings (in the case of the Do 18 held by a massive central pylon) which carried the engine out of the water’s reach. This appeared like a feasible layout for my conversion, even though it would mean a total re-construction of the kit, or rather assembling it in a way that almost no part was glued into the intended place!
Work started with the cockpit, which had to be moved forward in order to make room for the wings behind the canopy, placed high on a pylon above the fuselage. For this stunt, the cockpit opening and the place in front of it (where the original front fuselage tank would be) were cut out and switched. The cockpit tub was moved forward and trimmed in order to fit into the new place. The nose section was filled with lead, because the stub wings/floats would allow a retractable landing gear to be added, too, making the aircraft a true amphibian!
The He 115 float was cut down in order to fit under the OOB Me 262 fuselage, and a front wheel well was integrated for a tricycle landing gear. Once the fuselage was closed, the planning bottom was added and the flanks sculpted with putty – lots of it.
In the meantime the Me 262 wing received a thorough re-arrangement, too. Not only were the engine nacelles moved to the upper wing surface (cutting the respective wing and intake sections of the nacelles off/out and turning them around 180°), the original connecting ventral wing part with the landing gear wells were turned upside down, too, the landing gear covers closed (with the respective OOB parts) and the inner wing sections modified into a gull wing, raising the engines even further. VERY complex task, and blending/re-shaping everything took a lot of PSR, too.
Under the central wing section I added a pylon left over from a Smer Curtiss SC Seahawk kit, because a massive Do 18-esque construction was out of question for a fast jet aircraft. The gaps were filled with putty, too.
In order to keep the stabilizers free from water spray they were moved upwards on the fin, too. The original attachment points were sanded away and hidden under putty, and the OOB stabilizers placed almost at the top at the fin.
Finding suitable stub wings/floats became a challenge: they have to be relatively thick (yielding buoyancy and also offering room for the retractable landing gear), but also short with not-so-rounded tips. It took a while until I found suitable donor parts in the form of the tips of an 1:32 AH-64 Apache (!) stabilizer! They were simply cut off, and openings for the main landing gear cut into their lower sides.
Once glued to the lower flanks and the stabilizers in place it was time to place the wing. In the meantime the moved cockpit had been blended to the fuselage, and initial tests indicated that the pylon would have to be placed right behind the canopy – actually on top of the end of the clear part. As a consequence the canopy was cut into pieces and its rear section integrated into the fuselage (more PSR).
However, the relatively thin and slender central pylon from the Curtiss SC indicated that some more struts would be necessary in order to ensure stability – very retro, and not really suited for a jet-powered aircraft. And the more I looked at the layout, the more I became convinced that the wings and engines were in a plausible position, but placed too high.
What started next were several sessions in which I shortened the pylon step by step, until I was satisfied with the overall proportions. This went so far that almost everything of the pylon had gone, and the wings almost rested directly on the Me 262’s spine!
However, this new layout offered the benefit of rendering the extra struts obsolete, since I decided to fill the small gap between wing and fuselage into a single, massive fairing. This would also mean more internal space, and consequently the original idea of a jet-powered combat aircraft was modified into a fast multi-purpose amphibian vehicle for special tasks, capable of transporting personnel behind enemy lines with a quick move.
More PSR, though, and after some finishing touches like a scratched landing gear (front leg/wheel from an Italeri Bae Hawk, main struts from a Mistercraft PZL Iskra trainer, wheels from an Academy OV-10 Bronco and with improvised covers), several antennae and mooring lugs made from wire, the aircraft was ready for painting. On the downside, though, almost any surface detail had been lost due to the massive, overall body sculpting – but the application of the light zigzag pattern helped to recreate some “illusionary” details like flaps or panel lines. ;-)
Painting and markings:
Originally, when the Seeschwalbe was still conceived as a fighter, the model was to receive a daylight scheme in typical German naval aircraft colors (RLM 72/73/65). But this plan changed when the aircraft’s role became a ‘special purpose’ transporter for covert operations.
Nocturnal operations appeared plausible, so that the scheme became much more murky: from above, a splinter scheme with RLM 73 and RLM 74 (naval dark green and dark, greenish grey, both from the ModelMaster Authentic enamel paint range) was applied as a basis, and the undersides became black – as if standard daylight colors had been overpainted, a frequent practice.
Since this black paint was made from soot, it easily wore away and many Luftwaffe machines with improvised black undersides quickly gained a rather shaggy look. I wanted to re-create this look, and built up the lower paint accordingly: In an initial step, RLM76 (I used Humbrol 87, which is a tad darker than the RLM tone, for less contrast with the black) was painted on the lower wing surfaces, the fuselage with a medium waterline and the fin. Once dry, the national marking decals were added. Then a coat of thinned Revell Acrylics 6 Tar Black was applied on top of the lower surfaces, including the lower decals, and later wet-sanded in order to reveal some of the grey underneath for a worn look.
In order to break up the aircraft’s outlines, esp. at low altitude, a disruptive meander pattern in light grey (RLM 76) was painted on top of the upper surfaces. For this task, I thinned Humbrol’s 247 enamel and used a simple brush, painting the curls free-handedly. The finish looks pretty convincing, and it mimics well the technique with which those improvised patterns were applied in the field in real life: quickly, with anything at hand. The way the finish turned out, the pattern could have been applied with a broad brush – the use of a spray gun was rather uncommon, and IMHO the use of an airbrush on a model to recreate such a zigzag pattern rarely leads to convincing results?
This pattern was painted tightly around all the upper markings, and the markings themselves were kept at a minimum. For instance, the tactical code only comprises the aircraft’s individual letter “Blue O” behind the fuselage cross, which indicates an air staff machine. This would, following the official German squadron code system, be confirmed by an “A”, following as a fourth digit. The squadron’s code (“P7”, which is fictional, just like the aircraft’s sea reconnaissance squadron itself) was omitted, too. Such minimal markings became a frequent practice towards the final war stages, though, and it fits the aircraft’s special duty role well. The only individual marking is a squadron badge under the cockpit – lent from an Italian night fighter and placed on a dark blue disc. Another, subtle indicator for the aircraft’s operator are the blue air intake center bodies, repeating the staff flight’s blue color code.
Only some light weathering was done, with dry-brushed light grey on the leading edges, and finally the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri). In a final step, some very light dry-brushing with aluminum was done on some of the fuselage edges, esp. the spray dams, and the position lights were painted with translucent paint over a silver base.
A messy project, in many ways, but I am happy with result. Most stunning is IMHO the fact that all major parts for this compact flying boat actually come from a single, simple Me 262 kit – but visually there’s not much of the left from the jet fighter. But it’s also amazing that the proportions look right, and the whole thing quite plausible and Dornier-esque! Turned out better than expected.
We decided to go for a city break rather than sun in Tenerife again this September. Other than a few days in the North East we haven’t been away since last March and wanted a change and hopefully some sun. The problem is getting flights from the north of England to the places we want to go to. We chose Valencia as we could fly from East Midlands – which was still a pain to get to as it involved the most notorious stretch of the M1 at five in the morning. In the end we had a fairly good journey, the new Ryanair business class pre-booked scheme worked quite well and bang on time as usual. It was dull when we landed with storms forecast all week, the sky was bright grey – the kiss of death to the photography I had in mind. I was full of cold and wishing I was at work. It did rain but it was overnight on our first night and didn't affect us. There has been a drought for eleven months apparently and it rained on our first day there! The forecast storms didn't materialise in Valencia but they got it elsewhere.
You May notice discrepancies in the spelling of some Spanish words or names, this is because Valencian is used on signs, in some guide books and maps. There are two languages in common use with distinct differences. There may also be genuine mistakes - it has been known!
Over the course of a Monday to Sunday week we covered 75 miles on foot and saw most of the best of Valencia – The City of Bell Towers. The Old City covers a pretty large area in a very confusing layout. There was a lot of referring to maps – even compass readings! – a first in a city for us. The problem with photography in Valencia is that most of the famous and attractive building are closely built around, some have poor quality housing built on to them. Most photographs have to be taken from an extreme angle looking up. There are no high points as it is pan flat, there are a small number of buildings where you can pay to go up on to the roof for a better view and we went up them – more than once!
The modern buildings of The City of Arts and Sciences – ( Ciutat de Las Arts I de les Ciencies ) are what the city has more recently become famous for, with tourists arriving by the coachload all day until late at night. They must be photographed millions of times a month. We went during the day and stayed till dark one evening, I gave it my best shot but a first time visit is always a compromise between ambition and realism, time dictates that we have to move on to the next destination. I travelled with a full size tripod – another first – I forgot to take it with me to TCoAaS! so It was time to wind up the ISO, again! Needless to say I never used the tripod.
On a day when rain was forecast but it stayed fine, albeit a bit dull, we went to the Bioparc north west of the city, a zoo by another name. There are many claims made for this place, were you can appear to walk alongside some very large animals, including, elephants, lions, giraffe, rhino, gorillas and many types of monkey to name a few. It is laid out in different geographical regions and there is very little between you and the animals, in some cases there is nothing, you enter the enclosure through a double door arrangement and the monkeys are around you. It gets rave reviews and we stayed for most of the day. The animals it has to be said gave the appearance of extreme boredom and frustration and I felt quite sorry for them.
The course of The River Turia was altered after a major flood in the 50’s. The new river runs west of the city flanked by a motorway. The old river, which is massive, deep and very wide between ancient walls, I can’t imagine how it flooded, has been turned into a park that is five miles long. There is an athletics track, football pitches, cycle paths, restaurants, numerous kids parks, ponds, fountains, loads of bridges, historic and modern. At the western end closest to the sea sits The City of Arts and Sciences – in the river bed. Where it meets the sea there is Valencia’s urban Formula One racetrack finishing in the massive marina built for The Americas Cup. The race track is in use as roadways complete with fully removable street furniture, kerbs, bollards, lights, islands and crossings, everything is just sat on the surface ready to be moved.
We found the beach almost by accident, we were desperate for food after putting in a lot of miles and the afternoon was ticking by. What a beach, 100’s of metres wide and stretching as far as the eye could see with a massive promenade. The hard thing was choosing, out of the dozens of restaurants, all next door to each other, all serving traditional Paella – rabbit and chicken – as well as seafood, we don’t eat seafood and it constituted 90% of the menu in most places. Every restaurant does a fixed price dish of the day, with a few choices, three courses and a drink. Some times this was our only meal besides making the most of the continental breakfast at the hotel. We had a fair few bar stops with the local wine being cheap and pleasant it would have been a shame not to, there would have been a one woman riot – or strike!
On our final day, a Sunday, we were out of bed and down for breakfast at 7.45 as usual, the place was deserted barring a waiter. We walked out of the door at 8.30 – in to the middle of a mass road race with many thousands of runners, one of a series that take place in Valencia – apparently! We struggled to find out the distance, possibly 10km. The finish was just around the corner so off we went with the camera gear, taking photos of random runners and groups. There was a TV crew filming it and some local celebrity (I think) commentating. Next we came across some sort of wandering religious and musical event. Some sort of ritual was played out over the course of Sunday morning in various locations, it involved catholic priests and religious buildings and another film crew. The Catholic tourists and locals were filling the (many) churches for Sunday mass. Amongst all of this we had seen men walking around in Arab style dress – the ones in black looked like the ones from ISIS currently beheading people – all carrying guns. A bit disconcerting. We assumed that there had been some sort of battle enactment. We were wrong, it hadn’t happened yet. A while later, about 11.30 we could hear banging, fireworks? No it was our friends with the guns. We were caught up in total mayhem, around 60 men randomly firing muskets with some sort of blank rounds, the noise, smoke and flames from the muzzles were incredible. We were about to climb the Torres de Serranos which is where, unbeknown to us, the grand, and deafening, finale was going to be. We could feel the blast in our faces on top of the tower. Yet again there was a film camera in attendance. I couldn’t get close ups but I got a good overview and shot my first video with the 5D, my first in 5 years of owning a DLSR with the capability. I usually use my phone ( I used my phone as well). Later in the day there was a bullfight taking place, the ring was almost next to our hotel, in the end we had other things to do and gave it a miss, it was certainly a busy Sunday in the city centre, whether it’s the norm or not I don’t know.
There is a tram system in Valencia but it goes from the port area into the newer part of the city on the north side, it wouldn’t be feasible to serve the historic old city really. A quick internet search told me that there are 55,000 university students in the city, a pretty big number. I think a lot of the campus is on the north side and served by the tram although there is a massive fleet of buses as well. There is a massive, very impressive market building , with 100’s of stalls that would make a photo project on its own, beautiful on the inside and out but very difficult to get decent photos of the exterior other than detail shots owing to the closeness of other buildings and the sheer size of it. Across town, another market has been beautifully renovated and is full of bars and restaurants and a bit of a destination in its own right.
A downside was the all too typical shafting by the taxi drivers who use every trick in the book to side step the official tariffs and rob you. The taxi from the airport had a “broken” meter and on the way home we were driven 22 km instead of the nine that is the actual distance. Some of them seem to view tourists as cash cows to be robbed at all costs. I emailed the Marriot hotel as they ordered the taxi, needless to say no answer from Marriot – they’ve had their money. We didn’t get the rip off treatment in the bars etc. that we experienced in Rome, prices are very fair on most things, certainly considering the city location.
All in all we had a good trip and can highly recommend Valencia.
With a huge red lei around his neck and a wide grin that could have stretched across Oahu, Larry Fitzgerald held up the gleaming, silver MVP trophy. It sparkled in the sunshine as much as his game.
The only problem: It wasn't the Lombardi Trophy.
Fitzgerald caught five passes for 81 yards and two touchdowns, 44-year-old John Carney kicked two fourth-quarter field goals, and the NFC rallied to a 30-21 victory over the AFC. The Arizona Cardinals' All-Pro receiver, coming off a record-breaking postseason and a spectacular Super Bowl in a loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, earned MVP honors.
But he said the victory over the AFC, which featured three members of the Steelers' defense, didn't ease the pain from the Super Bowl.
"No, not one bit," he said.
Fitzgerald also took home keys to a new Cadillac.
"I'm just glad we won, that's the most important thing," he said.
On a sweltering day, with 60 percent humidity, Kurt Warner started for the NFC and played just one series before making way for Brees. Warner was just 1-of-2 for 8 yards.
"I would've liked to have won last week and not this week, if I could switch them out," he said.
Fitzgerald caught a 46-yard scoring pass from Drew Brees before the half and a 2-yard TD pass from Eli Manning for the go-ahead score with 4:07 to play.
The NFC defense took care of the rest.
Manning, making his Pro Bowl debut, was 8-of-14 for 111 yards. While big brother Peyton had better stats, 12-of-17 for 151 yards and a TD, Eli got the win.
"He didn't play the whole second half, so it's not about beating my brother, it's just about having fun," Eli Manning said.
The Manning brothers were the first quarterback brothers in Pro Bowl history. And Carney, who was a perfect 3-for-3, became the oldest player in the game's history. He booted a 48-yarder with 2:06 remaining to make it 27-21 and sealed the win with a 26-yarder with 32 seconds to go.
Sunday's all-star game ended a successful 30-year run at Aloha Stadium, with a sellout every year. The Pro Bowl will be played in Miami next year, a week before the Super Bowl. The NFL, which has been looking to increase the profile of the game, hopes to bring the game back to Hawaii.
The players, who spent most of the week by the beach and sipping umbrella-adorned mai tais, were pretty unanimous in wanting the game to return.
For Warner, the question now is whether this was his final game in the NFL or, as a free agent, will he opt to continue playing at age 38?
"I don't know right now," Warner said. "Again, when I have a feeling one way or the other, I'll let everyone else know. I don't have a time frame. This is the first time right now that I am done having to think about football for a while, and I'm going to enjoy that part of it, enjoy my wife, enjoy my kids and then we'll make a decision as soon as we can."
The AFC was looking to hula dance into halftime with a comfortable 14-3 cushion after Kerry Collins connected with Owen Daniels on a 9-yard scoring pass with 28 seconds left in the half.
However, that was more than enough the time for the NFC, with all its weapons.
The NFC took over at its 45 with 19 seconds left after a nice kickoff return by Clifton Smith. They ran two plays before Larry Fitzgerald hauled in Brees' 46-yard bomb with fellow All-Pro Cortland Finnegan on his back as time expired to pull the NFC to 14-10.
It made for two huge end-of-the-half plays in consecutive weeks for Fitzgerald. But this time, rather than trying -- and failing -- to chase down James Harrison on his 100-yard interception returned for a TD, Fitzgerald was the one celebrating.
Fitzgerald also beat Finnegan on his second score.
"These guys are such elite players, it doesn't take much time to get in the groove with these players," Fitzgerald said. "These guys were great."
The usual high-scoring affair surprisingly also featured plenty of defense. Despite rules such as no blitzing linebackers and safeties, the quarterbacks were feeling the heat, at times buried by the defensive line. None of the passes had any room for error on throws against the speedy defensive backs.
The AFC had a chance to take the lead late, but Julius Peppers got in the way. Down by six, the AFC started its drive on its 20 with 4:03 remaining and got to midfield. Peppers then swatted a pass by Jay Cutler with his left hand and came up with the interception that led to Carney's 48-yard field goal.
There were three straight drives ending with a turnover in a span of about 2 minutes in the third quarter alone, including two by Collins.
The second led to the NFC's first lead of the game, 17-14, late in the third quarter. Jared Allen stripped Collins from behind and scooped up the bouncing ball at the AFC 10. All-Pro Adrian Peterson, last year's Pro Bowl MVP, finished it off with a 10-yard run.
Pinned on its 4, the AFC came out firing behind the league MVP. Peyton Manning completed passes of 20, 18, 22, 4, and 6 yards to five players before hitting Tony Gonzalez for the score on a high-arcing, 19-yard pass.
Gonzalez easily outmaneuvered Seattle linebacker Julian Peterson before hauling in the pass and tiptoeing into the end zone. Gonzalez, also an All-Pro, finished with six catches for 98 yards.
On the ensuing series, Robert Mathis stripped Brees and gave possession back to the AFC.
Manning then completed a 22-yarder to Colts teammate Reggie Wayne before the NFC finally started playing some defense.
After the AFC reached the NFC's 31, Peppers squashed Manning -- and gave him a hand to get back up. It is, after all, the Pro Bowl.
With a huge red lei around his neck and a wide grin that could have stretched across Oahu, Larry Fitzgerald held up the gleaming, silver MVP trophy. It sparkled in the sunshine as much as his game.
The only problem: It wasn't the Lombardi Trophy.
Fitzgerald caught five passes for 81 yards and two touchdowns, 44-year-old John Carney kicked two fourth-quarter field goals, and the NFC rallied to a 30-21 victory over the AFC. The Arizona Cardinals' All-Pro receiver, coming off a record-breaking postseason and a spectacular Super Bowl in a loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, earned MVP honors.
But he said the victory over the AFC, which featured three members of the Steelers' defense, didn't ease the pain from the Super Bowl.
"No, not one bit," he said.
Fitzgerald also took home keys to a new Cadillac.
"I'm just glad we won, that's the most important thing," he said.
On a sweltering day, with 60 percent humidity, Kurt Warner started for the NFC and played just one series before making way for Brees. Warner was just 1-of-2 for 8 yards.
"I would've liked to have won last week and not this week, if I could switch them out," he said.
Fitzgerald caught a 46-yard scoring pass from Drew Brees before the half and a 2-yard TD pass from Eli Manning for the go-ahead score with 4:07 to play.
The NFC defense took care of the rest.
Manning, making his Pro Bowl debut, was 8-of-14 for 111 yards. While big brother Peyton had better stats, 12-of-17 for 151 yards and a TD, Eli got the win.
"He didn't play the whole second half, so it's not about beating my brother, it's just about having fun," Eli Manning said.
The Manning brothers were the first quarterback brothers in Pro Bowl history. And Carney, who was a perfect 3-for-3, became the oldest player in the game's history. He booted a 48-yarder with 2:06 remaining to make it 27-21 and sealed the win with a 26-yarder with 32 seconds to go.
Sunday's all-star game ended a successful 30-year run at Aloha Stadium, with a sellout every year. The Pro Bowl will be played in Miami next year, a week before the Super Bowl. The NFL, which has been looking to increase the profile of the game, hopes to bring the game back to Hawaii.
The players, who spent most of the week by the beach and sipping umbrella-adorned mai tais, were pretty unanimous in wanting the game to return.
For Warner, the question now is whether this was his final game in the NFL or, as a free agent, will he opt to continue playing at age 38?
"I don't know right now," Warner said. "Again, when I have a feeling one way or the other, I'll let everyone else know. I don't have a time frame. This is the first time right now that I am done having to think about football for a while, and I'm going to enjoy that part of it, enjoy my wife, enjoy my kids and then we'll make a decision as soon as we can."
The AFC was looking to hula dance into halftime with a comfortable 14-3 cushion after Kerry Collins connected with Owen Daniels on a 9-yard scoring pass with 28 seconds left in the half.
However, that was more than enough the time for the NFC, with all its weapons.
The NFC took over at its 45 with 19 seconds left after a nice kickoff return by Clifton Smith. They ran two plays before Larry Fitzgerald hauled in Brees' 46-yard bomb with fellow All-Pro Cortland Finnegan on his back as time expired to pull the NFC to 14-10.
It made for two huge end-of-the-half plays in consecutive weeks for Fitzgerald. But this time, rather than trying -- and failing -- to chase down James Harrison on his 100-yard interception returned for a TD, Fitzgerald was the one celebrating.
Fitzgerald also beat Finnegan on his second score.
"These guys are such elite players, it doesn't take much time to get in the groove with these players," Fitzgerald said. "These guys were great."
The usual high-scoring affair surprisingly also featured plenty of defense. Despite rules such as no blitzing linebackers and safeties, the quarterbacks were feeling the heat, at times buried by the defensive line. None of the passes had any room for error on throws against the speedy defensive backs.
The AFC had a chance to take the lead late, but Julius Peppers got in the way. Down by six, the AFC started its drive on its 20 with 4:03 remaining and got to midfield. Peppers then swatted a pass by Jay Cutler with his left hand and came up with the interception that led to Carney's 48-yard field goal.
There were three straight drives ending with a turnover in a span of about 2 minutes in the third quarter alone, including two by Collins.
The second led to the NFC's first lead of the game, 17-14, late in the third quarter. Jared Allen stripped Collins from behind and scooped up the bouncing ball at the AFC 10. All-Pro Adrian Peterson, last year's Pro Bowl MVP, finished it off with a 10-yard run.
Pinned on its 4, the AFC came out firing behind the league MVP. Peyton Manning completed passes of 20, 18, 22, 4, and 6 yards to five players before hitting Tony Gonzalez for the score on a high-arcing, 19-yard pass.
Gonzalez easily outmaneuvered Seattle linebacker Julian Peterson before hauling in the pass and tiptoeing into the end zone. Gonzalez, also an All-Pro, finished with six catches for 98 yards.
On the ensuing series, Robert Mathis stripped Brees and gave possession back to the AFC.
Manning then completed a 22-yarder to Colts teammate Reggie Wayne before the NFC finally started playing some defense.
After the AFC reached the NFC's 31, Peppers squashed Manning -- and gave him a hand to get back up. It is, after all, the Pro Bowl.
We decided to go for a city break rather than sun in Tenerife again this September. Other than a few days in the North East we haven’t been away since last March and wanted a change and hopefully some sun. The problem is getting flights from the north of England to the places we want to go to. We chose Valencia as we could fly from East Midlands – which was still a pain to get to as it involved the most notorious stretch of the M1 at five in the morning. In the end we had a fairly good journey, the new Ryanair business class pre-booked scheme worked quite well and bang on time as usual. It was dull when we landed with storms forecast all week, the sky was bright grey – the kiss of death to the photography I had in mind. I was full of cold and wishing I was at work. It did rain but it was overnight on our first night and didn't affect us. There has been a drought for eleven months apparently and it rained on our first day there! The forecast storms didn't materialise in Valencia but they got it elsewhere.
You May notice discrepancies in the spelling of some Spanish words or names, this is because Valencian is used on signs, in some guide books and maps. There are two languages in common use with distinct differences. There may also be genuine mistakes - it has been known!
Over the course of a Monday to Sunday week we covered 75 miles on foot and saw most of the best of Valencia – The City of Bell Towers. The Old City covers a pretty large area in a very confusing layout. There was a lot of referring to maps – even compass readings! – a first in a city for us. The problem with photography in Valencia is that most of the famous and attractive building are closely built around, some have poor quality housing built on to them. Most photographs have to be taken from an extreme angle looking up. There are no high points as it is pan flat, there are a small number of buildings where you can pay to go up on to the roof for a better view and we went up them – more than once!
The modern buildings of The City of Arts and Sciences – ( Ciutat de Las Arts I de les Ciencies ) are what the city has more recently become famous for, with tourists arriving by the coachload all day until late at night. They must be photographed millions of times a month. We went during the day and stayed till dark one evening, I gave it my best shot but a first time visit is always a compromise between ambition and realism, time dictates that we have to move on to the next destination. I travelled with a full size tripod – another first – I forgot to take it with me to TCoAaS! so It was time to wind up the ISO, again! Needless to say I never used the tripod.
On a day when rain was forecast but it stayed fine, albeit a bit dull, we went to the Bioparc north west of the city, a zoo by another name. There are many claims made for this place, were you can appear to walk alongside some very large animals, including, elephants, lions, giraffe, rhino, gorillas and many types of monkey to name a few. It is laid out in different geographical regions and there is very little between you and the animals, in some cases there is nothing, you enter the enclosure through a double door arrangement and the monkeys are around you. It gets rave reviews and we stayed for most of the day. The animals it has to be said gave the appearance of extreme boredom and frustration and I felt quite sorry for them.
The course of The River Turia was altered after a major flood in the 50’s. The new river runs west of the city flanked by a motorway. The old river, which is massive, deep and very wide between ancient walls, I can’t imagine how it flooded, has been turned into a park that is five miles long. There is an athletics track, football pitches, cycle paths, restaurants, numerous kids parks, ponds, fountains, loads of bridges, historic and modern. At the western end closest to the sea sits The City of Arts and Sciences – in the river bed. Where it meets the sea there is Valencia’s urban Formula One racetrack finishing in the massive marina built for The Americas Cup. The race track is in use as roadways complete with fully removable street furniture, kerbs, bollards, lights, islands and crossings, everything is just sat on the surface ready to be moved.
We found the beach almost by accident, we were desperate for food after putting in a lot of miles and the afternoon was ticking by. What a beach, 100’s of metres wide and stretching as far as the eye could see with a massive promenade. The hard thing was choosing, out of the dozens of restaurants, all next door to each other, all serving traditional Paella – rabbit and chicken – as well as seafood, we don’t eat seafood and it constituted 90% of the menu in most places. Every restaurant does a fixed price dish of the day, with a few choices, three courses and a drink. Some times this was our only meal besides making the most of the continental breakfast at the hotel. We had a fair few bar stops with the local wine being cheap and pleasant it would have been a shame not to, there would have been a one woman riot – or strike!
On our final day, a Sunday, we were out of bed and down for breakfast at 7.45 as usual, the place was deserted barring a waiter. We walked out of the door at 8.30 – in to the middle of a mass road race with many thousands of runners, one of a series that take place in Valencia – apparently! We struggled to find out the distance, possibly 10km. The finish was just around the corner so off we went with the camera gear, taking photos of random runners and groups. There was a TV crew filming it and some local celebrity (I think) commentating. Next we came across some sort of wandering religious and musical event. Some sort of ritual was played out over the course of Sunday morning in various locations, it involved catholic priests and religious buildings and another film crew. The Catholic tourists and locals were filling the (many) churches for Sunday mass. Amongst all of this we had seen men walking around in Arab style dress – the ones in black looked like the ones from ISIS currently beheading people – all carrying guns. A bit disconcerting. We assumed that there had been some sort of battle enactment. We were wrong, it hadn’t happened yet. A while later, about 11.30 we could hear banging, fireworks? No it was our friends with the guns. We were caught up in total mayhem, around 60 men randomly firing muskets with some sort of blank rounds, the noise, smoke and flames from the muzzles were incredible. We were about to climb the Torres de Serranos which is where, unbeknown to us, the grand, and deafening, finale was going to be. We could feel the blast in our faces on top of the tower. Yet again there was a film camera in attendance. I couldn’t get close ups but I got a good overview and shot my first video with the 5D, my first in 5 years of owning a DLSR with the capability. I usually use my phone ( I used my phone as well). Later in the day there was a bullfight taking place, the ring was almost next to our hotel, in the end we had other things to do and gave it a miss, it was certainly a busy Sunday in the city centre, whether it’s the norm or not I don’t know.
There is a tram system in Valencia but it goes from the port area into the newer part of the city on the north side, it wouldn’t be feasible to serve the historic old city really. A quick internet search told me that there are 55,000 university students in the city, a pretty big number. I think a lot of the campus is on the north side and served by the tram although there is a massive fleet of buses as well. There is a massive, very impressive market building , with 100’s of stalls that would make a photo project on its own, beautiful on the inside and out but very difficult to get decent photos of the exterior other than detail shots owing to the closeness of other buildings and the sheer size of it. Across town, another market has been beautifully renovated and is full of bars and restaurants and a bit of a destination in its own right.
A downside was the all too typical shafting by the taxi drivers who use every trick in the book to side step the official tariffs and rob you. The taxi from the airport had a “broken” meter and on the way home we were driven 22 km instead of the nine that is the actual distance. Some of them seem to view tourists as cash cows to be robbed at all costs. I emailed the Marriot hotel as they ordered the taxi, needless to say no answer from Marriot – they’ve had their money. We didn’t get the rip off treatment in the bars etc. that we experienced in Rome, prices are very fair on most things, certainly considering the city location.
All in all we had a good trip and can highly recommend Valencia.
So I stripped her down: a messy job, but not difficult, providing you take out the centre seat and the panel underneath (which is designed to come out in 10 seconds flat), to get a bit of light on an otherwise dark subject.
Simply (don't you hate it when people say that? but this time it really is simple) undo the six nuts which hold the drum onto the output flange, then slacken off the hand-brake adjuster until the drum can be persuaded to come off (which may need a hide hammer), and slide the drum back to sit on the propshaft, out of our way.
And here's the nub of the problem (though that missing spring didn't help). The operating mechanism was well and truly clagged up with the gunge of ages. Several squirts with brake cleaner got the mess off, then Mrs W sat inside, gently operating the hand-brake, while I was underneath getting everything free, then applying a good coat of CopperSlip to the moving parts. Reassemble, making sure that all the six nuts are torqued up evenly so the drum is truly square to the flange; then adjust the shoes in the normal way.
The missing spring was an interesting problem, as it's very, very tight, and almost impossible to stretch up to engage, when you're lying underneath the vehicle. If you slip, you'll hit the underside very hard, probably losing a knuckle or two's worth of flesh in the process.
As JY used to say: this is what you do.
First, get a couple of pairs of safety goggles, one for you, one for your assistant: if this goes wrong, there'll be bits of broken spring flying around, which you don't want in anybody's eye. Next, take out the driver's seat cushion, and the plate underneath it. This exposes the fuel tank, but there's enough space inboard of that to drop through a loop of baler twine. (If you have a Land-Rover, it almost goes without saying that you should have yards of baler twine readily to hand.) Use about four feet, knotted securely into a loop. Engage the bottom end of the spring in its hole, then hook the top end with your dangling loop, and get an assistant standing by to haul up steadily, but really pretty hard, on the loop: stout gloves are recommended to prevent cutting the hands. This seems to be about the only reliable way to stretch the spring enough that you, underneath the vehicle, will then be able to steer the end over its upper locating hole. Your assistant above relaxes the mighty pull, and everything slips into place. Cut away the baler twine, because it's not coming out any other way.