View allAll Photos Tagged Quashed,
At Uppsala Castle. They point toward the Cathedral, as the 16th century kings needed to quash the power of the local bishops.
Video - youtu.be/oil54qIPgUc
Stob Coire nan Lochan
Last winter didn’t really seem to happen, I don’t seem to recall many snowy outings and winter mountaineering was limited to say the least… A brief cold snap at the start of that winter perhaps gave me false hope and I waited and waited on some nice snowy conditions to get out and about – then spring came and I was all over!!
Perhaps this is reason I have been trying to take advantage of any cold snaps this time around!! The same pattern started at the turn of winter and withy what happened last year I was perhaps thinking that every cold snap maybe the last of the winter!! Hence I have had the luck to enjoy quite a few snowy outing this season already, in fact some of the winter walking has been absolutely superb already – Garbh Bheinn on Skye being a highlight. This is also as close to mountaineering as I have got but with a decent dump of snow this week and temperatures plummeting I was hoping some of the snow pack may consolidate! The week before we had trudged half way up Beinn Chabhair before turning back as the storm closed in. The snow was unconsolidated and relatively deep and wet – something a freeze may help!!! So a few days later I met Gerry at our usual rendezvous point and we headed up the A82 towards Glencoe.
The drive up was glorious, white mountains and a clear sky promising a grand day…. We had considered curved ridge but the busy car park and thoughts of queuing made our minds up to go and have a look further down the glen… Any thought of finding a quiet spot were (understandably) quashed! All the car parks were full and we just go a space in the upper car park as we headed for Stob Coire nan Lochan (SCNL). The pink of dawn was now replaced by blue skies and as we head up the sunlight lit up the top of SCNL and across the glen the Aonach Eagach ridge was slowly lighting up as the sun rippled across its serrated top and started to make progress towards the floor of the Glen
The path was busy and soon we were donning our crampons and getting the axe out for the final pull into the corrie. It was looking superb!!A line of teams were heading up Broad Gully and a few teams could be seen on the harder buttress routes. We had discussed an amble up NC gully so headed over to have a look at it….. The snow was deep and the trench we were following indicated that there was about a foot of snow either side. Assessing the situation we soon discovered the snow t be of poor quality for a steepening gully. Most of it seemed to have fallen at once and although it at first seemed fine when we were following footprints, as soon as we left them it became apparent its wasn’t yet consolidated enough… certainly not for an ascent of NC…. So we stopped had a bite to eat and saw some footprints heading up to the west of Pinnacle Buttress to a steepening scoop. This was going to be our route to the rim of the corrie. Usually we’d have diverted to broad gully but decided on this route as neither of us had come up this way before. Unnamed but felt like a nice Grade 1 and in the upper reaches it was a grand adventure. Topping out and the white topped peaks to the west came into view. Always great to top out to a cracking view…. The weather was great and time was on our side so we took a leisurely stroll to the summit of SCNL and had another bite to eat along with many others. The views were superb as always. Iven the traffic on Broad Gully, we decided against descending the gully but took a nice walk back along the corrie rim and back down to the car. It was great to meet so many people up on the mountain today, having long chat with many… great to be able to do this without having to shout over the wind!!!
Another grand day out – much fun
The Hoober Stand is a 30-metre-high (98 ft) tower and Grade II* listed building on a ridge in Wentworth, South Yorkshire in northern England. It was designed by Henry Flitcroft for the Whig aristocrat Thomas Watson-Wentworth, Earl of Malton (later the 1st Marquess of Rockingham) to commemorate the quashing of the 1745 Jacobite rebellion. It lies close to his country seat Wentworth Woodhouse. Its site is approximately 157 metres (515 ft) above sea level and from the top there are long-distance views on a clear day. Hoober Stand is one of several follies in and around Wentworth Woodhouse park; the others include Needle's Eye and Keppel's Column.
Thomas Watson-Wentworth (the Earl of Malton and Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire) fought for the British Government against the 1745 Jacobite rising. When the rebellion was crushed, George II elevated the earl to the 1st Marquess of Rockingham (the title Earl of Malton passed to his only surviving son). Watson-Wentworth commissioned architect Henry Flitcroft to design a commemorative monument.
The tower, an equilateral triangle with rounded corners in section and about 30 metres tall, is built in ashlar sandstone. Its three walls are perpendicular to the ground for 4.5 metres (15 ft) then taper to a hexagonal cupola surrounded by a triangular viewing platform reached by an internal helical stairway of 150 steps. It is believed that the three walls under the cupola represented England (including Wales), Scotland and Ireland all under one crown. The exterior is very plain but the interior is more decorative. At the top of the tower is the hexagonal cupola with a domed roof. It is surrounded by a triangular iron-railed viewing platform.
The Pond - You can see the hotel The Plaza in the background.
Der Teich - Im Hintergrund sieht man das Hotel The Plaza.
The Plaza Hotel is a landmark 20-story luxury hotel and condominium apartment building in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan, New York City. It opened in 1907 and is now owned by Katara Hospitality.
With a height of 250 ft (76 m) and a length of 400 ft (120 m), the hotel occupies the west side of Grand Army Plaza, from which it derives its name, and extends along Central Park South in Manhattan. Fifth Avenue extends along the east side of Grand Army Plaza. The Plaza Hotel is recognized as a Historic Hotel of America by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The hotel's main entrance at 768 Fifth Avenue faces the southern portion of Grand Army Plaza, which commemorates the Union Army in the Civil War, whence its eponymous predecessor derived its name.
Construction on the first Plaza Hotel at this location began in 1883, on the site of the New York Skating Club. The builders ran out of money, and the New York Life Insurance Company foreclosed and hired the most-celebrated architects of the era, McKim, Mead & White, to complete the hotel, which finally opened on October 1, 1890.
It soon became apparent that the first hotel was far too small, and it was demolished in 1905. A new and larger Plaza Hotel, a French Renaissance château-style building designed by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, was constructed in twenty-seven months at a cost of $12.5 million, opening to the public on October 1, 1907. When the hotel opened, a room at the Plaza Hotel was only $2.50 per night, the equivalent of $65.66 in 2017. The same room cost over $1,000 per night in 2001. The hotel proved so popular that a huge 300-room annex was added to the hotel along 58th Street from 1920-1921.
Conrad Hilton bought the Plaza Hotel for $7.4 million in October 1943 (equivalent to $105 million in 2017) and spent $6 million (equivalent to $84.9 million in 2017) refurbishing it. Hilton sold the hotel ten years later, in 1953, to Boston industrialist A.M. "Sonny" Sonnabend for $16 million. Hilton sold the Plaza to raise funds for construction of the Beverly Hilton, but immediately leased the Plaza back for two and a half years, and then another four when that lease expired. Sonnabend became president of The Childs Company, a national restaurant chain, two years later, and Childs purchased The Plaza on November 18, 1955 for $6.2 million in stock (equivalent to $57.8 million in 2017). Childs had partnered in the development of the neighboring Savoy-Plaza Hotel, (now the site of the General Motors Building). Sonnabend created the Hotel Corporation of America (HCA) in 1956, to leverage tax losses from Childs. HCA assumed management of the Plaza from Hilton in January 1960. HCA changed its name to Sonesta International Hotels in 1970. Sonesta sold the Plaza to Western International Hotels in 1975 for $25 million (equivalent to $114 million in 2017). Western International changed its name to Westin Hotels in 1980.
Westin sold The Plaza to Donald Trump for $390 million on March 27, 1988 (equivalent to $807 million in 2017). Trump commented on his purchase in a full-page open letter in The New York Times: "I haven't purchased a building, I have purchased a masterpiece – the Mona Lisa. For the first time in my life, I have knowingly made a deal that was not economic – for I can never justify the price I paid, no matter how successful the Plaza becomes." Trump installed his wife, Ivana Trump, as the hotel's president. After $50 million in renovations, the hotel was earning a healthy operating income, but not enough to make the payments on its heavy debt load. Trump made plans to pay off the hotel's debt by selling off many of its units as condominiums. A deal was instead reached for the Plaza's creditors, a group of banks led by Citibank, to take a 49 percent stake in the hotel in exchange for forgiveness of $250 million in debt and an interest rate reduction. The agreement was submitted as a prepackaged bankruptcy in November 1992.
In 1995, CDL Hotels International and Saudi prince Al-Waleed bin Talal purchased a controlling stake in the Plaza in a deal that valued it at $325 million (equivalent to $522 million in 2017).
The hotel was sold in 2004 for $675 million (equivalent to $875 million in 2017) to Israeli-owned Manhattan-based developer, El Ad Properties. El Ad bought the hotel with plans of adding residential and commercial sections. Since the Plaza Hotel is a New York landmark, Tishman Construction Corporation, the construction management company hired to complete the renovations and conversions, had to comply with landmark regulations. El Ad temporarily closed the Plaza Hotel on April 30, 2005, for extensive renovations costing $450 million. Beginning May 2005, the Plaza Hotel's contents were available to the public via a liquidation sale.
The hotel reopened on March 1, 2008, offering 282 hotel rooms and 152 private condominium units; it is managed by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts. Diamond retailer Lev Leviev put in the first bid for a Plaza apartment at $10 million. Most of the condominium units are usually empty, used as pieds-à-terre by their wealthy owners.
In November 2008, the Plaza Hotel unveiled its retail collection, an underground mall featuring luxury brands such as Vertu and Demel Bakery (closed as of March 2010), an Austrian-owned business. In 2010, the Plaza Food Hall opened in the underground mall, anchored by The Todd English Food Hall in collaboration with Chef Todd English.
On July 31, 2012, India's business group Sahara India Pariwar agreed to buy a 75 percent controlling stake for $570 million from El Ad Properties.[27] The stake included 100 of the Plaza's 150 hotel-condominium units and a retail portion that included the Oak Room bar.
In August 2014, Sahara's Subrata Roy announced he was seeking a buyer for his company's majority stake in the Plaza, along with similar stakes in the Dream Hotel in New York and the Grosvenor House Hotel in London. A $4 billion price tag was placed on the Plaza stake. Speculation that Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei would be the buyer was quashed by the sultan.
In 2016, Saudi businessman Al-Waleed bin Talal, who already controlled a 50 percent stake in the building's hotel, restaurant, and retail portion through his Kingdom Holding Company, partnered with the Qatar Investment Authority to purchase the hotel, but the deal fell through. He partnered again in 2017 with Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation in another attempt to purchase control of the structure. In May 2018, the Sahara Group announced it had finalized a deal with Shahal M. Khan, founder of Dubai-based White City Ventures, and Kamran Hakim of the Hakim Organization to buy a majority share of the hotel for $600 million. That deal was expected to close on June 25, 2018.
The Plaza Hotel was accorded landmark status by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1969; it was designated a National Historic Landmark (NHL) in 1986 for its lavish architecture.
Long the site for famous performers and guests, it has also been the meeting place for important political meetings. The internationally known singers Josephine Baker, Eartha Kitt, Liza Minnelli, Marlene Dietrich, Lena Horne, Kay Thompson, Sandler and Young, Ethel Merman, Shirley Bassey, Andy Williams, The Mills Brothers, Patti Page and Peggy Lee played the Persian Room. Miles Davis recorded a live album in the Persian Room in 1958.
Unaccompanied ladies were not permitted in the Oak Room bar; women favored the Palm Court for luncheons and tea.
In September 1985, ministers of developed countries met at the Plaza Hotel to consult on finance issues and affirmed their agreement by signing the Plaza Accord. It served as an agreement among the finance ministers of the United States, Japan, West Germany, France, and Britain to bring down the price of the U.S. dollar against their currencies.
The Beatles stayed at the Plaza Hotel during their first visit to the United States in February 1964.
On November 28, 1966, in honor of the publisher Katharine Graham, the writer Truman Capote hosted his acclaimed "Black and White Ball" in the Grand Ballroom. The ballroom was also the site, in 1993, of Donald Trump's wedding to Marla Maples in front of 1,500 guests.
(Wikipedia)
The Plaza ist ein weltweit bekanntes New Yorker Luxushotel. Das am 1. Oktober 1907 eröffnete Hotel ist ein Wahrzeichen der Stadt und ebenso für seine im Stil der französischen Renaissance gehaltene Fassade und Innenausstattung sowie für seine illustren Gäste berühmt.
Das Plaza-Hotel repräsentiert ein Stück Zeitgeschichte der Stadt: mit der wachsenden Bedeutung New Yorks als Weltstadt ging eine erhöhte Bedeutung für den Geschäftsverkehr einher – der Tourismus spielte damals noch keine so große Rolle. Und wenn Geschäftspartner in New York absteigen wollten, dann musste für die Betuchteren auch ein entsprechendes Hotel zur Verfügung stehen. Zwei Namen spielten hier vor allem eine Rolle: The Waldorf-Astoria und The Plaza.
Gestaltet wurde das Bauwerk von Henry J. Hardenbergh. An der Stelle des heutigen Hotels stand bereits ab 1890 ein The Plaza, das aber 1905 abgerissen wurde, um Platz für das heutige Gebäude zu schaffen. $ 12,5 Mio. kostete der Neubau und wurde damals zum besten Hotel der Welt erklärt. Das Hotel mit seinen 800 Zimmern auf 19 Stockwerken liegt in Manhattan an der Kreuzung zwischen Fifth Avenue und East 59th, an der Grand Army Plaza, die Namensgeberin für das Hotel war, in der Upper East Side. Die exponierte Lage direkt an der südöstlichen Ecke des Central Parks machte das Hotel – wie auch das ehemalige Hotel St. Moritz, heute The Ritz New York – so exklusiv. Der Broadway am südwestlichen Ende des Central Parks ist 800 m entfernt.
1986 wurde das Plaza als „herausragendes Beispiel US-amerikanischer Hotel-Architektur“ zum National Historic Landmark der Vereinigten Staaten erklärt. Architekturkritiker haben das Plaza jedoch auch nicht rein positiv als „französisches Renaissanceschloss von riesigen Ausmaßen“ charakterisiert.
Regelmäßige Gäste waren unter anderem Mitglieder der Familien Vanderbilt, Gould und Harriman sowie Ernest Hemingway. Bekannt ist es auch für seine öffentlichen zugänglichen Bars und Restaurants, insbesondere die exklusive Oak Bar.
Im Herbst 2004 wurde das Hotel erneut versteigert. $ 675 Mio. hat der israelische Immobilienfonds Elad Properties ausgegeben, weitere 350 Mio. sollten in die Renovierung gesteckt werden. Im Jahr 2005 sollte das gesamte Hotel zu einem Appartement-Haus umgewandelt werden. Erst nach lautstarken Protesten der New Yorker Bevölkerung wurde dieser Plan geändert. Es wurden ‚nur’ die 450 Zimmer mit Blick auf den Central Park und die 5th Avenue in 150 Eigentumswohnungen umgewandelt. Die übrigen 348 der insgesamt 805 Hotelzimmer mit dem weniger attraktiven Blick auf die 58. Straße blieben, was sie waren.
Das Plaza-Hotel wurde renoviert und umgebaut. Im März 2008 wurde es als Kombination aus Eigentumswohnungen und Hotelkomplex wieder eröffnet. Das Haus gehört zu den Fairmont Hotels and Resorts. Entsprechend der Lage und Historie des Hauses sind die Preise der Appartements in den oberen Bereichen angesiedelt.
Alfred Hitchcock drehte hier Teile seines Films Der unsichtbare Dritte. Auch die Komödie Kevin – Allein in New York spielt zum Teil im Plaza – der damalige Besitzer des Hotels, Donald Trump (er hatte es 1988 erworben), hatte einen Cameo-Auftritt als Hotelgast. 1958 feierte hier das Plattenlabel Columbia Records eine Party mit Auftritten der Jazz-Stars Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Bill Evans, John Coltrane und Miles Davis; die Mitschnitte erschienen 1973 (Jazz at the Plaza, Vol. 1).
Im September 1985 einigten sich Vertreter der G5-Staaten (USA, Japan, die Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Frankreich und Großbritannien) im Plaza im so genannten Plaza-Abkommen darauf, auf eine Abwertung des US-Dollars gegenüber dem Yen und der Deutschen Mark hinzuarbeiten.
(Wikipedia)
Ackworth is a village and civil parish in the metropolitan borough of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It stands between Pontefract, Barnsley and Doncaster on the River Went. It has four parts: High Ackworth, Low Ackworth, Ackworth Moor Top, and Brackenhill. The 2001 census gave it a population of 6,493, which rose to 7,049 at the 2011 census. There is also a city ward called Ackworth, North Elmsall and Upton, with a 2011 census population of 16,099.
The name of the village may derive from one of two sources. The first is from the Anglo-Saxon words ake or aken, meaning oak, and uurt, equivalent to "worth", meaning an enclosure or homestead. The other possibility is from the Anglo-Saxon name Acca, to make Acca's worth or Acca's enclosure. Several place names in the area show that the Anglo-Saxons had influence. Words such as "worth" and also "tun", meaning an enclosure or farmstead, are found in local names such as Badsworth, Hemsworth and Wentworth, and Fryston and Allerton. The name Ackworth was first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Aceuurde and is thought it have been formalised as 'Ackworth' in the 1800s
The area around Ackworth may have been settled about 500–600 by settlers from modern-day Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands after the departure of the Romans from Britain. The Romans were active around Ackworth, the nearby town of Castleford being the location of Lagentium, a Roman fort. The A639 Roman road to York also runs close by; a Roman milestone was found near its junction with Sandy Gate Lane on the parish boundary with Pontefract. In terms of Christianity, the first church may have appeared in Ackworth between 750 and 800, a well-established tradition being that the monks of Lindisfarne, escaping the Norse invasion, stopped there about 875, bringing with them the body of Saint Cuthbert. Evidence of Norse settlement can also be found locally in place names such as Thorpe Audlin and Grimethorpe, with the Norse term thorpe meaning a small settlement or a farm.
The earliest mention of the village appears in the 1086 Domesday Book: "Manor in Ackworth. Erdulf & Osulf have six carucates of land to be taxed, where there might be five ploughs. Humphry now holds it of Ilbert. [Humphry] himself has there one plough and a half, and fourteen villains, and two boors. There is a Church there, and priest; one mill, of sixteen pence. Value in King Edward's time four pounds, now three pounds. Domesday Book 107. Land of Ilbert de Lacy" According to Domesday, Ilbert de Lacy was Lord of a manor able to employ five ploughs. His vassal was the Humphrey mentioned in the book, who himself owned one-and-a-half ploughs (about a quarter of the manor). The rest was divided between two farmers as Humphry's tenants. De Lacy was a Norman knight, who received land for services to William the Conqueror and built the first earth and timber motte and bailey castle in nearby Pontefract. Domesday suggests Ackworth was small – 14 villagers and two smallholders – but as only heads of families were counted, a likelier population would have been 30–40
Estate accounts for 1296 showed that Ackworth had developed by then. The Lord had 240 bondsmen working for him and the value of the mill had risen. Adam de Castleford had to pay 10 shillings (£0.5) rent for his land. His wife Isabella founded a Chapel of Our Lady in Ackworth Church in 1333. In 1341 the Inquisitiones Nonarum stated that the only inhabitants of Ackworth were working in agriculture. It has been speculated that the central village cross was erected by the Isabella de Castleford, who built the chapel in the church, which may date it around 1340. The cross itself was listed a grade II building in 1968, with a description as "late medieval", constructed as a "medieval shaft with a Tudor ball on top" and "prominently sited near junction with Pontefract road".
One reason given for erecting the cross was as a memorial to plague victims, possibly of the Black Death of 1349, which would have killed many. The Black Death reached Southern England in 1348 and by 1350 had killed a third of England's population. In nearby Pontefract it was estimated that 40 per cent of the population died. A reminder of how communities communicated and traded despite the plague remains in the Ackworth plague stone, although it is thought that it dates from a further plague outbreak in 1705. Standing at the junction of Sandy Gate Lane on the road into Pontefract, the stone too is a Grade II listed monument. Plague stones were "receptacles for sterilising coins in vinegar, normally at or close to parish boundaries." This suggests that the current location of the plague stone was the outer rim of the parish. The plague in 1645 was said to have killed 153, the bodies being buried in a "burial field... crossed by the footpath from Ackworth to Hundhill." The area had possibly been used for mass burial after a skirmish earlier in the year between Roundhead and Royalist forces during the English Civil War. The bubonic plague of 1645 was not confined to Ackworth: in Leeds over 1,300 people died, and a further 245 were thought to have died "in and around the Wakefield area". One theory was that it had been brought in by civil-war soldiers. Another version was retold by Henry Thompson in A History of Ackworth School in its first 100 years. A well-loved monk went to Rome and became "smitten by the plague and died". The monk, from the priory at Nostell would preach at the medieval cross in the centre of the village and was described as a "noble soul with a kindly heart", admired by young and old alike. After succumbing to the plague in Rome, his body was returned and passed through Ackworth, where "nothing could satisfy the ignorant but faithful love of the old hearers" and the coffin was opened. The village was then stricken with plague and the stone on Castle Syke Hill became "for many months the only contact between them and the outside world". The book relates how "upon that stone the Ackworth purchaser dropped his money into a vessel of water, for which, a few hours afterwards, he found his return in merchandise." Of this the author comments, "We make no idle comment.... We tell the tale as it was told to us.
he area round Ackworth saw several important battles, such as the 1460 Battle of Wakefield and the 1461 Battle of Towton during the Wars of the Roses. In 1489, four years after the War of the Roses ended, the new King Henry Tudor levied a tax that sparked an uprising in parts of Yorkshire. Thomas Howard, the Earl of Surrey, was sent to quash this after the Earl of Northumberland had been killed by the rebels. Howard subdued it and hanged the leaders in York. In 1492 a further uprising occurred in Ackworth, of which little is known except that Howard again subdued the insurgents. An earlier link could be made with the Battle of Winwaed in 655 between Penda of Mercia and Oswiu of Northumbria, King of Berenicia. This was mentioned by Bede, but the location of the battle is unknown. Options include Oswestry in Shropshire, Winwick in Lancashire, Whinmoor, north-east of Leeds, and between Wentbridge and Ackworth, where the A639, once a Roman road, crosses the River Went. The battle was pivotal, as Penda had been a powerful pagan king and the victory of the Christian Oswiu could be seen as effectively ending Anglo-Saxon paganism.
The area around Ackworth was a hotbed for dissent against the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII. A revolt led by Robert Aske, styled the Pilgrimage of Grace, was thought to have marched through Ackworth on its way to capture Pontefract Castle in 1536. The rebels were eventually defeated by an army sent by Henry, and its leaders hanged at Tyburn, including Sir Nicholas Tempest of Ackworth. The nearby Priory of St Oswald at Nostell was dissolved in 1540 and the land bought by Rowland Winn. During the English Civil War, the Ackworth area was strongly Royalist, with four divisions of volunteers raised from Pontefract and surrounding villages to garrison the castle. In 1645, Ackworth was occupied by Roundhead soldiers, who damaged the church and replaced the cross on top of the medieval cross in the centre of the village with the ball shape that still sits there.
A hoard of 52 gold coins, 539 silver coins, and a gold posy ring was found in a garden in Ackworth in April 2011. Thought to date from the Civil War period, it was declared treasure and was later acquired by Pontefract Museum.
Ackworth war memorial, opened in 1999, recalls the soldiers from Ackworth who died in the two world wars: 80 soldiers and 40 respectively.
Floozie in the Jacuzzi (officially called The River) an artwork in Victoria Square in the city centre of Birmingham, West Midlands.
Victoria Square was once one of the busiest interchanges in Birmingham. By the mid-1900s, plans were drawn up for the remodelling of Victoria Square in a bid to open up Colmore Row to more cars, but those plans were subsequently quashed. By the 1990s, a completely different set of plans were put in place. An international design competition was held for a central water feature in the square, which was won by Dhruva Mistry. Construction commenced in 1992 and was completed in 1994, when the square was officially reopened by Diana, Princess of Wales.
Further work and renovations were carried out over the next few years, including the installation of a multi-coloured lighting system. Repairs were frequently required, and in 2013 the fountain had to be switched off after a major leak was identified. The fountain later filled with soil and plants and remains so since.
Information Source:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_River_(artwork)
The city of Montreal had a 65 year ban on street food. Street food trucks were seen as a threat to hygiene and the scourge of public order. Yes, that hot dog and poutine vendor on the corner was a secret admirer of Mikhail Bakunin, the (in)famous Russian revolutionary anarchist. Sounds more like the public order was pressure from established restaurants to quash this form of culinary chaos.
Video - youtu.be/oil54qIPgUc
Stob Coire nan Lochan
Last winter didn’t really seem to happen, I don’t seem to recall many snowy outings and winter mountaineering was limited to say the least… A brief cold snap at the start of that winter perhaps gave me false hope and I waited and waited on some nice snowy conditions to get out and about – then spring came and I was all over!!
Perhaps this is reason I have been trying to take advantage of any cold snaps this time around!! The same pattern started at the turn of winter and withy what happened last year I was perhaps thinking that every cold snap maybe the last of the winter!! Hence I have had the luck to enjoy quite a few snowy outing this season already, in fact some of the winter walking has been absolutely superb already – Garbh Bheinn on Skye being a highlight. This is also as close to mountaineering as I have got but with a decent dump of snow this week and temperatures plummeting I was hoping some of the snow pack may consolidate! The week before we had trudged half way up Beinn Chabhair before turning back as the storm closed in. The snow was unconsolidated and relatively deep and wet – something a freeze may help!!! So a few days later I met Gerry at our usual rendezvous point and we headed up the A82 towards Glencoe.
The drive up was glorious, white mountains and a clear sky promising a grand day…. We had considered curved ridge but the busy car park and thoughts of queuing made our minds up to go and have a look further down the glen… Any thought of finding a quiet spot were (understandably) quashed! All the car parks were full and we just go a space in the upper car park as we headed for Stob Coire nan Lochan (SCNL). The pink of dawn was now replaced by blue skies and as we head up the sunlight lit up the top of SCNL and across the glen the Aonach Eagach ridge was slowly lighting up as the sun rippled across its serrated top and started to make progress towards the floor of the Glen
The path was busy and soon we were donning our crampons and getting the axe out for the final pull into the corrie. It was looking superb!!A line of teams were heading up Broad Gully and a few teams could be seen on the harder buttress routes. We had discussed an amble up NC gully so headed over to have a look at it….. The snow was deep and the trench we were following indicated that there was about a foot of snow either side. Assessing the situation we soon discovered the snow t be of poor quality for a steepening gully. Most of it seemed to have fallen at once and although it at first seemed fine when we were following footprints, as soon as we left them it became apparent its wasn’t yet consolidated enough… certainly not for an ascent of NC…. So we stopped had a bite to eat and saw some footprints heading up to the west of Pinnacle Buttress to a steepening scoop. This was going to be our route to the rim of the corrie. Usually we’d have diverted to broad gully but decided on this route as neither of us had come up this way before. Unnamed but felt like a nice Grade 1 and in the upper reaches it was a grand adventure. Topping out and the white topped peaks to the west came into view. Always great to top out to a cracking view…. The weather was great and time was on our side so we took a leisurely stroll to the summit of SCNL and had another bite to eat along with many others. The views were superb as always. Iven the traffic on Broad Gully, we decided against descending the gully but took a nice walk back along the corrie rim and back down to the car. It was great to meet so many people up on the mountain today, having long chat with many… great to be able to do this without having to shout over the wind!!!
Another grand day out – much fun
Early Life
Jane Foster's mother died of cancer when she was nine years old. Following this tragedy, her father, a plumber, worked two jobs in order for her to go through medical school, exhausting himself.
Nevertheless, he managed to give Jane a good childhood, never missing a softball game, forgetting a birthday or failing to encourage her in any thing she could set her mind to. However, Jane's father later died from complications from a heart attack.
Meeting Thor
She became a nurse hired by Dr. Donald Blake to assist him in his private medical practice.
Actually, the crippled Dr. Donald Blake was the human identity used for many years by the Asgardian god, Thor. Jane and Blake traveled to San Diablo during a civil war between a communist faction and a democratic faction.
Because of the fighting, there was a shortage of medical help in San Diablo, and several American doctors interceded.
They battled the Executioner who tried to destroy the medical supplies. Thor was able to stop him and they helped the people of San Diablo.
Blake fell deeply in love with Foster, who was unaware of his dual-identity. She was infatuated with Thor, whom she had not yet met in his godly identity, but took a protective attitude toward him, worrying about his health and frailty.
She would regularly gush over Thor's exploits, much to Blake's annoyance, causing him to wonder if Jane would ever love a normal man like him.
Loki, taking on the guise of an old man, entered Donald Blake's doctors office and hypnotized Jane and gave her secret commands.
He then entered Donald's office, and when Don reported for work, he found Loki waiting for him and changed into Thor. Loki challenged the Thunder God to a contest in Central Park, a challenge that Thor accepted before Loki left.
Changing back into Donald Blake he told Jane that he was leaving for the afternoon, unaware that Jane was about to enact Loki's hypnotic suggestions upon his departure.
At Central Park, as Thor battled Loki, he was unaware that Jane was still under Loki's thrall and wandering in the area. Loki then transformed a tree into a tiger which he set upon Jane, and turned the Thunder God's attention to Jane's situation.
Thor had two options: grab his returning hammer, Mjolnir, or save Jane. With no choice, Thor chose the latter, and after dealing with the mystical tiger, he reverted back into Blake.
When Blake attempted to recover his weapon, Loki put a magical force field around it, preventing Blake from changing back into Thor. With his enemy apparently defeated, Loki transformed into a bird and flew away, planning to conquer the Earth. Blake revived Jane and took her back home; meanwhile Loki used his magic to terrorize the people of New York City. Jane later witnessed Thor's return and the defeat of Loki.
Jane and Donald were kidnapped by Thug Thatcher, but Blake escaped and became Thor. Blake contemplated revealing his true identity as Thor to Jane in the hopes of winning her love. However, right when he was about to tell her, Odin contacted Thor telepathically and warned him against doing so.
One normal day as Jane left Dr. Blake's office for an errand, she passed a wounded jewel thief and his two partners. They entered Blake's office and demanded treatment. Distracting them, Blake tapped his cane and transformed into Thor.
Strapping the criminals to an operating table with surgical tape, he attached it to his magic hammer and "threw" the criminals to the police station. Dr. Blake prepared to use a rubber hammer on a patient's knee. As Jane assured the patient Dr. Blake was skilled with using a mallet, Blake thought to himself that she does not know the half of it.
Although Foster was strongly attracted to Dr. Blake, she left his medical practice and began working for a Doctor Bruce Andrews when Blake did not try and rescue her during the Lava Man's attack on the city. However, she later returned after the Cobra attacked and Bruce submitted to him and she felt he was a coward.
Don Blake was next approached by discredited scientist Calvin Zabo for a job. When Blake refused to hire him, Zabo began experimenting on himself, creating a serum that transformed him into a monstrous form. Calling himself Mister Hyde, Zabo sought to revenge against Blake.
Meanwhile, Thor continued to petition Odin to allow him to marry Jane Foster, to no avail. However Odin told Thor that should Jane prove herself to be brave, he would make her an immortal. When Mr. Hyde attacked Blake's office, Thor was there to stop him. In response, Hyde began committing robberies disguised as Thor.
Afterward, Blake decided to reveal his dual-identity to Foster, but his father, Odin, monarch of Asgard, appeared to him and forbade him to reveal this secret to any mortal. Even though Odin tried for a long time to quash the romance between the two, he ordered her life to be saved when she lay dying after an explosion caused by a battle between Thor and Mister Hyde and Cobra.
Foster truly loved Blake, and one day she told him angrily that she would not wait forever for him to declare his love to her. Thor intended to marry Foster, but then Odin forbade him to marry her on the grounds that she was a mortal, not a goddess.
Thor later asked Odin to reconsider the issue, and Odin relented, saying that Thor could marry her if she proved herself worthy. The superhuman criminal Mister Hyde, seeking vengeance against Blake, captured both him and Foster, and made Blake a prisoner in a room with a bomb.
Blake escaped and, as Thor, battled Hyde; but Foster, fearing that only Hyde could save Blake's life by deactivating the bomb, helped Hyde to escape. Outraged by this seeming betrayal against his son, Odin rejected Thor's petition to marry Foster.
Foster was menaced repeatedly by enemies of Thor who either knew he was Blake, or knew there was some connection between Thor and Blake. Such assailants included Hyde and his partner, the Cobra; his bitter foster-brother Loki; and the Enchantress and her partner, the original Executioner; as well as the journalist Harris Hobbs. As Thor rescued her from these many perils over time, Foster fell deeply in love with him.
Chance at Asgard
Finally, Thor defied Odin and revealed his dual-identity to Foster. Foster left America and took a position with a man who proved to be the High Evolutionary. Thor followed her to the High Evolutionary's citadel at Wundagore Mountain, where they were reunited.
Again petitioning Odin to let him marry Foster, Thor brought her to Asgard itself, a place forbidden to mortals. Odin agreed to let them marry if Foster proved herself capable of functioning as an Asgardian goddess.
Odin then physically transformed Foster into an Asgardian, granting her superhuman powers. As Odin must have expected, Foster was confused and bewildered by her new abilities and by Asgard itself. Declaring that Foster had failed his test, Odin turned her back into a mortal woman, sent her back to Earth, and removed her memories of her experiences with Thor. Odin sent Foster to work for the physician Dr. Keith Kincaid, and the two soon fell in love with each other.
Merged with Sif
As for Thor, Odin saw to it that he was reunited the Asgardian goddess Sif, whom he had loved in the past, and their romance was quickly rekindled.
Years later, Foster fell ill and, lying close to death, called out to Thor in her delirium. Sif stole the enchanted Runestaff of Kamo Tharnn, the Elder of the Universe known as the Possessor, and used it to infuse her own life-force into Foster, thereby saving her life. Sif vanished, and Foster recovered, also regaining full possession of her lost memories of Thor.
The love between Thor and Foster revived, but soon she was captured by trolls under the leadership of Thor's enemy Ulik. To Thor's surprise, Foster succeeded in capturing the troll king, Geirrodur, with his own spear; Thor himself defeated Ulik.
Thereafter, Foster insisted on accompanying Thor on various exploits, traveling with him to the dimension of the gods of Heliopolis, to the alternate future Earth ruled by the Tomorrow Man, and to the war-torn nation of Costa Verde. Thor attributed Foster's new liking for adventure and fighting spirit to the presence of Sif's spirit within her, although it is possible that Foster's personality had simply evolved this way on its own.
After some time, Foster finally insisted on accompanying Thor to Asgard. There, the Asgardian Grand Vizier presented her with Sif's sword and when she struck it against a wall, she was seemingly transformed into Sif. The Vizier theorized that Foster and Sif had become one being, and that Sif would be dominant in Asgard, and Foster on Earth. Yet when Sif returned to Earth many months later, she did not transform into Foster.
Eventually, Dr. Kincaid launched an investigation into the whereabouts of Foster, whom he had not seen since her hospitalization. Thor revealed his dual-identity to Kincaid and explained what had happened to Foster.
Thor and Sif took Kincaid with them on a journey to the world of Kamo Tharnn. It turned out that when Sif infused Foster with her life-force, Sif's own spirit and body had actually passed through the Runestaff and into another dimension. When Sif reappeared in Asgard, Foster took her place in the other dimension entered through the Runestaff.
But when Kamo Tharnn somehow absorbed the denizens of the latter world into his own body, Sif and Thor used the Runestaff to release the beings trapped within the Possessor, including Foster. Thor and Sif brought Foster and Kincaid back to Earth, and Foster and Kincaid were married almost immediately afterward.
Civilian Life
Since then, Thor has saved Foster's life from the creature called the Zaniac. Foster has given birth to her first child, a boy named Jimmy but their marriage collapsed soon after mostly because Keith focused on his work rather than his family. The world at large remains unaware of Foster's past relationship with Thor, although a few enterprising individuals have learned of their connection.
Jane eventually became a doctor, and was taken on as the resident doctor to the Avengers, and worked alongside Thor in New York when the Odinson was secretly using the body of EMT Jake Olson. She also became a consulting physician for Tony Stark. During the Civil War, she opposed the Registration Act and joined the Secret Avengers, treating many of the members.
Some time later, she was visited by the Warriors Three to be informed about Thor's death after his battle against the Serpent.
Return
After hearing rumors of the return of Dr. Donald Blake and Thor, Jane divorced her husband and subsequently lost custody of their child. Blake visited Jane at her work in a New York City hospital in search of Lady Sif, whose spirit Blake mistakenly thought had been reborn in Jane since their spirits had been merged once before.
Jane and Blake go on a date after an initially turbulent reuniting. Jane discovered that Sif's spirit had actually been reborn in the body of a dying elderly cancer patient that was under her care. She alerted Blake and Thor who managed to restore Sif just before the patient died. Jane then traveled to Broxton, Oklahoma, the site of the resurrected City of Asgard, and opened a medical practice with Blake.
⚡ Happy 🎯 Heroclix 💫 Friday! 👽
_____________________________
A year of the shows and performers of the Bijou Planks Theater.
Secret Identity: N/A
Publisher: Marvel Comics
First appearance: Journey into Mystery #84 (September 1962)
Created by: Stan Lee (Writer)
Larry Lieber (Writer)
Jack Kirby (Artist)
The Central Military Commission War Room. 1600 hrs. Western Beijing.
(Translated from Mandarin Chinese)
(The General Secretary of the Central Military Commission, Ye Kecheng) I think it’s time to consider the fact that the US has lost control of Iran. Without further assistance in the form of manpower, Iran and Russia will be able to easily overcome any remaining US forces. In the name of peacekeeping, I feel that we need to intervene.
(Vice Secretary of the CMC, Yang Biao) I understand your concerns, Mr Secretary. The conflict there could easily spread to the surrounding countries. And we already know how what war there is like.
Of course, we cannot forget about the danger zone in NorthWest Africa. The Spanish and the Algerians at each others necks over that spy being murdered, and the conflict in Morocco...
Thank you, Vice Secretary. I can see that quite clearly on the map.
Apologies, sir.
So, what are you going to do? We are allied with both-
-both Russia and the US, yes. The US has asked us to intervene in this conflict, on their behalf: their forces are being beaten back by the almost constant Russian and Iranian assaults. To declare war on Iran would be tantamount to declaring war on Russia. We cannot do that.
What we shall do is send peacekeeping units to Iran. At this point in the conflict, they will only be there as peacekeepers; only defend. We may or may not send Special Forces in to help with offensive missions, but for now our primary objective is only. To. Defend. If the US wants to regain lost ground, then that is their fight.
In order to achieve peaceful levels in Iran, the rebellion must be quashed. If we do this aggressively, then Russia may consequently declare war on us. If we do nothing, then the US may cut all ties with us, and we may lose one of our biggest importers.
This is the only viable option at this time, Yang. I can't say I like it, but there isn't a whole lot that we can do.
Algeria and Morroco will have to wait. Who knows? Maybe the whole thing will sort itself out. All we can do now is wait.
---------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------
Awww yisss. China's coming into play.
For Modern Conflict.
Also; that map is so bloody blue.
ROG 47812 opens up past Saltley Viaduct with the next TransPennine Express Mk5 set, 5Q32 Portbury Docks - Longsight.
I had hoped for a pair of 37s, but that was quashed when 812 ran down to Portbury light engine the day before.
I’d also had high hopes for some clag as it left Landor St Jn, and this didn’t fail to disappoint! A 47 doing what it does best, other than failing! ;-)
Military jets spray toxic chemicals that white-out the sun 24/7.
.
The goal is to shield the earth from fake global-warming.
The results are:
(1) unnatural diseases in humans and other species;
(2) air pollution;
(3) water pollution;
(4) decrease in food crop yield due to less sunshine;
(5) death of billions of people as food becomes more scarce.
The scientists who invented this crime against humanity admitted decades ago that it will cause the death of "millions" but they were lying because it will murder Billions.
The global elitists like evil sinister Bill Gates want to thin the population down to no more than a couple of millions total global population (TGP).
These evil sinister globalists believe they are anointed to rule over everyone else because they lucked into billions of dollars (and then are using it to destroy the planet and mankind).
The Covid crisis is a plot planned decades ago and enacted for political advantage to quash the people's choice to oppose this monsterous crime against humanity.
I coined a new term "ChemTrailsXflies" meaning chemtrail cross-flies or cross-fly overs bc the jets criss-cross flying over and over an area until the chemtrail merges with extant atmospheric moisture, forming fake toxic clouds.
These clouds can be staged to control weather patterns, a technique that has been weaponized by the military.
However, the sinister bastards doing this are still at the mercy of actual atmospheric conditions which must be within a certain range of measurements to begin to form fake clouds which can also merge with real clouds and become super thunderheads.
Copyright © 2020 F.E. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2020 F.E. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.
IMG_20201215_085721.jpg
Church of St Matthew, Pentrich Derbyshire sited near a Saxon cross. However no church is mentioned in the 1086 Domesday Survey but by 1154 -9 a charter confirmed the gift of a church here to the canons of Darley Abbey about the time the tower was added. Of this 12c Norman church or one which shortly after replaced it, the 5 arcades separating the aisles from the nave, parts of the west wall and south aisle and lower part of the tower remain.
In the 14c the chancel and aisles were rebuilt using some old material, and the tower heightened later in the century.
c1430 a new pointed chancel arch was built, retaining the earlier capitals and piers and a clerestory was added. The tracery of the east window suggests a date of 1420–50.
The font's Norman bowl survives (not without danger) , it now stands on a pedestal dated 1662. A Mr Cox writing in 1879, said that it was removed from church for several centuries, during which time it was used for salting beef. When returned it was much restored , so much so Pevsner was undecided it was indeed Norman.
On the exterior of the south chancel wall, near the priest's doorway, is the remains of a scratch dial www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/769J19
There are 5 bells, two of which are ancient ; the others are dated 1715 and 1869
in 1859 it was plainly but carefully restored, with new pews and roofs, funded by lord of the manor & chief landowner , the Duke of Devonshire
The village gave its name to the Pentrich Rising which started on the night of 9/10 June 1817. While much of the planning took place here, two of the three ringleaders were from South Wingfield and the other from Sutton in Ashfield; the 'revolution' itself started from Hunt's Barn in South Wingfield, and the only person killed was a servant in Wingfield Park.
The lightly armed force armed with pikes, scythes and a few guns, which had been hidden in a quarry in Wingfield Park, marched towards Nottingham expecting to be part of a national uprising to overthrow the government - the main reasons being anger and despair at the lack of work, lack of food and the apparent indifference of the authorities.
A gathering of 200 - 300 men (stockingers, quarrymen and iron workers etc), were led by Jeremiah Brandreth, an unemployed stockinger, who is said to have been the victim of a spy in the pay of the Government, Plundering a few farmhouses on the way , they had a set of demands, including the wiping out of the National Debt !
The uprising was quashed soon after it began and a sign on the church wall says "The curate hid rebels here from the goverment troops." www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/aQ5CwM - Nearly 50 of the men were tried by 4 judges at Derby lasting 10 days. A few were pardoned, some were transported - Three men were hanged including Brandreth.
The poet Shelley wrote a pamphlet in 1817 entitled "Pity the plumage, but forget the dying bird" contrasting their fate and the public mourning at the time for the heir to the throne Princess Charlotte who had died in childbirth a day earlier.
Charles Lamb also joined in writing "The Three Graves" (1820)
www.genealogy-links.co.uk/html/depositions.l.html
blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/historypastandpresent/2018/11/26/n...
When West Russia began to research and develop the KAMAZ 5602 family of armored wheeled vehicles, Belgrade managed to send a small attachment of its own engineers to observe the process with the intention of creating a Yugoslav equivalent. After a couple of years across KAMAZ's various R&D sites, the engineers made it back home and immediately got to work on what would become the M-97 series of armored mobility platforms. Hence, the vehicle before you is as much a child of Yugoslavia as it is of West Russia. This combined parentage has been selected by Western intelligence agencies as a hallmark of the two Slavic countries warmly embracing each other; however, a great deal of evidence demonstrates that the relations between the two aforementioned states are lukewarm at best.
Regardless of ancestry or politically-charged backstory, the M-97 has proven itself to be a fairly reliable battle taxi despite its limited service. Originally, Belgrade had hoped to field at least 200 of these machines in many different configurations ranging from simple APC to wrecker to dedicated fire support vehicle and everything in between. Unfortunately, those aspirations were reneged upon after members of the Ministry of Finance demonstrated to the Ministry of Defense that the specialized chassis required far too much fiscal investment to be immediately viable, especially when funds had to be quickly put elsewhere to accommodate Yugoslavia's ambitions in the southern Balkans. Thus, the dream of having a fleet of resilient, mine-protected general purpose vehicles was quashed. For this reason, the M-97 has been mostly relegated to internal security duties rather than being pushed to units operating outside of Yugoslavia's internationally recognized frontiers. Indeed many of Yugoslavia's border guards extol the comfort and easy handling of the M-97, ergo inflating the desire of new recruits to serve closer to home rather than abroad. This might be a good thing considering a handful of extremely persistent ultranationalist terror cells lurk in the mountains, perpetrating heinous acts every now and again.
With a group from the 'London Transport Museum Friends' staying at Torquay's Grand Hotel Rail River Link were hired to transport them to Paignton & Totnes. The hopes of using their open top Bristol VR, VDV138S was sadly quashed with the day dawning dull & wet. Pictured outside the Grand Hotel as the rain starts to ease we see Volvo B7TL, Y827TGH, shortly before departure.
Company: Rail River Link of Dartmouth
Registration: Y827TGH
Fleet Number: 12
Name: George Jackson Churchward
New: 2001
Chassis: Volvo B7TL
Bodywork: Plaxton President H61D
Location: Grand Hotel, Hennapyn Road, Torquay
History: New to London General (PVL227)
Exposure: 1/125 @ 5.6 200ISO
Date: 13 September 2016
Ackworth is a village and civil parish in the metropolitan borough of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It stands between Pontefract, Barnsley and Doncaster on the River Went. It has four parts: High Ackworth, Low Ackworth, Ackworth Moor Top, and Brackenhill. The 2001 census gave it a population of 6,493, which rose to 7,049 at the 2011 census. There is also a city ward called Ackworth, North Elmsall and Upton, with a 2011 census population of 16,099.
The name of the village may derive from one of two sources. The first is from the Anglo-Saxon words ake or aken, meaning oak, and uurt, equivalent to "worth", meaning an enclosure or homestead. The other possibility is from the Anglo-Saxon name Acca, to make Acca's worth or Acca's enclosure. Several place names in the area show that the Anglo-Saxons had influence. Words such as "worth" and also "tun", meaning an enclosure or farmstead, are found in local names such as Badsworth, Hemsworth and Wentworth, and Fryston and Allerton. The name Ackworth was first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Aceuurde and is thought it have been formalised as 'Ackworth' in the 1800s
The area around Ackworth may have been settled about 500–600 by settlers from modern-day Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands after the departure of the Romans from Britain. The Romans were active around Ackworth, the nearby town of Castleford being the location of Lagentium, a Roman fort. The A639 Roman road to York also runs close by; a Roman milestone was found near its junction with Sandy Gate Lane on the parish boundary with Pontefract. In terms of Christianity, the first church may have appeared in Ackworth between 750 and 800, a well-established tradition being that the monks of Lindisfarne, escaping the Norse invasion, stopped there about 875, bringing with them the body of Saint Cuthbert. Evidence of Norse settlement can also be found locally in place names such as Thorpe Audlin and Grimethorpe, with the Norse term thorpe meaning a small settlement or a farm.
The earliest mention of the village appears in the 1086 Domesday Book: "Manor in Ackworth. Erdulf & Osulf have six carucates of land to be taxed, where there might be five ploughs. Humphry now holds it of Ilbert. [Humphry] himself has there one plough and a half, and fourteen villains, and two boors. There is a Church there, and priest; one mill, of sixteen pence. Value in King Edward's time four pounds, now three pounds. Domesday Book 107. Land of Ilbert de Lacy" According to Domesday, Ilbert de Lacy was Lord of a manor able to employ five ploughs. His vassal was the Humphrey mentioned in the book, who himself owned one-and-a-half ploughs (about a quarter of the manor). The rest was divided between two farmers as Humphry's tenants. De Lacy was a Norman knight, who received land for services to William the Conqueror and built the first earth and timber motte and bailey castle in nearby Pontefract. Domesday suggests Ackworth was small – 14 villagers and two smallholders – but as only heads of families were counted, a likelier population would have been 30–40
Estate accounts for 1296 showed that Ackworth had developed by then. The Lord had 240 bondsmen working for him and the value of the mill had risen. Adam de Castleford had to pay 10 shillings (£0.5) rent for his land. His wife Isabella founded a Chapel of Our Lady in Ackworth Church in 1333. In 1341 the Inquisitiones Nonarum stated that the only inhabitants of Ackworth were working in agriculture. It has been speculated that the central village cross was erected by the Isabella de Castleford, who built the chapel in the church, which may date it around 1340. The cross itself was listed a grade II building in 1968, with a description as "late medieval", constructed as a "medieval shaft with a Tudor ball on top" and "prominently sited near junction with Pontefract road".
One reason given for erecting the cross was as a memorial to plague victims, possibly of the Black Death of 1349, which would have killed many. The Black Death reached Southern England in 1348 and by 1350 had killed a third of England's population. In nearby Pontefract it was estimated that 40 per cent of the population died. A reminder of how communities communicated and traded despite the plague remains in the Ackworth plague stone, although it is thought that it dates from a further plague outbreak in 1705. Standing at the junction of Sandy Gate Lane on the road into Pontefract, the stone too is a Grade II listed monument. Plague stones were "receptacles for sterilising coins in vinegar, normally at or close to parish boundaries." This suggests that the current location of the plague stone was the outer rim of the parish. The plague in 1645 was said to have killed 153, the bodies being buried in a "burial field... crossed by the footpath from Ackworth to Hundhill." The area had possibly been used for mass burial after a skirmish earlier in the year between Roundhead and Royalist forces during the English Civil War. The bubonic plague of 1645 was not confined to Ackworth: in Leeds over 1,300 people died, and a further 245 were thought to have died "in and around the Wakefield area". One theory was that it had been brought in by civil-war soldiers. Another version was retold by Henry Thompson in A History of Ackworth School in its first 100 years. A well-loved monk went to Rome and became "smitten by the plague and died". The monk, from the priory at Nostell would preach at the medieval cross in the centre of the village and was described as a "noble soul with a kindly heart", admired by young and old alike. After succumbing to the plague in Rome, his body was returned and passed through Ackworth, where "nothing could satisfy the ignorant but faithful love of the old hearers" and the coffin was opened. The village was then stricken with plague and the stone on Castle Syke Hill became "for many months the only contact between them and the outside world". The book relates how "upon that stone the Ackworth purchaser dropped his money into a vessel of water, for which, a few hours afterwards, he found his return in merchandise." Of this the author comments, "We make no idle comment.... We tell the tale as it was told to us.
he area round Ackworth saw several important battles, such as the 1460 Battle of Wakefield and the 1461 Battle of Towton during the Wars of the Roses. In 1489, four years after the War of the Roses ended, the new King Henry Tudor levied a tax that sparked an uprising in parts of Yorkshire. Thomas Howard, the Earl of Surrey, was sent to quash this after the Earl of Northumberland had been killed by the rebels. Howard subdued it and hanged the leaders in York. In 1492 a further uprising occurred in Ackworth, of which little is known except that Howard again subdued the insurgents. An earlier link could be made with the Battle of Winwaed in 655 between Penda of Mercia and Oswiu of Northumbria, King of Berenicia. This was mentioned by Bede, but the location of the battle is unknown. Options include Oswestry in Shropshire, Winwick in Lancashire, Whinmoor, north-east of Leeds, and between Wentbridge and Ackworth, where the A639, once a Roman road, crosses the River Went. The battle was pivotal, as Penda had been a powerful pagan king and the victory of the Christian Oswiu could be seen as effectively ending Anglo-Saxon paganism.
The area around Ackworth was a hotbed for dissent against the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII. A revolt led by Robert Aske, styled the Pilgrimage of Grace, was thought to have marched through Ackworth on its way to capture Pontefract Castle in 1536. The rebels were eventually defeated by an army sent by Henry, and its leaders hanged at Tyburn, including Sir Nicholas Tempest of Ackworth. The nearby Priory of St Oswald at Nostell was dissolved in 1540 and the land bought by Rowland Winn. During the English Civil War, the Ackworth area was strongly Royalist, with four divisions of volunteers raised from Pontefract and surrounding villages to garrison the castle. In 1645, Ackworth was occupied by Roundhead soldiers, who damaged the church and replaced the cross on top of the medieval cross in the centre of the village with the ball shape that still sits there.
A hoard of 52 gold coins, 539 silver coins, and a gold posy ring was found in a garden in Ackworth in April 2011. Thought to date from the Civil War period, it was declared treasure and was later acquired by Pontefract Museum.
Ackworth war memorial, opened in 1999, recalls the soldiers from Ackworth who died in the two world wars: 80 soldiers and 40 respectively.
Video - youtu.be/oil54qIPgUc
Stob Coire nan Lochan
Last winter didn’t really seem to happen, I don’t seem to recall many snowy outings and winter mountaineering was limited to say the least… A brief cold snap at the start of that winter perhaps gave me false hope and I waited and waited on some nice snowy conditions to get out and about – then spring came and I was all over!!
Perhaps this is reason I have been trying to take advantage of any cold snaps this time around!! The same pattern started at the turn of winter and withy what happened last year I was perhaps thinking that every cold snap maybe the last of the winter!! Hence I have had the luck to enjoy quite a few snowy outing this season already, in fact some of the winter walking has been absolutely superb already – Garbh Bheinn on Skye being a highlight. This is also as close to mountaineering as I have got but with a decent dump of snow this week and temperatures plummeting I was hoping some of the snow pack may consolidate! The week before we had trudged half way up Beinn Chabhair before turning back as the storm closed in. The snow was unconsolidated and relatively deep and wet – something a freeze may help!!! So a few days later I met Gerry at our usual rendezvous point and we headed up the A82 towards Glencoe.
The drive up was glorious, white mountains and a clear sky promising a grand day…. We had considered curved ridge but the busy car park and thoughts of queuing made our minds up to go and have a look further down the glen… Any thought of finding a quiet spot were (understandably) quashed! All the car parks were full and we just go a space in the upper car park as we headed for Stob Coire nan Lochan (SCNL). The pink of dawn was now replaced by blue skies and as we head up the sunlight lit up the top of SCNL and across the glen the Aonach Eagach ridge was slowly lighting up as the sun rippled across its serrated top and started to make progress towards the floor of the Glen
The path was busy and soon we were donning our crampons and getting the axe out for the final pull into the corrie. It was looking superb!!A line of teams were heading up Broad Gully and a few teams could be seen on the harder buttress routes. We had discussed an amble up NC gully so headed over to have a look at it….. The snow was deep and the trench we were following indicated that there was about a foot of snow either side. Assessing the situation we soon discovered the snow t be of poor quality for a steepening gully. Most of it seemed to have fallen at once and although it at first seemed fine when we were following footprints, as soon as we left them it became apparent its wasn’t yet consolidated enough… certainly not for an ascent of NC…. So we stopped had a bite to eat and saw some footprints heading up to the west of Pinnacle Buttress to a steepening scoop. This was going to be our route to the rim of the corrie. Usually we’d have diverted to broad gully but decided on this route as neither of us had come up this way before. Unnamed but felt like a nice Grade 1 and in the upper reaches it was a grand adventure. Topping out and the white topped peaks to the west came into view. Always great to top out to a cracking view…. The weather was great and time was on our side so we took a leisurely stroll to the summit of SCNL and had another bite to eat along with many others. The views were superb as always. Iven the traffic on Broad Gully, we decided against descending the gully but took a nice walk back along the corrie rim and back down to the car. It was great to meet so many people up on the mountain today, having long chat with many… great to be able to do this without having to shout over the wind!!!
Another grand day out – much fun
How long would it take to leave the EU?
It would take a minimum of two years for the UK to leave the EU. During that time Britain would continue to abide by EU treaties and laws - however it would not take part in any decision making.What will happen during that time?The UK would have to thrash out the terms of its departure. Issues would include what financial regulations would still apply to the City of London, trade tariffs and movement rights of EU citizens and UK nationals.The agreement would have to be ratified both by the European council and the parliament in Strasbourg.How would Brexit impact the EU?Some people in the EU community believe that Britain quitting its membership could encourage other nations to follow suit with referendums of their own - or demand tailor-made deals of their own.More than three years after David Cameron unveiled his strategy to reform Europe and put it to a referendum, Britain has voted to leave and the Prime Minister has resigned.It is the greatest disaster to befall the block in its 59-year history. The road ahead is unclear. No state has left the European Union before, and the rules for exit – contained in Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon – are brief. Mr Cameron resigned as Prime Minister shortly after 8am, announcing that he thinks Britain should have a new Prime Minister in place by the start of the Conservative conference in October. He will leave the task of triggering Article 50 to his successor.The EU's leadership has demanded Britain activate Article 50 exit talks "as soon as possible" as they attempt to end the uncertainty over the bloc, "however painful that process may be".
President Tusk, President Schulz and Prime Minister Rutte met this morning in Brussels upon the invitation of European Commission President Juncker."Any delay would unnecessarily prolong uncertainty. We have rules to deal with this in an orderly way. Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union sets out the procedure to be followed if a Member State decides to leave the European Union," the official statement said. "We stand ready to launch negotiations swiftly with the United Kingdom regarding the terms and conditions of its withdrawal from the European Union."Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, has said it is ready to intervene to steady the markets. Central bankers from Japan to Switzerland have also offered to step in to provide additional liquidity - a measure not seen since the financial crisis. On Saturday, the foreign ministers of the founding six member states – France, Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy and Belgium – will meet to discuss the implications of the British vote.David Cameron will next see his counterparts at a European Council summit on Tuesday and Wednesday next week.The deal, struck after months of negotiation last summer, has evaporated under a ‘self-destruct’ clause.He will be under intense pressure to activate Article 50 and commence exit negotiations. Leaders do not want to be drawn into months and years of haggling over Britain’s status: “Out is out,” Jean-Claude Juncker said on Wednesday.David Cameron will next see his counterparts at a European Council summit on Tuesday and Wednesday next week.The deal, struck after months of negotiation last summer, has evaporated under a ‘self-destruct’ clause.
He will be under intense pressure to activate Article 50 and commence exit negotiations. Leaders do not want to be drawn into months and years of haggling over Britain’s status: “Out is out,” Jean-Claude Juncker said on Wednesday.Article 50 – and a new dealTriggering Article 50, formally notifying the intension to withdraw, starts a two-year clock running. After that, the Treaties that govern membership no longer apply to Britain. The terms of exit will be negotiated between Britain’s 27 counterparts, and each will have a veto over the conditions.It will also be subject to ratification in national parliaments, meaning, for example, that Belgian MPs could stymie the entire process.Two vast negotiating teams will be created, far larger than those seen in the British renegotiation. The EU side is likely to be headed by one of the current Commissioners.Untying Britain from the old membership is the easy bit. Harder would be agreeing a new trading relationship, establishing what tariffs and other barriers to entry are permitted, and agreeing on obligations such as free movement. Such a process, EU leaders claim, could take another five years.Business leaders want the easiest terms possible, to prevent economic harm. But political leaders say the conditions will be brutal to discourage other states from following suit.One option will be to simply recreate EU laws as British statute. But Civil Service insiders expect a new Brexit government to opt for something much more radical, and to use the opportunity of “throwing off the shackles” to re-regulate Britain.It means that the Government would have to do three acts simultaneous: negotiate a new deal with Brussels, win a series of major bilateral trade deals around the world, and revise its own governance as EU law recedes.Running the show would be an effective “Ministry for Brexit”, under a senior minister.
Officials expect the scrapping of EU law could result in an avalanche of new legislation in every corner of Whitehall – perhaps 25 Bills in every Queen’s Speech for a decade.
Hundreds of Treasury lawyers and experts would have to be hired for areas – such as health and safety, financial services and employment – where Britain had lost competence to Brussels. Meanwhile, a Trade Ministry will be required, with hundreds of new negotiators, to establish new deals around the world.The focus in Brussels now turns to holding the project together.Proposals for closer defence integration, prepared by Federica Mogherini, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, were due to be sent to national governments today. That is likely to be put on hold. But building up the EU’s defence co-operation is regarded by France and Germany as an obvious way of rebooting the project.Jean-Claude Juncker has called for tighter integration in the event of a Brexit, and has laid out plans for integration of the Eurozone, including a treasury, in order to prevent a recurrence of the Greek crisis. Hitherto, member states have not been ready for that conversation – but the crisis of Brexit is likely to push it up the agenda.At the same time, leaders fear that Brexit could trigger a domino effect as the bloc without Britain becomes less attractive to liberal, rich northern states such as Denmark and the Netherlands, where demands are growing for copy-cat plebiscites.The Dutch elections are held in March next year, the French in April and May and Germany in the Autumn. If an independent Britain proves to be a success, the bloc could quickly unravel.On March 25, 2017, European leaders will mark the sixtieth anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome, the EU’s founding document. It will be a fraught celebration.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/24/britain-votes-to-leav...
"Game of Thrones," the hit HBO cable TV series that is partly filmed in Northern Ireland, will not suffer due to Britain's decision to leave the European Union, the cable network said on Friday, aiming to quash speculation that the lavishly produced show would lose EU funding.Britons voted on Thursday to leave the European Union, a decision that economists and government leaders say clouds growth prospects for the world's fifth-largest economy and could dim its attraction for investors.
www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2016/06/24/brexit-wont-hurt-game-o...
Pictured left to right: Sir Talzon "Ale-horn" Sharif and his long-time squire, Benjar.
Sir Talzon Sharif was the first born son of Lord Solzar Sharif of Bullring Keep. House Sharif is descended from Attonight rebels who sided with Thronfeld in their border war. When Thronfeld was victorious, House Sharif was granted lands in the Bloody March. In 718AV, when Talzon was a boy, his father, who was known as the Wise Bull, was a hero in the Battle of Brother's Blood. Wisdom was not a quality that was passed from father to son.
Eleven years later, in 729AV, Thronfeld was defeated and hopes of Prince Eodor reclaiming the throne were quashed with his apparent death at Mole Hill. The Attonight Empire sent an army north to the Bloody march, seeking to conquer the late King's outposts, and gain access the Thronfeld. When Solzar's scouts reported that the Attonights were a week's march away, he sent his fiery son Talzon by boat to Channelstone to inform Lord Henry Flint of the imminent Attonight invasion. Talzon resisted, as he wanted to fight alongside his father and countrymen, but his father ordered him to go, so he departed with his squire and a few others by boat.
Upon arriving at Channelstone, he was denied an audience with Lord Henry, on the grounds that the Lord was "sick", but his squire Benjar learned from a guardsman that the Lord had not been seen in Channelstone in several months. Talzon grew impatient and opened the letter that his father had written to Lord Flint. In the letter, Solzar informed on attonight movements, and reported that he would attempt to ambush the army while they were on the road. He admitted that the chance of success was small, which is why he asked Lord Flint to welcome Talzon into his castle as a household knight. Talzon was furious, he made plans to sail back south, but Benjar stopped him, begging him to honour his father's wishes and to seek revenge when the time was right.
Since that time, Talzon has served Lord Henry as a household knight and as a marshal of the West. He mostly patrols Willem Wood and it's surrounding territories searching for bandits or Eastern conspirators. His love and tolerance of ale earned him the nickname Ale-horn, and he often boasts that he could defeat a hundred Attonight soldiers with a hundred horns of ale in his belly. His wild nature makes him unpredictable, but his loyalty to Lord Henry, who has treated him well for a decade, has never been in question.
Benjar was born the son of the Bullring armourer, and from a young age, he was skilled in forging and repairing weapons and armour. He was made Sir Talzon's squire the day Ale-horn was knighted. He has stood by his side in a hundred battles and skirmishes, and has armed and dressed Talzon for every tournament he has sought to enter. Benjar is a loyal servant and has been offered knighthood several times, but he has denied the promotion, stating that he lives to serve.
Watching the TV programme "Who do you think you are" last night the subject, Robert Rinder traced his great grand parents to a small town in Latvia which at the time was part of Russia. The 1905 Russian Revolution was quashed wherever it surfaced. It transpires that Talsi was one such location.
By coincidence when Shirl and I took a drive into the heartland of Latvia last year we stopped for a walk around Talsi and then duly forgot about the location. Only when we watched the TV series did I hear of shelling of Talsi in 1905.
Deer Shed, Wentworth Woodhouse, Rotherham, South Yorkshire.
Hoober Stand is on the hill in the background. The 30 metre tower was designed by Henry Flitcroft for Whig politician Thomas Watson-Wentworth, Earl of Malton (later the 1st Marquess of Rockingham) to commemorate the quashing of the 1745 Jacobite rebellion.
Unidentifiable TWM Mercedes O405GN artic, newly delivered to Mercedes' Tankersley depot for finishing, shows route branding for the 51 Birmingham-Walsall service. Problems with bus stop locations and costs quashed that route and they migrated to the 65, without this type of branding.
The M.19/120 120mm Middelgrote Houwitser is the primary artillery piece of the Kalonaser Staatsleger (Army of the Kalonasian State).
First introduced in 1919 as a possible replacement for the myriad of artillery pieces then in service with the Republik van Kalonasia, the small initial batch proved their worth mightily with their excellent performance while in use by the Republikeinsleger in subduing the Tongorian-instigated Spartacist Revolts in the far north in late 1924. However, it was not until General Henri Barentsz seized power in a coup backed by the military in late 1925 and established the Kalonaser Staat (with himself as Grootmaarschalk, of course) that the socialist rebels were quashed once and for all. It was by no means an easy campaign, with the forests, hills, and rice terraces providing endless hideyholes for a guerrilla to wage war from; luckily though, Grootmaarschalk Barentsz enjoyed popularity among both the smallholders and banana plantation owners who collectively dominated the countryside, and their full cooperation paid dividends. The thankless Spartacists stood little chance against the highly motivated and well supplied Staatsleger, and by June 1926 all Spartacist enclaves worth caring about had been destroyed. The M.19/120 had more than proven itself during the Spartacist Revolts and has since been integrated into all units of the Kalonaser Staatsleger.
Seen here in standard Kalonaser southern tropical camouflage, with a Kalonaser artilleryman.
Stability Ain't free. The banana tree of honor and prosperity gotta be litterd with the blood of socialists. The Grand SOCIAAL-DEMOCRATISCHE council aka "grand commu-council" is not my gubmen. they are civilian debiel and probbaly spartacist as well :DD. BARENTSZ and staatsleger not council and CONTROL ok. veilig de grootmaarschalk
Castle Sinclair Girnigoe is located about 3 miles north of Wick on the east coast of Caithness, Scotland. It is considered to be one of the earliest seats of Clan Sinclair. It comprises the ruins of two castles: the 15th-century Castle Girnigoe; and the early 17th-century Castle Sinclair. They are designated as a scheduled monument.
The earlier Castle Girnigoe was built by William Sinclair, 2nd Earl of Caithness, probably sometime between 1476 and 1496, but certainly before his death at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. There is some evidence to suggest that the castle was built on the foundations of an earlier fortalice.
In 1577, George Sinclair, 4th Earl of Caithness, imprisoned his own son John Sinclair, Master of Caithness, in Castle Girnigoe, on suspicion of rebelling against his rule. He was held there for seven years, after which his father fed him a diet of salted beef, with nothing to drink, so that he eventually died insane from thirst. The rebel Earl of Bothwell was at Girnigoe in December 1594.
Expansion occurred in 1606 when Castle Sinclair was built, comprising a gatehouse and other buildings, along with a curtain wall. These were connected to the earlier castle by a drawbridge over a ravine. The same year George Sinclair, 5th Earl of Caithness, requested the Scottish Parliament to change the name to Castle Sinclair, but because the names Castle Sinclair and Castle Girnigoe were both written down in 1700, both names have been in use since.
Robert Sinclair describes Girnigoe as "an adapted 5-storey L-plan crow-stepped gabled tower house, which sat upon a rocky promontory jutting out into Sinclair Bay. Of interest is the secret chamber in the vaulted ceiling of the kitchen."
In 1672, George Sinclair, 6th Earl of Caithness, was in heavy debt to his fourth cousin, John Campbell of Glenorchy, and transferred the castle to Campbell as payment. When Sinclair died four years later with no heir, Campbell claimed the title Earl of Caithness and married Sinclair's widow. However, Sinclair's first cousin, George Sinclair of Keiss, challenged Campbell's title. This resulted in the Battle of Altimarlach in which Campbell defeated Sinclair in 1680. Glenorchy and some of his troops remained in Caithness for some time and levied rents and taxes on the people, subjecting them to the most grievous oppression. He sent the remainder home immediately after the battle. However, George Sinclair of Keiss continued his opposition and laid siege, with firearms and artillery, to Castle Sinclair Girnigoe which he took after feeble resistance from the garrison. As a result, he and his three friends who had assisted him, Sinclair of Broynach, Sinclair of Thura and Mackay of Strathnaver were declared rebels. The political current having turned in favor of Sinclair of Keiss however, this was quashed. Having failed to regain his inheritance by force, Sinclair of Keiss then turned to the law.[9] Through the influence of the Duke of York and afterwards James II, he took his place as 7th Earl of Caithness on 15 July 1681, and his lands were restored on 23 September. Campbell of Glenorchy was made Earl of Breadalbane by way of compensation.
The Highlands is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots language replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands. The term is also used for the area north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, although the exact boundaries are not clearly defined, particularly to the east. The Great Glen divides the Grampian Mountains to the southeast from the Northwest Highlands. The Scottish Gaelic name of A' Ghàidhealtachd literally means "the place of the Gaels" and traditionally, from a Gaelic-speaking point of view, includes both the Western Isles and the Highlands.
The area is very sparsely populated, with many mountain ranges dominating the region, and includes the highest mountain in the British Isles, Ben Nevis. During the 18th and early 19th centuries the population of the Highlands rose to around 300,000, but from c. 1841 and for the next 160 years, the natural increase in population was exceeded by emigration (mostly to Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, and migration to the industrial cities of Scotland and England.) and passim The area is now one of the most sparsely populated in Europe. At 9.1/km2 (24/sq mi) in 2012, the population density in the Highlands and Islands is less than one seventh of Scotland's as a whole.
The Highland Council is the administrative body for much of the Highlands, with its administrative centre at Inverness. However, the Highlands also includes parts of the council areas of Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll and Bute, Moray, North Ayrshire, Perth and Kinross, Stirling and West Dunbartonshire.
The Scottish Highlands is the only area in the British Isles to have the taiga biome as it features concentrated populations of Scots pine forest: see Caledonian Forest. It is the most mountainous part of the United Kingdom.
Between the 15th century and the mid-20th century, the area differed from most of the Lowlands in terms of language. In Scottish Gaelic, the region is known as the Gàidhealtachd, because it was traditionally the Gaelic-speaking part of Scotland, although the language is now largely confined to The Hebrides. The terms are sometimes used interchangeably but have different meanings in their respective languages. Scottish English (in its Highland form) is the predominant language of the area today, though Highland English has been influenced by Gaelic speech to a significant extent. Historically, the "Highland line" distinguished the two Scottish cultures. While the Highland line broadly followed the geography of the Grampians in the south, it continued in the north, cutting off the north-eastern areas, that is Eastern Caithness, Orkney and Shetland, from the more Gaelic Highlands and Hebrides.
Historically, the major social unit of the Highlands was the clan. Scottish kings, particularly James VI, saw clans as a challenge to their authority; the Highlands was seen by many as a lawless region. The Scots of the Lowlands viewed the Highlanders as backward and more "Irish". The Highlands were seen as the overspill of Gaelic Ireland. They made this distinction by separating Germanic "Scots" English and the Gaelic by renaming it "Erse" a play on Eire. Following the Union of the Crowns, James VI had the military strength to back up any attempts to impose some control. The result was, in 1609, the Statutes of Iona which started the process of integrating clan leaders into Scottish society. The gradual changes continued into the 19th century, as clan chiefs thought of themselves less as patriarchal leaders of their people and more as commercial landlords. The first effect on the clansmen who were their tenants was the change to rents being payable in money rather than in kind. Later, rents were increased as Highland landowners sought to increase their income. This was followed, mostly in the period 1760–1850, by agricultural improvement that often (particularly in the Western Highlands) involved clearance of the population to make way for large scale sheep farms. Displaced tenants were set up in crofting communities in the process. The crofts were intended not to provide all the needs of their occupiers; they were expected to work in other industries such as kelping and fishing. Crofters came to rely substantially on seasonal migrant work, particularly in the Lowlands. This gave impetus to the learning of English, which was seen by many rural Gaelic speakers to be the essential "language of work".
Older historiography attributes the collapse of the clan system to the aftermath of the Jacobite risings. This is now thought less influential by historians. Following the Jacobite rising of 1745 the British government enacted a series of laws to try to suppress the clan system, including bans on the bearing of arms and the wearing of tartan, and limitations on the activities of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Most of this legislation was repealed by the end of the 18th century as the Jacobite threat subsided. There was soon a rehabilitation of Highland culture. Tartan was adopted for Highland regiments in the British Army, which poor Highlanders joined in large numbers in the era of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1790–1815). Tartan had largely been abandoned by the ordinary people of the region, but in the 1820s, tartan and the kilt were adopted by members of the social elite, not just in Scotland, but across Europe. The international craze for tartan, and for idealising a romanticised Highlands, was set off by the Ossian cycle, and further popularised by the works of Walter Scott. His "staging" of the visit of King George IV to Scotland in 1822 and the king's wearing of tartan resulted in a massive upsurge in demand for kilts and tartans that could not be met by the Scottish woollen industry. Individual clan tartans were largely designated in this period and they became a major symbol of Scottish identity. This "Highlandism", by which all of Scotland was identified with the culture of the Highlands, was cemented by Queen Victoria's interest in the country, her adoption of Balmoral as a major royal retreat, and her interest in "tartenry".
Recurrent famine affected the Highlands for much of its history, with significant instances as late as 1817 in the Eastern Highlands and the early 1850s in the West. Over the 18th century, the region had developed a trade of black cattle into Lowland markets, and this was balanced by imports of meal into the area. There was a critical reliance on this trade to provide sufficient food, and it is seen as an essential prerequisite for the population growth that started in the 18th century. Most of the Highlands, particularly in the North and West was short of the arable land that was essential for the mixed, run rig based, communal farming that existed before agricultural improvement was introduced into the region.[a] Between the 1760s and the 1830s there was a substantial trade in unlicensed whisky that had been distilled in the Highlands. Lowland distillers (who were not able to avoid the heavy taxation of this product) complained that Highland whisky made up more than half the market. The development of the cattle trade is taken as evidence that the pre-improvement Highlands was not an immutable system, but did exploit the economic opportunities that came its way. The illicit whisky trade demonstrates the entrepreneurial ability of the peasant classes.
Agricultural improvement reached the Highlands mostly over the period 1760 to 1850. Agricultural advisors, factors, land surveyors and others educated in the thinking of Adam Smith were keen to put into practice the new ideas taught in Scottish universities. Highland landowners, many of whom were burdened with chronic debts, were generally receptive to the advice they offered and keen to increase the income from their land. In the East and South the resulting change was similar to that in the Lowlands, with the creation of larger farms with single tenants, enclosure of the old run rig fields, introduction of new crops (such as turnips), land drainage and, as a consequence of all this, eviction, as part of the Highland clearances, of many tenants and cottars. Some of those cleared found employment on the new, larger farms, others moved to the accessible towns of the Lowlands.
In the West and North, evicted tenants were usually given tenancies in newly created crofting communities, while their former holdings were converted into large sheep farms. Sheep farmers could pay substantially higher rents than the run rig farmers and were much less prone to falling into arrears. Each croft was limited in size so that the tenants would have to find work elsewhere. The major alternatives were fishing and the kelp industry. Landlords took control of the kelp shores, deducting the wages earned by their tenants from the rent due and retaining the large profits that could be earned at the high prices paid for the processed product during the Napoleonic wars.
When the Napoleonic wars finished in 1815, the Highland industries were affected by the return to a peacetime economy. The price of black cattle fell, nearly halving between 1810 and the 1830s. Kelp prices had peaked in 1810, but reduced from £9 a ton in 1823 to £3 13s 4d a ton in 1828. Wool prices were also badly affected. This worsened the financial problems of debt-encumbered landlords. Then, in 1846, potato blight arrived in the Highlands, wiping out the essential subsistence crop for the overcrowded crofting communities. As the famine struck, the government made clear to landlords that it was their responsibility to provide famine relief for their tenants. The result of the economic downturn had been that a large proportion of Highland estates were sold in the first half of the 19th century. T M Devine points out that in the region most affected by the potato famine, by 1846, 70 per cent of the landowners were new purchasers who had not owned Highland property before 1800. More landlords were obliged to sell due to the cost of famine relief. Those who were protected from the worst of the crisis were those with extensive rental income from sheep farms. Government loans were made available for drainage works, road building and other improvements and many crofters became temporary migrants – taking work in the Lowlands. When the potato famine ceased in 1856, this established a pattern of more extensive working away from the Highlands.
The unequal concentration of land ownership remained an emotional and controversial subject, of enormous importance to the Highland economy, and eventually became a cornerstone of liberal radicalism. The poor crofters were politically powerless, and many of them turned to religion. They embraced the popularly oriented, fervently evangelical Presbyterian revival after 1800. Most joined the breakaway "Free Church" after 1843. This evangelical movement was led by lay preachers who themselves came from the lower strata, and whose preaching was implicitly critical of the established order. The religious change energised the crofters and separated them from the landlords; it helped prepare them for their successful and violent challenge to the landlords in the 1880s through the Highland Land League. Violence erupted, starting on the Isle of Skye, when Highland landlords cleared their lands for sheep and deer parks. It was quietened when the government stepped in, passing the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act, 1886 to reduce rents, guarantee fixity of tenure, and break up large estates to provide crofts for the homeless. This contrasted with the Irish Land War underway at the same time, where the Irish were intensely politicised through roots in Irish nationalism, while political dimensions were limited. In 1885 three Independent Crofter candidates were elected to Parliament, which listened to their pleas. The results included explicit security for the Scottish smallholders in the "crofting counties"; the legal right to bequeath tenancies to descendants; and the creation of a Crofting Commission. The Crofters as a political movement faded away by 1892, and the Liberal Party gained their votes.
Today, the Highlands are the largest of Scotland's whisky producing regions; the relevant area runs from Orkney to the Isle of Arran in the south and includes the northern isles and much of Inner and Outer Hebrides, Argyll, Stirlingshire, Arran, as well as sections of Perthshire and Aberdeenshire. (Other sources treat The Islands, except Islay, as a separate whisky producing region.) This massive area has over 30 distilleries, or 47 when the Islands sub-region is included in the count. According to one source, the top five are The Macallan, Glenfiddich, Aberlour, Glenfarclas and Balvenie. While Speyside is geographically within the Highlands, that region is specified as distinct in terms of whisky productions. Speyside single malt whiskies are produced by about 50 distilleries.
According to Visit Scotland, Highlands whisky is "fruity, sweet, spicy, malty". Another review states that Northern Highlands single malt is "sweet and full-bodied", the Eastern Highlands and Southern Highlands whiskies tend to be "lighter in texture" while the distilleries in the Western Highlands produce single malts with a "much peatier influence".
The Scottish Reformation achieved partial success in the Highlands. Roman Catholicism remained strong in some areas, owing to remote locations and the efforts of Franciscan missionaries from Ireland, who regularly came to celebrate Mass. There remain significant Catholic strongholds within the Highlands and Islands such as Moidart and Morar on the mainland and South Uist and Barra in the southern Outer Hebrides. The remoteness of the region and the lack of a Gaelic-speaking clergy undermined the missionary efforts of the established church. The later 18th century saw somewhat greater success, owing to the efforts of the SSPCK missionaries and to the disruption of traditional society after the Battle of Culloden in 1746. In the 19th century, the evangelical Free Churches, which were more accepting of Gaelic language and culture, grew rapidly, appealing much more strongly than did the established church.
For the most part, however, the Highlands are considered predominantly Protestant, belonging to the Church of Scotland. In contrast to the Catholic southern islands, the northern Outer Hebrides islands (Lewis, Harris and North Uist) have an exceptionally high proportion of their population belonging to the Protestant Free Church of Scotland or the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The Outer Hebrides have been described as the last bastion of Calvinism in Britain and the Sabbath remains widely observed. Inverness and the surrounding area has a majority Protestant population, with most locals belonging to either The Kirk or the Free Church of Scotland. The church maintains a noticeable presence within the area, with church attendance notably higher than in other parts of Scotland. Religion continues to play an important role in Highland culture, with Sabbath observance still widely practised, particularly in the Hebrides.
In traditional Scottish geography, the Highlands refers to that part of Scotland north-west of the Highland Boundary Fault, which crosses mainland Scotland in a near-straight line from Helensburgh to Stonehaven. However the flat coastal lands that occupy parts of the counties of Nairnshire, Morayshire, Banffshire and Aberdeenshire are often excluded as they do not share the distinctive geographical and cultural features of the rest of the Highlands. The north-east of Caithness, as well as Orkney and Shetland, are also often excluded from the Highlands, although the Hebrides are usually included. The Highland area, as so defined, differed from the Lowlands in language and tradition, having preserved Gaelic speech and customs centuries after the anglicisation of the latter; this led to a growing perception of a divide, with the cultural distinction between Highlander and Lowlander first noted towards the end of the 14th century. In Aberdeenshire, the boundary between the Highlands and the Lowlands is not well defined. There is a stone beside the A93 road near the village of Dinnet on Royal Deeside which states 'You are now in the Highlands', although there are areas of Highland character to the east of this point.
A much wider definition of the Highlands is that used by the Scotch whisky industry. Highland single malts are produced at distilleries north of an imaginary line between Dundee and Greenock, thus including all of Aberdeenshire and Angus.
Inverness is regarded as the Capital of the Highlands, although less so in the Highland parts of Aberdeenshire, Angus, Perthshire and Stirlingshire which look more to Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, and Stirling as their commercial centres.
The Highland Council area, created as one of the local government regions of Scotland, has been a unitary council area since 1996. The council area excludes a large area of the southern and eastern Highlands, and the Western Isles, but includes Caithness. Highlands is sometimes used, however, as a name for the council area, as in the former Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service. Northern is also used to refer to the area, as in the former Northern Constabulary. These former bodies both covered the Highland council area and the island council areas of Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles.
Much of the Highlands area overlaps the Highlands and Islands area. An electoral region called Highlands and Islands is used in elections to the Scottish Parliament: this area includes Orkney and Shetland, as well as the Highland Council local government area, the Western Isles and most of the Argyll and Bute and Moray local government areas. Highlands and Islands has, however, different meanings in different contexts. It means Highland (the local government area), Orkney, Shetland, and the Western Isles in Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service. Northern, as in Northern Constabulary, refers to the same area as that covered by the fire and rescue service.
There have been trackways from the Lowlands to the Highlands since prehistoric times. Many traverse the Mounth, a spur of mountainous land that extends from the higher inland range to the North Sea slightly north of Stonehaven. The most well-known and historically important trackways are the Causey Mounth, Elsick Mounth, Cryne Corse Mounth and Cairnamounth.
Although most of the Highlands is geographically on the British mainland, it is somewhat less accessible than the rest of Britain; thus most UK couriers categorise it separately, alongside Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, and other offshore islands. They thus charge additional fees for delivery to the Highlands, or exclude the area entirely. While the physical remoteness from the largest population centres inevitably leads to higher transit cost, there is confusion and consternation over the scale of the fees charged and the effectiveness of their communication, and the use of the word Mainland in their justification. Since the charges are often based on postcode areas, many far less remote areas, including some which are traditionally considered part of the lowlands, are also subject to these charges. Royal Mail is the only delivery network bound by a Universal Service Obligation to charge a uniform tariff across the UK. This, however, applies only to mail items and not larger packages which are dealt with by its Parcelforce division.
The Highlands lie to the north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, which runs from Arran to Stonehaven. This part of Scotland is largely composed of ancient rocks from the Cambrian and Precambrian periods which were uplifted during the later Caledonian Orogeny. Smaller formations of Lewisian gneiss in the northwest are up to 3 billion years old. The overlying rocks of the Torridon Sandstone form mountains in the Torridon Hills such as Liathach and Beinn Eighe in Wester Ross.
These foundations are interspersed with many igneous intrusions of a more recent age, the remnants of which have formed mountain massifs such as the Cairngorms and the Cuillin of Skye. A significant exception to the above are the fossil-bearing beds of Old Red Sandstone found principally along the Moray Firth coast and partially down the Highland Boundary Fault. The Jurassic beds found in isolated locations on Skye and Applecross reflect the complex underlying geology. They are the original source of much North Sea oil. The Great Glen is formed along a transform fault which divides the Grampian Mountains to the southeast from the Northwest Highlands.
The entire region was covered by ice sheets during the Pleistocene ice ages, save perhaps for a few nunataks. The complex geomorphology includes incised valleys and lochs carved by the action of mountain streams and ice, and a topography of irregularly distributed mountains whose summits have similar heights above sea-level, but whose bases depend upon the amount of denudation to which the plateau has been subjected in various places.
Climate
The region is much warmer than other areas at similar latitudes (such as Kamchatka in Russia, or Labrador in Canada) because of the Gulf Stream making it cool, damp and temperate. The Köppen climate classification is "Cfb" at low altitudes, then becoming "Cfc", "Dfc" and "ET" at higher altitudes.
Places of interest
An Teallach
Aonach Mòr (Nevis Range ski centre)
Arrochar Alps
Balmoral Castle
Balquhidder
Battlefield of Culloden
Beinn Alligin
Beinn Eighe
Ben Cruachan hydro-electric power station
Ben Lomond
Ben Macdui (second highest mountain in Scotland and UK)
Ben Nevis (highest mountain in Scotland and UK)
Cairngorms National Park
Cairngorm Ski centre near Aviemore
Cairngorm Mountains
Caledonian Canal
Cape Wrath
Carrick Castle
Castle Stalker
Castle Tioram
Chanonry Point
Conic Hill
Culloden Moor
Dunadd
Duart Castle
Durness
Eilean Donan
Fingal's Cave (Staffa)
Fort George
Glen Coe
Glen Etive
Glen Kinglas
Glen Lyon
Glen Orchy
Glenshee Ski Centre
Glen Shiel
Glen Spean
Glenfinnan (and its railway station and viaduct)
Grampian Mountains
Hebrides
Highland Folk Museum – The first open-air museum in the UK.
Highland Wildlife Park
Inveraray Castle
Inveraray Jail
Inverness Castle
Inverewe Garden
Iona Abbey
Isle of Staffa
Kilchurn Castle
Kilmartin Glen
Liathach
Lecht Ski Centre
Loch Alsh
Loch Ard
Loch Awe
Loch Assynt
Loch Earn
Loch Etive
Loch Fyne
Loch Goil
Loch Katrine
Loch Leven
Loch Linnhe
Loch Lochy
Loch Lomond
Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park
Loch Lubnaig
Loch Maree
Loch Morar
Loch Morlich
Loch Ness
Loch Nevis
Loch Rannoch
Loch Tay
Lochranza
Luss
Meall a' Bhuiridh (Glencoe Ski Centre)
Scottish Sea Life Sanctuary at Loch Creran
Rannoch Moor
Red Cuillin
Rest and Be Thankful stretch of A83
River Carron, Wester Ross
River Spey
River Tay
Ross and Cromarty
Smoo Cave
Stob Coire a' Chàirn
Stac Polly
Strathspey Railway
Sutherland
Tor Castle
Torridon Hills
Urquhart Castle
West Highland Line (scenic railway)
West Highland Way (Long-distance footpath)
Wester Ross
Here, the confluence of Poor Fork (left) and Martin's Fork (right) makes up the Cumberland River headwaters at Baxter, Kentucky, adjacent to the town of Harlan. The Cumberland flows west from the mountains of Eastern Kentucky into Nashville, Tennessee, Clarksville, and then joins the Ohio River near the Tennessee River north of Paducah, Kentucky.
When I think of the headwaters of a great river, I think of Pittsburgh's Point State Park at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers into the Ohio River. This confluence is humbler.
Civil War history: Early in the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant shrewdly secured the Ohio River junction into the Cumberland River, just north of Paducah, Kentucky. Grant later used its watery highway for a joint U.S. Navy-Army effort to conquer Fort Donnelson. From their incredibly well-designed and defended fort in Tennessee, the Confederate Army of Central Kentucky at Fort Donnelson went against U.S. Grant's Army of Tennessee. (Yes, I know. Both army names are counter-intuitive. A bit of war propaganda.) The Confederate field army was destroyed. Its troops either fled (Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, Gen. Floyd, and Gen. Pillow being some who were outwitted and fled), were killed, or were imprisoned en masse under terms of unconditional surrender. The Army of Central Kentucky was disbanded. Its name was used no more. With its Confederate defense quashed, the civil authority in the capital of Tennessee, Nashville, which is just down the river, also surrendered. These defeats on the Cumberland River were disastrous for the Confederacy. This humble river headwaters image that is hard to see from the skirting road is the start of THAT historical river, THAT big river that skirts downtown Nashville.
A possible story of the Light of the World.
Centuries have passed since Yahweh inhabited Solomon’s temple around 1000 Before Common Era. Centuries have passed since the last king in David’s linage ignominiously fell around 586 BCE. Tributary king of Judah – Zedekiah – sealed his death sentence, after jilting the Babylonians masters, through a doomed alliance with Egypt, and by refusing to pay tribute to Nebuchadnezzar II. After a year’s siege, Nebuchandnezzar’s army breached Jerusalem defenses then destroyed the temple. Zedekiah saw his son killed, was blinded then carried off to Babylon captivity along with many Jewish people. Centuries have passed since the end of the Jewish diaspora, the return to Jerusalem and phoenix rise of a second temple by 516 BCE. Only a century has passed since Greek Seleucids invaded Israel, warping the Temple into an edifice for worshiping Zeus. Foreigners attempted to quash Yahweh, His direction, the Light within the tribes of Israel. Foreigner enforced Zeus worship. In the village of Modi’in, west of Jerusalem, a faltering Jew turned toward the foreign god, making motions to bow down in worship. A kohen, a Jewish priest of the lineage of Aaron, smite the apostate before completing the act of compliance. The God of angel armies empowered a small force of Maccabeans, led by Mattathias’s son Judah. Executing guerrilla tactics, the combatants defeated the lumbering, slow Seleucid army. With the power of Greek gods decimated, eradicated, the Jewish people were again free to worship in their restored temple.
Herein lies the origins of Hanukkah. The miracle of light, the light that illuminates people and nations, would come back to the Temple.
Four kohanim sprung over stone steps leading to the Temple. Just inside the gate, they slowed to a standstill. Within the courtyard, like tumbleweeds rolling across Judean hills, aimless souls randomly wandered. Gone was the structure, the familiar movement of Jewish religious ceremony. The four stood. Two reached out, holding hands. One placed a hand on the other’s shoulder. Their faces had a common slight downturn of eyebrow, slight upturn of lip. They shared ambivalent thoughts – apprehensive and expectant. What remanence of foreign gods remain, lurking within the shadows of Temple corridors? Yet, Seleucid gods are merely inanimate stone, posing no threat. The Temple seems empty without the presence of Yahweh. Ah, the return of Yahweh to the Temple will restore a radiance to these halls.
With trepidations behind them, the four priests advanced toward the Altar of Sacrifice. The altar was 30 cubits by 30 cubits, or 20 feet by 20 feet. Stylized gourds rimmed the vessel, three oxen standing on each panel, horns perched upon altar corners. The bronze structure sat cold, chilled by unusually nippy 50-degree air hanging in the Chislev (December) day.
A swelling rage within the priests warmed the area. A statute of the Greek fire god Girra sat on the altar. Girra played a role in purification rituals. Rituals, the Seleucids bastard ritual are with this alien god. The Altar of Sacrifice, before the invasion, had been a true place of purification, of sacrifice, of blood spilled in atonement for sins within the tribes of Judah. Yet this Girra, they thought, this false god of fire, ironically brought a chill upon the altar. The priests grabbed and pulled upon the foreign stone, wrestling in down into rubble.
Nothing was more important than purification, restoration of the Temple. Nothing was more important than restoring a seat for Yahweh in the Temple. The priests changed course, enter a hall dimly lit with cloudy day diffused light lumbering through windows. All saw the muddled shape of a great seven-lamp menorah, its polygonal arms set upon a triangular base. The golden lamp itself a centerpiece on a rectangular stone altar, cruse of oil and columns chiseled into the front.
The menorah’s light must again shine. The flames represent Israel as a light unto the nations. The glow of ner tamid, or eternal light, projects Yahweh’ power. The light beams out an exhortation for man to rely on rely on that power. Upon Prophet Zechariah having a vision of the menorah, a heavenly messenger explained: "not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit."
Priests searched for pure, consecrated olive oil to burn within the lamps. They found only one cruse, with oil for one night. They needed oil for eight days. They could not produce that oil for another eight days. They lit the lamps. The light continued to radiate for eight days. The light of Yahweh had returned to the Temple!
I originally wanted to provide a small troop compartment, but the landing gear and wing/arm joints quickly quashed that idea.
Don’t forget to read the poem at the bottom of my description.
A.B (Banjo) Patterson’s poems of late 19th and early 20th. century are not only frequently very funny but so deftly describe activities and life in our great country as to be works of art. Who could forget The Man from Snowy River, Clancy of the Overflow and one of my favourites, the Geebung Polo Club. It was pure pleasure, even as a kid who wasn’t that enamoured with poetry to learn about these. And then there is Mulga Bill and his bicycle, who, as you can see, ended up in Deadman’s Creek. This is an amazing piece of poetry, humorous to its roots and I consider it a privilege to also own an original artwork featuring Mulga Bill and his infamous runaway beastly bike.
The scene of the incident as written is Eaglehawk, an outer suburb of Bendigo that celebrates its famous son. And here he is, after the wild ride, confidence in his ability to subdue the beast completely quashed!
Thanks A.B. for the ride and your amazing legacy.
Give it a read and remember your own early days, subduing the beast! Enjoy, but remember where being boastful can get you!
MULGA BILL’S BICYCLE
Twas Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk, that caught the cycling craze;
He turned away the good old horse that served him many days;
He dressed himself in cycling clothes, resplendent to be seen;
He hurried off to town and bought a shining new machine;
And as he wheeled it through the door, with air of lordly pride,
The grinning shop assistant said, "Excuse me, can you ride?"
"See here, young man," said Mulga Bill, "from Walgett to the sea,
From Conroy's Gap to Castlereagh, there's none can ride like me.
I'm good all round at everything as everybody knows,
Although I'm not the one to talk - I hate a man that blows.
But riding is my special gift, my chiefest, sole delight;
Just ask a wild duck can it swim, a wildcat can it fight.
There's nothing clothed in hair or hide, or built of flesh or steel,
There's nothing walks or jumps, or runs, on axle, hoof, or wheel,
But what I'll sit, while hide will hold and girths and straps are tight:
I'll ride this here two-wheeled concern right straight away at sight."
'Twas Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk, that sought his own abode,
That perched above Dead Man's Creek, beside the mountain road.
He turned the cycle down the hill and mounted for the fray,
But 'ere he'd gone a dozen yards it bolted clean away.
It left the track, and through the trees, just like a silver streak,
It whistled down the awful slope towards the Dead Man's Creek.
It shaved a stump by half an inch, it dodged a big white-box:
The very wallaroos in fright went scrambling up the rocks,
The wombats hiding in their caves dug deeper underground,
As Mulga Bill, as white as chalk, sat tight to every bound.
It struck a stone and gave a spring that cleared a fallen tree,
It raced beside a precipice as close as close could be;
And then as Mulga Bill let out one last despairing shriek
It made a leap of twenty feet into the Dead Man's Creek.
'Twas Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk, that slowly swam ashore:
He said, "I've had some narrer shaves and lively rides before;
I've rode a wild bull round a yard to win a five-pound bet,
But this was the most awful ride that I've encountered yet.
I'll give that two-wheeled outlaw beast; it's shaken all my nerve
To feel it whistle through the air and plunge and buck and swerve.
It's safe at rest in Dead Man's Creek, we'll leave it lying still;
A horse's back is good enough henceforth for Mulga Bill."
With thanks to this website: www.middlemiss.org/lit/authors/patersonab/poetry/mulgab.html
Eaglehawk, Bendigo, Victoria.
Following the success of the M-125 Porewit, the JNA went on to further experiment with low-profile casemate AFVs. The overarching ambition of the program that led to the M-205 was to produce a big-gunned combat vehicle capable of putting more rounds down range than the opposition. Initially this translated to trying to enhance autoloaders to be faster, lighter, and more reliable; however, a minority in the Zastava Arms firm decided that simply mounting two high-velocity guns to a single AFV was the way to go as material science wasn't advanced enough at the time to produce the required autoloader advancements. Hence, the M-205.
The design of the M-205 is fairly straightforward: two 105mm rifled guns (with slaved 7.62mm coaxials just above) housed independently in a moderately armored chassis with a steep frontal glacis capable of shrugging off numerous high-caliber rounds. Unfortunately, the high rate of fire and beefy front face came with costs elsewhere. The sides of the crew cabin are only rated to neglect 12.7mm rounds (the angled armor around the engine bay is able to resist 14.5mm rounds). Additionally, having two breeches in the cabin means the crew quarters--meant to house four crewmen--are fairly cramped compared to conventional MBTs. Furthermore, the guns mounted on the vehicle lack integrated bore evacuators, leading to an independent ventilation system needing to be built into the cabin, ergo eating more space and compromising the integrity of the armor around the vent itself. The upside, however, lies in the magazine being fairly secure and easy to reload. Located between the engine bay and the cabin, the magazine has doors that open for easy crate-based loading and in which case double as blowout panels in the event of catastrophic failure.
Aside from the twin-gun aspect of the M-205, another exceptional wonder of the vehicle rests in the vehicle's optics. Far more advanced and miniaturized than those of the West for the time--e.g. the early and mid-1980s--the independent electronic periscopes are exceptionally precise. The larger optics suite atop the vehicle is able to utilize data from the two separate periscopes and calculate how to best align their shots when firing on a single target. Thus, the rather small guns are able to penetrate the rough hides of most AFVs by tandem-firing. In the event of firing on two separate targets, the central suite will designate a sequence of engagements based upon distance and travel time, thereby maximizing camouflage by minimizing latency.
Unfortunately for Zastava, the M-205 never saw extensive service time. The complexity of the design overall and the optics in particular meant manufacturing was difficult, time-consuming, and generally costly. After the first four vehicles were produced for field testing, the Lada production line was essentially shut down and the testbed models mothballed. Zastava attempted to revive the vehicle by tossing around the idea of integrating a more advanced suspension system akin to the Strv 103's to further enhance the Lada's ability to target and engage vehicles from a fixed position, but this aspiration was quickly quashed as such an addition would only further the production issues. All in all the M-205 was too unique to be useful in an era where the JNA was trying to become slightly more conventional in nature.
We had friends from England to visit here in the Blue Ridge Mountains last week. Peter, aka www.flickr.com/photos/diskdoc, and his lovely sweetheart Sandra made a side trip here while catching up with his son who was on a temporary job assignment in NYC. We had rented a cabin that we often do in Newland, North Carolina. They had part of Monday, all of Tuesday and Wednesday, and part of Thursday as we returned them to Charlotte Douglas Airport to fly back to NYC ahead of Hurricane Florence. While here, however, Peter stated that they were overwhelmed by the vastness and beauty of the Blue Ridge and the hospitality of everyone they encountered here... I told them it would be that way, but it was a great experience for them. After finishing dinner Tuesday night, I had them sit in rocking chairs on the porch and just listen to the crickets and katydids singing the night away. Later, I took a series of these images on our last night together to show off the night sky in that wilderness... the glowing smudge in the lower center of the image is not a star, by the way. It is billions of stars that comprise the Andromeda Galaxy. It stands out quite well considering how wide the lens that was used to shoot it. Apart from companion galaxies to the Milky Way, such as the Magellanic Clouds, Andromeda is the closest galaxy to us, yet it still took 2.537 million years for its light to contact the camera's sensor... you're not seeing so much Andromeda here, as Andromeda's history.
Believe it or not, those stars are also singing the night away, too. Job 38:6&7 point out "On what were its foundations laid, or who set its core in place while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" More proof you might find fascinating: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmBh-WZzjIg&feature=share
That hurricane has since done its best to devastate the Carolinas... but it did little to quash the can-do spirit of Carolinians. A big thank you shout to all who have supported the effort to rescue those in need and for help to put the pieces back together.
Peter was one of my first Flickr contacts many moons ago... it amazes me how deep some of my "online" friendships are, and to what lengths they have opened my heart to their world.
Photograph taken from Riley Lane at Pentrich where it crosses an elevated ridge with all-encompassing views. Imagine it almost 2,000 years ago. Just below the ridge was the route of Ryknild Street, a long-distance Roman road from the Fosse Way at Bourton on the Water, Gloucestershire to Templeborough, South Yorkshire that passed through Derby and Chesterfield. Ryknild Street ran roughly south-west to north-east.
The village of Pentrich is famous for the Pentrich Martyrs or the Pentrich rising. It was an armed uprising in 1817 that began around the village of Pentrich, Derbyshire, in the United Kingdom. It occurred on the night of 9/10 June 1817. While much of the planning took place in Pentrich, two of the three ringleaders were from South Wingfield and the other was from Sutton in Ashfield; the 'revolution' itself started from Hunt's Barn in South Wingfield, and the only person killed died in Wingfield Park.
A gathering of some two or three hundred men, stockingers, quarrymen and iron workers, led by 'The Nottingham Captain', Jeremiah Brandreth who was an unemployed stockinger, set out from South Wingfield to march to Nottingham. They were lightly armed with pikes, scythes and a few guns, which had been hidden in a quarry in Wingfield Park, and had a set of rather unfocused revolutionary demands, including the wiping out of the National Debt.
However, one among them, William J. Oliver, was a government spy, and the uprising was quashed soon after it began. Three men were hanged and beheaded at Derby Gaol for their participation in the uprising: Jeremiah Brandreth, Isaac Ludlam and William Turner.
Another Asha rp sim to check out. Rentals available.
Visit this location at Q U A S H - Residential Roleplay Community in Second Life
Just scored some (for me) very HTF and much-wanted outfits that I have been searching for for years, thanks to my friend Linda DeAngelo, (Thanks so much Linda!!!!) As I got quite a few in one batch, I am trying to take my time dressing and photographing my gals in them, only a couple at a time, and usually when I am itching to buy something, so it instantly quashes that craving! LOL That way, I can get my ‘barbie fix’ over many weeks… (and there will be many pics to come!) First up, the very chic ‘Pretty As A Picture’ from 1966. I’ve always loved its very slick, simple lines and bold, graphic checked taffeta, (Barbie’s sophisticated daytime ‘city’ looks are always a favourite of mine, and you can’t beat the classic contrast of black and white) …. And of course, that dramatic picture hat and the added luxe touch of that gold and rhinestone brooch at the hip-line! It was made for an American Girl, IMO, so my newest lemon blonde gal with her perfect original coral lips has first dibs on it. I also love that it is kind of like a bridge between the glamorous ‘vintage’ era styles of the early 60’s and the slick, graphic A-line Mod era looks that were starting to erupt in fashion by then.
IT’s the Southsea attraction that lasted just a few months... and now the Solent Wheel has a new home. The much-talked about Clarence Pier ride has been carted off to Ireland. ...we have not finalised where it will be going next year, and would be happy to try again, to resolve the brent geese and business rating issues, before we make a final decision. Jill Norman A row over the length of time the ride could be up in the year, sparked by concerns over the safety of Brent geese on their winter migration path, prompted bosses to pack it away. And it’s now been revealed the wheel, bought at a cost of £750,000 from Italy, will go put up and enjoyed by guests outside England. It comes despite rumours that the 110ft-wheel was set to appear at Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland attraction in London for Christmas. But Clarence Pier boss Jill Norman quashed that suggestion – and also said she hasn’t ruled out bringing the ride back to Southsea next year after all. She said: ‘It is not going to Hyde Park, it has gone to Ireland. ‘As stated before we have no plans at present, to bring it back to Southsea for next summer. ‘However we have not finalised where it will be going the next year, and would be happy to try again, to resolve the Brent geese and business rating issues, before we make a final decision. ‘We believe that this is the only portable funfair ride in the UK that is presently rated. ‘We would just like to say thank you to the public. We have had a tremendous amount of support for it to stay in Southsea. ‘It is a shame that it is not up for the Great South Run, as the area of the common where the Brent geese land near the war memorial will be full of cars next weekend, which is staged during the geese migrating period from October to March.’ It comes after Natural England hit back at council claims it was forced to abide by planning guidance the body gave to ensure Brent geese would not be harmed. Natural England said it only ever provides advice and was willing to work with the authority and the ride’s owners to ensure the attraction stayed. Mrs Norman said: ‘I was interested to read that Natural England’s advice was only advisory after all. ‘I wonder what the consequences would have been if Portsmouth City Council had not taken their advice?’
Read more at: www.portsmouth.co.uk/business/solent-wheel-gets-a-new-hom...
Taken from Portsmouth News
French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 748. Photo: Studio Harcourt.
Beautiful French actress Brigitte Bardot (1934) was the sex kitten of the European film industry. BB starred in 48 films, performed in numerous musical shows, and recorded 80 songs. After her retirement in 1973, she established herself as an animal rights activist and made vegetarianism sexy.
Brigitte Bardot was born in Paris in 1934. Her father, Louis Bardot, had an engineering degree and worked with his father in the family business. Her mother, Ann-Marie Mucel, was 14 years younger than Brigitte's father and they married in 1933. Brigitte's mother encouraged her daughter to take up music and dance. At the age of 13, she entered the Conservatoire Nationale de Danse to study ballet. By the time she was 15, Brigitte was trying a modeling career and found herself in May 1949 on the cover of the French magazine Elle. Her incredible beauty readily apparent, Brigitte was noticed by Roger Vadim, then an assistant to the film director Marc Allegrét. Vadim was infatuated with Bardot and encouraged her to start working as a film actress. BB was 18 when she debuted in the comedy Le Trou Normand/Crazy for Love (Jean Boyer, 1952). In the same year, she married Vadim. Brigitte wanted to marry him when she was 17, but her parents quashed any marriage plans until she turned 18. In April 1953 she attended the Cannes Film Festival where she received massive media attention. She soon was every man's idea of the girl he'd like to meet in Paris. From 1952 to 1956 she appeared in seventeen films. Her films were generally lightweight romantic dramas in which she was cast as ingénue or siren, often with an element of undress. She made her first US production in 1953 in Un acte d'amour/Act of Love (Anatole Litvak, 1953) with Kirk Douglas, but she continued to make films in France.
Roger Vadim was not content with the light fare his wife was offered. He felt Brigitte Bardot was being undersold. Looking for something more like an art film to push her as a serious actress, he showcased her in Et Dieu créa la femme/...And God Created Woman (Roger Vadim, 1956). This film, about an immoral teenager in a respectable small-town setting, was a smashing success on both sides of the Atlantic. Craig Butler at AllMovie: "It's easy enough to say that ...And God Created Woman is much more important for its historical significance than for its actual quality as a film, and that's true to an extent. Woman's immense popularity, due to its willingness to directly embrace an exploration of sex as well as its willingness to show a degree of nudity that was remarkably daring for its day, demonstrated that audiences were willing to view subject matter that was considered too racy for the average moviegoer. This had both positive (freedom to explore, especially for the French filmmakers of the time) and negative (freedom to exploit) consequences, but its impact is undeniable. It's also true that Woman is not a great work of art, not with a story that is ultimately rather thin, some painful dialogue, and an attitude toward its characters and their sexuality that is unclear and inconsistent. Yet Woman is still fascinating, due in no small part to the presence of Brigitte Bardot in the role that made her an international star and sex symbol. She's not demonstrating great acting here, although her performance is actually good and much better than necessary, and her legendary mambo scene at the climax is nothing short of sensational." During the shooting of Et Dieu créa la femme/And God Created Woman (1956), directed by her husband Roger Vadim, Brigitte Bardot had an affair with her co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant, who at that time was married to French actress Stéphane Audran. Her divorce from Vadim followed, but they remained friends and collaborated in later work.
Et Dieu créa la femme/...And God Created Woman (Roger Vadim, 1956) helped her international status. The film took the USA by storm, her explosive sexuality being unlike anything seen in the States since the days of the 'flapper' in the 1920s. It gave rise to the phrase 'sex kitten' and fascination of her in America consisted of magazine photographs and dubbed over French films - good, bad, or indifferent, her films drew audiences - mainly men - into theaters like lemmings.BB appeared in light comedies like Doctor at Large (1957) - the third of the British 'Doctor' series starring Dirk Bogarde - and Une Parisienne/La Parisienne (Michel Boisrond, 1957) which suited her acting skills best. However, she was a sensation in the crime drama En cas de malheur/Love is my profession (Claude Autant-Lara, 1958). Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "this Brigitte Bardot vehicle ran into stiff opposition from the Catholic Legion of Decency, severely limiting its U.S. distribution. Bardot plays a nubile small-time thief named Yvette, who becomes the mistress of influential defense attorney Andre (Jean Gabin). Though Andre is able to shower Yvette with jewels and furs, he cannot "buy" her heart, and thus it is that it belongs to handsome young student Mazzetti (Franco Interlenghi). Alas, Yvette is no judge of human nature: attractive though Mazzetti can be, he has a dangerous-and deadly-side. En Cas de Malheur contains a nude scene that has since been reprinted in freeze-frame form innumerable times by both film-history books and girlie magazines." Photographer Sam Lévin's photos contributed considerably to her image of sensuality and slight immorality. One of Lévin's pictures shows Brigitte, dressed in a white corset. It is said that around 1960 postcards with this photograph outsold in Paris those of the Eiffel Tower.
Brigitte Bardot divorced Vadim in 1957 and in 1959 she married actor Jacques Charrier, with whom she starred in Babette s'en va-t-en guerre/Babette Goes to War (Christian-Jaque, 1959). The paparazzi preyed upon her marriage, while she and her husband clashed over the direction of her career. Her films became more substantial, but this brought a heavy pressure of dual celebrity as she sought critical acclaim while remaining a glamour model for most of the world. Vie privée/Private Life (1962), directed by Louis Malle has more than an element of autobiography in it. James Travers at Films de France: "Brigitte Bardot hadn’t quite reached the highpoint of her career when she agreed to make this film with high profile New Wave film director Louis Malle. Even so, the pressure of being a living icon was obviously beginning to get to France’s sex goddess and Vie privée is as much an attempt by Bardot to come to terms with her celebrity as anything else. Malle is clearly fascinated by Bardot and the documentary approach he adopts for this film reinforces the impression that it is more a biography of the actress than a work of fiction. Of course, it’s not entirely biographical, but the story is remarkably close to Bardot’s own life and comes pretty close to predicting how her career would end." The scene in which, returning to her apartment, Bardot's character is harangued in the elevator by a middle-aged cleaning lady calling her offensive names, was based on an actual incident and is a resonant image of a celebrity in the mid-20th century. Soon afterward Bardot withdrew to the seclusion of Southern France.
Brigitte Bardot's other husbands were German millionaire playboy Gunter Sachs and right-wing politician Bernard d'Ormale. She is reputed to have had relationships with many other men including Sami Frey, her co-star in La Vérité/The Truth (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1960), and musicians Serge Gainsbourg and Sacha Distel. In 1963, Brigitte Bardot starred in Godard's critically acclaimed film Le Mépris/Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963). She was also featured along with such notable actors as Alain Delon in Amours célèbres/Famous Love Affairs (Michel Boisrond, 1961) and Histoires extraordinaires/Tales of Mystery (Louis Malle, 1968), Jeanne Moreau in Viva Maria! (Louis Malle, 1965), Sean Connery in Shalako (Edward Dmytryk, 1968), and Claudia Cardinale in Les Pétroleuses/Petroleum Girls (Christian-Jaque, 1971). She participated in various musical shows and recorded many popular songs in the 1960s and 1970s, mostly in collaboration with Serge Gainsbourg, Bob Zagury, and Sacha Distel, including 'Harley Davidson', 'Le Soleil De Ma Vie' (the cover of Stevie Wonder's 'You Are the Sunshine of My Life') and the notorious 'Je t'aime... moi non plus'.
Brigitte Bardot’s film career showed a steady decline in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1973 just before her fortieth birthday, she announced her retirement. She chose to use her fame to promote animal rights. In 1976 she established the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Welfare and Protection of Animals. She became a vegetarian and raised three million French francs to fund the foundation by auctioning off jewelry and many personal belongings. For this work, she was awarded the Légion d’honneur in 1984. During the 1990's she became also outspoken in her criticism of immigration, interracial relationships, Islam in France, and homosexuality. Her husband Bernard d'Ormal is a former adviser of the far-right Front National party. Bardot has been convicted five times for 'inciting racial hatred'. More fun is that Bardot is recognised for popularizing bikini swimwear, in early films such as Manina/Woman without a Veil (1952), in her appearances at Cannes and in many photoshoots. Bardot also brought into fashion the 'choucroute' ('Sauerkraut') hairstyle (a sort of beehive hairstyle) and gingham clothes after wearing a checkered pink dress, designed by Jacques Esterel, at her wedding to Charrier. The fashions of the 1960s looked effortlessly right and spontaneous on her. Time Magazine: "She is the princess of pout, the countess of come hither. Brigitte Bardot exuded a carefree, naïve sexuality that brought a whole new audience to French films."
Sources: Denny Jackson (IMDb), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Craig Butler (AllMovie), James Travers (Films de France), Films de France, Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
During the Peloponnesian War, Piraeus suffered its first setback. In the second year of the war, the first cases of the Athens plague were recorded in Piraeus. In 404 BC, the Spartan fleet under Lysander blockaded Piraeus and subsequently Athens surrenderred to the Spartans, who put an end to the Delian League and the war itself. Piraeus would follow the fate of Athens and was to bear the brunt of the Spartans' rage, as the city's walls and the Long Walls were torn down ; the Athenian fleet surrendered to the victors and some of the triremes burnt, while the neosoikoi were also pulled down. As a result, the tattered and unfortified port city was not able to compete with prosperous Rhodes, which controlled commerce. In 403 BC, Munichia was seized by Thrasybulus and the exiles from Phyle, in the battle of Munichia, where the Phyleans defeated the Thirty Tyrants of Athens, but in the following battle of Piraeus the exiles were defeated by Spartan forces.
After the reinstatement of democracy, Conon rebuilt the walls in 393 BC, founded the temple of Aphrodite Euploia and the sanctuary of Zeus Sotiros and Athena, and built the famous Skevothiki of Philon, the ruins of which have been discovered at Zea harbour. The reconstruction of Piraeus went on during the period of Alexander the Great, but this revival of the town was quashed by Roman Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who captured and totally destroyed Piraeus in 86 BC. The destruction was completed in 395 AD by the Goths under Alaric I. Piraeus was led to a long period of decline which lasted for fifteen centuries. During the Byzantine period the harbour of Piraeus was occasionally used for the Byzantine fleet, but it was very far from the capital city of Constantinople. The city lost even its ancient and original name that was forgotten, named Porto Leone by the Venetians in 1317, meaning "Lion's Port" from the Piraeus Lion standing at the harbour's entrance, and Porto Draco by the Franks.
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Some thoughts on teaching tonight, or rather perhaps just one thought with a few myriad tangents. I lectured a bit on this in class today, but now my brain is fried from measuring and cutting mats all night, so hopefully I can get this out in a lucid enough manner.
My advice to any who are interested in teaching or becoming photography teachers? Stay away from the Do's and Don'ts. Simply put, try not to teach students based on your idea of what is the right photography and what is the wrong photography. Because that is all your opinion, and your opinion is limited. If you teach from that perspective, you cannot teach someone to become a better photographer than you are, because you are imposing your own limitations on them.
Rather, teach them about what they can or could do. Help them realize how big a world photography is, give them the knowledge to help them get started exploring that world, and then turn them loose. Let them go. Let them become their own photographers, whatever they decide that may be.
I know of a lot of photo workshops that happen in this area, and I actually hear a lot of good responses regarding them from people who have taken them. But I have heard a few bad stories too, and this is generally the notion they concentrate on.
There is a difference between taking a photographer out and showing them how to make better photographs and showing them how to become a better photographer. If I want to show someone how to make better photos, I just take them somewhere pretty, and set them up in all the spots I know. Voila, instant success. Right? But how does that end up? They end up with photos that look like ones I would have made. To me this is not necessarily a bad thing, but it isn't a good thing either.
My most satisfying moments after leading a workshop or class are when we have our review sessions and the students bring in images I have never seen before, or even contemplated making. This happened recently with my Cape Kiwanda class. I have been there so many times, I do not care to even try and count them, but there were a number of images that came up in the review session that I have never seen before, that were unique and interesting. And if I had led them around and set them up in the spots I had known, and showed them the images to make, I would have quashed that.
It is tricky though I know, because showing students how to make better photos is easier, and therefore more likely to please them considering they have paid money to be pleased. But I would contend that that pleasure is short term. They have a couple of nice images, and they have learned a little in the process. But in the long term, they have not benefited as fully as they could have had they been helped and encouraged to find their own path and vision.
Hmmm.
It seems an easy and innocuous thing to tell students what not to do, right? Don't underexpose. Don't miss your focus. Don't compose this way or that way. The "don'ts" are designed to help them avoid mistakes. So it would also seem to be a good idea to tell them the "do's". Do follow your light meter. Do use the rule of thirds. Do photograph during golden hour. Etc. But the do's are really don't in disguise. And my problem with that is that they cut off avenues of exploration.
My suggestion is to explain misexposure. What happens when an image is under or over exposed? Let them try it, find out, learn. Explain focus and its pros and cons and let them decide what applies to what they want to do. Explain their options and encourage them to explore them and form their own opinions, as much as possible. Explain the material to them, but avoid putting it into the super limited scope of right and wrong methods.
Even in processing, because I get this question a lot. Students who had photo professors tell them to never use Photoshop. It is silly. Don't ever let another person tell you what to do or not do with your cameras, at least artistically speaking, cannot speak regarding legal issues. :-p Because when you listen to those people, both the Don't crowd and the Do crowd, they are placing limits on you and what you can do.
And I think as an instructor of photography, you are trying to open the world up for them, not close it down. Teach them to become better photographers and you can possibly teach them beyond even your own limitations.
Speaking of classes and workshops, for those interested I have a busy spring schedule lined up both through Exposure Northwest and Newspace. If you are interested in a class, there are links on my profile page. I am too tired to embed the link, you should know how to find it by now. I might recommend the post-processing class that Aaron and I are offering coming up in February as well as the stormy coast workshop also through Exposure Northwest. Those two both should be particularly fun and interesting. At least I hope so. ;-)
Folks, if you enjoy this, please take a second to read this:
www.buymeacoffee.com/nicklayto
Thanks to Erin.
DSC_1004
Nikon z6
Sigma 50mm Art lens @ f2.2 /ISO 5000 / 1/200th (with low level fill in flash)
There's another image of Erin that is getting all the views though I suspect those who are deeply interested in the low light abilities of the Nikon z6 might want to take a look at this, as I have never taken anything at this quality in such poor light.
This remarkable image (and I am talking about the technical merit of the camera, although the photo isn't bad either) was shot in the middle of December with one camera mounted strobe which was only giving a small amount of fill (to ensure the light didn't over power the ambient behind Erin) with a fast shutter speed to freeze the movement of the dress. You can't fault the processing of this image even if (in all probability) this is the same sensor used in the Sony A7 III. So, here is a shutter speed of 1/200th and an ISO of 5000. The noise is there, but largely quashed by judicious processing in Lightroom. I should also mention that the lens is the Sigma Art 50mm.
Thomas was led to the village perched on the edge of the mountainside. The door was opened to one of the rustic shacks and Thomas ushered inside. The initial entrance was austere and minimalist in the no nonsense style Thomas had expected of the mountain men. But as he was shown through a second door, leading him into space carved out of the mountainside, he was in for a shock.
The grandeur of the chamber behind surprised him. Beautifully carved out of the rock and open all along one side with spectacular views over the mountains. For a moment Thomas was stunned.
"Ha! Gets them every time." The Chieftain of the various allied mountain tribes, Azru, stood in the far corner. He strode across the room his arms open and embraced Thomas in a crushing bear hug "Welcome to our village Thomas. It's good to see you again, although I wish it wasn't in such dire circumstances."
"I...I never knew this was here..." muttered Thomas still gawping.
"No. Us mountain tribes like to maintain a low profile about such things. Our ancestors settled in this hills centuries ago. The rocky land is very poor. The choice is to scratch an existence using subsistence farming or to dig deep and see if the earth will yield us fruit. These hills may not be stuffed with seams of precious metals and gems like the mountains of Garheim are, but they yield plenty of tin, copper and lead to those persistent enough to find it. Plus, we come across a small amount of gold from time to time as our reward. It's enough to allow us to buy food and supplies in from more fertile lands such as Arrowford."
"That is why I am here" replied Thomas. " I need to ask you if you'll lead the tribes and help me free Arrowford from the Queen's control. If we don't do this then Arrowford will not be able to continue trading with the mountain tribes."
"Thomas, I know what you say is true. While we are impenetrable up here in the mountain passes, for only a fool would send an army to perish up here, the Queen can easily cut us off from the rest of the world and let us go back to trying to get the rock to yield food. Therefore, I would lead my men down the mountain and retake Arrowford for you in a heartbeat, but we must look at the wider situation.
The Queen has caught all of Roawia on the hop. Her troops are everywhere and have seized control of everything. I have no doubt we could expel the force occupying Arrowford, but then what would happen? The Queen controls uncountable numbers, how long could we hold out against wave after wave of her troops, for her retribution for resistance will be swift and unyielding. The only way to defeat her is for all of Roawia to come together and form a coordinated resistance. She has the power to quash an individual uprising, but she cannot be everywhere at once."
"But our leaders are all imprisoned. How are we to get organised without them? She has fragmented all the lines of command and no one controls armies big enough to confront her."
"Why don't you take charge Thomas?"
"Me. Who's going to follow me?"
"We have followed you before. Our excursion into Lenfald was a success because of your organisational and planning skills. You have the makings of a good leader. Plus you carry the fabled Sword of Karlamac. I witnessed it's power in our Lenfald conquest. I could feel it's magic urging us on as we took that wall. With this you can inspire men in battle and conquer the odds, just as foretold in our legends."
"Ah, yes well I'm afraid I have a confession to make. The Sword of Karlamac is devoid of magic power. If the sword is not passed willingly on to the next owner the magic fades. I found the sword. It was not given to me. Therefore it no longer works. The taking of the wall was entirely down to your men's skill as warriors and probably because you were all pretty pumped up for battle. - Sorry. I was going to tell you."
Azru paused and strode over to look out over the vista. "I wonder if the sword could be made to work again?"
"Sorry?" said Thomas.
"Well, not that I know much about magic, but there's always seems to be some sort of work around with these things. Prophecies and legends are always written in such poetic language that things are never ironclad. It may be there is a way of fulfilling the requirements and reinstating the sword's power."
"I can't see that's going to work in this case though. The last owner of the sword has been dead for centuries. Assuming for one minute I did bump into him, and then supposing he decides he doesn't want his magic sword back. He's still not in any condition to say 'Nah, why don't you keep it' is he?"
"But this is the thing about magic, it's not always literal like that. There may be a way. I don't know what it is, but it may be possible. I think you need to speak with someone who knows more about these things."
"Who?"
"Well not in Loreos." Azru turned to the table and unfurled a map "For this I think you will have to head south. All the way south."
"The outlaw lands! Are you mad! There's a war on. Arrowford is being held hostage and you want me to go on a jolly into hostile outlaw lands, because maybe there might be someone who can possibly make my sword magic again, and that might in some way help us fight the Queen - You do realise every club owning outlaw has a particular grudge against people wearing red and gold and speaking Loreesi don't you?
Besides, I haven't got time to do that. I have to save my town."
"Thomas, your town will not be saved overnight. The Queen is too strong at the moment. We have to think about the long term. It will take time to organise a coordinated resistance. I can get that started. I have contacts all over Loreos and can start assembling a force that will be capable of not only taking back Arrowford, but also holding it against the inevitable Queen's wrath. Meanwhile, you must see if the sword can be fixed. If it can, then this could be the edge we need. At least think about it..."
Sorry about the pun at the end.
The map on the table is the creation of Mitah: www.flickr.com/photos/66475636@N02/
After last time, when I used it to find and occupy his lands, he made me promise to use it only for good. She's called an Evil Witch Queen and locked him in a dungeon. So I feel I'm on a winner.
The background is the result of me learning GIMP this morning.
Built for Lands of Classic Castle (LCC), see the full story here (if you have time on your hands)
www.flickr.com/photos/invictabricks/sets/72157629676259054/
If you want to create your own LCC character and join in the fun then have a look see here: www.classic-castle.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=23526
Descending was always going to be a totally different experience. With most fatalities in mountaineering happening on the way down it's really something I had to force myself to focus on.
We had reached our summit and while the elation lingers on, there is also the desire to get back to camp as soon as possible. We were tired and the day was getting on and we were retracing our steps. It was ground we had covered before.
Finding that right balance between moving efficiently and safely was what I was after. So, with all that practice self arresting, as soon as the terrain levelled out enough we slid down the slope with only our axes as brakes. Definitely quicker, but taxing on the upper body.
We picked the packs up again and headed home. Sitting on top of Sladen Saddle looking down Rod briefly had the thought of self arresting down there as well. But the remembrance that there were a few crevasses on the way down soon quashed that idea.
At this point in time the sun was going down. I wasn’t that worried about the light. The sky was clear and it was due to be a full moon which means as soon as the sun goes down, the moon comes up. And a full moon is very efficient at lighting the snow.
Now in my mind was that our water was almost out. Kind of ironic being surrounded in snow!
French postcard by Publistar, offered by Corvisart, Epinal, no. 889. Photo: Wiezniak / Philips.
Beautiful French actress Brigitte Bardot (1934) was the sex kitten of the European film industry. BB starred in 48 films, performed in numerous musical shows, and recorded 80 songs. After her retirement in 1973, she established herself as an animal rights activist and made vegetarianism sexy.
Brigitte Bardot was born in Paris in 1934. Her father, Louis Bardot, had an engineering degree and worked with his father in the family business. Her mother, Ann-Marie Mucel, was 14 years younger than Brigitte's father and they married in 1933. Brigitte's mother encouraged her daughter to take up music and dance. At the age of 13, she entered the Conservatoire Nationale de Danse to study ballet. By the time she was 15, Brigitte was trying a modeling career and found herself in May 1949 on the cover of French magazine Elle. Her incredible beauty readily apparent, Brigitte was noticed by Roger Vadim, then an assistant to the film director Marc Allegrét. Vadim was infatuated with Bardot and encouraged her to start working as a film actress. BB was 18 when she debuted in the comedy Le Trou Normand/Crazy for Love (Jean Boyer, 1952). In the same year, she married Vadim. Brigitte wanted to marry him when she was 17, but her parents quashed any marriage plans until she turned 18. In April 1953 she attended the Cannes Film Festival where she received massive media attention. She soon was every man's idea of the girl he'd like to meet in Paris. From 1952 to 1956 she appeared in seventeen films. Her films were generally lightweight romantic dramas in which she was cast as ingénue or siren, often with an element of undress. She made her first US production in 1953 in Un acte d'amour/Act of Love (Anatole Litvak, 1953) with Kirk Douglas, but she continued to make films in France.
Roger Vadim was not content with the light fare his wife was offered. He felt Brigitte Bardot was being undersold. Looking for something more like an art film to push her as a serious actress, he showcased her in Et Dieu créa la femme/...And God Created Woman (Roger Vadim, 1956). This film, about an immoral teenager in a respectable small-town setting, was a smashing success on both sides of the Atlantic. Craig Butler at AllMovie: "It's easy enough to say that ...And God Created Woman is much more important for its historical significance than for its actual quality as a film, and that's true to an extent. Woman's immense popularity, due to its willingness to directly embrace an exploration of sex as well as its willingness to show a degree of nudity that was remarkably daring for its day, demonstrated that audiences were willing to view subject matter that was considered too racy for the average moviegoer. This had both positive (freedom to explore, especially for the French filmmakers of the time) and negative (freedom to exploit) consequences, but its impact is undeniable. It's also true that Woman is not a great work of art, not with a story that is ultimately rather thin, some painful dialogue, and an attitude toward its characters and their sexuality that is unclear and inconsistent. Yet Woman is still fascinating, due in no small part to the presence of Brigitte Bardot in the role that made her an international star and sex symbol. She's not demonstrating great acting here, although her performance is actually good and much better than necessary, and her legendary mambo scene at the climax is nothing short of sensational." During the shooting of Et Dieu créa la femme/And God Created Woman (1956), directed by her husband Roger Vadim, Brigitte Bardot had an affair with her co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant, who at that time was married to French actress Stéphane Audran. Her divorce from Vadim followed, but they remained friends and collaborated in later work.
Et Dieu créa la femme/...And God Created Woman (Roger Vadim, 1956) helped her international status. The film took the USA by storm, her explosive sexuality being unlike anything seen in the States since the days of the 'flapper' in the 1920s. It gave rise to the phrase 'sex kitten' and fascination of her in America consisted of magazines photographs and dubbed over French films - good, bad, or indifferent, her films drew audiences - mainly men - into theaters like lemmings.BB appeared in light comedies like Doctor at Large (1957) - the third of the British 'Doctor' series starring Dirk Bogarde - and Une Parisienne/La Parisienne (Michel Boisrond, 1957) which suited her acting skills best. However, she was a sensation in the crime drama En cas de malheur/Love is my profession (Claude Autant-Lara, 1958). Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "this Brigitte Bardot vehicle ran into stiff opposition from the Catholic Legion of Decency, severely limiting its U.S. distribution. Bardot plays a nubile small-time thief named Yvette, who becomes the mistress of influential defense attorney Andre (Jean Gabin). Though Andre is able to shower Yvette with jewels and furs, he cannot "buy" her heart, and thus it is that it belongs to handsome young student Mazzetti (Franco Interlenghi). Alas, Yvette is no judge of human nature: attractive though Mazzetti can be, he has a dangerous-and deadly-side. En Cas de Malheur contains a nude scene that has since been reprinted in freeze-frame form innumerable times by both film-history books and girlie magazines." Photographer Sam Lévin's photos contributed considerably to her image of sensuality and slight immorality. One of Lévin's pictures shows Brigitte, dressed in a white corset. It is said that around 1960 postcards with this photograph outsold in Paris those of the Eiffel Tower.
Brigitte Bardot divorced Vadim in 1957 and in 1959 she married actor Jacques Charrier, with whom she starred in Babette s'en va-t-en guerre/Babette Goes to War (Christian-Jaque, 1959). The paparazzi preyed upon her marriage, while she and her husband clashed over the direction of her career. Her films became more substantial, but this brought a heavy pressure of dual celebrity as she sought critical acclaim while remaining a glamour model for most of the world. Vie privée/Private Life (1962), directed by Louis Malle has more than an element of autobiography in it. James Travers at Films de France: "Brigitte Bardot hadn’t quite reached the highpoint of her career when she agreed to make this film with high profile New Wave film director Louis Malle. Even so, the pressure of being a living icon was obviously beginning to get to France’s sex goddess and Vie privée is as much an attempt by Bardot to come to terms with her celebrity as anything else. Malle is clearly fascinated by Bardot and the documentary approach he adopts for this film reinforces the impression that it is more a biography of the actress than a work of fiction. Of course, it’s not entirely biographical, but the story is remarkably close to Bardot’s own life and comes pretty close to predicting how her career would end." The scene in which, returning to her apartment, Bardot's character is harangued in the elevator by a middle-aged cleaning lady calling her offensive names, was based on an actual incident and is a resonant image of celebrity in the mid-20th century. Soon afterward Bardot withdrew to the seclusion of Southern France.
Brigitte Bardot's other husbands were German millionaire playboy Gunter Sachs and right-wing politician Bernard d'Ormale. She is reputed to have had relationships with many other men including Sami Frey, her co-star in La Vérité/The Truth (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1960), and musicians Serge Gainsbourg and Sacha Distel. In 1963, Brigitte Bardot starred in Godard's critically acclaimed film Le Mépris/Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963). She was also featured along with such notable actors as Alain Delon in Amours célèbres/Famous Love Affairs (Michel Boisrond, 1961) and Histoires extraordinaires/Tales of Mystery (Louis Malle, 1968), Jeanne Moreau in Viva Maria! (Louis Malle, 1965), Sean Connery in Shalako (Edward Dmytryk, 1968), and Claudia Cardinale in Les Pétroleuses/Petroleum Girls (Christian-Jaque, 1971). She participated in various musical shows and recorded many popular songs in the 1960s and 1970s, mostly in collaboration with Serge Gainsbourg, Bob Zagury and Sacha Distel, including 'Harley Davidson', 'Le Soleil De Ma Vie' (the cover of Stevie Wonder's 'You Are the Sunshine of My Life') and the notorious 'Je t'aime... moi non plus'.
Brigitte Bardot’s film career showed a steady decline in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1973 just before her fortieth birthday, she announced her retirement. She chose to use her fame to promote animal rights. In 1976 she established the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Welfare and Protection of Animals. She became a vegetarian and raised three million French francs to fund the foundation by auctioning off jewelry and many personal belongings. For this work, she was awarded the Légion d’honneur in 1984. During the 1990's she became also outspoken in her criticism of immigration, interracial relationships, Islam in France and homosexuality. Her husband Bernard d'Ormal is a former adviser of the far-right Front National party. Bardot has been convicted five times for 'inciting racial hatred'. More fun is that Bardot is recognised for popularizing bikini swimwear, in early films such as Manina/Woman without a Veil (1952), in her appearances at Cannes and in many photoshoots. Bardot also brought into fashion the choucroute ('Sauerkraut') hairstyle (a sort of beehive hairstyle) and gingham clothes after wearing a checkered pink dress, designed by Jacques Esterel, at her wedding to Charrier. The fashions of the 1960s looked effortlessly right and spontaneous on her. Time Magazine: "She is the princess of pout, the countess of come hither. Brigitte Bardot exuded a carefree, naïve sexuality that brought a whole new audience to French films."
Sources: Denny Jackson (IMDb), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Craig Butler (AllMovie), James Travers (Films de France), Films de France, Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Sir Thomas Brisbane:
Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane (1773-1860), governor, was born on 23 July 1773 at Brisbane House, near Largs, Ayrshire, son of a family of ancient Scottish lineage. He was educated by tutors and attended both the University of Edinburgh and the English Academy, Kensington. In 1789 he was commissioned an ensign in the 38th Regiment, which next year he joined in Ireland; there he struck up a long and profitable friendship with a fellow subaltern, Arthur Wellesley. From 1793 to 1798 he served in Flanders as a captain, from 1795 to 1799 in the West Indies as a major, and from 1800 to 1803 he commanded the 69th Regiment in Jamaica as a lieutenant-colonel, earning high praise from the governor, Sir George Nugent. From 1803 to 1805 he served in England, but when the 69th was ordered to India went on half-pay in Scotland because of his health.
He then was able to indulge his interest in astronomy, which he developed after nearly being involved in a shipwreck in 1795, and in 1808 he built at Brisbane House the second observatory in Scotland. In 1810 he was promoted colonel and elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London, and in 1812 at Wellington's request he was promoted brigadier-general. He commanded a brigade which was heavily engaged in the battles of the Peninsular war from Vittoria to Toulouse, and continued to practise his astronomy so that in Wellington's words, he 'kept the time of the army'. In 1815 he was created a K.C.B., received the thanks of parliament, and commanded a brigade in the American war. From 1815 to 1818 he commanded a division in the army of occupation in France and in 1817 he was created a K.C.H. (G.C.H., 1831). He returned to England in 1818 and next year married Anna Maria, daughter and heiress of Sir Henry Hay Makdougall of Makerstoun, Scotland, whose surname he added to his own by letters patent on 14 August 1826. In 1815 he applied for appointment as governor of New South Wales, but the post was not then vacant; in November 1820 on Wellington's advice Brisbane, then in command of the Munster district in Ireland, was appointed. He arrived in the colony on 7 November 1821 and took over from Governor Lachlan Macquarie on 1 December.
Brisbane's policies for the colony were usually sensible answers to pressing problems, based on Commissioner John Thomas Bigge's report and the instructions derived from it, modified by his own impressions. Though he was on good terms with Macquarie he condemned the latter's 'system' and told Earl Bathurst later that he had changed New South Wales in so many ways that if Macquarie had returned 'he would not have recognised the place'.
When Brisbane arrived 340,000 acres (137,593 ha) of promised grants had still to be located and there were many confused permissive occupancies and nebulous promises. Lands were occupied and transferred without legal title, and boundary disputes seemed never ending. Proper survey was essential for a workable policy of alienation to be evolved, and the Ripon regulations of 1831 were made to a large extent possible by the practical development of the policies which Brisbane had implemented.
In 1822 he issued tickets-of-occupation which enabled land to be immediately occupied without a preliminary survey and graziers to be given security against trespass without the land being permanently alienated. Additional assistant surveyors were appointed to reduce arrears in the surveying and granting of land, but Brisbane promised land only to those with the inclination and ability to use it productively, forbade the acceptance of chits signed by irresponsible persons as valid titles, and gave tickets-of-occupation only when extra stock had actually been obtained. He granted land to sons of established settlers only if their fathers' properties had been considerably improved, and to immigrants in proportion to their capital. He was reluctant to make grants to his newly-appointed officials, even though this subjected him 'to a most unpleasant feeling'. In order to promote settlement of the colony by settlers who really wanted to improve the land and to deter speculators with fictitious capital, he insisted that grantees should maintain one convict labourer, free of expense to the Crown, for every 100 acres (40 ha) they were given, and he maintained this rule against criticism from the Colonial Office that it would hamper settlement. Brisbane insisted that although the regulation had been temporarily unpopular genuine settlers did not oppose it, for convict servants were coming to be looked on as a boon. It would help to control the intense demand for land, though even that check would not be sufficient. 'Not a cow calves in the colony but her owner applies for an additional grant in consequence of the increase in his stock', he wrote. 'Every person to whom a grant is made receives it as the payment of a debt; everyone to whom one is refused turns my implacable enemy'. He asked the British government 'to fix an invariable proportion of land to be cultivated in every grant' and to appoint a Commission of Escheat, for without it, since a judgment by Barron Field, the 'clearing and cultivating clauses' in the grants had become 'a dead letter'. The instructions on the disposal of crown lands which were sent from London in January 1825 owed so much to Brisbane's advice that he found 'great satisfaction' in noticing 'the very prominent similarity' between them and the practice he had been following in New South Wales.
Acting on one of Bigge's suggestions Brisbane in 1824 had begun selling crown lands, at 5s. an acre. 'While the system of free grants exists, there is little chance of extensive improvement taking place generally in the colony, as the improver of land can never enter the market in competition with the individual who gets his land for nothing', Brisbane told Bathurst. Between May and December 1825 more than 500,000 acres (202,345 ha) were sold. In land policy Brisbane had recognized the need to encourage men of capital, though at the same time opposing over-lavish land grants. Seeing the need for consolidation rather than expansion, and for more accurate surveys of the settled areas, he gave less encouragement to land exploration than either his predecessors or successors, but he continued, as instructed, to organize coastal surveys.
Brisbane received from Bathurst full instructions on convict affairs, derived from Bigge's report. These were based on the belief that Macquarie had been too lenient and too extravagant, and Brisbane conscientiously carried them out. He rigidly adhered to the rules against the premature granting of tickets-of-leave. He reduced the number of road-gangs, whose members often indulged in dissipation and crime, and the numbers employed on public works in Sydney, and organized in their place gangs to clear land for settlers in return for payment to the government; this greatly speeded up the rate of clearing. He ordered convict mechanics to be hired instead of being assigned; this brought in revenue and made for a more efficient distribution of labour. He established new centres of secondary punishment as Bigge had recommended, first at Moreton Bay and later at Bathurst's suggestion on Norfolk Island, and he sent educated convicts to be confined first at Bathurst and later at Wellington valley, but he opposed excessive corporal punishment, reprieved many prisoners sentenced to death and was criticized by Bathurst for his improvidence in granting pardons.
Brisbane set up an agricultural training college and was the first patron of the New South Wales Agricultural Society, founded in 1822, which among other activities, financed the importation of livestock. On Bathurst's instructions, he drastically reduced the assistance given to new settlers and so, by making it virtually impracticable to begin farming without capital, helped to improve production. He conducted experiments in growing Virginian tobacco, Georgian cotton, Brazilian coffee and New Zealand flax, but unfortunately without much success.
Brisbane looked forward to getting the 'Colony on to its own Resources' and regarded the achievement of economy in government expenditure as one of his major successes. In 1822, on the advice of Frederick Goulburn, colonial secretary, and William Wemyss, deputy commissary general, he initiated currency reforms by which commissariat payments were to be made in dollars at a fixed value of 5s. or about one-eighth above their intrinsic value. This attempt to set up a dollar standard was intended both to reduce expenditure and to provide the colony with a coinage which would prevent a repetition of the issue of store receipts as practised by the former commissary, Frederick Drennan, and it would discourage imports by depreciating the local currency. But the system was not a success and after the terms on which the dollars would be received had been modified the dollar standard was replaced by a sterling exchange standard on instructions sent from London in July 1825. In 1823 all commissariat supplies were called by tender, though the introduction of price competition hurt small farmers and favoured the larger ones; when only three month's grain was bought by tender, instead of a year's at a fixed price, a minor depression occurred, but this was partly due to the suddenness of the change.
Brisbane was devout and broadminded in religious matters, and prepared to support any sect that did not threaten the state. He encouraged Wesleyan societies, advocated and gave financial aid to the Roman Catholics, but opposed what he regarded as extravagant demands by the Presbyterians, considering them wealthy enough to build their own church. He supported Bible and tract societies. He attempted to encourage education by appointing a director-general of all government public schools, but this was quashed by the Colonial Office. He believed that clergy, like government officials, should not indulge in private trade, which of course made him unpopular with Samuel Marsden. His policy towards Aboriginals was ambivalent. On one occasion he ordered some to be shot; on another he imposed martial law beyond the Blue Mountains because of 'the aggressions of the Native Blacks'. However, he favoured compensating them for lost land, and in 1825 granted the London Missionary Society 10,000 acres (4047 ha) as an Aboriginal reserve.
Like other governors, Brisbane found the emancipist-exclusive quarrel a major difficulty, and the success of many of his policies was vitiated because some of his officials ignored him and favoured the exclusives. Brisbane himself did not have great faith in the future of a colony based on emancipists; but though he preferred the large-scale immigration of free settlers, especially those with capital, his cautious liberalism was to the emancipists' tastes. Unlike the exclusives, they gave him a warm farewell. Brisbane appears to have believed, as he said at a public meeting just before he left, that free institutions could be safely established in New South Wales. In 1824 he did not apply any censorship when William Charles Wentworth's Australian began publication, and ended control of the Gazette by government officials. He ordered the holding of Courts of Quarter Sessions at which there would be trial by jury, an experiment which Chief Justice (Sir) Francis Forbes reported to have been very successful; they were abolished by the Act of 1828, but not before the exclusives had grossly misused them at Parramatta in their vendetta against Henry Grattan Douglass. The Legislative Council set up by the New South Wales Act of 1823, which began meeting in August 1824, operated calmly under his rule and began the process of reducing the powers of the governor from the autocracy of the past.
At first Brisbane had too few men to do the work of government; by 1824 he found himself with a number of departmental heads appointed independently of him, varying in ability, at odds with each other and the government. He thought Judge Barron Field and Judge-Advocate (Sir) John Wylde responsible for much of the party feeling in the colony, and was heartily glad to see them go in 1824, but John Oxley, Saxe Bannister and Frederick Goulburn were also sources of trouble. Men like George Druitt, John Jamison, Marsden, John Dunmore Lang, the Macarthurs and the Blaxlands frequently made vicious misrepresentations in London about Brisbane's administration. They gave the governor much to contend with and, though he 'evinced a forbearance amounting to Stoicism', in the end he felt compelled to remove some 'exclusive' magistrates for grossly improper behaviour. It was partly to counter their misrepresentations that he sent Dr Douglass to London in February 1824, but his patronage of Douglass, who was in trouble with the War Office, in the end contributed to his recall. Brisbane did not find Goulburn easy to work with and in January 1824 asked for an assistant-secretary. Goulburn refused to carry out some of Brisbane's instructions; he suppressed letters or answered them without reference to the governor; on 19 April 1824 he even claimed that the governor's proclamations and orders were invalid unless they went through his department. Such conduct Brisbane clearly could not countenance and he protested to the Colonial Office; the reply in December was the recall of both governor and secretary, and in November 1825 Brisbane departed.
Brisbane did not concern himself with all the details of his administration; but a governor could no longer attend to everything. The colony had expanded in size in recent years, and Macquarie had ruined his health and peace of mind by a concern with every administrative detail and petty squabble as Governor (Sir) Ralph Darling was soon to do also. Brisbane had worked well with Lieutenant-Governors William Sorell and (Sir) George Arthur in Van Diemen's Land, which was still under his jurisdiction, and he had no trouble there. Unfriendly contemporaries, Marsden, Archdeacon Thomas Scott and the Macarthurs, found Brisbane amiable, impartial but weak. His enemies accused him of a lack of interest in the colony, but this was untrue. Judge Forbes, whom he found 'a great blessing', praised his work; an emancipist address on his departure spoke of 'a mild, an unpartial, and a firm administration'; but soon afterwards John Dunmore Lang was to make what became the standard comment on his governorship; 'a man of the best intentions, but disinclined to business, and deficient in energy'. Of the quality of his intentions there is little doubt: highly patriotic, and regarding New South Wales as being of considerable moral, political and strategic value to the United Kingdom, he was genuinely concerned in its future progress. The stock criticisms, that he was weak and lacked interest in administrative detail, either because he was lazy or more concerned with 'star-gazing', are very misleading. 'In place of passing my time in the Observatory or shooting Parrots, I am seldom employed in either. And Altho' I rise oftener at 5 o'clock in the Morning than after, I cannot get thro' the various and arduous duties of my Government', he wrote. Brisbane had been a very respected and successful soldier, as indicated by Nugent's admiration and Wellington's occasional recorded praise and continued championship. Brisbane's dispatches are permeated with bitter realism about the greed and duplicity of leading colonists, and his policies for the colony were usually sensible. He was ready to delegate work to subordinates who were too often untrustworthy, but he was extremely diligent in the duties which he undertook himself as pertinent to his office. Sensitive, respectful to others, and never vindictive, he was rather out of his element when surrounded by the arrogance of the New South Wales magistracy, the disloyalty and factiousness of officials and the explosive rifts in colonial society. At the same time a more forceful man, living in Sydney not Parramatta, who ignored his wife and infant family (two of whom were born in the colony and a third on the voyage home), would probably have had more success in overcoming his difficulties. It was an unhappy period in Brisbane's life and, as Wellington commented on his recall, 'there are many brave men not fit to be governors of colonies'.
His astronomical activities had continued in Australia and indeed were probably a reason for his seeking the appointment. He built an observatory at Parramatta and made the first observations of stars in the southern hemisphere since Lacaille's in 1751-52 of which he published an account. 'Science' was 'not allowed to flag'. When he departed he left his astronomical instruments and 349 volumes of his scientific library to the colony, as he wanted his name to be associated with 'the furtherance of Science'; but he had had to leave most of his observatory work to Christian Rümker. There is little reference to astronomy in his letters after 1823, but he kept up his interest and in 1828 reported on the subject to the Royal Society, London. His astronomical achievements indeed brought him as much fame as his military and vice-regal career. When in 1823 Oxford University made him a D.C.L. he wrote that 'no Roman General ever felt prouder of the Corona Triumphatus … than I do on this occasion'. In 1826 he built another observatory at Makerstoun. Later he became president of the Edinburgh Astronomical Institution and did much to make the Edinburgh Royal Observatory highly efficient. In 1832 he was elected president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in succession to Sir Walter Scott. In 1836 he was created a baronet, in 1837 awarded a G.C.B. and in 1841 promoted general. In 1826 he had been given command of the 34th Regiment; in 1836 he was offered the command of the troops in the North American colonies, but refused on grounds of ill health, as he did in 1838 when offered the Indian command. In 1858, when he was 'the oldest officer in the Army' he twice sought a field-marshal's baton; but though asked for without emolument it was refused. Much of his later life was occupied in paternal works at Largs. He improved its drainage, endowed a parish school and the Largs Brisbane Academy. Predeceased by his four children, he died on 27 January 1860, after enjoying locally great popularity and respect. The city of Brisbane, Queensland’s capital since 1859, was founded as a convict settlement in 1824, and it and its river were named for the governor at the suggestion of the explorer Oxley, the first European to survey the area. Brisbane himself visited the new settlement that year. It was declared a town in 1834 and opened for free settlement in 1839.
Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography.
The Heian Period (10th Century) Princess Takiyasha summoning a gashadokuro (skeleton spectre) to frighten Ōya no Mitsukuni, who has been sent to quash her rebellion against the emperor.
The Plaza Hotel is a luxury hotel on Fifth Avenue in NYC.The Hotel has 19 stories.It's 250 ft high (76m) and 400 ft (122m) wide.It opened October 1,1907.Architect:Henry Janeway Hardenbergh Cost:$125 million in 1907.Style French Renaissance Chateau.A single room per night at the time was $2.50 (a NYC train fare,one way).Today,that same room will cost you $975 and up per night!Many famous singers have performed at the Plaza.The Beatles stayed at the Hotel during their first visit to the US in February 1964. Past owners:Conrad Hilton bought the Hotel for 7.4 million in 1943.The Child's Company (a national restaurant chain) bought it in 1955 for $1.1 million shares valued at $6.325 million.Donald Trump bought the Plaza for $407.5 million in 1988.He said in an open letter in the NY Times that he hadn't purchased a building,but a "masterpiece-the Mona Lisa". Current owner:Sahara India Pariwar bought the Hotel for $570 million on July 31,2012 agreeing to buy it with a 75 percent controlling stake that included 100 of the Plaza's 150 hotel-condo rooms.In 2014,Sahara's Subrata Roy announced he was seeking a buyer for the Plaza and two other buildings and their stakes,New York's Dream Hotel and London's Grosvenor House Hotel.The stake for the Plaza alone was set at $4 billion!.Speculation that the Sultan of Brunei could but the buyer was quashed by the Sultan. Mr. Roy is currently in jail in India for non-refund of certain unpaid bonds ($6 billion!) to investors and his company is trying to raise money for his bail through sale of some of his assets including the Plaza.Oh,well-Wikipedia.Other of Hardenbergh's buildings are in the tags.
Dutch postcard by Uitgeverij Takken, Utrecht, no. AX 4903. Photo: Dalmas. Brigitte Bardot plays the guitar in the TV show Happy New Year Brigitte, which aired on the evening of 31 December 1961.
Beautiful French actress Brigitte Bardot (1934) was the sex kitten of the European film industry. BB starred in 48 films, performed in numerous musical shows, and recorded 80 songs. After her retirement in 1973, she established herself as an animal rights activist and made vegetarianism sexy.
Brigitte Bardot was born in Paris in 1934. Her father, Louis Bardot, had an engineering degree and worked with his father in the family business. Her mother, Ann-Marie Mucel, was 14 years younger than Brigitte's father and they married in 1933. Brigitte's mother encouraged her daughter to take up music and dance. At the age of 13, she entered the Conservatoire Nationale de Danse to study ballet. By the time she was 15, Brigitte was trying a modeling career and found herself in May 1949 on the cover of French magazine Elle. Her incredible beauty readily apparent, Brigitte was noticed by Roger Vadim, then an assistant to the film director Marc Allegrét. Vadim was infatuated with Bardot and encouraged her to start working as a film actress. BB was 18 when she debuted in the comedy Le Trou Normand/Crazy for Love (Jean Boyer, 1952). In the same year, she married Vadim. Brigitte wanted to marry him when she was 17, but her parents quashed any marriage plans until she turned 18. In April 1953 she attended the Cannes Film Festival where she received massive media attention. She soon was every man's idea of the girl he'd like to meet in Paris. From 1952 to 1956 she appeared in seventeen films. Her films were generally lightweight romantic dramas in which she was cast as ingénue or siren, often with an element of undress. She made her first US production in 1953 in Un acte d'amour/Act of Love (Anatole Litvak, 1953) with Kirk Douglas, but she continued to make films in France.
Roger Vadim was not content with the light fare his wife was offered. He felt Brigitte Bardot was being undersold. Looking for something more like an art film to push her as a serious actress, he showcased her in Et Dieu créa la femme/...And God Created Woman (Roger Vadim, 1956). This film, about an immoral teenager in a respectable small-town setting, was a smashing success on both sides of the Atlantic. Craig Butler at AllMovie: "It's easy enough to say that ...And God Created Woman is much more important for its historical significance than for its actual quality as a film, and that's true to an extent. Woman's immense popularity, due to its willingness to directly embrace an exploration of sex as well as its willingness to show a degree of nudity that was remarkably daring for its day, demonstrated that audiences were willing to view subject matter that was considered too racy for the average moviegoer. This had both positive (freedom to explore, especially for the French filmmakers of the time) and negative (freedom to exploit) consequences, but its impact is undeniable. It's also true that Woman is not a great work of art, not with a story that is ultimately rather thin, some painful dialogue, and an attitude toward its characters and their sexuality that is unclear and inconsistent. Yet Woman is still fascinating, due in no small part to the presence of Brigitte Bardot in the role that made her an international star and sex symbol. She's not demonstrating great acting here, although her performance is actually good and much better than necessary, and her legendary mambo scene at the climax is nothing short of sensational." During the shooting of Et Dieu créa la femme/And God Created Woman (1956), directed by her husband Roger Vadim, Brigitte Bardot had an affair with her co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant, who at that time was married to French actress Stéphane Audran. Her divorce from Vadim followed, but they remained friends and collaborated in later work.
Et Dieu créa la femme/...And God Created Woman (Roger Vadim, 1956) helped her international status. The film took the USA by storm, her explosive sexuality being unlike anything seen in the States since the days of the 'flapper' in the 1920s. It gave rise to the phrase 'sex kitten' and fascination of her in America consisted of magazines photographs and dubbed over French films - good, bad, or indifferent, her films drew audiences - mainly men - into theaters like lemmings.BB appeared in light comedies like Doctor at Large (1957) - the third of the British 'Doctor' series starring Dirk Bogarde - and Une Parisienne/La Parisienne (Michel Boisrond, 1957) which suited her acting skills best. However, she was a sensation in the crime drama En cas de malheur/Love is my profession (Claude Autant-Lara, 1958). Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "this Brigitte Bardot vehicle ran into stiff opposition from the Catholic Legion of Decency, severely limiting its U.S. distribution. Bardot plays a nubile small-time thief named Yvette, who becomes the mistress of influential defense attorney Andre (Jean Gabin). Though Andre is able to shower Yvette with jewels and furs, he cannot "buy" her heart, and thus it is that it belongs to handsome young student Mazzetti (Franco Interlenghi). Alas, Yvette is no judge of human nature: attractive though Mazzetti can be, he has a dangerous-and deadly-side. En Cas de Malheur contains a nude scene that has since been reprinted in freeze-frame form innumerable times by both film-history books and girlie magazines." Photographer Sam Lévin's photos contributed considerably to her image of sensuality and slight immorality. One of Lévin's pictures shows Brigitte, dressed in a white corset. It is said that around 1960 postcards with this photograph outsold in Paris those of the Eiffel Tower.
Brigitte Bardot divorced Vadim in 1957 and in 1959 she married actor Jacques Charrier, with whom she starred in Babette s'en va-t-en guerre/Babette Goes to War (Christian-Jaque, 1959). The paparazzi preyed upon her marriage, while she and her husband clashed over the direction of her career. Her films became more substantial, but this brought a heavy pressure of dual celebrity as she sought critical acclaim while remaining a glamour model for most of the world. Vie privée/Private Life (1962), directed by Louis Malle has more than an element of autobiography in it. James Travers at Films de France: "Brigitte Bardot hadn’t quite reached the highpoint of her career when she agreed to make this film with high profile New Wave film director Louis Malle. Even so, the pressure of being a living icon was obviously beginning to get to France’s sex goddess and Vie privée is as much an attempt by Bardot to come to terms with her celebrity as anything else. Malle is clearly fascinated by Bardot and the documentary approach he adopts for this film reinforces the impression that it is more a biography of the actress than a work of fiction. Of course, it’s not entirely biographical, but the story is remarkably close to Bardot’s own life and comes pretty close to predicting how her career would end." The scene in which, returning to her apartment, Bardot's character is harangued in the elevator by a middle-aged cleaning lady calling her offensive names, was based on an actual incident and is a resonant image of celebrity in the mid-20th century. Soon afterward Bardot withdrew to the seclusion of Southern France.
Brigitte Bardot's other husbands were German millionaire playboy Gunter Sachs and right-wing politician Bernard d'Ormale. She is reputed to have had relationships with many other men including Sami Frey, her co-star in La Vérité/The Truth (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1960), and musicians Serge Gainsbourg and Sacha Distel. In 1963, Brigitte Bardot starred in Godard's critically acclaimed film Le Mépris/Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963). She was also featured along with such notable actors as Alain Delon in Amours célèbres/Famous Love Affairs (Michel Boisrond, 1961) and Histoires extraordinaires/Tales of Mystery (Louis Malle, 1968), Jeanne Moreau in Viva Maria! (Louis Malle, 1965), Sean Connery in Shalako (Edward Dmytryk, 1968), and Claudia Cardinale in Les Pétroleuses/Petroleum Girls (Christian-Jaque, 1971). She participated in various musical shows and recorded many popular songs in the 1960s and 1970s, mostly in collaboration with Serge Gainsbourg, Bob Zagury and Sacha Distel, including 'Harley Davidson', 'Le Soleil De Ma Vie' (the cover of Stevie Wonder's 'You Are the Sunshine of My Life') and the notorious 'Je t'aime... moi non plus'.
Brigitte Bardot’s film career showed a steady decline in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1973 just before her fortieth birthday, she announced her retirement. She chose to use her fame to promote animal rights. In 1976 she established the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Welfare and Protection of Animals. She became a vegetarian and raised three million French francs to fund the foundation by auctioning off jewelry and many personal belongings. For this work, she was awarded the Légion d’honneur in 1984. During the 1990's she became also outspoken in her criticism of immigration, interracial relationships, Islam in France and homosexuality. Her husband Bernard d'Ormal is a former adviser of the far-right Front National party. Bardot has been convicted five times for 'inciting racial hatred'. More fun is that Bardot is recognised for popularizing bikini swimwear, in early films such as Manina/Woman without a Veil (1952), in her appearances at Cannes and in many photoshoots. Bardot also brought into fashion the choucroute ('Sauerkraut') hairstyle (a sort of beehive hairstyle) and gingham clothes after wearing a checkered pink dress, designed by Jacques Esterel, at her wedding to Charrier. The fashions of the 1960s looked effortlessly right and spontaneous on her. Time Magazine: "She is the princess of pout, the countess of come hither. Brigitte Bardot exuded a carefree, naïve sexuality that brought a whole new audience to French films."
Sources: Denny Jackson (IMDb), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Craig Butler (AllMovie), James Travers (Films de France), Films de France, Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.