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Railway Support Services (RSS) 08511 at Cambridge on the back of a low loader ready to leave Cambridge (destination Eastleigh) - The shunter is no longer required to shunt GA Class 317's in/out on Coldham Lane TMD for repair / refurbishment.
I think I can place this image in the “never before seen” category. The main subject here is a micrometeorite smaller than a grain of sand. On the sides, we see rough natural diamonds with impurities that cause them to fluoresce. The diamonds are bathed in ultraviolet light, causing them to emit visible light – the diamonds are the source of light for this photo. Light within diamonds illuminating stardust.
Taken with a Mitutoyo Plan APO 20x microscope objective, the full image required 575 frames to focus stack. The stacking was done with a continuous light source, so the best option here is to switch your camera to an electronic shutter. At these magnifications, the mechanical shutter shakes the camera enough to create blurry images when not using flash. The software used here is important: Helicon Focus. It’s by far the most efficient and powerful tool for extensive focus stacking, but more importantly: The company is based in Kharkiv, Ukraine. If you’re into macro photography and microscopy, check them out: www.heliconsoft.com/ - they have a 20% off sale right now.
The situation in Ukraine is optimistic and dire simultaneously, with constant bombardment from Russian missiles aimed at civilian infrastructure. Putin’s Russia is attempting to destroy the electricity grid which would keep Ukrainians in the dark, and without heat. Such an act on its own could be considered a genocide by the Geneva Conventions, on top of the other genocidal war crimes already committed in 2022… and earlier. The true spirit of Ukraine was seen over the holidays, when those without power helped others in their community, uniting strangers for essential aid but also festive cheer.
The world continues to send aid to Ukraine. The first US “Patriot” missile defense system is reported to be en route to Ukraine. A month ago, the Bulgarian government formally announced that they are sending military equipment and weapons to support Ukraine. Weapons manufacturers around the world are making ammunition as quickly as possible to replenish stockpiles from those that have given the Ukrainian military everything they could. The “war machine” around the planet is in motion.
It feels like the world is watching from the sidelines, with the goal of destroying Russia while simultaneously being weary of China. The goal should be for Ukraine to win, but to offer too much support too quickly would possibly cause Russia to back away with a massive military still intact… or use the unthinkably devastating weapons. The goal seems to be wearing down the Russian forces until there is nothing left, while cruise missiles impact on homes and hotels. Innocent lives are lost in the process.
Sanctions appear to be working, but Russian weapons are still being built. Cruise missiles recently launched at Ukrainian civilian targets can be traced to manufacturing dates in September 2022. Drones continue to arrive from Iran, though thankfully they have been largely ineffective on the battlefield and are shot out of the sky. Rumours of weapons shipments from North Korea are gaining credibility. Weapons alone cannot win a war, and Russia is running very low on its most important asset: trained soldiers.
The losses continue in huge numbers, with over 700 Russian soldiers killed in action every day. Many of these men have almost no training, and are being sent to areas such as Bakhmut where the Ukrainian forces decimate wave after wave of frontal attacks, losing no ground in the process.
Soon, the fields will be frozen. New territory will be liberated by the Ukrainian people. I sincerely hope that when the front line is broken once again, the Russian efforts will dissolve along with their current government. Some sources suggest that Putin has a plan to escape to Venezuela if his government collapses, although such things are impossible to verify. This winter will be the most important phase of this global conflict.
Do you sit back and watch? Most of us do. This is a reminder that you can do something to help. Write to your politicians and say that you’d rather Ukraine win swiftly at this point, since Russia is no longer a threat to the West. You can create artwork, you can donate money, and you can vote with your wallet. Personally, I now avoid buying anything from a company that still operates in Russia. You can find that list here: www.dontfundwar.com/directory . There are companies in Ukraine you can support as well – I previously mentioned HeliconSoft, but I’ve purchased some delicious spices from this store: www.ebay.com/str/ethnofoods . I’m certain there are countless other things that can be sourced from Ukraine (I’m a big fan of cast iron cookware made in Ukraine from BIOL and Maysternya).
Stay safe out there, folks. To my friends and family in Ukraine, I think about you every day. Слава Україні!
153365 stands at platform 1 at Rugeley Trent Valley station waiting to lead a 153/170 combo back to Birmingham New Street.
As we pulled the cover over my car, I spotted this dead bee on the fabric. I hadn't seen one like it before. I looked in my bee book and think it is Lipotriches (Austronomia) australica. While I was sad to see it had died in the folds of the cover, it did provide me a great opportunity to photograph it closely. It reminded me of those big displays in museums, only this one didn't have a pin stuck through it!
Insomniacs of the world unite!
I am dead on me feet people. I've been working really hard and just need five minutes time out. A crate seems a perfect place to get some shut eye. I am really tired!
Early colour lights the sky on my local beach at Sandsend [looking towards Whitby]. My wife had told me that dawn might be rather nice. I jokingly tell friends that beachwear consists of a heavy coat, waterproof over-trousers and neoprene Wellington boots - with temperatures around freezing, I'm sure you'll understand.
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Monsterpack comes with HUD of fulls colors + 3 Exclusives
and FOR THE MOMENT, exobyte HUD do not include only specular and normal map to be changed alone, so waiting this to be fixed Y.Y, I only put one for Moon colors sorry.)
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Grab your flippers and beach towel and make waves in this sexy swimwear.
Merkini set includes cute mermaid top, tight bikini bottoms and unrigged starfish.
Rigged for Maitreya and Petite, Hourglass, Freya, Legacy & Kupra mesh bodies in Second Life.
Multiple color options and fatpack option are available.
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Some games require so much effort, so much attentive practice, that most people would consider them work, rather than games.
You play these games or you don't play them. What you can't do is play at playing them.
Chomutov 1989
Analogue Slide scan
Kodak Film Ektachrome 100
Camera Canon A1
17.08.1989 - CSSR trip with a visa still required in the passport at the time.
Czechoslovak Socialist Republic
*PBR viewer required*
Clover - Tear Flood
The Clover Tear Flood takes *Crying you a river* into a realm of its own.
This fun animesh attachment/gesture floods your avatar with water as you cry, using particles, animesh attachments, scripts, and animations to do the trick.
Includes 2 eye attachments for tears, and the animesh object that you position under your avatars feet, and it slowly floods your avatar. With actual fluid movement (From animesh.) The textures are PBR only but you can also modify this object as you want to change the look.
The Warehouse Sale opens April 23rd!
All it requires is for you to realize that you are responsible for all that you are and all that you are not, all that may happen to you and all that may not happen to you.
#nepal #nepal8thwonder #wow #wownepal #NepalIsBeautiful #explore #explorenepal #explorehimalayas #landscape #landscape_captures #mountains #adventure #trek #trekkinginnepal #VisitNepal #travelnepal #awesomenepal #himalayas #himalayasnepal #annapurna #annapurnaregion #annapurnarange #annapurnas #tourism
It looks much worse than it was, but still required a head for heights. This 24 mile marathon must easily fit within my all time best ten mountain hikes.
This particular day we set off early to complete the Dawson, Pitamaken loop, which has to be one of the most stupendous hikes I have ever undertaken. Our route would take us through forest for a few miles, alongside and way above a few isolated mountain lakes and then along a traverse which hugged the side of Flinsch Peak where this image was taken. Once we reached the bealach around the far side I dumped my rucksack and scooted off up to the summit of this wonderfully remote nine thousand foot peak. My issue here was that no one else wanted to extend the climb so whilst they disgruntledly waited for me to return they chose to partially fill my ruck sack with rocks. It was only six miles later when I realised what they had done. Had my hiking pals done right adding to my load, well they would say so given the fact that we missed the last boat of the day back to the campsite and had to walk. In fact matters became worse when we realised the track around the short side of Two Medicine Lake was closed due to bear activety, so instead we had to take the additional five mile route the long way back. I wasn't popular, but then I was the only one who had climbed anything that day.
Rose Sissi by Daniel Arrhakis (2023)
Rose Sissi, Blue Moon, Mainzer Fastnacht , Blue Monday, Navo-Rose, etc. Bred by Mathias Tantau, Jr. (1912 - 2006) (Germany, 1964).
This large flowered hybrid Tea Rose is one of the "Blue /Lavender Roses". The flowers are larger, and full-petaled, 40 petals, with high centers and good symmetry and they last well.
They are sweetly fragrant and the plant grows vigorously.
Can be used for cut flower, exhibition or garden. Hardy, prefers warmer sites and requires spring freeze protection.
Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
You are free to:
Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material
for any purpose, even commercially.
Challenged just to find shoes that worked and a box to prop them against. Too low and too little light will require me to rejig my workspace. The drawing itself want to bad when I finally got started but I was rushed and it shows but didn't feel rushed
During my last day of shooting in Le Puy-en-Velay (March 9, 2023), I managed to complete all the subjects that required additional photography, and to extensively shoot the last item on my bucket list, i.e., the spectacular Saint-Michel d’Aiguilhe chapel which I will show in a few days.
My first goal was to photograph the “inner” statuary in the canons’ cloister, i.e. the items that are only visible from the central space (préau in French), as opposed to the galleries. In monasteries, that space was often used as an herb garden, particularly when safe space was at a premium elsewhere. However, in the case of Le Puy and its secular canons, very often the offspring from the wealthiest families, there were other sources of supply, should herbs be needed, and aside from framing the central well, the purpose assigned to that space was most probably very similar to what it is now: a pleasure garden.
Bearing that in mind (and, no doubt, the designers of the cloister did), it is not surprising that we should find, on this inner side, one of the wildest collections of monsters, devils and sinners ever devised by the fertile imagination of Mediæval sculptors: while meditation in the galleries took place among virtuous and God-pleasing representations, the canons (or those who cared, at least) were reminded by that gallery of monsters and vices that basking leisurely in the sun in the garden wasn’t too good for their karma, if I dare say.
A thin sculpted frieze that runs for dozens of meters around a central square is very difficult to photograph. Here, I stitched together 5 exposures in a panorama shot to try and give you a general impression of what it looks like, before I go into the details.
You can also use the general cloister photo I first uploaded in today’s batch to locate the frieze: it is just below the edge of the roof covering the galleries, above the Romanesque arches.
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, Ufford, Suffolk
They told her how, upon St. Agnes' Eve,
Young virgins might have visions of delight,
And soft adorings from their loves receive
Upon the honey'd middle of the night,
If ceremonies due they did aright;
As, supperless to bed they must retire,
And couch supine their beauties, lily white;
Nor look behind, nor sideways, but require
Of Heaven with upward eyes for all that they desire.
John Keats, Eve of St Agnes, 1820
Upper Ufford is a pleasant place, and known well enough in Suffolk. Pretty much an extension northwards of Woodbridge and Melton, it is a prosperous community, convenient without being suburban. Ufford Park Hotel is an enjoyable venue in to attend professional courses and conferences, and the former St Audrey's mental hospital grounds across the road are now picturesque with luxury flats and houses. And I am told that the Ufford Park golf course is good, too, for those who like that kind of thing.
But as I say, that Ufford is really just an extension of Melton. In fact, there is another Ufford. It is in the valley below, more than a mile away along narrow lanes and set in deep countryside beside the Deben, sits Lower Ufford. To reach it, you follow ways so rarely used that grass grows up the middle. You pass old Melton church, redundant since the 19th century, but still in use for occasional exhibitions and performances, and once home to the seven sacrament font that is now in the plain 19th century building up in the main village. Eventually, the lane widens, and you come into the single street of a pretty, tiny hamlet, the church tower hidden from you by old cottages and houses. In one direction, the lane to Bromeswell takes you past Lower Ufford's delicious little pub, the White Lion. A stalwart survivor among fast disappearing English country pubs, the beer still comes out of barrels and the bar is like a kitchen. I cannot think that a visit to Ufford should be undertaken without at least a pint there. And, at the other end of the street, set back in a close between cottages, sits the Assumption, its 14th century tower facing the street, a classic Suffolk moment.
The dedication was once that of hundreds of East Anglian churches, transformed to 'St Mary' by the Reformation and centuries of disuse before the 19th century revival, but revived both here and at Haughley near Stowmarket. In late medieval times, it coincided with the height of the harvest, and in those days East Anglia was Our Lady's Dowry, intensely Catholic, intimately Marian.
The Assumption was almost certainly not the original dedication of this church. There was a church here for centuries before the late middle ages, and although there are no traces of any pre-Conquest building, the apse of an early-Norman church has been discovered under the floor of the north side of the chancel. The current chancel has a late Norman doorway, although it has been substantially rebuilt since, and in any case the great glories of Ufford are all 15th century. Perhaps the most dramatic is the porch, one of Suffolk's best, covered in flushwork and intriguing carvings.
Ufford's graveyard is beautiful; wild and ancient. I wandered around for a while, spotting the curious blue crucifix to the east of the church, and reading old gravestones. One, to an early 19th century gardener at Ufford Hall, has his gardening equipment carved at the top. The church is secretive, hidden on all sides by venerable trees, difficult to photograph but lovely anyway. I stopped to look at it from the unfamiliar north-east; the Victorian schoolroom, now a vestry, juts out like a small cottage. I walked back around to the south side, where the gorgeous porch is like a small palace against the body of the church. I knew the church would be open, because it is every day. And then, through the porch, and down into the north aisle, into the cool, dim, creamy light.
On the afternoon of Wednesday, 21st August 1644, Ufford had a famous visitor, a man who entered the church in exactly the same way, a man who recorded the events of that day in his journal. There were several differences between his visit and the one that I was making, one of them crucial; he found the church locked. He was the Commissioner to the Earl of Manchester for the Imposition in the Eastern Association of the Parliamentary Ordinance for the Demolishing of Monuments of Idolatry, and his name was William Dowsing.
Dowsing was a kind of 17th century political commissar, travelling the eastern counties and enforcing government legislation. He was checking that local officials had carried out what they were meant to do, and that they believed in what they were doing. In effect, he was getting them to work and think in the new ways that the central government required. It wasn't really a witch hunt, although God knows such things did exist in abundance at that time. It was more as if an arm of the state extended and worked its fingers into even the tiniest and most remote parishes. Anyone working in the public sector in Britain in the early years of the 21st century will have come across people like Dowsing.
As a part of his job, Dowsing was an iconoclast, charged with ensuring that idolatrous images were excised from the churches of the region. He is a man blamed for a lot. In fact, virtually all the Catholic imagery in English churches had been destroyed by the Anglican reformers almost a hundred years before Dowsing came along. All that survived was that which was difficult to destroy - angels in the roofs, gable crosses, and the like - and that which was inconvenient to replace - primarily, stained glass. Otherwise, in the late 1540s the statues had been burnt, the bench ends smashed, the wallpaintings whitewashed, the roods hauled down and the fonts plastered over. I have lost count of the times I have been told by churchwardens, or read in church guides, that the hatchet job on the bench ends or the font in their church was the work of 'William Dowsing' or 'Oliver Cromwell'. In fact, this destruction was from a century earlier than William Dowsing. Sometimes, I have even been told this at churches which Dowsing demonstrably did not visit.
Dowsing's main targets included stained glass, which the pragmatic Anglican reformers had left alone because of the expense of replacing it, and crosses and angels, and chancel steps. We can deduce from Dowsing's journal which medieval imagery had survived for him to see, and that which had already been hidden - not, I hasten to add, because people wanted to 'save' Catholic images, but rather because this was an expedient way of getting rid of them. So, for example, Dowsing visited three churches during his progress through Suffolk which today have seven sacrament fonts, but Dowsing does not mention a single one of them in his journal; they had all been plastered over long ago.
In fact, Dowsing was not worried so much about medieval survivals. What concerned him more was overturning the reforms put in place by the ritualist Archbishop Laud in the 1630s. Laud had tried to restore the sacramental nature of the Church, primarily by putting the altar back in the chancel and building it up on raised steps. Laud had since been beheaded thanks to puritan popular opinion, but the evidence of his wickedness still filled the parish churches of England. The single order that Dowsing gave during his progress more than any other was that chancel steps should be levelled.
The 21st of August was a hot day, and Dowsing had much work to do. He had already visited the two Trimley churches, as well as Brightwell and Levington, that morning, and he had plans to reach Baylham on the other side of Ipswich before nightfall. Much to his frustration, he was delayed at Ufford for two hours by a dispute between the church wardens over whether or not to allow him access.
The thing was, he had been here before. Eight months earlier, as part of a routine visit, he had destroyed some Catholic images that were in stained glass, and prayer clauses in brass inscriptions, but had trusted the churchwardens to deal with a multitude of other sins, images that were beyond his reach without a ladder, or which would be too time-consuming. This was common practice - after all, the churchwardens of Suffolk were generally equally as puritan as Dowsing. It was assumed that people in such a position were supporters of the New Puritan project, especially in East Anglia. Dowsing rarely revisited churches. But, for some reason, he felt he had to come back here to make sure that his orders had been carried out.
Why was this? In retrospect, we can see that Ufford was one of less than half a dozen churches where the churchwardens were uncooperative. Elsewhere, at hundreds of other churches, the wardens welcomed Dowsing with open arms. And Dowsing only visited churches in the first place if it was thought there might be a problem, parishes with notorious 'scandalous ministers' - which is to say, theological liberals. Richard Lovekin, the Rector of Ufford, had been turned out of his living the previous year, although he survived to return when the Church of England was restored in 1660. But that was in the future. Something about his January visit told Dowsing that he needed to come back to Ufford.
Standing in the nave of the Assumption today, you can still see something that Dowsing saw, something which he must have seen in January, but which he doesn't mention until his second visit, in the entry in his journal for August 21st, which appears to be written in a passion. This is Ufford's most famous treasure, the great 15th century font cover.
It rises, six metres high, magnificent and stately, into the clerestory, enormous in its scale and presence. In all England, only the font cover at Southwold is taller. The cover is telescopic, and crocketting and arcading dances around it like waterfalls and forests. There are tiny niches, filled today with 19th century statues. At the top is a gilt pelican, plucking its breast.
Dowsing describes the font cover as glorious... like a pope's triple crown... but this is just anti-Catholic innuendo. The word glorious in the 17th century meant about the same as the word 'pretentious' means to us now - Dowsing was scoffing. But there was no reason for him to be offended by it. The Anglicans had destroyed all the statues in the niches a century before, and all that remained was the pelican at the top, pecking its breast to feed its chicks. Dowsing would have known that this was a Catholic image of the Sacrifice of the Mass, and would have disapproved. But he did not order the font cover to be destroyed. After all, the rest of the cover was harmless enough, apart from being a waste of good firewood, and the awkwardness of the Ufford churchwardens seems to have put him off following through. He never went back.
Certainly, there can have been no theological reason for the churchwardens to protect their font cover. I like to think that they looked after it simply because they knew it to be beautiful, and that they also knew it had been constructed by ordinary workmen of their parish two hundred years before, under the direction of some European master designer. They protected it because of local pride, and amen to that. The contemporary font beneath is of a type more familiar in Norfolk than Suffolk, with quatrefoils alternating with shields, and heads beneath the bowl.
While the font cover is extraordinary, and of national importance, it is one of just several medieval survivals in the nave of the Assumption. All around it are 15th century benches, with superbly characterful and imaginative images on their ends. The best is the bench with St Margaret and St Catherine on it. This was recently on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum as part of the Gothic exhibition. Other bench end figures include a long haired, haloed woman seated on a throne, which may well be a representation of the Mother of God Enthroned, and another which may be the Coronation of the Queen of Heaven. There is also a praying woman in a butterfly headdress, once one of a pair, and a man wearing what appears to be a bowler hat, although I expect it is a helmet of some kind. His beard is magnificent. There are also a number of finely carved animals.
High up in the chancel arch is an unusual survival, the crocketted rood beam that once supported the crucifix, flanked by the grieving Mary and John, with perhaps a tympanum behind depicting the last judgement. These are now all gone, of course, as is the rood loft that once stood in front of the beam and allowed access to it. But below, the dado of the screen survives, with twelve panels. Figures survive on the south side. They have not worn well. They are six female Saints: St Agnes, St Cecilia, St Agatha, St Faith, St Bridget and, uniquely in England, St Florence. Curiously, the head of this last has been, in recent years, surrounded by stars, in imitation of the later Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. Presumably this was done in a fit of Anglo-catholic enthusiasm about a century ago.
The arrangement is similar to the south side of the screen at Westhall, and it may even be that the artist was the same. While there is no liturgical reason for having the female Saints on one side and, presumably, male Saints on the other, a similar arrangement exists on several Norfolk screens in the Dereham area.
Much of the character of the church today comes from it embracing, in the early years of the 20th century, Anglo-catholicism in full flood. As at Great Ryburgh in Norfolk, patronage ensured that this work was carried out to the very highest specification under the eye of the young Ninian Comper. Comper is an enthusiast's enthusiast, but I think he is at his best on a small scale like here and Ryburgh. His is the extraordinary war memorial window in the south aisle chapel, dedicated to St Leonard. It depicts Christ carrying his cross on the via dolorosa, but he is aided by a soldier in WWI uniform and, behind him, a sailor. The use of blues is very striking, as is the grain on the wood of the cross which, incidentally, can also be seen to the same effect on Comper's reredos at Ryburgh.
Comper's other major window here is on the north side of the nave. This is a depiction of the Annunciation, although it is the figures above which are most extraordinary. They are two of the Ancient Greek sibyls, Erythrea and Cumana, who are associated with the foretelling of Christ. At the top is a stunning Holy Trinity in the East Anglian style. There are angels at the bottom, and all in all this window shows Comper at the height of his powers.
Stepping into the chancel, there is older glass - or, at least, what at first sight appears to be. Certainly, there are some curious roundels which are probably continental 17th century work, ironically from about the same time that Dowsing was here. They were probably acquired by collectors in the 19th century, and installed here by Victorians. The image of a woman seated among goats is curious, as though she might represent the season of spring or be an allegory of fertility, but she is usually identified as St Agnes. It is a pity this roundel has been spoiled by dripping cement or plaster. Another roundel depicts St Sebastian shot with arrows, and a third St Anthony praying to a cross in the desert. However, the images in 'medieval' glass in the east window are entirely modern, though done so well you might not know. A clue, of course, is that the main figures, St Mary Salome with the infants St James and St John on the left, and St Anne with the infant Virgin on the right, are wholly un-East Anglian in style. In fact, they are 19th century copies by Clayton & Bell of images at All Souls College, Oxford, installed here in the 1970s. I also think that the images of heads below may be modern, but the angel below St Anne is 15th century, and obviously East Anglian, as is St Stephen to the north.
High above, the ancient roofs with their sacred monograms are the ones that Dowsing saw, the ones that the 15th century builders gilt and painted to be beautiful to the glory of God - and, of course, to the glory of their patrons. Rich patronage survived the Reformation, and at the west end of the south aisle is the massive memorial to Sir Henry Wood, who died in 1671, eleven years after the end of the Commonwealth. It is monumental, the wreathed ox heads a severely classical motif. Wood, Mortlock tells us, was Treasurer to the Household of Queen Henrietta Maria.
There is so much to see in this wonderful church that, even visiting time and time again, there is always something new to see, or something old to see in a new way. It is, above all, a beautiful space, and although it no longer maintains its high Anglo-catholic worship tradition, it is is still kept in high liturgical style. It is at once a beautiful art object and a hallowed space, an organic touchstone, precious and powerful.
Denver & Rio Grande Western display narrow gauge class C-16-60 Consolidation 2-8-0 Grant steam locomotive # 223, which required restoration at the time, was seen in the back or platform track side of the station building at Salt Lake City, Utah, Summer 1980. It appears that later after this date, restoration work had been started and was on-going for years, and that quit a bit of work had been accomplished, when in 2020 the project was suspended.
*Wanted to make sure that I got a decent series of night shot pannings with the ferris wheel lit up in the background. Bonus that I got some rain to go along with it.
2018 Rolex 24 -
Porsche GT Team
Porsche 911 RSR
Female Assembly Moth - Hodges#5150 (Samea ecclesialis) - The Space Coast of Florida
Dah Wife thought it looked like the little guy was on the surface of the moon. Moths do indeed like the moon, but I seriously doubt any have ever been there.
FYI - This little guy (a little over a half inch wing tip-to-tip) was so small that the tiny micro bubbles on the painted surface look like tiny craters on the moon. I also like how tiny lepidopterains make their scales look sooo big that they almost look like shingles!
I posted this odd photo to my Facebook page and asked folks to come up with good caption. Of the responses, these were my favorites:
"How's your food? Mine's a little chewie…"
"My meat's a little on the dark side."
"Steak, steak, mistake."
Do you have a fun caption? Let me know in comments!
I was quite pleased with this one, because of the variety of colours in the leaves, plus the ones trapped under water and their contrast with the ones on the rocks. But most of all, I was pleased to just take a photograph with leaves in it that had naturally arrived there - no leaf staging required!
© All rights to these photos and descriptions are reserved. Any use of this work requires my prior written permission.
A conspicuous show of tribal power by Mursi boys with Kalashnikovs. The Kalashnikov symbolizes wealth, status, and power. Above all, the Kalashnikov provides protection during cattle drives and fire-power in armed conflicts with neighbouring tribes.
The value of a Kalashnikov can range from five to thirty-five cows and often figures into the bride-wealth or payment made by the husband’s family to the bride's family.
This semi-nomadic pastoral Mursi settlement is situated high on the bank of the Mago River, a tributary that joins the essential Omo River in the remote southwestern corner of Ethiopia. Shot under the noonday sun near the end of a long hot dry season regularly exceeding 40°C in the shade.
Spears and other traditional weapons in the region were replaced with automatic assault rifles in the 1980s when they became more accessible during the decades-long civil war in neighbouring South Sudan. A surplus of automatic weapons circulating in the larger Horn of Africa is also accessible through other channels, including the flow of small arms and ammunition from longstanding wars across the border in Somalia and nearby northern Uganda. SKS and AK-47 assault rifles were easily available, relatively cheap, and easy to use.
Large numbers of automatic weapons were also imported from the USSR to Communist allies around the world during the Cold War, including Ethiopia. SKS semi-automatic Russian-made rifles were a precursor to the AK-47 and were widely available after the fall of the Derg, the Communist military junta that ruled Ethiopia under Mengistu Haile Mariam from 1974 to 1987. The consequent disbanding of the Ethiopian army and police force produced a flood of automatic weapons on the market. They became accessible, in part, through established tribal links with arms dealers in the Ethiopian highlands further to the east of the Omo Basin and elsewhere.
The Mursi are semi-nomadic farmers and herders who depend on shifting hoe-cultivation (mostly drought-resistant varieties of sorghum) and cattle herding for their livelihood. They number less than ten thousand today. Most Mursi live in small settlements dispersed across Mursiland, a remote territory of about thirty by eighty kilometres between the Omo and Mago Rivers in southwest Ethiopia near the border with South Sudan and northern Kenya. The terrain varies from a volcanic plain dominated by a range of hills and a major watershed to a riverine forest, wooded grasslands, and thorny bushland thickets. expl#33
Former Stagecoach London 18239 Reg LX04 FYF door conversion finished but requiring reglazing waits in Mardens yard
2 February 2017