We’ve not been to many of the lovely gardens that open in the UK this year to raise money for charity. On the day I took these photographs this particular garden was a total surprise.

Eccentric and very full of life! The owner has lived in the house for nearly fifty years and the garden has been built, rebuilt, reformed and reshaped over that time.

So many fascinating pieces in the garden; lots of use of mirrors and glass, statues, ornaments, old step ladders, bird cages, bells, plaques, pots, weights, old flat irons. It was never ending and totally delightful!

It’s one of those gardens where there isn’t a blade of grass in sight, but so much to take in and so much to admire. It demonstrated to me that any patch of lawn can be dug up and replaced with eccentricity!

Thoroughly enjoyable and we spent an hour and half, over a cup of tea and piece of chocolate cake, and sheer heaven to wonder at the work of a lovely lady, Suzette, who puts in so much effort to make it a dream come true.

You can see lots of gardens in the NGS scheme by going here…

ngs.org.uk - find some gardens, those of you in the UK, get your camera out and get snapping!

When we moved to a new location at the wye at Speer, we watched the excursion train pass through the wye in order to reverse direction and back into Cheyenne and got to watch it at slow speed. If you ever need location and time of the train, simply ask one of the several fellows with a hand walkie-talkie next to you; you'll get more info than you ever wanted. I noticed how spiffed it was all Simonized with the helpers and the new flag scheme. I don't know if you need a shot of the diesel helper all spiffed but the new flag scheme on the attached wrinkly metal.caught my eye. The art department worked overtime on that. Here is the shot I like with a slice of #844's tender on the wye. The #844 will be stored in the engine house and out of the sun. I got some of my other shots at the water tank here. They don't much need water - look at the yellow water tank car with the flag back of the tender. Eddie learned they would be heading for Cheyenne with the Frontier Days Special. Duh, same as every year for the Frontier Days Special. I had no idea they would sic the Brillo crew AND the Simonize crew on the train before the excursion. My exposure was darker than expected. The sky was devoid of anything so this marks yet another time I had to get through this on an #844 shot. I don't particularly need the practice as much as others I know! Lately, I prefer to modulate great clouds that I find; as if I hadn't already found some. Here, diesels shepherd the run but not for power (this engine can pull, thank you) but they are used to provide the safety power (dynamic braking - ceramic resisters over the engines burn off the current produced by the diesel traction motors) for the train thus guaranteeing arrival at the destination. And they help handle the yards.

The trailing cars carry dignitaries, crew, passengers and extra brakes on the excursion. This chunk of metal is really valuable at this time in history. I realize that I happen to live in a fortuitous spot and will wait until the next steam up. If it is cooler, steam will leak wherever possible and provide great shooting. Find further information here. Or track it down on Google.

Kalitta Air 747-400F freighter taxies to North East Cargo on a nice morning.

Coffee and tea brand Douwe Egberts uses these stamps to create customer loyalty.

Used for an article about the phenomenon at www.24oranges.nl/2010/01/30/loyalty-schemes-yield-higher-... .

Photo by Branko Collin.

River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.

These images were taken during the first week of May, 2016. 14 months previously we'd watched low-level maintenance work on the opposite banks, and (I) predicted that destabilised sections might be a problem. To address the serious problem of surface runoff/seepage destabilising the bank structure, they excavate and lay out a drainage pipe system, to better channel the water and slow down the erosion of the banks. The section of this bank, directly opposite the apartment complex, was critically exposed after the winter rains. The roots of many trees were exposed, with the bank itself starting to rapidly erode. Specific work involved the removal of soil, back-filling with large boulders, integrated drainage system, and finally re-facing with new soil.One has to wonder at some of the wasted effort - remember the 'carpet strips' painstakingly installed through 'soil stitching' process in Sept 2012. The evidence is there in my previous picture galleries.

Here is a Mig Killer F-15C painted in the markings of a 1937 P-26 Peashooter, from the 77th Squadron Group, 20th Pursuit Group, Barksdale Field. After doing several Navy Aircraft for the centennial I thought some USAF aircraft in 'Heritage Markings' would be fun.

"When Goths discovered the color brown"

This is one of the images from the Dream Scheme photo shoot on friday. I was standing in the lake. Had to empty 2 litres of water out of my wellies afterwards!

River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.

These images were taken during the fourth week of July, 2016.

And we're back to the Rehills/Slang section -- between La Vallee and Rivervale.

Where previously this area was an organised structure of vast earth mounds, which ebbed and flowed with the removal of material, saw the import and removal of enormous mounds of stone material, and emerged as a relatively levelled piece of ground -- we saw the arrival of a fleet of 4-axle trucks bearing fresh mounds of stone. This continued for the best part of a week.

And what has been dumped, has to be sorted, and piled, and graded . . . and ultimately moved on to somewhere else!

In fairness to this contractor (Jons Construction) they recognise the need to control the working environment . . . and YES, that involves watering the access route to the disposal zone.

Hold on, are you telling me that it hasn't been raining recently in Ireland/Wicklow/Bray?

Apparently, not enough.

Hence the arrival of our little friend -- the Ruscon 2000 Slurry Tanker, used as a water bowser/sprayer.

Passing through Lisle IL., CSX SD40-2 #8175 trails on a westbound BN stack train. Built in March 1974 as L&N #1271, she is seen here wearing the paint scheme of Seaboard System,

River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.

These images were taken during the first week of May, 2016. 14 months previously we'd watched low-level maintenance work on the opposite banks, and (I) predicted that destabilised sections might be a problem. To address the serious problem of surface runoff/seepage destabilising the bank structure, they excavate and lay out a drainage pipe system, to better channel the water and slow down the erosion of the banks. The section of this bank, directly opposite the apartment complex, was critically exposed after the winter rains. The roots of many trees were exposed, with the bank itself starting to rapidly erode. Specific work involved the removal of soil, back-filling with large boulders, integrated drainage system, and finally re-facing with new soil.One has to wonder at some of the wasted effort - remember the 'carpet strips' painstakingly installed through 'soil stitching' process in Sept 2012. The evidence is there in my previous picture galleries.

my author's work... diagram ( delete * in link)

www.4*shared.com/document/Nfqm9AyT/stag-beetle__Lucanus_S...

Argent was pretending the heater was on (because she enjoyed hot California summers - she's crazy) while Nobuo was plotting to steal my chair. Argent didn't succeed but Nobuo did.

8-3-15 Flying Cow Road West of Wellington Florida ... These three look like they are up to no good!!!

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

With the end of the conflict in Africa in early 1974, the Portuguese Armed Forces went through a reorganization and shifted their focus back from counter-insurgency to honoring Portugal's commitments to NATO and preparing for a possible conflict in Europe against the Warsaw Pact. The Portuguese Air Force's F-86F Sabre and G.91 fighters were considered to be outdated in both the air defense and ground attack roles to face Soviet forces in the European operations theater. Furthermore, only a few Sabre fighters were actually in service due to problems with the engines and lack of spare parts.

The last Saab 35 in Swedish service was retired in 1999, the last Saab 35 Draken was withdrawn from military use in Austria in 2005 – 50 years after the type first flew. However, several aircraft still fly today in private operators’ service.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 15.35 m (50 ft 4 in)

Wingspan: 9.42 m (30 ft 11 in)

Height: 3.89 m (12 ft 9 in)

Wing area: 49.2 m2 (530 ft²)

Airfoil: 5%

Empty weight: 7,865 kg (17,339 lb)

Gross weight: 11,000 kg (24,251 lb)

Max takeoff weight: 11,914 kg (26,266 lb)

Powerplant:

1× Svenska Flygmotor RM6C (license-built Rolls Royce Avon with Swedish afterburner)

turbojet engine, 56.5 kN (12,700 lbf) thrust dry, 78.4 kN (17,600 lbf) with afterburner

Performance:

Maximum speed: 2,450 km/h (1,520 mph, 1,320 kn) at 11,000 m (36,089 ft)

Maximum speed: Mach 2

Range: 1.120 km (605 nmi; 696 mi); clean, internal fuel only

Ferry range: 2,750 km (1,480 nmi; 1,710 mi) with four external 500 l drop tanks

Service ceiling: 20,000 m (66,000 ft)

Rate of climb: 199 m/s (39,200 ft/min)

Wing loading: 231.6 kg/m² (47.4 lb/ft²)

Thrust/weight: 0.7

Takeoff roll: 800 m (2,625 ft)

Armament:

2× 30 mm AKAN M/55 ADEN cannon with 100 rounds per gun

4× hardpoints with a capacity of 2,900 kg (6,393 lb); typical interceptor ordnance:

2× 500 l ventral drop tanks and 2× AIM-9 Sidewinder under the wings

The kit and its assembly:

This what-if model came as a spontaneous idea when I browsed through the WWW for inspiration. I stumbled upon the history of the Portuguese Air Force and the fact that it did not operate any dedicated interceptor for 15 years – this task was taken over by the PAF’s A-7s(!) until the F-16 arrived in the Nineties This gap offered a lot of whiffing potential, and I had actually considered to build a whiffy FAP Mirage III for some time, since I knew that this was, together with the F-5, the favored type. However, there was also serious consideration of the Saab 35 as potential fighter alternative, too!

I found this idea so weird/exotic that I decided to build a Draken in FAP colors. The kit is the Hasegawa model, in a Revell re-boxing. I also considered the vintage Revell Saab 35 (a mold from 1957!), but after I saw the kit in a current re-boxing from Polish company Akkura, I took the chance of a reasonably priced Hasegawa kit instead. While the Akkura kit is crisply molded, it would take a lot of work to create a satisfactory “modern” Draken from it. I also had a Heller kit in store (my personal favorite), but I did not want to “sacrifice” it for this project.

The Hasegawa/Revell kit was basically built OOB. The kit is a simple, straightforward affair, with fine recessed engravings and good fit, but it’s IMHO far from extraordinary. It also has its flaws: the dashboard is totally blank, any instruments have to be created by yourself or taken from the decal sheet. There are ejection marks on the wheels and the landing gear covers, and the fit quality of some areas (e .g. the seam between the fuselage and the afterburner section) calls for PSR. The two-piece canopy is thin, very clear and fits well, the landing gear is sufficiently detailed – including the interior of the main landing gear wells.

For the FAP version I did not change much; I just replaced the seat (which OOB looks fine, I just wanted “something else”), added a radar warning antenna to the fin’s tip and chaff dispensers around the tail section, all carved from styrene profiles.

Unfortunately, the Revell re-boxing just comes with a pair of launch rails and underwing pylons, but no AA weapons at all. That’s acceptable for the anniversary machine that you can build from the kit, but leaves the other option, a grey, Swedish J35 H, without any ordnance.

The drop tanks on my build are OOB, together with their ventral hardpoints, and I added a pair of decent AIM-9J Sidewinders from a Hasegawa air-to-air weapon set for a suitable interceptor ordnance. The launch rails were recycled from the kit: they are actually missile rails with attachment points to mount them under the air intakes. The rails were separated and then attached to the OOB underwing pylons, this worked very well.

Painting and markings:

The livery was not an easy choice. Initially I favored a uniform pale grey livery with blue squadron markings, inspired by the late F-86s of FAP 51 squadron, but found this, despite being a plausible look for an interceptor, to look quite boring. For the same reason I rejected an Austria-style “Hill II” scheme or a light-grey USN-inspired “Compass Ghost” livery. The Hellenic “Ghost” wraparound scheme was another potential option, but I recently used something similar on another whif build (the Catalonian L-159 ALCA), and it would not have a typically Portuguese Cold War look.

Keeping in style with the FAP’s livery fashion during the Eighties, I rather settled upon a USAF SEA scheme, which was carried by many PAF aircraft during the Eighties, e .g. the A-7P, the G.91, and their replacement from 1993 onwards, the Alpha Jet. Instead of a wraparound version for ground attack aircraft, I rather gave the Draken light grey undersides.

The camouflage pattern itself was improvised, since I did not want to copy an existing delta wing aircraft (e.g. the USAF’s F-102 or F-106 SEA pattern, or the Belgian Mirage Vs). The basic colors are Humbrol 75 (Bronze Green; the authentic tone is FS 34079, but this lacks IMHO contrast to the lighter green), 117 (FS 34102) and 118 (FS 30219) from above, and Humbrol 28 (FS 36622) underneath.

A large ventral section was, typical for the J 35, left in bare metal, since leaking fuel and oil would frequently eat away any paint there. The section was painted with Steel Metallizer (ModelMaster) and later treated with Matt Aluminum Metallizer (Humbrol).

Internal details like the cockpit and the landing gear were painted with the help of Swedish and Austrian Saab 35 reference pictures. The cockpit tub was painted in a dark, bluish green (Humbrol 76) with grey-green (Revell 67) side walls. A piece of paper tissue covers the cockpit’s back wall, since the kit leaves a visible and rather ugly seam there, which is only partly hidden behind the seat.

The landing gear and its respective wells were painted with Humbrol 56 (Aluminum Dope), parts of the struts were painted in a bright turquoise (a mix of Humbrol 89 and 80; looks quite weird, but I like such details!). The front wheel received a dark green mudguard (Humbrol 30), the same color was also partially used on the extended emergency current generator. Missiles and launch rails were painted in gloss white (Humbrol 22).

As per usual, the model received a light black ink wash and some post-shading in order to emphasize the panels and dramatize the surface. Some extra weathering was done around the gun ports and the jet nozzle with graphite.

For markings I used the contemporary A-7Ps as benchmark: they were minimal, there were even no squadron markings or other decorations, and I think they even lacked roundels on their wings!

I gave the Draken slightly more markings: The small FAP roundels come from a PrintScale A/T-37 sheet, the fin flashes are from a TL Modellbai sheet and the tactical codes belong to a Japanese T-4 trainer. Most stencils were taken from the Revell OOB sheet, which also includes decals for the reddish sealer around the cockpit windows.

I didn’t want to leave the Draken without any squadron marking, though, so I gave it a blue band on top of the fin, as a reminiscence of the FAP 51 squadron’s markings, the former final F-86 operator which became 201 squadron in the early Eighties. These were simply done with layered white and blue decal stripes.

Finally, the model was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri), except for the black radome, which received a sheen varnish coat.

A relatively simple whif project, since the model was mostly built OOB with just minor cosmetic changes. However, despite its exotic operator, the USAF South East Asia scheme suits the Draken well, the whole thing looks disturbingly convincing!?

It’s also a kind of tribute build for “Sport16ing”, apparently a great fan of my what-if builds who frequently re-posts pictures and background stories (with kind permission to do so!) at deviantart.com.

Processed with VSCO with a9 preset

Trade publication for house painters from the late teens. Brush and Pail was published by the Alabastine Company, and contains business advice, techniques for creating the look of the day with the companies product, and color schemes.

See the set for interior color ideas from 1917 to 1925.

Allen W. Clark, founder of American Paint & Coatings Journal

Started this national clean up campaign , a public service promoted by the paint industry. "Clean-Up, Paint-Up, Fix-Up" Campaign Bureau, est. 1912 and lasted until the 1970s.

Story Bridge with maroon lighting.

River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.

These images were taken during the first full week of July, 2016.

Adjacent to The People's Park, a large compound is the site of continuing work along this section of the river. Some of the works are nearing completion.

Work here along the riverbank, between Glenwood and The Maltings, involves stabilisation measures (digging out a channel, and dropping in large boulders) intended to reinforce this newly constructed/shaped length of bank.

Access is quite restricted here, and involves shipping material in/out via the entrance further upriver, adjacent to The Slang.

In the last TWA color scheme.

ROMA ARCHEOLOGIA e RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA. In memoria del Progetto Fori (2019): “Viadotto della Via dell’ Impero (1938) & Via dei Fori (2015-19), s.v., Luigi Lenzi (1931); Guido Calza (1934) & Guido Fiorini (1934-38). S.v., VEZIO DE LUCIA (2019); Maria L. Gottari (2016) & Adriano La Regina (2015/1999). Storia del Fori progetto, in: Antonella Clementoni (2017) [Italiano] & Andrew John Manson (2017) [English]. wp.me/pPRv6-4TZ

Foto sinistra | fonte | source:

-- Via Dell’ Impero; in: Luigi Lenzi, “The New Rome”, The Town Planning Review, Vol. 14, No. 3 (May, 1931), p. 162.

Con commento supplementare di Guido Calza (03/1934):

"...The pre-war period, moreover, was unpropitious for any attempt to carry out such so large a project, and in consequence the scheme prepared by Corrado Ricci and Ludovico Pogiaghi in 1911 remained a dead letter. These two men had made a survey of all that was visible of the Forums in the basements of various houses, and, by comparing the material with designs prepared by great artists of the Renaissance, had obtained a marvelous picture of what they thought the locality of the Imperial Forums would look like after the demolitions had been carried out. (…) ‘…yet, to excavate that vast zone of now occupied by the new street [the Via dell` Impero, now the Via dei Fori Imperiali], to decide its plan on the basis of what might be have been found there of archaeological interest, and to make the street pass over the ruins like a suspension bridge, would have been exceedingly costly and difficult undertaking, and would have required in addition many years of work. This does not mean that partial research cannot be made here and there in the substructures of the street itself in order to see what is hidden."

Dr. Guido Calza,

“THE VIA DELL` IMPERO AND THE IMPERIAL FORA,”

JRIBA, (24 March 1934), pp. 489 & 503.

Foto destra| fonte | source:

-- Guido Fiorini, ‘Viadotto della Via dell’ Impero’ (1938), fig. 12 a & b, in: Elisabetta Pallottino, Isolamenti e invenzione di contesti nell'opera del Governatorato a Roma. Liberazione e restauro della Casa dei Cavalieri di Rodi (1924-1949). Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma Vol. 116 (2015), pp. 233-248. S.v., sotto: Antonella Clementoni (2017) & Andrew John Manson (2015).

Nota: Nell'ultimo decennio circa studiosi italiani, studenti universitari e ricercatori indipendenti a Roma (e altrove in Italia) hanno iniziato a riesaminare la storia architettonica e urbanistica di Via dei Fori negli anni '30. Con il nuovo accesso agli archivi degli anni '30 che diventano più disponibili, è ora possibile ricostruire la storia del progetto degli anni '30.

Ecco altri piani degli anni '30 per i fori e il progetto 1931, 1934 * 1938.

Nota: nel 1934, il Prof. Guido Calza, allora direttore archeologico di Ostia e poi direttore del Foro Romano 1945-46, menzionò nel 1934, l'idea del nuovo viadotto di Via dei Fori dopo il 1934. Come notato in il piano del dott. G. Fiorini del 1938 (citato qui sopra). Problema nessuno ha mai studiato e pubblicato il piano di Fiorini del 1938 e i commenti di Calza del 1934, insieme.

__________________

1). ROMA – RIVIVE L’ URBE ANTICA “ANCHE GRAZIE AL DUCE.” Gli espropri già` realizzati da Mussolini costerebbe centinaia di miliardi. Corriere Della Sera (29|07|1999), p. 27. [Nota: Italiano / English].

--Cominciamo, professor La Regina, delle demolizioni volute da Mussolini. E` vero che senza il piccone, usato per butter giu` le costruzioni medioevali e rinascimentali presenti dove adesso corre come una grande autostrada urbana via dei Fori Imperiali, gli scavi in corso sarebbero stati impensabili? Cosa ne pensa?

“Sono contro le demonizzazioni acritiche. Non avrebbe senso dopo sessanta o settant'anni, lodare o biasimare La storia e` stata quella che e stata. Fatto sta che le trasformazioni operate dal fascismo, e costi sociali pagati a quelle trasformazioni ci hanno messo oggi nelle condizioni migliori per lavorare. Quello su cui operiamo e infatti terreno pubblico. Non dobbiamo procedure quindi, a espropri (già` operati da Mussolini) che oggi risulterebbero economicamente onerosi simi. Si deve pensare a una spesa, rapportata ai costi odierni, di centinaia e centinaia di miliardi. C`e poi un'altra questione relativa alla popolazione residente, Il regime, all'epoca degli sventramenti, ha spostato I romani che vivevano nelle costruzioni medievali e rinascimentali abbattute per far posto a via dell'Impero ( l’odierna via dei Fori Imperiali, ndr ) negli insediamenti nati con le nuove periferie. Noi non avremmo avuto la cultura e l’animo per realizzare una simile politica.”

--Si accennava prima che via dei Fori Imperiali non sara` piu` quella di oggi. Che cosa la sostituirà`?

“Si dovrà arrivare, in tempi ragionevolmente brevi, a un collegamento tra piazza Venezia e il Colosseo affidato a più` strade. Certo dovrà` sparire via dei Fori Imperiali come si presenta oggi. Si può` pensare realisticamente a una serie di collegamenti pedonali potenziati da un’ agile corsia di emergenza riservata ai servizi pubblici. Buona parte del traffico dovrà~ poi essere dirottato su altri percorsi.”

--Parliamo di tempi adesso. Quando si potrà` godere della Roma archeologica così` come stanno portandola alla luce gli scavi attualmente in corso?

“Qualcosa si puo` gia vedere, altro verra` consegnato all'utenza prima che inizi l’anno giubilare. Certo il completamento degli scavi il restauro, il riassetto dei collegamenti stradali richiederanno tempi lunghi.”

--Ci vorranno anni e anni?

“Di più`, decenni. L’impressione, a lavori ultimati, sarà tuttavia fortissima. Dai Mercati Traianei, passando attraverso il Foro di Cesare, il Foro Romano e il Palatino senza mai abbandonate le rovine dell’ antica Roma, si potrà giungere al circo Massimo e alla passeggiata archeologica.”

-- C'è` un grosso problema. Professor La Regina. Riguarda il sovrapporsi, ai resti dell’ antica Roma, di reperti medievali e rinascimentali. Che cosa conservare? Che cosa distruggere?

“E’ un problema, quello da lei sollevato, che si e sempre posto negli scavi urbani. Quando si lavorava al recupero del Foro Romano non vi erano interessi scientifici per il Medioevo e per le epoche successive. Si giunse così` fino a demolire interre chiese Adesso c’e un'attenzione diversa. Dentro il Foro di Nerva, per esempio, abbiamo ritrovato un edificio medievale di epoca carolingia costruito con materiali di saccheggio. Lo abbiamo conservato perche ci e` parso interessante per documentare l'evoluzione della citta. Ai piedi del Campidoglio, dove stiamo operando in questi giorni, sta venendo fuori un edificio dello stesso periodo… Non conserviamo però`, dopo averle documentate, le cantine degli edifici rinascimentali che occupano il novanta per cento di quanto sta emergendo dagli attuali scavi. L'attività` archeologica non e` meccanica e impone delle scelte.”

1.1). ROME - The Ancient City Lives Again "Also Thanks to Il Duce." Corriere Della Sera (29|07|1999), p. 27.

The Ancient City Lives Again "Also Thanks to IL Duce." - The expropriations already realized by Mussolini would have cost hundreds of Billions.

The news is important: The Via dei Fori Imperiali,' as we know it today will soon be a memory. As far as the archeological excavations, button - hole (pride) of the pre-Jubilee Rome, would not have been realizable without the demolitions carried out during the Fascist period [1930-1932], According to Prof. Adriano la Regina - The Archeological Superintendent of Rome.

-Let's start, Prof. La Regina, with the demolitions done by Mussolini. It's true that without the pick, used to knock down the Medieval & Renaissance buildings which were where the via dei Fori Imperiali now is, the current excavations would have been unthinkable? What do you think about it?

“I'm against senseless blame. It does not make sense to praise or to blame history after sixty or seventy years. History has been what it’s been. The fact is that the transformations done during fascism, and the social costs paid for those transformations have put us today in the best condition to work. The soil we work on is in fact public Soil. Therefore, we do not need to undertake expropriation procedures (already done by Mussolini) which today would turn out to be an economical burden.”

“Nowadays it would have cost hundreds and hundreds of billions. There's then another problem concerning the people living in the area. The regime at the time of the demolitions moved the Romans that lived in the medieval and renaissance buildings knocked down in order to construct the 'Via dell' Impero' (Via dei Fori Imperiali) to the newly created suburbs. We wouldn't have had the culture and the spirit to carry out such a policy.”

-Before we mention the Via dei Fori Imperiali will no longer be as it is today. What will it be replaced by it?

“In a reasonably short time, several connection roads will lead from the Piazza Venezia to the Coliseum. Certainly the Via dei Fori Imperiali as it is today will disappear. We could actually think of a series of pedestrian connections supported by a quick emergency roadway for public services. Therefore most of the traffic will have to be diverted on other routes.”

-Lets talk about the time now when we will be able to enjoy the 'archeological' Rome which the present excavations are bringing to light?

“Something can already be seen, more will be delivered before the beginning of the Jubilee year [27/12/1999]. Obviously the completions of the diggings, the restoration and the rearrangement of the streets connections will demand longer time.”

-Will it take years and years?

“More, decades… The impression is, once the works are completed will however be very strong. From the Markets of Trajan, passing through the Forum of Caesar, the Roman Forum and the Palatine hill without ever leaving the ruins of ancient Rome; As well as the Circus Maximus all reached via archeological walk-way.”

- There is a big Problem Prof. La Regina. It regarding the Medieval & Renaissance findings built upon the remains of ancient Rome. What to preserve? What to destroy?

“It's a big problem, that you just raised, which has always been raised concerning the diggings in the city. When they [Fascist] were working to recover the Roman Forum there was no scientific interests for the Middle Ages and subsequent ages. Therefore, they even demolished whole churches. Now there's a different interest. In the Forum of Nerva, for example, we have found a medieval building dating back to the Carolinian age built with pillaged materials. We have preserved it because it seemed interesting in order to document the evolution of the city. At the foot of the Capitoline Hill, where we are working at the present, a building of the same age is coming to light…, we did not preserve it though, after documented them the cellars of the Renaissance buildings that occupy 90% of what is emerging from the present excavations. Archeology is not mechanical and it demands to make choices.”

Fonte | source:

-- Corriere Della Sera (29|07|1999), p. 27. (Accessed in early August 1999), in:

Rassegna Stampa / MIBACT.

www.beniculturali.it/mibac/export/MiBAC/sito-MiBAC/MenuPr...

2). ROMA - “Chiudere via dei Fori e costruire un viadotto sull’area archeologica”. [Adriano] La Regina: “soluzione appoggiata dalla commissione”. LUMSA NEWS Online (09/03/2015).

“La proposta è stata fatta, ora sta al Comune decidere o meno se accettarla”. L’ex soprintendente ai Beni Culturali e Artistici di Roma Adriano La Regina è sicuro: “Via dei Fori deve essere smantellata”. Nella conferenza che si è tenuta nell’istituto di archeologia e storia dell’arte è stata presentata la relazione della commissione istituita dal Mibact sui Fori imperiali. I membri hanno lavorato dal 1 agosto al 31 dicembre e hanno steso un documento su possibili interventi da realizzare: alcuni a breve, altri a lungo termine.Il ponte. La posizione assunta dalla commissione è quella di chiudere via dei Fori imperiali e costruire un viadotto carrabile e pedonale. L’idea è datata, ed era stata portata avanti dall’archeologo Pierluigi Romeo nel 1979 per poi essere ripresa dall’architetto Massimiliano Fuksas e arrivare così fino ai giorni nostri. Sotto il ponte tutta l’area archeologica dei fori verrebbe riunita come un tempo. Per quanto riguarda i costi dell’operazione non sono stati fatti i numeri ma La Regina ha rassicurato: “Nonostante quanto si possa pensare, realizzare un’opera del genere non graverebbe molto sui bilanci del Comune”.

Anche per quanto riguarda via Alessandrina l’attuale presidente dell’istituto di archeologia e storia dell’arte ha le idee chiare: “Non vedo perché la strada parallela a via dei Fori debba essere smontata. La via risale al Rinascimento e ha una sua grande rilevanza storica”.La storia. L’odierna via dei Fori è nata per volere di Benito Mussolini. la strada che taglia in due l’area archeologica prese inizialmente il nome di “via dell’Impero” per ricordare l’Impero Romano, sul quale il Fascismo basava la peopria propaganda e al quale faceva sempre riferimento nelle varie occasioni della vita pubblica. La via fu inaugurata il 28 ottobre del 1932. Mussolini a cavallo tagliò il nastro inaugurale e sulla nuova via sfilarono i mutilati della grande guerra. Il nome di “via dell’Impero” fu attribuito anche ai tratti adiacenti alla strada oltre la piazza del Colosseo, diventata raggiungibile con l’eliminazione dell’antica collina della Velia, con le attuali vie “di San Gregorio” e “delle Terme di Caracalla”. Dopo il 1945 il primo tratto di via dell’Impero venne rinominato “via dei Fori Imperiali”, ogni anno qui avviene la parata del 2 giugno.

Fonte | source:

-- LUMSA NEWS Online (09/03/2015).

www.lumsanews.it/chiudere-via-dei-fori-e-costruire-un-via...

3). ROMA - VEZIO DE LUCIA, “In memoria del Progetto Fori.” eddyburg.it (26/03/2019).

Nessuno lo ha ricordato, ma ricorrono quarant’anni da quando cominciò a prendere forma il Progetto Fori, la più straordinaria proposta di rinnovamento dell’urbanistica di Roma dopo l’Unità. E' necessario rievocarlo, in una delle stagioni più amare della nostra povera capitale. (m.b).

Mussolini urbanista

Nessuno lo ha ricordato, ma giusto quarant’anni fa cominciò a prendere forma il Progetto Fori, la più straordinaria proposta di rinnovamento dell’urbanistica di Roma dopo l’Unità. La sostanza del progetto – che raccolse grande entusiasmo e l’attiva partecipazione di migliaia di cittadini di ogni ceto e di ogni quartiere – consiste nella trasformazione dei più famosi resti dell’Impero romano in una componente vitale della città contemporanea. Ma dopo la morte del sindaco Petroselli lo stesso progetto è stato ricoperto da una montagna d’ipocrisia, e poi dimenticato. Mi pare perciò necessario rievocarlo, specialmente in una delle stagioni più amare della nostra povera capitale.

Comincio dagli sventramenti voluti da Benito Mussolini. Un secolo fa, all’inizio degli anni Venti, da piazza Venezia non si vedeva il Colosseo. Dove sta adesso la via dei Fori Imperiali, e sopra i resti dei Fori di Traiano, di Augusto, di Nerva, di Cesare, del Tempio della Pace, si trovava un vasto quartiere cresciuto nel corso dei secoli dopo la caduta dell’impero romano. A ridosso della basilica di Massenzio, si alzava la collina della Velia (che raccordava l’Esquilino al Palatino) sovrastata dallo splendido giardino di Palazzo Rivaldi. Fu tutto travolto per volontà del duce che – riprendendo le idee dei piani regolatori del 1883, 1909 e 1931 – volle nel cuore di Roma una strada adatta alle parate militari, in uno scenario che doveva celebrare la continuità fra l’impero romano e il regime fascista. Perciò fu scelto un tracciato “dritto come la spada di un legionario”, furono demoliti chiese, case e palazzi per decine di migliaia di metricubi, e alcune migliaia di sventurati abitanti furono sgomberati e in gran parte deportati nelle borgate che in quegli anni cominciavano a essere costruite dal Governatorato.

Lo sfondamento della via dell’Impero (oggi dei Fori Imperiali) è raccontato da Antonio Cederna in Mussolini urbanista. Lo sventramento di Roma negli anni del consenso. Feroci ed esilaranti, all’inizio del libro, le biografie dei sette maggiori responsabili, scritti in ordine alfabetico cognome e nome, a cominciare da Brasini Armando (“campione del titanismo di cartapesta”), quindi Giovannoni Gustavo, Muñoz Antonio, Ojetti Ugo, Piacentini Marcello, Ricci Corrado, Testa Virgilio. Le demolizioni ebbero inizio nell’autunno del 1931 e la via dell’Impero fu inaugurata “nel fatidico decennale”, il 28 ottobre del 1932. L’anno dopo fu la volta della via dei Trionfi (oggi di S. Gregorio), dal Colosseo al Circo Massimo. E, per trasformare il Colosseo in un monumentale spartitraffico, si distrussero il basamento del Colosso di Nerone e la Meta Sudante: un torrione conico in mattoni alto otto metri, unico resto a Roma di fontana monumentale.

Nel dopoguerra le cose peggiorarono. Le conseguenze degli sventramenti furono letali. Attraverso le vie dei Fori Imperiali e del Teatro di Marcello, via del Plebiscito – corso Vittorio Emanuele, il Corso, via Nazionale – via IV novembre, da ogni punto cardinale il traffico converge a piazza Venezia, ombelico del mondo. Per la via dei Fori transitavano 60 mila auto al giorno.

Anche il Progetto Fori fu una conseguenza del Sessantotto

Una conseguenza del Sessantotto fu certamente, nel giugno del 1974, la schiacciante vittoria del “no” nel referendum per abolire la legge sul divorzio. Ancor più sorprendente nelle elezioni amministrative del 15 e 16 giugno dell’anno dopo fu l’avanzata del Pci nelle maggiori città italiane: Torino, Milano, Venezia, Genova, Bologna, Firenze, Napoli, Cosenza. A Roma la svolta avvenne il 20 e 21 giugno del 1976, quando il Pci guadagnò più del 35 per cento dei voti. Fu eletto sindaco Giulio Carlo Argan, insigne storico dell’arte, fortemente voluto dal segretario della federazione comunista Luigi Petroselli. Per Roma una novità epocale.

Con Argan, il Campidoglio si libera dai sordidi legami con la proprietà fondiaria che avevano caratterizzato le precedenti amministrazioni con la mezza dozzina di sindaci, sempre democristiani (da Salvatore Rebecchini a Clelio Darida) che si erano succeduti dal 1946 al 1976. La manifestazione più vistosa del vento di novità che attraversa la capitale fu l’estate romana, inventata dall’assessore alla cultura Renato Nicolini, che esplose nell’estate del 1977 e, proprio quand’era più cupa la stagione del terrorismo, convinse i romani a reagire, a uscire di casa, a stare insieme.

Per farla breve, esistevano a Roma tutte le condizioni perché prendesse corpo il Progetto Fori. La storia comincia il 21 dicembre del 1978 quando i giornali pubblicarono una dichiarazione del soprintendente archeologo Adriano La Regina sulle drammatiche condizioni dei monumenti corrosi dall’inquinamento. Per alcune opere i danni erano gravissimi e irreversibili. In verità, già da alcuni anni a Roma si discuteva del disastro dei beni archeologici, dell’inettitudine delle autorità e delle responsabilità politiche. Ma la dichiarazione del soprintendente introdusse per la prima volta una diretta connessione fra l’area archeologica centrale e l’assetto urbanistico della città.

La cronaca dei primi passi dell’operazione e dell’interesse che riscosse in Italia e all’estero è raccontata da Italo Insolera e Francesco Perego nel libro Archeologia e città. Storia moderna dei Fori di Roma dove sono raccolti i documenti, le testimonianze e le immagini fondamentali dell’area archeologica centrale, delle proposte e delle trasformazioni realizzate dal 1870 al 1983.

All’inizio, protagonista indiscusso è il soprintendente La Regina che con determinazione inconsueta nella burocrazia ministeriale “impedisce che il tema passi nel campo del deja vu martellando la scena romana con richiami talvolta ripetitivi, certamente efficaci”. La Regina torna sul tema il 21 aprile del 1979, invitato in Campidoglio dal sindaco Argan per le celebrazioni del 2732° anniversario della fondazione di Roma. Il soprintendente formula per la prima volta l’ipotesi della chiusura della via dei Fori. Dopo aver ripetuto che il centro storico di Roma non può più svolgere indiscriminatamente tutte le funzioni amministrative, politiche, culturali, commerciali e abitative che lo soffocano propone la soppressione della via dei Fori Imperiali, nel tratto tra piazza Venezia e lo sbocco di via Cavour, “al fine di restituire unità al complesso monumentale più significativo che esista, inutilmente sepolto dall’asfalto”. Non più guastati dalla strada che insensatamente li sovrasta, i Fori di Traiano, di Augusto, di Cesare, di Nerva, il Tempio della Pace possono essere trasformati in cinque sorprendenti piazze pedonali che tengono insieme passato e futuro. Per la prima volta i resti archeologici sono affrancati dalla secolare consuetudine di essere racchiusi in un recinto specializzato e vengono invece equiparati “ad altre parti storiche – medievali, rinascimentali, barocche – che la città non ha mai smesso di usare” (Insolera e Perego).

Con l’elezione a sindaco di Luigi Petroselli, quando Argan si dimette, il Progetto Fori occupa il centro del dibattito politico e culturale. Nei due anni che corrono dalla sua nomina (27 settembre 1979) alla repentina e prematura scomparsa (7 ottobre 1981) si raggiunge il livello più alto per l’urbanistica romana contemporanea. Il recupero dei Fori, che sembra a portata di mano, mobilita le migliori energie, raccoglie un consenso vastissimo che va dalle autorità di governo alla grande intellettualità internazionale, agli abitanti delle borgate che si stanno risanando.

Nell’ottobre del 1980 l’esordio del sindaco in materia di archeologia è lo smantellamento della via della Consolazione che da un secolo separava il Campidoglio dal Foro Repubblicano. Continua subito dopo con l’eliminazione del piazzale che separava il Colosseo dall’arco di Costantino e dal resto del complesso Foro – Palatino. Si ricostituisce così l’unità Colosseo – Foro Romano – Campidoglio e la continuità dell’antica via Sacra. E il Colosseo non è più uno spartitraffico.

Accorciare le distanze, di tempo e di spazio

La chiusura domenicale al traffico della via dei Fori comincia il 1° febbraio del 1981 e continua nelle domeniche successive. È una festa popolare, alle visite guidate organizzate dal Comune, prendono parte migliaia di persone. Il clima è lo stesso dell’Estate Romana, ma le domeniche pedonali sono soprattutto un elemento decisivo della strategia del sindaco di unificazione della città realizzata conferendo a un progetto urbanistico e archeologico anche uno straordinario valore aggiunto di natura sociale e democratica. La romanità, cioè il rapporto con l’antica Roma, non è più competenza esclusiva per studiosi e ceti benestanti e benpensanti, ma parte essenziale dell’esperienza quotidiana della cittadinanza romana. Un’unificazione che è l’esatto contrario dell’omologazione consumistica denunciata dal Pier Paolo Pasolini, non l’annullamento delle differenze, non la rinuncia alle radici e alla storia, ma un intento autentico e primario di uguaglianza.

A favore del Progetto Fori sono i quattro quotidiani a maggiore diffusione a Roma, che diventano anzi protagonisti dell’operazione: Corriere della sera, l’Unità, Paese sera, Il Messaggero, il cui direttore Vittorio Emiliani scende in campo personalmente.

Il consenso al sindaco è ormai vastissimo. Nel marzo del 1981 concludendo la seconda conferenza urbanistica cittadina, Petroselli dichiara che non c’è nessun contrasto tra la via dei Fori imperiali e la periferia romana, “si può partire da via dei Fori imperiali, come si sta facendo, per andare al Forte Prenestino, negli altri luoghi storici della città e concorrere al programma di difesa dei monumenti, ma soprattutto quello che accade e che vogliamo che accada è che non solo il tempo di percorrenza, ma il tempo mentale e il tempo culturale si accorci tra via dei Fori imperiali e la periferia, tra la periferia e via dei Fori imperiali”.

“Accorciare le distanze” è la sintesi del pensiero di Petroselli che si concretizza nel progetto Fori. Accorciare le distanze fra i tempi della storia, fra centro e periferia, fra borghesia e ceti popolari. I romani comprendono e apprezzano l’impegno del sindaco. Alle elezioni comunali del giugno 1981, il Pci raggiunge il 36 per cento dei consensi, meglio che nel 1976, risultato mai più raggiunto.

Ma il 7 ottobre del 1981, Petroselli improvvisamente morì, a quarantanove anni, mentre parlava al comitato centrale del Pci. E con lui finirono il Progetto Fori e tutte le cose che aveva cominciato a fare per Roma.

Cederna scrisse su Rinascita dello “scandalo” di Petroselli: lo scandalo di un sindaco comunista che aveva capito, a differenza di tanti anche autorevoli storici e intellettuali, l’importanza del passato nella costruzione del futuro di Roma.

Declino e fine del Progetto Fori

Con la morte di Petroselli opportunismo, buonsenso, prudenza, avvolsero lentamente il progetto. I tempi si prolungarono all’infinito. Il successore Ugo Vetere non smentì mai il programma di Petroselli, ma ne rallentò il passo. Decisamente contrari Cesare Brandi, Giuliano Briganti e Federico Zeri. Su la Repubblica Cederna è isolato e le pagine culturali sono in prevalenza occupate da chi contrasta il nuovo assetto dell’area archeologica centrale.

Con le elezioni del 1985 la sinistra fu sconfitta e al comune tornarono democristiani e socialisti. Non serve il resoconto delle estenuanti procedure che insabbiarono il progetto. Una ripresa della discussione ci fu nel 1989, quando Cederna, deputato della Sinistra indipendente, promosse il suo noto disegno di legge “per la riqualificazione di Roma capitale della Repubblica” (nell’anno successivo approvato con qualche modifica). Una legge rimasta del tutto inapplicata per entrambi gli aspetti che la qualificano, il Progetto Fori e lo Sdo (Sistema direzionale orientale), senza che nessuno l’abbia mai smentita.

Nel 1993, la sinistra tornò in Campidoglio con Francesco Rutelli sindaco. Dopo le amministrazioni Dc e Psi travolte dagli scandali e dall’azione della magistratura, doveva essere la grande occasione per riprendere le idee di Petroselli e le elaborazioni avviate in attesa di una nuova stagione dell’urbanistica romana. Ma la svolta non ci fu. Anzi Rutelli (che aveva firmato il disegno di legge Cederna) dichiarò che non sarebbe stata eliminata la via dei Fori. Come lui quasi tutti gli altri sindaci dopo Petroselli hanno continuano a evocare il Progetto Fori, ciascuno intendendo una cosa diversa, comunque mai mettendo in discussione la sopravvivenza della strada (con la sola eccezione di Ignazio Marino che rilanciò il progetto all’inizio della sua sfortunata esperienza).

Perché è successo questo? Certamente per la scomparsa di un sindaco dalla tempra eccezionale come Luigi Petroselli. Poi per la contrarietà di studiosi animati da storicismo esasperato, secondo i quali si deve conservare qualunque testimonianza del passato, anche del passato recente, sottraendola a rigorose valutazioni storico-critiche (un atteggiamento che in verità copre anche il fascismo sempre risorgente in una città come Roma). Ma l’archiviazione del Progetto Fori è stata determinata soprattutto dal tramonto di una politica sostenuta da partiti capaci di garantire l’esito di idee e proposte di valore strategico.

L’archiviazione era stata comunque burocraticamente formalizzata fin dal 2001 con la decisione della Soprintendenza ai beni architettonici di imporre un vincolo di conservazione sulla via dei Fori che da allora è tutelata al pari dei sottostanti resti dei Fori. La strada che Petroselli, La Regina, Benevolo, Cederna, Argan, Insolera consideravano un obbrobrio, di cui volevano cancellare la memoria, per il ministero dei Beni culturali è invece intangibile. A proposito del vincolo, Leonardo Benevolo scrisse sul Corriere della Sera che era “diventato illegale il disseppellimento degli invasi dei Fori di Cesare, Augusto, Vespasiano, Nerva e Traiano, che renderebbe percepibile ai cittadini di oggi uno dei più grandiosi paesaggi architettonici del passato. […] si è preferito Antonio Muñoz (lo sprovveduto autore di quelle sistemazioni) ad Apollodoro di Damasco, l’architetto dell’imperatore Traiano”. Poteva diventare un “sublime spazio pubblico”, si rammarica Benevolo, colto “da un sentimento di sconcerto e di rabbia”.

Appare inaudito il fatto che la via dei Fori sia diventata intangibile proprio quando non serve più come strada a seguito dei provvedimenti di Walter Tocci assessore alla mobilità che ha quasi azzerato il traffico per il quale è più che sufficiente la via Alessandrina (l’unica strada storica sopravvissuta allo sventramento fascista). A quasi un secolo dalla retorica della via dell’Impero di Benito Mussolini, resta il desolato paesaggio di tre inutili corsie per senso di marcia, come la Cristoforo Colombo.

Ho scritto prima che quasi tutti i sindaci dopo Petroselli hanno continuato a evocare il Progetto Fori, però ciascuno intendendo una cosa diversa, comunque mai mettendo in discussione la permanenza della via dei Fori Imperiali. Solo Virginia Raggi non può essere accusata di ipocrisia, credo che non abbia mai parlato del Progetto Fori. Ma ha attivamente operato per affossarlo definitivamente autorizzando la demolizione della storica via Alessandrina e decidendo di mettere i binari del tram sulla la via dei Fori.

Note.

Articolo scritto per la rivista Luoghi comuni diretta da Andrea Ranieri, in corso di stampa.

Il quarantennale sarà ricordato il prossimo 16 aprile da Adriano La Regina con una conferenza organizzata dall'Associazione Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli. Su eddyburg vi terremo informati.

Fonte | source:

-- eddyburg.it (26/03/2019).

www.eddyburg.it/2019/03/in-memoria-del-progetto-fori.html

S.v.,

-- ROMA ARCHEOLOGIA e RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA: Antonella Clementoni, “Gli architetti e l’archeologia: Roma 1922-1938 [= Corrado Ricci, Alfonso Bartoli, Antonio Munoz e Gustavo Giovannoni].” Dottorato di ricerca, Dipartimento di Filosofia e Beni Culturali. Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia (2017): 1-276 [in PDF].

wp.me/pPRv6-4IZ

-- ROMA ARCHEOLOGIA e RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA: Andrew John Manson, Rationalism and Ruins in Roma Mussoliniana: The 1934 Palazzo del Littorio Competition. Thesis, Ph.D., Columbia University (2015), [PDF] pp. 1-512.

wp.me/pPRv6-4kd

-- ROMA ARCHEOLOGICA & RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA: Maria Luisa Gottari, Prende il via il bando-concorso ‘Via dei Fori Imperiali’ a Roma Problemi archeologici con il fascio delle infrastrutture viarie e di trasporto, EDILIA2000 (08|03|2016). Foto: I Fori Imperiali & Via Dell’ Impero (G. Calza [1934] & L. Lenzi [1931]). wp.me/pPRv6-3xy

A figure used in a lecture from JR James at the Department of Town and Regional Planning at The University of Sheffield between 1967 and 1978.

A CP Heritage script scheme leads train 137 past the vintage searchlights at Zorra.

Mile 93.6, CP Galt Sub

Zorra, Ontario

April 27, 2024

2018 collection

chaos

kamikaze(the breath of God) freeform

knitting crochet fusion

intuitive sensitive

guerrilla style

coat poncho wrap

in the royal color scheme

of a mystic sunrise

in a forgotten forest

a mix of

high-key tape-yarns

in beautiful brass

& gold tones

hidden secretly in the woods

laid the foundation

for this imperial regalia

for brave everyday divas

with creative attitudes

I never study a church before I go, maybe that's a fault on my part because I might miss something important and so have to go back. But for me, it's the wonder as you walk through the porch or door into the church, not knowing what to expect.

St Mary's looks like a typical Suffolk church from the outside, nice proportioned tower, good quality flint knapping. And yet once you enter, your breath is taken away by the glorious restored ceiling.

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It is not easy to find Huntingfield; even the signposts do not bear its name until you are within the parish boundary. Yet this shallow valley, divided by the infant river Blyth, with church and parsonage on one bank and manor house on the other, has been owned by some notable families in England's history.

The church is a Grade 1 Listed Building, largely due to its amazing Victorian painted ceiling.

The existing church certainly dates from the 11th century but there are signs that there had been a chapel here long before.

Some fragments of carved stones are set into the wall of the tower. At the beginning of this century they were turned up by a ploughman in a field called 'Chapel Field', a little to the south of the present church. They are fragments from a Saxon stone coffin and standing cross of the 10th century, long since disappeared.

The oldest part of the church is the wall between the nave and the north aisle which was the solid outer wall of the original twelfth century church. That church would have been small and dark, the whole building probably standing within the area of the present nave. The light would have come from small high windows of which one still remains above the two round-headed arches.

This wall has been altered at least twice. It was first broken through when the north aisle was built, and again in the nineteenth century when the arches were given their present 'Norman' curves. That first church was built by the family who took their name from the village and lived in the manor for 250 years, the Lords de Huntingfield.

The chancel was added in the thirteenth century.

By the end of the fourteenth, the south side of the nave had been altered and both aisles had been built in the fashionable Gothic style with its pointed arches. The five small high, or clerestory, windows on the south side of the nave would have provided light into the nave, the advent of affordable glass having made such things possible.

The east window of the south aisle has all that remains of the medieval glass that would once have filled many of the windows. There is a record of what was still to be seen here in the sixteenth century which lists the memorial windows with the coats of arms borne by the families who once owned the Manor.

The windows of the south aisle are particularly pretty and date from the fifteenth century. Their Perpendicular style is indicated by their familiar flat-topped shape. The porch is also from the fifteenth century.

The font dates from the fourteenth century.

The ceiling painting is very special and is explained on a separate page. The work was carried out in the 19th century while William Holland was rector. At the same time the organ and vestry were added with the Vanneck family vault beneath.

The ceiling is a masterpiece of Victorian church decoration, painted from end to end in brilliant colours, with carved and coloured angels, with banners, crowns and shields, all in the medieval style and of a most intricate and detailed finish.

The scheme of decoration is important as it reflects the ecclestiastical devotion of the late Victorian period clergy and their patrons, combined with the heightened liturgical practices of the Oxford Movement.

It was painted by Mildred Holland, the wife of William Holland who was rector for 44 years from 1848 until his death in 1892. The church was closed for eight months from September 1859 to April 1860 while she painted the chancel roof. Tradesmen provided scaffolding and prepared the ceiling for painting but there is no record to show that she had any help with the work, and legend has it that she did much of it lying on her back. We may imagine Victorian ladies wearing tight laced corsets and many petticoats, and wonder how she managed the ladders, scaffolding and hard labour of painting. She had an adviser on her schemes, a Mr. E. L. Blackburne F.S.A., an authority on medieval decoration.

The twelve large panels of the chancel ceiling each show an angel holding either a scroll with the words of the canticle 'Blessed be the Lord God of Israel', or the emblems of the Passion: the cross, the hammer and nails, the scourge, the lance, the crown of thorns and the reed.

Two pelicans in their piety (pecking their breasts to feed their young) are in the last small panels.

Between the beam ends of the chancel roof there are Bible verses in Gothic lettering,

then two tiers of panels; the lower have pictures of the Lamb of God alternating with`the Keys of Heaven. Above, are crowned monograms.

Above the Chancel Arch, the Lamb of God is depicted with the words 'Glory, Honour, Praise and Power unto the Lamb for Ever and Ever', lines taken from the Book of Revelation.

Three years later Mildred Holland began to paint again in the nave. In 1866 her husband William makes a note 'scaffolding finally taken down, September Ist'. The whole cost of repairing the nave roof, preparing it for painting and for materials amounted to £247.10s.7d of which £16.7s.6d was for 225 books of gold leaf and £72 for colours. William Holland's notes show that between 1859 and 1882 a total of £2,034. 10s.0d was spent on the church restoration, of which, apparently, he gave all but £400.

Recent research has found the complete record of William Holland's work in restoring and furnishing the church. These are available for interested students.

The figures on the nave roof are of the twelve apostles and two female saints. Each is painted in the lower tier with their traditional symbols and again in the upper tier clothed in heavenly raiment holding scrolls bearing their names.

Note that Saints Margaret and Andrew are both included as there is a tradition that these two saints were specially venerated here. There are niches for statues in the south aisle which may have held statues of them. The cult of St Margaret of Antioch grew in the 10th century and her veneration was brought back to England by crusaders. Her inclusion here may hint at an early date for the church's foundation.

Mildred Holland died in 1878; William served on until 1892, a total of forty years. He gave the font cover in memory of his wife and also the brass lectern with its graceful angels and winged dragons. Their graves are in the churchyard to the west of the entrance gates. Side by side they lie, beneath a table tomb alongside a standing cross.

It is natural to speculate about the roof. It is of a single hammer-beam construction, arch-braced principals alternating with hammer-beams ending in carved angels. The angels in the nave carry a crown or a banner, those in the chancel have heraldic shields bearing arms. The question all ask is: are these angels genuinely medieval work which escaped the axes of the post-Reformation Puritans, (and remember that William Dowsing, the arch-destroyer, came from nearby Laxfield) or are they all the handiwork of Victorian craftsmen?

Traditional East Anglian hammer-beam roofs generally terminate in a carving of some sort, and the de la Poles made angel roofs in the churches of their manors, even taking Suffolk carpenters to Ewelme in Oxfordshire to make one there. But our angels are too perfect to be so old. Entries in a tradesman's account of 1865 would seem to settle the matter; or do they?

The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were times of great development and two families, both wealthy and influential, used their means to beautify and rebuild the churches on their manors including St Mary's. Keeping up with the neighbours is not a new fashion. Both left their marks on the font which, standing on restored steps and with a splendid cover, shows two heraldic shields.

The shield facing south depicts the arms of de Ufford while that on the north side is of de la Pole.

The de Ufford shield is that of Sir William de Ufford, Earl of Suffolk during the reign of Edward III. He held Framlingham Castle for the King and owned several manors in Suffolk. Among these were Parham, where he built the church, and Huntingfield.

The other shield is that of Michael de la Pole, Lord Chancellor and Earl of Suffolk, who married Catherine, daughter and heiress of Sir John Wingfield of Wingfield Castle. He succeeded to the manor of Huntingfield through his wife, and died in 1389. The shield shows both of their arms.

Michael de la Pole's has three polecat faces while Catherine Wingfield's has three open wings. Both are puns on their names. (For another heraldic pun look for the arms of Huntingfield being held by one of the angels in the roof: three hunting horns on a 'field'.)

In Ufford church you can see a medieval font cover which was a model for ours when it was made in the nineteenth century. In Wingfield church there is a font so like ours that it was probably made by the same craftsman.

www.stmaryshuntingfield.org.uk/history.htm

-----------------------------------------------

There is nowhere else in Suffolk quite like St Mary. Huntingfield is one of the county's most obscure villages; there are hardly any signposts to it. It is the nearest village to the great pile of Heveningham Hall, and perhaps these two facts are not unconnected. But it is worth getting out the old Ordnance Survey map, because here at St Mary was a remarkable 19th century restoration.

In the second half of that century, many parish churches were drawn by the excitement of the age into major reconstructions and revisions. They often looked to London stars like Scott and Butterfield, or local plodders like Phipson, or else mavericks like Salvin. The demands of the new liturgical arrangements, coupled with a renewed sense of the need to glorify God, led them into what was often a rebuilding rather than a restoration. Internal decorations were, perhaps, the bespoke work of the architect; witness Phipson's meticulous attention to detail at St Mary le Tower, Ipswich.

Other restorers relied on the big picture, a vision that encompassed walls and floors, but left the fittings to others; as, for example, Salvin's Flixton St Mary. What was the driving force behind Victorian revisionism? Essentially, what happened in England between about 1830 and 1870 was a cultural revolution, a ferment of new ideas and the reaction to them. The changes proposed by the Oxford Movement were, at first, objectionable, and then merely controversial; but gradually, they seeped into the mainstream, until by about 1890 they had become as natural as the air we breathe.

By the centenary of the movement in the 1930s, one Anglican clergyman could observe "It is as if the Reformation had never happened". Well, not quite. And now, the pendulum has swung the other way, leaving the ritualists high and dry. But the evidence of the energy of those days survives, especially at Huntingfield, where it was the local vicar who drove the Oxford Movement through the heart of the parish, like a motorway through a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

What the vicar of Huntingfield had, and many other ministers didn't, was a visionary wife. Between 1859 and 1866, Mrs Mildred Holland planned, designed and executed the most elaborate redecoration of a church this county had seen since the Reformation. For seven years, she lay on her back at the top of scaffolding, first in the chancel (angels) and then in the nave (saints on the ceilure, fine angels on the beam ends), gilding, lettering and painting this most glorious of small church roofs. Her husband, the Reverend William Holland, kept a journal throughout this period, and there is no suggestion that she had any assistance, beyond that of workmen to raise the scaffolding, and a Mr E.L. Blackburne FSA, who was, apparently, an 'authority on medieval decoration'.

J.P. St Aubyn was responsible for the structural restoration of this largely 15th century building, and it is very restrained and merciful. He did, however, refit the little windows in the south clerestory. But you come here to see the painted roofs, which are perfectly splendid. Beware if you come with children, or it will cost you a fortune in pound coins to activate the illuminations.

The font cover is not part of Mildred Holland's work; rather, it is her memorial, as is the art nouveau lectern. It is as if her art was a catalyst, inspiring others to acts of beauty. She died in the 1870s, predeceasing her husband by twenty years. They are both now buried by the churchyard gate. How fitting, that they should lie in the graveyard of the church they loved so much, and to which they gave so much of their time, energy and money.

Curiously, Ann Owen, the wife of the vicar of nearby Heveningham, produced the stained glass there; a novel is waiting to be written about these two women.

For such an obscure village, St Mary has had its share of influential patrons. Four major families in particular have left their mark here. Before the Reformation, the de la Poles and Uffords, whose shields you'll find on the font, and in later years the Cokes and the Pastons, both more usually associated with Norfolk.

But, as I have said, you don't come to Huntingfield because of important dead people. Look up, look all around, and see the true memorial to Mrs Holland. It does not have the gravitas of Lound, or the piety of Kettlebaston. And I really love it for that. I think this is a place that should be better known, and not just because of the way it contrasts with the less successful 19th century restorations at neighbouring Cookley and Walpole.

What we have here is as fine a display of 19th century folk art as you'll find anywhere in the county.

Simon Knott, 2001 (updated 2007)

www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/huntingfield.htm

Rumoured to be called the polly waffle scheme after the chocolate wrapper, V/Line Vlocity set VL44 with 1244,1344,1144 head away from the camera over the North Melbourne flyover with a country passenger service on 24-11-15.

Roughly 15 of these sets were painted in this scheme

I came first!

PRR0005

Pennsylvania Railroad

GG-1

North Philadelphia, Pa, May 12, 1956. GG-1 No. 4866 glides along the platform for the station stop. Pennsylvania 486 was one of three GG-1’s to receive the silver color scheme. The other two were 4872 and 4880. Color was chosen for “Congressional” service. (Richard R. Wallin) .

May 12, 1956

©AVD, RP784

To the surprise of.... well, probably nobody, during my travels I came across another piece of Road Swag to add to my collection. But, not just any Road Swag... this is a piece that honestly, I'm surprised didn't turn up sooner. Sort of. It wasn't like I hadn't been trying, just circumstances always seemed to make it such that a successful transaction was just beyond my grasp. Well, finally broke that streak of losing.

Presenting S.H. Figuarts Sailor Chibi Moon.

In my mind, I would describe Sailor Moon as not only the first major Magical Girl anime I ever watched parts of in English back in the 90s, but in the grand scheme of things, it would be the Dragon Ball Z of anime geared towards girls. Immensely popular, with a cast that kept growing as the series went on and on. I know more about Sailor Moon than most of the other properties that I've purchased from, but like with Dragon Ball, for me to try to explain it would be quite the disservice.. I'm just gonna stick to Transformers for my lore discussions, thank you. All you need to know is that a bunch of high school girls transform and beat the crap out of a monster-of-the-week.

Much like Dragon Ball, Bandai eventually released a series of Figuarts based on the characters from both the Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon S lines, with the latter giving the Sailor Scouts their Super forms, along with an actual effect, making those a better deal, as it were. If I were going to get a set of the girls, I'd naturally gun for those. I really haven't been able to find any of those for relatively cheap.. or any of the regular line either, for that matter. Further complicating matters is that like with Sentai, it seems that the ball was dropped somewhere and not everyone got a Super figure. I think I'm using too much brain power thinking about this.

Anyway, I finally found a reasonably priced Sailor Moon Figuarts, which just happened to be Sailor Chibi Moon.

In the unlikely event you, my dear reader, have never watched any of Sailor Moon, the story starts getting complicated with the appearance of Chibi Moon here. So, based on my memory and internet research, Sailor Chibi Moon is better known as Chibiusa in her civilian form (Rini in the 90s dub I watched). the daughter of Usagi and Endymion (Serena and Darien). She sent back into the past to prevent the forces of evil from corrupting her in the future. In the past, she basically discovers who her parents are, that they have the ability to Henshin into super heroes, and eventually gains the ability to change into one herself, calling herself Sailor Chibi Moon.

Yeah, told you.. I'd be butchering any explanations.

Chibi Moon is probably the most visually diverse of the group, being full on anime in terms of her colouring (predominately pink). She is also living her own gimmick (Chibi refers to short and cute) being a kid pretty much throughout the entire series (except for the dark future arcs, but that's another story for a different figure). Much like a child, she's initially portrayed as a brat, always getting on her mothers nerves, fighting for the affection of her father, but she does eventually mature.. somewhat. But that wouldn't for another series or two, I believe. But enough about that - let's move on to the figure.

Seeing how this is my first Sailor Moon Figuarts, I don't know how she scales in terms of accessories, but I think they gave her a little something extra to compensate for the smaller size. Oh, Pro-Tip... keep an eye on EVERYTHING when you're changing parts and what not, because these things are tiny and they fall to the ground, well good luck finding it.

There's the figure itself, four total expressions (neutral, happy, attacking, determined) which I think is one more than normal, an addition hair piece featuring her Wing Hairclips, her Pink Moon Rod weapon, a variety of hands including some moulded in the various gang signs that the Sailor Scouts are known for, and, dare I say it.. an actually freaking stand. And due to the weight imbalance of her giant head, you're probably going to be using the heart shaped base quite a bit.

For those keeping score at home, Dragon Ball, a series known for its flying characters, gigantic Ki blasts, and insane battle scenes, has figures that don't come with a stand. Magical girl anime.. yes, lets throw in a stand. You can probably see that Bandai wanted to make sure the Sailor Moon line sold, and wasn't worried about the Dragon Ball line in the slightest.

Lets talk appearance. There is no doubt that this is Chibi Moon. Everything including her hair and outfit, her silhouette, and the shape of her face and expressions - pretty much ripped right out of the anime and made into 3D. The face plates really are what sells this figure (as with most figures, really) as the sculptors captured her expressions quite accurately and with the right pose, just oozes personality. One face plate that I would expected to see with Chibi Moon is a winking one, which sadly is not present.

The nitpicky part of me has to mention that the face does seem a tiny bit off, being sharper around the jaw and chin whereas it seems more rounded in the anime (the 90s one anyway), but it's nothing I'd lose sleep over. Bandai even went to duplicated those two curly hairs that Chibi Moon has near her bangs. Detailing of the sculpt itself is pretty solid, and includes things like ruffles on the skirt and her Choker and Pendant. Sculpting on the hair is a bit on the rough side, and is noticeable crude compare to the Figma on my shelves and, to be honest, even the Figuarts that I have. It's pretty much Kobobukiya levels here... it's not the end of the world, but it certainly is underwhelming. Tolerances on the face plate are a bit on the "meh" side, with the head and face not meshing properly, leaving a visible gap.

Paint work is somewhat of a mixed bag. I appreciate the fact that rather than using matte paints all over, the pink paints on her outfit are all pearl infused, and the tiara is painted with a metallic gold. Her Pink Moon Rod also features some metallic and pearl based paints. Furthermore, what is nicely done is the addition of some white streaks in the hair to simulate that 2D anime shading. Decal work on the eyes is spot on and sharp. Paint masking can be on the rough side though, and the paint work on the Rod just looks sloppy. surprisingly, the paint masking for all the other fine details are, well fine. It also seems to me that her bare skin areas (thighs, arms, face) could have used a coat of flesh colour as the finish of the base plastic really stands out.

Articulation is somewhat limited, which in some ways is understandable, and others just poor design choices. I'm guessing due to the smaller body, the overall number of articulation points is lower than that of a full size Figuarts. You get ankles, knees with some rotation, hips with extension capabilities for increased range of motion, mid torso, shoulders with some collapse, elbows with rotation, limited wrist articulation, head, and limited articulation for her hair. Most notable amongst the missing points of articulation are the neck and waist. I get the neck, probably due to the small size, but I don't get the lack of a waist. As mentioned, the hip extension does technically allow for more range of motion of the legs, allowing for a proper sitting position, but her skirt gets in the way and Chibi Moon always leans backwards when she's sitting down. Special note on the wrists - they're kind of fragile, though fortunately it's more of an FYI as opposed to a precautionary tale. You see, unlike the more recent Figuarts/Figma, Chibi Moon's wrist are just simple pegs with a ball joint on the end of it. There's no additional bending joint on the wrists, hence my mentioning they are limited in motion. Press to hard, and you might snap it off, rendering the figure effectively crippled until you can get a new arm.. if you can at all. Furthermore, because the forearms and peg are one piece of plastic, you get the deal with the fun of QC. My right arm is fine, but my left arm has a ball joint which is JUST too small, and as a result any attached hands have a rather easy time of falling off, resulting in my angry, curse laden searches of the floor. The sheer bulk of the bow on her dress also limits the range of motion you can get out of her arms as well.

In conclusion, not the strongest product I've seen from the Figuarts line, but still nowhere near the low quality to price ratio that figures like the PAK line offer. Flaws and all, there is no mistaking that this is a very good representation of Sailor Chibi Moon, and I'm sure if I ever get my hands on the rest of the Sailor Scouts, those will also follow suit in being the defacto action figures for this property.. just hopefully with fewer QC issues.

Finding this merch at good prices, however, is tough, probably tougher than finding Dragon Ball stuff as everyone generally just keeps getting the upgraded form like they do with Iron Man figures. It's just that there's nothing for the Sailor Moon crowd to upgrade to.

Until next time, Sailor Moon says.... SEE YA!

Digital photos should be treated like any other precious data. Companies go through extensive, sophisticated and sometimes highly complex methods of protecting their data. We as individuals can learn a lot from them in terms of disaster recovery and business continuance plans. While they generally have a lot more financial resources to throw at the problem, some of their solutions can be scaled down and made feasible for individuals to implement.

For internal drives, I've had pretty good luck with Seagate, IBM and Hitachi. I have had a bunch of 18GB and 9GB SCSI Hitachi drives that had been spinning pretty much for 10 years straight in one of my old servers. For Seagate drives, I recommend the AS type drives for workstations, ES for servers and NS for storage arrays.

As for external storage, it depends on the requirements. Do you need it to be highly portable, luggable or fixed? I have all three.

[0] Portable - This drive is meant to go where I go and provides a means of extended normally acquiesced storage for in-the-field and on-the-road backups to data normally on my laptop. I'm still using an old Apricorn Aegis Bio 160GB for this solution. It has built-in security that's biometrically protected for access as well as data encryption. The biometrics is all on the drive unit itself so it's not tied to any specific laptop or operating system. It appears as a USB mass storage device to the host. It is powered through the USB connection. I need the security because I also have sensitive data for work. I'll probably snag myself a larger drive at some point but honestly, I don't need much carry-around storage since I regularly sync back to the "mothership" anyways.

[1] Luggable - This type of drive is externally powered and is usually a bit larger. It may have several ways to connect to the host including Firewire, USB and SATA. I have a couple of Western Digital MyBook drives for this. I don't carry them around. I actually use them as backup media for my network storage array. Basically they've replaced my tape-backup solution. I simply hook up the drive, start my backups and then unhook the drive and store them away. I have several of them so I can rotate them to adhere to my backup and retention strategy.

[2] Network Attached Storage (NAS) - This is a fixed location, typically multidrive array that is accessed and accessible over the network. I run a large number of computers at home and so I needed some kind of fileserver. For this, I use a QNAP TS-869 Pro. It has eight drive bays and is populated with 3TB drives configured into RAID-5 volumes. I also have a second NAS which acts as my backup NAS that mirrors my primary NAS. In the event of a total primary NAS failure, I can shift mounts to my back NAS. The backup NAS is a Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ (formerly Infrant before Netgear bought them). It holds 4 drives and is currently configured with 2TB drives. It supports several forms of RAID from simple striping to mirroring to RAID-5 with hot-standby. It also supports its own proprietary X-RAID. Both NAS appliances allow for organic growth of the array without incurring substantial rebuilding and downtime of the volumes. You simply add drives as you need and the thing grows in size... even while hot. Files are accessible via many forms of transport protocol including NFS (my main priority), CIFS, AFS, Windows sharing, HTTP/HTTPS and FTP. They provide fault-tolerant highly redundant solutions. They also include a built-in backup system which is what I use with the WD MyBooks to achieve nightly incremental and weekly full backups. They don't come with a card reader but they do act as a USB-host so a USB card reader can be attached to it. Any USB mass storage devices (including my DSLR) can be attached to them and exported over the network. They can also act as USB print servers if need be but my printers are already network capable. They support a bunch of software plugins that can be installed to make them do other stuff too such as act as a security camera DVR..

It's probably a good idea to develop an archiving method too. Mine involves a mixture of online, nearline and offline storage with backups.

Nearline field storage includes my laptop's drive and a portable external drive. The laptop has a 320GB drive and the portable external drive is 160GB in capacity. Online and nearline home storage is a 4x1TB network attached storage array running proprietary X-RAID (like RAID-5) with a hot-spare drive. Offline backups are done with external HDs that are rotated into place for nightly incremental and weekly full backups. Current retention schema is 4 weeks of backups with a one week offsite rotation (performed monthly).

Note that if you go the NAS route, many of them have integrated multiple concurrent backup solutions. For instance, my ReadyNAS supports both local and remote nearline storage mechanisms and has a built-in multi-job backup manager. It can be set to sync to another NAS, to attached JBODs (Just a Bunch Of Disks) and/or streamed backup to an offsite backup provider such as their own cloud-based ReadyNAS Vault service which itself can support multiple devices. So when investigating NAS solutions, also pay attention to what it offers as far as integrated backup.

But as with anything, you must first develop your backup and data recovery strategy and policy. Once you've done that then you can develop a plan for implementing it. Once you've done that then you can settle upon what components you will need to purchase and set up.

One key thing to consider is your retention needs. Do you require that all data must be kept and archived or is it okay to overwrite, rotate or delete from archive? Do you need to only keep the most up-to-date copy of your data or do you need version control starting from data birth? How long can you survive with a loss of data? What is your critical recovery time threshold? How many users will be effected? How much data are you willing to lose? If you lose your last week's worth of work for an hour, is it a tragedy or can you live with the time it takes to drive to the safety deposit box at your bank to get the monthly backup drive? Will streaming back 500GB of data from an offsite network backup provider at 10Mbps simply be too long? Do you need to rebuild from bare metal or do you only need critical data backed up?

I only keep NEFs. I create JPEGs and TIFFs only for distribution and have a special Exports directory where I keep them. I then I get rid of them after a short period of time... usually within a month. I use CNX so I can manage versioning within the NEFs since only CNX can write-back NEFs. If I create a JPEG or TIFF I like, I will create a version of the CNX edit steps with the name of that JPEG/TIFF. This way I don't need to keep the JPEG/TIFF. I can always easily recreate it from the NEF version. Because NEFs support multiple versions within the same file, there is no excess space usage by having different versions of the edit steps.

I don't suggest just blindly adopting one specific setup. You have to analyse your needs, your resources, your budget, your comfort with complexity and figure out what works best for you and more importantly, you need to understand the details. Knowing where and how your data lives is very important when it comes to ensuring survivability and disaster recovery.

Glass by Douglas Strachan, part of the full scheme of windows commissioned for the chapel in1921.

Westminster College stands to the north of Cambridge's centre and is primarily a theological college for the training of ministers in the United Reformed Church. The present buildings were designed by Henry Hare and built between 1897–1899.

The reason for my visit was the chapel which is hidden away behind the main frontage. This low vaulted space is remarkable for its glass, a complete scheme of windows by Scottish stained glass artist Douglas Strachan, a symphony of swirling forms and rich colours emanating from all of the thirteen windows. The apse and west windows are relatively small, but the windows on each side of the chapel are larger and more dramatic works.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Strachan

This college is off the tourist trail and thus not so widely known or visited, but knowing of the glorious glass I enquired about seeing the chapel at reception and the nice lady there happily let me in and pointed me in the right direction which was very much appreciated, and the chapel's windows really are hidden gems.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_College,_Cambridge

After The Successful Resignalling Of The Walsall & Cannock Lines Over The August 2013 Bank Holiday, Some Of The Now Redundant 1960 Signals Have Been Removed And Dumped In The Yard Off Fairground Way In Walsall To Await The Final Move To The Scrap Yard.

Walsall, Bescot Down Tower, Bloxwich, Hednesford & Bereton Sidings Signal Boxes All Closed And Controlled Was Passed To The New Bescot & Walsall Panels In The West Midlands Signalling Centre At Saltley.The Signal Boxes Probably Await The Same Fate.

Tuesday 3rd September 2013

Location : Quebec City (QC - CA) - New Scheme / Nouvelle livrée

Shot with hard lighting.

The Chinese zodiac is a classification scheme that assigns an animal and its reputed attributes to each year in a repeating 12-year cycle. The 12-year cycle is an approximation to the 11.85-year orbital period of Jupiter, the largest planet of the Solar System. It and its variations remain popular in many Asian countries including China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia, Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, Bhutan, and Thailand.

The Chinese zodiac is also called Shēngxiào (生肖) in Mandarin. Identifying this scheme using the generic term "zodiac" reflects several superficial similarities to the Western zodiac: both have time cycles divided into 12 parts, each labels at least the majority of those parts with names of animals, and each is widely associated with a culture of ascribing a person's personality or events in his or her life to the supposed influence of the person's particular relationship to the cycle.

Nevertheless, there are major differences between the two: the animals of the Chinese zodiac are not associated with constellations spanned by the ecliptic plane. The Chinese 12-part cycle corresponds to years, rather than months. The Chinese zodiac is represented by 12 animals, whereas some of the signs in the Western zodiac are not animals, despite the implication of the etymology of the word zodiac.

The zodiac traditionally begins with the sign of the Rat. The following are the twelve zodiac signs (each with its associated Earthly Branch) in order and their characteristics. Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water as five nature elements.

Rat – 鼠 (子) (Yin, 1st Trine, Fixed Element Water)

Ox – 牛 (丑) (Yin, 2nd Trine, Fixed Element Earth)

Tiger – 虎 (寅) (Yang, 3rd Trine, Fixed Element Wood)

Rabbit – 兔 (卯) (Yin, 4th Trine, Fixed Element Wood)

Dragon – 龍 (辰) (Yang, 1st Trine, Fixed Element Earth)

Snake – 蛇 (巳) (Yang, 2nd Trine, Fixed Element Fire)

Horse – 馬 (午) (Yin, 3rd Trine, Fixed Element Fire)

Goat – 羊 (未) (Yin, 4th Trine, Fixed Element Earth)

Monkey – 猴 (申) (Yang, 1st Trine, Fixed Element Metal)

Rooster – 雞 (酉) (Yin, 2nd Trine, Fixed Element Metal)

Dog – 狗 (戌) (Yang, 3rd Trine, Fixed Element Earth)

Pig – 豬 (亥) (Yang, 4th Trine, Fixed Element Water)

Companies looking for significant investment will now be able to access an additional £200 million through the Scottish-European Growth Co-investment Programme.

The Programme is the first part of the Scottish Growth Scheme, a £500 million financial package backed by the Scottish Government, to help businesses thrive and grow. Finance Secretary Derek Mackay made the announcement on a visit to CelluComp, an industrial technology company that has developed a material called Curran, a cellulose non-fibre extracted from root vegetables which is used as an additive in a number of markets including paints and coatings.

Some background:

]The VF-4 Lightning III began development in 2005 under the initial designation of the VF-X-4. Developed as a successor craft to the VF-1 Valkyrie, the VF-4 Lightning III was designed as a variable fighter that emphasized mobility in outer space.

The VF-4 variable fighter remained in active service into the late 2040's but was complemented or substituted in many branches of the UN Forces by the cheaper and more atmospherically maneuverable VF-5000 Star Mirage. The VF-4 Lightning III was eventually replaced as the main variable fighter of U.N. Spacy in the later half of the 2030s by the VF-11 Thunderbolt.

General characteristics:

Manufacturer: Stonewell/Bellcom

Equipment Type: Variable fighter

Government: U.N. Spacy, U.N. Space Marines

Introduction: 2012

Operational Deployment: September 2012

Dimensions:

Accommodation: pilot only

Fighter Mode: wingspan 12.65 meters; height 5.31 meters; length 16.8 meters

Mass: empty 13.95 metric tons

Structure: space metal frame, SWAG energy conversion armor

Powerplant:

2x Shinnakasu/P&W/Roice FF-2011 thermonuclear turbine engines,

rated at 14,000 kg (137.34 kN) each

2x dorsal rocket engines (mounted on top of the main thermonuclear turbine engines)

2x ramjet engines (embedded into the inner wing sections)

P&W HMM-1A high-maneuverability vernier thrusters

Performance:

Fighter Mode: Mach 3.02 at 10,000 m

Mach 5.15 at 30,000+ m

Thrust-to-weight ratio: (empty) 2.01 (rating for turbine engine thrust ONLY)

g limit: unknown

[Armament:

2 x large beam cannons in forward engine nacelles

12x semi-recessed long range missiles (mounted on engine nacelles and ventral fuselage)

8x underwing pylons for missiles, gun pods an/or drop tanks

The kit and its assembly:

Well, this build has been lingering for almost 25 years in the back of my mind. It just took so long that a suitable IP kit (with a reasonable price tag) would materialize!

The original inspiration struck me with a VF-4 profile in the source book "This is animation special: Macross PLUS" from 1994, which accidently fell into my hands in a local Japanese book store. Among others, a side and top view profile of an aggressor VF-4 in an all-brown, Soviet-style paint scheme was featured. At that time I found the idea and the scheme pretty cool, so much that I even built a modified 1:100 VF-1 as a ground attack aircraft in this paint scheme.

However, the original VF-4 profile from the source book had always been present, but for years there had been no affordable kit. There have been garage/resin kits, but prices would start at EUR 250,-, and these things were and are extraordinarily rare.

Things changed for the better when WAVE announced an 1:72 VF-4 kit in late 2016, and it eventually materialized in late 2017. I immediately pre-ordered one from Japan (in a smart move, this even saved money) and it eventually turned up here in Germany in early 2018. Patience pays out, it seems...

I had preferred a 1:100 kit, though, due to space issues and since almost any other Macross variable fighter model in my collection is in this small scale, but I am happy that a decent VF-4 kit at all appeared after so many years!

Concerning the WAVE kit, there’s light and shadow. First of all, you have to know that you get a VF-4A. This is mentioned nowhere on the box, but might be a vital information for hardcore modelers. The early VF-4A is a rather different aircraft than the later VF-4G, with so fundamental differences that it would warrant a completely new kit! On the other side, with a look at the kit’s parts, I could imagine that a VF-4B two-seater could be easily realized in the future, too.

The kit is a solid construction, a snap-fit kit molded in different colors so that it can be built without painting. This sounds toy-like, but - like many small scale Bandai Valkyrie kits - anything you ask for is actually there. When you use glue and put some effort into the kit and some donor parts, you can make a very good model from it.

The kit's box is pretty oversized, though (any sprue is shrink-wrapped, horrendous garbage pile and wasted space!), and the kit offers just a single decal (water-slide decals, not stickers) option for a Skull Squadron VF-4A – AFAIK it’s Hikaru Ichijoe’s machine that appears in one of the Macross Flash Back 2012 music videos, as it escorts the SDF-02 “Megaroad” colonial ship after launch from Earth towards the center of our Galaxy.

The parts are crisply molded, and I actually like the fact that the kit is not as uber-engineered as the Hasegawa Valkyries. You can actually call the WAVE kit simple - but in a positive sense, because the parts number is reduced to a minimum, material strength is solid and the kit's construction is straightforward. Fit is excellent – I just used some putty along the engine gondolas due to their complex shape, but almost anything else would either fit almost perfectly or just call for some sanding. Impressive!

Surface details etc. are rather basic, but very crisp and emphasized enough that anything remains visible after adding some paint. However, after all, this aircraft is just a fictional animation mecha, and from this perspective the kit is really O.K..

After building the kit I most say that it's nothing that leaves you in awe, and for a retail price of currently roundabout EUR 50-70,- (I was lucky to get it for an early bird deal at EUR 40,-, but still pricey for what I got) the kit is pretty expensive and has some weaknesses:

The model comes with a decent (= simple) cockpit and a very nice and large pilot figure, but with no ordnance except for the semi-recessed long-range missiles (see below). The cockpit lacks any side consoles, floor or side wall details. If you put the pilot into the cockpit as intended, this is not a big issue, since the figure blocks any sight into the cockpit’s lower regions. However, the side sticks are molded into the pilot’s hands, so that you have to scratch a lot if you want to present the cockpit open and with an empty seat.

The landing gear is simple, too, and the wells are very shallow (even though they feature interior details). As a special feature, you can switch with some extra parts between an extended or retracted landing gear, and there are extra parts that allow the air intakes and some vectoring nozzles to be closed/extended for orbital operations. However, detail fetishists might replace the OOB parts with the landing gear from an 1:72 F-18 for an overall better look.

Provisions for underwing hardpoints are actually molded into the lower fuselage part (and could be punched/drilled open - another indication that more VF-4 boxings with extra sprues might follow?), but the kit does not come with any pylons or other ordnance than the dozen fuselage-mounted AAMs. Furthermore, the semi-recessed missiles are just that: you only get the visible halves of the only provided ordnance, which are simply stuck into slits on the model’s surface. As a consequence, you have to mount them at any rate – building a VF-4 for a diorama in which the missiles are about to be loaded would require massive scratch-building efforts and modifications.

Another problem indirectly arises when you put some effort into the kit and want to clean and pre-paint the missiles before assembly: every missile is different and has its allocated place on the VF-4 hull. The missiles are numbered – but only on the sprue! Once you cut them out, you either have to keep them painstakingly in order, or you will spend a long evening figuring out where which missile belongs! This could be easily avoided if the part number would be engraved on the missiles’ back sides – and that’s what I actually did (with a water-proof pen, though) in order to avoid trouble.

The clear canopy is another issue. The two parts are crystal-clear, but, being a snap-fit kit, the canopy parts have to be clipped into the fuselage (rear part) and onto a separate canopy frame (front part). In order to fit, the clear parts have cramps molded into their bases – and due to the excellent transparency and a magnifier effect, you can see them easily from the outside – and on the inside, when you leave the cockpit open. It’s not a pretty solution, despite the perfect fit of the parts.

One option I can think of is to carefully sand the cramps and the attachment points away, but I deem this a hazardous stunt. I eventually hid the cramps behind a thin line of paint, which simulates a yellow-ish canopy seal. The extra windscreen framing is not accurate, but the simplest solution that hides this weak point.

The kit itself was built OOB, because it goes together so well. I also refrained from adding pylons and ordnance – even though you can easily hang anything from Hasegawa’s VF-1 weapon set under the VF-4’s wings and fuselage. A final, small addition was a scratched, ventral adapter for a 3.5 mm steel rod, as a display for the flight scene beauty pic.

Painting and markings:

As mentioned above, the livery is based on an official profile which I deem authentic and canonical. My aircraft depicts a different machine from VFT-127, though, since I could not (and did not really want to) 100% replicate the profile's machine from the Macross PLUS source book, "13 Red". Especially the squadron’s emblem on the fin would create massive problems.

For the two-tone wrap-around scheme I used Humbrol 72 (Khaki Drill) and 98 (Chocolate Brown), based on the printed colors in the source book where I found the scheme. The pattern is kept close to the benchmark profile, and, lacking an underside view, I just mirrored the upper scheme. The starboard side pattern was guesstimated.

As a second-line aggressor aircraft, I weathered the VF-4 with a black ink wash, some post-shading with various lighter tones (including Humbrol 160, 168, 170 and 187) and did some wet-sanding treatment for an uneven and worn look.

Interior surfaces were painted according to visual references from various sources: the landing gear and the air intakes became white, while the cockpit was painted in RAF Dark Sea Grey.

In order to add some color to the overall brown aircraft I decided to paint the missiles all around the hull in white with tan tips – in the profile, the appear to be integrated into the camouflage, what I found dubious.

Most stencils come from the OOB sheet, but I added some more from the scrap box. The grey "kite" roundels come from an 1:72 Hasegawa Macross F-14 Tomcat kit sheet, which I acquired separately for a reasonable price. Even though it took four weeks to be delivered from Asia, the investment was worthwhile, since the sheet also provided some useful low-viz stencils.

The VAT-127 “Zentraedi Busters” unique tail insignia was more complicated, because these had to be printed at home. As a side note, concerning the fin marking, I recently found a translation of the benchmark profile's text on mahq.net, which is interesting: "The Regult within the targeting reticle on the tail met with disapproval from micronized Zentraedi pilots, and so was only used for a short time." The comment also reveals that the original aircraft's modex is "713", not just "13" as depicted, so I tried to reflect these details on my build, too.

I eventually settled for a solution that was partly inspired by the kit’s OOB fin marking and the wish for more contrast for the motif: I scanned the original Regult pod illustration from the source book and printed it on white decal sheet. This was sealed with two layers of glossy acrylic varnish (applied with a rattle can) and then cut into a white field that fills the fixed part of the fin (using the WAVE kit’s OOB fin markings as reference). Once in place and dry, two black outlines were added separately (generic decal material) which help blend the decal and the surroundings. Finally, thin strips of silver decal sheet were used for the fins’ leading edges.

This design variation, compared with the original “13 Red” illustration, led to the idea of a flight leader’s machine with slightly more prominent markings. In order to take this concept further I also gave the aircraft a white stripe around the front fuselage, placed under the kite roundel and again with black outlines for a consistent look. It’s not much different from “13 Red”, but I think that it looks conclusive and, together with the white fin markings and the missiles, livens up the VF-4’s look.

The appropriate flight leader tactical code “01 Red” was puzzled together from single digits from a Begemot Su-27 sheet, the rest of the bort numbers were taken from the OOB sheet (which incidentally feature a “01” code, too).

Concerning the OOB decal sheet, there’s much light but also some deep shadow. While the register is excellent and the carrier film flexible enough to lay down smoothly, the instructions lack information where to place the zillion of stencils (“No step” and “Beware of Blast” stuff) are to be placed! You only get references for the major markings – the rest has either to be guessed, OR you are in possession of the VF-4 source book from Softbank Publishing which was (incidentally?) released in parallel with the WAVE kit. This mecha porn offers an overview of all(!) relevant stencils on the VF-4A’s hull, and ONLY with this information the exhaustive decal sheet makes some sense…

As final steps, the VF-4 received some dry-brushing with light grey around the leading edges, some chipped paint was simulated with dry-brushed aluminum and, finally, light soot stains around the vectoring nozzles all around the hull and the weapon bays were created with graphite. Then the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri).

Well, in the end, it’s not a carbon copy of the inspiring illustration, but rather another machine from the same squadron, with more creative freedom. I stayed as true to the benchmark as possible, though, and I like the result. Finally, after almost 25 years, I can tick this project off of my long ideas and inspiration list.

Considering the kit itself, I am really torn. I am happy that there finally is a VF-4 IP kit at all after so many years, but to me it’s a contradictive offer. I am not certain about the target group, because for a toy-like snap-fit kit it’s too detailed and expensive, but for the serious modeler it has some major flaws.

The biggest issue is the kit’s horrendous price – even if it would be more detailed or contained some fine resin or PE parts (which I would not want, just a “good” plastic kit). Sure, you can put some effort into the kit and improve it, e .g. in the cockpit or with a donor landing gear, but weak points like the “flat” missiles and the lack of proper bays for them are IMHO poor. For the relatively huge price tag I’d hoped for a “better” OOB offer. However, the kit is easy to build and a good representation of the Lightning III, and I am curious if there are kit variants in WAVE’s pipeline?

River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.

These images were taken during the 2nd week of July, 2017.

The levels of activity fluctuate along this stretch of the riverbank, and especially around the Irish Rail bridge, informed by the tides and priorities.

Since Summer 2016, this is where the heavy-duty engineering works have been taking place.

This is a section of the flood protection scheme that I have not covered in detail -- it's inconvenient for me to access, and others cover it much better.

Standing on the new riverside walkway alongside Seapoint Court, we could see construction activity sited along the Ravenswell Road, temporarily closed due to on-going works.

That was the site of the old Bray Golf Club -- hotly contested as a (potentially) poorly considered as a site for a shopping centre development complex, and still an area of ground that has to act as a flood plain in the event of tidal surges.

As well as raising a heightened flood protection wall, they've created an access ramp down to the riverside.

The area in the background, site of the old Bray Golf course, was both a works compound and vehicle route for the transportation of material to/from the other sectors along the River Dargle involved in construction works.

By now, it would appear that the concrete strengthening is complete around the railway bridge piers. Nice clean collars of concrete.

Don't know how much more work is necessary to restore the riverbed and ancillary items.

=========================================================

Between Bray Bridge and the Railway Bridge there was a wooden footbridge linking Ravenswell Road and the Seapoint Road, this bridge was built at the time of the railway coming to Bray.

It closed in 1870 and was removed shortly afterwards.

"The Little Book of Bray and Enniskerry" by Brian White.

==========================================================

The Irish Rail Bridge, Bray Harbour:

Phase 1 flood defence works to the Irish Rail bridge commenced in August 2016.

Phase 2 flood defence works will be completed during May to September 2017. This work is being undertaken directly by Irish Rail.

The work includes strengthening the integrity of the bridge by creating buttresses around the base of each pillar.

To do this they have to pile-drive sheets into the river bedrock.

The work is complicated by;

(a) the need not to damage or disturb in any way the actual bridge itself (Irish Rail train and DART carriages pass overhead on an hourly basis), (b) the confined spaces under the bridge, and (c) the twice-daily rising tides from Bray Harbour which spill upriver into the newly expanded basin.

The length of the Ravenswell Road is to be landscaped into a pedestrian 'experience', with plants, seating and viewing points created in the sea-wall. I think this might link up with a new road and pathway being constructed around to Little Bray.

Through the past few weeks/months, we can see the construction in and around the Irish Rail bridge, where new and extensive reinforced concrete collars are built up to support the existing support pillars/piers. The river and sea beds are also engineered to control the flow of tides and river flows.

For all the convenience, speed and efficiency that modern machinery offers, the scale and nature of this specialised construction works still requires the team of workers to get down and 'hands-on' with the river-bed and the associated fittings that go to shape the upgraded flood defence works.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

Tunisia has, considering its size, one of the relatively small Air Forces in the region. Tunisia established the first air arm in 1959, after being controlled by France until 1954, but it took until 1960 before the first aircraft were delivered.

In 2010 as well, hhe Government of Tunisia requested US Government the sale of twelve (refurbished) SH-60F to Tunisia. No further details are known yet, as this is just the formal request for the sale. The helicopters, if acquired, would replace the fleet of HH-3Es currently in use with 36sq.

General characteristics:

Crew: one

Length: 40 ft 3 in (12.22 m)

Wingspan: 26 ft 6 in (8.38 m)

Height: 15 ft (4.57 m)

Wing area: 259 ft² (24.15 m²)

Airfoil: NACA 0008-1.1-25 root, NACA 0005-0.825-50 tip

Empty weight: 10,450 lb (4,750 kg)

Loaded weight: 18,300 lb (8,318 kg)

Max. takeoff weight: 24,500 lb (11,136 kg)

Powerplant:

1 × Pratt & Whitney J52-P-408a turojet, rated at 11.200 lbf (50 kN)

Performance:

Maximum speed: 585 kn (673 mph, 1,077 km/h)

Range: 1,700 nmi (2,000 mi, 3,220 km)

Combat radius: 625 nmi (719 mi, 1,158 km)

Service ceiling: 42,250 ft (12,880 m)

Rate of climb: 8,440 ft/min (43 m/s)

Wing loading: 70.7 lb/ft² (344.4 kg/m²)

Thrust/weight: 0.51

g-limit: +8/-3 g

Armament:

2× 20 mm (0.79 in) Colt Mk 12 cannon in the wing roots with 100 RPG

4× under-wing & 1× under-fuselage pylon stations for up to 9,900 lb (4,490 kg) of ordnance

The kit and its assembly:

This is one of those what-if models I actually love the most: a hardware from of something that almost happened in real life. The Tunesian Skyhawk was a potential child of the mid-70ies, but despite American offers the type was not adopted, instead the F-5E was introduced. Anyway, I found the idea of such an exotic aircraft interesting, and when I finally saw the Tunesian F-5's unique paint scheme I knew that I had to build a model on this basis.

The kit I used is the venerable Italeri A-4M, which is, despite ist raised panel lines and surface details, IMHO a very good model of this type, esp. for the late USMC versions with the 'Hot Dog' antenna on the fin.

The kit was built almost OOB, the standard fin tip comes from the Italeri kit (optional part), and I left away some radar warning antennae, for a conservative look. I also changed some blade antennae, and the ordnance - while being the same as provided with the kit - is new. Both the drop tank and the rocket launchers are donation parts.

Another modification are the lowered flaps and slats in landing configuration - including bright red insides on the wings' leading edges. No extra parts were used here.

The cockpit is OOB, and a ton of lead fills the model's nose; the Matchbox pilot was only used for the beauty pics.

Painting and markings:

More interesting. The paint scheme was lent from Tunisian F-5E/Fs, and the pattern is based on the 'Minor Asia' paint scheme, just with different colors: it consists of Dark Green (probably FS 34079), Tan (FS 30219) and a bale, almost bluish gray of which I am not certain if it is FS 36231?

I tried to simulate the colors based on pictures of real world aircraft and ended with Humbrol 116, 118 and 165 - the latter is an RAF tone, a bit light for the original gray, but on many pics the aircraft look pretty sun-bleached, esp. the gray. For thenunderside I used FS 36440 (= Humbrol 129).

As usual, the kit received a black in wash, some panel shading with lighter tones, decals and finally a dry brushing treatment with a brownish gray tone.

The decals were a lucky find - there's actually a Colorado Decals sheet available that contains Tunisian F-5E markings, and these were simply transferred to the kit, plus some typical Skyhawk stencils. Just the "01" on the nose is a personal addition.

Finally, everything was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.

A simple whif, almost OOB, but with an exotic touch of a small Air Force. And, judging the beauty pics, the paint scheme appears to be pretty effective!

Yeovil Junction Signalbox has the most complex arrangements on the line and has been subject to the most change. Under the 1967 scheme severe rationalisation took place here, and as far as the main line was concerned the station was reduced merely to a single platform without any signalling. The new single line followed the course of the former Up Local and served the south face of the old Up platform. The Up Through line was removed and the tracks that were left on the Down side were relegated to sidings for the Engineers Department. On the north side of the new single line lay the goods yard and connecting line to Yeovil Pen Mill, and these continued to be worked by the former Yeovil Junction 'A' box, but this was no longer a block post on the main line. New East and West GFs were installed to work connections from the single line to the Engineers sidings and the Pen Mill link. These arrangements came into force on 7th May 1967.

With the re-introduction of double-line working to Sherborne the layout was modified again and both East and West Ground Frames were recovered. The original lever-frame was removed from the SB and replaced by a secondhand BR(WR) 5-bar 4" VT frame. Its original source is open to debate but it could be from Dock Junction (Newport), Bristol or most likely, Truro. This frame is actually 55 levers long, but as re-fitted only lever positions 1-44 were used initially. A temporary box was in use from 10th Sep 1967 until the original SB re-opened as Yeovil Junction on 1st Oct 1967. The box was equipped with Tokenless Block to Sherborne and Chard Junction, with 'C' configuration BR(WR) Electric Key Token to Yeovil Pen Mill. 'Switching-out' facilities were not provided.

A new connection at the east end of the station from the single line to the line at the rear of the platform allowed the north face of that platform to be restored to passenger use as a bay line. Another connection was brought into use at the west end of the station between the main and bay lines, but this was facing to Down trains on the main line and therefore did not permit through running onto the bay line - it was worked by a new GF released from the box. Colour-light signals were installed on the main line, but semaphores were retained on the rest of the layout. Through running onto the Pen Mill link was possible via the connection at the east end of the platform facing for Up Main trains, but curiously only a colour-light shunt signal was provided at this point, the actual junction signal being the Up Home some distance back before the platform. The double-track link to Pen Mill was reduced to single-track on 26th May 1968.

The layout was revised in 1975, when the bay line was converted into an Up Loop by reversing the direction of the connection at the west end of the station. The GF was removed, the new points were worked directly from the SB and additional colour-light signals were provided. These changes came into use on 26th March 1975. The former main platform remained signalled for bi-directional working, any Up trains using it crossing to the Up Line to Templecombe at the east end of the station. One unusual feature was the provision of a colour-light signal with a permanent red aspect at the Exeter end of the Up Loop, facing Down direction movements - this permitted trains to arrive on the Up Loop from the Pen Mill line without the facility for through running on towards Exeter. A subsidiary draw-ahead was fitted at this signal to permit trains to move onto the single-line for shunting purposes and an elevated position-light shunt was provided some distance ahead on the single-line to limit such movements.

A further revision of the layout came into effect on 12th Dec 1977, but this was confined mainly to a rationalisation of the connections at the Salisbury end of the station and did not affect the overall arrangements. Later (circa Nov 1987?) the 'fixed' red signal at the Exeter end of the Up Loop was converted to a normal 2-aspect colour-light, enabling through running to take place in the Down direction. At some stage during all the various changes after 1967 lever 45 was brought into use in the SB lever-frame. Yeovil Junction signal box closed at 0100hrs on 10th March 2012.

A National Airlines 747-400F is about to turn into her berth at O'Hare Northeast Cargo.