Those poison apples really sneak up on you :D

Babo found my cookies and I see the evidence is all over his face!

Those blueberries pop in your mouth!

The light melts the night, and time slowly fades out

And suddenly dawn its gone, like the smoke of my last cigarette -

I took this shot right after work, whil going home. Thought the light was nice, and I had my camera :)

When chasing an Indiana Railroad train on the Monon from Louisville to Jasonville, the appetizers for the main course of signal shooting started around Borden.

After these old searchlight signals, one could get their fill of the semaphores on the way north to Bedford.

This line is dormant now.

Smell those Kippers, at Whitby. (253)

Check out my new video! // and nothing much bothers them after that.

Those Christmas lights

Light up the streets

Maybe they'll bring her back to me

Then all my troubles will be gone

Oh Christmas lights, keep shining on

--coldplay

sakura sakura sakura

from April 1 to 3, when the lovely, inspiring friends stayed with me

Those who have one foot in the canoe, and one foot in the boat, are going to fall into the river.

- American Indian Proverb

Some crepuscular rays from ablove.

For those of you who don't actually know, type "Whatever" in Google.

Those tiny birds are going to become little Xmas tree ornaments, embroidered and then sewed by hands.

Cross-stich sceme with French knots.

Those are the woods in the background, a short distance away. Chili often prefers to keep her walks to the neighborhood, though, checking out all the smells. There is less discarded food in the woods, of course, but that plays no role at all. LOL

I love the way she lifted her nose to check out the scents floating by. It was like after being away on vacation she really wanted to catch up on the local happenings. :-D

Those frets are gross.

Those in the know... know :'(

Those catchlights! Wowwwiee :)

From 'Top Secret' Magazine, date and designer unknown.

Those were the days my friend

We thought they'd never end

We'd sing and dance forever and a day

We'd live the life we choose

We'd fight and never lose

For we were young and sure to have our way.

Packed with vintage bling goodness :)

The seafood swastika is a classy touch!

Lewis called in to make sure all the wedding arrangements are going to plan not long after that it was ice-cream time!! Oh, I do remember these wonderful days!!

7 Days of Shooting Week #14 Childhood Memory Shoot Anything Saturday ....

Thanks to everyone who views this photo, adds a note, leaves a comment and of course BIG thanks to anyone who chooses to favourite my photo .... thanks to you all.

Those walls Again Part 2

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

Some background:

Airbus Helicopters Tiger, formerly known as the Eurocopter Tiger, is a four-bladed, twin-engined attack helicopter which first entered service in 2003. It is manufactured by Eurocopter (now Airbus Helicopters), the successor company to Aérospatiale's and DASA's respective helicopter divisions, which designate it as the EC665. In Germany and Australia it is known as the 'Tiger'; in France and Spain it is called the 'Tigre'. Finland, the youngest export customer, calls the EC665 'Tiikeri'.

In June 2011, six Finnish EC665 participated in the Finnish Defense Forces' main field exercise, escorting NH90 troop transports; their performance was described as having exceeded expectations.

General characteristics

Crew: Two (pilot and weapon systems officer)

Length: 14.08 m fuselage (46 ft 2 in)

Rotor diameter: 13.00 m (42 ft 8 in)

Height: 3.83 m (12 ft 7 in)

Disc area: 133 m² (1,430 ft²)

Internal fuel capacity: 1,080 kg (2,380 lb)

Empty weight: 3,060 kg (6,750 lb)

Loaded weight: 5,090 kg (11,311 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 6,000 kg (13,000 lb)

Powerplant:

2× MTU Turbomeca Rolls-Royce MTR390 turboshafts, 958 kW (1.303 shp) each

Performance:

Maximum speed: 290 km/h (157 knots, 181 mph)

Range: 800 km (430 nm, 500 mi) in combat configuration

1,300km with external tanks in the inboard stations

Service ceiling: 4,000 m (13,000 ft)

Rate of climb: 10.7 m/s (2,105 ft/min)

Power/mass: 0.23 hp/lb (0.38 kW/kg)

Armament:

1× 30 mm (1.18 in) GIAT 30 cannon in chin turret, with up to 450 rounds.

Four stub wing hardpoints for e.g. 20 mm (0.787 in) autocannon pods, 68 mm (2.68 in) SNEB or

70 mm (2.75 in) Hydra 70 unguided rockets pods or starters with 4x AGM-114 Hellfire missiles

The kit and its assembly:

This whiffy Tiger helicopter was (again) inspired by a CG side profile by fellow users nighthunter & Darth Panda at whatifmodelers.com. The model is more or less a hardware recreation of this profile on the basis of the Italeri kit.

The Italeri kit itself ain’t bad, but it has raised details and fit, esp. around the engines and the rotor mast, is rather dubious. Anyway, it was built more or less OOB, the only changes are the added pilot figures (Hobby Master pygmies), other antennae and the different armament. The Hellfires and their racks come from an Italeri AH-64, the small six-shot rocket pods belong to a Revell G.91 and actually contain unguided air-to-air rockets. Another modification is the use of the OOB French chin turret implanted under the German nose with a scratched mount, a scratched IR jammer and a pair of chaff/flare dispensers on the stub wings’ upper sides (AH-1 style, scratched, too). Internally, a vertical styrene tube in the kit’s CG offers an attachment point for an iron wire holder (for the beauty pics).

The model is not a 100% match with the CG benchmark, but the most important and obvious elements are there.

Painting and markings:

CG profiles are, like print colors, always hard to interpret, and this case was no different. nighthunter’s profile shows the Tiger in a tricolor paint scheme with two greens and black. These could be the German colors (which are actually used on the Finnish NH90 transporters, RAL 6003, FS 34079 and RAL 7021), but then the typical German Tiger camouflage pattern would not match, the CG profile rather shows the French pattern. Alternatively, the colors could be those from contemporary Finnish Army ground vehicles carry, but these carry a splinter scheme.

I decided to combine both options, using the original, organic wraparound pattern in French style and use the Finnish Army colors. I could not find official descriptions of the latter, so I improvised, using several vehicle pics as reference.

Choice of colors was not easy: my basic tones are Revell 45 (RAL 7003 ‘Moosgrau’, a kind of dark variant of RLM 02), FS 34096 (very close to the typical Finnish WWII olive green) and the German RAL 7021, a very dark grey. The greens appear rather light and pale, but I wanted the more greyish look and a strong contrast to the dark grey.

The interior as well as the rotor blades were painted in Neutral Grey (FS 36173), the latter with orange tips.

After the basic painting process a black ink wash was applied, and panels were shaded with lighter tones, including RLM 02 and FS 37066 from ModelMaster as well as Humbrol 105. As usual, everything was done with brushes.

Decals came next. The national markings are 1:144 aftermarket roundels and the tactical code was created from single letters and numbers from TL Modellbau. The few warning stencils etc. were taken from the OOB sheet and from the scrap box.

After that, the kit was carefully and only slightly rubbed with grinded graphite on a soft cotton cloth, in order to emphasize the fine, raised surface details. Finally, the kit was sealed under a coat of matt acrylic varnish.

The paint scheme ended up lighter than expected, but the result looks IMHO good and has that special “Finnish Touch”. It’s also relatively close to the CG profile that inspired it, a quick and rather smooth build.

Yes, I do want some Prototypes. Yes, I will trade some of my own. No, I am not a protowhore. Here is what I am looking for:

MG34

Browning M1919

Time Bomb

Kar 98k

Sten

Sterling V2

Ammo Box

Viewfinder

Rusty BA

I will trade thses BAPs of mine:

Trans Clear Flame Gun

Trans Blue PDW

Gunmetal Tac Sword

Rusty V1 BAR

Rusty Bronze Short Shot Lever Action Rifle

Gunmetal Grease Gun

Post your offers and your wants.

Thanks.

Alex- I tagged you so you can tell me what you would like off of here, and to give you an idea of what I am looking for :) Thanks, Chris ;)

Those in Halewood, Liverpool, seeking the eyelashes of the Stars, need look no further than a run into the city on Arriva Merseyside's 2589, heading now on its return journey up Hanover Street. The Wirght-bodied VDL SB200 was, at the time of the photograph, one of the decreasing number in Liverpool remaining in the old Arriva livery.

Those eyes! That expression!!

Dutch. Chocolate Lab.

Photo taken at 7 weeks old, 13 lbs.

What a SWEETIE!!

A bee gathers nectar on a sunflower.

Those big sad eyes are irresistible!

One of those days today when the camera would normally stay in its bag. Overcast and almost continuous heavy rain... not nice.

So, this is me being creative! It looks like something that's been photographed through a glass window, whereas in fact, it is the reflections from a piece of polished stainless steel, part of an outdoor sculpture. I liked the contrast in colour between the deep indigo/purple and bright green.

I was born in Norfolk and lived in Suffolk. So I thought I knew those two counties. But of course there is more to Norfolk than Norwich, Cromer, Yarmouth and Kings Lynn, as there is to Suffolk than Ipswich, Lowestoft, Stowmarket and Bury St. Edmunds. And so on My friend, Simon K, runs a fabulous website, which I link to on EA churches, and on his Suffolk Church page he has visited 707 Suffolk churches, and 909 Norfolk churches. That is a lot of churches for two counties to share, and many of those churches are ancient, flint built, round towered or have wall paintings, wooden roof angels or something worth the effort of going to see or seeking out the keyholder to gain access.

What I mean is that there is no way someone who only had their own car until 1984, and had little interest in churches or parishes could have heard of most of the parishes in the two counties, and so a parish church like St George.

I saw St George from the main road, I was taking a short cut to join the A14 and from there to the A12 and south on what I hoped my my last trip of the year to lowestoft as Mother is now out of hospital and in the care of district nurses in order to get put back on her feet.

So I saw the tower of St George from about half a mile away, and thought I had enough time to go over and see inside if I could.

I parked at the end of a cul-de-sac of new bungalows, and as I walk up the bank to the gate into the churchyard, the clean lines of the tower, well, towered over me.

In the porch I tried the door and found it locked, but the keyholder list made it clear that the nearest one, at Christmas Cottage, was just over the road. So, why not try, Ian?

I went to the cottage and rang the bell. I had to fill out my details in a ledger, a sensible measure. But I showed by driving licence to prove that I was who I claimed. Little did I know the small village I lived in had been noticed. More of that in a minute.

Inside St George, you eye is stolen by the fabulous pew ends; animals of all kinds, real and imaginary, and most had not been defaced, only those of obvious human form. One with the body of a chicken but a clear human face had been left alone, thus is the madness of the puritan's mind.

I decided that I would record every pew end figure, and many whole pew ends so wonderful that they were.

There is the feint outline of a huge wall painting, Simon says it was of St. Christopher. It would have been most impressive when freshly painted. There is also a fine set of misericords.

St George's glory is the altarpiece, into detail Simon goes below. It is alarmed, so you cannot look at them too closely, sadly, but such is a sign of the times.

I took the keys back, and the lady of the house came to speak to me as she had been told by her husband that I was from Cliffe in Kent, which is where her family is from. Sadly, I am not from, nor live in Cliffe. For once there was indeed two Cliffs in Kent, one on the Hoo Peninsular, where her family is from, and one near to Dover. Many years ago, Cliffe near to Dover was called WestCliffe to differentiate it from its namesake further north. I explained this to her, but said St Helen in Cliffe is one of my favourite Kent churches, built of alternate layers of black and light flints and stone, in sunlight it glistens and sparkles.

Although St George here in Stowlangtoft is a fine church, it is in a poor state of repair, and is due to be made redundant in the new year. Always sad when that happens to a parish church, but it is likely to be taken over by the CCT, but then who will volunteer to keep it tidy when the old wardens and keyholders are too old.

Stowlangtoft is a fabulous church and so glad am I that I spent 40 minutes of my time to visit it. Go to see it now before it is too late!

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

In the summer of 2003, this website became a six-part series on BBC Radio Suffolk. Something I said in the fourth programme, about Hessett, generated a fair amount of correspondence. Referring to the way many churches were restored in the 19th century, I observed that when we enter a medieval church, we are encountering a Victorian vision of the medieval; even when the actual furnishings and fittings are medieval, the whole piece is still a Victorian conception.

People wrote to me and said things like "but in that case, Simon, how do we know what was there originally and what wasn't?". To which my reply was the enigmatic "assume that nothing is as it first appears, as Sherlock Holmes said". And if he didn't, then he should have done.

A prime example of a church that assumes a continuity that may not actually be the truth is here in the flat fields between Woolpit and Ixworth. This part of Suffolk can be rather bleak, especially in late October, but England's finest summer and autumn for decades had left the churchyard here verdant and golden, as beautiful a place as any I'd seen that year. The church is large, and sits on a mound that has been cut down on one side by the road. I walked up the slope, past the memorial to the art critic Peter Fuller and his unborn son, which never fails to move me. It is by the sculptor Glynn Williams, and Sister Wendy Beckett says of it that it cannot be pinned down and encapsulated, it defeats the categories of the mere mind and sings to us of our deeper self.

Overwhelmed as you may be by it, don't fail to spot the broken window tracery that has been used to build the wall here, for thereby hangs a tale.

St George, in case you don't know, is one of the great Suffolk churches. Although it may externally appear a little severe, and is by no means as grand as Blythburgh, Long Melford and the rest, it is a treasure house of the medieval inside. Unusually for a church of its date, it was all rebuilt in one go, in the late 14th century, and the perpendicular windows are not yet full of the 'walls of glass' confidence that the subsequent century would see. The tracery appears to have been repaired, and possibly even renewed, which may explain why there is broken medieval tracery in the churchyard wall. However, it doesn't take much to see that the tracery in the wall is not perpendicular at all, but decorated. So it may be that the broken tracery is from the original church that the late 14th century church replaced. But the wall isn't medieval, so where had it been all those years?

Another survival from the earlier church is the font. It also asks some questions. Unusually, it features a Saint on seven of the panels, Christ being on the westwards face. Mortlock dates it to the early 14th century, and the Saints it shows are familiar cults from that time: St Margaret, St Catherine, St Peter and St Paul, and less commonly St George. The cult of St George was at its height in the early years of the 14th century. Mortlock describes the font as mutilated, and it certainly isn't looking its best. But I think there is more going on here than meets the eye. Fonts were plastered over in Elizabethan times, and only relief that stood proud of the plaster was mutilated. These are all shallow reliefs, and I do not think they have been mutilated at all. To my eye at least, this stonework appears weathered. I wonder if this font was removed from the church, probably in the mid-17th century, and served an outdoor purpose until it was returned in the 19th century.

The story of this church in the 19th century is well-documented. In 1832, as part of his grand tour of Suffolk, David Davy visited, and was pleased to find that the church was at last undergoing repair. The chancel had been roofless, and the nave used for services. A new Rectory was being built. Who was the catalyst behind all this? His name was Samuel Rickards, and he was Rector here for almost the middle forty years of the 19th century. Roy Tricker notes that he was a good friend of John Henry Newman, the future Cardinal, and they often corresponded on the subject of the pre-Reformation ordering of English churches. It is interesting to think how, at this seminal moment, Rickards might have informed the thought of the Oxford Movement. Sadly, when Newman became a Catholic Rickards broke off all correspondence with him.

During the course of the 1840s and 1850s, Rickards transformed Stowlangtoft church. He got the great Ipswich woodcarver Henry Ringham in to restore, replicate and complete the marvellous set of bench ends - Ringham did the same thing at Woolpit, a few miles away. Ringham's work is so good that it is sometimes hard for the inexperienced eye to detect it; however, as at Woolpit, Ringham only copied animals here, and the wierder stuff is all medieval, and probably dates from the rebuilding of the church. The glory of Stowlangtoft's bench ends is partly the sheer quantity - there are perhaps 60 carvings - but also that there are several unique subjects; you can see some of them below.

The carvings appear to be part of the same group as Woolpit and Tostock - you will recognise the unicorn, the chained bear, the bull playing a harp, the bird with a man's head, from similar carvings elsewhere. And then hopefully that little alarm bell in your heard should start to go "Hmmmm....." because some of the carvings here are clearly not from the same group. It is hard to believe that the mermaid and the owl, for example, are from the same workshop, or even from the same decade. The benches themselves are no clue; it was common practice in the 19th century to replace medieval bench ends on modern benches, or on medieval benches, or even on modern benches made out of medieval timber (as happened at Blythburgh). Could it be that Samuel Rickards found some of these bench ends elsewhere? Could he have been the kind of person to do a thing like that?

Well, yes he could. As Roy Tricker recalls, the medieval roof at the tractarian Thomas Mozley's church at Cholderton in Wiltshire is one that Rickards acquired after finding it in storage in Ipswich docks. In the ferment of the great 19th century restoration of our English churches, there was loads of medieval junk lying around, much of it going begging. But was Samuel Rickards the kind of person to counterfeit his church's medieval inheritance?

Well, yes he probably was. Look at the medieval roundels in the middle window on the south side of the nave. The four evangelists are above and below two superb representations of the Presentation in the Temple and the Baptism of Christ. You can see them below; click on them to enlarge them. Unfortunately, they are not medieval at all, and it is generally accepted that they were painted by a daughter of Samuel Rickards himself. There is something similar the other side of Bury at Hawstead.

Truly medieval is the vast St Christopher wall-painting still discernible on the north wall. It was probably one of the last to be painted. The bench ends are medieval, of course, as is the fine rood-screen dado, albeit repainted. There is even some medieval glass in the upper tracery of some of the windows. The laughable stone pulpit is Rickard's commission, and the work of William White. What can Rickards have been thinking of? But we step through into the chancel, and suddenly the whole thing moves up a gear. For here are some things that are truly remarkable.

In a county famous for its woodwork, the furnishings of Stowlangtoft's chancel are breathtaking, even awe-inspiring. Behind the rood screen dado is Suffolk's most complete set of return stalls. Most striking are the figures that form finials to the stall ends. They are participants in the Mass, including two Priests, two servers and two acolytes. The figure of the Priest at a prayer desk must be one of the best medieval images in Suffolk; Mortlock thought the stalls the finest in England. I was here with my friend Aidan of Sylly Suffolk fame, and he had previously photographed and written about these carving a a couple of years ago. But even he found something new to photograph, and a hush fell on the chancel as we explored.

The benches that face eastwards are misericords, and beneath them are wonderful things: angels, lions and wodewoses, evangelistic symbols and crowned heads. A hawk captures a hare, a dragon sticks out its tongue. Between the seats are weird oriental faces. Some of them are below; click on them to enlarge them.

Now, you know what I am going to ask next. How much of this is from this church originally? It all appears medieval work, and there is no reason to believe it might not have been moved elsewhere in the church when the chancel was open to the elements. What evidence have we got?

Firstly, we should notice that the only other Suffolk church with such a large number of medieval misericords of this quality is just a mile away, at Norton. I don't ask you to see this as significant, merely to notice it in passing. Secondly, I am no carpenter, but it does look to me as though two sets of furnishings have been cobbled together; the stalls that back on to the screen appear to have been integrated into the larger structure of stalls and desks that front them and the north and south walls.

However, if you look closely at the figures of the two Deacons, you will see that they are bearing shields of the Ashfield and Peche families. The Ashfield arms also appear on the rood screen, and the Ashfields were the major donors when the church was rebuilt in the 14th century. So on balance I am inclined to think that the greater part of the stall structure was in this church originally from when it was rebuilt. And the misericords? Well, I don't know. But I think they have to be considered as part of the same set as those at Norton. In which case they may have come from the same church, which may have been this one, but may not have been. Almost certainly, the stalls at Norton did not come from Norton church, and folklore has it that they were originally in the quire of Bury Abbey. Hmm....

Other remarkable things in St George include FE Howard's beautiful war memorial in the former north doorway, and in the opposite corner of the nave Hugh Easton's gorgeous St George, which serves the same purpose. It is as good as his work at Elveden. Back up in the chancel is a delightful painted pipe organ which was apparently exhibited at, and acquired from, the Great Exhibition of 1851.

But St George at Stowlangtoft is, of course, most famous for the Flemish carvings that flank the rather heavy altarpiece. They were given to the church by Henry Wilson of Stowlangtoft Hall, who allegedly found them in an Ixworth junk shop. They show images from the crucifixion story, but are not Stations of the Cross as some guides suggest. They date from the 1480s, and were almost certainly the altarpiece of a French or Flemish monastery that was sacked during the French Revolution. I had seen something similar at Baumes-les-Messieurs in the French Jura a few weeks before. There, the carvings are brightly painted, as these once were, and piled up in a block rather than spread out in a line. The niches, and crowning arches above them, are 19th century. My favourite images are the Pieta and the Mouth of Hell. Click on the images below.

One cold winter's night in January 1977, a gang of thieves broke into this locked church and stole them. Nothing more was seen or heard of them until 1982, when they were discovered on display in an Amsterdam art gallery. Their journey had been a convoluted one; taken to Holland, they were used as security for a loan which was defaulted upon. The new owner was then burgled, and the carvings were fenced to an Amsterdam junk dealer. They were bought from his shop, and taken to the museum, which immediately identified them as 15th century carvings. They put them on display, and a Dutch woman who had read about the Stowlangtoft theft recognised them.

The parish instituted legal proceedings to get them back; an injunction was taken out to stop the new owner removing them from the museum. The parish lost the case, leaving them with a monstrous legal bill; but the story has a happy ending. A Dutch businessman negotiated their purchase from the owner, paid off the legal bills, and returned the carvings to Stowlangtoft. Apparently this was all at vast cost, but the businessman gave the gift in thanks for Britain's liberation of Holland for the Nazis. No, thank you, sir.

Today, the carvings are fixed firmly in place and alarmed, so they won't be going walkabout again. But a little part of me wonders if they really should be here at all. Sure, they are medieval, but they weren't here originally; they weren't even in England originally. Wouldn't it be better if they were displayed somewhere safer, where people could pay to see them, and provide some income for the maintenance of the church building? And then, whisper it, St George might even be kept open.

St George, Stowlangtoft, is in the village high street. Three keyholders are listed, two of them immediately opposite. I am told that Wednesday is not a good time to try and get the key - it is market day in Bury.

Simon Knott

www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/stowlangtoft.htm

Those pesky trainspotters get everywhere and have ruined my shot!

This photo is copyright of Alistair Ness and the image must not be used elsewhere or cross-posted on other sites without my prior permission. This will normally be freely given if requested by the site owner.

500px.com/kktp