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To all those that are aflicted by a certain and almost unspoken condition, this just may be the answer to your prayers..
It's a pile driver.
Big sin't it.
This was taken from out event this weekend. Check out the little penguin cluster in the middle under the chandelier. Love those little guys!
Check out the blog for more images at www.mdsimages.blogspot.com
For all those who have been following the renovation, here's the (almost) finished article. We still need to decorate and there are a few minor things to finish off (not least the garden and removing the plastic from the cooker hood) but it's pretty much liveable in.
It's a large L-shaped room, with a kitchen area, a dining area and a couple of sofas. It leads through into what used to be the dining room (part of the original house) and which is now Clara's playroom. This is taken from just outside the playroom.
More pics in the renovation set.
Those Deadbeat Cats performing in their unmistakable rockabilly style at North Walsham Children's Day on 2nd May 2022 (c)John Newstead
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Now that those hot sweltering balmy days of summer are behind us we can start to think of happy days on the horizon.
Those crab were a nightmare to photograph. My great nikon prove completly ineficient in capturing them; this picture comes from my compact camera!
Those are 50-foot tall canyon walls that are fully covered in ferns. The place, in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, is aptly called "Fern Canyon". This trail was actually used as one of the locations where The Lost World: Jurassic Park 2 was filmed. I've walked through a few narrow canyons before, but none so exceedingly vibrant and mysterious!
Trip Log - Day 8 (July 17, Fort Bragg to Del Norte Coast)
Drove from Fort Bragg to MacKerricher State Park and hiked at Laguna Point, seeing a starfish, huge red sea slug, and some other minor marine life in tidal pools. Also saw some more harbor seals. Then drove up to Humboldt Redwoods State Park (in Redwood National Park) and did the full Avenue of the Giants drive... 31 miles, mostly through Redwoods.
Continued on to Eureka, CA and Lost Coast Brewery... apparently one of the few breweries in the country started by a woman. Had some great food there before moving on to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. Followed a tiny dirt road (with water running across the road, partially washing it out in 3 separate spots) to Fern Canyon. Enjoyed the full canyon and then drove to the trail head for Brown Creek Trail in the same park, hiking there until the sun came down.
Drove to Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park and set up camp shortly after the sun went down (but before dark, for the first time). Semi-patched my air mattress with a band-aid and some medical tape. It still leaked air, but not as quickly... allowing me to get my first restful sleep in a tent of the trip.
For those who have been wondering why I disappeared from the face of the earth for more than 2 weeks here is your answer: I have been working one of the most challenging and painstakingly detailed doll projects of my life - the Mother Earth.
This OOAK fashion consists of a hand painted sequin gown that can be altered to be worn either long with a cascading silk chiffon shirt or as an edgy short dress; either nesting a leaf gold "egg" at the model's tummy making the wearer pregnant or without it. The sequins are layered is sculpted from that resembles a feathery armour and under the hand painted copper exterior of the sequins movement reveals crevasses of deepest black. The gown's 2-tone silk hem is cut short from the front to reveal a pair of Alexander McQueen inspired platform sandals. These sandals use my Hokusai heel and are covered all over in leaf gold and decorated with golden straps with butterflies. The outfit is crowned by an Isis inspired hand sculpted helmet, which is also covered in leaf gold.
The model is a Sybarite Raja repaint by me and the wig she wears in some of the photos is from Ilaria (Time of Doll).
Just a small number of ticket stubs saved from the hundreds I attended.
My last concert (so far) on April 22, 2009 see here
Latest last concert (so far) was The Eagles in September 2017. No paper ticket stubs these days :o(
This image is not about a simple laugh. It is about the moment when a group closes ranks against someone and turns humiliation into spectacle. The phone becomes the center of the scene, the device that captures, amplifies, and delivers the target to the complicit gaze of the others. The laughter here is not innocent: it is compliance, alignment, a small training in cruelty.
What is disturbing is not only the act of mocking, but its function. People laugh to belong, to please, to remain on the side of those who hold more strength, more voice, more power. This is how abuse becomes normalized: not only through those who exercise it openly, but also through those who accompany it, make it acceptable, and turn it into a collective habit.
In this photograph, the real subject is not the single face exposed on the screen, but the mechanism that binds the others together. The pack is often born this way: from a light, almost cheerful consensus that nonetheless prepares the ground for moral violence. Those who learn to mock in order to please also learn to serve. And those who serve abuse, even without directly dirtying their hands, help keep it alive.
Copyright Susan Ogden
Those of you that know me, know i have 3 girls. This is daughter #3....the Bling, Fashionista daughter...my youngest. i was warned not to post any of the shots of her today...because her face looks chubby (!!???WHERE!!!???). But i thought she looked so pretty and so happy here with her dogs.
Actually the two on her lap are hers...the other belongs to the boyfriend. Dudders (aka Muppet Dog), Sir Dilbert Pickles (with far too many alias’ to list here!) but i call him Dilly, and Dinkum...who wins hands down for the funniest facial expressions on a dog!!!
It has been a rough week and a half for my daughter...Dilly was ill and the vet thought it was a bad tooth...when they went in to take the tooth out, it turned into much worse. There was a tumor on the bone and against the tooth....tested, they found it was cancerous...and the 1000$ surgery ballooned to $4000 to do an mandiblectomy....removing nearly half his lower jawbone. He is on day 5 of recovery, but she is nervously awaiting the rest of the pathology report from all of the surrounding tissue and a lymph node.
She is very VERY V E R Y attached to her dogs. I have been nursing her though tearful to hysterical phone calls and she is worried sick....She rescued Dilly at a low time in college...after unexpectedly losing a Pomeranian she had adopted in her sophomore year, and who was with her every day at her classes in the studios as she worked on her designs...He was a mascot of the Design students....
In an attempt to save Leo’s life she went into $5000.00 in debt...and worked hard to pay it all off on her own. She is now terrified she will lose Dilly. She has begun a gofundme page to help with expenses that have been incurred and if anyone has even pennies to spare i know she would be eternally grateful. i will put you in touch. If all you can offer are prayers and support please know that that is as much appreciated as any donation ever could be.
****A personal HUGE thank you from me, to my treasured floaties i have made via social media and beyond, that have seen the post on FB and were able to spare even change from the washing machine or dryer...or the vacuum cleaner bag!! (((HUG)))
i am making.recycled/repurposed necklaces... from miniature bottles...corks and wood...with embellishments for anyone that can give a donation no matter how small but with love and caring.
Love you all!
Susan
For those who have asked what I look like, a few photos should tell the story. I am a gray-haired Baby Boomer who has been known to hang around a fellow photrographer named Frank. We get our inspiration from magazines and another photographer friend, Danny. This, by the way, is what 60 years old looks like.
Those who do not live in Scotland may be unaware that this YES sign indicates an affirmative response to the question "Should Scotland be an independent country?".
In a referendum to be held on 18 September 2014 this issue will be decided by those who are registered to vote in Scotland.
In my view, the underlying belief of those on the YES side is that it is right and proper for a nation to aspire to govern itself, that it may experience difficulties in doing so but in working through those difficulties it will develop the maturity required to hold its head high in the community of nations. The YES side believes that now is the time to "grasp the thistle".
The NO side appears to hold the view either (i) that a 'mature nation' status is not worth working for or (ii) that, while it might be desirable to become a mature nation, the inevitable difficulties could not be overcome.
I listened live to the 2 hours and 40 minutes of this parliamentary debate and thought that Mike Russell's ten minute winding-up speech (transcript below) characterised by its positive approach, exemplified that contrast with the negative approach of his opponents during that debate.
THE PARLIAMENT OF SCOTS (12 AUGUST 2014)
DEBATE ON THE ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES OF INDEPENDENCE
WINDING UP SPEECH FROM MIKE RUSSELL
Official report:-
The Deputy Presiding Officer:
Thank you. I call Michael Russell to wind up the debate. Cabinet secretary, you have until 5 o’clock.
16:49
The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning (Michael Russell):
Let me give the chamber a revelation: I think that on the evidence of this afternoon’s debate there are no votes in this chamber that are up for grabs in the referendum and that it is pretty clear that there are no undecideds on these benches.
However, there might be some undecideds watching at home. I suspect that they might well have turned off by now, particularly after Jenny Marra’s speech, but if they are still watching I suggest to them that, if they are trying to come to a judgment on the basis of this debate—there are people in the gallery who might want to make such a judgment—they should do so on the basis of what has been the positive view and what has been the negative view.
Look at the positive view that all my colleagues in the chamber have expressed and at the endless, destructive negativity that we have heard from Labour, the Liberals and the Tories.
I will start with the clearest view of the currency issue. As ever, the First Minister got it right in the chamber last week. I will repeat his exact words. He said:
“It is our pound, and we are keeping it.”
There are no ifs and no buts. That is the guarantee. That is plan A to Z. For the benefit of those who are still trying to frighten people out of what is theirs—people such as Mr Henry, who asserted that Scots will not be able to buy food or go on holiday after independence, and Mr Fraser, who tellingly referred—
Hugh Henry:
Will the cabinet secretary take an intervention?
Michael Russell:
No, I will not. I am sorry; one contribution from Mr Henry in an afternoon is more than enough.
Mr Fraser referred to the currency belonging to someone else, which was very interesting. I will repeat what the First Minister said so that there can be no doubt. He said:
“It is our pound, and we are keeping it.”—[Official Report, 7 August 2014; c 33159.]
Hugh Henry:
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. Mr Russell has just made a statement in which he attributed words to me that I did not say. Is it in order for members to fabricate words that were not said during the debate and attribute them to other members? [Interruption.]
The Deputy Presiding Officer:
Order, please. What members say in their speeches is entirely up to them. It is not for me to decide what they should and should not say. However, the Official Report undoubtedly shows every word that has been said in the chamber.
Michael Russell:
I am sure that Mr Henry will reflect on that when he looks at what he has said about me and my writings. I am sure that he will think about that carefully. Mr Henry’s words speak for themselves, as does his depressing demeanour.
The debate has been one of great contrasts. I go back to positivity and negativity. My friend Mr Swinney talked about ambition, achievement, resources, potential and raising the eyes of Scotland to what can be achieved. In my area of special interest, he talked about the need for transformative childcare and the world-leading position of Scottish higher education. What was the result? [Interruption.]
The Deputy Presiding Officer:
Order, please.
Michael Russell:
The result was that, 10 minutes in, Mr Rennie gave the knee-jerk plan B its first outing. Mr Brown then leapt back in. Project fear was in there working hard.
The other side of the unionist coin then showed itself. It was quite stunning. Alex Johnstone chuntered on from a sedentary position about the fact that everything that was mentioned was a product of the wonderful union, but he was interrupted by Jenny Marra, who said that everything was the result of the failed SNP. There we have it: that is a contrast. Labour hates the SNP more than anybody else, and the Tories love the union more than anything else. Neither of those is a prescription for a safe future.
Believing that a Labour Government will remove weapons of mass destruction is also not a prescription for a safe future. There is no evidence for that whatsoever. How else are we to get rid of weapons of mass destruction, except by independence? That is the reality.
It was telling that, when Mr Swinney mentioned Trident and what we need to do, the reaction from Labour and the Tories and even from the sole Lib Dem who was there was derision. They want to put bombs before bairns and Trident before teachers. That is their shame.
Let me carry on.
Neil Bibby (West Scotland) (Lab):
Will the cabinet secretary take an intervention?
Michael Russell:
No, I will not take an intervention. I am sorry.
The reality of the debate was shown clearly. It was about that negative view. Nothing could be done. We had to ask what that was about. Maureen Watt got it 100 per cent right. She analysed the debate early on. The great fear that exists in project fear is the could-should-must progression. If any member on the Labour benches could admit that Scotland could be independent—I will come to Elaine Murray in a moment, as she did that momentarily—the whole fantasy will collapse.
The reason why it collapses is that that leads to the argument that Scotland should be independent, which is the argument that my colleagues made this afternoon. It goes a step further to the argument that Scotland must be independent.
The biggest illustration of that was given by Malcolm Chisholm. Yet again, I was saddened by a speech by Malcolm Chisholm. I have admiration and time for Malcolm Chisholm; he is laughing, but I do. I do not think that he and I differ very much in some of the things that we want to see, but here is the difference. [Interruption.]
The Presiding Officer (Tricia Marwick):
Order.
Michael Russell:
Labour members want to laugh at this, because it is beginning to strike home.
The difference is that I and my colleagues have a plan for how to achieve those things. We know how poverty can be eliminated in Scotland. We know—
Iain Gray:
Will the minister give way?
Michael Russell:
No—I want to finish my point.
I know that it is annoying to Iain Gray, but the truth of the matter is that it is possible to have a plan to change Scotland and to do those things. We can set out with those intentions and we can work hard to meet them, or we can—as Labour members would have us do—simply keep our fingers crossed that we get a Labour Government that could possibly pursue the things that they want to see in Scotland rather than the things that Ed Balls and Miliband want to see south of the border. I say to Malcolm Chisholm that that is not a plan: that is keeping your fingers crossed and putting party before principle.
Malcolm Chisholm:
The cabinet secretary may have a plan, but the whole point of all the Labour speeches has been to point out that it is not a plan that can be delivered without an economic foundation. Before he gives us any more claptrap about the negativity of Labour members, will he reflect on the fact that by far the biggest and most disgraceful scare of the referendum campaign is what the yes side is saying about the NHS? [Interruption.]
The Presiding Officer:
Order! Order!
Michael Russell:
How interesting. Mr Chisholm is being wildly applauded by Jackson Carlaw, who—
The Presiding Officer:
Sit down, Mr Russell.
That is quite enough. There is far too much heckling and far too much noise. The minister is speaking, so allow him to do so. This is a Parliament; it is not a public meeting or a hustings. There are people in Scotland who are listening to the debate. Make it worthy of them.
Michael Russell:
Why was Jackson Carlaw—the person who got so agitated about the issue of the NHS last week—applauding so much? Because we have hit the nail on the head. If the financial power lies outside Scotland, the decision on the priorities of Scotland and how to deliver those priorities will always lie outside Scotland, too. For every £100 by which expenditure is reduced south of the border through privatisation of the health service—privatisation that was started by Labour—£10 is lost from the Scottish budget.
Neil Findlay:
Will the cabinet secretary give way?
Michael Russell:
No.
For every £100 that is removed from public expenditure through privatisation of higher education south of the border, we lose £10. That is the reality. That is the nub of the debate. We can choose to make our decisions in Scotland, to take our responsibilities in Scotland and to have opportunities in Scotland, or we can always dance to someone else’s tune.
Malcolm Chisholm wants to see the progress in Scotland that I want to see. I repeat what I said earlier: the SNP has the plan to do that. It puts its confidence—[Interruption.] We can hear the Tories laughing; we can always hear the Tories laughing when the people of Scotland want to progress.
Here is the choice: we can say to the people of Scotland, “Take responsibility, and then you will have the opportunity to change this country for the better”; or we can tell them to listen to those who will not accept the reality and who will always keep their fingers crossed that England votes the same way that they do. Those voices will always disappoint and let down the people of Scotland. That has got to stop.
The lesson this afternoon is entirely clear: there is a jobs plan for an independent Scotland, there is a finance plan for an independent Scotland, there is a currency plan for an independent Scotland and there is a plan to make an independent Scotland the country that it could and should be. The people who stand in the way of that are this unholy alliance between Labour and the Tories.
The Presiding Officer:
You need to finish, cabinet secretary.
Michael Russell:
They are the people who have plenty of ambition for their political parties and none for their country. [Applause.]
The Presiding Officer:
Order.
That concludes the debate on the economic opportunities of independence.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUNDAY TIMES - 21st September 2014
Michael Russell
In a sense I have been campaigning for independence across Scotland not just in the last four weeks but for forty years. But I don't think I have ever had such an emotional political experience as last Saturday standing in the Station Square in Oban listening to Dougie Maclean sing his anthem of Scottishness, Caledonia.
It didn't matter that someone had forgotten to bring an extension lead, so there was no power for the microphone. It was irrelevant that an early sea mist, now burning off, had prevented the First Minister from making a helicopter campaign stop and equally irrelevant was the stretch limo with a huge "NO thanks" logo tied round it ( one of the bizzarest sights of the campaign) that kept cruising past. Dougie sang and 250 people - young and old, from all parties but mostly none, sang along with a quiet intensity that brought tears to my eyes and to eyes of many others.
That event started a whole day of remarkable activities - a car cavalcade of more than sixty vehicles that wound its way across Mid Argyll with so many participants that a church hall in Lochgilphead had to be commandeered to feed them, a flash mob of dancers and musicians on a green beside the sea and finally a laser show lighting up a huge YES sign on the island of Kerrera in the bay facing the town.
This was politics, but not as I have known it. YES Scotland started out as an umbrella organisation and ended up as a mass movement . It's creativity and energy was replicated not just across my constituency - in Dunoon, in Campbeltown, in Rothesay, in Lochgoilhead, on Islay and on Mull - but across the whole of Scotland in a diverse, multi layered movement that demanded and will go on demanding not only attention but also real change.
Although Thursday night delivered a bitter blow to many of those who had invested so much of themselves in that movement I do not think it will go away. Indeed it must not go away. It's commitment, enthusiasm and vigour are needed as never before if Scotland is to move forward united.
It is this movement that can really test the will of politicians to deliver the new dispensation that the Westminster parties promised in the final days of the campaign and it is this movement that can press an agenda that is focussed on outcomes which benefit and empower real people not just the political classes.
As Alex Salmond said on Friday in his moving resignation statement, holding Westminster to account for the delivery of its new promises has to be done by the whole of Scotland and that process needs to be lead by citizens themselves. If it changes and benefits all the parts of the present UK so much the better as long as that not an excuse for endless delay.
I have undertaken more than sixty public meetings in Argyll & Bute over the past nine months. One of the biggest took place on Ardrishaig the night before the Dougie MacLean event at which I shared a platform with Professor Allan MacInnes and Lesley Riddoch, both longstanding friends. Lesley spoke about this new politics too and was given a standing ovation by the over capacity crowd jammed into a tiny church hall. That enthusiasm reflected growing demand for a different set of priorities and a changed way of doing things - bottom up not top down.
That is what independence is but it's core values - fairness, equity, hope, opportunity, equality, justice - go well beyond the the 1.6 million who chose that option. Lots of voters on both sides were sending a message about the need for those things that cannot now be ignored.
That is why the "faster, safer and better" change offered in the 3 UK leaders Daily Record "Vow" was in the end persuasive for so many. They disagreed on the means but not on the ends.
So that is also why the SNP as the Scottish Government has to be an active part of the process now being outlined by the UK Government. We must heed the urgings of those we have worked with and take part in a constructive, urgent and focussed process to decide on the range of powers required and accelerate their introduction whilst ensuring that they are devolved further into communities and made capable of adaptation to local need and local direction.
That will not be easy for anyone but it is the essential next step - a step demanded by Thursday's result and which can also act as a unifying mechanism. We can help make a new Team Scotland and learn from it though it will be a Team Scotland weakened when not led by Alex Salmond, to whom the whole country owes an enormous political debt.
I am undoubtedly still a nationalist and I want to see independence. But this referendum campaign, undertaken in an Indian summer of warm sunshine amongst the most beautiful scenery in the world, criss crossing sea lochs, sailing to islands and motoring amongst mountains, has taught me a great deal.
A passionate desire for a better country is shared by many of our fellow citizens, young and old inside and outside conventional politics. A different set of priorities and policies - some already introduced by an SNP Government over the past 7 years - is possible. Alienation from politics and society isn't inevitable because inspiration casts out indifference. Decisions are better when made with people, not for them.
I have had the great pleasure of an invigorating campaign in Dalmally and Dunoon, on Luing and Lismore, through Glendaruel (where I live) and Glen Barr and by the shores of Loch Etive and Loch Riddon. The conclusion of those journeys was not the one I hoped for a month ago when the Sunday Times asked me to contribute at the end of the campaign. But the people have spoken and when that happens politicians have to listen - wherever they are.
Images from the 2014 edition of Defqon.1 "Survival of the Fittest"
June 28&29
Biddinghuizen, the Netherlands
Client: Q-dance
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