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Roses grown in my own garden.
.
My photographs and videos and any derivative works are my private property and are copyright © by me, John Russell (aka “Zoom Lens”) and ALL my rights, including my exclusive rights, are reserved. ANY use without my permission in writing is forbidden by law.
When there's so much mess in the ground level, could be good to raise the lens to see something different
October Riots, Santiago de Chile
_OMD7152
When we have equality between men and women, this photo will require no comment other than, "a fireman going about her work".
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EXPLORE : April 15, 2008 # 92
(Highest position)
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And when just the two of us are there...
You won't have to ask if I still care...
Cause as the time turns the page..
My LOVE won't age at all...
You are in my though....
You are in my days.....
And in my HEART always....my Dearest!!
Have a sweet dream tonight...
I will always send you nice sunshine, sweet smile and warm love from Thailand, my Dearest...
Ich liebe dich..I LOVE YOU now and Forever...
J-A-S-M-I-N-E...
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DATA: www.ancientcity.com
The Phanom Rung Sanctuary, Buri Ram
The Phanom Rung Stone Sanctuary is located in Buri Ram Province, on an extinct volcano. Built in accordance with Hinduism beliefs of the Shiva sect, the sanctuary had been constructed and used as a religious center for years. The construction presumably began around the 10th century A.D. and finished within the 13th century A.D. When King Jayavarman VII adopted Mahayana Buddhism, the function of the Hindu sanctuary had been changed to serve as a Mahayana monastery.
The site is approached from the east along the first three-leveled platforms leading to the first passage. Then, there is a causeway lined with blunted stone pillars in parallel rows. The path of stone uprights then leads to the Naga Bridge. Far on the northern side of the cross-shaped passage is a laterite pavilion or Phlabphla called the Elephant Shelter. At the end of the bridge is a terraced staircase with 5 landings leading up to the sanctuary. Beyond the bridge is a vast platform which has a passage that will lead to the Naga Bridge, right in front of the central gate of the gallery. The gate is the first entrance which will direct travellers to the inner courtyard of the prasat, by crossing another Naga Bridge that connects the gate with the main prang.
The most important part, the main prang, is situated right at the center of the inner court yard of the sanctuary. The building has a rectangular shape with re-entrant angles at the corners. The square mondop was built adjacent to the main prang. The architectural designs that were carved on the prang such as the posts at the door frame, pillars on the walls, lintels, porticos and pediments, depict designs of floras, leaves, hermits, gods and god desses and characters from religious myths: Vishnu (Narai) resting on Ananta, the Naga king and Shiva dancing, for example.
The decorations found on the lintels and frontal pediments of the main prang help indicate the age of the main building together with the staircase and the Naga Bridge; they are believed to have been constructed around the 12th century A.D. On the grounds of the inner courtyard, southwest of the main prang is a small prang with no roof. The carvings, pediments and lintels of this prang express that the minor prang was built before the main prang, around the 11th century A.D.
There are remains of the brick base of the prang were also discovered on the northeast of the main prang and dated back to the 10th century A.D. Another structure made of laterite stands on the southeast of the main prang and dated to the 13th century A.D. The laterite structure is con temporary to the building which is known as Rong Chang Phueak (the Elephant Shelter).
For more information, please visit www.ancientcity.com
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The Phanom Rung Sanctuary (Buri Ram Province), the Ancient City (Muang Boran), Samutprakan, Thailand...
Marcello, more or less lost in Venice, better to trust in the navigator, in the signs, or get lost in the dark canals?
Original shot taken with an Olympus SZ-20 digital compact camera, 16Mp, heavy post processing.
All electric railway here these days. It was steam power when I was a lad!
Scanned from a Kodachrome 64 transparency.
Last time we were on the time machine, it brought us to the afternoon of 5 May 2000, and our experience of running from a shower of scoriae from a paroxysm at the Southeast Crater. That was the 52nd in a series of powerful but brief episodes of high lava fountaining, lava flow emission, and generation of tall columns of ash and gas. The next episode occurred ten days later, early on 15 May, and was followed the same evening by yet another one, the first time since February 2000 that two lava fountains occurred on the same day. From that day on, these episodes occurred more frequently: the 55th episode came during the night of 17-18 May, and two days later, the stage was set for episode number 56.
On that evening of 19 May 2000, I was already in bed reading a good book, when a friend called me on the phone, saying that lava had again started to flow from a vent on the north side of the Southeast Crater cone. This was the typical sign that a new paroxysm was preparing - for a few hours this lava flow would gradually grow, and then explosions would start at that vent, which would then pass into a continuous low fountain, and then the BIG fountain would burst forth from the summit vent of the Southeast Crater ...
But I was not in the mood of changing into my mountain gear and go out into the cold night to wait, maybe for hours, for this lava fountain. I had seen quite a few of these events over the previous four months, and thought if I lost this one, there would be soon another one. As a matter of fact, there were so many of these lava fountains in that year that I became a bit blasé, something that would not easily happen now.
So I returned to my book, and a few minutes later the phone rang again. Another friend was calling from his cell phone. "Boris, I'm in my car waiting in front of your home, get the hell out and let's see this lava fountain", he said, and I decided to go for it, got my clothes on, grabbed my camera and my tripod, and just in the moment when I was about to close my apartment's door, I remembered I had a few beers in the refrigerator and a tape with a good live recording of one of my favorite musicians, Steve Hackett.
Thus we drove off to the mountain, which shone against the night sky with a river of lava exiting behind the Southeast Crater, progressively growing longer and longer. We eventually arrived in a spot above the village of Fornazzo, from where you would look straight up to the Southeast Crater (I returned there on the occasion of the 12-13 January 2011 lava fountain). When we arrived and turned the engine of the car off, there was initially silence.
Then, the rumblings coming from the Southeast Crater became audible. And, to our amazement, in the forest surrounding us, dozens of birds were happily chirping and singing as if it were sunrise - apparently the bright glow from the lava on the volcano had the same effect as the first light of the day.
This is the first photo in a long series I took that night, the time was about 23.50 (local time = GMT+2). Lava was spurting in a low fountain from the vent on the northern side of the Southeast Crater cone (the brighter of the two fountains visible here), a vent that became informally known as "Levantino". Intermittent bursts of lava had also started shooting from the summit vent of the Southeast Crater, sometimes reaching 200-250 m above the vent. At the same time, a continuous plume of ash rose from the nearby Northeast Crater (seen as a diffuse cloud at right, illuminated by the glow of the lava fountains). The wind blew into a direction just to the south of us, so we hoped to be spared from the fallout of the fountain that we knew would happen before our eyes within the next couple of hours.
We opened our first beers and waited.
(More to come!)
Photo taken with a Canon AE1 and scanned from original Ektachrome slide
A rather large Mite on my parents garden refuse bin, I think this one is tucking in to a Psocid nymph, pretty sure of that looking at the shape of the head and the antennae. Quite voracious predators these Red Spider Mites, I think they are good for gardens as I think they prey on Aphids as well.
Anyway, dead chuffed with this a 5 image focus stack at x5 on my MP-E. Had a major disaster today, I broke my extension tubes, so have been using my 1.4x extender, not too bad the 1.4x, at x7 mag if you bring the aperture to F/7.1 you can still get decent details :o)
Reckon I'm getting Kenko's next, those Meike ones are not as tough as I thought they would be :o)
VIEW ON BLACK
When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse
to buy me, and snaps his purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox;
when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,
I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering;
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?
And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,
and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,
and each name a comfortable music in the mouth
tending as all music does, toward silence,
and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.
When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was a bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened
or full of argument.
I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.
~ Mary Oliver ~
Tiny white periwinkle along the ground. Same as in previous photo. Tried to get small drop in focus but never quite did.
Remainder of photos taken after the storm.
This delicate smudge in deep space is far more turbulent than it first appears. Known as IRAS 14348-1447 — a name derived in part from that of its discoverer, the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS for short) — this celestial object is actually a combination of two gas-rich spiral galaxies. This doomed duo approached one another too closely in the past, gravity causing them to affect and tug at each other and slowly, destructively, merge into one. The image was taken by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS).
IRAS 14348-1447 is located over a billion light-years away from us. It is one of the most gas-rich examples known of an ultraluminous infrared galaxy, a class of cosmic objects that shine characteristically — and incredibly — brightly in the infrared part of the spectrum. Almost 95% of the energy emitted by IRAS 14348-1447 is in the far-infrared!
The huge amount of molecular gas within IRAS 14348-1447 fuels its emission, and undergoes a number of dynamical processes as it interacts and moves around; these very same mechanisms are responsible for IRAS 14348-1447’s own whirling and ethereal appearance, creating prominent tails and wisps extending away from the main body of the galaxy.
For more information, please vsit:
www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2017/hubbles-front-row...
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Text credit: European Space Agency
The winter of 1930-31 was a bittersweet time for Howard Marmon. His pièce de resistance, the Marmon Sixteen, had debuted to great acclaim at the Chicago Auto Salon in November and the following month he received a medal for outstanding achievement from the Society of Automotive Engineers, awarded for the Sixteen’s magnificent engine. Although a second shift was added to the assembly line when full production began in April, there was trouble at the Marmon Motor Car Company. As with other luxury car makers, its profits had turned to deficits as the Depression deepened, and two rounds of pay cuts were followed by layoffs of most engineering staff. What had once been a bright future had become very, very uncertain.
Howard Carpenter Marmon was the son of an Indianapolis manufacturer of milling machinery. With an engineering degree from the University of California, he joined the family firm, becoming vice president and chief engineer within three years. Enamored of all types of machinery, he built a car of his own design, completed in 1902. Remarkable for its use of full pressure lubrication, it had an air-cooled power train with no universal joints, made possible by mounting the running gear on a separate subframe. He built six cars in 1904, unusual in their use of aluminum castings in their bodies, and sold them to neighbors.
By 1909, Marmon was in full production of water-cooled cars, including the Model 32 that would be built for seven years. In fact, it was a Model 32, called the “Wasp,” that garnered international acclaim for the company when it won the inaugural Indianapolis 500 in 1911. The Marmon 34 of 1916 made even greater use of aluminum, but teething problems with its design and Marmon’s lack of business acumen hindered sales. Marmons became more conventional during the 1920s, and the car operation was spun off from Nordyke and Marmon, the machinery firm. Although well built, Marmons were nearly indistinguishable from other prestige cars of the decade, and sales were mediocre.
In 1926, Howard Marmon began work on his masterpiece, a sixteen-cylinder luxury car. The heart of the new model was a compact even-firing 45-degree V16 of 491 cubic inches. Overhead valves were pushrod-operated, and the aluminum block had wet cylinder liners. Its operation was so smooth that a light flywheel was possible, which in turn facilitated rapid acceleration. The valve gear was carefully designed to be compact and well lubricated, making it nearly silent, despite mechanical adjustment. The Sixteen developed 200 brake horsepower, rode a chassis with a 145-inch wheelbase and was clothed in attractive Art Deco- inspired bodies.
Although the bodies were built by LeBaron, and carried LeBaron’s prestigious cowl tags, it was a father and son team of industrial designers who penned the car’s svelte lines. Credit is conventionally given to Walter Dorwin Teague Sr.; while it was his son who sketched the lines and details that ultimately entered production. A student at MIT, Walter Dorwin Teague Jr. was a gifted designer who would go on to design some of the most influential automobiles of his time.
Magnificent though it was, the Marmon Sixteen was not ready for production until early in 1931, by which time Cadillac’s V16 had been on the market for over a year. Initial prices were as low as $5,200, $750 less than the equivalent Cadillac, but Cadillac had a head start and the advantage of a larger business base. The first Marmon Sixteen customer did not take delivery until April 1931. For the year, just over 200 Sixteens were produced, out of some 5,700 total sales. The total for 1932 was just ten percent of an underwhelming 1,365 total cars, from which it seems odd that the eight cylinder cars were discontinued entirely for 1933. It is not hard to understand, though, that with just 86 Sixteens sold that year, about a third of which must have been leftover ‘32s, Marmon was in receivership by the first of May.
200bhp, 490.8 cu. in. overhead valve V16 engine, three-speed manual transmission, suspension via front and rear semi-elliptic leaf springs, solid front axle, live rear axle, four-wheel vacuum-assisted mechanical drum brakes. Wheelbase: 145"
[Text from Boldride.com]
www.boldride.com/ride/1933/marmon-sixteen-convertible-sed...
This Lego miniland-scale Marmon 1932 S I X T E E N Convertible Sedan has been created for Flickr LUGNuts' 96th Build Challenge - The 8th Birthday, titled - 'Happy Crazy Eight Birthday, LUGNuts' - where all previous build challenges are available to build to. This model is built to the the 31st Build Challenge - 'Kickin' it Old School' - for vehicles built prior to 1950.
When I was seven my parents bought me a piano...I though I was the luckiest little girl and I was. I've had this piano well lets say...a very long time...isn't it wonderful?
Remember when the Mercedes-Benz A-Class was a highly innovative but rather strangely styled premium small car. Seems like a distant memory now thanks to the latest generation and its much more conventional styling and the fact it now outsells the Vauxhall Astra here in the U.K. and is a regular in the top 10 best sellers!
Elk test mishap aside it did bring new people to the Mercedes fold and its extremely distinctive styling and proportions meant it couldn't be mistaken for anything else on the road. A lot of toy manufacturers were quick to bring out their own miniature versions including Realtoy who perhaps made the very best one in its scale and pocket money price point.
This is an earlier example and just look at that detailing! Realtoy never appeared to skimp on anything to ensure it lived up to its name of REAL toy and easily blasted its competitors away.
Sadly, instead of dominating the market it has now virtually disappeared from the U.K. retail scene.
Bought on Ebay back in April. Mint and boxed.
I remember the entire time in Egypt was unberably hot. When we went south to the the Valley of the Kings we had to tour around 6 in the morning, and were back by around 10 as it was just too hot. I think this scarf was simply to keep light away from my head. I wore this thing everywhere for a while.
From the Flickr Album: 1991. A Year Away.
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Photos from a collection of approx. 1,000 35mm slides from a one year trip taken in 1991 by my then gf and myself. The camera was 35mm, fixed lens and pretty cheap. We carried the undeveloped film with us all of that year, not seeing the output until we'd been back a month or two. Then they disappeared into my gf's Mother's attic for 20+ years until they finally arrived with me ... dusty, unscanned, but mostly unscathed. Over time I am scanning and posting these picture.
What happens when your camera hunts :)
The lights are from the Harbour Bridge. Larger view of Lights at Harbour Bridge.
Thursday morning, and all I had to do was get back to Kent. Hopefully before five so I could hand the hire car back, but getting back safe and sound would do, really.
I woke at six so I could be dressed for breakfast at half six when it started, and as usual when in a hotel, I had fruit followed by sausage and bacon sarnies. And lots of coffee.
Outside it had snowed. OK, it might only be an inch of the stuff, but that's more than an inch needed to cause chaos on the roads.
Back to the room to pack, one last look round and back to reception to check out, then out into the dawn to find that about a quarter of the cars were having snow and ice cleared off them before being able to be driven.
I joined them, scraping the soft snow then the ice. Bracing stuff at seven in the morning.
Now able to see out, I inched out of the car park and out to the exit and onto the untreated roads.
It was a picturesque scene, but not one I wanted to stop to snap. My first road south had only been gritted on one side, thankfully the side I was travelling down, but was still just compacted snow.
After negotiating two roundabouts, I was on the on ramp to the M6, and a 60 mile or so drive south. The motorway was clear of snow, but huge amounts of spray was thrown up, and the traffic was only doing 45mph, or the inside lane was, and that was quite fast and safe enough for me.
More snow fell as I neared Stoke, just to add to the danger of the journey, and then the rising sun glinted off the road, something which I had most of the drive home.
I went down the toll road, it costs eight quid, but is quick and easy. And safe too with so little traffic on it. I think for the first time, I didn't stop at the services, as it was only about half nine, and only three hours since breakfast.
And by the time I was on the old M6, there was just about no snow on the ground, and the road was beginning to dry out.
My phone played the tunes from my apple music store. Loudly. So the miles slipped by.
After posting some shots from Fotheringhay online, a friend, Simon, suggested others nearby that were worth a visit, and I also realised that I hadn't taken wide angle shots looking east and west, so I could drop in there, then go to the others suggested.
And stopping here was about the half way point in the journey so was a good break in the drive, and by then the clouds had thinned and a weak sin shone down.
Fotheringhay is as wonderful as always, it really is a fine church, easy to stop there first, where I had it to myself, and this time even climbed into the richly decorated pulpit to snap the details.
A short drive away was Apethorpe, where there was no monkey business. The village was built of all the same buttery yellow sandstone, looking fine in the weak sunshine.
Churches in this part of Northamptonshire are always open, Simon said.
Not at Apethorpe. So I made do with snapping the church and the village stocks and whipping post opposite.
A short drive up the hill was King's Cliffe. Another buttery yellow village and a fine church, which I guessed would be open.
Though it took some finding, as driving up the narrow high street I failed to find the church. I checked the sat nav and I had driven right past it, but being down a short lane it was partially hidden behind a row of houses.
The church was open, and was surrounded by hundreds of fine stone gravestones, some of designs I have not seen before, but it was the huge numbers of them that was impressive.
Inside the church was fine, if cold. I record what I could, but my compact camera's batter had died the day before, and I had no charger, so just with the nifty fifty and the wide angle, still did a good job of recording it.
There was time for one more church. Just.
For those of us who remember the seventies, Warmington means Dad's Army, or rather Warmington on Sea did. THat there is a real Warmington was a surprise to me, and it lay just a couple of miles the other side of Fotheringhay.
The church is large, mostly Victorian after it fell out of use and became derelict, if the leaflet I read inside was accurate. But the renovation was excellent, none more so than the wooden vaulted roof with bosses dating to either the 15th or 16th centuries.
Another stunning item was the pulpit, which looks as though it is decorated with panels taken from the Rood Screen. Very effective.
Back to the car, I program the sat nav for home, and set off back to Fotheringhay and the A14 beyond.
No messing around now, just press on trying to make good time so to be home before dark, and time to go home, drop my bags, feed the cats before returning the car.
No real pleasure, but I made good time, despite encountering several bad drivers, who were clearly out only to ruin my mood.
Even the M25 was clear, I raced to the bridge, over the river and into Kent.
Nearly home.
I drive back down the A2, stopping at Medway services for a sandwich and a huge coffee on the company's credit card.
And that was that, just a blast down to Faversham, round onto the A2 and past Canterbury and to home, getting back at just after three, time to fill up the bird feeders, feed the cats, unpack and have a brew before going out at just gone four to return the car.
Jools would rescue me from the White Horse on her way home, so after being told the car was fine, walked to the pub and ordered two pints of Harvey's Best.
There was a guy from Essex and his American girlfriend, who were asking about all sorts of questions about Dover's history, and I was the right person to answer them.
I was told by a guide from the Castle I did a good job.
Yay me.
Jools arrived, so I went out and she took me home. Where the cats insisted they had not been fed.
Lies, all lies.
Dinner was teriyaki coated salmon, roasted sprouts and back, defrosted from before Christmas, and noodles.
Yummy.
Not much else to tell, just lighting the fire, so Scully and I would be toast warm watch the exciting Citeh v Spurs game, where Spurs were very Spursy indeed.
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I was exploring the churches of north-east Northamptonshire, and on my way back to Peterborough station how could I resist a visit to lovely Warmington church? The village is rather a suburban one but, the solid little entirely Early English church sits at its heart. Entirely a Huntingdonshire church in style, with a stubby spire and big dormer-style lucarnes.
I had previously visited almost exactly a year ago, and as before I left my bike in the Early English porch, which is vaulted in blocks of stone, handsome yet familiar. I remembered in 2015 stepping into what turned out to be then the most interesting interior of the day, although rather overshadowed by Apethorpe and Blatherwycke on my current trip. The most striking feature, and rather a surprising one, is that the roof of the nave is vaulted in wood. This was done in the 13th Century, and the bosses survive from that time - even more surprising, they all depict green men, nine of them. Why was this not done elsewhere?
The rood screen is one of the best in the area, and the medieval pulpit appears to be constructed of rood screen panels (can that be right? Did they come from the rood loft? Surely it is pre-Reformation, in which case perhaps they came from somewhere else). Lots to think about. A good church, it would be considered so in any county.
So I got back on my bike and headed on towards Peterborough, but not without a memory of the last time I had done the same thing, because in 2015, as I was about to leave the church, three young women came in. They were walking the Nene Way, and were attired as you might expect attractive young women to be on such a sunny day. I didn't want them to be made nervous by the presence of a middle-aged man with a camera, so I nodded a greeting as I left, but in the event they engaged me in conversation, asking me where I'd come from, telling me what they were doing, where they were going, and so on.
In the end I had to make my apologies and leave as they didn't seem to want to let me go, not an experience I have very often these days, I can tell you. It rather put me in mind of the Sirens episode in the Odyssey.
And so I headed on, wary now of any wandering rocks and one-eyed giants.
www.flickr.com/photos/norfolkodyssey/27033140016/in/photo...
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St Michael’s Parish Church, Warmington
Warmington was already an established farming community when its assets were recorded in Domesday Book. Shortly afterwards, its Norman owner, the Earl of Warwick, gave the manor of Warmington to the Benedictine Abbey which his father had endowed in Normandy, St.Peter’s at Preaux. Warmington was to remain in monastic hands, with one short break, for about 450 years. Monks were sent over from Preaux who built a small Priory. Its foundations were discovered when houses were built in Court Close in the 1950s. The Priory has disappeared, but the splendid church built under the monks’ supervision, mainly in the early medieval period, remains.
The church stands high above the village, close to the summit of Warmington Hill. Tradition tells us that the stone for building it was dug close by, in the area known as Catpits, or Churchpits. The stone for the tower was brought from a field known as Turpits, or Towerpits, a quarter of a mile away along the Hornton road. The churchyard is entered either by the lych-gate from the main road, or from the village by two long flights of steps. A diagonal line of pine trees marks the former boundary of the churchyard which was extended in the 1850s. In the older part, and especially near the south porch, are gravestones of exceptionally fine workmanship dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. About eighty of these are ‘listed’ by the Department of the Environment. All the inscribed memorials were recorded in 1981.
An admirable and detailed architectural description of the church is available in the Victoria County History. These notes are intended rather as a ‘layman’s conducted tour’. The church was purpose-built and used for the first half of its long life for forms of worship very different from our own. It was also the village meeting place for many secular purposes The church comprises north and south porches, nave with north and south aisles, a west tower and chancel with two-storey vestry adjoining.
As you enter the church by the south porch you walk forward into the nave. This area, with the first three pillars on each side, is where Warmington people have met and worshipped since the twelfth century. The area was extended by the addition of the aisles a century later. Today the overwhelming impression is a sense of simplicity, of space and of strength. Imagine the scene in the medieval period: no pews but white-washed walls covered with paintings, images of the saints in stone, on wood and painted cloths, the whole lit by the sunlight through stained glass and by candles and lamps burning before every image. On Sundays before Mass, at special festivals and for some fifty saints’ days in the year, a procession would form, with banners and hand bells, winding its way around the church and churchyard, and stopping at various points for particular acts of worship. The north and west doors, so rarely used today, had significance in these processions.
Before leaving this area of the church, notice the variety of windows, almost all of early date, but now mostly with clear glass. The ones at the east ends of the aisles, where the stone plate is pierced with roundels and a five-pointed star, are unusual. Considerable work has been undertaken in recent years in renewing the stone mullions, worn by the weather over time. The early Norman tub font of simple design is large enough for infant immersion. The aisles both taper by a foot, one to the east, and one to the west. The nave and chancel are slightly out of alignment, perhaps symbolic of Christ’s drooping head on the cross.
Before stepping down into the chancel, run your hand along the wooden screen under the chancel arch. This is all that remains of the great rood-screen which would have dominated the medieval church. The screen was hacked through quite roughly when the church was stripped of its ‘idolatrous’ treasures at the Reformation. Just to the right of the chancel arch is the doorway and stair which used to lead to the rood-screen loft.
The stained glass and memorial tablets in the chancel all commemorate the family of the Victorian rector during whose incumbency the church was restored. On the south wall are a richly decorated triple sedilia and piscina, dating from the fifteenth century when Warmington manor had newly passed to the Carthusian monks of Wytham in Somerset.
A door from the chancel leads into the vestry, built about 1340. The lower room was a chapel, dedicated to St Thomas. The stone altar shows four of its five original crosses cut in the top. An altar would have a piscina nearby for washing the vessels used at Mass. The piscina here has a trefoiled ogee-head and quartrefoil basin. On the opposite wall is a blocked fireplace.
The oak doors and stairway are delightful and a testament to the skills of local carpenters, smiths and masons. The upper room was the priest’s home complete with windows, commanding extensive views, fireplace, lavatory and a shuttered opening for keeping watch over the main alter. The exterior walls of the vestry are extraordinarily thick. One Warmington tradition was that it was used as a prison for recalcitrant monks!
A more credible and interesting suggestion is that the walls were so constructed to carry the weight of a tower. If this was indeed the plan, it was quickly abandoned, for soon after the vestry was built work started on the tower in the usual Warwickshire position at the west end of the nave.
The slightly different stonework on the exterior indicates the stages of its building. The tower is recessed slightly into the nave, presumably to accommodate it in the very limited land there was available for extending the church at the west end. A stair within the thickness of the wall gives access to the bell chamber and the roof. The flight is steep and the treads are worn down to the bottom of the risers. The present bells are dated 1602, 1613 and 1811.
There are many interesting gravestones in the churchyard, which were recorded by members of Warmington WI in a 1981 survey.
VICTORIA COUNTY HISTORY
WARMINGTON
This extract from the Victoria County History gives a very detailed description of the parish church.
The church stands directly on the east side of the main road from Banbury to Warwick at the top of a steep gradient and the village lies mostly to the northeast of it at a lower level. The parish church of ST. MICHAEL, or ST. NICHOLAS, consists of a chancel, north chapel with a priest’s chamber above it, nave, north and south aisles and porches and a west tower.
The nave dates from the 12th century; no detail is left to indicate its original date but it was of the proportion of two squares, common in the early 12th century. A north aisle was added first, about the middle of the 12th century, with an arcade of three bays; a south aisle followed, near the end of the 12th century, also with a three-bay arcade. After about a century a considerable enlargement was begun and continued over a period of half a century or more; the nave was lengthened eastwards about 10 ft. and a new chancel built. The extra length of the side walls added to the nave perhaps remained unpierced at first.
Although there is a general sameness in the Hornton stone ashlar walling throughout, all the various parts—chancel, chapel, aisles, and tower—have different plinths, &c., and there is a great variation in the elevations and details of the windows, showing constant changes from the 14th century, when there was much activity, onwards, probably because of decay and need for repair caused by the church’s exposed position on the brow of a hill.
The south aisle was widened to its present limits about 1290, on the evidence of the wide splays and other details of its windows; but an early-13th-century doorway was re-used. It is possible that the east part of the north aisle followed soon afterwards, c. 1300, as a kind of transeptal chapel, on the evidence of its east window, which differs from the other aisle windows. From c. 1330–40 much was done. The chancel arch was widened, new bays to match were inserted in the east lengths of the nave walls, making both arcades now of four bays, the widening of the whole of the north aisle was completed with the addition of the north porch. The 12th-century north arcade, which seems to have lost its inner order, was probably rebuilt. There is a curious distortion about both aisles, perhaps only explained by the widenings being made in more than one period; the north aisle tapers from west to east and the south aisle tapers from east to west, about a foot each, as compared with the lines of the arcades. The south porch was probably added about 1330.
About 1340 came also the addition of the chapel with the priest’s chamber above it. The north wall of the chancel, probably of the 13th century and thinner than any of the other walls, was kept to form the south wall of the chapel, but the other walls were made unusually thick, as though it was at first intended to raise a higher superstructure than was actually carried out, perhaps even a tower. If such was the intention it was quickly abandoned and the west tower was begun about 1340–5 and carried up to some two-thirds of its present height. There was not much room above the road-side and it had to encroach 2 or 3 ft. into the west end of the nave. The top stage was added or completed in the 15th century.
With the addition of the chapel, alterations were made to the chancel windows, but its south wall had to be rebuilt in the 15th century, when new and larger windows were inserted and the piscina and sedilia constructed.
There have been many repairs and renovations, notably in 1867 to the chancel and 1871 for the rest of the church, and others since then. The roofs have been entirely renewed, though probably more or less of the original forms of the 14th or 15th centuries.
The chancel (about 30½ft. by 16½ft.) has an east window of four trefoiled pointed lights and modern tracery of 14th-century character in a two-centred head with an external hood-mould having head-stops. The jambs and arch, of two moulded orders, and the hood-mould are early-14th-century. In the north wall is a 14th-century doorway into the chapel with jambs and ogee head of three moulded orders and a hoodmould with head-stops, the eastern a cowled man’s, the western a woman’s. It contains an ancient oak door, with stout diagonal framing at the back and hung with plain strap-hinges. At the west end of the wall are two windows close together; the eastern, of c. 1340, of two trefoiled ogee-headed lights and cusped piercings in a square head with an external label having decayed head-stops. It has a shouldered internal lintel which is carved with grotesque faces. The western is a narrower and earlier 14th-century window of two trefoiled ogee-headed lights and a quatrefoil, &c., in a square head with an external label.
The window at the west end of the south wall is similar. The other two are 15th-century insertions, each of two wide cinquefoiled three-centred lights under a square head with head-stops, one a cowled human head, the other beast-heads. The jambs and lintel of two sunk-chamfered orders are old, the rest restored. The rear lintel is also sunk-chamfered and is supported in the middle by a shaped stone bracket from the mullion.
The 14th-century priest’s doorway has jambs and two-centred ogee head of two ovolo-moulded orders and a cambered internal lintel; it has no hood-mould.
Below the south-east window is a 15th-century piscina with small side pilasters that have embattled heads, and a trefoiled ogee head enriched with crockets. The sill, which projects partly as a moulded corbel, has a round basin. West of it are three sedilia of the same character with cinquefoiled ogee heads also crocketed and with finials. At the springing level are carved human-head corbels: the cusp-points are variously carved, an acorn, a snake’s head, a skull, and foliage. The two outer are surmounted by crocketed and finialled gables and all are flanked and divided by pilasters with embattled heads and crocketed pinnacles.
The east wall is built of yellow-grey ashlar with a projecting splayed plinth; the gable-head has been rebuilt. At the south-east angle is a pair of square buttresses of two stages, probably later additions, as the plinth is not carried round them. Another at the former north-east angle has been restored. The south wall is of yellow ashlar but has a moulded plinth of the 15th century. The eaves have a hollow-moulded course with which the uprights of the 15th-century window-labels are mitred.
The 14th-century chancel arch has responds and pointed head of two ovolo-moulded orders interrupted at the springing line by the abacus.
The roof with arched trusses is modern and is covered with tiles.
The north chapel (about 12 ft. east to west by 17 ft. deep) is now used as the vestry, and dates from c. 1340. In its south wall, the thin north wall of the chancel, is a straight joint 3¼ft. from the east wall probably marking the east jamb of a former 13th-century window, and below it is the remnant of an early stringcourse that is chamfered on its upper edge. The east wall is 3 ft. 10 in. thick and the north wall 4 ft. 6 in. In the middle of each is a rectangular one-light window with moulded jambs and head of two orders and an external label; the internal reveals are half splayed and part squared at the inner edges and have a flat stone lintel. The lights were probably cusped originally. In the west wall is a filled-in square-headed fire-place, perhaps original. Partly in the recess of the east window and partly projecting is an ancient thick stone altarslab showing four of the original five crosses cut in the top. It has a hollow-chamfered lower edge and is supported by moulded stone corbels. South of it in the east wall is a piscina with a trefoiled ogee-head and hood-mould and a quatrefoil basin.
The stair-vice that leads up to the story above is in the south-west angle, its doorway being splayed westwards to avoid the doorway to the chancel. In it is an ancient oak door with one-way diagonal framing on the back. The turret projects externally to the west in the angle with the chancel wall; it is square in the lower part but higher is broadened northwards with a splay that is corbelled out below in three courses, the lowest corbel having a trefoiled ogee or blind arch cut in it. The top is tabled back up to the eaves of the chapel west wall. A moulded string-course passes round the projection and there is another half-way up the tabling. The doorway at the top of the spiral stair leading into the upper chamber has an ancient oak door hung with three strap-hinges.
The upper priest’s chamber has an east window of two plain square-headed lights, probably altered. In the north wall is a rectangular window that was of two lights but has lost its mullion. Outside it has a false pointed head of two trefoiled ogee-headed lights and leaf tracery, all of it blank, and a hood-mould with human-head stops, one cowled. Apparently this treatment was purely for decorative purposes, like the square-headed windows at Shotteswell and elsewhere. The south wall is pierced by a watching-hole into the chancel, which is fitted with an iron grill and oak shutter: it has been reduced from a larger opening that had an ogee head and hood-mould. There is a square-headed fire-place in the west wall and in the splayed north-west angle is the entrance to a garderobe or latrine, which is lighted by a north loop.
The walls are of yellow ashlar and have a plinth of two courses, the upper moulded, a moulded stringcourse at first-floor level, and moulded eaves-courses at the sides. The north wall is gabled and has a parapet with string-course and coping. At the angles are diagonal buttresses of two stages; the lower stage is 2½ft. broad up to the first-floor level, above this the upper stage is reduced to about half the breadth. They support square diagonal pinnacles with restored crocketed finials. The west wall is unpierced but above it is a plain square chimney-shaft with an open-side hood on top. Internally the walls are faced with whitish-brown ashlar. The gabled roof is modern and of two bays.
The nave (about 41½ft. by 16½ft.) has north and south arcades of four bays. The easternmost bay on each side, with the first pillar, is of the same detail and date as the chancel arch. They vary in span, the north being about 9 ft. and the south about 10 ft., and in both cases the span is less than those of the older bays. Those on the north side are of 11–12 ft. span and date from the middle of the 12th century. The pillars are circular, the west respond a half-circle, with scalloped capitals, 6 in. high and square in the deep-browed upper part and with a 4½in. grooved and hollowchamfered abacus. The bases are chamfered and stand on square sub-bases. The arches are pointed and of one square order with a plain square hood-mould, The voussoirs are small. The middle parts of the soffits are plastered between the flush inner ends of the voussoirs, suggesting a former inner order, abolished perhaps in a rebuilding of the heads.
The same three bays of the south side are of 11 ft. span and of late-12th-century date. The round pillars are rather more slender than the northern, and the capitals are taller, 12 in. high, with long and shallow scallops, and have 4 in. abaci like the northern. The bases are taller and moulded in forms approaching those of the 13th century, on chamfered square sub-bases.
The pointed arches are of one chamfered order and their hood-moulds are now flush with the plastered wall-faces above.
The half-round west responds of both arcades have been overlapped on the nave side by the east wall of the tower.
High above the 14th-century south-east respond is a 15th-century four-centred doorway to the former rood-loft. The stair-vice leading up to it is entered by a four-centred doorway in the east wall of the south aisle.
The north aisle (11½ft. wide at the east end and 12½ft. at the west) has an uncommon east window of c. 1300. It is of three plain-pointed rather narrow lights; above the middle light, which has a shorter pointed head than the others, is a circle enclosing a pierced five-pointed star, all in a two-centred head with an external hood-mould having defaced head-stops, and with a chamfered rear-arch.
Set fairly close together at the east end of the north wall are two tall windows of c. 1340, each of two trefoiled round-headed lights and foiled leaf-tracery below a segmental-pointed head with an ogee apex, the tracery coming well below the arch. The jambs are of two orders, the outer sunk-chamfered. The lights are wider and the splays of ashlar are more acute than those of the east window.
The third window near the west end is narrower and shorter and of two plain-pointed lights and an uncusped spandrel in a two-centred head: it is of much the same date as the east window. The jambs and head are of two hollow-chamfered orders and the fairly obtuse plastered splays have old angle-dressings. The segmental-pointed rear-arch is chamfered.
The north doorway, also of c. 1340, has jambs and two-centred head without a hood-mould; the segmental rear-arch is of square section. In it is an 18th-century oak door.
The three-light window in the west wall has jambs and splays like those of the north-west but its head has been altered; it is now of three trefoiled ogee-headed lights below a four-centred arch. The chamfered reararch is elliptical.
The walls are yellow ashlar with a chamfered plinth and parapets with moulded string-courses and copings that are continued over the east and west gables. Below the sills of the two north-east windows is a plain stringcourse. At the east angle is a pair of shallow square buttresses and a diagonal buttress at the west, all ancient. White ashlar facing is exposed inside between the two north-east windows only, the remainder being plastered. The gabled roof of trussed-rafter type is modern and covered with tiles.
The south aisle (13 ft. wide at the east end and 12 ft. at the west) has an east window of three plain-pointed lights, and three plain circles in plate tracery form, in a two-centred head with an external hood-mould having mask stops. The yellow stone jambs and head of two chamfered orders and the wide ashlar splays are probably of the late 13th century; the grey stone mullions and tracery are apparently old restorations but are probably reproductions of the original forms.
There are two south windows: the eastern is of two wide cinquefoiled elliptical-headed lights under a square main head with an external label with return stops. The jambs are of two moulded orders, the inner (and the mullion) with small roll-moulds, probably of the 13th century re-used when the window was refashioned in the 15th century. The wide splays are of rubble-work and there is a chamfered segmental reararch. The western is a narrower opening of two trefoiled-pointed lights, with the early form of soffit cusping, and early-14th-century tracery in a twocentred head: the jambs are of two chamfered orders and the wide splays are plastered, with ashlar dressings: the chamfered rear-arch is segmental pointed.
The reset south doorway has jambs and pointed head of two moulded orders with filleted rolls and undercut hollows of the early 13th century, divided by a three-quarter hollow more typical of a later period, and all are stopped on a single splayed base. The hoodmould has defaced shield-shaped head-stops. There are four steps down into the church through this doorway.
The window in the west wall is like that in the east but the three lights are trefoiled and the three circles in the two-centred head are quatrefoiled: the head is all restored work. The jambs are ancient and precisely like those of the square-headed south window, and the wide splays are of rubble-work.
The walls are of yellow fine-jointed ashlar and have plinths of two splayed courses, the upper projecting like that of the east chancel-wall, and plain parapets with restored copings. At the angles are old and rather shallow diagonal buttresses. There are three scratched sundials on the south wall, one, a complete circle, being on a west jambstone of the south-east window.
The gabled roof is modern like that of the north aisle.
The south porch is built of ashlar like that of the aisle but the courses do not tally and it has a different plinth, a plain hollow-chamfer. The gabled south wall has a parapet with a restored coping. The pointed entrance is of two orders, the inner ovolo-moulded, the outer hollow-chamfered, and has a hood-mould of 13thcentury form. There are side benches. The roof is modern but on the wall of the aisle are cemented lines marking the position of an earlier high-pitched roof at a lower level than the present one.
The north porch is of shallower projection. It has a gabled front with diagonal buttresses and coped parapet and a pointed entrance with jambs and head of two chamfered orders, the inner hollow, and a hood-mould with head-stops.
The west tower (about 9½ft. square) is of three stages divided by projecting splayed string-courses: it has a high plinth, with a moulded upper member and chamfered lower course, and a plain parapet. The walls are of yellow ashlar, that of the two upper stages being of rather rougher facing and in smaller courses than the lowest stage. At the west angles are diagonal buttresses reaching to the top of the second stage. There are no east buttresses but in the angle of the north wall with the end of the nave is a shallow buttress against the nave-wall. In the south-west angle, but not projecting, is a stair-vice with a pointed doorway in a splay, and lighted by a west loop. The archway to the nave has a two-centred head of two chamfered orders, the inner dying on the reveals, the outer mitring with the single chamfered order of the responds. It has large voussoirs. The wall on either side of the archway is of squared rough-tooled ashlar.
The 14th-century west doorway has jambs and pointed head of two wave-moulded orders divided by a three-quarter hollow, and a hood-mould with return stops. The head of the tall and narrow 14th-century west window is carried up into the second stage, its hood-mould springing from the string-course. It is of two trefoiled ogee-headed lights and a quatrefoil in a two-centred head: the jambs are of two chamfered orders.
There are no piercings in the second stage, but on the north side is a modern clock face.
The bell-chamber has 15th-century windows, each of two lights with depressed trefoiled ogee heads and uncusped tracery in which the mullion line is continued up to the apex of the two-centred head. The jambs are of two chamfered orders and there is no hood-mould.
The font is circular and dates probably from the 13th century. It has a plain tapering bowl, a short stem with a comparatively large 13th-century moulding at the top: a short base is also moulded.
In the vestry is an ancient iron-bound chest.
There are three bells, the first of 1811, the second of 1616, and the tenor of 1602 by Edward Newcombe.
The registers begin in 1636.
Advowson
The church was valued at £8 6s. 8d. in 1291, and at £16 3s. 10d., in addition to a pension of 13s. 4d. payable to Witham Priory, in 1535. The advowson passed with the manor until 1602, when the patron was Richard Cooper. In 1628 William Hall and Edward Wotton, by concession of — Hill, the patron, presented Richard Wotton, who at the time of his wife’s death in 1637 was ‘rector and patron, of the church’. In 1681 and 1694 presentations were made by Thomas Farrer, and from 1726 till his death in 1764 the patronage was held by his son Thomas Farrer. His widow Alice held it in 1766, but by 1773 it had been divided between their two daughters, Mary wife of John Adams, and Elizabeth Farrer (1782) who afterwards married Hamlyn Harris. In 1802 Henry Bagshaw Harrison was patron and rector. He died in 1830, and by 1850 the advowson had been acquired by Hulme’s Trustees, in whose hands it has continued, so that they now present on two out of three turns to the combined living of Warmington and Shotteswell, which was annexed to it in 1927.
For a list of rectors and clergy of Warmington see the ‘trades and occupations’ section of the site.
www.warmingtonheritage.com/village-history/significant-bu....
When they kick at your front door
How you gonna come?
With your hands on your head
Or on the trigger of your gun"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcW8VNwYvL0
IMG_1988-2 copy
When Cicadas Are Falling Asleep is the one of landscapes paintings in my series of Croatian plain-air artworks. I used bold colors and powerful brush strokes, as I do in all my paintings, in order to create a lasting visual impression. Art buyers (and art lovers) will see symbolic references to prominent realistic painters like Jan Vermeer, Rembrandt and Gustav Klimt as I offer homage to their artistic vision through my own art. This artwork is still for sale, so if you’d like to purchase the painting just contact me.
Note: John faced some cancer in 2015. Sondra is his wife...
How tardy and bizarrely uncharacteristic of me to "come up short" Carol, on the genealogical history of the deceased equine entity called Tony.
Actually the initial send had more text....in my whimpering inadequacies.... I encountered a road block that was insurmountable for my chemo-laced brain.....I cried until Sondra came to my mewling puddle of shameful "masculine-tech" whining on the floor.....she tried to solve the dilemma .....and had "lift-off" for only a portion of the rocket.....basically it was a cluster fuck, a message that was intended for one planet.....but the message splintered,........you received some of the text, and some of it will arrive on Saturn's second inner ring, around 2525. The video that I tried to include with the text....imploded, folding in-ward unto itself.....consuming its life and frames until it resembled a tiny black jube-jube lying on the sidewalk.........not even the slugs were interested.
Tony was 22 when he died.....born in Saskatchewan......had papers.....not the kind of papers that illegal refugees have....but papers that proved he was pure Percheron. Tony was and is the only papered horse we have ever owned. Both his parents....sire and brood mare were registered Percheron. Percheron is a French heavy horse breed.....that basically opened the west, plowed the soil and pulled the goods.
In my world, being papered and registered means nothing....what does matter .......do I like what I see. And with Tony ....it was all good.
I'n John R's world of horses, registered and papered has meaning.
Sondra and I bought Tony along with another horse named Spider.....they were a team.....had worked as a team, pulling wagons and sleighs and also as a logging team for a teamster/logger/farmer/truck-driver from the 100 Mile House area of BC's Caribou region. Spider was a giant of a horse, also Percheron, not registered and not papered. Spider weighted about a ton, Tony was around 1800 lbs......
Spider was tall, quite a bit taller than Tony, so they looked a bit mis-matched....both horses were black as coal..........Tony had one white sock, rear right, if you are looking up the dirt chute........and both had their tails docked.... I'm not a fan of docked tails, but that's the way they came.
The year was 2004, when we heard about these boys being available.....we already had a team.....two wonderful Belgian/Percheron crosses, both unpapered and un-registered, that were named Pat and Mike, that we bought in 1999.
We were thinking of easing up on using Pat and Mike, as we were logging quite a bit. We wanted a younger team.....and Tony and Spider were around 10 ......a little side bar to horse trading.....a horse trader if he's trying to sell a horse , when confronted with the question .....
"so, how old is this horse"......will almost always tell you, he's 9. (old enough to know better but young enough to be strong and eager)(keep that in mind Carol, when it comes time to trade the old boy in)
To really know how old a horse is.....you look at his teeth, and if you know how to read the markings on their teeth, you can come to within a year or two. Many a 9 year old has turned out to be 17 or even older.
Sondra and I heard about the big blacks being for sale.....made some time to come up from the farm to have a look.
Always an adventure....searching out horses.
So up to the 100 Mile House area.....it was early summer....this area, high in elevation, excels in showing its beauty during the summer. It's sparsely populated.....a few small towns dot the region, to offer commerce and alcohol......the area is home to ranches, lots of large acreages, raising and growing beef..... As well as the ubiquitous logging industry.......give us some trees to exploit.
It's a gorgeous part of the province Carol, a high plateau, spotted with numerous lakes, expansive lodge pole pine forests, and these old, well worn ranch settlements.
It was one of these ranches that Tony and Spider were residing ......log house, log out-buildings, log fences, log barn.........right on the edge of a good sized lake.
Tom the owner was ready for us when we arrived....horses were at the hitching rail....harnessed and ready to perform.
But you never jump right into the task at hand .....you have to have the BC chats first.....sort of like kicking the tires when you are looking to buy a "new to you" truck......so the three of us are walking around the horses, hands running over their bodies, asking questions that don't always pertain to horses, "do you know such and such, he has a logging team near Princeton"......." where did these boys come from"...."when did you last use them"....."any problems"....."how are their feet"........"do these boys come with the harness"..... "how long have you lived up here"......."no kidding, I know Ted Guisbrech, we logged together over near Rock Creek".........and so on.
Then .....you ask if it would be ok to see them walk around.........he may say sure, take the lines, or he may say....sure, let me walk them first and then you can have a go.
All this seemingly unimportant prater......registers...it is all telling us about his relationship with his horses.....does he want to make sure the horses are calmed down when it comes time for us to drive them, .......does he think they might be a bit spooky if we take the lines.....is he setting the standard by showing us how he handles them.....all part of the game.
I want him to walk the horses around, to see what kind of relationship he has with them.....how he holds the lines ......where he stands.....how he gets them to move, does he "kiss them up", or "click" them up .....(two very distinct sounds in the horse world)....or does he remain silent, and communicate through the lines.....do they move on their own, when he grabs the lines......does he say their names to get them to move.......does he hold the lines....firm.......loosely.....does he slap the horses rears with the lines to get them to walk.....all of this shows me how this guy gets along with his horses.....gentle, coarsely, frantic, lazy, attentive, casual, ....and this gives me some incite into what we might be buying.
It's such a dance.....you want it to fall into place....you've invested 6 hours of travel one way......you like the initial viewing.....you need a team .....you want it to work. The foot work, the rhythm, the music, the touch, all these "things" need to be right for the dance to feel good...the flow....and eventually the coupling.
Where was I. .....oh yea.... Tom is walking the boys around, they have their harness on, the harness is well worn, with some minor binder-twine fix-it's......binder-twine....the non-natural material they use to tie bales of hay with.....it is ubiquitous with the horse world.....binder-twine is the rural duct-tape....you use it everywhere to tie down, to tie up, to keep apart, to shorten and to lengthen, you use it for clothes lines, and dog leashes, you use it to mark the planting lines for lettuce and carrots.....It almost always comes in the colour orange.....but now they have introduced the colour blue. It the very old days they used wire to wrap bales.
Tom walks the boys around the corral.....whoa-ing them up then asking them to step up(move ahead).....making them "gee" and "haw".....right and left......I watch how his hands work the lines.....lightly.....aggressively.....does he verbally communicate or is it all done with touch (pressure with the lines)......so the lines are long strips of leather or polypropylene that are attached to the bridle, a sort of head set that has the bit, the metal bar that is inserted to the horses mouth, attached to......so every time you pull on the lines it activates the bit......in a good or bad way.....gentle with the lines equates to gentle with the bit......aggressive with the lines, equates to harsh rough bit movement..........I'm certain Carol you've experienced this with the Hun. To get his attention (his noodle buried in a Conan movie) you sometimes have to jerk his bit.
So what you want to see as a perspective buyer, is the owner driving the horses around in a calm atmosphere.....no rodeos.....using "soft" hands........you want the horses displaying a zen.......a zone where they are willing to do what you ask of them.
Think Pointer Sisters......."I want a man with a slow hand....I Want a lover with an easy touch. I want a lover who will take some time. Not come and go in a heated rush"
Now that's what makes a perfect teamster.......Sondra points out that in the equine world, every teamster thinks he has soft hands. Phew, was that air leaving my body!
Then we attach the horses to the double-tree......sometimes made from hard wood and now usually made from metal.....this is the devise that is attached to two big leather straps that are attached to the horses harness.....these straps are called tugs....and then the double tree is attached to the device you want the horses to pull....ie. a wagon, a sleigh, a rake, a mower, or for our purposes a log. The double tree drags on the ground, so sometimes does not drag smoothly, as it gets caught up on debris , small babies, stumps, empty beer cases, that sort of thing......logging horses get acclimatized to this irregular pull and constant clanging, and are not spooked by the sound or pull.....uninitiated horses go ballistic....as they can never run away from the ragged feel, and the scary sound.
Tony and Spider were great.....and after numerous manoeuvres and requests.....lots of backing up, going forward.....asking them to take one step forward and whoa......asking them to stand while putting the lines on the ground......some horses will creep forward....
hooking them up to a big log and pulling it around.....doing the same tasks that we asked of them without the log..... we put them back to the hitching rail......removed their harness.
I ask Tom how "they load"......how easily do they go in a trailer.....a very important feature.....especially for people who move their horses around....like horse loggers.....always going to different sites.......some horses react to trailers like a 9 year old boy going to the dentist.....it can be hell.....and I've participated in many "rodeos" trying to get unwilling horses in a trailer. Both hard on the horse and the handler. Feet stepped on, smashed around by hyper animals, and that's before you get them in the trailer..... Securing them in the trailer is even more ramped up in terms of activity. So having calm, easy going horses to load...can be the deal sealer or breaker.Tom assures me that they "load easy"
We let the horses cool down......and then I picked up every foot......you want a cooperative horse when trimming hooves.....looked in their mouths to check teeth......hands feeling all over their bodies.....feeling and looking for bumps, irregularities, sores.....seeing how the harness fits them, any rubs, buckle wear, .......you try and do a full inspection..........just like the 50 point checkup that your Audi receives every 6 months.
For me it's all fun.....a chance to visit with another teamster.....to check out his stock....see new country.... hear some new lies and stories.
All the while the test drive and chit-chat is happening, Sondra and I are communicating about what we think about the team.....likes and dislikes....this is all done without talking....it's done with eyes, eye brows, facial wrinkles, nostril flares, smiles, hands, and head nods.....we don't want to diss the owner about the abilities of his team, or challenge anything he says about them.....we just register silently the good and bad......we didn't drive 6 hours to tell someone they have a badly mannered team of horses. It's a sort of rural respect and politeness that seems to prevail in rural Canada.
More generalized talk takes place....we find out more about his place.....some of the jobs he did with the team.....his daughter comes out of the house and jumps up on a saddle horse and rides around.....learn that he's bought a truck and car wash in 100 Mile House.....very entrepreneurial ...... He wanders off to feed some animals.... And Sondra and I kick a few horse buns around and decide yes, we want the team......
The negotiations are straight forward....we pay $4000....
In most horse transactions you buy the horse and the seller provides you with a halter and a lead rope......usually the most worn out and manure stained ones he can find in the tack shed.....often repaired with binder-twine, that use to be orange.
We manage, through friendly haggling, to get the harness, a double tree, and some pieces of harness "thrown in" with the 4 grand. We are happy with the deal, he's happy with the deal.
He agrees to feed the horses for a week, and Sondra and I will return the following weekend with our horse trailer, pick them up and bring them to Trinity Valley.
This adventure was wonderful.....a great way to start a new relationship with a new team......we were anxious to play with them, learn more about them.......and see what they could do.
The boys turned out to be all we wished for.....great addition to our already mature and well behaved team of Pat and Mike.....
Spider as he got older developed a rear hip malfunction.....that eventually made it very difficult for him to get up, after he would lie down for a rest and or a roll. At the end I was having to lift him up with the tractor....too complicated to describe, believe me it was as hard on me as it was on Spider.....Spider learned not to lie down too much .....and when he did, he'd try to position himself strategically on a slope so when it was time for lift-off, gravity would help. One time Spider lay down in his corral....winter time....in a hollow and couldn't rise up......thrashed around for awhile, making his bed a skating rink....total ice, caused by his body heat, ..... and even more difficult for him......finally as darkness was settling in I managed to get him up......this was becoming a problem.
In spring time I had a chat with the big boy......I was tiring of the effort it took to get him back up on all "four"...... Eventually the time came and he had his final lie-down.......
After Spider died, Tony was confused and then sad.....no more mate.....these horses when they are teamed up.....often act as one......they eat side by side, they rest side by side......when one heads off in a direction, the other one will follow......when one decides to let it all out and race around the field, full throttle, the other one copies. They are often joined at the hip. So Tony was bummed when Spider passed on, ........and he got little sympathy from the other team......at this point on the calendar, our original team of Pat and Mike, had both died, and we had bought another team, Jackie and Star, younger than both Spider and Tony, and this new team became our "go to team".
Jackie and Star, also Percheron's, also black, but with un-cropped tails, dragging on the ground, beautiful, true warriors......Don Monjoy was so proud of us for staying black, and staying Perch......this team was young, bold, frisky, and dominating. So Tony went to the bottom of the pecking order, and just wasn't too sure where he fit in. Sondra and I continued to show love and attention his way.....and Sondra would harness him and drive him around, but we always felt he was somewhat confused.......and missing his mate. But through that wondering, he was always a treat to be around.....he was extremely handsome.....very curious.....enormously smart.........and we always said he had a great ass.... And we will miss him.
Well now he can rejoin Spider......they can be a team again.