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The daffodils in the garden are now on their very last "legs" and I wonder if they will be as early next year!
7 Days of Shooting Week #39 Seasonal Worn and Weathered Thursday ....
Thanks to everyone who views this photo, adds a note, leaves a comment and of course BIG thanks to anyone who chooses to favourite my photo .... thanks to you all.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The 21 cm Kanone 39 (K 39) was a Czech-designed heavy gun used by the Germans in the Second World War. It was original designed by Škoda as a dual-purpose heavy field and coast defence gun in the late 1930s for Turkey with the designation of ‘K52’. Only two had been delivered before the rest of the production run was appropriated by the Heer upon the occupation of Czechoslovakia in March 1939.
Initially, the K 39 only saw limited use as a field cannon in Operation Barbarossa, the Siege of Odessa, Siege of Leningrad and the Siege of Sevastopol. During the war, nine of these guns were sold to Sweden, too.
With the ongoing (and worsening) war situation and the development of heavy tank chassis towards late 1944, the K 39 received new attention and was adapted by the Wehrmacht as a long-range mortar, primarily intended as a mobile coastal defense weapon for strategically important naval sites, and as a second line artillery support. There were several reasons that made the heavy weapon still attractive: Unlike the German practice of sliding block breeches that required a metallic cartridge case to seal the gun's chamber against combustion gases, Škoda had preferred to use an interrupted screw breech with a deBange obdurator to seal the chamber. This lowered the rate of fire to 3 rounds in 2 minutes but had the great economic advantage of allowing bagged propellant charges that didn't use scarce brass or steel cartridge cases, since these metals became more and more short in supply. This also meant that the propellant charge could be adjusted to the intended range, what also helped save material.
The other unusual feature of the gun was a monobloc auto-frettaged barrel, created from a single piece of steel that was radially expanded under hydraulic pressure. This had the advantage of placing the steel of the barrel under compression, which helped it resist the stresses of firing and was simpler and faster to build since the barrel didn't require assembly as with more traditional construction techniques.
Every shell used by the K 39 weighed 135 kilograms (298 lb). HE shells (the 21 cm Gr 40), anti-concrete shells (21 cm Gr 39 Be) and an armor-piercing, base-fuzed shell, the 21 cm Pzgr 39 were available. The K 39 used a bagged charge with a total weight of 55 kilograms (121 lb). The base charge (“Kleine Ladung”) weighed 21.5 kilograms (47 lb) and had an igniter stitched to its base. The two increments (“Vorkart”) were lightly stitched together and enclosed in another bag tied at the top and with another igniter stitched to the base. The medium charge (“Mittlere Ladung”) consisted of the base charge and increment 2 while the full charge (“Grosse Ladung”) consisted of the base charge and both increments. The increments were loaded before the base charge. This resulted in a muzzle velocity of 800–860 m/s (2,600–2,800 ft/s) and a maximum firing range of 33 km (36,000 yd).
Emplacing the K 39 on its original box trail carriage took six to eight hours, mainly to dig in and anchor the firing platform, and a significant entourage was necessary to operate it. To improve the weapon’s handling and mobility, and to protect the crew especially against aircraft attacks, the K 39 was in 1943 to be mounted on a self-propelled chassis. Initially, a standardized “Schwerer Waffenträger”, which would also be able to carry other large-caliber guns (like the 17 cm Kanone 18 in Mörserlafette), was favored. However, the vehicle’s functional specification included the ability to set the heavy weapon gun down on the ground, so that it could be operated separately, and this meant an open weapon platform as well as complex and heavy mechanisms to handle the separate heavy guns. The Schwere Waffenträger’s overall high weight suggested the use of existing standard heavy tank elements and running gear and drivetrain elements from the heavy Tiger II battle tank were integrated into the design. The development of this mobile platform had high priority, but the focus on more and new battle tanks kept the resources allocated to the Schwerer Waffenträger project low so that progress was slow. As it became clear that the Schwere Waffenträger SPG would not become operational before 1945 a simpler alternative was chosen: the modification of an existing heavy tank chassis. Another factor was the Heeresleitung’s wish to protect the weapon and its crew through a fully enclosed casemate, and the ability to set the weapon down was dropped, too, to simplify the construction.
Originally, the SdKfz. 184 (Porsche’s chassis design for the Tiger I battle tank, which was not accepted in this role but instead developed into the tank hunter SPG Elefant/Ferdinand with a modified combat compartment at the rear, was chosen. But since this type’s production ended prematurely and many technical problems occurred through its complex propulsion system, the chassis of the Sd.Kfz. 186, the heavy Jagdtiger SPG, was selected instead, as it was the only readily available chassis at the time in production that was capable of carrying the K 39’s size and weight and of accepting its massive recoil forces.
The Jagdtiger itself was based on the heavy Tiger II battle tank, but it was lengthened by 260 mm. Due to production problems with its main armament, many Jagdtiger hulls were left uncompleted, and to bring more of these heavy vehicles to the frontlines it was adapted to the Sd.Kfz. 187, the Jagdtiger Ausf. M with a modified internal layout (casemate and engine bay positions were switched to fit an 88 mm gun with an extra-long barrel), a stronger but still experimental X16 gasoline engine, and a simplified Porsche running gear.
Since it was readily available, this re-arranged Jagdtiger base was adopted for the so-called Sd.Kfz. 190 “Küstenbatterie K 39 (auf Jagdtiger (Ausf. M)” self-propelled gun (SPG), or “KüBa 39” for short. The casemate-style combat section at the rear offered sufficient space for both the huge weapon and its crew, and also prevented the long gun barrel from hanging over too far ahead of the tank, improving its handling. Space for ammunition was still limited, though: racks on the casemate’s side walls offered space for only four rounds, while fifteen gun charges were stored separately. Gun elevation was between +50° and –3°, azimuth adjustment was achieved through turning the whole vehicle around.
The Sd.Kfz. 190’s hull featured the Jagdtiger’s standard heavy armor, since the Sd.Kfz. 190 was converted from existing lower bodies, but the new battle compartment was only heavily armored at the front. This was intended as a protection against incoming RPGs or bombs dropped from Hawker Hurricane or Typhoon fighter bombers, and as a sufficient protection against frontal ground attacks – the vehicle was supposed to retreat backwards into a safe position, then turn and move away. Roof and side walls had furthermore to be thinner to reduce the vehicle’s overall weight and lower its center of gravity, but they still offered enough protection against 20mm projectiles. Nevertheless, the Sd.Kfz. 190 weighed 64 tonnes (71 short tons), almost as much as the original Jagdtiger SPG it was based upon. Since it was not intended to operate directly at the front lines, the Sd.Kfz. 190 retained the Jagdtiger’s original (but rather weak) Maybach HL230 P30 TRM petrol engine with 700hp and the Henschel suspension with internal torsion bars, what simplified the conversions with readily available material.
A pair of retractable supports at the rear of the vehicle could be lowered to stabilize the vehicle when firing and distribute the gun’s massive recoil into the ground. The tall casemate’s rear featured a large double swing door which were necessary to avoid crew injuries from the massive gun’s pressure when it was firing. The doors were also necessary to re-load the gun – a small crane was mounted above the doors on the roof of the casemate, and a hoist to move the heavy rounds around in the casemate was mounted on tracks under the combat compartment’s ceiling.
The KüBa 39 had a standard crew of six men. The crew in the hull retained their role and positions from the Tiger II, with the driver located in the front left and the radio operator in the front right. This radio operator also had control over the secondary armament, a defensive machine gun located in a mount in the front glacis plate. In the casemate were the remaining 4 crew, which consisted of a commander (front right), the gunner (front left), and two loaders in the rear, which were frequently augmented by a third loader to handle the heavy rounds with an internal hoist under the casemate’s roof. Due to the severe maintenance and logistics needs, the KüBa 39 never operated on its own. Typically, several dedicated vehicles accompanied the self-propelled gun carrier as a “battle group”, including at least one ammunition carrier like the Hummel Munitionsträger, a crew transporter like a Sd.Kfz. 251 for more helping hands outside of the vehicle and frequently a command/radio vehicle to coordinate and direct the fire onto targets far beyond visual range.
The KüBa 39 was quickly developed and fielded, but it came too late for the Allied invasion in 1944 where it could have been a valuable asset to repel Allied ships that operated close to the French coast or even in second line in the Channel. The first vehicles became operational only in early 1945, and production was limited and rather slow. The ever-worsening war situation put more and more emphasis on the production of battle tanks and tank hunters, so that the heavy artillery vehicle only received low priority. However, the few vehicles that were produced (numbers are uncertain, but not more than 30 were eventually completed and fielded), found a wide range of uses – including the defense of the Elbe mouth and the Hamburg port. Some were shipped to Norway for coastal defense purposes, and a handful was allocated to the defense of German submarine bases in France.
Towards the end of hostilities, the survivors were integrated into infantry groups and used for long-range fire support at both Western and Eastern front. No vehicle survived, since most Sd.Kfz. 190 were destroyed by their crews after breakdowns or when the heavy vehicle got stuck in difficult terrain – its weight made the KüBa 39 hard to recover.
Specifications:
Crew: Six - seven (commander, gunner, 2 -3× loader, radio operator, driver)
Weight: 64 tonnes (71 short tons)
Length: 7.27 metres (23 ft 8 in) (hull only)
9.72 metres (31 ft 10 in) overall in marching configuration
Width: 3.88 metres (12 ft 9 in)
Height 3.81 metres (12 1/2 ft)
Ground clearance: 495 to 510 mm (1 ft 7.5 in to 1 ft 8.1 in)
Suspension: Torsion bar
Fuel capacity: 720 litres (160 imp gal; 190 US gal)
Armor:
25 – 150 mm (1 – 5.9 in)
Performance:
Speed
- Maximum, road: 38 km/h (23.6 mph)
- Sustained, road: 32 km/h (20 mph)
- Cross country: 15 to 20 km/h (9.3 to 12.4 mph)
Operational range: 120 km (75 mi) on road
80 km (50 mi) off road
Power/weight: 10,93 PS/tonne (9,86 hp/ton)
Engine:
V-12 Maybach HL HL230 P30 TRM gasoline engine with 700 PS
Transmission:
ZF AK 7-200 with 7 forward 1 reverse gears
Armament:
1× 21 cm K 39/41 L45 heavy siege gun with 4 rounds and 15 separate charges
1× 7.92 mm Maschinengewehr 34 or 42 with 800 rounds in the front glacis plate
The kit and its assembly:
The project to put the massive (real) Czech 21 cm K39 gun on a German chassis had been on my agenda for a long time, but I have never been certain about the vehicle donor for this stunt. I initially favored a Modelcollect E-50/75 since it is available as an SPG version with a reversed engine/casemate layout. But this kit has two serious issues: it would IMHO be too late to be adapted for the pre-war weapon, and – worse - the kit has the flaw that the mould designers simply ignored the driver/radio operator in the hull’s front – the glacis plate immediately migrates into the engine deck and bay, so that there’s no internal space for the driver! Even if you’d assume that the driver would sit with the rest of the crew in the casemate behind the engine, there are no hatches, sights slits or mirrors? Well, it’s a fictional tank, but IMHO it has been poorly designed.
Correcting this might be possible, but then I could also convert something else, probably easier. This alternative became a serious option when I recently built my fictional Sd.Kfz. 187, a Jagdtiger with a reversed layout. This stunt turned out to be easier than expected, with good results, and since I had a second Jagdtiger kit left over from the Sd.Kfz. 187 project I simply used it for the KüBa 39 – also having the benefit of being rooted in an earlier time frame than the E-50/75, and therefore much more plausible.
The Trumpeter 1:72 Jagdtiger first lost its mid-positioned casemate. Internal stiffeners were glued into the hull and the engine deck was cut out and glued into the former casemate’s place, directly behind the driver section. The casemate for the 21 cm gun (a Revell field gun model of this weapon, highly detailed) was scratched, though, and designing it was a gradual step-by-step process. To offer more internal space, the engine deck was slightly shortened, what also changed the vehicle’s profile. From the Jagdtiger’s superstructure I just retained the roof. Things started with another donor piece, though, the massive gun mantlet from a Trumpeter 1:72 KV-2 tank. It was mated with the21 cm gun and the movable KV-2 mantlet mounted with styrene sheet spacer onto a scratched casemate front plate. More styrene sheet was used to create covers around the mantlet, and inside I glued an “arm” to the gun with lead bead ballast, so that the gun could be easier posed in raised position. The finished gun element was glued onto the hull, and the Tiger II roof positioned as far back as possible, what revealed a 3mm gap to the front plate – bridged by another styrene sheet filler, which was also used to raise the roof and add a kink to the roofline that would make the casemate look less boxy.
With the roofline defined I decided to extend the casemate backwards – after all, the original rear engine was gone and the vehicle would certainly need a spacious back door to enter and load it. Therefore, a back wall section was cut out and a casemate extension scratched from styrene sheet. When this was in place, the vertical casemate rear wall was added, and with the profile now fully defined the casemate side walls were created from 1.5 and 0.5 mm styrene sheet. The kink under the roofline was a self-imposed challenge, but I think that this extra effort was worthwhile because the casemate looks more organic than just a simple box design like the Ferdinand/Elefant’s superstructure?
Once the casemate was closed, surface details were added, including the doble door at the rear, the small crane on the roof, and the retractable supports (which came, IIRC, from a Modelcollect 1:72 T-72 kit). The rest of the original Jagdtiger kit was simply taken over OOB.
Painting and markings:
As a vehicle operated in the open field, I gave the KüBa 39 a classic, contemporary “Hinterhalt” paint scheme, in the sophisticated original style that was only applied to a few vehicles on factory level until the camouflage job was soon delegated to the frontline units. Painting started with a base coat of RAL 8000 (Grünbraun) as an overall primer, then 7028 Dunkelgelb (Tamiya TS-3) was sprayed onto the upper surfaces from a rattle can for a light shading effect. At this stage the markings/decals were already applied, so that the additional camouflage could be applied round them. They were puzzled together from the scrap box.
Then clusters/fields in Olivgrün (RAL 6003; Humbrol 86) and Rotbraun (RAL 8012, Humbrol 160) were added onto the sand tone base with circular templates/stencils made from densely foamed styrene that were glued onto the tip of toothpicks – the large casemate with its even surfaces lent itself for this elaborate “factory finish” scheme variant. The stamp method worked better than expected, and the result is very convincing. I just tried to concentrate the dark areas to the upper surfaces, so that the contrast against the ground when seen from above would be smaller than from a side view, which became more fragmented. The running gear remained uniform Dunkelgelb, as a counter-shading measure and to avoid wobbling patterns on camouflaged wheels that could attract attention while the vehicle would move.
After protecting the decals with a thin coat of varnish the model and the still separate wheels received a dark-brown washing with highly thinned acrylic paint and an overall dry-brushing treatment with light grey and beige. Additionally, water colors were used to simulate dust and light mud, and to set some rust traces on exposed areas.
Artist mineral pigments were dusted into the running gear and onto the tracks after their final assembly, and some mud crusts on the tail supports were created with a bit of matt acrylic varnish and more pigments.
A thorough conversion project, and the result is a really massive vehicle - its bulk is hard to convey, the Jagdtiger basis is already a massive vehicle, but this is "super-size", close to an E-100! However, you have to place something next to it to fathom the size of the 21 cm mortar and the huge casemate that covers it. But the conversion looks IMHO rather natural, esp. for a scratched work, and the Hinterhalt suits the bulky vehicle well, it really helps to break the outlines up.
Jelly wanted to say "THANK YOU" so much to Tricia for our new dress. This is my first Henriette Jardin dress and I am so happy to finally have one. They are so soft and beautiful. I really want this dress in my size! lol.
Thank you again Tricia....it is a lovely dress and Jelly looks so sweet wearing it.
We also want to wish our Flickr friends a happy weekend. Jelly and I send big hugs to all of YOU! <3
Took this as I passed by a store in Xiamen , China.
Definetly caught my movie feel seeing this picture again. So here`s my go
Press L for Large , Its worth it:)
...Come over here
All you got is this moment
The twenty-first century's yesterday
You can care all you want
Everybody does, yeah that's okay
So slide over here
And give me a moment
Your moves are so raw
I've got to let you know
I've got to let you know
You're one of my kind
I need you tonight
'Cause I'm not sleeping
There's something about you, girl
That makes me sweat
How do you feel
I'm lonely
What do you think
Can't take it all
Whatcha gonna do
Gonna live my life...
THANK YOU!
…..from the bottom of Little Ditzies' heart!
I want to thank everyone this morning for participating in this tiny release of Lavender Terrain. It was so well received that I do plan on making it again in Fall! This time I plan on keeping one of these for myself as I am sure going to miss having one here!
Thank you again to you all for loving my darling happy gnomes!
Love, Andie from Little Ditzies
"When will you believe?" -Nina Hagen
I spent the morning in Philly seeing Obama for the first time. If you have the chance, take it. He is a highly charismatic person and eloquent speaker. I also agree with many of his plans for getting this country back on track.
Spent the afternoon as a volunteer for his campaign, canvasing Democrats in Pennsylvania to get out the vote on Tuesday (my first political activism ever).
This is my also my first attempt to capture photos in more challenging circumstances: from a distance, a crowd of jostling people around me and between me and my subject. My aim when holding the camera over my head is poor! I probably should have gone higher ISO speeds and smaller apetures, the photos aren't as crisp as one would like. All in all I'm a bit disappointed in the results. Practice makes perfect...
On Barack's Flickr site he mentions the bach cello suites as some of his favorite music. No wonder I like him. He does not mention NIna Hagen, though ;)
No really, go ahead. Take it. It's yours.
hypem.com/#/track/933084/Papercuts+-+You+Can+Have+What+Yo...
**All Photos are Copyrighted. Please do not use without permission**
1. day 298 : 365 • pola hollyhock, 2. Untitled, 3. Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there's love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong., 4. Untitled, 5. Green Glass Basket, 6. untitled, 7. , 8. opening, 9. into the sun, 10. Every artist was first an amateur., 11. Sprung, 12. Daisy Chain, 13. old port window sill, 14. chamomile leaves, 15. 16 April 2008 - eve, 16. pink cosmos
Created with fd's Flickr Toys.
blogged about here:
I know you´ve seen this set-up may times before, but i just had to do it and try to give it my own little twist :)
Tad Carpenter is a designer, illustrator, author, and educator who co-runs the design and branding studio Carpenter Collective with his wife, Jessica. Tad celebrates the power of play and embraces that the harder he works the luckier he gets.
Hey you,
Out there on your own
Sitting naked by the phone
Would you touch me?
Hey you,
With your ear against the wall,
Waiting for someone to call out
Would you touch me?
-Pink Floyd
--------------------
I put the two lines together, for better imagery.
"How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!
As tho' to breathe were life! Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains: but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought. "
- Ulysses, Tennyson
Why do stars fall down from the sky
Every time you walk by?
Just like me,
They long to be
Close to you.
On the day that you were born the angels got together
And decided to create a dream come true.
So, they sprinkled moon dust in your hair of gold
And star light in your eyes of blue.
All Saints, Hitcham, Suffolk
If you don't know mid-Suffolk, you may well be surprised by the hills which roll across the space between Stowmarket and Hadleigh, as if this was not East Anglia at all. In this remotest part of the county, miles from the nearest town, villages take on a self-sufficient air, and Hitcham is the largest of them. Its church, All Saints, sits high in a wide open churchyard on the outskirts of the village. The house opposite the entrance to the graveyard was the medieval guild hall. This is a big church, and was once the centre of one of the county's largest parishes. It was the Priory of Ely's most valuable living in the whole of the county, worth twice as much as any other, and was therefore bestowed on favoured clerics.
This situation continued when the patronage was taken over by the state after the Reformation, and to be made rector of Hitcham remained a desirable appointment well into the 20th Century. As the excellent guidebook notes, some rectors of this parish achieved fame and influence. Take Adam Easton, for instance. In the 14th Century, he was made a cardinal while still rector here. However, as he was also Archdeacon of Shetland, Orkney and Dorset, as well as Prior of Saint Agnes at Ferrara in Italy and the personal secretary to Pope Urban VI, one assumes that he didn't spend a lot of his time on parish business. His successor John Bremore was the personal secretary to the antipope John XXIII at Avignon, so presumably he didn't live in the parish either.
John Whytewell, Rector throughout the Reformation, was chaplain to Thomas Cranmer, although, unlike that stubborn character, he received a royal pardon from Mary. Coming forward to the 17th Century, Laurence Bretton was a solid Laudian, ensuring his inevitable removal by the Puritans as a scandalous minister (for which, read 'liberal intellectual'). His successor, Miles Burket, had also been a Laudian, but in a Vicar of Bray fashion he became the Puritan preacher here, and died in poverty after the Restoration.
Mostly, the Rectors here seem to have been a jolly lot. John Matters, in the first decades of the 19th century, was famous for his befriending of, and care for, the poor of the parish, matched only by his neglect of his ecclesiastical duty. He is quoted in the guide as having a favourite saying: He that drinks strong beer, and goes to bed quite mellow, lives as he ought, and dies a hearty fellow. And his successor was Hitcham's most famous rector of all, but we'll come back to him in a minute.
Hitcham was not home to a great landed family, so it was the power and wealth of Ely priory that built this church. It is a grand affair, entirely rebuilt in the 14th and 15th centuries. One look tells you that this was not a piecemeal building. Mortlock observes that the grand flushwork porch is very like the one at neighbouring Bildeston, but it does not seem so imposing here against this big building. There is a very odd stop on the 15th century doorway. The one on the left is a lion, but on the right there appears to be a wild man and a tree surrounded by a picket fence.
At first sight, the interior is slightly disappointing. Large and plain, it is as if it had been scraped clean by Miles Burket's cronies, perhaps in reaction to the incumbency of Laurence Bretton. The brick floors are attractive, and the fine 14th century aches of the arcades reach right up into the clerestory, but the heavy Victorian woodwork gives it all a sombre feel.
The hammerbeam roof was rebuilt after the Reformation, and includes lots of unfamiliar secular imagery, the heraldry of the State. However, there is some dispute about exactly when this happened, why, and how much was renewed. The arms of both James I and Charles I are here, giving a date in the first third of the 17th century, but the pineapple pendants appear more recent. At the west end, however, there are a couple of secretive green men on the hammer beam ends, which must be from an earlier age. One theory suggests that the roof was repaired in a hurry after a fire, and then beautified later.
The chancel is a 19th century rebuilding (a photograph of this event, which used to be at the west end, is rather alarming, like a gap-toothed Madonna) and it is evidence of the Anglo-catholic enthusiasm of Alexander Grant, Rector for the last 40 years of the 19th Century. At nearby Kettlebaston, this enthusiasm was realised by the Vicar there in the form of a gorgeous little shrine, but here, something more grandiloquent was intended. Hence the five steps up to the chancel, and two more up to the sanctuary, representative of the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church, and familiar from 19th century London Anglo-catholic churches. There is no evidence that Anglo-catholicism ever took such a firm foothold here, though.
The chancel is so grand, some visitors must easily overlook the remains of the rood screen. Only the dado survives, but it is worth a look because instead of saints the panels depict angels holding the instruments of the Passion. Something similar can be seen at Blundeston in the north of the county, and there are also angels on the screen at Southwold of course. Not surprisingly, they were vandalised by the 16th century reformers. What is more surprising is that they have survived at all. Presumably they were moved to their present position at the time of the 19th century reordering, but when Arthur Mee came here in the 1930s, he could barely discern them as figures, and thought them saints. So they've been restored, probably under the influence of Munro Cautley when he was diocesan architect.
In such a wealthy parish, perhaps it is not surprising that little else medieval survives. The converse of this, of course, that the restoration of this church has generally provided work of quality. Although the benches are heavy, they do carry several bench ends which are probably the work of the great Ipswich woodcarver Henry Ringham. The best are the four evangelistic symbols towards the front. In fact, the guidebook suggests that the benches were removed from the church towards the end of the 19th century and replaced with chairs as at Rattlesden and Kettlebaston, only to be returned at the behest of the eccentric and splendidly-named Maxwell Maxwell-Gumbleton, who was jointly Bishop of Dunwich and Rector of Hitcham in the 1930s and 1940s. Maxwell-Gumbleton had a Bishop's throne built, which he installed in the chancel. It must have given his parishioners something to think about. It is still there today, and is replicated in slightly more modest form by the churchwardens' seats at the west end. Maxwell-Gumbleton's also are the George VI coat of arms, dated 1937, and a lovely modern font cover, given as a memorial.
From an earlier age are the very elaborate brass inlay in front of the sanctuary, and the mid-17th century memorial to a Waldegrave in the north aisle, more austere than it would have been twenty years before or after. In the south aisle there is a copy of the Adoration of the Magi by Rubens, which is in Kings College Chapel. At first, I couldn't work out why it looks a little odd, and then it hit me - it is in reverse.
Many years ago, I chatted with a churchwarden here, and she told me tha, although 42 men in this parish lost their lives in the first world war, only 28 of them are remembered on the war memorial here. She suggested that this was perhaps because the others were from chapel families, or perhaps the families had moved away before the memorial was installed. Whatever, it gave me pause for thought, for if a similar situation exists in other parishes, then we may assume that many hundreds of people who gave their lives have, in fact, been forgotten.
But one name stands out in this parish as forever being associated with it. You might overlook the simple memorial in the chancel by Thomas Woolner, and you'll certainly miss the little memorial plaque above the door as you came in, but both are worth a look because they both remember the same person, the great John Stevens Henslow.
Henslow was a remarkable man by anyone's standards. He was Regius Professor of Botany at Cambridge University in the 1830s, and was looked on with enough favour to secure the lucrative Hitcham rectorship. However, rather than send a poorly-paid curate to do his work for him, which would have been the usual early 19th century Trollopeian way, he followed in John Manner's footsteps, and came to Hitcham himself.
It is hard now to imagine what a contrast this remote place must have been with cosmopolitan Cambridge, barely 40 miles away. Henslow wrote in his diary that he had come to "a woefully neglected parish, where the inhabitants, with regard to food and clothing and the means of observing the decencies of life, were far below the average scale of the peasant class in England." It is recorded that his first congregation here in this vast space was insufficient to fill one pew.
Over the course of the next 25 years, he turned his parish upside down, applying his scientific knowledge to the antiquated and conservative farming methods of the local farmers. He increased their prosperity, and that of the poor farm labourers. He started a school, and an institute of adult education. He led outings through the local countryside, and would sometimes take the whole parish on the train to London, including one trip to the great Exhibition of 1851 in Hyde Park. It was said that the entire village emptied on these occasions, travelling by cart and on foot to Stowmarket railway station, and then on to London.
"Everyone is to be in good humour", he told his parishioners, "accommodating to all, and especially attentive to the ladies of the party. If the weather should prove unpropitious, every one is to make the best of it, and not to complain more than he can possibly help."
It is said that, on holiday at Felixstowe, he realised the fertilizing properties of the coprolite nodules in the cliffs there, and interested two local farming brothers so much that they set up a fertiliser processing factory at Ipswich docks. Their name was Fison.
But an even more famous name associated with Henslow is Charles Darwin, one of Henslow's students at Cambridge. Henslow encouraged Darwin to investigate the development of species, finding him a place aboard HMS Beagle, the scientific survey ship. Darwin sent his notes and samples back to Henslow, who circulated them in the scientific community. Darwin came back to England to find himself a celebrity. The basis of The Origin of Species was put together at Hitcham Rectory, although Henslow would later repudiate its conclusions.
Most importantly, however, as far as my children were concerned when they were younger, Henslow was the guiding light behind the opening of Ipswich Museum, which still retains one of the finest 19th century natural history collections in the country. A portrait of him hangs in the entrance hall, and the name of a road in the east of the town remembers him.
He died at the relatively young age of 65. His predecessor had been the jolly John Matters. His successor was the Anglo-catholic enthusiast Alexander Grant, who, as well as rebuilding the chancel, is still remembered in the village for taking the side of the workers during the lock-out strike of 1874, when he allowed them to use the church building for their meetings.
These three extraordinary men between them spanned the entire 19th century here. Trollope himself could not have written a better novel.
8th procedure Today May 1, 2009
Immediately after procedure. if you blow this up you can see that the lacerations are about 1/8 in; long and almost no width. each wound is so small that they heal individually without scar tissue forming.
My only problem is that I am right handed and I have done this with my left hand. And I have to resist the temptation to remove it all at once.
Day# 37
I Miss You - #930
Sinful Colors
My nail polish collection!
Top nail has top coat; bottom nail has no top coat
..... I wish for, I wait for...
I pray for...
I Love...You.
You are here
In the core of my Soul
You are all I've waited for
In this life and even before.
You are my gift from the heavens
And I am still earning you through my penance
Every smile of mine i dedicate to you
You light my life just by your presence.
Gratitude is all I can offer you
For walking into my life
I hope to someday deserve you
For this I shall to my last breath strive.
You are here
In the core of my soul
:-)
-Vidhya
you are so far away ..
i try everyday ..
its hard to see the colors now ..
the brightness hurts me ..
i can only close my eyes ..
• m
You said I love you babe, without a sound
I said I'd give up my life for just one kiss
I'd live for your smile and die for your kiss
Remember yesterday, walking hand in hand?
Love letters in the sand - I remember you
...welcome to Friday Night Photos, my friends…I hope you have a wonderful evening with your special someone…if they think the whole world is falling down around, soothe them...hold them until you see the sparkle in their eyes...take their pain away...soothe them...I hope you have wonderful evening with your only one, my friends.
...listen to the smooth sounds of Tower of Power, with Soothe You
...it's been a heck of a week, attending workshops, professional developments, and meetings with the staff, and I have to go back in tomorrow to finish getting my class set up...oh, I'll be glad when the kids come back on Monday and I can get back to actual teaching...lolol. I hope you're having a fantastic weekend, my friends. I want to thank you for your continued support, and especially for your friendship, even while I haven’t been around…thank you. :~}
...if you wish to view this on black, please click here.
*** thank you, my friends, for your wonderful support...Explore #208 8/21/09 ***