Shirt available at Glennz Tees www.glennz.com

 

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The almost continuous snow has brought a large number of birds to my yard in Yakima County, Washington. With over a foot of snow on the ground and more on it's was birds have difficulty finding food. The American Robins, House Finches, Starlings, and even the California Quail are rapidly removing the fruit on my Flow Crabapple Tree. The Robins are also eating berries from my Mountain Ash Tree. I am providing feed for them in addition to the fruit and berries that remain on my trees. IMG_2775

Continuing my Southern Arizona Adventure 2024 with a visit to Bisbee Arizona. This is stage 6 of 9.

This is the oldest, continuously operating hotel in Arizona. Bisbee is a very walkable town. But hilly and with lots of steps

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_Queen_Hotel

The Copper Queen Hotel is a historic hotel located in Bisbee, Arizona. I think that if I visit Bisbee again, I will stay here.

Holding the distinction of being Arizona's longest continuously operated hotel, the Copper Queen was constructed from 1898 to 1902 by the Phelps Dodge Corporation to serve as lodging for investors and dignitaries visiting its nearby copper mine.[1][2]

 

www.atlasobscura.com/places/copper-queen-hotel-arizona

Historic Bisbee, Arizona is bustling, with a renewed emphasis on art, wellness, and tourism, but in many ways, it remains a living ghost town of its heyday. At the turn of the century, Bisbee was organized around the copper industry, with stories of massive wealth and exploitation. If you are looking for a place to stay and reckon with the ghosts of the past, there’s no better option than the putatively haunted Copper Queen Hotel.

This Victorian-era hotel is the oldest continuously run hotel in Arizona (in fact, the hotel predates its statehood). Completed in 1902, it was built by the Phelps Dodge Mining Company, owners of the eponymous Copper Queen mine, to be the height of modern luxury, as the company entertained visiting VIPs and dignitaries. The opulent hotel featured an Italianate tile floor, a Tiffany glass ceiling, and a front desk made from Tiger Oak. All the while, Phelps Dodge was systematically underpaying (or not paying) their workers, demanding more hours in dangerous conditions, resulting in a 1917 miners’ strike that led to the arrest and deportation of more than 1300 workers.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisbee,_Arizona

Bisbee is a city[5] in and the county seat of Cochise County[6] in southeastern Arizona, United States. It is 92 miles (148 km) southeast of Tucson and 11 miles (18 km) north of the Mexican border.

Bisbee was founded as a copper, gold, and silver mining town in 1880, and named in honor of Judge DeWitt Bisbee, one of the financial backers of the adjacent Copper Queen Mine.

Today, the historic city of Bisbee is known as "Old Bisbee" and is home to a thriving downtown cultural scene. This area is noted for its architecture, including Victorian-style houses and an elegant Art Deco county courthouse. Because its plan was laid out to a pedestrian scale before the automobile, Old Bisbee is compact and walkable. The town's hilly terrain is exemplified by the old four-story high school; each floor has a ground-level entrance.

Natural vegetation around Bisbee has a semi-desert appearance with shrubby acacia, oak and the like, along with cacti, grass, ocotillo and yucca. The town itself is much more luxuriant with large trees such as native cypress, sycamore and cottonwood plus the introduced ailanthus and Old World cypresses, cedars and pines. Palms are capable of growing tall, but are not reliably hardy. At least one mature blue spruce may be seen.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisbee_Historic_District

The Bisbee Historic District is a historic district located in Bisbee, Arizona, and has all the essential features of a prosperous, early twentieth century mining town.[2] It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.[2] The district has 80 contributing buildings, with various architectural styles including Colonial Revival, Mission Revival/Spanish Revival, and Italianate architecture.[2]

  

Haiku thoughts:

Dusty streets wind tight,

Colors spill from old brick walls,

Echoes of the past.

 

Southern Arizona Adventure 2024

Continuous and flash light coming from an overhead beauty dish with grid. The continuous light from the modelling bulb captures the movement in the cloth with the flash then firing at the end of the quarter second exposure.

 

Model: Anna Rose

Assistant: John Gannon

Shot at: Studio d'Lumiere

OKAY!

So i've been writing a little bit again. I'm not sure how much free time you may have, but unless you're a fast reader, don't begin this story (unfinished btw) unless you have enough time! :D

My inspiration comes from Peter Pan. Only because I love that movie to BITS. (:

   

Enjooooooy!

 

Okay, so I wasn’t long into my run home when my iPod fell out of my pocket and the town Pretty-boy picked it up. Well, thank god he did because I wouldn’t have noticed, and probably died without it.

Pretty-boy chased after me for a while, shouting my name. But I ignored him, knowing he was an obnoxious guy who was suuuuper vain. “Dawn!!” He shouted continuously, making a fool of himself and dragging attention from the sidewalks. “I’ve got your iPod!” Pretty-boy shouted louder, which got my attention. I slid my legs along the ground, which cause me to slide to a stop.

I stood, without brushing the dust off my legs from the ground, and walked towards Pretty-boy. He held it out for me and I snatched it out of his hands. “Thanks.” I mumbled and began to walk away.

“Hey!” Pretty-boy said, grabbing my hand. “Do you want to go out sometime? You know, like…” His white-blonde hair swished across his face, as he said this, “Up to the lookout?” He made his brown eyes sparkle.

“No.” I said and walked away again.

Pretty-boy still had a firm grasp on my hand, so I didn’t get very far. “Do you even know what I asked? Or were you too pre-occupied by my sheer beautifulness?” He asked grinning. His teeth flashed white and girls on the sidewalk swooned.

“I know what you said. And I do not want to go to the look out with you.” I yanked my hand from in his grasp and started to walk away, but before he was out of earshot, I turned my torso around half-way and said, “Ever.” then continued down the dusty road in a light jog.

As soon as I got home, I was greeted warming with a sweet hug from Evangeline, my best friend who is completely gorgeous with nothing to compare. Her long, flowing blonde hair falls lightly around her shoulders and her pale skin is wrapped around a slim, delicate body. She has very little blemishes and always has a drop dead stunning smile when she’s around me. “Dawn!” Her honey-sweet voice said with extreme happiness. “I have been waiting for you to get home! I want to go through the mirror already!” She said in the sweetest little voice, but with a small tinge of impatience.

I hugged Evangeline tight and nodded. “I’m so ready-”

“Why do you smell like…” Evangeline smelt my shoulder, inhaling my scent. “Jared?” Evangeline’s senses were heightened so much, that you can’t get away with smoking, she’d smell it even a week later. Everyone’s senses are there waiting to be heightened, but no body actually realises. Evangeline and I are the only two that we know of in this village that have heightened their senses. I don’t usually notice things when I have my mind set on something though, so that’s why I didn’t notice when I dropped my iPod.

“I dropped my iPod accidentally, and he picked it up…” I paused. “Then he asked to take me up the look out with him.”

Evangeline’s face wrinkled up. “You said no, of course?”

I nodded. “Can we please go to Evercrest now?” I begged.

Evangeline nodded and took my hand, skipping down the long hall in our oversized house towards the dumbwaiter. We both crawled into the small space, luckily we were both small enough to fit into it together. I closed the door tightly and pressed the up button. With a few clicks and a rusty, broken sounding thud, the tiny lift began to move upwards slowly. “I hate that I can’t go to see Darius when you’re at work.” Evangeline complained, fixing her hair in the limited space that we had.

I sighed. She always complained about this. “You know what I’m going to say.” She nudged me softly on my arm.

“I can’t go because I’m not capable of walking to the castle myself. I can’t help if some guy decides to kidnap me.” She teased with a grin. The dumbwaiter rumbled to a stop at the attic.

When we’d first moved here, the dumbwaiter was plastered over, but once, as children, we’d been running around the house as aeroplanes. Evangeline’s fingernail caught on a piece of wallpaper and ripped it clean off. Since our parents had left Katie, our older sister, in charge for a week as they went on holiday (and unfortunately never came back), we didn’t get in trouble for ripping the wall paper. Also, since the plaster was so soft, we were curious what the hollow sound behind it was. So, as the curious children we were, we got a fork each and dug in the wall. We hadn’t gone in the dumbwaiter at first. Katie said it might break. But when she’d tested it with bricks, she found out it was safe. Evangeline and I explored the attic for quite some time.

I opened the small door and squeezed myself out onto the landing. Evangeline followed, but more graciously. I smiled up at her when she put her hand out to help me up. I took her hand carefully and she lifted me up. “Thanks.” I mumbled and walked across the cold, familiar wooden floor towards the great big mirror that stood against the far wall. The faded old sheet that had covered it lay in a heap on the floor next to it. I looked back to find Evangeline close at my heels, waiting for me to start my short run. You’d expect the mirror to crack and smash all over the floor, cutting my skin deep, creating stains on my clothes. But instead, when I run through the mirror, it simply absorbs me and takes me to the island of Evercrest.

Evercrest has been visited by many other people, other than Evangeline and myself. We’ve met them in the Castle village. There are all sorts of creatures living on the colossal island. Including in the darkest part of the island, Neverlies. The demons who were once warriors of Evercrest that have turned to Hades (apparently, he’d changed his name from Harrison to Hades, to make himself sound more evil). Neverlies is a dark forest to the north of Evercrest and has a dark scar running through the earth, where somewhere in that scar, or abyss, is Hades castle. Evercrest has a main castle, and a couple of other small camps around the island where the travellers stay during night. Evangeline and I have only travelled to one other camp, and explored almost every inch of the castle village. The prison is somewhere we don’t particularly want to visit.

 

As the glittery specks at the side of my vision faded, I found myself standing in a large pile of clothes in the middle of Cameron’s bedroom. Cameron is our Mirror keeper. He’s kept it for so long, longer than anyone’s lifespan. You see, Evercrest is also a place where anything can happen. Meaning, Cameron has chosen to never grow up. So he’s still a young, 14 year old child who lives at the inn on the outside of the castle. He works on the farm next door to the inn and pays the innkeeper forty Kamas a week to stay (which he’s said is 20 Kamas over the normal price). I quickly jumped out of the smell heap and onto the only spot of floor I could see. Cameron was sitting quietly at his desk reading a book on pirates.

“Sorry about the mess. I’ll clean it tomorrow.” He said without taking his attention from the messy words.

I frowned. “You’ve got to be kidding! You said that yesterday!”

Cameron tore his bright blue eyes from the pages and glared at me. “Don’t push me, child.” He said in his grown up voice. (He was actually 308 years old). “I’ll tidy it when I’m ready.”

“Aw! Poo!” Evangeline said when stood in a bowl of mouldy rice. “That’s disgusting!”

Cameron stood up and pulled a paper towel from the dispenser he’d built. “That’s my latest work on booby traps.” He grinned.

“That’s too bad you don’t act your real age.” I mumbled and helped Evangeline remove mould from her shoe. “I thought you’d think up something good, like a bucket of slim-”

“Don’t give him ideas!” Evangeline said slapping her hand over my mouth.

I smiled at Cameron. “Well, we’re going to go to the castle. Be back by sunrise. Don’t lock your window, please.” I said, making my way to the window.

“Do I ever lock it?” He said sniffing the paper towel that Evangeline handed back to him. Evangeline scrunched up her face and followed me to the window, which we then climbed out of and landed softly on the roof. We stepped lightly along the slanted roof and stepped out over the small gap to the tree.

Landing lightly on the ground behind me, Evangeline noticed the boy before me. “Hell, Dawn. That kid’s watching you.” She whispered in my ear.

I looked around the street until I met eyes with the cutest boy I’d ever seen. The boys hair was sandy blonde and sat in messy, rough curls that hung down in his eyes, but not hiding the blue that sparkled. His skin was tanned, and he had very few freckles placed across his nose and under his eyes. When he waved at me, I could feel my cheeks go pink. I decided it’d be polite to wave back, so I did. Then, what surprised me the most. He disappeared.

Evangeline put her hand on my shoulder. “Gosh, where do you think he went?”

I shrugged, both to say I don’t know and to get her hand off my shoulder. “Let’s go find Darius and Erik.” I linked my arm with hers and started to skip down the busy market street towards the castle gates.

“Ello girlies!” An old man said holding out a dark, gross looking water bottle to us. “Like to buy some frog spit? Good for your teeth you know!” Evangeline cringed away from his grubby fingers and we continued down the street. We stopped at the east gates, smiling at the guards.

“Name.” The large officer said looking up to the huge elephant, of which her name is Lela. Elephants have incredible memory, just like on earth, so they use her as a sort of computer to register our names and tell if we’re safe to let inside the castle gates or not. It took us the total of three days for them to allow us in the gates. Cameron helped us, of course, by putting in a few good words to the guards.

“Evangeline and Dawn Corris, Sir.” Evangeline stated, loud enough for Lela to hear her.

Lela stomped her foot twice, which we’d figured was her way of saying that it was safe to let us in. The officer nodded at the guards and the opened the small door at the base of the gates for us. We wandered through, to the colourful streets of Evercrest Castle Village.

Immediately, Darius came bounding up to Evangeline like an oversized puppy and gave her a huge, surprise hug. “Oh Eva, I missed you! Did you get in the gates okay?” He said in a deep, husky voice that was so sexy, it was impossible for me to get over.

“Darius, I’m not an idiot, I’m not going to get kidnapped again, okay? Honestly.” Evangeline said, gripping tightly around her mountain sized man. Darius is indeed, Evangeline’s boyfriend, but I prefer to call him her man, because one; it annoys her, and two; it sounds so much more possessive, which gives the other girls a clue that he’s taken. Yes, he was super attractive, probably one of the most gorgeous warriors of Evercrest. His incredibly cute face consisted of two beautiful brown eyes, one manly nose and luscious lips. When Darius kissed Evangeline, she ended up dazed slightly, and Darius always caught her in his large arms. Darius’ hair was dark brown, with an adorable super-man curl that hung down from his forehead.

Erik walked slowly toward us with a large grin on his face. Obviously, he’d been with Summer. His girlfriend. Erik was also one of the hunkiest warriors. But, of course, Summer had already got her paws on him. I didn’t mind so much. I never believe in love. It’s simply lust. Anyway, Erik looked also, mountain-like. He stood tall over me and his light brown arms were as thick as my waist (which was quite easy to do, I’m not big on eating). Erik could pick me up with one arm and Evangeline in the other arm. His eyes were like… well. Like no other. I’d gotten lost once, on our last adventure to the darker streets of the castle village. Not a good idea, so I stopped looking at his eyes all together. His hair, was always as soft as a cloud (which apparently, you could also touch if you were a Neverlies witch), brown and curly, hanging down below his ears, which made him all that more cute.

Erik hugged me quickly and I was momentarily crushed between branches. “Hey there Blanca.” (apparently he knew Mexican-Spanish) He said with a grin that made girls swoon. I’d gotten used to it, and now that I think of Erik like a brother, I don’t think about how cute he is (usually).

“Erik.” I whispered, trying to catch my breath. Erik released his grip on me and I fell limp. “Thanks,” I said gasping for air. “Do you try to suffocate Summer too?” I teased.

He gasped dramatically, “Oh gosh no! I wouldn’t dream of… well. Okay maybe that one time I accidentally dreamt of it…” he joked. “You know, I only want to say hello by giving you a hug. And sometimes my happy-hugs can be a little too much for mere mortals, such as yourself.” Erik laughed, much like Darius’ laugh, it was deep and made it seem although the ground was shaking.

“Hey! Erik!” Evangeline said reaching out for him with one hand (the other holding Darius’ tight. Evangeline’s hand looked like an infants hand compared to Darius’ hand. Erik hugged Evangeline and picked her up in his breath-taking bear-hug. Evangeline, of course, was used to it thanks to Darius.

“Oh! Is that fresh bread I smell? I’m so hungry!” Darius said digging into his little satchel strapped to his side, next to his sword sheath. I heard a few Kamas move about in his pocket, and he grinned. “Hey, Eva. Does fresh bread sound good for dinner?” He asked taking her hand again and pulling her towards the bakery stand down the street. (Darius had taught her the whole ‘heighten your senses’ thing)

I watched them run down the long brick-paved street and then looked up at Erik when they disappeared. “Shall we?” I asked holding my right-angle arm out for him to link with and skip down the street after Evangeline and Darius.

“We shall!” He said and linked his arm with mine. We didn’t actually skip, we simply walked and enjoyed the stalls covered in beautiful jewellery and dresses. “Is something bothering you?” Erik asked, obviously he’s been in my mind. That’s one of his ‘anything can happen’ choices. He can read peoples minds when they let him. I keep my feelings open, but my thoughts closed for him. His reading minds thing is great for battle strategies. Erik can also project his thoughts to other minds around him.

I contemplated telling him about the boy who stared at me, then disappeared and decided to open that thought to him. “Hold on.” I said concentrating on allowing that thought into my ‘Erik only’ barrier. Other people had chosen reading minds also, and most had gone mad from not training their gift right. I showed the image of the boy, the cute boy, standing across the road from Evangeline and I to Erik, who gasped in return. “What?” I asked. “What is it? Who is he?” I panicked.

“Well. He’s Hades archer.” Erik said glumly. Other towns people frowned around us when he said ‘Hades’. “His name is Skylar. His ‘anything’ is to never miss his mark, when arching, and also teleportation. I think that he’s also chosen to never grow old. Much like everyone else in Evercrest.” He explained, I felt him taking another look at the small video clip I played in my mind. “Yep. That’s Skylar.” He confirmed.

“I wonder what he wants.” I said out loud.

Erik laughed. “Well, obviously by the way he was watching you, he wants you.” I felt extremely uncomfortable with him saying that. I didn’t exactly want Skylar to want me. Erik figured that out without me having to say. “I’m sorry. Perhaps you should stay at the Warriors Hut. We can take care of you if you help the staff to take care of us. Skylar wont get you there. Evangeline can stay too.”

“That sounds lovely, but who’s to feed Holmes and Watson?” I asked, worrying about our cats on earth, rather than an evil archer that wants me for only God knows what.

Erik laughed again. “I shall accompany you to the mirror every day, morning and night, to feed your much loved felines.” He said slowing his pace as we arrived at the bakery stall, where Evangeline hung of Darius’ arm in the long line. “So you’ll stay with us then?” Practically begging.

I nodded and half-smiled. I was still worried. No way I wanted to be shot with an arrow -ever- or taken away by this boy.

Erik squeezed my arm. “It’ll be okay.” We’d found a seat just past the Bakery stall and sat at it, spreading out as much as we could to save two more seats. “How is work going for you?” He asked, changing the subject, realising it still made me uncomfortable.

“It’s dreadful. I come home smelling like cheese.” I frowned.

Erik smiled, sweetly. “I could get you a much more pleasant job here in Evercrest village.” He was always like this. Nice to everyone he met. Not just, sexy, strong and funny. But also popular and loveable too. Everyone liked Erik, even the other men who’s girlfriends or wives thought he was absolutely gorgeous. “Any time you need one, I’ll get you one. It’ll probably be close to the warriors, we can’t have travellers being kidnapped again.” He smirked, and as soon as Evangeline was in his sight, he pretty much wiped it off his face in half a second.

“Ham and cheese for you, Dawn. Beef for Erik.” Darius said placing my bread roll down softly on the table and tossing the other roll at Erik. “You owe me two Kamas.” He said to Erik, and not me.

“Thanks Chico.” Erik said unwrapping the roll slowly, hoping not to drop even the smallest piece of meat. It’s true that the meat here is incredibly divine, so it’s a super waste if you drop some on the ground. “Evangeline. How would you feel about staying here in Evercrest village for a while, at the Warriors Hut. We’ve got problems with Hades, which is not very safe for you to be wandering back and forth between the mirror and us alone.” Erik spoke to Darius for the last part of his sentence, rather than Evangeline. I had the feeling he was throwing his thoughts on Skylar to Darius’ mind, only because Darius looked at me for a split second, then back to Erik.

Evangeline smiled wide. “Oh that would be lovely!” She said with so much enthusiasm, it made me quite sick. No, I’m not always a positive person and don’t usually make a big deal out of things. I’m more… a dark person with a mind like a labyrinth. Difficult to get to and always getting lost in my own mind. You could call me a conundrum, or a mysterious person. But that just makes me sound weird.

“That would indeed, be a very smart idea, since Hades is up to no good again. We’ll have to keep a close eye on you two, perhaps even take you out on the job. Like you’re our consent.” Darius smiled down at Evangeline, who kissed him on the chin.

“Well, I guess that settles it. You’re staying at the Hut.” Erik said finishing off his roll in one last, stuff-it-all-in-your-mouth bite.

I realised I hadn’t touched my roll, of course, I didn’t expect him to buy me one. I wasn’t very hungry in the first place. Erik had already started eyeing it. I nodded and pushed it toward him.

“Make that four Kamas, Erik.” Darius frowned. “Why don’t you ever eat anything, Dawn?” I knew they worried for me, but I never had a big stomach and hardly ate anything. I usually would only drink water.

“Not hungry.” I shrugged, skipping the full explanation.

Evangeline sighed. “She’s a mission. Even Carey couldn’t get her to eat much.” Carey is our older sister, who left us last year to marry a farmer in the town over. She always knew we could make it on our own.

Erik finished my roll quickly and smiled. “Doesn’t matter, she eats a little, at least. Which means that she wont die anytime soon.”

Unless I get shot by that Skylar kid. I thought out loud, so that Erik could hear.

He glared at me. “That wont happen.” He mouthed and then stood up. “We’ll sort out where these two are going to sleep.” Erik told Darius.

Evangeline giggled and nuzzled herself closer into Darius’ chest. “I know where I’m going to sleep.”

I smiled. “No silly business, right?”

Both, Evangeline and Darius said nothing. But I knew Evangeline wasn’t a slut, and we’d promised each other that we wouldn’t lose our virginity until we were married to the most incredible person.

Erik chuckled beside me. I looked up at him and saw that he was watching a few kids who were playing in the street. One boy wore a pirates hat and handled a wooden sword like it was a snake. The other boy was battling him, dressed in a crown and had a plastic, more civilised sword.

“We should go. The bats will be out soon.” Darius said, laughing along with Erik also. I stood, looking like a midget next to Erik. Darius had already helped Evangeline up and was twenty metres down the street, hand in hand.

Erik began to walk in big strides after them, and made me hand to walk really fast to keep up. “Slow down! I’m not as fast as you.” I said reaching out for his arm.

Erik stopped quickly, turned and picked me up in his arms, then threw me around him so that I would hang on his back. I felt slightly like a rag doll. “How’s this?” He asked, with an obvious smile to his voice. Erik started running, and knowing he was a Warrior, I knew what was coming next. He gained speed easily, and then jumped up, onto the rooves of the stalls, bouncing along each one, until he had to jump up, to the house rooves.

The Warriors Hut is protected, which meant you had to get there the hard way sometimes. What Darius was doing, I have no idea. But Erik and I would definitely beat them to the Hut. Erik jumped, out over the street, aiming for the houses across from us. Of course, he made it, with me gripping on tight. I’m going to die. I thought out loud. Erik reached up to take hold of my hand and held it tight.

The run to the Hut was short, and soon we were standing on the large platform outside of the Hut. You see, the Hut was conveniently built on the side of the inner castle walls, around half way up (which was roughly two-hundred metres off ground level). It stuck out of the large brick like a Lego piece put on the wall wrong. The platform was there for the warriors to land on when they came home to rest. There were many more Huts placed around the walls, and there were many, many more Warriors. The Huts exterior was incredibly beautiful. Most of the hut was made off Maple tree, as Darius had told me. There were lanterns placed evenly around the edges of the wooden platform, and a few vines growing around the safety fence with beautiful blue flowers growing off the vines.

Erik opened the huge, heavy wooden door with ‘Oscar’ Scrawled onto it (for the kinetic alphabet). The inside of the Hut smelt like men and was filled with laughter, talking and other hunky Warriors the size of mountains. A few other Warriors greeted Erik by taking his forearm (like a handshake, but instead of gripping their hand, you grip their forearm and shake). Other Warriors looked at me, winked and carried on with their business.

“Hey, Erik. Who’s this?” A young girl said, dressed in a large flower-like dress. Her long, wavy dirt coloured hair was braided in several spots, and flowers were spread out through it. Her face had tattoos that swirled and grew along her face, around the edges of her eyes and down her jaw line, disappearing around her neck and down her back. Her grass-green eyes watched me with curiosity.

Erik put his arm around my shoulders. “This is Dawn. She’s a traveller and we think that Hades is after her.” I was frustrated that Erik didn’t tell me who she was, and I suppose he got the hint. “Dawn, this is Aphrodite. She’s a pixie who cooks for us. While you’ll be staying, you’ll be well acquainted with her.”

I nodded at the pixie. “Nice to meet you.” I said quietly. Aren’t pixies supposed to be thumb-sized? I thought.

Aphrodite has chosen as an ‘anything’ to be able to morph. It’s very useful. Erik threw his thoughts to my mind and smiled down at Aphrodite.

“How do you know for sure, Hades is after her?” Aphrodite asked, ignoring my polite gesture.

Erik sighed and continued walking toward his room. “Well, Skylar was watching her.” He said moving out of the way of another large Warrior. “And you know what happens when Skylar’s seen in the village.”

“But this was outside the village.” I stated, getting an evil stare from Aphrodite.

“He was still in Evercrest. He belongs in Neverlies.” Aphrodite grew taller, and opened the door that had Erik’s name on it. She then shrunk again and walked through into the small room that consisted of a bed, desk and set of draws. The Warriors bedrooms were simple and not very private. Anything they wanted kept secret, was locked in the cupboard that was hidden behind their walls (Erik had told me this last time we had come to the Hut).

Erik dived onto his bed. “Well, I heard that he belongs here, in Evercrest. He was one of us…”

I sat on the chair, at the desk and folded my legs. “So he might just be back to visit his home town…” I suggested hopefully.

Aphrodite shook her head. “No, he’s evil. He would only come back to Evercrest to kill someone Hades asked him to…” she paused, looking glum. “Or to watch someone Hades wanted until he could take that person to Hades, in which case that person is you.”

I swallowed down the new information. I was either going to die, or be taken away by a cute archer. “I need sleep.” I said searching the room for anything that could take my attention away from the Skylar problem.

Erik leaned over the side of his bed and reached under it, pulling out a hammock, which he threw up into the air. It came to life and stretched either end of itself out to the walls, attaching without hooks. It simply clung to the walls. “You wont need a blanket. It’s a living item. You’ve heard of them?”

Yes. I have heard of them. I hadn’t seen one before. They we supposed to be rare. Living items are inanimate objects come to life by the first wizard. Only he knew the spell. He never passed it onto loved ones. The first wizard didn’t trust anyone. “Thank you.” I said, taking a step towards it. The living hammock grew a short ladder from its side and I climbed it carefully, trying to not break it....

50/365

 

Tonight, to quote what a great man once said:

 

“Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential”

- Winston Churchill

 

This is my 50th picture in the series of Project 365

~ Although not a big thing, it's still a small victory of sorts...

Perhaps i would've never realized how passionate I am towards photography had it not been for me embarking upon this journey and pursuing it religiously everyday...

& ofcourse, I have you guys to thank for all your continuous support and words of encouragement!! :)

 

Cheers!!~

En Biodiversidad virtual y también en Instagram como @proyectoagua, y en Second Life, ubicación: Reykjanes

“El universo en una gota de agua”

 

Gracias al trabajo de investigación que de manera altruista se viene realizando desde el catamarán eólico-solar “Helios Sanabria” a través de la Estación Biológica internacional (E.B.I.) se ha podido determinar y hacer un seguimiento continuado, del lamentable deterioro de este ecosistema único, el Lago de Sanabria (Zamora, España).

 

El Lago de Sanabria es el lago de origen glaciar más meridional y occidental de Europa, y el más extenso y profundo de la Península Ibérica. Desde la Estación Biológica Internacional "Duero-Douro" y en colaboración con otros investigadores independientes hemos podido realizar un diagnóstico preciso y no condicionado por los intereses ligados al poder de las administraciones y otros poderes, que tratan de ocultar esta realidad, de la que son en buena medida responsables, por todos los medios posibles.

 

Y para el que habría solución si se dotase al Lago de un sistema de depuración adecuado, hasta ahora inexistente. Las diatomeas constituyen excelentes bioindicadores que nos hablan del profundo desequilibrio de este ecosistema provocado por su contaminación.

 

El magnífico trabajo de microscopía Gerardo Meiro complementa las investigaciones que venimos realizando de forma idependiente desde el año 2012, sin que nada se haya hecho para mejorar el estado de las aguas de este lago único y hermoso.

 

La colección de imágenes de diatomeas que contiene este vídeo, además de descubrir desde otro de punto de vista el fascinante mundo de estos organismos microscópicos, pretende ser un homenaje al genio de Gerardo Meiro, que montó las preparaciones y las fotografío así, desde su laboratorio en Alcobendas (Madrid) de forma generosa y entusiasta.

 

Nunca se habían fotografiado así estos seres en en Lago de Sanabria y desde esta página y el sim "El universo microscópico en una Gota" y junto a Kimika Ying , difundimos el valor de cuidar los ecosistemas acuáticos y ofrecemos esta visión de estos organismos microscópicos, que son claves a la hora de hacer un buen diagnóstico del origen del proceso de degrdación del Lago de Sanabria, de hacer comprender a otras personas qué está pasando y de buscar las soluciones para que este desastre pueda revertirse.

 

Tanto Tabellaria fenestrata como Asterionella formosa son dos diatomeas pennales, que habitualmente forman agrupaciones coloniales, y han sido claves a la hora de comprender de qué manera el Lago de Sanabria de está deteriorando.

 

Ninguna de las dos formó parte del fitoplancton del Lago en tiempos anteriores, y desde el año 2011 son los organismos más abundantes en el Lago, cuyas aguas han invadido y colonizado, y son los principales responsables de su coloración verdosa y pérdida de transparencia. Tabellaria fenestrata estuvo ocupando el Lago con blooms intermitentes hasta el año 2016, año en que fue desplazada por Asterionella formosa , que también con floraciones explosivas domina la biomasa productora hasta este momento, con biovolúmenes que con frecuencia superan el 99% con respecto del total de los organismos productores.

 

Se trata de diatomeas mixotróficas que son capaces de asimilar materia orgánica en los fondos a los que no llega la luz y que han conseguido colonizar toda la columna de agua debido al aporte de nutrientes procedentes de los vertidos de aguas fecales y residuales no depuradas adecuadamente.

 

Las imagenes del entorno del Lago de Sanabria y de sus aguas verdosas y turbias han sido tomadas buceando en la playa de los Arenales de Vigo en septiembre de 2021

 

LIBRO: Lago de Sanabria 2015, presente y futuro de un ecosistema en desequilibrio

 

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Thanks to the research work that has been altruistically being carried out from the "Helios Sanabria" wind-solar catamaran through the International Biological Station (EBI), it has been possible to determine and continuously monitor the regrettable deterioration of this unique ecosystem, the Lake of Sanabria (Zamora, Spain).

 

Lake Sanabria is the southernmost and westernmost glacial lake in Europe, and the longest and deepest in the Iberian Peninsula. From the International Biological Station "Duero-Douro" and in collaboration with other independent researchers we have been able to make a precise diagnosis and not conditioned by the interests linked to the power of the administrations and other powers, which try to hide this reality of the degradation of this system, by all possible means.

 

And for which there would be a solution if the Lake were provided with an adequate purification system, until now non-existent. Diatoms are excellent bioindicators that tell us about the profound imbalance of this ecosystem caused by its contamination.

The magnificent work of Gerardo Meiro microscopy complements the investigations that we have been carrying out independently since 2012, without anything being done to improve the state of the waters of this unique and beautiful lake.

 

The collection of diatom images that this video contains, in addition to discovering the fascinating world of these microscopic organisms from another point of view, aims to be a tribute to the genius of Gerardo Meiro, who assembled the preparations and photographed them like this, from his laboratory in Alcobendas (Madrid) where he has done this magnificent work altruistically.

 

These beings had never been photographed like this in Lago de Sanabria and from this page and the sim "The microscopic universe in a Drop" and next to Kimika Ying , we spread the value of caring for aquatic ecosystems and offer this vision of these fascinating organisms, which are key when making a good diagnosis of the origin of the degradation process of Lake Sanabria, to make people understand to other people what is happening and to seek solutions so that this disaster can be reversed.

 

Both Tabellaria fenestrata and Asterionella formosa are two pennal diatoms, which usually form colonial groupings, and have been key in understanding how Lake Sanabria is deteriorating.

 

Neither of them was part of the phytoplankton of the Lake in previous times, and since 2011 they are the most abundant organisms in the Lake, whose waters have invaded and colonized, and are the main responsible for its greenish coloration and loss of transparency.

 

Tabellaria fenestrata was occupying the Lake with intermittent blooms until 2016, the year in which it was displaced by Asterionella formosa , which also with explosive blooms dominates the producing biomass until now, with biovolumes that frequently exceed 99% with respect to the total of producer organisms.

 

These are mixotrophic diatoms that are capable of assimilating organic matter in the bottoms to which the light does not reach and that have managed to colonize the entire water column due to the contribution of nutrients from the discharges of sewage and waste water not properly treated.

 

The images of the surroundings of Lake Sanabria and its greenish and murky waters have been taken diving in the beach of Los Arenales de Vigo in September 2021

 

LIBRO: Lago de Sanabria 2015, presente y futuro de un ecosistema en desequilibrio

  

dewframe.ru

I was shooting in continuous mode and caught some wing action with this Great Egret. It has the look of a butterfly in this pose.

 

In North America, large numbers of Great Egrets were killed around the end of the 19th century so that their plumes could be used to decorate hats. Numbers have since recovered as a result of conservation measures. Its range has expanded as far north as southern Canada.

 

In 1953 the Great Egret in flight was chosen as the symbol of the National Audubon Society, which was formed in part to prevent the killing of birds for their feathers.

Infrared converted Sony A6000 with Sony E 16mm F2.8 mounted with the Sony Ultra Wide Converter. HDR AEB +/-1.3 total of 5 exposures at F8, 16mm, auto focus and processed with Photomatix HDR software.

 

High Dynamic Range (HDR)

 

High-dynamic-range imaging (HDRI) is a high dynamic range (HDR) technique used in imaging and photography to reproduce a greater dynamic range of luminosity than is possible with standard digital imaging or photographic techniques. The aim is to present a similar range of luminance to that experienced through the human visual system. The human eye, through adaptation of the iris and other methods, adjusts constantly to adapt to a broad range of luminance present in the environment. The brain continuously interprets this information so that a viewer can see in a wide range of light conditions.

 

HDR images can represent a greater range of luminance levels than can be achieved using more 'traditional' methods, such as many real-world scenes containing very bright, direct sunlight to extreme shade, or very faint nebulae. This is often achieved by capturing and then combining several different, narrower range, exposures of the same subject matter. Non-HDR cameras take photographs with a limited exposure range, referred to as LDR, resulting in the loss of detail in highlights or shadows.

 

The two primary types of HDR images are computer renderings and images resulting from merging multiple low-dynamic-range (LDR) or standard-dynamic-range (SDR) photographs. HDR images can also be acquired using special image sensors, such as an oversampled binary image sensor.

 

Due to the limitations of printing and display contrast, the extended luminosity range of an HDR image has to be compressed to be made visible. The method of rendering an HDR image to a standard monitor or printing device is called tone mapping. This method reduces the overall contrast of an HDR image to facilitate display on devices or printouts with lower dynamic range, and can be applied to produce images with preserved local contrast (or exaggerated for artistic effect).

 

In photography, dynamic range is measured in exposure value (EV) differences (known as stops). An increase of one EV, or 'one stop', represents a doubling of the amount of light. Conversely, a decrease of one EV represents a halving of the amount of light. Therefore, revealing detail in the darkest of shadows requires high exposures, while preserving detail in very bright situations requires very low exposures. Most cameras cannot provide this range of exposure values within a single exposure, due to their low dynamic range. High-dynamic-range photographs are generally achieved by capturing multiple standard-exposure images, often using exposure bracketing, and then later merging them into a single HDR image, usually within a photo manipulation program). Digital images are often encoded in a camera's raw image format, because 8-bit JPEG encoding does not offer a wide enough range of values to allow fine transitions (and regarding HDR, later introduces undesirable effects due to lossy compression).

 

Any camera that allows manual exposure control can make images for HDR work, although one equipped with auto exposure bracketing (AEB) is far better suited. Images from film cameras are less suitable as they often must first be digitized, so that they can later be processed using software HDR methods.

 

In most imaging devices, the degree of exposure to light applied to the active element (be it film or CCD) can be altered in one of two ways: by either increasing/decreasing the size of the aperture or by increasing/decreasing the time of each exposure. Exposure variation in an HDR set is only done by altering the exposure time and not the aperture size; this is because altering the aperture size also affects the depth of field and so the resultant multiple images would be quite different, preventing their final combination into a single HDR image.

 

An important limitation for HDR photography is that any movement between successive images will impede or prevent success in combining them afterwards. Also, as one must create several images (often three or five and sometimes more) to obtain the desired luminance range, such a full 'set' of images takes extra time. HDR photographers have developed calculation methods and techniques to partially overcome these problems, but the use of a sturdy tripod is, at least, advised.

 

Some cameras have an auto exposure bracketing (AEB) feature with a far greater dynamic range than others, from the 3 EV of the Canon EOS 40D, to the 18 EV of the Canon EOS-1D Mark II. As the popularity of this imaging method grows, several camera manufactures are now offering built-in HDR features. For example, the Pentax K-7 DSLR has an HDR mode that captures an HDR image and outputs (only) a tone mapped JPEG file. The Canon PowerShot G12, Canon PowerShot S95 and Canon PowerShot S100 offer similar features in a smaller format.. Nikon's approach is called 'Active D-Lighting' which applies exposure compensation and tone mapping to the image as it comes from the sensor, with the accent being on retaing a realistic effect . Some smartphones provide HDR modes, and most mobile platforms have apps that provide HDR picture taking.

 

Camera characteristics such as gamma curves, sensor resolution, noise, photometric calibration and color calibration affect resulting high-dynamic-range images.

 

Color film negatives and slides consist of multiple film layers that respond to light differently. As a consequence, transparent originals (especially positive slides) feature a very high dynamic range

 

Tone mapping

Tone mapping reduces the dynamic range, or contrast ratio, of an entire image while retaining localized contrast. Although it is a distinct operation, tone mapping is often applied to HDRI files by the same software package.

 

Several software applications are available on the PC, Mac and Linux platforms for producing HDR files and tone mapped images. Notable titles include

 

Adobe Photoshop

Aurora HDR

Dynamic Photo HDR

HDR Efex Pro

HDR PhotoStudio

Luminance HDR

MagicRaw

Oloneo PhotoEngine

Photomatix Pro

PTGui

 

Information stored in high-dynamic-range images typically corresponds to the physical values of luminance or radiance that can be observed in the real world. This is different from traditional digital images, which represent colors as they should appear on a monitor or a paper print. Therefore, HDR image formats are often called scene-referred, in contrast to traditional digital images, which are device-referred or output-referred. Furthermore, traditional images are usually encoded for the human visual system (maximizing the visual information stored in the fixed number of bits), which is usually called gamma encoding or gamma correction. The values stored for HDR images are often gamma compressed (power law) or logarithmically encoded, or floating-point linear values, since fixed-point linear encodings are increasingly inefficient over higher dynamic ranges.

 

HDR images often don't use fixed ranges per color channel—other than traditional images—to represent many more colors over a much wider dynamic range. For that purpose, they don't use integer values to represent the single color channels (e.g., 0-255 in an 8 bit per pixel interval for red, green and blue) but instead use a floating point representation. Common are 16-bit (half precision) or 32-bit floating point numbers to represent HDR pixels. However, when the appropriate transfer function is used, HDR pixels for some applications can be represented with a color depth that has as few as 10–12 bits for luminance and 8 bits for chrominance without introducing any visible quantization artifacts.

 

History of HDR photography

The idea of using several exposures to adequately reproduce a too-extreme range of luminance was pioneered as early as the 1850s by Gustave Le Gray to render seascapes showing both the sky and the sea. Such rendering was impossible at the time using standard methods, as the luminosity range was too extreme. Le Gray used one negative for the sky, and another one with a longer exposure for the sea, and combined the two into one picture in positive.

 

Mid 20th century

Manual tone mapping was accomplished by dodging and burning – selectively increasing or decreasing the exposure of regions of the photograph to yield better tonality reproduction. This was effective because the dynamic range of the negative is significantly higher than would be available on the finished positive paper print when that is exposed via the negative in a uniform manner. An excellent example is the photograph Schweitzer at the Lamp by W. Eugene Smith, from his 1954 photo essay A Man of Mercy on Dr. Albert Schweitzer and his humanitarian work in French Equatorial Africa. The image took 5 days to reproduce the tonal range of the scene, which ranges from a bright lamp (relative to the scene) to a dark shadow.

 

Ansel Adams elevated dodging and burning to an art form. Many of his famous prints were manipulated in the darkroom with these two methods. Adams wrote a comprehensive book on producing prints called The Print, which prominently features dodging and burning, in the context of his Zone System.

 

With the advent of color photography, tone mapping in the darkroom was no longer possible due to the specific timing needed during the developing process of color film. Photographers looked to film manufacturers to design new film stocks with improved response, or continued to shoot in black and white to use tone mapping methods.

 

Color film capable of directly recording high-dynamic-range images was developed by Charles Wyckoff and EG&G "in the course of a contract with the Department of the Air Force". This XR film had three emulsion layers, an upper layer having an ASA speed rating of 400, a middle layer with an intermediate rating, and a lower layer with an ASA rating of 0.004. The film was processed in a manner similar to color films, and each layer produced a different color. The dynamic range of this extended range film has been estimated as 1:108. It has been used to photograph nuclear explosions, for astronomical photography, for spectrographic research, and for medical imaging. Wyckoff's detailed pictures of nuclear explosions appeared on the cover of Life magazine in the mid-1950s.

 

Late 20th century

Georges Cornuéjols and licensees of his patents (Brdi, Hymatom) introduced the principle of HDR video image, in 1986, by interposing a matricial LCD screen in front of the camera's image sensor, increasing the sensors dynamic by five stops. The concept of neighborhood tone mapping was applied to video cameras by a group from the Technion in Israel led by Dr. Oliver Hilsenrath and Prof. Y.Y.Zeevi who filed for a patent on this concept in 1988.

 

In February and April 1990, Georges Cornuéjols introduced the first real-time HDR camera that combined two images captured by a sensor3435 or simultaneously3637 by two sensors of the camera. This process is known as bracketing used for a video stream.

 

In 1991, the first commercial video camera was introduced that performed real-time capturing of multiple images with different exposures, and producing an HDR video image, by Hymatom, licensee of Georges Cornuéjols.

 

Also in 1991, Georges Cornuéjols introduced the HDR+ image principle by non-linear accumulation of images to increase the sensitivity of the camera: for low-light environments, several successive images are accumulated, thus increasing the signal to noise ratio.

 

In 1993, another commercial medical camera producing an HDR video image, by the Technion.

 

Modern HDR imaging uses a completely different approach, based on making a high-dynamic-range luminance or light map using only global image operations (across the entire image), and then tone mapping the result. Global HDR was first introduced in 19931 resulting in a mathematical theory of differently exposed pictures of the same subject matter that was published in 1995 by Steve Mann and Rosalind Picard.

 

On October 28, 1998, Ben Sarao created one of the first nighttime HDR+G (High Dynamic Range + Graphic image)of STS-95 on the launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. It consisted of four film images of the shuttle at night that were digitally composited with additional digital graphic elements. The image was first exhibited at NASA Headquarters Great Hall, Washington DC in 1999 and then published in Hasselblad Forum, Issue 3 1993, Volume 35 ISSN 0282-5449.

 

The advent of consumer digital cameras produced a new demand for HDR imaging to improve the light response of digital camera sensors, which had a much smaller dynamic range than film. Steve Mann developed and patented the global-HDR method for producing digital images having extended dynamic range at the MIT Media Laboratory. Mann's method involved a two-step procedure: (1) generate one floating point image array by global-only image operations (operations that affect all pixels identically, without regard to their local neighborhoods); and then (2) convert this image array, using local neighborhood processing (tone-remapping, etc.), into an HDR image. The image array generated by the first step of Mann's process is called a lightspace image, lightspace picture, or radiance map. Another benefit of global-HDR imaging is that it provides access to the intermediate light or radiance map, which has been used for computer vision, and other image processing operations.

 

21st century

In 2005, Adobe Systems introduced several new features in Photoshop CS2 including Merge to HDR, 32 bit floating point image support, and HDR tone mapping.

 

On June 30, 2016, Microsoft added support for the digital compositing of HDR images to Windows 10 using the Universal Windows Platform.

 

HDR sensors

Modern CMOS image sensors can often capture a high dynamic range from a single exposure. The wide dynamic range of the captured image is non-linearly compressed into a smaller dynamic range electronic representation. However, with proper processing, the information from a single exposure can be used to create an HDR image.

 

Such HDR imaging is used in extreme dynamic range applications like welding or automotive work. Some other cameras designed for use in security applications can automatically provide two or more images for each frame, with changing exposure. For example, a sensor for 30fps video will give out 60fps with the odd frames at a short exposure time and the even frames at a longer exposure time. Some of the sensor may even combine the two images on-chip so that a wider dynamic range without in-pixel compression is directly available to the user for display or processing.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-dynamic-range_imaging

 

Infrared Photography

 

In infrared photography, the film or image sensor used is sensitive to infrared light. The part of the spectrum used is referred to as near-infrared to distinguish it from far-infrared, which is the domain of thermal imaging. Wavelengths used for photography range from about 700 nm to about 900 nm. Film is usually sensitive to visible light too, so an infrared-passing filter is used; this lets infrared (IR) light pass through to the camera, but blocks all or most of the visible light spectrum (the filter thus looks black or deep red). ("Infrared filter" may refer either to this type of filter or to one that blocks infrared but passes other wavelengths.)

 

When these filters are used together with infrared-sensitive film or sensors, "in-camera effects" can be obtained; false-color or black-and-white images with a dreamlike or sometimes lurid appearance known as the "Wood Effect," an effect mainly caused by foliage (such as tree leaves and grass) strongly reflecting in the same way visible light is reflected from snow. There is a small contribution from chlorophyll fluorescence, but this is marginal and is not the real cause of the brightness seen in infrared photographs. The effect is named after the infrared photography pioneer Robert W. Wood, and not after the material wood, which does not strongly reflect infrared.

 

The other attributes of infrared photographs include very dark skies and penetration of atmospheric haze, caused by reduced Rayleigh scattering and Mie scattering, respectively, compared to visible light. The dark skies, in turn, result in less infrared light in shadows and dark reflections of those skies from water, and clouds will stand out strongly. These wavelengths also penetrate a few millimeters into skin and give a milky look to portraits, although eyes often look black.

 

Until the early 20th century, infrared photography was not possible because silver halide emulsions are not sensitive to longer wavelengths than that of blue light (and to a lesser extent, green light) without the addition of a dye to act as a color sensitizer. The first infrared photographs (as distinct from spectrographs) to be published appeared in the February 1910 edition of The Century Magazine and in the October 1910 edition of the Royal Photographic Society Journal to illustrate papers by Robert W. Wood, who discovered the unusual effects that now bear his name. The RPS co-ordinated events to celebrate the centenary of this event in 2010. Wood's photographs were taken on experimental film that required very long exposures; thus, most of his work focused on landscapes. A further set of infrared landscapes taken by Wood in Italy in 1911 used plates provided for him by CEK Mees at Wratten & Wainwright. Mees also took a few infrared photographs in Portugal in 1910, which are now in the Kodak archives.

 

Infrared-sensitive photographic plates were developed in the United States during World War I for spectroscopic analysis, and infrared sensitizing dyes were investigated for improved haze penetration in aerial photography. After 1930, new emulsions from Kodak and other manufacturers became useful to infrared astronomy.

 

Infrared photography became popular with photography enthusiasts in the 1930s when suitable film was introduced commercially. The Times regularly published landscape and aerial photographs taken by their staff photographers using Ilford infrared film. By 1937 33 kinds of infrared film were available from five manufacturers including Agfa, Kodak and Ilford. Infrared movie film was also available and was used to create day-for-night effects in motion pictures, a notable example being the pseudo-night aerial sequences in the James Cagney/Bette Davis movie The Bride Came COD.

 

False-color infrared photography became widely practiced with the introduction of Kodak Ektachrome Infrared Aero Film and Ektachrome Infrared EIR. The first version of this, known as Kodacolor Aero-Reversal-Film, was developed by Clark and others at the Kodak for camouflage detection in the 1940s. The film became more widely available in 35mm form in the 1960s but KODAK AEROCHROME III Infrared Film 1443 has been discontinued.

 

Infrared photography became popular with a number of 1960s recording artists, because of the unusual results; Jimi Hendrix, Donovan, Frank and a slow shutter speed without focus compensation, however wider apertures like f/2.0 can produce sharp photos only if the lens is meticulously refocused to the infrared index mark, and only if this index mark is the correct one for the filter and film in use. However, it should be noted that diffraction effects inside a camera are greater at infrared wavelengths so that stopping down the lens too far may actually reduce sharpness.

 

Most apochromatic ('APO') lenses do not have an Infrared index mark and do not need to be refocused for the infrared spectrum because they are already optically corrected into the near-infrared spectrum. Catadioptric lenses do not often require this adjustment because their mirror containing elements do not suffer from chromatic aberration and so the overall aberration is comparably less. Catadioptric lenses do, of course, still contain lenses, and these lenses do still have a dispersive property.

 

Infrared black-and-white films require special development times but development is usually achieved with standard black-and-white film developers and chemicals (like D-76). Kodak HIE film has a polyester film base that is very stable but extremely easy to scratch, therefore special care must be used in the handling of Kodak HIE throughout the development and printing/scanning process to avoid damage to the film. The Kodak HIE film was sensitive to 900 nm.

 

As of November 2, 2007, "KODAK is preannouncing the discontinuance" of HIE Infrared 35 mm film stating the reasons that, "Demand for these products has been declining significantly in recent years, and it is no longer practical to continue to manufacture given the low volume, the age of the product formulations and the complexity of the processes involved." At the time of this notice, HIE Infrared 135-36 was available at a street price of around $12.00 a roll at US mail order outlets.

 

Arguably the greatest obstacle to infrared film photography has been the increasing difficulty of obtaining infrared-sensitive film. However, despite the discontinuance of HIE, other newer infrared sensitive emulsions from EFKE, ROLLEI, and ILFORD are still available, but these formulations have differing sensitivity and specifications from the venerable KODAK HIE that has been around for at least two decades. Some of these infrared films are available in 120 and larger formats as well as 35 mm, which adds flexibility to their application. With the discontinuance of Kodak HIE, Efke's IR820 film has become the only IR film on the marketneeds update with good sensitivity beyond 750 nm, the Rollei film does extend beyond 750 nm but IR sensitivity falls off very rapidly.

  

Color infrared transparency films have three sensitized layers that, because of the way the dyes are coupled to these layers, reproduce infrared as red, red as green, and green as blue. All three layers are sensitive to blue so the film must be used with a yellow filter, since this will block blue light but allow the remaining colors to reach the film. The health of foliage can be determined from the relative strengths of green and infrared light reflected; this shows in color infrared as a shift from red (healthy) towards magenta (unhealthy). Early color infrared films were developed in the older E-4 process, but Kodak later manufactured a color transparency film that could be developed in standard E-6 chemistry, although more accurate results were obtained by developing using the AR-5 process. In general, color infrared does not need to be refocused to the infrared index mark on the lens.

 

In 2007 Kodak announced that production of the 35 mm version of their color infrared film (Ektachrome Professional Infrared/EIR) would cease as there was insufficient demand. Since 2011, all formats of color infrared film have been discontinued. Specifically, Aerochrome 1443 and SO-734.

 

There is no currently available digital camera that will produce the same results as Kodak color infrared film although the equivalent images can be produced by taking two exposures, one infrared and the other full-color, and combining in post-production. The color images produced by digital still cameras using infrared-pass filters are not equivalent to those produced on color infrared film. The colors result from varying amounts of infrared passing through the color filters on the photo sites, further amended by the Bayer filtering. While this makes such images unsuitable for the kind of applications for which the film was used, such as remote sensing of plant health, the resulting color tonality has proved popular artistically.

 

Color digital infrared, as part of full spectrum photography is gaining popularity. The ease of creating a softly colored photo with infrared characteristics has found interest among hobbyists and professionals.

 

In 2008, Los Angeles photographer, Dean Bennici started cutting and hand rolling Aerochrome color Infrared film. All Aerochrome medium and large format which exists today came directly from his lab. The trend in infrared photography continues to gain momentum with the success of photographer Richard Mosse and multiple users all around the world.

 

Digital camera sensors are inherently sensitive to infrared light, which would interfere with the normal photography by confusing the autofocus calculations or softening the image (because infrared light is focused differently from visible light), or oversaturating the red channel. Also, some clothing is transparent in the infrared, leading to unintended (at least to the manufacturer) uses of video cameras. Thus, to improve image quality and protect privacy, many digital cameras employ infrared blockers. Depending on the subject matter, infrared photography may not be practical with these cameras because the exposure times become overly long, often in the range of 30 seconds, creating noise and motion blur in the final image. However, for some subject matter the long exposure does not matter or the motion blur effects actually add to the image. Some lenses will also show a 'hot spot' in the centre of the image as their coatings are optimised for visible light and not for IR.

 

An alternative method of DSLR infrared photography is to remove the infrared blocker in front of the sensor and replace it with a filter that removes visible light. This filter is behind the mirror, so the camera can be used normally - handheld, normal shutter speeds, normal composition through the viewfinder, and focus, all work like a normal camera. Metering works but is not always accurate because of the difference between visible and infrared refraction. When the IR blocker is removed, many lenses which did display a hotspot cease to do so, and become perfectly usable for infrared photography. Additionally, because the red, green and blue micro-filters remain and have transmissions not only in their respective color but also in the infrared, enhanced infrared color may be recorded.

 

Since the Bayer filters in most digital cameras absorb a significant fraction of the infrared light, these cameras are sometimes not very sensitive as infrared cameras and can sometimes produce false colors in the images. An alternative approach is to use a Foveon X3 sensor, which does not have absorptive filters on it; the Sigma SD10 DSLR has a removable IR blocking filter and dust protector, which can be simply omitted or replaced by a deep red or complete visible light blocking filter. The Sigma SD14 has an IR/UV blocking filter that can be removed/installed without tools. The result is a very sensitive digital IR camera.

 

While it is common to use a filter that blocks almost all visible light, the wavelength sensitivity of a digital camera without internal infrared blocking is such that a variety of artistic results can be obtained with more conventional filtration. For example, a very dark neutral density filter can be used (such as the Hoya ND400) which passes a very small amount of visible light compared to the near-infrared it allows through. Wider filtration permits an SLR viewfinder to be used and also passes more varied color information to the sensor without necessarily reducing the Wood effect. Wider filtration is however likely to reduce other infrared artefacts such as haze penetration and darkened skies. This technique mirrors the methods used by infrared film photographers where black-and-white infrared film was often used with a deep red filter rather than a visually opaque one.

 

Another common technique with near-infrared filters is to swap blue and red channels in software (e.g. photoshop) which retains much of the characteristic 'white foliage' while rendering skies a glorious blue.

 

Several Sony cameras had the so-called Night Shot facility, which physically moves the blocking filter away from the light path, which makes the cameras very sensitive to infrared light. Soon after its development, this facility was 'restricted' by Sony to make it difficult for people to take photos that saw through clothing. To do this the iris is opened fully and exposure duration is limited to long times of more than 1/30 second or so. It is possible to shoot infrared but neutral density filters must be used to reduce the camera's sensitivity and the long exposure times mean that care must be taken to avoid camera-shake artifacts.

 

Fuji have produced digital cameras for use in forensic criminology and medicine which have no infrared blocking filter. The first camera, designated the S3 PRO UVIR, also had extended ultraviolet sensitivity (digital sensors are usually less sensitive to UV than to IR). Optimum UV sensitivity requires special lenses, but ordinary lenses usually work well for IR. In 2007, FujiFilm introduced a new version of this camera, based on the Nikon D200/ FujiFilm S5 called the IS Pro, also able to take Nikon lenses. Fuji had earlier introduced a non-SLR infrared camera, the IS-1, a modified version of the FujiFilm FinePix S9100. Unlike the S3 PRO UVIR, the IS-1 does not offer UV sensitivity. FujiFilm restricts the sale of these cameras to professional users with their EULA specifically prohibiting "unethical photographic conduct".

 

Phase One digital camera backs can be ordered in an infrared modified form.

 

Remote sensing and thermographic cameras are sensitive to longer wavelengths of infrared (see Infrared spectrum#Commonly used sub-division scheme). They may be multispectral and use a variety of technologies which may not resemble common camera or filter designs. Cameras sensitive to longer infrared wavelengths including those used in infrared astronomy often require cooling to reduce thermally induced dark currents in the sensor (see Dark current (physics)). Lower cost uncooled thermographic digital cameras operate in the Long Wave infrared band (see Thermographic camera#Uncooled infrared detectors). These cameras are generally used for building inspection or preventative maintenance but can be used for artistic pursuits as well.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared_photography

 

bend/scup

One of the world’s oldest generators in continuous operation has been keeping visitors staying at Dawson Falls warm since 1935.

 

The power station’s generator is the oldest in continuous operation in New Zealand and amongst the oldest in the world.

 

The generator was built by the General Electric Company of Schenectady, New York around 1899 -1901. While full details of its working life before coming to Dawson Falls in 1935 are not clear, it is thought that it may have been used in Tasmania, military camps in Wellington and to light the Wellington Cable Car system..

more info here :

www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/taranak...

The Real Teatro di San Carlo (Royal Theatre of Saint Charles), its original name under the Bourbon monarchy but known as simply the Teatro di San Carlo the oldest continuously active venue for public opera in the world, opening in 1737, decades before both the Milan's La Scala and Venice's La Fenice theatres.

 

Given its size, structure and antiquity was the model for the following theatres in Europe.

 

Commissioned by the Bourbon King Charles VII of Naples Charles wanted to endow Naples with a new and larger theatre to replace the old, dilapidated, and too-small Teatro San Bartolomeo of 1621, which had served the city well, especially afterScarlatti had moved there in 1682 and had begun to create an important opera centre which existed well into the 1700s.

 

Thus, the San Carlo was inaugurated on 4 November 1737, the king's name day.

 

The first seasons highlighted the royal preference for dance numbers, and featured among the performers famous castrati.

On 13 February 1816 a fire broke out during a dress-rehearsal for a ballet performance and quickly spread to destroy a part of building.

 

On the orders of King Ferdinand IV, another Bourbon monarch and son of Charles III, who used the services of Antonio Niccolini, Barbaia was able to rebuild the opera house within ten months. It was rebuilt as a traditional horseshoe-shaped auditorium with 1,444 seats, and a proscenium, 33.5m wide and 30m high. The stage was 34.5m deep.

 

The central frescoed ceiling painting of Apollo presenting to Minerva the greatest poets of the world was painted by Antonio, Giuseppe e Giovanni Cammarano.

 

On 12 January 1817, the rebuilt theatre was inaugurated with Johann Simon Mayr's Il sogno di Partenope. Stendhal attended the second night of the inauguration and wrote: "There is nothing in all Europe, I won’t say comparable to this theatre, but which gives the slightest idea of what it is like..., it dazzles the eyes, it enraptures the soul..."

 

In 1844 the opera house was re-decorated under Niccolini, his son Fausto, and Francesco Maria dei Giudice. The main result was the change in appearance of the interior to the now-traditional red and gold

 

By the start of the twenty-first century, the opera house was showing its age with outmoded stage machinery, inadequate visitor facilities, and lack of air conditioning. In response, the Campania regional government funded a €67 million renovation over six months in 2008 and six months in 2009 which included restoration of the décor and the creation of a new rehearsal hall. As noted in Gramophone magazine, the opera house reopened on 27 January 2010 with Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito, the 254th anniversary of the composer's birth: "The renovation work was completed last year under the direction of architect Elisabetta Fabbri and is intended to return Teatro San Carlo to its condition following Antonio Niccolini's rebuilding after the fire of 1816. The project....involved 300 workers day and night.

   

www.facebook.com/grphotoimages

Portrait in continuous light

 

A 4 minute video of the 2007 Winter Gala featuring visiting engines Stanier 2-6-0 42968 and LNWR Super D 0-8-0 49395 on passenger and freight trains. Also included are scenes of Stanier 8F 2-8-0 48305 and Great Western Large Prairie 2-6-2T 4141 and a brief shot of O4 2-8-0 63601.

 

The footplate scenes on 49395 were taken during a pre-Gala photo-charter during which it rained continuously. It was pretty exposed on the loco but the photographers had the worst of it...

Many small but frequent explosions doing their part to widen the crack ripping open part of the crater rim.

Part of my continuous effort of revamping older Photostream pics. I used to have the idea that I would keep those older shots there (and in their original "glory"), just to see my progression. But I'm now in the mindset of "what's the use???". The whole world doesn't need to know my progression. The trick isn't showing how good you are; it's not showing how bad you can be. ;)

 

Pangani Forest Exploration Trail

Disney's Animal Kingdom

Walt Disney World, FL

 

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Zenfolio (Order My Work) | RedBubble (Or Order Here) | 500px | Pinterest | Disney's Human Element Blog | Wizarding World Photo Tour

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no 9545/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Pallas-Film der Terra. Sybille Schmitz in Fährmann Maria/Ferryman Maria (Frank Wisbar, 1936).

 

Beautiful German actress Sybille Schmitz (1909-1955) started her career in the era of silent cinema. With her typical face and her relaxed, slightly mysterious way of playing, she became a prominent Ufa star during the Third Reich. After the war she was beset by drug abuse and depression and at 45, she committed suicide.

 

Sybille Maria Christina Schmitz was born in Düren, in the west of Germany, in 1909. She was the daughter of a confectioner. Schmitz attended an acting school in Köln (Cologne) and got her first engagement at Max Reinhardt's Deutsches Theater in Berlin in 1927. Reinhardt was the most famous stage director of the Weimar Republic. Only one year later, she made her film debut with the SPD party film Freie Fahrt/Free Ride (1928). Her role as a mother who dies of premature birth attracted her first attention from critics. Her other early films include Tagebuch einer Verlorenen/Diary of a Lost Girl (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1929) starring Louise Brooks, and Vampyr/Castle of Doom (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1932) as the haunting beauty Leone. Her beautiful face with the shy look, enormous brooding eyes and sad mouth had a touch of strangeness and loneliness. In the following years, she often played a mysterious and unapproachable woman. She played her first leading role in the SciFi film F.P.1 antwortet nicht/F.P.1 Doesn't Answer (Karl Hartl, 1932) opposite Hans Albers. Schmitz then established herself as a prominent Ufa star with Der Herr der Welt/Master of the World (Harry Piel, 1934), Abschiedswalzer/Farewell Waltz (Géza von Bolváry, 1934), the Oscar Wilde adaptation Ein idealer Gatte/An Ideal Husband (Herbert Selpin, 1935) with Brigitte Helm, and the horror thriller Fährmann Maria/Death and the Maiden (Frank Wisbar, 1936), in which she played a ferry person attempting to save a doomed youth from Death. Schmitz and the alcoholic Wisbar lived some years together. Nazi minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, disliked her and thought her "too foreign." Schmitz suffered blacklisting by the regime for a while but stage director Gustaf Gründgens persuaded Goebbels to allow her to star in Der Tanz auf dem Vulkan/Dancing on the Volcano (Hans Steinhoff, 1938), one of the many circus melodramas made during the Nazi regime. She also had roles in Die Frau ohne Vergangenheit/The Mysterious Woman (Nunzio Malasomma, 1939), Trenck, der Pandur (Herbert Selpin, 1940) with Hans Albers, and Titanic (Herbert Selpin, 1943), a technically amazing – for 1943 – film version of the sinking of the British luxury liner in 1912. According to Hans J. Wollstein at AllMovie, the film “was promptly banned by Goebbels for being too depressing and not anti-British enough. The drama survives, however, and Schmitz once again offers a standout performance.”

 

After World War II, Sybille Schmitz was shunned by the German film community for continuously working during the Third Reich, and it became difficult for her to land roles. She appeared in supporting roles in such films as Zwischen gestern und morgen/Between Yesterday and Tomorrow (Harald Braun, 1947) starring Hildegard Knef, Sensation im Savoy (Eduard von Borsody, 1950), and Illusion in Moll/ Illusion in a Minor Key (Rudolf Jugert, 1952), but was beset with drug abuse, depression, several suicide attempts and the committal to a psychiatric clinic. In 1940 she married author Harald G. Petersson who wrote many of her screenplays and later would write the screenplays for the Winnetou films. Schmitz was bisexual and had a relationship with acting teacher Beate von Molo. Petersson could not cope with his wife’s bisexuality and her ever-increasing consumption of alcohol, so they went their separate ways. Ironically, the last film she made less than two years before taking her own life, Das Haus an der Küste/The House on the Coast (Bosko Kosanovic, 1953, now considered a lost film), had Sybille's character committing suicide as a last act of desperation. In 1955, Sybille Schmitz took a fatal overdose of sleeping pills in Munich. She was 45 years old. Schmitz left a note, not blaming anyone in particular for her death and stating that she simply grew weary of her life. One year later, an action was brought against her doctor, Dr. Ursula Moritz, for improper medical treatment. Schmitz's tragic final years inspired Rainer Werner Fassbinder to his acclaimed film Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss/Veronika Voss (1982) with Rosel Zech as the tragic film star of the title.

 

Sources: U. Pothoff (Sybille Schmitz – Die Unbekannte), Hans J. Wollstein (AllMovie), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Rochester is a town and historic city in the unitary authority of Medway in Kent, England. It is situated at the lowest bridging point of the River Medway about 30 miles (50 km) from London.

 

Rochester was for many years a favourite of Charles Dickens, who owned nearby Gads Hill Place, Higham,[1] basing many of his novels on the area. The Diocese of Rochester, the second oldest in England, is based at Rochester Cathedral and was responsible for the founding of a school, now The King's School in 604 AD,[2] which is recognised as being the second oldest continuously running school in the world. Rochester Castle, built by Bishop Gundulf of Rochester, has one of the best preserved keepsin either England or France, and during the First Barons' War (1215–1217) in King John's reign, baronial forces captured the castle from Archbishop Stephen Langton and held it against the king, who then besieged it.[3]

 

Neighbouring Chatham, Gillingham, Strood and a number of outlying villages, together with Rochester, nowadays make up the MedwayUnitary Authority area. It was, until 1998,[4]under the control of Kent County Council and is still part of the ceremonial county of Kent, under the latest Lieutenancies Act.[5]

 

Toponymy[edit]

The Romano-British name for Rochester was Durobrivae, later Durobrivis c. 730 and Dorobrevis in 844. The two commonly cited origins of this name are that it either came from "stronghold by the bridge(s)",[6] or is the latinisation of the British word Dourbruf meaning "swiftstream".[7]Durobrivis was pronounced 'Robrivis. Bede copied down this name, c. 730, mistaking its meaning as Hrofi's fortified camp (OE Hrofes cæster). From this we get c. 730 Hrofæscæstre, 811 Hrofescester, 1086 Rovescester, 1610 Rochester.[6] The Latinised adjective 'Roffensis' refers to Rochester.[7]

Neolithic remains have been found in the vicinity of Rochester; over time it has been variously occupied by Celts, Romans, Jutes and/or Saxons. During the Celtic period it was one of the two administrative centres of the Cantiaci tribe. During the Roman conquest of Britain a decisive battle was fought at the Medway somewhere near Rochester. The first bridge was subsequently constructed early in the Roman period. During the later Roman period the settlement was walled in stone. King Ethelbert of Kent(560–616) established a legal system which has been preserved in the 12th century Textus Roffensis. In AD 604 the bishopric and cathedral were founded. During this period, from the recall of the legions until the Norman conquest, Rochester was sacked at least twice and besieged on another occasion.

The medieval period saw the building of the current cathedral (1080–1130, 1227 and 1343), the building of two castles and the establishment of a significant town. Rochester Castle saw action in the sieges of 1215 and 1264. Its basic street plan was set out, constrained by the river, Watling Street, Rochester Priory and the castle.

Rochester has produced two martyrs: St John Fisher, executed by Henry VIII for refusing to sanction the divorce of Catherine of Aragon; and Bishop Nicholas Ridley, executed by Queen Mary for being an English Reformation protestant.

The city was raided by the Dutch as part of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The Dutch, commanded by Admiral de Ruijter, broke through the chain at Upnor[8] and sailed to Rochester Bridge capturing part of the English fleet and burning it.[9]

  

The ancient City of Rochester merged with the Borough of Chatham and part of the Strood Rural District in 1974 to form the Borough of Medway. It was later renamed Rochester-upon-Medway, and its City status transferred to the entire borough. In 1998 another merger with the rest of the Medway Towns created the Medway Unitary Authority. The outgoing council neglected to appoint ceremonial "Charter Trustees" to continue to represent the historic Rochester area, causing Rochester to lose its City status – an error not even noticed by council officers for four years, until 2002.[10][11]

Military History

Rochester has for centuries been of great strategic importance through its position near the confluence of the Thames and the Medway. Rochester Castle was built to guard the river crossing, and the Royal Dockyard's establishment at Chatham witnessed the beginning of the Royal Navy's long period of supremacy. The town, as part of Medway, is surrounded by two circles of fortresses; the inner line built during the Napoleonic warsconsists of Fort Clarence, Fort Pitt, Fort Amherst and Fort Gillingham. The outer line of Palmerston Forts was built during the 1860s in light of the report by the Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdomand consists of Fort Borstal, Fort Bridgewood, Fort Luton, and the Twydall Redoubts, with two additional forts on islands in the Medway, namely Fort Hoo and Fort Darnet.

During the First World War the Short Brothers' aircraft manufacturing company developed the first plane to launch a torpedo, the Short Admiralty Type 184, at its seaplane factory on the River Medway not far from Rochester Castle. In the intervening period between the 20th century World Wars the company established a world-wide reputation as a constructor of flying boats with aircraft such as the Singapore, Empire 'C'-Class and Sunderland. During the Second World War, Shorts also designed and manufactured the first four-engined bomber, the Stirling.

The UK's decline in naval power and shipbuilding competitiveness led to the government decommissioning the RN Shipyard at Chatham in 1984, which led to the subsequent demise of much local maritime industry. Rochester and its neighbouring communities were hit hard by this and have experienced a painful adjustment to a post-industrial economy, with much social deprivation and unemployment resulting. On the closure of Chatham Dockyard the area experienced an unprecedented surge in unemployment to 24%; this had dropped to 2.4% of the local population by 2014.[12]

Former City of Rochester[edit]

Rochester was recognised as a City from 1211 to 1998. The City of Rochester's ancient status was unique, as it had no formal council or Charter Trustees nor a Mayor, instead having the office of Admiral of the River Medway, whose incumbent acted as de facto civic leader.[13] On 1 April 1974, the City Council was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972, and the territory was merged with the District of Medway, Borough of Chatham and most of Strood Rural District to form a new a local government district called the Borough of Medway, within the county of Kent. Medway Borough Council applied to inherit Rochester's city status, but this was refused; instead letters patent were granted constituting the area of the former Rochester local government district to be the City of Rochester, to "perpetuate the ancient name" and to recall "the long history and proud heritage of the said City".[14] The Home Officesaid that the city status may be extended to the entire borough if it had "Rochester" in its name, so in 1979, Medway Borough Council renamed the borough to Borough of Rochester-upon-Medway, and in 1982, Rochester's city status was transferred to the entire borough by letters patent, with the district being called the City of Rochester-upon-Medway.[13]

On 1 April 1998, the existing local government districts of Rochester-upon-Medway and Gillingham were abolished and became the new unitary authority of Medway. The Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions informed the city council that since it was the local government district that officially held City status under the 1982 Letters Patent, the council would need to appoint charter trustees to preserve its city status, but the outgoing Labour-run council decided not to appoint charter trustees, so the city status was lost when Rochester-upon-Medway was abolished as a local government district.[15][16][17] The other local government districts with City status that were abolished around this time, Bath and Hereford, decided to appoint Charter Trustees to maintain the existence of their own cities and the mayoralties. The incoming Medway Council apparently only became aware of this when, in 2002, it was advised that Rochester was not on the Lord Chancellor's Office's list of cities.[18][19]

In 2010, Medway Council started to refer to the "City of Medway" in promotional material, but it was rebuked and instructed not to do so in future by the Advertising Standards Authority.[20]

Governance[edit]

Civic history and traditions[edit]

Rochester and its neighbours, Chatham and Gillingham, form a single large urban area known as the Medway Towns with a population of about 250,000. Since Norman times Rochester had always governed land on the other side of the Medway in Strood, which was known as Strood Intra; before 1835 it was about 100 yards (91 m) wide and stretched to Gun Lane. In the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act the boundaries were extended to include more of Strood and Frindsbury, and part of Chatham known as Chatham Intra. In 1974, Rochester City Council was abolished and superseded by Medway Borough Council, which also included the parishes of Cuxton, Halling and Cliffe, and the Hoo Peninsula. In 1979 the borough became Rochester-upon-Medway. The Admiral of the River Medway was ex-officio Mayor of Rochester and this dignity transferred to the Mayor of Medway when that unitary authority was created, along with the Admiralty Court for the River which constitutes a committee of the Council.[21]

  

Like many of the mediaeval towns of England, Rochester had civic Freemen whose historic duties and rights were abolished by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. However, the Guild of Free Fishers and Dredgers continues to the present day and retains rights, duties and responsibilities on the Medway, between Sheerness and Hawkwood Stone.[22] This ancient corporate body convenes at the Admiralty Court whose Jury of Freemen is responsible for the conservancy of the River as enshrined in current legislation. The City Freedom can be obtained by residents after serving a period of "servitude", i.e. apprenticeship (traditionally seven years), before admission as a Freeman. The annual ceremonial Beating of the Boundsby the River Medway takes place after the Admiralty Court, usually on the first Saturday of July.

Rochester first obtained City status in 1211, but this was lost due to an administrative oversight when Rochester was absorbed by the Medway Unitary Authority.[10] Subsequently, the Medway Unitary Authority has applied for City status for Medway as a whole, rather than merely for Rochester. Medway applied unsuccessfully for City status in 2000 and 2002 and again in the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Year of 2012.[23] Any future bid to regain formal City status has been recommended to be made under the aegis of Rochester-upon-Medway.

Ecclesiastical parishes[edit]

  

There were three medieval parishes: St Nicholas', St Margaret's and St Clement's. St Clement's was in Horsewash Lane until the last vicar died in 1538 when it was joined with St Nicholas' parish; the church last remaining foundations were finally removed when the railway was being constructed in the 1850s. St Nicholas' Church was built in 1421 beside the cathedral to serve as a parish church for the citizens of Rochester. The ancient cathedral included the Benedictine monastic priory of St Andrew with greater status than the local parishes.[24] Rochester's pre-1537 diocese, under the jurisdiction of the Church of Rome, covered a vast area extending into East Anglia and included all of Essex.[25]

As a result of the restructuring of the Church during the Reformation the cathedral was reconsecrated as the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary without parochial responsibilities, being a diocesan church.[26] In the 19th century the parish of St Peter's was created to serve the burgeoning city with the new church being consecrated in 1859. Following demographic shifts, St Peter's and St Margaret's were recombined as a joint benefice in 1953 with the parish of St Nicholas with St Clement being absorbed in 1971.[27] The combined parish is now the "Parish of St Peter with St Margaret", centred at the new (1973) Parish Centre in The Delce (St Peter's) with St Margaret's remaining as a chapel-of-ease. Old St Peter's was demolished in 1974, while St Nicholas' Church has been converted into the diocesan offices but remains consecrated. Continued expansion south has led to the creation of an additional more recent parish of St Justus (1956) covering The Tideway estate and surrounding area.[28]

A church dedicated to St Mary the Virgin at Eastgate, which was of Anglo-Saxon foundation, is understood to have constituted a parish until the Middle Ages, but few records survive.[29]

Geography

Rochester lies within the area, known to geologists, as the London Basin. The low-lying Hoo peninsula to the north of the town consists of London Clay, and the alluvium brought down by the two rivers—the Thames and the Medway—whose confluence is in this area. The land rises from the river, and being on the dip slope of the North Downs, this consists of chalksurmounted by the Blackheath Beds of sand and gravel.

As a human settlement, Rochester became established as the lowest river crossing of the River Medway, well before the arrival of the Romans.

It is a focal point between two routes, being part of the main route connecting London with the Continent and the north-south routes following the course of the Medway connecting Maidstone and the Weald of Kent with the Thames and the North Sea. The Thames Marshes were an important source of salt. Rochester's roads follow north Kent's valleys and ridges of steep-sided chalk bournes. There are four ways out of town to the south: up Star Hill, via The Delce,[30] along the Maidstone Road or through Borstal. The town is inextricably linked with the neighbouring Medway Towns but separate from Maidstone by a protective ridge known as the Downs, a designated area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

At its most limited geographical size, Rochester is defined as the market town within the city walls, now associated with the historic medieval city. However, Rochester historically also included the ancient wards of Strood Intra on the river's west bank, and Chatham Intra as well as the three old parishes on the Medway's east bank.

The diocese of Rochester is another geographical entity which can be referred to as Rochester.

Climate[edit]

Rochester has an oceanic climate similar to much of southern England, being accorded Köppen Climate Classification-subtype of "Cfb" (Marine West Coast Climate).[31]

On 10 August 2003, neighbouring Gravesend recorded one of the highest temperatures since meteorogical records began in the United Kingdom, with a reading of 38.1 degrees Celsius (100.6 degrees Fahrenheit),[32]only beaten by Brogdale, near Faversham, 22 miles (35 km) to the ESE.[33] The weather station at Brogdale is run by a volunteer, only reporting its data once a month, whereas Gravesend, which has an official Met Office site at the PLA pilot station,[34] reports data hourly.

Being near the mouth of the Thames Estuary with the North Sea, Rochester is relatively close to continental Europe and enjoys a somewhat less temperate climate than other parts of Kent and most of East Anglia. It is therefore less cloudy, drier and less prone to Atlanticdepressions with their associated wind and rain than western regions of Britain, as well as being hotter in summer and colder in winter. Rochester city centre's micro-climate is more accurately reflected by these officially recorded figures than by readings taken at Rochester Airport.[35]

North and North West Kent continue to record higher temperatures in summer, sometimes being the hottest area of the country, eg. on the warmest day of 2011, when temperatures reached 33.1 degrees.[36]Additionally, it holds at least two records for the year 2010, of 30.9 degrees[37] and 31.7 degrees C.[38] Another record was set during England's Indian summer of 2011 with 29.9 degrees C., the highest temperature ever recorded in the UK for October.

North and North West Kent continue to record higher temperatures in summer, sometimes being the hottest area of the country, eg. on the warmest day of 2011, when temperatures reached 33.1 degrees.[36]Additionally, it holds at least two records for the year 2010, of 30.9 degrees[37] and 31.7 degrees C.[38] Another record was set during England's Indian summer of 2011 with 29.9 degrees C., the highest temperature ever recorded in the UK for October.

 

Building

Rochester comprises numerous important historic buildings, the most prominent of which are the Guildhall, the Corn Exchange, Restoration House, Eastgate House, as well as Rochester Castle and Rochester Cathedral. Many of the town centre's old buildings date from as early as the 14th century up to the 18th century. The chapel of St Bartholomew's Hospital dates from the ancient priory hospital's foundation in 1078.

Economy

  

Thomas Aveling started a small business in 1850 producing and repairing agricultural plant equipment. In 1861 this became the firm of Aveling and Porter, which was to become the largest manufacturer of agricultural machinery and steam rollers in the country.[39] Aveling was elected Admiral of the River Medway (i.e. Mayor of Rochester) for 1869-70.

Culture[edit]

Sweeps Festival[edit]

Since 1980 the city has seen the revival of the historic Rochester Jack-in-the-Green May Day dancing chimney sweeps tradition, which had died out in the early 1900s. Though not unique to Rochester (similar sweeps' gatherings were held across southern England, notably in Bristol, Deptford, Whitstable and Hastings), its revival was directly inspired by Dickens' description of the celebration in Sketches by Boz.

The festival has since grown from a small gathering of local Morris dancesides to one of the largest in the world.[40] The festival begins with the "Awakening of Jack-in-the-Green" ceremony,[41] and continues in Rochester High Street over the May Bank Holiday weekend.

There are numerous other festivals in Rochester apart from the Sweeps Festival. The association with Dickens is the theme for Rochester's two Dickens Festivals held annually in June and December.[42] The Medway Fuse Festival[43] usually arranges performances in Rochester and the latest festival to take shape is the Rochester Literature Festival, the brainchild of three local writers.[44]

Library[edit]

A new public library was built alongside the Adult Education Centre, Eastgate. This enabled the registry office to move from Maidstone Road, Chatham into the Corn Exchange on Rochester High Street (where the library was formerly housed). As mentioned in a report presented to Medway Council's Community Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 28 March 2006, the new library opened in late summer (2006).[45]

Theatre[edit]

There is a small amateur theatre called Medway Little Theatre on St Margaret's Banks next to Rochester High Street near the railway station.[46] The theatre was formed out of a creative alliance with the Medway Theatre Club, managed by Marion Martin, at St Luke's Methodist Church on City Way, Rochester[47] between 1985 and 1988, since when drama and theatre studies have become well established in Rochester owing to the dedication of the Medway Theatre Club.[48]

Media[edit]

Local newspapers for Rochester include the Medway Messenger, published by the KM Group, and free newspapers such as Medway Extra(KM Group) and Yourmedway (KOS Media).

The local commercial radio station for Rochester is KMFM Medway, owned by the KM Group. Medway is also served by community radio station Radio Sunlight. The area also receives broadcasts from county-wide stations BBC Radio Kent, Heart and Gold, as well as from various Essex and Greater London radio stations.[49]

Sport[edit]

Football is played with many teams competing in Saturday and Sunday leagues.[50] The local football club is Rochester United F.C. Rochester F.C. was its old football club but has been defunct for many decades. Rugby is also played; Medway R.F.C. play their matches at Priestfields and Old Williamsonians is associated with Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School.[51]

Cricket is played in the town, with teams entered in the Kent Cricket League. Holcombe Hockey Club is one of the largest in the country,[52]and is based at Holcombe Park. The men's and women's 1st XI are part of the England Hockey League.[53] Speedway was staged on a track adjacent to City Way that opened in 1932. Proposals for a revival in the early 1970s did not materialise and the Rochester Bombers became the Romford Bombers.[54]

Sailing and rowing are also popular on the River Medway with respective clubs being based in Rochester.[55][56]

Film[edit]

The 1959 James Bond Goldfinger describes Bond driving along the A2through the Medway Towns from Strood to Chatham. Of interest is the mention of "inevitable traffic jams" on the Strood side of Rochester Bridge, the novel being written some years prior to the construction of the M2 motorway Medway bypass.

Rochester is the setting of the controversial 1965 Peter Watkins television film The War Game, which depicts the town's destruction by a nuclear missile.[57] The opening sequence was shot in Chatham Town Hall, but the credits particularly thank the people of Dover, Gravesend and Tonbridge.

The 2011 adventure film Ironclad (dir. Jonathan English) is based upon the 1215 siege of Rochester Castle. There are however a few areaswhere the plot differs from accepted historical narrative.

Notable people[edit]

  

Charles Dickens

The historic city was for many years the favourite of Charles Dickens, who lived within the diocese at nearby Gads Hill Place, Higham, many of his novels being based on the area. Descriptions of the town appear in Pickwick Papers, Great Expectations and (lightly fictionalised as "Cloisterham") in The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Elements of two houses in Rochester, Satis House and Restoration House, are used for Miss Havisham's house in Great Expectations, Satis House.[58]

Sybil Thorndike

The actress Dame Sybil Thorndike and her brother Russell were brought up in Minor Canon Row adjacent to the cathedral; the daughter of a canon of Rochester Cathedral, she was educated at Rochester Grammar School for Girls. A local doctors' practice,[59] local dental practice[60] and a hall at Rochester Grammar School are all named after her.[61]

Peter Buck

Sir Peter Buck was Admiral of the Medway in the 17th century; knightedin 1603 he and Bishop Barlow hosted King James, the Stuart royal familyand the King of Denmark in 1606. A civil servant to The Royal Dockyardand Lord High Admiral, Buck lived at Eastgate House, Rochester.

Denis Redman

Major-General Denis Redman, a World War II veteran, was born and raised in Rochester and later became a founder member of REME, head of his Corps and a Major-General in the British Army.

Kelly Brook

The model and actress Kelly Brook went to Delce Junior School in Rochester and later the Thomas Aveling School (formerly Warren Wood Girls School).

The singer and songwriter Tara McDonald now lives in Rochester.

The Prisoners, a rock band from 1980 to 1986, were formed in Rochester. They are part of what is known as the "Medway scene".

Kelly Tolhurst MP is the current parliamentary representative for the constituency.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochester,_Kent

  

Not many places you get to see dramatic landscapes with a Glacier that is continuously moving down from the mountain behind. Difficult to get the scale here, but they are very large! At the Svinafellsjokull Glacier in southern Iceland.

Self Portrait

A B-52H Stratofortress from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., and six F-16 Fighting Falcons from Misawa Air Base, Japan, conduct bilateral joint training with four Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-2s off the coast of Northern Japan, Feb. 4, 2020. U.S. Strategic Command’s bomber forces regularly conduct combined theater security cooperation engagements with allies and partners, demonstrating U.S. capability to command, control and conduct bomber missions around the world. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Melanie A. Bulow-Gonterman)

Rochester is a town and historic city in the unitary authority of Medway in Kent, England. It is situated at the lowest bridging point of the River Medway about 30 miles (50 km) from London.

 

Rochester was for many years a favourite of Charles Dickens, who owned nearby Gads Hill Place, Higham,[1] basing many of his novels on the area. The Diocese of Rochester, the second oldest in England, is based at Rochester Cathedral and was responsible for the founding of a school, now The King's School in 604 AD,[2] which is recognised as being the second oldest continuously running school in the world. Rochester Castle, built by Bishop Gundulf of Rochester, has one of the best preserved keepsin either England or France, and during the First Barons' War (1215–1217) in King John's reign, baronial forces captured the castle from Archbishop Stephen Langton and held it against the king, who then besieged it.[3]

 

Neighbouring Chatham, Gillingham, Strood and a number of outlying villages, together with Rochester, nowadays make up the MedwayUnitary Authority area. It was, until 1998,[4]under the control of Kent County Council and is still part of the ceremonial county of Kent, under the latest Lieutenancies Act.[5]

 

Toponymy[edit]

The Romano-British name for Rochester was Durobrivae, later Durobrivis c. 730 and Dorobrevis in 844. The two commonly cited origins of this name are that it either came from "stronghold by the bridge(s)",[6] or is the latinisation of the British word Dourbruf meaning "swiftstream".[7]Durobrivis was pronounced 'Robrivis. Bede copied down this name, c. 730, mistaking its meaning as Hrofi's fortified camp (OE Hrofes cæster). From this we get c. 730 Hrofæscæstre, 811 Hrofescester, 1086 Rovescester, 1610 Rochester.[6] The Latinised adjective 'Roffensis' refers to Rochester.[7]

Neolithic remains have been found in the vicinity of Rochester; over time it has been variously occupied by Celts, Romans, Jutes and/or Saxons. During the Celtic period it was one of the two administrative centres of the Cantiaci tribe. During the Roman conquest of Britain a decisive battle was fought at the Medway somewhere near Rochester. The first bridge was subsequently constructed early in the Roman period. During the later Roman period the settlement was walled in stone. King Ethelbert of Kent(560–616) established a legal system which has been preserved in the 12th century Textus Roffensis. In AD 604 the bishopric and cathedral were founded. During this period, from the recall of the legions until the Norman conquest, Rochester was sacked at least twice and besieged on another occasion.

The medieval period saw the building of the current cathedral (1080–1130, 1227 and 1343), the building of two castles and the establishment of a significant town. Rochester Castle saw action in the sieges of 1215 and 1264. Its basic street plan was set out, constrained by the river, Watling Street, Rochester Priory and the castle.

Rochester has produced two martyrs: St John Fisher, executed by Henry VIII for refusing to sanction the divorce of Catherine of Aragon; and Bishop Nicholas Ridley, executed by Queen Mary for being an English Reformation protestant.

The city was raided by the Dutch as part of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The Dutch, commanded by Admiral de Ruijter, broke through the chain at Upnor[8] and sailed to Rochester Bridge capturing part of the English fleet and burning it.[9]

  

The ancient City of Rochester merged with the Borough of Chatham and part of the Strood Rural District in 1974 to form the Borough of Medway. It was later renamed Rochester-upon-Medway, and its City status transferred to the entire borough. In 1998 another merger with the rest of the Medway Towns created the Medway Unitary Authority. The outgoing council neglected to appoint ceremonial "Charter Trustees" to continue to represent the historic Rochester area, causing Rochester to lose its City status – an error not even noticed by council officers for four years, until 2002.[10][11]

Military History

Rochester has for centuries been of great strategic importance through its position near the confluence of the Thames and the Medway. Rochester Castle was built to guard the river crossing, and the Royal Dockyard's establishment at Chatham witnessed the beginning of the Royal Navy's long period of supremacy. The town, as part of Medway, is surrounded by two circles of fortresses; the inner line built during the Napoleonic warsconsists of Fort Clarence, Fort Pitt, Fort Amherst and Fort Gillingham. The outer line of Palmerston Forts was built during the 1860s in light of the report by the Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdomand consists of Fort Borstal, Fort Bridgewood, Fort Luton, and the Twydall Redoubts, with two additional forts on islands in the Medway, namely Fort Hoo and Fort Darnet.

During the First World War the Short Brothers' aircraft manufacturing company developed the first plane to launch a torpedo, the Short Admiralty Type 184, at its seaplane factory on the River Medway not far from Rochester Castle. In the intervening period between the 20th century World Wars the company established a world-wide reputation as a constructor of flying boats with aircraft such as the Singapore, Empire 'C'-Class and Sunderland. During the Second World War, Shorts also designed and manufactured the first four-engined bomber, the Stirling.

The UK's decline in naval power and shipbuilding competitiveness led to the government decommissioning the RN Shipyard at Chatham in 1984, which led to the subsequent demise of much local maritime industry. Rochester and its neighbouring communities were hit hard by this and have experienced a painful adjustment to a post-industrial economy, with much social deprivation and unemployment resulting. On the closure of Chatham Dockyard the area experienced an unprecedented surge in unemployment to 24%; this had dropped to 2.4% of the local population by 2014.[12]

Former City of Rochester[edit]

Rochester was recognised as a City from 1211 to 1998. The City of Rochester's ancient status was unique, as it had no formal council or Charter Trustees nor a Mayor, instead having the office of Admiral of the River Medway, whose incumbent acted as de facto civic leader.[13] On 1 April 1974, the City Council was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972, and the territory was merged with the District of Medway, Borough of Chatham and most of Strood Rural District to form a new a local government district called the Borough of Medway, within the county of Kent. Medway Borough Council applied to inherit Rochester's city status, but this was refused; instead letters patent were granted constituting the area of the former Rochester local government district to be the City of Rochester, to "perpetuate the ancient name" and to recall "the long history and proud heritage of the said City".[14] The Home Officesaid that the city status may be extended to the entire borough if it had "Rochester" in its name, so in 1979, Medway Borough Council renamed the borough to Borough of Rochester-upon-Medway, and in 1982, Rochester's city status was transferred to the entire borough by letters patent, with the district being called the City of Rochester-upon-Medway.[13]

On 1 April 1998, the existing local government districts of Rochester-upon-Medway and Gillingham were abolished and became the new unitary authority of Medway. The Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions informed the city council that since it was the local government district that officially held City status under the 1982 Letters Patent, the council would need to appoint charter trustees to preserve its city status, but the outgoing Labour-run council decided not to appoint charter trustees, so the city status was lost when Rochester-upon-Medway was abolished as a local government district.[15][16][17] The other local government districts with City status that were abolished around this time, Bath and Hereford, decided to appoint Charter Trustees to maintain the existence of their own cities and the mayoralties. The incoming Medway Council apparently only became aware of this when, in 2002, it was advised that Rochester was not on the Lord Chancellor's Office's list of cities.[18][19]

In 2010, Medway Council started to refer to the "City of Medway" in promotional material, but it was rebuked and instructed not to do so in future by the Advertising Standards Authority.[20]

Governance[edit]

Civic history and traditions[edit]

Rochester and its neighbours, Chatham and Gillingham, form a single large urban area known as the Medway Towns with a population of about 250,000. Since Norman times Rochester had always governed land on the other side of the Medway in Strood, which was known as Strood Intra; before 1835 it was about 100 yards (91 m) wide and stretched to Gun Lane. In the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act the boundaries were extended to include more of Strood and Frindsbury, and part of Chatham known as Chatham Intra. In 1974, Rochester City Council was abolished and superseded by Medway Borough Council, which also included the parishes of Cuxton, Halling and Cliffe, and the Hoo Peninsula. In 1979 the borough became Rochester-upon-Medway. The Admiral of the River Medway was ex-officio Mayor of Rochester and this dignity transferred to the Mayor of Medway when that unitary authority was created, along with the Admiralty Court for the River which constitutes a committee of the Council.[21]

  

Like many of the mediaeval towns of England, Rochester had civic Freemen whose historic duties and rights were abolished by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. However, the Guild of Free Fishers and Dredgers continues to the present day and retains rights, duties and responsibilities on the Medway, between Sheerness and Hawkwood Stone.[22] This ancient corporate body convenes at the Admiralty Court whose Jury of Freemen is responsible for the conservancy of the River as enshrined in current legislation. The City Freedom can be obtained by residents after serving a period of "servitude", i.e. apprenticeship (traditionally seven years), before admission as a Freeman. The annual ceremonial Beating of the Boundsby the River Medway takes place after the Admiralty Court, usually on the first Saturday of July.

Rochester first obtained City status in 1211, but this was lost due to an administrative oversight when Rochester was absorbed by the Medway Unitary Authority.[10] Subsequently, the Medway Unitary Authority has applied for City status for Medway as a whole, rather than merely for Rochester. Medway applied unsuccessfully for City status in 2000 and 2002 and again in the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Year of 2012.[23] Any future bid to regain formal City status has been recommended to be made under the aegis of Rochester-upon-Medway.

Ecclesiastical parishes[edit]

  

There were three medieval parishes: St Nicholas', St Margaret's and St Clement's. St Clement's was in Horsewash Lane until the last vicar died in 1538 when it was joined with St Nicholas' parish; the church last remaining foundations were finally removed when the railway was being constructed in the 1850s. St Nicholas' Church was built in 1421 beside the cathedral to serve as a parish church for the citizens of Rochester. The ancient cathedral included the Benedictine monastic priory of St Andrew with greater status than the local parishes.[24] Rochester's pre-1537 diocese, under the jurisdiction of the Church of Rome, covered a vast area extending into East Anglia and included all of Essex.[25]

As a result of the restructuring of the Church during the Reformation the cathedral was reconsecrated as the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary without parochial responsibilities, being a diocesan church.[26] In the 19th century the parish of St Peter's was created to serve the burgeoning city with the new church being consecrated in 1859. Following demographic shifts, St Peter's and St Margaret's were recombined as a joint benefice in 1953 with the parish of St Nicholas with St Clement being absorbed in 1971.[27] The combined parish is now the "Parish of St Peter with St Margaret", centred at the new (1973) Parish Centre in The Delce (St Peter's) with St Margaret's remaining as a chapel-of-ease. Old St Peter's was demolished in 1974, while St Nicholas' Church has been converted into the diocesan offices but remains consecrated. Continued expansion south has led to the creation of an additional more recent parish of St Justus (1956) covering The Tideway estate and surrounding area.[28]

A church dedicated to St Mary the Virgin at Eastgate, which was of Anglo-Saxon foundation, is understood to have constituted a parish until the Middle Ages, but few records survive.[29]

Geography

Rochester lies within the area, known to geologists, as the London Basin. The low-lying Hoo peninsula to the north of the town consists of London Clay, and the alluvium brought down by the two rivers—the Thames and the Medway—whose confluence is in this area. The land rises from the river, and being on the dip slope of the North Downs, this consists of chalksurmounted by the Blackheath Beds of sand and gravel.

As a human settlement, Rochester became established as the lowest river crossing of the River Medway, well before the arrival of the Romans.

It is a focal point between two routes, being part of the main route connecting London with the Continent and the north-south routes following the course of the Medway connecting Maidstone and the Weald of Kent with the Thames and the North Sea. The Thames Marshes were an important source of salt. Rochester's roads follow north Kent's valleys and ridges of steep-sided chalk bournes. There are four ways out of town to the south: up Star Hill, via The Delce,[30] along the Maidstone Road or through Borstal. The town is inextricably linked with the neighbouring Medway Towns but separate from Maidstone by a protective ridge known as the Downs, a designated area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

At its most limited geographical size, Rochester is defined as the market town within the city walls, now associated with the historic medieval city. However, Rochester historically also included the ancient wards of Strood Intra on the river's west bank, and Chatham Intra as well as the three old parishes on the Medway's east bank.

The diocese of Rochester is another geographical entity which can be referred to as Rochester.

Climate[edit]

Rochester has an oceanic climate similar to much of southern England, being accorded Köppen Climate Classification-subtype of "Cfb" (Marine West Coast Climate).[31]

On 10 August 2003, neighbouring Gravesend recorded one of the highest temperatures since meteorogical records began in the United Kingdom, with a reading of 38.1 degrees Celsius (100.6 degrees Fahrenheit),[32]only beaten by Brogdale, near Faversham, 22 miles (35 km) to the ESE.[33] The weather station at Brogdale is run by a volunteer, only reporting its data once a month, whereas Gravesend, which has an official Met Office site at the PLA pilot station,[34] reports data hourly.

Being near the mouth of the Thames Estuary with the North Sea, Rochester is relatively close to continental Europe and enjoys a somewhat less temperate climate than other parts of Kent and most of East Anglia. It is therefore less cloudy, drier and less prone to Atlanticdepressions with their associated wind and rain than western regions of Britain, as well as being hotter in summer and colder in winter. Rochester city centre's micro-climate is more accurately reflected by these officially recorded figures than by readings taken at Rochester Airport.[35]

North and North West Kent continue to record higher temperatures in summer, sometimes being the hottest area of the country, eg. on the warmest day of 2011, when temperatures reached 33.1 degrees.[36]Additionally, it holds at least two records for the year 2010, of 30.9 degrees[37] and 31.7 degrees C.[38] Another record was set during England's Indian summer of 2011 with 29.9 degrees C., the highest temperature ever recorded in the UK for October.

North and North West Kent continue to record higher temperatures in summer, sometimes being the hottest area of the country, eg. on the warmest day of 2011, when temperatures reached 33.1 degrees.[36]Additionally, it holds at least two records for the year 2010, of 30.9 degrees[37] and 31.7 degrees C.[38] Another record was set during England's Indian summer of 2011 with 29.9 degrees C., the highest temperature ever recorded in the UK for October.

 

Building

Rochester comprises numerous important historic buildings, the most prominent of which are the Guildhall, the Corn Exchange, Restoration House, Eastgate House, as well as Rochester Castle and Rochester Cathedral. Many of the town centre's old buildings date from as early as the 14th century up to the 18th century. The chapel of St Bartholomew's Hospital dates from the ancient priory hospital's foundation in 1078.

Economy

  

Thomas Aveling started a small business in 1850 producing and repairing agricultural plant equipment. In 1861 this became the firm of Aveling and Porter, which was to become the largest manufacturer of agricultural machinery and steam rollers in the country.[39] Aveling was elected Admiral of the River Medway (i.e. Mayor of Rochester) for 1869-70.

Culture[edit]

Sweeps Festival[edit]

Since 1980 the city has seen the revival of the historic Rochester Jack-in-the-Green May Day dancing chimney sweeps tradition, which had died out in the early 1900s. Though not unique to Rochester (similar sweeps' gatherings were held across southern England, notably in Bristol, Deptford, Whitstable and Hastings), its revival was directly inspired by Dickens' description of the celebration in Sketches by Boz.

The festival has since grown from a small gathering of local Morris dancesides to one of the largest in the world.[40] The festival begins with the "Awakening of Jack-in-the-Green" ceremony,[41] and continues in Rochester High Street over the May Bank Holiday weekend.

There are numerous other festivals in Rochester apart from the Sweeps Festival. The association with Dickens is the theme for Rochester's two Dickens Festivals held annually in June and December.[42] The Medway Fuse Festival[43] usually arranges performances in Rochester and the latest festival to take shape is the Rochester Literature Festival, the brainchild of three local writers.[44]

Library[edit]

A new public library was built alongside the Adult Education Centre, Eastgate. This enabled the registry office to move from Maidstone Road, Chatham into the Corn Exchange on Rochester High Street (where the library was formerly housed). As mentioned in a report presented to Medway Council's Community Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 28 March 2006, the new library opened in late summer (2006).[45]

Theatre[edit]

There is a small amateur theatre called Medway Little Theatre on St Margaret's Banks next to Rochester High Street near the railway station.[46] The theatre was formed out of a creative alliance with the Medway Theatre Club, managed by Marion Martin, at St Luke's Methodist Church on City Way, Rochester[47] between 1985 and 1988, since when drama and theatre studies have become well established in Rochester owing to the dedication of the Medway Theatre Club.[48]

Media[edit]

Local newspapers for Rochester include the Medway Messenger, published by the KM Group, and free newspapers such as Medway Extra(KM Group) and Yourmedway (KOS Media).

The local commercial radio station for Rochester is KMFM Medway, owned by the KM Group. Medway is also served by community radio station Radio Sunlight. The area also receives broadcasts from county-wide stations BBC Radio Kent, Heart and Gold, as well as from various Essex and Greater London radio stations.[49]

Sport[edit]

Football is played with many teams competing in Saturday and Sunday leagues.[50] The local football club is Rochester United F.C. Rochester F.C. was its old football club but has been defunct for many decades. Rugby is also played; Medway R.F.C. play their matches at Priestfields and Old Williamsonians is associated with Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School.[51]

Cricket is played in the town, with teams entered in the Kent Cricket League. Holcombe Hockey Club is one of the largest in the country,[52]and is based at Holcombe Park. The men's and women's 1st XI are part of the England Hockey League.[53] Speedway was staged on a track adjacent to City Way that opened in 1932. Proposals for a revival in the early 1970s did not materialise and the Rochester Bombers became the Romford Bombers.[54]

Sailing and rowing are also popular on the River Medway with respective clubs being based in Rochester.[55][56]

Film[edit]

The 1959 James Bond Goldfinger describes Bond driving along the A2through the Medway Towns from Strood to Chatham. Of interest is the mention of "inevitable traffic jams" on the Strood side of Rochester Bridge, the novel being written some years prior to the construction of the M2 motorway Medway bypass.

Rochester is the setting of the controversial 1965 Peter Watkins television film The War Game, which depicts the town's destruction by a nuclear missile.[57] The opening sequence was shot in Chatham Town Hall, but the credits particularly thank the people of Dover, Gravesend and Tonbridge.

The 2011 adventure film Ironclad (dir. Jonathan English) is based upon the 1215 siege of Rochester Castle. There are however a few areaswhere the plot differs from accepted historical narrative.

Notable people[edit]

  

Charles Dickens

The historic city was for many years the favourite of Charles Dickens, who lived within the diocese at nearby Gads Hill Place, Higham, many of his novels being based on the area. Descriptions of the town appear in Pickwick Papers, Great Expectations and (lightly fictionalised as "Cloisterham") in The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Elements of two houses in Rochester, Satis House and Restoration House, are used for Miss Havisham's house in Great Expectations, Satis House.[58]

Sybil Thorndike

The actress Dame Sybil Thorndike and her brother Russell were brought up in Minor Canon Row adjacent to the cathedral; the daughter of a canon of Rochester Cathedral, she was educated at Rochester Grammar School for Girls. A local doctors' practice,[59] local dental practice[60] and a hall at Rochester Grammar School are all named after her.[61]

Peter Buck

Sir Peter Buck was Admiral of the Medway in the 17th century; knightedin 1603 he and Bishop Barlow hosted King James, the Stuart royal familyand the King of Denmark in 1606. A civil servant to The Royal Dockyardand Lord High Admiral, Buck lived at Eastgate House, Rochester.

Denis Redman

Major-General Denis Redman, a World War II veteran, was born and raised in Rochester and later became a founder member of REME, head of his Corps and a Major-General in the British Army.

Kelly Brook

The model and actress Kelly Brook went to Delce Junior School in Rochester and later the Thomas Aveling School (formerly Warren Wood Girls School).

The singer and songwriter Tara McDonald now lives in Rochester.

The Prisoners, a rock band from 1980 to 1986, were formed in Rochester. They are part of what is known as the "Medway scene".

Kelly Tolhurst MP is the current parliamentary representative for the constituency.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochester,_Kent

  

devo dirti

una cosa importante

è essenziale vederci

fare quattro passi

non pensare mai

al freddo di questo

inverno poco tenero

 

è importante

è importante che ci vediamo

perché devo dirti

questa cosa molto

molto importante

è importante che non ti aspetti nulla

ma che ti aspetti

di tutto

 

è importante non rinviarla

importante non trascurare

questa cosa che devo dirti

perché è importante

se non lo fosse

allora avremmo potuto anche

non vederci

ma datosi che è importante

allora

meglio vederci

perché le cose importanti

sanno aspettare

ma non amano fare la fila

 

devo dirti una cosa

importante

molto importante

devo dirti qualcosa di me

qualcosa di te

e un po' di noi

ma soprattutto

di quanto tu per me

sia davvero importante.

 

Gio Evan

Since 2009, the Venice Biennale has assumed the task of intervening directly in the organization and management of the Venice Film Festival’s venues at the Lido, and has been able to do so thanks to the receptiveness and continuous support of the Municipality of Venice.

 

In those venues at the Lido licensed by the City administration, the Biennale chose torenovate the system of the Sale (Halls), the surrounding spaces and the Festival’s itineraries, according to a new and clearer perspective, enhancing the quality and style of the ensemble of venues (Palazzo del Cinema, Palazzo del Casinò, Sala Darsena, and Lion’s Bar).

 

In addition, great efforts have been made to improve the services offered to the Festival’s public, with the help of various authorities and local organizations.

 

This overall upgrade project includes other improvements that are currently in the planning stage, and once finished will completely transform the Film Festival, bringing both the Festival and the Lido to a new level of excellence.

 

Thanks to an agreement with the Hotel Excelsior, the Biennale was able to lease the historical Art-Deco building of the Lion's Bar (one of the Lido’s landmarks) together with the spaces under the porticos, which will result in a unified and improved management of this central location of the Festival.

 

As part of this overall project, the Biennale has aimed to provide special benefits to the guests and the public, making the Festival more welcoming and competitive. Agreements were signed with the Excelsior at the Lido and Starwood (Hotel Danieli and Hotel Europa in Venice), which will reserve a number of rooms and services at a fixed price and make them available to the delegations, producers and distributors of the Festival’s films, offering accommodation of the highest quality.

 

As regards to technology, and again thanks to the collaboration of the City of Venice, this Festival will offer free Wi-Fi coverage at the Lido to visitors, journalists and cinema professionals; hotspots will be located in all the Festival’s venues and at the Lido sites most traversed by the public.

 

The Biennale was directly involved in the complete renovation of the Sala Grande of the Palazzo del Cinema, which now becomes a hall of great historical significance. It is the first time that the Sala Grande is renovated in the spirit of its initial design, through a contemporary rereading of the formal elements present in the project of 1937, and this also remind us that the Venice Film Festival is the oldest film festival in the world.

 

The renovation includes a return to the original architecture, the overhaul of acoustics and the lighting system, and the complete refurbishing of the interiors (armchairs, floors, curtains) according to the Modernist style. To complete the Sala Grande’s renovation, alterations were carried out in the Hall on the ground floor and in the Galleria of the Palazzo del Cinema, aiming to adapt the Palazzo itself to the aesthetic and technological standards required by the Film Festival.

 

At the Lido the Biennale thus sets out to celebrate its history, which will be featured also in the renovated Palazzo del Cinema through an exhibit on notable artists and works shown at the Festival throughout the years.

 

The upgrade project also includes a repair of the roof of the Palazzo del Casinò, in order to prevent the recurrence of the water leakage that happened last year during the Film Festival.

  

FOR MORE INFORMATIONS PLEASE, FOLLOW THESE LINKS:

it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion's_Bar

www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/archive/68th-festival/68miac...

www.myblacksunglasses.com/2013/08/venice-film-festival-lo...

www.italia.it/en/travel-ideas/art-and-history/venices-his...

Continuous line drawing, then watercolour and some final line work

clamshell light

 

sb-600 at 1/4 power above subject; sb-600 at 1/8th power below subject; continuous lighting blowing out background

Continuous Casting Plant, Lackenby, Teeside Steel Works.

 

Steel frozen into place after cooling down from a molten state on one of the metal tippers in the Concast Plant, found within the Basic Oxygen Steel (BOS) Plant at Lackenby.

St Albans is in southern Hertfordshire, England, around 22 miles (35 km) north of London, beside the site of a Catuvellauni settlement and the Roman town of Verulamium and on the River Ver. St Albans is Hertfordshire's oldest town, a modern city shaped by over 2000 years of continuous human occupation.

 

Pre-Roman and Roman times

The town is first recorded as Verulamium, a Celtic British Iron Agesettlement whose name means 'the settlement above the marsh'. After the Roman conquest of Britain in AD 43, it developed as Verulamium and became one of the largest towns in Roman Britain and the capital city . Built mainly of wood, it was destroyed during the revolt of Boudica in AD 60-61, but was rebuilt and grew to feature many impressive town houses and public buildings. It was encircled by gated walls in AD 275.

 

The Romans leave

The Roman City of Verulamium slowly declined and fell into decay after the departure of the Roman Army in AD 410. However, its ruined buildings provided building materials to build the new monastic and market settlement of St Albans which was growing on the hill above, close to the site of Saint Alban's execution. In the Norman Abbey tower, you can still see the Roman bricks removed from Verulamium.

 

Much of the post-Roman development of St Albans was in memorial to Saint Alban, the earliest known British Christian martyr, executed in AD 250 (the exact date is unknown, with scholars suggesting dates of 209, 254 and 304). The town itself was known for some time by the Saxon name 'Verlamchester'. A shrine was built on the site of his death following Emperor Constantine's adoption of Christianity as the religion of the Roman Empire. In the 5th century a Benedictine monastic church was constructed.

 

The Abbey is founded

Another abbey was founded by King Offa of Mercia in 793. The settlement grew up around the precincts of another It was 350 feet (110 m) long with a tower and seven apses.

 

A nunnery, Sopwell Priory, was founded nearby in 1140 by Abbot Geoffrey de Gorham.

The head of the abbey was confirmed as the premier abbot in England in 1154. The abbey was extended by John of Wallingford (also known as John de Cella) in the 1190s, and again between 1257 and 1320 but financial constraints limited the effectiveness of these later additions.

 

In August 1213 the first draft of Magna Carta was drawn up in St Albans Abbey.

 

The Liberty of St Albans was given palatine status by Edward I. In 1290 the funeral procession of Eleanor of Castile stopped overnight in the town and an Eleanor cross was put up at a cost of £100 in the Market Place. The cross, which stood for many years in front of the 15th century Clock Tower, was demolished in 1701.

 

A market was running outside the abbey from the 10th century; it was confirmed by King John of England in 1202 and by a Royal Charter of Edward VI in 1553.

 

Conflict

 

Abbey Gateway from the 1360s

During the 14th century the Abbey came into increasing conflict with the townsfolk of St Albans, who demanded rights of their own. This led, among other things, to the construction of a large wall and gate surrounding the Abbey (for instance, the Great Gatehouse, the "Abbey Gateway", which is the only surviving monastic building other than the Abbey Church, dates from 1365).

 

Richard of Wallingford, a local landowner, who had presented demands to Richard II on behalf of Wat Tyler in London, brought news of this to St Albans and argued with the abbot over the charter. However, this was short lived. Once the 14-year-old king had regained control of the capital and then the whole country, Grindcobbe was tried in the Moot Hall (on the site of the present-day W H Smith stationery shop, where a plaque commemorates the event) and adjudged a 'traitor' alongside John Ball('the mad priest of Kent', one of the rebel leaders who had escaped from Smithfield, London to Coventry) and more than a dozen others. He was hanged, drawn and quartered in July 1381.

Another notable building dating from around this time, the Clockhouse belfy or Clock Tower, built between 1403 and 1412, seems to have been intended both as a visible and audible statement of the town's continuing civic ambitions against the power of the Abbot.

 

During the Wars of the Roses two battles were fought in and around St Albans. The First Battle of St Albans on 22 May 1455 was a Lancastriandefeat that opened the war. The Lancastrian army occupied the town but the Yorkist forces broke in and a battle took place in the streets of the town. On 17 February 1461 the Second Battle of St Albans on Bernards Heath north of the town centre resulted in a Lancastrian victory.

 

Following the Reformation, the Abbey was dissolved in 1539 and the Abbey Church sold to the town in 1553 for £400: it became a Protestant parish church for the borough and the Lady Chapel was used as a school. The Great Gatehouse was used as a prison until the 19th century, when it was taken over by St Albans School. In May 1553, in response to a public petition, the first royal charter for the town was issued by King Edward VI, granting it the status of borough. The charter defined the powers of the mayor and councillors, then known as burgesses, as well as specifying the Wednesday and Saturday market days which continue to this day.

In 1555, during the reign of Queen Mary I, a Protestant Yorkshire baker, George Tankerfield, was brought from London and burnt to death on Romeland because of his refusal to accept the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation.

During the English Civil War (1642–45) the town sided with parliament but was largely unaffected by the conflict.

 

An early transport hub

Three main roads date from the medieval period - Holywell Hill, St Peter's Street, and Fishpool Street. These remained the only major streets until around 1800 when London Road was constructed, to be followed by Hatfield Road in 1824 and Verulam Road in 1826.

 

Verulam Road was created specifically to aid the movement of stage coaches, since St Albans was the first major stop on the coaching route north from London. The large number of coaching inns is, in turn, one reason why the City has so many pubs today (another being that it was, and remains, a major centre for Christian pilgrimage).

The railway arrived in 1868, off-setting the decline in coaching since the 1840s.

 

Growth was always slow and steady, with no sudden burst: in 1801 there were 6,000 people living in St Albans; in 1850 11,000; in 1931 29,000; and in 1950 44,000.

 

The City Charter

In 1877, in response to a public petition, Queen Victoria issued the second royal charter, which granted city status to the borough and Cathedral status to the former Abbey Church. The new diocese was established in the main from parts of the large Diocese of Rochester. Lord Grimthorpe financed a £130,000 renovation and rebuilding of the then dilapidated cathedral, which is most apparent in his generally poorly regarded Neo-Gothic rebuild of the west front (1880–1883). However, without Grimthorpe's money, it seems reasonable to assume that the Abbey Church would now almost certainly be a ruin, like many other former monastic churches, despite the work performed under Sir George Gilbert Scott in the years 1860 to 1877.

 

The city's football club (St Albans City F.C.) was founded in 1880.

 

Ralph Chubb, the poet and printer, lived on College Street in St Albans from 1892 to 1913, and attended St Albans School. His work frequently references the Abbey of St Albans, and he ascribed mystical significance to the geography and history of the town.

 

World War I

In September 1916, following an attack on St Albans, the German Airship SL 11 became the first airship to be brought down over England. But when London Colney was attacked, the nation was so angered it became united in its battle.

 

Modern growth

Between the wars

  

In the inter-war years St Albans, in common with much of the surrounding area, became a centre for emerging high-technology industries, most notably aerospace. Nearby Radlett was the base for Handley Page Aircraft Company, while Hatfield became home to de Havilland. St Albans itself became a centre for the Marconi plc company, specifically, Marconi Instruments. Marconi (later part of the General Electric Company) remained the city's largest employer (with two main plants) until the 1990s. A third plant - working on top secret defence work - also existed. Even Marconi staff only found out about this when it closed down. All of these industries are now gone from the area.

In 1936 St Albans was the last but one stop for the Jarrow Crusade.

 

Post-war growth

The City was expanded significantly after World War II, as government policy promoted the creation of New Towns and the expansion of existing towns. Substantial amounts of local authority housing were built at Cottonmill (to the south), Mile House (to the south-east) and New Greens (to the north). The Marshalswick area to the north-east was also expanded, completing a pre-war programme.

In 1974 St Albans City Council, St Albans Rural District Council and Harpenden Town Council were merged to form St Albans District Council(part of a much wider local government reorganisation).

The 2001 census returns show a population of 129,000 for St Albans City and District, which had risen to 140,664 at the 2011 census.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_St_Albans

we are always eating

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City

 

New York City (NYC), often called the City of New York or simply New York (NY), is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2018 population of 8,398,748 distributed over about 302.6 square miles (784 km2), New York is also the most densely populated major city in the United States. Located at the southern tip of the U.S. state of New York, the city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass. With almost 20 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and approximately 23 million in its combined statistical area, it is one of the world's most populous megacities. New York City has been described as the cultural, financial, and media capital of the world, significantly influencing commerce, entertainment, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, art, fashion, and sports. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy.

 

Situated on one of the world's largest natural harbors, New York City is composed of five boroughs, each of which is a county of the State of New York. The five boroughs—Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island—were consolidated into a single city in 1898. The city and its metropolitan area constitute the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States. As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. New York is home to more than 3.2 million residents born outside the United States, the largest foreign-born population of any city in the world as of 2016. As of 2019, the New York metropolitan area is estimated to produce a gross metropolitan product (GMP) of $2.0 trillion. If greater New York City were a sovereign state, it would have the 12th highest GDP in the world. New York is home to the highest number of billionaires of any city in the world.

 

New York City traces its origins to a trading post founded by colonists from the Dutch Republic in 1624 on Lower Manhattan; the post was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, the Duke of York. New York was the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790, and has been the largest U.S. city since 1790. The Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the U.S. by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the U.S. and its ideals of liberty and peace. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a global node of creativity and entrepreneurship and environmental sustainability, and as a symbol of freedom and cultural diversity. In 2019, New York was voted the greatest city in the world per a survey of over 30,000 people from 48 cities worldwide, citing its cultural diversity.

 

Many districts and landmarks in New York City are well known, including three of the world's ten most visited tourist attractions in 2013. A record 62.8 million tourists visited New York City in 2017. Times Square is the brightly illuminated hub of the Broadway Theater District, one of the world's busiest pedestrian intersections, and a major center of the world's entertainment industry. Many of the city's landmarks, skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattan's real estate market is among the most expensive in the world. New York is home to the largest ethnic Chinese population outside of Asia, with multiple distinct Chinatowns across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service and contributing to the nickname The City that Never Sleeps, the New York City Subway is the largest single-operator rapid transit system worldwide, with 472 rail stations. The city has over 120 colleges and universities, including Columbia University, New York University, Rockefeller University, and the City University of New York system, which is the largest urban public university system in the United States. Manhattan is home to the world's two largest stock exchanges by total market capitalization, namely the New York Stock Exchange, located on Wall Street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, and NASDAQ, headquartered in Midtown Manhattan.

The Siphian frieze exhibits one of the earliest continuous narrative Greek friezes noticed in the Greek sculpture. The East frieze is divided into two scenes: on the left the assembly of the gods, and on the right the battle over a fallen warrior (Sarpedon, or Antilochos son of Nestor.

The east frieze is the earliest known representation of the Greek gods seated in formal assembly on Olympos, just as described in the Iliad. In Homer, the gods assemble primarily to decide upon the fate of mankind, which may explain why they are assembled on the frieze. Zeus, who sits on an elaborate throne while the other gods are provided with stools, separates the two divine pro-Trojan and pro-Greek factions, and faces toward the battle scene on the right.

On the far left is Ares; enough of the painted inscription beside him remains to make his identity certain. In front of him sit two females. The first is usually identified as Aphrodite on the basis of a very fragmentary inscription. Brinkmann, in his restudy of the painted names, believes the inscription is retrograde and restores it as Aos, the Dorian form of Eos. The next goddess is probably Artemis, seated just behind a youthful god, almost certainly Apollo. In front of him, one of the central figures set somewhat apart, is probably Zeus. The inscriptions naming these last three are lost, though under the right foot of Zeus, on the plinth, is an inscription which appears to name Achilles. It must refer to a figure lost in the gap which occurs here. Only the fingertips of the figure to the right of Zeus remain; they touch his knee. It has been suggested that they belong to Thetis, who pleads for the life of her son Achilles. However, neither the gender of this figure nor the number of figures (one or two) which occupied the lacuna in this long block is certain. To the right of the gap are Athena and Hera, both clearly identified, and a third goddess whose name has not survived.

Though the subject of the overall East frieze – goods assembly and combat over a fallen hero - is somewhat obscure, the argument is bolstered by the fragmentary inscription under the corpse, the presence of Nestor and particularly the inclusion of Eos and Achilles in the Council scene, if the restorations of these names are correct. It is likely that the two scenes on the East frieze are related. The presence of Eos within the context of such a select group of gods makes more sense if she is there in her capacity as mother of one of the central figures, in this case Memnon. Her pendant on the right would then be Thetis, mother of Achilles, the third goddess behind Hera. This restoration would place the mothers of the protagonists in positions of equal advantage in watching over their sons, whose fate hangs in the balance literally according to Brinkmann's reconstruction. According to the scene painted on a lekythos exhibited inside the British Museum in London, to the right of Zeus he restores Hermes holding a scale (metal attachment), weighing the souls of Memnon and Achilles.

 

Source: Livingston Vance Watrous, “The Sculptural Program of the Siphnian Treasury at Delphi”

 

Source @ www.perseus.tufts.edu

 

Greek high-relief

High Arcaic Period

530 BC - 525 BC

Siphnian Treasury

Delphi, Archaeological Museum

 

Wasn't sure if this was better for April Fools, or Transformation Tuesday, so I decided to post it for both.

Dignitaries and members of the press observe as U.S. Soldiers assigned to Archer Battery, Field Artillery Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment conduct a continuous fire mission with an M777 155 mm howitzer during the Saber Strike 16 Combined Live Fire Exercise at a training site near Tapa, Estonia, June 20, 2016. Exercise Saber Strike 2016, is a U.S. Army Europe-led cooperative training exercise designed to improve joint interoperability to support multinational contingency operations. (U.S. Army video by Staff Sgt. Ricardo HernandezArocho) www.dvidshub.net

Photo captured via Minolta MD Zoom Rokkor-X 24-50mm F/4 lens and the bracketing method of photography. Point Arena-Stornetta Public Lands: California Coastal National Monument. Coast Range. North Coast. Mendocino County, Northern California. Early August 2017.

 

Exposure Time: 1/250 sec. * ISO Speed: ISO-100 * Aperture: F/8 * Bracketing: +1 / -1 * Color Temperature: 6100 K

And unnamed 'double' variety of Amaryllis from HollandBuld dot com. There are three bulbs in the pot - and we've had blossoms like this continuously now for 16 days! And still more buds are poling up :)

11 February 2019

The 4 - strands continuous casting machine in Warsaw steelworks.

________________________________________________

 

Czterożyłowa maszyna ciągłego odlewania stali na wydziale P-35 Stalownia w Hucie Warszawa. Ciągłe odlewanie stali (COS) to obecnie najpopularniejsza metoda uzyskiwania półproduktów stalowych. Kadź z przygotowaną na stalowni płynną stalą ustawiana jest na wieży obrotowej i stamtąd zasila kadź pośrednią, która jest swoistym zbiornikiem wyrównawczym. Kadź pośrednia zapewnia równomierne (w przypadku wielożyłowych maszyn - tutaj 4 żyły) i ciągłe zalewanie chłodzonego wodą krystalizatora, w którym nadawany jest kształt wlewków. Poprzez rolki gnące zakrzepłe na powierzchni wlewki są wyciągane z krystalizatora, skąd trafiają na strefę chłodzenia wtórnego, gdzie są dodatkowo celem schłodzenia natryskiwane wodą. Następnie wlewki przechodzą poprzez zespół rolek prostujących i trafiają na widoczną tutaj linię cięcia, gdzie uzyskuje się ich odpowiednią długość. Po cięciu wlewki trafiają na chłodnię widoczną w tle i stamtąd wysyłane są dalej do obróbki w walcowni, lub do odbiorców zewnętrznych.

Nikon D700

continuous light Godox 300-Smart SDI

LR

With continuous flurries and light snow over the past couple of days, shooting has been limited. This is a long exposure of the CN freight train crossing the trestle bridge last winter. Taken last January, I envisioned making this shot for sometime and was lucky enough to be in the right place and right time to set up and get one crack at it.

The two basalt statues of 'Day' and 'Night' represent the continuous operation of the Tunnel.

 

The sculptor was Edmund Charles Thompson MBE (9 May 1898, Belfast – 20 August 1961), active in Liverpool between the First and Second World War. The son of sculptor Edmund T. Thompson, he worked in the art deco style and was an admirer of Eric Gill.

 

He worked closely with the architect Herbert James Rowse on many of the latter's buildings, and on civic projects.

A gift for Grandma who loves turquoise.

St Albans is in southern Hertfordshire, England, around 22 miles (35 km) north of London, beside the site of a Catuvellauni settlement and the Roman town of Verulamium and on the River Ver. St Albans is Hertfordshire's oldest town, a modern city shaped by over 2000 years of continuous human occupation.

 

Pre-Roman and Roman times

The town is first recorded as Verulamium, a Celtic British Iron Agesettlement whose name means 'the settlement above the marsh'. After the Roman conquest of Britain in AD 43, it developed as Verulamium and became one of the largest towns in Roman Britain and the capital city . Built mainly of wood, it was destroyed during the revolt of Boudica in AD 60-61, but was rebuilt and grew to feature many impressive town houses and public buildings. It was encircled by gated walls in AD 275.

 

The Romans leave

The Roman City of Verulamium slowly declined and fell into decay after the departure of the Roman Army in AD 410. However, its ruined buildings provided building materials to build the new monastic and market settlement of St Albans which was growing on the hill above, close to the site of Saint Alban's execution. In the Norman Abbey tower, you can still see the Roman bricks removed from Verulamium.

 

Much of the post-Roman development of St Albans was in memorial to Saint Alban, the earliest known British Christian martyr, executed in AD 250 (the exact date is unknown, with scholars suggesting dates of 209, 254 and 304). The town itself was known for some time by the Saxon name 'Verlamchester'. A shrine was built on the site of his death following Emperor Constantine's adoption of Christianity as the religion of the Roman Empire. In the 5th century a Benedictine monastic church was constructed.

 

The Abbey is founded

Another abbey was founded by King Offa of Mercia in 793. The settlement grew up around the precincts of another It was 350 feet (110 m) long with a tower and seven apses.

 

A nunnery, Sopwell Priory, was founded nearby in 1140 by Abbot Geoffrey de Gorham.

The head of the abbey was confirmed as the premier abbot in England in 1154. The abbey was extended by John of Wallingford (also known as John de Cella) in the 1190s, and again between 1257 and 1320 but financial constraints limited the effectiveness of these later additions.

 

In August 1213 the first draft of Magna Carta was drawn up in St Albans Abbey.

 

The Liberty of St Albans was given palatine status by Edward I. In 1290 the funeral procession of Eleanor of Castile stopped overnight in the town and an Eleanor cross was put up at a cost of £100 in the Market Place. The cross, which stood for many years in front of the 15th century Clock Tower, was demolished in 1701.

 

A market was running outside the abbey from the 10th century; it was confirmed by King John of England in 1202 and by a Royal Charter of Edward VI in 1553.

 

Conflict

 

Abbey Gateway from the 1360s

During the 14th century the Abbey came into increasing conflict with the townsfolk of St Albans, who demanded rights of their own. This led, among other things, to the construction of a large wall and gate surrounding the Abbey (for instance, the Great Gatehouse, the "Abbey Gateway", which is the only surviving monastic building other than the Abbey Church, dates from 1365).

 

Richard of Wallingford, a local landowner, who had presented demands to Richard II on behalf of Wat Tyler in London, brought news of this to St Albans and argued with the abbot over the charter. However, this was short lived. Once the 14-year-old king had regained control of the capital and then the whole country, Grindcobbe was tried in the Moot Hall (on the site of the present-day W H Smith stationery shop, where a plaque commemorates the event) and adjudged a 'traitor' alongside John Ball('the mad priest of Kent', one of the rebel leaders who had escaped from Smithfield, London to Coventry) and more than a dozen others. He was hanged, drawn and quartered in July 1381.

Another notable building dating from around this time, the Clockhouse belfy or Clock Tower, built between 1403 and 1412, seems to have been intended both as a visible and audible statement of the town's continuing civic ambitions against the power of the Abbot.

 

During the Wars of the Roses two battles were fought in and around St Albans. The First Battle of St Albans on 22 May 1455 was a Lancastriandefeat that opened the war. The Lancastrian army occupied the town but the Yorkist forces broke in and a battle took place in the streets of the town. On 17 February 1461 the Second Battle of St Albans on Bernards Heath north of the town centre resulted in a Lancastrian victory.

 

Following the Reformation, the Abbey was dissolved in 1539 and the Abbey Church sold to the town in 1553 for £400: it became a Protestant parish church for the borough and the Lady Chapel was used as a school. The Great Gatehouse was used as a prison until the 19th century, when it was taken over by St Albans School. In May 1553, in response to a public petition, the first royal charter for the town was issued by King Edward VI, granting it the status of borough. The charter defined the powers of the mayor and councillors, then known as burgesses, as well as specifying the Wednesday and Saturday market days which continue to this day.

In 1555, during the reign of Queen Mary I, a Protestant Yorkshire baker, George Tankerfield, was brought from London and burnt to death on Romeland because of his refusal to accept the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation.

During the English Civil War (1642–45) the town sided with parliament but was largely unaffected by the conflict.

 

An early transport hub

Three main roads date from the medieval period - Holywell Hill, St Peter's Street, and Fishpool Street. These remained the only major streets until around 1800 when London Road was constructed, to be followed by Hatfield Road in 1824 and Verulam Road in 1826.

 

Verulam Road was created specifically to aid the movement of stage coaches, since St Albans was the first major stop on the coaching route north from London. The large number of coaching inns is, in turn, one reason why the City has so many pubs today (another being that it was, and remains, a major centre for Christian pilgrimage).

The railway arrived in 1868, off-setting the decline in coaching since the 1840s.

 

Growth was always slow and steady, with no sudden burst: in 1801 there were 6,000 people living in St Albans; in 1850 11,000; in 1931 29,000; and in 1950 44,000.

 

The City Charter

In 1877, in response to a public petition, Queen Victoria issued the second royal charter, which granted city status to the borough and Cathedral status to the former Abbey Church. The new diocese was established in the main from parts of the large Diocese of Rochester. Lord Grimthorpe financed a £130,000 renovation and rebuilding of the then dilapidated cathedral, which is most apparent in his generally poorly regarded Neo-Gothic rebuild of the west front (1880–1883). However, without Grimthorpe's money, it seems reasonable to assume that the Abbey Church would now almost certainly be a ruin, like many other former monastic churches, despite the work performed under Sir George Gilbert Scott in the years 1860 to 1877.

 

The city's football club (St Albans City F.C.) was founded in 1880.

 

Ralph Chubb, the poet and printer, lived on College Street in St Albans from 1892 to 1913, and attended St Albans School. His work frequently references the Abbey of St Albans, and he ascribed mystical significance to the geography and history of the town.

 

World War I

In September 1916, following an attack on St Albans, the German Airship SL 11 became the first airship to be brought down over England. But when London Colney was attacked, the nation was so angered it became united in its battle.

 

Modern growth

Between the wars

  

In the inter-war years St Albans, in common with much of the surrounding area, became a centre for emerging high-technology industries, most notably aerospace. Nearby Radlett was the base for Handley Page Aircraft Company, while Hatfield became home to de Havilland. St Albans itself became a centre for the Marconi plc company, specifically, Marconi Instruments. Marconi (later part of the General Electric Company) remained the city's largest employer (with two main plants) until the 1990s. A third plant - working on top secret defence work - also existed. Even Marconi staff only found out about this when it closed down. All of these industries are now gone from the area.

In 1936 St Albans was the last but one stop for the Jarrow Crusade.

 

Post-war growth

The City was expanded significantly after World War II, as government policy promoted the creation of New Towns and the expansion of existing towns. Substantial amounts of local authority housing were built at Cottonmill (to the south), Mile House (to the south-east) and New Greens (to the north). The Marshalswick area to the north-east was also expanded, completing a pre-war programme.

In 1974 St Albans City Council, St Albans Rural District Council and Harpenden Town Council were merged to form St Albans District Council(part of a much wider local government reorganisation).

The 2001 census returns show a population of 129,000 for St Albans City and District, which had risen to 140,664 at the 2011 census.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_St_Albans