Today is World Encephalitis Day

That's what Encephalitis is, for those who don't already know.

Long before as much information was known on this condition, we as parents experienced it first hand, when our eldest became ill

Unbeknown to us the night before becoming unwell she had experienced uncontrollable shaking, which we now know was rigors. It happens when you have a steep rise in your temperature.

At the time she thought it was just her cold, as she had a sore throat too

The events that followed were an utter parents nightmare.

We saw five doctors before she finally got diagnosed, by which time nothing could be done and we were told it was just a waiting game, to see if she recovered

Months and months went by, most days she slept 24/7

Then after about six months, we saw signs of improvement

The neurologist informed us that something as simple as paracetamol would have helped with the temperature, had we known

We got her back thank god but it robbed her of many of the goals she wanted to achieve

Today she still suffers with extreme tiredness and very similar symptoms to long covid

I've written this, to make others aware, as prior to this happening, I had never heard of Encephalitis. A lot more is known now

I remember the first doctor we spoke to telling us, he was out of his depth knowing what was wrong

With love to my beautiful daughter, we're glad we got you back XX

Culex pipiens is the common house mosquito—the one that tries to bite you at night and wakes you up with its dreadful buzzing. The typical behavioural pattern of this nocturnal pest is to come into our houses and attack us between sunset and sunrise. A single Culex pipiens, eager to get enough blood to lay its eggs, can ruin your night with multiple bites: the female of the species needs this blood meal to complete her biological cycle. Like those of other mosquito species, the larvae of Culex pipiens are aquatic and can develop anywhere water collects, in any kind of container, gutter or structure. Consequently, mosquitos are found everywhere. Moreover, they can inhabit either clean or polluted waters, even cesspools and poorly maintained sewers.

Curiously, in today’s media-saturated world, we are easily alarmed by the transmission of exotic viruses like Zika but have failed to notice that this mosquito and another of the same genus—Culex perexiguus—have been spreading West Nile virus in Andalusia and nearby regions since at least 2010. In Spain, West Nile virus has been affecting horses since at least 2010 and cases in humans were reported in 2010 and in 2016. Continuous outbreaks throughout Europe—in countries such as Greece, Romania and Italy—have claimed dozens of lives.

In various parts of the world, Culex species have been responsible for spreading encephalitis, including the Saint Louis and Japanese variants (the latter causes more than 50,000 cases and 10,000 deaths each year). These mosquitos are also responsible for the spread of West Nile virus, which has affected more than 40,000 people in the United States since it first reached the country in 1999. The common house mosquito also spreads filarial worms—including Dirofilaria immitis, which affects dogs—and several Plasmodium species that cause avian malaria.

Culex pipiens is a very adaptive species. Some of its ecological forms prefer to feed on birds at northern latitudes but are more likely to bite humans at latitudes farther south. The mosquito’s appetite can also vary depending on where the larvae develop. For example, mosquitos that mature in an underground environment where organic matter is present will be more likely to feed on humans than on birds. Because of this plasticity, the common house mosquito can act as a bridge vector, spreading viruses between different animal species—including humans.

Taken at the Queen Victoria Gardens on a rainy day.

Best viewed enlarged for more details.

Some facts on flies...

Flies form one of the five most diverse insect orders, including about 150,000 described species in 150 families.

It's estimated that there are 30,000 species of fly in Australia, of which only 6400 have been described.

Flies can be distinguished from other insects because they have only one pair of functional wings. Almost all flies have mouthparts that are adapted for lapping or piercing and sucking.

A large component of the world's fly fauna is unique to Australia. Flies are ubiquitous and often abundant in Australian terrestrial ecosystems.

They perform important ecological functions such as nutrient recycling, predation and pollination, and their larvae are often parasitoids of other insects.

Many species of fly are regarded as a nuisance, including the bush fly (Musca vetustissima), mosquitoes, sandflies and blackflies.

Flies are responsible for the transmission of a wide variety of disease-causing micro-organisms in humans and animals.

Most of these diseases are absent from Australia, with exceptions such as dengue fever and some types of encephalitis.

Many thanks for your visit, comments, invites and faves...it is always appreciated..

Happy Sunday

Max has been through so much with his hyperthyroidism and his immune mediated encephalitis but still remains our sweet boy ❤️

The Highland is a Scottish breed of rustic beef cattle. It originated in the Scottish Highlands and the Western Islands of Scotland and has long horns and a long shaggy coat. It is a hardy breed, able to withstand the harsh climatic conditions the region is known for.

The first herd-book dates from 1885; two types – the smaller Island , usually black, and the larger Mainland, usually dun, were registered as a single breed. Highland cattle are reared primarily for beef, and have been exported to several other countries.

Highland cattle were first imported into Canada in the 1880s. The Hon. Donald A. Smith, Lord Strathcona of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Robert Campbell of Strathclair, Manitoba, imported one bull each. There were also Highland cattle in Nova Scotia in the 1880s. However, their numbers were small until the 1920s when large-scale breeding and importing began. In the 1950s cattle were both imported and exported to North America, increasing the blood lines.

The Canadian Highland Cattle Society was officially accredited in 1964 and currently registers all purebred cattle in Canada. Towards the end of the 1990s, there was a large semen and embryo trade between the UK and Canada. However that has stopped, largely due to concerns over Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis (mad cow disease) outbreaks in the United Kingdom.

Today, Highland cattle are mainly found in eastern Canada. In 2001 the population for Canada and the United States of America combined was estimated at 10,000.

Enniskillen Castle is lit up in different colours every now and then to mark different days and events in time tonight it is lit up to mark - Encephalitis day

World Encephalitis Day is observed every year on the 22 nd of February to raise awareness among the general public about this neurological condition that causes inflammation to the brain. This day helps to provide information, advice, support and offers hope to the millions of families impacted by this condition.

This is a flower for my husband who has been very poorly in hospital with Viral Encephalitis. Its going to be a long journey back to good health some days are good and some not so good, but as long as he keeps going in the right direction that's all that matters ❤️ Happy New Year to all my Flickr friends, hopefully I will find time to spend with you soon.

He spent 4 1/2 days at the vet hospital, 3 days were spent in the ICU. He has been diagnosed with immune mediated encephalitis and has had a 12 hour chemotherapy IV drip to reduce the inflammation in his brain. He has to take steroids and anti-epileptic meds daily for a few months and will be seeing the neurologist again in 4 weeks to check his progress. ❤️

I caught this tick before she latched on to my dog.

An adult female sheep/deer tick ( Ixodes ricinus ).

Ixodes ricinus

Also known as the Sheep tick/ Castor bean tick/ Forest tick/ Deer tick

Hosts

Sheep, cattle, dog, human

Distribution

All temperate areas of Europe

Ixodes ricinus is found mainly in area of rough grazing, moorland, woodland and areas where wild deer and rabbit are in abundance.

Pathogenesis

Cattle: Babesia divergens, Babesia bovis, Anaplasma marginale

Sheep: Louping-ill virus, Rickettsia, pyaemia in lambs

Human: Lyme borreliosis

Other pathogens and diseases associated with I. ricinus include:

Tick paralysis

Tick borne encephalitis (TBE)

Russian spring-summer encephalitis

Coxiella burnetii

Bukhovinian haemorrhagic fever

( www.bristoluniversitytickid.uk/page/Ixodes+ricinus/26/#.X... )

This image reminds me of a photography outing I had back in 2021. I was on short term disability as I was dealing with post encephalitis symptoms. One of these symptoms was fear. Whenever I'd go out with my camera I'd be scared. I found myself staying at home more. This particular outing I had planned as my wife and daughter were on their annual camping outing. I headed out before the sun came out and reach this spot as the sun's rays peeked through the clouds. I remember vividly the fear I had when I was out there. As I look at this image I Thank God at how far I've come on this very long journey.

We lost this beautiful boy in August 2022 after a long sad decline caused by immune mediated encephalitis. Always and forever a very loved and missed boy ❤️ We like to remember him like this, handsome, confident and thoughtful. He was a wonderful companion and was always by my side. Rest easy sweet boy ❤️❤️❤️🌈

Max has had another round of chemotherapy treatment for his encephalitis. He came home from the vet hospital yesterday evening and has been resting and recovering on his outside cat tree

Culex tarsalis, gravid female ready to lay eggs.

Portrait of a Welcome Swallow

www.instagram.com/oz_bird_photography

🐦Common name: Welcome Swallow

Scientific name: Hirundo neoxena

🌍 Location: Southeast Queensland, Australia 🇦🇺

.Date: 4/05/2021

ℹ️Info

Welcome Swallows get their name from being a welcome sign of warm sunny days. They winter in the north, and head south when the weather gets warmer.

On cold mornings, like the one when this image was taken, they puff themselves up, giving themselves this cute plump apperance. They feed on a variety of insects which they catch mid-flight with impressive acrobatic skills. They have short bristles at the sides of their mouths which help guide their food and stops it hitting their eyes during flight.

The droppings of the Welcome Swallow are filled with unwelcome bacteria and parasites that can cause serious diseases such as histoplasmosis, encephalitis, salmonella, meningitis and toxoplasmosis. The nests are also breeding grounds for dangerous bacteria and parasites but lucky for the hatchlings, they have maternal antibodies that make them immune to such diseases.

📷Camera: Nikon D500

🔎Lens: Nikkor 200-500mm f/5.6 E ED VR

Settings: 500mm f/10 1/250 sec ISO 640

💪Manual mode (as always)

In 2019 everything in my life changed. I was diagnosed with viral meningitis and encephalitis. This has been a 6 year long journey with no end in sight. There are many times when I need to get away from all the noise and business to calm my brain. On this outing I decided to just sit in the grass lean back against a tree and just listen to the birds singing, and the leaves rustling in the breeze. Life is good and there is so much to be grateful for.

Dragonflies (Odonata: Anisoptera),

among the largest and most spectacular

of the insects, play an important ecological role as predators. Although dragonflies generally tend to prey indiscriminately on smaller insects, they specifically aid in reducing populations levels of disease transmitting insects ―mosquitoes, (encephalitis, malaria, yellow fever, Photograph by Dr. Everett Cashatt dengue, dog heartworm) horse flies and deer flies (anthrax, tularemia). Dragonflies also help control numbers of other biting flies, including black flies, sand flies, punkies, midges, and stable flies.

Catatonia

is a syndrome of psychological and motorological disturbances. In the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-IV) it is not recognized as a separate disorder, but is associated with psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia (catatonic type), bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and other mental disorders, as well as drug abuse or overdose (or both). It may also be seen in many medical disorders including infections (such as encephalitis), autoimmune disorders, focal neurologic lesions (including strokes), metabolic disturbances and abrupt or overly rapid benzodiazepine withdrawal.

Patients with catatonia may experience an extreme loss of motor skills or even constant hyperactive motor activity. Catatonic patients will sometimes hold rigid poses for hours and will ignore any external stimuli. Patients with catatonic excitement can die of exhaustion if not treated. Patients may also show stereotyped, repetitive movements. They may show specific types of movement such as waxy flexibility, in which they maintain positions after being placed in them by someone else, or gegenhalten (lit. "counterhold"), in which they resist movement in proportion to the force applied by the examiner. They may repeat meaningless phrases or speak only to repeat what the examiner says.

Bad day. Bad bad day.

My friends went to Chicago today to go see the Lion King and eat at the Cheesecake Factory. Where am I at? Sitting on my butt in my room. Why? Because I'm too effing poor to do crap.

Then Garry calls this morning on his way home from work and tells me that he had been asked to go into work tonight. We were supposed to take tonight and tomorrow night and celebrate our anniversary. Is that going to happen now? No. Did he even bother to call me any time in the last seven hours? No.

Haven't eaten anything yet today because the spot doesn't open until 6. Thankfully that's only a half hour away...then I can finally eat something. Will probably be crap because this school could care less about those of us stuck on campus during the weekend...but it's something.

However, I do like this picture. I have high expectations for how it'll do...which sucks cause, with the way my day is going, this thing will be totally ignored by everyone. *sigh* but I still like it...so that's good at least.

My two boys We lost our beloved Max in August 2022 after a long, sad battle with encephalitis. We were absolutely heartbroken but adopting Alfie in September 2022 was a great comfort. Alf is a sweet, cuddly, affectionate boy who is loved by everyone who knows him. He is about 9 years old, FIV+ and has arthritis. He was rescued from a garden, covered in ticks in 2022 and waited nearly 6 months to be adopted. He is wonderful ❤️ We adopted Sammy a little over 2 months ago and he has fitted wonderfully into the family. Sam is about 6, he was also a stray and is FIV+. He's a sweet boy who is gaining in confidence all the time and loves to cuddle on his own terms! The boys squabble a bit but they clearly like each other's company ❤️

The Culex Mosquito is one of the most common mosquito species in the UK and primarily feed on birds not humans. The Culex Mosquito generally have a life span of 10 – 14 days and are more likely to bite at dawn & dusk. The male culex mosquito only feed on nectar while the female requires a blood meal before she can lay her eggs. Females will find standing water to lay eggs, in urban environments they often lay eggs on tin cans, garden pots and rain battels. The Females can lay around 300 eggs in one go and these eggs take around 2 days to incubate before hatching.

Some interesting trivia about the culex mosquito species is that while it is not a primary disease spreader it has been known to spread the West Nile Virus, Filariasis & Encephalitis.

This photo is a single shot taken with the Laowa 100mm 2:1 macro on a Sony A7R II (Full Frame sensor). Photo setting were 1/250, f5.6, ISO160 with a flash & custom diffuser at around 1:1 magnification. The image was processed in lightroom, photoshop and Topaz Denoise.

© All rights reserved by me. Please do not use my images on any media without my explicit permission. If you would like to use any of my photos please contact me.

Knut (5 December 2006 – 19 March 2011) was an orphaned polar bear born in captivity at the Berlin Zoological Garden. Rejected by his mother at birth, he was raised by zookeepers. He was the first polar bear cub to survive past infancy at the Berlin Zoo in more than 30 years. At one time the subject of international controversy, he became a tourist attraction and commercial success. After the German tabloid newspaper Bild ran a quote from an animal rights activist that decried keeping the cub in captivity, fans worldwide rallied in support of his being hand-raised by humans. Children protested outside the zoo, and e-mails and letters expressing sympathy for the cub's life were sent from around the world.

Knut became the center of a mass media phenomenon dubbed "Knutmania" that spanned the globe and spawned toys, media specials, DVDs, and books. Because of this, the cub was largely responsible for a significant increase in revenue, estimated at about €5 million, at the Berlin Zoo in 2007. Attendance figures for the year increased by an estimated 30 percent, making it the most profitable year in its 163-year history.

On 19 March 2011, Knut unexpectedly died at the age of four. His death was caused by drowning after he collapsed into his enclosure's pool while suffering from anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis.

Summer of 2021 was so tough in post encephalitis and getting out with the camera was so important.

The yellow-necked mouse (Apodemus flavicollis), also called yellow-necked field mouse, yellow-necked wood mouse, and South China field mouse,is closely related to the wood mouse, with which it was long confused. It was only recognised as a separate species in 1894. It differs in its band of yellow fur around the neck and in having slightly larger ears and usually being slightly larger overall. Around 100 mm in length, it can climb trees and sometimes overwinters in houses. It is found mostly in mountainous areas of southern Europe, but extends north into parts of Scandinavia and Britain. It facilitates the spread of tick-borne encephalitis to humans and is a reservoir species for the Dobrava virus, a hantavirus that is responsible for causing haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow-necked_mouse

Diptera

True flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek di = two, and ptera = wings. Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings being reduced to club-like balancing organs known as halteres.

Diptera is a large order containing an estimated 1,000,000 species including horse-flies,[a] crane flies, hoverflies and others, although only about 125,000 species have been described.

Flies have a mobile head, with a pair of large compound eyes, and mouthparts designed for piercing and sucking (mosquitoes, black flies and robber flies), or for lapping and sucking in the other groups.

Their wing arrangement gives them great manoeuvrability in flight, and claws and pads on their feet enable them to cling to smooth surfaces.

Flies undergo complete metamorphosis; the eggs are laid on the larval food source and the larvae, which lack true limbs, develop in a protected environment, often inside their source of their food. The pupa is a tough capsule from which the adult emerges when ready to do so; flies mostly have short lives as adults.

Diptera is one of the major insect orders and is of considerable ecological and human importance. Flies are important pollinators, second only to the bees and their Hymenopteran relatives.

Flies may have been among the evolutionarily earliest pollinators responsible for early plant pollination. Fruit flies are used as model organisms in research, but less benignly, mosquitoes are vectors for malaria, dengue, West Nile fever, yellow fever, encephalitis, and other infectious diseases, and houseflies spread food-borne illnesses.

Flies can be annoyances especially in some parts of the world where they can occur in large numbers, buzzing and settling on the skin or eyes to bite or seek fluids. Larger flies such as tsetse flies and screwworms cause significant economic harm to cattle.

Blowfly larvae, known as gentles, and other dipteran larvae, known more generally as maggots, are used as fishing bait and as food for carnivorous animals. They are also used in medicine in debridement to clean wounds.

href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Pond_Heron" rel="noreferrer nofollow">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Pond_Heron

The Indian pond heron or paddybird (Ardeola grayii) is a small heron. It is of Old World origins, breeding in southern Iran and east to Pakistan, India, Burma, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. They are widespread and common but can be easily missed when they stalk prey at the edge of small water-bodies or even when they roost close to human habitations. They are however distinctive when they take off with bright white wings flashing in contrast to the cryptic streaked olive and brown colours of the body. Their camouflage is so excellent that they will close approach before taking to flight, a behaviour which has resulted in folk names and beliefs that the birds are short-sighted or blind.

Description

They appear stocky with a short neck, short thick bill and buff-brown back. In summer, adults have long neck feathers. Its appearance is transformed from their dull colours when they take to flight, when the white of the wings makes them very prominent. It is very similar to the squacco heron, Ardeola ralloides, but is darker-backed. To the east of its range, it is replaced by the Chinese pond heron, Ardeola bacchus.

During the breeding season, there are records of individuals with red legs. The numbers do not suggest that this is a normal change for adults during the breeding season and some have suggested the possibility of it being genetic variants.[4][5][6][7]

Erythristic plumage has been noted.[8] The race phillipsi has been suggested for the populations found in the Maldives, however this is not always recognized.[9] It forms a superspecies with the closely related Chinese pond heron, javan pond heron and the Madagascar pond heron.

They are very silent but may give a harsh croak when flushed or near their nests.[9]

This bird was first described by Colonel W. H. Sykes in 1832 and given its scientific name in honour of John Edward Gray. Karyology studies indicate that Pond Herons have 68 chromosomes (2N).

Behaviour and ecology

They are very common in India, and are usually solitary foragers but numbers of them may sometimes feed in close proximity during the dry seasons[11] when small wetlands have a high concentration of prey. They are semi-colonial breeders. They may also forage at garbage heaps. During dry seasons, they sometimes take to foraging on well watered lawns or even dry grassland. When foraging, they allow close approach and flush only at close range. They sometimes form communal roosts, often in avenue trees over busy urban areas.[12]

Food and feeding

The Indian pond heron's feeding habitat is marshy wetlands. They usually feed at the edge of ponds but make extensive use of floating vegetation such as Water hyacinth to access deeper water. They may also on occasion swim on water or fish from the air and land in deeper waters.[13][14][15][16] They have also been observed to fly and capture fishes leaping out of water.[17] [18] Sometimes, they fly low over water to drive frogs and fishes towards the shore before settling along the shoreline.[19]

The primary food of these birds includes crustaceans, aquatic insects, fishes, tadpoles and sometimes leeches (Herpobdelloides sp.).[20] Outside wetlands, these herons feed on insects (including crickets, dragonflies[21] and bees[22]), fish (Barilius noted as important in a study in Chandigarh) and amphibians.[23]

Breeding

The breeding season is prior to the Monsoons. They nest in small colonies, often with other wading birds, usually on platforms of sticks in trees or shrubs. Most nests are built at a height of about 9 to 10 m and in large leafy trees. The nest material is collected by the male while the female builds the nest. 3-5 eggs are laid.[24] The eggs hatch asynchronously, taking 18 to 24 days to hatch. Both parents feed the young.[25] Fish are the main diet fed to young.[11] Nest sites that are not disturbed may be reused year after year.[26]

Movements

Nocturnal movements of pond herons have been noted along the coast near Chennai.[27]

Mortality factors

They have few predators and injured birds may be taken by birds of prey.[28]

An arbovirus "Balagodu", trematodes[29] and several other parasites have been isolated from the species.[30][31][32][33][34] Antibodies to Japanese Encephalitis/West Nile virus has been detected in pond herons and cattle egrets from southern India.[35] Traces of heavy metals acquired from feeding in polluted waters may be particularly concentrated in the tail feathers.[36]

In culture

The habit of standing still and flushing only at the last moment has led to widespread folk beliefs that they are semi-blind and their name in many languages includes such suggestions. In Sri Lanka the bird is called Kana Koka which translates as 'Half-blind Heron' in the Sinhala.[2] The phrase "bagla bhagat" has been used to describe a "wolf in sheep's clothing" or a heron appearing like a meditating saint.

Aluminium and steel wire. By Blair Garland and Russell Solomon. artists statement: Mosquitos have survived since the Triassic Period and are the most deadly creatures on the planet. Since the recent discovery of Japanese Encephalitis in the Eastern States of Australia, they are due greater caution and awareness if not respect. Sculptors Queensland festival

True flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek di = two, and ptera = wings. Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings being reduced to club-like balancing organs known as halteres.

Diptera is a large order containing an estimated 1,000,000 species including horse-flies,[a] crane flies, hoverflies and others, although only about 125,000 species have been described.

Flies have a mobile head, with a pair of large compound eyes, and mouthparts designed for piercing and sucking (mosquitoes, black flies and robber flies), or for lapping and sucking in the other groups.

Their wing arrangement gives them great manoeuvrability in flight, and claws and pads on their feet enable them to cling to smooth surfaces.

Flies undergo complete metamorphosis; the eggs are laid on the larval food source and the larvae, which lack true limbs, develop in a protected environment, often inside their source of their food. The pupa is a tough capsule from which the adult emerges when ready to do so; flies mostly have short lives as adults.

Diptera is one of the major insect orders and is of considerable ecological and human importance. Flies are important pollinators, second only to the bees and their Hymenopteran relatives.

Flies may have been among the evolutionarily earliest pollinators responsible for early plant pollination. Fruit flies are used as model organisms in research, but less benignly, mosquitoes are vectors for malaria, dengue, West Nile fever, yellow fever, encephalitis, and other infectious diseases, and houseflies spread food-borne illnesses.

Flies can be annoyances especially in some parts of the world where they can occur in large numbers, buzzing and settling on the skin or eyes to bite or seek fluids. Larger flies such as tsetse flies and screwworms cause significant economic harm to cattle.

Blowfly larvae, known as gentles, and other dipteran larvae, known more generally as maggots, are used as fishing bait and as food for carnivorous animals. They are also used in medicine in debridement to clean wounds.

True flies are insects of the order Diptera (Greek: di = two, and pteron = wing), possessing a single pair of wings on the mesothorax and a pair of halteres, derived from the hind wings, on the metathorax.

The presence of a single pair of wings distinguishes true flies from other insects with "fly" in their name, such as mayflies, dragonflies, damselflies, stoneflies, whiteflies, fireflies, alderflies, dobsonflies, snakeflies, sawflies, caddisflies, butterflies or scorpionflies. Some true flies have become secondarily wingless, especially in the superfamily Hippoboscoidea, or among those that are inquilines in social insect colonies.

Diptera is a large order, containing an estimated 240,000 species of mosquitos, gnats, midges and others, although under half of these (about 120,000 species) have been described. It is one of the major insect orders both in terms of ecological and human (medical and economic) importance. The Diptera, in particular the mosquitoes (Culicidae), are of great importance as disease transmitters, acting as vectors for malaria, dengue, West Nile virus, yellow fever, encephalitis and other infectious diseases.

Coquillettidia xanthogaster

Tribe: Mansoniini

Subfamily: Culicinae

Family: Culicidae

Order: Diptera

The genus of Coquillettidia was erected in 1904 by Harrison Gray Dyar. The genus is not extensively documented but females of some species are believed to feed primarily on birds but also feeds on macropods and have been known to feed on cattle. They will attack humans in shady places during the daytime - as this photograph illustrates. The image was taken in a moist, shady, tropical forested area.

Unlike most mosquito larvae (e.g., Culex or Aedes), which must frequently come to the water's surface to breathe air, Coquillettidia larvae are "underwater breathers." They have a specialised breathing siphon (hardened and modified with a sharp, saw-like tip) that allows them to pierce the stems and roots of aquatic plants like cattails, reeds, and sedges. These aquatic plants have spongy, air-filled tissue called aerenchyma that transports oxygen from the leaves down to the roots. The larva taps directly into this air supply. The larva can then breathe the oxygen from the plant's aerenchyma without ever having to swim to the surface. This makes them very difficult to detect and control. The pupae also attach to the underwater parts of plants.

Internationally, some members of the genus are known vectors of equine encephalitis (USA), lymphatic filariasis (Africa and India) and Rift Valley fever (Africa). In Australia, this particular species is one of some 30 species known or suspected of being able to vector our most common arbovirus infection, Ross River fever. Fortunately it is one of the lesser secondary vectors and other species such as Culex annulirostris are the primary vectors. The Northern Territory health authorities do not list this species as one of concern for arbovirus transmission.

Not my best-ever photo and I only had the phone camera to hand - I wasn't able to resist the instinct to swat it for very long!

I hope this did not have Zika !

Zika virus /(ZIKV) is a member of the virus family Flaviviridae and the genus Flavivirus, transmitted by daytime-active Aedes mosquitoes, such as A. aegypti and A. albopictus.

The infection, known as Zika fever, often causes no or only mild symptoms. Since the 1950s it has been known to occur within a narrow equatorial belt from Africa to Asia. In 2014, the virus spread eastward across the Pacific Ocean to French Polynesia, then to Easter Island and in 2015 to Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America, where the Zika outbreak has reached pandemic levels.[citation needed]

Zika virus is related to dengue, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis, and West Nile viruses. The illness it causes is similar to a mild form of dengue fever, is treated by rest, and cannot yet be prevented by drugs or vaccines. There is a possible link between Zika fever and microcephaly in newborn babies by mother-to-child transmission, as well as a stronger one with neurologic conditions in infected adults, including cases of Guillain–Barré syndrome.

In January 2016, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued travel guidance on affected countries, including the use of enhanced precautions, and guidelines for pregnant women including considering postponing travel.[ Other governments or health agencies soon issued similar travel warnings, while Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, and Jamaica advised women to postpone getting pregnant until more is known about the risks.

More Crete here : www.flickr.com/photos/23502939@N02/albums/72157623607398252

Please do not fave my photos without commenting ( what do people do with thousands of faves, look at them every morning?)

You are the music, while the music lasts.

~ T.S. Eliot

Dr. Oliver Sacks – the New York Times’ “Poet Laureate of Medicine” – has written many books about strange conditions of the human mind/brain in his long and illustrious dual careers as a neurologist and psychiatrist on one hand and a soul-stirring non-fiction writer on the other. While all his books are worth any intelligent reader’s time, one book has always stood out for me: Awakenings. In the preface, Dr. Sacks described writing the book as a struggle of escape from habitual modes of thoughts and expression. Indeed, this book espoused the unfamiliar perpetual darkness of some ill-fated human minds; but it did so only to coax latent seedlings of light out of the tenebrous in a way that enlightens the reader at many levels.

For those of you who haven’t read Awakenings (or, seen its brilliant screen adaptation), here Dr. Sacks profiles lives of patients in a ‘chronic hospital’ (that most medical professionals find ‘uneventful’) and explores deeper meanings of being a human being, especially under the ‘strangest and darkest of circumstances’. His patients – survivors of the great Encephalitis Lethargica epidemic that came and went mysteriously after the first world war and affected about five million people worldwide – had substantial lethargy, somnolence, and were in a sleep like state for decades. They showed no behavior, perhaps they registered none either. As Dr. Sacks puts it, “they would sit motionless and speechless all day… registered what went on about them with active attention, and with profound indifference. They were as insubstantial as ghosts, and as passive as zombies…”. If thoughts crossed these brains, if any at all, it's unlikely they were the usual ones that cross yours and mine every now and then.

From a clinical standpoint however, these zombies reminded neurologists of another debilitating brain disorder: Parkinson’s disease, which is caused by loss of dopamine. Yes, the same dopamine that is often labelled these days as the ‘happy’ neurotransmitter due to its role in brain’s reward circuit. In 1967, around the time Dr. Sacks was working with his catatonic patients, western medicine learned that symptoms of Parkinson’s can be attenuated by providing patients with L-DOPA (a chemical precursor of dopamine), the ‘miracle drug’. Dr. Sacks introduced L-DOPA to his patients experimentally in 1969. What followed was a mix of miracles and adverse effects, but ‘awakening' of most patients from their perpetual sleep. They started expressing themselves and were ‘visibly better in all possible ways’ as they ‘forged a deep and affectionate relationship’ with the doctor and each other.

One small molecule – one gigantic outcome.

With the newfound ability to express themselves after L-DOPA treatment, some patients subsequently revealed inner churning of their minds while catatonic. Patient Rose R. explained how she thought about 'nothing' the whole time: “It’s dead easy, once you know how”, she said, “One way is to think about the same thing again and again. Like 2=2=2=2; or, I am what I am what I am what I am…”. Other patients expressed how it felt to be cured, and expressed thoughts that may sound uncannily familiar to many. “Hey, Doc!” would say Mr. Ronaldo P., “I’m sick of L-DOPA – what about a real pill from the cupboard the nurses lock up? The ‘euthanazy’ pill or whatever it’s called… I’ve needed that pill since the day I was born”.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-------

I was reminded of Oliver Sack’s Awakenings while processing the above image from the Isaac Hale Beach, Hawai’i. During May-July, 2018, the Big Island experienced an unprecedented series of volcanic eruptions that gained international attention. From 24 fissures, rivers of lava rolled towards the ocean burning, vaporizing, and annihilating everything in its path. Skirting the parking lot by meters, the two story high lava engulfed most of the park, stopping only a mere 270 feet from the boat launch. After almost an year, when we visited the park, a brand new black sand beach – the Pohoiki beach – had come into existence from the eroding lava. The sand here was coarse with painful sharp edges (no one was barefoot on the beach), and intermediate rocks that broke off from the main body of lava were rolling back and forth under the surf in their destined journey to being rounded off into finer sand. As waves rolled in, these rocks collided and churned with a distinct grumble that could be heard easily above the ocean. These psychedelic groans under the cloudy sky, now that I think of it, were probably utterance of a newborn land trying to play itself a music of nothing, something like patient R; I am what I am what I am what I am…

(Explore: 96 on Wednesday, July 22, 2009)

(Taken with simple S5IS. No extra equipment.)

True flies are insects of the order Diptera (Greek: di = two, and pteron = wing), possessing a single pair of wings on the mesothorax and a pair of halteres, derived from the hind wings, on the metathorax.

The presence of a single pair of wings distinguishes true flies from other insects with "fly" in their name, such as mayflies, dragonflies, damselflies, stoneflies, whiteflies, fireflies, alderflies, dobsonflies, snakeflies, sawflies, caddisflies, butterflies or scorpionflies. Some true flies have become secondarily wingless, especially in the superfamily Hippoboscoidea, or among those that are inquilines in social insect colonies.

Diptera is a large order, containing an estimated 240,000 species of mosquitos, gnats, midges and others, although under half of these (about 120,000 species) have been described. It is one of the major insect orders both in terms of ecological and human (medical and economic) importance. The Diptera, in particular the mosquitoes (Culicidae), are of great importance as disease transmitters, acting as vectors for malaria, dengue, West Nile virus, yellow fever, encephalitis and other infectious diseases.

Victoria Square, Birmingham UK - www.robertcjones.co.uk

SN/NC: Schefflera actinophylla, Araliaceae Family

This strong plant was introduced to Hawaii in 1900 and Florida in 1927 as an ornamental. Its relative hardiness (in zone 10 and 11), quick growth, shiny foliage, and attractiveness to birds led to its being widely planted. The plants produce small red flowers, mostly in summer to early fall, in clusters shaped like the arms of an octopus or the ribs of an umbrella. Birds like to drink the nectar from the flowers. The fruit is inedible to humans but spread by birds.

So we've got a fast-growing tree that produces large amounts of fruits that birds like eating. You maybe see where this is going.

Yup, it's another invasive species. It shades out native species by growing extremely fast; it can also begin life as an epiphyte and overgrow its host tree quickly enough to kill it. The bigger problem for people who plant them, though, is that the plants are extremely destructive on small scales too, and people who have umbrella trees planted in their yards often find themselves wishing they didn't. Not only do they (the trees) drop leaves more or less constantly, but they'll also shade out and kill anything planted near them, the roots tear up driveways, raise and break plumbing and gas lines, push over walls, smash tiled courtyards, crush foundations, ruin sprinkler systems, and just generally cause mayhem. ("HULK SMASH!") According to the commenters at davesgarden.com, this doesn't seem to be as big of a problem in California as it is in Hawaii or Florida. It could be that the Californian commenters at davesgarden.com are unobservant, but it could also be the case that humidity is an important factor in how quickly the roots grow. I don't have enough information to make that call; I just know that California doesn't appear to have a problem with invasive, rampaging Scheffleras.

The plants can also, of course, regenerate from roots. This doesn't have much application to indoor growing, or even large-scale production, but it very much applies if you have a 40-foot Schefflera7 trying to crack open your home's foundation and pump gas in. You do have to get all the roots.

Florida has, of course, put umbrella tree on its do-not-plant list, but nurseries in Florida were still selling it as of 2002, and when I worked at the garden center in 2007-09, we were getting our Scheffleras from suppliers in Florida. So one senses, perhaps, a less-than-sweeping commitment to evict scheffs from the state. One official, Dan Thayer (Director of the Vegetation Management Division of South Florida), made a tongue-in-cheek suggestion that perhaps the way to turn things around would be to spread rumors about the plant, specifically that it attracts encephalitis-carrying mosquitoes, and hope that public panic would do the rest. (Which is when I decided that I liked Dan Thayer, the Director of the Vegetation Management Division of South Florida.) Scheffleras in fact don't attract encephalitis-carrying mosquitoes, or any other kind of mosquitoes, but hey: if it'll help Florida ecosystems and homeowners, I'm willing to reinforce the association in people's minds.

Mother Nature is certainly not going to do anything about the situation. Fire will kill scheffs sometimes, but it's not a guaranteed fix. Hurricane Andrew produced wind speeds of 165 mph (265 kph) when it hit Florida in 1992, and about 85% of the Scheffleras survived just fine. Scheffs tolerate herbicides pretty well, and even when herbicides work, they generally have to be applied more than once. This is a strongplant which is part of why they're so good indoors. Even with reduced light, low humidity, and confinement to a container, S. actinophylla is still vigorous, and generally pretty easy to care for, with just one major flaw.

Schefflera actinophylla (sin. Brassaia actinophylla) es una planta fanerógama pertreneciente a la familia de las araliáceas. Es nativo de las selvas lluviosas en Australia (este de Queensland y el Territorio del Norte), Nueva Guinea y Java. Nombres comunes incluyen Árbol Paraguas y Árbol Pulpo. S. actinophylla es un árbol perennifolio que crece a 15 m de alto. Tiene hojas compuestas medium verdes en grupos de siete hojas. Usualmente tiene troncos múltiples, y las flores se desarrollan en la parte alta del árbol. Con frecuencia crece como epífita en otros árboles del bosque lluvioso.1​ Produce racimos de hasta 2 metros de largo conteniendo hasta 1,000 pequeñas flores rojas opacas. La floración empieza a principios del verano y típicamente continúa por varios meses.

Las flores producen grandes cantidades de néctar que atrae a las aves que se alimentan de miel. Los frutos son consumidos por muchas aves y animales incluyendo la rata canguro, el Thylogale stigmatica (pademelón de patas rojas) y los zorros voladores. Sus hojas son la comida favorita del Dendrolagus bennettianus (Canguro arborícola de Bennett).

Sinónimos: Brassaia actinophylla Endl., Brassaia singaporensis Ridl., Aralia longipes W. Bull

Nombre común: Árbol pulpo, árbol paraguas

Etimología: El género está dedicado al médico alemán Johann Peter Ernst Scheffler (1739-1810), incansable naturalista quien envió plantas al botánico alemán Gottfried Reyger, autor de Tentamen Florae Gedangensis. El epíteto específico procede de las palabras griegas aktinos = radio y phyllon = hoja, por la disposición de los folíolos. Los nombres populares se deben al aspecto de sus inflorescencias.

A Schefflera actinophylla Harms, tem como sinônimo

a Brassaia actinophylla Endl.

Nomes Populares: árvore-polvo, cheflera, cheflerão, cheflera da folha grande. Família Araliaceae, originada na Austrália. É considerada uma planta invasiva. É muito resistente (até aos pesticidas) pois cresce rapidamente e não é recomendada para paisagismo urbano pois ela "levanta" e arrebenta tudo que tem ao redor, incluindo ruas e pisos de alvenaria. Mas tem lindas flores que são resistentes, tóxicas, mas que os pássaros se encargam de espalhar rapidamente. Seu excesso de sombra acaba matando plantas menores ao seu redor. Assim, que tem que ficar de olho nela. A variedade menor, de interiores, para ambientes fechados, também são muito populares devido a ser muito resistente e crescer rapidamente.

SN/NC: Schefflera actinophylla, Araliaceae Family

This strong plant was introduced to Hawaii in 1900 and Florida in 1927 as an ornamental. Its relative hardiness (in zone 10 and 11), quick growth, shiny foliage, and attractiveness to birds led to its being widely planted. The plants produce small red flowers, mostly in summer to early fall, in clusters shaped like the arms of an octopus or the ribs of an umbrella. Birds like to drink the nectar from the flowers. The fruit is inedible to humans but spread by birds.

So we've got a fast-growing tree that produces large amounts of fruits that birds like eating. You maybe see where this is going.

Yup, it's another invasive species. It shades out native species by growing extremely fast; it can also begin life as an epiphyte and overgrow its host tree quickly enough to kill it. The bigger problem for people who plant them, though, is that the plants are extremely destructive on small scales too, and people who have umbrella trees planted in their yards often find themselves wishing they didn't. Not only do they (the trees) drop leaves more or less constantly, but they'll also shade out and kill anything planted near them, the roots tear up driveways, raise and break plumbing and gas lines, push over walls, smash tiled courtyards, crush foundations, ruin sprinkler systems, and just generally cause mayhem. ("HULK SMASH!") According to the commenters at davesgarden.com, this doesn't seem to be as big of a problem in California as it is in Hawaii or Florida. It could be that the Californian commenters at davesgarden.com are unobservant, but it could also be the case that humidity is an important factor in how quickly the roots grow. I don't have enough information to make that call; I just know that California doesn't appear to have a problem with invasive, rampaging Scheffleras.

The plants can also, of course, regenerate from roots. This doesn't have much application to indoor growing, or even large-scale production, but it very much applies if you have a 40-foot Schefflera7 trying to crack open your home's foundation and pump gas in. You do have to get all the roots.

Florida has, of course, put umbrella tree on its do-not-plant list, but nurseries in Florida were still selling it as of 2002, and when I worked at the garden center in 2007-09, we were getting our Scheffleras from suppliers in Florida. So one senses, perhaps, a less-than-sweeping commitment to evict scheffs from the state. One official, Dan Thayer (Director of the Vegetation Management Division of South Florida), made a tongue-in-cheek suggestion that perhaps the way to turn things around would be to spread rumors about the plant, specifically that it attracts encephalitis-carrying mosquitoes, and hope that public panic would do the rest. (Which is when I decided that I liked Dan Thayer, the Director of the Vegetation Management Division of South Florida.) Scheffleras in fact don't attract encephalitis-carrying mosquitoes, or any other kind of mosquitoes, but hey: if it'll help Florida ecosystems and homeowners, I'm willing to reinforce the association in people's minds.

Mother Nature is certainly not going to do anything about the situation. Fire will kill scheffs sometimes, but it's not a guaranteed fix. Hurricane Andrew produced wind speeds of 165 mph (265 kph) when it hit Florida in 1992, and about 85% of the Scheffleras survived just fine. Scheffs tolerate herbicides pretty well, and even when herbicides work, they generally have to be applied more than once. This is a strongplant which is part of why they're so good indoors. Even with reduced light, low humidity, and confinement to a container, S. actinophylla is still vigorous, and generally pretty easy to care for, with just one major flaw.

Schefflera actinophylla (sin. Brassaia actinophylla) es una planta fanerógama pertreneciente a la familia de las araliáceas. Es nativo de las selvas lluviosas en Australia (este de Queensland y el Territorio del Norte), Nueva Guinea y Java. Nombres comunes incluyen Árbol Paraguas y Árbol Pulpo. S. actinophylla es un árbol perennifolio que crece a 15 m de alto. Tiene hojas compuestas medium verdes en grupos de siete hojas. Usualmente tiene troncos múltiples, y las flores se desarrollan en la parte alta del árbol. Con frecuencia crece como epífita en otros árboles del bosque lluvioso.1​ Produce racimos de hasta 2 metros de largo conteniendo hasta 1,000 pequeñas flores rojas opacas. La floración empieza a principios del verano y típicamente continúa por varios meses.

Las flores producen grandes cantidades de néctar que atrae a las aves que se alimentan de miel. Los frutos son consumidos por muchas aves y animales incluyendo la rata canguro, el Thylogale stigmatica (pademelón de patas rojas) y los zorros voladores. Sus hojas son la comida favorita del Dendrolagus bennettianus (Canguro arborícola de Bennett).

Sinónimos: Brassaia actinophylla Endl., Brassaia singaporensis Ridl., Aralia longipes W. Bull

Nombre común: Árbol pulpo, árbol paraguas

Etimología: El género está dedicado al médico alemán Johann Peter Ernst Scheffler (1739-1810), incansable naturalista quien envió plantas al botánico alemán Gottfried Reyger, autor de Tentamen Florae Gedangensis. El epíteto específico procede de las palabras griegas aktinos = radio y phyllon = hoja, por la disposición de los folíolos. Los nombres populares se deben al aspecto de sus inflorescencias.

A Schefflera actinophylla Harms, tem como sinônimo

a Brassaia actinophylla Endl.

Nomes Populares:árvore-polvo, cheflera, cheflerão, cheflera da folha grande. Família Araliaceae, originada na Austrália. É considerada uma planta invasiva. É muito resistente (até aos pesticidas) pois cresce rapidamente e não é recomendada para paisagismo urbano pois ela "levanta" e arrebenta tudo que tem ao redor, incluindo ruas e pisos de alvenaria. Mas tem lindas flores que são resistentes, tóxicas, mas que os pássaros se encargam de espalhar rapidamente. Seu excesso de sombra acaba matando plantas menores ao seu redor. Assim, que tem que ficar de olho nela. A variedade menor, de interiores, para ambientes fechados, também são muito populares devido a ser muito resistente e crescer rapidamente.

Although this is only just a humble fly, I think it's really beautiful.

This was shot at the New Romney visitor centre in Kent

Canon 5ds-r

Canon mpe-65mm 1-5x macro lens

Canon MT-24EX Twin Lite Flash with custom built diffusers

iso 200

f/11.0

1/80 sec

Fly

True flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name is derived from the Greek δι- di- "two", and πτερόν pteron "wings". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced mechanosensory organs known as halteres, which act as high-speed sensors of rotational movement and allow dipterans to perform advanced aerobatics.

Diptera is a large order containing an estimated 1,000,000 species including horse-flies, crane flies, hoverflies and others, although only about 125,000 species have been described.

Flies have a mobile head, with a pair of large compound eyes, and mouthparts designed for piercing and sucking (mosquitoes, black flies and robber flies), or for lapping and sucking in the other groups. Their wing arrangement gives them great manoeuvrability in flight, and claws and pads on their feet enable them to cling to smooth surfaces.

Flies undergo complete metamorphosis; the eggs are laid on the larval food-source and the larvae, which lack true limbs, develop in a protected environment, often inside their food source.

The pupa is a tough capsule from which the adult emerges when ready to do so; flies mostly have short lives as adults.

Diptera is one of the major insect orders and of considerable ecological and human importance.

Flies are important pollinators, second only to the bees and their Hymenopteran relatives. Flies may have been among the evolutionarily earliest pollinators responsible for early plant pollination.

Fruit flies are used as model organisms in research, but less benignly, mosquitoes are vectors for malaria, dengue, West Nile fever, yellow fever, encephalitis, and other infectious diseases; and houseflies, commensal with humans all over the world, spread food-borne illnesses.

Flies can be annoyances especially in some parts of the world where they can occur in large numbers, buzzing and settling on the skin or eyes to bite or seek fluids.

Larger flies such as tsetse flies and screwworms cause significant economic harm to cattle. Blowfly larvae, known as gentles, and other dipteran larvae, known more generally as maggots, are used as fishing bait and as food for carnivorous animals.

They are also used in medicine in debridement to clean wounds.

Link -

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fly

Looking for her next meal - female Castor Bean Tick (Ixodes ricinus) - Schapenteek

Only 3mm in size.

Ixodes ricinus, the castor bean tick, is a chiefly European species of hard-bodied tick. In common with other species of Ixodes, I. ricinus has no eyes.

Ticks find their hosts by detecting animals' breath and body odors, or by sensing body heat, moisture and vibrations. They are incapable of flying or jumping, but many tick species wait in a position known as "questing".

While questing, ticks hold on to leaves and grass by their third and fourth pair of legs. They hold the first pair of legs outstretched, waiting to climb on to the host. When a host brushes the spot where a tick is waiting, it quickly climbs onto the host.

[WIKI]

It may reach a length of 11 mm (0.43 in) when engorged with a blood meal, and can transmit both bacterial and viral pathogens such as the causative agents of Lyme disease and tick-borne encephalitis.

NB The very small ticks you most often see in spring and summer when you check your exposed legs and arms are usually nymhps (larval stage). Only the mature females drink blood.

Unknown male mosquito with fluffy antennae and mouthparts on goldenrod by the pond. Home, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. 7 August 2022

According to inaturalist, this is an Inland Floodwater Mosquito (Aedes vexans).

Identification

Larvae:

- Antennae are shorter than head

- Short siphon with a tuft half as long as the diameter of the base, between pecten teeth

- Saddle on anal segment incomplete

Adult Female:

- Unbanded proboscis

- Scutum with short brown scales and no obvious pattern

- Most easily recognized by the sideways 'B' shaped markings on each abdominal tergite.

Range

common in southern Canada and throughout most of the US, but is less abundant in the extreme south / Nearly cosmopolitan (3)

Habitat

This is a floodwater mosquito, meaning that the eggs are laid offshore and when a heavy rain comes the water rises, floods the eggs and the egg hatches. Eggs are mainly found in freshwater pools and depressions.

Virtually any transient water can support Ae. vexans larvae, but rainpools in unshaded areas produce the largest broods. The species is most common in grassy pools that border wooded areas but specimens can be encountered in partially shaded woodland pools, roadside ditches, and vernal pools in open fields. - Wayne J. Crans, Rutgers University

Season

Larvae: April-September

Adults: May-October

Food

Mammalophilic - females prefer only the blood of mammals for protein meals.

Like all mosquitoes, they will also take sugary liquids like nectar, honeydew and sap.

Life Cycle

- Overwinters as an egg

- Multivoltine

Remarks

These mosquitos bite mammals and are known to travel distances from their breeding sites unlike other mosquitos. They are good vectors of EEE and the Cache Valley fever virus has been isolated from them

Aedes vexans is recognized as New Jersey’s most serious pest mosquito due to its abundance, widespread distribution and breeding potential in floodwater habitats. The mosquito probably does not reach the nuisance levels of Aedes sollicitans in coastal areas but causes annoyance over a much broader range of the state. The mosquito has not definitely been documented as a vector of disease but has been implicated as a secondary vector of eastern equine encephalitis and dog heartworm. - Wayne J. Crans, Rutgers University bugguide.net/node/view/57572

Medical importance

A. vexans is a known vector of Dirofilaria immitis (dog heartworm), myxomatosis (a deadly rabbit viral disease), and Tahyna virus, a seldom-diagnosed Bunyaviridae virus, which affects humans in Europe, causing a fever which disappears after 2 days, but afterward can cause encephalitis or meningitis. A. vexans is the most common mosquito in Europe, often comprising more than 80% the European mosquito community. Its abundance depends upon availability of floodwater pools. In summer, up to 8,000 mosquitoes can be collected per trap per night.[5] A. vexans exhibited significantly higher transmission rates of Zika virus than A. aegypti, and its wide geographic distribution, periodic extreme abundance, and aggressive human biting behavior increase its potential to serve as a Zika virus vector in northern latitudes outside the range of the primary vectors A. aegypti and A. albopictus.[6] In addition to several medically important viruses Aedes vexans mosquitoes have also been shown to harbour the insect-specific flavivirus Chaoyang virus[7] and insect-specific Aedes vexans Iflavirus.[8] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aedes_vexans

View towards the Atlantic Ocean while hiking through the Connemara National Park, Connemara, County Galway, Ireland

Some background information:

Six weeks, no photos: After catching the ESME virus (caused by a tick bite) I finally feel able to upload pictures again. The last six weeks were really complicated. It started with fever, shivers, an outage of motor functions (falling down several times) and communication disorder. Hence, I was brought to a university hospital by an ambulance. After two weeks of medical examinations, where they found several "shadows" in my brain (caused by both meningitis and encephalitis), I was eventually discharged from hospital.

However, I was still in rather bad shape. Having lost twelve kilograms of muscular mass, I couldn’t climb stairs and was in a great deal of pain. Currently, I am still suffering from back age and limb pain, but at least, I’ve started to recover now. To advance recovery, I will have to make an in-patient rehab for the next three weeks. Hopefully, my muscles will be built up again and the therapists there will also allay my pain. It’s still some way back to where I was, but I am full of confidence that I will get there in a few months.

The Connemara National Park is one of six national parks in Ireland, managed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service. It is located on the Irish west coast in the northwest of the Connemara region in County Galway. The park was founded and opened to the public in 1980. It features 2,000 ha (4,900 acres) of mountains, bogs, heaths, grasslands and forests. The entrance is situated on the Clifden side of the village of Letterfrack. There are many remnants of human habitation within the park, e.g. a 19th-century graveyard as well as 4,000-year-old megalithic court tombs. Much of the land once used to belong to the Kylemore Abbey estate.

Western blanket bog and heathland are the most common vegetation of the Connemara National Park. The boglands are situated in the wet low lying environments whereas the blanket bog exists within the drier mountain atmosphere. Purple moorgrass is the most bountiful plant, creating colorful landscapes throughout the countryside. Carnivorous plants play an important role in the park's ecosystem, the most common being sundew and butterworts trap. Bogs hold very little nutrients so many plants obtain their energy from the digestion of insects. Other common plants include lousewort, bog cotton, milkwort, bog asphodel, orchids and bog myrtle, with a variety of lichens and mosses.

The Connemara National Park is noted for its diversity of bird life. Common song birds include meadow pipits, skylarks, European stonechats, common chaffinches, European robins and Eurasian wrens. Native birds of prey include the common kestrel and Eurasian sparrowhawk with the merlin and peregrine falcon being seen less frequently. Woodcock, common snipe, common starling, song thrush, mistle thrush, redwing, fieldfare and mountain goat migrate to Connemara during the winter.

Mammals are often difficult to find, but are present nonetheless. Field mice are common in the woodlands, whereas rabbits, foxes, stoats, shrews, and bats at night, are often sighted in the boglands. Red deer once roamed the Connemara but were extirpated from the area approximately 150 years ago. An attempt was made to reintroduce red deer to Connemara and a herd was established within the park. Nowadays, the largest mammal in the park is the Connemara pony.

The Wild Atlantic Way is a tourism trail on the west coast, and on parts of the north and south coasts, of Ireland. The serrated logo of the Wild Atlantic Way symbolises the letters W – A - W. The 2,500 km (1,553 mile) driving route passes through nine counties and three provinces, stretching from County Donegal's Inishowen Peninsula in the very north of Ireland to Kinsale, County Cork, on the Celtic Sea coast in the very south. Along the route there are 157 discovery points, 1,000 attractions and more than 2,500 activities. In 2014, the route was officially launched by the Republic of Ireland’s Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, Michael Ring.

However, the roads forming the Wild Atlantic Way have always been favoured by locals and tourists alike for generations even before they became known collectively as the Wild Atlantic Way route. They offer truly spectacular Atlantic Ocean vistas as well as many places to visit and sights by the roadside. More than 150 locations have been officially designated as Discovery Points. These have been marked locally with a special signpost.

County Galway is a county in the west of Ireland, taking up the south of the province of Connacht. The traditional county includes the city of Galway, but the city and county are separate local government areas. Currently, the population of the county is more than 276,000. In the west of the county, there are several Irish-speaking areas.

The first inhabitants in the Galway area arrived over 7000 years ago. The county originally comprised several kingdoms and territories which predate the formation of the county. These kingdoms included Aidhne, Uí Maine, Maigh Seóla, Conmhaícne Mara, Soghain and Máenmaige. In 1569, County Galway became an official entity. The region known as Connemara retains a distinct identity within the county, though its boundaries are unclear. Hence, it may account for as much as one third or as little as 20% of the county. Places of interest in Galway are among others the Connemara National Park, Kylemore Abbey and Dunguaire Castle.

I enjoyed a beautiful day in my Garden in Littlestone in Kent. I took out my camera and searched for interseting tiny life forms.

Fly

The order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- di- "two", and πτερόν pteron "wings". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced mechanosensory organs known as halteres, which act as high-speed sensors of rotational movement and allow dipterans to perform advanced aerobatics.

Diptera is a large order containing an estimated 1,000,000 species including horse-flies,[a] crane flies, hoverflies, and others, although only about 125,000 species have been described.

Flies have a mobile head, with a pair of large compound eyes, and mouthparts designed for piercing and sucking (mosquitoes, black flies, and robber flies), or for lapping and sucking in the other groups.

Their wing arrangement gives them great maneuverability in flight, and claws and pads on their feet enable them to cling to smooth surfaces.

Flies undergo complete metamorphosis; the eggs are laid on the larval food-source and the larvae, which lack true limbs, develop in a protected environment, often inside their food source.

The pupa is a tough capsule from which the adult emerges when ready to do so; flies mostly have short lives as adults.

Diptera is one of the major insect orders and of considerable ecological and human importance. Flies are important pollinators, second only to the bees and their Hymenopteran relatives.

Flies may have been among the evolutionarily earliest pollinators responsible for early plant pollination. Fruit flies are used as model organisms in research, but less benignly, mosquitoes are vectors for malaria, dengue, West Nile fever, yellow fever, encephalitis, and other infectious diseases; and houseflies, commensal with humans all over the world, spread food-borne illnesses.

Flies can be annoyances especially in some parts of the world where they can occur in large numbers, buzzing and settling on the skin or eyes to bite or seek fluids. Larger flies such as tsetse flies and screwworms cause significant economic harm to cattle.

Blowfly larvae, known as gentles, and other dipteran larvae, known more generally as maggots, are used as fishing bait and as food for carnivorous animals. They are also used in medicine in debridement to clean wounds.pollinators, second only to the bees and their Hymenopteran relatives.

Flies may have been among the evolutionarily earliest pollinators responsible for early plant pollination. Fruit flies are used as model organisms in research, but less benignly, mosquitoes are vectors for malaria, dengue, West Nile fever, yellow fever, encephalitis, and other infectious diseases; and houseflies, commensal with humans all over the world, spread food-borne illnesses.

Flies can be annoyances especially in some parts of the world where they can occur in large numbers, buzzing and settling on the skin or eyes to bite or seek fluids. Larger flies such as tsetse flies and screwworms cause significant economic harm to cattle.

Blowfly larvae, known as gentles, and other dipteran larvae, known more generally as maggots, are used as fishing bait and as food for carnivorous animals. They are also used in medicine in debridement to clean wounds.

Link - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fly

The mosquito is a common flying insect that is found around the world. There are about 2,700 species of mosquitoes. Mosquitoes can fly about 1 to 1.5 miles per hour (1.6-2.4 kph).

Mosquito Bites: Females drink blood and the nectar of plants; the males only sip plant nectar. When a female bites, she also injects an anticoagulant (anti-clotting chemical) into the prey to keep the victim's blood flowing. She finds her victims by sight and smell, and also by detecting their warmth. Not all mosquito species bite humans.

Disease Carrier: The mosquito is often a carrier of diseases, such as malaria, encephalitis, yellow fever, dengue fever, dog heartworm, West Nile virus, and many others. The females, who drink blood, can carry disease from one animal to another as they feed.

Anatomy: Like all insects, the mosquito has a body divided into three parts (head, thorax, and abdomen), a hard exoskeleton, and six long, jointed legs. Mosquitoes also have a pair of veined wings. They have a straw-like proboscis and can only eat liquids.

Life Cycle: The complete life-cycle of a mosquito takes about a month. After drinking blood, adult females lay a raft of 40 to 400 tiny white eggs in standing water or very slow-moving water. Within a week, the eggs hatch into larvae (sometimes called wrigglers) that breathe air through tubes which they poke above the surface of the water. Larvae eat bits of floating organic matter and each other. Larvae molt four times as they grow; after the fourth molt, they are called pupae (also called tumblers). Pupae also live near the surface of the water, breathing through two horn-like tubes (called siphons) on their back. Pupae do not eat. An adult emerges from a pupa when the skin splits after a few days. The adult lives for only a few weeks.

Classification: Kingdom Animalia; Phylum Arthropoda; Class Insecta; Order Diptera ("two wings"); Family Culicidae.

best viewed LARGE:

www.flickr.com/photos/rundstedt/4130604588/sizes/l/

Although this is only just a humble fly, I think it's really beautiful.

This was shot at the New Romney visitor centre in Kent

Canon 5ds-r

Canon mpe-65mm 1-5x macro lens

Canon MT-24EX Twin Lite Flash with custom built diffusers

iso 200

f/11.0

1/80 sec

Fly

True flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name is derived from the Greek δι- di- "two", and πτερόν pteron "wings". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced mechanosensory organs known as halteres, which act as high-speed sensors of rotational movement and allow dipterans to perform advanced aerobatics.

Diptera is a large order containing an estimated 1,000,000 species including horse-flies, crane flies, hoverflies and others, although only about 125,000 species have been described.

Flies have a mobile head, with a pair of large compound eyes, and mouthparts designed for piercing and sucking (mosquitoes, black flies and robber flies), or for lapping and sucking in the other groups. Their wing arrangement gives them great manoeuvrability in flight, and claws and pads on their feet enable them to cling to smooth surfaces.

Flies undergo complete metamorphosis; the eggs are laid on the larval food-source and the larvae, which lack true limbs, develop in a protected environment, often inside their food source.

The pupa is a tough capsule from which the adult emerges when ready to do so; flies mostly have short lives as adults.

Diptera is one of the major insect orders and of considerable ecological and human importance.

Flies are important pollinators, second only to the bees and their Hymenopteran relatives. Flies may have been among the evolutionarily earliest pollinators responsible for early plant pollination.

Fruit flies are used as model organisms in research, but less benignly, mosquitoes are vectors for malaria, dengue, West Nile fever, yellow fever, encephalitis, and other infectious diseases; and houseflies, commensal with humans all over the world, spread food-borne illnesses.

Flies can be annoyances especially in some parts of the world where they can occur in large numbers, buzzing and settling on the skin or eyes to bite or seek fluids.

Larger flies such as tsetse flies and screwworms cause significant economic harm to cattle. Blowfly larvae, known as gentles, and other dipteran larvae, known more generally as maggots, are used as fishing bait and as food for carnivorous animals.

They are also used in medicine in debridement to clean wounds.

Link -

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fly

There is one thing in this fly that I've never seen before. the compound eyes are different sizes, there seems to be a strip of compound eyes that seem to be much bigger, interesting.

Although this is only just a humble fly, I think it's really beautiful.

Fly

True flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name is derived from the Greek δι- di- "two", and πτερόν pteron "wings". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced mechanosensory organs known as halteres, which act as high-speed sensors of rotational movement and allow dipterans to perform advanced aerobatics.

Diptera is a large order containing an estimated 1,000,000 species including horse-flies, crane flies, hoverflies and others, although only about 125,000 species have been described.

Flies have a mobile head, with a pair of large compound eyes, and mouthparts designed for piercing and sucking (mosquitoes, black flies and robber flies), or for lapping and sucking in the other groups. Their wing arrangement gives them great manoeuvrability in flight, and claws and pads on their feet enable them to cling to smooth surfaces.

Flies undergo complete metamorphosis; the eggs are laid on the larval food-source and the larvae, which lack true limbs, develop in a protected environment, often inside their food source.

The pupa is a tough capsule from which the adult emerges when ready to do so; flies mostly have short lives as adults.

Diptera is one of the major insect orders and of considerable ecological and human importance.

Flies are important pollinators, second only to the bees and their Hymenopteran relatives. Flies may have been among the evolutionarily earliest pollinators responsible for early plant pollination.

Fruit flies are used as model organisms in research, but less benignly, mosquitoes are vectors for malaria, dengue, West Nile fever, yellow fever, encephalitis, and other infectious diseases; and houseflies, commensal with humans all over the world, spread food-borne illnesses.

Flies can be annoyances especially in some parts of the world where they can occur in large numbers, buzzing and settling on the skin or eyes to bite or seek fluids.

Larger flies such as tsetse flies and screwworms cause significant economic harm to cattle. Blowfly larvae, known as gentles, and other dipteran larvae, known more generally as maggots, are used as fishing bait and as food for carnivorous animals.

They are also used in medicine in debridement to clean wounds.

Link -

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fly

I took this picture on March 28, 2010. Nine years later - yesterday, in fact - I made an ID that this was a female Pacific Forktail Damselfly. I'm 85% certain because my decision was based on a nine year process of elimination.

Circumstances: I had only been involved - immersed really into Odonata, species, and behaviors for two years when I spotted this. It was very early in the dragonfly season which I knew even then usually started in June and could extend into October if temperatures were warm. Maybe it wasn't a damselfly. I fell into the trap that many of you can right now. The point seemingly extending from its nose... could be be its nose, a proboscis of sorts? Could it be a kind of crane fly? Well, when I got it on mt large 18 inch! monitor, I saw that that is the dead end of the blade of grass the damsel is perched on!

Okay. We have a damsel. Now, the colors. Well, it was the first damsel of the year, so I want an image of a young, perhaps newly minted damsel, just out of it's nymph stage. The wings are spread Could be a Spreadwing. The cerci at the last (10th) segment looked "forked" although this was by no means a macro. If so, it could be a Forktail. I would need more shots of this dainty damsel to figure it out definitively: front, side, and tail end views.

Well, I got a second one about two months later. And then, nothing not even now, So nine years and two images. This was going to take a while.

Why is it important to identify her (or him)? In part because I just want to know. I mean, it's not enough to collect baseball cards. I want to know the team, position, and which losing team I had chosen that year. It's not enough to be a stamp collector all these years: my first stamps were of national parks, followed by ducks, then other birds, then flowers and butterflies and to this day, all of nature. But I'm not running to the Post Office unless I know that they have a new issue of a bird. What bird? You get the picture.

It doesn't matter to me whether you know the species. That you know that the odonates are comprised of dragonflies and damselflies is fine. But you should know that they are one of the most beneficial insects in the world, if not the most. They are the apex predator of mosquitoes, insects that bear some of the most deadly diseases including malaria, West-Nile Virus, Encephalitis, Zika Virus, Chikungunya Virus, Dengue Fever, Yellow Fever, and more. So one more time: imagine one dragon or damsel eating 150 larva or adult mosquitoes a day! A female damsel or dragon, having made it through a life or being prey as well as predator, will lay about 1,000 eggs. Even a small pond like "my" swamp could account for more than half a million new damsels and dragons the survive the larval stage each year.

The other reason for wanting to know the species is that, when I become involved with nature, I become compulsive. Fortunately, the compulsion didn't last more than a summer with butterflies. They're really impossible. I still "collect" birds, reptiles, and so on. You've seen some of my collections here in Flickr. Sometimes, it's all of you who help me identify ... well, shorebirds, with which I have a terrible time. Oh, there's another reason for wanting to know the species: by pegging species to dates, I am able to know where and when to plant myself where they're going to be. Two weeks in February for flocks of Robins and Cedar Waxwings who come to feast on the Toyon tree's berries. So, I even learned the species of the tree. And I've been keeping a calendar for what and when since 2008.

Surprisingly, because the metals are such perfect expressions of archetypal energies, we can actually learn quite a bit about people by studying the properties of metals and the behavior of planets. That same correspondence exists in the human temperament. For instance, the leaden person is someone who has, like Saturn, lost their bid to become a star. They have accepted a mere physical existence and believe the created world is all that counts. The positive characteristics of the saturnine person are patience, responsibility, somberness, structure and realism, true knowledge of history and karma. The black messenger crows of Chronos bring black moods, depression and despair to us, but they also alert us to illusion and fakeness in our lives.

While we have already discussed the planetary archetypes, it is worth reminding ourselves at this point exactly how the alchemists looked on the relationship between the planet and its metal. They believed that the metals had the same “virtue” as the corresponding planet, that a single spirit infuses both the planet and the metal. In other words, the planet was a celestial manifestation and the metal a terrestrial manifestation of the same universal force. Therefore, the metals are the purest expression of the planetary energies in the mineral kingdom, which is the basis for material reality on earth. The next stage of evolution on our planet is the plant kingdom, and the alchemists assigned a metal and its corresponding planet to describe the characteristics of every known herb, flower, and plant. Similarly, on the next level in the evolution of matter in the animal kingdom, all creatures carry their own metallic or planetary signatures, which are expressed in their behavior. In human beings, the alchemists referred to the sum total of the cosmic signatures of the metals as a person’s “temperament.” Originally, that word referred to the metallurgical process of “tempering” or mixing different metals to produce certain characteristics in an alloy. Although the alchemists considered lead the lowest of the base metals, they treated it with a great deal of respect, as they did its corresponding planet Saturn. Lead was said to carry all the energy of its own transformation, and it was that hidden energy that the alchemists sought to free. To the alchemists, the ancient metal was a powerful “sleeping giant” with a dark and secret nature that encompassed both the beginning and end of the Great Work.

Lead is the heaviest of the seven metals; it is very tied to gravity, form, and manifested reality. It is also a very stubborn metal known for its durability and resistance to change. Lead products dating from 7000 BC are still intact, and lead water pipes installed by the Romans 1,500 years ago are still in use today. Alchemists depicted lead in their drawings as the god Saturn (a crippled old man with a sickle), Father Time, or a skeleton representing death itself. Any of these symbols in their manuscripts meant the alchemist was working with the metal lead in the laboratory or a leaden attitude in his accompanying meditation.Lead is a boundary of heaviness for matter. Metals of greater atomic weight are too heavy and disintegrate over time (by radioactive decay) to turn back into lead. So radioactive decay is really a Saturnic process that introduces a new characteristic in the metals – that of time. All the hyper-energetic metals beyond lead are trapped in time to inexorably return to lead. There is no natural process more unalterably exact than radioactive decay. Atomic clocks, the most precise timekeeping devices we have, are based on this leaden process. Geologists measure the age of radioactive rocks by how much lead they contain, and the age of the earth is estimated by taking lead isotope measurements. In many ways, lead carries the signature of Father Time.Native lead, which is lead metal found in a chemically uncombined state, is actually extremely rare. It is found in the earth's crust in a concentration of only about 13 parts per billion. Lead does not form crystals easily, and thus the pure mineral form is very rare and extremely valuable as rock specimens. Such elemental lead can also be found in very unusual “metamorphosed” limestone and marble formations that are equally rare.Surprisingly, lead is in the same group in the Periodic Table as gold, and when it occurs in nature, it is always found with gold and silver. In fact, the chemical symbol for lead (Pb) is from the Latin word plumbum, which means “liquid silver.” We derive our words “plumbing” and “plumb bob” from the use of lead in those applications. In the smelting of silver, lead plays an important role by forming a layer over the emerging molten silver and protecting it from combining with the air and splattering out. The volatile molten lead covering is gradually burnt away, until only the pure silver metal “peeks out” (in the smelter’s terminology) in a stabilized form. Thus, lead protects and even sacrifices itself for the nobler metals.The planet Saturn and its metal and the planet have the same symbol (L) in alchemy. The Hermetic interpretation is that the symbol is basically the cross of the elements that depicts the division between the Above and Below or spirit and matter. The lunar crescent of the soul is below the cross, representing the manifestation (or entrapment) of soul below in matter. Despite these associations with the noble metals, lead itself never makes it to such heights among the metals. The silvery luster of fresh cut lead quickly fades, as if it were “dying” before your eyes. Furthermore, alchemists considered lead to be “hydrophobic” or against the life nourishing archetype of water. Lead ores lack the slightest water content and tend to form machine-like structures.The most common ore of lead is galena, which also contains the noble metals silver and gold. Galena is lead sulfide, a favorite of rock collectors because of its distinctive cubic shapes, characteristic cleavage, and high density. In fact, the structure of galena is identical to that of natural table salt. The two minerals have exactly the same crystal shapes, symmetry and cleavage, although galena crystals are thousands of times larger. Some galena may contain up to 1% silver and often contains trace amounts of gold. The large volume of galena that is processed for lead produces enough silver as a by product to make galena the leading ore of silver as well Galena definitely has the signature of lead. Its color is silver gray with a bluish tint. The luster ranges from metallic to dull in the weathered faces, and the isometric crystals are opaque to light. The massive crystals of galena almost always take the form of a cube or octahedron, and the cleavage is perfect in four direction always forming cubes. Because of the perfect cleavage, fractures are rarely seen and the dark crystalline structure is nearly perfect.Lead is also found in other sulfuric minerals like calcite and dolomite, as well as lead oxidation minerals such as and anglesite and cerussite, which is found in the oxidation zone of lead deposits usually associated with galena. Some formations show cerussite crusts around a galena core as if the act of oxidation was frozen in time. Cerrussite is lead carbonate and also a favorite of rock hounds. Its very high luster is due mostly to the metallic lead content, and just as leaded crystal glass sparkles more brilliantly because of its lead content, so too does cerussite. Cerussite has one of the highest densities for a transparent mineral. It is over six and a half times as dense as water. Most rocks and minerals average only around three times the density of water. Cerussite is famous for its great sparkle and density, and its amazing twinned (or double) crystals. The mineral forms geometrically intricate structures and star shapes that simply amazing to behold – sometimes the twinned crystals form star shapes with six "rays" extending out from the star.When freed from its ores, lead metal has a bluish-white color and is very soft – capable of being scratched by a fingernail. With its dull metallic luster and high density, lead cannot easily be confused with any other metal. It is also malleable, ductile, and sectile – meaning it can be pounded into other shapes, stretched into a wire, and cut into slices. However, lead is a dark, sluggish, base metal. Of the seven metals, it is the slowest conductor of electricity and heat, the least lustrous or resonant. Its Saturnic signature of heaviness is expressed not only in its being the heaviest metal but also in its tendency to form inert and insoluble compounds. No other metal forms as many. Although it tarnishes upon exposure to air like silver, lead is extremely resistant to corrosion over time and seems to last forever. Lead pipes bearing the insignia of Roman emperors, used as drains from the baths, are still in service. The surface of lead is protected by a thin layer of lead oxide, and it does not react with water. The same process protects lead from the traditional “liquid fire” of the alchemists – sulfuric acid. In fact, lead bottles are still used to store the highly corrosive acid. Lead is so inalterable, that half of all the lead in the world today is simply recovered from scrap and formed directly into bullion for reuse.Lead is truly a destroyer of light. It is added to high-quality glassware (lead crystal) to absorb light reflections and make the glass clearer. Lead salts in glass are not changed by light but change light itself by absorbing it. Incoming light in lead crystal meets with high resistance, but once it is within the glass, light is immediately absorbed or dispersed without any reflected light escaping. Sheets of lead are also impermeable to all forms of light, even high energy X-rays and gamma rays, which makes lead the perfect shield against any form of radiation and is why it is used to transport and store radioactive materials.Lead is an extremely poor conductor of electricity and blocks all kinds of energy transmission. Indeed, one of the signatures of lead is its ability to “dampen” or absorb energy. Unlike other metals, when lead is struck, the vibrations are immediately absorbed and any tone is smothered in dullness. Lead is an effective sound proofing medium and tetraethyl lead is still used in some grades of gasoline as an antiknock compound to “quiet” the combustion of gasoline.Thin lead sheets are used extensively in the walls of high-rise buildings to block the transmission of sound, and thick pads of lead are used in the foundations to absorb the vibrations of street traffic and even minor earthquakes. Lead sheets are widely used in roofing to block solar rays, and lead foil is used to form lightproof enclosures in laboratory work. Ultimately, lead corresponds to the galactic Black Hole that absorbs all forms of radiation and light.Lead reacts with more chemicals than any other metal, however, instead of producing something new and useful, lead “kills” the combining substance by making it inert, insoluble and unable to enter into further chemical reactions. Its salts precipitate out of solutions heavily and copiously. Lead has the same effect in the plant kingdom. It accumulates in the roots and slows down the “breathing” process in plants. Young plants are adversely affected by even the smallest amount of lead in the soil.Lead is poisonous and accumulates over time in the bones of the human body, where it cannot be flushed out. It has also been found in high concentrations in gallstones and kidney stones. The old alchemical graphic for lead – a skeleton – was grotesquely appropriate. The symptoms of lead poisoning (known as “Saturnism”) are lack of energy, depression, blindness, dizziness, severe headaches at the back of the head, brain damage, attention deficit disorder, learning disabilities and mental retardation, antisocial behavior and anger, atrophy of muscular tissue and cramping, excess growth of connective tissue resulting in a rigid appearance, rapid aging, coma, and early death. Rats fed only 5 parts per million of lead had a lifespan 25% shorter than normal rats. Children are especially vulnerable to lead poisoning, and it is believed to be an important factor in stillborn fetuses. Children with more than just 0.3 parts per million of lead in their blood suffer a significant slowing of brain function and corresponding drop in IQ. Lead in paint has caused mental retardation and premature aging in hundreds of children who ingested old flaking paint from the walls of their homes. Lead paint was used extensively until the poisonous effects were documented in the 1960s. Because of its lasting durability, lead paint is still used outdoors in advertising and the yellow lines on highways and curbs. The subtly controlling aspect of those applications is another signature of lead and of “leaden” persons in general.Not surprisingly, lead has found use as an insecticide and was even once considered for use as a military weapon. Lead metal reacts violently with fluorine and chlorine to form the highly poisonous gases, lead fluoride and lead chloride. Lead is also used in all kinds of ammunition – another appropriate application of lead’s esoteric signature as Father Time and the Grim Reaper. There are many research studies linking lead exposure to anger and violence, especially in adolescents. One recent study of all counties in the United States conducted by Colorado State University revealed that the murder rate in counties with the highest lead levels were four times higher than in counties with the lowest levels of lead.More benevolent uses of lead are in storage batteries, covering for underground and transoceanic cables, waste plumbing, shielding around X-ray equipment and nuclear reactors, solder, pewter, fine lead crystal glass, and flint glass with a high refractive index for achromatic lenses.Even the elemental metal carries the seed of its own redemption. The alchemists knew that Fire is lord over lead, for the metal has a low melting point and is easily separated from its ore by roasting in an open flame, and the metal itself melts in a candle flame. Lead expands on heating and contracts on cooling more than any other solid heavy metal. (Silver is the opposite and is considered an antidote to lead.)Perhaps owing to its dual nature, lead carries deeply hidden within its structure the fire of its own transformation. Many lead salts reveal a whole rainbow of brilliant colors, with the solar colors of yellow, orange, and red predominating. This is why lead has been used in paints for so many centuries. Finely divided lead powder is pyrophoric (“fire containing”) and easily catches fire or erupts spontaneously in flames. When made into a fine powder, lead metal must be kept in a vacuum to keep from catching fire. Otherwise, it ignites and burns down to a bright yellow ash, revealing its deeply hidden solar signature. So, the wonder of lead is that hidden deep inside the gray, dead metal is a tiny, eternal spark that is the seed of its own resurrection. In the eyes of alchemists, this makes lead the most important metal despite its unattractive darkness. For dull lead and gleaming gold are really the same things, only at different stages of growth or maturity.The Secret Fire inside lead is really the alchemical basis for transforming lead into gold, and correspondingly, gives mankind hope for its own spiritual transformation. That tiny spark of light in the darkest part of matter makes resurrection part of the structure of the universe. So, deep down inside, the metal lead also yearns to be transformed. It wants to rise in the air and fly, leave matter and form behind, and be free as Fire. Lead unites two contrasting forces: rigid heaviness and revivifying inner fire. Archetypically, the lead process is concerned with death and resurrection. Greek myth says that after death our soul is put on a scale, and the weights of the scale are made from lead, the metal that carries Saturn's signature.Lead is used in magical rituals, spells, and amulets to promote contact with deep unconscious levels (the underworld), deep meditation, controlling negativity, breaking bad habits and addictions, protection, stability, grounding, solidity, perseverance, decisiveness, concentration, conservation, and material constructions (buildings). Pick up a hunk of lead and the first thing you notice is its weight – its connection to gravity. It is that connection to something beyond matter and light, the very form of the universe that is the physical basis for this experiment. During the winter months, preferably on some clear night in late January or early February, go outside and find the planet Saturn in the northern sky. Relax and try to focus all your attention on the golden sphere. Relax completely with an open and quiet mind. Become empty and let the planet influence you. Do this until you feel a real connection with the distant planet. Continue gazing upon Saturn and place a piece of lead metal in your hand. You should be able to feel a strange resonance building. That eerie, cold vibration is not your imagination. It is what alchemists refer to as the “call of lead.” You are experiencing the metal’s true signature or living correspondence with its planetary twin.The strange connection between lead and Saturn has been documented by modern scientists, who have shown that lead compounds react differently depending on Saturn’s position in the sky. For instance, solutions of lead nitrate produce the greatest weight of crystallization (or manifestation) during February, when Saturn rules the sky, and the least during June, when Saturn is barely visible. Lead compounds also exhibit different properties when Saturn aligns with other planets. For example, lead sulfate solution rises 60% higher on strips of filter paper during conjunctions of Saturn with Mars than at other times. It is also known that the ease of making lead solutions (the “solubility coefficient” of lead) varies with the position of Saturn relative to the other planets. NASA is even considering a series of astrochemical experiments to see if the Saturn-lead effects become more pronounced in outer space.Surprisingly, because the metals are such perfect expressions of archetypal energies, we can actually learn quite a bit about people by studying the properties of metals and the behavior of planets. That same correspondence exists in the human temperament. For instance, the leaden person is someone who has, like Saturn, lost their bid to become a star. They have accepted a mere physical existence and believe the created world is all that counts. The positive characteristics of the saturnine person are patience, responsibility, somberness, structure and realism, true knowledge of history and karma. The black messenger crows of Chronos bring black moods, depression and despair to us, but they also alert us to illusion and fakeness in our lives. Surprisingly, because the metals are such perfect expressions of archetypal energies, we can actually learn quite a bit about people by studying the properties of metals and the behavior of planets. That same correspondence exists in the human temperament. For instance, the leaden person is someone who has, like Saturn, lost their bid to become a star. They have accepted a mere physical existence and believe the created world is all that counts. The positive characteristics of the saturnine person are patience, responsibility, somberness, structure and realism, true knowledge of history and karma. The black messenger crows of Chronos bring black moods, depression and despair to us, but they also alert us to illusion and fakeness in our lives. Surprisingly, because the metals are such perfect expressions of archetypal energies, we can actually learn quite a bit about people by studying the properties of metals and the behavior of planets. That same correspondence exists in the human temperament. For instance, the leaden person is someone who has, like Saturn, lost their bid to become a star. They have accepted a mere physical existence and believe the created world is all that counts. The positive characteristics of the saturnine person are patience, responsibility, somberness, structure and realism, true knowledge of history and karma. The black messenger crows of Chronos bring black moods, depression and despair to us, but they also alert us to illusion and fakeness in our lives. Because the lusterless metal is so “dead” and resists interaction with other substances, it is used as containers for acids, like automobile batteries, and is used as a lining in pipes that carry corrosive substances. Similarly, the lead tempered person is like an acid-proof container that stores up caustic feelings and anger. Phrases like “acid tongued” and “vitriolic” have their origins in this alchemical process of storing negative emotional energy.On the psychological level, lead is symbolic of a person’s inertness and unwillingness to change. There is a denial of all higher or spiritual energies, and the alchemists often portrayed the leaden person as lying in an open grave or hopelessly chained to matter in some way. A feeling of being trapped in material reality is symptomatic of a leaden attitude. Leaden people are stubborn, unyielding, and often control other people by making them wait. They must always be right, rarely accept blame or admit to being in error, and have no real regard for the truth of a situation. They may be religious but not spiritual. They tend to be suspicious of genius and inspiration, which they will often attribute to fantasy, They feel threatened by freedom of thought and expression, and sometimes use ridicule or try to “push people’s buttons” to control it. They tend to be very uncreative, judgmental, and smug.On the other hand, leaden people are grounded, earthy, and practical. They are good friends during times of bereavement – a rock of support at funerals and deathbeds. Such people secretly crave stimulation, excitement, and new ideas. They gravitate to people who supply energy and entertainment in their lives. This craving for stimulation often makes them focus on nervous energy instead of higher inspiration. Therefore, Saturn’s children can be very reactive and excitable instead of lethargic, as they try to escape from their prison of matter.As soon as bright, fresh lead metal is exposed to air, it forms a dull-gray oxide layer called the “litharge” that resists any further chemical interaction. In alchemy, air is associated with spiritual energy, and lead reacts to it by instantly forming a barrier or blocking it. Likewise, one of the distinguishing characteristics of someone with a lead temperament is their lack of interest in spiritual ideas. There is also a general lack of interest in life in general, and leaden people often seem lazy, lethargic, or unresponsive.In the individual, lead absorbs the inner light or insight necessary for personal growth and blocks all outside “radiations,” such as attempts at spiritual instruction by others. Because psychological lead absorbs both the deeper vibrations of intuition and higher spiritual energies and aspirations, the person with a lead temperament is uninspired, unimaginative, and lacks that creative spark so necessary for positive change. Before long the lead person starts to feel trapped in his or her dull environment and seeks out excitement, death-defying feats, lively people, and challenging conversation. Their favorite color is often red, and unconsciously, they are seeking the alchemical element of Fire. Fire is one of the Four Elements that represents activity, energy, creative thinking, and transformation. Fire is the tool alchemists use to begin the transmutation of lead into gold as well as transform leaden consciousness into a golden awareness of higher reality. In the laboratory, the changes in the metal and in the alchemist take place simultaneously. Otherwise, there can be no real transformation. The alchemists transmuted the Lead temperament using the Fire operation of Calcination. Physically, lead and Saturn rule the bones, teeth, spleen, and slow chronic processes such as aging. The therapeutic effects are contracting, coagulating, drying, and mineralizing. Saturn-ruled plants enhance the structures of life. They give a sobriety of disposition, en-abling one to see limitations. These plants give steadiness, solidity of pur-pose, subtlety, diplomacy, patience, and an ability to work on the physical plane better.Saturnic or leaden energies are needed for those who have a hard time finishing pro-jects or for those with plenty of ideas but never realize them. Alchemists seeking to produce physical effects found in saturnine elixirs the essential vibratory rate that enabled materialization. Alchemists seeking to produce physical effects found in saturnine elixirs the essential vibratory rate that enabled materialization. Generally speaking, any other elixir mixed with a Saturn elixir will be earthed, which makes them of great value when working on physical plane phenomenon. Their physical therapeutic properties become refrigerant, anti-pyretic, sedative, styptic, and astringent.For instance, if one mixes a saturnine elixir with a mercurial one, the alchemists believed it would release knowledge contained in secret magical manuscripts or in ancient hermetic traditions, because the Saturn-Mercury vibration contains all hidden knowledge of an esoteric nature within it. Alchemical oils were mixed in the same way. For example, to treat leukemia, alchemists would prescribe an equal mixture of lead oil and gold oil. The alchemists made an Oil of Lead that was good for “growth of bones after breaking, strengthening the skeleton, osteoporosis and atrophy of the bones, stimulation of the spleen, drying tissue, reducing secretions and discharges, stopping bleeding, reducing fever, increasing patience, and stopping visions and an overactive imagination.” They also suggested it for hallucinations due to neurological disorders that have delirious after-effects such as encephalitis and post-traumatic stress syndrome. In the “like cures like” philosophy of homeopathy, lead is used to treat sclerosis, the hardening of bones and arteries, which is the hallmark of old age and signature of lead. The homeopathic name of lead is Plumbum metallicum. Native tin is known as stannum, which is the Latin word for tin and also gives the metal its chemical symbol (Sn). The alchemical symbol is K, which shows the lunar principle of soul above the cross of the elements or emerging from the darkness of matter.

Tin is a shiny, silvery-white metal that is malleable, somewhat ductile and sectile, and seems like a perfected form of lead to the casual observer. In fact, the Romans called tin Plumbum album or “white lead.” Tin resists weathering and does not oxidize, and tin utensils buried underground or lost at sea in sunken ships shone like new when rediscovered after hundreds of years. “Tinkers” were gypsy craftsmen who wandered from neighborhood to neighborhood in Europe repairing tin kettles and utensils or melting them down and recasting them. Native or elemental tin is extremely rare in nature and is found with gold and copper deposits. The metal was considered “semi-noble” in ancient times and was used for jewelry in Babylonia and Egypt. The Romans used it to make mirrors, and it was used as coinage in Europe at one time.

Tin has a highly crystalline structure, and due to the breaking of these crystals, a "cry" is heard when a tin bar is bent. Unlike lead, tin has pleasing acoustic effects and is used in the making of bells. The crystals in common grey tin have a cubic structure, but when heated or frozen it changes into white tin, which has a tetragonal structure. After further heating or freezing, white tin disintegrates into a powdery substance. This powder has the ability to “infect” other tin surfaces it comes in contact with by forming blisters that spread until all the metal “sickens” and disintegrates. This transformation is encouraged by impurities such as zinc and aluminum and can be prevented by adding small amounts of antimony or bismuth to the metal. The sickness of tin was called the “tin plague” and was the scourge of tin roofs during Europe’s frigid winters. The mysterious effect was first was first noticed as “growths” on organ pipes in European cathedrals, where it was thought to be the work of the devil to disfigure god’s work.Tin metal has only a few practical uses and most tin is used in alloys. Bronze is an alloy of 5% tin and 95% copper, and the development of bronze by humans marked a new age of advancement known as the Bronze Age. Most solder is a combination of tin and lead; pewter is also an alloy of tin and lead. Other tin alloys are used to make tin cans and tin roofs, and tin has significant use as a corrosion fighter in the protection of other metals. Tin resists distilled, sea and soft tap water, but is attacked by strong acids, alkalis, and acid salts. When heated in air, tin forms tin oxide, which is used to plate steel and make tin cans. Other uses are in type metal, fusible metal, Babbitt metal, and die casting alloys. Tin chloride is used as a reducing agent and mordant in calico printing. Tin salts sprayed onto glass are used to produce electrically conductive coatings, which are used for panel lighting and for frost-free windshields. Window glass is made by floating molten glass on molten tin to produce a flat surface. A crystalline tin-niobium alloy is superconductive at very low temperatures, and shoebox-sized electromagnets made of the wire produce magnetic fields comparable to conventional electromagnets weighing hundreds of tons.The distribution of tin on earth follows an ecliptic at an angle of 23.5 º to the equator that is an exact track of the orbit of Jupiter slicing through the planet. Even stranger, these jovian forces seem to form tin veins that zigzag through the rocks in a lightening bolt pattern. This is no haphazard effect, but an astonishing confirmation of Jupiter freeing the metals from their Saturnic prison on earth. Goethe was just one great alchemical philosopher who believed this. “A remarkable influence proceeds from the metal tin,” he wrote. “This has a differentiating influence, and opens a door through which a way is provided for different metals to be formed from primeval rocks.”Tin ore minerals include oxide minerals like cassiterite and a few sulfides such as franckerite. By far the most tin comes from cassiterite or tin oxide. Reduction of this ore in burning coal results in tin metal and was probably how tin was made by the ancients. Cassiterite is a black or reddish brown mineral that has ornately faceted specimens with a greasy, high luster. It is generally opaque, but its luster and multiple crystal faces cause a sparkling surface. Cassiterite has been an important ore of tin for thousands of years and is still the greatest source of tin today. Most aggregate specimens of cassiterite show crystal twins, with the typical twin bent at a near-60-degree angle to form a distinctive "Elbow Twin." Other crystalline forms include eight-sided prisms and four-sided pyramids. Cassiterite is sometimes found in nature associated with topaz and fluorite gemstones.Tin has a surprising affinity for silica and shares its crystalline structure. In the jovian ring on our planet where native tin is found, the metal lies in silica veins of quartz and granite. In the body, high concentrations of tin and silica are found in the boundary layer of the skin, and tin reacts with silica acid in many of the “shaping” processes of growth. In the Middle Ages, sick people were served food on a tin plate and drinks in a tin vessel to help them regenerate and recover their strength. Today, we know that tin acts as a bactericide and pesticide.Native tin is known as stannum, which is the Latin word for tin and also gives the metal its chemical symbol (Sn). The alchemical symbol is K, which shows the lunar principle of soul above the cross of the elements or emerging from the darkness of matter.

Tin is a shiny, silvery-white metal that is malleable, somewhat ductile and sectile, and seems like a perfected form of lead to the casual observer. In fact, the Romans called tin Plumbum album or “white lead.” Tin resists weathering and does not oxidize, and tin utensils buried underground or lost at sea in sunken ships shone like new when rediscovered after hundreds of years. “Tinkers” were gypsy craftsmen who wandered from neighborhood to neighborhood in Europe repairing tin kettles and utensils or melting them down and recasting them. Native or elemental tin is extremely rare in nature and is found with gold and copper deposits. The metal was considered “semi-noble” in ancient times and was used for jewelry in Babylonia and Egypt. The Romans used it to make mirrors, and it was used as coinage in Europe at one time.

Tin has a highly crystalline structure, and due to the breaking of these crystals, a "cry" is heard when a tin bar is bent. Unlike lead, tin has pleasing acoustic effects and is used in the making of bells. The crystals in common grey tin have a cubic structure, but when heated or frozen it changes into white tin, which has a tetragonal structure. After further heating or freezing, white tin disintegrates into a powdery substance. This powder has the ability to “infect” other tin surfaces it comes in contact with by forming blisters that spread until all the metal “sickens” and disintegrates. This transformation is encouraged by impurities such as zinc and aluminum and can be prevented by adding small amounts of antimony or bismuth to the metal. The sickness of tin was called the “tin plague” and was the scourge of tin roofs during Europe’s frigid winters. The mysterious effect was first was first noticed as “growths” on organ pipes in European cathedrals, where it was thought to be the work of the devil to disfigure god’s work.Tin metal has only a few practical uses and most tin is used in alloys. Bronze is an alloy of 5% tin and 95% copper, and the development of bronze by humans marked a new age of advancement known as the Bronze Age. Most solder is a combination of tin and lead; pewter is also an alloy of tin and lead. Other tin alloys are used to make tin cans and tin roofs, and tin has significant use as a corrosion fighter in the protection of other metals. Tin resists distilled, sea and soft tap water, but is attacked by strong acids, alkalis, and acid salts. When heated in air, tin forms tin oxide, which is used to plate steel and make tin cans. Other uses are in type metal, fusible metal, Babbitt metal, and die casting alloys. Tin chloride is used as a reducing agent and mordant in calico printing. Tin salts sprayed onto glass are used to produce electrically conductive coatings, which are used for panel lighting and for frost-free windshields. Window glass is made by floating molten glass on molten tin to produce a flat surface. A crystalline tin-niobium alloy is superconductive at very low temperatures, and shoebox-sized electromagnets made of the wire produce magnetic fields comparable to conventional electromagnets weighing hundreds of tons.The distribution of tin on earth follows an ecliptic at an angle of 23.5 º to the equator that is an exact track of the orbit of Jupiter slicing through the planet. Even stranger, these jovian forces seem to form tin veins that zigzag through the rocks in a lightening bolt pattern. This is no haphazard effect, but an astonishing confirmation of Jupiter freeing the metals from their Saturnic prison on earth. Goethe was just one great alchemical philosopher who believed this. “A remarkable influence proceeds from the metal tin,” he wrote. “This has a differentiating influence, and opens a door through which a way is provided for different metals to be formed from primeval rocks.”Tin ore minerals include oxide minerals like cassiterite and a few sulfides such as franckerite. By far the most tin comes from cassiterite or tin oxide. Reduction of this ore in burning coal results in tin metal and was probably how tin was made by the ancients. Cassiterite is a black or reddish brown mineral that has ornately faceted specimens with a greasy, high luster. It is generally opaque, but its luster and multiple crystal faces cause a sparkling surface. Cassiterite has been an important ore of tin for thousands of years and is still the greatest source of tin today. Most aggregate specimens of cassiterite show crystal twins, with the typical twin bent at a near-60-degree angle to form a distinctive "Elbow Twin." Other crystalline forms include eight-sided prisms and four-sided pyramids. Cassiterite is sometimes found in nature associated with topaz and fluorite gemstones.Tin has a surprising affinity for silica and shares its crystalline structure. In the jovian ring on our planet where native tin is found, the metal lies in silica veins of quartz and granite. In the body, high concentrations of tin and silica are found in the boundary layer of the skin, and tin reacts with silica acid in many of the “shaping” processes of growth. In the Middle Ages, sick people were served food on a tin plate and drinks in a tin vessel to help them regenerate and recover their strength. Today, we know that tin acts as a bactericide and pesticide.

Flowers last longer in tin vases, and food has been preserved in the tin cans (actually a thin layer of tin on iron) for over a century. Beer (ruled by the jovial Jupiter) is said to taste best from a tin mug. Jupiter rules growth, the metabolic system, the liver, and the enrichment of the blood from food. Jupiter therapeutic effects are anti-spasmodic and hepatic. Jupiter-ruled plants preserve the body and promote healthy growth and are the natural healing herbs of the planetary system. They af-fect the mind in such a way as to promote an understanding of ritual form from the highest point of view, and religious leaders, doctors, lawyers, etc. will find great benefit from jovian herb remedies. They also attune one to the wealth vibration and open up channels for growth and expansion, materi-ally as well as spiritually.Jupiter controls the circulation of blood in the human body. If mixed with a solar herbal eider, it will give the alchemist access to the highest plane. Jupiter-Mercury combinations produce insight into the philosophical principles of any system and their part in the cosmic scheme and provide an intuitive understanding of the great spiritual masters. This particular herbal mixture also produces a lightheartedness and gaiety, which can be very useful to those with a predisposition to depression or gloominess. The physical properties of such a mixture are anabolic and antispasmodic.The alchemists made an Oil of Tin that was used to treat the liver (jaundice, hepatitis, cirrhosis), certain types of eczema, liquid ovarian cysts, inflammatory effusions, pleurisies, acne, water retention, and certain types of obesity. This oil was said to be excellent for someone "loosing shape." The oil was also used as a sweat inducer, wormer, antispasmodic, cathartic, and laxative.The polar (opposite) metal to tin is mercury, and Oil of Tin was said to be an excellent antidote for mercury poisoning, and likewise mercury was said to balance the bad effects of tin. Tin and mercury oil combined are said to provide deep insight and cure lightheadedness and certain phases of manic-depressive syndrome.The homeopathic form of tin is called Stannum, a remedy which is said to strengthen and regenerate muscle and brain tissue. It is also a remedy for the joints and connective tissue of ligaments and cartilage. Stannum is allegedly beneficial in liver disease and is used for congestion, hardening, encephalitis, and other illnesses where the fluid balance is upset.During the early Spring, preferably sometime in March, go outside and find the red planet Mars in the night sky. Relax and try to focus all your attention on the tiny red sphere. Relax completely with an open and quiet mind. Become empty and let the planet influence you. Do this until you feel a real connection with the distant planet. Continue gazing upon Mars and place a piece of iron in your hand or a small cast iron pot or other object but not something of made of steel or chromed. You should be able to feel a resonance building. It is what alchemists refer to as the “call of iron.” You are experiencing the metal’s true signature or living correspondence with its planetary twin. See how your feelings compare to how the alchemists felt about this powerful metal.When mixed with solar herbs, iron herbs increase energy and activate the energetic potentials of other herbs. Martian elixirs release the action poten-tial of the soul of something. When mixed with other herbs, martian herbs acti-vate the potentialities of the other herbs to a great degree making them more forceful in applica-tion and generally more active. Mars herbs are wonderful tonics when mixed with Sun herbs. The combination gives great physical energy, tones the muscles, and increases sexual potency. They also provoke self-reliance, spontaneity, and indepen-dence of attitude. If the alchemist is involved in magical evocation, a mixture of a mars, moon, and mercurial elixirs will help produce the physical plane vehicle of manifestation.Copper is a reddish-brown metal with a bright metallic luster. It is in the same group in the Periodic Table as gold, and like gold, it is remarkably ductile. It is also very malleable and sectile (it can be pounded into other shapes and cut into slices) and is an excellent conductor of heat and electricity. Molten copper is a sea green color, and copper tarnishes with a green color and burns with a blue-green flame with flashes of red, and the alchemists sometimes described Venus, the metal’s archetypal planetary source, as dressed in a blue cloak over a red gown.Pick up a piece of copper and the first thing you notice is its surprising feeling of warmth and moisture. It is that connection to something archetypal and nourishing that makes up the signature of this metal. It is easy to connect with copper, just as its planet (Venus) is easy to see in the sky. It is so brilliant it is often mistaken for a bright star or even a UFO. The best time to see it is in the early evening or morning when it is close to the horizon. In fact, Venus has been called both the “Morning Star” and the “Evening Star” and is associated with magical energies. It is the “first star I see tonight” upon you make you wish that will come true with the sympathetic venusian energies. On some clear night or morning, go outside and find the planet Venus. Relax and try to focus all your attention on the brilliant white sphere. Relax completely with an open and quiet mind. Become empty and let the planet influence you. Do this until you feel a real connection with the distant planet. Continue gazing upon the planet and grab a piece of copper, a fistful of pennies, or even a copper cooking utensil. You should be able to feel a warm resonance building. That deep and soothing vibration is not your imagination. It is what alchemists refer to as the “call of copper.” You are experiencing the metal’s true signature or living correspondence with its planetary twin.The venusian signature gives refinement of senses and the ability to appreciate beauty. Artists, actors, and others in the public eye will find these elixirs a great aid to performing their work. Venus herbs also enhance the taste perceptions, promote affection, give an amiable disposition, and make one more psychically sensitive to astral influences. For those who feel a lack of charm, or some of the softer human qualities, a venusian elixir will stimulate the right vibration in your aura. Venusian elixirs also promote harmony and balance within our being and in our dealings with others. Venusian elixirs are said to give access to that realm of the astral that is intimately connected with the working and forces of the most intimate magic of nature. They are a great aid to alchemists who wish to make herbal alchemy their life work, as they open up the human consciousness to the secrets of the plant kingdom. Naturalists will find these elixirs most illuminating, as they will give conscious con-tact with the various “deities” of long past nature religions.Mercury is truly unique. It is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature and the heaviest natural liquid on the planet. According to alchemical theory, all the metals began in the liquid state on deep in the earth, but only mercury was able to retain it original innocence and life force and resist taking on a final form, and for that reason, the ancients called it Mercurius vivens (the “living mercury”). This silvery liquid metal (also known as “Quicksilver”) was known to ancient Chinese and Hindus before 2000 BC and has been found in sacred tubes in Egyptian tombs dated from 1500 BC. It was first used to form alloys with other metals around 500 BC. The Greeks applied germ-killing ability of mercury in healing ointments (to the benefit of those afflicted with wounds and skin infections), and in the Middle Ages, Paracelsus used it successfully to treat syphilis. However, the ancient Romans applied mercury compounds for long-term use in cosmetics, and many beautiful women eventually died of its cumulative poisonous effects. Today, many popular brands of eye makeup still contain low levels of mercury.In the East, metallic mercury was the main ingredient in most Tantric medicinal preparations. In his travels through India, Marco Polo observed that many people drank a concoction of mercury and sulfur twice monthly from early childhood with no observable ill effects. They believed the drink gave them longevity. Tantric alchemists in India still take metallic mercury in place of food as an elixir of life, although they caution that the body must be perfectly attuned and strengthened to tolerate the intense cosmic infusion of life force. In Indian alchemy, mercury is called rasa, which refers to the subtle essence that is the origin of all forms of matter. The cosmic chaos from which the universe sprang is called the Rasasara or “Sea of Mercury.” The craft of alchemy is referred to as Rasayana or “Knowledge of Mercury.” Go outside on the night of the full moon and gaze up at the silver orb. Relax and try to focus all your attention on the surface of the moon. Relax completely with an open and quiet mind. Become empty and let our closest planetary body influence you. Do this until you feel a real connection. Now, pick up piece of silver jewelry or dinnerware, and hold it in your left hand until it gets warm. You should be able to feel a liquid-like sensation of cool metallic energy. This is what alchemists refer to as the “call of silver.” You are experiencing the metal’s true signature or living correspondence with the moon itself. Try to remember how this feels in your body. Has the taste in your mouth changed? Has your eyesight altered? How does your skin feel.The alchemists prepared an Oil of Silver they used to treat disorders of the brain and cerebellum, reduce stress, balance emotions, improve memory, treat nervous disorders and epilepsy, improve both melancholia and mania. It was also used as a physical purgative and mental purifier. It was said to affect the subconscious mind, see into the past clearly, remove fears and blockages, allow one to unwind, produce “homey” feelings, give a feeling of grace and sensitivity, and enhanced imagination.Using elaborate mixing and heating techniques, Egyptian alchemists tried making gold by changing the proportions of the Four Elements in the base metals or by attempting to speed up natural growth of lesser metals into gold. Around 100 AD, Egyptian alchemist Maria Prophetissa used mercury and sulfur to try to make gold. Around 300 AD, the alchemist Zosimos, whose recipes often came to him in dreams, was working to transmute copper. “The soul of copper,” he wrote must be purified until it receives the sheen of gold and turns into the royal metal of the Sun." A technique known as "diplosis" (“doubling”) of gold became popular. One such recipe called for heating a mixture of two parts gold with one part each of silver and copper. After appropriate alchemical charging that brought the seed of gold alive, twice as much of a gold as originally added was produced. Egyptian alchemists believed that the gold acted as a seed in metals, especially copper and silver. According to their view, the seed of gold grew, eating the copper and silver as food, until the whole mixture was transformed into pure gold.Gold is a stubbornly pure metal when it comes to reacting or even associating with “lesser” elements. That signature explains a lot of the chemical characteristics of gold. Unlike nearly every other metal, there are no plants that contain even trace amounts of metallic gold. There are very few gold ores, because the noblest metal never alloys with the baser metals, but does alloy with the noble metal silver and makes an amalgam with mercury.Gold is extremely ductile, malleable, and sectile, and so soft it can be cut with a knife, which makes gold impractical to use for tools. It is also very heavy. A gold bar is twice as heavy as an equal-sized bar of lead. Furthermore, gold embodies an inner equilibrium of forces that make it pretty much indestructible. Gold never tarnishes like copper or silver or rust like iron and, whether found buried in the ground, at the bottom of the ocean, in an ancient tomb, or in the ring on your finger, it always looks the same. It cannot be damaged by heat and was considered completely inalterable until around 1100 AD, when alchemists concocted a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids known as Agua Regia (“Royal Water”) that could dissolve gold. The immortal metal is endlessly recycled, and all the gold known today is very nearly equal to all the gold that has ever been mined. One ounce of gold can be stretched into a single wire 35 miles long, or it can be beaten to just a few atoms thick. It is the most flexible, enduring, and beautiful of all metals.

Gold shows a distinct affinity for sulfur and forms an ore with a rare element called tellurium. It is one of the few elements gold easily bonds with. In fact, telluride is rarely found without gold. Gold also appears in minerals that are part of a group of tellurium sulfides called the tellurides. However, the amount of gold in these minerals is really miniscule next to the amount of gold found in its native metallic state. Native gold seems to like the company of the purest white quartz and is also found mixed with deposits of pyrite and a few other sulfide minerals. Gold is six times rarer than silver, and it takes about three tons of gold ore to extract an ounce of gold metal.Around the world, nearly every culture associated their supreme god or goddess with gold. For many centuries only the images of gods graced gold coins, until Alexander the Great began the trend of rulers’ images appearing on gold coins around 30 BC. Even the most primitive societies recognize the sacred properties of gold. For example, the Makuna tribes of modern Brazil believe that gold contains “the light of the sun and stars." The chemical symbol for gold (Au) comes from the Latin word aurum meaning "gold.” The alchemical cipher for gold is a rendition of the sun (A), and gold was considered a kind of congealed light. Sol is the King of alchemy, and his royal purple-red color is revealed in gold colloidal solutions, and red is his symbolic color. Sol Philosophorum was the name the alchemists gave to this living spirit of gold, which they saw as the refined essence of heat and fire. Gold was known and considered sacred from earliest times. Gold became popular because it reminded people of the sun with its warm, life-giving properties. Because of its imperishability, the ancient Chinese thought that gold conveyed immortality to its owners. Egyptian inscriptions dating back to 2600 BC describe these same associations with gold. Gold replaced bartering around 3500 BC when the people of Mesopotamia started using it as a kind of money because of it eternal value. By 2800 BC, gold was being fashioned into standardized weights in the form of rings. People started carried black stones called “touchstones” onto which they scraped a piece of gold to leave a streak. Depending on the brightness of the streak, one could estimate how much gold was in the sample. Around 1500 BC, Mesopotamian alchemists discovered a process for purifying gold known as "cuppellation," which involved heating impure gold in a porcelain cup called a “cuppel.” Impurities were absorbed by the porcelain, leaving a button of pure gold behind. Later alchemists used cuppels to test the quality of their transmutations.Using elaborate mixing and heating techniques, Egyptian alchemists tried making gold by changing the proportions of the Four Elements in the base metals or by attempting to speed up natural growth of lesser metals into gold. Around 100 AD, Egyptian alchemist Maria Prophetissa used mercury and sulfur to try to make gold. Around 300 AD, the alchemist Zosimos, whose recipes often came to him in dreams, was working to transmute copper. “The soul of copper,” he wrote must be purified until it receives the sheen of gold and turns into the royal metal of the Sun." A technique known as "diplosis" (“doubling”) of gold became popular. One such recipe called for heating a mixture of two parts gold with one part each of silver and copper. After appropriate alchemical charging that brought the seed of gold alive, twice as much of a gold as originally added was produced. Egyptian alchemists believed that the gold acted as a seed in metals, especially copper and silver. According to their view, the seed of gold grew, eating the copper and silver as food, until the whole mixture was transformed into pure gold.According to the medieval alchemists, Nature sought continually to create the perfection achieved in gold, and they looked at every metal as gold in the making. Alchemists also thought that the objective of every metal was to become gold, and every metal was tested for corrosion and strength and ranked as to how far it was from gold. Many alchemists felt that mercury was the closest metal to gold and that it could be transmuted directly into gold. Their intuition was correct, for mercury can indeed be turned into gold. Gold and mercury are next to each other on the Periodic Table. Mercury is element 80 (has 80 protons) and gold is element 79 (has 79 protons). In the 1960s, physicists were able to knock out a proton in mercury atoms using neutron particle accelerators, and thereby create minute quantities of gold.Gold is at the head of the metals, paired with what in the medieval mind was the strongest planet, the Sun. The alchemists were obsessed with gold’s signature of perfection. Medieval Italian alchemist Bernard Trevisan speculated, "Is not gold merely the Sun’s beams condensed into a solid yellow?" Seventeenth-century alchemist John French asked fervently: “Is there no sperm in gold? Is it not possible to exalt it for multiplication? Is there no universal spirit in the world? Is it not possible to find that collected in One Thing which is dispersed in all things? What is that which makes gold incorruptible? What induced the philosophers to examine gold for the matter of their medicine? Was not all gold once living? Is there none of this living gold, the matter of philosophers, to be had anymore?”Gold is highly valued in the everyday world too. It is used as coinage and is a standard for monetary systems in many countries. It is used to make jewelry and artwork, and also in dentistry, electronics, and plating. Since it is an excellent reflector of infrared energy (such as emerges from the sun), the metal is used to coat space satellites and interstellar probes. Chlorauric acid is used in photography for toning the silver image. It is also used in medicine to treat degenerative diseases such as arthritis and cancer.Chemist Lilly Kolisko performed experiments with gold chloride and showed its chemical behavior coincided with events that altered the strength of the sun, such as the weakening in solar forces during solar eclipses or their increase during the summer solstice. Moreover, she found that both silver and gold salts seemed to be equally influenced by the sun. In the case of silver, it was the forms or patterns that changed, whereas in the gold, it was the colors that changed. Silver shapes moved from jagged spikes to smooth rolling forms but the colors remained hues of grey, while the basic shape of gold patterns remained the same but the colors changed from brilliant yellows through violet to reddish-purple hues. This work presents an amazing confirmation of how the King and Queen, Sol and Luna, work together in creation, with the female principle representing soul and form and the male principle representing spirit and energy. Kolisko’s innovative work with the metals is presented in the Appendix. Her work has been duplicated by dozens of other chemists and has been confirmed many times.The signatures of gold are invoked in rituals, magical spells, and talismans concerning solar deities, the male force, authority, self-confidence, creativity, financial riches, investments, fortune, hope, health, and worldly and magical power. Gold talismans can be very expensive, but you can make one of gold colored cardboard or write the symbols on it with gold paint or plate an object with gold. Gold jewelry is said to improve self-confidence and inner strength. To charge water with the signature of gold, put a gold object in a glass of water and let sit in the sunlight for 6-10 hours.During sunrise or sunset, face the sun and try to feel it archetypal presence. If not too bright, gaze into the rising or setting sun and try to see the metallic solar disk of which the Egyptian alchemists spoke. Relax and try to focus all your attention on the golden sphere. Relax completely with an open and quiet mind. Become empty and let the presence at the center of our solar system influence you. Do this until you feel a real connection with the distant sun. Continue facing the sun as you pick up a piece of gold jewelry or a vial of pure gold flakes (such as sold in some novelty shops) into your right palm. You should be able to feel a electric warmth building. That eerie, warm vibration is not your imagination. It is what alchemists refer to as the “call of gold” – the resonation of the metal with its “planet.” You are experiencing the metal’s true signature or living correspondence, and for gold, this is the most perfect expression of all materials. If you can connect with this archetype, you will realize that it a very personal as well as divine presence. As Above, so Below. This is perfection on all levels of your mind, body, and soul resonating with the perfection inherent in the Whole Universe.For those with weaker wills or loss of contact with the divine presence, gold represents a psychological cure. The solar essences gives great ambition, courage, self-re-liance, dignity, authority, and the ability to manage oneself and others. The creative principle, no matter how small and insignificant it is within us can be enhanced to a great degree by tapping into the solar archetype. Just as the Sun represents the di-vine creative force in our immediate solar system, gold represents the same thing in our inner temperament. For lasting manifestation, the golden temperament needs to be firmly grounded in the world, and the danger at this phase of transformation is that the individual become too focused on the workings Above and forget his or her connection to the real world. Gold and the blazing Sun correspond to personal ambition, courage, and creative energy and vitality, but without a constant effort to remain pure and alive in the real world, the golden temperament can quickly transmute into the leaden qualities of despair, poor self esteem, lack of confidence, and impurity. Most important for the golden temperament, however, is to realize that once having reached this plateau, one has certain personal and karmic obligations. The golden attitude of this temperament is what brings the rewards of health, wealth, and happiness through synchonistic responses from the universe. Go against these archetypal powers at this level of achievement and even the slightest deviation from the golden path of righteousness and personal integrity can have disastrous and immediate consequences. The alchemists transmuted the Gold temperament using the operation of Coagulation.Chrysotherapy is the name given to healing with gold. The mystical metal has been used for both spiritual and medical purposes as far back as ancient Egypt. Over 5,000 years ago, the Egyptians used gold in dentistry and ingested it for mental, bodily, and spiritual purification. The ancients believed that gold in the body worked by stimulating the life force and raising the level of vibration on all levels. In Alexandria, alchemists developed a powerful elixir known as “liquid gold,” which reportedly had the ability to restore youth and perfect health. In ancient Rome, gold salves were used for the treatment of skin ulcers, and today, gold leaf plays an important role in the treatment of chronic skin ulcers. The great alchemist and founder of modern medicine, Paracelsus, developed many highly successful medicines from metallic minerals including gold. In medieval Europe, gold-coated pills and “gold waters” were extremely popular. Alchemists mixed powdered gold into drinks to "comfort sore limbs," and today, it is widely used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. In the 1900s, surgeons implanted a $5.00 gold piece under the skin near an inflamed joint, such as a knee or elbow. In China, peasants still cook their rice with a gold coin in order to help replenish gold in their bodies, and fancy Chinese restaurants put 24-karat gold-leaf in their food preparations.The alchemists believed that gold represented the perfection of matter, and that its presence in the body would enliven, rejuvenate, and cure a multitude of “dis-eases.” Gold is never corrodes or even tarnishes, is completely non-toxic, and exhibits no interactions with other drugs. Gold is the only heavy metal that has a right-hand atomic spin and is therefore easily tolerated by the body.The alchemists believed that gold represented the perfection of matter, and that its presence in the body would enliven, rejuvenate, and cure a multitude of “dis-eases.” Gold is never corrodes or even tarnishes, is completely non-toxic, and exhibits no interactions with other drugs. Gold is the only heavy metal that has a right-hand atomic spin and is therefore easily tolerated by the body.Sun-ruled plants affect the soul in its positive phase of manifestation, which manifests on the personal level as our idea of ourselves as a progressive unified entity. Solar herbs help us realize our evolutionary epoch as an individual among many other individuals, helping to synthesize and synchronize our goals with those of the macrocosm. In this sense they are ego fortifiers, but with a divine purpose.Solar herbs heal inferiority complexes, bolstering people and giving them a sense of purpose beyond the norm. The Sun represents the Christ and Osiris consciousness in man, as well as Hercules in his monumental strength. For those with weaker wills, Sun ruled herbs will provide the springboard for more posi-tive action; they also bestow the quality of generosity to our souls. Solar plants, when alchemically charged, will reveal the divine purpose of our solar system, and will let you be-come aware of the will of God in manifestation. Solar essences give great ambition.

www.azothalchemy.org/metals.htm

5-Hour performance piece, June 2004, 'Mediators'. Fordham Gallery, Princelet Street, London

Curated by Ann Lawlor.

A Kind of Anchorage (A work/mediation in progress)

My title derives from, and acknowledges, Harold Pinter's 'A Kind of Alaska'. Although it shares its title with the name of the capital of that cold state, my subject for mediation is of another state completely. It is geographically divorced from that region of America.

It relates more to the Anchorage or Anchorhold of medieval self-imposed isolation. There is a fundamental difference between the hermit and Anchorite of that distant time. Whilst the hermit removed him or herself from the community and went into self-imposed exile, the Anchorite chose to be incarcerated or isolated within the community. These Anchorholds were usually a small cell carbuncled onto a church where the Anchorite was immured. His (the Anchorite) or her (the Anchoress) role was thenceforth to be that of mediator between the community and what was held to be the divine.

Pinter's play, in turn, was inspired by 'Awakenings' by Oliver Sacks. Pinter acknowledges this in the introduction.

"In the winter of 1916-17, there spread over Europe, and subsequently over the rest of the world, an extraordinary epidemic illness which presented itself in innumerable forms--as delirium, mania, trances, coma, sleep, insomnia, restlessness, and states of Parkinsonism. It was eventually identified by the great physician Constantin von Economo and named by him encephalitis lethargica, or sleeping sickness.

Over the next ten years almost five million people fell victim to the disease of whom more than a third died. Of the survivors some escaped almost unscathed, but the majority moved into states of deepening illness. The worst affected sank into singular states of "sleep"-conscious of their surroundings but motionless, speechless, and without hope or will, confined to asylums or other institutions.

Fifty years later, with the development of the remarkable drug L-Dopa, they erupted into life once more."

In Pinter's play Deborah describes this incarceration:

"Oh dear. (the flicking of her cheek grows faster)

Yes, I think they're closing in. They're closing in.

They're closing the walls in. Yes. (She bows her head, flicking faster, her fingers now moving over her face)

Oh.well.oooohhhh.oh no.oh no.(during the course of this speech her body becomes more hunch-backed) Let me

out. Stop it. Let me out. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it.

Shutting the walls on me. Shutting them down on me. So tight, so tight. Something panting, something panting.

Can't see. Oh, the light is going. They're shutting up shop. They're closing my face. Chains and padlocks.

Bolting me up. Stinking. The smell. Oh my goodness, oh dear, oh my goodness, oh dear, I'm so young. It's a

vice. I'm in a vice. It's at the back of my neck. Ah.

Eyes stuck. Only see the shadow of the tip of my nose.

Eye's stuck. (She stops flicking abruptly, sits still.

Her body straightens. She looks up. She looks at her fingers, examines them) Nothing."

Between these spaces, this disease-imposed Anchorage, and the chosen Anchorhold of the medieval Anchorite is the area I want to pillage and mediate.

June 2004 'Mediators'. Fordham Gallery, Princelet Street, London

A Kind of Anchorage (A work/mediation in progress)

My title derives from, and acknowledges, Harold Pinter's 'A Kind of Alaska'. Although it shares its title with the name of the capital of that cold state, my subject for mediation is of another state completely. It is geographically divorced from that region of America.

It relates more to the Anchorage or Anchorhold of medieval self-imposed isolation. There is a fundamental difference between the hermit and Anchorite of that distant time. Whilst the hermit removed him or herself from the community and went into self-imposed exile, the Anchorite chose to be incarcerated or isolated within the community. These Anchorholds were usually a small cell carbuncled onto a church where the Anchorite was immured. His (the Anchorite) or her (the Anchoress) role was thenceforth to be that of mediator between the community and what was held to be the divine.

Pinter's play, in turn, was inspired by 'Awakenings' by Oliver Sacks. Pinter acknowledges this in the introduction.

"In the winter of 1916-17, there spread over Europe, and subsequently over the rest of the world, an extraordinary epidemic illness which presented itself in innumerable forms--as delirium, mania, trances, coma, sleep, insomnia, restlessness, and states of Parkinsonism. It was eventually identified by the great physician Constantin von Economo and named by him encephalitis lethargica, or sleeping sickness.

Over the next ten years almost five million people fell victim to the disease of whom more than a third died. Of the survivors some escaped almost unscathed, but the majority moved into states of deepening illness. The worst affected sank into singular states of "sleep"-conscious of their surroundings but motionless, speechless, and without hope or will, confined to asylums or other institutions.

Fifty years later, with the development of the remarkable drug L-Dopa, they erupted into life once more."

In Pinter's play Deborah describes this incarceration:

'Oh dear. (the flicking of her cheek grows faster)

Yes, I think they're closing in. They're closing in.

They're closing the walls in. Yes. (She bows her head, flicking faster, her fingers now moving over her face)

Oh.well.oooohhhh.oh no.oh no.(during the course of this speech her body becomes more hunch-backed) Let me

out. Stop it. Let me out. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it.

Shutting the walls on me. Shutting them down on me. So tight, so tight. Something panting, something panting.

Can't see. Oh, the light is going. They're shutting up shop. They're closing my face. Chains and padlocks.

Bolting me up. Stinking. The smell. Oh my goodness, oh dear, oh my goodness, oh dear, I'm so young. It's a

vice. I'm in a vice. It's at the back of my neck. Ah.

Eyes stuck. Only see the shadow of the tip of my nose.

Eye's stuck. (She stops flicking abruptly, sits still.

Her body straightens. She looks up. She looks at her fingers, examines them) Nothing.'

Between these spaces, this disease-imposed Anchorage, and the chosen Anchorhold of the medieval Anchorite is the area I want to pillage and mediate.

I love that 'spellcheck' wants to correct my Pinter quote.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountains_Hall

Fountains Hall is a country house near Ripon in North Yorkshire, England, located within the World Heritage Site at Studley Royal Park which include the ruins of Fountains Abbey. It belongs to the National Trust and is a Grade I listed building.

History

The house was built by Stephen Proctor between 1598 and 1604, partly with stone from the abbey ruins. It is an example of late Elizabethan architecture, perhaps influenced by the work of Robert Smythson. After Proctor's death in 1619, Fountains Hall passed into the possession of the Messenger family, who sold it to William Aislabie of neighbouring Studley Royal 150 years later.[1] Fountains Hall became redundant as the Aislabie family remained at Studley Royal. It was leased to tenants and at one time parts of it were used for farm storage.

The hall was renovated and modernised between 1928 and 1931, and the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth) often stayed there as guests of Lady Doris Vyner, wife of the Marquis of Ripon and sister to the then-current Duke of Richmond and Gordon.

During the Second World War, Fountains Hall and other estate buildings were used to house evacuees. Studley Royal became the wartime home of Queen Ethelburga's School from Harrogate and the school's sanatorium was at Fountains Hall. The stable block and courtyard, was used for dormitories while one corner became the school chapel, at which Sunday Evensong was regularly said by the Archdeacon of Ripon. The hall has a balcony although it cannot be used because the staircase is considered unsafe for the public.

Vyner memorial

The Vyners lost a son and a daughter in the Second World War; Charles was a Royal Naval Reserve pilot missing in action near Rangoon. Elizabeth was a member of the Women's Royal Naval Service and died of lethargic encephalitis while on service in Felixstowe, Suffolk. There is a sculpture remembering them which can be seen as one comes out of the house down the stone steps.

WHEN YOU GO HOME TELL THEM OF US AND SAY FOR YOUR TOMORROW WE GAVE OUR TODAY

FROM THIS THEIR HOME, THEY WENT TO WAR.

Elizabeth Vyner WRNS - Died on Active Service June 3rd 1942 Aged 18 years. Also her brother Charles De Grey Vyner Sub Lieut (A) RNVR Reported missing from Air Operations Off Rangoon May 2nd 1945 Aged 19 Years.

After the war the hall again fell into a state of dilapidation.

The National Trust acquired the Fountains Estate from North Yorkshire County Council in 1983 and has restored the hall. Part of it has been divided into flats, one of which is a holiday lets. Visitors to Fountains Abbey can view the oak-panelled stone hall and an adjoining exhibition room, and there are plans to restore the chapel.

Ghost stories

The Hall has several reported hauntings. Years ago, when the best route into the main area of Fountains Hall was through a side entrance, visitors would report the sensation of an invisible figure running at them as they walked along the corridor and brushing past them as they walked through to the main part of the house. The Great Hall at Fountains Hall has the sound of musicians rehearsing a piece of music - the sound of a spinet and wind instruments are heard through the walls together with a woman's voice going through the same musical phrase several times and indistinctly, yet as soon as the door to the Great Hall is opened the music stops.

The bedroom adjoining a former staff flat on the first floor is haunted by a "shining golden lady" in eighteenth century dress. A former resident of the Hall during its time as staff accommodation commented that this apparition would appear to children living there at that time when they were sick in bed - she would come and sit beside them and stroke their hair. Previous occupants of the same rooms on the first floor have also reported the ghost of a dog and another apparition of a dark figure carrying a lighted candle.

The main staircase at the back of the Hall is haunted by the sound of two children at play - their voices are heard and the sound of them moving up and down the staircase, with the sound of rainfall in the background even if the weather outside is sunny.

Thanks for all the well wishes for my friend. He had an encephalitis and was in pretty bad shape for a few days... Gave us quite a scare because we weren't sure if he'd be the same when he woke up. Luckily he got treated quickly and is doing fine now. :)

This is from one of the (many) projects I'm working on for my final year at uni. It's about dreams and nightmares (well, more complicated than that, but that's the start). This particular one is from a film that I double exposed and accidentally cross processed. Nothing like hanging your film to dry and realizing it's completely purple... Which of course means the photos are all green.

Still, I like it.

Self portrait.

Vintage postcard. Photo: Warner Bros.

American actress Patricia Neal (1928-2010) won both an Oscar and a Tony Award. In the first part of her film career, her most impressive roles were in The Fountainhead (1949), opposite Gary Cooper, and the Sci-Fi classic, The Day the Earth stood still (1951). In 1953, she married writer, Roald Dahl and they would have five children in 30 years of marriage. After appearing in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), she won the Best Actress Oscar for her role in Hud (1963) opposite Paul Newman.

Patricia Neal was born Patsy Louise Neal in Packard, Kentucky, in 1926. Her father, William Burdette Neal, managed a coal mine and her mother, Eura Mildred Petrey, was the daughter of the town doctor. Patsy grew up, with her two siblings, Pete and Margaret Ann, in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she attended high school. She was first bit by the acting bug at the age of 10, after attending an evening of monologues at a Methodist church. She subsequently wrote a letter to Santa Claus, telling him, "What I want for Christmas is to study dramatics". She won the Tennessee State Award for dramatic reading while she was in high school. She apprenticed at the Barter Theater in Abingdon, Virginia, when she was 16 years old, between her junior and senior years in high school. After studying drama for two years at Northwestern University, she headed to New York City. Her first job was as an understudy in the Broadway production of the John Van Druten play 'The Voice of the Turtle' (1947). It was the producer of the play that had her change her name from Patsy Louise to Patricia. After replacing Vivian Vance in the touring company of 'Turtle', she won a role in a play that closed in Boston and then appeared in summer stock. She won the role of the teenage Regina in Lillian Hellman's play, 'Another Part of the Forest' (1946), a prequel to 'The Little Foxes', for which she won a Tony Award in 1947. According to IMDb, she was visited backstage by Tallulah Bankhead - who had played the middle-aged Regina in the original Broadway production of Hellman's 'The Little Foxes' - and told Neal, "Dahling, you were as good as I was - and if I said you were half as good, it would [still] have been a hell of a compliment!" The role made the 20-year-old Neal a star. Subsequently, Neal signed a seven-year contract with Warner Bros. In the first part of her film career, her most impressive roles were in The Fountainhead (King Vidor, 1949), opposite the much older Gary Cooper, with whom she had a three-year-long love affair, and in director Robert Wise's Sci-Fi classic, The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), which she made at 20th Century-Fox. Her affair with the married Cooper led to an abortion and nervous collapse. It quickened her decision to leave Hollywood. She returned to Broadway and achieved the success that eluded her in films, appearing in the revival of Lillian Hellman's play, 'The Children's Hour', in 1952. She met writer Roald Dahl in 1953 at a formal party, and they were married nine months later. The couple would have five children in 30 years of marriage.

In 1957, Patricia Neal had one of her finest roles in Elia Kazan's parable about the threat of mass-media demagoguery and home-grown fascism in A Face in the Crowd (1957). Before she appeared in the movie, Neal had taken over the role of Maggie in Tennessee Williams' 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof', the Broadway smash that had been directed by Kazan. Returning to the stage, she appeared in the London production of Williams' 'Suddenly, Last Summer' and co-starred with Anne Bancroft in the Broadway production of 'The Miracle Worker'. After appearing opposite Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard in Breakfast at Tiffany's (Blake Edwards, 1961), she had what was arguably her finest role, as Alma the housekeeper, in Hud (Martin Ritt, 1963) opposite Paul Newman. The film was a hit and Neal won the Best Actress Oscar. She co-starred with John Wayne and Kirk Douglas in the war film In Harm's Way (Otto Preminger, 1965). In 1965, she suffered a series of strokes. Variety", the entertainment newspaper, mistakenly reported in their 22 February 1965 headline that Patricia Neal had died from her multiple strokes five days earlier. In truth, she remained in a coma for 21 days. She was filming John Ford's film, 7 Women (1965), and had to be replaced by Anne Bancroft. Neal was pregnant at the time. She underwent a seven-hour operation on her brain and survived, later delivering her fifth child. Her daughter, Lucy Dahl, was born healthy, but in its aftermath, the actress suffered from partial paralysis, and partial blindness, she lost her memory and was unable to speak. She underwent rehabilitation supervised by her husband. He designed her strenuous and intense recovery routines, including swimming, walking, memory games and crossword puzzles. Her experiences led to her becoming a champion in the rehabilitation field. She turned down The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967) as she had not recovered fully from her stroke. When she returned to the screen, in The Subject Was Roses (1968), she suffered from memory problems. According to her director, Ulu Grosbard, "The memory element was the uncertain one. But when we started to shoot, she hit her top level. She really rises to the challenge. She has great range, even more now than before". She received an Oscar nomination for her work. Subsequently, new acting roles equal to her talent were sparse.

Patricia Neal received three Emmy nominations, the first for originating the role of Olivia Walton in the TV movie The Homecoming: A Christmas Story (Fielder Cook, 1971), which gave birth to the TV show The Waltons (1972). One of her last films was the comedy Cookie's Fortune (Robert Altman, 1999) with Glenn Close and Julianne Moore. Patricia Neal died in 2010 in Edgarton, Massachusetts from lung cancer. She was 84 years old. She had become a Catholic four months before she died and was buried in the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Connecticut, where the actress Dolores Hart, her friend since the early 1960s, had become a nun and ultimately prioress. Neal and Dahl's ordeal and ultimate victory over her illness were told in the television film The Patricia Neal Story (Anthony Harvey, Anthony Page, 1981), starring Glenda Jackson and Dirk Bogarde. After he played such a strong and devoted role in her physical and mental recovery from her paralytic illness, Neal divorced her husband, Roald Dahl, in 1983 after discovering his long-term affair with her former close friend, Felicity 'Liccy' Crosland. Dahl and Crosland married shortly after his divorce from Neal became final, and remained wed until Dahl's death. Neal and Dahl had five children: Ophelia Dahl, Lucy Dahl, Theo Dahl, Tessa Dahl, and Olivia Twenty Dahl (1955-1962), who died suddenly from complications of measles encephalitis at the age of seven. The story of Olivia's death and how Neal and Dahl coped with the tragedy was dramatised as a made-for-TV movie, To Olivia (John Hay, 2020). Neal and Dahl had numerous grandchildren. Patricia Neal always refused to reveal the name of her second husband, the man she married after her divorce from Roahl Dahl.

Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.

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