Perched here, in a still life, with the mycelium bowl I built with my daughter, holding the yummy Lion’s Mane dinner shrooms. The bowl was a DIY kit from Ecovative, featured in the book as a leader in using mycelium as a structural material. They grow more than four hundred tons of mycelium per year, for furniture and packaging for companies like Dell.

 

Merlin Sheldrake's 2020 tome reveals many mycelial mysteries. Here are some tasty teasers:

 

“Plants only made it out of the water around 500 million years ago because of their collaboration with fungi, which served as their root systems for tens of millions of years until plants could evolve their own. Today, more than 90% of plants depend on mycorrhizal fungi which can link them in shared networks. This ancient association gave rise to all recognizable life on land” (4)

 

-“Mycelium makes up between a third and a half of all the living mass of soils. The numbers are astronomical. Globally, the total length of mycorrhizal hyphae in the top 10cm of soil is around half the width of our galaxy” (127)

 

-Back in the Devonian period, 400mya, Prototaxites (big fungi spires) “were taller than a two-story building. Nothing else got anywhere close to this size: plants were no more than a meter tall, and no animal with a backbone had yet moved out of the water. These enormous fungi were the largest living structures on dry land for at least 40 million years, 20x longer than the genus Homo has existed.” (4)

 

The Romans prayed to Robigus, the god of mildew, to avert fungal diseases leading to famine. And 5,000 years ago, the Sumerians who brewed beer using fungal yeast, worshipped a goddess of fermentation, Ninkasi. (205)

 

“Although fungi have long been lumped together with plants, they are actually more closely related to animals [e.g., respire oxygen, tastes like chicken]. At a molecular level, fungi and humans are similar enough to benefit from many of the same biochemical innovations. We use drugs produced by fungi – fungi are pharmaceutically prolific.” (9)

 

-Penicillin, a chemical from mold that kills bacteria, is the famous one. But there’s cyclosporine (immunosuppressant), statins (lowers cholesterol), antivirals and anti-cancer meds (like Taxol), alcohol (yeast fermentation), and psilocybin (psychedelic medicine), even LSD came from the ergot fungus.

-“60% of the enzymes used in industry are generated by fungi” (9)

-There are over 6x as many fungi species as plant species.

-“Truffles are the underground fruiting bodies of several types of mycorrhizal fungi.” (25)

 

MAKING MYCELIUM:

-“The overwhelming majority of fungal species release spores without producing mushrooms at all.” (5) Mycelia release 50 million tons of spore/year, affecting the weather.

-Common cells called hyphae branch out and then fuse to form a mycelial network. They fuse with self and with sexually compatible mates. “Some fungi have tens of thousands of mating types, approximately equivalent to our sexes.” (36) (Taking non-binary to a new level.)

-“Mycelium is how fungi feed. They digest the world where it is and then absorb it into their bodies. Their hyphae are long and branched, and only a single cell thick, between 2 and 20 micrometers in diameter” (51)

-“One way to think about mycelial networks is as swarms of hyphal tips. Swarms are patterns of collective behavior.” (47)

-“Mycelial coordination is difficult to understand because there is no center of control. Control is dispersed. A fragment of mycelium can regenerate the entire network” (50)

-Like our brain in early development, mycelium overproduces links for foraging, and then reinforces some into dense transport networks for the tips that discover food.

-“No matter where fungi grown, they must be able to insinuate themselves within their source of food. To do so, they use pressure. They develop special penetrative hyphae that can reach pressures of 50 to 80 atmospheres and exert enough force to penetrate Kevlar.” (52)

-“Hyphal tips must lay down new material as they advance. Small bladders filled with cellular building materials arrive at the tip from within and fuse with it at a rate of up to 600 a second.” (53)

-“When hyphae felt together to make mushrooms, they rapidly inflate with water, which they must absorb from their surroundings — the reason mushrooms tend to appear after rain.” (54)

-Mushroom and mycelium are made of the same hyphae cells. They also form cords — large pipes made of many small tubes that transport nutrients long distances “on a river of cellular fluid.” (56)

-Several species of fungus are bioluminescent and were used to provide interior lighting in the first U.S. submarine in 1775.

 

MAKING SENSE:

-“Fungi don’t have noses or brains. Instead, their entire surface behaves like an olfactory epithelium. A mycelial network is one large chemically sensitive membrane. Fungi live their lives bathed in a rich field of chemical information.” (28)

-“The methods fungi use to hunt nematode worms are grisly and diverse. Some fungi grow adhesive nets. Some use hyphal nooses that inflate in a tenth of a second, ensnaring their prey. Some — like the commonly cultivated oyster mushroom — produce hyphal stalks capped with a single toxic droplet that paralyzes nematodes giving the hypha enough time to grow through their mouth and digest the worm from inside. Others produce spores that can swim through the soil, chemically drawn to nematodes, to which they harpoon the worm with specialized hyphae known as ‘gun cells.’” (40). These are all manifestations of the same hypha cell in mycelium.

-“Phycomyces has remarkable perceptual abilities. Its fruiting structures — essentially giant vertical hyphae — adapt to bright or light as our eyes do and can detect light at levels as low as that provided by a single star.” (57) It has exquisite sensitivity to touch and “is able to detect the presence of nearby objects without ever making contact” (58)

-“Most fungi can detect and respond to light (direction, intensity, and color), temperature, moisture, nutrients, toxins, and gravitational and electrical fields. Hyphae can also sense the texture of surfaces, to a half-micrometer deep in artificial surfaces, three times shallower than the gap between laser tracks on a CD.” (58)

-“When Olsson inserted microelectrodes into Armaillaria’s hyphal strands, he detected regular action-potential-like impulses, firing at a rate very close to that of an animal’s sensory neurons — around 4 impulses per second. When wood came in contact with the mycelium, the firing rate of the impulses doubled. When he removed the block of wood, the firing rate returned to normal.” (61)

 

LICHEN:

-There's a tendency for fungi to lichenize (combine into a symbiotic dependency with algae), and 20% of all known fungal species have lichenized. “Both make life in places where neither could survive alone.” (72)

-They cover 8% of Earth, more than all tropical rainforests. Some are thousands of years old (one in Lapland is over 9,000 years old).

-They turn rock to soil by mining minerals from bare rock, with physical pressure, acids, and binders to dissolve and digest rock. “When lichens die and decompose, they give rise to the first soils in new ecosystems. Lichens are how the inanimate mineral mass within rocks is able to cross over into the metabolic cycles of the living.” (75)

-They survive outer space the best of any organism studied. Untroubled by being frozen and dehydrated for a decade, and radiation at 12x the lethal human dose, 50 gigpascals of shock… They could survive the ejecta events that catapult meteorites from the surface of Mars.

-Polyamory: “Grow many types of free-living fungus and algae together, and they’ll develop into a mutually beneficial symbiosis in a matter of days. Different species of fungus, different species of algae—it doesn’t seem to matter. Completely new symbiotic relationships emerge in less time than it takes a scab to heal.” (86)

-Extremophiles: “Lichens arise in conditions too severe for either partner to survive alone. Viewed in this way, extremophilia, their ability to live life on the edge, is a direct consequence of their symbiotic way of life.” (87)

-Often the first organism to grow on new volcanic islands or the ruins of Chernobyl and Hiroshima. Radiotrophic fungi harvest the energy emitted by radioactive particles.

-Mycelial fossils 2.4 billion years old “makes mycelium one of the earliest known gestures toward complex multicellular life, one of the first living networks. Remarkably unchanged, mycelium has persisted for more than half of the four billion years of life’s history, through countless cataclysms and global transformations.” (67)

-“Fungi have persisted through Earth’s five major extinction events, each of which eliminated between 75 and 95% of species on the planet.” (181)

-“They can degrade pesticides, synthetic dyes, the explosives TNT and RDX, crude oil, some plastics, heavy metals, and a range of drugs from antibiotics to synthetic hormones. In principle, fungi are some of the best qualified organisms for environmental remediation.” (185)

 

MANIPULATING MINDS:

-The Ophiocordyceps zombie-takeover of ants may be the most famous, thanks to the BBC coverage. The fungus’ “hyphae wind through their body cavities, from heads to legs, enmesh their muscle fibers, and coordinate their activity via an interconnected mycelial network.” (97)

-The fungus takes over the ant’s volition, causing it to climb up 25cm from the forest floor, and orienting by the sun, all of the infected ants bite a major leaf vein in synchrony, at noon.

-“Ophiocordyceps is closely related to the ergot fungi, from which the Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman originally isolated the compounds used to make LSD.” (97)

-From fossil records 48 mya, “fungi have been manipulating animal minds for much of the time there have been minds to manipulate.”(98) “And it is likely that we have been using mind-altering drugs for longer than we have been human.” (99)

-“Massospora infects cicadas and causes the rear third of their bodies to disintegrate, allowing it to discharge its spores out of their ruptured back ends. Infected male cicadas — ‘flying saltshakers of death’ — become hyperactive and hypersexual despite the fact that their genitals have long since crumbled away. Kasson and his team analyzed the plugs of fungus that sprout from the cicadas broken bodies. They were amazed to find that the fungus produced cathinone, an amphetamine in the same class as the recreational drug mephedrone. Cathinone had never before been found outside of plants. More astonishing was the presence of psilocybin, one of the most abundant chemicals in the fungal plugs.” (104). (✌️piece out man!)

-In humans, the psilocybin “studies are considered to be some of the most effective psychiatric interventions in the history of modern medicine.” (108)

-Psilocybin-producing mushrooms go back at least 75 million years, and so 90% of their evolutionary history predate humans. Over 200 species of psilocybin-producing fungi and lichen.

 

BEFORE ROOTS:

-“Roots followed fungi into being. It was only by striking up a new relationship with fungi that algae were able to make it onto land.” (124)

-“Mycorrhizal hyphae are 50x finer than the finest roots and can exceed the length of a plant’s roots by 100x.” (127)

-“Fungi release chemicals that suspend their plant partners’ immune responses, without which they can’t get close enough to form symbiotic structures.” (38)

-“Fungi can provide up to 80% of a plant’s nitrogen and as much as 100% of its phosphorous…. Zinc and copper. In return, plants allocate up to 30% of the carbon they harvest from the air to their mycorrhizal partners.” (132)

-Some plants, like Monotropa, have evolved to be so dependent on soil fungus for nutrients that they've given up the ability to photosynthesize altogether, getting all of their nutrition from soil fungi. That's why these plants are white (not green).

 

WOOD WIDE WEBS

-“Fungi actively transport phosphorous — using its dynamic microtubule motors — from areas of abundance to areas of scarcity.” (137)

-“The speed of tree migration may depend on their mycorrhizal proclivity. Some species of tree are more promiscuous than others and can enter into relationships with many different fungal species.” (140) “Fungi can determine which plants gro where; they can even drive the evolution of new species by isolating populations from one another.” (141)

-“Researchers observed phosphorous to pass from the roots of dying plants to the nearby healthy plants that shared a fungal network.” (158)

-Kin selection: “in some cases, more carbon passed between siblings than between strangers.” (159)

-“Fungal networks provide highways for bacteria to migrate around the obstacle course of the soil. Some bacteria enhance fungal growth, stimulate their metabolisms and produce key vitamins. The thick-footed morel farms the bacteria that live within its networks. The fungus plants bacterial populations, then cultivates, harvests and consumes them.” (164)

-Similar scale-free networks as Barabasi used to describe the Internet in his book Linked.

-“The amino acids glutamate and glycine, the most common neurotransmitters in animal brains and spinal cords, are known to pass between plants and fungi at their junctions.” (173)

 

RADICAL CHEMISTRY

-To digest the haphazard matrix of lignin, fungi perform enzymatic combustion with peroxidases, highly reactive non-specific enzymes.

-“Today, fungal decomposition — much of it woody plant matter — is one of the largest sources of carbon emissions, about 85 Gt/y.” (177)

-In the Carbiniferous period, fungi had not yet evolved to digest lignin. That became coal. “When we burn coal, we physically combust the material that fungi were unable to combust enzymatically. We thermally decompose what fungi were unable to decompose chemically.” (178)

-“Fermentation is domesticated decomposition — rot rehoused.” (206)

-Whether beer or bread, “yeasts were the primary beneficiaries of human’s earliest agricultural efforts. In the preparation of either, humans feed yeast before they feed themselves. In many ways, you might argue, yeasts have domesticated us.” (203)

The Hunt Starts officially at Midnight tonight October 15th!! This is a Free Hunt!

  

I have done this for what seems like forever (see below). It's painting, perhaps the only 'real painting' on the whole thing. I like that between space.

 

I don't believe in 'real painting', or 'pure photography' for what it is worth, or A.I. for that matter.

 

Artificial is an impossibility by my reckoning. The word 'artificial' is akin to both 'natural' and 'unnatural', equally non-sensical. This internal image is pulled out of what calls itself A.I., with a little help from an over-education in art history, and a lifetime of actual art education, afforded in a 'Golden Age' of education for the unwashed masses, one of whom I consider myself to be. This 'Golden Age', unfortunately, now seems to be over. For the most part, I think the best we can hope to do is to try to leave a record of it once having happened.

 

Failure is enmeshed in the fabric of any such attempt. Big deal!

Any reward would appear to be in the doing.

M.K. Jessup - The Case for the U.F.O.

Bantam Books A 1374, 1955

Cover Artist: unknown

 

From the Preface to the 'google docs edition':

 

docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://www.cassiopaea.org/cass...

 

On the evening of April 20, 1959, an astronomer committed suicide in Dade County Park, Florida. Inhaling automobile exhaust fumes, which he had introduced from the tail pipe through a hose into his station wagon, he died in the same academic obscurity in which he had lived, unheralded and almost unrecognized in his discipline. Ironically, the scientist’s only public recognition had come from lay people, who had read his series of four books about unidentified flying objects.

Morris K. Jessup’s first book, The Case For the UFO, had tended to alienate him from his colleagues, though it came and went with relatively few sales. Its publisher sold it off to second-hand bookstores at $1.00 each. Today it brings $25.00 or better per copy, if you can find one.

It was a paperback edition of the same book, published in 1955 by Bantam Books that enmeshed Jessup in one of the most bizarre mysteries in UFO history. An annotated reprint of the paperback was laboriously typed out on offset stencils and printed in a very small run by a Garland, Texas manufacturing company which produced equipment for the military.

Each page was run through the small office duplicator twice, once with black ink for the regular text of the book, then once again with red ink, the latter reproducing the mysterious annotations by three men, who may have been gypsies, hoaxters, or space people living among men. The spiral bound 8 ½” X 11” volume, containing more that 200 pages, became known as The Annotated Edition. The reprint quickly became legend. A few civilian UFO enthusiasts claimed to have seen copies, and it was rumored that a few close associates of the late Mr. Jessup possessed copies.

This statue on the High Street in Selkirk honours Mungo Park (1771–1806), a local-born explorer whose expeditions helped chart the River Niger and brought West Africa into the European imagination during the height of the imperial age.

 

Born at Foulshiels near Selkirk, Park trained as a surgeon and undertook two major expeditions to Africa for the African Association. His travels (1795–97 and 1805–06) involved enormous hardship, but also raised troubling questions: while Park himself did not engage in slave-trading, his journeys were closely aligned with British imperial interests, and the regions he explored were deeply enmeshed in the transatlantic slave economy.

 

He died during his second expedition, attempting to navigate the Niger, likely drowned near Bussa. He was 35.

 

The statue, sculpted by Andrew Currie of Darnick and unveiled in 1859, depicts Park with a book and compass — symbols of enlightenment, curiosity, and control. It stands as both a tribute and a prompt for reflection, reminding us that exploration and exploitation often travelled together.

 

⸻

 

🇫🇷 Cette statue située sur la High Street de Selkirk rend hommage à Mungo Park (1771–1806), explorateur né dans la région, dont les expéditions ont contribué à cartographier le fleuve Niger et à intégrer l’Afrique de l’Ouest dans l’imaginaire européen à l’époque impériale.

 

Né à Foulshiels près de Selkirk, Park s’est formé comme chirurgien et mena deux grandes expéditions pour le compte de l’African Association. Ses voyages (1795–97 et 1805–06) furent marqués par des épreuves extrêmes, mais posent aussi des questions difficiles : bien qu’il ne fût pas impliqué dans la traite des esclaves, ses missions servaient les intérêts coloniaux britanniques, et les régions traversées faisaient partie intégrante de l’économie esclavagiste transatlantique.

 

Il mourut au cours de sa deuxième expédition, probablement noyé près de Bussa, à l’âge de 35 ans.

 

La statue, sculptée par Andrew Currie de Darnick et inaugurée en 1859, le montre tenant un livre et une boussole — symboles d’érudition, de curiosité et de pouvoir. Elle rend hommage tout en invitant à la réflexion : l’exploration et l’exploitation marchaient souvent main dans la main.

  

Captured!

Eastham, MA

Coast Guard Beach - Cape Cod

December, 10th, 2011

 

"On November 9, 1620, a ship named the Mayflower, 65 days out from Plymouth, England, made her landfall in the New World at what is now Coast Guard Beach. Captain Jones, knowing that his Pilgrim passengers were supposed to settle in northern Virginia, headed southeastward. Although he stood well offshore to avoid shoal waters, his ship soon became enmeshed in the worst shoals in the area, Pollock Rip. A miraculous change of wind enabled Jones to sail his ship free of the shoals, and he then turned northward to anchor in Provincetown Harbor, November 11, 1620.

 

The outer beach, or 'backside,' of Cape Cod has been the notorious graveyard for more than 3,000 ships since the wreck of the Sparrowhawk in 1626. The high cost in lives and property demanded by the sands of Cape Cod, led to the establishment of the Massachusetts Humane Society in 1786, the first organization in the nation devoted to the rescue and assistance of shipwrecked mariners. The Humane Society established shelter huts along the coast; later, it built lifeboat stations where surfboats, line-throwing guns, and other lifesaving gear were stored for the use of volunteer crews in times of emergency.

 

In 1848, the Congress appropriated funds for the first time to construct, equip and maintain similar stations in New Jersey. From 1848 until 1872, Congress provided the money to build more stations along the eastern seaboard and the Great Lakes. The stations in Massachusetts continued to be administered by the Massachusetts Humane Society, but the federal government subsidized its operation. The continued frequent loss of life along the nation's shores led Congress, in 1871-1872, to reorganize the Life Saving Service, a place it on a full-time professional basis. The construction and manning of nine stations on the "backside" of Cape Cod was provided for in the Federal budget of 1871.

 

One of the original nine stations was constructed at Nauset. It was located about 350 yards southeast of the present building. Shoreline erosion compelled the construction of a new station. The old station remained in service until 1937, when it was replaced by the present structure. The present building was in service as a Coast Guard Station until 1958.

 

The first headquarters of the Cape Cod National Seashore opened in this building in 1961. Currently, the building houses the Cape Cod National Seashore overnight NEED (National Environmental Educational Development) program for school groups."

 

SOURCE: www.nps.gov/caco/planyourvisit/coast-guard-beach-eastham.htm

‘Under the Spider’ ("Pod pająkiem") – perhaps Kraków’s most bizarre building and Teodor Talowski’s personal residence. At the corner of Karmelicka and Batory streets, ‘Under the Spider’ was built in 1889 and features Talowski’s signature asymmetry and irregular stone and brick work, as well as special channels in the facade for woodbines and wild grapes to take hold and a winged dragon under an inscription of the architect’s name. Meeting at a forty-five degree angle the building possesses two peaked facades, the one which overlooks Karmelicka street being the site of Talowski’s most imaginative, if not eccentric stroke. At the summit of his home, Talowski placed a large porthole with a bronze web and attendant spider at its centre; directly below the porthole is a bronze sun and below that a sundial. The symbolism Talowski has woven here is lost on us; in fact the more we struggle to unravel it, the more we find ourselves enmeshed in its mystery...

 

Teodor Talowski (1857-1910), a graduate of the Viennese Technische Universität and the Lviv Polytechnic, is especially noteworthy among the Polish architects from the turn of the nineteenth century.

Talowski attended school in Krakow before moving to Vienna and then Lviv, where he completed a masters in architecture. In 1881 he returned to Krakow, becoming a professor at the Technical University, and produced the most definitive works of his career here at the close of the 19th century, before returning to Lviv in 1901.

Teodor Talowski was immensely prolific architect (700 projects, of which more than a hundred were implemented) was the author of numerous original and highly individual town houses in Krakow and Lvov, manor houses and palaces scattered throughout the whole of Galicia, and many churches. He designed public utility buildings and industrial architecture (like the handsome Brothers Hospitallers of St John's hospital in Kazimierz quarter in Krakow, and the recently retouched Lubicz railroad viaduct near Galeria Krakowska), sepulchres and sepulchral chapels and church interiors.

Generally defying stylistic categorisation, Talowski’s unconventional creations connected several architectural movements, incorporating elements of art nouveau, historicism, mannerism and modernism.

Some pages from a publicity brochure, dated 1935, and in French entitled "coup d œil d'ensemble sur l'entreprise" and that describes the massive, vertical integrated company of Fried.Krupp Aktiengesellschaft, Essen. Krupp's have a long history, dating back to 1811 in Essen where they were foremost in the industrial development of the Ruhr and indeed, now merged with Thyssen, their HQ is still in Essen, a city once regarded as a company town.

 

By 1935 this vast company, manufacturing iron and steel as well as armaments, machinery, locomotives, shipbuilding and vehicles, was already thoroughly enmeshed in the economy of the National Socialist state and they, along with the family members who ran the concern, would be active participants in Germany's rearmament and complicit the country's conduct of the Second World War.

 

The brochure was gifted to a visiting French businessman and describes the company's shipbuilding subsidiary, Germaniawerft at Kiel, as well as some of the other offshoots such as their own shipping line based in Rotterdam that was set up to 'free' Krupp from external shipping interests.

 

The vessel shown, the Frielinghaus, was a Krupp's vessel, built by Krupp at Kiel and on Krupp business - the import of high grade iron ores from Narvik and other ports was vital to the production of raw process material for the concern. The ship yard at Kiel, Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft, had been formed in 1867 but had a series of financial problems before Krupp took a controlling interest in 1896. It went on to construct many U-boats in the First and Second World Wars and after the Allied Victory in 1945 much of the bomb damaged yards were dismantled. However some of the site survived in ship building and is still in production. The vessel shown, Frielinghaus, was constructed in 1922 and was lost during WW2 when it struck a mine on 28 June 1942.

 

More closely associated with the production of steel was the series of coking ovens and as well as owning their own collieries, Krupp's had a series of large scale and efficient coking plants. Seen here is the Cokerie Hannover 1/2 at Hordel, Bochum. A small part of the Hannover colliery's buildings survive in preservation - to see the scale of such a works one now needs to visit the astonishing array at Zeche Zollverein.

 

The booklet has a series of vignettes that are signed - possible Fritz Jacobson?

Thus was born our fair Geektopia. An New event that I will have as a focal point Geek culture and everything that surrounds the new technology.

 

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innocently

the camera caught

a man enmeshed

in a cosmic plot

he is poor man

happy with what

he got ...a photographer

joins the dots ....

pondering over what

he shot...

Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.

 

Today however, Lettice is far from Cavendish Mews, back in Wiltshire where she is staying at Glynes, the grand Georgian family seat of the Chetwynds, and the home of Lettice’s parents, the presiding Viscount and Countess of Wrexham and the heir, their eldest son Leslie and his wife. The current Viscount has summoned his daughter home, along with his bohemian artist younger sister Eglantyne, affectionately known as Aunt Egg by her nieces and nephews.

 

Through her social connections, Lettice’s Aunt Egg contrived an invitation for Lettice to an amusing Friday to Monday long weekend party held by Sir John and Lady Caxton, who are very well known amongst the smarter bohemian set of London society for their weekend parties at their Scottish country estate, Gossington, and enjoyable literary evenings in their Belgravia townhouse. Lady Gladys is a successful authoress in her own right and writes under the nom de plume of Madeline St John. Over the course of the weekend, Lettice was coerced into accepting Lady Gladys’ request that she redecorate her niece and ward, Phoebe’s, small Bloomsbury flat. Phoebe, upon coming of age inherited the flat, which had belonged to her parents, Reginald and Marjorie Chambers, who died out in India when Phoebe was still a little girl. The flat was held in trust by Lady Gladys until her ward came of age. When Phoebe decided to pursue a career in garden design and was accepted by a school in London closely associated with the Royal Society, she started living part time in the flat. Lady Gladys felt that it was too old fashioned and outdated in its appointment for a young girl like Phoebe. When Lady Gladys arranged for Lettice to inspect the flat, Lettice quickly became aware of Lady Gladys’ ulterior motives as she overrode the rather mousy Pheobe and instructed Lettice to redecorate everything to her own instructions and taste, whist eradicating any traces of Pheobe’s parents. Reluctantly, Lettice commenced on the commission which is nearing its completion. However, when Pheobe came to visit the flat whilst Lettice was there, and with a little coercion, Pheobe shared what she really felt about the redecoration of her parent’s home, things came to a head. Desperately wanting to express herself independently, Pheobe hoped living at the flat she would finally be able to get out from underneath the domineering influence of her aunt. Yet now the flat is simply another extension of Lady Glady’s wishes, and the elements of her parents that Pheobe adored have been appropriated by Lady Gladys. Determined to undo the wrong she has done by Pheobe by agreeing to all of Lady Glady’s wishes, in a moment of energizing anger, Lettice decided to confront Lady Gladys. However unperturbed by Lettice’s appearance, Lady Gladys advised that she was bound by the contract she had signed to complete the work to Gladys’ satisfaction, not Phoebe’s.

 

Thus, Viscount Wrexham has contrived a war cabinet meeting in the comfortable surrounds of the Glynes library with Lettice and Eglantyne to see if between them they can work out a way to untangle Lettice from Lady Gladys’ contract, or at least undo the damage done to Pheobe by way of Lettice’s redecoration of the flat.

 

Being early autumn, the library at Glynes is filled with light, yet a fire crackles contentedly in the grate of the great Georgian stone fireplace to keep the cooler temperatures of the season at bay. The space smells comfortingly of old books and woodsmoke. The walls of the long room are lined with floor to ceiling shelves, full thousands of volumes on so many subjects. The sunlight streaming through the tall windows facing out to the front of the house burnishes the polished parquetry floors in a ghostly way. Viscount Wrexham sits at his Chippendale desk, with his daughter sitting opposite him on the other side of it, whilst Eglantyne, a tall, willowy figure and always too restless to sit for too long, stands at her brother’s shoulder as the trio discuss the current state of affairs.

 

“So is what Gladys says, correct, Lettice?” the Viscount bristles from his seat behind his Chippendale desk as he lifts a gilt edged Art Nouveau decorated cup of hot tea to his lips. “Did you sign a contract?”

 

“Well yes of course I did, Pappa!” Lettice defends, cradling her own cup in her hands, admiring the beautifully executed stylised blue Art Nouveau flowers on it. “You told me that there should be a formal contract in place ever since I had that spot of unpleasantness with the Duchess of Whitby when she was reluctant to pay her account in full after I had finished decorating her Fitzrovia first-floor reception room.”

 

“And I take it, our lawyers haven’t perused it?” he asks as he replaces the cup in its saucer on the desk’s surface.

 

“No Pappa.” Lettice replies, fiddling with the hem of her silk cord French blue cardigan. “Should they have?”

 

The Viscount sucks in a deep breath audibly, his heckles arcing up.

 

“Cosmo.” his sister says calmingly, standing at his side, placing one of her heavily bejewelled hands on his shoulder, lightly digging her elegantly long yet gnarled fingers into the fabric of his tweed jacket and pressing hard.

 

The Viscount releases a gasp. He looks down upon the book he had been pleasurably reading before he summoned both his sister and daughter to his domain of the Glynes library, a copy of Padraic Colum’s* ‘The Golden Fleece and the Heroes who Lived Before Achilles’** illustrated by Willy Pognay, and focuses on it like an anchor to manage the temper roiling within him. Trying very hard to suppress his frustration and keep it out of his steady modulation, the Viscount replies, “Yes my girl,” He sighs again. “Preferably you should have any contracts drawn up by our lawyers, and then signed by a client: not the other way around. And if it does happen to be the other way around, our lawyers should give it a thorough going over before you sign it.”

 

“But a contract is a contract, Pappa, surely?” Lettice retorts before taking another sip of tea.

 

The Viscount’s breathing grows more laboured as his face grows as red as the cover of ‘The Golden Fleece and the Heroes who Lived Before Achilles’ on the tooled leather surface of the desk before him.

 

“Cosmo.” Eglantine says again, before looking up and catching her niece’s eye and tries to warn her of the thunderstorm of frustration and anger that is about to burst from the Viscount by giving her an almost imperceptible shake of her head.

 

The Viscount continues to breathe in a considered and deliberate way as he tries to continue, his deep voice somewhat strangulated by his effort not to slam his fists on the desktop and yell at his daughter. “A contact varies, Lettice. It depends on who has written it as to what clauses are contained inside, such as Gladys’ condition that she is to be completely satisfied with the outcome of the redecoration, or she may forfeit any unpaid tradesmen’s bills, not to mention your own. You should have read it thoroughly before you signed it.”

 

“Oh.” Lettice lowers her head and looks down dolefully into her lap.

 

The Viscount turns sharply in his Chippendale chair, withdrawing his shoulder from beneath his sister’s grounding grasp with an irritable shake and glares at his sister through angry, bloodshot eyes. When she was young, Eglantine had Titian red hair that fell in wavy tresses about her pale face, making her a popular muse amongst the Pre-Raphaelites she mixed with. With the passing years, her red hair has retreated almost entirely behind silver grey, save for the occasional streak of washed out reddish orange, except when she decides the henna it, and she still wears it as she did when it was at its fiery best, sweeping softly about her almond shaped face, tied in a loose chignon at the back of her neck.

 

“I place the blame for this situation solely at your feet, Eglantyne!” the Viscount barks at his sister.

 

“Me!” Eglantyne laughs in incredulity. “Me! Don’t be so preposterous, Cosmo.” She grasps at one of the many strings of highly faceted, winking bugle beads that cascade down the front of her usual choice of frock, a Delphos dress***, this one of silver silk painted with stylised orange poppies on long, flowing green stalks. “I call that most unfair!” she complains. “I’m not responsible for Gladys’ lawyers, or their filthy binding contract.”

 

“No, but you’re responsible for introducing Lettice to that infernal woman!” the Viscount blasts. “Bloody female romance novelist!”

 

“Language!” Eglantyne quips.

 

“Oh, fie my language!” the Viscount retorts angrily. “And fie you, Eglantyne!”

 

Always being her elder brother’s favourite of all his siblings, and therefore usually forgiven of any mistakes and transgressions she has made in the past as a bohemian artist, and very seldom falling into his bad books, Eglantine is struck by the forcefulness of his anger. Even though she is well aware of his bombastic temper, it is easier to deal with when it is directed to someone or something else. This unusual situation with his annoyance being squarely aimed at her leaves her feeling flustered and sick.

 

“Me? I… I didn’t know that… that Gladys was vying to get Lettice… before her so… so.. so she could ask her to redecorate her ward’s flat, Cosmo!” Eglantyne splutters. “How… how could I know?”

 

“Coerced is more like it!” Cosmo snaps in retort. “And you must have had some inkling, surely! You were always good at reading people and situations: far better than I ever was!”

 

“Well, I didn’t, Cosmo!” Eglantine snaps back, determined not to let her brother get the upper hand on her and blame her for something she rightly considers far beyond her control. “I mean, all I was doing was trying my best to get Lettice out of her funk over losing Selwyn.” She turns quickly to Lettice and looks at her with apologetic eyes. “Sorry my dear.” Returning her attention to her brother, she continues, “I didn’t want her wallowing in her own grief, something you were only too happy to indulge her in whilst she was staying here at Glynes with you!” She tuts. “Feeding her butter shortbreads and mollycoddling her. What good was there in doing that?”

 

“She was staying with Lally.” the Viscount mutters through gritted teeth.

 

“Same thing really.” Eglantine says breezily. “Like father like daughter. Lettice needed something to restore her spark, and quiet walks in the Buckinghamshire countryside weren’t going do that. I knew that Gladys enjoyed being surrounded by London’s Bright Young Things****, and she had spoken to me about Lettice’s interior designs.”

 

“Aha!” the Viscount crows. “So, you did know she had designs on Lettice!”

 

“If you’d kindly let me finish, Cosmo.” Eglantyne continues in an indignant tone.

 

The Viscount huffs and lets his shoulders lower a little as he gesticulates with a sweeping gesture across his desk towards his sister for Eglantine to continue.

 

“What I was going to say was that Gladys telephoned me and asked me about Lettice’s interior designs after she read that article by Henry Tipping***** in Country Life******, which you and Sadie, and probably half the country read. How could I know from that innocuous enquiry that Gladys would engage Lettice in this unpleasant commission? She simply telephoned me at just the right time, so I orchestrated with Gladys for Lettice and the Channons to go and stay at Gossington.” She folds her arms akimbo. “Lettice was stagnating, and that is not good for her. As I said before, she needed to have her creativity sparked. I thought it would do Lettice good to be amongst the bright and spirited company of a coterie of young and artistic people, and I wasn’t wrong, was I Lettice?”

 

Startled to suddenly be introduced into the heated conversation between her father and aunt about her, Lettice stammers, “Well… yes. It was a very gay house party, and I did also receive the commission from Sir John Nettleford-Huges for Mr. and Mrs. Gifford at Arkwright Bury, Pappa.”

 

“That old lecher.” the Viscount spits.

 

“Sadie doesn’t think so,” Eglantyne remarks with a superior air, a smug smile curling up the corners of her lips. “She seemed to think he’d be a good match for Lettice two years ago at her ludicrous matchmaking Hunt Ball.”

 

“Now don’t you start on Sadie, Eglantyne.” the Viscount warns with a wagging finger, the ruby in the signet ring on his little finger winking angrily in the light of the library, reflecting its wearer’s fit of pique. “I’m in no mood for your usual acerbic pokes at Sadie.”

 

“Sir John is actually quite nice, Pappa.” Lettice pipes up quickly in an effort to defuse the situation between her father and aunt. “Once you get to know him.” she adds rather lamely when her father glares at her with a look that suggests that she may have lost all her senses. She hurriedly adds, “And that’s gone swimmingly, Pappa, and as a result, Henry Tipping has promised me another feature article on my interior designs there in Country Life.”

 

“There!” Eglantyne says with satisfaction, sweeping her arm out expansively towards her niece, making the mixture of gold, silver, Bakelite******* and bead bracelets and bangles jangle. “See Cosmo, it’s not all bad news. An excellent commission right here in Wiltshire that guarantees positive promotion of Lettice’s interior designs in a prestigious periodical.”

 

“Well, be that as it may,” the Viscount grumbles. “You are still responsible for dismissing Lettice’s justified concerns about Gladys and her rather Machiavellian plans to redecorate her ward’s flat to her own designs and hold Lettice to account for it. You told me that you aired your concerns with your aunt, Lettice. Isn’t that so?”

 

Lettice nods, looking guiltily at her favourite aunt, fearing disappointment in the older woman’s eyes as she does.

 

“Well,” Eglantyne concedes with a sigh. “I cannot deny that Lettice did raise her concerns with me when we had luncheon together, but her concerns did not appear justified at the time.”

 

Ignoring Eglantyne’s last remark, the Viscount continues, addressing his daughter, “And that was before she commenced on this rather fraught commission wasn’t it?”

 

“Well Pappa, as I told you, I had already agreed in principle to accept Gladys’ commission at Gossington. Gladys is a little hard to refuse.”

 

“Bombastic!” the Viscount opines.

 

“Pot: kettle: black.” Eglantyne pipes up, placing her hands on her silk clad hips.

 

“Don’t test my patience any more, Eglantyne!” the Viscount snaps. He returns his attentions to his daughter. “But you hadn’t signed any contracts at that stage, had you, Lettice?”

 

“Well no, Pappa.” Lettice agrees. “But I think that Gladys was having the contracts drawn up by her lawyers at that time.”

 

“Why didn’t you intervene when Lettice spoke to you, Eglantyne?” the Viscount asks his sister.

 

“Because I didn’t see any cause for alarm, Cosmo.” she replies in her own defence.

 

“But Lettice told you that Gladys coerced her into agreeing to redecorate the flat, didn’t she?”

 

“Well yes,” Eglantyne agrees. “But as I said to Lettice at the time, Gladys wears most people down to her way of thinking in the end. It is a very brave, or stupid, person who challenges Gladys when she has an idea in her head that she is impassioned about.” She pauses for a moment before continuing. “I didn’t think it was a bad thing necessarily, Cosmo. Not only was it not unusual for Gladys to get her way, but at the time, Lettice needed someone to take the lead. Her own initiative was somewhat lacking after all that business with Zinnia shipping Selwyn off to Durban. So, I wasn’t concerned, and I doubt that you would be concerned about it either, were you in my shoes.”

 

“Well I wasn’t.” he argues. “What about Lettice’s other concerns about taking on the commission?” he softens his voice as he addresses his daughter, “What did you say to your aunt again, my dear?”

 

“I said I was concerned that Gladys had ulterior motives, Pappa.” Lettice replies.

 

“Which she did!” the Viscount agrees. “Go on.”

 

“I illuded to the fact that I thought Gladys saw her dead brother and sister-in-law as some kind of threat to her happy life with Phoebe, and she wanted to whitewash them from Phoebe’s life.”

 

“And I suggested to Lettice that that was a grave allegation to make without proof, Cosmo.” Eglantyne explains. “And all she had to back her allegations up were some anecdotal stories, which count for nothing.”

 

“You accused Lettice of overdramatising.” the Viscount says angrily.

 

“I know I did, Cosmo.” Eglantyne admits. “I did assuage Lettice of the concerns she had that Gladys was going to insist on making changes Phoebe or she didn’t like. I admit, I was wrong about that. I assured Lettice that Gladys adores her niece, and whilst in hindsight I may not now use the word adore, I’m still instant that Gladys only wants what she thinks is best for Phoebe. Phoebe is the daughter Gladys never planned to have, but also the child Gladys didn’t know could bring her so much joy and fulfilment in her life, as a parent. And to be fair, Cosmo, if you’d ever met Phoebe, you’d understand why I said what I did.”

 

“Go on.” the Viscount says, cocking his eyebrow over his right eye.

 

“Well Pheobe is such a timid little mouse of a creature. She seldom expresses an opinion.”

 

“That’s because Gladys has been quashing those opinions, Aunt Egg.” Lettice adds.

 

“Well, we know that now, but from the outside looking in, you wouldn’t know that without the intimate knowledge that you have now received from Phoebe, Lettice.”

 

“So what you’re implying Pappa is, that I have to see through the redecoration to Phoebe’s pied-à-terre******** to Gladys’ specifications, even if Pheobe herself doesn’t like them?”

 

“It does appear that way, my dear.” the Viscount concedes.

 

“Even if it is plain that Gladys is bullying her and taking advantage of the situation for her own means?” Lettice asks hopefully.

 

“It’s a sticky situation, my dear.” the Viscount replies consolingly. “I mean, you don’t actually have to go through with it. It isn’t like you need her money. If she doesn’t pay the tradesmen’s bills you’ll be a little out of pocket, but it won’t bankrupt you.”

 

“But,” Eglantyne says warningly. “You do run the risk of Gladys spreading malicious gossip about your business. Whatever Gladys may or may not be, she’s influential.” She sighs deeply. “It would be such a shame to ruin the career you have spent so long building and making a success.”

 

“And your mother wouldn’t fancy the trouble and scandals this poisonous woman could create, either.” adds the Viscount as an afterthought. “Especially when it comes to your marriageability.”

 

“Are you suggesting that Selwyn isn’t going to come back to me, Pappa?” Lettice asks bitterly, unable to keep the hurt out of her voice as colour fills her face and unshed tears threatening to spill fill her eyes.

 

“No,” the Viscount defends. “You know your happiness and security is of the utmost importance to me, Lettice my dear. No, I’m just being a realist. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Zinnia doesn’t have something nasty up her sleeve to spring upon the pair of you, even when he does come back. If there is even the slightest smear on your character, Lettice, she will use that against you. Zinna hasn’t spoken to you since that night, has she?”

 

“No, thank goodness!” Lettice replies.

 

“Well, that may not be such a good thing.” the Viscount goes on. “Zinnia enjoys playing a long game that can inflict more pain.”

 

“Your father speaks the truth, Lettice, and he is wise to be a pragmatist.” Eglantyne remarks sagely.

 

The older woman reaches into the small silver mesh reticule********* dangling from her left wrist and unfastens it. She withdraws her gold and amber cigarette holder and a small, embossed silver case containing her choice of cigarettes, her favourite black and gold Sobranie********** Black Russians. She depresses the clasp of the case and withdraws one of the long, slender cigarettes and screws it adeptly into her holder. She then withdraws a match holder and goes to strike a match.

 

“Must you, Eglantyne?” the Viscount asks. “You know Sadie doesn’t like smoking indoors.”

 

Eglantyne ignores her brother and strikes a match and lights her Sobranie, sucking the end of her cigarette holder, causing the match flame to dance and gutter whilst the paper and tobacco of the cigarette crackles. Whisps of dark grey smoke curl as they escape the corners of her mouth.

 

“I’m in your bad books, Cosmo, so I may as well be in hers too.” she says, sending forth tumbling clouds of acrid smoke. “No-one will deny me my little pleasure in life.” She smiles with gratification as she draws on her holder again. “Not even Sadie. And correction: Sadie only dislikes it when a lady smokes.”

 

“Well, I can’t stop you any more than I seem to be able to stop Gladys from forcing Lettice to decorate this damnable flat the way she wants it, rather than the way Phoebe wants it.” the Viscount replies in a defeated tone.

 

The three fall silent for a short while, with only the heavy ticking of the clock sitting on the library mantle and the crackle of the fire to break the cloying silence.

 

“What about Sir John?” the Viscount suddenly says.

 

“Sir John Nettleford-Hughes?” Eglantyne asks quizzically, blowing forth another cloud of Sobranie smoke.

 

“No, no!” he clarifies with a shake of his head. “Not that Sir John: Sir John Caxton, Gladys’ husband. Surely, we can appeal to him. He wouldn’t want Pheobe to be unhappy.”

 

“He’s completely under Gladys’ thumb***********.” Eglantyne opines.

 

“Aunt Egg is right, Pappa. The day I went to Eaton Square************ to have it out with Gladys, I saw John, and he couldn’t wait to retreat to the safety of his club and leave we two to our own devices. He’s as completely ruled by Gladys as Phoebe is.”

 

“I suppose you could turn this to your advantage and have Phoebe commission you to undo your own redecoration.” the Viscount suggests hopefully.

 

“I don’t think that would work very well, Cosmo.” Eglantyne remarks.

 

“How so?”

 

“Well, I don’t think Gladys would take too kindly to Lettice and Phoebe going behind her back, and we’ve just discussed the difficulties a scorned woman could cause to Lettice’s reputation, both personally and professionally.”

 

“Besides,” Lettice adds. “I don’t think the allowance Phoebe inherits from her father’s estate is terribly large, and I don’t imagine it will be easy as a woman to win any garden design commissions to be able to afford my services.”

 

“There’s Gertude Jekyll*************.” Eglantyne remarks.

 

“Yes, but she has influential connections like Edward Lutyens**************.” Lettice counters. “And as you have noted, Aunt Egg, Phoebe is rather unassuming. She doesn’t know anyone of influence, and wields none of her own. Besides, I’m sure Gladys won’t pay Phoebe to pay me to undo her prescribed redecorations.”

 

“You could always redecorate the pied-à-terre without charge,” the Viscount suggests hopefully.

 

“As recompense for the damage I’ve done redecorating it now, you mean, Pappa?”

 

“In a sense.”

 

“The outcomes would be the same unpleasant ones for Lettice as if Phoebe could afford to commission her to do it, Cosmo.” Eglantyne warns.

 

“Gerald was right.” Lettice mutters.

 

“About what, my dear?” her father asks.

 

“Well, Gerald said that Gladys was very good at weaving sticky spiderwebs, and that I had better watch out that I didn’t become caught in one.” She sighs heavily. “But it appears as if I have become enmeshed in one well and truly.”

 

“Well, however much it displeases me to say this to you Lettice, let this be a lesson to you my girl! In future, make sure that you engage our lawyers to draw up the contracts for you.”

 

“But I didn’t have this contract drawn up, Pappa,” Lettice defends. “Gladys did.”

 

“Well, make sure our lawyers review any contracts created by someone else before you undertake to sign one if future.”

 

Eglantyne stares off into the distance, drawing heavily upon her Sobranie, blowing out plumes of smoke.

 

“So, I’m stuck then.” Lettice says bitterly. “And its my own stupid fault.”

 

Eglantyne’s eyes flit in a desultory fashion about the room, drifting from the many gilt decorated spines on the shelves to the armchairs gathered cosily around the library’s great stone fireplace to the chess table set up to play nearby.

 

“Unless your aunt can come up with something, I’m afraid I don’t see a way out for you, Lettice.” the Viscount says. He then adds kindly, “But I wouldn’t be so hard on yourself, my dear. We all have to learn life’s lessons. Sometimes we just learn them in harder ways.”

 

Eglantyne continues to contemplate the situation her niece finds herself in.

 

“Well, I’ve certainly learned my lesson this time, Pappa.”

 

Eglantyne withdraws the nearly spent Sobranie from her lips, scattering ash upon the dull, worth carpet beneath her mule clad feet. “I may have one idea that might work.”

 

“Really Aunt Egg?” Lettice gasps, clasping her hands together as she does.

 

“Perhaps, Lettice my dear.”

 

“What is it, Eglantyne?” the Viscount asks.

 

“I don’t want to say anything, just in case I can’t pull it off.” Eglantyne contemplates for a moment before continuing. “Just leave this with me for a few days.”

 

*Padraic Colum was an Irish poet, novelist, dramatist, biographer, playwright, children's author and collector of folklore. He was one of the leading figures of the Irish Literary Revival.

 

**“The Golden Fleece and the Heroes who Lived Before Achilles” was a novel written by Padraic Colum, illustrated by Hungarian artist Willy Pognay, published by the Macmillan Company in 1921.

 

***The Delphos gown is a finely pleated silk dress first created in about 1907 by French designer Henriette Negrin and her husband, Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo. They produced the gowns until about 1950. It was inspired by, and named after, a classical Greek statue, the Charioteer of Delphi. It was championed by more artistic women who did not wish to conform to society’s constraints and wear a tightly fitting corset.

 

****The Bright Young Things, or Bright Young People, was a nickname given by the tabloid press to a group of Bohemian young aristocrats and socialites in 1920s Londo

 

*****Henry Tipping (1855 – 1933) was a French-born British writer on country houses and gardens, garden designer in his own right, and Architectural Editor of the British periodical Country Life for seventeen years between 1907 and 1910 and 1916 and 1933. After his appointment to that position in 1907, he became recognised as one of the leading authorities on the history, architecture, furnishings and gardens of country houses in Britain. In 1927, he became a member of the first committee of the Gardens of England and Wales Scheme, later known as the National Gardens Scheme.

 

******Country Life is a British weekly perfect-bound glossy magazine that is a quintessential English magazine founded in 1897, providing readers with a weekly dose of architecture, gardens and interiors. It was based in London at 110 Southwark Street until March 2016, when it became based in Farnborough, Hampshire. The frontispiece of each issue usually features a portrait photograph of a young woman of society, or, on occasion, a man of society.

 

*******Bakelite, was the first plastic made from synthetic components. Patented on December 7, 1909, the creation of a synthetic plastic was revolutionary for its electrical nonconductivity and heat-resistant properties in electrical insulators, radio and telephone casings and such diverse products as kitchenware, jewellery, pipe stems, teapot handles, children's toys, and firearms. A plethora of items were manufactured using Bakelite in the 1920s and 1930s.

 

********A pied-à-terre is a small flat, house, or room kept for occasional use.

 

*********A reticule is a woman's small handbag, typically having a drawstring and decorated with embroidery or beading. The term “reticule” comes from French and Latin terms meaning “net.” At the time, the word “purse” referred to small leather pouches used for carrying money, whereas these bags were made of net. By the 1920s they were sometimes made of small heavy metal mesh as well as netting or beaded materials.

 

**********The Balkan Sobranie tobacco business was established in London in 1879 by Albert Weinberg (born in Romania in 1849), whose naturalisation papers dated 1886 confirm his nationality and show that he had emigrated to England in the 1870s at a time when hand-made cigarettes in the eastern European and Russian tradition were becoming fashionable in Europe. Sobranie is one of the oldest cigarette brands in the world. Throughout its existence, Sobranie was marketed as the definition of luxury in the tobacco industry, being adopted as the official provider of many European royal houses and elites around the world including the Imperial Court of Russia and the royal courts of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Spain, Romania, and Greece. Premium brands include the multi-coloured Sobranie Cocktail and the black and gold Sobranie Black Russian.

 

***********The idiom “to be under the thumb”, comes from the action of a falconer holding the leash of the hawk under their thumb to maintain a tight control of the bird. Today the term under the thumb is generally used in a derogatory manner to describe a partner's overbearing control over the other partner's actions.

 

************Eaton Square is a rectangular residential garden square in London's Belgravia district. It is the largest square in London. It is one of the three squares built by the landowning Grosvenor family when they developed the main part of Belgravia in the Nineteenth Century that are named after places in Cheshire — in this case Eaton Hall, the Grosvenor country house. It is larger but less grand than the central feature of the district, Belgrave Square, and both larger and grander than Chester Square. The first block was laid out by Thomas Cubitt from 1827. In 2016 it was named as the "Most Expensive Place to Buy Property in Britain", with a full terraced house costing on average seventeen million pounds — many of such town houses have been converted, within the same, protected structures, into upmarket apartments.

 

*************Gertrude Jekyll was a British horticulturist, garden designer, craftswoman, photographer, writer and artist. She created over four handred gardens in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States, and wrote over one thousand articles for magazines such as Country Life and William Robinson's The Garden. Her first commissioned garden was designed in 1881, and she worked very closely wither her long standing friend, architect Sir Edward Lutyens.

 

**************Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memorials and public buildings in the years before the Second World War. He is probably best known for his creation of the Cenotaph war memorial on Whitehall in London after the Great War. Had he not died of cancer in 1944, he probably would have gone on to design more buildings in the post-war era.

 

Cluttered with books and art, Viscount Wrexham’s library with its Georgian furnishings is different from what you might think, for it is made up entirely of 1:12 size dollhouse miniatures from my collection.

 

Fun things to look for in this tableau include:

 

The majority of the books that you see lining the shelves of the Viscount’s library are 1:12 size miniatures made by the British miniature artisan Ken Blythe. So too are the postcards and the box for them on the Viscount’s Chippendale desk. Most of the books I own that Ken has made may be opened to reveal authentic printed interiors. In some cases, you can even read the words, depending upon the size of the print, as can be seen on The Times Literary Supplement broadsheet on the Viscount’s desk. I have quite a large representation of Ken Blythe’s work in my collection, but so little of his real artistry is seen because the books that he specialised in making are usually closed, sitting on shelves or closed on desks and table surfaces. What might amaze you even more is that all Ken Blythe’s opening books are authentically replicated 1:12 scale miniatures of real volumes. “The Golden Fleece and the Heroes who Lived Before Achilles” by Padraic Colum, illustrated by Willy Pognay, sitting on the Viscount’s desk is such an example. To create something so authentic to the original in such detail and so clearly, really do make these miniature artisan pieces. Ken Blythe’s work is highly sought after by miniaturists around the world today and command high prices at auction for such tiny pieces, particularly now that he is no longer alive. I was fortunate enough to acquire pieces from Ken Blythe prior to his death about four years ago. His legacy will live on with me and in my photography which I hope will please his daughter.

 

On the desk are some 1:12 artisan miniature ink bottles and a blotter on a silver salver all made by the Little Green Workshop in England who specialise in high end, high quality miniatures. The ink bottles are made from tiny faceted crystal beads and have sterling silver bottoms and lids. The ink blotter is sterling silver too and has a blotter made of real black felt, cut meticulously to size to fit snugly inside the frame. The silver double frame on the desk also comes from Mick and Marie’s Miniature Collectables. The bottle of port and the port glasses I acquired from a miniatures stockist on E-Bay. Each glass, the bottle and its faceted stopper are hand blown using real glass.

 

Also on the desk to the left stands a stuffed white owl on a branch beneath a glass cloche. A vintage miniature piece, the foliage are real dried flowers and grasses, whilst the owl is cut from white soapstone. The base is stained wood and the cloche is real glass. This I acquired along with two others featuring shells (one of which can be seen in the background) from Kathleen Knight’s Dollhouse Shop in the United Kingdom.

 

The teapot and teacups, featuring stylised Art Nouveau patterns were acquired from an online stockist of dolls’ house miniatures in Australia.

 

The Chippendale desk itself is made by Bespaq, and it has a mahogany stain and the design is taken from a real Chippendale desk. Its surface is covered in red dioxide red dioxide leather with a gilt trim. Bespaq is a high-end miniature furniture maker with high attention to detail and quality.

 

The beautiful rotating globe in the background features a British Imperial view of the world, with all of Britain’s colonies in pink (as can be seen from Canada), as it would have been in 1921. The globe sits on metal casters in a mahogany stained frame, and it can be rolled effortlessly. It comes from Mick and Marie’s Miniature Collectables in Lancashire. The silver double frame on the desk also comes from Mick and Marie’s Miniature Collectables.

 

In the background you can see the book lined shelves of Viscount Wrexham’s as well as a Victorian painting of cattle in a gold frame from Amber’s Miniatures in America, and a hand painted ginger jar from Thailand which stands on a Bespaq plant stand.

 

The gold flocked Edwardian wallpaper is beautiful hand impressed paper given to me by a friend, which inspired the whole “Cavendish Mews – Lettice Chetwynd” series.

Nothing like a lovely moonlight bathing session. Me and my babe for the night are catching some wonderful moonbeams. And I am in my best fashion with this Bikini Set from Blossom.

It's a hunt gift from the Enmeshed Hunt.

It has a 3 color HUD and will take everyone from the beach to the boneyard.

It's only available during the hunt. So HURRY!!!!!!!!

Check out where to start the hunt and more Details below!

All about the Enmeshed Hunt

 

The skin is from Paper Rabbit @ the Epiphany Gacha event

 

Check out more on my blog: Nothing to Wear SL

 

Details!

Head: Catwa Jessica

Body, hands & feet: Slink

Nails: Hello Dave

Hair: Sn@tch

 

enameled copper mesh

 

Jaroslav Hašek - The Good Soldier Švejk and his Fortunes in the World War

Penguin Modern Classics, 1985

Cover Artist: Josef Lada

 

Here, with all its blasphemy and bawdiness restored, is the immortal tale of the good-hearted garrulous progress of the only loyal Czech in the Austrian army of 1914. Enmeshed in red tape, chivvied by police, doctors, clergy and officers, and ever obliging, the good soldier (once discharged as an idiot) ploughs his irresistible furrow towards the crowning moment when he is captured by his own troops.

 

Contains 156 of the original illustrations by Hašek's friend, Josef Lada.

Morro Strand State Beach,

Morro Bay, California

 

These two were clasping (not struggling, just bound) as I found them in the very wet sand just above the incoming tide. I am not sure what they are doing. Love and war seem to be the main two choices. But mating would apparently require at least one, if not both, to be outside their shell. I have read that in some hermit crabs, the male holds on to the female until she molts, which is when mating occurs.

 

Or maybe it is war. If you know, please advise.

 

Interesting too is the difference in color.

...that surround Hummingbird House, CARF's beautiful new home and prevention centre at the Chácara Beija-Flor, a smallholding in the Atlantic Rainforest, where the surrounding nature is our most valuable asset.

 

Peroba Rosa is a very attractive, insect-resistant, native hardwood tree of the southern Brazilian Rainforest, light brown to pinkish rose-red and often variegated or streaked with pink, purple or brown. All the Peroba wood used in the restoration and construction of our old colonial style home; be it the railings, floorboards, staircases, beams, roofing, cupboards, etc. is old, used wood purchased from demolition merchants who specialize in reclaiming the wood from demolished buildings. We cleaned up the wood, pulled out old nails and screws, worked on it according to our needs in our makeshift workshop on the property, then depending where in the house it were to be used, we either oiled, sealed, wax-polished or painted it. We haven’t used new wood in the house, thus no more precious trees have been cut down to serve our needs.

 

Unfortunately Brasil has already destroyed 93% of its Atlantic Rainforest, where most of the hardwoods come from, so we can't afford to cut down a single tree. On the contrary, we've planted dozens of trees in our garden and even built around the existing ones, as you can see in the photo above. Hopefully they will attract even more fascinating birds and animals, which so sadly have been rapidly disappearing or even become extinct due to man's constant destruction of this country's natural forests.

  

Our children need to understand that the Hummingbirds are intimately related to the plants that they help pollinate in exchange for food and that this interaction between bird and plant is a relationship satisfactory to both. The Hummingbirds that feed on the nectar of a flower on the tree or bush in our garden and in exchange accomplish its pollination are enmeshed in a harmonious co-evolutionary relationship, a perfect co-existence.

 

Our children also need to understand why this indissoluble link must be rediscovered and conquered and that their own existence on this planet depends on such knowledge. That is also why we have created The Hummingbird Project the way we have, in a pleasant, safe and colourful atmosphere, an attractive habitat that is conductive to fellowship with our children.

  

Cape Cod National Seashore, Eastham, MA

 

From the Cape Cod National Seashore: The outer beach, or "backside," of Cape Cod has been the notorious graveyard for more than 3,000 ships since the wreck of the Sparrowhawk in 1626. The high cost in lives and property demanded by the sands of Cape Cod, led to the establishment of the Massachusetts Humane Society in 1786, the first organization in the nation devoted to the rescue and assistance of shipwrecked mariners. The Humane Society established shelter huts along the coast; later, it built lifeboat stations where surfboats, line-throwing guns, and other lifesaving gear were stored for the use of volunteer crews in times of emergency.

 

In 1848, the Congress appropriated funds for the first time to construct, equip and maintain similar stations in New Jersey. From 1848 until 1872, Congress provided the money to build more stations along the eastern seaboard and the Great Lakes. The stations in Massachusetts continued to be administered by the Massachusetts Humane Society, but the federal government subsidized its operation. The continued frequent loss of life along the nation's shores led Congress, in 1871-1872, to reorganize the Life Saving Service, a place it on a full-time professional basis. The construction and manning of nine stations on the "backside" of Cape Cod was provided for in the Federal budget of 1871.

 

One of the original nine stations was constructed at Nauset. It was located about 350 yards southeast of the present building. Shoreline erosion compelled the construction of a new station. The old station remained in service until 1937, when it was replaced by the present structure. The present building was in service as a Coast Guard Station until 1958. The first headquarters of the Cape Cod National Seashore opened in this building in 1961.

 

On November 9, 1620, a ship named the Mayflower, 65 days out from Plymouth, England, made her landfall in the New World at what is now Coast Guard Beach. Captain Jones, knowing that his Pilgrim passengers were supposed to settle in northern Virginia, headed southeastward. Although he stood well offshore to avoid shoal waters, his ship soon became enmeshed in the worst shoals in the area, Pollock Rip. A miraculous change of wind enabled Jones to sail his ship free of the shoals, and he then turned northward to anchor in Provincetown Harbor, November 11, 1620.

  

Some time before I arrived a "Porthole" window fell out of one of Nakagin's capsules ( see here for the non standard replacement www.flickr.com/photos/therealmarxz/14258715949/)

 

to protect pedestrians from possible future incidents both towers were literally enmeshed in a protective net to capture a falling window and direct it on to the roof of the 2nd floor office space.

walking along the firetrail, I had to keep dodging the remnants of overnight webs stretched across the track. Then I found this one, with a fine specimen of beetlehood enmeshed, along with other lesser snacks. The breeze made focusing a little interesting, but finally I got lucky - more so than the beetle...

Most of the day this gray house seems sullen and dreary, it’s tumbledown balconies protruding disorderly, it’s side wall enmeshed in dead vines, it’s jagged skyline looks almost like battlement.

 

But for an hour, when it bathes in the light of setting sun, it’s blossoming and losing its bad temper completely.

 

Took me about a week to get right lighting - in time and not obscured by clouds :)

 

See where this picture was taken.

A Blue Passionflower (Passiflora caerulea). We stopped at a little sweet shop on the way to the Central West. I needed to stretch my back so I was stood beside a large bush to do my stretches when I noticed a colourful climbing vine that was enmeshed with the plant. I now know this is a weed (originally from South America) but my goodness, it sure is beautiful!

Fishing nets, Nederlands Openluchtmuseum, Arnhem, May 2018.

 

Canon AE-1 + 50mm f/1.4 S.S.C.

Ilford XP2 Super 400

enmeshed

The damp of the night drives deeper into my soul.

- Walt Whitman

 

©2008 kelly angard

 

enMESHed Into Summer 2015 0L Hunt

June 15th - July 15th

 

Lots of goodies from over 50 creators waiting for you - I made 3 of them, each on a different floor, so happy hunting everyone!!! :)

 

Starting location: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Seduced/185/96/21

 

Slurl: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Behringa/232/33/22

 

Hints:

 

- for the 1st prize: What's going on?

- for the 2nd prize: Time to look for the wild and fairy stuff

- for the 3rd prize: Field flowers and chocolate eggs anyone?

 

Hunt info: enmeshedhunts.wordpress.com/

Il fait plutôt chaud pour le moment, donc un petit bain fait du bien.

A la fin de la vidéo vous voyez Lewis essayer de se dépêtrer de branches; ça m'a d'abord fait rire jusqu'à ce que je constate qu'il était en fait "saucissonné" dans un fil de pêche, heureusement sans hameçon.

 

It is rather hot at the moment, so a bath feels good.

At the end of the video you see Lewis trying to extricate himself from the branches; that first made me laugh until I found out that he was actually enmeshed in a fishing line, fortunately without hook.

It was the city’s tallest, most expensive building with the world’s largest banking chamber when 50 Martin Place opened in 1928 as the head office for the Government Savings Bank of NSW. It has since been transformed as the global headquarters of Macquarie Bank.

  

From the street, the building’s distinctive Beaux-Arts facade proudly showcases a solid red granite base, topped with four soaring Ionic columns and pilasters clad in pink-glazed ceramic tiles. Twelve storeys in height, it was crowned originally with a two-storey attic and, unusually, a rooftop rifle range.

 

At ground level, the grand hall and banking chamber are lavishly detailed in a neoclassical style, featuring marble and scagliola (a form of plaster) on massive stylised columns. The stunning adaptive re-use of the building by award-winning architects Johnson Pilton Walker (JPW) in 2014 sees old and new enmeshing beautifully.

  

Inside the atrium are two futuristic, circular glass lifts, winners of the Elevator World Project of the Year. These are paired with an extraordinary eight-storey-high installation by artist Nike Savvas, Colours are the Country, which can be seen during the lift journey.

  

Facts:

 

Built

 

1925–1928

 

Architect

 

HE Ross and H Ruskin Rowe, Ross & Rowe

 

Additional architects

  

2012–14 – Johnson Pilton Walker (lead architect) – alterations and additions. Tanner Kibble Denton Architects – heritage architect. Clive Wilkinson Architects and BVN – interiors

 

Awards

  

2015 - NSW Architecture Award, Commercial Architecture

  

National Trust Award for best adaptive reuse

  

Elevator World Project of the Year

 

a night spent in good company in a gorgeous city.

 

WEARING:

SKin: cStar Geisha Modern Skin Soft 6.1

Clothing: Dare Designs Prowl black & Dare Designs Enmeshed pink, plus the shoulder pads from DV8 Merciless shoulder pads in pink and black, layered and stretched out

Neurolab Collar Cyberlab

Hair... my fond secret :)

roseyourstylesl.wixsite.com/roseyourstylesl/single-post/2...

 

Kikai Halloween Market means 2 sims full of booths. Many good things there. Almost every booth has a skullhead, the huntitem. I heard over 60. My 2 last pictures of the week showed some of these.

 

At my booth I have 5 pictures and my Halloweenpictures Dress.

 

maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kikai/191/193/602

 

pose

Sheer Class 4m

 

Dress

www.flickr.com/photos/134771400@N05/30229989952/in/dateta...

 

pictures

www.flickr.com/photos/134771400@N05/22126863360/in/photol...

 

www.flickr.com/photos/134771400@N05/22301936702/in/photol...

 

www.flickr.com/photos/134771400@N05/22325466961/in/photol...

 

www.flickr.com/photos/134771400@N05/21692112374/in/photol...

 

www.flickr.com/photos/134771400@N05/21693812903/in/photol...

Red Mangrove's walking roots

 

The sprout that hangs down comes from the Mangrove pod as it floats along the water's surface is literally what created Florida. The roots touch bottom and grow in all directions, catching sand and debris, and single-rootedly forming the very landmass we know of as Florida!

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arch_Creek

 

Without this seed, none of what we know as our coastline... and many other coastlines... would be there. Thank you, Mangrove Seed, for all your environmental work!

 

From "The Forgotten Pioneer", Arva Moore Parks

 

"Much of the coast was a "mangrove coast"; here a great mangrove tree marks the transiton from bay to land. It's curved and twisted prop roots enmeshed all sorts of natural rubbish-- its own leaves, sand, grasses, the gifts from the sea-- until slowly, slowly through the years the "squish" became the solid earth." p36

 

Mangroves are trees and shrubs that grow in saline coastal habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes 25° N and 25° S. The saline conditions tolerated by various species range from brackish water, through pure seawater (30 to 40 ppt), to water of over twice the salinity of ocean seawater, where the salt becomes concentrated by evaporation (up to 90 ppt).

 

There are many species of trees and shrubs adapted to saline conditions. Not all are closely related, and the term "mangrove" may be used for all of them, or more narrowly only for the mangrove family of plants, the Rhizophoraceae, or even more specifically just for mangrove trees of the genus Rhizophora.

 

Mangroves form a characteristic saline woodland or shrubland habitat, called mangrove swamp, mangrove forest, mangrove or mangal. Mangals are found in depositional coastal environments where fine sediments (often with high organic content) collect in areas protected from high energy wave action. They occur both in estuaries and along open coastlines. Mangroves dominate three quarters of tropical coastlines.

 

Arch Creek East Environmental Preserve, North Miami, FL.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arch_Creek

See my set, Woods, weeds and streams.

 

In 1783, Isaac Hite, Jr., grandson of Shenandoah Valley pioneer Jost Hite, married Nelly Conway Madison, sister of James Madison (fourth President of the United States). Upon his marriage, Isaac Jr., received a 483-acre tract along the Great Wagon Road near Middletown from his father. As he prospered, Hite’s holdings grew to more than 7,500 acres on which he developed Belle Grove, one of the largest plantations in the Lower Shenandoah and one that was enmeshed in the national and global market economy.

 

In 1794, construction began on the manor house at Belle Grove and was completed in 1797. The grand mansion was built with limestone quarried on the property and faced the Valley Pike to display the owner's social and financial status. One of the outstanding historic mansions of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, Belle Grove shows evidence of the cultures that came to the valley with the early settlers. It also identifies with ideas that were shaping architecture at the time. Like other period houses built in the valley, the design exemplifies Thomas Jefferson's influence from the Tidewater and Piedmont areas and also Classical Revival elements, an architectural innovation of the day.

 

The grandfather clock once owned by Confederate General Jubal Early is currently located at the Belle Grove Manor house. Unfortunately the site was closed when we visited (Memorial Day).

Saint Vincent ĐỖ YẾN

Dominican Priest

(1764-1838)

 

* An Elderly Wanderer

 

Saint Vincent Đỗ Yến was shown in portraits as an old man over 70 years old, full of gray hair, the result of 40 years plus devoting to Christians in many parishes in Hải Dương province. Like a conscientious doctor taking care of his patient, this lovable, spiritual, and gentle old priest had always been present among Christians in all their trials. Now, when the king ordered an all-out pursuit of priests with threats of ravaging any place that dared providing them safe haven., the old disciple, avoiding enmeshing others in his trouble, left the beloved Kẻ Sặt parish for undetermined destinations... like Christ said: “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” His farewell to his beloved sheep of this world had united Fr. Vincent Đỗ Yến with saints in Heaven. The old priest had received the crown of martyrdom as an everlasting reward from God.

 

* Priest of the Order of Preachers.

 

Vincent Đỗ Yến was born in 1764 (post-Le’s dynasty), in Trà Lũ, Phú Nhai parish, Nam Định province. This region was a fertile land having born many saints such as: Vincent Liêm, Thomas Dụ, Dominic Đạt... VIncent Yến answered God’s call for the religious life at an early age. After years of virtues formation, philosophy and theology training, he was ordained a priest by Bishop Delgado in 1798. People thought that his ministry would be cut short because he was arrested during Christian persecutions in King Cảnh Thịnh’s last years, and his freedom was bought with ransom money by Christians.

 

On 7/22/1807, Fr. Vincent Đỗ Yến received the Dominican habits and professed his solemn vow the following year. Religious life helped uniting him deeper with God. He lived simply, often made personal sacrifice and spent hours in meditation. His heart was always burned with love for God and man; he was devoted to evangelization, never worried about fatigue or personal safety. Under King Gia Long’s (1802-1820) and at the beginning of King Minh Mạng’s reigns, Fr. Vincent Yến carried his ministry in relative safety. He was initially responsible for Kẻ Mốt parish, then Kẻ Sặt parish, Hải Dương province. Everywhere he went, he poured out his heart to reinforce parishioners’ faith and to convert many nonbelievers into Christians. The faithful asserted that he was always happy, wise, calm, gentle, and saintly and that wherever he went he did his all to deepen the faith of Christians and to help many pagans believing in God.

 

* The Wandering Feet...

 

In 1838, King Minh Ming ordered the mandarins to strictly follow his edict of persecutions in the dioceses of Tonkin or North (Đàng Ngoài). Many bishops, priests, religious, and lay Christians had bravely sacrificed their lives for faith. Many churches, seminaries, religious community houses were destroyed. Fr. Vincent Đỗ Yến, pastor of Kẻ Sặt parish, was pained witnessing his flock being pressed into dismantling the spacious church which they had built with their own hands and money. Sympathizing with the flock’s misery, he stayed among them, moving from house to house, celebrating Mass at night, counseling and providing sacramental services during the day. Every thing was done in secrecy as it was done in the Church’s early days.

 

However, informed that Fr. Vincent Yến was still hiding out in Kẻ Sặt parish and determined to capture him, the authorities put the parish under surveillance and threatened to flatten the village. Wishing the parishioners to have peace, the shepherd quietly departed, taking with him the painful feelings of being separated from his beloved flock. He entrusted everything in God’ providence.

 

At first, he went to the community of Thừa, but sensing it unsafe, he went on to Lực Điền (Hưng Yên). Exhausted by the long trip, he stopped and rested under the shade of a bamboo bush. A passerby stopped and wondered: “Where are you going? Why are you sitting here?” To hide his identity, the priest feigned ignorance and asked for directions to Kẻ Sặt parish as well as to Lực Điền. The passerby gave directions then left. Continuing his trip, he met village chief Phan on June 8. Feigning sympathy, the village chief begged Fr. Vincent Yến to stay at his home. Then the chief made an about face and arrested the priest, put him in a cangue and prepared to have him brought to Hải Dương. Warned of the priests arrest, parishioners of Kẻ Sặt and Lực Điền brought buffaloes and money to buy his freedom, but the chief refused hoping for bigger reward from his superiors. Fr. Vincent Yến had to use all his persuasive power to prevent Christians of the two parishes against using force to free him.

 

In Hải Dương, the disciple was taken to the tribunal three days later. The town mandarin, already a humane man and with the advice of a physician named Hàn, the mandarin’s personal physician, did not want to spill the blood of a Christian. He advised the priest to admit to be a physician so that the mandarin could free him. The witness of faith responded: “No, I am not a physician. I am a priest who only preached and celebrated Mass to God. I am willing to die it, not lying to live.”

 

The mandarin tried to find other reasons to release Fr. Vincent Yến. He had a circle drawn around the priest and declared that he would considered the priest’s stepping out of the circle as walking over the cross and the priest could go free. Once more, the preacher of faith unwaveringly refused: “There is no difference between doing that and renouncing my faith.” Unable to shake the experienced priest’s faith plus not desiring to execute an innocent man, the mandarin sent a report to the royal city and petitioned the royal court to transfer the priest back to his home province of Nam Định.

 

* Hour of Reward...

 

King Minh Mạng did not approve the transfer request instead handed down the death sentence that was signed on 6/20/1838 and reached Hải Dương on June 30 with the following content:

 

“Đỗ Yến is a native and a Catholic priest, imprisoned but still faithful to his religion. He certainly is a stupid person who is determined to not conform to the right path, and therefore must be beheaded immediately; why send him back?”

 

In the three weeks of imprisonment, with the intervention of physician Hàn, Fr. Vincent Yến did not have to wear a cangue or shackles; he was allowed to have the food Christians brought in. Days and nights, he concentrated most of his time reciting prayers and in quite and lasting meditation.

 

On 6/30/1838, the prefecture mandarin carried out the newly received sentence. Fr. Vincent Yến proudly went to the execution site which was located at a crossroad not too far from the community of Bình Lao and about 1 kilometer from the western wall of Hải Dương. The gentle look of the respected and elderly priest with the dignified demeanor touched a lot of hearts. At the site, he kneeled down and prayed reverently. Then the executioner carried out his responsibility. With only one saber swing, the martyr’s head fell to the ground...

 

The mandarin gave a piece of cloth to shroud the body, had the head sown back into his neck, then allowed parishioners of the community of Bình Lao to carry it back the parish for burial. Eight months later, Christians exhumed his body to rebury it in the church of Thọ Ninh parish. During the exhumation, people discovered that his body looked the same as when he was just executed. Mr. Trưởng Dong, a pagan, who had witnessed the exhumation, said: “It’s true that a person who lived virtuously, died divinely. It had been 8 months, but there was no change, no bad odor; moreover, there was even an aromatic scent.”

The very reason for me being in Tokyo, the unrefusable opportunity to actually stay for a week in one of the capsule apartments in Kurokawa's seminal Nakagin Capsule Tower (specifically the third from the top, left side in this picture of "B Tower" .

Sadly it has seen better days and is not in the best of repairs (to say the least) recently a porthole window fell out on to the sidewalk so the entire tower is now enmeshed in a safety web.

 

full set of my images of Nakagin (it as the reason for me traveling to Japan so why not have a set just for it):

www.flickr.com/photos/therealmarxz/sets/72157644068204856

Tates of Barnsley got enmeshed in the Island Fortitude web which ended badly. I believe Tates managed to buy itself back out of Island Fortitude ownership, but it was too late and the company folded. A remnant continues in the form of Globe Holidays, a Tates associated company which managed to retain its licences, and ex Manchester Airport Pointer Dart SN55HSU arrives in Wakefield on (I think) service 96/97 from Barnsley. Globe Holidays appears to have kept the Eddie Brown Tours name also - Eddie Brown was another company which got involved with Island Fortitude and came to an ignominious end.

Olney Pond Lincoln Woods State Park, Lincoln, Rhode Island USA(as seen through my cell phone camera lens).

...amidst the greenery of the lush and humid surrounding rainforest..........

 

Peroba Rosa is a very attractive, insect-resistant, native hardwood tree of the southern Brazilian Rainforest, light brown to pinkish rose-red and often variegated or streaked with pink, purple or brown. All the Peroba wood used in the restoration and construction of our old colonial style home; be it the railings, floorboards, staircases, beams, roofing, cupboards, etc. is old, used wood purchased from demolition merchants who specialize in reclaiming the wood from demolished buildings. We cleaned up the wood, pulled out old nails and screws, worked on it according to our needs in our makeshift workshop on the property, then depending where in the house it were to be used, we either oiled, sealed, wax-polished or painted it. We haven’t used new wood in the house, thus no more precious trees have been cut down to serve our needs.

 

Unfortunately Brasil has already destroyed 93% of its Atlantic Rainforest, where most of the hardwoods come from, so we can't afford to cut down a single tree. On the contrary, we've planted dozens of trees in our garden and even built around the existing ones, as you can see in the photo above. Hopefully they will attract even more fascinating birds and animals, which so sadly have been rapidly disappearing or even become extinct due to man's constant destruction of this country's natural forests.

  

Our children need to understand that the Hummingbirds are intimately related to the plants that they help pollinate in exchange for food and that this interaction between bird and plant is a relationship satisfactory to both. The Hummingbirds that feed on the nectar of a flower on the tree or bush in our garden and in exchange accomplish its pollination are enmeshed in a harmonious co-evolutionary relationship, a perfect co-existence.

 

Our children also need to understand why this indissoluble link must be rediscovered and conquered and that their own existence on this planet depends on such knowledge. That is also why we have created The Hummingbird Project the way we have, in a pleasant, safe and colourful atmosphere, an attractive habitat that is conductive to fellowship with our children.

  

BAYAN KO

‘Bayan Ko’ was composed in 1928 when Filipinos were campaigning for independence from America under the leadership of President Manuel Quezon. The lyrics are based on a poem by Jose Corazon de Jesus. Enmeshed in the song are the yearnings of a people colonized for over 400 years, first as a colony of Spain and then as a colony of the United States.

 

De Guzman likened that Motherland to a bird set free, the land returned to the rightful people, the true heirs of the islands. “Foreigners are intoxicated with your beauty, my country, my nest of tears of poverty. My steadfast wish is to set you free.”

 

This song has accompanied almost every struggle since the turn of the century to recapture the visions and ideals of the First Republic — from the anti-American protest movement and millenarian revolts of the 1920’s and 30’s, to the resistance against the Japanese occupation in the 40’s, the student revolt of the 70’s and more recently, the 1986 EDSA “People Power” revolt that toppled the Marcos dictatorship.

 

Source: Filipino Heritage: The Making of a Nation - Vol. 10

69/365, My March Break read. When I saw this book in Indigo, I had to buy it because I was fascinated with all the ephemera that it contained between the pages. I was concerned that the bits and pieces would fall out as I was reading, so I pulled them out and added a post-it with the page number so I would be able to reference them when I got to each page. From what I understand (having not yet started to read), the book is a story within a story within a story... from Amazon: One book. Two readers. A world of mystery, menace, and desire.

  

A young woman picks up a book left behind by a stranger. Inside it are his margin notes, which reveal a reader entranced by the story and by its mysterious author. She responds with notes of her own, leaving the book for the stranger, and so begins an unlikely conversation that plunges them both into the unknown.

  

The book: Ship of Theseus, the final novel by a prolific but enigmatic writer named V.M. Straka, in which a man with no past is shanghaied onto a strange ship with a monstrous crew and launched onto a disorienting and perilous journey.

  

The writer: Straka, the incendiary and secretive subject of one of the world’s greatest mysteries, a revolutionary about whom the world knows nothing apart from the words he wrote and the rumors that swirl around him.

  

The readers: Jennifer and Eric, a college senior and a disgraced grad student, both facing crucial decisions about who they are, who they might become, and how much they’re willing to trust another person with their passions, hurts, and fears.

  

S., conceived by filmmaker J. J. Abrams and written by award-winning novelist Doug Dorst, is the chronicle of two readers finding each other in the margins of a book and enmeshing themselves in a deadly struggle between forces they don’t understand, and it is also Abrams and Dorst’s love letter to the written word.

#MacroMondays #mesh

 

giggling— took this right in the fridge for the next MM topic

Hair Analog Dog Free Ball – li Light Browns – Free

Eyes – Arise Autumn Eyes – Autumn Effect hunt

Skin – AlterEgo Kalani Skin Autumn – Autumn Effect hunt

Sweater – Sakide Fall Trends Sweater (color change) – Autumn Effect hunt

Skirt – OMG BeSeen Mini Skirt Camo (color change) – Autumn Effect hunt

Boots – Mooh! Slouch boots with Sock – Autumn Effect Hunt

Tights – Afterlyfe Heather leggings (with appliers/3 colors) – Autumn Effect hunt

Coffee – Bean Juice Reckless Autumn Effect Hunt

 

Hair – Lamb.Dissolved Girl group gift in store (join fee)

Skin – 7 Deadly skins – Orchid (includes slink appliers) – Autumn Effect Hunt Gift

Top – (epia) Tamera Tank – Women’s Stuff Hunt

Skirt – WICKED Ginger Skirt – Women’s Stuff Hunt

Necklace – Hollyweird Autumn Moon Necklace – – Autumn Effect Hunt Gift

Boots – Duh! Fall Floral Hiking Boots – Autumn Effect Hunt Gift

Bag – Duh! Falling Leaves Clutch – Enmeshed into Fall Hunt Gift

Tat – G.ID Havoc Tattoo Strong (with appliers) – – Autumn Effect Hunt Gift

 

Background

(Surge) – Mudreaper – Enmeshed into Fall hunt

*Paper Moon* Cupped Curtains – Enmeshed into Fall hunt

The Artist’s Shed – Hay Bails and Pumpkins Enmeshed into Fall hunt

Poses - Kirin Poses