Optare Excel Bus Group
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First Eastern Counties Dennis Enviro 400MMC bodied Scania YN69 XZM at Peterborough Railway Station on the B service.
JDNX 2001, a cabless Alco rebuild, resting between trains at Excel Mining's Scotts Branch tipple. This critter loads unit trains instead of having the CSX crews do it, and this might be the last active critter unit in the Eastern Kentucky coalfields. Excel Mining is shutting its doors in January 2025, so who knows how the future will go for this critter and tipple.
My first 'second' car, which will be making its way to the FotU on Saturday. I'll be parked in the normal car park; unless somebody takes pity on me.
There's much I could write about both the particular car and why I purchased it. It's not as tidy as this photo may suggest, but it will hopefully be a keeper. We'll see.
Not the best of shot, was a bit rushed for time, need to go back here with a stand and the proper gear, including gloves, it was freezing!
My KAP (Kite Aerial System) for the Nokia N8 (and probably other Symbian devices).
A rig is suspended on the line of a kite, and it holds an N8 phone (with a 12MP camera sensor). This phone can send live video to another N8 on the ground, which in turn controls the direction of the camera with accelerometers (you just tilt your phone to change the camera orientation).
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Meu sistema de Fotografia Aerea com Pipa para o celular Nokia N8 (e provavelmente outros aparelhos Symbian).
Um berço, contendo um celular N8 (c/ câmera de 12MP) é preso à linha de uma pipa. O celular transmite vídeo em tempo real para outro N8 no chão, que por sua vez controla a direção da câmera através de acelerômetros (ou seja, basta mover o celular e a inclinação dele fará a câmera na pipa mover-se também).
Legendary Devon crabber Excel DH17 in Dartmouth Harbour, Devon on 6th June 2023. Built by J Hinks & Son of Appledore in North Devon, construction of the Excel was one of the fastest on record for a vessel of its size. The wooden fishing boat was launched in 1971 to take part in a lobster boom.
Daytime long exposure shot at ExCeL Marina Royal Victoria Dock, London. In the background you see the O2 and the Emirates Cable Cars.
HSS Everyone!
After initially being withdrawn a couple of weeks ago the Excels have had a revival as the new service changes has lead to more buses being needed. 225 is seen at Starr Gate afer completing it's duty on the 1. sister 224 was on the 14 as well today making the grand total of 2 excels being in service today
First Eastern Counties 36917 (YN69XZX) departs Norwich bus station on an Excel service B to Peterborough via Dereham & Swaffham.
Shortly before withdrawal from the fleet, Express Motors Optare Excel EXI 790 exits Caernarfon on route 88 to Llanberis via Llanrug & Cwm-y-Glo. As X964 BPA this bus was new to Reading Buses where it was numbered 964.
Just giving a little life-sign, this is done in Excel and then just used the aquarell-filter in Photoshop ^^
I'm very bussy this week, gonna reply on comments and stuff next week.
8228
Visit : www.refordgardens.com/
From Wikipedia:
Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.
Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.
Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.
She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.
In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.
During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.
In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.
Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.
To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.
Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.
In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)
Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford
Visit : www.refordgardens.com
LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS
Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.
Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.
Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada
Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.
Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada
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It's our 19th anniversary today and Terry bought me some flowers and this lovely rose was among them :)
Express Motors Optare Excels EXI 790 and Y248 DRC are pictured in Penygroes depot. The former was new as 964 to Reading Transport where it was registered X964 BPA while the latter was new to Trent Barton as their 248.
This is what I miss about First no longer operating in Plymouth, the random variety thrown up, well before 'bustimes.org' existed you never quite knew what might appear while waiting with the camera!
There were a few not so well presented buses but on the whole I always thought the Plymouth fleet was well turned out and the drivers friendly on the whole.
A none standard type vehicle within the group at this late stage it came to Devon with 3 others via Glasgow when First took over Hutchinson Coaches, Overtown.
Of course with First long gone from here the 2 services continues in the hands of Stagecoach but you won't find anything this rare operating on it these days!
Car: Lotus Excel SE.
Date of first registration: 9th January 1988.
Registration region: Guildford.
Latest recorded mileage: 9,111 (MOT 9th August 2019).
Date taken: 20th November 2019.
Album: Street Spots
Night time at the Excel Centre in the Royal Victoria Dock. I wanted to capture the three people sitting in the centre of the picture in contrast to the movement of the people walking past.
Optare Excel demonstrator T790 KNW, on loan to First Manchester.
Manchester, Cannon Street, 06/03/2000.
Shot on Olympus E-PL3 and TTArtisan 25mm f2. Created with darktable 3.8.1 and GIMP, Ilford HP5 film simulation filter