The choir with very simple lighting standing on a small, old military vehicle is a recurring thing in the small village of Norsholm. Just at the moment this was shot, someone lit the bonfire a bit early and the singers had to strain to get some attention =)

It was a very chilly night with light rain, somewhat typical for the time of year here.

Wiki notes:

While the name Walpurgis is taken from the eighth-century English Christian missionary Saint Walburga, Valborg, as it is called in Swedish, also marks the arrival of spring. The forms of celebration vary in different parts of the country and between different cities. Walpurgis celebrations are not a family occasion but rather a public event, and local groups often take responsibility for organising them to encourage community spirit in the village or neighbourhood. Celebrations normally include lighting the bonfire, choral singing and a speech to honour the arrival of the spring season, often held by a local celebrity.

Walpurgis Night bonfire in Sweden

In the Middle Ages, the administrative year ended on 30 April. Accordingly, this was a day of festivity among the merchants and craftsmen of the town, with trick-or-treat, dancing and singing in preparation for the forthcoming celebration of spring. Sir James George Frazer in The Golden Bough writes, "The first of May is a great popular festival in the more midland and southern parts of Sweden. On the eve of the festival, huge bonfires, which should be lighted by striking two flints together, blaze on all the hills and knolls."

Walpurgis bonfires are part of a Swedish tradition dating back to the early 18th century. At Walpurgis (Valborg), farm animals were let out to graze and bonfires (majbrasor, kasar) lit to scare away predators. In Southern Sweden, an older tradition, no longer practiced, was for the younger people to collect greenery and branches from the woods at twilight. These were used to adorn the houses of the village. The expected reward for this task was to be paid in eggs.

A large crowd, mostly students in typical Swedish white student caps, participating in the traditional Saint Walpurgis Night celebration with song outside the Castle in Uppsala. The silhouette of the cathedral towers may be seen in the background. To the right are banners and standards of the student nations. Image from c. 1920.

Choral singing is a popular pastime in Sweden, and on Walpurgis Eve virtually every choir in the country is busy. Singing traditional songs of spring is widespread throughout the country. The songs are mostly from the 19th century and were spread by students' spring festivities. The strongest and most traditional spring festivities are also found in the old university cities, such as Uppsala and Lund, where undergraduates, graduates, and alumni gather at events that last most of the day from early morning to late night on April 30, or siste april ("The Last Day of April") as it is called in Lund, or sista april as it is called in Uppsala. For students, Walpurgis Eve heralds freedom. Traditionally the exams were over and only the odd lecture remained before term ends. On the last day of April, the students don their characteristic white caps and sing songs of welcome to spring, to the budding greenery and to a brighter future.

More modern Valborg celebrations, particularly among Uppsala students, often consist of enjoying a breakfast including champagne and strawberries. During the day, people gather in parks, drink considerable amounts of alcoholic beverages, barbecue, and generally enjoy the weather, if it happens to be favorable.

In Uppsala, since 1975, students honor spring by rafting on Fyrisån through the center of town with rickety, homemade, in fact quite easily wreckable, and often humorously decorated rafts. Several nations also hold "Champagne Races" (Swedish: Champagnegalopp), where students go to drink and spray champagne or somewhat more modestly priced sparkling wine on each other. The walls and floors of the old nation buildings are covered in plastic for this occasion, as the champagne is poured around recklessly and sometimes spilled enough to wade in. Spraying champagne is, however, a fairly recent addition to the Champagne Race. The name derives from the students running down the downhill slope from the Carolina Rediviva library, toward the Student Nations, to drink champagne.

In Linköping many students and former students begin the day at the park Trädgårdföreningen, in the field below Belvederen where the city laws permits alcohol, to drink champagne breakfast in a similar way to Uppsala. Later at 15:00 o'clock the students and public gather at the courtyard of Linköping Castle. Spring songs are sung by the Linköping University Male Voice Choir, and speeches are made by representatives of the students and the university professors.

In Gothenburg, the carnival parade, The Cortège, which has been held since 1909 by the students at Chalmers University of Technology, is an important part of the celebration. It is seen by around 250,000 people each year. Another major event is the gathering of students in Trädgårdsföreningen to listen to student choirs, orchestras, and speeches. An important part of the gathering is the ceremonial donning of the student cap, which stems from the time when students wore their caps daily and switched from black winter cap to white summer cap.

In Umeå, there is a tradition of having local bonfires. During recent years, however, there has been a tradition of celebrating Walpurgis at the Umeå University campus. The university organizes student choir songs, there are different types of entertainment and a speech by the president of the university. Different stalls sell hot dogs, candies, soft drinks, etc.

Music: Right Click and select "Open link in new tab"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpGVPWnX8Ic

It's Expected I'm Gone · Minutemen

I don't wanna hurt

See, my position was here

I mean, as it was, I was

CN L516 rolls through Griffith, Indiana with a surprise lash up of classic EMD power, with an ex-MoPac SD40-2 in charge.

i wasnt expecting good light this morning as the forecast said it was going to be cloudy. i went out anyway mostly just for the walk. but obviously it would be silly to leave my camera behind incase anything like this showed up! if i dont risk going out on a morning with uninteresting light, i would have never known what i might miss.

view large

The "golden" mountain of Drápuhlíð in Snæfellsnes is covered with ice but rain is coming from the south and the clouds are piling up on the Snæfellsnes ridge

One last wedgie of L517 before letting them go west of Somerset. With a heavier rebuild than the ex-BNSF DASH8s which got a quick coat of CN paint before racking up some years and miles on CN, I expect these will have a longer tenure for the new owner. December 29, 2024.

Model Liiz Meza

Did not expect to see an MPD still operational under the Arriva Buses Wales books. The first examples were introduced to Llandudno Junction depot in June 1999 and, well, might as well eke another six months out of LJ51 DDF (921) so the once perennial staples of the North Walian roads can celebrate a 20 year association with the welsh based chapter of the Arriva corporation. Pertaining to Bangor specifically, I think the year 2000 was when an MPD trod its wheels for the first time around the bustling 'Cloc' terminus and 18 years into the future, 921 was caught in the subsiding rainfall on a wholly miserable day. The service is the Bangor circular, taking in the Maesgeirchen estate and Tesco in the industrial park.

19th December 2018.

My beautiful wife expecting our baby boy! <3

Canon EOS 350D

Isco-Gottingen Berolina Westromat 135mm f:3.5

This complex was larger then I expected. I ran down a lot of hallways, with the archeologists right behind me. They seemed heavy armed. Where did they get such high tech weapons ? I had to escape. I reached out with the force. I could feel that I was deep in the underground complex, many meters under the surface. The hangar had to be in the first floor or a higher section of the complex. I could feel non-intelligent life forms above me. The had to be on the surface. That was the direction I need to go. I followed this feeling and ended up in a larg hangar. Fortunately there was a small ship in it. It seemed like one of these C-95 transporters, I saw on Nar Shaddaa. Now I heard the archeologists come nearer.

The first archeologist lifted his weapon. I unleashed an enourmous force push and threw him against some cargo containers. He lost his blaster and I caught it. The others began to shoot at me but their shots didn’t hit me. I aimed at one of the archeologists with the little blaster and pulled the trigger. I could feel how he died. The feeling scared me. I ran to the entrance of the shuttle and grabbed the holocron. I just needed to find a way to unlock the hangar gate. I shot a controll panel near by and the hangar gate opened. Now it was time to go ! I started the shuttles main power support. I could hear the blaster shots, beeing absorbed by the shuttle’s shields. I started the engins...

______________________________

My MoC for chapter 1.6 of The Jedi Order.

This time I upgraded a little blaster (10 points upgrade). My upgrades for 13 and 15 pints will come soon, but I will build an extra MoC to show them and explain how my Sig-Fig got them.

Take a look at the hangar without minifigures here.

The whole shuttle can be seen here.

I hope you like it !

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Rain Expected on Waterloo Bridge.

I wasn't expecting it to have rained overnight but as it hadn't done for quite a while I knew the mixture of warmth, humid air and rain would send my garden into overdrive and mother nature too.

Went thorn hunting in the park again and already it was full up with dog walkers, push chairs and expectant wedding guests at the Ashton memorial.

Whilst heading towards the giant chamelia we found a couple more laurel bushes so I took a twig in case I decided to repeat the theme of yesterday, in anticipation of that company I mentioned yesterday wanting some images.

While we were there two boys came over to us, they were probably 8 or so, and said "there's a dead bird over there."

They looked worried.

"Is it a blackbird?" I said.

"It's black and white" they replied.

I wandered over to have a look at it was a juvenile magpie and it had probably been there a while. I told them that and then said that a fox will probably scavenge it and they shouldn't worry.

"A fox in here?" one of the exclaimed.

"There's only one thing for it" he shouted "run!"

And off they went making a very loud aeroplane noises.

I felt as excitable as they did as the maples had started to reveal new leaves and soon the pallete available to me would be huge.

We went back home and then onto the University campus as I wanted a good stretch of water to experiment with reflections.

Down by the lake a lot of work had been done: the lake had been extended, a station for barbecues replete with hobs, taps and bins has been set up, it looked an effort to reduce the burnt patches on the grass, the scattered beer cans, disposable barbecues and general waste. This intention had only been partially successful and the rubbish was now festooned around the barbecue station. overflowing out of the bins, in the lake and all around that area. The amount of rubbish in and around the lake was a real shocker and I tempted to go down there and clean it up myself but I am sure 20,000 students should be able to organise something! Or perhaps not.

Two groups of ducklings were present, one lot older and twice the size of the other. The youngest group numbered fifteen ducklings and they were the cutest of the cute. Like little motorboats zooming over the water and everytime they went on a excursion the big daddy goose ensured they were protected which was quite interesting to see. Obviously he was not their father but he guarded them wherever they went.

Later a white duck was desperately trying to get its end away with the mallard mother of the older ducklings. He was extremely rampant in his advances and the poor female was extremely distressed. Soon 10 or so mallard males joined in and tried to attack the white male, whilst the ducklings scattered. I could see why the big daddy goose wanted to protect them, they are some unruly characters amongst the coots, chickens, geese and ducks that live on that pond.

Three young lads were checking out the bird life and the eldest threw stones at the ducklings and got a ticking off from me. So he then started throwing them at the three territorial geese that had chased and hissed at me when I arrived (to everyone's amusement), so I thought twice before ticking him off again but of course I did anyway!

They came over to me and asked what I was doing, "making a sculpture" I said.

"What's a sculpture?"

"It is art made out of something like wood or stone or plasticine"

This piece of information was met with more aeroplane noises and running away. I have that effect on most people.

After we had been there a while several more barbecues had been lit, not one of them at the barbecue station and all around the field smoke billowed and individual piles of rubbish grew. But of course as we all know fairies/goblins/imaginary friends etc pick up litter so it is fine to chuck whatever you have wherever you want.

No-one except the aeroplane boys came to see what we were doing, the only visitors were an endless supply of pond scum, lily pads, weed and catkins all of which I didn't want in my shot. Each time I waded back into the water I sunk a little lower into the mud and the water nearly reached the top of my wellies.

But the more I do this, make sculptures and photograph them somewhere especially in public, the more I don't care what people think. That oft quoted Andy Goldsworthy line (that he said when handling ice in sub zero temps) "good art keeps you warm" isn't apt on a warm spring day. I prefer "my art means I don't care whether you think I am a weirdo."

This attitude comes in very handy standing in ponds, retrieving thorns from the middle of bushes and going everywhere with a plastic bag of leaves.

What won't be evident to you in these pictures is what I experienced with reflections. Through photography you pick out a moment in time, captured in an image. That snapshot can be a millisecond or several minutes. The ripples and reflections of the water left me mesmerised, each moment captured within my camera. I've decided to purchase a pair of waders and I think I will spend a lot more time standing in water, fighting off geese and being mesmerised by the water's surface all around me. Now is that weird?!

It wasn't over yet, there was more thing thign of weirdness to encounter. 'The tale of the bumless chicken.'

Whether he had had an accident or was born like I don't know but despite my amusement he wasn't so amused at my attempts to get a blurry shot of his missing bottom! It isn't nice to mock (or photograph) the afflicted! So I left him alone and went home.

May 17, 2007. They come around, when you least expect it.

Although there's an abundance of butterflies in our yard, I couldn't seem to get the chance to photograph them - until now. While sitting in our back porch after a nature walk, there's this red admiral butterfly that landed right next to me.

Image was not cropped at all.

You were expecting something racey? Sorry, this is a family group! Photo taken for Our Daily Challenge: Chaos. I vowed to do this challenge with only one shot.

Explore 10 January 2011, highest #164.

Here's how I did it: I crumpled my trusty white blanket and took my one shot. I used no special lighting. There are two lamps in the room, a floor lamp to the left and a bed lamp to the rear and left. The shot was taken hand held on auto focus and macro setting. See SOOC below. The set-up and shoot took less than a minute. The post-processing took a bit longer! I then converted it to gray scale and adjusted the contrast. See B&W below. I resisted the temptation to crop. Finally I converted it to negative and did some more adjustment to contrast and brightness. Photo was taken with a Panasonic DMC-FZ18. Processing was done with the PHOTOfunSTUDIO software that came with the camera. Sometimes the camera information gets lost in the processing.

Utah

I bet eDDie was not expecting the truly curious along the old Wild Basin cut off loop. Wild Basin is now one of the more serene spots in the Rockies and there we found old logging equipment and this freakish specimen. It might have been the best old Wild Basin Inn's tourist draw when all traffic had to drive past Jasper's den across from the inn. It is a bit overgrown now. It has accumulated a lot of moss over the years, but then, so did Jasper!

On that day, we back tracked around the loop past the new Wild Basin Inn that is now primarily a wedding and event destination. As a sprat, I could access the Park with a quick walk from my grannies cabin and the old Matlack cabin, just east of the inn. Jim Coolihan built the original Wild Basin Inn on the north side of the road, across from the new Lodge. The big old lodge was often called a "buffalo barn." Jim also moved and built onto the old Copeland Lake ice house, turning it into my grannies cabin. It had no insulation on the roof of the main room and summer showers were always great to hear on the roof.

I knew Jim Coolihan; a true mountain man and builder, constructed St.Catherine's and the original Wild Basin Lodge, now gone to a probable insurance fire. It is claimed Jim had a still up behind the original lodge, hic. I hope the Catholics had a barrel of holy water to bless St.Catherine's; I am sure a lot would have boiled off. I'll bet the Catholics beat a wide berth around Jim and his mouth. I did too! He was an original mountain man and jack-off-all-trades. He had a walk like the Doh Dah man and a hell of a stride per step. I always got a kick from watching my cousins striding around behind him like goose and gooselings.

One of the curiosities of the old Wild Basin Inn was the early 50s bear den constructed across the road, here by the saw and that was another curiosity for eDDie who said there were a lot of bones inside. I said that considering the diet of the black bear cub, they were probably all chicken bones. I bet his diet was atrocious with folks stuffing anything through the chain link fence. They say the bear came over the mountain to see what he could see but I think I will fix the door on my camper before a bear chews on my feets. Could be the ghost of Jasper the cub.

Bradford, PA. September 2020.

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If you would like to use THIS picture in any sort of media elsewhere (such as newspaper or article), please send me a Flickrmail or send me an email at natehenderson6@gmail.com

"A frigid winter is expected across Alberta, especially during January and February. While a few periods of milder weather are expected, we have a heightened risk for extended periods of severe cold, as well as for blizzard conditions as Arctic air plunges south across the region. A snowy winter is expected across the southern half of the province, including Calgary. Near normal snowfall is expected elsewhere, including Edmonton." I have just read the Weather Network's forecast for Alberta. Almost wish I hadn't, ha.

Another five photos from my archives this evening. I am adding the description that I wrote under a different image taken on the same outing.

After endless emails and phone calls, the work on my car is finally about to start, four and a half weeks after I dropped it off at the dealership. It has now been decided that both the slight hail damage and the peeling paint repair will be done at one location, not two different ones. The hail damage repair should be starting straight away. It could still be maybe two or two and a half weeks (or more) before all the work is completed. Will it be done before Christmas? Later: hail damage repair has been completed. Now I have to wait for an empty booth so that the peeling paint damage can be fixed and basically the whole car will have to be repainted.

Update on car situation, 9 December 2021. Just heard that the repainting of my whole car might be finished somewhere around 21 December. However, the whole car then has to be put back together - and, guess what, the person who would be doing this is going to be away over Christmas, meaning that I won't be getting it back till AFTER Christmas!!! Wish I had never pointed out the 3"x 1" patch of peeling paint in the first place, when I took my car for a routine service. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined all that is going on. Sigh.

"On 12 August 2016, friend Dorothy phoned and asked if I'd like to go with them to Kananaskis for the day. A last minute decision - and of course I said yes! What a great day we had in the mountains, with perfect weather and so many mushrooms to keep all three of us happy. The highlight for me was when we saw Strawberries and Cream fungi / Hynellum peckii, my favourite fungus. Quite a few of them, too, which was a real treat, as we don't usually come across them.

When I think how many endless rainy days we had been having the previous few weeks, we were so lucky that the sun shone, the temperature was pleasant, and a slight breeze kept comfort levels just right.

Our first brief stop was at a pond on the way to Bragg Creek, where a mutual friend had been seeing a Common Loon, but there was no sign of it when we were there. From there, once we eventually reached the mountains, we stopped at a large pond to check for birds and kept our eyes open for any mushrooms. The ground seemed too dry here, for any fungi to be growing. However, we were treated to wonderful views of a beautiful Osprey perched on top of a tall coniferous tree further down the path. It flew to a few different trees and then finally made the plunge for a fish, with success. What a splash it made! Once caught, the Osprey flew out of sight - maybe it had a nest somewhere with young ones to feed.

Our next stop was further into the mountains and we found that the ground was damper and more conducive to the growth of mushrooms. I suspect that after all the rain we had last summer, one could find mushrooms growing almost anywhere. We were certainly lucky at this location, finding various species. One of the highlights of the day for me was seeing one of my favourite fungi, Strawberries and Cream fungus / Hydnellum peckii. The individuals we saw were not hugely photogenic, but wonderful to see, both at this location and our next stop, at Kananaskis Lakes. This species has "teeth", not gills underneath.

"Hydnellum peckii is an inedible (though not toxic) fungus, and a member of the genus Hydnellum of the family Bankeraceae. It is a hydnoid species, producing spores on the surface of vertical spines or tooth-like projections that hang from the undersurface of the fruit bodies. It is found in North America, Europe, and was recently discovered in Iran (2008) and Korea (2010). Hydnellum peckii is a mycorrhizal species, and forms mutually beneficial relationships with a variety of coniferous trees, growing on the ground singly, scattered, or in fused masses.

The fruit bodies typically have a funnel-shaped cap with a white edge, although the shape can be highly variable. Young, moist fruit bodies can "bleed" a bright red fluid that contains a pigment known to have anticoagulant properties similar to heparin. The unusual appearance of the young fruit bodies has earned the species several descriptive common names, including strawberries and cream, the bleeding Hydnellum, the bleeding tooth fungus, the red-juice tooth, and the Devil's tooth. Although Hydnellum peckii fruit bodies are readily identifiable when young, they become brown and nondescript when they age." From Wikipedia.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydnellum_peckii

Lunch was eaten at a convenient picnic table right by a large creek after this first mushroom walk. While we were sitting there, a cute little Chipmunk (Least Chipmunk?) stopped long enough to take a quick peek at us through the tall grass blades. I suspect it thought it was well hidden.

After our lunch, we drove to Kananaskis Lakes and went for a most enjoyable hike - a very slow one, as there were mushrooms everywhere! We had been along this trail in previous years and had found a good variety of fungi. There were so many people on the trail! Good to see everyone out enjoying the good weather, fresh mountain air, and beautiful scenery. My friends returned to the same areas two days later and found about two-thirds less the number of mushrooms..

Thanks so much, Dorothy and Stephen, not just for this great day out, but for also helping to make my wait for my new car to arrive, easier! Greatly appreciated."

Definitely something I was expecting to see on my way to my internship. This is the first time I've ever seen a German moped plate outside D. Even though Germany is 20 minutes away from downtown Lux, the owner had to take secondary roads, as these Aixams aren't allowed on motorways.

When you have to be somewhere in a matter of minutes, there's no time for setbacks. There's no time to fire up the ol' forklift and load the barricades into the box truck. So, save your self in the long run, and do it now. Saves time, and maybe even lives...

best on black - thanks for looking - hope you have a wonderful week

akeyphoto.com

instagram.com/rayakey

facebook.com/rayakey

Time for another much anticipated Movie Night, and as expected, Stormtrooper Bruce is still watching the P’s nephew while his parents are away; and keeping things fun and interesting is still a challenge. But now STB, the guys and even said nephew can relax, unwind and have a bit of fun.

TK-432: So glad we could make it, it’s been a long month this week! And I see you still have a little guest. So, hello little dude, what’s your name tonight?

PP: Hello again! It's so nice to see you two! I’m still practicing my manners when I can. I was hoping you would show up tonight accause I have gifts for you two! You’re so funny, I just got your joke. Oh, and tonight my name is Ping Pong!

TK-1110: Hello, Ping Pong! What a fun name. You have a gift for us? What a coincidence, since we brought you a gift for your Christmas in July, but you have to wait to open it.

STB: Well this IS a coincidence, since I sneaked a gift under the tree for Ping Pong this morning – for later, too. However, his gifts are for now. Ping Pong, I think it’s time for Show and Tell.

PP: Okie Dokie Unka Dude. I’ve been practicing what to say accause I get nervous making public speeches, but here goes. When we had our Drive-In you mentioned how uncomfortable it was sitting on those car seats. Well, this week, Unka Dude has been teaching me Arts & Crafts, so I cided to make us all cushions to sit on. No more ouchy cabooses!

TK-432: Well, this is an unexpected surprise. I, for one, love the idea. My very own cushion? Why, thank you Ping Pong!

STB: And – being the master of survival skills that I am, I deduced how Troopers with cushions on transports could be um, unsafe. So, I’ll store them here, so they won’t get “lost.” And, you can enjoy them for ever and ever.

TK-1110: Dude, I find your ability to foresee the future impressive. If the other Troopers saw us carrying these they’d …, we’d ..., well, never mind. And thank you Ping Pong for this most unexpected gift. You did a great job!

STB: Yes, well, let’s just say what happens in my quarters stays in my quarters. And having said that, lets get this Movie Night started. We’re going to have a great week tonight!

Ping Pong: Wowzer Unka Dude! Gifts, grub and movies, I never spected the unexpected could be so fun! Where’s my camera?

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Viewing Large is always fu. Just click on the image.

Was not expecting the sunset to look like this. I am glad that I went out the time I did, or I wouldn't have captured this amazing sunset.

I never expected to see a St. Bernard running agility. I would think that being so big would endanger them of long-term injury, but I guess that agility is the type of thing that dogs were designed to do and I'm sure that if it wasn't safe, the AKC and other agility organizations wouldn't allow it. Besides being huge, this dog was hugely cute and fun to watch.

Last weekend's agility trial was held in a covered arena that had really nice lighting, especially before the sun came up all the way, but unfortunately, there wasn't enough of it, so it was a challenge to come up with sharp shots. I started with my 400mm f/5.6, non-stabilization, prime, which I like better for outdoors, but I later switched to my 70-200mm f/2.8 and shot closer to get more light. The zoom turned out to be really handy, anyway, due to the large variation in the sizes of the dogs.

tl;dr (up-front): If Burlington was to move elsewhere in Southaven, it’s no surprise that they chose South Lake Centre; Burlington photos begin this Saturday; many other local stores have made the same move; SLC is da bomb.

…Decided to go ahead and put that at the top for those of you who don’t care to stick around for the full description here, because I can already tell in advance that this is going to be a long one!

So… let’s get started. First, a shout-out is in order to both Albertsons Florida Blog and l_dawg2000 for guessing correctly this past Saturday that we’ll be headed to Burlington for my upcoming weekend photoset. (That served as our teaser for this week, so I’m sorry if you were hoping to get a guess of your own in!) In fact, this Burlington series will be my next extended feature on my photostream, and will last all the way into December, believe it or not (of course, there will be a couple of other stours interspersed in there, but at the tail end it will just be a few weeks of back-to-back-to-back Burlington due to the way the cookie crumbled as far as my scheduling goes). Before we get to their new Southaven store (the thing that spurred this set on, as you may recall), however, we’re going to poke around their now-former location first; that’s what you’ll begin seeing starting this Saturday. Plus, while I’ve been to the new store (it’s nice, bright, and shiny: three things that the old one frankly wasn’t, lol!), I actually haven’t gotten pictures there yet because I went on grand opening day and it was way too busy for that: so giving me ample time to go and take care of that is another good reason to stretch this series out some, haha!

Now, you’re probably wondering, what the heck does this graphic have to do with Burlington? Great question! What you’re looking at here is an aerial of South Lake Centre (within the red square with the rather obvious “South Lake Centre” lettering next to it :P ), which I’m no stranger to covering – see my blog posts here and here. I made this graphic all by myself, and tried to model it after similar graphics you’ll often see in commercial real estate lease listings. For example, see SLC’s developer’s own aerial here, complete with red square and obvious “South Lake Centre” lettering. But unlike Stonecrest Investment’s linked graphic, the goal of mine here is not to show you what stores surround SLC. And if that’s not it… what, then, is my goal?

Well, I’ll tell you! I’ve mentioned this (likely more than enough times) in my blog posts, but I’ll say it again here: South Lake Centre is arguably the premier shopping strip in Southaven. Sure, it has since been superseded by Southaven Towne Center to the immediate south, and more recently Tanger Outlets Southaven even further to the south of that. But South Lake Centre was first, and regardless is the only one of those three that calls the retail-iest interchange in DeSoto County – Goodman Road and I-55 – its home. Even ignoring its prominent location and its awesome architecture (again, check out my blog posts if you’re interested in more of the latter!), there’s no denying its significance. It’s a medium-range big-box power strip that has seen enviable stability in its tenant mix over the years since its opening in 2000. And in the off-chance that it does lose an anchor, that space has historically gotten filled super quickly; no lease has sat vacant here for too long.

On top of all of that, South Lake Centre has an extra bit of interestingness in that those vacancies I mentioned have all been filled not by retailers new to the area and/or opening their first Southaven/DeSoto County stores… but rather, in all cases since 2012, each and every empty storefront in the main drag of the shopping center has instead been re-leased out to stores relocating from elsewhere in the city/vicinity, aiming to take advantage of all the benefits associated with being in South Lake Centre as opposed to their previous, existing homes. Pretty cool, huh? That’s what I’m aiming to show with this graphic. Let me break it down for you…

First, let’s review the tenant mix. Rewind in time to 2000, when the center opened. From left to right on this graphic (assuming this is indeed the grand opening roster; if not, it at least was in place by the early 2000s, minus one retailer I’ll mention after the jump), you’ve got Office Depot, Waccamaw HomePlace, Petco, Dressbarn, Old Navy, Shoe Carnival, Hallmark Gold Crown, Marshalls, Fashion Bug, Sally Beauty Supply, and Hancock Fabrics. Waccamaw didn’t last long at all, and with that chain’s bankruptcy in 2001, was the first of the bunch to call it quits; Sports Authority quickly stepped in and assumed that space. Then, all was good for several years, until Hallmark decided to move out of the main row of stores and into one of the smaller bays in the parking lot of the center. A branch of the revived Dots chain picked up that lease in 2011, but disappeared a short time later, ceding the space to Rainbow. Besides those three cases, the remainder of all re-leasing here involved chains choosing to relocate from stores they already operated locally. Those are the ones pictured on the graphic, and we’ll look at them a little more closely.

Gap FactoryStore was the first to relocate into South Lake Centre. Fashion Bug announced in 2012 that it would be closing all of its stores, and as soon as the Southaven location became vacant, Gap snatched it up. Gap traveled the farthest distance to open in SLC; as you can see on the graphic, they came from a spot way out of view to the southwest, specifically the Casino Outlet Shoppes of Tunica in Robinsonville, MS. Accordingly, that store closed upon this one’s opening. I’ve noticed many shopping centers featuring both an Old Navy and a Gap FactoryStore, so it’s no surprise there that Gap would want to open in SLC considering its sister store was already here. And in fact, this may well have been more of a “de facto” relocation than a true one, since the Tunica Outlets also had an Old Navy store at the time. Gap was likely just interested in getting out of Tunica. I don’t blame them. That outlet mall has since lost every single national tenant it ever had (with one exception), and is struggling to stay alive these days with mom-and-pop retailers. However, that’s a story for another day. Specifically, for a future blog post ;)

OfficeMax was next to jump over from their existing store. This one also can’t exactly be considered a true relocation, considering that this took place in 2014 after the Office Depot/OfficeMax merger, and the OfficeMax across the interstate in Horn Lake was simply consolidating into the existing SLC Office Depot. But it nevertheless shows a conscious decision was made to keep the South Lake Centre store open instead of the DeSoto Crossing one. That would be thanks to the facts that the Office Depot in SLC is larger, owns its store (whereas the OfficeMax was leased), and enjoys all the added benefits of being part of a major power strip. So, while I chided its liquidation cover-up at the time, in this scenario I’m actually willing to take OfficeMax’s declaration that it was holding a “Moving Sale” at its face value! View my OfficeMax Closing album here, and my Office Depot album here.

The next closures and relocations all took place within the past two years. When Tanger Outlets opened in 2015, Dressbarn decided to pack everything up from South Lake Centre and move on down the road. (Indeed, if I had a counter-graphic for this, you could see that they weren’t the only ones. Rue21 similarly departed Southaven Towne Center for a space at Tanger, and Gap opened up its own FactoryStore in the complex, in addition to the one they already had at SLC literally just a mile and a half away. Both Gap stores continue to coexist for now, but time finally appears to be running out for the initial SLC location. Gap announced recently that they will soon be shutting 200 stores, and if two stores on the same block isn’t enough to make one a candidate, I don’t know what is. Plus, this new lease listing I found over the weekend [check out those sweet outdated pictures there, too – don’t be surprised if you see those in a blog post one day! :) ] has an 8,000 square foot opening for 95 Goodman Road W – Gap’s size and address – so that pretty much seals its fate, even if an official closing announcement hasn’t been confirmed yet. This isn’t unexpected, of course, but still sad because I like the SLC location better. But in all of this, I digress.)

Dressbarn’s loss became Tuesday Morning’s gain. They quickly snapped up the site, even though it was almost a good 2,000 square feet smaller than their existing space across the street at The Shops of Colonial Square. Not to worry, though: they subsequently tore out the back wall of the old Dressbarn and expanded the space! Now it’s a very respectable 11,000 square feet, which is about 2,000 square feet larger than their old store. The new and improved Southaven Tuesday Morning finally opened to the public in September 2016. View my Tuesday Morning Relocation album here.

In addition to Tuesday Morning’s grand opening, 2016 also brought two major losses to South Lake Centre. Both Hancock Fabrics and Sports Authority declared bankruptcy and closed all of their stores nationwide. Hancock gave up the ghost in April of that year. Being that its location was the prime corner space right along Airways Boulevard, I was a bit surprised to see it stay vacant for the remainder of 2016. Then, come December, I was also very surprised to see who had finally committed to moving in: none other than Books-a-Million, which chose to relocate from its existing store just a stone’s throw south! Work progressed quickly, and Southaven’s new BAM held its grand opening in February 2017. View my Hancock Fabrics Closing album here, and my Books-a-Million Relocation album here.

SLC’s last major victim of recent memory, Sports Authority, was gone by August 2016. That space, too, sat vacant for a while, but this wasn’t as surprising as duration of the Hancock vacancy; Sports Authority’s building is the largest square footage in the center, so it was expected for the real estate team to wait a little longer to find the proper new tenant. Lo and behold, that decision came soon enough – and what do you know, Burlington was the big-ticket buyer. Burlington’s existing Southaven store was located in 80,000 square feet of a former Super Kmart Center in the older, sleepier retail section of town one exit north on Stateline Road, so this new store would represent an improvement in both prototype (Burlington’s layout is now based on a 45,000 square foot design) and visibility for them. After several months of façade and interior construction, Burlington opened its doors in September 2017. View my Sports Authority Closing album here, and my Burlington Relocation album here. (Not too many pictures in that latter one just yet – again, that’s what I’ll begin adding to this Saturday and over the next couple of months!)

…Now you see why I put that tl;dr at the top, don’t you? :) Well, for those of you who did stick around and read this all, thank you. As you can tell, I really like South Lake Centre, and I enjoyed taking the time to put this graphic together as well. To come full-circle with the listing earlier in this description, here’s SLC’s current tenant mix: Office Depot, Burlington, Petco, Tuesday Morning, Old Navy, Shoe Carnival, Rainbow, Marshalls, Gap FactoryStore, Sally Beauty Supply, and Books-a-Million. But as I mentioned, that seems very likely to change again in the not-too-distant future, with Gap preparing to exit. Will we then see yet another relocation of an existing local retailer to South Lake Centre? Only time will tell…

So once again, I invite you to check out the start of my Burlington series this weekend. Until then, if you’re interested in even more information (!) as to what has taken over the stores that relocated to SLC… drop me a comment and I’ll be glad to share that, too. (I figured this description was lengthy enough not to include it here, haha!) And, to reward the patience of those of you who made it all the way to the end of this description, here are some music recommendations for you to listen to and enjoy :) (Although I will warn you: that last one’s got screaming in it, so if, like me, you’re not a big fan of that, I’d suggest skipping over approximately 1:56-2:26 in that song :P )

(c) 2017 Retail Retell

These places are public so these photos are too, but just as I tell where they came from, I'd appreciate if you'd say who :)

Didn't expect that, did ya? :)

That's right, it's a LEGO Ideas submission! Check out all the details on the Ideas page: ideas.lego.com/projects/a45496e2-db91-477e-99de-634a14439874

"The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails."

William Arthur Ward

All rights reserved ©

More 'Memories from June', this one of my son and his bride having just announced the birth of my first grandchild in November...

Really wasn't expecting to see this in Dover today!, and this was the best I could do of this vehicle due to the sun being out, and before I had to go back to work.

And be sure to check by my other acount: www.flickr.com/photos_user.gne?path=&nsid=77145939%40..., to see what else I saw last week!!

Yes I'm back again.

However due to my main computer on which I edit my work being struck down with a big bad virus, this picture and all the others I am uploading, were Unedited but have now been replaced with Edited versions. So enjoy and Thanks for your patience and understanding.

I do still hate everything about this shit that is new Flickr and always will, but an inability to find another outlet for my work that is as easy for me to use as the Old BETTER Flickr was, has forced me back to Flickr, even though it goes against everything I believe in.

I don't generally have an opinion on my own work, I prefer to leave that to other people and so based on the positive responses to my work from the various friends I had made on Flickr prior to the changes I have decided to upload some more of my work as an experiment and to see what happens.

So make the most of me before they delete my acount: www.flickr.com/photos/69558134@N05/?details=1, to stop me complaining!!

Friedrichshain / Berlin / Germany

- Tom

Que peuvent se raconter ces fauteuils ? Ils attendent de sortir….mais voilà. Il n’y a plus assez de soignants pour les pousser. Alors ils s’ennuient toute la journée à voir passer le temps. Mais ils gardent de l’espoir quand même. Sans doute un jour, ils permettront à nos anciens de continuer, malgré leur grand âge, à voir la beauté du monde.

What can tell these chairs? They expect to get out ... but that's it. There are not enough caregivers to grow. Then they get bored all day to see pass the time. But they keep hope anyway. No doubt one day they will enable our elders to continue, despite their age, to see the beauty of the world.

One vehicle I wasn't expecting to see was ChaseBus' first vehicle acquisition, ex-Trent Barton Excel II 257!!

1 shows off it's new look whilst attending Showbus 2017.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The Douglas F3D Skyknight (later designated F-10 Skyknight) was a United States twin-engined, mid-wing jet fighter aircraft manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company in El Segundo, California. The F3D was designed as a carrier-based all-weather night fighter and saw service with the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps. The mission of the F3D-2 was to search out and destroy enemy aircraft at night.

The F3D was not intended to be a typical sleek and nimble dogfighter, but as a standoff night fighter, packing a powerful radar system and a second crew member. It originated in 1945 with a US Navy requirement for a jet-powered, radar-equipped, carrier-based night fighter. The Douglas team led by Ed Heinemann designed around the bulky air intercept radar systems of the time, with side-by-side seating for the pilot and radar operator. The result was an aircraft with a wide, deep, and roomy fuselage. Instead of ejection seats, an escape tunnel was used.

As a night fighter that was not expected to be as fast as smaller daylight fighters, the expectation was to have a stable platform for its radar system and the four 20 mm cannon mounted in the lower fuselage. The F3D was, however, able to outturn a MiG-15 in an inside circle. The fire control system in the F3D-1 was the Westinghouse AN/APQ-35.

The AN/APQ-35 was advanced for the time, a combination of three different radars, each performing separate functions: an AN/APS-21 search radar, an AN/APG-26 tracking radar, both located in the nose, and an AN/APS-28 tail warning radar. The complexity of this vacuum tube-based radar system, which was produced before the advent of semiconductor electronics, required intensive maintenance to keep it operating properly.

The F3D Skyknight was never produced in great numbers but it did achieve many firsts in its role as a night fighter over Korea. While it never achieved the fame of the North American F-86 Sabre, it did down several Soviet-built MiG-15s as a night fighter over Korea with only one air-to-air loss of its own against a Chinese MiG-15 on the night of 29 May 1953.

In the years after the Korean War, the F3D was gradually replaced by more powerful aircraft with better radar systems. The F3D's career was not over though; its stability and spacious fuselage made it easily adaptable to other roles. The Skyknight played an important role in the development of the radar-guided AIM-7 Sparrow missile in the 1950s which led to further guided air-to-air missile developments.

In 1954, the F3D-2M was the first U.S. Navy jet aircraft to be fitted with an operational air-to-air missile: the Sparrow I,an all weather day/night BVR missile that used beam riding guidance for the aircrew to control the flight of the missile. Only 38 aircraft (12 F3D-1Ms, and 16 F3D-2Ms) were modified to use the missiles, though.

One of the F3D's main flaws, which it shared with many early jet aircraft, was its lack of power and performance. Douglas tried to mend this through a radical redesign: The resulting F3D-3 was the designation assigned to a swept-winged version (36° sweep at quarter chord) of the Skyknight. It was originally to be powered by the J46 turbojet, rated at 4.080 lbf for takeoff, which was under development but suffered serious trouble.

This led to the cancellation of the J46, and calculated performance of the F3D-3 with the substitute J34 was deemed insufficient. As an alternative the aircraft had to be modified to carry two larger and longer J47-GE-2 engines, which also powered the USN's FJ-2 "Fury" fighter.

This engine's thrust of 6.000 pounds-force (27 kN) at 7,950 rpm appeared sufficient for the heavy, swept-wing aircraft, and in 1954 an order for 287 production F3D-3s was issued, right time to upgrade the new type with the Sparrow I.

While the F3D-3's outline resembled that of its straight wing predecessors, a lot of structural changes had to be made to accommodate the shifted main wing spar, and the heavy radar equipment also took its toll: the gross weight climbed by more than 3 tons, and as a result much of the gained performance through the stronger engines and the swept wings was eaten away.

Maximum internal fuel load was 1.350 US gallons, plus a further 300 in underwing drop tanks. Overall wing surface remained the same, but the swept wing surfaces reduced the wing span.

In the end, thrust-to-weight ratio was only marginally improved and in fact, the F3D-3 had a lower rate of climb than the F3D-2, its top speed at height was only marginally higher, and stall speed climbed by more than 30 mph, making carrier landings more complicated.

It's equipment was also the same - the AN/APQ-35 was still fitted, but mainly because the large radar dish offered the largest detection range of any carrier-borne type of that time, and better radars that could match this performance were still under construction. Anyway, the F3D-3 was able to carry Sparrow I from the start, and this would soon be upgraded to Sparrow III (which became the AIM-7), and it showed much better flight characteristics at medium altitude.

Despite the ,many shortcomings the "new" aircraft represented an overall improvement over the F3D-2 and was accepted for service. Production of the F3D-3 started in 1955, but technology advanced quickly and a serious competitor with supersonic capability appeared with the McDonnell F3H Demon and the F4D Skyray - much more potent aircraft that the USN immediately preferred to the slow F3Ds. As a consequence, the production contract was cut down to only 102 aircraft.

But it came even worse: production of the swept wing Skyknight already ceased after 18 months and 71 completed airframes. Ironically, the F3D-3's successor, the F3H and its J40 engine, turned out to be more capricious than expected, which delayed the Demon's service introduction and seriously hampered its performance, so that the F3D-3 kept its all weather/night fighter role until 1960, and was eventually taken out of service in 1964 when the first F-4 Phantom II fighters appeared in USN service.

In 1962 all F3D versions were re-designated into F-10, the swept wing F3D-3 became the F-10C. The straight wing versions were used as trainers and also served as an electronic warfare platform into the Vietnam War as a precursor to the EA-6A Intruder and EA-6B Prowler, while the swept-wing fighters were completely retired as their performance and mission equipment had been outdated. The last F-10C flew in 1965.

General characteristics

Crew: two

Length: 49 ft (14.96 m)

Wingspan: 42 feet 5 inches (12.95 m)

Height: 16 ft 1 in (4.90 m)

Wing area: 400 ft² (37.16 m²)

Empty weight: 19.800 lb (8.989 kg)

Loaded weight: 28,843 lb (13.095 kg)

Max. takeoff weight: 34.000 lb (15.436 kg)

Powerplant:

2× General Electric J47-GE-2 turbojets, each rated at 6.000 lbf (26,7 kN) each

Performance

Maximum speed: 630 mph (1.014 km/h) at sea level, 515 mph (829 km/h) t (6,095 m)

Cruise speed: 515 mph (829 km/h) at 40,000 feet

Stall speed: 128 mph (206 km/h)

Range: 890 mi (1.433 km) with internal fuel; 1,374 mi, 2,212 km with 2× 300 gal (1.136 l) tanks

Service ceiling: 43.000 ft (13.025 m)

Rate of climb: 2,640 ft/min (13,3 m/s)

Wing loading: 53.4 lb/ft² (383 kg/m²)

Thrust/weight: 0.353

Armament

4× 20 mm Hispano-Suiza M2 cannon, 200 rpg, in the lower nose

Four underwing hardpoints inboard of the wing folding points for up to 4.000 lb (1.816 kg)

ordnance, including AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missiles, 11.75 in (29.8cm) Tiny Tim rockets, two

150 or 300 US gal drop tanks or bombs of up to 2.000 lb (900 kg) caliber, plus four hardpoints

under each outer wing for a total of eight 5" HVARs or eight pods with six 2 3/4" FFARs each

The kit and its assembly:

Another project which had been on the list for some years now but finally entered the hardware stage. The F3D itself is already a more or less forgotten aircraft, and there are only a few kits available - there has been a vacu kit, the Matchbox offering and lately kits in 1:72 and 1:48 by Sword.

The swept wing F3D-3 remained on the drawing board, but would have been a very attractive evolution of the tubby Skyknight. In fact, the swept surfaces resemble those of the A3D/B-66 a Iot, and this was the spark that started the attempt to build this aircraft as a model through a kitbash.

This model is basically the Matchbox F3D coupled with wings from an Italeri B-66, even though, being much bigger, these had to be modified.

The whole new tail is based on B-66 material. The fin's chord was shortened, though, and a new leading edge (with its beautiful curvature) had to be sculpted from 2C putty. The vertical stabilizers also come from the B-66, its span was adjusted to the Skyknight's and a new root intersection was created from styrene and putty, so that a cross-shaped tail could be realized.

The tail radar dish was retained, even though sketches show the F3D-3 without it.

The wings were take 1:1 from the B-66 and match well. They just had to be shortened, I set the cut at maybe 5mm outwards of the engine pods' attachment points. They needed some re-engraving for the inner flaps, as these would touch the F3D-3's engines when lowered, but shape, depth and size are very good for the conversion.

On the fuselage, the wings' original "attachment bays" had to be filled, and the new wings needed a new position much further forward, directly behind the cockpit, in order to keep the CoG.

One big issue would be the main landing gear. On the straight wing aircraft it retracts outwards, and I kept this arrangement. No detail of the exact landing gear well position was available to me, so I used the Matchbox parts as stencils and placed the new wells as much aft as possible, cutting out new openings from the B-66 wings.

The OOB landing gear was retained, but I added some structure to the landing gear wells with plastic blister material - not to be realistic, just for the effect. A lot of lead was added in the kit's nose section, making sure it actually stands on the front wheel.

The Matchbox Skyknight basically offers no real problems, even though the air intake design leaves, by tendency some ugly seams and even gaps. I slightly pimped the cockpit with headrests, additional gauges and a gunsight, as well as two (half) pilot figures. I did not plan to present the opened cockpit and the bulbous windows do not allow a clear view onto the inside anyway, so this job was only basically done. In fact, the pilots don't have a lower body at all...

Ordnance comprises of four Sparrow III - the Sparrow I with its pointed nose could have been an option, too, but I think at the time of 1960 the early version was already phased out?

Painting and markings:

This was supposed to become a typical USN service aircraft of the 60ies, so a grey/white livery was predetermined. I had built an EF-10B many years ago from the Matchbox kit, and the grey/white guise suits the Whale well - and here it would look even better, with the new, elegant wings.

For easy painting I used semi matt white from the rattle can on the lower sides (painting the landing gear at the same time!), and then added FS 36440 (Light Gull Grey, Humbrol 129) with a brush to the upper sides. The radar nose became semi matt black (with some weathering), while the RHAWS dish was kept in tan (Humbrol 71).

In order to emphasize the landing gear and the respective wells I added a red rim to the covers.

The cockpit interior was painted in dark grey - another factor which made adding too many details there futile, too...

The aircraft's individual marking were to be authentic, and not flamboyant. In the mid 50ies the USN machines were not as colorful as in the Vietnam War era, that just started towards the 60ies.

The markings I used come primarily from an Emhar F3H Demon, which features no less than four(!) markings, all with different colors. I settled for a machine of VF-61 "Jolly Rogers", which operated from the USS Saratoga primarily in the Mediterranean from 1958 on - and shortly thereafter the unit was disbanded.

I took some of the Demon markings and modified them with very similar but somewhat more discrete markings from VMF-323, which flew FJ-4 at the time - both squadrons marked their aircraft with yellow diamonds on black background, and I had some leftover decals from a respective Xtradecal sheet in the stash.

IMHO a good result with the B-66 donation parts, even though I am not totally happy with the fin - it could have been more slender at the top, and with a longer, more elegant spine fillet, but for that the B-66 fin was just too thick. Anyway, I am not certain if anyone has ever built this aircraft? I would not call the F3D-3 elegant or beautiful, but the swept wings underline the fuselage's almost perfect teardrop shape, and the thing reminds a lot of the later Grumman A-6 Intruder?

Chinese were very rude to the ambassador': Queen

An official cameraman recorded the 90-year-old monarch rarely comments publicly on political matters, and media accompanying her are asked not to eavesdrop on private conversations.

Took this maternity photo in december last year.

Well, we're back from a week at WDW, and, as I expected it to be, one of my favorite experiences in the parks was the Boo To You parade. We camped out in Town Square for over an hour to have a prime spot looking straight up Main Street, and it was worth it. Pictured here is my favorite sequence with Haunted Mansion coming to life.

Not only was this a great spot to view the parade, it was also a great spot to catch the Headless Horseman make his ride. Look for that photo later this week!

Walt Disney World | Magic Kingdom | Mickey's "Boo-to-You" Halloween Parade

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Brett Kiger Photography ~ Blog ~ Disney Facebook Covers

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I spent the afternoon in the lodge grounds. This was partly not to climb the hill again and partly because the grounds seemed to have a lot of insects, though getting photos proved to be harder than expected.

This is probably my favourite photo of the entire trip. I do like the butterfly and saw them nowhere else, but it is the combination of butterfly and setting that I so love.