I got it into my head that I failed to finish my shots, so had long planned a return. So, with the weather expected to be grim on Monday, I switched from orchids to churches.

I think this is right, the dedication is after two Roman gladiators, and is one shared with Challock, although Blean has Cosmas spelt differently, just add some confusion.

Blean is on the main road north out of Canterbury, but set back, in what was the site of a Roman villa.

It was hooping it down when I arrived, so I scampered as fast as my fat little legs could carry me to the south side of the church and saw the fine "church open" sign, welcoming me.

Again, I could not find the light switches, so the building remained in semi-darkness.

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How wonderful to find an unlocked isolated church in an area where many are kept closed! This charming flint building stands on a well-used public footpath (the former Roman Salt Road) that runs across a dry valley outside Canterbury. Its tree-shaded churchyard contains venerable yews and the church itself, dedicated to Ss Cosmas and Damian (see also Challock) is welcoming indeed. The nave and chancel are thirteenth century - see the typical lancet windows - but the huge north aisle, doubling the church in size, dates from the 1860s. Its arcade, however, is a good copy of thirteenth century work with huge cylindrical piers and an easternmost arch that stops short of the floor as if to allow space for a Rood Screen. The interior is light and spacious with much emphasis on the rustic medieval roof timbers. The twin-lancet east window contains some good mid-Victorian glass by Henry Holiday. The altar rails are seventeenth century whilst tucked behind the main door is a huge early eighteenth century memorial. As part of their millennium celebrations the locals reordered the church to great effect, moving the clumsy organ to the back and replacing it by the pulpit. These works have improved the interior no end.

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Blean

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BLEANE,

OR Cosmus Bleane, stiled in all judicial proceedings St. Cosmus and Damian in the Blean, is the next parish southward from Swaycliffe, which latter name it took from the two saints, to whom the church of it is dedicated, and from its having been situated within the district which was once the king's antient forest of Bleane.

IT IS situated in a wild country, enveloped with woods, having much rough and poor land in it, and the inhabitants are in general like the soil, equally poor and rough. The turnpike road from Canterbury to Whitstaple, runs along the western side of it. It reaches as far as the half-way house on that road; and from Denstroud common, the houses of which only are within it, as far as the brook next to St. Stephen's parish eastward, in breadth about three miles. The soil in general consists of an unsertile stiff clay, and a cold loam, both very wet and miry. There is no village in it, but there are about forty houses dispersed throughout the whole of it. There are three commons or small heaths in it; two, over which the Whitstaple road runs, called Hoad common, and Bleane common; on the eastern side of the former is Hoad-court, great part of which has been pulled down within these few years, and the remainder has been converted into a farm-house; the third, in the eastern part of it, is called Tyler-hill common. On the east side of Bleane common, on the knoll of the hill, is a good brick house, formerly of better note, though now only a farm-house, called Amery-court. It was antiently called Le Ambry, alias Le Amery-court, being a corruption for the almonry court, from its being given in alms to St. Sepulchere's nunnery. It was lately the property of the Rev. Mr. Boucherie, who died in 1789, and now of his widow. The northern part of this parish is all coppice wood, among which is a considerable part of the great tract called Clowes wood, belonging jointly to Sir Edward Dering and Sir Rowland Wynne, barts. It was antiently called Cluse, and was formerly a manor, and was, in Edward III.'s reign, in the possession of a family of its own name. It afterwards passed to the Ropers, of St. Dunstan's, and thence in like manner as that of Boteler's-court before-described, to the present possessors of it. On the west side of the parish is the manor of Goodmans, which formerly belonged to Sir John Rough, of Brenley, and afterwards to the Farewells, of Boughton, of whom it was purchased in 1741, by the Rev. Julius Deedes, whose grandson William Deedes, esq. of St. Stephen's sold it in 1796, to Mr. William Cantis, of Canterbury, the present owner of it.

There are within the bounds of this parish, four several districts of land, which are reputed to be within the liberty and ville of Christ-church, in Canterbury, and have been so time out of mind, and their christenings are entered as such in this parish register. The inheritance of them belongs to the dean and chapter of Canterbury.

THE MANOR OF BLEANE, called in Domesday, Blehem, was at the time of taking that survey, part of the possessions of Hamo de Crevequer, usually stiled in the records of that time, Hamo Vicecomes, which name he acquired from his having been appointed Vicecomes, or sheriff of this county, soon after his coming over hither with the Conqueror, and holding the office till his death, which was not till Henry I.'s reign. According it is thus entered in the above survey, under the general title of Terra Hamonis Vicecomitis:

In the lath of Borowart, in Witestaple hundred, Haimo himself holds Blehem. Norman held it of king Ed ward, and then, and now, it was taxed at one suling. The arable land is four carucates, and twelve villeins having three carucates. In demesne there is one carucate. There is a church, and two acres of meadow, and pannage for sixty hogs. There is one fishery. In the time of king Edward the Confessor, it was worth eight pounds, and afterwards, and now, it was and is worth six pounds.

Hamo de Crevequer, a descendant of Hamo abovementioned, possessed this manor in king Richard I.'s reign, from whence he is stiled in some antient deeds relating to it, Sir Hamo del Blen. (fn. 1) He died anno 47 king Henry III. Leaving Robert his grandson his heir, who held it by knight's service; but taking part with the discontented barons, this manor was most probably seized among the rest of his estates, which remained in the crown till it was granted to one of the family of Badlesmere, and Bartholomew de Badlesmere, usually stiled the rich lord Badlesmere of Ledes, possessed it in king Edward II.'s reign, in the 9th year of which, he obtained a special charter of freewarren in all his demesne lands within it. He afterwards associated himself with the rebellious barons, but being taken prisoner, he was converyed to Canterbury, and executed in the 16th year of that reign, at the gallows of Blean, within this manor, to make the ignominy of his death the more conspicuous. By the inquisition, which was not taken till anno 2 king Edward III. at which time the process and judgment against him was reversed, it was sound that he died possessed of the manor of Blean, among others, which were then restored to his son Giles de Badlesmere, who died s. p. in the 12th year of king Edward III. anno 1337, (fn. 2) so that his four sisters became his coheirs, and upon a partition of their inheritance, it sell to the share of Margerie, wife of William, lord Roos, of Hamlake. She survived her husband, and afterwards possessed this manor for her life, and in the 32d year of the above reign, granted her interest in it to Thomas de Wolton and Robert de Denton; which was confirmed by her only surviving son Thomas, lord Roos, of Hamlake, who the next year granted the inheritance of it to the same Thos. de Wolton, master of the hospital of St. Thomas the Martyr, of Eastbridge, in Canterbury, and his successors, in Support of the charities and alms made in it, at which time the hospital was possessed of much other land in this parish by the gift of several other persons. (fn. 3) After which this manor, with the other premises abovementioned, remained with the hospital, which escaped the suppression of such foundations in the reigns of king Henry VIII. and king Edward VI. and it remains with the other lands given to it at different times, now part of the possessions of the above-mentioned hospital.

A court leet and court baron is held for this manor of Bleane and Hothe-court, at which a borshoulders is chosen for the borough of Bleane.

If there ever was a court-lodge or manston to the manor of Blean, it has been demolished time out of mind; for that of Hoad-court hereafter described, has deyond memory been the only one belonging to both these manors, which indeed seem to have been long since united, if ever they were two, and now are but one and the same manor, and should be more properly stiled the manor of Bleane, alias Hothe-court.

HOTHE, or HOADE COURT, so called from its situation, close to the hothe, or common here, is a manor, lying in the south east part of this parish, which was once the estate of Sir John de la Lee, who in the year 1360, anno 35 king Edward III. gave it, to Thomas de Wolton and his successors, masters of the hospital of Eastbregge, towards certain acts of piety in it. (fn. 4) After which it remained in the possession of the hospital till the latter and of queen Elizabeth's reign, when Dr. Lause, prebendary of Canterbury, and the archbishop's commissary, then master of it, with the privity of archbishop Whitgift, (fn. 5) made a benesicial lease of this manor, at which it seems he then resided, with divers other lands, at the reserved rent of forty-eight pounds, for his own use and benefit, to his brother Fermyn Lause, for threre lives. He died in 1594, and by his will devised his interest in the above lease to John Boys, esq. and Robert Grove, of Eastry. In consequence of which, Fermyn Lause, above-mentioned, then of Aylsham, in Norfolk, conveyed the lease to them, the sole interest in which became vested in John Boys, esq. above-mentioned, afterwards knighted, and of St. Gregory's priory, in Canterbury, a man of much note in his profession of the law. He was steward to five archbishops, recorder of Canterbury, and then of Sandwich, judge of the chancery court of the five ports, and M. P. for Sandwich, and for Canterbury, and founder of Jesus or Boys's hospital, in Northgate, Canterbury. He was fifth and youngest son of William Boys, esq. of Nonington, by his wife Mary, sister and heir of Sir Edward Ringsley, and bore for his arms, Or, a griffin, segreant, sable, within a bordure, gules, being those borne by his ancestors. He resided at times here at Hoadcourt, which he died possessed of in 1612, without surviving issue, though he had been twice married, and was buried in the north isle of Canterbury cathedral, where his monument, with his effigies on it, still remains, having by his will devised his interest in the lease of this manor to his nephew Thomas Boys, of Canterbury, with remainder to John his son. (fn. 6)

Thomas Boys, esq. above mentioned, was afterwards of Hoad court, as was John Boys, his eldest son, who succeeded him here, by the limitation in Sir John Boys's will, and resided at Hoad-court, as did his descendants down to colonel John Boys, who died here in 1748, and was buried with his ancestors in this church, leaving by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Dalyson, esq. two daughters his coheirs, Elizabeth, married to the Rev. Charles Wake, and Anne to the Rev. Osmund Beauvoir, who respectively, in right of their wives, became jointly entitled to the lease of this manor, with the seat and lands belonging to it; but after some years intervening, on a partition made, it was wholly allotted to the former, who held it for three lives, from the master of the hospital of Eastbridge; since whose death in 1796, his interest in it is become vested in the Rev. John Honywood, his son-in-law, the present possessor of it.

The Rev. C. Wake above-mentioned, LL. D. was prebendary of Westminster, and rector of East Knoyle and Fonthill, in Wiltshire. He was first married to Eliz. Boys, by whom he had Charles, vicar of Shoreham, and Elizabeth, who married the Rev. J. Honywood above-mentioned. He married 2dly the daughter of Mr. Beckford, by whom he had several children. Dr. Beauvoir was formerly head master of the king's school, in Canterbury, and married Anne Boys, as above-mentioned, who died in 1762, and was buried in Bleane church, by whom he had three sons, Osmund, William, and Cholmondeley, who survived to maturity, but all died unmarried; and two daughters, Elizabeth, married to William Hammond, esq. of St. Albans, in this county, and Isabella, married to the Rev. Richard Blackett Dechair, vicar of Shebbertswell, and of Postling, in this county. Dr. Beauvoir married secondly Mary, only daughter and heir of Fane William Sharpe, esq. (Since re-married to Dr. Douglas) but by whom he had no issue; he died in 1789, and was buried in the nave of the cathedral at Bath. He bore for his arms, Argent, a chevron between three cinquefoils, gules, quartered with those of Compton, of Guernsey.

In the rentals of the manor of Blean, there is mention made of the payment of gate silver (a custom not often met with). It seems to be a payment made by the tenants of the manor, for the repair of the gates leading to and from the Blean, to prevent their cattle from straying and being lost.

WELL-COURT, now usually called Wild-court, is a manor, situated near the northern bounds of this parish, the house of it being partly in it and partly in that of St. Stephen's. It is stiled in antient records, Ebolestone, alias Well-court, and was once part of the possessions of the family of At-Lese, one of whom, Sir Richard At-Lese, died s. p. possessed of it in 1394. Upon which it descended to his two nieces, daughters and coheirs likewise of his brother Marcellus At-Lese, of whom Lucy the eldest, married first to John Norton, esq. and secondly to William Langley, esq. of Knolton, (fn. 7) had this manor as part of her inheritance, and accordingly entitled both her husbands in succession to it. She had issue by both of them, who after their deaths shared this manor between them. In which state it continued for many years, till Thomas Langley, son of John, alienated his part of it, in the IIth year of king Henry VIII. to his relation Sir John Norton, the possessor of the other moiety, who then became owner of the whole of it, of which he died possessed in the 34th year of that reign, and was Succeeded in it by his natural son Thomas Green, usually stiled Norton, alias Green, whose two grandsons Thomas and George Green, in the 7th year of James I. alienated it to John Best, in which name the fee of it continued till the latter end of the last century, though in king Charles II.'s reign, it had come by means of mortgage, or some other such assignment, into the possession of Lovelace, then of Wild, and afterwards of William Rooke, esq. of St. Laurence, afterwards knighted, when it was passed away to Thomas Fleet, yeoman, who then lived in it. He died in the possession of it in 1712, s. p. and by his will devised it to his cousin Thomas Fleet, son of John Fleet, of Bleane, since which, by the limitations in the above will, it is now come to Mr. Thomas Fleet, who is the present owner, and resides in it.

BOTELERS,alias Botelers court, is a manor, nearly in the centre of this parish, which, in the 20th year of king Edward III. was, with the manors of Chesfield and Cluse, now called Clowes, held by knight's service by the same owners. Soon after which, it became the property and residence of the family of Boteler, whence it gained the name of Botelers-court, and continued in it till it was at length sold to one of the Ropers, of St. Dunstans, near Canterbury; in whose posterity it continued down to Edward Roper, esq. of Eltham, who died possessed of it in 1723, s. p. since which it has passed in like manner as that of Chestfield, in Swaycliffe, heretofore described, down to Sir Edward Dering and Sir Rowland Wynne, barts. and they are at this time the joint proprietors of it.

There are no parochial charities.

THIS PARISH is within the ECCLESTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Westbere.

The church, which is dedicated to St. Cosmus and Damianus, is but small and mean. It consists of only one isle and a chancel, having a low pointed turret at the west end, in which hangs one bell. In the chancel is a memorial for John Boys, esq. of Hoad-court, eldest son of John Boys, esq. of that place, obt. 1660; and a mural monument for John Boys, esq. of Hode, who married Jane, daughter of Sir Richard Head, bart. obt. 1710; arms, quarterly, Boys, Phalop, Alday, and Ringsley, impaling Head. Besides which, there are several other memorials of less account.

The church was antiently an appendage to the manor, and remained so till Hamo de Crevequer, called in the charter, Hamo de Blen, son of Etardus de Crevequer, the lord of it, gave this church, with all its appurtenances, to the master and brethren of the hospital of Eastbridge; and by another deed he granted to them, that is to the rector of this church, and the brethren of that hospital, the parsonage-house, with its appurtenances, late belonging to the rectory of it, and one acre of ground, and certain annual rent in this parish, to hold in free, pure and perpetual alms; all which was confirmed by archbishop Langton, by which means the rectory and parsonage of it became appropriated, and confirmed to the hospital, and the master or keeper became parson of it; but archbishop Sudbury afterwards, in 1375, converted the rectory or parsonage so appropriated, into a perpetual vicarage, which he then founded and endowed; but on account of the inconveniences arising to the parishioners, especially those who were infirm, from the distance they were at from the priest who had the cure of souls, who usually lived at the hospital, which was a mile or more distant from them, whom they were obliged with much trouble to seek after there; by which means the duties of this church, as well as the parishioners, were either neglected or wholly omitted. Therefore, weighing these inconveniences, and being desirous to remedy them as far as was in his power, he decreed, that there should be in this church in future, a perpetual vicar, having within the parish of the same, the mansion which the master of the hospital had erected for the same; and that the vicar should have likewise the tithes and oblations under-mentioned, amounting, as was supposed, to 10l. and upwards, for the supporting of himself in food, and the under-mentioned burthens; and that the presentation of the vicar on each vacancy, should belong to the keeper of the hospital for ever. Moreover, that the vicar should have, in part of the said sum, for his endowment, all predial tithes at Natynden, due to the hospital of old time, which were worth five marcs or thereabout yearly, and also all predial tithes through this whole parish; excepting of the demesne lands and estates of the hospital within the parish, whilst in tillage; and excepting all manner of predial tithes, and others whatsoever, arising from the lands, and beasts feeding on them, and their young folded on them, lying on the south part of the course of water running in this parish, called Vischmannysbourne, between the church and the court of the hospital at le Hothe, of which tithes he should not claim any thing, in any shape whatever. Moreover, that the vicar should have, towards the making up the sum of the aforesaid 10l. all tithes of calves, lambs, geese, flax, wool, milk, milkmeats, cheese, hay, herbage, silva cedua, and all titheable things within the parish, except only as before excepted. The vicar, therefore, should have all oblations in the church, and parish without the court of the hospital at la Hoth; and as the vicar himself, as if rector of the place, would possess such emoluments within it, he should support the undermentioned burthens from them, that is, he should amend and repair the chancel of the church at his own cost, and should support the mansion already built for him, and should find wine and bread and lights in the church, necessary for the celebrations, at his own expence, and should undergo all other burthens to be imposed in future on the church, which were not then taxed to the payment of the tenths, and should acknowledge them duly, and pay them; that he should be obliged to make a continual residence within the parish, as the other vicars of churches were obliged by law to do; and that he should obey the keeper of the hospital in all lawful and honest matters, the archbishop reserving to himself and his successors, the power of correcting, augmenting, and diminishing this his decree, as often as it should be expeding to him and them so to do.

According to which endowment, the vicarage of this church still continues, the vicar, as if rector of the parish, receiving all the tithes, both great and small, within it, except as is therein excepted, and of the portion of lands in Nackington; and from the time before-mentioned, the keeper, or master, as he is now called, of Eastbridge hospital, has continued, and is, the present patron of it.

¶The vicarage is valued in the king's books at 10l. and the yearly tenths at one pound. In 1537 here were thirty families, and ninety-four communicants. In 1588 it was valued at 40l. communicants 129. In 1640 it was valued at 65l. the like number of communicants. It was lately certified to be of the clear yearly value of 73l. 14s. 6d. but it is now worth near double that sum. The portion of tithes, in the parish of Nackington, &c. consists of those arising from 116 acres of land, or thereabout, lying in various detached pieces, belonging to different owners, and is worth about 44l. annual value.

There are near two acres of glebe land belonging to it.

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol8/pp524-536

[c=#949494]gabriela *; vocevemcomigoaondequerqueeuvoe.[/c] diz:

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mais ou menos um ano.

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[...]

CARACA, EU PENSO IDENTICAMENTE IGUAL A VOCE

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[...]

mais espera só eu crescer... eu quero fazer uma tatoo que nem da minha amiga, MUITO linda *-*

Gabi . diz:

vou fazer uma tattoo!

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

me mostra alguma musica sua!

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

aah eu quero muuitas tattos, eu aaaaaaaaamo³ tattos. mais nao gosto muito de piercing.

Gabi . diz:

eu ñ quero piercing, só tatttoo!

Gabi . diz:

*morri* q

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

eeu tbm *------* meu se um dia a gente se encontrar eu nao vou conseguir parar de falar

Gabi . diz:

TATTOO perfeeeeeeeita!

Gabi . diz:

eu tbm não .

Gabi . diz:

aiushiauhsiauhsiuasha

Gabi . diz:

um dia a gente vai fazer compras juntas!

Gabi . diz:

HAHA

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

faz ANOOOOS que eu guardo essa foto, e vou guardar até eu tiver 18!

Gabi . diz:

sério.

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

ooooooooba ;9

Gabi . diz:

sou apaixinada por: meias, chapéus e carros conversiveis

Gabi . diz:

o pior de tudo é q minhas amigas são totalmente diferentes de mim. elas não gostam dessas roupas, e não escutam as mesmas musicas q eu. não sonham *

Gabi . diz:

sou sozinha :/

Gabi . diz:

BUAA

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

eu tenho uma idolatraçao imensa pela marilyn monroe *-*

e sou viciada em livros, meias coloridas, fotografia, buttons, tecidos, guarda chuvas, fones de ouvido e cachecóis!

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

EU TAMBEM ;O

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

ultimamente eu ando tao sem amigas pra me entender :\ a gente daria boas melhores amigas o/\o

Gabi . diz:

eu faço coleção de buttons, mas é dificil de acher :/

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

aah :\

Gabi . diz:

daria mesmo! afee :/

Gabi . diz:

eu me sinto igual a você.

Gabi . diz:

onde q vc mora mesmo?

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

santa barbara d'oeste

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

ai ai :\

Gabi . diz:

minha mãe sempre fala que queria morar em são paulo, eu nunca quis. agora q eu quero não dá mais :/

Gabi . diz:

minha mae tem duas tattoos

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

aaah que pena, sampa deve ser bem legal. tanto pra vida...

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

é disso que eu quero viver ;D

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

sério?

Gabi . diz:

eu também.

Gabi . diz:

sério.

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

meus pais tem um ódio mortal por rock piercings e tattos.

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

e namorados.

Gabi . diz:

meus pais são novos.

Gabi . diz:

minha mae engravidou com 15.

Gabi . diz:

gostam de rock e me deixam namorar [eu acho]

Gabi . diz:

HAHA

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

sério?

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

UI que pais legais

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

ahaiaoeheioai

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

meu pai fala que vai grampear minha boca e só vai deixar eu namorar com 18

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

:BBB

Gabi . diz:

eu sempre escolho a roupa da minha mãe. é divertido

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

mais se ja namorou ou ficou, sério?

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

ahauaoahaaioaiahaia *-*

Gabi . diz:

não

Gabi . diz:

HAHA

Gabi . diz:

e vc?

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

tambem nao :D

Gabi . diz:

minhas amigas gostam de funk [eu tbm, mas SÓ pra dançar sabe?] e se vestem como pessoas normais.

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

eu tambem, pra dançar sooomente.

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

mais cara elas sao muito diferentes. nao sei em que mundo elas vivem. vao de jeans pra escola, nao tem estilo, nao se arrumar, nao usam maquiagem (é obrigatorio, lapis e blush todo dia!) :D

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

meniiiiiina tive uma idéia ;O voce tem 13, ta na sétima né? pensou se a gente cai na mesma faculdade, na mesma classe? =DDDDD

Gabi . diz:

genteeeeeee! q liiindo.

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

ahaiaoaahiao tomara que a gente nao perca o contato até lá!

Gabi . diz:

eu vou de jeans pra escola, mas não todo dia. tipo, as vezes eu vou de shorts com polaina, uma calças meio malucas, coloridas. . HAHA

Gabi . diz:

to nem aí

Gabi . diz:

e vc?

Gabi . diz:

éé

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

ahauaoaheueoia eu aperto todos meus jeans pra ficar beeeeeeem skinny

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

e vou de blusa mais as vezes eu faço umas sobreposiçoes (amo!)

Gabi . diz:

[amo!] també,*

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

tipo uma regata da escola com uma outra por baixo..

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

e tooodo dia, all star.

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

ai uns acessórios e pá *-*

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

ai eu queria polaina :~~ é caro?

Gabi . diz:

15 reais em média. eu só tenho uma :/

Gabi . diz:

tenho 4 all stars, quero mais 3!

Gabi . diz:

HAHA

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

aah :\

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

ahauaoaheie

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

tenho só dois

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

vermelho e branco. mais eu queria um mooonte!

Gabi . diz:

meu preto tá acabdo sabe? daí eu quer mais um preto, um ROXO, e um vermelho ou branco de couro.

Gabi . diz:

isuhasihuaushaiu

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

*-*

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

oolha esse cara, eu QUERO *--------*

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

com desenhos atras *-*

Gabi . diz:

gentzii

Gabi . diz:

meu all star branco tem cadarço vermelho e é tooooodo quadriculado de azul .

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

*-*

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

ajsaosjaosjoa :x

Gabi . diz:

seeeeeei

Gabi . diz:

eu tbm penso assim .

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

eu ja me imagino vestindo estrelas..

Gabi . diz:

a gente vai montar uma banda qdo estiver na faculdadde

Gabi . diz:

eu tambéém.

Gabi . diz:

oww, vamo fazer intercambio?

Gabi . diz:

HAHA

Gabi . diz:

NY é o PARAISO DAS ROUPAS.

Gabi . diz:

spo ropa legal

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

É MESMO *-*

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

eu vou fazer quando eu tiver 16

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

sempre quis ir pro canadá mais voce me deu uma idéia de mudar de destino ;999

Gabi . diz:

vamos pra NY!

Gabi . diz:

iasuhaishiashasuh

Gabi . diz:

:B

Gabi . diz:

tem menino gato tb!

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

isso é o maaaaaaais³ importante

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

mais tipo..

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

te paqueram muuito na escola e tal?

Gabi . diz:

aham .. e vc?

Gabi . diz:

paoskaoskaposkpaosk

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

oô ahaiahaiaoahaiaoai da vergonha demais ;x

Gabi . diz:

vergonha?

Gabi . diz:

ahh, sei lá, eu nem tenho não

Gabi . diz:

só q o pessoal da minha cidade [roça] me olha estranho por causa das minhas roupas e tal.

Gabi . diz:

sabe o q eu amo? meia-calça com shorts por cima, q nem as VJ's da MTV usam.

Gabi . diz:

a roupa delas sempre é legal

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

demais demais demais eu tbm.

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

é, aqui é interior e estranham tbm, mais eu so timida demais..

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

nossa acabei de abrir o site da capricho

Gabi . diz:

qq tem?

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

olha só: moda e musica andam juntas, os melhores clipes que misturam fashion e musica!

*----*

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

capricho.abril.com.br/atelie/conteudo_258635.shtml

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

aham.

Gabi . diz:

belê.

Gabi . diz:

vou passar minhas férias INTEIRAAAAAS: desenhando [IUPI] assitindo filme e arrumando meu flickr [em dois dias eu faço!]

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

*-------*

[c=#949494]gabriela *; querotedaramãomaisvocênemmeolha:~ [/c] diz:

eu tbm

Gabi . diz:

aeww!

Gabi . diz:

jáá seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeei manoo.

Gabi . diz:

tipo em julho e em janeirto eu vou pra um acampamento.. se der, vc pode ir!

Aloa^^

Well our first selfmade bjd is now finished ^^ We cast her in black resin and we took her yesterday with us, on the Dolliverse, to buy her some eyebrows and eyes- that she wears now on the pics ^^ We are very proud of her, because its totally selfmade, ( expect the horns- they are from magic time) and we worked on her since more then 1 1/2 year. And yes, if some of you are interested in her, we want to sell her ( but not this one, -its our own XD) But first we have to send her to a company ^^

OR 22E is open, but restoration work is ongoing. There are reduced speeds and delays for travelers.

Singer and former Dancing with a Stars competitor Katherine Jenkins is pregnant! She and her artist husband, Andrew Levitas, are awaiting their initial child together. Katherine done a large baby proclamation on Instagram.

Katherine and Andrew are awaiting a baby girl!

Katherine common a p...

fashionlifestyle.org/katherine-jenkins-is-expecting-her-f...

We all expect instant gratification - but that's not the case when you take a hard drive to have someone attempt a recovery. First a diagnosis - well, first pass at that failed (and I already had done those steps so I knew it was coming but we all hope for a miracle). So now it's with technical where I'll get a quote for how much my carelessness will cost me. Just like with my cat, there's a $ mark where I say forget it - just put it out of its misery. So I'm waiting to see if like the cat, the drive knew just how far to push the limit. Yes, the cat's worth far more to me than the USB drive, after all he's family, but I've realized from experience that prolonging the suffering of a four-legged friend becomes abuse.

I will say, if you're in the Houston area and need computer or drive work then you should think first of Northrock Computer. Very nice people and they're not out to rob you of your home and grandkids. They got Small Business of the year for NW Houston Area and I can easily see why!

Take my advice or ignore it. The risk is yours. I've already bought one drive and I'll decide on a second. I need to make up my mind how to set up a backup. I'm leaning toward a small 2 T portable USB for my new photos and using the 3 T USB drive I bought for backup.

They flapped but dared not fly. Not just yet.

Impersonating church steeples, three young great blue herons appeared close to taking their inaugural flights. Canada Day, Roberts Bay, Sidney BC.

Wasn't expecting to get a cathedral in Southwark when we got off the tube at London Bridge.

Near the Borough Market is Southwark Cathedral.

It is the oldest Gothic church in London. Rebuilt in 1212 after fire damaged the Norman church.

In 1539 after the dissolution of the monastery it went from a Priory Church to a Parish Church.

Southwark Cathedral or The Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Saviour and St Mary Overie, Southwark, London, lies on the south bank of the River Thames close to London Bridge.

It is the mother church of the Anglican Diocese of Southwark. It has been a place of Christian worship for over 1,000 years, but a cathedral only since 1905. The present building is mainly Gothic, from 1220 to 1420, although the nave is a nineteenth-century reconstruction in a thirteenth-century style.

Remarkably the main railway viaduct connecting London Bridge station to Blackfriars, Cannon Street and Charing Cross stations passes only 18 metres from the south-east corner of the cathedral, blocking the view from the south side. This was a compromise when the railway was extended along this viaduct in 1852; the alternative was to demolish the building completely to allow a more direct passage for the line. Borough Market is immediately to its south and the Hall of the Worshipful Company of Glaziers and Painters of Glass is on the riverside part of Montague Close on its north.

It is Grade I listed.

Cathedral Church of St Saviour and St Mary Overie (southwark Cathedral), Bermondsey

SOUTHWARK

TQ3280SE CATHEDRAL STREET

636-1/17/188 (East side)

02/03/50 Cathedral Church of St Saviour and

St Mary Overie (Southwark Cathedral)

I

Medieval Augustinian priory of St Mary Overie; Anglican

cathedral since 1905. C12 church damaged by fire 1212 and

rebuilt from 1220. East front, choir and retrochoir 1214-1260.

Choir ceiling and tower pinnacles by George Gwilt Jnr.

1818-27; transepts altered 1830 by Robert Wallace. Nave

replaced in 1839-40 by Henry Rose and again in 1890-97 by Sir

Arthur Blomfield in C13 style.

MATERIALS: knapped flint with stone dressing; tower and

transepts of ashlar.

PLAN: cruciform with central crossing (north and south

transepts with central tower); 7-bay nave, 5-bay presbytery,

3-bay ambulatory at east end.

EXTERIOR: lower stage of tower C14 (attributed to Henry

Yvele); 2 upper stages of the tower, C14-C15, each with

2-light transomed windows on each face. Early C19 pinnacles by

Gwilt. 5-bay E arm with clerestory, E window and flying

buttresses to E arm, Gwilt rebuilding of C14 additions.

Remains of C12 church in north wall of N transept. Main

entrance is the south-west door.

1. Concierto de Genitorturers en Barcelona, Sala Apolo

GENITORTURERS - APOLO 2 - 2 JUNE

Despite facing a small venue with not as much audience as we all expected, the band gave one of most politically incorrect, kinkiest and funniest shows I've ever seen. To top it up, they sounded great as well. If all bands had this completely committed attitude while onstage, life would be more fun.

2. Toundra en Bikini

NOTHINK + TOUNDRA - BIKINI - 13 NOVEMBER

Nothink and Toundra are quite possibly two of the best Spanish bands around at the moment. I love their music, but for me Toundra that night stole the show. They offered a setlist tight as f**k, with great energy and dynamics. Watching this show felt pretty much like being hypnotized.

3. DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN LIVE RAMATAZZ 2 BARCELONA OCTOBER 2010

DILLINGER ESCAPLE PLAN - RAZZ 2 - 21 OCTOBER

I have no words to explain what seeing this band live feels like. I had never seen them live before that night, and their live act felt like something that could set the venue on fire any moment. Adrenaline, sweat, stage diving, noise and a Greg Puciato who knows how to give you the chills when signing melodic too. (PHOTO I USED WAS TAKEN BY MY COLLEAGUE IÑAKI PINHEAD, VISIT HIS FLICKR IN THE LINK ABOVE)

4. Anneke Van Giersbergen en Barcelona

ANNEKE VAN GIERSBERGEN & AQUA DE ANNIQUE - BIKINI - MAY 5

After she left The Gathering, I thought I would never have the pleasure of enjoying my all-time favorite female singer again. Luckily I was wrong, and when she came back to Barcelona with her solo project her magical voice made me burst in tears again.

5. And So I Watch You From Afar

ASIWYFA - THE COOLER, BRISTOL - 9 APRIL

If the band doesn't visit your country, fly to any country to see the band!

This is one motto that my boyfriend and I "practice" every once in a while, and we did it once again to witness the blast of music that AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR are.

These guys, even though super young, seem to have the music in their blood. Their total control over their instruments is as big as their contagious love for music and their explosive attitude onstage. Live, their rich tunes rock your socks off and can't be compared to anything else out there. One of these bands that you shouldn't miss if you're looking for moments of total communion band-audience.

6. Noise

SONIC YOUTH - RAZZMATAZZ - 18th APRIL.

Getting to shoot them with my DSLR was already a blast, but this especific show is the best one of them I've seen so far (and I've already seen a few!). I loved the setlist they chose and the whole thing had a raw-energy feeling that got stuck to your skin and left you in awe.

7. Arcade Fire

ARCADE FIRE - PALAU SANT JORDI - 21 NOVEMBER

I don't like concerts in big venues as I usually find them too impersonal, but in this case the band made us feel like we could just spread an arm and touch them.

I've seen the band a few times, some of them before they got proper big, when they were just presenting Funeral and everybody was going "wow, how do they do it?". So in a way, seeing them do such a big place was a bit of a surprise for me.

But luckily the band still have it - the joy, the passion, the way they have to make you feel that everything, somehow, will be ok after all when you listen to songs like Wake Up or My Neighborhood.

Getting to shoot this band from the pit after I had seen them so many times as a fan was a true delight and a memory that I will never forget.

8. Oceansize

OCEANSIZE - KOKO CLUB, LONDON - 1 OCTOBER

I didn't have a photopass that day (and so the picture I included in the mosaic was taken the day after), and that made me feel a bit sad, but in the end this was the least important.

It's not a secret that Oceansize are my favorite band, and it's not a secret that in the past I flew anywhere to see them as they didnt visit Barcelona until 2010. When I bought my tickets to see them in Koko, I knew already they were coming to Barcelona a month later, but a live show of Oceansize in such a beautiful and especial show as Koko is not something you want to miss, so there I went.

My expectations were really high and somehow they managed to give an overwhelmingly great show that offered even more than I was expecting. With fantastic & coherent setlist and atmosphere, they made me like even more their new songs, while all the audience looked properly engaged to the band and the moment. Legend.

9. Pixies @ Primavera Sound 2010

PIXIES - PRIMAVERA SOUND FESTIVAL - 30 MAY

Because seriously, there's nothing better than a Pixies show with a setlist loaded with their greatest hits to make me jump & dance my heart off.

10. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

BRMC, APOLO, 11 NOVEMBER

The level was already very high after their last show in Barcelona, in the same venue, but somehow they managed to do it again. Absolutely brilliant.

Created with fd's Flickr Toys

Nearly 1,000 Students to Participate in WSSU Commencement on May 15

WINSTON-SALEM, NC -- Christina Wareâs story is one of the many inspiring testimonials of the nearly 1,000 undergraduate and graduate students from near and afar who are expected to participate in Winston-Salem State Universityâs commencement ceremony on Friday, May 15, at 9:45 a.m., at Bowman Gray Stadium, 1250 South Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive.

Academy Award-winning recording artist, activist and actor Common will be the keynote speaker. There are no guest limits or ticket requirements for the ceremony.

It is conceivable that Wareâs story of work ethic, undeniable spirit and enthusiasm encapsulates the sentiment of her graduating 2015 classmates.

Ware, 43, of Winston-Salem, is quite active on and off campus as a mentor to other students, a member of the non-traditional student organization, the first president of Epsilon Chapter 130 of Tau Sigma National Honor Society at WSSU, a wife and proud mother of two. She is also legally blind. She wants to blaze trails, set examples and raise the bar for others with disabilities.

âIn 2007, I lost my eyesight. After a six-month pity party, I decided to continue my education and make a difference for others. Since 2008, I have spent every day of my life proving to society that having a disability does not mean we are weak. I am now an advocate for persons with disabilities,â Ware, a business major, said, "We are not handicapped, we are handy capable!"

Ware, who can be described as always pleasant and having an unlimited enthusiasm for life, says every day alive is like Christmas. She demands to be treated like everyone else and has been noted to say, âI may physically fall, but mentally I can get back up and pull a 4.0 semester.â After graduation she wants to start a Kosher/Halal foods business and become active on community boards.

The China Connection

From the City of Harbin, the capital and largest city of the Heilongjiang province of the People's Republic of China, WSSU Master of Arts in the Teaching of English as a Second Language and Applied Linguistics students Yaowen Xing and Chunling Zhang have found a second home at WSSU and in Winston-Salem. They perhaps have come the farthest distance attend the university.

With a population of more than five million people, Harbin is situated in the northeast region of China so close to Russia that only the Songhua River separates the two countries. Nicknamed the Ice City, the average winter temperature is -3.5 °F with annual lows hitting -31.0 °F. Itâs no wonder the students say the warmer weather here in the Piedmont Triad has not been lost in translation with them and itâs one of the things they enjoy.

âWe really love the weather in North Carolina, especially the long summer time, since our hometown is so cold with snow for almost 6 months of the year,â Xing, 30, noted. âWe also love the people at WSSU and the faculty who all are nice and it has been a really good experience.â

Xing and Zhang, 35, are in America as part of a Chinese education immersion program to help exchange the cultures between China and America. They enjoy working as cultural ambassadors to students in both the cultures. The two came to the U.S. in 2013 and have been teaching at Konnoak Elementary school during the early hours and studying and researching later in the day. âComing to America was a dream for me after learning about it through books, movies and music, and my time here it has been amazing,â Xing said.

Zhang, said she didnât know much about WSSU or Historically Black Colleges or Universities (HBCUâs), but after a short time here she knew WSSU would be was special part of life. âI have met many African- Americans who have been friendly and helpful. I now can say I truly have many black friends,â Zhang said. She and Xing have taken advantage of the HBCU experience. They have been often seen attending evening lectures and presentations, sports events, musical and visual arts events. With their WSSU master degrees they will return to China one day in the future to make an impact on teaching and the quality of education there.

The All-In Approach

Olivia N. Sedwick, 21, a political science major from Indianapolis, has taken âthe all-in approach" to her WSSU experience. The current WSSU student government president (SGA), honorâs student and champion athlete, chose WSSU over other schools she could have attended.

Featured in a USA Today article highlighting the HBCU experience released last June, Sedwick is quoted as saying about WSSU, âI fell in love with the school.â She says, âWe talked about things that I had never had the chance to before coming from a predominantly white high school.â

Liking the intellectual and social environment, she was comfortable becoming involved around campus. In her first year, a walk-on athlete for the womenâs track and field team, she was a 2013 CIAA Indoor Womenâs Track and Field All-Conference competitor and the WSSU womenâs shot put record holder until earlier this year, although she never competed in the throws until coming to college. In her second year she served as the sophomore class vice president while also being appointed to serve on many committees throughout the university. In that same year, she was a delegate to the UNC Association of Student Governments (UNCASG), representing WSSU students on a state-wide level. At the end of that year, she became the first African-American female elected senior vice president of UNCASG and served in that capacity for the entirety of her third year while being active as the chief of staff for the WSSU student government association that year also. Toward the end of her term in UNCASG, she decided to run for student body president and has served as the voice of the students for the duration of her last year. With all of her activities, she has maintained a 3.95 GPA throughout her time in college.

Sedwick has been selected as a UNC General Administration Presidential Intern, which begins in July. Upon completion of the prestigious one-year appointment, Sedwick plans to attend Howard University School of Law.

A Drum Major who will March for a Noble Cause

Willie Davis, 22, a social work major from Fayetteville, N.C., who has led WSSUâs Red Sea of Sound Marching Band as a drum major for his senior year, will now march to lead the charge for helping veterans and their families cope with typical and unique challenges of serving in military. Davis will be one of four Cadets with the distinct honor of being commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant U.S. in the U.S. Army during this yearâs commencement ceremony. Despite that professionally Davis will help vets, military and families with things like dealing with emotions, he said, âI donât think I will be ready for the commissioning part (of commencement) emotionally.â

Readiness for Davis is an understatement. The youngest of three siblings, who was age 10 when his father died, Davis has been an A average student throughout life. He was in the top ten of his high school class and the first generation in his family to attend college. At WSSU, besides maintaining high academic achievement and serving in the U.S. Army ROTC, Davis has been active with the WSSU Band, the University Choir, a Campus Ambassador, a mentor to freshmen students, vice president of the WSSU chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi National Honorary Band Fraternity, a Veterans Helping Veterans Heal intern and a member of Galilee Missionary Baptist Church in Winston-Salem.

After graduation, Davis is going to graduate school at the University of South Carolina. He plans to complete that program in one year and begin his military duties. As a clinical social worker, his responsibilities may range from clinical counseling, crisis intervention, disaster relief, critical event debriefing, teaching and training, supervision, research, administration, consultation and policy development in various military settings. He wants to specialize in helping military veterans who suffer from different traumas such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), paranoid schizophrenia and other conditions.

Nearly 1,000 Students to Participate in WSSU Commencement on May 15

WINSTON-SALEM, NC -- Christina Wareâs story is one of the many inspiring testimonials of the nearly 1,000 undergraduate and graduate students from near and afar who are expected to participate in Winston-Salem State Universityâs commencement ceremony on Friday, May 15, at 9:45 a.m., at Bowman Gray Stadium, 1250 South Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive.

Academy Award-winning recording artist, activist and actor Common will be the keynote speaker. There are no guest limits or ticket requirements for the ceremony.

It is conceivable that Wareâs story of work ethic, undeniable spirit and enthusiasm encapsulates the sentiment of her graduating 2015 classmates.

Ware, 43, of Winston-Salem, is quite active on and off campus as a mentor to other students, a member of the non-traditional student organization, the first president of Epsilon Chapter 130 of Tau Sigma National Honor Society at WSSU, a wife and proud mother of two. She is also legally blind. She wants to blaze trails, set examples and raise the bar for others with disabilities.

âIn 2007, I lost my eyesight. After a six-month pity party, I decided to continue my education and make a difference for others. Since 2008, I have spent every day of my life proving to society that having a disability does not mean we are weak. I am now an advocate for persons with disabilities,â Ware, a business major, said, "We are not handicapped, we are handy capable!"

Ware, who can be described as always pleasant and having an unlimited enthusiasm for life, says every day alive is like Christmas. She demands to be treated like everyone else and has been noted to say, âI may physically fall, but mentally I can get back up and pull a 4.0 semester.â After graduation she wants to start a Kosher/Halal foods business and become active on community boards.

The China Connection

From the City of Harbin, the capital and largest city of the Heilongjiang province of the People's Republic of China, WSSU Master of Arts in the Teaching of English as a Second Language and Applied Linguistics students Yaowen Xing and Chunling Zhang have found a second home at WSSU and in Winston-Salem. They perhaps have come the farthest distance attend the university.

With a population of more than five million people, Harbin is situated in the northeast region of China so close to Russia that only the Songhua River separates the two countries. Nicknamed the Ice City, the average winter temperature is -3.5 °F with annual lows hitting -31.0 °F. Itâs no wonder the students say the warmer weather here in the Piedmont Triad has not been lost in translation with them and itâs one of the things they enjoy.

âWe really love the weather in North Carolina, especially the long summer time, since our hometown is so cold with snow for almost 6 months of the year,â Xing, 30, noted. âWe also love the people at WSSU and the faculty who all are nice and it has been a really good experience.â

Xing and Zhang, 35, are in America as part of a Chinese education immersion program to help exchange the cultures between China and America. They enjoy working as cultural ambassadors to students in both the cultures. The two came to the U.S. in 2013 and have been teaching at Konnoak Elementary school during the early hours and studying and researching later in the day. âComing to America was a dream for me after learning about it through books, movies and music, and my time here it has been amazing,â Xing said.

Zhang, said she didnât know much about WSSU or Historically Black Colleges or Universities (HBCUâs), but after a short time here she knew WSSU would be was special part of life. âI have met many African- Americans who have been friendly and helpful. I now can say I truly have many black friends,â Zhang said. She and Xing have taken advantage of the HBCU experience. They have been often seen attending evening lectures and presentations, sports events, musical and visual arts events. With their WSSU master degrees they will return to China one day in the future to make an impact on teaching and the quality of education there.

The All-In Approach

Olivia N. Sedwick, 21, a political science major from Indianapolis, has taken âthe all-in approach" to her WSSU experience. The current WSSU student government president (SGA), honorâs student and champion athlete, chose WSSU over other schools she could have attended.

Featured in a USA Today article highlighting the HBCU experience released last June, Sedwick is quoted as saying about WSSU, âI fell in love with the school.â She says, âWe talked about things that I had never had the chance to before coming from a predominantly white high school.â

Liking the intellectual and social environment, she was comfortable becoming involved around campus. In her first year, a walk-on athlete for the womenâs track and field team, she was a 2013 CIAA Indoor Womenâs Track and Field All-Conference competitor and the WSSU womenâs shot put record holder until earlier this year, although she never competed in the throws until coming to college. In her second year she served as the sophomore class vice president while also being appointed to serve on many committees throughout the university. In that same year, she was a delegate to the UNC Association of Student Governments (UNCASG), representing WSSU students on a state-wide level. At the end of that year, she became the first African-American female elected senior vice president of UNCASG and served in that capacity for the entirety of her third year while being active as the chief of staff for the WSSU student government association that year also. Toward the end of her term in UNCASG, she decided to run for student body president and has served as the voice of the students for the duration of her last year. With all of her activities, she has maintained a 3.95 GPA throughout her time in college.

Sedwick has been selected as a UNC General Administration Presidential Intern, which begins in July. Upon completion of the prestigious one-year appointment, Sedwick plans to attend Howard University School of Law.

A Drum Major who will March for a Noble Cause

Willie Davis, 22, a social work major from Fayetteville, N.C., who has led WSSUâs Red Sea of Sound Marching Band as a drum major for his senior year, will now march to lead the charge for helping veterans and their families cope with typical and unique challenges of serving in military. Davis will be one of four Cadets with the distinct honor of being commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant U.S. in the U.S. Army during this yearâs commencement ceremony. Despite that professionally Davis will help vets, military and families with things like dealing with emotions, he said, âI donât think I will be ready for the commissioning part (of commencement) emotionally.â

Readiness for Davis is an understatement. The youngest of three siblings, who was age 10 when his father died, Davis has been an A average student throughout life. He was in the top ten of his high school class and the first generation in his family to attend college. At WSSU, besides maintaining high academic achievement and serving in the U.S. Army ROTC, Davis has been active with the WSSU Band, the University Choir, a Campus Ambassador, a mentor to freshmen students, vice president of the WSSU chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi National Honorary Band Fraternity, a Veterans Helping Veterans Heal intern and a member of Galilee Missionary Baptist Church in Winston-Salem.

After graduation, Davis is going to graduate school at the University of South Carolina. He plans to complete that program in one year and begin his military duties. As a clinical social worker, his responsibilities may range from clinical counseling, crisis intervention, disaster relief, critical event debriefing, teaching and training, supervision, research, administration, consultation and policy development in various military settings. He wants to specialize in helping military veterans who suffer from different traumas such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), paranoid schizophrenia and other conditions.

All outstanding issues between Bangladesh and India are expected to be resolved before the upcoming visit of Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to Bangladesh, reports BSS.

This optimism was expressed when visiting Indian Foreign Minister S M Krishna called on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and discussed various matters of common interests with her, at her office in Dhaka on Thursday.

They discussed various issues of bilateral interest, said Mr. Abul Kalam Azad, Press Secretary to the prime minister, while briefing the newsmen after the meeting.

Appreciating the dynamic and prudent leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the Indian Foreign Minister said the existing bilateral relations between the two friendly countries will be a role model for other co0untries in Asia.

The issue of providing transit facilities to Nepal and Bhutan also came up for discussion in the meeting.

Sheikh Hasina said her government was working relentlessly for improving the lot of the common people in Bangladesh.

Describing poverty as the main impediment to development in the South Asian region, she said continuity of democracy is needed for eradicating poverty from South Asia.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina emphasised the need for working together for alleviating poverty in the region for the benefit of the peoples of the two countries. He referred to various programmes undertaken by her government to ameliorate the condition of the people.

The conference on austism, scheduled to be held in Dhaka on July 25 and 26, was also discussed in the meeting. President of Indian Congress Party Sonia Gandhi is expected to inaugurate the conference.

Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni, Advisers to the Prime Minister Dr Gowher Rizvi and Dr Mashiur Rahman, Bangladesh High Commissioner to New Delhi Mr. Tareque A Karim, Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Mr. Rajeet Mitter, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Mr. M A Karim, Foreign Secretary Mr. Mijarul Quayes and PM's Press Secretary Mr. Abul Kalam Azad, among others, were present on the occasion.

UNB adds: Bangladesh and India on Thursday expressed optimism about signing interim deals on water sharing of the common rivers, Teesta and Feni, and on border demarcation during Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Dhaka on September 6-7.

The details of the accords, however, are still to be worked out.

At a joint press conference after the official talks between the two Foreign Ministers, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni and Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna came up with the identical views on resolving the outstanding issues.

Replying to a question, Dipu Moni said the waters of the common rivers will be shared on the basis of equity and fairness and the demarcation of 6.5 km border and transfer of enclaves and lands in 'adverse possession' will be made under "a package" deal, in the spirit of 1974 Mujib-Indira Land Boundary Agreement.

About the use of Chittagong and Mongla ports, she said it would be done under a framework of agreement, encompassing India, Nepal and Bhutan.

"It is a part of transit issue. We're trying to come up with a framework under which a number of protocols will be signed and that work is going on," Dipu Moni said.

She said the Joint River Commission has nearly finalised the issue about the sharing of the Teesta and Feni river waters and "we will be able to sign something during the visit."

About the killing of Bangladeshi civilians by Indian BSF at the border, Dipu Moni said Dhaka's concern was conveyed to her Indian counterpart during the official meeting and India reassured Bangladesh that the killing at the border would be brought down to a zero level through a joint border management.

Both the Foreign Ministers reiterated that no insurgent, extremist or terrorist group would be allowed to use the soil of their respective countries to carry out activities inimical to each other's interest.

On the border issue, both the Foreign Ministers said the Joint Border Working Group has been working on it and they will be able to conclude their work before Manmohan's visit.

In reply to a question about cooperation in the energy sector, Indian Foreign Minister Mr. S. M. Krishna said India will supply 250 MW of electricity to Bangladesh by the end of 2112 or early 2013 at a preferential tariff at which the Indian power sector giant, NTPC supplies electricity to other Indian states.

Both India and Bangladesh will set up a 1300 MW coal-based power plant in Bagerhat and the feasibility study on the plan has been completed, he noted.

Regarding bilateral trade, Mr. Krishna said Bangladesh's export to India has increased by 56 per cent in the first 10 months of fiscal 2010-11 and "we would very much like to see further growth of the export to India by Bangladesh."

Under the duty-free quota, India, he added, has increased the volume of Bangladesh's export of readymade garment (RMG) products to 10 million pieces from 8.0 million pieces.

Asked if the Indian government still holds Manmohan's recent remarks that 25 per cent population of Bangladesh are Jamaat-e-Islami and they are, many times, in the clutches of Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), Krishna said the matter was also discussed during his meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

He avoided a direct reply to the question and said it is Manmohan's consistent stand to consider Bangladesh as a close friend and the relations between Bangladesh and India are a role model for other countries in the region.

Asked if Manmohan made the remarks due to lack of any trust on Bangladesh, Krishna said there is 'no trust deficit' between Bangladesh and India. "India has total trust and confidence on Bangladesh", he strongly reiterated.

Replying to another question, the Indian External Affairs Minister said he is going back to New Delhi with a memory of the emergence of a resurgent Bangladesh.

BSS further adds: Bangladesh and India Thursday signed two agreements on investment protection and promotion and the operating procedure for the movement of the Bhutanese vehicles to Bangladesh through the Indian territory.

Visiting Indian external affairs minister SM Krishna and his Bangladesh counterpart Dipu Moni witnessed the signing of the deals before the media at the Sonargaon Hotel.

The Agreement on Promotion and Protection of Investments is aimed at creating favourable conditions for fostering and encouraging investment.

Officials familiar with the process said the deal envisaged that 'national treatment' and 'the most favoured nation treatment' would be accorded by either country to investments by investors of the other country.

They said the agreement also states that investments of either country will not be nationalised or expropriated except for public purpose, in accordance with law and against fair and equitable compensation.

It also provides for repatriation of capital investment, non-operating profits, loan repayments, royalty payments and service fees without delay and on a non-discriminatory basis.

The two countries signed the Agreement on Promotion and Protection of Investments on February 9, 2009 while it was ratified Thursday as Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Mr. Rajeet Mitter and Bangladesh's envoy to New Delhi Ahmed Mr. Tariq Karim signed the protocol.

The deal which would be effective from July 7, 2011 will be valid for ten years and thereafter it would be deemed to have been automatically extended unless either government gives a written notice to the other of its intention to terminate it.

The second agreement, titled Standard Operating Procedure for movement of the Bhutanese vehicles between Indian Land Customs Stations (LCS) and Bangladesh LCS, was signed Thursday, in line with a decision reached between Dhaka and New Delhi during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to India in January 2010.

The two sides at that time agreed that trucks for movement from Bhutan and Nepal would be allowed to enter 200 meters inside the Bangladesh border under arrangements to be mutually agreed upon, and put in place in both the countries.

The Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), aimed at facilitating movement of trucks from Nepal, was concluded in October 2010 during the visit of the Bangladesh commerce minister to New Delhi.

An identical SOP to facilitate movement of trucks from Bhutan that was signed on July 7, 2011, will promote bilateral trade between Bhutan and Bangladesh.

Members of Bangladesh National Board of Revenue (NBR) Mr. M Shah Alam Khan and Joint Secretary of the Indian External Affairs Ministry Mr. Harshabardhan Sinla signed the deal on behalf of their respective side.

Reuters adds: India will sell 500 megawatts of electricity to Bangladesh and half of it will be available by the end of 2012 or early 2013, Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna said in Dhaka on Thursday.

He told reporters at a news conference that India also agreed to install a coal-based thermal power plant with 1,300 megawatts (MW) of electricity in Bangladesh's southern Khulna area.

"The connectivity work between the two countries for Bangladesh importing the electricity is going on smoothly while the feasibility study for setting up the coal-based power plant has just been completed," Krishna said.

The Indian minister, who arrived Dhaka on Wednesday on a three-day visit, met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and other senior ministers including the finance minister.

He will also meet President Zillur Rahman and opposition leader Begum Khaleda Zia .

Bangladesh aims to nearly triple power generation to 15,357 megawatts (MW) by the end of 2015 as it scrambles to improve living conditions for its people and to become a middle income country by 2021, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni told at the same news conference.

The plan includes import of 1,000 MW of power from India, Nepal and Bhutan.

Besides, the south Asian country expects to generate 2,000 MW of electricity from a nuclear power plant, construction of which will begin next year.

"The details of the thermal power plant project fired by coal are under process and things are moving fast," Mohammad Mijarul Quaes Bangladesh's foreign secretary, told the news agency.

The Fainancial Express 08/07/2011

Always expect a miracle!

內灣

Fuji RVP100

Contax T2

Zama, Japan – When Army Sgt. Jery L. Hernandezpilier stepped off the tour bus and onto Nissan's Zama Operations Center, he expected to see a few concept cars and a maybe a compact rolling lazily off an assembly line.

It didn't take long for Hernandezpilier and his fellow Soldiers from U.S. Army Japan's motor pool in Camp Zama who joined the June 18, 2015, tour to realize that their hosts had a special way to show their distinguished guests in uniform what their corporate motto, “The power comes from the inside,” defines the Nissan community.

“This was more than your typical tour of an assembly line,” said Hernandezpilier, a power generation equipment repairer for Headquarters & Headquarters Company USARJ. “Nissan didn't just showcase their machines. It introduced to the very people who build these machines.”

Shuji Narazaki, manager of Nissan's human resources division, welcomed his honored guests with an introduction of four of the company's finest technicians.

“These young men before you will represent Japan in the 2015 WorldSkills Olympics in Brazil,” said Narazaki to the small but lively crowd of Soldiers and cameras. “Today they will demonstrate their craftsmanship as they prepare to compete on the world stage.”

According to its official website, the WorldSkills Olympics stands as the largest professional conference in world history. Thousands of technicians hailing from more than 50 countries converge in one city every two years to compete in one of dozens of career specialties from manufacturing and mobile robotics to hairdressing and graphic design. In August, four of Nissan's young professionals will join Team Japan as they pursue bronze, silver and (preferably) gold medals through their engineering expertise.

After watching a brief video summarizing Nissan's achievements in previous WorldSkills Olympics, the hosts divided their guests into three groups and led them to one of three rooms. There, the troops witnessed firsthand the stellar speed and pinpoint precision exemplified by these automotive savants.

“Never in all my years working in and around vehicles have I seen a single person disassemble an entire engine, diagnose the problem, fix it and reassemble the engine in 45 minutes,” recalled Hernandezpilier, a native of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. “Amazing still is the fact that this man is not yet old enough to legally drink [alcohol] in the U.S. His skills and knowledge showed us that youth and inexperience are not always related.”

While Shintaro Matsumoto manipulated the engine with the speed of a NASCAR pit crew, his companions – Shogo Abe, Mizuki Tatsuno, Daiki Wada – toiled in separate rooms with their unique projects.

“[Abe] was busy designing a complex part with finite resources using a CAD (Computer Based Design Program) while [Tatsuna and Wada] were busy building an assembly line that would soon produce [Abe's] design,” said Hernandezpilier. “Their speed and precision brought shock and awe to our group.”

Standing alongside Hernandezpilier and his motor pool companions was Army Command Sgt. Maj. Rosalba Dumont-Carrion, command sergeant major of U.S. Army Garrison Japan. As she admired Nissan's prodigies, Dumont-Carrion could also sense where Nissan's philosophy and the Army values intersected.

“Nissan and the Army cherish commitment and uphold integrity,” said Dumont-Carrion, a native of Apopka, Fla. “We both respect those who serve us with honor and award them with limitless opportunities to grow in their profession thanks to a diverse career plan that spans several decades.”

After shaking hands, posing for group photos and wishing one another the very best in their career endeavors, the tour guides led their American guests to the Nissan Heritage Museum. A narrow hallway partially disguised as a modest warehouse entrance unveiled an eclectic collection of Nissan's diverse line of vehicles dating as far back as the 1930s.

“The site almost brought a tear to my eye,” said Hernandezpilier. “It’s hard to imagine how much time and talent was required to build, maintain and restore these vehicles … Fair Ladies, Skylines, [Datsun] Roadsters … It's a dream come true.”

Ayaro Eguchi, the group's tour guide, explained that a majority of the the more than 350 cars, trucks, vans and even race cars were donated by private owners or collectors, and approximately 70 percent of them remain in operable condition. A 1935 Datsun Roadster pulling up to the tour group punctuated her point.

“Nissan is a brand that has literally made its way to every major road in the world,” said Dumont-Carrion. “The Japanese people have every right to showcase this achievement. The fact that Nissan personally invited us to see this speaks volumes of their respect for the U.S. Army.”

As the Soldiers and Department of Defense civilians bade farewell and boarded the Nissan tour bus bound for Camp Zama, Hernandezpilier and Dumont-Carrion reflected on the long-term impact of their visit.

“It was a beautiful experience,” said Hernandezpilier. “We got exclusive access to Japan's master craftsmen who have inspired me to master my craft.”

“I cannot be more proud of my fellow Soldiers as they show our gracious hosts what it means to be a professional in the United States Army, said Dumont-Carrion. “The heart of the Army lies with its Soldiers and families, and here at Nissan, I saw the same relationship between the company and its community.”

Photos and story by Sgt. John L Carkeet IV, U.S. Army Japan

I arrived at St Mary, a journey from Wortham, following a slow moving delivery driver, looking for some obscure house looking onto the common.

Across fields,, mostly flat but with barely without a straight bit of road.

THe church is on a slight rise above the road, and to my dismay there were two cars parked in the churchyard, thus spoiling my exterior shots.

Inside I saw two chaps of a certain age dismantling a stage under the chancel arch.

I take a couple of shots, then one of them somes to speak to me. I was expecting to be told to keep away, or better still, leave as it was clearly unsafe for me to be there. But no, I was warmly greeted and given my own personal tour by the two wardens with whom we shared two mutual friends, John and Simon, or at least they knew them too.

There had been a celo concert the night before, but I was welcome to clamber of the stage to get shots of the fixtures and fittings, including a fine table tomb, though am wondering how Simon got a shot from above, maybe he grew wings and flew?

Lots of good memorials, interesting glass and lots of hatchments.

Under the care of the CCT, St mary is open every day, and you should visit it.

-----------------------------------------

It was May 2001, and I was cycling out across the gently rolling acres of north Suffolk. Redgrave is one of those large and relatively self-sufficient villages that you get more in the north and west of Suffolk than around Ipswich. However, this was not apparent to me, as I approached it from the direction of Wortham Common. I had cycled through the Long Green, a strange, otherworldly place. The Commons and Greens around here were still, until half a century ago, intensively grazed. Now, they have been let go back to nature, and are in many places covered in gorse and furze, with outcroppings of angular trees. Occasionally, as at Wortham, there are settlements which seem carved out of the common land. There’s nowhere else in Suffolk quite like it.

I left this behind, and a deep cutting of a lane led me up and out into open fields. The sun came out, and the tower of St Mary was ahead of me. It is a curious sight. Suffolk has a handful of towers rebuilt in the 18th century. Mostly, they are red brick, as at Layham, and rather less successfully Grundisburgh. However, Redgrave’s tower is white brick, and would be quite at home in the City of London, if a little more austere than most there.

Attached to it is a huge church. St Mary is big; it is a little-known church, but has more to offer than most. Simon Jenkins ignored it in England’s Thousand Best Churches; most probably, he didn’t know about it. It would fit quite comfortably into his three star category along with the likes of Westhall which he also missed. Incidentally, when I met him and pointed out his omission of Redgrave and Westhall, he looked at me as if I was some kind of sad lunatic. I suppose that he’s approached by someone with a similar complaint at least twice a day.

I stepped inside to a vast space. This church is full of light. The clerestory and aisle windows are huge, and although the east window is full of coloured glass, it too is vast, one of the widest I've seen. It would take hundreds and hundreds of people to fill this place, more than a thousand perhaps; but it was a gentle reminder to me that our medieval parish churches were not built for congregational Anglican worship.

St Mary has one of Suffolk's three best brasses, the 1609 memorial to Anne Butts. It has been reset in the sanctuary floor. She was related to the Bacons, that mighty Suffolk family, and her inscription reads:

The weaker sexes strongest precedent

Lies here belowe; seaven fayer years she spent

In wedlock sage; and since that merry age

Sixty one years she lived a widowe sage

Humble as great as full of Grace as elde,

A second Anna had she but beheld

Christ in His flesh who now she glorious sees

Below that first in time, not in degrees.

Mortlock thought it the finest post-Reformation brass in England.

To get to it, you will have to pass an awesome table tomb in the north aisle. On it lie, life-size, Sir Nicholas and Lady Anne Bacon. Lady Anne was the daughter of Anne Butts (and Sir Nicholas her son-in-law) so we may assume that they are responsible for the quality of her memorial. But the grandeur of theirs quite outshines her, and everybody else. It is by Nicholas Stone, famous for the Coke memorial at Bramfield; she died in 1616, he in 1624. There is an excellent modern window behind it.

The Bacons are responsible for most of the thirteen hatchments here - more than in any other church in Suffolk. Others are for the Holt and Wilson families (who later intermarried). The latest is dated 1929.

One of the Holts can also be found up in the sanctuary. He's life-size, as you might expect here. He was Lord Chief Justice of England in the first decade of the 18th century, and he sits in his judge's robes. He's flanked by two voluptuous figures who are Justice and Mercy, and the whole piece is by Thomas Green of Camberwell. I know this, because he signed it in very large letters. Perhaps he was particularly proud of it.

In this great palace of slightly absurd grandeur, mention should also be made of the vast wooden decalogue hanging in the north aisle. I've never seen Moses and Aaron look so important. It once stood at the east end of the chancel, has ridiculously large scrolls, and would certainly have concentrated the mind. All of this is overseen by that lovely glass in the huge east window. Mortlock tells us it is by a local firm, Farrow and son of Diss. I thought it splendid, quite in keeping with this mighty place. Also in keeping is the white stone pulpit, which is rather camp, although one assumes this was not the intended effect.

In 2004, three years after my first visit to Redgrave church, the parish walked away from it. The cost and effort of maintaining this vast barn full of priceless treasures had become too great a burden for the small congregation, so they locked the doors and decamped to the village hall, declaring that St Mary was now no longer their responsibility. As you may imagine, this caused a certain amount of consternation. While Redgrave church is a building of national significance, there is a certain protocol required if you want to declare a building redundant and have it conveyed into the stewardship of the Churches Conservation Trust. Not being able to pay the repair bills is not considered a good enough reason to declare redundancy. Even so, the parish persisted, which rather placed the Diocese in a quandary. While their first responsibility was to the parishioners, they clearly did not have the resources needed to look after St Mary, and yet the church commissioners would have looked with some doubt on any attempt to declare the building redundant.

It was, in modern political parlance, uncharted territory. Nevertheless, it was obvious that the ultimate destination must be to ensure the future security and upkeep of the building, and so after eighteen months or so of what one imagines must have been fairly tense meetings, the church was conveyed into the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.

And in the meantime, something else had happened. The shock of the incident had galvanised some local people, including a few of the former congregation, to get together and form a group to look after St Mary. With the support of the Churches Conservation Trust this has become one of the most successful support groups in the county, putting on exhibitions and concerts for which the church is eminently suitable. Before the end of the decade, the Daily Telegraph newspaper awarded Redgrave church the prize of English Village Church of the Year. On that occasion I was asked by BBC Radio Suffolk to do an interview about the church while standing in the nave, and as I looked around I thought it seemed a happy ending.

In fact, within a few months I was back at Redgrave church for a quite exciting reason. The Eastern Daily Press of 13th July 2010 takes up the story: It had remained hidden for centuries. But the entrance to a 500-year-old vault beneath a medieval Suffolk church has been discovered after a woman accidentally stamped her foot through one of the floor tiles. While rehearsing a scene from an upcoming performance of the musical Quasimodo at St Mary's Church, in Redgrave, near Diss, actor Kathy Mills dislodged a marble flagstone near the altar and her foot disappeared into a dark void below. Mrs Mills, who is in her 60s, suffered a swollen ankle, but the pain soon subsided when she was later told she had uncovered a tomb never seen in living memory with coffins inside suspected to contain the remains of the village's past aristocracy.

Just weeks before a geophysicist had used an advanced radar to map out where the long-forgotten vault was, but if it was not for Mrs Mills' freak accident they would never have been certain of where its boarded-up entrance was or what hid inside. The church is now hosting an open weekend to give the public a chance to glimpse through the hole and see exactly what they've been walking above all these years. St Mary's Church will be open to the public this Saturday and Sunday, between 10am and 4pm, where a video camera will beam images from inside the vault onto a projector screen.

“I was just doing a rehearsal for the production and I walked onto the flagstone, whether it was already loose I'm not sure, but my foot went down,” said Mrs Mills. “They lifted it up (the flagstone) and you could just see some mud and sand underneath. It's possible my foot went down eight inches. I wondered where I was going. It was quite a shock. I was thrilled when they told me I had discovered this vault they did not know was there. One or two people call me the Tomb Raider.”

Rumours had circulated for decades that under the ancient slabs of the 14th century church, now owned by The Churches Conservation Trust, laid a labyrinth of passages and tombs. Bob Hayward, chairman of the Redgrave Church Heritage Trust, said stories had passed through the generations of how people walked through the tunnels as recently as the 1920s, but records of their existence cannot be found. In a bid to establish fact from fiction, the group employed Malcolm Weale, of Geofizz Ltd, from East Harling, near Thetford, about two months ago to analyse what lied below. Using a ground penetrating radar, Mr Weale identified a large void, about 6ft deep, spreading under the altar and into the adjacent vestry. The Trust was prepared to leave its investigations at that until the day of Mrs Mills' fateful accident just over a week ago.

When the damaged flagstones were lifted and a light was lowered down, a tunnel was discovered with a set of steps descending into the ground visible in one direction and a cluster of about six coffins tucked inside a dark chamber in the other. It appears timbers holding up the floor tiles had rotted. Mr Hayward said: “It's exciting. You think you know these places but you don't until something like this happens.”

It is thought the coffins belong to descendents of the Holt family. Sir John Holt became lord of the manor in 1703 and a large memorial to his life sits above the newly uncovered vault. However it is believed to have been built in the late 1500s by the Bacon family, but their remains are located in another tomb beneath the church's font. Archaeologists will be descending into the vault at the end of the year to assess whether any of the other supporting timbers are rotten and to record what's inside, but the coffins will remain as they are found.

Now, this was something I had to see. The hole was about 20cm by 40cm. Bob Hayward very kindly opened it up the hole for me and allowed me to lower my camera into it - it wasn't safe to go down there, because of the high concentration of carbon monoxide.

How exciting! My photograph showed the high-vaulted tunnel of 18th Century brick, and in a room beyond there were five lead coffins, almost directly under the magnificent Holt memorial.

This was a fascinating experience, and all in all St Mary is a fascinating church, one of the best in East Anglia, despite what that Jenkins book says. It is not understated, it never attempts to be tasteful or refined. After the thrill of exploring the tunnel, I sat for a moment on the steps leading up to the organ at the west end, surveying the wonderful brick floors, the expanses of light beneath the arcades, the awesome seriousness of the chancel. If, at that moment, a group of 18th century ladies and gentlemen had stepped out of a Samuel Richardson novel and into this church, I should not have been the least bit surprised.

And curiously, Redgrave village is not the largest population centre in the parish. That honour goes to Botesdale, down on the main road, and part of the extended village of the Rickinghalls. Botesdale has its own church, but strictly speaking it is a chapel of ease to this one. The most famous residents of the parish these days are not Bacons, Holts or Wilsons, but the extremely rare great raft spiders which live in Lopham fen, to the north of the village. It is one of only two places they are found in the British Isles.

Simon Knott, September 2001, updated July 2015

www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/redgrave.htm

Artist and expecting mother, Inemesit Graham.

Studio, 2010.

Lighting:

This one was a bit of an accident, but one that I was pleasantly surprised on, which is always good when you've been shooting studio for a while.

Goal - to project a globe on a pregnant woman's stomach. Back-up plan was body paints.

1) I am using a single studio strobe (Elinchrom) fitted with a snoot.

2) The lower portion of this light beam then hits a cut-out of the planet, which is hand-held by my assistant less than a foot from her belly. Any further away and the countries lose their definition and becomes a formless shadow. Any close and I get the cutout in the shot, despite the fact it would focus the planet even stronger.

3. The top portion of the light is quite frankly an accident. With the snoot I was only trying to light her belly, but it was far enough back that the light feathered upwards somewhat and gave her eyes pop.

Processing: converted to black and white in Lightroom; dodged and burned using brush tool.

So that's it. I always use softboxes or umbrellas, not a direct spot to light my models, but I stumbled across something I kind of liked in this one.

A person who feels appreciated will always do more than what is expected.

learninginlife.com/a-person-who-feels-appreciated/

Expecting

M6 Alsager 27/07/2022

Expect Change with the prices at all Kmart stores across Australia.

As one might expect at a Best Buy, the metal curtain blocks any possible view into the store's abandoned interior. The notice is pretty nondescript, looks like a quick PowerPoint job, complete with the program's default font, Calibri. And in keeping with local Best Buy tradition, one of the three stores listed here (Rochester Hills) has itself recently closed, just over four months after this notice was posted in October 2020. (The Farmington Hills store, closed in November 2019, directed consumers to visit this store in its window notice.) It was posted to the door with some special Best Buy tape.

Wasn't expecting to get a cathedral in Southwark when we got off the tube at London Bridge.

Near the Borough Market is Southwark Cathedral.

It is the oldest Gothic church in London. Rebuilt in 1212 after fire damaged the Norman church.

In 1539 after the dissolution of the monastery it went from a Priory Church to a Parish Church.

Southwark Cathedral or The Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Saviour and St Mary Overie, Southwark, London, lies on the south bank of the River Thames close to London Bridge.

It is the mother church of the Anglican Diocese of Southwark. It has been a place of Christian worship for over 1,000 years, but a cathedral only since 1905. The present building is mainly Gothic, from 1220 to 1420, although the nave is a nineteenth-century reconstruction in a thirteenth-century style.

Remarkably the main railway viaduct connecting London Bridge station to Blackfriars, Cannon Street and Charing Cross stations passes only 18 metres from the south-east corner of the cathedral, blocking the view from the south side. This was a compromise when the railway was extended along this viaduct in 1852; the alternative was to demolish the building completely to allow a more direct passage for the line. Borough Market is immediately to its south and the Hall of the Worshipful Company of Glaziers and Painters of Glass is on the riverside part of Montague Close on its north.

It is Grade I listed.

Cathedral Church of St Saviour and St Mary Overie (southwark Cathedral), Bermondsey

SOUTHWARK

TQ3280SE CATHEDRAL STREET

636-1/17/188 (East side)

02/03/50 Cathedral Church of St Saviour and

St Mary Overie (Southwark Cathedral)

I

Medieval Augustinian priory of St Mary Overie; Anglican

cathedral since 1905. C12 church damaged by fire 1212 and

rebuilt from 1220. East front, choir and retrochoir 1214-1260.

Choir ceiling and tower pinnacles by George Gwilt Jnr.

1818-27; transepts altered 1830 by Robert Wallace. Nave

replaced in 1839-40 by Henry Rose and again in 1890-97 by Sir

Arthur Blomfield in C13 style.

MATERIALS: knapped flint with stone dressing; tower and

transepts of ashlar.

PLAN: cruciform with central crossing (north and south

transepts with central tower); 7-bay nave, 5-bay presbytery,

3-bay ambulatory at east end.

EXTERIOR: lower stage of tower C14 (attributed to Henry

Yvele); 2 upper stages of the tower, C14-C15, each with

2-light transomed windows on each face. Early C19 pinnacles by

Gwilt. 5-bay E arm with clerestory, E window and flying

buttresses to E arm, Gwilt rebuilding of C14 additions.

Remains of C12 church in north wall of N transept. Main

entrance is the south-west door.

My friend, Aidan, described Westminster Abbey as English history written in stone, which as good as a description as I could think of. And English, as the Kings and Queens of that country, later of Great Britain are buried here.

Anyway, I had a fabulous time at the Abbey, and already planning a return for the details I missed.

-------------------------------------------

Of all the churches and cathedrals in London, the one I wanted to visit and photograph was Westminster Abbey. But, the Abbey didn't allow photography didn't go. And then a few weeks back, my friend, Aidan, started to post shots from inside, and as it turns out, photography, in most areas of the Abbey, is now allowed. So it was a case of when we would visit, not "if", and once we had a free weekend, I began to plan and book.

£25 to go in, each. £10 each for the new museum. And £15 each for a hidden highlights tour. It wasn't cheap, but then if you're going to do it, do it well!

All chores were done Friday, including shopping, so we were free to catch the quarter to eight train from Dover. On the way we called into the garage to pick up some stuff to eat on the train, so we were set.

Saturday was also the last day of British Summer Time (BST), as the clocks would go back early on Sunday morning, then five long winter months would begin.

So, better make most of the daylight.

We were early for the train, so we ate breakfast on the platform, then once the train pulled in, I picked my favourite seats and we settled down for the hour run into London. THe one thing I hadn't planned well was the weather, and some rain was expected during the morning.

The train wasn't busy, and most people wore masks, though enough didn't to make one wonder if the message about COVID really hadn't got through. But then with Johnson as PM, we shouldn't be surprised.

We get off at Statford, and the rain was falling heavily even before we left the Essex marshes behind and entered the long tunnel. But at Stratford, day had become night and the rain fell in what is called stair-rods. I hoped that if we walked slowly through the shopping centre it might have eased by the time we needed to cross over the bridge to the regional station, but the rain was falling just as hard.

And there was no way to avoid it, so we just pulled our collars up and walked as quickly as possible.

Which is why, by the time we arrived at the other side, we were wet little hobbitses.

A quick walk to the Jubilee Line platforms, catching the next train out, we took seats and sat there, gently steaming.

Twenty minutes later, we arrived in Westminster, no dryer, really, taking the four flights of escalators to the surface, where outside it had, atleast, stopped raining for now.

Demonstrations are now outlawed in Parliament Square, so it was quiet, once you got to the other side of the road, its a five minute walk past the Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament), and round to the entrance of the Abbey.

Amazingly, there was no queue, and once inside the doorway I show my e tickets, they were scanned and we were allowed in. There was a one way system round the Abbey, so I began the first circuit with the 50mm lens, thinking I would go round again with the wide angle, and a third time with the big lens to snap detail.

That was the plan.

Westminster Abbey is where the Kings and Queens of England and Britain have been crowned. Also, where until Henry V11 thought otherwise, they were buried too, so the chancel is jammed with tombs of many famous and infamous figures from history, from Edward the Confessor to William and Mary, most tombs are grand, some less so. As well as Kings and Queens, minor royals and members of the nobility also were either buried here, or had monument erected. As have military figures, and famousnames from the arts.

It really is quite remarkable.

That and the Abbey itself, in parts dating from just before the Norman COnquest, to a rebuilding just after to the 13th Century when Henry III pulled the old Abbey down and started to rebuild it, until he ran out of money.

But it was completed, and since then had filled up with monuments, so many, I lost count and gave up trying to record them all. Instead, marvelling at their range and beauty.

I walked down the nave, through the arch into the Quire, and it was as breathtaking as expected, then round the Chancel looking and photographing the tombs of the Kings and Queens, round Henry VII's chapel.

And then repeating it with the wide angle lens, taking shots of the various chapels and tombs, all the while keeping an eye on the time as we were to go to visit the new gallery musuem at 11, and then a guided tour of some normally off limit places at half past.

Neither of these allowed photography, which is a great shame as the views from the gallery were stunning down the length of the Nave and then the ancinent chain library and the sanctuary of Henry VII's chapel where we could reach out and touch the shrine of St Edward the Confessor.

The museum had dozens of funeral effigies of the Kings and Queens, some made I'm sure to look better than they did in real life, but others had a degree of realism about them. The one of Queen Mary seemed pregnant, while the one for Queen Elizabeth Ist had a tight corset, so she would have appeared in death as she had as a young woman.

There were carvings, ceremonial cloaks, replicas of the Crown Jewels, and so much more, but we had run out of time, as we had to get to the other side of the church for the hidden secrets tour.

Us and three other couples joined our guide as he showed us the latest escavations revealing the area where monks used to prepare for services. This is hidden behind screens now, and will soon become the site of a new visitor's centre. The trenches were filled with uncvered skeletons and bones, all human of course, and these will all either be rebuuried here or some other Christian place.

Next we went to the Dean's quarters where we saw where he prepared for services, and were allowed into, but not allowed to photograph the Jerico Room, before being allowed outside for a while, then walking around the cloisters, back into the chancel and into Henry's chapel to see the tombs and shrine. Envious looks rained down on us as we climbed the wooden steps into the usually closed area, and then only the people in the gallery above could see us.

-------------------------------------------

Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is a large, mainly Gothic abbey church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United Kingdom's most notable religious buildings and the traditional place of coronation and a burial site for English and, later, British monarchs.

The building itself was originally a Catholic Benedictine monastic church until the monastery was dissolved in 1539. Between 1540 and 1556, the abbey had the status of a cathedral and seat of the catholic bishop. After 1560 the building was no longer an abbey or a cathedral, after the Catholics had been driven out by King Henry VIII, having instead was granted the status of a Church of England "Royal Peculiar"—a church responsible directly to the sovereign—by Queen Elizabeth I.

According to a tradition first reported by Sulcard in about 1080, a church was founded at the site (then known as Thorn Ey (Thorn Island)) in the seventh century at the time of Mellitus, a Bishop of London. Construction of the present church began in 1245 on the orders of King Henry III.[4]

Since the coronation of William the Conqueror in 1066, all coronations of English and British monarchs have occurred in Westminster Abbey.[4][5] Sixteen royal weddings have occurred at the Abbey since 1100.[6]

The Abbey is the burial site of more than 3300 persons, usually of prominence in British history: at least 16 monarchs, 8 Prime Ministers, poets laureate, actors, scientists, military leaders, and the Unknown Warrior. As such, Westminster Abbey is sometimes described as "Britain's Valhalla", after the iconic hall of the chosen heroes in Norse mythology.

Between 1042 and 1052, King Edward the Confessor began rebuilding St Peter's Abbey to provide himself with a royal burial church. It was the first church in England built in the Romanesque style. The building was completed around 1060 and was consecrated on 28 December 1065, only a week before Edward's death on 5 January 1066.[9] A week later, he was buried in the church; and, nine years later, his wife Edith was buried alongside him.[10] His successor, Harold II, was probably crowned in the abbey, although the first documented coronation is that of William the Conqueror later the same year.[11]

The only extant depiction of Edward's abbey, together with the adjacent Palace of Westminster, is in the Bayeux Tapestry. Some of the lower parts of the monastic dormitory, an extension of the South Transept, survive in the Norman Undercroft of the Great School, including a door said to come from the previous Saxon abbey. Increased endowments supported a community that increased from a dozen monks in Dunstan's original foundation, up to a maximum of about eighty monks.

The abbot and monks, in proximity to the royal Palace of Westminster, the seat of government from the later 13th century, became a powerful force in the centuries after the Norman Conquest. The Abbot of Westminster often was employed on royal service and in due course took his place in the House of Lords as of right. Released from the burdens of spiritual leadership, which passed to the reformed Cluniac movement after the mid-10th century, and occupied with the administration of great landed properties, some of which lay far from Westminster, "the Benedictines achieved a remarkable degree of identification with the secular life of their times, and particularly with upper-class life", Barbara Harvey concludes, to the extent that her depiction of daily life provides a wider view of the concerns of the English gentry in the High and Late Middle Ages.[13]

The proximity of the Palace of Westminster did not extend to providing monks or abbots with high royal connections; in social origin the Benedictines of Westminster were as modest as most of the order. The abbot remained Lord of the Manor of Westminster as a town of two to three thousand persons grew around it: as a consumer and employer on a grand scale the monastery helped fuel the town economy, and relations with the town remained unusually cordial, but no enfranchising charter was issued during the Middle Ages.[14]

The abbey became the coronation site of Norman kings. None were buried there until Henry III, intensely devoted to the cult of the Confessor, rebuilt the abbey in Anglo-French Gothic style as a shrine to venerate King Edward the Confessor and as a suitably regal setting for Henry's own tomb, under the highest Gothic nave in England. The Confessor's shrine subsequently played a great part in his canonization.

The following English, Scottish and British monarchs and their consorts are buried in the Abbey:

Sæberht of Essex (d. c. 616) [possibly]

Edward the Confessor (d. 1066) and Edith of Wessex (d. 1075)

Henry III of England (d. 1272) [his wife, Eleanor of Provence, is buried at Amesbury Priory]

Edward I of England (d. 1307) and Eleanor of Castile (d. 1290)

Edward III of England (d. 1377) and Philippa of Hainault (d. 1369)

Richard II of England (d. 1400) and Anne of Bohemia (d. 1394)

Henry V of England (d. 1422) and Catherine of Valois (d. 1437)

Edward V of England (d. c. 1483) and his brother, Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York (d. c. 1483) [possibly]

Also known as the Princes in the Tower. In 1674, the remains of two boys were exhumed from the Tower of London and at the orders of Charles II, they were interred in the wall of the Henry VII Lady Chapel.

Anne Neville (d. 1485), wife of Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales [m. 1470–71; buried at Tewkesbury Abbey] and of Richard III [m. 1472–85; buried at Leicester Cathedral]

Henry VII of England (d. 1509) and Elizabeth of York (d. 1503)

Edward VI of England (d. 1553)

Anne of Cleves (d. 1557), former wife of Henry VIII [buried at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle]

Mary I of England (d. 1558)

Elizabeth I of England as shown on her tomb

Mary, Queen of Scots (d. 1542), mother of James VI & I of England and Scotland [brought from Peterborough Cathedral in 1612]

Elizabeth I of England (d. 1603)

In the 19th century, researchers looking for the tomb of James I partially opened the underground vault containing the remains of Elizabeth I and Mary I of England. The lead coffins were stacked, with Elizabeth's resting on top of her half-sister's.[9]

James VI & I of England and Scotland (d. 1625) and Anne of Denmark (d. 1619)

The position of the tomb of King James was lost for two and a half centuries. In the 19th century, following an excavation of many of the vaults beneath the floor, the lead coffin was found in the Henry VII vault.[9]

Charles II of England and Scotland (d. 1685)

Mary II of England and Scotland (d. 1694) and William III of England and II of Scotland (d. 1702)

Anne, Queen of Great Britain (d. 1714) and Prince George of Denmark, Duke of Cumberland (d. 1708)

George II of Great Britain (d. 1760) and Caroline of Ansbach (d. 1737)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burials_and_memorials_in_Westminste...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_Abbey

We stumbled upon All Saints en route to a different church, and as all those seen thus far on this day had been small and plain, not much was expected. But I saw the tower from along the main street, and looked impressive. and once parked we found it unlocked and welcoming.

Star of the show is the northern chapel, given over to the Culpepper family, with a fabulous tomb in the centre. On the walls, dozens of blank shields show what had been planned to be the family mausoleum for centuries, but things changed, the family moved away and the chapel has just three shields decorated.

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There was considerable damage caused to this church in an earthquake of 1382. The medieval accounts survive so we know that 48s 2d was spent on the rebuilding. Little can have changed to the structure since that time, except for the construction of a north chapel in 1638. This chapel has a charming pattern of flint flushwork triangles in a horizontal course below the battlements. It contains one of the most interesting seventeenth-century monuments in Kent - to commemorate Lady Elizabeth Culpepper (d. 1638), carved and signed by the Court Sculptor Edward Marshall. The detail is amazing and the cord that connects her ring and wrist is always pointed out to visitors. The rest of the church was restored early in the career of George Gilbert Scott Jr in 1876 (see also Frinsted) and retains its patina of age unimaginable in a restoration by Scott Sr. The pulpit is early seventeenth century and dates from a few years after the much crocketed font cover. There are three signed monuments by Rysbrack and a tall crownpost roof of good construction in the nave.

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Hollingbourne

------------------------------------------

HOLLINGBORNE.

THE next parish north-westward from Harrietsham is Hollingborne, called in Domesday, Hoilingeborde, and in later records, Holingburnan and Holingeburne. It probably took its name from the spring which rises in the vale underneath the hill, in this parish.

THE PARISH of Hollingborne is situated much the same as that of Harrietsham last described, close to the great ridge of chalk hills, at the foot of which is the village called Hollingborne-street, in which at the south end of it stands the church and vicarage, and near them a well-looking brick mansion, of the time of queen Elizabeth, which by its appearance must have had owners of good condition in former times, but what is remarkable the rector of Hollingborne claims some rooms in this house in right of his rectory at this time. The road through Newnhambottom from Ospringe and Canterbury passes through Hollingborne-street, and thence through Eyhorne, commonly called Iron-street, in this parish, where there are two good houses, one belonging to Robert Salmon, esq. who resides in it, and the other built not many years since by Mr. John Weeks, who died possessed of it in 1785. Hence the road leads on, and joins the Ashford high road through Bersted to Maidstone. The southern part of this parish consists mostly of a deep sand, the whole of it below the hill is well watered by some small streams, which running southward join the Lenham rivulet in its way to Maidstone. Nearer the street the soil becomes a chalk, which continues to the summit of the hill, at the edge of which stands Mr. Duppa's house, whence the remaining part of this parish northward, situated on high ground, and exposed to the cold bleak winds, is but a wild and dreary country, with thick hedgerows, and frequent coppices of wood, mostly of hazel and oak, and small unthriving trees of the latter dispersed among them; the soil a deep tillage land, wet and very poor, being a red cludgy earth, covered with quantities of flint stones. On Eyhorne green, or as it is commonly called Broad-street, in this parish, in October yearly, two constables are chosen, one for the upper, the other for the lower half hundred of Eyhorne, each of which district consists of the twelve adjoining parishes, the borsholders in which, and the several boroughs in them, except such as are chosen at the different court leets, are chosen here likewise.

This parish, with the manor of Elnothington in it, together with the rest of the hundred of Eyhorne, was antiently bound to contribute to the repair of the sixth pier of Rochester bridge.

ÆTHELSTAN ETHELING, son of Ethelred II. gave by his will in 1015, to Christ-church, in Canterbury, his lands at Hollingborne, with their appurtenances, excepting one plough-land, which he had given to Siserth. In the MSS. in Bennet college library, Cambridge, of the evidences of Christ-church, Canterbury, intitled Thorn, printed in Decim. Script. f. 2221, this gift is said to have been made in 980; a very improbable circumstance, the king, his elder brother, at that time being but fourteen years of age.

These lands he had bought of his father, and gave them, with his consent, to Christ-church, L. S. A. that is, free from all secular service, excepting the trinoda necessitas, in like manner as Adisham had been given to it.

The manor of Hollingborne remained part of the possessions of the church of Canterbury at the time of the conquest, when the revenues of it were enjoyed as one common estate by the archbishop and his convent; but archbishop Lanfranc, after the example of foreign churches, separating them, in the partition Hollingborne fell to the share of the monks, and was allotted for their subsistence, (or ad Cibum, as it was usually termed) and it is accordingly thus entered in the book of Domesday, under the general title of Terra Monachorum Archiepi, i. e. the land of the monks of the archbishop.

The archbishop himself holds Hoilingeborde. It was taxed at six sulings. The arable land is twenty-four carucates. In demesne there are two, and sixty-one villeins, with sixteen borderers, having twenty-three carucates. There is a church, twelve servants, and two mills, and eight acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of forty hogs. In the whole, in the time of king Edward the Confessor, and afterwards, it was worth twenty pounds, and now it is worth thirty pounds. To this manor there adjoins half a suling, which never paid scot, this the bishop of Baieux rents of the archbishop.

At this time, the whole of the above premises seems to have been valued at thirty pounds.

King Henry II. granted to the monks of Christchurch a charter for their lands at Hollingborne upon the Hills. In the 10th year of king Edward II. the prior obtained a charter of free-warren for his manor of Hollingborne, among others; about which time it was, with its appurtenances, valued at 46l. 9s. 8d. King Henry VI. by his letters patent, in his 25th and 26th year, granted to the prior a market, to be held at this place weekly on a Wednesday, and a fair yearly on the feast of St. Anne. (fn. 1)

William Selling, who was elected prior in the next reign of king Edward IV. anno 1472, during the time of his holding that dignity, greatly improved the prior's apartments here. After which, it seems to have undergone no material alteration till the dissolution of the priory, which was surrendered into the hands of king Henry VIII. in the 31st year of his reign.

The manor of Hollingborne did not remain long in the hands of the crown; for the king settled it, by his dotation charter, in his 33d year, on his newerected dean and chapter of Canterbury, part of whose possessions it now remains.

There is a court-leet and court baron regularly held by the dean and chapter for this manor, which extends likewise into the adjoining parishes of Hucking, Bredhurst, and Harrietsham, the quit-rents of it called Beadle-rents, being about forty-two pounds per annum.

¶BUT THE DEMESNE LANDS of this manor have been from time to time leased out by the dean and chapter at a reserved rent of 10l. 9s. The year after the grant of it to them, they demised them by lease to I. Reynolde, as they did anno 19 Elizabeth to William Puresoy, in whose family they remained till the beginning of king James I.'s reign. After which the Fludds held them in lease, and continued so to do, till their interest in them was passed away to W. Alabaster, D. D. After which these premises were held in succession by Bargrave, Boys, Farewell, and Gookin, till the year 1684, when Sir Thomas Culpeper, had a lease of them, in whose family they continued till John Spencer Colepeper, of the Charterhouse, passed away his interest in them to the Hon. Robert Fairfax, who held them in 1758, and then alienated his lease to Francis Child, esq. banker in London, whose brother Robert Child, esq. of London, banker, dying in 1782, the trustees of his will, Robert Dent and John Keysel, esqrs. are now in the possession of his interest in the lease of these demesnes, under the dean and chapter, besides which the dean and chapter have several other lands and woods here leased out by them to different persons.

HOLLINGBORNE is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deaury of Sutton; and is exempt from the jurisdiction of the archdeacon.

The church, which is dedicated to All Saints, is a handsome building, consisting of three large isles, with a chancel at the end of the middle one, and a square tower at the west end. The chancel is much enriched with the monuments of the family of Culpeper, of Greenway-court, and for two of the lords Culpeper, one of them by Rysbrack; on the north side is one for Sir Martin Barnham and his two wives, in 1610, their three figures kneeling at a desk, and underneath their children. At the east end of the north isle there is a small neat chapel, raised up several steps to give room for a vault underneath, in which lie the remains of all this branch of the Culpeper family. The sides of the chapel are filled with black escutcheons, and square tablets of black marble alternately, only two of these among the numbers of them are filled up, and those with younger branches of the family settled elsewhere, a proof of the disappointment of the vain endeavours of the builder to transmit the memory of his descendants to posterity. On the middle of the pavement is a beautiful raised monument of white marble, and the figure of a lady, lying at full length, in the habit of the times, of exceeding good sculpture, in memory of Elizabeth, lady of Sir Thomas Culpeper, daughter of John Cheney, esq. of Sussex, obt. 1638. In the isle a monument for Nich. Chaloner, esq. obt. 1706. Against the north wall of the north isle for two of the family of Duppa, and at the lower end of the church, for the Plummers, Collins's and Dykes. In the middle isle a stone, on which have been the figures of a man and woman in brass, but two shields of arms remain, being quarterly, first and fourth, A chevron, engrailed on a chief, three sleurs de lis; second and third, Three fishes, wavy, sessways, in pale.

There is belonging to this church, a most superb altar-cloth, and a pulpit-cloth and cushion, of purple velvet, ornamented with different figures of fruits of pomegranets and grapes, wrought in gold, the needlework of the daughters of Sir John Colepeper, afterwards created lord Colepeper, who employed themselves for almost the space of twelve years in the working of them, during their father's absence abroad with king Charles II.

The communion plate is very handsome, and an swerable to the above-mentioned furniture, being mostly the gift of the family of Colepeper, and some of it of Baldwin Duppa, esq.

John Eweyn, by his will proved in 1527, gave a table of alabaster, to stand upon the altar of St. John the Baptist in this church; and money to the repair of St. John's chapel in it. John Aleff, parson of Hollingborne, as appears by his will in 1537, was buried in the way beside the porch-door, on the right hand, and that there was set in the wall, nigh his grave, a stone with a plate of sculpture, mentioning where and when he was buried. He had before been vicar of Little Chart, and of St. Laurence Wolton, as he was then of St. John's Sherburne, in Hampshire.

The church of Hollingborne, to which the chapels of Hucking and Bredhurst were antiently annexed, is a sinecure rectory, with a vicarage endowed. The rector of Hollingborne is at this time patron of the perpetual curacy of the chapel of Bredhurst. The archbishop is patron both of the rectory and of the vicarage of Hollingborne, the vicar of which is collated to this vicarage, with the chapel of Hucking annexed.

The vicarage was endowed before the year 1407, in which year Arthur Sentleger, the rector, granted to William Maunby, vicar of this church, a messuage, with its appurtenances in this parish, for the habitation of himself and his successors for ever. (fn. 5) In archbishop Chichele's register, at Lambeth, there is an unauthenticated writing of a composition, made about the year 1441, for it is without date, between William Lyeff, then rector here, and John Fsylde, vicar, upon the assignation of a proper portion for the endowment of this vicarage in future times.

The rectory of Hollingborne is valued in the king's books at 28l. 15s. 5d. and the tenths at 2l. 17s. 6 1/7d. The vicarage is valued in them at 7l. 6s. 8d. and the yearly tenths at 14s. 8d. The vicarage in 1640 was valued at eighty-six pounds, and the communicants were then 271. It is now of the yearly certified value of 70l. 16s. 8d.

The vicarage was augmented twenty pounds per annum, by lease between Ralph Staunton, rector, and Sir Thomas Culpeper, of this parish.

¶The name of Culpeper, or Colepeper, is so variously spelt in different deeds and records, that it is impossible to keep with any rule to either spelling; on all the monuments, and in the parish register, (excepting in two instances in the last) it is spelt Culpeper.

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol5/pp460-478

Expect many more of these...

As expected, the English newspapers found it hard to contain their delight after England's 77-run victory at Johannesburg, with even the usually football-mad tabloids joining in.

"Hoggy bashes the Boks" was the lead story in The Sun, with a follow-up on England's star, described as the King of the Swingers. "The Hogwarts Express served up some magic," wrote John Etheridge, warming to a theme. "He stomped the ground like Shrek and made the ball swerve like a demented boomerang." The Mirror found space on an inside page to praise "Hoggard's Seventh Heaven", but preferred a back page story on how David Beckham is not addicted to fame. What next? How Wayne Rooney loves doing social work?

The Daily Mail was happier to concentrate on Hoggard the bowler. "He exploited the conditions perfectly," it reported. "His ability to swing the ball was richly rewarded with England's best match figures in a Test since Ian Botham claimed 13 for 106 in Bombay a quarter of a century ago."

Even the heavyweights struggled to contain themselves. "A hayrick-haired son of the soil with a heart of oak bowled England to a memorable victory," wrote Mike Selvey in The Guardian "Hoggard is a country boy whose ploughman-plod has its roots in solitary dogwalking out on the moors. A brief conversation on the eve of the game, a statement rather than a question, was revealing: "Your pitch then Hoggy." He just grinned and made that wristy twofingered glove-puppet motion that fast bowlers like to make when suggesting seam movement. He knew that this was his time and he had the wherewithall to make it count."

In The Independent, Stephen Brenkley reported that Hoggard would find all the media attention a bit too much. "Hoggard looked tired and slightly nonplussed by events, which were both understandable reactions. He will not like all the fuss, or the notebooks and cameras that will dance attendance on him over the next few days. His favourite pastime is walking his dogs (usually alone) in the countryside near his home close to Baildon in West Yorkshire and going home to open one of the many cans of beer he keeps in his fridge."

There was also praise for Graeme Smith's rearguard which almost saved the match for South Africa. "He battled with immense pride to avoid defeat," said Christopher Martin-Jenkins in The Times. "Having come in at No 8, ignoring medical advice that he should not bat because of the concussion he suffered when hit by the ball accidentally on Sunday morning, Smith was still there when Hoggard took his seventh wicket, and twelfth of the match. The injury to the tough young South Africa captain's pride will be greater than that to his head."

Writing in The Guardian, South African journalist Neil Manthorp couldn't contain his frustration. "South African cricket may yesterday have suffered its most damaging blow since its isolation ended in June 1991," he fumed. "Last year was so packed full of disappointment that there were fears that the team's supporters, most of them fickle at the best of times, would be drawn back towards following the resurgent Springbok rugby side. Now that has all gone, crushed as decisively as an elephant stamping on a cockroach. It was as dispiriting a defeat as South Africa have suffered in the modern era and now the ghosts of the past are set to re-emerge as the recriminations begin."

Back to the game itself, and in the Daily Telegraph, Geoff Boycott underlined the contribution Marcus Trescothick made to England's win. "It was his innings that gave Hoggard the opportunity of winning the match," he wrote. "He'll find it difficult to play a better and more important innings in his career."

In the same paper, Derek Pringle highlighted Andrew Flintoff's dismissal of Shaun Pollock. "Softening him up with a 90mph bouncer that struck the batsman a sickening blow to the head (the ball rebounded to deep mid-wicket), he got him three balls later, the ensuing edge the result of footwork scrambled by the earlier impact."

Martin Williamson is managing editor of Cricinfo.

© Cricinfo

caucasian couple expecting baby isolated studio on white background

Massachusetts.

Before we could drive to New Brunswick, we had to collect Kay from Boston Logan Airport ...

The black warning sign reads "severe weather expected, plan ahead" ... Hurricane Irene was due in ...

The Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge (or Zakim Bridge) is a cable-stayed bridge across the Charles River in Boston, Massachusetts. It is a replacement for the Charlestown High Bridge, an older truss bridge constructed in the 1950s, and is the world's widest cable-stayed bridge. Of 10 lanes, the main portion of the Zakim Bridge carries four lanes each way (northbound and southbound) of the Interstate 93 and U.S. Route 1 concurrency between the Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill Jr. Tunnel and the elevated highway to the north. Two additional lanes are cantilevered outside the cables, which carry northbound traffic from the Sumner Tunnel and North End on-ramp. These lanes merge with the main highway north of the bridge. I-93 heads toward New Hampshire as the "Northern Expressway", and US 1 splits from the Interstate and travels northeast toward Massachusetts' north shore, crossing the Mystic River via the Tobin Bridge.

The bridge and connecting tunnel were built as part of the Big Dig, the largest highway construction project in the United States. The north-bound (NB) lanes were finished in March 2003, then south-bound (SB) lanes in December. The bridge's unique styling quickly became an icon for Boston, often featured in the backdrop of national news channels, to establish location, and included on tourist souvenirs. The bridge is commonly referred to as the "Zakim Bridge" or "Bunker Hill Bridge" by residents of nearby Charlestown.

First pullip. Expect lots of Alice pictures! She quickly became one if my favorite dolls, and one of my favorite dolls to photograph. I got her from PullipStyle.com with a dent box, as I didn't care for the box, only Alice and her accessories, and I was planning to take her out of packaging from the start so I saved a couple of dollars there(even though it took me 5 minutes to find such dent that I hardly think of it as one. Such a non-problem being taken into consideration by the retailer really shows the high quality of service from PullipStyle).

Over-all review of Alice: She's mine hands off! Kidding aside lovely, and looks a lot like the drawings of Alice in Through The Looking-Glass, with a bit of pimped up attributes here and there making her a one of a kind variation. The wig has a good scent to it, so it won't get a foul odor on the clothing and accessories. It has no bald spots and you can't see the seams of the wig unless you push the hair over. It is a nice thin(dimensions matter!), polyester I believe, hair, with quite minute frizzing. Almost none, but making the hair look more natural. Her curls are not stiff, and incredibly soft. The company(Groove) used a very very high quality spray, that can't be noticed practically at all when touching the hair, to help keep the curls in their designated design. The curls are easily fixed with only moist fingers. Great doll, but very delicate. I've never been more careful with a doll than Alice.

Before March 2 2015, please come here to nominate the entire Chinatown as the historic site to be preserved, don't expect City of Vancouver to save Chinatown when the Council approved more condo to be built in Chinatown at rapid rate to destroy the Chinatown.

www.heritagebc.ca/blog?articleid=162

Chinese Historic Places Recognition Project

THE HERITAGE BATTLE FOR CHINATOWN

Historic Vancouver neighbourhood is being redeveloped, raising fears it will lose its character.

By JOHN MACKIE, VANCOUVER SUN November 15, 2014

The marketing line for the Keefer Block condo development in Chinatown is “Heritage Meets Modern.”

But just how much heritage will be left after a wave of modern developments washes over the historic district is a matter of debate.

A new proposal for the 700-block of Main Street would demolish the last three buildings from Hogan’s Alley, a once-notorious back lane that was the longtime home of Vancouver’s black community.

Another condo development at 231 Pender would replace a funky, Chinese-themed garage that is listed on Canada’s Register of Historic Places. Angelo Tosi’s family has owned their building at 624 Main since 1930. It may date back to 1895, and looks it — the fixtures and shelving are as old as the hills.

But Tosi is 82, and will probably sell when the price is right. He doesn’t expect his store to survive.

“It’ll be gobbled up by the monstrous buildings,” said Tosi. “And then they’ll take it all, and it’s finished. They won’t keep the heritage on the bottom, they’ll put down whatever they want.”

His fatalistic attitude reflects the changes in Chinatown, which is undergoing a development boom after zoning changes by the City of Vancouver.

The protected “historic” area of Chinatown is now Pender Street, while much of Main, Georgia and Keefer can now be redeveloped, with heights of up to 90 feet (nine storeys). A few sites can go even higher.

Two towers are going up at Keefer and Main — the nine-storey, 81-unit Keefer Block, and the 17-storey, 156-unit 188 Keefer. Up the street at 137 Keefer, a development permit application has just gone in for a new nine-storey “multi-family building.”

None of them has stirred up much controversy. But a recent public meeting about a 12-storey, 137-unit condo to be built on an empty lot at Keefer and Columbia got people riled up.

“There was a lot of angry people that night,” said Henry Yu, a UBC history professor who feels a “vision plan” the Chinatown community worked on with the city for several years is being ignored.

“The vision plan gets passed, (but it has) no teeth,” said Yu. “Actually (there is) no policy, it’s a wish list of ‘Oh, we’d like seniors housing, we’d like to do this, we’d like to do that.’

“Almost immediately, the two (highrise) buildings in the 600-, 700-block Main go up, and they’re just basically Yaletown condos. Not even Yaletown — Yaletown has more character.

“These are straight out of the glass tower (model), no (historic) character, obliterating everything in terms of tying it to the kind of streetscape of Chinatown. You’re going to split the historic two or three blocks of Chinatown with a Main Street corridor of these glass towers.”

Yu says Chinatown has historically been small buildings on 25-foot lots, which makes for a jumble of small stores that gives it a unique look and character. But the new developments are much wider, and just don’t look like Chinatown.

“The two 600-, 700-block buildings have a rain shield that’s an awning, a glass awning that runs the whole block,” said Yu. “That’s the design guideline for the city as a whole, but it was nothing to do with Chinatown, (which is) narrow frontages, changing awnings.

“We said that (to the city planners), we raised it and raised it, but the planners just shoved it down our throat.”

Kevin McNaney is Vancouver’s assistant director of planning. He said the city changed the zoning in parts of Chinatown to help revitalize the neighbourhood, which has been struggling.

“We have been taking a look across Chinatown,” said McNaney. “What we’re finding is that rents are dropping, and vacancies are rising. And that’s a big part of the strategy of adding more people to revitalize Chinatown.

“There are only 900 people currently living in Chinatown, many of them seniors. It’s just not the population base needed to support businesses, so a lot of the businesses are going under. Along Pender Street you see a lot of vacancies right now.

“So at the heart of this plan is to bring more people to revitalize Chinatown, and also use that development to support heritage projects, affordable housing projects and cultural projects.”

Henry Yu disagrees. “The idea that you need density in Chinatown itself, that you need your own captive customer base, is moronic,” he said.

“Where else in the city would you make that argument, that nobody can walk more than two blocks, that no one is going to come in here from somewhere else?

“They will. People go to the International Summer Market in Richmond in an empty gravel field. Ten thousand people at night come from everywhere in the Lower Mainland, because there’s something worth going to.

“The problem isn’t that you need a captive audience that has no other choice but to shop in Chinatown — that’s just stupid, there’s plenty of people in Strathcona. The problem is, is there something worth coming to (in Chinatown)? And that has to do with the character, what the mix is, what kind of commercial.”

Ironically, all the new construction comes just as Chinatown seems to be undergoing a bit of a renaissance. Several new businesses have popped up in old buildings, attracted by the area’s character and cheap rents.

The très-hip El Kartel fashion boutique recently moved into a 6,000 sq. ft space at 104 East Pender that used to house Cathay Importers. It’s on the main floor of the four-storey Chinese Benevolent Association Building, which was built in 1909.

Across the street at 147 East Pender is Livestock, a runner and apparel store that is so cool it doesn’t even have a sign. “We were in Gastown at the corner of Cordova and Abbott, (and) just felt a change was needed,” said store manager Chadley Abalos.

“We found the opportunity in Chinatown, so we decided to move here. We feel it’s one of the new spots that are booming. You see a lot of new businesses — restaurants, clothing stores, furniture. We see the potential in it growing.”

Russell Baker owns Bombast, a chic furniture store at 27 East Pender. But he is not new to the neighbourhood — Bombast has been there for 10 years.

“I think (Chinatown is) one of the most interesting parts of the city,” he said.

“It’s still got some variety, some texture, architecturally, socially, economically. A lot of what’s happened to the downtown peninsula (in recent years) constitutes erasure. This is one of the places that still sort of feels like … it feels more urban than some parts of downtown. I would say downtown is a vertical suburb.

“If you like cities, Chinatown feels like one. That’s why we’re here.”

Baker said he expected Chinatown to happen a lot sooner than it did. Retailers that do well there still tend to be destinations, rather than stores that rely on heavy street traffic. “The buzz is that Chinatown is happening, but it’s really strategic, what’s happening,” he said. “Fortune Sound Club, that’s a niche market that’s destination. That’s the kind of thing that works down here. We’re destination, Bao Bei (restaurant) is destination.”

The new businesses make for an interesting mix with the old ones. The 200 block East Georgia Street is hopping with hipster bars (the Pacific Hotel, Mamie Taylor’s) and art galleries (Access Gallery, 221A, Centre A). But it also retains classic Chinatown shops like the Fresh Egg Mart and Hang Loong Herbal Products.

The question is whether the small businesses will be displaced as the area gentrifies. Real estate values have soared — Soltera paid $6.5 million for the northwest corner of Keefer and Main in 2011, Beedie Holdings paid $16.2 million for two parcels of land at Columbia and Keefer in 2013.

That seems like a lot for a site that’s two blocks from the troubled Downtown Eastside, but Houtan Rafii of the Beedie Group said that’s what land costs in Vancouver.

“It is a significant, substantial amount of money, but compared to most every area in Vancouver, it’s not dissimilar, whether you’re in Gastown, downtown, Concord-Pacific, even on the boundaries of Strathcona or on Hastings close to Clark or Commercial,” said Rafii. “It’s not an obscene amount of money, it’s market.”

Rafii said the Beedie Group met with local groups for a year about its development, and was surprised at the reaction it got at the public meeting, which was held because Beedie is looking to rezone the site to add an additional three storeys.

Yu doesn’t have a problem with the Beedie proposal per se, but feels it’s on a key site in Chinatown, and should be developed accordingly.

“It’s not the building’s fault,” said Yu.

“People are going ‘What’s wrong with this glass tower, it’s working everywhere else, and Chinese people love buying this stuff if it’s UBC.’

“That’s not the point. There’s plenty of room around the city to build glass towers (that are) 40 storeys, 50 storeys, whatever. Why do they need to be in this spot?

“This one is right in the heart (of Chinatown). Across the street is the Sun Yat-sen (garden), the Chinese Cultural Centre. On the same street is the (Chinese workers) monument. Next door is the back alley of Pender.”

Yu said a recent study found there will be a need for 3,300 income-assisted senior housing beds in the Lower Mainland over the next 15 years. He said the Columbia and Keefer site would be perfect for a seniors project.

“There’s a particular kind of resonance to the idea this is a traditional place where a lot of Chinese seniors can retire to,” he said.

“There is a five-year waiting list for the Simon K.Y. Lee Success long-term care home, so there’s huge demand, huge need, this is a place where they want to go. (Building a seniors home) would actually would help revitalize (Chinatown), because seniors bring sons, daughters, grandsons and granddaughters into a community.

“That’s the Chinatown vision plan, that’s what’s in there, that’s what those discussions were about. And yet what we’ve got is 137 luxury condo units for hip youngsters. That’s the Beedie proposal, and that’s what the last two towers (on Main) were. It’s not just insulting, it’s the thwarting of the very promise (of the vision plan).”

Wu would like to see a moratorium on new developments in Chinatown “until design guidelines are actually built to create a zone that respects the (area’s special) character.”

Retired city planner Nathan Edelson agrees. Which is significant, because he worked on the Chinatown vision plan for over a decade.

“My suggestion is that there should be a moratorium on the rezonings, for sure, until they can get an assessment of what the current new development is,” said Edelson. “To what degree are they contributing to, or harming Chinatown, the historic character of Chinatown? And it’s not an obvious answer.”

Read more:

www.vancouversun.com/business/Battle+Chinatown/10384991/s...

Found at a popular Jerusalem book shop in one of the malls.

Panasonic FZ35, HDR from a single image.

The Battle of the Five Armies was expectedly the expected good ending to the #hobbit #movie trilogy. I wouldn't have #peterjackson done it any other way. Of course there are deviations from the book but that's what your trip to the cinemas is all about. I love Tolkien's book but I've always thought a lot of things weren't really explored thoroughly i.e them Mirkwood elves/end battle scenes and to this PeterJackson expanded them in his utmost creative ways. Even my 6-year old son enjoyed the drama/humour/fast-paced fight scenes. Haters will be haters (their long list of grouses include the over-use of CGI and Jackson's disrespect towards the original source material from the book) but pay no attention to them. Go and enjoy the movie for what it is. Ain't no better way to close the year by watching an epic movie based on an even more epic book of our time. Here's that same feeling we all got when we realised #returnoftheking was gonna be the last time we're seeing #middleearth on the big screen. Go and do yourselves a favour and read The Silmarillion & Unfinished Tales...we might see them being made next (*fingers crossed*)!

#jrrtolkien #thehobbit #movies #moviebuff #movienight

Papplewick 1940's Event 2024.

This shot was taken in the Philippines on my way to El Nido. I was on the roof of a bus, quite a nice experience. The bus was moving when i took this picture which explains the blurryness a little. Turned out not that bad so i'm posting it.

PS: I posted a cropped B&W version a few months ago, but didn't really like it after a while so i'm posting the original verion.

[EDIT] I just realized most of the people who are viewing this picture are expecting the real politicians! HAAAAAaahaaaa...I'm so sick of all this politics. All their meetings and press briefings. Its all dirty. Back stabbing. No one is noble despite what most of the blind idiots that make up Maldives's population believe. All of them are dirty. Shout at me all you like. But they ALL have hidden agenda's, secret cravings, be it for power or what else.

__________________________________________________________________

Naufal [in the middle] is a firm supporter of President Maumon. He's the newest camera man and is quite a character. He had his greatest dream fulfilled when the president showed up for an interview a few days ago and he got to be on the team that shot the interview.

On his right is Zufaru . A technician.

On the left is Usa. Another tech.

Right before a press briefing by MDP yesterday, we were goofing around in the studio.

Zufaru was drumming, Usa was answering "reporter's" questions and Naufal was rising out of his seat proclaiming his manifesto...

and then the MDP personel shows up.

Fortunately we didn't get in trouble.

I LOVE our crew here. Each person is great and its brilliant how our humour matches. So we have an awful lot of fun despite being overworked.

I expect this was over the gate at one time.

A pesar de que la mayoría de las monarquías europeas

están pasando por su peor momento, la familia real

británica tiene gran aceptación de los ciudadanos.

Asus altezas

reales

el duque y

la duquesa

de Cambridge

les complace anunciar

que la duquesa de Cambridge

espera su segundo

hijo”, reza el comunicado

sobre la pareja, cuyo primer

hijo, el príncipe George, bisnieto

de la reina Isabel,

cumplió un año en julio.

La Casa Real informó

que Kate está siendo tratada

en el palacio de Kensington

de hiperémesis gravídica,

una complicación del

embarazo que provoca

fuertes náuseas y vómitos,

como le ocurrió con su primer

hijo, y que, por lo tanto,

no acompañaría al duque de

Cambridge en su compromiso

en Oxford”.

Kate tenía previsto realizar

a finales de septiembre

su primer viaje oficial en solitario,

a Malta.

“Muchas felicidades al

duque y la duquesa de Cambridge.

Estoy encantado

con la feliz noticia de que

esperan otro hijo”, reaccionó

el primer ministro David

Cameron.

Aunque las monarquías

europeas están en peligro

de extinción debido al poco

apoyo ciudadano, sobre todo

la española, que cada vez

más es catalogada como obsoleta

y un gasto innecesario

en tiempo de crisis económica,

la realeza británica

continúa siendo una de las

más sólidas.

El apoyo de los británicos

al reinado de Isabel II

viene de lejos, por la actitud

de su padre, el rey Jorge VI,

durante la II Guerra Mundial,

durante la que decidió

quedarse en Londres durante

los bombardeos alemanes.

Ella alcanzó niveles

récord de popularidad coincidiendo

con el 60 aniversario

de su reinado. El 69% de

los ciudadanos creen que

Reino Unido iría peor sin la

monarquía.

En el lado positivo de la

balanza se ha añadido también

el matrimonio de su

nieto William con Kate, una

plebeya que ha conectado

Lo más y lo menos

Jennifer Aniston demuestra que los 45 son

los nuevos 25, al confirmarse que gracias a

una fertilización “in vitro” se convertirá

en madre. ¿Boda? Para nada, aunque sigue

comprometida con Justin Theroux, de 43.

La actriz francesa

Brigitte Bardot pidió

que, por su 80 cumpleaños,

el Gobierno

le conceda dos de

sus principales demandas

ecologistas.

George Clooney

anunció que se casará

en Venecia en

dos semanas con su

novia, la abogada de

origen libanés Amal

Alamuddin.

Britney Spears reveló que había terminado

con su novio David Lucado porque le había

sido infiel, aunque nunca dijo con quién.

TMZ publicó que se trata de Cali Lee, una

actriz porno con la que Lucado jugueteaba.

La actriz colombiana

Vicky Hernández,

de 70 años, dice

que se encuentra

sin trabajo, enferma

y que su muerte está

próxima.

La muerte de la cantante

Simone Battle,

de la banda femenina

G.R.L., fue un

suicidio por ahorcamiento,

informó el

forense.

Claves

24% de los británicos tenían una

mejor imagen de la familia real,

después del nacimiento del

príncipe George, y el 50%

consideró que él mejoraba la

imagen de la familia real.

49 millones al año reciben en gastos

de peluquería, limpieza,

rehabilitación de palacios, etc.

con el pueblo.

El nacimiento del primer

hijo de la pareja, el 22 de julio

de 2013, creó una gran

expectativa.

Fue presentado al mundo

frente a la maternidad St.

Mary de Londres ante las cámaras

de unos 200 periodistas.

Esta primera imagen del

que está llamado a convertirse

un día en rey de Inglaterra

recorrió el mundo e inundó

las redes sociales con 18,000

tweets por minuto.

Como ocurrió con su hermano

mayor, se presume

que la llegada del próximo

miembro de la familia real

tendrá un efecto beneficioso

en la imagen de la monarquía,

ya restablecida de la

travesía del desierto que supusieron

el divorcio y la

muerte en 1997 en un accidente

de tráfico de la princesa

Diana, su abuela.

M62 Gildersome 22/05/2019

The festival celebrates the finest in both gardening and food. Visitors can expect stunning show gardens and nursery displays alongside a bounty of food producers, shopping and top tips from garden experts and celebrity chefs.

Set against the picturesque Malvern Hills, show gardens are always a number one destination, with five designers being awarded with RHS Gold Medals in 2016.

The Floral Marquee is bursting with examples of the finest nurseries in the UK and abroad, with many old favourites and new varieties on sale.

The foodie hotspot, Festival Food and Drink Pavilion, is a lively market of food producers offering a variety of artisan produce. At the heart is a Kitchen Theatre where celebrity guests and local producers showcase their skills and produce.

Other festival favourites include the School Gardens, Get Going Get Growing pavilion and Family Day (Sunday).

RHS Malvern Spring Festival is a joint partnership with the Royal Horticultural Society and Three Counties Agricultural Society.

An entirely new vision brings RHS Malvern Spring Festival into full bloom for 2017, taking inspiration from the event’s Spa town heritage. The landmark four-day spectacle, taking place from Thursday 11 – Sunday 14 May at the Three Counties Showground, welcomes all new features and exhibits and a vibrant line up of the finest in gardening, food and lifestyle.

Jane Furze, Head of RHS Malvern Spring Festival, said: “We are so excited to share the glorious plans that are afoot for RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2017. It really is going to be a sensational year for our leading event with plenty for everyone. Whether you’re a newcomer to gardening, a veteran horticulturalist or simply looking for a family day out, RHS Malvern Spring Festival has it all. We look forward to welcoming visitors to our stunning showcase of spring in May.”

The new vision for RHS Malvern Spring Festival takes inspiration from Malvern Spa’s Victorian heyday as a fashionable health resort – a place where day-trippers descended to take advantage of the clean air and to enjoy the health giving waters amongst the romantic beauty of the hills and into a town of pleasure gardens, assembly rooms and numerous eating-places.

Promising a bountiful day out for everyone, visitors can expect:

NEW FOR 2017

FLORAL MARQUEE

RHS Malvern Spring Festival boasts the UK’s longest Floral Marquee at over 195 metres – the equivalent length of four Olympic swimming pools. The Floral Marquee welcomes more than 65 leading UK and international nurseries, setting the horticultural standards with impressive displays of prized blooms and new varieties. Exhibitors in the Floral Marquee represent the very best in plants and advice available. Here visitors can browse and buy from the very best.

JOE SWIFT’S PLANT HUNTER PARLOUR

BBC Gardeners’ World presenter and acclaimed garden expert, Joe Swift brings to life a new centerpiece of the Floral Marquee – Joe’s Plant Hunter Parlour. This immersive experience like no other features daily talks from award winning nurseries and welcomes budding gardeners big and small to discover, learn and indulge their inner plant hunter.

LIVE WELL

Newly introduced for the very first time, this dedicated zone interprets and explores the theme of health and wellbeing in the 21st century.

JEKKA MCVICAR’S HEALTH & WELLBEING GARDEN

The centrepiece of the Live Well zone, British Queen of Herbs, Jekka McVicar designs and builds a specially commissioned permanent garden, bringing to life the role gardens continue to play in our health and sense of wellbeing. Jekka’s garden is a living working space for mind, body and senses.

The garden is both a tranquil seating space where visitors can spend time amongst the aromatic herb beds, and a place to learn and explore what living well meant in yesteryear and what it means today. Visitors are invited to join daily ‘herbal conversations’ with Jekka herself and explore the awe-inspiring world of alternative therapies. The garden is in support of Pathways, a day service for adults with learning disabilities and difficulties.

GROW

A horticultural experience by Jon Wheatley, RHS Gold Medal winning gardener and Chairman of RHS South West in Bloom, Grow takes inspiration from interactive Country gardens and wildflower borders, showcasing a variety of edible beds and bountiful Grow To Show competitions.

SPA GARDENS

A brand new category introduced for the very first time to RHS Malvern Spring Festival, offering a unique platform for emerging gardening talent. Glorious gardens from up and coming designers bring to life the new vision and reflect the thirst for knowledge, new horizons and innovative technology at the heart of Malvern’s Victorian heritage. Gold Medal winning Chelsea garden designer, Jo Thompson is mentoring the new talent as they embark on this exciting new challenge. The Spa Gardens category also features one garden from an international designer supported by the esteemed Moscow Flower Show. This is part of a newly introduced exchange programme, which in return offers one selected British Spa Garden designer the once in a lifetime chance to showcase at Moscow Flower Show in July.

INDOOR SHOPPING ARCADES

A premium quality shopping experience, it is here that visitors can pick up unique pieces in fashion, furniture, homewares, horticulture, gifts and more from independent designers, craftsmen, artisans and artists.

PLANT ARCADES

An exciting open-air shopping experience with over 35 nurseries, each showcasing a wonderful array of plants. Plant steals aplenty can be found here, especially during the famous sell-off on Sunday.

MAKING A WELCOME RETURN

FESTIVAL GREEN

The heart of RHS Malvern Spring Festival featuring a colourful array of pleasure gardens, a bandstand of live music, an impressive collection of classic cars, an array of global flavours from the International Street Food Market, and plenty of places to picnic. It is here visitors rediscover the Victorian love of amusement, surprise and delight, alongside enjoying unique show gardens unlike any other.

FESTIVAL THEATRE

Hosted by RHS Malvern Spring Festival favourite and award winning writer and broadcaster, James Alexander-Sinclair, the Festival Theatre plays host to a lively line up of leading experts and familiar faces. Visitors may take a seat and enjoy demonstrations, talks and exciting features as personalities share their knowledge and passion for all things gardening and food. Confirmed experts include Carol Klein, Joe Swift, Jekka McVicar and Jon Wheatley with plenty more to be announced soon.

SHOW GARDENS

The highest standard of garden design is showcased in the Show Gardens of RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2017. Leading designers create awe-inspiring gardens as they compete for prestigious RHS accolades including Gold medals and the coveted Best In Show. RHS Malvern Spring Festival is famed as the show that raises the bar for design and horticultural talent with numerous RHS Gold medals awarded in 2016. This year is tipped to be no exception.

FOOD & DRINK PAVILION

A foodie hotspot, the Food & Drink Pavilion is a magnificent celebration of British tastes with bountiful offerings from the country’s best-loved artisan producers. Expect the freshest field produce, big cheeses, bread of heaven, specialty gins, decadent bakes and more.

KITCHEN GARDEN THEATRE

This animated live kitchen, hosted by Mark Diacono, showcases a line up of delicious cookery demonstrations from culinary experts and the country’s top chefs. Mark shares advice from his home farm cookery school, Otter Farm and experience as head gardener at River Cottage.

YOUNG GARDENER

A hive of activity tailored to inspire the next generation of gardeners and horticulturalists with fun hands-on activities to help children learn and explore the wonderful world of plants and gardens.

FAMILY DAY

Budding gardeners great and small are invited to get green fingered with a dedicated Family Day on the Sunday of RHS Malvern Spring Festival. This exciting and educational day with plenty of hands on activities is the ideal opportunity to engage children in the fun of gardening and the great outdoors. Expect Kids Cookery demonstrations, make and take crafts, Kids Plant and Grow workshops with BBC Blue Peter Gardener, Chris Collins and more.

SCHOOL GARDENS

RHS Malvern Spring Festival is one of the only RHS Shows in the UK to have a collection of Show Gardens designed and built entirely by young people. This year sees over 12 schools and educational groups from across the three counties taking part, led by BBC Blue Peter Gardener, Chris Collins.

RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2017 will take place from Thursday 11 May until Sunday 14 May. For more information, please call 01684 584900 or visit

British Queen of Herbs, Jekka McVicar will unveil the first ever specially commissioned permanent garden at RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2017. A magnificent centrepiece of the celebrated event’s all-new Live Well zone, Jekka’s garden will bring to life the contribution horticulture continues to make to our health and wellbeing in today’s bustling modern world. The Health & Wellbeing Garden will be launched when the show opens its gates on Thursday 11 May at the Three Counties Showground.#

RHS Ambassador for Health through Horticulture, Jekka McVicar said: “I am delighted to have been asked to create a lasting garden for RHS Malvern Spring Festival. I want the Health & Wellbeing Garden to be a usable and beautiful space that is embraced by people of all ages – a space for growth, education and reflection. With the Malvern Hills as a dramatic backdrop, RHS Malvern Spring Festival is such a beautiful place and because it’s at the start of the summer, it’s always a time of such optimism. It is a real privilege to bring this garden to life as part of such a dynamic and exciting show.”

Jekka’s Health & Wellbeing garden, as the focus for the new Live Well Zone, is inspired by the increasing need for reflection and escape from the stresses of modern life. It also seeks to preserve and share the vital knowledge of how horticulture and its associated therapies can help the mind, body and soul. The garden will be a living, working space with a tranquil seating area, where visitors can immerse themselves amongst the aromatic herb beds, and also educate themselves on the place that herbs and horticulture play in today’s society.

Head of RHS Malvern Spring Festival, Jane Furze said: “It is a real pleasure to be working with Jekka to build a garden not only for this year’s event, but also for the future. Jekka’s designs look spectacular and we cannot wait to see these brought to life and shared with our many visitors. The Health & Wellbeing Garden will no doubt be a real highlight of RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2017 and for many years to come.”

Throughout the 4-days of RHS Malvern Spring Festival, Jekka will host daily ‘herb conversations’ in the garden, unearthing hidden gems from the world of alternative therapies, food and gardening. Jekka will also provide insights into herbs as the foundation of modern medicine, seeking to preserve the knowledge that over time is danger of being lost.

The Health & Wellbeing Garden is in support of Pathways, a work-focused day service for adults with learning disabilities and difficulties. Pathways use gardening and the environment as an educational tool to introduce young adults to the working world. Clients of Pathways benefit from gaining vital skills for entering the working world, these include trust, communication, interaction with peers, taking direction and responsibility for themselves and others.

Leaving a legacy, Jekka’s garden will provide Pathways with a nurturing space to continue their works in encouraging clients to grow. Throughout the show times, Pathways will sell plants and refreshments from the garden. Funds raised from these sales go towards covering the costs of the residential trip taken twice each year for clients of Pathways, a vital retreat for clients that contributes to their sense of wellbeing. Outside of show days, Pathways and local schools will host sessions in the garden. The garden aims to inspire visitors of all ages and abilities with engaging elements tailored for all.

Jekka’s design will incorporate the unique and flexible WoodBlocX system, specially selected to provide permanent raised bed structures to house the garden’s vast selection of herbs and edibles. The centrepiece of the garden contains four large planted sections featuring smooth curves constructed from the unique WoodBlocX system. WoodBlocX use sustainable, long-lasting, organic and FSC accredited wooden bricks, which can be used to create any shape such as the naturally fluid curves seen in Jekka’s elegant design.

Considered an unmatched expert by the UK’s top chefs and horticulturalists, Jekka McVicar is an enterprising British herb grower, organic gardening expert, author and broadcaster. Jekka’s Herb Farm, in nearby South Gloucestershire, boasts the largest collection of culinary herbs in the UK with more than 500 different varieties.

Alongside her RHS Ambassadorship for Health through Horticulture, Jekka’s accolades include 62 RHS Gold Medals, Garden Media Guild Lifetime Achievement Award and the RHS Lawrence Medal for the best exhibit shown at any RHS show in 2009. Jekka is also a Vice President of the RHS, Vice President of the Herb Society, is a founder member of the RHS Herb advisory group, and a member of the RHS Three Counties Agricultural Society Joint Committee. Jekka has herself exhibited at RHS Malvern Spring Festival since 1993 and has been a vital contributor to the team at Three Counties for over a decade.

RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2017 will take place from Thursday 11 May until Sunday 14 May. Tickets are now on sale. For more information and to book tickets, please call

As expected, the winter storm has brought several inches of snow to our region and more is forecast today. The windy weather has caused outages around our service area, primarily in South and East King County especially the Enumclaw and Snoqualmie areas.

All ready for the new arrival. Except for the second coat of paint in the nureser, th crib, the glider, the changing table, the stroller, the car seat… but we have the stuffed animals taken care of.