My (now, only surviving) brother Robert generously hosted a Grand National Day 'sweepstake-get-together' yesterday at his home. There were 20 plus of our extended family there and we all had a wonderful day (especially my sister who drew the winning horse. Heh).

 

Shown above is three year old Florence (Flo), my youngest great-niece having fun with her 13 year old cousin Harriet, another of my great-nieces, plus her older brother Ewan, my eldest great-nephew, aged 16.

 

I was amazed to learn from Ewan that the British Army now sign on 16 year olds as regular soldiers. This coming September, Ewan will be a soldier -- making him the fifth consecutive generation of our family to serve their country.

www.army.mod.uk/join/How-to-join.aspx

 

My fellow citizens:

 

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

 

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.

 

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

 

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

 

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land – a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

 

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America – they will be met.

 

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

 

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

 

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

 

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted – for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things – some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

 

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.

 

For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

 

For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.

 

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

 

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions – that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

 

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act – not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.

 

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions – who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.

 

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them – that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works – whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account – to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day – because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

 

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control – and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart – not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

 

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

 

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

 

We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort – even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

 

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

 

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West – know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

 

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

 

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment – a moment that will define a generation – it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

 

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

 

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends – hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism – these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility – a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

 

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

 

This is the source of our confidence – the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

 

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed – why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

 

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

 

"Let it be told to the future world...that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it]."

 

America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

A Big Issue seller's dog receives his Christmas present from a kind woman.

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

 

Today however we are to the west of London, in nearby Buckinghamshire, at Dorrington House, a smart Jacobean manor house of the late 1600s built for a wealthy merchant, situated in High Wycombe, where Lettice’s elder sister, Lalage (known to everyone in the family by the diminutive Lally), resides with her husband Charles Lanchenbury and their three children, Harrold, Annabelle and baby Piers. Situated within walking distance of the market town’s main square, the elegant red brick house with its high-pitched roof and white painted sash windows still feels private considering its close proximity to the centre of the town thanks to an elegant and restrained garden surrounding it, which is enclosed by a high red brick wall.

 

Following the death of Lord Sherbourne Tyrwhitt, patriarch of the family living on the estate adjunct to that of Lettice’s parents, Lettice and her sister Lally returned to their grand Georgian family home of Glynes in Wiltshire to attend the funeral of the man they have both grown up calling Uncle Sherbourne even though he was no blood relation. Indeed, the Chetwynds and the Tyrwhitts were only formally joined in November last year by the marriage of Lord Sherbourne’s only daughter, Arabella, to Viscount Wrexham’s eldest son and heir Leslie. With the funeral over, Lettice has agreed to keep Lally company in her empty home for a few days whilst her husband and children are away. And so, we find the siblings sitting at the round Georgian table of the bright and airy breakfast room of Dorrington House with its Dutch yellow painted walls, Chinese silk carpet, elegant Eighteenth Century furnishings and artwork as luncheon is being served.

 

“Will there be anything else, Mrs. Lanchenbury?” Edgars, Lally’s butler, asks politely as he deposits a partially filled decanter of red wine on the table.

 

“I don’t think so, Edgars, but I’ll ring if I do.” Lally replies with a reassuring smile from her seat at the round table. “Thank you.”

 

Lettice and her sister sit quietly at the table, backs straight in their Georgian chairs, not commencing either to serve themselves luncheon or to speak until the butler has retreated discreetly through the door and closed it behind him. As his footsteps echo down the hallway outside, the siblings release the pent-up breath they both have held within their chests whilst Edgars was serving their luncheon. They look at one another and both laugh, a glint in their eyes.

 

“Mater would be pleased with us, wouldn’t she Tice?” chuckles Lally.

 

“Don’t talk in front of the servants, dear.” Lettice imitates their mother’s overly plummy intonations, making them both laugh again.

 

“What astonishing bad luck we have,” Lally remarks a little despondently. “Arriving back here on cook’s day off. With only cold pork pie,” She gingerly lifts the scalloped edge of the covered serving dish at her right and peeps at what lies beneath it. “And some warmed potato au gratin to serve you. I’m sorry.”

 

“Oh, I don’t mind.” Lettice bushes her sister’s apologies aside. “One of Mrs. Sawyer’s pork pies is a feast in itself, Lally. Edith is a good plain cook, but nothing beats pastry made by a woman born and bred in the country.”

 

“And you don’t mind us dining in the breakfast room, rather than the dining room?” Lally asks with a lilt of concern in her voice.

 

“Goodness no, Lally!” Lettice replies in an effort to assuage her sister’s worries. “What’s the point when it is only, we two here. No, this is a nice cosy room with a cheerful fire going, which is perfect. We can take all our meals in here whilst I’m stopping if you like. Shall I pour?” She indicates to the crystal decanter containing a rich red wine in its bulbous base.

 

“If you would, Tice.” Lally acquiesces.

 

“So where has Charles gone? I know you told me before Uncle Sherbourne’s funeral, but I’m afraid with everything that went along with that, for the moment I can’t remember.”

 

“Oh, I don’t expect you to. Plate, Tice.” She indicates with a gesticulating hand for Lettice to pass her dinner plate - Lally’s everyday dinner service - to her, accepting it and depositing a scoop of steaming golden yellow potato au gratin onto her plate. “He and Lord Lanchenbury have set sail for Bombay on the P&O*.”

 

“And why have they gone to India?”

 

“To look at a new tea plantation.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Well, ever since Maison Lyonses** at Marble Arch and in Shaftesbury Avenue have accepted Lord Lanchenbury’s Georgian Afternoon Tea blend to serve as their own on the beverages menu, he can’t seem to supply enough of the stuff for the tea drinking populace of London. He and Charles are looking to expand the tea export business there.”

 

“Isn’t it funny, Lally?” Lettice remarks, accepting back her plate and pushing her sister’s full glass of wine across the table.

 

“What is, Tice?”

 

“That you still call your father-in-law Lord Lanchenbury, just as I do.”

 

“Well, with those glowering looks of his, his Victorian mutton chops*** and his equally severe and old fashioned manners hardly endear him to me or make me want to call him anything less.” She glances at her sister with serious eyes. “And, I don’t think he would appreciate me calling him ‘my dear George’ either.” Both girls chuckle at the thought. “Even Charles calls him Sir, in preference to Father or Pappa.”

 

“Too many years an old bachelor for Lord Lanchenbury, with no female company to soften the hard edges since his wife’s death.” Lettice pours herself a glass of wine.

 

“Oh I don’t think he’s short of female companionship.” Lally remarks as she stands up, reaches over and lifts the plate on which the pork pie sits and brings it closer to her. “If you understand my meaning, Tice.”

 

“Lally!” Lettice gasps, almost dropping the carafe in her hands, as her sister resumes her seat.

 

“What?” replies her sibling with a peal of laughter. “Don’t tell me that I’ve shocked you, Tice?”

 

“You have!”

 

“I’d hardly expect you to be shocked by the idea of a gentleman, even if it is crusty old Victorian Lord Lanchenbury, accepting a little paid female company, Tice. After all, you are the adventurous and worldly one, living amongst all the Bright Young Things**** up in London, whilst I have a much more sedate and conventional life here in Buckinghamshire.”

 

“Oh it isn’t the act itself, that shocks me, but rather hearing it spoken of from my sedate and conventional sister’s mouth, that does.”

 

“I’m not that unworldly, Tice.” Lally giggles.

 

Lally slices the pie generously, the silver knife cutting into the crisp golden crust with a satisfying crunch, revealing the richly coloured spiced meat interior and releasing the delicious smell of the cooked pork. Lettice lifts her plate and Lally plonks a slice of the pie on her plate before depositing one onto her own.

 

“I really can’t thank you enough, Tice, for agreeing to come and stay with me for a few days, directly from Glynes.”

 

“Oh I was only too happy to get out from under Mater’s own glowering stares, Lally.” She lifts her glass to her sister. “Cheers to happy sisterly relations.”

 

“Cheers indeed, Tice.” She raises her own full glass.

 

Their glasses clink cheerfully.

 

“Although admittedly, I probably wouldn’t have come if you’d asked me a few years ago.” Lettice admits with a tinge of guilt. “But only because of that poison Mater injected on purpose to strain our relationship.”

 

“Yes, I’m glad all that bad blood between us, created by Mother’s games of one-upmanship between us, is over and done with. I like having my little sister back again, Tice.” She smiles gratefully at Lettice.

 

“And I’m glad to have my elder sister’s confidence again too, Lally.” She reaches out and wraps her hand around Lally’s and gives it an encouraging squeeze.

 

“I just don’t think I could have faced coming home to an empty house after Uncle Sherbourne’s funeral.”

 

“Yes, it is a rather disparaging thought, isn’t it? Coming back to a silent house after all the dourness of the last few days. Where are my beloved nephew and niece, by the way?”

 

“After hearing about Uncle Sherbourne’s turn and knowing I had to get to Glynes quickly, I hurriedly packed a valise and gave Nanny money enough to take the children to Lyme Regis for a few days.”

 

“They’ll have the sun in their cheeks and the sea air in their hair when they get back.”

 

“They should be back the day after tomorrow according to the note Nanny left, so you will get to see them.”

 

“That will be nice, Lally, and it still gives us a whole day to ourselves before they do.” Lettice remarks.

 

“Yes,” muses her sister. “It will.”

 

The two sit in companionable silence for a little while, the sound of their cutlery scraping against their plates, their quiet chewing, and the crackle of the fire in the grate all that breaks the quiet peace of the breakfast room. Occasionally birds twitter from the shrubbery outside the window, and somewhere in the village beyond the high stone front wall, a horse clops by on the street, the scratch of cart or carriage wheels reminding Lettice of just how much of a world away High Wycombe is from the hustle and bustle of London, even if it is only twenty-nine miles away.

 

“You know, I always thought it would be Aunt Isobel who would go first.” Lally says, breaking the silence.

 

“I think we all thought that, Lally. After all, Aunt Isobel is the one who has always been sick.”

 

“Yes, and Uncle Sherbourne was always so hale and hearty.”

 

“Oh must you use that term, Lally? Hale and hearty, is all I’ve heard to describe poor Uncle Sherbourne for the last few days from every villager, mourner and well-wisher I’ve shaken hands with or spoken to throughout the whole ghastly ordeal.”

 

“Oh, I’m sorry Tice.” Lally apologises. “I guess the term must be catching, as now I think about it, it isn’t one that I usually use myself. Like you, I think I’ve just heard it so much over the last few days.”

 

“Well, do desist, my dear sister, of I shall be forced to reconsider my stopping here with you.” Lettice jokes as she cuts another thin sliver of pork pie and puts it to her mouth.

 

“Garstanton Park won’t be the same without him, will it?”

 

“Indeed no, especially the musical evenings Uncle Sherbourne was known for.”

 

“Will Nigel carry on do you suppose?”

 

Lettice looks anxiously at her sister, before quickly glancing back down at her plate, focusing upon the creamy white potato au gratin. She silently wonders how Lally knows about the financial difficulties the new Lord Tyrwhitt, Sherbourne’s only surviving son Nigel, has uncovered. From everything Nigel confided in her when they were in Gartsanton Park’s library cum music room after the funeral, Lettice thought she was one of the very few to be in his confidence and know the truth about the financial straits the Tyrwhitts now find themselves in.

 

“Having musical soirees, I mean.” Lally clarifies, sensing a lack of comprehension from her sister.

 

Lettice quietly releases a long breath before replying, “Well, Nigel does love that Bechstein***** as much as his father did. And even though I don’t really wish to say this with Uncle Sherbourne only freshly laid to rest, but Nigel plays it far better and more naturally than either Uncle Sherbourne or Aunt Isobel ever did.”

 

“Oh, Aunt Isobel always preferred the violin anyway. That was her instrument when she was younger before her hands became riddled with arthritis.” adds Lally. “But going back to my point, Garstanton Park will be awfully empty, with just Nigel and Aunt Isobel rattling around inside of it, with no Bella now she’s married to Leslie and living in the Glynes Dower House, and no sign of Nigel settling down and having a family yet. If I can feel lonely here at Dorrington with Charles and the children gone, I can only imagine what it will be like in such a big and drafty old place like Garstanton Park.”

 

“I imagine they’ll make the best of it. Nigel is often in their London house anyway, so no doubt he’ll just bring Aunt Isobel up with him when he comes, now.”

 

“Aahh yes,” Lally murmurs. “I tend to forget that you see Nigel quite often because he spends more time up in London than in Wiltshire. That will have to change.”

 

“Why should it change, Lally?”

 

“Well,” Lally scoffs. “Nigel can’t very well carry on a bachelor life in London and manage Garstanton Park at the same time, now can he?” She pauses and thinks for a moment. “They will stay on, won’t they?”

 

Lettice wonders whether she should disclose what Nigel told her about his doubts around keeping his great Victorian family home in his possession, but decides that discretion is better, even with her elder sister, considering the fact that he told her in confidence. “How can you give life to such a thought, Lally?”

 

“Oh I know, Tice.” Lally dabs the edges of her mouth with her damask napkin. “I feel like such a traitor by even uttering it, but ever since the war, with death duties being so high******.” Her voice trails off.

 

“Oh, I’m sure Nigel will make a good fist of it*******.” Lettice defends her friend with a false joviality that does not reflect the feeling growing in the pit of her stomach. “For as long as we and Pater can remember, there have always been Tyrwhitts at Garstanton Park. Why should the status quo change?”

 

“I know a number of people who have sold off their country houses since the end of the war and reside in reduced circumstances in London,” Lally remarks dourly, picking up her glass. ‘Not badly off of course, but certainly not in the style of the old family estates that they used to have before the war. Father is very lucky that Leslie made suggestions to modernise the Glynes estate.”

 

“Leslie was lucky that Pater could be persuaded.” Lettice replies.

 

“Well, that’s also true. I know Mother thinks it a poky little place, but I’m only grateful that Dorrington House,” She waves her hand around expansively about the tastefully decorated room with Dutch yellow walls and Georgian furnishings and artworks. “Is a more modest residence. I don’t need a whole retinue of staff to run it, nor a vast fortune to maintain it, so Charles and I can live very comfortably here, even with post-war economic inflation.”

 

“Oh let’s talk about something else, Lally.” Lettice remarks, trying to change the subject as she feels Mrs. Sawyer’s delicious pork pie start to turn to stone in her stomach.

 

“Yes, let’s talk about something jolly instead. We’ve been so consumed by Uncle Sherbourne’s death these last few days. Gerald was telling me at the wake that you have a Mrs. Hawarden who wants you to decorate her house in Ascot, but you don’t want to accept her commission?”

 

Lettice rolls her eyes. “I thought you said we were going to talk about something jolly, Lally.”

 

“Well, I’m intrigued.” her sister replies, placing her cutlery on the painted edges of her plate as she sits back in her chair and looks to Lettice with undivided attention. “It seems your article in Country Life******** has done your reputation the world of good if you are now being selective as to whom you decorate for.”

 

Lettice settles back in her own seat and cradles her glass of wine in her hand thoughtfully as she contemplates how to reply without sounding conceited. “It is true that Henry Tipping’s********* article about the interior designs I created for Dickie and Margot has certainly been a boon for business, but I would turn down Mrs. Hawarden even if the article had never been.”

 

“Why Tice? What’s wrong with her? Gerald tells me that she’s the wife of a fabric manufacturer from Manchester.”

 

“Yes, Mrs. Evelyn Hawarden is the wife of Joseph Hawarden of Hawarden Fabrics, and she is positively ghastly, Lally. Absolutely ghastly!”

 

“How so, Tice?” Lally asks, her interest piqued.

 

“Well, she wants me to redecorate rooms that I feel should really be left as they are, but she is a tinkerer. She keeps talking to me, no, at me,” Lettice corrects herself. “Demanding that I ruin them with inferior fabrics and, quite frankly, ghastly ideas about what she thinks makes for tasteful redecoration and modernisation.”

 

“Which evidently aren’t tasteful, looking at your expression, Tice.”

 

“Far from it, and I want to turn her down.”

 

“And what is it that’s stopping you.”

 

Lettice sighs and shakes her head. “She is horribly domineering, I’ve discovered. She is quite convinced that I am the only interior designer who has her vision.”

 

“Which you don’t.”

 

“Which I don’t.” Lettice sips her wine. “I have made a few suggestions that counter her own opinions as to what is tasteful and what is not, but she just talks over the top of me. She telephones almost every day in an effort to wear me down. I make Edith answer the telephone all the time now, which she hates, and lie to Mrs. Hawarden and tell her I’m not at home, which she hates even more, just so I don’t have to speak with the ghastly harridan.”

 

Lally picks up her own glass and contemplates for a few moments before answering. “Well, maybe you’re going about refuting her the wrong way, Tice.”

 

“What do you mean, Lally?”

 

“You say that she has some ghastly ideas that you have tried to counter. Why don’t you agree instead?”

 

“Agree? I don’t want to agree with her. Then she’ll have a pot of wallpaper glue and a brush in my hands quicker than you can say knife!”

 

“What I mean is, why not agree that her taste is very modern and forward thinking, far too modern and forward thinking for you. Remind her that you are a,” Lally pauses again as she tries to recall the description from the Country Life article. “A Classical Revivalist, was it?”

 

“A Modern Classical Revivalist.” Lettice corrects her sister.

 

“There you go! Show her that she is too modern for you, and convince her that you are too classical and old fashioned for her. If this Mrs. Hawarden is looking to use your skills to help her advance herself socially by modernising her home, you just need to plant the seed that you aren’t as forward thinking as she is, or that she thinks you are. Once the doubt is planted in her mind, it will quickly take root.”

 

“Do you think so, Lally?”

 

“Trust me, Tice. I’ve seen my father-in-law and my husband do it when they have had business propositions and advances from men they don’t wish to deal with.”

 

Lettice considers what her sister has said, and a small smile teases the edges of her mouth upward ever so slightly as an idea begins to formulate in her mind. “I do declare, Lally, you may be right in your way of thinking.”

 

“Of course I am, Tice,” Lally purrs as she takes another sip of her wine. “I’m your elder sister.”

 

*In 1837, the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company first secured a Government contract for the regular carriage of mail between Falmouth and the Peninsular ports as far as Gibraltar. The company, established in 1835 by the London shipbroking partnership of Brodie McGhie Willcox (1786-1861) and Arthur Anderson (1792-1868) and the Dublin Ship owner, Captain Richard Bourne (1880-1851) had begun a regular steamer service for passengers and cargo between London, Spain and Portugal using the 206 ton paddle steamer William Fawcett. The growing inclination of early Twentieth Century shipping enterprises to merge their interests, and group themselves together, did not go unnoticed at P&O, which made its first major foray in this direction in 1910 with the acquisition of Wilhelm Lund’s Blue Anchor Line. By 1913, with a paid-up capital of some five and half million pounds and over sixty ships in service, several more under construction and numerous harbour craft and tugs to administer to the needs of this great fleet all counted, the P&O Company owned over 500,000 tons of shipping. In addition to the principal mail routes, through Suez to Bombay and Ceylon, where they divided then for Calcutta, Yokohama and Sydney, there was now the ‘P&O Branch Line’ service via the Cape to Australia and various feeder routes. The whole complex organisation was serviced by over 200 agencies stationed at ports throughout the world. At the end of 1918, the Group was further strengthened by its acquisition of a controlling shareholding in the Orient Line and in 1920, the General Steam Navigation Company, the oldest established sea-going steamship undertaking, was taken over. In 1923 the Strick Line was acquired too and P&O became, for a time, the largest shipping company in the world. With the 1920s being the golden age of steamship travel, P&O was the line to cruise with. P&O had grown into a group of separate operating companies whose shipping interests touched almost every part of the globe. By March 2006, P&O had grown to become one of the largest port operators in the world and together with P&O Ferries, P&O Ferrymasters, P&O Maritime Services, P&O Cold Logistics and its British property interests, the company was, itself, acquired by DP World for three point three billion pounds.

 

**J. Lyons and Co. was a British restaurant chain, food manufacturing, and hotel conglomerate founded in 1884 by Joseph Lyons and his brothers in law, Isidore and Montague Gluckstein. Lyons’ first teashop opened in Piccadilly in 1894, and from 1909 they developed into a chain of teashops, with the firm becoming a staple of the High Street in the United Kingdom. At its peak the chain numbered around two hundred cafes. The teashops provided for tea and coffee, with food choices consisting of hot dishes and sweets, cold dishes and sweets, and buns, cakes and rolls. Lyons' Corner Houses, which first appeared in 1909 and remained until 1977, were noted for their Art Deco style. Situated on or near the corners of Coventry Street, Strand and Tottenham Court Road, they and the Maison Lyonses at Marble Arch and in Shaftesbury Avenue were large buildings on four or five floors, the ground floor of which was a food hall with counters for delicatessen, sweets and chocolates, cakes, fruit, flowers and other products. In addition, they possessed hairdressing salons, telephone booths, theatre booking agencies and at one period a twice-a-day food delivery service. On the other floors were several restaurants, each with a different theme and all with their own musicians. For a time, the Corner Houses were open twenty-four hours a day, and at their peak each branch employed around four hundred staff including their famous waitresses, commonly known as Nippies for the way they nipped in and out between the tables taking orders and serving meals. The tea houses featured window displays, and, in the post-war period, the Corner Houses were smarter and grander than the local tea shops. Between 1896 and 1965 Lyons owned the Trocadero, which was similar in size and style to the Corner Houses.

 

***Nineteenth Century sideburns were often far more extravagant than those seen today, similar to what are now called mutton chops, but considerably more extreme. In period literature, "side whiskers" usually refers to this style, in which the whiskers hang well below the jaw line. The classic mutton chop is a type of beard in which the sideburns are grown out to the cheeks, leaving the moustache, soul patch, and chin clean-shaven. As with beards, sideburns went quickly out of fashion in the early Twentieth Century. In World War I, in order to secure a seal on a gas mask, men had to be clean-shaven; this did not affect moustaches.

 

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

 

*****C. Bechstein Pianoforte AG (also known as Bechstein), is a German manufacturer of pianos, established in 1853 by Carl Bechstein (1826 – 1900).

 

******Modern inheritance tax dates back to 1894 when the government introduced estate duty, a tax on the capital value of land, in a bid to raise money to pay off a £4m government deficit. It replaced several different inheritance taxes, including the 1796 tax on estates introduced to help fund the war against Napoleon. The earliest death duty can be traced back to 1694 when probate duty, a tax on personal property in wills proved in court, was brought in. When the tax was first introduced it was intended to affect only the very wealthy, but the rise in the value of homes, particularly in the south-east of England, it began to creep into the realms of the upper middle-classes. From 1896, it was possible to avoid estate duty by handing on gifts during the life of the donor. To counter avoidance through last minute transfers, gifts handed over a limited time before death were still subject to the tax. Initially the period was one year but that rose to seven years over time. Freshly recovering from the Great War, the hefty death taxes imposed on wealthy families such as the Tyrwhitts in the post-war years of the 1920s, combined with increases to income taxes on the wealthy, caused some to start to sell off their country houses and estates, settling in more reduced circumstances (still very luxurious by today’s standards) in their smaller London homes.

 

*******It is seldom heard in the land of its origin — the United States. When you make a good fist of something, you succeed in doing it. You do a good job and achieve a certain degree of success. According to some scholars, the word 'fist' in the expression is used in the sense of 'hand' — someone who does physical work.

 

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

 

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

 

This neat Georgian interior may appear like something out of a historical stately country house, but it is in fact part of my 1:12 miniatures collection.

 

Fun things to look for in this tableau include:

 

The round breakfast table in the centre of the room, which tilts like a real loo table, is an artisan miniature from an unknown maker with a marquetry inlaid top, which came from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls House Shop in the United Kingdom. On its surface the crockery, silver cutlery, two glasses and decanter of red wine, which are made from real spun glass, came from online stockists of miniatures on E-Bay. The serviettes with their napkin rings also came from Kathleen Knight’s Doll House Shop, as does the silver tray on which the decanter of wine sits. The Georgian style silver lidded serving dish and the Georgian style gravy boat come from Warwick Miniatures in Ireland, who are well known for the quality and detail applied to their pieces. The pie at the forefront of the image has been made in England by hand from clay by former chef turned miniature artisan, Frances Knight. Her work is incredibly detailed and realistic, and she says that she draws her inspiration from her years as a chef and her imagination.

 

The Chippendale style chairs surrounding the round breakfast table, and the carver chair in the background, are very special pieces. They came from the Petite Elite Miniature Museum, later rededicated as the Carol and Barry Kaye Museum of Miniatures, which ran between 1992 and 2012 on Los Angeles’ bustling Wiltshire Boulevard. One of the chairs still has a sticker under its cushion identifying which room of which dollhouse it came. The Petite Elite Miniature Museum specialised in exquisite and high end 1:12 miniatures. The furnishings are taken from a real Chippendale design.

 

The sideboard featuring fine marquetry banding and collapsible extensions at either end appears to have been made by the same unknown artisan who made the round table. This piece I acquired from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls House Shop at the same time as the table. The Georgian style silver lidded tureens on the sideboard’s surface I also acquired from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls House Shop. The vase on the sideboard is made by M.W. Reutter Porzellanfabrik in Germany, who specialise in making high quality porcelain miniatures. Made of polymer clay the irises and foxgloves in the vase are moulded on wires to allow them to be shaped at will and put into individually formed floral arrangements. They came from a 1:12 miniature specialist in Germany.

 

The Regency corner cabinet with its elegant gilt detailing and glass door is made by the high-end miniature furniture maker, Bespaq. The beautiful collection of china on display inside the cabinet, like the vase on the sideboard, is made by M.W. Reutter Porzellanfabrik in Germany.

 

The Georgian style paintings of silhouettes hanging around the room came from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls House shop, and the Chinese silk carpet came from an online stockist of 1:12 miniatures on E-Bay.

It's been a funny day.

 

Today my old friend John met Cathy for the first time.

 

I vanished into the bedroom for over an hour. He waited apprehensively for me to reappear - apart from the bit where he went to sleep.

 

I'm sure women find this easier. After all, we're asking to come over to their side. A man must wonder what the hell is going on. And John is definitely an alpha male. He denies this, but it's only a ploy to make you drop your defences. Then he pinches your banana.

 

He was bloody marvellous.

Generous donation by etradersplace.com to PUDDLE 2016!

Divided reverse. Letter generously translated by xiphophilos, authored in Ravensburg on 28.1.1915 and addressed to a Fräulein Rosa Treyz in Betzingen-Reutlingen (Baden-Württemberg). Postage cancelled in Ravensburg on the same day.

 

Landsturmmänner elevated into the Landwehr as replacements. Of note are the smaller than usual crosses (Landwehrkreuze) on their caps.

 

__________________________________________________________________

Notes:

 

w. Landwehr-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 123

 

Aufgestellt in Ulm (R.Stb., I.) und Ravensburg (II., III.)

Unterstellung:Festungsbesatzung Neubreisach, 55. und 51. L.Brig. im Oberelsaß

Kommandeur:Oberstleutnant Arnold (w. I.R.Nr. 123)

 

I.:Oberstleutnant a. D.

v. Gemmingen

II.:Oberstleutnant z. D. Benignus (Bez.-Kdr. Horb)

III.:Oberstleutnant z. D.

Frhr. v. Ziegesar (Bez.-Kdr. Hall)

 

Verluste:14 Offz., 575 Uffz. und Mannschaften.

  

And perhaps it was the pleasure the good Spirit had in showing off this power of his, or else it was his own kind, generous, hearty nature, and his sympathy with all poor men, that led him straight to Scrooge’s clerk’s; for there he went, and took Scrooge with him, holding to his robe; and on the threshold of the door the Spirit smiled, and stopped to bless Bob Cratchit’s dwelling with the sprinkling of his torch.

“What has ever got your precious father then?” said Mrs. Cratchit. “And your brother, Tiny Tim! They warn’t as late last Christmas Day by half-an-hour?”

“Here’s father, mother!” cried Martha, the eldest daughter.

Then in came little Bob, the father, his threadbare clothes darned up and brushed, to look seasonable; and Tiny Tim upon his shoulder. Alas for Tiny Tim, he bore a little crutch, and had his limbs supported by an iron frame!

The youngest daughter, Belinda, hustled Tiny Tim, and bore him off into the wash-house, that he might hear the pudding singing in the copper.

“And how did little Tim behave?” asked Mrs. Cratchit, when she had rallied Bob on his credulity, and Bob had hugged his daughter to his heart’s content.

“As good as gold,” said Bob, “and better. Somehow he gets thoughtful, sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see.”

His active little crutch was heard upon the floor, and back came Tiny Tim before another word was spoken, escorted by his sister. Master Peter went to fetch the goose, with which he soon returned in high procession. Such a bustle ensued that you might have thought a goose the rarest of all birds; a feathered phenomenon, to which a black swan was a matter of course—and in truth it was something very like it in that house.

There never was such a goose. Bob said he didn’t believe there ever was such a goose cooked. Its tenderness and flavour, size and cheapness, were the themes of universal admiration. Eked out by apple-sauce and mashed potatoes, it was a sufficient dinner for the whole family.

But now, the plates being changed by Miss Belinda, Mrs. Cratchit left the room alone—too nervous to bear witnesses—to take the pudding up and bring it in. In half a minute Mrs. Cratchit re-entered—flushed, but smiling proudly—with the pudding, like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top.

Oh, a wonderful pudding! Bob Cratchit said, and calmly too, that he regarded it as the greatest success achieved by Mrs. Cratchit since their marriage. Everybody had something to say about it, but nobody said or thought it was at all a small pudding for a large family. It would have been flat heresy to do so. Any Cratchit would have blushed to hint at such a thing.

Then Bob raised his glass and proposed:

“A Merry Christmas to us all, my dears. God bless us!”

Which all the family re-echoed.

“God bless us every one!” said Tiny Tim, the last of all.

“And Mr. Scrooge!” said Bob; “I’ll give you Mr. Scrooge, the Founder of the Feast!”

“The Founder of the Feast indeed!” cried Mrs. Cratchit, reddening. “I wish I had him here. I’d give him a piece of my mind to feast upon, and I hope he’d have a good appetite for it.”

“My dear,” said Bob, “the children! Christmas Day.”

“It should be Christmas Day, I am sure,” said she, “on which one drinks the health of such an odious, stingy, hard, unfeeling man as Mr. Scrooge. You know he is, Robert! Nobody knows it better than you do, poor fellow!”

“My dear,” was Bob’s mild answer, “Christmas Day.”

“I’ll drink his health for your sake and the Day’s,” said Mrs. Cratchit, “not for his. Long life to him! A merry Christmas and a happy new year! He’ll be very merry and very happy, I have no doubt!”

The children drank the toast after her. It was the first of their proceedings which had no heartiness. Tiny Tim drank it last of all, but he didn’t care twopence for it. Scrooge was the Ogre of the family. The mention of his name cast a dark shadow on the party, which was not dispelled for full five minutes.

After it had passed away, they were ten times merrier than before.

There was nothing of high mark in this. They were not a handsome family; they were not well dressed; their shoes were far from being water-proof; their clothes were scanty. But, they were happy, grateful, pleased with one another, and contented with the time; and when they faded, and looked happier yet in the bright sprinklings of the Spirit’s torch at parting, Scrooge had his eye upon them, and especially on Tiny Tim, until the last.

Theme "Tunisia, Naturally Generous"

 

bio mediterraneo

 

The Concept

 

Tunisia is located in the heart of the Mediterranean. Here, in this land rich in history spanning more than 3,000 years, warm, generous people live in naturally abundant landscapes of olive groves, beaches, sand dunes, wheat fields, forests and palm trees. Located in the Bio-mediterraneum Cluster Tunisia’s Pavilion at Expo Milano 2015 is the "Enchanted Oasis", a space that pays tribute to the Oasis of Gabes, on the littoral of the Mediterranean, and one of the last of its kind in the world.

 

This natural ecosystem fits perfectly within the theme Feeding the Planet, Energy For Life. Being close to the sea and with its multiple layers of cultivation - palm trees, date palms, fruit trees and vegetables – it offers a favourable microclimate for the development of highly diverse flora. There is a symbiosis between humans and the natural environment: an exchange of energy which ensures the balance and harmony of this unique ecosystem.

The life force of this enchanted oasis will be a key concept of the project, bringing to the exhibition a source of Nature’s inspiration. As an interactive and contemplative space it invites visitors in, physically - through the senses - and psychologically, to create their own itineraries alone or in groups. The soil turns into golden sand. Pomegranate, fig and almond trees grow in the shade of date palms. On exploring the space, visitors hear the sound of running water or traditional folk music. Visitors participate in scenes of traditional bread-making, date-picking, or the irrigation of vegetable crops, as if in a dream, between the real and the virtual. At the end of their tour, they can then enjoy typical dishes, exemplars of Tunisia’s ancestral cuisine and its diverse cultural heritage.

====================================================

 

Tema della partecipazione "Tunisia, naturalmente generosa"

 

bio mediterraneo

 

Il concept

La Tunisia si trova nel cuore del Mediterraneo. Qui, in questa terra ricca di una storia lunga più di 3.000 anni, un popolo caldo e generoso vive circondato da paesaggi rigogliosi, ricchi di uliveti, spiagge, dune di sabbia, campi di grano, foreste e palmeti. Situato nel Cluster Bio-mediterraneo, il Padiglione della Tunisia a Expo Milano 2015 è “L’Oasi Incantata”, uno spazio che rende omaggio all’Oasi di Gabes, una delle ultime rimaste al mondo, che si trova sul litorale Mediterraneo.

 

Questo ecosistema naturale si sposa perfettamente al Tema Nutrire il Pianeta, Energia per la Vita. Situato vicino al mare, con una molteplicità di coltivazioni - palmeti, palme da dattero, alberi da frutto e ortaggi - offre un microclima favorevole allo sviluppo di una vegetazione estremamente varia. Si crea così una simbiosi tra l'uomo e l'ambiente naturale: uno scambio di energia che garantisce l'equilibrio e l'armonia di questo ecosistema unico.

 

La forza vitale di quest’oasi incantata sarà il concetto chiave del progetto. Il Padiglione è stato pensato come uno spazio interattivo e contemplativo che invita i visitatori, fisicamente (attraverso i sensi) e mentalmente, a creare il proprio personale itinerario, da soli o in gruppo. Il suolo si trasforma in sabbia dorata. Piante di melograno, fichi e mandorli crescono all'ombra delle palme da dattero. Nell’esplorare lo spazio i visitatori possono sentire il suono dell’acqua che scorre oppure una musica tradizionale. Come in un sogno tra reale e virtuale, i visitatori partecipano e a scene di panificazione tradizionale, raccolta o irrigazione dei campi. Alla fine del viaggio possono gustare i piatti tipici locali, esempio dell’antica cucina tunisina e testimonianza del suo variegato patrimonio culturale.

 

One of two Anglican churches located in North Cyprus, St. Andrew’s is regarded widely as an oasis of joy and peace.

 

Built in 1913 thanks to the generosity of a lay reader Ernest Eldred McDonald and a wealthy Scottish mine owner George Houstoun, St Andrew’s is approaching 110 years of service to the Kyrenia community.

 

Despite the unsure foundations, the site of St Andrew’s Church was well chosen. A few yards from Kyrenia Castle and the Harbour, it is near to the centre of the town. Indeed, much of the congregation of St Andrew’s is composed of holiday visitors.

 

Well seen from the outside, the church tower itself was constructed 25 years after the main build. Items of interest within the church include the bowl of the font which is a domestic marble mortar found in 1949 at Lambousa and assigned to the 6th century A.D.

 

St Andrew’s Church is part of the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf (one of the four dioceses that make up the Episcopal Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East), which includes Cyprus, the Gulf States, Iraq and Yemen, and also a part of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

 

Kyrenia is a city on the northern coast of Cyprus, noted for its historic harbour and castle. It is under the de facto control of Northern Cyprus.

 

While there is evidence showing that the wider region of Kyrenia has been populated before, the city was built by the Greeks named Achaeans from the Peloponnese after the Trojan War (1300 BC). According to Greek mythology, Kyrenia was founded by the Achaeans Cepheus and Praxandrus who ended up there after the Trojan War. The heroes gave to the new city the name of their city of Kyrenia located in Achaia, Greece.

 

As the town grew prosperous, the Romans established the foundations of its castle in the 1st century AD. Kyrenia grew in importance after the 9th century due to the safety offered by the castle, and played a pivotal role under the Lusignan rule as the city never capitulated. The castle has been most recently modified by the Venetians in the 15th century, but the city surrendered to the Ottoman Empire in 1571.

 

The city's population was almost equally divided between Muslims and Christians in 1831, with a slight Muslim majority. However, with the advent of British rule, many Turkish Cypriots fled to Anatolia, and the town came to be predominantly inhabited by Greek Cypriots. While the city suffered little intercommunal violence, its Greek Cypriot inhabitants, numbering around 2,650, fled or were forcefully displaced in the wake of the Turkish invasion in 1974. Currently, the city is populated by Turkish Cypriots, mainland Turkish settlers, and British expats, with a municipal population of 33,207.

 

Kyrenia is a cultural and economical centre, described as the tourism capital of Northern Cyprus. It is home to numerous hotels, nightlife and a port. It hosts an annual culture and arts festival with hundreds of participating artists and performers and is home to three universities with a student population around 14,000.

 

The history of Kyrenia, a city in Cyprus that the Turks have occupied since 1974, dates back to Prehistoric Cyprus and continues into the present.

 

Prehistoric and ancient times

Kyrenia dates to the end of the Trojan War when many settlers arrived there from Achaea in the Peloponnese with Kephios[1] and established towns in the district. Evidence from archeological sites excavated in and around the town of Kyrenia bespeak of the area's settlement since the Neolithic period, 5800-3000 BC. Moreover, many Mycenaean, Geometric and Achaean tombs dating from 14th to 5th centuries BC, were also discovered. A fine climate, fertile soil and an abundance of water offered ideal conditions for the town's early settlement.

 

Cepheus from Arcadia is believed to be the founder of the town of Kyrenia. A military leader, he arrived at the north coast of the island bringing with him many settlers from various towns in Achaea. One such town, located near present-day Aigio in the Peloponnese, was also called Kyrenia.

 

The earliest reference made to the town of Kyrenia is found, together with that of the other seven city kingdoms of Cyprus, in Egyptian scripts dating from the period of Ramesses III, c. 1186–1155 BC.

 

From its early days of settlement, Kyrenia's commerce and maritime trade benefited enormously from its proximity to the Asia Minor coast. Boats set sail from the Aegean islands, travelled along the Asia Minor coast, and then crossed over the short distance to the northern shores of Cyprus to reach the two city kingdoms of Lapithos and Kyrenia. This lively maritime activity (late 4th or early 3rd century BC) is evident in an ancient shipwreck discovered by Andreas Kariolou in 1965, just outside Kyrenia harbour. The vessel's route along Samos, Kos, Rhodes, the Asia Minor coastline and then Kyrenia, demonstrates the town's close maritime relations with other city kingdoms in the eastern Mediterranean.

 

During the succession struggle between Ptolemy and Antigonus that followed Alexander the Great's death in 323 BC, Kyrenia was subdued under the rule of the kingdom of Lapithos that allied itself with Antigonus. Once the Ptolemies were successful in dominating the whole island, all city kingdoms were abolished. Kyrenia however, because of its maritime trade, continued to prosper. In the 2nd century BC, it is cited as one of six Cypriot towns which were benefactors to the Oracle at Delphi, that is, it received its special representatives who collected contributions and gifts. The town's prosperity at this time is also evident from its two temples, one dedicated to Apollo and the other to Aphrodite, and from the rich archeological finds dating from the Hellenistic period excavated within the present-day town limits.

 

The Romans succeeded the Ptolemies as rulers of Cyprus and during this time Lapithos became the administrative centre of the district. The numerous tombs excavated and the rich archeological finds dating from this period indicate however, that Kyrenia continued to be a populous and prosperous town. An inscription found at the base of a limestone statue dating from 13 to 37 AD, refers to "Kyrenians Demos" that is, the town's inhabitants. Here the Romans left their mark by constructing a castle with a seawall in front of it so that boats and ships could anchor in safety.

 

Christianity found fertile ground in the area. The first Christian martyrs used the old quarries of Chrysokava, just east of Kyrenia castle, as catacombs and cut-rock cemeteries which are considered among the island's most important remains from this period. Later, some of these caves were converted into churches and feature beautiful iconography, the most representative of which is that found at Ayia Mavri. From these early days, the town of Kyrenia was an episcopal see. One of its first bishops, Theodotus, was arrested and tortured between 307 and 324, under the reign of Licinius.

 

The persecution of Christians officially ended in 313, when Constantine I and his co-emperor, Licinius, issued the Edict of Milan, which mandated toleration of Christians in the Roman Empire and freedom of worship. The martyrdom of Theodotus, however, occurred in 324 and it is this event that the Church annually commemorates on March 2.

 

Medieval Ages

With the division of the Roman empire into an eastern and western empire, in 395 Cyprus came under the Byzantine emperors and the Greek Orthodox Church. The Byzantine emperors fortified Kyrenia's Roman castle and in the 10th century, they constructed in its vicinity a church dedicated to St. George, which the garrison used as a chapel. Then, when in 806, Lambousa was destroyed in the Arab raids, Kyrenia grew in importance because its castle and garrison offered its inhabitants protection and security. Isaac Komnenos of Cyprus, the island's last Byzantine governor, sent his family and treasures to the castle for safety in 1191 when King Richard I of England of England went to war with him. However, Richard defeated Comnenus and became the island's new master.

 

King Richard's rule was not welcomed in Cyprus so he sold the island first to the Templars, and then in 1192, to Guy of Lusignan. Under Frankish rule, the villages of the district of Kyrenia became feudal estates and the town became once again the administrative and commercial centre for its region. The Lusignans enlarged the castle, built a wall and towers around the town, and extended the fortifications to the harbour. They also fortified the Byzantine castles of Saint Hilarion, Bouffavento and Kantara, which, together with Kyrenia Castle, protected the town from land and sea attacks. Kyrenia castle played a pivotal role in the island's history during the many disputes among the Frankish kings, as well as the conflicts with the Genoese. On numerous occasions the castle came under siege, but it never capitulated.

 

In 1489, Cyprus came under Venetian rule. The Venetians modified Kyrenia Castle to meet the threat that the use of gunpowder and cannons posed. The castle's royal quarters and three of its four thin and elegant Frankish towers were demolished and replaced by thickset circular towers that could better withstand cannon fire. These new towers, however, were never put to the test. In 1571, the castle and the town surrendered to the Ottoman army.

 

Kyrenia Under Ottoman Rule

Under Ottoman rule, Kyrenia district was at first one of four, then one six, administrative districts of the island and the town remained its administrative capital. The town's fortunes declined however as it was transformed into a garrison town. The Christian population was expelled from the fortified city, and no one was allowed to reside within the castle other than the artillerymen and their families. These men terrorized the town's inhabitants and those of the surrounding villages, Christian and Muslim alike, with their arbitrary looting and crimes. The few local inhabitants who dared to stay were merchants and fishermen whose livelihood depended on the sea. They built their homes outside the city wall, which through time, neglect and disrepair, turned to ruin. The rest of the inhabitants moved further out to the area known as Pano Kyrenia or the ‘Riatiko' (so called because it once belonged to a king) or fled further inland and to the mountain villages of Thermeia, Karakoumi, Kazafani, Bellapais and Karmi.

 

The town revived again when bribes and gifts paid to local Turkish officials caused them to permit local maritime trade with Asia Minor and the Aegean islands to resume. In 1783, the church of Chrysopolitissa was renovated. Then in 1856, following the Hatt-I-Humayum, which introduced social and political reform and greater religious freedom for the various peoples of the Ottoman Empire, the church of Archangel Michael was rebuilt on a rocky mount overlooking the sea. At about this time, many of the Christian inhabitants of the surrounding villages reestablished themselves in the town. Local agriculture and maritime trade, particularly the export of carobs to Asia Minor, allowed the people of Kyrenia to have a comfortable living, and some even to educate their children and pursue other cultural activities.

 

Under British Rule

In 1878, following a secret agreement between the British and Ottoman governments, the island was ceded to Great Britain as a military base in the eastern Mediterranean. At first, Great Britain did not undertake major administrative changes, so Kyrenia remained the district's capital. A road was constructed through the mountain pass to connect the town to the island's capital, Nicosia, and the harbour was repaired and expanded to accommodate increasing trade with the opposite coast. The town's municipal affairs were put in order and the municipal council took an active role in cleaning and modernizing the town. In 1893, a hospital was built through private contributions and effort. By the 1900s (decade), Kyrenia was a buzzing little town with a new school building, its own newspaper, social, educational and athletic clubs. It was also a favoured vacation spot for many wealthy Nicosia families. Many homes were converted into pensions and boarding houses and in 1906, the first hotel, The ‘Akteon,' was built by the sea. These first decades of British rule however, also saw increased economic hardship for the population. High taxation, frequent droughts and a world economic depression were precipitating factors for a mass exodus of people from the town and district, first to Egypt and then to the United States.

 

Kyrenia from the air in 1959

In 1922, the episcopal see of Kyrenia returned to the town after the completion of a new metropolitan building. That same year, the Greco-Turkish war brought to a halt all trade with the opposite coast causing a serious economic depression. To the rescue came a young repatriate from the USA who built the town's first modern hotels; first the ‘Seaview' in 1922 followed by the ‘Dome' in 1932 - both built with a foreign tourist clientele in mind. Kyrenia's mild climate, picturesque harbour, numerous archeological sites, panoramic views that combined sea, mountains and vegetation, coupled with modern amenities, soon attracted many travellers and Kyrenia's economy revived through tourism. After the Second World War, more hotels were built and the town remained a favoured vacation spot for Nicosia residents and foreign travellers alike. To the town's Greek and Turkish inhabitants were added many from Great Britain who chose Kyrenia as their permanent place of residence.

 

After Cypriot Independence

In 1960, Cyprus gained its independence from Great Britain. However, the intercommunal conflict that broke out in 1963-64 between the island's Greek and Turkish population again eroded Kyrenia's prosperity. While skirmishes in Kyrenia were minimal, Turkish Cypriot irregulars blockaded the Kyrenia-Nicosia road and occupied Saint Hilarion castle. Despite these difficulties, the 1960s and early 1970s was a period of lively cultural and economic activity. A new town hall was built and a Folklore Museum established. The ancient shipwreck [1] already alluded to was reassembled, together with all its amphorae and cargo, and permanently exhibited at the castle. The number of new hotels and tourists multiplied and a new road was constructed in the early 1970s connecting the town to Nicosia from the east. The town's cultural activities greatly increased. Other than the many traditional cultural and religious fairs and festivals annually celebrated, flower shows, yachting races, concerts and theatre performances were organized. Kyrenia, the smallest of Cypriot towns, was undoubtedly the island's most precious jewel.

 

The town's inhabitants, Greek, Turk, Maronite, Armenian, Latin and British peacefully coexisted and cooperated in their daily affairs and the town had grown beyond its two historic neighbourhoods of Kato (Lower) Kyrenia and Pano (Upper) Kyrenia. It expanded towards the mountain slopes to form the new neighbourhood of "California", and eastward it had just about reached the outskirts of Thermeia, Karakoumi and Ayios Georgios. On July 20, 1974, Turkey landed on the island to protect the Turkish minority from attack from the Greek military coup for enosis . The Greek Cypriots of Kyrenia abandoned their homes and headed to south of what is now the green line.

 

In 1974, there were 47 villages in the district of Kyrenia . Greek and Maronite Cypriots constituted 83% of the district's total population, while the Turkish Cypriots constituted just 15% of the total.

 

After the Turkish invasion

In 1974 the Turkish military conducted the Turkish Invasion of Cyprus. As a result, the Greeks of Kyrenia were expelled from their homes and became refugees. Today, the Republic of Cyprus continues to have a bishop of Kyrenia and the pre-1974 Greek inhabitants of Kyrenia continue to participate elections for the Kyrenia municipality in exile.

 

Northern Cyprus, officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is a de facto state that comprises the northeastern portion of the island of Cyprus. It is recognised only by Turkey, and its territory is considered by all other states to be part of the Republic of Cyprus.

 

Northern Cyprus extends from the tip of the Karpass Peninsula in the northeast to Morphou Bay, Cape Kormakitis and its westernmost point, the Kokkina exclave in the west. Its southernmost point is the village of Louroujina. A buffer zone under the control of the United Nations stretches between Northern Cyprus and the rest of the island and divides Nicosia, the island's largest city and capital of both sides.

 

A coup d'état in 1974, performed as part of an attempt to annex the island to Greece, prompted the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. This resulted in the eviction of much of the north's Greek Cypriot population, the flight of Turkish Cypriots from the south, and the partitioning of the island, leading to a unilateral declaration of independence by the north in 1983. Due to its lack of recognition, Northern Cyprus is heavily dependent on Turkey for economic, political and military support.

 

Attempts to reach a solution to the Cyprus dispute have been unsuccessful. The Turkish Army maintains a large force in Northern Cyprus with the support and approval of the TRNC government, while the Republic of Cyprus, the European Union as a whole, and the international community regard it as an occupation force. This military presence has been denounced in several United Nations Security Council resolutions.

 

Northern Cyprus is a semi-presidential, democratic republic with a cultural heritage incorporating various influences and an economy that is dominated by the services sector. The economy has seen growth through the 2000s and 2010s, with the GNP per capita more than tripling in the 2000s, but is held back by an international embargo due to the official closure of the ports in Northern Cyprus by the Republic of Cyprus. The official language is Turkish, with a distinct local dialect being spoken. The vast majority of the population consists of Sunni Muslims, while religious attitudes are mostly moderate and secular. Northern Cyprus is an observer state of ECO and OIC under the name "Turkish Cypriot State", PACE under the name "Turkish Cypriot Community", and Organization of Turkic States with its own name.

 

Several distinct periods of Cypriot intercommunal violence involving the two main ethnic communities, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, marked mid-20th century Cyprus. These included the Cyprus Emergency of 1955–59 during British rule, the post-independence Cyprus crisis of 1963–64, and the Cyprus crisis of 1967. Hostilities culminated in the 1974 de facto division of the island along the Green Line following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. The region has been relatively peaceful since then, but the Cyprus dispute has continued, with various attempts to solve it diplomatically having been generally unsuccessful.

 

Cyprus, an island lying in the eastern Mediterranean, hosted a population of Greeks and Turks (four-fifths and one-fifth, respectively), who lived under British rule in the late nineteenth-century and the first half of the twentieth-century. Christian Orthodox Church of Cyprus played a prominent political role among the Greek Cypriot community, a privilege that it acquired during the Ottoman Empire with the employment of the millet system, which gave the archbishop an unofficial ethnarch status.

 

The repeated rejections by the British of Greek Cypriot demands for enosis, union with Greece, led to armed resistance, organised by the National Organization of Cypriot Struggle, or EOKA. EOKA, led by the Greek-Cypriot commander George Grivas, systematically targeted British colonial authorities. One of the effects of EOKA's campaign was to alter the Turkish position from demanding full reincorporation into Turkey to a demand for taksim (partition). EOKA's mission and activities caused a "Cretan syndrome" (see Turkish Resistance Organisation) within the Turkish Cypriot community, as its members feared that they would be forced to leave the island in such a case as had been the case with Cretan Turks. As such, they preferred the continuation of British colonial rule and then taksim, the division of the island. Due to the Turkish Cypriots' support for the British, EOKA's leader, Georgios Grivas, declared them to be enemies. The fact that the Turks were a minority was, according to Nihat Erim, to be addressed by the transfer of thousands of Turks from mainland Turkey so that Greek Cypriots would cease to be the majority. When Erim visited Cyprus as the Turkish representative, he was advised by Field Marshal Sir John Harding, the then Governor of Cyprus, that Turkey should send educated Turks to settle in Cyprus.

 

Turkey actively promoted the idea that on the island of Cyprus two distinctive communities existed, and sidestepped its former claim that "the people of Cyprus were all Turkish subjects". In doing so, Turkey's aim to have self-determination of two to-be equal communities in effect led to de jure partition of the island.[citation needed] This could be justified to the international community against the will of the majority Greek population of the island. Dr. Fazil Küçük in 1954 had already proposed Cyprus be divided in two at the 35° parallel.

 

Lindley Dan, from Notre Dame University, spotted the roots of intercommunal violence to different visions among the two communities of Cyprus (enosis for Greek Cypriots, taksim for Turkish Cypriots). Also, Lindlay wrote that "the merging of church, schools/education, and politics in divisive and nationalistic ways" had played a crucial role in creation of havoc in Cyprus' history. Attalides Michael also pointed to the opposing nationalisms as the cause of the Cyprus problem.

 

By the mid-1950's, the "Cyprus is Turkish" party, movement, and slogan gained force in both Cyprus and Turkey. In a 1954 editorial, Turkish Cypriot leader Dr. Fazil Kuchuk expressed the sentiment that the Turkish youth had grown up with the idea that "as soon as Great Britain leaves the island, it will be taken over by the Turks", and that "Turkey cannot tolerate otherwise". This perspective contributed to the willingness of Turkish Cypriots to align themselves with the British, who started recruiting Turkish Cypriots into the police force that patrolled Cyprus to fight EOKA, a Greek Cypriot nationalist organisation that sought to rid the island of British rule.

 

EOKA targeted colonial authorities, including police, but Georgios Grivas, the leader of EOKA, did not initially wish to open up a new front by fighting Turkish Cypriots and reassured them that EOKA would not harm their people. In 1956, some Turkish Cypriot policemen were killed by EOKA members and this provoked some intercommunal violence in the spring and summer, but these attacks on policemen were not motivated by the fact that they were Turkish Cypriots.

 

However, in January 1957, Grivas changed his policy as his forces in the mountains became increasingly pressured by the British Crown forces. In order to divert the attention of the Crown forces, EOKA members started to target Turkish Cypriot policemen intentionally in the towns, so that Turkish Cypriots would riot against the Greek Cypriots and the security forces would have to be diverted to the towns to restore order. The killing of a Turkish Cypriot policeman on 19 January, when a power station was bombed, and the injury of three others, provoked three days of intercommunal violence in Nicosia. The two communities targeted each other in reprisals, at least one Greek Cypriot was killed and the British Army was deployed in the streets. Greek Cypriot stores were burned and their neighbourhoods attacked. Following the events, the Greek Cypriot leadership spread the propaganda that the riots had merely been an act of Turkish Cypriot aggression. Such events created chaos and drove the communities apart both in Cyprus and in Turkey.

 

On 22 October 1957 Sir Hugh Mackintosh Foot replaced Sir John Harding as the British Governor of Cyprus. Foot suggested five to seven years of self-government before any final decision. His plan rejected both enosis and taksim. The Turkish Cypriot response to this plan was a series of anti-British demonstrations in Nicosia on 27 and 28 January 1958 rejecting the proposed plan because the plan did not include partition. The British then withdrew the plan.

 

In 1957, Black Gang, a Turkish Cypriot pro-taksim paramilitary organisation, was formed to patrol a Turkish Cypriot enclave, the Tahtakale district of Nicosia, against activities of EOKA. The organisation later attempted to grow into a national scale, but failed to gain public support.

 

By 1958, signs of dissatisfaction with the British increased on both sides, with a group of Turkish Cypriots forming Volkan (later renamed to the Turkish Resistance Organisation) paramilitary group to promote partition and the annexation of Cyprus to Turkey as dictated by the Menderes plan. Volkan initially consisted of roughly 100 members, with the stated aim of raising awareness in Turkey of the Cyprus issue and courting military training and support for Turkish Cypriot fighters from the Turkish government.

 

In June 1958, the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, was expected to propose a plan to resolve the Cyprus issue. In light of the new development, the Turks rioted in Nicosia to promote the idea that Greek and Turkish Cypriots could not live together and therefore any plan that did not include partition would not be viable. This violence was soon followed by bombing, Greek Cypriot deaths and looting of Greek Cypriot-owned shops and houses. Greek and Turkish Cypriots started to flee mixed population villages where they were a minority in search of safety. This was effectively the beginning of the segregation of the two communities. On 7 June 1958, a bomb exploded at the entrance of the Turkish Embassy in Cyprus. Following the bombing, Turkish Cypriots looted Greek Cypriot properties. On 26 June 1984, the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktaş, admitted on British channel ITV that the bomb was placed by the Turks themselves in order to create tension. On 9 January 1995, Rauf Denktaş repeated his claim to the famous Turkish newspaper Milliyet in Turkey.

 

The crisis reached a climax on 12 June 1958, when eight Greeks, out of an armed group of thirty five arrested by soldiers of the Royal Horse Guards on suspicion of preparing an attack on the Turkish quarter of Skylloura, were killed in a suspected attack by Turkish Cypriot locals, near the village of Geunyeli, having been ordered to walk back to their village of Kondemenos.

 

After the EOKA campaign had begun, the British government successfully began to turn the Cyprus issue from a British colonial problem into a Greek-Turkish issue. British diplomacy exerted backstage influence on the Adnan Menderes government, with the aim of making Turkey active in Cyprus. For the British, the attempt had a twofold objective. The EOKA campaign would be silenced as quickly as possible, and Turkish Cypriots would not side with Greek Cypriots against the British colonial claims over the island, which would thus remain under the British. The Turkish Cypriot leadership visited Menderes to discuss the Cyprus issue. When asked how the Turkish Cypriots should respond to the Greek Cypriot claim of enosis, Menderes replied: "You should go to the British foreign minister and request the status quo be prolonged, Cyprus to remain as a British colony". When the Turkish Cypriots visited the British Foreign Secretary and requested for Cyprus to remain a colony, he replied: "You should not be asking for colonialism at this day and age, you should be asking for Cyprus be returned to Turkey, its former owner".

 

As Turkish Cypriots began to look to Turkey for protection, Greek Cypriots soon understood that enosis was extremely unlikely. The Greek Cypriot leader, Archbishop Makarios III, now set independence for the island as his objective.

 

Britain resolved to solve the dispute by creating an independent Cyprus. In 1959, all involved parties signed the Zurich Agreements: Britain, Turkey, Greece, and the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders, Makarios and Dr. Fazil Kucuk, respectively. The new constitution drew heavily on the ethnic composition of the island. The President would be a Greek Cypriot, and the Vice-President a Turkish Cypriot with an equal veto. The contribution to the public service would be set at a ratio of 70:30, and the Supreme Court would consist of an equal number of judges from both communities as well as an independent judge who was not Greek, Turkish or British. The Zurich Agreements were supplemented by a number of treaties. The Treaty of Guarantee stated that secession or union with any state was forbidden, and that Greece, Turkey and Britain would be given guarantor status to intervene if that was violated. The Treaty of Alliance allowed for two small Greek and Turkish military contingents to be stationed on the island, and the Treaty of Establishment gave Britain sovereignty over two bases in Akrotiri and Dhekelia.

 

On 15 August 1960, the Colony of Cyprus became fully independent as the Republic of Cyprus. The new republic remained within the Commonwealth of Nations.

 

The new constitution brought dissatisfaction to Greek Cypriots, who felt it to be highly unjust for them for historical, demographic and contributional reasons. Although 80% of the island's population were Greek Cypriots and these indigenous people had lived on the island for thousands of years and paid 94% of taxes, the new constitution was giving the 17% of the population that was Turkish Cypriots, who paid 6% of taxes, around 30% of government jobs and 40% of national security jobs.

 

Within three years tensions between the two communities in administrative affairs began to show. In particular disputes over separate municipalities and taxation created a deadlock in government. A constitutional court ruled in 1963 Makarios had failed to uphold article 173 of the constitution which called for the establishment of separate municipalities for Turkish Cypriots. Makarios subsequently declared his intention to ignore the judgement, resulting in the West German judge resigning from his position. Makarios proposed thirteen amendments to the constitution, which would have had the effect of resolving most of the issues in the Greek Cypriot favour. Under the proposals, the President and Vice-President would lose their veto, the separate municipalities as sought after by the Turkish Cypriots would be abandoned, the need for separate majorities by both communities in passing legislation would be discarded and the civil service contribution would be set at actual population ratios (82:18) instead of the slightly higher figure for Turkish Cypriots.

 

The intention behind the amendments has long been called into question. The Akritas plan, written in the height of the constitutional dispute by the Greek Cypriot interior minister Polycarpos Georkadjis, called for the removal of undesirable elements of the constitution so as to allow power-sharing to work. The plan envisaged a swift retaliatory attack on Turkish Cypriot strongholds should Turkish Cypriots resort to violence to resist the measures, stating "In the event of a planned or staged Turkish attack, it is imperative to overcome it by force in the shortest possible time, because if we succeed in gaining command of the situation (in one or two days), no outside, intervention would be either justified or possible." Whether Makarios's proposals were part of the Akritas plan is unclear, however it remains that sentiment towards enosis had not completely disappeared with independence. Makarios described independence as "a step on the road to enosis".[31] Preparations for conflict were not entirely absent from Turkish Cypriots either, with right wing elements still believing taksim (partition) the best safeguard against enosis.

 

Greek Cypriots however believe the amendments were a necessity stemming from a perceived attempt by Turkish Cypriots to frustrate the working of government. Turkish Cypriots saw it as a means to reduce their status within the state from one of co-founder to that of minority, seeing it as a first step towards enosis. The security situation deteriorated rapidly.

 

Main articles: Bloody Christmas (1963) and Battle of Tillyria

An armed conflict was triggered after December 21, 1963, a period remembered by Turkish Cypriots as Bloody Christmas, when a Greek Cypriot policemen that had been called to help deal with a taxi driver refusing officers already on the scene access to check the identification documents of his customers, took out his gun upon arrival and shot and killed the taxi driver and his partner. Eric Solsten summarised the events as follows: "a Greek Cypriot police patrol, ostensibly checking identification documents, stopped a Turkish Cypriot couple on the edge of the Turkish quarter. A hostile crowd gathered, shots were fired, and two Turkish Cypriots were killed."

 

In the morning after the shooting, crowds gathered in protest in Northern Nicosia, likely encouraged by the TMT, without incident. On the evening of the 22nd, gunfire broke out, communication lines to the Turkish neighbourhoods were cut, and the Greek Cypriot police occupied the nearby airport. On the 23rd, a ceasefire was negotiated, but did not hold. Fighting, including automatic weapons fire, between Greek and Turkish Cypriots and militias increased in Nicosia and Larnaca. A force of Greek Cypriot irregulars led by Nikos Sampson entered the Nicosia suburb of Omorphita and engaged in heavy firing on armed, as well as by some accounts unarmed, Turkish Cypriots. The Omorphita clash has been described by Turkish Cypriots as a massacre, while this view has generally not been acknowledged by Greek Cypriots.

 

Further ceasefires were arranged between the two sides, but also failed. By Christmas Eve, the 24th, Britain, Greece, and Turkey had joined talks, with all sides calling for a truce. On Christmas day, Turkish fighter jets overflew Nicosia in a show of support. Finally it was agreed to allow a force of 2,700 British soldiers to help enforce a ceasefire. In the next days, a "buffer zone" was created in Nicosia, and a British officer marked a line on a map with green ink, separating the two sides of the city, which was the beginning of the "Green Line". Fighting continued across the island for the next several weeks.

 

In total 364 Turkish Cypriots and 174 Greek Cypriots were killed during the violence. 25,000 Turkish Cypriots from 103-109 villages fled and were displaced into enclaves and thousands of Turkish Cypriot houses were ransacked or completely destroyed.

 

Contemporary newspapers also reported on the forceful exodus of the Turkish Cypriots from their homes. According to The Times in 1964, threats, shootings and attempts of arson were committed against the Turkish Cypriots to force them out of their homes. The Daily Express wrote that "25,000 Turks have already been forced to leave their homes". The Guardian reported a massacre of Turks at Limassol on 16 February 1964.

 

Turkey had by now readied its fleet and its fighter jets appeared over Nicosia. Turkey was dissuaded from direct involvement by the creation of a United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) in 1964. Despite the negotiated ceasefire in Nicosia, attacks on the Turkish Cypriot persisted, particularly in Limassol. Concerned about the possibility of a Turkish invasion, Makarios undertook the creation of a Greek Cypriot conscript-based army called the "National Guard". A general from Greece took charge of the army, whilst a further 20,000 well-equipped officers and men were smuggled from Greece into Cyprus. Turkey threatened to intervene once more, but was prevented by a strongly worded letter from the American President Lyndon B. Johnson, anxious to avoid a conflict between NATO allies Greece and Turkey at the height of the Cold War.

 

Turkish Cypriots had by now established an important bridgehead at Kokkina, provided with arms, volunteers and materials from Turkey and abroad. Seeing this incursion of foreign weapons and troops as a major threat, the Cypriot government invited George Grivas to return from Greece as commander of the Greek troops on the island and launch a major attack on the bridgehead. Turkey retaliated by dispatching its fighter jets to bomb Greek positions, causing Makarios to threaten an attack on every Turkish Cypriot village on the island if the bombings did not cease. The conflict had now drawn in Greece and Turkey, with both countries amassing troops on their Thracian borders. Efforts at mediation by Dean Acheson, a former U.S. Secretary of State, and UN-appointed mediator Galo Plaza had failed, all the while the division of the two communities becoming more apparent. Greek Cypriot forces were estimated at some 30,000, including the National Guard and the large contingent from Greece. Defending the Turkish Cypriot enclaves was a force of approximately 5,000 irregulars, led by a Turkish colonel, but lacking the equipment and organisation of the Greek forces.

 

The Secretary-General of the United Nations in 1964, U Thant, reported the damage during the conflicts:

 

UNFICYP carried out a detailed survey of all damage to properties throughout the island during the disturbances; it shows that in 109 villages, most of them Turkish-Cypriot or mixed villages, 527 houses have been destroyed while 2,000 others have suffered damage from looting.

 

The situation worsened in 1967, when a military junta overthrew the democratically elected government of Greece, and began applying pressure on Makarios to achieve enosis. Makarios, not wishing to become part of a military dictatorship or trigger a Turkish invasion, began to distance himself from the goal of enosis. This caused tensions with the junta in Greece as well as George Grivas in Cyprus. Grivas's control over the National Guard and Greek contingent was seen as a threat to Makarios's position, who now feared a possible coup.[citation needed] The National Guard and Cyprus Police began patrolling the Turkish Cypriot enclaves of Ayios Theodoros and Kophinou, and on November 15 engaged in heavy fighting with the Turkish Cypriots.

 

By the time of his withdrawal 26 Turkish Cypriots had been killed. Turkey replied with an ultimatum demanding that Grivas be removed from the island, that the troops smuggled from Greece in excess of the limits of the Treaty of Alliance be removed, and that the economic blockades on the Turkish Cypriot enclaves be lifted. Grivas was recalled by the Athens Junta and the 12,000 Greek troops were withdrawn. Makarios now attempted to consolidate his position by reducing the number of National Guard troops, and by creating a paramilitary force loyal to Cypriot independence. In 1968, acknowledging that enosis was now all but impossible, Makarios stated, "A solution by necessity must be sought within the limits of what is feasible which does not always coincide with the limits of what is desirable."

 

After 1967 tensions between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots subsided. Instead, the main source of tension on the island came from factions within the Greek Cypriot community. Although Makarios had effectively abandoned enosis in favour of an 'attainable solution', many others continued to believe that the only legitimate political aspiration for Greek Cypriots was union with Greece.

 

On his arrival, Grivas began by establishing a nationalist paramilitary group known as the National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston B or EOKA-B), drawing comparisons with the EOKA struggle for enosis under the British colonial administration of the 1950s.

 

The military junta in Athens saw Makarios as an obstacle. Makarios's failure to disband the National Guard, whose officer class was dominated by mainland Greeks, had meant the junta had practical control over the Cypriot military establishment, leaving Makarios isolated and a vulnerable target.

 

During the first Turkish invasion, Turkish troops invaded Cyprus territory on 20 July 1974, invoking its rights under the Treaty of Guarantee. This expansion of Turkish-occupied zone violated International Law as well as the Charter of the United Nations. Turkish troops managed to capture 3% of the island which was accompanied by the burning of the Turkish Cypriot quarter, as well as the raping and killing of women and children. A temporary cease-fire followed which was mitigated by the UN Security Council. Subsequently, the Greek military Junta collapsed on July 23, 1974, and peace talks commenced in which a democratic government was installed. The Resolution 353 was broken after Turkey attacked a second time and managed to get a hold of 37% of Cyprus territory. The Island of Cyprus was appointed a Buffer Zone by the United Nations, which divided the island into two zones through the 'Green Line' and put an end to the Turkish invasion. Although Turkey announced that the occupied areas of Cyprus to be called the Federated Turkish State in 1975, it is not legitimised on a worldwide political scale. The United Nations called for the international recognition of independence for the Republic of Cyprus in the Security Council Resolution 367.

 

In the years after the Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus one can observe a history of failed talks between the two parties. The 1983 declaration of the independent Turkish Republic of Cyprus resulted in a rise of inter-communal tensions and made it increasingly hard to find mutual understanding. With Cyprus' interest of a possible EU membership and a new UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 1997 new hopes arose for a fresh start. International involvement from sides of the US and UK, wanting a solution to the Cyprus dispute prior to the EU accession led to political pressures for new talks. The believe that an accession without a solution would threaten Greek-Turkish relations and acknowledge the partition of the island would direct the coming negotiations.

 

Over the course of two years a concrete plan, the Annan plan was formulated. In 2004 the fifth version agreed upon from both sides and with the endorsement of Turkey, US, UK and EU then was presented to the public and was given a referendum in both Cypriot communities to assure the legitimisation of the resolution. The Turkish Cypriots voted with 65% for the plan, however the Greek Cypriots voted with a 76% majority against. The Annan plan contained multiple important topics. Firstly it established a confederation of two separate states called the United Cyprus Republic. Both communities would have autonomous states combined under one unified government. The members of parliament would be chosen according to the percentage in population numbers to ensure a just involvement from both communities. The paper proposed a demilitarisation of the island over the next years. Furthermore it agreed upon a number of 45000 Turkish settlers that could remain on the island. These settlers became a very important issue concerning peace talks. Originally the Turkish government encouraged Turks to settle in Cyprus providing transfer and property, to establish a counterpart to the Greek Cypriot population due to their 1 to 5 minority. With the economic situation many Turkish-Cypriot decided to leave the island, however their departure is made up by incoming Turkish settlers leaving the population ratio between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots stable. However all these points where criticised and as seen in the vote rejected mainly by the Greek Cypriots. These name the dissolution of the „Republic of Cyprus", economic consequences of a reunion and the remaining Turkish settlers as reason. Many claim that the plan was indeed drawing more from Turkish-Cypriot demands then Greek-Cypriot interests. Taking in consideration that the US wanted to keep Turkey as a strategic partner in future Middle Eastern conflicts.

 

A week after the failed referendum the Republic of Cyprus joined the EU. In multiple instances the EU tried to promote trade with Northern Cyprus but without internationally recognised ports this spiked a grand debate. Both side endure their intention of negotiations, however without the prospect of any new compromises or agreements the UN is unwilling to start the process again. Since 2004 negotiations took place in numbers but without any results, both sides are strongly holding on to their position without an agreeable solution in sight that would suit both parties.

Divided reverse. Note generously translated by xiphophilos, "d(en) 25.2.1918, Zur Erinnerung an Euren Neffen Max Weinold.".

 

Every regiment and independent battalion had its own musicians' corps. These fellows were responsible for giving signals (bugler) and keeping the troops in step when marching (drummers). Musician's were distinguished by their Schwalbennester or "swallow's nest" shoulder pieces.

 

If the regiment wore litzen the Schwalbennester had patterned tresses and, in the infantry, additional fringes. When worn in the field, the Schwalbennester were constructed of field-grey or grey-green material and were able to be removed if required.

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Annapurna trekking region of Nepal enjoy with magnificent view close to highest and impressive mountain range in the world. Day exploration in Pokhara and morning morning flight to Jomsom or drive to Besishisahar from Kathmandu begin of trek. High destination, Muktinath 3800m and in generally highest point of whole Annapurna is 5416m. Thorangla la is situated in Buddhist Monastery, an eternal flame, and Hindus Vishnu Tempe of Juwala Mai making it a pilgrimage site for both Hindus and Buddhists and Muktinath is on the way down from popular trekking it call Thorang la pass which is incredible view in Annapurna region. Whenever possible we will arrive at lodging mid-afternoon, which should leave plenty time for explore the local villages, enjoy the hot springs at Tatopani, continue to Ghorepani where there is forever the possibility of sunrise hike to Poon Hill for spectacular views of Dhaulagiri, Fishtail, Nilgiri and the Annapurna Himalaya range. Continue on to Birethanti finally between with the Baglung road where we will catch cab to Pokhara, next day drive or fly to Kathmandu.

 

Everest trekking region, although fairly effortless compare to some of other trek, takes you high along trails to Tengboche monastery Everest Solu Khumbu is the district south and west of Mount Everest. It is inhabited by sherpa, cultural group that has achieve fame because of the develop of its men on climbing expeditions. Khumbu is the name of the northern half of this region above Namche, includes highest mountain (Mt. Everest 8848m.) in the world. Khumbu is in part of Sagarmatha National Park. This is a short trek but very scenic trek offers really superb view of the world's highest peaks, including Mt. Everest, Mt. Lhotse, Mt. Thamserku, Mt. Amadablam and other many snowy peaks. Fly from Kathmandu to Lukla it is in the Khumbu region and trek up to Namche Bazzar, Tyangboche and into the Khumjung village, a very nice settlement of Sherpas people. This trek introduction to Everest and Sherpa culture with great mountain views, a very popular destination for first time trekkers in Nepal. Justifiably well-known world uppermost mountain (8848m.) and also for its Sherpa villages and monasteries. Few days trek from Lukla on the highland, takes you to the entry to Sagarmatha National Park and town of Namche Bazaar is entrance of Everest Trek. Environment of the towering Himalayas is a very delicate eco-system that is effortlessly put out of balance.

 

Langtang trekking region mixture of three beautiful trek taking us straight into some of the wildest and most pretty areas of Nepal. Starting from the lovely hill town of Syabrubensi our trek winds during gorgeous rhododendron and conifer forests throughout the Langtang National Park on the way to the higher slopes. Leads up to the high alpine yak pastures, glaciers and moraines around Kyanging. Along this route you will have an chance to cross the Ganja La Pass if possible from Langtang Valley. Trail enters the rhododendron (National flower of Nepal) forest and climbs up to alpine yak pastures at Ngegang (4404m). From Ngegang we make a climb of Ganja La Pass (5122m). We start southwest, sliding past Gekye Gompa to reach Tarkeghyang otherwise we take a detour and another unique features of trekking past, the holy lakes of Gosainkund (4300 m.) cross into Helambu via Laurebina to Ghopte (3430 m) and further to Trakegyang. Northern parts of the area mostly fall within the boundaries of Langtang National park.

 

Peak Climbing in Nepal is great view of Himalayas and most various geological regions in asia. Climbing of peaks in Nepal is restricted under the rules of Nepal Mountaineering Association. Details information and application for climbing permits are available through Acute Trekking. First peak climbing in Nepal by Tenzing Norgey Sherpa and Sir Edmund Hilary on May 29, 1953 to Mt. Everest. Trekking Agency in Nepal necessary member from Nepal Mountaineering Association. Our agency will arrange equipment, guides, high altitude porters, food and all necessary gears for climbing in Nepal. Although for some peaks, you need to contribute additional time, exertion owing to improved elevation and complexity. Climbing peaks is next step beyond simply trekking and basic mountaineering course over snow line with ice axe, crampons, ropes etc under administration and coaching from climbing guide, who have substantial mountaineering knowledge and for your climbing in mountain.

 

Everest Base Camp Trek well noon its spectacular mountain peaks and the devotion and openness of its inhabitants, the Everest region is one of the most popular destination for tourists in Nepal. While numerous of the routes through the mountains are difficult, there are plenty places to rest and enjoy a meal along the way. Additionally, don't worry about receiving lost. Just ask a local the way to the next village on your route, and they will direct you. Most Sherpas under the age of fifty can at least understand basic English, and many speak it fluently.

 

Annapurna Base Camp Trek is the major peaks of the western portion of the great Annapurna Himalaya, Annapurna South, Fang, Annapurna, Ganagapurna, Annapurna 3 and Machhapuchhare and including Annapurna first 8091 meters are arranged almost exactly in a circle about 10 miles in diameter with a deep glacier enclosed field at the center. From this glacier basin, known as the Annapurna base camp trek (Annapurna sanctuary trek), the Modi Khola way south in a narrow ravine fully 12 thousand ft. deep. Further south, the ravine opens up into a wide and fruitful valley, the domain of the Gurungs. The center and upper portions of Modi Khola offer some of the best short routes for trekking in Nepal and the valley is situated so that these treks can be easily joint with treks into the Kali Gandaki (Kali Gandaki is name of the river in Nepal) region to the west.

 

Upper Mustang Trekking name Make an escapade beginning from world deepest gorge Kaligandaki valley into world's highest area of Lo-Mangthang valley that passes through an almost tree-less barren landscape, a steep stony trail up and down hill and panorama views of high Annapurna Himalaya including Nilgiri, Annapurna, Dhaulagiri and numerous other peaks. The trek passes through high peaks, passes, glaciers, and alpine valleys. The thousands years of seclusion has kept the society, lifestyle and heritage remain unaffected for centuries and to this date.

 

Helicopter Tour in Nepal having high mountains and wonderful landscape of countryside but is effortlessly reachable by land transport, is known as helicopter tours country. Helicopter services industry in Nepal is now well well-known with many types and categories of helicopters for the fly to different of Nepal. The pilots are very knowledgeable expert with 1000 of flying hours knowledge in Nepal. We have service for helicopter is outstanding reputations and established records for reliable emergency and rescue flight too. Here we would like to offer some of amazing helicopter tour in Himalaya country of Nepal. Further more details information about Nepal tour itinerary for helicopter tour in different part of Nepal contact us without hesitation.

 

Kathmandu Pokhra Tour is an exclusive tour package specially designed for all level travelers. Kathmandu Pokhara tour package is effortless tour alternative for Nepal visitors. This tour package vacation the historically significant and ethnically rich capital (Kathmandu ) of Nepal and the most stunning city of world by the nature, Pokhara. Mountain museum and world peace stupa are another charming of Pokhara tour. Pokhara is the center of escapade tourism in Nepal. Package tour to Kathmandu Pokhara is design to discover highlighted areas of Kathmandu and Pokhara valley. Nepal is the country which is socially and geographically different that’s why we powerfully recommend you discover Nepal to visit once in life time. It is hard to explore all Nepal in one Nepal tours trip in this way we design this trip to show you the highlights of Nepal especially in Kathmandu and Pokhara.

 

Adventure trekking in the southern part of the asia continent there lays a tiny rectangular kingdom squeezed between two hugely populated countries, China to the north and India to the south, this country is Nepal a world of its own. Adventure trekking is a type of tourism, involving exploration or travel to remote, exotic and possibly hostile areas. Adventure trekking in Nepal is rapidly growing in popularity, as tourists seek different kinds of vacations. The land of contrast is presumably the exact way to define the scenery of Nepal for you will find maximum world highest peaks high high up above the clouds determined for the gods above. Straight, active and attractive learning experience adventure trekking in Nepal that engross the whole person and have real adventure. Mt. Everest, Kanchenjunga, Daulagiri, and Annapurna and many more are there for the offering for mountain-lovers, adventurers and travelers.

 

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Trekking in Nepal - Nepal Trekking - Tea House Trekking - Lodge Trekking - Kathmandu Pokhara Tour - High Pass Trekking - Luxury Trekking in Nepal - Luxury Tour in Nepal - Helicopter Tour in Nepal - Nepal Helicopter Tour - Annapurna Trekking - Annapurna Base Camp Trek - Annapurna Sanctuary Trek - Annapurna Panirama Trekking - Ghorepani Trekking - Jomsom Muktinath Trekking - Annapurna Circuit Trekking - Annapurna Round Trekking - Tilicho Mesokanto Trekking - Tilicho Lake Mesokanto Pass Trekking - Upper Mustang Trekking - Everest Trekking - Everest Base Camp Trek - Everest Panorama Trekking - Gokyo Trekking - Gokyo Everest Trekking - Renjola Pass Trekking - Kongmala Pass Trekking - Three Pass Trekking - Jiri Everest Trekking - Langtang Trekking - Langtang Valley Trekking - Gosaikunda Trekking - Helambu Trekking - Tamang Heritage Trekking - Chisapani Nagarkot Trekking - Kathmandu Valley Cultural Trekking - Langtang Gosaikunda Helambu Trekking - Ganjala Pass Trekking - Peak Climbing in Nepal - Nepal Peak Climbing - High Pass Trekking - Nepal For All Season - Package Tour in Nepal - Island Peak Climbing - Mera Peak Climbing - Pisang Peak Climbing - Adventure Trekking - Adventures Trekking - Mustang Trekking - Upper Mustang Trek - Lower Mustang Trekking - Seasonal Package Trekking Tours in Nepal - Annapurna Trekking Region - Annapurna Base Camp Trek - Everest Trekking Region - Gokyo Trekking - Langtang Trekking Region - Tea House Trek or Lodge Trek - Three Pass Trekking or Everest High Pass Trekking

This photo was taken with a non-digital Nikon F601 camera.

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

 

Today however we are following Lettice’s maid, Edith, who together with her beau, local grocery delivery boy Frank Leadbetter, have wended their way pleasurably a short distance south-east of Cavendish Mews, through the Burlington Estate, along Piccadilly past the six storey red brick façade of Fortnum and Mason with its six fanlight display windows, across busy Piccadilly Circus with its high hoardings advertising Bovril and Schweppes tonic water and its central fountain surmounted by Eros, and down to Trafalgar Square in the centre of London.

 

The pair are dressed in their summer best as they enjoy the sunshine: Frank in his Sunday best blue suit and a smart straw boater with a colourful grosgrain ribbon around the crown, and Edith in her blue floral sprigged frock and her wide brimmed straw hat decorated with a gay blue green and red ribbon and artificial flowers in matching colours, yet still holding her old battered black umbrella just in case of inclement weather. Circumnavigating tall Nelson’s Column guarded by his four giant lion statues, the pair blend in with the other citizens of London taking a stroll in the good weather. They laugh and chatter away amicably together as they perambulate across the wide tiled square, all awkwardness of their early courtship long left behind and replaced with a comfort and ease that comes with knowing one another better. They walk between the two ornamental fountains where children play and head towards the sweep of stairs that lead up to the National Gallery of London.

 

As they walk into the shadow of the tall Neoclassical columned façade of the gallery, Edith shivers and pulls herself more closely against Frank, not because she is cold, but because she is intimidated by the enormity and grandeur of the ediface. She has never been to the National Gallery before, and even as she walks past the liveried guards, she silently worries that she will be dragged away from Frank and thrown out for her impertinence. Yet when they approach one near the entrance to the gallery, he smiles and says good morning to them both.

 

“You see, Edith,” Frank reassures her, squeezing her forearm just above where her green leather handbag handle sits in the crook of her arm. “I told you there was nothing to worry about. The National gallery is for everyone, not just the wealthy.”

 

The pair walk through long galleries where the gently diffused light from large skylights above falls onto the artworks hanging in gilt frames along the painted walls around them. The galleries are populated with people of all kinds chatting quietly together in pairs like Frank and Edith or in small groups, all admiring the works hanging serenely about them in the long galleries. Edith’s heels click against the parquetry floors, but she is too amazed by all the beautiful paintings to feel self-conscious about it or feel inferiority because her clothes are not as fine as some of the gallery’s visitors around them. With her right arm linked firmly with Frank’s, she allows him to lead her through gallery after gallery, pointing out portraits of famous people from history, landscapes by the Impressionist painters of France, Italian Renaissance paintings and Dutch masters.

 

Eventually the pair wend their way to a gallery featuring artwork and furnishings from, or inspired by the Tudor period.

 

“The Royal Nursery 1538 by Marcus Stone,” Edith reads quietly aloud from the plaque stuck to the red painted wall beneath the large gold framed portrait. “Painted in 1871.” She looks closely at the fine details of the faces of the people in the oil painting and their beautiful Tudor costumes. “Well that’s obviously Henry VIII,” she remarks, indicating to the central figure pulling a toy galleon on wheels, who is unmistakably the Tudor sovereign. “But who are the others?”

 

“Well,” Frank says peering at the oil painting which has yellowed with age and exposure to the elements. “I’d say that is his son, Prince Edward,” He points to the cherubic child in what looks more like a Tudor torture machine than a wooden walker. “I would imagine that that is Princess Elizabeth who became Queen Elizabeth.” He indicates to a sad looking child standing on her own to the left of the painting with a wistful look on her face.

 

“How do you know that Frank?” Edith asks with eyes glittering with excitement.

 

“Well, see,” he points to her hands. “She appears to have been reading before the arrival of King Henry, and Queen Elizabeth was purportedly an avid reader.”

 

“Oh!” Edith nods and gazes seriously at the child.

 

“And that may be Princess Mary, who became Queen Mary who caused so many problems between the Catholics and the Protestants here in England.” Frank indicates to the young woman in very grand garb kneeling beside the young prince in the walker. “She was Elizabeth’s older half-sister. I’m not sure who the rest are. Servants maybe, or the king’s advisors.”

 

“Yes, she looks like a nursemaid.” Edith points to a woman in the shadows to the right of the painting standing by a cradle.

 

“Of course,” Frank remarks. “It’s all very fanciful, really.”

 

Edith turns away from the painting after the pair look at it in companionable silence for a few moments longer and spots several high backed chairs with red velvet seats sitting in a cluster in the middle of the gallery’s parquetry floor.

 

“Do you mind if we sit down for a few minutes Frank? My shoes are beginning to pinch from all the standing we’ve been doing.”

 

“Oh of course, Edith!” Frank replies with concern. “Lets sit over there.” He nods to the same cluster of chairs that had caught Edith’s eyes.

 

The pair walk over to the chairs where Edith sinks down with a grateful sigh, whilst Frank sits down beside her, placing his smart summer straw boater on the seat next to him. Edith reaches down to her foot and discreetly slips off her left Sunday best black pump and rubs her heel beneath her slightly rumpled stocking.

 

Sitting up again, Edith looks back across at the painting. “What do you mean by the painting is fanciful, Frank?”

 

“Well, I doubt that even King Henry’s children’s nursery would have looked quite so picturesque as that in Tudor times. Life dirty back in those days, even for kings and queens. Marcus Stone* was a Victorian Romantic painter, Edith, so his image is a romanticised version of what we might have seen.”

 

“But none of us can truly know what the King’s nursery looked like back then, Frank.”

 

“Very true, Edith. Mr. Stone was painting a historical scene that appealed to the romantic ideals of the time. Queen Victoria and her family were very interested in history, but a romanticised and sanitised version of it, and she influenced the tastes of all her subjects. She was also a very family-oriented monarch, probably the first since King George III, so domestic scenes were very popular at the time Mr. Stone painted it.”

 

Edith’s pretty cornflower blue eyes grow wide as she stares in admiration at her beau sitting beside her. “You are so knowledgeable, Frank.”

 

“Thank you Edith.” he replies proudly sitting up a little more boldly.

 

“How do you know so much?”

 

“Well, I do read quite a lot, Edith. You should see my bedroom at my lodgings. There are books everywhere. Mrs. Chapman keeps threatening to fling them all out. She says the weight will make the floors bow.” He chuckles.

 

“They won’t will they, Frank?” Edith gasps.

 

“Oh no!” he assures her. “It’s just Mrs. Chapman and one of her ways. I don’t think she has ever been a great reader, and she treats books, and book readers, with suspicion. I don’t think she would have agreed to take me as a paying lodger if she knew I read as much as I do.”

 

“I don’t know where you find the space in your head to store all the information you gather from what you read. I’m sure I couldn’t. I’m sure I’ll never be as smart as you, Frank.” Edith blushes with embarrassment.

 

“Rubbish Edith!” Frank retorts quickly. “I’ve told you before, we are all smart in different ways. There are things you know and know how to do that I don’t.”

 

“Sometimes I think what I know in comparison to you is of no significance at all.”

 

“That’s foolish talk too, Edith, and I said as much in Hilda’s kitchen that Sunday when we all went to the Hammersmith Palais**.” Frank chides his sweetheart, not unkindly. “You know how to cook, and all my knowledge of painting couldn’t feed an empty belly.” He looks at Edith lovingly. “You know you really mustn’t feel inferior, Edith. I only know what I do because my grandparents used to bring me here when I was, as Gran would say, ‘a wee bairn’.”

 

“Well, you are very lucky, Frank.”

 

“I know, Edith.” He looks around the red painted gallery populated with couples, small clusters of people and a few men and women on their own, quietly admiring the Tudor paintings covering the walls. “So, how do you like your first visit to the National Gallery, then?”

 

“Oh, I love it, Frank!” Edith enthuses. “You know, when we spent New Year’s Eve at The Angel*** and you suggested that we visit here, I had my doubts.”

 

“I know Edith. I could see them, as plain as day in your pretty face.” Frank chuckles.

 

“I always thought of galleries as places, well where people like Miss Lettice and her fine friends go, and not for people like me. The way she tries to talk to me about modern art and fashionable trends when she gets a new delivery from the Portland Gallery in Bond Street just leaves me feeling bewildered. Next to her, I feel I don’t even know what art is.”

 

“Well, those kind of galleries are a bit more avant-garde.” Frank agrees.

 

“What does that mean, Frank?”

 

Frank thinks for a moment, looking up to the white painted plaster ceiling above before replying. “Experimental and innovatively modern.”

 

“Well, I don’t think I am so keen on that kind of art. Paintings that look like blotches and squares of bright colour that I’m told are portraits or landscapes where I can’t see either, leave me feeling unsettled. But here,” She waves her hands expansively around her with a relieved smile. “I can see paintings and sculptures that I understand. That painting says it’s a nursery, and whether it is historically accurate or not, Frank, it looks like a nursery to me. These are like the pictures Mrs. Boothby has hanging above her sink in Poplar, only far more colourful and beautiful.”

 

“That’s because these are originals, not facsimiles, Edith.”

 

“Facsimile.” Edith laughs quietly and shakes her head as she rolls the foreign word around on her tongue like an exotic sweet. “And what does that mean, Frank Leadbetter?”

 

“A copy.” he replies with a slightly embarrassed chuckle of his own.

 

“Facsimile, facsimile,” Edith quietly recites, trying to gain familiarity with the word. “I like that word, Frank. It sounds very grand and important, and much nicer than copy, which sounds so boring and everyday in comparison.”

 

The pair laugh together and sigh happily.

 

“So, you’d be happy to come here again then, Edith?” Frank asks hopefully.

 

“Oh yes Frank! I’d love that!”

 

“I’m glad to hear you say that Edith, because there are so many more galleries to see, and the curators of the galleries do change paintings over from time to time, and have exhibitions of paintings brought in especially from other galleries in other countries.”

 

“Are you wanting to make me as knowledgeable about art as you, Frank?”

 

“Well,” Frank blushes. “It wouldn’t be a bad thing to expand your horizons, Edith, and I love showing you that there is a whole world of art that you’ve never experienced before.”

 

“Oh, you are so lovely, Frank.” Edith sighs. “How fortunate I am to have met you.”

 

“And how lucky I am to have met you too, Edith.”

 

The couple discreetly hold hands as they sit side by side on the seats and stare lovingly into one another’s eyes, the people milling about them, the sound of footsteps and the quiet burble of conversation drifting away as they focus only on each other.

 

At length Frank breaks their blissful moment of enjoyment. “What do you think your mum would say to me bringing you here, Edith?” His happy eyes suddenly cloud a little with concern.

 

“Oh, I don’t think she’d mind, Frank.”

 

“Don’t you think she would think I was trying to fill your head with ideas that don’t belong there?” he asks glumly, hanging his head as he speaks.

 

“No, of course she wouldn’t! Mum loves beautiful things too, Frank. I think she thinks the same of galleries as I did until you brought me here, and if she knew that the gallery was open to the likes of you and me, and that it was free, she’d spend a few hard earned pennies catching the tube to come here too.”

 

“Do you really think so, Edith?”

 

“Of course I do, Frank. Maybe we could even bring her here one Sunday on our day off.” Edith assures her beau.

 

“That would be a turn up for the books, Edith.” Frank smiles.

 

“Look, I know that you and Mum got off to a rocky start together when you first met, but she’s warming to you, Frank. Honestly she is.”

 

“I’m sure Edith.” Frank squeezes Edith’s hands. “I’m just anxious that we get along, is all. When you and I get married, I want her to be proud of her daughter’s choice in a husband.”

 

“Frank,” Edith looks earnestly into the young man’s anxious face. “Mum knows that I’m old enough to make my own decisions. I’m not a little girl anymore. She will be proud when I marry the man who suits me down to a tee, and that man is you, Frank.”

 

Frank blushes red and smiles shyly at his sweetheart who returns it with her own shy smile.

 

“I do love you, Edith Watsford.”

 

“And I love you, Frank Leadbetter.”

 

“Well, if you do, Edith,” Frank looks back at the picture of the Royal Nursery and points. “How many children shall we have?”

 

“Oh, you are awful Frank Leadbetter!” gasps Edith, her cheeks colouring at the mention of having babies. “None until after the day we get wed!” She releases his hands and playfully smacks him across the knuckles.

 

“Yes, but then now many?” Frank persists.

 

“We’ll see then, won’t we, Frank?” Edith laughs. She slips her shoe back on and picks up her handbag. “Come on,” she says, standing up. “We’ve sat here for long enough.” She holds out her hand to him. “It’s time for you to show me some more of the National Gallery.”

 

“Yes Miss!” Frank says, snatching up his hat and their guidebooks.

 

Arm in arm the pair begin to move further along the gallery towards the door leading into the next room, their heads bowed towards one another as they chatter happily between them.

 

*Marcus Stone RA was an English painter. He was born in London in 1840, and was educated by his father, artist Frank Stone, before exhibiting at the Royal Academy before he was eighteen. He is known for his illustrations of books by Charles Dickens and Anthony Trollope. His earlier works were mostly historical incidents, but his later works were more sentimental. He is best known for his painting “In Love” which he painted in 1888. He died in 1921 in Kensington.

 

**The Hammersmith Palais de Danse, in its last years simply named Hammersmith Palais, was a dance hall and entertainment venue in Hammersmith, London, England that operated from 1919 until 2007. It was the first palais de danse to be built in Britain.

 

***The Angel, one of the oldest Rotherhithe pubs, is now in splendid isolation in front of the remains of Edward III's mansion on the Thames Path at the western edge of Rotherhithe. The site was first used when the Bermondsey Abbey monks used to brew beer which they sold to pilgrims. It is located at 24 Rotherhithe St, opposite Execution Dock in Wapping. It has two storeys, plus an attic. It is built of multi-coloured stock brick with a stucco cornice and blocking course. The ground floor frontage is made of wood. There is an area of segmental arches on the first floor with sash windows, and it is topped by a low pitched slate roof. Its Thames frontage has an unusual weatherboarded gallery on wooden posts. The interior is divided by wooden panels into five small rooms. In the early 20th Century its reputation and location attracted local artists including Augustus John and James Abbott McNeil Whistler. In the 1940s and 50s it became a popular destination for celebrities including Laurel and Hardy. Today its customers are local residents, tourists and people walking the Thames Path.

 

Although carefully arranged to look like the National Gallery as it was in the 1920s, this scene is different from what you might think, for it is made up entirely of 1:12 size dollhouse miniatures from my collection, including pieces from my own childhood.

 

Fun things to look for in this tableau include:

 

The paintings on the walls in their gilt frames all come from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls House Shop in the United Kingdom. The main painting featured is a copy of “The Royal Nursery 1538”, an oil on canvas by Victorian Romanticist painter, history painter, illustrator and genre painter, Marcus Stone.

 

The Queen Anne chairs in the foreground are part of a dining room set that I was given as birthday present when I was a child.

 

1:12 size miniature hats made to exacting standards of quality and realism are often far more expensive than real hats are. When you think that one would sit comfortably on the tip of your index finger, yet it could cost in excess of $150.00 or £100.00, makes them an extravagance. American artists seem to have the monopoly on this skill and some of the hats that I have seen or acquired over the years are remarkable. Although not as expensive, Frank’s straw boater is made with wonderful detail and comes from Doreen Jeffries’ Small Wonders miniature shop in the United Kingdom.

 

Edith’s handbag handmade from soft leather is part of a larger collection of hats and bags that I bought from an American miniature collector Marilyn Bickel.

 

The black umbrella came from an online stockist of 1:12 miniatures on E-Bay.

 

The Tudor table beneath “The Royal Nursery 1538” and the Tudor chair you can just see to its right, I bought as part of a lot of miniature pieces from an antique auction when I was a late teenager. The chest to the left of the photo came from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls House Shop.

 

Edith’s handbag handmade from soft leather is part of a larger collection of hats and bags that I bought from an American miniature collector Marilyn Bickel.

LONG LEATHER HIGH HEEL BOOTS. RED DRESS AND GENEROUS THIGHS. BLACK TIGHTS

A very generous friend decided to gift their beloved friend with a custom wooden unicorn. And I had the opportunity to be in the middle of it all! This was a big undertaking, but definitely a worthwhile project! I also love surprises, so it was fun all around.

 

I learned so many things along the way while making this unicorn. It's amazing how much you don't understand something until you try to make it in 3D, lol. When it was complete, Stella almost couldn't bear to be separated from it, she seemed to have taken quite a liking to this horse :D. I think the two quite suit eachother, if I ever have the chance, I'd like to make another animal just for her; I was thinking of a little cat ;)

 

The surprise unicorn is now with its new owner!

  

Check my Etsy if you're interested in a doll of your own ♥

Impressive amount of space here!

I'll have to park in Scotland again.

a man reading the generosity list of donations made at a Chinese festive ceremony

Trekking in Nepal is part of Hiking in Nepal and Adventure Trekking in Nepal and Trekking in Himalaya. Natures to renew one’s own self regard, to relive oneself, to realize Nepal beauty, to interact with its generous, friendly peoples are highlights of Trekking in Nepal. Trekking is one long term activity that draws repeat Nepal Travelers for Treks Himalaya. So, Nepal is final purpose for trekking. Offers numerous options walking excursion to meet snowy peaks, their foot hills, valleys but however there is amazing for each who hope Trek in Nepal hill, mountain area. Typical trekking and Hiking in Nepal as unique combination of natural glory, spectacular trekking trips to hard climbing and Everest Base Camp Trek is most rewarding way to skill Nepal natural beautification and cultural array is to walking, trekking, width and the height of country. Trekking is important of Travel Nepal for Trekking Tours in Himalaya on description Nepal Tour of large range of ecological features for Nepal Travel Holiday. The country nurtures a variety of flora and scenery. Addition to natural atmosphere is rich Himalayan culture. Many of visitor trek to different part of Nepal every year to experience its rustic charm, nature and culture. Most treks through areas between 1000 to 5185m, though some popular parts reach over 5648 meters. Trekking is not climbing, while the climb of Himalayan peaks and enjoy walking Holiday in Nepal and Trekking Tours Nepal might be an attraction for travelers. Every travelers knows for the Trekking in Nepal from all over the words an inspiring knowledge. Attraction for your Travel Holiday in Nepal of beauty and its excellent culture.

 

Nepal Trekking heartily welcome your Travel Holiday in Nepal. We are honest your travel and Travel and Trekking in Nepal with us from our try to be fully satisfy client in our country and we anticipate good suggestion from you for our agency always. Client gratify is our motto and continually faithful frequently in our service when you are in any types of travel activities in Nepal. We presume to positives feedback in future and increase Nepal travelers with us every year. All the crews from our agency in Nepal are expert in Travel and Tourism in Nepal, as well as trekking and Peak Climbing in Nepal. Customer’s security, safety, relaxed and enjoyment always in high priority. Adventure Guided Walking make sure that every knowledge with us how to satisfy and remarkable Holiday in Nepal. Hope you confident to make trips inquiries and our company quick responds to you make joyful Holiday Travel.

 

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Annapurna trekking region of Nepal enjoy with magnificent view close to highest and impressive mountain range in the world. Day exploration in Pokhara and morning morning flight to Jomsom or drive to Besishisahar from Kathmandu begin of trek. High destination, Muktinath 3800m and in generally highest point of whole Annapurna is 5416m. Thorangla la is situated in Buddhist Monastery, an eternal flame, and Hindus Vishnu Tempe of Juwala Mai making it a pilgrimage site for both Hindus and Buddhists and Muktinath is on the way down from popular trekking it call Thorang la pass which is incredible view in Annapurna region. Whenever possible we will arrive at lodging mid-afternoon, which should leave plenty time for explore the local villages, enjoy the hot springs at Tatopani, continue to Ghorepani where there is forever the possibility of sunrise hike to Poon Hill for spectacular views of Dhaulagiri, Fishtail, Nilgiri and the Annapurna Himalaya range. Continue on to Birethanti finally between with the Baglung road where we will catch cab to Pokhara, next day drive or fly to Kathmandu.

 

Everest trekking region, although fairly effortless compare to some of other trek, takes you high along trails to Tengboche monastery Everest Solu Khumbu is the district south and west of Mount Everest. It is inhabited by sherpa, cultural group that has achieve fame because of the develop of its men on climbing expeditions. Khumbu is the name of the northern half of this region above Namche, includes highest mountain (Mt. Everest 8848m.) in the world. Khumbu is in part of Sagarmatha National Park. This is a short trek but very scenic trek offers really superb view of the world's highest peaks, including Mt. Everest, Mt. Lhotse, Mt. Thamserku, Mt. Amadablam and other many snowy peaks. Fly from Kathmandu to Lukla it is in the Khumbu region and trek up to Namche Bazzar, Tyangboche and into the Khumjung village, a very nice settlement of Sherpas people. This trek introduction to Everest and Sherpa culture with great mountain views, a very popular destination for first time trekkers in Nepal. Justifiably well-known world uppermost mountain (8848m.) and also for its Sherpa villages and monasteries. Few days trek from Lukla on the highland, takes you to the entry to Sagarmatha National Park and town of Namche Bazaar is entrance of Everest Trek. Environment of the towering Himalayas is a very delicate eco-system that is effortlessly put out of balance.

 

Langtang trekking region mixture of three beautiful trek taking us straight into some of the wildest and most pretty areas of Nepal. Starting from the lovely hill town of Syabrubensi our trek winds during gorgeous rhododendron and conifer forests throughout the Langtang National Park on the way to the higher slopes. Leads up to the high alpine yak pastures, glaciers and moraines around Kyanging. Along this route you will have an chance to cross the Ganja La Pass if possible from Langtang Valley. Trail enters the rhododendron (National flower of Nepal) forest and climbs up to alpine yak pastures at Ngegang (4404m). From Ngegang we make a climb of Ganja La Pass (5122m). We start southwest, sliding past Gekye Gompa to reach Tarkeghyang otherwise we take a detour and another unique features of trekking past, the holy lakes of Gosainkund (4300 m.) cross into Helambu via Laurebina to Ghopte (3430 m) and further to Trakegyang. Northern parts of the area mostly fall within the boundaries of Langtang National park.

 

Peak Climbing in Nepal is great view of Himalayas and most various geological regions in asia. Climbing of peaks in Nepal is restricted under the rules of Nepal Mountaineering Association. Details information and application for climbing permits are available through Acute Trekking. First peak climbing in Nepal by Tenzing Norgey Sherpa and Sir Edmund Hilary on May 29, 1953 to Mt. Everest. Trekking Agency in Nepal necessary member from Nepal Mountaineering Association. Our agency will arrange equipment, guides, high altitude porters, food and all necessary gears for climbing in Nepal. Although for some peaks, you need to contribute additional time, exertion owing to improved elevation and complexity. Climbing peaks is next step beyond simply trekking and basic mountaineering course over snow line with ice axe, crampons, ropes etc under administration and coaching from climbing guide, who have substantial mountaineering knowledge and for your climbing in mountain.

 

Everest Base Camp Trek well noon its spectacular mountain peaks and the devotion and openness of its inhabitants, the Everest region is one of the most popular destination for tourists in Nepal. While numerous of the routes through the mountains are difficult, there are plenty places to rest and enjoy a meal along the way. Additionally, don't worry about receiving lost. Just ask a local the way to the next village on your route, and they will direct you. Most Sherpas under the age of fifty can at least understand basic English, and many speak it fluently.

 

Annapurna Base Camp Trek is the major peaks of the western portion of the great Annapurna Himalaya, Annapurna South, Fang, Annapurna, Ganagapurna, Annapurna 3 and Machhapuchhare and including Annapurna first 8091 meters are arranged almost exactly in a circle about 10 miles in diameter with a deep glacier enclosed field at the center. From this glacier basin, known as the Annapurna base camp trek (Annapurna sanctuary trek), the Modi Khola way south in a narrow ravine fully 12 thousand ft. deep. Further south, the ravine opens up into a wide and fruitful valley, the domain of the Gurungs. The center and upper portions of Modi Khola offer some of the best short routes for trekking in Nepal and the valley is situated so that these treks can be easily joint with treks into the Kali Gandaki (Kali Gandaki is name of the river in Nepal) region to the west.

 

Upper Mustang Trekking name Make an escapade beginning from world deepest gorge Kaligandaki valley into world's highest area of Lo-Mangthang valley that passes through an almost tree-less barren landscape, a steep stony trail up and down hill and panorama views of high Annapurna Himalaya including Nilgiri, Annapurna, Dhaulagiri and numerous other peaks. The trek passes through high peaks, passes, glaciers, and alpine valleys. The thousands years of seclusion has kept the society, lifestyle and heritage remain unaffected for centuries and to this date.

 

Helicopter Tour in Nepal having high mountains and wonderful landscape of countryside but is effortlessly reachable by land transport, is known as helicopter tours country. Helicopter services industry in Nepal is now well well-known with many types and categories of helicopters for the fly to different of Nepal. The pilots are very knowledgeable expert with 1000 of flying hours knowledge in Nepal. We have service for helicopter is outstanding reputations and established records for reliable emergency and rescue flight too. Here we would like to offer some of amazing helicopter tour in Himalaya country of Nepal. Further more details information about Nepal tour itinerary for helicopter tour in different part of Nepal contact us without hesitation.

 

Kathmandu Pokhra Tour is an exclusive tour package specially designed for all level travelers. Kathmandu Pokhara tour package is effortless tour alternative for Nepal visitors. This tour package vacation the historically significant and ethnically rich capital (Kathmandu ) of Nepal and the most stunning city of world by the nature, Pokhara. Mountain museum and world peace stupa are another charming of Pokhara tour. Pokhara is the center of escapade tourism in Nepal. Package tour to Kathmandu Pokhara is design to discover highlighted areas of Kathmandu and Pokhara valley. Nepal is the country which is socially and geographically different that’s why we powerfully recommend you discover Nepal to visit once in life time. It is hard to explore all Nepal in one Nepal tours trip in this way we design this trip to show you the highlights of Nepal especially in Kathmandu and Pokhara.

 

Hiking in Nepal in the southern part of the asia continent there lays a tiny rectangular kingdom squeezed between two hugely populated countries, China to the north and India to the south, this country is Nepal a world of its own. Adventure trekking is a type of tourism, involving exploration or travel to remote, exotic and possibly hostile areas. Adventure trekking in Nepal is rapidly growing in popularity, as tourists seek different kinds of vacations. The land of contrast is presumably the exact way to define the scenery of Nepal for you will find maximum world highest peaks high high up above the clouds determined for the gods above. Straight, active and attractive learning experience adventure trekking in Nepal that engross the whole person and have real adventure. Mt. Everest, Kanchenjunga, Daulagiri, and Annapurna and many more are there for the offering for mountain-lovers, adventurers and travelers.

 

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Divided reverse. Letter generously translated by Nettenscheider, sent to relatives, the author tells his family he's been in the trenches for seven days and has run out of cigarettes.

 

A Bavarian Infantry private was an "Infanterist", in Saxony he was a "Soldat" and in Prussian contingents he was a "Musketier". The term "Gemeiner" works for all kingdoms, but NOT "Landser", which is a WWII name.

 

________________________________________________________________

Notes:

 

19. Ersatz-Division (Königlich Sächsische). 47. gemischte Ersatz-Brigade. Brigade-Ersatz-Bataillon Nr. 48.

 

forum.panzer-archiv.de/viewtopic.php?p=190292

asking for our way the little boy was so sweet to offer us his bread.

outside Manaus - Amazonas, Brazil

Generosity is not giving me what I need more than you, but it is giving me what you need more than I do. Khalil Gibran

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic245PvOqgY

 

The star (Tarot serie XVII)

   

possibly my oldest photo on flickr :)

Every year my neighbours put boxes of apples on the street for passers by to to take . Once my mum made apple strudel from them and gave some of it to the neighbours, the rest I ate , it was delicious :)

Generous Pioneer

Letter generously translated by xiphophilos; the author writes to his family from Belgium.

 

"We are now stationed in Belgian police barracks and are doing the same shit as in our barracks: straight drill and roll call every day. They might as well have left us in Dresden."

 

Saxons from a telephone detachment with some tools of their trade. The badge for wartime formations is just visible on their left sleeves.

Choose

BY CARL SANDBURG

 

THE single clenched fist lifted and ready,

Or the open asking hand held out and waiting.

Choose:

For we meet by one or the other.

The fourth in a series of seven.

 

Each portrait in this series was staged to show a different aspect of Aristotle’s ethics. Seven virtues are represented, and each portrays the mean between two extremes – an excess and a defect, otherwise known as "The Golden Mean."

 

Excess (Vice): Wasteful - Virtue: Generosity - Defect (Vice): Stingy

 

P.S. This image was taken with my digital, then edited, then printed. THEN my external hard drive, with all my working images and edits, got stolen. So I scanned my prints, and that's what this is. Sorry for the lack of EXIF data.

 

P.P.S. Does half of this image look slightly familiar to anyone?

Generosity

rarity

EYTCC - 50th East Coast Run - Sunday 10th June 2018

Porsche 997 Turbo

 

Martigues - France

 

Caméra: Nikon D80

Exposition: 0,003 sec (1/320)

Ouverture: f/4.5

Longueur focale: 75 mm

Vitesse ISO: 100

Letter generously translated by xiphophilos: addressed to Füs(ilier) Kaiser III. K(ompanie) 2. M(arine-) A(usbildungs?) Regt. 2. Marinebrigade 1. Marinedivision, Marinekorps. Postage cancelled at Trier on 5.12.1914.

 

A novelty photo depicting someone's great grandfather wearing the uniform of an infantryman from 7. Rheinisches Infanterie-Regiment Nr.69.

 

Rheinisches Infanterie-Regiment Nr.69, which was garrisoned at Trier and originally attached to the 16th Division. Later, in October 1916 it was transferred to the 15th Division where it fought in the Battle of the Somme. It was then sent to the Eastern Front in late 1916. It participated in the 1918 German Spring Offensive, and defended against the Allied counteroffensives, including the battles of Oise-Aisne and Meuse-Argonne. Allied intelligence rated it as a good but second class division.

The pristine Iskele shoreline is home to the five-star Arkin Iskele Hotel. Magnificent freshwater pools are scattered around the site on an open terrace, where you may cool off in peace and quiet while admiring the stunning views of the Mediterranean Sea.

 

The 5* Arkin Iskele hotel rests on the stunning and upcoming coastline of Iskele. As you gaze at the stunning shoreline, you can cool off in exquisite freshwater pools. The Arkin Hotel’s golden sands and piers extend generously into the crystal waters of the Mediterranean Sea, offering the perfect spot for swimming, paddling, or simply relaxing by the sea. It’s perfect for soaking up the sun.

 

The hotel also offers room service, a kid’s club where children are taken care of and where they can enjoy a plethora of different arts, crafts and fun activities during their stay. There is also an aqua park featuring five unique slides for a splashing good time! With cosy sun loungers and beach umbrellas.

 

Arkin Iskele features a bar and lush gardens in addition to its 24-hour front desk. On-site, there is an international buffet restaurant to enjoy main meals and water slides for kids where they can have a splashing good time. The on-site spa offers body scrubs, body wraps and massages for anyone looking for a soothing wellness experience. Turkish baths and saunas are also available.

 

There are multiple bars to enjoy freshly prepared drinks and cocktails as well as a patisserie where cakes and tasty pastries are served at specific hours of the day. There is also an ice cream stand to find delight in many different flavours of ice cream. There is also a shuttle service nearby which is available to take guests to Famagusta.

 

Getting out and about after a day at the beach will not leave you disappointed in this phenomenal location. The Arkin Iskele Hotel is located very close to the gateway of the Karpas Peninsula, providing the perfect base from which to explore the spectacular natural beauty and unspoiled countryside of this region.

 

A protected beach area is found near the hotel where sea turtles lay their eggs. If you get there at the right time, you will be able to witness the mothers burying their eggs and little hatchlings scrabbling towards the sea - a breathtaking site for children as well. If you would like more information about turtle-watching sessions, please speak with your Rep.

 

As a great perk, Iskele is very close to the ancient Roman ruins of Salamis, an ideal day trip for both adults and children offering a chance to explore ancient gymnasiums and temples and discover profound artefacts.

 

There is also an opportunity to see Othello's Tower and Citadel mentioned in Shakespeare's play!

 

There are a variety of cafes, bistros, bars and restaurants in the charming historic town of Famagusta which is less than 25 minutes away. Iskele is also a stunning port town to explore, known for its incredible seafood restaurants and piers overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

 

Trikomo is a town in Cyprus. It is under the de facto control of Northern Cyprus and is the administrative center of the Iskele District of Northern Cyprus, which mainly extends into the Karpas Peninsula , while de jure it belongs to the Famagusta District of the Republic of Cyprus . It gained municipality status in 1998. Before 1974 Trikomo was a mixed village with a Greek Cypriot majority.

 

In 2011 Trikomo had 1948 inhabitants.

 

Trikomo is located in the north-eastern part of the Messaria plain , 9 km south of the village of Ardana , about two kilometers from the Bay of Famagusta and four kilometers north-west of the village of Sygkrasi .

 

In Greek Trikomo means "three houses". In 1975 the Turkish Cypriots renamed it Yeni İskele to commemorate the origins of the town's current inhabitants. In Larnaca before 1974 Turkish Cypriots resided in the neighborhood called Skala ("İskele" in Turkish), so that when they settled in the village they renamed it with the same name (lit. "new İskele", later shortened to İskele ). Yeni means "new", so Yeni İskele literally means "New Scale/İskele".

 

Before the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus , the population of Trikomo consisted almost entirely of Greek Cypriots , most of whom fled during the conflict while the rest were subsequently deported to the south. Among these, worthy of mention is Georgios Grivas (1898-1974), general of the Greek army , leader of the guerrilla organization EOKA, protagonist of the liberation struggle against the English and of the paramilitary organization EOKA B.

 

The Turkish Cypriot municipality of Larnaca which had been established in 1958 moved to Trikomo in 1974, soon after the Turkish invasion of the island .

 

In Trikomo is the Church of the Panagia Theotokos , deconsecrated and home to an icon museum displaying rare examples of medieval iconography in Cyprus. The church is divided into two sections, one Orthodox and one Catholic. The first is the oldest, dating back to the Byzantine era , while the second was built in the 12th century, during the period in which the island was ruled by the Lusignans

 

Before 1974 Trikomo was a mixed village with a Greek Cypriot majority. In the 1831 Ottoman census, Muslims made up approximately 18.4% of the population. However, by 1891 this percentage dropped significantly to 3.4%. In the first half of the 20th century the population of the village increased steadily, from 1,247 inhabitants in 1901 to 2,195 in 1960.

 

Most of Trikomo's Greek Cypriots were displaced in August 1974, although some remained in the town after the Turkish army took control. In October 1975 there were still 92 Greek Cypriots in the city, but in 1978 they were moved to the south side of the Green Line . Currently, like the rest of the displaced Greek Cypriots, Trikomo Greek Cypriots are scattered across the south of the island, especially in the cities. The number of Greek Cypriots from Trikomo displaced in 1974-78 was approximately 2,330 (2,323 in the 1960 census).

 

Today the village is inhabited mainly by displaced Turkish Cypriots from the south of the island, especially from the city of Larnaca and its district . In 1976-77, some families from Turkey, especially from the province of Adana , also settled in the village . Since the 2000s, many wealthy Europeans, Turks and Turkish Cypriots from other areas of the north of the island (including returnees from abroad) have purchased properties, built houses and settled in the vicinity of the city. According to the 2006 Turkish Cypriot census, the population of Trikomo/İskele was 3,657.

 

The city annually hosts the Iskele Festival , which takes place for ten days in summer, and is the oldest annual festival in Cyprus, having first been held in Larnaca in 1968. In 1974, the event was moved to Trikomo together to the Turkish Cypriot inhabitants of Larnaca who had moved there. The program includes an international folk dance festival, concerts by Turkish Cypriot and mainland Turkish musicians, various sports tournaments, stalls offering food and various competitions, along with other performances and competitions highlighting the city's cultural heritage.

 

The current mayor of the city is Hasan Sadıkoğlu, who was first elected in 2014 as an independent candidate. It was re-elected in 2018 as the candidate of the right-wing National Unity Party (UBP), winning with 54.6% of the vote. In the 2018 local elections, four members of the UBP, two members of the pro-settler Renaissance Party (YDP), and two members of the left-wing Turkish Republican Party (CTP) were elected to the eight-member city council .

 

Trikomo is twinned with:

Flag of Türkiye Beykoz, Istanbul

Flag of Türkiye Büyükçekmece, Istanbul

Flag of Türkiye Finike, Antalya , since 2015

Flag of Türkiye Mamak, Ankara

Flag of Türkiye Pendik, Istanbul

Flag of Türkiye Samsung , since 2006

 

Turkish Cypriot sports club Larnaka Gençler Birliği (also called İskele Gençlerbirliği ) was founded in 1934 in Larnaca, and was playing in the Süper Lig of the Northern Cyprus Football Federation in the 2018–19 season

 

Northern Cyprus, officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is a de facto state that comprises the northeastern portion of the island of Cyprus. It is recognised only by Turkey, and its territory is considered by all other states to be part of the Republic of Cyprus.

 

Northern Cyprus extends from the tip of the Karpass Peninsula in the northeast to Morphou Bay, Cape Kormakitis and its westernmost point, the Kokkina exclave in the west. Its southernmost point is the village of Louroujina. A buffer zone under the control of the United Nations stretches between Northern Cyprus and the rest of the island and divides Nicosia, the island's largest city and capital of both sides.

 

A coup d'état in 1974, performed as part of an attempt to annex the island to Greece, prompted the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. This resulted in the eviction of much of the north's Greek Cypriot population, the flight of Turkish Cypriots from the south, and the partitioning of the island, leading to a unilateral declaration of independence by the north in 1983. Due to its lack of recognition, Northern Cyprus is heavily dependent on Turkey for economic, political and military support.

 

Attempts to reach a solution to the Cyprus dispute have been unsuccessful. The Turkish Army maintains a large force in Northern Cyprus with the support and approval of the TRNC government, while the Republic of Cyprus, the European Union as a whole, and the international community regard it as an occupation force. This military presence has been denounced in several United Nations Security Council resolutions.

 

Northern Cyprus is a semi-presidential, democratic republic with a cultural heritage incorporating various influences and an economy that is dominated by the services sector. The economy has seen growth through the 2000s and 2010s, with the GNP per capita more than tripling in the 2000s, but is held back by an international embargo due to the official closure of the ports in Northern Cyprus by the Republic of Cyprus. The official language is Turkish, with a distinct local dialect being spoken. The vast majority of the population consists of Sunni Muslims, while religious attitudes are mostly moderate and secular. Northern Cyprus is an observer state of ECO and OIC under the name "Turkish Cypriot State", PACE under the name "Turkish Cypriot Community", and Organization of Turkic States with its own name.

 

Several distinct periods of Cypriot intercommunal violence involving the two main ethnic communities, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, marked mid-20th century Cyprus. These included the Cyprus Emergency of 1955–59 during British rule, the post-independence Cyprus crisis of 1963–64, and the Cyprus crisis of 1967. Hostilities culminated in the 1974 de facto division of the island along the Green Line following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. The region has been relatively peaceful since then, but the Cyprus dispute has continued, with various attempts to solve it diplomatically having been generally unsuccessful.

 

Cyprus, an island lying in the eastern Mediterranean, hosted a population of Greeks and Turks (four-fifths and one-fifth, respectively), who lived under British rule in the late nineteenth-century and the first half of the twentieth-century. Christian Orthodox Church of Cyprus played a prominent political role among the Greek Cypriot community, a privilege that it acquired during the Ottoman Empire with the employment of the millet system, which gave the archbishop an unofficial ethnarch status.

 

The repeated rejections by the British of Greek Cypriot demands for enosis, union with Greece, led to armed resistance, organised by the National Organization of Cypriot Struggle, or EOKA. EOKA, led by the Greek-Cypriot commander George Grivas, systematically targeted British colonial authorities. One of the effects of EOKA's campaign was to alter the Turkish position from demanding full reincorporation into Turkey to a demand for taksim (partition). EOKA's mission and activities caused a "Cretan syndrome" (see Turkish Resistance Organisation) within the Turkish Cypriot community, as its members feared that they would be forced to leave the island in such a case as had been the case with Cretan Turks. As such, they preferred the continuation of British colonial rule and then taksim, the division of the island. Due to the Turkish Cypriots' support for the British, EOKA's leader, Georgios Grivas, declared them to be enemies. The fact that the Turks were a minority was, according to Nihat Erim, to be addressed by the transfer of thousands of Turks from mainland Turkey so that Greek Cypriots would cease to be the majority. When Erim visited Cyprus as the Turkish representative, he was advised by Field Marshal Sir John Harding, the then Governor of Cyprus, that Turkey should send educated Turks to settle in Cyprus.

 

Turkey actively promoted the idea that on the island of Cyprus two distinctive communities existed, and sidestepped its former claim that "the people of Cyprus were all Turkish subjects". In doing so, Turkey's aim to have self-determination of two to-be equal communities in effect led to de jure partition of the island.[citation needed] This could be justified to the international community against the will of the majority Greek population of the island. Dr. Fazil Küçük in 1954 had already proposed Cyprus be divided in two at the 35° parallel.

 

Lindley Dan, from Notre Dame University, spotted the roots of intercommunal violence to different visions among the two communities of Cyprus (enosis for Greek Cypriots, taksim for Turkish Cypriots). Also, Lindlay wrote that "the merging of church, schools/education, and politics in divisive and nationalistic ways" had played a crucial role in creation of havoc in Cyprus' history. Attalides Michael also pointed to the opposing nationalisms as the cause of the Cyprus problem.

 

By the mid-1950's, the "Cyprus is Turkish" party, movement, and slogan gained force in both Cyprus and Turkey. In a 1954 editorial, Turkish Cypriot leader Dr. Fazil Kuchuk expressed the sentiment that the Turkish youth had grown up with the idea that "as soon as Great Britain leaves the island, it will be taken over by the Turks", and that "Turkey cannot tolerate otherwise". This perspective contributed to the willingness of Turkish Cypriots to align themselves with the British, who started recruiting Turkish Cypriots into the police force that patrolled Cyprus to fight EOKA, a Greek Cypriot nationalist organisation that sought to rid the island of British rule.

 

EOKA targeted colonial authorities, including police, but Georgios Grivas, the leader of EOKA, did not initially wish to open up a new front by fighting Turkish Cypriots and reassured them that EOKA would not harm their people. In 1956, some Turkish Cypriot policemen were killed by EOKA members and this provoked some intercommunal violence in the spring and summer, but these attacks on policemen were not motivated by the fact that they were Turkish Cypriots.

 

However, in January 1957, Grivas changed his policy as his forces in the mountains became increasingly pressured by the British Crown forces. In order to divert the attention of the Crown forces, EOKA members started to target Turkish Cypriot policemen intentionally in the towns, so that Turkish Cypriots would riot against the Greek Cypriots and the security forces would have to be diverted to the towns to restore order. The killing of a Turkish Cypriot policeman on 19 January, when a power station was bombed, and the injury of three others, provoked three days of intercommunal violence in Nicosia. The two communities targeted each other in reprisals, at least one Greek Cypriot was killed and the British Army was deployed in the streets. Greek Cypriot stores were burned and their neighbourhoods attacked. Following the events, the Greek Cypriot leadership spread the propaganda that the riots had merely been an act of Turkish Cypriot aggression. Such events created chaos and drove the communities apart both in Cyprus and in Turkey.

 

On 22 October 1957 Sir Hugh Mackintosh Foot replaced Sir John Harding as the British Governor of Cyprus. Foot suggested five to seven years of self-government before any final decision. His plan rejected both enosis and taksim. The Turkish Cypriot response to this plan was a series of anti-British demonstrations in Nicosia on 27 and 28 January 1958 rejecting the proposed plan because the plan did not include partition. The British then withdrew the plan.

 

In 1957, Black Gang, a Turkish Cypriot pro-taksim paramilitary organisation, was formed to patrol a Turkish Cypriot enclave, the Tahtakale district of Nicosia, against activities of EOKA. The organisation later attempted to grow into a national scale, but failed to gain public support.

 

By 1958, signs of dissatisfaction with the British increased on both sides, with a group of Turkish Cypriots forming Volkan (later renamed to the Turkish Resistance Organisation) paramilitary group to promote partition and the annexation of Cyprus to Turkey as dictated by the Menderes plan. Volkan initially consisted of roughly 100 members, with the stated aim of raising awareness in Turkey of the Cyprus issue and courting military training and support for Turkish Cypriot fighters from the Turkish government.

 

In June 1958, the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, was expected to propose a plan to resolve the Cyprus issue. In light of the new development, the Turks rioted in Nicosia to promote the idea that Greek and Turkish Cypriots could not live together and therefore any plan that did not include partition would not be viable. This violence was soon followed by bombing, Greek Cypriot deaths and looting of Greek Cypriot-owned shops and houses. Greek and Turkish Cypriots started to flee mixed population villages where they were a minority in search of safety. This was effectively the beginning of the segregation of the two communities. On 7 June 1958, a bomb exploded at the entrance of the Turkish Embassy in Cyprus. Following the bombing, Turkish Cypriots looted Greek Cypriot properties. On 26 June 1984, the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktaş, admitted on British channel ITV that the bomb was placed by the Turks themselves in order to create tension. On 9 January 1995, Rauf Denktaş repeated his claim to the famous Turkish newspaper Milliyet in Turkey.

 

The crisis reached a climax on 12 June 1958, when eight Greeks, out of an armed group of thirty five arrested by soldiers of the Royal Horse Guards on suspicion of preparing an attack on the Turkish quarter of Skylloura, were killed in a suspected attack by Turkish Cypriot locals, near the village of Geunyeli, having been ordered to walk back to their village of Kondemenos.

 

After the EOKA campaign had begun, the British government successfully began to turn the Cyprus issue from a British colonial problem into a Greek-Turkish issue. British diplomacy exerted backstage influence on the Adnan Menderes government, with the aim of making Turkey active in Cyprus. For the British, the attempt had a twofold objective. The EOKA campaign would be silenced as quickly as possible, and Turkish Cypriots would not side with Greek Cypriots against the British colonial claims over the island, which would thus remain under the British. The Turkish Cypriot leadership visited Menderes to discuss the Cyprus issue. When asked how the Turkish Cypriots should respond to the Greek Cypriot claim of enosis, Menderes replied: "You should go to the British foreign minister and request the status quo be prolonged, Cyprus to remain as a British colony". When the Turkish Cypriots visited the British Foreign Secretary and requested for Cyprus to remain a colony, he replied: "You should not be asking for colonialism at this day and age, you should be asking for Cyprus be returned to Turkey, its former owner".

 

As Turkish Cypriots began to look to Turkey for protection, Greek Cypriots soon understood that enosis was extremely unlikely. The Greek Cypriot leader, Archbishop Makarios III, now set independence for the island as his objective.

 

Britain resolved to solve the dispute by creating an independent Cyprus. In 1959, all involved parties signed the Zurich Agreements: Britain, Turkey, Greece, and the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders, Makarios and Dr. Fazil Kucuk, respectively. The new constitution drew heavily on the ethnic composition of the island. The President would be a Greek Cypriot, and the Vice-President a Turkish Cypriot with an equal veto. The contribution to the public service would be set at a ratio of 70:30, and the Supreme Court would consist of an equal number of judges from both communities as well as an independent judge who was not Greek, Turkish or British. The Zurich Agreements were supplemented by a number of treaties. The Treaty of Guarantee stated that secession or union with any state was forbidden, and that Greece, Turkey and Britain would be given guarantor status to intervene if that was violated. The Treaty of Alliance allowed for two small Greek and Turkish military contingents to be stationed on the island, and the Treaty of Establishment gave Britain sovereignty over two bases in Akrotiri and Dhekelia.

 

On 15 August 1960, the Colony of Cyprus became fully independent as the Republic of Cyprus. The new republic remained within the Commonwealth of Nations.

 

The new constitution brought dissatisfaction to Greek Cypriots, who felt it to be highly unjust for them for historical, demographic and contributional reasons. Although 80% of the island's population were Greek Cypriots and these indigenous people had lived on the island for thousands of years and paid 94% of taxes, the new constitution was giving the 17% of the population that was Turkish Cypriots, who paid 6% of taxes, around 30% of government jobs and 40% of national security jobs.

 

Within three years tensions between the two communities in administrative affairs began to show. In particular disputes over separate municipalities and taxation created a deadlock in government. A constitutional court ruled in 1963 Makarios had failed to uphold article 173 of the constitution which called for the establishment of separate municipalities for Turkish Cypriots. Makarios subsequently declared his intention to ignore the judgement, resulting in the West German judge resigning from his position. Makarios proposed thirteen amendments to the constitution, which would have had the effect of resolving most of the issues in the Greek Cypriot favour. Under the proposals, the President and Vice-President would lose their veto, the separate municipalities as sought after by the Turkish Cypriots would be abandoned, the need for separate majorities by both communities in passing legislation would be discarded and the civil service contribution would be set at actual population ratios (82:18) instead of the slightly higher figure for Turkish Cypriots.

 

The intention behind the amendments has long been called into question. The Akritas plan, written in the height of the constitutional dispute by the Greek Cypriot interior minister Polycarpos Georkadjis, called for the removal of undesirable elements of the constitution so as to allow power-sharing to work. The plan envisaged a swift retaliatory attack on Turkish Cypriot strongholds should Turkish Cypriots resort to violence to resist the measures, stating "In the event of a planned or staged Turkish attack, it is imperative to overcome it by force in the shortest possible time, because if we succeed in gaining command of the situation (in one or two days), no outside, intervention would be either justified or possible." Whether Makarios's proposals were part of the Akritas plan is unclear, however it remains that sentiment towards enosis had not completely disappeared with independence. Makarios described independence as "a step on the road to enosis".[31] Preparations for conflict were not entirely absent from Turkish Cypriots either, with right wing elements still believing taksim (partition) the best safeguard against enosis.

 

Greek Cypriots however believe the amendments were a necessity stemming from a perceived attempt by Turkish Cypriots to frustrate the working of government. Turkish Cypriots saw it as a means to reduce their status within the state from one of co-founder to that of minority, seeing it as a first step towards enosis. The security situation deteriorated rapidly.

 

Main articles: Bloody Christmas (1963) and Battle of Tillyria

An armed conflict was triggered after December 21, 1963, a period remembered by Turkish Cypriots as Bloody Christmas, when a Greek Cypriot policemen that had been called to help deal with a taxi driver refusing officers already on the scene access to check the identification documents of his customers, took out his gun upon arrival and shot and killed the taxi driver and his partner. Eric Solsten summarised the events as follows: "a Greek Cypriot police patrol, ostensibly checking identification documents, stopped a Turkish Cypriot couple on the edge of the Turkish quarter. A hostile crowd gathered, shots were fired, and two Turkish Cypriots were killed."

 

In the morning after the shooting, crowds gathered in protest in Northern Nicosia, likely encouraged by the TMT, without incident. On the evening of the 22nd, gunfire broke out, communication lines to the Turkish neighbourhoods were cut, and the Greek Cypriot police occupied the nearby airport. On the 23rd, a ceasefire was negotiated, but did not hold. Fighting, including automatic weapons fire, between Greek and Turkish Cypriots and militias increased in Nicosia and Larnaca. A force of Greek Cypriot irregulars led by Nikos Sampson entered the Nicosia suburb of Omorphita and engaged in heavy firing on armed, as well as by some accounts unarmed, Turkish Cypriots. The Omorphita clash has been described by Turkish Cypriots as a massacre, while this view has generally not been acknowledged by Greek Cypriots.

 

Further ceasefires were arranged between the two sides, but also failed. By Christmas Eve, the 24th, Britain, Greece, and Turkey had joined talks, with all sides calling for a truce. On Christmas day, Turkish fighter jets overflew Nicosia in a show of support. Finally it was agreed to allow a force of 2,700 British soldiers to help enforce a ceasefire. In the next days, a "buffer zone" was created in Nicosia, and a British officer marked a line on a map with green ink, separating the two sides of the city, which was the beginning of the "Green Line". Fighting continued across the island for the next several weeks.

 

In total 364 Turkish Cypriots and 174 Greek Cypriots were killed during the violence. 25,000 Turkish Cypriots from 103-109 villages fled and were displaced into enclaves and thousands of Turkish Cypriot houses were ransacked or completely destroyed.

 

Contemporary newspapers also reported on the forceful exodus of the Turkish Cypriots from their homes. According to The Times in 1964, threats, shootings and attempts of arson were committed against the Turkish Cypriots to force them out of their homes. The Daily Express wrote that "25,000 Turks have already been forced to leave their homes". The Guardian reported a massacre of Turks at Limassol on 16 February 1964.

 

Turkey had by now readied its fleet and its fighter jets appeared over Nicosia. Turkey was dissuaded from direct involvement by the creation of a United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) in 1964. Despite the negotiated ceasefire in Nicosia, attacks on the Turkish Cypriot persisted, particularly in Limassol. Concerned about the possibility of a Turkish invasion, Makarios undertook the creation of a Greek Cypriot conscript-based army called the "National Guard". A general from Greece took charge of the army, whilst a further 20,000 well-equipped officers and men were smuggled from Greece into Cyprus. Turkey threatened to intervene once more, but was prevented by a strongly worded letter from the American President Lyndon B. Johnson, anxious to avoid a conflict between NATO allies Greece and Turkey at the height of the Cold War.

 

Turkish Cypriots had by now established an important bridgehead at Kokkina, provided with arms, volunteers and materials from Turkey and abroad. Seeing this incursion of foreign weapons and troops as a major threat, the Cypriot government invited George Grivas to return from Greece as commander of the Greek troops on the island and launch a major attack on the bridgehead. Turkey retaliated by dispatching its fighter jets to bomb Greek positions, causing Makarios to threaten an attack on every Turkish Cypriot village on the island if the bombings did not cease. The conflict had now drawn in Greece and Turkey, with both countries amassing troops on their Thracian borders. Efforts at mediation by Dean Acheson, a former U.S. Secretary of State, and UN-appointed mediator Galo Plaza had failed, all the while the division of the two communities becoming more apparent. Greek Cypriot forces were estimated at some 30,000, including the National Guard and the large contingent from Greece. Defending the Turkish Cypriot enclaves was a force of approximately 5,000 irregulars, led by a Turkish colonel, but lacking the equipment and organisation of the Greek forces.

 

The Secretary-General of the United Nations in 1964, U Thant, reported the damage during the conflicts:

 

UNFICYP carried out a detailed survey of all damage to properties throughout the island during the disturbances; it shows that in 109 villages, most of them Turkish-Cypriot or mixed villages, 527 houses have been destroyed while 2,000 others have suffered damage from looting.

 

The situation worsened in 1967, when a military junta overthrew the democratically elected government of Greece, and began applying pressure on Makarios to achieve enosis. Makarios, not wishing to become part of a military dictatorship or trigger a Turkish invasion, began to distance himself from the goal of enosis. This caused tensions with the junta in Greece as well as George Grivas in Cyprus. Grivas's control over the National Guard and Greek contingent was seen as a threat to Makarios's position, who now feared a possible coup.[citation needed] The National Guard and Cyprus Police began patrolling the Turkish Cypriot enclaves of Ayios Theodoros and Kophinou, and on November 15 engaged in heavy fighting with the Turkish Cypriots.

 

By the time of his withdrawal 26 Turkish Cypriots had been killed. Turkey replied with an ultimatum demanding that Grivas be removed from the island, that the troops smuggled from Greece in excess of the limits of the Treaty of Alliance be removed, and that the economic blockades on the Turkish Cypriot enclaves be lifted. Grivas was recalled by the Athens Junta and the 12,000 Greek troops were withdrawn. Makarios now attempted to consolidate his position by reducing the number of National Guard troops, and by creating a paramilitary force loyal to Cypriot independence. In 1968, acknowledging that enosis was now all but impossible, Makarios stated, "A solution by necessity must be sought within the limits of what is feasible which does not always coincide with the limits of what is desirable."

 

After 1967 tensions between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots subsided. Instead, the main source of tension on the island came from factions within the Greek Cypriot community. Although Makarios had effectively abandoned enosis in favour of an 'attainable solution', many others continued to believe that the only legitimate political aspiration for Greek Cypriots was union with Greece.

 

On his arrival, Grivas began by establishing a nationalist paramilitary group known as the National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston B or EOKA-B), drawing comparisons with the EOKA struggle for enosis under the British colonial administration of the 1950s.

 

The military junta in Athens saw Makarios as an obstacle. Makarios's failure to disband the National Guard, whose officer class was dominated by mainland Greeks, had meant the junta had practical control over the Cypriot military establishment, leaving Makarios isolated and a vulnerable target.

 

During the first Turkish invasion, Turkish troops invaded Cyprus territory on 20 July 1974, invoking its rights under the Treaty of Guarantee. This expansion of Turkish-occupied zone violated International Law as well as the Charter of the United Nations. Turkish troops managed to capture 3% of the island which was accompanied by the burning of the Turkish Cypriot quarter, as well as the raping and killing of women and children. A temporary cease-fire followed which was mitigated by the UN Security Council. Subsequently, the Greek military Junta collapsed on July 23, 1974, and peace talks commenced in which a democratic government was installed. The Resolution 353 was broken after Turkey attacked a second time and managed to get a hold of 37% of Cyprus territory. The Island of Cyprus was appointed a Buffer Zone by the United Nations, which divided the island into two zones through the 'Green Line' and put an end to the Turkish invasion. Although Turkey announced that the occupied areas of Cyprus to be called the Federated Turkish State in 1975, it is not legitimised on a worldwide political scale. The United Nations called for the international recognition of independence for the Republic of Cyprus in the Security Council Resolution 367.

 

In the years after the Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus one can observe a history of failed talks between the two parties. The 1983 declaration of the independent Turkish Republic of Cyprus resulted in a rise of inter-communal tensions and made it increasingly hard to find mutual understanding. With Cyprus' interest of a possible EU membership and a new UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 1997 new hopes arose for a fresh start. International involvement from sides of the US and UK, wanting a solution to the Cyprus dispute prior to the EU accession led to political pressures for new talks. The believe that an accession without a solution would threaten Greek-Turkish relations and acknowledge the partition of the island would direct the coming negotiations.

 

Over the course of two years a concrete plan, the Annan plan was formulated. In 2004 the fifth version agreed upon from both sides and with the endorsement of Turkey, US, UK and EU then was presented to the public and was given a referendum in both Cypriot communities to assure the legitimisation of the resolution. The Turkish Cypriots voted with 65% for the plan, however the Greek Cypriots voted with a 76% majority against. The Annan plan contained multiple important topics. Firstly it established a confederation of two separate states called the United Cyprus Republic. Both communities would have autonomous states combined under one unified government. The members of parliament would be chosen according to the percentage in population numbers to ensure a just involvement from both communities. The paper proposed a demilitarisation of the island over the next years. Furthermore it agreed upon a number of 45000 Turkish settlers that could remain on the island. These settlers became a very important issue concerning peace talks. Originally the Turkish government encouraged Turks to settle in Cyprus providing transfer and property, to establish a counterpart to the Greek Cypriot population due to their 1 to 5 minority. With the economic situation many Turkish-Cypriot decided to leave the island, however their departure is made up by incoming Turkish settlers leaving the population ratio between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots stable. However all these points where criticised and as seen in the vote rejected mainly by the Greek Cypriots. These name the dissolution of the „Republic of Cyprus", economic consequences of a reunion and the remaining Turkish settlers as reason. Many claim that the plan was indeed drawing more from Turkish-Cypriot demands then Greek-Cypriot interests. Taking in consideration that the US wanted to keep Turkey as a strategic partner in future Middle Eastern conflicts.

 

A week after the failed referendum the Republic of Cyprus joined the EU. In multiple instances the EU tried to promote trade with Northern Cyprus but without internationally recognised ports this spiked a grand debate. Both side endure their intention of negotiations, however without the prospect of any new compromises or agreements the UN is unwilling to start the process again. Since 2004 negotiations took place in numbers but without any results, both sides are strongly holding on to their position without an agreeable solution in sight that would suit both parties.

I hereby express my appreciation and gratefulness to FRITS 1942 for his generous act of presenting me a pro-account gift. His generosity certainly helps me in my passion for photography.

 

I choose to honor him by my tree photo based on the following grounds:

 

Trees and humankind have always had a symbiotic relationship. Throughout the centuries, trees have offered us shelter from the cold and the heat. They have provided us with a multitude of nutritious fruits, leaves, flowers and roots for food and medicine. They have given us wood with which to make our tools, weapons and toys, not to mention timber for houses, fences, boats and bridges. But perhaps most significant of all, trees have provided fuel for fire, which, once it was tamed hundreds of thousands of years ago, became the engine of civilization. Trees are our strongest allies.

The entire spectrum of human existence is reflected in tree lore through the ages: from birth, death and rebirth to the age-old struggle between good and evil, and the quest for beauty, truth and enlightenment.

Our ancestors recognized that there is a vital balance in life: you take and you give. So they celebrated the forces of nature by offering them gifts, songs, prayers and blessings to revitalize the natural world--a world of which they felt themselves to be an intimate part. Many cultures saw (and still see) everything in creation as imbued with spirit, which means that all living things are regarded as sacred.

Whatever our personal beliefs regarding nature spirits, and the question of whether God exists inside creation or only outside it, one thing is certain: the ability to extend compassion to other life forms, to feel gratitude and give thanks for sharing in the miracle of life, to respect, if not to love, all fellow inhabitants of this planet, makes us better human beings and helps us to triumph over ignorance and greed. The living wisdom of trees shows us that life is worth so much.

 

Source: eBay Guides

  

more than just understanding of what we thought as the truth found in human knowledge...is the real truth that we are more than these...that we may all be a loving, caring, generous, and peaceful people...

On Black

 

An HDR shot (3 exposures) taken from Michigan Avenue with another of the 100 5 ft. Hearts lining Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago. If you can see the small print on the heart it states 'I Heart Lawyers' This was taken the same morning as my last two shots, Heart and Early Morning Blues. Enjoy!

 

Enjoy and don't forget to check out my blog: Christopher.F Photography

The 50 shekel note is for lunch at the Caffit Bar & Restaurant. And, there's 10 shekels in coins for the waitress. That's 20%, a generous tip ;-)

 

Generosity for Macro Monday.

ISO 400, 55mm, f/5.6, 1/13s

  

Tug Huntington as she appeared prior to scrapping. Photo Credit: Hudson Haile.

 

With generous support from Chesapeake Shipbuilding, McAllister Towing, Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) apprentice alumnus Hudson Haile, and individual donors, the pilot house and captain’s quarters of the once steam-powered screw tug Huntington—complete with furnishings and fittings—became part of CBMM’s collections on June 15, 2010.

 

“Tugs are and have always been a vital part of maritime transportation, especially maritime trade along the coast and within America’s inland waterways, like the Chesapeake Bay,” said CBMM Chief Curator Pete Lesher. “The handsome Huntington pilot house will help share the stories of the Chesapeake Bay as a highway, when it later becomes part of a Chesapeake Bay transportation exhibition at CBMM.”

 

NNS owned Huntington (NNS Hull #356) until 1990. Built almost entirely by apprentices for the shipyard’s own use, the vessel’s beam was increased by one foot over the 28-foot dimension previously used for her near-sister, C&O tug W.J. Harahan; also built at NNS. Considered the finest tugboat of her time in Hampton Roads, Huntington’s crew referred to her as the “Queen of the Harbor.” She had only three Masters during her time of service at NNS: Captain R. A. Callis, Captain M. L. Ambrose and Captain Reggie Hunley.

 

With a large American flag flown at her stern, Huntington was christened at a gala launching on October 11, 1933. The tug’s sponsor and shipyard president’s granddaughter, seven-year-old Anne Gordon Ferguson, smashed the ceremonious champagne bottle against the tug’s bow bitt, despite prohibition. Huntington reached top speeds of 10 knots during sea trials and was often noted as quieter, more comfortable, and faster than many other tugboats at the time.

 

Huntington had accommodations for a crew of five, with traditional tugboat craftsmanship seen in the finely-finished vertical tongue and groove wood paneling in her living spaces and pilot house. The pilot house originally sported a hand-carved gilded eagle with a five-foot wing span, which contributed to the tug’s appearance as a showboat. In 1950, she underwent a major overhaul, including the replacement of her original coal-fired boiler and reciprocating steam engine with a 1200 HP diesel engine. At that time, the gilded eagle and brass steam whistle were also removed and donated to the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Va.

 

In 1992, Huntington was sold to Bay Towing Corporation, and worked towing barges up to Baltimore. She was later sold to Rover Marine in 1996, when she was converted from a workboat to a floating museum and placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Ownership transferred to the Palm Beach Maritime Museum in 2007 with hopes of restoration that were never realized. In spring 2010, Huntington was scrapped by Salonen Marine, Inc., of Jacksonville, Fla., but the pilot house was salvaged, thanks primarily to the efforts of Hudson Haile, and donated to CBMM.

 

The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to preserving and exploring the history, environment, and culture of the entire Chesapeake Bay region, and making this resource available to all. Every aspect of fulfilling this mission is driven by CBMM’s values of relevancy, authenticity, and stewardship, along with a commitment to providing engaging guest experiences and transformative educational programming, all while serving as a vital community partner. For more information, visit cbmm.org or call 410-745-2916.

  

Generous garden seat. I imagine there would have been cushions too - probably designed by Voysey.

Gene generously offered to take me lupine hunting in NH today!! We got a real treat with a couple bear sightings!!

This one was at the end of the day. We had to hop out quickly. There were a couple cubs but only one popped up.

Big thrill for me!!!