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Mingle Media TV and Red Carpet Report host Brandi Chang were invited to come out to cover FX's Justified Season 5 premiere red carpet event and screening at the Directors Guild in Hollywood.
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About the FX’s Justified
Based on Elmore Leonard’s novella Fire in the Hole, Justified was developed by Graham Yost and stars Timothy Olyphant as ‘Deputy US Marshal Raylan Givens,’ a lawman who finds himself drawn back to his home state of Kentucky. This January, Raylan confronts the Crowes, a deadly, lawless family from Florida intent on settling in Harlan with new criminal enterprises in mind. Meanwhile, ‘Boyd Crowder’ (Walton Goggins) struggles to free his imprisoned fiancée ‘Ava’ (Joelle Carter) as he partners with the Dixie Mafia’s ‘Wynn Duffy’ (Jere Burns). For more info visit:
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I've been given the opportunity to photograph the old Power Plant in Savannah, Ga along the Savannah River. The Plant was decommissioned in the mid 2000's and is now in the planning phases of a complete renovation and conversion into a Kessler Signature Hotel. Part of the full development of the Power Plant is 2 new construction pieces. I'm am the project manager for 1 piece and am proud to be part of an amazing design team that is part of this project.
This panel is seen as you enter the main "atrium" space of the Power Plant. It is pieces like that that will hopefully remain as part of the aesthetic of the hotel conversion.
The series of shots I'll be posting are just from my first survey of the space and property. I'll be revisiting the site on a monthly basis over the next few months.So much more to come.
BLOG I I I WSM photography
© Walker Scott Moore 2014 - All rights reserved
St George, Stowlangtoft, Suffolk
A copy of a Flemish roundel at Nowton, Suffolk.
Given that our parish churches almost without exception underwent restorations in the 19th Century, it should be obvious that when we enter a medieval church, we are encountering a Victorian vision of the medieval. Even when the actual furnishings and fittings are medieval, the whole piece is still a Victorian conception.
Inevitably, the question arises of what was there before the restoration and what wasn't. The obvious answer is that we must assume that nothing is as it first appears.
A prime example of a church that assumes a continuity that may not actually be the truth is here in the flat fields between Woolpit and Ixworth. This part of Suffolk can be rather bleak in winter, but in summer the churchyard here is verdant and golden, as beautiful a place as any in the county. The church is large, and yet unusually narrow. It sits on a mound that has been cut down on one side by the road. In the churchyard you'll find the well-known memorial to the art critic Peter Fuller and his unborn son, killed in a car crash in 1990.
In the churchyard wall there is what appears to be broken medieval window tracery, which is worth noticing, for hereby hangs a tale.
St George is one of the great Suffolk churches. Although it may externally appear a little severe, and is by no means as grand as Blythburgh, Long Melford and the rest, it is a treasure house of the medieval inside. Unusually for a church of its date, it was all rebuilt in one go, in the late 14th century, and the perpendicular windows are not yet full of the 'walls of glass' confidence that the subsequent century would see. The tracery appears to have been repaired, and possibly even renewed, which may explain the tracery in the churchyard wall. However, it doesn't take much to see that the tracery in the wall is not perpendicular at all, but decorated. So it may be that the broken tracery is from the original church that the late 14th century church replaced. But the wall itself isn't medieval, so where had it been all those years? Is it possible that the current window tracery is not medieval at all?
Stowlangtoft church featured in Simon Jenkins' book England's Thousand Best Churches, which sends plenty of visitors to its locked door, and may help stave off the inevitable for a while, for there is no real congregation here any more and the church is moribund. Regular services are held across the fields at Pakenham, and St George is now only used on special occasions. The key is kept across the road, where the very nice lady told me in February 2018 that the church is now headed for redundancy. It seems likely that care of it will be conveyed into the hands of the Churches Conservation Trust.
You step in through the chancel door (the lock here is very awkward, but do persevere) and if you are anything like me you will head straight down to the west end where you will find the font. Likethe window tracery, it asks some questions. Unusually, it features a Saint on seven of the panels, Christ being on the westwards face. Mortlock dates it to the early 14th century, and the Saints it shows are familiar cults from that time: St Margaret, St Catherine, St Peter and St Paul, and less commonly St George. The cult of St George was at its height in the early years of the 14th century. Mortlock describes the font as mutilated, and it certainly isn't looking its best. But I think there is more going on here than meets the eye. Fonts were plastered over in Elizabethan times, and only relief that stood proud of the plaster was mutilated. These are all shallow reliefs, and I do not think they have been mutilated at all. To my eye at least, this stonework appears weathered. I wonder if this font was removed from the church, probably in the mid-17th century, and served an outdoor purpose until it was returned in the 19th century.
The story of this church in the 19th century is well-documented. In 1832, as part of his grand tour of Suffolk, David Davy visited, and was pleased to find that the church was at last undergoing repair. The chancel had been roofless, and the nave used for services. A new Rectory was being built. Who was the catalyst behind all this? His name was Samuel Rickards, and he was Rector here for almost the middle forty years of the 19th century. Roy Tricker notes that he was a good friend of John Henry Newman, the future Cardinal, and they often corresponded on the subject of the pre-Reformation ordering of English churches. It is interesting to think how, at this seminal moment, Rickards might have informed the thought of the Oxford Movement. Sadly, when Newman became a Catholic, Rickards broke off all correspondence with him.
During the course of the 1840s and 1850s, Rickards transformed Stowlangtoft church. He got the great Ipswich woodcarver Henry Ringham in to restore, replicate and complete the marvellous set of bench ends - Ringham did the same thing at Woolpit, a few miles away. Ringham's work is so good that it is sometimes hard for the inexperienced eye to detect it. However, as at Woolpit, Ringham only copied animals here, and the weirder stuff is all medieval, and probably dates from the rebuilding of the church. The glory of Stowlangtoft's bench ends is partly the sheer quantity - there are perhaps 60 carvings - but also that there are several unique subjects.
The carvings appear to be part of the same group as Woolpit and Tostock - you will recognise the unicorn, the chained bear, the bull playing a harp, the bird with a man's head, from similar carvings elsewhere. And then hopefully that little alarm bell in your heard should start to go "Hmmmm....." because some of the carvings here are clearly not from the same group. It is hard to believe that the mermaid and the owl, for example, are from the same workshop, or even from the same decade. The benches themselves are no clue, as it was common practice in the 19th century to replace medieval bench ends on modern benches, or on medieval benches, or even on modern benches made out of medieval timber (as happened at Blythburgh). Could it be that Samuel Rickards found some of these bench ends elsewhere? Could he have been the kind of person to do a thing like that?
Well, yes he could. As Roy Tricker recalls, the medieval roof at the tractarian Thomas Mozley's church at Cholderton in Wiltshire is East Anglian. Rickards acquired it after finding it in storage in Ipswich docks. It presumably came from one of the Ipswich churches. In the ferment of the great 19th century restoration of our English churches, there was loads of medieval junk lying around, much of it going begging. But was Samuel Rickards the kind of person to counterfeit his church's medieval inheritance?
Well, yes he probably was. The faux-medieval roundels in the windows of the nave are clearly not medieval at all, but were in fact the work of the young Lucy Rickards, daughter of Samuel Rickards himself. Some are clearly to the young girl's design, and Pevsner notes that others are copied from medieval manuscript illustrations in the British Museum, although the Holy Kinship and Presentation in the Temple roundels at least are very close copies of the Flemish roundels of the same subjects in Nowton church on the other side of Bury St Edmunds.
Truly medieval is the vast St Christopher wall-painting still discernible on the north wall. It was probably one of the last to be painted. The bench ends are medieval, of course, as is the fine rood-screen dado, albeit repainted. There is even some medieval figure glass in the upper tracery of some of the windows, including St Agnes holding a lamb and four Old Testament prophets. The laughable stone pulpit is Rickard's commission, and the work of William White. What can Rickards have been thinking of? But we step through into the chancel, and suddenly the whole thing moves up a gear. For here are some things that are truly remarkable.
In a county famous for its woodwork, the furnishings of Stowlangtoft's chancel are breathtaking, even awe-inspiring. Behind the rood screen dado is Suffolk's most complete set of return stalls. Most striking are the figures that form finials to the stall ends. They are participants in the Mass, including two Priests, two servers and two acolytes. The figure of the Priest at a prayer desk must be one of the best medieval images in Suffolk, and Mortlock thought the stalls the finest in England.
The benches that face eastwards are misericords, and beneath them are wonderful things: angels, lions and wodewoses, evangelistic symbols and crowned heads. A hawk captures a hare, a dragon sticks out its tongue. Between the seats are weird oriental faces.
Now, you know what I am going to ask next. How much of this is from this church originally? It all appears medieval work, and there is no reason to believe it might not have been moved elsewhere in the church when the chancel was open to the elements. What evidence have we got?
Firstly, we should notice that the only other Suffolk church with such a large number of medieval misericords of this quality is just a mile away, at Norton. I don't ask you to see this as significant, merely to notice it in passing. Secondly, I am no carpenter, but it does look to me as though two sets of furnishings have been cobbled together; the stalls that back on to the screen appear to have been integrated into the larger structure of stalls and desks that front them and the north and south walls.
However, if you look closely at the figures of the two Deacons, you will see that they are bearing shields of the Ashfield and Peche families. The Ashfield arms also appear on the rood screen, and the Ashfields were the major donors when the church was rebuilt in the 14th century. So on balance I am inclined to think that the greater part of the stall structure was in this church originally from when it was rebuilt. And the misericords? Well, I don't know. But I think they have to be considered as part of the same set as those at Norton. In which case they may have come from the same church, which may have been this one, but may not have been. Almost certainly, the stalls at Norton did not come from Norton church, and folklore has it that they were originally in the quire of Bury Abbey.
Other remarkable things in St George include FE Howard's beautiful war memorial in the former north doorway, and in the opposite corner of the nave Hugh Easton's unexpectedly gorgeous St George, which serves the same purpose. He's not an artist I usually admire, but it is as good as his work at Elveden. Back up in the chancel is a delightful painted pipe organ which was apparently exhibited at, and acquired from, the Great Exhibition of 1851.
But St George at Stowlangtoft is, of course, most famous for the Flemish carvings that flank the rather heavy altarpiece. They were given to the church by Henry Wilson of Stowlangtoft Hall, who allegedly found them in an Ixworth junk shop. They show images from the crucifixion story, but are not Stations of the Cross as some guides suggest. They date from the 1480s, and were almost certainly the altarpiece of a French or Flemish monastery that was sacked during the French Revolution. The carvings were once brightly painted, and piled up in a block rather than spread out in a line. The niches, and crowning arches above them, are 19th century.
One cold winter's night in January 1977, a gang of thieves broke into this locked church and stole them. Nothing more was seen or heard of them until 1982, when they were discovered on display in an Amsterdam art gallery. Their journey had been a convoluted one. Taken to Holland, they were used as security for a loan which was defaulted upon. The new owner was then burgled, and the carvings were fenced to an Amsterdam junk dealer. They were bought from his shop, and taken to the museum, which immediately identified them as 15th century carvings. They put them on display, and a Dutch woman who had read about the Stowlangtoft theft recognised them.
The parish instituted legal proceedings to get them back. An injunction was taken out to stop the new owner removing them from the museum. The parish lost the case, leaving them with a monstrous legal bill, but the story has a happy ending. A Dutch businessman negotiated their purchase from the owner, paid off the legal bills, and returned the carvings to Stowlangtoft. Apparently this was all at vast cost, but the businessman gave the gift in thanks for Britain's liberation of Holland from the Nazis. No, thank you, sir.
Today, the carvings are fixed firmly in place and alarmed, so they won't be going walkabout again. But a little part of me wonders if they really should be here at all. Sure, they are medieval, but they weren't here originally, and they weren't even in England originally. Wouldn't it be better if they were displayed somewhere safer, where people could pay to see them, and provide some income for the maintenance of the church building? And then, whisper it, when St George is taken on by the CCT they might even be able to leave it open.
Given the metal working skills of BiH artisans, it was not long after the war that empty cases were being decorated as souvenirs, a late 20th Century "trench art". This erstwhile carrier of death is decorated and stamped "Sarajevo" for the tourist trade.
Given the current visitor restrictions in place, many families haven’t been able to see their loved ones in the hospital. One family from San Francisco came up with a unique way to share their love and encouragement with their daughter who is currently receiving treatment at Mercy San Juan. When the patient’s nurses brought her to the window, she was surprised to see her whole family on the lawn in front of the hospital with balloons and signs that declared her a hero and a fighter! The patient and attending caregivers were deeply touched by this loving gesture. All the nurses involved in coordinating the surprise were honored with Mercy Touches and the patient gifted them with treats as a special thank you.
MEPs have given the green light to the EU–Ukraine association agreement, which would facilitate trade and deepen political cooperation between the parties. This comes in the midst of the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia, and at a time of mutual trade sanctions between Russia and the EU. In a symbolic step, MEPs in Strasbourg and MP's in the Ukrainian parliament voted simultaneously on the agreement.
More: www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/content/20140915...
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Frankie the cat philosopher...
astute, challenging...but dense...my lack of education in Philosophy was evident...
Visitors were given the opportunity to cross the plaza and place a flower in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during the second Flowers of Remembrance Day at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va., May 28, 2023.
This event pays homage to the first official Decoration Day, now known as Memorial Day, which originally took place at the cemetery in 1868 as a way to honor the sacrifices of those who fought and died in the Civil War.
(U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Ethan Scofield)
The WACs were given demonstrations on different (Illegible) of the camp and a free ride in an Army tank. 5 May, 1944.
Photographer: Wiggins.
Photo Source: U.S. National Archives. Digitized by Signal Corps Archive.
Given that the cock-ups are already coming thick and fast, this is my alternative mascot suggestion.
YORK, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 03: during an i2i Soccer Academy Training Session at Haxby Road on February 3rd 2023 in North Yorkshire, United Kingdom. (Photo by Matthew Appleby)
"Just Jane" was built by Austin Motors at Longbridge near Birmingham, in April 1945. Given the serial number NX611, she was one of the first 150 B Mk VII Avro Lancasters destined as part of the RAF's Tiger Force in the Far East. However, Japan's early surrender meant these aircraft were suddenly surplus to requirements and, instead of seeing service, NX611 ended up in storage at Llandow. There she stayed until 1952. From then on, a chequered career followed.
In April 1952 she was bought by the French Government. Painted midnight blue, she flew maritime patrol for the French Naval Air Arm. Ten years later, she went to Noumeau, New Caledonia, was painted white and used for air sea rescue and cartography. Then in 1964, the French presented her to the Historical Aircraft Preservation Society and flew her to her new home in Sydney where she was overhauled before being flown back to Britain. It took nine days to complete the 12,000 mile journey back to her homeland- seventy flying hours- landing at Biggin Hill on 13 May, 1965.
Temporarily grounded, due to expiry of permitted flying hours, it was 1967 before NX611 flew again, but even then public appearances were brief because of prohibitive costs.
She was flown to Lavenham in Suffolk and, a few years later, in 1972, was put up for auction at 'Squires Gate', Blackpool.
Meanwhile, in Lincolnshire, determined to commemorate the death of their brother Chistopher who was killed on the Nuremburg Raid in March 1944, and all of the men who served in Bomber Command, Fred and Harold Panton had decided to purchase a Second World War Bomber. At one time, they had had their eyes on a Halifax which was coming up for sale, but their father told them, in no uncertain terms, they would not be permitted to keep one at his farm.
The years passed, but the brothers still held on to their dream. Eventually, Fred and Harold became co-owners of their own farm. When some land came up for sale which included part of the defunct East Kirkby airfield they bought it. Some areas of concrete and a few buildings still stood on the old airfield, in a state of disrepair. They used part of the area to set up a chicken farm. However, with the idea of owning an exhibition aircraft still foremost in their in their minds, they also began to renovate the "working area" of the airfield. That included building a new hangar, where an original T2 hangar had stood there during the war years.
Learning about the forthcoming auction, via an advertisement, Fred and Harold decided to try and purchase the old Lancaster. This aircraft could be the perfect monument to their brother's memory. When Fred saw NX611 for the very first time at Blackpool, she stood lonely and forlorn, waiting to be auctioned off to the highest bidder. Around her, a great crowd stood- some hopefully putting in bids, but most just watched- curious to see one of the country's finest types of Bomber at close range. Sadly, due to the reserve not being reached, she was withdrawn from the auction and later privately sold to the Rt Hon Lord Lilford. Fred and Harold kept in contact with her new owner and eventually, whilst she stood Gate Guardian at RAF Scampton, near Lincoln, and after one or two hiccups in the furtherance of their ambition to own her, a deal was struck with Lord Lilford's agent.
In September 1983, NX611 was finally purchased by Fred and Harold and, four years later, after completing an agreed total of ten years gate guardian at RAF Scampton, she was brought to East Kirkby, courtesy of the RAF. It was sixteen years since Fred had seen her at Blackpool auction.
The first moves towards restoring one of her four engines were made in 1993. Two ex RAF engineers were brought in to do the job. They began work on No3 engine. Although it had been idle for 22 years, they were confident they could bring it back to life. Accessing the spare parts was organised, the engine rotated to ensure it would still turn and the cam shaft covers removed. Both had to be replaced, although the engine cylinders were in good working order. Then the propeller was removed, stripped down and examined and - apart from having to adjust the blade settings - everything proved to be in fine order and was rebuilt.
Local contractors were brought in to check the wiring and make good where necessary. That alone was a ten-day job.
The engine's starter motor, magnetos, fuel booster pump and ignition harness were removed and checked, the fuel tank was pressurised and the fuel jettison system reset. When the throttle controls between the cockpit lever and the engine were uncovered, it was discovered that almost a third of the small control rods had to be replaced.
However after about seven hundred man hours and at a cost of £7000 the engine was finally ready.
This work was then completed for all four engines and they now at a fully operational taxiing standard.
Specification-
Engines- Four Rolls-Royce Merlin 24 engines (1640Hp each)
Dimensions-
Span 102ft
Length 69ft, 11 3/4in
Height 20ft 6in
Wing area 1300sqft
Weights-
Tare 37,330lbs
Max. all up: 72,000lbs
Max landing: 60,000lbs
Max. bomb load: 18,000lbs
Max. specialist bomb load:22,000 i.e Grand Slam
Performance-
Max. Speed: 275mph at 15,000ft
Cruising Speed: 200mph at 15,000ft
Service ceiling: 25,000ft
Range: 2,350 miles with 7,000lbs bomb load
Cherry blossom given a painterly look with Topaz Impressions 2.
Here is the original image ... flic.kr/p/T8b7CF, which I don't think looks as good. :)
Photo taken on a walk last weekend, to Crich in Derbsyhire with The Nottingham Wayfarers.
St George, Stowlangtoft, Suffolk
Given that our parish churches almost without exception underwent restorations in the 19th Century, it should be obvious that when we enter a medieval church, we are encountering a Victorian vision of the medieval. Even when the actual furnishings and fittings are medieval, the whole piece is still a Victorian conception.
Inevitably, the question arises of what was there before the restoration and what wasn't. The obvious answer is that we must assume that nothing is as it first appears.
A prime example of a church that assumes a continuity that may not actually be the truth is here in the flat fields between Woolpit and Ixworth. This part of Suffolk can be rather bleak in winter, but in summer the churchyard here is verdant and golden, as beautiful a place as any in the county. The church is large, and yet unusually narrow. It sits on a mound that has been cut down on one side by the road. In the churchyard you'll find the well-known memorial to the art critic Peter Fuller and his unborn son, killed in a car crash in 1990.
In the churchyard wall there is what appears to be broken medieval window tracery, which is worth noticing, for hereby hangs a tale.
St George is one of the great Suffolk churches. Although it may externally appear a little severe, and is by no means as grand as Blythburgh, Long Melford and the rest, it is a treasure house of the medieval inside. Unusually for a church of its date, it was all rebuilt in one go, in the late 14th century, and the perpendicular windows are not yet full of the 'walls of glass' confidence that the subsequent century would see. The tracery appears to have been repaired, and possibly even renewed, which may explain the tracery in the churchyard wall. However, it doesn't take much to see that the tracery in the wall is not perpendicular at all, but decorated. So it may be that the broken tracery is from the original church that the late 14th century church replaced. But the wall itself isn't medieval, so where had it been all those years? Is it possible that the current window tracery is not medieval at all?
Stowlangtoft church featured in Simon Jenkins' book England's Thousand Best Churches, which sends plenty of visitors to its locked door, and may help stave off the inevitable for a while, for there is no real congregation here any more and the church is moribund. Regular services are held across the fields at Pakenham, and St George is now only used on special occasions. The key is kept across the road, where the very nice lady told me in February 2018 that the church is now headed for redundancy. It seems likely that care of it will be conveyed into the hands of the Churches Conservation Trust.
You step in through the chancel door (the lock here is very awkward, but do persevere) and if you are anything like me you will head straight down to the west end where you will find the font. Likethe window tracery, it asks some questions. Unusually, it features a Saint on seven of the panels, Christ being on the westwards face. Mortlock dates it to the early 14th century, and the Saints it shows are familiar cults from that time: St Margaret, St Catherine, St Peter and St Paul, and less commonly St George. The cult of St George was at its height in the early years of the 14th century. Mortlock describes the font as mutilated, and it certainly isn't looking its best. But I think there is more going on here than meets the eye. Fonts were plastered over in Elizabethan times, and only relief that stood proud of the plaster was mutilated. These are all shallow reliefs, and I do not think they have been mutilated at all. To my eye at least, this stonework appears weathered. I wonder if this font was removed from the church, probably in the mid-17th century, and served an outdoor purpose until it was returned in the 19th century.
The story of this church in the 19th century is well-documented. In 1832, as part of his grand tour of Suffolk, David Davy visited, and was pleased to find that the church was at last undergoing repair. The chancel had been roofless, and the nave used for services. A new Rectory was being built. Who was the catalyst behind all this? His name was Samuel Rickards, and he was Rector here for almost the middle forty years of the 19th century. Roy Tricker notes that he was a good friend of John Henry Newman, the future Cardinal, and they often corresponded on the subject of the pre-Reformation ordering of English churches. It is interesting to think how, at this seminal moment, Rickards might have informed the thought of the Oxford Movement. Sadly, when Newman became a Catholic, Rickards broke off all correspondence with him.
During the course of the 1840s and 1850s, Rickards transformed Stowlangtoft church. He got the great Ipswich woodcarver Henry Ringham in to restore, replicate and complete the marvellous set of bench ends - Ringham did the same thing at Woolpit, a few miles away. Ringham's work is so good that it is sometimes hard for the inexperienced eye to detect it. However, as at Woolpit, Ringham only copied animals here, and the weirder stuff is all medieval, and probably dates from the rebuilding of the church. The glory of Stowlangtoft's bench ends is partly the sheer quantity - there are perhaps 60 carvings - but also that there are several unique subjects.
The carvings appear to be part of the same group as Woolpit and Tostock - you will recognise the unicorn, the chained bear, the bull playing a harp, the bird with a man's head, from similar carvings elsewhere. And then hopefully that little alarm bell in your heard should start to go "Hmmmm....." because some of the carvings here are clearly not from the same group. It is hard to believe that the mermaid and the owl, for example, are from the same workshop, or even from the same decade. The benches themselves are no clue, as it was common practice in the 19th century to replace medieval bench ends on modern benches, or on medieval benches, or even on modern benches made out of medieval timber (as happened at Blythburgh). Could it be that Samuel Rickards found some of these bench ends elsewhere? Could he have been the kind of person to do a thing like that?
Well, yes he could. As Roy Tricker recalls, the medieval roof at the tractarian Thomas Mozley's church at Cholderton in Wiltshire is East Anglian. Rickards acquired it after finding it in storage in Ipswich docks. It presumably came from one of the Ipswich churches. In the ferment of the great 19th century restoration of our English churches, there was loads of medieval junk lying around, much of it going begging. But was Samuel Rickards the kind of person to counterfeit his church's medieval inheritance?
Well, yes he probably was. The faux-medieval roundels in the windows of the nave are clearly not medieval at all, but were in fact the work of the young Lucy Rickards, daughter of Samuel Rickards himself. Some are clearly to the young girl's design, and Pevsner notes that others are copied from medieval manuscript illustrations in the British Museum, although the Holy Kinship and Presentation in the Temple roundels at least are very close copies of the Flemish roundels of the same subjects in Nowton church on the other side of Bury St Edmunds.
Truly medieval is the vast St Christopher wall-painting still discernible on the north wall. It was probably one of the last to be painted. The bench ends are medieval, of course, as is the fine rood-screen dado, albeit repainted. There is even some medieval figure glass in the upper tracery of some of the windows, including St Agnes holding a lamb and four Old Testament prophets. The laughable stone pulpit is Rickard's commission, and the work of William White. What can Rickards have been thinking of? But we step through into the chancel, and suddenly the whole thing moves up a gear. For here are some things that are truly remarkable.
In a county famous for its woodwork, the furnishings of Stowlangtoft's chancel are breathtaking, even awe-inspiring. Behind the rood screen dado is Suffolk's most complete set of return stalls. Most striking are the figures that form finials to the stall ends. They are participants in the Mass, including two Priests, two servers and two acolytes. The figure of the Priest at a prayer desk must be one of the best medieval images in Suffolk, and Mortlock thought the stalls the finest in England.
The benches that face eastwards are misericords, and beneath them are wonderful things: angels, lions and wodewoses, evangelistic symbols and crowned heads. A hawk captures a hare, a dragon sticks out its tongue. Between the seats are weird oriental faces.
Now, you know what I am going to ask next. How much of this is from this church originally? It all appears medieval work, and there is no reason to believe it might not have been moved elsewhere in the church when the chancel was open to the elements. What evidence have we got?
Firstly, we should notice that the only other Suffolk church with such a large number of medieval misericords of this quality is just a mile away, at Norton. I don't ask you to see this as significant, merely to notice it in passing. Secondly, I am no carpenter, but it does look to me as though two sets of furnishings have been cobbled together; the stalls that back on to the screen appear to have been integrated into the larger structure of stalls and desks that front them and the north and south walls.
However, if you look closely at the figures of the two Deacons, you will see that they are bearing shields of the Ashfield and Peche families. The Ashfield arms also appear on the rood screen, and the Ashfields were the major donors when the church was rebuilt in the 14th century. So on balance I am inclined to think that the greater part of the stall structure was in this church originally from when it was rebuilt. And the misericords? Well, I don't know. But I think they have to be considered as part of the same set as those at Norton. In which case they may have come from the same church, which may have been this one, but may not have been. Almost certainly, the stalls at Norton did not come from Norton church, and folklore has it that they were originally in the quire of Bury Abbey.
Other remarkable things in St George include FE Howard's beautiful war memorial in the former north doorway, and in the opposite corner of the nave Hugh Easton's unexpectedly gorgeous St George, which serves the same purpose. He's not an artist I usually admire, but it is as good as his work at Elveden. Back up in the chancel is a delightful painted pipe organ which was apparently exhibited at, and acquired from, the Great Exhibition of 1851.
But St George at Stowlangtoft is, of course, most famous for the Flemish carvings that flank the rather heavy altarpiece. They were given to the church by Henry Wilson of Stowlangtoft Hall, who allegedly found them in an Ixworth junk shop. They show images from the crucifixion story, but are not Stations of the Cross as some guides suggest. They date from the 1480s, and were almost certainly the altarpiece of a French or Flemish monastery that was sacked during the French Revolution. The carvings were once brightly painted, and piled up in a block rather than spread out in a line. The niches, and crowning arches above them, are 19th century.
One cold winter's night in January 1977, a gang of thieves broke into this locked church and stole them. Nothing more was seen or heard of them until 1982, when they were discovered on display in an Amsterdam art gallery. Their journey had been a convoluted one. Taken to Holland, they were used as security for a loan which was defaulted upon. The new owner was then burgled, and the carvings were fenced to an Amsterdam junk dealer. They were bought from his shop, and taken to the museum, which immediately identified them as 15th century carvings. They put them on display, and a Dutch woman who had read about the Stowlangtoft theft recognised them.
The parish instituted legal proceedings to get them back. An injunction was taken out to stop the new owner removing them from the museum. The parish lost the case, leaving them with a monstrous legal bill, but the story has a happy ending. A Dutch businessman negotiated their purchase from the owner, paid off the legal bills, and returned the carvings to Stowlangtoft. Apparently this was all at vast cost, but the businessman gave the gift in thanks for Britain's liberation of Holland from the Nazis. No, thank you, sir.
Today, the carvings are fixed firmly in place and alarmed, so they won't be going walkabout again. But a little part of me wonders if they really should be here at all. Sure, they are medieval, but they weren't here originally, and they weren't even in England originally. Wouldn't it be better if they were displayed somewhere safer, where people could pay to see them, and provide some income for the maintenance of the church building? And then, whisper it, when St George is taken on by the CCT they might even be able to leave it open.
MAHAVATAR BABAJI CAVE
Mahāvatār Bābājī (literally; Great Avatar Dear Father) is the name given to an Indian saint and yogi by Lahiri Mahasaya and several of his disciples,[2] who reported meeting him between 1861 and 1935. Some of these meetings were described by Paramahansa Yogananda in his book Autobiography of a Yogi, including a first-hand report of Yogananda's own meeting with the yogi.[3]Another first hand account was given by Yukteswar Giri in his book The Holy Science.[4] According to Sri M's autobiography (Apprenticed to a Himalayan Master) Babaji, was Shiva. In the second last chapter of his book, he mentions Babaji changing his form to that of Shiva. All of these accounts, along with additional reported meetings, are described in various biographies.[5][6][7]According to Yogananda's autobiography, Babaji has resided for at least hundreds of years in the remote Himalayan regions of India, seen in person by only a small number of disciples and others.[3][8] The death less Master is more than 2000 years old. He belongs to a very powerful lineage of Siddha Boganthar and Rishi Agastya as his Gurus. He acquired this deathless, non perishable body through tough yogik kriyas.
Again, according to his autobiography, shortly before Yogananda left for America in 1920, Babaji came to his home in Calcutta, where the young monk sat deeply praying for divine assurance regarding the mission he was about to undertake. Babaji said to him: "Follow the behest of your guru and go to America. Fear not; you shall be protected. You are the one I have chosen to spread the message of Kriya Yoga in the West
There are very few accounts of Babaji's childhood. One source of information is the book Babaji and the 18 Siddha Kriya Yoga tradition by Marshal Govindan.[9]According to Govindan, Babaji was named Nagarajan (king of serpents) by his parents. [8] V.T. Neelakantan and S.A.A. Ramaiah founded on 17 October 1952, (they claim – at the request of Babaji) a new organization, "Kriya Babaji Sangah," dedicated to the teaching of Babaji's Kriya Yoga. They claim that in 1953 Mahavatar Babaji told them that he was born on 30 November 203 CE in a small coastal village now known as Parangipettai, Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu, India.[10] Babaji's Kriya Yoga Order of Acharyas Trust (Kriya Babaji Sangah) and their branch organizations claim his place and date of birth.[10] He was a disciple of Bogar and his birth name is Nagarajan.[9][10]
In Paramahansa Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi, many references are made to Mahavatar Babaji, including from Lahirī and Sri Yukteshwar.[3] In his book The Second Coming of Christ, Yogananda states that Jesus Christ went to India and conferred with Mahavatar Babaji.[8] This would make Babaji at least 2000 years old.[11] According to Govindan's book, Babaji Nagaraj's father was the priest of the village's temple. Babaji revealed only those details which he believed to be formative as well as potentially instructive to his disciples. Govindan mentioned one incident like this: "One time Nagaraj's mother had got one rare jackfruit for a family feast and put it aside. Babaji was only 4 years old at that time. He found the jackfruit when his mother was not around and ate it all. When his mother came to know about it, she flew in blind rage and stuffed a cloth inside Babaji's mouth, nearly suffocating him, but he survived. Later on he thanked God for showing him that she was to be loved without attachment or illusion. His Love for his mother became unconditional and detached."[9]
When Nagaraj was about 5 years old, someone kidnapped him and sold him as a slave in Calcutta (now Kolkata). His new owner however was a kind man and he freed Nagaraj shortly thereafter. Nagaraj then joined a small group of wandering sannyāsin due to their radiant faces and love for God. During the next few years, he wandered from place to place, studying holy scriptures like the Vedas, Upanishad, Mahabharata, Ramayana, Bhagavad Gita.
According to Marshall Govindan's book, at the age of eleven, he made a difficult journey on foot and by boat with a group of ascetics to Kataragama, Sri Lanka. Nagaraj met Siddha Bhogarnathar and became his disciple. Nagaraj performed intensive yogic sadhana for a long time with him. Bhogarnathar inspired Nagaraj to seek his initiation into Kriya Kundalini Pranayam from Siddha Agastya. Babaji became a disciple of Siddha Agastya. Nagaraj was initiated into the secrets of Kriya Kundalini Pranayama or "Vasi Yogam". Babaji made a long pilgrimage to Badrinath and spent eighteen months practising yogic kriyataught to him by Siddha Agastya and Bhogarnathar. Babaji attained self-realization shortly thereafter.[9]
It is claimed that these revelations were made by Babaji himself to S.A.A. Ramaiah, a young graduate student in geology at the University of Madras and V.T. Neelakantan, a famous journalist, and close student of Annie Besant, President of the Theosophical Society and mentor of Krishnamurti. Babaji was said to have appeared to each of them independently and then brought them together to work for his Mission in 1942
By Kailash Mansarovar Foundation Swami Bikash Giri www.sumeruparvat.com , www.naturalitem.com
WINSTON-SALEM —The N.C. Department of Transportation has named the winner of the Brent Hamilton Excellence Award. NCDOT Division 9 Business Officer Willie Bradwell, Jr. was recognized by his peers during today’s Board of Transportation meeting as this years’ honoree.
Division 9 Engineer Pat Ivey said, “Bradwell was the perfect choice for the reward in part because of his thorough knowledge of financial and accounting principles and the highest level of professional competence and ethical standards.”
Bradwell began his career at NCDOT in November 1995 as the Division 9 accounting technician and has served as the division business officer since 2000. Prior to coming to NCDOT, he worked with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Florida State University.
Division 9 Board Member Jake Alexander said, "His commitment to the highest integrity has been noticed by all who work with him, myself included. Mr. Bradwell is consistently a good steward of taxpayer dollars. He helps counties keep a balanced inventory by researching issues himself and works to help the field achieve the goals set in place by our Division and by the staff in Raleigh. Willie is indeed an excellent choice for this Award."
While Mr. Bradwell’s main focus is on Division 9, his expertise is sought out on many statewide projects and various workgroups. He provides guidance and assistance to other Divisions and is held in very high regard by many of his colleagues across the state as evidenced by the following comments compiled for this nomination:
•Kathy Walker (Division 7) - “After I became the business officer, Willie physically came to Division 7 and showed me how to research to see where we had funds. He walked me through the process of creating funding documents. He showed me how to reconcile the overdrafts. He walked me through the process of allocating funds. He brought copies of his personal notes that he thought would be helpful. He has assisted me when I had inventory questions. He has shared excel spreadsheet formats that he has come up with that he thought would be beneficial to me. He has always been very patient and kind. Willie always has time for me and I will forever be thankful for him.”
•Melissa Dorman (NCDOT Financial Services Division) - “I think Willie is an excellent candidate for the Brent Hamilton award. In Fiscal, Willie is viewed as a business officer who is always on top of things. He is well respected and knowledgeable and always asks questions to ensure that his Division is operating properly. I have heard several Highway Division business officers make the statement that if they needed to know how to tackle a new situation; they would contact Willie for advice and to see how he would handle the same matter in his Division.”
•Fred Little (Division 6) - “Going back to my days as an accountant in the State Project Funding Unit (SPFU) of Accounting Operations (AO), I worked with and came to know all 14 Business Officers (BO), one of whom was Willie Bradwell. Although each had his/her own unique way of doing business in a unique division office, Willie stood out as the business officers’ business officer. Anytime I wanted to contact all B.O.s as a group, I would ask Willie to proof what I had to say for accuracy, clarity and relevance. And, when I sought the opinion of any one B.O., I would always seek out Willie for his candor and insight. Seven years ago, I became a B.O. myself, here in Fayetteville with Division 6. I immediately reached out to Willie for guidance. He took me in like he had gotten a new job, too, i.e. training Fred. I drove the two-plus hours to Winston-Salem twice to work hands-on with Willie and his uncommonly-capable Accounting Tech, Joy Ogburn. Together, they went over literally everything I would come to know as duties of a B.O. After that, I have continued (to this day) to call or email Willie for help or advice. If he is unavailable, I know he will get back to me ASAP. When I joined the SPFU, I got to know Brent Hamilton as she was preparing to leave AO, and working only part time. Because of my deep admiration for Brent’s integrity and dedication, her tireless efforts on behalf of our stakeholders, and her cheerful spirit, I take seriously an award in her memory. While there will not be another Brent Hamilton, I can truly say that Willie Bradwell’s traits of character model those set forth by Brent. I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to wholeheartedly endorse the nomination of my mentor and friend, Willie Bradwell Jr.”
•Keith Rudd (NCDOT Fiscal) “You may know, I work in the State Project Funding Unit of Fiscal in Raleigh. Willie and I have worked together for years. Willie has helped me countless times (too numerous to mention) with Division 9 financial issues concerning WBS elements, overdrafts, funding, etc. Some of our problems resolved through the years have been very complex, and required working together through several steps before the issue can be resolved. Willie has always been very courteous, friendly, and professional in all of our communications. Not only that his knowledge and experience are a value and asset to me and surely his fellow Division 9 coworkers. To be quite honest, Willie is so knowledgeable in his work, that whenever he calls with a question or a problem, it sort of worries me, because I think, ‘What can I possibly know that he doesn’t already know, to be asking me about it?’. Ha, ha, ha. But, when he does, we always work through it, and come up with a solution/answer to his question. I truly enjoy working with him, and it is always a pleasure to do so. I think Willie is very deserving of this award.”
The Brent Hamilton Excellence in Financial Management and Integrity Award is intended to recognize significant dedication and hard work to the betterment of financial services and operations within business units throughout the Department. Someone worthy of this award embodies NCDOT’s commitment to trustworthiness, always tries to do what’s right, even in difficult circumstances, and demonstrates integrity in all dealings, personal and professional.
The award will be given annually to an NCDOT employee demonstrating exemplary dedication to financial services and functions, increasing financial accountability, providing excellent stewardship of public dollars, and a being role model for adherence to ethical standards.
The award is named in honor of former Fiscal Manager Brent Hamilton. Brent was admired for her dedication to financial work and for her courage and strength during her long battle with cancer.
Given the angular and detail oriented nature of this wheel, we felt it was necessary to create a new finish that would complement those design choices. The result is our brand new Crystal Black Buff finish. With black serving as the base coat, the high gloss clear coat creates a dark mirror-like appearance. The combination of the design of the V802 and this new finish create a synergy that you would be proud to put on your mod list.
The full text of this account is given below
An account written in February 2014 by my mother Catherine about her father Alfred’s service in the Great war
"One Man’s war "
My father was born in October 1897 in the small village of Cononley. he lived in the long terrace of houses which run along the road in the direction of Crosshills known to villagers as “frying pan row” because it was reputed hat only one family owned a frying pan so it was passed from house to house on a Sunday!
Dad was called up in 1915 and after a short period of training near the east coast was shipped across to France.
He was in the 2nd/6th company of the Duke of wellington’s regiment and was part of the regiment recruited from all areas of Craven
An outstanding feature of recruiting in Craven in the early days of the war was the highly successful effort of a Mr H.G.Tunskill of Otterborn who at that time represented the Settle District of the West Riding County council and after the first appeal for volunteers no less than 99 men joined him as members of Lord Kitchener’s army. and were given a resounding send off by townsfolk
The company soon aw action and in Thiepval occupied some old German trenches which though damaged by allied shells were deep with dug outs and tunnels and very well constructed
After an attack in that sector a sergeant saw a waterproof sheet stretched on the ground and on picking it up an unwounded German soldier sprang from it and bolted – The sergeant gave chase and the man was captured .
Dad fought at both battles at Ypres and also on the Somme where the trenches had been almost obliterated and new ones had to be dug in close proximity to enemy lines .
Many bodies had to be buried in the hours of darkness and food and water heavily rationed and were brought up in terribly dangerous circumstances
After a long spell in he trenches the whole battalion enjoyed two weeks rest at a village aptly named Paradis. A horse show was organised and the battalion did well and they also swept the board and won the tug of war and several field events.
Dad was wounded three times , - on the first occasion getting a bullet through his leg just under his left knee. he was treated for that in a field hospital.
Later he developed trench feet in which the feet swell very badly and gangrene can set in.
On that occasion he was sent back to England to be treated at a military hospital in York. When this was bombed by airships the patients with trench feet were issued with bigger boots and sent back to join their regiments.
Dad’s third wounds were more serious – a lump of shrapnel , jagged and as big as a hen’s egg, blasted through his right arm and into his body where he suffered the loss of a kidney and a ruptured spleen.
He lay for three days in quite deep filthy water in a small shell hole prior to being found and was told by staff at the field hospital that, if it hadn’t been for the cold water he would have bled to death.
He was then moved to a French cathedral into one of the side chapels which had been made into a hospital and there he spent his 21st birthday.
He told me that one of the “walking wounded” hung a dead rat above the entrance just low enough to catch the very strict matron’s head as she entered!
Eventually he was moved back o a hospital in England and was finally sent up to a place in whitly Bay and then discharged.
He never spoke of the appalling conditions except for two little tales.
He said that if you wanted a light fr your cigarette and there were a few of you present, you never ever accepted a light from the third person because they believed that lighting a match at first would alert the enemy to their position,;- that after the second the German’s would take aim and on the third they would fire!
He also told me how they would turn their clothing inside out, given the chance ,and run a lighted match close to the seams to kill the lice!
Dad had to wear a support belt for the rest of his life and was forbidden to play cricket which was a blow as he’d been reported to be Cononley’s demon bowler . It always surprised me that he was a good tennis player and that didn’t seem to be doing him much harm. Perhaps he took up tennis after his discharge?
There was a tennis club at the local chapel and all my family were members.
On his death ,aged 48, mum donated a very small cup in his memory for the “doubles” champions and I was the first, with my partner Ken Bradley, to win it!
Dad never spoke of the horrors of war . He just stuck to amusing anecdotes and often spoke warmly of the camaraderie of the trenches.
I have at home a book called “Craven’s part in the Great war” and in it are pictures of hundreds of of Craven men who gave their lives . dad would look at it occasionally on Armistice day and point out sadly all the men he’d known.
Another Craven event connected to a disaster that happened was when the hospital ship “Rohanna” hit rocks near Whitby and a huge number of men were drowned.
I spoke to a lifeboat man at Whitby a few years ago and in their small museum behind the shop they have a scale model of the “Rohanna” and details of the horrendous task the lifeboat crew had trying to help.
[apologies but i can't find a spiral for the title type in what's currently available to me; also know as EXCLAIM]
edited by Ian Danzig.
Toronto, june 1993. 15ooo copies.
11-3/8 x 16, 7 sheets offwhite newsprint folded unbound to 28 pp tabloid, all printed black offset.
cover photograph by Peter Venuto.
52 contributors ID'd:
Ron Anicich, Victor Bains, Lori Beckstead, Ian Blurton, Tony Burgess, R.D.Collins, Andrew Creighton, Ian Danzig, Mark De Boer, Elizabeth De Boer, K.T.Diggins, James Duncan, Jim English, Neil Exall, Nora Fannin, David S.Faris, Neil Fettes, Matt Galloway, John Grove, Johnny Hanson, Robbie Hanson, Mark Harrington, Paul Helps, Hal Kelly, Graham Kennedy, Bruce LaBruce, D.J.Lebowitz, Geoff Marshall, Heavy F.Metal, Glenn Milchen, Dr.Minz, William New, Frank Perna, Ice Cream Pernasquid, Vicky Peters, Kevin Press, Steve Rhodes, Phil Saunders, Jay Sawyer, Shawn Scallen, Richard Schiller, Walter Schreifels, Tom Sekowski, Fiona Smyth, Chiyoko Szlavnics, Bruce Tisdale, Peter Venuto, Janice Walker, L.Weaver, Mike White, Glynis Wilson, Chris Wodskou.
includes:
i) ZAG: "UTOPIA, NOW!", by Tony Burgess (prose review of Zag 2, p.13, with reference to jwcurry)
for 365 and FGR invades Any Given Saturday.
Please View Big On Black -- the focus is better that way.
My grandmother was born in Finland. Her family sailed across the Atlantic to Ellis Island and the United States when she was 3. From there, they traveled across the country to live in a tight-knit Finnish Community in Washington State just outside of Vancouver.
I asked her 10 years ago if we could sit down and talk about everything she remembers from growing up. I now have 5 letters, all handwritten by her, complete with hand-drawn maps, of everyone and everything she remembers. They are a treasure to me and I keep them in a safe deposit box. I know if I hadn't asked for her to write them down, the information would be forever lost when she passes away.
She is an amazing and strong woman, one whom I admire greatly. During WWII, when women were needed to take up the jobs the men had left behind, my grandmother flew P-38 Lightnings back and forth across the country so they would be on the correct coast when needed by the soldiers.
She met my grandfather at a church dance. At least that's what SHE says. He says he noticed her one day joyriding with a bunch of girls from his town as they drove down the main street in a convertible they "borrowed" from the neighbor three doors down. She says she would NEVER do anything like that. And then grins like she's back in that car again.
She raised 5 boys, was the child of an alcoholic father, and ran a peppermint farm that my uncle still runs today. She has traveled up and down the entire coasts of Central America - with this gift to befriend anyone. She talked to guerilla soldiers in the jungle, transvestites and drag queens outside a club, the owners of a small fruit stand - learning the life stories of them all and remembering the details so she can share them with me.
I have her eyes. They were a gift passed down to me through my father, and which I have given to my own daughter. I only hope that I have her spunk when I am coming around the bend towards the end of my days. That I have the strength of character that she posses.
I am exceptionally proud to be her granddaughter.
Wheeler Reef Cyclone Yasi Destruction
I’ve just paid a visit to my favourite GBR destination. Wheeler reef is 75km east of TOWNSVILLE and is on the inner side of the GBR belt. Its bathed in nutrient rich tidal currents and has escaped the ravages of C.O.T. ( crown of thorns starfish) and large tropical storms for several decades at least.
On wheelers NW side it boasted a most intricate and delicate hard coral gardens that could only be described with superlatives like “ this is as good as it gets “ and you wouldn’t be exaggerating!
A sand cay that sticks its head out of the water for about 3 hours either side if low tide and some great deep water reef diving down to 35 meters and it was easy to see why Wheeler was listed as one of the GBR premium snorkelling and dive sites.
Cyclone Yasi hit wheeler from the NE & it no doubt copped turbulent 10me+ waves and a tidal surge that ripped thru it cracks and crevasses with enormous destructive power. In the shallows my beloved pristine coral garden is no more! A pile of broken bones covered in slimy green algae litter the once pure white sand floor.
For a start it was heart breaking to snorkel thru the shallow barren gullies in company with my hungry fishy friends. Then on closer inspection I noticed small live coral remnants almost everywhere so I guess in the scheme of natures ebbs and flows its no big deal and no doubt given a little time my beautiful coral gardens will rebound .
The news was better when I dived the deep water with not a lot of noticeable damage below depths of 15 meters .Strangely the marine life in the deep seemed even more prolific than normal with plenty of browsing reef munchers and lots of predicator trout and cod hanging around walls and gullies. My personal favourites, the magnificent jet propelled Trevally, Mackerel and Barracouta were cruising thru the plentiful bait fish…no change there.
Away from the edge of the main reef structure the sand was clean and still home to the normal sandy cellar dwellers . It was also heart-warming to find the usual blue spotted eagle rays , gliding green turtles and reef sharks still as per normal..
The southern side of the reef suffered comparatively less . I guess the coral is accustomed to the battering of the south east trades and being stronger and less prolific fared much better.
I think GBR divers and explorers are a hardy breed and whilst there is no denying the extensive under water damage inflicted by Yasi all the way up the north coast there remains plenty of amazing and even new locations to explore :).
Back when I were a nipper, I was given a book, a big book of trains from around the world, and on the cover was a Japanese Bullet Train, and I have always wanted to ride one ever since. There is one at the NRM in York, but that doesn't work, so for me, the real highlight of this trip would be riding on a real bullet train. Several times. I was so excited I was vibrating.
After the usual breakfast at the Gate Hotel, we took the Metro to Ueno then the overground line to Tokyo Station, simply re-tracing our steps of two day's before on the guided walk. Heck, we were experienced Metro travellers now, we knew stuff. And after sending the cases on via the courier, we only had either a night case of a bag of camera equipment with us to weigh us down.
And we did it will little problem and with an hour to spare, with the idea that I could snap the bullet trains to death while we waited.
At the Shinkansen platforms, we validate our pass and are let through; we had reserved seats the day before, so we could relax and wait for our train happy that we would have a seat. Which meant I could go to the end of the platforms to take shots. I could also go to the middle and all point between to snap away, Man, it were proper lush. I just knew that me deal old Dad would have loved this, waiting on the end of platforms in Tokyo, waiting for the next Bullet train to either arrive or leave.
Not only was I snapping them, but within the hour, we would be climbing on one to travel south to Kyoto.
At 11:03 we lined up where it said on the platform our carriage would stop, which it did We filed on, slumped into our armchair-like seats, all of which pointed the direction of travel. And we zoomed off, accelerating wat seemed as fast as a Formula 1 car, but this being an 18 coach train. I waited with excitement untol it was time for the train to depart; expecting something sensational, but we didn't even hear the doors swish closed; only with a wave from the guard on the platform, the train pulled away, rapidly accelerating along the platform and out into the grayness outside.
The line weaved through the massive tower blocks we had seen on the previous day, I tried to recognise the World Trade Centre, but it must have looked like any of a dozen other buildings. The suburbs slipped by, then we were in the countryside, nipping in and out of tunnels, past steep hillsides planted with green tea plants.
We stopped at various stations, picking a few more people up, but our coach was less than half full.
Sadly, outside it rained, and so Mount Fuji was hidden from view, we had even been given tickets on the left side of the train so we would be on the correct side for the view. Maybe on our way back? Who knows?
Every time a member of staff came though the carriage, they would stop at the door the other end of the compartment, then and salute; we don't get that on the train up to London back home, I thought. Not only that, they are smartly turned out with white gloves. Smart.
I was happy enough on the train, looking out the window watching the countryside slip by, changing from the urban landscape of Totyo, to the rolling hills further south and then the endless paddy fields as we neared Kyoto, where we were to get off. It was still pouring with rain, with no views of mountains or volcanoes; mores the pity.
We arrive at 14:00, and right away find somewhere to have lunch; a noodle bar on the station, which again was very good indeed as it was more noodles and tempura prawns. We order by pointing at pictures on the menu, then pay by thrusting wads of notes at the lady behind the till. She bows. We bow. We all bow.
We find the taxi rank and show him the address to the hotel, so we set off into the drizzly grey weather. and the heavy traffic, in which we crawled to the centre of town and our hotel.
We have no trouble in checking in, and our cases were waiting. Jools decides to do some washing as the wash room is one our fllor, and we had already accumilated several pounds of loose change with which to feed the machines.
With the portable wifi device that the tour company had provided us with, we were able to get online, get the news, check mails ad have the Radcliffe and Maconie show streamed; almost like being home.
So once we had made a coffee, we went out into the early evening to see what was around. What we found was a covered shopping area, several streets in fact, all lined with shops and all having neon signs flashing away. Three guitar shops, two record shops among others.
It was a modern shopping centre, along three covered roads. On one of them there was a temple, just taking up the place where you would expect a shop.
In the narrow streets beyond, we spy a shop selling creme brulee donuts, so Jools and i have one and a coffee, which is just dandy.
We walk back to the hotel under our newly purchased umbrellas, thus keeping dry. It was beginning to get dark, and the neon lights reflected off the road in a most attractive way.
Later in the evening, we decide not to go out into the pouring rain, wandering around a strange new city with little idea of where we would be going, so instead we go to the restaurant in the basement, and order pork or something which should have come with vegetables. It did, but just one mange tout, which counts as one of your five a day; right?.
We round the night off with cards in our room accompanied by cheap local beer bought from a drug store.
Instructors watch as Rct. Nino Toigo, left, Platoon 3034, and Rct. Matthew Marso, Platoon 3038, Mike Company, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, battle each other March 10, 2014, during pugil stick training on Parris Island, S.C. Toigo, 18, from Lincoln Park, Mich., and Marso, 22, from Kernersville, N.C., battled using pugil sticks in two 15-second matches to simulate fighting with bayonet-affixed rifles. Recruits practice these techniques as part of Marine Corps martial arts training. Mike Company is scheduled to graduate May 23, 2014. Parris Island has been the site of Marine Corps recruit training since Nov. 1, 1915. Today, approximately 20,000 recruits come to Parris Island annually for the chance to become United States Marines by enduring 13 weeks of rigorous, transformative training. Parris Island is home to entry-level enlisted training for 50 percent of males and 100 percent of females in the Marine Corps. (Photo by Cpl. Caitlin Brink)
WINSTON-SALEM —The N.C. Department of Transportation has named the winner of the Brent Hamilton Excellence Award. NCDOT Division 9 Business Officer Willie Bradwell, Jr. was recognized by his peers during today’s Board of Transportation meeting as this years’ honoree.
Division 9 Engineer Pat Ivey said, “Bradwell was the perfect choice for the reward in part because of his thorough knowledge of financial and accounting principles and the highest level of professional competence and ethical standards.”
Bradwell began his career at NCDOT in November 1995 as the Division 9 accounting technician and has served as the division business officer since 2000. Prior to coming to NCDOT, he worked with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Florida State University.
Division 9 Board Member Jake Alexander said, "His commitment to the highest integrity has been noticed by all who work with him, myself included. Mr. Bradwell is consistently a good steward of taxpayer dollars. He helps counties keep a balanced inventory by researching issues himself and works to help the field achieve the goals set in place by our Division and by the staff in Raleigh. Willie is indeed an excellent choice for this Award."
While Mr. Bradwell’s main focus is on Division 9, his expertise is sought out on many statewide projects and various workgroups. He provides guidance and assistance to other Divisions and is held in very high regard by many of his colleagues across the state as evidenced by the following comments compiled for this nomination:
•Kathy Walker (Division 7) - “After I became the business officer, Willie physically came to Division 7 and showed me how to research to see where we had funds. He walked me through the process of creating funding documents. He showed me how to reconcile the overdrafts. He walked me through the process of allocating funds. He brought copies of his personal notes that he thought would be helpful. He has assisted me when I had inventory questions. He has shared excel spreadsheet formats that he has come up with that he thought would be beneficial to me. He has always been very patient and kind. Willie always has time for me and I will forever be thankful for him.”
•Melissa Dorman (NCDOT Financial Services Division) - “I think Willie is an excellent candidate for the Brent Hamilton award. In Fiscal, Willie is viewed as a business officer who is always on top of things. He is well respected and knowledgeable and always asks questions to ensure that his Division is operating properly. I have heard several Highway Division business officers make the statement that if they needed to know how to tackle a new situation; they would contact Willie for advice and to see how he would handle the same matter in his Division.”
•Fred Little (Division 6) - “Going back to my days as an accountant in the State Project Funding Unit (SPFU) of Accounting Operations (AO), I worked with and came to know all 14 Business Officers (BO), one of whom was Willie Bradwell. Although each had his/her own unique way of doing business in a unique division office, Willie stood out as the business officers’ business officer. Anytime I wanted to contact all B.O.s as a group, I would ask Willie to proof what I had to say for accuracy, clarity and relevance. And, when I sought the opinion of any one B.O., I would always seek out Willie for his candor and insight. Seven years ago, I became a B.O. myself, here in Fayetteville with Division 6. I immediately reached out to Willie for guidance. He took me in like he had gotten a new job, too, i.e. training Fred. I drove the two-plus hours to Winston-Salem twice to work hands-on with Willie and his uncommonly-capable Accounting Tech, Joy Ogburn. Together, they went over literally everything I would come to know as duties of a B.O. After that, I have continued (to this day) to call or email Willie for help or advice. If he is unavailable, I know he will get back to me ASAP. When I joined the SPFU, I got to know Brent Hamilton as she was preparing to leave AO, and working only part time. Because of my deep admiration for Brent’s integrity and dedication, her tireless efforts on behalf of our stakeholders, and her cheerful spirit, I take seriously an award in her memory. While there will not be another Brent Hamilton, I can truly say that Willie Bradwell’s traits of character model those set forth by Brent. I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to wholeheartedly endorse the nomination of my mentor and friend, Willie Bradwell Jr.”
•Keith Rudd (NCDOT Fiscal) “You may know, I work in the State Project Funding Unit of Fiscal in Raleigh. Willie and I have worked together for years. Willie has helped me countless times (too numerous to mention) with Division 9 financial issues concerning WBS elements, overdrafts, funding, etc. Some of our problems resolved through the years have been very complex, and required working together through several steps before the issue can be resolved. Willie has always been very courteous, friendly, and professional in all of our communications. Not only that his knowledge and experience are a value and asset to me and surely his fellow Division 9 coworkers. To be quite honest, Willie is so knowledgeable in his work, that whenever he calls with a question or a problem, it sort of worries me, because I think, ‘What can I possibly know that he doesn’t already know, to be asking me about it?’. Ha, ha, ha. But, when he does, we always work through it, and come up with a solution/answer to his question. I truly enjoy working with him, and it is always a pleasure to do so. I think Willie is very deserving of this award.”
The Brent Hamilton Excellence in Financial Management and Integrity Award is intended to recognize significant dedication and hard work to the betterment of financial services and operations within business units throughout the Department. Someone worthy of this award embodies NCDOT’s commitment to trustworthiness, always tries to do what’s right, even in difficult circumstances, and demonstrates integrity in all dealings, personal and professional.
The award will be given annually to an NCDOT employee demonstrating exemplary dedication to financial services and functions, increasing financial accountability, providing excellent stewardship of public dollars, and a being role model for adherence to ethical standards.
The award is named in honor of former Fiscal Manager Brent Hamilton. Brent was admired for her dedication to financial work and for her courage and strength during her long battle with cancer.
St George, Stowlangtoft, Suffolk
Given that our parish churches almost without exception underwent restorations in the 19th Century, it should be obvious that when we enter a medieval church, we are encountering a Victorian vision of the medieval. Even when the actual furnishings and fittings are medieval, the whole piece is still a Victorian conception.
Inevitably, the question arises of what was there before the restoration and what wasn't. The obvious answer is that we must assume that nothing is as it first appears.
A prime example of a church that assumes a continuity that may not actually be the truth is here in the flat fields between Woolpit and Ixworth. This part of Suffolk can be rather bleak in winter, but in summer the churchyard here is verdant and golden, as beautiful a place as any in the county. The church is large, and yet unusually narrow. It sits on a mound that has been cut down on one side by the road. In the churchyard you'll find the well-known memorial to the art critic Peter Fuller and his unborn son, killed in a car crash in 1990.
In the churchyard wall there is what appears to be broken medieval window tracery, which is worth noticing, for hereby hangs a tale.
St George is one of the great Suffolk churches. Although it may externally appear a little severe, and is by no means as grand as Blythburgh, Long Melford and the rest, it is a treasure house of the medieval inside. Unusually for a church of its date, it was all rebuilt in one go, in the late 14th century, and the perpendicular windows are not yet full of the 'walls of glass' confidence that the subsequent century would see. The tracery appears to have been repaired, and possibly even renewed, which may explain the tracery in the churchyard wall. However, it doesn't take much to see that the tracery in the wall is not perpendicular at all, but decorated. So it may be that the broken tracery is from the original church that the late 14th century church replaced. But the wall itself isn't medieval, so where had it been all those years? Is it possible that the current window tracery is not medieval at all?
Stowlangtoft church featured in Simon Jenkins' book England's Thousand Best Churches, which sends plenty of visitors to its locked door, and may help stave off the inevitable for a while, for there is no real congregation here any more and the church is moribund. Regular services are held across the fields at Pakenham, and St George is now only used on special occasions. The key is kept across the road, where the very nice lady told me in February 2018 that the church is now headed for redundancy. It seems likely that care of it will be conveyed into the hands of the Churches Conservation Trust.
You step in through the chancel door (the lock here is very awkward, but do persevere) and if you are anything like me you will head straight down to the west end where you will find the font. Likethe window tracery, it asks some questions. Unusually, it features a Saint on seven of the panels, Christ being on the westwards face. Mortlock dates it to the early 14th century, and the Saints it shows are familiar cults from that time: St Margaret, St Catherine, St Peter and St Paul, and less commonly St George. The cult of St George was at its height in the early years of the 14th century. Mortlock describes the font as mutilated, and it certainly isn't looking its best. But I think there is more going on here than meets the eye. Fonts were plastered over in Elizabethan times, and only relief that stood proud of the plaster was mutilated. These are all shallow reliefs, and I do not think they have been mutilated at all. To my eye at least, this stonework appears weathered. I wonder if this font was removed from the church, probably in the mid-17th century, and served an outdoor purpose until it was returned in the 19th century.
The story of this church in the 19th century is well-documented. In 1832, as part of his grand tour of Suffolk, David Davy visited, and was pleased to find that the church was at last undergoing repair. The chancel had been roofless, and the nave used for services. A new Rectory was being built. Who was the catalyst behind all this? His name was Samuel Rickards, and he was Rector here for almost the middle forty years of the 19th century. Roy Tricker notes that he was a good friend of John Henry Newman, the future Cardinal, and they often corresponded on the subject of the pre-Reformation ordering of English churches. It is interesting to think how, at this seminal moment, Rickards might have informed the thought of the Oxford Movement. Sadly, when Newman became a Catholic, Rickards broke off all correspondence with him.
During the course of the 1840s and 1850s, Rickards transformed Stowlangtoft church. He got the great Ipswich woodcarver Henry Ringham in to restore, replicate and complete the marvellous set of bench ends - Ringham did the same thing at Woolpit, a few miles away. Ringham's work is so good that it is sometimes hard for the inexperienced eye to detect it. However, as at Woolpit, Ringham only copied animals here, and the weirder stuff is all medieval, and probably dates from the rebuilding of the church. The glory of Stowlangtoft's bench ends is partly the sheer quantity - there are perhaps 60 carvings - but also that there are several unique subjects.
The carvings appear to be part of the same group as Woolpit and Tostock - you will recognise the unicorn, the chained bear, the bull playing a harp, the bird with a man's head, from similar carvings elsewhere. And then hopefully that little alarm bell in your heard should start to go "Hmmmm....." because some of the carvings here are clearly not from the same group. It is hard to believe that the mermaid and the owl, for example, are from the same workshop, or even from the same decade. The benches themselves are no clue, as it was common practice in the 19th century to replace medieval bench ends on modern benches, or on medieval benches, or even on modern benches made out of medieval timber (as happened at Blythburgh). Could it be that Samuel Rickards found some of these bench ends elsewhere? Could he have been the kind of person to do a thing like that?
Well, yes he could. As Roy Tricker recalls, the medieval roof at the tractarian Thomas Mozley's church at Cholderton in Wiltshire is East Anglian. Rickards acquired it after finding it in storage in Ipswich docks. It presumably came from one of the Ipswich churches. In the ferment of the great 19th century restoration of our English churches, there was loads of medieval junk lying around, much of it going begging. But was Samuel Rickards the kind of person to counterfeit his church's medieval inheritance?
Well, yes he probably was. The faux-medieval roundels in the windows of the nave are clearly not medieval at all, but were in fact the work of the young Lucy Rickards, daughter of Samuel Rickards himself. Some are clearly to the young girl's design, and Pevsner notes that others are copied from medieval manuscript illustrations in the British Museum, although the Holy Kinship and Presentation in the Temple roundels at least are very close copies of the Flemish roundels of the same subjects in Nowton church on the other side of Bury St Edmunds.
Truly medieval is the vast St Christopher wall-painting still discernible on the north wall. It was probably one of the last to be painted. The bench ends are medieval, of course, as is the fine rood-screen dado, albeit repainted. There is even some medieval figure glass in the upper tracery of some of the windows, including St Agnes holding a lamb and four Old Testament prophets. The laughable stone pulpit is Rickard's commission, and the work of William White. What can Rickards have been thinking of? But we step through into the chancel, and suddenly the whole thing moves up a gear. For here are some things that are truly remarkable.
In a county famous for its woodwork, the furnishings of Stowlangtoft's chancel are breathtaking, even awe-inspiring. Behind the rood screen dado is Suffolk's most complete set of return stalls. Most striking are the figures that form finials to the stall ends. They are participants in the Mass, including two Priests, two servers and two acolytes. The figure of the Priest at a prayer desk must be one of the best medieval images in Suffolk, and Mortlock thought the stalls the finest in England.
The benches that face eastwards are misericords, and beneath them are wonderful things: angels, lions and wodewoses, evangelistic symbols and crowned heads. A hawk captures a hare, a dragon sticks out its tongue. Between the seats are weird oriental faces.
Now, you know what I am going to ask next. How much of this is from this church originally? It all appears medieval work, and there is no reason to believe it might not have been moved elsewhere in the church when the chancel was open to the elements. What evidence have we got?
Firstly, we should notice that the only other Suffolk church with such a large number of medieval misericords of this quality is just a mile away, at Norton. I don't ask you to see this as significant, merely to notice it in passing. Secondly, I am no carpenter, but it does look to me as though two sets of furnishings have been cobbled together; the stalls that back on to the screen appear to have been integrated into the larger structure of stalls and desks that front them and the north and south walls.
However, if you look closely at the figures of the two Deacons, you will see that they are bearing shields of the Ashfield and Peche families. The Ashfield arms also appear on the rood screen, and the Ashfields were the major donors when the church was rebuilt in the 14th century. So on balance I am inclined to think that the greater part of the stall structure was in this church originally from when it was rebuilt. And the misericords? Well, I don't know. But I think they have to be considered as part of the same set as those at Norton. In which case they may have come from the same church, which may have been this one, but may not have been. Almost certainly, the stalls at Norton did not come from Norton church, and folklore has it that they were originally in the quire of Bury Abbey.
Other remarkable things in St George include FE Howard's beautiful war memorial in the former north doorway, and in the opposite corner of the nave Hugh Easton's unexpectedly gorgeous St George, which serves the same purpose. He's not an artist I usually admire, but it is as good as his work at Elveden. Back up in the chancel is a delightful painted pipe organ which was apparently exhibited at, and acquired from, the Great Exhibition of 1851.
But St George at Stowlangtoft is, of course, most famous for the Flemish carvings that flank the rather heavy altarpiece. They were given to the church by Henry Wilson of Stowlangtoft Hall, who allegedly found them in an Ixworth junk shop. They show images from the crucifixion story, but are not Stations of the Cross as some guides suggest. They date from the 1480s, and were almost certainly the altarpiece of a French or Flemish monastery that was sacked during the French Revolution. The carvings were once brightly painted, and piled up in a block rather than spread out in a line. The niches, and crowning arches above them, are 19th century.
One cold winter's night in January 1977, a gang of thieves broke into this locked church and stole them. Nothing more was seen or heard of them until 1982, when they were discovered on display in an Amsterdam art gallery. Their journey had been a convoluted one. Taken to Holland, they were used as security for a loan which was defaulted upon. The new owner was then burgled, and the carvings were fenced to an Amsterdam junk dealer. They were bought from his shop, and taken to the museum, which immediately identified them as 15th century carvings. They put them on display, and a Dutch woman who had read about the Stowlangtoft theft recognised them.
The parish instituted legal proceedings to get them back. An injunction was taken out to stop the new owner removing them from the museum. The parish lost the case, leaving them with a monstrous legal bill, but the story has a happy ending. A Dutch businessman negotiated their purchase from the owner, paid off the legal bills, and returned the carvings to Stowlangtoft. Apparently this was all at vast cost, but the businessman gave the gift in thanks for Britain's liberation of Holland from the Nazis. No, thank you, sir.
Today, the carvings are fixed firmly in place and alarmed, so they won't be going walkabout again. But a little part of me wonders if they really should be here at all. Sure, they are medieval, but they weren't here originally, and they weren't even in England originally. Wouldn't it be better if they were displayed somewhere safer, where people could pay to see them, and provide some income for the maintenance of the church building? And then, whisper it, when St George is taken on by the CCT they might even be able to leave it open.
YORK, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 12: during an i2i Soccer Academy Training Session at Haxby Road on December 12th 2022 in North Yorkshire, United Kingdom. (Photo by Matthew Appleby)
IMPORTANT
All my 2015 pictures of Nepal are taken shortly before the heavy earthquake in April 2015! Most of these buildings are now damaged!
To me this is the real tragedy of this year! I wished the German Government had given money to poor Nepal for repairing this Heritage Sites instead of waisting Billions of Euro for the Millions of Muslim Invaders coming from Middle East and Afrika to Germany! They call them refugees - no, that are invaders!
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Bhaktapur (Nepali: भक्तपुर), literally translates to Place of devotees. Also known as Bhadgaon or Khwopa (Newar: ख्वप Khwopa), it is an ancient Newar city in the east corner of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, about 13 km from the capital city, Kathmandu. It is located in Bhaktapur District in the Bagmati Zone.
Bhaktapur was the largest of the three Newar kingdoms of the Kathmandu Valley, and was the capital of Nepal during the great 'Malla Kingdom' until the second half of the 15th century. Today it is the third largest city in the Kathmandu Valley, with a population of more than 80,000, of which the vast majority are still Newars. Historically more isolated than the other two kingdoms, Kathmandu and Patan, Bhaktapur has a distinctly different form of Nepal Bhasa language.
Bhaktapur has the best preserved palace courtyards and old city center in Nepal, and is listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO for its rich culture, temples, and wood, metal and stone artworks. This is supported by the restoration and preservation efforts of German-funded Bhaktapur Development Project (BDP).
The city is famous for special type of curd called "Ju Ju(king) dhau(curd). It is experienced by the curd makers that the taste of curd prepared in this location cannot be found elsewhere all over Nepal.
ETYMOLOGY
KHWOPA is the ancient name of Bhaktapur. The term "Bhaktapur" (Sanskrit/Nepali: भक्तपुर) refers to "The City Of Devotees". This Bhaktapur City is also known as "Khwopa" (Nepal Bhasa: ख्वप) or "Bhadgaon" (Nepali:भादगाँउ) or "Ancient Newari Town" throughout the Kathmandu Valley. "Kh0apa" actually refers to the masks which are believed to have been worn by gods and goddesses. Bhaktapur is popular for different forms of mask dances based on lives of different deities and therefore, it was named "Khwapa" which later came to become just "Khwopa," which is also near to meaning masks.
HISTORY
It is the home of traditional art and architecture, historical monuments and craft works, magnificent windows, pottery and weaving industries, excellent temples, beautiful ponds, rich local customs, culture, religion, festivals, musical mystic and so on. Bhaktapur is still an untouched as well as preserved ancient city that is itself a world to explore for tourists.
From time immemorial it lay on the trade route between Tibet and India. This position on the main caravan route made the town rich and prosperous.
DEMOGRAPHICS
At the time of the 2001 Nepal census it had a population of 72,543. The male inhabitants of this city wear a special type of cap called the Bhadgaunle Topi Nyatapola.
LANDMARKS
LAYAKU (DURBAR SQUARE)
Bhaktapur Durbar Square is a conglomeration of pagoda and shikhara-style temples, mostly dedicated to Hindu gods and goddesses grouped around a 55-window palace of brick and wood. The square is one of the most charming architectural showpieces of the valley as it highlights the ancient arts of Nepal. The golden effigies of the kings perched on the top of stone monoliths, the guardian deities looking out from their sanctuaries, the wood carvings in every place — struts, lintels, uprights, tympanums, gateways and windows — all seem to form a well-orchestrated symphony.
The royal palace was originally situated at Dattaraya square and was only later moved to the Durbar square location. The square in Bhaktapur was severely damaged by an earthquake in 1934 and hence appears more spacious than the ones at Kathmandu and Patan.
NYATAPOLA TEMPLE
Nyatapola Temple is a 5-story pagoda located in Bhaktapur, Nepal. The temple was erected by Nepali King Bhupatindra Malla during a 5-month period from late 1701 into 1702. It is the temple of Siddha Laxmi, the Hindu goddess of prosperity.
BHAIRAB NATH TEMPLE
This is another pagoda temple of lord Bhairab, the dreadful aspect of Lord Shiva. It stands a short distance away from the temple of Nyatapola and was originally constructed by King Jagat Jyoti Malla on a modest scale. It was later remodelled by King Bhupatindra Malla, a zealous lover of the arts, into what it is now a three-storeyed temple.
DATTATRAYA TEMPLE
The temple of Dattatraya is as old as the Palace of Fifty-five Windows. Consecrated by King Yakshya Malla in 1427 AD, this temple, according to popular belief, was built out of the trunk of a single tree. It was subsequently repaired and renovated by King Vishwa Malla in 1458 AD.
Just beside temple is a monastery (Math) with exquisitely carved peacock windows. These famous windows were carved during the reign of King Vishwa Malla. The monastery is full of artistic facades of latticed windows and engraved columns.
CHANGU NARAYAN TEMPLE
Changu Narayan is an ancient Hindu temple located near the village of Changunarayan in the Kathmandu Valley on top of a hill at the eastern end of the valley. It is 6 kilometres to the north of Bhakathapur and 22 kilometres from Kathmandu. The temple is one of the oldest Hindu temples of the valley, and is believed to have been constructed first in the 4th century. Changu Narayan is the name of Vishnu, and the temple is dedicated to him. A stone slab discovered in the vicinity of the temple dates to the 5th century, and is the oldest such stone inscription discovered in Nepal. It was rebuilt after the old temple was devastated. Many stone sculptures here date to the Licchavi period. Changu Narayan Temple is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
The temple is a double-roofed structure where the idol of Lord Vishnu in his incarnation as Narayana is deified. The exquisitely built temple has intricate roof struts showing multi-armed Tantric deities. A kneeling image of Garuda (dated to the 5th century), the vahana or vehicle of Vishnu with a snake around its neck, faces the temple. The gilded door depicts stone lions guarding the temple. Gilded windows also flank the door. A conch and a disc, symbols of Vishnu, are carved on the two pillars at the entrance. Non-Hindus are not allowed inside the temple.
TA PUKHA (SIDDHA POKHARI)
Ta Pukhu (Siddha Pokhari) is a big rectangular water pond near the main city gate. It was built during the reign of King Yakshya Malla in the early 15th century and is associated with a number of myths. From this spot a wide range of snowy peaks are visible on clear days.
KAILASHNATH MAHADEV STATUE
Kailashnath Mahadev is the World's Tallest Lord Shiva statue. The height of this statue is 143 feet high and is situated 20 km from Kathmandu, epal. The statues construction work was started in 2004 and was completed in 2012. The statue's inauguration took place on the 21st of June '12. This statue stands on the 32nd position in the list of all statues by height in the whole world. It has been made of copper, cement, zinc, and steel. To make this gigantic structure possible there were many professional workers and statue makers from India.
FESTIVAL
Bhaktapur is also known as city of festivals and celebrations. The city celebrates festivals each month starting from new year festival to the Holi puni at the end of the year.
- Bisket Jatra (New year festival)
This ancient annual festival of bhaktapur takes place at the New Year of the Bikram Sambat calendar. A few days before the New Year, usually at Chaitra 27 or Chaitra 28, if 31 days in month, the goddess 'bhadrakali' and the god 'bhairab' are enshrined in their raths, or immense chariots & pulled through the narrow streets of Bhaktapur by crowds of young men.
The chariots rest at certain time-honored places in the city and people come out to throw offerings of flower, rice, coins and red sindur powder. On the last day of the old year a towering wooden pole known as ' lyesing dha: or lingo' is erected at the edge of town. Long banners hang from the pole, symbolizing snakes - Nag and nagini. On new year's day, the erected pole is brought down symbolizing victory over evil! People enjoy New year day along with victory over evils. On baisakh 5, the chariot is again pulled to narrow street of bhaktapur and brought to its origin place, Taumadhi square marking end of Bisket Jatra.
- Kumar Khasti (Sithi Nakha)
Before modern piping system, wells and kuwas were the basis for water supply in bhaktapur. In this auspicious day, people clean wells and worship Naag favoring good fall in monsoon. They celebrate by eating delicious delicacy like bara and chatamari.
- Gathamaga charya
Gathamaga is made up of straw that symbols a devil. Locals make gathamaga in their locality and burn fire to remove devils of their locality. It is also said that mosquitos loses its one leg in this day.
- Sa: Paaru (Gai Jatra)
The celebration of Gai Jatra Bhaktapur is interesting among Kathmandu and Lalitpur. In this day, Tall bamboo poles wrapped in cloth and topped horn of straw and an umbrella is carried around the town in memory of dead. The photo of dead is hung in this pole called Ta macha.
Also a colorful procession known as Ghing tang gishi is main attraction of this festival. People enjoy and dance in beats of music and play with stick in accordance to the beat. People decorate themselves in mask, paints and even in female outfits.
GUNLA
Gunla is the name of 10th month of Nepal Era calendar. It is sacred month dedicated to Lord Buddha celebrated in Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur.
But In Bhaktapur, last day of Gunla Panchadan is celebrated differently. The Five Buddhas are brought to Taumadhi square accompanied with Gunla Baja, a special musical instrument played only in Gunla and Buddhas are rounded around bhaktapur town.
- Pulu Kisi (Indra Jatra)
The son of Lord of heaven, is believed to have been kidnapped by a devil named Maisasur who then tied Indra's son in a pole and killed. Indra was shocked to hear his son's death and sent an elephant, pulukisi to find and kill Maisasur. But legend says Pulukisi couldn't find maisur till date. This jatra is a play to that legendary story where pulu kisi is rounded the town to search for Maisasur.
- Sithi Nakha
In Bhaktapur a palanquin with an image of the hindu goddess Bhagawati is carried in colorful procession through Nyatapol square this day.
- Dhanya purnima (Yomari purnima)
In this day Farmers of Kathmandu valley worship to Annapurna, the Goddess of grains, for good rice harvest and enjoy feast after all the hard work of the season. Yomari is the chief item on the menu in this day. So is called Yomari puni.
- Maghe sankranti (Ghya-chaku sankranti) (Makar Sankranti)
This festival marks the winter solstice and Newars partake of a feast. The days special menu include butter (ghyu), molasses (chaku) and yam.
In Bhaktapur, on this auspicious day samyak Dan is performed by Buddhist. The shakyas and Bajracharya gather in a samyak ground near Napukhu pond accompanied with panchabuddhas and samyak buddhas. They are offered chaku balls and rice. Bhaktapur is the only one in valley that conducts samyak Dan once in a year.
SHREE PANCHAMI
People regard this day as propitious day for starting new enterprise. Devotee throng Devi shrine to seek blessing. In Bhaktapur, People visit Sashwo:dega in this auspicious day where the idol of Buddhist deity Mahamanjushree is kept. Hindus regard it as saraswoti and worship whereas Buddhist worship it as Manjushree.
IN POPULARE CULTURE
Portions of the movie Little Buddha starring Keanu Reeves and Bridget Fonda were filmed in the Bhaktapur Durbar Square.
2015 EARTHQUAKE
The Magnitude 7.8 2015 Nepal earthquake that struck on 25 April 2015 damaged 116 heritages in the historic town of Bhaktapur. Of them, 67 were completely damaged while 49 suffered from partial damages. The quake has badly damaged the Durbar square, a significant heritage site included in the UNESCO world heritage list. The main premises of Taleju Temple here also witnessed damages in the disaster.
The building of the municipality office, temples of Rameshwor, Batsala, Narayan, Siddilaxmi, Biswaroopa, Siddiganesh, Sweetbhairav, Siva Mahadev, Degaina, sattal, pati and pujari mathas were damaged by the quake.
The reconstruction and new construction of the damaged heritages will cost over Rs 293 million, underlining the need of starting the renovation soon.
The Magnitude 8.4 (1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake) demolished several buildings that were never rebuilt, however they can be seen in the earlier drawings. Chyasilin Mandap has been rebuilt.
WIKIPEDIA
given the focal length, the landscape, and the fact that we obviously was in a moving, just, I might add, vehicle, if it hadn`t been for that I caught a glimpse of her white tail-tip, never in a thousand years would I`ve spotted her in the vegetation of this dry riverbed. These are masters of their environment! This young, just independent, leopardess was stalking some female nyalas, with no luck that time sadly..
Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley ordained five men to the Priesthood on Saturday, May 25, 2013, at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Boston.
Cardinal Seán said, “The priesthood is a gift from Christ. We are grateful for the generosity these men have given to the Lord’s call to service. They will join their brother priests, dedicated religious women and men and the faithful ministering in our parishes, working to build strong faith communities. We pray that these newly ordained priests inspire the current generation of young men to consider the possibility of a vocation and, as they are called, to join those in formation at our seminaries.”
The priests ordained are:
Father John Augustine Cassani
One of the three sons of Richard and Mary Ellen (Pumphrey) Cassani, Father Cassani was born on June 7, 1980. A son of St. Jerome Parish in North Weymouth, he is an alumnus of Xaverian Brothers High School in Westwood and graduated from Holy Cross in Worcester in 2002. Father Cassani completed his seminary studies at St. John’s in Brighton and spent his deacon year working at Sacred Heart Parish in East Boston. Before seminary, he was a financial analyst for South Shore Savings Bank in Weymouth. Father Cassani will celebrate his first Mass at his home parish of St. Jerome’s in Weymouth on May 26 at 11:30 a.m. He will also be the homilist.
Father Thomas Keith Macdonald
An alumnus of Rome’s Pontifical North American College and a native of Westford, Father Macdonald is one of the three children (one sister, one brother) of Thomas and Kathleen (Verfaillie) Macdonald. He was born on July 9, 1984. This avid hiker is a fan of reading Catholic writers G.K. Chesterton and Joseph Pieper. Father Macdonald, a son of St. Catherine of Alexandria Parish, Westford, graduated from local schools before attending UMass Amherst. Father Macdonald spent his deacon year at St. Paul Parish in Cambridge. Father Macdonald will celebrate his first Mass at St. Mary Star of the Sea Parish in Beverly on May 26 at 10:30 a.m. The homilist will be Bishop Arthur Kennedy.
Father Jacques Antoine McGuffie
A native of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where he was born on June 18, 1946 to the late Dickens and Leonie (Jean-Philippe) McGuffie, Father McGuffie is one of 7 children — five sisters and one brother. He attended high school at Lycée Alexandre Pétion in Port-au-Prince. He received his BA from Northeastern University in Boston and his MBA from Boston University. Before entering and completing his seminary studies at Blessed John XXIII Seminary in Weston, he worked for the Massachussetts Department of Social Services. Father McGuffie spent his deacon year at St. Catherine of Alexandria in Westford. He will celebrate his first Mass on May 26 at 10:00 a.m. at St. Patrick Church in Roxbury; Father Walter J. Waldron will be the homilist.
Father Gerald Alfred Souza
This son of St. Kateri Tekakwitha Parish in Plymouth was born Nov. 3, 1985 to Paul and Donna (Urquhart) Souza. He has one brother. Father Souza attended Sacred Heart School in Kingston for elementary and high school. Father Souza attended St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia for the first three years of college, before graduation from Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio in 2008. He completed his seminary formation at St. John’s in Brighton. His deacon assignment was spent at St. Mary Parish in Lynn.
Father Souza’s first Mass will be at St. Kateri Tekakwitha Parish on May 26 at 2:00 p.m. He will be the homilist as well.
Father Christopher William Wallace
One of two sons of William and Kathleen (Moran) Wallace, Father Wallace was born Jan. 19, 1983. This native of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Methuen, attended local schools before matriculating at Merrimack College in North Andover. Father Wallace completed his seminary studies at St. John’s and spent his deacon year at St. Joseph Parish in Needham. He is an avid Boston sports fan and also supports the Archdiocesan Serra Club for encouraging vocations. Father Wallace will celebrate his first Mass at St. Theresa Church in Methuen on May 26 at 10:30 a.m.
(Photo credit: George Martell/The Pilot Media Group) Posted under a Creative Commons No-Deriv Attribution license.
9 MAN TOWN LEFT TO RUE MISSED CHANCES
“" We've got to be better than that..."” Manager Lee Ashcroft
Longridge suffered their 2nd League defeat of the season away at Coppull having missed chance after chance, and having given away 3 very poor goals in a 3-2 defeat.
The game finished 10 v 9 as both George Melling and Jordan Tucker were sent off in time added on by the Referee.
Cineaste365 (January 22, 2014 - DAY 103) - When I first watched “Café de Flore”, the first thing that stood out for me about Jean-Marc Vallée’s film is how the film employs many cuts.
To quickly show the life of each person, we are given various short cuts of different duration. For example, for Antoine, may he be listening to music, dancing in his hotel room, looking at Rose, looking at his children, doing a DJ gig in some part of the country. The approach to how these characters are presented was creative, stylish in many ways but for the most part, establishing the livelihoods of each of these individuals.
From their past to their present, how a happily married man got divorced, how a wife lost her soul mate and how a loving mother of a 7-year-old with Down’s Syndrome, lost her son, despite his age, fell in love with a girl who also has Down’s Syndrome.
The presentation of the film is well-done and I like the various shifts in storyline. Some may find it a bit too jarring and non-formulaic but for me, I enjoyed this fresh presentation by Jean-Marc Vallée.
But the film’s strength which those who are familiar with surreal films versus those who despise surreal films or films that are not straightforward, will enjoy the fact that there is quite a bit of symbolism employed, but also a lot of interesting situations which people have debated about online. Is the film about reincarnation? Is it about one dealing with their own personal coping mechanism?
If anything, the film will have each viewer coming up with their own interpretation depending on your perspective of the film or its characters. And just when you think you know what is going on, then comes a photograph right at the end of the film that may surprise you. And just when you think that was the end, another visual image shows up at the end before the ending credits.
And once again, everyone will have their own opinion of what these images mean.
I won’t get into my feelings about what I think the connection is between each of these individuals but I will say that “Café de Flore” was rather bold.
Typically, when one storyline is about soulmates, may it be finding your soulmate or having found your soulmate, how perhaps that concept that was held when was younger, changes as one becomes older and then it becomes the conundrum within realist vs. idealist.
For Antoine, his relationship with Carole when they were teenagers were pretty much sex, drugs and rock n’ roll (music). As they became older, she held onto the believe they were soul mates but as a popular, successful DJ, there’s no doubt that Antoine lived a rock star life and had his opportunities to mess around. And of course, which led to his relationship with Rose.
The performance by Kevin Parent and Evelyne Brochu felt natural, while Helene Florent’s performance as Carole, was magnificent yet painful. Carole’s life is nothing but painful since her divorce and the look of anguish on her face while sleepwalking, looks as if she is being tormented and the fact that she has nightmares of mentally disabled child and Antoine was rather fascinating.
Which brings us to Vanessa Paradis, the singer and actress who gives one hell of a performance as Jacqueline, overly-protective mother of her son Laurent, who has Down Syndrome. Because her scenes are from the 1960′s, the way people view her and her child, as if they are abnormal. So much to the point that she has to let it out and scream!
But it’s seeing this mother turning to something different, when her son falls for Veronique, another girl who has Down’s Syndrome and they become inseparable. Jacqueline begins to feel insecure and possibly jealous that her 7-year-old son, no longer sees mom as her #1 person in the world.
How these two timelines intertwine is rather fascinating, so much that I watched the film three times in a day, because I enjoyed it and each time, I discovered something new.
As for the DVD release, while I wish there was a Blu-ray release of “Café de Flore”, similar to what our European counterparts have received. I would love to have watched this film in HD but as for the DVD, picture quality is OK but there is quite a bit of compression during low-light scenes. Audio is in Dolby Digital stereo.
Unfortunately, we get a barebones DVD from Adopt Films. No trailer, no featurette, no audio commentary, nothing.
While filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallée is earning a lot of praise for his Academy Award nominated film “Dallas Buyers Club”, one should still watch his film “Café de Flore”. Is it a masterpiece? Of course, it’s a film that will be subjective, because not everyone will understand it. But for those who take the time to watch this film thoroughly and think about the characters and their relationship and how the timelines correspond with each other, you realize that “Café de Flore” is no doubt a wonderful film.
Wish I could have came up with an even more creative photo...but I'm too tired at the moment.
Back when I were a nipper, I was given a book, a big book of trains from around the world, and on the cover was a Japanese Bullet Train, and I have always wanted to ride one ever since. There is one at the NRM in York, but that doesn't work, so for me, the real highlight of this trip would be riding on a real bullet train. Several times. I was so excited I was vibrating.
After the usual breakfast at the Gate Hotel, we took the Metro to Ueno then the overground line to Tokyo Station, simply re-tracing our steps of two day's before on the guided walk. Heck, we were experienced Metro travellers now, we knew stuff. And after sending the cases on via the courier, we only had either a night case of a bag of camera equipment with us to weigh us down.
And we did it will little problem and with an hour to spare, with the idea that I could snap the bullet trains to death while we waited.
At the Shinkansen platforms, we validate our pass and are let through; we had reserved seats the day before, so we could relax and wait for our train happy that we would have a seat. Which meant I could go to the end of the platforms to take shots. I could also go to the middle and all point between to snap away, Man, it were proper lush. I just knew that me deal old Dad would have loved this, waiting on the end of platforms in Tokyo, waiting for the next Bullet train to either arrive or leave.
Not only was I snapping them, but within the hour, we would be climbing on one to travel south to Kyoto.
At 11:03 we lined up where it said on the platform our carriage would stop, which it did We filed on, slumped into our armchair-like seats, all of which pointed the direction of travel. And we zoomed off, accelerating wat seemed as fast as a Formula 1 car, but this being an 18 coach train. I waited with excitement untol it was time for the train to depart; expecting something sensational, but we didn't even hear the doors swish closed; only with a wave from the guard on the platform, the train pulled away, rapidly accelerating along the platform and out into the grayness outside.
The line weaved through the massive tower blocks we had seen on the previous day, I tried to recognise the World Trade Centre, but it must have looked like any of a dozen other buildings. The suburbs slipped by, then we were in the countryside, nipping in and out of tunnels, past steep hillsides planted with green tea plants.
We stopped at various stations, picking a few more people up, but our coach was less than half full.
Sadly, outside it rained, and so Mount Fuji was hidden from view, we had even been given tickets on the left side of the train so we would be on the correct side for the view. Maybe on our way back? Who knows?
Every time a member of staff came though the carriage, they would stop at the door the other end of the compartment, then and salute; we don't get that on the train up to London back home, I thought. Not only that, they are smartly turned out with white gloves. Smart.
I was happy enough on the train, looking out the window watching the countryside slip by, changing from the urban landscape of Totyo, to the rolling hills further south and then the endless paddy fields as we neared Kyoto, where we were to get off. It was still pouring with rain, with no views of mountains or volcanoes; mores the pity.
We arrive at 14:00, and right away find somewhere to have lunch; a noodle bar on the station, which again was very good indeed as it was more noodles and tempura prawns. We order by pointing at pictures on the menu, then pay by thrusting wads of notes at the lady behind the till. She bows. We bow. We all bow.
We find the taxi rank and show him the address to the hotel, so we set off into the drizzly grey weather. and the heavy traffic, in which we crawled to the centre of town and our hotel.
We have no trouble in checking in, and our cases were waiting. Jools decides to do some washing as the wash room is one our fllor, and we had already accumilated several pounds of loose change with which to feed the machines.
With the portable wifi device that the tour company had provided us with, we were able to get online, get the news, check mails ad have the Radcliffe and Maconie show streamed; almost like being home.
So once we had made a coffee, we went out into the early evening to see what was around. What we found was a covered shopping area, several streets in fact, all lined with shops and all having neon signs flashing away. Three guitar shops, two record shops among others.
It was a modern shopping centre, along three covered roads. On one of them there was a temple, just taking up the place where you would expect a shop.
In the narrow streets beyond, we spy a shop selling creme brulee donuts, so Jools and i have one and a coffee, which is just dandy.
We walk back to the hotel under our newly purchased umbrellas, thus keeping dry. It was beginning to get dark, and the neon lights reflected off the road in a most attractive way.
Later in the evening, we decide not to go out into the pouring rain, wandering around a strange new city with little idea of where we would be going, so instead we go to the restaurant in the basement, and order pork or something which should have come with vegetables. It did, but just one mange tout, which counts as one of your five a day; right?.
We round the night off with cards in our room accompanied by cheap local beer bought from a drug store.
St Margaret of Antioch, Cowlinge, Suffolk
Given its proximity to the Cambridgeshire border, some people would argue that this Suffolk church is closer to civilisation than most, and yet St Margaret of Antioch, Cowlinge, has a decidedly remote feel to it. Gentle hills enfold these pretty villages, and St Margaret stands distant from the houses it serves. Cowlinge, pronounced coo-linj, stands about a mile north of the Haverhill to Bury road, not far from the better-known Denston. You approach it up a track from the north, where it is rather hemmed in, but the graveyard opens up widely beyond on the other side.
The first impression is one of redness. From the outside, Cowlinge seems a rather pretty accretion of centuries' work, its tower a typical red brick 18th century rebuilding - there are similar ones across the county at Grundisburgh and Layham. The chancel and nave appear to have met each other by chance as much as intention, and all is pleasantly patched up, with solid red-brick buttressing and just about every kind of window you can think of. There are aisles, there is a clerestory, but this is not a grand church. Rather, it is the kind of building a DIY enthusiast might put together if he wanted a late medieval one in his back garden.
And somehow, this makes it beautiful, especially if seen from the south-east or north-east. You might expect the interior to be similarly ramshackle, but you step through the north door into cool whiteness, and as you walk through this treasure chest of a church, unusual vistas open up at each turn. This is a complex church.
Facing east to start with, the first impression is of the wall-painting above the chancel arch, and the gated rood screen beneath. There are gates in the screens at nearby Withersfield and Denston, but unlike those these doors rise to the full height of the screen. The screen itself is perhaps not as beautiful as the parclose screen enclosing the chapel in the south aisle. Mortlock points out how similar it is to the one up the road at Dalham. The paleness of the wood is very pleasing.I thought it compared very well with the parclose at Dennington, which has been repainted gaudily. Another good parclose of the same age is at Westhorpe. A memorial window contains 1920s glass by Christopher Webb of Christ with the fishermen at Galilee.
One the wall beside the parclose in the south aisle is a small exposed area of wall painting. It appears to be an unbearded male saint holding something that may well be a chalice, in which case it is St John the Evangelist. The better-known wall painting here is the one I mentioned earlier, above the chancel arch. It is often referred to as a doom, but it is organised rather differently to others of its kind. Instead of the day of judgement, with God in Majesty overseeing the parting of the ways into hell on his right and heaven on his left, it depicts St Michael, to the south of the arch, balancing a set of scales in which a sinner is being weighed against his sins.
St Michael is a common feature of doom paintings - he appears nearby at Stoke by Clare and on the famous doom at Wenhaston. The unusual aspect of this one, however, is to the north of the arch, where the Virgin Mother of God stands. She reaches out with a wand, and tips the balance of the scales. Simon Jenkins, in his England's Thousand Best Churches, suggests that she is tipping the balance in the favour of the virtuous. This is, of course, exactly what she is not doing. The virtuous had no need of intervention; the good in them would outweigh their sins in any case. Mary is intervening on behalf of sinners who have prayed to her for her help, and she is tipping the scales in the favour of those sinners. It represents the efficacy of intercessions to Our Blessed Lady, and as such it was anathema to the 16th century reformers.
In common with other wall paintings, this priceless art treasure was whitewashed over rather than destroyed. It would be interesting to know when this happened. We know that during William Dowsing's iconoclastic progress through Suffolk and Cambridgeshire in 1644, he found no wall paintings still in existence. It has always been assumed that they were covered by the Anglicans when the new Church of England took possession of our parish churches a century earlier. But I do wonder if they might have been done away with a century before even that, perhaps around the middle of the 15th century, when the ruling classes were enforcing orthodox Catholic dogma in the face of the superstitions of the ordinary people. Part of this process involved setting up larger roods at the east end of the nave, and I think this wall-painting may have been covered before that happened here.
The chancel arch beneath the doom is also extensively painted, and also of interest on all of the pillars a large amount of medieval graffiti, some of which is described as being consecration crosses. This, of course, cannot be so, for the medieval church ordered its liturgical needs rather better than this, and these are no doubt the work of some bored 17th century vandal.
Stepping through into the chancel, it is at once one of the loveliest in Suffolk, and one of the most dominated, since Peter Scheemakers' ugly 18th century memorial for Francis Dickins glowers against the north wall. Dickins was responsible for the building of the tower. The figures are life size, and the monument is wholly secular, even pagan. They look like nothing so much as a couple on their way to a toga party pausing to pose with the FA Cup.
Near the north door, a plaque on the wall records the visitation of 1618 when permission was given for the local house of correction to set up seating here for its inmates. There are still banked benches below, but these are later, and were probably intended for the village schoolchildren. Seating on a similar scale can be seen at nearby Kedington, divided there into boys' and girls' sections. On a somewhat larger scale they can also be seen at Laxfield.
A fine view of this church can be had by climbing to the spacious gallery beneath Dickins' tower. Once up here, the space is dominated by another huge classical memorial to Dickins and above it a George II royal arms, which also records that George Finton and Henry Seabrook were the churchwardens who set it up in 1731.
St Margaret is everything a historic church should be. Well-ordered, welcoming, suited to its Protestant present and mindful of its Catholic past. It used to be left open all the time, but a traumatic assault on the building some five years ago by a mentally ill man suffering from a religious mania, during which both screens and the altar were set fire to, means that it is now kept locked, but with a very cheerful churchwarden who was most happy to come and open up.
The Rivergate shopping centre was officially opened in 1975, construction having started several years before hand. The decision to demolish to the towns bridge and make the streets pedestrians only, garnered a few protests, but was given the go ahead anyway. The town centre was completely changed, with all of the buildings at Bridgegate being demolished as were the buildings on the opposite side of the river. To accommodate for the lack of a main road across the river a new bridge was built called the northern approach road or ‘Marress’ bridge, this photograph was taken from the top of Irvine’s high rise flats.
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PLEASE NOTE - THE SCANS ARE THE BEST THAT I CAN DO GIVEN THE STATE OF THE MANUSCRIPT.
This is a bifolium from William Durand's “Speculi clarissimi pars tertia et quarta”, also known as the “Speculum judiciale” or “The Illustrious Mirror of Life, Parts III and IV” that was probably produced in Bologna, Italy, in the fourteenth century.
The text is from Book IIII, Perticula III.
Page 1 begins in “ De apostolis seu libel dimissoriis” (The Apostles discharge the libel) which is followed by “De clericis coniugatis” (The married clerics). This continues on to page 2 and is followed by “De clericis non residdentibus in eccllesia, vel praebenda “ (The clerics are not resident or in their given church) and “De praebendis et dignitatibus” (The representatives and dignitaries). Page 3 begins with a different text. It begins in “De actionibus empti et uenditi” (The actions of the bought and sold) and this continues through to, and beyond, the end of page 4
The maximum size of the bifolium is 420mm 568mm (16 1/2ins. x 22 4/10ins.).
The maximum size of a leaf is 420mm x 284mm (16 1/2ins. x 11 2/10ins.).
In the top outside corners of pages 1 and three are page numbers - c and c
ii xxxix ii xliiii
The page numbers 239 and 244 would indicate that the bifolium consists of the second and seventh leaves if it was part of an eight leaf gathering.
OVERALL CONDITION: -
There is no doubt that the condition of this bifolium leavers a lot to be desired. It has evidently been a wrapper of some sort from at least 1557 and it is creased horizontally as well as vertically, has several small holes, vellum has been removed from parts of both outside margins and the bottom margin of pages 1-2, is quite dirty on pages 1 and 4 and the wear to pages 1 an4 makes parts of them difficult to read.
GENERAL COMMENTS: -
Not withstanding the overall condition of the bifolium, it is a very interesting addition to the collection as it is from a significant legal text that I have been unable to find any examples of being sold since before the end of the nineteenth century. It can only be concluded that it must be quite rare in the truest sense.
GUILLAUME DURAND: -
Born c.1230 (at Puimisson near Beziers, in France), died 1st. November 1296, was a French canonist and liturgical writer and Bishop of Mende who studied law at Bologna. By 1264 he was teaching Canon law at Modena. In 1274 he helped to draw up the constitutions of the Second Council of Lyons and in 1278 he received, in the name of the pope, the homage of Bologna and the other cities of Romagna. Amidst various struggles he successfully defended the papal territories by both diplomacy and arms. Although elected Bishop of Mende in 1286, he remained in Bologna until 1291. He refused the archbishopric of Revenna in 1295 and in 1296 withdrew to Rome where he died.
“SPECULUM IUDICIALE”: -
William Durand's “Speculum Iudiciale” (also known as “Speculi clarissimi” and sometimes referred to as “The Illustrious Mirror of Life”) was compiled in 1271 and revised in 1286 and 1291. It is a general explanation of civil, criminal and canonical procedure, and also includes a survey of the subject of contracts. It is a remarkable encyclopedic synthesis Roman and ecclesiastical law, distinguished by its clarity, its method, and especially its practical sense, and its repute was as great and lasting in the courts as in the schools. This work won Durand the nickname “Doctor Speculator”.
Etruscan civilization is the modern English name given to a civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany, western Umbria, and northern Latium. The ancient Romans called its creators the Tusci or Etrusci. Their Roman name is the origin of the terms Tuscany, which refers to their heartland, and Etruria, which can refer to their wider region.
The origins of the Etruscans are lost in prehistory. Historians have no literature, no texts of religion or philosophy; therefore much of what is known about this civilization is derived from grave goods and tomb findings. The main hypotheses are that they are indigenous, probably stemming from the Villanovan culture or from the Near East.Etruscan expansion was focused both to the north beyond the Apennines and into Campania. Some small towns in the 6th century BC disappeared during this time, ostensibly consumed by greater, more powerful neighbours. However, it is certain that the political structure of the Etruscan culture was similar to, albeit more aristocratic than, Magna Graecia in the south. The mining and commerce of metal, especially copper and iron, led to an enrichment of the Etruscans and to the expansion of their influence in the Italian peninsula and the western Mediterranean sea. Here their interests collided with those of the Greeks, especially in the 6th century BC, when Phoceans of Italy founded colonies along the coast of France, Spain and Corsica. This led the Etruscans to ally themselves with the Carthaginians, whose interests also collided with the Greeks.
Around 540 BC, the Battle of Alalia led to a new distribution of power in the western Mediterranean Sea. Though the battle had no clear winner, Carthage managed to expand its sphere of influence at the expense of the Greeks, and Etruria saw itself relegated to the northern Tyrrhenian Sea with full ownership of Corsica. From the first half of the 5th century BC, the new international political situation meant the beginning of the Etruscan decline after losing their southern provinces. In 480 BC, Etruria's ally Carthage was defeated by a coalition of Magna Graecia cities led by Syracuse. A few years later, in 474, Syracuse's tyrant Hiero defeated the Etruscans at the Battle of Cumae. Etruria's influence over the cities of Latium and Campania weakened, and it was taken over by Romans and Samnites. In the 4th century, Etruria saw a Gallic invasion end its influence over the Po valley and the Adriatic coast. Meanwhile, Rome had started annexing Etruscan cities. This led to the loss of the Northern Etruscan provinces. Etruria was conquered by Rome in the 3rd century BC.
Etruscan art was the form of figurative art produced by the Etruscan civilization in northern Italy between the 9th and 2nd centuries BC. Particularly strong in this tradition were figurative sculpture in terracotta (particularly life-size on sarcophagi or temples) and cast bronze, wall-painting and metalworking (especially engraved bronze mirrors). There was also a tradition of Etruscan vase painting. Etruscan art was strongly connected to religion; the afterlife was of major importance in Etruscan art.
From Wikpedia
Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley ordained five men to the Priesthood on Saturday, May 25, 2013, at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Boston.
Cardinal Seán said, “The priesthood is a gift from Christ. We are grateful for the generosity these men have given to the Lord’s call to service. They will join their brother priests, dedicated religious women and men and the faithful ministering in our parishes, working to build strong faith communities. We pray that these newly ordained priests inspire the current generation of young men to consider the possibility of a vocation and, as they are called, to join those in formation at our seminaries.”
The priests ordained are:
Father John Augustine Cassani
One of the three sons of Richard and Mary Ellen (Pumphrey) Cassani, Father Cassani was born on June 7, 1980. A son of St. Jerome Parish in North Weymouth, he is an alumnus of Xaverian Brothers High School in Westwood and graduated from Holy Cross in Worcester in 2002. Father Cassani completed his seminary studies at St. John’s in Brighton and spent his deacon year working at Sacred Heart Parish in East Boston. Before seminary, he was a financial analyst for South Shore Savings Bank in Weymouth. Father Cassani will celebrate his first Mass at his home parish of St. Jerome’s in Weymouth on May 26 at 11:30 a.m. He will also be the homilist.
Father Thomas Keith Macdonald
An alumnus of Rome’s Pontifical North American College and a native of Westford, Father Macdonald is one of the three children (one sister, one brother) of Thomas and Kathleen (Verfaillie) Macdonald. He was born on July 9, 1984. This avid hiker is a fan of reading Catholic writers G.K. Chesterton and Joseph Pieper. Father Macdonald, a son of St. Catherine of Alexandria Parish, Westford, graduated from local schools before attending UMass Amherst. Father Macdonald spent his deacon year at St. Paul Parish in Cambridge. Father Macdonald will celebrate his first Mass at St. Mary Star of the Sea Parish in Beverly on May 26 at 10:30 a.m. The homilist will be Bishop Arthur Kennedy.
Father Jacques Antoine McGuffie
A native of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where he was born on June 18, 1946 to the late Dickens and Leonie (Jean-Philippe) McGuffie, Father McGuffie is one of 7 children — five sisters and one brother. He attended high school at Lycée Alexandre Pétion in Port-au-Prince. He received his BA from Northeastern University in Boston and his MBA from Boston University. Before entering and completing his seminary studies at Blessed John XXIII Seminary in Weston, he worked for the Massachussetts Department of Social Services. Father McGuffie spent his deacon year at St. Catherine of Alexandria in Westford. He will celebrate his first Mass on May 26 at 10:00 a.m. at St. Patrick Church in Roxbury; Father Walter J. Waldron will be the homilist.
Father Gerald Alfred Souza
This son of St. Kateri Tekakwitha Parish in Plymouth was born Nov. 3, 1985 to Paul and Donna (Urquhart) Souza. He has one brother. Father Souza attended Sacred Heart School in Kingston for elementary and high school. Father Souza attended St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia for the first three years of college, before graduation from Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio in 2008. He completed his seminary formation at St. John’s in Brighton. His deacon assignment was spent at St. Mary Parish in Lynn.
Father Souza’s first Mass will be at St. Kateri Tekakwitha Parish on May 26 at 2:00 p.m. He will be the homilist as well.
Father Christopher William Wallace
One of two sons of William and Kathleen (Moran) Wallace, Father Wallace was born Jan. 19, 1983. This native of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Methuen, attended local schools before matriculating at Merrimack College in North Andover. Father Wallace completed his seminary studies at St. John’s and spent his deacon year at St. Joseph Parish in Needham. He is an avid Boston sports fan and also supports the Archdiocesan Serra Club for encouraging vocations. Father Wallace will celebrate his first Mass at St. Theresa Church in Methuen on May 26 at 10:30 a.m.
(Photo credit: George Martell/The Pilot Media Group) Posted under a Creative Commons No-Deriv Attribution license.
At the end of World War II, the victorious Allies captured both German scientists and research papers in aerodynamics which had given the Germans a slight edge in technology during the war. Among this was research into swept wings, which promised better handling at high speeds, a feature used successfully in the Messerschmitt Me 262. All the combatant nations had been developing jet fighters at the end of the war, and the Soviet Union was no different: like the Western Allies, it found the swept wing concept to be a perfect solution to add speed without sacrificing stability; unlike the West, the Soviets could not take advantage of it due to a lack of adequate jet engines. Soviet metallurgy was simply not up to the task, and experimental jet fighters were severely underpowered. Engine designer Vladimir Klimov, however, came up with a novel idea: he asked the British in 1946 if they could provide a few examples of their latest engine. To the stunned surprise of Klimov, the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau, and Josef Stalin, the British complied, providing Klimov with the plans for the Rolls-Royce Nene turbojet, one of the most successful jet engines in history. Klimov quickly reverse engineered it as the VK-1, and just like that, the Soviets had the perfect engine for their planned jet interceptors.
MiG OKB already had a jet fighter in service, the MiG-9, but it was a poor performer. By modifying a MiG-9 into the I-310 prototype, with VK-1 propulsion and swept wings and tail surfaces, the resultant aircraft was superb: it was very manueverable and fast. It was placed into production as the MiG-15. This in turn was superseded by the more advanced and reliable MiG-15bis, which added airbrakes and a few minor avionics changes. Though pilots hated the cramped cockpit, which forced them to fly without heated or pressurized flight suits—a real concern in frigid Russian winters—they loved its responsiveness and speed. Though the MiG-15 was designed to intercept the B-29 Superfortress, hence its heavy cannon armament, it could quite easily hold its own in a dogfight. It rapidly replaced most propeller-driven fighters in the Soviet inventory, and was quickly supplied to Soviet client states.
The MiG-15 would get its first taste of action during the Chinese Civil War, when Russian-flown MiG-15s flew on behalf of the Communist Chinese against the Nationalists; a P-38L was shot down on 28 April 1950 for the type’s first victory. By far, however, it would be Korea where the MiG-15 would see the most action.
After starting out well, the North Korean armies were, by fall 1950, in full rout from South Korea, pursued by United Nations forces. The World War II-era North Korean People’s Air Force had been annihilated by UN aircraft, and though China intended to intervene on behalf of North Korea, it lacked trained pilots. Stalin agreed to secretly provide both MiG-15s and the pilots to fly them, operating from bases in China across the Yalu River from North Korea. The pilots, under command of Soviet top ace Ivan Kozhedub, were instructed to speak in what little Korean they knew, and never fly over territory where they might be captured. The former was rarely heeded in the heat of combat, while the short range of the MiG-15 limited pilots to flying in and around the Yalu valley in any case. This rapidly became known as “MiG Alley.” By November 1950, Russian-flown MiG-15s were in combat against American and British aircraft, both sides fielding pilots who had already flown combat in World War II. Both sides were to find they were close to evenly matched as well: the Russians claimed the first jet-to-jet victory on 1 November, when a MiG-15 shot down a USAF F-80C; four days later, they suffered their first loss, to a US Navy F9F Panther. Most engagements were to occur between the F-86 Sabre and the MiG-15.
Once more, the two were closely matched. The MiG-15 had a better rate of climb, was superior above 33,000 feet, and had harder hitting cannon armament. The F-86’s six machine guns were often ineffective against the rugged MiG, but it was more manueverable, especially at low level, and if the machine guns did not cause as much damage, they fired at three times the rate of the MiG-15’s cannons, and usually hit what they aimed at, due to a superior radar-ranging gunsight. Both sides had to deal with instability at high speeds: if the MiG pilot got into trouble, he would climb out of danger, whereas the Sabre pilot would dive. The pilots were evenly matched, though the Russians would later admit that the Americans were better trained. Both sides overclaimed during the war, with both Soviet and American pilots claiming 12 to 1 kill ratios: the truth may never be known, though 40 Russians were awarded the title of ace during the war. The MiGs did succeed in one task, driving the B-29s into night attacks, after six were shot down or badly damaged on a single mission in October 1951.
Interestingly enough, the F-86 was as much a surprise to the Soviets as the MiG-15 was to the West, and both sides attempted to procure an example of the other. The United States’ Operation Moolah, offering $100,000 to any Eastern Bloc pilot who defected with a MiG-15, resulted in three MiG-15s, two flown by Polish pilots to Denmark and the third by North Korean pilot No Kum-Sok.
After the end of the Korean War, the MiG-15 remained in service, though it slowly began to be replaced by the MiG-17 and MiG-19. Nonetheless, MiG-15s were involved in eleven separate incidents during the Cold War, shooting down several US and British reconnaissance aircraft and an Israeli airliner. By the mid-1950s, however, the MiG-15 was beginning to show its age, and in combat with Sidewinder-equipped F-86s of Taiwan and Israeli Super Mysteres, it came off second best. Gradually, single-seat MiG-15s were retired from active service, though hundreds of two-seat MiG-15UTI “Midget” trainers remained in service; the MiG-15UTI is still flown by several air forces to this day. About 16,000 MiG-15s were produced in the Soviet Union, Poland, and Czechslovakia, and a good number remain in existence today in museums and numerous flyable examples, including 43 in the United States.
Though No Kum-Sok was not the first MiG-15 pilot to defect, he was the most famous, mainly because his MiG-15 was not returned to its previous owners. No took off from his base in North Korea on 21 September 1953 and landed at Kimpo, South Korea, where he asked for asylum. He had defected because his mother lived in South Korea, and was unaware of Operation Moolah--though he did not turn down the $100,000! No's MiG-15 was taken to Okinawa and flight tested, then was offered to its "rightful owners," either North Korea or the Soviet Union, to be returned. When neither country accepted, the MiG was taken to Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, and eventually placed on display at the National Museum of the USAF in 1957.
When I saw this aircraft as a kid in 1977, I don't recall if it had been repainted in North Korean DPRKAF colors, or was still in its "temporary" USAF registration. In any case, this is how No Kum-Sok's MiG-15 is displayed today, with its original markings and bare metal finish. The mannequin in the foreground is wearing No's actual flight gear. For many years, this was the only MiG-15 on display anywhere in the West, and it was good to see 2057 again.
As of this writing, No Kum-Sok is still alive and lives in the United States, though he has changed his name to Kenneth Rowe. EDIT (2023): No Kum-Sok passed away on January 6, 2023.