This sleek and contemporary lobby space in Tokyo exudes a refined elegance, combining minimalist design principles with carefully curated natural elements. The dramatic floor-to-ceiling windows provide a panoramic view of a lush courtyard, seamlessly integrating the outdoor greenery with the pristine, tranquil interior. The interplay between the dark, textured brick walls and the bright natural light creates a captivating contrast that enhances the overall ambiance of the space.

 

At the heart of the lobby is a striking floral arrangement housed in a sculptural vase. Vibrant orange, yellow, and white blossoms, accented with dried pampas grass, introduce a touch of organic warmth to the modern, cool-toned environment. Strategically placed lighting below the seating area bathes the floor in a soft, golden glow, highlighting the clean lines and geometric precision of the decor.

 

The tiled flooring complements the sleek, linear design, while subtle pops of color from pillows and planters add depth and personality. The integration of natural materials, from the plants outside to the floral centerpiece, demonstrates a thoughtful approach to biophilic design, aimed at enhancing relaxation and comfort within an urban setting.

 

This chic interior is a testament to Tokyo’s ability to harmoniously blend cutting-edge architecture with serene, nature-inspired aesthetics. It's an inviting space that feels both luxurious and calming, perfect for travelers seeking a quiet refuge within the city’s vibrant energy.

Welcome to the tranquil grounds of the D.T. Suzuki Museum in Kanazawa, Japan. This serene image captures the museum's contemplative walking path leading to a concrete doorway that opens up to a reflective water feature. The pathway, made of stone slabs set in gravel, guides visitors through a beautifully landscaped area. Lush greenery, including a tree with hanging branches and leaves, frames the scene, enhancing the sense of peace and introspection.

 

A visitor stands in the distance, either taking a photo or quietly observing the surroundings, adding a human element to the serene setting. The water feature at the end of the path mirrors the trees and sky, creating a harmonious blend of nature and architecture. This design encourages reflection and mindfulness, aligning perfectly with D.T. Suzuki's teachings on Zen and tranquility.

 

The use of concrete and stone in the architecture is a nod to minimalist design principles, creating clean lines and a stark contrast to the lush natural surroundings. The museum's layout promotes a sense of journey and discovery, inviting visitors to slow down and absorb the serene environment.

 

Whether you're exploring Zen philosophy or simply enjoying the peaceful ambiance, the D.T. Suzuki Museum offers a unique experience. The thoughtful design and natural elements come together to provide a space for quiet reflection and deeper connection with the principles of mindfulness.

El casco antiguo de Graz fue declarado Patrimonio de la Humanidad por la Unesco en 1999.

A orillas del río Mur se encuentra una colina llamada Schlossberg, que tiene una altura de 475 metros.

Hace más de 1.000 años se construyó un castillo que dio el nombre a la ciudad (que se deriva de la palabra eslovena gradec, que significa "pequeño castillo"). Desde el año 1125 la colina albergó una impresionante fortaleza. En 1809 Napoleón ordenó destruirla. En dicha colina se edificó en 1560 la Torre del reloj, uno de los símbolos de la ciudad. Entre las diferentes calles que forman parte del distrito Innere Stadt destaca la calle Sporgasse. La calle es más antigua que la ciudad ya que fueron los romanos, los primeros que trazaron una vía que iba desde el valle del río Mur hasta la ciudad romana de Savaria (actual Szombately, en Hungría). Los artesanos que trabajaban en esta calle son los que dieron el nombre a la calle. En la actualidad, la Sporgasse es una calle dedicada al comercio.

 

es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casco_histórico_de_Graz

  

Innere Stadt (German pronunciation: [ˈɪnəʀə ʃtat]) is the 1st district of the Austrian city of Graz, capital of the federal state of Styria. It is the part of the Old Town (in German: Altstadt) containing the Schloßberg and the city park (Stadtpark). The district borders are formed by the Mur river between Radetzkybrücke and Keplerbrücke, the Wickenburggasse, the Glacis, Jakominiplatz and the Radetzkystraße. The district covers an area of 1.16 km² and -as of 2011- has a population of 3,545.

In 1999, the Old Town was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innere_Stadt_(Graz)

  

Graz [ˈɡʁaːt͡s] es una ciudad austríaca, capital del estado federado de Estiria (en alemán, Steiermark). Con una población de 269.997 habitantes (1-1-2014) es la segunda ciudad más grande del país. Ciudad universitaria por excelencia, fue nombrada Capital Europea de la Cultura en el año 2003.

Graz está situada a orillas del río Mura al sureste de Austria. Se encuentra a 189 kilómetros de Viena, la capital de país.

La primera mención de la ciudad apareció en un documento escrito por el margrave de Estiria Leopoldo I. En la actualidad no se dispone del original aunque existe una copia del siglo XV.

El último representante de la dinastía Otakar fue Otakar IV de Estiria, margrave de Estiria y duque desde 1180. Otakar no tenía descendencia y había contraído la lepra. En el año 1186 Otakar se reunió con el duque Leopoldo V, de la Casa de Babenberg, en la localidad de Enns donde firmaron el Pacto de Georgenberger mediante el cual Otokar designaba a los Babenberg como sucesores.

En 1379 Graz se convierte en la residencia de los Habsburgo al ser nombrada capital de la Austria interna (en alemán Innerösterreich), territorio que comprendía Estiria, Carintia, Carniola y algunas posesiones en Italia. La estancia de la familia imperial se prolongó hasta 1619.

El 10 de abril de 1797, las tropas francesas hicieron su entrada en Graz por primera vez. Dos días más tarde, Napoleón llegó a Graz, donde permaneció unos días hasta su marcha a Göss, cerca de Leoben. El 14 de noviembre de 1805, el ejército francés, al mando del general Marmont, invadió la ciudad por segunda vez. La ocupación finalizó el 11 de enero de 1806 con la retirada de las tropas galas. El 30 de mayo de 1809 se produjo la tercera incursión de la legión francesa, esta vez bajo las órdenes de MacDonald. El 4 de enero de 1810 los franceses abandonaron Graz definitivamente.

Durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial el 16 % de los edificios fueron destruidos y 1788 personas perdieron la vida como consecuencia de la ofensiva. El casco histórico no se vio afectado por los ataques, a excepción de la Tummelplatz. La estación central y las plantas industriales del sur y el oeste de la ciudad fueron los objetivos de los bombardeos.

En los años posteriores a la proclamación de la independencia del país en 1955, se produjeron muchos de los cambios que conformaron la imagen actual de la ciudad. En el plano cultural destaca la creación de varios festivales. En 1968 se celebró la primera edición del steirische herbst, el festival de arte contemporáneo más antiguo de Europa. En 1985 se inauguró el Styriarte, festival dedicado a la música clásica. Ambos festivales se celebran cada año y son de gran importancia para la capital de Estiria. La fisionomía de Graz va a experimentar sucesivas modificaciones y ampliaciones. Así pues, se construyeron nuevos puentes y en 1972 se abrió la primera zona peatonal. A finales de los años 80 tiene lugar un importante crecimiento de la zona sureste. En 1988, Puntigam fue considerado como distrito independiente de Straßgang, quedando establecidos los diecisiete distritos en los que se divide Graz hoy en día.

En 1993 la ciudad recibió un premio de la organización ecologista Greenpeace. Ese mismo año organizó el Mes de la cultura europeo por encargo de la Unión Europea.

El casco antiguo de Graz fue declarado Patrimonio de la Humanidad por la Unesco en 1999.

Graz cuenta con 4 universidades que reúnen a cerca de 40 000 estudiantes. Es la segunda ciudad universitaria más importante de Austria después de Viena. Uno de cada 7 habitantes de Graz estudia.

 

es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graz

 

Graz (/ɡrɑːts/ GRAHTS, German: [ɡʁaːts]) is the capital of the Austrian province Styria and the second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. On 1 January 2019, it had a population of 328,276 (292,269 of whom had principal residence status). In 2015, the population of the Graz larger urban zone who had principal residence status stood at 633,168. Graz has a long tradition as seat of universities: its six universities have almost 60,000 students. Its historic centre is one of the best-preserved city centres in Central Europe.[5]

For centuries, Graz was more important to Slovenes and Croats, both politically and culturally, than the capitals of Ljubljana, Slovenia and Zagreb, Croatia; it remains influential to this day.[6] In 1999, Graz's historic centre was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites and in 2010, the site was extended with Eggenberg Palace (German: Schloss Eggenberg). Graz was the Cultural Capital of Europe in 2003 and became a City of Culinary Delights in 2008.

The name of the city, Graz, formerly spelled Gratz, most likely stems from the Slavic gradec, "small castle". Some archaeological finds point to the erection of a small castle by Alpine Slavic people, which over time became a heavily defended fortification. In literary Slovene and Croatian, gradec still means "small castle". The German name 'Graz' first appears in records in 1128.

Graz is situated on the Mur river in southeast Austria. It is about 200 km (120 mi) southwest of Vienna. The nearest larger urban centre is Maribor in Slovenia which is about 50 km (31 mi) away. Graz is the capital and largest city in Styria, a green and heavily forested area.

The oldest settlement on the ground of the modern city of Graz dates back to the Copper Age. However, no historical continuity exists of a settlement before the Middle Ages. During the 12th century, dukes under Babenberg rule made the town into an important commercial center. Later, Graz came under the rule of the Habsburgs and, in 1281, gained special privileges from King Rudolph I.

In the 14th century, Graz became the city of residence of the Inner Austrian line of the Habsburgs. The royalty lived in the Schlossberg castle and from there ruled Styria, Carinthia, most of today's Slovenia, and parts of Italy (Carniola, Gorizia and Gradisca, Trieste).

In the 16th century, the city's design and planning were primarily controlled by Italian Renaissance architects and artists. One of the most famous buildings built in this style is the Landhaus, designed by Domenico dell'Allio, and used by the local rulers as a governmental headquarters.

Karl-Franzens-Universität, also called the University of Graz, is the city's oldest university, founded in 1585 by Archduke Karl II. For most of its existence, it was controlled by the Catholic church, and was closed in 1782 by Joseph II in an attempt to gain state control over educational institutions. Joseph II transformed it into a lyceum where civil servants and medical personnel were trained. In 1827 it was re-instituted as a university by Emperor Franz I, thus gaining the name 'Karl-Franzens Universität,' meaning 'Charles-Francis University.' Over 30,000 students currently study at this university.

The astronomer Johannes Kepler lived in Graz for a short period. There, he worked as a math teacher and was a professor of mathematics at the University of Graz, but still found time to study astronomy. He left Graz to go to Prague when Lutherans were banned from the city.

Ludwig Boltzmann was Professor for Mathematical Physics from 1869 to 1890. During that time, Nikola Tesla studied electrical engineering at the Polytechnic in 1875. Nobel Laureate Otto Loewi taught at the University of Graz from 1909 until 1938. Ivo Andric, the 1961 Nobel Prize for Literature Laureate obtained his doctorate at the University of Graz. Erwin Schrödinger was briefly chancellor of the University of Graz in 1936.

Graz lies in Styria, or Steiermark in German. Mark is an old German word indicating a large area of land used as a defensive border, in which the peasantry is taught how to organize and fight in the case of an invasion. With a strategic location at the head of the open and fertile Mur valley, Graz was often assaulted (unsuccessfully), e.g. by the Hungarians under Matthias Corvinus in 1481, and by the Ottoman Turks in 1529 and 1532. Apart from the Riegersburg Castle, the Schlossberg was the only fortification in the region that never fell to the Ottoman Turks. Graz is home to the region's provincial armory, which is the world's largest historical collection of late medieval and Renaissance weaponry. It has been preserved since 1551, and displays over 30,000 items.

From the earlier part of the 15th century, Graz was the residence of the younger branch of the Habsburgs, which succeeded to the imperial throne in 1619 in the person of Emperor Ferdinand II, who moved the capital to Vienna. New fortifications were built on the Schlossberg at the end of the 16th century. Napoleon's army occupied Graz in 1797. In 1809, the city withstood another assault by the French army. During this attack, the commanding officer in the fortress was ordered to defend it with about 900 men against Napoleon's army of about 3,000. He successfully defended the Schlossberg against eight attacks, but they were forced to give up after the Grande Armée occupied Vienna and the Emperor ordered to surrender. Following the defeat of Austria by Napoleonic forces at the Battle of Wagram in 1809, the fortifications were demolished using explosives, as stipulated in the Peace of Schönbrunn of the same year. The belltower and the civic clock tower, often used as the symbol of Graz, were spared after the people of Graz paid a ransom for their preservation.

Archduke Karl II of Inner Austria had 20,000 Protestant books burned in the square of what is now a mental hospital, and succeeded in returning Styria to the authority of the Holy See. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was born in Graz, in what is now the Stadtmuseum (city museum).

The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students. At the end of 2016 there were 33,473 people with secondary residence status in Graz.

Oceanic climate is the type found in the city, but due to the 0 °C isotherm, the same occurs in a humid continental climate with based in Köppen system (Cfb/Dfb borderline). Wladimir Köppen himself was in town and conducted studies to see how the climate of the past influenced the Continental Drift theory. Due to its position southeast of the Alps, Graz is shielded from the prevailing westerly winds that bring weather fronts in from the North Atlantic to northwestern and central Europe. The weather in Graz is thus influenced by the Mediterranean, and it has more hours of sunshine per year than Vienna or Salzburg and also less wind or rain. Graz lies in a basin that is only open to the south, causing the climate to be warmer than would be expected at that latitude. Plants are found in Graz that normally grow much further south.

Politically, culturally, scientifically and religiously, Graz was an important centre for all Slovenes, especially from the establishment of the University of Graz in 1586 until the establishment of University of Ljubljana in 1919. In 1574, the first Slovene Catholic book [sl] was published in Graz, and in 1592, Hieronymus Megiser published in Graz the book Dictionarium quatuor linguarum, the first multilingual dictionary of Slovene.

The Styrian Slovenes did not consider Graz a German city, but their own, a place to study while living at their relatives' homes and to fulfill one's career ambitions. The student associations in Graz were a crucible of the Slovene identity, and the Slovene students in Graz were more nationally aware than some others. This led to fierce anti-Slovene efforts of German nationalists in Graz before and during World War II.

Many Slovenian Styrians study there. Slovenes are among the professors at the Institute for Jazz in Graz. Numerous Slovenes have found employment there, while being formerly unemployed in Slovenia. For the Slovene culture, Graz remains permanently important due to its university and the Universalmuseum Joanneum archives containing numerous documents from the Slovenian Styria.

A symposium on the relation of Graz and the Slovenes was held in Graz in 2010, at the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the establishment of the first and oldest chair of Slovene. It was established at the Lyzeum of Graz in July 1811 on the initiative of Janez Nepomuk Primic [sl]. A collection of lectures on the topic was published. The Slovenian Post commemorated the anniversary with a stamp.

For the year that Graz was Cultural Capital of Europe, new structures were erected. The Graz Museum of Contemporary Art (German: Kunsthaus) was designed by Peter Cook and Colin Fournier and is situated next to the Mur river. The Island in the Mur is a floating platform made of steel. It was designed by American architect Vito Acconci and contains a café, an open-air theatre and a playground.

The historic centre was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1999 due to the harmonious co-existence of typical buildings from different epochs and in different architectural styles. Situated in a cultural borderland between Central Europe, Italy and the Balkan States, Graz absorbed various influences from the neighbouring regions and thus received its exceptional townscape. Today the old town consists of over 1000 buildings, their age ranging from Gothic to contemporary.

The most important sights in the historic centre are:

Town Hall (Rathaus). The Schlossberg hill, a hill dominating the historic centre (475 m (1,558.40 ft) high), site of a demolished fortress, with views over Graz. The Clock Tower (Uhrturm) is a symbol of Graz, at the top of the Schlossberg hill. The New Gallery (Neue Galerie), a museum of art. The Schlossberg hill funicular (Schlossbergbahn), a funicular railway up the Schlossberg hill. The seat of Styria's provincial parliament (Landhaus), a palace in Lombardic style. It is one of the most important examples of Renaissance architecture in Austria and was built by Italian architect Domenico dell'Allio between 1557 and 1565.

The Armoury (Landeszeughaus) is the largest of its kind in the world.

The Graz Opera House (Opernhaus), the principal venue for opera, ballet, and operetta performances. It is the 2nd largest opera house in Austria.

The Graz Theatre (Schauspielhaus), Graz's principal theatre for productions of plays.

The Cathedral (Dom), a rare monument of Gothic architecture. Once, there were many frescos on the outer walls; today, only a few remain, like the Landplagenbild ("picture of plagues") painted in 1485, presumably by Thomas von Villach. The three plagues it depicts are locusts, pestilence and the invasion of the Turks, all of them striking the town in 1480. It features the oldest painted view of Graz.

The mausoleum of Emperor Ferdinand II next to the cathedral, the most important building of Mannerism in Graz. It includes both the grave where Ferdinand II and his wife are buried, and a church dedicated to St Catherine of Alexandria.

The Castle (Burg), with Gothic double staircase, built between 1438 and 1453 by Emperor Frederick III, because the old castle on the Schlossberg hill was too small and uncomfortable. The castle remained the residence of the Inner Austrian Court until 1619. Today, it serves as residence for the Styrian government.

The Painted House (Gemaltes Haus) in Herrengasse 3. It is completely covered with frescos (painted in 1742 by Johann Mayer).

The Museum of Contemporary Art Graz (Kunsthaus)

The Island in the Mur (Murinsel), an artificial island in the Mur river.

Buildings, inner courtyards (e. g. Early Renaissance courtyard of the Former House of Teutonic Knights in Sporgasse 22) and roofscape of the old town.

The Old Town and the adjacent districts are characterized by the historic residential buildings and churches found there. In the outer districts buildings are predominantly of the architectural styles from the second half of the 20th century.

In 1965 the Grazer Schule (School of Graz) was founded. Several buildings around the universities are of this style, for example the green houses by Volker Giencke and the RESOWI center by Günther Domenig.

Before Graz became the European Capital of Culture in 2003, several new projects were realized, such as the Stadthalle, the Kindermuseum (museum for children), the Helmut-List-Halle, the Kunsthaus and the Murinsel.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graz

 

@ Gateshead

 

It is often controversial when period and contemporary styles of building inhabit the same space. Can it be done successfully and harmoniously? And what of the occasions when elements of modern architecture are incorporated into the renovation of old buildings? For many, these questions can evoke an emotional response; yet it is not usually realistic to stem the tide of progress, nor is it acceptable or desirable to demolish the finest buildings of yesteryear.

 

One example is the former Baltic Flour Mill on the Gateshead quayside, which forms the brick shell of the building pictured (Centre For Contemporary Arts). Next to it are high rise apartments and it can be seen that efforts have been made to achieve some commonality in design.

 

"Goldfinch and Daisies" by Patti Deters. Amid a lush meadow of pretty white daisies (Leucanthemum vulgare), a yellow American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) perches gracefully on a slender daisy stem, blending harmoniously with the soft yellows of the flower centers. As if painted onto a canvas of wildflowers, the composite goldfinch appears to float among the blooms. The songbird's delicate grip on the stem sways slightly with the breeze, creating a moment of quiet poetry in motion. This serene moment captures the beauty of spring and the intricate connection between pollinators, flora, and the avian world, offering a glimpse into the tranquility of nature. This picture is one of several where the subject color closely matches its surroundings - some of which are at the links below. If you like outdoor nature photography, please enjoy more birds, animals, and other wildlife images at patti-deters.pixels.com. If you like outdoor nature photography, please enjoy more birds, animals, and other wildlife artworks at patti-deters.pixels.com.

 

patti-deters.pixels.com/featured/red-bellied-woodpecker-i...

 

patti-deters.pixels.com/featured/winter-bluebird-in-hackb...

 

patti-deters.pixels.com/featured/canada-jay-in-the-snow-p...

 

patti-deters.pixels.com/featured/hummingbird-euphorbia-pa...

there's something beautiful harmonious about the sharing beloved places to the beloved people in your life. it's like connecting two halves of a stone that was broken in half fifty years ago. the edges are worn down, no sharp parts. there's a discussion there, a connection between the two halves. because you love them both. because they are both in your heart.

i was just talking to a friend of mine this past week, sarah nieman, and i told her that i wanted to be more personal on this photostream. i wanted to be more honest with you. i'm not here to show you the glamourous bits of my life, or just a series of a pretty girls in pretty places.

i've recently fallen in love, and it has made me so brave. i don't mind speaking to you now, to tell you that i've found this beautiful boy and i have finally shown him this beautiful place. he's from the west coast. he hasn't seen much of this ocean before.

Detail of the decorations on the lobby Christmas Tree in "Westbrook," the historic mansion of industrialist William Bayard Cutting, at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum State Park on Long Island in New York. Volunteers do a great job of decorating the mansion for the holidays. If you look closely, you can see a handsome photographer reflected in the red ball. You can visit the Arboretum at www.bayardcuttingarboretum.com.

 

View On Black

  

Pirojpur,Bangladesh 2014

 

© Pinu Rahman

Harmonious is Epcot's fireworks and light display show dedicated to "The World’s Most Magical Celebration" —celebrating the 50th anniversary of Walt Disney World Resort.

disneyworld.disney.go.com/entertainment/epcot/harmonious/

The Postcard

 

A Colourmaster postcard that was distributed by Dragon Publishing Ltd. of Llandeilo. The photography was by Roger Vlitos.

 

On the divided back of the card is printed:

 

'Dylan's Writing Shed,

Laugharne, Dyfed.

In this converted garage with

views over the Taf estuary and

Sir John's Hill, Dylan Thomas

wrote much of his finest poetry.

Along with his last home, The

Boat House, it is preserved in

memory of the poet.'

 

Dylan Thomas

 

Dylan Marlais Thomas, who was born in Swansea on the 27th. October 1914, was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems 'Do not go Gentle Into That Good Night' and 'And Death Shall Have No Dominion.'

 

Dylan's other work included 'Under Milk Wood' as well as stories and radio broadcasts such as 'A Child's Christmas in Wales' and 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog'.

 

He became widely popular in his lifetime, and remained so after his death at the age of 39 in New York City. By then he had acquired a reputation, which he had encouraged, as a roistering, drunken and doomed poet.

 

In 1931, when he was 16, Thomas, an undistinguished pupil, left school to become a reporter for the South Wales Daily Post, only to leave under pressure 18 months later.

 

Many of his works appeared in print while he was still a teenager. In 1934, the publication of 'Light Breaks Where no Sun Shines' caught the attention of the literary world.

 

While living in London, Thomas met Caitlin Macnamara. They married in 1937, and had three children: Llewelyn, Aeronwy and Colm.

 

Thomas came to be appreciated as a popular poet during his lifetime, though he found it hard to earn a living as a writer. He began augmenting his income with reading tours and radio broadcasts. His radio recordings for the BBC during the late 1940's brought him to the public's attention, and he was frequently used by the BBC as an accessible voice of the literary scene.

 

Thomas first travelled to the United States in the 1950's. His readings there brought him a degree of fame, while his erratic behaviour and drinking worsened. His time in the United States cemented his legend, however, and he went on to record to vinyl such works as 'A Child's Christmas in Wales'.

 

During his fourth trip to New York in 1953, Thomas became gravely ill and fell into a coma. He died on the 9th. November 1953, and his body was returned to Wales. On the 25th. November 1953, he was laid to rest in St Martin's churchyard in Laugharne, Carmarthenshire.

 

Although Thomas wrote exclusively in the English language, he has been acknowledged as one of the most important Welsh poets of the 20th century. He is noted for his original, rhythmic and ingenious use of words and imagery. He is regarded by many as one of the great modern poets, and he still remains popular with the public.

 

Dylan Thomas - The Early Years

 

Dylan was born at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, the son of Florence Hannah (née Williams; 1882–1958), a seamstress, and David John Thomas (1876–1952), a teacher. His father had a first-class honours degree in English from University College, Aberystwyth and ambitions to rise above his position teaching English literature at the local grammar school.

 

Thomas had one sibling, Nancy Marles (1906–1953), who was eight years his senior. The children spoke only English, though their parents were bilingual in English and Welsh, and David Thomas gave Welsh lessons at home.

 

Thomas's father chose the name Dylan, which means 'Son of the Sea', after Dylan ail Don, a character in The Mabinogion. Dylan's middle name, Marlais, was given in honour of his great-uncle, William Thomas, a Unitarian minister and poet whose bardic name was Gwilym Marles.

 

Dylan caused his mother to worry that he might be teased as the 'Dull One.' When he broadcast on Welsh BBC, early in his career, he was introduced using this pronunciation. Thomas favoured the Anglicised pronunciation, and gave instructions that it should be spoken as 'Dillan.'

 

The red-brick semi-detached house at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive (in the respectable area of the Uplands), in which Thomas was born and lived until he was 23, had been bought by his parents a few months before his birth.

 

Dylan's childhood featured regular summer trips to the Llansteffan Peninsula, a Welsh-speaking part of Carmarthenshire, where his maternal relatives were the sixth generation to farm there.

 

In the land between Llangain and Llansteffan, his mother's family, the Williamses and their close relatives, worked a dozen farms with over a thousand acres between them. The memory of Fernhill, a dilapidated 15-acre farm rented by his maternal aunt, Ann Jones, and her husband, Jim, is evoked in the 1945 lyrical poem 'Fern Hill', but is portrayed more accurately in his short story, 'The Peaches'.

 

Thomas had bronchitis and asthma in childhood, and struggled with these throughout his life. He was indulged by his mother and enjoyed being mollycoddled, a trait he carried into adulthood, and he was skilful in gaining attention and sympathy.

 

Thomas's formal education began at Mrs Hole's Dame School, a private school on Mirador Crescent, a few streets away from his home. He described his experience there in Reminiscences of Childhood:

 

"Never was there such a dame school as ours,

so firm and kind and smelling of galoshes, with

the sweet and fumbled music of the piano lessons

drifting down from upstairs to the lonely schoolroom,

where only the sometimes tearful wicked sat over

undone sums, or to repent a little crime – the pulling

of a girl's hair during geography, the sly shin kick

under the table during English literature".

 

In October 1925, Dylan Thomas enrolled at Swansea Grammar School for boys, in Mount Pleasant, where his father taught English. He was an undistinguished pupil who shied away from school, preferring reading.

 

In his first year, one of his poems was published in the school's magazine, and before he left he became its editor. In June 1928, Thomas won the school's mile race, held at St. Helen's Ground; he carried a newspaper photograph of his victory with him until his death.

 

During his final school years Dylan began writing poetry in notebooks; the first poem, dated 27th. April 1930, is entitled 'Osiris, Come to Isis'.

 

In 1931, when he was 16, Thomas left school to become a reporter for the South Wales Daily Post, only to leave under pressure 18 months later. Thomas continued to work as a freelance journalist for several years, during which time he remained at Cwmdonkin Drive and continued to add to his notebooks, amassing 200 poems in four books between 1930 and 1934. Of the 90 poems he published, half were written during these years.

 

In his free time, Dylan joined the amateur dramatic group at the Little Theatre in Mumbles, visited the cinema in Uplands, took walks along Swansea Bay, and frequented Swansea's pubs, especially the Antelope and the Mermaid Hotels in Mumbles.

 

In the Kardomah Café, close to the newspaper office in Castle Street, he met his creative contemporaries, including his friend the poet Vernon Watkins.

 

1933–1939

 

In 1933, Thomas visited London for probably the first time.

 

Thomas was a teenager when many of the poems for which he became famous were published:

 

-- 'And Death Shall Have no Dominion'

-- 'Before I Knocked'

-- 'The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower'.

 

'And Death Shall Have no Dominion' appeared in the New English Weekly in May 1933:

 

'And death shall have no dominion.

Dead men naked they shall be one

With the man in the wind and the

west moon;

When their bones are picked clean and

the clean bones gone,

They shall have stars at elbow and foot;

Though they go mad they shall be sane,

Though they sink through the sea they

shall rise again

Though lovers be lost love shall not;

And death shall have no dominion'.

 

When 'Light Breaks Where no Sun Shines' appeared in The Listener in 1934, it caught the attention of three senior figures in literary London - T. S. Eliot, Geoffrey Grigson and Stephen Spender. They contacted Thomas, and his first poetry volume, '18 Poems', was published in December 1934.

 

'18 Poems' was noted for its visionary qualities which led to critic Desmond Hawkins writing that:

 

"The work is the sort of bomb

that bursts no more than once

in three years".

 

The volume was critically acclaimed, and won a contest run by the Sunday Referee, netting him new admirers from the London poetry world, including Edith Sitwell and Edwin Muir. The anthology was published by Fortune Press, in part a vanity publisher that did not pay its writers, and expected them to buy a certain number of copies themselves. A similar arrangement was used by other new authors, including Philip Larkin.

 

In September 1935, Thomas met Vernon Watkins, thus beginning a lifelong friendship. Dylan introduced Watkins, working at Lloyds Bank at the time, to his friends. The group of writers, musicians and artists became known as "The Kardomah Gang".

 

In those days, Thomas used to frequent the cinema on Mondays with Tom Warner who, like Watkins, had recently suffered a nervous breakdown. After these trips, Warner would bring Thomas back for supper with his aunt.

 

On one occasion, when she served him a boiled egg, she had to cut its top off for him, as Thomas did not know how to do this. This was because his mother had done it for him all his life, an example of her coddling him. Years later, his wife Caitlin would still have to prepare his eggs for him.

 

In December 1935, Thomas contributed the poem 'The Hand That Signed the Paper' to Issue 18 of the bi-monthly New Verse.

 

In 1936, Dylan's next collection 'Twenty-five Poems' received much critical praise. In 1938, Thomas won the Oscar Blumenthal Prize for Poetry; it was also the year in which New Directions offered to be his publisher in the United States. In all, he wrote half his poems while living at Cwmdonkin Drive before moving to London. It was the time that Thomas's reputation for heavy drinking developed.

 

In early 1936, Thomas met Caitlin Macnamara (1913–94), a 22-year-old blonde-haired, blue-eyed dancer of Irish and French descent. She had run away from home, intent on making a career in dance, and at the age of 18 joined the chorus line at the London Palladium.

 

Introduced by Augustus John, Caitlin's lover, they met in The Wheatsheaf pub on Rathbone Place in London's West End. Laying his head on her lap, a drunken Thomas proposed. Thomas liked to comment that he and Caitlin were in bed together ten minutes after they first met.

 

Although Caitlin initially continued her relationship with Augustus John, she and Thomas began a correspondence, and by the second half of 1936 they were courting. They married at the register office in Penzance, Cornwall, on the 11th. July 1937.

 

In early 1938, they moved to Wales, renting a cottage in the village of Laugharne, Carmarthenshire. Their first child, Llewelyn Edouard, was born on the 30th. January 1939.

 

By the late 1930's, Thomas was embraced as the "Poetic Herald" for a group of English poets, the New Apocalyptics. However Thomas refused to align himself with them, and declined to sign their manifesto.

 

He later stated that:

 

"They are intellectual muckpots

leaning on a theory".

 

Despite Dylan's rejection, many of the group, including Henry Treece, modelled their work on Thomas's.

 

During the politically charged atmosphere of the 1930's, Thomas's sympathies were very much with the radical left, to the point of holding close links with the communists, as well as being decidedly pacifist and anti-fascist. He was a supporter of the left-wing No More War Movement, and boasted about participating in demonstrations against the British Union of Fascists.

 

1939–1945

 

In 1939, a collection of 16 poems and seven of the 20 short stories published by Thomas in magazines since 1934, appeared as 'The Map of Love'.

 

Ten stories in his next book, 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog' (1940), were based less on lavish fantasy than those in 'The Map of Love', and more on real-life romances featuring himself in Wales.

 

Sales of both books were poor, resulting in Thomas living on meagre fees from writing and reviewing. At this time he borrowed heavily from friends and acquaintances.

 

Hounded by creditors, Thomas and his family left Laugharne in July 1940 and moved to the home of critic John Davenport in Marshfield, Gloucestershire. There Thomas collaborated with Davenport on the satire 'The Death of the King's Canary', though due to fears of libel, the work was not published until 1976.

 

At the outset of the Second World War, Thomas was worried about conscription, and referred to his ailment as "An Unreliable Lung".

 

Coughing sometimes confined him to bed, and he had a history of bringing up blood and mucus. After initially seeking employment in a reserved occupation, he managed to be classified Grade III, which meant that he would be among the last to be called up for service.

 

Saddened to see his friends going on active service, Dylan continued drinking, and struggled to support his family. He wrote begging letters to random literary figures asking for support, a plan he hoped would provide a long-term regular income. Thomas supplemented his income by writing scripts for the BBC, which not only gave him additional earnings but also provided evidence that he was engaged in essential war work.

 

In February 1941, Swansea was bombed by the Luftwaffe in a three night blitz. Castle Street was one of many streets that suffered badly; rows of shops, including the Kardomah Café, were destroyed. Thomas walked through the bombed-out shell of the town centre with his friend Bert Trick. Upset at the sight, he concluded:

 

"Our Swansea is dead".

 

Soon after the bombing raids, he wrote a radio play, 'Return Journey Home', which described the café as being "razed to the snow". The play was first broadcast on the 15th. June 1947. The Kardomah Café reopened on Portland Street after the war.

 

In May 1941, Thomas and Caitlin left their son with his grandmother at Blashford and moved to London. Thomas hoped to find employment in the film industry, and wrote to the director of the films division of the Ministry of Information (MOI). After initially being rebuffed, he found work with Strand Films, providing him with his first regular income since the Daily Post. Strand produced films for the MOI; Thomas scripted at least five films in 1942.

 

In five film projects, between 1942 and 1945, the Ministry of Information (MOI) commissioned Thomas to script a series of documentaries about both urban planning and wartime patriotism, all in partnership with director John Eldridge:

 

-- 'Wales: Green Mountain, Black Mountain'.

-- 'New Towns for Old' (on post-war reconstruction).

-- 'Fuel for Battle'.

-- 'Our Country' (1945) was a romantic tour of Great Britain set to Thomas's poetry.

-- 'A City Reborn'.

 

Other projects included:

 

-- 'This Is Colour' (a history of the British dyeing industry).

-- 'These Are The Men' (1943), a more ambitious piece in which Thomas's verse accompanied Leni Riefenstahl's footage of an early Nuremberg Rally.

-- 'Conquest of a Germ' (1944) explored the use of early antibiotics in the fight against pneumonia and tuberculosis.

 

In early 1943, Thomas began a relationship with Pamela Glendower; one of several affairs he had during his marriage. The affairs either ran out of steam or were halted after Caitlin discovered his infidelity.

 

In March 1943, Caitlin gave birth to a daughter, Aeronwy, in London. They lived in a run-down studio in Chelsea, made up of a single large room with a curtain to separate the kitchen.

 

The Thomas family made several escapes back to Wales during the war. Between 1941 and 1943, they lived intermittently in Plas Gelli, Talsarn, in Cardiganshire. Plas Gelli sits close by the River Aeron, after whom Aeronwy is thought to have been named. Some of Thomas’ letters from Gelli can be found in his 'Collected Letters'.

 

The Thomases shared the mansion with his childhood friends from Swansea, Vera and Evelyn Phillips. Vera's friendship with the Thomases in nearby New Quay is portrayed in the 2008 film, 'The Edge of Love'.

 

In July 1944, with the threat of German flying bombs landing on London, Thomas moved to the family cottage at Blaencwm near Llangain, Carmarthenshire, where he resumed writing poetry, completing 'Holy Spring' and 'Vision and Prayer'.

 

In September 1944, the Thomas family moved to New Quay in Cardiganshire (Ceredigion), where they rented Majoda, a wood and asbestos bungalow on the cliffs overlooking Cardigan Bay. It was here that Thomas wrote the radio piece 'Quite Early One Morning', a sketch for his later work, 'Under Milk Wood'.

 

Of the poetry written at this time, of note is 'Fern Hill', believed to have been started while living in New Quay, but completed at Blaencwm in mid-1945. Dylan's first biographer, Constantine FitzGibbon wrote that:

 

"His nine months in New Quay were a second

flowering, a period of fertility that recalls the

earliest days, with a great outpouring of poems

and a good deal of other material".

 

His second biographer, Paul Ferris, concurred:

 

"On the grounds of output, the bungalow

deserves a plaque of its own."

 

The Dylan Thomas scholar, Walford Davies, has noted that:

 

"New Quay was crucial in supplementing

the gallery of characters Thomas had to

hand for writing 'Under Milk Wood'."

 

Dylan Thomas's Broadcasting Years 1945–1949

 

Although Thomas had previously written for the BBC, it was a minor and intermittent source of income. In 1943, he wrote and recorded a 15-minute talk entitled 'Reminiscences of Childhood' for the Welsh BBC.

 

In December 1944, he recorded 'Quite Early One Morning' (produced by Aneirin Talfan Davies, again for the Welsh BBC), but when Davies offered it for national broadcast, BBC London initially turned it down.

 

However on the 31st. August 1945, the BBC Home Service broadcast 'Quite Early One Morning' nationally, and in the three subsequent years, Dylan made over a hundred broadcasts for the BBC, not only for his poetry readings, but for discussions and critiques.

 

In the second half of 1945, Dylan began reading for the BBC Radio programme, 'Book of Verse', that was broadcast weekly to the Far East. This provided Thomas with a regular income, and brought him into contact with Louis MacNeice, a congenial drinking companion whose advice Thomas cherished.

 

On the 29th. September 1946, the BBC began transmitting the Third Programme, a high-culture network which provided further opportunities for Thomas.

 

He appeared in the play 'Comus' for the Third Programme, the day after the network launched, and his rich, sonorous voice led to character parts, including the lead in Aeschylus's 'Agamemnon', and Satan in an adaptation of 'Paradise Lost'.

 

Thomas remained a popular guest on radio talk shows for the BBC, who stated:

 

"He is useful should a younger

generation poet be needed".

 

He had an uneasy relationship with BBC management, and a staff job was never an option, with drinking cited as the problem. Despite this, Thomas became a familiar radio voice and well-known celebrity within Great Britain.

 

By late September 1945, the Thomases had left Wales, and were living with various friends in London. In December, they moved to Oxford to live in a summerhouse on the banks of the Cherwell. It belonged to the historian, A. J. P. Taylor. His wife, Margaret, became Thomas’s most committed patron.

 

The publication of 'Deaths and Entrances' in February 1946 was a major turning point for Thomas. Poet and critic Walter J. Turner commented in The Spectator:

 

"This book alone, in my opinion,

ranks him as a major poet".

 

From 'In my Craft or Sullen Art,' 'Deaths and Entrances' (1946):

 

'Not for the proud man apart

From the raging moon, I write

On these spindrift pages

Nor for the towering dead

With their nightingales and psalms

But for the lovers, their arms

Round the griefs of the ages,

Who pay no praise or wages

Nor heed my craft or art'.

 

The following year, in April 1947, the Thomases travelled to Italy, after Thomas had been awarded a Society of Authors scholarship. They stayed first in villas near Rapallo and then Florence, before moving to a hotel in Rio Marina on the island of Elba.

 

On their return to England Thomas and his family moved, in September 1947, into the Manor House in South Leigh, just west of Oxford, found for him by Margaret Taylor.

 

He continued with his work for the BBC, completed a number of film scripts, and worked further on his ideas for 'Under Milk Wood'.

 

In March 1949 Thomas travelled to Prague. He had been invited by the Czech government to attend the inauguration of the Czechoslovak Writers' Union. Jiřina Hauková, who had previously published translations of some of Thomas' poems, was his guide and interpreter.

 

In her memoir, Hauková recalls that at a party in Prague, Thomas narrated the first version of his radio play 'Under Milk Wood.' She describes how he outlined the plot about a town that was declared insane, and then portrayed the predicament of an eccentric organist and a baker with two wives.

 

A month later, in May 1949, Thomas and his family moved to his final home, the Boat House at Laugharne, purchased for him at a cost of £2,500 in April 1949 by Margaret Taylor.

 

Thomas acquired a garage a hundred yards from the house on a cliff ledge which he turned into his writing shed, and where he wrote several of his most acclaimed poems. To see a photograph of the interior of Dylan's shed, please search for the tag 55DTW96

 

Just before moving into the Boat House, Thomas rented Pelican House opposite his regular drinking den, Brown's Hotel, for his parents. They both lived there from 1949 until Dylan's father 'D.J.' died on the 16th. December 1952. His mother continued to live there until 1953.

 

Caitlin gave birth to their third child, a boy named Colm Garan Hart, on the 25th. July 1949.

 

In October 1949, the New Zealand poet Allen Curnow came to visit Thomas at the Boat House, who took him to his writing shed. Curnow recalls:

 

"Dylan fished out a draft to show me

of the unfinished 'Under Milk Wood'

that was then called 'The Town That

Was Mad'."

 

Dylan Thomas's American tours, 1950–1953

 

(a) The First American Tour

 

The American poet John Brinnin invited Thomas to New York, where in 1950 they embarked on a lucrative three-month tour of arts centres and campuses.

 

The tour, which began in front of an audience of a thousand at the Kaufmann Auditorium in the Poetry Centre in New York, took in a further 40 venues. During the tour, Thomas was invited to many parties and functions, and on several occasions became drunk - going out of his way to shock people - and was a difficult guest.

 

Dylan drank before some of his readings, although it is argued that he may have pretended to be more affected by the alcohol than he actually was.

 

The writer Elizabeth Hardwick recalled how intoxicated a performer he could be, and how the tension would build before a performance:

 

"Would he arrive only to break

down on the stage?

Would some dismaying scene

take place at the faculty party?

Would he be offensive, violent,

obscene?"

 

Dylan's wife Caitlin said in her memoir:

 

"Nobody ever needed encouragement

less, and he was drowned in it."

 

On returning to Great Britain, Thomas began work on two further poems, 'In the White Giant's Thigh', which he read on the Third Programme in September 1950:

 

'Who once were a bloom of wayside

brides in the hawed house

And heard the lewd, wooed field

flow to the coming frost,

The scurrying, furred small friars

squeal in the dowse

Of day, in the thistle aisles, till the

white owl crossed.'

 

He also worked on the incomplete 'In Country Heaven'.

 

In October 1950, Thomas sent a draft of the first 39 pages of 'The Town That Was Mad' to the BBC. The task of seeing this work through to production was assigned to the BBC's Douglas Cleverdon, who had been responsible for casting Thomas in 'Paradise Lost'.

 

However, despite Cleverdon's urgings, the script slipped from Thomas's priorities, and in early 1951 he took a trip to Iran to work on a film for the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. The film was never made, with Thomas returning to Wales in February, though his time there allowed him to provide a few minutes of material for a BBC documentary, 'Persian Oil'.

 

Early in 1951 Thomas wrote two poems, which Thomas's principal biographer, Paul Ferris, describes as "unusually blunt." One was the ribald 'Lament', and the other was an ode, in the form of a villanelle, to his dying father 'Do not go Gentle Into That Good Night". (A villanelle is a pastoral or lyrical poem of nineteen lines, with only two rhymes throughout, and some lines repeated).

 

Despite a range of wealthy patrons, including Margaret Taylor, Princess Marguerite Caetani and Marged Howard-Stepney, Thomas was still in financial difficulty, and he wrote several begging letters to notable literary figures, including the likes of T. S. Eliot.

 

Margaret Taylor was not keen on Thomas taking another trip to the United States, and thought that if he had a permanent address in London he would be able to gain steady work there. She bought a property, 54 Delancey Street, in Camden Town, and in late 1951 Thomas and Caitlin lived in the basement flat. Thomas described the flat as his "London House of Horror", and did not return there after his 1952 tour of America.

 

(b) The Second American Tour

 

Thomas undertook a second tour of the United States in 1952, this time with Caitlin - after she had discovered that he had been unfaithful on his earlier trip. They drank heavily, and Thomas began to suffer with gout and lung problems.

 

It was during this tour that the above photograph was taken.

 

The second tour was the most intensive of the four, taking in 46 engagements.

 

The trip also resulted in Thomas recording his first poetry to vinyl, which Caedmon Records released in America later that year. One of his works recorded during this time, 'A Child's Christmas in Wales', became his most popular prose work in America. The recording was a 2008 selection for the United States National Recording Registry, which stated that:

 

"It is credited with launching the

audiobook industry in the United

States".

 

(c) The Third American Tour

 

In April 1953, Thomas returned alone for a third tour of America. He performed a "work in progress" version of 'Under Milk Wood', solo, for the first time at Harvard University on the 3rd. May 1953. A week later, the work was performed with a full cast at the Poetry Centre in New York.

 

Dylan met the deadline only after being locked in a room by Brinnin's assistant, Liz Reitell, and was still editing the script on the afternoon of the performance; its last lines were handed to the actors as they put on their makeup.

 

During this penultimate tour, Thomas met the composer Igor Stravinsky. Igor had become an admirer of Dylan after having been introduced to his poetry by W. H. Auden. They had discussions about collaborating on a "musical theatrical work" for which Dylan would provide the libretto on the theme of:

 

"The rediscovery of love and

language in what might be left

after the world after the bomb."

 

The shock of Thomas's death later in the year moved Stravinsky to compose his 'In Memoriam Dylan Thomas' for tenor, string quartet and four trombones. The work's first performance in Los Angeles in 1954 was introduced with a tribute to Thomas from Aldous Huxley.

 

Thomas spent the last nine or ten days of his third tour in New York mostly in the company of Reitell, with whom he had an affair.

 

During this time, Thomas fractured his arm falling down a flight of stairs when drunk. Reitell's doctor, Milton Feltenstein, put his arm in plaster, and treated him for gout and gastritis.

 

After returning home, Thomas worked on 'Under Milk Wood' in Wales before sending the original manuscript to Douglas Cleverdon on the 15th. October 1953. It was copied and returned to Thomas, who lost it in a pub in London and required a duplicate to take to America.

 

(d) The Fourth American Tour

 

Thomas flew to the States on the 19th. October 1953 for what would be his final tour. He died in New York before the BBC could record 'Under Milk Wood'. Richard Burton featured in its first broadcast in 1954, and was joined by Elizabeth Taylor in a subsequent film. In 1954, the play won the Prix Italia for literary or dramatic programmes.

 

Thomas's last collection 'Collected Poems, 1934–1952', published when he was 38, won the Foyle poetry prize. Reviewing the volume, critic Philip Toynbee declared that:

 

"Thomas is the greatest living

poet in the English language".

 

There followed a series of distressing events for Dylan. His father died from pneumonia just before Christmas 1952. In the first few months of 1953, his sister died from liver cancer, one of his patrons took an overdose of sleeping pills, three friends died at an early age, and Caitlin had an abortion.

 

Thomas left Laugharne on the 9th. October 1953 on the first leg of his trip to America. He called on his mother, Florence, to say goodbye:

 

"He always felt that he had to get

out from this country because of

his chest being so bad."

 

Thomas had suffered from chest problems for most of his life, though they began in earnest soon after he moved in May 1949 to the Boat House at Laugharne - the "Bronchial Heronry", as he called it. Within weeks of moving in, he visited a local doctor, who prescribed medicine for both his chest and throat.

 

Whilst waiting in London before his flight in October 1953, Thomas stayed with the comedian Harry Locke and worked on 'Under Milk Wood'. Locke noted that Thomas was having trouble with his chest, with terrible coughing fits that made him go purple in the face. He was also using an inhaler to help his breathing.

 

There were reports, too, that Thomas was also having blackouts. His visit to the BBC producer Philip Burton a few days before he left for New York, was interrupted by a blackout. On his last night in London, he had another in the company of his fellow poet Louis MacNeice.

 

Thomas arrived in New York on the 20th. October 1953 to undertake further performances of 'Under Milk Wood', organised by John Brinnin, his American agent and Director of the Poetry Centre. Brinnin did not travel to New York, but remained in Boston in order to write.

 

He handed responsibility to his assistant, Liz Reitell, who was keen to see Thomas for the first time since their three-week romance early in the year. She met Thomas at Idlewild Airport and was shocked at his appearance. He looked pale, delicate and shaky, not his usual robust self:

 

"He was very ill when he got here."

 

After being taken by Reitell to check in at the Chelsea Hotel, Thomas took the first rehearsal of 'Under Milk Wood'. They then went to the White Horse Tavern in Greenwich Village, before returning to the Chelsea Hotel.

 

(Bob Dylan, formerly Robert Zimmerman, used to perform at the White Horse; Dylan Thomas was his favourite poet, and it is highly likely that Bob adopted Dylan's first name as his surname).

 

The next day, Reitell invited Thomas to her apartment, but he declined. They went sightseeing, but Thomas felt unwell, and retired to his bed for the rest of the afternoon. Reitell gave him half a grain (32.4 milligrams) of phenobarbitone to help him sleep, and spent the night at the hotel with him.

 

Two days later, on the 23rd. October 1953, at the third rehearsal, Thomas said he was too ill to take part, but he struggled on, shivering and burning with fever, before collapsing on the stage.

 

The next day, 24th. October, Reitell took Thomas to see her doctor, Milton Feltenstein, who administered cortisone injections. Thomas made it through the first performance that evening, but collapsed immediately afterwards.

 

Dylan told a friend who had come back-stage:

 

"This circus out there has taken

the life out of me for now."

 

Reitell later said:

 

"Feltenstein was rather a wild doctor

who thought injections would cure

anything".

 

At the next performance on the 25th. October, his fellow actors realised that Thomas was very ill:

 

"He was desperately ill…we didn’t think

that he would be able to do the last

performance because he was so ill…

Dylan literally couldn’t speak he was so

ill…still my greatest memory of it is that

he had no voice."

 

On the evening of the 27th. October, Thomas attended his 39th. birthday party, but felt unwell, and returned to his hotel after an hour. The next day, he took part in 'Poetry and the Film', a recorded symposium at Cinema 16.

 

A turning point came on the 2nd. November. Air pollution in New York had risen significantly, and exacerbated chest illnesses such as Thomas's. By the end of the month, over 200 New Yorkers had died from the smog.

 

On the 3rd. November, Thomas spent most of the day in his room, entertaining various friends. He went out in the evening to keep two drink appointments. After returning to the hotel, he went out again for a drink at 2 am. After drinking at the White Horse, Thomas returned to the Hotel Chelsea, declaring:

 

"I've had eighteen straight

whiskies. I think that's the

record!"

 

However the barman and the owner of the pub who served him later commented that Thomas could not have drunk more than half that amount.

 

Thomas had an appointment at a clam house in New Jersey with Todd on the 4th. November. When Todd telephoned the Chelsea that morning, Thomas said he was feeling ill, and postponed the engagement. Todd thought that Dylan sounded "terrible".

 

The poet, Harvey Breit, was another to phone that morning. He thought that Thomas sounded "bad". Thomas' voice, recalled Breit, was "low and hoarse". Harvey had wanted to say:

 

"You sound as though from the tomb".

 

However instead Harvey told Thomas that he sounded like Louis Armstrong.

 

Later, Thomas went drinking with Reitell at the White Horse and, feeling sick again, returned to the hotel. Dr. Feltenstein came to see him three times that day, administering the cortisone secretant ACTH by injection and, on his third visit, half a grain (32.4 milligrams) of morphine sulphate, which affected Thomas' breathing.

 

Reitell became increasingly concerned, and telephoned Feltenstein for advice. He suggested that she get male assistance, so she called upon the artist Jack Heliker, who arrived before 11 pm. At midnight on the 5th. November, Thomas's breathing became more difficult, and his face turned blue.

 

Reitell phoned Feltenstein who arrived at the hotel at about 1 am, and called for an ambulance. It then took another hour for the ambulance to arrive at St. Vincent's, even though it was only a few blocks from the Chelsea.

 

Thomas was admitted to the emergency ward at St Vincent's Hospital at 1:58 am. He was comatose, and his medical notes stated that:

 

"The impression upon admission was acute

alcoholic encephalopathy damage to the brain

by alcohol, for which the patient was treated

without response".

 

Feltenstein then took control of Thomas's care, even though he did not have admitting rights at St. Vincent's. The hospital's senior brain specialist, Dr. C. G. Gutierrez-Mahoney, was not called to examine Thomas until the afternoon of the 6th. November, thirty-six hours after Thomas' admission.

 

Dylan's wife Caitlin flew to America the following day, and was taken to the hospital, by which time a tracheotomy had been performed. Her reported first words were:

 

"Is the bloody man dead yet?"

 

Caitlin was allowed to see Thomas only for 40 minutes in the morning, but returned in the afternoon and, in a drunken rage, threatened to kill John Brinnin. When she became uncontrollable, she was put in a straitjacket and committed, by Feltenstein, to the River Crest private psychiatric detox clinic on Long Island.

 

It is now believed that Thomas had been suffering from bronchitis, pneumonia and emphysema before his admission to St Vincent's. In their 2004 paper, 'Death by Neglect', D. N. Thomas and Dr Simon Barton disclose that Thomas was found to have pneumonia when he was admitted to hospital in a coma.

 

Doctors took three hours to restore his breathing, using artificial respiration and oxygen. Summarising their findings, they conclude:

 

"The medical notes indicate that, on admission,

Dylan's bronchial disease was found to be very

extensive, affecting upper, mid and lower lung

fields, both left and right."

 

The forensic pathologist, Professor Bernard Knight, concurs:

 

"Death was clearly due to a severe lung infection

with extensive advanced bronchopneumonia.

The severity of the chest infection, with greyish

consolidated areas of well-established pneumonia,

suggests that it had started before admission to

hospital."

 

Thomas died at noon on the 9th. November 1953, having never recovered from his coma. He was 39 years of age when he died.

 

Aftermath of Dylan Thomas's Death

 

Rumours circulated of a brain haemorrhage, followed by competing reports of a mugging, or even that Thomas had drunk himself to death. Later, speculation arose about drugs and diabetes.

 

At the post-mortem, the pathologist found three causes of death - pneumonia, brain swelling and a fatty liver. Despite Dylan's heavy drinking, his liver showed no sign of cirrhosis.

 

The publication of John Brinnin's 1955 biography 'Dylan Thomas in America' cemented Thomas's legacy as the "doomed poet". Brinnin focuses on Thomas's last few years, and paints a picture of him as a drunk and a philanderer.

 

Later biographies have criticised Brinnin's view, especially his coverage of Thomas's death. David Thomas in 'Fatal Neglect: Who Killed Dylan Thomas?' claims that Brinnin, along with Reitell and Feltenstein, were culpable.

 

FitzGibbon's 1965 biography ignores Thomas's heavy drinking and skims over his death, giving just two pages in his detailed book to Thomas's demise.

 

Ferris in his 1989 biography includes Thomas's heavy drinking, but is more critical of those around him in his final days, and does not draw the conclusion that he drank himself to death.

 

Many sources have criticised Feltenstein's role and actions, especially his incorrect diagnosis of delirium tremens and the high dose of morphine he administered. Dr C. G. de Gutierrez-Mahoney, the doctor who treated Thomas while at St. Vincent's, concluded that Feltenstein's failure to see that Thomas was gravely ill and have him admitted to hospital sooner was even more culpable than his use of morphine.

 

Caitlin Thomas's autobiographies, 'Caitlin Thomas - Leftover Life to Kill' (1957) and 'My Life with Dylan Thomas: Double Drink Story' (1997), describe the effects of alcohol on the poet and on their relationship:

 

"Ours was not only a love story, it was

a drink story, because without alcohol

it would never had got on its rocking

feet. The bar was our altar."

 

Biographer Andrew Lycett ascribed the decline in Thomas's health to an alcoholic co-dependent relationship with his wife, who deeply resented his extramarital affairs.

 

In contrast, Dylan biographers Andrew Sinclair and George Tremlett express the view that Thomas was not an alcoholic. Tremlett argues that many of Thomas's health issues stemmed from undiagnosed diabetes.

 

Thomas died intestate, with assets worth £100. His body was brought back to Wales for burial in the village churchyard at Laugharne. Dylan's funeral, which Brinnin did not attend, took place at St Martin's Church in Laugharne on the 24th. November 1953.

 

Six friends from the village carried Thomas's coffin. Caitlin, without her customary hat, walked behind the coffin, with his childhood friend Daniel Jones at her arm and her mother by her side. The procession to the church was filmed, and the wake took place at Brown's Hotel. Thomas's fellow poet and long-time friend Vernon Watkins wrote The Times obituary.

 

Thomas's widow, Caitlin, died in 1994, and was laid to rest alongside him. Dylan's mother Florence died in August 1958. Thomas's elder son, Llewelyn, died in 2000, his daughter, Aeronwy in 2009, and his youngest son Colm in 2012.

 

Dylan Thomas's Poetry

 

Thomas's refusal to align with any literary group or movement has made him and his work difficult to categorise. Although influenced by the modern symbolism and surrealism movements, he refused to follow such creeds. Instead, critics view Thomas as part of the modernism and romanticism movements, though attempts to pigeon-hole him within a particular neo-romantic school have been unsuccessful.

 

Elder Olson, in his 1954 critical study of Thomas's poetry, wrote:

 

"There is a further characteristic which

distinguished Thomas's work from that

of other poets. It was unclassifiable."

 

Olson went on to say that in a postmodern age that continually attempted to demand that poetry have social reference, none could be found in Thomas's work, and that his work was so obscure that critics could not analyse it.

 

Thomas's verbal style played against strict verse forms, such as in the villanelle 'Do not go Gentle Into That Good Night'.

 

His images appear carefully ordered in a patterned sequence, and his major theme was the unity of all life, the continuing process of life and death, and new life that linked the generations.

 

Thomas saw biology as a magical transformation producing unity out of diversity, and in his poetry sought a poetic ritual to celebrate this unity. He saw men and women locked in cycles of growth, love, procreation, new growth, death, and new life. Therefore, each image engenders its opposite.

 

Thomas derived his closely woven, sometimes self-contradictory images from the Bible, Welsh folklore, preaching, and Sigmund Freud. Explaining the source of his imagery, Thomas wrote in a letter to Glyn Jones:

 

"My own obscurity is quite an unfashionable one,

based, as it is, on a preconceived symbolism

derived (I'm afraid all this sounds woolly and

pretentious) from the cosmic significance of the

human anatomy".

 

Thomas's early poetry was noted for its verbal density, alliteration, sprung rhythm and internal rhyme, and some critics detected the influence of the English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. Hopkins, had taught himself Welsh, and used sprung verse, bringing some features of Welsh poetic metre into his work.

 

However when Henry Treece wrote to Thomas comparing his style to that of Hopkins, Thomas wrote back denying any such influence. Thomas greatly admired Thomas Hardy, who is regarded as an influence. When Thomas travelled in America, he recited some of Hardy's work in his readings.

 

Other poets from whom critics believe Thomas drew influence include James Joyce, Arthur Rimbaud and D. H. Lawrence.

 

William York Tindall, in his 1962 study, 'A Reader's Guide to Dylan Thomas', finds comparison between Thomas's and Joyce's wordplay, while he notes the themes of rebirth and nature are common to the works of Lawrence and Thomas.

 

Although Thomas described himself as the "Rimbaud of Cwmdonkin Drive", he stated that the phrase "Swansea's Rimbaud" was coined by the poet Roy Campbell.

 

Critics have explored the origins of Thomas's mythological pasts in his works such as 'The Orchards', which Ann Elizabeth Mayer believes reflects the Welsh myths of the Mabinogion.

 

Thomas's poetry is notable for its musicality, most clear in 'Fern Hill', 'In Country Sleep', 'Ballad of the Long-legged Bait' and 'In the White Giant's Thigh' from Under Milk Wood.

 

Thomas once confided that the poems which had most influenced him were Mother Goose rhymes which his parents taught him when he was a child:

 

"I should say I wanted to write poetry in the

beginning because I had fallen in love with

words.

The first poems I knew were nursery rhymes,

and before I could read them for myself I had

come to love the words of them. The words

alone.

What the words stood for was of a very

secondary importance ... I fell in love, that is

the only expression I can think of, at once,

and am still at the mercy of words, though

sometimes now, knowing a little of their

behaviour very well, I think I can influence

them slightly and have even learned to beat

them now and then, which they appear to

enjoy.

I tumbled for words at once. And, when I began

to read the nursery rhymes for myself, and, later,

to read other verses and ballads, I knew that I

had discovered the most important things, to

me, that could be ever."

 

Thomas became an accomplished writer of prose poetry, with collections such as 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog' (1940) and 'Quite Early One Morning' (1954) showing he was capable of writing moving short stories. His first published prose work, 'After the Fair', appeared in The New English Weekly on the 15th. March 1934.

 

Jacob Korg believes that one can classify Thomas's fiction work into two main bodies:

 

-- Vigorous fantasies in a poetic style

-- After 1939, more straightforward

narratives.

 

Korg surmises that Thomas approached his prose writing as an alternate poetic form, which allowed him to produce complex, involuted narratives that do not allow the reader to rest.

 

Dylan Thomas as a Welsh Poet

 

Thomas disliked being regarded as a provincial poet, and decried any notion of 'Welshness' in his poetry. When he wrote to Stephen Spender in 1952, thanking him for a review of his Collected Poems, he added:

 

"Oh, & I forgot. I'm not influenced by

Welsh bardic poetry. I can't read Welsh."

 

Despite this, his work was rooted in the geography of Wales. Thomas acknowledged that he returned to Wales when he had difficulty writing, and John Ackerman argues that:

 

"Dylan's inspiration and imagination

were rooted in his Welsh background".

 

Caitlin Thomas wrote that:

 

"He worked in a fanatically narrow groove,

although there was nothing narrow about

the depth and understanding of his feelings.

The groove of direct hereditary descent in

the land of his birth, which he never in

thought, and hardly in body, moved out of."

 

Head of Programmes Wales at the BBC, Aneirin Talfan Davies, who commissioned several of Thomas's early radio talks, believed that the poet's whole attitude is that of the medieval bards.

 

Kenneth O. Morgan counter-argues that it is a difficult enterprise to find traces of cynghanedd (consonant harmony) or cerdd dafod (tongue-craft) in Thomas's poetry. Instead he believes that Dylan's work, especially his earlier, more autobiographical poems, are rooted in a changing country which echoes the Welshness of the past and the Anglicisation of the new industrial nation:

 

"Rural and urban, chapel-going and profane,

Welsh and English, unforgiving and deeply

compassionate."

 

Fellow poet and critic Glyn Jones believed that any traces of cynghanedd in Thomas's work were accidental, although he felt that Dylan consciously employed one element of Welsh metrics: that of counting syllables per line instead of feet. Constantine Fitzgibbon, who was his first in-depth biographer, wrote:

 

"No major English poet has

ever been as Welsh as Dylan".

 

Although Dylan had a deep connection with Wales, he disliked Welsh nationalism. He once wrote:

 

"Land of my fathers, and

my fathers can keep it".

 

While often attributed to Thomas himself, this line actually comes from the character Owen Morgan-Vaughan, in the screenplay Thomas wrote for the 1948 British melodrama 'The Three Weird Sisters'.

 

Robert Pocock, a friend from the BBC, recalled:

 

"I only once heard Dylan express an

opinion on Welsh Nationalism.

He used three words. Two of them

were Welsh Nationalism."

 

Although not expressed as strongly, Glyn Jones believed that he and Thomas's friendship cooled in the later years because he had not rejected enough of the elements that Thomas disliked, i.e. "Welsh nationalism and a sort of hill farm morality".

 

Apologetically, in a letter to Keidrych Rhys, editor of the literary magazine 'Wales', Thomas's father wrote:

 

"I'm afraid Dylan isn't much

of a Welshman".

 

FitzGibbon asserts that Thomas's negativity towards Welsh nationalism was fostered by his father's hostility towards the Welsh language.

 

Critical Appraisal of Dylan Thomas's Work

 

Thomas's work and stature as a poet have been much debated by critics and biographers since his death. Critical studies have been clouded by Thomas's personality and mythology, especially his drunken persona and death in New York.

 

When Seamus Heaney gave an Oxford lecture on the poet, he opened by addressing the assembly:

 

"Dylan Thomas is now as much

a case history as a chapter in the

history of poetry".

 

He queried how 'Thomas the Poet' is one of his forgotten attributes. David Holbrook, who has written three books about Thomas, stated in his 1962 publication 'Llareggub Revisited':

 

"The strangest feature of Dylan Thomas's

notoriety - not that he is bogus, but that

attitudes to poetry attached themselves

to him which not only threaten the prestige,

effectiveness and accessibility to English

poetry, but also destroyed his true voice

and, at last, him."

 

The Poetry Archive notes that:

 

"Dylan Thomas's detractors accuse him

of being drunk on language as well as

whiskey, but whilst there's no doubt that

the sound of language is central to his

style, he was also a disciplined writer

who re-drafted obsessively".

 

Many critics have argued that Thomas's work is too narrow, and that he suffers from verbal extravagance. However those who have championed his work have found the criticism baffling. Robert Lowell wrote in 1947:

 

"Nothing could be more wrongheaded

than the English disputes about Dylan

Thomas's greatness ... He is a dazzling

obscure writer who can be enjoyed

without understanding."

 

Kenneth Rexroth said, on reading 'Eighteen Poems':

 

"The reeling excitement of a poetry-intoxicated

schoolboy smote the Philistine as hard a blow

with one small book as Swinburne had with

Poems and Ballads."

 

Philip Larkin, in a letter to Kingsley Amis in 1948, wrote that:

 

"No one can stick words into us

like pins... like Thomas can".

 

However he followed that by stating that:

 

"Dylan doesn't use his words

to any advantage".

 

Amis was far harsher, finding little of merit in Dylan's work, and claiming that:

 

"He is frothing at the mouth

with piss."

 

In 1956, the publication of the anthology 'New Lines' featuring works by the British collective The Movement, which included Amis and Larkin amongst its number, set out a vision of modern poetry that was damning towards the poets of the 1940's. Thomas's work in particular was criticised. David Lodge, writing about The Movement in 1981 stated:

 

"Dylan Thomas was made to stand for

everything they detest, verbal obscurity,

metaphysical pretentiousness, and

romantic rhapsodizing".

 

Despite criticism by sections of academia, Thomas's work has been embraced by readers more so than many of his contemporaries, and is one of the few modern poets whose name is recognised by the general public.

 

In 2009, over 18,000 votes were cast in a BBC poll to find the UK's favourite poet; Thomas was placed 10th.

 

Several of Dylan's poems have passed into the cultural mainstream, and his work has been used by authors, musicians and film and television writers.

 

The long-running BBC Radio programme, 'Desert Island Discs', in which guests usually choose their favourite songs, has heard 50 participants select a Dylan Thomas recording.

 

John Goodby states that this popularity with the reading public allows Thomas's work to be classed as vulgar and common. He also cites that despite a brief period during the 1960's when Thomas was considered a cultural icon, the poet has been marginalized in critical circles due to his exuberance, in both life and work, and his refusal to know his place.

 

Goodby believes that Thomas has been mainly snubbed since the 1970's and has become: "... an embarrassment to twentieth-century poetry criticism", his work failing to fit standard narratives, and thus being ignored rather than studied.

 

Memorials to Dylan Thomas

 

In Swansea's maritime quarter is the Dylan Thomas Theatre, the home of the Swansea Little Theatre of which Thomas was once a member. The former Guildhall built in 1825 is now occupied by the Dylan Thomas Centre, a literature centre, where exhibitions and lectures are held and which is a setting for the annual Dylan Thomas Festival. Outside the centre stands a bronze statue of Thomas by John Doubleday.

 

Another monument to Thomas stands in Cwmdonkin Park, one of Dylan's favourite childhood haunts, close to his birthplace. The memorial is a small rock in an enclosed garden within the park, cut by and inscribed by the late sculptor Ronald Cour with the closing lines from Fern Hill:

 

'Oh as I was young and easy

in the mercy of his means

Time held me green and dying

Though I sang in my chains like

the sea'.

 

Thomas's home in Laugharne, the Boathouse, is now a museum run by Carmarthenshire County Council. Thomas's writing shed is also preserved.

 

In 2004, the Dylan Thomas Prize was created in his honour, awarded to the best published writer in English under the age of 30. In 2005, the Dylan Thomas Screenplay Award was established. The prize, administered by the Dylan Thomas Centre, is awarded at the annual Swansea Bay Film Festival.

 

In 1982 a plaque was unveiled in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey. The plaque is also inscribed with the last two lines of 'Fern Hill'.

 

In 2014, the Royal Patron of The Dylan Thomas 100 Festival was Charles, Prince of Wales, who made a recording of 'Fern Hill' for the event.

 

In 2014, to celebrate the centenary of Thomas's birth, the British Council Wales undertook a year-long programme of cultural and educational works. Highlights included a touring replica of Thomas's work shed, Sir Peter Blake's exhibition of illustrations based on 'Under Milk Wood', and a 36-hour marathon of readings, which included Michael Sheen and Sir Ian McKellen performing Thomas's work.

 

Towamensing Trails, Pennsylvania named one of its streets, Thomas Lane, in Dylan's honour.

 

List of Works by Dylan Thomas

 

-- 'The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas: The New Centenary Edition', edited and with Introduction by John Goodby. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2014.

-- 'The Notebook Poems 1930–34', edited by Ralph Maud. London: Dent, 1989.

-- 'Dylan Thomas: The Film Scripts', edited by John Ackerman. London: Dent 1995.

-- 'Dylan Thomas: Early Prose Writings', edited by Walford Davies. London: Dent 1971.

-- 'Collected Stories', edited by Walford Davies. London: Dent, 1983.

-- 'Under Milk Wood: A Play for Voices', edited by Walford Davies and Ralph Maud. London: Dent, 1995.

-- 'On The Air With Dylan Thomas: The Broadcasts', edited by Ralph Maud. New York: New Directions, 1991.

 

Correspondence

 

-- 'Dylan Thomas: The Collected Letters', edited by Paul Ferris (2017), 2 vols. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Vol I: 1931–1939

Vol II: 1939–1953.

-- 'Letters to Vernon Watkins', edited by Vernon Watkins (1957). London: Dent.

 

Posthumous Film Adaptations

 

-- 2016: Dominion, written and directed by Steven Bernstein, examines the final hours of Dylan Thomas.

-- 2014: Set Fire to the Stars, with Thomas portrayed by Celyn Jones, and John Brinnin by Elijah Wood.

-- 2014: Under Milk Wood BBC, starring Charlotte Church, Tom Jones, Griff Rhys-Jones and Michael Sheen.

-- 2014: Interstellar. The poem is featured throughout the film as a recurring theme regarding the perseverance of humanity.

-- 2009: A Child's Christmas in Wales, BAFTA Best Short Film. Animation, with soundtrack in Welsh and English. Director: Dave Unwin. Extras include filmed comments from Aeronwy Thomas.

-- 2007: Dylan Thomas: A War Films Anthology (DDHE/IWM).

-- 1996: Independence Day. Before the attack, the President paraphrases Thomas's "Do not go Gentle Into That Good Night".

-- 1992: Rebecca's Daughters, starring Peter O'Toole and Joely Richardson.

-- 1987: A Child's Christmas in Wales, directed by Don McBrearty.

-- 1972: Under Milk Wood, starring Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, and Peter O'Toole.

 

Opera Adaptation

 

-- 1973: Unter dem Milchwald, by German composer Walter Steffens on his own libretto using Erich Fried's translation of 'Under Milk Wood' into German, Hamburg State Opera. Also at the Staatstheater Kassel in 1977.

 

Final Thoughts From Dylan Thomas

 

"Somebody's boring me.

I think it's me."

 

"Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

 

"When one burns one's bridges,

what a very nice fire it makes."

 

"I think, that if I touched the earth,

It would crumble; It is so sad and

beautiful, so tremulously like a dream."

 

"An alcoholic is someone you don't like,

who drinks as much as you do."

 

"I hold a beast, an angel, and a madman in me,

and my enquiry is as to their working, and my

problem is their subjugation and victory, down

throw and upheaval, and my effort is their self-

expression."

 

"The only sea I saw was the seesaw sea

with you riding on it. Lie down, lie easy.

Let me shipwreck in your thighs."

 

"Why do men think you can pick love up

and re-light it like a candle? Women know

when love is over."

 

"Poetry is not the most important thing in life.

I'd much rather lie in a hot bath reading

Agatha Christie and sucking sweets."

 

"And now, gentlemen, like your manners,

I must leave you."

 

"My education was the liberty I had to read

indiscriminately and all the time, with my eyes

hanging out."

 

"I'm a freak user of words, not a poet."

 

"Our discreditable secret is that we don't

know anything at all, and our horrid inner

secret is that we don't care that we don't."

 

"It snowed last year too: I made a snowman

and my brother knocked it down and I knocked

my brother down and then we had tea."

 

"Though lovers be lost love shall not."

 

"Man’s wants remain unsatisfied till death.

Then, when his soul is naked, is he one

with the man in the wind, and the west moon,

with the harmonious thunder of the sun."

 

"And books which told me everything

about the wasp, except why."

 

"We are not wholly bad or good, who live

our lives under Milk Wood."

 

"Love is the last light spoken."

 

"... an ugly, lovely town ... crawling, sprawling ...

by the side of a long and splendid curving

shore. This sea-town was my world."

 

"I do not need any friends. I prefer enemies.

They are better company, and their feelings

towards you are always genuine."

 

"This poem has been called obscure. I refuse

to believe that it is obscurer than pity, violence,

or suffering. But being a poem, not a lifetime,

it is more compressed."

 

"One: I am a Welshman; two: I am a drunkard;

three: I am a lover of the human race, especially

of women."

 

"I believe in New Yorkers. Whether they've ever

questioned the dream in which they live, I wouldn't

know, because I won't ever dare ask that question."

 

"These poems, with all their crudities, doubts and

confusions, are written for the love of man and in

praise of God, and I'd be a damn fool if they weren't."

 

"Before you let the sun in, mind he wipes his shoes."

 

"Nothing grows in our garden, only washing.

And babies."

 

"Make gentle the life of this world."

 

"A worm tells summer better than the clock,

the slug's a living calendar of days; what shall

it tell me if a timeless insect says the world

wears away?"

 

"Time passes. Listen. Time passes. Come

closer now. Only you can hear the houses

sleeping in the streets in the slow deep salt

and silent black, bandaged night."

 

"Rhianon, he said, hold my hand, Rhianon.

She did not hear him, but stood over his bed

and fixed him with an unbroken sorrow. Hold

my hand, he said, and then: Why are you

putting the sheet over my face?"

 

"Come on up, boys - I'm dead."

 

"Life is a terrible thing, thank God."

 

Over a year ago on a change encounter I snapped THIS PICTURE. After some research I found that the man in the picture was the enigmatic HK Edgerton. The former head of the Asheville chapter of the NAACP who has made it his personal mission to defend the confederate flag marching from NC to Texas in order to spread his gospel.

 

And an extremly controversial gospel it is: Edgerton claims that slavery wasn't the horrible institiution that there was a harmonious relationship between slave and slaveowner. He likens his work to that of Martin Luther King, but civil rights leaders refer to him as a white supremist.

 

I most certainly do not agree with his viewpoint, but I fully recognize him as a remarkeable charcter and a living legend of the South. I have been quite fascinated and curious about him.

 

While viewing a local Christmas parade, HK popped up in front of me....flanking Santa Clause himself, no less. After seeing him pass I took off after him, injecting myself in the parade and nearly bowling over another confederate soldier so that I could snap this picture.

 

I ran up to him and asked if he was indeed HK Edgerton (Don't tell me their are TWO black confederates). He shook my hand and said "Yes sir, I am" and then he was whisked away in the current of the parade.

 

I am dissapointed that I didn't get to talk to him in more detail, but I am happy that I finally got a decent photograph of him.

 

Here is Edgerton's web page southernheritage411.com/index.shtml

And here is an artilce on him www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=252

 

[ENG] Santa María de Naranco is one of the most enigmatic and harmonious monuments of Western architecture. It is an old palace that was the Aula Regia of the palace complex that King Ramiro I (842-850) ordered to be built on the outskirts of the capital of the kingdom of Asturias. It was completed in the year 842. Its artistic style is the so-called Asturian or "ramirense" art, within the pre-Romanesque period. It functioned as a temple from the collapse of the chevet and part of the naves of San Miguel de Lillo (12th century) until its restoration in the years 1929-1934. It is located on the southern slope of Mount Naranco, about 4 km from Oviedo (Asturias, Spain). It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985. More photos in the album Santa María de Naranco (9th century)

 

[ESP] Santa María de Naranco es uno de los monumentos más enigmáticos y armoniosos de la arquitectura occidental. Es un antiguo palacio que fue el Aula Regia del conjunto palacial que el rey Ramiro I (842-850) mandó construir en las afueras de la capital del reino de Asturias. Se terminó en el año 842. Su estilo artístico es el denominado arte asturiano o "ramirense", dentro del prerrománico. Funcionó como templo desde el derrumbamiento de la cabecera y de parte de las naves de San Miguel de Lillo (siglo XII) hasta su restauración en los años 1929-1934. Se ubica en la ladera meridional del Monte Naranco, a unos 4 km de Oviedo (Asturias, España). Fue declarado Patrimonio Mundial de la Humanidad por la Unesco en 1985. Más fotografías en el álbum Santa María de Naranco (siglo IX)

 

23P1460

Hereâs a photo I took in Central Park in New York City To capture this image I used my Canon 5DMKII with a FE 24-105mm F4 lens. Settings: 1/13 sec, f/11, ISO 100. To process this digital image I used the Film Emulation Collection Lightroom presets and profiles. I absolutely love the colour and grit of this Lightroom collection, itâs perfect for todayâs digital photographer that wants a beautiful film look! If you want to see this image in high resolution click here VIEW 4K PHOTO. Copyright: Tim Martin and Presetpro.com. Lightroom Presets: Complete Lightroom Collection

 

More - www.presetpro.com/photography-harmonious/

Pattadakal, in Karnataka, represents the high point of an eclectic art which, in the 7th and 8th centuries under the Chalukya dynasty, achieved a harmonious blend of architectural forms from northern and southern India. An impressive series of nine Hindu temples, as well as a Jain sanctuary, can be seen there. One masterpiece from the group stands out – the Temple of Virupaksha, built c. 740 by Queen Lokamahadevi to commemorate her husband's victory over the kings from the South.

 

Pattadakal represents the high point of an eclectic art which, in the 7th and 8th centuries under the Chalukya dynasty, achieved a harmonious blend of architectural forms from northern and southern India. An impressive series of nine Hindu temples, as well as a Jain sanctuary, can be seen there.

Three very closely located sites in the State of Karnataka provide a remarkable concentration of religious monuments dating from the great dynasty of the Chalukya (c. 543-757). There are the two successive capital cities - Aihole (ancient Aryapura), Badami, and Pattadakal, the 'City of the Crown Rubies' (Pattada Kisuvolal). The latter was, moreover, for a brief time the third capital city of the Chalukya kingdom; at the time the Pallava occupied Badami (642-55). While Aihole is traditionally considered the 'laboratory' of Chalukya architecture, with such monuments as the Temple of Ladkhan (c. 450) which antedate the dynasty's political successes during the reign of King Pulakeshin I, the city of Pattadakal illustrates the apogee of an eclectic art which, in the 7th and 8th centuries, achieved a harmonious blend of architectural forms from the north and south of India.

Situated between the Malaprabha River to the north, and a minuscule village to the south, Pattadakal possesses a sort of holy city comprised of an impressive series of eight Hindu temples dedicated to Siva. Somewhat off to the side, towards the village, is the ninth Sivaite sanctuary, the Temple of Papanatha, as well as a Jain temple. In the monumental complex of the central zone are structures whose design was strongly influenced by the architecture of northern India: the temples of Galaganatha and of Kashi Vishveshvara, which are noteworthy for their square-shaped shikharas with curved edges. They stand along with other temples of a pure Dravidian style - Sangameshvara, built between 696 and 733, and Mallikarjuna, built consecutively from 733-44. Cornices decorate the walls of these temples and the roofs are the complex, storeyed type found in southern architecture.

The unexpected and yet harmonious mixture of these styles provided the inspiration for the masterpiece of Chalukya art, the temple of Virupaksha. This Sivaite sanctuary was erected around 740 by Queen Lokamahadevi to commemorate the victory in 731 of her husband, King Vikramaditya II, over the Pallava and other sovereigns of southern India. The king's admiration for the art of his conquered enemies is borne out by two inscriptions that offer proof that he brought in from the south an architect and a team of sculptors.

Prominently jutting out from the cruciform temple are three porches, a typical Chalukyan feature. They blend perfectly with the majestic three-storey tower and the walls with their overhanging cornices punctuated by narrow pilasters that separate niches filled with marvellous statuary. An overall concept dictated the choice of statues which illustrate the great themes of Siva theology and mythology.

The evocative ruins of the numerous abandoned sanctuaries within the enclosure may be reached, on the west and east sides, through two monumental gates. In the axis of the courtyard, in front of the temple, is a beautiful pavilion containing a colossal black stone statue of Siva's sacred bull, Nandi. The puja, the ritual washing of the bull, takes place there every morning. Enhanced by its relative isolation south of the principal zone, the temple of Papanatha illustrates once again the aesthetic achievement resulting from the incorporation of two different styles. Papanatha has two rooms where the faithful can worship.

On the west is the principal sanctuary, which is covered with a powerful tower in the northern style; to the east is a more modest room, whose roof is crowned with miniature reproductions of buildings in the purest Dravidian style. Experts have found in the detail of the niches, the pediments and the arcature, many contradictory architectural references. The plastic unity of this great monument, however, comes from the remarkable sculptured decoration illustrating the popular epic of the Ramayana, dedicated to Prince Rama, incarnation of Vishnu.

Explore #442 Thank you : )

 

Different sizes of the same shape - circle - bonding together plastic, bamboo and pure silver....and bringing vintage, natural and modern style to what is percieved by me to be harmonious design...

Queluz Palace - Begun in 1747 by the Infante Dom Pedro (later to become Dom Pedro III) on the basis of a former country mansion of the Marquises of Castelo Rodrigo, Queluz Palace (classified as a National Monument) at that time began to be adapted for use as a summer seat of the Royal Family. The main body of the Palace, erected by 1758, with its low sinuous forms and harmonious intimist decoration, was completed after the marriage of the Infante Dom Pedro to Dona Maria Francisca, the future Dona Maria I (1760), at which time the opulent interior halls were embellished, as were the luxurious Palace gardens, which were endowed with Baroque fountains, statues and places for recreation. An important part in these improvements was taken by the great French architect Robillion (died 1782), who was responsible for the well known "Robillion Pavilion".

Queluz, which has not infrequently been compared with Versailles Palace, differs from Louis XIV's edifice (in fact of earlier date) in the sense of scale and proportions revealed in its lines, perhaps with a more balanced distribution of graphic values, within a neo-classicism as yet not bound to the rococo formulae. Only the force and exuberance of the pavilion conceived by Robillion, with its strong French and Austrian influence, strikes a more "evolved" note, for all the rest is thoroughly Portuguese, its scale and in the artistic spirit itself.

Queluz Gardens - The sumptuous gardens of Queluz, which were organised from 1760 onwards, on the occasion of the marriage of the Infante Dom Pedro to the future Queen Maria I, reveal a scenographic conception of considerable vision, which must be attributed to the architect Robillion and the Dutch gardener Joseph van der Kolk, according to the then prevailing "French taste". The ponds and fountains, the numerous rococo statues, the marble vases, dividing and strictly demarcating the carefully planned green zones, the Baroque cascades, the lakes and sizeable canal (once navigable, and decorated with 18th Century azulejos), all express a taste with attention to detail and opulent effect that enlivens the actual architectural ensemble of the Palace. One of the fountains - the Fonte de Neptuno, which came from the remains of Quinta do Senhor de Serra at Belas - is ascribed to the great Italian master Bernini.

 

"Limavegas"

 

Great weekend of live music and people being harmonious!

 

8 stages and a spectrum of musical genres to suit everyone. It is a great place to be for a few days!

 

Near Limavaday, Northern Ireland

 

I am going to be uploading a lot of pictures of live music for next few days unless the weather gets better!

   

When Ireland Rocked - The Boys Are Back In Town

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxXjiOQOCGo

 

I AM is the gate through which the thinker comes forth from the invisible to the visible, and it is through this gate that he must go to get into the presence of Spirit. "I am the way, and the truth, and the life." The Flaming Sword is the weapon that guarded Eden. However, during Lucifer's rebellion, God split the sword into three pieces, fearing that Lucifer would use it against him. Most, including Lucifer, believed the weapon to be destroyed.The Flaming Sword is a divine weapon. God split the sword into three pieces during Lucifer's rebellion. Lucifer refused to use the sword to return to Heaven as war would break out and many angels would die. Instead, Lucifer used the sword to open a tear in the universe into a void and asked Goddess to go through and create a new universe for herself. Not wanting the death that would come from the war, archangel Michael left lion's body and went through the tear. Lucifer then removed the key from the sword and tossed its other pieces through the tear into the void before the rift closed. One of the pieces became known as Azrael's Blade or the Blade of Death. It was wielded by Azrael, the Angel of Death, and is capable of eradication.Hence we take words and go to God. We came out from His presence through the I AM gate, and we must return the same way. On the inner side of the gate is the Garden of Eden, but "the Cherubim, and the flame of a sword" are there, "to keep the way of the tree of life."Because the flaming sword blocks humans out of Eden, it's a symbol for the tree of life. It's also called the lightning path that connects the spheres on the tree of life. Only by climbing up the paths in reverse order (which is the flaming sword) like from malkuth to yesod to hod etc and up the tree, can you get back to the garden as a human bean. You should look up the HOGD diagrams of the Garden of Eden before / after the fall to figure out this doctrine. they're in Regardie's Golden Dawn book. basically it means that people are separated from the higher spheres on the tree of life and they're stuck in the lower area. "The flame of a sword" is the inner motive that rules our thoughts and acts. It turns every way to guard the tree of life, for the tree of life is the precious substance of the Father. The Book of Apocalypse explained. Like the captain of the Host of the Lord, I invite you to stand up in honor of your Powerful Presence I AM, because I release upon you the power of the sword of the Spirit and I will increasing its power, according to the measure which you are able to receive it! Holding this sword, that my mentor give me long time ago, I direct its power to consume the cause and nucleus of all the negative conditions that can be upon you or in your interior! wields the flaming sword and direct its omniconsuming fire to the insane areas of your subconscious and unconscious minds. My Friends, adverse conditions like those that you have allowed to poison the organs of your physical body, affects also the astral body, the mental and also the etheric body, dimming the mind and preventing that you assume the divine control on your conscious mind! Therefore, I hold my sword of the Spirit and I let that it traverse you! I traverse you! I traverse you with the power of First Ray of the Sacred Will of God! With my sword I extirpate any precancerous conditions in your four lower bodies, from the etheric body to the mental, from the body of desires where its tentacles reaches the physical body and strangle the body as well your soul. Therefore, if you want to save yourself and save others, Call me, and with my sword of blue flame I will extirpate those conditions inside you and your beloveds, close or far to you. I cast myself into the infinite sidereal space while in complete Dionysian inebriation. I joyfully moved away from the planet Earth...The flaming of the sword in alchemy is the sign of radiation, it comes from an inner fire that transmits light: the companion has received the light and has awakened his consciousness. The Archangel Michael represents Man, but not just any man: the harmonious, luminous man, in solidarity with other living beings, respectful of nature and aspiring to a life evolving towards more intelligence, respect for others, love and fraternity, in short to be in perfect union with the world. The alchemical initiation, symbolized by the Flaming Sword, is a catalyst with a delayed effect that will allow the initiate to become aware of what was hidden in him and to privilege positive values. It will never be a question of suppressing all desires, but on the contrary of giving them back if necessary, faith in him and in man. However, he will have to master his passions, so acquire self-control, but he will remain himself, knowing himself better and able to transcend his bad inclinations and correct himself. A flaming sword is a sword glowing with flame by some supernatural power. Flaming swords have existed in legend and myth for thousands of years.

In Sumerian mythology, the deity known as Asaruludu is "the wielder of the flaming sword" who "ensures the most perfect safety". According to the Bible, a cherub (or the archangel Uriel in some traditions) with a flaming sword was placed by God at the gates of Paradise after Adam and Eve were banished from it (Genesis 3:24). Eastern Orthodox tradition says that after Jesus was crucified and resurrected, the flaming sword was removed from the Garden of Eden, making it possible for humanity to re-enter Paradise.In Welsh mythology the Dyrnwyn ("White-Hilt") is said to be a powerful sword belonging to Rhydderch Hael, one of the Three Generous Men of Britain mentioned in the Welsh Triads. When drawn by a worthy or well-born man, the entire blade would blaze with fire. Rhydderch was never reluctant to hand the weapon to anyone, hence his nickname Hael "the Generous", but the recipients, as soon as they had learned of its peculiar properties, always rejected the sword. Its fire would burn the man who drew it for an unworthy purpose. The sword wielded by Surtr, a jotunn of Muspelheim is a flaming sword with immense destructive power that appears in Norse mythology.

The sword Acala holds may or may not be flaming and sometimes described only generically as a treasure sword (宝剣 hōken) or as vajra-sword (金剛杵 kongō-ken), which is descriptive of the fact that the pommel of the sword is in the shape of the talon-like vajra (金剛杵 kongō-sho) of one type or another. Dumah is an angel mentioned in Rabbinical literature. Dumah is a popular figure in Yiddish folklore. I. B. Singer's Short Friday (1964), a collection of stories, mentions Dumah as a "thousand-eyed angel of death, armed with a flaming sword".

While submerged within the ocean of the universal spirit of life, I did not want to return into this valley of bitterness. So I then visited many other planetary abodes...While smoothly placing myself upon a giant planet from the unalterable infinite, I exclaimed, “I dominate the whole of this,” as I unsheathed the flaming sword...The body of Man also carries this symbolism of the number five. An alchemical representation par excellence, the Vitruvian man tries to achieve the union of heaven (circle) and earth (square) through the passage from rational to transcendent, thus establishing a balance between these two opposing principles. In this way he achieves a rebirth and the advent of the new man, the universal Man.“The human being is called to be the governor of the whole of creation,” answered a hierophant who was at my side. I then put the flaming sword within its golden sheath and while submerging myself even more within the “sleeping waters of life,” I performed a series of extraordinary invocations and experiments. “Buddhic body, come unto me!” Then, attending my call, the beautiful Helen, Guinevere, the queen of the Jinn knights, my beloved Spiritual Soul, came to me. She entered within me and I within her, and between us we formed the famous Atman-Buddhi of which Oriental Theosophy speaks greatly. It has been said, and with just rightness, that Buddhi (the Spiritual Soul) is like a glass of alabaster, fine and transparent, within which the flame of Prajna (Atman) blazes. From within the very depths of the chaos, I continued to perform those singular invocations in a successive order, and I then called my Human Soul, saying, “Causal body, come unto me!” I saw my Human Soul gloriously dressed with the causal vehicle (the Theosophical Superior Manas). How interesting that moment was when my Human Soul joyfully entered into me...This universal man returns to the primordial androgynity since he transcends the duality of the couples earth/heaven, feminine/male and passive/active. Placed at the centre of the star, it represents the power of creative human genius. The pentagram refers to the androgynous and the number 5, it is therefore the symbol of the structure of Man. Three elements at the top (head and arms) and two elements at the bottom (legs). We have here the harmony of the cosmic and the terrestrial, and Man is indeed the Temple of the universe.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flaming_sword_(mythology)

Harmonious Glade is a forest village where every breeze, every rustle of leaves, and every chirp of birds weaves together into an eternal melody.

 

The air hums with the whispers of the departed, their voices carried on the wind, blending seamlessly with the natural sounds of the forest. This is not a place of mourning but of peaceful remembrance.

 

Every path through the forest leads to sacred sites where the echoes of elven songs reverberate, paying tribute to those who have passed beyond. It is a place where time flows gently, where grief transforms into harmony, and where the memories of those who have transitioned beyond are carried forever.

 

A Shopping Region -

 

Sponsored by Harshlands & Belle Epoque

 

Region by Kadaj Yoshikawa & Janire Coba

To view more images, of Blickling Hall click "here"

  

I would be most grateful if you would refrain from inserting images, and/or group invites; thank you!

 

Blickling Hall is a stately home which is part of the Blickling estate. It is located in the village of Blickling north of Aylsham in Norfolk, England and has been in the care of the National Trust since 1940. In the 15th century, Blickling was in the possession of Sir John Fastolf of Caister in Norfolk (1380–1459), who made a fortune in the Hundred Years' War, and whose coat of arms is still on display there. Later, the property was in the possession of the Boleyn family, and home to Thomas Boleyn, later Earl of Wiltshire, and his wife Elizabeth between 1499 and 1505. Although the exact birth dates of their children are unknown, historians including Eric Ives are confident that all three surviving children were likely born at Blickling - Mary in about 1500, Anne in about 1501, and George in about 1504. A statue and portrait of Anne may be found at Blickling Estate which carry the inscription, "Anna Bolena hic nata 1507" (Anne Boleyn born here 1507), based on earlier scholarship which assigned Anne a (now thought highly improbable) year of birth of 1507. The house of Blickling seen today was built on the ruins of the old Boleyn property in the reign of James I, by Sir Henry Hobart, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and 1st Baronet, who bought Blickling from Robert Clere in 1616. The architect of Hatfield House, Robert Lyminge, is credited with the design of the current structure. The Lord Chief Justice married Dorothy, the daughter of Sir Robert Bell of Beaupre Hall, Outwell/ Upwell, Norfolk, Speaker of the House of Commons 1572–1576. A grand display of heraldic material is present throughout the estate. During World War II the house was requisitioned and served as the Officers' Mess of nearby RAF Oulton. It was at this time that the house and its estate passed to The National Trust, under the terms of the Country Houses Scheme. RAF servicemen and women were billeted within the grounds in Nissen Huts, whilst RAF Officers were housed within Blickling itself. The National Trust has created the RAF Oulton Museum on site in tribute to the RAF pilots and ground crew who served in the Second World War, and this may be visited for no additional entrance fee. At the end of the war, the house was de-requisitioned. The National Trust again let it to tenants until 1960, when the Trust began the work to restore the house to a style reflecting its history. The house and grounds were opened to the public in 1962 and remain open under the name of "Blickling Estate". The library at Blickling Estate contains one of the most historically significant collections of manuscripts and books in England. The most important manuscript associated with the house is the Blickling Homilies, which is one of the earliest extant examples of English vernacular homiletic writings. The Blickling homilies were first edited and translated in the 19th century by Richard Morris (Early English Text Society os 58, 63 & 73) and there is a more recent edition and translation by Richard J. Kelly (Continuum, 2003). It is said that every year, on the anniversary of her execution, Anne Boleyn's headless ghost arrives at Blickling in a carriage driven by an equally headless coachman. But she hasn't lost her head completely in the afterlife—she carries it along with her during her hauntings. The exterior of the house was used as 'Maryiot Cells' at 'Maiden Worthy' in Buckinghamshire in the hit 1945 film The Wicked Lady. It was voted the most haunted house in Britain in a National Trust survey in October 2007. A house and garden existed at Blickling before the estate was purchased by the Boleyn family in the 1450s, but no records survive to give an indication of their appearance. After Sir Henry Hobart acquired the estate in 1616, he remodelled the gardens to include ponds, wilderness and a parterre. A garden mount– an artificial hill in Blickling's flat landscape, was made to provide views of the new garden. With the accession of Sir John Hobart (later the 1st Earl of Buckingham) in 1698 the garden was expanded to add a new wilderness and the temple was constructed. In the latter half of the 18th century John Hobart, 2nd Earl of Buckingham, embarked on works that would radically change the appearance of the gardens. All traces of formality were removed, and naturally arranged clumps of trees were planted to create a landscape garden. By the 1780s an orangery had been built to overwinter tender citrus trees. Following the 2nd Earl's death in 1793, his youngest daughter Caroline, Lady Suffield, employed landscape gardener Humphry Repton and his son John Adey Repton to advise on garden matters. John Adey Repton would go on to provide designs for many garden features. The estate was inherited by nine-year-old William Schomberg Robert Kerr, 8th Marquess of Lothian in 1840. He later re-introduced the formality and colour schemes of the parterre. After his death at the age of 38, responsibility for the gardens rested with Lady Lothian and her head gardener Mr Lyon. Philip Henry Kerr, 11th Marquis of Lothian, inherited the estate in 1930. After disparaging comments in a publication of Country Life, Lothian engaged socialite gardener Norah Lindsay to remodel the gardens. In the parterre she replaced the jumble of minuscule flower beds with four large square beds planted with a mixture of herbaceous plants in graduated and harmonious colours. Other improvements included removal of a line of conifers in the Temple walk, which were replaced with plantings of azaleas.

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Portrait of Marcia Otacilia Severa or Otacilia Severa, Empress of Rome and wife of Emperor Marcus Julius Philippus or Philip the Arab, who reigned over the Roman Empire from 244 to 249; previously supposed to represent the empress Furia Sabina Tranquillina.

This work is one of the six sculptures recognized as replicas of a common original; since it survived in so many copies, presumably represented a woman of imperial rank. The subject of the portrait wears her hair in the coiffure commonly known as a “Scheitelzopf”, or “skull-braid”: her hair is parted in the center, crimped into artificial waves, drawn back behind the ears, and allowed to fall halfway down the neck. At the middle of the neck, the hair is bound into several braids, which are drawn in a broad band up the back of the head to the crown, where they can be seen in frontal view, forming a flat rim at the top of the head. The girl’s face is broad and round-cheeked, but tapers sharply to a small, pointed chin, so that in frontal view the portrait has a basically triangular outline. The point of the narrow chin is echoed in the upper face by the apex of the hairline at the central part; the hair has been used to frame the forehead and eye area as a broad isosceles triangle. The alignment of these two triangles creates an emphasis on the central axis of the face which is further enhanced by the small, angular dip of the center of the mouth, and by, the strikingly regular symmetry of the features. Within its firm, geometric outlines, the face is represented with an austere simplicity of modeling and detail. The cheeks and forehead are convex, but the curvature of their surfaces is regular and smooth. However, a few dark, deeply cut and emphatic lines of shadow cause the eyes and mouth to stand out sharply from the rest of the smooth face, and to catch the viewer’s attention.

This portrait type displays a pleasing and harmonious treatment of the female face, yet one which makes significant uses of subtle abstraction, in the geometric simplicity of shapes and in the reliance on line more than on plastic modeling to define certain features.

Whom does it represent? The correct identification of the character is an open question. The type of coiffure displayed by this portrait can be seen on the coin profiles of several Augustae of the mid-third century. Bernoulli, when classifying these works as replicas of a single type, identified the subject as Furia Sabina Tranquillina, the wife of the young emperor Gordian III, and the daughter of Timesitheus, the powerful prefect of Gordian’s praetorian guard. Tranquillina’s public portraits would presumably date from the period between her marriage in A.D. 241 and her husband’s death in A.D. 244. This identification was accepted by Vagn Poulsen, Bergmann and Wegner, among others. However, a number of scholars, including Frederik Poulsen and Felletti-Maj, have preferred to identify the subject of the type as Otacilia Severa, the wife of Philip the Arab (244-248 A.C.), Gordian’s usurper and successor. This identification is supported by the comparison with coin portraits of the Empress. They show the same hairstyle and the same physiognomy (profile line). This portrait type is likely to have originated on the occasion of her elevation to Augusta right at the beginning of the reign of Philip the Arab.

Otacilia’s coin portraits, like those of her predecessor, show an hairstyle of a type similar to the one worn in this sculptural portrait. But according to the coins' portraits the braids worn by Otacilia generally reaches only to the rear of the cramium, it does not extend far onto the top of the head. Otacilia’s coin profiles, furthermore, show certain features such as a rounded, slack chin line which indicate that she may have been older, and certainly that she was plumper, than the subject of the portrait type in question. The most important divergence of Otacilia’s coin portraits from this work, however, is the overall shape of the head,

which tends to be rectangular, with a long, heavy face, and an elongated, flat line at the rear of the cranium. The subject of these sculptural portraits is clearly brachycephalic, with a rounded cranium the form of which is emphasized by the curve of

the braids.

 

Source: Wood S., “Subject and Artist: Studies in Roman Portraiture of the Third Century”

 

Marble sculpture

Head: ca. 245 AD – Bust: modern

Height 44 cm; height of the ancient part 26 cm.

Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi, Inv. 1914, no. 265

  

Located in Tokyo, Rikugien Garden is a masterpiece of traditional Japanese landscape design, reflecting the Edo period's aesthetic principles. This serene image captures the garden's enchanting beauty, showcasing its meticulously pruned trees and serene pond. The pine trees, their trunks wrapped in traditional straw mats known as "komomaki," stand proudly, demonstrating the garden's dedication to preserving historical horticultural practices. The lush greenery surrounding the pond mirrors the tranquil waters, creating a picturesque scene that invites visitors to pause and appreciate nature's artistry. The garden's winding paths, stone bridges, and charming teahouse offer a journey through time, where each step reveals a new perspective on the harmonious blend of natural and man-made elements. Rikugien, meaning "Six Poems Garden," was created in the early 18th century by Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu under the orders of the fifth shogun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi. It is renowned for its scenic beauty, featuring landscapes inspired by waka poems. Each area of the garden represents a stanza, creating a poetic and immersive experience. The garden is particularly stunning in autumn when the foliage transforms into a vibrant tapestry of red, orange, and yellow, attracting photographers and nature lovers alike. The seasonal changes add a dynamic aspect to the garden, making each visit unique. Rikugien Garden is not just a historical treasure but also a cultural haven where visitors can enjoy a cup of matcha in the teahouse while soaking in the serene surroundings. The garden's meticulous design and maintenance reflect the Japanese cultural emphasis on balance, tranquility, and respect for nature.

[ENG] Santa María de Naranco is one of the most enigmatic and harmonious monuments of Western architecture. It is an old palace that was the Aula Regia of the palace complex that King Ramiro I (842-850) ordered to be built on the outskirts of the capital of the kingdom of Asturias. It was completed in the year 842. Its artistic style is the so-called Asturian or "ramirense" art, within the pre-Romanesque period. It functioned as a temple from the collapse of the chevet and part of the naves of San Miguel de Lillo (12th century) until its restoration in the years 1929-1934. It is located on the southern slope of Mount Naranco, about 4 km from Oviedo (Asturias, Spain). It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985. More photos in the album Santa María de Naranco (9th century)

 

[ESP] Santa María de Naranco es uno de los monumentos más enigmáticos y armoniosos de la arquitectura occidental. Es un antiguo palacio que fue el Aula Regia del conjunto palacial que el rey Ramiro I (842-850) mandó construir en las afueras de la capital del reino de Asturias. Se terminó en el año 842. Su estilo artístico es el denominado arte asturiano o "ramirense", dentro del prerrománico. Funcionó como templo desde el derrumbamiento de la cabecera y de parte de las naves de San Miguel de Lillo (siglo XII) hasta su restauración en los años 1929-1934. Se ubica en la ladera meridional del Monte Naranco, a unos 4 km de Oviedo (Asturias, España). Fue declarado Patrimonio Mundial de la Humanidad por la Unesco en 1985. Más fotografías en el álbum Santa María de Naranco (siglo IX)

 

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The Sanctuary of Truth - An intricate sculpture features numerous detailed figures, including deities and mythical creatures intertwined with clouds. The craftsmanship highlights rich cultural and spiritual themes, showcasing a harmonious blend of art and storytelling.

[ENG] Santa María de Naranco is one of the most enigmatic and harmonious monuments of Western architecture. It is an old palace that was the Aula Regia of the palace complex that King Ramiro I (842-850) ordered to be built on the outskirts of the capital of the kingdom of Asturias. It was completed in the year 842. Its artistic style is the so-called Asturian or "ramirense" art, within the pre-Romanesque period. It functioned as a temple from the collapse of the chevet and part of the naves of San Miguel de Lillo (12th century) until its restoration in the years 1929-1934. It is located on the southern slope of Mount Naranco, about 4 km from Oviedo (Asturias, Spain). It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985. More photos in the album Santa María de Naranco (9th century)

 

[ESP] Santa María de Naranco es uno de los monumentos más enigmáticos y armoniosos de la arquitectura occidental. Es un antiguo palacio que fue el Aula Regia del conjunto palacial que el rey Ramiro I (842-850) mandó construir en las afueras de la capital del reino de Asturias. Se terminó en el año 842. Su estilo artístico es el denominado arte asturiano o "ramirense", dentro del prerrománico. Funcionó como templo desde el derrumbamiento de la cabecera y de parte de las naves de San Miguel de Lillo (siglo XII) hasta su restauración en los años 1929-1934. Se ubica en la ladera meridional del Monte Naranco, a unos 4 km de Oviedo (Asturias, España). Fue declarado Patrimonio Mundial de la Humanidad por la Unesco en 1985. Más fotografías en el álbum Santa María de Naranco (siglo IX)

 

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[ENG] Santa María de Naranco is one of the most enigmatic and harmonious monuments of Western architecture. It is an old palace that was the Aula Regia of the palace complex that King Ramiro I (842-850) ordered to be built on the outskirts of the capital of the kingdom of Asturias. It was completed in the year 842. Its artistic style is the so-called Asturian or "ramirense" art, within the pre-Romanesque period. It functioned as a temple from the collapse of the chevet and part of the naves of San Miguel de Lillo (12th century) until its restoration in the years 1929-1934. It is located on the southern slope of Mount Naranco, about 4 km from Oviedo (Asturias, Spain). It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985. More photos in the album Santa María de Naranco (9th century)

 

[ESP] Santa María de Naranco es uno de los monumentos más enigmáticos y armoniosos de la arquitectura occidental. Es un antiguo palacio que fue el Aula Regia del conjunto palacial que el rey Ramiro I (842-850) mandó construir en las afueras de la capital del reino de Asturias. Se terminó en el año 842. Su estilo artístico es el denominado arte asturiano o "ramirense", dentro del prerrománico. Funcionó como templo desde el derrumbamiento de la cabecera y de parte de las naves de San Miguel de Lillo (siglo XII) hasta su restauración en los años 1929-1934. Se ubica en la ladera meridional del Monte Naranco, a unos 4 km de Oviedo (Asturias, España). Fue declarado Patrimonio Mundial de la Humanidad por la Unesco en 1985. Más fotografías en el álbum Santa María de Naranco (siglo IX)

 

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Very harmonious colors between blues and greens and subtle earthy green and grey.

 

Salzburg, Austria

'The Sassi of Matera and their park are an outstanding example of a rock-cut settlement, adapted perfectly to its geomorphological setting and its ecosystem and exhibiting continuity over more than two millennia. They represent an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement and land use showing the evolution of a culture that has maintained over time a harmonious relationship with its natural environment.

' UNESCO

The answer to the question “Should I do it?” is simple: No one has an obligation to another person, no matter what level of commitment in a relationship, to participate in any sexual activity that causes pain, discomfort or distress.

 

People can discuss desires honestly and be open to sexual exploration, yet be clear about what crosses the line and is not acceptable.

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.......***** All images are copyrighted by their respective authors ......

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You are here: Home / Life / “Should I Do It?” To Women Who Struggle with Porn-Driven Sex

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img code photo ... Etching by Daniel Hopfer (c. 1470-1536) of “The Lovers,” from Wikimedia Commons

 

msmagazine.com/blog/files/2011/07/500px-The_Lovers-202x30...

 

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“Should I Do It?” To Women Who Struggle with Porn-Driven Sex

July 2, 2011 by Robert Jensen

 

msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2011/07/02/%E2%80%9Cshould-i-do-...

  

Usually I address my writing about pornography to men, who are the majority of the consumers of sexually explicit material. But after a recent conversation with a woman friend, I was reminded of how often women who raise concerns about the sexism of pornography are discounted as being overly sensitive, prudish or unable to see things objectively. Since I’m a man, you can be assured–of course!–that I am not overly sensitive or prudish, and that I’m completely objective. So, if you are a woman who is struggling to get your partner to understand your concerns about pornography, I suggest you send this essay to him with a note at the top that says, “It’s not just women who think pornography is sexist.” Then add a note at the bottom that says, “You shouldn’t have had to hear it from a man to take me seriously.”

 

First, to give credit where credit is due: Everything I know about pornography I learned from women or discovered because of the feminism I learned from women. From the feminist anti-pornography movement that emerged in the 1970s and ‘80s, I learned to critique the system of male dominance and my own place in it. So, there is little that is original in this essay, but much that is important to keep saying.

 

When I present the radical feminist critique of pornography in public, I am often approached afterward by women with some version of this question:

 

....My husband/boyfriend/partner wants me to do [fill in the blank with a sex practice that causes pain, discomfort or distress for the woman]. I love him, and I want to be a good partner. Should I do it?

 

The “it” can be anything, but common requests include ejaculating on her face, anal sex, a threesome with another man or woman, rough sex or role-playing that feels inauthentic to her. Again, not all women reject those practices, but for many they are unwanted.

 

The answer to the question “Should I do it?” is simple: No one has an obligation to another person, no matter what level of commitment in a relationship, to participate in any sexual activity that causes pain, discomfort or distress. People can discuss desires honestly and be open to sexual exploration, yet be clear about what crosses the line and is not acceptable.

 

Because I’m a man, women sometimes assume I can also provide a simple answer to their next question, “Why does he want to do that to me?” There is a simple, though not pleasant, answer rooted in feminism: In patriarchy, men are socialized to understand sex in the context of men’s domination and women’s submission. The majority of the pornography that saturates our hyper-mediated lives presents not images of “just sex,” but sex in the context of male dominance. And over the past two decades, as pornography has become more easily accessible online and the sexual acts in pornography have become more extreme, women increasingly report that men ask them to participate in sex acts that come directly from the conventional male-supremacist pornographic script, with little recognition by men of the potential for pain, discomfort or distress in their women partners.

 

The third, and most challenging, question is: “Why can’t he understand why I don’t want that?” The strength of sexual desire plays a role, but here the answer is really about the absence of empathy, the lack of an ability to imagine what another human being might be feeling. Pornography has always presented women as objectified bodies for male sexual pleasure, but each year pornography does that with more overt cruelty toward women. The “gonzo” genre of pornography, where the industry pushes the culture’s limits with the most intense sexual degradation, encourages men to see women as vehicles for their sexual pleasure, even depicting women as eager to participate in their own degradation.

 

After more than two decades of work on this subject, I have no doubt of one truth about contemporary pornography: It is one way that men’s capacity for empathy can be dramatically diminished.

 

To make this point in talks to college and community audiences, I often suggest that “pornography is what the end of the world looks like.” By that I don’t mean that pornography is going to bring about the end of the world, nor do I mean that of all the social problems we face, pornography is the most threatening.

 

Instead, I mean that pornography encourages men to abandon empathy, and a world without empathy is a world without hope.

 

This is why pornography matters beyond its effects in our private lives. Empathy is not itself a strategy for progressive social change, but it is difficult to imagine people being motivated to work for progressive social change if they have no capacity for empathy. Politics is more than empathy, but empathy matters. Empathy is a necessary but not sufficient condition to do work that challenges the domination/subordination dynamic of existing hierarchies–work that is crucial to a just and sustainable future.

 

For women who want to communicate their need for sexual integrity to partners, and for men who want to transcend the pornographic imagination and empathize with their partners, the feminist critique offers a critique of male dominance and a vision of equality that can help. Instead of turning away from the unpleasant realities about how pornography is made, rather than ignoring the inhumanity of the images, rather than minimizing the effects of men’s use of pornography–we should face ourselves and face the culture we are creating.

 

As long as we turn away from that task, the pornographers will continue to profit. We need ask what their profits cost us all.

 

Etching by Daniel Hopfer (c. 1470-1536) of “The Lovers,” from Wikimedia Commons

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The I-Don’t-Wanna-Use-Lube Blues

October 3, 2011 by Heather Corinna

 

msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2011/10/03/the-i-dont-wanna-use-...

 

Q: Why don’t I produce enough natural lubricant during sex? There is nothing wrong with me physically. I’m 34 now, but I’ve always been like this! I’m envious of women that talk about how wet they get. Men always ask me why I don’t get that wet. I feel like something is wrong with me. I don’t want to depend on KY for the rest of my sex life. There has to be a solution other than use lubes!!!! From my understanding there are glands near the entrance of the vagina that are supposed to produce lube to help the penis enter the vagina. I don’t think mine work!!! Doctors just say use lube. Help!!!

 

Every now and then, when I find this concern in my inbox–essentially, this notion that wanting or needing an additional lubricant is some kind of personal failure, or that going without one has some sort of elevated status–I just sit here and scratch my head. Because I see people getting really upset over something they don’t have to.

 

I certainly get women having issues about vaginal dryness: that’s common, particularly when we’re talking about vaginal sex and heterosexual women. (And I’d put little stock in what a guy tells you about it per his previous female partner; let’s listen to what women have to say for themselves.) But the idea that people are constantly flooding the bedroom with vaginal lubrication every time they have sex just isn’t based in reality.

 

I also get why people have the idea sex should somehow be movie-screen seamless all the time, at any time, without making any adaptations–there are a lot of sources that enable those unrealistic ideas. But in fact, women’s pleasure during partnered sex, particularly as something separate from men’s pleasure, is something that has really only started to be widely addressed in the last 100 years. Historically and even now, a whole host of sexual norms based primarily on cultural ideas of men’s ideas and wants have meant that a lot of women have had a lot of not-at-all pleasurable sex.

 

Sexual lubricants are nothing even remotely new. They couldn’t always be purchased in stores, but for as long as people have been having genital sex, people have used all manner of things as a sexual lubricant: butter, oils, honey, saliva, animal fats and guts–you name it, if it’s slippery, it’s probably been used as a lube.

 

Here’s the part I don’t get: If a lubricant makes sex feel better, why not use it?

 

There are likely any number of things you do in your life that aren’t “natural” or organic. It’s likely that not all of your clothes are homemade ones created with organic fibers, for instance, and that you eat foods with preservatives or flavor enhancers. I might better understand this attitude about lube coming from die-hard naturists, but more often than not, I’d say that the women who send me lube worries are fine with every other aspect of their lives being less-than-100-percent-organic.

 

Let’s take this idea about “natural” sex to its logical conclusion. That would also mean going without most methods of birth control, protection from sexually transmitted infections or reproductive health care. Heck, it would mean not using the Internet to ask me this question in the first place. I think it’s reasonable to presume, then, that if and when a vagina is not lubricated enough, or at all, then one could conclude that the “natural” thing is for vaginal entry to just be uncomfortable or painful. And that maybe then, it’s “natural” for some kinds of sex you want to engage in for the sake of pleasure not to be pleasurable at all.

 

And I just don’t buy that way of thinking.

 

It is normal for women to sometimes not be wet enough for comfort and pleasure throughout all of a sexual endeavor; and for some women, it’s normal all or most of the time. We do have glands which produce vaginal lubrication when we are aroused, but how much we produce tends to depend on a lot of different factors: Not only does lubrication vary from woman to woman, but we won’t always produce the same amount every day, every year, every decade, in every relationship or in every sexual situation. How lubricated we are also is related to our fertility cycle and the chemical changes in our bodies: When we’re most fertile, our cervical mucus is very thin, fluid and slippery. During pregnancy, women often have increased amounts of vaginal discharge.

 

Vaginal dryness can also occur for other common reasons, including: medications (such as contraceptives, antidepressants or allergy medicine); smoking; health issues (like diabetes, hysterectomy, pregnancy, yeast or bacterial infections, sexually transmitted infections or allergies); dehydration; cancer treatments; low or decreased libido; not having sex as often as you’re used to; menopause or perimenopause; stress, fatigue, depression or anxiety; and chemical sensitivities to things like detergents.

 

But for people your age, the most common reason for vaginal dryness is a plain old lack of high sexual arousal or desire: not being as turned on as you could be. Sometimes, we’re just not feeling it with a partner. It’s also possible what you think is a lot of sexual arousal may not be so much after all–it may just be the most you’ve experienced so far, and as your life goes on and you have new attitudes and experiences, you may well discover you can be a lot more aroused.

 

So, what would I suggest as a plan of action for persistent vaginal dryness that’s got you so upset and doesn’t seem to be about a health issue?

 

...1)..See if using lube helps, and if so, use it when you need to. Not using lube, or feeling frustrated and disgruntled about using lube, are only going to be more ways to keep yourself from self-lubricating (stress inhibits arousal, after all). Alternately, take a break from the kinds of sex where you don’t feel lubricated enough.

 

...2)..See a health care provider who is a full-time sexual healthcare provider, not a general family doctor.

 

...3)..Do the best you can to be honest with that provider and fill them in on your health history–as well as the current status of your relationship and how you feel about your sexuality and sex life–in as much depth as possible.

 

...4)..Try what they suggest, be that a switch in a medication, a visit to a nutritionist, more masturbation, talk therapy, drinking more water, really only having sex when you are VERY aroused and that’s what you want, taking some time away from intercourse or, most likely, using lubricant as needed. Your doctor may even suggest using a vaginal lubricant daily, even if you aren’t having sex that day.

 

...5)..In the midst of all of this, whatever the result, take a look at your own body image, sexuality and gender issues. If you have ideas like that being dry sometimes isn’t feminine or womanly, like you’re “less of a woman” because you’re not dripping wet 24/7, or that something is wrong with your body for most likely functioning normally, see if you can’t work on ditching those ideas. It might help to remember that not all women have vaginas in the first place: Being a woman or feminine isn’t only about body parts.

 

Of course, if you just do NOT want to use lubricants, you don’t have to. That is likely to make some kinds of sex, or sex sometimes, less pleasurable or more uncomfortable. It also can mean things like winding up with UTIs or other infections more frequently. But if you feel better with those risks, you get to make that choice. Again, at times when you’re not lubricating, you also have the option of simply not having the kinds of sex where you need lube added, such as oral sex.

 

But it shouldn’t crush your ego to need or want lube, any more than it should crush your ego to need or want a haircut, salt on your food or to live in a decent neighborhood. Adding something to increase our enjoyment has nothing to do with our self-worth or with “succeeding” at sex. And using lubricant–whether it’s a need or a want–or being dry sometimes does not make a woman any less of a woman, does not make anyone less sexy, does not mean something is wrong with your body or your sexuality. Is a man not a man because he isn’t erect on demand or all the time? No? (Hint: Your answer should be no.) Well alrighty, then.

 

Speaking of men, I get letters from men saying they don’t like wetness. I get the same letters when it comes to dryness. However, I can’t recall a single time when I have ever gotten a letter from a man who has a problem with using lube himself or with a partner (perhaps in part because plenty of men use it for their own masturbation). So, when I hear someone tell me what “men” love, it’s always filtered by the knowledge that there are no absolutes with anything to do with sex. People of all genders like and dislike many different things.

 

Lube feels good. I don’t know about you, but one big reason I engage in sex is to feel good. That strikes me as perfectly harmonious. I don’t feel like I’m failing in any way when my partners and myself are feeling really good and sex rocks.

 

Obviously, you get to make up your own mind here and make your own choices. But I’d suggest that no matter what choice you make, an attitude adjustment on this stuff–not just on lubricant, but on not comparing oneself to other women and on realistic ideas about sexuality and the way your body functions–is going to benefit you. Most of what I hear in letters like this is that the attitudes expressed and the stress they create are getting you down far more than the issue of lubrication. And I’d say it’s certainly natural to change our attitudes or ideas for the sake of a healthier sexuality and self-esteem and a sex life we enjoy more.

 

Adapted from a post originally published at Scarleteen.com.

 

Have a sex, sexual-health or relationships question you want answered? Email it to Heather at sexandrelationships@msmagazine.com. By sending a question to that address, you acknowledge you give permission for your question to be published. Your email address and any other personally identifying information will remain private. Not all questions will receive answers.

 

Photo from Fickr user Lil’ Latvian under Creative Commons 2.o.

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An elegant, harmonious shape with soft curves and a presence that immediately draws attention. The delicate face, with its intense and luminous gaze, pairs beautifully with balanced proportions that enhance every pose. Feminine, naturally sleek lines make this shape perfect for both casual outfits and high-impact fashion shots. Ideal for those who want a refined look with plenty of personality.

 

Bianca Shape by SOLO SHAPES worn on body Legacy Special Edition and LeLUTKA Avalon Head.

Skin: amara beauty - Millie Porcelain skin

 

Inworld Store:

maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Fallen%20Angel/74/53/24

 

Other outfit details on my blog:

www.suggestions-by-tilly-opaline.com/blog/2836757_solo-sh...

Tian Tan Buddha

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation,

 

Tian Tan Buddha

Traditional Chinese 天壇大佛

Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin Tiāntán Dàfó

 

Tian Tan Buddha from afar Buddhistic statues praising and making offerings to the Tian Tan Buddha

 

The statue is located near Po Lin Monastery and symbolises the harmonious relationship between man and nature, people and religion. It is a major centre of Buddhism in Hong Kong, and is also a popular tourist attraction.

 

The statue is named Tian Tan Buddha because its base is a model of the Altar of Heaven or Earthly Mount of Tian Tan, the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. It is one of the five large Buddha statues in China. The Buddha statue sits on a lotus[disambiguation needed] throne on top of a three-platform altar. It is surrounded by six smaller bronze statues known as "The Offering of the Six Devas" and are posed offering flowers, incense, lamp, ointment, fruit, and music to the Buddha. These offerings symbolize charity, morality, patience, zeal, meditation, and wisdom, all of which are necessary to enter into nirvana.[2]

 

The Buddha is 34 metres (112 ft) tall, weighs 250 metric tons (280 short tons), and was the world's tallest outdoor bronze seated Buddha prior to 2007.[3] It reputedly can even be seen from as far away as Macau on a clear day. Visitors have to climb 240 steps in order to reach the Buddha, though the site also features a small winding road to the Buddha for vehicles to accommodate the handicapped.

 

The Tian Tan Buddha appears serene and dignified. His right hand is raised, representing the removal of affliction.The Buddha's left hand rests on his lap in a gesture of giving dhana. The Buddha faces north, which is unique among the great Buddha statues, as all others face south.

 

In addition, there are 3 floors beneath the Buddha statue: The Hall of Universe, The Hall of Benevolent Merit, and The Hall of Remembrance. One of the most renowned features inside is a relic of Gautama Buddha, consisting of some of his alleged cremated remains. Only visitors who purchase an offering for the Buddha are allowed to see the relic, in order to leave the offering there. There is a huge carved bell inscribed with images of Buddhas in the show room. It was designed to ring every seven minutes, 108 times a day, symbolising the release of 108 kinds of human vexations.

 

HistoryThe Tian Tan Buddha was constructed beginning in 1990, and was finished on December 29, 1993, the day of the enlightenment of Gautama Buddha, the founder of the Buddhist religion. The statue was formed out of 202 separate pieces of bronze. In addition to the exterior components, there is a strong steel framework inside the statue to support the heavy load. When the statue was completed, monks from around the world were invited to the opening ceremony. Distinguished visitors from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and the United States all took part in the proceedings.

 

On October 18, 1999, the Hong Kong Post Office issued a stamp depicting the Tian Tan Buddha. The MTR corporation has also issued a souvenir ticket featuring a photograph of the statue.

 

Visiting and accessPo Lin Monastery and the Buddha are open to the public between 10:00 and 17:45. Access to the outside of the Buddha is free of charge, but there is an admission fee to go inside the Buddha.

 

Visitors may also see the nearby monastery, known as the "Buddhist Kingdom in the South," which serves as an international Buddhist retreat, and is one of the largest and most well known in Hong Kong. The monastery was built by three Zen masters in 1920. The main temples have painted vermilion interiors with dragons and many other different Chinese mythical figures on the walls and ceilings. Visitors often spend time in the attached tea garden, the only tea garden in the territory. A five minute walk past the tea garden leads to the "Wisdom Path" - a very large wooden inscription of the Heart Sutra set within a figure 8 to symbolise infinity.

 

One of the main attractions of this Buddha statue is climbing 268 steps and circling the platform (the lotus) where the Buddha sits.

 

Also nearby is Lantau Peak, the second highest mountain in Hong Kong

  

Saheli, Manikganj, Bangladesh 2011

 

With smile and illumination morning sun is playing the orchestra of warm music.

Yes, its the song of a harmonious morning.

watercolour on paper

 

I was enchanted by the geometry of this plant! Look how regularly and harmoniously it places leaves and little branches. Decorative pattern, light and delicate.

P.S.: Flower asked me to say 'Hello!' to Sirgid Frensen! :>)

'The artist is the confidant of nature, flowers carry on dialogues with him through the graceful bending of their stems and the harmoniously tinted nuances of their blossoms. '

- Auguste Rodin

 

It is a labour of love for me to find 'different' lighting and angles to bring out their unique beauty, the petals so tightly concentrated in the heart and cascading out in full glory.

And then, the smaller variety, in sprays, with curling petals!

Another aspect of Chrysanthemum, tightly packed, a true Autumn flower, built against rain, wind and cold?

The name "chrysanthemum" is derived from the Greek words chrysos (gold) and anthemon (flower)

 

Chrysanthemums, sometimes called mums or chrysanths, are flowering plants of the genus Chrysanthemum in the family Asteraceae.

They are native to Asia and northeastern Europe. Most species originate from East Asia and the center of diversity is in China. Chrysanthemums were first cultivated in China as a flowering herb as far back as the 15th century BC.

The flower was brought to the Western World in the 17th century.

There are about 40 valid species and countless horticultural varieties and cultivars.

For many years, chrysanthemum signifies praise and admiration. A chrysanthemum is considered as a noble flower of the Chinese noble class.

 

Wishing you a day full of good light and thank you for your visit, M, (*_*)

 

For more : www.indigo2photography.com

Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved

 

Chrysanthemum, bloom, Mum, kotengiku, purple, mauve, Autumn, nature, studio, black-background, colour, design, square, "Nikon D7000", "Magda indigo"

A Haiku Note:

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The face of Buddha

showing us a harmony

in his state of mind

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Mallikarjuna Temple is a smaller version of the Virupaksha temple and was built by Vikramadiyta's second queen Trilokyamahadevi in 745. This temple is also was constructed by Rani Trilokyamahadevi to celebrate the victory (by Vikramaditya II) over the Pallavas. The Mallikarjuna temple was built immediately after and close to the Virupaksha temple (It has a similar plan), with a 4 storeyed vimana with a circular griva and sikhara. Mallikarjuna temple in Dravidian style.

 

Pattadakal, in Karnataka, represents the high point of an eclectic art which, in the 7th and 8th centuries under the Chalukya dynasty, achieved a harmonious blend of architectural forms from northern and southern India. An impressive series of nine Hindu temples, as well as a Jain sanctuary, can be seen there. One masterpiece from the group stands out – the Temple of Virupaksha, built c. 740 by Queen Lokamahadevi to commemorate her husband's victory over the kings from the South.

 

Pattadakal represents the high point of an eclectic art which, in the 7th and 8th centuries under the Chalukya dynasty, achieved a harmonious blend of architectural forms from northern and southern India. An impressive series of nine Hindu temples, as well as a Jain sanctuary, can be seen there.

Three very closely located sites in the State of Karnataka provide a remarkable concentration of religious monuments dating from the great dynasty of the Chalukya (c. 543-757). There are the two successive capital cities - Aihole (ancient Aryapura), Badami, and Pattadakal, the 'City of the Crown Rubies' (Pattada Kisuvolal). The latter was, moreover, for a brief time the third capital city of the Chalukya kingdom; at the time the Pallava occupied Badami (642-55). While Aihole is traditionally considered the 'laboratory' of Chalukya architecture, with such monuments as the Temple of Ladkhan (c. 450) which antedate the dynasty's political successes during the reign of King Pulakeshin I, the city of Pattadakal illustrates the apogee of an eclectic art which, in the 7th and 8th centuries, achieved a harmonious blend of architectural forms from the north and south of India.

Situated between the Malaprabha River to the north, and a minuscule village to the south, Pattadakal possesses a sort of holy city comprised of an impressive series of eight Hindu temples dedicated to Siva. Somewhat off to the side, towards the village, is the ninth Sivaite sanctuary, the Temple of Papanatha, as well as a Jain temple. In the monumental complex of the central zone are structures whose design was strongly influenced by the architecture of northern India: the temples of Galaganatha and of Kashi Vishveshvara, which are noteworthy for their square-shaped shikharas with curved edges. They stand along with other temples of a pure Dravidian style - Sangameshvara, built between 696 and 733, and Mallikarjuna, built consecutively from 733-44. Cornices decorate the walls of these temples and the roofs are the complex, storeyed type found in southern architecture.

The unexpected and yet harmonious mixture of these styles provided the inspiration for the masterpiece of Chalukya art, the temple of Virupaksha. This Sivaite sanctuary was erected around 740 by Queen Lokamahadevi to commemorate the victory in 731 of her husband, King Vikramaditya II, over the Pallava and other sovereigns of southern India. The king's admiration for the art of his conquered enemies is borne out by two inscriptions that offer proof that he brought in from the south an architect and a team of sculptors.

Prominently jutting out from the cruciform temple are three porches, a typical Chalukyan feature. They blend perfectly with the majestic three-storey tower and the walls with their overhanging cornices punctuated by narrow pilasters that separate niches filled with marvellous statuary. An overall concept dictated the choice of statues which illustrate the great themes of Siva theology and mythology.

The evocative ruins of the numerous abandoned sanctuaries within the enclosure may be reached, on the west and east sides, through two monumental gates. In the axis of the courtyard, in front of the temple, is a beautiful pavilion containing a colossal black stone statue of Siva's sacred bull, Nandi. The puja, the ritual washing of the bull, takes place there every morning. Enhanced by its relative isolation south of the principal zone, the temple of Papanatha illustrates once again the aesthetic achievement resulting from the incorporation of two different styles. Papanatha has two rooms where the faithful can worship.

On the west is the principal sanctuary, which is covered with a powerful tower in the northern style; to the east is a more modest room, whose roof is crowned with miniature reproductions of buildings in the purest Dravidian style. Experts have found in the detail of the niches, the pediments and the arcature, many contradictory architectural references. The plastic unity of this great monument, however, comes from the remarkable sculptured decoration illustrating the popular epic of the Ramayana, dedicated to Prince Rama, incarnation of Vishnu.

look so harmonious,lovely nature.

"Harmonious Cascades (Vertical):" Twin waterfalls unite amongst fall's tapestry and red rocks in north-central Arizona.

Beauty is a harmonious relation between something in our nature and the quality of the object which delights us. Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.

Life is full of beauty. Notice the bumble bee, cascading waters, the small child and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.

 

Have a great weekend everybody !

The harmonious, amphitheatre-like layout of houses gives Piodão the look of a crib built into the landscape.

 

The village of Piodão lies on a curve in the road, like a little crib nestling at the foot of a hill.

 

The delightful, orderly appearance of the houses and streets, all built of schist, is interrupted by the deep blue of the windows and doors of some of the houses. This use of colour is said to originate from the fact that the one shop in the village stocked only blue paint, and due to the isolation it was not easy to travel elsewhere.

 

It was also the isolation that preserved the historic characteristics of Piodão as we see them today.

The charming, whitewashed parish church dedicated to N.S. da Conceição, with its unusual cylindrical buttresses, stands out among the small two-storey houses. The villagers built it with their own money and gold in the early nineteenth century.