For the car in this instance

During the rutting season Male deer wear a headdress to look more formidable. They thrash about in the vegetation, in this instance the bracken.

Richmond Park, London

Researching how a bird or animal is named probably doesn’t rank high on the list of most people's favorite things to do. However, I am always curious as to how something received its nomenclature.

For instance, this bird is called a Common Yellowthroat. Part of that name is pretty obvious, as it has a yellow throat.

But this is the first one I have previously seen, so it is not common to me. The All About Birds website says, "The Common Yellowthroat was one of the first bird species to be catalogued from the New World, when a specimen from Maryland was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1766."

This bird was initially called the Maryland Yellowthroat due to its early identification in that state. Perhaps as people spread throughout the US and encountered the bird elsewhere, the name was changed to reflect that.

By the way, if you are at all curious, Carl Linnaeus was an interesting character. At the age of 28, he wrote a book that provided a formal system for giving two names to living things, both of which used Latin grammatical forms.

Since then, his system has been used worldwide to provide a standard, unique name for each species.

I am amazed at the voluminous research and writings men did a couple of centuries ago in the absence of any helpful technology.

Sometimes I wonder if one of the reasons is that they had more hours available to them since they didn’t waste those hours watching social influencers on TikTok or daredevils on YouTube videos.

(Photographed near Cambridge, MN)

Abandoned House

Visiting the alpine region of Australia the most shocking sight was the millions of dead trees, I am told caused by bushfires some years ago. One of the locals indicated that some sort of disease was affecting many of the eucalyptus which in this instance may have been the case as no sign of fire as the dead trees were random and in the eerie light took on a totally out of this world appearance.

"It is senseless to claim that things exist in their instancing only. The template for the world and all in it was drawn long ago. Yet the story of the world, which is all the world we know, does not exist outside of the instruments of its execution. Nor can those instruments exist outside of their own history. And so on. This life of yours is not a picture of the world. It is the world itself and it is composed not of bone or dream or time but of worship. Nothing else can contain it. Nothing else be by it contained."

Cormac McCarthy - Cities of the Plain

Faux cowboy atop Kallison's Western Wear shop in downtown San Antonio, Texas.

I've always believed that sometimes, animals act more humanlike than humans. This is one such instance. Note its left front paw (as if accentuating its comment "Stop it, please...") and its right front paw rubbing its chest that has been "hurting" from laughing too hard. Hahaha!

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For instance, I found this flying, fully armed huge tractor on the floor of my closet. Fun!

Recording that instance before the Deluge.

"Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house."

Matthew 5:15

Another instance where the morning light streaming into my flat inspired me to grab a quick photo. Here the shadow frame of the kitchen window provided the perfect opportunity for a silhouette self portrait, complete with my ever growing level of bed hair!

How often? It takes just once...

This is one of the numerous Merops family of colorful fly catchers, in this instance photographed in Zimbabwe near the Zambezi river.

Red stripe Railfreight was one of my favourite liveries of the BR era although in this instance has been slightly sullied by the scratch along the bodyside. The Tinsley allocated Duff ducks under the South Central and South Western mainlines just as a 159 passes overhead.

The Florida Scrub-jay is a species of Scrub-jay that is endemic to Florida. That means that it can only be found in Florida where it has existed for millions of years. Its habitat is limited to Florida's scrub land. This habitat is arid and relatively unattractive and is prone to frequent wildfires. As a result, a specific set of small plants populate the habitat. Our pension to extinguish wildfires and develop scrub land into something "more attractive" has led to a gradual but steady decline in these birds. This is due predominantly to habitat loss. In a few areas these birds are unbelievably tolerant of humans, landing not only near people but on them too. In this instance this Scrub-jay landed my friend before leaping up, up, and away, into the wild blue. Meeting these birds for the first time is a humbling experience. Knowing that even our most well intended activities, like wildfire suppression, can have deleterious effects on other species should serve as a lesson for the future. Nature's most invasive species needs to be more responsible. Every change we make has significant consequences. #FloridaScrubJay

Here is an example of the benefits of using a program such as Adobe's Lightroom (v2.5 in this instance). I have only used one type of processing within this picture, which is the Local Adjustment filter. This is an excellent tool, as it allows specific editing of points, for example, brightening the forground, whilst still darkening the sky exposure and adding shadow detail to one specific tree.

Originally when I took this photo, I was amazed at the beauty of the view, the colours, the atmopshere, it was almost magical. Yet this was totally lost within the stock output photo. I also happened to be tripod-less at the time, so a quality HDR was going to be out of the picture. I was going to bin this picture finally as I couldn't get the process I needed to bring it back to life..

I have been using lightroom now for multiple versions, and I have only just stumbled on this feature myself whilst perusing Lightroom tutorial videos on a Lightroom group. Anyway, I hope this is informative to people, and can maybe enlighten others as too how some people seem to get such excellent results from almost nothing, or those that don't see how one D40X puts out a picture like the top, and another puts out a picture like the the second... (PS I'm not blowing any trumpets here, I just think the change in picture is somewhat astonishing when some development of the article is actually taken on - after all, photographers for years have been developing in darkrooms, why shouldn't the PC and technological age give us our own "Lightroom"!)...

Please take the time to view large & on black

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Enjoy.. thanks for any comments, always appreciate those of you that take the time to leave comments or suggestions.. ta people :)

Habitat is a “home ground” or an environment in which an organism or group of species normally lives or occurs. In this sense, a habitat is any particular place that supports animal or plant life. From the habitat is where plants or animals get their survival essentialities such as water, food, shelter, and breeding grounds.

Different plant or animal species have different necessities for water, shelter, nesting and food. Thus, each and every plant or animal is adapted to survive in a specific kind of habitat. For instance, some turtles live in the seas while others live on land. Some plants grow in the deserts, some in the seas, and some in swampy areas. This shows different species have different needs. Examples of habitats include oceans, streams, or forests.

When a habitat is dramatically altered due to natural or anthropogenic activities such as earthquakes, agriculture, pollution or oil exploration, these places may no longer be able to provide shelter, food, water, or breeding grounds for the living organisms.

Such kind of events lessens the places where plants or animals such as wildlife can live and threatens the survival of various species. That sort of habitat degradation or fragmentation is what is termed as habitat loss and destruction. Habitat loss and destruction are influenced by several drivers which include:

1. Agriculture

Agricultural production has claimed much space of the natural habitat since settlers began converting forests and grasslands to croplands. In the modern world, the pressure to convert lands into resource areas for producing priced foods and crops has increasingly led to habitat loss.

Runoff of agricultural waste, fertilizers, and pesticides into marine and freshwater environments has also transformed streams and water systems. As a result, there has been a tremendous loss of natural crop species, aquatic life, and wildlife habitat.

2. Animal Waste, Sewage, Fertilizer, and Mining Waste Pollution

Marine and freshwater life forms are the most affected by pollution. Pollutants from animal waste, untreated sewage, fertilizers, pesticides, and heavy metals find way into wetlands and water systems and subsequently end up in the food web.

Animal wastes and fertilizers generate nutrients that cause an outburst in algae growth that depletes dissolved oxygen in aquatic systems. Mining wastes may also contain heavy metals that affect the health and breeding of aquatic organisms. Sewage sediments may destroy dwelling grounds of aquatic animals.

3. Industrial and Automobile Pollution

The majority of animal and plant habitats have been destroyed due to the toxic substances and chemicals emitted from industries and automobiles that pose long-term cumulative impacts on the species health. Seriously polluted regions have become dead zones since the conditions have become very harsh for biotic survival. A prime example is an acidic lake which cannot support aquatic life forms. In some areas, only a few organisms can survive owing to the cumulative effects of industrial and automobile pollution.

4. Water Projects

The development of water projects such as hydropower plants, dam construction, and water diversion frequently disconnect or draw off waters thereby altering water chemistry and hydrology. This is because such water projects limit the amount of water and nutrients running downstream.

The downstream section of the river can dry out and the nutrients supporting aquatic life can significantly reduce. As an outcome, gradual habitat loss happens as the water flows downstream.

5. Land Use and Development

The conversion of lands into urban settings, housing developments, office spaces, shopping malls, industrial sites, parking areas, road networks, and so on takes away the naturally occurring land that provided habitat for wildlife and other living organisms. This practice has substantially led to the loss and destruction of millions of acre of natural habitable environments.

6. Global Warming

Global warming is one of the recent leading causes of habitat loss since it changes the physical environmental factors such as temperature and moisture which are essential for a sustainable habitat.

For instance, wildlife that requires cool temperatures of high elevations such as the rock rabbit and mountain gorillas may in the near future run out of habitat due to global warming. Excessive rains, flooding or drought arising out of global warming have also impacted several habitats, contributing to the loss of wildlife and other living organisms.

7. Diversity Loss and Invasive Species

When a certain ecosystem which is home to numerous species collapse, more aggressive species may enter the territory. As the original species struggle to cope in a harsher environment, the invasive species contributes to a further and rapid decline of the habitat and subsequently dominates.

The explosive entry of invasive species into a habitat presents a strong threat to the native species as they struggle to survive in the increasingly changing environment. Invasive species directly competes for food with the native species and can also alter the structure of the habitat.

8. Vegetation Removal and Logging

Vegetation removal and logging destroy the structure of the habitat since it takes away the vital materials and natural systems responsible for replenishing and purifying the habitat. Removal of vegetation cover and logging also creates room for soil erosion and decrease stormwater infiltration which leads to the degradation of water quality, further destroying the habitat.

9. Dredging and Bottom Trawling Fishing

Dredging and bottom trawling fishing gives rise to the physical destruction of the dwelling, feeding and breeding areas for aquatic plants and animals. The displaced sediments may further smother the bottom dwelling organisms. Fish gills can as well become blocked with sediments and plant life activity is reduced due to limited light.

Dredging might also release underground toxic materials into aquatic habitats. Besides, bottom trawling fishing can by-catch unmarketable fish which turns out to be the food for other bigger fish in that particular underwater habitats.

Inframe :

The greater sand plover (Charadrius leschenaultii) is a small wader in the plover family of birds.

It breeds in the semi-deserts of Turkey and eastwards through Central Asia. It nests in a bare ground scrape. This species is strongly migratory, wintering on sandy beaches in East Africa, South Asia and Australasia. It is a rare vagrant in western Europe, where it has been recorded as far west as Great Britain, France and Iceland. It has been spotted twice in North America, the most recent being on May 14, 2009, in Jacksonville, Florida.

This species is fully migratory, and is likely to migrate without stopping on a broad front between breeding and non-breeding areas . Migratory flocks form after the end of breeding between mid-June and early-August, and arrive in the wintering grounds between mid-July and November (adults and immature birds arriving before juveniles. Those birds wintering in South-East Asia start moving northwards to the breeding grounds in late-February (the migration peaking in March to early-April), arriving from mid-March to May; whereas those wintering in East Africa and southern Asia depart for breeding grounds from mid-April to early-May. Most non-adult wintering birds remain in the wintering areas during the breeding season . The species is typically gregarious, feeding in flocks of 2-50, and sometimes congregating in groups of up to 1,000 when roosting (Urban et al. 1986, del Hoyo et al. 1996). Habitat Breeding During the breeding season this species is predominantly found in open, dry, treeless, uncultivated areas up to 3,000 m , including dried mud, silt and clay flats, hard salt-pans overgrown with halophytic plants , and rocky plains near mountains in desert or semi-desert . In Turkey the species frequents heavily grazed saline steppe . The species usually breeds near water but exceptionally it will nest up to 20 km away from it. Non-breeding During the non-breeding season this species shows a preference for littoral habitats with mixed sand and mud substrata . It is found on sheltered sandy, shelly or muddy beaches, large intertidal mudflats, sandbanks, salt-marshes, estuaries, coral reefs, rocky islands, tidal lagoons and dunes near the coast , although it may sometimes feed on coastal grasslands . Whilst on migration the species will occasionally utilise inland habitats such as salt-lakes and brackish swamps, usually roosting on sandbanks and spits . Diet This species is carnivorous: during the breeding season its diet consists mainly of terrestrial insects and their larvae (especially beetles, termites, midges and ants), and occasionally lizards whereas during the non-breeding season its diet contains mainly marine invertebrates such as molluscs (snails), worms and crustaceans (such as shrimps and crabs). Breeding site The nest is a shallow scrape on the ground amongst sand-hills, gravel, or on other barren substrates.

View On Black

From our trip to Greyland. But since it is October and Halloween is looming closer, I thought the description fits....

The vardøger or vardøgr is a spirit predecessor, from Norwegian folklore. Stories typically include instances that are nearly déjà vu in substance, but in reverse, where a spirit with the subject's footsteps, voice, scent, or appearance and overall demeanor precedes them in a location or activity, resulting in witnesses believing they've seen or heard the actual person, before the person physically arrives. This bears a subtle difference from a doppelgänger, with a less sinister connotation. It has been likened to being a phantom double, or form of bilocation.

Coccinellidae is a family of beetles, known variously as ladybirds (British English, Australian English, South African English), ladybugs (North American English) or lady beetles (preferred by some scientists). Lesser-used names include ladyclock, lady cow, and lady fly.

They are small insects, ranging from 1 mm to 10 mm (0.04 to 0.4 inches), and are commonly yellow, orange, or scarlet with small black spots on their wing covers, with black legs, head and antennae. A very large number of species are mostly or entirely black, grey, or brown and may be difficult for non-entomologists to recognize as coccinellids (and, conversely, there are many small beetles that are easily mistaken as such, like tortoise beetles).

Coccinellids are found worldwide, with over 5,000 species described, more than 450 native to North America alone.

A few species are pests in North America and Europe, but they are generally considered useful insects as many species feed on aphids or scale insects, which are pests in gardens, agricultural fields, orchards, and similar places. The Mall of America, for instance, releases thousands of ladybugs into its indoor park as a natural means of pest control for its gardens.

Believed to be the first instance of a 5 engine lashup on the SCFE, CSX sending TRRA 3004 (USSC 6327) back and forth through Florida for a week ultimately coincided the delivery of 3004 with the completion of traction motor swaps at Childs for 6322 and 6323, making for a massive power move of 3 SD40s DIT. One of the wackiest consists to date

SCFE SBT-25 w/ USSC 4204, USSC 6325, USSC 6322, TRRA 3004 (USSC 6327), & USSC 6323

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My technique is alway the same:

Three exposures -2EV, 0, +2EV and then temperature adjustement using Lightroom and layering with luminosity mask using photoshop. Removal of distracting stuff with the stamp tool or patch tool. High pass filter to enhance details. Then saturation, contrast selectively control, dodge and burn where need...

DRI stand for Dynamic Range Increase. Three RAW files are used to achieve this. Rather than using a software like Photomatix for instance, I simply use mask to blend, my own way, the light, dark and normal shot with Photoshop and Lightroom.. To me, It looks more natural than the usual HDR treatment that I would normally applied.

Merci pour les visites, commentaires, récompenses, invitations et favoris. S.V.P. n'utilisez pas mes images sur des sites web, blogs ou autres médias sans ma permission.

Merci!

© Tous droits réservés

Ma technique est toujours la même:

Trois prises de vue -2EV, 0, +2EV. Ensuite ajustement de la température de couleur avec Lightroom et usage de calques et masques de luminosités avec Photoshop. Retrait d'éléments de distraction avec l'outil tampon. Filtre High pass pour le rehaussement des détails. Ensuite saturation et contraste ajustés de façon sélectives et locales. Dodge and burn là où requis...

DRI vient de l'anglais Dynmic Range Increase, qui pourrait se traduire par étendue dynamique améliorée. Les même 3 fichiers RAW entrent dans la composition d'un DRI. Plutôt que de se servir d'un logiciel comme Photomatix qui fait tout le travail, je me sers plutôt de masques pour filtrer l'éclairage dans photoshop et Lightroom. De mon point de vue, cette façon de faire donne une image plus naturel que le traitement HDR que j'employais auparavant.

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more instances of our lovely Highland cow gang :) Happy Fringed Furry Friday!!

Terry Eve Photography Copyright 2018

This is a low resolution watermarked upload, for a full size copyright free image please contact Terry Eve Photography via Flickr mail in the first instance.

This was one of those rare instance in which I liked the way my camera’s LCD looked better than the view out in front of me. The long exposure, which was made well after sunset, brought out the subtle colors and smoothed the rough water. While not my typical shot, I like the way it turned out and realized once again it pays to experiment.

Large on black is nice for this one

As always, thanks for your input!

Barrett

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It's not the type of photo that I used to take, but when I visited the Zoo of Porto Alegre ( despite of the cloudy day and all the difficulties like the grid for instance), I took a few photos from animals that are difficult to see outside from this ambience.

Rhinoceros

Photo of Icicle Creek captured via Minolta MD Zoom Rokkor-X 24-50mm F/4 lens. On the Snow Lakes Trail and on the way to the Core Enchantments. Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Stuart Mountain Range. Central Cascades Range. Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. Chelan County, Washington. Late October 2017.

Exposure Time: 1/100 sec. * ISO Speed: ISO-200 * Aperture: F/5.6 * Bracketing: None * Color Temperature: 9000 K * Plug-In: Vibrant Fall Minimal - Lou & Marks

Nature always amazes me. For instance the rain splashed on the ground made the woods debris bounce up and make shapes and forms as they attached to just a blade of grass beside

a mushroom. On top of the mushroom you can see the grains of sand on top of it that were there when the mushroom was raising itself out of the ground. Love nature! Macro photography gives a way to see this

Bore Sadwrn : Saturday Morning

"Penrhyn is one of the most admired of the numerous mock castles built in the United Kingdom in the 19th century; Christopher Hussey called it, "the outstanding instance of Norman revival." [1] The castle is a picturesque composition that stretches over 600 feet from a tall donjon containing family rooms, through the main block built around the earlier house, to the service wing and the stables.

It is in a very solid, sombre style which allows it to possess something of the medieval fortress air despite the ground-level drawing room windows. Hopper designed all the principal interiors in a rich but restrained Norman style, with much fine plasterwork and wood and stone carving. The castle also has some specially designed Norman style furniture, including a one ton slate state bed made for Queen Victoria when she visited in 1859.

In 1951 the castle and 40,000 acres (160 km²) of land were accepted by the Treasury in lieu of death duties. It now belongs to the National Trust and is open to the public. Penrhyn's attractions include a formal walled garden, extensive informal gardens, a dolls museum, an industrial railway museum, a model railway museum and an adventure playground. It has views over the Snowdonia mountains. In 2007/08 it was the National Trust's seventh most visited paid-entry property, with 212,727 visitors."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrhyn_Castle

www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/...

yet another instance of this magnificent urban plaza in Granada, Andalucia.

Always a balance. Each instance is only one moment, one idea, one event. At the same time, each instance is a reflection of and part of the overall.

May your Friday be full of peace and reflection.

Photons emitted from the surface of the Sun (sunlight) take an average of 8 minutes and 20 seconds to travel to the Earth. So, when you look at the Sun, you're actually viewing about 8 minutes in the past.

Why did I say "an average of"? Obviously, the speed of light doesn't change. However, the Earth's distance to the Sun does change, due to its elliptical orbit.

By comparison, other stars in the night sky are so far away from us, light takes much, much longer to reach us. From the closest stars, light takes a few years to get to Earth. From the farthest stars, light has taken literally billions of years to reach us.

So when you view these stars, you are actually viewing the distant, distant past. For instance, the light that you're seeing may have left that star while dinosaurs walked the Earth.

If you took the time to read this, I appreciate it. Hopefully, you found it interesting. I personally think the notion of viewing the distant past in the night sky is fascinating.

By the way, I took this photo of the sunset at a local park. I was able to capture the distant treetops over a large pond.

another instance of York's impressive Victorian railway station. You can tell that I am a convert ;)

A very different approach to the crocus shot from yesterday. In that instance, I isolated two on a hillside, shooting upslope and trying for as clean a look as possible. Here, in contrast, a beautiful cluster buried in a tangle of old and new grasses. I did think of doing some grooming, ie. removal of dead material, but two things stopped me: 1. the grasses provided some insulation - protection from wind and cold - and removing them would expose the plant and maybe damage it; 2. this is how we often see wildflowers, in context, as part of their habitat, not neat and clean, not calendar-worthy... so why not show them like this? Perhaps the pattern of blue splashes is enough to cut through the chaos of criss-crossing lines.

The two photos were made minutes apart. Are they equally successful? I don't know; probably not. But there's no point in endlessly repeating what I know will work.

Photographed in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission © 2019 James R. Page - all rights reserved.

Well, as usual, I screwed up! In this instance I screwed up big time.

First, I did not pay much attention to my wife telling me there will be light. I said not in California and that too in Bay area.

Second, I did not take the tripod ball head and any other lens than a 20mm F1.8. It was a huge struggle to mount my camera on the gimbal head and adjust the tripod legs to get the right angle. So I wasted much precious time.

Third, I did not know anything about how to photograph auroras. So, stupid me used 30s-60s exposure to get the photos. And this last mistake was the absolute blunder. This is unfixable. My stars are long and my Aurora strikes are not that prominent.

But it was worth experiencing what might be once in a while event. I also went to the nearest darkest area that I know too well. Thankfully, most of the Bay area was busy doing what they do.

The naked eye did not see much other than some faint colors. But a 60s exposure did gather a lot of the hue of the Aurora. I am told this hue is not often seen.

it doesn't rain here like it does in most other places. For instance, where you live, you probably have rain that lasts for hours, or days. We have rain that lasts for minutes. A storm moves over, unloads a bit of water, some wind, and then disappears.

We get, on average, 5 inches of rain per year. Unless you get lucky, and you get a storm directly over your head that delivers a downpour.

hoping my friends in Vermont and other parts of New England are recovering from their rain this weekend.

Chandeshvara Nayanar

The South Indian legend, narrated, for instance, in the Periyapuranam, states that he was born into a Brahmin family and was called Visarasarman. When he was a young boy, he found that cows remain uncared for, and hence he himself commenced tendering and caring for the cows. While doing so, he would pour some milk on a lingam, which he made of sand. The news of this wastage of milk reached the ear of his father, Datta; and he himself came to the field to scold his son. Chandesha was deep in meditation in front of the sand lingam, and he did not see his father. The enraged father kicked the sand lingam. At this Chnadesha’s meditation was interrupted, and he struck his father’s leg with a staff. The staff turned into an axe and his father’s leg was severed. At this point, Shiva manifested himself, and blessed Chandesha, declared that he would become a father to Chandesha; and restored the severed leg of Datta to normal state.

Night long exposure milkyway shot over ki (Key) monastery (gompa), Spiti, Himachal Pradesh, India.

Nikon D810 + Sigma 20mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art Lens

The history of key monastery

Key gompa is said to have been founded by Dromton (Brom-ston, 1008-1064.CE), a pupil of the famous teacher atisha in the 11th century. This may however, refer to a now destroyed kadampa monastery at the near by village of Rangrik, which was probably destroyed in the 14th century when the sakya sect rose to power with Mongol assistance. Key was at attacked again by the Mangolis during the 17th century, during the reign of the fifth Dalai Lama and became a Gelukpa establishment. In 1820 it was sacked again during the wars between Ladhak and Kullu. In 1841 it was severely damaged by the dogra army under Ghulam Khan and Rahim Khan. Later that same year suffered more damage from a Sikh army. In the 1840s it was ravage by fire and in 1975 a violent earthquake caused further damage which was repair with the help of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and the state public works department. The successive trails of destruction and patch-up jobs have resulted in a haphazard growth of box-like structures and so the monastery looks like a fort. With temples built on top of one another. The walls of the monastery are covered with paintings and mural. It is an outstanding example of the 14th century monastic architecture, which developed as the result of the Chinese influence. Key monastery has a collection of ancient murals and books of high aesthetic value and it enshrines Buddha images and idols, in the position of Dhyana. There are three floors, the first one is mainly underground and used for storage. One room called the Tangyur is richly painted with murals. The ground floor has the beautifully decorated assembly hall and cells for many monks. Key Gompa now belongs to the Gelugpa sect. The monastery of Key for instance accommodates nearly 350 monks, who reside within the monastery. These monastery have their regular heads or Abbots.

A celebration of its millennium was conducted in 2000 in the presence of the his holiness the Dalai Lama.

Altitude : 4,166 metres (13,668 ft) above sea level.

Place: Kaza, Spiti, Himachal Pradesh, India.

Another instance where patience paid off in Patagonia as we waited for storm clouds to disperse around the peaks of the southern Andes looming over Lake Viedma outside El Chalten, Argentina.

MACHERMORE CASTLE WAS ORIGINALLY BUILT BY PETER MCDOWALL AND SITUATED ON THE EAST BANK OF THE RIVER CREE, ABOUT A MILE FROM THE TOWN OF NEWTON STEWART. MACHERMORE CASTLE IS A THREE HUNDRED YEARS OLD AND THE GREY OLD CASTLE AND BRAVELY WEATHERED THE STORMS, AND IT WOULD HAVE CONTINUED TO DO SO UNSCATHED HAD NOT MODERN TIMES NECESSITATED STRUCTURAL CHANGES. THE CASTLE NOW PRESENTS A HAPPY INSTANCE OF THE BLENDING OF THE OLD AND NEW STYLES OF ARCHITECTURE—AN ADAPTATION OF THE PAST TO PRESENT REQUIREMENTS.

MACHERMORE CASTLE IS BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN BUILT ABOUT THE LATTER END OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. TRADITION SAYS THAT IT WAS AT FIRST INTENDED TO BUILD THE CASTLE ON THE HIGHER GROUND, A LITTLE TO THE NORTH-EAST OF THE PRESENT SITE, BUT THAT DURING THE NIGHT THE FOUNDATION STONES WERE ALWAYS REMOVED, SO THAT WHAT WAS BUILT DURING THE DAY WAS CARRIED OFF BY UNSEEN HANDS AND DEPOSITED IN ANOTHER PLACE. AS IT WAS NO USE TO STRIVE AGAINST THE SUPERNATURAL, THE CASTLE WAS EVENTUALLY BUILT WHERE THE MATERIALS WERE ALWAYS FOUND IN THE MORNING.

IN THE CASTLE ITSELF WAS A ROOM REPUTED TO BE HAUNTED. IN THIS INSTANCE THE PARTICULAR APARTMENT WAS IN THE NORTH-WEST ANGLE, AND WAS ALWAYS KNOWN AS DUNCAN’S ROOM. PROJECTING FROM THE TOP CORNER OF THE OUTER WALL IN THE SAME PART OF THE CASTLE WAS THE FINELY-CARVED FIGUREHEAD OF A MAN. A CLOSE INSPECTION REVEALED THE FACT THAT THE NECK WAS ENCIRCLED BY AN EXQUISITELY-CHISELLED LACE RUFFLE OF THE TUDOR PERIOD. THIS PIECE OF SCULPTURE WAS ALWAYS KNOWN AS DUNCAN’S HEAD. ON THE FLOOR OF DUNCAN’S ROOM THERE WAS THE MARK OF A BLOODY HAND, DISTINCTLY SHOWING THE IMPRESS OF THE FINGERS, THUMB, AND PALM. IT WAS SAID THAT REMOVING THAT PART OF THE FLOORING HAD BEEN TRIED SO AS TO ERADICATE ALL TRACE OF THE BYGONE TRAGEDY, BUT THE MARK OF THE BLOODY HAND APPEARED IN THE NEW WOOD AS FRESH AS BEFORE.

THE WHITE LADY OF MACHERMORE

THE WHITE LADY OF MACHERMORE WAS ONCE ALSO BELIEVED TO BE A GHOST AS SHE WAS ONLY SEEN AT VERY LOW LIGHT WANDERING AROUND THE GROUNDS OF THE CASTLE. THIS IS NOW KNOWN THAT ONE OF THE PREVIOUS OWNERS OF THE CASTLE HAD AN ALBINO DAUGHTER WHO ROAMED THE GROUNDS AT DUSK EVERY DAY AS SHE COULD NOT SEE IN NORMAL DAYLIGHT.

THERE IS A TRADITION THAT SOMEWHERE ABOUT MACHERMORE CASTLE THERE IS BURIED UNDER A FLAT STONE A KETTLE FULL OF GOLD, BUT SO FAR HAS NEVER BEEN FOUND.

Like most who visit Disneyland much less frequent than Walt Disney World, New Orleans square is a standout area to explore. The rich themeing and tight streets make for a very engaging environment. I was disappointed that the Court of Angles had been transformed in to a Christmas gift shop, but the rest of the area looked amazing with the lights and wreaths adorning the buildings.

I knew I wanted some photos of this area, so late the first night I set up for this bracket and waited for the area to clear. In fact, you can see a few ghosts in the image because it never fully cleared. What you can't see is a security guard directly behind me, and another cast member directly to my left.

This was an instance where the park was closed and I really wanted to get my shot, but the cast member to my left was very talkative. He had just emptied the trash cans on the left of the frame, saw me set up with my tripod, and came over to chat cameras. Apparently he had a Canon Rebel series camera and wanted to know what lens I was using and a few tips for night shots. I like chatting with CMs, but in this case it was going a little long, and with the security guard behind me, my shot was at risk. Fortunately, I got in just one bracket...

Disneyland | New Orleans Square

This is another instance of something which I have included in the 2025 round-up – in fact it’s this specific vehicle – LJ16 NMX seemingly being one of the better examples that I’d see around fairly often. In this view on 5.12.24 it is speeding up a damp Clifton Boulevard with the Medilink 1 journey that runs through from Queens Drive.

Back in the summer I did a summary of the BYDs which I tried to keep concise and readable, however now it’s time for the full-blown waffling version...

In 2016 the situation for battery electric buses looked nothing like it does today, as they were a considerably more niche product. Nottingham City Council were not desperately cash strapped like they currently are, and (quite rightly) liked to throw considerable sums of money at public transport projects. As a result, a large fleet of Optare Solo and Versa EVs ran on the Council’s extensive network of ‘Linkbus’ routes; Medilink; Locallink; Centrelink; Worklink etc.

That year saw a couple of major changes to the network. Centrelink was merged with the Citylink 1 Park & Ride route to create Centrelink P&R, and Citylink 2 was replaced by Ecolink P&R... not to be confused with the previous Ecolink branding from Nottingham City Transport route 30 and its ethanol powered buses. Larger battery electric single deckers were needed for the P&R routes and so the City Council purchased a batch of 13 BYD K9UR single deckers. IIRC they seated about 35.

This was a year or two before BYD partnered with Alexander Dennis to build electric Enviro 200s, so the Nottingham 13 were unusual examples of earlier BYD integrals. At that time they were a relatively unknown manufacturer in the UK and had little else than a few trial single deckers in London. The new electrics were launched at Showbus 2016 with an unregistered and unbranded example in base blue livery.

When the buses received their branding, there were three styles; Centrelink P&R, Ecolink P&R, and a few which simply said P&R Link for use on either route. All were the same two-tone blue as the Medilink, and for some unfathomable reason the branding for Ecolink and P&R Link contained the Medilink’s heart-monitor pulse line graphics, despite neither serving any hospitals. Unlike the striking red of old Centrelink, turquoise of Citylink 1 and yellow of Citylink 2, the livery introduced with the BYDs made a poor distinction between the new routes.

The buses were operated on the council’s behalf by CT4N – who were still called Nottingham Community transport at that time. For 2017’s Showbus, the P&R BYDs ran the event shuttle service to East Midlands Parkway and were still being touted as the exciting new investment in Nottingham’s sustainable transport. However the whole setup was to be remarkably short lived, with the Centrelink/Ecolink P&R routes ceasing at the end of August 2019 and replaced by new Nottingham City Transport routes 49, 50 and an amended 44.

In late 2019 two buses, 986 and 987, were repainted red and black for use on a shuttle at East Midlands Gateway, while the rest of the fleet were stored with occasional use and the branding removed. Six months later the Covid pandemic hit and the country ground to a halt for a while. When things started to pick back up in late 2020, the K9URs reappeared as replacements for the slightly smaller and older Solo EVs and Versa EVs on the Medilink, allowing more space for (anti)social distancing.

Perhaps it was the City Council’s intention to move the BYDs onto the Medilink anyway, pandemic notwithstanding? Of course the obvious course of action would be to take the BYDs, already in base Medilink blue, and apply branding identical to that of the Versa EVs. But ohh, that just makes TOO MUCH sense, so they did something completely different and utterly pathetic. I don’t know if it was the City Council or CT4N that was responsible for the idea, but a completely new livery was invented for the Medilink with lime/white/blue applied diagonally.

The livery itself wasn’t so bad, except for the fact it was a total waste of time because A) they never even got round to repainting all the buses and B) they didn’t bother with ANY BRANDING AT ALL. After a year or so, half hearted Medilink logos were slapped onto the otherwise bare livery. So from late 2020 onwards the Medilink was a mixture of K9URs in plain P&R Link blue, plain dishwasher tablet packet colour, dishwasher tablet with a Medilink logo, or whatever Optare diesel CT4N were fielding to plug a shortfall. Meanwhile the ex-Medilink Versa EVs were going around on Locallink routes in fully branded Medilink livery.

This is where things started to go downhill for the K9URs in terms of availability. They were built when ‘heavy duty’ battery powered electric buses were still in their infancy and had reached five years of age. Having been developed with early 2010s EV battery technology, they were effectively on the way out, and allegedly couldn’t last a full day on the Medilink on a single charge. Unfortunately the City Council never bothered to install live vehicle tracking which makes the Medilink’s previous PVR unknown, but even with an excess number of electric vehicles available there would always be at least one or two CT4N Commercial diesels covering.

Time went on and the ‘one or two’ diesels covering became three or four... or more. After getting rid of the Optare Tempos, CT4N bought five Versas from Go North East and used the pair of longer, 62 plate examples almost exclusively on the Medilink (and sometimes their Nottingham High School routes). Throw in one or two of their ex-Blackpool Solos and one of the smaller Versas, which was the typical diesel allocation on the ML around 2023/4, and there was an average of around 5-6 buses filling in for unavailable BYDs on a daily basis.

By 2025 the Scania Omnidekkas, which were nominally school buses, were making regular appearances on the Medilink 2. At some stage I don’t remember the ML was split into the ML1 between City Hospital and QMC, and the ML2 between QMC and Queens Drive, because of unreliable running times on the whole joined up route. The ML1/ML2 reverted back to the conventional Medilink again in summer 2025 in readiness for Skills taking it over from the 1st of September.

Meanwhile, one of the Gateway Shuttle BYDs had returned and been painted into dishwasher tablet Medilink livery, but did little to help the numbers of serviceable EVs. Another randomly got sold off to Blackburn Private Hire, and I think at least one more just got dumped in one of the City Council’s compounds and was left to rot. On the 31st of August 2025 – exactly 6 years after the Centrelink/Ecolink had been withdrawn – the whole K9UR fleet was quietly stood down.

Since then the City Council listed them for sale on some obscure commercial fleet sales website... I’ll have to try and find it again. Most of them were for spares or repair and suggested the majority were not in working order. At least one more was bought by Blackburn Private Hire, but as far as I know nothing has happened to the rest and they’re stored in a yard up Ilkeston way somewhere. And that is, as far as I know, the story of Nottingham’s BYD K9UR battery electric buses.

I told you this was going to be a long one!

My take on a local land mark. In this instance we have eclipsed our neighbours I think.

eclipse

ɪˈklɪps/Submit

verb

past tense: eclipsed; past participle: eclipsed

(of a celestial body) obscure the light from or to (another celestial body).

"Jupiter was eclipsed by the Moon"

deprive (someone or something) of significance or power.

"the economy has eclipsed the environment as the main issue"

synonyms:outshine, overshadow, put in the shade, surpass, exceed, excel, be superior to, outclass, outstrip, outdistance, outdo, top, cap, trump, transcend, tower above/over, dwarf, upstage, shame, put to shame; More

literary

obscure or block out (light).

"a sea of blue sky violently eclipsed by showers"

synonyms:blot out, block, cover, obscure, veil, shroud, hide, conceal, obliterate, darken, dim;

One of the reason's I haven't been doing anything SL wise is in part due to this game I've been sucked into -- here is one of the things you can do, its an instance set to 400% difficulty - but this character I have is somewhat "broken" and just melts everything (so fun) - plus trying a new video capture that gives no lag when recording. The game is also free if anyone is interested and I can help you with whatever you need.

Detail of fan vault in cloister.

The Abbey church of St. Mary, Tewkesbury was founded in 1092 by a cousin of William the Conqueror. The building work was largely complete by 1121, when the church was consecrated. Another major building campaign took place in the 14thc.

Until the Reformation, this church was a Benedictine Abbey. Then, it was sold to the townspeople by Henry VIII for £453. It then became what it remains to this day - a parish church. But as these photos will illustrate, it is no ordinary parish church. Indeed, it is larger than many cathedrals, and it boasts great art treasures and architectural features that would be the envy of any English cathedral. For instance, it contains what has been described as the largest and finest collection of medieval tombs outside of Westminster Abbey, and also a good deal of high quality medieval stained glass. Tewkesbury is, in short, one of the greatest churches in this country.

“Nobody of any real culture, for instance, ever talks nowadays about the beauty of sunset. Sunsets are quite old fashioned. To admire them is a distinct sign of provincialism of temperament. Upon the other hand they go on.”

Oscar Wilde

SOOC

i miss fresh time-zero. here's an old shot that i have never scanned until now for polaroid week.

time-zero

polaroid sx-70

It is very uncommon to see anything bigger than 4 axle EMDs down the Paterson Industrial, but in a rare instance last Summer, NS H55 utilized two SD60Es to run hot grain loads to Bay State Milling in Clifton, NJ.

Here they run light engine past Rainbow Carwash in Paterson after delivering the cars to the mill east of here.

A rare instance of a Sea Otter attacking and eating a bird. Normally Sea Otters feast on shellfish not birds. More on this encounter can be found on my blog entry Sea Otter Attacking a Western Grebe

©2008 Jim M. Goldstein, All Rights Reserved

This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without the explicit written permission of the photographer.