The Sparrowhawk is a relatively small bird of prey adapted for hunting smaller birds in confined spaces like dense woodland, so gardens are ideal hunting grounds for them. Adult male sparrowhawks have bluish-grey back and wings and orangey-brown bars on their chest and belly. Females and young birds have brown back and wings, and brown bars underneath. Sparrowhawks have bright yellow or orangey eyes, long, yellow legs and long talons. As with most birds of prey the females are larger than males.

Their territories are well spaced – pairs do not tolerate another nest close by. The distance between each nest varies ranges from 0.5 km to 2.1 km. This is determined by the local food supply – the better the food supply, the smaller each territory will be. The nest is usually built in lower parts of the canopy, close to the trunk of a tree and usually concealed from view. It is a sturdy platform of twigs, lined with bark flakes. A central ‘cup’ prevents the eggs from rolling out. Nest building can take several weeks and is often completed long before the eggs are laid.

Sparrowhawk facts; Because of the size difference, male sparrowhawks court the females with caution, as the female can (and sometimes does) kill her suitor.

Sparrowhawk chicks hatch when there are plenty of fledgling small birds around, in the same way that blue tits synchronise their breeding to coincide with the peak availability of caterpillars. Three to six eggs are laid at two-day intervals during May. Incubation lasts for 32-35 days and the eggs hatch in succession over two or more days, so that the chicks are different sizes. The female helps the chicks to break out of their shell. They are covered in pure white short down, and their eyes are already partly open when they hatch. Succesive hatching is an adaptation to cope with an unpredictable food supply. If food is short, the youngest chick will die and reduce the brood to a manageable size.

A Sparrowhawks diet mainly consists of small birds and the occasional rodent. 120 different species of prey have been recorded. Males can catch birds up to thrush size, but females, being bigger, can catch birds up to pigeon size. Some sparrowhawks have adapted their hunting habits to catch bats.

Sparrowhawk facts; Their usual flying speed is around 30-40 kph, but a sparrowhawk is capable of up to 50 kph in short bursts.

There have been concerns in the past that sparrowhawks eat too many small birds and cause their population to fall or even become extinct, however long-term scientific studies have shown that sparrowhawks generally have no or little impact on songbird populations. It is worth remembering that sparrowhawks and songbirds have existed side by side for thousands of years without any detrimental effect on songbird numbers.

Read more at www.wildonline.blog

Sometimes in life whilst turning a corner, and on this occasion on the lookout for a animal, a much different and a very unexpected one altogether stands before you (and luckily behind a very strong 5 bar gate!) I managed a few bursts and continued on around the corner that I should have taken!! So…. it set me off when I got home to find out more about what I had seen as I had never heard of them nor had I ever met them: “Heck Cattle!! —- and by heck!! they were certainly big”! So here is the Fascinating history (it was for me - so I hope I don’t bore you!) of the Heck Herd!!

The aurochs is the ancestor of all cattle and thereby a most important animal in the history of mankind. It is also a keystone species for many European ecosystems, but was hunted to its extinction in 1627. They have not been in Britain since the Iron Age more than 2000 years ago. The only real reason why the aurochs disappeared was because man hunted it to extinction. First for meat, but when man later brought in domestic cattle, it was also an intentional extermination because of grazing competition from the aurochs.

However, its DNA is still alive, but distributed among a number of the ancient original cattle breeds. “The Tauros Programme” 2009 aims to bring back the aurochs as a functional wild animal, by back-breeding the closest relatives of the original aurochs. In order to graze the landscapes of Europe to help maintain biodiversity. The final goal of the programme, to be met in some 20 years, is the presence of the Tauros as a self-sufficient wild bovine grazer in herds of at least 150 animals each in several rewilding areas in Europe.

The Heck Cattle were the forerunners of the Tauros Programme initiated in the 1930’s by the German Heck brothers who independently cross bred auroch genetically linked cattle.

There is only one Heck herd in Britain and is owned by the conservationist Derek Gow who initially imported the herd from Europe consisting of 4 bulls and 9 cows. They bred successfully and the herd grew to 20. However, the unpredictable and very aggressive aspect in their genes caused the herd to endanger staff and all but a few cattle tried to kill anyone entering their environment. Therefore culling of the most aggressive and dangerous members of the herd was done. Since then the herd is growing again and although not domesticated is manageable.

(My words - a précis of the sourced material/information found on the internet)

A Youtube link:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=28wUB3kgWoA

Aurochs were immortalised in prehistoric cave paintings and admired for their brute strength and "elephantine" size by Julius Caesar.

Aurochs are also depicted in ochre and charcoal in paintings found on the walls of cave galleries such as those at Lascaux in France Photo: ALAMY

This sparkly image shows Euclid’s view on a globular cluster called NGC 6397. Globular clusters are collections of hundreds of thousands of stars held together by gravity.

Located about 7800 light-years from Earth, NGC 6397 is the second-closest globular cluster to us. Together with other globular clusters it orbits in the disc of the Milky Way, where the majority of stars are located.

Globular clusters are some of the oldest objects in the Universe. That’s why they contain a lot of clues about the history and evolution of their host galaxies, like this one for the Milky Way.

The challenge is that it is typically difficult to observe an entire globular cluster in just one sitting. Their centres contain lots of stars, so many that the brightest ‘drown out’ the fainter ones. Their outer regions extend a long way out and contain mostly low-mass, faint stars. It is the faint stars that can tell us about previous interactions with the Milky Way.

“Currently no other telescope than Euclid can observe the entire globular cluster and at the same time distinguish its faint stellar members in the outer regions from other cosmic sources,” explains Euclid Consortium scientist Davide Massari of the National Institute for Astrophysics in Italy.

For example, Hubble has observed the core of NGC 6397 in detail, but it would take a lot of observing time with Hubble to map the outskirts of the cluster, something Euclid can do in just one hour. ESA’s Gaia mission can track the movement of globular clusters, but can’t tell what’s going on with very faint stars. And telescopes from the ground can cover a larger field, but with a poorer depth and resolution, so they can’t distinguish the faint outskirts entirely.

Davide and his colleagues will use Euclid to search for ‘tidal tails’ in globular clusters: a tidal tail is a trail of stars that extends far beyond the cluster because of a previous interaction with a galaxy.

“We expect all of the globular clusters in the Milky Way to have them, but so far we have only seen them around just a few,” says Davide. “If there are no tidal tails, then there could be a dark matter halo around the globular cluster, preventing the outer stars from escaping. But we don’t expect dark matter haloes around smaller-scale objects like globular clusters, only around bigger structures like dwarf galaxies or the Milky Way itself.”

If Davide and his team find tidal tails for NGC 6397 and other globular clusters in the Milky Way, that would allow them to very precisely calculate how the clusters orbit our galaxy. “And this will tell us how dark matter is distributed in the Milky Way,” Davide adds.

With Euclid’s observations, the team also wants to determine the age of globular clusters, to investigate the chemical properties of their stellar populations, and to study ultra-cool dwarf stars – the lowest mass members of the cluster.

The data in this image were taken in about one hour of observation. This colour image was obtained by combining VIS data and NISP photometry in Y and H bands; its size is 8800 x 8800 pixels. VIS and NISP enable observing astronomical sources in four different wavelength ranges. Aesthetics choices led to the selection of three out of these four bands to be cast onto the traditional Red-Green-Blue colour channels used to represent images on our digital screens (RGB). The blue, green, red channels capture the Universe seen by Euclid around the wavelength 0.7, 1.1, and 1.7 micron respectively. This gives Euclid a distinctive colour palette: hot stars have a white-blue hue, excited hydrogen gas appears in the blue channel, and regions rich in dust and molecular gas have a clear red hue. Distant redshifted background galaxies appear very red. In the image, the stars have six prominent spikes due to how light interacts with the optical system of the telescope in the process of diffraction. Another signature of Euclid special optics is the presence of a few, very faint and small round regions of a fuzzy blue colour. These are normal artefacts of complex optical systems, so-called ‘optical ghost’; easily identifiable during data analysis, they do not cause any problem for the science goals.

The cutout from the full view of NGC 6397 is at the high resolution of the VIS instrument. This is nine times better than the definition of NISP that was selected for the full view; this was done for the practical reason of limiting the format of the full image to a manageable size for downloading. The cutout fully showcases the power of Euclid in obtaining extremely sharp images over a large region of the sky in one single pointing. Although this image represents only a small part of the entire colour view, the same quality as shown here is available over the full field. The full view of NGC 6397 at the highest definition can be explored on ESASky.

[Image description]

This square astronomical image is speckled with hundreds of thousands of stars visible across the black expanse of space. The stars vary in size and colour, from blue to white to yellow/red. Blue stars are younger and red stars are older. More stars are located at the centre of the image, where they are bound together by gravity into a spheroid conglomeration – also called a globular cluster. Some of the stars are a bit larger than the rest, with six diffraction spikes.

Credits: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

In 1986/87, the clean-up had begun of the field at the rear of Berresford's Cheddleton garage. Jim Berresford's health was failing and there was a resignation that a start needed to be made on something of a sort out if the business was to be manageable and possibly carry on. Sadly J.A.B passed away in the April of '87 and the clean-up accelerated as his wife and family suddenly sold the operation to the recently privatised PMT.

The works in the field exposed many a long hidden gem such as this Leyland Firemaster fire engine and this Dennis pantechnicon. Behind the Firemaster is an ex Byrne Bros. Albion 'Firefly' and one of several Bedford CF minibuses once operated.

The Sparrowhawk is a relatively small bird of prey adapted for hunting smaller birds in confined spaces like dense woodland, so gardens are ideal hunting grounds for them. Adult male sparrowhawks have bluish-grey back and wings and orangey-brown bars on their chest and belly. Females and young birds have brown back and wings, and brown bars underneath. Sparrowhawks have bright yellow or orangey eyes, long, yellow legs and long talons. As with most birds of prey the females are larger than males.

Their territories are well spaced – pairs do not tolerate another nest close by. The distance between each nest varies ranges from 0.5 km to 2.1 km. This is determined by the local food supply – the better the food supply, the smaller each territory will be. The nest is usually built in lower parts of the canopy, close to the trunk of a tree and usually concealed from view. It is a sturdy platform of twigs, lined with bark flakes. A central ‘cup’ prevents the eggs from rolling out. Nest building can take several weeks and is often completed long before the eggs are laid.

Sparrowhawk facts; Because of the size difference, male sparrowhawks court the females with caution, as the female can (and sometimes does) kill her suitor.

Sparrowhawk chicks hatch when there are plenty of fledgling small birds around, in the same way that blue tits synchronise their breeding to coincide with the peak availability of caterpillars. Three to six eggs are laid at two-day intervals during May. Incubation lasts for 32-35 days and the eggs hatch in succession over two or more days, so that the chicks are different sizes. The female helps the chicks to break out of their shell. They are covered in pure white short down, and their eyes are already partly open when they hatch. Succesive hatching is an adaptation to cope with an unpredictable food supply. If food is short, the youngest chick will die and reduce the brood to a manageable size.

A Sparrowhawks diet mainly consists of small birds and the occasional rodent. 120 different species of prey have been recorded. Males can catch birds up to thrush size, but females, being bigger, can catch birds up to pigeon size. Some sparrowhawks have adapted their hunting habits to catch bats.

Sparrowhawk facts; Their usual flying speed is around 30-40 kph, but a sparrowhawk is capable of up to 50 kph in short bursts.

There have been concerns in the past that sparrowhawks eat too many small birds and cause their population to fall or even become extinct, however long-term scientific studies have shown that sparrowhawks generally have no or little impact on songbird populations. It is worth remembering that sparrowhawks and songbirds have existed side by side for thousands of years without any detrimental effect on songbird numbers.

Read more at www.wildonline.blog

The Sparrowhawk is a relatively small bird of prey adapted for hunting smaller birds in confined spaces like dense woodland, so gardens are ideal hunting grounds for them. Adult male sparrowhawks have bluish-grey back and wings and orangey-brown bars on their chest and belly. Females and young birds have brown back and wings, and brown bars underneath. Sparrowhawks have bright yellow or orangey eyes, long, yellow legs and long talons. As with most birds of prey the females are larger than males.

Their territories are well spaced – pairs do not tolerate another nest close by. The distance between each nest varies ranges from 0.5 km to 2.1 km. This is determined by the local food supply – the better the food supply, the smaller each territory will be. The nest is usually built in lower parts of the canopy, close to the trunk of a tree and usually concealed from view. It is a sturdy platform of twigs, lined with bark flakes. A central ‘cup’ prevents the eggs from rolling out. Nest building can take several weeks and is often completed long before the eggs are laid.

Sparrowhawk facts; Because of the size difference, male sparrowhawks court the females with caution, as the female can (and sometimes does) kill her suitor.

Sparrowhawk chicks hatch when there are plenty of fledgling small birds around, in the same way that blue tits synchronise their breeding to coincide with the peak availability of caterpillars. Three to six eggs are laid at two-day intervals during May. Incubation lasts for 32-35 days and the eggs hatch in succession over two or more days, so that the chicks are different sizes. The female helps the chicks to break out of their shell. They are covered in pure white short down, and their eyes are already partly open when they hatch. Succesive hatching is an adaptation to cope with an unpredictable food supply. If food is short, the youngest chick will die and reduce the brood to a manageable size.

A Sparrowhawks diet mainly consists of small birds and the occasional rodent. 120 different species of prey have been recorded. Males can catch birds up to thrush size, but females, being bigger, can catch birds up to pigeon size. Some sparrowhawks have adapted their hunting habits to catch bats.

Sparrowhawk facts; Their usual flying speed is around 30-40 kph, but a sparrowhawk is capable of up to 50 kph in short bursts.

There have been concerns in the past that sparrowhawks eat too many small birds and cause their population to fall or even become extinct, however long-term scientific studies have shown that sparrowhawks generally have no or little impact on songbird populations. It is worth remembering that sparrowhawks and songbirds have existed side by side for thousands of years without any detrimental effect on songbird numbers.

Read more at www.wildonline.blog

The Sparrowhawk is a relatively small bird of prey adapted for hunting smaller birds in confined spaces like dense woodland, so gardens are ideal hunting grounds for them. Adult male sparrowhawks have bluish-grey back and wings and orangey-brown bars on their chest and belly. Females and young birds have brown back and wings, and brown bars underneath. Sparrowhawks have bright yellow or orangey eyes, long, yellow legs and long talons. As with most birds of prey the females are larger than males.

Their territories are well spaced – pairs do not tolerate another nest close by. The distance between each nest varies ranges from 0.5 km to 2.1 km. This is determined by the local food supply – the better the food supply, the smaller each territory will be. The nest is usually built in lower parts of the canopy, close to the trunk of a tree and usually concealed from view. It is a sturdy platform of twigs, lined with bark flakes. A central ‘cup’ prevents the eggs from rolling out. Nest building can take several weeks and is often completed long before the eggs are laid.

Sparrowhawk facts; Because of the size difference, male sparrowhawks court the females with caution, as the female can (and sometimes does) kill her suitor.

Sparrowhawk chicks hatch when there are plenty of fledgling small birds around, in the same way that blue tits synchronise their breeding to coincide with the peak availability of caterpillars. Three to six eggs are laid at two-day intervals during May. Incubation lasts for 32-35 days and the eggs hatch in succession over two or more days, so that the chicks are different sizes. The female helps the chicks to break out of their shell. They are covered in pure white short down, and their eyes are already partly open when they hatch. Succesive hatching is an adaptation to cope with an unpredictable food supply. If food is short, the youngest chick will die and reduce the brood to a manageable size.

A Sparrowhawks diet mainly consists of small birds and the occasional rodent. 120 different species of prey have been recorded. Males can catch birds up to thrush size, but females, being bigger, can catch birds up to pigeon size. Some sparrowhawks have adapted their hunting habits to catch bats.

Sparrowhawk facts; Their usual flying speed is around 30-40 kph, but a sparrowhawk is capable of up to 50 kph in short bursts.

There have been concerns in the past that sparrowhawks eat too many small birds and cause their population to fall or even become extinct, however long-term scientific studies have shown that sparrowhawks generally have no or little impact on songbird populations. It is worth remembering that sparrowhawks and songbirds have existed side by side for thousands of years without any detrimental effect on songbird numbers.

Read more at www.wildonline.blog

This Sparrowhawk is fast becoming a regular visitor , his arrival always signalled by the departure of every other bird and small mammal from the area around the pond…..

The Sparrowhawk is a relatively small bird of prey adapted for hunting smaller birds in confined spaces like dense woodland, so gardens are ideal hunting grounds for them. Adult male sparrowhawks have bluish-grey back and wings and orangey-brown bars on their chest and belly. Females and young birds have brown back and wings, and brown bars underneath. Sparrowhawks have bright yellow or orangey eyes, long, yellow legs and long talons. As with most birds of prey the females are larger than males.

Their territories are well spaced – pairs do not tolerate another nest close by. The distance between each nest varies ranges from 0.5 km to 2.1 km. This is determined by the local food supply – the better the food supply, the smaller each territory will be. The nest is usually built in lower parts of the canopy, close to the trunk of a tree and usually concealed from view. It is a sturdy platform of twigs, lined with bark flakes. A central ‘cup’ prevents the eggs from rolling out. Nest building can take several weeks and is often completed long before the eggs are laid.

Sparrowhawk facts; Because of the size difference, male sparrowhawks court the females with caution, as the female can (and sometimes does) kill her suitor.

Sparrowhawk chicks hatch when there are plenty of fledgling small birds around, in the same way that blue tits synchronise their breeding to coincide with the peak availability of caterpillars. Three to six eggs are laid at two-day intervals during May. Incubation lasts for 32-35 days and the eggs hatch in succession over two or more days, so that the chicks are different sizes. The female helps the chicks to break out of their shell. They are covered in pure white short down, and their eyes are already partly open when they hatch. Succesive hatching is an adaptation to cope with an unpredictable food supply. If food is short, the youngest chick will die and reduce the brood to a manageable size.

A Sparrowhawks diet mainly consists of small birds and the occasional rodent. 120 different species of prey have been recorded. Males can catch birds up to thrush size, but females, being bigger, can catch birds up to pigeon size. Some sparrowhawks have adapted their hunting habits to catch bats.

Sparrowhawk facts; Their usual flying speed is around 30-40 kph, but a sparrowhawk is capable of up to 50 kph in short bursts.

There have been concerns in the past that sparrowhawks eat too many small birds and cause their population to fall or even become extinct, however long-term scientific studies have shown that sparrowhawks generally have no or little impact on songbird populations. It is worth remembering that sparrowhawks and songbirds have existed side by side for thousands of years without any detrimental effect on songbird numbers.

Read more at www.wildonline.blog

Seeing my husband’s oxygen concentrator and length of oxygen tubing curled up with this rainbow shining on the floor next to it told me a beautiful, painful, challenging and encouraging story: a reminder of the promise of God’s faithful presence in the middle of our struggles, trials, unknowns, fears, devastation, tears, intense battles, grief and pain—not just when things are a little more manageable. A reminder that though it often feels like it, I am not alone.

Day 6

____________________________

As a way to cope with circumstances beyond my control, survive and work to keep fighting for life I decided to try to take at least one photo (or more) each day. I call this “a photo (or more) a day.” Practicing this form of therapeutic photography helps me work to focus on the present moment, gives me something familiar and enjoyable to focus on as I use photography skills that have become like second-nature to me and being able to view the images I capture helps me recall what I was thinking, feeling and noticing at the moment when I created the photos. More of the photos from this series can be seen on my Instagram account

I may not always have the energy, time or capacity to share photos from this series—especially with the very challenging circumstances my family and I are experiencing—and will do my best to continue taking a photo (or more) a day even if I’m not able to share.

CLOUDS

in the moment | collection 1

in the moment | collection 2

Moving Forward

The Sparrowhawk is a relatively small bird of prey adapted for hunting smaller birds in confined spaces like dense woodland, so gardens are ideal hunting grounds for them. Adult male sparrowhawks have bluish-grey back and wings and orangey-brown bars on their chest and belly. Females and young birds have brown back and wings, and brown bars underneath. Sparrowhawks have bright yellow or orangey eyes, long, yellow legs and long talons. As with most birds of prey the females are larger than males.

Their territories are well spaced – pairs do not tolerate another nest close by. The distance between each nest varies ranges from 0.5 km to 2.1 km. This is determined by the local food supply – the better the food supply, the smaller each territory will be. The nest is usually built in lower parts of the canopy, close to the trunk of a tree and usually concealed from view. It is a sturdy platform of twigs, lined with bark flakes. A central ‘cup’ prevents the eggs from rolling out. Nest building can take several weeks and is often completed long before the eggs are laid.

Sparrowhawk facts; Because of the size difference, male sparrowhawks court the females with caution, as the female can (and sometimes does) kill her suitor.

Sparrowhawk chicks hatch when there are plenty of fledgling small birds around, in the same way that blue tits synchronise their breeding to coincide with the peak availability of caterpillars. Three to six eggs are laid at two-day intervals during May. Incubation lasts for 32-35 days and the eggs hatch in succession over two or more days, so that the chicks are different sizes. The female helps the chicks to break out of their shell. They are covered in pure white short down, and their eyes are already partly open when they hatch. Succesive hatching is an adaptation to cope with an unpredictable food supply. If food is short, the youngest chick will die and reduce the brood to a manageable size.

A Sparrowhawks diet mainly consists of small birds and the occasional rodent. 120 different species of prey have been recorded. Males can catch birds up to thrush size, but females, being bigger, can catch birds up to pigeon size. Some sparrowhawks have adapted their hunting habits to catch bats.

Sparrowhawk facts; Their usual flying speed is around 30-40 kph, but a sparrowhawk is capable of up to 50 kph in short bursts.

There have been concerns in the past that sparrowhawks eat too many small birds and cause their population to fall or even become extinct, however long-term scientific studies have shown that sparrowhawks generally have no or little impact on songbird populations. It is worth remembering that sparrowhawks and songbirds have existed side by side for thousands of years without any detrimental effect on songbird numbers.

Read more at www.wildonline.blog

♦ Instructions available at BrickVault ♦

The EF76 Nebulon-B Frigate has to be one of my favorite ships from the original trilogy. After rewatching the beautiful ending scene in Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back, I decided to take on the Midi-Scale challenge once again.

This very compact model is made of 1,464 pieces and measures 48cm. With this design, I tried to maximize the density factor in the smallest, most convenient size possible.

The Nebulon-B features a movie-accurate, fully asymmetrical design, from side panels to greebles and surface detail. It also includes cannons, sensors, an accurate and intricate bridge section, a streamlined water tank, and many small details seen on the original ship.

Reproducing the various front assemblies, small buildings in the back and all the greebles around the engine section took lots of fine-tuning, mindful part choices, and fun gap-filling sessions to closely match the ILM prop model.

The building process isn't too long nor complex: I once again went for a fully modular approach, and the reasonable part count makes it both a manageable and relatively affordable build.

The EF76 comes with a wide built-in stand and can be moved around easily. It can even be grabbed and held by its long middle section which is made of a sturdy technic liftarm configuration.

► Instructions for the Nebulon-B are available at BrickVault!

Philatelic cover...(a philatelic cover is an envelope prepared with a stamp and address and sent through the mail delivery system for the purpose of creating a collectible item).

The town of Croydon, British Columbia is very much the story of a boom and bust town. In 1929, over a hundred people called Croydon home. By the 1940’s, the population had dwindled to about sixty people and housed a post office, school and section crew on the south side of the river. The two room school on the North side of the Fraser River remained operational until the late 1950’s. While travel across the river was manageable in the depths of winter and in the warm summer, in early spring and winter, crossing the river was far too treacherous, hence the need for a school on both sides of the river. LINK to the complete article - www.valleymuseumarchives.ca/historytour/35/

(from - Wrigley's 1921 British Columbia Directory) - CROYDON STATION - a post office and station on the G. T. P.

Railway, 26 miles east of McBride, in Fort George Provincial Electoral District, and 13 miles west of Tete Jaune Cache. Has

G. T. P. telegraph office. Local resources: Lumbering. Post office address is Croydon Station. The population in 1921 was 100 by 1942 it had dropped to 60.

GTPR's CROYDON flag station was named after Croydon, England (identity of the namer, and the significance of the name is not known). It is located on the west side of the Fraser River between Valemount and McBride, Cariboo Land District, British Columbia.

The CROYDON STATION Post Office was established - 1 July 1917 and closed - 30 March 1968 - the office was permanently closed due to the retirement of the Postmaster and to its limited usefulness.

LINK to a list of the Postmasters who served at the CROYDON STATION Post Office - central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?app=posoffposmas&id=2...

- sent from - / CROYDON STATION / OC 15 / 63 / B.C / - split ring cancel - this split ring hammer (A1-1) was proofed - 9 February 1917 - (RF C).

- sent registered - / R / Croydon Station, B.C. / ORIGINAL NO. / (902) / - boxed registered marking in black ink / - also has the large "R" in an oval registered marking in black ink.

- via - / • JASPER & PRINCE GEORGE • / 195 / 17 X / 6(3) / R.P.O. / - rpo transit backstamp (WT-260 / RF D - Ludlow W-60A / RF 185) - this rpo hammer known period of use - 1 October 1955 to - 1 August 1965.

- arrived at - / PRINCE RUPPERT / 7 / OC 18 / 63 / B.C. / - arrival backstamp

Jessie Barnett was postmistress at Croydon for almost 42 years - serving from - 15 September 1927 to - 30 March 1968.

The post office and store were located in Jessie Barnett’s home. She would meet the train as it came in with her outgoing mail bag and collect the new mail. Residents would often wait with her at the station for the mail to come in. As there were at this point no telephones, if the train was late, the only option was to wait for it. This sometimes resulted in Jessie sorting the mail quite late at night. When the train finally came in, residents would trudge with Jessie the quarter of a mile to her house so that she could sort the mail and then pass it out to them. When Jessie retired in 1968, she was not replaced and the remaining residents of Croydon had to travel to the Dunster General Store to get their mail. LINK to the complete article and photo of Jessie Barnett - www.valleymuseumarchives.ca/historytour/35/

Jessie Stirling (nee Gray) Barnett

(b. 16 May 1888 in Glasgow, Scotland - d. 6 may 1975 at age 86 in McBride, British Columbia)

Her husband - Frederick William Barnett

(29 October 1886 in Glasgow, Scotaln - d. 15 November 1975 at age 89 in McBride, British Columbia) - his occupation was - farmer and a carpenter - they immigrated to Canada in 1905. They had two daughters Norah & Louise.

Addressed to: Mr. W. Whitehouse / 1022 West 1st Avenue, / Prince Rupert, B.C.

Wilfred "Wilf" Donald Whitehouse

(b. 5 January 1921 in Windsor, Ontario - d. 31 December 2007 at age 86 in British Columbia)

Wilfred "Wilf" Donald Whitehouse of Kamloops, B.C. passed away peacefully on December 31st, 2007 at 86 years of age. Survived by his wife Delphine Louise Whitehouse, A Kamloops resident for 36 years, Wilf was born in Windsor, Ontario on January 5th, 1921. He grew up in Vancouver after his family moved there when he was a young boy. Wilf served in the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II. He married Delphine Louise Balagno in Prince Rupert in June 1952 where they raised their family of four children before moving to Kamloops on January 1st, 1971. Wilf worked for the BC Forest Service for 34 years. Wilf was an avid stamp and coin collector, a dedicated hockey fan and a gifted model builder. Building ship models was one of his favourite hobbies and his ships are in the collection of both the Provincial Museum in Victoria and the Maritime Museum in Vancouver.

Wilf was a Royal Canadian specialist who was a researcher and author on R.C.N. mail during the second world war. He was considered to be the authority on naval mail and Canadian Armed Forces Air Letters.

This view is definitely set to change by next year: my annual shot from the jewelry counter looking toward the back right corner, and all those cute little one aisle departments! I expect those aisles (and all the others) will be getting the more manageable, new black icon-style signs after the remodel, like these (flic.kr/p/HHq3jk, except for the Home sign, that thing's a much bigger monster than it would appear!). Note also the new, black décor 2.0 signage at the jewelry counter itself. Here's this similar view from the Iuka Wal-Mart jewelry counter July 5, 2013: flic.kr/p/f3zEmF, and again July 4, 2014: flic.kr/p/w3oqTb, where it would appear that *possibly* the big Do It Yourself sign was removed. Unfortunately, I failed to get the similar view back in 2015, but hopefully will get it again during and/or after the remodel at some point.

____________________________________

Wal-Mart 274, 1979-built, Battleground Dr. at First American Dr., Iuka MS

The Sparrowhawk is a relatively small bird of prey adapted for hunting smaller birds in confined spaces like dense woodland, so gardens are ideal hunting grounds for them. Adult male sparrowhawks have bluish-grey back and wings and orangey-brown bars on their chest and belly. Females and young birds have brown back and wings, and brown bars underneath. Sparrowhawks have bright yellow or orangey eyes, long, yellow legs and long talons. As with most birds of prey the females are larger than males.

Their territories are well spaced – pairs do not tolerate another nest close by. The distance between each nest varies ranges from 0.5 km to 2.1 km. This is determined by the local food supply – the better the food supply, the smaller each territory will be. The nest is usually built in lower parts of the canopy, close to the trunk of a tree and usually concealed from view. It is a sturdy platform of twigs, lined with bark flakes. A central ‘cup’ prevents the eggs from rolling out. Nest building can take several weeks and is often completed long before the eggs are laid.

Sparrowhawk facts; Because of the size difference, male sparrowhawks court the females with caution, as the female can (and sometimes does) kill her suitor.

Sparrowhawk chicks hatch when there are plenty of fledgling small birds around, in the same way that blue tits synchronise their breeding to coincide with the peak availability of caterpillars. Three to six eggs are laid at two-day intervals during May. Incubation lasts for 32-35 days and the eggs hatch in succession over two or more days, so that the chicks are different sizes. The female helps the chicks to break out of their shell. They are covered in pure white short down, and their eyes are already partly open when they hatch. Succesive hatching is an adaptation to cope with an unpredictable food supply. If food is short, the youngest chick will die and reduce the brood to a manageable size.

A Sparrowhawks diet mainly consists of small birds and the occasional rodent. 120 different species of prey have been recorded. Males can catch birds up to thrush size, but females, being bigger, can catch birds up to pigeon size. Some sparrowhawks have adapted their hunting habits to catch bats.

Sparrowhawk facts; Their usual flying speed is around 30-40 kph, but a sparrowhawk is capable of up to 50 kph in short bursts.

There have been concerns in the past that sparrowhawks eat too many small birds and cause their population to fall or even become extinct, however long-term scientific studies have shown that sparrowhawks generally have no or little impact on songbird populations. It is worth remembering that sparrowhawks and songbirds have existed side by side for thousands of years without any detrimental effect on songbird numbers.

Read more at www.wildonline.blog

The Sparrowhawk is a relatively small bird of prey adapted for hunting smaller birds in confined spaces like dense woodland, so gardens are ideal hunting grounds for them. Adult male sparrowhawks have bluish-grey back and wings and orangey-brown bars on their chest and belly. Females and young birds have brown back and wings, and brown bars underneath. Sparrowhawks have bright yellow or orangey eyes, long, yellow legs and long talons. As with most birds of prey the females are larger than males.

Their territories are well spaced – pairs do not tolerate another nest close by. The distance between each nest varies ranges from 0.5 km to 2.1 km. This is determined by the local food supply – the better the food supply, the smaller each territory will be. The nest is usually built in lower parts of the canopy, close to the trunk of a tree and usually concealed from view. It is a sturdy platform of twigs, lined with bark flakes. A central ‘cup’ prevents the eggs from rolling out. Nest building can take several weeks and is often completed long before the eggs are laid.

Sparrowhawk facts; Because of the size difference, male sparrowhawks court the females with caution, as the female can (and sometimes does) kill her suitor.

Sparrowhawk chicks hatch when there are plenty of fledgling small birds around, in the same way that blue tits synchronise their breeding to coincide with the peak availability of caterpillars. Three to six eggs are laid at two-day intervals during May. Incubation lasts for 32-35 days and the eggs hatch in succession over two or more days, so that the chicks are different sizes. The female helps the chicks to break out of their shell. They are covered in pure white short down, and their eyes are already partly open when they hatch. Succesive hatching is an adaptation to cope with an unpredictable food supply. If food is short, the youngest chick will die and reduce the brood to a manageable size.

A Sparrowhawks diet mainly consists of small birds and the occasional rodent. 120 different species of prey have been recorded. Males can catch birds up to thrush size, but females, being bigger, can catch birds up to pigeon size. Some sparrowhawks have adapted their hunting habits to catch bats.

Sparrowhawk facts; Their usual flying speed is around 30-40 kph, but a sparrowhawk is capable of up to 50 kph in short bursts.

There have been concerns in the past that sparrowhawks eat too many small birds and cause their population to fall or even become extinct, however long-term scientific studies have shown that sparrowhawks generally have no or little impact on songbird populations. It is worth remembering that sparrowhawks and songbirds have existed side by side for thousands of years without any detrimental effect on songbird numbers.

Read more at www.wildonline.blog

Over its lifetime, our dark Universe detective will image billions of galaxies, revealing the hidden influence that dark matter and dark energy have on them.

That’s why it’s fitting that one of the first galaxies that Euclid observed is nicknamed the ‘Hidden Galaxy’. This galaxy, also known as IC 342 or Caldwell 5, is difficult to observe because it lies behind the busy disc of our Milky Way, and so dust, gas and stars obscure our view.

Euclid could take this beautiful and sharp image thanks to its incredible sensitivity and superb optics. Most important here is that Euclid used its near-infrared instrument to peer through the dust and measure the light from the many cool and low-mass stars that dominate the galaxy's mass.

“That’s what is so brilliant about Euclid images. In one shot, it can see the whole galaxy in all its beautiful detail,” explains Euclid Consortium scientist Leslie Hunt of the National Institute for Astrophysics in Italy, on behalf of a broader team working on showcasing galaxies imaged by Euclid.

“This image might look normal, as if every telescope can make such an image, but that is not true. What’s so special here is that we have a wide view covering the entire galaxy, but we can also zoom in to distinguish single stars and star clusters. This makes it possible to trace the history of star formation and better understand how stars formed and evolved over the lifetime of the galaxy.”

IC 342 is located around 11 million light-years from Earth, very nearby our own galaxy (in astronomical distances). It is as large as the full Moon on the sky. And as a spiral galaxy, it is considered a look-alike of the Milky Way. “It is difficult to study our own galaxy as we are within it and can only see it edge on. So, by studying galaxies like IC 342, we can learn a lot about galaxies like our own,” adds Leslie.

Euclid is not the first to observe the Hidden Galaxy. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has previously imaged its core. But until now it has been impossible to study the star-formation history of the entire galaxy. Additionally, scientists have already spotted many globular clusters in this image, some of which have not been previously identified.

Euclid will observe billions of similar but more distant galaxies, all distributed along a ‘cosmic web’ of dark matter filaments. In this way, it will provide a 3D view of the dark matter distribution in our Universe. The map of the distribution of galaxies over cosmic time will also teach us about dark energy, which accelerates the expansion of the Universe.

The data in this image were taken in about one hour of observation. This colour image was obtained by combining VIS data and NISP photometry in Y and H bands; its size is 8800 x 8800 pixels. VIS and NISP enable observing astronomical sources in four different wavelength ranges. Aesthetics choices led to the selection of three out of these four bands to be cast onto the traditional Red-Green-Blue colour channels used to represent images on our digital screens (RGB). The blue, green, red channels capture the Universe seen by Euclid around the wavelength 0.7, 1.1, and 1.7 micron respectively. This gives Euclid a distinctive colour palette: hot stars have a white-blue hue, excited hydrogen gas appears in the blue channel, and regions rich in dust and molecular gas have a clear red hue. Distant redshifted background galaxies appear very red. In the image, the stars have six prominent spikes due to how light interacts with the optical system of the telescope in the process of diffraction. Another signature of Euclid special optics is the presence of a few, very faint and small round regions of a fuzzy blue colour. These are normal artefacts of complex optical systems, so-called ‘optical ghost’; easily identifiable during data analysis, they do not cause any problem for the science goals.

The cutout from the full view of the IC 342 is at the high resolution of the VIS instrument. This is nine times better than the definition of NISP that was selected for the full view; this was done for the practical reason of limiting the format of the full image to a manageable size for downloading. The cutout fully showcases the power of Euclid in obtaining extremely sharp images over a large region of the sky in one single pointing. Although this image represents only a small part of the entire colour view, the same quality as shown here is available over the full field. The full view of IC 342 at the highest definition can be explored on ESASky.

[Image description]

A big spiral galaxy is visible face-on in white/pink colours at the centre of this square astronomical image. The galaxy covers almost the entire image and appears whiter at its centre where more stars are located. Its spiral arms stretch out across the image and appear fainter at the edges. The entire image is speckled with stars ranging in colour from blue to white to yellow/red, across a black background of space. Blue stars are younger and red stars are older. A few of the stars are a bit larger than the rest, with six diffraction spikes.

Credits: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

' Do you remember Grasmere ?'

' Ah, dearest Grasmere!' Its little lakes and mountains were beloved by them all.

Romantic yet manageable, it sprang from a kindlier planet.

E.M. Forster

A Passage to India 1924

| Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram |

Press L to view larger and on black!

First off Happy New Year and welcome 2014!

And its now come to an end, I'm now done my second 365! Now I know I decided to end with a pretty simple photo but you know its a somewhat symbolic photo to me. To a lot of people and in a lot of cultures hair is quite important and getting rid of mine and today was something I planned on doing pretty much two years ago when I decided to grow it back out. So yes to end my 365 and my year off I decided to hack off my hair (and shave too hahaha). I donated my hair to the Angel Hair for Kids program, the misses actually recommended I give it to them. Though during the haircutting process the barber cut my hair a little shorter then I wanted so right now its at that awkward stage where it just doesn't look right. If you look at me straight on you'll see what I'm talking about! Frankly this photo/angle hides the issue. But whatever give it a month or two and it'll sort itself out. Also as you can tell I printed out a number of 4x6 prints from my 365 and put together a collage of sorts to use as a background! I wanted to change it up with each photo but due to time and space constraints I couldn't really, but whatever. Either way a triptych of myself is what I end everything off with.

So just like the last time I finished doing one of these I have to be honest and say I probably won't be so active anymore... Anywhere. Of course I'll still shoot but uploads will be few and far between. I plan on shooting a lot more film now as well. Also I plan on cleaning out my Flickr and Facebook soon, so I'd say about 1/3 of this 365 will be deleted, which is better then last time! I didn't experiment around nearly as much as I did during my first 365 and decided to work more on portraits this year, even if more then half of them are self portraits, but still. I do feel like I ended up with more keepers though. Will I do another 365? Maybe after another year long break, we'll see. I might just end up doing a 52 week project as that will be more manageable. I still recommend people give it a shot, its a great experience especially if you don't impose as many rules as I did on your 365! Either way great time doing this, seems like I gained a number of followers as well this year. So thanks to everyone for the support, it really means a lot! Lastly if you for some reason message me on Flickr, don't expect a response... Better luck trying my Facebook or even through my Website or Twitter. My Flickr inbox has over 100 unread emails so yea... Not something I check. Point is thanks everyone and here's hoping 2014 treats you all well!

Strobist info

Nikon SB-800 boomed overhead with a Phottix 2x3 soft box firing at 1/32 power

Nikon SB-800 camera right with a full CTO gel and a snoot firing at 1/64 power

I have been doing a small art drawing every morning for some time now. I don't plan or overthink, I just do. Postcards are my substrate a manageable size for a quick drawing. It's interesting to see how the work evolves.

After a long break due to holidays, a heatwave and health issues we have resumed our Monarch’s Way challenge. We are walking the 111 miles of this long distance path between Stratford on Avon and Bristol in manageable lengths. There are 20 walks in all, this is Walk 6. Regulars Alison and Deborah (and Lily the dog - out of shot) were joined by Steven and Vanessa.

This walk took us from Broadwell to Bourton-on-the-Water, about 6 miles.

Deborah took the selfie.

This kestrel was displayed by CJ's Birds of Prey from Farcet, Peterborough, at the Sotterley Country Fair in Suffolk.

The kestrel is a bird of prey belonging to the falcon family Falconidae. The name 'kestrel' is derived from the French word crécerelle.

Kestrels measure 12.5 to 15.5 in. (32 to 39 cm) from head to tail, with a wingspan of 25.5 to 32.5 in. (65 to 82 cm). Females are noticeably larger, with the adult male weighing 4.75 to 9 oz. (136 to 255 g) around 5.5 oz. (155 g) on average, the adult female weighs 5.5 to 11 oz. (155 to 311 g), around 6.5 oz. (184 g) on average. They are thus small compared with other birds of prey, but larger than most songbirds. Like the other falcon species they have long wings as well as a distinctive long tail.

Their plumage is mainly light chestnut brown with blackish spots on the upperside and buff with narrow blackish streaks on the underside. The beak, feet, and a narrow ring around the eye are bright yellow; the talons, bill and iris are dark. Hatchlings are covered in white down feathers, changing to a buff-grey second down coat before they grow their first true plumage.

Kestrels are found in a wide variety of habitats, from moor and heath, to farmland and urban areas. The only places they do not favour are dense forests, vast treeless wetlands and mountains. They are found throughout the UK except for Shetland.

When hunting, the kestrel characteristically hovers about 35 to 65 ft. (10 to 20 m) above the ground, searching for prey, either by flying into the wind or by soaring using ridge lift. Like most birds of prey, kestrels have keen eyesight enabling them to spot small prey from a distance. Once prey is sighted, the bird makes a short, steep dive toward the target. It can often be found hunting along the sides of roads and motorways. This species is able to see near ultraviolet light, allowing the birds to detect the urine trails around rodent burrows as they shine in an ultraviolet colour in the sunlight. Another favourite hunting technique is to perch a bit above the ground cover, surveying the area. When the bird spots prey animals moving by, it will pounce on them. They also prowl a patch of hunting ground in a ground-hugging flight, ambushing prey as they happen across it.

Kestrels eat almost exclusively mouse sized mammals. Voles, shrews and mice provide 75% or more of their food. A kestrel requires the equivalent of 4 to 8 voles a day. They have been known to catch several voles in succession and cache some for later consumption. An individual nestling consumes on average 3 to 4 voles per day. Birds are only an important food during a few weeks each summer when inexperienced fledglings abound. Other suitably sized vertebrates like bats, swifts, frogs and lizards are eaten only on rare occasions. Seasonally, beetles, spiders and insects may be a main prey item.

Kestrels do not build nests, instead they lay their eggs in such places as holes in trees or cliff faces. They also use nests abandoned by other species. In urban areas, kestrels will lay their eggs on rooftops and holes in walls. The kestrel starts breeding in April or May. The clutch is normally 3 to 7 eggs and incubation lasts for about a month with both male and female will take shifts incubating the eggs. After the eggs have hatched, the parents share brooding and hunting duties. Only the female feeds the chicks, by tearing apart prey into manageable chunks. The young fledge after 4 to 5 weeks. The family stays close together for a few weeks, during which time the young learn how to fend for themselves and hunt prey. The UK populations of breeding pairs is 46,000 pairs and it's UK conservation status is Amber.

Daisy was very fond of these too...and so am I. A manageable heel height, and the color will go with nearly anything. 😉

Trying to add the backlog in manageable numbers :)

I only used natural windlight settings to show the beauty of the region. As with the previous SOOC exercises, the ONLY editing I did to the pictures was reducing them from the size I shoot in SL (4000×3500) down to a 1024 size manageable for the blog and Flickr. There’s been no cropping, no liquifying, no adjusting contrast or color balances or any of the other Photoshop tools I use on a regular basis.

slicesoflifesl.wordpress.com/2014/06/27/sooc-herd-of-the-...

maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Twilight%20Caye/212/140/22

Ready to eat now. The earliest apple in the garden by far. Nice eater with a simple fresh taste. Very juicy. I love this tree because it is so spectacular when in flower - always the best performer in the garden in terms of blossom.

For no good aesthetic reason, I am posting a bunch of pictures from today of some of the apples on the trees in our garden.

Nice time to look at them just now – mostly still quite small but swelling rapidly as we get to late summer.

My trees are on rootstock MM106 which is very common rootstock for non-dwarf trees and they are being grown as “half standards” (so first branch at 1.4M) which gives a tree big enough to produce a good crop but just manageable in a garden setting and reasonably easy to mow under with a ride-on. The trees are now 17 years old (planted as maiden whips in February 2004). I do tend to look at them a lot but don’t seem to photograph them as much as I might.

I have just registered for a 1-day course in cider making (along with 2 of my brothers) for late September down in Galway. So today looking at the apples with extra special interest. We need to bring 8kg of apples each to the course– so that is 24kg for the 3 of us. On looking around the trees thois afternoon, I don’t think this will pose a challenge to achieve in 6 weeks’ time when the course is on.

Lou Reed - My Friend George

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX0__bdktmU

02.21.15

Another crazy day at work and tomorrow is supposed to be even worse. Not looking forward to that. The fog this morning was so thick in Marina I couldn't see on the drive to work. Monterey fog was much more manageable. I love it.

Have a nice day!

----------

Canon 5D Mark III

Canon 28mm 2.8

----------

Connect With Me

ContactSiKphoto@gmail.com

Twitter

Vimeo

Website

I had to bribe my little girl (oh, OK, she's 15) to get this. The prize? A driving lesson. I think that was manageable. View L

ODC: Exotic. Unedited photo for Camera Skills group.

They forecasted mist for yesterday morning, so I got up early. It was my first try in these conditions and I found it quite hard to get the exposure right. The dynamic range is quite hard to capture.

This shot was taken at the Vondelpark, only 5 min by foot from my house, so getting there was quite manageable at this horrible time. The Vondelpark is the “Central Park” of Amsterdam. For more info:

www.zuid.amsterdam.nl/wonen_en/natuur_en_milieu/parken_in...

I'm trying to come back to Flickr. It's a slow process but I've started weeding out some of the thousands of contacts I accepted here over the last few years. I have to do that in order to cut out those no longer active and get a manageable list of people here that I can interact with. I have stayed on Flickr to post pics, which I do to get my message out and serve as some sort of inspiration (as some people say) but I have not been able to look at others photos very often because of the sheer volume of pictures in my stream here. Hopefully soon I will get things whittled down where I can keep up with my friends here again...:)

tammyworld2012.blogspot.com/

The White Pass Rotary Fleet arrives at the place for which the line is named: the famed White Pass. Appropriately enough, a light snow is falling. Behind the Rotary Fleet, you can see the distinctive green and yellow colors of the GE 90-Class Diesels leading our photographer's chase train. The particular location you see here is called US-Canada Boundary Shed because this is the US-Canada Border, and the location used to be sheltered by a large snowshed back when the line was a year-round freight hauler.

There's a good reason this place is called "White Pass". Although there was no snow at all just a few miles behind these trains, the snow depths here averaged roughly 10 feet, with drifts that were about double that depth. This scene is a bit deceiving. The snow pack on which the photographer and the railroaders are standing covers a railroad siding. The snow cover on top of this track has already been cut down substantially by "Cats" (large, Caterpillar Bulldozers). You get a better indication of the real snow depth by looking at the left side of the image, near the rotary's intake. During the next two days, the "Cats" will be running out ahead of the rotary, shaving off the top layers of snow so that the depth does not exceed the height of the plow's intake scoop. Still, even with the help of the "Cats", it will take a day and a half of hard struggle to go through the roughly one mile stretch of the heaviest drifts and reach MP 21, where the snow depths will decrease to a more manageable 2-3 feet.

At work today & the temperature was 51C! thinking of back home in summer & things are a little more manageable!

with another day of 50 degree weather underway, the snow is finally getting to a manageable depth

To create a 3D map of the Universe, Euclid will observe the light from galaxies out to 10 billion light-years. Most galaxies in the early Universe don’t look like a neat spiral but are irregular and small. They are the building blocks for bigger galaxies like our own.

This first irregular dwarf galaxy that Euclid observed is called NGC 6822 and is located close by, just 1.6 million light-years from Earth. It is a member of the same galaxy cluster as the Milky Way (called the Local Group), and was discovered in 1884. In 1925 Edwin Hubble was the first to identify NGC 6822 as a ‘remote stellar system’ well beyond the Milky Way.

NGC 6822 has been observed many times since, most recently by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. But Euclid is the first to capture the entire galaxy and its surroundings in high resolution in about one hour, which would not be possible with telescopes on the ground (the atmosphere prevents this sharpness) or with Webb (which makes very detailed images of small parts of the sky).

One interesting aspect of this galaxy is that its stars contain low amounts of elements that are not hydrogen and helium. These heavier, ‘metal’ elements are produced by stars over their lifetimes and are therefore not very common in the early Universe (before the first generation of stars had been born, lived and died).

“By studying low-metallicity galaxies like NGC 6822 in our own galactic neighbourhood, we can learn how galaxies evolved in the early Universe,” explains Euclid Consortium scientist Leslie Hunt of the National Institute for Astrophysics in Italy, on behalf of a broader team working on showcasing galaxies imaged by Euclid.

In addition to studying the star-formation history of this galaxy, which can now be done thanks to the colour information from Euclid’s near-infrared instrument and its wide field of view, scientists have already spotted many globular star clusters in this image that reveal clues as to how the galaxy was assembled.

Globular clusters are collections of hundreds of thousands of stars held together by gravity. They are some of the oldest objects in the Universe, and most of their stars were all formed out of the same cloud. That’s why they hold the ‘fossil records’ of the first star-formation episodes of their host galaxies. See also Euclid’s first image of globular cluster NGC 6397.

The data in this image were taken in about one hour of observation. This colour image was obtained by combining VIS data and NISP photometry in Y and H bands; its size is 8800 x 8800 pixels. VIS and NISP enable observing astronomical sources in four different wavelength ranges. Aesthetics choices led to the selection of three out of these four bands to be cast onto the traditional Red-Green-Blue colour channels used to represent images on our digital screens (RGB). The blue, green, red channels capture the Universe seen by Euclid around the wavelength 0.7, 1.1, and 1.7 micron respectively. This gives Euclid a distinctive colour palette: hot stars have a white-blue hue, excited hydrogen gas appears in the blue channel, and regions rich in dust and molecular gas have a clear red hue. Distant redshifted background galaxies appear very red. In the image, the stars have six prominent spikes due to how light interacts with the optical system of the telescope in the process of diffraction. Another signature of Euclid special optics is the presence of a few, very faint and small round regions of a fuzzy blue colour. These are normal artefacts of complex optical systems, so-called ‘optical ghost’; easily identifiable during data analysis, they do not cause any problem for the science goals.

The cutout from the full view of NGC 6822 is at the high resolution of the VIS instrument. This is nine times better than the definition of NISP that was selected for the full view; this was done for the practical reason of limiting the format of the full image to a manageable size for downloading. The cutout fully showcases the power of Euclid in obtaining extremely sharp images over a large region of the sky in one single pointing. Although this image represents only a small part of the entire colour view, the same quality as shown here is available over the full field. The full view of NGC 6822 at the highest definition can be explored on ESASky.

[Image description]

This square astronomical image is speckled with numerous stars visible across the black expanse of space. Most stars are visible only as pinpoints. More stars are crowding the centre of the image, visible as an irregular round shape. This is an irregular galaxy. The centre of the galaxy appears whiter and the edges yellower. Several pink bubbles are visible spread throughout the galaxy. The stars across the entire image range in colour from blue to white to yellow/red, across a black background of space. Blue stars are younger and red stars are older. A few of the stars are a bit larger than the rest, with six diffraction spikes.

Credits: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Took this new baby (X100S) out for a few test shots this afternoon. I am quite pleased with the IQ consider the fact that it does not have a FF sensor. Fun camera to shoot and hopefully i will take it out more often as the size is much smaller than my Nikons and more manageable when use in combination with my MF camera. More upload to come.

Fujifilm X100s. Handheld. Edited in LR4.

From Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan.

♦ Instructions available at BrickVault ♦

The EF76 Nebulon-B Frigate has to be one of my favorite ships from the original trilogy. After rewatching the beautiful ending scene in Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back, I decided to take on the Midi-Scale challenge once again.

This very compact model is made of 1,464 pieces and measures 48cm. With this design, I tried to maximize the density factor in the smallest, most convenient size possible.

The Nebulon-B features a movie-accurate, fully asymmetrical design, from side panels to greebles and surface detail. It also includes cannons, sensors, an accurate and intricate bridge section, a streamlined water tank, and many small details seen on the original ship.

Reproducing the various front assemblies, small buildings in the back and all the greebles around the engine section took lots of fine-tuning, mindful part choices, and fun gap-filling sessions to closely match the ILM prop model.

The building process isn't too long nor complex: I once again went for a fully modular approach, and the reasonable part count makes it both a manageable and relatively affordable build.

The EF76 comes with a wide built-in stand and can be moved around easily. It can even be grabbed and held by its long middle section which is made of a sturdy technic liftarm configuration.

► Instructions for the Nebulon-B are available at BrickVault!

I initially set out to visit the Queeche Gorge so I could finally get to see this view with lush summer greens. Although I got what I came for, I was unexpectedly surprised by something quite moving. Attached to the guard rails of the bridge that make up this epic view point were dozens of colorful, laminated cards pleading suicide jumpers to reconsider. Due to recent deaths at this spot, quotes such as "when the light goes out the stars come out", and "we know how you feel and we want to help" were written out with the suicide hotline below. I found this incredibly touching, and my brief visit resulted in a long self-reflection on depression and mental health awareness.

The truth is that I have a bit of a history with depression. I think we all go through our phases whether we like to admit it or not. For some of us the root of the cause can be a major life event or multi-factorial. For some of us the feelings of apathy, fatigue, and the strange mental numbness can last several days or sometimes for months. I am incredibly thankful that depression for me has always been self-manageable, even when it was at its worst several years ago. Two things that have always helped me cope whenever I was feeling down was to spend time with those I love, and doing photography. Whenever the stress of life comes around and everything feels like it's about to burst at the seams, mother nature always has her arms wide open to me. Photography is a way for me to "get away" from it all and to focus on myself and on the beautiful sights of nature before me. Through this medium I've become more open to trying new things and have gained confidence in myself and my work. I have branched out in ways I would have never expected, and I have made tons of new connections and friends. I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm really glad photography came into my life and that it has helped me personally deal with my own mental health.

I hope everyone has a good day. Remember to always be kind to each other. You never know what someone might be going through.

The Sparrowhawk is a relatively small bird of prey adapted for hunting smaller birds in confined spaces like dense woodland, so gardens are ideal hunting grounds for them. Adult male sparrowhawks have bluish-grey back and wings and orangey-brown bars on their chest and belly. Females and young birds have brown back and wings, and brown bars underneath. Sparrowhawks have bright yellow or orangey eyes, long, yellow legs and long talons. As with most birds of prey the females are larger than males.

Their territories are well spaced – pairs do not tolerate another nest close by. The distance between each nest varies ranges from 0.5 km to 2.1 km. This is determined by the local food supply – the better the food supply, the smaller each territory will be. The nest is usually built in lower parts of the canopy, close to the trunk of a tree and usually concealed from view. It is a sturdy platform of twigs, lined with bark flakes. A central ‘cup’ prevents the eggs from rolling out. Nest building can take several weeks and is often completed long before the eggs are laid.

Sparrowhawk facts; Because of the size difference, male sparrowhawks court the females with caution, as the female can (and sometimes does) kill her suitor.

Sparrowhawk chicks hatch when there are plenty of fledgling small birds around, in the same way that blue tits synchronise their breeding to coincide with the peak availability of caterpillars. Three to six eggs are laid at two-day intervals during May. Incubation lasts for 32-35 days and the eggs hatch in succession over two or more days, so that the chicks are different sizes. The female helps the chicks to break out of their shell. They are covered in pure white short down, and their eyes are already partly open when they hatch. Succesive hatching is an adaptation to cope with an unpredictable food supply. If food is short, the youngest chick will die and reduce the brood to a manageable size.

A Sparrowhawks diet mainly consists of small birds and the occasional rodent. 120 different species of prey have been recorded. Males can catch birds up to thrush size, but females, being bigger, can catch birds up to pigeon size. Some sparrowhawks have adapted their hunting habits to catch bats.

Sparrowhawk facts; Their usual flying speed is around 30-40 kph, but a sparrowhawk is capable of up to 50 kph in short bursts.

There have been concerns in the past that sparrowhawks eat too many small birds and cause their population to fall or even become extinct, however long-term scientific studies have shown that sparrowhawks generally have no or little impact on songbird populations. It is worth remembering that sparrowhawks and songbirds have existed side by side for thousands of years without any detrimental effect on songbird numbers.

Read more at www.wildonline.blog

Here's Ann Arbor Railroad 4-4-2 number 1611 making a stop in Durand on her northward passenger run. The Annie had 5 of these locomotives as their main passenger power (1610-1614), although a ten wheeler would be commonly substituted from time to time.

Passenger service was abandoned right around the time when steam power was being replaced by diesels. The RS-1's, numbers 20 and 21 were originally supposed to have steam generators in the short hood, although the story I heard was that upon permission to abandon passenger service, the road deleted steam generators before taking delivery.

This image was a fun one to edit... The original image taken by Walter Weible is a medium format negative which I scanned at a high resolution. The resulting image was over 12000 pixels across! After tweaking; cropping, lighting adjust, mild sharpening, and Lord only knows how many specs of dust and light scratches I removed.. then selective editing of areas to reduce image noise. Several hours later the finished product emerged, only to be reduced in size to a more manageable 2048 pixels across the image horizontally.

Image is from the Walter Weible collection, Ann Arbor Model RR club.

Also for sale by the same vendor at the Bottle Show event was this very cool, hand-carved wooden Jitney Jungle clock, which I believe had originally been on display in a store. A much smaller size (maybe about two side-by-side laptops or so?), this piece is obviously way more manageable, but that didn’t mean its price was significantly cheaper, lol. In having to make a decision between the two, as neat as this piece was, it was the giant metal in-store advertising piece that called my attention more, since that was basically a once-in-a-lifetime, bucket-list type of find for me. I had to leave this one behind, but I did tell my friend about it, and – as a fan of both Jitney, and clocks (go figure!) – he actually ended up getting in touch with the seller and buying it himself, and it is now displayed proudly at his house! The one regret I have is that the seller, obviously tipped off to the fact that he had a captive audience (based on the fact that I had to ask him for his contact information to give to my friend), tried to rip him off by quoting him a higher price than was on the price tag… did he not think that I would have told my friend the listed price from seeing it in person?! I hate that the seller did that, but ultimately it was too cool a piece for my friend to pass up, and hopefully he agrees.

(c) 2024 Retail Retell

These places are public so these photos are too, but just as I tell where they came from, I'd appreciate if you'd say who :)

I've been tagged again, by both Kelly and Nadia! I feel special LOL :)

So, here are 11 things about my self.

Some nice ones:

1. I'll be 30 this year

2. I'm Serbian (don't let that be a deterrent) and my Easter is this weekend

3. I'm a LOST addict (the TV show), just can't wait for the next episode

4. Recently proposed to Maya (yes she is Indonesian :), getting married in Jan

5. I can't wait to have kids, love my niece Mila :)

6. I'm working really hard to manage my Flickr addiction by only posting 3 times a week

Not so good ones:

7. Always forget what Maya tells me to do, gets me into trouble all the time

8. Very picky, kind of compulsive obsessive with having things perfect

9. I am a clean-freak, but a healthy-manageable one :)

10. Can't stop buying camera gear, although lately I've been good

11. I work way too much, which stresses me all the time

I'm tagging:

1. Mathew

2. Geoff

3. Colin

4. Anita

5. John

I'll send you guys an email soon... Wishing you all a nice weekend!

More Explore goodness! Thanks guys!

View Large

Obviously, for this sort of vehicle to have a more-or-less manageable turn circle, despite its size, it has multiple axles that steer. On the Liebherr LTM 1350 fize of the six axles steer and they do on my model too. They are interconnected, such that they move together, albeit at different angles depending on their position. This was a major engineering undertaking on a vehicle this small.

Composite of 6 photographs.

Shot with D800 and 24-70mm. Mosaiced in CS6.

Scaled down to manageable size. Lens distortions not fixed.

View large! (click on the link and hit CTRL and - a few times to bring it down to a more manageable size). Failing that, view on black ;-)

This is a 13 shot panoramic of Slemish Mountain and the Antrim Plateau. It's taken from just past Shillanavogy Wood, due north from Ballyclare and due west from Larne. I only came across this road last summer, but it offers a fabulous vista out across the plateau, with Slemish dominating the view on the horizon and the Irish Sea just poking in to view in the top right.

This is a classic Antrim Plateau view. Unlike the rolling curves of the Mourne Mountains, Co. Antrim's uplands are mostly an undulating plateau, formed by volcanic eruptions that burst out of fissures 60 million years ago. These eruptions spread laterally, forming the smooth-topped uplands of the Plateau.

In places, however, your more traditional volcanoes erupted up through the plateau, and Slemish is a remnant of one of these. What you see is not the flanks of the ancient volcano, however. The basalt sides have long since been eroded. Rather, Slemish is made from dolerite, which is the remains of the hardened magma that cooled and solidified inside the vent of the volcano. Being more resistant, it has stood strong against the erosion that has obliterated the rest of the mountain.

The scale and wildness of the top of the Plateau are magical, especially on a day of your classic Northern Irish sunshine and showers. The the left and right, the sun is shining. Just behind Slemish, a hail storm is advancing. Ten minutes after this was taken, the deluge was upon me, by which time I was safely back in my car, happy to have visited, and eagerly awaiting the chance to stitch together all 13 shots.

Technical Info: at 100%, this is 49cm by 282cm. I really must find a big printer some of these days... ;-)

www.flickr.com/photos/luxvenit/sets/72157628930582353/

Case Study 113 : Warning, these are the raw, bare unusual occurrences as originally chronicled. Some names, times, places and some facts have been, of course, altered.

Name: Angelica D circa 192__

Subject: an unscrupulous light-fingered body thief

Event: Posh Wedding Reception

Place: Upstate New York

Time: Warm early Autumn Saturday

Angie Being Receptive

Story line:

Angie had heard about the affair, a wedding, from a list of prospective functions provided by a discreetly paid contact. It was being given for the only daughter of a wealthy politician (as if there were any non-wealthy ones!) Angie had happily invited herself to the affair, carefully dressing up in her best for the special occasion!

**

Wedding receptions were by far Angie’s favorite hunting grounds. During the season there could be anywhere from upwards of 20 high end affaires every weekend in the bigger cities, and always 2 or 3 in even the smallest of towns.

Wedding s were usually easy pickings: free food, drink and entertainment, and seldom worn jewelry made for a ready-made mix for Angie to ply her trade. For Angelica D. was a uniquely skilled pickpocket, specializing in the removal for profit of the expensive jewelry worn by the (usually be -gowned) women and young ladies’ who hauntingly dwelt in societies upper crust!

So Weddings, by their nature, were the desirable choice for Angie. One only had to avoid the Bride, her Bridesmaids, and their court, which were usually the major focus of any security present. However, there were plenty of opportunities to be had by employing her special bag of tricks on the outlaying fringe.

Angie had arrived early at the mammoth facility, to scout out the establishment and to scope out who was wearing what. Used to these affairs either being feast or famine, she could quickly tell that in this one there was cooking up a devouring banquet.

**

After Angie had entered the mammoth reception room it did not take her long to spy her first plump prospect, nicely loaded with possibilities. It was a lady, bearing a haughty look, who had been making a b-line through the crowd as way was parted for her. She was wearing a luxuriously long rusty coloured sable fur coat that hid most of her long crimson -red satin gown. What Jewels were visible, ears, fingers and wrist, were all flashing with pricy fire. In tow she held the hand of a young girl, obviously her daughter, wearing actual makeup, which, along with her fetching gown and brite jewelry, made her appear far older than she was. A handsome man , looking like the actor William Powell in a tux, followed behind the pair, husband and father, Angie presumed. She shadowed the little family as they swished their way to a corner table, conveniently located by a rear exit, for a better look over. Her fingers had started with an all too familiar tingle as she took it all in.

**

The husband helped his wife out of the sable, laying it carefully along a bench against the wall. Angie was not disappointed. A silver necklace of large matched diamonds gracefully encircled her throat. A dazzling blood ruby and diamond brooch held up the center of her gown, positioned just below the bust line. Brooches, like this one, were worth a lot once fenced, but its placement required a little more dexterity and skill than she was willing to risk. In actuality, Angie had only attempted twice before to take a brooch pinned to a gown in this fashion. She had only been successful one of those times, only to find out it was a pretty piece of paste.( Years later, as Angie’s talents became more polished, relieving ladies of their dangling brooches, like this blood ruby, became her specialty.. the Eds.) Angie’s eyes moved on. The rest of the snooty lady’s jewels matched her necklace. Long earrings, free clipped, dangling brightly from her earlobe s. A pair of wide ruby bracelets clasped tightly home around elegant red elbow length satin gloves, sparkled devastatingly, matching her brooch. Her long fingers were home to a pair of ruby and diamond rings and a third ring set with a gold band and a vulgarly large solitaire diamond.

**

Angie’s attention turned to the daughter, whom had been helped by her Father , squirming, from the chocolate coloured satin cape that she had been wearing. The youngster, all of about 10, was wearing a cream coloured long puffy sleeved dress with a brown satin sash encircling her waist that matched her Cape. The young lady possessed impossible large bright eyes. The only thing that held more shine than those doe like eyes had been the antique rhinestone diamond necklace that fell dripping ever so invitingly down the front of the precious little imp’s rich glossy gown. The rest of her matching rhinestones (obviously belonging to the child’s mother) consisted of an engaging display of a bracelet, pair of dangling, screwed on clasp earrings, and matching rings encircling a chubby finger one on each hand. It all gleamed brightly, invitingly from her svelte girlish figure. A large round pin held her sash up in place; it sparkled with what looked like a ring consisting of one caret diamonds, as unlikely as it was they could be real.

**

The two females of the family presented a pretty package indeed. Not one to pass up an invite that alluring, Angie walked by , with the pretext of heading to a back exit behind the table the little family had staked, just so she could get a closer peek.

**

Angie’s practiced eye took in a wealth of information during the few seconds it took her to walk up and pass the group, so involved with themselves they never even looked her way. Her attention focused upon the young mother first scoping head to toe.

**

Angie scrutinized the brooch; it was definitely worth the effort. In her mind’s eye, Angie envisioned the mother as a stumbling drunk “bumping into” Angie. Fingers whisking along the slippery lustrously softness of the gown, as the lady was steadied. Angie would accept the women apologies and the pair would part their ways, Angie from the young mother, and the magnificent brooch from the rich satiny red gown. But then the mother raised her head, looking up past Angie, towards a commotion being made behind her. Typical Angie thought, she doesn’t recognize me, so I don’t exist, like some sort of servant. But it was as she caught the young mother in full profile that she realized this lady looked strikingly similar to another woman who had been wearing an expensive dress of teal charmeuse that Angie had had been having a long conversation with, while relieving the woman’s finger of a costly diamond sapphire ring. It had happened only just last weekend at a formal function, and Angie figured she may have not recognized her in passing, but may if Angie were to use one of her approaches again with the intent of taking some of her jewelry, he memory may be jarred, and she may remember her missing ring. This was why Angie only allowed herself to ply her trade for no more than a month in any given place per year. This was from a lesson she had learned early on in her career. And so, for that reason alone, Angie decided to, at least temporarily, abandon any designs she had on the young mother’s brooch, allowing her devious intentions to evaporate from her mind like smoke on the wind. There were plenty more fish in the sea she told herself.

**

Angie still allowed herself a quick appraisal of the squirming 10 year old. She admired the glossy dress of slippery satin that her mother had conveniently dressed her daughter up in, as it fell spilling down to her black open toed shoes. Angie’s fingers started to tingle; this was a perfect tickling gown. Angie liked to think of any long dress or gown that swept down to a females heels as a” tickling gown”. All it took was a strategically placed foot timed with a well place nudge to send the chosen victim tumbling. During the ensuing diversion, Angie would use her long subtle fingers to swiftly probe along the gowned figure, tickling she like to call it due to the tingling sensation of the usually rich material of the victim’s attire. In this fashion, a pre-targeted piece of valuable jewelry could then be easily acquired, no matter what its placement had been on the unfortunate female. If only the chatty youngster had something on better than rhinestones. It was a crying shame to have a child that young dolled up like an adult, but not wearing adult jewels.

**

Angie continued to walk past, unseen, and went out the door. She found herself in a large serenity garden of roses and shrubs, surrounded by a 10 foot high well-trimmed hedge. The sort of garden one usually found in those days around upscale Churches. The only exit was a gate leading onto the parking lot on the side of the church. Here was positioned a solitary, lonely guard in a neat little guard hut. In the opposite, far corner was a statue of Cupid, arrow drawn, standing above a display of blooming moss roses at the end opposite to the gate. There was always potential in places like these.

**

Angie had started to walk over to the Cupid statue when she heard the exit door open. Turning, she saw the young girl, whose mother’s brooch Angie had been scoping out, looking out the door. She snuck through, running out alone, silky tickling gown swishing out behind her. Her heart leapt to her throat as she watched the girls rhinestones sparkle radiantly. She actually turned to head towards the path the unsuspecting child was running up, flexing her fingers as she contemplating a little warm up practice. Angie watched as the dolled up imps necklace flashed with pinpricks of coloure as it bounced to and fro as she ran happily up the path .Angie turned her back to the girl, waiting to hear the telltale click of her heels come up just behind her. She would then move, bumping into the girl as she passed, tripping her to the ground. After which Angie would help her up, removing the girl’s fancy necklace in the process. Come to Mama Angie whispered under her breath, waiting to make her move as the skipping heels grew ever louder.

**

But then Angie froze, hearing the clicking of the exit door again opening behind her. She checked her stride letting the daughter slither past without a glance. She headed again towards the statue, watching her prize move on ahead. Then she heard the father in the background calling out to his little princess. The youngster turned, and ran back, beaming at Angie as she passed. Angie smiled back, her eyes again traveling to the girls neckline, and the sparkling jewelry the outlined her throat. It had been a silly thought she chided herself, as the girl passed from view. If only the necklace had been real, and the father about ten minutes later in discovering his daughter absence. It would have been an unbelievably easy pluck and she could be out the gate before anyone was the wiser. And the best part was that they would probably believe the scampering girl had just lost it in the garden. And, while the parents were looking about, Angie would have been free to renter to ply her trade again. As it was, it was silly of Angie, risking her opportunity on a child’s bauble worth a mere pittance compared to some of the other offerings so readily being flaunted this evening by her adult counterparts.

**

Angie continued her casual stroll through the Garden, happily playing over in her mind some of the jewels that she would like to see adorning the female guests inside, and the scenarios she may be using to acquire them

**

Finding herself approaching the guard hut, she allowed herself a glance back. Jealously she watched the father, who had caught and was carrying his slippery attired daughter, heading back inside. How Angie wished she had been the one carrying the squirming little imp, it would have been like a smorgasbord, with jewels instead of food. Pity her mother had not put the good stuff on the daughter, she sighed to herself. Tonight she would have to work for her butter. She walked past the bored guard, nodding at him, receiving a rather lecherous look in return. A smile was forming across her cunning face, for now it was time to get down to the real business at hand.

**

The affair turned out to be quite a showcase for the very rich. Who were indiscreetly flaunting their riches, trying to outdo one another, probably for the benefit of the politicians’ attention? Certainly not for the attention of the designer satin gowned and flashy diamonded daughter, whom most of the guests hardly knew, or had ever met.

**

Angie always felt like a little kid in a candy shoppe at these lavish affairs.

She spent the first part of the reception mingling and thoroughly enjoying the show her the reception’s guests were u wittingly putting on. Angie, wearing no jewels herself, was something of an anomaly compared to her fellow guests.

**

There were over a thousand luxuriously coloured, squawking female birds and their young chicks pompously displaying valuable finery, oblivious of the cat amongst them waiting to pounce. Angie patently mingled, watching as the adult guests had their fill of food and drink.

Once their guard began to relax, Angie raised hers’, her probingly skillful fingers now more than prepared to begin and ply her trade. For the more they imbibed, the less guarded they were, both about themselves and their female offspring. Angie would start with the adults, 2 or 3 of the right pieces of jewelry, once acquired, and would mean she could call it a night and have enough to support her for a solid month. If she came up empty in that department, her back up would then center on the female off-spring, daughters and nieces.

Most of said offspring would be by then scattered about, aware that their parents were no longer paying them any heed, exploring and playing, sporting their fancy satin gowns, silken dresses, and their dainty jewelry, ripe for the picking. Giving pickpockets like Angie endless opportunity to ply their trade on them, once they had finished working through the adults. Or if the thieves were beginners, plenty of easy practice while “learning the ropes!”

**

Now, when Angie herself was just starting out as a young pickpocket, she stumbled across a treatise written by a man using the pseudonym “Gaston Monescu”. Written around 1826, entitled the Cutpurse: skilles, artes and Secretes of the Dip, it covered the various tactics and moves used by master pickpockets.

Angie had studied it religiously, especially a ploy called the “Necklace Flimp.” This tactic was primarily used for body thieves working alone. Angie had been surprised to learn that a pickpocket could raise his/her skill level above just acquiring wallets. Having the ability to lift a woman’s necklace amazed her, not to mention the profit that could be realized. With practice, Angie had found that not only was it a good technique for acquiring necklaces, but it worked for other pieces of worn jewelry as well.

It was relatively simple process, but took a long time to master.

First part was to employ psychology and watch the potential victim for the unique movements and quirks in their personality and actions that could provide an opportunity for her skills. Then observe the selected piece the victim wore, for value, type of clasp, make, and accessibility. The second part was to employ a bump, slip, or grasp, and in one motion, flick open the studied clasp and send the piece away from the body by either pulling and palming, or dropping it to the floor or ground for retrieval later. If she was noticed, it was “sorry, miss, very clumsy of me” “here let me get if for you, no harm done?” Then walk away and let the waters settle before trying yet again (sometimes even on the same person!)

Angie had practiced the jewelry flimp until she had the technique totally mastered. Starting out first on specially dressed up mannequins in her apartment, than trying it on small pieces of cheap baubles worn by real women in crowded streets and stores. Then on younger, less guarded, better jewelry wearing young girls attending proms and social dances. Young looking for her age at the time, Angie had fit right in amongst them. Then, finally, she graduated to lifting the better jewels of the older, wealthy women attending society’s finer parties and receptions. And it was this path that led her here today, and would also lead several unlucky females to report missing jewelry to their respective insurance companies.

**

See Album “Angie having a Ball” for additional background on our master thief with the light fingers.

**

Angie now eagerly employed those useful talents learned from monsieur Monescu’s little pamphlet at the wedding reception. She mingled freely, carrying around a drink that never touched her lips. She watched and learned, her trained eyes missing very little. Soon, like that hypothetical kid in a candy shoppe, Angie’s head was spinning from so much to choose from that she really could not make any easy choice. So, she waited and watched patiently, knowing opportunity would knock.

**

Then, like it usually happened with Angie, the first genuine opportunity unexpectedly presented herself. Angie literally was run into a rather awkward, spindly lady in thick glasses clad in a fetchingly expensive costume consisting of a thick silver satin blouse with hanging ruffles down its front, combined with a long rustling tiered skirt that swept down to the top of her open toed silver high heels. Her diamond jewelry shone with exuberant flames as they caught the light from the many chandeliers that hung from the vaulted ceiling. The lady expressed frantically her apologies, placing a hand with well ringed fingers on Angie’s shoulder, where they sparkled merrily. No worries Angie said smiling, her eyes taking it all in without appearing to move. She let the frazzled lady leave, allowing her a head start, it was only sporting to do so.

**

Angie shadowed her quarry for a while, seemingly rewarded for her efforts when the lady managed to spill a bit of her drink down on her skirt. In a show of flashing silvery satin and diamonds ,she retreated and disappeared into a nearby powder room, with Angie following eagerly, opportunity knocking.

**

As Angie grabbed onto the closing powder room door, a mid- twenty something girl in a deep green velvet gown came out. Her only jewelry was a wide diamond bracelet wrapped around a wrist of the matching long green gloves she wore. Angie caught it out of the corner of her eye, realizing that it was as expensive as it was bright. But it was her friend, a willowy short haired pretty young thing in a glamorous Chocolate Satin gown that made Angie’s jaw drop. Her jewels, like her friends, were also sparse, but enormously pricy. The long white satin gloves that graced her hands and arms also held matching bracelets, thin, but each one worth the effort. But her real eye catcher was the row of authentic, one caret white diamonds that were rippling exquisite fire along her throat. Angie held the door for them, nodding to as they passed. Noses in the air, they did not appear to notice Angie. Then, with the ladies backs to her, Angie abandoned Miss silver satin and turned to follow. Angie got in behind the two with the intention of getting a closure examination of the clasp of the fiery diamond necklace Miss Chocolate satin was wearing.

**

However, Angie never got her closer look. For at that moment the tossing of the bride’s boutique was announced and Angie was overwhelmed by a mad dash of single ladies heading for the bride. On a lark she allowed herself to be swept along, losing sight of Miss Chocolate satin, but found herself right smack behind Miss Green velvet and her cheerfully sparkling diamond bracelet, a beautifully expensive piece that would have cost someone a king’s ransom. Angie’s fingers began their all too familiar tingling, eager for a chance to acquire jewelry that valuable, but not for any king, just for herself!

**

Though the night was still relatively early, and Angie still had visions of those exquisite rippling diamonds of the pretty Miss in chocolate satin on her mind, she simply could not pass up this opportunity. Angie wedged herself close behind her chosen victim as the multitude of hopeful young women pressed forward to try their luck. As the Bride teased her guests before getting ready to toss her bouquet of white and red roses, Angie expertly scrutinized the bracelet as it dangled from the green velvet glove. When the bride finally turned her back and raised her arms every one of the richly clad single women’s eyes was focused on the bride’s bouquet, Angie’s eyes were fixated on the bracelet. With the music playing loud, the crowd giggling and laughing, and all eyes focused on the gorgeously outfitted young long haired bride, Angie again felt opportunity knocking. Her pulse beating in rhythm with the music, she made ready to seize the chance when it presented itself. The roses flew through the air and all the women raised their hands high, looking all for the world like being involved in a stick-up. Angie timed it perfectly, snapping the clasp, and snatching the bracelet easily away from the gloved wrist of its owner as she raised her arms high to grab at the boutique. In her excitement, shared by everyone, Miss Green velvet ( who did not catch the bouget of roses) never felt a thing. Angie had smirked as she left the giggling group, stowing securely the purloined diamonds, as she imagined what it would have been like to watch that group robbed in a mass stick-up. The money that some enterprising soul could have made from that haul would have been astronomical.

**

She went to the open bar, lighting her first cigarette; she ordered her first real drink of the night. She could feel the coolness of the weighty bracelet in its hiding spot, and Angie, pleased with herself, calmly sipped her drink as she relished in the moment. The toss of the Brides Boutique was, in Angie’s experienced opinion, one of the three common events occurring during a wedding reception that were fertilely prime times for pickpocketing. (Editor’s note.. Miss D. mysteriously never divulged what she considered the other two prime events to be….)

**

She looked about without a worry in the world, coolly watching the antics of some of the younger women on the dance floor. She spied the young miss in the green velvet gown over in a corner talking in an animated fashion with several other women. Green velvet gown’s now bare velvet glove, apparently not noticed by anyone but Angie. One of her group was displaying some bright emeralds peeking through the long silver fur she was wearing, obviously she was leaving, and she was talking excitedly about something to the group formed around her! Nowhere in sight was Miss chocolate satin, too bad, Angie would have loved another peek before leaving.

Angie watched around the room causally, as the cold bracelet pressed expensively against her figure from its hiding spot. She eventually lost track of green velvet and her friends while finishing her drink. Setting down the empty glass, she decided it was time to call it a night. The bracelet now in her possession was easily worth as much as the 2 or 3 separate pieces she usually acquired at functions like these, added together! And, she needed her rest, Angie had a couple of plans the next day, one revolving around the female guests who would be attending an upscale afternoon prom fashion show a, the other, an evening opera performance (invited guests only, and her contact had managed to supply a ticket, at a hefty price!) No rest for the wicked, Angie told herself.

**

On her way out of the main lobby, she found herself leaving behind the very lady in green velvet whose bracelet was now in Angie’s possession. She was with the same gaggle of her similarly dressed friends, including the one exhibiting the emeralds. However, miss chocolate satin was still not visible. They were laughing and joking as they collected their assorted pretty wraps, obviously heading for a nightclub. If she had not already relieved one of them of a bauble, Angie might have invited herself along, if only to have a go at some emeralds. Angie hesitated about leaving withy them, then shrugged, followed the group out the door past the pair of bored rent a cops.

**

She remembered thinking, as she followed the elegant young princesses ,their fluid gowns peeking from under their various furs and wraps, how shallow the very rich could be. She wondered if Miss Green velvets friends had even noticed that she had had diamonds around the wrist of her glove, let alone that they were now missing. She wondered how long it would be before the bracelets loss was discovered. She figured it would be several hours, long enough for its owner not to be sure what place they had been lost. As young Miss Green velvet fancy gown and her friends turned right outside the exit, Angie turned left, heading towards the guard hut at the entrance to the garden.

She decided not to follow them but rather circle around the outside of the garden to give her victim time to leave.

**

That simple decision to make a left turn proved to be a major turning point in Angie’s fortunes that evening.

**

As Angie passed the hut guarding the entrance to the serenity garden, she noticed it was deserted.

It was as she was looking it over, that she heard the sounds of clicking heels moving fast, followed by the sounds of a young girl giggling. On the alert she stole to the backside of the hut, soon spying a splash of something blue and silky between the gaps of a couple of large bushes. Her senses on their highest peak, she began to move cautiously in, hoping the female making the noise would be in need of aid and comfort perhaps.

**

She soon spotted a young lady of about 14 bending over, hands on her knees as she panted heavily. Her back was to Angie, and what pretty back it was. She was nicely attired in a long gown of shiny material dyed deep blue like an afternoon, cloudless summer sky. The gown cascaded down along her petite figure, spilling out on the ground around her feet. Her hair was pulled back, easily displaying a pair of small diamond and sapphire earrings, not rhinestones for this one, but the real McCoy. Around one finger was a gold ring with sapphires, and from her left wrist dangled a thin silver bracelet with a row of diamond chips, both pretty, both valuably real. But it was her last piece of visible jewelry that stole the show. It hung, swinging to and from her neck on a thick braided chain of solid silver. On its end, like a hypnotists prism, was a silver pendent in the shape of a flower, with 1 inch long, pear shaped real diamonds as petals and a fully 2 inch in circumference center stone of deep sea blue. Angie watched it, her eyes following it for a full minute, its expensive fire sealing its own fate as Angie began flexing her fingers. Angie took her eyes off of it and looked around to see why the princess had been running. But all was still as the girl continued to peek through the branches towards the back door leading into the hall. Angie silently approached, and walking up to the pretty miss she bent down and in a friendly tone, asked who she was running from.

**

I played a joke on my sister, and now I’m hiding from her, piped the girl breathlessly, as Angie placed a hand upon the girls shoulder in a conspiratorial fashion, said shoulder made silky soft by the gowns half sleeve.

**

I know a better place where you can hide from her, Angie whispered in the girl’s ear, the dangling earring ever so close to her lips. The girl looked up, smiling, and Angie pointed towards the guard hut, and as the girl looked, Angie’s fingers glided up along the silky shoulder and lifted the thick silver chain up from the back of the gowns’ scooped collar. Come Angie said, and as the girl rose Angie’s fingers nimbly flicked open the chains’ lobster clasp, holding onto the clasp as the other end of the chain slipped down, allowing the pendent to slide free and fall onto the grass at the girls feet, where it lay shimmering. Angie moved her hand to the girls shoulder, squeezing it, while slipping off the braided silver chain with her other hand, whisking it back and away from the guileless young girl. Angie led her princess away from the spot and walked with her to the guard’s hut, still empty, where she had her hide neath the counter.

**

Angie turned and went back to claim the pendent, there still was no sign of any sister. She secured the pendent, joining it with the chain and bracelet, and headed deeper into garden. Her plan was to watch the hut and see which way the girl went after getting bored waiting. But as she skirted the perimeter her plans were changed when, upon rounding a corner of the path at the far end, she saw yet another back belonging to a solitary lady in her late thirties, clad in a long slinky yellow coloured gown of expensively shiny taffeta, bending over to smell the yellow roses on a bush. Instinctively Angie knew two things about her. One was that whatever jewels this lady would be wearing, they would be expensive, and the other was that with an expensive gown like that; the lady would undoubtedly be wearing her jewels. Angie suddenly became aware that her fingers were tingling, as an all too familiar whelming feeling again delightfully washed over her.

**

Angie found herself automatically turning back onto the garden path. She headed around the women and went down to the cupid’s statue, where now out of sight, she carefully hid the purloined bracelet, and still warm fiery pendent and its ‘fancy silvery braided chain..

**

She then headed towards the unsuspecting flower admirer. The ladies’ long brunette hair had fallen, flowing down the backside of her shiny taffeta gown. Angie could see rings and a bracelet gleaming as she was holding up the rose to her face. A long double rope of pearls hung swaying deliciously from her throat. Coming up behind her Angie stood watching; calculating until the lady rose and with a start realized she was not alone.

**

Pretty Angie said, her eyes on the pearls now draping down the front of her marks yellow gown. They are lovely, are they not? The damsel responded thinking Angie was referring to the roses. Just like the ones in the park, my husband and I walked through on our way to catch a cab today. Actually, I meant your dress Angie said complimentary. Thank you the lady practically squealed, I love the way it flows, and she swirled it about to show Angie, who got an eyeful of sparkly jewelry for her efforts. As she continued engaging the women in conversation, Angie decided upon attempting for the woman’s necklace of pearl. Seeing opportunity knocking when Yellow Taffeta pulled her long hair forward so it hang down the front of her gorgeous gown, laying silkily over one shoulder, nicely exposing the pricy necklaces clasp. Angie looked around, they were alone, out of site of the opposite end of the garden where the inside door was, and the guards hut with it’s pretty occupant.

**

Angie, using the marks interest in roses to her advantage, managed to steer the capricious damsel in shiny yellow over to the cupid’s statue. There, she placed a hand upon a silky taffeta covered shoulder, and pointed down to the shrub of moss roses growing at the foot of the statue . When she stooped down to get a closer look, Angie’s fingers whisked from her marks shoulder to the clasp, in a single effort with two fingers, lifted it by the clasp, and snapped it open. At that moment the mark cried “spider” and jumped up, backing into Angie, who watched helplessly as the pearls fell down from the damsel’s throat and slipped along the front of the yellow taffeta gown. They fell with a soft plop unto the ground at their mistress’s feet. Angie tried to lead her away, hoping to come back and reclaim the necklace. But as Angie pointed to another rose bush some distance away, the lady took a step forward, instead of back, planting her feet right onto the pearl necklace. Hey she exclaiming, what’s that, looking down to her high heeled foot? Oh, my pearls the lady squealed again, a glittering hand shooting to feel around her throat. Angie reached down, and reluctantly retrieved them from the base of the rose bush for the squealing lady in yellow . My husband would not have been pleased if I had lost these, she said as Angie held them, feeling their pricey smoothness.

**

She asked if Angie could help her put them on, my maid usually does this sort of thing, you know. Angie reluctantly complied, re- hanging the pearls as the pretty damsel held up her hair, and reluctantly redid the clasp. The Damsel thanked Angie by embracing her in a full hug, her diamond and pearl earring hitting Angie’s cheek. But Angie’s arms were being held by the hugging woman, so Angie was able to only watch the tantalizingly close earring sway free. Angie left yellow-gowned damsel in the garden, getting nothing for her efforts other than the feel of an expensive gown of the likes she could probably never afford to own.

**

With the pretty damsel hovering around the cupid statue, Angie decided to go back into the reception hall until the coast was clear. She carefully looked towards the Guards hut, and seeing that the guard had returned, figured the girl, so fetchingly clad in blue, had been rousted out, so that loose end was probably tied up. She just had to keep a careful eye out. The quite valuable bracelet and pricy necklace with its pendent were well hidden; there was absolutely no danger of someone stumbling over it.

**

Truth was, Angie had found her appetite wetted and once again visions of a lady in chocolate brown satin exhibiting a row of flashy diamonds, teased her thoughts. An accomplished pickpocket like herself had a couple of well-practiced ploys she could utilize to obtain a tight fitting necklace from its mistress. In addition, Angie was now determined to find her and to risk a try. She had really nothing to lose.

**

It took almost an hour of hunting amongst the now well liquored, gaily mingling crowd before Angie could admit to herself that there was absolutely no sign of the willowy lady in the stunning chocolate satin gown. Damn she thought to herself, those diamonds were something special. She shrugged it off, reciting in her mind a wicked little mantra of hers, “Another one who got away, a chance to lose her jewels to Angie on another day!” She strolled about pondering on what her next course of action could be. There had been no sign of the pretty girl in blue whose necklace Angie now had hidden away, and Miss Green Velvet was definitely out of the picture, so she felt that it was still safe to try to pluck one last bird or chick. In her hunt for the brown, Angie had seen several inviting prospects; one lady(purple satin, diamonds), two girls( ivory silk, pearled pin; red satin, gold necklace set with chips of precious stones), and now was weighing the risks.

It was at that point she once again espied the thickly bespectacled awkwardly introverted young lady invitingly wearing the thick silver satin ruffled blouse, which she had been tailing much earlier. And as Angie watched here, she again accepted the invitation. Her prey had appeared on the dance floor, being led around by a rather charming young man. That would make a dandy consolation prize Angie drooled to herself happily as she took in the sparkling show put on by the dancers jewels.

**

Angie looked her over, reacquainting herself with the jewels she so nicely was displaying. A pair of long earrings cascaded down from her earlobes where they precariously held on by antique silver claps. Angie relished the opportunity to “flimp” pairs of earrings like these. Heavily jeweled, each one was worth a tidy sum. Angie mulled this as she continued to study the jewels of her appealingly dressed new target.

**

The girl’s only ring was a solitaire diamond of at least 3 carets on a thick solid gold band worn vulnerably loose on her un-gloved, bare ring finger. A wide silver cuff bracelet with what appeared to be at least seven rows of matching, shimmering diamonds was dangling around her left wrist (she was right handed Angie observed) . The bracelet had a habit of lying over her sleeve, and Angie could see that it was a costly tiffany piece, whose clasp was exceptionally easy to flick open. A diamond pendent hung swinging from her satiny ruffles, held by an extravagantly thick silver chain with a simple , small eye in hook clasp. The Diamonds in the pendent were as shimmery as stars plucked from the night’s sky.

Angie remembered reading that in a poem from a book she had picked up years earlier in a library, while stalking a young mother in a satin dress, wearing an authentic Gruen Watch on one wrist, and a bracelet of diamonds on the other, that had gone into the library in pursuit of her young son running inside. Like that young mother, It was obvious that this lady in silver satin was not accustomed to wearing jewels, and that set probably spent most of their days lying in a safe. Angie licked her lips as she imagined what the other contents of that safe might look like

**

Angie moved in to allow herself a much closer appraisal of her potential victim’s jewels.

The young lady was totally oblivious to anything but the rather surprisingly strikingly handsome man who to all appearances was her Fiancée, who was holding her ever so close. But Angie was able to see enough of what she wanted to. The young Ladies’ thick satin blouse shone richly in the lights, moving like glistening wet liquid silver, while from her waist spilled the long black skirt with satiny tiers that swished and swayed nicely along her figure as she uneasily danced. Her jewels were bursting with colour as they played hide and seek with Angie’s watchful eyes. From all appearances, they were a mismatched couple. He seemed to know everyone and moved with a confident air, she was just the opposite. It made an enticingly intriguing package indeed for someone with Angie’s skills.

**

Silver Satin was the perfect “Gaston Monescu” type of mark, a perfect combination of classic mannerisms, clothing and Jewels worth anyone’s efforts to take. This was the only fly in the ointment that Angie observed. For by the bar she could see that two other sets of eyes were watching the same young lady in shiny satin and blazing diamonds. Angie intuitively knew they were drooling over acquiring jewels she was wearing.

**

She had noticed the pair of young men in loose fitting suits when they had entered a little earlier about the same time as Angie’s reappearance. They were obviously casing the jewels of any woman, young, or old, who walked past them. Angie knew their type, simple thieves, with no real skills outside of holding a knife in a dark alley to the throat of their victim while they unceremoniously searched and stripped them of their treasures. Angie saw that they were whispering amongst themselves and instinctively knew they were watching and waiting for the fetchingly clumsy silver clad lady clad loaded with diamonds, to leave the “establishment”.

**

She is mine Angie whispered, possessively snarling the words under her breath. She looked around as she thought about how best to handle the situation. Her eyes opened wide as she saw a familiar woman waiting by the coat checkroom. Perfect she purred, placing an unlit a cigarette in her mouth and heading over the bar.

**

She sauntered up next to them and ordered a drink, catching their eyes she asked for a light. As they obliged she took a pull and puffed out smoke, asking in a casual tone, “how about my jewels? Boys!” They could see perfectly well that she was not wearing any, and one snarled, “What’s your game, sister?” Angie snarled back in her best cop like manner, “We know what you boys are up to, and we suggest you both call it a night!” “Yer no cop sister”, they challenged, calling her bluff,” what’s your angle!” Angie calmly looked towards the entrance, perfect she mused as she saw their eyes follow hers, “Maybe not” she stated, “but see that lady being helped into the black mink?” “The shiny yellow dame?” one of em asked? “ “yes”, Angie replied taking a puff on her cigarette before going on, “ well that man’s she’s with used to be mine .” “ Now, I aint one to hold a grudge, but, those pearls she’s waltzing around with are worth plenty. And her rings, they are an easy two grand alone.”

**

Angie could tell she had captured their interest, and that they were now paying rapt attention to the lady in the thick yellow taffeta gown whose necklace Angie had almost acquired in the serenity garden. One of them looked at Angie, a suspicious look crossing his mug, “What’s innit for you sister?!” He demanded. Angie looked at him, dripping with sarcastic innocence. “Nothing brother, other than to make sure the jewels of the dame who stole my husband get home safely .” “I just worry,’ Angie went on, “there is a park in front of their residence and that dame in yellow likes to stroll through it to smell the roses after their cab drops them off.” They watched the couple leave, her expensive yellow gown sweeping provocatively at her gold high- heeled shoed feet. Angie looked them in the eyes and said smoothly, “ Gentlemen such as yourselves may want to do a good deed and follow them home to make sure some miscreant doesn’t spot her in those valuable jewels and mink. Not to mention her man’s gold watch and three hundred sawbucks in his wallet!” Angie winked at the pair, “If you catch my drift.” She added.

**

Still not totally convinced about what Angie was selling them, but equally unsure over who Angie was, both men got up and quickly headed towards the main exit as the last slip of an expensive yellow taffeta gown disappeared through the door. Smugly, Angie puffed on her cigarette as she watched them leave.

**

It was then that a hand was placed on Angie’s shoulder from behind.

**

She froze for a split second, before becoming aware of the soft mummer of satin, and of a slender finger was home to a sparkling sapphire ring. Angie smiled and turned around, facing the girl. Pardon me ma’am, she says politely, but do you remember me? Of course dear, Angie gushes while beaming at the forlorn looking miss in the fetching blue gown; I met you in the garden. Yes she confirms, but I lost my necklace somewhere and I was wondering if you remember if I had it on when we met? Angie’s heart leapt, bless this babe in the woods, thinking her necklace had merely been lost, never suspecting that someone like, say, Angie could have been the cause. She absolutely adored the trusting nature of rich girls this age. For that aspect of their purity had allowed Angie, far too easily sometimes, to lift many a jewel from well attired unsuspecting young princesses like this one. Who was now standing before her, miserable, her desirable diamond and sapphire earrings dangling ever so beckoningly, her sad puppy eyes pleading ever so sweetly, and her missing necklace closer than she could ever imagine.

**

No dear, I did not see you with a necklace, Angie lied coolly, as she reached out and stroked the girl tenderly alongside her face, her fingers touching one of the earrings. Angie was looking her fully in the eye, you didn’t lose anything else, and did you dear she asked with a concerned tone. The girl checked her earrings, bracelet and ring (Angie smiled to herself, silently thinking thanks for the info kid!) But when she spoke, it was with hopeful words laced with honey, If you want, I can help you look, my dear. The girl’s eyes lit up for a second, thank you ma’am, I wanted to, but papa said to wait until tomorrow when the light is better.

Angie smiled winningly, don’t worry dear, I’m sure its somewhere in the garden. Someone will find it, she promised, thinking to herself maliciously, and keep it for their own profit!

**

Thank you Ma’am she chirped, at the encouraging words that had been spoken, luckily she could not hear the ones Angie was thinking to herself, and turning moved off, her scrumptious gown swishing pleasantly around her silver heels. Angie watched, as the girl disappeared in the crowd Angie marked her direction.

**

Angie Imagined if the girl had accepted her offer, and she had left with the vulnerable, unguarded princess to search in the garden, and in the process help relieve her of her remaining jewels. There would be enough light with the gas lamps that lined the paths in the garden. Enough light, so that as Angie helped the princess look, her fingers could slip ever so delicately slip in and search along her shiny sky blue gown.

**

Angie licked her lips slowly as she fantasied about the search. The girl bending down to look under a bush, Angie placing her knee sharply in a certain spot below the girl’s armpit, temporarily numbing her upper body. Allowing Angie enough time to pull off both her earrings without feeling it,( this also worked well on working off broaches placed in upper parts of gowns and dresses, not to mention necklaces!) The bracelet would be no problem; it would be the easiest and probably the first, snatched off while the rich girl’s attention was easily diverted away. Since she was not wearing silky gloves, her ring would be the trickiest, but manageable, by either having her walk too close to a water fountain and hopefully having her get her fingers wet, or by simple holding onto her hand and tripping her by stepping on her gowns hem. And just like that, Angie would become that much richer, the rich girl that much poorer. And it all would be done without giving the girl any additional stress, like say she had run into the two muggers Angie had chased off. They may not have been content with just the jewels of a girl dressed as she was that they had found wandering alone in the gardens at night.

**

As Angie excitedly thought about these things, she had trained her focus back upon her original meal ticket, whom for the second time that evening had almost been allowed to slip through Angie’s light fingers. Watching with half lidded eyes, the still dancing couple not unlike a wolf watches lambs, waiting for one to make an ill-fated move away from the flock. The lamb’s fate was sealed, when a vivacious blonde in a long wispy silken dress cut in on the dancing couple. Asking miss silver satin’s fiancé for a dance. He obliged, leaving his shimmering fiancée unaccompanied, nakedly exposed to the wolf that was Angie.

**

More than one way to skin a cat Angie thought, tingling from the thrill of the hunt her prey, now in a reachable situation. She happily headed towards the spot where Miss silver satin had moved off to. A small table, located conveniently by a powder room. One the way she grabbed a half full glass of red wine off a table. Angie circled around young miss silver satin, taking a position up about two table lengths behind her. She casually scoured the area; most of the nearby tables were deserted.

Knowing the band would stop playing soon for the evening; most of the couples were out on the dance floor. All in all, the situation presented the perfect opportunity for some one of Angie’s persuasion.

**

Angie watched as the young lady picked up a glittery silver clutch and opening it, started to search inside. Angie moved swiftly, catching up behind her , tripping intentionally into her, splashing some wine onto the front of the silver satin blouse as the unfortunate lady dropped her purse in surprise. Oh my gosh, I did not see you, miss silver satin pleaded apologetically to Angie, more concerned over Angie’s feelings than her soiled satin blouse. Angie accepted her apology and, producing a lacey silk handkerchief, began to wipe themselves both down.

Angie’s practiced eyes swiftly took it all in. Miss silver satin’s pretty earrings swaying out vulnerably from her long straggly hair as it fell into her face. The clasp of her necklace was also exposed and within easy grasp. A s she reached out for the floor to steady herself, Angie’s eyes took in the sparkling ring on her now wetted finger and then watched the wide bracelet with its’ easily open able clasp slip up glitteringly over her sleeve.

The girl, now thoroughly flustered, started to rise, tripping over her slippery long skirt( with no help from Angie) Angie caught her, taking advantage of the split second opening she had been waiting for and Angie took it, making her selection as she steadied the poor thing with one hand, as the other caressed along a slick silver satin back. Angie’s long supple fingers darted in and deftly did their trick, this time with no spiders interfering. She quickly removed her chosen glittery prize from the distracted lady, who never noticed so much as a prick as Angie removed the expensive piece from her person in the confusion.

**

Angie secreted he shiny jewel as she helped miss silver satin collect herself. Than they rose, and Angie happily accepted miss silver satin profuse and obviously well used, apology. Then, as she fumbled nervously with her thick glasses, Angie laid a calming hand upon her shoulder, her fingers relishing in the richness of her victims sleek ruffled blouse. Miss silver satin was by now so distracted and embarrassed that Angie was all but assured of a clean get away.

However, as an extra measure of caution Angie intentionally jarred silver satin’s elbow of the hand steadying her eye glasses. Thus sending her glasses falling from her face to the floor with a small clatter, then Angie kicked them under a table before the startled lady could react. Angie offered to help, but the lady implored that she was okay, just needed to find her glasses. Angie left as Miss silver satin started to frantically grope around for her glasses, her silver blouse and remaining jewels shimmering brightly along their miserable mistress..

Angie took her leave, knowing that once she found her glasses, Miss silver satin would flee for sanctuary into the ladies powder room, buying her more than enough time for Angie to make her escape. Taking one last look over the dance floor, she blithely saw that miss silver satins fiancé was still in the clutches of the vivacious blonde-haired girl, still safely out of the picture. Angie made her way with purpose to the rear exit leading to the garden that she had used earlier, intending to head out into the serenity garden to collect the hidden bracelet and pendent, adding them to her purloined plunder.

**

As she walked amongst the mostly deserted tables, her mind went to the woman in yellow taffeta and imagined that right about now she would be standing with raised arms and a forlorn look. Ruefully wincing as the man who was holding her mink busily stripped those luscious pearls from the neckline of her tight gown, as the shiny yellow material gleamed in the moonlight! Serves her right for being afraid of spiders, Angie thought unforgivingly.

***

Angie’s mind also went to the poor young princess in blue with the missing necklace. She looked towards the area she had headed, opposite of the back exit to the garden. She reluctantly decided not to push her luck, there was a sister and parents to contend with, and she really had no time left. So she decided to call it a day, a rather successful day, and made her way to retrieve her loot.

**

Angie had now reached the now deserted table by the back exit where the lady in the crimson gown and blood red rubies had been earlier, along with her rhinestone encumbered 10 year old daughter and handsome husband.

**

She paused between the table and the bench, something was not quite right, She eyed the area around the dance floor for any signs of trouble that may be centered on the quite valuable jewels now in her possession. All was quiet, except for a little murmur behind her. Turning she looked at the bench and was shocked to discover the soundly asleep ten year old, using the long rusty sable fur as a blanket. What have we here, Angie thought, licking her lips wickedly?

**

Angie pursed her lips, checking the coast; spotting the young girl’s parents, still on the dance floor, a safe distance away the other side of the room. No sign of miss silver satin. No one else was nearby. Perfect. She went over, bending down so the table hid her. The child looked so vulnerably innocent, sound asleep as she lay on her side, facing Angie. She was clutching an arm of the sable like a warm fuzzy teddy bear, her ring sparkling. Angie gently tugged the mink from the girl’s clasp, and gradually pulled until the fur swished away from along the inert silken figure on the bench, where it fell into a pile on the floor. The child looked very innocent, very vulnerable, like a sleeping princess. An earring lay exposed over one shoulder, her necklace dangled down slightly askew from her slender throat, the pin holding her sash, all of which shone brightly now that it was exposed to the low lights of the ballroom, still called out. Too bad, Angie thought to herself, too bad the mother had not dressed her little doll in real diamonds.

**

Angie again looked to the dance floor; she could see the mother’s jewelry twinkling brightly as the child’s parents danced close, very unaware of anything else but themselves. She looked back over the girl, contemplating. But the song was winding down, Angie stooped to pick up the sable, bird in hand she thought, and placing the rich fur over her arm, stood just as the song ended. Looking at the exit door, so near and yet so far, she started to hasten to it, but checked herself as the band immediately started another, rather slow song that Angie knew quite well.

**

She hesitated, incredibly, everyone was staying on the floor for the final dance, she looked back at the bench, and the sleeping imps exposed jewels still shined, tempting her to come for them. Angie knew that she would only have about four minutes. Always open to new challenges, Angie chose to answer that sweet little invite that the necklace was extending out to her. Checking once again to make sure the parents was still obliviously dancing; she laid the mink down by the door and eased back to the bench. Kneeling down, Angie began to perform the delicate operation.

**

Lifting up the necklace she gently tugged it loose from around the sleeping child’s neck until the clasp appeared. She subtly flicked open the clasp, then shamelessly slipped the necklace from around its perch on the little whelp’s throat. It flickered like some slithering shiny snake, glittering as it came away. Like taking candy from a baby, Angie drooled happily, as she let the necklace run along her fingertips while watching the sleeping princess for a few seconds.

**

Her fitted cream coloured dress shimmered with expensive richness in the shadowy light. The poor thing was so soundly asleep after her long exhausting day that Angie figured she could have peeled the dress off her without causing a stir. This for a pickpocket would be the ultimate test, the pinnacle of her criminal class. But, Angie thought; if she ever had the opportunity to do so, it would have to be worth her while, like a shiny gown, an appealing sky blue gown with half sleeves and scooped collar. And the jewels would be sapphire drop earrings, bracelet and ring, not plain rhinestones. She licked her lips at the enticing thought of such a perfect “coup fera”, than told herself to get back to work, time was money.

**

She slipped her hand along the satin cape being used as a pillow and felt under the girls head until she felt the cold earring she was laying upon. Deftly undoing the screw she pulled it free, watching with delight as it came out from underneath.

**

Angie than, gently lifted, and nimbly stroked back the girl’s ultra-soft hair, exposing her long silvery earring. She pulled the jewel out and laid it out upon the child’s shoulder, where it lay, shimmering vibrantly. Then she reached in with her fingers and began unscrewed its clasp. Pulling it free she added it to her growing collection. She next lifted the hand that had held the warm sable, gently prying open her clenched fingers. The sleeping child never stirred. Angie gently slipped off the glittering ring. She then peeled back a silky sleeve, checking for the bracelet, finding her wrist was bare. The rest of the jewels were hiding securely on the side she was laying upon. Smiling wickedly to herself, an idea popped into Angie’s head.

**

The music was now almost to the halfway point, and Angie thought for a brief second that she should leave . Another quick scan assured her the coast was still clear, and Angie decided to press her luck, eagerly going back to work, putting her idea into motion.

Angie fingers felt along the sleeping child’s waist until she located the brooch. Quickly unfastening the brooch from the chocolate satin sash, she pulled it out. Watching as the diamonds caught fire and burst into vibrant life, unusually vivid for plain rhinestones she thought contemplatively. Angie plopping it in with the growing pile of the sleeping girls purloined baubles. Again reaching in along the warm waist, Angie gradually tugged at the now undone sash. The sleeping girl, unconsciously obliged by turning over on her other side, as the sash was pulled away.

**

Her arm with the ring and bracelet was now exposed. Lifting the arm , and peeling back the puffy sleeve, Angie found and unclasped the bracelet, slipping it away, then allowing it to dangle in triumph before letting it join its purloined mates. Then lifting the child’s hand she pulled at the ring, it was a little tight. Angie licked her fingers, and moistened the girls finger, than began slipping the ring off ever so gently from the along her finger. Almost there, Angie thought, as the ring joined its abducted companions in her pocket.

**

As Angie finished pocketing the last of the girls jewels, her victim whimpers something discernible in her sleep, her small hand feeling to pull up the missing warm sable she had been using as a blanket. Angie quickly looked around, spying a cheap linen coat hanging on a nearby hook, she grasped it and laid it over the stirring girl, stroking her for a precious few seconds. Then rising, calmly Angie snatched a shiny purse from the table, and moved off, unbelieving of her luck. She reclaimed the sable fur, and strolled out the door without looking back.

**

As Angie closed the door she heard the last notes of the song waning from inside. She licked her lip, that was close, but her luck had held. Now all that remained was to visit the Cupid Statue In the garden to reclaim her other prizes. As she reached the statue, Angie realized that she still had the child’s satin sash in her hand.

She smiled as she tied it, blindfolding the cupid statues eyes. Retrieving and pocketing the now stone cold diamond bracelet, and the young Princess in blue’s necklace with its shimmering pendent, she slowly looked around, the cost was clear. Angie coolly made her way to the gate, the bored guard offering to help her with the mink she was carrying. , Angie stopped, and handed it to him. Then turning, allowed him to help her on with it. He puffed out his chest as Angie gave him a sweet smile; she thanked him, then turned and disappeared into the darkness of the night.

**

Angie disappeared from view into the foggy evening, relishing the warmth of the sensuous sable. Happily contemplating the small fortune in jewels it had been in contact with earlier that evening, and also the small fortune she had walked out of the reception with in her possession.

**

The guard watched the spot for some time where the pretty lady in the expensive fur had vanished in the mists. He fantasized for a good few minutes, wondered what had been behind the enchantingly secret smile she had given to him.

Excuse me, sir?, a female voice coming from the garden startles him, he had never heard anyone coming.

He turns, catching an eyeful of a long glamourous, brown satin gown, worn fetchingly by a willowy short haired pretty young thing. Diamonds blazed from around her throat, caught by the gas lights, and from around her white satin gloved wrists as she raised her hands in a pleading fashion.

She continues, pointing to a young girl in a smashing blue satin gown, bending over looking for something in the bushes. My sister lost her necklace and pendent while playing around here earlier, did you or anyone find it? She asked in a rather seductive tone of voice9 not a common, it was her regular voice)

No lady, no one turned in a necklace. Thank you sir, and she turns away, her gown flowing out behind her.

He watches for a minute as she and her sister both move elegantly down the path, continuing their search.

He sighed, and turns away, babysitting rich dames he mutters under his breath, what a dismal way to make a living. Why won’t this affair ever end he asked himself, as he reached for his silver pocket watch to check the time. Damnations he said, not finding it nor its chain and fob, must have dropped it in the alley earlier where I had gone for a nipper from his flask. He sauntered off quickly to the alley located in the direction Angie had disappeared, abandoning his post.

Soon after, a pair of dark figures who had been walking on the opposite side of the street, and had stopped to loiter when they spied the guard talking to some posh broad in a shiny brown dress, saw the guard leaving his post. They quickly stole with sinister intent across the road and entered into the gardens, disappearing into the darkness.

*********************************************************************************

This ended up being Angie’s first big score, She got more for the rhinestone set then she had imagined, the small brooch taken off the brown satin sash had proved to have real diamonds in its center! Also the princess in silky sky blue’s pendent and chain had fetched a nice tidy sum. The jewels lifted from the ladies in Green and Silver also realized quite a handsome profit, as did the sable and purse.

if one includes the real diamond ring slipped off the finger of a silky dressed debutante from the prom show and her rather nice haul of a slim pearl necklace and diamond pin from the Opera, the whole weekend was unimaginably successful.

**

From the profit realized, she had been able to spend a pleasant month away in Monte Carlo, even indulging in the purchase of a rich red wine coloured taffeta gown to wear.

Which she pleasantly found that, when paired with her deftly acquired collection of dripping rhinestone diamond jewelry, she attracted wealthy young males with expensive gold watches and fat wallets like honey bee drones to a bright moss rose.

**

She also enticed a long raven haired, Miss, richly clad in emerald silk, to enter into her snare.

But Angie did not make an entirely clean get away. For the last jewel to be taken was the girl’s brooch , and before Angie could hide it with the rest, the girl spotted its’ glitter in Angie’s hand, and with a gasp had looked down on her dress at the now vacant spot where it had been dangling ever so provocatively for Angie all evening.. Angie smiled at the girl as she had looked up in confusion. The girl had placed a hand to her throat, startled when feeling it bare of her necklace. She looked at Angie in hurt confusion, her eyes wide with fright. Angie placed a finger to the girl’s lips, hushing any fuss she may have been thinking of making over her missing jewelry, and turning her back to the forlorn miss, Angie left, not looking back….

**

But that was a story for another day, so we were promised by Angie, giving us an all too familiar look of devious satisfaction at making us wait.

.************************************************************************************

Editor’s Notes:

Our Thanks to Mr. J. Gardner for pointing out the existence of Mr. Monescu’s 1826 guide

If you enjoyed our little story, please like and leave a comment.

And if you wish, describe what intrigued you the most about it…

Thank You

************************************************************************************

Courtesy of Chatwick University Archives

All rights and copyrights observed by Chatwick University, Its contributors, associates and Agents

No Part of this can reprinted, duplicated, or copied be without the express written permission and approval of Chatwick University.

These photos and stories are works of fiction. Any resemblance to people, living or deceased, is purely coincidental.

As with any work of fiction or fantasy the purpose is for entertainment only, and should never be attempted in real life.

We accept no responsibility

Colombo is a huge, sprawling city, which can be visited any time of year due to its tropical climate. The traffic can feel somewhat overwhelming at first but it is organised and much more manageable when compared to other major cities of South and Southeast Asia. On a clear day, it’s difficult to miss the Lotus Tower dominating Colombo’s skyline.

The Sparrowhawk is a relatively small bird of prey adapted for hunting smaller birds in confined spaces like dense woodland, so gardens are ideal hunting grounds for them. Adult male sparrowhawks have bluish-grey back and wings and orangey-brown bars on their chest and belly. Females and young birds have brown back and wings, and brown bars underneath. Sparrowhawks have bright yellow or orangey eyes, long, yellow legs and long talons. As with most birds of prey the females are larger than males.

Their territories are well spaced – pairs do not tolerate another nest close by. The distance between each nest varies ranges from 0.5 km to 2.1 km. This is determined by the local food supply – the better the food supply, the smaller each territory will be. The nest is usually built in lower parts of the canopy, close to the trunk of a tree and usually concealed from view. It is a sturdy platform of twigs, lined with bark flakes. A central ‘cup’ prevents the eggs from rolling out. Nest building can take several weeks and is often completed long before the eggs are laid.

Sparrowhawk facts; Because of the size difference, male sparrowhawks court the females with caution, as the female can (and sometimes does) kill her suitor.

Sparrowhawk chicks hatch when there are plenty of fledgling small birds around, in the same way that blue tits synchronise their breeding to coincide with the peak availability of caterpillars. Three to six eggs are laid at two-day intervals during May. Incubation lasts for 32-35 days and the eggs hatch in succession over two or more days, so that the chicks are different sizes. The female helps the chicks to break out of their shell. They are covered in pure white short down, and their eyes are already partly open when they hatch. Succesive hatching is an adaptation to cope with an unpredictable food supply. If food is short, the youngest chick will die and reduce the brood to a manageable size.

A Sparrowhawks diet mainly consists of small birds and the occasional rodent. 120 different species of prey have been recorded. Males can catch birds up to thrush size, but females, being bigger, can catch birds up to pigeon size. Some sparrowhawks have adapted their hunting habits to catch bats.

Sparrowhawk facts; Their usual flying speed is around 30-40 kph, but a sparrowhawk is capable of up to 50 kph in short bursts.

There have been concerns in the past that sparrowhawks eat too many small birds and cause their population to fall or even become extinct, however long-term scientific studies have shown that sparrowhawks generally have no or little impact on songbird populations. It is worth remembering that sparrowhawks and songbirds have existed side by side for thousands of years without any detrimental effect on songbird numbers.

Read more at www.wildonline.blog

Stuart and a Harris Hawk

Sign the petition to ban Wahhabism: www.change.org/p/rt-hon-david...

HH Younus AlGohar responds to slogans raised by radical Muslims of imposing Sharia Law in the United Kingdom and taking over England. He gives practical advice for the British government on handling the situation.

⁃Radical Muslims want to impose Sharia Law in the UK, banning the sale of alcohol and restricting the way women can dress. Ironically, many of these radical Muslims are people originally from the Middle East who were granted asylum in the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom gave them shelter and benefits, and as repayment, they want to take over the country and kick out the British natives. This is madness and hypocrisy.

⁃If anyone from the West were granted asylum in Saudi Arabia and then raised slogans of imposing the Christian faith in Mecca, Muslims would not like it. It makes no sense to impose Sharia Law in the UK, a non-Muslim country. Radicals are so bold because the laws in the United Kingdom are soft.

⁃Most converts in the United Kingdom are radicalised by Anjem Choudary. The government must take strict action against him. He outright opposes the British police and army; he must be put behind bars.

⁃Had the UK been strict, the number of people being radicalised would have been manageable. Right now, many areas in London, Luton, Bedfordshire, Bedford, Bradford, Oldham, Rochdale, Barry and Altrincham. Dewsbury is the British Kaaba of Dewsbury. It is a mini Saudi Arabia.

⁃The Islam that does not promote terrorism does not exist today. What is left is Wahhabism. All Wahhabis are potential terrorists. All radical Muslims want to impose Sharia Law - this is not an individual opinion. Rather, it is rooted in their ideology. Wahhabis want world domination; part of their plan is to take over the United Kingdom.

⁃The UK government must study Wahhabism and recognise radical Islam. They should keep track of the points mentioned in the Wahhabi ideology and check them against the belief system of Wahhabi Muslims. If Muslims are found to practise this ideology, they should be put behind bars. Strict measures must be taken before the situation gets from bad to worse.

You can watch the live recordings of these videos every day at 22:00 GMT on younusalgohar.com

Can't access this video? Watch it on Daily Motion: www.dailymotion.com/mehdifound...

Listen to this speech on the go with SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/younusalgohar/

Mexican Fireleg Tarantula (Brachypelma boehmei) also known as the Mexican Rustleg Tarantula, is a striking New World terrestrial species native to Mexico (primarily Guerrero) and Belize. Recognized for its distinctive black abdomen contrasted by bright red or orange legs, this tarantula stands out visually from its relatives. Although its overall appearance is similar to other Brachypelma species, B. boehmei tends to be more defensive and skittish, with a propensity to kick its irritating Type III urticating hairs when disturbed. Its slow growth and long lifespan (up to 25 years for females and around 8 years for males) make it a popular choice for intermediate keepers seeking both a stunning display and a manageable species.

Studio photo by Nick Dobbs 01-10-2025