Paparazzi Toytime !

A Super Paragon 300mm f5.6 Mirror Lens off eBay.

Same lens as Ohnar and many other 300mm cats. In spotless nick, hardly used.

After a quick spin with it (without a hood and without the back filter), first impressions are :

- quite susceptible to flare which completely kills contrast

- not all that sharp but not as bad as I thought it might be

- focusing manageable even without a split prism screen

- doughnut bokeh is fun

- short and light

Super Paragon 300mm f5.6 Mirror Lens SmartSet - a photoset by kh1234567890 on Flickriver

.After a few months of use :

Good lens hood is essential otherwise veiling flare kills contrast.

The rear filter does nothing.

Focusing can be tricky and a viewfinder magnifier comes handy. A decent focusing screen such as the Canon Ee-S is even better.

Handheld shots are perfectly manageable thanks to the Pentax shake reduction.

On APS frame the 300mm focal length is just about right, anything longer and handheld shots could be difficult

Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring’s “Coffee NCO” hooked him up with a large corned beef brisket this morning. And by large, Aggie Ring means “large!” It weighed almost exactly 20 pounds. Aggie Ring had never seen a corned beef brisket that weighed more than 4 or 5 pounds.

What with St. Patrick’s Day on the event horizon, Aggie Ring told me, “You know that all of your friends are going to be drinking lots of Guinness and Irish whiskey. People are going to want to snack on something while they get drunk.”

The Aggie Ring decided to make a “big ass” batch of his Irish brown sugar mustard corned beef jerky for the holiday.

Aggie Ring carried the big white cardboard box (with a 4-leaf clover on it) home and cut it open. “Damn.” exclaimed Aggie Ring. “That’s a lot of corned beef brisket.”

Aggie Ring got his sharpest knife out of the knife drawer and sharpened it. He cut off the fat cap, removed most of the silver skin, and separated the top part of the corned beef brisket from the bottom. He then cut the leanest meat from the brisket into “manageable” rectangles, wrapped them in aluminum foil, and put them into the freezer so they could firm up and he could slice them into thin strips.

A few hours later, Aggie Ring removed the firm brisket from the freezer and sliced them into somewhere between 1/8” to 1/4” in thickness.

While the corned beef had been firming up in the freezer, Aggie Ring prepared a marinade. He used a whole container of dijon mustard, brown sugar, red cooking wine, garlic, onion, plenty of freshly cracked black pepper and a number of other spices he had handy.

Aggie Ring’s secret to any marinade is that you have to be able to test it with a spoon before you use it. “If you don’t like the taste of the marinade before it goes on the meat, then the finished product isn’t going to come out well.” says Aggie Ring.

He was particularly pleased with how this marinade came out. The smell was delicious and fragrant. Not to mention, Aggie Ring loved the taste. Aggie Ring poured the marinade all over the sliced corned beef in a large bowl and quietly hummed the Aggie War Hymn as he worked the marinade into the corned beef.

Normally, Aggie Ring would let a regular brisket marinate overnight or even longer. However Aggie Ring said, “We might as well put it in the dehydrator now. The meat’s already “corned.” It’s not going to absorb any more liquid. The mustard’s just to give it a little “kick.”

Aggie Ring put the slices of corned beef onto the dehydrator trays making sure to get plenty of the mustard marinade on each piece.

“Fire her up and we’ll check on it in the early morning.” said Aggie Ring as he stood there smelling the delicious dijon brown sugar mustard marinade on the corned beef as the dehydrator blew the smells all over the house.

#AggieRing

A long planned visit to Leeds to record the church.

Leeds is just off the M20, and nearby to Leeds Castle, which means the roads are often busy. St Nicholas is on the main road leading up the down, but before the road gets narrow as it winds between the timber framed houses. Thankfully there is good parking next door, so we were able to get off the main road and out of the traffic, as unbeknown to us, there was a classical music show on that night, and most of Kent were going and in the process of arriving.

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One of the largest twelfth-century towers in Kent. The arch between tower and nave is of three very plain orders with no hint of the usual zigzag moulding of the period, and is so large that a meeting room has recently been built into it. The nave has three bay aisles and short chapels to north and south of the chancel. The outstanding rood screen was partially reconstructed in 1892, and runs the full width of nave and aisles - with the staircase doorways in the south aisle. That the chancel was rebuilt in the sixteenth century may be seen by the plain sedilia through which is cut one of two hagioscopes from chapels to chancel. The north chapel contains some good seventeenth- and eighteenth-century tablets and monuments. The stained glass shows some excellent examples of the work of Heaton, Butler and Bayne (south aisle) whilst there is an uncharacteristically poor example of the work of C.E. Kempe & Co. Ltd. in the north aisle. The church has recently been reordered to provide a spacious, light and manageable interior with excellent lighting and a welcoming atmosphere without damaging the character of the building.

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Leeds

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LEEDS

IS the next parish southward from Hollingborne. Kilburne says, that one Ledian, a chief counsellor to king Ethelbert II. who began his reign in 978, raised a fortress here, which was called in Latin, from him, Ledani Castrum, and in process of time in English, LEEDS. This castle was afterwards demolished by the Danes, and continued in that situation till the time of the Norman conquest.

THE PRESENT CASTLE is situated at the southeast boundary of this parish, adjoining to Bromfield, which includes a part of the castle itself. It is situated in the midst of the park, an ample description of it the reader will find hereafter. The Lenham rivulet takes its course through the park, and having supplied the moat, in which the castle stands, and the several waters in the grounds there, and having received into it the several small streamlets from Hollingborne, and one from the opposite side, which comes from Leeds abbey, it flows on, and at a small distance from Caring street, in this parish, adjoining to Bersted, the principal estate of which name there belongs to the Drapers company, it turns a mill, and then goes on to Maidstone, where it joins the river Medway. The high road from Ashford and Lenham runs close by the outside of the pales of Leeds park, at the northern boundary of the parish next to Hollingborne, and thence goes on towards Bersted and Maidstone, from which the park is distant a little more than five miles; here the soil is a deep sand, but near the river it changes to a black moorish earth. Southward from the castle the ground rises, at about three quarters of a mile south-west from it is Leeds abbey, the front of which is a handsome well-looking building, of the time of queen Elizabeth. It is not unpleasantly situated on a gentle eminence, and is well watered by a small stream which rises just above it, and here turns a mill. It is well cloathed with wood at the back part of it, to which the ground still keeps rising; adjoining to the abbey grounds westward is Leeds-street, a long straggling row of houses, near a mile in length, having the church at the south end of it; here the soil becomes a red unfertile earth much mixed with slints, which continues till it joins to Langley and Otham.

LEEDS was part of those possessions given by William the Conqueror to his half-brother Odo, bishop of Baieux; accordingly it is thus entered, under the general title of that prelate's lands, in the survey of Domesday, taken in the year 1080.

Adelold holds of the bishop (of Baieux) Esiedes. It was taxed at three sulings. The arable land is twelve carucates. In demesne there are two carucates, and twenty-eight villeins, with eight borderers, having seven carucates. There is a church, and eighteen servants. There are two arpends of vineyard, and eight acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of twenty bogs, and five mills of the villeins. In the time of king Edward the Confessor, it was worth sixteen pounds, the like when be received it, now twenty pounds, and yet it pays twentyfive pounds. Earl Leuuin held it.

Of this manor the abbot of St. Augustine has half a suling, which is worth ten shillings, in exchange of the park of the bishop of Baieux. The earl of Ewe has four denns of this manor, which are worth twenty shillings.

The mention of the two arpends of vineyard in the above survey, is another instance of there having been such in this county in early times, some further observations of which the reader will find in the description of the parish of Chart Sutton, not far distant, and he will likewise observe, that at the above time the bishop of Baieux had a park here, which he acquired by exchange with the abbot of St. Augustine, who must therefore have had possessions here before that time.

On the bishop of Baieux's disgrace, about four years after the taking of the above-mentioned survey, this estate, among the rest of his possessions, became consiscated to the crown.

After which it was granted by king William to the eminent family of Crevequer, called in antient charters Creveceur, and in Latin, De Crepito Corde, who at first made Chatham in this county their seat, or caput baroniæ, i. e. the principal manor of their barony, for some time, until they removed hither, being before frequently written Domini de Cetham.

Robert, son of Hamon de Crevequer, who had probably a grant of Leeds from the Conqueror, appears to have held it of the king, as of his castle of Dover, in capite by barony, their barony, which consisted of five knight's sees, being stiled Baronia de Crevequer . (fn. 1) He erected the castle here, to which he asterwards removed the capital seat of his barony. This castle being environed with water, was frequently mentioned in antient writings by the name of Le Mote. In the north-west part of it he built a chapel, in which he placed three canons, which on his foundation of the priory of Leeds, in the 19th year of king Henry I. he removed thither.

His descendant, Hamon de Crevequer, lived in the reign of king Henry III. in the 19th year of which, he was joined with Walterand Teutonicus, or Teys, in the wardenship of the five ports, and the next year had possession granted to him of the lands of William de Albrincis or Averenches, whose daughter and heir Maud he had married. He died in the 47th year of king Henry III. possessed of the manor of Ledes, held of the king in capite, as belonging to his barony of Chatham; upon which Robert, his grandson, viz. son of Hamon his son, who died in his life-time, succeeded him as his heir, and in the 52d year of that reign, exchanged the manor of Ledes, with its appurtenances, together with a moiety of all his fees, with Roger de Leyburne, for the manors of Trottesclyve and Flete. He lest William de Leyburne, his son and heir, who in the 2d year of king Edward I. had possession granted to him of the manor of Ledes, as well as of the rest of his inheritance, of which Eleanor, countess of Winchester, his father's widow, was not endowed. (fn. 2)

His son, William de Leyborne, observing that the king looked on the strength of this fortress with a jealous eye, in the beginning of king Edward Ist.'s reign reinstated the crown in the possession of both the manor and castle; and the king having, in his 27th year married Margaret, sister of Philip, king of France, he settled them, being then of the clear yearly value of 21l. 6s. 8d. among other premises, as part of her dower. She survived the king her husband, who died in 1307, and in the 5th year of the next reign of king Edward II. by the king's recommendation, appointed Bartholomew de Badlesmere, a nobleman of great power and eminence, and much in that prince's favor, governor of this castle. (fn. 3) She died possessed of them in the 10th year of that reign; on which they came once more into the hands of the crown, and in the beginning of the next year the king appointed Bartholomew de Badlesmere, above-mentioned, governor of this castle, as well as of that of Bristol. In the 11th year of that reign, the king granted to him in see, this manor and castle, and the advowson of the priory of Ledes, in exchange for the manor of Addresley, in Shropshire. Being possessed of great possessions, especially in this county, he was usually stiled, the rich lord Badlesmere of Ledes. Being pussed up through ambition and his great wealth, he forgot his allegiance, and associated himself with the earl of Lancaster, and the discontented barons; which the king being well informed of, resolved, if possible, to gain possession of this strong fortress of Ledes: to effect which, under pretence of the queen's going on a pilgrimage to Canterbury, she set forward for that city with a large train of attendants, and, with a secret intention of surprising this castle, sent her marshal with others of her servants, to prepare lodging for her and her suit in it. The lord Badlesmere's family, that is, his wife, son, and four daughters, were at that time in it, together with all his treasure, deposited there for safety, under the care of Thomas Colepeper, the castellan, who refused the queen's servants admittance, and on her coming up, peremptorily persisted in denying her or any one entrance, without letters from his lord. The queen, upon this, made some attempt to gain admittance by force, and a skirmish ensued, in which one or more of her attendants were slain, but being repulsed, she was obliged to relinquish her design, and to retire for a lodging elsewhere.

The king, chagrined at the failure of his scheme, and highly resenting the indignity offered to the queen, sent a force under the earls of Pembroke and Richmond, to besiege the castle; (fn. 4) and those within it finding no hopes of relief, for though the lord Badlesmere had induced the barons to endeavours to raise the siege, yet they never advanced nearer than Kingston, yielded it up. Upon which, the lady Badlesmere and her children were sent prisoners to the tower of London, Thomas Colepeper, the castellan, was hung up, and the king took possession of the castle, as well as of all the lord Badlesmere's goods and treasures in it. But by others, Thomas de Aldone is said to have been castellan at this time, and that the castle being taken, he, with the lord Badlesmere's wife, his only son Giles, his daughters, Sir Bartholomew de Burgershe, and his wife, were sent to the tower of London by the king's order; and that afterwards, he caused Walter Colepeper, bailiff of the Seven Hundreds, to be drawn in a pitiable manner at the tails of horses, and to be hung just by this castle; on which Thomas Colepeper, and others, who were with him in Tunbridge castle, hearing of the king's approach, sled to the barons.

After which the lord Badlesmere, being taken prisoner in Yorkshire, was sent to Canterbury, and there drawn and hanged at the gallows of Blean, and his head being cut off, was set on a pole on Burgate, in that city. Upon which the manor and castle of Leeds, became part of the royal revenue and the castle remained in a most ruinous condition till the year 1359, anno 34 Edward III. in which year that munisicent prelate, William of Wickham, was constituted by the king, chief warden and surveyor of his castle of Ledes, among others, (fn. 5) having power to appoint all workmen, to provide materials, and to order every thing with regard to building and repairs; and in those manors to hold leets and other courts of trespass and misdemeanors, and to enquire of the king's liberties and rights; and from his attention to the re-edisying and rebuilding the rest of them, there is little doubt but he restored this of Leeds to a very superior state to whatever it had been before, insomuch, that it induced king Richard to visit it several times, particularly in his 19th year, in which several of his instruments were dated at his castle of Ledes; and it appears to have been at that time accounted a fortress of some strength, for in the beginning of the next reign, that unfortunate prince was, by order of king Henry IV. sent prisoner to this castle; and that king himself resided here part of the month of April in his 2d year.

After which, archbishop Arundel, whose mind was by no means inferior to his high birth, procured a grant of this castle, where he frequently resided and kept his court, whilst the process against the lord Cobham was carrying forward, and some of his instruments were dated from his castle of Ledes in the year 1413, being the year in which he died. On his death it reverted again to the crown, and became accounted as one of the king's houses, many of the principal gentry of the county being instrusted with the custody of it:

In the 7th year of king Henry V. Joane of Navarre, the second queen of the late king Henry IV. being accused of conspiring against the life of the king, her son-in-law, was committed to Leeds-castle, there to remain during the king's pleasure; and being afterwards ordered into Sir John Pelham's custody, he removed her to the castle of Pevensey, in Sussex.

In the 18th year of king Henry VI. archbishop Chichele sat at the king's castle of Leeds, in the process against Eleanor, duchess of Gloucester, for forcery and witchcrast.

King Edward IV. in his 11th year, made Ralph St. Leger, esq. of Ulcomb, who had served the office of sheriff of this county three years before, constable of this castle for life, and annexed one of the parks as a farther emolument to that office. He died that year, and was buried with his ancestors at Ulcomb.

Sir Thomas Bourchier resided at Leeds castle in the 1st year of king Richard III. in which year he had commission, among others of the principal gentry of this county, to receive the oaths of allegiance to king Richard, of the inhabitants of the several parts of Kent therein mentioned; in which year, the king confirmed the liberties of Leeds priory, in recompence of twentyfour acres of land in Bromfield, granted for the enlargement of his park of Ledes.

In the 4th year of king Henry VIII. Henry Guildford, esq. had a grant of the office of constable of Leeds castle, and of the parkership of it; and in the 12th year of that reign, he had a grant of the custody of the manor of Leeds, with sundry perquisities, for forty years. He died in the 23d year of that reign, having re-edisied great part of the castle, at the king's no small charge.

But the fee simple of the manor and castle of Leeds remained in the hands of the crown, till Edward VI. in his 6th year, granted them, with their appurtenances in the parishes of Leeds, Langley, and Sutton, to Sir Anthony St. Leger, lord deputy of Ireland, to hold in capite by knight's service.

His son, Sir Warham St. Leger, succeeded him in this manor and castle, and was afterwards chief governor of Munster, in Ireland, in which province he was unfortunately slain in 1599, (fn. 6) but before his death he alienated this manor and castle to Sir Richard Smyth, fourth son of Thomas Smyth, esq. of Westenhanger, commonly called Customer Smyth.

Sir Richard Smyth resided at Leeds castle, of which he died possessed in 1628, and was buried in Ashford church, where there is a costly monument erected to his memory.

Sir John Smith, his only son, succeeded his father, and resided at Leeds castle, and dying s. p. in 1632, was buried in this church; upon which his two sisters, Alice, wife of Sir Timothy Thornhill, and Mary, of Maurice Barrow, esq. became his coheirs, and entitled their respective husbands to the property of this manor and castle, which they afterwards joined in the sale of to Sir T. Culpeper, of Hollingborne, who settled this estate, after his purchase of it, on his eldest son Cheney Culpeper, remainder to his two other sons, Francis and Thomas. Cheney Culpeper, esq. resided at Leedscastle for some time, till at length persuading his brother Sir Thomas Culpeper, of Hollingborne, (then his only surviving brother, Francis being dead. s. p.) to cut off the entail of this estate, he alienated it to his cousin Sir John Colepeper, lord Colepeper, only son of Sir John Culpeper, of Wigsell, in Sussex, whose younger brother Francis was of Greenway-court, in Hollingborne, and was father of Sir Thomas Culpeper, the purchaser of this estate as before-mentioned.

Sir John Colepeper represented this county in parliament in the 16th year of king Charles I. and being a person, who by his abilities had raised himself much in the king's favor, was made of his privy council, and chancellor of the exchequer, afterwards master of the rolls, and governor of the Isle of Wight. During the troubles of that monarch, he continued stedfast to the royal cause, and as a reward for his services, was in 1644 created lord Colepeper, baron of Thoresway, in Lincolnshire.

After the king's death he continued abroad with king Charles II. in his exile. During his absence, Leeds-castle seems to have been in the possession of the usurping powers, and to have been made use of by them, for the assembling of their committee men and sequestrators, and for a receptacle to imprison the ejected ministers, for in 1652, all his estates had been declared by parliament forfeited, for treason against the state. He died in 1660, a few weeks only after the restoration, and was buried at Hollingborne. He bore for his arms, Argent, a bend ingrailed gules, the antient bearing of this family; he left by his second wife Judith, daughter of Sir Thomas Culpeper, of Hollingborne, several children, of whom Thomas was his successor in title and estates, and died without male issue as will be mentioned hereafter, John succeeded his brother in the title, and died in 1719 s. p. and Cheney succeeded his brother in the title, and died at his residence of Hoston St. John, in 1725, s. p. likewise, by which the title became extinct; they all, with the rest of the branch of the family, lie buried at Hollingborne. Thomas, lord Colepeper, the eldest son, succeeded his father in title, and in this manor and castle, where he resided, and having married Margaret, daughter of Signior Jean de Hesse, of a noble family in Germany, he left by her a sole daughter and heir Catherine, who intitled her husband Thomas, lord Fairfax, of Cameron, in Scotland, to this manor and castle, with his other estates in this neighbourhood.

The family of Fairfax appear by old evidences in the hands of the family to have been in possession of lands in Yorkshire near six hundred years ago. Richard Fairfax was possessed of lands in that county in the reign of king John, whose grandson William Fairfax in the time of king Henry III. purchased the manor of Walton, in the West Riding, where he and his successors resided for many generations afterwards, and from whom descended the Fairfax's, of Walton and Gilling, in Yorkshire; of whom, Sir Thomas Fairfax, of Gilling, was created viscount Fairfax, of the kingdom of Ireland, which title became extinct in 1772; and from a younger branch of them descended Sir Thomas Fairfax, of Denton, who lived in queen Elizabeth's reign, and changed the original field of his coat armour from argent to or, bearing for his arms, Or, 3 bars gemelles, gules, surmounted of a lion rampant, sable, crown'd, of the first, and was father of Sir. T. Fairfax, who was, for his services to James and Charles I. created in 1627 lord Fairfax, baron of Cameron, in Scotland. He died in 1640, having had ten sons and two daughters; of whom, Ferdinando was his successor; Henry was rector of Bolton Percy, and had two sons, Henry, who became lord Fairfax, and Bryan, who was ancestor of Bryan Fairfax, late commissioner of the customs; and colonel Charles Fairfax, of Menston, was the noted antiquary, whose issue settled there.

Ferdinando, the second lord Fairfax, in the civil wars of king Charles I. was made general of the parliamentary forces, and died at York in 1646. His son, Sir Thomas Fairfax, succeeded him as lord Fairfax, and in all his posts under the parliament, and was that famous general so noted in English history during the civil wars, being made commander in chief of all the parliamentary forces; but at last he grew so weary of the distress and confusion which his former actions had brought upon his unhappy country, that he heartily concurred in the restoration of king Charles II. After which he retired to his seat at Bilborough, in Yorkshire, where he died in 1671, and was buried there, leaving by Anne, daughter and coheir of Horatio, lord Vere of Tilbury, a truly loyal and virtuous lady, an only daughter; upon which the title devolved to Henry Fairfax, esq. of Oglesthorpe, in Yorkshire, his first cousin, eldest son of Henry, rector of Bolton Percy, the second son of Thomas, the first lord Fairfax. Henry, lord Fairfax, died in 1680, and was succeeded by his eldest son Thomas, fifth lord Fairfax, who was bred to a military life, and rose to the rank of a brigadier-general. He represented Yorkshire in several parliaments and marrying Catherine, daughter and heir of Thomas, lord Colepeper, possessed, in her right this manor and castle, and other large possessions, as before-mentioned. (fn. 7)

He died possessed of them in 1710, leaving three sons and four daughters, Thomas, who succeeded him as lord Fairfax; Henry Culpeper, who died unmarried, in 1734; and Robert, of whom hereafter. Of the daughters, Margaret married David Wilkins, D. D. and prebendary of Canterbury, and Francis married Denny Martin, esq. Thomas, lord Fairfax, the son, resided at Leeds-castle till his quitting England, to reside on his great possessions in Virginia, where he continued to the time of his death. On his departure from England, he gave up the possession of this manor and castle, with his other estates in this neighbourhood, to his only surviving brother, the hon. Robert Fairfax, who afterwards resided at Leeds-castle, and on his brother's death unmarried, in 1782, succeeded to the title of lord Fairfax. He was at first bred to a military life, but becoming possessed of Leeds castle, he retired there, and afterwards twice served in parliament for the town of Maidstoue, as he did afterwards in two successive parliaments for this county. He was twice married; first to Marsha, daughter and coheir of Anthony Collins, esq. of Baddow, in Essex, by whom he had one son, who died an instant; and, secondly, to one of the daughters of Thomas Best, esq. of Chatham, who died s. p. in 1750. Lord Fairfax dying s. p. in 1793, this castle and manor, with the rest of his estates in this county, came to his nephew the Rev. Denny Martin, the eldest son of his sister Frances, by Denny Martin, esq. of Loose, who had before his uncle's death been created D. D. and had, with the royal licence, assumed the name and arms of Fairfax. Dr. Fairfax is the present possessor of this manor and castle, and resides here, being at present unmarried.

A court leet and court baron is held for the manor of Leeds, at which three borsholders are appointed. It is divided into six divisions, or yokes as they are called, viz. Church-yoke, Ferinland-yoke, Mill-yoke, Russerken-yoke, Stockwell-yoke, and Lees-yoke.

A long planned visit to Leeds to record the church.

Leeds is just off the M20, and nearby to Leeds Castle, which means the roads are often busy. St Nicholas is on the main road leading up the down, but before the road gets narrow as it winds between the timber framed houses. Thankfully there is good parking next door, so we were able to get off the main road and out of the traffic, as unbeknown to us, there was a classical music show on that night, and most of Kent were going and in the process of arriving.

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One of the largest twelfth-century towers in Kent. The arch between tower and nave is of three very plain orders with no hint of the usual zigzag moulding of the period, and is so large that a meeting room has recently been built into it. The nave has three bay aisles and short chapels to north and south of the chancel. The outstanding rood screen was partially reconstructed in 1892, and runs the full width of nave and aisles - with the staircase doorways in the south aisle. That the chancel was rebuilt in the sixteenth century may be seen by the plain sedilia through which is cut one of two hagioscopes from chapels to chancel. The north chapel contains some good seventeenth- and eighteenth-century tablets and monuments. The stained glass shows some excellent examples of the work of Heaton, Butler and Bayne (south aisle) whilst there is an uncharacteristically poor example of the work of C.E. Kempe & Co. Ltd. in the north aisle. The church has recently been reordered to provide a spacious, light and manageable interior with excellent lighting and a welcoming atmosphere without damaging the character of the building.

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Leeds

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LEEDS

IS the next parish southward from Hollingborne. Kilburne says, that one Ledian, a chief counsellor to king Ethelbert II. who began his reign in 978, raised a fortress here, which was called in Latin, from him, Ledani Castrum, and in process of time in English, LEEDS. This castle was afterwards demolished by the Danes, and continued in that situation till the time of the Norman conquest.

THE PRESENT CASTLE is situated at the southeast boundary of this parish, adjoining to Bromfield, which includes a part of the castle itself. It is situated in the midst of the park, an ample description of it the reader will find hereafter. The Lenham rivulet takes its course through the park, and having supplied the moat, in which the castle stands, and the several waters in the grounds there, and having received into it the several small streamlets from Hollingborne, and one from the opposite side, which comes from Leeds abbey, it flows on, and at a small distance from Caring street, in this parish, adjoining to Bersted, the principal estate of which name there belongs to the Drapers company, it turns a mill, and then goes on to Maidstone, where it joins the river Medway. The high road from Ashford and Lenham runs close by the outside of the pales of Leeds park, at the northern boundary of the parish next to Hollingborne, and thence goes on towards Bersted and Maidstone, from which the park is distant a little more than five miles; here the soil is a deep sand, but near the river it changes to a black moorish earth. Southward from the castle the ground rises, at about three quarters of a mile south-west from it is Leeds abbey, the front of which is a handsome well-looking building, of the time of queen Elizabeth. It is not unpleasantly situated on a gentle eminence, and is well watered by a small stream which rises just above it, and here turns a mill. It is well cloathed with wood at the back part of it, to which the ground still keeps rising; adjoining to the abbey grounds westward is Leeds-street, a long straggling row of houses, near a mile in length, having the church at the south end of it; here the soil becomes a red unfertile earth much mixed with slints, which continues till it joins to Langley and Otham.

LEEDS was part of those possessions given by William the Conqueror to his half-brother Odo, bishop of Baieux; accordingly it is thus entered, under the general title of that prelate's lands, in the survey of Domesday, taken in the year 1080.

Adelold holds of the bishop (of Baieux) Esiedes. It was taxed at three sulings. The arable land is twelve carucates. In demesne there are two carucates, and twenty-eight villeins, with eight borderers, having seven carucates. There is a church, and eighteen servants. There are two arpends of vineyard, and eight acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of twenty bogs, and five mills of the villeins. In the time of king Edward the Confessor, it was worth sixteen pounds, the like when be received it, now twenty pounds, and yet it pays twentyfive pounds. Earl Leuuin held it.

Of this manor the abbot of St. Augustine has half a suling, which is worth ten shillings, in exchange of the park of the bishop of Baieux. The earl of Ewe has four denns of this manor, which are worth twenty shillings.

The mention of the two arpends of vineyard in the above survey, is another instance of there having been such in this county in early times, some further observations of which the reader will find in the description of the parish of Chart Sutton, not far distant, and he will likewise observe, that at the above time the bishop of Baieux had a park here, which he acquired by exchange with the abbot of St. Augustine, who must therefore have had possessions here before that time.

On the bishop of Baieux's disgrace, about four years after the taking of the above-mentioned survey, this estate, among the rest of his possessions, became consiscated to the crown.

After which it was granted by king William to the eminent family of Crevequer, called in antient charters Creveceur, and in Latin, De Crepito Corde, who at first made Chatham in this county their seat, or caput baroniæ, i. e. the principal manor of their barony, for some time, until they removed hither, being before frequently written Domini de Cetham.

Robert, son of Hamon de Crevequer, who had probably a grant of Leeds from the Conqueror, appears to have held it of the king, as of his castle of Dover, in capite by barony, their barony, which consisted of five knight's sees, being stiled Baronia de Crevequer . (fn. 1) He erected the castle here, to which he asterwards removed the capital seat of his barony. This castle being environed with water, was frequently mentioned in antient writings by the name of Le Mote. In the north-west part of it he built a chapel, in which he placed three canons, which on his foundation of the priory of Leeds, in the 19th year of king Henry I. he removed thither.

His descendant, Hamon de Crevequer, lived in the reign of king Henry III. in the 19th year of which, he was joined with Walterand Teutonicus, or Teys, in the wardenship of the five ports, and the next year had possession granted to him of the lands of William de Albrincis or Averenches, whose daughter and heir Maud he had married. He died in the 47th year of king Henry III. possessed of the manor of Ledes, held of the king in capite, as belonging to his barony of Chatham; upon which Robert, his grandson, viz. son of Hamon his son, who died in his life-time, succeeded him as his heir, and in the 52d year of that reign, exchanged the manor of Ledes, with its appurtenances, together with a moiety of all his fees, with Roger de Leyburne, for the manors of Trottesclyve and Flete. He lest William de Leyburne, his son and heir, who in the 2d year of king Edward I. had possession granted to him of the manor of Ledes, as well as of the rest of his inheritance, of which Eleanor, countess of Winchester, his father's widow, was not endowed. (fn. 2)

His son, William de Leyborne, observing that the king looked on the strength of this fortress with a jealous eye, in the beginning of king Edward Ist.'s reign reinstated the crown in the possession of both the manor and castle; and the king having, in his 27th year married Margaret, sister of Philip, king of France, he settled them, being then of the clear yearly value of 21l. 6s. 8d. among other premises, as part of her dower. She survived the king her husband, who died in 1307, and in the 5th year of the next reign of king Edward II. by the king's recommendation, appointed Bartholomew de Badlesmere, a nobleman of great power and eminence, and much in that prince's favor, governor of this castle. (fn. 3) She died possessed of them in the 10th year of that reign; on which they came once more into the hands of the crown, and in the beginning of the next year the king appointed Bartholomew de Badlesmere, above-mentioned, governor of this castle, as well as of that of Bristol. In the 11th year of that reign, the king granted to him in see, this manor and castle, and the advowson of the priory of Ledes, in exchange for the manor of Addresley, in Shropshire. Being possessed of great possessions, especially in this county, he was usually stiled, the rich lord Badlesmere of Ledes. Being pussed up through ambition and his great wealth, he forgot his allegiance, and associated himself with the earl of Lancaster, and the discontented barons; which the king being well informed of, resolved, if possible, to gain possession of this strong fortress of Ledes: to effect which, under pretence of the queen's going on a pilgrimage to Canterbury, she set forward for that city with a large train of attendants, and, with a secret intention of surprising this castle, sent her marshal with others of her servants, to prepare lodging for her and her suit in it. The lord Badlesmere's family, that is, his wife, son, and four daughters, were at that time in it, together with all his treasure, deposited there for safety, under the care of Thomas Colepeper, the castellan, who refused the queen's servants admittance, and on her coming up, peremptorily persisted in denying her or any one entrance, without letters from his lord. The queen, upon this, made some attempt to gain admittance by force, and a skirmish ensued, in which one or more of her attendants were slain, but being repulsed, she was obliged to relinquish her design, and to retire for a lodging elsewhere.

The king, chagrined at the failure of his scheme, and highly resenting the indignity offered to the queen, sent a force under the earls of Pembroke and Richmond, to besiege the castle; (fn. 4) and those within it finding no hopes of relief, for though the lord Badlesmere had induced the barons to endeavours to raise the siege, yet they never advanced nearer than Kingston, yielded it up. Upon which, the lady Badlesmere and her children were sent prisoners to the tower of London, Thomas Colepeper, the castellan, was hung up, and the king took possession of the castle, as well as of all the lord Badlesmere's goods and treasures in it. But by others, Thomas de Aldone is said to have been castellan at this time, and that the castle being taken, he, with the lord Badlesmere's wife, his only son Giles, his daughters, Sir Bartholomew de Burgershe, and his wife, were sent to the tower of London by the king's order; and that afterwards, he caused Walter Colepeper, bailiff of the Seven Hundreds, to be drawn in a pitiable manner at the tails of horses, and to be hung just by this castle; on which Thomas Colepeper, and others, who were with him in Tunbridge castle, hearing of the king's approach, sled to the barons.

After which the lord Badlesmere, being taken prisoner in Yorkshire, was sent to Canterbury, and there drawn and hanged at the gallows of Blean, and his head being cut off, was set on a pole on Burgate, in that city. Upon which the manor and castle of Leeds, became part of the royal revenue and the castle remained in a most ruinous condition till the year 1359, anno 34 Edward III. in which year that munisicent prelate, William of Wickham, was constituted by the king, chief warden and surveyor of his castle of Ledes, among others, (fn. 5) having power to appoint all workmen, to provide materials, and to order every thing with regard to building and repairs; and in those manors to hold leets and other courts of trespass and misdemeanors, and to enquire of the king's liberties and rights; and from his attention to the re-edisying and rebuilding the rest of them, there is little doubt but he restored this of Leeds to a very superior state to whatever it had been before, insomuch, that it induced king Richard to visit it several times, particularly in his 19th year, in which several of his instruments were dated at his castle of Ledes; and it appears to have been at that time accounted a fortress of some strength, for in the beginning of the next reign, that unfortunate prince was, by order of king Henry IV. sent prisoner to this castle; and that king himself resided here part of the month of April in his 2d year.

After which, archbishop Arundel, whose mind was by no means inferior to his high birth, procured a grant of this castle, where he frequently resided and kept his court, whilst the process against the lord Cobham was carrying forward, and some of his instruments were dated from his castle of Ledes in the year 1413, being the year in which he died. On his death it reverted again to the crown, and became accounted as one of the king's houses, many of the principal gentry of the county being instrusted with the custody of it:

In the 7th year of king Henry V. Joane of Navarre, the second queen of the late king Henry IV. being accused of conspiring against the life of the king, her son-in-law, was committed to Leeds-castle, there to remain during the king's pleasure; and being afterwards ordered into Sir John Pelham's custody, he removed her to the castle of Pevensey, in Sussex.

In the 18th year of king Henry VI. archbishop Chichele sat at the king's castle of Leeds, in the process against Eleanor, duchess of Gloucester, for forcery and witchcrast.

King Edward IV. in his 11th year, made Ralph St. Leger, esq. of Ulcomb, who had served the office of sheriff of this county three years before, constable of this castle for life, and annexed one of the parks as a farther emolument to that office. He died that year, and was buried with his ancestors at Ulcomb.

Sir Thomas Bourchier resided at Leeds castle in the 1st year of king Richard III. in which year he had commission, among others of the principal gentry of this county, to receive the oaths of allegiance to king Richard, of the inhabitants of the several parts of Kent therein mentioned; in which year, the king confirmed the liberties of Leeds priory, in recompence of twentyfour acres of land in Bromfield, granted for the enlargement of his park of Ledes.

In the 4th year of king Henry VIII. Henry Guildford, esq. had a grant of the office of constable of Leeds castle, and of the parkership of it; and in the 12th year of that reign, he had a grant of the custody of the manor of Leeds, with sundry perquisities, for forty years. He died in the 23d year of that reign, having re-edisied great part of the castle, at the king's no small charge.

But the fee simple of the manor and castle of Leeds remained in the hands of the crown, till Edward VI. in his 6th year, granted them, with their appurtenances in the parishes of Leeds, Langley, and Sutton, to Sir Anthony St. Leger, lord deputy of Ireland, to hold in capite by knight's service.

His son, Sir Warham St. Leger, succeeded him in this manor and castle, and was afterwards chief governor of Munster, in Ireland, in which province he was unfortunately slain in 1599, (fn. 6) but before his death he alienated this manor and castle to Sir Richard Smyth, fourth son of Thomas Smyth, esq. of Westenhanger, commonly called Customer Smyth.

Sir Richard Smyth resided at Leeds castle, of which he died possessed in 1628, and was buried in Ashford church, where there is a costly monument erected to his memory.

Sir John Smith, his only son, succeeded his father, and resided at Leeds castle, and dying s. p. in 1632, was buried in this church; upon which his two sisters, Alice, wife of Sir Timothy Thornhill, and Mary, of Maurice Barrow, esq. became his coheirs, and entitled their respective husbands to the property of this manor and castle, which they afterwards joined in the sale of to Sir T. Culpeper, of Hollingborne, who settled this estate, after his purchase of it, on his eldest son Cheney Culpeper, remainder to his two other sons, Francis and Thomas. Cheney Culpeper, esq. resided at Leedscastle for some time, till at length persuading his brother Sir Thomas Culpeper, of Hollingborne, (then his only surviving brother, Francis being dead. s. p.) to cut off the entail of this estate, he alienated it to his cousin Sir John Colepeper, lord Colepeper, only son of Sir John Culpeper, of Wigsell, in Sussex, whose younger brother Francis was of Greenway-court, in Hollingborne, and was father of Sir Thomas Culpeper, the purchaser of this estate as before-mentioned.

Sir John Colepeper represented this county in parliament in the 16th year of king Charles I. and being a person, who by his abilities had raised himself much in the king's favor, was made of his privy council, and chancellor of the exchequer, afterwards master of the rolls, and governor of the Isle of Wight. During the troubles of that monarch, he continued stedfast to the royal cause, and as a reward for his services, was in 1644 created lord Colepeper, baron of Thoresway, in Lincolnshire.

After the king's death he continued abroad with king Charles II. in his exile. During his absence, Leeds-castle seems to have been in the possession of the usurping powers, and to have been made use of by them, for the assembling of their committee men and sequestrators, and for a receptacle to imprison the ejected ministers, for in 1652, all his estates had been declared by parliament forfeited, for treason against the state. He died in 1660, a few weeks only after the restoration, and was buried at Hollingborne. He bore for his arms, Argent, a bend ingrailed gules, the antient bearing of this family; he left by his second wife Judith, daughter of Sir Thomas Culpeper, of Hollingborne, several children, of whom Thomas was his successor in title and estates, and died without male issue as will be mentioned hereafter, John succeeded his brother in the title, and died in 1719 s. p. and Cheney succeeded his brother in the title, and died at his residence of Hoston St. John, in 1725, s. p. likewise, by which the title became extinct; they all, with the rest of the branch of the family, lie buried at Hollingborne. Thomas, lord Colepeper, the eldest son, succeeded his father in title, and in this manor and castle, where he resided, and having married Margaret, daughter of Signior Jean de Hesse, of a noble family in Germany, he left by her a sole daughter and heir Catherine, who intitled her husband Thomas, lord Fairfax, of Cameron, in Scotland, to this manor and castle, with his other estates in this neighbourhood.

The family of Fairfax appear by old evidences in the hands of the family to have been in possession of lands in Yorkshire near six hundred years ago. Richard Fairfax was possessed of lands in that county in the reign of king John, whose grandson William Fairfax in the time of king Henry III. purchased the manor of Walton, in the West Riding, where he and his successors resided for many generations afterwards, and from whom descended the Fairfax's, of Walton and Gilling, in Yorkshire; of whom, Sir Thomas Fairfax, of Gilling, was created viscount Fairfax, of the kingdom of Ireland, which title became extinct in 1772; and from a younger branch of them descended Sir Thomas Fairfax, of Denton, who lived in queen Elizabeth's reign, and changed the original field of his coat armour from argent to or, bearing for his arms, Or, 3 bars gemelles, gules, surmounted of a lion rampant, sable, crown'd, of the first, and was father of Sir. T. Fairfax, who was, for his services to James and Charles I. created in 1627 lord Fairfax, baron of Cameron, in Scotland. He died in 1640, having had ten sons and two daughters; of whom, Ferdinando was his successor; Henry was rector of Bolton Percy, and had two sons, Henry, who became lord Fairfax, and Bryan, who was ancestor of Bryan Fairfax, late commissioner of the customs; and colonel Charles Fairfax, of Menston, was the noted antiquary, whose issue settled there.

Ferdinando, the second lord Fairfax, in the civil wars of king Charles I. was made general of the parliamentary forces, and died at York in 1646. His son, Sir Thomas Fairfax, succeeded him as lord Fairfax, and in all his posts under the parliament, and was that famous general so noted in English history during the civil wars, being made commander in chief of all the parliamentary forces; but at last he grew so weary of the distress and confusion which his former actions had brought upon his unhappy country, that he heartily concurred in the restoration of king Charles II. After which he retired to his seat at Bilborough, in Yorkshire, where he died in 1671, and was buried there, leaving by Anne, daughter and coheir of Horatio, lord Vere of Tilbury, a truly loyal and virtuous lady, an only daughter; upon which the title devolved to Henry Fairfax, esq. of Oglesthorpe, in Yorkshire, his first cousin, eldest son of Henry, rector of Bolton Percy, the second son of Thomas, the first lord Fairfax. Henry, lord Fairfax, died in 1680, and was succeeded by his eldest son Thomas, fifth lord Fairfax, who was bred to a military life, and rose to the rank of a brigadier-general. He represented Yorkshire in several parliaments and marrying Catherine, daughter and heir of Thomas, lord Colepeper, possessed, in her right this manor and castle, and other large possessions, as before-mentioned. (fn. 7)

He died possessed of them in 1710, leaving three sons and four daughters, Thomas, who succeeded him as lord Fairfax; Henry Culpeper, who died unmarried, in 1734; and Robert, of whom hereafter. Of the daughters, Margaret married David Wilkins, D. D. and prebendary of Canterbury, and Francis married Denny Martin, esq. Thomas, lord Fairfax, the son, resided at Leeds-castle till his quitting England, to reside on his great possessions in Virginia, where he continued to the time of his death. On his departure from England, he gave up the possession of this manor and castle, with his other estates in this neighbourhood, to his only surviving brother, the hon. Robert Fairfax, who afterwards resided at Leeds-castle, and on his brother's death unmarried, in 1782, succeeded to the title of lord Fairfax. He was at first bred to a military life, but becoming possessed of Leeds castle, he retired there, and afterwards twice served in parliament for the town of Maidstoue, as he did afterwards in two successive parliaments for this county. He was twice married; first to Marsha, daughter and coheir of Anthony Collins, esq. of Baddow, in Essex, by whom he had one son, who died an instant; and, secondly, to one of the daughters of Thomas Best, esq. of Chatham, who died s. p. in 1750. Lord Fairfax dying s. p. in 1793, this castle and manor, with the rest of his estates in this county, came to his nephew the Rev. Denny Martin, the eldest son of his sister Frances, by Denny Martin, esq. of Loose, who had before his uncle's death been created D. D. and had, with the royal licence, assumed the name and arms of Fairfax. Dr. Fairfax is the present possessor of this manor and castle, and resides here, being at present unmarried.

A court leet and court baron is held for the manor of Leeds, at which three borsholders are appointed. It is divided into six divisions, or yokes as they are called, viz. Church-yoke, Ferinland-yoke, Mill-yoke, Russerken-yoke, Stockwell-yoke, and Lees-yoke.

A long planned visit to Leeds to record the church.

Leeds is just off the M20, and nearby to Leeds Castle, which means the roads are often busy. St Nicholas is on the main road leading up the down, but before the road gets narrow as it winds between the timber framed houses. Thankfully there is good parking next door, so we were able to get off the main road and out of the traffic, as unbeknown to us, there was a classical music show on that night, and most of Kent were going and in the process of arriving.

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One of the largest twelfth-century towers in Kent. The arch between tower and nave is of three very plain orders with no hint of the usual zigzag moulding of the period, and is so large that a meeting room has recently been built into it. The nave has three bay aisles and short chapels to north and south of the chancel. The outstanding rood screen was partially reconstructed in 1892, and runs the full width of nave and aisles - with the staircase doorways in the south aisle. That the chancel was rebuilt in the sixteenth century may be seen by the plain sedilia through which is cut one of two hagioscopes from chapels to chancel. The north chapel contains some good seventeenth- and eighteenth-century tablets and monuments. The stained glass shows some excellent examples of the work of Heaton, Butler and Bayne (south aisle) whilst there is an uncharacteristically poor example of the work of C.E. Kempe & Co. Ltd. in the north aisle. The church has recently been reordered to provide a spacious, light and manageable interior with excellent lighting and a welcoming atmosphere without damaging the character of the building.

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Leeds

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LEEDS

IS the next parish southward from Hollingborne. Kilburne says, that one Ledian, a chief counsellor to king Ethelbert II. who began his reign in 978, raised a fortress here, which was called in Latin, from him, Ledani Castrum, and in process of time in English, LEEDS. This castle was afterwards demolished by the Danes, and continued in that situation till the time of the Norman conquest.

THE PRESENT CASTLE is situated at the southeast boundary of this parish, adjoining to Bromfield, which includes a part of the castle itself. It is situated in the midst of the park, an ample description of it the reader will find hereafter. The Lenham rivulet takes its course through the park, and having supplied the moat, in which the castle stands, and the several waters in the grounds there, and having received into it the several small streamlets from Hollingborne, and one from the opposite side, which comes from Leeds abbey, it flows on, and at a small distance from Caring street, in this parish, adjoining to Bersted, the principal estate of which name there belongs to the Drapers company, it turns a mill, and then goes on to Maidstone, where it joins the river Medway. The high road from Ashford and Lenham runs close by the outside of the pales of Leeds park, at the northern boundary of the parish next to Hollingborne, and thence goes on towards Bersted and Maidstone, from which the park is distant a little more than five miles; here the soil is a deep sand, but near the river it changes to a black moorish earth. Southward from the castle the ground rises, at about three quarters of a mile south-west from it is Leeds abbey, the front of which is a handsome well-looking building, of the time of queen Elizabeth. It is not unpleasantly situated on a gentle eminence, and is well watered by a small stream which rises just above it, and here turns a mill. It is well cloathed with wood at the back part of it, to which the ground still keeps rising; adjoining to the abbey grounds westward is Leeds-street, a long straggling row of houses, near a mile in length, having the church at the south end of it; here the soil becomes a red unfertile earth much mixed with slints, which continues till it joins to Langley and Otham.

LEEDS was part of those possessions given by William the Conqueror to his half-brother Odo, bishop of Baieux; accordingly it is thus entered, under the general title of that prelate's lands, in the survey of Domesday, taken in the year 1080.

Adelold holds of the bishop (of Baieux) Esiedes. It was taxed at three sulings. The arable land is twelve carucates. In demesne there are two carucates, and twenty-eight villeins, with eight borderers, having seven carucates. There is a church, and eighteen servants. There are two arpends of vineyard, and eight acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of twenty bogs, and five mills of the villeins. In the time of king Edward the Confessor, it was worth sixteen pounds, the like when be received it, now twenty pounds, and yet it pays twentyfive pounds. Earl Leuuin held it.

Of this manor the abbot of St. Augustine has half a suling, which is worth ten shillings, in exchange of the park of the bishop of Baieux. The earl of Ewe has four denns of this manor, which are worth twenty shillings.

The mention of the two arpends of vineyard in the above survey, is another instance of there having been such in this county in early times, some further observations of which the reader will find in the description of the parish of Chart Sutton, not far distant, and he will likewise observe, that at the above time the bishop of Baieux had a park here, which he acquired by exchange with the abbot of St. Augustine, who must therefore have had possessions here before that time.

On the bishop of Baieux's disgrace, about four years after the taking of the above-mentioned survey, this estate, among the rest of his possessions, became consiscated to the crown.

After which it was granted by king William to the eminent family of Crevequer, called in antient charters Creveceur, and in Latin, De Crepito Corde, who at first made Chatham in this county their seat, or caput baroniæ, i. e. the principal manor of their barony, for some time, until they removed hither, being before frequently written Domini de Cetham.

Robert, son of Hamon de Crevequer, who had probably a grant of Leeds from the Conqueror, appears to have held it of the king, as of his castle of Dover, in capite by barony, their barony, which consisted of five knight's sees, being stiled Baronia de Crevequer . (fn. 1) He erected the castle here, to which he asterwards removed the capital seat of his barony. This castle being environed with water, was frequently mentioned in antient writings by the name of Le Mote. In the north-west part of it he built a chapel, in which he placed three canons, which on his foundation of the priory of Leeds, in the 19th year of king Henry I. he removed thither.

His descendant, Hamon de Crevequer, lived in the reign of king Henry III. in the 19th year of which, he was joined with Walterand Teutonicus, or Teys, in the wardenship of the five ports, and the next year had possession granted to him of the lands of William de Albrincis or Averenches, whose daughter and heir Maud he had married. He died in the 47th year of king Henry III. possessed of the manor of Ledes, held of the king in capite, as belonging to his barony of Chatham; upon which Robert, his grandson, viz. son of Hamon his son, who died in his life-time, succeeded him as his heir, and in the 52d year of that reign, exchanged the manor of Ledes, with its appurtenances, together with a moiety of all his fees, with Roger de Leyburne, for the manors of Trottesclyve and Flete. He lest William de Leyburne, his son and heir, who in the 2d year of king Edward I. had possession granted to him of the manor of Ledes, as well as of the rest of his inheritance, of which Eleanor, countess of Winchester, his father's widow, was not endowed. (fn. 2)

His son, William de Leyborne, observing that the king looked on the strength of this fortress with a jealous eye, in the beginning of king Edward Ist.'s reign reinstated the crown in the possession of both the manor and castle; and the king having, in his 27th year married Margaret, sister of Philip, king of France, he settled them, being then of the clear yearly value of 21l. 6s. 8d. among other premises, as part of her dower. She survived the king her husband, who died in 1307, and in the 5th year of the next reign of king Edward II. by the king's recommendation, appointed Bartholomew de Badlesmere, a nobleman of great power and eminence, and much in that prince's favor, governor of this castle. (fn. 3) She died possessed of them in the 10th year of that reign; on which they came once more into the hands of the crown, and in the beginning of the next year the king appointed Bartholomew de Badlesmere, above-mentioned, governor of this castle, as well as of that of Bristol. In the 11th year of that reign, the king granted to him in see, this manor and castle, and the advowson of the priory of Ledes, in exchange for the manor of Addresley, in Shropshire. Being possessed of great possessions, especially in this county, he was usually stiled, the rich lord Badlesmere of Ledes. Being pussed up through ambition and his great wealth, he forgot his allegiance, and associated himself with the earl of Lancaster, and the discontented barons; which the king being well informed of, resolved, if possible, to gain possession of this strong fortress of Ledes: to effect which, under pretence of the queen's going on a pilgrimage to Canterbury, she set forward for that city with a large train of attendants, and, with a secret intention of surprising this castle, sent her marshal with others of her servants, to prepare lodging for her and her suit in it. The lord Badlesmere's family, that is, his wife, son, and four daughters, were at that time in it, together with all his treasure, deposited there for safety, under the care of Thomas Colepeper, the castellan, who refused the queen's servants admittance, and on her coming up, peremptorily persisted in denying her or any one entrance, without letters from his lord. The queen, upon this, made some attempt to gain admittance by force, and a skirmish ensued, in which one or more of her attendants were slain, but being repulsed, she was obliged to relinquish her design, and to retire for a lodging elsewhere.

The king, chagrined at the failure of his scheme, and highly resenting the indignity offered to the queen, sent a force under the earls of Pembroke and Richmond, to besiege the castle; (fn. 4) and those within it finding no hopes of relief, for though the lord Badlesmere had induced the barons to endeavours to raise the siege, yet they never advanced nearer than Kingston, yielded it up. Upon which, the lady Badlesmere and her children were sent prisoners to the tower of London, Thomas Colepeper, the castellan, was hung up, and the king took possession of the castle, as well as of all the lord Badlesmere's goods and treasures in it. But by others, Thomas de Aldone is said to have been castellan at this time, and that the castle being taken, he, with the lord Badlesmere's wife, his only son Giles, his daughters, Sir Bartholomew de Burgershe, and his wife, were sent to the tower of London by the king's order; and that afterwards, he caused Walter Colepeper, bailiff of the Seven Hundreds, to be drawn in a pitiable manner at the tails of horses, and to be hung just by this castle; on which Thomas Colepeper, and others, who were with him in Tunbridge castle, hearing of the king's approach, sled to the barons.

After which the lord Badlesmere, being taken prisoner in Yorkshire, was sent to Canterbury, and there drawn and hanged at the gallows of Blean, and his head being cut off, was set on a pole on Burgate, in that city. Upon which the manor and castle of Leeds, became part of the royal revenue and the castle remained in a most ruinous condition till the year 1359, anno 34 Edward III. in which year that munisicent prelate, William of Wickham, was constituted by the king, chief warden and surveyor of his castle of Ledes, among others, (fn. 5) having power to appoint all workmen, to provide materials, and to order every thing with regard to building and repairs; and in those manors to hold leets and other courts of trespass and misdemeanors, and to enquire of the king's liberties and rights; and from his attention to the re-edisying and rebuilding the rest of them, there is little doubt but he restored this of Leeds to a very superior state to whatever it had been before, insomuch, that it induced king Richard to visit it several times, particularly in his 19th year, in which several of his instruments were dated at his castle of Ledes; and it appears to have been at that time accounted a fortress of some strength, for in the beginning of the next reign, that unfortunate prince was, by order of king Henry IV. sent prisoner to this castle; and that king himself resided here part of the month of April in his 2d year.

After which, archbishop Arundel, whose mind was by no means inferior to his high birth, procured a grant of this castle, where he frequently resided and kept his court, whilst the process against the lord Cobham was carrying forward, and some of his instruments were dated from his castle of Ledes in the year 1413, being the year in which he died. On his death it reverted again to the crown, and became accounted as one of the king's houses, many of the principal gentry of the county being instrusted with the custody of it:

In the 7th year of king Henry V. Joane of Navarre, the second queen of the late king Henry IV. being accused of conspiring against the life of the king, her son-in-law, was committed to Leeds-castle, there to remain during the king's pleasure; and being afterwards ordered into Sir John Pelham's custody, he removed her to the castle of Pevensey, in Sussex.

In the 18th year of king Henry VI. archbishop Chichele sat at the king's castle of Leeds, in the process against Eleanor, duchess of Gloucester, for forcery and witchcrast.

King Edward IV. in his 11th year, made Ralph St. Leger, esq. of Ulcomb, who had served the office of sheriff of this county three years before, constable of this castle for life, and annexed one of the parks as a farther emolument to that office. He died that year, and was buried with his ancestors at Ulcomb.

Sir Thomas Bourchier resided at Leeds castle in the 1st year of king Richard III. in which year he had commission, among others of the principal gentry of this county, to receive the oaths of allegiance to king Richard, of the inhabitants of the several parts of Kent therein mentioned; in which year, the king confirmed the liberties of Leeds priory, in recompence of twentyfour acres of land in Bromfield, granted for the enlargement of his park of Ledes.

In the 4th year of king Henry VIII. Henry Guildford, esq. had a grant of the office of constable of Leeds castle, and of the parkership of it; and in the 12th year of that reign, he had a grant of the custody of the manor of Leeds, with sundry perquisities, for forty years. He died in the 23d year of that reign, having re-edisied great part of the castle, at the king's no small charge.

But the fee simple of the manor and castle of Leeds remained in the hands of the crown, till Edward VI. in his 6th year, granted them, with their appurtenances in the parishes of Leeds, Langley, and Sutton, to Sir Anthony St. Leger, lord deputy of Ireland, to hold in capite by knight's service.

His son, Sir Warham St. Leger, succeeded him in this manor and castle, and was afterwards chief governor of Munster, in Ireland, in which province he was unfortunately slain in 1599, (fn. 6) but before his death he alienated this manor and castle to Sir Richard Smyth, fourth son of Thomas Smyth, esq. of Westenhanger, commonly called Customer Smyth.

Sir Richard Smyth resided at Leeds castle, of which he died possessed in 1628, and was buried in Ashford church, where there is a costly monument erected to his memory.

Sir John Smith, his only son, succeeded his father, and resided at Leeds castle, and dying s. p. in 1632, was buried in this church; upon which his two sisters, Alice, wife of Sir Timothy Thornhill, and Mary, of Maurice Barrow, esq. became his coheirs, and entitled their respective husbands to the property of this manor and castle, which they afterwards joined in the sale of to Sir T. Culpeper, of Hollingborne, who settled this estate, after his purchase of it, on his eldest son Cheney Culpeper, remainder to his two other sons, Francis and Thomas. Cheney Culpeper, esq. resided at Leedscastle for some time, till at length persuading his brother Sir Thomas Culpeper, of Hollingborne, (then his only surviving brother, Francis being dead. s. p.) to cut off the entail of this estate, he alienated it to his cousin Sir John Colepeper, lord Colepeper, only son of Sir John Culpeper, of Wigsell, in Sussex, whose younger brother Francis was of Greenway-court, in Hollingborne, and was father of Sir Thomas Culpeper, the purchaser of this estate as before-mentioned.

Sir John Colepeper represented this county in parliament in the 16th year of king Charles I. and being a person, who by his abilities had raised himself much in the king's favor, was made of his privy council, and chancellor of the exchequer, afterwards master of the rolls, and governor of the Isle of Wight. During the troubles of that monarch, he continued stedfast to the royal cause, and as a reward for his services, was in 1644 created lord Colepeper, baron of Thoresway, in Lincolnshire.

After the king's death he continued abroad with king Charles II. in his exile. During his absence, Leeds-castle seems to have been in the possession of the usurping powers, and to have been made use of by them, for the assembling of their committee men and sequestrators, and for a receptacle to imprison the ejected ministers, for in 1652, all his estates had been declared by parliament forfeited, for treason against the state. He died in 1660, a few weeks only after the restoration, and was buried at Hollingborne. He bore for his arms, Argent, a bend ingrailed gules, the antient bearing of this family; he left by his second wife Judith, daughter of Sir Thomas Culpeper, of Hollingborne, several children, of whom Thomas was his successor in title and estates, and died without male issue as will be mentioned hereafter, John succeeded his brother in the title, and died in 1719 s. p. and Cheney succeeded his brother in the title, and died at his residence of Hoston St. John, in 1725, s. p. likewise, by which the title became extinct; they all, with the rest of the branch of the family, lie buried at Hollingborne. Thomas, lord Colepeper, the eldest son, succeeded his father in title, and in this manor and castle, where he resided, and having married Margaret, daughter of Signior Jean de Hesse, of a noble family in Germany, he left by her a sole daughter and heir Catherine, who intitled her husband Thomas, lord Fairfax, of Cameron, in Scotland, to this manor and castle, with his other estates in this neighbourhood.

The family of Fairfax appear by old evidences in the hands of the family to have been in possession of lands in Yorkshire near six hundred years ago. Richard Fairfax was possessed of lands in that county in the reign of king John, whose grandson William Fairfax in the time of king Henry III. purchased the manor of Walton, in the West Riding, where he and his successors resided for many generations afterwards, and from whom descended the Fairfax's, of Walton and Gilling, in Yorkshire; of whom, Sir Thomas Fairfax, of Gilling, was created viscount Fairfax, of the kingdom of Ireland, which title became extinct in 1772; and from a younger branch of them descended Sir Thomas Fairfax, of Denton, who lived in queen Elizabeth's reign, and changed the original field of his coat armour from argent to or, bearing for his arms, Or, 3 bars gemelles, gules, surmounted of a lion rampant, sable, crown'd, of the first, and was father of Sir. T. Fairfax, who was, for his services to James and Charles I. created in 1627 lord Fairfax, baron of Cameron, in Scotland. He died in 1640, having had ten sons and two daughters; of whom, Ferdinando was his successor; Henry was rector of Bolton Percy, and had two sons, Henry, who became lord Fairfax, and Bryan, who was ancestor of Bryan Fairfax, late commissioner of the customs; and colonel Charles Fairfax, of Menston, was the noted antiquary, whose issue settled there.

Ferdinando, the second lord Fairfax, in the civil wars of king Charles I. was made general of the parliamentary forces, and died at York in 1646. His son, Sir Thomas Fairfax, succeeded him as lord Fairfax, and in all his posts under the parliament, and was that famous general so noted in English history during the civil wars, being made commander in chief of all the parliamentary forces; but at last he grew so weary of the distress and confusion which his former actions had brought upon his unhappy country, that he heartily concurred in the restoration of king Charles II. After which he retired to his seat at Bilborough, in Yorkshire, where he died in 1671, and was buried there, leaving by Anne, daughter and coheir of Horatio, lord Vere of Tilbury, a truly loyal and virtuous lady, an only daughter; upon which the title devolved to Henry Fairfax, esq. of Oglesthorpe, in Yorkshire, his first cousin, eldest son of Henry, rector of Bolton Percy, the second son of Thomas, the first lord Fairfax. Henry, lord Fairfax, died in 1680, and was succeeded by his eldest son Thomas, fifth lord Fairfax, who was bred to a military life, and rose to the rank of a brigadier-general. He represented Yorkshire in several parliaments and marrying Catherine, daughter and heir of Thomas, lord Colepeper, possessed, in her right this manor and castle, and other large possessions, as before-mentioned. (fn. 7)

He died possessed of them in 1710, leaving three sons and four daughters, Thomas, who succeeded him as lord Fairfax; Henry Culpeper, who died unmarried, in 1734; and Robert, of whom hereafter. Of the daughters, Margaret married David Wilkins, D. D. and prebendary of Canterbury, and Francis married Denny Martin, esq. Thomas, lord Fairfax, the son, resided at Leeds-castle till his quitting England, to reside on his great possessions in Virginia, where he continued to the time of his death. On his departure from England, he gave up the possession of this manor and castle, with his other estates in this neighbourhood, to his only surviving brother, the hon. Robert Fairfax, who afterwards resided at Leeds-castle, and on his brother's death unmarried, in 1782, succeeded to the title of lord Fairfax. He was at first bred to a military life, but becoming possessed of Leeds castle, he retired there, and afterwards twice served in parliament for the town of Maidstoue, as he did afterwards in two successive parliaments for this county. He was twice married; first to Marsha, daughter and coheir of Anthony Collins, esq. of Baddow, in Essex, by whom he had one son, who died an instant; and, secondly, to one of the daughters of Thomas Best, esq. of Chatham, who died s. p. in 1750. Lord Fairfax dying s. p. in 1793, this castle and manor, with the rest of his estates in this county, came to his nephew the Rev. Denny Martin, the eldest son of his sister Frances, by Denny Martin, esq. of Loose, who had before his uncle's death been created D. D. and had, with the royal licence, assumed the name and arms of Fairfax. Dr. Fairfax is the present possessor of this manor and castle, and resides here, being at present unmarried.

A court leet and court baron is held for the manor of Leeds, at which three borsholders are appointed. It is divided into six divisions, or yokes as they are called, viz. Church-yoke, Ferinland-yoke, Mill-yoke, Russerken-yoke, Stockwell-yoke, and Lees-yoke.

Testimonial by: instagram.com/nicofoxx

Date: Apr 02 2014

Started @hairfinity vitamins a month ago and I can honestly say I see a huge difference in not only the length of my hair but the texture as well it's a lot more manageable and healthier. I love these vitamins and I recommend them for sure. I have also been deep conditioning 3 times a week. #shouldistartabeautyblog?

The Bureau of Land Management manages 517 wilderness study areas containing about 12.6 million acres located in the Western States and Alaska. The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 directed the Bureau to inventory and study its roadless areas for wilderness characteristics. To be designated as a Wilderness Study Area, an area had to have the following characteristics:

Size - roadless areas of at least 5,000 acres of public lands or of a manageable size;

Naturalness - generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature;

Opportunities - provides outstanding opportunities for solitude or primitive and unconfined types of recreation.

In addition, Wilderness Study Areas often have special qualities such as ecological, geological, educational, historical, scientific and scenic values.

The congressionally directed inventory and study of BLM's roadless areas received extensive public input and participation. By November 1980, the BLM had completed field inventories and designated about 25 million acres of wilderness study areas. Since 1980, Congress has reviewed some of these areas and has designated some as wilderness and released others for non-wilderness uses. Until Congress makes a final determination on a wilderness study area, the BLM manages these areas to preserve their suitability for designation as wilderness.

In Oregon/Washington there are 83 wilderness study areas comprising 2,642,289 acres. These 83 wilderness study areas are primarily located in southeast Oregon in the Prineville, Lakeview, Burns and Vale Districts.

To learn more about wilderness study areas head on over to: www.blm.gov/programs/national-conservation-lands/oregon-w...

I decided to condition and trim up Emma's curly wig... it's so soft and much more manageable now *~*

Cartridge: 7.62x39mmR

Fire Rate: 700 rpm auto, 2000 rpm burst

Range: 770 meters

Capacity: 30 rounds/mag

Extras: Any rail attachment, 100 round drum magazine, sling, silencer suppressor

The EbonyCore AN99 is the upgraded version of the expensive and high performance Izhmash AN-94. It has been made lighter with the use of more advanced polymers in its design and construction. The entire bolt, feed and firing systems have been made much more durable without adding any extra weight, meaning the rifle can sustain automatic fire without wearing out. Like the original AN-94, the EC-AN99 retains the two-round burst capability, which fires at a rate of 2000rpm. EbonyCore has also added a HRA (High Recoil Absorption) stock, meaning the rifle has very manageable recoil when fired full auto, which is why the fire rate has been increased, to allow for extra stopping power. The EC-AN99, unlike the AN-94, has a built in rail system, one of the additions that makes it, like all EbonyCore firearms, extremely modular.

Larry did this hike solo, as Ben had a soar knee from our last cross-country ski outing. In order to get to Mt Loder, you cross Doorjamb Mountain summit en route. The wind was up today, as it often is on this route. Thankfully it was just manageable, and Larry completed this double summit scramble in under 4 hours roundtrip.

Kinda huge, but still manageable. The fact that the tripod collar is so easily removable helps make this a useful lens for hand-held work. The AF is not as fast as the Nikon 300mm f/4 AF-S, but I like the form factor a lot more for hand-held. Sigma's APO glass isn't always as apochromatic as you'd expect, but I've seen little if any signs of chromatic aberration from this lens.

Sold the Alpina on 4 September 2023.

Only the 1983 Colnago Mexico and 1979 Medici Pro-Strada (on the stand) in this photo remain in my collection. I also still retain the tiny "industrial art" 1973 Colnago Super, 1981 Bianchi Super Leggera, 1982 Casati Perfection, and 2002 Davidson Signature.

With the exception of the art bike, the remaining bikes are all either 57 or 58cm center-to-center, and fit me well. I've finally rid myself of the bikes that had simply become too small for my aging body!

What I've Learned: Never underestimate the feeling of liberation that goes with getting the collection down to a manageable 5 bikes - all of which get ridden regularly. I've spares for the remainder of their days - not to mention mine!

It's all good.

After her husband passed away, my mother decided it was time to downsize and move from her large home into a more manageable two bedroom apartment. So, some things had to go... There was no room at her new place for the "magic bed"... so called because it is a hide-away bed, and the grandchildren used to think it was "magic" when the bed was pulled out!

This separation was particularly difficult for my mother for many reasons. First of all, it was the first "new" piece of furniture she ever selected and purchased herself (back in 1970, just after MY father had passed away). And, over the years many beloved bottoms have sat on the couch, and slept on the "magic bed" at Grandma's house. It was VERY difficult for my mother to let the couch go... even though she was donating it to her church and would likely see it again.

In this photo my mother has removed her glasses because she is crying over letting the "magic bed" go... My sister is trying to console her... and we are all laughing at how silly she is to be crying over a stupid (... not to mention, UGLY) couch! But I don't think it's really about the couch at all... Anyway, we took this one-last picture of the "magic bed" before it was to be delivered to it's new home.

Boat Areas:

A - deck hand taking picture of Portland Head Light Station

B - orange floats atop nets that are over-boarded. Nets weighted bottom sink while floats hold them up and make the net manageable

C - skiff that once launched aids in deployment of the nets and in their recovery back onto the boat with the harvest

D - a part of the booms and winches that aid in net deployment and recovery

E - the crows nest atop the upright pole - in many seines it is used for a lookout to spot surface fish as well as help to direct the nets in deployment and recovery

F - Tubing/ ducts that are part of the system to move the fish harvest to the holding areas below deck and then to

move them out for processing

++ ++ ++ ++ ++

Scout is a Commercial Fishing Vessel registration number 996362. It hails from Portland Maine. It is a "coastwise unrestricted, fishery vessel. Built in 1993 it is 63 feet in length, a breadth of 23 feet with a hull depth of a little over 10 feet. Net tonnage is 100 tons and net tonnage 80. Owner: UNIGEAR LLC

430 COMMERCIAL STREET

PORTLAND, ME 04101 www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/pls/webpls/cgv_pkg.vessel_id_list

++ ++ ++ ++ ++

"Scout" is 'purse seiner/gill-netter' one of the basic types of commercial fishing vessels - "A seiner uses a floating net to encircle schools of surface-swimming fishes such as herring and tuna." njscuba.net/artifacts/ship_fishing.php

++ ++ ++ ++ ++

image by Photo George

copyrighted: ©2017 GCheatle

all rights reserved

locator: GAC_4715_Detailed marked A

This image was scanned from a plan in the BHP Coal Geology plan set. The set of plans was donated to the Geology Department at University of Newcastle by BHP Coal Geology, in the early 1960s. The plans were transferred to Cultural Collections and stored in archives at the Auchmuty Library, University of Newcastle (2012), together with other archival material from the Geology Dept.

The plans were scanned at 400dpi in GLAMx Lab, Cultural Collections in August 2017. This set of plans was generated from the scans by Russell Rigby in October 2017 - the original scans were adjusted using Irfanview software and the following steps:

1/ the scans were "squared up" where necessary by fine rotation, and cropped to remove frayed edges, binding holes etc - all information was preserved.

2/ the scans were resized to 160dpi (40% of original)to get a set of plans at manageable size.

3/ the resized images were"auto adjusted" to improve colour rendition and contrast

4/ the adjusted images were saved as high quality jpg files (80%)

5/ the adjusted images were renamed for consistency.

The scanned plans are dye-line prints. They were printed from originals on transparent film which were updated from time to time in BHP Coal Geology. Later versions of these plans may be available from other sources, and the updated originals may still be in the archives now held by Glencore. The printed plans are hand coloured.

The plans are approximately 1050mm x 760mm, at a scale of 4 inches:1 mile (1:15840) unless otherwise shown. They are bound in a single hard-cover folio.

The borehole and shaft numbers used on these plans are from sequential numbering of the data points generated within BHP Coal Geology. A reference listing of the BHPCG numbers used for the Newcastle Coalfield with the name and number of the data point is held in archives by Glencore, Mineral Resources, and may also be in the University collection. Copies of the drillhole and shaft logs are contained in sets of typed sheets, with hand-coloured graphic logs.

You are welcome to use the images for study and personal research purposes. Please acknowledge as “BHP Coal Geology", (Australia)" For commercial requests you must obtain permission by contacting Cultural Collections.

If you have any information about the photograph, please contact us or leave a comment. We greatly value your contribution.

Please contact Cultural Collections at the University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia, if you know the subject of the image, and have cultural or other reservations about the image being displayed on this website and would like to discuss this with us.

WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER19: The Smithsonian's National Zoo announced a major donation to fund the giant panda program today from David Rubenstein, being applauded by Smithsonian Secretary, Wayne Clough, left, and Amb. Zhang, People's Repbulic of China, right, at the zoo, Monday December 19, 2011. (photo by Dayna Smith/ImageSmith Media).

David M. Rubenstein donated $4.5 million to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo to fund the giant panda program for the next five years. In appreciation, the giant panda complex—home to giant pandas Tian Tian (male) and Mei Xiang (female)—will be named the David M. Rubenstein Family Giant Panda Habitat. In addition, young conservation biologists in the U.S. and in China who are awarded National Zoo fellowships for their work to save this endangered species will be named “David M. Rubenstein Fellows.” The gift will be used to fund conservation efforts in China, reproductive science, professional training programs, giant panda care at the Zoo, upgrades to the Zoo habitats and public education.

“On behalf of the Zoo Advisory Board, we are most grateful to David for his generous gift, which keeps the beloved giant pandas at the National Zoo for Washington, D.C., and all Americans to enjoy,” said John Marriott, chair of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo Advisory Board. “More importantly, his generosity will enable us and our Chinese partners to continue our conservation work to give this critically endangered species the chance to survive in its native habitat.”

Rubenstein, co-founder and managing director of The Carlyle Group, has been a member of the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents since 2009. “We are honored to be part of a cherished program that brings joy to millions of people and draws together two great nations working to preserve these magnificent and gentle giant pandas,” said Rubenstein.

The gift allows the Zoo’s animal care and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s scientific team to proceed with the five-year science plan established with their Chinese colleagues from the China Wildlife Conservation Association. The science plan has specific goals: to examine the creation and impact of corridors to link fragmented habitats that will benefit giant pandas and other wildlife species, including promoting genetic diversity; examine how to restore habitats, especially those where pandas appear to be making a comeback; provide advice on giant panda reintroduction; examine the potential impact of transmissible diseases on giant pandas and other wildlife species, including providing advice on implementing new programs associated with a Wildlife Disease Control Center being built in Sichuan Province; and continue research on giant panda reproduction and management, because, although there has been major success in Chinese breeding centers, some pandas still experience reproductive challenges.

This last goal extends to the Zoo’s pair of pandas who have only produced one cub, Tai Shan, via artificial insemination in 2005. SCBI scientists evaluated all panda breeding records and found that no female individual has successfully reproduced after five consecutive failures. Since Mei Xiang falls into that category, the SCBI team formed a 2012 breeding plan with some variations. “It’s important that we use modern biomedical tools to try and make sure that every genetically valuable individual panda reproduces,” said Pierre Comizzoli, SCBI reproductive physiologist.

The 2012 giant panda breeding plan was done in collaboration with Chinese colleagues. Most notably, the Zoo will receive frozen semen from the San Diego Zoo this year. The frozen semen will be from Shi Shi (now deceased). The frozen semen will be used only in the event that the pandas do not mate successfully and if Tian Tian’s semen is not of sufficient quality for an artificial insemination. Additional details of the breeding plan include: panda keepers continue to house the pandas separately as they would live in the wild although they are rotated throughout all the yards, panda keepers continue the animal training and exercise regimens to improve their stamina, alterations are being made to the facility to create smaller and more manageable breeding areas, all unnatural night light in the building has been eliminated and the indoor panda exhibit is closed to the public at 4:30 p.m.

Tian Tian, the male panda, has already exhibited preliminary rutting behaviors (“powerwalking”/patrolling, urine hopping, scent marking and some vocalizations). Keepers expect these behaviors to increase over time. Mei Xiang has yet to exhibit any estrous behaviors. Last year at this time, she was beginning to show early behaviors such as scent marking, restlessness and vocalizations.

The Giant Panda Habitat consists of panda outdoor and indoor living spaces, an outdoor exhibit in the conservation plaza, an indoor exhibit and a research center. The animal spaces are designed to replicate the panda’s natural environment with rock and tree structures for climbing; grottoes, pools and streams to keep the pandas cool; and shrubs and trees to offer them privacy. The habitats serve as both a display and a learning opportunity. The layout of the yards allows visitors to stand inches away from the pandas to observe them, as well as learn about conservation and reproduction efforts. A video camera system, the popular panda cam, also allows people to watch the pandas in real time on their own computers, offering a personal experience for those who cannot visit the Zoo.

# # #

Paula gets a chance to try on her new blouse, shiny hose and wig. Wig is shorter than her normal length but I am very happy with it. A little better quality and is softer, shinier and seem more manageable.

Shivell mask with full makeup less lashes.

My last visit to UVM. A line of Scottish Ambulance VW T5 high roof 'Island Vehicles' in build. These 140 PS 4motion units were designed as a more agile and manageable vehicle for the remote and rural areas, principally the Scottish Islands where a large coachbuilt can be a hinderance. Internal moulded panel ready for interior fitting.

At the weaving studio there is a wonderful gizmo which will wind a skein of yarn into a manageable ball! I get such fun out of photographing the process! Enjoy . . . and stay tuned for my next weaving project which will incorporate some of this fiber!

“The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.”

~ William Shakespeare ~

At the Cutthroat Ridge avalanche chute #11, Jesse Gurney in the excavator and Duane Wolley in snowblower work together to clear snow off the highway. The excavator sits on top of the snow and digs it down to a manageable size for the snowblower. Team work is essential.

Where is the Cutthroat Ridge avalanche zone? Find it on this map: www.flickr.com/photos/wsdot/5242152485/

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Top 8 Don’ts

1) Alcohol

2) Sugar (Excluding fruit)

3) Eating out (This is something I reserve for special occasions.)

4) Soda

5) Eating food that comes from a box (Boxed dinners, crackers, cereal, granola bars, etc.)

6) Eating big dinners or a lot of food before bedtime (I know this one can be controversial, again, I’m just telling you what I did to lose weight.)

7) Make excuses

8) Stop once you are at your goal (Keep up the healthy habits)

Top 8 Do’s

1) Make a meal plan for the entire week. Prepare for it and stick to it!

2) Eat plenty of nutritious food: vegetables, protein, fruit. The more “good” food you eat, the less room there will be for you to crave and eat the “bad” food.

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In today’s world caring for your hair is a crucial part to succeeding in society. When you think about it, successful people are properly groomed, and managed. This is why managing your hair is a crucial part to succeeding in society. It is a representation of who you are. Read on to learn...

healthwellnessandlifestyle.com/great-tips-for-healthy-and...

Chinese Lunar New Year 2023 Liverpool #1

Morning Dragon Parade

I thought that I would arrive too late to see the parade of the Dragon and the fighting Lions – I just managed to see the tail-end of the event. In any case, I was too late to get a ringside seat, but I did see a firecracker being set off (photo #1). For the remainder of my parade shots I had to hold my camera above the heads of the crowds and trust to what I could see in the X-T5’s Live View.

My photos of the afternoon’s activities will follow over the next few days (at least). I took 366 images which I have yet to cull to manageable proportions before I even begin to edit them! Spoiler – the Dragon and Lions will feature again in one of the posts of the show at the central performing stage in Great George Square).

DRE @ 12 Weeks Old

HISTORY OF THE STAFFORDSHIRE BULL TERRIER

Mankind has enjoyed the faithfulness of the dog by the side for countries. Few dogs desire to please their human masters as mush as the staffordshire bull terrier. Dogs in general have accommodated man and his every whim for generations anything to please the master. Today's Staffordshire Bull Terrier, in mind and body, echoes that sentiment with night and determination.

A SPECIALIST IN BODY AND MIND

before the days of dog shows and the purebred mating of champions, human recognised the merit in dogs that specialise in performing a specific job or task. We bred dogs that could hunt, herd, haul, guard, run, track and perform countless other tasks geared towards making humans lives more comfortable, enjoyable, and manageable. Each dog's anatomy reflected the task tha men set before him. The hunting dog had an insulated coat, a super sensitive nose, a short coupled body, a deep chest and straight, strong legs. The coursing dog had longer legs, a tucked-up abdomen (for speed), a deep chest (for lung capacity), keen eyesight, and a narrow, long muzzle (to slice the wind). The guard dogs were true heavyweights: massive and solidly boned with punishing jaws and nerves of steel.

Understand the Staffordshire Bull Terrier as a pet

required knowledge of the dog's history as a baiting and

fighting dog. No dog matches this breeds devotion to

it's master, in mind and body

The physical characteristics that set apart the staffordshire bull terrier are its impressive musculature, its strongly undershot strong jaws and large teeth, very pronounced cheek muscles, loose shoulders, roach black, low-slung body and long legs that bend in the forequarters. These are the characteristics of a fighting or baiting dog that enable it to perform the tasks that breed indeed all the bull and terrier dogs, were created to tackle. The decree'Go Low, pin and hold!' was in sooth a battle cry! This imposing physique was needed for the dogs to fight one another, as well as dodge and grab an ornery bull with their powerful gripping jaws and hold on to it without being tossed aside!

Baiting a bull, an animal twenty or more times the size of a dog, placed some obvious demands on the dog, its anatomy and temperament. The desired temperament of a bull and terrier dog for baiting was not a vicious, risk-taking daredevil. Instead, the baiting dog required an even-keeled, level-headed, obedient temperament, peppered with patience, indomitable courage and tenacity. The bulldog excelled in the pinning and holding of the bull, but lacked the flexibility required in the dog pit. thus, the smaller bull and terrier dogs were designed to take on this challenge and each other.

The characteristics of a fighting dog still distin

guish the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, including the

pronounced cheek muscles, long legs and loose

shoulders

Image the heart of the dog that willingly undertake such a task for the sake of pleasing his master! Baiting and fighting dogs were not the only kinds of dogs that risked their lives for their human counterparts. Indeed, harding and droving dogs, hunting dogs, and even the smaller terrier risked their lives for the sake of accomplishing their task. Nonetheless, the bloody endeavour of slaying bull overshadows almost any other taskset before dog.

The original fighting types were large, mastiff dogs with heavy, low-slung bodies and powerfully developed heads. Some accounts also descibed the deep, frightening voice of the mastiffs. In appearance, the mastiffs were appalling and frightful. Mastiff dogs yielded not only fighting dogs but also flock guards, scent hounds and other powerful hunters. Consider the size and fearlessness of such modern-day mastiff as Great Pyrenees, Kuvasz, Dogo Argention and Spanish Mastiff. Consider the size and features of the bloodhound, Great Dane,Newfoundland and Polish Hound. All these dogs derive from crosses to these powerful mastiffs of yesteryear.

ORIGINAL PURPOSES OF THE GREAT MASTIFFS

Historians have recorded many impressive duties amongst the purposes of these original mastiffs. Dogs used for war armoured,spiked, and collared became valuable weapons for human strying to defend themselves from t heir enemies. These dogs were not only brave but aggressive and resource full. As early as 2100B.C. dogs were employed for warring purposed. Many famous kings and tribes used dogs to claim their victories. The dogs were trained in combat and were uniformed with impenetrable metal shields and spiked collars to protect them from their foes who carried spears and other primitive weapons.

The American Staffordshire Terrier, shown here,

derived from the Staffordshire Bull Terrier from

crosses to other terriers in the U.S

Spanning the millennia, Hammurabi, Kambyses, Varius and henry VII were among the monarchs that valued dogs in their militia. These dogs were necessarily vicious and trusted no one exept their one master. Appropriately these war dogs were labelled Canis bellicosus.

The great mastiff also assisted man by hunting large, ferocious game. These dog commonly hunted in packs, maintained by the royals, and were used to pursue bison and aurochs in the wild forests. Dogs were also used to track the stag, considered a noble game,as well as the wild boar, the most dangerous of wild game, revered for its ruthless, nasty disposition. The mastiffs worked in conjunction with lighter, swifter dogs that tired the boar before the mighty mastiffs were releases to slay it, many men, dogs and horses were killed by the wild boars fighting for their lives. There are accounts of boar dogs being kept in kennel 6000 dog strong. Today, mastiffs are rarely used for these purposes, but there are still boar hunts in the U.S., Germany and the Czech Republic.

Bear hunting, even more popular today than boar hunting,was also a noble pursuit of the dogs of antiquity. The dogs were required to track the bear, cornerit and keep it occupied until the hunter arrived with their firearms. The bear is highly intelligent creature that could weight much as 350 kgs and could easily outmatch a dog. Mastiffs in India produce the most coloful tale of hunting, including the pursuit of buffalo, leopards, panthers and elephants! Regardless of the actual truth of many of these accounts, the stories underscore the fearless tenacity of these mastiff dogs that the ancestors of our Staffordshire Bull Terrier.

Axis Wake Research (@AxisWake) wakeboard boat design meets performance and budget in a compact 20-foot package.

Axis is churning out their brand of simplicity, style and performance in a 20-foot package. The new 2011 Axis A20 is designed for riders and families with room for 11 and versatile wakes that slide between mellow and pro-level. Maintaining the look of the Axis A22, the new A20 adheres to the core values of this uncomplicated boat brand with a small stature for towing and size restricted lakes. The A20 offers convenient size, usable design and stylin’ performance for a price that comes in under budget.

Additional Links

Axis A20 YouTube Video

Find your nearest Axis Wake Research dealer.

The Size

At 20 feet long from bow to stern the A20 is designed to be as convenient to tow and store, as it is fun to drive and ride. The A20 is the perfect solution for families who ride on boat length-restricted lakes, garage their boat or tow with a mid-sized vehicle. The goal for the A20 is to provide as much interior room and wake performance as a much larger wakeboard boat in a more manageable package. Thanks to A20 hull design and a rider-centric interior layout, Axis Wake Research has succeeded in their quest to create a 20-foot boat that does not compromise convenience, comfort or performance.

The Wake

The Axis Wake Research Team modeled this 20-foot boat after the A22 to kick-up pro caliber walls of water. The A20 wake is clean and solid for first-time to world-class riding levels. An un-weighted A20 has a very mellow and extremely stable wake, perfect for beginners. Fill the standard Wakebox 800 Ballast System in conjunction with available Plug-N-Play ballast system and this wake will keep even pro riders busy.

The only hard tank, sub-floor wake enhancement system available in the price-point class standard. The Wakebox is comprised of three hard ballast tanks mounted below the floor in both the rear and center of the boat, totaling 800 pounds. Opt for the Axis Plug N’ Play Ballast System and add up to 1300 pounds or more to your A20 in the form of custom designed Fly High sacks. The Plug N’ Play ballast will make its home on either side of the engine and in the bow. All locations can be filled and drained at the dash. Looking for another 1000 pounds of displacement? Add the exclusive Axis Auto Set Wedge and you will bring your wake footprint to nearly 3100 pounds of displacement. All of this without compromising floor space and barely encroaching on your storage areas.

The Interior

The A20 has room for 11 with lounge seating covered in corrosion-resistant G&T Premium Grade 30 oz. Marine Vinyl. The under-seat storage can swallow all the gear and more. Under-seat storage lighting is available for function and chill factor in red, white or blue LED colors. The machined aluminum AXray kick panel offers enough visibility to keep track of your items along with an amazing look, especially when lit. The ballast-free rear storage area is unobstructed and offers an above engine storage bin to gently warm those chilly wakeboarding accessories like wet suits, rash guards and life vests. Seating is plentiful and customizable for a variety of riding situations. The rear seat is branded as SkyBox seating and gives passengers VIP treatment with a removable bench that can be position anywhere in the center of the lounge. Axis also designed the available ChillAX convertible walk-through seat to accommodate another wake sport spectator and provide a back rest for an additional passenger in the bow. Studded with stainless bead-blasted grab handles, available MTX speakers, textured vinyl, colored accents and a laser-cut Axis badge, the side panel is something you would expect to see in a much more expensive boat. The TriAX Bow is wide enough for a group not just a couple and its open lounge style is the ultimate in comfort. Even the transom has convenience and style built-in with a rider staging seat, tooled in.

The Driver Experience

The Helm of the A20 welcomes a driver and as many as four observers with comfortable seating. The oversized driver’s seat is equipped with dual density foam and the dash ergonomically designed for perfect driver control.

At the dash Medallion gauges house scrolling digital screens displaying everything from fuel to depth to cruise control functions. Three-stage rocker switches command nearly every boat system with ease. The driver is also commanding 335 horses of fuel-injected power. The Indmar Axis AR335 MPI 335 horsepower engine is standard in the A20. Axis offers the 400 horsepower Raptor. Both engines are available with a saltwater package. The A20 extends driver control with rack and pinion steering and a phenomenal rough-water ride.

The Look

The A20’s gel coat accents introduce shards of color to a sharp hull and deck design. The A20 has a customizable look. Choose from three gel coat layouts, Straight up, Flip side and the available Tricked-out scheme. You can even opt for a completely solid boat available in 18 different colors and 3 metal flake gel coats. Looking to turn a few more heads on the water, pull the trigger on the Vandal Edition Package. Complete with a custom Vandall wrap this special edition A20 is set-up the same way Axis Pro Team Rider Randall “The Vandall” Harris configures his Axis.

The aggressively angular bow finishes the tough look and adds another unique element to this price-point boat. The FatAX tower combines fat 3-inch black powder coated aluminum tubing and billet aluminum bases for one-of-kind rear sweeping wakeboard tower that is as easy on the eyes as it is to collapse. The FatAX tower is through bolted to the deck with a backing plate for added strength. No corners cut, just pricing slashed. The Wingless MH Windshield accentuates the rugged simplicity of the A20 and allows the driver to dock easily without leaving the seat.

The Guarantee

All of this performance, accommodation and style is created with production practices and materials approved by the best selling water sports boat manufacturer in the world. Axis Wake Research is offering price-point segment-leading Limited Lifetime protection complete with a 3-year engine warranty including fuel and electrical systems and a 2-year bow to stern.

Specifications

Length: 20'

Beam: 98"

Draft: 27"

Capacity: 11 persons

Weight: 3200 lbs.

Fuel Capacity: 48 gallons

Std HP: 335

Max HP: 400

Std Prop: 13.5x16 Acme 537

Find your nearest Axis Wake Research dealer and head down to experience the 2011 A20 and A22 wakeboard boats in person.

www.businessinsider.com/world-health-organization-investi...

World Health Organization Investigating Rare Liver Damage in Kids

Young kids in the UK, US, Ireland, and Spain have gotten severe acute hepatitis.

None of the kids tested positive for the viruses that cause the illness − hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E.

The WHO said the illness could have been caused by adenovirus but the link is still unclear.

The World Health Organization is looking into cases of severe acute hepatitis in children in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Spain the agency said on Friday.

The cases were not linked to hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E, the viruses that commonly cause the illness.

To date, 74 cases have been identified in kids under 10 in the United Kingdom, less than five cases have also been identified in Ireland, and three were confirmed in Spain. Officials in each country are also investigating the cause, the WHO said.

No links have been found between the kids in the UK.

State News also reported that officials in the US are investigating nine cases of severe acute hepatitis in kids, which have also not been caused by the viruses that commonly cause hepatitis.

The Alabama Department of Public Health on Friday announced that since November 2021, nine cases of this acute hepatitis were identified in kids under 10.

The WHO said the cause of this liver failure is still unclear and under investigation, but said adenovirus, a respiratory illness that normally causes a cold, could be involved.

In Alabama, all nine kids tested positive for Adenovirus 41, ADPH said. Karen Landers, district medical officer for the Alabama Department of Public Health told State News the cases were found in different parts of the state, and they haven't found any links between the children.

"The affected children were from throughout the state of Alabama, and an epidemiological linkage among them has not been determined. None of these children has had any underlying health conditions of note," ADPH said.

ADPH said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is developing a national Health Advisory to search for clinically similar cases.

Stat News, citing a scientific article on a case in Scotland, said the pandemic may have played a role, noting that kids impacted may have not been exposed to a wide variety of germs during the pandemic, and therefore were more susceptible to becoming ill once COVID-19 mandates were eased.

www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2022/04/cdc-covid-vacc...

America Created Its Own Booster Problems - The Atlantic

Months of confusing messaging, piled onto existing inequities, kneecapped America’s booster campaign before it had really started.

Eight months on from President Joe Biden’s announcement of his ambitious plan to revaccinate every eligible adult, tens of millions of eligible, vaccinated Americans—many of whom gladly signed up for their initial doses—still haven’t opted for an additional shot. Just 30 percent of the United States’ population is boosted, putting the country below most other Western nations. And with daily COVID vaccination rates only a notch above their all-time nadir and barriers to inoculation rising, the nation might be bogged down in its booster doldrums for a good while yet—leaving Americans potentially vulnerable to yet another catastrophic surge.

At face value, boosting should be one of the simplest actions a vaccinated American can take to fight COVID-19: just get one more shot. The very nature of the shots is an encore; at one point, the people who now need them “must have already decided a shot would be worthwhile,” says Van Yu, a psychiatrist at Janian Medical Care, in New York, who’s been working to immunize his city’s homeless population. For many, though, boosting is not about getting just another shot. Experts have not always sold boosters as the same slam dunk as the initial COVID-19 vaccination series; accordingly, unboosted people haven’t treated it as such. The country’s booster problem is the culmination of months of such confusion. It is also an exacerbation of the inequities that plagued the country’s initial immunization efforts. Booster uptake may present its own issues, but those only piled on the problems that vaccination efforts had encountered in all the months before.

When the first shots debuted more than a year ago, the message felt mostly uniform. “Everyone was in agreement: These vaccines are fantastic; everyone who’s eligible should get them,” says Gretchen Chapman, a behavioral scientist at Carnegie Mellon University who studies vaccine uptake. And so hundreds of millions of people did.

For boosters, experts presented nothing like that unified front. After an initial series of doses, shot-sparked defenses against hospitalization and death held up spectacularly well, but the safeguards against infection dropped far faster, making breakthroughs commonplace. Divided over what they hoped vaccines could afford—a shield against serious illness, or a blockade against as many infections as possible—experts began to argue over the need for additional shots, especially in the young and healthy. After boosters began their slow trickle out, the message to the public wasn’t that “everyone should get them,” but a sputtering of wishy-washy snippets as eligibility ballooned: Revaccinate the immunocompromised and the elderly and those with comorbidities! Let some younger, healthier people get more shots—if they’re exposed to the virus a lot—but don’t say they should! All right, everybody is allowed to boost, but only if you want to? Fine, fine, you’re all supposed to boost right now—why aren’t you boosted??

The arrival of Omicron was clarifying. The variant was so riddled with mutations that it quickly hopscotched over several of the shields raised by just one or two doses of original-recipe shots, warranting a top-off for the body’s defense. But not every expert has yet been swayed. “To date, we don’t have a variant resistant to protection against severe disease,” says Paul Offit, a pediatrician and vaccinologist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia who maintains that a duo of shots is enough for people who aren’t high-risk. Just a few months ago, Offit told his then-doubly-dosed son, who’s in his 20s, that he didn’t need an additional shot. (His son, Offit told me, still eventually got one.)

Punted out into the public, this messy discourse warped into confusion, consternation, and apathy. “When the scientists don’t agree, what are the rest of us supposed to do?” says Rupali Limaye, a behavioral scientist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In practice, it has meant that the large group of people who signed up for their first-round doses has now splintered into new booster factions. Kaleo Grant, a 23-year-old middle-school assistant sports coach in Brooklyn, told me that three of these sects exist just within his nuclear family. His father, who “took forever” to be persuaded to get his first shots, is now adamantly against boosting; his mother, who’s immunocompromised, scheduled more doses as soon as she could. Grant himself, meanwhile, is unboosted and torn. “It’s exactly what stresses me out so much—the divisiveness, even among people I know and trust,” Grant said. He was “super excited” to get his first doses last year, when the virus felt terrifying and the shots were billed as a fast track back to socializing. Both his concern over the virus and his enthusiasm for the shots have since ebbed, especially after he came down with COVID in December. Compared with the first doses, boosters feel “less urgent and maybe less necessary,” he told me, “more like a chore.”

Nor have the logistics of booster recommendations been easy to follow. In the past few months, the FDA and the CDC have issued roughly half a dozen shifts in guidance—over not only who should boost, but also when they should boost, how many boosts to get, and whether booster brands should be mixed. So maybe it’s no surprise that people have started to come to their own conclusions about just how necessary boosters are. In a January poll, run by the Kaiser Family Foundation, some eligible-but-unboosted respondents said they’d forgone an additional dose because they felt they were all set after the initial injections; others were shirking the shots because they weren’t convinced that they’d work.

The erratic narrative on vaccines writ large also hasn’t done the U.S. booster campaign any favors. When the shots were fresh out of the gate, Americans were set up to believe that they could take an initial course of doses and be done—with COVID vaccines, maybe even with the pandemic itself. But as more data emerged, it became evident that the shots’ protective powers had been oversold. Vaccines operate best in gradations, blunting and truncating the worst symptoms of disease; they never completely obliterate risk. “We failed to communicate that,” says Jessica Fishman, the director of the Message Effects Lab at the University of Pennsylvania. The arrival of boosters, then, felt to some like an admission that the first shots were a bungle—that the government and scientists had “made a mistake,” says Nina Mazar, a behavioral scientist at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. Misinformation, including false rumors that the boosters were dangerous, or a ploy by vaccine makers to earn extra cash, then seeped into the gaps in understanding.

Even if the message on boosters had been clearer from the get-go, that wouldn’t have ensured that people got them. Vaccination rates have tended to track with risk perception, Limaye told me. But danger, at the moment, feels minimal. COVID cases have plunged from their Omicron peak, and “most people know a lot of people with it and those cases were mild,” says Noel Brewer, who studies attitudes toward vaccination at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Similar messages have been sent by pundits and world leaders, as entire countries—including the United States—have pushed the narrative that COVID is manageable, inconsequential, “endemic,” largely in retreat. SARS-CoV-2 now feels more ubiquitous, less terrifying, much more like background noise; the precautions that defined the past two years of crisis have started to disappear. The urgency of boosters simply doesn’t square with the idea that masking, surveillance, gathering restrictions, proof-of-vaccination protocols, and remote schooling and work are no longer necessary, says Neil Lewis, a behavioral scientist at Cornell University. “There’s a conflict in saying, ‘Take off your mask, but also go get another shot,’” he told me. That’s not great timing for some people who were reluctant to get even their first shots, and now feel no impetus to invest again. “We were lucky to get them to get one dose,” says Danielle Ompad, an epidemiologist at NYU.

One fact about boosting hasn’t changed. Asking people to get an additional shot means … asking people to get an additional shot, and that’s become harder than ever. As shot uptake has dropped off, vaccination sites have closed, while community outreach has pulled back. Yu, the Janian Medical Care psychiatrist, told me the teams that offered vaccines and tests at homeless shelters in his neighborhood are no longer visiting as often. And with federal funding for vaccination lapsing, Americans who don’t have insurance may need to pay out of pocket for what shots they can find. “Access is different now,” Ompad told me.

Add to that the challenges the vaccination campaign has faced from the beginning—among them employers that don’t offer paid time off for immunization, the hassles and costs of traveling for a shot, scheduling troubles for people without internet access, and the persistent paucity of medical centers in certain parts of the country, especially ones that are rural or low-income. Daniel Arias, a 23-year-old warehouse worker in Manhattan, told me he had to travel an hour each way for his first two Pfizer doses last year; “I just haven’t wanted to take the time” to get another, he said. Even if he had more flexibility in his schedule, vaccines aren’t really on his priority list. He’s caught the virus twice, and heard that “getting COVID is better for your immune system than getting the vaccine.” (Some researchers have argued that a past infection should count as a dose of vaccine, but the CDC disagrees; either way, pursuing infections is definitely not a safe or reliable way to acquire immunity.) And two years into the pandemic, “I have life to think about,” Arias said. “And at the end of the day, it’s sadly about convenience.”

Other boost-ambivalent people are worried about the shot’s side effects. Lydia Guillory, a 36-year-old marketing specialist in Ohio, has been putting off her third dose, even though she’s been eligible for it since August, because she takes immunosuppressive drugs to manage multiple sclerosis. After her second Pfizer shot last spring, she felt some of her autoimmune symptoms temporarily worsen, and her fear of experiencing another flare-up has kept her from making the leap toward another dose. “If I was not going through all this extra stuff,” Guillory told me. “I would have gotten all the shots.” (Had she received her third injection on time, she might now already be eligible for a fourth and a fifth.) “I’m just scared of another setback,” she said.

Gaps such as these could exacerbate disparities down the road. Boosts go to people who are at least a few months out from their initial doses; individuals who were vaccinated later in the rollout are reaching that point only now. Recent data from New York City, Lewis noted, show that those delayed-vaccine populations are disproportionately Black, and already more likely to be suffering some of the pandemic’s worst effects. The inequities that plagued early vaccination efforts, Lewis told me, are rearing their head again. Now that certain high-risk individuals are being asked to boost again, those first around the booster track are starting to lap those left behind. Without more attention paid to the vulnerable, boosting becomes a vicious disparity cycle: “Whatever inequities you have with first doses are likely to be amplified,” UNC’s Brewer told me. Boosting rates among Black and Hispanic people lag those of their white neighbors, according to a February Kaiser Family Foundation poll.

Issues with access, at least, have straightforward (though still difficult-to-implement) solutions. “We need to make the process easier, and more convenient,” Fishman, of UPenn, told me. Reviving and more evenly distributing community vaccination efforts could help. Stand-alone sites could take walk-in appointments; teams of volunteers could bring vials and syringes directly to the places where people live and work. Paid sick leave, subsidized transportation, or even financial incentives for vaccinations could make a big difference too. Perhaps most crucial, additional federal funding to keep vaccines free for everyone would mean shots stay within reach of some of society’s most at-risk members.

Clearer policies have a role to play too. Many workplaces, for instance, issued strict requirements for initial doses last year. But booster mandates have been sparser. With eligibility ever-changing, and the possibility of annual shots on the table, that’s logistically understandable, but it sends an implicit message, Lewis told me: “One inference people are making is If boosting was really that important, the government or my boss would be issuing a mandate.” (New Mexico’s Department of Health has, for certain workers.) Even a tweak to some terminology could help. One or two shots are needed to become “fully vaccinated” in the CDC’s eyes; boosts don’t change that, which makes the shots “sound kind of optional in a way that the primary series doesn’t,” Chapman, of Carnegie Mellon, told me.

But ultimately, bridging the booster gap will mean engaging people’s concerns: respecting individuals’ values, partnering with community messengers, and engendering trust among those who have historically had little reason to give it—the same approaches that have any chance of closing the chasm in America’s overall immunization rates. More than 20 percent of Americans remain entirely unvaccinated, according to the CDC. “I worry we’ve given up on those people,” Offit, the CHOP pediatrician, told me.

Not everyone will be nudged into a first shot, not even, necessarily, a boost. But for those who can be, it may not take much. Grant, in Brooklyn, told me he’s waiting for the right catalyst to oust him from his booster rut. Maybe it’ll take a strong endorsement from a doctor (he’s not currently seeing one). Or a massive uptick in cases (which may or may not happen soon). After speaking with me, Grant found out that his job will offer him a paid sick day after he gets a boost, which feels really “encouraging,” he said. The biggest kick in the pants, though, would come if New York made boosters a requirement to enter concerts or bars. Worries about the virus feel too distant to motivate another dose on their own, especially now that he’s had the disease and feels like he’s come out the other end. “I have very little fear of COVID now.”

Katherine J. Wu is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where she covers science.

One method of removing an asbestos-containing plaster ceiling. The plaster material was first saturated with amended-water solution (for controlling dust and consequently increasing the plaster's overall weight). Then, support hanger wires above the metal-lath ceiling system were snipped on one side of the work-space causing the ceiling to collapse along a controlled direction. As the ceiling lowered, plaster was beaten off with hammers, the metal lath was then cut and rolled into manageable sections for proper disposal, and the black-iron supports were dissassmbled and thoroughly cleaned for recycling.

I followed the recipe in the River Cottage Meat book but I just found the recipe listed here: www.rivercottage.net/recipes/gills-chinese-ribs

• 1 lb Spare ribs of pork

• 2 Pig’s trotters

• 2tbsp Sunflower Oil

• 50g Light brown sugar

• 6-8 Large garlic cloves, crushed

• 5cm piece of fresh ginger root, freshly chopped

• 100ml Cider vinegar or brown rice vinegar

• 150ml Apple juice (or pineapple juice)

• 50ml Dark soy sauce

• 100ml Light soy sauce

Step 1 First you need to cut the spare ribs / trotters into manageable sections.

Step 2 Chop through the chine bone with the cleaver. Repeat for each section until you have several pieces of meat. Then split each piece into halves, again using the cleaver. Continue chopping up the ribs into halves until you have bite-size, chewable pieces.

Step 3 If you don’t have a cleaver, your butcher will happily chop the ribs up for you.

Step 4 Clean up the trotters using a knife. You can singe off hair with a Chef's blowtorch or over a gas flame. Using the cleaver, chop each trotter into 6 pieces. First cut the trotter in half lengthways (this may take a few goes!) and then chop each half into thirds.

Step 5 Heat up the sunflower oil in the frying pan. When the oil is hot, place the rib pieces and trotters in the pan. When they are lightly browned, turn them over. The rib pieces will be uneven, so keep moving them around to ensure they colour all over.

Step 6 When all the meat is lightly browned, take each piece out of the pan and place it in the large pot.

Step 7 Now it’s time to add the sweet and sour ingredients. Add the sugar, garlic, ginger, ginger syrup, cider vinegar, apple juice and soy sauce to the pot. As the dish cooks down all these flavours will mellow into a sticky, rich sauce.

Step 8 Top up the pot with water so that the pieces of meat are just covered. Add a couple of dried red chillies for heat.

Step 9 Cover the pot and cook for 2-2½ hours until the meat is tender. Then pour into a serving dish and serve.

Designer: Giles Laurent

Builder: Private

Year: 1985

Location Hampshire

Length on deck: 30'

Beam: 9'4"

Draft: 5'

Tonnage(TM): 9

£15,000

Full Specification

The Wanderer Class was a development of Hiscock’s Wanderer 111 designed by Laurent Giles and built for him in 1952. In Wanderer 111, Hiscock sailed 32,000 miles in a 3-year circumnavigation.

After his experience with Wanderer 111 he judged she would be a better ship with a little more beam and sail area and the result was the Wanderer Class.

Several were built in UK yards and quite a few by Cheoy Lee in Hong Kong who had also built 15 of the Laurent Giles Vertues, some would say a smaller sister to the Wanderer.

This yacht was built in Southampton by the previous owner and his company Launched in 1985 she is believed to be the last wooden Wanderer built in UK and the construction was supervised by David Hopkins, Marine Surveyor from Hamble. .

Spring 2015. The owner is now in poor health and no longer sailing. The yacht has been laid up for 18 months and he has now instructed us to slash the price and sell this season.

Being built on hardwoods there is no significant opening of the hull after her time ashore. In addition to the yacht, the owner is offering all his boating equipment collected over many years including dinghies, outboard engines, sails and cordage. Full list to come.

Planked in iroko, all copper fastened to 1 ¾” x 1 ¼” steam bent oak timbers in 2 laminations to avoid inevitable fracture on the tight turn at the tuck and the bilge, heavier and closer spaced in way of the mast, on an oak back-bone.

Iron ballast keel. Massive oak floors on every second timber with galvanised strap floor on the other timber making a very robust back-bone.

Deck laid in 2 layers of ½” ply, Cascover sheathed and painted.

5” toe rail with varnished iroko capping.

Pair of varnished wood mooring cleats on the fore and after decks. Heavy Sampson post, slotted to accept and hold the chain on the fore deck.

Totally clear side and fore decks.

Capstan-type chain windlass on the fore deck

Twin chain roller galvanised stemhead fitting.

Stainless steel pull-pit and stanchion posts with twin guard wires.

Varnished iroko coach-roof coamings with 2 fixed windows aft and 4 opening bronze port holes each side.

Nicely cambered sheathed and painted ply roof with varnished grab rails each side.

Heavy duty, varnished iroko fore hatch on the fwd end of the coach-roof.

Dorade vent in the middle of the coach-roof.

Cabin entrance sliding hatch in a garage with grab rail each side. Spray-hood over on stainless steel frame.

Deep, sheltered self draining cock-pit with high, varnished iroko coamings give a tremendous feeling of security.

Tiller steering to transom-hung rudder.

Seat/locker each side divided into 2, long locker forward, short locker aft. The locker faces forming the cock-pit well lift and hinge with the lid to give excellent access to these deep storage lockers.

Locker aft in the well to the lazarette with a glass holder on the coaming above under the tiller – just right for a whiskey glass.

Teak gratings in the well.

Large, opening ply panel in the well gives excellent access to the stern tube etc for service.

Wide bridge-deck across the front of the cock-pit.

The cabin entrance hatch is slightly off-set to stbd with a sliding hatch in a garage. Solid iroko varnished louvered washboards with optional mosquito or clear Perspex wash-boards.

Masthead bermudian sloop rig on round section, hollow, painted, built wooden mast stepped in a galvanised steel cup on the coach-roof with a similar mast section compression post below the deck.

Single spreaders. Steps up the mast.

Stainless steel standing rigging with stainless steel rigging screws to internal bronze chain plates.

Twin standing back-stays to the quarters, twin lowers and cap shrouds.

Fore stay with Harken roller furling gear.

External bronze mainsail track.

Slab reefing varnished boom with stainless steel goose neck fittings on twin mast bands

Halyards led aft through turning blocks on the mast and coach-roof to jamming cleats under the spray-hood.

Main sheet on tufnol blocks with a jammer on the lower block to a galvanised horse across the tiller on the aft deck.

Headsail sheets led through blocks on single cars on Harken tracks on the toe rails.

Winches.

Pair of new Lewmar 44 self tailing sheet winches on the cock-pit coamings.

Pair of single speed, top action Lewmar winches on the coach-roof under the spray-hood + 2 x 3-line Harken clutches.

This is the simplest rig the yacht can carry, strong, well-built and the new self-tailing winches make the headsail very manageable.

Sails

All sails original 1985 in white terylene.

Mainsail 233sq’ with Kemp Packaway self-stowing system.

Genoa No 1 300sq’ on Harken Mk 3 roller furling gear.

No 2 and 3 genoas

Storm jib and spinnaker

Wooden spinnaker pole stows up the rigging.

Mainsail cover.

Bukh 20hp 2-cylinder diesel installed new in 1985. Salt water cooled.

Belt driven alternator

Wet exhaust.

Single lever controls

2 x 12v batteries in the bilge in front of the engine with change-over switch.

5 berths.

V-berths in the fore cabin with infill to make a large double berth. Drawer below in varnished iroko joinery.

Bulkhead doorway, stbd off-set, oval top and bottom, to ablutions area.

Jabsco sea toilet to port with lockers under the side deck.

The forward bulkhead door swings round to close off the WC compartment.

Opposite to stbd under the side deck is a newly built stainless steel hand basin, draining overboard, with shower head delivering H&C pressurised water allowing a shower wash, draining into the bilge.

Bulkhead door with oval top and bottom, off-set to stbd through to saloon cabin. This door closes off either the hand basin or the saloon cabin allowing use of the heads and ablutions area independent of either the forward cabin or the saloon cabin or both.

Narrow, vertical chain locker alongside the hand basin compartment with the chain fed through a hawse pipe in the coaming above.

Saloon cabin with port and stbd 6’6” settee berths.

Pilot berth behind the port settee berth with fold-away pipe cot – probably the most comfortable sea berth in the yacht.

Varnished mahogany saloon table with fold-out flap.

Part bulkheads each side aft to:

Stbd large chart table, drawer and lockers under.

Oilies hanging locker aft under the bridge deck.

Port galley with Flavell 2-burner, grill and oven gas cooker, stainless steel sink in a work surface athwartships under the side deck. Good stowage.

Fold-down varnished flap over the cooker suitably disguises it when not in use.

Step-locker box and step over the engine to the entrance hatch.

Surface lifts and front pulls away to give good access to the engine.

Electrical controls down the stbd side of the engine step.

25 gall flexible water tank each side under the settee berths.

Hot water calorifier tank under the port pilot berth.

Pressurised water supply to galley and fwd hand basin.

Sealed, draining gas locker in the port cock-pit locker contains 2 Camping Gas bottles.

Cock-pit table on a pedestal stows away under the pilot berth.

6’2” head-room in the saloon cabin.

5’7” head-room in fore cabin.

Varnished iroko joinery and sole boards, all very thick and strong.

3 pairs of laminated hanging knees each side to the coach-roof form attractive features in the cabin as well as adding enormous strength to the structure.

Grab rails along the coamings each side.

Small side-board shelf each side over the fwd ends of the settees provide stowage space for bedding. Lockers under the side decks above each side.

Brass reading lights above the berths.

Pascal Atkey charcoal cabin heater on the fwd saloon bulkhead.

Navigation equipment.

Bulkhead steering compass alongside entrance hatch. Hand held GPS

Sounder Log/speed

ST60 wind/speed/depth Clock and barometer.

Wind speed indicator

Ground tackle

Danforth and fisherman anchors Capstan chain windlass

Ample chain

Safety gear.

Hand held fog-horn Deck safety lines

Stainless steel boarding ladder Life buoy.

I passed him walking while hitchhiking. See his strange cap and coat, his stick with a wheel on the end for a toy, and his black eye. He didn't move or say anything when I said hello or tried to get a reaction and stood completely still just like this while I walked toward him a bit, took out my camera and took this photo. And he looked so sad. I think he'd been abused. I wish I'd looked for a neighbour to at least ask about him and his black eye.

- From Putna monastery (which I toured after taking this, later that same day and the next morning), I hitched or walked up to the 2E and then SE @ 40 km.s to the city of Suceava (Soo-cha-va). I don't recall but according to the map I passed through the town of Rădăuți whose "Princely Church [in Bogdana Monastery there] is the [2nd] oldest standing religious bldg. in Moldavia (@ 1360) and which contains the graves of Bogdan I [founder and 1st Voivode of Moldavia], his son Lațcu, Roman I [and all of Bogdan's successors, Voivodes/Princes of Moldavia,] to Alexandru cel Bun [the Good]. The graves were attended to, and marked properly by Ștefan cel Mare." (Wikipedia) What a miss, and I passed through. (Get a good guidebook!) www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeHM-SoNql8

- The first stud farm for the famous Huțul or Hutsul horse (which likely descends from the Dacian draft horse) was established at Rădăuți in 1856.

- Suceava (Soo-cha-va) had a population of @ 100,000 in 2000. Almost 3 x the size of Sighet, it was the largest city that I would tour in Romania until Sibiu in Transylvania, and the 4th largest in my 30 days in the country. "/B/ 1388 and 1564, it was the capital of the Principality of Moldavia, and the residence of the Moldavian princes." (In 1564, the seat moved to Iași.) From 1775 until after WWII it was within the Habsburg's 'Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria', then the Austian empire, and then the Austrian portion of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and then the newly enlarged Kingdom of Romania. It grew ten-fold during the Communist urbanization years until 1989.

- One prime attraction in Suceava which I toured well is a ruined medieval fortress or citadel (late 14th cent, fortified in the 15th with a concentric fortress surrounding the original, all surrounded in turn by a huge moat or ditch), the Cetatea de Scaun a Sucevei www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEAF9grNPjs , which served as the princely residence from 1388 to 1565, and which, under the leadership of Ștefan cel Mare, famously and successfully withstood and repelled a siege by the Turks led by none other than 'Mehmet the Conquerer' in the summer of 1476, 23 yr.s AFTER he had conquered and captured Constantinople on May 29, 1453. Constantinople fell to Mehmet but Suceava didn't.

- The fortress was then refortified and withstood 2 further sieges in 1485 and 1497. It was taken by Suleiman I ('the Magnificent') with an Ottoman force of 200,000 in 1538, which then pillaged Suceava and plundered the region. (It's said that boyars disaffected with Petru Rareș assisted Suleiman and "handed him" the fortress.) It was taken again in 1563 following a 3 month siege by hetman Ștefan Tomșa, and by Wallachian prince Mihai Viteazu w/o a fight in 1600, and again a few mos. later by a mixed army of Cossacks and Poles who then invested Ieremia Movilă as ruler of Moldavia. It was the scene of "many devastating battles" in the 2nd 1/2 of the 17th cent., incl. a siege and a battle in 1653, and a 6-month-long battle /b/ "a Polish garrison installed by Ștefan Petriceicu, and Turkish forces". The latter won. And in 1684, a huge earthquake left the structure in ruins." roamingromania.com/fortress-of-suceava/#:~:text=Fortress%.... Very much DNA has been spilled there.

- There was a museum in the dungeon in 2000 which I don't recall but I think I toured, and a chapel built by Ștefan cel Mare which had been restored in the 60s.

- Ștefan is the most celebrated figure in Romanian history. Nothing succeeds like success, nor like winning 34 out of 36 battles, defeating 'Mehmet the Conqueror', building many of the country's most celebrated monasteries and churches, and defending a Christian Europe from the infidel Turks, earning rare praise from R.C. pope Sixtus IV (rare for any non-Catholic) as 'the Athlete of Christ'. www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5gS7KW5kHA He was also the first cousin and sometime (but inconsistent) ally of Vlad III Dracula, 'Vlad the Impaler', Voivode of Wallachia. Vlad was released from captivity in Hungary at Ștefan's request in 1475, and Ștefan helped Vlad take the throne of Wallachia in 1476.

- theibtaurisblog.com/2013/08/27/draculas-perfect-cousin/

- I spent some time one day at the Mănăstirea Sfântul Ioan cel Nou ('of St. John the New') (1514-22). "Construction was begun by voivode Bogdan III the One-Eyed, following the destruction of the Mirăuți Church (the former metropolitan cathedral of Moldavia) in 1513, and was completed by his son, Ștefăniță. The monastery church served as metropolitan cathedral of Moldavia until 1677. ... It has some exterior frescoes, but which are barely discernible. The monastery is dedicated to 'St. John the New of Suceava', a local monk who preached during Turkish occupation and was martyred in Cetatea Albă, present-day Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi in Ukraine. Alexander I of Moldavia brought his relics to Suceava, to this church, in 1402. The complex includes a bell tower (1589) built during the reign of Peter the Lame, and a chapel founded in the 1620s." (wikipedia) This church is one of the 8 Moldavian monasteries designated together as Unesco world heritage.

- I toured the church and the complex well enough, but my most memorable experience in Suceava was some time I spent people-watching at this monastery. I stood and watched as supplicants standing in a queue met individually with a local bearded monk (or priest?). The monk and the attendee would kneel together, the monk would spread a cloth or veil over both their heads, they'd remain kneeling together veiled in that position for several minutes, and would then stand up, that supplicant would leave and the monk would then meet the next in line, kneel with him or her, and repeat. Now this monk was an extraordinarily handsome young man. He seemed to know it, as he should. One of the attendees was a beautiful, shapely but svelte young woman, well-coiffed (in 1940s style), impressively dressed and done up for church in her best knee-length skirt, gloves, stilettos (!), and with bright red lipstick. When it came to her turn, she and the monk both kneeled and remained together under the veil for @ 10 min.s or so, and when they stood up, she was in tears, thanking him, and he nodded and smiled. If she didn't have a crush on him, I couldn't be blamed for thinking she did. I'm advised that this ritual, with the veil and the kneeling, is the Romanian Orthodox confessional, and so she was dressed to the nines just to attend to meet with and to confess to him.

-Suceava has at least 4 museums: history, village, ethnographic, and natural history. I don't recall it but I know I toured the history museum as I took a photo of a group of wax figures standing in royal robes in a 'throne hall', incl. Ștefan cel Mare, his queen Maria Voichița, and Prince Bogdan-the-One-Eyed, all with their heads tilted slightly back so that they look up and away in noble fashion, and the men with hippy-length hair. This scene is of "an allotment of land for peasants, reconstituted on the basis of medieval documents and frescoes." (Wikipedia) I don't recall if I toured the Biserica Sfântul Gheorghe, aka the Mirăuți church (1390, rebuilt in the 17th cent.), "the Metropolitan cathedral where early Moldavian princes were crowned, incl. Ștefan cel Mare."

- From Suceava, I hitched the 12-15 km.s to the Dragomirna monastery (a convent) and back. "Massively walled like a fortress, the Dragomirna monastery was founded in 1602, and is dramatically proportioned at 42 m.s high but only 9.6 m.s wide, with cable moulding @ the exterior." It's so tall, narrow and unusual that I don't think I've seen another building like it. easterneuropeeastereggs.wordpress.com/dragomirna/ At the time it reminded me of a battleship, although it might remind one of the Flatiron bldg. in NYC or the Gooderham bldg. on Front st. in Toronto.

- "The octagonal tower, set on 2 star-shaped pedestals, is carved with meanders and rosettes. Inside it has an unusual star-shaped vault and a very ornate, baroque iconostasis. ... The solid walls and towers of the complex were added in 1627 owing to the threat of foreign invasions. These were so frequent that wooden village churches were sometimes mounted on wheels so that they could be towed to safety. [!]" (RG)

- "During the Habsburg and later the Communist purges of the Orthodox church, Dragomirna remained inhabited. The dying wish of Bishop Crimca was that a day should not pass without prayers being said in his monastery. Thus 7 elderly nuns defied Communist orders and remained at the monastery throughout the 1960s and 70s. Today more than 60 nuns call Dragomirna their home."

- Leaving Suceava, I hitched SW on the 17 to the 2E and then north to Cacica (Ca-chee-ka). I'd heard or read about the salt mine there, a subterranean work of art in salt, and seeing as I hadn't managed to cross into Poland from Bardejov 2 mos. earlier and so missed the world-famous Wieliczka salt mine, I went out of my way to visit Cacica's contribution. There was a photogenic communist-era complex of bldg.s there above-ground, but I don't recommend Cacica. What little art there was in the mine was unappealing and seemed cheesy, although it does have a couple of plain chapels and a 'ball-room'. I might appreciate it better today, but w/o any expectations. I don't think I've toured a salt mine before or since (although the world's largest is in Goderich, ON - !, a 'Sifto salt' mine), and according to the captions in the video in the next link, the rooms in the mine were important to the life of the local mining community in the 19th cent. www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqmTa4c4X2A The mine was established by Austrian authorities in 1798 who brought in Poles from Galicia to work it. These Poles "named the village after wild ducks found nesting in nearby swamps." (RG) (Today @ 20% of the town's population is Polish.)

- I'd considered hitching a little further north to Arbore, to tour yet another painted monastery, but I headed south instead down the 2E and 15C to Targu Neamț, south of southern Bukovina, and a 10-15 km. jog west to the 15th cent. Mânăstirea Neamț (Nee-amts), which was recommended.

- One miss in Targu Neamț was a well-preserved fortress from the days of Ștefan cel Mare, more intact than the one in Suceava.

- If I'd continued 50 clicks, another hour, down the twisty 15C to Piatra Neamț I could've toured the Ba’al Shem Tov synagogue, one of a very finite number of wooden synagogues which still stand in Eastern Europe today where there had been hundreds. This 'jewel-box of Judaism' dates in part from 1766, and could be the oldest standing wooden synagogue anywhere. (At least it's older than any that remain standing per this incomplete list on Wikipedia, which omits it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wooden_synagogues?msclkid=0... ) So that was a miss. www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2000/02/26/jewel-box...

- Neamț (Nee-amts) is the oldest and largest of Moldavia's monasteries, housing 70 monks and dozens of seminarians. "Originally a 12th cent. hermitage, it became a monastery under Petru I Musat (1376-92) and was rebuilt and fortified by Alexandru cel Bun (1400-32). The [sturdy, central] 'new church' was built by Ștefan cel Mare in 1497, following the Moldavian victory in battle over King John I Albert of Poland, and became a prototype for Moldavian churches throughout the next century [although it has no exterior frescoes, apart from a series of saints in small niches]. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXHoeAypzWw www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D8Xl9lXuro Neamț resembles a fortress, with high stone walls and one remaining corner tower. On the wall of the bell-tower, a painted 'Eye of the Saviour' sternly regards the monks’ cells." (RG) That eye was the most memorable feature of the monastery for me for some reason. www.capper-online.de/Travel/Romania/assets/images/19_Neam... I'll scan a photo.

- This was the most spacious and the busiest of the monasteries I toured in Romania. It was wet when I was there and I toured it in the rain. I was the guest that evening of a monk in his room or 'cell' in which I slept on a pull-out bed. He was a smart, well-informed man and we spoke @ international politics at some length. More wonderful hospitality.

- The monastery has a rich history (which I'll write more about in this space sometime, it was a centre for transcription and for printing) and a suitably rich museum which I toured but don't recall. There's a large Agheazmatar bldg. (1836-47) on the grounds for 'the blessing of the water' which is a library today (with over 18,000 volumes, many of them unique), and which is mostly dome, somewhat resembling a huge, chocolate covered marshmallow cookie. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neam%C8%9B_Monastery#/media/File:Ma...

- One miss was an ancient ossuary under the monastery (which might not've been open to the public in 2000), the largest monastic ossuary in Romania with 530 interments, and with ancient writing painted on the domes of the skulls of interred monks indicating their names, significant dates, etc. www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3bp1W25XqE

- There was more exceptional hospitality the next day, for as I was heading down the road just beyond the monastery en route, a group enjoying a feast on picnic tables (for some occasion) called me over, asked where I'm from, and invited me to join them, and tuck in. :)

- From the Neamț monastery, I hitched SW on the 15B, and up the 17B and E58 to the 1200 m. Tihuța pass (Ti-hootsa) where I said goodbye to Moldavia and hello to Transylvania at the site of the cheese-fest which is the Hotel Castle Dracula (1983), located at that pass. The Tihuța pass is the Bârgau (Boar-go) or 'Bârgaului' pass of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, where Jonathan Harker embarked in Count Dracula's carriage to be taken to his castle on a bloodcurdling journey into the Bârgau valley. (I read the novel when I was home sick one week from school in grade 5, and I've just reread parts of chap. 1 now for the first time since.) It's an inspired choice as a setting for the castle, as "the surrounding mountains harbour more bears than any other part of Europe, as well as boars and WOLVES [emphasis added]." (RG) www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPHTi7Ja44Y (Murnau, 1922)

- www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU3t_9TdbE8 (Coppola)

- www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZwL_PXdEy0 (Herzog with Kinski, 1979)

- I entered the said hotel to have a look and to ask about the place, and don't recall what I was told, but the fun-loving concierge asked cryptically if I suffered from any form of heart disease ("Nope ... ?"), and then suggested I follow his colleague downstairs into the basement. I was taken down a flight of steps /b/ walls painted to look like they were built with large, old, brown blocks of cut stone or field-stone, to a small, dark room in which all the walls were painted with murals of scenes in which Dracula, dressed like a cross /b/ Bela Lugosi and John Travolta from Saturday Night Fever, and Elvira-type female vampires run @ the countryside under a full moon with all their cleavage and their fangy mouths open. There was a coffin to one side in the room, and its lid flew open to reveal a snarling, hostile character in a cape and a rubber mask of a bald, white, fanged Nosferatu. Later I was told by hotel staff that they would put on this little show quite often for tourists and patrons until several years earlier when an American died of a heart attack after the coffin jump-scare.

- The author of this article refers to claims that Ceaușescu had banned the name 'Dracula', and states that the novel wasn't published in Romanian until 1990. !! www.historytoday.com/grand-tour/hotel-castel-dracula

- Rereading chap. 1 of 'Dracula', I've found some entertaining and surprising moments and elements in the setting of the Bârgaului valley that I'd forgotten and which have been ignored in all the many films. (The fun, interesting portion of the novel is the 1st 3rd, set in this valley and in the castle in the valley; the rest, most of which is set in England, is dull by comparison). The old landlady at the hotel in Bistritz (Bistrița), where Jonathan Harker spends his last night before heading out for the valley and the castle, implores him not to go, warning him that it is May 4, "the eve of St. George's Day. ... [T]onight, when the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things of the world will have full sway. Do you know where you are going and where you are going to?" All the movie scripts get it wrong when Harker arrives at the pass and the carriage driver won't dare stay and scoots off after leaving him there. In the novel, the driver arrives after dark but early and just before Dracula's calèche appears, and says “There is no carriage here. The Herr is not expected after all. He will now come on to Bukovina, and return to-morrow or the next day; better the next day,” seeking to persuade Harker to continue on to Bukovina, but just then "the horses began to neigh and snort and plunge wildly" and "amongst a chorus of screams [!] from the peasants [fellow passengers] and a universal crossing of themselves" Dracula's calèche with 4 "splendid, coal-black" horses arrives. The driver of the calèche, whose gleaming eyes "seemed red in the lamplight", but whose face cannot be seen in the dark beneath the brim of his hat (and who could have been the Count), says “You are early to-night, my friend.” The carriage driver responds in a stammer “The English Herr was in a hurry,” to which the calèche-driver replies: “That is why, I suppose, you wished him to go on to Bukovina. You cannot deceive me, my friend; I know too much, and my horses are swift.”

- Once Harker boards the calèche which sweeps "into the darkness of the pass", things get interesting.: "The carriage went at a hard pace straight along, then we made a complete turn and went along another straight road. It seemed to me that we were simply going over and over the same ground again; and so I took note of some salient point, and found that this was so. ... By-and-by, as I was curious to know how time was passing, I struck a match, and by its flame looked at my watch; it was within a few minutes of midnight. ... Then a dog began to howl somewhere in a farmhouse far down the road - a long, agonized wailing, as if from fear. The sound was taken up by another dog, and then another and another, till, borne on the wind which now sighed softly through the Pass, a wild howling began, which seemed to come from all over the country, as far as the imagination could grasp it through the gloom of the night. At the first howl the horses began to strain and rear, but the driver spoke to them soothingly, and they quieted down, but shivered and sweated as though after a runaway from sudden fright. Then, far off in the distance, from the mountains on each side of us began a louder and a sharper howling - that of wolves - ... the horses ... reared again and plunged madly, so that the driver had to use all his great strength to keep them from bolting. In a few minutes, however, ... the horses so far became quiet that the driver was able to descend and to stand before them. He petted and soothed them, and whispered something in their ears, as I have heard of horse-tamers doing, and with extraordinary effect, for under his caresses they became quite manageable again, though they still trembled. The driver again took his seat, and shaking his reins, started off at a great pace. This time, after going to the far side of the Pass, he suddenly turned down a narrow roadway which ran sharply to the right. [It's fair to assume that he made that turn shortly after midnight.]

- "Soon we were hemmed in with trees, which in places arched right over the roadway till we passed as through a tunnel; and again great frowning rocks guarded us boldly on either side. Though we were in shelter, we could hear the rising wind, for it moaned and whistled through the rocks, and the branches of the trees crashed together as we swept along. It grew colder and colder still, and fine, powdery snow began to fall, so that soon we and all around us were covered with a white blanket. The keen wind still carried the howling of the dogs, though this grew fainter as we went on our way. The baying of the wolves sounded nearer and nearer, as though they were closing round on us from every side. ... The driver, however, was not in the least disturbed; he kept turning his head to left and right, but I could not see anything through the darkness. Suddenly, away on our left, I saw a faint flickering blue flame. The driver saw it at the same moment; he at once checked the horses, and, jumping to the ground, disappeared into the darkness. I did not know what to do, the less as the howling of the wolves grew closer; but while I wondered the driver suddenly appeared again, and without a word took his seat, and we resumed our journey. I think I must have fallen asleep and kept dreaming of the incident, for it seemed to be repeated endlessly ... Once the flame appeared so near the road, that even in the darkness around us I could watch the driver’s motions. He went rapidly to where the blue flame arose - it must have been very faint, for it did not seem to illumine the place around it at all - and gathering a few stones, formed them into some device. Once there appeared a strange optical effect: when he stood between me and the flame he did not obstruct it, for I could see its ghostly flicker all the same. ... Then for a time there were no blue flames, and we sped onwards through the gloom, with the howling of the wolves around us, as though they were following in a moving circle.

- "At last there came a time when the driver went further afield than he had yet gone, and during his absence, the horses began to tremble worse than ever and to snort and scream with fright. I could not see any cause for it, for the howling of the wolves had ceased altogether; but just then the moon, sailing through the black clouds, appeared behind the jagged crest of a beetling, pine-clad rock, and by its light I saw around us a ring of wolves, with white teeth and lolling red tongues, with long, sinewy limbs and shaggy hair. They were a hundred times more terrible in the grim silence which held them than even when they howled. ... All at once the wolves began to howl as though the moonlight had had some peculiar effect on them. The horses jumped about and reared, and looked helplessly round with eyes that rolled in a way painful to see; but the living ring of terror encompassed them on every side; and they had perforce to remain within it. I called to the coachman to come, for it seemed that our only chance was to try to break out through the ring and to aid his approach. ... How he came there, I know not, but I heard his voice raised in a tone of imperious command, and looking towards the sound, saw him stand in the roadway. As he swept his long arms, as though brushing aside some impalpable obstacle, the wolves fell back and back further still. Just then a heavy cloud passed across the face of the moon, so that we were again in darkness. When I could see again the driver was climbing into the calèche, and the wolves had disappeared. ... The time seemed interminable as we swept on our way, now in almost complete darkness, for the rolling clouds obscured the moon. We kept on ascending, with occasional periods of quick descent, but in the main always ascending. Suddenly, I became conscious of the fact that the driver was in the act of pulling up the horses in the courtyard of a vast ruined castle, from whose tall black windows came no ray of light, and whose broken battlements showed a jagged line against the moonlit sky."

Chapter 1 ends there. See? The Bârgau valley's quite a place in the wee hours after midnight on May 5.

- In Chapter 2, in the course of a discussion Harker asks Dracula as to the blue flames that he'd seen the night before. "I asked him ... why the coachman went to the places where he had seen the blue flames. He then explained that it was commonly believed that on a certain night of the year - last night, in fact, when all evil spirits are supposed to have unchecked sway - a blue flame is seen over any place where treasure has been concealed. “That treasure has been hidden,” he went on, “in the region through which you came last night, there can be but little doubt; for it was the ground fought over for centuries by the Wallachian, the Saxon, and the Turk [!]. Why, there is hardly a foot of soil in all this region that has not been enriched by the blood of men, patriots or invaders. In old days there were stirring times, when the Austrian and the Hungarian came up in hordes, and the patriots went out to meet them - men and women, the aged and the children too - and waited their coming on the rocks above the passes, that they might sweep destruction on them with their artificial avalanches. [Note that according to Dracula, the Hungarians were not the 'patriots'. Is he referring here to Wallachians {Romanians} or Szekelers or both?] When the invader was triumphant he found but little, for whatever there was had been sheltered in the friendly soil.”

“But how,” said I, “can it have remained so long undiscovered, when there is a sure index to it if men will but take the trouble to look?” The Count smiled, and as his lips ran back over his gums, the long, sharp, canine teeth showed out strangely; he answered: - “Because your peasant is at heart a coward and a fool! Those flames only appear on one night; and on that night no man of this land will, if he can help it, stir without his doors. And, dear sir, even if he did he would not know what to do. Why, even the peasant that you tell me of who marked the place of the flame would not know where to look in daylight even for his own work. Even you would not, I dare be sworn, be able to find these places again?”

“There you are right,” I said. “I know no more than the dead where even to look for them.” Then we drifted into other matters. ... "

Stoker's other-worldly Bârgau valley is a mystical Oak Island. As to the legend or tradition that on St. George's eve "all evil spirits are supposed to have unchecked sway," it seems that Dracula arranged for Harker to arrive and attend at his castle on that particular night, and that the local 'peasants' knew that he'd done so, and it seems that his calèche had been driving back and forth or up and down until just after midnight when it could then (and only then?) turn "sharply to the right" down "a narrow roadway ... hemmed in with trees ... arch[ing] right over the roadway" as if it was "a tunnel" with "great frowning rocks guard[ing] boldly on either side" beneath "branches of trees crashing together" in the "moaning, rising wind." Now I wish I'd reread Dracula before that trip, or at least the first few chapters. I would've liked to have asked the locals about St. George's day and the treasures under the blue flames. And to think I was in Romania ON St. George's eve and St. George's day .

- It's known that Stoker had read 'Transylvanian superstitions', a remarkable and entertaining article written by Emily Gerard which includes the following: "Perhaps the most important day in the year is St. George’s, the 23rd of April (which corresponds to our 5th of May [?]), the eve of which is still frequently kept by occult meetings taking place at night in lonely caverns or within ruined walls, and where all the ceremonies usual to the celebration of a witches’ Sabbath are put into practice. The feast itself is the great day to beware of witches, to counteract whose influence square-cut blocks of green turf are placed in front of each door and window. This is supposed effectually to bar their entrance to the house or stables, but for still greater safety it is usual here for the peasants to keep watch all night by the sleeping cattle. This same night is the best for finding treasures, and many people spend it in wandering about the hills trying to probe the earth for the gold it contains. Vain and futile as such researches usually are, yet they have in this country a somewhat greater semblance of reason than in most other parts, for perhaps nowhere else have so many successive nations been forced to secrete their riches in flying from an enemy ... Not a year passes without bringing to light some earthen jar containing old Dacian coins, or golden ornaments of Roman origin, and all such discoveries serve to feed and keep up the national superstition.

- "In the night of St. George’s Day (so say the legends) all these treasures begin to burn, or, to speak in mystic language, to ‘bloom’ in the bosom of the earth, and the light they give forth, described as a bluish flame resembling the colour of lighted spirits of wine, serves to guide favoured mortals to their place of concealment. The conditions to the successful raising of such a treasure are manifold, and difficult of accomplishment. In the first place, it is by no means easy for a common mortal who has not been born on a Sunday nor at midday when the bells are ringing, to hit upon a treasure at all. If he does, however, catch sight of such a flame, he must quickly stick a knife through the swaddling rags of his right foot, and then throw the knife in the direction of the flame he has seen. If two people are together during this discovery they must not on any account break silence till the treasure is removed, neither is it allowed to fill up the hole from which anything has been taken, for that would induce a speedy death. The lights seen before midnight on St. George’s Day, denote treasures kept by benevolent spirits, while those which appear at a later hour are unquestionably of a pernicious nature." www.gutenberg.org/files/52165/52165-h/52165-h.htm

- I've read more than once that Stoker didn't know much about Vlad III Dracula, that he had initially planned to set his novel in an uncanny Styria (in Austria), as Le Fanu had done with 'Carmilla', as the interest in Eastern European vampires in the west had begun with reports from Serbia (newly incorporated into the Austrian empire following the ouster of the Ottomans) in the 18th cent., investigated and debunked by Austrian authorities. In Chap. 18, Van Helsing says this of the Count.: “He must, indeed, have been that Voivode Dracula who won his name against the Turk, over the great river on the very frontier of Turkey-land”. But in a discussion with Harker, the Count reveals that he was a Szekeler (ethnically Hungarian or Magyar), very much unlike the Wallachian Voivode, and gives the following, impassioned, (very) lengthy speech.: “We Szekelys have a right to be proud, for in our veins flows the blood of many brave races who fought as the lion fights, for lordship. Here, in the whirlpool of European races, the Ugric tribe bore down from Iceland [Northern Russia or Siberia?] the fighting spirit which Thor and Wodin gave them [?], which their Berserkers [Vikings] displayed to such fell intent on the seaboards of Europe, ay, and of Asia and Africa too [? Ugric tribes weren't Viking/Norse, but often suffered and were slaughtered in that "display of fighting spirit"], till the peoples thought that the werewolves themselves had come. Here, too, when they came, they found the Huns [the Skelelers claim descent from Attila], whose warlike fury had swept the earth like a living flame, till the dying peoples held that in their veins ran the blood of those old witches, who, expelled from Scythia had mated with the devils in the desert. Fools, fools! What devil or what witch was ever so great as Attila, whose blood is in these veins? ... Is it a wonder that we were a conquering race, that we were proud, that when the Magyar, the Lombard, the Avar, the Bulgar, or the Turk poured his thousands on our frontiers, we drove them back? Is it strange that when Arpad and his legions swept through the Hungarian fatherland he found us here when he reached the frontier, that the Honfoglalas was completed there? And when the Hungarian flood swept eastward, the Szekelys were claimed as kindred by the victorious Magyars [the best current evidence is that the Szekelys WERE Magyars], and to us for centuries was trusted the guarding of the frontier of Turkeyland. Aye, and more than that, endless duty of the frontier guard, for as the Turks say, "water sleeps, and the enemy is sleepless." Who more gladly than we throughout the Four Nations received the 'bloody sword', or at its warlike call flocked quicker to the standard of the King? When was redeemed that great shame of my nation, the shame of Cassova, when the flags of the Wallach and the Magyar went down beneath the Crescent? Who was it but one of my own race who as Voivode crossed the Danube and beat the Turk on his own ground? [Vlad III Dracula. He seems to be discussing himself in the 3rd person.] This was a Dracula indeed! [See?] Woe was it that his own unworthy brother ['Radu the Handsome'], when he had fallen, sold his people to the Turk and brought the shame of slavery on them! Was it not this Dracula, indeed, who inspired that other of his race who in a later age again and again brought his forces over the great river into Turkeyland, who, when he was beaten back, came again, and again, though he had to come alone from the bloody field where his troops were being slaughtered, since he knew that he alone could ultimately triumph! They said that he thought only of himself. Bah! What good are peasants without a leader? Where ends the war without a brain and heart to conduct it? Again, when, after the battle of Mohacs [the 2nd battle of Mohacs, Aug. 12, 1687, a victory for the Habsburgs and a defeat for the Ottomans under Mehmed IV], we threw off the Hungarian yoke, we of the Dracula blood were amongst their leaders, for our spirit would not brook that we were not free. Ah, young sir, the Szekelys, and the Dracula as their heart's blood, their brains, and their swords, can boast a record that mushroom growths like the Hapsburgs and the Romanoffs can never reach. The warlike days are over. Blood is too precious a thing in these days of dishonourable peace, and the glories of the great races are as a tale that is told."”

- If Stoker had seen any reproductions of images of Vlad III in any of the books he'd been reading at the British museum, that might account for the Count's "aquiline" face "with [its] high bridge of the thin nose"; "bushy", curly hair; long, heavy moustache (while otherwise he's clean-shaven); "fixed and rather cruel-looking mouth"; and firm though thin cheeks. Access to a description of Vlad provided by a 15th-cent. papal legate as having "a cold and terrible appearance, a strong aquiline nose, swollen nostrils" and "bushy black eyebrows", might account for the Count's flaring nostrils and "massive" eyebrows. All quite un-Lugosi-esque. (Acclaimed Dracula expert Elizabeth Miller [a Torontonian] claims that the differences /b/ the appearance of Vlad III Dracula in any of "the portraits" and Stoker's description of the count "are overwhelming." ? I don't know what she's on about.)

- That night I was the guest of a family just a short walk down from the pass and the hotel. (See the next photo of the girl in bed.)

A close-up of the cafe interior and presumably a waiter. The print captures the frenetic style of Van Gogh's brushstrokes.

Above the paneled window you can see a horizontal, almost straight cut line. This line runs across the center of the puzzle, and would have been the first cut made to bisect the 90 x 120 cm piece into a more manageable size.

Aston Junction at Aston Lock No 1.

The Birmingham & Fazeley Canal.

Got back onto the canal at Mill Street, then headed over to the Digbeth Branch Canal.

While I've seen the canal at this end many times before, I've yet to actually walk up the towpath towards Aston or Salford Junction (might be too far for me to do in one go).

Would prefer smaller manageable sections instead.

The Canal & River Trust service boat leaves the Digbeth Branch Canal for the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal heading through the Aston Road Bridge towards the city centre.

Seen beyond the Aston Roving Bridge.

Grade II Listed

Roving Bridge at Aston Junction, on the Birmingham Fazeley Canal

Listing Text

MILL STREET

1.

5104 Aston B6

Roving Bridge at

Aston Junction, on the

Birmingham-Fazeley Canal

SP 08 NE 7/12

II

2.

Dated 1828 cast iron Horseley Ironworks roving bridge over the head of No 1

Aston Lock giving access to Digbeth branch canal. Elliptical arch, cast in

2 sections with bolted central clasping stanchions x pattern pierced balustrade

with quatrefoil band below handrail. Bolted cast deck panels. Stone dressed

brick swept abutments.

Listing NGR: SP0767488050

This text is from the original listing, and may not necessarily reflect the current setting of the building.

Kitchen Magic seen near the Aston Expressway.

With permission, I was able to break this trip home into two manageable segments as well. I chose this hotel, obviously because it was a former Signature Inn, but it was either this one or Elkhart what would have divided up the trip fairly evenly. Elkhart was a little less on-the-way than this one, so South Bend won.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

215 S Dixie Way, South Bend, IN.

This hotel opened in October 1987. In 2006, it was changed over to the Jameson Inn flag and remained a Jameson Inn until late 2012 or early 2013. Since then, the hotel has been a Quality Inn.

Oriental Magpie Robin

Copsychus saularis

Fairly common all over (southern?) Asia, this pretty little bird with a distinctive upturned tail was quite a challenge to capture. Won't sit in one place. Hopping around all over but never disappearing outright. I found quite a few of them.

Said to be nice songster but I could not hear his songs much. Perhaps he sings mainly during courtship. Some say he moves his tail in tune with his song. I am not sure.

With its pretty plumage and a manageable size, it is a popular caged bird in Southeast Asia. This bird trade is slowly wiping out birds such as these in the wild. While these birds are not endangered, their cousins seychelles magpie robins are.

1981 Lotus Cosworth 88B F1.

The Lotus 88 used an ingenious system of having a twin chassis, one inside the other. The inner chassis would hold the cockpit and would be independently sprung from the outer one, which was designed to take the pressures of the ground effects. The outer chassis did not have discernible wings, and was in effect one huge ground effect system, beginning just behind the nose of the car and extending all the way inside the rear wheels, thereby producing massive amounts of downforce. The car was powered by the Ford Cosworth DFV engine. Lotus drivers Nigel Mansell and Elio de Angelis reported the car was pleasing to drive and responsive. To make the aerodynamic loads as manageable as possible, the car was constructed extensively in carbon fibre, making it along with the McLaren MP4/1 the first car to use the material in large quantity.

The 88 was banned as it was said it breached the rules in terms of moveable aerodynamic devices.

All of photographs published here are copyright © Anthony Fosh All Rights Reserved. They may not be reproduced and/or used in any form of publication, print or the Internet without my written permission

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Working the Cutthroat Ridge avalanche zone is Gene in the D-8 dozer at CR-12. The dozers start at the top of the snow piles in the avalanche zones and cut them down to a manageable size for the excavator and snowblower.

Where is the Cutthroat Ridge avalanche zone? Find it on this map: www.flickr.com/photos/wsdot/5242152485/

April 20, 2023 - USAID Administrator Samantha Power delivered a policy speech in which she presented a strategic approach for reclaiming and accelerating public health progress around the world. Administrator Power identified three foundational efforts around which USAID plans to unite its global health approach: 1) Turn COVID-19 into a manageable respiratory illness everywhere; 2) Build up defenses against new outbreaks and future pandemic threats; 3) Invest in primary health care workers. The event was held at CGD headquarters in Washington, D.C., USA. USAID

Luscious tender flesh that is not as fatty as unagi (freshwater eel), yet even more meltingly tender! I think anago tastes a bit sweeter than unagi, hence the price premium, and rarity on menus.

Anago

---

Dinner with Jennie and David, omakase-style at the sushi counter.

Shira Nui 不知火

247 Springvale Rd

Glen Waverley VIC 3150

(03) 9886-7755

Lunch Tue-Sat noon-2pm. Dinner Tue-Sun 6pm-10pm

Reviews:

- Shira Nui, by Dani Valent, Epicure, The Age May 22, 2007 Sit at the sushi counter. Order the omakase

- Shira Nui By Jane Faulkner, Epicure, The Age October 10, 2005 Shira Nui is worth crossing town for.

- Fusion without power By John Lethlean, The Age August 5 2003 At Shira Nui, only certain types of sushi will be delivered to the table, so fanatical is the chef. The full range is available only to a manageable group of sushi-bar diners. He makes; you eat immediately; then he makes again. This is the omakase menu, a sushi-only degustation that is the purest, most pleasurable dining experience I have had all year.

- Shira Nui ... again - TummyRumbles by mellie on May 17th, 2009

- Shira Nui - Miettas

Age Good Food Guide 2010 Score: 14.5/20

Age Good Food Guide 2009 Score: 14.5/20

Gourmet Traveller 2009 Australian Restaurant Guide "A nondescript Glen Waverley shopping strip is not the obvious place to seek boundarypushing Japanese food, but Shira Nui's camouflage partially explains its 'hidden treasure' status"

Age Good Food Guide 2008 Score: 15/20

Age Good Food Guide 2006 score 15/20

Age Good Food Guide 2005 score 14/20

AGFG 2004, score 14/20

- Shiranui - UrbanSpoon

- Shira Nui - Your Restaurants

www.messersmith.name/wordpress/2010/03/15/saturday-diving...

Sunday dawned clear and bright. Just what I needed to lift my spirits when I realised that my sinus infection (oh, I'm sure  you want to hear about that) has come back with a vengeance. I may possibly have insulted it during my very pleasant dive yesterday at Magic Passage. Actually, I'm not telling the truth. The part that is not  true is that this is actually Monday's sunrise: Could be Egypt, eh?

Conditions at Magic Passage  couldn't have been much better. There was a manageable current flowing in from Astrolabe Bay,  making the water nice and clear. I usually get into the water first, to get out of everyone's way and check to make sure that I've anchored where I think  I anchored. I got this shot from about seven metres below Faded Glory  and Sanguma,  which we had parked alongside each other: Funny thing - coincidence strikes. The Beatles song Come Together  is playing with a heavy bass bias here in the IT Dungeon as I write. (In case you're wondering, I was thinking of the boats coming together over the reef.)

He roller-coaster he got early warning

He got muddy water he one mojo filter

He say "One and one and one is three"

Got to be good-looking 'cause he's so hard to see

Come together right now over me

I think that it is one song that nearly every person of my age who was brought up in The Western World (whatever that is) can probably sing along with without mumbling too many of the words. It always seemed like nonsense to me - nonsense ambiguous to mean anything you like. I give you the examples of Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky  or James Taylors' American Pie.  Still, the pitiless call of reason leads me to conclude that the song must  be about the members of the band. Four musicians, four verses, lots of obscure references - it's not Rocket Science. If you've nothing better to do and you want to enrich your mind with some spaced-out references from the 60's you might check here and here if you're feeling clueless. The first link seems plausible. The second feels more like stoner-speak.

Errr . . . drifting away there. Back to the dive. One of the first things that I encountered was this lovely little anemone which I am embarrassed to say that I can't identify accompanied by two juvenile Clark's Anemonefish (Apmphiprion clarkii): My finger is for scale, not for food. However, while snorkeling at The Eel Garden  later I was demonstrating how the larger cousins of these youngsters would play with your fingers and occasionally nip at them. One of the larger specimens of A. clarkii  bit viciously three times. Each time it would grab a bit of my skin in its jaws and shake its body furiously before letting go. Since I was out of breath anyway and needed surface, I decided to end the demonstration.

This morning I felt a distracting itch on my hand and discovered a bite mark left by the little terror: Don't let anybody tell you that Nemo is not dangerous.

In the clear incoming water, the beautiful Anthea were glowing like neon lights: We were bless by a bit of sunlight on Saturday, the first we've seen in some weeks. The weather here has been dismal, at least by Paradise standards.

Richard Jones led the dive, though he was possibly a little miffed when I was uncooperative and lazy at the beginning of the dive. He got even later by mugging me: I shall have the last laugh, however. He complained a few days ago about getting his "bald head" into the picture - his words, not mine. I would call him "partially bald". My response is, "How could I miss it?"

Later on, a band of Cassells showed up in Felmara.  This array of fishing lures caught my eye: The Cassell Floating Fishing Party motored off after a while and left is to enjoy the lowering sun.

Just another Saturday in Paradise.

BOX DATE: 1980

MANUFACTURER: Mattel

DOLLS IN LINE: Barbie; Skipper; Ken

BODY TYPE: 1966; Twist 'n Turn waist; button on back; bent arms; bend & snap knees; small defined toes

HEAD MOLD: 1976-1980 "Winking Western"; defined eyelids

SPECIAL FEATURES: Winks

IMPORTANT NOTES: Mattel sold Western Barbie with a variety of hair styles. Since Barbie's eye "winks" this makes each doll's eyes look somewhat different--they tend to look almost deformed.

PERSONAL FUN FACT Ah Western Barbie! She's definitely one of the most iconic/memorable 1980s Barbies in my collection, but not exactly for the most flattering of reasons. Let's face it, as long as I've been aware of the existence of Western Barbie, I've always found her....well creepy. The winking eye feature sounds interesting in concept. But in practice, it doesn't seem to work out, nor does it do the doll's appearance any justice. All of my ladies have rather grotesque looking eyes. One girl (in the middle) has two extremely heavy looking eyelids. The other doll (on the right) has one heavy eyelid, whilst her other eye is completely exposed, being that her eyelid fell/broke off. The gal on the far left has an extremely shiny eyelid. I never planned to own one of these dolls, let alone three. But let's be real, Barbie dolls can never be that creepy. It honestly didn't take long for me to warm up to the idea of Western Barbie.

What sparked my initial interest in owning her, was in fact finding her outfit in a basket of doll clothes in 2012. A week later, I was presented with the opportunity to buy the doll on the far right of this photo at another flea market. I can't remember if she was nude or wearing some other random dress. However, I do recall that itch deep within my soul to do right by her. I knew, in an instant, that I had her original jumpsuit. It just seemed like a plain travesty to leave her behind, alone, ugly, and in the wrong outfit, sitting in a coffee mug on a table at the flea market. So Barbie came home with me that day, and I reunited her with this jumpsuit. I didn't find her odd appearance nearly as appalling/scary as I once had envisioned her to be. Instead, I quickly got over the fact that she had a strange winking eyelid feature, and I learned to love her. This is why I jumped at the chance to own yet another one. I cannot recall with certainty now if I got my second Western Barbie (in the middle) that same summer or the one after. She was on a table at my local flea market, wearing her original outfit with its hat, when I spotted her. My sister was actually surprised that I wanted to adopt yet another ugly Western Barbie, especially considering that my other doll had her original outfit. But what can I say, I thought she had the more attractive hairstyle, I didn't have that hat.....and I am an 80s Barbie addict, who simply cannot turn away a Barbie from that era when she is so darn cheap! I loved both my gals, and I never winced or made disdainful noises when I pull them out of their container. Rather, I simply smiled at them, fixed their hair, and thought how lucky I was to own both of them!

By the beginning of the next decade, I had left any past reservations towards Western Barbie behind. On the contrary, I had grown to love their creepy winking eyes and gaudy cowgirl outfits. I never expected, however, to end up with a boxed version! The gal on the left is the most special of the trio. The other two cannot even begin to compete with her. She was a gift from our thoughtful relative, Ray. Christmas 2020 was a strange one, considering the pandemic. We weren't able to have our traditional family get together that holiday season. But Ray had purchased us each a Barbie doll anyways. Christmas day, we met up with Sue and Ray on their front porch and exchanged gifts (I made him gluten free cookies). While we still had to keep our distance, Ray got to see Colleen and me open both our dollies. Colleen happened to open Western Fun Barbie, while I unwrapped Magic Moves. I was blown away that he had picked us out two of the most iconic dolls from the decade (and I know that boxed 80s Barbies ain't cheap these days if you get them online). This gal was the oldest doll I've ever opened. By that I mean she had been in the package the longest....for FORTY years!!! I had opened 1976 SuperStar Barbie as a kid, but she wasn't even quite thirty years old at the time. Somehow, miraculously, Western Barbie was mostly unscathed. Her hair was very sticky as it was starting to decay. But her skin tone and plastic accessories held up beautifully. Plus, she is my only Western Barbie that still winks! She also has noticeably lighter eyebrows than the other ladies. Although she is clearly the same hairstyle variant as my doll in the middle. But she was rooted with a more manageable amount of hair, and it is a platinum color rather than golden blonde. Maybe age made my other doll's hair oxidized into a darker shade...who knows! Perhaps I've been in the monkey house too long, but I think this Barbie is quite ravishing, despite her quirky eyes!

Urban Explore: I have a new job in Werribee. Until now i have commuted to Melbourne's CBD mostly by bike from my home in Oakleigh. That is a 40 something km round trip and pretty manageable. I thought i would find a way to ride to Werribee. It is very difficult to find a way through, having to road jam pretty much all the way from Footscray to the start of the Federation Trail. It turns out that the trip is about 130km round trip from my house, so it is highly unlikely that i will be bike commuting in the near future. There were however some nice surprises on the trip

I started cramming gear into T.H.E. Pack and quickly realized that it was going to be more than enough. Using the external X-System loops, I attached some old and some new accessories. I realized that I was going to have room left over once I got the basics in, so I tossed in boxes of ammunition until it was full. Truth be told, a more careful load plan would have put more in T.H.E. Pack.

Everything you see here, including the poncho liner that it's all sitting on, was either in the pack, or attached to the outside in some fashion. Once loaded it weighed a manageable 55 pounds.

The Bureau of Land Management manages 517 wilderness study areas containing about 12.6 million acres located in the Western States and Alaska. The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 directed the Bureau to inventory and study its roadless areas for wilderness characteristics. To be designated as a Wilderness Study Area, an area had to have the following characteristics:

Size - roadless areas of at least 5,000 acres of public lands or of a manageable size;

Naturalness - generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature;

Opportunities - provides outstanding opportunities for solitude or primitive and unconfined types of recreation.

In addition, Wilderness Study Areas often have special qualities such as ecological, geological, educational, historical, scientific and scenic values.

The congressionally directed inventory and study of BLM's roadless areas received extensive public input and participation. By November 1980, the BLM had completed field inventories and designated about 25 million acres of wilderness study areas. Since 1980, Congress has reviewed some of these areas and has designated some as wilderness and released others for non-wilderness uses. Until Congress makes a final determination on a wilderness study area, the BLM manages these areas to preserve their suitability for designation as wilderness.

In Oregon/Washington there are 83 wilderness study areas comprising 2,642,289 acres. These 83 wilderness study areas are primarily located in southeast Oregon in the Prineville, Lakeview, Burns and Vale Districts.

To learn more about wilderness study areas head on over to: www.blm.gov/programs/national-conservation-lands/oregon-w...

Ray: We appear to have lived through a golden age of liberalism, liberty, peace, and relative tolerance, which is now coming to an end.

Ruin: Again, I am with Sapolsky there. He wrote about the warmongering on the edge of the ape community, with the most aggressive males, setting out to attack, or defend from, other groups of aggressive males from other tribes. Eventually the battles would kill off the testosterone driven males from both groups, that mutually slaughtering component of ‘competition’, leaving the less aggressive males and females to have a long period of apparent ‘peace’, at least until the next generation of aggressive males came along. Sometimes the ‘peaceniks’ would have so changed the group, that the aggressive new males would be conditioned to be more docile. This would be worn down over generations, and eventually competitive wars would start again.

We forget we are hairless apes. If I say that we are not ‘only’ apes, I say, at the same time, that apes are not 'only' apes. Silverfish are not ‘only’ silverfish, sheep and chickens are not ‘only’ sheep and chickens, and on and on. Artist and writers are not ‘only’ artists and writers.

Two world wars killed off a huge cache of testosterone driven aggression. We have gained from that. Of course, the less aggressive docile males, those left behind, would hang out together mutually grooming, and doing window treatments, becoming fashion trendsetters or whatever, and things happen. Hence a burgeoning of homosexual behaviours, and gender fluidity in the intervening peaceful years.

This inevitably threatens the likes of the dictators we now see flexing, otherwise known as ‘he men’, those rampant male aggressors, so that queerness becomes a ‘bête noire’, part of the sand in their oyster sandwich. They need war, they need to act out aggressively. They are driven to it; they have no control over this at all. It’s a natural ‘driver’, like our beloved hormones. I would ideally like to stay out of their way if I can, and time is ‘short’, which it isn’t of course. Hello infinity. War is natural. The feminisation didn’t take. It did give us a window of 80 years or so, so yes, we were very fortunate.

The thing is though that it partially took, mainly in the West, and for a while shone a certain type of beacon, which is perhaps prophetically read as, and possibly is, an indication of what life might be like in a more feminised world, or a more equal one at least. Male-female equality I mean. This scares the bejeepers out of most males and causes the sort of problems we see emerging now, the saber rattling.

This manifests as the re-emergence of the rampant male and his need to suppress and dominate the rampant males from other cultures. Religion is one of the justifiers for this sort of behaviour, God being almost universally male, and having made man the caretaker, giving him dominion over ‘his’ creation.

This is why I am enjoying my ‘Chemical Castration’ at the moment.

Russia, China, Iran, and religious factions, all have a vested interest in supporting that bulwark of aggressive maleness, it manifests in their hope of conquering the world, and currently they see the west as a ‘sissy’, an easy target. We are living and dying in interesting times, but that is a constant.

That ‘Golden Age’ was an age of ‘Testosterone Subdued’.

There are, of course, currently, the rabble rousers here in the West too, evidence the rise of the far right, one of their battle cries also being that one of defence of the ‘real man’, and their lamenting western ‘sissification’. Trump is obviously a big part of that nightmare, as is the rolling back of Roe vs Wade and other lapses backwards in the direction of re-domesticating women.

Men and their rockets and tunnels, what can I say?

A hero, now there’s a funny idea. We are, of course, anti-hero, though my Duchamp discourse might suggest the opposite. I like showing him with feet of clay, or like to show him suggesting that he stole the urinal from Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven. My heroes are fallible, I need them to be wonderfully atrocious sinners, rotting with syphilis, even (Joyce).

I consider every virus to be my, and our, equal, and the ideal state to achieve would be one of détente, of controlled cohabitation. I say this whilst knowingly cohabiting with HIV. Projecting the syphilis spirochete onto Joyce, which is very much in the literature, and in other evidence, is not, at least in my ‘book’, a source of shame or blame. It is simply a tale of cohabitation towards whatever end. The virus is also one of the 'drivers', the writer itself and art-maker, even. That is, the drivers describe through us. We have a role similar to this relative to the planet we inhabit, in the same way that the HIV virus describes me. All life ravages. This order of things is to be celebrated, in my story. It ploughs everything back into the mulch, making everything equal fertiliser for 'More Life'.

Falstaff described this beautifully. Most art and literature, at its best, does. It is, perhaps, why we love these strivings. I call this drive 'Vitalism'. Both Duchamp and Joyce (and Goya) are arch 'Vitalists'.

So, I guess my heroes have to be anti-heroes too, jesters, tricksters, glorious ‘sinners’, even. I would be just as pleased to be considered a hopelessly aspiring hero as an anti-hero, same do-do, same colour, same smell. It’s all fertiliser.

They would be the antithesis of 'Gods'.

The images and words are just me sorting it out in my head, setting myself free to be as awful, or the opposite, as I am, or can be.

Luckily A.I. came along just in time, when I no longer have the strength to stand and make in the studio. It’s cheaper too, and that is very much a consideration. I think I would have found a way anyway, but then this option presented itself and I grabbed it, mainly because I am always on the lookout for an option.

There’s a ‘driver’ there. I have no idea where it came from, it’s partially to do with neglect and abuse. I will uncover it in due course, en-route to you know what.

Rack: Glad you are emerging from the lurgy and from chemical castration. Not sure what this fatigue is. I feel like a slow-moving zombie. It’s not entirely unpleasant. No compunction to do anything. Except be horizontal. Going to lie down now in fact. Cheers. Glad you’re out the other side of whatever it was. Xo

Ruin: You are, of course, always like this in late winter, late January. I have the records to prove it. Then you unfurl come spring. I look forward to that unfurling. Even if the rhythm changes with aging, especially relative to this disease, you still miraculously come back to life. I have no doubt that you will. I have gotten used to managing exhaustion, it’s all about pacing and dealing with new realities. I have seen you do that before too.

Spring is just around the corner.

I have 25 years of quotes of you describing exactly this to me.

Quote 1: “Spring has sprung the jizzum has riz, I wonder where my pussy is? The pussy is on the boil, but that's absoid, the boil is on the pussy.

Loving you across the ocean and always with a notion, Rack”

Quote 2: “Reduced to psychobabble but soul soaring with spring. Had heard tell of this phenomenon of spring joy with increasing age and wondered, but here I am full of interferon, non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors and JOY.”

Quote 3: “jesus, spring has sprung and I'm quite unsprung. I feel like a 110 appliance with 220 volts running through me. HELP.”

Quote 4: “Off today. Spring emerging. Delicious.”

I am not emerging from the chemical castration, more luxuriating in it. I don’t have to be a 'man' anymore. Thrilling! I don't want to be a woman either, nor 'gender neutral'.

At the same time, gender neutralised is more than acceptable.

Rack: WOW! This is like the best form of therapy ever. Such a comforting realisation. One is somewhere aware of it, the cycle, but seeing it written, in one’s own hand, makes it all seem quite manageable. And on some level I do feel that now. I’m not desperately depressed as I have been in the last at this time of year, just aware of a need to retreat and restore.

Enjoy not being a man any more. One can see the appeal of being genderless. Perhaps all those fluid, binary, theys and whatnots are on to something. As if it might be just another evolutionary step. To step away from the old rigidities of sex and being sexed.

Spectacular grey day here in Brooklyn Heights.

Ruin: and I have had dozens more of spring quotes from you, over dozens of years. Chin up, up, up!

Marcel and Duchamp, with ChaCha, have even begun working on the Spring Collection. It’s just around the corner, even.

You Gemini, you!

The dozers start at the top of the snow piles in the avalanche zones and cut them down to a manageable size for the excavator and snowblower.

Where is the Cutthroat Ridge avalanche zone? Find it on this map: www.flickr.com/photos/wsdot/5242152485/

Picacho Peak is a premiere destination for anyone traveling down I-10. With a unique look and massive size, its presence is hard to ignore. Whether you are coming from the Phoenix or Tucson area, there is clear signage directing to the Park's entrance making for easy navigation. Here are a number of trails in the Park, including two ways to get to Picacho Peak. The most common one is Hunter 's Trail. It's a 4 mile out and back trail that takes you straight up to the Peak. Leading up to the mountain you ascend up a couple hundred feet via switchbacks before you reach the saddle. Take a moment to rest and enjoy the views before descending down about 230 feet. Though cables are present during the switchback portion of the hike the descend down is when the cables are truly introduced into the hike. The trail will go along the side of the Peak and will come to a trail intersection with Sunset Vista Trail. Soon from this point the ascend up begins again, this time using the cables! Gloves are recommended, but not required. Don't let the idea of using cables to climb up steer you away - it's very doable and manageable.