View allAll Photos Tagged needs
Who needs a little sketchbook to keep in their bag--for when those moments of inspiration hit?? I know I do!!
Fun colors and lots of pockets--all wrapped around a Canson 44lb paper hardcover sketchbook.
GEC Stephenson 6WDE shunter, No 261 with its Dorman V12 power unit in front of it. This loco will run again, according to my info, but with its major components sitting open to the elements, it begs the question 'when?'.
A row of austrian crystals.
There's even a reflection of my camera lens description on one of the closeup beads
Hello there. Many of you may already know this but I am a Chicago Teacher's Union delegate. I work with students who have special needs and disabilities and over the past 12 years at this job, I have seen my caseload steadily increase to over 60 students. In other school districts, Occupational and Physical Therapists have a caseload cap. of 32. That is what those school districts have decided is reasonable. I am willing to work extra time and in the evenings and on weekends but I am not able to see all of my students and meet their needs as only one person. The Board of Ed. still refuses to limit our caseloads and that is the major reason I am striking.
Many people have been only listening to the media and have been wondering why teachers are so "greedy" because they think all we want are raises. If you're going to parrot the media, I don't need your comments. However, if you're going to listen to what I have to say as someone who knows what it's like to work in Chicago Public Schools, please keep reading.
Some major reasons we are striking-NONE of which have to do with pay.
1. Chicago Public Schools wants to close another 100 schools and further corporatize America's children. This is sickening. Charter schools have not proven themselves to be overall any better than public schools and they have taken our most promising students from us. The Tea Partiers and corporations getting into education continue to try to get Illinois state legislature changes so that they get equal funding as public schools from YOUR tax dollars. However, did you know that not all teachers that work in charter schools have to be certified? This is eventually merely a way for corporations to get more of your tax dollars and pay teachers half as much so that they pocket the rest. Aren't you tired of that? I know I am.
2. The Chicago Public Schools want to put in the "contract" a clause called the "Management Clause" which basically states that at any time they can change their minds about anything in the contract for any reason. I'm pretty sure Brizard and Rahm Emanuel need to go back to their basic Language Arts classes and look up the word "Contract" as they would find this clause pretty much makes the whole idea of a promise or an agreement completely useless.
3. We want smaller classrooms. As someone who works with kids that have disabilities, I've seen the kid with Muscular Dystrophy who is depending on a wheelchair for transportation struggle because his regular education classroom does not have enough space for him. All of us Occupational and Physical Therapists have seen this. It's ILLEGAL. It goes against everything the Americans with Disabilities Act stand for and yet it is a reality.
4. We want to end the class warfare disparity. In Chicago right now, Rahm and the media completely ignore the fact that there is a huge amount of violence especially on the South side and our homicide rate has risen dramatically. One reason for this is that people are getting desperate in this economy and they don't have the skills to pursue other non violent measures. At this crucial time, Rahm has decided to cut technology classes. Schools on the North side also have way more access to Music and Art and even things like Foreign Languages whereas the South side kids literally (and I mean LITERALLY) have to bring their own soap and toilet paper to school.
5. At a time of rising violence as well as more premature babies being saved during delivery, there are more and more students in need of clinicians including: Occupational and Physical Therapists, Social Workers, Psychologists, and Speech Therapists. The Chicago Public Schools Board of Ed. would like to forget these kids even exist. I've seen the mayor and administrators at schools. They go visit the gifted classrooms. They don't take a look into the classrooms for students with Severe/Profound disabilities, that's for sure.
Please support your local school and your local teacher. Give your local teacher a hug. Call your alderman and Brizard and tell them to support teachers.
***If you or your family members are in one of these photos and would like the high resolution version for free, please email me at kirstiecat@gmail.com with the subject "Union Rally Photo" and I will send this to you at no charge as soon as possible**
I thought I knew Yarmouth, but I heard in a discussion about what was the largest parish church in England, that Great Yarmouth Minster was one that laid claim to that accolade.
Minster? In Yarmouth?
But seems there is much to the town I did not know, and clearly it needs to be further explored. But whilst in the area, riding on trains, I took and hour out to walk from the station to the Minster to have a look, if it was open.
Maybe they are more welcoming to visitors now, but two boards outside announcing the fact, so I went in and was stunned at the size of it, too much to take in really, but it was full of light and I was given a very warm welcome. This made a very lasting impression.
------------------------------------------------
The Norman-era Minster Church of St Nicholas in Great Yarmouth remains, due to its floor-surface area, England's largest parish church.[1] It was founded in 1101 by Herbert de Losinga, the first Bishop of Norwich,[2] and consecrated in 1119. Since its construction, it has been Great Yarmouth's parish church. It is cruciform, with a central tower, which may preserve a part of the original structure. Gradual alterations effectively changed the form of the building. Its nave is 26 feet (7.9 m) wide, and the church's total length is 236 feet (72 m).
In December 2011, the Bishop of Norwich officially designated it a Minster Church. It is not only used for religious services but is a hub for various other regional and civic events, including concerts by choirs, orchestras and other musical ensembles, art exhibitions and, during festivals and fayres, the church opens permitting stalls and traders inside.
The building, very possibly the town's oldest, is also its most visible, historic landmark. It sits in the central area of Great Yarmouth, close to the house of Anna Sewell.[2] The Transitional clerestoried nave, with columns alternately octagonal and circular, was rebuilt in the reign of King John. A portion of the chancel is of the same date. About fifty years later the aisles were widened, so that the nave is now, rather unusually, the narrowest part of the building. Immediately adjacent are two main graveyard areas: the Old Yard lies directly east behind the church, while the very substantial New Yard stretches for about half a mile to the north.
A grand west front with towers and pinnacles was constructed between 1330 and 1338, but a plague interrupted building extension plans. In the 16th century the ornamental brasses were cast into weights and the gravestones cut into grindstones. Within the church there were at one time 18 chapels, some maintained by guilds, others by private families, such as the Paxtons. At the Reformation the chapels were demolished and the building's valuable liturgical vessels sold off, the proceeds spent to widen the channel of the harbour.
During the Commonwealth period, the Independents appropriated the chancel, the Presbyterians the north aisle, while Churchmen were allowed the remainder of the building. The interior brick walls, erected at this time to separate the different portions of the building, remained until 1847. In 1864 the tower was restored, and the east end of the chancel rebuilt; between 1869 and 1870 the south aisle was rebuilt; and in 1884 the south transept, the west end of the nave and the north aisle underwent restoration.
During the Second World War, the building was bombed and nearly destroyed by fire. It was rebuilt by the architect Stephen Dykes Bower and re-consecrated in 1961. During reconstruction, the church temporarily used St Peter's Church on St Peter's Road. When St Nicholas re-opened, attendance at St Peter's declined until the 1960s, when a growing Greek community had use of it, and in 1981 it became St Spiridon's Greek Orthodox Church.
On 2 October 2011, the Lord Bishop of Norwich Graham James raised St. Nicholas to the status of a Minster Church, so marked on 9 December 2011 during the town's Civic Carol Service. Its formal title is now the Minster Church of St. Nicholas, Great Yarmouth.
On 13 October 2014 a memorial stone was unveiled to commemorate the deaths of thirteen people in 1981 Bristow Helicopters Westland Wessex crash.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Yarmouth_Minster
-------------------------------------------------
I do like Great Yarmouth. More than anywhere else in East Anglia, with the possible exception of Kings Lynn, you feel that this is a place which has broken the surly bonds of proximity to London, which is, after all, fewer than 150 miles away, and instead yearns out for the sea, and Europe. Yarmouth takes its name from the mouth of the River Yare: tightly crammed onto a narrow tongue of land, surrounded on three sides by water, it retains its endearingly shabby character and a sense of its own singular history, despite the best efforts of the Luftwaffe and the Borough planners, who over the last half-century must rank as some of the most neglectful and bone-headed planners of any of England's medium-sized towns.
Great Yarmouth has a seedy brashness, a jollity which overwrites the hard times it has suffered, and it has suffered indeed: the town lost a greater percentage of its houses to German bombing during the Second World War than any other town in England. The disappearance of the fishing industry led to an unemployment rate of mining town proportions, and the rugged working class character of the town, without any significant areas of middle class villas or suburban metroland, has often been a poor advocate for itself.
Can there be a more hauntingly lovely town centre street in East Anglia than South Quay? On one side are the confident 19th and early 20th century buildings, the town hall, the banks, the merchants' houses, the town pubs, while on the other side is the quay of the steely, silent Yare, the great ships parked opposite the buildings. For Great Yarmouth is still a major port, and the warehouses on the Southtown side remind those who pass beneath the great red brick buildings on the far bank exactly where all this prosperity came from.
And a twenty minute walk will take you across the heart of the town to Yarmouth's wide, white, sandy beaches, for today this is above all else a seaside town, of course. And while the beaches are by no means as lovely as those of Lowestoft ten miles to the south, nothing can beat Yarmouth for the sheer number of its amusement arcades, its fairgrounds, its candy floss stands and its cheap tat shops. Kiss me quick and squeeze me slow: this feels like the seaside used to, like it ought to, before we got all sophisticated about such matters. It reminds me of my childhood. In summer, all Norwich seems to come here for a cheap and cheerful day out, and you cannot get a seat on the train for love nor money.
When I first knew Great Yarmouth as a child in the 1970s, the roads to the north of the town centre were lined with small hotels, and while these certainly still exist, the days when thousands of people came to Great Yarmouth for a two week holiday are now gone. The former hotels are now residential care homes, or divided up into flats and bedsits, which are still not called apartments, thank goodness. The vast coach park immediately to the north of the town centre is still discernible as the site of Yarmouth Beach station, which brought the holiday-makers here. In those days, Great Yarmouth had three railway stations, but now there is only one, with its single line playing host to an hourly shuttle into Norwich.
That the demand for cheap meals and takeaway food has not diminished is testified to by the large population of Greeks, mainly from Cyprus; they started arriving here during the days of the fascist dictatorship and the war in the 1970s. The vast former Anglican parish church of St Peter, redundant in the 1980s, has been happily reborn as the Greek Orthodox church of St Spiridon. Today, especially in the area to the south of the town centre, you are as likely to hear Greek spoken on the streets as English. And what English! This must be one of the last towns in England with a strong, identifiable accent of its own - people do not have Norfolk accents here, they have Great Yarmouth accents, which stand out in the streets of sophisticated Norwich as much as voices from Birmingham or Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
People who have never been here know Great Yarmouth from books, especially the opening few chapters of Charles Dickens's David Copperfield, for here it was that the Peggoty family lived in an upturned boat on the beach, and here it was that David was happy. Dickens was writing in the 1840s about a Great Yarmouth of a quarter of a century earlier, and you will find few traces of Dickens's Yarmouth today. Great Yarmouth underwent a massive building boom in the 1860s, and this and the modern era define its character above all else. But wandering around the Middlegate area you may be struck by how, among the dull and often crass buildings of the 1960s and 1970s, there is occasionally some extraordinary survival, a 16th century house wider at the top than the bottom, perhaps, or an early medieval tollhouse, or a grand 18th century frontage with a perfunctory building tacked on behind. This was the heart of the area destroyed by a succession of German bombing raids in 1941 and 1942. Because of Great Yarmouth's singular situation on a spit of land, its population lived crammed into narrow alleys called rows, many early medieval in origin, the bulk built in the 15th and 16th centuries. This unique medieval townscape of perhaps 140 rows survived up until those fateful nights. It was almost completely destroyed, with a consequent heavy loss of life. Hauntingly, several bombed buildings have been left exactly as they were after the destruction, in a railed off area behind the replacement Unitarian church.
It is easy to forget quite how prosperous Great Yarmouth was during the medieval period. As Bill Wilson reminds us in the revised Pevsner, at the time of the 1334 merchant's tax register, Yarmouth raised more in the subsidy than either Norwich or Lynn, which a hundred years before had been exceptionally prosperous places. Only York, Bristol and London were richer than Yarmouth on the eve of the Black Death; the town had provided three times more sailors for the attack on Calais than London, and in 1348 there were 220 boats on the Yare river mouth. But the following year the Black Death wiped out perhaps two-thirds of the townsfolk, and it would take Yarmouth hundreds of years to recover its former prosperity.
It was at this time that the town walls were completed, and it is still possible to trace the course of the walls today, especially to the south of the town. On three sides, the walls defended Yarmouth from the sea, on which it resolutely turned its back; on the river side, there was no wall. Within the walls, at its widest and most northerly point, the town had its market place, still a busy one, and further north than that, looking down the length of the market place, over the rows, the warehouse, along the river and out to the sea, they built a great church, dedicated to the patron saint of sailors, St Nicholas.
A hundred miles up the east coast is the great port city of Hull, which dwarfs the town of Great Yarmouth, but with which Great Yarmouth otherwise shares very much in common. There, the great late 15th Century church of Holy Trinity is claimed as the country's biggest, which may well be true in terms of its sheer bulk. But here in Yarmouth the medieval merchant wealth had done better than that, and here it was that, in terms of floor area, the burghers of Yarmouth built the largest church in England.
Whereas the Hull church towers over and dominates the medieval street plan, here in Great Yarmouth St Nicholas seems to sprawl, its width and length dwarfing the central tower. Holy Trinity is fully in proportion, a typical late medieval church writ large, but St Nicholas is not. This great building has an idiosyncrasy, and to visit it is to see a church in a new way. There are several reasons for this, not least that this building was largely complete a full 150 years before Holy Trinity. There is no clerestory, and hardly any of the language of Perpendicular which would inform and shape so many of England's great urban churches. The setting of the building below the level of the market place means that the overall impression is of the green of the vast copper roofs. To see it in the low sun of a cold winter's afternoon, with the stone and flintwork glowing and the frost beginning to gleam on the parapets, is to see one of East Anglia's most beautiful urban sights, I think.
Walking around the outside of the building is a not inconsiderable task, and you soon become acquainted with the rhythm of the flintwork, windows and stone dressing, which make it feel that it is all of a piece, which is an illusion, although there are reasons for it. The west front is vast, but hidden by trees and in any case visible only from a minor road.To the east of the chancel is a haunting 1840s gravestone which tells us that beneath this Stone rests two Babes that brought Happiness to their Parents although they are Dead. I wondered if Dickens had ever spotted it. And as you come back round to the south porch you'll find one of England's most unusual 19th century gravestones. It remembers George Beloe, a nine year old boy who was unfortunately drowned when the suspension bridge over the Bure, just outside of Yarmouth, collapsed in 1845. A large crowd had gathered on the bridge to watch a clown float down the river in a barrel pulled by geese, and the bridge collapsed when they surged from one side to the other as he went under. The full death toll was never known, because many of the victims must have been washed out to sea by the fast-flowing current. Seventy-nine bodies were recovered, most of them children. What makes George Beloe's headstone extraordinary is that it depicts, in stone relief, the collapse of the bridge. Now eroded by weather after more than a century and a half, you can still make out the two ends of the bridge, and the eye of God looking down as the deck collapses into the Bure.
Having made your circumnavigation, you can now step through the huge porch, which faces the market place, into the interior of this extraordinary building. You may know already what to expect, but if you do not then you will be struck by how outstandingly light and clean the interior is. As your eyes adjust to the great distances, you may then notice the curious pattern of the arcades which open and close vistas as you begin to wander, as if this was a maze of vast, low rooms. And then you would notice the jaunty, bleached Festival of Britain feel of the furnishings, the acreage of modern glass, most of it very good, and the uncluttered simplicity, and then it will strike you - there is nothing old here.
On the night of 24th June 1942, St Nicholas was completely destroyed by German bombing. All that was left standing were the outer walls and the tower, in danger of collapse. The stonework was utterly calcined by the fierce heat. In a town which had suffered so much over the previous twelve months, it was a greivous loss, and it would be almost twenty years before St Nicholas was open for business again. Essentially, it had to be rebuilt, using the surviving walls and tower. The chosen design was that of a relatively minor architect, but a man who would be responsible for the two great East Anglian church architectural controversies of the 20th Century, Stephen Dykes Bower.
It is inevitable that a comparison should be made with Coventry Cathedral, which also replaced a bombed predecessor. The two buildings are about the same size, the work was carried out over the same period of years in the late 1950s, and the two buildings opened just a year apart. But while Basil Spence's Coventry Cathedral is a fabulous, iconic structure in the spirit of the age and in the full flush of post-war enthusiasm, St Nicholas at first appears little more than an exercise in pedantic and ponderous medievalism. As Bill Wilson points out, the £315,000 awarded by the War Damage Commission here was but a quarter of the money allotted to Coventry, but he also recalls Pevsner's scathing attack on the design: What an opportunity was lost! What thrilling things might have been done inside! A modern interior, airy, noble, of fine materials could have arisen to affirm the vitality of C20 church architecture inside the C13 walls. How defeatist does the imitation-Gothic interior appear, once this has been realized!
And Pevsner was not alone. The main criticism seemed to be that, while the opportunity had not been taken to produce something brave and modernist, the rebuilding was also not true to the principles and details of the Gothic which had been there before. Instead, Dykes Bower made up his own Gothic, particularly in the arcades and tracery. It is a simple Gothic, stripped of detail and without the clutter beloved of the 19th Century revival. Coventry Cathedral's design was startling and newsworthy, and the great artists of the day were commissioned to provide its fixtures and fittings. It has come to represent a city which otherwise projects a rather vague image to the world. But Great Yarmouth is not Coventry, and there is a big difference between the urban church of a relatively small and insular town and the Cathedral of a great diocese. It is perhaps unfair that Coventry's Cathedral is still viewed today as a phoenix risen from the ashes in a way that Great Yarmouth's church can never be, despite the near-identical circumstances. But that's not all. Bill Wilson, writing in 1991, concludes that the problem with the concept is the lack of assertive detail and the fact that so large a space needs to be filled with plenty of furnishings. Unhappily, there are hardly any...
And yet, and yet. When I step into St Nicholas now, I find myself thrilled by the cool light, the almost monastic simplicity. Apart from the hideous organ, the open spaces are barely punctuated, and there is something timeless and eternal about the silence. Dykes Bower's arcades are hardly there, vanishing into the whiteness above and the simplicity of the bare wood roofs. Through the crossing the jewel-like chancel glows, almost beckoning. From the other direction the west window does exactly the same. What Pevsner could not have foreseen is that this building is entirely suited to modern Anglican spirituality which has extended in recent years beyond mere congregational worship. And he also could not have foreseen how we would come to view the simplicity of Dykes Bower's design, the white walls, the lack of detail, the stripped, bleached wood and the cool, hard floors as being exactly symptomatic of the 1960s, the decade which gave this new building its birth. For this, I like it very much, not least because it was reopened on 8th May 1961, the day I was born.
Perhaps best of all I like the range of glass around the east and west windows by Brian Thomas. They are all of a piece, installed for the reopening. There can be few modern schemes outside of the cathedrals on so vast a scale, and yet they are elaborate, detailed and intimate. This great, light building is the perfect setting for them. The east window depicts the Crucifixion, surrounded by scenes from the Passion. In the north aisles are the joyful mysteries of the Christ story, from the Annunciation to the Presentation, while in the south aisles is the salvation story from Adam and Eve to Christ's mission. At the west end are the sacraments.
There are effectively four aisles, two either side of the church, which extend up to beyond the crossing. The aisles each side become conjoined as they flank the nave itself, making the nave appear narrow and tall in comparison, despite what we know to be true of it. The triple lancet of the west window aids this illusion. Below it, the Norman font is from a redundant Wiltshire church, and looks most un-East Anglian. There are small artworks and minor survivals dotted about, but they do not intrude. The early 18th century pulpit came from St George, a few hundred metres to the south, now closed. The pews in the central part of the nave are also from St George, and although they are simple they strike a jarring note. Modern chairs would be better. Dykes Bower screened off the south chancel chapel to create a space for private prayer, and this doesn't work as well as it might, creating an obstruction within the otherwise openness of the east end. The garishly painted organ is also his.
But this is a place to wander - despite the vast scale I found I had circumnavigated the interior three times without really noticing. It struck me then quite how much Dykes Bower must have intended this - he was designing a great town church interior, and looking across the water to Holland and Belgium as much as to anywhere else in England. He wanted a church that opened onto the market place, into which shoppers could come for a sit down and even a prayer, a building whose open spaces would be wandered through. Having told you all of this, I expect you are already making plans to come to Great Yarmouth and visit this church for yourself as soon as you possibly can. You may be aghast to learn, then, that this wonderful structure is hardly ever open to the public. At present, you can only visit on a Saturday morning: otherwise, it is merely the private, vastly-subsidised venue of a small group of Sunday worshippers. Nothing could be more short-sighted, and little could be more shameful.
For, while the mission of the Church of England is increasingly seen as to the whole people of God and not just to its registered members, and churches all over England are making themselves open to pilgrims and strangers wanting to feel a sense of the numinous and even perhaps to be open to a spirituality which may or may not be Christian but which is at least a yearning for God, the people of Great Yarmouth are locked out of their own church from day to day. They can at least visit the Catholic church of St Mary, which has a sign saying, curiously, that the church is open as often as possible, but that is a small Victorian building, and cannot compare with St Nicholas which is, after all, the heart and soul of Great Yarmouth's history, a touchstone down its long generations.
But if you can get inside, and if you stand beneath the crossing looking westwards, the view is typical: clean, clear, full of light and gravitas with a sense of prayerfulness and even of mystery. There is enough to convince. This building does not feel defeatist; if anything, it was a rather brave approach to the problem. But few people saw it like that at the time, and few people did in the years after. It must be said that Dykes Bower did not go out of his way to win friends in the modernist world - as his wikipedia entry says of him, he was a devoted and determined champion of the Gothic Revival style through its most unpopular years. And yet, he had the last laugh. When he finished here, he spent the next two decades overseeing the transformation of the church of St James at Bury St Edmunds into a fitting cathedral for the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. His is the chancel there, his the transepts, the side chapels and the north ambulatory, all in his own faux-gothic style. And when he died in 1994 he left a cool two million pounds to the Diocese for the construction of a huge Gothic central tower over the crossing of the cathedral. The Diocese spent another ten years or so raising the extra needed, which was fairly controversial in those years when the CofE was haemorraging cash left, right and centre. Despite the voices against it, the tower was built, entirely to Dykes Bower's fancy, and the gleaming white edifice now towers over Bury as if it had been there for half a millennium or more.
Simon Knott, October 2010
The Rutherford Rec Program - The Exceptional Individuals is a special needs group who visits TheDOJO each Year! The practice and experience a martial arts lesson with Sensei Dan Rominski at TheDOJO and we have lot's of fun! A martial arts education of intelligent curriculum curated by Sensei Dan Rominski at his martial art school located in Rutherford NJ. Visit our website www.thedojo.org Self-Defense for children at (201) 933-3050 or email SenseiDan@TheDOJO.org
Visit our website www.thedojo.org
Children Learn Focus, Discipline, Self-Control, Concentration, Fitness, Confidence, Respect, Have Better Self-Esteem, Healthy Eating and Self-Defense.
Adults Learn How to get and stay in shape, Stress Release, Fitness, Healthy Eating, Slow start program (come as you are), a coach in every class, Confidence, Focus, Self-Discipline, Positive Peer Group and it’s Fun!
Parents, Download your FREE Report The 7 Steps for Parents: Preventing Childhood Sexual Abuse Click HERE to visit our website
danrominski.squarespace.com/c...|/sexual-abuse-prevention
Sensei Dan is available for Scheduled TALKS & PRESENTATIONS.
Get more information about our Martial Arts Education of Intelligent Curriculum involving Everything Self-Defense at TheDOJO located in Rutherford NJ.
Contact Chief Instructor: Owner Sensei Dan Rominski at (201) 933-3050 or email SenseiDan@TheDOJO.org
Visit our website www.TheDOJO.org
TheDOJO - 52 Park Avenue, Rutherford, NJ 07070 - Phone: (201) 933-3050 - Text us for info here: (201) 838-4177
Our e-mail address: SenseiDan@TheDOJO.org - Our Facebook page: Like us at TheDOJO or Friend us DanRominski
Youtube Channel: www.youtube.com/user/DanRominski - Our Twitter www.twitter.com/danrominski
Instagram: www.instagram.com/danrominski
A link to where our school is on Google Maps: www.google.com/maps/place/TheD......
If you live in the Rutherford, NJ area and would like to inquire about our programs, reach out to us at the phone and/or e-mail or text addresses above. -Sensei Dan
Read our Blog at senseidanromisnki.blogspot.com...
Read our blog at www.DanRominski.Tumblr.com
We Teach Children, Teens and Adults from Rutherford, NJ; East Rutherford, NJ; Carlstadt, NJ; Kearny, NJ; Lyndhurst, NJ; Woodridge, NJ; Hackensack, NJ; Belleville, NJ; Bloomfield, NJ; Nutley, NJ; Clifton, NJ; Montclair, NJ; and surrounding areas.
No Matter The Martial Art we’ll help you accomplish your goals through our expertise or help you find a school that will best suit you.
Karate, Judo, Jujutsu, Juijitsu, Jiu-jitsu, Goju Ryu, Shorin Ryu, Kendo, Iaido, Aikido, Mixed Martial Arts, Grappling, Daito Ryu Aiki Jujutsu, Ryukyu Okinawa Kobudo, Shorin Ryu, TKD, Tae Kwon Do
This church is superbly sited on a small hill over lookign the town of Saddleworth. St Stephens was built in 1867.
Saddleworth.
John Masters leased land in the area from around 1840 and laid out the town in 1853 after the declaration of the Hundred of Gilbert in 1851. He named it after his home in Lancashire, England. The settlement was originally called Stone Hut with a public house operating there by 1846 to service the needs of the bullock dray drivers to Burra.
Like other towns in this region it languished between 1850 and 1857 when the bullock drays went down to Port Wakefield but started to develop after that time. Did James Masters have a sense of humour? When he laid out Saddleworth he named the streets – Saddle, Bridle, Whip, Spur Stirrup, Bit, Curb, Rein and Girth. Growth was slow during the 1860s but progressed with the arrival of the railway in 1869. The railway opened in time for the wheat harvest of 1869. Saddleworth became the coaching terminus for services to Clare, Auburn and elsewhere. Churches, banks, a school and other public buildings soon followed. Down by the railway station (now demolished) a ham and bacon smoking and curing house was erected for Siekmann as a grain store in 1869. Bee and Hill ran it as a bacon factory from 1892 to 1914.It finally ended its butter production in 1921. It has recently been restored and converted into a residence. The names of Bee and Hill are faintly visible on the façade. A much later butter factory opened in Saddleworth on the corner of Whip Street and Belvedere Road in 1951 made of Mt Gambier limestone blocks. It was the smallest cheese factory in SA and by 1960 the Golden North factory in Laura was poaching its milk suppliers. The Saddleworth cheese factory closed in 1968 and is now vacant. At one stage Saddleworth also had a flourmill built by store keeper and grain buyer Ernest Siekmann in 1869. The mill was only operated by him for a few years before he sold it. After several owners it was updated around 1910 with rollers. It finally closed in 1922. The mill on Burra Road and Bit Street was partially demolished and converted into a two storey house which still stands.
Perhaps the finest nineteenth century building in the town is the Anglican Church of St Aidan. The land was acquired in 1894 and a structure designed by W.K Mallyon. The church was dedicated and opened on 23 August 1894. It is noted for the tower and vestry, which cross the east-west running church. Much earlier James Masters had donated land in and around Whip Street for an Anglican Church and cemetery. No church was ever built on this land and only the cemetery remains facing the railway line. The rest of the land was sold. As with Riverton Masters also donated nearby land for a school which was built by Masters around 1853, (the later town school was built in Hill Street) and land for a Bible Christian Methodist Church which was erected in 1861. The Master’s school moved into this chapel in 1861 and stayed there until a new town school was built in 1870 on land donated by Siekmann of the general store in Hill Street. The porch to the former Methodist Church now Uniting was built in 1929. Although not an inspiring church, the Catholic Church of Saddleworth is superbly sited on a hill to the north of the town. St Stephen’s Catholic was built in 1867 and the Jesuits Fathers of Sevenhill were in charge of it for the first six years until a priest was appointed to Manoora Catholic Church. The Baptist Church in Newark Street had its foundation stone laid by Joseph Mellor the outstanding stone mason of Auburn in 1869 and it opened a year later in 1870. It is now a residence. The Lutheran Church in Saddleworth is a more modern structure being erected in 1925.
The town school in Saddleworth was erected in 1870 and a new state government school room was added in 1877. The earlier 1870 school room was demolished in 1928 but the 1877 school remains as a residence as it closed in 1959 when a new school opened in Saddle Street. Nearby is the Siekmann and Moule Grain store and general store. The first part was erected in 1859 with a large addition in 1873. This fine old building is now the town museum. Across the street from the museum is the Gilbert Valley Hotel. It was constructed in 1869 with the advent of the railway. In fact it was initially called the Railway Hotel but alas the railway line was sited east of the town away from here. The name was only changed in 1976. Just across the creek from the Gilbert Valley Hotel is the Saddleworth Institute. It opened in 1874 and still looks impressive. Nearby are two important government services - the police station and the Post Office both of which were erected in 1877 and opened in 1878. They were sold as private residences 100 years after their openings. On the corner by the former Post Office is a solid bank and residence designed by Adelaide architect Daniel Garlick for the National Australasian Bank in 1878. It later became an English Scottish and Australian Bank. A number of fine old buildings still remain in the Main Street which is Belvedere Road including the 1938 red brick neo-classical style stock and station agents offices of Elder Smith and Company. The Elders Office closed in 1967 and has had various owners since then.
Anna May Wong plays Kim Ling, a dutiful daughter determined to reclaim the good name of her father, a Chinese general. To prove his innocence, she travels to the jungle work farm of Gregory Prin (J. Carrol Naish), who has the evidence she needs. With the help of secret agent Anthony Quinn, she clears her father and brings Prin down.
Anna May Wong and J. Carroll Naish, so memorably teamed in Paramount's Dangerous to Know, are costarred once more in Island of Lost Men. Naish plays ruthless jungle plantation owner Gregory Prin, who runs his domain like a dictatorship and treats his workers little better than slaves. Into Prin's world comes Kim Ling (Wong), daughter of a disgraced Chinese general. Kim Ling hopes to clear her father's name by bringing his primary accuser, Prin, to justice. The native-uprising finale is rendered in gloriously gruesome detail. A remake of the 1931 Charles Laughton-Carole Lombard starrer White Woman, Island of Lost Men also offers early but well-rounded performances by Anthony Quinn (as a Chinese patriot!) and Broderick Crawford.
FIRST ASIAN AMERICAN STAR!
Written by PHILIP LEIBFRIED
Her complexion was described as "a rose blushing through old ivory;" she was beautiful, tall (5'7"), slender, and Chinese-American. The last fact kept her from attaining the highest echelon among Hollywood's pantheon of stars, but it did not affect her popularity, nor keep her from becoming a household name. She was Anna May Wong, nee Wong Liu Tsong, a name which translates to "Frosted Yellow Willows," and she was born, appropriately enough, on Flower Street in Los Angeles' Chinatown on 3 January 1905, above her father's laundry. Anna May Wong's contribution to show business is a unique one; she was the first Asian female to become a star, achieving that stardom at a time when bias against her race was crushing. With determination and talent allied to her exotic beauty, she remained the only Asian female star throughout her forty-year career, never fully overcoming all prejudices in maintaining that position. Perhaps the rediscovery of her art will elevate her star to the pantheon of great performers and serve as a guiding light to Asian performers who still struggle to find their rightful place. Anna May Wong's life and career is something that is important for all who value greatly the Asian / Asian Pacific American communities' many artists and what we can all contribute!
Excerpt from : That Old Feeling: Anna May Wong
Part II of Richard Corliss' tribute to the pioneer Chinese-American star.
Daughter of the Dragon. Paramount 1931.
Based on a Fu Manchu novel by Sax Rohmer.
Daughter of the Dragon extended the curse sworn by Dr. Fu on the Petrie family to the next generation. Fu Manchu (Warner Oland), long ago injured and exiled in an attempt on Petrie Sr., returns to London and confronts the father: "In the 20 years I have fought to live," he says in his florid maleficence, "the thought of killing you and your son has been my dearest nurse." He kills the father, is mortally wounded himself and, on his deathbed, reveals his identity to his daughter Ling Moy (Wong) and elicits her vow that she will "cancel the debt" to the Fu family honor and murder the son, Ronald (Bramwell Fletcher)... who, dash it all, is madly infatuated with Ling Moy. Ronald has seen "Princess Ling Moy Celebrated Oriental Dancer" perform, and the vision has made him woozy. "I wish I could find a word to describe her," this calf-man effuses. "Exotic that's the word! And she's intriguing, if you know what I mean." In a near-clinch, Ling Moy wonders if a Chinese woman can appeal to a British toff. When he begs her to "chuck everything and stay," she asks him, "If I stayed, would my hair ever become golden curls, and my skin ivory, like Ronald's?" But the lure of the exotic is hard to shake. "Strange," he says, "I prefer yours. I shall never forget your hair and your eyes." They almost kiss ... when an off-camera scream shakes him out of his dream. It is from his girlfriend Joan (Frances Dade), and the societal message is as clear and shrill: white woman alerting white man to treachery of yellow woman. Ling Moy, a nice girl, previously unaware of her lineage, might be expected to struggle, at least briefly, with the shock of her identity and the dreadful deed her father obliges her to perform. But Wong makes an instant transformation, hissing, "The blood is mine. The hatred is mine. The vengeance shall be mine." Just before his death, Fu mourns that he has no son to kill Ronald. But, in a good full-throated reading, Wong vows: "Father, father, I will be your son. I will be your son!" The audience then has the fun of watching her stoke Ronald's ardor while plotting his death. When she is with him, pleading and salesmanship radiate from her bigeyes. But when an ally asks her why she keeps encouraging the lad, she sneers and says, "I am giving him a beautiful illusion. Which I shall crush." As a villainess, she is just getting started. Revealing her mission to Ronald, she tells him she plans to kill Joan "Because you must have a thousand bitter tastes of death before you die." (The ripe dialogue is by Hollywood neophyte Sidney Buchman, whose distinguished list of credits would include Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Here Comes Mr Jordan and The Talk of the Town.) She soon ascends on a geyser of madness as she decides on a new torture: "My vengeance is inspired tonight. You will first have the torture of seeing her beauty eaten slowly away by this hungry acid." An aide holds a hose gadget over Joan's soon-to-be-corroded face, and Ronald cries for Ling Moy to stop. Very well she says. "Ling Moy is merciful." She barks at Ronald: "Kill her!" He must decide if his favorite white girl is to be etched with acid or stabbed to death. Great stuff! Melodrama is the art of knowing how precisely too far to goThe film is a triangle: not so much of Ling Moy, Ronald and Joan as of Ling Moy, Ronald and a Chinese detective, Ah Kee, played by Sessue Hayakawa, the Japanese actor who in the teens was Hollywood's first Asian male star. He's not plausibly Chinese here, and he is in a constant, losing battle with spoken English. But he is a part of movie history, in the only studio film of the Golden Age to star two ethnically Asian actors. And he gives his emotive all to such lines as "It is the triumph of irony that the only woman I have ever deeply loved should be born of the blood that I loathe." And in the inevitable double-death finale neither the villainess nor the noble detective can survive the machinations of Hollywood justice he gently caresses the long hair of the lady he would love to have loved. "Flower Ling Moy," he says, a moment before expiring. "A flower need not love, but only be loved. As Ah Kee loved you."
The Personal Anna May Wong
This 5'7 beauty loved to study and could speak in an English accent, as well as being fluent in German and French with more than a passing knowledge of other tongues including Italian and Yiddish. For exercise she rode horses, played golf, and tennis. She liked to cook and regaled her guests with succulent Chinese dishes at frequent dinner parties. She preferred casual clothes, wearing slacks and sweaters at home, but cultivated an oriental motif in her very smart formal wardrobe. She studied singing with Welsh tenor Parry Jones before she participated in the film Limehouse Blues as George Raft's mistress. Anna loved to dance to contemporary music. Anna was quoted as saying, "I think I got my first chance because they thought I was peculiar. But, now I like to believe that the public are fond of me because they think I'm nice."
The story of Anna May Wong’s life traced the arc of triumph and tragedy that marked so many of her films. Wong's youthful ambition and screen appeal got her farther than anyone else of her race. But her race, or rather Hollywood's and America's fear of giving Chinese and other non-whites the same chance as European Americans, kept her from reaching the Golden Mountaintop. We can be startled and impressed by the success she, alone, attained. And still weask: Who knows what Anna May Wong could have been allowed to achieve if she
had been Anna May White?
Anna May Wong passed away on Feb. 3rd 1961 she was 56 years old.
Filmography:
The Red Lantern. Metro 1919. The First Born. Robertson Cole 1921.
Shame. Fox 1921. Bits of Life. Assoc. First National 1921.
The First Born. Robertson Cole 1921. Thundering Dawn. Universal 1923
The Toll of the Sea. Metro 1922 Drifting. Universal 1923 Fifth Avenue. PRC 1926.
Lillies of the Field. Assoc. First National 1924. The Thief of Bagdad. United Artists 1924
The Fortieth Door. Pathé serial 1924. The Alaskan. Paramount 1924.
Peter Pan. Paramount 1924. Forty Winks. Paramount 1925.
The Silk Bouquet/The Dragon Horse. Hi Mark Prod. 1926 The Desert's Toll. MGM 1926.
A Trip to Chinatown. Fox 1926. The Chinese Parrot. Universal. 1927.
Driven from Home. Chadwick 1927. Mr. Wu. MGM 1927.
Old San Francisco. Warner Bros. 1927. Why Girls Love Sailors. Pathé short 1927.
The Devil Dancer. United Artists 1927. Streets of Shanghai. Tiffany 1927.
Across to Singapore. MGM 1928. Pavement Butterfly (aka City Butterfly).
The City Butterfly. German 1929. Across to Singapore. MGM 1928.
The Crimson City. Warner Bros. 1928. Song. German 1928
Chinatown Charlie. First National 1928. Piccadilly, British International 1929.
Elstree Calling. British International 1930. The Flame of Love. British International 1930.
Hay Tang. German 1930. L'Amour Maitre Des Choses. French 1930.
Daughter of the Dragon. Paramount 1931. Shanghai Express. Paramount 1932.
A Study in Scarlet. World Wide 1933. Tiger Bay. Associated British 1933.
Chu Chin Chow. Gaumont 1934. Java Head. Associated British 1934.
Limehouse Blues. Paramount 1934. Daughter of Shanghai. Paramount 1937.
Hollywood Party. MGM short subject 1937. Dangerous to Know. Paramount 1938.
The Toll of the Sea. Metro 1922. The Thief of Bagdad 1924
Shanghai Express 1932
Another year without maintenance. So it goes in the company town of West Yellowstone.
Hand held five frame image,
Merged and mapped in Photomatix,
Finished in GIMP.
Probably give this to Grandson Xavier, he loves lizards. On slate (stolen from son-in-laws garden!) Iridescent tiles ,glass tiles , mirror and glass gem.
From a little ten minute shoot I did with my mom today in my backyard. (:
I have two more photos to upload from it, and then I should be doing another shoot with my mom sometime this weekend. So expect more photos!
I hope you all are enjoying the long weekend! (:
Tasha (Steph Christiaens).
On set during filming of an upcoming new film from Post-Life Productions, "Tasha and Friends".
Grand Pacific Hotel
584 – 618 Victoria Parade, Suva, Fiji
The Grand Pacific Hotel is located on the main sea front, on Victoria Parade in Suva, Fiji. It was built by The Union Steamship Company in 1914 to serve the needs of passengers on its transpacific routes. Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand Limited was once the biggest passengers and cargo shipping line in the southern hemisphere. The hotel was built on the landing spot for the original Suva village, called Vu-ni-vesi after the trees nearby. There was a hotel on the site previously called Hotel Suva, which was little more than a shack. Designed by Salmon and Vanes, a New Zealand architectural firm, and built on reclaimed land on the edge of Suva Bay, the bright white Grand Pacific featured broad verandas, porticoes, colonnades and big French doors. The design was well suited to Suva’s steamy climate. The 35-room hotel was constructed by Dunedin firm Hall Hogg and Co at a cost of £25,000 and soon after its opening on the eve of World War I became a feature of Suva’s waterfront and was affectionately known as “the GPH”.
The design of the hotel was to make the passengers think they had never gone ashore. Those were the days when travelling by ship meant luxury and the hotel aimed to match the luxury and incorporating many of the fixtures aboard ship in its original design. The rooms in the Grand Pacific Hotel were designed to be like first-class staterooms, complete with saltwater bathrooms and plumbing fixtures identical to those on an ocean liner. The hotel rooms were on the second floor, and guests could step outside on a 15-foot wide veranda overlooking the harbor and walk completely around the building — as if walking on the ship's deck. When members of the British royal family visited Fiji, they stood atop the wrought-iron portico, the "bow" of the Grand Pacific, and addressed Fijians massed across Victoria Parade in Albert Park. Famous early guests were Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, Somerset Maugham, James A Michener and Queen Elizabeth II. Novelist Michener, best known for his ‘Tales of The South Pacific’ novel, staying at the hotel during his time in Fiji, wrote in his memoir ‘The World is my Home’ that ‘It was grand, and it certainly was pacific, and the barefoot Indians who served the meals had a grace that few hotels in the world could offer and none surpass’.
In 1928 the Australian aviator Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith completed the first trans-pacific flight from the U.S.A. to Australia. The flight was in three stages. Oakland to Hawaii, Hawaii to Suva, Fiji and Fiji to Brisbane Australia - a total of 7,187 miles at an average speed of 90 mph. Kingsford-Smith flew the Fokker monoplane past the Grand Pacific Hotel and touched down at Albert Park. The Fokker, named Southern Cross, was the first ever aircraft to land in Fiji. Many trees and poles were removed from Albert Park for the landing. The Grand Pacific Hotel hosted Kingsford-Smith and crew of the Southern Cross for a long rest after they were awake for over 33 hours. The three-motor Southern Cross was the first ever airplane seen by the thousands of Fijians who witnessed the landing. A public holiday was declared to honor the Southern Cross and it's Australian and American crew. At the festive Grand Pacific Hotel ball honoring the airmen they received the coveted Tabua Whales' teeth from the Fijian Chief.
Ten thousand Fijians cheered when Queen Elizabeth II stepped onto the flood lit balcony of the Grand Pacific Hotel on Dec 17, 1953. For that night's state ball the queen wore a light blue lace crinoline gown. The two days of the Queen's visit were the most exciting since Fiji was ceded to the Queen Victoria in 1874. The Queen also visited Suva and the Grand Pacific Hotel on February 2, 1963 and February 16, 1977.
After a progressive decline through the 80s, the hotel closed in 1992. Against everyone’s best hopes and intentions, it would take 22 years for this iconic hotel to reopen. During that time, the hotel sat closed and forgotten, a decaying and derelict building. It was an eyesore and reminder of Fiji’s lost former glory. The hotel has its face on a Fijian bank note and a Fijian postal stamp. So it was a great cause for celebration when finally, in July 2014, one hundred years after it was first built, and over US$50 million of renovation later, the Grand Pacific Hotel reopened. After the extensive renovation to restore and enhance the building, the Grand Pacific Hotel re-opened on 24 May 2014. The 'Grand Old Lady' is a joint venture between Bank of Papua New Guinea's Superannuation Fund (NASFUND), Fiji National Provident Fund (FNPF) and Lamana Developments of Papua New Guinea.
The Nauru (an island country in the Pacific) Government bought the Grand Pacific in 1988, via its Nauru Phosphate Royalties Trust, but could not keep up with the deterioration and closed it in 1992. The Fijian Government of 2000, under Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry seized the property. The plan to restore the derelict building finally led to Fiji National Provident Fund's (FNPF) involvement in its ownership in 2005. In 2010 FNPF brought in The National Superannuation Fund (NASFUND) of Papua New Guinea as an investor for a reported F$90 million (US 42 million).
The hotel renovation was completed in June 2014. The architects were Fiji-based Yellow Architects and BSW Architects (N.Z) and the structural engineer was HLK Jacobs (N.Z). According to Jaoji Joroi, the CEO of the FNPF, the renovation cost was more than US$ 78 million dollars. Everything preserved from the old GPH underwent a painstaking restoration to its original condition, a complex task because of the challenges of recreating the building methods of 100 years ago. The Grand Pacific Hotel now has 113 rooms, including 95 Deluxe, Superior and Premier rooms, eight Royal Club Rooms and ten Royal Suites. The Royal Suites have been restored to provide a colonial feel, complete with antique telephones, high ceilings, spacious bathrooms and huge French glass doors opening onto the veranda. Also added a swimming pool, gym and spa including a sauna. However, it is the main building with its stunning lobby with impossibly high ceilings, grand staircases, cane furniture, and large French windows and doors that is central to the Grand’s crown.
The opening general manager was Eugene Diethelm. Deithelm is a 1987 graduate of Hotelfachschule Luzern, Switzerland. He previously served as general manager at Maikhao Dream Resort & Spa, Phuket, Thailand. Two hundred Fijians and 10 expatriates were employed at opening. Other executive team members at opening were Jonatha Ramaccionc, the restaurant manager, Ringtisen Georges, the executive chef, Nileshni Kumar, Finance Manager, Nancy Chute, front office manager and Melania Dikoula, executive housekeeper. In May 2015 a petition with 67 Grand Pacific Hotel employee signatures was brought before Parliament of the Republic of Fiji highlighting the plight and claims of ill-treatment including abuse of worker' rights and bad hotel management by the General Manager, Eugene Diethelm and Executive Team. As a result Diethelm resigned in June 2015 and went on to serve as the Director at the Schloss Hotel Wartensee in Rorschacherberg, Switzerland. Replacing Eugene Diethelm is Australian Peter Gee. Gee has worked in hotels and resorts in Australia, New Zealand and London. Most recently, he spent nine years in New Zealand as general manager of Stanford Plaza Hotel in Auckland.
In November 2018 the GPH ownership structure changed. The Fiji National Provident Fund (FNPF) acquired full ownership of Suva’s Grand Pacific Hotel. FNPF bought the remaining 75% ownership shares from the Papua New Guinea partners — National Superannuation Fund (NASFUND) and CGA Properties Ltd. Taking a 100 per cent ownership of GPH was desired by CEO Jaoji Koro as part of the fund’s active growth investment strategy. It is not known how much the PNG owners have now sold their shares for and if they have managed to recover their investments. Mr Koroi added that the GPH share buyback was factored into the initial 2010 shareholder agreement and he thanked the outgoing shareholders, NASFUND and CGA Properties, for their instrumental role in rebuilding one of Fiji’s iconic landmark and successful operation to date. Mr Koroi also assured stakeholders that the hotel will operate as is under its current management structure. The fund has also confirmed that it would go through a robust process to assess the long-term management of the hotel. The acquisition of GPH adds to FNPF’s existing impressive fully owned hotel assets that include the recently acquired Marriott Denarau properties, Fiji Marriott Resort Momi Bay, the InterContinental Fiji Golf Resort & Spa and Holiday Inn.
Compiled by Dick Johnson, January, 2019
richardlloydjohnson@hotmail.com
St Marys Collegiate Church, Warwick, Warwickshire
The monument to Robert Dudley and Lettice Knollys, the favourite Courtier and the favourite Lady-in-waiting, who defied Elizabeth I to marry, and were banished from Court forever.
Robert Dudley was born 24 June 1532 the fifth son of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland and Jane Guildford. At a young age he was tutored by, among others, Dr. John Dee. He had a talent for languages, writing and maths.
He learnt the Courtiers craft at the court of Henry VIII.
1549 he was involved in crushing the Kett's Rebellion.
4 June 1550 he married Amy Robsart, the daughter of a Norfolk farmer, in the presence of King Edward. It would seem that the marriage was a love match and the young couple were dependent on John Dudley financially.
In 1553 Edward died and the plot to put Lady Jane of the throne was put into action. Robert led a force of 300 against Mary, taking various towns in Norfolk in the name of Queen Jane.
By the 19th July the reign was over and all parties involved were tried, condemned to death and placed in the Tower of London. At the same time the Princess Elizabeth was also imprisoned in the Tower and it would seem that it was during this time that the two childhood friends became close. By the autumn he and Ambrose had been released and joined the army of Phillip II of Spain.
1557 he was at the Battle of St Quentin, his bravery allowing him to return to Court, at least whilst Phillip was present.
On 18 November 1558 he witnessed the surrender of the Great Seal to Elizabeth on her accession to the throne at Hatfield. He was entrusted with the duty of organising the coronation festivities. As soon as Elizabeth was Queen, Robert was made Master of the Horse.
By April 1559 he was made a Knight of the Garter and several Ambassadors were noting that the Queen and Dudley had become so close that it was widely acknowledged that the Queen would marry no-one except Dudley. For this he attracted many enemies and the assassination plots were so rife he started wearing light chain mail under his clothes.
He was not allowed to leave the Queen's side for any length of time and was only allowed to spend four days with his wife, Amy, at Easter in 1559. She was also allowed to come to London for a month in the summer, but that was the last time he would see her. She was found at the bottom of the stairs at Cumnor place on 8 September 1560. He was with the Queen at Windsor Castle. The rumours were immediate, mainly that either Robert or the Queen had Amy murdered so they could marry. It had the opposite affect. To limit the damage and he was removed from Court for two years.
1562 he was made a Privy Councillor. He was infact to be made Protector or the Realm that year if the Queen had died from the Smallpox she had caught.
1563 Elizabeth suggested that Dudley should marry Mary Queen of Scots. If the match had gone ahead, Elizabeth was willing to proclaim Mary her heir. However, Dudley refused, and supported Mary's cause until the 1580s. He was present at her execution at Fotheringhay castle.
1564 he was created Earl of Leicester. By 1566 Dudley had given up hope he could ever marry Elizabeth, however, her hold was strong. His apartments were next to hers, and he had overwhelming influence over each other. There was long periods of time that he could not leave the Queen and at ceremonial occassions he acted as an unofficial consort or ambassador.
1587 he was made Steward of the Royal Household, and involved with the needs and running of the entire court.
He proved to be an adventurous businessman, financing many ventures including privateers such as Drake.
He also had strong religious views, trying to mediate between the non-conforming puritans and the Bishops of the church.
1575 he held a three weeks festivity at Kenilworth Castle for the visit of the Queen. It was a spectacular event.
1569-1574 he was involved in affair with Lady Douglas Sheffield. Although he claimed to love her, he was honest and stated that he could never marry the lady or he would be ruined. They had a son, Robert, in 1574, and Dudley found her a suitable husband. The boy was much loved and given an excellent education.
21 September 1578 he secretly married Lettice Knollys. He did not tell the Queen, but his enemies did and the outburst was tremendous and they were both sent from court.
They had a son, the noble imp, in 1581 but he died in 1584.
After that Robert turned heavily to God and religion.
In July 1588 at the eve of the Spanish Armada, he was created Lieutenant and Captain-General of the Queen's Armies and Companies. It was he that set up camp in Tilbury and invited the Queen to be with her troops. After the battle was one he basked in his older spledour, even dining with the Queen, for a few precious weeks.
4 September 1588, on his way to Buxton to take the baths, he died at Combury Park, having been suffering from both malaria and stomach cancer.
The Queen locked herself away for a week, refusing to be comforted, and only emerged when Lord Burghley had the door broken down. She kept his last letter by her bedside until she died 15 years later.
Lettice Knollys was born 8 November 1543 to Sir Francis Knollys and Catherine Carey at Rotherfield Greys, Oxfordshire.
She was introduced early to Court life and had known the Princess Elizabeth since childhood as they were cousins.
In 1560 at the age of 17 she married Walter Devereux, Viscount Hereford, with whom she had her two daughters, Penelope and Dorothy.
By 1565, pregnant with her first son, she was at court and as a result of flirting with Dudley was sent away again in a fit of rage from the Queen.
1572 her husband was created Earl of Essex and sent to Ulster for two years. During that time it is rumoured that she actually started an affair with Dudley. In 1573 he sent her a present of venison from the Kenilworth estate, and in 1574 and 1576 she made hunting trips to the estate.
1575 she was present as one of the Queens ladies at the three week festivities at Kenilworth, the party then progressed to her home of Chartley where the Queen stayed next.
The Earl died in Dublin in September 1576. Under her husbands will, she was left little and was forced to return to fathers house at Rotherfield Greys. After much legal wrangling she obtained some of the estates back.
21 September 1578 she married Dudley at 7 in the morning. Only six people were present. When the Queen was told the following year, she banished her cousin from court forever. She refused to forgive her and refused to accept the marriage. She was forced to live discreetly, as her every movement was resented, and she continued to go by the title of the Countess of Essex and not Leicester.
1581 she had a son, the noble imp, but he died in 1584. Although she had other pregnancies, the results are not known.
She continued to remained excluded from social life, and paid for her own household out of her dowar money and not from Dudley's venue.
When Dudley died in 1588, he left her a wealthy woman at £3000 a year and moveables worth £6000, although she had his debts to settle.
In 1589 she married Sir Christopher Blount, a soldier 12 years her junior who had been a gentleman to Dudley. Her son, now the Earl of Essex, was not happy with the match, which seems to have been a genuinely happy one.
1593 she sold Leicester House to her son Essex and moved to Drayton Bassett near Chartley. She stayed their for the rest of her life, seeing no point in returning to London as she was still banished from court.
In 1599, Essex, her son and now the Queens great favourite, was imprisoned for returning from Ireland without permission. Lettice only made matters worse by trying to send the Queen gifts and speak with her, all of which failed. He was spared but was again arrested in 1601 for rising against the Queen. He was executed that year with Christopher Blount.Lettice having lost both husband and son to the executioners block now found herself in legal disputed over her remaining properties. Only the death of the Queen in 1603 saved her from complete ruin.
James I was kinder and restored her grandson as the 3rd Earl of Essex but also cancelled the remainder of her debts to the crown - some £4000.
The same year, Dudley's illegitimate son, Robert tried to lay claim to his fathers estates, mostly Kenilworth. The Countess took him to Star Chamber over the matter and managed to produce 56 witnesses who all confirmed Dudley had never considered his son legitimate. The chamber found un favour of the Countess.
She spent the rest of days looking after siblings, children and grandchildren. The young Earl spent much time living with his grandmother.
She was still walking a mile a day at the age of 90, and peacefully passed away in her chair on the 25 December 1634 aged 91.
Her will stated that she wished to be buried "at Warwick by my lord and husband the Earl of Leicester with whom I desire to be entombed."
This little fellow was hanging around for earth day...the song is old...the earth needs our love too!!!!
Carpenters - What The World Needs Now Is Love
What the world needs now is love sweet love,
It*s the only thing that there*s just too little of.
What the world needs now is love sweet love,
no not just for some but for everyone.
Lord we don*t need another mountain,
There are mountains and hillsides enough to climb,
There are oceans and rivers enough to cross
Enough to last until the end of time
What the world needs now is love sweet love,
it*s the only thing that theres just too little of,
what the world needs now is love sweet love,
no not just for some but for everyone
Lord, we dont need another meadow,
there are corn fields and wheat fields enough to grow,
there are sunbeams and moonbeams enough to shine,
oh listen Lord, if you want to know
What the world needs now is love sweet love,
its the only thing that theres just too little of.
what the world needs now is love sweet love,
no not just for some, oh but just for every every everyone.
what the world (whoa whoa) needs now,
is love (is love) sweet love
what the world ( oh oh) needs now
is love (is love) sweet love
what the world (whoa whoa) needs now
is love (is love) sweet love
The official "Cherry Needs!" BJD Wishlist. There are tons of other dolls that I love, but these are the ones that fill me with all kinds of warm, happy want. They're listed in approximate order of desired purchase.
1. Fairyland MNF Miyu (A-line body)- The doll I'm currently saving for. I already have a name for her; she's based on a pre-existing character of mine. Green-eyed brunette.
2. Fairyland MNF Ruth (A-line body)- When I saw him I knew he had to be my first boy BJD. I fell head over heels for that smirk. Reddish fur wig, eyes undecided... green? Blue?
3. Fairyland Puki Pipi- A great mischief partner for my Sugar, and I adore her little pouty-kissy face. Probably will stay bald (I like bald Pukis), eye color undecided.
4. Dollzone Tan Mo- I'm on the fence about most Dollzone molds, but Tan Mo filled me full of deep, deep want. I think I want to customize him into a half-dragon character that I've been forming in my mind for a while now... If he is the dragon then he'll have golden hair and eyes, otherwise undecided.
5. Lati White Laches- He's my first BJD love so his 'low' place on the list is tentative. If I finalize DZ Mo as my dragon character then I think he'll be Ducan and Alora's son (Mo and my incoming Bobobie Mei). If Mo doesn't work as Ducan? I don't know where he'll fit. But I still love him. Blue or gold eyes, black hair.
6. Fairyland MNF Shushu (A-line body)- It was love at first sight. She'd be higher on the list but I don't want to overload myself with girls before I get any boys. I'm thinking green-eyed blonde, but that's tentative.
7. Fairyland LittleFee Pipi- Yes, I love the Pipi face! Just one problem: I want a girl Pipi and there are currently only boy Pipis. I'm hoping this issue will be resolved. Hair color undecided but I want big brown doe-eyes for her.
8. Fairyland MNF Shiwoo (A-line body)- I don't know what it is about Shiwoo that I can't resist. I think he looks really feminine and I wanted more masculine boys... but I LOVE him. I like the grey eyes, and while I don't know if I'd stick with black and pink I like the idea of funky hair colors. Maybe brunette with purple...
9. Fairyland Puki Flora Darjeeling and Cupid- I shoved these two into one slot when it was Flora, but Darjeeling has become higher priority. Darjeeling: Black fur wig and calico-painted Pukisha set, yellow eyes; Cupid: Bald cutie, probably blue eyes.
10. Fairyland MNF El (A-line body)- I like his facial sculpt but I dislike his default face-up. His lips look feminine and his eyebrows are too sharp and thin. He'll need a new face. I don't know what color eyes for sure, but I'm thinking something really intense like emerald green or almost black. And for some reason he has to be a brunette.
11. Fairyland LittleFee Ante Shiwoo- Ante is cute and may reappear in the future, but LittleFee Shiwoo is LOVE. He's going to be either blond or brunette, eye color undecided.
12. Soom Sard- This one is NEVER going to happen. Ever. Even if I happen to win millions of dollars in the lottery my husband will still balk at spending over 1000 dollars on a doll. Besides that, he's the only SD I'm sure I like (I get in phases with the rest) so he might not even fit in. But he's so gorgeous I can't help but want him. I haven't given thought to hair or eyes, that would make me get too attached.
And yes, most of these dolls are Fairyland. Apparently I've become a fan. ^^;;
Brass Balls Bobbers ( www.brassballsbobbers.com) went to the Smoke Out 10 East event and brought back these photographs form the Big 10 Year event.
Everything comes together at “The Rock” . The 10th Anniversary Smoke Out will be the most entertaining chopper event ever. The event includes bands, a chop off, XS Speed’s mini-bike races (super-hero costume required), roller derby, vendors, & drag racing.
The bands this year include The Kings of Hell, Uncle Scratch’s Gospel Revival, Jasmine Cain and Blackberry Smoke. Blackberry Smoke is an awesome Southern Rock style band that does covers and originals. It is Southern Rock the way it is supposed to sound.
The Smoke Out is about choppers. It is about builders, from professional builders to those bloody-knuckled guys (and ladies) burning the midnight oil in an unheated shed to build a chopper they can call their own. Chops of all makes are featured, American, British, Japanese, everything. The event is about riders, cross-town to cross-country in a rainstorm.
There are two distinct groups of people at the Smoke Out. The first group is the readers, builders and riders known as THE HORSE world network of operatives. The core of the chopper world. This is the place to be for the Chopper World State of the Union Address.
The second group of invited guest is those that want to observe the core of the chopper world.