French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, offered by Les Carbones Korès "Carboplane", no. 796.

 

During our trip to Italy, the French actress Françoise Arnoul passed away after a long illness in Paris on 20 July 2021. In the early 1950s, the cute and pretty actress was presented as the new French sex symbol. Soon she was overshadowed by the spectacular Brigitte Bardot, but Arnoul had enough talent and range to forge a decent film career for herself. Françoise Arnoul was 90.

 

Françoise Arnoul was born as Françoise Annette Marie Mathilde Gautsch in Constantine, France (now Algeria), in 1931. Her father was a general in the army, Charles Gautsch; her mother was a former stage actress, Jeanne Gradwohl, who worked before her marriage under the name of Jeanne Henry. Françoise grew up in Rabat and Casablanca, and after WWII she returned to Paris. Her mother proved to be valuable support when her daughter expressed a desire to take courses in drama. She attended the drama classes of Andree Bauer-Thérond, and made her film debut as an extra in Rendez-vous de Juillet/Rendezvous in July (Jacques Becker, 1949). Her first bigger role was in L'Épave/Sin and Desire (Willy Rozier, 1949) in which she had some undressed scenes. It made her a star overnight. She was touted as the newest French sex symbol in films like Nous irons à Paris/We Will All Go to Paris (Jean Boyer, 1950) opposite nice and attractive Philippe Lemaire. In the morally rigid 1950s, she played sexy and sensuous characters, that were also often troubled and destructive. She was the perverse femme fatale in films like the Georges Siménon adaptation Le Fruit défendu/Forbidden Fruit (Henri Verneuil, 1952) in which she seduces a country doctor played by Fernandel, La Rage au corps/Tempest in the Flesh (Ralph Habib, 1953) in which she is the unfaithful wife of Raymond Pellegrin, and especially in the wildly successful Film Noir La Chatte/The Cat (Henri Decoin, 1958) in which she played a black leather-clad resistance fighter during World War II. Arnoul made of her questioning scene by the Nazis an erotic extravaganza as she slowly removes her stockings under the officer's lecherous eyes.

 

The unusually pretty and petite Françoise Arnoul proved her talent and range in such highly regarded films as Michelangelo Antonioni’s episode film I Vinti/The Vanquished (1953), the wonderful Fernandel comedy Le Mouton à cinq pattes/The Sheep Has Five Legs (Henri Verneuil, 1954), and Jean Cocteau's Le Testament d'Orphee/The Testament of Orpheus (1960). In Jean Renoir's classic French Cancan/French Can-Can (1955), she played Nini, a young laundress from Montmartre, who conquers the Moulin Rouge with her sexy dance. In 1964, during the shooting of Compartiment tueurs/The Sleeping Car Murder (Costa-Gavras, 1965), she met director Bernard Paul who would become her life partner. From 1956 till 1960, she had been married to publicity agent Georges Cravenne, the future father of the César and Mollière awards. In the following years, she focussed on assisting Paul with his first films. Together with Marina Vlady, they founded in 1968 the production company Francina, which would produce films like Dernière sortie avant Roissy/Last Exit Before Roissy (Bernard Paul, 1977). Paul died in 1980. His loss affected Francoise dearly and she had difficulty regaining a foothold in the cinema. During the 1970s, her film career had tapered off, but she appeared in Raul Ruiz’ Diálogos de exiliados/Dialogues of the Exiled (1975) and Violette & François (Jacques Rouffio, 1977) as the mother of Violette (Isabelle Adjani). She also had some success as a television actress. In the late 1990s, Françoise Arnoul returned on the screen in character roles in such films as Temps de Chien/Dog Days (Jean Marboeuf, 1996), Post coitum animal triste/Smell of Geraniums (Brigitte Roüan, 1997) and Merci pour le geste/Thanks for the Gesture (Claude Faraldo, 2000). She published her autobiography entitled 'Animal doué de Bonheur' (Animal Endowed with Happiness) in 1995. In 1997, she was the president of the jury of the Caméra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Françoise Arnoul remained active as a TV actress. In his bio at Les Gens de Cinéma, Yvan Foucart wrote: "The young vamp has given way to a blooming woman whose wonderful face radiates serenity. She kept her beautiful smile, her eyes still have the same sparkle and she kept an admirably slim silhouette. (...) So, dear Francoise, you understand why we can not forget you. And why we are still in love with you." At the age of 90, Françoise Arnoul passed away after a long illness in Paris on 20 July 2021.

 

Sources: Yvan Foucart (Les Gens de Cinéma - French), Sandra Brennan (AllMovie), AlloCiné (French), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Italien / Lombardei - Salò

 

Three-Church-tour at Salò

 

Lake Garda has a lot to offer in cultural terms. Near Salò in south Lake Garda, you can combine visits to various places of pilgrimage on a wonderful hike while enjoying the beautiful surroundings.

 

The three-church tour runs over a nine-kilometre contemplative hiking trail. It leads through the typical landscape of southern Lake Garda to the three churches of pilgrimage of Sanctuary Madonna del Rio, Santuario della Madonna di Buon Consiglio and Santuario San Bartolomeo.

 

The hike starts just before the town of Renzano. Here, you can park the car and reach your first destination: the village of Renzano. In the village of Renzano, path number 16 begins, which leads to the first place of pilgrimage Madonna del Rio. The wild, yellow-painted church dates from the 18th century. At that time, the Virgin Mary appeared in a nearby grotto and left her footprints in white stone. These impressions are still testimony to the miraculous event. To the left of the church, a forest path takes you to a lovely waterfall.

 

The second stage leads through the woods, past the villages of Milordino and Milord, to Bagnolo with the picturesque, cypress-surrounded Sanctuary of the Madonna di Buon Consiglio at 516 metres.

 

You reach the third and last destination via path 17b. First, it goes to the Passo della Stacca at 458 metres. Then you follow the number 17 towards Bassa Via del Garda to Gardesina and the stone Santuario San Bartolomeo at 480 metres.

 

Just below the church, path number 17 leads through olive groves to the Gardesana Occidentale, where it goes back to the starting point. Overall, this, not to be underestimated, circular walk with reflection factor, can be hiked in 4.5 hours.

 

(garda-see.com)

 

Salò (Italian: [saˈlɔ]; Latin: Salodium) is a town and comune in the Province of Brescia in the region of Lombardy (northern Italy) on the banks of Lake Garda, on which it has the longest promenade. The city was the seat of government of the Italian Social Republic from 1943 to 1945, with the ISR often being referred to as the "Salò Republic" (Repubblica di Salò in Italian).

 

History

 

Roman period

 

Although legend has it that Salò has Etruscan origins, recorded history starts with the founding by ancient Romans of the colony of Pagus Salodium. There are numerous ruins of the Roman settlement, as shown by the Lugone necropolis (in via Sant’Jago) and the findings (vase-flasks and funeral steles) in the Civic Archaeological Museum located at the Loggia della Magnifica Patria.

 

Middle Ages

 

During the high Middle Ages, the city shared the same history as that of Lombardy.

 

The origins of the municipality of Salò are barely known: its autonomy from Brescia can be dated towards the end of the 13th century or the beginning of the next one, and the most ancient statues conserved by the city authorities are dated 1397.

 

Prior to 1334, the town was part of a sort of federation of town councils of the territory along the western lakeshore of Lake Garda (from Limone down to Desenzano) and the Valsabbia areas, called Riperia Lacus Gardae Brixiensis with the chef-lieu of Maderno.

 

The federation did not want to form an alliance with Brescia nor with Verona deciding instead to request the help of Venice. Due to the distance of Venice, this strategy did not guarantee the independence of the area and, after a short protectorate under the rule of Venice (from 1336 to 1349), Salò became a stronghold of the Milanese Visconti family. In 1377 Beatrice della Scala, the wife of Bernabò Visconti, wanted Salò to be the capital of the area, reducing the influence of Maderno: the city was provided with solid walls and the castle was built.

 

The Magnifica Patria

 

On 13 May 1426, after a long period of war, the towns of western bank of the lake spontaneously joined the Venetian Republic, where they remained for the following three centuries: in the main square a column with the Lion of St Mark, symbol of Venice, can be found still today.

 

Over the years, Venice gave large autonomy to this province of its Stato da Tera, that remained a de facto independent area and was given both the titles of Magnifica Patria (Magnificent Homeland) and Figlia primogenita della Serenissima (firstborn daughter of the Serenissima).

 

The general council of the Patria and its other institutions remained all centred in Salò (which gained importance and influence), although a governor was sent by the capital, who was given the titles of Provveditore (Superintendent) and Capitano della Riviera (Captain of the Riviera) and the power to act as penal judge for the whole Riviera (whilst civil justice was entrusted to a Brescian podestà who also resided in Salò). Besides farming and trade, the linen industry developed in this period.

 

Napoleonic era and Risorgimento

 

In 796 Napoleons troops fought with Austrian troops in Northern Italy during the First Italian campaign. The end of the Venetian republic (Treaty of Campo Formio) ended Salò's position as the capital of the western riviera: on 1 January 1797, the provisional Brescian government instituted the Canton of Benaco with the capital of Benaco, "aforesaid Salò": the town joined the Cisalpine Republic and then the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy (1805–1814).

 

After the Napoleonic Era, Salò became part of the Austrian Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia from 1815 to 1859.

 

In 1848 Salò joined the Milan revolution against the Habsburg rule and during the Second Italian War of Independence, there were many volunteers that fought with Garibaldi serving in the Piedmontese Army. On 18 June 1859, Garibaldi entered Salò and was welcomed by a happy crowd. Salò received the honorary title of Città (City) with a royal decree on 15 December 1860.

 

In 1866 the town was the headquarters of the Italian navy during the war with Austria. After the battle of Custoza the Austrians temporarily retook control of the town, but despite their victory and a naval defeat of the Italians at Lissa, the Austrians surrendered to the Prussians a month later and were forced to cede Venetia after the Treaty of Vienna.

 

Italian Social Republic

 

From 1943 to 1945 Salò was the de facto capital (seat of government) of Benito Mussolini's Nazi-backed puppet state, the Italian Social Republic, also known as the Republic of Salò: Villa Castagna was the seat of the police headquarters, Villa Amedei was the head office of the Ministry of Popular Culture, Villa Simonini (nowadays Hotel Laurin) was the seat of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Stefani Agency, which distributed official press releases, was located in Via Brunati.

 

Seismicity

 

The area around the lake is a seismic zone. In 1877 a meteorological observatory was established under the supervision Prof. Pio Bettoni, to whom it was later dedicated. In 1889, a geophysical observatory (seismic station) was added, which became an important scientific research centre after the 1901 earthquake (5.5 Mw, intensity VII–VIII, no fatalities, buildings damaged). Another earthquake occurred in 2004 (5.1 Mw, intensity VII–VIII, nine injuries, many buildings damaged).

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Drei-Kirchen-Rundgang bei Salò

 

Der Gardasee hat in kultureller Hinsicht vieles zu bieten. Am südlichen Gardasee bei Salò können Sie die Besichtigung verschiedener Wallfahrtsorte bei einer herrlichen Wanderung kombinieren und gleichzeitig die wunderschöne Gegend genießen.

 

Der Drei-Kirchen-Rundgang in Salò verläuft über einen neun Kilometer langen beschaulichen Wanderweg. Dieser führt durch die typische Landschaft am südlichen Gardasee zu den drei Wallfahrtskirchen Santuario Madonna del Rio, Santuario della Madonna di Buon Consiglio und Santuario San Bartolomeo.

 

Die Wanderung beginnt kurz vor dem Ort Renzano. Hier kann das Auto geparkt und gleich das erste Ziel angesteuert werden: das Dorf Renzano. Dort beginnt der Weg Nr. 16, der bis zum ersten Wallfahrtsort Madonna del Rio führt. Die wild umwachsene, gelb getünchte Kirche stammt aus dem 18. Jahrhundert. Damals soll in einer nahegelegenen Grotte die Gottesmutter Maria erschienen sein und ihre Fußabdrücke in weißem Stein hinterlassen haben. Diese Abdrücke sollen noch heute Zeugnis über das wundersame Ereignis ablegen. Links von der Kirche bringt ein Waldweg zum Wasserfall des Ortes.

 

Die zweite Etappe führt durch den Wald, vorbei an den Ortschaften Milordino und Milord, nach Bagnolo mit dem malerischen, von Zypressen umgebenen Santuario della Madonna di Buon Consiglio auf 516 Metern.

 

Das dritte und letzte Ziel kann über den Weg 17b erreicht werden. Zunächst geht es zum Passo della Stacca auf 458 Metern. Danach geht es der Nr. 17 folgend weiter Richtung Bassa Via del Garda bis nach Gardesina und dem steinernen Santuario San Bartolomeo auf 480 Metern.

 

Direkt unter der Kirche führt der Weg Nr. 17 durch Olivenhaine bis auf die Gardesana Occidentale von der es wieder zurück zum Ausgangspunkt geht. Insgesamt kann diese, nicht zu unterschätzende, Rundwanderung mit Besinnungsfaktor in 4,5 Stunden erwandert werden.

 

(garda-see.com)

 

Salò [saˈlɔ] ist eine italienische Gemeinde und Kleinstadt (comune) mit 10.619 Einwohnern (Stand 31. Dezember 2019) in der Provinz Brescia, Region Lombardei.

 

Geographie

 

Die Gemeinde am Westufer des Gardasees liegt etwa 24 km nordöstlich von Brescia an der gleichnamigen Bucht. Der Ort wird im Norden vom Monte San Bartolomeo (569 m) und im Westen von Monte Covolo (552 m) eingegrenzt. Zwischen beiden Erhebungen, die zu den letzten des hier auslaufenden südlichen Alpenrandes gehören, führt nordwestlich von Salò das Val Sabbia mit dem Fluss Chiese. Südlich von Salò liegt die von der Endmoräne des Etschgletschers hinterlassene Moränenlandschaft der Valtenesi.

 

Nachbargemeinden sind Gardone Riviera, Gavardo, Puegnago sul Garda, Roè Volciano, San Felice del Benaco, Vobarno sowie Torri del Benaco in der Provinz Verona. Salò ist nicht nur als Badeort bekannt, sondern auch eine viel besuchte Einkaufsstadt.

 

Geschichte

 

In der Römerzeit als Pagus Salodium gegründet, residierten im Mittelalter in Salò die Visconti. 1337 wurde Salò zur Hauptstadt der Magnifica Patria, einem Zusammenschluss der westlichen Gemeinden des Gardasees und einem Teil des Sabbiatals. Ab 1440 kontrollierte die Republik Venedig die Stadt.

 

1887 erhielt Salò Bahnanschluss an der Straßenbahnstrecke Brescia–Salò–Gargnano, die bis 1921 etappenweise bis nach Gargnano verlängert wurde. 1954 wurde der Betrieb auf dem zuletzt verbliebenen Streckenteil Brescia–Sàlo eingestellt.

 

Von 1943 bis 1945 war Salò de facto die Hauptstadt von Benito Mussolinis faschistischer Sozialrepublik (RSI) unter der militärischen Protektion des Großdeutschen Reiches. Aufgrund dessen benannte Pier Paolo Pasolini seinen Film Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma (Salò oder die 120 Tage von Sodom) nach der Stadt.

 

Ein bekannter Jugendstilbau ist die Villa Laurin, in der das Außenministerium untergebracht war und die heute ein Hotel ist.

 

(Wikipedia)

Size 9

  

sadboi

Miscouche, PEI

Holga

I revisited this magnificent nature reserve today 10th August 2018, many visitors to our city miss its glorious offerings, thinking all we have to offer is the beach front at the main boulevard , its a pity as this reserve is a short drive from the main tourist area and has its own charm, attraction and wealth of nature on offer, I love it .

 

Donmouth Local Nature Reserve is a beach site in the historic Old Aberdeen part of the City where the River Don meets the sea.

 

A great place to see seals and a range of interesting birds. The beach area has changed over time as the river has changed its course. There are lots of interesting plants in the dunes and beach area. Bird hide is an excellent shelter from which to watch the wildlife. The paths run across King Street to the Brig 'o Balgownie., the original bridge in to the City from the North, then down the other side of the river to the sea.

 

The site was designated a Local Nature Reserve in 1992

 

Paths are good although wheelchair access to the beach would be difficult as the boardwalk can get covered with sand.

 

There is plenty of free car parking on the Beach Esplanade and at the car park in Donmouth Road. There are cycle racks on Beach Esplanade

 

Bridge Of Don has five spans of dressed granite, and rounded cutwaters that carry up to road level to form pedestrian refuges. The spans are 75 feet (23 m), with a rise of 25 feet (7.6 m).

 

It was widened in 1958-59, from 24 feet (7.3 m), to 66 feet (20 m) by the construction of a new concrete bridge adjacent to the old one.

 

It now carries four lanes of the A956 road, and is the last bridge on the River Don before it meets the sea. The bridge is just downstream from a substantial island in the river. Around the area of the bridge is the Donmouth Local Nature Reserve, designated as a LNR in 1992.

Near to the bridge are a number of World War II era coastal defences, including a pill box.

Mudflats

Mudflats are formed when fine particles carried downstream by the river are deposited as it slows down before entering the sea, and to a lesser extent by fine particles washed in by the tide. The sand spit at the mouth of the Don provides shelter from the wind and waves allowing this material to build up. The mud flats are a very rich and fertile environment. Despite their rather barren appearance they support a surprisingly diverse invertebrate fauna which includes; worms, molluscs and crustacea. These invertebrates are vitally important to wildfowl and wading birds within the estuary.

 

Salt marsh

Along the upper shore of the south bank saltmarsh has developed. This habitat would once have been much more extensive prior to the tipping of domestic and other refuse in the area and the formation in 1727 of an artificial embankment to prevent flooding of the river into the Links. This habitat is now reduced to a narrow strip of vegetation along the river margins upstream from the Powis Burn.

 

The species composition of the salt marsh varies according to the salinity of the water i.e. the proximity to the sea. Close to the Powis Burn this habitat is dominated by reed sweet-grass (Glyceria maxima) with reed canary-grass (Phalaris arundinacea), sea club-rush (Scirpus maritimus), spike-rush (Eleocharis palustris), hemlock water-dropwort (Oenanthe crocata) and common scurvygrass (Chochlearia officinalis).

Further inland reed sweet-grass continues to dominate but hemlock water-dropwort is more abundant with meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) and valarian (Valariana officinalis),

 

Sand dunes

Sand dunes are found in the more exposed parts of the estuary at the river mouth. Again, this habitat was once much more extensive in this locality with dune grasslands stretching from Aberdeen Beach inland as far as King Street, southwards from the estuary of the Dee, northwards to the Sands of Forvie and beyond. Many of the dunes formed part of Seaton Tip, and following tipping the area was grassed over. Other areas have been formally landscaped to form golf courses or planted with native trees in 2010 to create a new woodland area.

 

Some remnants of the natural dune flora can be seen in the 'roughs' on the Kings Links golf course and near the mouth of the river.

 

Above the high water mark, fore dunes with thick clumps of the pioneer grass species including sea lyme grass (Elymus arenarius) and marram grass (Ammophila arenaria) occur. Few other species are able to cope with the shifting sand. The largest area of these young dunes is to the north and west of the headland. Further inland where the dunes are sheltered from the actions of the wind and waves, and soils are more developed, more stable dunes are present supporting a more diverse grassland habitat.

 

Strand line plants which are able to tolerate occasional coverage by sea water include sea rocket (Cakile maritima), frosted orache (Atriplex laciniata), sea sandwort (Honkenya peploides) and knotgrass (Polygonum aviculare). Bur-reed (Sparganium sp.) has been recorded; presumably washed down by the river.

 

Marram grass (Ammophila arenaria) and sea lyme grass (Elymus arenarius) dominate the fore dunes. The latter species is not native to this area but appeared in 1802. It is thought to have been unintentionally introduced into the area by fishing boats. For a number of years it remained uncommon but from 1870 onwards it spread rapidly along the coastline (Marren, 1982).

 

In the more stable dunes red fescue (Festuca rubra), sand sedge (Carex arenaria), yellow rattle (Rhinanthus minor), wild pansy (Viola tricolour), harebell (Campanula rotundifolia), bird's-foot-trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) and lesser meadow-rue (Thalictrum minus) are abundant. Small amounts of kidney vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria), valerian (Valeriana officinalis) and spring vetch (Vicia lathyroides) are present.

 

Scattered willows (Salix sp.) and sycamore (Acer pseudoplantanus) have seeded into this area. Gorse (Ulex europaeus) scrub has colonised the dunes in some areas and appears to be spreading.

 

Scrub

This habitat is almost entirely artificial with only the gorse scrub on the inner dunes being a semi-natural habitat. Alder and willow were planted along the south bank of the river in about 1970 and these shrubs are now generally well established. Further shrub planting on the south bank was carried out in 1990.

 

Willow (Salix sp.) and alder (Alnus glutinosa) were planted in the 1970's along the south bank of the River Don eastwards of the Bridge of Don. The trees to the west of this strip are doing considerably better than those to the east. More recent planting was carried out in 1990 with hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) elder (Sambucus nigra), goat willow (Salix caprea) and alder.

 

Underneath the scrub neutral grassland is present with cocksfoot (Dactylis glomerata), false oat-grass (Arrhenatherum elatius), cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris), sweet cicely (Myrrhis odorata), hedge woundwort (Stachys sylvatica) and hedge bindweed (Calystegia sepium).

 

Grassland

Much of the grassland within the reserve is formed on imported soil and is intensively managed. This includes grassland on the north and south sides of the Esplanade. Daffodils are present in the grassland on the north side of the road. On the north bank to the east of the Bridge of Don is rank grassland on a steep south-facing slope. This is unmanaged and contains some patches of scrub.

 

Rough grassland is present on the headland. This area has been modified by tipping, with rubble to the east and with grass cuttings to the west. The grassland contains a mixture of neutral grassland, dune grassland, ruderal, and introduced garden species. This area attracts flocks of seed eating birds in late summer and autumn.

 

Improved grassland is present on the headland and along the south bank of the estuary downstream from the bridge of Don. Much of this vegetation has developed on imported soil and contains a high proportion of ruderal species and garden escapes. On the headland, broadleaved dock (Rumex obtusifolius), nettle (Urtica dioica), coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara), spear thistle (Cirsium vulgare), cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris), hemlock (Conium maculatum) and hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) are abundant. Sweet cicely (Chaerophyllum bulbosum) is widespread and in late summer fills the air with the scent of aniseed.

 

To the south of the Esplanade the grassland is managed with an annual cut.. The grassland does flood to form pools. Early in the year cuckoo flower (Cardamine pratensis) is common, meadow foxtail (Alopecuris pratensis)is known to occur around the margins of these pools.

 

Woodland

Semi-mature woodland is present on the steep sided south bank of the river upstream from the Bridge of Don. Most of this woodland has been planted in the mid 1930's though some older oak and elm trees are present. These may be relicts of former woodland cover. The woodland in the reserve is part of a strip of woodland along the River Don corridor which continues upstream from the Brig 'o' Balgownie.

 

Woodland is present on the south bank upstream from the Bridge of Don.

 

Much of the woodland consists of even aged stands with willow (Salix sp.), sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus), ash (Fraxinus excelsior), beech (Fagus sylvatica) and alder (AInus glutinosa). At the top of the slope mature oak (Quercus sp.) and elm (Ulmus glabra) are present. The ground flora contains tufted hair-grass (Deschampsia caespitosa), red campion (Silene dioica), ramsons (Allium ursinum) and lady fern (Athyrium felix-femina) .In a few areas dense shading is caused by the trees and in these areas the ground flora is poor.

 

On the north bank scattered trees are present, mainly willow and sycamore with some scrub.

Offers are welcome...

 

I will collect a few offers and then I´ll decide who´s getting it!

 

:-D

 

So, I want to trade it.

It doesn´t have to be protos which you offer, but it would be best...

So, Good luck to get it!

Cry in the Wilderness

 

By Arthur Broomhall

  

Late in 1969 the Broomhall family - a mom, dad, four kids, dog, with tent trailer and canoe, reacted to an advertisement in BC Outdoors about Alexis Lake. Always ready for another adventure in wilderness, what the ad promised appealed to all. It offered an image of a serviced campsite (ice available), three other lakes accessible to canoes by portage, good fly fishing, and, no outboard motors allowed! Having experienced, by that time, many summer holidays in the Cariboo, our family had already fallen in love with the remoteness and quiet of BC’s Central Interior. This ad triggered a desire for even more - next season – but in the unfamiliar Chilcotin Country!

  

In 1970 the main road west from Williams Lake, Highway 24, was not paved, except for the ‘Sheep Creek Hill’ up from the Fraser River Bridge to the Chilcotin plateau. This part of the road, with its many switchbacks, was on the northeast face of the hill, always thawing out more slowly in the spring than more sun-exposed parts. To correct the inevitable slumping that came with every spring thaw, the Highways Department put in culverts for drainage in the critical places and paved that stretch.

 

Otherwise the road west to Bella Coola was mostly gravel or hard mud. In some places the gravel was like very coarse river bottom, in others, deep ruts added to drivers’ misery. It was hard on ‘regular’ automobiles, especially those pulling trailers. This, we were often told by disparaging locals, was truck country! For us, driving those one hundred miles from Williams Lake was always a challenge, but arrival at serene and beautiful Alexis Lake was the ultimate reward.

 

What we found that first visit was not quite all the advertisement promised. In some respects it was even more. We were expecting wilderness, but the character of it was so much more pristine, unspoilt, with more wildlife than anything we experienced before. Although we were supplied with drinking water, we later found the lake water clean enough to drink. We learned the ad’s statement of ‘no motors’ was not backed up with regulations, but the absence of boat ramps made it virtually impossible for large boats with motors to be launched. And, as far as having ice for our food storage, it was not going to be available in subsequent seasons.

 

One could hear the silence, the animals, and the wind in the trees. The swimming and fishing was good. It was dry belt, and what rain came in summer was in heavy showers, with thunder and lightning. Exploring was always a bit spooky, because the odds were great that we would never encounter anyone else. This also meant that we expected to run into big game – deer and bears. We found the country so wide open, if one wandered off a known, marked trail, it was easy to get lost. Away from camp there were few natural boundaries or landmarks to indicate where ‘home’ might be. And, in that the climate in this high country could change very quickly from the sublime to harsh, it was a bush country to be respected.

 

Happy with that first adventure, it was an easy family decision to return again. Thoughts of doing more than ‘just camping’ came into our family discussions. We searched out a lakeshore property we wanted for our own. In 1971 there were, perhaps, ten properties with cabins on the east shore of the lake. We filed our papers with the government’s Land Branch for a lot we had selected, and were kept on tenterhooks while the approval process wound its way through the bureaucracy. Approval took a long time coming and finally came through late in 1972. The lease required a habitable cabin to be built upon the land within three years. Earlier, in the summer of that year, already confident that the property would be ours, we camped on it, tidied up, and staked out its four corners. By the end of the 1973 summer season, as we departed, our property was fenced to keep out the cattle and, within, was a sealed-up, but unfinished frame cabin.

 

In the twenty-eight years since (I write this in year 2001), as property owners, we have learned much about the land, climate, and vicissitudes of settling in wilderness. Our lake is near the summit of the Alexis Creek watershed. It is at about 3,500 ft. above sea level, enough to offer cool nights after the hottest of summer days. The surrounding land is mainly high plateau, with a few gently rounded peaks that extend upward another thousand feet or so. A few rocky, volcanic outcroppings dot the terrain here and there. In recent times, it has mainly been forested land, covered by scrubby, overcrowded pine trees, white spruces in wet areas, some aspens, and here and some small stands of ancient Douglas firs. Many areas have been opened up for cattle pastures and growing hay. Logging and free-range cattle ranching have been the region’s mainstay for about a century.

 

About 65 years ago, a rancher downstream sought and obtained a water license on Alexis Creek to allow for irrigation and other water use on the lower reaches. Included in the license was provision for a small earth-filled dam and valve at Alexis Lake’s outlet. Once the dam and control were in place the lake effectively became a reservoir for the ranch’s water requirements. If the creek were ever to dry up, the license permitted water to be drawn from the lake.

 

It has been said, apart from some testing, the water control system on the dam was never used. Apparently, the normal summer flow of water down the creek was always sufficient for the needs of the ranch. It is possible the existence of the dam evened out seasonal water fluctu-ations. In high water seasons, lake water rises between two to three feet higher than pre-dam levels. This has been enough to kill off many spruce trees in low spots. And, over the years the beaver population has always caused the lake levels to fluctuate even more. Their dam building activity at the lake outlet continues to be a nuisance.

 

In 1986, the water license was abandoned. Despite that license, people seeking waterfront property upstream before and after 1986 were granted (indeed, encouraged to obtain) leases (and in a few cases obtained land in fee simple) by government – all subject to that license. So when the water license ended, riparian rights in a sense transferred from the ranch, downstream, to upstream and lakeshore property holders. The latter, we, in effect, became the water’s stakeholders.

 

A wake-up call faced Alexis Lake property owners when liabilities for the dam structure and valve no longer were the responsibility of the ranch. The abandonment of the license conferred those liabilities somewhere, but where? Faced with repairing a deteriorating dam mainly because of the road access it provided to the east lakeshore properties, the government’s Highways Department suggested the dam be removed and be replaced by a bridge. It would, they said, be less costly than having to replace the old dam with a new one built to standards required by the Environment Department.

 

Faced with the uncertainties of cost, and how a reduced water level might affect the shoreline or, for that matter, property values, many, perhaps most, owners objected strenuously to the removal of the dam. Also having to face this conundrum, government eventually settled upon having the Highways Dept. patch up the old dam and punch through a culvert. We were assured this would preserve existing water levels. Surprisingly, this arrangement has worked – but it still leaves us wondering about the future!

 

By the mid 80’s, logging companies were well into clear-cutting the Chilcotin. In 1970 it did not occur to us that it was only a matter of time before their operations would catch up to the plateau 70 miles west of the Fraser River. The impact of the hundreds of loaded logging trucks we encountered on our drives in and out did not register upon us for quite a while. For the kids counting trucks became a game. But, ominously, the effects of the logging became visible. We were not mistaken any longer – large swaths of denuded hills were appearing everywhere.

 

Off the main road our climb up to the plateau was at first through thick forest, mostly Douglas Firs in the lower elevations, but further up this changed to pine forest. There were large grassy openings here and there - well populated by free ranging cattle. Around Alexis Lake most of the forest was of poor quality. Either very dense, the native pines were so crowded they stretched tall and thin, reaching for available light, or they were undernourished from poor soil – possibly both. Most took fifty years or more to grow less than 25 feet. To our less than practised eye, they were good for little more than fence rails and posts.

 

During the time we were busy with building and finishing off our cabin, we took breaks to explore the territory around us. By hiking and driving around we saw the construction of a major logging road not half a mile from the north end of the lake, (now called the ‘4600’) and from it saw the approach of clear-cut logging. We watched, each year, as more and more of the once endless, far-as-the-eye-could-see forest was decimated.

 

From talking to Ministry of Forests people, we learned of loggers’ plans for our immediate area – round-the-clock, highly automated cutting, bundling, and removal of trees – with cleanup (slash burning) in the fall when the forest fire season had passed. We received assurances private property would not be trespassed, and a fringe of trees would be left standing around the shores of the lake. We were not told about the 24 hour-a-day noise.

 

The forestry department staff made a point of telling us about the natural disasters, too, and their role in cleaning up after them. They pointed out the forest on the east side of Alexis Lake had been badly scorched in a forest fire in the early 40’s. At that time many older, large trees survived, but most living trees are scarred at ground level. Much of the remaining area was left open with little undergrowth – good for nothing but cottage development, they said.

 

They told of pine beetle scourges that infected the Chilcotin. Little is known about such infestations, why they arise or how they are best controlled. In some areas older trees were attacked while younger ones somehow remain unaffected, in other areas it was the opposite. A year or two after pine beetle grubs get into tree bark, the trees die and become a fire hazard. In nature, wildfires eventually take care of this. From the fertile ashes of an old forest, a healthier generation of trees grows.

 

In the Chilcotin, however, where, like everywhere else, the human population is growing slowly but inexorably, vast areas of dead forest have become a menace for ranches and people with cottages. It is a country where summer lightning starts forest fires. It has been decreed (by environment and forestry departments of government) that it is better to be rid of pine beetle damaged trees than it is to allow them simply to fall and rot or be incinerated. And, in that bug diseased trees, if recovered for processing within a year or two of dying, have commercial value, cutting licenses required ‘conditions’. Loggers found themselves bound to take out bad wood with the good. This imposition gave the lumber industry another argument in favor of using the ‘most modern’ clear-cutting logging techniques.

 

Today, the old forests in the Alexis Creek district have largely disappeared; little remains of what we encountered when we first arrived. In addition to the many stands of trees that became diseased, other natural events contributed to the forest decline. It has been said that as forest cover disappears, damage from thunderstorms and wind is more severe. Simply put, vast cleared-off areas leave built-up properties and unprotected stands of trees on the periphery of these cleared-off areas much more vulnerable to the elements.

 

As if to add insult to our injury, in the early 90’s, one particularly bad summer storm, a tornado, devastated a two to three mile strip of forest, perhaps 300 acres, along the crest of land paralleling the west shore of the lake. This precipitated a need for a further cleanup, and the logging crew that eventually arrived removed many more trees than just the blow-downs.

 

If there has been an upside from all this, it is the improvement to the roads in and out of the territory. The main highway is now paved, and the roads into the bush have been upgraded to standards that are safe for logging activity – which, in turn, has been good for our access. Tree removal and road straightening, more gravel, ditches, culverts, and better drying out, have made it easier to get about on these bush roads.

 

A true account of that access, however, would never be complete without mention of what one sees when driving through. For many years, now, the countryside has been an eyesore, looking more like a moonscape. Replanting has slowly changed that; the hills are greening up. But, like before, once done, there has been a noticeable absence of follow-through. Replanted trees now need thinning. Without this, the forest will revert into another in ‘decadent’ state and become susceptible again to insect infestations.

 

At the higher elevations of the Alexis Creek drainage, on the plateau, the land is relatively flat. Besides many lakes, there are hundreds of large and small bogs, creating wetlands with their own distinctive environments. The disappearance of the forests, generally, is causing much of this to dry out. Stands of trees adjacent to these wetlands, now more accessible, have been among the last to be opened up for timber removal. These are not large, profitable cut-blocks, and we wonder why this timber must be removed.

 

After witnessing (with varying degrees of consternation or horror) the highly automated round-the-clock forest cutting we could not fail to notice harmful environmental effects. A tree supporting many great blue heron nests (near Lake Two) simply disappeared, as did the blue herons. After rainstorms the lakes soon became silt-ridden (brown). Nearby clear-cuts, the follow-up slash burning, and even the building of the logging road, caused further soil erosion.

 

In that virtually no mature forest remains, the existing wetlands around us are bound to suffer from dry seasons. When I say ‘suffer’, I mean the chains of animal and plant life will be adversely affected. In turn, the aquifer, underground water, like everywhere else in the world suffering from clear-cut logging, will sink lower – and we, humans, will face difficulties like never before. Despite recent high water levels in the lake, some neighbors reported their wells drying up. Thus, there is no doubt what patches of forest that have been left standing must remain.

 

The collective “we” of property owners and campers at Alexis Lake, by receiving much deep joy and pleasure from the area’s unique serenity, have taken up the cause of preserving it from further adversity. But we cannot ignore the array of forces that simply don’t regard the fragility of an environment an issue that demands such commitment. Unfortunately, the ENVIRONMENT has no single advocate, and our government will never be a champion of it. The government sees land - and what’s in, on, or under it, as something it has a duty to exploit – to extract revenue from. It actually encourages business to bid for the use of land, and sees its role as one of sorting out competing interests over it, where they occur.

 

The Alexis Lake community already has established a somewhat substantial economy, given the private investment in property and improvements – and despite its remoteness. This economy benefits not only from the assessed values of the properties, or from cottagers’ continuing need for goods and services, but also from itinerant campers and other tourists who come up to enjoy the many remote forestry campsites. But despite the tax revenues, and infusion of outside money, many ‘locals’, who live year-round nearby, dismiss our claims that the region benefits more from our presence than if we had not settled there.

 

Throughout Canada loons have become a wilderness bellwether. If we hear the sound of loons at Alexis, we know all is well. If Ontarians hear them - the same may not be true. The press of human population upon ‘lake country’ in Ontario is so great that many families of loons have been driven away. Whether it is motorboats constantly disturbing their nesting sites, absence of feed, lowering water levels, or mercury pollution, or a combination of all these things, something is destroying that environment.

 

The notion of closing Alexis Lake to internal combustion motorboats was not a new one when it arose years ago. When our family saw the ad in 1969 (although having no ‘official’ validity) we knew someone cared, and also that it was consistent with the growing movement in BC for closing lakes to boats having outboard motors. The impetus was always one of having to protect pristine environments from noise, fouled water, and the disturbance of wildlife. And it was a foregone conclusion that without motorboats lakes were safer for swimmers.

 

At first, in the mid 70’s closing ‘our’ lake to motorboats became an obsession with a few, but as the issue was discussed among neighbors, it received growing support. A campaign developed. Many had a part to play. What was interesting was the ‘opposition’; it appeared unexpectedly from among the ranks of government officials. They declared they had a duty to balance our interests with those in opposition. Before they could do this, they said, they wanted evidence to substantiate our claims that loons were disturbed by the wakes of motorboats and would be driven away.

 

It did not matter how hard we argued that anyone knowing something about loons’ would know that their nests, right at water level, were little more than rafts of moss and lakeshore debris. This made them vulnerable to destruction by wave action. Common sense, we argued, had to prevail, and some environmental principles had to be developed for all ‘small lakes’ before the loons here and elsewhere were gone. First, we offered, motorboats should simply not be allowed on lakes with less than (say) 10 miles of shoreline, or (say) 1000 acres of surface water. Second, all such lakes, indeed watersheds, needed mandated ‘green spaces’ (no logging) for at least 500 meters back from watercourses – the riverbanks or lakeshores.

Officialdom didn’t take kindly to being lectured about principles. They wanted to make judgments without having them questioned. They had little else of consequence to offer - other than a desire to get on with their work - principles notwithstanding. Such officials often make the mistake of assuming that people in dispute over environment issues will be satisfied with compromises, or by becoming subject to regulation, rather than by a ‘correct’ decision that will leave people divided.

 

So, we wonder just how any official, put in a position of having to discuss, promote, or negotiate alternatives, can ever really serve as an unbiased advocate for the environment. We have yet to meet people working for government, even those in ‘Environment’, who, despite evidence of pollution, are really free to declare: ‘motorboats, operating in small BC lakes, are instruments of environmental destruction and will, henceforward, be banned’.

 

Fortunately our group of property owners, brandishing a strong consensus, were successful with their own efforts in closing the lake to internal combustion outboard motors. Their lengthy letter writing and lobbying efforts paid off. Government, at the receiving end of this constant harangue, eventually changed its focus. An official somewhere summoned up the courage to declare the case for motorboats was less compelling than the case against them.

 

We became empowered! That achievement made many of us wonder what more we could do. Today we maintain a careful watch over events that could be harmful to our interests. Just as there should be no procrastination over obvious carelessness, such as a discovery of a cow’s carcass floating in the lake, or of dead animals abandoned in the trap line (incidents which we learned about in the late 70’s), we must communicate quickly with one another about matters that arise which may be cause for concern - like the recent proposal for an airstrip adjacent to our lake.

 

Privately some of us harbor lofty expectations. We wish for the return of blue herons after their disappearance. (We saw just one last summer – after many years of wondering if they would ever return!). We yearn for more visits from the rare pelicans, hoping that they might acquire the confidence to nest in our waters. We wish to experience again the diving ‘swoosh’ of the peregrine falcon as it preys on small ducks – not for the duck’s sake, but for the balance in nature this represents. And year after year, despite the terrible depredations in the ospreys’ winter habitat in Central America, we celebrate their return to nest in a favoured refuge nearby.

 

As I write, the incumbent provincial government is facing an election. It is hard not to be cynical about the sudden priority it has given to improving its own ‘green’ image. It is clear Greenpeace (and other agencies) have succeeded in embarrassing it - and the lumber industry – for their lack of action over what have been broadcast about as unacceptable logging practices.

 

Politicians have awakened to the fact (probably too late for re-election in year 2001) that they must win more votes. They declared a three-year moratorium on hunting grizzly bears, and agreed in principle with Greenpeace’s proposal for protecting a large part of the Central Coast from clear-cut logging. Within the latter decision, stands of 1,000-year-old coastal rain forest trees, and the rare white Kermode (‘Spirit’) bears that live among them, will be spared forever. About the moratorium, feelings run high among the supporters of hunting. Maybe this will cost votes.

 

Speaking of politicians, laws and bears, odds are stacked against recreational property owners’ interests when their environment is threatened - for laws have been enacted by governments in such a hodgepodge fashion. One would think and hope the ‘senior government’s’ interest, as expressed by the federal Canadian Environment Assessment Act, would have enough status to attract legal testing in Canada, and to provide real environmental guidelines. There is a similar statute in the United States – which receives constant testing. In a recent enactment case concerning powered boats (April 2000), the US National Parks Service brought into effect ‘new restrictions that ban the use of Jet Skis in 66 parks, including Olympic National Park’. Although a limited step, it was challenged, but, on appeal, found within the National Parks’ mandate.

 

We learn from the stated purposes of the Canadian Act (which includes ‘opportunity for public participation in the environmental assessment process’) that most ‘participation’ winds up at the discretion of provincial or local authority, and is hardly ever exercised.

 

In the example of a recent application by a business for an airstrip, at Alexis Lake, (to which many of us objected) it was necessary for the applicant to have the Federal Department of Transport notified about the particulars. Fed-Transport’s main interest in such matters lies in public safety. So any concerns about environmental damage were transferred to BC authorities to review. Ultimately, they were dismissed as minimal. The latter’s focus, in this case, was (or remains) on the economics of land use and development.

 

Mixed government jurisdictions have caused no end of problems. Closing Alexis Lake to motorboats took twenty years to accomplish. Strident arguments from the opposition at first concerned ‘peoples’ rights’ - like with tobacco products, outboard motors, they had never been deemed illegal and were for sale everywhere. The argument went: as there were no restrictions on the purchase of motors, customers ought to be free to use them, with no restrictions. It was an argument compelling enough to bring the proceedings to a halt, not once but several times.

 

Provincial and federal authorities were wary about having this argument tested. However, as precedents (from settlements in other lake-closing cases) were finally factored in, especially where lakes served as drinking water reservoirs, pollution based concerns at last received some official recognition as a valid reason for closing lakes to motors.

 

Now, to the mention of bears... Most of us at the lake have no desire to encounter bears during walk-abouts. The Johnsons, during the years they lived full-time at Alexis Lake, had many encounters, and even disposed of one or two troublesome bears. I don’t know if we should be thankful Alexis Lake bears are ‘just’ black bears. Their numbers are increasing and we see their sign everywhere. It is likely what attracts them is the smell of food, so as the human presence in the wilderness increases, it is doubly important to dispose of waste properly, and to clean our barbecues! And, large dogs are useful to have around for insurance!

 

They say grizzly bears don’t live with us anymore. In the late ‘70’s when logging began in earnest, an elderly rancher, Paxton, whose entire life was spent in the Alexis Creek region, declared that with the arrival of ‘big’ logging there would be no more grizzlies. He talked about the last one killed in the territory, near his home at Spain Lake, in the late 60’s. It was a monster bear which, following the hunt, received recognition as a trophy animal. Despite Paxton’ prophecy, 30 years or so later, in the fall of 2000, horseback riding tourists in the Nazko high country – not far from us – reported a pair of grizzlies gambolling about in a meadow. So, maybe, they will appear close by again. How this will be received remains to be seen!

  

THE END

4350 words

 

The original shot is offered by Martian Haemoglobin x....For Act III ....Many thanks;)))...

 

www.flickr.com/photos/martianhaemoglobin/

   

How time will heal

Make me forget

You promised me

Time will heal

Make me forget

You promised me

Love will save us all

And time will heal

You promised me...

How love will save

Make me forget

You promised me

Love will save

Make me forget

You promised me

Time will heal us all

And love will save

You promised me...

I trusted you

I wanted your words

Believed in you

I needed your words

Time will heal

make me forget

And love will save us all

You promised me another wish

Another way

You promised me another dream

Another day

You promised me another time

You promised me another life

You promised me..

So I swallowed the shame and I waited

I buried the blame and I waited

Choked back years of memories...

I pushed down the pain and I waited

Trying to forget...

You promised me another wish

Another way

You promised me another dream

Another day

You promised me another time

You promised me...

Another lie

Oh you promised me...

You promised me... You promised me...

And I waited... And I waited... And I waited...

And I'm still waiting...

  

www.deezer.com/listen-953727 - The Cure - The Promise

different trees on a mountain.

saigon streetside, vietnam

Sri Lanka Railway Department, branded "Sri Lanka Railways" (SLR), is Sri Lanka's railway owner and primary operator. It is a key department of the Sri Lankan Government, under the Ministry of Transport, with a history that begins in 1858. Sri Lanka Railways (formerly CGR – Ceylon Government Railway) operates the nation's rail network linking Colombo - the commercial capital of Sri Lanka - and many population centres and tourist destinations.

 

Presently the Sri Lankan Railway network consists of 1,508 kilometres with 5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm) broad gauge. The narrow gauge lines were 2 ft 6 in (762 mm). The railway contains some of the most magnificent scenic rail routes in the world. Particularly the Main Line winding through both natural beauties such as waterfalls, natural forest mountains, misty peaks and precipices, as well as man made festoons such as tea estates, pine forests and engineering feats including bridges and peak level stations.

 

Sri Lanka Railways has become an integral part of local popular culture, with references to it in books and TV shows, as well as in everyday life. Some of the most popular trains, such as the Samudra Devi, have become cultural symbols representing commuter travel as a part of suburban life. The railway impacts the way people perceive suburban living. The scenic rail lines in the hill country are promoted for tourism. The winding route through the hills offers spectacular views that are popular with tourists.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

-----

 

We went from Colombo to Kandy right after our arrival to Sri Lanka's capital; it was a stylish first encounter with country's transportation means - and definitely a pleasant way of reaching hills of Sri Lanka's tea country.

Schweiz / Berner Oberland - Kandersteg

 

Kandersteg (Swiss Standard German pronunciation: [ˈkandərˌʃteːk]) is a municipality in the Frutigen-Niedersimmental administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is located along the valley of the River Kander, west of the Jungfrau massif. It is noted for its spectacular mountain scenery and sylvan alpine landscapes. Tourism is a very significant part of its economic life today. It offers outdoor activities year-round, with hiking trails and mountain climbing as well as downhill and cross-country skiing. Kandersteg hosted the ski jumping and Nordic combined parts of the 2018 Nordic Junior World Ski Championships.

 

Recent landslide risk

 

There has been a heightened landslide threat in Kandersteg since 2018, when paragliders noticed that Spitzer Stein, a nearby rocky peak, was losing height and that bits of it had broken off. Historically, there have been landslides in the Oeschinen Lake and Kander river valley region. The area's seismic activity calmed down about 3000 years ago, but has now reactivated, and thawing permafrost has weakened rock structures that were previously frozen solid.

 

Officials have been more closely monitoring the Spitzer Stein after a neighbouring village of Blatten was buried due to a glacier collapse and rockslide on 28 May 2025. The unstable rock at Spitzer Stein is around 16 to 20 million cubic meters, compared to the 9 million cubic meters that fell on Blatten. Monitoring via exploratory drilling and geo-radar measurement indicates movement of a "large to very large" rock mass which, in the summer months, has velocities that exceed 10 cm (4 inches) per day.

 

Kandersteg has spent over 11 million Swiss francs (US$13.81 million) on preparedness, including two dams on the Öschibach stream and a debris flow network. The area below the Oeschinen Lake landslide scar has been closed off, and paths in the Oeschiwald trail network were closed in July 2025 due to rain causing heavy runoff and debris flows in the Oeschibach stream. Researchers check the mountain using GPS, radar, and drones. Kandersteg relies on GEOTEST for hazard management, the associated geological analyses, and the safety planning. In the event of a major rock movement, residents expect to receive an advance warning of at least 48 hours.

 

History

 

Kandersteg is first mentioned, together with Kandergrund, in 1352 as der Kandergrund.[9]

 

Prehistorically the area was lightly settled. However, several late-neolithic or early Bronze Age bows have been found on the Lötschberg glaciers and a Bronze Age needle was found in the Golitschenalp. From the Roman era a bridge and part of a road were discovered in the village.

 

Until 1909 Kandersteg was politically and religiously part of Kandergrund. In 1511 the parish built a chapel in Kandersteg, which survived the iconoclasm of the Protestant Reformation in 1530. It became a filial church of the parish in Kandergrund between 1840 and 1860 and in 1910 became the parish church of the Kandersteg parish. A Roman Catholic church was built in 1927.

 

Traditionally the local economy relied on seasonal alpine herding and farming and supporting trade over the alpine passes. In the 17th and 18th centuries sulfur mining began in the Oeschinenalp. A match factory opened in the village in the 19th century to take advantage of the sulfur. Beginning around 1850, the municipality grew into a tourist destination. Between 1855 and 1890 five hotels opened and by 1913 there were 19 hotels. The population grew dramatically during construction of the Lötschberg Tunnel and the Lötschberg railway line between 1906 and 1913. The new railroad line and tunnel allowed ever increasing numbers of tourists to visit Kandersteg. A chair lift to Oeschinen Lake opened in 1948, followed by a cable car to the valley floor in 1951. A ski jump was built in 1979. The Kandersteg International Scout Centre opened in 1923.

 

Geography

 

Kandersteg is located on the northern side of the Bernese Alps at an altitude of 1,200 meters (3,900 ft) above sea level at the foot of the Lötschen and Gemmi Passes. The village, with 1200 inhabitants, lies in the upper Kander Valley. The municipality extends over a territory encompassing the valleys of Gastern (upper Kander Valley) and Oeschinen. It includes the villages of Kandersteg and Gastern.

 

Kandersteg is surrounded by high mountains. The Balmhorn (3,698 m [12,133 ft]), bordering the canton of Valais to the south, is the highest in the valley; it is followed by the Blüemlisalp (3,663 m [12,018 ft]), east of the village. The Gross Lohner (3,049 m [10,003 ft]) is the highest summit between the Kander Valley and the valley of Adelboden on the west.

 

The Bunderchrinde Pass (2,385 m [7,825 ft]) connects Kandersteg to Adelboden, whilst the Hohtürli Pass (2,778 m [9,114 ft]) on the east connects Kandersteg to Griesalp in the Kiental valley. Neither pass carries a road, but both form part of the Alpine Pass Route, a long-distance hiking trail across Switzerland between Sargans and Montreux that passes through the village.

 

The largest lake in the valley is lake Oeschinen. It is located at 1,578 m (5,177 ft) east of Kandersteg, at the foot of the Blüemlisalp massif. The Gastern Valley is an almost closed off valley. At the upper end of the valley lies the Kander Glacier, the source of the 44 km (27 mi) long Kander river. The Gastern Valley is on the way to the 2,700 m [8,900 ft] high Lötschen Pass.

 

Part of the municipality is located within the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001 and extended in 2007. The area comprises Lake Oeschinen and the Gastern Valley.

 

Kandersteg has an area of 134.33 km2 (51.87 sq mi). Of this area, 17.84 km2 (6.89 sq mi) or 13.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while 15.86 km2 (6.12 sq mi) or 11.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.33 km2 (0.51 sq mi) or 1.0% is settled (buildings or roads), 2.5 km2 (0.97 sq mi) or 1.9% is either rivers or lakes and 96.96 km2 (37.44 sq mi) or 72.1% is unproductive land.

 

Of the built up area, housing and buildings make up 0.4% and transportation infrastructure make up 0.4%. Of the forested land, 8.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 1.2% is pastures and 12.0% is used for alpine pastures. Of the water in the municipality, 1.0% is in lakes and 0.9% is in rivers and streams. Of the unproductive areas, 10.4% is unproductive vegetation, 43.1% is too rocky for vegetation and 18.6% of the land is covered by glaciers.

 

The municipality is located in the upper most section of the Kander river valley, along with parts of the Gastern and Oeschinen valleys and part of the Blümlisalp mountain. It consists of the Bäuert of Kandersteg, which includes the village of Kandersteg and the Bäuert of Gastern.

 

On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Frutigen, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Frutigen-Niedersimmental.

 

Demographics

 

Kandersteg has a population (as of December 2020) of 1,288. As of 2010, 17.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000-2010) the population has changed at a rate of 4.3%. Migration accounted for 9.7%, while births and deaths accounted for -4.5%.

 

Most of the population (as of 2000) speaks German (1,022 or 89.9%) as their first language, Portuguese is the second most common (32 or 2.8%) and English is the third (13 or 1.1%). There are 12 people who speak French, 5 people who speak Italian.

 

As of 2008, the population was 48.3% male and 51.7% female. The population was made up of 486 Swiss men (39.5% of the population) and 108 (8.8%) non-Swiss men. There were 525 Swiss women (42.6%) and 112 (9.1%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 403 or about 35.4% were born in Kandersteg and lived there in 2000. There were 355 or 31.2% who were born in the same canton, while 154 or 13.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 181 or 15.9% were born outside of Switzerland.

 

As of 2010, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 16.2% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 61.9% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 21.9%.

 

As of 2000, there were 436 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 597 married individuals, 72 widows or widowers and 32 individuals who are divorced.

 

As of 2000, there were 166 households that consist of only one person and 27 households with five or more people. In 2000, a total of 467 apartments (48.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 434 apartments (45.1%) were seasonally occupied and 61 apartments (6.3%) were empty. As of 2010, the construction rate of new housing units was 32.5 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, in 2011, was 3.8%.

 

Heritage sites of national significance

 

The hotel and restaurant or Gasthof Ruedihaus is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

 

Economy

 

As of 2012, there were a total of 678 people employed in the municipality. Of these, 44 were employed in the primary economic sector and there were about 15 businesses involved in this sector. 99 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 21 businesses in this sector. 535 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 104 businesses in this sector.

 

As of 2011, Kandersteg had an unemployment rate of 2.57%. As of 2008, there were a total of 647 people employed in the municipality. Of these, 46 were employed in the primary economic sector and there were about 16 businesses involved in this sector. 81 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 14 businesses in this sector. 520 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 76 businesses in this sector. There were 617 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.1% of the workforce.

 

In 2008 there were a total of 527 full-time equivalent jobs. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 22, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 71 of which 9 or (12.7%) were in manufacturing and 55 (77.5%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 434. In the tertiary sector, 50 (11.5%) were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 58 (13.4%) were in the movement and storage of goods, 264 (60.8%) were in a hotel or restaurant, 6 (1.4%) were in the insurance or financial industry, 7 (1.6%) were in education and 20 (4.6%) were in health care.

 

In 2000, there were 175 workers who commuted into the municipality and 174 workers who commuted away; thus, by an extremely small margin the municipality is a net importer of workers. Of the working population, 9.6% used public transportation to get to work, and 37% used a private car.

 

Religion

 

From the 2000 census, 840 or 73.9% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church, while 154 or 13.5% were Roman Catholic. Of the rest of the population, there were 12 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.06% of the population), and there were 27 individuals (or about 2.37% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 12 (or about 1.06% of the population) who were Islamic. There was 1 individual who belonged to another church. 53 (or about 4.66% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 51 individuals (or about 4.49% of the population) did not answer the question.

 

Climate

 

Between 1981 and 2010 Kandersteg had an average of 139.2 days of rain or snow per year and on average received 1,194 mm (47.0 in) of precipitation. The wettest month was July, when Kandersteg had an average of 147 mm (5.8 in) of rain or snow. During this month there was precipitation for an average of 13.5 days. The month with the most days of precipitation was June, with an average of 14.1, but with only 131 mm (5.2 in) of rain or snow. The driest month of the year was February with an average of 68 mm (2.7 in) of precipitation over 9.6 days.

 

Education

 

In Kandersteg about 509 or (44.8%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 106 or (9.3%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 106 who completed tertiary schooling, 51.9% were Swiss men, 19.8% were Swiss women, 17.9% were non-Swiss men and 10.4% were non-Swiss women.

 

The Canton of Bern school system provides one year of non-obligatory Kindergarten, followed by six years of primary school. This is followed by three years of obligatory lower secondary school where the students are streamed according to ability and aptitude. After lower secondary school students may attend additional schooling or they may enter an apprenticeship.

 

During the 2010-11 school year, there were a total of 86 students attending classes in Kandersteg. There was one kindergarten class with a total of 18 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 27.8% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 22.2% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 3 primary classes and 68 students. Of the primary students, 13.2% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 14.7% have a different mother language than the classroom language.

 

As of 2000, there was one student in Kandersteg who came from another municipality, while 49 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

 

Tourism

 

A broad spectrum of accommodation characterises the village: from 5-star hotel to holiday apartments and camp sites. The World Scout Centre is located at the edge of the village. More than 14,000 Scouts from all over the world visit each year. Several mountain huts belonging to the Swiss Alpine Club are located in the valley.

 

The Kander Valley has an extensive network of hiking trails from the valley floor to the mountaintops and passes. The most famous routes lead to the canton of Valais, across the Gemmi Pass straight to Leukerbad (with cable cars operating at each end) or through the wild Gastern valley across the higher Lötschen Pass to the Lötschental.

 

Lake Oeschinen is considered one of the most attractive in Switzerland and can be accessed by the Kandersteg-Oeschinen cablecar which replaced the chairlift that operated until 7 September 2008. Other cablecars serve the areas of Sunnbüel and Allmenalp.

 

In winter over 50 kilometers (31 mi) of cross-country skiing trails (classic and skating) are available in the valley floor and higher up. Small downhill ski areas are located near Lake Oeschinen and Sunnbüel. A winter trail network connects the village to Blausee and to the Gemmi Pass. Other winter activities include skating, curling, ice climbing and ice fishing.

 

Near Kandersteg is located the Ricola Alpine garden. Other attractions in the village include a 16th-century parish church.

 

Transport

 

Kandersteg owes its development as a tourist destination to its good transport links at the northern end of the Lötschberg Tunnel, which is part of the Lötschberg line, a major railway line across the Alps.

 

Kandersteg railway station is located in the village, and is the first station to the north of the tunnel, through which trains run for 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) to emerge at Goppenstein in eastern Valais. Road vehicles can be carried through the tunnel to Goppenstein by open sided car shuttle trains.

 

Since 2007, the new Lötschberg Base Tunnel has connected Frutigen with Raron. As a result, the old Lötschberg line is used much less intensively. Nowadays, hourly regional express trains operate between Bern and Brig via Spiez, and freight trains continue to run on the mountain railway.

 

The municipality is also served by PostAuto bus services down the Kandertal to Mitholz, Blausee, Kandergrund and Frutigen, and up the Gastertal to Selden.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Kandersteg ist eine politische Gemeinde im Verwaltungskreis Frutigen-Niedersimmental des Kantons Bern in der Schweiz.

 

Geografie

 

Der Ort Kandersteg liegt am Ende des Kandertals auf 1174 m ü. M. In der Gemeinde leben rund 1'300 Einwohner auf einer Fläche von 134,58 km², womit Kandersteg bezüglich der Fläche die fünftgrösste Gemeinde im Kanton Bern ist. Allerdings sind aufgrund der alpinen Lage nur etwa 30 % der Fläche nutzbar. Höchster Punkt: Balmhorn, 3'698 m, tiefster Punkt: Bühl, 1'150 m.

 

Eine besondere Bedeutung für das Dorf hat seit Anfang der 2020er Jahre der Spitze Stein südlich des Oeschinensees. Die instabile Flanke des Berges zeigt eine stark erhöhte Aktivität. In vielen Bereichen werden Bewegungen von mehreren Metern pro Jahr verzeichnet. Häufige Steinschlagereignisse und Felsstürze sind ein klares Zeichen für die hohe Aktivität am Berg. Als Folge der starken und teilweise tiefgründigen Bewegungen drohen zukünftig grosse Felsabbrüche mit Volumen von 100'000 bis einigen Millionen Kubikmetern, mit entsprechender weiträumiger Gefährdung unterhalb des Spitzen Steins.

 

Sprachen

 

Sprache ist Deutsch, genau genommen Chanderstägertütsch, ein spezieller Dialekt des Berner Oberlands mit Anlehnungen an den Walliser Dialekt.

 

Wirtschaft

 

Wirtschaftlich ist Kandersteg ganzjährig vom Tourismus geprägt. Daneben existieren landwirtschaftliche und baugewerbliche Betriebe sowie die Lötschbergbahn als Verkehrsbetrieb. Die Erwerbstätigen sind auf folgenden Sektoren beschäftigt: Land- und Forstwirtschaft (5 %), Handwerk und Baugewerbe (21 %) und Handel, Gastgewerbe, Dienstleistungen (74 %).

 

Tourismus

 

Der Tourismus in Kandersteg ist besonders auf Familien ausgerichtet. Kandersteg hat 19 Hotels mit rund 1'000 Betten und 800 Ferienwohnungen mit 2'000 Betten, einen Campingplatz und 22 Restaurants. 1850 genügte noch ein Hotel mit 5 Betten als Durchgangsquartier für Händler, die ihre Ware über den Gemmipass brachten. Um 1900 herum standen in Kandersteg 20 Hotels. Eines der ältesten Hotels im Dorf ist das Hotel «Ritter», das 1798 erbaut wurde und heute zusammen mit dem Belle-Époque-Hotel «Victoria» geführt wird.

 

Im Sommer sind mehrere Bergbahnen in Betrieb. Zahlreiche Wandermöglichkeiten über bequeme Wanderwege bis hin zu hochalpinen Klettersteigen stehen Gästen und Einheimischen offen. Zahlreiche Mountainbike-Routen runden das Freizeitangebot ab. Der Ort selbst bietet ein geheiztes Schwimmbad, Tennisplätze, Wellness-Angebote und eine Kletterwand.

 

Im Winter stehen in der Skiregion Kandersteg sechs Transportanlagen (Oeschinen und Sunnbüel) und 100 km Langlaufloipen zur Verfügung. Die beiden Schlepplifte auf der Sunnbüel wurden bis 2023 abgebrochen, so dass ein alpiner Ski- und Snowboardbetrieb (abgesehen von Touren) dort nicht mehr möglich ist.

 

Die beliebtesten Ausflugsziele sind der Oeschinensee, Sunnbüel (Gemmipass), das Gasterntal (Kandergletscher), Allmenalp, Ueschinen und der Blausee (Fischzucht; auf dem Gebiet der Gemeinde Kandergrund).

 

Kandersteg gehört zum erweiterten UNESCO-Weltnaturerbe Schweizer Alpen Jungfrau-Aletsch.

 

Ab 2010 wurde Kandersteg während einer Woche im Januar zu einem Treffpunkt für Belle-Époque-Fans. Auch Einheimische machen mit.[10]

 

Verkehr

 

Auf der Strasse gelangt man von Spiez (Autobahn A6 von Bern) über Frutigen nach Kandersteg. Hier besteht eine Verbindung per Autoverlad nach Goppenstein im Kanton Wallis sowie während der Ferienzeiten nach Iselle in Italien.

 

Eisenbahnanschlüsse nach Bern und Brig bestehen mit der Lötschbergbahn, die auch eine wichtige Alpentransitstrecke für den Güterverkehr darstellt.

 

Kandersteg verfügt über einen Ortsbus und eine Busverbindung nach Frutigen.

 

Olympia 2026

 

Im Zuge der im Juni 2018 zurückgezogenen[11] Schweizer Bewerbung um die Ausrichtung der Olympischen Winterspiele 2026 war beabsichtigt, in Kandersteg das Skispringen von der Normalschanze und die Nordische Kombination auszurichten. Hierzu hatte die Gemeindeversammlung am 8. Juni 2018 mehrheitlich einen Kredit von 1,2 Millionen Franken für den Ausbau der Zufahrtsstrasse zur Sprungschanze bewilligt.[12]

 

Geschichte

 

Der Ortsname geht auf einen alten Übergang über die Kander zurück, der zum Gemmi- und Lötschenpass führte. Diese Pässe ermöglichten bereits den Römern die Alpenüberquerung vom Wallis ins Berner Oberland. Die früheste erhaltene Erwähnung findet Kandersteg 1374 als Übernachtungsgelegenheit an der von Italien über den Lötschenpass kommenden Gewürzhandelsroute. Vom Handelsverkehr über die Gemmi zeugt auch das Zollhaus im Schwarenbach.

 

Der Bau der ersten Dorfkirche wurde 1511 begonnen. Das berühmteste Haus im Kandertal ist das reichverzierte Ruedi-Haus, erbaut 1753 für den Landsvenner Peter Germann.

 

Kandersteg gehörte bis 1850 zur Gemeinde Frutigen und bildete danach mit Kandergrund die Gemeinde Kandergrund. 1908 wurde Kandersteg eine eigenständige Gemeinde, das ursprüngliche Gemeindegebiet Kandergrund von total 16'665 ha wurde aufgeteilt: 3'207 ha gingen an Kandergrund und 13'458 ha erhielt Kandersteg.

 

Der Bau des Lötschbergtunnels von 1906 bis 1913 schuf eine wichtige Nord-Süd-Verbindung und bildete die Grundlage für den noch heute viel genutzten Autoverlad der Lötschbergbahn. Der Anschluss an das Bahnnetz förderte den Tourismus; viele der heutigen Hotels und Pensionen wurden in dieser Zeit gebaut. Vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg verfügte Kandersteg bereits über 30 Hotels und Pensionen mit insgesamt mehr als 1'300 Betten.

 

1923 gründete der Pfadfinderweltverband WOSM mit dem Pfadfinderzentrum Kandersteg eine der ersten dauerhaften internationalen Begegnungsstätten für Pfadfinder. Auf dem Gelände des Zentrums treffen heutzutage jedes Jahr rund 10'000 Pfadfinder zusammen.

 

Die katholische Marienkirche wurde 1927 geweiht.

 

In den 1980er-Jahren wurde der Schweizer Regierungsbunker, genannt Führungsanlage K20 (Kaverne 20), auf dem Gebiet der Gemeinde Kandersteg errichtet.

 

1991 wurde in Kandersteg das theravada-buddhistische Kloster Dhammapala gegründet.

 

Sehenswürdigkeiten

 

Der Spycher im Eggenschwand neben der Talstation der Sunnbüel-Bahn ist das älteste landwirtschaftliche Gebäude Kanderstegs. Eine dendrochronologische Untersuchung der Balken ergab, dass die Balken des Spychers in den Jahren 1510 bis 1512 geschlagen wurden. Eine Schätzung im Bauinventar des Kantons Bern datiert den Spycher ins 18. Jahrhundert. Der Speicher diente zur Lagerung von Getreide und anderem Säumergut, später wurde er als Stall genutzt, heute ist er Teil des Heimatmuseums Kandersteg. 1967 wurde der Spycher durch den Regierungsrat des Kantons Bern ins Inventar der geschützten Kunstaltertümer aufgenommen. 2011 wurde das Gebäude restauriert.

 

(Wikipedia)

Launched during a global pandemic, Life or Death offered a simple choice, leave a ravaged planet for hope at a new life or stay and become an eventual victim. The darkness of space is cruel and quiet and it is seemingly just as easy to become victim to that darkness.

 

“S.O.S. Life or Death”

That was the last message received from the crew of the starship.

It can take years for messages to reach their destinations in space and even longer for a ship.

 

Life or Death carries 11 full size re-entry capable shuttles and 4 additional transport shuttles.

The city pods are capable of being ejected in case of a catastrophic event.

 

These images taken by shuttle 7 show slow deployment of evacuation shuttles. Only one workship is on scene to assist with the fire. These are unfortunately the last images sent from shuttle 7. As the shuttle was transmitting via the Life or Death communications array it is likely the array became disabled.

 

There is evidence of explosive damage from the inner hull which has severed the “A” oxygen line from life support to pod recirculation. The resulting fire is so intense that it has nearly perforated the front section of the ship. A secondary shield panel became dislodged and penetrated the docking bay for shuttle 8. It is likely that shuttle 8 was destroyed during this event.

 

Life or Death is a settler starship that, although built in great haste, was considered to be best of the Fusion-class starships from the DreamDynamic design lab. As with all starships, if it is determined that the ship failed due to design or building error the design must be retired forever.

 

*Fusion-class starships use a fusion core reactor to create constant thrust. The Ships are designed to accelerate for the first half of the journey and then conduct a 180 degree spin so that the ship can begin to slow for the second half of the journey. Fusion-class typically has dual bridge operations that also switch from front to back.

British postcard in the Real Photogravure Portrait series. Photo: Fredric March in Anthony Adverse (Mervyn LeRoy, 1936).

 

Fredric March (1897-1975) played for a few years in stock, and, when talkies came in 1928, he was offered a part in The Dummy (Robert Milton, 1929). His performances grew steadily in dramatic appeal, and with his send-up of John Barrymore in The Royal Family of Broadway (George Cukor, Cyril Gardner, 1930), he became a star. He won the Oscar for Best Actor twice: for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian, 1931) and The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler, 1946).

 

Fredric March was born Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel in 1897 in Racine, Wisconsin, USA. he was the son of Cora Brown Marcher, a schoolteacher from England, and John F. Bickel, a devout Presbyterian Church elder who worked in the wholesale hardware business. March attended the Winslow Elementary School, Racine High School, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He served in the United States Army during World War I as an artillery lieutenant. After the war, he began a career in banking but in 1920 found himself cast as an extra in films being produced in New York. In 1924, he shortened Frederick to Fredric, shortened his mother's maiden name from Marcher to March, and his stage name was born. Fredric March starred on the Broadway stage first in 1926 and would return there between screen appearances later on. He won plaudits and an Academy Award nomination for his send-up of John Barrymore in The Royal Family of Broadway (George Cukor, Cyril Gardner, 1930) opposite Ina Claire. March would win the Oscar for Best Actor for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian, 1931) and three more Academy Award nominations would come his way. Wikipedia: "Like Laurence Olivier, March had a rare protean quality to his acting that allowed him to assume almost any persona convincingly, from Robert Browning to William Jennings Bryan to Dr. Jekyll - or Mr. Hyde." He starred in a series of classic films based on stage hits and classic novels like Design for Living (Ernst Lubitsch, 1933) with Gary Cooper and Miriam Hopkins, Death Takes a Holiday (Mitchell Leisen, 1934), Les Misérables (Richard Boleslawski, 1935) with Charles Laughton, Anna Karenina (Clarence Brown, 1935) with Greta Garbo; Anthony Adverse (Mervyn LeRoy, 1936) with Olivia de Havilland; and as the original Norman Maine in A Star is Born (William A. Wellman, 1937) with Janet Gaynor, for which he received his third Academy Award nomination. In 1936, March co-founded the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League (HANL), along with writers Dorothy Parker and Donald Ogden Stewart, director Fritz Lang, and composer Oscar Hammerstein. In 1938, March was one of many Hollywood personalities investigated by the House of Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) and the hunt for Communists in the film community. In July 1940, he was again questioned by a HUAC subcommittee led by Representative Martin Dies.

 

In 1947, Fredric March won the highest awards for giving the best performances of the year in two distinct mediums: an Oscar for The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler, 1946) and a Tony for 'Years Ago'. Two years later, he was targeted for blacklisting by the House Un-American Activities Committee because of his supposed "leftist" politics. March continued to play varying roles from heavy drama to light comedy and often portrayed men in anguish, such as Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman (Laslo Benedek, 1951). As his career advanced he progressed from leading man to character actor. After 1958, he worked mostly on stage. On stage, he won two Tony Awards as Best Actor (Dramatic), the first in 1947 for his performance in Ruth Gordon's 'Years Ago', an award shared with José Ferrer for 'Cyrano de Bergerac', and the second, ten years later, in 1957, for his landmark performance in Eugene O'Neill's 'Long Day's Journey Into Night'. He was also nominated in the same category in 1962 for Paddy Chayefsky's 'Gideon'. On-screen, March co-starred with Spencer Tracy in the film Inherit the Wind (Stanley Kramer, 1960), in which he played a dramatised version of famous orator and political figure William Jennings Bryan. In the 1960s, March played President Jordan Lyman in the political thriller Seven Days in May (John Frankenheimer, 1964), in which he co-starred with Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, and Edmond O'Brien. The part earned March a Golden Globe nomination as Best Actor. For a while after undergoing major surgery for prostate cancer in 1970, it seemed March's acting career was finished. However, he was able to give one final great performance in The Iceman Cometh (John Frankenheimer, 1973) with Lee Marvin and Robert Ryan. In 1975, Fredric March died of prostate cancer in Los Angeles. He was married twice. From 1925 till 1927, he was married to Ellis Baker. In 1927 he married actress Florence Eldridge with whom he adopted two children, Penelope ("Penny", 1932) and Anthony (1934). The couple remained together till his death.

 

Sources: Bill Takacs (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

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Pasha Hawaii offers container and roll-on/roll-off (Ro/Ro) service for automobiles, buses, trucks, and/or other large and oversize rolling stock in the Mainland/Hawaii trade. A combination container/roll-on/roll-off ("ConRo") vessel, the Marjorie C is the only one of its type to ply the Mainland/Hawaii trade lane.

 

The 26,000-ton vessel was engineered from a proven design by Grimaldi in Croatia at Uljanik Shipyard and is the largest ever built at VT Halter in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

 

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She was sorry not to offer us some milk...they have very few because of the drought.

 

Every eight years under a full moon, a tribe of Karrayyu priests gather in the Methara region, south of Addis Abeba, Ethiopia, for a ceremony to transfer power, this ceremony is named Gada. Five families share and govern the power.

 

In two days, 10,000 people come, mainly by foot to help with the running of the ceremony. Absolutely no tourists are allowed in the proximity. After weeks of negotiation with the tribe’s leader, I managed to obtain access to help at the ceremony. Throughout the entire negotiation process, it was never a matter of money, as is often the case with tribes, it was simply that the ceremony has never been open to foreigners.

 

The chiefs finally accepted, the Karrayyus are living in particularly difficult times and their position is precarious. They want to make the world aware of their predicament ; the drought killing off their livestock and the government selling their fertile land to Saudi-Arabia, India and South Korea.

Their former tribal wars with their neighbours, the Afars and the Sidamos, are beginning again. The number of young fighters wearing an ostrich feather in the hair acts of a badge of having killed another man, this acts as evidence of renewed conflict.

 

The ceremony takes place in the desert with hundreds of temporary houses having been constructed specially for the Gadda. In front of each house there is cow fencing, the cow being a sacred animal, each one being named like one of their children.

A mound of dry cow pat decorated with yellow fruit draws the boundary and the limit that nobody will dare to pass.

Inside the house, each family has brought their bugée mataas, a strip of artistically, studded leather, their only valuable object.

In front of the fences, the home owner waits for the ritual gifts that the visitors have come to offer them : milk, butter, sorghum …

An accurate list of what has been offered is kept by a sort of official or clerk.

 

As night falls, Karrayuus who have not managed to find the friends begin to shout their names, walking up and down in front of the houses. Some send texts from the mobiles, the only infringement of tradition.

At midnight, the tribal danses begin, the mass circle forms, the warriors, the Qondallas with their afro hair style leap up and down to show their power. The desert is no longer just an immense dust cloud.

 

At the same time, a group of other men look for the daughter of the future chief. She hides and they must find her, they are fortunate enough to have help, a full moon. Everybody else waits. All of a sudden at 3am, the women who were sleeping using their dresses as duvets leap to their feet and start singing : the chief’s daughter has been found !

The presents are then bought into the houses and the monstrous feast begins.

 

In the early hours of the morning, one hundred cows are sacrificed. Their throats cut by the Gille, a long traditional blade. The Karrayuus smear blood on the foreheads of the children as a sign of protection.

 

Later on towards midday, all of the men of power including the chief shave the heads meanwhile the women pierce their ears with acacia thornes. Dozens of cows are again sacrificed, and once again the hot blood is smeared on the mens’ freshly shaven heads, even babies have their heads smeared.

At this point, women are allowed to leave the camp.

 

Then comes the solemn, formal moment of the ceremony, the two families face one another. Each holding blades of wildgrass, irrechas and symbols of power. In a mad scramble, the exchange takes place in just a few seconds. The new chief declares power and disappears immediately !

The former chief leaves with tears in his eyes, the warriors pump themselves up in every sense. Drunk with happiness, the chants and songs start again. Everyone agrees to repeat the ceremony, in just 8 years time.

 

© Eric Lafforgue

www.ericlafforgue.com

French postcard by Editions P.I,, offered by Les Carbones Korès Carboplane, no. 1092 A. Photo: Marcel Bougureau.

 

French singer, composer and film actor Gilbert Bécaud (1927-2001) was known as Monsieur 100,000 Volts for his energetic performances. For nearly fifty years France hummed the melodies of this charming music hall star, dark blue suited, white shirted, and always wearing his lucky tie - blue with white polka dots.

 

Gilbert Bécaud was born François Gilbert Silly in 1927, in Toulon, France. François had a relatively happy upbringing, despite the fact that his father abandoned the family while François was still in early childhood. Madame Silly’s new partner, Louis Bécaud, raised François, Jean and Odette as his own children, although he was never able to marry their mother (her first husband steadfastly refusing to consent to a divorce). François learned to play the piano when he was five, and by the age of nine, he went to the Conservatoire de Nice. In 1942, he left this school to join the French Resistance during World War II. In 1947 he made his first film appearance in an uncredited bit part as a pianist in La kermesse rouge/The Scarlet Bazaar (Paul Mesnier, 1947). He began songwriting in 1948, after meeting Maurice Vidalin, who inspired him to write his early compositions. He began writing for Marie Bizet; Bizet, Bécaud and Vidalin became a successful trio, and their partnership lasted until 1950. While touring as a pianist with singer Jacques Pills, Bécaud met Édith Piaf, Pills’ wife at the time. At her suggestion, he began singing songs like Mes Mains and Les Croix in 1953. Piaf also suggested his stage name. Gilbert Bécaud made his stage debut in the Olympia in Paris in 1954 and headlined in 1955, attracting 6,000 on his first night, three times the capacity. His hits in the later part of the decade included La Corrida (1956), Le Jour où la Pluie Viendra (1957) and C'est Merveilleux L'amour (1958). He began acting in the same period, starting with Le Pays D'où Je Viens/The Country I Come From (Marcel Carné, 1956) opposite Françoise Arnoul. The multi-talented Bécaud was also responsible for writing the film’s soundtrack. Other films in which he appeared were Casino de Paris (Claude Barma, 1957) with Vittorio De Sica and Caterina Valente, and the comedy Croquemitoufle (Claude Barma, 1958). In 1960, he won a Grand Prix du Disque and composed L'enfant à L'étoile, a Christmas cantata. That same year, Let It Be Me, an English version of Je t’ai dans la peau, which he had once written for Edith Piaf, became a hit for the Everly Brothers, followed, over the years, by Bob Dylan, Nina Simone, Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, Jerry Butler, Sam & Dave, and James Brown.

 

In 1961, Gilbert Bécaud wrote and recorded Et Maintenant, one of the biggest selling singles in French history. Translated as What Now My Love, the song became a hit by Shirley Bassey, Sonny & Cher, Elvis Presley, Judy Garland, Andy Williams and Frank Sinatra. After writing the opera L'opéra d'Aran, Bécaud toured Europe and continued recording a string of pop music hits, including Nathalie (1964) and Tu le Regretteras (1965), his controversial song for Charles de Gaulle.He also co-wrote Love on the Rocks with Neil Diamond, which was featured on the soundtrack of The Jazz Singer (Richard Fleischer, 1980) and was an international hit. In addition, he co-wrote September Morn with Neil Diamond. Marlene Dietrich recorded his Marie, Marie and performed it in her stage shows. Focusing more on touring than recording into the 1970s, Bécaud also appeared in films like Un homme libre/A Free Man (Roberto Muller, 1972) with Olga Georges-Picot, and Toute une vie/And Now My Love (Claude Lelouch, 1973) with Marthe Keller and André Dussollier. In 1973 he finally took time off , citing exhaustion. The following year, he was named Chevalier in the Légion d'honneur. Then he scored a hit all over Europe with A Little Love And Understanding (1975). Later in the century, he began writing with Pierre Grosz and then Neil Diamond, also co-penning the successful Broadway musical Madame Roza (1986), based on the novel La vie devant soi (Madame Rosa) by Emile Ajar. The 1990’s saw a slowdown of Bécaud's activity, releasing various compilations and touring occasionally. In 1993 he took an extended sabbatical, intending to get his health back in order. (Bécaud's heavy smoking habit was still placing a great strain on his voice). He did one more acting performance on television in the popular crime series Navarro (1995) starring Roger Hanin, but Bécaud really returned from his extended sabbatical in 1996, going back into the studio to work on a new album Ensemble.The Paris Olympia, where he had debuted, was his favourite venue. In 1997 Becaud was present for the re-opening of the Olympia after its reconstruction. With a series of concerts at the Olympia, he celebrated his 70th birthday. Refusing to slip quietly into retirement, Bécaud returned to the media spotlight in 1999, releasing a new album entitled Faut faire avec…., and making a live comeback at the Olympia - for the 33rd time! Despite the fact that the singer was suffering from lung cancer, he nevertheless managed to pull out all the stops, giving a series of vibrant, energetic shows which went down extremely well with his fans. In 2001 Gilbert Bécaud died on his houseboat on the Seine, aged 74, and he was interred in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris. He had been married twice: to Monique Nicolas (they had three children), and to Kitty St John (two children). His eldest son, Gaya Bécaud, released his father’s last record after his death.

 

Sources: Wikipedia, RFI Musique and IMDb.

 

And please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.

 

Today however, we are very far from Cavendish Mews, and in fact far from London. Taking advantage of their employers’ attendance of an amusing Friday to Monday country house party in Scotland, Lettice’s maid, Edith, and her best friend Hilda, the maid of Lettice’s married Embassy Club coterie friends Dickie and Margot Channon, with permission, have arranged to take a weekend trip to Manchester where they are staying for Friday and Saturday nights, before returning to London on Sunday so that they are ready to receive their employers upon their return on Monday. Both maids landed upon the idea to visit their friend Queenie on the Saturday. She lives in the village of Alderley Edge, just outside of Manchester, which is easily accessible via the railway, allowing them to take tea with her at a small tearoom in the pretty Cheshire village.

 

Queenie, Edith and Hilda all used to work together for Mrs. Plaistow, the rather mean wife of a manufacturing magnate who has a Regency terrace in Pimlico. Queenie was the cheerful head parlour maid, so both Edith and Hilda as younger and less experienced lower housemaids, fell under her instruction. Queenie chucked her position at Mrs. Plaistow’s a few years ago and took a new position as a maid for two elderly spinster sisters in Cheshire to be closer to her mother, who lives in Manchester. Still in touch with Edith, Queenie writes regularly, sharing stories of her life in the big old Victorian villa she now calls home, half of which is shut up because one of the two sisters is an invalid whilst the other is in frail condition and finds it hard to access the upper floors.

 

However, life for Queenie proved to be not as bright as her letters indicated, and all three maids were made to feel unwelcome at Mrs. Chase’s Tearooms in Alderley Edge because of their working class backgrounds by the snobbish proprietor and equally class conscious patrons, and Queenie revealed more sad stories after they left Mrs. Chase’s establishment, leaving both her friends aghast.

 

Now we find ourselves back in Manchester along Deansgate* where after returning to the city from Chester by railway, Edith and Hilda are taking advantage of their free time before dinner at their cheap, but respectable, hotel for single and travelling women, by taking in a few more of the sights of Manchester and are currently shopping at a beautiful manchester and linen shop along the ground floor of a tall four storey building towards the north end of Deansgate.

 

The soft linens covering the surfaces of tables and counters, as well as hanging from the walls of the shop serve as a buffer against the noisy sounds outside the large plate glass windows as heavy foot traffic fills the pavement of Deansgate, and electric trams** rattle noisily along the thoroughfare, their sound mixing in with the chug of motorcars and buses and the vociferous sound of human chatter. The smell of freshly laundered linen filling the air of the establishment, and keeping out the miasma of mechanical motorcar and lorry fumes, reminds Edith of her mother, who is a laundress, and of the kitchen of her family home in Harlesden where she does all the ironing on the big, round kitchen table. Extra protection from the acrid fumes outside is provided by the fragrance of fresh flowers which stand about in pretty vases on the surfaces of tables and chests of drawers, adding a bright shock of colour to the otherwise mostly snowy white surrounds of the establishment.

 

“This is nice, Edith.” Hilda remarks, picking up a dainty lace doily from a round table covered with a long lace tablecloth which is covered in napery and dollies, all arranged around a squat blue and white vase filled with brightly coloured pansies. “You could add this to your glory box***.”

 

“Hhhmmm…” Edith mutters distractedly, glancing up from where she thumbs a bunch of crisply pressed white sheets.

 

“For your glory box, Edith.” Hilda says again.

 

Edith considers the dainty piece of diamond shaped intricate lace in her best friend’s sausage like fingers. “No, I don’t think so, Hilda. Mum has already acquired a whole lot of beautiful lace doilies for me from flea markets.”

 

“Yes, but just imagine having something new like this.” Hilda enthuses. “No one has ever used it before.”

 

“If they’ll take my grubby maid’s wage here.” Edith mutters sulkily, releasing the sheet from between her index finger and thumb.

 

“Here, here!” Hilda exclaims, carefully replacing the doily amidst the pieces carefully arranged for display on the table and hurries over to her friend. “You mustn’t talk like that, Edith.” She winds her arms around her friend’s back and squeezes her upper arms beneath her plum coloured coat comfortingly.

 

“Why not?” Edith asks grumpily. “It’s how I feel.”

 

“And here I was thinking I was the one most put out by Mrs. Chase’s snobbery and that of her snooty customers.”

 

Edith sighs with frustration. “Evidently not, Hilda.” She runs her fingers over the knobbly woven lacework of a tablecloth that has been rolled up and stacked on top of the sheets she was considering for potential purchase.

 

“You mustn’t let this afternoon spoil our holiday.” Hilda insists, giving Edith’s shoulders another squeeze, before releasing her and moving alongside her at the table covered in table linen. She looks her friend squarely in the face. “Don’t tar everyone with the same brush. Yes, that nasty Mrs. Chase, or whatever her name was, was a nasty snob. But you said yourself that in a big city like London or Manchester, we can blend in with everyone else, and no-one knows who we are, or what we do for a living. You’re money’s every bit as good here as some mill owner’s wife or manchester merchant.” She nods seriously.

 

“Oh you’re right.” Edith sighs again. “I don’t mean to be out of sorts, but it’s more than the snobbery that’s gotten to me, Hilda. It’s the other business Queenie mentioned that really upset me the most.”

 

Edith’s mind drifts back to the charming Cheshire village of Alderley Edge where she and Hilda had had cream teas at Mrs. Chase’s Tearooms. After hurriedly finishing their scones and tea, scoffing them in less than ladylike gulps, the three friends had retreated to the relative safety of the street, where the late winter air around them felt warmer than the atmosphere of the tearooms. Following Queenie as she walked down the high street towards the Victorian villa owned by her employers, the Miss Bradleys, Hilda and Edith remained in awkward silence as they waited for their friend to explain why they had been made to feel so unwelcome in Mrs. Chase’s. The wide street, lined with neat Victorian and Edwardian double story shops, many built of red brick with slate roofs and Mock Tudor gabling, was relatively empty, with only a handful of smartly dressed people going about their business and a smattering of automobiles and lorries trundling past them in either direction, their chugging more noticeable in a village setting than in the busy streets of London where such noises are constant.

 

“At least no-one can make us feel second rate here on the footpath.” Hilda had said. ‘We have just as much right to be here as anyone else.”

 

Finally, Queenie stopped walking and sank down onto a public bench near the kerbside. She apologised to her two friends for spoiling their visit. “I should have insisted that I come to Manchester and meet you there. It’s just that when I received your postcard****, Edith, you and Hilda had arranged everything so nicely. You’d obviously worked out the railway schedules so you knew what time you would arrive and which train to take to get back to Manchester at a reasonable hour, so I just thought I’d take you to the only tearooms I know of that are nice in Alderley Edge. I didn’t want to spoil your plans.”

 

Queenie went on to explain that whilst Alderley Edge was a beautiful village, living in such a small community was different to living in a big city like London, which afforded anonymity. In her new home, everyone knew who Queenie was, and that she was the maid-of-all-work to the Miss Bradleys, and dining in the same establishment as a maid did not sit well with the snobbish mistresses of the neighbourhood who frequented Mrs. Chase’s Tearooms as well.

 

“You really need to leave here, if this is how things are, with everyone knowing who you are and judging you unfairly for it. Edith said to Queenie in concern. “Come back to London. There are plenty of jobs for parlour maids. With your experience, you could have the pick of the lot.”

 

“Well, it is true that I am currently looking for a new situation.” Queenie admitted. “However, it has its own complications, and I’m not looking to come back to London. I want to stay in Manchester, so I can be closer to Mum.”

 

“What complications?” Hilda queried from her seat beside her friend on the bench.

 

“Well, I haven’t told either of you, but old Miss Ida, the infirm Miss Bradley, had a fall and died about two months ago.” Queenie elucidated. “She hit her head on the patterned tiles in the hallway. She must have been trying to go upstairs in the night, although goodness knows why. Her mind seemed to have been slipping in the months prior. She was always looking for things she thought she’d lost, and at odd times of the night. It was almost as if she couldn’t rest until she’d found what she wanted. And she called me Nellie too, which Miss Florence told me was the name of their maid when their father was still alive, and she’s been buried in the churchyard many a winter. Once I caught Miss Ida trying to go out of doors at three in the morning, dressed only in her nightdress and bedcap, barefoot and raving that she would be late for school!”

 

“School?” Edith asked with wide eyes.

 

“Like I said, she was losing her mind, and I think Miss Florence knew it, because she instructed their lawyers to summon their nephew, Mr. Skellern to come and stop for a while. He’s been staying with us ever since just before Miss Ida died, but unlike the Miss Bradleys, he’s not a nice person. He’s haughty, demanding, and more of a snob than the ladies in Mrs. Chase’s, if you can believe that.” She paused for a moment, contemplating whether to continue. “He never calls me by my name: as if calling me Queenie, like I was christened, is too lowering for him. He calls me ‘girl’ instead. ‘Girl come here!’ ‘Girl, do that.’ ‘Get out of this room at once girl.’ ‘Do as I say, girl, and don’t question me.‘ And he’s accused me of trying to thieve from the sisters, which I’d never do!”

 

“Of course you wouldn’t!” agreed Hilda and Edith in their friend’s defence.

 

“I caught him counting the silverware one afternoon, and he accused me of stealing a carving set with silver collars that belonged to his great uncle, the Miss Bradley’s father, which I had never seen. I had to go to Miss Florence in her bed to plead my case, and she cleared up the matter with Mr. Skellern.”

 

“How did she do that?” Hilda asked.

 

“She told him that the set he mentioned, which Mr. Skellern had only ever seen in a photo taken of Mr. Bradley before he was even born, had been given away as a donation for a charity auction to raise money for wounded Boer War soldiers, years before I ever came to work for the Miss Bradleys.”

 

“That’s awful!” Edith cried in horror at Queenie’s story.

 

“What’s worse is that,” Queenie blushed red as she spoke the next words. “You implied in Mrs. Chase’s that I might have been with child, which I’m not,” She put up her careworn hands in defence of herself. “But only because luck’s a fortune.”

 

“Did Mr. Skellern try and take advantage of you?” Edith asked Queenie anxiously.

 

Queenie confirmed Edith’s worst fears with a shallow nod. “In the library. I was dusting the books, at his instruction, and was up the library steps. He tried to get his hands up under my skirt, and my camiknickers***** from John Lewis****** down, but I fought him off.”

 

“That’s disgusting!” Hilda burst hotly. “Good for you, Queenie!”

 

“Yes, but Mr. Skellern took offence to my refusal of his advances, and now I’m concerned that he’s trying to put his aunt into a convalescent home. He keeps threatening to dismiss me without a reference, and I’ve only been saved from that disaster by Miss Florence’s presence. Miss Florence won’t hear a bad word said about her nephew, nor will she contemplate writing me a reference because as far as she is concerned, she isn’t leaving her home, and I’ve been very happy within the employ of she and her sister. So, I’m trying to find a job as a hotel chambermaid in Manchester.”

 

“A chambermaid, Queenie?” Hilda asked in horror.

 

“They are less picky about references, and the pay’s better.” Queenie admitted a little guiltily.

 

“But you may be assaulted by a man like Mr. Skellern, Queenie!” Edith gasped. “You’ve heard the stories.”

 

“I don’t have many other options without a reference from Miss Florence. Thus is the plight of a poor, humble parlour maid. I could do far worse than be a hotel chambermaid, Edith.” Queenie cocked her eyebrow knowingly. “I’ve been told by more than Mr. Skellern that I’m pretty.”

 

“Don’t even consider it, Queenie!” Hilda shuddered. “Please!”

 

“Not all men are like Mr. Skellern.” Queenie replied with a cheeky glint in her eyes. “There have to be nice, wealthy men out there, who are just waiting to meet their Cinderella and sweep her from the ashes.”

 

The subtle clearing of a male throat near to her interrupts Edith’s reminisces about the conversation she and Hild had with Queenie in Alerley Edge earlier in the day. She gasps and looks to her left.

 

“I’m so sorry, madam.” a suited man says politely in an educated Mancunian accent. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

 

“It’s quite alright.” Hilda replies for her friend.

 

“I was just wondering whether there was anything I could assist you with, today, ladies.” he goes on.

 

“Ladies?” Edith pulls a face and nods at Hilda. “Well!”

 

“It isn’t often we get two such well dressed visitors from London in our humble establishment. You are from London, aren’t you, ladies?”

 

“Indeed we are!” Hilda answers for she and Edith in surprise.

 

“It’s your accents.” the floor walker goes on, answering Hilda’s unspoken question. “You’re either from London, or perhaps Cheshire?”

 

“London, most definitely.” Edith affirms.

 

“Then is there anything I can show you two London ladies that might be of interest?” he asks politely.

 

“See, I told you,” Hilda hisses to her best friend. “They aren’t all like Mrs. Chase and her cronies.”

 

Edith smiles at her friend before addressing the male assistant. “I was wondering what you had in the way of napkins, but not white ones. I’m rather partial to ecru or yellow.”

 

“Well, as you may have seen on the table over there,” he indicates with a sweeping, open palmed gesture to the round table where Hilda had found the dainty diamond shaped doily. “We do have some rather pretty mats with a yellow embroidered trim, and some rather fetching yellow napkins.” He reaches under the counter, out of sight of Edith and Hilda, and withdraws several placemats and napkins neatly folded and pressed into triangles. “Perhaps these might be of interest.”

 

*Deansgate is one of Manchester’s oldest thoroughfares. In Roman times its route passed close to the Roman fort of Mamucium and led from the River Medlock where there was a ford and the road to Deva (now Chester). Part of it was called Aldport Lane from Saxon times. (Aldport was the Saxon name for Castlefield). Until the 1730s the area was rural but became built up after the development of a quay on the river. The road is named after the lost River Dene, which may have flowed along the Hanging Ditch connecting the River Irk to the River Irwell at the street's northern end. ‘Gate’ derives from the Norse gata, meaning way. By the late Nineteenth Century Deansgate was an area of varied uses: its northern end had shopping and substantial office buildings while further south were slums and a working-class area around St John's Church.

 

**In the first half of the Twentieth Century, Deansgate was a route for trams operated by the Manchester Corporation Tramways, and subsequently carried numerous bus services when the trams were decommissioned.

 

***A hope chest, also called dowry chest, cedar chest, trousseau chest, or glory box is a piece of furniture once commonly used by unmarried young women to collect items, such as clothing and household linen, in anticipation of married life.

 

****One hundred years ago, postcards were the most common and easiest way to communicate with loved ones not only across countries whilst on holidays, but across neighbourhoods on a daily basis with the minutiae of life on them. This is because unlike today where mail is delivered on a daily basis, there were several deliveries done a day. At the height of the postcard mania in 1903, London residents could have as many as twelve separate visits from the mailman.

 

*****A camiknicker is a one piece form of lingerie which comprises a camisole top, and loose French Knicker style bottom. They are normally loose fitting enabling the wearer to step into them although some feature poppers or buttons at one side to give a more fitted look or a self tie belt to accentuate the wearer’s figure.

 

******John Lewis opened a drapery shop at 132 Oxford Street, London, in 1864. Born in Shepton Mallet in Somerset in 1836, he had been apprenticed at fourteen to a linen draper in Wells. He came to London in 1856 and worked as a salesman for Peter Robinson, an Oxford Street draper, rising to be his silk buyer. In 1864, he declined Robinson's offer of a partnership, and rented his own premises on the north side of Oxford Street, on part of the site now occupied by the department store which bears his name. There he sold silk and woollen cloth and haberdashery. His retailing philosophy was to buy good quality merchandise and sell it at a modest mark up. Although he carried a wide range of merchandise, he was less concerned about displaying it and never advertised it. His skill lay in sourcing the goods he sold, and most mornings he would go to the City of London, accompanied by a man with a hand barrow. Later he would make trips to Paris to buy silks. It is said that in 1905 John Lewis walked from Oxford Street to Sloane Square with twenty £1000 notes in his pocket and bought the Peter Jones department store. Sales at Peter Jones had been falling since 1902 and its new owner failed to reverse the trend. In 1914 he handed control of the store to his son Spedan. Lewis was regarded as an autocratic employer, prone to dismissing staff arbitrarily. The stores had difficulty retaining staff (there was a strike in 1920) and performed poorly compared to his rivals such as Whiteleys, Gorringes and Owen Owen. His management style led to conflict with his sons who disagreed with his business methods. It was only after his death that the company was transformed into the John Lewis Partnership, a worker co-operative. By the 1920s, when this story is set, there were John Lewis stores up and down Britain, including in Manchester. Today located in the Trafford Centre, John Lewis Manchester is one of the largest department stores in Europe, carrying half a million product lines.

 

This may look like a wonderful array of linens you might like to lay upon your table, but you might need a smaller surface for them, as this whole scene is made up of 1:12 size miniatures from my miniatures collection including pieces I have had since I was a child.

 

Fun thing to look for in this tableau include:

 

All the lace around the shop come from different places, including: Kathleen Knight’s Dolls House Shop in the United Kingdom, Mick and Marie’s Miniatures in the United Kingdom, and Beautifully Handmade Miniatures in Kettering. There are also a few miniature artisan pieces from private collectors and there are even a few life size lace doilies cleverly disguised in this scene. The two lace doilies on the central table in the midground I have had since I was a child, and were acquired from a high street specialist shop who stocked 1:12 size miniatures. The placemats with their hand sewn gold trim and the lemon yellow napkins I acquired along with an artisan picnic basket from America. The lace tablecloth on the round central table is in reality a small lace doily that I bought from an antique shop in Inglewood in provincial Victoria. The dainty floral edged piece hanging on the wall at the back to the far left also came from there. The blue and yellow embroidered floral cloth in the foreground is an old hand embroidered doily from the 1920s that I have had in my possession for a long time. The starched sheets tied with ribbon on the table in the foreground and the clothes horse you can just see the edge of to the left of the photo come from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls House Shop.

 

All the floral arrangements come from Mick and Marie’s Miniatures in the United Kingdom.

 

Edith’s green handbag and Hilda’s brown one are handmade from soft leather is part of a larger collection of hats and bags that I bought from an American miniature collector Marilyn Bickel.

 

The black umbrella came from an online stockist of 1:12 miniatures on E-Bay.

Teals

Leaf Bottom Combats

Hercules

Ringers