Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin

Dublin (Irish: Baile Átha Cliath) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. It is on the east coast of Ireland, in the province of Leinster, at the mouth of the River Liffey, and is bordered on the south by the Wicklow Mountains. It has an urban area population of 1,173,179, while the population of the Dublin Region (formerly County Dublin), as of 2016, was 1,347,359, and the population of the Greater Dublin area was 1,904,806.

There is archaeological debate regarding precisely where Dublin was established by the Gaels in or before the 7th century AD. Later expanded as a Viking settlement, the Kingdom of Dublin, the city became Ireland's principal settlement following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire before the Acts of Union in 1800. Following the partition of Ireland in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, later renamed Ireland.

Dublin is a historical and contemporary centre for education, the arts, administration and industry. As of 2018 the city was listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) as a global city, with a ranking of "Alpha −", which places it amongst the top thirty cities in the world.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Guinness

Arthur Guinness (24 September 1725 – 23 January 1803) was an Irish brewer and the founder of the Guinness brewery business and family. He was also an entrepreneur and philanthropist.

At 27, in 1752, Guinness's godfather Arthur Price, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Cashel, bequeathed him £100 in his will. Guinness invested the money and in 1755 had a brewery at Leixlip, just 17 km from Dublin. In 1759, Guinness went to the city and set up his own business. He took a 9,000-year lease on the 4-acre (16,000 m2) brewery at St. James's Gate from the descendants of Sir Mark Rainsford for an annual rent of £45.

Guinness's flowery red signature is still copied on every label of bottled Guinness.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_Storehouse

Guinness Storehouse is a tourist attraction at St. James's Gate Brewery in Dublin, Ireland. Since opening in 2000, it has received over four million visitors.

The Storehouse covers seven floors surrounding a glass atrium shaped in the form of a pint of Guinness. The ground floor introduces the beer's four ingredients (water, barley, hops and yeast), and the brewery's founder, Arthur Guinness. Other floors feature the history of Guinness advertising and include an interactive exhibit on responsible drinking. The seventh floor houses the Gravity Bar with views of Dublin and where visitors may drink a pint of Guinness included in the price of admission, which was €18.50 on 15 October 2018 with discounts depending on dates and times, described as "overpriced" by Condé Nast Traveler. In 2006, a new wing opened incorporating a live installation of the present-day brewing process.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_Brewery

St. James's Gate Brewery (Irish: Grúdlann Gheata Naomh Séamuis) is a brewery founded in 1759 in Dublin, Ireland, by Arthur Guinness. The company is now a part of Diageo, a British company formed from the merger of Guinness and Grand Metropolitan in 1997. The main product of the brewery is Guinness Draught.

Originally leased in 1759 to Arthur Guinness at IR£45 (Irish pounds) per year for 9,000 years, the St. James's Gate area has been the home of Guinness ever since. It became the largest brewery in Ireland in 1838, and the largest in the world by 1886, with an annual output of 1.2 million barrels. Although no longer the largest brewery in the world, it remains as the largest brewer of stout. The company has since bought out the originally leased property, and during the 19th and early 20th centuries the brewery owned most of the buildings in the surrounding area, including many streets of housing for brewery employees, and offices associated with the brewery. The brewery also made all of its own power using its own power plant.

There is an attached exhibition on the 250-year-old history of Guinness, called the Guinness Storehouse.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness

Guinness is a dark Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin, Ireland, in 1759. It is one of the most successful beer brands worldwide, brewed in almost 50 countries, and available in over 120. Sales in 2011 amounted to 850 million litres (220,000,000 US gal). It is popular with the Irish, both in Ireland and abroad. In spite of declining consumption since 2001, it is still the best-selling alcoholic drink in Ireland where Guinness & Co. Brewery makes almost €2 billion worth annually.

Guinness' burnt flavour derives from malted barley and roasted unmalted barley, a relatively modern development, not becoming part of the grist until the mid-20th century. For many years, a portion of aged brew was blended with freshly brewed beer to give a sharp lactic acid flavour. Although Guinness's palate still features a characteristic "tang", the company has refused to confirm whether this type of blending still occurs. The draught beer's thick, creamy head comes from mixing the beer with nitrogen and carbon dioxide.[6]

The company moved its headquarters to London at the beginning of the Anglo-Irish Trade War in 1932. In 1997, Guinness Plc merged with Grand Metropolitan to form the multinational alcoholic-drinks producer Diageo plc, based out of London.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin

Dublin (Irish: Baile Átha Cliath) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. It is on the east coast of Ireland, in the province of Leinster, at the mouth of the River Liffey, and is bordered on the south by the Wicklow Mountains. It has an urban area population of 1,173,179, while the population of the Dublin Region (formerly County Dublin), as of 2016, was 1,347,359, and the population of the Greater Dublin area was 1,904,806.

There is archaeological debate regarding precisely where Dublin was established by the Gaels in or before the 7th century AD. Later expanded as a Viking settlement, the Kingdom of Dublin, the city became Ireland's principal settlement following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire before the Acts of Union in 1800. Following the partition of Ireland in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, later renamed Ireland.

Dublin is a historical and contemporary centre for education, the arts, administration and industry. As of 2018 the city was listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) as a global city, with a ranking of "Alpha −", which places it amongst the top thirty cities in the world.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Guinness

Arthur Guinness (24 September 1725 – 23 January 1803) was an Irish brewer and the founder of the Guinness brewery business and family. He was also an entrepreneur and philanthropist.

At 27, in 1752, Guinness's godfather Arthur Price, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Cashel, bequeathed him £100 in his will. Guinness invested the money and in 1755 had a brewery at Leixlip, just 17 km from Dublin. In 1759, Guinness went to the city and set up his own business. He took a 9,000-year lease on the 4-acre (16,000 m2) brewery at St. James's Gate from the descendants of Sir Mark Rainsford for an annual rent of £45.

Guinness's flowery red signature is still copied on every label of bottled Guinness.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_Storehouse

Guinness Storehouse is a tourist attraction at St. James's Gate Brewery in Dublin, Ireland. Since opening in 2000, it has received over four million visitors.

The Storehouse covers seven floors surrounding a glass atrium shaped in the form of a pint of Guinness. The ground floor introduces the beer's four ingredients (water, barley, hops and yeast), and the brewery's founder, Arthur Guinness. Other floors feature the history of Guinness advertising and include an interactive exhibit on responsible drinking. The seventh floor houses the Gravity Bar with views of Dublin and where visitors may drink a pint of Guinness included in the price of admission, which was €18.50 on 15 October 2018 with discounts depending on dates and times, described as "overpriced" by Condé Nast Traveler. In 2006, a new wing opened incorporating a live installation of the present-day brewing process.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_Brewery

St. James's Gate Brewery (Irish: Grúdlann Gheata Naomh Séamuis) is a brewery founded in 1759 in Dublin, Ireland, by Arthur Guinness. The company is now a part of Diageo, a British company formed from the merger of Guinness and Grand Metropolitan in 1997. The main product of the brewery is Guinness Draught.

Originally leased in 1759 to Arthur Guinness at IR£45 (Irish pounds) per year for 9,000 years, the St. James's Gate area has been the home of Guinness ever since. It became the largest brewery in Ireland in 1838, and the largest in the world by 1886, with an annual output of 1.2 million barrels. Although no longer the largest brewery in the world, it remains as the largest brewer of stout. The company has since bought out the originally leased property, and during the 19th and early 20th centuries the brewery owned most of the buildings in the surrounding area, including many streets of housing for brewery employees, and offices associated with the brewery. The brewery also made all of its own power using its own power plant.

There is an attached exhibition on the 250-year-old history of Guinness, called the Guinness Storehouse.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness

Guinness is a dark Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin, Ireland, in 1759. It is one of the most successful beer brands worldwide, brewed in almost 50 countries, and available in over 120. Sales in 2011 amounted to 850 million litres (220,000,000 US gal). It is popular with the Irish, both in Ireland and abroad. In spite of declining consumption since 2001, it is still the best-selling alcoholic drink in Ireland where Guinness & Co. Brewery makes almost €2 billion worth annually.

Guinness' burnt flavour derives from malted barley and roasted unmalted barley, a relatively modern development, not becoming part of the grist until the mid-20th century. For many years, a portion of aged brew was blended with freshly brewed beer to give a sharp lactic acid flavour. Although Guinness's palate still features a characteristic "tang", the company has refused to confirm whether this type of blending still occurs. The draught beer's thick, creamy head comes from mixing the beer with nitrogen and carbon dioxide.[6]

The company moved its headquarters to London at the beginning of the Anglo-Irish Trade War in 1932. In 1997, Guinness Plc merged with Grand Metropolitan to form the multinational alcoholic-drinks producer Diageo plc, based out of London.

Camera: 1952 Leica IIIf RD 35mm Rangefinder.

Lens: Waterworth 2" Centaur f/3.5.

Film: Ilford FP4 Plus ISO 125 35mm black & white negative.

Development: Ilford ID-11 1 + 3 @ 20C/21m.

Camera supported on Linhof Junior tripod & ball head.

Copyright 2021 Brett Rogers All Rights Reserved

Photograph taken at an altitude of Fifty six metres, in the magic of the Golden Hour around sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 04:38am), at 03:41am on Thursday 12th June 2014 off Lullingstone Lane and Eagle Heights overlooking the field adjacent to Eynsford Viaduct in the village of Eynsford, Kent, England.

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Nikon D800 24mm 1/13s f/5.6 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Nikon RC-DC2 remote shutter release. Manual focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering.

Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED IF. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

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LATITUDE: N 51d 22m 3.37s

LONGITUDE: E 0d 11m 53.65s

ALTITUDE: 56.0m

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED FILE: 21.14MB

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Processing power:

HP Pavillion Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. HD graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.90 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

THE UNIVERSE: WAYYYY TOO BIG FOR MERE GODS.....

To me, a well designed office building can be just as lovely as a church, and the works of man generally are impressive precisely because we made them with our hands grasping tools, rather than just kneel with our hands clasped in prayer.....

I was particularly taken with the progression in scale from grass, to church, to office tower to the moon, and yes, to the one or two stars barely seen in the night sky.

We walked on the moon once and will do so again.....next stop, the stars!

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I was walking past the intersection of Elizabeth Street and Lonsdale Street in Melbourne and, glancing up at the moon breaking through the clouds, rather fancied the composition old Luna made with the Melbourne Central Tower and St. Francis Catholic Church.

Beyond the church is the 211 metre tall Melbourne Central Tower, designed by Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa, who was also responsible for the attached shopping centre, office tower, and railway station. The tower is coloured a distinctive black, has an angled top and has two communications masts so that it always reminds me a little of Batman's pointy eared cowl....

The view from the office suites located in the bevelled summit of the building is...impressive!

The shopping centre also contains the Coop's Shot Tower which was built on the site between 1889 and 1890 and has been preserved beneath a rather breathtaking vast glass cone shaped structure, as is recorded elsewhere in my photosets.

St Francis' Church is the oldest Catholic church in Victoria, Australia and is one of only three surviving buildings in central Melbourne from before the Gold Rush of 1851.

I am of course gloriously free of the ravages of religion, so apart from the architecture, which is admittedly fascinating, the other main thing I know about this church is that John 'Red' Kelly married Ellen Quinn there on 18th November 1850. Red and Ellen were the parents of Edward 'Ned' Kelly, Australia's famous armoured bushranger.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin

Dublin (Irish: Baile Átha Cliath) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. It is on the east coast of Ireland, in the province of Leinster, at the mouth of the River Liffey, and is bordered on the south by the Wicklow Mountains. It has an urban area population of 1,173,179, while the population of the Dublin Region (formerly County Dublin), as of 2016, was 1,347,359, and the population of the Greater Dublin area was 1,904,806.

There is archaeological debate regarding precisely where Dublin was established by the Gaels in or before the 7th century AD. Later expanded as a Viking settlement, the Kingdom of Dublin, the city became Ireland's principal settlement following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire before the Acts of Union in 1800. Following the partition of Ireland in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, later renamed Ireland.

Dublin is a historical and contemporary centre for education, the arts, administration and industry. As of 2018 the city was listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) as a global city, with a ranking of "Alpha −", which places it amongst the top thirty cities in the world.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_College_Dublin

Trinity College (Irish: Coláiste na Tríonóide), officially the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, is the sole constituent college of the University of Dublin, a research university located in Dublin, Ireland. The college was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother" of a new university, modelled after the collegiate universities of Oxford and Cambridge, but unlike these other ancient universities, only one college was ever established; as such, the designations "Trinity College" and "University of Dublin" are usually synonymous for practical purposes. The college is legally incorporated by "the Provost, Fellows, Foundation Scholars and other members of the Board" as outlined by its founding charter. It is one of the seven ancient universities of Britain and Ireland, as well as Ireland's oldest surviving university. Trinity College is widely considered the most prestigious university in Ireland and amongst the most elite in Europe, principally due to its extensive history, reputation for social elitism and unique relationship with both the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. In accordance with the formula of ad eundem gradum, a form of recognition that exists among the three universities, a graduate of Oxford, Cambridge, or Dublin can be conferred with the equivalent degree at either of the other two universities without further examination. Trinity College, Dublin is a sister college to St John's College, Cambridge and Oriel College, Oxford.

Originally Trinity was established outside the city walls of Dublin in the buildings of the outlawed Catholic Augustinian Priory of All Hallows. Trinity College was set up in part to consolidate the rule of the Tudor monarchy in Ireland, and as a result was the university of the Protestant Ascendancy for much of its history. While Catholics were admitted from 1793 certain restrictions on membership of the college remained as professorships, fellowships and scholarships were reserved for Protestants. These restrictions were lifted by Act of Parliament in 1873. However, from 1871 to 1970, the Catholic Church in Ireland in turn forbade its adherents from attending Trinity College without permission. Women were first admitted to the college as full members in January 1904.

Trinity College is now surrounded by central Dublin and is located on College Green, opposite the historic Irish Houses of Parliament. The college proper occupies 190,000 m2 (47 acres), with many of its buildings ranged around large quadrangles (known as 'squares') and two playing fields. Academically, it is divided into three faculties comprising 25 schools, offering degree and diploma courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

The Library of Trinity College is a legal deposit library for Ireland and Great Britain, containing over 6.2 million printed volumes and significant quantities of manuscripts, including the Book of Kells.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Kells

The Book of Kells (Latin: Codex Cenannensis; Irish: Leabhar Cheanannais; Dublin, Trinity College Library, MS A. I. , sometimes known as the Book of Columba) is an illuminated manuscript Gospel book in Latin, containing the four Gospels of the New Testament together with various prefatory texts and tables. It was created in a Columban monastery in either Britain or Ireland and may have had contributions from various Columban institutions from both Britain and Ireland. It is believed to have been created c. 800 AD. The text of the Gospels is largely drawn from the Vulgate, although it also includes several passages drawn from the earlier versions of the Bible known as the Vetus Latina. It is a masterwork of Western calligraphy and represents the pinnacle of Insular illumination. It is also widely regarded as Ireland's finest national treasure.

The illustrations and ornamentation of the Book of Kells surpass that of other Insular Gospel books in extravagance and complexity. The decoration combines traditional Christian iconography with the ornate swirling motifs typical of Insular art. Figures of humans, animals and mythical beasts, together with Celtic knots and interlacing patterns in vibrant colours, enliven the manuscript's pages. Many of these minor decorative elements are imbued with Christian symbolism and so further emphasise the themes of the major illustrations.

The manuscript today comprises 340 leaves or folios; the recto and verso of each leaf total 680 pages. Since 1953, it has been bound in four volumes. The leaves are high-quality calf vellum, and the unprecedentedly elaborate ornamentation that covers them includes ten full-page illustrations and text pages that are vibrant with decorated initials and interlinear miniatures and mark the furthest extension of the anti-classical and energetic qualities of Insular art. The Insular majuscule script of the text itself appears to be the work of at least three different scribes. The lettering is in iron gall ink, and the colours used were derived from a wide range of substances, many of which were imports from distant lands.

The manuscript takes its name from the Abbey of Kells, which was its home for centuries. Today, it is on permanent display at Trinity College Library, Dublin. The Library usually displays two of the current four volumes at a time, one showing a major illustration and the other showing typical text pages, and the entire manuscript can be viewed on the Library's Digital Collections Repository

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin

Dublin (Irish: Baile Átha Cliath) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. It is on the east coast of Ireland, in the province of Leinster, at the mouth of the River Liffey, and is bordered on the south by the Wicklow Mountains. It has an urban area population of 1,173,179, while the population of the Dublin Region (formerly County Dublin), as of 2016, was 1,347,359, and the population of the Greater Dublin area was 1,904,806.

There is archaeological debate regarding precisely where Dublin was established by the Gaels in or before the 7th century AD. Later expanded as a Viking settlement, the Kingdom of Dublin, the city became Ireland's principal settlement following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire before the Acts of Union in 1800. Following the partition of Ireland in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, later renamed Ireland.

Dublin is a historical and contemporary centre for education, the arts, administration and industry. As of 2018 the city was listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) as a global city, with a ranking of "Alpha −", which places it amongst the top thirty cities in the world.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Guinness

Arthur Guinness (24 September 1725 – 23 January 1803) was an Irish brewer and the founder of the Guinness brewery business and family. He was also an entrepreneur and philanthropist.

At 27, in 1752, Guinness's godfather Arthur Price, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Cashel, bequeathed him £100 in his will. Guinness invested the money and in 1755 had a brewery at Leixlip, just 17 km from Dublin. In 1759, Guinness went to the city and set up his own business. He took a 9,000-year lease on the 4-acre (16,000 m2) brewery at St. James's Gate from the descendants of Sir Mark Rainsford for an annual rent of £45.

Guinness's flowery red signature is still copied on every label of bottled Guinness.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_Storehouse

Guinness Storehouse is a tourist attraction at St. James's Gate Brewery in Dublin, Ireland. Since opening in 2000, it has received over four million visitors.

The Storehouse covers seven floors surrounding a glass atrium shaped in the form of a pint of Guinness. The ground floor introduces the beer's four ingredients (water, barley, hops and yeast), and the brewery's founder, Arthur Guinness. Other floors feature the history of Guinness advertising and include an interactive exhibit on responsible drinking. The seventh floor houses the Gravity Bar with views of Dublin and where visitors may drink a pint of Guinness included in the price of admission, which was €18.50 on 15 October 2018 with discounts depending on dates and times, described as "overpriced" by Condé Nast Traveler. In 2006, a new wing opened incorporating a live installation of the present-day brewing process.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_Brewery

St. James's Gate Brewery (Irish: Grúdlann Gheata Naomh Séamuis) is a brewery founded in 1759 in Dublin, Ireland, by Arthur Guinness. The company is now a part of Diageo, a British company formed from the merger of Guinness and Grand Metropolitan in 1997. The main product of the brewery is Guinness Draught.

Originally leased in 1759 to Arthur Guinness at IR£45 (Irish pounds) per year for 9,000 years, the St. James's Gate area has been the home of Guinness ever since. It became the largest brewery in Ireland in 1838, and the largest in the world by 1886, with an annual output of 1.2 million barrels. Although no longer the largest brewery in the world, it remains as the largest brewer of stout. The company has since bought out the originally leased property, and during the 19th and early 20th centuries the brewery owned most of the buildings in the surrounding area, including many streets of housing for brewery employees, and offices associated with the brewery. The brewery also made all of its own power using its own power plant.

There is an attached exhibition on the 250-year-old history of Guinness, called the Guinness Storehouse.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness

Guinness is a dark Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin, Ireland, in 1759. It is one of the most successful beer brands worldwide, brewed in almost 50 countries, and available in over 120. Sales in 2011 amounted to 850 million litres (220,000,000 US gal). It is popular with the Irish, both in Ireland and abroad. In spite of declining consumption since 2001, it is still the best-selling alcoholic drink in Ireland where Guinness & Co. Brewery makes almost €2 billion worth annually.

Guinness' burnt flavour derives from malted barley and roasted unmalted barley, a relatively modern development, not becoming part of the grist until the mid-20th century. For many years, a portion of aged brew was blended with freshly brewed beer to give a sharp lactic acid flavour. Although Guinness's palate still features a characteristic "tang", the company has refused to confirm whether this type of blending still occurs. The draught beer's thick, creamy head comes from mixing the beer with nitrogen and carbon dioxide.[6]

The company moved its headquarters to London at the beginning of the Anglo-Irish Trade War in 1932. In 1997, Guinness Plc merged with Grand Metropolitan to form the multinational alcoholic-drinks producer Diageo plc, based out of London.

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***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on March 18th 2015

CREATIVE RF gty.im/543508241 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

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Photograph taken at an altitude of Nine metres, in the magic of the Golden hour around sunrise at 05:41am, (sunrise was at precisely 06.15am) on Saturday 6th September 2014 off the Patricia Bay Highway 17, on Lochside Drive close to Frost Avenue and the Lochside Waterfront Park, in beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

Here, I am standing beside the wooden decked viewing platform, looking over towards Mt Baker in Washington State, USA from beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Also known as Koma Kulshan, she is an active glaciated andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington State in the United States, standing 3,286 metres tall and was first ascended in 1868, her last eruption recorded in 1880.

The name Mount Baker first appeared in print in Captain Vancouver’s 1798 narrative of his voyage around Vancouver Island. Legend has it that his third-lieutenant, Joseph Baker, was the first to spot the mountain while they sailed into Dungeness Bay on April 30th, 1792. Also known by the Lummi as Kwud-Shad, and Koba (meaning 'high mountain always covered with snow', was the Skagit name.

These Canada Geese, along with many other small groups, fly across the lake from East to West every morning and back again every evening at Sunset, and I love to watch the classic Vee formations and listen to the honking as they pass me by. In flight, a group of Geese are called, a Skein.

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Nikon D800 70mm 1/1000s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Manual focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED IF VRII. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

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LATITUDE: N 48d 38m 15.77s

LONGITUDE: W 123d 24m 12.83s

ALTITUDE: 9.0m

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 11.90MB

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PROCESSING POWER:

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB SATA storage. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.3 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

What path? "I am the path," said the Lord, which is the light and the life. Christ is not a person. So when we read that Master Jesus said "I am the path," he was not talking about his personality or his physical body; it was Christ talking through Master Jesus. He said, 'I, the light of the cosmos, am the path.' Work with the light, which is the light of life. The Demiurge, the creator, the Cosmocreators are a manifestation of that light, but the Demiurge works mechanically, karmically in the wheel of Samsara. We are the outcome of that Demiurge. We are machines that transform the light of the cosmos for the benefit of this planet. Symbol of: Matrimony, the Seven Bodies, Sexual Waters, Gold of the Bodies. Gnostics understand that Master Jesus is the expression of that light in the human level. Krishna, Mohammed and Quetzalcoatl are expressions of that light in the human level, since the light is not an individual. Christ is not an individual but a universal energy, in an Abstract and in a concrete manner. So when we talk about Christ and we see the firmament, the Ayocosmos, we see the light, we see the Lord Christ.

A rainbow is a seven coloured bridge of light that links two points on the earth with the sky.Llanos... Llanos... Llanos...

Help me, Lla... ma... dor... Lla... ma... dor...

Lla... nos... Lla... nos... Lla... nos...

That Being came to me; he is a solar man. He is a Being that incarnated the three aspects of his Glorian – Father, Son and Holy Spirit, within himself. When he presented himself before me in the astral light, he showed me his whole luminous body, his aura was precisely like a mixture of rays of a rainbow, shining gloriously. Before my sight, such a Being was so intense and beautiful, that I experienced what the Apostles experienced there in that scripture, when they saw Jesus, showing his glory. The vision was so beautiful that I cannot describe the beauty of the body of light of that Being; his body of light was so beautiful that overwhelmingly astounded I returned to my body, frightened. But not frighten as when we see a spooky thing. Frighten in the sense that I was shocked, I was caught unaware, since I never imagined that I was going to see such a divine beauty.

This bridge between two points on the Earth extending into the sky is a symbol of a spiritual kind of matrimony. The seven colours are the seven bodies that are formed through light moving through the evaporated humidity (transmuted sexual energy).

There is also the legend of the Leprechauns where at the end of a rainbow one will find a pot of gold. Indicating the end of the Great Work and the gold of the Being.If we do not take advantage of the opportunity that the Demiurge is given us, that is, the work that every single person does in this natural workshop by being a machine in order to transform the cosmic light to feed the planet through the Cosmic-Common-Trogoautoegocrat, then we will lose the chance of working with the Christic light. To do that we have to fight against the laws of the Demiurge, or Demiurgos. Such laws are the mechanical, karmic laws of nature. And this is precisely the Great Work, because it is not easy.

The symbol of the rainbow is very esoteric. Master Samael spoke about it as being a symbol of a vow made between the human being and the heavens above. It is also a symbol of esoteric triumph Master Samael says.

Master Samael says that it also represents the Mercury and the colours of the Great Work.

We can add a few extra things here, and I must say that these points do not at all come from me but from a very interesting experience that a fellow Gnostic missionary in Spain had with my marvelous missionary where in the dream he related to her the following points regarding a rainbow.. Master Samael Aun Weor explains in The Perfect Matrimony that when the couple is united sexually, they are surrounded by tremendous Christic lights, and if they know sexual Alchemy, if they perceive that light and transmute it, if they withdraw from the sexual act without ejaculating the semen, then that light remains within them. Yet unfortunately, when they reach the orgasm, the spasm of the animals, then a short circuit occurs and the Christic light disappears. Thus, their cosmic currents merge with the universal currents of Hell, and instead, a bloody infrared light, the Luciferian Klipothic forces of evil, the fatal magnetism of desire, which is called Lilith, emerges in the psyche of the couple. This is why we state that this humanity is the great whore, the child of Lilith, desire. Yes, people are worshiping Lilith, desire; they compose songs and poems to that bloody infrared light ray of desire.

However if you want to read a nice poem of Christic light, then read the Bible, read the Pistis Sophia, read the Bhagavad-Gita, read the Koran. Those are scriptures written in code that worship the ultraviolet light. Remember the third, the sixth, and the ninth hours are a process of the light through the hours of Apollonius. Christ is the light in them, so do not be afraid of the light.

For Elohim, who said "Let light [Christ] shine out of darkness," has shone it in [Tiphereth] our hearts, to give the light of Gnosis, the splendour of Elohim, [as the sun] in the face of Jesus Christ. – 2 Corinthians 4: 6. And that light is Christ. Therefore, any Being that is transformed through the light, that takes the path of the light, becomes a Christ, a Christified One. So, Master Samael Aun Weor is a Christ, because the Christic light transformed him, through the alchemical work. Krishna, Jesus, Mohammed and Buddha are each also Christ because they transformed themselves through the Christic light.

When Moses came down from the Mount Sinai, his face was shining [like the sun] from speaking with אהיה Eheieh (the light of the world), but he didn't know it. And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone (as the sun); and they were afraid to come near him. – Exodus 34: 29,30

Why were they afraid to come near him? Because אהיה Eheieh (the light of the world) the Lord, Christ was shinning through him. אהיה Eheieh (the light of the world) Christ sent him to Egypt, to liberate all the parts of Israel. Thus, אהיה Eheieh (the light of the world) was there within him.

When I utter this word אהיה Eheieh, the Rune Ehe comes to my mind; remember that we talked about the Rune Ehe, which is the rune of matrimony. Rune Ehe is the way through which we work with the light. Rune Ehe is the way through which אהיה אשר אהיה Eheieh Asher Eheieh manifests his glory to men. There is no other way to transform the light if it is not through Ehe, which is the Rune of matrimony, which is the sexual act. Ehe is the very sexual act of that light.

Photograph taken at an altitude of Nine metres, in the magic of the Golden hour around sunrise at 05:37am, (sunrise was at precisely 06.15am) on Saturday 6th September 2014 off the Patricia Bay Highway 17, on Lochside Drive close to Frost Avenue and the Lochside Waterfront Park, in beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

Here, I am standing beside the wooden decked viewing platform, looking over towards Mt Baker in Washington State, USA from beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Also known as Koma Kulshan, she is an active glaciated andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington State in the United States, standing 3,286 metres tall and was first ascended in 1868, her last eruption recorded in 1880.

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Nikon D800 112mm 1/1000s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Manual focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED IF VRII. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

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LATITUDE: N 48d 38m 15.82s

LONGITUDE: W 123d 24m 12.82s

ALTITUDE: 9.0m

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 16.80MB

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HP Pavillion Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. HD graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.0 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

This Panzer IV from Panzer-Regiment 29 (12. Panzer-Division), more precisely the third Panzer of the 1. Zug, 6. Kompanie, II. Abteilung, has many field modifications: a spare road-wheels is mounted on the back of the engine deck, a plank of wood (probably on each sides) has been fixed between the road-wheels and the return-rollers and more oddly, a smoke launcher quite similar to the one from Panzer II (Flamm) is fixed on the rear track guard. Notice also the locker mounted on the left side guard.

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The Panzer Pictures Database | @PanzerDB (Twitter) | panzerdb.com

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin

Dublin (Irish: Baile Átha Cliath) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. It is on the east coast of Ireland, in the province of Leinster, at the mouth of the River Liffey, and is bordered on the south by the Wicklow Mountains. It has an urban area population of 1,173,179, while the population of the Dublin Region (formerly County Dublin), as of 2016, was 1,347,359, and the population of the Greater Dublin area was 1,904,806.

There is archaeological debate regarding precisely where Dublin was established by the Gaels in or before the 7th century AD. Later expanded as a Viking settlement, the Kingdom of Dublin, the city became Ireland's principal settlement following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire before the Acts of Union in 1800. Following the partition of Ireland in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, later renamed Ireland.

Dublin is a historical and contemporary centre for education, the arts, administration and industry. As of 2018 the city was listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) as a global city, with a ranking of "Alpha −", which places it amongst the top thirty cities in the world.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Guinness

Arthur Guinness (24 September 1725 – 23 January 1803) was an Irish brewer and the founder of the Guinness brewery business and family. He was also an entrepreneur and philanthropist.

At 27, in 1752, Guinness's godfather Arthur Price, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Cashel, bequeathed him £100 in his will. Guinness invested the money and in 1755 had a brewery at Leixlip, just 17 km from Dublin. In 1759, Guinness went to the city and set up his own business. He took a 9,000-year lease on the 4-acre (16,000 m2) brewery at St. James's Gate from the descendants of Sir Mark Rainsford for an annual rent of £45.

Guinness's flowery red signature is still copied on every label of bottled Guinness.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_Storehouse

Guinness Storehouse is a tourist attraction at St. James's Gate Brewery in Dublin, Ireland. Since opening in 2000, it has received over four million visitors.

The Storehouse covers seven floors surrounding a glass atrium shaped in the form of a pint of Guinness. The ground floor introduces the beer's four ingredients (water, barley, hops and yeast), and the brewery's founder, Arthur Guinness. Other floors feature the history of Guinness advertising and include an interactive exhibit on responsible drinking. The seventh floor houses the Gravity Bar with views of Dublin and where visitors may drink a pint of Guinness included in the price of admission, which was €18.50 on 15 October 2018 with discounts depending on dates and times, described as "overpriced" by Condé Nast Traveler. In 2006, a new wing opened incorporating a live installation of the present-day brewing process.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_Brewery

St. James's Gate Brewery (Irish: Grúdlann Gheata Naomh Séamuis) is a brewery founded in 1759 in Dublin, Ireland, by Arthur Guinness. The company is now a part of Diageo, a British company formed from the merger of Guinness and Grand Metropolitan in 1997. The main product of the brewery is Guinness Draught.

Originally leased in 1759 to Arthur Guinness at IR£45 (Irish pounds) per year for 9,000 years, the St. James's Gate area has been the home of Guinness ever since. It became the largest brewery in Ireland in 1838, and the largest in the world by 1886, with an annual output of 1.2 million barrels. Although no longer the largest brewery in the world, it remains as the largest brewer of stout. The company has since bought out the originally leased property, and during the 19th and early 20th centuries the brewery owned most of the buildings in the surrounding area, including many streets of housing for brewery employees, and offices associated with the brewery. The brewery also made all of its own power using its own power plant.

There is an attached exhibition on the 250-year-old history of Guinness, called the Guinness Storehouse.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness

Guinness is a dark Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin, Ireland, in 1759. It is one of the most successful beer brands worldwide, brewed in almost 50 countries, and available in over 120. Sales in 2011 amounted to 850 million litres (220,000,000 US gal). It is popular with the Irish, both in Ireland and abroad. In spite of declining consumption since 2001, it is still the best-selling alcoholic drink in Ireland where Guinness & Co. Brewery makes almost €2 billion worth annually.

Guinness' burnt flavour derives from malted barley and roasted unmalted barley, a relatively modern development, not becoming part of the grist until the mid-20th century. For many years, a portion of aged brew was blended with freshly brewed beer to give a sharp lactic acid flavour. Although Guinness's palate still features a characteristic "tang", the company has refused to confirm whether this type of blending still occurs. The draught beer's thick, creamy head comes from mixing the beer with nitrogen and carbon dioxide.[6]

The company moved its headquarters to London at the beginning of the Anglo-Irish Trade War in 1932. In 1997, Guinness Plc merged with Grand Metropolitan to form the multinational alcoholic-drinks producer Diageo plc, based out of London.

Photograph taken at an altitude of Seventy metres, in the magic of the Golden Hour around sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 04:38am), at 03:35am on Thursday 12th June 2014 off Lullingstone Lane and Eagle Heights overlooking a blanket of morning mist as it rolled across Eynsford Viaduct in the village of Eynsford, Kent, England.

This impressive nine-arched red-brick viaduct is a prominent feature on the line to the 'Bat & Ball' station. The structure was built by the independent ''Sevenoaks Railway'', incorporated in 1859 to link the ''Chatham'' main line with the market town of Sevenoaks. And first services began on 2nd June 1862. The viaduct has nine arches of 30-foot span, and rises to a height of 75-feet above the valley and the River Darent.

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Nikon D800 42mm 1/20s f/5.0 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Nikon RC-DC2 remote shutter release. Manual focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering.

Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED IF. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

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LATITUDE: N 51d 22m 8.01s

LONGITUDE: E 0d 11m 46.15s

ALTITUDE: 82.0m

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED FILE: 17.89MB

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HP Pavillion Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. HD graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.90 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

Tsukemen

- pork broth, fish powder, menma, chāshū, thick tsukemen noodles

I made it to Tokyo station after a 14-hour flight from New York, and Rokurinsha ramen ( more precisely - their legendary tsukemen) was just too much of a temptation to resist.

Rokurinsha is widely believed to be one of Tokyo's best ramenayas, and I must admit - my meal reflected that notion. The line was fairly long, but after a reasonable wait - I would say may be 20 minutes, or so - I somehow chose the right button on the ticket vending machine and was seated at a communal table for two; my youthful dining companion spoke no English, but I just followed his lead in proper tsukemen manners. The biggest difference between Rokurinsha tsukemen were the noodles - as thick as traditional udon, and much thicker and wider than any ramen or tsukemen I have had before. Noodles were exceptionally well made and cooked, but served cold - to prevent additional cooking, I might guess.

The biggest attraction was definitely the broth - unmistakeable tonkotsu consistency and taste were complimented by slightly darker color one might expect from a typical milky-white tonkotsu soup (actually, it has been a bit of an issue in my own kitchen - my tonkotsu always turns out darker than I would like it to be; I tend to use more bones and natural skin gelatin than necessary). I think Rokurinsha broth color comes from a generous amount of bones used in the broth, but also from an addition of dried mackerel and, to a lesser degree, seaweed. The key player in the soup was the ground fish powder, no doubt ( the latter can be seen at the 6 o'clock position in the picture). Fish powder added an assertive, if not aggressive, umami component - I wasn't even sure if I liked it at first, but when the thick noodles found their new cradle in the broth all my concerns were laid to rest - I was simply hooked and just couldn't stop eating. Phenomenal bowl of noodles.

There is a lot to be said about Rokurinsha ramen, but it hardly can add anything to what two local Tokyo and independent from each other food writers have written about this gem of a restaurant in the past:

- first, exceptional in many ways, Japan Times and Tokyo Food File writer Robbie Swinnerton;

- second, extremely interesting and engaging Tokyo Cuisine Guide with Tokyo Joe at the helm;

Please refer to post by those exceptional bloggers for a different, and perhaps, a bit more comprehensive opinion of Rokurinsha ramen and tsukemen. All I can say - my $9.- meal at Rokurinsha was beyond exceptional - if only I could have those noodles again.

Photograph taken at an altitude of Fifty two metres, in the thick blanket of mist prior to the magic of the Golden Hour around sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 04:42am), at 03:29am on Thursday 19th June 2014 off Lullingstone Lane beside the Lullingstone Roman Villa in Eynsford Viaduct in the village of Eynsford, Kent, England.

Just to the far right you can see the Eynsford Viaduct. This impressive nine-arched red-brick viaduct is a prominent feature on the line to the 'Bat & Ball' station. The structure was built by the independent ''Sevenoaks Railway'', incorporated in 1859 to link the ''Chatham'' main line with the market town of Sevenoaks. And first services began on 2nd June 1862. The viaduct has nine arches of 30-foot span, and rises to a height of 75-feet above the valley and the River Darent.

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Nikon D800 78mm 1/2s f/18.0 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Mirror up. AG-S Single point focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering.Auto white balance.

Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED IF VRII. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

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LATITUDE: N 51d 21m 52.16s

LONGITUDE: E 0d 11m 48.64s

ALTITUDE: 52.0m

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED FILE: 9.39MB

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HP Pavillion Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. HD graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.90 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

The decorative architectural element shown in this photo is a gable ornament, specifically a gable truss ornament or gable truss finial bracket. More precisely, this particular style is often called:

💡 Gable Truss or Drop Pendant with Vergeboard (or Bargeboard) Trim

That's a bit much for everyday use, so I simply call it a gable ornament.

Here’s a breakdown of the components:

Vergeboard / Bargeboard: The yellow triangular panel with scalloped and stenciled details under the gable is called a bargeboard or vergeboard. These are decorative boards attached to the projecting edge of a gable roof.

Drop Pendant or Finial: The spindle-like vertical element hanging down from the horizontal beam is a pendant or finial—a common decorative feature in Carpenter Gothic and Victorian styles.

Decorative Truss: The horizontal crosspiece and spindle work within the gable form a decorative gable truss, sometimes referred to as a king post truss ornament, though this example is more symbolic than structural.

Fretwork or Spandrel work: The stylized cutouts and painted details echo fretwork, another term often used for such scroll-sawn wooden ornamentation.

Architectural Style Context

This type of ornamentation is typical of Carpenter Gothic, Folk Victorian, or Gothic Revival architecture, particularly in 19th-century American homes, chapels, and outbuildings. It combines both symbolic structure (like a truss) and decorative detail.

It is highly likely—though not certain—that the carpenter who made this gable ornament worked from a pattern book, a widely used resource in 19th- and early 20th-century American vernacular building.

Here’s why:

Pattern Books Were a Common Source of Ornamentation Designs

From the mid-1800s into the early 1900s, pattern books by architects, builders, and publishers were ubiquitous tools for rural carpenters and small-town builders. They provided:

Elevations, floor plans, and ornamental details

Templates for vergeboards, finials, brackets, porch columns, and gable trusses

A mix of practical guidance and aspirational taste

Some of the most influential authors included:

Andrew Jackson Downing – Cottage Residences (1842); emphasized moral uplift and taste

George Palliser & Palliser Brothers – Palliser’s Model Homes and others (1870s–90s)

Barber, Radford, Stickley, and others – Popular through the turn of the century

Asher Benjamin and Minard Lafever – Earlier, but influential in spreading classical and Gothic detailing

Craftsmen Adapted These Designs Freely

The truss in this photo:

Combines symmetry, turned spindles, and stylized botanical stencil work—a hallmark of pattern-book influence

Reflects a folk or small-town interpretation of more elaborate designs (often simplified due to skill, budget, or taste)

Includes details (e.g., scalloped vergeboard, painted drop pendant) that are nearly impossible to trace to structural logic—indicating a visual, not functional, origin

Even if the carpenter didn’t copy a design verbatim, they may have:

Traced a template from a book

Bought pre-cut millwork inspired by such patterns

Used a visual vocabulary absorbed from buildings based on books

Some Other Possibilities

Mill catalogs: By the 1880s–1900s, many elements like brackets and gable trim were sold ready-made from mill catalogs. A rural builder might have ordered a truss or vergeboard ornament from a regional sash and door company.

Local pattern sharing: Builders often created their own pattern boards and shared or reused them from job to job, evolving a kind of regional folk style.

Conclusion

It’s very likely that this gable ornament—especially if it's from a late 19th- or early 20th-century structure—descends either directly or indirectly from a pattern-book tradition. Whether traced, adapted, or bought ready-made, its DNA is almost certainly traceable to those ubiquitous print-era design manuals that shaped American streetscapes from coast to coast.

This text is a collaboration with Chat GPT.

The firing of the One o'clock Gun dates back to 1861 at precisely 13:00 (except Sundays). for citizens and visitors to Edinburgh to check their clocks and watches. The gun can be heard all over the Edinburgh, accompanied by a mass uprising of pigeons which can be observed as far as the eye can see!

The origin of the tradition lies in the days when sailing ships in the Firth of Forth were able to check and reset their chronometers in the days before accurate timepieces were available.

In 1861 Captain Wauchope, a Scottish Naval Officer in the Royal Navy invented the time ball, still seen today on top of Nelson's Monument , Calton Hill. At one O'clock the ball drops giving the signal to sailors, but this meant that someone would have to be looking out for it as it often couldn't be seen in foggy weather. So, in the same year, the gun was fired simultaneously to the time ball dropping. Originally an 18-pound muzzle loading cannon which needed four men to load and fire was fired from the Half Moon Battery.

The gun could be easily heard by ships in Leith Harbour (2 miles away) The cannon was replace with a 25 pound Howitzer in 1953 and has is now fired form Mill's Mount Battery on the North face of the Castle as seen here.

The gun is no longer required for its original purpose of course, but like the Castle it's one of the most popular place for visitors in Scotland.

A visit to Edinburgh's Castle is a thrilling experience with breathtaking views and a thousand photo opportunities. Looking down to Princes Street a Lothian Volvo / Gemini bus moves eastwards, passing what once was the Jacey - one of 40 cinemas in the Capital oh such a while ago now!

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***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on January 10th 2014

CREATIVE RF 531877495 *****

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Photograph taken at an altitude of Nine metres, in the magic of the Golden hour around sunrise at 05:41am, (sunrise was at precisely 06.15am) on Saturday 6th September 2014 off the Patricia Bay Highway 17, on Lochside Drive close to Frost Avenue and the Lochside Waterfront Park, in beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

Here, we are looking over towards Mt Baker in Washington State, USA from beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Also known as Koma Kulshan, (pronounced kō-ō’mah’ kool-shän’),she is an active glaciated andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington State in the United States, standing 3,286 metres tall and was first ascended in 1868, her last eruption recorded in 1880.

The name Mount Baker first appeared in print in Captain Vancouver’s 1798 narrative of his voyage around Vancouver Island. Legend has it that his third-lieutenant, Joseph Baker, was the first to spot the mountain while they sailed into Dungeness Bay on April 30th, 1792. Also known by the Lummi as Kwud-Shad, and Koba (meaning 'high mountain always covered with snow', was the Skagit name.

The Canadian Geese fly East to West across the bay each sunrise and return each Sunset, a beautiful sight to behold.

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Nikon D800 70mm 1/1000s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Manual focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED IF VRII. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

LATITUDE: N 48d 38m 15.77s

LONGITUDE: W 123d 24m 12.83s

ALTITUDE: 9.0m

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 11.75MB

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HP Pavillion P6-2388EA Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD 7570 graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.0 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

digital art

Photograph taken in the magic of The Golden Hour around Sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 07:46am), at an altitude of One metres, at 07:52am on Tuesday December 9th 2014 off Botany Road and Marine Drive, on the sandy shoreline of Botany Bay in Broadstairs, Kent, England.

I have come to Botany Bay ever since I was a child, and I love the fact that every visit is different, with the tide depositing and collecting chalk stones, debris and seaweed to offer a new experience each time. The cave is a favourite place, big enough to sit and watch the world go by, and often featuring a plethora of items, driftwood and stones that the tide has a care to offer.

A very chilly morning on the beach, around One degree, and a bracing wind that pounded flesh and bones, but well worth the one and a half hour journey there to enjoy a lovely sunrise. The seven bays in Broadstairs consist of: (From south to north) Dumpton Gap, Louisa Bay, Viking Bay, Stone Bay, Joss Bay, Kingsgate Bay and Botany Bay.

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Nikon D800 14mm 1/15s f/6.3 iso100 RAW (14Bit) Manual focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

Nikkor AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8G ED IF. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

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LATITUDE: N 51d 23m 15.49s

LONGITUDE: E 1d 26m 29.95s

ALTITUDE: 1.0m

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

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Processing power:

HP Pavillion P6-2388EA Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD 7570 graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.0 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

Hello darkness my old friend…

What you are (not) seeing, highlighted in blue, is dark matter. Webb was used to precisely map out the dark matter that is part of the makeup of two colliding galaxy clusters, with help from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. Webb captured more extremely faint galaxies in the Bullet Cluster than ever seen before (as well as foreground stars), allowing scientists to accurately determine the mass of the cluster.

Chandra data shows the hot, X-ray-emitting gas present between the two galaxy clusters (highlighted in pink). As these two galaxy clusters collided, this gas was dragged out and left behind. Webb observations show that the dark matter (in blue) still lines up with the galaxies and was not dragged away.

Normally galaxies consist of gas, dust, stars, and dark matter, all combined, even when the galaxies are part of a cluster. Observing this separation between the gas and dark matter is unusual.

While we cannot see dark matter because it does not emit light, it has mass and gravitational influence on light we can see. It can act like a lens, magnifying and warping objects behind it. Imagine dark matter as water so clear you can’t see it unless the wind ripples it. The ripples will distort the shapes of any pebbles below its surface. Likewise, dark matter distorts the shapes of distant background galaxies. We can’t see it, but we see its effects.

Read more at the link in our bio.

Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, CXC

Science credit: James Jee (Yonsei University, UC Davis), Sangjun Cha (Yonsei University), Kyle Finner (Caltech/IPAC)

Image description: Webb near-infrared data combined with Chandra X-ray data of the Bullet Cluster show many overlapping objects, including foreground stars, galaxies in galaxy clusters, and distorted background galaxies behind the galaxy clusters. The objects are all at various distances set against the black background of space. Most galaxies appear as tiny fuzzy ovals in white, orange, or red. A slightly larger, very bright, light blue spiral galaxy is at center. To its immediate left and right are two large bright pink splotches representing X-rays. The right pink area has a rounded nose facing right, where it is darker pink, and fades to the left as a triangular shape. This is referred to as the Bullet. To the far left and far right, next to the pink regions, are two blue regions representing dark matter mass. The left blue region is a large, long oval at an angle. The blue region at right is a far smaller oval.

Photograph taken at an altitude of Forty seven metres, prior to the magic of the Golden Hour around sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 04:42am), at 03:13am on Thursday 19th June 2014 off Lullingstone Lane overlooking a blanket of morning mist as it rolled across Eynsford Viaduct in the village of Eynsford, Kent, England.

This impressive nine-arched red-brick viaduct is a prominent feature on the line to the 'Bat & Ball' station. The structure was built by the independent ''Sevenoaks Railway'', incorporated in 1859 to link the ''Chatham'' main line with the market town of Sevenoaks. And first services began on 2nd June 1862. The viaduct has nine arches of 30-foot span, and rises to a height of 75-feet above the valley and the River Darent.

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Nikon D800 14mm 1/6s f/2.8 iso200 RAW (14 bit) Mirror up. AF-S auto mode. Manual exposure. Matrix metering.Auto white balance.

Nikkor AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8G ED IF. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

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LATITUDE: N 51d 22m 6.76s

LONGITUDE: E 0d 12m 11.10s

ALTITUDE: 47.0m

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED FILE: 31.06MB

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HP Pavillion Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. HD graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.90 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

Photograph taken at an altitude of Eight metres, amidst the first vestiges of light prior to the magic of the Golden hour around sunrise at 04:51am, (sunrise was at precisely 06.15am) on Saturday 6th September 2014 off the Patricia Bay Highway 17, on Lochside Drive close to Frost Avenue and the Lochside Waterfront Park, in beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

Here, I am standing beside the wooden decked viewing platform, looking over towards Mt Baker in Washington State, USA from beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Also known as Koma Kulshan, she is an active glaciated andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington State in the United States, standing 3,286 metres tall and was first ascended in 1868, her last eruption recorded in 1880.

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Nikon D800 70mm Two point five seconds long exposure f/7.1 AF-S single point focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED IF VRII. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

LATITUDE: N 48d 38m 15.74s

LONGITUDE: W 123d 24m 12.77s

ALTITUDE: 8.0m

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 15.27MB

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Processing power:

HP Pavillion P6-2388EA Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD 7570 graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.0 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

If I happen to be in Verdi Square when it starts to rain or snow, I usually retreat to a ledge near the entrance to the 72nd Street IRT subway station, and just sit watching people dash in and out of the subway building with their umbrellas. Because they're so concerned with the rain and precisely when they should open/close their umbrella to avoid getting hit by a single drop of moisture, they usually pay no attention to the crazy old guy with a camera, sitting over in the corner ...

... and so I often get some fairly unguarded shots of people. Like this one.

Note: this photo was published in a Jun 18, 2012 issue of Everyblock NYC zipcodes blog titled "10023."

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This is a continuation of Flickr sets that I created in 2011 (shown here), 2010 (shown here), 2009 (shown here), and 2008 (shown here) -- which, collectively, illustrate a variety of scenes and people in the small "pocket park" known as Verdi Square, located at 72nd Street and Broadway in New York City's Upper West Side, right by the 72nd St. IRT subway station.

I typically visit a local gym once or twice a week, and I get there by taking the downtown IRT express from my home (at 96th Street) down to the 72nd Street stop. Whenever possible, I try to schedule an extra 30-60 minutes to sit quietly on one of the park benches, and just watch the flow of people coming in and out of the park -- sometimes just passing through, to get from 72nd Street up to 73rd Street, but mostly entering or exiting the subway station.

You see all kinds of people here: students, bums, tourists, office workers, homeless people, retired people, babysitters, children, soldiers, sanitation workers, lovers, friends, dogs, cats, pigeons, and a few things that simply defy description. Sometimes you see the same people over and over again; sometimes they follow a regular pattern at a particular time of the day.

If I focus on the people entering the park at 73rd Street, and walking southwards toward the subway entrance, I typically have five or ten seconds to (a) decide if they're sufficiently interesting to bother photographing,(b) wait for them to get in a position where I can get a clear shot of them, and (c) focus my camera on them and take several shots, in the hope that at least one or two of them will be well-focused and really interesting.

While you might get the impression that I photograph every single person who moves through this park, it's actually just the opposite: the vast majority of people that I see here are just not all that interesting. (It's not that they're ugly, it's just that there's nothing interesting, memorable, or distinctive about them.) Even so, I might well take, say, 200 shots in the space of an hour. But some of them are repetitive or redundant, and others are blurred or out-of-focus, or technically defective in some other way. Of the ones that survive this kind of scrutiny, many turn out to be well-focused, nicely-composed, but ... well ... just "okay". I'll keep them on my computer, just in case, but I don't bother uploading them.

Typically, only about 5-10% of the photos I've taken get uploaded to Flickr -- e.g., about 10 photos from a one-hour session in which a thousand, or more, people have walked past me. There are some exceptions to this rule of thumb, as was the case with this particular set -- but nevertheless, what you're seeing it is indeed only a tiny, tiny subset of the "real" street scene in New York City. On the other hand, it is reassuring to see that there are at least a few "interesting" people in a city that often has a reputation of being mean, cold, and heartless...

100 Strangers - N°17

I met Pouline in Versailles. More precisely in the garden of the historical royal castle.

She was with her friend Franne (whose portrait is coming soon).

They were here for the week-end, coming from the Netherlands. It was great to talk with them as they were plenty of happiness, vivacity and joy.

It was funny because I've tried to ask them not to smile but I dropped because it looked like too unnatural for them :-)

Pouline work in recruitment in Amsterdam. I guess that a job interview with her is cool !

Thank you Pouline for this picture and your time. It was great to meet you and I hope that you will send me an email to say if you like the picture or not (I hope yes) !

This picture is #17 in my 100 strangers project. Find out more about the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page !

Photograph taken at an altitude of Three metres, during the first vestiges of ambient light prior to the magic of the Golden Hour around sunrise (which was at precisely 04:51am), at 03:09am on Monday 7th July 2014, off Botany Road and the Viking Coastal Trail above the shoreline of Botany Bay, the Northern most of seven bays in Broadstairs, Kent, England.

This frame looks out towards the Thanet offshore windfarm, which was officially opened on September 23rd 2010 and was for a time, the largest offshore windfarm project in the world. The eight lines of turbines, one hundred of them in total, run north-west to south-east, covering a total area of 35sq km off Foreness Point near Margate. Each turbine is 115 metres high with 44-metre blades, and the project cost between £780-900million

The seven bays in Broadstairs consist of: (From south to north) Dumpton Gap, Louisa Bay, Viking Bay, Stone Bay, Joss Bay, Kingsgate Bay and Botany Bay.

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Nikon D800 200mm 1/15s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Mirror up. Manual focus. Aperture Priority mode. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED IF VRII. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

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LATITUDE: N 51d 23m 20.41s

LONGITUDE: E 1d 26m 14.35s

ALTITUDE: 3.0m

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED FILE: 15.83MB

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Processing power:

HP Pavillion Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. HD graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.90 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

*****This photograph was selected by Getty Images (Creative RF Moment open) #521722013 in October 2014*****

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Photograph taken at an altitude of Eight metres, in the magic of the Golden hour around sunrise at 05:41am, (sunrise was at precisely 06.15am) on Saturday 6th September 2014 off the Patricia Bay Highway 17, on Lochside Drive close to Frost Avenue and the Lochside Waterfront Park, in beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

Here, I am standing beside the wooden decked viewing platform, looking over towards Mt Baker in Washington State, USA from beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Also known as Koma Kulshan, she is an active glaciated andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington State in the United States, standing 3,286 metres tall and was first ascended in 1868, her last eruption recorded in 1880.

These Canada Geese, along with many other small groups, fly across the lake from East to West every morning and back again every evening at Sunset, and I love to watch the classic Vee formations and listen to the honking as they pass me by. Geese in flight are called a Skein.

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Nikon D800 70mm 1/1000s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Manual focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED IF VRII. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

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LATITUDE: N 48d 38m 15.77s

LONGITUDE: W 123d 24m 12.84s

ALTITUDE: 8.0m

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 13.83MB

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Processing power:

HP Pavillion Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. HD graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.0 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

Rows of precisely angled girders create a bend in the road.

History was made on 13 April 2026 at precisely 6:44 in the morning - a good 20 minutes later than scheduled, mind - when East Yorkshire's first battery electric bus rolled out into service from Hull Interchange en-route to Priory Park park and ride. The bus, 20320, is one of eleven new Wright GB Kite Electroliners in a fleet of 27 new Wrightbus electrics, launched a couple of weeks ago at a really bizarre 'Shock the Dock' event that involved poor Coach & Bus Week reporter Maxson Goh getting hit in the face by his own goodie bag. It is said the vehicles are to be allocated to the cross-city 56, 57 and 58 services... so far, we've had one on the 20 and another on the 35! Classic East Yorkshire.

And now, the long awaited green buses bit: this isn't the first time that East Yorkshire Motor Services have operated buses in a green livery. Back in the days of the National Bus Company and its 'poppy red' and 'leaf green' livery chemes, trawling through the archives of the local bus group pulls up that at least five Bristol VRTs were acquired from Devon General in the early 1980s. One, which later became fleet number 922, remained painted in 'leaf green' livery and remained in service in the livery as late as 1986, where after deregulation, it was painted sharpish into red and white. There's also the handful of VRTs and Leyland Nationals transferred down to 'leaf green' Lincolnshire during the NBC period, and, of course, there's the infamous rebodied Leyland Atlanteans acquired for some reason off Cleveland Transit, some of which wore East Yorkshire fleetnames on top of green, white and yellow company livery prior to repaint, as was the style at the time. Any more transfers to East Yorkshire that wore a green livery back in the day? Feel free to let me know.

Seen on its first day in public service, East Yorkshire's 20320, a 2026 Wright GB Kite Electroliner, enters the Priory Park park and ride as it completes its last morning outbound working of the park and ride 20 service.

Win a TV here! Unfortunately I don't precisely know where here actually is - despite a lot of time searching I've been unable to work out where this was - anyone familiar with the Stoke area in this era? Edit Thanks to Martyn, see comments below, the location is now known - here's the same view in the present day - it's been a hand car wash since the start of Streetview www.google.com/maps/@53.015838,-2.190783,3a,75y,29.51h,85...

Photograph taken in the magic of The Golden Hour around Sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 07:46am), at an altitude of Zero metres, at 07:17am on Tuesday December 9th 2014 off Botany Road and Marine Drive, on the sandy shoreline of Botany Bay in Broadstairs, Kent, England.

A very chilly morning on the beach, around One degree, and a bracing wind that pounded flesh and bones, but well worth the one and a half hour journey there to enjoy a lovely sunrise. The seven bays in Broadstairs consist of: (From south to north) Dumpton Gap, Louisa Bay, Viking Bay, Stone Bay, Joss Bay, Kingsgate Bay and Botany Bay.

Nikon D800 24mm 1/13S f/2.8 iso200 RAW (14Bit) AF-S single point focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

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Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED IF. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

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LATITUDE: N 51d 23m 15.16s

LONGITUDE: E 1d 26m 29.12s

ALTITUDE: 0.0m

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 14.50MB

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Processing power:

HP Pavillion P6-2388EA Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD 7570 graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.0 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

Photograph taken at an altitude of Eight metres, in the magic of the Golden hour around sunrise at 05:43am, (sunrise was at precisely 06.15am) on Saturday 6th September 2014 off the Patricia Bay Highway 17, on Lochside Drive close to Frost Avenue and the Lochside Waterfront Park, in beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

Here, I am standing beside the wooden decked viewing platform, looking over towards Mt Baker in Washington State, USA from beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Also known as Koma Kulshan, she is an active glaciated andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington State in the United States, standing 3,286 metres tall and was first ascended in 1868, her last eruption recorded in 1880.

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Nikon D800 120mm 1/1600s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Manual focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED IF VRII. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

LATITUDE: N 48d 38m 15.80s

LONGITUDE: W 123d 24m 12.88s

ALTITUDE: 8.0m

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 8.74MB

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Processing power:

HP Pavillion P6-2388EA Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD 7570 graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.0 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

Think a day at Mini golf exotique, precisely Avenue du Grand Jardin 83980 au Le Lavandou.

Sun, green, open space, dogs, sand, lake, waterfalls, palms, all in one place?

Kesenia will be there, relaxing, playing, posing, thinking, hiding, drinking.

Sure the Mini Golf exotique is what you need to relaxing and make some appearances, paparazzi are around as usual, paparazzi are everywhere the hottest diva of the web will be, so they cannot miss Mini Golf Exotique that day.

Cherry, Strawberry, Blueberry, Black Cherry, Cherry Berry, Black Berry, Burberry, Berry, Huckleberry, ....

Google just one of this spam words to find the latest exploit of Kesenia, web folks looking as much pics as possible, but seems that nothing new was spotted about her since the MAMAC.

But Kesenia doesn't dare of fuss and speculations, she doesn't care less of the gossip spreaded on E! or on Just Jared, those rumors are died and doom now, now it's time for something new.

For the first time in a casual style, she's hitted the golf course fitted in a Chanel cherry and cream tones coat with mongolia fur insert, Burberry plaid print capri, and a flower laser cut blouse in vanilla color from Ferré, matching belt and luggage from Roberta DiCamerino, her style is completed from Zanotti higth heeled boots in copper pink cow leather, Ralph Lauren blue royale hat, and argyle socks.

As usual Kesenia cannot do less than some fine jewerly, as pearl 'n' garnet necklace and matching bracelets from Damiani, moreover some cuff lucite bracelet from Tarina Tarantino.

Caligola make his first appearence to the wordwide press, a pure breed pittbull 4 years old, that Kesenia brought along with her so he can enjoy a bit outdoor.

Someone rumored that is an easier way to avoid troublesome, and keep away paparazzi, as Caligola is an attack dog.

At this time the task seems hard even for the °Papafan° of Kesenia, or maybe he will be the only one to have some exclusive new pics?And where will be published those pics?

On People?US Weekly?Cosmopolitan?

Raising her club, while at the same time keep the golf ball in the other hand, Kesenia staring at the goal, make a hole out with one putt , she's intent to win the mach, no time for distractions.

Kesenia eyes seems venemous while she's glancing in the same direction of Caligola, pointing the last hole, she's the perfect bowler, she's the fierce of the green today:

"No one can beat me, so why don't you enjoy me?"

sentece Kesenia straight in the face at the paprazzi that crowded themselves to payable distance snapping pics, and querelling to have the best angle to have the nicest pics possible.

Than the green man went mad, all those crazy paparazzi jumping on the green without the appropriate shoes,so he pushed them even further away.

Kesenia laugh so hard that even Caligola staring at her with curiosity:

"Oh poor you guys, seems that today nothing going right for you, you cannot play, you cannot snap pics, you cannot win..guess what the prize will be ? "

speaks Kesenia while the paparazzi kept complaining to the green man, following she pinch and putt and hollow out the last hole.

"Game over, i'm the winner!"

singing for the victory smiling and exulting Kesenia brandishing a futuristic arbre magic shape casted in platinum with diamonds set in trophy.

After that Kesenia walks away slowly carrying her Prada golf bag, black and white goat leather, and with a wink drew the attention of her pal:

"Hey what you're thinking about?What do you expect?"

murmured the diva moving away with Caligola to the golf cart, where inside there was a man, but who?

"Bye Bye see you next time poor chaps..."

salute Kesenia with her gloved hand while the golf cart passing fastly and disappeared instantly.

The following days posed pics of the model golfing have been published on some fashion mags, the new style now is called Accidentally Golfy with Arbre Magic, the new sporty chic according to the editorial, and the new diva is Kesenia.

But who gave those pics to mags carefully selected, are wondering reporters, there can be only one....°Papafan°??

*Dress code: Casual golfing chique*

Credits:

Hat: Nippon Misaki Puppy Love

Earrings: Fashion Royalty

Necklace: Kitty Collier by Robert Tonner

Pearls Bracelets: Kitty Collier by Robert Tonner

Cuff Bracelts: Brazt

Black Glove: Bratz

Blouse: Eugenia spring forward

Coat: Fashion Fever Mattel

Belt: Eugenia Spring Forward

Capri plaid pants: Fashion Fever Benetton by Mattel

Bag: Adele Graphic Language

Argyle Socks: Bratz

Shoes: Metal Mauven Vanessa

Golf bag: Bratz

Clubs: Bratz

Golf Ball: Bratz

Just happened to catch the counter at precisely two million...

§ 3 - A tranny princess is by law allowed to dress only and precisely according to her own wish.

Quote: ”The T-girl constitution of 1969”

And so to day I thought to my self, why not try to step down from my throne of femininity and mingle among the more ordinary, the ”common” girls of the realm? Why not just for a glimpse try to identify my self with the subjects of the kingdom, why not ”go slumming” as an ordinary girl?

”Hmmm...” I thought to myself putting on make up and sipping my drink, ”Now there's an idea. Hmmm....”

My mother (who does a LOT of charity work) stumbled over this SWEET SWEET dress and thought of me (sigh) It´s not THAT fortunate at the ”upper” end, but nothing a top won't deal with, as a skirt, it is... silky smooth thin and feel like heaven is breezing around your nylon clad legs * double sigh * I LOVE that dress for it´s skirt-potential and even though you can only see it ”skirt wise” underneath the coat, it is simply perfect as such :o)

But to be honest I DID bring a pair of silver stilettos in the hand bag, as always to be able to change back into a princess if need be, or if being ”ordinary” was feeling a little TOO dull.... it did, but it was still fun :o)

I'll be back in a minute...I mean five days precisely

"As I stand by your flame

I get burned once again

Feelin' low down, I'm blue

As I sit by the fire

Of your warm desire

I've got the blues for you, yeah

Every night you've been away

I've sat down and I have prayed

That you're safe in the arms of a guy

Who will bring you alive

Won't drag you down with abuse

In the silk sheet of time

I will find peace of mind

Love is a bed full of blues

And I've got the blues for you

And I've got the blues for you

And I'll bust my brains out for you

And I'll tear my hair out

I'm gonna tear my hair out just for you

If you don't believe what I'm singing

At three o'clock in the morning, babe, well

I'm singing my song for you"

"Yellow Submarine", The Beatles

Nothing brings tranquility better than satisfaction. Nothing brings satisfaction than getting precisely what you want. Nothing gets what you want but hard work. Hard work cant produce results unless its fun doing that. Which is precisely what i did all day today. A fantastic shoot with two friends. Too much fun was had and lots of pictures shot.

I'll be uploading a few good ones shortly...

Canon EOS 400D with the Canon EF 50Mm F/1.4 USM. Manual, F/2.8 at 1/80th of a Sec, ISO100.

All Rights Reserved. Owner and Usage Rights belongs to Dilip Muralidaran. Any use of this work in hard or soft copy or transfer must be done with the expressed consent of Dilip Muralidaran in written. Failing to do so will result in violation as per Section 63 of the Indian Copyrights Act, 1957 & Forgery, Fraud, Misrepresentation and Misinformation as per the Indian Penal Code Section 420 leading to severe legal consequences.

Precisely on time, Amtrak's Los Angeles-bound Southwest Chief leaves the Chicago skyline behind as it departs from Union Station. Oh, to have been here during the glory years!

October 13, 2013

“The worst trouble is precisely to not know why, without love and without hatred, my heart feel so much sorrow!” (It’s crying upon my heart.)

Paris, boulevard Saint-Germain, January 2013.

clok_moitie on Twitter.

It was sent by Manannan to return Cliodhna (the goddess of the underworld and beauty) back to the land of the dead.37 It is thought likely that Tonn Cliodhna represents the bursting of Llyn Llion. In some versions that same flood kills a visitor as he sleeps in Glandore harbour, which probably lay on dry land south of Cork....Several Ancient Egyptian solar ships and boat pits were found in many Ancient Egyptian sites. The most famous is the Khufu ship now preserved in the Giza Solar boat museum beside the Great pyramid at Giza. The full-sized ships or boats were buried near Ancient Egyptians' Pyramids or Temples at many sites. The history and function of the ships are not precisely known. They might be of the type known as a "solar barge", a ritual vessel to carry the resurrected king with the sun god Ra across the heavens. However, some ships bear signs of being used in water, and it is possible that these ships were a funerary "barge".

Almost all of Judaeo-Christianity can be traced to Egyptian origins, which has been noticed by many scholars reluctant to accept it. That versions of the Book of the Dead have Thoth ordering the Flood as occurred in Scripture is a fact so obscure not many Egyptologists know itThe Book of the Dead is an ancient Egyptian funerary text, used from the beginning of the New Kingdom (around 1550 BCE) to around 50 BCE.The original Egyptian name for the text, transliterated rw nw prt m hrw is translated as Book of Coming Forth by Day.Another translation would be Book of Emerging Forth into the Light. "Book" is the closest term to describe the loose collection of texts consisting of a number of magic spells intended to assist a dead person's journey through the Duat, or underworld, and into the afterlife and written by many priests over a period of about 1000 years.

The Book of the Dead was part of a tradition of funerary texts which includes the earlier Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts, which were painted onto objects, not papyrus. Some of the spells included were drawn from these older works and date to the 3rd millennium BCE. Other spells were composed later in Egyptian history, dating to the Third Intermediate Period (11th to 7th centuries BCE). A number of the spells which made up the Book continued to be inscribed on tomb walls and sarcophagi, as had always been the spells from which they originated. The Book of the Dead was placed in the coffin or burial chamber of the deceased.

There was no single or canonical Book of the Dead. The surviving papyri contain a varying selection of religious and magical texts and vary considerably in their illustration. Some people seem to have commissioned their own copies of the Book of the Dead, perhaps choosing the spells they thought most vital in their own progression to the afterlife. The Book of the Dead was most commonly written in hieroglyphic or hieratic script on a papyrus scroll, and often illustrated with vignettes depicting the deceased and their journey into the afterlife.The Book of the Dead developed from a tradition of funerary manuscripts dating back to the Egyptian Old Kingdom. The first funerary texts were the Pyramid Texts, first used in the Pyramid of King Unas of the 5th dynasty, around 2400 BCE.[5] These texts were written on the walls of the burial chambers within pyramids, and were exclusively for the use of the Pharaoh (and, from the 6th dynasty, the Queen). The Pyramid Texts were written in an unusual hieroglyphic style; many of the hieroglyphs representing humans or animals were left incomplete or drawn mutilated, most likely to prevent them causing any harm to the dead pharaoh.The purpose of the Pyramid Texts was to help the dead King take his place amongst the gods, in particular to reunite him with his divine father Ra; at this period the afterlife was seen as being in the sky, rather than the underworld described in the Book of the Dead.Towards the end of the Old Kingdom, the Pyramid Texts ceased to be an exclusively royal privilege, and were adopted by regional governors and other high-ranking officials.

In the Middle Kingdom, a new funerary text emerged, the Coffin Texts. The Coffin Texts used a newer version of the language, new spells, and included illustrations for the first time. The Coffin Texts were most commonly written on the inner surfaces of coffins, though they are occasionally found on tomb walls or on papyri. The Coffin Texts were available to wealthy private individuals, vastly increasing the number of people who could expect to participate in the afterlife; a process which has been described as the "democratization of the afterlife".

The Book of the Dead first developed in Thebes toward the beginning of the Second Intermediate Period, around 1700 BCE. The earliest known occurrence of the spells included in the Book of the Dead is from the coffin of Queen Mentuhotep, of the 13th dynasty, where the new spells were included amongst older texts known from the Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts. Some of the spells introduced at this time claim an older provenance; for instance the rubric to spell 30B states that it was discovered by the Prince Hordjedef in the reign of King Menkaure, many hundreds of years before it is attested in the archaeological record.

By the 17th dynasty, the Book of the Dead had become widespread not only for members of the royal family, but courtiers and other officials as well. At this stage, the spells were typically inscribed on linen shrouds wrapped around the dead, though occasionally they are found written on coffins or on papyrus.

The New Kingdom saw the Book of the Dead develop and spread further. The famous Spell 125, the 'Weighing of the Heart', is first known from the reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, c.1475 BCE. From this period onward the Book of the Dead was typically written on a papyrus scroll, and the text illustrated with vignettes. During the 19th dynasty in particular, the vignettes tended to be lavish, sometimes at the expense of the surrounding text.

In the Third Intermediate Period, the Book of the Dead started to appear in hieratic script, as well as in the traditional hieroglyphics. The hieratic scrolls were a cheaper version, lacking illustration apart from a single vignette at the beginning, and were produced on smaller papyri. At the same time, many burials used additional funerary texts, for instance the Amduat.

During the 25th and 26th dynasties, the Book of the Dead was updated, revised and standardised. Spells were consistently ordered and numbered for the first time. This standardised version is known today as the 'Saite recension', after the Saite (26th) dynasty. In the Late period and Ptolemaic period, the Book of the Dead remained based on the Saite recension, though increasingly abbreviated towards the end of the Ptolemaic period. New funerary texts appeared, including the Book of Breathing and Book of Traversing Eternity. The last use of the Book of the Dead was in the 1st century BCE, though some artistic motifs drawn from it were still in use in Roman times.The Book of the Dead is made up of a number of individual texts and their accompanying illustrations. Most sub-texts begin with the word ro, which can mean "mouth," "speech," "spell," "utterance," "incantation," or "a chapter of a book." This ambiguity reflects the similarity in Egyptian thought between ritual speech and magical power. In the context of the Book of the Dead, it is typically translated as either "chapter" or "spell." In this article, the word "spell" is used.

At present, some 192 spells are known,though no single manuscript contains them all. They served a range of purposes. Some are intended to give the deceased mystical knowledge in the afterlife, or perhaps to identify them with the gods: for instance, Spell 17 is an obscure and lengthy description of the god Atum. Others are incantations to ensure the different elements of the dead person's being were preserved and reunited, and to give the deceased control over the world around him. Still others protect the deceased from various hostile forces or guide him through the underworld past various obstacles. Famously, two spells also deal with the judgement of the deceased in the Weighing of the Heart ritual.

Such spells as 26 - 30, and sometimes spells 6 and 126, relate to the heart and were inscribed on scarabs.

The texts and images of the Book of the Dead were magical as well as religious. Magic was as legitimate an activity as praying to the gods, even when the magic was aimed at controlling the gods themselves.Indeed, there was little distinction for the Ancient Egyptians between magical and religious practice. The concept of magic (heka) was also intimately linked with the spoken and written word. The act of speaking a ritual formula was an act of creation; there is a sense in which action and speech were one and the same thing. The magical power of words extended to the written word. Hieroglyphic script was held to have been invented by the god Thoth, and the hieroglyphs themselves were powerful. Written words conveyed the full force of a spell.This was even true when the text was abbreviated or omitted, as often occurred in later Book of the Dead scrolls, particularly if the accompanying images were present. The Egyptians also believed that knowing the name of something gave power over it; thus, the Book of the Dead equips its owner with the mystical names of many of the entities he would encounter in the afterlife, giving him power over them.

The spells of the Book of the Dead made use of several magical techniques which can also be seen in other areas of Egyptian life. A number of spells are for magical amulets, which would protect the deceased from harm. In addition to being represented on a Book of the Dead papyrus, these spells appeared on amulets wound into the wrappings of a mummy. Everyday magic made use of amulets in huge numbers. Other items in direct contact with the body in the tomb, such as headrests, were also considered to have amuletic value. A number of spells also refer to Egyptian beliefs about the magical healing power of saliva.

Organization

Almost every Book of the Dead was unique, containing a different mixture of spells drawn from the corpus of texts available. For most of the history of the Book of the Dead there was no defined order or structure. In fact, until Paul Barguet's 1967 "pioneering study" of common themes between texts,Egyptologists concluded there was no internal structure at all. It is only from the Saite period (26th dynasty) onwards that there is a defined order.

The Books of the Dead from the Saite period tend to organize the Chapters into four sections:

Chapters 1–16* The deceased enters the tomb and descends to the underworld, and the body regains its powers of movement and speech.

Chapters 17–63 Explanation of the mythic origin of the gods and places. The deceased is made to live again so that he may arise, reborn, with the morning sun.

Chapters 64–129 The deceased travels across the sky in the sun ark as one of the blessed dead. In the evening, the deceased travels to the underworld to appear before Osiris.

Chapters 130–189 Having been vindicated, the deceased assumes power in the universe as one of the gods. This section also includes assorted chapters on protective amulets, provision of food, and important places.

Egyptian concepts of death and afterlife

A vignette in The Papyrus of Ani, from Spell 30B: Spell For Not Letting Ani's Heart Create Opposition Against Him, in the Gods' Domain, which contains a depiction of the ba of the deceased

The spells in the Book of the Dead depict Egyptian beliefs about the nature of death and the afterlife. The Book of the Dead is a vital source of information about Egyptian beliefs in this area.

Preservation

One aspect of death was the disintegration of the various kheperu, or modes of existence.Funerary rituals served to re-integrate these different aspects of being. Mummification served to preserve and transform the physical body into sah, an idealised form with divine aspects;the Book of the Dead contained spells aimed at preserving the body of the deceased, which may have been recited during the process of mummification.The heart, which was regarded as the aspect of being which included intelligence and memory, was also protected with spells, and in case anything happened to the physical heart, it was common to bury jewelled heart scarabs with a body to provide a replacement. The ka, or life-force, remained in the tomb with the dead body, and required sustenance from offerings of food, water and incense. In case priests or relatives failed to provide these offerings, Spell 105 ensured the ka was satisfied.The name of the dead person, which constituted their individuality and was required for their continued existence, was written in many places throughout the Book, and spell 25 ensured the deceased would remember their own name.The ba was a free-ranging spirit aspect of the deceased. It was the ba, depicted as a human-headed bird, which could "go forth by day" from the tomb into the world; spells 61 and 89 acted to preserve it.[33] Finally, the shut, or shadow of the deceased, was preserved by spells 91, 92 and 188. If all these aspects of the person could be variously preserved, remembered, and satiated, then the dead person would live on in the form of an akh. An akh was a blessed spirit with magical powers who would dwell among the gods.

Afterlife

The nature of the afterlife which the dead person enjoyed is difficult to define, because of the differing traditions within Ancient Egyptian religion. In the Book of the Dead, the dead were taken into the presence of the god Osiris, who was confined to the subterranean Duat. There are also spells to enable the ba or akh of the dead to join Ra as he travelled the sky in his sun-barque, and help him fight off Apep. As well as joining the Gods, the Book of the Dead also depicts the dead living on in the 'Field of Reeds', a paradisiac likeness of the real world.The Field of Reeds is depicted as a lush, plentiful version of the Egypt of the living. There are fields, crops, oxen, people and waterways. The deceased person is shown encountering the Great Ennead, a group of gods, as well as his or her own parents. While the depiction of the Field of Reeds is pleasant and plentiful, it is also clear that manual labour is required. For this reason burials included a number of statuettes named shabti, or later ushebti. These statuettes were inscribed with a spell, also included in the Book of the Dead, requiring them to undertake any manual labour that might be the owner's duty in the afterlife. It is also clear that the dead not only went to a place where the gods lived, but that they acquired divine characteristics themselves. In many occasions, the deceased is mentioned as "The Osiris – [Name]" in the Book of the Dead.

Two 'gate spells'. On the top register, Ani and his wife face the 'seven gates of the House of Osiris'. Below, they encounter ten of the 21 'mysterious portals of the House of Osiris in the Field of Reeds'. All are guarded by unpleasant protectors.

The path to the afterlife as laid out in the Book of the Dead was a difficult one. The deceased was required to pass a series of gates, caverns and mounds guarded by supernatural creatures.These terrifying entities were armed with enormous knives and are illustrated in grotesque forms, typically as human figures with the heads of animals or combinations of different ferocious beasts. Their names—for instance, "He who lives on snakes" or "He who dances in blood"—are equally grotesque. These creatures had to be pacified by reciting the appropriate spells included in the Book of the Dead; once pacified they posed no further threat, and could even extend their protection to the dead person. Another breed of supernatural creatures was 'slaughterers' who killed the unrighteous on behalf of Osiris; the Book of the Dead equipped its owner to escape their attentions. As well as these supernatural entities, there were also threats from natural or supernatural animals, including crocodiles, snakes, and beetles.

Judgment

The Weighing of the Heart ritual, shown in the Book of the Dead of Sesostris

If all the obstacles of the Duat could be negotiated, the deceased would be judged in the "Weighing of the Heart" ritual, depicted in Spell 125. The deceased was led by the god Anubis into the presence of Osiris. There, the dead person swore that he had not committed any sin from a list of 42 sins,[44] reciting a text known as the "Negative Confession". Then the dead person's heart was weighed on a pair of scales, against the goddess Maat, who embodied truth and justice. Maat was often represented by an ostrich feather, the hieroglyphic sign for her name.At this point, there was a risk that the deceased's heart would bear witness, owning up to sins committed in life; Spell 30B guarded against this eventuality. If the scales balanced, this meant the deceased had led a good life. Anubis would take them to Osiris and they would find their place in the afterlife, becoming maa-kheru, meaning "vindicated" or "true of voice".If the heart was out of balance with Maat, then another fearsome beast called Ammit, the Devourer, stood ready to eat it and put the dead person's afterlife to an early and unpleasant end.

This scene is remarkable not only for its vividness but as one of the few parts of the Book of the Dead with any explicit moral content. The judgment of the dead and the Negative Confession were a representation of the conventional moral code which governed Egyptian society. For every "I have not..." in the Negative Confession, it is possible to read an unexpressed "Thou shalt not".While the Ten Commandments of Judeo-Christian ethics are rules of conduct laid down by a perceived divine revelation, the Negative Confession is more a divine enforcement of everyday morality.[49] Views differ among Egyptologists about how far the Negative Confession represents a moral absolute, with ethical purity being necessary for progress to the Afterlife. John Taylor points out the wording of Spells 30B and 125 suggests a pragmatic approach to morality; by preventing the heart from contradicting him with any inconvenient truths, it seems that the deceased could enter the afterlife even if their life had not been entirely pure.Ogden Goelet says "without an exemplary and moral existence, there was no hope for a successful afterlife",while Geraldine Pinch suggests that the Negative Confession is essentially similar to the spells protecting from demons, and that the success of the Weighing of the Heart depended on the mystical knowledge of the true names of the judges rather than on the deceased's moral behaviour.

Producing a Book of the Dead

Part of the Book of the Dead of Pinedjem II. The text is hieratic, except for hieroglyphics in the vignette. The use of red pigment, and the joins between papyrus sheets, are also visible.

A close-up of the Papyrus of Ani, showing the cursive hieroglyphs of the text

A Book of the Dead papyrus was produced to order by scribes. They were commissioned by people in preparation for their own funeral, or by the relatives of someone recently deceased. They were expensive items; one source gives the price of a Book of the Dead scroll as one deben of silver,[51] perhaps half the annual pay of a labourer.Papyrus itself was evidently costly, as there are many instances of its re-use in everyday documents, creating palimpsests. In one case, a Book of the Dead was written on second-hand papyrus.

Most owners of the Book of the Dead were evidently part of the social elite; they were initially reserved for the royal family, but later papyri are found in the tombs of scribes, priests and officials. Most owners were men, and generally the vignettes included the owner's wife as well. Towards the beginning of the history of the Book of the Dead, there are roughly 10 copies belonging to men for every one for a woman. However, during the Third Intermediate Period, 2/3 were for women; and women owned roughly a third of the hieratic paypri from the Late and Ptolemaic Periods.

The dimensions of a Book of the Dead could vary widely; the longest is 40m long while some are as short as 1m. They are composed of sheets of papyrus joined together, the individual papyri varying in width from 15 cm to 45 cm. The scribes working on Book of the Dead papyri took more care over their work than those working on more mundane texts; care was taken to frame the text within margins, and to avoid writing on the joints between sheets. The words peret em heru, or 'coming forth by day' sometimes appear on the reverse of the outer margin, perhaps acting as a label.

Books were often prefabricated in funerary workshops, with spaces being left for the name of the deceased to be written in later.For instance, in the Papyrus of Ani, the name "Ani" appears at the top or bottom of a column, or immediately following a rubric introducing him as the speaker of a block of text; the name appears in a different handwriting to the rest of the manuscript, and in some places is mis-spelt or omitted entirely.

The text of a New Kingdom Book of the Dead was typically written in cursive hieroglyphs, most often from left to right, but also sometimes from right to left. The hieroglyphs were in columns, which were separated by black lines – a similar arrangement to that used when hieroglyphs were carved on tomb walls or monuments. Illustrations were put in frames above, below, or between the columns of text. The largest illustrations took up a full page of papyrus.

From the 21st Dynasty onward, more copies of the Book of the Dead are found in hieratic script. The calligraphy is similar to that of other hieratic manuscripts of the New Kingdom; the text is written in horizontal lines across wide columns (often the column size corresponds to the size of the papyrus sheets of which a scroll is made up). Occasionally a hieratic Book of the Dead contains captions in hieroglyphic.

The text of a Book of the Dead was written in both black and red ink, regardless of whether it was in hieroglyphic or hieratic script. Most of the text was in black, with red ink used for the titles of spells, opening and closing sections of spells, the instructions to perform spells correctly in rituals, and also for the names of dangerous creatures such as the demon Apep. The black ink used was based on carbon, and the red ink on ochre, in both cases mixed with water.

The style and nature of the vignettes used to illustrate a Book of the Dead varies widely. Some contain lavish colour illustrations, even making use of gold leaf. Others contain only line drawings, or one simple illustration at the opening.

Book of the Dead papyri were often the work of several different scribes and artists whose work was literally pasted together. It is usually possible to identify the style of more than one scribe used on a given manuscript, even when the manuscript is a shorter one.The text and illustrations were produced by different scribes; there are a number of Books where the text was completed but the illustrations were left empty.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_the_Dead

I took precisely 500 photos today, it was so awesome … fog everywhere. I will upload many more later, but I am too tired right now. This photo is only cropped (original photo below), everything else is untouched.

This photo is my first to hit explore, thank you very much. =)

Explore #500

Photograph taken at an altitude of Seven metres, in the magic of the Golden hour around sunrise at 05:31am, (sunrise was at precisely 06.15am) on Saturday 6th September 2014 off the Patricia Bay Highway 17, on Lochside Drive close to Frost Avenue and the Lochside Waterfront Park, in beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

Here, I am standing beside the wooden decked viewing platform, looking over towards Mt Baker in Washington State, USA from beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Also known as Koma Kulshan, she is an active glaciated andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington State in the United States, standing 3,286 metres tall and was first ascended in 1868, her last eruption recorded in 1880.

These Canada Geese, along with many other small groups, fly across the lake from East to West every morning and back again every evening at Sunset, and I love to watch the classic Vee formations and listen to the honking as they pass me by. In flight, a group of Geese are called, a Skein.

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Nikon D800 116mm 1/500s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Manual focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED IF VRII. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

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LATITUDE: N 48d 38m 15.80s

LONGITUDE: W 123d 24m 12.85s

ALTITUDE: 7.0m

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 15.02MB

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Processing power:

HP Pavillion Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. HD graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.0 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

This was my first time photographing snow with my brand new Nikon 70-200VRII and for some unknown reasons, first time publishing this picture, in Black and White.

Maybe because it has been precisely one year since this picture has been taken, but most importantly it is the journey that I've taken and everything that happen in 2012.

To resume, I lost job, found a new one, my (first child) daughter was born in July, lost job again, made some miracles to travel to Brazil for Christmas and back here, 2013.

Last year I had to take some “time out” pretty much to dedicate to the new born. It is not every day you are a first time father, but the reason for a picture of snow when it is not actually snowing is: change.

Like the season, we all change to time, learn new things, forget others and if you are luckily, you get rid of bad things, specially what haunts you. And I did that, changed.

Anyway, talking about this pic. It was quite early in the morning, just a few brave souls walking in the park. The snow was really high and with not a proper boots, it was quite challenging. I decided to take the entire sessions of pictures with the 70-200. Something I learn in photography is that you need to adapt, trust your instincts and learn to use what you have at the moment. I normally do that. Snow is quite tricky for the camera auto balance. I did use ExpoDisc auto balance and made the final adjustments in LightRoom and CS6 so the snow looks like snow and played around with adjustments to get the tress kind black.

Nikon D7000 & Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II

Post Production with Lightroom 4.1 and Nik Software

©2012, byVini photography

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At precisely 06:30am on 2nd September 1982 the signal is pulled off and very shortly the March Whitemoor Yard to Norwich wagonload freight service rounds the curve over the level crossing and through Brandon station, on the edge of the Thetford Forest. On this splendid late summer's morning, Toton-allocated 'Peak' class 45 No.45005 was in charge, with the second man in the process of enjoying his brew.

© Gordon Edgar - All rights reserved. Please do not use my images without my explicit permission

Looking east to the eastern edge of the town.

"Piesport is a local community in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate and the largest wine-growing town in the Mosel wine-growing region. She has been a member of the Bernkastel-Kues municipality since January 1, 2012.

The local community is located, surrounded by vineyards, meadows and forests, on a loop of the Moselle that bulges out to the north in the Moselle valley between Bernkastel-Kues and Trier, more precisely between Minheim and Neumagen. The district of Piesport is located on the left bank of the river on the Eifel side. On the opposite, gently rising side of the river on the Hunsrück side is the Müstert district and a little further downstream, at the exit of the loop, is the Reinsport district. The higher district around the church of St. Martin is Emmel. Ferres is located slightly upstream on the left bank of the river. Müstert used to consist of just a few houses that gather around the All Saints Chapel at the bridgehead of the lower of the two Moselle bridges. This district grew together with Emmel and Reinsport over the centuries and formed the independent municipality of Niederemmel until the administrative reform in 1969. The B 53, the Moseluferstrasse, runs through the district of Niederemmel. From here, at a roundabout at the entrance to the town from the direction of Neumagen, the L 50 branches off to the north over the Moselle bridge to Klausen and the L 156 branches off to the south towards Neumagen-Dhron.

It can be assumed that in Roman times there was a ford through the Moselle at the site of today's town, through which wagons could drive when the water level was low. This ford was dedicated to Mercurius Bigentius, a local deity, from which the name Porto Pingontio was derived, which gradually became Piesport.

A sanctuary was also dedicated to Bigentius, which stood on the northern, left-hand bank on the mountain slope and which is now only remembered by the chapel house, which is also popularly known as Michelskirch ( Lage→ ). In Christian times it was replaced by a church dedicated to the Archangel Michael, which was attested in 1350 as the matrix ecclesia (“mother church”). Because of the long and arduous journey to the parish of Piesport on the banks of the Moselle, a new church was finally built, today's parish church of St. Michael.

The Romans already settled in the region around Piesport. The vineyards framed the place “like the tiers of an amphitheater,” wrote the poet Ausonius. The largest Roman wine press north of the Alps was discovered and partially reconstructed in 1985 between the districts of Alt-Piesport and Ferres. It is the center of the Roman Press Festival, which takes place annually on the second weekend in October. In 1950, a Roman diatret jar was found in a sarcophagus in a burial ground near Niederemmel, which is now in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier. Witnesses to the Roman era are also the Roman road (L 157) on the height between Niederemmel and Morbach, where a Roman grave was found near the Tonnkopf hunting lodge, as well as the Römerhof on the southern outskirts of Niederemmel. There was also a Roman milestone at the Tonnkopf.

The first documented mention of Piesport was in 776. Between 1506 and 1508, Piesport lost 82 of its 95 citizens (households) to the plague. In the Middle Ages and early modern times, Piesport was part of Kurtrier. From 1794 the area was under French rule, and in 1815 it was assigned to the Kingdom of Prussia at the Congress of Vienna. Since 1946 it has been part of the then newly formed state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

Today's community was re-formed on June 7, 1969 from the dissolved communities of Piesport (then 503 residents) and Niederemmel (1,633 residents).

Mosel (German: [ˈmoːzl̩]) is one of 13 German wine regions (Weinbaugebiete) for quality wines (Qualitätswein, formerly QbA and Prädikatswein), and takes its name from the Mosel River (French: Moselle; Luxembourgish: Musel). Before 1 August 2007 the region was called Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, but changed to a name that was considered more consumer-friendly. The wine region is Germany's third largest in terms of production but some consider it the leading region in terms of international prestige.

The region covers the valleys of the rivers Mosel, Saar, and Ruwer from near the mouth of the Mosel at Koblenz and upstream to the vicinity of Trier in the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The area is known for the steep slopes of the region's vineyards overlooking the river. At 65° degrees incline, the steepest recorded vineyard in the world is the Calmont vineyard located on the Mosel and belonging to the village of Bremm, and therefore referred to as Bremmer Calmont. The Mosel is mainly famous for its wines made from the Riesling grape, but Elbling and Müller-Thurgau also contribute to the production, among others.

In the past two decades red wine production, especially from the Spätburgunder (Pinot noir), has increased in the Mosel and throughout the German vignoble and has become of increasing interest to the international wine community. Because of the northerly location of the Mosel, the Riesling wines are often light, tending to lower alcohol, crisp and high in acidity, and often exhibit "flowery" rather than or in addition to "fruity" aromas. Its most common vineyard soil is derived in the main from various kinds of slate deposits, which tend to give the wines a transparent, mineralic aspect, that often exhibit great depth of flavor. In the current era of climate change much work has been done to improve and gain acceptance for completely dry ("Trocken") Rieslings in this region, so that most of the more famous makers have found acceptance for such wines, particularly in Europe." - info from Wikipedia.

Summer 2019 I did a solo cycling tour across Europe through 12 countries over the course of 3 months. I began my adventure in Edinburgh, Scotland and finished in Florence, Italy cycling 8,816 km. During my trip I took 47,000 photos.

Now on Instagram.

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" ...the longing for impossible things, precisely because they are impossible; nostalgia for what never was; the desire for what could have been; regret over not being someone else; dissatisfaction with the world’s existence. All these half-tones of the soul’s consciousness create in us a painful landscape, an eternal sunset of what we are." [Pessoa]

IP again, actually.

I probably would have seriously considered SRS surgery though if I was 25 years younger! And I definitely would have pursued it more aggressively in high school if things were like they are now.

Photograph taken at an altitude of Seven metres, in the magic of the Golden hour around sunrise at 05:31am, (sunrise was at precisely 06.15am) on Saturday 6th September 2014 off the Patricia Bay Highway 17, on Lochside Drive close to Frost Avenue and the Lochside Waterfront Park, in beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

Here, I am standing beside the wooden decked viewing platform, looking over towards Mt Baker in Washington State, USA from beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Also known as Koma Kulshan, she is an active glaciated andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington State in the United States, standing 3,286 metres tall and was first ascended in 1868, her last eruption recorded in 1880.

These Canada Geese, along with many other small groups (known as a Skein of geese), fly across the lake from East to West every morning and back again every evening at Sunset, and I love to watch the classic Vee formations and listen to the honking as they pass me by.

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Nikon D800 116mm 1/500s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Manual focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED IF VRII. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

LATITUDE: N 48d 38m 15.80s

LONGITUDE: W 123d 24m 12.85s

ALTITUDE: 7.0m

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 14.65MB

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Processing power:

HP Pavillion P6-2388EA Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD 7570 graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.0 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit