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Photograph taken at an altitude of Six metres, in the magic of the Golden hour around sunrise, (Sunrise was at precisely 06:50am), at 06:56am on Sunday 21st September 2014 off 1st Street and Beacon Avenue, from the concourse above the shoreline 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.
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Nikon D800 140mm 1/250s f/5.0 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Mirror up. 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 54.87s
LONGITUDE: W 123d 23m 38.69s
ALTITUDE: 6.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 12.63MB
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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
Tentacles. Spider legs. Robotic snakes. I don't know precisely what's thrusting up out of the middle of this flower, but it's something squicky. Something that wants to eat your face.
One has to wonder: is it just me who sees the potential for the grotesque and bizarre within flowery closeups?
I either see that, or I see something... er, perverse. Something Georgia O'Keefe-y.
Anywho. This is a flower from a bunch I bought for the wife, as today is the official start to her new job as Analyst to Awesomeness or something. Woot!
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.
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.
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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: 13.22MB
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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
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***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on April 21st 2015
CREATIVE RF gty.im/549137023 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**
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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.
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 15.78s
LONGITUDE: W 123d 24m 12.85s
ALTITUDE: 8.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 9.50MB
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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
The One O'Clock Gun is a time signal, and is fired every day at precisely 13:00, excepting Sunday, Good Friday and Christmas Day. The gun was established in 1861 as a time signal for ships in the Firth of Forth, and complemented the time ball, which was installed on Nelson's Monument in 1852, but which was useless during foggy weather. The gun could easily be heard by ships in Leith Harbour, 2 miles (3.2 km) away. Because sound travels relatively slowly (approximately 343 metres per second (770 mph)), maps were produced in the 1860s to show the actual time when the sound of the gun was heard at various locations in Edinburgh.
The original gun was an 18-pound muzzle loading cannon, which needed four men to load, and was fired from the Half Moon Battery. This was replaced in 1913 by a 32-pound breech loader, and in May 1952 by a 25-pound Howitzer. The present One O'Clock Gun is an L118 Light Gun, brought into service on 30 November 2001.
The gun is now fired from Mill's Mount Battery, on the north face of the castle, by the District Gunner from 105th Regiment Royal Artillery (Volunteers). Although the gun is no longer required for its original purpose, the ceremony has become a popular tourist attraction, The longest-serving District Gunner, Staff Sergeant Thomas McKay MBE, nicknamed "Tam the Gun", fired the One O'Clock Gun from 1979 until his death in 2005. McKay helped established the One O'Clock Gun Association, which opened a small exhibition at Mill's Mount, and published a book entitled What Time Does Edinburgh's One O'clock Gun Fire?. As of 2006, the current District Gunner, the 27th man to fill the post, is Sergeant Jamie Shannon, nicknamed "Shannon The Cannon".
From Wikipedia
Exhibition Jean Tinguely - Machine Spectacle 1 Oct 2016 - 5 Mar 2017 in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
Jean Tinguely is famous for his playful, boldly kinetic machines and explosive performances. Everything had to be different, everything had to move. Precisely twenty-five years after his death, the Stedelijk Museum opens a Tinguely retrospective: the largest-ever exhibition of the artist to be mounted in a Dutch museum.
The Swiss artist Jean Tinguely (1925–1991) played a key role in the rise of kinetic art in the fifties. With over a hundred machine sculptures, most of which are in working order, paired with films, photos, drawings, and archive materials, the presentation takes the public on a chronological and thematic journey of Tinguely’s artistic development and ideas, from his love of absurd play to his fascination for destruction and ephemerality.
The presentation features his early wire sculptures and reliefs, in which Tinguely imitated and animated the abstract paintings of artists such as Malevich, Miró, and Klee; the interactive drawing machines and wild dancing installations constructed from salvaged metal, waste materials, and discarded clothing; and his streamlined, military-looking black sculptures.
Tinguely’s self-destructive performances are a special feature of the Stedelijk presentation. The enormous installations Tinguely created between 1960–1970 (Homage to New York, Étude pour une fin du monde No. 1, Study for an End of the World No. 2, and La Vittoria) were designed to spectacularly disintegrate in a barrage of sound. The presentation also spotlights the exhibitions Tinguely organized at the Stedelijk, Bewogen Beweging (1961) and Dylaby (1962), and the gigantic sculptures he later produced: HON – en katedral (“SHE – a cathedral,” 1966), Crocrodrome (1977) and the extraordinary Le Cyclop (1969–1994), which is still on display outside Paris. The survey ends with a dramatic grand finale, the remarkable, room-filling installation, Mengele-Totentanz (1986), a disturbing display of light and shadow never previously shown in the Netherlands. Tinguely realized the work after witnessing a devastating fire, reclaiming objects from the ashes to piece together his installation: scorched beams, agricultural machinery (made by the Mengele company), and animal skeletons. The final piece is a gigantic memento mori, yet also an invocation of the Nazi concentration camps. Its juddering movements and piercing sounds evoke a haunting, grisly mood.
Jean Tinguely created his work as a rejection of the static, conventional art world; he sought to emphasize play and experiment. For Tinguely, art was not about standing in a sterile white space, distantly gazing at a silent painting. He produced kinetic sculptures to set art and art history in motion, in works that animated the boundary between art and life. With his do-it-yourself drawing machines, Tinguely critiqued the role of the artist and the elitist position of art in society. He renounced the unicity of “the artist’s hand” by encouraging visitors to produce work themselves. Collaboration was integral to Tinguely’s career. He worked extensively with artists like Daniel Spoerri, Niki de Saint Phalle (also his wife), Yves Klein, and others from the ZERO network, as well as museum directors such as Pontus Hultén, Willem Sandberg, and Paul Wember. Thanks to his charismatic, vibrant personality and the dazzling success with which he presented his work (and himself) in the public sphere, Tinguely was a vital figure within these networks, acting as leader, inspirator, and connector.
Amsterdam has enjoyed a dynamic history with Tinguely. The exhibitions Bewogen Beweging (1961) and Dylaby (1962), for which Tinguely was (co)curator, particularly underline the extraordinarily close relationship that sprang up between the museum and the artist. Not only did he bring his kinetic Méta machines to the Netherlands, he also brought his international, avant-garde network, leaving an enduring impression on museumgoers who flocked to see these experimental exhibitions. Close relationships with Willem Sandberg, then director of the Stedelijk Museum, and curator Ad Petersen prompted various retrospectives and acquisitions for the collection: thirteen sculptures, including his famous drawing machine, Méta-Matic No. 10 (1959), Gismo (1960), and the enormous Méta
My camera broke – precisely the zoom button wore out, so it would only shoot its widest angle – and these are the last pics before I took it in for repair. I’m not sure how long before I get it back.
However, I bought myself a new snapshot camera, so I won’t be sans camera again.
Engineers are checking to make sure that MIRI is precisely positioned with the ISIM as it slides into position. They have to make sure it's installed exactly where it needs to be within the width of a thin human hair. Visible is MIRI's pickoff mirror, which is the protrusion on the right side of the instrument that looks like a periscope on its side. This is where MIRI grabs light coming from the telescope optics. Also visible is the silver-colored base of MIRI's cryocooled shield, already installed on the ISIM structure and with a hole in it for MIRI's pickoff mirror. MIRI itself has special silver-colored blanketing around it as insulation to keep it at its proper cryogenic temperature during operation.
Photo Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn; Text Credit: NASA/Laura Betz
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Engineers worked meticulously to implant the James Webb Space Telescope's Mid-Infrared Instrument into the ISIM, or Integrated Science Instrument Module, in the cleanroom at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. As the successor to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, the Webb telescope will be the most powerful space telescope ever built. It will observe the most distant objects in the universe, provide images of the first galaxies formed and see unexplored planets around distant stars.
For more information, visit: www.jwst.nasa.gov
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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A Love Non-Distracting
آں دم کہ دل بعشق دھی خوش دمے بود
درکار خیر حاجت ھیچ استخارہ نیست
O what a blessed moment it is for the heart,
when the pain of love for the Almighty is granted to it.
Maulana Rum (ra)
The month of the Urs Mubarik of Maulana Rum (ra) began on the 14th of December. It is celebrated for a month in Konya. I had posted the video for Ghaus Pak’s (ra) Urs only a few days earlier. I thought I might take some time off but I was leaving for Karachi for a month. I decided to at least do the narration and record the kalam before I left. I thought I might be able to do the rest from there.
I gave it my everything but sadly it didn’t happen. In the days just before, I had a class with Qari Sahib in which he told me a hadith. All the ahadith are spectacular. All aspects of Nabi Kareem’s life are extraordinary, most of all in the layering effect of his words and actions. Each read is unique in what it reveals. The Quran and the hadith are in fact precisely from where the Sufis inherit the impact of their words, in both poetry and prose. Each word is written as if for the individual reader alone!
“Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him) was sitting with his companions one day when Hazrat Bilal (ratu) came to see him.
“You came yesterday as well Bilal,” he said to his beloved Muazzen (the one who gives the call for prayer), “but you don’t have to come every day. Know that separation from the one you love increases the affection between you.”
As always Hazrat Abu Bakr Siddique was listening intently to the words of his Master. The next day when the afternoon came and Hazrat Abu Bakr (ratu) had not arrived, the Prophet (peace be upon him) asked about his whereabouts.
“I saw him working in the field,” someone said.
The next day again Hazrat Abu Bakr Siddique (ratu) did not come. Again Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him) asked where he was and was given an answer by whoever saw him last.
On the third day when he came, the Prophet (peace be upon him) turned his face from him.
It was the sunnah of the Beloved of God (peace be upon him) to always maintain eye contact with the one who came before him, until the person averted their attention elsewhere. It was also his sunnah to never retract his hand when in a handshake until the other person withdrew his first.
His manners never ceased to amaze me. What must he have thought of this world in which we barely lift the eyes to acknowledge anyone’s presence, before shooting it back toward a phone, a tv, a tablet, even a book. And important people hardly ever want to come near them, much less touch another’s hands. Holding on to them till they were withdrawn, pre-COVID that is, was a near impossibility.
Siddiq e Akbar (ratu) immediately went to his side and said, “May my parents be sacrificed upon you, O Messenger of God, are you upset with me?”
The Prophet of God (peace be upon him) asked his why he had not come to see him. Hazrat Abu Bakr Siddique (ratu) told him that he had heard what he had said to Hazrat Bilal (ratu), so was trying to follow his advice.
“That advice was for Bilal,” Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him) said, “not for you. When you are around me, my focus upon my Lord intensifies. And when you are away from me, in wondering where you are, my concentration upon my Lord becomes distracted.”
“Wow,” I thought!
The hadith floored me. For many days after and even now, I think about how I never experienced a love of any kind in the world that enhanced my focus on God. Maybe my mother in the sense that I was dutiful and all my acts of obedience were unquestioned but I wasn’t aware of it as bringing me closer to God. Otherwise all my “loves,” platonic and otherwise, distracted me from Him. For starters, they caused delayed and hurried prayers, if not causing me to outright miss them.
It would happen the most with friends. I was always worried about missing out on some joke or conversation happening without me. We met so rarely now. Sometimes as I sped through my recitation, I would tell myself, "I should be with my guests so it’s ok to go fast." But in my heart I knew it was all excuses. I had been told what the conduct commanded was by Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him) when the Azaan sounded.
Hazrat Bibi Ayesha (ratu) narrates: When the time of the namaz came, the Prophet of God (peace be upon him) would disconnect from us, as if we didn’t know each other at all.
I started to wonder if a person existed for me in the remainder of my life that would be like Hazrat Abu Bakr Siddique (ratu) was for the Prophet (peace be upon him). I knew of the enhanced effect upon the heart, intensifying its attention towards God in the company of a Spiritual Master but in this case Hazrat Abu Bakr (ratu) was the disciple. He was a childhood friend, then a Companion.
The hadith made me want to ask for a love, a first love, that would be a cause for focus upon my Lord, take me closer to Him. I knew it wouldn’t be coming from wealth or children, people’s general go-to for happiness.
For the Quran says as often as it was a blessing, it was a trial. The word most alerting to the two was startling; “fitna.”
إِنَّمَا أَمْوَالُكُمْ وَأَوْلَادُكُمْ فِتْنَةٌ وَاللَّهُ عِندَهُ أَجْرٌ عَظِيم
Indeed, your wealth and your children are but a trial for you,
whereas with God there is a great reward.
Surah At-Taghabun, Verse 15
So I began to wonder, was it even possible?
In the days before Karachi, I had started working with some local orphanages situated in the outer neighborhoods of Lahore. It was an entirely new thing for me. In my life I had had different kinds of experiences when it came to working with different community-based organizations, doing charitable work. I had even done it for money (in a job) post 9/11.
At the time I was living in New York and I worked with what was mostly the Muslim-Arab population in Brooklyn and Queens whose lives were permanently altered by the disaster. The work was easy. I used to present cases for financial assistance on behalf of mostly the disaster-impacted women before various Charities, mostly Christian.
Some of them had a rule to not help Muslims at all, deeming them to be the cause of the catastrophe but most were not only sensitive but also extremely generous. My salary that year in 2001 was less than what I had made post-college, 10 years earlier, working at a management consulting firm but the work was the most meaningful of my life up to that point.
Other than that I had tried to do things as I learnt them from the Friends of God. Feeding the hungry has topped my list since I started it a few years ago, courtesy of Ghaus Pak (ra). Other things had been the usual for Pakistanis; helping an indigent family with a marriage, paying for a child’s tuition, taking care of someone’s medical bill, buying blankets in the winter and distributing clothes seasonally. It was a little bit of everything that a lot of people did.
Then earlier this year for the first time in my life I made the intention to “honor” the orphan as the Quran instructs. To that end in the fall I visited three orphanages in Kaana on the day of the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) birthday. One of my rich friends, after hearing about the trip, offered to adopt one of the orphanages. It was an excellent idea since it didn’t seem anyone might adopt a child. There were no babies. The youngest child was five.
All three orphanages were run by people who lived in the neighborhood and were by no means of wealth. No foundations, no NGOs. There reason for starting the work was personal concern for the children or to give the blessings of the work to a family member who had passed away. One of the women who had started what was a shelter for widows and their children was in her early 30s. She wanted to send the reward of her effort to her younger brother who had passed away from cancer recently.
She was married and had three sons of her own, the eldest of whom was 15. She told me laughingly she had developed diabetes because of the stress of the work, not knowing how each month’s needs would be met. All three orphanages relied on the generosity of family friends or posted their needs on their social media accounts which were then met by "the kindness of strangers."
I told my friend. If she was going to take over the running of the place then the point should be to elevate the standard of living for the children, not just maintain it. Stressfully or otherwise, they were already sustaining themselves. The houses were old, the living was cramped. There were 4-5 kids in a single room which was small. Hot running water was scarce. There was no room dedicated to play or study. There was no room at all! My friend agreed and they were off. That’s the thing about being rich, I noticed. Things happen overnight!
Appliances, including a tv, a washing machine, a microwave, gas heaters, mattresses, blankets, a set of clothes, socks and shoes arrived the next day. Someone was assigned to look for a bigger home. The donor wanted to paint the new place, get new furniture. Make it nice. I was the middleman so to speak. If there was any concern on either end, I communicated it to the other party. Both sides were excited and happy. We will see what happens.
For my part I wanted to hang with the kids. To that end I planned a day in the park. It was November. Lahore was in a corona hike but the sun was gorgeously warm and the days bright and sunny. The parks were empty, schools were closed.
Along with a young man, Saad, I arranged for a picnic in Model Town park, the nearest one to the orphanage that was the newest of them all having just opened their doors in July. There were 18 kids. I had once before gone to the house to teach them Pictionary. I thought we had given them the game but that turned out to be wrong.
I had arrived with a white board and markers of all colours, only to realize that we had to wing it. But the kids ended up writing words for the other team to draw and it was a hilarious afternoon. Then I only interacted with the older boys and girls. Saad was playing Jenga with the little ones. On the day of the picnic, I had thought of games for everyone to play together beforehand.
Playing with a child is not for all adults. I know few who can do it with their own children. It’s a natural skill and it cannot be acquired. Saad brought a couple of frisbees and a badminton set. When I arrived at the park with Qari Sahib, my only invited guest, the kids were still on their way. Qari Sahib and I decided to walk around. It was a gorgeous day. The grass was soft and green, the trees majestic. It was my first time there. I’m a Jinnah Gardens fan and being a creature of habit always end up there.
A little while later the kids arrived in their bus. I waved to them from where I was and all 18 of them made a dash for me yelling, “As-Salam Alaikum Aapi.” It was definitely a giant group hug with no social distancing possible, unless I planned to sprint away from them. Which would have been weird as hell!
First we played Tag and Hide n Seek. Then L.O.N.D.O.N which is a game we used to play as kids in the boarding school. I had wondered once if it had anything to do with the rich being obsessed with the city for the remainder of their lives?
The game could be played anywhere. One person stood near a wall, in this case tree, and yelled the spelling of the word while the others ran towards them. As soon as the word was uttered and the person turned around, everyone had to freeze. Then if they could make them laugh or move, they had to move back to the starting point. The goal was to reach the wall. Become the person yelling L.O.N.D.O.N.
Making all 18 of them laugh turned out to be easy. Even the ones who bent their heads all the way down to avoid eye contact or covered their mouth with their little hands. With lightening speed I went from one child to the next, making some dumb crack that made them giggle.
Then the little kids spotted some rides in one side of the park so we all moved there. The rides were rundown and not fast at all but everyone wanted to try them. There was a jumping castle and some went there. Qari Sahib and I started played frisbee.
Lunch arrived. We sat in a huge circle on the grass and starting eating our boxes of rice, half biryani, half zarda. It was yummy. While we sat there I asked Qari Sahib to tell the kids something about Ghaus Pak (ra). It was the 11 of Rabu Thani, the day of his Urs (death anniversary). It was a deliberate choice to come on that day. I wanted to mark my happiness of the celebration with a supposed good deed. Qari Sahib didn’t say much, only one line. Ghaus Pak never told a lie in his life.
I decided to tell the kids the story of him as a child when he was going away from his mother to study. He was in his teens. His mother had stitched his money in a hidden pocket under his shirt. He was in a caravan but traveling by himself. In the night the caravan was attacked by dacoits. The robbers asked everyone, one by one, if they had any money.
When they came to him, the boy replied in the affirmative. The robber searched hum but could not find anything so repeated the question. Again Ghaus Pak (ra) said “Yes.” When they still couldn’t find anything, he turned his shirt over and showed them the pocket with his coins. The robbers were amazed.
“Why are you telling us this when you know we will take it from you?” they asked.
He simply replied, “Because my mother told me never to lie.”
I looked at the kids as I related the incident in Urdu. They listened intently to each word like a child does when being told a story. I didn’t know the end.
“So what happened then Qari Sahib?” I reverted to my teacher.
From outside the circle he uttered a single line, “They repented. And gave up being robbers.”
After lunch we all played frisbee. Some were better than others. I noticed how the older children were gentle and kind with the younger ones. When a little boy couldn’t finish their food or stopped eating, an elder boy would be told to help them and they did. When a little girl, who had taken her shoes and socks off to play on the grass, couldn’t put them back on and I just stared at her, an older one ran over to help her without being asked.
There was no tantrum, no fights, no arguing, no tears, not even a raised voice. Not even when someone was doing something another kid wanted to do. In my life and circle of society, I had only always seen that if a younger child wanted something an older sibling or cousin possessed, all they had to do was wail and the older kid was immediately ordered to hand it over. There was not a single sound in all the hours we were there that was the sound of being upset.
The kids all called the woman who ran the orphanage with her husband “Mama.” I thought it was striking. I had expected it would be “Aunty” or “Khala” or something. Anything that created a degree of separation, marked that they were not hers. She was not entirely theirs. She had two children of her own, a boy and a girl, who were 14 and 15. But they all called her “Mama.” I guess that’s how she took care of them.
Her tone was gentle, her demeanour soft. When they first arrived she told me she had almost not come.
“Why?” I asked.
“My foot was hurting so much,” she said, “I couldn’t even step on it. I don’t know what happened. So I told the children today you go without me and next time I will come with you.”
Then she smiled. They were all around her hearing her relate the story.
“’No, no they said to me. We will not go without you Mama.’
Then they said a prayer for me and look, here I am. No pain at all anywhere.”
The kids were all beaming.
It was Friday. Qari Sahib had already missed all the calls to prayer to go a Mosque. I suggested he lead us all for Zuhr right there. That’s when I found out that half the kids were Christian. Me and a couple of the girls lined up behind a few boys. After the prayer, the kids spotted some jungle jim structures in another side of the park and ran over.
I wanted to read the rest of the prayer so I found a quiet spot. It was then that I thought maybe I might like to ask God for something. When a king celebrates a happy occasion, gifts are given to the entire kingdom. It was a big day indeed and I kept thinking of Ghaus Pak (ra). What Qari Sahib had said about him in the class from the day before which had been dedicated to him: “Ask Allah for things, for what you want Ghaus Pak (ra) says. For it is in the Quran:
وَقَالَ رَبُّكُمُ ٱدْعُونِىٓ أَسْتَجِبْ لَكُمْ ۚ
And your Lord says, “Call upon Me and I will respond to you.
Surah Al-Ghafir, Verse 60”
That afternoon taking in the sun while I prayed, I wondered if I should ask for that love finally that didn’t distract me. But In the past, whenever I asked for things I got them so quickly, I was now careful to ask. Mostly because a few times in the course of my life, as soon as my wish had been granted, I had myself destroyed what I had received, kicking it in the face. Sometimes within days of receiving it. The insanity of the action had once given me a nervous breakdown. Now I was hesitant.
Setting the matter aside, I decided to head home. We had been in the park for over three hours. I went up to some of the kids who were closer to me to say goodbye.
“I’m going to leave now,” I said waving and smiling at them. “I’ll see you guys next time.”
They all waved and smiled back at me. Then one little kid, who must have been five, turns around and not even looking at me, quietly says, “Khiyaal se jaana Aapi.” Which just means “Get home safely Aapi,” the term of endearment being the word for an elder sister.
I let out a laugh. It was so funny to me that a child as young as that was telling a 50 year old to do anything safely. I left with Qari Sahib. For the next several days, I couldn’t get that line out of my head. I told everyone I met the story. Each person was visibly moved. One friend of mine who never ever cries burst into tears. But they all said the same thing; the child wanted me to be safe because I had been kind to her and she wanted me to be alright so perhaps we would meet again.
But every time I heard people say that my heart disagreed with them. If someone had asked me what I had given and received that day, if I were to weigh the two, I would have said, “I gave my time, my emotional energy, my physical energy. I gave some money, I taught the kids something. I played with them. I prayed with them.” And what did I get in turn? “I got four words from a child.”
I felt that way because it was not a prayer, yet it felt like an utterance of a prayer. But even more than that because it was a prayer way beyond her years. I have been lucky enough to receive prayers from many in my life. Some out of love, some out of gratitude. Never did a prayer sound so beautiful to my heart than the one I heard that day.
The nisbat, association, of the orphan child with the Beloved of God (peace be upon him) who was an orphan himself is the most intense of all. I had noticed that almost all the Auliya e Karaam, the Friends of God, shared that nisbat with him. They lost their fathers in the early years of their lives, if not before birth.
I told my friends who had adopted children to always tell them who they shared the most painful part of their identity with. As often as they could. There always came the time when they might wonder who they belonged to at birth and when the pain from that loss or the sadness of not knowing them would set in, it would be a balm. Like no other, in fact, if you were able to tell yourself that the one you were similar to, so distinctly, in a way that hardly anyone else in the world was, was the reason the Universe existed.
In the weeks that followed I planned different activities with the children and my attachment to them started becoming more intense, especially with the little ones. As did theirs. In those days I was reading Al-Fath Ar-Rabbani, the discourses of Hazrat Ghaus Pak (ra). In one of his sermons he explained to me why the loves of the world are so distracting. The world itself is just a distraction.
Huzoor Pak (peace be upon him) said, “Visit the sick and participate in funerals for they will remind you of the Afterlife.”
Ghaus Pak (ra) says that the purpose of these words is to highlight that humans run from the thought of their life after death and make the world and all in it their beloved.
“But the price of that love, superficial, is that soon, there will come between you and the same world, obstacles which, without your say, will be out of your control. What you are happy about will be taken from you and instead of happiness, suffering will prevail.
People will only steal your heart, your faith, your goodness and make you a “mushrik” because you will associate them with God and become forgetful of Him. And if you cannot do without material things, then ask Him for them and not others because what Allah dislikes the most is when even the meager wants of the world are asked of others instead of Him.”
It was in the days I was in Karachi taking in the sun for hours a day before returning to Lahore where it would not appear for another month or so, that I started writing my piece for Maulana Rum (ra). In my reading, I came across a story in the Masnavi in which he explained the concept of asking for anything, even in the world, from Allah alone.
In the time of the Prophet Dawood (as), the story of the man who wanted his livelihood without working.
All day long he prayed and pleaded to God for only one thing, “Dear Lord, grant me livelihood from the Unseen and without the hardships of working and earning.” His prayer became well known amongst the people in the area and they resented him for it. They labeled him as lazy and worthless but he was unaffected by their attitude of condescension towards him.
The one who seeks will ultimately find; Allah listens to everyone’s prayers and fulfills their ask.
One day the door of his house flung open and a large cow burst in. The man was elated. He grabbed the cow, took it to the butcher and had it cut up for the meat. When the owner of the animal came searching for it and found his cow dead, slaughtered, he let out a wail.
The man told him not to create such havoc. “For years I have been asking Allah to grant me rizq and now my prayers have been answered.” Livid, the owner grabbed the man. First he beat him then took him before the Prophet Dawood (as) to have him punished and to seek justice.
The owner stated his case, then turned to the man asking the Prophet (as) to ask him why he committed such a crime. The man simply said, “All my life I have never touched the property of another. I have never stolen anything. I have never given trouble to a soul in the city. For several years now it has been my practice that I have prayed to God to grant me livelihood without having to toil for it.
Every man, woman and child in the area knows of this prayer of mine. After years my voice was heard. The cow came into my house. When I saw it my heart was ecstatic. I knew my prayers were answered so I took it to the butcher and had it slaughtered it to express my gratitude to The One who sent it to me.”
Addressing the accused, Hazrat Dawood (as) said, “Give a better argument for what you have done. From what is being said, it is clear you neither bought the cow nor was it given to you by its owner.”
Upon hearing his words echoing the sentiment of everyone else surrounding him, the man turned his face towards the sky and pleaded, “O Knower of the pain in my heart! Reveal to Your Prophet the truth of my words so he can become aware of the reality.”
His cries were so full of anguish, Hazrat Dawood’s (as) heart was deeply affected. He told the owner of the cow he would render his decision the next morning.
When the two reappeared before him the next day, the Prophet (as) said to the owner, “Do not pursue your matter with this man and forgive him. Allah has granted you a cover for your sins. Be grateful for that veiling and exercise patience.”
The owner was astounded. “This is justice? Your sense of fairness is famed from the Earth to the skies, yet for me you give such an unfair pronouncement?”
The second time he addressed him, Hazrat Dawood (as) said, “Give your wealth to this man. Otherwise all that you have done which was unjust will be revealed and you will be vilified.”
Again the man let out a cry and continued his protest. The Prophet (as) once again asked him to reconsider; “O unfortunate one! Stop this spectacle before it is the cause of your own demise. What you have sowed is only what you are reaping.”
The words had no effect on the owner of the cow. The people watching also became bewildered. They could not understand why the Prophet (as) was siding with the one who took another’s property, whilst leashing anger towards the one who was clearly the victim.
Finally Hazrat Dawood (as) decided that the matter could no longer remain a secret as he had tried so hard for it to be for the sake of the owner. He took them to a tree near the bank of a river. Then pointing towards it he said, “A man was killed her by his servant a long time ago. After the murder, the slave took all his wealth and deprived his family and the orphan children of their rightful inheritance. At the base of the tree lies the bloodied knife that he used to commit the crime and on it are etched his initials.”
Upon his command, the land was dug up. A skeleton and the knife was found with the owner’s initials. When he saw it he started trembling. The people watching the scene were shocked and with deep humility, they came before their Prophet. Removing their caps from their heads, they expressed their apologies to Hazrat Dawood (as) for letting doubt enter their hearts.
“We became blind and did not hear what you said. And this despite that we have seen so many miracles by your hand. Mountains spoke to you, saying, ‘take me in your hand to fight Talout.’ So you took three rocks and a sling and destroyed the armies of the enemy. The three stones became hundreds of thousands and decimated all. Your hand melted iron to make armour. The mountains echoed the sound of your reading of the Zabur. The hearts of many opened to God because of you.”
وَلَقَدْ ءَاتَيْنَا دَاوُۥدَ مِنَّا فَضْلًۭا ۖ يَـٰجِبَالُ أَوِّبِى مَعَهُۥ وَٱلطَّيْرَ ۖ وَأَلَنَّا لَهُ ٱلْحَدِيدَ
أَنِ ٱعْمَلْ سَـٰبِغَـٰتٍۢ وَقَدِّرْ فِى ٱلسَّرْدِ ۖ
And certainly We gave Dawood (as) great favours from Us. “O Mountains! Sing with him the praises of God. And likewise, you the birds.
And We made iron soft for him. Instructing him to make full coats of armour.”
Surah Saba, Verse 10-11
According to the law which the owner was insistently demanding be applied, he was sentenced and the man was given his entire wealth.
It was not the first time I had come upon the story. I had read it once before when I was living in New York. I was 30. Then of course I had no clue about the nafs and the havoc it wreaked in my life. Then it had just me reflect on my sources of livelihood.
All my life I had strange jobs, if I even had them at all. I use the word “strange” because nerds like me are usually career focused and on some trajectory of “success.” But my mother’s death derailed all that when I was 26 and I never got back on track. Mostly after that I earned next to nothing. But for one reason of another, I lived a life of ease.
When I had read the story then I had cried because I felt like the man who was praying for livelihood for years whilst not working. But I had not even prayed for that. I guess someone else might have prayed for me. That was what came to my mind then. Coming upon the story 20 years later, Maulana highlighted something entirely different for me.
I kept going back to the lines of not asking anything of people. It was exactly what I had just read from Ghaus Pak (ra) that God disliked it. It was about to play out before my eyes.
Whilst in Karachi I desperately wanted something from my host. My friend, her sister, was leaving for Scotland and I wanted to move back into the room I always stayed in.
The problem was my host had converted the same room to her own. She had a super early routine of getting up at 6 am with machines whirling to make smoothies and I didn’t want to be near the noise for the entire trip. I’m an insanely light sleeper and I was there for another few weeks. I meant to ask her if it was possible but was hesitant even though the thought was making me miserable inside. Then I read the line and it had a two-fold effect on me.
The first made me focus on what I wanted which was so petty, I felt ashamed even asking for it from God. Two, it made me rethink if it was even necessary. I decided to give it a pass. But that night I ended up thinking about it anyway. Each time I woke up, the same thing played in my head like a tape running on repeat. It created agitation for me precisely because I knew how superficial it was. After all the decision to not ask had already been made.
The next day I was sitting in the sun reading when my friend walked into the room and announced, “I’ve decided to move out of that room you want and give it to you.” I was so shocked by the words that I just raised my hands in the air and uttered the verse, “Alhamdolillah e Rabb ul Alimeen.” She burst out laughing.
Later in the evening I asked her why she changed her mind. What she said was the exact same thing I had been feeling. My reason for not asking her for the room was exactly her reason for giving it to me.
“I have done this before. Become fixated on a shallow aspect of life that doesn’t warrant the fixation. The trials I have faced after have been so difficult for me that I just thought to myself, ‘I’m giving her the room man. I can’t even take a chance of dealing with what test comes for not doing so. For being stuck on something so stupid!’”
I love those moments. When two people, who are on their own spiritual quests, meet at the same point. Glance at each other acknowledging the moment and then move on. It’s intense and it’s lovely. It happens to me with a couple of my friends in my life a lot.
Maulana (ra) writes the Masnvavi in the style of the Quran. A story starts in one place, continues elsewhere and finishes in a third. A few days later I came upon a continuation of the story where the “batin” of the story was explained. It was totally unexpected!
“The owner of the cow is your nafs, the ego. It has made itself your lord and master. The one who slaughtered it is your aql, the power to reflect. It becomes hostage to the ego and prays for blessings from the Divine without struggling for them. But the price of receiving that blessing without trial is the killing of the ego, for it is the root of all wrongdoing. And it is impossible without a guide.”
رزق جانی کے بری با سعی و جست
جز با عدل شیخ کو داؤد تست
How can you ever gain blessings from your own struggles and endeavours,
without the assistance of the Spiritual Master who intervenes for you like Hazrat Dawood (as)?
نفس چوں با شیخ بیندگام تو
از بن دندان شود او رام تو
When your nafs, your ego, sees you in the footsteps of your guide, it will have no choice but to become obedient to you.
صاحب آں گاؤ رام آنگاہ شد
کز دم داؤد او آگاہ شد
The owner of the cow, the nafs, submitted when he heard the decision of the Prophet (as), the decision from The Unseen.
عقل گایے غالب آید در شکار
بر سگ نفست کہ باشد شیخ یار
The aql, your powers to reflect, will only conquer the enemy, your ego, in this battle,
when you are accompanied by your Sheikh.
Overtly, the story didn’t just, hopefully permanently, adjust my overt, namely to not rely on people for things. What it reminded me of otherwise as well was that all livelihood and all blessings were always and only received as a kindness and mercy from God. Nothing could be claimed as deserved. Not for an act of goodness nor for devoted worship. Like the story of the man who prayed for 500 years and then died.
When he appeared before God, he wanted that worship recognized for his own self, not realizing he was allowed it by God in the first place.
Begin excerpt “The Softest Heart”
When it came to love for Allah, Iblis demonstrated, without doubt, that worship alone was an insufficient expression of love. No wonder he didn’t try to deter it in others. The hadith that further made the point most beautifully was this:
The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “My friend Gibrael (as) came to me and said, ‘O Muhammad (peace be upon you), I swear by the Authority who has sent you as the Message of Truth, there was a servant of God named Abdullah who prayed for 500 years on the top of a mountain in the sea. Sprout from it sweet water for him and a pomegranate tree bearing him fruit every night.
He performed ablution from the water and ate the fruit, then prayed and asked Allah his Lord that when the time would come for his death, may he die in the position of prostration and be raised such. And his body does not decompose nor does any creature defile it. And so it was. And we (the angels) used to pass by him when we ascended and descended from the Heavens and we knew that on the Day of Judgement and when he will be raised and brought before Allah, He will say, “Let My Servant enter Heaven by My Mercy.”
So the man will say, “But my Lord God, what about my worship?”
And Allah will repeat, “Let My Servant enter Heaven by My Mercy.”
So the man will persist, “But my Lord God, what about my worship?”
So Allah will proclaim, “Count My Blessings towards My Servant against his actions.”
And it will be found that the blessing of (mere) sight exceeded the servant’s worship of 500 years and still were remaining the many bounties granted him by Allah.
So Allah will say, “Take My Servant towards Hell.”
The man will cry out, “By Your Mercy, send me to Heaven.”
He will be brought back before Allah who will then say, “Who created you out of nothing?”
“You did, My Lord God.”
And Allah will say, “Who gave you the strength to pray for 500 years?”
“You did, My Lord God.”
“And who sprouted for you atop a mountain sea sweet water from bitter and pomegranates, which only grow once a year, every night from a tree the entire year? And you asked for your soul to be taken while you are in prostration and it was done?”
Again he will answer, “You did, My Lord God.”
So God will respond, “This is My Mercy and by My Mercy I made you enter Heaven and the angels were ordered, ‘Take My servant to Heaven’ for you are a good servant.”
And so he will be delivered to Heaven.
Hazrat Gibrael (as) said to me, “O Muhammad (peace be upon you)! Verily each and every thing is by the Mercy of Allah.””
End excerpt “The Softest Heart”
Yet the Quran says, in its overt read of the verse, that the purpose of the creation of both Man and Jinn is exactly that: worship.
وَمَا خَلَقْتُ ٱلْجِنَّ وَٱلْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ
And I did not create jinn and humans except to worship Me.
Surah Ad-Dhariyaat, Verse 56
It was the Friends of God who explained to me that “ibadat,” worship, is not the mere execution of ritual. It is the practice of gaining “ma’rifat,” recognizing God.
Ghaus Pak (ra) explains it this way: “The nafs, the self is “zahir” (overt). The “qalb,” the heart within the heart, is “batin” (the inner being). Love is allowed for the nafs, (between the nafs and nafs) but not for the “qalb,” the inner heart. The zahir is allowed to love but not the batin. The batin and the qalb are made so as to only fall in love with God, be occupied by Him.”
All types of loss were experience by the “nafs” in its overt existence. Therefore in the verse in which Allah directs us to be patient when a loss is incurred and grateful for a bestowing, it is because the “qalb” should not affected by either. It reacted with sadness and joy regarding the world, only because we had allowed the love to enter the space that was set aside only for God.
لِّكَيْلَا تَأْسَوْا۟ عَلَىٰ مَا فَاتَكُمْ وَلَا تَفْرَحُوا۟ بِمَآ ءَاتَىٰكُمْ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ كُلَّ مُخْتَالٍۢ فَخُورٍ
(Know this), so that you may not despair over whatever has escaped you,
Nor exult over whatever good has come to you.
For God does not like any of those who, out of self-conceit, act in a boastful manner.
Surah Al-Hadid, Verse 23
It struck me how Iblis lay in waiting just to nudge people towards waywardness in both states. When one was unhappy because of the loss of something, he suggested sin as a distraction, encouraging the self-pity. When a person was happy because of what they had been bestowed with, he nudged towards sin to celebrate it. When God wanted patience for the first and gratitude for the second, he suggested wrongdoing. And most of us went along with it.
For what did Iblis want more than anything was for us to emulate him, rather than those who are chosen to show the path leading to God. The same Iblis who himself forgot everything he had been bestowed by the Grace of the Divine when refusing to do that which he was commanded to. Although he apparently remembers every single moment of his life to this day with the deepest nostalgia, he remains insistent on his defiance and never apologizes for it.
The Waking of Hazrat Amir Muawia (ratu) by Iblis to say his prayers.
Hazrat Amir Muawia (ratu) was asleep one day when he was awakened by someone. When he looked around he saw no one. Then he noticed a man skulking behind the door. He asked, “Who are you?” The man replied, “The world knows me. I am unfortunate Iblis.”
Hazrat Amir Muawia (ratu) asked him sternly, “Why have you woken me?” He responded, “The time for prayer is about to pass, O Amir.” Then he quoted the Prophet of God (peace be upon him),
عجلوا ألطاعات قبل الفوت
'Complete your worship before it (its time) expires.'
You should run to the mosque before you miss it.”
Hazrat Amir Muawia (ratu) retorted, “You can never want such a thing so as to guide someone. You came in like a thief and now you tell me you are a well-wisher? Why would I believe a thief and then one who claims he wants to benefit me?”
Here Iblis uttered the words revealing his envy:
‘Once I was ranked amongst the angels and walked the path of obedience willingly. I was the knower of Divine Secrets and a companion of the ones who lived near to Allah’s Throne. As travelers roam wherever they might go, the love of the homeland never leaves them. Who has ever forgotten their first love?
I have also drunk the waters from the rivers of The Divine’s Blessings and I have also walked in the Gardens of His Pleasure. He placed His Affection upon me as well, looked upon me with Favour. When I was a child, who fed me and guided me? He did.
Once I too was a lover of His Entity and Essence. If then that mighty Ocean of His Generosity rejected me, so what? When the heart is separated from what it once loved, then it learns to value the days where there was union.’
تا دهد جان را فراقش گوشمال
جان بداند قدر ايام وصال
When the separation from Him softly reproaches, then one is nostalgic for days passed.
Whether it was “kufr,” refusal or whether it was “imaan,” believing, both were made by that Power and both belong to Him.”
Hazrat Amir Muawaia (ratu) remained unmoved. “What you say is true but you have no part in it anymore. You misguided countless before me. You are fire, yet you expect me to believe you will not burn me? Who has not been deceived by you?
Because of your cunning, the nation of Nuh (as) is still burning in regret. You caused the destruction of the nation of A’ad, drowning them in punishment and grief. The people of Lut (as) were stoned because of you.
You have created countless trials for Mankind. Firaoun, the philosopher, scholarly, his powers to reflect were blinded by you. Abu Lahab became ignorant because of you. Abul Hikm was rendered Abu Jahal because of you. You are the ocean of deceit, people but a drop. Answer truthfully. Why would you wake me to pray?”
Iblis replied, “Oh man of despair! You do not accept the truth despite a 100 arguments. My fault is only that one bad deed has made me renowned for sinfulness. The truth is that if you had missed your prayer, nothing of the world would have remained of value before your eyes.
Tears of pain and loss would have been shed. Such crying, this softness of the heart, this intense pain and sadness, would have become the reward of a 100 prayers. I did not want you to let out the sigh that would gain you the deep appreciation of Allah.
Remember the man who arrived at the Mosque late and was told by the congregation leaving it that the Messenger of God (peace be upon him) had already said the last “salam.” The young man sighed so deeply, the sound of it shook the listeners’ hearts.
One of them said to him, ‘Give me your sigh and take the blessing of my prayer.’
The man accepted his namaz and presented his sigh to me in turn. The sigh was filled with such humility and submission, the one who traded his prayer for it attained a higher rank and more. A voice of the Unseen said to him in a dream, ‘In your trade, you have received the best of life, so rejoice!’
Your fear, O Amir, of The Divine and my envy are the reason I woke you. I woke you from the fear that your cries of repentance would burn me with jealousy. I am the envier of Mankind. I can never want anything good for them. In this envy I did what I did. I am the enemy of humans. How can I want that any benefit comes to them?”
Hazrat Amir Muawia (ratu) listened to his words then said to Iblis, “Now you have told the truth, O thief. In reality, you do not want that I humbly plead before my Lord with sincerity, that I weep tears of regret and repentance because the rank of that sighing and distress is more dear to Allah than anything else.”
ﮐﮧ ﺑﺮﺍﺑﺮ می ﮐﻨﺪ ﺷﺎﮦ ﻣﺠﯿﺪ
ﺍﺷﮏ ﺭﺍ ﺩﺭ ﻭﺯﻥ ﺑﺎ ﺧﻮﻥ ﺷﮩﯿﺪ
In equal regard holds The Almighty,
the tears of the sinner, repentant, and the blood of the martyr.
Now the story of the man who prayed for 500 years revealed another layer. It was no wonder Iblis didn’t care about prayers offered endlessly. For so many they became the cause of smugness. But repentance, he would give anything to prevent a human being from admitting fault or shedding tears over wrongdoing before God. That is what he was really envious of because he knew he would never do that himself.
But both the zahir and batin are essential for living in the world.
Maulana Rum (ra) says that without the zahir there is no “shariat,” the laws of Jurisprudence and the world is useless. Prayer and fasting are overt practices to express love for God and deemed essential. For even those already friends engage in the giving of gifts to express the friendship and deepen it. Hidden love is revealed through the giving of gifts.
And as Uzair says in one of his lectures on the verse of the purpose of creation, our presentation begins from before the break of dawn at Fajr to the darkness of the night at Isha. All worldly activity, be it working, eating, sleeping, is interrupted again and again to make that appearance before God.
It was the first time in my life I began to think; if my appearance became one of a gift from my end, as flawed and distracted as it may be, if I thought of it as Maulana says, as my gift of love, before my Lord, what effect would that have on my essence?
I am a giver of gifts. I have turned hearts that were entirely indifferent towards me through that giving, most easily when the gifts were in the form of my words. If my prayer became a gift, what would happen then?
Whilst in Karachi, I worked on refining the translation of the narration and the kalam for my video with Qari Sahib. For all my other videos the narration had been from one Friend of God, the poetry another. This time both were by Maulana Rum (ra). And why not? Who else had written something that was called by scholars of Islam, the Quran in Farsi, as his Masnavi was.
The video started with a verse on Allah marking His Hand as the hand of the Prophet (peace be upon him). The ayat was revealed in the incident of the Suleh Hudaibiah.
ۚإِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ يُبَايِعُونَكَ إِنَّمَا يُبَايِعُونَ ٱللَّهَ يَدُ ٱللَّهِ فَوْقَ أَيْدِيهِمْ
Indeed those who pledge allegiance to you, O Beloved (peace be upon you), actually pledge allegiance to Allah.
Allah’s Hand is placed over theirs.
Surah Al-Fath, Verse 10
The narration I had chosen referenced the verse as well. Maulana had written several couplets on the instances in the Quran where Allah had said that His Beloved’s (peace be upon him) hand was in fact his own. I share just one below, the case of the throwing of the dust:
وَمَا رَمَيْتَ إِذْ رَمَيْتَ وَلَٰكِنَّ اللَّهَ رَمَىٰ وَلِيُبْلِيَ
الْمُؤْمِنِينَ مِنْهُ بَلَاءً حَسَنًا إِنَّ اللَّهَ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ
And when you threw (a handful of dust), it was not your act, but Allah's (act), in order that He might test the Believers by a gracious trial from Himself.
For verily, Allah is He Who hears and knows (all things).
Surah Al-Anfal, Verse 17
But Allah doesn’t have a hand. He is Nur, Light. Yet the words are making His Beloved’s acts His Own as one and the same and Maulana (ra) uses the words Ma Ramayta Id Ramayta in his Masnavi on 15 different occasions.
ما رمیت اذ رمیت احمد بدست
دیدن او دیدن خالق شدست
“When he threw, it was if Allah threw” with the hand of Ahmed,
Seeing Him is the same as the Seeing of God.
It was then that I wondered what Uzair had said about Maulana Rum (ra). I had not heard him speak about him in an entire lecture myself. Upon searching, I found a short 15 minute piece by him on Maulana from 2019. And I can’t say my heart didn’t miss a beat when he started his talk with exactly the same verse that began my video.
Uzair: “Inspired by this performance (that preceded his speech), I want to say something about the relationship between the Spiritual Master and the disciple as I have found it to relate to the Masnavi for myself. And that is why I chose this verse to begin.
'Indeed those who pledge allegiance to you, O Beloved (peace be upon you), actually pledge allegiance to Allah.
Allah’s Hand is placed over theirs.'
The first 18 couplets of the Masnavi are also called the foreword. And the first couplet. which you might be familiar with, is this:
کند بشنو این نی چون شکایت می
کند از جدائی ها حکایت می
Hearken to this reed forlorn, breathing, even since 'twas torn
From its rushy bed, a strain of impassioned love and pain.
And the 18th couplet is:
محرم این هوش جز بےھوش نیست
مر زبان را مشتری جز گوش نیست
No one knows the secret of this except the lover.
It is a special language only certain ears can hear.
In the first couplet Rumi says the neh, the reed, wants to say something, it wants to express something. And in the 18th he says, the only one who knows this consciousness is the one who is himself unconscious, as only the lover is.
When the Sufis discuss these beginning verses in their inner circles, they say the first letter “ba” in the first word “bishnu” is the “ba e Bismillah,” In the Name of Allah! And the letter “meem” in the 18th in the first word “mahram” is the Muhammadan Reality. So it is the journey from Allah to His Beloved (peace be upon him).
In those same 18 verses, Maulana describes amazingly the seven stations of Man which must be explored. The first is that of a person who is worldly, who is in fact living their life like an animal. From there he travels and reaches the stage where a teacher, a guide, takes his hand so that he moves from the animal kingdom towards an awakening. This is the second station.
From the awakening he moves to the third station of" ishq," love. Then from love he reaches towards “khuloos,” sincerity. From sincerity he moves to land in “qata,’” where he becomes cut off from worldliness and all things material. And then there is the 7th station which is the “maqam e tahhur”, the state of bewilderment, where the love reaches perfection, completion.”
Needless to say I was surprised to learn that the second stage was the connection with a Spiritual Master. I thought that was something that came in the end sometime. Those of us who were made disciples at a young age by our family, sometimes only as a result of their sheer insistence, suddenly appeared lucky. Without knowing it we at least arrived at the doorstep of stage two, even if sometimes we deprived our own selves by refusing to enter it willingly.
Uzair: “I am choosing to speak on these 18 verses that can be explored any number of ways. Although as a Qadri I can be dry,” he smiled, “for a change I am choosing the emotional approach. Hence the verse:
إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ يُبَايِعُونَكَ إِنَّمَا يُبَايِعُونَ ٱللَّهَ يَدُ ٱللَّهِ فَوْقَ أَيْدِيهِمْ ۚ
Indeed those who pledge allegiance to you (O Beloved), actually pledge allegiance to Allah.
Allah’s Hand is placed over theirs.
Surah Al-Fath, Verse 10
It is the incident of Suleh Hudaibiah when some of the Companions are upset as to why the truce from their end was being made with such accommodations that favoured the infidels. Why was such an agreement being signed? So Huzoor (saw) is sitting under a tree and he says, “Take a bay’at, a pledge of alliegiance, on my hand.”
And the Companions do so saying that they will never turn their backs on him, they will never leave him, they will never betray him. Come death or anything else. Allah is so pleased by this promise they make to His Beloved that the verse is revealed upon his heart; “Those who have made this pledge to you” and “innama,” without going into grammar deeply, means “only and only” and “in reality” or “in actuality,” they have pledged their allegiance to God and not to you and it was His Hand upon theirs and not your own.
Hazrat Shahubuddin Suhrawardy (ra) says for in his tafseer of the instance that Allah is not found by those who search for Him. He is a non-material Being. But the “bay’at,” a pledge of allegiance to a Spiritual Master, is a thing that if you take it, you can find the Hand of God.”
Subhan Allah!
“It’s a very subtle reference. That is why these people are iconic. He is saying that you can fast and pray and perform Haj but you will not find Allah’s Hand. But if you give your hand in the hand of the one chosen by Him, you will place your hand in His Hand.”
At this point Uzair quoted a hadith:
“Although authentic, it is not commonly related and you will see why.
ومَن مات وليس في عُنُقِه بَيْعَةٌ مات مِيتَةً جاهليَّةً
The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “Whoever dies without a “bay’at” around his neck, dies a death having known nothing.”
The words reminded me of a story from the Masnavi about the instruction given to Imam Ali (ratu) by Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him). I had translated an entire section of it in “The Softest Heart.” As I read it, I decided to translate the rest of it.
“The advice from Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him) to Hazrat Ali (ratu) that every man seeks closeness to Allah through some form of obedience. And that he should seek His Closeness through the company of the wise and special friend of His so that he reaches his goal quickly and leave all others behind.
Continued at www.flickr.com/photos/42093313@N00/50819754552/in/datepos...
Again, worked on entirely within Photos using the DxO extension and some quick Photos edits. I had to use Elements, unfortunately, to create precisely sized jpegs.
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.
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 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: 14.45MB
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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
"Am I in love? Yes, since I am waiting."
The other never waits.
Sometimes I want to play the part of the one who doesn't wait;
I try to busy myself elsewhere, to arrive late;
but I always loose at this game: whatever I do, I find myself there, with nothing to do, punctual, even ahead of time.
R.B.
This photograph was taken in the magic of The Golden Hour around Sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 07:56am), at an altitude of Seventeen metres, at 08:03am on Sunday January 11th 2015 off Botany Road and Marine Drive, on the sandy shoreline of Botany Bay in Broadstairs, Kent, England.
I set off at 05:30am on a very chilly morning, around two degrees, 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 1/20s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14Bit) -2.7EV compensation. 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 20.17s
LONGITUDE: E 1d 26m 7.52s
ALTITUDE: 17.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 15.70MB
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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
I haven't yet been able to precisely locate this garage - there is a photo of a large Volkswagen garage called Colindale Service Station I found on a Google search but it looks so different it either isn't the same place or the entire site was rebuilt since this picture was taken. See here mempics.jalbum.net/Colindale/# It's the 20th image. Apart from an Asda and a Sainsbury there is only a Shell garage left a bit further along the Edgware Road but I think it;s not the same place and if it was would also have been entirely rebuilt since the 1950's. Update - done a bit more research and it is the same place as the VW garage - what an amazing transformation.
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***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on April 19th 2015
CREATIVE RF gty.im/549149563 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**
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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.
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 15.79s
LONGITUDE: W 123d 24m 12.85s
ALTITUDE: 8.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 10.18MB
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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
MISS SL ♛ France was inspired by the rooster. It is the symbol of France or more precisely that of Vigilance and Work, the song of the rooster waking the peasants for their day of work or warning of a night incursion. He is often depicted wearing a Phrygian cap, a symbol of freedom and citizenship,
but it disappeared during the First Empire, Napoleon I preferring the imperial eagle because "the rooster has no strength, it cannot be the image of an empire like France". It was during the July monarchy (1830-1848) that the rooster made a strong comeback in popular imagery. King Louis-Philippe even signs an ordinance placing the rooster on the flags and buttons of the National Guard's clothing, and the tricolor flags of the army are summoned.
MISS SL ♛ France is wearing a feather corset and pants from her own store, Belle Mode, and adds shoes by Mogul, shoulder pieces by Zibska, Merry Rooster Harpy by Bare Rose and fishnet pantyhose. She completes her ensemble with jewelry by RealEvil Industries
Maserati's first crossover signals the winds of change blowing through Modena
The 2017 Maserati Levante might be the most important Italian automobile in decades. Maybe ever.
Hyperbole? Not really, if you slash to the core of the global car business. The Levante isn’t important precisely because it’s Maserati’s first SUV, or the first luxury-grade Italian SUV since the Lamborghini LM002 disappeared in 1993. It’s important because it’s the Italian auto industry’s last, best shot at relevance beyond the niche of hypercars from Ferrari, Lambo and sundry Paganis, Covinis or Fornasaris (a sexy, potentially profitable niche, but a niche nonetheless). The Levante is Italy’s last, best shot in a mainstream luxury business populated by Audis, Lexi and, soon, Hyundai’s Genesis brand.
In case you missed it, SUVs now account for nearly 50 percent -- half -- of global luxury auto sales. Maserati has big plans, starting with the goal of increasing sales sixfold over a six-year period ending in 2018, with “100 percent Italian” products. To succeed, Maserati needs a vehicle to compete in what amounts to half the luxury market.
Welcome, Levante. The most important Italian car debuts with Italian design, aromatic Italian leather and power-dense, sweet-sounding engines cast at the same foundry as Ferrari V8s and V12s. Its styling, according to exterior designer Giovanni Ribotta, continues a theme started with Maserati’s big Quattroporte sedan and carried through the smaller Ghibli. Maserati calls it Double Soul -- striving equally for elegance and sporting athleticism.
At first glance, Levante’s Double Soul looks a bit derivative. This SUV’s profile resembles the Cheetah look introduced on the Infiniti QX. Yet two-dimensional renderings don’t do justice to Levante’s subtle curves or details, from the split, dual-beam headlights to Maserati’s familiar portholes to the polished exhaust tips. An informal survey of people who’ve seen it off an auto-show stand produced predominately thumbs up, with the fanged grille putting off most dissenters.
Whatever the photographs suggest, the Levante is big. At 197 inches long, on a 118.3-inch wheelbase, Maserati’s SUV is 8 inches longer than a midsize Mercedes GLE -- and almost as long as the full-size GLS, on a longer wheelbase. By wheelbase and width, Levante surpasses both the recently introduced Bentley Bentayga and a full-size Chevy Tahoe. Yet one exterior dimension stands out. At 66.1 inches tall, the Levante’s roof sits 4 or 5 inches lower than the typical mid- or full-size SUV’s.
Product chief Davide Danesin says Levante starts on a lengthened evolution of the Ghibli sedan platform, itself an evolution of the Quattroporte platform. Its structural elements are largely cast aluminum, with a magnesium cross member for the dashboard. Doors, hood and hatch are also aluminum. The published curb weight (4,649 pounds in standard trim) puts it near the bottom of competitive behemoths and Maserati claims several bests in class. At 24 inches, its center of gravity is lowest among luxury SUVs, including the Porsche Cayenne. Thanks to active shutters behind the grille and a nearly full-flat bottom, its .31 coefficient of drag is lowest. And it’s the only SUV with precise 50/50 weight distribution.
Engines are a second-gen evolution of the Ghibli’s 3.0-liter, 60-degree, twin-turbo V6, built at the Ferrari works in Maranello. Danesin says there are subtle hardware or “optimization” differences between the standard V6 and the Levante S upgrade, but the turbos are identical. The engine makes 345 hp, 369 lb-ft in the base car and 424 hp, 428 lb-ft in the S -- the highest specific output among luxury SUVs. The torque maps change from normal to sport modes -- flat torque delivery in sport, rev-dependent in normal -- and the exhaust track is fitted with pneumatic flaps for a more circuitous, muted flow in normal, and a straight-dump, full Maserati roar in sport.
ZF supplies the eight-speed torque convertor automatic, with wheel paddles and full manual control -- no shift-up override. Maserati’s Q4 all-wheel drive is essentially the same as in its sedans: a power take-off at the end of the transmission with a multiplate clutch to shift power to the front differential. The default torque split is biased way rearward -- 100 percent in sport mode -- but as much as 50 percent of the engine torque can be directed to the front wheels. A mechanical limited-slip rear differential is standard, with brake vectoring on the front axle.
The Levante uses the Ghibli’s basic suspension layout, with geometry adjusted for more wheel travel and air springs in place of steel coils. The suspension pieces and sub-frames are aluminum. The springs are controlled independently at each wheel by the same ECU that manages Maserati’s Skyhook adaptive shocks. Air springs are used because they maximize both on- and off-road capability, according to Danesin, who says the Levante generates the most lateral acceleration and the least understeer of any SUV.
So equipped, Maserati’s SUV can operate at five different ride heights (plus a sixth for park), with a 3.35-inch range. There are four selectable drive modes -- normal, sport, off-road and ICE -- managing three basic control groups together: engine map, boost and transmission; air springs and dampers; AWD and stability control. There is no individual adjustment within the groups.
The Levante S comes with a brake upgrade -- larger disks and six-piston aluminum front calipers, as opposed to two -- delivering what Maserati claims is the shortest stopping distances among SUVs (60-0 mph in 113 feet). Calipers can be painted five colors, with the Maserati trident, and wheels range from 18 to 21 inches.
Inside there are six trim choices and optional silk seat inserts. The infotainment system starts with an 8.4-inch capacitive touchscreen, and the Bowers & Wilkins audio upgrade pumps 1,280 watts through 17 speakers. Passive and active safety systems run the gamut, including full stop-and-go adaptive cruise control and autonomous braking, up to anything involving steering intervention. Surprisingly, the Levante is fitted with conventional hydraulic steering assist, chosen for what Maserati considers optimum feel.
Maserati’s first SUV has been tested more extensively than any Maserati before, according to the company, starting with 1.7 million road miles on four continents and New Zealand. Levante is built on a new line at Fiat’s Mirafiori plant in Turin.
It reaches the United States by October, starting at $72,000 for Levante and $83,000 for Levante S, before a destination charge roughly equal to Ghibli’s ($1,250). Sport and Luxury packages (about $6,000) adjust wheels, seats, exterior trim and interior appointments, and the upward price limit should hit $110,000. Maserati says a Levante prototype with an updated 3.8-liter, 530-hp V8 from the Quattroporte -- fitted for the first time with AWD -- is testing in Italy. That’s another way of saying we’ll see a Levante V8 in a year or two.
By then, Levante should almost certainly be Maserati’s best-seller, with roughly a third of its volume going each to China, North America and rest of the world.
Maserati’s global sales grew from 12,000 in 2012 to 36,000 in 2014, largely on the strength of more Quattroporte and GT variants and the Ghibli launch. Levante opens another 50 percent of the luxury market, accounting for the bulk of growth if Maserati is to reach its targeted 70,000 sales by the end of 2018.
Levante, by the way, is not a 1970s R&B singer. It’s an easterly wind blowing across Italy, southern France and Spain -- sometimes arriving with near-gale force before dissipating to a cool, calming breeze. The Levante is also known for bringing cloud cover and rain.
What's it like to drive?
For grins, Maserati drove its first SUV up 80 or so steps at the medieval Italian castle where it held its press briefing. Not something you’d expect from a Maserati.
There are things about Levante you would expect, and still more you probably wouldn’t.
If you can drive a Bentley through muddy forests, why not a Maserati? We did, until the jewel-like deep red paint was more or less obscured. The Levante has the right electronic assistants, like hill-descent control. It performed the obligatory off-road stunts few owners will try, at least when the breakover angle isn’t too steep, and it did them with one unusual bit of kit: full-performance summer Pirellis rather than typical all-season tires.
With the right rubber underneath, off-road traction won’t likely be an issue, though sufficient ground clearance and the general lack of protection for Levante’s underpinnings would be. That said, Maserati’s SUV is almost certainly up to any “off-road” action the typical buyer might attempt. And properly equipped, the Levante can tow more than 5,000 pounds.
Levante’s steering effort falls toward the heavy side, certainly for this class, maybe another defining trait. An extra-thick steering wheel rim does not feel inappropriate in this SUV. It can make for some work through twisties, but the hydraulic steering tracks the uneven flow of pavement in a fashion the best electric systems still can’t. It puts this honking SUV exactly where you want it to go, every time, imparting confidence most SUVs do not. You might actually want to lash the Levante a bit. You’ll find it’s not inclined to plow or get light in back any more than a decently tuned sport sedan, and surprising lateral grip.
The Levante rides relatively soft in normal mode, certainly smoothly. Sport firms up the springs and reduces sway, but on rural Italian roads never felt anything like stiff. That might change on familiar byways in the good ol’ USA. Overall, the Levante is quite tight structurally, and by our ear and buttocks, among the quietest SUVs going -- particularly when it comes to wind noise. That wasn’t necessarily expected. Toward the end of our drive, after the 9-mile off-road run, we did notice an annoying vibration under the floor at hard-throttle shift points, as if a heat shield had loosened or something.
In many respects Levante is the least SUV-like machine among the growing throng of larger, luxury-grade SUV/crossover things, despite the requisite nod to off-road antics. It feels most like you’re driving a sedan with a higher seating position, slightly higher ride height, and most of an SUV’s stowage/space etc. advantages. Trite phrase, but true here: The Levante is quite car-like, if car means a good, powerful (but not necessarily light) sedan or wagon. That might be what most luxury SUV buyers want to begin with.
Inside, the elegant part of Double Soul rests largely in the materials, and the sport in design or technical details. The leather dash isn’t standard, but definitely makes the interior. The Zenga package adds the silk seat inserts, though you might not recognize it as silk. It starts with silkworm cocoons but ends up feeling a lot like other, more rugged auto-upholstery textiles. The dashboard is less cluttered than many, and generally effective. Layered control menus can be manipulated by touchscreen or mouse. There are hard buttons for climate and most drive functions, including drive modes, along the edge of the console or on the steering-wheel spokes.
Packaging is good if you can live with the lower-than-typical roof. The back seat is comfortable, with ample legroom, at least at the outboard ends. The hump in the center looks much less inviting. Headroom is tighter than in the typical SUV, but not tight for people of typical heights. Yet with 19.4 cubic feet of cargo space behind the rear seat, Levante sits near the bottom of the competitive set. The space there is only 60 percent of what’s available in a Range Rover.
Thumbs which way? The Levante’s Italianess applies in the better ways, and not in any bad way. A reviewer not inclined to suffer annoyances or embrace oddities in the name of Italianess likes it much better than anticipated. In more objective terms, you could make the case it’s today’s best Maserati, comparing each vehicle Maserati builds to any obvious competitors -- definitely a surprise.
Do I want it?
If you want the Maserati of SUVs, you must have it. The Levante is exactly that, beyond the hype.
Loved or hated, the most important Italian automobile in decades is distinctively Italian, stirring and mainstream competent, but not conformist. On the product alone, Maserati (and Italian luxury automobiles) have a fighting chance. Viva Italia.
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 (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 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 15.78s
LONGITUDE: W 123d 24m 12.85s
ALTITUDE: 8.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 12.04MB
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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
Taken at precisely 08:20 on a Saturday morning, 47810 stands ready for whatever work may come her way.
I think this was the day of a Crewe Works Open Day, hence our early morning visit to Birmingham. We'd driven from Portsmouth and taken in Eastleigh, Didcot, Saltley and Bescot before using good old BR to and from Stafford for the purposes of visiting the open day.
47810 still sees service today and is currently (Nov 20) in the employ of LSL.
Precisely when Brown Bears became extinct in the wild in the UK is not known for certain, at one time the species would have been common in Great Britain and Ireland, it's likely that they had become entirely extinct in the wild by 1,000 years ago, but possibly as long ago as 3,000 years ago. Establishing an exact date is complicated by the fact, that the Romans are believed to have imported live bears from mainland Europe for use in their arenas, bears may also have been brought in later, for bear baiting which was popular in London and other parts of the UK up until the 19th century.
The idea of reintroducing Brown Bears to the wild in the UK has been discussed, but it is very unlikely that this will ever happen, instead Brown Bears in the UK will remain confined to captivity, like these bears in the Bristol Zoo Project's Bear Wood. The bears live in a large enclosure within an ancient woodland and share their enclosure with a pack of Eurasian Grey Wolves.
Coach operator Caelloi Motors of Pwllheli run precisely one-third of a local bus service: the 3, between Pwllheli and Porthmadog, has one Caelloi and two Arriva workings each day. The oldest vehicle on this side of the operation is CX51 FKO, a Wright Cadet bodied DAF SB120 bought new in 2001; on 23 July 2015 it passes Llanystumdwy, most famous as the birthplace of David Lloyd George.
Photograph taken at an altitude of Five 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 03:08am on Monday 7th July 2014, off Botany Road and the Viking Coastal Trail on the shoreline of Botany Bay, the Northern most of seven bays in Broadstairs, Kent, England.
Here, I am standing knee deep in the warm and rapidly returning tidal water after a one hour drive to the coast that had me in the shower at 01:30am.The seven bays are (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 70mm 1/2.5s f/7.1 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Mirror up. AF-S Single point focus. Aperture Priority mode 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 23m 20.41s
LONGITUDE: E 1d 26m 14.33s
ALTITUDE: 5.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED FILE: 14.20MB
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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 needs to be interpreted with caution and this caption should also be understood as an inevitably subjective interpretation.
As I was photographing police arrests during the protest against the proscription of Palestine Action on 6 September 2025, I noticed a woman wearing a keffiyeh being arrested at approximately 8 pm, though I should stress that I don't know whether she had actually committed any crime or what exactly she was being arrested on suspicion of.
The photograph has not been edited in any way from the original standard jpg, except that the woman's face has been blurred to protect her identity, as well as the name tag showing on the uniform of one of the arresting officers.
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Protest and the Price of Dissent: Palestine Action and the Criminalisation of Conscience
Parliament Square on Saturday, 6 September 2025 was a scene of quiet, almost solemn defiance. The air, usually thick with the noise of London traffic and crowds of tourists, was instead filled with a palpable tension, a shared gravity that emanated from the quiet determination of hundreds of protesters, many of them over 60 years old, some sitting on steps or stools and others lying on the grass.
They held not professionally printed banners, but handwritten cardboard signs, their messages stark against the historic grandeur of their surroundings. This was not a march of chants and slogans, but a silent vigil of civil disobedience, a deliberate and calculated act of defiance against the state.
On that day, my task was to photograph the protest against the proscription of the direct-action group Palestine Action. While not always agreeing entirely with the group’s methods, I could not help but be struck by the profound dedication etched on the faces of the individual protesters.
As they sat in silence, contemplating both the horrific gravity of the situation in Gaza and the enormity of the personal risk they were taking — courting arrest under terror laws for holding a simple placard — their expressions took on a quality not dissimilar to what war photographers once called the “thousand-yard stare.” It was a look of weary but deep and determined resolve, a silent testament to their readiness to face life-changing prosecution in the name of a principle.
This scene poses a profound and unsettling question for modern Britain. How did the United Kingdom, a nation that prides itself on its democratic traditions and the right to protest, arrive at a point where hundreds of its citizens — clergy, doctors, veterans, and the elderly — could be arrested under counter-terrorism legislation for an act of silent, peaceful protest?
The events of that September afternoon were the culmination of a complex and contentious series of developments, but their significance extends far beyond a single organisation or demonstration. The proscription of Palestine Action has become a critical juncture in the nation’s relationship with dissent, a test of the elasticity of free expression, and a stark examination of its obligations under international law in the face of Israel deliberately engineering a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
To understand what is at stake, one must unravel the threads that led to that moment: the identity of the movement, the state’s legal machinery of proscription, the confrontation in Parliament Square, and the political context that compelled so many to risk their liberty.
Direct Action and the State’s Response
Palestine Action, established in 2020, has never hidden its approach. Unlike traditional lobbying groups, it rejected appeals to political elites in favour of disrupting the physical infrastructure of complicity: factories producing parts for Israeli weapons systems, offices of arms manufacturers, and — eventually — military installations themselves.
Its tactics, while non-violent, were disruptive and confrontational. Red paint sprayed across buildings to symbolise blood, occupations that halted production, chains and locks on factory gates. For supporters, these were acts of conscience against a system enabling atrocities in Gaza. For the state, they were criminal disruptions of commerce.That clash escalated steadily.
In Oldham, a persistent campaign against Elbit Systems, a key manufacturer in the Israeli arms supply chain, culminated in the company abandoning its Ferranti site. Later actions targeted suppliers for F-35 fighter jets and other arms manufacturers.
These were no random acts of mindless vandalism but part of a deliberate strategy: to impose costs high enough that complicity in Israel’s war effort would become unsustainable.The decisive rupture came in June 2025, when activists infiltrated RAF Brize Norton, Britain’s largest airbase, and sprayed red paint into the engines of refuelling aircraft linked to operations over Gaza.
For the activists, it was a desperate attempt to interrupt a supply chain of surveillance and logistical support to a state commiting genocide. For the government, it crossed a line: military assets had been attacked. Within days, the Home Secretary announced Palestine Action would be proscribed as a terrorist organisation.
Proscription and the Expansion of “Terrorism”
Here lies the heart of the controversy. The Terrorism Act 2000 defines terrorism with unusual breadth, encompassing not only threats to life but also “serious damage to property” carried out for political or ideological aims. In this capacious definition, breaking a factory window or disabling a machine can be legally assimilated to mass murder.
By invoking this law, the government placed Palestine Action on the same legal footing as al-Qaeda or ISIS. Supporting it — even symbolically — became a serious offence. Since July 2025, merely expressing support for the organization can carry a maximum prison sentence of 14 years. This is based on Section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000. The specific offense is "recklessly expressing support for a proscribed organisation". However, according to Section 13 of the Act, a lower-level offence for actions like displaying hand held placards in support of a proscribed group carries a maximum sentence of six months imprisonment or a fine of five thousand pounds or both.
Civil liberties groups and human rights bodies have denounced the proscription move as disproportionate. Their concern was not primarily whether Palestine Action’s tactics might violate existing criminal law. One might reasonably argue that they did unless they might sometimes be justified in the name of preventing a greater crime. But whether reframing those actions as “terrorism” represented a dangerous category error.
As many pointed out, terrorism has historically referred to violence against civilians. Expanding it to cover property damage risks draining the term of meaning. Worse, it arms the state with a stigma so powerful that it can delegitimise entire political positions without debate.T
he implications go further. Proscription does not simply criminalise acts. It criminalises expressions of allegiance, conscience and even speech. To say “I support Palestine Action” is no longer an opinion but technically a serious crime. The state has moved from punishing deeds to punishing expressions of solidarity — a move with chilling consequences for democratic life.
Parliament Square: Civil Disobedience on Trial
It was this transformation that brought nearly 1,500 people into Parliament Square on 6 September. They knew what awaited them. Organisers announced in advance that protesters would hold signs reading: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.” In doing so, they openly declared their intent to break the law.
The crowd was strikingly diverse. Retired doctors, clergy, war veterans, even an 83-year-old Anglican priest. Disabled activists came in wheelchairs; descendants of Holocaust survivors stood beside young students. This was not a hardened cadre of militants but a cross-section of society, many of whom had never before faced arrest.
At precisely 1 pm, the protesters all sat or lay down silently, cardboard signs raised. There was no chanting, no aggression — only a quiet insistence that they would not accept the criminalisation of conscience.The police response was equally predictable. Hundreds of officers moved systematically through the crowd, arresting anyone displaying a sign.
By the end of the day, nearly 900 people were detained under counter-terrorism law. It was one of the largest mass arrests in modern British history.Official statements later alleged police were met with violence — officers punched, spat on, objects thrown. Yet independent observers, including Amnesty International, contradicted this. They reported a peaceful assembly disrupted by aggressive policing: batons drawn, protesters shoved, some bloodied.
www.amnesty.org/zh-hans/documents/eur45/0273/2025/en/
Video footage supported at least some of Amnesty's report.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZQGFrqCf5U&t=1283s
The two narratives were irreconcilable, but only one carried the weight and authority of the state.The entire event unfolded as political theatre. The government proscribed a group, thereby creating a new crime. Protesters, convinced the law was unjust, announced their intent to commit that crime peacefully.
The police, forewarned, staged a vast operation. Each side acted out its script. The spectacle allowed the state to present itself as defending order against extremism — while in reality silencing dissent.
The Humanitarian Context: Why Protesters Risked All
To see the Parliament Square protest as a parochial dispute over free speech is to miss its driving force. The demonstrators were not there merely to defend abstract principles. They were responding to what they, and a growing body of international experts, describe as a genocide in Gaza.
By September 2025, Gaza had descended into almost total collapse. Over 63,000 Palestinians had been killed, the majority of them women and children. More than 150,000 had been injured, many maimed for life. Entire neighbourhoods had been flattened. Famine was confirmed in August, with Israel continuing to impose and even tighten deliberate restrictions on food, water, and fuel, a strategy condemned by human rights groups as a major war crime. Hospitals lay in ruins. Ninety percent of the population had been displaced.
It is in this context that the term genocide has been applied. Legal scholars point not only to mass killings but also to the deliberate infliction of life-destroying conditions, accompanied by rhetoric from Israeli officials dehumanising Palestinians as “human animals.” In September 2025, the International Association of Genocide Scholars declared that Israel’s actions met the legal definition of genocide.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cde3eyzdr63o
Major NGOs, UN experts, and even Israeli human rights groups such as B’Tselem echoed that conclusion.
For the protesters, then, the question was not abstract but immediate: faced with what they saw as a genocide, could they in good conscience remain silent while their own government criminalised resistance to it? Their answer was to risk arrest, their placards making the moral connection explicit: opposing genocide meant supporting those who sought to stop it.
The Price of Dissent
The mass arrests in Parliament Square were not an isolated incident of law enforcement. They were the product of a broader trajectory: escalating tactics by a direct-action movement, a humanitarian catastrophe abroad, and a government determined to suppress dissent at home through the bluntest of instruments.
The official line insists that Palestine Action’s campaign constituted terrorism and thus warranted proscription. On this view, the arrests were simple enforcement of the law. Yet this account obscures the deeper reality: a precedent in which the state redefined non-lethal protest as terrorism, shifting from punishing actions to criminalising expressions of solidarity.
The cost is profound. Once speech and conscience themselves become suspect, dissent is no longer tolerated but pathologised. The chilling effect is already evident: individuals weigh not just whether to join a protest, but whether uttering support might expose them to years in prison.
Terror laws, originally justified as a shield against mass violence, are recast as tools of political management.The protesters understood this. That “thousand-yard stare” captured in their faces was not only the weight of potential arrest, but the knowledge of Gaza’s devastation, the famine and rubble, the deaths mounting daily. It was also the recognition that their own government had chosen to silence them rather than address its complicity.
In a functioning democracy, the question is not why citizens risk arrest for holding a handwritten cardboard sign. It is why a state finds it necessary to treat that act as a terror offence. The answer reveals a narrowing of democratic space, where conscience itself is deemed subversive. And that narrowing, history teaches, carries consequences not just for those arrested, but for the society that allows it.
This photograph was taken in the magic of The Golden Hour around Sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 07:56am), at an altitude of Twelve metres, at 07:39am on Sunday January 11th 2014 off Botany Road and Marine Drive, on the sandy shoreline of Botany Bay in Broadstairs, Kent, England.
I set off at 05:30am on a very chilly morning, around two degrees, 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 42mm 1/100s f/2.8 iso125 RAW (14Bit) -2.7EV compensation. AF-S single point focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.
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 20.18s
LONGITUDE: E 1d 26m 7.57s
ALTITUDE: 12.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 13.07MB
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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
This Two seconds long exposure was taken standing in front of the River Cray at an altitude of Twenty metres at 05:49pm on Thursday 22nd March 2018, in the golden hour around sunrise, (Sunrise was at precisely 05:59am),off Rectory Lane in the grounds of Foots Cray Meadows, over the River Cray in Bexley, Kent, England.
Here we see part of St James Church of England Church.
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Nikon D850 38mm 2 seconds long exposure f/14.0 iso100 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L 8256 x 5504 FX). Colour space Adobe RGB. Handheld. AF-C focus 51 point with 3-D tracking. Area mode single. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto 0 white balance. Nikon Distortion control on. Vignette control Normal.
Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm F4G ED VR. Phot-R ultra slim 77mm UV filter. Nikon EN-EL15a battery. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 32GB Class 10 SDHC. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module.
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Manfrotto 055Xprob Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections. Manfrotto 327RC2 Magnesium Ball Head. Manfrotto quick release plate 200PL-14. Jessops Tripod bag.
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LATITUDE: N 51d 25m 35.90s
LONGITUDE: E 0d 7m 53.90s
ALTITUDE: 20.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB (NEF 91.7mb)
PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 58.10MB
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PROCESSING POWER:
Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.01 (16/01/2018) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18)
HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB SATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.11 15/03/2018). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.
Couldn't identify this, thanks to my unmindfulness. Thanks to Chris Gosfield, it's a Nankeen Night Heron, Nycticorax caledonicus...
The Aqueduct of Segovia (or more precisely, the aqueduct bridge) is one of the most significant and best-preserved monuments left by the Romans on the Iberian Peninsula. It is among the most important symbols of Segovia, as is evidenced by its presence on the city's coat of arms.
As it lacks a legible inscription (one was apparently located in aqueduct's attic, or top portion), the date of construction cannot be definitively determined. Researchers have placed it between the second half of the 1st Century AD and the early years of the 2nd Century— during the reign of either Emperor Vespasian or Nerva. The beginnings of Segovia itself are likewise not definitively known. Vacceos are known to have populated the area before the Romans conquered the city. Roman troops sent to control the area, which fell within the jurisdiction of the Roman provincial court (Latin conventus iuridici, Spanish convento jurídico) located in Clunia, stayed behind to settle there.
The aqueduct transports waters from Spring Fuenfría, situated in the nearby mountains some 17 kilometers (10.6 miles) from the city in a region known as La Acebeda. It runs another 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) before arriving in the city. The water is first gathered in a tank known as El Caserón (or Big House), and is then led through a channel to a second tower known as the Casa de Aguas (or Waterhouse). There it is naturally decanted and sand settles out before the water continues its route. Next the water travels 728 meters (.45 miles) on a one-percent grade until it is high upon the Postigo, a rocky outcropping on which the old city center, the Segovia Alcázar, was built. Then, at Plaza de Díaz Sanz (Díaz Sanz Square), the structure makes an abrupt turn and heads toward Plaza Azoguejo (Azoguejo Square). It is there the monument begins to display its full splendor. At its tallest, the aqueduct reaches a height of 28.5 meters (93.5 feet), including nearly 6 meters (19.7 feet) of foundation. There are both single and double arches supported by pillars. From the point the aqueduct enters the city until it reaches Plaza de Díaz Sanz, it boasts 75 single arches and 44 double arches (or 88 arches when counted individually), followed by four single arches, totalling 167 arches in all.
The first section of the aqueduct contains 36 pointed arches, rebuilt in the 15th Century to restore a portion destroyed by Moors in 1072. The line of arches is organized in two levels, decorated simply, in which predominantly simple moulds hold the frame and provide support to the structure. On the upper level, the arches have a total width of 5.1 meters (16.1 feet). Built in two levels, the top pillars are both shorter and narrower than those on the lower level. The top of the structure contains the channel through which water travels, through a U-shaped hollow measuring 1.8 by 1.5 meters (5.9 by 4.9 feet). The channel continuously adjusts to the base height and the topography below. The lower-level arches have an approximate width of 4.5 meters (14.8 feet); Their pillars gradually increase in circumference size. The top of each pillar has a cross-section measuring 1.8 by 2.5 meters (5.9 by 8.2 feet), while the base cross-section measures approximately 2.4 by 3 meters (7.9 by 9.8 feet).
The aqueduct is built of unmortared, brick-like granite blocks. During the Roman era, each of the three tallest arches displayed a sign in bronze letters, indicating the name of its builder along with the date of construction. Today, two niches are still visible, one on each side of the aqueduct. One of them is known to have held the image of the Egyptian Hercules, who according to legend was founder of the city. The other niche now contains the images of the Virgen de la Fuencisla (the Patroness of Segovia) and Saint Stephen.
The first reconstruction of the aqueduct took place during the reign of the King Ferdinand and Queen Isabelle, known as the Reyes Católicos or Catholic Monarchs. Don Pedro Mesa led the project, the prior of the nearby Jerónimos del Parral monastery. A total of 36 arches were rebuilt, with great care taken not to change any of the original work or style. Later, in the 16th Century, the central niches and above-mentioned statues were placed on the structure. On Saint Barbara's Day (4 December), who is the patron saint of artillery, the cadets of the local military academy drape the image of the Virgin in a flag.
The aqueduct is the city's most important architectural landmark. It had been kept functioning throughout the centuries and preserved in excellent condition. It provided water to Segovia, mainly to the Segovia Alcázar, until recently. During the 20th Century, the aqueduct suffered wear and tear due to pollution from heaters and automobiles. The latter used to pass below the arches. Natural erosion from the granite itself has also affected the structure through the years. Contrary to popular belief, vibrations caused by traffic do not affect the aqueduct due to its great mass. Restoration projects, supervised by architect Francisco Jurado, have been ongoing since 1997 in order to guarantee the aqueduct's survival. During the restoration, traffic has been re-routed, and Plaza Azoguejo has been converted into a pedestrian zone. (Wikipedia)
Photograph taken at an altitude of Nine metres, in the magic of the Golden hour around sunrise at 05:17am, (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 plane is leaving from Victoria International airport (YYR)
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Nikon D800 70mm 1/100s 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 15.76s
LONGITUDE: W 123d 24m 12.80s
ALTITUDE: 9.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 11.15MB
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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
The rolling chassis shown in the Museum (a chassis fitted with just the wheels and mechanicals, including engine) precisely explains how the cars were often sold at the time; indeed many manufacturers or did not have (as for example Isotta Fraschini) the bodywork department or left to the customer’s taste and requirements the choice of the body.
The most demanding customers had their own reliable bodybuilder, who could satisfy all their wishes. It was not unusual the same chassis changed its body more than one time in its lifetime, for its owner’s will or for the choice of the new owner. This is another reason why the cars of that period, although of the same model, do not resemble each other.
The 501 chassis was fitted with different kinds of bodyworks (tourer, roadster, landaulet, saloon, coupé de ville, cabriolet, taxi, sports torpedo) manufactured either by Fiat or private bodybuilders.
1.460 cc
4 in-line
23 bhp @ 2.600 rpm
66.864 ex.
Museo Nicolis
Villafranca di Verona
Italy - Italia
February 2019
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***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on January 28th 2015
CREATIVE RF gty.im/534855981 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**
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Photograph taken at an altitude of Eight metres, in the magic of the Golden hour around sunrise, (Sunrise was at precisely 07:00am), at 07:03am on Sunday 21st September 2014 off 1st Street and Beacon Avenue, from the concourse above the shoreline 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.
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Nikon D800 122mm 1/1000s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Mirror up. 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 54.79s
LONGITUDE: W 123d 23m 38.72s
ALTITUDE: 8.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 11.82MB
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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
Each morning they put out these chairs in precise order. They put pegs in the sand and run a rope between them. Then they line up the chairs against the rope.
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***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on January 16th 2014
CREATIVE RF gty.im/#532823965 MOMENT OPEN***
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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.
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.
LATITUDE: N 48d 38m 15.77s
LONGITUDE: W 123d 24m 12.83s
ALTITUDE: 8.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 10.51MB
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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
Photograph taken at an altitude of Seventy one metres, prior to the magic of the Golden Hour around sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 04:45am), at 03:39am on Thursday 19th 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 70mm 1/400s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Manual 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.
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LATITUDE: N 51d 22m 4.76s
LONGITUDE: E 0d 11m 51.46s
ALTITUDE: 71.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED FILE: 11.67MB
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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 Eighty metres, prior to the magic of the Golden Hour around sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 04:38am), at 03:27am 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 35mm 1/40s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Nikon RC-DC2 remote shutter release. AF-S Single point focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.
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 8.08s
LONGITUDE: E 0d 11m 46.16s
ALTITUDE: 80.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED FILE: 10.09MB
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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
DAILY ECHO: Residents to take council to court over Victorian nursing home demolition - by Will Frampton, Tuesday, 5th January, 2016.
RESIDENTS of Talbot Woods plan to take Bournemouth Council to court over the demolition of a Victorian house.
The council's planning board granted permission for the demolition of 3 Glenferness Avenue and its replacement with a block of 11 flats at a meeting on December 14, against the recommendation of officers, who said its removal would cause "substantial harm" to the Meyrick Park and Talbot Woods Conservation Area.
Talbot and Branksome Woods Residents’ Association has since written to heritage organisations Historic England, the Victorian Society and the Ancient Monuments Society calling on them to provide expert testimony and funding for a judicial review challenging the decision.
Chairman Stephen Coltman said: "We asked Bournemouth Council to revisit the decision but they told us they would not be doing so.
"We are now waiting for the reaction of these three heritage bodies, all of which put in comments on the application anyway. I think they will get back to us by mid-January.
"What concerns us is that if you allow one positive building in a conservation area to be knocked down like this, what is to stop another developer asking to do the same, here or in one of the town's other conservation areas. It sets a precedent."
The 'Victorian villa' housed Hightrees Nursing Home until its closure late last year, and it has since been used unlawfully as a 15-room house of multiple occupation (HMO).
At the meeting the committee argued the building wasn't making a "positive contribution" to the area, although planning officers warned in their report that the authority risked judicial review and financial penalties for disregarding the expert advice.
Six councillors voted in favour of the plans, which were put forward by Bournemouth firm Harlequin Homes. Three councillors voted against and one abstained.
When originally consulted on the demolition plans the Victorian Society said: "It is precisely buildings like this which led to it being designated a conservation area.
"By demolishing it, the already depleted Victorian building stock, which is integral to the conservation area, will be diluted."
Mike Holmes, the council's service director for planning, said: "We are aware that the Talbot and Branksome Wood Residents Association has expressed concerns regarding the reasonableness of the decision of the planning board, and that they have the option to consider whether to pursue proceedings for judicial review of the planning board’s decision.
"However, I can confirm that the planning board determined the applications on December 14, subject to the completion of a Section 106 agreement and conditions, and as a consequence a decision has been made on the applications.
"As with any other planning application decision there is a period in which it is possible to seek a judicial review of the decision, and normal protocol indicates that if a judicial review is anticipated the aggrieved party should also notify the applicant at an early stage."
www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/14181720.Residents_to_take...
The third primary job of the day, precisely placing concrete forms over the rebar cage, is under way in light breeze and dark, cloudy weather. To me, this looked like a problem. How could crane operators straighten tons of dangling concrete forms and get the load in position to slip over the rebar? It is possible with “tag lines”attached and in the hands of skilled riggers guiding the load into place. Looking closely at the photographi, at the bottom, I can see the tag lines and their handlers in place. Wow, that is a complicated rigging assignment and an interesting way to make a living.
According to OSHA §1926.1401 a tag line “means a rope (usually fiber) attached to a lifted load for purposes of controlling load spinning and pendular motions or used to stabilize a bucket or magnet during material handling operations.”
GQ Magazine August 2007 UK Edition
Precisely how hip-hop are you?
I wrote and sung some hip-hop songs in the Seventies, though they didn't call it hip-hop in those days. Listen to “What Did I Do” on Approximately Infinite Universe and “Yes, I’m A Witch” on A Story. That's hip-hop.
What was the best record in your parents' collection?
All Thirties stuff. You would have loved it. All turned to ashes in WWII.
What's the weirdest thing you've ever bought?
I went and bought a Chinese vibrator as a joke birthday present for a girlfriend. I suddenly noticed how the shop people were looking at me...and thought "I better get out of here... quick!"
Could you match Amy Winehouse drink for drink?
I matched my husband. I wonder if Amy could.
Have you got any piercings we don't know about?
You don't know about it because I didn't tell you.
As a successful musician, do you feel under pressure to "perform" in bed?
No. But I'd first ask them to show me a recent doctor's certificate, his mom's permission in writing, and to sign a confidentiality agreement.
Are hybrid cars too girly for rock stars?
Could somebody make it just as comfortable as a Bentley, please?
Which band would you like to see reform?
The Beatles.
Which lyric are you most proud of writing?
The ones I recorded. Why would I record them otherwise?
What’s the most important item on your rider?
I'd like to get a rider that will take me to the other Universe. I want to know what they're doing out there.
Who’s the most famous person you’ve had in your house?
My husband.
Have you ever been arrested?
If I was, I don't remember.
When was the last time you fired a gun?
Never.
Do you consider yourself a role model?
"Don't do what I do. Just do what I say!"
Have you ever had sex to one of your own records?
No. Have you?
What’s the strangest gift you’ve ever received?
Crocodile's tears.
Do you believe in God?
Which God?
When was the last time you really lost your temper?
Now - As I read these long line of questions!
What’s the longest time you’ve gone without sex?
I'd rather not remember.
Would you let Snoop Dogg into your country?
My country of origin is Mars.
Would you rather be adopted by Madonna or Angelina?
Either one.
How much do you think Heather Mills deserves from the divorce?
None of your business.
Who tops the bill at your fantasy festival line-up?
My son.
What would you give Pete Doherty and Kate Moss as a wedding present?
A set of handcuffs.
Describe George Bush in three words.
Don't know him.
What was your worst drug experience?
Withdrawals.
What's the biggest media misconception about you?
That I break-up stuff!
Who’s your style icon?
Me.
What music do you love that would surprise people?
My own.
And the ones they didn’t publish…
Where do you stand on leather trousers?
It excites me just as real leather.
What's the worst thing a critic has ever said about you?
When he said nothing.
Is it time for Robbie to admit defeat and rejoin Take That?
Excuse me?
Should the Arctic Monkeys cheer up a bit?
For what reason?
How far would you get on American idol?
I applaud each one of them for being so courageous.
Who would play you in Calvin Harris the musical?
I hope nobody.
Who runs your MySpace site?
Whoever is running it, be kind...
If Tony Blair reformed Ugly Rumours, would you go to his gig?
I might.
Scale of one to ten: how good looking are you?
I'm doing alright.
Describe the way you dance.
Till dawn.
What would you miss most if you weren't famous any more?
Now, let me think...
What do you consider the most rock'n'roll holiday destination?
Anywhere you enjoy.
What's the best ever book about pop music?
One that doesn't trash anybody.
Have you looked yourself up on YouTube?
I haven't gotten around to it.
What’s your proudest moment?
I'm waiting!
yoko ono
may 2007
The Castello di Milazzo is a fortified ensemble in Milazzo, Sicily, southern Italy. It is located on the summit a hill commanding the town, and is of uncertain origin, perhaps Arab. It was later enlarged in medieval and modern times, and it is now a National Monument of Italy.The area of the castle is known to have been frequented in ancient times, as shown by recent findings inside the castle's perimeter of coins including those of the Mamertines.The oldest element of the current castle, a quadrangular tower, dates most likely to the Arab period of Sicily. It was later enlarged by the Normans and the Hohenstaufen: Frederick II of Hohenstaufen's architect, Richard of Lentini, worked at the castle.During the Aragonese domination of Sicily walls were added with five rounded bastions (15th century). The larger external towers were built in the early 16th century. The castle lost its importance in the 18th century, and decayed until recent times.OverviewThe "castle" was more precisely a fortified town or citadel, which housed several public and private edifices, such as a cathedral and a Benedictine convent. The entrance is from the Santa Maria bastion, which, together with the so-called Bastione delle Isole, is part of the massive Spanish 16th century walls. A gallery with a barrel vault then leads to an internal courtyard, after which is the Old Duomo (cathedral), built from 1607.
Il monumento più importante della città è il Castello di Federico II: bene nazionale e dell'Unione Europea, si estende su un'area di oltre 7 ettari, costituisce una vera e propria cittadella.Le prime fortificazioni sono databili attorno al Neolitico (4000 a.C.). Più tardi, attorno al VIII-VII secolo a.C., grazie all'intervento dei Greci, che la chiamarono Mylai, l'agglomerato prese forma e s'ingrandì, divenendo un'acropoli e, grazie all'intervento romano-bizantino, un castrum.Nell'843 gli Arabi diedero vita al primo nucleo dell'odierno castello, sulle rovine delle vecchie dominazioni. Successivamente, i Normanni e gli Svevi, aggiunsero altre strutture, gli Aragonesi ne adeguarono l'impianto difensivo, gli Spagnoli lo circondarono di una poderosa cinta muraria. Particolare interessante è un disegno stilizzato il pietra lavica in uno spigolo delle mura medievali. Secondo alcuni esperti è l'occhio del falco Horo, simbolo egiziano di inespugnabilità; secondo altri è uno scarabeo, sui cui occhi il sole punta dritto nel giorno dell'equinozio di primavera. I milazzesi potevano così sapere l'evolversi delle stagioni.
Milazzo is a town and comune in the province of Messina, Sicily, Italy.The city is situated between two bays, one of Milazzo and the east to the west of Patti, in a strategic place in the north-eastern Sicily. Located 43 km from the provincial capital, is part of the metropolitan area of the Strait of Messina, and is the reference point of an area of over 200,000 inhabitants.Originally a Greek city, and from 36 BC recognized as a Roman civitas, Milazzo is now a tourist destination and a great starting point for the Aeolian Islands, the Nebrodi Park, Tindari. There are numerous testimonies, the symbols of the ancient history of the city.Plans are in progress to enter the castle, the fortified town and the ancient village in the sites of UNESCO. The promontory of Capo Milazzo became a marine reserve.
Milazzo è un comune italiano di 32.601 abitanti della provincia di Messina in Sicilia.La città è posta tra due golfi, quello di Milazzo a est e quello di Patti a ovest, in un luogo strategico della Sicilia nord-orientale. Distante 43 km dal capoluogo rientra nell'area metropolitana dello Stretto, è il punto di riferimento di un comprensorio di 204.000 abitanti circa.In origine città greca, e dal 36 a.C. riconosciuta come civis romana, Milazzo è oggi una meta turistica ed un ottimo punto di partenza per le Isole Eolie, il Parco dei Nebrodi, Tindari. Numerose sono infatti le testimonianze, simboli della storia millenaria della città.Sono in corso progetti mirati ad inserire il Castello, la città fortificata e il borgo antico tra i siti UNESCO ed a costituire la Riserva Marina del Promontorio di Capo Milazzo.
Font : Wikipedia
Puzzle Series: What is this, or what do you want it to be?
Valentine's Day gift? Alien head? I think this one should go quickly....
Update: Answer: This is a picture of two frolicking comb jellies at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
The rainbows ripple down eight ridges, each of which is a comb of tiny hairs used for propulsion through the water. The intense colors are caused by diffraction since the structures repeat with a period precisely related to the wavelength of light (just like in a diffraction grating... which also makes the rainbow of colors appear on a music CD).
Photograph taken at an altitude of One hundred and eleven metres, in the Golden Hour around Sunset (Sunset was at precisely 19:38pm), at 19:15pm on Saturday 14th September 2013 Just before Aberfeldy On the shoreline of Loch Tay, nestled in the Tay Forest Park near Kenmore off the A827.
Kenmore (Cheannmhor) is a small village in Perthshire in the Highlands of Scotland where Loch Tay drains into the River Tay. This was my final evening in Scotland, and I could not resist one final photoshoot, even though the sunset was not as spectacular as might have been.
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Nikon D800 27mm 1/125s f/5.0 iso200 RAW (14Bit). 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-EL15 batteries. Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod. Manfrotto quick release plate 200PL-14. Manfrotto 327RC2 Grip action ball head. Sandisc 32GB Ultra Class 10 30MB/s SDHC. Nikon DK-17a magnifying eyepiece. Hoodman HGEC soft eyepiece cup. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.
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LATITUDE: N 56d 34m 52.77s
LONGITUDE: W 4d 1m 14.83s
ALTITUDE: 111.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED FILE: 18.07MB
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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 Cornell Farm
West Building, Main Floor—Gallery 63
•Date: 1848
•Medium: Oil on Canvas
•Dimensions:
oOverall: 93.3 × 124.4 cm (36¾ × 49 in.)
oFramed: 119.1 × 149.9 × 6 cm (46⅞ × 59 × 2⅜ in.)
•Credit Line: Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch
•Accession Number: 1964.23.4
•Artists/Makers:
oArtist: Edward Hicks, American, 1780-1849
Overview
Edward Hicks, having apprenticed to a Pennsylvania coachmaker at thirteen, became a minister in 1811. He was torn between his calling as a Quaker minister and his love of painting, worrying that his art kept him from “the Lord’s work.”
Hicks precisely identified this subject with a long inscription along the bottom of the canvas: “An Indian summer view of the Farm & Stock OF JAMES C. CORNELL of Northampton Bucks county Pennsylvania. That took the Premium in the Agricultural society, October the 12, 1848 Painted by E. Hicks in the 69th year of his age.” Though the punctuation and capitalization are inconsistent, the quality of the lettering proves that Edward Hicks was schooled in sign painting.
Having no background in academic art, Hicks employed the direct approach of a primitive or folk painter. The horizontal band of livestock across the foreground, although childlike in its simplicity, clearly presents each prize-winning animal as an individual portrait. Hicks’ delight in creating ornamental pattern is evident in the arrangement of fences, while the rich red and bright white of the house and barn symmetrically flank this central landscape. Although the stark silhouettes of figures and buildings seem naive, Hicks softly blended his paints over the orchard to give the impression of space existing well beyond what the eye can see.
Inscription
•Across Bottom: An Indian summer view of the Farm & Stock of JAMES C. CORNELL of Northampton Bucks county Pennsylvania. That took the Premium in the Agricultural society, october the 12, 1848 / Painted by E. Hicks in the 69th year of his age.
Provenance
Painted for James C. Cornell, Northampton, Bucks County, Pennsylvania; to Theodore Cornell, his son; to Russell Cornell, his son; to Mr. and Mrs. J. Stanley Lee (Mrs. Lee is Hick’s great-granddaughter), Newtown, Pennsylvania, by whom sold in 1954 to Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch; gift to NGA, 1964.
Associated Names
•Cornell, James C.
•Cornell, Russell
•Cornell, Theodore
•Garbisch, Edgar William, Mr. and Mrs.
•Lee, J. Stanley, Mr. and Mrs.
Exhibition History
•1882—Bucks County Bi-Centennial Celebration, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 1882.
•1957—American Primitive Paintings from the Collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Part II, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1957, no. 81.
•1957—Art Our Children Live With, Downtown Gallery, New York, 1957, no cat.
•1958—American Folk Art. Part of American Art. Four Exhibitions, Brussels Universal and International Exhibition, Belgium, 1958, no. 84, 45, repro. 51.
•1960—Edward Hicks, 1780-1849, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1960, no. 37.
•1961—101 Masterpieces of American Primitive Painting from the Collection of E.W. and B.C. Garbisch, traveling exh. by the Amer. Fed. of Arts, New York, 1961-1964, no. 75, color repro. First venue, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
•1966—Three Self-Taught Pennsylvania Artist: Hicks, Kane and Pippin, Carnegie Institute of Art, Pittsburgh; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966-1967, no. 33, color repro.
•1968—American Naive Painting of the 18th and 19th Centuries: 111 Masterpieces from the Collection of E.W. and B.C. Garbisch, traveling exh. by Amer. Fed. of Arts, N.Y., 1968-1970, no. 73, repro. First venue: Grand Palais, Paris.
•1970—American Naive Painting of the 18th and 19th Centuries: Masterpieces from the Collection of E.W. and B.C. Garbisch, organized by the Amer. Fed. of Arts, N.Y., and Mainichi News., Nihobashi Mitsukoshi, Tokyo, 1970, no cat.
•1970—The New World: 1620-1970, Chrysler Museum of Art, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1970, no. 15.
•1971—What is American in American Art, M. Knoedler and Co. [benefit exhibition for the Museum of American Folk Art], New York, 1971, no. 46, color repro.
•1974—Our Land, Our Sky, Our Water, organized for International Exposition, Spokane, Washington, 1974, no. 15.
•1978—The American Folk Art Tradition: Paintings from the Garbisch Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978.
•1980—American Folk Painters of Three Centuries, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1980, 96, color repro. (cat. edited by Jean Lipman and Thomas Armstrong).
•1981—American Naive Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois, 1981-1982, no. 26, color repro. (cat. by Ronald McKnight Melvin).
•1985—American Naive Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, Exh. cat. Traveling exh. by the International Exhibitions Foundation, Washington, 1985-1987, no. 36, color repro. First venue: Museum of American Folk Art, New York.
•1988—La Nascita di Una Nazione: Pittori americani dalla National Gallery of Art di Washington 1730-1880, Palazzo Pepoli Campogrande, Bologna; Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Moderna di Ca’Pesaro, Venice, 1988-1989, no. 36, repro.
•1996—1846: Portrait of the Nation, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1996, unnumbered catalogue, repro.
•1997—Charles Sheeler in Doylestown: American Modernism and the Pennsylvania Tradition, Allentown Art Museum; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth; Cincinnati Art Museum, 1997-1998, no. 40, repro.
•1999—The Kingdoms of Edward Hicks, 5 venues, shown only at the first two, The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Williamsburg; Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1999-2000, no. 82, fig. 171.
•2018—Outliers and American Vanguard Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2018-2019, no. 35.
Bibliography
•1947—Editorial, Antiques, 52 (October 1947): 252-253.
•1950—Lipman, Jean, and Alice Winchester. Primitive Painters in America 1750-1950. New York, 1950: 46-47.
•1952—Ford, Alice. Edward Hicks, Painter of the Peaceable Kingdom. Philadelphia, 1952: 97, 107, 108, 121, color repro. opp. 108.
•1966—Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:480, color repro.
•1970—American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 68, repro.
•1971—Campbell, William P. “The American Heritage at the National Gallery of Art.” Connoisseur 178 (December 1971): 270, 272.
•1974—Lipman, Jean, and Alice Winchester. The Flowering of American Folk Art. New York, 1974: color pl. 70.
•1975—Parry, Ellwood. “Edward Hicks and A Quaker Iconography.” Arts Magazine 49 (June 1975): 94.
•1976—Lipman, Jean, and Helen M. Franc. Bright Stars: American Painting and Sculpture Since 1776. New York, 1976: color repro., 60.
•1978—King, Marian. Adventures in Art: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1978: 100, pl. 63.
•1979—Haverstock, Mary Sayre. An American Bestiary. New York, 1979: color repro., 146.
•1980—American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 175, repro.
•1980—Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: 10, no. 19, color repro.
•1983—Mather, Eleanore Price. Edward Hicks: His Peaceable Kingdoms and Other Paintings. Newark, Delaware, 1983: 85, 195, no. 106, color pl. 8.
•1984—Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 543, no. 820, color repro.
•1985—Ford, Alice. Edward Hicks, His Life and Art. New York, 1985: 234-236, color repro.
•1988—Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 90, no. 22, color repro.
•1992—American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 202, repro.
•1992—Chotner, Deborah, with contributions by Julie Aronson, Sarah D. Cash, and Laurie Weitzenkorn. American Naive Paintings. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 194-196, color repro. 195.
•1992—National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 226, repro.
•1998—Ford, Alice. Edward Hicks, Painter of the Peaceable Kingdom. Philadelphia, 1998: 97, 108, 120, repro.
•2001—Southgate, M. Therese. The Art of JAMA II: Covers and Essays from The Journal of the American Medical Association. Chicago, 2001: 178-179, 216, color repro.
•2004—Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 300, no. 242, color repro.
From American Naïve Paintings:
1964.23.4 (1936)
The Cornell Farm
•1848
•Oil on Canvas, 93.3 × 114.4 (36¼ × 49)
•Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch
Inscriptions
•Across Bottom: An Indian summer view of the Farm & Stock of JAMES c. CORNELL of Northampton Bucks county Pennsylvania. That took the Premium in the Agricultural society, October the 12., 1848 / Painted by E. Hicks in the 69th year of his age.
Technical Notes
The tacking margins on the fine support are intact, although unusually narrow (1 cm). The off-white ground is smoothly applied. The darker and cooler colors were applied first in relatively thin layers. The lighter colors were placed over them in heavier application. Low impasto is evident in the highlights and details. There is no visible underdrawing in natural light or infrared reflectography, and no design changes are apparent. Vertical streaks in the sky appear to originate beneath the paint film. The picture is in excellent condition with only a few tiny losses scattered in the sky and foreground.
Provenance
James C. Cornell, Northampton, Bucks County, Pennsylvania; to Theodore Cornell, his son; to Russell Cornell, his son; to Mr. and Mrs. J. Stanley Lee (Mrs. Lee is Hicks’ great-granddaughter), Newtown, Pennsylvania, by whom sold in 1954 to Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch.
Exhibitions
Bucks County Bi-Centennial Celebration, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 1881. // NGA, 1957, no. 81. // Art Our Children Live With, Downtown Gallery, New York, 1957, no cat. // American Art, Brussels Universal and International Exhibition, Belgium, 1958, no. 84. / / Edward Hicks, 1/80-1849, AARFAC, 1960, no. 37. / / 101 Masterpieces, 1961-1964, no. 75, color repro. // Three Self-taught Pennsylvania Artists: Hicks, Kane and Pippin, Carnegie Institute of Art, Pittsburgh; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966-1967, no. 33, color repro. // in Masterpieces, 1968-1970, no. 73, color repro. // Tokyo, 1970. / / The New World: 162.0-19/0, Chrysler Museum of Art, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1970, no. 15. // What is American in American Art, M. Knoedler and Co., New York, 1971, catalogue by Mary C. Black, no. 46, color repro. / / Twenty-five Polk Artists: Their Lives and Work, AARFAC, 1971, no cat. / / Our Land, Our Sky, Our Water, organized for International Exposition, Spokane, Washington, 1974, no. 15. // Whitney, 1980, 96, color repro. / / Terra, 1981-1981, no. 26, color repro. / / American Naïve Paintings, (IEF) 1985-1987, no. 36, color repro. // Italy, 1988-1989, no. 36, color repro.
Toward the end of his life Edward Hicks created four farmscapes of the Pennsylvania countryside.1 These late paintings, which feature calm, harmonious views of Bucks County farms, are considered to be his finest works. Hicks’ granddaughter reported that the artist “always considered the Cornell picture his masterpiece.”2
In this resplendent panoramic view of his friend’s neatly cultivated property Hicks presents convincing atmospheric perspective and suffuses the landscape with the golden light of Indian summer. Against this naturalistic background, however, Hicks parades Cornell’s prizewinning livestock across the foreground in an unnaturalistic way, their flat, sharply delineated shapes reminiscent of the crowded collages of animals in some of his peaceable kingdom pictures. Most of the figures populating the middle ground have one arm extended, appearing to call attention proudly to outstanding features of the bountiful farm. Descendants have identified the belted figure as the farm owner, James Cornell, in conversation with his friend William Janney. Their inspection of the farm may represent a real scene, since Cornell was awarded several prizes at the 1848 Newtown Exhibition and Janney apparently was on the committee of judges. In addition to honors for his horses, swine, sheep, poultry, and native stock, Cornell was presented with “the first premium of $5 for the best cultivated Farm over 100 acres, regard being had to the quality of produce, mode of cultivation, and general appearance.”3
Although Hicks relied on his observations of nature, another source of inspiration for The Cornell Farm may have been The Country Fair, 182.5 (private collection) by John A. Woodside (1781-1851).4 Both paintings depict houses and barns perched on gently rolling hills with a variety of animals arranged in profile across the foreground. Although Woodside distributes his animals and figures more evenly throughout the landscape, both artists include men with stiff, outstretched arms pointing to features of the farm and conversing with each other. Hicks’ farmer with a plow, on the right, also seems to derive from two plowing farmers on the left of Woodside’s canvas. The animals in both paintings may ultimately derive from British livestock and sporting prints of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which frequently depicted animals in profile or aligned horizontally across the composition. These prints were extremely popular, serving as wall decorations and advertisements for stockbreeders.5
Hicks’ farm scenes may also reflect his own reverence for farming. He tried his hand at it briefly in 1813 and later remarked, “[I] verily thought then and still think farming more consistent with the Christian, and was willing to sacrifice all my fondness for painting.”6 Hicks’ farmscapes present this ideal Christian way of life; they are secular peaceable kingdoms occupied by men and animals in complete harmony with each other.
America’s earliest landscapes, like those painted by Winthrop Chandler (q.v.) in the eighteenth century or Ralph Wheelock’s Farm (1965.15.13) of c. 1814 by Francis Alexander (q.v.), were often “portraits” of a landowner’s property and possessions, and The Cornell Farm falls within this tradition. Some writers, recognizing the relationship of Hicks’ farmscapes to these early landscapes, have concluded that they have “no historical or religious connotation,”7 but it would seem incongruous for the deeply religious Hicks to paint a scene without some allusion to his strong Quaker ideals. Although The Cornell Farm and the other farmscapes relate to the topographical tradition, they are “profoundly Quaker pictures.”8 Their harmony, serenity, and richness prove that industry and Quaker piety can result in an earthly perfection.9
The Cornell Farm was painted for James Cornell himself, who must have been pleased with the portrait of his prize bull which he had commissioned from Hicks two years earlier in 1846.10 Slides taken at the farm’s site reveal that Hicks attempted to portray its actual topography and appearance. The landscape today remains similar to Hicks’ depiction; two wagon houses still stand, although the original house was replaced and the barn burned down in the 1960$.
LW
Notes
1.Hicks’ other farmscapes are The Residence of Thomas Hillhorn, 1845 (AARFAC; Mather 1983, cat. no. 101), his earliest farm scene; The Residence of David Twining in 178 5, c. 1845-1846 (four versions; Mather 1983, cat. nos. 101-105) and The Leedom Farm, 1849 (AARFAC; Mather 1983, cat. no. 107). The latter, like The Cornell Farm, shows expansive, panoramic views, while the other two focus on only a segment of the farm. It is generally assumed that Hicks was inspired by his actual Pennsylvania surroundings. The Residence of David Twining 1785, however, is based on Hicks’ memories of his childhood rather than on a contemporary scene.
2.A 1954 letter,}. Stanley Lee to Colonel Garbisch, records Edward Hicks’ granddaughter quoting the painter to Lee.
3.The Doylestown Democrat and Bucks County Republican, 17 October 1848.
4.Reproduced in Virgil Barker, American Painting (New York, 1950), 373.
5.While Ford 1951, 97, mentions the possibility that Hicks may have seen Woodside’s painting, she believes it unlikely. However, Woodside was a contemporary of Hicks and a leading sign painter in nearby Philadelphia, and the possibility should not be discounted. Since Hicks was concerned first and foremost with religious pursuits, his Memoirs contain little information to assist historians in pinning down his artistic influences. On Woodside, see Stuart P. Feld and Albert Ten Eyck Gardner, American Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Greenwich, 1965), 151.
6.Louisa Dresser, “The Peaceable Kingdom,” Bulletin of the Worcester Art Museum 2.5 (Spring 1934), 17.
7.Three Self-Taught Pennsylvania Artists: Hicks, Kane and Pippin [exh. cat., Carnegie Institute of Art] (Pittsburgh, 1966), unpaginated.
8.Parry 1975, 94.
9.It is worth noting that Hicks painted this scene at the same time the Hudson River School artists were creating their tributes to God’s nature. The Cornell Farm seems to relate philosophically, as well as in subject matter, to this academic landscape tradition. Hicks, in this peaceful scene with its warm, glowing light, shares the Hudson River painters’ belief in the manifestation of God’s presence in nature and light. Like the academic landscape painters, he considered man in harmony with the landscape or as “part and parcel of God” (Ralph Waldo Emerson as quoted in Barbara Novak, American Painting of the Nineteenth Century: Realism, Idealism and the American Experience, id ed. [New York, 1979], no). In fact, the Quaker belief that all men possess a portion of the Spirit (Eleanore Price Mather, “A Quaker Icon: The Inner Kingdom of Edward Hicks,” Art Quarterly 36 [Spring/Summer 1973], 85) resembles the Emersonian belief in physical facts as “the end or last issue of spirit” (Emerson as quoted in Novak 1979, in).
10.James Cornell’s Prize BU//ÍS at AARFAC and reproduced in Mather 1983 (see Bibliography), cat. no. 108. A receipt which was removed from the reverse reads: “James Cornell / To Edward Hicks Do / To painting his prize bull. $15.00 / Rec 5th mo 16th 1846 the above in full / of all demands by me / Edward Hicks.” As Mather explains, this work has its precedents in Dutch pastoral lithographs (81-86).
References
•1947—Antiques, 51 (October): 151-153 (untitled editorial).
•1950—Lipman and Winchester: 46-47.
•1951—Ford (see Bibliography): 97, 107, 108, in, color repro. opp. 108.
•1971—Campbell, William P. “The American Heritage at the National Gallery of Art.” Connoisseur 178 (December):
•2-70, 2.72-
•1974—Lipman, Jean, and Alice Winchester. The Flowering of American Folk Art. New York: color pi. 70.
•1975—Parry, Ellwood. “Edward Hicks and a Quaker Iconography.” Arts Magazine 49 (June): 94.
•1976—Lipman, Jean, and Helen M. Franc. Bright Stars: American Painting and Sculpture Since 1776. New York: color repro. p. 60.
•1979—Haverstock, Mary Sayre. An American Bestiary. New York: color repro. p. 146.
•1983—Mather (see Bibliography): 85, 195, cat. no. 106, color pi. 8.
•1985—Ford (see Bibliography): 134-136, color repro.
At precisely 15:05 on a sunny Wednesday afternoon, 47229 makes her way northward through Crewe station before diverging up the Manchester line.
An interesting thing about this shot is the full yellow end. I photographed the same end of this loco some 3 years later and the rather tasteful addition of a blacked-in former headcode panel had been made. The rectangular repair next to the appalling headlight was still apparent on the later photograph.
47229 remained in traffic until the 3rd of February 1999. She was eventually taken to TJ Thomson's yard in Stockton and cut up during March 2007. RIP.
Photograph taken at an altitude of Forty nine metres, in the thick blanket of mist prior to the magic of the Golden Hour around sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 04:42am), at 03:24am 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 105mm 1/60s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Mirror up. 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 51d 21m 51.83s
LONGITUDE: E 0d 11m 48.92s
ALTITUDE: 49.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED FILE: 10.02MB
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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 2.90 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit
Photograph taken at an altitude of Nine metres, in the magic of the Golden hour around sunrise at 05:35am, (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 185mm 1/320s f/4.5 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 15.76s
LONGITUDE: W 123d 24m 12.88s
ALTITUDE: 9.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 16.72MB
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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 Sixty one metres, prior to the magic of the Golden Hour around sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 04:38am), at 03:54am on Thursday 12th June 2014 off Lullingstone Lane and Eagle Heights overlooking the steeply inclined field adjacent to Eynsford Viaduct in the village of Eynsford, Kent, England.
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Nikon D800 38mm 1/80s f/5.6 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Nikon RC-DC2 remote shutter release. Manual focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.
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 4.52s
LONGITUDE: E 0d 11m 51.79s
ALTITUDE: 66.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED FILE: 12.61MB
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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
"It is not known precisely where angels dwell - whether in the air, the void, or the planets. It has not been God's pleasure that we should be informed of their abode." -Voltaire
It took quite awhile driving around on back roads to find the little white Galpin church. I don't think it is abandoned, but I do think it is very seldom used. The little church is at the end of a very desolate country road near the Fort Peck lake and dam. I assume that when the dam was being built in the 1940s this church was formed. They certainly couldn't have put it in a more beautiful location!
Driving towards this beautiful church at sunset, watching a storm roll in reminded me of this song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ezf3e44rRI0
"Long Time Traveler" by the Wailin Jennys
Baroque facade constructed in 1809.
"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.