The Villa Poppaea is an ancient Roman seaside villa (villa maritima) situated between Naples and Sorrento, in southern Italy. It is also referred to as the Villa Oplontis, or more precisely as Villa A by modern archaeologists. The villa itself is a large structure situated in the ancient Roman town of Oplontis (the modern Torre Annunziata), about ten meters below the modern ground level. Evidence suggests that it was owned by the Emperor Nero, and believed to have been used by his second and rather notorious wife, Poppaea Sabina, as her main residence when she was not in Rome.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Poppaea

sites.google.com/site/ad79eruption/oplontis/villa-of-poppaea

Our son Elias, as seen through my "Cenei Vario-Spiegel-Vorsatz". This photograph has been created just in a fraction of seconds. It's a snapshot to test my old "Cenei Vario-Spiegel-Vorsatz". Since I liked the result I post it here.

The "Cenei Vario-Spiegel-Vorsatz" is an interesting device from the 1970s. (Ok, the name is a bit longish, but for German speaking people it gives some hint of what it's all about since it contains the German words for "variable", "mirror" and "attachment". The "Vorsatz" is a black tube which you can screw into the filter thread of your lens. The tube is telescopic and can be extended (to double its length). Inside there are lots of curved mirrors which project multiple images of what is around you into the frame. Depending on the focal length of you lens and the degree of the extension of the tube the effect the device produces can be quite different. To make the use of the "Vario-Spiegel-Vorsatz" even more flexible you can rotate the front part which contains the mirrors. This way you can precisely adjust the position of reflections in your photo. Pretty cool!

For my shot I combined the "Vario-Spiegel-Vorsatz" with my AF-S Micro NIKKOR 40mm 1:2.8 G. I haven't used the "Vorsatz" for many years (given that the 1970s are over...) but maybe I'll put it back into action from time to time.

We had a complete change this Christmas – we cancelled it! - we went walking in The Lakes, or Wasdale more precisely. We were staying at Irton Hall B & B, they had over 70 in for Christmas dinner but we ate jam bread on the slopes of Sca Fell Pike. Fantastic. We had a front wheel puncture on a run flat tyre on the new car with a 100 mile still to drive on the afternoon of Christmas eve on our way there. I drove straight to the nearest ATS – where I have an account – they shook their heads and directed me to Westhoughton Tyres, the lads there were fantastic and got us on our way in good time. BMW dealer advice was run on the flat tyre and then throw it away - £250! Where I would have got a tyre on the western side of the Lakes over Christmas I don’t know, ATS didn’t have one to sell me.

The weather was forecast good for Christmas day but after a fine start it was raining before we even left the car park in Wasdale. We headed up Lingmell and ran into snow on the summit. The path onto Sca Fell Pike was very icy, snow covered and visibility was low, the snow kept falling. We didn’t linger long, it was too cold to have dinner up there so we dropped down onto the Corridor Route, where we had our dinner. We went that way to stretch the walk out, having originally intended to cross to Great End. The tops were so icy, glazed, with not enough snow to get a grip on that we decide to leave it for another day. From Styhead we headed back to Wasdale and a dull but fine finish to the day. A drink in the bar at Irton Hall was on the radar.

Every morning we headed into Wasdale early, it got colder, icier and sunnier as the days went by. We went up Yewbarrow, it was an icy scramble up and I decided it was too dangerous to go down Stirrup Crag to Dore Head so went back the same way. It turned out to be the right decision as we lingered on the top, going to view points that we wouldn’t have and getting some decent photos. One morning we walked over the Screes tops, Illgill Head and Whin Rigg, dropping down the steep slope to The southern end of Wast Water. Having said that I would never walk the Screes path alongside Wast Water again the memory of how awful it is in the rain had faded. There is only really a quarter of a mile out of three miles that is really bad, every rock was like glass with the potential to break a leg every step. It seemed a long way and I was getting killer looks from Herself.

We made our way onto Sca Fell on a beautiful morning, clear blue sky. The snow line had got lower most nights but we never had the low level snow that caused problems in the rest of the country. I chose a, sometimes, pathless way to the summit, partly because I’d never been that way but also to stay in the sun, to keep the view and to avoid the ways that would be a touch dangerous, it was -4 and seared with ice for the last 600 feet. After 15 minutes on the summit wispy thin cloud came racing in, crossing the Lake District in minutes, the photos show it heading towards us and I was glad to have got the clear photos first. Looking out to sea a great mattress of cloud was heading straight for us. It was calm and sunny one minute and the next we were engulfed in thick cloud with 30 yards visibility at the most. I have never had a clear sky turn to cloud so fast – ever! We were going down to Slightside next which was OK, about a mile following the ridge down, the problem was getting back to Wasdale from there. We needed to get to Great Howe which meant a pathless trek a mile SW across Quagrigg Moss – a bog full of tarnlets, it would be a nightmare in low visibility. After getting some accurate compass bearings and heading down off Slightside we suddenly dropped out of the cloud and could see our target, brilliant, we legged it across the semi frozen bog and finally felt able to rest and grab a sandwich and cup of tea. We had to find our way down Raven Crags, which was interesting – and steep! We needed to get to the footbridge to get onto the Burnmoor Tarn path back to Wasdale. As we got closer to Burnmoor Tarn the light that I had been cursing gave us a gorgeous sunset. I had one eye on a gap in the cloud low down in the sky out at sea and I was hoping the sun would break through, it did. Burnmoor Tarn was like a mirror, reflecting the surrounding mountains, including Yewbarrow and parts of the Mosedale Horseshoe in the far distance. There was just the two of us, we had barely seen a soul all day, it was a fantastic end to a tough day. As we dropped into Wasdale I caught the deep pink and orange of the last of the sun, I was shooting into it but I had nothing to lose. There would have been quite a few tripods at the opposite end of the lake but I think I was in the better place – for a change.

On our final walking day we decided to head up Great Gable. It was clear of cloud for a change but ominously the surrounding tops, including the Sca Fells were cloud covered. Another beautiful but very cold morning, it was going to be very icy up there so we elected to go via Styhead and the tourist track. We would choose a way off once we were up there. Long before we got to the top, although we couldn’t see it, we knew the cloud was swirling in and out on the summit so it was going to be hit and miss for the photos. The cloud was down for the last 500 feet but once on the frozen top it kept clearing briefly – very briefly. There were more people up there than we had seen the entire trip previously. People were getting out after Christmas, many had parked at the top of Honister for the fairly easy walk in across Green Gable, some were not dressed for winter walking it has to be said. We left for an icy scramble down to Arron Slack, up onto Green Gable them we galloped down Arron Slack to Styhead and back to Wasdale.

Blackrock covers a large but not precisely defined area, rising from sea level on the coast to 90 metres (300 ft) at White's Cross on the N11 national primary road. Blackrock is bordered by Booterstown, Mount Merrion, Stillorgan, Foxrock, Deansgrange and Monkstown.

Blackrock is a large commercial centre with cafes, restaurants, boutiques, hairdressers and barbers, a tattoo and piercing studio, pharmacies, supermarkets, art galleries, antiques and home improvements outlets as well as bars such as The Breffni, Jack O'Rourkes, O'Donohues, Flash Harrys, Conways, The Wicked Wolf and the Ten Tun Tavern.

The Blackrock Shopping Centre was built in 1984 by Superquinn who managed the development and are the anchor store. Superquinn has now become Supervalu.

There are many high street finance branches for AIB, Bank of Ireland, EBS, National Irish Bank, Ulster Bank and the Blackrock Credit Union. Permanent TSB closed their Blackrock branch in March 2010 but retain their administrative offices on Carysfort Avenue.

There are many office buildings that house large corporations such as Zurich Financial Services and AIG, and car dealers such as Carroll & Kinsella Motors, Maxwell Motors (generally BMW) and Eco Aer (eco electric vehicles).

Blackrock covers a large but not precisely defined area, rising from sea level on the coast to 90 metres (300 ft) at White's Cross on the N11 national primary road. Blackrock is bordered by Booterstown, Mount Merrion, Stillorgan, Foxrock, Deansgrange and Monkstown.

Blackrock is a large commercial centre with cafes, restaurants, boutiques, hairdressers and barbers, a tattoo and piercing studio, pharmacies, supermarkets, art galleries, antiques and home improvements outlets as well as bars such as The Breffni, Jack O'Rourkes, O'Donohues, Flash Harrys, Conways, The Wicked Wolf and the Ten Tun Tavern.

The Blackrock Shopping Centre was built in 1984 by Superquinn who managed the development and are the anchor store. Superquinn has now become Supervalu.

There are many high street finance branches for AIB, Bank of Ireland, EBS, National Irish Bank, Ulster Bank and the Blackrock Credit Union. Permanent TSB closed their Blackrock branch in March 2010 but retain their administrative offices on Carysfort Avenue.

There are many office buildings that house large corporations such as Zurich Financial Services and AIG, and car dealers such as Carroll & Kinsella Motors, Maxwell Motors (generally BMW) and Eco Aer (eco electric vehicles).

105/365

apr 15

can't wait to meet you ❁ ❤︎

"Os-ce-o-la, commonly called Powell … is generally supposed to be a half-breed, the son (grandson) of a white man … and a Creek woman."

"I have painted him precisely in the costume, in which he stood for his picture, even to a string and a trinket. He wore three ostrich feathers in his head, and a turban made of a varicolored cotton shawl-and his dress was chiefly of calicos, with a handsome bead sash or belt around his waist, and his rifle in his hand."

"This young man is, no doubt, an extraordinary character, as he has been for some years reputed, and doubtless looked upon by the Seminoles as the master spirit and leader of the tribe, although he is not a chief. From his boyhood, he had led an energetic and desperate sort of life, which had secured for him a conspicuous position in society; and when the desperate circumstances of war were agitating his country, he at once took a conspicuous and decided part; and acquired an influence and a name that soon sounded to the remotest parts of the United States, and among the Indian tribes, to the Rocky Mountains."

"This gallant fellow, who was, undoubtedly, captured a few months since, with several of his chiefs and warriors, was at first brought in to Fort Mellon in Florida, and afterwards sent to this place (Fort Moultrie) for safe-keeping, where he is grieving with a broken spirit, and ready to die, cursing white man, no doubt, to the end of his breath."

"In stature he is about at mediocrity, with an elastic and graceful movement; in his face he is good looking, with rather an effeminate smile; but of so peculiar a character, that the world may be ransacked over without finding another just like it. In his manners, and all his movements in company, he is polite and gentlemanly, though all his conversation is entirely in his own tongue; and his general appearance and actions, those of a full-blooded and wild Indian" (Letters and Notes, vol. II).

Catlin believed that the tragic conclusion of the Seminole war, and the subsequent death of Osceola, were glaring examples of the government's misguided and inhuman Indian removal policy. The portraits of Osceola became one of the artist's major efforts to dramatize the effects of that policy, when one or both were exhibited at the Stuyvesant Institute February 6, 1838 (see New York Evening Star).

Osceola's fair skin and refined, almost delicate features came from his paternal grandfather, a Scotsman who had married a Creek woman. Catlin has noted and adjusted these characteristics in such a way as to cast the Seminole warrior as a model of studio perfection, even if the likeness is somewhat in contrast to a bust after a death mask of Osceola illustrated in Matthews. With flawless, even-textured strokes, Catlin builds the head to a full, sculptural dimension that resembles neoclassical portraits of a generation earlier. The artist occasionally reverts to the broader brushwork of the other Seminole portraits in Osceola's costume, but textures and details stand out with an elegance and precision rarely matched in the series.

Catlin says little about the abrupt change of style in the Osceola portrait. Clearly he wished to achieve a work of solid academic merit, in contrast to the rapidly brushed studies that he had done in the West. But he must have also wished to present Osceola as something more acceptable to the public than an Upper Missouri savage. Catlin's solution was to convert the Seminole into a character who might have stepped from the pages of a Chateaubriand novel-a true Chactas, the prince of an exotic Indian nation. By so doing he hoped to create an image that would evoke sympathy from the public and from those responsible for a national policy that would eventually destroy such a distinctive culture.

Goggin reviews McCarthy's findings and discusses the portraits of Osceola by Catlin, J. R. Vinton, R. J. Curtis, and others. Catlin's work is accepted as a reasonably accurate description of the Subject and his costume. Catlin says in the letter to C. A. Harris, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, that he intends to make copies of the Seminole portraits for the "Indian Department," but none are known today. The Gilcrease painting is a roughly executed copy by an unknown artist after the Smithsonian original.

Quoted From: The Catlin Collection

We had a complete change this Christmas – we cancelled it! - we went walking in The Lakes, or Wasdale more precisely. We were staying at Irton Hall B & B, they had over 70 in for Christmas dinner but we ate jam bread on the slopes of Sca Fell Pike. Fantastic. We had a front wheel puncture on a run flat tyre on the new car with a 100 mile still to drive on the afternoon of Christmas eve on our way there. I drove straight to the nearest ATS – where I have an account – they shook their heads and directed me to Westhoughton Tyres, the lads there were fantastic and got us on our way in good time. BMW dealer advice was run on the flat tyre and then throw it away - £250! Where I would have got a tyre on the western side of the Lakes over Christmas I don’t know, ATS didn’t have one to sell me.

The weather was forecast good for Christmas day but after a fine start it was raining before we even left the car park in Wasdale. We headed up Lingmell and ran into snow on the summit. The path onto Sca Fell Pike was very icy, snow covered and visibility was low, the snow kept falling. We didn’t linger long, it was too cold to have dinner up there so we dropped down onto the Corridor Route, where we had our dinner. We went that way to stretch the walk out, having originally intended to cross to Great End. The tops were so icy, glazed, with not enough snow to get a grip on that we decide to leave it for another day. From Styhead we headed back to Wasdale and a dull but fine finish to the day. A drink in the bar at Irton Hall was on the radar.

Every morning we headed into Wasdale early, it got colder, icier and sunnier as the days went by. We went up Yewbarrow, it was an icy scramble up and I decided it was too dangerous to go down Stirrup Crag to Dore Head so went back the same way. It turned out to be the right decision as we lingered on the top, going to view points that we wouldn’t have and getting some decent photos. One morning we walked over the Screes tops, Illgill Head and Whin Rigg, dropping down the steep slope to The southern end of Wast Water. Having said that I would never walk the Screes path alongside Wast Water again the memory of how awful it is in the rain had faded. There is only really a quarter of a mile out of three miles that is really bad, every rock was like glass with the potential to break a leg every step. It seemed a long way and I was getting killer looks from Herself.

We made our way onto Sca Fell on a beautiful morning, clear blue sky. The snow line had got lower most nights but we never had the low level snow that caused problems in the rest of the country. I chose a, sometimes, pathless way to the summit, partly because I’d never been that way but also to stay in the sun, to keep the view and to avoid the ways that would be a touch dangerous, it was -4 and seared with ice for the last 600 feet. After 15 minutes on the summit wispy thin cloud came racing in, crossing the Lake District in minutes, the photos show it heading towards us and I was glad to have got the clear photos first. Looking out to sea a great mattress of cloud was heading straight for us. It was calm and sunny one minute and the next we were engulfed in thick cloud with 30 yards visibility at the most. I have never had a clear sky turn to cloud so fast – ever! We were going down to Slightside next which was OK, about a mile following the ridge down, the problem was getting back to Wasdale from there. We needed to get to Great Howe which meant a pathless trek a mile SW across Quagrigg Moss – a bog full of tarnlets, it would be a nightmare in low visibility. After getting some accurate compass bearings and heading down off Slightside we suddenly dropped out of the cloud and could see our target, brilliant, we legged it across the semi frozen bog and finally felt able to rest and grab a sandwich and cup of tea. We had to find our way down Raven Crags, which was interesting – and steep! We needed to get to the footbridge to get onto the Burnmoor Tarn path back to Wasdale. As we got closer to Burnmoor Tarn the light that I had been cursing gave us a gorgeous sunset. I had one eye on a gap in the cloud low down in the sky out at sea and I was hoping the sun would break through, it did. Burnmoor Tarn was like a mirror, reflecting the surrounding mountains, including Yewbarrow and parts of the Mosedale Horseshoe in the far distance. There was just the two of us, we had barely seen a soul all day, it was a fantastic end to a tough day. As we dropped into Wasdale I caught the deep pink and orange of the last of the sun, I was shooting into it but I had nothing to lose. There would have been quite a few tripods at the opposite end of the lake but I think I was in the better place – for a change.

On our final walking day we decided to head up Great Gable. It was clear of cloud for a change but ominously the surrounding tops, including the Sca Fells were cloud covered. Another beautiful but very cold morning, it was going to be very icy up there so we elected to go via Styhead and the tourist track. We would choose a way off once we were up there. Long before we got to the top, although we couldn’t see it, we knew the cloud was swirling in and out on the summit so it was going to be hit and miss for the photos. The cloud was down for the last 500 feet but once on the frozen top it kept clearing briefly – very briefly. There were more people up there than we had seen the entire trip previously. People were getting out after Christmas, many had parked at the top of Honister for the fairly easy walk in across Green Gable, some were not dressed for winter walking it has to be said. We left for an icy scramble down to Arron Slack, up onto Green Gable them we galloped down Arron Slack to Styhead and back to Wasdale.

View On Black

The Construction of The Lions Gate Bridge:

The construction began on March 31 1937. The bridge cost precisely $5,873,837.17 to build. It all began when the Guinness family (of beer fame), decided to invest in land on the North Shore. In 1932, they purchased 4,000 acres of West Vancouver mountain side through a syndicate called British Pacific Properties Ltd. The plan was develop the land and get people to move there. Part of the Guinness plan was to build a bridge over the First Narrows, the existing 2nd Narrows Bridge being deemed to be to far away and “unreliable” (see the history of the Second Narrows Bridge). The project proved popular during this depression period, and objections over the fact that the alignment would entail an access road through the heart of Stanley Park were overcome. The job-creating project and the spin-off that would come from the building in West Vancouver were impossible to resist.

Congestion:

Even back in 1955 the Lions Gate Bridge got quite congested during the rush hour. With only two road bridge links to the North Shore, congestion is inevitable. Recently, in May 1998, the Provincial Government announced a long-awaited decision regarding the Lions Gate Bridge. The ageing landmark will be re-decked and have its sidewalks moved to the sides of the main span on cantilevers. This will widen the roadway and add another 30 years of life to the bridge itself. Renovations are expected to start in 1999 and will cost over 70 million dollars. The work will be done at night and on weekends, when the Second Narrows Bridge can take up the volume.

Total Length including Approach spans: 1517.3 m (4978 ft )

Main Span: 472 m (1550 ft)

Tower Height: 111 m (364 ft)

Today:

The Lions Gate Bridge has now become a landmark of Vancouver and the North Shore, and every decision concerning its fate has been very controversial. Recent proposals to replace, widen or alter the bridge have met storms of protest. While many agreed that the ageing structure should be either replaced or upgraded, no consensus could be achieved. Some opposed the retention of existing causeway leading to the bridge through Stanley Park; others opposed replacing the entire bridge wanting to protect it as a historical landmark. Finally, the North Shore Communities raised their voice over the assertion by the Provincial Government that any new structure would require the imposition of tolls to defray the costs, pointing out that no other communities were required to pay tolls when other bridges were built, such as the Alex Fraser Bridge recently erected in the south of Vancouver. As things stand, it looks as though the Lions Gate Bridge will remain more or less as it is today, for many years to come.

We had a complete change this Christmas – we cancelled it! - we went walking in The Lakes, or Wasdale more precisely. We were staying at Irton Hall B & B, they had over 70 in for Christmas dinner but we ate jam bread on the slopes of Sca Fell Pike. Fantastic. We had a front wheel puncture on a run flat tyre on the new car with a 100 mile still to drive on the afternoon of Christmas eve on our way there. I drove straight to the nearest ATS – where I have an account – they shook their heads and directed me to Westhoughton Tyres, the lads there were fantastic and got us on our way in good time. BMW dealer advice was run on the flat tyre and then throw it away - £250! Where I would have got a tyre on the western side of the Lakes over Christmas I don’t know, ATS didn’t have one to sell me.

The weather was forecast good for Christmas day but after a fine start it was raining before we even left the car park in Wasdale. We headed up Lingmell and ran into snow on the summit. The path onto Sca Fell Pike was very icy, snow covered and visibility was low, the snow kept falling. We didn’t linger long, it was too cold to have dinner up there so we dropped down onto the Corridor Route, where we had our dinner. We went that way to stretch the walk out, having originally intended to cross to Great End. The tops were so icy, glazed, with not enough snow to get a grip on that we decide to leave it for another day. From Styhead we headed back to Wasdale and a dull but fine finish to the day. A drink in the bar at Irton Hall was on the radar.

Every morning we headed into Wasdale early, it got colder, icier and sunnier as the days went by. We went up Yewbarrow, it was an icy scramble up and I decided it was too dangerous to go down Stirrup Crag to Dore Head so went back the same way. It turned out to be the right decision as we lingered on the top, going to view points that we wouldn’t have and getting some decent photos. One morning we walked over the Screes tops, Illgill Head and Whin Rigg, dropping down the steep slope to The southern end of Wast Water. Having said that I would never walk the Screes path alongside Wast Water again the memory of how awful it is in the rain had faded. There is only really a quarter of a mile out of three miles that is really bad, every rock was like glass with the potential to break a leg every step. It seemed a long way and I was getting killer looks from Herself.

We made our way onto Sca Fell on a beautiful morning, clear blue sky. The snow line had got lower most nights but we never had the low level snow that caused problems in the rest of the country. I chose a, sometimes, pathless way to the summit, partly because I’d never been that way but also to stay in the sun, to keep the view and to avoid the ways that would be a touch dangerous, it was -4 and seared with ice for the last 600 feet. After 15 minutes on the summit wispy thin cloud came racing in, crossing the Lake District in minutes, the photos show it heading towards us and I was glad to have got the clear photos first. Looking out to sea a great mattress of cloud was heading straight for us. It was calm and sunny one minute and the next we were engulfed in thick cloud with 30 yards visibility at the most. I have never had a clear sky turn to cloud so fast – ever! We were going down to Slightside next which was OK, about a mile following the ridge down, the problem was getting back to Wasdale from there. We needed to get to Great Howe which meant a pathless trek a mile SW across Quagrigg Moss – a bog full of tarnlets, it would be a nightmare in low visibility. After getting some accurate compass bearings and heading down off Slightside we suddenly dropped out of the cloud and could see our target, brilliant, we legged it across the semi frozen bog and finally felt able to rest and grab a sandwich and cup of tea. We had to find our way down Raven Crags, which was interesting – and steep! We needed to get to the footbridge to get onto the Burnmoor Tarn path back to Wasdale. As we got closer to Burnmoor Tarn the light that I had been cursing gave us a gorgeous sunset. I had one eye on a gap in the cloud low down in the sky out at sea and I was hoping the sun would break through, it did. Burnmoor Tarn was like a mirror, reflecting the surrounding mountains, including Yewbarrow and parts of the Mosedale Horseshoe in the far distance. There was just the two of us, we had barely seen a soul all day, it was a fantastic end to a tough day. As we dropped into Wasdale I caught the deep pink and orange of the last of the sun, I was shooting into it but I had nothing to lose. There would have been quite a few tripods at the opposite end of the lake but I think I was in the better place – for a change.

On our final walking day we decided to head up Great Gable. It was clear of cloud for a change but ominously the surrounding tops, including the Sca Fells were cloud covered. Another beautiful but very cold morning, it was going to be very icy up there so we elected to go via Styhead and the tourist track. We would choose a way off once we were up there. Long before we got to the top, although we couldn’t see it, we knew the cloud was swirling in and out on the summit so it was going to be hit and miss for the photos. The cloud was down for the last 500 feet but once on the frozen top it kept clearing briefly – very briefly. There were more people up there than we had seen the entire trip previously. People were getting out after Christmas, many had parked at the top of Honister for the fairly easy walk in across Green Gable, some were not dressed for winter walking it has to be said. We left for an icy scramble down to Aaron Slack, up onto Green Gable them we galloped down Aaron Slack to Styhead and back to Wasdale.

Knives were heated in a computer-controlled oven precisely to 1080 degrees of Celsius, held in that temperature for 30 minutes and then taken out of the oven for circulated air quench (ELMAX steel does not need to be quenched in water or oil, as it is air quenching steel). To reach the 61 HRC hardness for the blade, knives were sub-zero treated for 2 hours into -78 degrees Celsius into dry ice (dry ice is basically carbon dioxide). It is called cryogenic hardening or deep cooling. The super cool temps transform the steel structure from austentite into martensite. In my experience cryogenic hardening does several things: it will relieve a little stress, raise the Rockwell (HRC) hardness by 1 or 2 points therefore requiring retempering, and refine the internal grain structure of the steel. Then it was annealed 2 x 2 hours in a tempering oven 220 degrees of Celsius.

We had a complete change this Christmas – we cancelled it! - we went walking in The Lakes, or Wasdale more precisely. We were staying at Irton Hall B & B, they had over 70 in for Christmas dinner but we ate jam bread on the slopes of Sca Fell Pike. Fantastic. We had a front wheel puncture on a run flat tyre on the new car with a 100 mile still to drive on the afternoon of Christmas eve on our way there. I drove straight to the nearest ATS – where I have an account – they shook their heads and directed me to Westhoughton Tyres, the lads there were fantastic and got us on our way in good time. BMW dealer advice was run on the flat tyre and then throw it away - £250! Where I would have got a tyre on the western side of the Lakes over Christmas I don’t know, ATS didn’t have one to sell me.

The weather was forecast good for Christmas day but after a fine start it was raining before we even left the car park in Wasdale. We headed up Lingmell and ran into snow on the summit. The path onto Sca Fell Pike was very icy, snow covered and visibility was low, the snow kept falling. We didn’t linger long, it was too cold to have dinner up there so we dropped down onto the Corridor Route, where we had our dinner. We went that way to stretch the walk out, having originally intended to cross to Great End. The tops were so icy, glazed, with not enough snow to get a grip on that we decide to leave it for another day. From Styhead we headed back to Wasdale and a dull but fine finish to the day. A drink in the bar at Irton Hall was on the radar.

Every morning we headed into Wasdale early, it got colder, icier and sunnier as the days went by. We went up Yewbarrow, it was an icy scramble up and I decided it was too dangerous to go down Stirrup Crag to Dore Head so went back the same way. It turned out to be the right decision as we lingered on the top, going to view points that we wouldn’t have and getting some decent photos. One morning we walked over the Screes tops, Illgill Head and Whin Rigg, dropping down the steep slope to The southern end of Wast Water. Having said that I would never walk the Screes path alongside Wast Water again the memory of how awful it is in the rain had faded. There is only really a quarter of a mile out of three miles that is really bad, every rock was like glass with the potential to break a leg every step. It seemed a long way and I was getting killer looks from Herself.

We made our way onto Sca Fell on a beautiful morning, clear blue sky. The snow line had got lower most nights but we never had the low level snow that caused problems in the rest of the country. I chose a, sometimes, pathless way to the summit, partly because I’d never been that way but also to stay in the sun, to keep the view and to avoid the ways that would be a touch dangerous, it was -4 and seared with ice for the last 600 feet. After 15 minutes on the summit wispy thin cloud came racing in, crossing the Lake District in minutes, the photos show it heading towards us and I was glad to have got the clear photos first. Looking out to sea a great mattress of cloud was heading straight for us. It was calm and sunny one minute and the next we were engulfed in thick cloud with 30 yards visibility at the most. I have never had a clear sky turn to cloud so fast – ever! We were going down to Slightside next which was OK, about a mile following the ridge down, the problem was getting back to Wasdale from there. We needed to get to Great Howe which meant a pathless trek a mile SW across Quagrigg Moss – a bog full of tarnlets, it would be a nightmare in low visibility. After getting some accurate compass bearings and heading down off Slightside we suddenly dropped out of the cloud and could see our target, brilliant, we legged it across the semi frozen bog and finally felt able to rest and grab a sandwich and cup of tea. We had to find our way down Raven Crags, which was interesting – and steep! We needed to get to the footbridge to get onto the Burnmoor Tarn path back to Wasdale. As we got closer to Burnmoor Tarn the light that I had been cursing gave us a gorgeous sunset. I had one eye on a gap in the cloud low down in the sky out at sea and I was hoping the sun would break through, it did. Burnmoor Tarn was like a mirror, reflecting the surrounding mountains, including Yewbarrow and parts of the Mosedale Horseshoe in the far distance. There was just the two of us, we had barely seen a soul all day, it was a fantastic end to a tough day. As we dropped into Wasdale I caught the deep pink and orange of the last of the sun, I was shooting into it but I had nothing to lose. There would have been quite a few tripods at the opposite end of the lake but I think I was in the better place – for a change.

On our final walking day we decided to head up Great Gable. It was clear of cloud for a change but ominously the surrounding tops, including the Sca Fells were cloud covered. Another beautiful but very cold morning, it was going to be very icy up there so we elected to go via Styhead and the tourist track. We would choose a way off once we were up there. Long before we got to the top, although we couldn’t see it, we knew the cloud was swirling in and out on the summit so it was going to be hit and miss for the photos. The cloud was down for the last 500 feet but once on the frozen top it kept clearing briefly – very briefly. There were more people up there than we had seen the entire trip previously. People were getting out after Christmas, many had parked at the top of Honister for the fairly easy walk in across Green Gable, some were not dressed for winter walking it has to be said. We left for an icy scramble down to Arron Slack, up onto Green Gable them we galloped down Arron Slack to Styhead and back to Wasdale.

St Margaret, Reydon, Suffolk

Reydon is a suburb of Southwold. In terms of population, they are about the same size. But which one of the two have you heard of? Precisely. Reydon is agri-industrial, and when you cross over the river from one parish to the other, the houses double in price. Not so long ago, a beach hut changed hands in Southwold for £100,000.

St Margaret sits away from the houses, on the road towards Wangford, anonymously pretty in an overgrown graveyard. It is an older church than Southwold's late-medieval parvenu, although it underwent a serious tarting-up in the 15th century. In the churchyard wall there is a surviving mounting block, so that the gentry could climb straight onto their horses from the churchyard without descending to the muddy road.

On the north side there is a very good late 1980s extension. The architect was Andrew Anderson. The graveyard is wide and spacious, but there are many more modern graves than 19th century ones, a mark of how the town has grown. You can't fail to miss the extraordinary bronze angel to the south of the chancel. To the west of the church are the older memorials. One of them is a cute little child's grave, to Percy Hunt, son of Henry and Harriet, who had died at the age of just ten months in August 1888. Grieve not with helpless sorrow, it reads, Jesus hath felt your pain. He did thy lamb but borrow, he'll bring him back again, the theology of which seems curious, to say the least. The tiny tombstone is covered in a century or more of moss. It was very moving. His parents' larger graves are beside it. His father had died in 1910 at the age of 60, his mother surviving into the 1930s, when she died at 86. There were no other Hunt graves nearby, and I wondered if little Percy had been their only child. Counting backwards, I worked out that she must have had her baby in her mid-forties - was this an unexpected late fruit after barren decades? And were their hopes dashed? It was all very sad.

You step into a clean, bright, neatly-kept interior, perhaps a bit smaller than might be expected from the outside. When I'd last visited in 2002, the church still bore all the hallmarks of enthusiastic Victorians re-ritualising it in the 1870s, the organ up in the chancel blocking a view of the east end. But that has now gone, and the church has a feeling of simplicity and space. There is an image niche in the eastern splay of each window, one with a lovely Blessed Virgin and Child statue in it. The best of the glass is a window by A L Moore of Christ meeting the woman at the well. You can tell at a glance that she's probably had six husbands, and she's not married to the one she's with at the minute. Less good is the east window, Ward & Hughes 'trampolining Jesus' Ascension scene rejigged by the King Workshop in the modern era.

I awoke at my regular time in the morning, at precisely 5:45 AM, on the third of March. Yawning slightly, I pushed aside the covers on my prison cot, and rose to don my orange jumpsuit. According to my calculations, based on the previous demographic of prisoners drafted to the military, my date would either be today or tomorrow. Considering this fact happily, I glanced around my cell as I prepared for my morning exercise regimen. Everything was as I had left it, the only other piece of furniture besides my cot was the bin used to hold clothing. I stepped past this to signal the guard, who cautiously opened the bars and directed me to the prison yard. He was sure to stay well behind me as he watched me, prepared for any attack or attempt to escape. All this was done in futility, for if I wanted him harmed, no feeble precautions could stop me. Pushing this into the corner of my mind, an area I kept separate for all my important thoughts, I settled into my favorite area, and began my regimen of push-ups. My favorite time of the day was here in the early morning; the air was still cool, and the dew had just begun to truly settle. Before too long, sweat had gathered on my chest and the small of my back, soaking the jumpsuit through as I continued the numbing exercise. After the 100 pushups, I began the same number of sit-ups. And then came the jumping-jacks, mountain climbers, a few stretches, etc. After I had finished, I repeated it again, and again, until the yard began to stir with life as the other inmates awoke. At this time, tired with my exercise, I began to head back to my cell, guard still in tow. As I entered the building, the hairs on the back of my neck began to stand up. Ever alert, and not one to ignore my sixth sense, I slid to the side while turning around. Behind me, the sharpened end of a toothbrush swung down where I was, in the hand of a brawny inmate. Quickly, my calculating eyes formulated a plan. In slow motion, I struck his wrist at the apex of his swing, grasping it in an iron grip as he stumbled, off balance. Twisting his hand so the shiv pointed upwards, I dealt him a blow to the back of his neck. Slowly he stood up, making a wet gasping noise, a look of mild confusion on his face. He looked down, to see the toothbrush embedded in his windpipe. As the guard reacted, I drew the dying inmate in close, and whispered, “Chaos has no friends, and leaves no enemies.” With this, I gave the brush a brutal twist, and watched the man fall to the floor, a pool of crimson gathering around his prone form. With a contemptuous sniff, I continued on to my cell, the guard standing blank-faced behind me, unsure what to do. Calmly, I closed the door behind me, and settled in for the long wait…

As it turns out, the wait was not as long as I had expected. Less than an hour later, a man in a crisp uniform showed up, entourage in tow. He stood at attention, saluted, and said “Son, welcome to the corps. From now on, you shall be Private… Private… What was your name again? It didn’t show in the prison records.” It took the man several seconds to realize that the hissing sound escaping my lips was laughter.

“No need for names. Names are pointless; they only serve to attach one to a former life. The men I’ll be killing won’t need to know.”

Visibly nervous, the man replied, “Well then, I suppose it doesn’t matter. In any regards, you’ll be serving as First Infantry, under Major Fitzpatrick. When you’re ready, we’ll set off on the train to Durmont, near the front. If there’s anything worth taking with you, gather it now.”

“Now that you mention it, I do have a few things.” With this, I pressed a loose block in the wall, levering a section of the concrete away. Inside, I grabbed a tightly wrapped cloth package, which I unfolded to reveal an array of knives, an ornate punch-dagger, and an odd mask. Refolding it, I stepped to the open cell door, walking past the guard, jaw agape. Smiling inwardly, I followed the soldier down the hallway, to the outside world. Chaos was loose once again…

We had a complete change this Christmas – we cancelled it! - we went walking in The Lakes, or Wasdale more precisely. We were staying at Irton Hall B & B, they had over 70 in for Christmas dinner but we ate jam bread on the slopes of Sca Fell Pike. Fantastic. We had a front wheel puncture on a run flat tyre on the new car with a 100 mile still to drive on the afternoon of Christmas eve on our way there. I drove straight to the nearest ATS – where I have an account – they shook their heads and directed me to Westhoughton Tyres, the lads there were fantastic and got us on our way in good time. BMW dealer advice was run on the flat tyre and then throw it away - £250! Where I would have got a tyre on the western side of the Lakes over Christmas I don’t know, ATS didn’t have one to sell me.

The weather was forecast good for Christmas day but after a fine start it was raining before we even left the car park in Wasdale. We headed up Lingmell and ran into snow on the summit. The path onto Sca Fell Pike was very icy, snow covered and visibility was low, the snow kept falling. We didn’t linger long, it was too cold to have dinner up there so we dropped down onto the Corridor Route, where we had our dinner. We went that way to stretch the walk out, having originally intended to cross to Great End. The tops were so icy, glazed, with not enough snow to get a grip on that we decide to leave it for another day. From Styhead we headed back to Wasdale and a dull but fine finish to the day. A drink in the bar at Irton Hall was on the radar.

Every morning we headed into Wasdale early, it got colder, icier and sunnier as the days went by. We went up Yewbarrow, it was an icy scramble up and I decided it was too dangerous to go down Stirrup Crag to Dore Head so went back the same way. It turned out to be the right decision as we lingered on the top, going to view points that we wouldn’t have and getting some decent photos. One morning we walked over the Screes tops, Illgill Head and Whin Rigg, dropping down the steep slope to The southern end of Wast Water. Having said that I would never walk the Screes path alongside Wast Water again the memory of how awful it is in the rain had faded. There is only really a quarter of a mile out of three miles that is really bad, every rock was like glass with the potential to break a leg every step. It seemed a long way and I was getting killer looks from Herself.

We made our way onto Sca Fell on a beautiful morning, clear blue sky. The snow line had got lower most nights but we never had the low level snow that caused problems in the rest of the country. I chose a, sometimes, pathless way to the summit, partly because I’d never been that way but also to stay in the sun, to keep the view and to avoid the ways that would be a touch dangerous, it was -4 and seared with ice for the last 600 feet. After 15 minutes on the summit wispy thin cloud came racing in, crossing the Lake District in minutes, the photos show it heading towards us and I was glad to have got the clear photos first. Looking out to sea a great mattress of cloud was heading straight for us. It was calm and sunny one minute and the next we were engulfed in thick cloud with 30 yards visibility at the most. I have never had a clear sky turn to cloud so fast – ever! We were going down to Slightside next which was OK, about a mile following the ridge down, the problem was getting back to Wasdale from there. We needed to get to Great Howe which meant a pathless trek a mile SW across Quagrigg Moss – a bog full of tarnlets, it would be a nightmare in low visibility. After getting some accurate compass bearings and heading down off Slightside we suddenly dropped out of the cloud and could see our target, brilliant, we legged it across the semi frozen bog and finally felt able to rest and grab a sandwich and cup of tea. We had to find our way down Raven Crags, which was interesting – and steep! We needed to get to the footbridge to get onto the Burnmoor Tarn path back to Wasdale. As we got closer to Burnmoor Tarn the light that I had been cursing gave us a gorgeous sunset. I had one eye on a gap in the cloud low down in the sky out at sea and I was hoping the sun would break through, it did. Burnmoor Tarn was like a mirror, reflecting the surrounding mountains, including Yewbarrow and parts of the Mosedale Horseshoe in the far distance. There was just the two of us, we had barely seen a soul all day, it was a fantastic end to a tough day. As we dropped into Wasdale I caught the deep pink and orange of the last of the sun, I was shooting into it but I had nothing to lose. There would have been quite a few tripods at the opposite end of the lake but I think I was in the better place – for a change.

On our final walking day we decided to head up Great Gable. It was clear of cloud for a change but ominously the surrounding tops, including the Sca Fells were cloud covered. Another beautiful but very cold morning, it was going to be very icy up there so we elected to go via Styhead and the tourist track. We would choose a way off once we were up there. Long before we got to the top, although we couldn’t see it, we knew the cloud was swirling in and out on the summit so it was going to be hit and miss for the photos. The cloud was down for the last 500 feet but once on the frozen top it kept clearing briefly – very briefly. There were more people up there than we had seen the entire trip previously. People were getting out after Christmas, many had parked at the top of Honister for the fairly easy walk in across Green Gable, some were not dressed for winter walking it has to be said. We left for an icy scramble down to Arron Slack, up onto Green Gable them we galloped down Arron Slack to Styhead and back to Wasdale.

We walked over the two tops that form the Screes, it rained low, snowed high, visibility on top was poor and then I decided to use the Screes path back to the car park at Wasdale. A big mistake in the wet, every boulder was deadly slippy. I only used the little G1X MK2, I carried the 5D but it stayed in my backpack for a change, there wasn't much to get excited about

We had a complete change this Christmas – we cancelled it! - we went walking in The Lakes, or Wasdale more precisely. We were staying at Irton Hall B & B, they had over 70 in for Christmas dinner but we ate jam bread on the slopes of Sca Fell Pike. Fantastic. We had a front wheel puncture on a run flat tyre on the new car with a 100 mile still to drive on the afternoon of Christmas eve on our way there. I drove straight to the nearest ATS – where I have an account – they shook their heads and directed me to Westhoughton Tyres, the lads there were fantastic and got us on our way in good time. BMW dealer advice was run on the flat tyre and then throw it away - £250! Where I would have got a tyre on the western side of the Lakes over Christmas I don’t know, ATS didn’t have one to sell me.

The weather was forecast good for Christmas day but after a fine start it was raining before we even left the car park in Wasdale. We headed up Lingmell and ran into snow on the summit. The path onto Sca Fell Pike was very icy, snow covered and visibility was low, the snow kept falling. We didn’t linger long, it was too cold to have dinner up there so we dropped down onto the Corridor Route, where we had our dinner. We went that way to stretch the walk out, having originally intended to cross to Great End. The tops were so icy, glazed, with not enough snow to get a grip on that we decide to leave it for another day. From Styhead we headed back to Wasdale and a dull but fine finish to the day. A drink in the bar at Irton Hall was on the radar.

Every morning we headed into Wasdale early, it got colder, icier and sunnier as the days went by. We went up Yewbarrow, it was an icy scramble up and I decided it was too dangerous to go down Stirrup Crag to Dore Head so went back the same way. It turned out to be the right decision as we lingered on the top, going to view points that we wouldn’t have and getting some decent photos. One morning we walked over the Screes tops, Illgill Head and Whin Rigg, dropping down the steep slope to The southern end of Wast Water. Having said that I would never walk the Screes path alongside Wast Water again the memory of how awful it is in the rain had faded. There is only really a quarter of a mile out of three miles that is really bad, every rock was like glass with the potential to break a leg every step. It seemed a long way and I was getting killer looks from Herself.

We made our way onto Sca Fell on a beautiful morning, clear blue sky. The snow line had got lower most nights but we never had the low level snow that caused problems in the rest of the country. I chose a, sometimes, pathless way to the summit, partly because I’d never been that way but also to stay in the sun, to keep the view and to avoid the ways that would be a touch dangerous, it was -4 and seared with ice for the last 600 feet. After 15 minutes on the summit wispy thin cloud came racing in, crossing the Lake District in minutes, the photos show it heading towards us and I was glad to have got the clear photos first. Looking out to sea a great mattress of cloud was heading straight for us. It was calm and sunny one minute and the next we were engulfed in thick cloud with 30 yards visibility at the most. I have never had a clear sky turn to cloud so fast – ever! We were going down to Slightside next which was OK, about a mile following the ridge down, the problem was getting back to Wasdale from there. We needed to get to Great Howe which meant a pathless trek a mile SW across Quagrigg Moss – a bog full of tarnlets, it would be a nightmare in low visibility. After getting some accurate compass bearings and heading down off Slightside we suddenly dropped out of the cloud and could see our target, brilliant, we legged it across the semi frozen bog and finally felt able to rest and grab a sandwich and cup of tea. We had to find our way down Raven Crags, which was interesting – and steep! We needed to get to the footbridge to get onto the Burnmoor Tarn path back to Wasdale. As we got closer to Burnmoor Tarn the light that I had been cursing gave us a gorgeous sunset. I had one eye on a gap in the cloud low down in the sky out at sea and I was hoping the sun would break through, it did. Burnmoor Tarn was like a mirror, reflecting the surrounding mountains, including Yewbarrow and parts of the Mosedale Horseshoe in the far distance. There was just the two of us, we had barely seen a soul all day, it was a fantastic end to a tough day. As we dropped into Wasdale I caught the deep pink and orange of the last of the sun, I was shooting into it but I had nothing to lose. There would have been quite a few tripods at the opposite end of the lake but I think I was in the better place – for a change.

On our final walking day we decided to head up Great Gable. It was clear of cloud for a change but ominously the surrounding tops, including the Sca Fells were cloud covered. Another beautiful but very cold morning, it was going to be very icy up there so we elected to go via Styhead and the tourist track. We would choose a way off once we were up there. Long before we got to the top, although we couldn’t see it, we knew the cloud was swirling in and out on the summit so it was going to be hit and miss for the photos. The cloud was down for the last 500 feet but once on the frozen top it kept clearing briefly – very briefly. There were more people up there than we had seen the entire trip previously. People were getting out after Christmas, many had parked at the top of Honister for the fairly easy walk in across Green Gable, some were not dressed for winter walking it has to be said. We left for an icy scramble down to Arron Slack, up onto Green Gable them we galloped down Arron Slack to Styhead and back to Wasdale.

Padmanabhapuram Palace (Tamil: பத்மநாபபுரம் அரண்மனை, Malayalam: പത്മനാഭപുരം കൊട്ടാരം) is located in at Padmanabhapuram Fort, in Padmanabhapuram, Kanyakumari District, Tamil Nadu, India. Padmanabhapuram is the former capital city of the erstwhile Hindu kingdom of Travancore. It is about 20km from Nagercoil, and about 50km from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. The palace complex is inside an old granite fortress around four kilometers long. The palace is located at the foot of the Veli Hills, which form a part of the Western Ghats. The river Valli flows nearby.

The palace was constructed around 1601 AD by Iravi Varma Kulasekhara Perumal who ruled Venad between 1592 and 1609. It is believed that the Thai Kottaram was built in 1550. The founder of modern Travancore, King Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma (1706–1758) who ruled Travancore from 1729 to 1758, rebuilt the palace in around 1750. King Marthaanda Varma dedicated the kingdom to his family deity Sree Padmanabha, a form of Lord Vishnu and ruled the kingdom as Padmanabha dasa or servant of Lord Padmanabha. Hence the name Padmanabhapuram or City of Lord Padmanabha. In the late 18th century, precisely in 1795 the capital of Travancore was shifted from here to Thiruvananthapuram, and the place lost its former glory. However, the palace complex continues to be one of the best examples of traditional Kerala architecture, and some portions of the sprawling complex are also the hallmark of traditional Kerala style architecture. The Palace though surrounded entirely by the State of Tamil Nadu is still part of Kerala and the land and Palace belongs to the Government of Kerala. This Palace is maintained by the Govt.of Kerala Archaeology Department. This palace may be the best to visit in anybody's pleasure trip to Thiruvananthapuram, if you are interested in history.

STRUCTURES

The Padmanabhapuram Palace complex consists of several structures:

- Mantrasala; the King's Council Chamber

- Thai Kottaram; the Queen Mother's Palace, constructed before 1550

- Nataksala; the Performance Hall

- A four-storeyed mansion at the centre of the complex

- Thekee Kottaram; the Southern Palace

COUNCEL CHAMBER

King’s Council chamber is the most beautiful part of the entire palace complex. It has windows, with coloured mica, which keep the heat and the dust away, and the interior of the council chamber remains cool and dark. Delicate and beautiful lattice work can be seen all over the council chamber.

The floor is also beautifully done, with a fine and perfect finish. The floor is dark and is made of a mixture of varied substances, including burnt coconut shells, egg white and so on. The remarkable aspect is that this particular floor finish and texture could not be duplicated in any other construction.

QEEN MOTHER´S PALACE

Mother’s palace, designed in traditional Kerala style, is the oldest construction in the entire palace complex and is believed to be constructed around mid-16th century. True to the traditional Kerala style, there is an inner courtyard, called 'nalukettu'. In the inner courtyard, sloping roofs from all four sided taper down. Four pillars on four corners support the roof.

On the south-west corner of the mother’s palace, there is a relatively small room, called the chamber of solitude or 'ekantha mandapam'. The chamber of solitude has very beautiful and intricate wood carvings of every description all around. Of particular interest is a pillar of single jackfruit wood, with very detailed and beautiful floral designs.

PERFORMANCE HALL

This is a relatively new building, constructed at the behest of Maharaja Swathi Thirunal, who reigned in Travancore from 1829 to 1846. He was a great connoisseur of arts, especially music and dance. He himself composed music and has left a rich legacy to classical carnatic music.

The Nataksala or the hall of performance has solid granite pillars and gleaming black floor. There is a wooden enclosure, with peepholes, where the women of the royal household used to sit and watch the performance.

CENTRAL MANSION

The four-storied building is located at the centre of the palace complex. The ground floor houses the royal treasury. The first floor houses the King's bedrooms. The ornamental bedstead is made of 64 types of herbal and medicinal woods, and was a gift from the Dutch merchants. Most of the rooms here and in other parts of the palace complex have built-in recesses in walls for storing weapons like swords and daggers. The second floor houses the King's resting and study rooms. Here the King used to spend time during fasting days. The top floor (called upparikka malika) served as the worship chamber of the royal household. Its walls are covered with exquisite 18th century murals, depicting scenes from the puranas, and also few scenes from the social life of the Travancore of that time. Ths top floor was supposed to be Sree Padmanabha Swamy's room. This building was constructed during the reign of King Marthandavarma. He was also designated as Padmanabha Dasa and used to rule the Travancore kingdom as a servant of Sree Padmanabha Swamy.

SOUTHERN PALACE

The southern palace is as old as the ‘Thai kottaram’ (Mother's palace), which would make it about 400 year old. Now, it serves as a heritage museum, exhibiting antique household articles and curios. Collections of items give an insight into the social and cultural ethos of that period.

OTHER FEATURES

The Padamnabhapuram Palace complex has several other interesting features:

- The palace is located in Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu state but administered by the Government of Kerala state.

- The clock tower in the palace complex has a 300 year old clock, which still keeps time.

- A big hall now bare, which can accommodate around 1000 guests, and where ceremonial feasts were held, on auspicious occasions.

- A secret passage, now blocked, through which the king, his immediate family members, and their entourage could escape to another palace, located several kilometers away in the event of any emergency. Name of this palace is Charottu kottaram.

- A flight of steps leads to a bathing pond, which has lost its freshness due to neglect and years of disuse.

- The palace complex also has a section of curios and several interesting objects:

- An entire room filled with old Chinese jars, all gifts by Chinese merchants.

- A variety of weapons (which were actually used in warfare), including swords and daggers.

- Brass lamps, wood and stone sculpture, a variety of furniture and large mirrors made of polished metal.

- A gallery of paintings depicting incidents from the history of Travancore.

- A wooden cot made of up to 64 wooden pieces of a variety of medicinal tree trunks

- Polished stone cot, meant for cool effect

- Toilet and well

WIKIPEDIA

www.myspace.com/mulenze

www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_N_QbU8XfA&feature=PlayList&...

Founded in 1976 by the Bass Santurce Edwin Morales, le groupe était à l'origine d'un groupe pour les stars accompagnement passage à Porto Rico. Ils jouèrent ainsi pour Cheo Feliciano , Hector Lavoe , Santos Colón, Ismael Miranda ... They jouèrent ainsi pour Cheo Feliciano, Hector Lavoe, Santos Colon, Ismael Miranda ... Le nom de Mulenze est un hommage à un musicien cubain homonyme : "le nom de l’orchestre n’est pas du à mon deuxième prénom Mulenze. En fait, Morales ne me paraissait pas très commercial et je me suis rappelé qu’un jour à New York Celia Cruz m’avait comparé à Mulenze, un musicien cubain très rumbero fanatique de percussion. Mon orchestre se caractérise précisément par son style très percussif. [ 1 ]" Le nom de Mulenze is an hommage to a cubain musicien homonyme: "le nom de l'orchester n'est pas du à mon deuxième prénom Mulenze. In fact, Morales paraissait me ne pas très commercial rappelé et je me suis qu'un jour in New York Celia Cruz m'avait compared Mulenze a cubain musicien très rumbero fanatique of percussion. Mon orchester is characterized precisely by its very style percussif [1]. "

Desde el Principio (GIF) Mulenze fait partie de ces orchestres que l’on reconnaît dès la première note, de ces groupes qui ont cherché et trouvé un son caractéristique qu’ils conservent tout au long de leur carrière. Mulenze is part of these orchestres that dès l'on reconnaît the first note of cherché ces groupes et qui ont trouvé is a characteristic that they tout au long conservent of their career. Derrière une structure classique de deux trombones, deux trompettes, une section rythmique complète (conga, bongo, timbal, bass et piano) et trois chanteurs, se cache une identité bien affirmée. Derrière une structure de deux classique trombones, two trompettes, a section rythmique complète (conga, bongo, drum, bass and piano) and three Chanteurs is well affirmée cache une identité. Celle ci se traduit par un style percussif, agressif, et des arrangements sophistiqués matinés de latin jazz. Celle ci traduit par is a style percussif, agressif, et des sophistiqués matinees arrangements of Latin jazz. Edwin exige de ses arrangeurs qu’ils écoutent l’ensemble des disques du groupe avant de se mettre au travail "pour qu’ils se saturent de ce que je veux pour maintenir le style du groupe. Quand les arrangements sont prêts, je les monte et si quelque chose me déplait je le change !" [ 2 ]. Edwin arrangeurs demands of its écoutent qu'ils l'ensemble du groupe des disques avant mettre au travail is to pour qu'ils saturent is to pour ce que je veux le style du groupe maintain. Quand les arrangements are ready, he will mount and if something déplait je me change it! "[2].

En 1979, Morales décide de faire jouer le groupe pour lui-même et non plus comme accompagnant. In 1979, Morales décide de faire pour jouer le groupe lui-même et non plus comme accompagnant. Pour remplacer Cano Estremera (qui quitte ce groupe avec lequel il débuta pour rejoindre Bobby Valentin ), Edwin recrute sur les recommandations de Willie Rosario celui qui deviendra la voix emblématique du groupe : le sonero Pedro Brull . To replace Cano Estremera (qui quitte ce groupe avec lequel il pour rejoindre débuta Bobby Valentine), Edwin recrute sur les recommandations Willie Rosario deviendra celui qui la voix du groupe emblématique: le sonero Pedro Brull. Mulenze enregistre ensuite quatre disques sur PDC records entre 1979 et 1983 : Desde El Principio 79, Que Cambio 80, Creciendo 81 et Otra Vez 83. Mulenze enregistre ensuite sur quatre disques PDC records between 1979 and 1983: From The Top 79, which changed 80, and 81 Growing Again 83. Dès le premier disque un premier hit cartonne : No Hay Manera Filomena Dès le premier disque hit a premier cartonne: No Hay Manera Filomena

No hay manera Filomena, no me convences. There is no way Filomena, I am not convinced. matrimonio es una cosa que no conviene Marriage is something that should not be

Il n’ya pas moyen Filomena, tu ne me convainc pas, le mariage est une chose qui ne convient pas Il n'ya pas moyen Filomena, tu ne pas me convainc him mariage est une chose qui ne convient pas

GIF - 90.2 ko

Con Pocas Palabras Basta With Just a Nutshell

En 1984, le groupe rejoint le label de Bobby Valentin Bronco Records pour l’un de leurs meilleurs disques : Con Pocas Palabras Basta . In 1984, le groupe rejoint le label Bobby Valentine Bronco Records pour l'un de leurs meilleurs disques: In a Nutshell Basta. Keny Cruz chante l’excellent titre éponyme et Pedro Brull se charge avec brio de la chanson de Pedro Arroyo No Te Vayas Todavía . Keny Cruz chante et l'excellent titre éponyme Pedro Brull was charged with the balance of Pedro Arroyo chanson Do not go yet. Le disque conclue sur une très interessante reprise Latin Jazz de Dolphy Street (On Green Dolphy Street). Le disque conclue sur une très interessante reprise Latin Jazz Dolphy Street (On Green Dolphy Street). C’est le dernier enregistrement de Keny avec Mulenze, il sera remplacé par Rafael Andino actuellement toujours membre du groupe. C'est le dernier avec enregistrement Kenya Mulenze, il sera par Replace Rafael Andino toujours actuellement membre du groupe. Sur Bronco Records suivront te Damos Las Gracias en 85, duquel on retiendra particulièrement l’interprétation par Pedro Brull de La Crianza (Johnny Ortiz), puis en 1986 Mulenze n°7 sur lequel Ortiz et Brull nous gratifient de Buscando Aventuras . South Bronco Records suivront we thank you in 85, duquel on retiendra particulièrement par l'interprétation Pedro Brull La Crianza (Johnny Ortiz), then in 1986 Mulenze No 7 Brull Ortiz et sur lequel nous gratifient Looking for Adventure.

Mulenze change de label pour rejoindre HittMakers sur lequel sortiront Toco Madera en 88 et Extravagante en 90. Mulenze change of label HittMakers pour rejoindre sur lequel sortiront Toco Wood at 88 and 90 Extravagante. Ensuite, le groupe rejoint MP (Musical Production) où Edwin Morales (dorénavant Edwin Mulenze) et Pedro Brull participent au MP All Stars en 92. Ensuite, le groupe rejoint MP (Music Production) where Edwin Morales (dorénavant Edwin Mulenze) et au MP Peter Brull participate in All Stars 92. Les trois chanteurs du groupe sont alors Pedro Brull, Rafael Andino et Luisito Carrión. Les trois Chanteurs du groupe sont alors Pedro Brull, Luisito Carrión et Rafael Andino.

(JPEG)

De Regreso Back

En 93 la formation enregistre De Regreso sur la filiale de MP NRT, disque qui contient le hit A Mi Me Huele , puis Sabor Y Mas en 95. In 93 training enregistre Return From South MP subsidiary NRT, qui contient le disque hit I Smell, Taste and more then 95. Le groupe est alors rejoint par Tony "Pupy cantor" Torres qui remplace Luisito Carrión comme troisième chanteur . Le groupe est alors rejoint par Tony "Pupy singer" who replace Torres Luisito Carrión comme troisième chanteur.

Le 30 novembre 2001 la formation fête ses 25 ans lors d’un concert de prestige à l’amphithéâtre Tito Puente à San Juan. Le 30 novembre 2001 training fête ses 25 ans lors d'un concert à l'Amphithéâtre prestige of Tito Puente to San Juan. Parmi les artistes qui participèrent on peut citer La Sonora Ponceña , Primi Cruz, Luisito Carrión, Andy Montañez , Domingo Quiñones... Parmi les artistes qui peut on participèrent Citer La Sonora Poncena, Primi Cruz, Luisito Carrion, Andy Montanez, Domingo Quinones ... En 2003, le groupe a sorti une nouvelle compilation Este Es El Sol sur Musica Del Sol. En 2004 ils ont présenté le single de leur prochain album Quisiera . In 2003, le groupe a sorti une nouvelle compilation This Is Music Of The Sun Southern Sun in 2004 ils ont présenté le prochain single from their album I.

The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life… - C. S. Lewis

More C. S. Lewis Quotes and Sayings

Picture Quotes on Life

A Local’s Insight: 5 Marvelous Floating Markets near Bangkok

Original photo credit: Emphyrio

Knives were heated in a computer-controlled oven precisely to 1080 degrees of Celsius, held in that temperature for 30 minutes and then taken out of the oven for circulated air quench (ELMAX steel does not need to be quenched in water or oil, as it is air quenching steel). To reach the 61 HRC hardness for the blade, knives were sub-zero treated for 2 hours into -78 degrees Celsius into dry ice (dry ice is basically carbon dioxide). It is called cryogenic hardening or deep cooling. The super cool temps transform the steel structure from austentite into martensite. In my experience cryogenic hardening does several things: it will relieve a little stress, raise the Rockwell (HRC) hardness by 1 or 2 points therefore requiring retempering, and refine the internal grain structure of the steel. Then it was annealed 2 x 2 hours in a tempering oven 220 degrees of Celsius.

Wikipedia promotes itself as "The Free Encyclopedia that anyone can edit." And that is precisely the problem! Anyone can, and anyone does.

And, it's not limited to minor matters, either.

Verification, validation and authentication is exclusively limited to items that can be presently found on Internet databases. For example, if there is a book which is not published online, and which is cited as a source, then it's quite simple to cite the book title, it's author, ISBN number and let it go at that. The problem occurs when someone attempts to authenticate the citation and does not have access to that source.

There is an abysmal lack of uniformity in language, grammar and spelling. The styles of each article vary exceedingly, so much that it's not uncommon to find one article on a related subject in a distinctly different tenor, tone and appearance.

Subjects often have inane, mundane and tedious details of such infinitesimal detail that it detracts from the main article... in the opening paragraph. Naturally, the supply of such scrutinizingly painful detail is done in an attempt to demonstrate expertise, and therefore lend substantial credence. However, it has the opposite effect, arouses suspicion, and almost immediately bores readers.

While simultaneously eschewing "original research," the same level of scrutiny is casually avoided in numerous other articles, particularly those which cite sources.

So-called "edit wars" are not uncommon over trivial detail - such as adherence to the "community guidelines" as they pertain to "editing" practice. Anonymous users are encouraged! to edit articles with complete abandon... and they do, albeit that their IP addresses are displayed after such edits, if they are not "registered" members of the site.

Details on related articles are inconsistent - as evidenced here. And, in one instance, I was amazed to learn that (according to information found on Wikipedia) there are AT LEAST four men in different nations whom all lay claim to have invented the washing machine - all at different years, and all whom knew nothing of each other. How peculiar is THAT!?

Perhaps the most fascinatingly telling (and damning) indictment of Wikipedia was the fiasco involving John Seigenthaler, Sr., whom has since deceased. As one of journalism's most scrupulous, and long-time journalists, editors and publisher of the Tennessean newspaper in Nashville (and others, including USA Today), he had the courage to investigate, tell the truth, hold and promote unpopular positions, and be confidants of Presidents and others.

It was cited on Wikipedia that he - as a former assistant to Robert Kennedy - may have been involved in the assassination of RFK, and that of his brother, President John F. Kennedy.

The false entry read in part:

"John Seigenthaler Sr. was the assistant to Attorney General Robert Kennedy in the early 1960's. For a brief time, he was thought to have been directly involved in the Kennedy assassinations of both John, and his brother, Bobby. Nothing was ever proven. John Seigenthaler moved to the Soviet Union in 1971, and returned to the United States in 1984. He started one of the country's largest public relations firms shortly thereafter."

While the claim was utterly false (the only truth was that he was an assistant to RFK), it remained on the Wikipedia website for FOUR MONTHS before the website's founder, Huntsville, Alabama native Jimmy Wales, agreed to have it removed.

Mr. Sigenthaler, Sr. wrote an Op-Ed in USA Today of that experience, which was published 29 November 2005 under the title of "A false Wikipedia 'biography'". In part he wrote that, "I am interested in letting many people know that Wikipedia is a flawed and irresponsible research tool."

Sadly, increasingly, in the years since that debacle, Wikipedia remains a complete and utter fraud, waste of time, space and energy.

We had a complete change this Christmas – we cancelled it! - we went walking in The Lakes, or Wasdale more precisely. We were staying at Irton Hall B & B, they had over 70 in for Christmas dinner but we ate jam bread on the slopes of Sca Fell Pike. Fantastic. We had a front wheel puncture on a run flat tyre on the new car with a 100 mile still to drive on the afternoon of Christmas eve on our way there. I drove straight to the nearest ATS – where I have an account – they shook their heads and directed me to Westhoughton Tyres, the lads there were fantastic and got us on our way in good time. BMW dealer advice was run on the flat tyre and then throw it away - £250! Where I would have got a tyre on the western side of the Lakes over Christmas I don’t know, ATS didn’t have one to sell me.

The weather was forecast good for Christmas day but after a fine start it was raining before we even left the car park in Wasdale. We headed up Lingmell and ran into snow on the summit. The path onto Sca Fell Pike was very icy, snow covered and visibility was low, the snow kept falling. We didn’t linger long, it was too cold to have dinner up there so we dropped down onto the Corridor Route, where we had our dinner. We went that way to stretch the walk out, having originally intended to cross to Great End. The tops were so icy, glazed, with not enough snow to get a grip on that we decide to leave it for another day. From Styhead we headed back to Wasdale and a dull but fine finish to the day. A drink in the bar at Irton Hall was on the radar.

Every morning we headed into Wasdale early, it got colder, icier and sunnier as the days went by. We went up Yewbarrow, it was an icy scramble up and I decided it was too dangerous to go down Stirrup Crag to Dore Head so went back the same way. It turned out to be the right decision as we lingered on the top, going to view points that we wouldn’t have and getting some decent photos. One morning we walked over the Screes tops, Illgill Head and Whin Rigg, dropping down the steep slope to The southern end of Wast Water. Having said that I would never walk the Screes path alongside Wast Water again the memory of how awful it is in the rain had faded. There is only really a quarter of a mile out of three miles that is really bad, every rock was like glass with the potential to break a leg every step. It seemed a long way and I was getting killer looks from Herself.

We made our way onto Sca Fell on a beautiful morning, clear blue sky. The snow line had got lower most nights but we never had the low level snow that caused problems in the rest of the country. I chose a, sometimes, pathless way to the summit, partly because I’d never been that way but also to stay in the sun, to keep the view and to avoid the ways that would be a touch dangerous, it was -4 and seared with ice for the last 600 feet. After 15 minutes on the summit wispy thin cloud came racing in, crossing the Lake District in minutes, the photos show it heading towards us and I was glad to have got the clear photos first. Looking out to sea a great mattress of cloud was heading straight for us. It was calm and sunny one minute and the next we were engulfed in thick cloud with 30 yards visibility at the most. I have never had a clear sky turn to cloud so fast – ever! We were going down to Slightside next which was OK, about a mile following the ridge down, the problem was getting back to Wasdale from there. We needed to get to Great Howe which meant a pathless trek a mile SW across Quagrigg Moss – a bog full of tarnlets, it would be a nightmare in low visibility. After getting some accurate compass bearings and heading down off Slightside we suddenly dropped out of the cloud and could see our target, brilliant, we legged it across the semi frozen bog and finally felt able to rest and grab a sandwich and cup of tea. We had to find our way down Raven Crags, which was interesting – and steep! We needed to get to the footbridge to get onto the Burnmoor Tarn path back to Wasdale. As we got closer to Burnmoor Tarn the light that I had been cursing gave us a gorgeous sunset. I had one eye on a gap in the cloud low down in the sky out at sea and I was hoping the sun would break through, it did. Burnmoor Tarn was like a mirror, reflecting the surrounding mountains, including Yewbarrow and parts of the Mosedale Horseshoe in the far distance. There was just the two of us, we had barely seen a soul all day, it was a fantastic end to a tough day. As we dropped into Wasdale I caught the deep pink and orange of the last of the sun, I was shooting into it but I had nothing to lose. There would have been quite a few tripods at the opposite end of the lake but I think I was in the better place – for a change.

On our final walking day we decided to head up Great Gable. It was clear of cloud for a change but ominously the surrounding tops, including the Sca Fells were cloud covered. Another beautiful but very cold morning, it was going to be very icy up there so we elected to go via Styhead and the tourist track. We would choose a way off once we were up there. Long before we got to the top, although we couldn’t see it, we knew the cloud was swirling in and out on the summit so it was going to be hit and miss for the photos. The cloud was down for the last 500 feet but once on the frozen top it kept clearing briefly – very briefly. There were more people up there than we had seen the entire trip previously. People were getting out after Christmas, many had parked at the top of Honister for the fairly easy walk in across Green Gable, some were not dressed for winter walking it has to be said. We left for an icy scramble down to Arron Slack, up onto Green Gable them we galloped down Arron Slack to Styhead and back to Wasdale.

We walked over the two tops that form the Screes, it rained low, snowed high, visibility on top was poor and then I decided to use the Screes path back to the car park at Wasdale. A big mistake in the wet, every boulder was deadly slippy. I only used the little G1X MK2, I carried the 5D but it stayed in my backpack for a change, there wasn't much to get excited about

We had a complete change this Christmas – we cancelled it! - we went walking in The Lakes, or Wasdale more precisely. We were staying at Irton Hall B & B, they had over 70 in for Christmas dinner but we ate jam bread on the slopes of Sca Fell Pike. Fantastic. We had a front wheel puncture on a run flat tyre on the new car with a 100 mile still to drive on the afternoon of Christmas eve on our way there. I drove straight to the nearest ATS – where I have an account – they shook their heads and directed me to Westhoughton Tyres, the lads there were fantastic and got us on our way in good time. BMW dealer advice was run on the flat tyre and then throw it away - £250! Where I would have got a tyre on the western side of the Lakes over Christmas I don’t know, ATS didn’t have one to sell me.

The weather was forecast good for Christmas day but after a fine start it was raining before we even left the car park in Wasdale. We headed up Lingmell and ran into snow on the summit. The path onto Sca Fell Pike was very icy, snow covered and visibility was low, the snow kept falling. We didn’t linger long, it was too cold to have dinner up there so we dropped down onto the Corridor Route, where we had our dinner. We went that way to stretch the walk out, having originally intended to cross to Great End. The tops were so icy, glazed, with not enough snow to get a grip on that we decide to leave it for another day. From Styhead we headed back to Wasdale and a dull but fine finish to the day. A drink in the bar at Irton Hall was on the radar.

Every morning we headed into Wasdale early, it got colder, icier and sunnier as the days went by. We went up Yewbarrow, it was an icy scramble up and I decided it was too dangerous to go down Stirrup Crag to Dore Head so went back the same way. It turned out to be the right decision as we lingered on the top, going to view points that we wouldn’t have and getting some decent photos. One morning we walked over the Screes tops, Illgill Head and Whin Rigg, dropping down the steep slope to The southern end of Wast Water. Having said that I would never walk the Screes path alongside Wast Water again the memory of how awful it is in the rain had faded. There is only really a quarter of a mile out of three miles that is really bad, every rock was like glass with the potential to break a leg every step. It seemed a long way and I was getting killer looks from Herself.

We made our way onto Sca Fell on a beautiful morning, clear blue sky. The snow line had got lower most nights but we never had the low level snow that caused problems in the rest of the country. I chose a, sometimes, pathless way to the summit, partly because I’d never been that way but also to stay in the sun, to keep the view and to avoid the ways that would be a touch dangerous, it was -4 and seared with ice for the last 600 feet. After 15 minutes on the summit wispy thin cloud came racing in, crossing the Lake District in minutes, the photos show it heading towards us and I was glad to have got the clear photos first. Looking out to sea a great mattress of cloud was heading straight for us. It was calm and sunny one minute and the next we were engulfed in thick cloud with 30 yards visibility at the most. I have never had a clear sky turn to cloud so fast – ever! We were going down to Slightside next which was OK, about a mile following the ridge down, the problem was getting back to Wasdale from there. We needed to get to Great Howe which meant a pathless trek a mile SW across Quagrigg Moss – a bog full of tarnlets, it would be a nightmare in low visibility. After getting some accurate compass bearings and heading down off Slightside we suddenly dropped out of the cloud and could see our target, brilliant, we legged it across the semi frozen bog and finally felt able to rest and grab a sandwich and cup of tea. We had to find our way down Raven Crags, which was interesting – and steep! We needed to get to the footbridge to get onto the Burnmoor Tarn path back to Wasdale. As we got closer to Burnmoor Tarn the light that I had been cursing gave us a gorgeous sunset. I had one eye on a gap in the cloud low down in the sky out at sea and I was hoping the sun would break through, it did. Burnmoor Tarn was like a mirror, reflecting the surrounding mountains, including Yewbarrow and parts of the Mosedale Horseshoe in the far distance. There was just the two of us, we had barely seen a soul all day, it was a fantastic end to a tough day. As we dropped into Wasdale I caught the deep pink and orange of the last of the sun, I was shooting into it but I had nothing to lose. There would have been quite a few tripods at the opposite end of the lake but I think I was in the better place – for a change.

On our final walking day we decided to head up Great Gable. It was clear of cloud for a change but ominously the surrounding tops, including the Sca Fells were cloud covered. Another beautiful but very cold morning, it was going to be very icy up there so we elected to go via Styhead and the tourist track. We would choose a way off once we were up there. Long before we got to the top, although we couldn’t see it, we knew the cloud was swirling in and out on the summit so it was going to be hit and miss for the photos. The cloud was down for the last 500 feet but once on the frozen top it kept clearing briefly – very briefly. There were more people up there than we had seen the entire trip previously. People were getting out after Christmas, many had parked at the top of Honister for the fairly easy walk in across Green Gable, some were not dressed for winter walking it has to be said. We left for an icy scramble down to Arron Slack, up onto Green Gable them we galloped down Arron Slack to Styhead and back to Wasdale.

Photograph taken at an altitude of Fifty eight metres, prior to the magic of the Golden Hour around sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 04:42am), at 03:39am on Thursday 19th June 2014 off Lullingstone Lane and Eagle Heights overlooking a blanket of morning mist as it rolled across Eynsford Viaduct in the village of Eynsford, Kent, England.

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

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Nikon D800 24mm 1/125s f/2.8 iso200 RAW (14 bit) Mirror up. Manual focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering.Auto white balance.

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

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LATITUDE: N 51d 22m 3.58s

LONGITUDE: E 0d 11m 53.57s

ALTITUDE: 58.0m

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED FILE: 17.98MB

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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 Forty seven metres, in the thick blanket of mist prior to the magic of the Golden Hour around sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 04:42am), at 03:32am 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 70mm 1/4s f/13.0 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Mirror up. 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 21m 52.15s

LONGITUDE: E 0d 11m 48.61s

ALTITUDE: 47.0m

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED FILE: 20.11MB

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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

We walked over the two tops that form the Screes, it rained low, snowed high, visibility on top was poor and then I decided to use the Screes path back to the car park at Wasdale. A big mistake in the wet, every boulder was deadly slippy. I only used the little G1X MK2, I carried the 5D but it stayed in my backpack for a change, there wasn't much to get excited about

We had a complete change this Christmas – we cancelled it! - we went walking in The Lakes, or Wasdale more precisely. We were staying at Irton Hall B & B, they had over 70 in for Christmas dinner but we ate jam bread on the slopes of Sca Fell Pike. Fantastic. We had a front wheel puncture on a run flat tyre on the new car with a 100 mile still to drive on the afternoon of Christmas eve on our way there. I drove straight to the nearest ATS – where I have an account – they shook their heads and directed me to Westhoughton Tyres, the lads there were fantastic and got us on our way in good time. BMW dealer advice was run on the flat tyre and then throw it away - £250! Where I would have got a tyre on the western side of the Lakes over Christmas I don’t know, ATS didn’t have one to sell me.

The weather was forecast good for Christmas day but after a fine start it was raining before we even left the car park in Wasdale. We headed up Lingmell and ran into snow on the summit. The path onto Sca Fell Pike was very icy, snow covered and visibility was low, the snow kept falling. We didn’t linger long, it was too cold to have dinner up there so we dropped down onto the Corridor Route, where we had our dinner. We went that way to stretch the walk out, having originally intended to cross to Great End. The tops were so icy, glazed, with not enough snow to get a grip on that we decide to leave it for another day. From Styhead we headed back to Wasdale and a dull but fine finish to the day. A drink in the bar at Irton Hall was on the radar.

Every morning we headed into Wasdale early, it got colder, icier and sunnier as the days went by. We went up Yewbarrow, it was an icy scramble up and I decided it was too dangerous to go down Stirrup Crag to Dore Head so went back the same way. It turned out to be the right decision as we lingered on the top, going to view points that we wouldn’t have and getting some decent photos. One morning we walked over the Screes tops, Illgill Head and Whin Rigg, dropping down the steep slope to The southern end of Wast Water. Having said that I would never walk the Screes path alongside Wast Water again the memory of how awful it is in the rain had faded. There is only really a quarter of a mile out of three miles that is really bad, every rock was like glass with the potential to break a leg every step. It seemed a long way and I was getting killer looks from Herself.

We made our way onto Sca Fell on a beautiful morning, clear blue sky. The snow line had got lower most nights but we never had the low level snow that caused problems in the rest of the country. I chose a, sometimes, pathless way to the summit, partly because I’d never been that way but also to stay in the sun, to keep the view and to avoid the ways that would be a touch dangerous, it was -4 and seared with ice for the last 600 feet. After 15 minutes on the summit wispy thin cloud came racing in, crossing the Lake District in minutes, the photos show it heading towards us and I was glad to have got the clear photos first. Looking out to sea a great mattress of cloud was heading straight for us. It was calm and sunny one minute and the next we were engulfed in thick cloud with 30 yards visibility at the most. I have never had a clear sky turn to cloud so fast – ever! We were going down to Slightside next which was OK, about a mile following the ridge down, the problem was getting back to Wasdale from there. We needed to get to Great Howe which meant a pathless trek a mile SW across Quagrigg Moss – a bog full of tarnlets, it would be a nightmare in low visibility. After getting some accurate compass bearings and heading down off Slightside we suddenly dropped out of the cloud and could see our target, brilliant, we legged it across the semi frozen bog and finally felt able to rest and grab a sandwich and cup of tea. We had to find our way down Raven Crags, which was interesting – and steep! We needed to get to the footbridge to get onto the Burnmoor Tarn path back to Wasdale. As we got closer to Burnmoor Tarn the light that I had been cursing gave us a gorgeous sunset. I had one eye on a gap in the cloud low down in the sky out at sea and I was hoping the sun would break through, it did. Burnmoor Tarn was like a mirror, reflecting the surrounding mountains, including Yewbarrow and parts of the Mosedale Horseshoe in the far distance. There was just the two of us, we had barely seen a soul all day, it was a fantastic end to a tough day. As we dropped into Wasdale I caught the deep pink and orange of the last of the sun, I was shooting into it but I had nothing to lose. There would have been quite a few tripods at the opposite end of the lake but I think I was in the better place – for a change.

On our final walking day we decided to head up Great Gable. It was clear of cloud for a change but ominously the surrounding tops, including the Sca Fells were cloud covered. Another beautiful but very cold morning, it was going to be very icy up there so we elected to go via Styhead and the tourist track. We would choose a way off once we were up there. Long before we got to the top, although we couldn’t see it, we knew the cloud was swirling in and out on the summit so it was going to be hit and miss for the photos. The cloud was down for the last 500 feet but once on the frozen top it kept clearing briefly – very briefly. There were more people up there than we had seen the entire trip previously. People were getting out after Christmas, many had parked at the top of Honister for the fairly easy walk in across Green Gable, some were not dressed for winter walking it has to be said. We left for an icy scramble down to Arron Slack, up onto Green Gable them we galloped down Arron Slack to Styhead and back to Wasdale.

We had a complete change this Christmas – we cancelled it! - we went walking in The Lakes, or Wasdale more precisely. We were staying at Irton Hall B & B, they had over 70 in for Christmas dinner but we ate jam bread on the slopes of Sca Fell Pike. Fantastic. We had a front wheel puncture on a run flat tyre on the new car with a 100 mile still to drive on the afternoon of Christmas eve on our way there. I drove straight to the nearest ATS – where I have an account – they shook their heads and directed me to Westhoughton Tyres, the lads there were fantastic and got us on our way in good time. BMW dealer advice was run on the flat tyre and then throw it away - £250! Where I would have got a tyre on the western side of the Lakes over Christmas I don’t know, ATS didn’t have one to sell me.

The weather was forecast good for Christmas day but after a fine start it was raining before we even left the car park in Wasdale. We headed up Lingmell and ran into snow on the summit. The path onto Sca Fell Pike was very icy, snow covered and visibility was low, the snow kept falling. We didn’t linger long, it was too cold to have dinner up there so we dropped down onto the Corridor Route, where we had our dinner. We went that way to stretch the walk out, having originally intended to cross to Great End. The tops were so icy, glazed, with not enough snow to get a grip on that we decide to leave it for another day. From Styhead we headed back to Wasdale and a dull but fine finish to the day. A drink in the bar at Irton Hall was on the radar.

Every morning we headed into Wasdale early, it got colder, icier and sunnier as the days went by. We went up Yewbarrow, it was an icy scramble up and I decided it was too dangerous to go down Stirrup Crag to Dore Head so went back the same way. It turned out to be the right decision as we lingered on the top, going to view points that we wouldn’t have and getting some decent photos. One morning we walked over the Screes tops, Illgill Head and Whin Rigg, dropping down the steep slope to The southern end of Wast Water. Having said that I would never walk the Screes path alongside Wast Water again the memory of how awful it is in the rain had faded. There is only really a quarter of a mile out of three miles that is really bad, every rock was like glass with the potential to break a leg every step. It seemed a long way and I was getting killer looks from Herself.

We made our way onto Sca Fell on a beautiful morning, clear blue sky. The snow line had got lower most nights but we never had the low level snow that caused problems in the rest of the country. I chose a, sometimes, pathless way to the summit, partly because I’d never been that way but also to stay in the sun, to keep the view and to avoid the ways that would be a touch dangerous, it was -4 and seared with ice for the last 600 feet. After 15 minutes on the summit wispy thin cloud came racing in, crossing the Lake District in minutes, the photos show it heading towards us and I was glad to have got the clear photos first. Looking out to sea a great mattress of cloud was heading straight for us. It was calm and sunny one minute and the next we were engulfed in thick cloud with 30 yards visibility at the most. I have never had a clear sky turn to cloud so fast – ever! We were going down to Slightside next which was OK, about a mile following the ridge down, the problem was getting back to Wasdale from there. We needed to get to Great Howe which meant a pathless trek a mile SW across Quagrigg Moss – a bog full of tarnlets, it would be a nightmare in low visibility. After getting some accurate compass bearings and heading down off Slightside we suddenly dropped out of the cloud and could see our target, brilliant, we legged it across the semi frozen bog and finally felt able to rest and grab a sandwich and cup of tea. We had to find our way down Raven Crags, which was interesting – and steep! We needed to get to the footbridge to get onto the Burnmoor Tarn path back to Wasdale. As we got closer to Burnmoor Tarn the light that I had been cursing gave us a gorgeous sunset. I had one eye on a gap in the cloud low down in the sky out at sea and I was hoping the sun would break through, it did. Burnmoor Tarn was like a mirror, reflecting the surrounding mountains, including Yewbarrow and parts of the Mosedale Horseshoe in the far distance. There was just the two of us, we had barely seen a soul all day, it was a fantastic end to a tough day. As we dropped into Wasdale I caught the deep pink and orange of the last of the sun, I was shooting into it but I had nothing to lose. There would have been quite a few tripods at the opposite end of the lake but I think I was in the better place – for a change.

On our final walking day we decided to head up Great Gable. It was clear of cloud for a change but ominously the surrounding tops, including the Sca Fells were cloud covered. Another beautiful but very cold morning, it was going to be very icy up there so we elected to go via Styhead and the tourist track. We would choose a way off once we were up there. Long before we got to the top, although we couldn’t see it, we knew the cloud was swirling in and out on the summit so it was going to be hit and miss for the photos. The cloud was down for the last 500 feet but once on the frozen top it kept clearing briefly – very briefly. There were more people up there than we had seen the entire trip previously. People were getting out after Christmas, many had parked at the top of Honister for the fairly easy walk in across Green Gable, some were not dressed for winter walking it has to be said. We left for an icy scramble down to Arron Slack, up onto Green Gable them we galloped down Arron Slack to Styhead and back to Wasdale.

Source freedownloadminecraft.com/precisely-portal-modified-porta...

We walked over the two tops that form the Screes, it rained low, snowed high, visibility on top was poor and then I decided to use the Screes path back to the car park at Wasdale. A big mistake in the wet, every boulder was deadly slippy. I only used the little G1X MK2, I carried the 5D but it stayed in my backpack for a change, there wasn't much to get excited about

We had a complete change this Christmas – we cancelled it! - we went walking in The Lakes, or Wasdale more precisely. We were staying at Irton Hall B & B, they had over 70 in for Christmas dinner but we ate jam bread on the slopes of Sca Fell Pike. Fantastic. We had a front wheel puncture on a run flat tyre on the new car with a 100 mile still to drive on the afternoon of Christmas eve on our way there. I drove straight to the nearest ATS – where I have an account – they shook their heads and directed me to Westhoughton Tyres, the lads there were fantastic and got us on our way in good time. BMW dealer advice was run on the flat tyre and then throw it away - £250! Where I would have got a tyre on the western side of the Lakes over Christmas I don’t know, ATS didn’t have one to sell me.

The weather was forecast good for Christmas day but after a fine start it was raining before we even left the car park in Wasdale. We headed up Lingmell and ran into snow on the summit. The path onto Sca Fell Pike was very icy, snow covered and visibility was low, the snow kept falling. We didn’t linger long, it was too cold to have dinner up there so we dropped down onto the Corridor Route, where we had our dinner. We went that way to stretch the walk out, having originally intended to cross to Great End. The tops were so icy, glazed, with not enough snow to get a grip on that we decide to leave it for another day. From Styhead we headed back to Wasdale and a dull but fine finish to the day. A drink in the bar at Irton Hall was on the radar.

Every morning we headed into Wasdale early, it got colder, icier and sunnier as the days went by. We went up Yewbarrow, it was an icy scramble up and I decided it was too dangerous to go down Stirrup Crag to Dore Head so went back the same way. It turned out to be the right decision as we lingered on the top, going to view points that we wouldn’t have and getting some decent photos. One morning we walked over the Screes tops, Illgill Head and Whin Rigg, dropping down the steep slope to The southern end of Wast Water. Having said that I would never walk the Screes path alongside Wast Water again the memory of how awful it is in the rain had faded. There is only really a quarter of a mile out of three miles that is really bad, every rock was like glass with the potential to break a leg every step. It seemed a long way and I was getting killer looks from Herself.

We made our way onto Sca Fell on a beautiful morning, clear blue sky. The snow line had got lower most nights but we never had the low level snow that caused problems in the rest of the country. I chose a, sometimes, pathless way to the summit, partly because I’d never been that way but also to stay in the sun, to keep the view and to avoid the ways that would be a touch dangerous, it was -4 and seared with ice for the last 600 feet. After 15 minutes on the summit wispy thin cloud came racing in, crossing the Lake District in minutes, the photos show it heading towards us and I was glad to have got the clear photos first. Looking out to sea a great mattress of cloud was heading straight for us. It was calm and sunny one minute and the next we were engulfed in thick cloud with 30 yards visibility at the most. I have never had a clear sky turn to cloud so fast – ever! We were going down to Slightside next which was OK, about a mile following the ridge down, the problem was getting back to Wasdale from there. We needed to get to Great Howe which meant a pathless trek a mile SW across Quagrigg Moss – a bog full of tarnlets, it would be a nightmare in low visibility. After getting some accurate compass bearings and heading down off Slightside we suddenly dropped out of the cloud and could see our target, brilliant, we legged it across the semi frozen bog and finally felt able to rest and grab a sandwich and cup of tea. We had to find our way down Raven Crags, which was interesting – and steep! We needed to get to the footbridge to get onto the Burnmoor Tarn path back to Wasdale. As we got closer to Burnmoor Tarn the light that I had been cursing gave us a gorgeous sunset. I had one eye on a gap in the cloud low down in the sky out at sea and I was hoping the sun would break through, it did. Burnmoor Tarn was like a mirror, reflecting the surrounding mountains, including Yewbarrow and parts of the Mosedale Horseshoe in the far distance. There was just the two of us, we had barely seen a soul all day, it was a fantastic end to a tough day. As we dropped into Wasdale I caught the deep pink and orange of the last of the sun, I was shooting into it but I had nothing to lose. There would have been quite a few tripods at the opposite end of the lake but I think I was in the better place – for a change.

On our final walking day we decided to head up Great Gable. It was clear of cloud for a change but ominously the surrounding tops, including the Sca Fells were cloud covered. Another beautiful but very cold morning, it was going to be very icy up there so we elected to go via Styhead and the tourist track. We would choose a way off once we were up there. Long before we got to the top, although we couldn’t see it, we knew the cloud was swirling in and out on the summit so it was going to be hit and miss for the photos. The cloud was down for the last 500 feet but once on the frozen top it kept clearing briefly – very briefly. There were more people up there than we had seen the entire trip previously. People were getting out after Christmas, many had parked at the top of Honister for the fairly easy walk in across Green Gable, some were not dressed for winter walking it has to be said. We left for an icy scramble down to Arron Slack, up onto Green Gable them we galloped down Arron Slack to Styhead and back to Wasdale.

We walked over the two tops that form the Screes, it rained low, snowed high, visibility on top was poor and then I decided to use the Screes path back to the car park at Wasdale. A big mistake in the wet, every boulder was deadly slippy. I only used the little G1X MK2, I carried the 5D but it stayed in my backpack for a change, there wasn't much to get excited about

We had a complete change this Christmas – we cancelled it! - we went walking in The Lakes, or Wasdale more precisely. We were staying at Irton Hall B & B, they had over 70 in for Christmas dinner but we ate jam bread on the slopes of Sca Fell Pike. Fantastic. We had a front wheel puncture on a run flat tyre on the new car with a 100 mile still to drive on the afternoon of Christmas eve on our way there. I drove straight to the nearest ATS – where I have an account – they shook their heads and directed me to Westhoughton Tyres, the lads there were fantastic and got us on our way in good time. BMW dealer advice was run on the flat tyre and then throw it away - £250! Where I would have got a tyre on the western side of the Lakes over Christmas I don’t know, ATS didn’t have one to sell me.

The weather was forecast good for Christmas day but after a fine start it was raining before we even left the car park in Wasdale. We headed up Lingmell and ran into snow on the summit. The path onto Sca Fell Pike was very icy, snow covered and visibility was low, the snow kept falling. We didn’t linger long, it was too cold to have dinner up there so we dropped down onto the Corridor Route, where we had our dinner. We went that way to stretch the walk out, having originally intended to cross to Great End. The tops were so icy, glazed, with not enough snow to get a grip on that we decide to leave it for another day. From Styhead we headed back to Wasdale and a dull but fine finish to the day. A drink in the bar at Irton Hall was on the radar.

Every morning we headed into Wasdale early, it got colder, icier and sunnier as the days went by. We went up Yewbarrow, it was an icy scramble up and I decided it was too dangerous to go down Stirrup Crag to Dore Head so went back the same way. It turned out to be the right decision as we lingered on the top, going to view points that we wouldn’t have and getting some decent photos. One morning we walked over the Screes tops, Illgill Head and Whin Rigg, dropping down the steep slope to The southern end of Wast Water. Having said that I would never walk the Screes path alongside Wast Water again the memory of how awful it is in the rain had faded. There is only really a quarter of a mile out of three miles that is really bad, every rock was like glass with the potential to break a leg every step. It seemed a long way and I was getting killer looks from Herself.

We made our way onto Sca Fell on a beautiful morning, clear blue sky. The snow line had got lower most nights but we never had the low level snow that caused problems in the rest of the country. I chose a, sometimes, pathless way to the summit, partly because I’d never been that way but also to stay in the sun, to keep the view and to avoid the ways that would be a touch dangerous, it was -4 and seared with ice for the last 600 feet. After 15 minutes on the summit wispy thin cloud came racing in, crossing the Lake District in minutes, the photos show it heading towards us and I was glad to have got the clear photos first. Looking out to sea a great mattress of cloud was heading straight for us. It was calm and sunny one minute and the next we were engulfed in thick cloud with 30 yards visibility at the most. I have never had a clear sky turn to cloud so fast – ever! We were going down to Slightside next which was OK, about a mile following the ridge down, the problem was getting back to Wasdale from there. We needed to get to Great Howe which meant a pathless trek a mile SW across Quagrigg Moss – a bog full of tarnlets, it would be a nightmare in low visibility. After getting some accurate compass bearings and heading down off Slightside we suddenly dropped out of the cloud and could see our target, brilliant, we legged it across the semi frozen bog and finally felt able to rest and grab a sandwich and cup of tea. We had to find our way down Raven Crags, which was interesting – and steep! We needed to get to the footbridge to get onto the Burnmoor Tarn path back to Wasdale. As we got closer to Burnmoor Tarn the light that I had been cursing gave us a gorgeous sunset. I had one eye on a gap in the cloud low down in the sky out at sea and I was hoping the sun would break through, it did. Burnmoor Tarn was like a mirror, reflecting the surrounding mountains, including Yewbarrow and parts of the Mosedale Horseshoe in the far distance. There was just the two of us, we had barely seen a soul all day, it was a fantastic end to a tough day. As we dropped into Wasdale I caught the deep pink and orange of the last of the sun, I was shooting into it but I had nothing to lose. There would have been quite a few tripods at the opposite end of the lake but I think I was in the better place – for a change.

On our final walking day we decided to head up Great Gable. It was clear of cloud for a change but ominously the surrounding tops, including the Sca Fells were cloud covered. Another beautiful but very cold morning, it was going to be very icy up there so we elected to go via Styhead and the tourist track. We would choose a way off once we were up there. Long before we got to the top, although we couldn’t see it, we knew the cloud was swirling in and out on the summit so it was going to be hit and miss for the photos. The cloud was down for the last 500 feet but once on the frozen top it kept clearing briefly – very briefly. There were more people up there than we had seen the entire trip previously. People were getting out after Christmas, many had parked at the top of Honister for the fairly easy walk in across Green Gable, some were not dressed for winter walking it has to be said. We left for an icy scramble down to Arron Slack, up onto Green Gable them we galloped down Arron Slack to Styhead and back to Wasdale.

Flying is cheap. And that is precisely why it is so attractive. But how is it possible that getting around by plane is so cheap compared to other modes of transport - despite its immensely damaging effect on the climate? The answer is: Unlike most other modes of transportation, air travel is only lightly regulated. Other modes of transport are charged with significantly higher levies. Germany alone subsidizes the airline industry with around 12 billion euros a year. Thus, the price of an airline ticket does not reflect the high ecological costs caused by air traffic.

The infographic shows the status of regulation via taxes in Germany, as well as emissions trading in the EU and the international agreement CORSIA. It shows deficits and inadequacies in regulation that contribute to the fact that aviation has so far failed to make a contribution to climate protection.

Further information: www.fliegen-und-klima.de/en

We had a complete change this Christmas – we cancelled it! - we went walking in The Lakes, or Wasdale more precisely. We were staying at Irton Hall B & B, they had over 70 in for Christmas dinner but we ate jam bread on the slopes of Sca Fell Pike. Fantastic. We had a front wheel puncture on a run flat tyre on the new car with a 100 mile still to drive on the afternoon of Christmas eve on our way there. I drove straight to the nearest ATS – where I have an account – they shook their heads and directed me to Westhoughton Tyres, the lads there were fantastic and got us on our way in good time. BMW dealer advice was run on the flat tyre and then throw it away - £250! Where I would have got a tyre on the western side of the Lakes over Christmas I don’t know, ATS didn’t have one to sell me.

The weather was forecast good for Christmas day but after a fine start it was raining before we even left the car park in Wasdale. We headed up Lingmell and ran into snow on the summit. The path onto Sca Fell Pike was very icy, snow covered and visibility was low, the snow kept falling. We didn’t linger long, it was too cold to have dinner up there so we dropped down onto the Corridor Route, where we had our dinner. We went that way to stretch the walk out, having originally intended to cross to Great End. The tops were so icy, glazed, with not enough snow to get a grip on that we decide to leave it for another day. From Styhead we headed back to Wasdale and a dull but fine finish to the day. A drink in the bar at Irton Hall was on the radar.

Every morning we headed into Wasdale early, it got colder, icier and sunnier as the days went by. We went up Yewbarrow, it was an icy scramble up and I decided it was too dangerous to go down Stirrup Crag to Dore Head so went back the same way. It turned out to be the right decision as we lingered on the top, going to view points that we wouldn’t have and getting some decent photos. One morning we walked over the Screes tops, Illgill Head and Whin Rigg, dropping down the steep slope to The southern end of Wast Water. Having said that I would never walk the Screes path alongside Wast Water again the memory of how awful it is in the rain had faded. There is only really a quarter of a mile out of three miles that is really bad, every rock was like glass with the potential to break a leg every step. It seemed a long way and I was getting killer looks from Herself.

We made our way onto Sca Fell on a beautiful morning, clear blue sky. The snow line had got lower most nights but we never had the low level snow that caused problems in the rest of the country. I chose a, sometimes, pathless way to the summit, partly because I’d never been that way but also to stay in the sun, to keep the view and to avoid the ways that would be a touch dangerous, it was -4 and seared with ice for the last 600 feet. After 15 minutes on the summit wispy thin cloud came racing in, crossing the Lake District in minutes, the photos show it heading towards us and I was glad to have got the clear photos first. Looking out to sea a great mattress of cloud was heading straight for us. It was calm and sunny one minute and the next we were engulfed in thick cloud with 30 yards visibility at the most. I have never had a clear sky turn to cloud so fast – ever! We were going down to Slightside next which was OK, about a mile following the ridge down, the problem was getting back to Wasdale from there. We needed to get to Great Howe which meant a pathless trek a mile SW across Quagrigg Moss – a bog full of tarnlets, it would be a nightmare in low visibility. After getting some accurate compass bearings and heading down off Slightside we suddenly dropped out of the cloud and could see our target, brilliant, we legged it across the semi frozen bog and finally felt able to rest and grab a sandwich and cup of tea. We had to find our way down Raven Crags, which was interesting – and steep! We needed to get to the footbridge to get onto the Burnmoor Tarn path back to Wasdale. As we got closer to Burnmoor Tarn the light that I had been cursing gave us a gorgeous sunset. I had one eye on a gap in the cloud low down in the sky out at sea and I was hoping the sun would break through, it did. Burnmoor Tarn was like a mirror, reflecting the surrounding mountains, including Yewbarrow and parts of the Mosedale Horseshoe in the far distance. There was just the two of us, we had barely seen a soul all day, it was a fantastic end to a tough day. As we dropped into Wasdale I caught the deep pink and orange of the last of the sun, I was shooting into it but I had nothing to lose. There would have been quite a few tripods at the opposite end of the lake but I think I was in the better place – for a change.

On our final walking day we decided to head up Great Gable. It was clear of cloud for a change but ominously the surrounding tops, including the Sca Fells were cloud covered. Another beautiful but very cold morning, it was going to be very icy up there so we elected to go via Styhead and the tourist track. We would choose a way off once we were up there. Long before we got to the top, although we couldn’t see it, we knew the cloud was swirling in and out on the summit so it was going to be hit and miss for the photos. The cloud was down for the last 500 feet but once on the frozen top it kept clearing briefly – very briefly. There were more people up there than we had seen the entire trip previously. People were getting out after Christmas, many had parked at the top of Honister for the fairly easy walk in across Green Gable, some were not dressed for winter walking it has to be said. We left for an icy scramble down to Arron Slack, up onto Green Gable them we galloped down Arron Slack to Styhead and back to Wasdale.

Knives were heated in a computer-controlled oven precisely to 1080 degrees of Celsius, held in that temperature for 30 minutes and then taken out of the oven for circulated air quench (ELMAX steel does not need to be quenched in water or oil, as it is air quenching steel). To reach the 61 HRC hardness for the blade, knives were sub-zero treated for 2 hours into -78 degrees Celsius into dry ice (dry ice is basically carbon dioxide). It is called cryogenic hardening or deep cooling. The super cool temps transform the steel structure from austentite into martensite. In my experience cryogenic hardening does several things: it will relieve a little stress, raise the Rockwell (HRC) hardness by 1 or 2 points therefore requiring retempering, and refine the internal grain structure of the steel. Then it was annealed 2 x 2 hours in a tempering oven 220 degrees of Celsius.

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 03:07am on Monday 7th July 2014, off Botany Road and the Viking Coastal Trail above the shoreline of Botany Bay, the Northern most of seven bays in Broadstairs, Kent, England.

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

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

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Nikon D800 130mm 1/6s f/5.0 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Mirror up. Manual focus. Aperture Priority mode. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

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

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LATITUDE: N 51d 23m 20.48s

LONGITUDE: E 1d 26m 14.33s

ALTITUDE: 5.0m

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED FILE: 5.99MB

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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

We had a complete change this Christmas – we cancelled it! - we went walking in The Lakes, or Wasdale more precisely. We were staying at Irton Hall B & B, they had over 70 in for Christmas dinner but we ate jam bread on the slopes of Sca Fell Pike. Fantastic. We had a front wheel puncture on a run flat tyre on the new car with a 100 mile still to drive on the afternoon of Christmas eve on our way there. I drove straight to the nearest ATS – where I have an account – they shook their heads and directed me to Westhoughton Tyres, the lads there were fantastic and got us on our way in good time. BMW dealer advice was run on the flat tyre and then throw it away - £250! Where I would have got a tyre on the western side of the Lakes over Christmas I don’t know, ATS didn’t have one to sell me.

The weather was forecast good for Christmas day but after a fine start it was raining before we even left the car park in Wasdale. We headed up Lingmell and ran into snow on the summit. The path onto Sca Fell Pike was very icy, snow covered and visibility was low, the snow kept falling. We didn’t linger long, it was too cold to have dinner up there so we dropped down onto the Corridor Route, where we had our dinner. We went that way to stretch the walk out, having originally intended to cross to Great End. The tops were so icy, glazed, with not enough snow to get a grip on that we decide to leave it for another day. From Styhead we headed back to Wasdale and a dull but fine finish to the day. A drink in the bar at Irton Hall was on the radar.

Every morning we headed into Wasdale early, it got colder, icier and sunnier as the days went by. We went up Yewbarrow, it was an icy scramble up and I decided it was too dangerous to go down Stirrup Crag to Dore Head so went back the same way. It turned out to be the right decision as we lingered on the top, going to view points that we wouldn’t have and getting some decent photos. One morning we walked over the Screes tops, Illgill Head and Whin Rigg, dropping down the steep slope to The southern end of Wast Water. Having said that I would never walk the Screes path alongside Wast Water again the memory of how awful it is in the rain had faded. There is only really a quarter of a mile out of three miles that is really bad, every rock was like glass with the potential to break a leg every step. It seemed a long way and I was getting killer looks from Herself.

We made our way onto Sca Fell on a beautiful morning, clear blue sky. The snow line had got lower most nights but we never had the low level snow that caused problems in the rest of the country. I chose a, sometimes, pathless way to the summit, partly because I’d never been that way but also to stay in the sun, to keep the view and to avoid the ways that would be a touch dangerous, it was -4 and seared with ice for the last 600 feet. After 15 minutes on the summit wispy thin cloud came racing in, crossing the Lake District in minutes, the photos show it heading towards us and I was glad to have got the clear photos first. Looking out to sea a great mattress of cloud was heading straight for us. It was calm and sunny one minute and the next we were engulfed in thick cloud with 30 yards visibility at the most. I have never had a clear sky turn to cloud so fast – ever! We were going down to Slightside next which was OK, about a mile following the ridge down, the problem was getting back to Wasdale from there. We needed to get to Great Howe which meant a pathless trek a mile SW across Quagrigg Moss – a bog full of tarnlets, it would be a nightmare in low visibility. After getting some accurate compass bearings and heading down off Slightside we suddenly dropped out of the cloud and could see our target, brilliant, we legged it across the semi frozen bog and finally felt able to rest and grab a sandwich and cup of tea. We had to find our way down Raven Crags, which was interesting – and steep! We needed to get to the footbridge to get onto the Burnmoor Tarn path back to Wasdale. As we got closer to Burnmoor Tarn the light that I had been cursing gave us a gorgeous sunset. I had one eye on a gap in the cloud low down in the sky out at sea and I was hoping the sun would break through, it did. Burnmoor Tarn was like a mirror, reflecting the surrounding mountains, including Yewbarrow and parts of the Mosedale Horseshoe in the far distance. There was just the two of us, we had barely seen a soul all day, it was a fantastic end to a tough day. As we dropped into Wasdale I caught the deep pink and orange of the last of the sun, I was shooting into it but I had nothing to lose. There would have been quite a few tripods at the opposite end of the lake but I think I was in the better place – for a change.

On our final walking day we decided to head up Great Gable. It was clear of cloud for a change but ominously the surrounding tops, including the Sca Fells were cloud covered. Another beautiful but very cold morning, it was going to be very icy up there so we elected to go via Styhead and the tourist track. We would choose a way off once we were up there. Long before we got to the top, although we couldn’t see it, we knew the cloud was swirling in and out on the summit so it was going to be hit and miss for the photos. The cloud was down for the last 500 feet but once on the frozen top it kept clearing briefly – very briefly. There were more people up there than we had seen the entire trip previously. People were getting out after Christmas, many had parked at the top of Honister for the fairly easy walk in across Green Gable, some were not dressed for winter walking it has to be said. We left for an icy scramble down to Arron Slack, up onto Green Gable them we galloped down Arron Slack to Styhead and back to Wasdale.

St Mary, Rougham, Suffolk

This grand late medieval church sits a good half mile from its village with just the school and an incongruous 1950s rectory for company. The wide churchyard is a perfect foil for its massive bulk. graves sprawl in all directions, and you might easily imagine that all mid-Suffolk comes here to be buried. Above them, St Mary raises its head gloriously to heaven, a riot of medieval aisles, clerestory and flushwork. The inscriptions in the flushwork beneath the battlements are dedicatory inscriptions, asking for prayers for the souls of Robert Drury and John Tillot. Also clear is the Marian imagery, her lily and her monograms. Simon Cotton tells me that it was a big bequest of 50 marks, and as much more as is possible, in 1458 from Roger Tyllot of Rougham, that launched the campaign to build the tower. This guaranteed Tyllot/Tillot the inscription asking us to pray for his soul.

The south aisle is castellated with pierced tracery. One of them has a head in a dish on it, similar to the same thing on the font at Irstead and the screen at Trimingham, both in Norfolk, and so it is probably intended as St John the Baptist. The south aisle predates the tower, but after the tower, and before the Reformation of course, came the north aisle. It can be precisely dated to 1514, because it still bears that date, reading We pray you to remember us that causyde ye yle to be made thus.

The main entrance today is into this north aisle, but the south porch is worth a look, a fine piece of the early 14th Century, rather mutilated when it was reroofed in the 17th Century, the inscription 1632 JT giving the precise date. You step into a large, fine church, perhaps telling us a bit more than we would like about the extent of its 19th Century restoration. Above the nave is a good example of a late medieval hammerbeam roof, splendidly uncluttered, and in reasonable condition. The angels on the hammerbeams have lost their heads and wings, and the figures in the niches of the wall posts are also damaged. But perhaps that merely serves to show how little restored this roof is. It was made safe as part of the mid-19th century restoration. It is interesting to compare it with the much richer and glorious roof of the church at nearby Woolpit.

Indeed, Woolpit church is quite a useful comparison with Rougham. One of Suffolk's most famous churches, and along with Mildenhall the county's most glorious medieval angel roof. What else does Woolpit have? It has carved bench ends in abundance. And here at Rougham is also as fine a set of medieval benches as you could hope to see - about half the entire range in this huge church are early 16th century, arguable the high point of English carpentry, and contemporary with the roof. But they are entirely mutilated. Every single bench end figure has been sawn off at the base. So what happened here? Our knee-jerk reaction, obviously enough, is that St Mary suffered from the depredations of the 17th century puritans, and that awful William Dowsing, who saw off all the medieval art treasures that the parish had carefully accumulated over the previous centuries.

Unfortunately for anyone who likes easy answers, this is nonsense. Dowsing did not come to Rougham. But he did go to Woolpit, with its amazing angel roof and beautiful medieval carved bench ends. So before we start blaming Dowsing, it is as well to look at the evidence.

At Woolpit, William Dowsing recorded that his Deputy found 80 superstitious pictures. Some he brake down, and the rest he gave orders to take down; and 3 crosses to be taken down in 20 days. The superstitious pictures, of course, were in stained glass, not wall paintings. The three crosses were outside, on the gables. But Dowsing doesn't mention the angel roof (a feature that he concerns himself with often elsewhere) and he doesn't mention the bench ends. Why not?

Well, the bench ends problem is solved simply enough. The surviving figures are all animals or mythical beasts. The same survive at neighbouring Tostock, which Dowsing also visited. The reason they survived is perhaps simply that the authorities considered them decorative, and let them be. Despite the portrait that is often painted of him, Dowsing was a conservative soul, and theologically very articulate. He was in the business of rooting out superstitious imagery - that is to say, objects and images that might be used in Catholic liturgical practices. He was also keen to destroy images that he thought blasphemous, for example symbols of the Trinity, and especially angels. Dowsing would know very well that Catholics didn't worship animals.

So why doesn't Dowsing mention Woolpit's angel roof? I would contend that this is for the very same reason that Rougham didn't need a visit - it had already been defaced. The next obvious question is to answer is when did this destruction occur? There are two possibilities. One is that it had been done by other puritans during the furious theological debate over sacramental practice during the 1630s. Far more likely, and the right answer in my opinion, is that the destruction at Rougham was wrought a full hundred years before Dowsing began his progress through the county.

During the later years of Henry VIII, and the entire reign of the boy-King Edward VI, roughly 1538 to 1553, order after order went out from the Protestant reformers at Whitehall and Lambeth Palace demanding the destruction of church imagery. Roods came toppling down, and not a single one survives in all England. Many roodlofts and roodscreens were put to the hatchet and the bonfire. Any wall paintings that remained were whitewashed. Fonts were plastered over, because this was easier than chiselling off the stone carved imagery, and statues were hauled out of their niches. Wooden ones were burnt, those made of stone and alabaster were broken up. Some were sold abroad, we know. It was a holocaust of church furnishings. Much evidence of it survives in Suffolk, and it is almost always blamed on the puritans of a century later. Unlike Dowsing, who had a precise remit, and carefully recorded every visit, the 16th century reformers were not much short of vandals. Of course Cranmer and his cronies had a theological basis for their orders, but by the time these orders reached the parishes they became a licence to destroy.

Eammon Duffy records gangs of drunken youths stumbling around London, breaking into churches and smashing them up, and it is not unlikely that the same thing sometimes happened out in the countryside. In late 1547 in particular, it is as if the gloves came off, and people were able to get away with awful acts with impunity. Duffy records several instances of local landed families fleecing the church of silverware and vestments, and selling them for the proceeds. I think that Rougham's bench ends were sawn off during this holocaust. It would have been a major job, taking several days. What were they? Could they have been representations of the sacraments, virtues and vices, as we find at Tannington, Wilby and Blythburgh? Were they fabulous animals as at Woolpit and Stowlangtoft? Were they images of local people going about their daily business, as at Ixworth Thorpe? Mortlock thought they might have been angels, and that the surviving cushions were clouds.

Of course, we will never know. Two things fascinate me in particular. Firstly, you can find exactly the same thing across the A14 at Elmswell, where the medieval bench ends have been sawn off of cushions in the same way. Secondly, when the Victorians carried out their major restoration here, the new benches they installed are exact replicas of the old ones, even down to the sawn-off scars on the cushions!

And yet, Rougham is not without its medieval survivals. Tucked away in a rather undignified manner in the north aisle are fine brasses of Sir Roger Drury and his wife, which survive from 1405. They are so similar to the pair to the Burgate family at Burgate in north Suffolk that it suggests that this was an all-purpose, off-the-peg design. The 14th Century font at the west end of the nave has surviving traces of colour, its traceried panels echoing the great east window at the far end of the building. The glass on the north side of the chancel dates from 1904 and is by Burlison & Grylls.

And there is one other survival, intriguing and delightful. This is the small collection of mostly 15th Century English glass in the upper lights. Among them is an exquisite and rare virgo lactans, the Blessed Virgin offering her breast to feed the infant Christ, intensely intimate and human. For a moment in time, the centuries fall away.

(further pictures and enormous amounts of information you can get by clicking on the link at the end of page!)

St. Stephen's Cathedral

Seat of the Archbishop (Cardinal) of Vienna, one of the most important buildings of the Central European High and Late Gothic, monumental example of the South-German-Austrian multi-naved church, landmark of Vienna. Characteristic is the independent lateral position of the towers, the inclusion of the romanesque western facade, the high Gothic hall choir and the mighty steep roof with colorful brick patterning.

History

1147

The first Romanesque church - from Passau founded (hence patron saint: saint Stephen Protomartyr) - is consecrated. It is located in a quarter of new settlements of merchants, which in the second half of the 12th Century was included in the city's fortifications (which is the part between Singerstraße and wool line (Wollzeile), the road to Hungary). It is located outside, to the southeast, of the oldest city area of the Roman fort, Vindobona. This building was in its dimensions already a large basilical complex, at its completion already including the floor plan of the Heath towers in the West.

1263

Re-consecration after the fire. The impacts on the Romanesque church are not precisely known. The huge gate was already previously rebuilt, when Vienna was for a short time residence of the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. In succession, the reconstruction of the west gallery and the expansion of the western towers (Heath towers) took place. From this period stem also most of the sculptures of the giant gate, the vaults, capitals and rose windows at the west gallery.

Stephansdom64.jpg (35605 bytes)

1304 -1340

Construction of the Gothic hall choir, Albertinian choir, named after the Habsburg Albert II (1330-1358).

The citizenship of Vienna initially purchased the required properties and "as the owner of the Gothic choir in the Zwettler (city in Lower Austria) documents of 1303 and 1304 Viennese citizens are testified".

This civic foundation was then converted by a princely.

The following indulgence certificate - in the original written on parchment and provided with a hanging seal - is in a sense the main historical document of the choir consecration and thus also to the architectural history of St. Stephen of great importance.

1340

Bishop Peter of Marchapolis gives, at the request of the parishioners, all who attend at the anniversary of the consecration of the choir of St. Stephen's Church, which was accomplished on the above day in his presence by Bishop Albert of Passau, or at the feasts of the altar patrons of the church, an indulgence of 40 days.

1359

Laying of the foundation stone for further Gothic reconstruction of the nave (south and north wall), the Singertor and the Bischofstor (gate) and the two double chapels laterally to the Romanesque western building. Furthermore, the construction of overall four towers was planned. In fact, only the southern transept tower (the "saint Stephen's Tower") was first started.

1365

Those conversion measures are associated with the efforts of Duke Rudolf IV to raise Vienna to the status of a diocese, and with the founding of the University of Vienna.

1395

Consecration of the chapel of Saint Catherine ("baptistery") on the east side of the south tower.

1404

Peter of Prachatitz is Dombaumeister (cathedral builder). The citizenship by providing financial support pushes ahead the expansion of the tower.

1417 - 1430

Establishment of the lower sacristy

1433

Completion of the south tower under Hans von Prachatitz

1440 - 1459

Completion of the High Gothic nave

1450

Planning and construction of the North Tower by Hans Puchsbaum

1459

At Hüttentag of Regensburg the mason's lodge of St. Stephen's in Vienna is designated the leading main lodge in Central Europe.

1466

Extension of the upper sacristy

1469

Under Frederick III. the Diocese of Vienna is built.

1474

The Chapel of St. Barbara in the north tower is completed according to the plans of Puchsbaum. Formerly this building extension in the North Tower was called: Urbanuskapelle (chapel).

1511

Suspension of the building at the north tower. It is higher than the nave walls, but lower than the ridge height of the choir roof. As a crowning feature of the tower stump an octagonal structure was set up, which was closed with a so-called "Welsh hood" of Kaspar and Hans Saphoy 1578. The Welsh hood is a into the Gothic transmitted dome shape".

The back of the St. Stephen's Cathedral with the North Tower

1514/1519

1514/1519 at the top of saint Stephen's tower an eight-rayed sun ("Star") was fitted with a crescent moon as a symbol of spiritual and temporal power. When the Viennese in the Turkish siege (1529) throughout in the camp of their enemies saw similar symbols, they raised first objections against the "haidnisch Zaichen (heathen signs)", yet remained the "Moonlight" on the tower. Only on the occasion of the second siege (1683 ) vowed Leopold I to replace the "ungodly and unworthy Turks coat of arms" by the sign of the cross, when the city was liberated by God's assistance.

The from saint Stephen removed moon. Book illustration, 18th century

The new, of copper wrought double cross ("Spanish Cross") was made by coppersmith Hans Adam Bosch. It was one and a half meters high and had a weight of 45.5 kg. On September 14th, the Kreuzerhöhungstag (day of the elevation of the Cross) (in the same time the anniversary of the moving in of Leopold into the liberated city), it was placed under great spectacle. However, it was not flexible enough and already on 14th December it fell down due to a violent storm. On 31st October 1687 followed the setting up of a new crowning. To the Spanish Cross now the imperial double-headed eagle and the initials of Leopold I had been added. Cross and eagle had a height of 2.45 m and a weight of 67 kg.

St. Stephen's Cathedral around 1530

1640

Bishop Friedrich Count Breuner the Baroquisation of the equipment of the St. Stephen's Cathedral as a manifestation of the Counter-Reformation had started. He commissioned the brothers Jacob and Tobias Pock from Konstanz with the construction of a new high altar.

1683

Damages caused by numerous cannonballs at the second Turkish siege.

1700

Second wave of Baroquisation: Gothic winged altars and also their early Baroque successors are replaced by baroque marble altars.

1711

July 21st, 1711. In front of a large audience the k.k. Stückgießer (specialized iron caster) Johann Achamer carries out the casting of the great bell of saint Stephen. The for this purpose required metal comes from stocks of the Imperial arsenal of captured Turkish cannons. After Pölzung (supporting) of the underground vaults under the streets that touches the train, the bell weighing more than 17 tons on a special car or a loop of 100 people is brought from the Leopoldstadt on 29th October to the cathedral. On December 15th, Bishop Rummel undertakes the consecration of the bell, then it is pulled up to the south tower. There it rests on two oak beams, which for ringing can be screwed off. When Charles VI. solemnly moved into Vienna after his imperial coronation on 26th January 1712, the Pummerin was rung for the first time, in the process only the 813 kg in weight clapper was moved.

1720

The so-called catacombs are set up as a burial site.

1735

The cemetery around the church is closed down and in 1783 completely removed

Stock-im-Eisen-Platz and St. Stephen's Square before the demolition of the houses

Coloured engraving of V.C. Schütz. 1779

1803

The Steffl gets air: Demolition of houses on Stephansplatz

October. The strong increase in population leads to an increased volume of traffic. As part of "traffic-appropriate" measures streets are widened, squares enlarged, arcades created and traffic regulations introduced such as, e.g., the first one-way at the Carinthian gates (1802). With the demolition of the last still in front of the cathedral facade standing houses yet another basic expansion and redesign of the Stephansplatz can be completed.

1809

Also in the French wars the Cathedral is damaged by artillery fire.

1810

Repair work on the South Tower

1831

Renovation of the roof at the Albertinian choir

1842

On the occasion of the two renewals of the tower helmet in the 19th century respectively in 1842 and 1864, again a new double-headed eagle with a double cross was set on the spire. This last crowning of 1864 still today adorns the top of saint Stephen's tower.

1853 - 1854

Expansion of the remaining Wimperge (gables) in the roof area of which Puchsbaum under Frederick III. only one had realized.

1863 - 1864

Cathedral architect Friedrich Schmidt heads the restoration of the tower helmet.

1945

St. Stephen's Cathedral, April 1945 © Press Agency Votava St. Stephen's Cathedral, April 1945

The roof of St Stephen's Cathedral

is on fire 8th April 1945

Friday 13 April: Dombrand (cathedral's fire) in the last days of World War II. The roof burns down, the vaults of the middle choir and the southern side choir collapse. The Pummerin plunges down and breaks. The cathedral is badly damaged.

1945 - 1952

Reconstruction of the roof and choir

Triumphant entry of the new Pummerin in Vienna. The in St. Florian/Oberösterreich (Upper Austria) cast bell to Vienna had a true triumphal procession behind herself.

From the ruins of the Pummerin 1952 in St. Florian, Upper Austria, a new bell was cast and consecrated on 26th April 1952 in Vienna. The other bells of St. Stephen's Cathedral also consistently bore names as Halbpummerin, Viertelpummerin, Councillor Bell, Mentioned bell (Genanntenglocke), Zwölferin, beer bell (Bierglocke) etc. Very few of them survived the year 1945.

1953

Construction of the Bishop tomb in the catacombs under the Apostle Choir

1954 - 1965

Restoration of the South Tower

1956

Renovation of the Ducal Crypt, construction of the lower church and the lapidary (collection of stone monuments)

Completion of the tower helmet at the north tower (Saphoy'sche hood) with housing of the Pummerin

1961

In 1961 the cathedral received a new peal of eleven bells.

1973

Consecration of the People's altar (makeshift solution)

1977 - 1998

Restoration of the North Tower

1989

Remodeling of the sanctuary and the consecration of the new People's altar (September 14)

1991

Consecration of the new cathedral organ (Servants - Madonna gets here her new stand)

Overall length: 107.2 m outside inside 91.8 m

Width of the nave: 38.9 m

Height of the South tower: (High Tower) 136.7 m

Height of the North tower: 60.6 m

Height of the Heathen towers 65.6 m

Acne is an inflammatory skin disease, caused by increased production of sebum and accelerated removal of dead skin cells. Acne, also known as “acne vulgaris”, where vulgaris is the medical term of “common”. At puberty, its appearance is caused by the hormonal changes related to puberty, and more precisely by the increase in testosterone in the body at this period.

Puberty rhymes for many adolescents with acne. These unsightly pimples can quickly poison their daily lives. Fortunately, effective treatments exist to remedy this.

In most cases, acne disappears spontaneously by the age of 18-25 years. However, rapid management helps to reduce, or even avoid, the discomfort caused by acne and the formation of scars. In some people, acne persists into adulthood.

Acne Vulgaris

Definition of Acne Vulgaris

Inflammation of the sebaceous and/or pilo-sebaceous glands, localized, in juvenile or vulgar acne, on the face and upper part of the thorax. Lesions can become more exuberant as in the nodulo-cystic form. The conglobata form combines deep abscesses and oily sebaceous cysts readily located on the face and neck.

The fulminant form affects mainly male subjects, between 15 and 30 years. It occurs either after sun exposure or during treatment of acne with retinoic acid and is manifested by general symptoms (high fever, joint pain, malaise) and local symptoms (acute skin lesions prone to necrosis and ulceration). Also, bone damage is possible.

The application of corticosteroid products is contraindicated in all forms of acne because of the aggravation of the lesions they cause.

There are several types of acne, resulting in different lesions:

Acne Vulgaris

In the case of so-called “vulgar” acne, the channel allowing the sebum to escape to the surface of the skin becomes clogged as a result of overproduction of sebum, too thick sebum as well as dead skin cells that block the exit of the sebaceous gland. This obstruction leads to white dots (white comedones) and black dots (black comedones). To this are added oily skin and enlarged pores.

Inflammatory Acne

A naturally occurring bacterium in the sebaceous glands (propionibacterium acnes) proliferates within white comedones. When the sebaceous gland becomes infected, it bursts and its contents – become irritating by the proliferation of this bacterium-spread under the skin, causing inflammation. Consequence: the appearance of red and/or purulent pimples.

Cystic Acne

Poorly or untreated inflammatory lesions cause more intense inflammation, which can lead to the formation of cysts or even abscesses. This type of acne often leaves scars.

Acne affects both girls and boys. However, boys often suffer from more severe acne, while in girls, acne usually appears earlier and tends to last longer.

Acne: What is Treatment?

Acne vulgaris (acne of the adolescent) is one of the most common skin disorders. The hereditary factor is important and its peak incidence is manifested by the age of 14 years in women and 16 years in men. It is more common and more pronounced in humans. Its diagnosis is not difficult to establish; its treatment is based on general measures.

The treatment of acne depends on the type of lesions but also on each person (aggravating factors).

Local acne treatments are of several types:

Creams based on retinoids (derivatives of vitamin A) act against the abnormally high removal of dead skin cells in the pores. They are effective in people with comedones and white dots.

If you have inflammatory acne, however, your dermatologist may prescribe creams based on benzoyl peroxide or local antibiotics. Be careful, benzoyl peroxide may discolour your laundry: remember to use white linens and wipes.

Oral Treatments

Oral acne treatments are indicated for severe forms of acne or when local treatments do not have enough effect. Some oral treatments are associated with local treatments. Oral antibiotics are effective in severe forms of acne with many inflammatory lesions and are always associated with local treatment.

Isotretinoin, a product derived from vitamin A, works against the formation of comedones but also has anti-inflammatory properties. It generates many side effects and therefore needs to be monitored closely.

Oral zinc gluconate is also an option for people with severe acne.

Some contraceptive pills (estroprogestatives) can regulate the production of sebum and decrease acne.

The Right Way to Prevent Acne

It is important to know that acne vulgaris improves naturally without leaving scars and is not an infectious disease. Here are some right gestures against acne, by following these you may prevent it to become severe. If you are between in 14-25 years age, these are highly recommended for you.

Clean Your Skin

While it is tempting to use alcohol-based desiccants to combat oily skin, the latter produce the opposite effect. By aggressing the epidermis, they create a reaction of the skin that increases its production of sebum. At the key: a possible aggravation of acne. It is best to use a mild, soap-free, non-comedogenic washing gel with a pH close to that of the skin. It is important to know that excessively cleaning the skin and using brushes or sponges can promote the extension of acne.

Makeup

Makeup can help mask the imperfections caused by acne, choose it right! Non-oily, light and non-comedogenic textures are preferable, not forgetting to remove makeup every evening in order to prevent makeup residues from clogging the pores and aggravating acne. Cosmetics with an oily base should be avoided. Use only liquid or powdered makeup (and not cream).

Piercing Pimples

It is often tempting to pierce its pimples to make them disappear. But when performing this gesture, there are as many risks as the pimple pierces from the inside, which leaves a red plaque for a couple of weeks. In addition, a pierced pimple leaves the door open to bacteria and therefore, at the risk of superinfection and scarring. A gesture to ban! And if you could not help yourself, disinfect your pimple with a sterile compress soaked in non-alcoholic antiseptic. It is not recommended to touch the pimples as the lesions can leave a scar.

Acne and Diet

There is no clear relationship between acne and diet, although some recent studies have suggested a link between a high glycaemic (sugar) diet and the appearance of acne. However, in some people, one or more specific foods may be a triggering or aggravating factor. If this is your case, it is important to identify them to avoid them.

No food should be avoided because it is not proven that eating worsens acne. Still, if you notice that a particular food, such as chocolate, fats or nuts increase your acne, it’s better to avoid them.

Advice

If you start treatment, know that most prove their effectiveness after 6-8 months. Treatment can continue for many years and be modified according to the results produced on each person. Most treatments are used only to control the disease, but do not cure it.

This article is written with the help of Dr. Amanda Oakley, Dermatologist from New York. Hope it will provide you a brief overview about acne vulgaris and help you to prevent it. If you like this article, please like and share it to your friends.

The post Acne Vulgaris – An Overview appeared first on Acne Vulgaris.

via Acne Vugaris ift.tt/2Xd80ma

Within minutes we were swamped by cloud and found our way off using map and compass. I've never ever seen the weather change so fast. In the space of minutes the day changed and our sunny walk became an exercise in map and compass use. Our reward was a stunning sunset after seven hours on the fells - we had jam bread on Sca Fell Pike for Christmas dinner on Christmas Day,our first time away at Christmas

We had a complete change this Christmas – we cancelled it! - we went walking in The Lakes, or Wasdale more precisely. We were staying at Irton Hall B & B, they had over 70 in for Christmas dinner but we ate jam bread on the slopes of Sca Fell Pike. Fantastic. We had a front wheel puncture on a run flat tyre on the new car with a 100 mile still to drive on the afternoon of Christmas eve on our way there. I drove straight to the nearest ATS – where I have an account – they shook their heads and directed me to Westhoughton Tyres, the lads there were fantastic and got us on our way in good time. BMW dealer advice was run on the flat tyre and then throw it away - £250! Where I would have got a tyre on the western side of the Lakes over Christmas I don’t know, ATS didn’t have one to sell me.

The weather was forecast good for Christmas day but after a fine start it was raining before we even left the car park in Wasdale. We headed up Lingmell and ran into snow on the summit. The path onto Sca Fell Pike was very icy, snow covered and visibility was low, the snow kept falling. We didn’t linger long, it was too cold to have dinner up there so we dropped down onto the Corridor Route, where we had our dinner. We went that way to stretch the walk out, having originally intended to cross to Great End. The tops were so icy, glazed, with not enough snow to get a grip on that we decide to leave it for another day. From Styhead we headed back to Wasdale and a dull but fine finish to the day. A drink in the bar at Irton Hall was on the radar.

Every morning we headed into Wasdale early, it got colder, icier and sunnier as the days went by. We went up Yewbarrow, it was an icy scramble up and I decided it was too dangerous to go down Stirrup Crag to Dore Head so went back the same way. It turned out to be the right decision as we lingered on the top, going to view points that we wouldn’t have and getting some decent photos. One morning we walked over the Screes tops, Illgill Head and Whin Rigg, dropping down the steep slope to The southern end of Wast Water. Having said that I would never walk the Screes path alongside Wast Water again the memory of how awful it is in the rain had faded. There is only really a quarter of a mile out of three miles that is really bad, every rock was like glass with the potential to break a leg every step. It seemed a long way and I was getting killer looks from Herself.

We made our way onto Sca Fell on a beautiful morning, clear blue sky. The snow line had got lower most nights but we never had the low level snow that caused problems in the rest of the country. I chose a, sometimes, pathless way to the summit, partly because I’d never been that way but also to stay in the sun, to keep the view and to avoid the ways that would be a touch dangerous, it was -4 and seared with ice for the last 600 feet. After 15 minutes on the summit wispy thin cloud came racing in, crossing the Lake District in minutes, the photos show it heading towards us and I was glad to have got the clear photos first. Looking out to sea a great mattress of cloud was heading straight for us. It was calm and sunny one minute and the next we were engulfed in thick cloud with 30 yards visibility at the most. I have never had a clear sky turn to cloud so fast – ever! We were going down to Slightside next which was OK, about a mile following the ridge down, the problem was getting back to Wasdale from there. We needed to get to Great Howe which meant a pathless trek a mile SW across Quagrigg Moss – a bog full of tarnlets, it would be a nightmare in low visibility. After getting some accurate compass bearings and heading down off Slightside we suddenly dropped out of the cloud and could see our target, brilliant, we legged it across the semi frozen bog and finally felt able to rest and grab a sandwich and cup of tea. We had to find our way down Raven Crags, which was interesting – and steep! We needed to get to the footbridge to get onto the Burnmoor Tarn path back to Wasdale. As we got closer to Burnmoor Tarn the light that I had been cursing gave us a gorgeous sunset. I had one eye on a gap in the cloud low down in the sky out at sea and I was hoping the sun would break through, it did. Burnmoor Tarn was like a mirror, reflecting the surrounding mountains, including Yewbarrow and parts of the Mosedale Horseshoe in the far distance. There was just the two of us, we had barely seen a soul all day, it was a fantastic end to a tough day. As we dropped into Wasdale I caught the deep pink and orange of the last of the sun, I was shooting into it but I had nothing to lose. There would have been quite a few tripods at the opposite end of the lake but I think I was in the better place – for a change.

On our final walking day we decided to head up Great Gable. It was clear of cloud for a change but ominously the surrounding tops, including the Sca Fells were cloud covered. Another beautiful but very cold morning, it was going to be very icy up there so we elected to go via Styhead and the tourist track. We would choose a way off once we were up there. Long before we got to the top, although we couldn’t see it, we knew the cloud was swirling in and out on the summit so it was going to be hit and miss for the photos. The cloud was down for the last 500 feet but once on the frozen top it kept clearing briefly – very briefly. There were more people up there than we had seen the entire trip previously. People were getting out after Christmas, many had parked at the top of Honister for the fairly easy walk in across Green Gable, some were not dressed for winter walking it has to be said. We left for an icy scramble down to Arron Slack, up onto Green Gable them we galloped down Arron Slack to Styhead and back to Wasdale.

We had a complete change this Christmas – we cancelled it! - we went walking in The Lakes, or Wasdale more precisely. We were staying at Irton Hall B & B, they had over 70 in for Christmas dinner but we ate jam bread on the slopes of Sca Fell Pike. Fantastic. We had a front wheel puncture on a run flat tyre on the new car with a 100 mile still to drive on the afternoon of Christmas eve on our way there. I drove straight to the nearest ATS – where I have an account – they shook their heads and directed me to Westhoughton Tyres, the lads there were fantastic and got us on our way in good time. BMW dealer advice was run on the flat tyre and then throw it away - £250! Where I would have got a tyre on the western side of the Lakes over Christmas I don’t know, ATS didn’t have one to sell me.

The weather was forecast good for Christmas day but after a fine start it was raining before we even left the car park in Wasdale. We headed up Lingmell and ran into snow on the summit. The path onto Sca Fell Pike was very icy, snow covered and visibility was low, the snow kept falling. We didn’t linger long, it was too cold to have dinner up there so we dropped down onto the Corridor Route, where we had our dinner. We went that way to stretch the walk out, having originally intended to cross to Great End. The tops were so icy, glazed, with not enough snow to get a grip on that we decide to leave it for another day. From Styhead we headed back to Wasdale and a dull but fine finish to the day. A drink in the bar at Irton Hall was on the radar.

Every morning we headed into Wasdale early, it got colder, icier and sunnier as the days went by. We went up Yewbarrow, it was an icy scramble up and I decided it was too dangerous to go down Stirrup Crag to Dore Head so went back the same way. It turned out to be the right decision as we lingered on the top, going to view points that we wouldn’t have and getting some decent photos. One morning we walked over the Screes tops, Illgill Head and Whin Rigg, dropping down the steep slope to The southern end of Wast Water. Having said that I would never walk the Screes path alongside Wast Water again the memory of how awful it is in the rain had faded. There is only really a quarter of a mile out of three miles that is really bad, every rock was like glass with the potential to break a leg every step. It seemed a long way and I was getting killer looks from Herself.

We made our way onto Sca Fell on a beautiful morning, clear blue sky. The snow line had got lower most nights but we never had the low level snow that caused problems in the rest of the country. I chose a, sometimes, pathless way to the summit, partly because I’d never been that way but also to stay in the sun, to keep the view and to avoid the ways that would be a touch dangerous, it was -4 and seared with ice for the last 600 feet. After 15 minutes on the summit wispy thin cloud came racing in, crossing the Lake District in minutes, the photos show it heading towards us and I was glad to have got the clear photos first. Looking out to sea a great mattress of cloud was heading straight for us. It was calm and sunny one minute and the next we were engulfed in thick cloud with 30 yards visibility at the most. I have never had a clear sky turn to cloud so fast – ever! We were going down to Slightside next which was OK, about a mile following the ridge down, the problem was getting back to Wasdale from there. We needed to get to Great Howe which meant a pathless trek a mile SW across Quagrigg Moss – a bog full of tarnlets, it would be a nightmare in low visibility. After getting some accurate compass bearings and heading down off Slightside we suddenly dropped out of the cloud and could see our target, brilliant, we legged it across the semi frozen bog and finally felt able to rest and grab a sandwich and cup of tea. We had to find our way down Raven Crags, which was interesting – and steep! We needed to get to the footbridge to get onto the Burnmoor Tarn path back to Wasdale. As we got closer to Burnmoor Tarn the light that I had been cursing gave us a gorgeous sunset. I had one eye on a gap in the cloud low down in the sky out at sea and I was hoping the sun would break through, it did. Burnmoor Tarn was like a mirror, reflecting the surrounding mountains, including Yewbarrow and parts of the Mosedale Horseshoe in the far distance. There was just the two of us, we had barely seen a soul all day, it was a fantastic end to a tough day. As we dropped into Wasdale I caught the deep pink and orange of the last of the sun, I was shooting into it but I had nothing to lose. There would have been quite a few tripods at the opposite end of the lake but I think I was in the better place – for a change.

On our final walking day we decided to head up Great Gable. It was clear of cloud for a change but ominously the surrounding tops, including the Sca Fells were cloud covered. Another beautiful but very cold morning, it was going to be very icy up there so we elected to go via Styhead and the tourist track. We would choose a way off once we were up there. Long before we got to the top, although we couldn’t see it, we knew the cloud was swirling in and out on the summit so it was going to be hit and miss for the photos. The cloud was down for the last 500 feet but once on the frozen top it kept clearing briefly – very briefly. There were more people up there than we had seen the entire trip previously. People were getting out after Christmas, many had parked at the top of Honister for the fairly easy walk in across Green Gable, some were not dressed for winter walking it has to be said. We left for an icy scramble down to Aaron Slack, up onto Green Gable them we galloped down Aaron Slack to Styhead and back to Wasdale.

Knives were heated in a computer-controlled oven precisely to 1080 degrees of Celsius, held in that temperature for 30 minutes and then taken out of the oven for circulated air quench (ELMAX steel does not need to be quenched in water or oil, as it is air quenching steel). To reach the 61 HRC hardness for the blade, knives were sub-zero treated for 2 hours into -78 degrees Celsius into dry ice (dry ice is basically carbon dioxide). It is called cryogenic hardening or deep cooling. The super cool temps transform the steel structure from austentite into martensite. In my experience cryogenic hardening does several things: it will relieve a little stress, raise the Rockwell (HRC) hardness by 1 or 2 points therefore requiring retempering, and refine the internal grain structure of the steel. Then it was annealed 2 x 2 hours in a tempering oven 220 degrees of Celsius.

Photograph taken at an altitude of Four metres, in the magic of The Golden Hour around sunrise at 06:05am (Sunrise was at precisely 06:15am), on Friday 5th September 2014 off 1st Street and Bevan Avenue, standing at the beginning of the Bevan Avenue Fishing Pier in beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

The Bevan Avenue fishing pier is one of the main focal points in this small but beautiful town where some of my family are so lucky to reside. I am never happier than when walking around and capturing the beauty and charm of this most special of locations. Work commenced on the pier in 1993 withn Phase one, a 90 metre straight section being completed in 1996. A year later the 110 metre Phase two section was completed.

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Nikon D800 70mm 1/400s f/6.3 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Mirror up. AF-S single point focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

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

LATITUDE: N 48d 38m 52.23s

LONGITUDE: W 123d 23m 36.26s

ALTITUDE: 4.0m

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 13.86MB

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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

Precisely that I did not find them! But the curator of the FB page cited. I only share some of them

Poster Gunpla, illustration, box art from Gundam RX 78 - 2 ( Vintage)

More images on this page facebook (and other very interesting things for Mechafan)

St Margaret, Reydon, Suffolk

Reydon is a suburb of Southwold. In terms of population, they are about the same size. But which one of the two have you heard of? Precisely. Reydon is agri-industrial, and when you cross over the river from one parish to the other, the houses double in price. Not so long ago, a beach hut changed hands in Southwold for £100,000.

St Margaret sits away from the houses, on the road towards Wangford, anonymously pretty in an overgrown graveyard. It is an older church than Southwold's late-medieval parvenu, although it underwent a serious tarting-up in the 15th century. In the churchyard wall there is a surviving mounting block, so that the gentry could climb straight onto their horses from the churchyard without descending to the muddy road.

On the north side there is a very good late 1980s extension. The architect was Andrew Anderson. The graveyard is wide and spacious, but there are many more modern graves than 19th century ones, a mark of how the town has grown. You can't fail to miss the extraordinary bronze angel to the south of the chancel. To the west of the church are the older memorials. One of them is a cute little child's grave, to Percy Hunt, son of Henry and Harriet, who had died at the age of just ten months in August 1888. Grieve not with helpless sorrow, it reads, Jesus hath felt your pain. He did thy lamb but borrow, he'll bring him back again, the theology of which seems curious, to say the least. The tiny tombstone is covered in a century or more of moss. It was very moving. His parents' larger graves are beside it. His father had died in 1910 at the age of 60, his mother surviving into the 1930s, when she died at 86. There were no other Hunt graves nearby, and I wondered if little Percy had been their only child. Counting backwards, I worked out that she must have had her baby in her mid-forties - was this an unexpected late fruit after barren decades? And were their hopes dashed? It was all very sad.

You step into a clean, bright, neatly-kept interior, perhaps a bit smaller than might be expected from the outside. When I'd last visited in 2002, the church still bore all the hallmarks of enthusiastic Victorians re-ritualising it in the 1870s, the organ up in the chancel blocking a view of the east end. But that has now gone, and the church has a feeling of simplicity and space. There is an image niche in the eastern splay of each window, one with a lovely Blessed Virgin and Child statue in it. The best of the glass is a window by A L Moore of Christ meeting the woman at the well. You can tell at a glance that she's probably had six husbands, and she's not married to the one she's with at the minute. Less good is the east window, Ward & Hughes 'trampolining Jesus' Ascension scene rejigged by the King Workshop in the modern era.

Black is composed by the absence of all colors.Your essence is precisely this absence and that is why people sometimes interpret as a black threat.The black is a color that is imposed, which implies captiously creating a sense of unease.He elevates the character and involves all in an atmosphere of mystery.

no rastro da luz-

O preto é composto pela ausência de todas as cores.Sua essência é justamente essa ausência e é por isso que as pessoas algumas vezes interpretam o preto como uma ameaça.O preto é uma cor que se impõe,que se insinua capciosamente criando um sentimento de desconforto.Ele eleva a personalidade e envolve tudo em uma atmosfera de mistério.

Todos os direitos reservados, sendo proibida qualquer reprodução ou divulgação das imagens para fins comerciais ou não, em qualquer mídia ou meio de comunicação inclusive na WEB, sem prévia consulta e aprovação, conforme LEI N° 96.610/1998, que rege sobre o Direito Autoral e Direito de Uso da Imagem

...or, more precisely, *waiting* for the anesthetic to take effect.

From a trip to the endodontist, in an attempt to remediate older dental work that has developed problems.

If I'm lucky, the work done that day will be all that's necessary. If I'm not lucky, I may lose the tooth and have to get an implant to replace it.

Oh well. Plenty of people have far worse problems than I do. Fingers crossed :-)

Meanwhile, here's a great live version of Comfortably Numb:

youtu.be/LTseTg48568

Photograph taken at an altitude of Seventy metres, prior to the magic of the Golden Hour around sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 04:42am), at 03:40am on Thursday 19th June 2014 off Lullingstone Lane and Eagle Heights overlooking a blanket of morning mist as it rolled across the field next to Eynsford Viaduct in the village of Eynsford, Kent, England.

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Nikon D800 38mm 1/640s f/2.8 iso200 RAW (14 bit) Mirror up. 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 4.79s

LONGITUDE: E 0d 11m 51.46s

ALTITUDE: 70.0m

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED FILE: 14.85MB

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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

"So the King and Queen of Hearts escaped to Neverland?" Frankencow asked.

"Precisely," the White Rabbit said. "As you can imagine it was quite a come-uppance for the Royal Majesties."

"What do you mean?" Bingo asked.

"Well, think about it," Frankie said. "You're head honcho living in a big castle bossing everyone around, and then you have to run for your life. Doesn't sound like too much fun to me."

"Yes," the rabbit answered. The Cheshire Cat's grin seemed to consume his whole face, and Frankencow and Bingo could tell it bothered the rabbit. Nevertheless, the rabbit continued with his tale.

"Not only that, but they were dependent upon Peter Pan and his band of boys, and they lived in little more than a hovel."

"Oh, I bet that bossy queen loved that," Bingo said with a grin of his own.

"Indeed," the White Rabbit said dryly. "She was very unhappy with the lack of servants and the general untidiness of the boys."

"What's that light in that window?" Frankie asked curiously.

The Cheshire Cat answered this question. "Oh, that's Tinkerbell," he said grinning from ear to ear. "She and the Queen got on famously until the Queen tried to make her into a maid."

"Wow," Bingo said.

"Hmmm," Frankie said.

"Yes," the White Rabbit said. "It caused a bit of friction in the household, as you can well imagine."

"Did they ever have to deal with Captain Hook?" Bingo asked. That sounded like a genuine adventure to him.

"Of course," the rabbit replied in mild surprise. "The King did not take too kindly to Mr. Hook's brandishing a weapon at his wife, and the Queen took even more offense. After several swings of the sword in her face, the Queen of Hearts uttered her usual phrase, 'Off with his head!' but the boys misunderstood her to say, 'Off with his hand.' That's why he has the hook instead of his right hand."

"I thought he lost it at sea," Frankie said suspiciously.

"Nope, that's just a myth," the White Rabbit answered firmly.

Sergiu Pasca arrived at his Stanford lab on October 28, 2025, dressed like a scientist from another era. The navy suit, the precisely knotted tie, the substantial black frames all evoked that postwar period when researchers believed they could decode the fundamental mysteries of life itself. But the work happening in his laboratory at the Clark Center represents something thoroughly contemporary: growing human brain tissue in dishes to understand psychiatric disease.

The photograph captures him surrounded by the tools of his trade. Molecular models sit on the desk before him, physical representations of the chemical architecture underlying consciousness itself. Framed certificates hang shadowed on the wall behind. Everything arranged with precision, yet something in his expression suggests the restless intelligence that drives breakthrough science.

Pasca has accomplished what many thought impossible. His assembloids, organized clusters of human brain cells that recapitulate specific regions and their connections, have fundamentally altered how neuroscience approaches mental illness. These aren't merely collections of neurons floating in culture medium. They're structured tissues that develop recognizable features of cortex, striatum, thalamus. More remarkably, when fused together, they form connections that mimic how different brain regions communicate in living humans.

The implications ripple outward. For the first time, researchers can watch human brain development unfold in real time, introduce genetic variations linked to autism or schizophrenia, and observe the cellular consequences. No need for autopsy tissue or animal models that approximate but never fully capture human neurobiology. The actual substrate of human thought, grown from stem cells, available for study.

He came to this work through an unusual path. Born in Romania, trained in medicine before turning to research, Pasca brought a clinician's attention to human suffering alongside a scientist's appetite for mechanism. His early papers on Timothy syndrome, a rare genetic condition causing autism and heart defects, revealed how calcium channel mutations disrupted cortical development. But it was the assembloid work that established him as a pioneer.

By his late thirties, he was directing his own center, publishing in Science and Nature, being recognized with awards typically reserved for researchers decades older. The compression of achievement suggests not just talent but a particular kind of obsessive focus. He had found his problem: how brains build themselves and what goes wrong in psychiatric disease.

The assembloid studies have yielded concrete insights. In certain forms of autism, the difficulty lies not in individual neurons but in how brain regions communicate. His team fused cortical and striatal organoids and watched the connections form aberrantly in tissue carrying autism-associated mutations. Other work revealed how neural stem cells in schizophrenia patients show accelerated maturation, potentially explaining the timing of symptom onset.

This represents detective work at the cellular scale, tracking developmental divergences that manifest years later as a child who cannot speak or an adult who experiences psychosis. The molecular models on his desk aren't decorative but essential: they represent the chemical reality underlying every thought, every perception, every psychiatric symptom.

What makes Pasca's approach distinctive is its philosophical grounding in experimental rigor. By creating these miniature brain circuits, he's solved one of neuroscience's oldest problems: access to living human tissue during the critical period when circuits form. The assembloids provide a window into processes previously hidden, happening in utero or early childhood, long before symptoms appear.

The work has practical applications. Pharmaceutical companies use assembloids to test drug candidates on actual human brain tissue. Clinicians may eventually use patient-derived organoids to predict treatment response. But the deeper contribution is conceptual: a new way to think about brain development and its vulnerabilities.

That October afternoon, photographed in his laboratory, Pasca embodied a particular type of scientist. The formal attire speaks to seriousness of purpose. The molecular models and certificates frame achievement already substantial. But the eyes suggest someone still engaged with fundamental questions, still building toward insights not yet realized. He's made brains in dishes not as spectacle but as tool, a means toward helping people whose brains diverged from typical developmental trajectories.

His career will likely be defined by this work. The questions he's pursuing couldn't be more urgent: What causes autism? Why does schizophrenia emerge in early adulthood? Can we intervene earlier, more precisely? The answers are taking shape in his lab, one assembloid at a time, grown from stem cells into structures that think but cannot yet speak.

Villa Ciani, formerly home to the City's Fine Arts Collection, hosts historical, artistic and anthropological temporary exhibitions.

Villa Ciani is surrounded by the City Park and represents, with its astounding beauty, one of the most enchanting corners of the gulf of Lugano. The name of the Villa and of the park is connected to the brothers Giacomo and Filippo Ciani (1778-1867) of Ticinese origin (more precisely, from the Blenio Valley) but born in Milan and among the most eminent figures of Nineteenth century Lugano. They had the Villa built between 1840 and 1843, in replacement of a pre-existing Seventeenth century palace. The Villa is famous for having become a part of the glorious history of political emigration during the Italian Risorgimento. The Ciani brothers were among the most important figures of Ticinese political liberalism of the 19th century. Besides holding many illustrious political offices, they distinguished themselves as bold businessmen and promoted many of the Canton’s works of public and social utility. With their ideas and activities they contributed to Ticinese political and social development and, in particular, to transforming Lugano from a simple, although suggestive lake-side town, into a modern, entrepreneurial and tourist city. The palace on which Villa Ciani was erected, had been built after 1622, by the noble Beroldingen family which handed it over to the Farina family in the mid Eighteenth century. The Villa remained in the hands of this Luganese family until 1838 and after having become the property of two other owners, two years later, it was purchased by the Ciani brothers, who radically changed it to build the Villa that we can admire today. In 1912 the grounds and the Villa and the park was expropriated by the Municipality of Lugano, that purchased it from the Ciani heirs to transform it into an area open to the public. The decisive incentive to create a city museum of fine arts was given in 1893 by a wealthy, private aristocrat of Morcote: Antonio Caccia. He donated to Lugano his Villa - the Malpensata – today the site of the Modern Art Museum – and all the objects it contained, establishing that this was to be the foundations on which the City of Lugano was to build a Museum of Fine Arts. Ten years were to elapse before the Museum could become a reality. The City museum therefore arose thanks to the Caccia Foundation and represents the most important museum tradition of the Canton. Its collections contain essential evidence of local artistic history, especially of the second half of the Nineteenth century and first half of the Twentieth century. The Museum and with it, its prestigious seat, Villa Ciani, were for a long time a pole of attraction for Ticinese cultural life, hosting artistic initiatives of great renown like the international exhibits like Black and White and those dedicated to naïf art. With the Museum’s re-opening in 1998, the lengthy cataloguing effort of the thousand of works that go to comprise a public heritage of inestimable value was also concluded. A work that led to a first Guide to the collections, which finally filled a gap that had been felt for decades (it must be remarked that the need for a collection catalogue had already been discussed at length but to no avail already in the Thirties). Restricted to painting and sculpture and divided into three sections - ancient, Nineteenth Century and modern – the Guide presents more than 450 works with colour pictures, comments, technical data, bibliography and exhibits; it is then completed by a short introduction, historical notes on the Museum, by a complete catalogue of the collections and by short remarks on the artists that appear in the catalogue. Together with masterpieces that are beyond dispute and well-known (just think of the paintings, to mention only a few examples, of Serodine, Mola, Petrini, Ciseri, Monet, Rousseau, Matisse, Boccioni), worth mentioning is also the collection’s rich heritage of local art, thanks to which, artistic developments in Ticino are documented in such an exemplary way, from the Canton’s birth to well into the second half of the Twentieth Century. Besides relevant groups of artists of great local interest (Bossoli, Rossi, Barzaghi, Franzoni, Feragutti, Berta, to end with Boldini and Cotti) there are also meaningful works by lesser-known Ticinese artists that are, nonetheless, of unquestionable interest.

www.lugano-tourism.ch/en/189/villa-ciani.aspx?idActivity=...