The Cooperstown & Charlotte Valley operates a heritage railroad and museum along the historic line of the same name first opened in 1869. The original road came under D&H ownership in 1903 and was operated as branch of that Class 1 for 67 years. The branch was sold to the Delaware Otsego Corp in 1970 and freight trains continued to operate into the mid 1980s along with excursion trains. The last freight ran in 1987 and the line was completely moribund until being sold to the Leatherstocking Chapter of the NRHS in 1996. Incidentally, despite selling the branch the Delaware Otsego Corp (parent company of the NYS&W) retained ownership of the passenger depot in Cooperstown where they still maintain their corporate headquarters despite having no rail operations in town.

Despite having been in existence as a tourist railroad for more than two decades I'd never visited the operation. But in a twist of good fortune I made a totally unplanned trip to Binghamton chasing an NS train on the old D&H the day prior to this photo. While out that evening with an old railroader/railfan friend he told me that the CACV just happened to be celebrating the 150th anniversary of the opening of their railroad the very next day.

Based out of the small town of Milford south of Cooperstown they had a full weekend of special events and extra trains. The highlight of the event was the first steam locomotive to traverse these rails since the 1970s and included a bit of rare mileage almost into downtown Cooperstown. The special train was pulled north behind one of the CACV's switchers which then cut away allowing the diminutive steamer to work back south with the train solo. The diesel then followed them back at a safe distance presumably checking for fires along the way. Cooperstown and Charlotte Valley S4 #3051 may be an MLW of CN heritage (blt. Oct 1956) but in this paint on these rails she sure puts on a good disguise as a Delaware & Hudson Alco!

Here they are running light not too far behind the steam special passing the field behind Pop's Place, a popular little ice cream stand on Route 28 about 5 rail miles south of downtown Cooperstown. Oh, and the cannon, it's not a prop. It's a real functioning weapon that someone clearly had used for fun recently as indicated by the singed wads laying near by...a fun toy indeed!

To see a photo of the steam special just ahead of them click here: flic.kr/p/2iVFBLv

Otsego County, New York

Saturday July 13, 2019

Yesterday the temperature finally rose to something reasonable for the first time in far too long. But the price was rain. The skies were dark and in a corner of the garden a yellow tulip amid a cluster of red ones stood out against a backdrop of curving branches. The rain had just stopped and I headed out, tripod in hand to get the shot I had visualized from the kitchen window. A nice touch was the raindrops on the yellow tulip to add a bit of sparkle. The result was a dark, moody garden shot for Spring 2020. As a tech note ... I used spot metering off the yellow tulip to set the exposure of the image so I could preserve the dark background. In case you were interested. - JW

Date Taken: 2020-05-15

Tech Details:

Taken using a hand-held Nikon D800 fitted with an AF Nikkor 70-210mm 1:4-5.6 lense set to 190mm, ISO100, Daylight WB, Spot metering, Aperture priority, f/5.3, 1/100 sec. PP in free Open Source RAWTherapee from Nikon RAW/NEF source file: set final image size to 8000px wide, crop image to a 5:7 format to get rid of some dead space on the right side of the frame, use tone curve 2 in parametric mode to brighten the lights and thus only brighten the yellow tulip while leaving the dark areas as-shot, apply a small amount of noise reduction, sharpen edges only, save. PP in free Open Source GIMP: use the hue-saturation-brightness tool to slightly brighten the yellow channel only, sharpen and save, scale image to 6000px wide, save, add fine black-and-white frame, add bar and text on left, save, scale image to 2048 px wide for posting online, sharpen very slightly, save.

Just one reasonable shot from today, a very trying few hours with the sun seemingly always behind a cloud at just the wrong time!

Here 66709 heads the 10.29 Felixstowe - Birch Coppice at this popular spot.

It was a lovely day in York yesterday - sunny, reasonable temperatures, slight breeze. We decided to head out for the day to Bempton (inspired by Packham and the Springwatch team).

It was an ill-fated trip from the off. We were blighted by heaving traffic, wrong turns and as we approached the east coast, the sky seemed to get lower and lower. In fact, as we drove towards down the road leading to the RSPB site, we could barely see 10 metres in front of us.

We decided to have something to eat in the car before heading out. Naturally I had forgotten the food, which really pleased everyone!

Anyway, it turned out to be ok. We had pasties in the shop, saw many large caterpillars and caught sight of razorbills, gannets and our very first puffin!

These flowers were on a bench on the cliff top. There were for 'Alf'.

SCOUT: "Hullo Madames, Mademoiselles and Monsieurs to Monsieur Scout\'s Fancy Frock Shop! We stock the very latest in Parisian fashions, laces and ribbons at very reasonable prices. Please feel free to look around, and if I can be of assistance, please let me know.

You will have to pardon me whilst I carry on my task. I supplied a beautiful frock to Mary (www.flickr.com/photos/40262251@N03/galleries/721577207965...) who is also sometimes Marty, but today is Mary and she needs some alterations to a frock she bought from me.

Mademoiselle Mary, I have the perfect solution for your frock. I will trim it at the hem so that it is not too long for you, and I will add some pretty lace panels at the back so that you can fasten it securely. Do you like this lace mademoiselle Mary? Please let me know."

My bears Paddy and Scout have made very good friends with two bears in Holland called Peter and Oleg (www.flickr.com/photos/40262251@N03/galleries/721577154558...) and their Mummy (www.flickr.com/photos/66094586@N06/) . A very dear friend who enjoys photography as much as I do, and knows that I collect beautiful and vintage pieces, gave me a wonderful selection of antique ribbons, buttons, buckles, lace and other fine notions. Scout has used these to help create Monsieur Scout’s Fancy Frock Shop. Another of Mummy Marian's bears Mary, who is sometimes Marty, has bought a frock, but as you can see here www.flickr.com/photos/66094586@N06/53229001175/ or in the first comment below, it needs some alterations, which Scout is now attending to.

Scout was a gift to Paddy from my friend. He is a Fair Trade Bear hand knitted in Africa. His name comes from the shop my friend found him in: Scout House. He tells me that life was very different where he came from, and Paddy is helping introduce him to many new experiences. Scout catches on quickly, and has proven to be a cheeky, but very lovable member of our closely knit family.

I thought it was reasonable to post a better look at the interesting wall solution that I came up with for my latest Arrow vignette.

Feel free to use, just give me a shoutout! :D

You can read a brief write-up of the technique over on BrickNerd.

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--NS

Through the creations that I build, I hope to inspire other young (or perhaps older) LEGO builders to unleash their inner creativity. We all need a positive way to express ourselves, so let's let LEGO be an extension of us. Your creativity belongs to you, and nobody can take that away. Build what you want to build, and how you want to build it.

Have you ever been so mad you just gave up building anything reasonable and built a metal box instead? I have. And now for the fluff some of you have been waiting for.

The land of Oyashima entered into a seemingly-terminal decline at the end of 18th century, economically stagnant and politically unstable. Oyashima's troubles were compounded in the 1880s as the Order of Knights of Saint Achatius arrived and decided it was time for the country to enter the 19th century. By force. This began a complex relationship that involved the Empress of Oyashima forcing her feudal vassals back into their place, and culminating with the ambitious "Ten Year Plan" of 1898. The goal was nothing less than the mass-industrialization of Oyashima, to match or surpass their definitely-not-friends-but-kind-of-allies in the Ordenric across the ocean. Oyashima would have to reshape the foundations of its economy and society in half the time it'd taken the crusader state. It was time to show the objective superiority of matrilineal hereditary rule over monastic theocracy!

The results were predictable: economic and social chaos with a dressing of four palace coups in twenty months. By 1908, the country had industrialized but was otherwise akin to a headless chicken running in circles as the now-assassinated Empress's secret police saw that her plan was carried out and ignored just about everything else going on. A modicum of stability returned with the usurpation of the throne by a member of the Imperial family, who held the throne without recognition and frequent psychotic fits of bloodlust. Princess Ayame, youngest and only daughter of the former Empress who'd managed to escape the assassins her cousin had sent after her, came of age in 1916, and knew the hour had come to reveal herself.

With the help of the terrified vassals, sweating capitalists, nervous bankers, angry socialists, hyped-up anarchists, and peasants tired of their sons and daughters being stolen, Ayame led the rebellion to overthrow her cousin. The civil war's length was determined merely by the time it took for Ayame's army to mobilize and the usurper's goons to pretend they'd never been associated with her in the first place. Vehicles like this “Battlebox” (named so by the Ordenhere advisers who helped install the 75mm field guns in them) turned out to only see a few days of street fighting in the capital in the summer of 1917. Everyone was very happy the sociopath usurper had been done in, and Empress Ayame was married to the son of an important vassal and soon produced a princess (and a prince) of her own, to the delight of all faithful Oyashimese. Happily ever after for Ayame and the Battleboxes, right?

No, not at all, but this fluff has gone on long enough for one post.

Reasonable sightings for a change though mainly directly overhead!

Somewhere in June 2020 we went for a hike reasonable close to home.

Because we were not sure about the weather, it did look like it would start to rain, we went for a shorter hike.

We both didn't want to get soaked and wet and the forecast for saturday promised to the best day for a hike that weekend.

Visited a small piece of nature called Frieseveen near Eelde-Paterswolde.

The weather did not disappoint, it was actually a nice day for a hike.

The lake and it shores even provided some unusual things.

this nature reserve, what is nowadays is, was used as a garbage and rubbish dump. They used the eastern shore between 1900 and 1917.

Today you can still see this if you look arround.

Took as usual one of our Canon Eos 3 cameras.

Finished a expired Ilford Delta 100 film first and loaded some fresh (Ilford) Kentmere Pan 100

Developing is as always done with our Caffenol recipe, Caffenol-C-L at 22c and stand developing for 50 minutes

The clouds where moving at a reasonable pace across the sky, so I thought it was time to use my replace Big Stopper. I headed off to Weston for the afternoon and ended up at the pier for sunset.

With a low tide, the pools and ripples in the sand made for some foreground interest. I only wish I had worn my wellies. They don't call it Weston Super Mud for nothing!

Canon 5D mkII

17-40 f/4L

Processed in LR3 & SilverEfex

These little parts of nature brings immense satisfaction when i composed them. I don't think much about art now, i don't indulge myself in complexity. I be what in front of me. Yes, I only try to be reasonable. :-)

A reasonable sunset at Neist Point although the main event was going on away to the right. But had I included that then I would not have been able to include the peninsula and the lighthouse.

At Rancho Naturalista Lodge @Birdsafarisweden

Another lesser walked footpath but this time it was through sileage grass and not meadow sweet and brambles. A pause for a bite and to see 60103 Flying Scotsman pass by with the first Waverley of the year. It was producing a reasonable amount of steam despite the warm and humid conditions as it climbed towards Gargrave Station.

This was the best light of a 4 hour wait - almost, but not quite.

Note the use of a tree (bottom left) to stop you falling out of the picture via the water. Green a bit prominent on the right, sky a bit distracting - otherwise a close to reasonable picture with some better light

Looked reasonable for its 160k at the time, now on SORN, last MOT expired a few weeks after this photo.

It really has been quite a while since I uploaded some new work. Last year I actually spent reasonable time on building models but somehow I postponed the final photoshoot. Since there are more important things in life and this is 'just' a hobby I really didn't bother putting nothing online in 2018.

But now I have a couple of new models to be published which I built last year (and the year before last year).

The first one is a more or less 'simple build in between' model of a Brazilian built Scania LK141. Until 1980 there were otter regulations in terms of weight distribution and that's why a standard LB141 was converted into this type of forward controlled model. It was also sold in Australia and New Zealand but in it's mother country Sweden.

I've bin to Latin America a couple of time and when I spotted one back in 2004 I always wanted to have an orange Scania into my collection. But orange wasn't really available then and first I built the orange Renault back in 2007. In a meanwhile I built the 'original' LB141 two years back, kept the chassis after dismantling that one and modified it last year. The chassis is a little bit longer, has two round fuel tanks, a yellow V8 engine and a lot more specific details. Of course the cab can tilt and the doors can be opened. I spent a lot of time in detailing the chassis. Both the air intake and exhaust leads to the engine, as well as the gear lever.

The model has a lot of metal chrome element like the fuel tanks, rims, steps and bumpers. It's a true working horse but this really is a great add to the model.

A new way of presenting my models at events is putting it on a display. Usually the tables are carpeted in black in which this chassis details a fading (and the tyres are black too).

I was expecting a reasonable amount of time off the road for this mouldy thing, but did not expect to see a date of liability from 1996! Interestingly, it appears to have been recorded as yellow for some reason.

I would imagine this is a low mileage van. Odd that it hasn't been packed off for export, and appearances would suggest it spent a while garaged.

Location : Malapascua Island, Central Visayas, Philippines

~~~~~~~~<~~~~~<@

Why I believe there is God .

I believe there is God through faith and from experiences big and small beyond reasonable

doubt they were supernatural interventions.By the air I breathe in, there must be God. Observing the complexity of our ecosystem, the symbiotic relationship between animals and plants... just how dead organic bodies disintegrate, broken down through chemical process back to the basic components like carbon etc all of these are wonders to ponder upon and evidence that points to a superb being to have designed everything perfectly. One must be completely blind or in true denial to claim everything happen by accident , c'mon, that we see and experienced are real evidence of the Glory of God in His creations.

God reveals far more His glory if we believe in Him.

Though we are born and raised in a Christian family, baptized in a christian church when we were babies, it is an all out assumption we are already Christians. Unless we truly have accepted Jesus as our personal Lord and saviour , acknowledging our sinful nature and that we need a saviour , we haven't truly taken in Christ in our personal lives, sadly the truth is , it's only a superficial cloak of christian identity on us . God is calling for His people, He wants them to wake up and seek to Him truly, get close to Him, and make Him their only refuge - relationship with God is NOT through legalistic doctrines of salvation through church / religious membership , but rather of a pure relationship with God through Christ in us .Once we have received Christ, the Spirit of God pours inside us that bears witness we are His.Church fellowship is necessary and is called for so Christians will grow and giving one another encouragement in faith.

People who fervently claim God has no son are deceived themselves. Jesus was there in the beginning of creation with God as a God persona, things are made through Him. Read the first chapter of Genesis . Jesus is God born in the flesh to save his creation, otherwise His creation will be destroyed as it was messed up by the fallen ones since the beginning. What Satan wants is to confuse people and made things to contradict. Read Colossians 1:16 too. It clearly states in the beginning Jesus was there in creation of things.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<<~~~<@

SIGN OF THE TIMES

* 1973 Prophecy - The Vision by David Wilkerson -- No question, Wilkerson's vision of 1973 was made manifest in our times. Example , look at your TV, look at how elements of witchcraft /spells / vampirism so forth ... were accepted and thought were real cool by growing number of people, even declaring themselves witches/vampires in the open. I was once a fanof Harry Potter series, Vampire seres Twilight etc. Look at porn epidemic and think it's normal? Sensuality galore and pictures sexually provoking on TV adverts and billboards etc which seem like they're normal scenes etc - o' sometimes on flickr , surprise, suprise ?

* The Rise of FEMA

*Tribulation-Now Radio, 20th Feb 2013 - 'Signs of the Times & Apocalyptic Indicators'

*BBC News - Dog microchip date set for England

*Microchip - NGC Baja Beach Club, Netherlands

*First Dogs Then Humans RFID

*UK government plans to track ALL web use

*The Coming Psalm 83 War?

*COP PULLS OVER MAN GIVES HIM 100 DOLLARS!

*The Powers Of Darkness - Testimony

*WARNING SIGNS FROM GOD (WATCH IT AND BELIEVE) - Repent and find Jesus ! Don't allow death to catch

you up in a sudden without Jesus in your life.

*Devastating Diagnosis No Match for Prayer - Testimony of healing, be encouraged as God is helping people who have great faith in Him. Unless we faith, we can not please God.

Looked reasonable for one of these, but sadly abandoned in what looked like a local garage dumping ground.

Hi all,camera problem sorted, i bought a new lens Canon EF-S 18/200..The delivery got messed up, so not many pics as yet..had a quick try yesterday these and some railway of course Lol any how i will proceed to catch up with you all.. :))

Until it gets to a reasonable temperature out there!

A scaled-down model of a Dutch windmill, at the Keukenhof. Also a typically Dutch platbodem (flat-bottom) boat.

"Поистине всегда там, где недостает разумных доводов, их заменяет крик." Л. да Винчи

"Truly always, where there are not enough reasonable arguments, they are replaced by scream" L. da Vinci

more from series here *+ 7 photo*

neonihil.livejournal.com/74706.html

taken together with AlisaWonderland

you can check her pictures in her pool

At last reasonable butterfly numbers at Styal . This Comma,polygonia c-album is showing it's battle scars .

Of interest there were a large number of Peacocks,they tolerated the Small Tortoiseshells but any Commas or Brimstones that came close to their territories were attacked and seen off .

Here on the Gulf Coast, it isn't common to have such reasonable humidity and clarity in September. Great for Astrophotography and Astronomy in general! This is a 10 minute single exposure taken via a remote observatory in New Mexico.

This particular scope was a Takahashi FSQ-ED 106mm. I love everything about this scope! Probably my favorite 'rental'! I like it because it is equipped with the same SBIG STL-11000M 10 megapixel imager that I used for awhile on my telescope here at home but with the better optics that I can't really justify owning here on the hazy- humid Gulf Coast :)

This is probably the clearest single Luminance frame I've ever captured. Once I combine them for color it should be a good wall-hanger for my office! :)

I've been banking my observatory hours most of the summer and I've scheduled out most new-moon nights out through November. Should be some good astrophotography opportunities ahead!

My dear husband gave me a gift of several lovely musical instruments and a set of chairs to go with them. My plan has been to create individual sculptures to which I can add the head of lps petite Blythes. I finally came up with a reasonable armature out of 3mm craft wire and disassembled a few Polly Pocket dolls for moveable limbs.

Since I already had the beginnings of a seated model, I chose the James McNeil Whistler painting "Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter's mother," aka Whistler's Mother.

Of course there will always be issues with scale with Blythe dolls because of the big heads, but in this case I had another issue to contend with as Whistler himself took liberties with his mother's proportions. One critic suggested that she would have to be built like an NBA player. I had to give my model a leg extension to give me the lap I needed. A pair of Polly Pocket boots are mounted to the free standing foot stool.

I wasn't too worried about fabric or sewing as this was going to be a temporary setup. The music room dolls will have nice black skirts with shiny green tops. For this doll I used a black knee high compression stocking and did more sculpting than sewing. I had a nice selection of lace to play with but the shape of her head and hair were a bit awkward.

The biggest problem was that my armature had not allowed for any neck room, a problem that will need to be addressed for the musicians. I didn't have time to do any major adjusting and worked with what I had. The same with my other materials.

The drapes were fun. I used a piece of tissue from a floral bouquet and pleated it. After pleating and figuring out what would be needed, I opened it up and did some freehand designs with metallic paint pens using his painting as a guide. Once I let the pleats fall back into place everything hung nicely.

The most fun part of the project was reading about Whistler. He was quite a character and like many artists, quite full of himself. One quote from Oscar Wilde said, “Mr. Whistler always spelt art, and I believe still spells it, with a capital ‘I,'”

When Whistler was asked why he had been born in Lowell, Massachusetts, he replied that he wanted to be close to his mother. :)

You may not be able to see Whistler's ubiquitous signature butterfly with a stinger in the top right corner of his curtains. I decided to add my cryptic signature by spelling my name backwards in the painting on the wall.

He named most of his paintings with musical notation, so I have followed suit by naming my portrait Impromptu Study of Scale in the Style of James Abbott McNeill Whistler

In order to get the right light I inverted one nesting table on top of another.

Forget MacD's and Burger King, etc, if you want a reasonable meal (or drink) from a chain restaurant it's quite hard to beat a 'Spoons' (Wetherspoons). Tim and I recently went to the Lord Palmerston, when we were shopping in Southsea, and had a meal here. One thing I like about the chain now, is if you add their app, you can order your food and drink from your table, so there's not being 'the invisible man' at the bar anymore! Lazy, I know, but I've never had any problems! On this occasion I thought I'd ordered a lemonade, but it turned out I accidentally ordered a raspberry lemonade! What a great accident - they're lovely!

Off work today to meet up with a Flickr friend from up north. Will reveal more soon!

UP's MSAEW is departing San Antonio, TX with a reasonable YN2 AC44 for 2022. November 2022.

A brief fly over yesterday. Fast moving and can ride the currents to reasonable heights

Kingsdown.

A reasonable day birdwatching but not so good with the camera.

Another wheatear on the rifle range but not a very cooperative one. Then white wag and a redstart on the cliff top. Finally a very distant female ring ouzel in the horse paddocks along Oldstairs Road.

The students found a reasonable collection of petrified rocks. These were presumably buried as a result of some Eocene volcanic eruptions of what is now the Southern Absarokas. Other than that little detail, I won't tell you where they are.

I will say that we left them all for you to enjoy. They also provided an opportunity for me to discuss the Lacey Act. :)

By the way, petrified wood is *heavy*!

The small town of Surat is really in the middle of nowhere, except a massive coal and coal gas basin in south west Queensland. It sits on the intersection of two highways and has a reasonable amount of tourist traffic passing through going somewhere else. But it has this rather impressive and differentShire Hall, which was the Shire Council headquarters.

Warroo Shire Hall is a heritage-listed town hall at cnr Cordelia & William Streets, Surat, Maranoa Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Harry Marks and was built in 1929 by K O'Brien and C Turnbull. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 8 May 2007.

A Court of Petty Sessions at Surat was gazetted in 1850 and a police building was erected. The Lands and Post Offices were soon represented and in 1859 a hotel was built. By the time that the town site was surveyed for land sales in 1863, a number of buildings had already been erected. Although Surat was superseded by St George as an administrative centre for the district in 1865, it continued to serve the surrounding area, which became Warroo Shire. Surat gained a school in 1874 and its first church in the late 1870s. In 1879 Cobb and Co set up a coach service from St George to Surat and on to Yuleba, constructing a staging post and store at Surat. This service was run until 1924, when it was the last coach route to be run in Australia.

The site of the shire hall was acquired in 1882 by the Warroo Divisional Board. Tenders were called for the construction of a simple building, which was extended over the years. In 1903, the Divisional Board became Warroo Shire Council. In 1920 a second small building was constructed on the site as council offices. This building was later removed. The current hall was constructed in 1929 by builders K O'Brien and C Turnbull to the design of Harry Marks of the firm of Harry J Marks & Son of Toowoomba.

James Marks, who arrived from England in 1866, founded the firm. He moved to Toowoomba in 1874, working as a contractor before setting up an architectural practice in 1880. In the late 1880s his eldest son, Henry James (Harry) joined the firm to train with his father. In 1892 the firm became James Marks & Son. The office designed a wide range of residential, institutional and commercial buildings. Harry's brother Reginald joined the practice in 1906 when James retired. Harry's son Charles also worked in the practice, though he joined the Defence Forces in 1915. In 1917 Reginald moved to Sydney. When Charles joined the practice in 1924, it became Harry J Marks and Son.

Harry Marks was an innovative and idiosyncratic designer who introduced a number of his inventions into buildings he designed, including the patented Austral window. On a number of occasions Marks designed windows especially for a commissioned building and the windows in the Warroo hall are a distinctive feature of the design. They pivot to improve ventilation, a particular interest of Marks'.

The building was officially opened on Friday 7 March 1930 by the Federal Member for Maranoa, James Hunter, having been funded by a £4,000 loan from the Queensland Government, the first time the shire had borrowed funds.

The new building combined offices and a meeting room for the Shire Council with a large open hall to be used for a variety of public and private functions and events and which contained a stage and projection booth.

Surat was connected to a reticulated water system in 1952 and electricity was laid on in 1953. The three clock faces in the tower are a memorial to Alex J Simpson who was Chairman of Warroo Shire from 1925 to 1946 and who was killed in a car accident in 1947. On each clock face, the letters of his name replace the usual numerals. The clock was officially unveiled on Saturday 3 April 1954. It was decided to illuminate them in 1961.

The original hall was retained on site as a supper room, at first alongside the new hall, then to its rear, before being destroyed by a storm in 1962. A new civic centre was constructed in 1963 and the Shire Council has since used this venue for its meetings and offices. The hall continues in community use and has a new supper room, constructed in 1961, to its southern side. This building has no heritage significance, nor does the modern toilet block constructed to the rear of the hall.

The hall is very intact and appears to have been painted in a version of the existing colour scheme since at least 1955.

Part of the northern verandah has been enclosed and fitted with a small kitchenette, probably in the 1960s. This may be the 'Gentlemen's Dressing Room' referred to as being fitted with casement windows in 1957.

The former Council Meeting Room and Shire Offices are currently used for community craft activities.

Over developed this film accidentally but reasonable outcome with scanner settings as well as light room. The overall camera system is quite good really as the weakest part of any camera is where the lens is connected to the body. Canon tried to eliminate that with the lens on this is connected to the body frame securely. Probably didn't catch on as there were many FL & FD lenses available already so a new lineup of lenses was not practical for your average photographer.

4/4

SCOUT: "Hullo Madames, Mademoiselles and Monsieurs to Monsieur Scout\'s Fancy Frock Shop! We stock the very latest in Parisian fashions, laces and ribbons at very reasonable prices. Please feel free to look around, and if we can be of service, my assistant Monsieur Prince Peter or I will be happy to help you!"

PETER: "Oh thank you minj beste vriend Monsieur Scout for letting me be part of Monsieur Scout\'s Fancy Frock Shop!"

SCOUT: "Oh I was so happy mijn beste vriend Monsieur Prince Peter when you suggested coming and being my assistant!"

PETER: "Well, I did used to own a grocery shop and can sell very well."

SCOUT: "Mais oui, Monsieur Prince Peter!"

PETER: "No, I don\'t need to go wee or poop, Monsieur Scout. Ahem!" *Clears throat and lowers voice.* "I went to the Lady Louisa before, so that way I can serve customers without having to be excused."

SCOUT: "No! No! Monsieur Prince Peter!" *Shakes head.* "I was just being fancy, talking a foreign language like they do in some of the fancy frock shops in Daddy’s books. Oui means yes in a foreign language that some people and bears speak. A little froggie taught me." *Nods enthusiastically.*

PETER: "Do I have to speak Froggie as well, Monsieur Scout?"

SCOUT: "Well no, not if you don\'t want to, unless of course a froggie comes in to buy something, which I think is highly unlikely."

PETER: "Phew!" *Wipes forehead with paw.* "Well that\'s a relief! Speaking Dutch and English is quite enough. Adding fluent froggie would be very hard for me to master. Now, I hope I meet your standards, Monsieur Scout and that I look good and neat. I put on my very smartest tie for you."

SCOUT: "Oh you look splendid, mijn beste vriend Monsieur Prince Peter! You make Monsieur Scout\'s Fancy Frock Shop proud!"

PETER: "Now all we need are some customers, Monsieur Scout."

SCOUT: "Fear not! I am sure they will be here soon! We are expecting many online orders through the interweb from Odessa, but Daddy will take care of those for us. I\'m sure that Rosie and Cornelia will be in soon."

PETER: "Oh Mijn Princess Rosie! Hoorah!" *Claps paws in delight.*

SCOUT: "And Ilona\'s (.ilona.) bears Miss Molly and Miss Frida will soon be here as well. That is why I need you as my assistant Monsieur Prince Peter."

PETER: "Well, I am here to help serve, mijn beste vriend Monsieur Scout."

SCOUT: "And then after we have served our customers, we will go and have something to eat! All this hard work gives me a grumbly tummy! Grumbly tummy Monsieur Prince Peter! Grumbly tummy!" *Rubs tummy vigorously.*

A very dear friend who enjoys photography as much as I do, and knows that I collect beautiful and vintage pieces, gave me a wonderful selection of antique ribbons, buttons, buckles, lace and other fine notions. Scout has used these to help create Monsieur Scout’s Fancy Frock Shop.

My bears Paddy and Scout have made very good friends with two bears in Holland called Peter and Oleg (www.flickr.com/photos/40262251@N03/galleries/721577154558...) and their Mummy (www.flickr.com/photos/66094586@N06/) . Peter and Scout are very similar and have become best friends. When Peter saw that Scout had set up a shop, he offered his skills and expertise having once run his own grocery shop, and Scout readily agreed. I\'m sure that once word gets around the bear community, Monsieur Scout\'s Fancy Frock Shop will be very popular indeed!

Scout was a gift to Paddy from my friend. He is a Fair Trade Bear hand knitted in Africa. His name comes from the shop my friend found him in: Scout House. He tells me that life was very different where he came from, and Paddy is helping introduce him to many new experiences. Scout catches on quickly, and has proven to be a cheeky, but very lovable member of our closely knit family.

Thank you Marian Kloon (on and off) for the use of Peter\'s photo in my collage of images.

With early morning temperatures at a (relatively) reasonable level, The Boss and I went out for an early morning walk into downtown Grimsby, Ontario. I love the very early morning hard sunlight as it tends to really bring out colours and contrast. As we passed Station 1, a local coffee bar and restaurant, before it had opened for the day, I spotted a stack of colourful chairs on their streetside patio and popped across the street to close and capture a few frames. If it attracts your eye, just shoot it and and that way you don’t regret not taking it later. After all, it’s only electrons on a chip. The stack of chairs were really popping out and the red, yellow and green patterns made it for me. Oh, and of course, Red Rule applies. - JW

Date Taken: 2020-07-20

Tech Details:

Taken using a tripod-mounted Nikon D800 fitted with an AF-S Nikkor 24-120mm 1:4.0 lense set to 105mm, ISO800, Auto WB, Matrix metering, Shutter Priority mode, f/18.0, 1/400 sec. PP in free Open Source RAWTherapee from Nikon RAW/NEF source file: set final image size to be 8000px wide, use the Shadows/Highlights tool to recover highlight detail, very slightly boost lightness and Chromaticity in L-A-B mode, slightly boost Vibrance, boost black level a bit to darken the shaded areas, apply noise reduction, sharpen (edges only), save. PP in free Open Source GIMP: sharpen, save, add fine black-and-white frame, add bar and text on left, save, scale image to 3000 px wide for posting online, sharpen very slightly, save.

Reasonable frost this morning so took some frozen dewdrop shots using a cineraria flower in the background

A reasonable sized herd of Sable antelope, once bred commercially on the reserve but eventually released into the wider environment when prices dropped. We had a similar situation on KPNR and ended up with two very sizeable herds.

Link to a video following a day in the hide at Selati:

youtu.be/LGqgU_ZeMwo?si=WtO8axpwVaKHpVnS

Klipspringer

Selati Game Reserve

Gravelotte

Limpopo

With a reasonable weather forecast predicted I decided to get up for the sunrise yesterday morning and headed up above Castleton to see how I would get on from the top of Winnats Pass. The wind was incredible as I made my way over the fields towards the pass that I was virtually blown off my feet but it was more than worth it as the pre dawn light was fantastic. I just loved the light falling on this stile so I stopped and set up my camera to capture it before I ruined the pristine snow that had fallen overnight.

(Olympus EM-1 mkii 7-14mm f/2.8 pro 3 seconds f/6.3 @ 11mm Kase Wolverine GND-R 0.9 (3 stop) Reverse grad)

www.stephenelliottphotography.co.uk

Portrait of a woman with updo blond hair talking with another woman on a terrace. The photo was taken during the 50th Breda Jazz Festival.

© All of my photos are unconditional copyrighted unless explicitly stated otherwise. Therefore it is legally forbidden to use my pictures on websites, in commercial and/or editorial prints or in other media without my explicit permission.

Some of my photos are sold at reasonable prices through various stock photo agencies.

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Romans 12:2

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

This may sound kind of boring life to many who had been used these kind of things. I'd been through drinking alcohol for sure and even went up to a level when I tend to love it more. But thanks God before I get too hooked or my life ruined alongside those pleasures of the world , God just took me back from my backslidden state . I woke up in the Lord in 2011 and never to look back , I don't even miss those things of the world. Once we have the renewal of our minds and spirit in Christ, receiving a true outpouring of the Holy Spirit , you are in real peace with yourself and that you know deep inside, you are a renewed person and right connected with the Lord, basically you know deep in you , is right with God, saved in Christ and your name is written in the Book of life . There's no struggle leaving these things behind . It's all replaced with deep inner peace and joy in the Lord. I can't see anyone who classify herself or himself a born-again Christian found chilling out inside bars , even going through slippery road of temptation into drugs and fornication, dancing in those music of the world offered to devils ? Oh yeah, and on Sundays going to church ? How typical . While the rest of week living like the devil , oh dear . If anyone falls in this condition, I'm sorry to say, and it would be no surprise some are in it . The person

under this description is falling into of the basket membership of Laodecian Church as spoken the book of Revelations . Laodecian church is fallen church , a real apostate congregation of Christians , which is in great number of these days . The true gospel isn't preach in this type of church , neither they preach the end of times topics , no sermons of repentance and of convictions of sin. They like to preach sugar coated messages , get-wealthy by God's grace message promoting covetousness and love of riches of this world. Sad to know many like to listen to those type sermons. Many church ministers carried on with their Laodecian practices because themselves are either blinded , even unsaved and were afraid of the haunting idea loosing great number of church goers should they preach deep messages of repentance . Because of their love of status and money, they keep a blind eye, to maintain church numbers . These type of ministers in the churches of today will stand before the judgement seat of God and answer their works and of the great number of lost souls who went to their churches thinking they are saved but who will forever be damned along with them.

Christians who are called by His name and is truly of God, should come in

between, to catch the lost souls , in whatever gift God gives you , used it.

Be a fruitful servant.

By way I never struggle getting off my favourite wordly music either.

It seem just automatic " switch off " all my desires of those carnal things

just gone from my cravings with the strength of Christ.

When you have Jesus in your hearts, there is real peace, not in the world but inside of us.

No matter how the world will go, even if it turns upside down, "reeling to and fro" as in Isaiah description for end of days, we are with the Lord. If we physically die , but we knew it is gain as we are translated right with God. There's no fear of death when you have Jesus

Christ, no one needs to tell you, as your spirit will know it . If we don't have Christ -

then death becomes a very scary thought !

As this present age seem in transition to something very dark , real dark

I hope this is a message not viewed offensive but rather as

encouragement to hold on to faith of Jesus Christ of the Bible,

rather be hot for the Lord than

lukewarm. And if anyone isn't sure or have questions , just do a silent

prayer and call out on his name, His name is above all names.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<<~~~~~~~<<@

Signs of the times

World Being Prepared For Antichrist - September 15, 2013 By Aloha Bible Prophecy

Marmaris Bar street , Turkey

“Triton: I consider myself a reasonable merman. I set certain rules, and I expect those rules to be obeyed.

Ariel: But dad, I...

Triton: Is it true you rescued a human from drowning?

Ariel: Daddy, I had to...

Triton: Contact between the human world and the mer world is strictly forbidden. Ariel, you know that! Everyone knows that.

Ariel: He would have drowned.

Triton: One less human to worry about.

Ariel: You don't even know him.

Triton: Know him? I don't have to know him. They're all the same! Spineless, savage, harpooning fish-eaters, incapable of any feeling...

Ariel: Daddy, I love him!

Triton: No! Have you lost your senses completely? He's a human, you're a mermaid!

Ariel: I don't care.

Triton: So help me, Ariel, I am going to get through to you; and if this is the only way, so be it!’

(from “The Little Mermaid” -1989)

A few days ago this charming and pretty mermaid came to the shore of the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).

It was almost before sunset, it was very hot earlier, I guess she was enjoying the evening breeze.

I was sitting nearby on the stairs of Munsi ghat, I took several shots, she saw me, it seemed that she didn’t mind but she vanished in the holy waters before I had the time to show her the pictures...

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These little parts of nature brings immense satisfaction when i composed them. I don't think much about art now, i don't indulge myself in complexity. I be what in front of me. Yes, I only try to be reasonable. :-)