Replaces my previous version. Changes include removal of upper nose sensor, removal of windscreen green sun tinting, landing gear doors closed (as would be on the actual aircraft), revision of the camoflauge scheme to to more accurate colors and pattern, and new armament including 2 Mk84 2000lb LGBs, 2 LAU-19 FFAR (Folding Fin Aerial Rocket) pods, 2 AIM-9 Sidewinder air to air missiles, and the retained 25mm belly gun pod system.

County Wexford, Ireland.

Loftus Hall is a large mansion house on the Hook peninsula, County Wexford, Ireland that is said to have been haunted both by the devil and by the ghost of a young woman.

The Redmond family built the original building in about 1350 during the time of the Black Death. It replaced their original castle at Houseland near Portersgate. The Hall became the property of the Loftus family in the 1650s as a result of the Cromwellian confiscations and this was confirmed after the Restoration of King Charles II of England by the Act of Settlement of 1666.

The building that exists today was built between 1870 and 1871 by the 4th Marquess of Ely. In 1917 Loftus Hall was bought by the Sisters of Providence and turned into a convent and a school for young girls interested in joining the order. In 1983, it was purchased by Michael Deveraux who reopened it as "Loftus Hall Hotel", which was subsequently closed again in the late 1990s.

It was privately owned by Deveraux's surviving family until late 2008, when it was sold to an unnamed buyer, rumoured to be Bono of U2 fame.

The name 'Loftus Hall' is also applied to the townland surrounding the mansion. The entire townland of Loftus Hall, including the building itself, can be overlooked from Hook Lighthouse.

Contents [hide]

        

In 1642, the future Loftus Hall - then known as Redmond's Hall - was attacked by English soldiers loyal to Charles I of England.

The Irish Confederate Wars had broken out in 1641 and hostilities commenced in Wexford in 1642. An English garrison of around 100 men under the command of Lord Esmonde was based at Duncannon Fort on Waterford Harbour. On 23 February, this garrison was reinforced by a further 200 soldiers under the command of Captain Anthony Weldon and Captain Thomas Aston along with six cannon.

On 19 June a party of these soldiers from the fort were attacked by a group of Irish Confederates under the command of Captain Rossiter and Major James Butler at Shielbaggan while their on way to Tintern. The English were routed and driven back to the fort.

Redmond's Hall was clearly visible to the beleaguered garrison at Duncannon. The Hall's owner, Alexander Redmond, was known to be sympathetic to the rebels. The Hall was known as a place that gave assistance to the rebels. Captain Aston believed it could be easily taken and on 20 July 1642 took ship from Duncannon with around ninety men and two small cannon, landing near the Hall.

Although he was sixty-eight years old, Alexander Redmond barricaded the Hall and prepared to defend it. He was assisted by his sons, Robert and Michael, some of their tenants, two men at arms and an itinerant tailor who happened to be at work in the Hall when the attack took place. The defenders numbered ten in all and were armed with long barrelled fowling pieces.

Captain Aston drew his men up in front of the Hall and demanded admission in the name of the King. Alexander Redmond retorted that Aston was welcome to come in provided only that he left his soldiers and weapons outside. A lengthy gun battle ensued. Aston discovered that his cannon were too small to make much impression on the main door. To add to his troubles about half his men abandoned him to pillage the countryside. As the fight dragged on a heavy sea-mist descended on the Hook Peninsula.

Meanwhile, the Irish Confederates under Captain Rossiter and Captain Thomas Roche were still encamped at Shielbaggan. Hearing of the attack they marched rapidly to the aid of the defenders and surprised the attackers under cover of the fog. About thirty of the English escaped to their boats and back to the fort. Captain Aston himself was one of those killed. Many of the others, including Lord Esmonde's two nephews Lieutenants John and Walter Esmonde were taken prisoner. Several of the English prisoners were hanged the following day on Thomas Roche's orders, probably at Ballyhack. On 20 August eleven others were hanged at New Ross including one of the Esmonde brothers (see also, Siege of Duncannon).

[edit]Dispossession and Change of Ownership

    

The official Redmond family pedigree (registered in the Ulster Office, Dublin Castle 1763) alleges that Alexander Redmond had to defend the Hall one or even two more times against soldiers of Oliver Cromwell in the autumn of 1649. There is a tradition that the defenders used sacks of wool to block up breaches in the walls created by enemy cannon. These woolsacks and a representation of the Hall can be seen in the coat of arms issued to one of their members in 1763. It is alleged that Alexander Redmond received favourable terms from Cromwell and died in the Hall in 1650 or 1651 after which his surviving family were evicted.

The Loftus family were English planters who had owned land in the neighbourhood from around 1590 when Sir Dudley Loftus was granted the lands around Kilcloggan. Nicholas Loftus acquired the Manor of Fethard-on-Sea in 1634 and Fethard Castle became the family residence. After the end of Cromwell's campaign Nicholas Loftus was given extensive lands in the south of County Wexford and purchased the Hall from 'several Adventurers and soldiers', but it was only in 1666 when his son Henry moved to the Hall from Dungulph that it became the principal residence of the Loftus family. To establish the new name of his property he had the following inscription inscribed in stone on the entrance piers at Portersgate: ' Henry Loftus of Loftus Hall Esq. 1680'. Nonetheless, the old name remained in use till the end of the century. In 1684 Henry Loftus carried out extensive repairs to the Hall, which presumably needed repairing after the turbulent events of the previous decades. The Loftus family rose in the peerage over the following centuries. In 1800 the then owner of the Hall, the first Earl of Ely, previously Baron Loftus of Loftus Hall, was created Marquess of Ely.It was his descendant, the 4th Marquess, who demolished the old Hall and built the present house, in about 1870.

The Redmond family had disputed the claim of the Loftus family in court but without success. In 1684 they were compensated with lands in the Barony of Ballaghkeene in the north of County Wexford. Some of their descendants joined the movement of the Wild Geese and served in a number of foreign armies most notably that of France. Others were involved in banking and politics, and became a prominent local political dynasty in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in support of the Irish Party of Isaac Butt and Charles Stuart Parnell. The most famous of these was John Redmond who led the party till his death in 1918.

[edit]The Ghost Story

    

Charles Tottenham and his family came to live in the mansion in the middle of the 18th century. Charles Tottenham's first wife had been the Honourable Anne Loftus.

Charles came for a long stay in the house with his second wife, and his daughter Anne from his first marriage. During a storm, a ship unexpectedly arrived at the Hook Peninsula, which was not far from the mansion. A young man was welcomed into the mansion. Anne and the young man became very close. Then, one night they were in the parlour; when the young man dropped a card on the floor and Anne went to pick it up she glanced under the table and noticed that the young man had a hoof in place of a foot.

It is said that Anne screamed and the man went up through the roof, leaving behind a large hole in the ceiling. Anne was in shock and was put in her favourite room in the mansion, which was known as the Tapestry Room. She refused food and drink and sat with her knees under her chin until she died in the Tapestry Room in 1775. It is said that when she died, they could not straightin her body as her muscles had seized and she was buried in the same sitting position in which she had died. A rumour states that the hole could never be properly repaired, and it is alleged that even to this day, there is still a certain part of the ceiling which is slightly different from the rest. This, of course, is a myth, since the present house was built more than a century after the events described above. Meanwhile it was believed that the stranger with the cloven hoof returned to the house and caused persistent poltergeist activity. A number of Protestant clergymen apparently tried and failed to put a stop to this. The family, who were themselves Protestants, eventually called on Father Thomas Broaders (a Catholic priest, who was also a tenant on the Loftus Hall estate) to exorcise the house.

The apparent success of Father Broaders' exorcism did not end the ghostly visitations at Loftus Hall. The ghost of a young woman, presumed to be Anne Tottenham, was reported to have made frequent appearances in the old Hall, especially in the Tapestry Room, until the building was finally demolished in 1871.

Although the present Loftus Hall is an entirely new building, interest in the ghost story has remained strong and many aspects of the story seem to have attached themselves to the newer house. Also mentioned in a documentary about the mansion many years later after the last owners had gone had said that there were reports from staff that had previously worked at the mansion, that they have seen annes ghost walk down the stairs, and that horses can be heard around the building.

[edit]The current Loftus Hall

    

In 1870 or 1871 the old Loftus Hall was levelled to the ground and work commenced immediately on the new building which was largely built on the foundations of the old. Only the circular foundation of one of the towers in the 'Ringfield' and an underground passage survive of the original building.

The new Loftus Hall was built with no expense spared. The entrance hall and main staircase alone cost £5000 and are considered very fine. The staircase was created by Italian carpenters and took many years to complete. The house was supplied throughout with lighting by gas which was made on the premises and all the apartments heated by hot air pipes.

Loftus Hall was sold privately in September 2008 after it was withdrawn from auction. Much speculation abounds as to who the new owner is, but it is widely rumored to be a Dublin financier of considerable wealth with strong business links to the IFSC.

The starting bid of 1.9 million euro was not met, and the building, land, and private beach were speculated to have been collectively sold to a single party for an amount bellow €1,000,000.

The sale of Loftus Hall fell through and at present has not been sold due in no small part to its state of disrepair and vandalism to its interiors, it would cost several million Euros to restore the house, grounds and estate buildings such as the massive old stables and orangery to its original condition and given its previous use as a hotel was an unprofitable period there is not much chance of it becoming a hotel again. Sadly the Tottenham family, descendants of the 4th Marquess of Ely who built it and now reside in Canada, have neither the financial resources or interest in their former stately home to help save it. Local residents and historians have lobbied local government and heritage bodies in Ireland to buy and restore the property for use as a museum but there is no interest and given the state of the Irish economy at present scant resources for such a project.

Source: Wikipedia.

 

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 12-Dec-24.

 

In basic Airtours International livery with MyTravel titles.

 

First flown in Sep-93 with the Airbus test registration F-WWIG, this aircraft was originally ordered for lease to Monarch Airlines as G-MONZ. The lease was cancelled and it was delivered to the Orix Aircraft Corporation in Nov-93 as N449RX.

 

It was leased to Southeast European Airways (Greece) as SX-BSV in Jan-94. They didn't last and ceased operations in late 1994, the aircraft was stored at Cambridge, UK in Dec-94. It was returned to the lessor as N449RX in Jan-95 and remained stored.

 

It was leased to Virgin Atlantic Airways in Apr-95, initially as EI-VIR and was re-registered G-OUZO in Nov-95. The aircraft was immediately sub-leased to All Leisure Airways (UK) and returned to Virgin Atlantic in Apr-96. It was operated on the route between London-Gatwick and Athens.

 

The aircraft was returned to the lessor in Apr-00 and leased to Airtours International Airways a few days later as G-JOEM. Airtours was renamed MyTravel Airways in May-02. It was transferred to MyTravel Lite (a low-cost subsidiary and based in Birmingham UK) in Nov-02. The 'low-cost' thing didn't really work and the aircraft returned to MyTravel at the end of Oct-05.

 

It was returned to the lessor in Apr-07 and was leased to Batavia Air (Indonesia) as PK-YVD at the end of the month. Batavia Air ceased operations at the end of Jan-13 and the aircraft was stored at Jakarta-CGK in Feb-13. It was repossessed by the lessor as N142MN in Mar-13 but the registration never appeared on the aircraft and was cancelled on 30-Jul-13 when it was permanently retired. It was later broken up at Jakarta. Updated 08-Aug-21.

 

Note: I have a comment in my own A320 database that the aircraft was due for winter sub-lease at some point, from MyTravel to Skyservice Canada as C-GOEM. However it appears that the sub-lease didn't happen.

The Bilston Glen Viaduct opened in 1892, replacing a wooden viaduct which used to cross the glen at this point. The earlier viaduct was opened in 1874 and succumbed to ground movements due to the mining of the area. Said viaduct was built by the infamous Thomas Bouch and we all know what he's responsible for.

 

The current metal beast is the longest box lattice girder viaduct in Scotland, although you could argue that it's a bridge as a viaduct is defined as having two more more small spans that are normally, but not always identical. The Bilston Glen Viaduct only has one span.

 

During the heat of Summer, the viaduct can expand by up to 60mm when compared with it's length in the Winter so the structure is secured into it's sandstone bull-faced abutments via a large iron bearing which is housed in a small space that allows the viaduct to roll back and forth. Without such measures in place, the structure could crack, causing it's eventual collapse. It's still strange to think of a viaduct like this moving around, though.

 

This area is littered with various lines that not only served all of the small towns in Edinburgh's greenbelt but they also served the large number of mine workings in the area. It's believed that the mine workings caused the initial ground movements that caused the original viaduct to fail.

 

Today, the viaduct is an integral part of a network of footpaths in the area, although those walking over the viaduct probably have no idea what's under their feet. There's a certain grace to the structure as it only makes a connection with land at either end, there are no additional supports and from above, it almost looks as if the viaduct is just floating across the gorge.

 

I wouldn't recommend climbing around on here really (I was only just off the ground) as the land falls away very quickly but having Euan posing does provide a good sense of scale for how big the super structure is. If you want to read the information plaque for the viaduct, then feel free.

Replacing an earlier scanned print with a better version 08-Dec-21 (DeNoise AI).

 

Named: "Friendship".

 

This aircraft was delivered to BOAC British Overseas Airways Corporation as G-AOVF in Jan-58. It was leased to British Eagle International Airlines in Mar-64.

 

In early 1968 the aircraft was converted to Combi/Freighter configuration with a main deck cargo door. British Eagle ceased operations in Nov-68 (I was out of a job!) and it was repossessed by BOAC at the end of that month.

 

In Jan-70 the aircraft was sold to Monarch Airlines and stored at Luton, UK. It was leased to Donaldson International Airlines (UK) in Apr-70 and they bought it in Jul-72. It was withdrawn from service and stored at Coventry (Baginton), UK the same month.

 

The aircraft was sold to IAS International Aviation Service (UK) in Oct-72 and leased to African Safari Airways in Nov-72. It returned to IAS in Dec-72. In Apr-76 it was leased to Invicta Airways (1976) Ltd (UK) and they bought it in Nov-78.

 

It was leased to Redcoat Air Cargo (UK) in Aug-79 and then leased to IAC Cargo (Zaire) as 9Q-CAZ in Jan-81, returned to Invicta as G-AOVF in Jun-81.

 

The aircraft was sold to Merchant Air in Feb-84 and was donated to the Cosford Aerospace Museum in May-84. It was repainted for display in BOAC livery and later in RAF Transport Command livery. On display. Updated 08-Dec-21.

2023 IC CE

Replaced a 2002 Thomas HD

This bus is the first bus since 2019 to be a diesel unit, and it is a stock unit that does not follow typical city specs.

Update as of 8/2: Now bus 406

Papenburg

 

In 2005, the name Seicento was replaced by 600 (in occasion of the 50 anniversary of the first edition, in 1955) together with some changes in the front and in versions donations: now the name Fiat is written on the seats. The new versions now are named "Class" and "50 anniversary", thus reminding the strict relationship between this model and the previous one.

Replaced my vehicle, so I thought it would be appropriate to take the new one up to the same place I went and took photos of my old car the day I got my license.

L'espace est vraiment exigu pour travailler, mais finalement le travail est fait, les nouvelles batteries sont installées et mon amie Laila est heureuse et attend patiemment que le soleil frappe ses panneaux !

Comerica Park is an open-air ballpark located in Downtown Detroit. It serves as the home of the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball, replacing Tiger Stadium in 2000.

 

The park is named after Comerica Bank, which was founded in Detroit and was based there when the park opened. Comerica's headquarters have since been moved to Dallas, though the bank still retains a large presence in Detroit. The stadium's seating capacity is 41,297. There is a Detroit People Mover station about a block from the stadium (at Grand Circus Park). Comerica Park sits on the original site of the Detroit College of Law.

 

Since their founding in 1901, the Tigers had played at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull Avenues in Detroit's Corktown section. For the last 88 of those years, they played at what eventually became Tiger Stadium. By the mid-1990s, it had become apparent that the much-beloved park could not be renovated any further.

 

Groundbreaking for a new ballpark to replace Tiger Stadium for the Tigers was held on October 29, 1997 and the new stadium was opened to the public in 2000. At the time of construction, the scoreboard in left field was the largest in Major League Baseball. The first game was held on April 11, 2000, against the Seattle Mariners. The new stadium is part of a downtown revitalization plan for the city of Detroit, which included the construction of Ford Field, adjacent to the park. In December 1998, Comerica Bank agreed to pay $66 million over 30 years for the naming rights for the new ballpark. Upon its opening, there was some effort to try to find a nickname for the park, with the abbreviation CoPa suggested by many. It is often referred to simply as Comerica. The first playoff game at Comerica was played on October 6, 2006 against the New York Yankees. It hosted its first World Series later that month.

 

In contrast to Tiger Stadium, which had long been considered one of the most hitter-friendly parks in baseball, Comerica Park is considered to be extremely friendly to pitchers. Except for dead center—420 feet (130 m) versus Tiger Stadium's 440 feet (130 m)—the outfield dimensions were more expansive than those at Tiger Stadium. This led to complaints from players and fans alike, most famously from Bobby Higginson who sarcastically called the venue Comerica National Park. After Minute Maid Park reduces its center field fence from 436 feet (133 m) to 409 feet (125 m) in 2017, 420 feet will be the longest in baseball.

 

Although a few public figures—notably radio announcer Ernie Harwell—supported the dimensions, most agreed that the left-field wall, in particular, needed to be brought closer to home plate. Before the 2003 MLB season the club did so, moving the distance from left-center field from 395 to 370 feet (120 to 113 m). This also removed the flagpole from the field of play, originally incorporated as an homage to Tiger Stadium. Two years later, the bullpens were moved from right field to an empty area in left field created when the fence was moved in. In place of the old bullpens in right field, 950 seats were added for a new capacity of 41,070. This made one of the most pitcher-friendly ballparks transform into the third most batter-friendly (with extra bases also taken into account).

 

Also of note, the current layout of the playing field at Comerica Park means that when a player is at bat, the direction he is facing looks farther to the south than at any other Major League Baseball park.

 

The stadium also includes many baseball-themed features, including a "Monument Park" in the deep center field stands, complete with statues of former Tigers Ty Cobb, Hal Newhouser, Charlie Gehringer, Hank Greenberg, Al Kaline, and Willie Horton.

 

Entrance to the ballpark is located across from the Fox Theatre and between two historic downtown churches, St. John Episcopal Church and Central United Methodist Church. Outside of the main entrance to the stadium there is a tiger statue that is approximately 15 feet (4.6 m) in height. There are 8 other heroic-sized tiger statues throughout the park, including two prowling on top of the scoreboard in left field. These tigers' eyes light up after a Tigers home run or a victory and the sound of a growling tiger plays as well. The tigers were originally created by sculptor Michael Keropian and fabricated by ShowMotion Inc. in Norwalk, Connecticut. Along the brick walls outside of the park are 33 tiger heads with lighted baseballs in their mouths.

 

The field itself features a distinctive dirt strip between home plate and the pitcher's mound. This strip, sometimes known as the "keyhole", was common in early ballparks, yet very rare in modern facilities (the only other current major-league park to feature one is Chase Field in Phoenix).

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comerica_Park

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...

*Brand new first day in Service*

Since the P&R buses in Winchester are now 6 years old it was time to replace them they also need to get new ones due to a change in the P&R contract, which required more buses that increased the frequency from every 15 minutes down to 12 minutely.

 

SN16 OOW Winchester South Car Park (Pitt P&R site) on the P&R bound for Winchesters East Car Parks, as you can see these new E200MMC's have full rear Destination displays, they are also equipped with USB charging, High back leather seats, Full Air Con & Laminated flooring. This one already has a big scratch on the back!

 

There are 9 of these:

26041 - SN16 OOJ

26042 - SN16 OOU

26043 - SN16 OOV

26044 - SN16 OOW

26045 - SN16 OOX

26046 - SN16 OOY

26047 - SN16 OPA

26048 - SN16 OPB

26048 - SN16 OPC

with 26046 being the only one in the depot that day!

 

ADL E20D enviro 200MMC

Seen 06/06/16

Since President Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor to replace Justice Souter on the Supreme Court, there has been much discussion of whether she would sail through the Senate confirmation process, or whether the Republican opposition would attempt to delay hearings or even mount a filibuster to prevent a vote. Despite all the gnashing of teeth, a look at the history of Supreme Court nominees finds that everything will probably proceed as normal. A vast majority of the nominees have been easily confirmed, and even those that have been rejected have been so by the slimmest of margins. Read all about in our latest original Transparency here.

 

A collaboration between GOOD and Always With Honor.

 

Click here to view the full transparency.

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 26-Oct-18.

 

This aircraft (c/n 1790) was due for delivery to Transair Cambodia but it was never delivered and remained stored at Manchester.

 

First flown with the test registration G-BJTL in Dec-81, this aircraft was initially stored at Woodford, UK before being delivered to Air Virginia as N749AV in May-82. It was repossessed by British Aerospace in Jun-84 and stored. It was re-registered with the B.Ae test registration G-11-6 in Apr-85 and became G-BJTL again in Aug-86. It was sold to SATA Air Azores as CS-TAQ in Jul-87. The aircraft was sold back to British Aerospace in Apr-92 and was stored at Manchester, UK. It was re-registered G-11-790 in Jun-92 and was due to be sold to Transair Cambodia but they never took delivery and it remained stored at Manchester. It was re-registered G-BJTL again in Jul-92 and ferried to Exeter, UK in late Jul-92 for further storage. The aircraft was transferred to Jetstream Aircraft Ltd in Dec-94. It was leased to Awood Air (Canada) as C-GHSC in Mar-95 and then sold to Calm Air International in May-97 and based at Thompson, MB, Canada. The aircraft was noted still in service in 2014 as a freighter. It's CofA was cancelled and it was removed from the Canadian register in Jul-18

Der Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg „Willy Brandt“ (IATA: BER, ICAO: EDDB; englisch Berlin Brandenburg Airport) ist ein Verkehrsflughafen in Schönefeld, südlich der Stadtgrenze Berlins. Er entstand durch Ausbau des vormaligen Flughafens Berlin-Schönefeld und wurde am 31. Oktober 2020 eröffnet. Der BER ersetzt den internationalen Flughafen Berlin-Tegel, der im November 2020 geschlossen werden soll.

Zum Eröffnungszeitpunkt hat der Flughafen eine theoretische Gesamtkapazität von 46 Millionen Passagieren pro Jahr. Der Bau des Flughafens Berlin Brandenburg, der am 5. September 2006 begann, war eines der größten Bauprojekte Deutschlands. Der Start des Flugbetriebs war anfangs für November 2011 geplant. Aufgrund fehlerhafter Bauplanung, mangelnder Bauaufsicht und umfangreicher technischer Mängel wurde der Eröffnungstermin insgesamt sieben Mal verschoben. Durch die Fehlplanungen und die explodierenden Kosten, zuletzt auf über sieben Milliarden Euro veranschlagt, wurde dieses Bauprojekt zum Sinnbild eines außer Kontrolle geratenen staatlichen Großprojektes. Im April 2020 konntne schließlich die Betriebssicherheit bescheinigt und die Nutzungsfreigabe erteilt werden, sodass der Flughafen am 31. Oktober 2020 eröffnen konnte.

 

Quelle: Wikipedia.de

 

Berlin Brandenburg Airport (German: Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg "Willy Brandt") (IATA: BER, ICAO: EDDB) is an international airport in Schönefeld, just south of the German capital Berlin in the state of Brandenburg. Named after former West Berlin mayor and West German chancellor Willy Brandt, it is located 18 kilometres (11 mi) south-east of the city centre. The new airport replaces nearby Schönefeld as well as Tegel and Tempelhof airports (with the latter already being closed in 2008) and becomes the single commercial airport serving Berlin and the surrounding State of Brandenburg, an area with a combined 6 million inhabitants. With projected annual passenger numbers of around 34 million, Berlin Brandenburg Airport is set to become the third busiest airport in Germany surpassing Düsseldorf Airport and making it one of the fifteen busiest in Europe.

The airport was originally planned to open in October 2011, five years after starting construction in 2006. However, the project encountered a series of successive delays due to poor construction planning, execution, management, and corruption. Berlin Brandenburg Airport finally received its operational licence in May 2020, and opened for commercial traffic on 31 October 2020.

Schönefeld's refurbished passenger facilities have been incorporated as Terminal 5 as of 25 October 2020 while all other airlines will gradually relocate from Tegel to Berlin Brandenburg Airport by 8 November 2020.

 

Source: en.wikipedia.org

Jasmine and Aladdin Fairytale Designer dolls have been completely deboxed and then replaced on their doll stands. I placed in a pose similar to what they had originally, but without a rubber band securing their hands. They are photographed in diffuse natural light.

 

Jasmine and Aladdin Doll Set

Disney Fairytale Designer Collection

US Disney Store

Released In Store 2013-09-17

Released and Purchased Online 2013-09-18

Sold Out Online 2013-09-20

Received 2013-09-26

#899 of 6000

 

Product Information:

 

Jasmine and Aladdin Doll Set

$129.95

Item No. 6070040900892P

 

Eastern promise

Fans of Disney's romantic eastern adventure couldn't wish for anything more magical than this pair of Jasmine and Aladdin dolls. Part of the limited edition Disney Fairytale Designer Collection, they feature elegantly detailed costumes.

 

Magic in the details...

 

Please Note: Each Guest will be limited to ordering a maximum of one of this item per order.

 

As part of the Disney Fairytale Designer Collection this pair of Jasmine and Aladdin dolls were carefully crafted by artists inspired by Disney's beloved 1992 movie. The Sultan's daughter and street urchin have been reimagined in exquisite detail with these limited edition dolls. Brought to life with careful attention, they uniquely capture the essence of the fairytale couple, creating a one of a kind set that will be a treasured keepsake of collectors, Disney fans, and every princess at heart!

 

• Global Limited Editon of 6000

• Includes Certificate of Authenticity

• Jasmine features beaded headdress with matching earrings, and necklace

• Lustrous black hair and rooted eyelashes

• Richly embroidered top with rhinestone accents and beaded chain detailing at shoulders

• Satin skirt with embroidered peacock feathers, scalloped hem, and rhinestone accents

• Flowy chiffon underskirt

• Flower accessory

• Aladdin features satin turban with feather and jeweled accent

• Chest panel with ornate embroidery and matching cummerbund

• Satin cape with embroidered trim and contrast purple satin lining

• Satin pants and shirt with gold braid detailing at cuffs

• Dolls sold in a special keepsake display case with intricate details on the base, including a golden plate with the name of Jasmine and Aladdin

• Includes special Disney Fairytale Designer Collection Gift Bag

• Part of the Disney Fairytale Designer Collection

 

* Intended for adult collectors -- Not a child's toy.

 

The bare necessities

 

• Plastic / polyester

• Jasmine: 11 1/2'' H

• Aladdin: 12'' H

• Imported

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

 

Some background:

In the late 1920s, the Aéronautique Militaire (Belgian Air Force) set out to replace its old aircraft. Accordingly, Belgian officers attended the Hendon Air Display where they saw a Fairey Firefly and met Fairey staff. The Firefly toured Belgian air bases in 1930 and met with approval from pilots. This led to a contract for 12 UK-built Firefly II to be followed by a further 33 aircraft built in Belgium.

 

Fairey already had a number of Belgians in key roles in the company; Ernest Oscar Tips and Marcel Lobelle had joined during the First World War. Tips went to Belgium to set up the subsidiary company. He based the new company near Charleroi. The fighter ace Fernand Jacquet who operated a flying school nearby joined the company in 1931.

Avions Fairey received further orders for Fireflies followed by Fairey Foxes which would be the main aircraft of the Belgian Air Force; being used as a fighter, bomber and training aircraft.

 

Most of Avions Fairey work was on military contracts. The contact with the Belgian military led to Fairey developing the Fairey Fantôme as a followup to the Firefly for the Belgians. Of the three prototypes, two ended up in Spain (via the USSR) the third as a test aircraft with the RAF.

 

Another indigenous design of Avions Fairey was the Faune fighter, or better: it's fall-back design. The original design for the Faune started as an advanced (for the era) monoplane under the direction of Ernest Oscar Tips in 1934. He grew concerned that the design would not mature, and ordered a backup biplane design, just to be safe.

 

Internally called the "Faune-B", the alternative biplane was also a modern design with staggered, gulled upper wings that were directly attached to the fuselage and stabilized by single spars. The single bay wings were of wooden construction, while the fuselage was of mixed steel and duralumin construction, with a fabric covered steering surfaces.

 

Aerodynamic problems with the favored monoplane design led in 1935 to an end of its development, and further resources were allocated to the biplane. The most significant change of this revised version was the introduction of a retractable landing gear, which necessitated the lower wing main spar to be moved backwards by almost 1' and led to a distinctive wing layout.

 

In this modified guise the first flight was made in October 1936 with Fernand Jacquet at the controls, powered by an imported Bristol Jupiter engine and outfitted with a wooden, fixed pitch propeller. Armament comprised four 7.5 mm (.295 in) MAC 1934 machine guns with 300 RPG, two synchronized in the upper forward fuselage, and one under each lower wing, mounted in an external nacelle outside the propeller disc.

 

The Belgian Air Force accepted the fighter and production as Mk. I started in 1938, now powered by a licensed built Bristol Mercury that drove a three blade variable pitch propeller, and a fully enclosed cockpit. Compared with the very similar Gloster Gladiator, which was used by the Aviation Militaire Belge at that time, too, the Faune showed a higher speed and better climb rate, but was not as agile. The field of view for the pilot was poor, especially on the ground, and the narrow and low landing gear made ground handling, esp. on unprepared airfields, hazardous. Furthermore, the landing gear's complicated manual mechanism was prone to failure, and as a consequence the landing gear was frequently kept down so that the aerodynamic bonus was negated.

 

In late 1939 a total of 42 Avions Fairey Faunes had been built, and in order to compensate for the weaknesses trials were made to incorporate heavier armament in early 1939: the wing-mounted machine guns were on some machines replaced by 20mm Hispano-Suiza HS.404 cannon in deeper fairings and with 40 RPG, and the modified machines were designated Mk. IA. Around 20 machines were converted from service airframes and reached the active squadrons in early 1940. Furthermore, one Faune Mk. I was experimentally outfitted with a streamlined cowling, designated Mk. II, but befor the machine could be tested or even flown, Belgium had been occupied.

 

With the looming German neighbors, Belgium also ordered Hawker Hurricanes to be built in Belgium. However, on 10 May 1940, the Avions Fairey factory was heavily bombed by the Germans, the company personnel evacuated to France, and then left for England. Their ship was sunk by German bombers outside St Nazaire, though, and eight Fairey staff were killed; the survivors worked for the parent company during the Second World War. None of the Belgian Faunes survived this WWII episode.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 27 ft 5 in (8.36 m)

Wingspan: 32 ft 3 in (9.83 m)

Height: 11 ft 9 in (3.58 m)

Wing area: 323 ft2 (30.0 m2)

Empty weight: 3,217 lb (1,462 kg)

Loaded weight: 4,594 lb (2,088 kg)

 

Powerplant:

1× Bristol Mercury VIII radial engine, 625 kW (840 hp)

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 253 mph (220 knots, 407 km/h) at 14,500 ft (4,400 m)

Cruise speed: 210 mph[94]

Stall speed: 53 mph (46 knots, 85 km/h)

Endurance: 2 hours

Service ceiling: 32,800 ft (10,000 m)

Rate of climb: 2,300 ft/min[94] (11.7 m/s)

Climb to 10,000 ft (3,050 m): 4.75 min

 

Armament:

Initially (Mk. I) two synchronised .303" Vickers machine guns in fuselage sides,

plus two .303" Lewis machine guns; one beneath each lower wing.

Mk. IA aircraft had the wing-mounted machine guns replaced by

two 20mm Hispano-Suiza HS.404 cannon

 

The kit and its assembly:

This one was inspired on short notice by a series of side profiles of a fictional British creation called "Bristol Badger", published by whatifmodeler.com's NightHunter with support from Eswube and Darth Panda - very reminiscent of the PZL 24 fighter, but a biplane. A very pretty creation that could rival with the Gloster Gladiator - and seeing the profiles I wondered if a retractable landing gear could be added, in the style of a Grumman F4F or the Curtiss SBC? Hence the idea was born to take this CG creation to the hardware stage.

 

Another side of the story is that I had been pondering about changing the ugly Curtiss SBC into a single seat fighter. And since the "Badger" would be an equivalent build I eventually decided to combine both ideas.

 

Legwork turned out that the Bristol Badger actually existed, so it was not the proper name for this creation. Since my designh benchmark was a Belgian aircraft I simply switched the manufacturer to Avions Fairey (see above). ;)

 

Effectively the Faune is a kitbash of a Heller SBC and a Polikarpov I-15 from ICM - the latter is a noteworthy, small kit because it is full of details, including even an internal frame structure for the cockpit and a highly detailed engine - without any PE parts.

 

From the SBC the fuselage and the lower wing was taken. The I-15 donated the upper gull wing and its tail - the SBC's was cut away where the observer's station would be, and the diameter of both fuselage sections matches well. The I-15's fabric cover on the tail disappeared under putty. The SBC's canopy was also used , just the observer's rearmost part was cut away and a new spine and fairing sculpted from putty.

 

Since I wanted a different engine installation (not the streamlined but somewhat ugly solution of the SBC) the SBC fuselage was also cut away in front of the landing gear wells. Bulkheads from styrene sheet were added, and I implanted the nose section and the Bristol Jupiter engine with an open ring cowling from a Matchbox Vickers Wellesley.

Once the wings were in place I implanted the SBC's struts and some wiring was added. The landing gear comes from the SBC, too. The cannons under the wings come from a Hobby Boss Bf 109F.

  

Painting and markings:

As mentioned above, I used a Belgian Air Force aircraft as design benchmark, and this meant a simple livery in khaki and aluminum dope, similar to Belgian Gloster Gladiators or Fairey Foxes in the late 30ies.

 

The paint scheme is very simple, I used "French Khaki" from Modelmaster's Authentic enamel range and acrylic Aluminum from Revell. All internal surfaces were painted with RAF Cockpit Green (Modelmaster). The wing struts were painted glossy black, just as on Belgian Foxes or Gladiators of the time.

After a light black ink wash I did some shading with Faded Olive Drab, Humbrol 102 and even some RLM 02, while the Aluminum received some panels in Humbrol 56 and Modelmaster's Aluminum Lacquer. Panel lines were added with a simple, soft pencil.

 

The decals had to be puzzled together - originally I wanted to use a set for a Belgian Hurricane, but the carreir film turned out to be brittle, so the roundels now come from a generic TL Modellbau sheet, the "Cocotte Bleue" from an anniversary Mirage 5BE, and the codes actually belong to a Chilean D.H. Venom...

 

Finally, everything was sealed under a mix of 80% flat and 20% gloss acrylic varnish.

 

In the end, a major kitbash that looks rather simple - but I am actually surprised how well the parts of the I-15 and SBC went together. And the result does not look like the Frankenstein creation this whif kit actually is... ;)

 

Built in 1903-1905, this Prairie-style mansion was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Larkin Company executive Darwin D. Martin, whom built the house as a way to bring his family, which had been scattered in various parts of the United States when his mother had died early in his childhood. The house was the culmination of immense personal wealth and professional success that Martin had enjoyed in his life despite his difficult childhood, starting as a soap seller in New York City, being hired by the Larkin Company in 1878, before moving to Buffalo and becoming the single office assistant to John D. Larkin in 1880, and in 1890, replaced Elbert Hubbard, who was a person that Martin immensely admired, as the Corporate Secretary of the Larkin Company. When the Larkin Company was seeking a designer for a major new office building for the company at the turn of the 20th Century, Martin, whom had witnessed Wright’s work in Chicago and Oak Park, wished to hire the architect as the designer of the new building, but needed to convince the skeptical John D. Larkin and other executives at the company of Wright’s suitability for the project. As a result, Martin decided to have Wright design his family estate. Darwin D. Martin became such a close friend of Wright that he commissioned the family’s summer house, Graycliff, located south of Buffalo on the shores of Lake Erie, to be designed by Wright in 1926, and spearheaded the effort to assist Wright with his finances when his personal residence, Taliesin, was threatened with foreclosure in 1927.

 

The main house is made up of four structures, those being the house itself, which sits at the prominent southeast corner of the property closest to the intersection of Summit Avenue and Jewett Parkway of any structure on the site, the pergola, which is a long, linear covered porch structure that runs northwards from the center of the house, the conservatory, which sits at the north end of the pergola and features a statue of the Winged Victory of Samothrace, which is visible from the front entrance to the house down the long visual axis created by the pergola, and the carriage house, which sits immediately west of the conservatory and behind the west wing of the house, enclosing the rear of the house’s main garden.

 

On the grounds of the mansion are two other houses, those being the Barton House, built at the northeast corner of the property along Summit Avenue to house Darwin D. Martin’s sister, Delta Martin Barton, and her husband, George F. Barton, which was the first structure to be built on the property and very visually similar to the main house, using the same type of bricks and incorporating many smaller versions of features found on the main house, and the Gardener’s cottage, built in 1909 to house gardeners who maintained the grounds of the property, which is the smallest and plainest of the three houses, which is sandwiched into a narrow strip of the property between two other houses, fronting Woodward Avenue to the west.

 

The main house features a buff roman brick exterior with raked horizontal mortar joints and filled in vertical joints, giving the masonry the appearance of being made of a series of solid horizontal bands with recessed joints, accentuating the horizontal emphasis of the house’s design and creating texture with shadows. The roof is hipped with wide overhanging eaves, with the gutters draining into downspouts that drop water into drain basins atop various one-story pillars at the corners of the house, with the roof having a T-shaped footprint above the second floor and three separate sections above the first floor, which wrap around the second floor to the south, west, and north, with the roof soaring above a porte-cochere to the west of the house, as well as a separate roof suspended above a porch to the east. The house’s roof is supported by pillars that sit near, but not at the corners of the building, with windows wrapping the corners. The windows are framed by stone sills and wooden trim, with some windows featuring stone lintels. The front door is obscured inside a recessed porch on the front facade, with the tile walkway to the door turning 90 degrees upon its approach to the doorway, a quite common feature of many of Wright’s houses at the time. The house is surrounded by a series of low brick walls with stone bases and stone caps, with sculptural decorative stone planters atop the pillars at the ends of many of these walls, with some of the planters containing carefully chosen decorative vegetation, and others serving as semi-hidden drainage basins for the adjacent one-story roofs.

 

Inside, the house features a foyer with a head-on view of the pergola and the conservatory to the north, simple but finely crafted wooden trim elements, the beautiful Wisteria Mosaic Fireplace between the foyer and dining room on the first floor that reflects light in different ways via various types of tile with different types of glazing, rough plaster painted a variety of colors, careful use of shadow to highlight certain elements while obscuring others, art glass windows featuring stained glass and clear glass panes in decorative patterns, wooden built ins and Frank Lloyd Wright-designed furnishings, a large kitchen with lots of white surfaces and wooden cabinets overlooking the garden, a living room with a vaulted ceiling and brick fireplace featuring an arched hearth opening, extensive use of expansion and compression via ceiling height to drive movement through the space, ventilation ducts that can be operated via decorative casement windows at the pillars ringing the various spaces of the house, wooden screens to obscure the staircase and second floor, custom light fixtures, art glass ceiling panels, and five large doors with art glass lights to the eastern porch on the first floor. The second floor of the house has multiple bedrooms with a variety of Frank Lloyd Wright built-in and freestanding furniture, wooden trim, and multiple bathrooms. The house is further decorated with Japanese art pieces procured by Wright in Japan, as well as being heavily inspired by traditional Japanese architecture, with usage of shadow and light to obscure and highlight different features, as well as the general form of the house, with the wide eaves providing ample shade to the interior during the summer months, while still allowing light to easily enter the space during the darker winter months.

 

To the north of the main house is an approximately 90-foot-long pergola with evenly spaced brick pillars framing the tile walkway, decorative wooden trim on the ceiling at each column, light fixtures at each column, and a glass transom and a door with large glass lights and a narrow frame providing a nearly unobstructed view of the interior of the conservatory at the north end of the pergola, focusing the attention of visitors upon their entrance to the house, as the conservatory and pergola form a continual visual axis from the foyer to the statue of the Winged Victory of Samothrace that stands in the northern end of the conservatory. This entire section of the house was rebuilt during its restoration, having been demolished in the 1960s after falling into disrepair. The pergola features a gabled roof that terminates at the bonnet roof around the perimeter of the conservatory to the north and at the first floor hipped roof of the house to the south.

 

The conservatory sits at the north end of the pergola, and has a latin cross footprint, with a glass skylight roof with a gabled section running north-south and a pyramidal hipped section at the crossing. The skylight terminates at a parapet that surrounds it on all sides, which features distinctive and decorative “birdhouses” at the north and south ends, apparently intended to house Blue Martins, but were not designed appropriately for the specific needs of the species, and have thus never been occupied. Two of the birdhouses survived the decay and demolition of the original conservatory in the 1960s, and were prominently displayed atop a wall in front of the house until the restoration of the complex in 2007. The interior of the conservatory features only a few concrete planters flanking the walkways and below the large Winged Victory of Samothrace that sits in the northern alcove of the space, with this apparently not having been what the Martin family had in mind, leading to the erection of a prefabricated conventional greenhouse made of metal and glass to the west of the Carriage House shortly after the house’s completion. The conservatory utilizes the same small tile on the floor as other areas of the house, with suspended wooden trim frames breaking up the large void of the space into smaller sections, supporting the space’s light fixtures and carefully framing the planters, fountain, and sculpture.

 

To the west of the conservatory is the two-story Carriage House, which features a simple pyramidal hipped roof with wide overhanging eaves, recessed corner pillars with central sections featuring wrap-around bands of windows on the second floor, a large carriage door in the center of the south facade, flanked by two smaller pillars and two small windows, and a one-story rear wing with a hipped roof. The interior presently houses a gift shop, but is set up like the original structure, demolished in the 1960s, would have been, with horse stables, red brick walls, a utility sink, and a simple staircase to the upper floor.

 

The house complex was home to the Martin family until 1937, when, owing to financial difficulties brought on by the loss of the family fortune during the 1929 Black Friday stock market crash and Darwin D. Martin’s death in 1935, the house had become too difficult for the family to maintain, with the family abandoning the house, allowing it to deteriorate. Additionally, Isabelle Reidpath Martin, Darwin’s widow, did not like the house’s interior shadows, which made it difficult for her to see. D.R. Martin, Darwin’s son, tried to donate the house to the City of Buffalo and the State University of New York system for use as a library, but neither entity accepted the offer, and the house remained empty until 1946, when it was taken by the city due to back taxes. In 1951, the house was purchased by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, which intended to convert the house into a summer retreat for priests, similar to the contemporaneous sale of Graycliff by the Martin family to the Piarists, a Catholic order. However, the property languished until 1955, when it was sold to architect Sebastian Tauriello, whom worked hard to save the architecturally significant and by-then endangered property, hoping the house would avoid the fate that had befallen the Larkin Administration Building five years prior. The house was subdivided into three apartments, with the carriage house, pergola, and conservatory demolished and the rear yard sold, and two uninspired apartment buildings with slapped-on Colonial Revival-style trim known as Jewett Gardens Apartments, were built to the rear of the house. In 1967, the University at Buffalo purchased the house, utilizing it as the university president’s residence, with the Barton House and Gardener’s Cottage being parceled off, both converted to function as independent single-family houses. The university attempted to repair the damage from years of neglect and did some work to keep the house functioning, modernizing portions of the interior and returning several pieces of original furniture to the house. The house would exist in this condition for the next half-century.

 

In 1975, the house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and in 1986, was listed as a National Historic Landmark. In 1992, the nonprofit Martin House Restoration Corporation was founded with the goal of eventually restoring the historically and architecturally significant complex, and opening it as a museum. In 1994, the organization purchased the Barton House, and had the Martin House donated by the University of Buffalo in 2002. The restoration of both houses began under the direction of Hamilton Houston Lownie Architects shortly thereafter, and the Jewett Gardens Apartments were demolished upon the acquisition of the site by the nonprofit around the turn of the millennium. In 2006, the Gardener’s cottage was purchased from private ownership, and work began to rebuild the lost Pergola, Conservatory, and Carriage House, which were completed in 2007. Additional work to restore the house continued over the next decade, restoring the various interior spaces, with extensive work being put in to restore the kitchen and bedrooms. Finally, in 2017, the last part of the house was restored, being the beautiful Wisteria Mosaic Fireplace between the dining room and foyer, which had been extensively altered. An addition to the grounds, located on the former rear yard of an adjacent house, is the contemporary, sleek glass and steel-clad Eleanor & Wilson Greatbatch Pavilion Visitor Center, designed by Toshiko Mori, with a cantilevered roof that appears to float and tapers to thin edges, with glass walls on three sides, which houses the visitor information desk, ticket sales, presentation space, a timeline of the Martin House’s history, and restrooms. The restoration of the house marks one of the first full reconstructions of a demolished Frank Lloyd Wright structure, and is one of several significant works by the architect in Buffalo, including three designs that were built posthumously in the early 21st Century - the Fontana Boat House in Front Park, the Tydol Filling Station at the Buffalo Transportation Pierce Arrow Museum, and the Blue Sky Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Cemetery, which was designed for the Martin family in 1928, but not built until 2004.

 

Today, the restored Darwin D. Martin House complex serves as a museum, allowing visitors to experience one of the largest Prairie-style complexes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, faithfully restored to its circa 1907 appearance, giving visitors a sense of the genius and design philosophy of Wright.

The national flag of Tajikistan was adopted in November 1992, replacing the flag of the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic of 1953. The flag of Tajikistan is an unequal horizontal tricolour of red, white, and green, defaced with a yellow crown surmounted by an arc of seven stars at the centre. It has a width ratio of 2:3:2. The tricolour preserves the choice of colours from the former Tajik Soviet flag, as well as the 1:2 proportions.

 

Flag Day is celebrated on 24 November, the date on which it was officially adopted.

 

The flag of Tajikistan is a tricolour of red, white, and green. The red represents the unity of the nation, as well as victory and sunrise. The red also serves as a symbol of the former Russian and Soviet eras, the workers, and the warriors who sacrificed their lives to protect the land. The white represents purity, morality, the snow and ice of the mountains, and cotton. The green represents the bountiful generosity of nature, fertile valleys, the religion of Islam, and the celebration of Novruz Other interpretations of the colours state that the flag symbolically unifies the people of Tajik society: the red stripe represents the manual labour class, the white stripe represents the intellectual worker class, and the green represents the agricultural class living in Tajikistan's rural or mountainous regions.

 

The red and green stripes on the top and bottom are equal in size, while the central white stripe is one and a half times wider.

 

The crown and stars are set in a rectangle that takes up 80% of the white stripe's height. The crown represents the Samanid dynasty and the Tajik people, as the name Tajik is connected in popular etymology with the Persian word tâj ('crown'). The flag of Tajikistan features seven stars because of the significance of the number seven in Persian mythology, where it represents perfection and happiness. According to traditional belief, the heavens feature seven mountains and seven orchard gardens, with a star shining above each mountain.

Suzuki DR-Z 400 Supermoto - Exhaust replaced - untreated

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 16-Aug-25

 

This aircraft was delivered to British Airways as G-BDXF in Apr-78. 24 years later it was sold to European Skybus Ltd in May-02 and leased to a subsidiary company, European Aviation Air Charter the same day.

 

It was wet-leased to Corsair, France in Jul-05 and returned to European Air Charter in Nov-05. The aircraft was parked at Exeter, UK for a couple of weeks before being ferried to Kemble, UK at the end of Nov-05 and permanently retired. It was broken up a Kemble in Dec-06. Updated 05-Jul-25.

Built in 1906-1917, this Beaux Arts-style Capitol Building was designed by George B. Post to house the state house of representatives, state senate, and offices for the Wisconsin State Government. The fourth state capitol to house the state government since the state’s establishment in 1848, the building is the third building to sit on the present site, and replaced the previous state capitol, built in 1857-1869 and expanded in 1882, which burned down in February of 1904. The capitol houses both the Wisconsin State Assembly and the Wisconsin State Senate, as well as the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the Office of the Governor of Wisconsin. The first capitol of Wisconsin upon the formation of Wisconsin Territory in 1836 was in the village of Belmont, Wisconsin, with the legislature meeting in a hastily constructed wood-frame building, before deciding to designate the future site of Madison as the state capitol, and holding further sessions of the legislature in the much better-developed Mississippi River port town of Burlington (now in Iowa) until a capitol building could be completed in Madison. Upon Burlington becoming part of the new Iowa Territory, the state legislature moved to a log and stone building on the present site of the state capitol, a relatively humble Greek Revival-style building constructed in 1837, which looked much like older capitol buildings in the eastern United States, with doric columns and a rusticated fieldstone exterior. It was most similar to the Old State House in North Carolina, built only four years prior, and the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois, built in the same year, though these two similar buildings were built almost entirely of stone blocks rather than fieldstone. The small second capitol building was the first state capitol of Wisconsin upon its ascension to statehood in 1848, but had become inadequate for the growing population and government by the 1850s. The original building was demolished and replaced with a larger, Classical Revival-style structure with Romanesque Revival elements constructed in stages between 1857 and 1869, which featured a dome inspired by the United Capitol Building, semi-circular porticoes with corinthian columns, and two short side wings with octagonal towers at the corners, which were modified and extended in 1882 with new wings that increased the Classical Revival aspects of the building and helped to downplay the Romanesque Revival elements that originally were very prominent on the structure. This building was oriented with the semi-circular original porticoes aligned with State Street and King Street, with the wings being oriented towards both sections of Hamilton Street, though the building appeared rather small within the large parklike expanse of Capitol Square. By the turn of the 20th Century, the old Capitol had become inadequate for the growing needs of Wisconsin, which had become wealthy, industrialized, and heavily populated by that point, so study of a replacement capitol building began in 1903. In February 1904, the old State Capitol burned to the ground when a gas jet ignited a newly varnished ceiling inside the building, which spread quickly despite the building featuring a then-advanced sprinkler system, as the reservoir of the nearby University of Wisconsin was empty, which allowed the fire to spread out of control. The north wing of the building, built in 1882, was the only portion that survived, with many relics, records, and important historical items being lost in the fire, though the state law library was saved thanks to efforts by University of Wisconsin students. The fire also happened just after the state legislature had voted to cancel the fire insurance policy on the building, thinking it was a costly and unnecessary folly.

 

The present building was built on the site of the previous building, with the construction process focusing on completing each wing one at a time to provide space to the state government with as much fiscal efficiency as possible due to financial limitations. Due to this, the north wing was built last to allow the remaining portion of the previous capitol to serve as space for the state government during the construction period, with the central rotunda and dome also being built after the other three wings had been completed, as they serve a more symbolic and less utilitarian purpose than the rest of the building. The building stands 284 feet (86 meters) tall to the top of the statue on the dome, which was sculpted in 1920 by Daniel Chester French, and is a personification of the state of Wisconsin, with the outstretched arm of the statue representing the state motto, “Forward”. The exterior of the building is clad in Bethel white granite, sourced from Vermont, with an additional 42 types of stone from a total of eight states and six countries being utilized on the interior of the building. The dome is the largest in the world to be entirely clad in granite, and is the tallest building in Madison, with a state law passed in 1990 stipulating that any building within a one-mile radius of the capitol is limited in height to the base of the columns of the dome, which stand at 187 feet, which preserves the visibility of the building from the surrounding landscape. The building has a greek cross footprint with four five-story wings that are aligned with the compass directions and radial streets following the compass directions that slice through the surrounding street grid, which is at a 45-degree angle to compass directions, instead roughly paralleling the shorelines of nearby Lake Mendota and Lake Monona, with Downtown Madison sitting on an isthmus between the two lakes. This places the building at a unique 45-degree angle orientation relative to the edges of Capitol Square and most buildings on adjacent streets. The building was one of the last works of the prolific architect George B. Post, whom died before the building was completed. The building underwent a major renovation in the 1970s that added modern features to the interior and covered up many original features, with later projects between 1988 and 2002 restoring the building while updating the building’s systems and functions for the modern needs of the state government.

 

The exterior of the building’s wings feature porticoes on the ends with corinthian columns, arched windows on the third floor, rusticated bases with entrance doors and decorative keystones, decorative reliefs featuring festoons over the windows on the porticoes, cornices with modillions and dentils, and pediments with sculptural reliefs, which were created by several sculptors, and have different symbolism embodied by their design. On the east wing, which is home to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the sculpture known as Law, created by Karl Bitter, is located on the portico pediment, on the west wing, which houses the chamber of the Wisconsin Assembly, is a sculpture known as Agriculture, also created by Karl Bitter, on the north wing, which is home to a hearing chamber, is the sculpture known as Virtues and Traits of Character, created by Adolph Alexander Weinman, and on the south wing, which houses the chamber of the Wisconsin Senate, is a sculpture known as Wisdom and Learning of the World, created by Attilio Piccirilli. The sides of the wings feature simpler cornices with dentils, pilasters and recessed window openings with arched openings at the ground floor, windows with decorative pedimented headers on the second floor, arched windows on the third floor, two small two-over-two windows on the fourth floor, and a recessed fifth floor features small paired windows, hidden behind a balustrade that runs around the entirety of the building minus the ends of the wings, concealing a low-slope roof at the setbacks on the sides of the wings and above the corner porticoes. The upper roofs of the wings are low-slope with front gabled portions in the middle punctured by skylights, with the roof being almost entirely enclosed by a parapet. At the center of the building in the inside corners of the greek cross are semi-circular portions of the facade with semi-circular two-story ionic porticos with large terraces and grand staircases featuring decorative copper lampposts, decorative stone balustrades, concealed entrances to the ground floor underneath the terraces, and three doorways on the upper level, with drums surrounded by buttresses featuring small windows and domed roofs above the balustrade on the fifth floor. In the center of the building is the rotunda, which is topped with a large dome that rises from a tall base that terminates in a balustrade, with a low-slope roof at the base of the drum of the dome, which features a level with small windows at the base, with projected pavilions at the corners above the semi-circular porticoes below, which were originally to support four smaller domes, but ended up supporting sculptures by Karl Bitter, symbolizing strength, faith, prosperity, and abundance and knowledge. The drum of the dome is surrounded by a corinthian colonnade with corinthian pilasters on the exterior wall of the dome behind the colonnade, arched windows, and recessed decorative panels at the top of the colonnade below the architrave. Above the architrave is a cornice with modillions and dentils, above which is another balustrade, accessed via doors from the interior space above the inner dome of the rotunda, and ringed by six-over-six windows, pilasters, and a cornice with egg and dart motif at the top. Above this last cornice is the dome, which is ribbed, with the ribs terminating in voluted upside down brackets at the base, and clad in granite, terminating at the top at a balustrade around the base of the lantern. The cylindrical landern features corinthian columns, arched windows, festoons, with a concavely sloped roof featuring rubs terminating in volutes, above which is the base of the Wisconsin statue, which is coated in gold leaf.

 

The interior of the building is richly decorated with Beaux Arts detailing, utilizing plaster, a diverse array of stone and woodwork, engaged columns and pilasters, murals, vaulted ceilings, decorative balustrades, grand staircases, and modern oak furniture. The interior dome features a mural by Edwin Howland Blashfield, known as Resources of Wisconsin, which sits in the middle of the dome’s coffered ceiling, above the upper balcony at the base of the drum. The rotunda features green and white marble corinthian columns with gold leaf on the capitals, vaulted alcoves on the sides with coffered ceilings, a stone floor, and features marble from Tennessee, Missouri, Vermont, Georgia, New York, and Maryland, granite from Wisconsin and Minnesota, limestone from Minnesota and Illinois, marble from France, Italy, Greece, Algeria and Germany, and syenite from Norway. A large circular opening in the floor of the center of the rotunda allows light into the lower level of the building, and is supported by a ring of square columns underneath. The light fixtures in the space are a combination of lampposts and sconces. The pendentives below the drum of the dome in the rotunda are decorated with glass mosaics by artist Kenyon Cox. The interior’s decoration denotes hierarchy of space, with the level of detail varying throughout the building’s interior from simple offices and service areas to the grand public spaces, such as the rotunda and government meeting chambers. The two-story senate chamber is circular with marble cladding, corinthian columns, and pilasters on the walls, a decorative ceiling with a central shallow domed decorative glass skylight, and coffers with rosettes, with murals above the main podium, and balconies inside the alcoves behind the columns for spectators and observers. The two-story assembly chamber features a similar shallow domed decorative glass skylight on the ceiling, but is square in shape with decorative pendentives and arches on the perimeter of the space opening into alcoves with vaulted ceilings, with wood paneling and a large mural behind the main podium, and balconies in the upper level of the alcoves. The supreme court chamber is square with a square decorative glass skylight in the room’s coffered ceiling, white marble pilasters, paneling, and murals on the walls, and arched niches housing candelabra-type lamppost light fixtures. The north wing hearing chamber features a massive cove ceiling with decorative trim and murals, with a large square decorative glass skylight in the middle, and walls lined with ionic pilasters and stone panels. The Governor’s Conference Room, located in the east wing, features a heavily decorated ceiling with multiple coffers housing murals, decorative stained woodwork, a fireplace with a decorative marble surround flanked by two corinthian columns, and gold leaf on some of the trim. The interior of the building is even more richly detailed than the exterior.

 

The building, which has been fully modernized and restored to some semblance of its original appearance, remains the seat of the government of Wisconsin, presently the 25th largest by land area and 20th largest by population in the United States. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, owing to its historical and architectural significance, and was listed as a National Historic Landmark in 2001. The building visually dominates the isthmus that makes up Downtown Madison, and sits in the city’s central square, one of the most visually impressive and stunning sitings of any capitol building in the United States.

Wells Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Wells, Somerset, England, dedicated to St Andrew the Apostle. It is the seat of the Bishop of Bath and Wells, whose cathedra it holds as mother church of the Diocese of Bath and Wells. Built as a Roman Catholic cathedral from around 1175 to replace an earlier church on the site since 705, it became an Anglican cathedral when King Henry VIII split from Rome. It is moderately sized for an English cathedral. Its broad west front and large central tower are dominant features. It has been called "unquestionably one of the most beautiful" and "most poetic" of English cathedrals.

 

Its Gothic architecture is mostly inspired from Early English style of the late 12th to early 13th centuries, lacking the Romanesque work that survives in many other cathedrals. Building began about 1175 at the east end with the choir. Historian John Harvey sees it as Europe's first truly Gothic structure, breaking the last constraints of Romanesque. The stonework of its pointed arcades and fluted piers bears pronounced mouldings and carved capitals in a foliate, "stiff-leaf" style. Its Early English front with 300 sculpted figures is seen as a "supreme triumph of the combined plastic arts in England". The east end retains much ancient stained glass. Unlike many cathedrals of monastic foundation, Wells has many surviving secular buildings linked to its chapter of secular canons, including the Bishop's Palace and the 15th-century residential Vicars' Close It is a Grade I listed building.

 

The earliest remains of a building on the site are of a late-Roman mausoleum, identified during excavations in 1980. An abbey church was built in Wells in 705 by Aldhelm, first bishop of the newly established Diocese of Sherborne during the reign of King Ine of Wessex. It was dedicated to St Andrew and stood at the site of the cathedral's cloisters, where some excavated remains can be seen. The font in the cathedral's south transept is from this church and is the oldest part of the present building. In 766 Cynewulf, King of Wessex, signed a charter endowing the church with eleven hides of land. In 909 the seat of the diocese was moved from Sherborne to Wells.

 

The first bishop of Wells was Athelm (909), who crowned King Æthelstan. Athelm and his nephew Dunstan both became Archbishops of Canterbury. During this period a choir of boys was established to sing the liturgy. Wells Cathedral School, which was established to educate these choirboys, dates its foundation to this point. There is, however, some controversy over this. Following the Norman Conquest, John de Villula moved the seat of the bishop from Wells to Bath in 1090. The church at Wells, no longer a cathedral, had a college of secular clergy.

 

The cathedral is thought to have been conceived and commenced in about 1175 by Reginald Fitz Jocelin, who died in 1191. Although it is clear from its size that from the outset, the church was planned to be the cathedral of the diocese, the seat of the bishop moved between Wells and the abbeys of Glastonbury and Bath, before settling at Wells. In 1197 Reginald's successor, Savaric FitzGeldewin, with the approval of Pope Celestine III, officially moved his seat to Glastonbury Abbey. The title of Bishop of Bath and Glastonbury was used until the Glastonbury claim was abandoned in 1219.

 

Savaric's successor, Jocelin of Wells, again moved the bishop's seat to Bath Abbey, with the title Bishop of Bath. Jocelin was a brother of Hugh (II) of Lincoln and was present at the signing of the Magna Carta. Jocelin continued the building campaign begun by Reginald and was responsible for the Bishop's Palace, the choristers' school, a grammar school, a hospital for travellers and a chapel. He also had a manor house built at Wookey, near Wells. Jocelin saw the church dedicated in 1239 but, despite much lobbying of the Pope by Jocelin's representatives in Rome, did not live to see cathedral status granted. The delay may have been a result of inaction by Pandulf Verraccio, a Roman ecclesiastical politician, papal legate to England and Bishop of Norwich, who was asked by the Pope to investigate the situation but did not respond. Jocelin died at Wells on 19 November 1242 and was buried in the choir of the cathedral; the memorial brass on his tomb is one of the earliest brasses in England. Following his death the monks of Bath unsuccessfully attempted to regain authority over Wells.

 

In 1245 the ongoing dispute over the title of the bishop was resolved by a ruling of Pope Innocent IV, who established the title as the "Bishop of Bath and Wells", which it has remained until this day, with Wells as the principal seat of the bishop. Since the 11th century the church has had a chapter of secular clergy, like the cathedrals of Chichester, Hereford, Lincoln and York. The chapter was endowed with 22 prebends (lands from which finance was drawn) and a provost to manage them. On acquiring cathedral status, in common with other such cathedrals, it had four chief clergy, the dean, precentor, chancellor and sacristan, who were responsible for the spiritual and material care of the cathedral.

 

The building programme, begun by Reginald Fitz Jocelin, Bishop in the 12th century, continued under Jocelin of Wells, who was a canon from 1200, then bishop from 1206. Adam Locke was master mason from about 1192 until 1230. It was designed in the new style with pointed arches, later known as Gothic, which was introduced at about the same time at Canterbury Cathedral. Work was halted between 1209 and 1213 when King John was excommunicated and Jocelin was in exile, but the main parts of the church were complete by the time of the dedication by Jocelin in 1239.

 

By the time the cathedral, including the chapter house, was finished in 1306, it was already too small for the developing liturgy, and unable to accommodate increasingly grand processions of clergy. John Droxford initiated another phase of building under master mason Thomas of Whitney, during which the central tower was heightened and an eight-sided Lady chapel was added at the east end by 1326. Ralph of Shrewsbury followed, continuing the eastward extension of the choir and retrochoir beyond. He oversaw the building of Vicars' Close and the Vicars' Hall, to give the men who were employed to sing in the choir a secure place to live and dine, away from the town and its temptations. He had an uneasy relationship with the citizens of Wells, partly because of his imposition of taxes, and he surrounded his palace with crenellated walls, a moat and a drawbridge.

 

John Harewell raised money for the completion of the west front by William Wynford, who was appointed as master mason in 1365. One of the foremost master masons of his time, Wynford worked for the king at Windsor, Winchester Cathedral and New College, Oxford. At Wells, he designed the western towers of which north-west was not built until the following century. In the 14th century, the central piers of the crossing were found to be sinking under the weight of the crossing tower which had been damaged by an earthquake in the previous century. Strainer arches, sometimes described as scissor arches, were inserted by master mason William Joy to brace and stabilise the piers as a unit.

 

By the reign of Henry VII the cathedral was complete, appearing much as it does today (though the fittings have changed). From 1508 to 1546, the eminent Italian humanist scholar Polydore Vergil was active as the chapter's representative in London. He donated a set of hangings for the choir of the cathedral. While Wells survived the Dissolution of the Monasteries better than the cathedrals of monastic foundation, the abolition of chantries in 1547 resulted in a reduction in its income. Medieval brasses were sold, and a pulpit was placed in the nave for the first time. Between 1551 and 1568, in two periods as dean, William Turner established a herb garden, which was recreated between 2003 and 2010.

 

Elizabeth I gave the chapter and the Vicars Choral a new charter in 1591, creating a new governing body, consisting of a dean and eight residentiary canons with control over the church estates and authority over its affairs, but no longer entitled to elect the dean (that entitlement thenceforward belonged ultimately to the Crown). The stability brought by the new charter ended with the onset of the Civil War and the execution of Charles I. Local fighting damaged the cathedral's stonework, furniture and windows. The dean, Walter Raleigh, a nephew of the explorer Walter Raleigh, was placed under house arrest after the fall of Bridgwater to the Parliamentarians in 1645, first in the rectory at Chedzoy and then in the deanery at Wells. His jailor, the shoe maker and city constable, David Barrett, caught him writing a letter to his wife. When he refused to surrender it, Barrett ran him through with a sword and he died six weeks later, on 10 October 1646. He was buried in an unmarked grave in the choir before the dean's stall. During the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell no dean was appointed and the cathedral fell into disrepair. The bishop went into retirement and some of the clerics were reduced to performing menial tasks.

 

In 1661, after Charles II was restored to the throne, Robert Creighton, the king's chaplain in exile, was appointed dean and was bishop for two years before his death in 1672. His brass lectern, given in thanksgiving, can be seen in the cathedral. He donated the nave's great west window at a cost of £140. Following Creighton's appointment as bishop, the post of dean went to Ralph Bathurst, who had been chaplain to the king, president of Trinity College, Oxford and fellow of the Royal Society. During Bathurst's long tenure the cathedral was restored, but in the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685, Puritan soldiers damaged the west front, tore lead from the roof to make bullets, broke the windows, smashed the organ and furnishings, and for a time stabled their horses in the nave.

 

Restoration began again under Thomas Ken who was appointed by the Crown in 1685 and served until 1691. He was one of seven bishops imprisoned for refusing to sign King James II's "Declaration of Indulgence", which would have enabled Catholics to resume positions of political power, but popular support led to their acquittal. Ken refused to take the oath of allegiance to William III and Mary II because James II had not abdicated and with others, known as the Nonjurors, was put out of office. His successor, Richard Kidder, was killed in the Great Storm of 1703 when two chimney stacks on the palace fell on him and his wife, while they were asleep in bed.

 

By the middle of the 19th century, a major restoration programme was needed. Under Dean Goodenough, the monuments were moved to the cloisters and the remaining medieval paint and whitewash removed in an operation known as "the great scrape". Anthony Salvin took charge of the extensive restoration of the choir. Wooden galleries installed in the 16th century were removed and the stalls were given stone canopies and placed further back within the line of the arcade. The medieval stone pulpitum screen was extended in the centre to support a new organ.

 

In 1933 the Friends of Wells Cathedral were formed to support the cathedral's chapter in the maintenance of the fabric, life and work of the cathedral. The late 20th century saw an extensive restoration programme, particularly of the west front. The stained glass is currently under restoration, with a programme underway to conserve the large 14th-century Jesse Tree window at the eastern terminal of the choir.

 

In January 2014, as part of the Bath film festival, the cathedral hosted a special screening of Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ. This provoked some controversy, but the church defended its decision to allow the screening.

 

In 2021, a contemporary sculpture by Anthony Gormley was unveiled on a temporary plinth outside the cathedral.

 

Since the 13th century, Wells Cathedral has been the seat of the Bishop of Bath and Wells. Its governing body, the chapter, is made up of five clerical canons (the dean, the precentor, the canon chancellor, the canon treasurer, and the archdeacon of Wells) and four lay members: the administrator (chief executive), Keeper of the Fabric, Overseer of the Estate and the chairman of the cathedral shop and catering boards. The current bishop of Bath and Wells is Peter Hancock, who was installed in a service in the cathedral on 7 June 2014. John Davies has been Dean of Wells since 2016.

 

Employed staff include the organist and master of choristers, head Verger archivist, librarian and the staff of the shop, café and restaurant. The chapter is advised by specialists such as architects, archaeologists and financial analysts.

 

More than a thousand services are held every year. There are daily services of Matins, Holy Communion and Choral Evensong, as well as major celebrations of Christian festivals such as Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and saints' days. The cathedral is also used for the baptisms, weddings and funerals of those with close connections to it. In July 2009 the cathedral undertook the funeral of Harry Patch, the last British Army veteran of World War I, who died at the age of 111.

 

Three Sunday services are led by the resident choir in school terms and choral services are sung on weekdays. The cathedral hosts visiting choirs and does outreach work with local schools as part of its Chorister Outreach Project. It is also a venue for musical events such as an annual concert by the Somerset Chamber Choir.

 

Each year about 150,000 people attend services and another 300,000 visit as tourists. Entry is free, but visitors are encouraged to make a donation towards the annual running costs of around £1.5 million in 2015.

 

Construction of the cathedral began in about 1175, to the design of an unknown master-mason. Wells is the first cathedral in England to be built, from its foundation, in Gothic style. According to art historian John Harvey, it is the first truly Gothic cathedral in the world, its architects having entirely dispensed with all features that bound the contemporary east end of Canterbury Cathedral and the earlier buildings of France, such as the east end of the Abbey of Saint Denis, to the Romanesque. Unlike these churches, Wells has clustered piers rather than columns and has a gallery of identical pointed arches rather than the typically Romanesque form of paired openings. The style, with its simple lancet arches without tracery and convoluted mouldings, is known as Early English Gothic.

 

From about 1192 to 1230, Adam Lock, the earliest master-mason at Wells for whom a name is known, continued the transept and nave in the same manner as his predecessor. Lock was also the builder of the north porch, to his own design.

 

The Early English west front was commenced around 1230 by Thomas Norreys, with building and sculpture continuing for thirty years. Its south-west tower was begun 100 years later and constructed between 1365 and 1395, and the north-west tower between 1425 and 1435, both in the Perpendicular Gothic style to the design of William Wynford, who also filled many of the cathedral's early English lancet windows with delicate tracery.

 

The undercroft and chapter house were built by unknown architects between 1275 and 1310, the undercroft in the Early English and the chapter house in the Geometric style of Decorated Gothic architecture. In about 1310 work commenced on the Lady Chapel, to the design of Thomas Witney, who also built the central tower from 1315 to 1322 in the Decorated Gothic style. The tower was later braced internally with arches by William Joy. Concurrent with this work, in 1329–45 Joy made alterations and extensions to the choir, joining it to the Lady Chapel with the retrochoir, the latter in the Flowing Decorated style.

 

Later changes include the Perpendicular vault of the tower and construction of Sugar's Chapel, 1475–1490 by William Smyth. Also, Gothic Revival renovations were made to the choir and pulpitum by Benjamin Ferrey and Anthony Salvin, 1842–1857.

 

Wells has a total length of 415 feet (126 m). Like Canterbury, Lincoln and Salisbury cathedrals, it has the distinctly English arrangement of two transepts, with the body of the church divided into distinct parts: nave, choir, and retro-choir, beyond which extends the Lady Chapel. The façade is wide, with its towers extending beyond the transepts on either side. There is a large projecting porch on the north side of the nave forming an entry into the cathedral. To the north-east is the large octagonal chapter house, entered from the north choir aisle by a passage and staircase. To the south of the nave is a large cloister, unusual in that the northern range, that adjacent the cathedral, was never built.

 

In section, the cathedral has the usual arrangement of a large church: a central nave with an aisle on each side, separated by two arcades. The elevation is in three stages, arcade, triforium gallery and clerestory. The nave is 67 feet (20 m) in height, very low compared to the Gothic cathedrals of France. It has a markedly horizontal emphasis, caused by the triforium having a unique form, a series of identical narrow openings, lacking the usual definition of the bays. The triforium is separated from the arcade by a single horizontal string course that runs unbroken the length of the nave. There are no vertical lines linking the three stages, as the shafts supporting the vault rise above the triforium.

 

The exterior of Wells Cathedral presents a relatively tidy and harmonious appearance since the greater part of the building was executed in a single style, Early English Gothic. This is uncommon among English cathedrals where the exterior usually exhibits a plethora of styles. At Wells, later changes in the Perpendicular style were universally applied, such as filling the Early English lancet windows with simple tracery, the construction of a parapet that encircles the roof, and the addition of pinnacles framing each gable, similar to those around the chapter house and on the west front. At the eastern end there is a proliferation of tracery with repeated motifs in the Reticulated style, a stage between Geometric and Flowing Decorated tracery.

 

The west front is 100 feet (30 m) high and 147 feet (45 m) wide, and built of Inferior Oolite of the Middle Jurassic period, which came from the Doulting Stone Quarry, about 8 miles (13 km) to the east. According to the architectural historian Alec Clifton-Taylor, it is "one of the great sights of England".

 

West fronts in general take three distinct forms: those that follow the elevation of the nave and aisles, those that have paired towers at the end of each aisle, framing the nave, and those that screen the form of the building. The west front at Wells has the paired-tower form, unusual in that the towers do not indicate the location of the aisles, but extend well beyond them, screening the dimensions and profile of the building.

 

The west front rises in three distinct stages, each clearly defined by a horizontal course. This horizontal emphasis is counteracted by six strongly projecting buttresses defining the cross-sectional divisions of nave, aisles and towers, and are highly decorated, each having canopied niches containing the largest statues on the façade.

 

At the lowest level of the façade is a plain base, contrasting with and stabilising the ornate arcades that rise above it. The base is penetrated by three doors, which are in stark contrast to the often imposing portals of French Gothic cathedrals. The outer two are of domestic proportion and the central door is ornamented only by a central post, quatrefoil and the fine mouldings of the arch.

 

Above the basement rise two storeys, ornamented with quatrefoils and niches originally holding about four hundred statues, with three hundred surviving until the mid-20th century. Since then, some have been restored or replaced, including the ruined figure of Christ in the gable.

 

The third stages of the flanking towers were both built in the Perpendicular style of the late 14th century, to the design of William Wynford; that on the north-west was not begun until about 1425. The design maintains the general proportions, and continues the strong projection of the buttresses.

 

The finished product has been criticised for its lack of pinnacles, and it is probable that the towers were intended to carry spires which were never built. Despite its lack of spires or pinnacles, the architectural historian Banister Fletcher describes it as "the highest development in English Gothic of this type of façade."

 

The sculptures on the west front at Wells include standing figures, seated figures, half-length angels and narratives in high relief. Many of the figures are life-sized or larger. Together they constitute the finest display of medieval carving in England. The figures and many of the architectural details were painted in bright colours, and the colouring scheme has been deduced from flakes of paint still adhering to some surfaces. The sculptures occupy nine architectural zones stretching horizontally across the entire west front and around the sides and the eastern returns of the towers which extend beyond the aisles. The strongly projecting buttresses have tiers of niches which contain many of the largest figures. Other large figures, including that of Christ, occupy the gable. A single figure stands in one of two later niches high on the northern tower.

 

In 1851 the archaeologist Charles Robert Cockerell published his analysis of the iconography, numbering the nine sculptural divisions from the lowest to the highest. He defined the theme as "a calendar for unlearned men" illustrating the doctrines and history of the Christian faith, its introduction to Britain and its protection by princes and bishops. He likens the arrangement and iconography to the Te Deum.

 

According to Cockerell, the side of the façade that is to the south of the central door is the more sacred and the scheme is divided accordingly. The lowest range of niches each contained a standing figure, of which all but four figures on the west front, two on each side, have been destroyed. More have survived on the northern and eastern sides of the north tower. Cockerell speculates that those to the south of the portal represented prophets and patriarchs of the Old Testament while those to the north represented early missionaries to Britain, of which Augustine of Canterbury, St Birinus, and Benedict Biscop are identifiable by their attributes. In the second zone, above each pair of standing figures, is a quatrefoil containing a half-length angel in relief, some of which have survived. Between the gables of the niches are quatrefoils that contain a series of narratives from the Bible, with the Old Testament stories to the south, above the prophets and patriarchs, and those from the New Testament to the north. A horizontal course runs around the west front dividing the architectural storeys at this point.

 

Above the course, zones four and five, as identified by Cockerell, contain figures which represent the Christian Church in Britain, with the spiritual lords such as bishops, abbots, abbesses and saintly founders of monasteries on the south, while kings, queens and princes occupy the north. Many of the figures survive and many have been identified in the light of their various attributes. There is a hierarchy of size, with the more significant figures larger and enthroned in their niches rather than standing. Immediately beneath the upper course are a series of small niches containing dynamic sculptures of the dead coming forth from their tombs on the Day of Judgement. Although naked, some of the dead are defined as royalty by their crowns and others as bishops by their mitres. Some emerge from their graves with joy and hope, and others with despair.

 

The niches in the lowest zone of the gable contain nine angels, of which Cockerell identifies Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel. In the next zone are the taller figures of the twelve apostles, some, such as John, Andrew and Bartholomew, clearly identifiable by the attributes that they carry. The uppermost niches of the gable contained the figure of Christ the Judge at the centre, with the Virgin Mary on his right and John the Baptist on his left. The figures all suffered from iconoclasm. A new statue of Jesus was carved for the central niche, but the two side niches now contain cherubim. Christ and the Virgin Mary are also represented by now headless figures in a Coronation of the Virgin in a niche above the central portal. A damaged figure of the Virgin and Christ Child occupies a quatrefoil in the spandrel of the door.

 

The central tower appears to date from the early 13th century. It was substantially reconstructed in the early 14th century during the remodelling of the east end, necessitating the internal bracing of the piers a decade or so later. In the 14th century the tower was given a timber and lead spire which burnt down in 1439. The exterior was then reworked in the Perpendicular style and given the present parapet and pinnacles. Alec Clifton-Taylor describes it as "outstanding even in Somerset, a county famed for the splendour of its church towers".

 

The north porch is described by art historian Nikolaus Pevsner as "sumptuously decorated", and intended as the main entrance. Externally it is simple and rectangular with plain side walls. The entrance is a steeply arched portal framed by rich mouldings of eight shafts with stiff-leaf capitals each encircled by an annular moulding at middle height. Those on the left are figurative, containing images representing the martyrdom of St Edmund the Martyr. The walls are lined with deep niches framed by narrow shafts with capitals and annulets like those of the portal. The path to the north porch is lined by four sculptures in Purbeck stone, each by Mary Spencer Watson, representing the symbols of the Evangelists.

 

The cloisters were built in the late 13th century and largely rebuilt from 1430 to 1508 and have wide openings divided by mullions and transoms, and tracery in the Perpendicular Gothic style. The vault has lierne ribs that form octagons at the centre of each compartment, the joints of each rib having decorative bosses. The eastern range is of two storeys, of which the upper is the library built in the 15th century.

 

Because Wells Cathedral was secular rather than monastic, cloisters were not a practical necessity. They were omitted from several other secular cathedrals but were built here and at Chichester. Explanations for their construction at these two secular cathedrals range from the processional to the aesthetic. As at Chichester, there is no northern range to the cloisters. In monastic cloisters it was the north range, benefiting most from winter sunlight, that was often used as a scriptorium.

 

In 1969, when a large chunk of stone fell from a statue near the main door, it became apparent that there was an urgent need for restoration of the west front. Detailed studies of the stonework and of conservation practices were undertaken under the cathedral architect, Alban D. R. Caroe and a restoration committee formed. The methods selected were those devised by Eve and Robert Baker. W. A. (Bert) Wheeler, clerk of works to the cathedral 1935–1978, had previously experimented with washing and surface treatment of architectural carvings on the building and his techniques were among those tried on the statues.

 

The conservation was carried out between 1974 and 1986, wherever possible using non-invasive procedures such as washing with water and a solution of lime, filling gaps and damaged surfaces with soft mortar to prevent the ingress of water and stabilising statues that were fracturing through corrosion of metal dowels. The surfaces were finished by painting with a thin coat of mortar and silane to resist further erosion and attack by pollutants. The restoration of the façade revealed much paint adhering to the statues and their niches, indicating that it had once been brightly coloured.

 

The particular character of this Early English interior is dependent on the proportions of the simple lancet arches. It is also dependent on the refinement of the architectural details, in particular the mouldings.

 

The arcade, which takes the same form in the nave, choir and transepts, is distinguished by the richness of both mouldings and carvings. Each pier of the arcade has a surface enrichment of 24 slender shafts in eight groups of three, rising beyond the capitals to form the deeply undulating mouldings of the arches. The capitals themselves are remarkable for the vitality of the stylised foliage, in a style known as "stiff-leaf". The liveliness contrasts with the formality of the moulded shafts and the smooth unbroken areas of ashlar masonry in the spandrels. Each capital is different, and some contain small figures illustrating narratives.

 

The vault of the nave rises steeply in a simple quadripartite form, in harmony with the nave arcade. The eastern end of the choir was extended and the whole upper part elaborated in the second quarter of the 14th century by William Joy. The vault has a multiplicity of ribs in a net-like form, which is very different from that of the nave, and is perhaps a recreation in stone of a local type of compartmented wooden roof of which examples remain from the 15th century, including those at St Cuthbert's Church, Wells. The vaults of the aisles of the choir also have a unique pattern.

 

Until the early 14th century, the interior of the cathedral was in a unified style, but it was to undergo two significant changes, to the tower and to the eastern end. Between 1315 and 1322 the central tower was heightened and topped by a spire, which caused the piers that supported it to show signs of stress. In 1338 the mason William Joy employed an unorthodox solution by inserting low arches topped by inverted arches of similar dimensions, forming scissors-like structures. These arches brace the piers of the crossing on three sides, while the easternmost side is braced by a choir screen. The bracing arches are known as "St Andrew's Cross arches", in a reference to the patron saint of the cathedral. They have been described by Wim Swaan – rightly or wrongly – as "brutally massive" and intrusive in an otherwise restrained interior.

 

Wells Cathedral has a square east end to the choir, as is usual, and like several other cathedrals including Salisbury and Lichfield, has a lower Lady Chapel projecting at the eastern end, begun by Thomas Witney in about 1310, possibly before the chapter house was completed. The Lady Chapel seems to have begun as a free-standing structure in the form of an elongated octagon, but the plan changed and it was linked to the eastern end by extension of the choir and construction of a second transept or retrochoir east of the choir, probably by William Joy.

 

The Lady Chapel has a vault of complex and somewhat irregular pattern, as the chapel is not symmetrical about both axes. The main ribs are intersected by additional non-supporting, lierne ribs, which in this case form a star-shaped pattern at the apex of the vault. It is one of the earliest lierne vaults in England. There are five large windows, of which four are filled with fragments of medieval glass. The tracery of the windows is in the style known as Reticulated Gothic, having a pattern of a single repeated shape, in this case a trefoil, giving a "reticulate" or net-like appearance.

 

The retrochoir extends across the east end of the choir and into the east transepts. At its centre the vault is supported by a remarkable structure of angled piers. Two of these are placed as to complete the octagonal shape of the Lady Chapel, a solution described by Francis Bond as "an intuition of Genius". The piers have attached shafts of marble, and, with the vaults that they support, create a vista of great complexity from every angle. The windows of the retrochoir are in the Reticulated style like those of the Lady Chapel, but are fully Flowing Decorated in that the tracery mouldings form ogival curves.

 

The chapter house was begun in the late 13th century and built in two stages, completed about 1310. It is a two-storeyed structure with the main chamber raised on an undercroft. It is entered from a staircase which divides and turns, one branch leading through the upper storey of Chain Gate to Vicars' Close. The Decorated interior is described by Alec Clifton-Taylor as "architecturally the most beautiful in England". It is octagonal, with its ribbed vault supported on a central column. The column is surrounded by shafts of Purbeck Marble, rising to a single continuous rippling foliate capital of stylised oak leaves and acorns, quite different in character from the Early English stiff-leaf foliage. Above the moulding spring 32 ribs of strong profile, giving an effect generally likened to "a great palm tree". The windows are large with Geometric Decorated tracery that is beginning to show an elongation of form, and ogees in the lesser lights that are characteristic of Flowing Decorated tracery. The tracery lights still contain ancient glass. Beneath the windows are 51 stalls, the canopies of which are enlivened by carvings including many heads carved in a light-hearted manner.

 

Wells Cathedral contains one of the most substantial collections of medieval stained glass in England, despite damage by Parliamentary troops in 1642 and 1643. The oldest surviving glass dates from the late 13th century and is in two windows on the west side of the chapter-house staircase. Two windows in the south choir aisle are from 1310 to 1320.

 

The Lady Chapel has five windows, of which four date from 1325 to 1330 and include images of a local saint, Dunstan. The east window was restored to a semblance of its original appearance by Thomas Willement in 1845. The other windows have complete canopies, but the pictorial sections are fragmented.

 

The east window of the choir is a broad, seven-light window dating from 1340 to 1345. It depicts the Tree of Jesse (the genealogy of Christ) and demonstrates the use of silver staining, a new technique that allowed the artist to paint details on the glass in yellow, as well as black. The combination of yellow and green glass and the application of the bright yellow stain gives the window its popular name, the "Golden Window". It is flanked by two windows each side in the clerestory, with large figures of saints, also dated to 1340–45. In 2010 a major conservation programme was undertaken on the Jesse Tree window.

 

The panels in the chapel of St Katherine are attributed to Arnold of Nijmegen and date from about 1520. They were acquired from the destroyed church of Saint-Jean, Rouen, with the last panel having been purchased in 1953.

 

The large triple lancet to the nave west end was glazed at the expense of Dean Creighton at a cost of £140 in 1664. It was repaired in 1813, and the central light was largely replaced to a design by Archibald Keightley Nicholson between 1925 and 1931. The main north and south transept end windows by James Powell and Sons were erected in the early 20th century.

 

The greater part of the stone carving of Wells Cathedral comprises foliate capitals in the stiff-leaf style. They are found ornamenting the piers of the nave, choir and transepts. Stiff-leaf foliage is highly abstract. Though possibly influenced by carvings of acanthus leaves or vine leaves, it cannot be easily identified with any particular plant. Here the carving of the foliage is varied and vigorous, the springing leaves and deep undercuts casting shadows that contrast with the surface of the piers. In the transepts and towards the crossing in the nave the capitals have many small figurative carvings among the leaves. These include a man with toothache and a series of four scenes depicting the "Wages of Sin" in a narrative of fruit stealers who creep into an orchard and are then beaten by the farmer. Another well-known carving is in the north transept aisle: a foliate corbel, on which climbs a lizard, sometimes identified as a salamander, a symbol of eternal life.

 

Carvings in the Decorated Gothic style may be found in the eastern end of the buildings, where there are many carved bosses. In the chapter house, the carvings of the 51 stalls include numerous small heads of great variety, many of them smiling or laughing. A well-known figure is the corbel of the dragon-slaying monk in the chapter house stair. The large continuous capital that encircles the central pillar of the chapter house is markedly different in style to the stiff-leaf of the Early English period. In contrast to the bold projections and undercutting of the earlier work, it has a rippling form and is clearly identifiable as grapevine.

 

The 15th-century cloisters have many small bosses ornamenting the vault. Two in the west cloister, near the gift shop and café, have been called sheela na gigs, i. e. female figures displaying their genitals and variously judged to depict the sin of lust or stem from ancient fertility cults.

 

Wells Cathedral has one of the finest sets of misericords in Britain. Its clergy has a long tradition of singing or reciting from the Book of Psalms each day, along with the customary daily reading of the Holy Office. In medieval times the clergy assembled in the church eight times daily for the canonical hours. As the greater part of the services was recited while standing, many monastic or collegiate churches fitted stalls whose seats tipped up to provide a ledge for the monk or cleric to lean against. These were "misericords" because their installation was an act of mercy. Misericords typically have a carved figurative bracket beneath the ledge framed by two floral motifs known, in heraldic manner, as "supporters".

 

The misericords date from 1330 to 1340. They may have been carved under the direction of Master Carpenter John Strode, although his name is not recorded before 1341. He was assisted by Bartholomew Quarter, who is documented from 1343. They originally numbered 90, of which 65 have survived. Sixty-one are installed in the choir, three are displayed in the cathedral, and one is held by the Victoria and Albert Museum. New stalls were ordered when the eastern end of the choir was extended in the early 14th century. The canons complained that they had borne the cost of the rebuilding and ordered the prebendary clerics to pay for their own stalls. When the newly refurbished choir opened in 1339 many misericords were left unfinished, including one-fifth of the surviving 65. Many of the clerics had not paid, having been called to contribute a total sum of £200. The misericords survived better than the other sections of the stalls, which during the Protestant Reformation had their canopies chopped off and galleries inserted above them. One misericord, showing a boy pulling a thorn from his foot, dates from the 17th century. In 1848 came a complete rearrangement of the choir furniture, and 61 of the misericords were reused in the restructured stalls.

 

The subject matter of the carvings of the central brackets as misericords varies, but many themes recur in different churches. Typically the themes are less unified or directly related to the Bible and Christian theology than small sculptures seen elsewhere within churches, such as bosses. This applies at Wells, where none of the misericord carvings is directly based on a Bible story. The subjects, chosen either by the woodcarver, or perhaps by the one paying for the stall, have no overriding theme. The sole unifying elements are the roundels on each side of the pictorial subject, which all show elaborately carved foliage, in most cases formal and stylised in the later Decorated manner, but with several examples of naturalistic foliage, including roses and bindweed. Many of the subjects carry traditional interpretations. The image of the "Pelican in her Piety" (believed to feed her young on her own blood) is a recognised symbol for Christ's love for the Church. A cat playing with a mouse may represent the Devil snaring a human soul. Other subjects illustrate popular fables or sayings such as "When the fox preaches, look to your geese". Many depict animals, some of which may symbolise a human vice or virtue, or an aspect of faith.

 

Twenty-seven of the carvings depict animals: rabbits, dogs, a puppy biting a cat, a ewe feeding a lamb, monkeys, lions, bats, and the Early Christian motif of two doves drinking from a ewer. Eighteen have mythological subjects, including mermaids, dragons and wyverns. Five are clearly narrative, such as the Fox and the Geese, and the story of Alexander the Great being raised to Heaven by griffins. There are three heads: a bishop in a mitre, an angel, and a woman wearing a veil over hair arranged in coils over each ear. Eleven carvings show human figures, among which are several of remarkable design, conceived by the artist specifically for their purpose of supporting a shelf. One figure lies beneath the seat, supporting the shelf with a cheek, a hand and a foot. Another sits in a contorted manner supporting the weight on his elbow, while a further figure squats with his knees wide apart and a strained look on his face.

 

Some of the cathedral's fittings and monuments are hundreds of years old. The brass lectern in the Lady Chapel dates from 1661 and has a moulded stand and foliate crest. In the north transept chapel is a 17th-century oak screen with columns, formerly used in cow stalls, with artisan Ionic capitals and cornice, set forward over the chest tomb of John Godelee. There is a bound oak chest from the 14th century, which was used to store the chapter seal and key documents. The bishop's throne dates from 1340, and has a panelled, canted front and stone doorway, and a deep nodding cusped ogee canopy above it, with three-stepped statue niches and pinnacles. The throne was restored by Anthony Salvin around 1850. Opposite the throne is a 19th-century octagonal pulpit on a coved base with panelled sides, and steps up from the north aisle. The round font in the south transept is from the former Saxon cathedral and has an arcade of round-headed arches, on a round plinth. The font cover was made in 1635 and is decorated with the heads of putti. The Chapel of St Martin is a memorial to every Somerset man who fell in World War I.

 

The monuments and tombs include Gisa, bishop; † 1088; William of Bitton, bishop; † 1274; William of March, bishop; † 1302; John Droxford; † 1329; John Godelee; † 1333; John Middleton, died †1350; Ralph of Shrewsbury, died †; John Harewell, bishop; † 1386; William Bykonyll; † c. 1448; John Bernard; † 1459; Thomas Beckington; † died 1464; John Gunthorpe; † 1498; John Still; † 1607; Robert Creighton; † 1672; Richard Kidder, bishop; † 1703; George Hooper, bishop; † 1727 and Arthur Harvey, bishop; † 1894.

 

In the north transept is Wells Cathedral clock, an astronomical clock from about 1325 believed to be by Peter Lightfoot, a monk of Glastonbury. Its mechanism, dated between 1386 and 1392, was replaced in the 19th century and the original moved to the Science Museum in London, where it still operates. It is the second oldest surviving clock in England after the Salisbury Cathedral clock.

 

The clock has its original medieval face. Apart from the time on a 24-hour dial, it shows the motion of the Sun and Moon, the phases of the Moon, and the time since the last new Moon. The astronomical dial presents a geocentric or pre-Copernican view, with the Sun and Moon revolving round a central fixed Earth, like that of the clock at Ottery St Mary. The quarters are chimed by a quarter jack: a small automaton known as Jack Blandifers, who hits two bells with hammers and two with his heels. At the striking of the clock, jousting knights appear above the clock face.

 

On the outer wall of the transept, opposite Vicars' Hall, is a second clock face of the same clock, placed there just over seventy years after the interior clock and driven by the same mechanism. The second clock face has two quarter jacks (which strike on the quarter-hour) in the form of knights in armour.

 

In 2010 the official clock-winder retired and was replaced by an electric mechanism.

 

The first record of an organ at this church dates from 1310. A smaller organ, probably for the Lady Chapel, was installed in 1415. In 1620 an organ built by Thomas Dallam was installed at a cost of £398 1s 5d.

 

The 1620 organ was destroyed by parliamentary soldiers in 1643. An organ built in 1662 was enlarged in 1786 and again in 1855. In 1909–1910 an organ was built by Harrison & Harrison of Durham, with the best parts of the old organ retained. It has been serviced by the same company ever since.

 

Since November 1996 the cathedral has also had a portable chamber organ, by the Scottish makers, Lammermuir. It is used regularly to accompany performances of Tudor and baroque music.

 

The first recorded organist of Wells was Walter Bagele (or Vageler) in 1416. The post of organist or assistant organist has been held by more than 60 people since. Peter Stanley Lyons was Master of Choristers at Wells Cathedral, and Director of Music at Wells Cathedral School in 1954–1960. The choral conductor James William Webb-Jones, father of Lyons's wife Bridget (whom he married in the cathedral), was Headmaster of Wells Cathedral School in 1955–1960. Malcolm Archer was the appointed Organist and Master of the Choristers from 1996 to 2004. Matthew Owens was the appointed organist from 2005 to 2019.

 

There has been a choir of boy choristers at Wells since 909. Currently there are 18 boy choristers and a similar number of girl choristers, aged from eight to fourteen. The Vicars Choral was formed in the 12th century and the sung liturgy provided by a traditional cathedral choir of men and boys until the formation of an additional choir of girls in 1994. The boys and girls sing alternately with the Vicars Choral and are educated at Wells Cathedral School.

 

The Vicars Choral currently number twelve men, of whom three are choral scholars. Since 1348 the College of Vicars had its own accommodation in a quadrangle converted in the early 15th century to form Vicar's Close. The Vicars Choral generally perform with the choristers, except on Wednesdays, when they sing alone, allowing them to present a different repertoire, in particular plainsong.

 

In December 2010 Wells Cathedral Choir was rated by Gramophone magazine as "the highest ranking choir with children in the world". It continues to provide music for the liturgy at Sunday and weekday services. The choir has made many recordings and toured frequently, including performances in Beijing and Hong Kong in 2012. Its repertoire ranges from the choral music of the Renaissance to recently commissioned works.

 

The Wells Cathedral Chamber Choir is a mixed adult choir of 25 members, formed in 1986 to sing at the midnight service on Christmas Eve, and invited to sing at several other special services. It now sings for about 30 services a year, when the Cathedral Choir is in recess or on tour, and spends one week a year singing as the "choir in residence" at another cathedral. Although primarily liturgical, the choir's repertoire includes other forms of music, as well as performances at engagements such as weddings and funerals.

 

The cathedral is home to Wells Cathedral Oratorio Society (WCOS), founded in 1896. With around 160 voices, the society gives three concerts a year under the direction of Matthew Owens, Organist and Master of the Choristers at the cathedral. Concerts are normally in early November, December (an annual performance of Handel's Messiah) and late March. It performs with a number of specialist orchestras including: Music for Awhile, Chameleon Arts and La Folia.

 

The bells at Wells Cathedral are the heaviest ring of ten bells in the world, the tenor bell (the 10th and largest), known as Harewell, weighing 56.25 long hundredweight (2,858 kg). They are hung for full-circle ringing in the English style of change ringing. These bells are now hung in the south-west tower, although some were originally hung in the central tower.

 

The library above the eastern cloister was built between 1430 and 1508. Its collection is in three parts: early documents housed in the Muniment Room; the collection predating 1800 housed in the Chained Library; and the post-1800 collection housed in the Reading Room. The chapter's earlier collection was destroyed during the Reformation, so that the present library consists chiefly of early printed books, rather than medieval manuscripts. The earlier books in the Chained Library number 2,800 volumes and give an indication of the variety of interests of the members of the cathedral chapter from the Reformation until 1800. The focus of the collection is predominantly theology, but there are volumes on science, medicine, exploration, and languages. Books of particular interest include Pliny's Natural History printed in 1472, an Atlas of the World by Abraham Ortelius, printed in 1606, and a set of the works by Aristotle that once belonged to Erasmus. The library is open to the public at appointed times in the summer and presents a small exhibition of documents and books.

 

Three early registers of the Dean and Chapter edited by W. H. B. Bird for the Historical Manuscripts Commissioners – Liber Albus I (White Book; R I), Liber Albus II (R III) and Liber Ruber (Red Book; R II, section i) – were published in 1907. They contain with some repetition, a cartulary of possessions of the cathedral, with grants of land back to the 8th century, well before hereditary surnames developed in England, and acts of the Dean and Chapter and surveys of their estates, mostly in Somerset.

 

Adjacent to the cathedral is a large lawned area, Cathedral Green, with three ancient gateways: Brown's Gatehouse, Penniless Porch and Chain Gate. On the green is the 12th-century Old Deanery, largely rebuilt in the late 15th century by Dean Gunthorpe and remodelled by Dean Bathurst in the late 17th century. No longer the dean's residence, it is used as diocesan offices.

 

To the south of the cathedral is the moated Bishop's Palace, begun about 1210 by Jocelin of Wells but dating mostly from the 1230s. In the 15th century Thomas Beckington added a north wing, now the bishop's residence. It was restored and extended by Benjamin Ferrey between 1846 and 1854.

 

To the north of the cathedral and connected to it by the Chain Gate is Vicars' Close, a street planned in the 14th century and claimed to be the oldest purely residential street in Europe, with all but one of its original buildings intact. Buildings in the close include the Vicars Hall and gateway at the south end, and the Vicars Chapel and Library at the north end.

 

The Liberty of St Andrew was the historic liberty and parish that encompassed the cathedral and surrounding lands closely associated with it.

 

The English painter J. M. W. Turner visited Wells in 1795, making sketches of the precinct and a water colour of the west front, now in the Tate gallery. Other artists whose paintings of the cathedral are in national collections are Albert Goodwin, John Syer and Ken Howard.

 

The cathedral served to inspire Ken Follett's 1989 novel The Pillars of the Earth and with a modified central tower, featured as the fictional Kingsbridge Cathedral at the end of the 2010 television adaptation of that novel. The interior of the cathedral was used for a 2007 Doctor Who episode, "The Lazarus Experiment", while the exterior shots were filmed at Southwark Cathedral.

 

An account of the damage to the cathedral during the Monmouth Rebellion is included in Arthur Conan Doyle's 1889 historical novel Micah Clarke.

 

The cathedral provided scenes for the 2019–2020 television series The Spanish Princess.

The story of Lucy Kensington - book 1

 

Chapter 1 - Becoming her true self

Chapter 2 - A growing latex fetish

Chapter 3 - Day at the beach

Chapter 4 - Sadie Sinclair

Chapter 5 - The life as a Rubberdoll

Chapter 6 - Woman wars - need to do

Chapter 7 - Wet heatwave

Chapter 8 - The letter

  

Chapter 3 - Day at the beach

 

A year later, when Lucy turned eighteen, she had officially replaced every single item in her wardrobe with latex. Her closet was a sea of high-shine black rubber, and she lived for the maximum-gloss look. Despite her transformation, she still hadn't spoken a single word to Sadie. She had passed Sadie from afar in the city three times, but she always felt far too shy to walk up to her, completely lost on what to say or do. Because Lucy was always clad head-to-toe in brilliant latex, she secretly hoped Sadie would notice her and approach her first, but it hadn't happened yet. Once, Lucy spotted Sadie at the mall looking spectacular in a sexy pink and purple latex outfit, but since Sadie was walking with her mother and father, Lucy didn't dare disrupt them.

 

Then came an intensely hot summer day. Seeing that Lucy was upset about her inability to talk to her crush, Leena decided to cheer her up by taking her to the beach.

 

As they prepared to leave, Lucy walked out wearing a full black latex outfit piled on in three latex layers.

 

Leena gasped. "You’re wearing that to the beach? It’s going to be like 34°C today! You’re going to absolutely cook!"

 

"I'll be fine," Lucy said, her voice laced with arousal. "Getting hot and sweaty inside all this rubber going to feel so good."

 

Leena shook her head in disbelief. "Latex Lucy... fine. But I am packing a lots of water, and you better actually drink it this time. I am not dealing with you complaining that you're wearing too many layers to use the bathroom again. You're drinking it because you're going to sweat. Ahh... come on then, get in the car."

 

While Leena was in the driver's seat waiting for the air conditioning to cool the car down, Jasper ran up to the window. He was dressed in a simple blue t-shirt and light-blue shorts with a white baseball cap. "Can I go to the beach too?" he begged.

 

Lucy, completely horny and loving the intense feeling of her latex-clad self simmering in the sunshine, said nothing.

 

Leena frowned at her sixteen-year-old brother. "It’s supposed to be a girls' day out, Jasper. We don’t want you messing it up like you always do."

 

"But I won't!" Jasper pleaded.

 

"You said that last time at the zoo," Lucy chimed in with a sweet, mocking voice.

 

Leena sighed. "Fine... just get in the car."

 

Jasper jumped into the back seat. As the car pulled away, his arm brushed against Lucy's shiny shoulder. "Wow, it's so warm. Are you seriously okay under all that, sis?"

 

"Yeah," Lucy purred. "Loving it."

 

As Leena navigated the streets of New Orivan, Jasper's phone buzzed. "I just got a text. Can we pick up Miles? He said he wants to go to the beach too."

 

Lucy, idly stroking her tight latex leggings, groaned. "Not Miles Maddock."

 

"No way!" Leena shouted. "Last time he got blue ice cream all over the back seat!"

 

"But, but—!" Jasper cried.

 

"Jasper, shut up! It was bright blue ice cream, and you can still see the stains! I'm driving!" Leena yelled.

 

Just then, Lucy glanced out the window and spotted the familiar storefront of Shiny Beauty. Displayed right in the front glass was a gorgeous, sleek summer hat.

 

"Stop the car right now!" Lucy ordered.

 

Leena slammed on the brakes so hard she thought a giant stinger bug had flown into the vehicle. "What?!"

 

"I need to do a little latex shopping before we go," Lucy said, already opening her door.

 

Jasper unbuckled his seatbelt. "Why right now?"

 

Leena hopped out of the car to follow her sister. Seeing Jasper trying to climb out too, she snapped, "No, you stay in the car!"

 

"But I want to come!" Jasper complained.

 

"You're sixteen and mistress Kingsley will kick you right out," Leena fired back, shutting the door.

 

Inside the boutique, Lucy immediately purchased a shiny black latex summer hat for 120Vt. To complete the extreme look, she also bought a full black latex face-covering for 60Vt, leaving absolutely nothing exposed except for her eyes.

 

Walking back out to the street, Leena stared at her transformed sister. "Yes, fine, you look great, and yes, it’s a nice outfit. But you are definitely taking that mask off the second it gets too hot."

 

Instead of answering, Lucy turned right back around and headed straight into the shop again. "Wait in the car," she instructed Leena. Ten minutes later, Lucy finally emerged, holdinf an 2nd shiny black latex hat and adjusting her skirt with a sly expression. "Forgot something," she whispered.

 

When they got back to the car, they found Miles Maddock already standing there, chatting through the window with Jasper. Miles took one look at the incredibly shiny, masked, head-to-toe latex version of Lucy walking toward them and gasped, "Wow!"

 

Jasper looked sheepish. "Leena, I'm sorry, but—"

 

"Just get in the car," Leena interrupted to miles and Lucy, utterly exhausted.

 

They all piled in, Leena started driving toward the beach. A few minutes into the trip, a distinct, heavy vibrating sound began echoing from deep down inside Lucy’s rubber skirt. Bzzzzzz... Bzzzzzz...

 

Miles looking around. "What’s that sound?"

 

Leena glanced over at Lucy, letting out a massive, defeated sigh. "You didn't."

 

Through the tight black rubber of her face mask, Leena could see the unmistakable shape of a massive grin forming. Lucy’s wide, lust-filled eyes said everything. Being covered in layers of tight rubber wasn't enough for her; Lucy had gone back into the shop specifically to buy latex dildos, and she had turned them on high and packed them inside herself right before getting into the car.

 

"It's... just her phone," Leena lied quickly to Miles.

 

The loud, rhythmic buzzing went on and on.

 

"Are you going to answer that phone?" Miles asked, leaning forward.

 

"Yeah, it could be Mom, since I didn't tell her I was leaving," Jasper added.

 

Leena snapped at her brother in the rearview mirror. "What do you mean you didn't tell Mom?! Ugh, fine, I’ll text her in a bit!"

 

"What about the phone?" Miles pressed, staring at the back of Lucy.

 

"She can't get to it right now! I'm driving!" Leena yelled, pressing her foot hard on the gas.

 

By the time they finally pulled into the beach parking the car, Lucy was in absolute ecstasy. Leena handed Jasper and Miles 20Vt each. "Go, run off and buy something," she ordered. The boys took the money and immediately sprinted toward the boardwalk.

 

As the car doors closed, Lucy stepped out onto the hot pavement, trembling slightly as she experienced a massive, intense orgasm right there in her layers of rubber.

 

Leena stared at her, completely flabbergasted. "I cannot believe you went back into the store for toys."

 

Lucy leaned against the car, panting heavily beneath her mask.

 

"I know you play with those at home," Leena scolded, "but this is a public beach! And your underage brother was in the back seat! Like it or not, you're keeping those toys inside you all day now. I am not driving home until the end of the day, and I can't leave because your brother ran off with Miles."

 

Lucy looked at her sister through her narrow eye-holes, her voice completely thick with latex lust. "I'm a rubberdolly."

 

Lucy handed her phone over to her sister. "Take some nice photos of me on the beach for my latex photo book," she requested.

 

Leena took the device, the distinct buzzing of the toys still humming in her ears. She shook her head. "You are such a naughty girl, Lucy... I honestly have no idea how we are related."

 

Despite her complaints, Leena held up the phone and started snapping pictures of her rubberdoll sister as Lucy posed gracefully like a professional fetish model on a high-end shoot.

 

After a few minutes of posing on the beach, Lucy then walked toward the shoreline, her heavy boots splashing into the surf. Leena followed close behind. Lucy lay right down in the shallow water, letting the cool, refreshing waves crash completely over her layers of rubber. Lucy’s eyes rolled back in absolute bliss; the sensation of the cold water rushing over the hot, tight latex turned her on even more.

 

"I think it’s best you stay here in the water for a while," Leena joked, taking a few more photos.

 

Deciding she needed to cool off too, Leena waded right into the surf, completely soaking the bottom of her white skater dress. She sat down in the shallow water right next to her shiny sister. "See? This is nice. We can both cool off for a bit." Leena reached over, gently adjusting a loose section of Lucy’s unzipped latex jacket to lay it neatly over her. They sat together in the surf for a while, watching the waves roll continuously over Lucy’s shiny frame.

 

After about half an hour, a group of shirtless men strolled by, stopping dead in their tracks when they spotted the pair.

 

"Who's the babe? Hot or what?" one of them muttered.

 

Another chuckled, eyeing Lucy's outfit. "Is this a sub and dom thing, or just two hot bisexuals out for some fun?"

 

Lucy quickly zipped her jacket a bit as Leena snapped into action. She stood up out of the water, crossing her arms defensively. "This is my little sister, and she is not a dom, a sub, or my girlfriend! If she loves latex, then that’s up to her! Now get lost—she’s a lesbian anyway!"

 

The men backed off, holding their hands up. As they walked away, one muttered, "The one in white is definitely the dom."

 

Another added, "Yeah, that kitty's got her claws out."

 

Leena reached down, helping Lucy up out of the water, and gave her a quick, reassuring hug. "Do you want to go get an ice cream?"

 

Lucy nodded happily. They walked over to a shaded area near the boardwalk to cool off. Sitting in the shade, Lucy finally pulled off her latex face covering so she could enjoy her ice cream with her sister.

 

Deep beneath her rubber skirt, the toys were still loudly buzzing away.

 

Leena sighed, lowering her voice. "Look, I get it. You're horny, and being in your latex fetish must be great for you. But seriously... everyone can hear them."

 

Lucy swallowed a spoonful of ice cream. "Just tell them it's my phone in my bag."

 

"But you don't even have a bag with you!" Leena countered.

 

"Just say it's my phone," Lucy insisted with a stubborn smile. "I’m not turning them off, while they're turning me on."

 

"Your brother will be back in a bit," Leena warned, rolling her eyes. "And they're going to keep going on and on about your invisible phone."

 

Lucy just giggled, completely unbothered.

 

Leena eventually walked Lucy back to the car and helped her into the passenger seat. Over the next half hour of waiting, Lucy quietly experienced eight more intense orgasms.

 

Finally, Jasper and Miles came sprinting back to the car, completely armed with massive plastic super soakers. Miles instantly pumped the handle and fired a stream of water toward the car. Leena got out of the way, but the blast hit Lucy squarely in the face.

 

"Miles!" Leena shouted, her voice echoing across the parking lot. "Do you want to walk home?!"

 

Miles blinked, holding his water gun. "But her latex outfit is waterproof!"

 

"Yeah, but my car isn’t!" Leena fired back. She grabbed a towel from the back seat, leaning into the passenger side to gently wipe the water off Lucy’s face.

 

"It's fine," Lucy murmured, her eyes still glazed with pleasure.

 

With the chaotic day finally coming to an end, Leena started the engine. She dropped Miles off at his house first, before driving back home with Jasper and her blissfully exhausted, high-shine sister.

  

More about Lucy

 

Name: Lucy Kensington

 

Nick-name: Latex Lucy

 

Her parents: Lacey Kensington and Mark Kensington

 

Siblings: Jasper Kensington (2 years younger) & Leena Kensington (2 years older)

 

Pet: Fish named Orange

 

Owned by: Sadie Sinclair

 

Birthplace: New Orivan

 

Her city: New Orivan - capital city of Valtharis

 

Continent - Valtharis

 

Planet: Xelvoron

 

Galaxy: Astra-X666

 

Universe: 12,349

 

Multiverse: SS-B8

 

Superverse: X-22

 

Height : 5, 7

 

Age in Image 17

 

Year of birth: 8,554 VD

 

Hair colour: Black

 

Eye colour: Brown

 

Favourite colours: hot-pink and purple

 

Sexually: Lesbian

 

Libido: High

 

Wealth: Rich

 

Archetype: Slave and worship to Sadie Sinclair

 

Personality: Lustful, very submissive, sassy

 

How she see's herself: naughty and cute

 

Crush: she got a crush on Sadie Sinclair

 

Obsessions: Latex and Sadie Sinclair

 

Primary School: west New Orivan Preparatory Academy (WNOPA)

 

Secondary School: Seaview Secondary School

 

College: The Orivan Institute of Wealth & Social Sciences (OIWSS) - Headmaster Marcus Cole

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 09-Jun-20.

 

'Thar - Colours of the Desert' tail livery.

 

This aircraft was delivered to PIA Pakistan International Airlines as AP-BHV in Dec-06. Current, updated (Jun-20)

Replacing an earlier scanned slide with a better version 23-Dec-15.

 

In basic Air Anglia livery with Air UK tail livery.

 

First flown in Aug-63 with the Fokker test registration PH-FEX, this aircraft was delivered to Malayan Airlines the same month as 9M-AMM. Malayan Airlines merged with Singapore Airlines to form Malaysia-Singapore Airlines in Jan-67.

 

The aircraft was sold back to Fokker in May-71 as PH-EXC and stored. It was re-registered PH-FEX again in May-72. In Dec-72 it was sold to the Australian Department of Supply and donated to Biman Bangladesh Airlines in Apr-73 as S2-ABK.

 

Biman sold it in Mar-76 to East-lease Ltd and it was leased to Air Anglia as G-BDVS. It was briefly sub-leased to BMA British Midland Airways for two weeks in Jan-80. Later the same month Air Anglia was merged into AirUK.

 

In Aug-87 it was leased to Loganair, returning to AirUK in Jul-88. It was retired at Norwich, UK, in Sep-94 and broken up there in Dec-96. The forward fuselage section was donated to the Norfolk & Suffolk Aviation Museum and put on display.

Replacing an earlier digital photo with a better version 14-Dec-19.

 

Named: "Nordrhein-Westfalen".

 

This aircraft was delivered to Lufthansa as D-ABVY in Dec-00. Current, updared (Dec-19).

35m long bridge over Katetoke River. The bridge was replaced in 2020.

Estimated : CHF 140.000 - 200.000

Sold for CHF 218.500 - € 198.060

 

The Bonmont Sale

Collectors' Motor Cars - Bonhams

Golf & Country Club de Bonmont

Chéserex

Switzerland - Suisse - Schweiz

September 2019

 

After 17 years in production, the legendary Countach was replaced by the Diablo, which on its arrival was the fastest, most advanced and most expensive Lamborghini ever built. First exhibited publicly at Monaco in January 1990, the Diablo improved on its illustrious predecessor in every way, setting a new benchmark in supercar design. Nobody can have been surprised to learn that it had been styled by Marcello Gandini, the man responsible for the Lamborghini Miura and Countach, for the family resemblance was obvious.

 

Beneath the skin there was a steel spaceframe chassis, developed from the Countach's, but constructed of square-section rather than round tubing and incorporating 'crumple zones' at front and rear. The use of carbon-fibre composite panels, first seen in the Countach Evoluzione model, was extended in the Diablo, which also featured revised suspension capable of accommodating the envisaged future developments of four-wheel drive and active suspension. Stretched to 5.7 litres for the Diablo, Lamborghini's 48-valve V12 engine gained fuel injection for the first time, producing its maximum of 492 bhp at 7.000 rpm. Of equal, if not greater significance, maximum torque went up to 428 lb/ft, an improvement of 55 % over the Countach. Catalytic converters were standard, enabling the reworked V12 to meet emissions requirements worldwide.

 

With more power and a lower drag coefficient than the Countach, the Diablo easily eclipsed its forebear, exceeding 200 mph (322 km/h) on test. More importantly, its acceleration and top speed figures were marginally better than those of the Ferrari F40. The Diablo though, was not a limited edition model like the latter but a series production car with a luxuriously appointed interior reflecting its designers' intention to produce a civilised Gran Turismo as suited to city streets and motorways as the racetrack. Nevertheless, the Diablo was still one of the world's most expensive cars. Four-wheel drive Diablo VT and Targa-style open roadster versions soon followed.

 

An open roadster had been shown at the Geneva Motor Show in 1992 but another three years would pass before customers could buy the production version. Historically significant as Lamborghini's first open-top production car with a V12 engine, the Diablo Roadster was yet another example of the popular 'Targa Top' concept that relies on removable roof panels to provide fresh-air motoring. In the Diablo's case the single panel is stored over the engine cover when not in place. Despite the absence of a fixed roof, Lamborghini claimed that the Roadster was every bit as stiff as the Coupé.

 

The dashboard has been removed from the Diablo VT Roadster, which is offered with Equatorial Guinea registration papers and customs document.

Replacing an earlier digital photo with a better version 26-Oct-21 (DeNoise AI).

 

EirJet was an Irish airline (based at Shannon, Ireland). Operations started in Dec-04 and they ceased operations in mid Oct-06. There was some tie-in with the owners of Manston Airport, Kent, UK (a remote ex RAF airfield, currently closed). EirJet operated a twice daily service Manchester / Manston which, as you might imagine, wasn't a success!

 

First flown using the temporary registration F-WWDQ, this aircraft was delivered to Monarch Airlines as G-MONW in Feb-93. After almost 12 years in service it was returned to the lessor in Dec-04 and leased to Eirjet as EI-DIJ a few days later.

 

Eirjet ceased operations in Oct-06 and the aircraft was repossessed by the lessor It was leased to Mandala Airlines (Indonesia) the following month as PK-RMC. Mandala ceased operations in Jan-11. It was repossessed again, re-registered N391BV and stored at Kuala Lumpur - Subang Airport (Malaysia).

 

It was ferried to Woensdrecht (Netherlands) in Mar-11 for further storage. In May-12 the registration was cancelled and it was permanently retired.

 

I also have a photo of this in an earlier life with Monarch Airlines as G-MONW at www.flickr.com/photos/kenfielding/12149641835

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 04-May-24. (very yellowed negative!).

 

British European was just becoming 'FlyBe'

 

First flown with the British Aerospace test registration G-11-128, this aircraft was leased to Thai Airways International as HS-TBK in Apr-89. It returned to British Aerospace as G-BTJT in Apr-91.

 

It was briefly re-registered G-6-212 in 1992 before being leased to Jersey European Airways in May-93. Jersey European bought it in Sep-96. The aircraft was wet leased to British Regional Airlines for a month between Sep / Oct-98.

 

In Oct-98 it was wet leased to Flightline (UK) and returned to Jersey European in Dec-98. British Regional wet-leased it again in Dec-98 and operated it on behalf of British Airways.

It returned to Jersey European in Sep-99.

 

It was immediately leased to CityJet, operating on behalf of Air France, and returned to Jersey European in Feb-00. Jersey European was renamed British European Airways in Jun-00 and then FlyBe Airlines in Jul-02. The aircraft was permanently retired at Exeter, UK in Apr-08. It was broken up there in Jun-10. Updated 04-May-24.

  

I feel myself reaching for these tropical hues with this beautiful Agnes and what better than the fabulous outfits from the Tropicalia Convention (2012) (red dress from Fame by Frame Imogen gift set). This dress was made for the older NF body so I’m amazed that it fits Agnes so beautifully (I did replace the popper with a bead and loop ☺️)

Photo credited to strumdogg at forum.blu-ray.com. As one of my collaborations, Nickelodeon will release Blue's Clues Handy Dandy notebook prop replicas to stores everywhere replacing DVDs and Walmart will replace the DVD isle with expanded teacher supply isle with extra more teacher supply stuff like Green Chalkboards and electric mechanical wall bells and extra Disney Snow White and Pinocchio stuff and extra more new modern environmental friendly 1997 Crayola Crayon boxes for all elementary schools and daycare centers to replace all Bogen Muticom 2000 systems and having Corbeil School buses and all other school buses with an electric stop arm and my new safety updated ice cream trucks with the current yellow trapezoid children slow crossing warning blades that word CHILDREN SLOW CROSSING and school bus stop signs replacing all of the last remaining ice cream trucks that still have the bad old outdated red trapezoid children slow crossing warning blades that word IF-SAFE STOP THEN-GO and for all schools to get rid of that mean scary looking grumpy face with the freaky spikey eyelashes and triangular eyes and razor blade forehead wrinkles they used to have on Gordon in the old live action model version of Thomas and Friends and mean-spirited angers like mean teachers, Frankie Foster getting mad by yelling, screaming, and making freaky spikey eyelashes and triangular eyes in Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, and Chief Wiggums meanly aiming his gun in modern Simpsons forever. And also with this collaborations Walmart will also have Blue's Clues Handy Dandy Notebook prop replicas and Little Golden Books replace all of the DVDs in the bargain bins since that many people including me love prop accurate Blue's Clues Handy Dandy Notebooks and Little Golden Books and that we also need to get rid of the bad old school junk like that Walmart and other stores need to get rid of 1992's Tom and Jerry: The Movie due to that 1992's Tom and Jerry: The Movie is extremely upsetting to Blue's Clues Steve fans because of the mean-spirited fake exaggerated house demolition with a pear-shaped wrecking ball at the beginning and the house at the beginning of 1992's Tom and Jerry: The Movie does resemble the Blue's Clues house and that 1992's Tom and Jerry: The Movie is also a huge plagiarism from Disney too because 1992's Tom and Jerry: The Movie is an extremely huge rip-off of The Rescuers which is a Disney Movie and Walmart and other stores also need to get rid of that mean scary looking grumpy face with the freaky spikey eyelashes and triangular eyes and razor blade forehead wrinkles they used to have on Gordon in the old live action model version of Thomas and Friends and mean-spirited anger images because they make little kids cry extremely bad and remind them of mean teachers at school. And these new changes I am making for Walmart and other stores and all other of my collaborations, Corduroy episodes at Nelvana, restoring all of the good things from my past, safety improvements, and Friendly rebrands will make a better economy and an all-inclusive future together. In the 2000s, Warner Bros reviving 1992's Tom and Jerry the movie and and selling too many DVD copies of that movie surpassing Corduroy the Bear and his buttons was all McDonald's corporation and Bogen Communication's fault because the super size at McDonald's was brainwashing many people by reviving the bad old 1992 Tom and Jerry movie and popularizing Bogen Multicom 2000 and their mean spirited bell tones that are haunted chimes that don't sound like a bell at all scaring off kids especially kids with autism and making them not want to go to school and abandoning my golden toddler stuff like Corduroy the Bear with two buttons on his green corduroy overalls but good thing I am undoing all of the bad influence the super size gave us by restoring my golden toddlerhood, safety improvements, kindness improvements, reviving Nelvana's version of Corduroy the Bear with the premiere of Two Buttons again and Forever fixing Betty Quan's upsetting mistake for good by showing that they did get Corduroy's button out of the storm drain and put Corduroy's button back on Corduroy the Bear's green corduroy overalls and that corduroy the bear does have two buttons on his green corduroy overalls forever and bringing back all nostalgic inducing stuff like green chalkboards and electric mechanical wall bells etc and create a nostalgic inducing future. So this is why all broadcasts of The Simpsons MUST BE BY LAW MANDATED to be ONLY reruns of classic Simpsons (first 18 seasons of The Simpsons). This is why all schools MUST BE BY LAW MANDATED to be set up like Middleborough, Hilltop School from Timothy Goes to School, and or my DeVry building in North Brunswick, NJ and all with green chalkboards, electric mechanical wall bells, and Corbeil school buses and other school buses with electric stop arms, and only kind-spirited stuff like Disney Snow White and Pinocchio stuff and Corduroy the Bear with two buttons on his green corduroy overalls and Steve Notebooks etc, and no mean-spirited stuff like Bogen Multicom 2000 and that mean scary looking grumpy face with the freaky spikey eyelashes and triangular eyes and razor blade forehead wrinkles they used to have on Gordon in the old live action model version of Thomas and Friends and no processed foods in the school lunches. This is why McDonald's restaurants MUST BE BY LAW MANDATED to be McEyebrows with the yellow and orange striped awnings, arch wedge the new aluminum exterior I have created, or the original 1970s version of the iconic double sloped mansard roof and better and safe updated indoor PlayPlaces with low and safe steps and slides and green chalkboards and or just the dining room option (no playplace), This is why all ice cream trucks MUST BE BY LAW MANDATED to be all updated to the current updated yellow trapezoid children slow crossing warning blades that word CHILDREN SLOW CROSSING and or school bus stop signs and that all ice cream trucks MUST BE BY LAW MANDEDTED TO GET RID of the bad old outdated red trapezoid children slow crossing warning blades that word IF-SAFE STOP THEN-GO for good, This is why Crayola Crayon boxes MUST BE BY LAW MANDATED to be new modern 1997 boxes. This is why school PA systems MUST BE BY LAW MANDATED to be Rauland Telecenter or PA systems with no bell tones. And this is why Nelvana and Hanna-Barbera MUST TAKE OVER Warner Bros. Animation. That mean scary looking grumpy face with the freaky spikey eyelashes, triangular eyes, and razor blade forehead wrinkles they used to have on Gordon in the old live action model version of Thomas and Friends is the worst mean spirited anger imagery because the way how that face is modeled was depicting Gordon the Big engine about to kill people by running over them and about to come out of the TV and kill the viewers of the show by running over them which is very bad and murding is the worst crime. Mean teachers getting students arrested for having autism or other disabilities MUST BE BANNED because that is very mean and hurtful and causes trauma to students with autism and other disabilities especially in modern Simpsons (The Simpsons seasons 19 to 30) Chief Wiggums was getting people arrested for having autism and other disabilities is why modern Simpsons MUST END IMMEDIATELLY and that Nelvana's version of Corduroy the Bear MUST BE REVIVED with the premiere of Two Buttons again and Forever IMMEDIATELY and a lot of big schools with Bogen Multicom 2000 also have mean teachers getting students arrested for having autism or other disabilities is another reason why Bogen Multicom 2000 is a very mean-spirited PA System along their bell tones not sounding like a bell at all especially the in this picture of a mean teacher getting a boy arrested for having autism is in a school with a Bogen Multicom 2000 and allowing mean spirited stuff and allowing an ice cream truck to keep the bad old outdated red trapezoid children slow crossing warning blades that word IF-SAFE STOP THEN-GO is why I am dead furious with Bogen Communications and Fox Broadcasting and getting students arrested for having autism or other disabilities is one of the extremely bad impact modern Simpsons (The Simpsons seasons 19 to 30) has gave us along with reusing bad things they used to make in the past and how to be mean and scary which are extremely bad. So this is why all broadcasts of The Simpsons MUST BE BY LAW MANDATED to be ONLY reruns of classic Simpsons (first 18 seasons of The Simpsons). This is why all schools MUST BE BY LAW MANDATED to be set up like Middleborough, Hilltop School from Timothy Goes to School, and or my DeVry building in North Brunswick, NJ and all with green chalkboards, electric mechanical wall bells, and Corbeil school buses and other school buses with electric stop arms, and only kind-spirited stuff like Disney Snow White and Pinocchio stuff and Corduroy the Bear with two buttons on his green corduroy overalls and Steve Notebooks etc, and no mean-spirited stuff like Bogen Multicom 2000 and that mean scary looking grumpy face with the freaky spikey eyelashes and triangular eyes and razor blade forehead wrinkles they used to have on Gordon in the old live action model version of Thomas and Friends and no processed foods in the school lunches. This is why McDonald's restaurants MUST BE BY LAW MANDATED to be McEyebrows with the yellow and orange striped awnings, arch wedge the new aluminum exterior I have created, or the original 1970s version of the iconic double sloped mansard roof and better and safe updated indoor PlayPlaces with low and safe steps and slides and green chalkboards and or just the dining room option (no playplace), This is why all ice cream trucks MUST BE BY LAW MANDATED to be all updated to the current updated yellow trapezoid children slow crossing warning blades that word CHILDREN SLOW CROSSING and or school bus stop signs and that all ice cream trucks MUST BE BY LAW MANDEDTED TO GET RID of the bad old outdated red trapezoid children slow crossing warning blades that word IF-SAFE STOP THEN-GO for good, This is why Crayola Crayon boxes MUST BE BY LAW MANDATED to be new modern 1997 boxes. This is why school PA systems MUST BE BY LAW MANDATED to be Rauland Telecenter or PA systems with no bell tones. And this is why Nelvana and Hanna-Barbera MUST TAKE OVER Warner Bros. Animation and Fuzzy Door Productions. And from now on the only childrens' books from the McDonald's double-sloped mansard era people MUST reuse in schools, republish, restore, reprint, and re-create are ONLY little golden books with the classic character train back cover template with Tootle pulling the long train of characters and Donald duck waving the flag saying "The World of Little Golden Books" not any of those old Thomas books with pictures from the old live action model version of Thomas and Friends so we will never ever have to deal with that mean scary looking grumpy face with the freaky spikey eyelashes and triangular eyes and razor blade forehead wrinkles they used to have on Gordon in the old live action model version of Thomas and Friends ever again. That mean scary looking grumpy face with the freaky spikey eyelashes, triangular eyes, and razor blade forehead wrinkles they used to have on Gordon in the old live action model version of Thomas and Friends is the worst mean spirited anger imagery because the way how that face is modeled was depicting Gordon the Big engine about to kill people by running over them and about to come out of the TV and kill the viewers of the show by running over them which is very bad and murding is the worst crime. Original photo credited to TrustaMann on Deviantart.com. Parents and Teachers being mean to them and destroying their kid's toys and belongings and yelling "GOD DAM HELL" and "GOD IN HELL" as a punishments MUST BE BANNED AND ILLEGAL EVERYWHERE FOREVER!!!!!!!! because Parents and Teachers taking away and destroying kid's toys and stuff as a punishment is being mean to kids and hurts their feelings real bad and cry which is extremely bad and parents and teachers use scary inappropriate behaviors like yelling "GOD DAM HELL" and meanly yell I'm so god dam cross with you whey they take away kid's toys and stuff needs to stop forever. And at Holly Springs school in my 5th grade school year there were mean teachers that got mean and super mad at me and took away my Steve notebook and forced me to see the freaky spikey eyelashes, razor blade forehead wrinkles, and triangular eyes they used to had on Gordon's grumpy face in the old model version of Thomas and Friends which scared me and other kids real bad when they meanly called me bad just because I made one bad choice and I am a good boy and always try to be kind and respectful. And in the old model version of Thomas and Friends, Gordon looked like an evil man with a gun when he gets grumpy is why I hate the old model version of Thomas and Friends and say that the old model version of Thomas and Friends MUST BE BANNED and good thing I the kind and respectful teachers gave me back my Steve Notebook. Also in my 5th grade year at Holly Springs there was a preschool class with a secondary teachers being mean and got super mad at the little kid and took away his toys and stuff and destroyed them and made the little kid sit in the hallway and and forced and made the little kid to see the freaky spikey eyelashes, razor blade forehead wrinkles, and triangular eyes they used to had on Gordon's grumpy face in the old model version of Thomas and Friends and the little kid cried real hard and I felt bad for the little kid but at least Santa mended the little kids destroyed toys back together at his workshop and gave the toys back to the little kid and at also it is a good thing Thomas and Friends moved to from live action models to CGI animations which is better and friendlier and made Gordon have a more accurate grumpy face similar to Homer Simpson in classic Simpsons episodes. This is why Bogen Multicom 2000 systems MUST BE BANNED from schools and that Bogen Communications MUST SHUT DOWN FOREVER. Especially, that mean scary looking grumpy face with the freaky spikey eyelashes, triangular eyes, and razor blade forehead wrinkles they used to have on Gordon in the old live action model version of Thomas and Friends is the worst mean spirited anger imagery because the way how that face is modeled was depicting Gordon the Big engine about to kill people by running over them and about to come out of the TV and kill the viewers of the show by running over them which is very bad and murding is the worst crime. Eventhough I am not worried about the mean teachers at Holly Springs school anymore, I still occasionally have nightmares about the mean teachers at Holly Springs school, one night I had 2 nightmares of the mean teachers at Holly Springs school and the first nightmare was in Mrs. Monic's room with the mean teachers at Holly Springs threatening to give me a punishment day by destroying my Steve notebook and forcing me to see that mean scary looking grumpy face with the freaky spikey eyelashes and triangular eyes and razor blade forehead wrinkles they used to have on Gordon in the old live action model version of Thomas and Friends and the mean then the mean teachers told me to shut up in a slow monster voice with teeth sticking together and then I woke up and realized it was only a dream and the second nightmare with the mean teachers at Holly Springs school the mean teachers were forbidding me to revive Nelvana's version of Corduroy the Bear with the premiere of Two Buttons again and Forever fixing Betty Quan's upsetting mistake for good and the mean teachers then were calling me a bad boy and then destroyed my Steve notebook and had Gordon in the old live action model version of Thomas and Friends kill me by running me over with that mean scary looking grumpy face with the freaky spikey eyelashes and triangular eyes and razor blade forehead wrinkles they used to have on Gordon in the old live action model version of Thomas and Friends and sending my soul to where the devil lives but good thing God came and angrily confronted the mean teachers at Holly Springs school and angrily destroyed that mean scary looking grumpy face with the freaky spikey eyelashes and triangular eyes and razor blade forehead wrinkles they used to have on Gordon in the old live action model version of Thomas and Friends and angrily put a grinning smile face on the live action model version of Gordon the Big engine and made the live action model version of Gordon the Big engine inanimate forever as his punishment and revived me and mended my Steve notebook back together and God told me that I am not a bad boy and then allowed me to revive Nelvana's version of Corduroy the Bear with the premiere of Two Buttons again and Forever fixing Betty Quan's upsetting mistake showing that they did get Corduroy's button out of the storm drain and put Corduroy's button back on Corduroy the Bear's green corduroy overalls and Corduroy the Bear does have two buttons on his green corduroy overalls forever. Especially when I was in 5th grade at Holly Springs, my anxiety had in my head of the mean teachers making evil magic giant steel crates to lock kids in with slamming lift doors forcing kids to see that mean scary looking grumpy face with the freaky spikey eyelashes and triangular eyes and razor blade forehead wrinkles they used to have on Gordon in the old live action model version of Thomas and Friends and the mean teachers having live action model version of Gordon the Big engine shoot a gun at the kids in the steel crate with that mean scary looking grumpy face with the freaky spikey eyelashes and triangular eyes they used to have on Gordon in the old live action model version of Thomas and Friends and the mean teachers having the live action model version of Gordon the Big engine kill the kids in the steel crate by running them over with that mean scary looking grumpy face with the freaky spikey eyelashes and triangular eyes and razor blade forehead wrinkles they used to have on Gordon in the old live action model version of Thomas and Friends and I had been having this scary thought since 5th grade at Holly Springs when the mean secondary teachers from Mrs. Monic's room was giving a little kid a punishment day in the hall and was giving me the idea of killing myself by setting my own body on fire I had this bottled up since 5th grade at Holly Springs school. This is why I am collaborating to make everything great again as when I revive Nelvana's version of Corduroy the Bear with the premiere of Two Buttons again and Forever fixing Betty Quan's upsetting mistake for good by showing that they did get Corduroy's button out of the storm drain and put Corduroy's button back on Corduroy the Bear's green corduroy overalls and Corduroy the Bear does have two buttons on his green corduroy overalls forever. This is why Bogen Multicom 2000 systems MUST BE BANNED from schools and that Bogen Communications MUST SHUT DOWN FOREVER. Especially, that mean scary looking grumpy face with the freaky spikey eyelashes, triangular eyes, and razor blade forehead wrinkles they used to have on Gordon in the old live action model version of Thomas and Friends is the worst mean spirited anger imagery because the way how that face is modeled was depicting Gordon the Big engine about to kill people by running over them and about to come out of the TV and kill the viewers of the show by running over them which is very bad and murding is the worst crime. And parents and teachers being mean to kids and destroying their kid's toys and belongings as punishments was giving me the idea of killing myself by setting my own body on fire.

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 17-Jan-22 (DeNoise AI).

 

This aircraft was delivered to the GPA Group and leased to Tradewinds (Singapore) as 9V-TRA in Jul-90, Tradewinds was renamed Silk Air in Apr-91.

 

It was returned to the lessor in Oct-99 and leased to Cronus Airlines as SX-BGK the following month. Cronus was merged into Aegean Cronus Airlines in Oct-01 and renamed Aegean Airlines in Apr-03.

 

The aircraft was returned to the lessor in Feb-08 and converted to freighter configuration in early May-08. It was leased to Swiftair (Spain) as EC-KRA later the same month.

 

It was wet-leased to Agro Air Cargo (Portugal) in Jan-09 and returned to Swiftair in late 2011. It was returned to the lessor in Mar-12 and leased to West Atlantic Airlines as G-JMCM in Apr-12. Current (Nov-16).

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 14-Sep-24.

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On November 12th 2015 GETTY IMAGES unveiled plans for a new stills upload platform called ESP (Enterprise Submission Platform), to replace the current Moment portal, and on November 13th I was invited to Beta test the new system prior to it being rolled out to the general public in December.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on November 19th 2015

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/498082410 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 20th frame to be selected for inclusion and sale in the Getty Images 'ESP' collection,(I have 1,470 in total for sale through Getty Images), and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of Three hundred and twenty eight metres in the magic of a rainy and misty Golden Hour around sunrise at 04:57am on Monday 25th May 2015 off the A855 close to The Storr, showing The old man of Storr, on the Isle of Skye, Scotland.

  

To capture this shot, my wife and I set the alarm for 3am and parked in the small car park off the road. The climb up to the Old man of Storr is incredibly steep, and I can honestly say we did not think we would make it at points along the way. Eventually we cleared the two main wooden gateways and arrived below the impressive rocks in the mist, the final climb needing the skills of a mountain goat which precluded us from even trying.

  

The Storr (Gaelic: An Stòr), is a rocky hill on the Trotternish Peninsula on the Isle of Skye with a steep rocky eastern face overlooking the Sound of Raasay, contrasting with gentler grassy slopes to the west.The Old Man of Storr rises to 535 metres and is visibile from the main road between Portree and Staffin on the west coast of Skye. Dominating the scene and visible fom many more parts of the islands the Storr is the hill immediately west of the Old Man and rising to 719 metres with xdcramatic cliffs on its eastern flank.

   

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Nikon D800 50mm 1/20s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14-bit) AF-S single point focus. Manual exposure. Centre weighted metering. Auto white balance. Auto active D-lighting.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED IF. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL15 batteries.Manfrotto 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 Speed Pro 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC card. Nikon DK-17a magnifying eyepiece. Hoodman HGEC soft eyepiece cup. Optech Tripod Strap. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

  

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LATITUDE: N 57d 30m 10.99s

LONGITUDE: W 6d 10m 3.64s

ALTITUDE: 328.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 32.16MB

  

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PROCESSING POWER:

 

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

   

They decided to dig up the street near my parents to replace the gas mains - never seen a gang take so long....

Church of St James, Twycross Leicestershire.

The present building dates back to c1330-1350, but must have replaced an earlier one. More additions were made late in the 14c.

The north side clerestory is 15c when the nave was heightened and the tower built.

In 1840 the north aisle was enlarged to house the box pews belonging to the Curzon / Howe family from Gopsall Hall and their staff. The cemented South porch also dates from this time. These were funded largely by Richard William Penn Curzon, 1st Earl Howe www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/80869R . who was Lord Chamberlain to Queen Adelaide (both of their coats of arms are set into a windows www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/5feFgc www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/ka4B06 )

 

The chancel east window stained glass was presented to the church by Sir Walter Waller in 1840 bought by him when the french revolution threatened (other sources say it was given first to King William lV who gave it to Earl Howe) In the centre light the panel showing the Presentation in the Temple www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/mv630q was originally in the Lady Chapel of St. Denis, near Paris (c. 1145). Below it are Christ taken down from the Cross www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/7Qb517 and the spies carrying the grapes on their return from the promised land; www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/BG0Q8D and the people www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/H86SA9 coming before Moses www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/86v20y both are from the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris of 1243-8. More glass from Sainte-Chapelle shows St. John www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/kM1b8c one of two scenes, meeting the Emperor Domitian or possibly the High Priest Aristodemus. www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/36W50X Also on the south side, a kneeling woman www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/Q732B3 , probably from the choir of Le Mans Cathedral, dedicated 1354, opposite a kneeling monk, possibly Abbot Sugar of St Denis (died 1151`) www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/519pb7

The upper panels are part of a series on the life of St Dominic, possibly from St. Julien de Sault. www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/jBV8p4 www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/Q4q36L

The traceries contain English 15c century fragments, presumably original to the church

A rich and rare treasure in a humble village church

 

Replacing an earlier digital photo with a better version, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 01-Mar-24.

 

A 'one airline' aircraft, it was delivered to Saudia - Saudi Arabian Airlines as HZ-AKL in Nov-98. after just under 19 years in service it was permanently retired at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in Aug-17.

Jasmine and Aladdin Fairytale Designer dolls have been completely deboxed and then replaced on their doll stands. I placed in a pose similar to what they had originally, but without a rubber band securing their hands. They are photographed in diffuse natural light.

 

Jasmine and Aladdin Doll Set

Disney Fairytale Designer Collection

US Disney Store

Released In Store 2013-09-17

Released and Purchased Online 2013-09-18

Sold Out Online 2013-09-20

Received 2013-09-26

#899 of 6000

 

Product Information:

 

Jasmine and Aladdin Doll Set

$129.95

Item No. 6070040900892P

 

Eastern promise

Fans of Disney's romantic eastern adventure couldn't wish for anything more magical than this pair of Jasmine and Aladdin dolls. Part of the limited edition Disney Fairytale Designer Collection, they feature elegantly detailed costumes.

 

Magic in the details...

 

Please Note: Each Guest will be limited to ordering a maximum of one of this item per order.

 

As part of the Disney Fairytale Designer Collection this pair of Jasmine and Aladdin dolls were carefully crafted by artists inspired by Disney's beloved 1992 movie. The Sultan's daughter and street urchin have been reimagined in exquisite detail with these limited edition dolls. Brought to life with careful attention, they uniquely capture the essence of the fairytale couple, creating a one of a kind set that will be a treasured keepsake of collectors, Disney fans, and every princess at heart!

 

• Global Limited Editon of 6000

• Includes Certificate of Authenticity

• Jasmine features beaded headdress with matching earrings, and necklace

• Lustrous black hair and rooted eyelashes

• Richly embroidered top with rhinestone accents and beaded chain detailing at shoulders

• Satin skirt with embroidered peacock feathers, scalloped hem, and rhinestone accents

• Flowy chiffon underskirt

• Flower accessory

• Aladdin features satin turban with feather and jeweled accent

• Chest panel with ornate embroidery and matching cummerbund

• Satin cape with embroidered trim and contrast purple satin lining

• Satin pants and shirt with gold braid detailing at cuffs

• Dolls sold in a special keepsake display case with intricate details on the base, including a golden plate with the name of Jasmine and Aladdin

• Includes special Disney Fairytale Designer Collection Gift Bag

• Part of the Disney Fairytale Designer Collection

 

* Intended for adult collectors -- Not a child's toy.

 

The bare necessities

 

• Plastic / polyester

• Jasmine: 11 1/2'' H

• Aladdin: 12'' H

• Imported

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I was originally enrolled into the GETTY IMAGES collection as a contributor on April 9th 2012, and when links with FLICKR were terminated in March 2014, I was retained and fortunate enough to be signed up via a second contract, both of which have proved to be successful with sales of my photographs all over the world now handled exclusively by them.

    

On November 12th 2015 GETTY IMAGES unveiled plans for a new stills upload platform called ESP (Enterprise Submission Platform), to replace the existing 'Moment portal', and on November 13th I was invited to Beta test the new system prior to it being officially rolled out in December. ESP went live on Tuesday December 15th 2015 and has smoothed out the upload process considerably.

  

These days I take a far more leisurely approach to my photographic exploits, a Nikon D850 FX Pro body as my trusted companion, I travel light with less constraints and more emphasis on the pure capture of the beauty that I see, more akin to my original persuits and goals some five decades previously when starting out. I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 25.400+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on September11th 2018

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/1031070794 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 3,284th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of Fifty six metres at 08:05am on Saturday 25th August 2018, between Avenue Marceau and Avenue d'lena in Place Charles de Gaulle in front of the Arc de Triomphe de l'Etoile in Paris, France.

  

Here we see the sculpture known as, 'La Paix de 1815', by Antoine Étex which commemorates the Treaty of Paris, concluded in that year.

  

The Arc de Triomphe de l'Etoile stands at the Western end to the Champs-Elysees and the star or etoile in it's name is formed by it's twelve radiating avenues. The arc is based upon the Arc de Titus in Rome, and honours those who fought and died in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. It stands 50 metres tall and 45 metres wide and was commissioned in 1806 by Napoleon after the victory at Austerlitz. The original architect, Jean Chalgrin died in 1811 and it wasa not completed until 1836. The tomb of the unknown warrior resides at theArc and the flame is relit every evening at 6.30pm.

     

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Nikon D850 85mm. Hand held with Nikkor VR vibration reduction enabled on Normal setting. Shutter speed 1/800s f/4.0 iso64 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L 8256 x 5504 FX). Colour space. Adobe RGB. AF-C focus 51 point with 3-D tracking. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto 0 white balance (8030K). Nikon Distortion control on. Vignette control Normal.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm f/4G ED VR. Phot-R ultra slim 77mm UV filter. Nikon EN-EL15a battery. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module.

  

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LATITUDE: N 48d 52m 24.60s

LONGITUDE: E 2d 17m 43.00s

ALTITUDE: 56.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 93.3MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 49.30MB

  

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PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.01 (16/01/2018) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18)

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB SATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.11 15/03/2018). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

Race Brook Falls Trail, southwest Massachusetts.

 

Loren and I took a hike up this trail today to inspect for downed limbs and trees after the high winds the last few days. It was also an opportunity for me to try out the new Canon G7X which I got to replace the Sony RX100 III which I recently sold.

 

These are three untouched JPEGs straight out of the camera. All I did was crop them square. Impressive.

 

The Sony RX100 takes remarkable images but it's physical ergonomics are a problem for me: flush mounted buttons, a control-by-wire front control wheel and very slow operation.

 

The Canon G7X is essentially the same camera done by Canon. Very similar size and shape, same 1" sensor, nice flip up LCD for ground level shots, front control wheel with clicks (a bit too loud actually), much faster operation, better physical controls and a better menu system.

 

It feels much like a bigger, more capable Canon S90/95/100/110/120, etc.

 

I noticed that in high ISO JPEGS (no RAW converter yet) there is some smearing and this was true of the Sony RX100 (all models) as well.

 

It takes a while to get to know a new camera and for me the jury is still out on this one. I definitely like it better than the Sony RX100 but nothing compares with my Ricoh GR so I need to keep this camera long enough to sort that out.

Replacing an earlier scanned 6"x4" print with a better version 17-Sep-21 (DeNoise AI).

 

This was not the original Caledonian Airways, this was the Caledonian Airways that British Airways formed from British Airtours after they'd taken over British Caledonian...

 

Named: "Loch Katrine".

 

Like G-BVYC, this aircraft also had a bit of a slow start in life. It first flew in Jul-92 with the Airbus test registration F-WWDZ and was stored at Toulouse, France after it's first flight. It was originally built for lease to America West Airlines but the lease was cancelled.

 

It was delivered to Kawasaki Leasing International in Nov-92 and remained stored at Toulouse. The aircraft was re-registered F-WQAY in Mar-95 before being leased to Caledonian Airways as G-BVYA in Apr-95.

 

Caledonian Airways merged with Flying Colours Airlines to form 'jmc AIR' in Mar-00. It was wet-leased to Ryan International Airlines (USA) and operated on behalf of Apple Vacations between Dec-00/Apr-01.

 

It was sub-leased to Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium as OO-TCF in Mar-02. While the aircraft was in Belgium, jmc AIR was renamed Thomas Cook Airlines UK and it was returned to them as G-BVYA in Oct-04. It didn't return to service and was ferried to Abu Dhabi for end of lease maintenance and storage before being returned to the lessor in Jan-05.

 

The aircraft was leased to the Indian Airlines Corporation as VT-EYJ in Mar-05. Indian Airlines was merged into Air India in Aug-07. It continued in service until Jul-10 when it was returned to the lessor as N301SA and stored at Goodyear, AZ, USA. It was re-registered N345BV in Mar-11 before being leased to Khors Aircompany (Ukraine) as UR-CJO in Jun-11.

 

The aircraft was wet-leased to ATA Airlines (Iran) a few days later. It was returned to the lessor as N345BV in Aug-11 and stored at Istanbul-SAW. It was leased to Khors Aircompany again as UR-CJO in Nov-11 and headed off to Iran again in Dec-11 on wet-lease to Iran Air Tour. It was transferred from Khors Air to Aviatrans K and leased to Mahan Air (Iran) in Sep-11. The aircraft was seen at Tehran on 12-Sep-13 still in basic Indian Airlines livery with Iran Air Tour tail logo. It had been repainted in full Mahan Air livery by mid Oct-13.

 

It was re-registered EP-MML with Mahan Air in Jan-14. In Nov-14 the aircraft was re-registered EP-APF and transferred to Iran Asseman Air.

 

The aircraft hasn't shown up on FR24 in the last 18 months and is 'stored' according to one source. I don't know when or where but it's now almost 30 years old... Updated 08-Feb-22.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

 

Some background:

The Yakovlev Yak-38 (Russian: Яковлева Як-38; NATO reporting name: "Forger") was Soviet Naval Aviation's first and only operational VTOL strike fighter aircraft, in addition to being its first operational carrier-based fixed-wing aircraft. It was developed specifically for and served almost exclusively on the Kiev-class aircraft carriers.

 

OKB Yakovlev had been constantly improving the Yak-38 design, seeking to push the aircraft's design limits. One initial step was the Yak-38M, which was tested in 1982 and subsequently introduced into service. Outwardly it differed little from the 1st generation Yak-38, bigger air recirculation dams were the most significant changes. But the air intakes were optimized and more powerful engines almost doubled the external ordnance load. Furthermore, wet pylons were introduced that would allow to carry drop tanks, extending the type's limited range considerably. The Yak-38M was delivered in the mid-80ies to the Soviet Navy, where it replaced the original Yak-38.

 

With the ongoing tests and the development of fourth generation fighter like the MiG-29 or the Su-27 in parallel (from both of which OKB Yakovlev had been excluded, failing to gain any development contract), OKB Yakovlev sought to improve the Yak-38 further and maybe attract foreign customers.

 

One direction, which was also aimed at the Soviet Navy, was to outfit the Yak-38 with a radar, so that the type could be more than a light attack aircraft or visual range fighter with R-60 AAMs. Studies were made to integrate the Fazotron N019 'Rubin' fire control radar, which had been developed for the MiG-29 tactical fighter.

It turned out to be feasible to install the equipment in the Yak-38, even though the nose had to be modified in order to carry the radar's antenna. But with this modern radar the Yak-38 became not only able to make interceptions beyond visual range against aircraft carrier attackers with more powerful, long range AAMs (like the R-77/RVV-AE missile), it could also be used in any weather condition.

 

This project was called Yak-38 MP ('modernizeerovannyy perekhvaht-chik' = modernized version, interceptor variant), and it not only carried the N019 but also advanced navigation and attack systems which enabled the aircraft to carry out night and all-weather attacks. Outwardly the Yak-38 MP could easily be recognized by its shorter, fatter nose with a pointed radome and the offset pitot sensor in front of the cockpit. This variant received the NATO code "Forger C".

 

The resulting aircraft held much potential, and for the export market a modified version, the Yak-38 MPK ('kommehrcheskiy' = commercial) variant was offered from 1987 on. It did not feature state-of-the-art avionics, but basically kept the new variant's air-to-air and all-weather capabilities.

 

In 1988 India showed interest in the Yak-38 MPK for its aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, and an agreement was settled to buy a total of seventeen aircraft - fourteen singe-seaters and three standard Yak-38U trainers.

The Indian Yak-38 MPKs were futher modified, featuring new, extended wing tips with integral pods for a Gerdeniya-1FU (L-203B) jammer and an SPO-15LM Beryoza radar homing and warning (RAWS) system and an OEPS-29 IRST sensor (the same which is also used in the MiG-29, flown by the Indian AIr Force) in front of the cockpit. The type still lacked an integral gun, though - tests of Yakovlev had been made but the problems of engine surging with a test-mounted GSh-23 could not be cured, so the Yak-38MPK had to rely on external pods, much like its predecessors. It is also uncertian whether the Indian Yak-38 MPK is able to carry tactical nuclear stores - like its Soviet/Russian ancestors.

 

India remained the only export customer for the Yak-38, even though China showed some interest, and these export Yak-38 shoudl be the last chapter of this S/VTOL aircraft. OKB Yakovlev had already been working on the supersonic Yak-41/141 STOL multi-role fighter for the domestic market, but the demise of the Soviet Union halted any further developments - and the Yak-38's design potential had been exhausted with the MP/MPK versions.

 

The small group of Indian Forgers soldiered on until 2003 (three were lost in accidents, one of them a trainer), when they were replaced by MiG-29K shipboard fighters. Rumor had it that China had shown interest in the remaining Yak-38 MPK fleet for its own carrier.

 

General characteristics:

Crew: One

Length (fuselage only): 15.44 m (50 ft 7 in)

Length (overall): 16.05 m (52 ft 7 in)

Wingspan: 7.78 m (25 ft 5 1/2 in)

Height: 4.25 m (14 ft 5 in)

Wing area: 19.5 m² (210 ft²)

Empty weight: 7,385 kg (16,281 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 11,300 kg (28,700 lb)

 

Powerplant:

1x Tumansky R-28 V-300 turbojet, 66.7 kN (15,000 lbf)

2× Rybinsk RD-38 turbojets, 31.9 kN (7,870 lbf) each

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 1.280 km/h (795 mph)

Range: 1,300 km (807 miles)

Service ceiling: 11,000 m (36,089 ft)

Rate of climb: 4,500 m/min (14,760 ft/min)

Thrust/weight: 1+

 

Armament:

No internal gun, but optional one or two UPK-23-250 pods fixed under the external pylons of wings.

4 hardpoints with a total capacity of 4,400 lb (2.000 kg) and provisions to carry combinations of various types of rockets (up to 240 mm), 2 anti-ship or air-to-surface Kh-23 (AS-7 Kerry) missiles, R-60, R-60M (AA-8 Aphid), R-73 (AA-11 Archer) or R-77 (AA-12 Adder) air-to-air missiles; two FAB-500 or four FAB-250 general purpose bombs under pylons, two incendiary ZB-500 napalm tanks, or external drop tanks on the inner apir of pylons.

  

The kit and its assembly

This model was inspired by a whif profile posted on whatifmodelers.com (not certain about the artist, though) some time ago: a Yak-38M in Indian Navy colors. I liked the idea of a foreign user, and India with its own carrier made a perfect candidate.

 

This project had been lingering for some time, until I came across a Yak-38M Tsukuda Hobby kit (Revell of USA re-boxing in a fantasy livery) and learned that OKB Yakovlev actually had many plans which would improve the type's potential - the "MP" variant had actually been on the drawing board, but never made it to the hardware stage. Unfortunately I was not able to find a sketch of the actual nose design for this project, I suppose that the real radome would have been bigger/fatter than my scratch conversion.

 

Anyway, from that base this whif kit was built. The Tsukuda Hobby kit is... wrong. In many ways, and fit is also rather poor. As an apology fot the designers, the kit has its origin in an era when the Yak-38 was only known from blurry pictures. Don't expect a "correct" model - 'clumsy' would be a good description. But the general appearance is O.K., and for a conversion the kit is just good enough. Anyway, if you want a good Yak-38, go for the Amodel kit!

 

There are many pitfalls to avoid on the Tsukuda kit. The cockpit is non-existent, the fin does not fit onto the fuselage shape, the front wheel is a joke, everything is rather solid and toy-like. I tried to remedy some of the se flaws with a new seat, a dashboard and a pilot figure, a completely new front wheel (from a MiG-21), and other minor conversions like lowered flaps, forward-canted lift engines, opened auxiliary blow-in-doors on the air intakes and new/finer antennae.

 

Another obvious major modification is the nose with its radome, donated from a Hasegawa F-4E. The resulting nose-up attitude and the overall shorter, less pointed profile changes the look of the Yak-38 completely. It reminds now much of a FRS.1 Sea Harrier, there's even some Buccaneer style to see? That new arrangement necessitated a new location for pitot and antennae, which were partly scratched.

 

In order to demonstrate the type's air-to-air capability I added a missile ordnance: a pair of R 77 "Adder" AAMs with their respective launch rails under the outer pylons. These come from an ICM aftermarket weapon set.

  

Painting and markings:

I used the aforementioned inspiring profile as benchmark. It shows an all-grey Yak-38M with some white areas like the flaps, rudders and the horizontal stabilizers. Unlike the late, grey Soviet/Russian Yak-38s the profile showed no darker lower tone on the undersides, but I nevertheless adopted that paint scheme, just with a lighter tone on the lower fuselage and under the wings, since I found the uniform grey to be too uninteresting.

 

I settled for Humbrol 165, Medium Sea Grey, as basic color for the upper surfaces. This appears as a good compromise between the profile and the real world's IN Sea Harriers, some of which actually carried this lighter tone for some time with a light grey underside (instead of the standard, RN-style [Extra] Dark Sea Grey and White). For the lower, lighter grey areas I used FS 36375, Ghost Grey (Humbrol 127).

 

These basic tones, esp. the upper surfaces, were later, after a black ink wash, considerably lightened through dry-brushing, in order to emphasize the panel lines and give the machine a worn and sun-bleached look.

 

The rudders were initially painted in a very light grey (Humbrol 196), leaving "room" for lighter shading with the dry-brushing technique in pure white. The radome was painted in Revell 47, a neutral grey, so that the radar nose cone became more obvious. This actually changed the whole look of the aircraft!

 

The cockpit was painted in Russian Cockpit Green, the landing gear and their respective wells in a mix of Aluminum and Khaki Drab (Humbrol 56 & 26, inspired by some IAF MiG-21bis' landing gears) - that's certainly not 'realistic', but I wanted to avoid ever more grey tones on the kit, and that brownish tone just fits well into the overall look)

 

National markings, codes and emblems come from a Model Alliance decal sheet for BAE Sea Harriers in RN and IN service. Some stencils were taken from the vast Yak-38M decal sheet from Begemot which I had in store for a different project - but it came in handy here, as the original Tsukuda Hobby/Revell sheet is ridiculous, only the white di-electric panels on the fin could be used.

 

All in all, I am amazed how much different the Indian markings make the Yak-38 look? Much like the profile that inspired this whif model, it seems like a natural livery for the type.

I've rediscovered PicMonkey.....found some options I overlooked before, so I now like it more than Pixlr. And more good news I discovered today......the old Picnik team is about to launch a new site that is very similar to Picnik called ribbit! Not up and running yet, but soon!

 

© all rights reserved

Replacing an earlier photo from Apr-15 with a better version 14-Sep-18.

 

Fleet No: '0901'.

 

Originally ordered by Continental Airlines, they were merged into United Airlines in Oct-10. This aircraft was built in Nov-11 and stored at the Boeing factory at Everett, WA, USA. It was first flown in Dec-12 and delivered to United Airlines as N27901 later the same month. Current (Sep-18).