New Kwik Kerb Eurostyle curbing creates a striking border around the garden bed keeping grass out and much in - and matches the customer's driveway and compliments their home. Nice work!

 

The iconic Bratz pack was always Cloe, Jade, Sasha, and Yasmin. Meygan was the fifth "honorary" member, what with being the first new character added to the Bratz franchise back in 2002. But what about all the others--the one off characters, the girls that appeared only a handful of times, or the other familiar faces like Dana, Fianna, and Phoebe/Roxxi who appeared countless times over the years? It just wouldn't be the Bratz world without this variety of dolls, who represent different eras in the Bratz franchise. Growing up, I recall the excitement each time I wandered into the toy aisle and discovered somebody new had been created for the Bratz line. And as an adult, this same thrill whacked me in the face when I learned of the 10th anniversary doll collection, which showcased not one, but TEN new characters. For me, these dolls, whether they made a solo appearance or wormed their way into countless collections are all important. They not only tell the story of the history of Bratz, but they also each hold memories in my metaphorical dolly scrapbook.

 

I suppose the practical place to start would be the girls I grew up with. Back in the early 2000s, when I started to dabble in the world of Bratz, it was the core four plus Meygan who comprised each line. But one day at Wal-Mart, I stumbled upon a new face--Stylin' Salon 'N' Spa Fianna. I am almost certain that I encountered her even before Dana, who was produced sometime prior. Either way, it was Fianna that became the sixth member of my personal Bratz pack. Up until that point, I only had Xpress It! Jade, Yasmin, Sasha, and Meygan, alongside a rogue Beach Party Cloe. It's hard to believe looking back that it was Stylin' Salon 'N' Spa Fianna who was my sixth Bratz doll ever in my collection. But in retrospect, it was the acquisition of Fianna that spurred me to want more Bratz...more characters....just more in general. I was tantalized by her cozy white robe and skimpy salon attire. To top it off, she came with a super intriguing spa. Oh the possibilities! I can't recall exactly what time frame I first saw Fianna, but it was for my twelfth birthday that Dad purchased me the set. I ended up getting my doll at the local Kmart, and it is still burned into my memory those ecstatic moments in which I pushed the large box in a shopping cart to the register (passing a school mate I might add, on the way). Fianna embodied everything I loved about Bratz--she had gorgeous tan skin, fabulous saran hair, and stunning green eyes. Not long after, Dana joined the clan. I knew after the acquisition of Fianna that I just had to get a hold of a Dana too. So I opted for Wintertime Wonderland Dana--I knew those stylish winter clothes would come in handy. Ironically, it was the makeup that came with Fianna's spa that stole all the glitter from Dana's face. After several years of being caked in the lip gloss and nail polish, followed by rounds of face washes, the sturdy adhesive holding the glitter onto Dana's features weakened. Within a few months Nevra was the next cast member to become part of the family. She wasn't a personal choice of mine--rather she was a surprise for Christmas 2003. The element of surprise however was stolen when I accidentally discovered her in the car trunk a few weeks before Christmas. I couldn't believe my luck--Dad had ACTUALLY bought me the very expensive Bratz prom runway WITH the exclusive doll. Back then, I didn't think MGA would manufacture these characters in other lines, so it was an extra special treat to get Nevra and Fianna. Lo and behold, the Wild Life Safari line featured both girls. Sometime the following year, Dad bought me my second Nevra. I dubbed her Dakota, and to this day, she is one of those dolls that never fails to bring me to tears. It was an innocent, ordinary moment one afternoon when Dad and I found ourselves at Wal-Mart. He needed a new grill, and left me in the toy aisle to ogle all the newly released goodies. I fell in love with Nevra's rad camouflage printed clothes and the fact that she came with pierced ears. Dad returned to the aisle not long after, saw the look of temptation on my face, and offered to buy me Nevra. It is just one of those random moments in time that Nevra, aka Dakota, has managed to preserve. It was these first few special experiences with the unofficial Bratz pack members that rooted a passion for them, one that even a five year dolly hiatus could not break.

 

I never would have guessed in a million years that some random Bratz character, one who didn't even exist when I was a kid, would be the doll that broke me. It was the beginning of 2011 when dolls wormed their way back into my life. But those first few months, I was exclusively collecting Disney dolls. Five years of being stored in the basement had made me forget my love for my large headed friends. Despite Dad and Colleen's urging, I refused to have much to do with my 18 childhood Bratz. I didn't want my perfect Disney collection being tainted by those "ugly" dolls that I was somehow obsessed with years before. And then it happened...it was probably the second or third week of the flea market season that year. Within the first few minutes, I had decided to buy a 2003 Slumber Party Yasmin and Strut It! Meygan...familiar territory really. I had seen both dolls in stores, and I couldn't resist purchasing them. I was however very embarrassed by this, and sent Colleen in the building at the flea market to pay for them. Less than ten minutes later however, I was completely awestruck by a random black haired doll. We wandered through a seller's scattered booth, and spotted a box overflowing with doll hair. Inside, I noticed that the majority of the dolls happened to be Bratz. One in particular caught my eye--she had floor length, black saran hair, with vibrant red streaks framing her face. She had a subtle yet sassy face up, and was wearing what I now know to be a Rock Angelz Yasmin skirt, with coordinating boots, and a mismatched shirt. "No!" I told myself...I didn't need this Bratz doll. At the time I was obsessed with the idea of only collecting dolls that were complete. Having no prior knowledge of this doll, I couldn't take the gamble. I couldn't possibly have a Bratz doll that didn't have her original ensemble. So I put her back in the box and walked away. But those few minutes we were apart, I couldn't help but keep thinking of this mystery doll. So I found myself back at the booth, with money in hand. I also thought, "What the heck, I mine as well grab this Cloe with black streaked hair and Phoebe and Roxxi while I'm at it." There was another raven haired beauty in the same bin who looked almost exactly like my mystery lady. I was about to pay for her instead when I caught my mistake--she had different lips and no red streaks in her hair. When I got home and identified my finds, I came to the horrifying realization that my new Bratz doll was actually World Twiins Nevaeh, and it was her TWIN Peyton who I had so carelessly left behind. I spent the rest of that flea market season trying to track down that elusive seller with the hoard of Bratz. By the time I did, Peyton was long gone. It wasn't until 2013 when I finally got my hands on one--brand new in box from eBay. But back tracking to 2011, it was Nevaeh who broke me. I cleaned her up and tucked her away in storage with my childhood friends and the handful of dollies I purchased with her. But everyday I HAD to pop open the container and pay her a visit. Something about this doll was too compelling to resist. Before you know it, she found herself a home on my printer, facing my bed. It was probably within two weeks when Dad and I dismantled my desk and had an old bookshelf set up in my room for overflowing Disney dolls and Bratz. Colleen and Dad were right...Bratz dolls were my jam, they were something so incredibly special and sacred to me that time had simply erased my memory of. I owe it all to Nevaeh for sparking my inner Bratz flame. Without her, I don't know that things would have played out the same way.

 

I always had a taste for doll family packs, but the bond with Nevaeh and strengthened/intensified this passion. I found myself lusting for the 2010 Phoebe and Roxxi dolls at the stores, and also Sorrel and Keelin, the newest twins on the block at the time. Over the years, I've acquired quite the little hoard of Phoebe and Roxxi dolls. But none will ever hold a candle to my beloved 10th Anniversary ones. I was beginning to warm up to the new generation of Bratz around the fall of 2011. Things in my life were pretty much all falling apart at the time, the only light in my life being my newfound doll hobby. Dad's health was declining, we were flat broke, and the weight of all our struggles was eating me up inside. One evening we were at Wal-Mart picking up some necessities--on this occasion, there were huge rolling carts filled with clearance items right by the registers. Before we checked out, I glanced some Bratz boxes and had to investigate. I found Party Yasmin and the twins all marked down to just $10 each. I knew we didn't have the money for them, so I tried not to draw attention to myself. But it was too late, Dad had seen my greedy expression. He burst into tears at the register as we were checking out, apologizing repeatedly for not being able to buy me the set. It made me feel absolutely terrible that he felt like such a failure, all because he couldn't buy me a set of dolls that I didn't even need. Something about that moment must have really stayed with Dad. A few days later, he sold his boat to a family member, and with some cash in hand, he INSISTED we return to Wal-Mart. Within those few days, the dolls had been marked down further to just $7.50 each. So Dad, feeling proud and like he was able to fulfill his role as a parent, not only bought me Phoebe and Roxxi, but also Party Yasmin (I couldn't say no to that beautiful face and those extra clothes I so desperately needed). I can never shake the look on Dad's face later that night, as he watched me open Phoebe and Roxxi on the living room carpet. He was absolutely beaming, and I think it was that look on his face that has made the duo mean so much to me. Even though Dad is long gone, when I see Phoebe and Roxxi displayed above my bed, I can't help but feel warm inside. Dad didn't have to buy me the dolls, but it meant the world to him knowing he could do such a small gesture. If I could only keep ten Bratz, I have to admit that they would make the cut.

 

As I'm writing this passage, I cant' help but see a strong correlation between the dolls that mean the most to me and Dad. But it makes sense, after all, Bratz were always his favorite dolls to buy me, the ones he had the most jokes to crack about, and the dolls that hold the fondest memories. I had strangely great luck finding Sharidan that first year back into collecting. Even though she was a character who made less than five appearances, I saw three Sharidan dolls in those months. The first was Bratz the Movie Sharidan, who turned up in a busted box in Wal-Mart's clearance section. She was still super pricey though, at around $30 (although she was originally around $80). I was intrigued by this very out of date doll who just so happened to still be kicking it in this Wal-Mart. Based on my calculations, she was probably one of the first Bratz dolls ever stocked at this location, since our local Wal-Mart opened in 2007. When Dad found Colleen and I ogling Sharidan in the clearance aisle, he offered to buy her for me. But I politely declined--I felt too guilty spending that kind of cash for a single Bratz doll. So naturally I was over the moon when I found out MGA was reissuing her in a set with a unicorn. Dad made a special trek out to Big Lots just for Glowing Unicorn Sharidan. Sure she didn't have that fabulous glitter gown, but instead she was equipped with a rainbow haired unicorn. Some months later, I found another out of date Sharidan at Toys 'R' Us--only this time it was the Forever Diamondz gal. By that point in early 2012, Dad was hospitalized. He had insisted we got out and have some fun instead of visiting him all day. So Colleen and I drove out to Toys 'R' Us to see if they still had any Sorrel/Keelin packs. Not only did we find the twins, but also Sharidan, in another beat up box...she was just $7! Despite all this luck with Sharidan, I couldn't help but still fancy the overpriced Bratz the Movie gal. But she disappeared not long after, so I assumed she had sold. Dad passed away that May, and with the loss, I found myself turning more to my Bratz collection for comfort and reassurance. Two years almost exactly to the day, I was reunited with that EXACT Bratz the Movie Sharidan. She was once again stuffed in a clearance section, but this time at the front of the store. I know she was not another Sharidan doll that happened to come out of the stock room. No, she was the same doll Dad offered to buy me, still sporting that September 2011 price tag I had printed when scanning her two years before. Maybe it was a weird coincidence, a streak of luck, or Dad's way of letting me know he was still watching over us. But I couldn't leave her behind again, even though she was still $30. Although Dad didn't technically purchase this doll for me, Bratz the Movie Sharidan is still what I consider to be a "Dad doll" and the story of our miraculous reunion makes her all that much more irreplaceable.

 

The age of the doll or the time in my life in which I acquired them makes no difference. I love all the Bratz pack plus members. There were other countless special ones that Dad purchased me that first year of my dolly resurgence. I couldn't write this post and not mention the Sisterz, Lilani and Kiani. They've become unofficial mascots of my bedroom--watching over all the dolls from the topmost shelf above my bed. I have never forgotten the moment I first discovered of their existence, while cruising online trying to construct a self made Bratz book. There were Bratz SISTERS, with special body molds and a Kid Kore Katie esque vibe?!!! It was my mission during those early days to get my hands on a set, and lo and behold luck was on my side. Both girls turned up fairly complete in the lot we call "Craigslist #1." Dad bought me the 70 plus secondhand Bratz dolls as an early Christmas gift that year. As bizarre and homely as I found the pair, I was obsessed in their sheer novelty, especially since a few weeks prior I had seen a knock off version in a toy store at the mall. I was beyond bummed out when I figured out that those sisters weren't authentic. From that same ginormous lot of dolls, I also acquired more Bratz Twiins, including Tess/Nona and Oriana/Valentina! Having such luck made me crave the rest of the twins sets that were produced, which lead to a very indulgent eBay twins binge some years later. I also couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by nostalgia when Tokyo a Go-Go Tiana turned up in the tub of Bratz that night. I knew there were a few dolls from the line when we first saw the ad on Craigslist, but I was unaware that the playset doll was included. As a kid, I was torn between thinking Tiana was really awesome, and also a bit too much like Jade for my liking. But as a twenty year old, I was enamored by her multicolored, micro braided hairstyle, and that signature anime esque facial screening! There was also the memorable "Bean Fianna" of that same year. I rescued her and Slumber Party Cloe together at a massive outdoor flea market. Tennis Fianna was clad in only a yellow robe, her tennis shoes, and a kidney bean that somehow found its way into her tresses. Sleepover Leah is yet another infamous doll in my collection. I discovered her nude body in a tool box at the local flea market. I just couldn't leave her behind in such a sorry state. Despite her nicotine stained body, her destroyed hair, and that awful odor which stank like Leah had been chain smoking for years, I still loved her. I feel a deep sense of pride and satisfaction when I see her now, slightly less shabby, but considerably more loved/appreciated. There were newer dolls in the stores too that caught my eye. I was fascinated by the Style It! girls in particular, when they turned up in 2011. I was particularly keen for Maci, what with her dark black hair and blue eyes. For my 21st birthday, the first without Dad, my cousin and his now wife surprised me with her and a secondhand Sun-Kissed Summer Dana. They picked Maci since she reminded them of me, what with her plaid jacket and that "Doodles" nickname! For over a year, she was my Peyton doppelganger, Nevaeh's surrogate sister, since they both had black hair and blue eyes. I also was so taken by Style It! Jaylene in 2013, that I had to purchase her, despite being hideously overpriced at Rite Aid. To me, she embodies my mom's spirit, if she were a Bratz doll. She has thick, wavy blonde hair, blue eyes, and a stylish sweater dress (the only thing my mom would wear if she had a Bratz wardrobe). Plus her name began with a "J"--my mom's name was Joy. Although I felt a bit salty towards Raya when the 2015 Bratz debuted, I couldn't help but be tickled by her cheeseburger shoes. Plus, I felt no ill will towards her once I realized that Meygan in fact was coming back, and that Raya had not replaced her!

 

Each of these dolls, and all the others I could not mention here, have a story. Their stories are unique to each girl, just like they are from their duplicates. While to some people, their only collectible value may lie in how they relate to the Bratz franchise, for me, they are like pages from my scrapbook. Each one represents a time in my life that I can never relive. Whether this was my early days of Bratz collecting, when I started dabbling with Dana, Fiana, and Nevra, or when I found a passion for the twins in later years, or when I just had to get my hands on those one off characters to complete brand new lines in the store...they are all meaningful. The Bratz pack "plus" characters really represent to me what I have found to be the meaning of collecting. To me, how "rare" or desirable a character is does not equate to her worth. Ciara and Diona aren't more special to me than my 10th Anniversary twins who overcrowded store shelves in 2011. Likewise, i Candy Phoebe is no less exciting just because I have three these days. I still feel that same sense of delight when admire their green streaked hair and puckered red lips. I was no less than fully overwhelmed when I finally got my hands on the elusive Babysitterz Lana in 2017, despite the fact that she didn't come with a stitch of her original clothes. I've come to see that whether it's a brand new character like the 2010 girls, or one that "came back" after a single appearance like Raya, they are still all Bratz in my eyes. Although Cloe, Yasmin, Sasha, and Jade are the faces of the Bratz brand, it just wouldn't feel the same without all those other characters cluttering up my display and filling my heart with so much joy!

Replaced the stock rmm with this RMM from Whoosh. Much improved shifting from 1-2 & 2-3.

 

Replacing the gasket on the float bowl

This is my M4 as of late. That ACOG looks cool, but it's actually a piece of crap held together by hot glue. Luckily for me,. it's being replaced soon by an ACOG red dot sight w/ cross hairs. *yay me*

Replacing an earlier photo from Jun-15 with a better version.

 

First flown with the Airbus test registration D-AXAG , this aircraft was delivered to Iberia and leased to Iberia Express as EC-LUS in Mar-13. It was retro fitted with 'Sharklets' in Nov-14. Current (Jul-17).

Low level 2CV maintenance. Over the years, replacement of a broken rubber band supporting the drivers or passengers seat has been performed in the time honoured manner of taking one off the back. Now they're all complete. The seat has a wire sewn into the backing, meaning the clip at one end of the rubber band can secure itself onto the seat, the other goes into a hole in the seat frame. On these original seats (stuffed with wood shavings) it is interesting to see how the webbing to help locate the seat and bands has been applied only to a few of the rubber bands. Economy of manufacture, great thought in design.

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version.

 

This operated with United Airlines as N356UA for 14 years until it was stored at Goodyear (GYR), AZ, USA in Jun-03 and returned to the lessor. It was converted into a freighter in Mar-05 and leased to Hainan Airlines/Yangtze River Express in China as B-5059. As of May-14, it's still in service.

just north of Davisville station.

A yard along the road... two crane cross each other againt a lead sky... poetic isn't it?!?

 

Original shot taken with an Olympus e500, 14-45mm zoom lens, various post processing.

 

Other pictures from these days just here in the Supivas photostream CAA2008

Replacing the 3.3 litre V12 275 Series Ferraris in 1966 was the new 330, featuring a 4.0 litre version of the Colombo engine. Launched first at the Geneva Motor Show as the GTC Berlinetta, the GTS Spider followed, at the Paris Motor Show.

 

The 330 used a development of the chassis from the 275, including the independent rear suspension and short wheelbase. The GTS even looked very alike to the earlier 275 GTS model.

 

The 330 was replaced in 1968 by the 4.4 litre 365 series, which was all but identical in style.

 

All models were styled by Pinifarina, except for a Zagato one-off for American Ferrari importer Luigi Chinetti.

 

This lego model 330 GTS Spider has been created for Flickr LUGNuts 60th Build Challenge, our fifth birthday to the 13th Build Challenge theme, - 'Fear and Loathing' - in light of the arachnid connotation in the model name. Interestingly, the term 'Spider' or 'Spyder' come from the name given to an open topped, lightweight and manouvreable horse-drawn carriage - which reflects the terms usage in open topped sportscars.

1916 - 3 Pierce-Arrow Trucks replace 27 Horses - Fidelio Brewing Co., NY

Redi-Rock Case Study Photos

Review LG LED IPS Monitor 23MP65HQ (LG 23EA63V replaced) An Phat PC by dtien87 ductien daoductien - www.anphatpc.com.vn

Foto de estudio en clave alta.

Modelo: Laura Fernández Guerra

Amsterdam Maritime Museum, 2017

Their first three full-length albums are examples of the death/doom style, although the latter two incorporated some melodic and gothic elements. However, with the release of the albums Icon (1993) and Draconian Times (1995), Paradise Lost also became known as pioneers of the gothic metal subgenre. In accordance with the change in musical approach, vocalist Nick Holmes changed his singing style. He used a death grunt on the band's first three albums, but on Icon refined his voice to have a cleaner tone. Later (circa 1997), the band began experimenting with electronic styles but after four albums reverted again to gothic metal.

Their line-up has remained stable for such a long-standing heavy metal band, consisting of singer Nick Holmes, guitarists Greg Mackintosh and Aaron Aedy, and bassist Steve Edmondson. Holmes and Mackintosh are the principal composers, with almost all of the band's songs credited to them. During the years, the band has only changed drummers, with original member Matthew Archer replaced in 1994 by ex-Marshall Law drummer Lee Morris In March 2004, Morris left the band. Jeff Singer took Morris' place and has played on all subsequent releases, though he was not listed as a permanent band member until the release of the single "The Enemy" in 2007. In a recent video interview, Mackintosh and Holmes revealed that Singer had already auditioned for the band when Archer left, but they chose Morris instead because "[Singer] had a pink drumkit"

Lìjiāng (simplified Chinese: 丽江; traditional Chinese: 麗江) is a prefecture-level city in the northwest of Yunnan province, People's Republic of China. It has an area of 21,219 square kilometres and had a population of 1,244,769 at the 2010 census.

 

HISTORY

Lijiang City replaced the former administrative region of Lijiang Prefecture. It was under the rule of the Mu family (木氏) local commanders (土司) during the Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty.

 

The Baisha Old Town was the political, commercial and cultural center for the local Naxi people and other ethnic groups for 400 years from the year 658 AD to 1107 AD. The Dabaoji Palace of the Baisha Fresco, very close to the Baisha Naxi Hand-made Embroidery Institute, was built in the year 658 AD in the Tang Dynasty (618 AD to 960 AD).

 

In ancient times, the Baisha Old Town used to be the center of silk embroidery in the southwest of China and the most important place of the Ancient Southern Silk Road, also called the Ancient Tea and Horse Road or Ancient tea route. The Ancient Southern Silk Road started from Burma, crossed Lijiang, Shangri-La County, Tibet, journeyed through Iran, the Fertile Crescent, and ultimately to the Mediterranean Sea.

 

Naxi women were well known for their hand-made embroidery before 1972 during the Great Cultural Revolution. The most famous Naxi masters were arrested and put in jail, some of them died in jail during the Cultural Revolution because they did hand-made embroidery only for the Naxi Emperors when they were young.

 

GEOGRAPHY

Lijiang is located in the northwestern portion of Yunnan and borders Sichuan. It is in a region where the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau converge.

 

Owing to its low latitude and high elevation, the city centre of Lijiang experiences a mild subtropical highland climate (Köppen Cwb). Winters are mild and very dry and sunny (>70% possible sunshine), although average lows in December and January are just below the freezing mark; January, the coolest month, has a 24-hour average temperature of 6.0 °C. Spring begins early and remains dry and sunny until late May, when there is a dramatic uptick in frequency and amount of rainfall that lasts until late September. Summers are warm, rainy (more so than it is sunny) and damp, with June, the warmest month, averaging 18.4 °C. Autumn sees an abrupt reduction in rainfall and return to sunniness. The annual mean temperature is 12.70 °C, while precipitation averages 968 mm, around 80% of which occurs from June to September. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 32% in July to 80% in December, the city receives 2,463 hours of bright sunshine annually.

 

OLD TOWN

The world famous Old Town of Lijiang is located in Lijiang City. It is a UNESCO Heritage Site.

 

The town has a history going back more than 800 years and was once a confluence for trade along the old tea horse road. The Lijiang old town is famous for its orderly system of waterways and bridges. The old town of Lijiang differs from other ancient Chinese cities in architecture, history and the culture of its traditional residents the Nakhi people, therefore people there are called 胖金哥 and 胖金妹 (pàng jīn gē, pàng jīn mèi, male and female respectively). The town was ruled by the Mu Family during the portions of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, a period of nearly 500 years.

 

Overlooking Lijiang Old Town is Lion Hill and at its summit is the Wangu Pavilion, which is a wooden building that stands 33 m tall and boasts 10,000 dragon carvings. The pavilion is constructed on 16 columns each of 22 m in height. The pavilion is a masterpiece of Qing Dynasty architecture that has been extensively restored following the designation of Lijiang Old Town as a UNESCO Heritage Site.

 

From Lion's Hill it is possible to view the entire Li River valley, including both the old city and new city of Lijiang. Looking Northwest, the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is dominates the horizon.

 

The Old Town is a maze of winding cobblestone streets. It is extremely easy to get lost as there is no grid, but each turn takes one to some new interesting spot, and it's not hard to eventually find one's way out of the maze and back to familiar territory. The layout of the town was established to conform to the flow of 3 streams in adherence to Feng Shui design, so there was water and waste disposal for the inhabitants. The Old Town has fast become a destination for young Chinese artists, students, and adventurers. Most recently, it has become a favored Spring Break destination for students. "Bar Street" is a line of clubs with live music, dancing, and revelry. The Old Town has a multitude of shops, some a bit tourist oriented, but several showcasing handcrafts, individual artists, and local manufacturers of interesting personal products.

 

There are dozens of restaurants, from snacks to high end dining, all very reasonably priced, cheap by Western standards.

 

Accommodations are varied, but the most interesting are the large number of boutique hotels run by individuals and families. These boutique hotels are in old traditional houses converted to rooms, courtyards, and gathering places, and designs all trend to traditional Chinese sensibilities. There are new high end hotel and condominium developments starting construction from 2011 forward, so there is a definite push to make the destination one for all tastes and not just young adventurers.

 

NEARBY

Some tens of miles north of Lijiang is the Baishui Terrace (白水台 Baishuitai, literally "White Water Terrace"), an area where spring water flows over a sinter terrace, leaving behind travertine. Lijiang is also close to the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (玉龙雪山).

 

A few miles north of Lijiang is the village of Baisha, famous for the Baisha Fresco and the Naxi Hand-made Embroidery Institute.The Fresco was built in the Ming Dynasty 600 years ago, the Naxi Hand-made Embroidery Institute was built 800 years ago, it is the headquarters of the Naxi embroideries and also, a school for the Naxi embroiderers. There are many Naxi embroidery masters, teachers, students and local farmers there. Their embroidery arts can be found there.

 

WIKIPEDIA

I purchased a sheet of 2mm foam from a hobby shop sufficient to do ten cameras for just 90 cents. It was cut into strips and glued in place with a thin film of contact adhesive. Previously the door rattled but with the new foam in place is now tight as a drum. Several rolls of film have gone through and there are no light leaks.

Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 2705. Photo: Paramount. Claudette Colbert in Cleopatra (Cecil B. DeMille, 1934).

 

With her round apple face, big eyes and charm, French-born Hollywood star Claudette Colbert (1903-1996) was the epitome of chic sophistication. Her comedies It Happened One Night (1934) - for which she won the Oscar, Midnight (1939) and The Palm Beach Story (1942) are among Hollywood's greatest ever. After more than 60 films, she returned with great success to the theatre and was 84 years old when she won a Golden Globe for the TV mini-series The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (1987).

 

Claudette Colbert was born Emilie ‘Lily’ Claudette Chauchoin in 1903 in Saint-Mandé, an eastern suburb of Paris, where her father owned a bakery. Her parents were Georges Claude Chauchoin and Jeanne Marie née Loew. In 1906 her family emigrated to New York. Though she did some acting in college, her primary interest was fashion design. She studied fashion when she met the writer Anne Morrison at a party who offered the 20-year-old student a small role in her play The Wild Westcotts (1923) on Broadway. She started to use the stage name, Claudette Colbert. After signing a five-year contract with the producer Al Woods, Colbert played ingénue roles on Broadway from 1925 through 1929. British actor Leslie Howard, with whom she had a brief relationship in 1924, encouraged her and persuaded his friend the producer Al Woods to put her under contract but, despite personally good notices, she did not get into a major hit until The Barker (1927) with Walter Huston and Norman Foster. In The Barker, she played a duplicitous snake charmer. She and Foster, later a Hollywood actor and director, were married the following year during the play's London run. Their marriage remained a secret for many years while they lived in separate homes. In Los Angeles, Colbert shared a home with her mother Jeanne Chauchoin, but her domineering mother disliked Foster and did not allow him into their home. Colbert and Foster divorced in 1935 in Mexico. Colbert's first film, For the Love of Mike (Frank Capra, 1927), was made during The Barker's Broadway run. The silent film is now believed to be lost. She was concerned that silent cinema failed to utilise her melodious voice, one of her greatest assets. The advent of talkies changed her attitude, and in 1929 she signed a Paramount contract. Only two of her first 15 films - The Big Pond (Hobart Henley, 1930) and The Smiling Lieutenant (Ernst Lubitsch, 1931), both co-starring Maurice Chevalier - were better than mediocre. Then Cecil B. De Mille asked her to play Nero (Charles Laughton)'s unscrupulous wife Poppaea in the Biblical epic The Sign of the Cross (1932). Her performance was acclaimed, while her bath in asses' milk received immense publicity and has become a famous scene in Hollywood history. Columbia offered her the role of a spoiled heiress in It Happened One Night (Frank Capra, 1934). Colbert was initially reluctant to appear in the screwball comedy and demanded to be paid $50,000 - twice her usual pay - and that filming was to be completed within four weeks to allow her to take a planned vacation. Tom Valance at The Independent: “The role gave her the chance to work with Clark Gable, who had been forced by his studio, MGM, to do the film. Neither star initially expected much of the low-budget comedy which won five Oscars. Colbert was in fact boarding a train for New York on the night of the ceremony when she was stopped and rushed back to accept her Best Actress award from Shirley Temple.” The madcap comedy was a mega-hit all across the country. Two more big hits consolidated her status. She played the title role in the lavish but inaccurate Cleopatra (Cecil B. De Mille, 1934), then starred in Imitation of Life (John Stahl, 1934), a trenchant study of racial intolerance. It was based on Fannie Hurst's novel about a young widow who becomes a millionairess marketing the pancake recipe of her black friend (Louise Beavers). While the widow and her daughter move into society, the friend insists on keeping in the background, and when her light-skinned daughter, who faces exclusion and prejudice where her counterpart has privilege and opportunity, tries to pass for white and disowns her mother tragedy follows.

 

In 1935, Claudette Colbert was named one of the top 10 money-making stars, a position she was to hold again in 1936 and 1947. Fred MacMurray had his first major role in her next film, The Gilded Lily (Wesley Ruggles, 1935), and the two would go on to co-star in six more films. Charles Boyer, co-star of Colbert's next film, Private Worlds (Gregory La Cava, 1935), and not yet fully conversant with the English language, would also acknowledge the support he received from the actress, who won a second Oscar nomination for her performance as a psychiatrist in this grim story of mental illness. Wikipedia: “Colbert was a stickler for perfection regarding the way she appeared on screen. She believed that her face was difficult to light and photograph, and was obsessed with not showing the right side of her face to the camera, because of a small bump resulting from a childhood broken nose. She often refused to be filmed from the right side of her face, and this sometimes necessitated redesigning movie sets.” Colbert's first marriage ended in 1935 while she was making She Married Her Boss (Gregory La Cava, 1935). The same year she married Joel Pressman, a throat specialist and surgeon at UCLA, who remained her husband until he died in 1968. Colbert's role in Under Two Flags (Frank Lloyd, 1936), based on Ouida's tale of the Foreign Legion, was an unusual one for her, that of the tempestuous camp-follower "Cigarette" who sacrifices herself for the love of a soldier (Ronald Colman). For the same director, she starred in Maid of Salem (Frank Lloyd, 1937), an account of the 1692 witch-hunts in Massachusetts. Colbert never seemed entirely comfortable in period pieces, and both audiences and critics were happy when she returned to modern comedy with I Met Him In Paris (Wesley Ruggles, 1937) and Tovarich (Anatole Litvak, 1937), in which she and Charles Boyer were impoverished Russian nobility working as maid and butler in a Parisian household. Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (Ernst Lubitsch, 1938), with a screenplay by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett, based on a 1923 Gloria Swanson silent film, was a disappointment. After a promising start in which Colbert meets Gary Cooper in a Riviera store where she is trying to buy pyjama bottoms while he is trying to purchase just the tops, it becomes contrived and frantic rather than funny. Zaza (George Cukor, 1939), in which Colbert sang several songs as a French music-hall star, was another failure. Then followed one of her greatest films, the Cinderella-inspired screwball comedy Midnight (1939), directed by Mitchell Leisen and brilliantly written by Brackett and Wilder. Colbert next appeared with Henry Fonda in the Western Drums Along the Mohawk (John Ford, 1939), her first film in colour, as a farmer's wife coping with rugged conditions and hostile Indians. Boom Town (Jack Conway, 1940) was one of her most popular films, due to its star-power of Gable, Colbert, Spencer Tracy and Hedy Lamarr.

 

Claudette Colbert cited as her favourite film Arise My Love (Mitchell Leisen, 1940), set just after the Spanish Civil War. Tom Valance in The Independent: “It has some splendidly romantic, dramatic and comic moments as Colbert, playing a reporter, pretends to be the wife of a condemned soldier of fortune (Ray Milland) to save him from a Spanish firing squad, then inevitably falls in love with him. Brackett and Wilder's screenplay tried to keep pace with changing events in Europe (the story ends after the invasion of France) which resulted in some uneasy shifts of mood in an otherwise impressive work.” Better still was Henry King's warmly charming piece of Americana Remember The Day (Henry King, 1941), in which Colbert gave a glowing performance as a school teacher who while visiting a now-famous former pupil recalls the past and her sweetheart who was killed in the First World War. Preston Sturges' The Palm Beach Story (1942) is one of the screen's greatest screwball comedies and contains the sequence Colbert later cited as her favourite comic scene. Having left her husband to find a millionaire to finance his inventions, she is climbing into a train's upper berth when she steps on the face and glasses of a rich passenger (Rudy Vallee). During the Second World War Colbert's husband, Joel Pressman, became a Navy lieutenant and she spent much time selling war bonds and working for the war effort. Two of her major films were effective wartime propaganda: So Proudly We Hail (Mark Sandrich, 1943), a tribute to the nurses in Bataan and Since You Went Away (John Cromwell, 1944), producer David O. Selznick's ambitious three-hour tribute to the families at home. Colbert considered hard before taking the role of the mother to two teenage girls, but it became one of her finest, most deeply felt performances, representing the women left to raise families while their husbands are at war. In one remarkably touching scene Colbert, who has taken a job at a munitions factory, converses with a refugee, now a naturalised American (Alla Nazimova). For the part, she received her third Academy Award nomination but lost to Ingrid Bergman in Gaslight. She appeared in such mild comedies as Practically Yours (Mitchell Leisen, 1944), and tepid dramas as Tomorrow is Forever (Irving Pichel, 1946) with Orson Welles. Colbert and Fred MacMurray had an enormous box-office hit with The Egg and I (Chester Erskine, 1947) as a city couple trying to run a farm, but the slapstick (lots of falling about in the mud) was far from the sophistication Colbert purveyed so expertly. Three Came Home (Jean Negulesco, 1950) gave her a strong dramatic role as Agnes Newton Keith, a true-life American author captured when the Japanese invaded Borneo in 1941. Her scenes with Sessue Hayakawa (as the cultured prison camp commander) were memorable in a gripping film which was too grim to be a major hit. Colbert had appeared on radio regularly throughout her career, and in 1951 she made her television debut on The Jack Benny Show. Other appearances included The Royal Family of Broadway (1954), The Guardsman (1955) and Blithe Spirit (1956), with Noel Coward and Lauren Bacall. In 1951 she also returned to the stage, with a tour of Noel Coward's Island Fling (later known as South Sea Bubble). She went to Britain to star with Jack Hawkins in The Planter's Wife (Ken Annakin, 1952) based on the native terrorism being faced by rubber planters. The film was a hit in Britain. The following year Colbert went to France to play a mistress of Louis XIV in Sacha Guitry's lavish Si Versailles m'etait conte/Royal Affairs in Versailles (1953). She returned to Broadway in 1955, replacing Margaret Sullavan in Janus, then in 1958 starred in a new play, Leslie Stevens's The Marriage-Go-Round. The play was a hit and Colbert won a Tony nomination. Her last film was Parrish (Delmer Daves, 1961), a soap opera in which Colbert played the mother of Troy Donahue. She continued to make Broadway appearances, among them The Irregular Verb To Love (1963), The Kingfisher (1978) and A Talent For Murder (1981), and she returned to the London stage in Frederick Lonsdale's Aren't We All? (1984) opposite Rex Harrison. For her television work in the mini-series The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (John Erman, 1987) she received a Golden Globe and a nomination for an Emmy Award. Claudette Colbert spent much of her time at the 200-year-old plantation house she and her husband had bought long ago in Barbados, and she also had a flat in Paris and an apartment on the East Side of New York. After three strokes, she died in Barbados in 1996 at the age of 92.

 

Tom Vallance in The Independent: “It is no accident, surely, that she flourished at that most European of studios, Paramount, home of Lubitsch and Chevalier, Mamoulian, Von Sternberg and Wilder. Her distinctive high-cheekboned beauty and the throaty individuality of her voice were complemented by superb comic timing and fine technical skill honed by an extensive apprenticeship in the theatre. She could be warmly compassionate in romantic drama but was unsurpassable in sophisticated comedy.”

 

Sources: Tom Vallance (The Independent), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Denny Jackson (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Replacing an onerous cup spring.

In PS5

1)duplicate bottom layer

2)on new layer, magic wand select sky shift+select multiple areas; select - feather 2 pts; clear (erase) sky, set at top layer

3)copy / paste a nice sky image as middle layer; add black layer mask; gradient tool mask light at bottom to dark at top

 

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 16-Jan-16, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 09-Dec-23.

 

Ordered by the leasing company GPA Group Ltd (Guinness Peat Aviation which later became GECAS), this aircraft was originally destined for lease to Vacationair, Canada as C-FVND but they ceased operations in Jan-90.

 

Instead the aircraft was leased to Futura International Airways in Feb-90, initially with the temporary Spanish registration EC-401. It was re-registered EC-ETB later the same month.

 

In late Apr-98 it was returned to GECAS, leased to UK company AB Airlines as G-OABF the same day and sub-leased back to Futura until Nov-98 when it was returned to AB Airlines.

 

It was then sub-leased to Transbrazil as PT-TDE during the European Winter season. It was returned to AB Airlines in May-99 and immediately sub-leased to Futura International again, this time as EC-HBT.

 

In Nov-99 AB Airlines ceased operations and the sub-lease was transferred back to GECAS until Apr-00 when the aircraft was returned. It was re-registered N545NK for a couple of months and then leased to All Nippon Airways subsidiary ANK Air Nippon as JA391K in Jun-90.

 

JA391K was sub-leased to Air Do (Hokkaido International Airlines) in Apr-05 and operated by them for 3 years until it was returned to ANK and GECAS in Jul-08. It was immediately leased to Skynet Asia Airways, still as JA391K.

 

Skynet Asia was renamed Solaseed Air in Jul-11 and the aircraft continued in service until it was retired and returned to the lessor as N609SC in Apr-12. It was permanently retired at Greenwood, MS, USA. The registration N609SC was never applied to the aircraft and it was last noted at Greenwood in Nov-12, still as JA391K, and was later broken up.

Huskies replaced Bulldogs at Drake University's Knapp Center on Sunday, May 30 as Hoover High School celebrated the Class of 2021. Hoover welcomed more than 200 new graduates and alums to their ranks.

Replacing yellowed parts: south industrial's heating petrol store ff. includes road plates.

*replaced*

 

+4 in comments!

 

lexi & chris!

today i had a cute little shoot with my best friends! they were so sweet! we had their shoot by the theatre, which was their first date!!! and in the back streets of our town!

i went to my teacher's wedding yesterday... and i'll post some pictures later!

haha! i hope everyone has a great week! :]♥

 

check out:

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crazy girl.

  

After replacing the fence realised over the years we have had a mud slide behind the shed resulting in the bottom having rotted away, had to cut away the lower 1mtr then dig out the excess mud build a retaining wall out of scaffold boards andf then rebuild bottom of shed

The SR 104 Hood Canal Bridge closed to traffic early Friday morning, May 1 for a project that replaces the east half (pictured here).

The castle has been the seat of the Percy family since Norman times. By 1138 the original motte and bailey castle, with wooden buildings, was replaced with stone buildings and walls. In 1309 the keep and defences were made even stronger by Henry de Percy. The castle then stayed unchanged for 400 years. By the 18th century it had fallen into ruins. The keep however was then turned into a gothic style mansion by Robert Adam. In the 19th century the Duke of Northumberland carried out more restoration of the castle.

 

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ALNWICK CASTLE, THE CASTLE, STABLE COURT AND COVERED RIDING SCHOOL INCLUDING WEST WALL OF RIDING SCHOOL

  

Heritage Category: Listed Building

 

Grade: I

 

List Entry Number: 1371308

 

National Grid Reference: NU 18685 13574

  

Details

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 05/10/2011

 

NU 1813 NE 2/1 NU 1813 SE 1/1 20.2.52. 5330

 

Alnwick Castle The Castle, Stable Court and Covered Riding School including West Wall of Riding School

 

GV I

 

Alnwick Castle has work of every period on the line of the original motte and bailey plan. By 1138 a strong stone built border castle with a shell keep in place of the motte, formed the nucleus of the present castle with 2 baileys enclosing about 7 acres. The curtain walls and their square towers rest on early foundations and the inner gatehouse has round-headed arches with heavy chevron decoration. The Castle was greatly fortified after its purchase by Henry de Percy 1309 - the Barbican and Gatehouse, the semi-circular towers of the shell keep, the octagonal towers of the inner gateway and the strong towers of the curtain wall date from the early to mid C14. Ruinous by the C18, the 1st Duke had it rehabilitated and extended by James Prince and Robert Adam, the latter being mainly concerned with the interior decoration, very little of which remains except for fireplaces in the Housekeeper's and the Steward's Rooms and for inside the present Estates Office range. Capability Brown landscaped the grounds, filling in the former moat (formed by Bow Burn). The 4th Duke employed Anthony Salvin 1854-65 at the cost of £1/4 million to remove Adam's fanciful Gothic decoration, to restore a serious Gothic air to the exterior and to redesign the state rooms in an imposing grand Italian manner. The Castle is approached from Bailliff gate through the crenellated Barbican and Gatehouse (early C14): lion rampant (replica) over archway, projecting square side towers with corbelled upper parts, fortified passage over dry moat to vaulted gateway flanked by polygonal towers. Stone figures on crenellations here, on Aveners Tower, on Record Tower and on Inner Gateway were carved circa 1750-70 by Johnson of Stamfordham and probably reflect an earlier similar arrangement. In the Outer Bailey to the, north are the West Garrett (partly Norman), the Abbott's Tower (circa 1350) with a rib vaulted basement, and the Falconer's Tower (1856). To the south are the Aveners Tower [C18], the Clock Tower leading into the Stable Yard, the C18 office block, the Auditor's Tower (early Clk) and the Middle Gateway (circa 1309-15) leading to the Middle Bailey. The most prominent feature of the Castle on the west side is the very large Prudhoe Tower by Salvin and the polygonal apse of the chapel near to it. In the Middle Bailey, to the south are the Warders Tower (1856) with the lion gateway leading by a bridge to the grand stairs into the walled garden, the East Garrett and the Record Tower (C14, rebuilt 1885). In the curtain wall to the north are 2 blocked windows probably from an early C17 building now destroyed and the 'Bloody Gap', a piece of later walling possibly replacing a lost truer; next a small C14 watch tower (Hotspur's Seat); next the Constable's Tower, early C14 and unaltered with a gabled staircase turret; close by is the Postern Tower, early C14, also unaltered.'To the north-west of the Postern Tower is a large terrace made in the C18, rebuilt 1864-65, with some old cannon on it. The Keep is entered from the Octagon Towers (circa 1350) which have 13 heraldic shields below the parapet, besides the agotrop3ic figures, and a vaulted passage expanded from the Norman gateway (fragments of chevron on former outer arch are visible inside). The present arrangement of the inner ward is largely Salvin's work with a covered entrance with a projecting storey and lamp-bracket at the rear of the Prudhoe Tower and a corbelled corridor at 1st floor level on the east. Mediaeval draw well on the east wall, next to the original doorway to the keep, now a recess The keep, like the curtain walls, is largely mediaeval except for some C18 work on the interior on the west and for the Prudhoe Tower and the Chapel. The interior contrasts with the rugged mediaeval exterior with its sumptuous Renaissance decoration, largely by Italians - Montiroli, Nucci, Strazza, Mantavani and inspired from Italian sources. The chapel with its family gallery at the east end has 4 short rib vaulted bays and a shallow 3-light apse; side walls have mosaics, covered now with tapestry. The grand staircase With its groin vaulted ceiling leads to the Guard Chamber from which an ante-room leads west into the Library (in the Prudhoe Tower) and east into the Music Room (fireplace with Dacian captives by Nucci). Further on are the Red Drawing Room (caryatid fireplace by Nucci) and the Dining Room (ceiling design copied from St Lorenzo f.l.m. in Rome and fireplace with bacchante by Strazza and faun by Nucci). South of the Middle Gateway are Salvin's impressive Kitchen quarters where the oven was designed to burn a ton of coal per day. West of the Stable Courtyard, with C19 Guest Hall at the south end, is the C19 covered riding school, with stable to north of it, and with its west wall forming the east side of Narrowgate. The corner with Bailliffgate has an obtuse angled tower of 2 storeys, with a depressed ogee headed doorway from the street, and merlons.

 

Listing NGR: NU1863413479

  

historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/137130...

 

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ALNWICK CASTLE

 

Heritage Category: Park and Garden

 

Grade: I

 

List Entry Number: 1001041

 

National Grid Reference: NU1739315366, NU2254414560

  

Details

 

Extensive landscape parks and pleasure grounds developed from a series of medieval deer parks, around Alnwick Castle, the seat of the Percy family since the C14.

 

Between 1750 and 1786, a picturesque landscape park was developed for Hugh, first Duke of Northumberland, involving work by James Paine, Robert Adam, and the supervision of work by Lancelot Brown (1716-83) and his foremen Cornelius Griffin, Robson, and Biesley in the 1760-80s, working alongside James and Thomas Call, the Duke's gardeners. During the C19 each successive Duke contributed and elaborated on the expansive, planned estate landscape, within which the landscape park was extended. This was accompanied by extensive C19 garden works, including a walled, formal flower garden designed in the early C19 by John Hay (1758-1836), and remodelled mid C19 by William Andrews Nesfield (1793-1881).

 

NOTE This entry is a summary. Because of the complexity of this site, the standard Register entry format would convey neither an adequate description nor a satisfactory account of the development of the landscape. The user is advised to consult the references given below for more detailed accounts. Many Listed Buildings exist within the site, not all of which have been here referred to. Descriptions of these are to be found in the List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest produced by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

 

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

 

In the C13, Hulne Park, West Park, and Cawledge were imparked within the Forest of Alnwick. Hulne Park lay to the north-west of Alnwick Castle and Cawledge to the south and south-east. By the late Middle Ages, Hulne Park extended to 4000 acres (c 1620ha) enclosed by some 13 miles (c 21km) of wall. It was stocked with some 1000 fallow deer and a tower at Hulne Priory served as a hunting lodge. The parks formed the basis of Alnwick Park, landscaped by Sir Hugh Smithson (1714-86) who in 1750 became Earl of Northumberland, inheriting his father-in-law's northern estates. Prior to this, from 1748 he and his wife, Elizabeth Seymour (1716-76), had lived at Stanwick, Yorkshire (qv) and at Syon Park, London (qv), where they had already established a reputation for gardening, attested by Philip Miller's dedication, in 1751, of his Gardener's Dictionary to the Earl.

 

Together they embarked on an ambitious scheme to restore the Castle, develop the grounds and estate, and restore the Percy family traditions and identity at Alnwick. Those employed at Alnwick were also involved elsewhere on the Northumberland estates: James Paine, architect at Syon House, Daniel Garrett, architect at Northumberland House, the Strand (1750-3), Robert Adam, architect at Syon (1762-9), Lancelot Brown, landscape architect at Syon Park (1754-72).

 

In 1751, Thomas Call (1717-82), who had been the Earl's gardener at Stanwick, prepared a scheme for the parklands and pleasure grounds, including a plan for Brizlee Hill (the south part of Hulne Park). Call and his relation James, working at Alnwick by 1756, were responsible for the development of Hulne Park over twenty years. The date and extent of Lancelot Brown's involvement at Alnwick is uncertain, although his foremen Griffin, Robson, and Biesley worked at Alnwick with teams of men between 1771and 1781 and records shown that they also worked alongside Call and his men (in 1773 for example, Call had a team of sixty men and Biesley one of seventy-eight).

  

Hulne Park was developed as a picturesque pleasure ground with extensive rides, follies, and the enhancement of natural features. A characteristic of the Duke's scheme was his recognition of antiquarian sites within the landscape, which were embellished. Thus in 1755, Hulne Priory was purchased to become the focal point of Hulne Park. A garden was made within the cloister walls and, from c 1763, the priory became the gamekeeper's residence, with a menagerie of gold and silver pheasants. Statues of friars cut by the mason Matthew Mills were set in the landscape. In 1774, a medieval commemorative cross to Malcolm Canmore (listed grade II), situated at the northern entrance to the North Demesne, was restored.

 

Following the Duchess' death in 1776, the Duke decorated all her favourite locations with buildings, some being ideas she had noted in her memoranda. Work also included other notes and ideas the Duchess had had, including the ruin at Ratcheugh Crag and some ninety-eight drives and incidents.

 

Plans for the parklands at the North Demesne, Denwick, and Ratcheugh Crags were developed in the late 1760s, although in the case of the North Demesne some parkland planting had been undertaken by 1760, and the major work undertaken in the early 1770s is that attributed to Brown, mainly on stylistic grounds.

 

During the C19, under the second Duke (1742-1817) the parks were extended, this including the purchase of Alnwick Abbey and part of its estate. The complex of drives was also extended and this was accompanied by extensive plantations, including the large Bunker Hill plantation central to the north area of Hulne Park, named to commemorate the Duke's action in 1775 in the War of American Independence. Most significantly, between 1806 and 1811, building centred on construction of a perimeter wall, defining the boundary of Hulne Park, and lodges and gateways at entrances to the parks. The carriage drives were extended, necessitating the construction of bridges over the River Aln. These schemes were implemented by estate workers, local masons, and David Stephenson, the Duke's architect.

 

As the Castle had no formal flower gardens, John Hay was commissioned between 1808 and 1812 to design pleasure gardens to the south-east of the Castle, linking it with a new walled garden at Barneyside, furnished with a range of hothouses, glasshouses, and pine pits. These were extended in the 1860s when Anthony Salvin, employed in the restoration of the Castle, built a gateway between the inner bailey and the pleasure gardens. Nesfield designed a scheme for the walled gardens to be developed as an ornamental flower and fruit garden, with a large central pool, conservatory, and a series of broad terraces and parterres. The Alnwick scheme can be compared to Nesfield's in the precincts of Arundel Castle, West Sussex (qv), in 1845.

 

Alnwick Castle, parks and estate remain (2000) in private ownership, the latest significant developments being the replanting and restoration of the North Demesne (1990s) and plans to completely remodel the walled garden.

 

SUMMARY DESCRIPTION

 

Alnwick Castle parks cover a tract of countryside encircling Alnwick town on its west, north, north-east, and south sides. The land is a mixture of contrasting landscape types, with high heather moorland and the rough crags of the Northumbrian Sandstone Hills sweeping down to the improved pasture lands along the wooded Aln valley. The parks exploit the boundaries of these distinctive landforms where the rugged moorland gives way to the pastoral, rolling landscape of the Aln, on its route to the sea. In the west parklands the river is confined between hills, and in places has incised deep, narrow valleys while in the east the landscape is more open.

 

The registered area of 1300ha is bounded on its north-east side by the Hulne Park wall, west of the Bewick to Alnwick Road (B6346). The west side of the area here registered follows field boundaries to the west of Shipley Burn, starting at Shipley Bridge, and then turns south-west at a point c 1km south of the bridge. It then runs for south-west for c 2.3km, to the west of Hulne Park, before crossing the River Aln and running parallel to Moorlaw Dean for c 1.2km, on the west side of the burn. The southern area is defined by Hulne Park wall running around the south point of Brizlee Wood then in a line due east, south of Cloudy Crags drive, to cross the Stocking Burn and reach Forest Lodge. The boundary then defines the north-western extent of Alnwick town and, crossing the Canongate Bridge, the southernmost extent of the Dairy Grounds.

 

To the east of the Castle the registered area takes in the entire North Demesne bounded on its north by Long Plantation, a perimeter belt which lies on the south side of Smiley Lane and then extends eastwards to meet the junction of the B1340 and A1 trunk road. The A1 has effectively cut through the North Demesne from north to south and, although physically divorcing the two areas, they are still visually conjoined. Defined on its north side within the hamlet of Denwick by tree belts, the park extends eastwards for 1km before cutting across southwards to meet the River Aln at Lough House. This latter stretch is bounded by a perimeter belt. The south boundary of the North Demesne follows the river in part, before meeting the Alnwick to Denwick road (B1340). To the south, the Castle gardens are delimited from the town by property boundaries along Bondgate. An outlying area of designed landscape at Ratcheugh is also included.

 

A complex series of drives is laid throughout the parks, particularly in Hulne Park. A series of thirty standing stones stand at the beginning of the drives or where they converge. These are inscribed with the names of the drives and act as signposts.

 

Alnwick Castle (1134 onwards, c 1750-68 by James Paine and Robert Adam, 1854-6 by Anthony Salvin, listed grade I) lies on the high ground on the south side of the Aln valley, commanding views to the north, east, and west. To the south is Alnwick town but the landscape is designed so that the town is not in view of the Castle. The principal views from the Castle lie over the North Demesne.

 

The North Demesne originally included Denwick Park (they have now been divided by the A1 road), and together these 265ha form the core parkland designed by Brown. Perimeter tree belts define the park, and clumps and scatters of specimen trees ornament the ground plan. The Aln has been dammed to give the appearance of an extensive, natural serpentine lake, with bridges as focal points: the Lion Bridge (John Adam 1773, listed grade I) and Denwick Bridge (1766, probably also by Adam, listed grade I). A programme of replanting and restoration of the North Demesne is under way (late 1990s).

 

The medieval deer park of Hulne extended to the north of the Shipley Road (outside the area here registered). Hulne Park is now 1020ha and is in agricultural and forestry use. The principal entrance from Alnwick town is Forest Lodge, the only extant part of Alnwick Abbey. Hulne Park is completely enclosed by an early C19 perimeter wall, c 3m high with shaped stone coping and buttresses every 20m. Nearly 5km of wall lies alongside roads, 5km across fields, and 5km defines perimeter woodland and moorland from the enclosed park.

 

The park design consists of a series of oval-shaped enclosures, defined by tree belts vital for shelter. The highest point is in the west area of the park, from where there are long-distance views east to the sea. The River Aln winds its way through the park via a series of contrasting steep valleys and flatter lands. The valleys are emphasised by planting on the upper slopes, while the lower areas are encircled with designed plantations to emphasise the river's meanders and ox-bow lakes.

 

Picturesque incidents survive at Nine Year Aud Hole, where the statue of a hermit (late C18, listed grade II) stands at the entrance to a natural cave along Cave Drive, and at Long Stone, a monolith standing high on the west side of Brizlee Hill, with panoramic views over Hulne Park to the north-west. The picturesque highlight is Hulne Priory (original medieval buildings, C18 alterations and enhancements, all listed grade I), which includes a summerhouse designed by Robert Adam (1778-80, listed grade I) and statues of praying friars erected in the Chapter House (late C18). The Priory's picturesque qualities are well appreciated from Brizlee Tower (Robert Adam, listed grade I), built in 1781 to commemorate the creation of the Alnwick parks by the first Duke and Duchess, a Latin inscription stating:

 

Circumspice! Ego omnia ista sum dimensus; Mei sunt ordines, Mea descriptio Multae etiam istarum arborum Mea manu sunt satae. [Look about you. I have measured all these things; they are my orders; it is my planning; many of these trees have been planted by my own hand.]

 

Brizlee is sited on a high point which can be seen in views north-west from the Castle, mirroring views north-east to the 'Observatory' on Ratcheugh Crag, a sham ruined castle sited as an eyecatcher on high ground and built by John Bell of Durham in 1784 (plans to further elaborate it were designed by Robert Adam).

 

Another principal feature of Hulne Park is a series of regular, walled enclosures (the walls set in ditches with banks cast up inside the compounds) which line Farm Drive, the central road through the park, north-westwards from Moor Lodge. This functioned as the third Duke's menagerie, and is still pasture.

 

The 15ha Dairy Ground links Hulne Park and the North Demesne. It principally consists of the Aln valley north-west of the Castle, stretching between Canongate Bridge and Lion Bridge, laid out as pleasure gardens. Barbara's Bank and the Dark Walk are plantations laid out with walks on the steep slopes with a Curling Pond to the north of the Aln.

 

The walled garden of 3ha lies to the south-east of the Castle, reached by the remains of C19 pleasure gardens laid out on the slopes above Barneyside. After the Second World War use of the glasshouses ceased, and until recently (late 1990s) the Estate Forestry Department used it. The earthwork terraces and remnants of specimen planting of Nesfield's scheme survive.

 

REFERENCES

 

Note: There is a wealth of material about this site. The key references are cited below.

 

The Garden, 5 (1874), pp 100-1, 188; 20 (1881), pp 155-6 Gardeners' Chronicle, ii (1880), pp 523-4, 587; ii (1902), pp 273-4 J Horticulture and Cottage Gardener 15, (1887), pp 296-8 P Finch, History of Burley on the Hill (1901), p 330 Country Life, 65 (22 June 1929), pp 890-8; 66 (6 July 1929), pp 16-22; 174 (4 August 1983), p 275 D Stroud, Capability Brown (1975), pp 103-4 Garden History 9, (1981), pp 174-7 Capability Brown and the Northern Landscape, (Tyne & Wear County Council Museums 1983), pp 19, 22-3, 27, 42 Restoration Management Plan, Alnwick Castle, (Land Use Consultants 1996) C Shrimpton, Alnwick Castle, guidebook, (1999)

 

Description written: August 2000 Resgister Inspector: KC Edited: June 2003

  

historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/100104...

 

See also:-

 

www.alnwickcastle.com/

 

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alnwick_Castle

 

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 19-Apr-25

 

With additional 'FC Bayern Munchen' tail logo.

 

First flown with the Airbus test registration D-AVZM, this aircraft was delivered to International Lease Finance Corporation and leased to Aero Lloyd as D-ALAM in Apr-00. Aero Lloyd ceased operations in Oct-03.

 

The aircraft was returned to the lessor and stored at Frankfurt. It was leased to Aero Flight (raised from the remains of Aero Lloyd) as D-ARFB in Apr-04. Aero Flight ceased operations at the end of Oct-05.

 

It was returned to the lessor and stored at Frankfurt initially, and later at Munich. It was leased to Air Blue (Pakistan) as AP-BJA in Jan-06. The aircraft was returned to the lessor as EI-ERS in Apr-11.

 

In Jul-11 it was due to be leased to Solaris/Vyborg Airlines as VQ-BLB but the lease was cancelled and it was leased to Ural Airlines as VQ-BOC in Oct-11. It was sold to ST Aerospace Resources in Sep-19 while the lease to Ural Airlines continued.

 

The aircraft was withdrawn from service and stored at Ekaterinburg, Russia in Sep-20 as a consequence of the COVID-19 Pandemic. It was ferried to Singapore-Seletar in Apr-21 and returned to ST Aerospace Resources it await 'P2F' freighter conversion.

 

It was re-registered D-AAEP in Dec-21 and ferried to San Antonio, TX, USA for freighter conversion. The aircraft was converted to P2F freighter with a main deck cargo door in Dec-22 and leased to Global X Airlines Cargo (Global Crossing Airlines) as N410GX later the same month. It entered service in Jan-23 after painting. Current, updated 19-Apr-25.

 

Note: The aircraft was damaged at Dubai, UAE on 17-Feb-14 when a catering truck hit the right rear fuselage hard enough to swing the nose of the aircraft approx 5mtrs to the right, a flight attendant who was boarding the aircraft fell from the jetway onto the ramp and was seriously injured. The aircraft was repaired and returned to service in Aug-14.

As suspected the Primus here had been replaced most likely last year. Even though it’s great that Morrisons 20 year old Primus C150’s are gone in a way i miss seeing them at Morrisons and watching to see just how bad they were

 

Car Wash Menu

 

Platinum - £10.00

Gold - £8.00

Silver - £7.00

Bronze - £5.00

 

Morrisons Petrol Station

George Westwood Way,

Beccles

NR34 9BJ

 

Previous Car Washes

Christ PRIMUS C150 (2006 - 2024)

Ceccato Challenge (?) (1990’s - 2006)

4.1104.1f

Replaced WashTec Easywash - Asda on the Go/Esso. Mold, Wales

Replaced with a re-crop to better center subject

For more, check out this Nissan Armada Vanity Mirror Light Bulb Replacement Guide.

Victorian Alpine Huts survey, for Parks Victoria April, May 1994.

Osborne Young built the original Young’s hut at the old yards, which are up the hill from this site c1883. During this time he held the BUNDARMUNGIE (County of Bogong) run. where he ran cattle and horses on the High Plains. He was known to have mustered 1500 whalers (horses) in one season { Carroll} Replacing the cattleman's hut, this Young's Hut was reputedly one of two built in 1928 for the SEC's early hydrological and meteorological survey of the Bogong High Plains{ Lawrence (1993): 13f}. The hut's components were thought to have been packed in from Mt.Hotham. However, the 1948 Department of Lands & Survey Feature Map of the area shows this hut south of Young's for the first time but the 1945 Kiewa Scheme Locality Plan and a 1933 tourist map do not show it. Rather than being built in the 1920s, this hut appears to have been erected on this site c1945. Peter McNamara, son of Charlie McNamara, confirms that the hut was erected in the 1940s { Carroll}. This survey camp is shown in 1945 with a timber gabled hut with four wall panels visible, matching this hut's construction; 5 tents and a privy tent are nearby{ Napier: 31}. The hut is without a verandah, has a corrugated iron roof, what appears to be an insect screen door and a metal flue at the end indicates a fuel stove/heater (pot belly stove?). There may be a chimney stack at the other end, matching today's metal chimney. Peter McNamara, states that during its use by the SEC, tents were erected on the east side of the hut for accommodation { Carroll} Roy Weston's plan of the old Young's Hut in the early 1930s showed an area 14x10' (4.3x3m) with a chimney at one end, the door on the side and single level bunks on the opposite side{ Stephenson (1982): 285}. It was located `on the southern edge of the High Plains 1.1/2 miles from snow pole 193, 8 miles from Cope and 3.1/2 miles from Dibbin's. The walls were timber, the roof iron and it had sleeping accommodation for two{ ibid.}. Weston thought that the original hut had been burnt 1930 or 1931 and this hut built one year later{ ibid.}. The ruins of this hut survive to the north of the SEC hut, with associated yards. Authorisation of the Sugarloaf-Rubicon hydro-electric scheme had been given by parliament in 1922 and in the following year investigations were commenced into the Kiewa scheme{ Napier: vii}. The first river gauges were installed there in 1925, preceding intensive survey work 1925-9{ ibid.}. In 1952 the SEC hut was sold to local cattlemen, the McNamaras and Les Watts from Cobungra Station, for 16 pounds{ Lawrence, pp.19,25,32; Holth (1980): 169f.}. Over the years it was used most by the McNamaras, Westons and stockmen from Cobungra. It was also used by walkers, prompting one angry entry in the log book from a stockman accusing someone of leaving the hut cupboard open, allowing rats to eat the food and sleeping bags{ ibid.}. By the 1980s it was on GB45 which was leased by Pooncarie P/L and Charlie McNamara and used mainly by cattlemen, particularly since Young's hut was in ruins{ Boadle (1983): 55}. It was shown in 1983 as 6x3m (2m wall height), with the fire place at the north-east end, the door on the south-east side and windows on the north-west and south-west sides{ Boadle (1983), plan}. It had a corrugated iron roof, weatherboard walls, and the hardwood frame was sawn (75x35mm sections). The floor rested on brick piers and the fireplace (heating, cooking) was also brick, with galvanised iron. The frame was then regarded as too light for snow loads and there was already a hole in the north-west wall{ ibid.}. The site was near snow gum woodland, with grass cover to the clearing. A 30m diam. stockyard was near the ruins of the old Young's hut, 500m north-west. The hut was regarded as unaltered as of 1990 and considered of historical importance { Lawrence: 32}. The Border Bushwalking Club has repaired the hut in recent years, including lining the internal walls, work on the verandah and installing a woodshed { Carroll}.

They do major overhauls on the tram tracks close to my home. They close the line with the last tram on Friday. Start on Saturday morning ripping out all tracks and ground work, laying the new tracks on Sunday morning and start attaching the new track with concrete on Sunday afternoon.

Monday morning, the trams run nearly normal again.

They manage to get around 200 - 300 metres of track replaced over one weekend.

The castle has been the seat of the Percy family since Norman times. By 1138 the original motte and bailey castle, with wooden buildings, was replaced with stone buildings and walls. In 1309 the keep and defences were made even stronger by Henry de Percy. The castle then stayed unchanged for 400 years. By the 18th century it had fallen into ruins. The keep however was then turned into a gothic style mansion by Robert Adam. In the 19th century the Duke of Northumberland carried out more restoration of the castle.

 

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ALNWICK CASTLE, THE CASTLE, STABLE COURT AND COVERED RIDING SCHOOL INCLUDING WEST WALL OF RIDING SCHOOL

  

Heritage Category: Listed Building

 

Grade: I

 

List Entry Number: 1371308

 

National Grid Reference: NU 18685 13574

  

Details

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 05/10/2011

 

NU 1813 NE 2/1 NU 1813 SE 1/1 20.2.52. 5330

 

Alnwick Castle The Castle, Stable Court and Covered Riding School including West Wall of Riding School

 

GV I

 

Alnwick Castle has work of every period on the line of the original motte and bailey plan. By 1138 a strong stone built border castle with a shell keep in place of the motte, formed the nucleus of the present castle with 2 baileys enclosing about 7 acres. The curtain walls and their square towers rest on early foundations and the inner gatehouse has round-headed arches with heavy chevron decoration. The Castle was greatly fortified after its purchase by Henry de Percy 1309 - the Barbican and Gatehouse, the semi-circular towers of the shell keep, the octagonal towers of the inner gateway and the strong towers of the curtain wall date from the early to mid C14. Ruinous by the C18, the 1st Duke had it rehabilitated and extended by James Prince and Robert Adam, the latter being mainly concerned with the interior decoration, very little of which remains except for fireplaces in the Housekeeper's and the Steward's Rooms and for inside the present Estates Office range. Capability Brown landscaped the grounds, filling in the former moat (formed by Bow Burn). The 4th Duke employed Anthony Salvin 1854-65 at the cost of £1/4 million to remove Adam's fanciful Gothic decoration, to restore a serious Gothic air to the exterior and to redesign the state rooms in an imposing grand Italian manner. The Castle is approached from Bailliff gate through the crenellated Barbican and Gatehouse (early C14): lion rampant (replica) over archway, projecting square side towers with corbelled upper parts, fortified passage over dry moat to vaulted gateway flanked by polygonal towers. Stone figures on crenellations here, on Aveners Tower, on Record Tower and on Inner Gateway were carved circa 1750-70 by Johnson of Stamfordham and probably reflect an earlier similar arrangement. In the Outer Bailey to the, north are the West Garrett (partly Norman), the Abbott's Tower (circa 1350) with a rib vaulted basement, and the Falconer's Tower (1856). To the south are the Aveners Tower [C18], the Clock Tower leading into the Stable Yard, the C18 office block, the Auditor's Tower (early Clk) and the Middle Gateway (circa 1309-15) leading to the Middle Bailey. The most prominent feature of the Castle on the west side is the very large Prudhoe Tower by Salvin and the polygonal apse of the chapel near to it. In the Middle Bailey, to the south are the Warders Tower (1856) with the lion gateway leading by a bridge to the grand stairs into the walled garden, the East Garrett and the Record Tower (C14, rebuilt 1885). In the curtain wall to the north are 2 blocked windows probably from an early C17 building now destroyed and the 'Bloody Gap', a piece of later walling possibly replacing a lost truer; next a small C14 watch tower (Hotspur's Seat); next the Constable's Tower, early C14 and unaltered with a gabled staircase turret; close by is the Postern Tower, early C14, also unaltered.'To the north-west of the Postern Tower is a large terrace made in the C18, rebuilt 1864-65, with some old cannon on it. The Keep is entered from the Octagon Towers (circa 1350) which have 13 heraldic shields below the parapet, besides the agotrop3ic figures, and a vaulted passage expanded from the Norman gateway (fragments of chevron on former outer arch are visible inside). The present arrangement of the inner ward is largely Salvin's work with a covered entrance with a projecting storey and lamp-bracket at the rear of the Prudhoe Tower and a corbelled corridor at 1st floor level on the east. Mediaeval draw well on the east wall, next to the original doorway to the keep, now a recess The keep, like the curtain walls, is largely mediaeval except for some C18 work on the interior on the west and for the Prudhoe Tower and the Chapel. The interior contrasts with the rugged mediaeval exterior with its sumptuous Renaissance decoration, largely by Italians - Montiroli, Nucci, Strazza, Mantavani and inspired from Italian sources. The chapel with its family gallery at the east end has 4 short rib vaulted bays and a shallow 3-light apse; side walls have mosaics, covered now with tapestry. The grand staircase With its groin vaulted ceiling leads to the Guard Chamber from which an ante-room leads west into the Library (in the Prudhoe Tower) and east into the Music Room (fireplace with Dacian captives by Nucci). Further on are the Red Drawing Room (caryatid fireplace by Nucci) and the Dining Room (ceiling design copied from St Lorenzo f.l.m. in Rome and fireplace with bacchante by Strazza and faun by Nucci). South of the Middle Gateway are Salvin's impressive Kitchen quarters where the oven was designed to burn a ton of coal per day. West of the Stable Courtyard, with C19 Guest Hall at the south end, is the C19 covered riding school, with stable to north of it, and with its west wall forming the east side of Narrowgate. The corner with Bailliffgate has an obtuse angled tower of 2 storeys, with a depressed ogee headed doorway from the street, and merlons.

 

Listing NGR: NU1863413479

  

historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/137130...

 

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ALNWICK CASTLE

 

Heritage Category: Park and Garden

 

Grade: I

 

List Entry Number: 1001041

 

National Grid Reference: NU1739315366, NU2254414560

  

Details

 

Extensive landscape parks and pleasure grounds developed from a series of medieval deer parks, around Alnwick Castle, the seat of the Percy family since the C14.

 

Between 1750 and 1786, a picturesque landscape park was developed for Hugh, first Duke of Northumberland, involving work by James Paine, Robert Adam, and the supervision of work by Lancelot Brown (1716-83) and his foremen Cornelius Griffin, Robson, and Biesley in the 1760-80s, working alongside James and Thomas Call, the Duke's gardeners. During the C19 each successive Duke contributed and elaborated on the expansive, planned estate landscape, within which the landscape park was extended. This was accompanied by extensive C19 garden works, including a walled, formal flower garden designed in the early C19 by John Hay (1758-1836), and remodelled mid C19 by William Andrews Nesfield (1793-1881).

 

NOTE This entry is a summary. Because of the complexity of this site, the standard Register entry format would convey neither an adequate description nor a satisfactory account of the development of the landscape. The user is advised to consult the references given below for more detailed accounts. Many Listed Buildings exist within the site, not all of which have been here referred to. Descriptions of these are to be found in the List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest produced by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

 

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

 

In the C13, Hulne Park, West Park, and Cawledge were imparked within the Forest of Alnwick. Hulne Park lay to the north-west of Alnwick Castle and Cawledge to the south and south-east. By the late Middle Ages, Hulne Park extended to 4000 acres (c 1620ha) enclosed by some 13 miles (c 21km) of wall. It was stocked with some 1000 fallow deer and a tower at Hulne Priory served as a hunting lodge. The parks formed the basis of Alnwick Park, landscaped by Sir Hugh Smithson (1714-86) who in 1750 became Earl of Northumberland, inheriting his father-in-law's northern estates. Prior to this, from 1748 he and his wife, Elizabeth Seymour (1716-76), had lived at Stanwick, Yorkshire (qv) and at Syon Park, London (qv), where they had already established a reputation for gardening, attested by Philip Miller's dedication, in 1751, of his Gardener's Dictionary to the Earl.

 

Together they embarked on an ambitious scheme to restore the Castle, develop the grounds and estate, and restore the Percy family traditions and identity at Alnwick. Those employed at Alnwick were also involved elsewhere on the Northumberland estates: James Paine, architect at Syon House, Daniel Garrett, architect at Northumberland House, the Strand (1750-3), Robert Adam, architect at Syon (1762-9), Lancelot Brown, landscape architect at Syon Park (1754-72).

 

In 1751, Thomas Call (1717-82), who had been the Earl's gardener at Stanwick, prepared a scheme for the parklands and pleasure grounds, including a plan for Brizlee Hill (the south part of Hulne Park). Call and his relation James, working at Alnwick by 1756, were responsible for the development of Hulne Park over twenty years. The date and extent of Lancelot Brown's involvement at Alnwick is uncertain, although his foremen Griffin, Robson, and Biesley worked at Alnwick with teams of men between 1771and 1781 and records shown that they also worked alongside Call and his men (in 1773 for example, Call had a team of sixty men and Biesley one of seventy-eight).

  

Hulne Park was developed as a picturesque pleasure ground with extensive rides, follies, and the enhancement of natural features. A characteristic of the Duke's scheme was his recognition of antiquarian sites within the landscape, which were embellished. Thus in 1755, Hulne Priory was purchased to become the focal point of Hulne Park. A garden was made within the cloister walls and, from c 1763, the priory became the gamekeeper's residence, with a menagerie of gold and silver pheasants. Statues of friars cut by the mason Matthew Mills were set in the landscape. In 1774, a medieval commemorative cross to Malcolm Canmore (listed grade II), situated at the northern entrance to the North Demesne, was restored.

 

Following the Duchess' death in 1776, the Duke decorated all her favourite locations with buildings, some being ideas she had noted in her memoranda. Work also included other notes and ideas the Duchess had had, including the ruin at Ratcheugh Crag and some ninety-eight drives and incidents.

 

Plans for the parklands at the North Demesne, Denwick, and Ratcheugh Crags were developed in the late 1760s, although in the case of the North Demesne some parkland planting had been undertaken by 1760, and the major work undertaken in the early 1770s is that attributed to Brown, mainly on stylistic grounds.

 

During the C19, under the second Duke (1742-1817) the parks were extended, this including the purchase of Alnwick Abbey and part of its estate. The complex of drives was also extended and this was accompanied by extensive plantations, including the large Bunker Hill plantation central to the north area of Hulne Park, named to commemorate the Duke's action in 1775 in the War of American Independence. Most significantly, between 1806 and 1811, building centred on construction of a perimeter wall, defining the boundary of Hulne Park, and lodges and gateways at entrances to the parks. The carriage drives were extended, necessitating the construction of bridges over the River Aln. These schemes were implemented by estate workers, local masons, and David Stephenson, the Duke's architect.

 

As the Castle had no formal flower gardens, John Hay was commissioned between 1808 and 1812 to design pleasure gardens to the south-east of the Castle, linking it with a new walled garden at Barneyside, furnished with a range of hothouses, glasshouses, and pine pits. These were extended in the 1860s when Anthony Salvin, employed in the restoration of the Castle, built a gateway between the inner bailey and the pleasure gardens. Nesfield designed a scheme for the walled gardens to be developed as an ornamental flower and fruit garden, with a large central pool, conservatory, and a series of broad terraces and parterres. The Alnwick scheme can be compared to Nesfield's in the precincts of Arundel Castle, West Sussex (qv), in 1845.

 

Alnwick Castle, parks and estate remain (2000) in private ownership, the latest significant developments being the replanting and restoration of the North Demesne (1990s) and plans to completely remodel the walled garden.

 

SUMMARY DESCRIPTION

 

Alnwick Castle parks cover a tract of countryside encircling Alnwick town on its west, north, north-east, and south sides. The land is a mixture of contrasting landscape types, with high heather moorland and the rough crags of the Northumbrian Sandstone Hills sweeping down to the improved pasture lands along the wooded Aln valley. The parks exploit the boundaries of these distinctive landforms where the rugged moorland gives way to the pastoral, rolling landscape of the Aln, on its route to the sea. In the west parklands the river is confined between hills, and in places has incised deep, narrow valleys while in the east the landscape is more open.

 

The registered area of 1300ha is bounded on its north-east side by the Hulne Park wall, west of the Bewick to Alnwick Road (B6346). The west side of the area here registered follows field boundaries to the west of Shipley Burn, starting at Shipley Bridge, and then turns south-west at a point c 1km south of the bridge. It then runs for south-west for c 2.3km, to the west of Hulne Park, before crossing the River Aln and running parallel to Moorlaw Dean for c 1.2km, on the west side of the burn. The southern area is defined by Hulne Park wall running around the south point of Brizlee Wood then in a line due east, south of Cloudy Crags drive, to cross the Stocking Burn and reach Forest Lodge. The boundary then defines the north-western extent of Alnwick town and, crossing the Canongate Bridge, the southernmost extent of the Dairy Grounds.

 

To the east of the Castle the registered area takes in the entire North Demesne bounded on its north by Long Plantation, a perimeter belt which lies on the south side of Smiley Lane and then extends eastwards to meet the junction of the B1340 and A1 trunk road. The A1 has effectively cut through the North Demesne from north to south and, although physically divorcing the two areas, they are still visually conjoined. Defined on its north side within the hamlet of Denwick by tree belts, the park extends eastwards for 1km before cutting across southwards to meet the River Aln at Lough House. This latter stretch is bounded by a perimeter belt. The south boundary of the North Demesne follows the river in part, before meeting the Alnwick to Denwick road (B1340). To the south, the Castle gardens are delimited from the town by property boundaries along Bondgate. An outlying area of designed landscape at Ratcheugh is also included.

 

A complex series of drives is laid throughout the parks, particularly in Hulne Park. A series of thirty standing stones stand at the beginning of the drives or where they converge. These are inscribed with the names of the drives and act as signposts.

 

Alnwick Castle (1134 onwards, c 1750-68 by James Paine and Robert Adam, 1854-6 by Anthony Salvin, listed grade I) lies on the high ground on the south side of the Aln valley, commanding views to the north, east, and west. To the south is Alnwick town but the landscape is designed so that the town is not in view of the Castle. The principal views from the Castle lie over the North Demesne.

 

The North Demesne originally included Denwick Park (they have now been divided by the A1 road), and together these 265ha form the core parkland designed by Brown. Perimeter tree belts define the park, and clumps and scatters of specimen trees ornament the ground plan. The Aln has been dammed to give the appearance of an extensive, natural serpentine lake, with bridges as focal points: the Lion Bridge (John Adam 1773, listed grade I) and Denwick Bridge (1766, probably also by Adam, listed grade I). A programme of replanting and restoration of the North Demesne is under way (late 1990s).

 

The medieval deer park of Hulne extended to the north of the Shipley Road (outside the area here registered). Hulne Park is now 1020ha and is in agricultural and forestry use. The principal entrance from Alnwick town is Forest Lodge, the only extant part of Alnwick Abbey. Hulne Park is completely enclosed by an early C19 perimeter wall, c 3m high with shaped stone coping and buttresses every 20m. Nearly 5km of wall lies alongside roads, 5km across fields, and 5km defines perimeter woodland and moorland from the enclosed park.

 

The park design consists of a series of oval-shaped enclosures, defined by tree belts vital for shelter. The highest point is in the west area of the park, from where there are long-distance views east to the sea. The River Aln winds its way through the park via a series of contrasting steep valleys and flatter lands. The valleys are emphasised by planting on the upper slopes, while the lower areas are encircled with designed plantations to emphasise the river's meanders and ox-bow lakes.

 

Picturesque incidents survive at Nine Year Aud Hole, where the statue of a hermit (late C18, listed grade II) stands at the entrance to a natural cave along Cave Drive, and at Long Stone, a monolith standing high on the west side of Brizlee Hill, with panoramic views over Hulne Park to the north-west. The picturesque highlight is Hulne Priory (original medieval buildings, C18 alterations and enhancements, all listed grade I), which includes a summerhouse designed by Robert Adam (1778-80, listed grade I) and statues of praying friars erected in the Chapter House (late C18). The Priory's picturesque qualities are well appreciated from Brizlee Tower (Robert Adam, listed grade I), built in 1781 to commemorate the creation of the Alnwick parks by the first Duke and Duchess, a Latin inscription stating:

 

Circumspice! Ego omnia ista sum dimensus; Mei sunt ordines, Mea descriptio Multae etiam istarum arborum Mea manu sunt satae. [Look about you. I have measured all these things; they are my orders; it is my planning; many of these trees have been planted by my own hand.]

 

Brizlee is sited on a high point which can be seen in views north-west from the Castle, mirroring views north-east to the 'Observatory' on Ratcheugh Crag, a sham ruined castle sited as an eyecatcher on high ground and built by John Bell of Durham in 1784 (plans to further elaborate it were designed by Robert Adam).

 

Another principal feature of Hulne Park is a series of regular, walled enclosures (the walls set in ditches with banks cast up inside the compounds) which line Farm Drive, the central road through the park, north-westwards from Moor Lodge. This functioned as the third Duke's menagerie, and is still pasture.

 

The 15ha Dairy Ground links Hulne Park and the North Demesne. It principally consists of the Aln valley north-west of the Castle, stretching between Canongate Bridge and Lion Bridge, laid out as pleasure gardens. Barbara's Bank and the Dark Walk are plantations laid out with walks on the steep slopes with a Curling Pond to the north of the Aln.

 

The walled garden of 3ha lies to the south-east of the Castle, reached by the remains of C19 pleasure gardens laid out on the slopes above Barneyside. After the Second World War use of the glasshouses ceased, and until recently (late 1990s) the Estate Forestry Department used it. The earthwork terraces and remnants of specimen planting of Nesfield's scheme survive.

 

REFERENCES

 

Note: There is a wealth of material about this site. The key references are cited below.

 

The Garden, 5 (1874), pp 100-1, 188; 20 (1881), pp 155-6 Gardeners' Chronicle, ii (1880), pp 523-4, 587; ii (1902), pp 273-4 J Horticulture and Cottage Gardener 15, (1887), pp 296-8 P Finch, History of Burley on the Hill (1901), p 330 Country Life, 65 (22 June 1929), pp 890-8; 66 (6 July 1929), pp 16-22; 174 (4 August 1983), p 275 D Stroud, Capability Brown (1975), pp 103-4 Garden History 9, (1981), pp 174-7 Capability Brown and the Northern Landscape, (Tyne & Wear County Council Museums 1983), pp 19, 22-3, 27, 42 Restoration Management Plan, Alnwick Castle, (Land Use Consultants 1996) C Shrimpton, Alnwick Castle, guidebook, (1999)

 

Description written: August 2000 Resgister Inspector: KC Edited: June 2003

  

historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/100104...

 

See also:-

 

www.alnwickcastle.com/

 

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alnwick_Castle

 

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

 

Fleet No: "938".

 

First flown with the Airbus test registration F-WWYA, this aircraft was delivered to Air Canada as C-GHLM in Aug-01. It was repainted in 'Star Alliance' livery in Jul-09. Current, updated (Nov-19).

 

Note: As I'm writing this (19-Nov-19) the aircraft is at Melbourne, FL, USA, presumably on maintenance (since 24-Oct). It's due to operate Toronto / Dublin return 20/21-Nov-19 so it had better get a move on...

The hatch is also magnetized and can be replaced with other bits I have.

IMG_3374_5_6_tonemapped

 

Replaced on June 22, 2021 with IMG_3374_Aurora_HDR

This is the LAST picture of the set of 8.

 

OK so the element works...hooray! But don't forget to DISCONNECT from the electricity supply before you complete the final steps.

 

I took the opportunity to clean the backplate. There was a lot of encrusted gunk on the back of the plate, partially blocking the fan vents..I wonder if this contributed to the element's demise? I replaced the oven bulb which had failed (15 watt SES 300 degree - I got a Philips T22 E14 about £2). Replace the back plate with the 4 screws - you did keep them in a safe place didn't you? I took the opportunity to clean the glass on the oven door too. Wow...now we can actually see the stuff being cooked for the first time in a couple of years!

 

I then checked out the oven by starting at 100 degrees and checking the thermostat went out after a couple of minutes. then 150 degrees...another couple of minutes..then 200 and 300. Seemed ok.

The Hastings Jack-in-the-Green festival was revived by local group Mad Jacks Morris Dancers in 1983 and is now one of the biggest annual gatherings of Morris Dancers in the country. The Jack is “released” every year and is central to the festival. The main procession of the Jack takes place on the May Bank Holiday Monday through the streets of Hastings Old Town, starting from the Fisherman's Museum. The Jack is accompanied by Mad Jacks Morris, the Green Bogies, dancers, giants, musicians and various others. The procession ends on the West Hill where Jack is "slain" to "release the spirit of summer"

 

A Jack in the Green (also Jack in the green, Jack-in-the-green, Jack i' the Green, Jack o' the Green, etc.) is a participant in traditional English May Day parades and other May celebrations, who wears a large, foliage-covered, garland-like framework, usually pyramidal or conical in shape, which covers his body from head to foot. The name is also applied to the garland itself.

 

May 1st has long been an important part of the annual Calendar. It is the start of summer in these latitudes and as such has always been a day for celebration: the Celts celebrated May Day as Beltane; The Romans dedicated the day to the Goddess Flora and would go to the woods to cut a tree and decorate it with ribbons and flowers, this is the origin of the May Pole. In the 16th and 17th centuries in England people would make garlands of flowers and leaves for the May Day celebration, they became increasingly elaborate. Works Guilds would try to outdo each other, in the late 18th century this became a matter for competition, milkmaids in London carried garlands on their heads with silver objects on them, but the crown had to go to the chimney sweeps. Their garland was so big it covered the entire man. It became known as Jack in the Green.

In Hastings there were at least two groups who paraded a Jack in the Green until about 1889. By the turn of the century the custom was seen no more. The reasons were twofold: the Act which stopped boys climbing chimneys had been passed and these had been the main performers; secondly the Victorians had a different attitude to such customs, the prettification of customs took place, no more the giant maypoles with drunken and promiscuous behaviour, replaced by small poles imported from Germany with happy skipping children around them. The Lord and Lady of the May with their practical joking were replaced by a pretty May Queen. Certainly there was no place for the drunken noisy Jack in the Green.

The custom was revived in Hastings by Mad Jacks Morris Dancers in 1983. We do not say we are following exactly what happened, this is a custom for now, not a fossil. Jack is returned, he is not the property of a small group of dancers, but belongs to us all. Long may he dance!

Further information about the Jack in the Green in Hastings can be obtained by reading the excellent booklet "The Hastings Jack in the Green" written by Keith Leech. Keith, a long time member of Mad Jacks Morris was instrumental in reviving the tradition in Hastings and is a usually seen dressed as a "bogie" or green man, one of Jacks' attendants, during the procession on the May Bank Holiday.