Rorbu is a Norwegian traditional type of seasonal house used by fishermen, normally located in a fishing village. The buildings are costructed on land, but with the one end on poles in the water, allowing easy access to vessels. The style and term is used along the coast of Western Norway and Northern Norway, and is most common on Lofoten and northwards to eastern Finnmark. The use of rorbu for fishing has diminished and the style of housing is now largely used to rent out to tourists.

Reine is the administrative centre of Moskenes Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The fishing village is located on the island of Moskenesøya in the Lofoten archipelago, above the Arctic Circle, about 300 kilometres (190 mi) southwest of the town of Tromsø. Reine Church is located here and it serves the northern part of the municipality.

The 0.28-square-kilometre (69-acre) village has a population (2018) of 314 which gives the village a population density of 1,121 inhabitants per square kilometre (2,900/sq mi).[1] The local newspaper is the Lofotposten.

Reine has been a trading post since 1743. It was also a centre for the local fishing industry with a fleet of boats and facilities for fish processing and marketing. There was also a little light industry. In December 1941, part of Reine was burnt by the Germans in reprisal for a raid on the Lofoten Islands by British troops. Today tourism is important, and despite its remote location, many thousands of people visit annually. The village is situated on a promontory just off the European route E10 highway, which passes through the village. Reine is located immediately to the south of Sakrisoya and Hamnøya.

Allers, the largest weekly magazine in Norway, selected Reine as the most beautiful village in Norway in the late 1970s. A photograph over Reine from the mountain Reinebringen (altitude 448 metres (1,470 ft)) has been used for the front page of several tourist brochures and books. In 2016–2019, a stone staircase was built up to Reinebringen, which made the mountain (previously considered steep, muddy and difficult to climb) easily accessible.

Reine has been a trading post since 1743. It was also a centre for the local fishing industry with a fleet of boats and facilities for fish processing and marketing. There was also a little light industry.

In December 1941, part of Reine was burnt by the Germans in reprisal for a raid on the Lofoten Islands by British troops. Today tourism is important, and despite its remote location, many thousands of people visit annually. The village is situated on a promontory just off the European route E10 highway, which passes through the village.

Reine is located immediately to the south of Sakrisoya and Hamnøya.

Allers, the largest weekly magazine in Norway, selected Reine as the most beautiful village in Norway in the late 1970s. A photograph over Reine from the mountain Reinebringen (altitude 448 metres (1,470 ft)) has been used for the front page of several tourist brochures and books. In 1999 the painter Ingo Kühl set up a provisional studio in a rorbu and painted the view over the harbor to the mountain range. In January 2015, Reine was the site from which Coca-Cola launched Coca-Cola life in Norway, referred to by the company as "our smallest launch yet". More than half the residents of the town (around 200 out of 307) attended this open-air event despite that it was mid-winter.

In 2016–2019, a stone staircase was built up to Reinebringen, which made the mountain (previously considered steep, muddy and difficult to climb) easily accessible. wikipedia

Frigiliana, province of Málaga, autonomous community of Andalusia, Southern Spain.

Frigiliana Coordinates....: 36°47′N 3°54′W

Frigiliana is a town and municipality in the province of Málaga, part of the autonomous community of Andalusia in southern Spain. The municipality is situated approximately 71 kilometers east of Málaga, the provincial capital, and approximately 6 kilometers north of Nerja. It is located in the comarca of La Axarquía, the easternmost region of the province, and integrated into the judicial district of Torrox

The muncipal DISTANCE FROM the village, on the 976-metre high El Fuerte hill, stands a location known as Frigiliana la Vieja, (Old Frigiliana), where remains of Roman fortifications, dwellings and coins dating back to imperial times have been found. However, it was not until Moslem times that the first real settlement appeared, with groups of houses being built and subsequently protected by an Arabic alcázar or fortress, thus providing the origins of the present-day village, which, by the 11th century, was known as Fixniana. In May 1487, shortly after the fall of Velez Malaga into Christian hands, representatives of Frigiliana´s Moslem community paid homage to the Catholic Monarchs in an attempt to avoid reprisals and conserve some semblance.

Click the pic to Explore ❤️

Moving tribute to those who died fighting the Jacobite cause, framed by dramatic Highland scenery

On 19 August 1745, Prince Charles Edward Stuart rowed up Loch Shiel towards the tiny hamlet of Glenfinnan with a small band of his most loyal supporters. He had called on clan chiefs to muster their men and join him here for a daring quest to restore the Stuarts to the British throne.

When he arrived at Glenfinnan there was barely a soul to be seen, but in late afternoon, the song of the pipes coming over the hill signalled the arrival of the first of 1,200 clansmen who pledged their allegiance to Bonnie Prince Charlie that day, before setting off to start their campaign.

While the ’45 ended in defeat at Culloden in 1746 and the Highlands suffered punishment and reprisals for years to come, the gathering of clans and raising of the royal standard (or flag) at Glenfinnan that summer was a moment of hope and enthusiasm for many.

Reine is the administrative centre of Moskenes Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The fishing village is located on the island of Moskenesøya in the Lofoten archipelago, above the Arctic Circle, about 300 kilometres southwest of the city of Tromsø. Reine Church is located in the village.

The 0.28-square-kilometre village has a population of 297 and a population density of 1,061 inhabitants per square kilometre. The Lofotposten newspaper is published in Svolvær and it covers news all over Lofoten, including Moskenes Municipality.

Reine has been a trading post since 1743. It was also a centre for the local fishing industry with a fleet of boats and facilities for fish processing and marketing. There was also a little light industry. In December 1941, the Germans burnt part of Reine in reprisal for a raid on the Lofoten Islands by British troops. Today, tourism is important, and despite its remote location, many thousands of people visit annually. The village is situated on a promontory just off the European route E10 highway, which passes through the village. Reine is located immediately to the south of Sakrisoya and Hamnøya.

Allers, the largest weekly magazine in Norway, selected Reine as the most beautiful village in Norway in the late 1970s. A photograph over Reine from the mountain Reinebringen has been used for the front page of several tourist brochures and books. In 1999, the painter Ingo Kühl set up a temporary studio in a rorbu and painted the view over the harbor to the mountain range.

In January 2015, Reine was the site from which Coca-Cola launched Coca-Cola life in Norway, referred to by the company as "our smallest launch yet". More than half the town's residents (around 200 out of 307) attended this open-air event despite being mid-winter.

In 2016–2019, a stone staircase was built up to Reinebringen, which made the mountain easily accessible.

Very near the Pottawatomie Massacre in 1856. "Pottawatomie Creek was the site where, in 1856, the militant abolitionist John Brown massacred five pro-slavery settlers, touching off an escalating cycle of reprisal and retribution that gave rise to the name "Bleeding Kansas."

Kansas went on to join the United States as a free state on January 29, 1861 which also happens to be my birthday albeit a few years later.

While everybody remembers this infamous shot from a couple years ago: flic.kr/p/2krcj3P I did fly over Hurricane a couple other times. That shot was my first time flying my drone there and is by far my favorite shot but I did do this reprisal the following year, which would turn out to also be my final autumn in Alaska after a decade calling it home. I've since retired from drone photography, though I do treasure the shots I got during my years flying in Alaska. So here is another taken with that faithful Phantom III and a place where truly no other tool will do.

It is a damp cloudy day during the last week of the Alaska Railroad's summer passenger season as the Hurricane Turn from Talkeetna poses in the middle of its namesake structure. On this day rather than flying all the way from my campsite a half mile away like in the earlier photo we rode the train the nearly 60 miles up and had the crew drop us off on the south side of the bridge. We then launched our drones from terra firma while the rest of the passengers staid on board to ride out mid bridge for the spectacular view before they swapped ends to start back south....but not without picking us up first!

Located at MP 284.2, this bridge spans 918 ft and rises 296 ft above the floor below. This famous arch is arguable the signature location the on the entire ARR mainline and was the most expensive and difficult engineering project on the entirety of the railroad. The American Bridge Company started construction in early 1921, erected steel in June and finished in August. To construct the bridge, they strung an aerial tram across the gulch and construction proceeded from both sides. The first passenger train crossed Hurricane Gulch Bridge on August 15, 1921 culminating the $1,200,000 project. For some stunning historic photos of its construction click: vilda.alaska.edu/digital/search/searchterm/Hurricane

The Alaska Range is shrouded in low clouds in this view looking west toward the the confluence of Hurricane Creek with the winding Chulitna River.

Hurricane, Alaska

Thursday September 14, 2017

1a: North Dublin Coast

The North Dublin towers are numbered one to twelve starting at Red Rock Sutton Creek on the Dublin side of the Howth peninsula. All twelve towers constructed remain standing but only the tower at Howth harbour is open for viewing, being recently restored and now a Vintage Radio Museum. Seven towers are privately owned and 2 towers are located on offshore islands, Irelands Eye off Howth and Shenick Island off Skerries.

During the tourist season from April to September, it is possible to visit the Islands by boat for a modest charge organised by the local boatmen at Howth and Skerries. Only four of the seven towers in private ownership are occupied (Sutton, Portmarnock, Malahide, Portrane) . Balbriggan, Shenick Island, Drumanagh, Howth Harbour Towers are under the jurisdiction of the Fingal County Council. The tower at Balbriggan is in a very poor condition with the entire top of the tower is missing. The Town of Balbriggan was ‘sacked’ by the Black and Tans during the War of Independence in the 1920’s and the extent of the damage to this tower would suggest that it may also have been subject to plunder in a reprisal attack but it was otherwise vandalised. The Howth tower is the only North Dublin tower that was restored by Fingal County Council , it is now a Vintage Radio Museum and open to the public.

The historical records of the period circa 1910 include several Valentine collection photographs of the Balbriggan Martello tower in excellent condition.

Howth peninsula is located 10 miles north-east of Dublin City and is steeped in history dating back to pre-Christian times when the Celtic Tribes called this peninsula Ben Edar. The Danes first used the name “hoved” meaning head, and is now recognised as Howth. Earliest references to Howth are found on a map completed by the geographer, Ptolemy in the 2nd.century.

Near Rabbit Ears Pass, Colorado

This is the same scene as a photo I posted from August 23, 2014. Winter is fleeing quickly from the high county, and spring is coming on strongly in the foothills and plains of Colorado. Maybe I'm just paying closer attention this year, but spring seems to be in a hurry.

Reine is the administrative centre of Moskenes Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The fishing village is located on the island of Moskenesøya in the Lofoten archipelago, above the Arctic Circle, about 300 kilometres (190 mi) southwest of the town of Tromsø. Reine Church is located here and it serves the northern part of the municipality.

The 0.28-square-kilometre (69-acre) village has a population (2018) of 314 which gives the village a population density of 1,121 inhabitants per square kilometre (2,900/sq mi). The local newspaper is the Lofotposten.

Reine has been a trading post since 1743. It was also a centre for the local fishing industry with a fleet of boats and facilities for fish processing and marketing. There was also a little light industry. In December 1941, part of Reine was burnt by the Germans in reprisal for a raid on the Lofoten Islands by British troops. Today tourism is important, and despite its remote location, many thousands of people visit annually. The village is situated on a promontory just off the European route E10 highway, which passes through the village. Reine is located immediately to the south of Sakrisoya and Hamnøya.

Allers, once the largest weekly magazine in Norway, selected Reine as the most beautiful village in Norway in the late 1970s. A photograph over Reine from the mountain Reinebringen (altitude 448 metres (1,470 ft)) has been used for the front page of several tourist brochures and books. In 1999 the painter Ingo Kühl set up a provisional studio in a rorbu and painted the view over the harbor to the mountain range. In January 2015, Reine was the site from which Coca-Cola launched Coca-Cola life in Norway, referred to by the company as "our smallest launch yet". More than half the residents of the town (around 200 out of 307) attended this open-air event despite that it was mid-winter. In 2016–2019, a stone staircase was built up to Reinebringen, which made the mountain (previously considered steep, muddy and difficult to climb) easily accessible.

It was a cloudy and hazy day but I think it suited the scene I saw and wanted to share. There are many wonderful images of this beautiful castle by fantastic photographers but here is my take on it with a simple shot.

Castle Stalker – in the Gaelic, Stalcaire, meaning Hunter or Falconer – is believed originally to have been the site of a Fortalice (a small fortified building) belonging to the MacDougalls when they were Lords of Lorn, and built around 1320. The MacDougalls lost their title after their defeat by King Bruce at Brander Pass in 1308 but regained it for a period after 1328. In about 1388 the Lordship of Lorn passed to the Stewarts, the lands including Castle Stalker.

It is believed that Castle Stalker, much in its present form, was built by the then Lord of Lorn, Sir John Stewart, who had an illegitimate son in 1446, and it is reasonable to suppose that he built and occupied the Castle about that time. In 1463 Sir John Stewart was keen to legitimise his son by getting married to his Mother, a MacLaren, at Dunstaffnage when he was murdered outside the church by Alan MacCoul, a renegade MacDougall, although he survived long enough to complete the marriage and legitimise his son, Dugald, who became the First Chief of Appin. The Stewarts had their revenge on MacCoul at the Battle of Stalc in 1468 opposite the Castle when the Stewarts and MacLaren together defeated the MacDougalls, and Alan MacCoul was killed by Dugald himself. The site of this Battle is marked by a memorial stone in the Churchyard in Portnacroish.

In 1497 the Stewarts and MacLarens carried out a combined raid against MacDonald of Keppoch as a reprisal for cattle reiving, but Dugald Stewart was killed and succeeded as Chief of Appin by his son Duncan. King James IV of Scotland, born in 1473, was a cousin of the Stewarts of Appin and when he came of age made frequent hunting journeys to the Highlands. It is understood that he stayed quite often at Castle Stalker, using it as a base for hunting and hawking for which he had a passion. It is thought that further improvements were made to the Castle at this time including the possible addition of what is now the top floor and roof, and that the Coat of Arms over the front door may be the Royal Arms of that time.

Reine is the administrative centre of Moskenes Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The fishing village is located on the island of Moskenesøya in the Lofoten archipelago, above the Arctic Circle, about 300 kilometres southwest of the city of Tromsø. Reine Church is located in the village.

The 0.28-square-kilometre village has a population of 297 and a population density of 1,061 inhabitants per square kilometre. The Lofotposten newspaper is published in Svolvær and it covers news all over Lofoten, including Moskenes Municipality.

Reine has been a trading post since 1743. It was also a centre for the local fishing industry with a fleet of boats and facilities for fish processing and marketing. There was also a little light industry. In December 1941, the Germans burnt part of Reine in reprisal for a raid on the Lofoten Islands by British troops. Today, tourism is important, and despite its remote location, many thousands of people visit annually. The village is situated on a promontory just off the European route E10 highway, which passes through the village. Reine is located immediately to the south of Sakrisoya and Hamnøya.

Allers, the largest weekly magazine in Norway, selected Reine as the most beautiful village in Norway in the late 1970s. A photograph over Reine from the mountain Reinebringen has been used for the front page of several tourist brochures and books. In 1999, the painter Ingo Kühl set up a temporary studio in a rorbu and painted the view over the harbor to the mountain range.

In January 2015, Reine was the site from which Coca-Cola launched Coca-Cola life in Norway, referred to by the company as "our smallest launch yet". More than half the town's residents attended this open-air event despite being mid-winter.

In 2016–2019, a stone staircase was built up to Reinebringen, which made the mountain easily accessible.

This is Reine.

Reine is the administrative centre of Moskenes Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The fishing village is located on the island of Moskenesøya in the Lofoten archipelago, above the Arctic Circle, about 300 kilometres (190 mi) southwest of the town of Tromsø. The 0.28 km² (69-acre) village has a population (2018) of 314 which gives the village a population density of 1,121 inhabitants per km².

Reine has been a trading post since 1743. It was also a centre for the local fishing industry with a fleet of boats and facilities for fish processing and marketing. There was also a little light industry. In December 1941, part of Reine was burnt by the Germans in reprisal for a raid on the Lofoten Islands by British troops. Today tourism is important, and despite its remote location, many thousands of people visit annually. The village is situated on a promontory just off the European route E10 highway, which passes through the village. Reine is located immediately to the south of Sakrisoya and Hamnøya.

Here is Highfield House in Stanley with some of its farm buildings in the early morning. As you can see it had been raining overnight. This is one of the true architectural treasures of Tasmania.

The Van Diemen's Land Company was formed in May 1824 to supply British mills with relatively cheap wool. Edward Curr was responsible for obtaining the land and building the property of Highfield in 1826. This was all done with convict labour, and was only possible after the land had been cleared of aborigines:

"(T)he supposed humanitarian sentiments of directors towards Aborigines are often deemed mere outward show, especially in the light of violent acts by Company personnel. After early skirmishes, with huts burnt and sheep speared, three Aborigines were killed at Ritchie's stock hut in 1827. At Cape Grim, when shepherds attempted to 'take liberties' with Aboriginal women, a convict was speared in the thigh and over one hundred sheep were killed. Reprisal by shepherds on 10 February 1828 saw about thirty Aborigines killed. The despicable murder of an Aboriginal woman at Emu Bay on 21 August 1829 saw Arthur thwart justice and explain away the affair under the guise of martial law and personal disputes. The period 1836–42 saw the last free group of Aborigines faced with spring-loaded guns or man traps in huts that they had habitually plundered. The sad story of Company race relations saw at least two white men and possibly 36 Aborigines killed." www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/V/...

It soon turned out that the wool venture was a disaster and a shift of emphasis to cattle was made, extending to this very day.

The Jewish Quarter is located around two streets, the Rua Direita and the Rua da Fonte da Rosa, the latter formerly called Rua da Judiaria (Jewish Quarter Street).

Many years ago I read a book by Claude Lévi-Strauss. I don't remember much of it, to be honest, but one sentence got branded in my brain. It read something like "If you don't marry out, you war out".

In the Belmonte City Hall internet page

cm-belmonte.pt/en/history/jewish-community-in-belmonte/

we can read:

QUOTE

The community of Belmonte is home to an important fact of the Sephardic Jewish history, related to the resistance of the Jews to religious intolerance in Iberian Peninsula. In the 16th century, during the expulsion of the moors of the Iberian Peninsula, and the reconquest of the Spanish and Portuguese lands by the Catholic Kings and by D. Manuel, a law was instituted that forced the Portuguese Jews to convert or leave the country. Many of them ended up abandoning Portugal, for fear of reprisals from the Inquisition. Others converted to Christianity in official terms, maintaining their cult and cultural traditions in the family context. A third group of Jews, however, took a more extreme measure. Several have decided to isolate themselves from the outside world, cutting contact with the rest of the country and following their traditions to the letter. Such people were called “Marranos”, in an allusion to the ritual prohibition of eating pork. For centuries the “Marranos” of Belmonte have kept their Jewish traditions almost intact, becoming an exceptional case of cryptojewish community. Only in the 70´s the community established contact with the Jews of Israel and officiated Judaism as its religion. In 2005, the Jewish Museum of Belmonte was inaugurated in the city, the first of its kind in Portugal, which shows the traditions and the day-to-day of this community. In August 2017, he underwent remodeling works.

UNQUOTE

The history of the Jews in Belmonte is referred in detail in the Wikipedia page

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Belmonte

which offers interesting reading to those interested in the Sephardic tradition and crypto-judaism.

===================

Leica M6 (1994), Zeiss Biogon 2.0/35 ZM, ADOX Scala 50 (Neg), Epson V600, Affinity Photo

Partial view of the monastery in Spili

The Orthodox church is reached from Spili through a narrow gorge with vertical cliffs and across the Megapotamos River. While many monasteries in the area lie in ruin, the town recently rebuilt this church because of its role in the second World War. The Christian monks faced reprisals for their actions in the Cretan liberation struggles, and the church was left looted. The style is typical of 19th century Mediterranean religious structures, but still a stunning monument on the sandy beaches of Crete.

You would do me a great favour by voting for HET CENTRAAL STATION by clicking here :

www.proefdezielvanaffligem.be/antwerpen/stemmen

its the middle one on the second row , thanks

More Crete here :

www.flickr.com/photos/23502939@N02/sets/72157623607398252

more candids here :

www.flickr.com/photos/23502939@N02/sets/72157622769131641

Please do note fave my photos without commenting ( what do people do with thousands of faves, look at them every morning ?)

After my wife’s repeated urging, finally decided to put the wind chime up which features a wooden carving of a squirrel. No sooner was it up than Ms Downy takes an instant liking to this new yard attraction and admires the intricate artwork. Well, actually, she’s not quite the art aficionada that I am making her out to be, she’s more into realizing her dream of pecking away at a squirrel without having to worry about severe reprisals. And the fact that wood is involved makes the whole procedure even more attractive. So, here we see her dream come true unlike in the following song …

From the bottom to the bottle – Kris Kristofferson

The East India Company (EIC), also known as the Honourable East India Company (HEIC), East India Trading Company (EITC), the English East India Company or the British East India Company, and informally known as John Company,[2] Company Bahadur,[3] or simply The Company, was an English and later British joint-stock company.[4] It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (India and South East Asia), and later with Qing China. The company ended up seizing control of large parts of the Indian subcontinent, colonised parts of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong after the First Opium War, and maintained trading posts and colonies in the Middle Eastern Gulf called Persian Gulf Residencies.[5]

Originally chartered as the "Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East-Indies",[6][7] the company rose to account for half of the world's trade,[8] particularly in basic commodities including cotton, silk, indigo dye, salt, spices, saltpetre, tea, and opium. The company also ruled the beginnings of the British Empire in India.[8][9] In his speech to the House of Commons in July 1833, Lord Macaulay explained that since the beginning, the East India Company had always been involved in both trade and politics, just as its French and Dutch counterparts had been.[10]

The company received a Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600, coming relatively late to trade in the Indies. Before them the Portuguese Estado da Índia had traded there for much of the 16th century and the first of half a dozen Dutch Companies sailed to trade there from 1595. These Dutch companies amalgamated in March 1602 into the Dutch East India Company (VOC), which introduced the first permanent joint stock from 1612 (meaning investment into shares did not need to be returned, but could be traded on a stock exchange). By contrast, wealthy merchants and aristocrats owned the EIC's shares.[11] Initially the government owned no shares and had only indirect control until 1657 when permanent joint stock was established.[12]

During its first century of operation, the focus of the company was trade, not the building of an empire in India. Following the First Anglo-Mughal War,[13] the company interests turned from trade to territory during the 18th century as the Mughal Empire declined in power and the East India Company struggled with its French counterpart, the French East India Company (Compagnie française des Indes orientales) during the Carnatic Wars of the 1740s and 1750s in southern India. The battles of Plassey and Buxar, in which the company defeated the Nawabs of Bengal, left the company in control of the proto-industrialised Mughal Bengal with the right to collect revenue, in Bengal and Bihar,[14][15] and a major military and political power in India. In the following decades it gradually increased the extent of the territories under its control, controlling the majority of the Indian subcontinent either directly or indirectly via local puppet rulers under the threat of force by its Presidency armies, much of which were composed of native Indian sepoys. The company invaded the Dutch island of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1795.[16]

By 1803, at the height of its rule in India, the East India company had a private army of about 260,000—twice the size of the British Army, with Indian revenues of £13,464,561 (equivalent to £229.9 million in 2019) and expenses of £14,017,473 (equivalent to £239.3 million in 2019).[17][18] The company eventually came to rule large areas of India with its private armies, exercising military power and seizing administrative functions.[19] Company rule in India effectively began in 1757 and lasted until 1858, when, following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Government of India Act 1858 led to the British Crown's assuming direct control of the Indian subcontinent in the form of the new British Raj.

The company's army played a notorious role in the unsuccessful Indian Uprising (also called the Indian Mutiny) of 1857–58, in which Indian soldiers in the company's employ led an armed revolt against their British officers that quickly gained popular support as a war for Indian independence.[20] During more than a year of fighting, both sides committed atrocities, including massacres of civilians, though the company's reprisals ultimately far outweighed the violence of the rebels. The rebellion brought about the effective abolition of the East India Company in 1858.[20]

Despite frequent government intervention, the company had recurring problems with its finances. It was dissolved in 1874 as a result of the East India Stock Dividend Redemption Act passed one year earlier, as the Government of India Act had by then rendered it vestigial, powerless, and obsolete. The official government machinery of British India assumed the East India Company's governmental functions and absorbed its navy and its armies in 1858.. wikipedia

This is the washroom of block 11 where many condemned had to clean themselves and their clothes before they were led to the "Wall of Death", located in the yard at the side of this block, to be executed. SS men shot several thousand people there—mostly Polish political prisoners and, above all, members of clandestine organizations.

Executions were also carried out here on Poles brought in from outside with death sentences, including hostages detained in reprisal for Polish resistance movement operations. Cases are known in which prisoners from other groups—Jews and Soviet POWs—were shot. The wall was dismantled in 1944, while the camp was still in existence. This did not mean the end of executions, however. Prisoners were also subjected to other form of punishment in the yard, including flogging and "the post".

Do not open open the next link with information about Auschwitz if you prefer not to:

auschwitz.org/en/history/punishments-and-executions/the-post

The Jewish Quarter is located around two streets, the Rua Direita and the Rua da Fonte da Rosa, the latter formerly called Rua da Judiaria (Jewish Quarter Street).

Many years ago I read a book by Claude Lévi-Strauss. I don't remember much of it, to be honest, but one sentence got branded in my brain. It read something like "If you don't marry out, you war out".

In the Belmonte City Hall internet page

cm-belmonte.pt/en/history/jewish-community-in-belmonte/

we can read:

QUOTE

The community of Belmonte is home to an important fact of the Sephardic Jewish history, related to the resistance of the Jews to religious intolerance in Iberian Peninsula. In the 16th century, during the expulsion of the moors of the Iberian Peninsula, and the reconquest of the Spanish and Portuguese lands by the Catholic Kings and by D. Manuel, a law was instituted that forced the Portuguese Jews to convert or leave the country. Many of them ended up abandoning Portugal, for fear of reprisals from the Inquisition. Others converted to Christianity in official terms, maintaining their cult and cultural traditions in the family context. A third group of Jews, however, took a more extreme measure. Several have decided to isolate themselves from the outside world, cutting contact with the rest of the country and following their traditions to the letter. Such people were called “Marranos”, in an allusion to the ritual prohibition of eating pork. For centuries the “Marranos” of Belmonte have kept their Jewish traditions almost intact, becoming an exceptional case of cryptojewish community. Only in the 70´s the community established contact with the Jews of Israel and officiated Judaism as its religion. In 2005, the Jewish Museum of Belmonte was inaugurated in the city, the first of its kind in Portugal, which shows the traditions and the day-to-day of this community. In August 2017, he underwent remodeling works.

UNQUOTE

The history of the Jews in Belmonte is referred in detail in the Wikipedia page

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Belmonte

which offers interesting reading to those interested in the Sephardic tradition and crypto-judaism.

===================

Leic M Monochrom (246), Elmarit 2.8/24 ASPH, Affinity Photo, EI 320 ISO, 1/750s, f/8

The Jewish Quarter is located around two streets, the Rua Direita and the Rua da Fonte da Rosa, the latter formerly called Rua da Judiaria (Jewish Quarter Street).

Many years ago I read a book by Claude Lévi-Strauss. I don't remember much of it, to be honest, but one sentence got branded in my brain. It read something like "If you don't marry out, you war out".

In the Belmonte City Hall internet page

cm-belmonte.pt/en/history/jewish-community-in-belmonte/

we can read:

QUOTE

The community of Belmonte is home to an important fact of the Sephardic Jewish history, related to the resistance of the Jews to religious intolerance in Iberian Peninsula. In the 16th century, during the expulsion of the moors of the Iberian Peninsula, and the reconquest of the Spanish and Portuguese lands by the Catholic Kings and by D. Manuel, a law was instituted that forced the Portuguese Jews to convert or leave the country. Many of them ended up abandoning Portugal, for fear of reprisals from the Inquisition. Others converted to Christianity in official terms, maintaining their cult and cultural traditions in the family context. A third group of Jews, however, took a more extreme measure. Several have decided to isolate themselves from the outside world, cutting contact with the rest of the country and following their traditions to the letter. Such people were called “Marranos”, in an allusion to the ritual prohibition of eating pork. For centuries the “Marranos” of Belmonte have kept their Jewish traditions almost intact, becoming an exceptional case of cryptojewish community. Only in the 70´s the community established contact with the Jews of Israel and officiated Judaism as its religion. In 2005, the Jewish Museum of Belmonte was inaugurated in the city, the first of its kind in Portugal, which shows the traditions and the day-to-day of this community. In August 2017, he underwent remodeling works.

UNQUOTE

The history of the Jews in Belmonte is referred in detail in the Wikipedia page

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Belmonte

which offers interesting reading to those interested in the Sephardic tradition and crypto-judaism.

===================

Leica M Monochrom (246), Elmarit 2.8/24 ASPH, Affinity Photo, EI 320 ISO, 1/125s, f/8

Peul (Fulani, Fulbe, Fula) herdsmen with traditional wide-brimmed fibre-and-leather conical hats meet at the weekly market in front of Djenné's Great Mosque. A colourful multiethnic gathering of herders and traders converges at the mosque from the surrounding regions and fertile flood plains of the Niger River inland delta in central Mali. Digital film scan, Asahi Pentax Spotmatic, shot directly under the noonday sun, circa 1976.

The Great Mosque of Djenné towers over the market in a seemingly apocalyptic backdrop on this day. The mosque is considered the world’s largest adobe building and one of the greatest achievements of Sudano-Sahelian architecture, unique to the semi-arid Sahel zone that stretches across northern Africa just south of an encroaching Sahara.

These Peul herdsmen are likely from the class of “free nobles” (mostly nomadic herders, religious and political leaders, some tradesmen and sedentary cultivators) at the top of a highly stratified caste-based Peul society.

Ethnographers distinguish this class from lower-tiered occupational groups or “castes” (griot story tellers and song-praisers, artisans, blacksmiths, potters, woodworkers, dress makers) and descendants of slaves (labourers, brick makers, house builders).

~~~

Postrscript - The enchanting Arabian Nights imagery emanating out of this ancient marketplace at the time if this photo shoot (1976) is reminiscent of a seemingly bygone Sahelian era devoid of smartphones, credit cards and packaged safari tours.

Nowadays, nascent tourism is on hold and easy access to markets, pastures and farmlands is hampered as ethnic strife and inter-communal violence continue to erupt under a fragile or failed Malian state with a troubled history of military coups.

The current military junta relies on mercenaries from the private Russian-backed Wagner Group for its security needs, coinciding with the recent French withdrawal of troops from the region. By providing protection to the Malian military regime, the Moscow-centered paramilitary group has increased its power and access to Mali's scarce natural resources.

In 2018, Human Rights Watch reported that the Mopti region of central Mali has become an epicentre of inter-rethnic conflict, fuelled by a steady escalation of violence by armed Islamist groups largely allied with Al Qaeda’s advance from the north since 2015.

Recruitment to the militant Islamist movement from Peul pastoral herding communities has inflamed tensions within sedentary agrarian communities (Bambara, Dogon, Tellem, Bozo and others) who rely on access to agricultural lands for their livelihood.

Predominantly Muslim but opposing ethnic self-defence militias on both sides have been formed for the protection of their own respective communities. This has contributed to a continuous cycle of violent attacks and reprisals touching villages and hamlets, pastures and farmlands, and some marketplaces.

While communal tensions are profoundly connected to a larger ethnopolitical conflict unfolding in northern Mali, chronic insecurities around the ancient town of Djenné and in the broader central regions of Mali are exacerbated by longstanding indigenous concerns over a struggle for scarce natural resources - agricultural land for settled farmers versus water and grazing land for semi-nomadic Peul herdsmen.

Efforts at mediation in the area around Djenné and the grand mosque include a Humanitarian Agreement specifically among Bambara and Bozo farmers, Dogan "hunters" protecting farmers' interests and Peul herders, all committed to guaranteeing the freedom of movement of people, goods and livestock in the "Circle of Djenné" situated in the Mopti region of central Mali.

© All rights to these photos and descriptions are reserved. Any use of this work requires my prior written permission. explore#19

Social Documentary | Documentary Portraiture | Lonely Planet | National Geographic

What is now Union Pacific's Kansas Sub between Topeka and Kansas City was once the home of the Rock Island's Twin Star and Kansas City Rockets.

Today, it hosted a very different kind of rocket, in the form of a rocket booster train out of Ogden, UT that was symboled the SCRME.

On the point was the UP 1943, nicknamed "The Spirit," which commemorates the US military. The weather wasn't great today, but how can you say no to a move like this?

Escaped from the grave.

This memorial memorizes the execution of three civilians early October in 1944 in the village of Alphen in the Dutch province of Noord Brabant which is a part of todays’ municipality of Alphen – Chaam (formerly Alphen – Riel).

On the referred day in October 1944 three civilians were retrieved from their hiding place near their house by German Falschirmjäger of the 11th Division. Alphen was in the front line at that time; Baarle Nassau had been liberated for a large part. The three civilians were taken along to a ditch further ahead on the dirt road. There they had to lie down after which they were shot.

Two of the civilians died instantly but the third retrieved his consciousness later on the day and succeeded to crawl back from under the sand and go looking for help.

The two victims were the agriculturist Adrianus Oomen, 45 years of age, from Alphen and the 23 years old person-in-hiding Willy van den Corput , painter by profession from the city of Breda. In those days he was a courier in the resistance movement. The third one who had been wounded, was the agriculturist Felix Roelen of 39 years old.

It has never been totally clarified why they had been arrested and executed. It is assumed, that in the same hide out, shortly before the three were taken along, there were also two or three members of the royal constabulary who were involved in the resistance movement. These three departed in the direction of Chaam just before the Falschirmjäger arrived at the hide out. Possibly the Germans were looking for the three members of the resistance movement and took the other three with them as a reprisal.

Listen here to the story of Felix Roelen.

iPhone/iPad App; appsto.re/nl/Z6Jx0.i

Android App; play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.liberationroute...

☛ This is what we saw during our Bicycle tours in the Netherlands, where we have cycled through the beautiful landscape.

© www.tomjutte.tk

.

The Kalkadoon People, also known as the Kalkatungu, Kalkatunga, or Kalkadungu, ruled what is called the Emu Foot Province and have been living on these lands for over 40 thousand years. The Kalkadoon People owned vast tracts of land extending from McKinley’s Gap in the east where they joined the Goa tribe of the Winton district to Gunpowder Creek which was the territory of the Waggaboongas. On the southern side of their territory the Kalkadoons were touched upon by the Pitta-Pitta tribe of the Boulia district, and on the northern side by the Mittakoodi of the Fort Constantine country.

The Kalkadoons would mark their territory boundaries with an emu or cranes foot that was either painted onto rocks and trees or carved into the hard granite rock. This was also a warning for other Aboriginal clans not to pass these boundaries.

The Kalkadoon (Kalkatungu) are descendants of an Indigenous Australian tribe living in the Mount Isa region of Queensland. Their forefather tribe has been called 'the Elite of the Aboriginal warriors of Queensland'. In 1884 they were massacred at "Battle Mountain" by settlers and police.

The first Europeans to visit the area were explorers Burke and Wills who crossed the Cloncurry River in 1861. Though their journals make no mention of the tribe, their passing through is said to have been recorded in Kalkatungu oral history, and in their language they coined the term walpala (from 'white feller') to denote Europeans. Three parties sent out to search for Burke and Wills, led respectively by John McKinlay, William Landsborough, and Frederick Walker, passed through the general area. Walker, a former commander of the Dawson native police, shot 12 natives dead and wounded several more, just to the north east of Kalkatungu territory.

Another early European settler, Edward Palmer, who was described by George Phillips as 'one of that brave band of pioneer squatters who in the early sixties swept across North Queensland with their flocks and herds, settling, as if by magic, great tracts of hitherto unoccupied country', settled on the edge of Kalkatungu country in 1864, at Conobie, on the western bank of the Cloncurry River. Decades later, Palmer described the natives as a peculiar people of which little was known. Palmer was critical of the use of native police and interested in indigenous tribes. His station lands did not cover any Kalkatungu sacred sites, he did not object to their presence in the vicinity, and found no problem in his relations with the Kalkatungu. He tried to learn their language. Ernest Henry arrived in 1866, discovering, with the assistance of Kalkatungu guides, copper deposits the following year, and founded the Great Australia Mine. He successfully enlisted some Kalkatungu people to work one of these mines. A short attempt at settlement by W. and T. Brown at Bridgewater in 1874 experienced, like Palmer, no difficulties with the indigenous owners of the land.

The Scottish settler Alexander Kennedy then took up land in the area in 1877. He had managed, since his arrival in 1861, to accumulate land holdings of some 4,800 sq. miles, holding 60,000 cattle, and established himself in a residence he built, called Buckingham Downs. Kennedy is thought to have begun the troubles with the native peoples of the area by instigating murderous assaults on the Kalkatungu. Iain Davidson describes him as 'the man who led the destruction of the tribes of North West Central Queensland.'

The traditional white heroic narrative version of what then occurred drew on the account provided by Sir Wilmot Hudson Fysh in 1933. According to this version, the Kalkatungu was by nature a hostile and bellicose tribe, exceptionally brave with 'primitive' military cunning and guerilla-like tactics of strategic withdrawals to the mountains to evade reprisals for their savagery. They were eventually vanquished and broken after a last stand against men like Alexander Kennedy.

Source: Kalkadoon PBC (www.kalkadoonpbc.com.au).

During the First World War there were heavy fightings around the town of Dinant in southern Belgium. The young French lieutenant Charles De Gaulle was injured during that battle. The German had heavy losses. When they took Dinant the 24th August, believing that the civilian population had also fired against them, as reprisal they killed 674 civilians burning down the houses of the town.

In the ten years I lived in Alaska I only tried this specific angle once, and I'm not sure why I didn't try again. I suppose it was because it took a bit of a walk to get to this spot, but I'm glad I have a few to show for it. I did do sort of a reprisal in 2014 but from far higher up the bluff overlooking the river.

Here is the southbound weekly Winter Aurora passenger train back when it was a diminutive consist of just a baggage car, a single coach, and a diner trailing an SD70MAC/GP40-2 combo. They are coming across the 800 foot long Knik River Bridge at MP 146.4. This bridge dates from 1937 and consists of nine orignal 80 ft. pony plate girder thru spans and one 100 ft. span that dates from a 2004 rebuilding. In that year the Alaska Railroad installed new concrete pilings and caps and shifted the old 80 foot spans over and installed a broad new 100 ft span, which is the one closest in this image and featuring a large yellow ARR logo.

The Knik River is 25 miles long flowing down from its start at the foot of Knik Glacier which is one of the largest ice fields in South Central Alaska flowing down off th Chugach Range. The river here forms the boundary between the Matanuska-Susitna Borough af the Municipality of Anchorage which the train is entering, despite being 30 miles away from downtown still!

In the distance 20 miles away almost due north sparkling in the afternoon spring light are the 6000 ft peaks of the Talkeetna Mountains surrounding Hatcher Pass.

Knik River

Municipality of Anchorage

Sunday April 8, 2012

30 years ago, guerrillas from the April 19 Movement (M19) invaded the Palace of Justice in Bogotá, Colombia. In the two-day occupation, 98 people died, including 11 judges of the country's Supreme Court, in one of the bloodiest episodes of the conflict in Colombia.

At the time, the group said that the invasion of the palace was a reprisal for failing to comply with a ceasefire agreed between guerrilla groups and President Belisario Betancur in 1984.

This week, Colombia commemorates the 30th anniversary of the massacre. President Juan Manuel Santos should ask this Friday, 6, in a speech to the nation, forgiveness for the government's action in the kidnapping, in which police, guerrillas, magistrates and civilians died.

Escobar was accused by several media outlets of having sponsored the Taking of the Palace of Justice in Bogotá in 1985, which killed the entire Court and resulted in the Palace's destruction.

The Jewish Quarter is located around two streets, the Rua Direita and the Rua da Fonte da Rosa, the latter formerly called Rua da Judiaria (Jewish Quarter Street).

Many years ago I read a book by Claude Lévi-Strauss. I don't remember much of it, to be honest, but one sentence got branded in my brain. It read something like "If you don't marry out, you war out".

In the Belmonte City Hall internet page

cm-belmonte.pt/en/history/jewish-community-in-belmonte/

we can read:

QUOTE

The community of Belmonte is home to an important fact of the Sephardic Jewish history, related to the resistance of the Jews to religious intolerance in Iberian Peninsula. In the 16th century, during the expulsion of the moors of the Iberian Peninsula, and the reconquest of the Spanish and Portuguese lands by the Catholic Kings and by D. Manuel, a law was instituted that forced the Portuguese Jews to convert or leave the country. Many of them ended up abandoning Portugal, for fear of reprisals from the Inquisition. Others converted to Christianity in official terms, maintaining their cult and cultural traditions in the family context. A third group of Jews, however, took a more extreme measure. Several have decided to isolate themselves from the outside world, cutting contact with the rest of the country and following their traditions to the letter. Such people were called “Marranos”, in an allusion to the ritual prohibition of eating pork. For centuries the “Marranos” of Belmonte have kept their Jewish traditions almost intact, becoming an exceptional case of cryptojewish community. Only in the 70´s the community established contact with the Jews of Israel and officiated Judaism as its religion. In 2005, the Jewish Museum of Belmonte was inaugurated in the city, the first of its kind in Portugal, which shows the traditions and the day-to-day of this community. In August 2017, he underwent remodeling works.

UNQUOTE

The history of the Jews in Belmonte is referred in detail in the Wikipedia page

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Belmonte

which offers interesting reading to those interested in the Sephardic tradition and crypto-judaism.

====================

Leica M6 (1994), Zeiss Biogon 2.0/35 ZM, ADOX Scala 50 (Neg), Epson V600, Affinity Photo

Peul herders, Bambara and Dogan farmers, itinerant traders and a colourful multiethnic host of other buyers and sellers converge at this vibrant weekly market every Monday in front of Djenné's ancient grand mosque.

They come from the surrounding regions and fertile flood plains of the Niger inland river delta in the Mopti region of central Mali, part of the semi-arid Sahel zone that stretches across northern Africa just south of the Sahara.

The iconic calabash bowls on prominent display are used to carry goods, store grains or prepare fresh fermented cow’s milk traditionally popular among Mali's pastoral Peul communities.

Access to the mosque's interior and rooftop was forbidden to non-Muslims in 1996 after an intrusive display of disrespect by a Vogue magazine fashion shoot inside the grand mosque.

Digital film scan, Asahi Pentax Spotmatic (SMC Pentax Zoom 45~125mm f/4), mosque rooftop pov, circa 1976.

~~~

Postrscript - The enchanting Arabian Nights imagery emanating out of this ancient marketplace at the time if this photo shoot (1976) is reminiscent of a seemingly bygone Sahelian era devoid of smartphones, credit cards, and packaged safari tours.

Nowadays, nascent tourism is on hold and easy access to markets, pastures, and farmlands is hampered as ethnic strife and inter-communal violence continue to erupt under a fragile Malian state.

In 2018, Human Rights Watch reported that the Mopti region of central Mali has become an epicentre of interethnic conflict, fuelled by a steady escalation of violence by armed Islamist groups largely allied with Al Qaeda’s advance from the north since 2015.

Recruitment to the militant Islamist movement from Peul pastoral herding communities has inflamed tensions within sedentary agrarian communities (Bambara, Dogon, Tellem, Bozo and others) who rely on access to agricultural lands for their livelihood.

Predominantly Muslim but opposing ethnic self-defence militias on both sides were formed for the protection of their own respective communities. This has contributed to a continuous cycle of violent attacks and reprisals touching villages and hamlets, pastures and farmlands, and some marketplaces.

While communal tensions are profoundly connected to a larger ethnopolitical conflict unfolding in northern Mali, chronic insecurities around the ancient town of Djenné and the broader central regions of Mali are exacerbated by longstanding indigenous concerns over the struggle for access to scarce natural resources - agricultural land for settled farmers versus water and grazing land for semi-nomadic Peul herdsmen.

Efforts at mediation in the area around Djenné and the grand mosque include a Humanitarian Agreement specifically among Bambara and Bozo farmers, Dogan "hunters" protecting farmers' interests, and Peul herders - all committed to guaranteeing the freedom of movement of people, goods and livestock in the "Circle of Djenné" situated in the Mopti region of central Mali.

© All rights to these photos and descriptions are reserved. expl#84

Social Documentary | Documentary Portraiture | Lonely Planet | National Geographic

Making a reprisal in Boston the ever popular and mysterious Guilford repainted geep is still looking clean and fresh. This was my first time catching her since shooting her here when she was fresh out of the Waterville paint booth back in August.

Here is Pan Am Railways Boston based local BO-1 with GMDD GP40-2LW MEC 507 (blt. Jul 1974 as CN 9472). This view looks across the Island End River here at its confluence with the Mystic as seen from the pretty Mary O'Malley State Park in Chelsea.

Everett, Massachusetts

Wednesday December 23, 2020

Flying jets has always been a passion since I was a teenager, powered by the movie Top Gun and games like Fligth Simulator I grew up passionate about military jets and here in SL I can fulfill my childhood passion.

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Ready for take of from USS Reprisal rezz zone

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Fire Youngman! (SoundCloud track!)

It's not always the case that things go according to plan, but so far our progress had been admirable. Lee had arrived at my house more or less when we'd agreed he would, and a few miles up the road, and Dave was ready and waiting for us to collect him on the way. Most impressively of all, I'd got out of bed, also more or less when I'd said I was going to. I'd even made my own porridge and had two life affirming cups of tea. After all, if we were going to catch the moments we hoped to later in the week, I was going to need to pay attention when the alarm went off instead of rolling over and returning to my slumbers.

With everything packed into my uncomplaining car we made our way east through sheets of driving February rain, discussing the various locations we'd identified as we went, my passengers regularly checking the weather apps on their phones and making optimistic noises about the prospect of the skies clearing later on. We stopped to refuel; both the car and ourselves and before long we arrived at our home for the next three nights, via the local Aldi where we'd stocked up on beer, wine, chocolate, Haribo (of course) and even food as well - some of it sensible food. Who says us middle aged men don't have any common sense when we're given leave to run amok in Somerset on our own?

Lee had taken charge of organising the accommodation and had booked us into a converted garage close to the dunes at Burnham on Sea - a comfortable yet compact affair - where we didn't linger over our mugs of tea for too long in our eagerness to go and photograph the lighthouse at sunset. Within twenty minutes of arrival at our temporary quarters we were marching excitedly towards the dunes, from the top of which we would drop down onto the seven miles of sand and walk the three hundred yards to our left where the famous lighthouse stood, quietly waiting for us on the sand.

Except it didn't happen that way. Dave had been looking rather more closely at the map than we had, and before we knew it, Lee and I were following him like ducklings chasing after their mother in the opposite direction towards the objects of his enthusiasm; objects that it soon transpired were rather further away than any of us had imagined. Some time later, we finally spotted the tell-tale signs of the wreck of the SS Nornen, a Norwegian barque that foundered in the mud here during a storm one hundred and twenty-five years earlier - more of that to follow in another story, but with the tide now on the way in we didn't linger there long - and fortunately Dave still had an ace up his sleeve in the two long rows of groynes making their way from the dunes all the way down to where the deadly mud began. If you walk onto the mud, you're unlikely to be seen again - at least not for twenty-thousand years or so, at which point you'll be a perfectly preserved anthropological discovery in need of a good scrub, camera bag, tripod and all.

Trying to arrange yourselves around a spot such as this without getting in each other's way is an entertaining business in itself of course, and throughout the remaining hour and a half of daylight the air was full of constant reprimands when any of us strolled merrily across another's scene, leaving footprints everywhere to add fuel to the fire. But as the tide rolled in to remove the indiscretions from the wet sand, we each worked out where we might stand without fear of later reprisals, and began to enter our zones. And as the tide rolled in, the seawater did magical things around the base of the groynes, creating shot after shot full of texture and drama. Gradually, as the light fell, I changed from the six stop filter to the three stop, and then no filter at all before steadily increasing the ISO and nudging the histogram across the screen to keep the shutter speed more or less where I wanted it.

Dave and Lee had already begun the two mile trudge back along the endless sands to where Burnham-on-Sea and its lighthouse were hidden behind a long sweeping curve of dunes. I couldn't tear myself away, spellbound by the images that were flashing up on the back of my camera after each exposure, staying until the light was almost gone and the ISO had gone to the point of no return. It was time to head for the garage conversion and my carefully chosen peri-peri rice and "no chicken" chicken burgers; and a beer if mine hadn't been confiscated by Dave as a result of continually walking into his compositions. As I set off, he rang to tell me they'd cunningly fashioned a big arrow out of three pieces of driftwood, so I'd know which path to follow over the dunes lest I end up on the golf course in the inky night, or under the pier looking confused in my search for the right one.

It had been a great start to the trip, and choosing one shot from the evening to share with my Flickr family was very difficult, but I liked the position of the nearest groyne in this one - I love it when a plan gets completely changed without warning and delivers the magic I wasn't expecting to see.

Another adventure beckons, and I think this will be my last post for the next three weeks. Exciting and frustrating in equal measures with so much to look forward to and so many images from the Somerset adventure waiting to be tinkered with. Have a great weekend everyone!

I wish I had a better relationship with early mornings, I really do. But some of us are just more suited to dealing with the dawning hours than others, while people like me potter about in the shadows beyond midnight quite contentedly. Somehow I survived the years and years of education and then work, having to conform to other peoples’ norms and dreading every single morning alarm, and it was only in the last few years of my career that I’d risen high enough in the corporate food chain to be able to bat most people away until I’d had my first coffee without fear of reprisals from above. However, my host, who knows well my aversion to life before 10am in general, was undaunted by the challenge of dragging me from my bed before dawn and announced we were heading out early, just a few hours after I’d arrived in Sweden. There was a lake, with a little promontory that might do well for sunrise, I was told. I looked at the map and then at my Photopills planner, sighing in relief as I pointed out that it wasn’t going to go as planned. The sun wasn’t going to pop up over the horizon in the right place. I could slumber until mid morning after all - it had been a long day with a delayed flight and the surrender of an hour as I moved from the UK into continental time.

But Steve’s wife Petra clearly wanted to get rid of us for a couple of hours and produced the master stroke that breached my defences and left them in tatters. Oh yes, the sun would be rising close to the Uddevalla Bridge from the top of Havstensklippan. And the forecast was looking good too. How lucky was this? I could get up at 4:15 in the morning after all. Hurrah! Thank you Petra. What did I do wrong already? I went to bed at ten, unpacked what I needed to for the early start and then failed to nod off until long after midnight, just as things always go when you know you’ve got to be on the go before the new day arrives. I managed a little more than three hours of sleep before I heard footsteps in the open plan dining room, next to which I’d been billeted.

There are those of you who like to shout from the rooftops about the early hours. I just wish you wouldn’t do it with such enthusiasm. I get it - yes it is the best time of day, when everything is still and silent and there’s nobody else around to get in your way. And I know it’s the time for morning mist and blood red skies, but this is not how my programming works at all. I’d happily swap my body clock for one that starts at 4am if I could. Still, I know I can do it from time to time when the occasion calls for it. Today was going to have to be one of those days. At five in the morning, armed with thermos flasks full of piping hot caffeine, we set off for Havstensklippan, a forested mini mountain that rises above the sound to the west of Uddevalla, parking the car at the holiday resort below and trekking up through the woods, dodging dark sinewy roots with a friction coefficient that made black ice seem grippy. Steve had probably already told me about the huge boulder we were now shuffling down on our dampened backsides, but I obviously hadn’t been listening properly beforehand or I’d have changed into something more suitable than my jeans.

Onwards and upwards we went until there was no more climbing to do. The forest gave way to a rocky table where we stood a hundred metres above the water, keeping our distance from the sheer drop into an unexpected morning bath. A hint of light crept along the eastern horizon beyond the bridge, just enough for us to peer into the camera screens and plan those sunrise compositions. A few test shots to see how things looked and then we’d be ready for the moment when everything started. I poured some coffee from my flask and waited.

And then it all kicked off. Rainbows on one side, morning glow on the other and a squall heading straight towards us from the south. Preparation turned to panic as we chased all over the headland, pointing our cameras here, there and everywhere. Joyous carnage as my first Swedish morning arrived to say hello. This serene looking moment belies the sense of urgency as the light bounced around like an overexcited jack in the box. Exhausted, exhilarated, we hid beneath a huge umbrella as the urgent shower raced over us. There are more moments to share from this fantastic hour on top of the wooded hill, so I won’t waste the words I’ll need to tell them later. But there was no denying that this had been a good idea. Even if I still really don’t get on with early mornings.

This memorial complex at Podhum commemorates the victims which were executed by Axis Italian occupational forces during the National Liberation War (WWII). Documents indicate that upwards of 91 people from the area were executed in these reprisal killings, while nearly 1000 additional residents being sent off to Italian concentration camps.

More information at: www.spomenikdatabase.org/podhum

Clearly this is technically not a good photograph, but what is clear to me is the feeling it represents.

This is what all those marches and parades are all about. Just being able to be ourselves without fear and reprisals.

I think these two beautiful young men are definitely doing just that... clearly.

Goslar is situated in the middle of the upper half of Germany, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of Braunschweig and about 70 km (43 mi) southeast of the state capital Hannover. The Schalke mountain is the highest elevation within the municipal boundaries at 762 metres (2,500 feet). The lowest point of 175 m (574 ft) is near the Oker river. Geographically, Goslar forms the boundary between the Hildesheim Börde which is part of the Northern German Plain, and the Harz range, which is the highest, northern-most extension of Germany's Central Uplands. The Hildesheim Börde is characterised by plains with rich clay soils – used agriculturally for sugar beet farming – interlaced with several hill ranges commonly known as the Hildesheim Forest and Salzgitter Hills. In the northeast the Harly Forest stretches down to the Oker river, in the east Goslar borders on the German state of Saxony-Anhalt.

Immediately to the south, the Harz range rise above the historic borough at a height of 636 m (2,087 ft) at Mt. Rammelsberg. Extended forests dominate the landscape. The major rivers crossing the municipal boundaries is the Oker with its Gose/Abzucht and Radau tributaries. The eponymic Gose River originates approximately 9 kilometres (6 miles) south-west of Goslar at the Auerhahn Pass (638 m (2,093 ft)) east of the Bocksberg mountain. At the northern foot of the Herzberg (632 m (2,073 ft)) it meets the smaller Abzucht stream, before it flows into the Oker. The Dörpke and Gelmke streams also flow from the Harz foothills to the south into the Goslar municipal area, where they discharge into the Abzucht.

History of Goslar

Iron ore mining was common in the Harz region since Roman times; the earliest known evidences for quarying and smelting date back to the 3rd century AD. Ancient burial objects made of Harz ore have even been discovered during excavations in England. The settlement on the Gose creek was first mentioned in a 979 deed issued by Emperor Otto II; it was located in the Saxon homelands of the Ottonian dynasty and probably a royal palace (Königspfalz) already existed at the site. It became even more important when extensive silver deposits were discovered at the nearby Rammelsberg, today a mining museum.

When Otto's descendant Henry II began to convene Imperial synods at the Goslar palace from 1009 onwards, Goslar gradually replaced the Royal palace of Werla as a central place of assembly in the Saxon lands; a development that was again enforced by the Salian ("Franconian") emperors. Conrad II, once elected King of the Romans, celebrated Christmas 1024 in Goslar and had the foundations laid for the new Imperial Palace (Kaiserpfalz Goslar) the next year.

Goslar became the favourite residence of Conrad's son Henry III who stayed at the palace about twenty times. Here he received King Peter of Hungary as well as the emissaries of Prince Yaroslav of Kiev, here he appointed bishops and dukes. His son and successor Henry IV was born here on 11 November 1050. Henry also had Goslar Cathedral erected and consecrated by Archbishop Herman of Cologne in 1051; shortly before his death in 1056, Emperor Henry III met with Pope Victor II in the church, emphasizing the union of secular and ecclesiastical power. His heart was buried in Goslar, his body in the Salian family vault in Speyer Cathedral. Of the cathedral only the northern porch survived; the main building was torn down in the early 19th century.

Under Henry IV, Goslar remained a centre of Imperial rule; however, conflicts intensified such as in the violent Precedence Dispute at Pentecost 1063. While Henry aimed to secure the enormous wealth deriving from the Rammlesberg silver mines as a royal demesne, the dissatisfaction of local nobles escalated with the Saxon Rebellion in 1073–75. In the subsequent Great Saxon Revolt, the Goslar citizens sided with anti-king Rudolf of Rheinfelden, who held a princely assembly here in 1077, and with Hermann of Salm, who was crowned king in Goslar by Archbishop Siegfried of Mainz on 26 December 1081. brought Goslar the status of an Imperial City.

In Spring 1105 Henry V convened the Saxon estates at Goslar, to gain support for the deposition of his father Henry IV. Elected king in the following year, he held six Imperial Diets at the Goslar Palace during his rule. The tradition was adopted by his successor Lothair II and even by the Hohenstaufen rulers Conrad III and Frederick Barbarossa. After his election in 1152, King Frederick appointed the Welf duke Henry the Lion Imperial Vogt (bailiff) of the Goslar mines; nevertheless, the dissatisfied duke besieged the town and at an 1173 meeting in Chiavenna demanded his enfeoffment with the estates in turn for his support on Barbarossa's Italian campaigns. When Henry the Lion was finally declared deposed in 1180, he had the Rammelsberg mines devastated.

Goslar's importance as an Imperial residence began to decline under the rule of Barbarossa's descendants. During the German throne dispute the Welf king Otto IV laid siege to the town in 1198 but had to yield to the forces of his Hohenstaufen rival Philip of Swabia. Goslar was again stormed and plundered by Otto's troops in 1206. Frederick II held the last Imperial Diet here; with the Great Interregnum upon his death in 1250, Goslar's Imperial era ended.

While the Emperors withdraw from Northern Germany, civil liberties in Goslar were strengthened. Market rights date back to 1025; a municipal council (Rat) was first mentioned in 1219. The citizens strived for control of the Rammelsberg silver mines and in 1267 joined the Hanseatic League. Beside mining in the Upper Harz, commerce and trade in Gose beer, later also slate and vitriol, became important. By 1290 the council had obtained Vogt rights, confirming Goslar's status as a free imperial city. In 1340 its citizens were vested with Heerschild rights by Emperor Louis the Bavarian. The Goslar town law set an example for numerous other municipalities, like the Goslar mining law codified in 1359.

Early modern times saw both a mining boom and rising conflicts with the Welf Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg, mainly with Prince Henry V of Wolfenbüttel who seized the Rammelsberg mines and extended Harz forests in 1527. Though a complaint was successfully lodged with the Reichskammergericht by the Goslar citizens, a subsequent gruelling feud with the duke lasted for decades. Goslar was temporarily placed under Imperial ban, while the Protestant Reformation was introduced in the city by theologian Nicolaus von Amsdorf who issued a first church constitution in 1531. To assert independence, the citizens in 1536 joined the Schmalkaldic League against the Catholic policies of the Habsburg emperor Charles V. The Schmalkaldic forces indeed occupied the Wolfenbüttel lands of Henry V, however, when they were defeated by Imperial forces at the 1547 Battle of Mühlberg, the Welf duke continued his reprisals.

In 1577 the Goslar citizens signed the Lutheran Formula of Concord. After years of continued skirmishes, they finally had to grant Duke Henry and his son Julius extensive mining rights which ultimately edged out the city council. Nevertheless, several attempts by the Brunswick dukes to incorporate the Imperial city were rejected. Goslar and its economy was hit hard by the Thirty Years' War, mainly by the Kipper und Wipper financial crisis in the 1620s which led to several revolts and pogroms. Facing renewed aggressions by Duke Christian the Younger of Brunswick, the citizens sought support from the Imperial military leaders Tilly and Wallenstein. The city was occupied by the Swedish forces of King Gustavus Adolphus from 1632 to 1635; in 1642 a peace agreement was reached between Emperor Ferdinand III and the Brunswick duke Augustus the Younger. The hopes of the Goslar citizens to regain the Rammelsberg mines were not fulfilled.

Goslar remained loyal to the Imperial authority, solemnly celebrating each accession of a Holy Roman Emperor. While strongly referring to its great medieval traditions, the city continuously decreased in importance and got into rising indebtedness. When Johann Wolfgang von Goethe stayed at Goslar in 1777, he called it "an Imperial city rotted in and with its privileges". In the winter of 1798, the coldest of the century, the young English poet William Wordsworth stayed in the city. To dispel homesickness he started to write a few verses about his childhood, which would eventually evolve into the masterpiece that was published in 13 volumes after his death as The Prelude.[5]

First administrative reforms were enacted by councillors of the Siemens family. Nevertheless, the status of Imperial immediacy was finally lost, when Goslar was annexed by Prussian forces during the Napoleonic Wars in 1802, confirmed by the German Mediatisation the next year. Under Prussian rule, further reforms were pushed ahead by councillor Christian Wilhelm von Dohm. Temporarily part of the Kingdom of Westphalia upon the Prussian defeat at the 1806 Battle of Jena–Auerstedt, Goslar finally was assigned to the newly established Kingdom of Hanover by resolution of the Vienna Congress. The cathedral was sold and torn down from 1820 to 1822, bitterly mourned by Heinrich Heine in his Harzreise travelogue. Again under Prussian rule after the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Goslar became a popular retirement residence (Pensionopolis) and a garrison town of the Prussian Army. The Hohenzollern kings and emperors had the Imperial Palace restored, including the mural paintings by Hermann Wislicenus.

After the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, Reich Minister Richard Walther Darré made Goslar the seat of the agricultural Reichsnährstand corporation. In 1936, the city obtained the title of Reichsbauernstadt. In the course of the German re-armament, a Luftwaffe airbase was built north of the town and several war supplier companies located in the vicinity, including subcamps of the Buchenwald and Neuengamme concentration camps. Nevertheless, the historic town escaped strategic bombing during World War II.

Part of the British occupation zone from 1945, Goslar was the site of a displaced persons camp. During the Cold War era the city near the inner German border was a major garrison town for the West German army, the border police as well as the French Forces in Germany. After the fall of the Berlin wall, the barracks were vacated and a major economic factor was lost. The Rammelberg mines were finally closed in 1988, after a millennial history of mining.

/Wikipedia/

Taken on September 2, 2018, during a 3 day photographic trip to the Prefecture of FTHIOTIDA - ΦΘΙΩΤΙΔΑ central Greece with my wife Theresa Jane Brown.

THE GORGOPOTAMOS RIVER - ΓΟΡΓΟΠΟΤΑΜΟΣ

The bridge over the river was built in 1905, putting the Gorgopotamos village on the map for the strategic purpose the bridge played during World War II. The name of Gorgopotamos became famous during World War II, when 150 Greek partisans, following plans drawn by E. C. W. "Eddie" Myers and assisted by a group of British SOE officers, which included C.M. Woodhouse, blew up the railroad bridge over the Gorgopotamos river on November 25, 1942 as part of Operation Harling and cut off the enemy-controlled route between Thessaloniki and Athens. The blast ruined two of the six piers of the bridge. In an act of reprisals, the German occupation forces executed 16 Greek locals. The area around the bridge has been designated a national monument.

After World War II and the Greek Civil War, the bridge of Gorgopotamos was partially rebuilt, the piers being replaced with steel pylons.

Thanassis Fournarakos - Θανάσης Φουρναράκος

Professional Photographer, Athens, Greece

(retired in 2011, born in 1946).

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

None of my images may be downloaded, copied, reproduced, manipulated or used on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit written permission. THANK YOU!

This photograph has achieved the following highest awards:

* THE GALAXY - HALL OF FAME

* THE GALAXY STARS - HALL OF FAME

A reprisal of an old photo of mine, but in daylight this time, of the Daugava bridge. The electric suburban services are still covered by ER2 class EMUs, with this one en route to Tukums-1. Rīga, 29-07-2023.

Day 45, Christchurch, New Zealand:

Christchurch is the largest city on South Island New Zealand. During the period from September 2010 to January 2012, a series of earthquakes rocked the city. Two shakes measuring magnitude 7.1 and 6.3 devastated the city. 185 people died in the second quake that shook the city. By September 2013 over 1500 buildings in the city had been demolished or partly demolished.

While we were away we also heard the news of a terrorist attack with 51 people killed.

Unlike some places the quakes where considered to be natural events and not the act of a deity due to being unhappy.

There where little or no reprisal headlines after the terror attack, just a series of supporting messages and practical implementations.

I can say that during my visit this city has to be one of the most civilised and happy places. Art pervades the city. Not the informal graffiti that adorns many cities, but official artworks. The city was a blaze of colour.

The indigenous monument, located along the Barkly Highway between Cloncurry and Mount Isa, Northwest Queensland, pays tribute to Kalkadoon (Mount Isa area) and Mitakoodi People (Cloncurry/Fort Constantine area). It has been subjected to vandalism and was destroyed by an explosion in 1992 but has since been rebuilt.

The monument was erected as a Bicentennial Project in 1988 by Dr. David Harvey Sutton who designed and financed the monument with the support of the Mitakoodi Aboriginal Corporation in Cloncurry, to highlight Aboriginal history in the Bicentenary Year.

Battle Mountain:

The Kalkadoon were tracked 60 miles north of Cloncurry to a place now known as Battle Mountain where over 900 Kalkadoon lay in wait. The Kalkadoon had chosen this place for the battle to take place they had stockpiled spears, boomerangs and rocks and the view from the mountain overlooked the plain below giving the tactical advantage to the Kalkadoon.

Sub inspector Urquhart started the battle by ordering the Kalkadoon to stand in the Queen’s name, they replied with a battle cry and hundreds of rocks thrown down the mountain. Urquhart then ordered a cavalry charge of 200 men on horseback up the mountain, their bullets bouncing off the rocks the Kalkadoon were using as cover and after 30 metres the horses could no longer climb the steep mountain and the men had to dismount and run for cover under a hail of spears. From high above the warriors shouted in defiance and continued their assault with rocks thrown down the mountain and while Urquhart was trying to regain control of his men and the battle he was hit in the head by a rock thrown by a large Kalkadoon warrior and fell unconscious to the ground. The native police temporarily abandoned other dead and dying and rushed to save their leader under a wall of covering rifle fire and with their leader saved but unconscious for hours the white army could offer no fight to the Kalkadoon warriors that were still raining rocks down the mountain.

When Sub Inspector Urquhart regained consciousness he immediately halved his army and flanked the mountain ready for an assault on two sides, it looked like the Kalkadoon warriors had little choice but to leave the cover of the boulders and prepare to defend in the open on two fronts. Upon seeing the flanking movement by Urquhart the Kalkadoon warriors left their cover and quickly formed ranks and without warning the warriors charged down the mountain with spears raised. The Kalkadoon lines with the pride and history of over 60,000 years of culture held for a brief moment as they charged their attackers and then as if history itself was being erased from the earth the Kalkadoon warriors were cut down by round after round after round of rifle fire. The brave remaining Kalkadoon warriors waivered but not able to accept defeat, this was their land they had no choice so they reformed their lines and again charged their attackers. Again the mountain rang with rifle fire that mowed down the charging warriors, after a while the rifle fire stopped and so too had the Kalkadoon resistance. Urquhart was not satisfied with the slaughter that had taken place and for several days with his native troopers commenced a cleaning up operation where any Kalkadoon survivors found were also killed.

The Kalkadoon people were the only aboriginal people to stand up to an organised force of white men in open combat and fight to the very end but their stone age weapons of the past were no match for the white man’s firepower of the future. Only 29 Kalkadoon people survived the battle of Battle Mountain.

The Kalkadoon mob:

The Kalkadoon People, also known as the Kalkatungu, Kalkatunga, or Kalkadungu, ruled what is called the Emu Foot Province and have been living on these lands for over 40 thousand years. The Kalkadoon People owned vast tracts of land extending from McKinley’s Gap in the east where they joined the Goa tribe of the Winton district to Gunpowder Creek which was the territory of the Waggaboongas. On the southern side of their territory the Kalkadoons were touched upon by the Pitta-Pitta tribe of the Boulia district, and on the northern side by the Mittakoodi of the Fort Constantine country.

The Kalkadoons would mark their territory boundaries with an emu or cranes foot that was either painted onto rocks and trees or carved into the hard granite rock. This was also a warning for other Aboriginal clans not to pass these boundaries.

The Kalkadoon (Kalkatungu) are descendants of an Indigenous Australian tribe living in the Mount Isa region of Queensland. Their forefather tribe has been called 'the Elite of the Aboriginal warriors of Queensland'. In 1884 they were massacred at "Battle Mountain" by settlers and police.

The first Europeans to visit the area were explorers Burke and Wills who crossed the Cloncurry River in 1861. Though their journals make no mention of the tribe, their passing through is said to have been recorded in Kalkatungu oral history, and in their language they coined the term walpala (from 'white feller') to denote Europeans. Three parties sent out to search for Burke and Wills, led respectively by John McKinlay, William Landsborough, and Frederick Walker, passed through the general area. Walker, a former commander of the Dawson native police, shot 12 natives dead and wounded several more, just to the north east of Kalkatungu territory.

Another early European settler, Edward Palmer, who was described by George Phillips as 'one of that brave band of pioneer squatters who in the early sixties swept across North Queensland with their flocks and herds, settling, as if by magic, great tracts of hitherto unoccupied country', settled on the edge of Kalkatungu country in 1864, at Conobie, on the western bank of the Cloncurry River. Decades later, Palmer described the natives as a peculiar people of which little was known. Palmer was critical of the use of native police and interested in indigenous tribes. His station lands did not cover any Kalkatungu sacred sites, he did not object to their presence in the vicinity, and found no problem in his relations with the Kalkatungu. He tried to learn their language. Ernest Henry arrived in 1866, discovering, with the assistance of Kalkatungu guides, copper deposits the following year, and founded the Great Australia Mine. He successfully enlisted some Kalkatungu people to work one of these mines. A short attempt at settlement by W. and T. Brown at Bridgewater in 1874 experienced, like Palmer, no difficulties with the indigenous owners of the land.

The Scottish settler Alexander Kennedy then took up land in the area in 1877. He had managed, since his arrival in 1861, to accumulate land holdings of some 4,800 sq. miles, holding 60,000 cattle, and established himself in a residence he built, called Buckingham Downs. Kennedy is thought to have begun the troubles with the native peoples of the area by instigating murderous assaults on the Kalkatungu. Iain Davidson describes him as 'the man who led the destruction of the tribes of North West Central Queensland.'

The traditional white heroic narrative version of what then occurred drew on the account provided by Sir Wilmot Hudson Fysh in 1933. According to this version, the Kalkatungu was by nature a hostile and bellicose tribe, exceptionally brave with 'primitive' military cunning and guerilla-like tactics of strategic withdrawals to the mountains to evade reprisals for their savagery. They were eventually vanquished and broken after a last stand against men like Alexander Kennedy.

The Mitakoodi mob:

The Mitakoodi peoples of the Cloncurry River (the 'River People') and region, have a rich and diverse archaeological history unknown to the rest of Australia.

They are the custodians of the famous basalt axe quarries which along with the Kalkadoon (Mount Isa) axe quarries have been foremost as a regional stone source, supplying high quality stone axes to many language groups throughout Australia via the 'Channel Country' and its complex social exchange network system.

The Mitakoodi peoples are also the custodians of the white ochre dreaming ceremonial and initiation sites, large and small tangible man made monuments, and structures scattered throughout the harsh spinifex landscape.

Source: Monument Australia, Chernee Sutton (www.cherneesutton.com.au/pages/battle-mountain), Australian National University & Kalkadoon PBC (www.kalkadoonpbc.com.au)

As hopeful and supportive we are for the Ukraine, reality rules. Many, about 2 million, have fled; But, 42 million have not. Russia will win a war of attrition. The harder that victory, the more severe the reprisals.

The Jewish Quarter is located around two streets, the Rua Direita and the Rua da Fonte da Rosa, the latter formerly called Rua da Judiaria (Jewish Quarter Street).

Many years ago I read a book by Claude Lévi-Strauss. I don't remember much of it, to be honest, but one sentence got branded in my brain. It read something like "If you don't marry out, you war out".

In the Belmonte City Hall internet page

cm-belmonte.pt/en/history/jewish-community-in-belmonte/

we can read:

QUOTE

The community of Belmonte is home to an important fact of the Sephardic Jewish history, related to the resistance of the Jews to religious intolerance in Iberian Peninsula. In the 16th century, during the expulsion of the moors of the Iberian Peninsula, and the reconquest of the Spanish and Portuguese lands by the Catholic Kings and by D. Manuel, a law was instituted that forced the Portuguese Jews to convert or leave the country. Many of them ended up abandoning Portugal, for fear of reprisals from the Inquisition. Others converted to Christianity in official terms, maintaining their cult and cultural traditions in the family context. A third group of Jews, however, took a more extreme measure. Several have decided to isolate themselves from the outside world, cutting contact with the rest of the country and following their traditions to the letter. Such people were called “Marranos”, in an allusion to the ritual prohibition of eating pork. For centuries the “Marranos” of Belmonte have kept their Jewish traditions almost intact, becoming an exceptional case of cryptojewish community. Only in the 70´s the community established contact with the Jews of Israel and officiated Judaism as its religion. In 2005, the Jewish Museum of Belmonte was inaugurated in the city, the first of its kind in Portugal, which shows the traditions and the day-to-day of this community. In August 2017, he underwent remodeling works.

UNQUOTE

The history of the Jews in Belmonte is referred in detail in the Wikipedia page

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Belmonte

which offers interesting reading to those interested in the Sephardic tradition and crypto-judaism.

==================

Leica M Monochrom (246), Elmarit 2.8/24 ASPH, Affinity Photo, EI 320 ISO, 1/500s, f/8

Ankaramena (Madagascar) - Cette photo me semble intéressante parce que les protagonistes ne sont pas souriants. Ce qui est rare dans ce pays.

Je m'étais écarté seul du lieu de vente des bovins pour me perdre dans le marché aux légumes. En revenant vers mon véhicule, sur la seule route carrossable du village, j'ai croisé ces jeunes gens aux regards peu engageants. Il faut préciser que les vazas (étrangers blancs) ne s’arrêtent jamais dans ce coin de brousse. Comme ces jeunes ne semblaient pas ravis de me voir ici, j'ai déclenché mon appareil alors qu'il était à la hauteur de ma poitrine. Sans viser, en marchand -pas trop vite-, en prenant la précaution de mettre le zoom sur la position grand-angle tout en choisissant une ouverture suffisamment petite pour rattraper un éventuel défaut mise au point. Coup de chance, l'autofocus a fait le point sur l'épaule du personnage central (en jaune avec son chapeau) et mon cadre était correcte. Déclencher en marchant et sans viser, je commence à maîtriser la technique, même si ce n'est pas une science exacte. On est dans le registre de la roulette russe… aux conséquences moins fatales.

Si j'ai "volé" cette photo, ce n'est pas que je craignais des représailles, mais pour qu'ils ne me demandent pas de l'argent. Cette sollicitation perpétuelle commençait à me fatiguer à ce stade de mon voyage.

Cette photo me permet de corriger une idée largement répandue. Madagascar a la réputation d’être un pays dangereux. Personnellement, en cinq longs séjours depuis 2016, je n'ai jamais ressenti le moindre sentiment d’insécurité. Il n’est cependant pas question de tomber dans un angélisme béat. Si ce pays à cette réputation, c’est qu’il y a une part de réalité. Cependant, toutes les histoires d'agressions qui mon été rapportées démontrent combien les touristes qui en ont été victimes ont été imprudents. Dans un pays réputé pour sa pauvreté, on n'exhibe pas son argent et autres richesses en public. On évite de sortir seul la nuit dans les nombreux endroits où il n'y a pas d'éclairage public, particulièrement dans la capitale où là, effectivement, vous avez une chance sur deux de faire de mauvaises rencontres. Moi quand je sors la nuit, je ne me déplace jamais seul et je prends un taxi, comme le recommande l'ambassade de France. Sauf à Fort-Dauphin, réputée pour être une ville tranquille avec un taux de criminalité proche de zéro. Pour être honnête, vous avez statistiquement moins de chance d'être agressé à Madagascar qu'à Paris.

Ankaramena (Madagascar) - This photo seems interesting to me because the protagonists are not smiling. Which is rare in this country.

I had wandered away alone from the place where the cattle were sold to get lost in the vegetable market. On my way back to my vehicle, on the only motorable road in the village, I came across these young people with unprepossessing looks. It should be noted that the vazas (white foreigners) never stop in this corner of the bush. As these young people did not seem happy to see me here, I triggered my camera while it was at the height of my chest.

Without aiming, taking the precaution of putting the zoom on the wide-angle position while choosing an aperture small enough to compensate for any possible focus fault. Luckily, the autofocus focused on the shoulder of the central character (in yellow with his hat) and my frame was correct.

To trigger while walking and without aiming, I'm starting to master the technique, even if it's not an exact science.We are in the register of Russian roulette, with less fatal consequences. If I "stole" this photo, it's not because I feared reprisals, but so that they wouldn't ask me for money.This perpetual solicitation was beginning to tire me at this point in my travel.

This photo gives me the opportunity to correct a widely held idea. Madagascar is said to be a very dangerous country. Personally, in five long stays, I have never felt the slightest feeling of insecurity. However, there is no question of falling into angelism. If this country has this reputation, it is because there must be some reality. However, all the stories of assaults that have been reported to me demonstrate how reckless the tourists who were victims were.

In a country known for its poverty, people do not display their money and other wealth in public. We avoid going out alone at night in the many places where there is no public lighting, particularly in the capital where, in fact, you have a one in two chance of meeting bad people. When I go out at night, I never go alone and I always take a taxi, as recommended by the French embassy. Except in Fort-Dauphin, renowned for being the quietest city in the country with a crime rate close to zero. To be honest, you are statistically less likely to be attacked in Madagascar than in Paris.

Castle Stalker – in the Gaelic, Stalcaire, meaning Hunter or Falconer – is believed originally to have been the site of a Fortalice (a small fortified building) belonging to the MacDougalls when they were Lords of Lorn, and built around 1320. The MacDougalls lost their title after their defeat by King Bruce at Brander Pass in 1308 but regained it for a period after 1328. In about 1388 the Lordship of Lorn passed to the Stewarts, the lands including Castle Stalker.

It is believed that Castle Stalker, much in its present form, was built by the then Lord of Lorn, Sir John Stewart, who had an illegitimate son in 1446, and it is reasonable to suppose that he built and occupied the Castle about that time. In 1463 Sir John Stewart was keen to legitimise his son by getting married to his Mother, a MacLaren, at Dunstaffnage when he was murdered outside the church by Alan MacCoul, a renegade MacDougall, although he survived long enough to complete the marriage and legitimise his son, Dugald, who became the First Chief of Appin. The Stewarts had their revenge on MacCoul at the Battle of Stalc in 1468 opposite the Castle when the Stewarts and MacLaren together defeated the MacDougalls, and Alan MacCoul was killed by Dugald himself. The site of this Battle is marked by a memorial stone in the Churchyard in Portnacroish.

In 1497 the Stewarts and MacLarens carried out a combined raid against MacDonald of Keppoch as a reprisal for cattle reiving, but Dugald Stewart was killed and succeeded as Chief of Appin by his son Duncan. King James IV of Scotland, born in 1473, was a cousin of the Stewarts of Appin and when he came of age made frequent hunting journeys to the Highlands. It is understood that he stayed quite often at Castle Stalker, using it as a base for hunting and hawking for which he had a passion. It is thought that further improvements were made to the Castle at this time including the possible addition of what is now the top floor and roof, and that the Coat of Arms over the front door may be the Royal Arms of that time.

Duncan Stewart was murdered by the McLeans at Duart Castle in 1512 and succeeded by his younger brother Alan Stewart as the third Chief. In 1513 the Stewarts of Appin supported King James IV at the Battle of Flodden. The Stewart Chief and is five sons were all present at the Battle but all managed to survive what was otherwise a massive defeat in which the King was killed.

In 1520 Sir Alexander Stewart of Invernahyle was fishing off the small island next to Castle Stalker when he was surprised and murdered by a party of Campbells. Tradition has it that the nurse of his baby son, Donald Stewart, hid the baby in the Castle and when the Campbells left the nurse returned, found the baby still alive and took refuge in Morven.

Young Donald became renowned for his strength and was known as “Donald of the Hammers” – in the Gaelic “Donald nan Ord” – as he could wield a blacksmith’s hammer in each hand with ease. In 1544 he raised the Stewarts of Appin and went to Dunstaffnage where they killed nine Campbells in revenge for the murder of his Father. Donald nan Ord also led the Stewarts at the Battle of Pinkie on the 10th September 1547. He died in 1607 and is buried on Lismore where his faithful henchman, a Carmichael, also lies buried.

In around 1620 the Castle passed into the hands of the Campbells of Airds as a result of a drunken wager by the 7th Stewart Chief, Duncan, in exchange for an eight-oared wherry.

The Stewarts of Appin, under Stewart if Ardsheal, regained the Castle in 1689 when they came out with King James VII (otherwise James II) against King William but after defeat at the battle of Dunkeld the Castle was again forfeited to the Campbells. The Stewarts under Ardsheal refused to hand it over when it was then besieged by the Campbells for several months until Ardsheal was granted an honourable surrender in 1690.

At the time of the 1745 Rising Castle Stalker was held by the Campbells with a Garrison of about 59 Government troops. Although the Stewarts of Appin were solidly behind Prince Charles, and raised a regiment of 300, the Castle was too strong for them to take and their 2lb cannon-balls merely bounced off the walls. The Castle formed an important link during the rising with ships calling frequently with men and supplies as they sailed between Inverary in the South and Fort William in the North. After the Battle of Culloden in 1746 the Castle was used by the Government forces as a local centre where the Clansmen had to surrender their arms. Six prisoners are recorded as being held in the Prisoners’ Hole for about a fortnight before being taken to Edinburgh for trial.

The last Campbell was born in the Castle in 1775 and Campbells continued to reside in it until about 1800 when they built a new house on the mainland at Airds, which still exists today, and the Castle remained merely as a storehouse. In about 1840 the roof either fell in or was perhaps removed to avoid roof-tax and the Castle was abandoned.

In 1908 the Castle was regained from the Campbells by Charles Stewart of Achara who purchased it and carried out some basic preservation work to stem its decay.

In 1947 his successor, Duncan Stewart, who was Governor of Sarawak, was murdered by a Dyak and the Castle devolved on his widow. In 1965 Lt. Col. D. R. Stewart Allward negotiated terms for the purchase of the Castle and spent the next ten years rebuilding and restoring it as it is today. It is now fully habitable. Contractors and builders in the normal sense were not employed in the restoration which was carried out by Lt. Col. Stewart Allward personally with the help of his wife, family and many friends who were willing to spend holidays and long weekends helping with the task.

Lt. Col. Stewart Allward died suddenly whilst out walking on the 5th February 1991. His wife Marion, always of great support to him, died on the 7th July 2005. They are survived by their four children, Sine, Ross, Alasdair and Morag, six grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

Ross. S.S. Allward, March 2011

YPATI - ΥΠΑΤΗ

Ypati is a town about 30 km west of Thermopylae and north of the Oeta mountains which was founded in the late 5th/early 4th century BC.

During the Axis occupation 15 inhabitants were shot as reprisals for the Gorgopotamos bridge sabotage in 1942, and later, on 17 June 1944, the Germans surrounded the town as part of reprisals for attacks by EAM-ELAS partisans based in the region. They executed 28 people, wounded another 30, and burned down 375 out of the town's 400 buildings. A memorial in the town centre commemorates the event and Ypati has been declared a "martyr city" by the Greek state.

Photo taken on August 31, 2018, during a 3 day photographic trip to the Prefecture of FTHIOTIDA - ΦΘΙΩΤΙΔΑ central Greece with my wife Theresa Jane Brown.

Thanassis Fournarakos - Θανάσης Φουρναράκος

Professional Photographer, Athens, Greece

(retired in 2011, born in 1946).

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

None of my images may be downloaded, copied, reproduced, manipulated or used on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit written permission. THANK YOU!

Taken on August 31, 2018, during a 3 day photographic trip to the Prefecture of FTHIOTIDA - ΦΘΙΩΤΙΔΑ central Greece with my wife Theresa Jane Brown.

YPATI - ΥΠΑΤΗ

Ypati is a town about 30 km west of Thermopylae and north of the Oeta mountains which was founded in the late 5th/early 4th century BC.

During the Axis occupation 15 inhabitants were shot as reprisals for the Gorgopotamos bridge sabotage in 1942, and later, on 17 June 1944, the Germans surrounded the town as part of reprisals for attacks by EAM-ELAS partisans based in the region. They executed 28 people, wounded another 30, and burned down 375 out of the town's 400 buildings. A memorial in the town centre commemorates the event and Ypati has been declared a "martyr city" by the Greek state.

Thanassis Fournarakos - Θανάσης Φουρναράκος

Professional Photographer, Athens, Greece

(retired in 2011, born in 1946).

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This photograph has achieved the following highest awards:

* THE GALAXY - HALL OF FAME

* THE GALAXY STARS - HALL OF FAME