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Keeping tradition: Cedar Forest on Bcharreh, Lebanon.
ENGLISH
The Cedars of God (Arabic: أرز الربّ Arz ar-Rabb "Cedars of the Lord") is one of the last vestiges of the extensive forests of the Lebanon cedar, that once thrived across Mount Lebanon in ancient times. Their timber was used by the Phoenicians, Israelites, Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Romans, and Turks. The wood was prized by Egyptians for shipbuilding; the Ottoman Empire used the cedars in railway construction.
The mountains of Lebanon were once shaded by thick cedar forests and the tree is the symbol of the country. After centuries of persistent deforestation, the extent of these forests has been markedly reduced.[2]
It was once said that a battle occurred between the demigods and the humans over the beautiful and divine forest of Cedar trees near southern Mesopotamia.[3] This forest, once protected by the Sumerian god Enlil, was completely bared of its trees when humans entered its grounds 4700 years ago, after winning the battle against the guardians of the forest, the demigods.[3] The story also tells that Gilgamesh used cedar wood to build his city.
Over the centuries, cedar wood was exploited by the Phoenicians, Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Romans, Israelites and Turks.The Phoenicians used the Cedars for their merchant fleets. They needed timbers for their ships and the Cedar woods made them the “first sea trading nation in the world”.The Egyptians used cedar resin for the mummification process and the cedar wood for some of “their first hieroglyph bearing rolls of papyrus”.In the Bible, Solomon procured cedar timber to build the Temple in Jerusalem.The emperor Hadrian claimed these forests as an imperial domain, and destruction of the cedar forests was temporarily halted.
Concern for the biblical "cedars of God" goes back to 1876, when the 102-hectare (250-acre) grove was surrounded by a high stone wall, paid for by Queen Victoria, to protect saplings from browsing by goats.Nevertheless, during World War I, British troops used cedar to build railroads.
Time, along with the exploitation of the Cedars’ wood, has led to a decrease in the number of cedar trees in Lebanon. However, Lebanon is still widely known for its cedar tree history, as they are the emblem of the country and the symbol of the Lebanese flag. The remaining trees survive in mountainous areas, where they are the dominant tree species. This is the case on the slopes of Mount Makmel that tower over the Kadisha Valley, where the Cedars of God are found at an altitude of more than 2,000 metres (6,600 ft). Four trees have reached a height of 35 metres (115 ft), with their trunks reaching 12–14 metres (39–46 ft).
CATALÀ
Els Cedres de Déu (en àrab أرز الربّ, Horsh Arz el-Rab) són els supervivents dels immensos boscos de cedres que cobrien antigament els vessants del mont Líban. La seva fusta va ser explotada pels assiris, els babilònics i els perses així com els fenicis. La fusta era especialment estimada pels egipcis per a la construcció naval. Salomó els va utilitzar en la construcció del primer temple de Jerusalem i l'Imperi otomà també els va utilitzar els cedres per construir el seu sistema de ferrocarril.
En l'Antiguitat, el Líban contenia grans boscos de cedre, pel que la seva imatge és el símbol del país. Avui, després de segles de persistent tala, la grandària dels boscos s'ha reduït i tan sols a les àrees muntanyenques del país perduren grans boscos. Aquest és el cas de la muntanya Makemel que domina el paisatge de la vall de Qadisha on a una altitud de més de 2.000 metres es troben els cedres de Déu. Quatre d'ells han aconseguit una altura de 35 metres amb troncs que van des dels 12 fins als 14 metres de circumferència. La preocupació pels cedres bíblics de Déu va portar al fet que el 1876 es construís un mur de pedra, finançat per la reina Victòria de Gran Bretanya. Aquest mur protegeix als brots joves de les cabres que s'alimenten d’ells.
Happy Windmill Wednesday
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Sag Harbor, Long Island, New York
Photo from Niece Mare
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From 1760 – 1850, the Village was a thriving whaling port. When President Washington approved the creation of Sag Harbor as a Port of Entry, the Village had more tons of square-rigged vessels engaged in commerce than New York City.
-- Sag Harbor village website
A grainy scan from a rather creased colour image in a 1955 magazine but, given my long association with Scotland's capital city and its transport system I decided it was worth a punt. This is a fine period view along the Princes Street that would be, in a few years, my childhood haunt and as I recall it full of 'different' shops. One of the things that most shocks me these days when I return to the city is the shocking state of this street in terms of retail - tat from one end to the other.
Princes Street has always suffered - or thrived depending on your point of view - from effectively being a trunk road and in this shot there's quite a lot to see! The sole green Ford stands out in a world of black cars as does the Albion (Glasgow built) lorry of the London Scottish Transport Ltd., that may at this time have formed part of British Road Services? But the public transport scene has a wee bit of most things with the exception of a visible coach!
The main operator is, of course, Edinburgh Corporation Transport and the madder (or maroon) and white livery can be seen on a surviving 'Standard tramcar heading off towards Granton on route 9 having made its way down the long hills from Colinton. The buses, well, they mark the beginning of the end for the trams and the presence of LFS 417, one of the first batch of the 300 Leyland Titan PD2/20s that the Corporation would purchase to replace the tram fleet, on route 12 tells us that this is after the summer of 1954 when these vehicles were delivered and the Corstorphine tram routes converted. In the opposite direction is one of the oddities of tram replacement - one of the 60 ex-London Transport Utility Guy Arabs that ECT bought, rather cheaply, and then had rebodied with quite 'deco' appearing bodywork by Nudd Bros & Lockyer. It is amazing to think that, due to the survival of at least one of each of those three vehicle types ( a Standard tram, an ex-London Guy Arab and various PD2's) you could recreate that set up if you so wished!
The other bus operator seen here is the green of the "SMT" - as Scottish Omnibuses or "Eastern Scottish" was still known despite the 'old name' of the originating company, the Scottish Motor Traction Co Ltd, having already been officially phased out. The bus we see coming towards us is another Guy Arab.
The bus stops, now taking the place of the tram stops here, display the 'new' design of ECT's 'Staybrite' stainless steel poles with the purpose designed portcullis flags (that were always smarter than the messy flags used now by the City of Edinburgh) and these were topped by the small fluorescent light fittings that denoted 'important' stops. The rear corner of the bus we can't see shows another old ECT feature - the "Cowan Ads" advertising agency 'flag' that was used to show the agency that fitted adverts to buses when the Corporation, looking for income, finally allowed the city's transport system to be further sullied with such things!
I know that our bodies were made to thrive only in pure air, and the scenes in which pure air is found.
-John Muir
I visited Peterhead Fishing Harbour Sunday 24th February 2019, a heavy Haar put my plans to capture the views a little difficult, hence I revisited today Tuesday 26th February 2019, posting a few of the captures I managed to take over both days.
Peterhead ; Scottish Gaelic: Ceann Phàdraig, Scots: Peterheid is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is Aberdeenshire's biggest settlement (the city of Aberdeen itself not being a part of the district), with a population of 18,537 at the 2011 Census.
Peterhead sits at the easternmost point in mainland Scotland. It is often referred to as The Blue Toun (locally spelt as "The Bloo Toon") and people who were born there as Blue Touners (locally spelt as "Bloo Tooners").
More correctly they are called blue mogginers (locally spelt as "Bloomogganners"), supposedly from the blue worsted moggins or stockings that the fishermen originally wore.
History
Peterhead was founded by fishermen and was developed as a planned settlement. In 1593 the construction of Peterhead's first harbour, Port Henry, encouraged the growth of Peterhead as a fishing port and established a base for trade.
Peterhead was a Jacobite supporting town in the Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745. In particular, it was one of the Episcopalian north-eastern ports where reinforcements, plus money and equipment, were periodically landed from France during the Forty-Five.
A lifeboat station was first established in 1865.
Since early times Peterhead has received a portion of its water supply from Morris Wells.
Peterhead convict prison was opened in 1888, gaining a reputation as one of Scotland's toughest prisons.
The present harbour has two massive breakwaters, enclosing an area of approximately 300 acres in Peterhead bay. The south breakwater, about 2700 ft long, was constructed in 1892–1912 using convict labour from the prison. The north breakwater, constructed 1912–56, is approximately 1500 ft long.
A new phase of growth was initiated in the 1970s with Peterhead becoming a major oil industry service centre, and the completion of the nearby St Fergus gas terminal. At this time, considerable land holdings were allocated for industrial development.
In recent times, the town has suffered from several high-profile company closures and is facing a number of pressures, including Common Fisheries Policy reforms. However, it retains a relatively diverse economy, including food processing, textiles, service industries and, still importantly, fishing. (Over 90,000 tonnes of fish, with a value of around £60m are now landed at Peterhead, which is still also base to over 550 fishermen.)
The Peterhead Port Authority plans to extend the northern breakwater as a stimulus to the town's economic development. In addition, to assist with business diversification and town centre environmental improvements, the 'Peterhead Project' initiative under the Aberdeenshire Towns Partnership brings together the Council, Scottish Enterprise Grampian, Communities Scotland, commerce and community representatives.
Until April 2005, the Royal Air Force station RAF Buchan was located near the town.
Local government : Peterhead is the largest settlement in Buchan, a committee area of Aberdeenshire.
The town was a burgh in the historic county of Aberdeenshire. In 1930 it became a small burgh under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929, but in 1975 small burghs were abolished and Peterhead became part of the district of Banff and Buchan within the new Grampian Region. When districts and regions were abolished in 1996, Peterhead became part of the new unitary authority of Aberdeenshire.
Since 1975 Peterhead has had a community council, with limited powers.
Education : Peterhead Academy
Peterhead Academy houses around 1,300 pupils and the school is split into six houses (Arbuthnot, Buchan, Craigewan, Grange, Marischal and Slains), with all the names associated with areas of the town. The school has pupils coming from surrounding villages such as Boddam, Cruden Bay, Hatton, Inverugie, Rora, St Fergus and Crimond. The academy's motto is "Domus Super Petram Aedificata" (A House Built on a Rock). The academy is Scotland's largest school at over 22,920 square metres (246,700 sq ft) of gross internal floor area.
The school has multiple subjects such as ICT, English, French/German, Technical, Engineering, Art, Home Economics, and many more.
Primary and specialist schools.
Peterhead has six primary schools (Clerkhill, Buchanhaven, Meethill, Dales Park, Central, Burnhaven).
There is one special school, Anna Ritchie, which caters for most specific learning difficulties, autism and other disabilities.
There is also Peterhead Alpha School which caters for children with social, emotional, and behavioural difficulties, as well as learning difficulties, e.g. dyspraxia and dyslexia.
Transport :Peterhead has a number of in-town and out-of-town bus services.
Peterhead is further from a railway station (32 miles from Aberdeen) than any other town of its size in Great Britain.
The town once had two stations Peterhead railway station and Peterhead Docks railway station. Passenger trains on the Formartine and Buchan Railway stopped in 1965 under the Beeching Axe, and freight in 1970. The start of reconstruction of the Borders Railway to Galashiels (early 2013) has begun a local political debate into the possibility of reopening the line from Aberdeen to Fraserburgh and Peterhead.
The nearest airport with scheduled services is Aberdeen Airport. A heliport has been set up at the Eastern end of the former RAF Buchan air base. Recreational aviation also takes place from a part of a former runway.
Tourism
The harbours, maritime and built heritage are the town's principal tourism assets. Recent initiatives include investments in the Peterhead Bay area, which have included the berthing of cruise ships in the harbour.
A number of projects are planned under the auspices of the Peterhead Project initiative, including tourism strategy development, enhancement of existing attractions, measures to improve the town's physical attractiveness, and improved marketing and promotion.
Sport
Peterhead F.C. are a Scottish Football League club who play in the League One. They won the League Two championship in 2013–14.
Peterhead also has a successful amateur boxing club, and in 2008 was the most successful boxing club in Northern Scotland. And currently has two reigning Scottish champions. The boxing gym is open to all and located in Ellis Street.
Peterhead RFC are a Scottish Rugby Union team who play at the Lord Catto playing fields.
Maritime Economy
Peterhead has a thriving port, serving the fishing, oil and gas and other commercial industries. It also receives many visiting seafarers arriving on ships that ply these trades. Seafarers' welfare organisation Apostleship of the Sea has a port chaplain at Peterhead to provide pastoral and practical support to them.
Twin town : Ålesund, Norway
A young U.S. Men's National Soccer Team fan at San Francisco's World Cup watch party hosted by Chase Center's Thrive City posing for the camera after the United States squad scored a goal against Paraguay in the Group D round of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Follow me on Instagram: @adcristal
© 2026 Ashley D. Cristal, All Rights Reserved. Use of this photograph in ANY form is NOT permitted without permission from the author.
Bacopa of the Scopia double type, still thriving in a municipal planting. Scientific name Chaenostoma.
Los cristianos de noche. Nada de photoshop! Panoramica de 5 fotos. Hay que verlo en grande:
farm5.static.flickr.com/4010/4178071293_9c2b3238bb_o.jpg
Los cristianos harbour by night. No photoshop was used to manipulate the image. panoramic photo composed of 5 shots. Los cristianos used to be a small fishing village, now pretty much at the heart of tourism in the south of tenerife its a thriving tourist resort.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Cristianos
best to view the photo in original size:
This patch of wild flowers includes ox eye daisies, bee orchids, pyramidal orchids and spotted orchids. The council cut it back quite deep last year, but for some reason it has been left and I hope it stays like it for it has recovered quite well. Don't hold your breath though! Fingers crossed. More pictures of these beauties will be added.
All my photos and written word have copyright and belong to me, LizzieDeb. Strictly no use of any picture without my written permission. Thank you.
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Alicia Redd laid a sapling on this rock pile in 1893. She came to visit Wilmot Redd's gravesite. Wimot was a victim of the 1692 Salem witch trials. Alicia and Wimot were not related. Alicia was just a curious teenager.
Alicia never returned for the sapling and that day was the last time anyone saw Alicia. Somehow, the sapling managed to survive and thrive. There are rumors that on a blue moon, a young girl can be seen dancing around the tree.
(The above is completely false except the part about Wilmot.)
Old Burial Hill, Marblehead, Massachusetts 2014
@ | -
➵ Main Sim: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/ACCESS/41/129/21
➵ Cam Sim: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/ACCESS%20CamShopping/240/1...
5330 S. Morgan. built 1893. Last sold in October of 2014 for $13.5K - "but has been vandalized".
#5 in the Ms. Raccoon Artist Series
www.ravishlondon.com/londonstreetart
Together Shoreditch and Spitalfields in the East of London constitute the most exciting place to be in London. The population is young, dynamic and imaginative; Friday and Saturday nights are a riot with a plethora of bars and clubs many with their own unique flavour. But what makes this area really special is that Shoreditch and Spitalfields comprise what one might call, ‘the square mile of art’; a de factor open air art gallery; with graffiti, posters and paste-ups being displayed on the main streets, down the side roads and in all the nooks and crannies of this post-industrial environ.
From Eine’s huge single letters being painted on shop shutters, to the haunting propaganda posters of Obey, to Cartrain’s political black and white pop-art; and to the one very small bronze coloured plastic circle, with the imprint of a dog shit and a man's foot about to step into it, which I once saw pasted to a wall, there is an incredible diversity.
Being on the streets, the work can be destroyed, taken or painted over at any minute. It is fragile and transient. Furthermore the juxtaposition of different pieces of art is random and unpredictable both in content and its location, which means that each day throws up a new and unique configuration of work within the streets, which you can only experience by travelling through the city.
Street Art Beginnings
The reasons for why East London has seen the flowering of street art are manifold. The post-industrial legacy of Shoreditch’s crumbling low-rise warehouses, not only provides an environment in which the artists and designers can do their work, but East London’s proximity to the City of London provides an economic source of support for the artists and designers; and finally Shoreditch with its building sites, old dilapidated warehouses provides a canvas upon which those artists can display their work and increase their commercial value.
Set against the characterless nature of the steely post-modernity of the city, the autumnal colours of the terraced warehouses in Shoreditch, no bigger than four to five stories high; offer a reminder of the legacy of a thriving fabrics and furniture industry which blossomed in the seventeenth Century. Both Shoreditch and Spitalfields have industrial pasts linked to the textiles industry, which fell into terminal decline by the twentieth century and was almost non-existent by the end of Wolrd War II. The decline was mirrored in the many three to four storey warehouses that were left to decay.
The general decline was arrested in the 1980s with the emergence of Shoreditch and Hoxton (Hoxton and Shoreditch are used interchandeably to refer to the same area) as a centre for new artists. It is difficult to say what attracted the artists to this area. But it was likely to be a combination of the spaces offered by the old warehouses, the cheap rents, and the location of Shoreditch and Spitalfields close to the City of London; where the money was to buy and fund artistic endeavour.
Not just that but post-war Shoreditch dominated by tens of post-war tower blocks, built amidst the ruins of the terraced housing that lay there before, which was bombed during World War II; had the rough edge which might inspire an artist. Shoreditch hums with the industry of newly arrived immigrants but also of the dangers of the poorer communities which inhabit these areas. Homeless people can be found sat underneath bridges on the main thoroughfares on Friday and Saturday nights; and Shoreditch is apparently home to one of the largest concentrations of striptease joints and a number of prostitutes. So, Shoreditch is a crumbling dirty, dodgy, polluted mess but it also has money; and these two factors provide an intoxicating mix for artists, who can take inspiration from their environment, but also rub shoulders with people who have the kind of money to buy their work.
By the early nineties Hoxton’s reputation as a centre for artists had become well established. As Jess Cartner-Morley puts it ‘Hoxton was invented in 1993. Before that, there was only 'Oxton, a scruffy no man's land of pie and mash and cheap market-stall clothing…’ At that time artists like Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin were taking part in ‘A Fete Worth than Death’ an arts based event in Hoxton. Gradually these artists began to create their own gravity, attracting more and more of their own like. Clubs and bars began to emerge, as did a Hoxton style, ‘the Hoxton fin’ being a trademark haircut. Many designers and artists located around Shoreditch and Spitalfields. Shoreditch has also become a hive of studios for artists, vintage fashion shops, art students and musicians.
At the same time as an artistic community was forming fuelled by money from the City, London was subject to a revolution in street art. According to Ward, writing for Time Out, the street art scene began in the mid-1980s as part of London’s hip-hop scene. Graffiti artists, emulating what was going on Stateside, began to tag their names all over London. According to Ward many of those pioneers ‘went on to paint legal commissions and are at the heart of today’s scene’. That is to say, from the community of artists congregating in East London, a number were inspired by graffiti, and because the East London, with its countless dilapidated warehouses, and building sites, offered such a good canvas; they went on to use the East London as a canvas for their work.
Little seems to have been written about the individual journey’s particular street artists have taken to get to where they are, which help illuminate some of the issues talked about in this section. Cartrain said that Banksy was a huge influence for him commenting that, "I've sent him a few emails showing him my work and he sent me a signed piece of his work in the post."
What created the East London street art scene may also kill it
The East London urban art scene is unlikely to last forever, being the symptom of a delicate juxtaposition of industrial decline and economic forces.
The irony is that the same factors which are responsible for the creation of the East London art scene are likely to destroy it.
Politicians from all parties, spiritual leaders for global capital, tell us of the unstoppable forces of globalisation. They say if Britain is to continue to dip its paw into the cream of the world’s wealth it needs to become a post-industrial service economy; suggesting a rosy future of millions of Asians slaving away co-ordinated by keyboard tapping British suits, feet on desk, leant back on high backed leather chairs, secretary blowing them off.
Art, which is feeble and dependent upon the financial growth of an economy for its survival, will have to shape itself around the needs and demands of capital.
The financial district of the City of London, lying to the south of Shoreditch, has been successfully promoted as a global financial centre, and its mighty power is slowly expanding its way northwards. Plans are afoot for the glass foot soldiers of mammon, fuelled by speculative property investment, to gradually advance northwards, replacing old warehouses with a caravan of Starbucks and Japanese sushi places and a concomitant reduction in dead spaces to portray the art, increased security to capture and ward off street artists, increased property prices and the eventual eviction of the artistic community. Spitalfields has already had big corporate sized chunks taken out of it, with one half of the old Spitalfields Market being sacrificed for corporate interests in the last five years.
So then the very same financial forces, and post-industrial legacy, which have worked to create this micro-environment for street art to thrive, are the same forces which will in time eventually destroy it. Maybe the community will move northwards, maybe it will dissipate, but until that moment lets just enjoy what the community puts out there, for its own financial interests, for their own ego and also, just maybe, for the benefit of the people.
Banksy
Banksy is the street artist par excellence. London’s street art scene is vibrant and diverse. There is some good, cure, kitschy stuff out there, but in terms of creativity and imagination Banksy leads by a city mile. His stuff is invariably shocking, funny, thought provoking and challenging.
Banksy considers himself to be a graffiti artist, which is what he grew up doing in the Bristol area in the late eighties. According to Hattenstone (2003) Banksy, who was expelled from his school, and who spent some time in prison for petty crimes, started graffiti at the age of 14, quickly switching over to stencils, which he uses today, because he didn’t find he had a particular talent for the former. His work today involves a mixture of graffiti and stencils although he has shown a capacity for using a multitude of materials.
Key works in London have included:
•In London Zoo he climbed into the penguin enclosure and painted "We're bored of fish" in six-foot-high letters.
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•In 2004 he placed a dead rat in a glass-fronted box, and stuck the box on a wall of the Natural History Museum.
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•‘A designated riot area’ at the bottom of Nelson’s Column.
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•He placed a painting called Early Man Goes to Market, with a human figure hunting wildlife while pushing a shopping trolley, in the British Museum.
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His work seems to be driven by an insatiable desire to go on producing. In an interview with Shepherd Fairey he said, ‘Anything that stands in the way of achieving that piece is the enemy, whether it’s your mum, the cops, someone telling you that you sold out, or someone saying, "Let’s just stay in tonight and get pizza." Banksy gives the impression of being a person in the mould of Tiger Woods, Michael Schumacher or Lance Armstrong. Someone with undoubted talent and yet a true workaholic dedicated to his chosen profession.
Its also driven by the buzz of ‘getting away with it’. He said to Hattenstone, ‘The art to it is not getting picked up for it, and that's the biggest buzz at the end of the day because you could stick all my shit in Tate Modern and have an opening with Tony Blair and Kate Moss on roller blades handing out vol-au-vents and it wouldn't be as exciting as it is when you go out and you paint something big where you shouldn't do. The feeling you get when you sit home on the sofa at the end of that, having a fag and thinking there's no way they're going to rumble me, it's amazing... better than sex, better than drugs, the buzz.’
Whilst Banksy has preferred to remain anonymous he does provide a website and does the occasional interview putting his work in context (see the Fairey interview).
Banksy’s anonymity is very important to him. Simon Hattenstone, who interviewed Banksy in 2003, said it was because graffiti was illegal, which makes Banksy a criminal. Banksy has not spoken directly on why he wishes to maintain his anonymity. It is clear that Banksy despises the notion of fame. The irony of course is that ‘Banksy’ the brand is far from being anonymous, given that the artist uses it on most if not all of his work. In using this brand name Banksy helps fulfil the need, which fuels a lot of graffiti artists, of wanting to be recognised, the need of ego.
Banksy is not against using his work to ‘pay the bills’ as he puts it. He has for example designed the cover of a Blur album, although he has pledged never to do a commercial job again, as a means of protecting his anonymity. Nevertheless he continues to produce limited edition pieces, which sell in galleries usually for prices, which give him a bit of spending money after he has paid the bills. Banksy has said, ‘If it’s something you actually believe in, doing something commercial doesn’t turn it to shit just because it’s commercial’ (Fairey, 2008). Banksy has over time passed from urban street artist into international artistic superstar, albeit an anonymous one.
Banksy has a definite concern for the oppressed in society. He often does small stencils of despised rats and ridiculous monkeys with signs saying things to the effect of ‘laugh now but one day we’ll be in charge’. Whilst some seem to read into this that Banksy is trying to ferment a revolutionary zeal in the dispossessed, such that one day they will rise up and slit the throats of the powers that be, so far his concern seems no more and no less than just a genuine human concern for the oppressed. Some of what seems to fuel his work is not so much his hatred of the system but at being at the bottom of it. He said to Hattenstone (2003) ‘Yeah, it's all about retribution really… Just doing a tag is about retribution. If you don't own a train company then you go and paint on one instead. It all comes from that thing at school when you had to have name tags in the back of something - that makes it belong to you. You can own half the city by scribbling your name over it’
Charlie Brooker of the Guardian has criticised Banksy for his depictions of a monkey wearing a sandwich board with 'lying to the police is never wrong' written on it. Certainly such a black and white statement seems out of kilter with more balanced assessments that Banksy has made. Brooker challenges Banksy asking whether Ian Huntley would have been right to have lied to the police?
Brooker has also criticized Banksy for the seemingly meaninglessness of some of this images. Brooker says, ‘Take his political stuff. One featured that Vietnamese girl who had her clothes napalmed off. Ho-hum, a familiar image, you think. I'll just be on my way to my 9 to 5 desk job, mindless drone that I am. Then, with an astonished lurch, you notice sly, subversive genius Banksy has stencilled Mickey Mouse and Ronald McDonald either side of her. Wham! The message hits you like a lead bus: America ... um ... war ... er ... Disney ... and stuff.’ Brooker has seemingly oversimplified Banksy’s message, if indeed Banksy has one, to fuel his own criticisms. It is easy to see that for many the Vietnam painting tells us that the United States likes to represent itself with happy smiling characters, that hide the effects of its nefarious activities responsible for the real life faces of distress seen on the young girl. Something that we should be constantly reminded of. But then that’s a matter of politics not of meaninglessness.
Banksy’s ingenuity comes through in his philosophy on progression, ‘I’m always trying to move on’ he says. In the interview he gave with Shepherd Fairey he explained that he has started reinvesting his money in to new more ambitious projects which have involved putting scaffolding put up against buildings, covering the scaffolding with plastic sheeting and then using the cover of the sheets to do his paintings unnoticed.
Banksy has balls. Outside of London he has painted images in Disney Land; and on the Israeli wall surrounding Palestine. How far is he willing to push it? What about trying something at the headquarters of the BNP, or on army barracks, or at a brothel or strip club employing sex slaves, or playing around with corporate advertising a la Adbusters?
What a brilliant idea to start a journey at dawn, right after protest/party
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4. Hattiwatti's ‘.dll’ injection @ twitter.com/hattiwatt1
5. Reshade framework for image post-processing @ www.reshade.me
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7. Desktop Nividia DSR resolution [21:9]
Mural by Smiling Since 1999 aka @pezbarcelona, seen at 731 NW 5th Avenue in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Photo by James aka Urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.
Edit by Teee
This is on the pathway just above the main falls at Fillmore Glen. With so much rain all summer everything was so colorful.
Please also visit:
This large succulent is one of many inside the Lyman Estate greenhouse. I have a similar one at home, but it isn't as pretty.
RHS Wisley
RHS Wisley was founded by George Ferguson Wilson, a Victorian businessman in 1878, he made it his ambition to make difficult plants thrive in English conditions. So he created The Oakwood Experimental Garden. This was a 60 acre plot in total, of which part became the garden. Unfortunately he died in 1902 and the whole site was purchased by Sir Thomas Hanbury. Sir Thomas also owned the famous ‘Giardini Botanici Hanbury, at Mortola in Italy, close to the French border. He gave both properties to the RHS in and around 1903, just four years before his death in 1907.
The main laboratory for scientific research was opened in 1907 but this building proved to be inadequate so major improvements were made and the exterior was rebuilt during the First World War. In 1985 it was designated a Grade II Listed building.
This garden now covers 240 acres in which are housed a large glasshouse for tropical, temperate and arid climates, formal and informal gardens, an arboretum, Alpine Houses, Rock garden, Pinetum, a Wild garden and a Walled garden plus many more features.
This is another place worth while visiting, especially, if like me, you’re a member of the RHS.
This will be the third posting, this time of 6 images. There are 6 postings in all.
Native Washingtonian Palms and Californian Cottonwoods thrive at this desert oasis. It is autumn and the cottonwood trees are turning bright yellow prior to shedding their leaves.
Image - Copyright 2021 Alan Vernon
Seen in this photo is Stephensons of Essex Three Rivers Enviro 200 EU65 EOK (474) at Braintree on a route 38A journey to Halstead Colne Road!
It struck me yesterday, as I explored the historical sites of once thriving shipyards, the priceless nature of the term ‘living memory’.
A term made all the more poignant as we enter Remembrance Day and collectively recall those no longer with us.
What struck me was just how many questions I’ve wanted to ask since my parents and grandparents left and the gap they leave now they’re no longer around to answer them.
Mum & Dad for example, they were holders of their parents oral traditions, their stories, their experiences and those of their extended friends and family.
Now, leafing through old photo albums or written records I’m suddenly aware of their being nobody left with the answers to the arising questions of who and when or where.
In a way we’re all custodians of living memories, the retainers of records of how things were during our time here.
I’m also wondering now whether my ramblings are in fact a way of reaching through time to generations yet to arrive.
They may well be and equally they may also disappear like all the tape cassettes I made in my youth or the countless notebooks I filled when the business was at full tilt.
Still survive or not, the ramblings serve their own purpose in that they remind me as I’m writing them about what’s happened and how it fits into the wider scheme of things.
Witnessing Mum’s gradual and severe memory loss through vascular dementia seems to have heightened my own interest in the subject of memory.
The close proximity to her experience provided an even greater sense of appreciation for the precious nature of the time any of us have.
And so, yesterday’s visit to the sites of the former shipyards focused in upon the preservation of living memories and a place for these to be held for the wider community.
We met with the heritage architects Donald Insall Associates and they’ve now agreed to design a vital part of the project to return the OAKDALE to the Mersey.
Richard who was with us has award winning experience in the sector and had worked on similar preservation projects before, so we took another great step forward yesterday.
The end result will be a combination of commercial practicality blended with working demonstrations of how things were done on the site over hundreds of years.
Another part of the jigsaw fell into place yesterday in a call from the logistics expert regarding the transportation of the boat from Cumbria back to Merseyside.
As the project manager I’d sought a second opinion and it proved to be the right call as the logistics expert and the shipwright are now firmly on the same page.
Next step is finding a suitable dry-dock for the restoration. The poignant thing being, all this will one day be a distant memory.
Luckily though, there’s plenty of young minds already gathering in the wings, waiting to carry the metaphorical baton ever onwards!
Dusting off my compact P&S cameras.
Now that I've moved to a bigger house, it is interesting to notice how life thrives in any small space it finds. This one shot is exactly to illustrate this miracle, and also to show that it's quite possible to pull off some shallow DOF from compact P&S cameras!
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ3
I am observing this male Finch with disfigured leg for months.
Somehow he seems to thrive having well stuffed Breakfast Club
The Ancient Art of Kushti
The ancient traditional art of Indian wrestling, known as ‘kushti’, thrives in wrestling gyms, or ‘akhara’, scattered around the India. Akhara are one of the few places in India where Hindu men who come from different castes are considered equals.
Guru Jasram Ji's Akhara is on Mathura Road Highway in South Delhi near Modi Mill Flyover. It is one of the biggest and most reputed Akharas (wrestling training centers) in India. The Akhara is run by 85-year-old Guru Jasram Ji. Everyday he comes to the Akhara at 5.a.m. and 3 .p.m. to train the wrestlers.
kushtiwrestling.blogspot.in/2010/06/guru-jasram-jis-akhar...