Spotted Flycatcher - Muscicapa striata

This is an undistinguished looking bird with long wings and tail. The adults have grey-brown upperparts and whitish underparts, with a streaked crown and breast, giving rise to the bird's common name. The legs are short and black, and the bill is black and has the broad but pointed shape typical of aerial insectivores. Juveniles are browner than adults and have spots on the upperparts.

Spotted flycatchers hunt from conspicuous perches, making sallies after passing flying insects, and often returning to the same perch. Their upright posture is characteristic.

They are birds of deciduous woodlands, parks and gardens, with a preference for open areas amongst trees. They build an open nest in a suitable recess, often against a wall, and will readily adapt to an open-fronted nest box. 4-6 eggs are laid.

Most European birds cannot discriminate between their own eggs and those of other species. The exception to this are the hosts of the common cuckoo, which have had to evolve this skill as a protection against that nest parasite. The spotted flycatcher shows excellent egg recognition, and it is likely that it was once a host of the cuckoo, but became so good at recognising the intruder's eggs that it ceased to be victimised. A contrast to this is the dunnock, which appears to be a recent cuckoo host, since it does not show any egg discrimination.

Spotted Flycatcher - Muscicapa striata

This is an undistinguished looking bird with long wings and tail. The adults have grey-brown upperparts and whitish underparts, with a streaked crown and breast, giving rise to the bird's common name. The legs are short and black, and the bill is black and has the broad but pointed shape typical of aerial insectivores. Juveniles are browner than adults and have spots on the upperparts.

Spotted flycatchers hunt from conspicuous perches, making sallies after passing flying insects, and often returning to the same perch. Their upright posture is characteristic.

They are birds of deciduous woodlands, parks and gardens, with a preference for open areas amongst trees. They build an open nest in a suitable recess, often against a wall, and will readily adapt to an open-fronted nest box. 4-6 eggs are laid.

Most European birds cannot discriminate between their own eggs and those of other species. The exception to this are the hosts of the common cuckoo, which have had to evolve this skill as a protection against that nest parasite. The spotted flycatcher shows excellent egg recognition, and it is likely that it was once a host of the cuckoo, but became so good at recognising the intruder's eggs that it ceased to be victimised. A contrast to this is the dunnock, which appears to be a recent cuckoo host, since it does not show any egg discrimination.

Spotted Flycatcher - Muscicapa striata

This is an undistinguished looking bird with long wings and tail. The adults have grey-brown upperparts and whitish underparts, with a streaked crown and breast, giving rise to the bird's common name. The legs are short and black, and the bill is black and has the broad but pointed shape typical of aerial insectivores. Juveniles are browner than adults and have spots on the upperparts.

Spotted flycatchers hunt from conspicuous perches, making sallies after passing flying insects, and often returning to the same perch. Their upright posture is characteristic.

They are birds of deciduous woodlands, parks and gardens, with a preference for open areas amongst trees. They build an open nest in a suitable recess, often against a wall, and will readily adapt to an open-fronted nest box. 4-6 eggs are laid.

Most European birds cannot discriminate between their own eggs and those of other species. The exception to this are the hosts of the common cuckoo, which have had to evolve this skill as a protection against that nest parasite. The spotted flycatcher shows excellent egg recognition, and it is likely that it was once a host of the cuckoo, but became so good at recognising the intruder's eggs that it ceased to be victimised. A contrast to this is the dunnock, which appears to be a recent cuckoo host, since it does not show any egg discrimination.

Spotted Flycatcher - Muscicapa striata

This is an undistinguished looking bird with long wings and tail. The adults have grey-brown upperparts and whitish underparts, with a streaked crown and breast, giving rise to the bird's common name. The legs are short and black, and the bill is black and has the broad but pointed shape typical of aerial insectivores. Juveniles are browner than adults and have spots on the upperparts.

Spotted flycatchers hunt from conspicuous perches, making sallies after passing flying insects, and often returning to the same perch. Their upright posture is characteristic.

They are birds of deciduous woodlands, parks and gardens, with a preference for open areas amongst trees. They build an open nest in a suitable recess, often against a wall, and will readily adapt to an open-fronted nest box. 4-6 eggs are laid.

Most European birds cannot discriminate between their own eggs and those of other species. The exception to this are the hosts of the common cuckoo, which have had to evolve this skill as a protection against that nest parasite. The spotted flycatcher shows excellent egg recognition, and it is likely that it was once a host of the cuckoo, but became so good at recognising the intruder's eggs that it ceased to be victimised. A contrast to this is the dunnock, which appears to be a recent cuckoo host, since it does not show any egg discrimination.

Spotted Flycatcher - Muscicapa striata

This is an undistinguished looking bird with long wings and tail. The adults have grey-brown upperparts and whitish underparts, with a streaked crown and breast, giving rise to the bird's common name. The legs are short and black, and the bill is black and has the broad but pointed shape typical of aerial insectivores. Juveniles are browner than adults and have spots on the upperparts.

Spotted flycatchers hunt from conspicuous perches, making sallies after passing flying insects, and often returning to the same perch. Their upright posture is characteristic.

They are birds of deciduous woodlands, parks and gardens, with a preference for open areas amongst trees. They build an open nest in a suitable recess, often against a wall, and will readily adapt to an open-fronted nest box. 4-6 eggs are laid.

Most European birds cannot discriminate between their own eggs and those of other species. The exception to this are the hosts of the common cuckoo, which have had to evolve this skill as a protection against that nest parasite. The spotted flycatcher shows excellent egg recognition, and it is likely that it was once a host of the cuckoo, but became so good at recognising the intruder's eggs that it ceased to be victimised. A contrast to this is the dunnock, which appears to be a recent cuckoo host, since it does not show any egg discrimination.

Spotted Flycatcher - Muscicapa striata

This is an undistinguished looking bird with long wings and tail. The adults have grey-brown upperparts and whitish underparts, with a streaked crown and breast, giving rise to the bird's common name. The legs are short and black, and the bill is black and has the broad but pointed shape typical of aerial insectivores. Juveniles are browner than adults and have spots on the upperparts.

Spotted flycatchers hunt from conspicuous perches, making sallies after passing flying insects, and often returning to the same perch. Their upright posture is characteristic.

They are birds of deciduous woodlands, parks and gardens, with a preference for open areas amongst trees. They build an open nest in a suitable recess, often against a wall, and will readily adapt to an open-fronted nest box. 4-6 eggs are laid.

Most European birds cannot discriminate between their own eggs and those of other species. The exception to this are the hosts of the common cuckoo, which have had to evolve this skill as a protection against that nest parasite. The spotted flycatcher shows excellent egg recognition, and it is likely that it was once a host of the cuckoo, but became so good at recognising the intruder's eggs that it ceased to be victimised. A contrast to this is the dunnock, which appears to be a recent cuckoo host, since it does not show any egg discrimination.

Spotted Flycatcher - Muscicapa striata

This is an undistinguished looking bird with long wings and tail. The adults have grey-brown upperparts and whitish underparts, with a streaked crown and breast, giving rise to the bird's common name. The legs are short and black, and the bill is black and has the broad but pointed shape typical of aerial insectivores. Juveniles are browner than adults and have spots on the upperparts.

Spotted flycatchers hunt from conspicuous perches, making sallies after passing flying insects, and often returning to the same perch. Their upright posture is characteristic.

They are birds of deciduous woodlands, parks and gardens, with a preference for open areas amongst trees. They build an open nest in a suitable recess, often against a wall, and will readily adapt to an open-fronted nest box. 4-6 eggs are laid.

Most European birds cannot discriminate between their own eggs and those of other species. The exception to this are the hosts of the common cuckoo, which have had to evolve this skill as a protection against that nest parasite. The spotted flycatcher shows excellent egg recognition, and it is likely that it was once a host of the cuckoo, but became so good at recognising the intruder's eggs that it ceased to be victimised. A contrast to this is the dunnock, which appears to be a recent cuckoo host, since it does not show any egg discrimination.

The ruins of St. Leonards Hospital only hint at the significance of the Hospital in medieval York.

Founded soon after the Norman Conquest, it was believed to be the largest medieval hospital in the north of England. The hospital also fed the poor and the condemned, providing meals for the prisoners in York Castle.

Remains of the hospital’s undercroft, next to York Central Library, can be accessed from the Museum Gardens, to the right of the Museum Street entrance, and contains some of the museum’s Roman and Medieval stonework collections.

The hospital was erected on the site of the former hospital St. Peters – founded by King Aethelstan – which was severely damaged in a fire in c.1100. It was closely associated with the Minster, sharing the same grounds because it was so large. It was a self-sufficient building until the Reformation (c.1522-1552) resulted in the religious aspects of hospitals being victimised and consequently St. Leonards was largely destroyed. This left York without a hospital from the time of Henry VIII to 1740.

Overall, the main function of a medieval hospital was to care for the sick, the poor, the old and the infirm. Nurses performed acts of care which included cleaning, feeding, clothing and housing the sick, however medieval men and women also had their spiritual health to contend with.

... --- Tripadvisor

765 days or:

66,096,000 seconds

1,101,600 minutes

18,360 hours

109 weeks

Hi!

Have you also been victimised by fam members asking you for grandbbs, when you clearly already have an established household with your fur children?

If yes, then this gift release is for you! Available in store now.

Fur Baby, our new VIP pose includes a catto, a pre-set scene with light, and instructions :)

Hope you'll love it! Any questions - please get in touch!

Paste this directly into your viewer's address bar for a quick taxi -->>

FOXCITY/180/69/21

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If you're not yet a Foxcity bae, you can join the VIP group by copy pasting this link into your browser

secondlife:///app/group/020b8b1e-6270-45c8-b3ba-655665df83de/about

Join fee: 650L

Our VIPs enjoy store credit whilst shopping wearing our tag, exclusive gifts, and coupon discount shopping on all NEW and past releases (excl. sales&MP)!

Don't forget to check out over three years worth of previous gifts, we're sure you'll find something you love ♥

The ruins of St. Leonards Hospital only hint at the significance of the Hospital in medieval York.

Founded soon after the Norman Conquest, it was believed to be the largest medieval hospital in the north of England. The hospital also fed the poor and the condemned, providing meals for the prisoners in York Castle.

Remains of the hospital’s undercroft, next to York Central Library, can be accessed from the Museum Gardens, to the right of the Museum Street entrance, and contains some of the museum’s Roman and Medieval stonework collections.

The hospital was erected on the site of the former hospital St. Peters – founded by King Aethelstan – which was severely damaged in a fire in c.1100. It was closely associated with the Minster, sharing the same grounds because it was so large. It was a self-sufficient building until the Reformation (c.1522-1552) resulted in the religious aspects of hospitals being victimised and consequently St. Leonards was largely destroyed. This left York without a hospital from the time of Henry VIII to 1740.

Overall, the main function of a medieval hospital was to care for the sick, the poor, the old and the infirm. Nurses performed acts of care which included cleaning, feeding, clothing and housing the sick, however medieval men and women also had their spiritual health to contend with.

... --- Tripadvisor

Models: Kathryn Michelle and Horace Silver

Kathryn is a genuinely wheelchair-bound model.

The lack of empathy or compassion many (not all) Christians have towards the sick or disabled among even their own followers disgusts me. It is not just abusive and hurtful (and often - note I do not say always - done to get hefty tithes/financial donations so the bloodsucking "man of God" can maintain the lifestyle of a movie star) but it's also darned ignorant... a very judgemental kind of faith that maybe needs to take a read of the book of Job again.

The associated positive thinking/The Secret movement linked to the Blab it and Grab it brigade can also cause immense damage as it re-victimises and stigmatises the suffering. While there is no doubt some truth in faith/positive thinking and the power of limiting self-beliefs. including on illness, that is not the whole story, and it is a foolish and recklessly hurtful person who says otherwise.

Lots of love from Job (and we are many).

The type 4, 6000cc recing mecha was used close to the racing recession in 2094, as developers where running tight on costs, they tried to make a low budget racing mecha, once done, the public became intrested and they created the f4 racing ligue, this was the mecha created by honda in the japanise speed tornament, it's wheel feet where one of the most advanced of it's type, and where sturdy whilst being light and thin, it proved a good contender in the tournament, in 2096, in the australian speed, the CSX incountered a fault in the mecha wilst in a race, and a catastrofic crash took place, victimising 15 crowd members and 3 racers, but after finding out what went wrong, and creating a better mecha the type 5 was created, blowing world records away, now this is the symbol of modern racing. the type 4 racing mecha was rebuilt as a reminder of that horrible day and a rememberance of classic mecha racing.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_flycatcher

The spotted flycatcher (Muscicapa striata) is a small passerine bird in the Old World flycatcher family. It breeds in most of Europe and western Asia, and is migratory, wintering in Africa and south western Asia. It is declining in parts of its range.

This is an undistinguished looking bird with long wings and tail. The adults have grey-brown upperparts and whitish underparts, with some streaking on the breast. The legs are short and black, and the bill is black and has the broad but pointed shape typical of aerial insectivores. Juveniles are browner than adults and show the spots on the upperparts which give this species its name.

Behaviour and ecology

Spotted flycatchers hunt from conspicuous perches, making sallies after passing flying insects, and often returning to the same perch. Their upright posture is characteristic.

Spotted flycatchers exhibit an atypical molt strategy, that is they molt their primaries and some of their secondaries in the reverse order from what is seen in most passerines.[2]

The flycatcher's call is a thin, drawn out soft and high pitched tssssseeeeeppppp, slightly descending in pitch.

Breeding

They are birds of deciduous woodlands, parks and gardens, with a preference for open areas amongst trees. They build an open nest in a suitable recess, often against a wall, and will readily adapt to an open-fronted nest box. 4-6 eggs are laid.

Interestingly, most European birds cannot discriminate between their own eggs and those of other species. The exception to this are the hosts of the common cuckoo, which have had to evolve this skill as a protection against that nest parasite. The spotted flycatcher shows excellent egg recognition, and it is likely that it was once a host of the cuckoo, but became so good at recognising the intruder's eggs that it ceased to be victimised.[3] A contrast to this is the dunnock, which appears to be a recent cuckoo host, since it does not show any egg discrimination.

The cover has been removed from the right wall where a bugged phone was relocated after its removal and its bugging facility completed. The whiteboard has been removed from the facing wall. All documents and data destruction logs on above are *lost* according to the Home Office/MoJ.

The Union phone at work was cut off.

Instructions were given to Frances, the telephonist, not to allow calls through.

A victimization meeting was held instructing staff to victimise re use of their phones to enable Prettypetal to do job and they followed those instructions.

All above authorized and carried out with the full knowledge and intent of the Governor. *

Home Secretaries:

▶️Mr. Jack Straw

▶️Ken Clarke KC 📮Lord Clarke of Nottingham - House of Lords 2026

▶️Ken Baker 📮Baron Baker of Dorking - House of Lords 2026 London U.K.

Governors

Governor ▶️Mr. Tim Michael O'Sullivan

Assistant Governor: ▶️Mr. David Lancaster

lawatworkci.com/race-nationality-national-origins-and-eth...

civilservice.blog.gov.uk/civil-service-race-forum/

committees.parliament.uk/call-for-evidence/3054

*G.O. Governor's Order specific to his/her prison only.

- Mein Freund der Baum ist tot -

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Unfortunately this tree does not exist anymore...what you see here is history.

It is so sad that many of the wonderful trees I have discovered and photographed along the coast were victimised by Neanderthals. It has become an obsession for me to capture these "beaudies"...it's like a race against time. I hope you enjoy this one.... it was taken at Wellington Point.

Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius)

The Batwa (known, pejoratively as “pygmies” because of their height) are one of the oldest surviving tribes in Africa. They are the original hunter gatherers in the forested areas of Uganda (Rwanda, Congo and Burundi). In Bwindi, to protect the endangered Mountain Gorillas, the forested areas were made a national park in 1992. Unfortunately for the Batwa people this meant eviction from the forests and destruction of their traditiional way of life. Deprived this way of life (they are not farmers), they have been victimised by other peoples and they have often become dependant on charity. This group of Batwa people, survive through meeting tourists, offering guided walks and demonstrating their culture and way of life.

Having just mentioned abuse from the passing public I thought it appropriate to show this image. I was that paranoid about being victimised for pursuing this hobby that I wouldn't come to locations such as this without being in the company of others. Notorious for missile throwing ie eggs, this was one location I would not entertain unless I knew others were going to be there too.

Strength in numbers I suppose...

One of the four Choughs that are based at Dover Castle and are part of a program to re-introduce them to the White Cliffs area. It has been over 200 years since they lived in the area before being driven out by intensive farming and victimisation. The re-introduction is being carried out by The Wildwood Trust, English Heritage and Paradise Park.

Richmond, Old Hobart Town village and the Pooseum.

Just a short distance from Hobart is historic Richmond, home to Australia’s oldest bridge. The Coal River which flows through the town was named and discovered in 1803 not long after the Risdon Cove Hobart settlement began. Coal was discovered along the river banks hence the name. The government granted land to encourage farmers to the district and the town of Richmond was declared in 1824 by Lieutenant Governor William Sorrell. It was the gateway to the East Coast of VDL but also a police outpost with a Courthouse, Gaol, and barracks for soldiers and a watch house. An historic town like Richmond with buildings from the 1830s and 1840s is a testament to the role of convicts in building structures in Australia. Government work gangs of convicts built government and public structures such as the Richmond Bridge, the Courthouse, the Gaol etc but assigned convicts with skills would also have helped build some early structures including private houses for their masters. However, we have no records of this. The Richmond Bridge was built by convicts between 1823-25 and is still in daily use. Nearby is Australia’s oldest gaol built in 1825-28. The town grew quickly in the 1830s with much trade between it and Hobart. It is recorded that convicts built St Luke’s Anglican Church, (1834-36) a structure designed by architect John Lee Archer and opened by Governor Arthur. It is the church with the distinctive square tower and no spire. James Thompson the convict in charge of the interior wood work of the church was granted his freedom for his work. Note that the clock in St Luke’s tower came from the original St David’s church in Hobart when it was demolished in 1868 to make way for the Cathedral. The clock was made in 1828 and still keeps perfect time. The Catholic Church was not built by convicts as it was not the Anglican Church of the government. St John’s Catholic Church is the oldest Catholic Church in Australia and was built in 1836. The spire was added in the early 1900s. It also has an unusual side stone turret which houses the pre-cut stone stairs that give access to the gallery. The spire was added to St John’s in 1859 and was replaced again in 1972.

The heritage classified town has many fine Georgian buildings, antique shops and good cafes, 1830s cottages and grander houses. Look out for Oak Lodge in Bridge Street a gentleman’s two storey residence constructed between 1831-42. The bridge was used for all traffic to the east coast (and later to Port Arthur) and by 1830 Richmond was the third largest town in VDL. Wander down to the Coal River and walk under Richmond Bridge. The Richmond Court House was built in 1825-26 by convicts as was the Gaol nearby. Richmond Gaol was designed by Tasmanian architect John Lee Archer and erected by convicts as was the norm for government structures. The gaoler’s house was also designed by John Lee Archer. This complex is the oldest penal set up in Tasmania. In 1826 a group of Aborigines were believed to be attacking and raiding farms. Consequently a group of soldiers on a retribution search attacked and killed 14 Aboriginal people. Six were captured and taken to Richmond Gaol. They were subsequently released as there was no evidence that charges could be laid against them. Such victimisation was not uncommon in those days. Today Richmond relies on tourism and is the base for the Old Hobart Town model village and the scientific based Pooseum- the only one in the world established by an Austrian lady.

Some buildings to look for in Richmond starting in Bridge Street.

•On the corner of Henry St – Ashmore coffee shop. A two storey corner store circa 1850.

•LaFayette Galleries and shop – a fine Georgian style building. Built as a single storey Post Office c 1826. Opposite in old c1840 cottage is the Woodcraft Shop. And next to it is the stone Congregational Church built in 1873.

•The Regional Hotel – a typical 1880s Australian pub.

•On the corner of Edward St the old Saddlery. Originally a general store. Built around 1850.

•Next to it is the Bridge Inn licensed in 1834. Upper floor added in 1860s or so.

•Next to it is the Richmond Town Hall. Built in 1908 with stone from the flour mill and police barracks.

•Next to it is the Courthouse. Built by convicts in 1825. Used as Richmond Council Chambers 1861 to 1933.

•As the street bends on the north side is the old bakery c1830 now antiques shop and next to it some old cottages c1840.

•Opposite the cottages is Mill Cottage built around 1850.

•At the end of the street where the triangular park begins veer right to the Richmond Bridge 1823-25. You can walk down to the Coal River beneath the bridge.

•First over the bridge is Mill House as the water mill was on the river. Built in 1850. C1900 it became a butter factory.

•Turn left here into St Johns Court. It takes you to St John’s Catholic Church and spire.

Retrace your steps across the river and along Bridge Street to Edward St. by the old saddlery.

Edward Street.

•At the first intersection on the left is Ochil Cottage built c1840. Behind it down the side street is the Goal built 1825/28.

•Across the intersection the little cottage on left was a morgue and dispensary.

•Next left in Palladian style with a central two storey section is the Anglican Rectory. Built in 1831 for the town magistrate. Was only the Anglican Rectory 1908 to 1972.

•Next to it is St Luke’s Anglican Church built 1834/36. Built by convicts.

Retrace your steps to Bridge Street but detour right to 22 Bathurst St for a fine little cottage built circa 1830 with dormer windows. If you want to see more 1830s and 1840s houses walk down Commercial Street for one block only. It starts at the Ashmore coffee shop. Commercial St also has the Richmond Hotel, a fine Georgian two storey hotel built c1830.

Wood texture from vintage doors in Provence , France

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'The Survivor'

“We both know . . .that it’s not fashionable to love me’ Lana’s smirking opening vocal on the titular ‘Honeymoon’ is as much a proclamation of the confidence 2014’s ‘Ultraviolence’ lacked and 2011’s ‘Born to Die’ pretended to have, as it is a no doubt long and graceful middle-finger to her critics. The US media love a character and Lana was unfortunate enough to have that character exposed as fraudulent, yet there remains a note of authenticity in her artifice.

Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, even Nicki Manaj, all represent strong individuals with contrived facades and yet have not suffered the criticism Lana has for her faded pin-up languor. Elizabeth Grant (Del Rey) may not occupy the same space as the aforementioned, and perhaps that is the issue, not having the Dali-esque aesthetic of Gaga, or the kooky sex-kitten appeal of Katy Perry or even the outlandish cartoon hyper-sexuality of Manaj, it is difficult for the American public to recognise her creation as anything as self-aware as contemporaries like Taylor Swift.

However, her wanton, smoky, Stepford-moll shtick still fascinates and is strangely more compelling than the virginal high-school daydream ‘Born to Die’ presented us with. It’s a touch of old Hollywood glamour in an age of social media fish-tanks, tattoos and hashtags. There is still a mystery to Lana, and thus began my enduring love affair with her songs and her serpents. I confess I couldn’t stand Born to Die at first, it took me months to learn and understand its appeal, likewise Ultraviolence alienated me before I bent my knees at the alter of its dark, bleak magic. I desired, on some subconscious level, the follow-up be a repeat, to spin me more leaden tales of Lana’s pageant-girl misery.

Thankfully for both my musical appreciation and Lana’s artistic progression, her gauzy floatings took her swaying hips firmly into a noir-esque speakeasy where a dame in a red dress breathed soft sighs into a steel-clad microphone and hard-bitten sugar daddies watched with impassive whiskey-dull eyes and thick-fingered indifference as her ethereal jazz dribbled from shadowed nooks. The narrative was familiar, the voice recognisably anguished and the bad men in pin stripes instead of biker cuts; but now there was an added maturity to her self-absorbed, and, undoubtedly self-inflicted, narcissistic sufferings. The red dress draped the body of a woman, the veiled eyes looked out upon the world with their customary cynicism, yet there was a new power in her wearied glance and a sharpness; a hardness that had been lacking in her previous albums where Lana seemed complicit in her victimisation. Now Lana is more properly what I had long suspected: a damsel-in-your-distress, a red light in the finest noir tradition, a man’s undoing. Now it was on her terms.

‘Honeymoon’ is her most realised and complete album to date, it doesn’t suffer from the confused identity of Born to Die or the sliding constancy of Ultraviolence. Lana is at the helm here, Valkyrie-like, she floats before us, teasing our destinies with doe-eyed coquettishness. Lana’s vocals are self-indulgent, whimsical, grandiose always, and she is completely right to be so, it plays to her considerable strength as an operatically trained singer and applied here in her usual breathy, small, hard voice (someone once observed that Del Rey sings the way Herbert the Pervert talks) for one long, glorious, moment she lets the depth hang on word or phrase and we see the steel behind the velvet. It’s her finest vocal delivery yet and Lana knows it; she’s seized the reins, her songs, her way. It is magnificent, as if somewhere in our pagan history Morgana Le Fey is crouched over the body of Merlin, crooning to the wolves and the dark forests. I want nothing more than to sink into a comfortable bourbon soaked stupor while Lana’s voice trills her dark lullabies.

For what lullabies they are, because Lana is nothing if not a master at making you wish for half-formed intangibles, dream fragments, wishes and wants half-glimpsed in the smoke of memory, almost a sorcery as the mind recalls a younger self in long summer afternoons with beautiful partners you have never met, or sweet kisses with long-forgotten missed opportunities. Similarly here, her music is the Philco radio of the girl in the beach hut next to yours, drifting with her scent through the hazy afternoon heat as you loll in languor and pleasant apathy, her melodies and beats never quite stirring you from your reverie, but a background noise as comforting as waves upon the shoreline.

It is one long, lush cinematic journey through Lana’s contrived, yet compelling navel-gazing, complete with a Nina Simone cover and several nods to David Bowie across several tracks. Her beats are skeletal, pearls cast on fragile glass in storied rooms of vast mansions, half-heard guitars and violins play in the far distance, perhaps at the other side of that winking green light where Gatsby waits for Daisy, a spectre at his own gay revelries.

To prepare for writing this I listened to ‘Honeymoon’ repetitively for weeks and my first impression remains just as strong; Lana should have sung the theme for Spectre, or at the very least she should have an opportunity to sing a Bond theme in the future. Many of the tracks here, in particular ‘Honeymoon’ and the standout ‘24’ are nothing more than Bond masques wrapped in Lana’s expected fly-blown misery (interestingly Lana said she would have indeed sung a Bond theme but no one asked). They are grandiose, crooning and full of grit. They stir the blood, paradoxically without breaking the languorous spell that binds this whole album together. Honeymoon isn’t perfect (you can make up your own mind about the TS Elliott excerpt), and some of her poppier moments don’t hit the notes her standouts do (God Knows I Tried, Terrence Loves You, 24 and Honeymoon) and it still seems Lana hasn’t quite decided which stream she is swimming in, but for all that Honeymoon is the Lana Del Rey album I have been waiting for, the long-promise I saw way back in 2011, the confidence, control and self-knowledge that only experience and the passing of years can bring. I really cannot wait for Lana’s next effort and no doubt I will have to learn to fall in love with her all over again . . .but that’s my narrative, a sucker for dangerous dames, even the pretend ones.

June 15: King John puts his seal on Magna Carta

Following a revolt by the English nobility against his rule, King John puts his royal seal on Magna Carta, or “the Great Charter,” on June 15, 1215. The document, essentially a peace treaty between John and his barons, guaranteed that the king would respect feudal rights and privileges, uphold the freedom of the church, and maintain the nation’s laws. Although more a reactionary than a progressive document in its day, Magna Carta was seen as a cornerstone in the development of democratic England by later generations.

John was enthroned as king of England following the death of his brother, King Richard the Lion-Hearted, in 1199. King John’s reign was characterized by failure. He lost the duchy of Normandy to the French king and taxed the English nobility heavily to pay for his foreign misadventures. He quarreled with Pope Innocent III and sold church offices to build up the depleted royal coffers. Following the defeat of a campaign to regain Normandy in 1214, Stephen Langton, the archbishop of Canterbury, called on the disgruntled barons to demand a charter of liberties from the king.

In 1215, the barons rose up in rebellion against the king’s abuse of feudal law and custom. John, faced with a superior force, had no choice but to give in to their demands. Earlier kings of England had granted concessions to their feudal barons, but these charters were vaguely worded and issued voluntarily. The document drawn up for John in June 1215, however, forced the king to make specific guarantees of the rights and privileges of his barons and the freedom of the church. On June 15, 1215, John met the barons at Runnymede on the Thames and set his seal to the Articles of the Barons, which after minor revision was formally issued as Magna Carta.

The charter consisted of a preamble and 63 clauses and dealt mainly with feudal concerns that had little impact outside 13th century England. However, the document was remarkable in that it implied there were laws the king was bound to observe, thus precluding any future claim to absolutism by the English monarch.

Of greatest interest to later generations was clause 39, which stated that “no free man shall be arrested or imprisoned or disseised [dispossessed] or outlawed or exiled or in any way victimised…except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.” This clause has been celebrated as an early guarantee of trial by jury and of habeas corpus and inspired England’s Petition of Right (1628) and the Habeas Corpus Act (1679).

In immediate terms, Magna Carta was a failure—civil war broke out the same year, and John ignored his obligations under the charter. Upon his death in 1216, however, Magna Carta was reissued with some changes by his son, King Henry III, and then reissued again in 1217. That year, the rebellious barons were defeated by the king’s forces. In 1225, Henry III voluntarily reissued Magna Carta a third time, and it formally entered English statute law.

Magna Carta has been subject to a great deal of historical exaggeration; it did not establish Parliament, as some have claimed, nor more than vaguely allude to the liberal democratic ideals of later centuries. However, as a symbol of the sovereignty of the rule of law, it was of fundamental importance to the constitutional development of England. Four original copies of Magna Carta of 1215 exist today: one in Lincoln Cathedral, one in Salisbury Cathedral, and two in the British Museum.

REAR VIEW of Indian Cuckoo (Cuculus micropterus)

The generic name derives from the onomatopoeic name for a cuckoo, based on the bird's call, in Old English = coccou or cukkow, in French = coucou and in Greek = kokkux or kokkyx. The specific name results from a combination of two Greek words: micro = little or very small and ptero = wing. Together, the name literally means "small winged cuckoo" which is reflected in an early common name.

Other common names: Short-winged Cuckoo, Indian Hawk-Cuckoo.

Taxonomy: Cuculus micropterus Gould 1837, Himalayas.

Sub-species & Distribution: Two races are recognised, both of which are found in this region:

micropterus Gould 1837, Himalayas. Ranges from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand, east to E China, Mongolia, Korea and E Russia. It winters south to the Andamans and Nicobars, West Malaysia, Singapore, Sumatra, Java, Borneo and the Philippines.

concretus S. Müller 1845, Borneo. This smaller resident form is found in Borneo, Sumatra and Java. It is also found from Phattalung, in S Thailand, south to Johore (Medway & Wells 1976).

Similar species: It is very similar to two other Cuculus species. The Common Cuckoo C. canorus does not occur in this region. The Oriental Cuckoo C. saturatus is a rare winter visitor and passage migrant. Both these birds do not have a broad black sub-terminal band, tipped with white, on the tail.

Size: 12½ to 13" (31 to 33 cm). Sexes differ slightly.

Description: Male: Head and neck dark ashy-grey tinged with brown, paler on the lores, chin, throat and upper breast. Remaining upperparts, scapulars and wing coverts dark ashy-brown, the primaries and secondaries similar but barred with white along the inner webs. Tail dark ashy-brown with a broad black sub-terminal band and tipped with white. Basally, the tail feathers have a series of alternating white and black bands, more on the outer feathers than the inner ones, often with white or rufous notches along both edges. Lower breast and abdomen creamy-white, boldly barred with dark blackish-brown bars, the vent, axillaries, undertail and underwing coverts more narrowly barred with blackish-brown.

Female: Very like the male, with the throat and breast tinged with rufous.

Immature birds: Juvenile birds appear largely white to rufous-white with dark brown bars on the head, nape, upper back, chin, throat, sides of neck and breast, the face and ear coverts less heavily marked. Remaining upperparts, including wing coverts more rufous, the feathers broadly edged with rufous-buff and tipped with white. Lower breast, belly and vent pale buffy-white, broadly barred with blackish-brown, more so on the flanks. The tail appears largely to be barred with rufous and black, with more numerous bars than adult have. They, too, like the adults, have a broad black sub-terminal tail band.

Gradually, the white and rufous edges on the upperparts disappear, the throat and upper breast turn ashy, and the bars on the underparts become more defined. Within five months of leaving the nest, the young are almost in adult plumage, the rufous band across the upper breast being ultimately lost except in females. However, they often have rufous or whitish tips to the flight feathers and upperwing coverts (Oates & Blanford 1895).

Soft parts: Iris dark yellowish-brown, orbital ring orange-yellow. Upper mandible black, lower mandible greenish-horn tipped with black, gape orange-yellow. Legs and feet orange-yellow, claws black.

Status, Habitat & Behaviour: A common winter visitor and passage migrant, is found throughout Singapore, the earliest date being 14th September, the latest date 19th May (Wang & Hails 2007). Between these two dates, this bird has not been recorded in Singapore, which suggests that C. m. concretus, the resident form found south to Johore in west Malaysia, does not occur in Singapore.

The nominate form is a vagrant to Borneo where C. m. concretus, a smaller and darker form, is also the resident race (Smythies & Davison 1999), up to 1100 m (3300 feet) in the Kelabit Highlands of Sarawak. In Sabah, it is found in primary, peatswamp and logged forests (Sheldon et. al. 2001).

In Singapore, it is more usually found in forests, along forest edges, in mangroves, secondary scrub and, occasionally, in gardens and parks (Wang & Hails 2007). In West Malaysia, both resident and migrant forms are found to 760 m (2500 feet), in the canopy of lowland and hill forests, as well as on offshore islands (Medway & Wells 1976). In India and Nepal, where it is very common in summer, it can be found in fairly wooded country to 2300 m, even up to 3700 m (Baker 1927).

A solitary and shy bird, it is generally found singly and easily overlooked, keeping to the treetops or flying hawk-like over the forest canopy. During the breeding season, however, it becomes very vocal, calling incessantly during the early hours of dawn and again at dusk, far into the night, especially on moonlit nights, even calling on the wing during courtship chases (Ali & Ripley 1969).

Food: It mainly eats caterpillars, ants, locustids, fruit, butterflies and grasshoppers (Smythies 1968), sometimes coming down to the ground, hopping about awkwardly to pick up insects from within the leaf litter (Ali & Ripley 1969). In Singapore, it was found feeding at a termite hatch (Subaraj 2008).

Voice and Calls: In India, its most common four-note call is a fine melodious pleasing whistle from which evolved some of its popular local names, Bo-kota-ko in Bengali (Jerdon 1862), Kyphulpakka (Oates & Blanford 1895), and the "Broken Pekoe" bird in English (Baker & Inglis 1930). The call has also been variously annotated by several other authors: as "crossword puzzle" (Ali & Ripley 1969), a far-carrying wa-wa-wa-wu (Medway & Wells 1976), a flute-like ko-ko-ta-ko (King, Woodcock & Dickinson 1975), as reminiscent of the beginning of Beethoven's 5th symphony (Sheldon et. al. 2001). There are several other interpretations of its call (Tsang 2010).

In the Kelabit Highlands of Sarawak, its call was continuously heard in late February over sub-montane forest at 900 m (3000 feet). The loud four-note call was fairly musical, koh-koh-koh-kok, the first three syllables on the same pitch, the third sometimes higher, the last note always lower. It was persistently uttered for several minutes at a time, each burst of four-note lasting slightly over one second with about two seconds between each burst, occasional with a fifteen to thirty seconds break between each set of notes. Once or twice, it made a more rounded fluting and musical variation of the same four notes. Most of the time, the call was echoed, almost synchronously, by a four-note squeaking call, much more shrill and softer, sometimes in a lower key (Sreedharan 2005).

It usually calls from the tops of tall trees or when flying from tree to tree (Jerdon 1862), and much more persistently during breeding season, often calling all night long (Smythies 1968). The call is uttered intermittently for hours on end, for more than five minutes at a stretch, at about 23 calls per minute, and, while courting a nearby female, the wings are dropped, the tail spread wide and erected, the bird pivoting from side to side (Ali & Ripley 1969).

Breeding: Very little is known of the breeding of this Cuckoo. It is brood parasitic and, instead of building its own nest, it surreptitiously lays eggs in the nests of several host species, its choice of victim varying from location to location. The nominate form, C. m. micropterus, does not breed in our area. The local form, C. m. concretus breeds in peninsular Malaysia.

The breeding season varies from May to July in northern China, March to August in India, January to June in Burma and January to August in the Malay Peninsula.

In India, the host species are said to be Streaked Laughing-Thrush Garrulax lineatus, White-bellied Redstart Hodgsonius phoenicuroides, Indian Bush-Chat Saxicola torquata and Indian Blue Robin Luscinia brunnea, all of which lay blue or bluish eggs, similar to those of this Cuckoo (Baker 1927).

Additionally, it is said to victimise species such as Fork-tailed Drongo Dicrurus adsimilis, Ashy Drongo Dicrurus leucophaeus but other species, "in whose nests putative eggs of this cuckoo are claimed to have been found, or have been observed feeding its young", include the Asian Paradise-flycatcher Terpsiphone paradisi, the Streaked Spiderhunter Arachnothera magna and, in Sri Lanka, the Black-hooded Oriole Oriolus xanthornus (Ali & Ripley 1969).

Given the difficulty in determining the identity of young cuckoos, it is hardly surprising that these two authors have included a caveat, stating that the available data on the breeding biology of this bird, indeed, of all parasitic cuckoos are, "by and large, meagre, and of dubious authenticity. Most accounts are vague, largely conjectural and often contradictory. The whole subject calls for a more methodical de novo re-investigation".

Currently, this picture (Ong 2008), of a juvenile Indian Cuckoo fostered by a Black-and-yellow Broadbill Eurylaimus ochromalus provides the only incontrovertible evidence of a confirmed host in Malaysia. In Amurland, Siberia, its main host is the Brown Shrike Lanius cristatus, the cuckoo's eggs hatching in about 12 days, two to three days sooner than that of the shrike (Ali & Ripley 1969).

Oviduct eggs from females are said to be of two types: whitish with small reddish-brown dots, closely matching drongo eggs, or pale greyish-blue, like those of the Turdinae, the eggs c. 25 x 19 mm in size (Ali & Ripley 1969).

Migration: Seventeen night-flying migrants, attributed to C. m. micropterus, were caught at Fraser's Hill from 10th October to 27th November and 7th to 14th April between 1966 and 1969. Birds on passage were also collected in November at One Fathom Bank Lighthouse and on Rembia and Pisang islands. None of these belonged to the resident races have been handled (Medway & Wells 1976).

Moult: In the Family Cuculidae, moult strategy is quite complex, occasionally suspended. The primaries moult from two centres, P1 to P4 descendantly, P5 to P10 ascendantly. The secondaries, too, have two centres, S1 to S5 centripetally, S6 to S9 ascendant and alternate. Tail moult is irregular. They moult twice annually, undergoing a partial summer moult and a complete winter moult which finishes in early spring (Baker 1993).

None of the migrant birds from the off-shore sources were in moult. The migrants caught at Fraser's Hill in autumn were all in post-juvenile or adult plumage, indicating that the annual moult is completed in the breeding grounds, before they reach winter quarters (Medway & Wells 1976).

Wood texture from vintage doors in Provence , France

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The original stone may have been a megalithic marker. The oldest depictions show a larger stone and site it at a different place to that of the cage protected current lithic marker. The outdoor rural court at the larger Birlay Stone under the shade of the Birley Tree first found Marion Lillie who was locally called either the Rigwoodie, or the Ringwoody Witch not guilty. The Rigwoody Witch was later accused again, the Rigwoody attached to her name and label of witch is from the Scots Rigwoody meaning thin, or bony. Her second recorded trial has her sent to further courts with a guilty verdict to present to them. Some suppose that she would have been found guilty there and put to death as a witch. Before the imperfect legal process was concluded Marion died and was buried in Spott Church grounds showing she was not convicted at the time of her demise.

Whether the either the process of accusation and defence were contributing factors in Marion’s death, or not the records are not present to say, yet there is a record, “Many witches burnt on Spott Loan,” this follows Marion’s death and some believe that these many were 13, maybe a number not recorded, as 13 are considered by some an ideal number for a coven and 13 has several wicked and even evil connotations for some. The records and several authors comments are visible through the links below. Some record Marion and link her to a Marion Lillie and some record her as the last witch burned in Scotland. We will never have that perspective that ran throughout the times when Europeans thought Witches were to be discovered, tortured and put to death. That perspective that allowed many to dispose of often elderly women who some saw as hanging on to what they waited too long for. Through the death of the falsely accused person others could be rid of the living obstacle by convicting them and killing them as a witch.

Before society could allow for people differing from ‘the norm’ there were many targets to haul before what passed for justice. Those times for some are not that far away and we can at times act like such victimisation is still completely acceptable. Every culture has people at risk as we seem to realise that high ideals are for art, culture and dreams and that low acceptance is still fuelling violence and inherited intolerance is still simmering ready to burn any that happen to be seen as Witch, whatever it meant back then and for whatever it means today. Witch is a word we say, for some it is used as an insult and a slander. Witches past and present are the ones victimised and victorious in reclaiming our rights to be different and to accepted, to be in need as we all are of the harmony and the balance that comes through tolerance. Witch is just one word that people have used to label and dehumanise another person to such extreme that a Witch being murdered was seen a blessing.

The links below give the history better than I have above.

This was part of a journey to other sites. Some are listed below.

© PHH Sykes 2022

phhsykes@gmail.com

The Witches Stone. Spott Community Association

www.spottvillage.org.uk/witches-stone-2/

Witches' Stone, Spott

canmore.org.uk/site/57667/witches-stone-spott

Witches' Stone, Spott

www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/6453/witches_stone.html

Witches' Stone, Spott

www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=8239

Witches' Stone, Spott

www.johngraycentre.org/collections/getrecord/ELHER_MEL1560/

Spott Church

spottchurch.org.uk/

Easter Broomhouse Standing Stone (Prehistoric)

canmore.org.uk/site/57622/easter-broomhouse

Also The Modern Antiquarian and The Megalithic Portal

Easter Broomhouse Standing Stone

www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/1492/

Easter Broomhouse Standing Stone

www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?x=368000&y=676600

Pencraig Hill Standing Stone (Prehistoric)

www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/1494/pencraig_hill_stan...

Pencraig Hill Standing Stone (Prehistoric)

www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=6703

The Batwa (known, pejoratively as “pygmies” because of their height) are one of the oldest surviving tribes in Africa. They are the original hunter gatherers in the forested areas of Uganda (Rwnada, Congo and Burundi). In Bwindi, the forested were made a national park in 1992, mainly to protect the endangered Mountain Gorillas. Unfortunately for the Batwa people this meant eviction from the forests and their traditiional way of life. Deprived of their way of life (they are not farmers), they have been victimised by other peoples and they have often become dependant on charity.

As I slip back into the apartment complex I race back up to my apartment and quickly put the cape on. Though I'm not certain of what exactly is going on I know that I can't just stand by whilst an innocent being is seemingly victimised. I take the necessary precautions for if a crime takes place outside a building I'm in, fly a couple of blocks away before arriving on the scene. Fortunately the step of providing a good excuse for Clark Kent to slip away wasn't needed this time which saved me a minute on the response time so I'm back on the scene before the grey skinned man has a chance to fire the weapon.

Before the man can respond to my sudden arrival I seize the opportunity to remove the weapon from his hands. The sudden loss of his weapon takes the man by surprise as he jumps back and appears to surprise the winged man on the ground as well. Evidently men that can move faster than a speeding bullet aren't common where they come from.

"What the?"

"Is there a problem here?"

"Please! You have to help me!"

"I will but first I want to know what's going on here. Who are you people?"

"Return my weapon immediately native. This is not your concern."

"When you threaten someone in my city it becomes my concern."

The grey skin man continues to speak and whilst he explains who he is and why I should return his weapon I take the time to scan his physiology. Two hearts and a third lung. Definitely not human. Then again the grey skin tone is a bit of a give away.

"This man is a servant of my master and has abandoned his post. I am here to return him for punishment."

"Please don't let him take me! The penalty for fleeing is death!"

"Sounds to me like he has a good reason for not wanting to go with you."

"That is irrelevant. He pledged himself to serve the master and he must be punished for his betrayal. Now step aside human!"

The grey skinned man barks out those last few words as if he were giving orders to a minion so it makes me a little bit happy to just raise my left hand with one finger up telling him to shush. Whilst I'm not sure of all that is transpiring I know that everyone has the right to choose their own actions. If this winged man doesn't want to go back to his master then that's his choice and I will respect his wishes. I turn to look at the winged man and ask him the question.

"Do you want to go with this man?"

He begins to answer my question and as he does so I scan his body as well. Unlike his compatriot his physiology is almost identical to that of a humans. The only notable differences were the two wings sticking out of his back which appeared to be a part of his natural biology. What ever species he is clearly similar to humanity with that one difference.

"No. I want to live a life of freedom."

"I understand."

Respecting the winged man's wishes I turn to face the grey skinned man and make a point to break his gun in front of him. Acts of strength such as that are usually required in order to deter those I'm confronting from trying to start a fight. I don't do this because I'm afraid of fight, it's simply because I know that I'll win and I'd prefer to avoid having to hurt anyone unnecessarily.

"You heard him. He doesn't want to come with you, so I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"I'm not leaving without him."

"Then you'll have to go through me."

He pauses for a moment, clearly weighing up what sort of opponent I am. The glare is incredibly similar to the one Bruce used when he first met me, unfortunately he's just as impossible to read as Bruce is so I'm not sure what his response will be.

Before he speaks his next few words I notice a contraption activate that quickly covers his left hand in metal to resemble a metal gauntlet. Looks like he's going to do this like you did too Bruce.

"So be it."

With that he swings at me. Naturally I dodge the swing having seen him preparing his left arm for a punch, but he quickly follows up with a small taser like weapon in his right hand that shocks me. Clearly the gauntlet was intended either as a distraction or simply a test of my perception. Either way I failed to avoid his taser weapon and he hits me with an additional four shots. Damn does it sting.

The effect of the four additional shots quickly subside and I look up towards him and prepare my heat vision.

Alright. We'll do it this way.

Met these girls on the night. They made an awesome effort on their costumes!

Adelaide Botanic Gardens: Cascade glass sculpture by Sergio Redegalli, south of the Bicentennial Conservatory. Sergio Redegalli is an Australian glass artist specialising in glass sculptures. He is an owner of the Cydonia Glass Studio located in Newtown, New South Wales. Redegalli graduated from Sydney College of the Arts with a Bachelor of Arts Glass (Visual Arts) in 1984 and a Graduate Diploma – Glass Visual Arts in 1988.] Whilst attending college, Redegalli has claimed, he was the subject of victimisation at the hands of "man hating lesbians". His glass sculpture Cascade was commissioned for the World Expo in Brisbane in 1988. This massive 12 ton sculpture in the shape of a cascading wave is on display in Adelaide Botanic Garden, Adelaide. He is currently the President of the Chamber of Commerce, at Tocumval in the Riverina region of New South Wales. (wikepedia excerpt)

Just a short distance from Hobart is historic Richmond, home to Australia’s oldest bridge. The Coal River which flows through the town was named and discovered in 1803 not long after the Risdon Cove Hobart settlement began. Coal was discovered along the river banks hence the name. The government granted land to encourage farmers to the district and the town of Richmond was declared in 1824 by Lieutenant Governor William Sorrell. It was the gateway to the East Coast of VDL but also a police outpost with a Courthouse, Gaol, and barracks for soldiers and a watch house. An historic town like Richmond with buildings from the 1830s and 1840s is a testament to the role of convicts in building structures in Australia. Government work gangs of convicts built government and public structures such as the Richmond Bridge, the Courthouse, the Gaol etc but assigned convicts with skills would also have helped build some early structures including private houses for their masters. However, we have no records of this. The Richmond Bridge was built by convicts between 1823-25 and is still in daily use. Nearby is Australia’s oldest gaol built in 1825-28. The town grew quickly in the 1830s with much trade between it and Hobart. It is recorded that convicts built St Luke’s Anglican Church, (1834-36) a structure designed by architect John Lee Archer and opened by Governor Arthur. It is the church with the distinctive square tower and no spire. James Thompson the convict in charge of the interior wood work of the church was granted his freedom for his work. Note that the clock in St Luke’s tower came from the original St David’s church in Hobart when it was demolished in 1868 to make way for the Cathedral. The clock was made in 1828 and still keeps perfect time. The Catholic Church was not built by convicts as it was not the Anglican Church of the government. St John’s Catholic Church is the oldest Catholic Church in Australia and was built in 1836. The spire was added in the early 1900s. It also has an unusual side stone turret which houses the pre-cut stone stairs that give access to the gallery. The spire was added to St John’s in 1859 and was replaced again in 1972.

The heritage classified town has many fine Georgian buildings, antique shops and good cafes, 1830s cottages and grander houses. Look out for Oak Lodge in Bridge Street a gentleman’s two storey residence constructed between 1831-42. The bridge was used for all traffic to the east coast (and later to Port Arthur) and by 1830 Richmond was the third largest town in VDL. Wander down to the Coal River and walk under Richmond Bridge. The Richmond Court House was built in 1825-26 by convicts as was the Gaol nearby. Richmond Gaol was designed by Tasmanian architect John Lee Archer and erected by convicts as was the norm for government structures. The gaoler’s house was also designed by John Lee Archer. This complex is the oldest penal set up in Tasmania. In 1826 a group of Aborigines were believed to be attacking and raiding farms. Consequently a group of soldiers on a retribution search attacked and killed 14 Aboriginal people. Six were captured and taken to Richmond Gaol. They were subsequently released as there was no evidence that charges could be laid against them. Such victimisation was not uncommon in those days. Today Richmond relies on tourism and is the base for the Old Hobart Town model village and the scientific based Pooseum- the only one in the world established by an Austrian lady.

Some buildings to look for in Richmond starting in Bridge Street.

•On the corner of Henry St – Ashmore coffee shop. A two storey corner store circa 1850.

•LaFayette Galleries and shop – a fine Georgian style building. Built as a single storey Post Office c 1826. Opposite in old c1840 cottage is the Woodcraft Shop. And next to it is the stone Congregational Church built in 1873.

•The Regional Hotel – a typical 1880s Australian pub.

•On the corner of Edward St the old Saddlery. Originally a general store. Built around 1850.

•Next to it is the Bridge Inn licensed in 1834. Upper floor added in 1860s or so.

•Next to it is the Richmond Town Hall. Built in 1908 with stone from the flour mill and police barracks.

•Next to it is the Courthouse. Built by convicts in 1825. Used as Richmond Council Chambers 1861 to 1933.

•As the street bends on the north side is the old bakery c1830 now antiques shop and next to it some old cottages c1840.

•Opposite the cottages is Mill Cottage built around 1850.

•At the end of the street where the triangular park begins veer right to the Richmond Bridge 1823-25. You can walk down to the Coal River beneath the bridge.

•First over the bridge is Mill House as the water mill was on the river. Built in 1850. C1900 it became a butter factory.

•Turn left here into St Johns Court. It takes you to St John’s Catholic Church and spire.

Retrace your steps across the river and along Bridge Street to Edward St. by the old saddlery.

Edward Street.

•At the first intersection on the left is Ochil Cottage built c1840. Behind it down the side street is the Goal built 1825/28.

•Across the intersection the little cottage on left was a morgue and dispensary.

•Next left in Palladian style with a central two storey section is the Anglican Rectory. Built in 1831 for the town magistrate. Was only the Anglican Rectory 1908 to 1972.

•Next to it is St Luke’s Anglican Church built 1834/36. Built by convicts.

Retrace your steps to Bridge Street but detour right to 22 Bathurst St for a fine little cottage built circa 1830 with dormer windows. If you want to see more 1830s and 1840s houses walk down Commercial Street for one block only. It starts at the Ashmore coffee shop. Commercial St also has the Richmond Hotel, a fine Georgian two storey hotel built c1830.

8th Century. Isle of Islay. Inner Hebrides.

It seems reasonable to say that craftsmen from the Isle of Iona to the north worked locally on the particularly resistant schist ‘epidorite’ stone. The sheer quantity of Celtic braiding, spirals, bosses and interlace, and the chronological position of the cross close to an interface between post-protohistorical rites and historical Christian rites, makes the Kildalton Cross of interest to historians, theologians and prehistorians alike. Presumably the elements chosen as decoration were seen as relevant for the spiritual community itself and for the local populations. Ideas of assimilation and phase change of spiritual values associated with a 'metamorphic' vision of Celtic Christianity.

The Kildalton cross is in effect an 'illuminated' cross, with arms and junctions holding visual keystones and ornaments, as decoration and references of narrative allegorical episode. One of the earliest Illuminated manuscripts of the British Isles is the 'Book of Kells' which was produced by the same greater community of early St Columban Monks (from the Isle of Iona) who were responsable for the Kildalton cross. This association asks that it be considered that the cross was originally decorated with colour (an idea that has been put forward).

The elements visible on the cross are available for visitors to see on a graphic (reproduced via this link). Some drawings seem to tip an idea of line that is not necessarily obvious:

www.scotiana.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Islay-Kildalt...

Side arms right : Appears to be a man with a staff receiving a pious follower who bends before him at an alter (St Columba passing on his authority?) www.flickr.com/photos/93453066@N00/14728068055/in/pool-ea.... This image is often quoted as being of Abraham and Isaac, so I can only imagine that theologians recognise it as a classic 8th century representation regularly associated with texts on the story of Isaac. With this story, human life is offered value and human sacrifice is rejected in favour of animal sacrifice. Just such a debate may have been part of the cultural environment of the Neolithic. Might a pre-Celtic "Bell beaker" allegory have found its way into the Book of Genesis?

Side arm left : Another image of a man receiving a follower (or animal) with a staff, or, an image of a man with a club hitting a head of another man. This element is reported to be a depiction of of Cain murdering Abel - a story of a divisive family dispute over primary issues of agricultural style; a dispute that turned to murder, and where the murderer is then shown to loose his position in the theater of life itself and be cursed as a wanderer or lost soul. As the Mesolithic ground slowly to a halt and the Neolithic coalesced into the Bronze Age, mankind will have needed all of his skills of 'society', goodwill and common sense. Allegorical stories of archetypal dispute may have been held as examples to help new generations as they steered paths over once common lands. Old stories that threaded through the smoke of camp fires throughout the Neolithic before refusing to to be ignored by early spiritual books?

Top arm : Two angels. With games of light, there are times when a glance through a valley frame takes the eye to a far away snow capped hill or mountain. The peak as the head and the foothills as wings. From deeper prehistory, where Venus hills assigned spiritual definition to greater landscapes, just such a vision might be interpreted as the spirit of the Venus hill rising – pre Christian 'angels'. A second example: I have translated stories from the Occitane language via French around the subject of slow growth oak trees. Here a thin soil keeps the tree small. There is so little water in the wood that it can be cut and burned without need of drying. Just such trees often finish presenting as stacks of wide branch arms, like 'trees of life' that provide structure to help local woodcutters navigate for their kindle and twig. In the reported episode, it was told that young ladies on hot summers evenings would play at being angels on these horizontal branches. Seen from afar, through a moonlight haze, others may have mistaken the scene...

Top arm (middle) : David killing a lion with sheep in background. For a late prehistoric shepherd, wolves, bears and wild dogs might all cause fright, chaos, loss and accident. Cave lions roamed the paleolithic and with long distance travel and trade, stories of their legend may never have truly become 'extinct', and although real Lions may have been witnessed by early Pilgrims on their trips to the eastern Mediterranean, the 'stories' may have been eagerly received by shepherds keen to see their myths land as truths.

Top arm (directly above the disc) : A design with two birds. Whilst it is usual to read that these represent peacocks (a far away bird often liked with representations of paradise and Roman Empire ornament) no peacock has ever stood or looked like this. The nearest birds to the represented lines may be a flightless 5kg bird that stood to around 85cm. The bird provided eggs, meat, oil, bait and warm feathers for prehistoric communities across the Atlantic (see Norwegian middens analysis). Couples may have been loyal, returning to the same place and partner each year, meeting beaks face to face with the iconic form seen on the cross. The bird bred on rocky islands, such as the many opposite the coasts of the Isles of Islay, Mull and Harris. Although hunting of the flightless bird was banned in the British Isles, one thousand years after the Kildalton Cross was dropped into its keystone, the last British example of the Great Auk (Atlantic penguin) was killed 200km north west of Iona on an Outer Hebredine Isle of St Kilda. The year was 1840 (by this time hunters sublimated their compulsion and explained that they were hunting witches…). The last ever in existence was killed on the 3rd of June 1844 in Icelandic waters by exhaustive collectioners. Rather than an fantasy peacock icon, the birds may have been a reference to local life and tradition. Sea Lions chase ‘penguins’ within their range, and watching the graphic Auks pop out of the sea to relative safety on the 40 or so shallow rocks and micro-islands that lye just off the coast behind the Kildalton Cross must have been a pleasure to see for early settlers. It may also be worth looking to see if a second colony was not once perched to exploite the fish of the North Channel, the Solway Firth and the Irish Sea, a distant colony on rocks nearer to Islay or Mull - a colony that may signal vivid lifestyles that Hebridean people had shared through the passages of the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Iron ages. The Great Auk's Islands of St Kilda also have archive stocks of Soay Neolithic sheep that graze aside simple stone constructions and rare neolithic vestiges. Until recently the remote islands' human population lived a lifestyle that included fowling sea birds for their meat, oil, eggs and feathers. The isle of Texa is also close-by to the Kildalton Cross, and it rises to 48m above sea level. There are four larger 'islands' just to the east of Kildaltan that rise to around 6m above sea level to look out to the southern rocks of the Isle of Gigha. Old Great Auk colonies turn to grass...

A stuffed Great Auk is on show at the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow.

Main rise (top under disc) The Virgin and Child, an iconography found on St. Martin's Cross and St. Oran's Cross on the Isle of Iona; so similar to the Kildalton Cross's scene that it is used as a 'proof' that followers from the Monastery were responsable. Elsewhere I argue that Venus hills provided a natural ‘cathedral’ for mother nature, a loci that seeded the lifeforce of a landscape. It is probable that the mythology of the Venus hills did not require 'fecundation', as this would add endless complication, which illustrates that ideas of 'virgin birth' may have followed through from notions common to deeper prehistorical belief systems.

Regarding the wheel cross, it has been argued elsewhere that early Irish Missionaries juxtaposed a Christian cross with a pre-Christian sun symbol to show to local communities that the 'new' religion did not negate the importance of existing belief systems. Not to be confused with Roman Sun Gods as these islands escaped Roman influence. As the medieval period progressed, these early links with the post Bell Beaker 'Celtic' metaphysic were all but eliminated during the waves of religious centralization, stigmatization, belittling, chip shifting and victimisation. Local religious communities that led by example were largely replaced by the centralized religious hierarchies, governmental/religious hybrids and local representatives/specialists. An ironical push towards hierarchical systems that had been developed by, for example, the Roman Empire.

AJM 07.11.18

West-German collectors card, no. 53.

American actress and writer Yvette Mimieux (1942) is known for The Time Machine (1960), and several other popular films of the 1960s. She was nominated for three Golden Globe awards during her acting career.

Yvette Carmen Mimieux was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1942. Her French father was René Mimieux and her Mexican mother Maria Montemayor. She has at least two siblings: sister Gloria and a brother. The blonde, well-proportioned Mimieux was a beauty contest winner and model when talent manager Jim Byron suggested she become an actress. Her first acting appearances were in episodes of the television shows Yancy Derringer and One Step Beyond. In 1960, she made her film debut, the Science Fiction film The Time Machine (George Pal, 1960). In George Pal's production of the H.G. Wells novel about time travel Wells (Rod Taylor) travels 800,000 years into the future and falls for Weena (Mimieux) of the peaceful Eloi who are threatened by the Morlocks, cannibalistic mutations. It was made for MGM, which put her under a long-term contract. Her breakthrough role was followed by roles in Platinum High School (Charles Haas, 1960), with Mickey Rooney and Terry Moore, and the first beach-party movie, Where the Boys Are (Henry Levin, 1960) with George Hamilton. Where the Boys Are was one of the first teen films to explore adolescent sexuality and the changing sexual morals and attitudes among American college youth. Aimed at the teen market, it inspired many American college students to head to Fort Lauderdale for their annual spring break. MGM put Mimieux in the ingenue role in Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Vincente Minelli, 1961), an expensive flop. She had a central role in Light in the Piazza (Guy Green, 1962) with Olivia de Havilland, Rossano Brazzi, and George Hamilton, playing a mentally disabled girl. The film lost money but was well regarded critically. She had a small part in The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (George Pal, 1963), another commercial disappointment. Also later that year, she appeared in Diamond Head (Guy Green, 1963) for Columbia, billed second to Charlton Heston. She went to United Artists for Toys in the Attic, based on the play by Lillian Hellman and co-starring Dean Martin. On TV, Mimieux guest-starred on two episodes of Dr. Kildare alongside Richard Chamberlain. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "An appearance as a terminally ill girl on the 1964 Dr. Kildare episode "Tyger Tyger" drew a great deal of press attention for Mimieux, principally because she spent most of her early scenes in a bikini. The actress's subsequent roles showed promise, but she generally found herself playing second fiddle to the leading man." Mimieux made a cameo as herself in the comedy-musical Looking for Love (Don Weis, 1964) starring popular singer Connie Francis and played Richard Chamberlain's love interest in the romance Joy in the Morning (Alex Segal, 1965).

Post-MGM, Yvette Mimieux was in the Western The Reward (Serge Bourguignon, 1965) with Max von Sydow, the Disney comedy Monkeys, Go Home! (Andrew V. McLaglen, 1967) with Maurice Chevalier, and the heist film The Caper of the Golden Bulls (Russell Rouse, 1967) starring Stephen Boyd. She was reunited with Rod Taylor in the action film Dark of the Sun (Jack Cardiff, 1968). Mimieux was top-billed in the hit Three in the Attic (Richard Wilson, 1969) with Christopher Lee, and appeared in the critically acclaimed film The Picasso Summer (Serge Bourguignon, Robert Sallin, 1969) alongside Albert Finney. Mimieux was the female lead in the action film The Delta Factor (Tay Garnett, 1970), based on the 1967 novel by Mickey Spillane. She then had one of the leads in The Most Deadly Game (1970–1971), a short-lived TV series from Aaron Spelling. Around this time Mimieux had a business selling Haitian products and she studied archeology and would travel several months of each year. In 1971 she sued her agent for not providing her with movie work despite taking money. She was an air hostess in the disaster film Skyjacked (John Guillermin, 1972), starring Charlton Heston, and appeared in the Science-Fiction film The Neptune Factor (Daniel Petrie, 1973). By the early 1970s, Mimieux was unhappy with the "one-dimensional" roles offered to female actors: "There's nothing to play. They're either sex objects or vanilla pudding." Mimieux had been writing for several years, mostly journalism and short stories. She wrote a thriller, which she took to producers Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg, who then produced it for ABC as a television film. It aired as Hit Lady (Tracy Keenan Wynn, 1974). Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "she is undeniably impressive as a scantily clad professional assassin". Mimieux starred in The Legend of Valentino (Melville Shavelson, 1975), in which she played Rudolph Valentino's (Franco Nero) second wife, Natacha Rambova. Also in 1975, she made the Canadian thriller Journey into Fear (Daniel Petrie, 1975), a remake of the spy film Journey into Fear (Norman Foster, 1943) starring Orson Welles. Mimieux was a falsely imprisoned woman victimised by a sadistic guard in the exploitation film Jackson County Jail (Michael Miller, 1976) with Tommy Lee Jones. The 'drive-in' film has become a cult film and was selected by film director Quentin Tarantino for the first Quentin Tarantino Film Festival in Austin, Texas, in 1996. Mimieux co-starred in the first PG-rated Walt Disney Productions feature, The Black Hole (Gary Nelson, 1979) starring Maximilian Schell and Anthony Perkins. She had the lead as the chief executive of a giant corporation called "Mystique" in Circle of Power (Bobby Roth, 1981). She appeared in several TV movies and guest-starred on The Love Boat (1984), Lime Street (1985), and Perry Mason: The Case of the Desperate Deception (1990). Her last appearance was in the TV mini-series Lady Boss (Charles Jarrott, 1992), based on a novel written by Jackie Collins. After this role, she retired from acting. Yvette Mimieux married three times. In 1959, she married Evan Harland Engber but kept the marriage secret for almost two years. She was married to film director Stanley Donen from 1972 until their divorce in 1985. In 1986, Mimieux married Howard F. Ruby, chairman emeritus and founder of Oakwood Worldwide.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

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

In 1852 S.W.Silver and Co moved to the area from Greenwich and established a rubber works, originally to make waterproof clothing. This subsequently developed into the works of the India Rubber, Gutta Percha and Telegraph Works Company, which constructed and laid many submarine cables. By the 1860s a number of manure and chemical works and petroleum storage depots had been set up.[3] In 1864, the area became an ecclesiastical parish of its own, centred on the church of St Mark's.

Sugar refiners in the area were joined by Henry Tate in 1877 and Abram Lyle in 1881, whose companies merged in 1921 to form Tate & Lyle.[4] Prior to the merger, which occurred after they had died, the two men were bitter business rivals, although they had never met.[5] Tate & Lyle still has two large refineries in the area.

In 1889 Silver's factory was the scene of a twelve-week-long strike by the majority of its 3,000 workers. The strikers were demanding higher pay and were inspired by the recent successes of New Unionism in the East End of London. Management refused to negotiate with the strikers who had immense popular support. Leading figures in the strike included Tom Mann and Eleanor Marx. The workers were eventually starved back to work, with many being victimised for their role. In the aftermath of the strike, Silver's declared a half-yearly dividend of 5 percent. Silver's management were congratulated by the rest of the industry for holding a line against New Unionism.[6]

On 19 January 1917, parts of Silvertown were devastated by a massive TNT explosion at the Brunner-Mond munitions factory, in what is known as the Silvertown explosion. Seventy three people died and hundreds were injured in one of the largest explosions ever experienced in the British Isles.[7]

In the early 20th Century the area suffered greatly from road congestion due to being located between the Thames and the Royal Docks, then the largest and one of the busiest dock groups in the world. The area was cut off for much of the time by lifting bridges over dock entrances, and by level crossings which were closed for up to three quarters of each hour by train movements. This led in the early 1930s to the construction of the elevated Silvertown Way, one of the earliest urban flyovers.[8]

On the first night of The Blitz, Tate and Lyle's sugar refinery, John Knight's Primrose Soapworks, and the Silvertown Rubber Works were all badly damaged by bombing.[9]

Silver's was eventually taken over by the British Tyre and Rubber Co, later known as BTR Industries. The site closed in the 1960s and is now the Thameside Industrial Estate.[10] Another major local employer was the Loders and Nucoline plant at Cairn Mills, a traditional port oleo industry and formerly part of Unilever. This originally milled seeds but later concentrated on production of fats from palm kernel oil

Richmond, Old Hobart Town village and the Pooseum.

Just a short distance from Hobart is historic Richmond, home to Australia’s oldest bridge. The Coal River which flows through the town was named and discovered in 1803 not long after the Risdon Cove Hobart settlement began. Coal was discovered along the river banks hence the name. The government granted land to encourage farmers to the district and the town of Richmond was declared in 1824 by Lieutenant Governor William Sorrell. It was the gateway to the East Coast of VDL but also a police outpost with a Courthouse, Gaol, and barracks for soldiers and a watch house. An historic town like Richmond with buildings from the 1830s and 1840s is a testament to the role of convicts in building structures in Australia. Government work gangs of convicts built government and public structures such as the Richmond Bridge, the Courthouse, the Gaol etc but assigned convicts with skills would also have helped build some early structures including private houses for their masters. However, we have no records of this. The Richmond Bridge was built by convicts between 1823-25 and is still in daily use. Nearby is Australia’s oldest gaol built in 1825-28. The town grew quickly in the 1830s with much trade between it and Hobart. It is recorded that convicts built St Luke’s Anglican Church, (1834-36) a structure designed by architect John Lee Archer and opened by Governor Arthur. It is the church with the distinctive square tower and no spire. James Thompson the convict in charge of the interior wood work of the church was granted his freedom for his work. Note that the clock in St Luke’s tower came from the original St David’s church in Hobart when it was demolished in 1868 to make way for the Cathedral. The clock was made in 1828 and still keeps perfect time. The Catholic Church was not built by convicts as it was not the Anglican Church of the government. St John’s Catholic Church is the oldest Catholic Church in Australia and was built in 1836. The spire was added in the early 1900s. It also has an unusual side stone turret which houses the pre-cut stone stairs that give access to the gallery. The spire was added to St John’s in 1859 and was replaced again in 1972.

The heritage classified town has many fine Georgian buildings, antique shops and good cafes, 1830s cottages and grander houses. Look out for Oak Lodge in Bridge Street a gentleman’s two storey residence constructed between 1831-42. The bridge was used for all traffic to the east coast (and later to Port Arthur) and by 1830 Richmond was the third largest town in VDL. Wander down to the Coal River and walk under Richmond Bridge. The Richmond Court House was built in 1825-26 by convicts as was the Gaol nearby. Richmond Gaol was designed by Tasmanian architect John Lee Archer and erected by convicts as was the norm for government structures. The gaoler’s house was also designed by John Lee Archer. This complex is the oldest penal set up in Tasmania. In 1826 a group of Aborigines were believed to be attacking and raiding farms. Consequently a group of soldiers on a retribution search attacked and killed 14 Aboriginal people. Six were captured and taken to Richmond Gaol. They were subsequently released as there was no evidence that charges could be laid against them. Such victimisation was not uncommon in those days. Today Richmond relies on tourism and is the base for the Old Hobart Town model village and the scientific based Pooseum- the only one in the world established by an Austrian lady.

Some buildings to look for in Richmond starting in Bridge Street.

•On the corner of Henry St – Ashmore coffee shop. A two storey corner store circa 1850.

•LaFayette Galleries and shop – a fine Georgian style building. Built as a single storey Post Office c 1826. Opposite in old c1840 cottage is the Woodcraft Shop. And next to it is the stone Congregational Church built in 1873.

•The Regional Hotel – a typical 1880s Australian pub.

•On the corner of Edward St the old Saddlery. Originally a general store. Built around 1850.

•Next to it is the Bridge Inn licensed in 1834. Upper floor added in 1860s or so.

•Next to it is the Richmond Town Hall. Built in 1908 with stone from the flour mill and police barracks.

•Next to it is the Courthouse. Built by convicts in 1825. Used as Richmond Council Chambers 1861 to 1933.

•As the street bends on the north side is the old bakery c1830 now antiques shop and next to it some old cottages c1840.

•Opposite the cottages is Mill Cottage built around 1850.

•At the end of the street where the triangular park begins veer right to the Richmond Bridge 1823-25. You can walk down to the Coal River beneath the bridge.

•First over the bridge is Mill House as the water mill was on the river. Built in 1850. C1900 it became a butter factory.

•Turn left here into St Johns Court. It takes you to St John’s Catholic Church and spire.

Retrace your steps across the river and along Bridge Street to Edward St. by the old saddlery.

Edward Street.

•At the first intersection on the left is Ochil Cottage built c1840. Behind it down the side street is the Goal built 1825/28.

•Across the intersection the little cottage on left was a morgue and dispensary.

•Next left in Palladian style with a central two storey section is the Anglican Rectory. Built in 1831 for the town magistrate. Was only the Anglican Rectory 1908 to 1972.

•Next to it is St Luke’s Anglican Church built 1834/36. Built by convicts.

Retrace your steps to Bridge Street but detour right to 22 Bathurst St for a fine little cottage built circa 1830 with dormer windows. If you want to see more 1830s and 1840s houses walk down Commercial Street for one block only. It starts at the Ashmore coffee shop. Commercial St also has the Richmond Hotel, a fine Georgian two storey hotel built c1830.

Adelaide Botanic Gardens: Cascade glass sculpture by Sergio Redegalli, south of the Bicentennial Conservatory. Sergio Redegalli is an Australian glass artist specialising in glass sculptures. He is an owner of the Cydonia Glass Studio located in Newtown, New South Wales. Redegalli graduated from Sydney College of the Arts with a Bachelor of Arts Glass (Visual Arts) in 1984 and a Graduate Diploma – Glass Visual Arts in 1988.] Whilst attending college, Redegalli has claimed, he was the subject of victimisation at the hands of "man hating lesbians". His glass sculpture Cascade was commissioned for the World Expo in Brisbane in 1988. This massive 12 ton sculpture in the shape of a cascading wave is on display in Adelaide Botanic Garden, Adelaide. He is currently the President of the Chamber of Commerce, at Tocumval in the Riverina region of New South Wales. (wikepedia excerpt)

Just a short distance from Hobart is historic Richmond, home to Australia’s oldest bridge. The Coal River which flows through the town was named and discovered in 1803 not long after the Risdon Cove Hobart settlement began. Coal was discovered along the river banks hence the name. The government granted land to encourage farmers to the district and the town of Richmond was declared in 1824 by Lieutenant Governor William Sorrell. It was the gateway to the East Coast of VDL but also a police outpost with a Courthouse, Gaol, and barracks for soldiers and a watch house. An historic town like Richmond with buildings from the 1830s and 1840s is a testament to the role of convicts in building structures in Australia. Government work gangs of convicts built government and public structures such as the Richmond Bridge, the Courthouse, the Gaol etc but assigned convicts with skills would also have helped build some early structures including private houses for their masters. However, we have no records of this. The Richmond Bridge was built by convicts between 1823-25 and is still in daily use. Nearby is Australia’s oldest gaol built in 1825-28. The town grew quickly in the 1830s with much trade between it and Hobart. It is recorded that convicts built St Luke’s Anglican Church, (1834-36) a structure designed by architect John Lee Archer and opened by Governor Arthur. It is the church with the distinctive square tower and no spire. James Thompson the convict in charge of the interior wood work of the church was granted his freedom for his work. Note that the clock in St Luke’s tower came from the original St David’s church in Hobart when it was demolished in 1868 to make way for the Cathedral. The clock was made in 1828 and still keeps perfect time. The Catholic Church was not built by convicts as it was not the Anglican Church of the government. St John’s Catholic Church is the oldest Catholic Church in Australia and was built in 1836. The spire was added in the early 1900s. It also has an unusual side stone turret which houses the pre-cut stone stairs that give access to the gallery. The spire was added to St John’s in 1859 and was replaced again in 1972.

The heritage classified town has many fine Georgian buildings, antique shops and good cafes, 1830s cottages and grander houses. Look out for Oak Lodge in Bridge Street a gentleman’s two storey residence constructed between 1831-42. The bridge was used for all traffic to the east coast (and later to Port Arthur) and by 1830 Richmond was the third largest town in VDL. Wander down to the Coal River and walk under Richmond Bridge. The Richmond Court House was built in 1825-26 by convicts as was the Gaol nearby. Richmond Gaol was designed by Tasmanian architect John Lee Archer and erected by convicts as was the norm for government structures. The gaoler’s house was also designed by John Lee Archer. This complex is the oldest penal set up in Tasmania. In 1826 a group of Aborigines were believed to be attacking and raiding farms. Consequently a group of soldiers on a retribution search attacked and killed 14 Aboriginal people. Six were captured and taken to Richmond Gaol. They were subsequently released as there was no evidence that charges could be laid against them. Such victimisation was not uncommon in those days. Today Richmond relies on tourism and is the base for the Old Hobart Town model village and the scientific based Pooseum- the only one in the world established by an Austrian lady.

Some buildings to look for in Richmond starting in Bridge Street.

•On the corner of Henry St – Ashmore coffee shop. A two storey corner store circa 1850.

•LaFayette Galleries and shop – a fine Georgian style building. Built as a single storey Post Office c 1826. Opposite in old c1840 cottage is the Woodcraft Shop. And next to it is the stone Congregational Church built in 1873.

•The Regional Hotel – a typical 1880s Australian pub.

•On the corner of Edward St the old Saddlery. Originally a general store. Built around 1850.

•Next to it is the Bridge Inn licensed in 1834. Upper floor added in 1860s or so.

•Next to it is the Richmond Town Hall. Built in 1908 with stone from the flour mill and police barracks.

•Next to it is the Courthouse. Built by convicts in 1825. Used as Richmond Council Chambers 1861 to 1933.

•As the street bends on the north side is the old bakery c1830 now antiques shop and next to it some old cottages c1840.

•Opposite the cottages is Mill Cottage built around 1850.

•At the end of the street where the triangular park begins veer right to the Richmond Bridge 1823-25. You can walk down to the Coal River beneath the bridge.

•First over the bridge is Mill House as the water mill was on the river. Built in 1850. C1900 it became a butter factory.

•Turn left here into St Johns Court. It takes you to St John’s Catholic Church and spire.

Retrace your steps across the river and along Bridge Street to Edward St. by the old saddlery.

Edward Street.

•At the first intersection on the left is Ochil Cottage built c1840. Behind it down the side street is the Goal built 1825/28.

•Across the intersection the little cottage on left was a morgue and dispensary.

•Next left in Palladian style with a central two storey section is the Anglican Rectory. Built in 1831 for the town magistrate. Was only the Anglican Rectory 1908 to 1972.

•Next to it is St Luke’s Anglican Church built 1834/36. Built by convicts.

Retrace your steps to Bridge Street but detour right to 22 Bathurst St for a fine little cottage built circa 1830 with dormer windows. If you want to see more 1830s and 1840s houses walk down Commercial Street for one block only. It starts at the Ashmore coffee shop. Commercial St also has the Richmond Hotel, a fine Georgian two storey hotel built c1830.

I was in this squeezy one-way street with a side loader, had just finished emptying the bins and had to make this tight right turn around a corner to get out. The victimised car was conveniently parked partially into the no stopping zone beside this corner, taking up room to manoeuvre the truck, although the task was still manageable with a bit of back and forth movement. I also had a helpful offsider who assisted with guiding me back towards the car and would signal to stop. I reversed back towards the car 3 times to get the right exit angle and the first 2 times I successfully engaged the forward gears. On the third attempt where I would finally drive around and out, I didn't hit the "D" button hard enough, resulting in the truck jumping back after releasing the footbrake. Although the truck went backwards only a short distance, it covered crucial airspace, with the light bar on the tailgate contacting the rear windscreen of the car. As soon as I felt the truck lurch, I slammed the footbrake as quickly as I reacted, but I was on a slight decline with the engine powering in the wrong direction, so it jumped back very quickly in that short moment. First thing I said to myself was a four letter word beginning with “f” and then I checked my side mirror to see my offsider, with a look on his face telling me that things weren’t too good. After walking to the back to see the damage for myself, a large variety of swear words became audible.

When this happened, I was more shattered than the windscreen was. As soon as you realise things have not gone as they should, you get that gut wrenching feeling wondering how bad the damage is. In the case of this fail, the cause of the pictured aftermath was due to a button on the gear selector not being pressed hard enough. What didn’t help was not checking the gearbox status on the selector console, although a lot of drivers out there can appreciate that you don’t always look to see if the truck has gone into gear. On some older trucks there have been a few where you need to give a button a bit of a firmer hit, such as this one with drive and even on the one I operate at present with reverse selection. The car being parked within a no stopping zone didn’t help the situation either, but unfortunately reality is that they were stationary and I was moving, so there isn’t really any defence there. Probably should’ve gotten the ranger to come and book the dick for parking there, but maybe the shattered window is enough of a message. Another annoying thing was being in this big truck when I should’ve been in the little rear loader, which would’ve gotten around in a single swing. Having an accident sucks in general, but it’s even worse when it happens due to some little bullshit reason or simple stuff up like this.

Just a short distance from Hobart is historic Richmond, home to Australia’s oldest bridge. The Coal River which flows through the town was named and discovered in 1803 not long after the Risdon Cove Hobart settlement began. Coal was discovered along the river banks hence the name. The government granted land to encourage farmers to the district and the town of Richmond was declared in 1824 by Lieutenant Governor William Sorrell. It was the gateway to the East Coast of VDL but also a police outpost with a Courthouse, Gaol, and barracks for soldiers and a watch house. An historic town like Richmond with buildings from the 1830s and 1840s is a testament to the role of convicts in building structures in Australia. Government work gangs of convicts built government and public structures such as the Richmond Bridge, the Courthouse, the Gaol etc but assigned convicts with skills would also have helped build some early structures including private houses for their masters. However, we have no records of this. The Richmond Bridge was built by convicts between 1823-25 and is still in daily use. Nearby is Australia’s oldest gaol built in 1825-28. The town grew quickly in the 1830s with much trade between it and Hobart. It is recorded that convicts built St Luke’s Anglican Church, (1834-36) a structure designed by architect John Lee Archer and opened by Governor Arthur. It is the church with the distinctive square tower and no spire. James Thompson the convict in charge of the interior wood work of the church was granted his freedom for his work. Note that the clock in St Luke’s tower came from the original St David’s church in Hobart when it was demolished in 1868 to make way for the Cathedral. The clock was made in 1828 and still keeps perfect time. The Catholic Church was not built by convicts as it was not the Anglican Church of the government. St John’s Catholic Church is the oldest Catholic Church in Australia and was built in 1836. The spire was added in the early 1900s. It also has an unusual side stone turret which houses the pre-cut stone stairs that give access to the gallery. The spire was added to St John’s in 1859 and was replaced again in 1972.

The heritage classified town has many fine Georgian buildings, antique shops and good cafes, 1830s cottages and grander houses. Look out for Oak Lodge in Bridge Street a gentleman’s two storey residence constructed between 1831-42. The bridge was used for all traffic to the east coast (and later to Port Arthur) and by 1830 Richmond was the third largest town in VDL. Wander down to the Coal River and walk under Richmond Bridge. The Richmond Court House was built in 1825-26 by convicts as was the Gaol nearby. Richmond Gaol was designed by Tasmanian architect John Lee Archer and erected by convicts as was the norm for government structures. The gaoler’s house was also designed by John Lee Archer. This complex is the oldest penal set up in Tasmania. In 1826 a group of Aborigines were believed to be attacking and raiding farms. Consequently a group of soldiers on a retribution search attacked and killed 14 Aboriginal people. Six were captured and taken to Richmond Gaol. They were subsequently released as there was no evidence that charges could be laid against them. Such victimisation was not uncommon in those days. Today Richmond relies on tourism and is the base for the Old Hobart Town model village and the scientific based Pooseum- the only one in the world established by an Austrian lady.

Some buildings to look for in Richmond starting in Bridge Street.

•On the corner of Henry St – Ashmore coffee shop. A two storey corner store circa 1850.

•LaFayette Galleries and shop – a fine Georgian style building. Built as a single storey Post Office c 1826. Opposite in old c1840 cottage is the Woodcraft Shop. And next to it is the stone Congregational Church built in 1873.

•The Regional Hotel – a typical 1880s Australian pub.

•On the corner of Edward St the old Saddlery. Originally a general store. Built around 1850.

•Next to it is the Bridge Inn licensed in 1834. Upper floor added in 1860s or so.

•Next to it is the Richmond Town Hall. Built in 1908 with stone from the flour mill and police barracks.

•Next to it is the Courthouse. Built by convicts in 1825. Used as Richmond Council Chambers 1861 to 1933.

•As the street bends on the north side is the old bakery c1830 now antiques shop and next to it some old cottages c1840.

•Opposite the cottages is Mill Cottage built around 1850.

•At the end of the street where the triangular park begins veer right to the Richmond Bridge 1823-25. You can walk down to the Coal River beneath the bridge.

•First over the bridge is Mill House as the water mill was on the river. Built in 1850. C1900 it became a butter factory.

•Turn left here into St Johns Court. It takes you to St John’s Catholic Church and spire.

Retrace your steps across the river and along Bridge Street to Edward St. by the old saddlery.

Edward Street.

•At the first intersection on the left is Ochil Cottage built c1840. Behind it down the side street is the Goal built 1825/28.

•Across the intersection the little cottage on left was a morgue and dispensary.

•Next left in Palladian style with a central two storey section is the Anglican Rectory. Built in 1831 for the town magistrate. Was only the Anglican Rectory 1908 to 1972.

•Next to it is St Luke’s Anglican Church built 1834/36. Built by convicts.

Retrace your steps to Bridge Street but detour right to 22 Bathurst St for a fine little cottage built circa 1830 with dormer windows. If you want to see more 1830s and 1840s houses walk down Commercial Street for one block only. It starts at the Ashmore coffee shop. Commercial St also has the Richmond Hotel, a fine Georgian two storey hotel built c1830.

Richmond, Old Hobart Town village and the Pooseum.

Just a short distance from Hobart is historic Richmond, home to Australia’s oldest bridge. The Coal River which flows through the town was named and discovered in 1803 not long after the Risdon Cove Hobart settlement began. Coal was discovered along the river banks hence the name. The government granted land to encourage farmers to the district and the town of Richmond was declared in 1824 by Lieutenant Governor William Sorrell. It was the gateway to the East Coast of VDL but also a police outpost with a Courthouse, Gaol, and barracks for soldiers and a watch house. An historic town like Richmond with buildings from the 1830s and 1840s is a testament to the role of convicts in building structures in Australia. Government work gangs of convicts built government and public structures such as the Richmond Bridge, the Courthouse, the Gaol etc but assigned convicts with skills would also have helped build some early structures including private houses for their masters. However, we have no records of this. The Richmond Bridge was built by convicts between 1823-25 and is still in daily use. Nearby is Australia’s oldest gaol built in 1825-28. The town grew quickly in the 1830s with much trade between it and Hobart. It is recorded that convicts built St Luke’s Anglican Church, (1834-36) a structure designed by architect John Lee Archer and opened by Governor Arthur. It is the church with the distinctive square tower and no spire. James Thompson the convict in charge of the interior wood work of the church was granted his freedom for his work. Note that the clock in St Luke’s tower came from the original St David’s church in Hobart when it was demolished in 1868 to make way for the Cathedral. The clock was made in 1828 and still keeps perfect time. The Catholic Church was not built by convicts as it was not the Anglican Church of the government. St John’s Catholic Church is the oldest Catholic Church in Australia and was built in 1836. The spire was added in the early 1900s. It also has an unusual side stone turret which houses the pre-cut stone stairs that give access to the gallery. The spire was added to St John’s in 1859 and was replaced again in 1972.

The heritage classified town has many fine Georgian buildings, antique shops and good cafes, 1830s cottages and grander houses. Look out for Oak Lodge in Bridge Street a gentleman’s two storey residence constructed between 1831-42. The bridge was used for all traffic to the east coast (and later to Port Arthur) and by 1830 Richmond was the third largest town in VDL. Wander down to the Coal River and walk under Richmond Bridge. The Richmond Court House was built in 1825-26 by convicts as was the Gaol nearby. Richmond Gaol was designed by Tasmanian architect John Lee Archer and erected by convicts as was the norm for government structures. The gaoler’s house was also designed by John Lee Archer. This complex is the oldest penal set up in Tasmania. In 1826 a group of Aborigines were believed to be attacking and raiding farms. Consequently a group of soldiers on a retribution search attacked and killed 14 Aboriginal people. Six were captured and taken to Richmond Gaol. They were subsequently released as there was no evidence that charges could be laid against them. Such victimisation was not uncommon in those days. Today Richmond relies on tourism and is the base for the Old Hobart Town model village and the scientific based Pooseum- the only one in the world established by an Austrian lady.

Some buildings to look for in Richmond starting in Bridge Street.

•On the corner of Henry St – Ashmore coffee shop. A two storey corner store circa 1850.

•LaFayette Galleries and shop – a fine Georgian style building. Built as a single storey Post Office c 1826. Opposite in old c1840 cottage is the Woodcraft Shop. And next to it is the stone Congregational Church built in 1873.

•The Regional Hotel – a typical 1880s Australian pub.

•On the corner of Edward St the old Saddlery. Originally a general store. Built around 1850.

•Next to it is the Bridge Inn licensed in 1834. Upper floor added in 1860s or so.

•Next to it is the Richmond Town Hall. Built in 1908 with stone from the flour mill and police barracks.

•Next to it is the Courthouse. Built by convicts in 1825. Used as Richmond Council Chambers 1861 to 1933.

•As the street bends on the north side is the old bakery c1830 now antiques shop and next to it some old cottages c1840.

•Opposite the cottages is Mill Cottage built around 1850.

•At the end of the street where the triangular park begins veer right to the Richmond Bridge 1823-25. You can walk down to the Coal River beneath the bridge.

•First over the bridge is Mill House as the water mill was on the river. Built in 1850. C1900 it became a butter factory.

•Turn left here into St Johns Court. It takes you to St John’s Catholic Church and spire.

Retrace your steps across the river and along Bridge Street to Edward St. by the old saddlery.

Edward Street.

•At the first intersection on the left is Ochil Cottage built c1840. Behind it down the side street is the Goal built 1825/28.

•Across the intersection the little cottage on left was a morgue and dispensary.

•Next left in Palladian style with a central two storey section is the Anglican Rectory. Built in 1831 for the town magistrate. Was only the Anglican Rectory 1908 to 1972.

•Next to it is St Luke’s Anglican Church built 1834/36. Built by convicts.

Retrace your steps to Bridge Street but detour right to 22 Bathurst St for a fine little cottage built circa 1830 with dormer windows. If you want to see more 1830s and 1840s houses walk down Commercial Street for one block only. It starts at the Ashmore coffee shop. Commercial St also has the Richmond Hotel, a fine Georgian two storey hotel built c1830.

French postcard by Europe, no. 517. Photo: Louis Nalpas. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

German, but Dutch-born film actress Lil Dagover (1887-1980) was an exotic, dark beauty, who featured prominently during the golden age of German silent cinema. She had her breakthrough as the prey of Dr. Caligari's monster in the classic expressionist film Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1920) but gradually her fine and evanescent beauty changed and she turned into a ´Salondame´, a lady of the screen. Her career would span nearly six decades.

Lil Dagover was born as Maria Antonia Siegelinde Martha Lilitt Seubert in Madiun on the island of Java in the Dutch West Indies (now Indonesia) in 1887 (some sources say 1894 or 1897). She was the daughter of a forest ranger in the service of the Dutch colonial authorities. From the age of 10, she was educated in Baden-Baden, Germany. She made her film debut in 1913 as a snake dancer in Schlangentanz/Snake Dance, a documentary by Louis Held. Although she never got acting lessons she played parts in Die Retterin/The Saviour (Christa Christensen, 1916), Lebendig tot/Living Dead (Alwin Neuss, 1918) and Die Maske/The Mask (Ewald André Dupont, 1919). In 1917 she married actor Fritz Daghofer, who was 25 years her senior. He introduced her to the directors Robert Wiene and Fritz Lang. The couple would divorce in 1919 and the union produced a daughter, Eva Marie, born the year of the divorce. Lil kept her husband's surname but slightly changed it to Dagover. Her career gathered speed with Die Spinnen/The Spiders (Fritz Lang, 1919-1920) and Harakiri (Fritz Lang, 1919). In the latter film, she already impersonated the fine lady which she usually played in her future films. Next, she appeared in the classic expressionist film Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari/The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920). In this film, her jet-black hair parted in the middle and flattened to the shape of her head, her long, white face, and her huge, expressive eyes all served to create the archetypical, victimised heroine of the expressionist melodramas. For Fritz Lang she played in two more masterpieces, Der müde Tod/Between Two Worlds (Fritz Lang, 1921), as a woman begging Death to hand her lover back, and Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler - Ein Bild der Zeit/Dr. Mabuse: the Gambler (Fritz Lang, 1922). She also appeared in two silent classics by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, Phantom/The Phantom (F.W. Murnau, 1922) with Alfred Abel, and Tartüff/Tartuffe (F.W. Murnau, 1925), with Emil Jannings, and in Zur Chronik von Grieshuus/At the Grey House (Arthur von Gerlach, 1925).

In 1925 Lil Dagover made her stage debut under the direction of Max Reinhardt. In the following years, she played in Reinhardt’s Deutsches Theater in Berlin and also at the Salzburg Festival. Apart from trips to Sweden, France, and Hollywood, most of her career and fate was linked to that of the German cinema. Initially, her role was that of the frail, menaced heroine, but gradually her fine and evanescent beauty changed over time. Film historian Vittorio Martinelli describes in Cinegrafie that "her face became calmer, her figure acquired a harmonious and restful opulence which, together with the natural elegance of her bearing and the constant accuracy of her style of dressing, turned her into a ´Salondame´, a lady of the screen." In 1926 she married producer Georg Witt, who produced many of her following films. Roles in Die Brüder Schellenberg/The Brothers Schellenberg (Karl Grune, 1926) opposite Conrad Veidt, Der geheime Kurier/The Secret Courier (Gennaro Righelli, 1928) with Ivan Mozzhukhin and Ungarische Rhapsodie/Hungarian Rhapsody (Hanns Schwarz, 1928) with Willy Fritsch, were well suited to her new allure. With her theatre experience, she easily survived the coming of sound. Her deep voice went down well in such films as the popular operetta Der Kongreß tanzt/The Congress Dances (Erik Charell, 1931). She also visited Hollywood where she appeared in The Woman from Monte Carlo (Michael Curtiz, 1931).

Reportedly Lil Dagover was a close friend of Adolph Hitler. She avoided overt political involvement and generally appeared in popular costume musicals and comedies during World War II. However, she acted at forces shows and at war theatres and in 1944 she received the War Merits Cross. During the Nazi era, she starred in films like the Oscar Wilde adaptation Lady Windermeres Fächer/Lady Windermere's Fan (Heinz Hilpert, 1935), Der Höhere Befehl/The Higher Command (Gerhard Lamprecht, 1935), Schlussakkord/Final Accord (Detlev Sierck (Douglas Sirk, 1936)), the first (short) German colour film Das Schönheitsfleckchen/The Little Beauty Mark (Rolf Hansen, 1936), Kreutzersonate/The Kreutzer Sonata (Veit Harlan, 1937) and Bismarck (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1940). She easily continued her career in post-war Germany and acted occasionally on stage and television. She played ‘age parts’ in films like Vom Teufel gejagt/Hunted by the Devil (Victor Tourjansky, 1950), Rosen im Herbst/Roses in Autumn (1955, Rudolf Jugert), Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull/Confessions of Felix Krull (Kurt Hoffmann, 1957) and Buddenbrooks/The Buddenbrooks (Alfred Weidenmann, 1959), an adaptation of the Thomas Mann novel with Liselotte Pulver. A great succès d'estime was her role as an eccentric old woman in the Edgar Wallace adaptation Die seltsame Gräfin/The Strange Countess (Josef von Báky, 1961). The last highlights of the ‘Grande Dame’ comprised the Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winner for Best Foreign-Language Foreign Film of 1974 - Der Fusssgänger/The Pedestrian (Maximilian Schell, 1973), Karl May (Hans-Jürgen Syberberg, 1974), the crime-drama Der Richter und sein Henker/Getting Away with Murder (Maximilian Schell, 1975) with Donald Sutherland, and Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald/Tales from the Vienna Woods (Maximilian Schell, 1979). Her film career had lasted over half a century and she won many awards including the Bundesfilmpreis in 1954 and the Filmband in Gold in 1962. She justly titled her memoirs as Ich war die Dame (I was the Lady) in 1979. Lil Dagover died in 1980, in Munich, Germany at the age of 92.

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Portraits of Ladies in Cinegrafie 12: Divine Apparitions), Hans Michael Bock (Filmportal.de) (German), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Filmreference.com, Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.

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

Created for We're here visiting Double Indemnity

The Dumb Waiter is a one-act play by Harold Pinter written in 1957. It combines the classic characteristics of early Pinter – a paucity of information and an atmosphere of menace, working-class small-talk in a claustrophobic setting – with an oblique but palpable political edge and, in so doing, can be seen as containing the germ of Pinter's entire dramatic oeuvre.

Two hit-men, Ben and Gus, are waiting in a basement room for their assignment. As the play begins, Ben, the senior member of the team, is reading a newspaper, and Gus, the junior member, is tying his shoes. Gus asks Ben many questions as he gets ready for their job and tries to make tea. They argue over the semantics of "light the kettle" and "put on the kettle". Ben continues reading his paper for most of the time, occasionally reading excerpts of it to Gus. Ben gets increasingly animated, and Gus's questions become more pointed, at times nearly nonsensical.

In the back of the room is a dumbwaiter, which delivers occasional food orders. This is mysterious and both characters seem to be puzzled why these orders keep coming. At one point they send up some snack food that Gus had brought along. Ben has to explain to the people above via the dumbwaiter's "speaking tube" that there is no food. This whole sequence is rather odd because the basement is clearly not outfitted for fulfilment of the orders.

Gus leaves the room to get a drink of water in the bathroom, and the dumbwaiter's speaking tube whistles (a sign that there is a person on the other end who wishes to communicate). Ben listens carefully—we gather from his replies that their victim has arrived and is on his way to the room. Ben shouts for Gus, who is still out of the room. The door that the target is supposed to enter from flies open, Ben rounds on it with his gun, and Gus enters, stripped of his jacket, waistcoat, tie and gun. There is a long silence as the two stare at each other before the curtain comes down (the implication is that Gus is the person that Ben has been employed to kill).

In the theatre, the emotional power of the play is more readily felt than understood. Pinter "created his own theatrical grammar – he didn't merely write characters that had an emotional response to something... But instead, through his characters' interactions and phrasings, Pinter seemed to conjure the very visceral emotion itself.

The dumb waiter of the title refers to the serving hatch and food lift that delivers orders to the gunmen. It could also refer to Gus, who fails to realise that he is waiting to be the victim, or even to Ben, whose obedience to a higher authority eventually forces him to eliminate his partner.

Although the play is realistic in many ways, particularly the dialogue between Ben and Gus, there are also elements that are unexplained and seemingly absurd, particularly the messages delivered by the dumb waiter itself, and the delivery of an envelope containing twelve matchsticks. Pinter is notable for leaving the plays open to interpretation, "wanting his audience to complete his plays, to resolve in their own ways these irresolvable matters". Pinter stated that "between my lack of biographical data about [the characters] and the ambiguity of what they say lies a territory which is not only worthy of exploration but which it is compulsory to explore".

One interpretation is that the play is an absurdist comedy about two men waiting in a universe without meaning or purpose, like Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. "The Dumb Waiter.... achieves, through its unique blend of absurdity, farce, and surface realism, a profoundly moving statement about the modern human condition".

Another interpretation is that the play is a political drama showing how the individual is destroyed by a higher power. "Each of Harold Pinter's [first] four plays ends in the virtual annihilation of an individual.... It is by his bitter dramas of dehumanisation that he implies "the importance of humanity". The religion and society, which have traditionally structured human morality, are, in Pinter's plays, the immoral agents that destroy the individual." Pinter supported the interpretation of The Birthday Party and The Dumb Waiter as "political plays about power and victimisation".

Overall, "it makes much more sense if seen as a play about the dynamics of power and the nature of partnership. Ben and Gus are both victims of some unseen authority and a surrogate married couple quarrelling, testing, talking past each other and raking over old times". It is "a strongly political play about the way a hierarchical society, in pitting the rebel against the conformist, places both at its mercy", but at the same time "a deeply personal play about the destructiveness of betrayal".

"For an audience to gaze into Ben and Gus' closed basement room and overhear their everyday prattle is to gain insight into the terrifying vision of the dominant-subservient battle for power, a battle in which societies and individuals engage as a part of daily existence".

December 4, Wonder for #reverb10

How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year? (Author: Jeffrey Davis)

Last year I started thinking about my camera, this year I became serious. No longer just an instrument to document my travels, my camera has become a tool for documenting my life, my thoughts, my everyday actions. But most importantly, it has transformed my world from a place of often maddening frustration into a self-discovery of beauty, gratitude and wonder. I've learned that when I need to calm down, I can often find the answer by hitting the streets with my camera. Anger, fear, frustration, they all melt away as I begin to lose myself in my subject no matter how mundane it might be. This lesson I've learned, this devotion to self discovery, has often left me in awe of my place in this world. You see, there is this sense of victimisation so prevalent today in our culture. This lack of responsibility for our own happiness, our own paths in life and for years I fell prey to this way of thinking. Over the past several years, I have worked hard to chang my attitude, and in this year, I discovered my key, my sense of place in this world and my voice through the wondrous lens of my camera.

Just a short distance from Hobart is historic Richmond, home to Australia’s oldest bridge. The Coal River which flows through the town was named and discovered in 1803 not long after the Risdon Cove Hobart settlement began. Coal was discovered along the river banks hence the name. The government granted land to encourage farmers to the district and the town of Richmond was declared in 1824 by Lieutenant Governor William Sorrell. It was the gateway to the East Coast of VDL but also a police outpost with a Courthouse, Gaol, and barracks for soldiers and a watch house. An historic town like Richmond with buildings from the 1830s and 1840s is a testament to the role of convicts in building structures in Australia. Government work gangs of convicts built government and public structures such as the Richmond Bridge, the Courthouse, the Gaol etc but assigned convicts with skills would also have helped build some early structures including private houses for their masters. However, we have no records of this. The Richmond Bridge was built by convicts between 1823-25 and is still in daily use. Nearby is Australia’s oldest gaol built in 1825-28. The town grew quickly in the 1830s with much trade between it and Hobart. It is recorded that convicts built St Luke’s Anglican Church, (1834-36) a structure designed by architect John Lee Archer and opened by Governor Arthur. It is the church with the distinctive square tower and no spire. James Thompson the convict in charge of the interior wood work of the church was granted his freedom for his work. Note that the clock in St Luke’s tower came from the original St David’s church in Hobart when it was demolished in 1868 to make way for the Cathedral. The clock was made in 1828 and still keeps perfect time. The Catholic Church was not built by convicts as it was not the Anglican Church of the government. St John’s Catholic Church is the oldest Catholic Church in Australia and was built in 1836. The spire was added in the early 1900s. It also has an unusual side stone turret which houses the pre-cut stone stairs that give access to the gallery. The spire was added to St John’s in 1859 and was replaced again in 1972.

The heritage classified town has many fine Georgian buildings, antique shops and good cafes, 1830s cottages and grander houses. Look out for Oak Lodge in Bridge Street a gentleman’s two storey residence constructed between 1831-42. The bridge was used for all traffic to the east coast (and later to Port Arthur) and by 1830 Richmond was the third largest town in VDL. Wander down to the Coal River and walk under Richmond Bridge. The Richmond Court House was built in 1825-26 by convicts as was the Gaol nearby. Richmond Gaol was designed by Tasmanian architect John Lee Archer and erected by convicts as was the norm for government structures. The gaoler’s house was also designed by John Lee Archer. This complex is the oldest penal set up in Tasmania. In 1826 a group of Aborigines were believed to be attacking and raiding farms. Consequently a group of soldiers on a retribution search attacked and killed 14 Aboriginal people. Six were captured and taken to Richmond Gaol. They were subsequently released as there was no evidence that charges could be laid against them. Such victimisation was not uncommon in those days. Today Richmond relies on tourism and is the base for the Old Hobart Town model village and the scientific based Pooseum- the only one in the world established by an Austrian lady.

Some buildings to look for in Richmond starting in Bridge Street.

•On the corner of Henry St – Ashmore coffee shop. A two storey corner store circa 1850.

•LaFayette Galleries and shop – a fine Georgian style building. Built as a single storey Post Office c 1826. Opposite in old c1840 cottage is the Woodcraft Shop. And next to it is the stone Congregational Church built in 1873.

•The Regional Hotel – a typical 1880s Australian pub.

•On the corner of Edward St the old Saddlery. Originally a general store. Built around 1850.

•Next to it is the Bridge Inn licensed in 1834. Upper floor added in 1860s or so.

•Next to it is the Richmond Town Hall. Built in 1908 with stone from the flour mill and police barracks.

•Next to it is the Courthouse. Built by convicts in 1825. Used as Richmond Council Chambers 1861 to 1933.

•As the street bends on the north side is the old bakery c1830 now antiques shop and next to it some old cottages c1840.

•Opposite the cottages is Mill Cottage built around 1850.

•At the end of the street where the triangular park begins veer right to the Richmond Bridge 1823-25. You can walk down to the Coal River beneath the bridge.

•First over the bridge is Mill House as the water mill was on the river. Built in 1850. C1900 it became a butter factory.

•Turn left here into St Johns Court. It takes you to St John’s Catholic Church and spire.

Retrace your steps across the river and along Bridge Street to Edward St. by the old saddlery.

Edward Street.

•At the first intersection on the left is Ochil Cottage built c1840. Behind it down the side street is the Goal built 1825/28.

•Across the intersection the little cottage on left was a morgue and dispensary.

•Next left in Palladian style with a central two storey section is the Anglican Rectory. Built in 1831 for the town magistrate. Was only the Anglican Rectory 1908 to 1972.

•Next to it is St Luke’s Anglican Church built 1834/36. Built by convicts.

Retrace your steps to Bridge Street but detour right to 22 Bathurst St for a fine little cottage built circa 1830 with dormer windows. If you want to see more 1830s and 1840s houses walk down Commercial Street for one block only. It starts at the Ashmore coffee shop. Commercial St also has the Richmond Hotel, a fine Georgian two storey hotel built c1830.

Wood texture from vintage doors in Provence , France

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Candid street shot Madeira.

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Shylock is a fictional character in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. A Venetian Jewish moneylender, Shylock is the play's principal antagonist. His defeat and his conversion to Christianity forms the climax of the story.

Typically played as a villain until the nineteenth century, Shylock has been increasingly portrayed as a semi-tragic figure whose vengeful acts arise from his victimisation.

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A moneylender is a person or group who offers small personal loans at high rates of interest.The high interest rates charged by them is justified in many cases by the risk involved.

They play an active role in lending to people with less access to banking activities, such as the unbanked or underbanked or in situations where borrowers do not have good credit history. They sometimes lend to people like gamblers and compulsive shoppers who often get into debt.

Many countries have laws in place that requires money lenders to be registered and limits on the interest rates that may be charged.

We may be the daughters of the Sun, children of Kurdistan.

K U R D I S T A N - 💛❤💚كوردستان💋

تستضيف الجامعة الأمريكية في القاهرة معرضاً للصور الفوتوغرافية، الأربعاء 13 مارس، تحت عنوان " على الطريق نحو الحرية"، يعبر عن حالة الشجاعة والنضال للنساء الكرديات وما سطرنه من بطولات خلال مواجهتهن لتنظيم داعش الإرهابي.

These women are sacrificing their very lives for freedom and for the entire world in fighting against ISIS. Turkey shows its gratitude by dropping bombs on them right now.

We may be the children of the lands of Amed and Cizira, Dersim and Colemerg. We may be the hearts of the lands spanning out from Qobane to Qamislo, Halabja, Hewler to Slemani, Mahabad to Urmiya and the skirts of the Zagros Mountains. We may be the daughters of the Sun, children of Kurdistan.

However,We carry the fight of the Women across the World. Thousands of us don't only fight ISIS. We carry on our shoulders the ideological weight of those stoned in Afghanistan or genitally mutilated in Somalia. The Women who are sexually enslaved across the world, discriminated, paid less, not represented, forcibly married, abused and victimised by domestic rape.

We are here to empower Women, break Male patriarchy, represent the silent. The sacrifices of Kurdish Women are for all of you. We are here to stay and to set precedent for the World. Embrace the Revolution.

Rojava is your home.

Swiss-German-British postcard by News Productions, Baulmes / Filmwelt Berlin, Bakede / News Productions, Stroud, no. 56487. Photo: Collection Cinémathèque Suisse, Lausanne. Lillian Gish and Henry B. Walthall in Birth of a Nation (David Wark Griffith, 1915), produced by D.W. Griffith Corporation.

American actress Lillian Gish (1893-1993) was 'The First Lady of the Silent Screen'. During the 1910s, she was one of director D.W. Griffith's greatest stars. She appeared in his features such as The Birth of a Nation (1915), Broken Blossoms (1919), and Orphans of the Storm (1921). After 13 years with Griffith, she moved to MGM where her first picture was La Bohème (King Vidor, 1926). In the 1940s, after a long interval, she returned to the screen in a handful of films and received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her role as Laura Belle McCanles in Duel in the Sun (King Vidor, 1946). Again a decade later, she was marvellous in the classic Film Noir The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955). Her last film was The Whales of August (Lindsay Anderson, 1987) in which she shared the lead with Bette Davis.

Lillian Diana Gish was born in 1893 in Springfield, Ohio. Her restless father James Lee Gish was an alcoholic who was rarely at home and left the family to more or less to fend for themselves. Mary Robinson McConnell a.k.a. Mary Gish, her mother, had entered into acting in local productions to make money to support the family. As soon as Lillian and her sister Dorothy were old enough, they joined her. Lillian was six years old when she first appeared in front of an audience. For the next 13 years, she and Dorothy appeared in melodramas before stage audiences with great success. To supplement their income, the two sisters also posed for pictures and paintings. In 1912, their former neighbour girl and child actress Mary Pickford introduced the sisters to film director David Wark Griffith and helped get them contracts with Biograph Studios. Griffith cast them in the short silent films An Unseen Enemy (D.W. Griffith, 1912), followed by The One She Loved (D.W. Griffith, 1912) and My Baby (D.W. Griffith, 1912). Griffith saw Lillian as an exquisitely fragile, ethereal beauty, and in 1912, she would make 12 films for him. With 25 films in the next two years, Lillian's exposure to the public was so great that she fast became one of the top stars in the industry, right alongside Mary Pickford. With her doll-like looks and small frame, she portrayed innocent, virginal characters who are victimised by a cruel world. In 1915, Lillian starred as Elsie Stoneman in D.W. Griffith's most ambitious project to date, The Birth of a Nation (D.W. Griffith, 1915). It was the highest-grossing film of the silent era. The following year, she appeared in another Griffith classic, Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (D.W. Griffith, 1916). Other famous Griffith productions in which Gish starred were Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl (D.W. Griffith, 1919), Way Down East (D.W. Griffith, 1920), and Orphans of the Storm (D.W. Griffith, 1921), opposite her sister Dorothy.

By the early 1920s, Lillian Gish was known as 'The First Lady of the American cinema', according to Wikipedia. Lillian even tried her hand at film directing with Remodeling Her Husband (Lillian Gish, 1920), when D. W. Griffith took his unit on location. The film, starring her sister Dorothy Gish, is now considered lost. Then, she could make two films entirely in Italy. In the excellent The White Sister (Henry King, 1923), she played a young woman who becomes a nun when she believes her sweetheart (Ronald Colman) has been killed, but things get complicated when he returns alive. Henry King directed her and Colman also in the costume drama Romola (Henry King, 1924), in which also her sister Dorothy co-starred. D.W. Griffith’s career seemed on its way down. After 13 years with him, Lillian moved to MGM. Her new contract gave her control over the type of picture, the director, the supporting lead, and the cameraman. 1926 became her busiest year of the decade with roles in La Bohème (King Vidor, 1926) with John Gilbert, and The Scarlet Letter (Victor Sjöström, 1926). Gish's favourite film of her MGM career, The Wind (Victor Sjöström, 1928), was a commercial failure but is now recognised as one of the most distinguished works of the silent period. As the decade wound to a close, ‘talkies’ were replacing silent films, and Gish began to appear for the radio and in acclaimed stage productions. In 1933, she appeared in one sound film, His Double Life (Arthur Hopkins, 1933) with Roland Young, and then didn't make another film for ten years. She appeared in stage roles as varied as Ophelia in Guthrie McClintic's 1936 production of Hamlet, with John Gielgud, and Marguerite in a limited run of La Dame aux Camélias. Tony Fontana at IMDb: “Lillian never forgot D.W. Griffith, even when everyone else in Hollywood did. She helped care for the ailing Griffith and his wife until Griffith died in 1948.”

When Lillian Gish returned to the screen in 1943, she played in two big-budget Hollywood pictures, the war drama Commandos Strike at Dawn (John Farrow, 1942) and Top Man (Charles Lamont, 1943). Denny Jackson at IMDb: “Although these roles did not bring her the attention she had in her early career, Lillian still proved she could hold her own with the best of them.” She earned an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her role of Laura Belle McCanles in the Western Duel in the Sun (King Vidor, 1946). She now excelled playing wilful but conflicted women. One of the most critically acclaimed roles of her career came in the Film Noir The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955). She played a rural guardian angel protecting her charges from a murderous preacher played by Robert Mitchum. In 1969, she published her autobiography 'The Movies, Mr. Griffith, and Me'. A year later, she received a special Academy Award 'for superlative artistry and distinguished contributions to the progress of motion pictures'. In her later years, Gish became a dedicated advocate for the appreciation and preservation of silent film. At the age of 93, she made what was to be her last film, The Whales of August (Lindsay Anderson, 1987), in which Bette Davis and she starred as elderly sisters in Maine. It exposed her to a new generation of fans. In 1993, Lillian Gish died at age 99 peacefully in her sleep in New York City. Her 75-year film career is almost unbeatable. Gish never married or had children. She left her entire estate, which was valued at several million dollars, to actress Helen Hayes, who died 18 days after Gish.

Sources: Tony Fontana (IMDb), Denny Jackson (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

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