SNAPPING TURTLE
Gigantic and prehistoric snapping turtle crawls laboriously out of the water to lay eggs on a stony slope.
SNAPPING TURTLE
Gigantic and prehistoric snapping turtle crawls laboriously out of the water to lay eggs on a stony slope.
In celebration of England’s patron saint, Saint George.
THE MALL, CENTRAL LONDON
Last night Iran launched a sustained drone missile attack on Israel. At this hour, reliable information is scarce but it would seem that most of the drones have been neutralised by the Israeli Air Force with the help of RAF jets based in Cyprus and those of the USN and USAF in the region. Apparently, the Iron Dome proved its worth once again. Below are a few photos I was fortunate to take a few years ago at the annual Israeli Air Force graduation ceremony in the Negev Desert near biblical Beer Sheva.
IRAELI F-35 FLIES OVER THE NEGEV DESERT
IRON DOME BATTERY
Jointly developed by Israel and the US, the Iron Dome is perhaps the world’s most sophisticated defensive missile system for the take down of incoming missiles and rockets. It has no offensive capability.
ISRAELI AIR FORCE GRADUATION CEREMONY, HATZERIM AIR BASE, NEGEV DESERT
Hats off (quite literally!) to the Israeli Air Force for a job well done!
Today is the running of the Grand National Race at Aintree, England. The spectacle will be viewed by 600 million people round the world. The race was introduced to a North American audience by the film National Velvet, starring Mickey Rooney and a young Liz Taylor. One of the biggest betting days in the UK as nearly everyone takes a “flutter” on the outcome. Good luck to all! Especially the “runners and riders”.
YOUNG LADIES IN THEIR BEST FINERY ON THEIR WAY TO THE BIG DAY.
MANCUNIANS CROWD RAILWAY PLATFORM ON THEIR WAY TO AINTREE.
I attended a briefing at the Macdonald Laurier Institute by legendary Canadian businessman Frank Stronach. Still going strong at 91, he gave a detailed and passionate plea for an Economic Charter for Canada.
Mr. Stronach regrets that the empire he built here as an immigrant in the 1950s could not be replicated in today’s Canada.
Details of his program which will be promoted by my old gym mate, Anthony Furey, are shown below:
The Rideau Skateway is suffering another sorry season of poor weather. Skating has only been allowed for a few days and limited to just a short stretch of the old Rideau Canal. Nevertheless, today is the great Kilt Skate day when Scots Canadians gather on a local ice rink here in Ottawa to express pride in their heritage.
Today on certain religious calendars is St. Stephen’s day, ie. the day Good King Wencelas and page marched through a snow storm to provide a surprise feast for a lowly peasant.
ST. STEPHEN’S GATE, TEMPLE MOUNT, JERUSALEM
According to legend, Saint Stephen was the first Christian to have been martyred. He was stoned to death in front of this gate which had been previously known as the Lion’s gate due to the artistic embellishments on both sides of the upper facade around the central arch.
Christmas Eve 2023
A time for counting one’s blessings and thoughtful reverence for the true spirit of Christmas. A time for reflecting on Christmas eves past which in my case go from the sublime to the ridiculous.
First the sublime. Attendance at Christmas evensong in King’s College, Cambridge with choral voices in four part harmony slicing through damp, dense air and resonating off cold stone, penetrating body as well as the soul. Or attending midnight service at Florence Nightingale’s old church on South Audley, London with a now departed love. So it is not by accident that I have become a fan of English Christmas chorales of the 18th and 19th centuries. This is music that only a proud, confident culture can produce with even, dare I say, a little swagger. Something totally missing in the fractured Anglosphere of today where even agents of the crown can label Christmas to be “discriminatory”.
Now the ridiculous! Never to be forgotten was the warmth of austere accommodation in Raxual, India one lonely Christmas eve halfway around the world. I had exited the Nepalese Himalaya’s crammed into the back of a dump truck with about 15 other pieces of assorted humanity. Upon crossing the border and reaching the railway station in Raxual, I had missed the last train and decided to pitch up for the night in the dirt of the railway platform. Fortunately I was spotted by a US Peace Corp worker who offered a basic lentil curry and accommodation in the darkness (no electricity!) of his humble abode. I can’t even remember his name but I remain eternally grateful for that act of Christian charity.
In the past few years the following, “In the Bleak Midwinter”, has pushed past my old reliable “Good King Wencelas” to become my favourite Christmas carol. Made all the more emotionally intense when I learned that the lyrics, a poem by Christina Rosetti, was set to music by Gustav Holst. Though not born there, Holst chose to live in Thaxted, Essex after his discovering it on a hike. Hiking in Essex, I know what that’s like! Thaxted was the first English village that I ever had the opportunity to explore in depth. My partner in crime was an older English tradesman, Alf, who delighted in showing me the hidden jewels of his rural Essex.
Below are some legacy photos of Thaxted that I took that day long, long ago!
THAXTED HIGH STREET BACK IN THE 60s
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL (especially Alf and that generous Peace Corps worker……wherever they may be!!)
Today is the 82 anniversary of the Japanese attack on the US Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
MEMORIAL TO THE BATTLE SHIP ARIZONA, PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII
With all the talk in the news of potential tunnel warfare in Gaza, I thought it timely to post a picture of myself in the Cu Chi tunnels during a tour of Vietnam a couple of decades back.
These non-fortified tunnels were carved out the earth by the Viet Cong about 30 feet below the surface. The light you see was from a camera flash otherwise the tunnel was completely black. As a veteran of several night dives in the Indo-Pacific, I thought I could handle claustrophobia quite well, but I was never so glad to finally crawl to the exit and see daylight again!! Not my kind of warfare!!!