LaurieAnnie's photos with the keyword: gray

Beautiful set of hand-made pottery feast gear by Lady Jenna Childslayer (SCA) of Ostgardr.

Two person "Smart Car" by Mercedes. Isn't it cute? Monreale (contraction of monte-reale, so-called from a palace built here by Roger I of Sicily) is a small city in the province of Palermo, in Sicily, Italy, on the slope of Monte Caputo, overlooking the beautiful and very fertile valley called "La Conca d'oro" (the Golden Shell), famed for its orange, olive and almond trees, the produce of which is exported in large quantities. The town has approximately 30,000 and is located 15 km (12 mi) south of Palermo. The town, which for long was a mere village, owed its origin to the founding of a large Benedictine monastery, with its church, the seat of the metropolitan archbishop of Sicily. Text (after the first paragraph) from: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monreale

Taken with a throw-away camera. There are two major branches to the tradition of the Mummers' Play (also known as mumming, and by various other regional names): firstly, the folk tradition of troupes of mummers performing theatre, sometimes in the street but more usually as house-to-house visits and in public houses; secondly, the more formal Christian Mystery plays. No firm conclusions have been come to regarding the etymology of the word "mummer". It is usually believed to have originated from the Middle English word mum which means "silent" (suggesting that the plays were originally silent pantomimes), though some people have suggested a connection with mommo, the Greek word for "mask", or mumme, the Danish word for "mask". Other possible relationships exist with the words "murmur" and "mutter". Mummers' and guisers' plays were formerly performed throughout most of Great Britain and Ireland, as well as in other English-speaking parts of the world including Newfoundland and Saint Kitts and Nevis. In England, there are a few surviving traditional teams, but there have been many revivals, often associated nowadays with Morris dance and Sword dance groups. Mummers and guisers can be traced back at least to the middle ages, though when the term "mummer" appears in ancient manuscripts it is rarely clear what sort of performance was involved. A key element was visiting people in disguise at Christmas. At one time, in the royal courts, special allegorical plays were written for the mummers each year - for instance at the court of Edward III, as shown in a 14th Century manuscript, now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. However, apart from being in rhyme, these plays were nothing like the current traditional plays, whose documented history only goes back as far as the mid-18th century. Although usually broadly comic performances, the plays seem to be based on underlying themes of duality and resurrection and generally involve a battle between two or more characters, perhaps representing good against evil. Usually they feature a doctor who has a magic potion which is able to resuscitate a slain character. In mummers’ plays, the central incident is the killing and restoring to life of one of the characters. First, the characters are introduced in a series of short speeches in which each personage has his own introductory announcement; then comes the drama. The principal characters, presented in a wide variety of manner and style, are a Hero, his chief opponent and a quack Doctor; the defining feature of mumming plays is the Doctor, and the main purpose of the fight is to provide him with a patient to cure. The hero sometimes kills and sometimes is killed by his opponent; in either case, the doctor comes to restore the dead man to life. The name of the hero is most commonly Saint George, King George, or Prince George. His principal opponents are the Turkish Knight (in southern England and Turkish Champion in Ireland), or a valiant soldier named Slasher (elsewhere). Other characters include: Old Father Christmas (who introduces some plays), Beelzebub, Little Devil Doubt (who demands money from the audience), Robin Hood (an alternative hero in the Cotswolds), Galoshin (a hero in Scotland), etc. Despite the frequent presence of Saint George, the Dragon rarely appears in these plays; the few instances can all be traced back to a Cornish script published by William Sandys in 1833. Occasionally, the performers will wear face-obscuring hats or other kinds of headgear, which create the impression of being masked. More often, mummers' faces are blackened or painted red by way of disguise. Many mummers and guisers, however, have no facial disguise at all. Local seasonal variants Although the main season for mumming throughout Britain was around Christmas, some parts of England had plays performed around All Souls' Day (known as Souling or soul-caking) or Easter (Pace-egging). In north-eastern England the plays are traditionally associated with Sword dances or Rapper

I admit, the cat was cute. The Roman amphitheatre, of Roman Imperial age [in Syracuse, Sicily]. It was partly carved out from the rock. In the centre of the area is a rectangular space which was used for the scenic machinery. Text from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syracuse,_Italy

Disneyland Haunted Mansion Pet Cemetery FREDDIE the Bat 1847 We'll Miss You OLD FLYBAIT He Croaked August 9 1869 ROSIE She was a poor little Pig but she bought the Farm 1849 BUDDY OUR FRIEND UNTIL THE END Beloved Lilac Long on Curiosity... Short on Common Scents 1847 There is a cat surrounded by little mouse grave markers. One that says "Fi Fi"

The Jungle Cruise was one of the twenty-two attractions operating at Disneyland on its opening day (July 17, 1955). In celebration of Disneyland's 50th anniversary, the Disneyland version of the attraction features one gold-painted riverboat, which is the Congo Queen. The attraction is a riverboat journey through the jungles of Asia, Africa and South America. The boat's Skipper provides humorous narration featuring puns relating to the various scenes viewed during the ride. The seemingly ad-libbed comments individual skippers now often include during their recitations make each ride on the Jungle Cruise a substantially different experience. The original spiel, however, is legendary among Disney fans. Competitions in which they compete to say the seven-minute spiel the fastest have been held. Disneyland's version includes a piranha attack scene as well as some explosive effects in a scene where gorillas are ransacking a camp and throwing dynamite into the river. Disneyland Grand opening: July 17, 1955 (Opened with Disneyland Park) Designer: WED Enterprises Size: 5 acres Major refurbishments: 6 1962 - Indian Elephant pool 1964 - African Veldt and Lost Safari scenes 1993 - Additions to the attraction 1994 - Boathouse queue 1995 - Rerouting of river to make room for The Indiana Jones Adventure 2005 - Rebuilding of areas of the attraction and addition of Piranhas and updates to Trashed Camp Boats: 12 Amazon Belle Congo Queen (Painted gold for Disneyland's 50th anniversary) Ganges Gal Hondo Hattie Irrawaddy Woman Kissimmee Kate Nile Princess Orinoco Adventuress Swannee Lady Ucayali Una Yangtze Lotus Zambezi Miss Boat Names Decommissioned in 1999: 2 Magdalena Maiden Mekong Maiden Required ticket: "C" (1955-1956) "D" (1956-1959) "E" (1959-1982) Ride system: Boat Ride Text from: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungle_Cruise

Here it is, the rental car that I drove in Sicily in 2005. It was made of plastic (no kidding!) and didn't have a "park" gear, so it had to be put in neutral with the parking brake engaged to get it to stop. Now, try that on dirt roads, tight alleyways in mountain towns, and little winding paths. :)

26 Wall Street was the site of New York City's 18th century City Hall. Here John Peter Zenger was jailed, tried, and acquitted of libel for exposing government corruption in his newspaper, an early victory for freedom of the press. City Hall hosted the Stamp Act Congress, which assembled in October 1765, to protest "taxation without representation." After the American Revolution, the Continental Congress met at City Hall, and in 1787 adopted the Northwest Ordinance establishing procedures for creating new states. When the Constitution was ratified in 1788, New York remained the national capital. Pierre L'Enfant was commissioned to remodel City Hall for the new federal government. The First Congress met in the new Federal Hall, and wrote the Bill of Rights, and George Washington was inaugurated here as President on April 30, 1789. When the capital moved to Philadelphia in 1790, the building again housed city government until 1812, at which time Federal Hall was demolished. The current structure on the site was built as the Customs House, opening in 1842. In 1862, Customs moved to 55 Wall Street and the building became the U. S. Sub-Treasury. Millions of dollars of gold and silver were kept in the basement vaults until the Federal Reserve Bank replaced the Sub-Treasury system in 1920. Text from: www.nps.gov/feha/

St. Mary's church is located just across the street from the Museum of Welsh Life, and was an extra treat to get to see. St Mary’s, a grade B listed building of Norman foundation, is a beautiful parish church with an interesting co-mixture of architectural styles, and is greatly in demand by wedding couples, who love to be pictured in a pony and trap outside the lych gate, with the church tower in the background. Text of the second paragraph from: mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/stfagansparish

Samuel F. B. Morse: E72 [Unveiled 1871] 1791-1872 b. Charlestown, Mass. • d. New York, N.Y. Sculptor: Byron M. Picket At the entrance of Inventor's Gate on the east side of Central Park at 72nd Street, is the appropriately placed statue of Samuel Morse, an American painter and inventor. He is standing next to his most renowned invention, the electric telegraph. With one hand on his invention the other displays a strip of Morse Code. He was also a founder and first President of the National Academy of Design established in 1825. Dedicated to artists for the sole purpose of instruction and exhibition, the Academy's commitment to this goal still persists. Text from: www.centralpark2000.com/database/morse.html

Hempstead House, one of the "Gold Coast" mansions on the North Shore of Long Island, New York. Inside the foyer of Hempstead House, one glimpse of the imposing vaulted ceiling stirs the imagination of a grand lifestyle that once existed at this Gold Coast estate. Even though the house is no longer furnished, its architecture provides a hint of an elegant time long gone. In its heyday in the 1920s, Hempstead House revealed a taste for extravagance. In the Entry Foyer was an organ made of oak. The pipes still visible on the walls above were merely for show - the music reverberated through openings in the floors. Medieval tapestries once hung on the walls, and oriental carpets covered the floor. The sunken Palm Court once contained 150 species of rare orchids and other plants. An aviary housed exotic birds in ornate cages among the flowers. The walnut-paneled Library was copied from the palace of King James I; relief portraits of literary figures still decorate the plaster ceiling. The Billiard Room featured a gold leaf ceiling, hand-tooled leather wall coverings, and carved oak woodwork from a 17th century Spanish palace. Even now, stone gargoyles around the ceiling peer down from above in the Summer Living Room. Other decorative features of the house during the Guggenheims’ occupancy included stained and leaded glass, red velvet draperies, Flemish tapestries, and artwork by Rembrandt, Van Dyck, and Rubens. In its prime, the estate employed 17 house servants, numerous farmers and groundskeepers, a golf pro, tennis pro, and a riding master. After Daniel passed away, his wife turned the buildings over to the Navy for a training center. During the late 1940s, extensive changes were made to the interior. The Palm Court’s original leaded glass roof was removed, and acoustic tile and fluorescent lighting were installed to conform to Navy code. At present, most of the Navy’s modifications have been removed and Hempstead House is now operated by the Nassau County Department of Parks, Recreation and Museums Text from: www.sandspointpreserve.org/htm/hempstead.htm

Hempstead House, one of the "Gold Coast" mansions on the North Shore of Long Island, New York. Inside the foyer of Hempstead House, one glimpse of the imposing vaulted ceiling stirs the imagination of a grand lifestyle that once existed at this Gold Coast estate. Even though the house is no longer furnished, its architecture provides a hint of an elegant time long gone. In its heyday in the 1920s, Hempstead House revealed a taste for extravagance. In the Entry Foyer was an organ made of oak. The pipes still visible on the walls above were merely for show - the music reverberated through openings in the floors. Medieval tapestries once hung on the walls, and oriental carpets covered the floor. The sunken Palm Court once contained 150 species of rare orchids and other plants. An aviary housed exotic birds in ornate cages among the flowers. The walnut-paneled Library was copied from the palace of King James I; relief portraits of literary figures still decorate the plaster ceiling. The Billiard Room featured a gold leaf ceiling, hand-tooled leather wall coverings, and carved oak woodwork from a 17th century Spanish palace. Even now, stone gargoyles around the ceiling peer down from above in the Summer Living Room. Other decorative features of the house during the Guggenheims’ occupancy included stained and leaded glass, red velvet draperies, Flemish tapestries, and artwork by Rembrandt, Van Dyck, and Rubens. In its prime, the estate employed 17 house servants, numerous farmers and groundskeepers, a golf pro, tennis pro, and a riding master. After Daniel passed away, his wife turned the buildings over to the Navy for a training center. During the late 1940s, extensive changes were made to the interior. The Palm Court’s original leaded glass roof was removed, and acoustic tile and fluorescent lighting were installed to conform to Navy code. At present, most of the Navy’s modifications have been removed and Hempstead House is now operated by the Nassau County Department of Parks, Recreation and Museums Text from: www.sandspointpreserve.org/htm/hempstead.htm

Pottery Goshen, Connecticut, c. 1819 Moved to OSV, 1961 Kiln built by OSV, 1979 Earthenware production,, usually as a part-time activity, has been practiced in rural agricultural communities for thousands of years. Into the middle of the 19th century, the farmer-potter was a presence in the New England countryside. Hervey Brooks (1779-1873) came to the town of Goshen as a 16-year-old apprentice in 1795 and practiced the potter’s craft there until 1873. In restoring his pottery shop and re-creating a working version of his kiln, Old Sturbridge Village researchers have drawn on his detailed accounts from 1802-73 and undertaken extensive archaeological studies of the original site. As a potter, Brooks spent his early years working primarily for other craftsmen. He crafted some 26 different varieties and sizes of jugs, bowls, pitchers, and platters. After 1819 he worked for himself and began by producing such a backlog of wares that he did not fire a kiln again for eight years. Then, from 1828 on, Brooks regularly made and fired one kiln load of ware each year between June and November—most commonly producing milk pans, cooking pots, and jugs. Throughout his life he devoted most of his time to his own farm and labor for others, including haying, chopping and hauling wood, hoeing potatoes, grafting apple trees, shingling, splitting rails, and even some blacksmithing. Brooks sold some of his redware to country stores on contract, and he exchanged smaller lots with his neighbors for goods and services. However, increasing competition from tinware producers and local population decline gradually eroded Brooks’s market. Brooks hung on long after virtually all the rest of New England’s redware potters had given up the craft, burning his last kiln of ware in 1864. Excerpted from Old Sturbridge Village Visitor's Guide © 1993-2004, Old Sturbridge Inc. Text from the Old Sturbridge Village Web Site: www.osv.org/

At Union Turnpike and Queens Blvd. you will also find "Fat Boy," or, more properly, Civic Virtue. It's probably the most over-the-top classically-themed public sculpture in New York City; only the Bailey Fountain, in Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, comes close in ebullience. A massive statue depicting a nude muscular youth (depicting virtue) with a club slung over his right shoulder; at his feet writhe two nude mermaids (depicting vice). When Frederick MacMonnies created it from a single block of marble in 1919 and it was placed in Manhattan’s City Hall Park, it engendered no end of a hue and cry from offended feminists, prudes, and heavy hitters such as Charles Norton, President of Harvard University. Such a sensual depiction would not stand! Not in virtuous Manhattan. Eventually, in 1941, it was packed up, mermaids and all, and shipped to the Queens’ Borough Hall Plaza, where, presumably, right-thinking people wouldn’t see it. Text from: www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET SCENES/queensblvd2/qblvd2.html

At Union Turnpike and Queens Blvd. you will also find "Fat Boy," or, more properly, Civic Virtue. It's probably the most over-the-top classically-themed public sculpture in New York City; only the Bailey Fountain, in Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, comes close in ebullience. A massive statue depicting a nude muscular youth (depicting virtue) with a club slung over his right shoulder; at his feet writhe two nude mermaids (depicting vice). When Frederick MacMonnies created it from a single block of marble in 1919 and it was placed in Manhattan’s City Hall Park, it engendered no end of a hue and cry from offended feminists, prudes, and heavy hitters such as Charles Norton, President of Harvard University. Such a sensual depiction would not stand! Not in virtuous Manhattan. Eventually, in 1941, it was packed up, mermaids and all, and shipped to the Queens’ Borough Hall Plaza, where, presumably, right-thinking people wouldn’t see it. Text from: www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET SCENES/queensblvd2/qblvd2.html

At Union Turnpike and Queens Blvd. you will also find "Fat Boy," or, more properly, Civic Virtue. It's probably the most over-the-top classically-themed public sculpture in New York City; only the Bailey Fountain, in Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, comes close in ebullience. A massive statue depicting a nude muscular youth (depicting virtue) with a club slung over his right shoulder; at his feet writhe two nude mermaids (depicting vice). When Frederick MacMonnies created it from a single block of marble in 1919 and it was placed in Manhattan’s City Hall Park, it engendered no end of a hue and cry from offended feminists, prudes, and heavy hitters such as Charles Norton, President of Harvard University. Such a sensual depiction would not stand! Not in virtuous Manhattan. Eventually, in 1941, it was packed up, mermaids and all, and shipped to the Queens’ Borough Hall Plaza, where, presumably, right-thinking people wouldn’t see it. Text from: www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET SCENES/queensblvd2/qblvd2.html