Britain’s smallest police Station : Did you know that located rather surreptitiously at the south - east corner of Trafalgar Square is a rather peculiar and often overlooked world record holder ; world record holder ; Britain’s Smallest Police Station . Apparently this tiny box can accommodate up
To two prisoners at a time , although it’s main purpose was to hold a single police officer….think of it as a CCTV camera.
Built in 1926 so that the Metropolitan Police could keep an eye on the more troublesome demonstrators, the story behind its construction is also rather secretive . At the end of WWl , a temporary police box just outside of the Trafalgar Square tube station was due to be renovated and made more permanent. However , due to public objections this was scrapped and instead it was decided to build a less “objectionable “ police box . The venue? Inside an ornamental light fitting !
Once the light fitting was hollowed out it was then installed with a set of narrow windows in order to provide a vistas across the main square. Also installed was a direct phone line back to Scotland Yard in case reinforcements were needed in times of trouble. In fact , whenever the police phone was picked up , the ornamental light fitting at the top of the box started to flash , alerting any nearby officers on duty that trouble was near .
Today the box is no longer used by the Police and is instead used as a broom cupboard for Westminster Council cleaners !
This is one of the closest images to the surface of Planet Mercury. It was taken by the Messenger Spacecraft on a close flight to the planet.
Fantasmagorie, The Kuka Clown
Real Name: Fantasmagorie
Alias: Kuka Crewman #301908
(----Powers----)
Cartoon Mimicry; Clown Physiology; Living Art; An earlier version of Cartoon Physics; Power via Objects & Ring Empowerment and finally Gadget Usage.
(----Equipment----)
- A Kuka Crewman's Plasma Ring -
A piece of jewelry from The Super-Sargasso Sea's Kuka Crew that grants the wearer incredible and incomprehensible powers and abilities by harnessing the energies that permeate the Super-Sargasso Sea via the green Szemetite gem in the ring. When the ring is fully charged, the ring can grant it's wearer Plasma Manipulation & Garbage Manipulation.
Also this ring's connection to The Super-Sargasso Sea allows it's bearer to open portals that are about normal adult human size into The Sea from the universe they are in to not only remove the trash they are cleaning up from that universe and the reverse, but also travel from their universe, to The Sea, and into a different universe all together.
And finally, these rings have a miniaturized built-in version of The Rubbish - 2 - Energy Converter. Meaning that the ring can fire a beam that can convert the garbage and other forms of debris it targets into a form of "Trash Plasma" that is then absorbed by the ring for the bearer to use as a power source. However the rings have a set limit to how much energy they can absorb before the ring explodes from the strain and take the bearer's arm with it.
While the Plasma Rings are fine with cleaning most normal messes and regular criminals, they are rather limited in strength on their own when it comes to tackling much tougher & bigger messes and even much more powerful criminals and even beings that could easily kill a normal Crewman.
To compensate for this, The Kuka Crew's researchers & engineers have developed various different kinds of equipment that uses The Plasma Rings as more of a rechargeable battery source and they augment the Trash Plasma the rings create for functions that best suit the job at hand.
- Kuka Crew Uniform -
Special custom uniforms for each individual Crewman. These suits are modified to be powered by the rings themselves and grants then adequate protection from normal forms of damage and from the various contaminants one can experience while on the job.
While the suits on their own can create a barrier that can properly shield it's wielder against things like normal bullets, a hand grenade or a single bundle of dynamite, they are pretty much too weak to protect against things like multiple bundles of dynamite, most forms of superhuman strength, a Hydrogen Bomb or god forbid an attack that eradicates an entire country off the face of the planet.
- Kuka-Issued Multi-Lingual Earpiece -
A standard piece of equipment that translates the various languages that can be found in various universes, allowing the various members who have their own languages and dialects to properly communicate with each other and the different beings of various universes.
- The Trash Plasma Jetpack -
A standard-issue jetpack designed to be powered by Trash Plasma that allows the wearer added mobility and can allow them to use the pack for long distance leaps, sustained flight, elevation and even using the rockets as a means of attack.
(----Appearances----)
First Appearance: Fantasmagorie by Émile Cohl (1908)
Reboot Appearance: Deviantart (8//2022)
For those wondering what these powers are and what they do, click the link below to go to the Superpower Wiki to find out.
powerlisting.fandom.com/wiki/S…
(----Writer's Notes----)
Well here's a character that I talked about in my first use of my "This is a Kuka Crew Member Template."
To quote from the first link:
(---"And as for those who have no idea who this character is, this clown cartoon is actually the second oldest animated cartoon character in human history. The oldest being the characters from 1906's Humorous Phases of Funny Faces.
This is probably one of the easiest characters to draw since this clown is so simple and I wouldn't have to change his design too much. Also this character is the first French character I added to The Super-Sargasso Sea, so if this character would speak it would speak his native tongue until he got his own Plasma Ring & Earpiece which does allow him to speak and understand the languages of those around him.
Plus this version of the character will have some of the earliest forms of Cartoon Physics to go alongside his newly received ring. However he doesn't have the same kind of zaniness that future versions of cartoons have, so he's a bit more limited in how he can use said Cartoon Physics along with the fact that he doesn't have as smooth an animation as future cartoons do since he was animated in what was called "Stop Motion Photography" at the time.
So yeah, just imagine this little guy essentially meeting what are basically his descendants as part of his job as a Kuka Crewman. Though he could end up getting along well with The Kuka Boys since the they are basically living drawings."---) Unquote.
As for how this clown ended up in The Kuka Crew. Well after the ending of his short film, he ended up taken from his universe and ended up in The Super-Sargasso Sea. Specifically in a local branch of The Kuka Crew that has other Crewmen I mentioned before like The Kuka Boys, Jake Jenkins, and Green Champion. Though at first since the majority of people in that local branch speak English, Fantasmagorie couldn't really understand them since he only understood French. So he had to be provided an Earpiece and his own Plasma Ring to power it. Though when the ring has been slipped on his finger, it changed his colors from white to green lines. And when he did end up joining the crew, he did have to take some English classes to learn how to read English as while the Earpiece translates spoken language it doesn't translate what's written down. And it would be rather difficult for Fantasmagorie to be given written orders and he can't read what's written down.
This version of Fantasmagorie is an open source character created specifically for use by anyone. Feel free to use it any way you wish. You must also give creator credit.
Apotropaic (or witch marks) were common forms of protection for your house. These carved designs are usually found by doorways, windows, fireplaces or anywhere that evil spirits might enter the home. The marks can take various forms but most commonly you will find a daisy pattern. It was thought that once the evil spirit became entangled within the circles it would never escape. It wasn't just houses that used this type of protection from evil, many religious buidings also have them. The second photo, showing a less common pattern, was found at Bath Abbey a few years ago during renovation work. They're commonly found in buildings between the medieval period through to the 19th century, but many date from much earlier.
The use of these magical symbols was commonplace at that time, along with other methods to protect the home from evil. Even today, it's not that unusual for various items to be found hidden within a building during renovation work (within walls, under the floor, beneath a hearth stone etc). Recorded items from various buildings include shoes, dolls, cats, witch bottles (containing pins, human hair etc), and even a horse's skull.
In Scots Gaelic folklore, the 'làbh-allan' is not unlike a giant rat. It lives in deep pools in rivers, and produces a poisonous vapour said to be able to incapacitate it's prey from over one hundred feet away!
During the Middle Ages in Britain and Europe, small children worked as crow-scarers. Their job was to run around in the fields, clapping blocks of wood together to frighten away birds that might eat the grain.
When the Black Plague wiped out nearly the entire populations of some towns, it was said that the living spent most of their time burying the dead in mass graves:
“We see death coming into our midst like black smoke, a plague which cuts off the young, a rootless phantom which has no mercy or fair countenance.”
~Jeuan Gethin, Welsh poet
So with a scarcity of children, farmers resorted to stuffing old clothes with straw, placing a turnip or gourd on top, and mounting the figures in the fields… essentially the first European scarecrows.
—The Scarecrow (1925) Douglas Percy Bliss
Well that really was a very bad night!
Yesterday afternoon after watching a movie with Candy, I went to sleep at 15:40, and I did not wake up until 21:24, I was shivering cold and I was late taking my meds and insulin, which I did do in the end. Candy covered me up with a blanket as I was freezing but I had a very high temp of 38.4 (my standard is always 36.6) I went back to sleep as I was feeling really crappy and did not wake up until 8am this morning.
I am still dizzy and my temp has reduced down to 37.4 and I still feel like shit. So I know I have an infection from my stump but there is no way I am going to hospital as it's pointless.
Last year when I went in, they refused to do a swab as it will be an internal operation procedure and they also refused to change my bandages! So I can always have an IV drip while I am at home and a booster antibiotics meds as well. At least I am not being sick as I am not eating either.
So fingers crossed, I will get better soon.
Well that was a shit show of a District Nurses session. 30 min max for both of my stumps.
I explained how ill I've been this weekend and they were not bothered, there reply was phone up 111 instead of them, which is bullshit, as I've phoned them before and they told me to 999 as I was not an emergency, and than 999 told me to ring up 111 as I was not an emergency for them either! It takes the piss living up here in North Yorkshire.
I told the nurses about my high temp, they did not care. I told them that my left stump smells but they could not smell anything! I said try living with this 24/7...Shrugged shoulders were the reply.
I asked them to come three times a week, they won't as they don't see any problem with it, despite my bandages being soaked! I said to them that they need to listen to me as the patient and work with my needs...Shrugged shoulders again.
After they did their job, they left a puddle of water on the floor and I asked them to grab a kitchen roll tissue and clean up after themselves, "Can't Candy do it?" I said NO, you made the mess, you clean up after yourselves! They got arsy and moaned but they did it anyway!
CHRIST ON A FUCKING STICK! HUMANS!
This is why I hate a lot of people! It is like talking to a brick wall at times with these people.
So no extra help during the week, I will have to wait until tomorrow to try and get antibiotics as the GP surgery is closed today (I did not know it was a bank holiday), I might have to ask Candy to help out again if I leak tomorrow. 🙁
Inventor J. Lehaitre rides the Tractor-Cycle in 1938.
Milky Way bending over the Burj Al-Khalifa.
Back in 1966, Point Pleasant, West Virginia—located at the confluence of the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers—was a sleepy town of a couple thousand people. But it was rocked by an unidentifiable visitor on November 12, 1966, when gravediggers at a cemetery in Clendenin, West Virginia, about 80 miles from Point Pleasant, claimed to see a man with wings lift off from a tree and fly over their heads. Three days later, two young couples were driving together near an abandoned World War II TNT plant about five miles north of Point Pleasant when they saw a “large flying man with 10-foot wings,” and eyes that “glowed red.” They tried to flee the unidentified animal, speeding down the road at a reported 100 miles per hour, but the creature followed them back to Point Pleasant city limits. They were so spooked by their experience that they went directly to the police. Newspapers dubbed the creature Mothman. The national press picked up the story, and Mothman became a sensation.
Over the following week, there were at least 8 more reported sightings in and around Point Pleasant of a man-like bird with large wings. One such account came from volunteer firefighters Captain Paul Yoder and Benjamin Enochs. According to the Gettysburg Times, Yoder and Enochs claimed to have seen a “very large bird with large red eyes.”
Others refuted the sightings, believing that residents of Point Pleasant were actually seeing a sandhill crane that had wandered out of its normal migration route. “There were hundreds of eyewitnesses,” says Jeff Wamsley, owner of Point Pleasant’s Mothman Museum. Born and raised in town, Wamsley was only five years old when the Mothman showed up and began terrorizing his neighbors.
Over the following year, the oddities continued. Reports of UFOs and suspicious men in black began streaming in to the Point Pleasant authorities. And the Mothman sightings continued.
Then, ten days before Christmas in 1967, tragedy struck. While the Silver Bridge that connected Point Pleasant to Gallipolis, Ohio was teeming with rush-hour traffic, the bridge collapsed, killing 46 people. Reportedly, some claimed to have seen the Mothman at the bridge shortly before its collapse and believed its presence was a harbinger of doom.
“The fact that the UFO sightings, men in black presence, and the Silver Bridge disaster all happened during the Mothman sightings intrigues many people,” says Wamsley. “It’s a fascinating turn of events for a small town like Point Pleasant.”
For his part, Wamsley does believe that the people of Point Pleasant encountered something out of the ordinary. “I just don’t believe that many people could have made up the same story,” says Wamsley, “but what it was they saw, I don’t believe will ever be truly explained or solved.”
A brownie or broonie (Scots), also known as a brùnaidh or gruagach (Scottish Gaelic), is a household spirit or Hobgoblin from Scottish folklore that is said to come out at night while the owners of the house are asleep and perform various chores and farming tasks. The human owners of the house must leave a bowl of milk or cream or some other offering for the brownie, usually by the hearth. Brownies are described as easily offended and will leave their homes forever if they feel they have been insulted or in any way taken advantage of. Brownies are characteristically mischievous and are often said to punish or pull pranks on lazy servants. If angered, they are sometimes said to turn malicious, like boggarts.
Brownies originated as domestic tutelary spirits, very similar to the Lares of ancient Roman tradition. Descriptions of brownies vary regionally, but they are usually described as ugly, brown-skinned, and covered in hair. In the oldest stories, they are usually human-sized or larger. In more recent times, they have come to be seen as small and wizened. They are often capable of turning invisible and they sometimes appear in the shapes of animals. They are always either naked or dressed in rags. If a person attempts to present a brownie with clothing or if a person attempts to baptize him, he will leave forever.
Although the name brownie originated as a dialectal word used only in the UK, it has since become the standard term for all such creatures throughout the UK and Ireland. Regional variants in England and Scotland include hobs, silkies, and ùruisgs. Variants outside England and Scotland are the Welsh Bwbach and the Manx Fenodyree. Brownies have also appeared outside of folklore, including in John Milton's poem L'Allegro. They became popular in works of children's literature in the late nineteenth century and continue to appear in works of modern fantasy. The Brownies in the Girl Guides are named after a short story by Juliana Horatia Ewing based on brownie folklore.
Origins
Brownies originated as domestic tutelary spirits, very similar to the Lares of ancient Roman tradition, who were envisioned as the protective spirits of deceased ancestors. Brownies and Lares are both regarded as solitary and devoted to serving the members of the house. Both are said to be hairy and dress in rags and both are said to demand offerings of food or dairy. Like Lares, brownies were associated with the dead and a brownie is sometimes described as the ghost of a deceased servant who once worked in the home. The Cauld Lad of Hilton, for instance, was reputed to be the ghost of a stable boy who was murdered by one of the Lords of Hilton Castle in a fit of passion. Those who saw him described him as a naked boy. He was said to clean up anything that was untidy and make messes of things that were tidy. The Menehune of Hawaiian folklore have been compared to brownies as well, seeing they are portrayed as a race of dwarf people who carry out work during night time.
The family cult of deceased ancestors in ancient times centred around the hearth, which later became the place where offerings would be left for the brownie. The most significant difference between brownies and Lares is that, while Lares were permanently bound to the house in which they lived, brownies are seen as more mobile, capable of leaving or moving to another house if they became dissatisfied. One story describes a brownie who left the house after the stingy housewife fired all the servants because the brownie was doing all the work and refused to return until all the servants had been re-hired.
This is an illustration by Alice B Woodward of a brownie, a tutelary spirit from English and Scottish folklore, said to reside in old homes and perform chores in exchange for offerings of milk or cream.
Swords in stone.. Outside Stavanger in Norway.
All three are 30 feet high.
Bailong elevator in China, the tallest outdoor lift or elevator in the world.
It’s 326m tall and can take tourists to the mountain peak in 2minutes!
This evening I finished watching season 1 of Stargirl on Amazon Prime.
It's a DC live action superhero series starring the title character Stargirl and the formation of the brand new Justice Society of America.
It's actually one of the better superhero shows out there, apart from The Flash.
I have read some of the old comics starring Stargirl, and the JSA, and they did a decent job with this series. Plus it's from the creator Geoff Johns as well.
I will rate this first season a score of 9/10.
I am going to start watching season 2 tomorrow night now!
In traditional English folklore children born at the 'chime hours' - three, six, nine or twelve - have special abilities to see things that others cannot.
The oldest picture of the Pied Piper copied from the glass window of the Market Church in Hameln/Hamelin Germany (c.1300-1633).
Last night I finished watching season 2 of this great intelligent mystery series on Disney+
This is not as good as the first season, but still bloody funny and inventive.
I am looking forward to watching season 3 with Paul Rudd guest starring as the murder victim.
I shall rate this series a score of 9/10.
..the wily trickster, Roman God and Patron Saint of shopkeepers, merchants, travellers, transporters of goods, thieves, regarded as the most clever of the Olympian Gods..
The oldest door from 115 AD. still in use in Pantheon, Rome, Italy.
Made of bronze, seven and a half feet wide (each door) & twenty-five feet high but a single person can pushed or pulled to open it easily.
The lock also 2000 years old and still working.
I've just finished watching this Superhero movie on Paramount+
Now folks, remember it is a kids movie with humour, flashy special effects, action, and silly situations. It's basically Spy Kids for the Superhero generation, which is not a bad thing.
Owen Wilson as the hero is alright, when he appears in it, but the star quality is the young Walker Scobell as the main kid and son of Owen's character. Walker did a quality performance in the Ryan Reynolds sci-fi movie "The Adam Project."
The main bad guy is Michael Pena who is a funny bloke with the right script.
The tech and the Headquarters is pretty cool and I think most kids would love to have this in their basement.
If you like lighthearted superhero films, then watch this by yourself or if you have a family, then watch it with them with some popcorn and enjoy yourselves.
I will personally rate this fun movie a score of 6/10.
The Fae are sweeping through into our reality.
Working at home through the pandemic has been a lonely experience, and you’ve grown to hate the silence, but after months of it you’ve grown to hate your own playlists too. So, you’ve tried the radio, wanting the comfort of voices and music as you work when most of the human contact you’ve had has been in the form of notifications on email and chat. In short order, most of the stations you’ve tried annoy you: the music is not to your taste, or it’s all songs you’ve been listening to anyway, or the voices grate in that over-enthusiastic DJ kind of way, dripping with insincerity. You think about finding internet radio stations, but the choice overwhelms you.
One day though, impatient and fed up you thumb the button on your radio to scan for stations and it arrives at a news broadcast with politicians failing to answer a question so you thumb it again and then at a station that tells you you’re about to hear Mumford and Sons in session so you thumb it again, and then it stops at a station and it’s a song you don’t know, but really like all the same, you leave it there.
And there the radio stays, because finally you’ve found something that you like. Lots of songs you’ve not heard, by bands you’re not familiar with, but which sound like they’ve listened to bands you loved before you played them to death and then added something new. Soft, easy voices, as if the whole broadcast is late at night, and the world is quiet.
It must be a local station, but it’s not for your area, because you don’t recognise the place names that they mention on the traffic and the local news and weather, but that doesn’t matter, in a way it’s better, because it doesn’t evoke your memories of when you could travel to work, see people, see places.
Then after a song that had you typing on your laptop keyboard in time, the news announcer, voice still low and calm. They talk about traffic delays on the Lichway ring road, avoid that route, try a different way like the bypass heading towards Wicksea. Two more songs, and then the announcer breaks in halfway through the second. A serious chemical spill, authorities are warning everyone to stay away from the area, close windows and doors, if you are driving and see what looks like smoke or fog, turn around.
Another song, another interruption, the calm gone. Reports coming in from listeners stuck in traffic, cut off part way through and just noise. One caller, ranting about the hill above the Lichway ring road having opened. No, what he says at the end, before the call is lost is, “They made it open but now they can’t close it.”
You stop writing the email you’re in the middle of, asking someone to reply to your email about the email that someone else sent about a different email, and you bring up the BBC news website. Nothing. The Guardian, the Times, nothing. You think about finding local news, realise you don’t know which region you’re looking for, so you go to Google Maps, but Lichway, nothing, Wicksea, nothing, St Wulfrun-in-the-Vale nothing, Holswell nothing, East Darmhurst, nothing.
The announcer tells everyone please, run. And if you can’t run, hide in doors. And hold your loved ones tight. The hill has opened. It is coming.
Then the broadcast stops.
You fiddle with the radio, tune up, tune down, but you can’t find it. You never find it, and it never comes back.
You decide it’s an elaborate prank and wonder that the authorities allowed it, wait for the fuss in the papers, this year’s War of the Worlds, but there is nothing, not this week, not next. You shake your head and mourn the music and go back to Spotify, hoping to find something new, and go back to emails and reports and spreadsheets and spreadsheets and spreadsheets.
But in your dreams, every now and then, you dream of smoke rolling down from moorland as if it’s on fire, and in the smoke there is a shadow, a huge shadow and it comes closer to you, and then you wake, covered in sweat. Later when you can travel again you will be on a train and look out at the countryside passing by and just for a moment, as the early morning winter sun just climbs above a hill on the moor, you will see another landscape, overlaid on the first as if on tracing paper, a small town whose streets are deserted, cars empty in the road, their doors open.
Then the train passes through a short tunnel and when you come out of the other side it is gone, and you just put it down to lack of sleep, because you sleep so badly these days.
Crows, Ravens, Jackdaws, and Rooks. The birds of the Corvus genus is spread globally, and they're fairly common creatures. Being jet black in colour, you can imagine they've had quite the impact on folklore, myth and legend.
They often appear as tricksters and villains in legends, and seeing them is often seen as a sign of impending bad luck. Certainly, seeing how many of them there are in some parts of the world, you'd probably be better off smashing mirrors under ladders while thirteen black cats run in little circles around you.
In Celtic mythology the Warrior Goddess Morrighan takes the form of a crow, and will frequently be seen watching battle. Welsh legends often have the crow appear as a sign of doom or death.
In Native American folklore, the intelligence of crows is usually portrayed as their most important feature. In some tribes, the crow is conflated with the raven, a larger cousin of the crow that shares many of the same characteristics.
In Native American mythology, the crow or raven is the trickster, or the character who effects transformation of one thing into another. They are endemic to creation mythology. In some tribes they are recognised as the stealers (or collectors) of souls.
Norse mythology has more detail, and Odin has two crows who act as his spies. They are named Huginn and Munnin - Thought and Memory - and are an important subset of the Norse pantheon.
Australian Aboriginal mythology, legends relating to Crow have been observed in various Aboriginal language groups and cultures across Australia; these commonly include stories relating to Crow's role in the theft of fire, the origin of death, and the killing of Eagle's son.
In Sweden, ravens are held to be the ghosts of murdered men.
Just seeing a crow isn't necessarily a concern. How many you see is also often a consideration:
Seeing just a single crow is considered an omen of bad luck. Finding two crows, however, means good luck. Three crows mean health, and four crows mean wealth. Yet spotting five crows means sickness is coming, and witnessing six crows means death is nearby.
The Roman poet Ovid saw the crow as a harbinger of rain
Pliny The Elder noted how the Thessalians, Illyrians, and Lemnians cherished jackdaws for destroying grasshoppers' eggs (But he also thought Hedgehogs collected apples by stabbing them with their spines, so... you know... take that with a grain of salt.)
In Greek legend, princess Arne was bribed with gold by King Minos of Crete and was punished for her avarice by being transformed into an equally avaricious jackdaw
In England, it is said that the Tower of London, and the Kingdom, will fall if any harm befalls the resident ravens.
Their observably high levels of intelligence and complex social structures make most Corvus adaptable and opportunistic.
They're well-known to cause damage to crops and property, spread rubbish, and transfer disease. In densely populated areas around the world, corvus are generally regarded as nuisance animals.
They've been shown to be clever problem-solvers, and they can plan ahead, which is more than many animals - especially animals with brains as small as your average bird.
I like them. They're happy-go-lucky scamps.
A remarkable sight to behold. 😮 Centuripe, Enna, Sicily, Italy. 🇮🇹 A town with a bit more than 5.000 people. It was an Ancient Greek fortress. Romans were there too in order to mine ancient raw materials as flint and jasper. Most likely will be the “the last man standing” in our planet
The Hodag is a cryptid creature of folklore that originated in the state of Wisconsin in late 1800’s. The location of origin comes from the city of Rhinelander which is located in the upper north of the state.
The story goes that in 1893, a creature was discovered that had a reputation for disrupting the work of the lumberjacks in the area. It was extremely vicious and enjoyed snatching up and eating the white bulldogs in the area. Reports of the creature describe it as having the “head of a frog, the grin of a giant elephant, short and thick legs that were adorned with huge claws, the back belonging to a dinosaur, and a long tail covered with spears at the end.” The reports to the newspapers and people of the area were instigated by a well-known Wisconsin land surveyor and prankster by the name of Eugene Shepard.
The last inhabitants of St.kilda
Early on the morning of 29 August 1930, the last 36 residents began the evacuation from St Kilda, a group of islands 110 miles off the west coast of Scotland that had been lived on for thousands of years.
Three hours later, 13 men, 10 women and 13 children were aboard the ship that would take them away from their homes forever.
They left because they were concerned they would not last another winter on the barren North Atlantic archipelago, which was virtually cut off from the mainland for nine months of the year by rough seas and winds.
For the 90th anniversary, author Elisabeth Gifford has pieced together the stories of those who lived in each of the 16 cottages along the village street on Hirta. The largest of the islands, it was the only one that was still inhabited in 1930.
By the time of the evacuation there were only five surnames left in St Kilda, and two-thirds of the population were called either MacKinnon or Gillies.
We saw this back in Campbell Park in Milton Keynes.
A clootie well is a holy well (or sacred spring), almost always with a tree growing beside it, where small strips of cloth or ribbons are left as part of a healing ritual, usually by tying them to branches of the tree (called a clootie tree or rag tree). Clootie wells are places of pilgrimage usually found in Celtic areas. It is believed the tradition comes from the ancient custom of leaving votive offerings in water. In Scots, a clootie or cloot is a strip of cloth or rag.
Practices
When used at the clootie wells in Scotland, Ireland, and the Isle of Man, the pieces of cloth are generally dipped in the water of the holy well and then tied to a branch while a prayer of supplication is said to the spirit of the well – in modern times usually a saint, but in pre-Christian times a goddess or local nature spirit. This is most often done by those seeking healing, though some may do it simply to honour the spirit of the well. In either case, many see this as a probable continuation of the ancient Celtic practice of leaving votive offerings in wells or pits.
There are local variations to the practice. At some wells the tradition is to wash the affected part of the body with the wet rag and then tie the washing-rag on the branch; as the rag disintegrates over time, the ailment is supposed to fade away as well. At some wells the clooties are definitely "rags" and discards, at others, brightly coloured strips of fine cloth. In some locations the ceremony may also include circumambulation (or circling) of the well a set number of times and making an offering of a coin, pin or stone. Additional votive offerings hung on the branches or deposited in the wells may include rosaries, religious medals, crosses, religious icons and other symbols of faith.
At clootie wells where the operative principle is to shed the ailment, and the clootie is thought to represent the ailment, the "offerings" may be grotesque castoffs. Those that instead view the clootie as an offering to the spirit, saint or deity are more likely to tie an attractive, clean piece of cloth or ribbon.
The sacred trees at clootie wells are usually hawthorn trees, though ash trees are also common.
The most popular times for pilgrimages to clootie wells, like other holy wells, are on the feast days of Saints, the Pattern or Patron day, or on the old Gaelic festival days of Imbolc (1 February), Beltane (1 May), Lughnasadh (1 August), or Samhain (1 November).
In Scotland, by the village of Munlochy on the A832, is a clootie well (called in Scottish Gaelic: Tobar Churadain) at an ancient spring dedicated to Saint Curetán, where rags are still hung on the surrounding bushes and trees. Here the well was once thought to have had the power to cure sick children who were left there overnight. The site sometimes needs to be cleared of non-biodegradable materials and rubbish such as electrical items and a venetian blind.
In the heart of Culloden woods near the battlefield is a walled clootie well also known as St Mary's well. This well was traditionally visited on the first Sunday in May. Until recently, it was a popular holiday, with an ice-cream van situated in the car park. However, this tradition is now in decline although still marked. Craigie Well at Avoch on the Black Isle has both offerings of coins and clooties. Rags, wool and human hair were also used as charms against sorcery, and as tokens of penance or fulfilment of a vow. A clootie well once existed at Kilallan near Kilmacolm in Renfrewshire. This holy well was dedicated to St Fillan and cloth was tied to overhanging shrub branches.
In Cornwall, at Madron Well (SW446328) the practice is to tie the cloth and as it rots the ailment is believed to disappear. In 1894 Madron Well was said to be the only Cornish well where rags were traditionally tied. Rags have only appeared at other Cornish wells such as Alsia Well (SW393251) and Sancreed Well (SW417293) in about the last 30 years. Christ's Well at Mentieth was described in 1618 "as all tapestried about with old rags".
In Ireland at Loughcrew, Oldcastle, County Meath (53°44′36″N 7°08′03″W) there is a wishing tree, where visitors to the passage tombs tie ribbons to the branch of a hawthorn tree. Loughcrew is a site of considerable historical importance in Ireland. It is the site of megalithic burial grounds dating back to approximately 3500 and 3300 BC, situated near the summit of Sliabh na Caillí and on surrounding hills and valleys.
"What is the meaning of the black horseman who overtook me as I reached your door, grandmother?"
"That was the dark night. Those are my faithful servants."
("Vasilisa the Fair" after Leonard Arthur Magnus, 1916)
Any fans of the Seventh Doctor Who?
Happy Birthday to the Legends that are Sylvester McCoy aka the Seventh Doctor (79 yrs) and Sophie Aldred aka his companion Ace (59 yrs).
And it would also have been Anthony Ainley's 90th birthday.
For me he will always be the best Master.
I've just watched the bonus episode 11 of the Sandman - "Dream of a Thousand Cats/Calliope"
It was awesome in my view and I now know how Neil Gaiman got all his ideas from!
Rating of 10/10.
Last night I finished watching this sci-fi series on Paramount+
It was not that bad, a cross between Terra Nova and Lost with a mixture of Australian, British, and American actors.
It has some interesting twists and mysteries throughout the series but it also has a lot of clichés and the usual ensemble pieces you get in these shows.
It has a 90's/00's feel to the show.
I am looking forward to the second season but for a series, it was okay.
I will rate this a score of 5/10.
The world map from the Dungeons & Dragons Cartoon.
An angel found two imps, sent by Satan, smashing tables & chairs in the Lincoln Cathedral in England. She turned one to stone. He's now called the Lincoln Imp. The other escaped & still wanders the cathedral, looking for his friend.
In Romania, a sickle was left on a corpse if it lay alone in the house before burial, to prevent it from becoming a revenant...
The witch Rixt lived alone in a hut made of wreckage at the end of the Dutch island Ameland. She tied a lantern to the neck of a wandering cow. At night the light led sailors off-course, crashing into the beach, providing new wreckage for Rixt’s hut
In Irish mythology, the Leanhaun Shee is a solitary faerie who seeks the love of mortals. She is a muse who gives inspiration to artists, but also drains her victims. It is said the Gaelic poets die young, for she will not let them remain long on earth.
In the graveyard of Rothiemurchus Old Parish Church lies the body of Seath Mor Sgorfhiaclach a 14th Century Chief of the Clan Shaw. It is said that he was a formidable warrior, was over 6ft tall, with a crooked smile and struck terror into even his own people. The five stones on his grave are called Homing Stones and are said to be cursed. There are at least 5 incidents where people, after touching or moving the stones, have died so to protect people from the stones a cage was placed over them.
In Irish mythology, the fear-gorta (man of hunger) is a solitary leprechaun, a phantom resembling an emaciated human. He walks the earth alone during times of famine, seeking alms from passers-by. He will bring good luck to those that help him.
Got back from Middlesbrough from a day of shopping, to find this ancient Vorlon alien in the post.
Kosh from Babylon 5, Travelled all the way from Milton Keynes via Captain Blair Scriven. Cheers buddy! ❤ xx
Last night I watched this fun Vampire horror comedy on Netflix.
It's pure popcorn action romp with added bite!
I admit the story did start slow, but then went into overdrive with the action scenes.
The actors were really good and Foxx is a funny bugger but Dogg was awesome!
The story is interesting and I loved the twists to the Vampire mythology.
I am hoping they will make the sequels - Night Shift and Graveyard Shift.
I will rate this film a score of 7/10 and I will watch this again.
Yester castle in Gifford
The original stone keep, built before 1267, is generally considered to be by Sir Hugo de Giffard.
Sir Hugo de Giffard was known as the 'Wizard of Yester', and was considered to be a powerful warlock and necromancer. It is in the undercroft of the castle that he was thought to practise his sorcery. 15th century chronicler Walter Bower mentions the large cavern in Yester Castle, thought locally to have been formed by magical artifice:
Legend supposed that Hugo was able, via a pact with the Devil, to raise a magical army to his aid, and use them to carry out his will.
It is this army of hobgoblins that was considered the builders of Yester Castle.
