#tree surgery Leeds

[asgardarbor-blog]

The Asgardians Trade is trust. Based in Leeds and operating across Yorkshire and the Humber we provide a range of works; from tree surgery Leeds through grounds management to full garden transformations.

[jwiltshiret]

Tree Surgery

Are overgrown hedges and trees taking over your property? J Wiltshire Tree Care is your trusted specialist for tree care and surgery in Leeds and the surrounding Yorkshire area. We have the experience and tools to safely remove all kinds of trees. Contact us today to request a free quote.  

Visit: https://www.jwiltshiretreecare.co.uk

[enchantedlokii]

Lost

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: graphic injury, compartment syndrome

Characters: Peter Parker, Ned Leeds, Michelle Jones, Betty Brant, Tony Stark, May Parker, FRIDAY

Mentioned: Happy Hogan

@whumptober2020 Day Twenty: Lost

“‘Come hiking with us,’ they said. ‘It’ll be fun,’ they said.”

Peter huffed as he finally managed to drag himself to the overhang he had found. He sat down harshly, rolling up his pant leg to see how swollen it was. “This is just how I wanted to spend my senior trip.”

For their senior trip, Peter’s class had decided to travel to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. So far, it had been amazing. They had gone to Dollywood the first day, then spent the second day in the city. The third day they had gone to Clingman’s Dome, the highest point in the Appalachian Mountains, and Cade’s Cove, where they had seen deer and bears.

Today was supposed to be a free day. They were allowed to go wherever they wanted as long as they stayed in a group of four or more. That’s how Peter ended up on a hiking trail with Ned, MJ, and Betty. How he got separated from them was a longer story.

“I’m going to scout ahead,” Peter told the three as they stopped to rest. With his powers, he was able to go much longer than his friends without needing to rest. Sure, Ned and MJ knew this and would understand if he decided to climb some trees or swing from the branches with his webs, but Betty had no idea he was Spider-Man. Getting ahead would give him a chance to let out some of his energy.

“Please be careful,” Michelle told him, squeezing his hand. “You have your bear spray?”

“Right here,” he told her, patting the can in the pocket of his backpack. “I’ll be okay.”

Except, he wasn’t. Peter may be Spider-Man. He may be strong and fast and heck, he could lift a bus, but he was a klutz by nature. The boy had caught his foot on a root and ended up tumbling down a gorge. He knew that, in reality, he was lucky. Because anyone else probably wouldn’t have gotten out with nothing more than a broken leg and some cuts and bruises, but he was still lost in the woods and in extreme pain without a single bar of cell service. And to top it all off, it was starting to rain.

“Okay, okay,” he murmured to himself. “Let’s weigh our options.”

Peter propped his leg out in front of him, trying his best to keep it straight for when his powers decided to start mending the bone. Chances are, he would have to have it rebroken and set either way, but maybe he would get lucky. “You can either stay here and wait, see if anyone finds you, or you can try to make it back to the trail with a broken leg.”

He sighed and shook his backpack off, opening it up and taking out a water bottle, hoping it would ease his nausea. He had already puked once, immediately after he stopped rolling and felt the pain in his leg, and he couldn’t risk getting dehydrated out here. It was summer, and he only had a few bottles of water packed. He didn’t have much food either, just a few sandwiches and bags of chips, but he knew he could go longer without food than water and he wasn’t too hungry with his stomach in knots.

“Worst case scenario staying here is that they never find you and you starve to death or get eaten by a bear,” he continued talking to himself. “Worst case scenario trying to get back to the trail is you get lost deeper in the forest and make it harder for them to find you.”

He sighed, unsure. “Okay, okay, it’s okay,” he told himself. “You can’t get worked up and panic. That’s not going to make this any better.”

He continued thinking for a moment before finally reaching a decision. For now, at least, he would stay at the overhang. He would rest, give his leg time to heal, and wait to see if help arrived. They would start close to the trail, so he needed to stay as close as he could. With the rain, he was bound to fall again and get injured worse anyway.

If they didn’t come by the time he was out of supplies, he would start trying to find a way out on his own, but hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.

“God, that hurts,” Peter huffed, wincing as his leg throbbed. He dug through his bag carefully, relieved when he saw the high-powered pain pills that he had packed. He had almost not brought them on the trip, knowing that he wouldn’t be fighting crime on vacation, but Tony had insisted he take them because accidents happen. Sure enough, they had.

“They’re going to freak out when they find out,” he murmured. “Him and May both. . .”

“Boss, you’re getting a call from May Parker,” FRIDAY announced, catching Tony off guard. He raised an eyebrow as he looked up from his work.

“Yeah? Put her through,” he told her. Then, when he heard a click. “Hello, May.”

“Tony,” she started. Immediately he knew something was wrong from the tone of her voice. She sounded as if she were crying, her voice breaking a bit. “I just got a call from Peter’s teacher.”

He felt his blood run cold at that sentence. Peter was on a school trip nearly twelve hours away from New York City right now. “What? What happened? Did he get hurt? I can have a plane ready in five minutes if we need to get down there.”

“They can’t find him,” she cried. “He-he was hiking with his friends. Ned said he went to scout ahead and they never caught up to him. He just disappeared. He’s not— he’s not answering his phone.”

“Okay, okay,” Tony started, taking a shaky breath. He knew that he had to keep his panic at bay if he was going to do anything to help. “Okay, I— I’m going to get a plane ready for you. I’ll have Happy pick you up and bring you here. I’m going to go ahead and fly down there and help look for him, okay?”

“Wh-what if— what if he—”

“May, listen to me,” he told her. He heard her hum in reply so he continued. “I promise you that I will not stop until we find him, okay? Day or night. We’re going to find him and bring him home safe.”

“O-okay,” she replied. “Okay. Thank you, Tony. I-I’m sorry, I just— I’m just—”

“You’re worried,” he said softly. “It’s okay. I am too, but it’s going to be alright. Don’t forget what all he can do. He can take care of himself until we find him. He’ll be okay.”

Peter had never been in so much pain in his life. Days had passed since his fall, and his leg wasn’t getting any better. In fact, he thought it was getting worse. The medicine he had barely touched the pain, and the swelling wasn’t going down at all. He was sure that he had a fever, too, making it almost impossible to sleep. Already, he had drunk nearly all of his water, but he hadn’t been able to touch his food since the first day, being in too much pain to have the slightest bit of an appetite.

The fact that no one had found him yet terrified him. At this point, he was sure that he had some sort of infection in his leg, maybe even compartment syndrome. If that was the case, he knew that there was a good chance he wouldn’t survive. Even with his powers, he would need surgery, and quick. For a normal person, it would probably already be too late.

As his condition worsened, Peter started to lose track of time. With that, he was losing hope. How could he even be sure they were still looking for him? They may have given up at this point, thinking a bear had gotten him. It wasn’t an unlikely possibility, after all.

“What a way to go out,” he mumbled to himself one night. His fever was keeping him awake, as usual, and his painkillers were doing nothing for him anymore. “Spider-Man dies from a broken leg. How would have thought?”

He sighed and turned his head to look out at the trees. He was too weak to sit up at this point, and he was sure that meant he wasn’t going to last much longer without proper treatment. If no one found him in the next day or two, he was a goner.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I don’t wanna go. . .”

It had been five days since Peter went missing. At this point, most people had given up. The local officials told Tony that most people didn’t survive the first night. Most people who went missing on hiking trails had gotten injured or been attacked by the area’s wildlife. They said that at this point it would be more of a retrieval than a rescue, but he knew that he had to keep looking.

Because Peter wasn’t normal. He would last longer than most people, even if he was injured. He wouldn’t believe that he was dead unless he saw it for himself. He couldn’t. Peter wasn’t someone he was willing to give up on like that.

The whole time, he had only slept once. He searched for three days and nights like he said he would before finally giving himself a few hours of rest. Then he set out again, searching for any sign of Peter. “Pete?” he called, ducking under a branch. “Peter?”

Most times, there was no response. This time, however, he thought he heard a faint reply somewhere in the distance. “Peter?” he called a bit louder. “Are you there?”

He strained to hear, closing his eyes in an attempt to focus his senses. Sure enough, he heard a very weak reply. “H’llo?”

“Peter!” Tony hurried in that direction, soon seeing a rock overhang that could be used as a shelter from the elements. “Peter?”

“‘M here,” he heard the boy reply. Sure enough, the sound came from the rock. He rushed that way and found Peter laying inside, struggling to try to sit up. His cheeks were flushed red, and one of his legs looked swollen and jutted out at an awkward angle, but he still tried to sit up. A small smile crossed his face when he saw Tony coming towards him. “T’ny.”

“Hey, Buddy,” he said softly, carefully brushing the bangs of his dirty hair to the side. His eyes were glassy from fever, and he seemed a bit out of it, but it gave him hope at the fact that he was lucid enough to recognize him. He let out a small breath of relief. “God, you’re still alive.”

“Mhm,” Peter hummed. “M’ le’s bro’en. ‘S no’ goo’.”

“Yeah, Kiddo, I see that,” he told him, his voice a bit wet. He could tell that Peter was in pain despite his obvious effort to hide it. He stood up slowly and backed up, tapping the casing on his chest to let his suit form around him. He made sure to keep the helmet off, having no need for it right now. “I’m going to pick you up, alright? It’s probably going to hurt, and I’m so sorry for that, but we’ve gotta get you to a hospital.”

“Mmkay,” Peter murmured. “‘S a’ight.”

“Okay,” he said, bending down and carefully sliding a hand under his back and another under his legs. “Let’s get you out of here.”

When Peter woke up, his head felt foggy. He wasn’t sure where he was at first, but he knew he was safe. He felt cooler than he remembered feeling before, and he wasn’t in any pain. It was nice. Perfect after all that he had just been through.

Feeling a hand in his, Peter forced his weak muscles to move and squeeze it. He smiled when the grip tightened slightly and a hand moved to brush his cheek. “Hi, Baby.”

Peter forced his eyes open, smiling as he saw May sitting beside him. “May,” he murmured, his tongue feeling heavy in his mouth as he spoke. He didn’t sound coherent, but he could tell from May’s smile she understood him.

“I’m here, Sweetie,” she whispered. “I’m here.”

Peter gave her a lopsided smile before turning his head slowly. He squinted as his eyes landed on the couch that was pressed to the wall. Tony was laying there, fast asleep, holding something in his arms. Peter’s mind was too drugged to realize that it was one of his blankets and another was laying on him now in the hospital bed.

“He looked for you for five days,” May told him, noticing her nephew’s staring. She continued when he turned to look at her again. “He only slept five hours the whole time you were missing. He fell asleep an hour after you came out of surgery and hasn’t stirred since.”

Peter blinked at her in reply. He thought he could faintly remember the man finding him, but he wasn’t sure. He had a fever at the time, and now his head felt like it was filled with cotton. “Go back to sleep, Sweetie,” May insisted, kissing his forehead. “We’ll talk once you more with it, okay?”

“Mmkay,” he murmured. “Love you, May.”

“I love you too, Peter,” she replied softly. “So much.”

[livinglikebritishroyalty]

𝒫𝓇𝒾𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝐸𝒹𝓌𝒶𝓇𝒹

♕ 𝐹𝓊𝓁𝓁 𝒩𝒶𝓂𝑒: Edward George Nicholas Paul Patrick

♕ 𝐹𝓊𝓁𝓁 𝒯𝒾𝓉𝓁𝑒: His Royal Highness Prince Edward The Duke of Kent

♕ 𝐵𝓸𝓇𝓃: Wednesday, October 9th, 1935 at No. 3 Belgrave Square in London, England

♕ 𝒫𝒶𝓇𝑒𝓃𝓉𝓈: His Royal Highness Prince George The Duke of Kent (Father) & Her Royal Highness Princess Marina Duchess of Kent (Mother)

♕ 𝒮𝒾𝒷𝓁𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈: Her Royal Highness Princess Alexandra The Honourable Lady Ogilvy (Sister) & His Royal Highness Prince Michael of Kent (Brother)

♕ 𝒮𝓅𝓸𝓊𝓈𝑒: Her Royal Highness Katherine The Duchess of Kent (M. 1961)

♕ 𝒞𝒽𝒾𝓁𝒹𝓇𝑒𝓃: George Windsor Earl of St Andrews (Son), Lady Helen Taylor (Daughter), Lord Nicholas Windsor (Son), & Lord Patrick Windsor (Son: Stillborn on Wednesday, October 5th, 1977)

♕ 𝐸𝒹𝓊𝒸𝒶𝓉𝒾𝓸𝓃: Ludgrove (In Berkshire, England), Eton College (In Berkshire, England), Institut Le Rosey (In Rolle, Switzerland), The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (In Berkshire, England)

♕ 𝐼𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓉𝓈 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒲𝓸𝓇𝓀: Interests: Armed Forces (Air Force, Allied Code-Breaking, Arms, Armour, Army, Artillery, Aviation, Blues and Royals, Children of Deployed Parents, Defense Studies, Fallen Soldiers, Lifeboat Services, Life Guards, Navigators, Navy, Pilots, Retired Service People, Security Studies, World War 1 & 2), Business (Business Leaders, Community Leaders, Investments, & Trade), Education (Electronics, Engineering, Chemistry, Global Aerospace, Heritage of Counties, Informational Technology, Science, & Vocational Training), Health (Apothecaries, Burn Treatment, Chest Illness, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Dentists, Doctors, Environmental Medicine, Heart Illness, Hospitals, Leukemia, Myalgic Encephalopathy, Occupational Medicine, Pharmacists, Plastic Surgery Treatment, Post Viral Fatigue Syndrome, Strokes, Surgical Research, & Veterinarians), Other (Agriculture, Conservation, Geography, & Railways/Trains), People (Boy Scouts, Civil Servants, Freemasons, Joint Cultures, Motor Safety, Polish People, Social Clubs, The Disabled, & Young People), Sports (Alpine Ski Racing, Bobsled, Cricket, Croquet, Falconry, Fishing, Golf, Hunting, Lawn Tennis, Race Car Driving, & Skiing), & The Arts (Art History, Broadcasters, Cloth-making, Dance, Journalism, Literature, Music, Opera Music, Photography, & Writers). Work: Associate Member of The International Lawn Tennis Club of Great Britain, Chancellor of The University of Surrey, Fellow of The Royal Society, Founding Member of The International Baccalaureate School, Freeman of The City of London, Freeman/Liveryman of The Honourable Company of Air Pilots, Freeman/Liveryman of The Worshipful Company of Mercers, Gold Card Life Member of The The Children’s Charity Variety, Grand Master of The Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, Grand Master of The United Grand Lodge of England, Grand President of The Masonic Charitable Foundation, Honorary Chair of Gilwell Fellows, Honorary Doctor of Law of The University of Leeds, Honorary Doctor of Philosophy of London Metropolitan University, Honorary Fellow of The Charted Management Institute, Honorary Fellow of The Institution of Engineering and Technology, Honorary Fellow of The The Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Honorary Fellow of The Royal Aeronautical Society, Honorary Fellow of The Royal College of Surgeons of England, Honorary Fellow of The Royal Society of Literature of the United Kingdom, Honorary Fellow of The Royal Society of Medicine, Honorary Freeman of The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London, Honorary Life Member of The Band of Brothers, Honorary Liveryman of The Worshipful Company of Clothworkers, Honorary Liveryman/Assistant Emeritus of The Worshipful Company of Engineers, Honorary Member of Cambridge University’s Scientific Society, Honorary Member of The Guild of Motoring Writers Limited, Honorary Member of The Household Division Yacht Club, Honorary Member of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, Honorary Member of The Royal Automobile Club, Honorary Member of The Royal Photographic Society, Honorary Member of The Work Foundation, Honorary Membership of The Old Wellingtonian Lodge, Honorary Preses of The Royal Caledonian Hunt, Honorary President of The Airlander Club, Honorary President of The Royal Geographical Society, Honorary President of The Royal United Services Institute International, High Steward of The Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk, Joint Associate Member of The Lawn Tennis Association, Joint Patron of The Anglo-Jordanian Society, Liveryman of The Worshipful Company of Salters, Master of The Lodge of Antiquity, Member of The Blue Seal Club, Member of The Countryside Alliance, Member of The Honourable Artillery Company, Member of The Mountbatten Medal Advisory Panel, Patron of Bal Polski, Patron of Bloodwise, Patron of Boundless by CSMA, Patron of Buck’s Club, Patron of The Canterbury Cathedral Trust, Patron of The Catalogue Raisonne of Works by Philip de Laszlo M.V.O. P.R.B.A. 1969-1937, Patron of Combined Cavalry Old Comrades, Patron of Endeavor National Youth Organization, Patron of Everyone Can!, Patron of St. Mungo’s, Patron of The Army Winter Sports Association, Patron of The Bartok Festival, Patron of The Bletchley Park Trust, Patron of The British Computer Society, Patron of The Charles Douglas-Home Memorial Trust, Patron of The Devonshire and Dorset Regimental Association, Patron of The Edge Foundation, Patron of The Freemasons’ Fund for Surgical Research, Patron of The Gallantry Medallists’ League, Patron of The Hanover Band, Patron of The Institute of Advanced Motorists, Patron of The Institute of Export, Patron of The Institute of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Birmingham University, Patron of International Musicians Seminar Prussia Cove, Patron of The Kandahar Ski Club, Patron of The Keighley & Worth Valley Railway Preservation Society, Patron of The Kent County Agricultural Society, Patron of The Kent County Cricket Club, Patron of The Lifeboat Fund, Patron of The London Philharmonic Orchestra, Patron of The Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Association, Patron of The National Army Museum, Patron of The Newbury Spring Festival, Patron of Opera North, Patron of The P.G. Wodehouse Society, Patron of The Polish Hearth Club (Ognisko Polskie), Patron of The Restore Burns and Wounds Research, Patron of The Royal Air Force Charitable Trust, Patron of The Royal Armored Corps War Memorial Benevolent Fund, Patron of The Royal Institution of Australia, Patron of The Royal West Norfolk Golf Club, Patron of The Scots Guard Association, Patron of The Ski Club of Great Britain, Patron of The Society for Army Historical Research, Patron of The Staff College Club, Patron of The Supreme Council 33°, Patron of The Tank Museum, Patron of The Tree Council, Patron of Trinity College London, Patron of The Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, Patron of The UK Friends of the Felix-Mendelssohn-Bartholdy-Stiftung Foundation, Patron of The University of Surrey’s Postgraduate Medical School, Patron of The Watlington Hospital Charitable Trust, Patron of The Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum, Patron of Wigmore Hall, President In Chief of The British Racing Drivers’ Club, President of The All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, President of The Anmer Club, President of The Army and Navy Club, President of The Association of Men of Kent and Kentish Men, President of The Cavalry and Guards Club, President of The Chest/Heart/Stroke Medical Research Funds of Scotland, President of The Commonwealth War Graves Commission, President of The Duke of York’s Royal Military School, President of The Engineering Council, President of The Football Association, President of The Henley Society, President of The King Edward’s VII’s Hospital (Sister Agnes), President of The King’s Lynn Festival Limited, President of The Noel Coward Society, President of The Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund, President of The Royal Armories Development Trust, President of The Royal Choral Society, President of The Royal Institution of Great Britain, President of The Royal Nation Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), President of The Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies, President of The Scout Association, President of The Stroke Association, President of The Board of Trustees of The Imperial War Museum, President of The UK Trustees of The His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh’s Commonwealth Study Conference Leaders, President of Wellington College, Royal Bencher of The Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, Royal Fellow of The Royal Academy of Engineering, Royal Member of The Royal Society Club, Royal Patron of The Admiral Ramsay Museum, Royal Patron of The American Air Museum in Britain, Royal Patron of The British-German Association, Royal Patron of The Dresden Trust, Royal Patron of The Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, Royal Patron of The Last Night of the Proms in Crakow, Special Representative (Formerly a Vice-Chairman) for The United Kingdom’s International Trade & Investment, Vice-Chairman of The British Overseas Trade Board, Visitor of Cranfield University, & Visitor of The Centenary World Scout Jamboree.

[brookston]

Holidays 5.16

Holidays

Biographer's Day

Coquilles St. Jacques Day

Drawing Day

European Maritime Day

HAE (Hereditary Angioedema) Day

Honor Our LGBT Elders Day

International Celiac Awareness Day

International Day of Light

International Day of Living Together in Peace

International Day of Protest Against Shock Treatment

International Day of the Boy Child

Love A Tree Day

Martyrs of Sudan Day (Episcopal Church)

Mass Graves Day (Iraq)

Middlesex Day (UK)

Moonwalk Day

National Biographer’s Day

National Check Your Wipers Day

National Coquilles St. Jacques Day

National Day (South Sudan)

National Dengue Day (India)

National Denim Day for the CURE Foundation (Canada)

National Do Something Good For Your Neighbor Day

National Horse Rescue Day (Australia)

National Piercing Day

National Take Your Parents to the Playground Day

Nickel Day (US)

Ohio Players Day (Dayton, Ohio)

Pencil Day

Red Hill Holiday (Russia)

Romani Resistance Day

Sea Monkey Day

Sikkim Day (India)

Sing "Row Row Row Your Boat" in Rounds Day

Sneeze Without Embarrassment Day

South Sudan Day

SPLA Day (South Sudan)

Sun Bear Day

Teachers’ Day (Malaysia)

Try Not To Be As Stupid Today As You Normally Are Day

Ubald (Jesus, Pennsylvania)

Wear Purple For Peace Day

World Agri-Tourism Day

World Barrett’s Day

World Bloodless Surgery Day

World Congenital Disorders of Glycosylation (CDG) Awareness Day

World Day of Heavy Metal

World Education Support Personnel Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

Gluten-Free Beer Day (Portland, Oregon)

Hires Root Beer Day

International Pickle Day

Mimosa Day

National BBQ Day

Root Beer Day

Spaghetti-O's Day

3rd Tuesday in May

International Dinosaur Day [3rd Tuesday; also 6.1]

National Stop Nausea Day [3rd Tuesday]

Sex Differences in Health Awareness Day [3rd Tuesday]

Independence Days

Boshka (Declared; 2007) [unrecognized]

Intercontinental Republic of the Americas (Declared; 2022) [unrecognized]

New Somerset (Declared; 2022) [unrecognized]

Feast Days

Aaron (Coptic Church)

Abda and Abdjesus, and companions (Christian; Saint)

Abdas of Susa (Christian; Saint)

Advanced Tree Hugging and Arborial Sex Day (Pastafarian)

Andrew Bobola (Christian; Saint)

Beige Fraggle (Muppetism)

Bismarck Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Brendan the Navigator (Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Communion, Eastern Orthodox Church)

Caroline Chisholm (Church of England)

Gemma Galgani (Passionists Calendar)

Germerius (Christian; Saint)

Hadrian (Positivist; Saint)

Honoratus of Amiens (Christian; Saint)

John of Nepomuk (Christian; Saint) [Bohemia, Czech Republic]

Margaret of Cortona (Christian; Saint)

Martyrs of Sudan (Episcopal Church (USA))

Peregrine of Auxerre (Christian; Saint)

Simon Stock (Christian; Saint)

Skinny Dipping Day (Pastafarian)

Tamara de Lempicka (Artology)

Ubald (Christian; Saint)

Woody Herman (Humanist; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Taian (大安 Japan) [Lucky all day.]

Uncyclopedia Bad to Be Born Today (because Wikipedia launched.)

Premieres

Agent in Place, by Helen MacInnes (Novel; 1976)

Annie Get Your Gun (Broadway Musical; 1946)

Beer The Movie (Film; 2006)

Breaker Morant (Film; 1980)

But Seriously, Folks…, by Joe Walsh (Album; 1978)

Day of the Locust, by Nathanael West (Novel; 1939) 

The Eighth Day, buy Thornton Wilder (Novel; 1967)

Fame (Film; 1980)

Godzilla (Film; 2014)

Great Lion of God, by Taylor Caldwell (Novel; 1970)

The Iceman Ducketh (WB LT Cartoon; 1964)

I’d Love to Take Orders from You (WB MM Cartoon; 1936)

(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again, by Elton John and Taron Egerton (Song; 2019)

Live at Leeds, by The Who (Live Album; 1970)

Moonlight Becomes You, by Mary Higgins Clark (Novel; 1996)

Oops!… I Did It Again, by Britney Spears (Album; 2000)

Pet Sounds, by The Beach Boys (Album; 1966)

Que Sera, Sera *Whatever Will Be, Will Be), by Doris Day (Song; 1956)

Shrek (Animated Film; 2001)

Star Trek: Into Darkness (Film; 2013)

Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (Film; 2002)

Summer Wind, recorded by Frank Sinatra (Song; 1966)

Sweet Liberty (Film; 1986)

Tennessee River, by Alabama (Song; 1980)

Top Gun (Film; 1986)

Two Gun Goofy (Disney Cartoon; 1952)

Today’s Name Days

Adolf, Johann (Austria)

Adam, Cvjetko, Ivan (Croatia)

Přemysl (Czech Republic)

Sara (Denmark)

Esta, Este, Ester, Esti (Estonia)

Essi, Ester, Esteri (Finland)

Brendan, Honoré (France)

Adolf, Johann Nepomuk (Germany)

Botond, Mózes (Hungary)

Adamo, Margherita, Oderzo, Tiziano, Ubaldo (Italy)

Edijs, Edvīns, Inese, Inesis (Latvia)

Andrius, Ubaldas, Vaidmantas (Lithuania)

Sara, Siren (Norway)

Andrzej, Honorat, Jan Nepomucen, Jędrzej, Szymon, Trzebomysł, Ubald, Wieńczysław, Wiktorian (Poland)

Natan, Paisie, Sila, Teodor (România)

Svetozár (Slovakia)

Honorato, Simón, Ubaldo (Spain)

Ronald, Ronny (Sweden)

Brand, Branden, Brandi, Brandon, Brandy, Brannon, Brant, Brenda, Brendan, Brenden, Brendon, Brenna, Brennan, Brent, Brenton (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 136 of 2024; 229 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 2 of week 20 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Huath (Hawthorn) [Day 3 of 28]

Chinese: Month 3 (Bing-Chen), Day 27 (Jia-Xu)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 25 Iyar 5783

Islamic: 25 Shawwal 1444

J Cal: 15 Bīja; Oneday [15 of 30]

Julian: 3 May 2023

Moon: 10%: Waning Crescent

Positivist: 24 Caesar (5th Month) [Hadrian]

Runic Half Month: Ing (Expansive Energy) [Day 7 of 15]

Season: Spring (Day 58 of 90)

Zodiac: Taurus (Day 27 of 30)

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 5.16

Holidays

Biographer's Day

Coquilles St. Jacques Day

Drawing Day

European Maritime Day

HAE (Hereditary Angioedema) Day

Honor Our LGBT Elders Day

International Celiac Awareness Day

International Day of Light

International Day of Living Together in Peace

International Day of Protest Against Shock Treatment

International Day of the Boy Child

Love A Tree Day

Martyrs of Sudan Day (Episcopal Church)

Mass Graves Day (Iraq)

Middlesex Day (UK)

Moonwalk Day

National Biographer’s Day

National Check Your Wipers Day

National Coquilles St. Jacques Day

National Day (South Sudan)

National Dengue Day (India)

National Denim Day for the CURE Foundation (Canada)

National Do Something Good For Your Neighbor Day

National Horse Rescue Day (Australia)

National Piercing Day

National Take Your Parents to the Playground Day

Nickel Day (US)

Ohio Players Day (Dayton, Ohio)

Pencil Day

Red Hill Holiday (Russia)

Romani Resistance Day

Sea Monkey Day

Sikkim Day (India)

Sing "Row Row Row Your Boat" in Rounds Day

Sneeze Without Embarrassment Day

South Sudan Day

SPLA Day (South Sudan)

Sun Bear Day

Teachers’ Day (Malaysia)

Try Not To Be As Stupid Today As You Normally Are Day

Ubald (Jesus, Pennsylvania)

Wear Purple For Peace Day

World Agri-Tourism Day

World Barrett’s Day

World Bloodless Surgery Day

World Congenital Disorders of Glycosylation (CDG) Awareness Day

World Day of Heavy Metal

World Education Support Personnel Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

Gluten-Free Beer Day (Portland, Oregon)

Hires Root Beer Day

International Pickle Day

Mimosa Day

National BBQ Day

Root Beer Day

Spaghetti-O's Day

3rd Tuesday in May

International Dinosaur Day [3rd Tuesday; also 6.1]

National Stop Nausea Day [3rd Tuesday]

Sex Differences in Health Awareness Day [3rd Tuesday]

Independence Days

Boshka (Declared; 2007) [unrecognized]

Intercontinental Republic of the Americas (Declared; 2022) [unrecognized]

New Somerset (Declared; 2022) [unrecognized]

Feast Days

Aaron (Coptic Church)

Abda and Abdjesus, and companions (Christian; Saint)

Abdas of Susa (Christian; Saint)

Advanced Tree Hugging and Arborial Sex Day (Pastafarian)

Andrew Bobola (Christian; Saint)

Beige Fraggle (Muppetism)

Bismarck Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Brendan the Navigator (Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Communion, Eastern Orthodox Church)

Caroline Chisholm (Church of England)

Gemma Galgani (Passionists Calendar)

Germerius (Christian; Saint)

Hadrian (Positivist; Saint)

Honoratus of Amiens (Christian; Saint)

John of Nepomuk (Christian; Saint) [Bohemia, Czech Republic]

Margaret of Cortona (Christian; Saint)

Martyrs of Sudan (Episcopal Church (USA))

Peregrine of Auxerre (Christian; Saint)

Simon Stock (Christian; Saint)

Skinny Dipping Day (Pastafarian)

Tamara de Lempicka (Artology)

Ubald (Christian; Saint)

Woody Herman (Humanist; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Taian (大安 Japan) [Lucky all day.]

Uncyclopedia Bad to Be Born Today (because Wikipedia launched.)

Premieres

Agent in Place, by Helen MacInnes (Novel; 1976)

Annie Get Your Gun (Broadway Musical; 1946)

Beer The Movie (Film; 2006)

Breaker Morant (Film; 1980)

But Seriously, Folks…, by Joe Walsh (Album; 1978)

Day of the Locust, by Nathanael West (Novel; 1939) 

The Eighth Day, buy Thornton Wilder (Novel; 1967)

Fame (Film; 1980)

Godzilla (Film; 2014)

Great Lion of God, by Taylor Caldwell (Novel; 1970)

The Iceman Ducketh (WB LT Cartoon; 1964)

I’d Love to Take Orders from You (WB MM Cartoon; 1936)

(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again, by Elton John and Taron Egerton (Song; 2019)

Live at Leeds, by The Who (Live Album; 1970)

Moonlight Becomes You, by Mary Higgins Clark (Novel; 1996)

Oops!… I Did It Again, by Britney Spears (Album; 2000)

Pet Sounds, by The Beach Boys (Album; 1966)

Que Sera, Sera *Whatever Will Be, Will Be), by Doris Day (Song; 1956)

Shrek (Animated Film; 2001)

Star Trek: Into Darkness (Film; 2013)

Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (Film; 2002)

Summer Wind, recorded by Frank Sinatra (Song; 1966)

Sweet Liberty (Film; 1986)

Tennessee River, by Alabama (Song; 1980)

Top Gun (Film; 1986)

Two Gun Goofy (Disney Cartoon; 1952)

Today’s Name Days

Adolf, Johann (Austria)

Adam, Cvjetko, Ivan (Croatia)

Přemysl (Czech Republic)

Sara (Denmark)

Esta, Este, Ester, Esti (Estonia)

Essi, Ester, Esteri (Finland)

Brendan, Honoré (France)

Adolf, Johann Nepomuk (Germany)

Botond, Mózes (Hungary)

Adamo, Margherita, Oderzo, Tiziano, Ubaldo (Italy)

Edijs, Edvīns, Inese, Inesis (Latvia)

Andrius, Ubaldas, Vaidmantas (Lithuania)

Sara, Siren (Norway)

Andrzej, Honorat, Jan Nepomucen, Jędrzej, Szymon, Trzebomysł, Ubald, Wieńczysław, Wiktorian (Poland)

Natan, Paisie, Sila, Teodor (România)

Svetozár (Slovakia)

Honorato, Simón, Ubaldo (Spain)

Ronald, Ronny (Sweden)

Brand, Branden, Brandi, Brandon, Brandy, Brannon, Brant, Brenda, Brendan, Brenden, Brendon, Brenna, Brennan, Brent, Brenton (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 136 of 2024; 229 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 2 of week 20 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Huath (Hawthorn) [Day 3 of 28]

Chinese: Month 3 (Bing-Chen), Day 27 (Jia-Xu)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 25 Iyar 5783

Islamic: 25 Shawwal 1444

J Cal: 15 Bīja; Oneday [15 of 30]

Julian: 3 May 2023

Moon: 10%: Waning Crescent

Positivist: 24 Caesar (5th Month) [Hadrian]

Runic Half Month: Ing (Expansive Energy) [Day 7 of 15]

Season: Spring (Day 58 of 90)

Zodiac: Taurus (Day 27 of 30)

[treesurgeon1-blog]

Complete Tree Services Leeds

Complete Tree Services are a local Leeds Tree Surgeon providing a full range of tree surgery services throughout the West Yorkshire area. So whether you need emergency tree removal, tree felling or tree disassembling, developmental pruning, crown reshaping, crown reduction, stump removal or stump grinding then we can help.

 Tree Services Leeds

49 Waterloo Mount Pudsey Leeds West Yorkshire LS28 7PT

0113 3206787

 https://www.treeservicesuk.net

Facebook

Twitter

Youtube

Business Site

Google Map

WordPress

Tumblr

Blogspot

[treedoctorsyorkshire]

Tree Planting, Pruning, Reduction, Care, TPO, Mobile milling Leeds, Roundhay

We are Tree surgeons in Leeds and provide all tree surgery services like Tree planting, Tree Pruning, Tree reduction, Tree Care, TPO and Mobile milling in Roundhay, Leeds.

Visit: https://treedoctors-yorkshire.co.uk/

[lostinfic]

Nubivagant 3/3

(adj.) wandering through or amongst the clouds; moving through air; from the Latin nubes (“cloud”) and vagant (“wandering”), c. 1656.

Summary: Based on the movie “A walk in the clouds” but on a sheep farm in the north of England, at Christmas. During the war, Betty ran away from her grandfather’s farm with a man. Now that he’s left her and she might be pregnant, Betty must go back and face the family she abandoned. When Colonel Mercier finds her crying at the train station, he offers to pose as her husband. Tags: Hurt/comfort! fake married! sharing a bed! huddling for warmth! and many more! Pairing: Jean-François Mercier x Betty Vates Word count: 6700  Rating: Mature Part 1 |  Part 2 |  Ao3

December 24th, 1945

A ledge ran the length of Marnie’s kitchen, from the top of the cupboards, over the door frame to the window overlooking the backyard. As far as Betty could remember, the containers stacked on it had fascinated her: opened tin cans, glass bottles in green and milky white, ceramic jars with cork stoppers, earthenware pots glazed like the sea in winter, even old snuffboxes, and in between them, seashells, wooden thread spools, pine cones and chipped porcelain figurines, mementos gathering dust. From the ledge hung copper pots, tea-stained cups and bouquets of dried herbs tied with string. She used to imagine her grandmother was some sort of witch. As random as this assortment looked, Marnie knew exactly what each contained. She reached for a small wooden box and sprinkled its content in her boiling pot of soup without a second look.

The scent of vegetables and broth filled the room. The same, and only, Christmas record played on a loop in the living room: “Silent Night”, “Adeste Fideles”, “O Little Town of Bethlehem”, “O Holy Night”, “It came upon a Midnight Clear”. The same record every holiday season. Unconsciously following the rhythm of the songs, Betty sprinkled salt and mixed butter and flour together to make dough.

“Remember before the war,” Margaret said as she chopped carrots, “when Daddy took us to York one Christmas.” At the time, their father had already enrolled in the British Expeditionary Forces and knew he might leave his family soon, but hadn’t told them. He had wanted to make their last Christmas together special.

“The funfair!” Betty said. “Remember the ice rink with that huge pine tree in the middle. And you fell arse over kettle!”

“Oi! You can talk, I remember how scared you were in the chair-o-plane.”

“Only at first,” Betty retorted. Vertigo had struck when her feet had first lifted off the ground and she’d tried to grab her sister’s hand. But then the exhilaration of flying had overcome fear. Her sister and grandmother recounted other souvenirs of Christmas past, but Betty kept thinking about that feeling. Her pulse quickened, and she smiled at the memory. The next best thing to falling in love.

Betty’s gaze slid to the window, seeking Jean-François’ tall, lean frame through the mist. He walked out of the barn, carrying a ladder. She’d found some old clothes for him, denim trousers and a wool jumper she’d knitted herself quite a few years ago.

For all his distrust of the newcomer, Grandpa Marshall didn’t hesitate to ask for his help. One might say, he was abusing it even. Jean-François worked harder than anyone.

Grandpa Marshall held the ladder as Jean-François climbed up to the barn. Some roof shingles had come loose during last night’s storm.

“He might just win your grandpa after all,” Marnie said, looking over Betty’s shoulder. “Honest, when I first saw him I didn’t think he had it in him for hard work.”

“Me neither.”

“Where are you gonna live?” Marnie asked, cleaning the sink. “England or France?”

“I— I don’t know.” Betty wiped her hands on her apron, and looked around for something to do.

“Didn’t you talk about it?” she insisted.

“He wants to go back to France, see what it’s like first, you know, after the war.”

Marnie sighed. “Don’t tell your grandpa. You in France, Sarah, Margaret and Eric going back to Leeds like your aunts… He still blames me for giving him only daughters and granddaughters.” She left the kitchen, shaking her head and mumbling.

Betty sat at the table, a massive sturdy thing, its scratched surface a testament of its age. In the family for generations, it had seen every meal, every quarrel and celebration, even some amateur dental surgeries and a birth.

Betty sprinkled flour on the table and rolled the dough which Margaret placed into pie pans. Her mother added the sweet apple and raisin filling, Sarah didn’t say a word, lost in her own world as she often was.

Jean-François’ hammering echoed inside the house. Betty imagined this becoming her daily life. Cooking good, hearty meals, the kind rationing had prohibited for the past years, while her husband worked outside. They would manage the farm together, the money, the cattle, the sales. Her grandfather was more of the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” persuasion, and that had served him well, but times had changed, people and their needs too. Betty had so many ideas to improve the business. She wanted other breeds of sheep to diversify their production and merchandise. They could sell woollen garments in London, in the shops.

“I reckon it’s flat enough now,” Margaret teased. Betty had absentmindedly rolled the same piece of dough for the last five minutes.

“Sorry.”

“I can’t believe you still look at your husband like that after two years, it’s like you met yesterday.”

Betty babbled some answer. She couldn’t deny she was falling for her pretend-husband.

Jean-François had said he hadn’t loved anyone else in the eight years since his wife’s death, and here she was, fancying another man two months after Craze had left her. What would he think of her changeable heart? Of course, the circumstances were very different. And if she was honest, her feelings for Craze had dwindled many months before he left, she’d stayed with him out of necessity with a good dose of delusion.

“We all did it,” her mother said, out of the blue.

“Did what, Mam?”

“Left home for a man. I did it for your father. Margaret did it to get away. Look where that took us. I bet you thought you was different.” Beside her, Margaret snorted, a jeering little sound.

Not so long ago, Betty would have endured, accepted even, her mother’s words. Now she didn’t know how to deal with the anger it aroused in her. She fought the urge to run away. “Maybe I wouldn’t’ve been so easily convinced to leave if you didn’t say things like that to me all the time.” Her voice quivered, and she quickly lowered her gaze, but she stayed on her chair and squeezed the dough, hard enough to tear through it.

 The fact that it was Christmas Eve made no difference to the sheep, so on top of preparing tonight’s party they had to get on with their usual chores. In between, hanging stockings and stirring the Christmas pudding, Betty fed the animals and gathered eggs. She didn’t meet Jean-François all day and started worrying he was avoiding her. Last night she’d heard him arguing with Grandpa Marshall, saying she was kind and strong, but after she feigned sleep and moved closer to him, he left her bed. Then this morning, it looked like he was trying to sneak out even though he denied it.

At the end of the afternoon, when he headed up to their bedroom, she followed him. His duffel bag was opened on the bed, and he was placing clothes in it. Her stomach dropped, suspicions confirmed. “If you wanna go so much, you just need to say. M’not keeping you.”

“I said one more day and I’m staying, well, two more days. No train on the 25th, I suppose.”

“Yeah.” She’d known right when they’d first discussed it that no trains operated on Christmas day. “So you don’t want to go?”

“I was looking for this,” he explained, holding up a camera. “I thought my sister would like it. But perhaps your family would too. No husband would come empty-handed to meet his new family in-law for the first time.”

“A camera? You sure?”

“I can buy another one for Gabrielle. I noticed there are no recent portraits of your family on the walls. I could take some pictures later when everyone is dressed up for church.”

“Dunno how Gramps will feel about that. It’s an expensive gift.”

“Would it make him feel better if I told him I… borrowed it from MI6?”

“You didn’t!”

He shrugged with a little grin. “I had it for a mission and forgot to give it back.” He opened a flap at the front of the camera and pulled out a retractable lens. He raised it to his eye. “Smile.”

“No way! I look awful,” she replied, smoothing down her hair. The shutter clicked. “You rascal!” She ran to his side of the bed, and he jumped out of her grasp. Another click. “Stop it!” she demanded, laughing.

“Last one.” She pulled out her tongue, but he took another photo anyway. “I’m sure they will be beautiful.”

Betty shook her head indulgently. “You’ll have to tell us how to get the photos developed, before… you know.”

Jean-François put the camera back in its leather case and sat on the bed. He smoothed his trousers unnecessarily several times. “I should be honest with you,” he said at last. “You’re right, I was trying to leave this morning.”

“Oh. I… I understand.” She turned her back to him and fiddled with objects on top of the dresser. “I mean, Gramps making you do all this work and you’ve more important things to do, I’m sure, with other people.”

“No, that’s not it. I’m worried that the longer I stay here…” Their eyes met in the mirror above the dresser. “I’m afraid it’s making things more difficult.”

“Difficult how?” she asked, joining him on the bed.

“With you family. And between us.” He relaxed his leg, and his knee touched hers. “Elizabeth, the more time I spend with you—”

Margaret burst into the room. “Come! Quick!” Betty and Jean-François ran down the stairs with her, and followed her outside.

Eric had fallen through a hole in the upper part of the barn. He clutched his leg, screaming in pain. They cleared the wooden planks and hay that had fallen over him, and carried him to the house on a makeshift gurney. He didn’t bleed but might have broken a bone. They fussed over him as they waited for a doctor.

Betty never found out the end of Jean-François’ sentence.

After the doctor’s visit, Jean-François showed the camera to Grandpa Marshall, and they spent the afternoon photographing the homestead. The old farmer glowed with pride, planning to send these pictures to newspapers and to family members abroad.

They ate cabbage soup for supper, leaving room in their stomachs for treats later on. As the women did their hair and make-up in preparation for Mass, the men shaved and took out suits they only wore once a year. Presents appeared under the tree, and carollers sang on the streets. Neighbours and friends came by with homemade gifts. The excitement in the air was tangible. Betty felt like a kid again. She and Margaret, ran around with curlers in their hair, laughing at the smallest things as they searched for something to wear in lieu of lipstick. “I can’t wait until we have mascara again and proper stockings,” Margaret sighed.

“Me too,” Betty replied, but she wasn’t really listening, instead examining her appearance in the mirror. “I can’t wear this.”

“You have to, we need to leave soon and Gramps wants a nice photo of us all before.”

Betty searched every closet in the house and found a green dress with a tulle skirt. Still struggling with the back zipper, she joined her family in the living room. “Can someone help me with this?” Her heart skipped a beat when she felt Jean-François behind her, his hands rested on the small of her back. He jiggled the stuck zipper and leaned in to get a closer look. His breath tickled the skin between her shoulder blades. He had to reach inside the back of the dress to fix the zipper, and when it finally moved, his fingers slid slowly up her spine with it. He swept her hair aside so it wouldn’t get caught in the metallic teeth, and his touch lingered on the nape of her neck as he closed the button at the top of her dress.

“All done,” he said, hands still on her.

“Thank you.”

Marnie’s giggles effectively ended their moment. “Look up,” the old woman said. As the whole family stared, Betty realized they were standing right under a branch of mistletoe.

“Come to think of it, we’ve never seen you two kiss,” Grandpa Marshall said.

Betty and Jean-François exchanged a look. Heat flooded her cheeks, and she covered her mouth with her fingertips.

“What do you say, ma belle?”

This was her only chance to kiss him, but she tried for nonchalance. She shrugged. “Tt’s tradition.”

“For the sake of tradition,” he agreed, cupping her cheek. Betty wet her lips, her heart pounded in her chest.

“What’s going on here?”

Betty startled, recognizing the voice. Two men came in, Donald and his father, Grandpa Marshall’s best friend. Salutations and cheers followed their entrance.

“Who is this?” Jean-François asked in a low voice, still toe to toe with her.

“He’s the man I’d’ve married if I’d stayed.”

“I see. Perhaps it can still happen for you.”

He walked away, but Betty grabbed his arm and pulled him back to her. She lost her nerves, and Jean-François looked at her with eyes full of questions.

“I don’t want him,” she said.

His hand returned to her cheek, and she grabbed his tie. The smallest smile graced his lips before he gently pressed them to hers. They kept the kiss chaste because of their audience, it still left Betty weak in the knees.

“Do you think we have convinced your family?” he asked, his mouth just an inch from hers.

“Not sure yet.”

He chuckled and kissed her again.

“Alright, enough of this,” Grandpa Marshall said, pushing them apart. “We’ve a picture to take.”

The whole family gathered in front of the Christmas tree, Jean-François adjusting their positions to fit in the frame.

“Jean, come here, with us,” Marnie said, Grandpa Marshall grumbled but she shushed him, “let Donald take the picture.”

*

The whole village, hundreds of people, gathered on the parvis of St. James church. Men smoked while women talked, and children chased each other overexcited to be up so late. The night was alive with lights and laughter that eclipsed the stars.

At the bottom of the stairs leading up to the tall doors, Betty slowed down. “D’you think he knows we’re not really married?” she whispered to Jean-François.

“Who?”

“God,” she replied as if it was the most obvious thing.

“Do you not want to go inside?”

She gave this some thought. “That’s probably worse, innit?”

“We’re not doing anything an unmarried couple should not do.” Satisfied with his answer, Betty took his arm and they walked up the stairs.

Marnie told him the railway company had built the church for its employees in the 1880s. The interior design reminded parishioners of that fact: red and yellow brick walls, pews like benches in the station waiting room and a font cover shaped like a railway engine wheel.

The real centre of attention that night was the choir of boys and men, in white robes, each holding a candle, the only light in the church. Their voices was but a hum above the chatter.

With every person they met, Betty had to explain she wasn’t, in fact, dead as her grandfather had told everyone. She seemed relieved when the service began.

Mercier wasn’t the most religious man, but he took some comfort in the thought that something as horrible as the war they’d lived through had a larger meaning. That his survival and the death of his friend were not random. This Christmas, more than any other one, invited to contemplate life and death and one’s place in it all. As the reverend spoke, he saw it in the faces of everyone around him: the frowns and the knitted brows, the teary eyes and white knuckles. Gratitude and grief, sadness and relief.

He reached for Betty’s hand, and wondered when doing that had become so natural.

The Marshalls were generous people, after mass, they opened their door to everyone. The house filled with friends and music: violin, guitar, accordion and bagpipes. The living room became a dance floor and the windows fogged. He took off his tie and jacket. There were flapjacks and hot cider, and Betty’s arms around his waist. She introduced him as her husband to anyone who asked. They called her Mrs. Mercier. And he played along. They both did. Perhaps a little too much. He hoped these people would never compare the stories they told them or they would find some serious discrepancies. The story of their wedding, in particular, they embellished with every repeat. What started as a “short civil ceremony”, by the fifth time had become “a gorgeous ceremony at St Paul’s cathedral, with the French National Orchestra playing as I walked down the aisle. Jean-François had just helped them escape the Nazis, you see.” A good undercover agent would never do such a thing, but it made Betty smile so he didn’t care.

When old neighbours told him embarrassing stories about Betty’s youth, he noticed she hid her face against his arm, so he encouraged them to continue. More than once, young Betty had gotten in trouble when trying to help. “Oh, you must have been, six or seven, when you fell off our apple tree,” a woman remembered.

“Said she was trying to return baby birds to their nest,” a man added.

“I still got a scar,” Betty said, pointing a faint line on her arm.

He touched it carefully, and hated Craze for abusing her big heart.

“You have scars too, don’t you?”

“A few. Here.” He unbuttoned the top of his shirt and pulled the lapel away to expose his collar bone. Her fingers danced along it, slipping under the shirt to touch the spot of raised, pinker skin. He could smell the cinnamon on her breath, and he wanted to kiss her again.

She dropped her hand and gaze. “Want something to drink?”

“Yes, whatever you can find.” She walked away so quickly she bumped into her aunt.

Mercier ran his hands down his cheeks with a groan. He had to pull himself together, he was here to help Betty not make things harder for her. Despite that good intention, when she came back and found her seat taken, he patted his knee in invitation.

“You sure?”

“You would not be the only one.” Around the room, three other women sat on their husband’s lap. “If you don’t want—”

“No, no, that’s okay. That’s the normal thing to do.” She sat sideways of his knees, keeping most her weight on her own legs. He wanted to pull her closer, feel her full weight on him. He drank instead. The Jubilee Stout she’d brought him tasted of roasted grains and licorice, and made him long for a full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon or a fine Cognac.

Betty discussed with Mrs. Jeffrey, the woman they’d met at the train station on their arrival. As Betty talked, she relaxed further against him, and he drank some more to keep his hands off her. “So, I never got the full story of how you two met,” Mrs. Jeffrey said.

Mercier began to tell the story he’d prepared. “I was chasing after German spies who’d tried to pass off as French refugees.”

“Goodness gracious, German spies? Here?”

“Yes. They lured me into a trap, and when I escaped I had to hide. I found a place in the woods, behind the farm.”

“When I found him… I needed help,” Betty said, and Mercier frowned at her deviation from the story they’d agreed on, but she continued. “I’d hurt meself. In the forest. I’d slipped on the rocks, in the river, you know the place.”

“Beside the old bridge, yeah? Our Johnny fell there too, nearly drowned, he did.”

“Yeah, that’s the place. Well, you see, Jean-François he didn’t have to help me, could’ve ignored me, kept hiding, but he didn’t. He rescued me.” She cupped his cheek tenderly, and, never breaking eye-contact, he placed a lingering kiss on her palm.

“And you helped me too, to recover from my injuries,” he said. “I knew I had to go back to London. Duty called, but I didn’t want to go. The more time I spent with her, the harder it became to leave. So I asked her to marry me. I would have waited,” he added, also going off script. “If she’d wanted to stay with her family. I would have understood.”

Mrs. Jeffrey dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief. “You two are so sweet, I wish you a lifetime of happiness.” She pinched their cheeks and left.

Betty sunk against him, resting her head on his shoulder. “Are you tired, ma belle?”

“A bit, yeah. It’s past two am.”

They fell silent, observing the people around them, some celebrating, some snoring. They didn’t interest him as much as Betty, her warmth through his clothes, the faint scent of soap on her skin, the tiniest of freckles on her nose. Desire pooled low in his stomach.

“Jean-François.” She had a hand on his, not just resting there but pushing it away lightly, and he realized he’d ventured quite high up her skirt.

“My apologies, I— I think I need some fresh air.”

Mercier welcomed the night air and its cooling effect on his ardour. He rounded the corner of the house and lit a cigarette, taking a long drag. “Merde.”

He kept thinking of Olga, A.K.A. the countess, “am I overplaying my part?” she’d asked on their last meeting before she was killed.

Laughter and songs came through the window. Every person Betty had introduced him to as her husband she would have to tell he’d left her. The lie had gotten out of proportion and would make life harder for her rather than easier. This was why he should have left earlier.

The back door opened, he heard voices but didn’t see them from his side of the wall. “What’s the deal with Betty and that husband out of nowhere. Thought you was gonna marry her, Donald.”

“I was. Dunno what she’s thinking, takin’ up with a stranger. This land could’ve been mine. Now it’ll go to some French knobhead. She’ll never fit here with a man like that.”

*

The last guests left past 3am, and Betty searched around the house for Jean-François. She hadn’t seen him in the last hour. Not since she’d stopped his wandering hand, she hadn’t minded it, it just wasn’t the right moment or place for that. She hoped he wasn’t upset. She asked Marnie and Margaret, but they hadn’t seen him either. He wasn’t in the bedroom nor the washroom.

Finally, she found Jean-François asleep in an armchair in the closed summer kitchen. He looked too peaceful to wake him up, besides he’d have to get up in just a few hours for farm work. It was cold, so she covered him with an afghan blanket and brushed stray hair off his forehead. She laughed softly at his gaping mouth.

The old floorboards creaked, and Grandpa Marshall sidled up to her. Thumbs hooked under his braces, he considered Jean-François then his granddaughter. “Does he make you happy?”

“Jean-François�� yes.”

“You sure? You don’t look it, not always. What happened, Betty?”

“It’s war, Gramps. Death and… and deceit. I can’t be the innocent girl I was before and that’s alright.”

“Well, war was easier to live through here. We was safe.”

Betty sighed and walked away, picking up empty bottles and glasses as she went. Her grandfather followed her to the kitchen. Of course, he had to pick a moment when she was sleepy and he’d drank to talk. She wiped her hands on a tea towels. “Dunno what to tell you, Gramps. I know I let you down. I can’t explain why I did what I did. Not entirely… Will you ever forgive me or d’you want me to leave?”

He sat down at the table, groaning at the ache in his joints. “To be fair, I knew it was coming,” he said.

“How d’you mean?”

“You don’t say much, luv, never have, but that don’t mean there’s nothing going on in that nugging of yours. With you father’s death, and you mother’s… You needed something else.”

“I do love the farm so very much, though.”

“I know. I know. Just tell me you found what you was looking for.”

“A bit, yeah. I know a thing or two about meself I didn’t know before.”

“And you found him.”

“I’ve still got a lot to think about.”

“Dunno thinking so much will do you any good, but you do what you gotta do.” He stood up and placed his hands on her shoulders. “You can stay here as long as you need too.”

“Yeah?”

“Come here, my lil’ chicken.” He gave her a hug, and for a brief moment, she felt like the happy child she had once been.

Grandpa Marshall went to bed, and Betty looked out the window with an unburdened heart.

“You would have let me sleep in that chair all night?” Jean-François asked, he held the afghan around his shoulders which made him look like a tall child.

“Didn’t want to wake you. You coming to bed, then?” They walked sluggishly up the stairs together. Jean-François collapsed on the mattress.

“Your family certainly knows how to throw a party.”

“You had a good time? Did it take your mind off your family?”

“Yes… Of course, now I’m thinking about them.”

She clapped a hand over her mouth. “Sorry!”

“I’m joking.” He crossed his arms under his head, stretching his torso in a way that pulled his shirt out of his trousers, and her eyes lingered on that sliver of skin. “Betty?”

Her head snapped up. “What?”

“Do you need help with your dress again?”

She didn’t. “Yes, please.” She sat on the edge of the bed, and he rose to his knees. She let him brush her hair aside.

“I think I heard you reconcile with your grandfather,” he said, opening the top button.

“Yeah, I think we’re on the right track.”

“I’m happy for you.”

He pulled the zipper all the way down, knuckle dragging down her spine as he did it. She stayed on the edge of the bed, dress sliding down her arms.

“D’you think I should tell them the truth?” she asked, looking at him over her shoulder.

He’d laid back down already, eyelids drooping with sleep, but he made an effort and propped himself up on an elbow.

“Why do you want to tell them? Don’t do it for me.”

“No, I mean, I do hate that they don’t know what you’re doing for me, but I’ve just realized I’m gonna have to lie to them about it all me life.”

“I shouldn’t have made you lie to them.”

“You did the right thing. Not sure I’d’ve taken that train without you.” She squeezed his hand. “I just feel I should be honest.” She sighed, too sleepy to consider the matter further.

“That’s very noble of you.”

She admired his ring on her finger. “Yeah, I reckon I should be knighted too.”

Jean-François chuckled and pulled on her hand so that she fell on the bed beside him. “I dub thee: chevalière de la Lune.” He patted both her shoulders then booped her nose.

They rested their heads on pillows, blinking slowly, smiling at each other. They should change out of their clothes before falling asleep, but she didn’t have the energy to stand up.

“Can you hold me? Just for a little while?” Betty asked.

“Sure.” He opened his arms, and she snuggled up to him. His hands rested on her back where her dress gaped.

“Happy Christmas,” she whispered. She pecked his cheek but he turned his head at the same moment and their lips met. They froze until Jean-François moved his lips, and she returned the kiss. A gentle kiss, sleepy and unhurried. Afterwards, she kept her eyes closed for a second, savouring the tingles on her lips.

Betty rested her head on his chest, and they fell asleep in their fancy clothes.

*

Sunlight danced behind her eyelids, shifting yellows and whites, compelling her to wake up. Although she resisted the pull of the morning, she became more aware of her surroundings, of the soft rise and fall under her cheek, of a heartbeat where he ear rested, of an arm over her. She smiled and pressed her nose to the soft cotton of his shirt. And she thought there would be no more war if everyone had such lovely mornings. The thought made a giggle bubble her throat and her stomach vibrated with it against Jean-François. He inhaled deeply and tightened his arms around her. “What’s so funny?” he mumbled.

“Nothing.”

Unpleasant sensations eventually caught up with her: full bladder, pasty mouth, pins and needles in her arm. He protested when she moved, but eventually let her go. She tiptoed to the washroom so as not to get caught by her family, she had every intention of going back to bed. She rinsed her mouth and freshened up with a flannel. The floor was cold under her bare feet and she rushed back to the room to dive under the covers. Jean-François was still in bed, but she thought she could smell mint about him.

They lay face to face, and she removed one of her hair from his shirt as an excuse to touch him.

“I could kill for a good cup of coffee,” he said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Too much to drink?” She rubbed his forehead to alleviate the headache. He leaned into her touch until his head rested on her pillow. She ran her fingers through his hair, and his eyes fluttered shut.

“I only had two beers, but I didn’t get a lot of sleep. And I love coffee.”

“You can have a coffee tomorrow. You’ll be in France.”

His eyes opened, he searched her face, his brow furrowed. She shied away from that inquisitive gaze, tucking her head under his chin. He smoothed strands of hair behind her ear, his fingers lingered on her jaw. “I want you to come with me to France.”

She stilled. She couldn’t have heard him right.

“Please say something.”

She looked up at him, and she found in his eyes the same sincerity and concern that had touched her at the train station. “You really mean it.”

“Yes… I think I could use someone with me. And you are so very lovely to be with.” Betty smiled wide behind her fingers. “Is that a yes?”

“Yes! I mean, it’s only polite I return the favour.”

“This is not about politeness.”

Betty’s heart swelled in her chest, pushing laughter up her throat. She couldn’t stop smiling.

“May I kiss you again?” he asked.

“Oh, please do.”

From the way he wet his lips and looked at her, she knew this kiss would be different. A spark flared in her stomach. He brushed his nose down the slope of hers, and the first press of his lips was a featherlight caress. Without the pretence of mistletoe and her family watching, he took his time, building up the kiss. With each touch, the spark in her grew. Her mouth parted on a sigh, and he sucked on her bottom lip. Their legs entwined and fingers tangled in hair. He deepened the kiss, claiming her mouth, letting his hunger take over. And she welcomed it. He held her so tight, this fingertips reached her ribs.

In the last months, with sadness and anger plaguing her heart, intimacy had been far from her mind. But now, her body awoken from its hibernation, desire returned to her cells, and her pulse thumped between her legs. She canted her hips, pressing against him. The kiss turned messier. Wet smacks and panting breaths filled the room. She clawed at his shirt as if to rip it off him. A groan rewarded her ardour.

Jean-François pulled away suddenly. His eyes were wide, his lips kiss-swollen.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“I’m finding it hard to keep my promise to stay out of your knickers.”

“Oh, sod that promise.” She tugged on his collar to bring him back to her, and he laughed against her lips.

Jean-François pulled her dress down to her waist, his mouth following the fabric, pecking down her neck, across her collarbones, licking at the lacy edge of her bra. She removed it as fast as she could, and he kissed the red indentations left from sleeping with the bra on, a tender touch on each side of her breast then to the soft undersides, until her nipples were hard enough to graze his teeth over them.

Betty arched into his touch, trapping his leg between hers, squirming with a delicious sort of restlessness.

His hand sneaked under the layers of tulle, caressing her thighs and dragging his nails in a way that turned her skin to gooseflesh. She spread her legs without a moment of hesitation. He cupped her sex over her underwear and she bucked into his hand.

“Betty?”

“Keep going.”

His fingers slipped under the fabric, and he quirked an eyebrow at her readiness. He removed his hand from under her skirt, showed her his glistening fingers.

“I like you,” she said shyly.

He gave his beautiful fingers a lick. “You like me a lot.”

She hid her face in the crook of his neck and he kissed her hair. “It’s okay, ma belle.”

His light strokes of her folds became bolder, and she soon forgot her embarrassment. “Like this, please.” She guided his touch to a spot that made her gasp.

He moved faster, and she fisted the sheet. “Oh, God.” He studied her, the way she bit her bottom lip and squeezed her eyes shut, learning what elicited shivers and gasps.

“Look at me.” She opened her eyes, and he added a finger with a twist of his wrist that made her cry out. She put her hand behind his neck, bringing his forehead to hers. Their breaths mingled as her body went taut. And he swallowed her moans of release.

Betty fell against the pillow, every muscle felt like jelly. “Thank you.”

He chuckled at that and lay beside her,tracing lazy patterns on her stomach and chest. He was still completely dressed but his hair was a beautiful mess.

“I haven’t forgotten you,” she said, “I just need a minute.”

“I will be right here when you’re ready.”

“I bet you will.” She kicked off her dress and knickers. “Can I... be on top?”

“Hop on.” She chuckled as she straddled him. 

She began with his wrinkled shirt, exposing his chest. Licking her lips, she caressed his flat stomach, the shelf of his ribs, the sparse hair on his pectorals. She was already rolling her hips where he bulged, and took some perverse pleasure in soaking his chic trousers. She inched lower down his legs and unbuckled his belt slowly, then dragged the zip down even slower. His groan of impatience was delicious, she stroked him through the cloth, enjoying the way he hardened under her palm.

“I didn’t know you were such a tease,” he said.

“It’s not teasing if I see it through, though.” She flashed a mischievous grin.

He pulled her in for a kiss, nipping at her bottom lip. She rubbed her nose along the stubble on his jaw, smelling his skin, faint traces of woodsy cologne and his natural musk. He gripped her hips, tried to tug her down on him, but she resisted.

“Just wait a minute, you’ll love this, I promise,” she said, and started to kiss down his body.

Her hot breath, inches from his pants made him twitch and hit her chin.

“You deserve a reward, don’t you think?”

“You don’t have to…”

“I want to.” And she found she really meant it. She wasn’t trying to please him beyond her own comfort zone, she was being honest. He already knew everything about her and had never once judged her, she doubted this, of all things, would be the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Betty kissed his hip, and he caressed her hair, and oddly chaste gesture given what she was about to do.

She pulled down his pants, just enough to release his cock and lick the length of it. He raised himself up on his elbows to watch her. His eyes were dark, his mouth agape, holding his breath until the next touch. She revelled in that look, this beautiful man who desired her.

She gathered saliva in her mouth and kissed his tip, she let him push up past her lips. His stomach flexed with each panting breath. She sucked on the head, and he cursed in French. She released him returning to teasing licks.

“Are you enjoying torturing me?” he asked.

“Immensely.”

“I’ll get back at you for this. There are so many things I want to do to you.”

“Tell me,” she asked, returning her mouth to his cock. He sucked in a breath and tried to focus on describing all the places where he wanted to make love to her, starting with the train to Paris. His voice was lower, rougher than usual, his French accent thickened. She could feel herself swelling and slickening, the throb of her own arousal as she imagined it with him.

She bobbed her head faster. He’d stopped talking now. Her free hand rested on his thigh, and he laced their fingers together. When his grip tightened, she stopped. “You can finish like this,” she said, “or we can continue.”

“Continue.”

She straddled him again. He didn’t penetrate her, but let her glide up and down his cock, coating it in her wetness. She caressed her breasts and rolled her hips languorously. He swallowed hard, and she watched the muscles in his neck work. It aroused her as much as the friction between her legs. When he rubbed his thumb over her clit, her rhythm faltered. She braced herself on his shoulders, grinding faster. The old bed squeaked and rattled. He licked the sweat up her neck and kissed just below her ear.

“Jean-François, I need…”

“What do you need?”

“I need you, in me.”

He rolled over her. He cupped her cheek and looked into her eyes in a way that made a lump rise in her throat.

She wrapped her legs and arms around him, holding his as close as possible as he slowly pushed in her. They moaned in unison, and he stilled, filling her. He throbbed and swelled in her. His breath was ragged, his teeth were at her shoulder. She needed him to move but she treasured this closeness, this unity. She kissed him, pouring her heart and soul into it.

When they parted, there was marvel in his eyes. He rested his forehead on hers and started moving, careful, sensuous rolls of his hips meant to make her feel every inch of him. And they lost themselves into each other.

*

When they finally left the bedroom, the table was already decked with the best china and Christmas crackers for lunch. The pudding steamed in the copper boiler used to heat water for washing, turning the kitchen into a sauna.

“About time,” Marnie said. “Help me with the mutton, will ya.”

“Sorry, we overslept.”

“Didn’t sound like sleeping,” Margaret muttered.

Betty joined her grandmother at the counter, even the men helped prepare the meal.

As they sat around the table, paper crowns on and laughing at Grandpa Marshall’s stories, Betty’s eyes drifted to the window, to the Howgill Fells awash with sunlight and the sheep grazing peacefully. It felt familiar and new at the same time. She would return here, of that she was sure. Under the table, Jean-François laced their fingers. Whatever 1946 had in store for them, they wouldn’t go through it alone.

Thank you for reading! Stay tuned for more of Jean-François and Betty in 2018 :D

[architectnews]

Kent & Medway Medical School, Canterbury

Kent & Medway Medical School, Canterbury, Canterbury Public Building, Kent Architecture Images

Kent & Medway Medical School in Canterbury

6 Jan 2021

Kent & Medway Medical School

Architects: Hazle McCormack Young LLP

Location: Canterbury, Kent, South East England

Three storey University building to accommodate a new Medway Medical School in Kent, UK. The building provides teaching facilities and staff accommodation for 300 students.

What was the brief? The new Kent & Medway Medical School (KMMS) is a partnership between the University of Kent and Canterbury Christ Church University. It will be Kent’s first medical school, bringing together the existing centres of excellence in health and medical education provided by the two universities as well as local healthcare organisations, thereby offering a new model of patient-focused medical education. The Medical School will also be an essential part of the solution to recruiting and retaining medical professionals in the region.

Having received funding in the summer of 2018 the University of Kent had to provide a new building on its Canterbury Campus to deliver courses from September 2020. The Pears Building as it has been named accommodates a 150-seat lecture theatre, specialist seminar spaces, simulated GP surgery suite and staff accommodation. Specialist practical teaching facilities are accommodated at the Canterbury Christ Church University campus in their new Science & Engineering Building.

Key requirements of the brief are that the building should support future adaptation and change, that (to cater for the particular needs of visitors with disabilities) it be ‘super accessible’ and that it should achieve a BREEAME ‘Excellent’ rating.

What building methods were used? The building is constructed with a Hybrid of Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) panel floors/roof/staircase walls and a steel frame with lightweight steel framing infill. CLT was also used to construct the staircases which resolved access to each floor and the roof for the contractor during construction.

This methodology enabled the building to be made watertight early on in construction. Brickwork consists of brick slips bonded to insulation panels which does not require teams of skilled bricklayers as the traditional method would require and the system improves airtightness and thermal performance.

What are the sustainability features? Low energy consumption is integral to the design of the building through natural ventilation, PV panels, good daylighting and a highly insulated airtight external envelope. The building is designed to achieve a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating.

The use of off-site manufacture using cross laminated timber panels for floors, stair core walls and roof reduced the amount of concrete required in the building and its carbon footprint.

Roof mounted windcatchers provide ventilation to the first floor seminar rooms (via vertical ducting through the second floor) as well as the second floor meeting rooms and break out space. Night time cooling is supported through the provision of external louvres in the ground floor administration and meeting rooms and the first-floor seminar rooms, break out, group room and resources rooms.

How is the project unique? The Kent & Medway Medical School will play an essential part in the recruitment and retention of medical professionals in the region, helping to address the national and local shortage of medical staff. The current Pandemic has highlighted the need for such a facility and its inherent flexibility will enable the University to meet the current and future demands of the healthcare profession.

What were the key challenges? Programme The University had to deliver the building within 22 months from appointment of HMY. This required a co-ordinated design team effort and from HMY’s appointment in October 2018 we had submitted a full planning application in early 2019.

New Model of Education The building design had to develop alongside the client team establishing the course curriculum. This required a proactive approach to changes during the project and informed the choice of construction.

Covid Pandemic The team had to deal with the nationwide lockdown in March 2020 but the course starting date remained unchanged. The use of off-site construction enabled the building to be weathertight early. There were some delays in obtaining materials for example external cladding but the watertight shell enabled the interiors to be pushed forward. The project was completed on time and defect free.

Restricted site The proposed site for the KMMS Building is at the heart of the campus and on a constrained site. In addition, there were a number of underground services and features that had to be relocated ahead of construction starting on the building.

What were the solutions? A limitation on height to three stories combined with the close proximity of the adjoining single storey workshops and an objective to minimise the loss of existing trees constrained the new building to a simple orthogonal footprint.

The main entrance has been located on the north/east corner of the building adjacent to the existing pedestrian footpaths. The existing slope across the site from east to west has been utilised to provide a lower ground floor level to the lecture theatre to accommodate the height required for the raked seating.

The disposition of the required accommodation within the three-storey volume informs the façade design, each element expressive of the different uses within. The ground floor takes the form of a massive brick clad plinth from which the two stair cores extend to roof level. In contrast the upper floors of accommodation are expressed as a contrasting volume. The articulation of the massing is further informed by the idea of a ‘skin’ wrapping the building’s inner workings.

The University appointed Willmott Dixon Construction through the SCAPE Procurement Framework to deliver the building and HMY worked closely with their team learning the lessons from previous projects with the University. This enabled a rapid start on site for enabling works and for the off-site procurement and manufacture of the structure using a hybrid of Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) panels and a steel frame with lightweight steel frame infill. The CLT provides an exposed timber soffit within rooms which contrasts with the suspended acoustic rafts, lighting and encased steel frame. All services are concealed within a raised access floor and rooms are created with dry lining partitioning. This solution creates spaces that could be adapted during construction to meet the evolving brief and in the future.

Kent & Medway Medical School in Canterbury, England – Building Information

Architect and Principal Designer: Hazle McCormack Young LLP

Structural & Civil Engineer: Lyons O’Neill Mechancial & Electrical Consultants: Westec Engineering Ltd Principal Contractor: Willmott Dixon Construction Ltd

Project size: 2365 sqm Site size: 2135 sqm Project Budget: $10000000 Completion date: 2020 Building levels: 3

Key products used: B&K Structures – cross laminated timber floors, roof and walls IKO plc – roofing system Velux – rooflights Bilco – roof access hatches Kingspan Insulation – external walls Metsec SFS infill panels – external walls Gebrick Insulating Brick System – brick cladding Eternit Equitone Natura – rainscreen cladding IKO plc – roof system British Gypsum – dry lining & suspended ceilings Rockfon – demountable suspended ceilings Kawneer – windows, doors & curtain qalling John Watson Joinery Ltd – internal doors Planet Partitioning glazed screens Ezyglide sliding folding partitions Kingspan – raised access floors Cemex – screeded floors Milliken – carpet tiles Interface – modular vinyl sheet flooring and carpet tiles Tarkett – vinyl flooring Howdens Joinery – kitchens Venesta IPS duct panels Sanitaryware Armitage Shanks/Ideal Standard Gartec Lifts Heatrae Sadia – electric water heaters Honeywell – BMS Johnson Controls – access control MK Electric – electrical accessories Marley Plumbing & Drainage Solutions – above and below ground drainage Mitsubishi Electric Europe – air conditioning NuAire Ltd – extract fans Schneider Electric Ltd – distribution boards Solar UK – PV system Static Systems – fire alarm Thorlux – luminaires

Photography: Gordon Young

Kent & Medway Medical School, Canterbury images / information received 060121

Location: Canterbury, Kent, England, UK

Canterbury Buildings

Contemporary Canterbury Architectural Projects

Canterbury Cathedral Landscape Design Competition

Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury photo : Hélène Binet Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury Building

Buildings in Kent

Kent Buildings

Fort Burgoyne in Dover Design: Lee Evans Partnership, Architects image from architects office Fort Burgoyne

Black House Architect: AR Design Studio image courtesy of architects Black House in Kent

Caring Wood – RIBA House of the Year 2017, Leeds, Maidstone Design: Macdonald Wright Architects photo © James Morris Caring Wood, Kent

Dungeness Beach House Kent

English Architect

Canterbury Buildings from around the world

Canterbury House and Pool

Canterbury Road Residence in Toorak

Canterbury School Milford – Connecticut Building

Canterbury Architecture Awards

Comments / photos for Kent & Medway Medical School, Canterbury page welcome

Website: Canterbury

The post Kent & Medway Medical School, Canterbury appeared first on e-architect.

[asgardarbor-blog]

[jwiltshiret]

Tree Removal Leeds

Are overgrown hedges and trees taking over your property? J Wiltshire Tree Care is your trusted specialist for tree care and surgery in Leeds and the surrounding Yorkshire area. We have the experience and tools to safely remove all kinds of trees. Contact us today to request a free quote. Visit: https://www.jwiltshiretreecare.co.uk

[secondsofhappiness]

THANK YOU so so much for posting your photographs from the village tour. You look so happy to be there. Can you tell us any stuff from the tour because so many of us can't get to go and I'd really like to know the things you said they told you about filming there. I hope you come back very soon ☺️

Aww thank you so much!

Of course, I’d be so happy to. I wish you could all go visit, as a really big fan it was rather special for me so I wish there was a way for us all to go.

I’m sure this kind of thing has been done before but I’m happy to post everything I can remember! I was like a school kid, I’m sure the tour guide thought I was an enormous nerd but I wasn’t the only excited one.

MY EMMERDALE VILLAGE TOUR REPORT ❤️

First off, I’ve visited quite a few TV sets with work and attended a few studio TV tapings but this place is something else. It’s so immersive. It’s little wonder the cast feel like it’s home, it feels so real and is absolutely cared for and feels extremely lived in.

It’s tiny in real life though. Not the village itself (I think the “set” is 11 acres they said but the houses. They look SO SMALL and everything feels dainty which was precious to me, the Woolpack specifically. It’s so iconic and yet when I saw it, I awww-ed :)

For those of you who are planning on going at some point, it might be a shame to know all this before you go as the tour guides seem to tell people the same stuff so I’d maybe not read - wanted to warn in case!

It’s a little long so be prepared!

Ok, so first off, for me the thing that struck me was how green it was and how perfectly the village fit into the surroundings. It feels VERY real and is so bedded into the grounds that they barely need to do anything to make it appear “life like”. There is a gardener (one lady!) who looks after all of the plants/trees and foliage. She has her work cut out as most of the greenery is real but it obviously reacts to seasonal changes so due to how far in advance they tape, she is sometimes up against it and has to glue leaves to trees or add extra flowers in or potentially has to replace or hide foliage with stuff to make it look dead. I spotted a few fake plants too, especially in tubs and pots. She keeps her equipment in Tall Trees (Marlon’s house) which is actually located behind the cricket pavilion over the “bridge of tears”. I did NOT know Marlon lived so far out of the village, actually the opposite side of the village to The Dingles. There are issues with grass though. Some areas get worn away and there was a rule on the tour not to stand on it because they’d be filming Monday etc. So all of the grass outside of David’s shop is fake and there’s also a patch of fake grass near the bus stop and the Thomas’ cottage (Mulberry).

There are things that are placed VERY differently to how they seem on the show which makes the tour pretty funny at first. The Sharmas is less then a 30 second walk from the factory in reality but Jai uses his car to travel there… haha. The Sharma’s house is definitely supposed to be elsewhere but in reality it’s right next to Wishing Well! Same with the scrap yard… it’s mega close to the village but Rob’s always driving there and giving Aaron a lift etc. Dude just wants to have Aaron in his car!

Also, hilariously, (someone who has done the tour can correct me on this if I’m wrong) but I’m almost certain that the road in from the security hut that allows you on site is the “Robron first kiss” road… which, if I’m right and let’s face it, we’d recognise that road anywhere, is a short walk from the village. So Rob’s whole “I’m stranded, save me Aaron!” thing becomes hysterically funny.

Butler’s Farm is set alone out of the village near a local pub and looks as quaint and is pretty much a working farm…!

The Dingles, Pollard’s house and The Scrap Yard are all set a little outside the village (a very short walk) and so aren’t on the tour. Home Farm also isn’t a set, external shots are filmed at a nearby estate which I always expected but when Declan set fire to it (ah happy memories) I presumed it was a set… and I was right! They did build a version or started to build a HF set but planning permission failed so, they set fire to it! SO THIS MEANS MY DREAMS OF A FULL HF FIRE ARE DASHED :( Dog is going to have to find a different method than knocking over a candle!

As most people know, most of the inside stuff is in the Kirkstall Road studio in Leeds but there are a few indoor sets at the village including the B&B, the church, the village hall, the vet surgery, Rhona’s cottage, Eric’s House, the pirate ship and the barns (I think they’re all of the interior sets at the village). They do have a Woolpack set that can be placed inside the village Woolpack building because they used it for the Live episode but it’s rarely required.

The Barns! Ok, so we’ve all been a bit confused about the barns on the show and which is which so one of my aims while I was there was to work that shiz out. First of all, it’s probably important to say that I got mega excited seeing the barn where Sarah died. It took me right back and it’s quite far out of the village and is the security hut to allow you onto the set. It’s quite bleak where it is so I can imagine in Winter it’s mega exposed.

The “near proposal/bread barn/affair barn” is just a random barn on the way into the village. It’s close to The Dingles and not far from the scrap yard etc but is just this little random barn… and is entirely separate but hilariously overlooked so you can’t exactly be inconspicuous! It’s a different barn to the one Charity and Ross got it on in and Sarah found Faith in as that’s a much smaller barn further out of the village. Hilarious how many random barns there are!

The graveyard is something I was surprised by! I thought they’d just put the graves out there when they needed them but nope, if a gravestone has been shown on the show then it’s an ACTUAL gravestone buried into the ground so there were so many recognisable ones - especially for long time viewers! Half the King family take up a corner…! Sarah’s is off by herself at the top (definitely felt super special seeing that!) and Val’s sits proudly in the centre at all times!!! We saw Ashley’s cross and apparently they use that cross for all characters so it just gets moved around hahaha. They’re apparently giving Ashley his own grave stone (obviously!) so it’ll be shown in the show at some point. The other random graves are actual gravestones taken from a graveyard in London somewhere as it was being “closed”… creepy. Some ex- crew who were heavily involved in the early success of the show have their own graves!

The village was built in 1997 but obviously had to be made to look worn in, old and imbedded. They used a yoghurt and manure mixture on the walls to encourage lichen to grow! They also used grinders on stone steps and other techniques to make the houses/stone work appear worn from use/weather.

The cars. I kind of got a bit excited as the first thing I saw was The Dingles van. Most of the cars are purchased by the show but some are actually the cars of crew members… apparently Cain’s BMW belongs to the cleaner! I was gutted I couldn’t see Rob’s Porsche but I was told some cars are kept at the scrap yard and as much as I tried, I couldn’t spot it. They had a car park near the drop off point that had character cars in it and I saw “the digger” hahaha, had a giggle to myself.

The fact that the buildings are either empty, shells or are used as make-up, costumes, toilets (Ness’ cottage is the toilets!) or prop storage, it means that obviously special effects are required to make them look lived in. That includes smoke from chimneys, interior lighting etc which is all via remote control. I found that incredibly cool. They all have entrance ways built onto them so when the characters are at their doors, it looks like it’s an actual house though, which is obvious but still a fun little detail.

Apparently the B&B has only one internal bedroom and so if they need to make it look there are more than one like if they shoot in a couple supposed to be used for guests, they just have to change the bedding and lamps etc to make it look different.

It’s hilarious looking at the size of some of the houses and wondering how the heck the families fit in ESPECIALLY The Bartons. It’s one of the smaller cottages and has like one room upstairs… haha

I actually didn’t get an answer to my question about The Mill and if any of it is on location at the village but from what I could see, the downstairs windows look dressed with pull down blinds and looks “used” but the upstairs looks blank. I’m not sure if the ground floor has an internal set (the tour guide didn’t know) or if it’s just got window dressings for external shots but either way it is HANDS DOWN the prettiest house in the village and has the most beautiful location. It looks so grand and cosy and I am biased because it was ALWAYS my favourite set when The Kings lived there and now my other faves are taking it over but genuinely, it’s mega pretty.

Another thing I found funny was the layout. I have been watching this show for nearly 22 years and I still got a shock when I realised where the village hall and church were in comparison to the rest of the village…! Hahaha. It’s so lame of me. I didn’t realise that the back gardens of the cottages that The Bartons and Vic/Adam live in back onto the village hall and that the hall and church is as far away, also the garage! How the heck did I NOT realise where it was?! I didn’t realise it was so close to the Woolpack… also the cricket pavillion is entirely NOT where I expected it to be and is also on a really steep bank. Rob and Aaron’s picnic and Gabby stripping off and all of the other scenes have NEVER made it look like it was on a proper hill! Camera magic, eh?!

And yes it is real beer/lager/ale that comes out of the pumps. The way they do it is, if a pint is being poured and scene requires the actor to drink it immediately, they’ll be drinking real alcohol but if not then their pint will be replaced by the fake stuff and if there are scenes where drinks are already poured, it’ll be fake and also if drinks are downed! That said, some of the stuff the actors drink is actually the proper stuff. Makes sense why some of them always have a swig as soon as Chas passes them it ;)

So! That’s everything I can think of. It’s probably massively boring but I thought I’d write it up anyone for those that are interested. If you can get to visit then I’d definitely recommend it. I found those moments of looking back up behind me to the empty village ESPECIALLY from the direction of The Mill Upwards towards the Pub and bus stop… that was quite special for me. It felt really strange as I’ve grown up watching these places every week night for most of my life and to stand there was surreal and all I kept saying to my friend was how pretty and peaceful it was and how homely it felt. Makes sense as it’s our lovely cosy crazy little show!

[georgewagner]

Half-price new homes available through new First Homes Scheme

The government’s First Homes scheme is offering first-time buyers up to 50% off new build houses, as a cheaper way onto the property ladder.

First-time buyers in England could now find it easier to get onto the property ladder, through the government’s new First Homes scheme. The first group of homes available through the scheme went on the market near Bolsover, East Midlands, on 4th June 2021, with thousands more set to be delivered around England in the upcoming years.

How much money can first-time buyers save through the First Homes scheme?

Homes are discounted by at least 30% compared to the market value. A discount will also apply when the home’s being sold in the future. Every First Home will have a restriction registered on its title at HM Land Registry, to make sure the discount (determined by current market value) can be applied every time the title is transferred. Therefore, the First Homes scheme will benefit local first-time buyers for years to come.

The government is allowing local authorities and neighbourhood planning groups to offer a higher minimum discount of 40% or 50%, if they can show a need for it.

How many First Homes will be available?

1,500 more homes will be available around England from the end of 2021. Following that, a minimum of 10,000 homes will be delivered each year. If demand exceeds this, the government says that they will provide even more homes through the scheme.

Who’s eligible for the scheme?

General eligibility criteria

People in England that are buying a home for the first time can use the First Homes scheme.

Your annual household income must be £80,000 or below (£90,000 or below in Greater London) in the tax year before the year you’re buying the property in. This applies whether you’re buying alone or with someone else. Local authorities can set a lower income cap.

You’ll need a deposit of at least 5% of the discounted purchase price.

Properties on the scheme must be priced at £250,000 or lower after the discount has been applied (or £420,000 maximum in Greater London). Your mortgage or home purchase plan must fund at least 50% of the discounted purchase price.

Local eligibility criteria

Local authorities or neighbourhood planning groups will be able to prioritise local people and key workers for First Homes properties. This could be based on:

A local connection test.

Employment status.

Locally-set income caps.

Local eligibility criteria will be applicable for 3 months, starting from the date the home is first put on the market. If the home isn’t reserved by that point, the criteria will be removed and the property will be open to purchase by anyone that meets the basic eligibility criteria.

Members of the Armed Forces and recent veterans don’t need to meet any additional criteria set by local authorities or neighbourhood planning groups.

How to apply for the First Homes scheme

Check that the house you want to buy is being offered through the First Homes scheme. If it is, you can then apply for the scheme through the builder, providing you meet the eligibility criteria.

There’s no deadline for the scheme. However, demand for the scheme is expected to be high, according to the HomeOwners Alliance. So, you may want to get involved as soon as possible.

How can to get a mortgage for the First Homes scheme

On the scheme’s launch day, seven banks and building societies announced that they will offer 95% loan-to-value mortgages for properties, in order to support the First Homes scheme. This means people buying through the scheme will need a 5% deposit; this is less than they might need for other mortgages. So, the scheme will be even more accessible to first-time buyers.

The banks and building societies offering these high loan-to-value mortgages are: Halifax Bank and Nationwide, Chorley, Darlington, Leeds, Mansfield and Newcastle building societies.

Once you’ve applied for a mortgage in principle,

How can I find the best government home ownership scheme for me?

The First Homes scheme is the latest step in the government’s commitment to deliver 1 million homes by 2024. Through planning obligations, First Homes should make up 25% of all affordable housing units supplied by developers.

Additional support currently on offer includes a low-deposit mortgage scheme, in addition to a stamp duty holiday until September 2021. Read more on our Homeowner Advice Centre. You can’t use the Help to Buy scheme in conjunction with the First Homes scheme.

You can find out which government home ownership schemes suit you by completing the questionnaire on the Own Your Home website.

Van life: Unique camper van, caravan and motorhome conversion ideas

    How much does it really cost to run electric underfloor heating?

    Why get tree surgery done before summer?

    6 jobs to do in summer (that you might think are better done in winter)

    Creative kids bedroom design ideas

    How to plan for a bathroom niche

The post Half-price new homes available through new First Homes Scheme appeared first on Rated People Blog.

Half-price new homes available through new First Homes Scheme published first on https://fanseeaus.tumblr.com/

[torentialtribute]

Brighton boss Graham Potter relishing Premier League challenge after nomadic career

Graham Potter is preparing for his first season as manager of Premier League knowing that much of what he will not work.

If that seems to be saying something strange, it feels less so when the new Brighton head coach explains it.

Potter is only 44 and this is his first Premier League job. He spent most of his coaching career coaching students and working in Sweden .

But what is missing in top flight experience that he might make up for in the originality of thinking. To that end, when he followed a Masters in leadership and emotional intelligence almost 10 years ago, he came across a principle that underpins his work.

Graham Potter has a unique view of the game and prepares to tackle mistakes

The Brighton boss insists that his players don't play with being allowed to play fear in the Premier League

& # 39; Football is a foul game & # 39 ;, explains Po tter out. "You play 90 minutes and the score is only 1-0, so by definition you can see that things have not always worked well.

" But football tends towards a guilt and fear culture and I don't want that . I met boys in my medical and military education and they recognized that fear was not about making mistakes, it was about knowing they could come and responding positively to them if they did. That resonated for me. Fear means that you cannot be yourself.

& # 39; For example, errors would occur during surgery and how the surgeon would respond to that error would determine life and death.

& # 39; If anyone can tell me how I can eliminate football mistakes. I'm all ears. But my experience suggests that there will be bumps in the road. "

Potter and assistant head coach Billy Reid knows that the task ahead of him is a difficult task

Listening to a Potter talk was a reminder of a conversation with Eddie Howe a year earlier, and the Bournemouth manager explained that he much of his early career played very anxiously to make a mistake because of the reaction of his coaches and senior teammates.

"The last thing you want are frightened players," Potter nods. & # 39; I would not want to add to the external pressure that already exists in an environment as the Premier League. You want them to be confident enough to make their own decisions on the field within a certain reference.

"The culture that you mention with regard to Eddie was something that I experienced, yes. Listen, you can be relaxed. So there is a nice line.

& # 39; But fear can eat you and it prevents you from being on the field and that is not good. & # 39;

One of the most daunting moments of last season came after Brighton lost a one-sided FA Cup semi-final to Manchester City by the single goal. Manager Chris Hughton seemed satisfied that his team had not turned around and felt wrong.

The work of Hughton in Brighton – promotion and two years in the Premier League – was great so when he was fired at the end of the previous season, flavor it. But chairman Tony Bloom and technical director Dan Ashworth wanted a more progressive style of football. Potter was hired from Swansea to deliver it.

Last season, Potter Swansea managed and helped develop the will of Daniel James

& # 39; You have I recognize and respect the good work done here & # 39 ;, Potter emphasizes. & # 39; But like any coach, I will try to improve what happened last year. We will try to improve our offensive game while continuing the defensive work that has been so effective. & # 39;

Potter & # 39; s c.v. It is not conventional and that makes it interesting. A workday went back to teams such as Birmingham, Stoke, Southampton and West Brom, he stopped at the age of 30 and spent coaching time at universities in Hull and Leeds before joining Ostersunds FK of Sweden's fourth division in seven seasons to the Europa League brought. Last year was spent in Swansea, where the club finished 10th in the championship.

Is your appointment a risk to Brighton? "There are no certainties in this game, so I can't really answer that," he says. "I can only look at what I have done to get here. Since the age of 30 I have trained myself to try to improve.

"I have taken the next natural step every time and that mentality has brought me here and it is going to be exciting. Everything went well. But it's that time of year when no one has played a game yet, so everyone is happy, isn't it? & # 39;

Potter is not a natural leader. In his early days he found it difficult to stand in front of a group. Don I don't like the sound of my own voice & # 39 ;, he explains. "People assume it is natural for us. That's not it. & # 39;

But he has always had the courage to follow his instinct. While reading a tabloid newspaper as a player in Southampton, he felt that his mind was getting lazy. Soon, to the amusement of friends in the team bus, he had exchanged it for a book about American politics.

Likewise, he believes that the day he decided to retire was the most important of his career.

Potter led Swansea to 10th place and made the South Wales team pass-masters

[1945909]

& # 39; It was probably the most powerful moment of my life he said. I could have continued. But I could see where it went.

"I did not want to be the man who would fire someone because I did not apply myself correctly. Instead of the game kicking me out, I wanted to be proactive. I didn't have enough money to just sit in the bank, so I had to figure out what to do. Most players play as long as possible and then perhaps coach at that club.

I thought that that did not necessarily lead to better coaches, because it meant that everyone would continue to do what had always been done. I had to get out and develop in a different way. It could have been madness, but it worked out well. & # 39;

Ostersund is marketed by the Swedes and with good reason. Potter and his wife Rachel moved there with their 11-month-old son in 2010. Later, Rachel told her husband that she cried every day for weeks.

"The family is the hardest part of moving," says Potter. "You know you have to make it work, because that's why you are here. But what is your family at home when you are working? The club had fired the manager every year for years before there was pressure on me to succeed.

& # 39; The way to make it work was to do scouting through Sweden, but that meant I had to leave my wife home with an 11-month-old child when it is at least 25 outside.

Potter made a name for himself in Ostersunds, them of the fourth leading division to Europe

She made a few reconnaissance trips with me. I showed her the sights of northern Sweden on a Sunday afternoon and she was happy with those … trees. And more trees. & # 39;

Potter and Rachel had traveled to Ostersund a year earlier to discuss a job at the club's academy. With a population of around 50,000, it is the 22nd largest city in Sweden and the day they visited was a holiday. "Everyone had gone to the mountains, so it was like a ghost town," he laughs. "It felt a bit too much then. It was a northern Swedish summer day – around 10 degrees – and we just felt so far away from everything. & # 39;

Despite this, when the head coach's job came up 12 months later, Rachel agreed to leave and leave behind a Pilates company she had 10 years growing up.

Potter & # 39; s success was astonishing. He took the club through the divisions, won the Swedish Cup and debuted in the Europa League, where they defeated Arsenal 2-1 in London in 2018. His family's sacrifices were appreciated. Fans of Ostersunds held up a banner with the text & # 39; Thanks Rachel & # 39; during a competition and also wrote her a letter.

& # 39; We now look back and we both say that this was the best thing we have ever done professionally, & # 39; he says. "And it really was something we had to do. Regular football would not be interested in a coach who works in higher education. In the beginning it was tough, but actually worse when we came back. It was quite traumatic for the family to leave Ostersund.

While managing the Swedish side Potter took over the Arsenal from Arsene Wenger and won in London

& # 39; My oldest son was struggling. When you are eight, you miss your friends and you don't understand why we should be in Swansea and not back in Ostersund. Then he had just settled in Wales and found friends and now he had to move again. I hope he can forgive me. & # 39;

With Dad now a Premier League manager, life will be different for the Potter family. Born in Solihull, Potter seems to be a real, smart man. He is a bit different and we must embrace that and hope that the Premier League does not change him too much.

"I'm looking forward to the challenge and luckily I'm at a really good club," he says. "The people here are brilliant. The club has values. I also have a good family that I will listen to when things get a little crazy. I can use their support.

"I have been playing football since I was 17 years old. I know what the game is like and the Premier League is the next thing I suppose. I have experienced it a bit as a player, although it has escalated since those days. But I can only be myself. That is the most important. If that's not good enough or what people want, that's fine. I'll just try to be myself. & # 39;

Source link

[fkarbroindustriesarkansas]

Tree Surgery Leeds

See the rest of the story at http://future.karbroindustries.com/tree-surgery-leeds/