Friday; Places of Learning;

Picture Book Library - Iwaki City, Japan
Built in 2005, the Picture Book Museum gave the preschoolers of Iwaki, Fukushima, a space to call their own. Turned off by the shhh-ing atmosphere of traditional libraries, the Picture Book Library's founder gave architect Tadao Ando free rein to create a space that would be inviting for children. His only order was to make sure the covers of the books were visible. The glass-walled and vibrant end result was celebrated as a new paradigm in educational spaces in Japan, and as an architectural masterpiece.

Bibliotheca Alexandrina - Alexandria, Egypt
Nothing remains of the original Library of Alexandria -- the biggest and most prominent library of the ancient world -- and nobody knows for sure exactly when and how it was destroyed. But nearly 2,000 years later in 2002, the new Bibliotheca Alexandrina opened as an homage to the original.

Royal Grammar School Chained Library - Guildford, England

Established in the early 1500s, the Royal Grammar School contains one of few remaining examples of the practice of chaining books to shelves. This allowed important or particularly useful books to be placed in communal areas for public perusal rather than locked away, paving the way  to the public library system. Now the Headmaster's Study, the Chained Library holds books that date back to the late 1400s, including two early editions of Sir Isaac Newton's Principia.  

St. Catherine's Monastery - South Sinai, Egypt

The oldest continually operated library in the world, St. Catherine's Monastery has been around since it was first built by the order of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, sometime around 564 AD. It currently holds over 3,000 religious and educational manuscripts and approximately 8,000 printed books, including first editions of Homer and Plato. 

Trinity College Long Room - Dublin, Ireland

Ireland's oldest university, Trinity College, is also the location of the largest library in Ireland. The oldest and rarest of its collection is housed in the Long Room, the largest single-chamber library in the world with over 200,000 volumes preserved inside. 

When I travel I always like to visit libraries. When I see the might of books and learning I ask myself why is the world still such a savage place? Spending the people's wealth on wars and destruction, still invading other countries to steal and to plunder. 

To plunder, to slaughter, to steal, these things they misname empire; and where they make a wilderness, they call it peace. Tacitus

Thursday; unforgettable;

My granddaughter Fabrizia leaves little notes for me. I find them in books, in the cutlery drawers, behind mugs, they are always a little surprise.She is now 10, when she could not read nor write she left me drawings and long epistles with  "Hieroglyphics". When only 2 years old she carried always books around, not with pictures just with writing, she loved dictionaries, she still loves notebooks and carries them anywhere to write and draw. This little note says "Dear Goi, I miss you already I will bring back something and maybe stay at your hotel in Europe. Fab

(Goi is short for Grossmammi a Swiss German word for grandma. She invented it when she was two years old.)

Thursday; I wonder...

...who said:" we can not waltz in the clouds?"

© Photo/text Ts.

Wednesday, 2 cents of wisdom;

Dry, spend leaves have their special beauty. 

Be creative;
Do not buy mass produced goods, go for quality;
Choose handmade goods from small cottage industries;
Buy one good painting you really like instead of buying 50 reproductions.
Even better paint one yourself.
Look and listen;
Enjoy  nature, colours, stillness.
Read one of the Philosophers;
Enjoy cooking a special meal, try to make your own recipes.
Learn a new language, even if only a few sentences.
Don’t accept everything at face value, make up your own mind;
Do not follow trends;
Criticize;
Don’t be to materialistic, it takes the pleasure away from being creative.

Miniature Bougainvillea;

.Creative individuals
 have a great deal of energy, but they are also often quiet and at rest,

tend to be smart,

have a combination of playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility;
alternate between imagination, fantasy, and  their sense of  reality,

seem to harbour opposite tendencies between extroversion and introversion.

Generally, creative people are  rebellious and independent.

©Photos my garden/text Ts

Tuesday; care...

We are lucky to live well, have a  happy life, others don't, children are always the most vulnerable and easily exploited by people who are the most despicable of mankind. They do not care at all how they make money; if possible always on the back of others.

Tell Nintendo Slavery is Not a Game;

Conflict minerals are mined by prisoners of war and child slaves.
 Nintendo doesn't seem to think this matters.
Electronics like laptops, cell phones, and game consoles contain minerals that are often mined by people in the Congo forced to perform this labor under threat of violence or death. This is why they are often called 'conflict minerals.'

Companies like HP, Apple and Microsoft have taken steps to make their products conflict-free, but not Nintendo.

The very first step for Nintendo to rid its products of conflict minerals is to audit its supply chain and make the information public.

The violence and slavery associated with the production of minerals in the Congo is devastating. There is absolutely no excuse for a company with so much money and power to turn a blind eye to this human rights tragedy.

Care2 Action alerts.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/886/663/109/?z00m=20502862

Monday; capricious;

ca·pri·cious

Adjective

Given to sudden and unaccountable changes of mood or behavior. 

Synonyms

whimsical - wayward - fickle - freakish - crotchety 

Freakish,  flowering now, the Hippeastrum flowers generally in spring, October, November, depending on the weather into December.

Wayward; cherry tree flowering now towards end of summer; it should flower in spring!

Fickle; Lichen are choosy, Lichens and mosses only grow in areas where the air is clean and will not flourish in gardens in polluted inner-city suburbs.

Whimsical; Lovely moth, saw it in the morning on the fence. Moth and Lichens are some of my favourites. 

There is something about them, interesting in all aspects and absolutely beautiful.

©Photos/text Ts

Sepia Saturday 164; Grandfather's Tobacco pipes;

The Appenzeller  tobacco pipe, called a Lindauerli is part the

Alpine  national costume, still worn today for social occasions.

The tobacco pipes  are still produced today  in the same way and style as in earlier times. Generally they are produced from wood of the pear tree  and varnished  very dark brown or black and decorated
with stylized  Edelweiss, Alpen flora and cows from silver or tin.

This one is a tobacco pipe with a swan neck!

This is also a Lindauerli, I should have pointed the head down wards, that's how it is smoked'

A folks song; Myn Vater isch en Appenzeller,

 der isst de' Chäs mitsamt'em Teller.

My father is a born  Appenzeller he eats his cheese and the plate, which means, in earlier time they served the cheese on  a thick piece of bread, so he eats the cheese and the plate!

Still a very traditional  bringing the animals  up to the Alps in early summer and also celebrating when they are returning at the end of summer.

The canton Appenzell, situated in the north-east of Switzerland, was from 1513 to 1597 one single cantons (1597 the canton was divided into the Catholic Innerrhoden and the reformed Ausserrhoden). 

A girl who can Yodel!

www.sepiasaturday.blogspot.com

©Photo/text Ts

Friday, surprise...

Privileged; roses in the kitchen;

This morning it was raining and I went grocery shopping. I left at 8 am and was back at 10:30. I usually go to a smaller shopping centre not to far to drive. I quickly went to the library to pick up some books. I read now a lot from my Sony reader, but from time to time it is nice to hold a REAL book!

The books I borrowed are  BAND OF SISTERS by Gathy Gohlke;

AND WHEN SHE WAS GOOD by Laura Lippman;  I don't know about this one THE SINS OF THE MOTHER; Danielle Steel, perhaps I read it perhaps not. Anyway some blissful hours are waiting.

When I returned home I found a small parcel waiting for me;  a beautiful present;

Exquisite bangles made from Buffalo horn. Artisans in  North Vietnam make them. The colours are very beautiful and they are feather-light to wear.  

©Photos/text Ts

Thursday; a g a i n...

Dream;

Today I send a green smilebox to my friends in the cold climate to cheer them up!

I have lots to do in the garden after the rain, not only what I want grows like crazy, this means hat, gloves and boots until it gets to hot out there.

Cheers until perhaps tomorrow...

©Photo/text Ts

Tuesday; Yes;

What is hiding behind the blue? Never mind, every cloud has a silver lining.

©PhotoTs

Monday; green...

Canna

 Cannas make wonderful statements, with their bold, elegantly straight demeanour in the gardens.

My favourite is this one.  Its flower is quite insignificant in regard to the others. The flower is small, deep red on a tall stem, quite out of  proportion. What I like about this Canna are its leaves which are a delight and make up completely for the lack of flower power. 

©Photo/text Ts

Sepia Saturday 163; St.Moritz;

St. Moritz  Bains 1881


St. Moritz is a resort town in the Engadine valley in Switzerland. It is a municipality in the district of Maloja in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. The highest summit in the Eastern Alps, the Piz Bernina, lies a few kilometres south of the town.
Population: 5,148 (2008)
Elevation: 1,822 m
Area: 28.69 km²
Weather: -13°C, Wind N at 32 km/h, 52% Humidity
Local time: Friday 9:02 pm on 09/02/2013
 Australian time 06/07 am,  +21°C


Votive offerings, swords, and needles from the Bronze Age, were found at the base of the springs in St. Moritz, which indicate that the Celts had already discovered them.
St. Moritz is first mentioned around 1137-39 as ad sanctum Mauricium. The town was named after Saint Maurice, a Coptic Orthodox, and Roman Catholic saint.
Pilgrims travelled to Saint Mauritius, the church of the springs, where they drank from the blessed, bubbling waters of the Mauritius springs in the hopes of being healed. In 1519, the Medici pope, Leo X, promised full absolution to anyone making a pilgrimage to the church of the springs. In the 16th century, the first scientific treatises about the St. Moritz mineral springs were written. In 1535, Paracelsus, the great practitioner of nature cures, spent some time in St. Moritz.

1931

Though St. Moritz  received visitors during the summer, the origins of the winter resort only date back to September 1864, when St. Moritz hotel pioneer, Johannes Badrutt, made a wager with four British summer guests: that they should return in winter and if it was not to their liking, he would pay for the cost of their journey from London and back. If they found St. Moritz attractive in winter, he would invite them to stay as his guests for as long as they wished.


This marked not only the start of winter tourism in St. Moritz but the start of winter tourism in the whole of the Alps. The first tourist office in Switzerland was established the same year in the town. St. Moritz developed rapidly in the late nineteenth century and the first electric light in Switzerland was installed in 1878 at the Kulm Hotel and the first curling tournament on the continent held in 1880.
The first European Ice-Skating Championships were held at St. Moritz in 1882 and first golf tournament in the Alps held in 1889. The first bob run and bob race was held in 1890 and by 1896 St. Moritz became the first town in the Alps to install electric trams and opened the Palace Hotel. In 1906, a horse race was held on snow (1906) and on the frozen lake (1907). The first ski school in Switzerland was established in St. Moritz in 1929.

In 1928 St. Moritz hosted the 1928 Winter Olympic Games and the stadium still stands today. It later hosted the 1948 Winter Olympic Games

Sonja Henie

Sonja Henie was a Norwegian figure skater and film star. She was a three-time Olympic Champion in Ladies Singles, a ten-time World Champion and a six-time European Champion. Wikipedia

Born: April 8, 1912, Oslo

Died: October 12, 1969, Oslo

Height: 1.60 m

The Segantini Museum: dedicated to Giovanni Segantini, a painter that lived the last five years of his life in Engadine. The Segantini Museum is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance.
The bobsled run: a very rare natural bob sleigh typically running by mid December each year
Viewing the glacier landscape: there are a number of notable vistas. Much can be seen by descending from Diavolezza to the Morteratsch Glacier.
The 3300 metres high Piz Corvatsch with its ice cave and its eight-kilometer long ski slope down to St.Moritz-Bad.

Returning from the Forest, 1890

In the last evening light a farmwoman, bent over from exertion, returns with a load of wood to the village at the foot of the mountains, where the first lights are already lit. Here, homecoming is a symbol of the loneliness and allegory of death. Segantini’s imagery is programatically determined by the

cycle of the seasons and human life.

St.Moritz today, playground to the rich and famous!!

Please ski over to  Sepia Saturday 163 and enjoy;

Thursday; Somerset Maughham;

Mankind's infatuation with money, has not chosen the best medium to buy happiness. Titania


Yesterday I read this quote;"If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too." -- Somerset Maugham,

 I remembered  reading his book.  “Of Human Bondage",

at a time I started to think about life and death and the inbetween.

  I was mostly impressed when Philip found out the plot about religion, his uncle, a clergyman, very pious and religious, was dying and he  he was terribly frightened about it. He did not find solace in his believes. Philip questioned, why would he be so afraid to die when he was ready to meet his maker an all forgiving god…and then he understood“

There was no meaning in life, and man by living served no end. It was immaterial whether he was born or not born, whether he lived or ceased to live. Life was insignificant and death without consequence.

 Philip exulted, as he had exulted in his boyhood when the weight of a belief in God was lifted from his shoulders:

 it seemed to him that the last burden of responsibility was taken from him; and for the first time he was utterly free. 

His insignificance was turned to power, and he felt himself suddenly equal with the cruel fate which had seemed to persecute him; for, if life was meaningless, the world was robbed of its cruelty. What he did or left undone did not matter. Failure was unimportant and success amounted to nothing. He was the most inconsiderate creature in that swarming mass of mankind which for a brief space occupied the surface of the earth; and he was almighty because he had wrenched from chaos the secret of its nothingness. Thoughts came tumbling over one another in Philip's eager fancy, and he took long breaths of joyous satisfaction. He felt inclined to leap and sing. He had not been so happy for months.

Most people never arrive at this freedom, they are shackled all their life to this secret slavery, obeisance and homage to a god. Titania

Of Human Bondage (1915) a novel by W. Somerset Maugham. It is generally agreed to be his masterpiece and to be strongly autobiographical in nature, although Maugham stated, "This is a novel, not an autobiography, though much in it is autobiographical, more is pure inventionMaugham, who had originally planned to call his novel Beauty from Ashes, finally settled on a title taken from a section of Spinoza's Ethics..  Of  Human Bondage is ranked one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.

A few quotes from the book

Cronshaw, the sceptical and bohemian poet in Paris, shows Philip he has to think for himself. 

 “Faith had been forced upon him from the outside . . . A new environment and a new example gave him the opportunity to find himself. He put off the faith of his childhood quite simply, like a cloak that he no longer needed”

Philip has had a wretched youth growing up with Christian ideals in a harsh and cruel environment. When he begins to travel, he begins his journey to finding his own truth.

“From old habit, unconsciously he thanked God that he no longer believed in Him.” 

 

©Photo/text Ts

Wednesday; what else lurkes around the corner?

Rainlillies in my garden; Zephyrantes candida;

Monday was not a good day for me. I broke one of my front teeth, the left lateral incisor. It hurt and I was very upset about it. I mean if one looses a molar, it can not be seen that a tooth is missing but in front is a different matter.

Tuesday I went to the dentist to assess the damage. Jessica my dentist was able to do a passable temporary job on it until we have figured out the best solution. Today I went to make the X-rays and after all this hassle my daughter and I went yo see  the movie QUARTET.

It is a wonderfully funny movie with beautiful music. We enjoyed it so much and If you have never seen it GO and watch it!!

©Photo Ts

Monday; good idea...

Have a good day!

Monday; rain and wind;

This little corner of the Currumbin valley is well protected.We have never experienced the Cyclonic winds which can lash the Gold Coast and Currumbin beach or hill. The last two days we could hear the roar of the ocean.

...looking into a watery Valley..

..gushing from the gutter...

..small rivers everywhere; great for the garden.

©Photos Ts

LINKS

http://titania-lavenderandvanilla.blogspot.com.au/

http://titania-threemonkeys.blogspot.com.au/

Poetic Takeaway's

Sepia Saturday 161; a famous dessert and a famous ballerina;

We had a picnic at Lake Muntz and dessert was a luscious Pavlova.

A concoction of Merengue, whipped chantilly cream and fresh fruit, here with Mangoes, blueberries and strawberries. 

The Pavlova dessert is believed to have been created in honour of the dancer either during or after one of her tours to Australia and New Zealand in the 1920s. The nationality of its creator has been a source of argument between the two nations for many years.

Anna Pavlova, ca. 1905.

Born

February 12, 1881

Ligovo, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire

Died

January 23, 1931 (aged 49)

The Hague, Netherlands

Nationality

Russian

Pavlova is perhaps most renowned for creating the role of The Dying Swan, a solo choreographed for her by Michel Fokine. The ballet, created in 1905, is danced to Le cygne from The Carnival of the Animals by
Camille Saint-Saëns

Anna Pavlova was a Russian Empire ballerina of the late 19th and the early 20th century. She is widely regarded as one of the finest classical ballet dancers in history and was most noted as a principal artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev. Pavlova is most recognised for the creation of the role The Dying Swan and, with her own company, became the first ballerina to tour ballet around the world.


A McDonnell Douglas MD-11 of the Dutch airlines "KLM - Royal Dutch Airlines", built at 1995-8-31, with the registration "PH-KCH" carries her name.


More...please read here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Pavlova 

Enjoy!

MORE more? Please go to

Sepia Saturday 161;

Sepia Saturday 160;

A horse a horse my Kingdom for a horse!

A few things are happening in the background here at the Praco do Comercio in Lisbon in the Year of 1777 

most of them not as significant as  the announcement  in the Portugal daily view,  that King Jose the first  wants to trade his Kingdom for a horse...before he died !!

Please follow this Link and visit 

Sepia Saturday 160

©Photo Ts

Thursday; hope...

Great expectations...

Links

http://titania-lavenderandvanilla.blogspot.com.au/

http://titania-threemonkeys.blogspot.com.au/

http://t-picturesque.blogspot.com.au/

Sepia Saturday 159; Itsy bitsy...

History of the bikini;

The "Bikini girls" mosaic showing women exercising, first quarter of the 4th century AD. Villa Romana del Casale, Sicily

Predecessors of the bikini date to antiquity, in Çatalhöyük and the Greco-Roman world, Art dating from the Diocletian period (286–305 AD) in Villa Romana del Casale, Sicily depicts women in garments resembling bikinis in mosaics on the floor. The images of ten women, dubbed the "Bikini Girls", exercising in clothing that would pass as bikinis today are the most replicated mosaic among the 37 million colored tiles at the site.

Micheline Bernardini modeling the first modern bikini
The groundwork for the modern bikini began to be laid in 1907, when Australian swimmer and performer Annette Kellerman was arrested on a Boston beach for wearing a form-fitting one-piece swimsuit, which became an accepted beach attire for women by 1910. In 1913, inspired by the introduction of women into Olympic swimming, designer Carl Jantzen made the first functional two-piece swimwear, a close-fitting one-piece with shorts on the bottom and short sleeves on top.
By the 1930s, necklines plunged at the back, sleeves disappeared and sides were cut away. Hollywood endorsed the new glamour with films such as Neptune's Daughter in which Esther Williams wore provocatively named costumes such as "Double Entendre" and "Honey Child".

 With new materials like latex and nylon, by 1934 the swimsuit started hugging the body and had shoulder straps to lower for tanning.
Finally, the modern bikini was introduced by French engineer Louis Réard and fashion designer Jacques Heim in Paris in 1946.
 Réard was a car engineer but by 1946 he was running his mother's lingerie boutique near Les Folies Bergères in Paris. Heim was working on a new kind of beach costume. It comprised two pieces, the bottom large enough to cover its wearer's navel. In May 1946, he advertised the bathing suit, known as the "Atome," as the world's "smallest bathing suit". Réard named his swimsuit the "bikini". 

 Brigitte Bardot is recognized for popularizing bikini swimwear in early films.
Bikinis gradually became briefer and lower with narrower sides in the 1970s, and by the late 70s/early 80s very low hipster bottoms with string sides and ties became the fashion. By the 1990s however, fashions changed and high-cut bottoms and bandeau tops were in vogue. Bikinis went brief again in the early 2000s as they followed the trend for everything hipster. Despite the high popularity of skimpy thongs and g-strings as underwear from 1998-2006, thong bikinis never made it into high street fashion. Low rise bikinis with string and tie-sides are currently fairly standard, reminiscent of late-70's designs but not so low cut.

Brian Hyland - Itsy bitsy teenie weenie Yellow polka dot bikini

Cultural controversies

In 1996, when the Miss World contest was held in Bangalore, India, dozens of Indian groups opposed the event claiming that the contest degraded women by featuring them in bikinis. Social activist Subhashini Ali commented, "It's not an IQ test. Neither is it a charity show. It's a beauty contest in which these things have been added on as sops." The protests were so intense that the organizers were finally compelled to shift the venue of the "Swimsuit Round" to Seychelles.

 Afghan Miss Earth 2003 contestant Vida Samadzai (born in Afghanistan, raised in USA and living in India was severely condemned by the both the Afghan authority and community.

The Afghan Supreme Court, banning such contests, said that appearing naked in beauty contests is totally un-Islamic, and is against Afghan tradition, human honour and dignity. Afghan women affairs minister, Habiba Sarabi, said her semi-naked appearance "is not women's freedom but in my opinion is to entertain men". 

Bikini related wardrobe malfunctions including wedgies, whale tails or bikini tops falling off have also stirred controversies.

 In April 2004, a bikini line with images of Buddha printed on it was withdrawn by Victoria's Secret, the manufacturer, in the face of protest by followers of Buddhism. Buddhists were upset again when organizers of Miss Universe 2005 shot photographs of contestants in bikini in front of Buddhist religious sites.

Now, come to the beach, Burleigh Queensland,

... first visit Sepia Saturday 159;