Psst...I am reading...Endurance; This Australian novel tells the story of Australian Photographer. Explorer and adventurer Frank Hurley.

It is advised to read the following book in a warm and cozy environment...

Endurance by Tim Griffith

I quote; 

Hurley's photographs and documentaries of Douglas Mawson's and Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic expeditions, and his astounding images of World War I have been so widely exhibited and reproduced that in many cases they are the principal means by which we have come to see those world-shattering events. His iconic images of the ship Endurance trapped in an ocean of ice, of men battling the most extreme elements in the Antarctic, and suffering under unthinkable conditions in ice and war are imprinted on the Australian consciousness. 

Here now is the man, Hurley, telling us of his part in the two ill-fated Antarctic expeditions and recounting tales of great heroism and suffering as he fights for his life among the ice and the elements, and witnesses as photographer the worst ravages of war on the Western Front. 

 A few lines from the book…It is the better part of a year since we abandoned ship and it is four month we have been marooned on this piece of rock. Our stores are virtually gone…

My path is blocked by a fresh catch, a large blue whale…

Unimaginable that the blasted Norwegians could choose to sail to the opposite of the world to slaughter such extraordinary creatures and do so in such a barbarous fashion. They have turned this pristine harbour into a bloodbath…

…The image endures beyond the events we witness and the lives of all witnesses.

Ice Mask

The James Caird departing Elephant Island to seek rescue, Frank Hurley

Frank Hurley's  photos can be seen in the Australian Museum.

Well worth reading; the cold and hardships make you shudder and wonder what people can endure. Ts

Bookshelf;

Elemental is a captivating story of a girl, fish Meggie; her life in a poor fishing village on a remote coast of Scotland. Born  in the 1890s her hard life, her will to learn, her life tender and brutal at times.

Meggie Tulloch writes her life’s story for her granddaughter. It begins in the first years of he 20th century in a place where lives are ruled by men and men are ruled by the witchy sea, ruled by superstitions. The only thing lower than a girl in the order of things is a clever girl with accursed red hair.

The Scottish dialect of her childhood gives  authenticity.  An expansive glossary of the Scottish words are at the back of the book.
Some of the words: 
Bonnie clip = a good looking girl
Clooties = rags bandages
Fulpie = a puppy dog
Gansey = pullover
Grunnie = grandmother
Hash= hurry
Half loaves= crude, thick sanitary napkins made out of old rags
Howdie wifie = midwife
Kist = a chest
Limmer = slut
Loon = boy, young man
Muckle =  big


I enjoyed this Novel very much. 

Why?

Trapped in seconds, minutes, hours; we never know why.Ts

Small children use the word WHY persistently, my grand children did, never stopped. Children are never satisfied with answers they ask ‘why’ constantly. 

He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes;

he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.

—Chinese Proverb

What is the universe made of?

Where do we put all the carbon?

What’s so weird about prime numbers?

What’s at the bottom of a black hole?

Some of science's unsolved questions.

©Photo/text Ts 

The garden bench;

This  garden seat was in tatters, broken, finished thrown away when former neighbours moved out a few years ago. I rescued and repaired it to a new life in my garden. 

The Garden Seat - Poem by Thomas Hardy

Its former green is blue and thin,

And its once firm legs sink in and in;

Soon it will break down unaware,

Soon it will break down unaware.

At night when reddest flowers are black

Those who once sat thereon come back;

Quite a row of them sitting there,

Quite a row of them sitting there.

With them the seat does not break down,

Nor winter freeze them, nor floods drown,

For they are as light as upper air,

They are as light as upper air! 

Poet Thomas Hardy's garden in Dorchester,

©Photo/Text Ts T

...being sentimental...

 I quote Thomas Huxley, The world is neither wise nor just, but it makes up for all its folly and injustice by being damnably sentimental.

Sentimental people are approachable, enjoy life, bear their heart on their sleeve. They are the people to have as friends as they can  laugh and cry at the same time. Being sentimental is nice.


To be sentimental needs not much stimulation, a song, a scent, a flower, or anything else may bring back pictures of he past. 

White Roses, Sweetpeas, the sweet smell of hay in June, the song of a lark high up in the sky on a hot summer's day; The Linden tree, my mother sang...our life is made up of sentimental memories. Lucky to have and hold on to them.

©Photo/Text Ts 

Please a "sospeso"; an old tradition;

Have you heard about a Neapolitan tradition called the caffè sospeso meaning "suspended coffee". A person who might be feeling generous, or thankful because he experienced some good fortune, would order a sospeso, paying for two espressos but only drinking one. Then, later, a less-fortunate person who entered and inquired as to whether a "sospeso" was available could have the other espresso -- for free. 

This tradition allegedly began  a century ago, and while it was nearly forgotten in Italy, it has now experienced a revival and started gaining popularity in other countries around the world, including Spain and  France. In the  United States, it has been picked up by a coffee shop in Portland, Oregon, an anonymous Tim Horton's customer who paid for 500 coffees for others.

Large chain corporations taking it over,  changes the dynamic (the beauty of the original caffè sospeso is that, the donor is  anonymous -- the giver offers their gift without needing to announce it or show off, and the receiver gets their coffee with no strings attached and without feeling obligated to somehow repay the favour.

 It is  and was not an advertisement for a certain person or merchandise they sold. It is a beautiful custom and typically it is abused by big corporations until they lose interest or their efforts does not produce the wanted effects. In a way it's great, that this custom has started to regain interest. 

©Photo/Text Ts /Titania Everyday or..

Why did brides wear a black dress at their wedding?

My aunt Gertrud Martina and My Uncle Erwin Joseph at their wedding in the 1930's

Does the tradition of the white wedding dress come from the colour’s ancient symbolic association with virginity and purity? This is a myth, in reality, the white wedding dress is a much more recent development. It was Queen Victoria who made it popular and a tradition for brides to wear a white wedding dress. Royalty typically wore embroidered brocade and crimson robes for weddings. Victoria wore a white satin gown with layers of lace made by two hundred women and a white veil. The lavish dress and the wedding between Victoria and her cousin Albert in 1840 were written up and illustrated in thousands of publications worldwide. Soon, American etiquette books decreed that the white wedding was the "proper style." The white wedding dress became a symbol of wealth and social status—after all, white could not easily be cleaned or worn again outside of hot summer months, and very few women could afford to buy and wear a dress solely for one occasion. 

Generally bridal attire was simply dictated by what a woman had in her closet and by what was au courant. So, while brides in the Western world have worn white, they’ve also donned every other colour of the rainbow and black! 

By the late 1800s, American and European brides loved wedding dresses in the bright, rich colours created by new synthetic dyes. 

During WWI, many women considered it their duty to give up a "white wedding" in wartime, and during the Depression most brides had no choice, simply making do with their best dress or suit. 

Garment manufacturers began specializing in making wedding dresses, and bridal magazines filled with photographs began marketing the white wedding dress as part of a romantic ideal, a custom from "the earliest ages." Marketing, rather than any ageless tradition, that has made the white wedding dress a ubiquitous part of our visual culture.  (excerpts Smithsonian history)

Photo/Text Ts Titania-Everyday..