Sepia Saturday; Josef and Anna;

This wedding has taken place in 1931 in Austria. My mothers brother Josef born 1909 and his bride Anna born 1910. Anna is wearing a white dress but not a veil. The basket with the flowers is a nice touch and there is also the ubiquitous fur on the floor.

I did not know them very well. I visited them a few time when I was a child with my mother. I remember them as friendly and loving. Anna always at her sewing machine. Josef died in 1980 and Anna a year later. They had four children.

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Joy... and sadness;

Summer has arrived!

On Saturday we went to the QPAC Concert Hall.

It was a wonderful production from the Maestro Series.

We listened to Beethoven Symphony No 9 in D minor Choral movement 1-3

Bernd Alois Zimmermann; And turning then I saw the great injustice that is done under the heavens.

The concert ended with Beethoven Symphony No 9 movement 4.

B.A. Zimmermann had no optimism left and took his own life.

Sunday was the Christmas market at the Eco village which is situated opposite from our home.

At four PM we went over and had a look at all the homemade products. We ate a grilled sausage and I bought a shopping bag made of vintage cotton. It is washable and so much prettier then the plastic one available from the super markets. That was our weekend.

Photos TS

A Marriage 1937

My father's brother, Franz Josef Erwin and his bride Gertrud Martina,

married 19. November 1937.

The bride looks austere in her black dress and black shoes, but I think it was the fashion at the time. She wears a beautiful, long veil and a bouquet of white carnations. Today carnations are not the flowers a bride would carry.

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Parlato Italiano; Sepia Saturday;

Florence 1958; studying Italian;

"David" is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture created between 1501 and 1504, by the Italian artist Michelangelo. It is a 5.17 metre (17 feet)[1] marble statue of a standing male nude. The statue represents the Biblical hero David, a favoured subject in the art of Florence.

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Sepia Saturday; Easter 1934

Peter's Mother and her children; a stroll in the woods; Easter Sunday 1934;

Erik, called Didie, the oldest, then Paul the third child, Rosemarie, called Rugeli the second oldest and Peter my husband in the stroller.

There were more children later. Three more boys, one died as a child on Polio and two more girls. The youngest child, a boy born 1942. All are still alive.

Nellie was born 1909 and died when she was 94 years old.

Sepia Saturday; Memories; The Eugster's-Bischoff's

Gertrud Martina was my godmother. She was the wife of my father's brother Erwin. They had a small holding.The summer month they spend in the Swiss alps with the cows and made excellent butter and cheese. Her parents lived with them in the same farm house, like it was custom then.

Her parents name was Bischoff, as a child I thought he was a Bishop! It is a very old pre Christian and interesting name of Greek origin. If you are interested here is the link

Gertrud Martina, preferred to work outside on the farm. We visited often and helped also with the hay making. On Sunday she cooked always a beautiful meal which we ate in the living room. In the middle of the big kitchen was a table and benches but on Sunday we ate in the living room.

She was plagued with a big goitre but later it was removed.

Two of her children, my cousins. Erwin and his sister Erna. this picture was probably taken by my mother in 1944. Erna was a beautiful girl. She had these amazing big grey eyes and dark eyelashes. The house in front was the farm house. Nobody lived in the house at the back. All the rooms were empty, in a odd way it was a bit eerie. We used to play in there and I liked it very much running up and down the wooden stairs.

I have very fond memories of those people, especially my uncle Erwin he was a very kind and nice man.

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Rainy days...

After the rain the garden looks so fresh and green. The plants have soaked up all the moisture possible. Leaves quivering to catch all the raindrops. In the sun they glitter like diamonds, luminous and shiny on leaves, flowers and branches. Everything grows double as quick. The big, red leaves of a philodendron scrambling up a tree tremble with all the moisture.

The garden is densely planted, when it rains it resembles a rain forest with a big variety of plants, in many shapes, sizes and wonderful patterns and colours.

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Rain is grace; rain is the sky condescending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life.

John Updike

The Rain

I hear leaves drinking rain;

I hear rich leaves on top

Giving the poor beneath

Drop after drop;

'Tis a sweet noise to hear

These green leaves drinking near.

William Henry Davis

Life is like this: sometimes sun, sometimes rain.~ Fijian Proverb

The Rain

All night the sound had

come back again,

and again falls

this quite, persistent rain.

Robert Creeley

All Photos from my garden, please click;

Sepia Saturday; Summer 1934

My aunt Helena called Tante Leni and Thomas her husband to be. Bathing in the river Drau, summer 1934. Helene was born 1911 and Thomas 1907. They married in 1936. They already had a daughter born 1930.

It was common in Austria to have children out of wedlock. My mother did not but both my aunts

have born children before they got married.

My great grand mother had both her daughters out of wedlock, my grand mother Franziska Aloisia and an other daughter Helena.She did not have more children. My grandmother also had some of her children out of wedlock.

1934; the taller boy Richard was the youngest child in my mother's family. He was born 1922.

He is now 88 years old and the last alive of my mothers siblings. His mother died at is birth.

The cheerful little fellow Seppel was born 1927. He is the son of my mothers older sister Viktoria

called Tante Dora.

I am not sure who took the pictures, probably my mother who was always taking photos.

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Sepia Saturday; Hunt;

The man on the right standing against the tree is my father.

He always liked to be out in nature. He worked for a few municipalities as a forester; he had to check the woods what to plant and which trees to harvest for the sawmills. He liked this job very much. He had learned a different profession because his uncle owned a shop and he was supposed to work there. He hated it and went a different way. I guess this was probably in the 1930's.

Hunting with some friends. My father is the one smiling behind the sitting man's head. It was not free just to shoot anything. One needed a licence. It was not allowed to kill a female animal. It was also regulated how many animals were to be culled. It provided much needed protein for many families through the cold winters.

At least the animals led a decent and free life in the mountains; not like the farmed cattle in those terrible feedlots like they exist today; where they are injected with hormones, antibiotics and other nasties and lead a pitiful life until they are killed.

As long as I can remember my father had his 10 days of hunting. As older he got as less he wanted to shoot the animals, mostly he came home without shooting anything. He just wanted to be in the mountains and watch the animals. He did not join his friends anymore for the hunt he wanted to be alone.

This was my godmother's husband; he had many children and they all had very fancy names.

His eldest daughter was named Shirlee, after the baby film star Shirlee Temple. Anyway at the baptism the catholic priest said, Shirlee was not a "Christian" name and she had to be renamed "Sirna". We always called her Shirlee!

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Sepia Saturday; being silly...

First the Torero and then...

...dancing the Flamenco!

I do not think such silly pictures are still taken in Spain! This must have been in the fifties.

Gosh, we didn't know each other then!

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Sepia Saturday; Are they family?

Unfortunately there is no date nor names on the back of this photograph.

I am pretty sure the old lady on the right is my grandmother. In the middle beside her is my father. I haven't got a clue who the others are. It looks like a family photo does it not?

I have tried to figure it out but it does not add up with the ages of the people, unless I am guessing the wrong ages.

My dad was born 1903.

My grandmother was born 1869.

Or could this be my great grandmother born 1841. My grandmother had four children. Could it be her holding her last baby born 1908 ?

The pretty girl standing could be her eldest daughter born 1898.

The little boy with the sailor suit could be my father, 6 years old and his younger brother 4 years old.

The picture could have been taken in summer 1909, the last baby girl on the arm of her mother was born in June 1908.

I rather think the other people might be the children from a sister or brother of my grandmother,perhaps! I probably will never find out.

Please click the picture.

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Chocolate chip c(h)ookies...

Last week Fabrizia could not attend school as she had the German Measels. She spend a couple of days with me. We decided to bake cookies, old favourites which we called Chocolate chip chookies.

Try them and have fun with your grand children.

Sepia Saturday; In a Jonquil field;

1958 a little friend and I gathering Jonquils near Montreux in the French part of Switzerland. Memories of a beautiful spring day.

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Sepia Saturday; School photography;

Some where in this picture is my father. I do not know when this picture was taken. My guess is

1910 or a couple of years later. There are 27 boys and 23 girls. This is a small village school. I guess some are siblings. In my father's family were 4 children 2 boys and two girls. At this time families were still big, generally more then 4 children. Perhaps in this photo is his brother or sisters. His older sister Rosa was born 1898, my father 1903, his younger brother Franz Josef Erwin 1905 and his youngest sister 1908.

This is my school class of 1951. I am the second from left wearing a white blouse. We are 12 years old. The girls had to wear aprons.This is also a village school. There was discipline at school.

Mr. Caderas was a good and kind teacher.

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Smile.....

Got my son an iPhone for his birthday the other week and recently got my daughter an iPod for hers.

I was dead chuffed when the family clubbed together and bought me an iPad for Father's day.

Got my wife an iRon for her birthday. It was around then the fight started...

Skiing in Switzerland; Sepia Saturday;

Arosa, Switzerland, March 1955; I am the girl with the scarf. There was not yet one Microfiber in sight!

Bivio, Switzerland 1959, with a friend. Bivio was a newly developed piste, it was a smaller version like Parsenn Davos - Klosters which I loved to ski.

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A sad picture; Sepia Saturday;

I do not know much about this baby. I know it was a baby brother of my mother.

All the living children of Franziska are mentioned with their name and date of birth.This little boy is not mentioned. I do not know his name or how old he was when he died. If my mother would not have kept this photo I would not have known, that there was another boy. I think my mother only had a photo because nobody knew about him. I think it was a custom to make a photo of a dead child. There is no photo of him when he was alive. I do not know why he died so early.

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The number 9;

The beautiful scented Narcissus has 9 letters, it is flowering now in my garden!

All numbers have interesting backgrounds. I have four 9 and 123 in my birthday.

I am not superstitious, I do not believe in the occult or mystics.

I have for fun and interest had a look at the Number 9.

It has many interesting facts and superstitions hanging on to it.

It is all man made.

"What's Special About This Number" Facts

People have always been fascinated by NUMBERS... Numbers are actually basic elements of mathematics used for counting, measuring, ranking, comparing quantities, and solving equations. Numbers have unique properties: for some they are merely concise symbols manipulated according to arbitrary rules, for others numbers carry occult powers and mystic virtues.

Almost all numeration systems start as simple tally marks, using single strokes to represent each additional unit. The first known use of numbers dates back to around 30,000 BC when tally marks were precisely used by stone age people.

Numbers, cover a range of different topics including mathematics, history, philosophy, psychology, symbolism, etymology, language, and/or ethnology...Number of the patience, the meditation.

Number of the harmony, it represents the inspiration and the perfection of the ideas.

It is the expression of "the power of the Holy Spirit", according to Etchegoyen.

Symbolize the plenitude of talents, the reward of the tests.

Symbol of the creation and the life as a rhythm and development.

As a product of 3 x 3, it is the expression of the perfection, the symbol of the virile power, in addition to be associated to the couple.

Nine is the number of the one who accomplishes the divine will. According to the Cabal, it is also the number of the achievement.

The freemasons have made it the eternal number of human immortality.

Being the last simple number, it is the number of finalization or finition; it is therefore the most complex, that marks the full lighting up of the numerical series.

This number was considered as sacred in Egypt and in Greece.

Number of the man, as a numeral symbol of his gestation (nine months).

Number symbolizing the nocturnal and terrestrial things, for the Aztecs.

Number of the hierarchy, represented by nine choruses of the Angels.

Represent the three divine manifestations in the three plans: world of the spirit, world of the soul, world of the matter, which gives a triple manifestations of Trinity (3 x 3).

Symbol of the multitude, and according to Parmenide, it concerns the absolute things and it is the symbol of the totality of the human being.

A favorable number, associate to the eternity.

After the death of a Pope, we celebrate masses for the rest of his soul during nine days, with nine absolutions.

Nine was the name of the sacred mountain of the Sun, for the ancient Egyptians.

Some peoples believed that the Sky was divided into nine celestial levels. It was the case for the Buddhists and also for the last worshippers of Mithra.

The nine plains of the Chinese sky. The hall of the imperial throne was separated by nine gates from the rest of the palace and the book of Annals, named Chou-king, exposes the "Sublime Science" in nine rules. Also the Chinese prostrated 9 times in front of their emperor.

There were nine gates which separated the sacred enclosure (the holy of Holies) of some religious traditions, from the rest of the space, this one considered profane.

Deucalion, the Greek Noah, sails during 9 days on the vessel which he has built on the command of the gods.

For Hesiode, the Earth was separated from the Heaven by a distance of nine days and nine nights, and from the hell also by nine days and nights.

The nine levels of the hell of Dante.

The language includes, grammatically, nine parts: the verb, the noun, the adjective, the participle, the conjunction, the article, the pronoun, the preposition and the adverb - interjection apart.

The nine planets discovered in our solar system, are in the order starting from Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. Recently a tenth planet was discovery beyond Pluto.

R. Allendy speaks about the curious arithmetical properties of the nine which gives it a very particular character because of the use of our decimal notation system. In another numerical notation system they would cease to exist: the difference between an unspecified number and the number formed by the inversion of its digits is always a multiple of 9 - example: between 26 and 62, the difference is 36, multiple of 9; the multiples of 9 are always composed of digits where the sum (once reduced) is equal to 9; the product 123456789 x 9 gives 9 times the digit 1 in the answer (1111111101). Concerning this last property, Elisabeth Haich mentiones the next calculations:

0 x 9 + 1 = 1

1 x 9 + 2 = 11

12 x 9 + 3 = 111

123 x 9 + 4 = 1111

1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111

12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111

123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111

1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111

12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111

123456789 x 9 + 10 = 1111111111

Nines are "magical": the answer to the nines facts always add up to

nine (e.g., 9x8=72; 7+2=9).

“I’m floating on cloud nine”

This saying describes feeling euphoric or happy. The phrase came into use in the 1950s when used by the US Weather Bureau to describe the highest cloud, the cumulo-nimbus.

“Going the whole nine yards”

The whole nine yards has a few possible origins, but a common thought it originates from tailors using nine yards of material to make top quality suits.

“Dressed to the nines”

The expression ‘to the nines’ means to the highest degree. Someone dressed “to the nines” is dressed up as much as they can be.

“A stitch in time saves nine”

”The stitch in time is simply the sewing up of a small hole and so saving the need for more stitching at a later date, when the hole has become larger.

“A wonder lasts but nine days”

This means that a novelty that loses its appeal after a few days.

“Nine times out of ten”

An expression describing a likely probability.

“A cat has nine lives”

One theory on the origin of this expression is that in ancient times nine was a lucky number. As cats seem able to escape injury time and time again, this lucky number seemed suited to the cat.

The nine nodes of the bamboo for the Taoists.

The nine notches of the birch-axis of the world at the Siberian tribes.

The nine openings of the man for Islam.

The nine stages that should traverse the souls of Aztecs to reach the eternal rest. They counted also nine underground worlds.

The nine was the key number of teaching for the materialistic Hindu philosophers in the Vaiceshika school.

I come to the conclusion that the number 9 has two possibilities if I were superstitious I would go and buy a lottery ticket or I would be scared to death. Luckily I am an optimist so I am buying a lottery ticket.

Sepia Saturday; My Mother born 8th of April 1910

My Mother, Rosalia, went through two world wars. I think the photo above is her passport photo

taken 1927. She left her country for personal reasons and went to Switzerland. Besides her passport she needed her finishing school certificate, she was a very bright student. She also needed a character reference from her home town.(Please click all the pictures)

My mother was a keen photographer and she always took her camera.

This photo was taken in Arosa. It is a famous holiday place for winter and summer sports or for a relaxing holiday in the mountains. My mother is on the right side.

My mother in the middle of her two friends, nonidentical twins.

My mother was always smartly dressed, very clever and she had a lot of stamina. I have never seen her sick in bed, despite she suffered from headaches.

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Don't forget to smell the Roses;

Ilona; strong colour, subtle perfume;

Just Pink, soft colour, wonderful scent;

One Perfect Rose by Dorothy Parker

A single flow'r he sent me, since we met.

All tenderly his messenger he chose;

Deep-hearted, pure, with scented dew still wet -

One perfect rose.

I knew the language of the floweret;

'My fragile leaves,' it said, 'his heart enclose.'

Love long has taken for his amulet

One perfect rose.

Why is it no one ever sent me yet

One perfect limousine, do you suppose?

Ah no, it's always just my luck to get

One perfect rose.

Iceberg; pristine and sweet.

Photos from my garden august 2o10, TS.

Sepia Saturday; School photo;

My Mothers school. I am not sure in which year this was taken. My Mother is the sixth girl on

the right side at the back of the row. She wears her hair up in plaits. she wears a jumper with white spots, her arms are at the back. All the children make very serious faces. Photography then was not an every day event. The room is very bare, everything in education, teaching and bringing up the children was very different. (please click the picture)

Sepia Saturday click here and enjoy nostalgia at its best.

Google is sometimes very annoying it just did not align properly, when I published, grrrr...

Photo TS

Yearnings for summer;

Tall, orange Cannas;

The warm scent of Abelia;

Silky orchids;

Red, ripe tomatoes;

Pink daylilies;

I don't know why she is yearning for summer, winter is not to bad!