Monday; a walk in the village;

On Saturday, Fabrizia and I went for a walk in the Eco Village; I walked, Fabrizia took her scooter as it is save there to use it, lots of small pathways and  practically no traffic...nor pedestrians. In fact it was so quiet, we heard the twitter of the  tiny honey birds in the trees and bushes surrounding the gardens...

Hello visitors, welcome;

It is a very friendly place where wildlife is welcome;

Whimsical art on pathways;

"..it is so beautiful and fun.."

I wished I had a scooter...


©Text /Photos Ts

continued tomorrow..

Sepia Saturday; 139; dogs, great and small!

Dogs as friends and companions, have always been in my and my family's life.

My grandmother with her dog Bläss;

My father with Molly.

Myself with "Lumpi" and my sister Rose. (It was custom to wear black for at least half a year when somebody close died.)

My daughter J. with Boy.

Now it's Billy.

Link  Sepia Saturday 139;

Friday; azure;

♥

White flecked azure; the sky, Thursday 9/8/2o12

The sky is the daily pleasure for the eyes; always different,  always changing. Titania

Photo/Text Ts

Link  Poetic Takeaway's; a trivial world of words;

Thursday; residuum;

Photo/my garden 

Feeling Old...ish? 

Relax, refresh, recharge, renew, revive, and rediscover yourself!

Wednesday; yesterday....

Photo/Herb garden;

....planted Parsley, Lemon Balm and Calendulas; The herb garden is in good nick again after the clean up. I scattered the seed of Basil and I cut  and dried all the Celery leaves  to add to the herb salt.
The entrance needs a new fence and it is ordered in primrose to match the stone pillars and the wrought iron gate.  The fence and gate is important to keep Billy who is not street wise in the garden, because the big entrance gate further down, stays always open. 

♥

No gardening today. going out for lunch!

Text/Photo Ts

Tuesday; RED;

RED is popular in my garden;

Red has more personal associations than any other color. Recognized as a stimulant red is inherently exciting and the amount of red is directly related to the level of energy perceived. Increases enthusiasm
Stimulates energy

The Romans liked red. Roman villas were decorated with vivid red murals. A  pigment, vermilion , was used for  the murals. Vermilion  came from the mineral cinnabar, a common ore of mercury.  It was one of the finest reds of ancient times – the paintings have retained their brightness for more than twenty centuries. The Romans mined Cinnabar  near Almadén, southwest of Madrid, in Spain. It was dangerous work in those mines, since mercury was highly toxic; slaves and prisoners were send to the cinnabar mines to work which was a virtual death sentence.

I like red in all its hues, from the strongest to the softest pink, from the brownish to orange all is popular in my book. I wear red jumpers, jackets;  does that mean ...look at moi?

 Walls in my home are red, it is unusual, but I like the unusual,

Red in a home looks warm and inviting.

Embrace RED in your life!

©Text/Photo Ts


Link Poetic Takeaway's; a trivial world of words;

Sunday; then...

Photo 1949

♥

Growing up, Sundays were special. The family was together.  The house was clean as on Saturday the home was scrubbed from top to bottom.

We were dressed in Sunday clothes, socks and shoes.  My father used to cook lunch to give my mother a rest from cooking. We went for walks  or outings together.  We visited relatives or sometimes they visited us. I always looked forward to Sunday because it was THE special day in the week.   Titania

♥

Sunday

The name comes from the Latin dies solis, meaning "sun's day": the name of a pagan Roman holiday. It is also called Dominica (Latin), the Day of God. The Romance languages, languages derived from the ancient Latin language (such as French, Spanish, and Italian), retain the root.

♥

….from The Taming of the Shrew W. Shakespeare

SCENE I. Padua. A room in BAPTISTA'S house.

I will to Venice; Sunday comes apace:

We will have rings and things and fine array;

And kiss me, Kate, we will be married o'Sunday.

©Photo/Text Ts

Sepia Saturday 138; Ferdi Kübler;

Ferdinand "Ferdi" Kübler (born 24 July 1919) is a retired Swiss cyclist with over 400 professional victories, including the 1950 Tour de France and the 1951 World Road Race Championship.

Kubler was born in Marthalen. He began racing professionally in 1940 but his early career was limited to Switzerland by the Nazi occupation elsewhere. He was multiple Swiss national champion and a three time winner of the Tour de Suisse.

Kubler's most successful years in international racing were 1950-1952, when the classics had resumed after the Second World War. He won the La Flèche Wallonne and Liège–Bastogne–Liège, both in 1951 and 1952. He was also World Road Race Champion in 1951, having placed second in 1949 and third in 1950.
He rode the Giro d'Italia from 1950–1952, placing fourth once, and third twice. Kubler abandoned the 1947 and 1949 Tours de France, despite an early stage win in each. In the 1950 Tour, he benefited from the absence of Fausto Coppi, sidelined after a crash in the Giro. Overcoming Gino Bartali, Kubler became champion by over nine minutes, also winning three stages. In the 1954 Tour, Kubler won the points jersey and came second behind Louison Bobet
Kubler was a high-spirited and impulsive rider sometimes given to strategically unwise attacks, out of exuberance and competitive drive. He was known as “the cowboy” because of his penchant for Stetson hats. He retired from racing in 1957 at 38. He is the oldest living Tour de France winner.

Full name Ferdinand Kübler
Nickname Ferdi, The Cowboy, The Eagle of Adliswil
Born July 24, 1919 (age 93)
Marthalen, Switzerland

http://davesbikeblog.squarespace.com/blog/2009/7/24/ferdi-kubler-at-90-years-is-the-oldest-living-tdf-winner.html

Sepia Saturday; 138

Text/Photos courtesy Wikipedia

Friday; who is perfect?

Billy perfect in his own way...

Breasts like Granite and a brain like Swiss Cheese

- Billy Wilder on Marilyn Monroe

♥

He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.

– William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway) 

♥

The only genius with an IQ of 60.

- Gore Vidal on Andy Warhol

♥

She’s so stupid she returns bowling balls because they’ve got holes in them.

- Joan Rivers on Bo Derek

♥

An empty suit that goes to funerals and plays golf.

- Ross Perot on Dan Quayl

Gold cannot be pure, and people cannot be perfect. 

- Chinese Proverb

Link  Poetic Takeaway's; a trivial world of words;

Thursday; dreamer...

Dreamtime/Photo Ts


♥

Dream on dear one 

In the wondrous world  of sleep;

No sound no sigh

Escapes the drowsy deep;

The mists lay low

The night wind  moans; 

The dreamer keeps

His mind on loan;

Till morning light reaps

Heart and soul and dreams. 

♥Titania

©Photo/Text Ts

Wednesday; Mirror, mirror on the wall...

What is beauty?

My 16 year old granddaughter;

 Shall I compare thee to a summer's day   Sonnets: XVIII  Shakespeare

The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.

Audrey Hepburn

Beauty without expression is boring.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Photo/my garden

It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it.
Voltaire

Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.

Edgar Allan Poe

Photo/my garden;

Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.

Edgar Allan Poe

©Ts

Monday; sunny...

Seductress; Photo/my garden  August 2o12;

…a beautiful morning has opened its doors; the days are warming up, still a chill in the air  at night and early morning.  I can’t wait to be in the garden. There is so much work waiting but it is so pleasurable and at my discretion.  The butcherbird has come back, heard him  this morning the first time; what a lovely repertoire.  24 days to the first day of spring….

©Photo/Text Ts


Link   Poetic Takeaway's; a trivial world of words;

Sepia Saturday; 137; skiing;

A little history of the skis; As I have the tendency to be different I am into skiing while the summer Olympics are on.  (It is winter here!)

Kiandra has a unique place in Australian history:




   It was Australia's only snowbound gold mining village


         It was the birthplace of skiing in Australia

Link  http://www.kiandrahistory.net/

In the winter of 1861 Scandinavian miners introduced snow shoeing (skiing) to Australia. Over the following years ski races were held annually on Township Hill at Kiandra and Australia's first ski club was established.




Members of the Kiandra Ski Club believe that Alpine downhill racing as an organised sport commenced in Australia
“Early skiing in Kiandra also featured competition, in fact a type of competition that was far ahead of its time.”
“I would like to commend you for having organised the first Alpine ski races in the history of our sport.” International Ski Federation. 10 May 2011


 At Kiandra, Australia, alpine skiing commenced in 1861, from the late 1880s and for the following twenty years, ladies’ downhill events were principally dominated by Barbara, Margaret and Mary Yan, the daughters of a Chinese man from the mountains of China and a lady from the Bavarian mountains in Germany. Barbara Yan won the "Downhill Alpine" event in August 1887. The results for children aged ten, are also recorded for the same year
Mr. Frank Yan won the 1896 major downhill event, and was presented with a gold fob and a pair of skis, 2740mm in length, by NSW Member of Parliament, Mr. G. MillerIn 1908, the first documented International and Intercontinental “Downhill Skiing Carnival” was held at Kiandra, Australia.

some of the history of  Kiandra;

For centuries before European settlement Aboriginal tribes gathered in the Kiandra (Giandara) district in summer to feed on bogong moths. When the first Europeans arrived early in the nineteenth century they used the high country for summer pasture for sheep and cattle - though stories abound of heavy losses of stock trapped by early snow-falls.

In 1859 the world came to Kiandra. By March 1860, 10,000 prospectors from all parts of the globe were scouring the district in search of gold. A timber village sprang up among the mud and slush of the Snowy River Diggings, as they were called, the Eucumbene River then being known as the Snowy River.

Within 18 months the rush had moved on, leaving only a few hundred diggers, including a substantial number of Chinese. Before it did the diggings were the scene of one of the most turbulent gold rushes in New South Wales. Dubbed Mount Rascal due to frequency of bushranging and robberies, there were anti-Chinese riots, while the antics of one of the most controversial Gold Commissioners in the colony led to a Parliamentary Inquiry.

 The later history of Kiandra includes the impact of the massive engineering feat of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme, before the town was absorbed into the Kosioscko National Park and turned into a ghost town. More recently the area has become renowned for its recreational fishing and bushwalking, while skiing has continued with the establishment of the Mount Selwyn Ski Resort.

How elegant  and  up to date  in days gone by...life was easy, fun and wonderful on the snowfields!
This was the famous Kandahar binding! The newest skisticks were made from aluminium. My father's were made from bamboo.


The Roberts of Kandahar Challenge Cup was run in 1911 at Montana, Switzerland. Contestants skied an unmarked course against the clock down the Plaine Morte Glacier over rough snow and enough natural hazards to prevent contestants from simply running straight like the longboarders. "The Kandahar" was thereafter (and still is) held annually at Mürren, Switzerland. Emphasis on the importance of the descent prevailed in British racing and in everyday skiing as well.


The second bud of alpine racing was invented by British ski mountaineer Arnold Lunn in January, 1922, on the grounds of the Palace Hotel in Mürren where he persuaded some friends to race through a series of paired short wands stuck in the snow. The race was against the stopwatch and without regard to form, in contrast to contemporary Swiss controlled course contests where form counted.
Lunn’s slalom cleverly played speed off against control. The delightful tension between these opposites made the race so intriguing that its popularity spread quickly. With slalom gaining popularity, it became possible to run alpine combined races, scoring slalom and downhill together, as jumping and cross country had been scored jointly for Nordic combined titles. In 1924, Lunn helped found Mürren’s Kandahar Ski Club to promote alpine combined racing.
In the 1920s, the popularity of alpine skiing began to rise, thanks to the spread of ski guides teaching the stem technique. One by one, alpine resort hotels and inns arranged to stay open in winter to accommodate a growing group of alpine skiers in places like Kitzbühel, St. Anton and St. Moritz. Some exerpts courtesy Wikipedia 

Ski, skip or run to  Sepia Saturday 137

Friday; a round Ninety;

Happy 90is Birthday, Uncle Richard;

Always remember your love for the mountains;

our visits and holidays.

I wish you and the family a wonderful day.

Thursday; To remember;

Happy Birthday, ML (ChiChi)

A happy life, always!

♥

Wednesday; this is Elina;

Photo from my garden;

Elina came as a cutting from  my daughter's garden.  Fresh and silky, she 

 is the one  to pick,  scented, soft  and utterly alluring in her sunny, buttery colours. 

If you want one you have to plant one,

Today!  

©Photo/Text Ts

Link  Poetic Takeaway's; a trivial world of words;

Tuesday; a perfect day...

Photo/ Petunia; my garden;

 A new week, a new beginning, a clean slate, do not smudge it.

Titania

©Photo/Text Ts

Link  Poetic Takeaway's; a trivial world of words;

Sepia Saturday 136; Bikes;

Cricket, basketball. baseball etc;  are anathema  for me, never enjoyed games like this. In younger years, my girlfriends used to go and watch the local soccer match, but that was just to watch the boys!  I could not think of anything more boring to go and watch any games.
I like bikes, but would not watch " the tours"! My middle daughter is a great bike enthusiast; when ever possible she rides her bike.

This time I let the colour photos to do the talking, because I think with this modern gear and bikes Sepia would not suit.

Here she is, left,  on a charity ride.

I think this is in Western Australia; she cycled with a group from Brooms to Perth.

Next year is a bigger tour on the books, about 6 weeks cycling. As she is as enthusiastic about her work as about cycling her CEO gave her two extra weeks holidays...for the trip.

Her bikes are part of her car!

There are also moments like this one...

It must have been so much fun!

Penny-farthing, high wheel, high wheeler, and ordinary are all terms used to describe a type of bicycle with a large front wheel and a much smaller rear wheel that was popular after the boneshaker, until the development of the safety bicycle, in the 1880s
They were the first machines to be called "bicycles.
Although they are now most commonly known as "penny-farthings", this term was probably not used until they were nearly outdated; the first recorded print reference is 1891 in Bicycling News. It comes from the British penny and farthing coins, one much larger than the other, so that the side view resembles a penny leading a farthing. For most of their reign, they were simply known as "bicycles". In the late 1890s, the retronym "ordinary" began to be used, to distinguish them from the emerging safety bicycles and this term or Hi-wheel (and variants) is preferred by many modern enthusiasts
About 1870, James Starley, described as the father of the bicycle industry, and others began producing bicycles based on the French boneshaker but with front wheels of increasing size,[ because larger front wheels, up to 1.5 m (60 in) in diameter, enabled higher speeds on bicycles limited to direct drive. In 1878, Albert Pope began manufacturing the Columbia bicycle outside of Boston, starting their two-decade heyday in America.[
Although the trend was short-lived, the penny-farthing became a symbol of the late Victorian era. Its popularity also coincided with the birth of cycling as a sport.

Not bad for an outing!

Penny Farthing  courtesy Wikipedia.

Please go and enjoy Sepia Saturday   

HERE

Friday; Bookshelf;

Dancing to the Flute by Manisha Jolie Amin

With all the energy and colour of India and its people.  A magical heartwarming story of joys and sorrows, the nature of friendship and astonishing powers of music.

From the second last page; 

As he played the sound spoke of the sun and summer, the spirit of the river....

Like it says at the beginning, an entrancing novel of life, music and dreams.

Thoroughly enjoyable to read.

Thursday; yummy;

Linzer/Home;

♥

Yesterday I spend all morning cleaning and pruning a small section  under the Jacaranda tree; it is overgrown  with  Bromeliads and a huge native  plant.  Time to bring order to this plot. I want to replant it, with daylilies. Around lunch time it started to drizzle.  After physical work it is a good time to bake something!
I made a  Linzer Pastry,  which is made from  ground Almonds and Raspberry or other jams and nuts. The recipe in variations is available at many cooking websites,  search under
  Linzer Torte

Linzer Torte

The "Linzer Torte" is considered the oldest known cake in the world. It was already mentioned by name as early as 1653. Yet who named or invented the cake will always remain a mystery. The oldest recipe is from a cookbook that is over 350 years old: "Book of All Kinds of Home-Made Things, Such as Sweet Dishes, Spices, Cakes and also Every Kind of Fruit and Other Good and Useful Things, 

Even at this early date, the cookbook already included four different recipes for the Linzer Torte / Linzer Pastry. This is yet more proof for how generally popular and widely known the cake was already in the Baroque period!

These old recipes mostly differ from more recent ones in that the dough was always prepared with clarified butter with a stick of butter kneaded into it. In addition, the cake was prepared as a "bowl cake", meaning that it was baked in a (silver) bowl – similar to pies today – with a fruit filling and strips of dough on top. Spices are only called for once and this in the form of a "well seasoned grid of dough". Almonds were included in every recipe.

A Recipe for "Original Linzer Torte":

150 g butter
250 g flour (700)
150 g powdered sugar
100 g roasted hazelnuts
1 egg
Spices (vanilla, lemon, cinnamon, powdered cloves)
10 g baking powder
300 g red current jam

Knead the butter and sugar together. Knead in the flour sifted together with the baking powder, add nuts, egg and spices.
Chill the dough for some time, then take it out of the refrigerator and divide it into quarters. Roll out three quarters of the dough to a thickness of about 1,5 cm (for a 22 cm baking pan), cover it with red current jam. Shape the remaining dough into strips and lay them on top of the jam as a grid and around the edge. Daub with egg, sprinkle sliced almonds around the edge.
Bake for 40-45 minutes at about 180 degrees Celsius. Recipe courtesy Linz Tourism.

♥

Link  Poetic Takeaway's; a trivial world of words;

©Photo/Text Ts

Wednesday; did you know...

......there is still Snail Mail around!

Tuesday; Poetry;

Petunia/my garden;

A Song 

ON a summer's day as I sat by a stream,

A dainty maid came by,

And she blessed my sight like a rosy dream,

And left me there to sigh, to sigh,

And left me there to sigh, to sigh.

On another day as I sat by the stream,

This maiden paused a while,

Then I made me bold as I told my dream,

She heard it with a smile, a smile,

She heard it with a smile, a smile.

Oh, the months have fled and the autumn's red,

The maid no more goes by;

For my dream came true and the maid I wed,

And now no more I sigh, I sigh,

And now no more I sigh. 

Paul Laurence Dunbar

Photo Ts

Link  Poetic Takeaway's, a trivial world of words;

Monday; ?

My garden;

Key peril: Boredom.

©Text/Photo Titania

☼

Link  Poetic Takeaway's; a trivial world of words;