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Friday, 20 August 2010

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.

Please visit Sepia Saturday to enjoy stories and pictures of yesteryear.

Friday, 13 August 2010

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.

Sepia Saturday click here

Wednesday, 11 August 2010

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.
















Saturday, 7 August 2010

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.

Please click here for more Sepia Saturday

Tuesday, 3 August 2010

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.

Saturday, 31 July 2010

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

Wednesday, 28 July 2010

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!