Monday; clean it...

Monday, a new week and my world needs from time to time a good clean inside and out.  I do not use harsh cleaning agents inside or out. Outside its mainly hand- and will power, a hoe and a rake, secateurs and a few other handy tools.

 Inside mainly the same, hands on with water, rags,  Lavender oil,  and a few other benign helpers.

we have to commit quite an amount of our time to clean up. Make our home and garden livable. Clean up, inside and outside, needs a good portion of my time, when I would rather like to do something else. I have to put myself  psychologically into a cleaning mood.

...do not forget a cup of  tea; mine a Mumbai chai.

Then I develop these spurts of energy to tackle areas which have not been touched for a while,  in the garden, cleaning it of weeds and  over growth of plants who have outlived their welcome.

In the home, bookshelves, cupboards, cleaning  and ridding them of overdue and hoarded stuff. 

Neat!

 Cleaning is not titled creative but in a strange way quite satisfactory once all is clean  and back to order until next time. 

How about you? Are you in a cleaning mood today? 

 Enjoy a nice week.

It is autumn, cooler, time to use some elbow grease.

©Photos/Text Ts Titania-Everyday

Sepia Saturday 05/03/2016; fountains and such...

 Many possibilities for Sepia sleuths.

Town Stein am Rhein SWL; Marktbrunnen/ Merchants fountain; Photo/ Ts

 The center of the old town with buildings from the late middle ages early 16th century;

Switzerland has one of the largest "Wasserschloss" (water reservoir) in Europe,  has maintained an old tradition to this day. The former village, cattle, and washing wells have been converted to a wide variety of ornamental and drinking fountains. Nowhere else in the world there are so many public fountains like in Switzerland. Chur a city in the canton of Graubuenden has 126 different fountains to drink from.

 I am travelling a bit further South to Spain
  When in Seville you can not miss the magnificent La plaza Espana.

In 1929, Seville hosted the Ibero-American Exposition World's Fair. The  southern end of the city was redeveloped into  gardens and grand boulevards. The centre of it is Parque de María Luisa, a 'Moorish paradisaical style' with a half mile of tiled fountains, pavilions, walls, ponds, benches, and lush plantings.

The Plaza de España, the principal was the building located on the Maria Luisa Park's edge to showcase Spain's industry and technology exhibits. The Plaza de España complex is a huge half-circle with buildings continually running around the edge accessible over the moat by numerous bridges representing the four ancient kingdoms of Spain. 

In the center is the magnificent Vicente Traver fountain. Original Photo Ts

 Photos  TS 

Autumn...

#mygarden Tibouchina/ Glorybush;

From the Long Trail with a little tweak

BY RUDYARD KIPLING

There’s a whisper down the field where the year has shot her yield,   

   And the ricks stand grey to the sun,

Singing: ‘Over then, come over, for the bee has quit the clover,

   ‘And our Australian summer's done.’   

©Photos Ts 

Tuesday; Oh why, oh why...does evolution take humans to annihilate themselves..?

Effects of human waste; garbage, human made marine debris concentrated in the central North Pacific Ocean.  A Gyre made up of pelagic plastics, chemical sludge  and other human made  garbage. Marine pollution of the highest grade gathered by oceanic currents.

Pardon me, this is necessary for us, this is our life, what's the problem it's out in the ocean and we do not see it everyday. Out of sight out of mind.




Castle Bravo was the name  given to the first United States test of a dry fuel thermonuclear hydrogen bomb, detonated on Bikini Atoll, Marshall Isalnds on March 1, 1954.
The  the first test of Operation Castle, the most powerful nuclear device ever detonated by the USA at that time. This disaster lead to the most significant accidental radiological contamination  caused by the USA.

Pardon me, we have so many enemies, terror, this was a must have; out of sight out of mind.

The three mile island  nuclear accident was a partial nuclear meltdown which occurred in one of the two United States nuclear reactors on March 28, 1979 .  Located on the three mile island in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania;  The meltdown resulted in the release of  of radioactive gases and radioactive iodine into the environment.


Pardon me; we need this for our economy; it's cheap and SAFE; a few cancers here and there, does it matter. What? Wind, Sun, Water Power, no way, we need nuclear power, it makes a lot of money for us and as you can see it is SAFE.
Out of sight out of mind.





Ghost town Prypyat Ukraine

26/04/1986 happenend a catastrophic nuclear accident  at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

The explosion that occurred on 26 April 1986 in one of the reactors of the nuclear power plant, and the consequent fires that lasted for 10 days, led to huge amounts of radioactive materials being released into the environment. A radioactive cloud spread over much of Europe.

Pardon me; we said sorry, it won't happen again. What  about the suffering of  all the contaminated people, animals, nature?  Discussion is finished we said; we are sorry.

Out of sight? out of mind.

Kuwait oil fires 1991;  600 oil wells were set afire as part of the scorched earth policy by the retreating Iraqi military forces. The fires  caused heavy pollution to the soil and air.

Pardon me; we have always messed around in the Middle East; this was just a hick up, nothing to worry about. It was yesterday's news!

Out of sigh,out of mind.

Sidoarjo Mud flow;

 Lapindo, the largest mud volcano exists today because of gas blowout.

Wells drilled by PT Lapindo Branta. 

180,000 m³ of mud per day is spewed at its peak and has been in eruption since May, 2006.

Pardon me; it was not us it was an earthquake,  Cross my heart  and  hope to die.

 Out of sight out of mind.

During the Vietnam war the destruction of farmland, rice paddies, flora and fauna of the jungle, everything which was a source of food for the native Vietnamese population, was destroyed, poisoned, promulgated by American military strategists.

Pardon me, they were the enemy and they had to be taught a lesson. But, the Vietnamese did not invade the USA and you actually lost that war!

Out of sight out of mind.





Guiyu, China is the location of what may be the largest electronic waste (e-waste) site on earth. The population suffers  from lead poisoning. The province is referred to as the “electronic graveyard”.

Pardon me; it is all about the economy, after all money makes the world go round.
The  environment is save with us, no worries, we always say sorry if something goes wrong.


There are so many, many  more  from Maralinga to Hiroshima to the destruction of the Aral Sea. The Exxon Valdon oil spill; Italy  ICMESA chemical company exploded. This led to a toxic cloud of dioxin being released into the atmosphere...  and more and more there is no end thousands and thousands and more.

The world has experienced so many man made disasters. I wonder if this belongs into the category of evolution? Where does  this gung-ho attitude  lead us, perhaps into annihilation?

Pictures man made disasters. Text Ts

Sepia Saturday 319 : 27 February 2016

My Mother used an iron like this one.

I was a keen participant to iron handkerchiefs as these items were in  constant demand in wintertime. When I advanced to tea towels the first excitement was gone, When I advanced to shirts and such I fled the scene.

We children had also a very small Iron to iron dolls dresses. It was small, shaped like a mouse and inside it had an iron mouse to heat up on the stove.. I should have kept it. It was well made with a small, polished wooden  handle. 

An 18th century coal iron

In China,  people were  ironing using hot metal before anywhere else. They filled pans with hot coals. A hot  pan was pressed over stretched cloth . This method was already used some thousand years ago.
While people in Northern Europe used stones, glass and wood for smoothing. In the west blacksmiths forged smoothing irons in the late Middle Ages.

Cast iron sadiron;The sad in sad iron or sadiron is an old word for solid.

Gas Iron

Flat stones were used to rub over woven cloth to smooth it, or to press folds. Linen smoothers made of dark glass were found in  Viking women's graves. Many of those were in use across medieval Europe.  The linen might have been dampened befor using the glass smoother. It is not sure if the glass was made hot before its use.

Glass linen smoother with handle.

Smoothers were also called slickers, slickstones, sleekstones, or slickenstones.  Some were also made of hard wood or  marble. 

Iron with  exchangeable handle

Metal irons were heated by a fire or on a stove. Irons  were made of stone, like  soapstone irons from Italy. Earthenware was also used.

Flat Irons, Flea market Paris

Ironing without the benefit of electricity was a hot, arduous job. Irons had to be kept clean, sand-papered and polished. They had to be  lightly greased to avoid rusting. Beeswax prevented irons sticking to starched cloth. Constant care was needed over temperature, decide when the iron was hot enough, but not so hot  to  scorch the cloth. 

Late 19th century iron designs experimented with heat-retaining fillings. Designs of this period became more and more ingenious and complicated, with reversible bases, gas jets and other innovations. . By 1900 there were electric irons in use on both sides of the Atlantic.

Text Ts

Wednesday; Intriguing exoskeletons;

Shells found in Wooli, Yuraygir National Park; Northern New South Wales.

Yuraygir National Park
National park in New South Wales, Australia
Yuraygir is a national park in New South Wales, Australia, located 482 km northeast of Sydney. It was created in 1980, a result of the merger and enlargement of two national parks, Angourie and Red Rock ...
Area: 313.7 km²
Established: 1980

I love to display shells around the garden.

Humans have been intrigued by the exoskeletons of mollusks since they first noticed the beauty of  shells their sculpted decorations, delicate colours and patterns. In North Africa Shells have been used to make beads around 100’000 years ago. One of the earliest evidence of human culture.

An exoskeleton  is the external skeleton that supports and protects an animal's body, in contrast to the internal skeleton (endoskeleton) of, for example, a human. In usage, some of the larger kinds of exoskeletons are known as "shells".

®Photos/Text Ts T

20/02/2016;

Man's best friend...

 ..the dog is my theme for Sepia Saturday this week. I have  many, many pictures with dogs. we always had dogs and they were always part of the family. Don't  be scared I will show only a few. 

I am happy to have this old photo of my grandmother , (mother of my father) and her dog Bläss. Two helpers I don't know their name. My mother mentioned that she was a very kind and loving person.






My dad and his dog Molly.

(I might have shown these photos before. I do so like these two photos.)








Rural bliss; My dear, lovely sister now 82 and I with Lumpi. In the late 1950s. We were wearing black for half a year as it was custom then, because our father had died.




My girls, puppy Dolly and I





Cleaning up the property around 1974.  There was a fire and everybody had to help, all were dirty and happy afterwards.



Jacquei and Boy; it was a good life and childhood for the girls.






They grew up together and were always good friends

Ali alias Ali Ben Ali Ben Jussef but just called Ali and Tomy was a Manx cat, he could not climb a tree because he did not have a tail just a little flap. There was a time when I could not imagine a life without them.  I remember every four legged friend with love and also with some sadness that life is so short.


I left the photos in black and white  and also those in colour as they have a certain charm as it is.

Photos Text Ts