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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