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Wednesday 7 December 2011

Wednesday; A Satire; The News Paper Man;




Satire; The News Paper Man;

Waiting at death’s door,  the news paper man said:” the good news are, there is no hell; the bad news are there is no heaven”. 
A deep sigh and  he floats softly as an atom; finally settling in a sapling... 
100 years have passed just like that. The sapling grew and grew and grew  stretching its branches to the sky. 
Ready; the chainsaw made short work and the pulp mill was waiting.
In the morning, when  turning  the pages of a News Paper  one can hear faintly a sigh…and a hiss…bloody  hell!


© TS

Monday 10 October 2011

Monday; Bookworm;




Lettah's Gift by Graham Lang.

A very tragic but still wonderful book to read. Sad though, to see a country, Zimbabwe and  its people  ruined by bad politics.
Last page;  And in this moment I see the smile beneath her veil, as warm and beautiful as it used to be.

Saturday 9 April 2011

Sepia Saturday; Happiness;



   I like this photo of my mother and her first Love. It was probably 1930.
   This is not my father. My mother and this man were not allowed to be together. So, my mother left and
   went to Switzerland where she met my father and they married later.
   Sometimes she went back to her hometown and on the photos one can see when she met H. again, that
   they  still had a soft spot for each other.
   I think it would have been nice for her to marry her first love. Alas I would not be here then!



Please visit Sepia Saturday to go back in time;


Sepia Saturday 69
Photo from my family archive.

Tuesday 5 April 2011

Wednesday; fairy tales...



Jacek Yerka


"If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales."
— Albert Einstein

"Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten."
— G.K. Chesterton

"I have always imagined that Paradise will be some kind of library."
— Jorge Luis Borges




Tuesday; out of the box...



    ....came this little porcelain Dachshund. It was given to me at Christmas 1958.
    My father died in September and we had a sad time. Christmas came along and  we spend Christmas Day
    with my aunt, the older sister of my mother, as we did not want to celebrate Christmas at home without my
    father. My aunt was not the person to make presents to her nieces. I was very surprised when she presented me with this little Dachshund. She knew I love dogs. The little dog has survived all my moves around the world. It has again its proper place and I swear sometimes it winks at me!


Monday 4 April 2011

Monday; another day to enjoy....



A visitor on the Olive tree got big and fat on the tough Olive leaves. I am not sure if it will be a very big butterfly or a very big moth. I am always thrilled when I see nature at work.






One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. "Which road do I take?" she asked. "Where do you want to go?" was his response. "I don't know," Alice answered. "Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."

Lewis Carroll

Photo TS

Tuesday 29 March 2011

Tuesday; the love of books...



Read  to your hearts desire..

Above the entrance to St Gallen Abbey Library, one of the oldest of its kind, is a Greek inscription which translates into English as "pharmacy of the soul".

The monks who founded the library considered books as medicine for the spirit. The 150,000 strong collection, now part of a Unesco World Heritage site, continues to inspire visitors and scholars today.

Monday 28 March 2011

Monday; good one...



Dance into the week...



Washington Wonderland | The Washington Ballet

Art / Books
Created in celebration of The Washington Ballet’s tenth anniversary, Washington Wonderland is a brilliant documentation of the works presented by the company. This fancy series is a creative collision of Cade Martin, Design Army and The Washington Ballet that has captured...

Saturday 26 March 2011

Sepia Saturday; Treasures from the grandmothers;


Reading glasses from my  grand mother. They might be from my great grand mother. I am not sure. Anyway, I treasure them and have  used them to do fine embroideries. The frames are silver and  yellow gold finely engraved or chased with a pattern. They fit perfectly and are very light.




Spectacles, or eye glasses as they are more commonly known today, have a rich history. As early as the 15th century, the wearing of spectacles gave the illusion of a strong intelligence among the blue-blooded nobility. By the 18th century, gentlemen wore spectacles to give the impression of intellect, although many did not know how to read.
The first spectacles made, known as 'Pince Nez', were generally of wood or leather with a center pivot and date to the 15th and 16th centuries. Old paintings and woodcuts show these types of glasses being worn. During the 17th and 18th century, the 'Nuremberg' type, made of a continuous copper wire frame with round lenses, became extremely popular due to their inexpensive price. All Pince Nez type of glasses are characterized by their lack of earpieces; they were formed to sit on the bridge of the nose. They remained popular through the 1930's under different patents and varieties.

In the 18th century, 'Temple' spectacles were invented, with arms fitted with rings, which allowed the temple pieces to be pressed against the head. They were also known as Wig spectacles as the arms were secured beneath the wigs of prominent men. Most of this type of spectacles had round lenses, although you can occasionally come upon rectangular or octagonal shapes. Bifocal lenses, usually attributed to being invented by Benjamin Franklin, also made their appearance during this period.





 The watch is silver. The back is engraved with a garland and her Initials. The back can be opened to put a small keepsake.  The front has big roman numerals and the hands are rose gold and intricately carved. I have never opened the back as it did not open and I was afraid I would damage the case if I forced it open. I wonder if there is a keepsake inside. I don't know how old this watch is, it might have been her mothers as well.







Please click here to visit Sepia Saturday

Photos TS

Friday 25 March 2011

Friday; Time;



Time of Roses by Thomas Hood

It was not in the Winter 
Our loving lot was cast; 
It was the time of roses— 
We pluck'd them as we pass'd! 

That churlish season never frown'd 
On early lovers yet: 
O no—the world was newly crown'd 
With flowers when first we met! 

'Twas twilight, and I bade you go, 
But still you held me fast; 
It was the time of roses— 
We pluck'd them as we pass'd!



Yes,I do like my Minnie Watch best; I have been a "few years" on this planet, my hair is grey but my heart still sings to the tunes of childhood.
Photo TS

Thursday 24 March 2011

Thursday; misconceptions;


Jacek Yerka;  Fantasia;

Fallacious ideas and beliefs  are documented and widespread;


Christopher Columbus's efforts to obtain support for his voyages were never hampered by a European belief that Earth was  flat.
Sailors and navigators of the time knew that  Earth was spherical. Though they, correctly, disagreed with Columbus's estimates of the distance to India, which was approximately one-sixth of the actual distance.
 If the Americas did not exist, and had Columbus continued to India, he would have run out of supplies before reaching it at the rate he was traveling.
Without the ability to determine longitude at sea, he could not have noticed that his estimate was in error in time to return. This longitude problem remained unsolved until the 18th century, when the lunar distance method emerged in parallel with efforts by inventor John Harrison to create the first marine chronometers.
The intellectual class had known that the Earth was spherical since the works of the Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle. Eratosthenes made a very good estimate of the Earth's diameter in the third century BC.

courtesy Wikipedia




Wednesday 23 March 2011

Wednesday; free to....



"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends. To appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded." 
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Watercolour TS

Tuesday 22 March 2011

Tuesday; an ordinary day;




"War: a massacre of people who don't know each other for the profit of people who know each other."
 Paul Valery (French poet, essayist and critic, 1871-1945)

Monday 21 March 2011

Monday...sparkles;



Monday the start of a fresh, new week. Let's go....


THE FLOWER.      
  

Once in a golden hour
  I cast to earth a seed.
Up there came a flower,
  The people said, a weed.

To and fro they went
  Thro' my garden-bower,
And muttering discontent
  Cursed me and my flower.

Then it grew so tall
  It wore a crown of light,
But thieves from o'er the wall
  Stole the seed by night.

Sow'd it far and wide
  By every town and tower,
Till all the people cried
  `Splendid is the flower.'

Read my little fable:
  He that runs may read.
Most can raise the flowers now,
  For all have got the seed.

And some are pretty enough,
  And some are poor indeed;
And now again the people
  Call it but a weed.

Poetry by   Alfred, Lord Tennyson


Photo TS "my garden"
  

Sunday 13 March 2011

Sunday; Hope;



"Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring."
— Marilyn Monroe


Surrealism; Vladimir Kush;

Friday 11 March 2011

Friday; Plaisir....



Chinese Painting, Zouchuanan-flowers


"I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book."
— Groucho Marx

Thursday 10 March 2011

Tuesday 8 March 2011

Tuesday; Exercise;


"Whenever I feel the need to exercise, I lie down until it goes away." 
— Robert Maynard Hutchins



Monday 7 March 2011

Monday...monday... blues;



To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." 
— Oscar Wilde





Photo TS



Monday 28 February 2011

What about a new Wallpaper?


Carnowski Wallpaper; add some fantasy to a room!
Dream of  very light, contemporary furniture for a sitting room, or a capricious bedroom all in white.
Wouldn't it be nice? 




Enjoy!

Saturday 12 February 2011

Sepia Saturday; Old wineglasses;



My mother's wineglasses have a  "Art Nouveau" pattern.The glasses are 80 years old. I am still using them.
when I use them I always think of the happy times we had when they were in use.


Please visit Sepia Saturday to indulge yourself  in a bit of Nostalgia.