Beautiful dutch iris flowers

Dutch iris

During our big walk today I bought some beautiful Dutch Iris bulbs to put in my garden.

First thing, Charlie and I went for a massive walk up Reynell Road, to Biards Rd, to the Happy Valley shops and home again.

On the way up Reynell Rd, there was a man standing out the front of his house watering his garden. He had the most magnificant garden, so I made comment to him about this, and then asked him what some of the flowers were.

I really loved the big pink lilies that stood out. The flowers were massive, at least 15cm in length like big bells hanging of the end of a long stem about 50cm.  The man told me they were a variety of Lily called  Bella lily, Easter lily, Naked Lady and to come back later in Winter to see the Ox eye daisy, apparently also very beautiful.

Naked lady

So when Charlie and I arrived at the shops we went into the garden section of Mitre 10 to see plants and bulbs.

Unfortunately none of those that were in the mans garden were there so instead I bought myself some Dutch Iris bulbs in a variety of colours.

I'm looking forward to putting those in the ground in approximately 4-6 weeks when the weather cools down a little and then watching them grow into the most magnificant flowers.  One of my favourites.

Next time I am at another garden centre I will make an effort to find more beauties like naked lady, bella, and easter lillies.

Le baiser de l'hotel de ville paris (kiss by the hotel de ville)

One of my favourite photos of all time is Le Baiser de L'hotel de ville Paris (Kiss by the hotel de Ville) taken in 1950 by Robert Doisneau.  It has been an international symbol of young love in Paris.

I fell in love with it many years ago.  An exboyfriend spent many hours searching Parisian shops for this photo because he knew I loved it.  What a wonderful surprise to receive it by mail.

My secret desire to be married in Paris... How romantic! 

I love the imagery of the scene.  Taken in black and white, a man and woman standing in the middle of a busy Parisian street embraced in a kiss.  The people dressed in clothes and hair styles unique to the era of the 1950s.

I was told me that the photo was not planned, just a spontaneous moment in time captured by photography. What a romantic dream.

Since then I have found the identity of the couple remained a mystery until 1992. It was planned by the photographer because it was against French laws for photographers to take photos of people without their consent because people owned their identity. More on this below - it raises some important points about photography ownership.

Despite this, the photographer managed to capture a sense of spontaneity of a kiss.

"The marvels of daily life are so exciting; no movie director can arrange the unexpected that you find in the street." Robert Doisneau.

You can read more about the photographer if you follow this link to wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Doisneau

History on the couple and the photo (from Robert Doisneau autobiography wikipedia see above link to read more)

Jean and Denise Lavergne erroneously believed themselves to be the couple in The Kiss, and when Robert and Annette met them for lunch in the 1980s he "did not want to shatter their dream" so he said nothing. This resulted in them taking him to court for "taking their picture without their knowledge", because under French law an individual owns the rights to their own likeness. The court action forced Doisneau to reveal that he posed the shot using Françoise Delbart and Jacques Carteaud, lovers whom he had just seen kissing but had not initially photographed because of his natural reserve, but he approached them and asked if they would repeat le baiser. He won the court case against the Lavergnes.[1][3][10][11]

“ "I would never have dared to photograph people like that. Lovers kissing in the street, those couples are rarely legitimate." Robert Doisneau. 1992[9][10] ”

The couple in Le baiser were Françoise Delbart,[12] 20, and Jacques Carteaud, 23, both aspiring actors. In 2005 Françoise Bornet (née Delbart) stated that "He told us we were charming, and asked if we could kiss again for the camera. We didn't mind. We were used to kissing. We were doing it all the time then, it was delicious. Monsieur Doisneau was adorable, very low key, very relaxed." They posed at the Place de la Concorde, the Rue de Rivoli and finally the Hôtel de Ville. The photograph was published in the June 12, 1950, issue of Life.[11] The relationship between Delbart and Carteaud only lasted for nine months.[10] Delbart continued her acting career, but Carteaud gave up acting to become a wine producer.[9]

In 1950 Françoise Bornet was given an original print of the photo, bearing Doisneau's signature and stamp, as part of the payment for her "work", and thus her subsequent attempt at litigation in the 1990s was rejected by the court.[3][9] In April 2005 she sold the print at auction for 155,000€ to an unidentified Swiss collector via the Paris auctioneers Artcurial Briest-Poulain-Le Fur.[3][9][13] (from wikipedia)

Worse mother in the world

The worse mother in the world was what I was thinking as I took my son into the Emergency Department at Flinders Medical Centre. 

I felt terrible.  The Doctors told me that ingesting propranonol was very serious and that it can kill babies and people use it to commit suicide.  Straight to the point they were.  It was a very serious matter.

I was typing away on my computer, and generally doing what I have been doing a lot of lately, hanging out in the kitchen, cooking, surfing the net, checking my items on ebay.  Owen was in our bed, he had been asleep for about half an hour when I heard him winging at my door, and cry and a few bangs.  I thought he would be okay, he went quiet, great so I kept on doing what I was doing in the kitchen.  A few more bangs on the door and a cry.  So after about 10 minutes, I kept forgetting him, I went down to see what he was doing.

I opened the door to find little pink tablets on the floor, saliva and pink crushed tablets dribbling down his chin and onto his tshirt, some pink patches on the floor and some on the bed.  He had been eating my prescription tablets, ones that had been in the bottom of a bag for a few years.  I had forgotten that they were in there, and he had obviously dragged the bag out of the bottom of the wardrobe, poked those little hands down into the centre part of the bag to find the drugs.

The thing with Owen he puts everything into his mouth and is constantly into everything.  That day I had found him trapped under a medium sized picture, the glass broken and cut his chest.  Nothing serious luckily.  He nearly swallowed a little yellow ball, and had fallen backwards to crack his head onto the floor boards.  All in one day.  He was on a roll. 

So the tablets just topped it all off.  In a panic I looked up the hospital number. At that stage I was not sure if it was a medical emergency so would talk to the health hotline first.  It was busy.  I rang my Doctor, I know the number by heart, explained my story.  They said it was important for me to get Owen to the hospital straight away and that it was very serious.  They said if I had insurance to ring the ambulance.  So I put both boys in the car and drove to Flinders Medical Centre.

It was not clear how many tablets Owen had consumed so the Doctors decided to keep him in overnight.  Poor little thing, ECG, blood glucose test by prick to the finger, and two attempts to put a jelco needle into his hand with no luck.  The medical staff monitored him all night, every two hours they did their tests to make sure he was okay because they did not know if he was going to get worse.  But thankfully, after six hours they knew that he was in the clear and would be okay.

At the morning Paediatric ward round, the Doctor made a point that children who help themselves to tablets tend to do it again if the parents are not careful.  It is in their nature.  I agreed straight away.  The consultant asked me to watch poisons in cupboards under the sink and anything dangerous to be put up higher in cupboards and that I will need to keep an eye on him up to school age because he just does not understand.

It is so true, Owen puts everything in his mouth and Charlie his brother was exactly opposite.  So I suppose we never had to worry about Charlie and that has made me a little complacent.  I never had a problem with Charlie doing that, such a careful child.  But Owen on the other hand is one I am going to have to watch.

History through china - traditions both new and old



my new teapot

 My new china my 'little treasures to cherish' gave me the opporunity to talk with their owner, Dianne.  The start of this story was on my blog History through china - little treasures to cherish

She responded to my email, a beautiful story that has inspired as she reflected upon her life and its traditions both new and old. 

At the bottom of the page is my email.  Hers at the top, as I wanted her story to be the focus of this blog.  I am so thrilled that she shared some of this life experience with me. 

Through fine china, women have often bonded by getting together to enjoy a cup of tea with scones and cakes.  These traditions have been formed through these connections.  Similarly, my friends and I like to paint pictures on canvas together, like women used to sit around doing needle work. Another tradition formed by women.

These are Dianne's lovely words:

Cherie , How lovely.

I am glad your grandmother is happy in the nursing home. It is such a hard thing for the family to do. Having faithfully promised never to do this to my mother, when, at 96, she could no longer walk, it becaue a "no choice" situation as I am only 4'10" tall and one week of lifting her from the bed to the wheelchair I had hired, etc., proved I was not as strong as I used to be. Fortunately, I do not think she was really aware of what was happening. Nevertheless, guilt, guilt, guilt!

However, during the 12 months or so she was there, fortunately very close to my home, I became quite friendly with other more compis mentis residents and we used to have afternoon tea outside using my grandmother's and mother's tea sets, cloths, napkins and silver.


A couple of staff members decided to continue this practice, having special weekly afternoon teas. I and family members of other residents donated china, linen and silver and I believe it is a much enjoyed event.

I have not just kept the "valuable" pieces belonging to family members, but rather things that I remember were important to them or that they used regularly. I would never serve trifle in anything other than "Nanna's trifle set". It is only cut glass from the 1930s and of very little value I should think, but for me it means Sunday tea at my grandparents' house.


I use her 1930s Alfred Meakin second best dinner service every day and I love it. Ebay allowed me to bring it back to full complement. She might not be happy with me using it as a "kitchen service" but it is my favourite, so why not.

I'm afraid her Rosa "kitchen service" did not survive the 1966 cull when we moved. I was relatively newly married with bright shiny wedding presents. Mind you, I do not regret donating it to charity. It was not that wonderful and there must have been a million of them around. They became standard town hall and Sunday school hall crockery after the demise of the glass sets that once were the norm in these places.


So, enjoy your afternoon tea and your little crinoline lady butter dish.


Dianne
 
 
My response to History through china part 1:
 
Hi Dianne
 
I also to let you know the reason why I bought these pin dishes. Recently my grandmother 92 years was put into a nursing home. She is very happy there now thank goodness. 
 
We had to decided what to do with all of her belongings, a life time of belongs. Some of them went to family and the rest were donated to charity or given away to strangers. It was quite a stressful experience especially for my aunt and uncle. But they are all okay now, they managed to get through it fine. 
 
So a few weeks ago I visited them in Mt Gambier. My aunt, mum and I were going through the last of my nan's boxes when I came across a small shell dish. It was totally covered in dust and didnt look like anything special. But I decided to keep it for tea bags and also it was my nans so it would be cherished. 
 
When I got home I noticed it had the Sandlands stamp on the bottom, did a search on the internet to find it was In an olde world garden with a crinoline lady walking in the garden near a bridge and that it was a collectable. How lovely. 
 
This started my desire to collect some more and to host a tea party with my best friends to enjoy of these vintage things. So since then I now have all of the pretty things for a tea party, and a few pin dishes too. They are all displayed in my china cabinet and will be cherished. 
 
Thank you so much for your story, I really enjoyed it. 
 
Best wishes 
Cherie

A mermaid in 1901



Mermaid by John William Waterhouse

This is one of my favourite paintings of a mermaid. 
It was painted by John William Waterhouse in 1901, oil on canvas and it is absolutely dreamlike and existential.  A pretty mermaid sitting on the shore, brushing her long red hair, appearing to dream. 

This painting was Waterhouse's diploma work for the Royal Academy.

John William Waterhouse is an amazing artist. I just love his work. Here is a link to his official website John William Waterhouse




A mermaid (masculine Merman) was a fabled marine creature with the head and upper body of a human being and the tail of a fish. Similar divine or semidivine beings appear in ancient mythologies (e.g., the Chaldean sea god Ea, or Oannes). In European folklore, mermaids (sometimes called sirens) and mermen were natural beings who, like fairies, had magical and prophetic powers. They loved music and often sang. Though very long-lived, they were mortal and had no souls.

Many folktales record marriages between mermaids (who might assume human form) and men. In most, the man steals the mermaid's cap or belt, her comb or mirror. While the objects are hidden she lives with him; if she finds them she returns at once to the sea. In some variants the marriage lasts while certain agreed-upon conditions are fulfilled, and it ends when the conditions are broken.

Though sometimes kindly, mermaids and mermen were usually dangerous to man. Their gifts brought misfortune, and, if offended, the beings caused floods or other disasters. To see one on a voyage was an omen of shipwreck. They sometimes lured mortals to death by drowning, as did the Lorelei of the Rhine, or enticed young people to live with them underwater, as did the mermaid whose image is carved on a bench in the church of Zennor, Cornwall, Eng.

Source: Encyclopædia Britannica

Little girl painting

Cherie by Cherie

I was really stuck on what painting to do at the Cathy Leonard workshop.  I found a few photos of dragon flies and an old black and white photo of me when I was three years old.

On the day I decided to challenge myself by painting myself.  It was very difficult because I was painting onto a small canvas so the finer detail needed to be more perfect than ever.  Especially the shape of the eyes, the nose and the smile of the mouth. 

Its not a bad painting considering the challenge and I enjoyed the day with Cathy's tuition and the other girls.  My Auntie Christine and Auntie Joan were there too, so that was awesome to share the day with them.  They did photos of their grandchildren Dakota and Jordan. 

From all the positive comments made by all, we all enjoyed ourselves, painted, chatted, laughed, had lunch, beers and wine, and enjoyed Maeve's help with our paintings too.  You would have thought it was Cathy talking, Maeve knew exactly what to do with the paintings, just like her mama.  She's a gorgeous little girl.

LtoR: Cherie, Chris, Joan, Maeve, Coralie, Renae, Patrice, Rachel

I want to do another workshop again in a few months time to continue to develop my painting skills.  I think they are getting better. 

I have also passed by Cathy the idea to exhibit our work at some point.  Counting the three workshops, there have been 16 paintings completed and they are all pretty good. It will be interesting to see what direction these workshops take us.

The present

I really love this poem.

The present

To realise the value of one year, ask a student who failed a grade.

To realise the value of one month, ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby.

To realise the value of one week, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realise the value of one hour, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.

To realise the value of one minute, ask a person who just missed a train.

To realise the value of one second, ask someone who just avoided an accident.

To realise the value of one millisecond, ask the person who won a silver medal at the olympics.

Author unknown
 
Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why its called the present.