Saturday, 10 January 2015

Delicate beauty

Looking at these pretty pieces of delicate embroidery can be very soothing.






Friday, 9 January 2015

Doctor! Doctor!

GrannyJ sent us this joke and while looking for pictures to illustrate it, I found some funny cartoons, so I decided to do a doctor post with the whole lot. Thank you for the joke, GJ.

I NEARLY BECAME A DOCTOR…..

When I was young, I decided I wanted to be a doctor so I took the entrance exam to go to Medical School.

One of the questions asked us to rearrange the letters PNEIS into the name of an important human body part which is most useful when erect.

Those who answered spine are doctors today. 

The rest of us are just sending jokes via email.

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Thursday, 8 January 2015

Some very c-c-c-cold pictures

I know some of our readers are suffering with the cold, but frozen landscapes have a magic beauty...






Monday, 5 January 2015

Mushy reflections about people and blogs...

Feeling mushy today...  Some of these give us food for thought (and make me mushier?) 








I'll share my own thoughts. 

This modest blog has kept old friends together and welcomed new ones in a warm and comfortable environment, which is completely different from our previous home, where things used to get heated due to the person who was the focal point of that blog. A troll got lost the other day, ended up here and left some pointed comments, one addressed to Mrsgunka and the other to Amy. When I started fearing that she would stay put being nasty to my readers, I wrote her a comment explaining that here we discuss nice stuff, without any room for haters, and invited her to chill out and take a mental health break. She disappeared.

I see so much ugliness around other blogs and think how we behave so differently here... Most of us go back a long way and feel as if we actually know each other. Of course some people got very close and friendships flourished, a few readers met in "real life" and became firm friends. These days it is perfectly possible to be friends on the internet as if we were in the same room. We live in the age of instant communication, where email, chat rooms, Skype and social media facilitate interactions in the blink of an eye!

There are opportunities to be nasty or nice 24 hours a day. I'm proud of this little corner of the internet, where we thrive on the respect we have for each other. I post bits and bobs that capture my imagination and sometimes the discussions become very animated, with people sharing their own experiences, photos, their joys and their sorrows. Sometimes the topic I post falls flat and people chat about other stuff. It's all fine. The important thing is to keep the communication channels open. Some topics interest some of the readers while others feel indifferent to them. The same goes for the contributions that are posted in the comments, not every topic is to every single reader's taste. I suppose it's like going to a party. I make a welcoming speech (the main post), everybody says hello to each other, then smaller groups form, diverse conversations happen, people are free to move around and strike conversations in another group. If somebody finds a particular conversation boring, there's always another, more interesting one, nearby. We don't go around shouting and being rude when we don't like a topic, we just move on. If we disagree with somebody's opinion, we say so, honestly and respectfully. We also pull each other's legs and the gentle banter keeps things lively, specially when the sports season is on...

We're a group of old friends, but there's plenty of room for new ones. The more, the merrier!

The troll couldn't cope with kindness, civil interactions and mutual respect. She declined my invitation and went puff! in cloud of her own poison. We got on with our nice party, having a jolly good time.

That's why I feel mushy... I love this blog!

Human pixels

I can be a person of extremes when it comes to art. I like most art, but I'm in awe of artists who can create really tiiiny things and also of those who produce huuuge things.

These photos show the creations of San Bernardino artist Craig Alan:









Sunday, 4 January 2015

Fashion with a difference

I don't know if you remember the post where a cartoonist added drawings to popcorn to create images of animals and people. These remind me of that post, only the results are pretty instead of comical...





Saturday, 3 January 2015

All together now!

This is a tradition in Vienna, where the audience has a jolly good time welcoming the new year, seen here cooperating with the great Zubin Mehta:

Friday, 2 January 2015

Very pretty, but only two of them look tasty

These Swiss rolls certainly look pretty, but the abundance of artificial colouring puts me off. There are two yummy exceptions among them...







Thursday, 1 January 2015

Having a good start in Finland

This story from the BBC website makes a lot of sense, but I don't think it would catch on across the pond, it's too egalitarian...

For 75 years, Finland's expectant mothers have been given a box by the state. It's like a starter kit of clothes, sheets and toys that can even be used as a bed. And some say it helped Finland achieve one of the world's lowest infant mortality rates.

It's a tradition that dates back to the 1930s and it's designed to give all children in Finland, no matter what background they're from, an equal start in life.

The maternity package - a gift from the government - is available to all expectant mothers. 

It contains bodysuits, a sleeping bag, outdoor gear, bathing products for the baby, as well as nappies, bedding and a small mattress. 

With the mattress in the bottom, the box becomes a baby's first bed. Many children, from all social backgrounds, have their first naps within the safety of the box's four cardboard walls.

In the 1930s Finland was a poor country and infant mortality was high - 65 out of 1,000 babies died. But the figures improved rapidly in the decades that followed.  To begin with, the scheme was only available to families on low incomes, but that changed in 1949.

[The box was] offered to all mothers-to-be but new legislation meant in order to get the grant, or maternity box, they had to visit a doctor or municipal pre-natal clinic before their fourth month of pregnancy.


The contents of the box have changed a good deal over the years, reflecting changing times.





At a certain point, baby bottles and dummies were removed to promote breastfeeding. Encouraging good parenting has been part of the maternity box policy all along. 

  • 1938: Finnish Maternity Grants Act introduced - two-thirds of women giving birth that year eligible for cash grant, maternity pack or mixture of the two 
  • Pack could be used as a cot as poorest homes didn't always have a clean place for baby to sleep
  • 1940s: Despite wartime shortages, scheme continued as many Finns lost homes in bombings and evacuations
  • 1942-6: Paper replaced fabric for items such as swaddling wraps and mother's bedsheet 
  • 1949: Income testing removed, pack offered to all mothers in Finland - if they had prenatal health checks (1953 pack pictured above)
  • 1957: Fabrics and sewing materials completely replaced with ready-made garments 
  • 1969: Disposable nappies added to the pack
  • 1970s: With more women in work, easy-to-wash stretch cotton and colourful patterns replace white non-stretch garments
  • 2006: Cloth nappies reintroduced, bottle left out to encourage breastfeeding

CONTENTS OF THE BOX
  • Mattress, mattress cover, undersheet, duvet cover, blanket, sleeping bag/quilt
  • Box itself doubles as a crib
  • Snowsuit, hat, insulated mittens and booties
  • Light hooded suit and knitted overalls
  • Socks and mittens, knitted hat and balaclava
  • Bodysuits, romper suits and leggings in unisex colours and patterns
  • Hooded bath towel, nail scissors, hairbrush, toothbrush, bath thermometer, nappy cream, wash cloth
  • Cloth nappy set and muslin squares
  • Picture book and teething toy
  • Bra pads, condoms

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22751415

Wednesday, 31 December 2014

Happy New Year! UPDATE

Peter and I would like to wish all our WTIOC friends an excellent 2015. This wasn't the happiest year for some, but there are always fresh hopes when a new year starts... Much love to all of you!


UPDATE

Oops! I forgot the champagne!