Tuesday, 10 March 2015

... now we do it every night

This woman is very funny, we always enjoy it when she's on the telly.

Monday, 9 March 2015

Would you like a cup of tea?

Ewww!







Hold on! Take a closer look at the porcelain. The ants are not real!

Crazy, eh?

They are hand-painted ants crawling on vintage porcelain dishes by German artist Evelyn Bracket.

http://the-design-ark.com/2014/01/hand-painted-ants-crawling-vintage-porcelain-dishes/

Sunday, 8 March 2015

"One is not born a woman, but becomes one."

I borrowed the title of this post from Simone de Beauvoir as we celebrate International Woman's Day. The people commenting on this blog are mainly women, but we have some men here who feel comfortable in the company of strong, opinionated, funny women. Good for them!







This is interesting... (click to enlarge)



Where would we be without the ability to laugh?






Saturday, 7 March 2015

Unusual architecture


When we started thinking about moving away from the UK, Italy was our country of choice. I spent many hours scouring the internet, studying all the different Italian regions, comparing the prices of the houses and dreaming...

The region of Puglia captured my imagination with its unique architectural characteristics. I fell in love with the trullo. Unfortunately, the asking prices for a trullo in good condition were very steep. The starting prices for trulli in need of modernisation were not that low and the costs of remodelling them in accordance to the regulations were prohibitive.

Properties in the desirable areas of Italy were too expensive for us and we ended up in France.

The rest is history...

Here's what trulli are all about and you'll see why I found them so attractive. They are truly amazing (groan).

A trullo (plural, trulli) is a traditional Apulian dry stone hut with a conical roof. Their style of construction is specific to the Itria Valley, in the Murge area of the Italian region of Apulia (Puglia).

Trulli were generally constructed as temporary field shelters and storehouses or as permanent dwellings by small proprietors or agricultural labourers. In the town of Alberobello, in the province of Bari, whole districts are packed with trulli. The golden age of trulli was the 19th century, specially its final decades marked by the development of wine growing.

The vast majority of trulli have one room under each conical roof, with additional living spaces in arched alcoves. Children would sleep in alcoves made in the wall with curtains hung in front.

A multiroomed trullo house has many cones representing a room each.

The thick stone walls and dome of the trullo, pleasantly cool in the summer, tend to become unpleasantly cold during the winter months, condensing the moisture given off by cooking and breathing and making it difficult to feel warm even in front of the fire. The inhabitants simply leave the doors open during the day to keep the interior dry, and live more outdoors than in.

Today the surviving trulli are popular among English and German tourists and are often bought and restored for general use. However, anyone wishing to restore a trullo needs to conform with many regulations as trulli are protected under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) world heritage law.
















Thursday, 5 March 2015

When I am an old woman...

I came across the photo of the purple door on Facebook, remembered the poem and decided to look for it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!


WHEN I AM AN OLD WOMAN I SHALL WEAR PURPLE
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.


                     ******************************

Another book by the same author sounds fascinating:


Book description on Amazon:

Not since Laurie Lee or Flora Thompson has a writer captured the smells and moods of the English countryside in the manner of Jenny Joseph’s Led By The Nose. The nation’s favourite poet has tended her “rural slum” in the Cotswolds for decades and her calendar of a year in her garden grows into an evocation of a personality that is uniquely literary, often leading the reader off her garden path with the sharply sly humour of her famous old woman who wears purple. Jenny Joseph’s memoir of a year in her garden through the sense of smell captures the feel of each month, as well as the flow of the gardening year (the chores to be done, the joy as your garden blossoms). The calendar of a year in her garden displays a personality that is eccentrically loveable, a wilful personality with her own individual outlook on life. The book’s unfolding of Jenny Joseph’s personality is just one of its many delights. Jenny Joseph focuses on the sense of smell, powerfully evoking memories and images that only a writer of her originality and perception could capture in the full range of  thoughts and feelings a garden can stir in us.

I immediately thought of Amy, of course...

[Both books are available from amazon.com]

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We have a message from Down Under:

Regina - If you would post the following msg in an appropriate comments section for your readers to see I would greatly appreciate it. Between our two blogs we ended up with a magic 25 responses and I am absolutely thrilled.

 

Your beautiful selfies have all had your kind messages added and are off to the video editor for compiliation – the finished video will be shown exactly 24 hours from the time of this writing and should be released to youtube not long after.

Leesa has managed to get contributions from local television talent so her 5 minute speech has morphed into an almost 30 minute video filled with hope and love and good wishes.

I cannot thank all of you enough… my heart is full because of you :)

-Oz

Some cute children to brighten up the day

Three funny videos of adorable children. Enjoy!





Wednesday, 4 March 2015

Bottled elegance

This post will hit the right notes with our CC. I was leafing through a glossy magazine the other day and admired the many ads for perfume showing exquisite bottles. I decided to look for some classic and special edition bottles for this post. I dare say some of these bottles are nicer than the fragrances they contain... Not to mention how the big houses have reformulated their well known classics, then lied about having done so, insulting the intelligence (and the nose) of the more discerning customer!















Hey Pallottine, here's one picture that may appeal to you, to make up for such a girlie post...


Tuesday, 3 March 2015

Contrasts

These photographs range from laid back pastels to very strong colours. They're very different, but they're all beautiful.