Basil in 'n Blikkie

Met ons laaste boekklub vergadering daag Erika daar op met 'n boks vol blikkies, en in elke blikkie pronk a jong basiliekruidplantjie wat sy self geplant het. Ek het sommer twee gekry!

A very old book ...

Nauwkeurige Verhandeling van de voornaemste handwerken der heelkonst zoo in de harde, als sagte deelen van's menschen lichaem Eerste Deel ¬ Jan Palfyn 

We are moving house after 18 years and have been clearing out clutter for the last couple of days. Several boxes with Dutch books were donated to the local Dutch old-age home. The Dutch books once belonged to my parents-in-law and were left behind when they returned to Holland permanently a few years ago. 



Amongst these books I found one very old-looking medical textbook, in Dutch, and authored by Jan Palfyn. The book was published in MDCCX (1710 according to an online converter). It seems to be covered in animal skin, is in fairly good condition considering its age. A note on a scrap of paper in my father-in-law's writing says "Kosbaar! Geneeskundige geschiedenis." (Valuable! Medical history)

 
There are illustrations of surgical instruments and on page 176 a very sinister looking tool used for surgically treating phimosis. 

Eina!

Claymation

This is Stephanie's homework.
Amazing what can be done with a creative mind.
I love the McDonalds!

This is Abbie's Bible

"For Where Your Treasure Is, There Your Heart Will Be Also" *

I am not too sentimental about material things - books maybe, of which I have many. For the rest, memories are the keepsakes that remind me of places I’ve been to and people I knew. These familiar thoughts and sentiments belong to me alone and are conveniently encoded and stored in my brain cells, from where I can retrieve them on demand to reminisce and dream and find explanations and solutions for life’s many puzzles.

However, over the years I’ve collected a few tangible souvenirs and this Bible is one of the things I keep close – usually on the nightstand. I bought it in October 1975 with the express aim of studying its contents that I might live my life by its rules (an undertaking in which, to some extent, I think I have succeeded). This Bible is packed with keepsakes that I’ve collected to remind me of some or other significant moment. I seldom read from this Bible these days, but from time to time I still refer back to it. It contains cards and notes from my children, letters from childhood friends and boyfriends past, my own feeble attempts at writing poetry, drawings by my children and their letters to the tooth-mouse and even a tail feather of my parrot Gert who died in 2003.

*Matthew 6:19-24  (These words also appear as an inscription on the tombstome of Dumbledore’s sister and mother in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows).

Sitting in the Alice Chair

Philip

We have a family tradition: Whenever there is a need to talk, we meet at Harries Pancake in Eastwood. They have a large chair in one corner.

Lichelle

Stephanie

Me

Whoever sits in the

Alice chair,

is the

"chair person"

From: Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

Today I am happy because...

 

I watched Stephanie make little clay babies to feature in her first animated film.

 

Today I am happy because ...



we enjoyed precious family time together (Cappucino's, Brooklyn Mall)



My Favourite Quotes

19 May 2011
It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

-Mark Twain- 

23 May 2011

An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises.
 -Mae West-

27 May 2011

You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life
-Winston Churchill -

29 May 2011
"His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork."
-Mae West-

2 June 2011

Sometimes I believe in as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

-Lewis Carroll-

13 May 2012

Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a good person is a little like expecting a bull not to attack you because you are a vegetarian -Dennis Wholey-

Nil Per Mouth

She occupied the cot marked 7A, a petit attractive woman in her forties. She sat bolt upright on her bed, with her knees drawn up, her head anxiously leaning sideways towards the door, as if she was expecting bad news from that direction.  Sometimes her lips moved in silent conversation with someone only she could see. She had several IV tubes connecting her innards to computerized equipment, the most conspicuous of all entered her nose and was plastered to her face with a large clump of white Elastoplast, making her look ridiculous. I walked over to her bed and asked if I might sit with her. I held her hand because she seemed to be so afraid.  After a few minutes of silence, she gestured me to leave and as I walked away she had a seizure. The nursing staff attended to her with much haste and whispering and I later heard that she was taken to High Care.

We never spoke again after that.

Tree

A tree stands lonely upon a rocky slope.

One branch, green with life,

Reaching skyward

Among the gnarled fingers

Of limbs long dead.

A solitary tribute to life and hope.

As on this arid slope

Stand I.

Should I stop living

If part of me should die?