Daily Archives: 04/10/2018

A photo a Week: Gilded

Posted in A Photo a Week Challenge by

Waltham Abbey 15.07 (4)

This is Waltham Abbey in England, near London with a few gilded things. Actually this gilded subject seems to be a monopoly of churches. The St. Urs cathedral in our local town of Solothurn also has some gilded ornaments.

St. Urs Cathedral, Solothurn (19)

This is the altar with its fair share of gold

In St. Urs Cathedral, Solothurn

And this groups of gilded figures are even kept behind locked gates.

A Photo a Week: Gilded

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: In Flight

Posted in Black and White Photo Challenge by

Ducks 30.09 (4)

Ducks in flight

Zeppelin over Feldbrunnen

There is a Zeppelin Station near the Swiss border and Edelweiss, a Swiss airline, were celebrating 25 years with flights to Switzerland. They flew over our village.

Super Puma over Feldbrunnen

And here there was some heavy building going on near our village. I think a military helicopter was involved.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: In Flight

FOWC with Fandango: Lamppost

Posted in FOWC by

The End of Norah Street

First of all, sorry for the bad quality of the photo, but it was from an english newspaper that my mum sent me many years ago. She died in the early eighties.

The photo shows the street where I grew up, at least part of it. There were two squares, identical, and on each side row of attached houses. This is the top square, and I lived in the lower square. The houses were built in 1884 before the invention of hot running water, electricity and inside toilets, although electricity arrived some time at the beginning of the 20th century. Ok, that is just a background. The street was ready for demolition in the photo, the houses all empty.

Between the two squares there was a narrow street for cars and there was a lamppost. you can see it on the left at the front of the photo. It looks quite old fashioned and it was, but the lamp lit up every evening. I grew up with this lamppost with other kids in the street. It was not just a lamppost it was part of our adventure playground. The other parts of the adventure playground being the ruined houses, bombed remains after the second world war. So back to the lamppost. If you look at it in detail you can see that there is some sort of handle towards the top. You needed a rope, a skipping rope as all kids had. The rope would be hung on the handle. There was a little box towards the bottom containing the electric parts of the lamp. It was very handy to climb up to and stand on. The rope was hanging down. You gripped the rope, jumped off the box and could swing around the lamppost. We kids took turns, one after the other. If you were lucky you might be alone and had the lamppost all to yourself.

I grew up in this street and only left when I was 20 years old, but the lamppost was still there. Today lampposts have become sleek works of art, but I remember my lamppost in Norah Street, Bethnal Green, London. The street no longer exists of course and neither does the lampost. It is now a small park. They could have kept the lamppost as a memory of the days gone by, or am I getting sentimental.

Norah Street 2006
FOWC with Fandango: Lamppost

RDP Thursday: Brace

Posted in Ragtag Daily Prompt by

Raised-Bed

I just braced myself to write something but it has disappeared into the cyberworld on line. I lost the connection somewhere and was not prepared for such a catastrophe. My poem no longer exists, cannot be found. I spent an hour writing with intervals in between for a glass of mineral water and something sweet to eat. It looks like you are just left with the pit in our garden, full of air and darkness.

A gardener has just turned up to fill up the pit with earth, perhaps he might find my missing blog, but I do not think so.

My computer is possessed, I am absolutely sure
My poem is lost, oh what a bore
I wrote about a lady pushing her stabbed lover into a pit
Not such a great story and probably was not a hit
He climbed out of the depths after three days
The creatures of the night deserve no praise
Crept into her bed and took a bite of her neck
That was his kiss of love not a very nice peck
But all is well that ends well and now they are on fire
They go for walks hand in hand, being both a vampire

Or it was something like that. You have to be braced for everything when working on a computer.

RDP Thursday: Brace

Good Morning

Posted in Good Morning by

Clouds 03.10 (6)

Yesterday afternoon it got a little cloudy, but no rain. I decided to escape for a couple of hours and took a wheelie into town with my chair. Since the week-end I have not really been anywhere.

Altstadt 03.10 (7)

Even our local market town of Solothurn seems to be preparing for its winter sleep. The boulevard cafés were empty and everything was quite deserted.

HESO removal 03.10 (5)

The remains of our town trade fair are now being cleared away and the middle age fortifications are being revealed again. It was a good time while it lasted and I enjoyed my many visits. I was glad to be able to wheel around the fair with no problems. Now and again I crossed the path of another wheelie and we always gave a wave and a smile having something in common. I really treasure the freedom I have with my wheelchair. It cost money, but money well invested.

Raised Bed

And now back to the progress in my garden, which also costs a lot of money, but money well invested – I hope. Mr. Swiss is a bit old fashioned in his gardening ways and is still thinking of the days of lawn and garden beds, which were good, but the work was becoming too much for me and he is not a gardener. He just helped with the heavier work, which he also cam no longer do.

Raised Beds

Yesterday it was resembling a scene from a horror film about graveyards, but today it is gradually taking shape. Our raised beds are growing. Now and again one of the gardeners grinds a stone to the correct height and shape. I was talking the lady in charge yesterday and today we will be choosing the plants. My neighbours had a look in yesterday. They are both in our age group and overhauled their garden some time ago with some plastic lawn and easy to do stuff. We all have the same problems in age. Their garden also looks quite good but they found our new garden will look good and be more practical.

Today was day of bed renewal with new linen. My job is covering the cushions and duvet fresh and Mr. Swiss deals with the fitted sheets. Some how we managed to get it done. Mr. Swiss has a doctor appointment this morning. He has had various examinations and now has a complete clean bill of health inside and outside with the exception of his back. Back operations are always difficult when you are almost more than a golden oldie: Mrs. Angloswiss now walks with a walker in the supermarket and Mr. Swiss hangs onto the trolley, but otherwise also now needs a stick. Somehow we manage. There are things in life you never expect. You have always done your daily duty, gone to work, looked after the home and brought up the kids and one day you are retired. That is great, no more taking orders. However, now your days are filled with doctor appointments, planning which medicine to take next and seeing what various helps you can get for your moving possibilities.

And now to move on. I have things to do, but am not planning on going places today, although you never know. As the sun rises on the day in Switzerland I say enjoy the day and see you around later.

Sunflowers 03.10 (1)