Today's Flowers; Callistemon/Bottlebrush;

Callistemon Violacea;

Callistemon...from Greek kalos; beautiful and stemon; stamens.

Pictures TS from my garden; please click...

Although one of the older Callistemon cultivars, Callistemon 'Violaceus' is typical of some of the excellent, colourful bottlebrush cultivars and hybrids that have become available in recent years. Similar cultivars include 'Purple Splendour', 'Purple Cloud' and 'Mauve Mist'. All of these form dense, bushy shrubs 2-3 metres tall by a similar spread, producing yellow-tipped purple brushes in mid to late spring (October to November). They are hardy shrubs which will withstand at least moderate frost and which flower best in a sunny position.
Like most Callistemon cultivars, C.'Violaceus' produces viable seed which germinates easily. However, because of seedling variation, any plants produced from this seed will not be identical to the parent plant and cannot be called 'Violaceus'. Plants produced from cuttings (which usually strike readily) will produce genetically identical plants to the parent.
Many callistemons can tolerate less than perfect drainage but usually perform best in gardens with reasonable drainage and regular availability of water. Callistemons respond well to annual fertilising after flowering and are not as sensitive as some other Australian plants to phosphorus.

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Today's Flowers; Pond flowers;

Please click the pictures;

Pickerel Rush; Pondeteria cordata.

This is a very pretty plant for your pond. Easy and freely flowering.

The Pickerel Rush, also known as Pickerel Weed, Pickerelweed, and Wampee,

is named after the Italian botanist, Giulio Pondeteria.

Shiny, green, spear-shaped foliage with distinctive swirling send up spikes of soft blue flowers, reaching 18 to 24" tall, or slightly more. The flower spikes grow from leaf bracts at the top of stems. The plant adapts from very shallow water to depths of up to 18".

Plant the Pickerel Rush in a 5-gallon or larger pot to accommodate strong and plump roots. The pot should be placed in sun to part shade, and the plant will bloom in late spring through early autumn. Divide plants in spring while pruning away the rotting portions from the previous year. Stolon cuttings may be taken in summer and started, or a new plant may be started from fresh seeds collected in late summer and planted. Zones 4-11.

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My Library; The Return; Victoria Hislop;

The Return by Victoria Hislop.

The story is sad; the daughter returning to the birth country of her mother.

It is a sad history of the Spanish civil war. So many lives changed at the whim of politics. Prosecuted, incarcerated, forced labour and killed; all those people died because of savage, fascist politics, which have lasted from 1936 t0 1975.

General Francisco Franco, was a murderer together with his Government in unison with the western governments. He and his government were never brought before Justice.

Please click to read;

A bit of Philosophy; Thucydides (c. 460 BC – c. 395 BC)

Nature survives!

Thucydides (c. 460 BC – c. 395 BC) (Greek Thoukydídes) a Greek historian and author of the History of the Peloponnesian War, which recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC.

Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientific history" because of his strict standards of evidence-gathering and analysis in terms of cause and effect without reference to intervention by the gods, as outlined in his introduction to his work

He has also been called the father of the school of political realism, which views the relations between nations as based on might rather than right.

His classical text is still studied at advanced military colleges worldwide, and the Melian dialogue remains a seminal work of international relations theory.

More generally, Thucydides showed interest in developing an understanding human nature to explain behaviour in such crises as plague ,massacres, as in that of the Melians, and civil war.

Viewed as a tragedy, his portrayal of the Peloponnesian War leads us to a very different set of questions, understandings of politics and of knowledge itself.

Greek tragedy was rooted in the empirical observation that there is no relationship between justice and suffering. Tragedy confronts us with our frailties and limits and the disastrous consequences of trying to exceed them. It advances a counter-intuitive thesis: that efforts to limit suffering through the accumulation of knowledge or power might invite more suffering. Thucydides drew heavily on epic poetry and tragedy to construct his history, which not surprisingly is also constructed as a narrative

Thucydides sees himself as an Athenian. His father was Olorus, he was from the Athenian deme of Halimous He survived the Plague of Athens that killed Pericles and many other Athenians. He owned gold mines at Scapte Hyle, a coastal area in Thrace, opposite the island of Thasos.

The maxim of Thucydides, that the strong do as they wish, and the weak suffer as they must, which holds with its customary precision.

When a politician uses the word “folks,” we should brace ourselves for the deceit, or worse, that is coming.

sourced and footnoted in Noam Chomsky’s new book Hopes and Prospects.]

Copyright 2010 Noam Chomsky

some excerpts courtesy Wikipedia)

My Library; A Novel, Someone Knows My Name;

Someone Knows My Name; by Lawrence Hill;

It was originally published in Canada under the title The Book of Negroes;

Slavery in any form is a very dark and shameful mark through all the centuries on the people of all races who were involved in buying, selling and owning other human beings.

The magnitude of these crimes will never be forgotten or extenuated.

From Page 234

The people of Great Britain and other seafearing nations have devised unspeakable punishment

for the children of Ham, but in that moment and in that time, none seemed worse than their own self-inflicted torture: to sit unmoving but forbidden to sleep, in a cavernous room with arching stone and forbidden windows while a small man adopted a monotone for the better part of a

villainous hour.

From Page 452

In the endless grey of London, I missed the colours and tastes of my homeland. I found bread and meat uninteresting and unpalatable and I wondered how it was that people who sailed the oceans and ruled the world cared nothing for food and how to prepare it.

Londoners ate hardly any fruit at all. I missed the bananas, limes oranges and pineapples of Sierra Leone. I especially missed the malaguetta peppers....

Gail Anderson-Dargatz, her words about this novel;

A novel that should be sung rather than read. It is a song of worship, in praise of the taste of an orange, the smell of a newborn; and it is a lament to the horrors we are capable of inflicting on each other, no matter what colour of our skin.

The Nobel Peace Prize is a farce;

It has about as much value for peace in the world, as it was given to my chooks.

Actually it should be renamed The Nobel War Criminal Prize .It is used as sort of a Club of the

western Governments, to honour the war criminals they like.The ones they do not like are prosecuted by the International Criminal Court.

The true receivers of this prize should reject it; the Nobel peace prize is tainted with blood.

BARACK OBAMA for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.

He has increased the troops and he has ignored the massacre in Gaza! He is not a president of peace he is a president of wars.

SHIMON PERES , Foreign Minister of Israel;

Peres’ criminality and cruelty assumed a high-pitched expression in 1969 when he as Prime Minister ordered the Israeli army, the Jewish Wehrmacht, to bombard the UN peace-keeping forces at the village of Qana where hundreds of Lebanese civilians had sought shelter from indiscriminate Israeli bombing of Lebanese villages and hamlets in southern Lebanon.

The bombardment, in which heavy artillery shells were used, killed at least 101 children and women and injured and maimed many others. His hands are bloody.

YITZHAK RABIN , Prime Minister of Israel.

for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East. ha ha ha....if it would not be so sad it would be funny.

Qualifications: War Criminal. Like Hitler, gave the orders that others carried out.

Mr. Rabin was certainly not a man of peace. His history of war crimes includes a key role in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the towns of Lydda and Ramleh in 1948. In 1967, Rabin also lead the Israeli forces that conquered the West Bank, Gaza and Golan Heights. His infamous 'broken bones policy's openly encouraged breaking the arms and legs of peaceful Palestinian demonstrators during the first intifada.

Mr. Rabin Was Responsible for Ethnical Cleaning / Deportation in 1948

In the 1967 war between Israel and Jordan, Yitzhak Rabin was Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defence Forces. In this short war some 5.000 inhabitants from three villages in the Latrun triangle between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem (Emwas, Beit Nuba and Yalou) were expelled by the Israeli army and their villages totally destroyed. An Israeli soldier, Amos Kenan, who took part in the expulsions, described these acts in a report sent to all Israeli Members of Parliament. According to press reports, including one in Jerusalem Post of 24 October 1991, Mr. Yitzhak Rabin admitted in Canadian TV having given the order to destroy the villages. The inhabitants of these villages were never allowed to return and rebuilt their village nor bury their dead in the lands of their former village

MENACHEM BEGIN , Prime Minister of Israel.

Qualifications: Killer. Terrorist. War Criminal. Leader of the terrorist gang Irgun. Responsible for the Deir Yassin massacre, the bombing of the King David Hotel, etc, etc.

HENRY A. KISSINGER , Secretary of State, State Department, Washington.

Incredibly, Henry Kissinger—the man who rivals Pol Pot for the dubious honor of being the person responsible for the death of the largest number of innocent people in South East Asia (and far surpasses Pol Pot in criminality when one factors in Kissinger's various levels of responsibility for wholesale slaughter and repression in other parts of the world)—still wields significant power in the United States; but his role as eager facilitator of mass murder, totalitarian repression and other atrocities is never discussed in polite society.

Masterminded the murder of as estimated 600,000 peasants in Cambodia (the "Secret bombing")

President Ford and Secretary of State Kissinger gave the go ahead to Suharto's invasion of East Timor and subsequent massive war crimes there, and the same Kissinger, who helped President Nixon engineer and then protect the Pinochet coup and regime of torture and murder, and directed the first phase of the holocaust in Cambodia (1969-75) ...

The time was September 11, 1973. The country was Chile. The event was the bloody overthrow of a democratic government. And the criminals were Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon, The CIA, and Chilean Dictator Augusto Pinochet. Pepsico, ITT, and other large U.S. corporations were also guilty parties in these crimes against the State and against The People of Chile.

Many more with blood on their hands have received this prize. It is a scam and a shame.

.

Our international family 1972; Athina;

Athina from Athen, the tall girl with dark curls, holding Mireille from Paris, Mireille came to us for the summer holidays from "Brot fuer Brueder" as this help organisation was called then.

Peter, and our three girls.

Athina was in the Pestalozzidorf in Trogen, and came to us to spend her summer holidays.

The Pestalozzidorf was a refuge village for children in the second world war.

Later it was used for children from all over the world who's countries were in upheaval from wars and military coups like it happened at this time in Greece.

Dictatorship Military Junta 1967-1974

Shortly before the elections the Greek government was overthrown by a group of ultra conservative officers under Georgios Papadopoulos and established a dictatorial Regime Military Junta with exceptional conditions.

No freedom of the press, mass arrests and deportations ( Mikis Theodorakis was a victim) concentration camps. We want to save Greece for christian greeks was the slogan of the military junta. Men were not allowed to wear long hair and mini skirts were prohibited. Sophokles, Tolstoy, Euripides, Aristophanes, Ionesco, Sartre, Albee, Beckett, Dostojewski were prohibited. The traditional throwing of glasses, sociology, modern Mathematics and the letter Z which means in old Greek “He lives” were prohibited.

As this regime was extremely anticommunist it was supported and helped by the USA. The USA had fully accepted the coup regime of the Military Junta.

When Bill Clinton visited Athen on 2oth November 1999 he appologist for the USA ’s involvement and support of this terrible Military junta who caused the death, torture and incarceration of so many innocent people. He said, the USA was sorry to have let its own interest prevail, which they are still doing and is still going in many countries. Empty words of apology do not erase the suffering and bitterness.

I am glad we could give Athina a happy summer in our family. She was home sick.

Her father a minister in the previous government was tortured and incarcerated on an island.

Her mother had died and her elder sister was away in an other country at university.

Athina had extended family which she loved and missed. She spoke well Swiss German.

Todays Flowers; Magic Carousel;

Rosa Magic Carousel offers rounded petals edged in red and frame snow-white centers. The vigorous plants grow about 50 cm high. Zones 5-11

Christmas cactus;

The common holiday cacti (Thanksgiving Cactus, Christmas Cactus, ) comprise several closely related species in the genus Schlumbergera and the species Hatiora gaertneri, often called Zygocactus in older works. They are originally forest cacti, growing as epiphytes at elevations between 1000 and 1700 meters (3300 to 5600 feet) above sea level in the Organ Mountains north ofRio de Janeiro in southeast Brazil, South America. They are called Flor de maio (May Flower) in Brazil.

Many modern holiday cactus cultivars are hybrids between Schlumbergera truncata and S. russelliana, first hybridized about 150 years ago in England.

Holiday cactus (Schlumbergera and Hatiora hybrids) include:

Christmas Cactus, (S. bridgesii, S. x buckleyi, Epiphyllum x buckleyi)

Thanksgiving Cactus, Yoke Cactus, Linkleaf Cactus, Crab Cactus, Claw Cactus, (S. truncata, formerly Zygocactus truncatus)

Propagation

Holiday cacti can be propagated quite easily by removing a single segment and planting it a quarter of its length deep in a pot filled with slightly sandy soil. It helps to put some kind of rooting hormone on the base of the cutting. Place the pot in a well lit area (but not in direct sunlight) and keep the soil moist. The cutting should begin showing signs of growth after two or three weeks.

Care

The joints of the plants are quite fragile and can break apart if the plant is in poor health. The flower buds' joints are especially easy to detach.

Watering

The soil should be evenly moist for best growth, but they are intolerant to constantly wet soil and poor aeration. If outdoors, an established plant may only need to be watered every two or three days in warm, sunny weather; or every week in cool, cloudy weather.

Lighting

Christmas cactus will do best in bright indirect light. Long term direct sunlight can burn the leaves and stunt growth. If taken care of properly, a single planting can last for hundreds of years.

Flowering

Christmas cactus will create flower buds when subjected to cooler temperatures.

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How much is one Trillion?

Paul Nash, (1889 – 1946) Ruined Country;

1 Trillion Dollars for Wars, does it make Sense?

What is $1 trillion really worth? - If you made a million dollars a year, it would take you a million years to earn $1 trillion.

"War: a massacre of people who don't know each other for the profit of people who know each other" Paul Valery; French poet, essayist and critic, 1871-1945

"The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do." : Samuel P. Huntington

The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions": Robert Lynd (1879-1949), Anglo-Irish essayist, journalist

"The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means.": Georges Bernanos

Conquered states that have been accustomed to liberty and the government of their own laws can be held by the conqueror in three different ways. The first is to ruin them; the second, for the conqueror to go and reside there in person; and the third is to allow them to continue to live under their own laws, subject to a regular tribute, and to create in them a government of a few, who will keep the country friendly to the conqueror: Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

If their criminality is able to manifest in a perfect form then they are capable of dominating countries and nations.' - Socrates in Plato's Republic

A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murder is less to fear: Cicero Marcus Tullius - Born on January 3, 106 BC and was murdered on December 7, 43 BC.

Today'sFlowers; "Winterlings";

In winter Poinsettias light up the garden.

Bougainvilleas are tough and floriferous not shying away from the cooler season as long as there is no frost.

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Today's Flowers; Autumn's delights;

Autumn is the time of life for Aloes;

Roses have their comeback in autumn; this one is Apricot Nectar;

Hibiscus are still going...

Some hang on just a little to long!

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Thank you to the Flower-Team;

Witches Chant; by William Shakespeare

Witches Chant; From the Tragedy of Macbeth.

Round about the cauldron go:

In the poisones entrails throw.

Toad,that under cold stone

Days and nights has thirty-one

Sweated venom sleeping got,

Boil thou first in the charmed pot.

Double,double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and cauldron bubble

Fillet of a fenny snake,

In the cauldron boil and bake;

Eye of newt and toe of frog,

Wool of bat and tongue of dog,

Adder's fork and blindworm's sting,

Lizard's leg and howlet's wing.

For charm of powerful trouble,

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

Double,double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Scale of dragon,tooth of wolf,

Witch's mummy, maw and gulf

Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark,

Root of hemlock digg'd in the dark,

Liver of blaspheming Jew;

Gall of goat; andslips of yew

silver'd in the moon's eclipse;

Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips;

Finger of birth-strangled babe

Ditch-deliver'd by the drab,-

Make the gruel thick and slab:

Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,

For ingredients of our cauldron.

Double,double toil and trouble,

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

This was "the stuff" that would give me goosebumps! Can it get worse than this?

The Tragedy of Macbeth (commonly called Macbeth) is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath.

It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607. The earliest account of a performance of what was likely Shakespeare's play is April 1611, when Simon Forman recorded seeing such a play at the Globe Theatre. It was first published in the Folio of 1623, possibly from a prompt book for a specific performance.

Shakespeare's sources for the tragedy are the accounts of King Macbeth of Scotland. However, the story of Macbeth as told by Shakespeare bears no relation to real events in Scottish history as Macbeth was an admired and able monarch.

In the back-stage world of theatre, some believe that the play is cursed, and will not mention its name aloud, referring to it instead as "The Scottish Play". Over the centuries, the play has attracted some of the greatest actors in the roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. The play has been adapted to film, television, opera, novels, and other media.

Song of Innocence; A free spirit;

A free spirit;

I had my first encounter with religion when I was eight years old.

My parents did not like organized religion. My father was an atheist. I am not sure about my mother but I think she was not a believer. I never saw her at church, only once when I had my first communion and usually at Christmas, because I went there with my class to sing Christmas carols.

It was actually a protestant church as I went to a protestant school in a protestant village . It was all very confusing. Anyway I was baptized In the catholic faith, as both my parents were at a certain time, when they did not have a say in this matter.

As I was to receive my first communion I had to be instructed about it. For the religious instructions I had to travel by train to the next village. It was a prosperous, catholic village with two beautiful big Churches.

The instructions were held in a schoolroom of a newly build school. It was terribly boring, I did not understand what the priest was talking about and I never learned my lines from the catechism. I was more interested in the other children and my surroundings. I felt very grown up as I traveled alone to this village and had to find my way to the school.

I soon made friends with another girl who was beautifully dressed.

She was black haired with freckles, her name was Genevieve. When I first met her she wore a lime green coat beautifully tailored, she said her Mother was a dressmaker and made all her garments. I was only eight but I had this feeling for beautiful things, it did not matter what it was.

At the church, all the instructions about the big day and what we had to do went over my head as I was entranced and overwhelmed with the paintings and overall sanctity of the church. The singing, the smell of incense the ancient Greek words, the Kyrie Eleison, falling like pearls from my lips. I was now really looking forward to my spirituel entrance into this community.

My mother had bought white fabric to make my first communion frock, I think she was as excited about the project as I was. When I asked her if she liked to make this beautiful garment she said don’t be “meschugge”. She never said mad or silly always meschugge. I liked that word it was different, the other children didn’t know the word meschugge. I did not know where it came from and why she used it.

She said:” you can help making the frock but be careful this is silk.” I knew silk was made by grubs and in my imagination I saw all this tiny grubs patiently making the thread for this rippling, white fabric.

My mother cut out the pattern. The dress would be long, reaching down to my shoes.

The front on top would be embroidered with smocking stitches. It was very elaborate work and my fingers and hands got sticky and I soiled the material. My mother dismissed me quickly from helping.

Finally the first communion frock was finished and I slipped into it, whirled and danced around in the living room, like it was made for this frivolous purpose. I could barley wait until white Sunday arrived. I received new white sandals, first my mother wanted to colour my brown shoes white. I said I am not wearing them they are ugly. She said that I could be right and bought new, white sandals. I had to carry a tall candle embossed in gold with the sign of the holy spirit. The base of the candle was wrapped in one of my mothers lacy handkerchiefs. My short plaits were tied with white ribbons. I wanted to leave my hair falling in waves over my shoulders like Maria, the mother of god. My mother did not allow it.

My mother did not have a veil for me but she said that the nun who looked after us had one for me.

When I arrived at the schoolhouse where the children were assembled to go in a procession to the church, all I saw was a sea of veils popping up and down.

The girls all in white and the boys in blue suits. A nun took me aside and pushed a veil on my hair which she secured with a small, green wreath and a lot of bobby pins which made my scalp itch. I put my hand up and tried to loosen it, she slapped my hand and said:" leave it alone, now you made it all askew with your scratching.” I forgot about it when a friend of my mother was looking for me and gave me a pretty silver chain with a silver cross which she fastened around my neck. I thought this was so special because I was not expecting such a nice present. It was my first jewellery I received. I endured the long, alien ceremony and was glad when it was finished. After white Sunday I have never worn my white frock anymore. My mother gave it to another first communion girl to wear. However I wore my silver necklace for many years and I always thought with fondness of the lady who gave it to me.

Today's Flowers; Jazzy blues;

Dichorisandra thyrsiflora also commonly known as blue ginger.

Thunbergia ( I am not sure which one)

Peruvian Morning glory;

Pictures are from my archive, but these are now flowering in my garden.

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My Library; The Island; Spinalonga was a former leper colony;

The Island by Victoria Hislop.

Plaka 1953, a cold wind whipped through the narrow streets of Plaka and the chill of autumnal air encircled the woman, paralysing her body and mind with a numbness that almost blocked her senses but could do nothing to alleviate her grief. As she stumbled....

A powerful story about the fate of people who were unlucky enough to be infected by Lepra, had to leave their families and friends and were banned to the Island of Spinalonga.

The Island of Spinalonga, off the north coast of Crete, was Greece's main leper colony from 1903 until 1957.

It is notable for being one of the last active leper colonies in Europe. The last inhabitant, a priest, left the island in 1962. This was to maintain the religious tradition of the Greek Orthodox church, in which a buried person has to be commemorated 40 days, 6 months, 1, 3 and 5 years after their death. Other leper colonies that have survived Spinalonga include Tichilesti in Eastern Romania, Fontilles in Spain and Talsi in Latvia. As of 2002, few lazarettos remain in Europe.[1]

There were two entrances to Spinalonga, one being the lepers' entrance, a tunnel known as Dante's Gate. This was so named because the patients did not know what was going to happen to them once they arrived. However, once on the island they received food, water, medical attention and social security payments. Previously, such amenities had been unavailable to Crete's leprosy patients, as they mostly lived in the area's caves, away from civilization.

Pictures and Paintings; a potpourri of memories;

Summer; ripe wheat, a view from a window; in the distance the village of Sommeri. Nomen est omen!

Hudelmoos; a preserved wetland area where we used to go for walks with the children.

The bee house in the garden; The poeta was a hobby bee keeper.

Our home; was; has been; happy days;

The pond where we went skating with the children.

Bought this on a trip to Appenzell; Naive painting on wood by Willi Keller.

I embroidered the Butterflies 1988.

Have we met? I received this water colour painting from my dear friend Jan.

Kilchberg ZH, drawing by Erika Streit, We got married here 1960. Our first home was Toediweg 2. The poeta had a business here. I was treasurer of the Skiclub Kilchberg. Now just memories.

The poeta and I have cherished this drawing; It has suffered with age spots like us!

The piano player is still playing his haunting tunes.

Today's Flowers; Salvia "Black Knight";

SALVIA BLACK KNIGHT

2.0 x 1.50m. Dark purple tubular flowers in black calyces are produced in abundance during the summer months. Great for the back of the border and very easy.

Salvias are some of my favourite plants in the summer garden. The tropical ones grow easily from 1 - 1.5 m in height. There are many colours to choose from, purple, yellow, hot pink, soft pink and mauve and blue and more.

In my garden they grow and bloom from spring into winter, when I cut them back. They also grow from cuttings taken in summer.

Today's Flowers click here please;

Teddy Bear Love;

The Studies Bear, it was given to Lilli when she was studying for her BA in Natural Medicine.

Oliver is a Christmas Bear and was given to Lilli when she came back from an overseas stay.

Roesli the Bear in front belonged to my sister, she gave me hers and our Mother's Bear.

Butzli Bear was made by my middle daughter Jacquei for me, when she was still at High school .

Matti was my Mothers Bear. The little bear in front is a foundling.

This was one of Lucian, my grandson's, bears. He would spend holidays here as a child. He is now 20, studies medicine and sometimes he still comes to study here because it is so nice and quiet, he says.The "Hostipel" bear as Lucian called it, where Jaqcuei worked in the Children's ward at the Mater Hospital.

Lena in front belonged to Lilli.

History

The name Teddy Bear comes from former United States President Theodore Roosevelt, whose nickname was "Teddy". The name originated from an incident on a bear-hunting trip in Mississippi in November 1902, to which Roosevelt was invited by Mississippi Governor Andrew H. Longino. There were several other hunters competing, and most of them had already killed an animal. A suite of Roosevelt's attendants, led by Holt Collier,[1] cornered, clubbed, and tied an American Black Bear to a willow tree after a long exhausting chase with hounds. They called Roosevelt to the site and suggested that he should shoot it. He refused to shoot the bear himself, deeming this unsportsmanlike,[2] but instructed that the bear be killed to put it out of its misery, and it became the topic of a political cartoon by Clifford Berryman in The Washington Post on November 16, 1902.[3] While the initial cartoon of an adult black bear lassoed by a white handler and a disgusted Roosevelt had symbolic overtones, later issues of that and other Berryman cartoons made the bear smaller and cuter.[4]

Morris Michtom saw the drawing of Roosevelt and the bear cub and was inspired to create a new toy. He created a little stuffed bear cub and put it in his shop window with a sign that read "Teddy's bear," after sending the bear to Roosevelt and receiving permission to sell the bears. The toys were an immediate success and Michtom founded the Ideal Novelty and Toy Co., which still exists today.[2]

At the same time, in Germany the Steiff firm, unaware of Michtom's bear, produced a stuffed bear from Richard Steiff's designs. They exhibited the toy at the Leipzig Toy Fair in March 1903 and exported 3000 to the United States.[2][5][6]

By 1906 manufacturers other than Michtom and Steiff had joined in and the craze for Teddy Bears was such that ladies carried them everywhere, children were photographed with them, and Roosevelt used one as a mascot in his bid for re-election.[5]

American educator Seymour Eaton wrote the children's book series The Roosevelt Bears,[7] while composer John Bratton wrote "The Teddy Bear Two Step" which, with the addition ofJimmy Kennedy's lyrics, became the song "The Teddy Bears' Picnic".[8]