Busy busy!

When I look at the picture above, I get ever so envious, because ever


since I've been involved in my hobby called Crazy patchwork, I've been


going insane for the lack of space.





Space glorious space is what I need for all my pieces of fabric and


trimmings.





I have found place for almost all the bits and pieces that I need for my


hobby work, but boy oh boy, the moment I get started, it's like looking


for a needle in a haystack.


I know the stuff is there - but WHERE did I place it.





My dearest friend will be celebrating a birthday in about 9 days time,


and she's "placed" an order for a crazy patchwork bag in the colours of her


choice.





Besides digging and messing about in the garden, (no such luck here)


nothing gives me more pleasure than doing a little bit o' needle work!





If you're interested in seeing some of the work I've done in the past, then


please click onto my other blog and come have a little look-see.
http://eyesofthedragonfly.blogspot.com/

African Version

Dog saves abandoned baby from forest
The dog was looking for food for her newborn puppies when she reportedly saved a 2-week-old baby girl from a forest in Kenya.
The dog found the baby in a forest south of the capital Nairobi. She then took the infant, wrapped in a dirty, black cloth, and carried it across a busy road and through a barbed-wire fence and placed it close to her own puppies.A witness, Stephen Thoya says: "I heard the sound of a baby crying, (when) I looked closely, I saw a dog carrying a baby as it crossed the road."The owner of the heroic dog, Mary Adhiambo says her dog lay next to the baby and cared for it until it was spotted by human rescuers. Ms Adhiambo washed the baby who's umbilical chord was covered with maggots. After cleaning the baby Mary Adhiambo rushed it to hospital.
At the hospital, the 3.3 kilogram child was christened Angel. Doctors confirmed the newborn baby girl had been out in the open for at least two days after being abandoned.Dr Jonathan Micheni said: "An infant of such a tender age, having spent two nights in the cold, is likely to develop respiratory infections and we have put her on a treatment to prevent any bacterial or fungal infections."These kinds of incidents in which babies are abandoned are very common in East African countries like Kenya, where over 56% of the population lives on less than US $1 a day.This is ultimate proof that dogs realy are a man's best friend!

German Version

Now matter how hard I try, I just cannot imagine how any woman,

who's has just given birth to a newborn baby, can leave the small

helpless infant alone on the sidewalk or even in a garbage can to

fend for itself, is beyond my comprehension.

If the new mother is too afraid to mention this to her

family or she's left alone and destitude and has no means to support

herself and a newborn, there is a way out!

In Germany there are safe, warm and secure places where the

unwanted baby can be left and it will be taken care of, until a new

family can be found for the poor little button.

Even though I'm English speaking, I cannot fînd the correct

word for the "Baby Klappe"

Never before have I heard of places such as

these , therefor I cannot find the English

word for the situation of "Baby in desperate need!"

If you look at the pictures above you will get the idea of what

this help for a desperate mother and baby looks like.

Once the baby is placed into the safety of the crib, and not left on the

street, it will survive the bitter cold and it will naturally receive

the care that every newborn deserves.

Call back the (snakey) past.

Due to the fact that I grew up as an only child, I lead a

very protected and molly coddled life with Mom and Dad.

Mom never allow me to go swimming with a crowd

of school friends - therefor I learned to swim many years later, and

school excursions was a definate NO NO!!

So, whenever this born and bred "city slicker" had the opportunity

to visit Grandma and Grandad on the farm in Oudtshoorn (SA) I let my

"hair down" good and proper !

Most of my childhood memories were spent among my cousins

on that farm, and if one of them were not prepared to "come out and play"

I'd simply disappear for hours on end - avoiding all warnings

about the dangers lurking around.

Not far from the farm house was a small stream of water that

flows down into the big river, this stream of water was also

one of my many favorite places to play.

One day as I was hopping and skipping along the water's edge ,

a snake suddenly (see picture above) appeared right in front of me.

Perhaps it was fright or perhaps it was my nature (I was always

running and jumping) but whatever it was, I took one huge jump

and practically flew over the snake.

Later that evening, while we were all sitting around the supper table, I

mentioned my incident with the brown snake with the white stripes.

Naturally Mom turned a whiter shade of pale!

The snake is known as a SKAAPSTEKER, and farmers believed

that it bites and kills the sheep, but this "back fanged" snake

is only moderately poisonous to humans.

Then again on another occasion, I insisted on carrying a hay bale

on my back, I reckoned if the black farm workers can do so, why

can't I!

One of the farm workers arranged a small bale for me to carry,

but little did any of us know that I was transporting a snake

on my back.

When my "job" was done, I dumped the hay bale onto the

ground, and as the straw bale reached the ground, a fairly long snake

crawled out and slithered away.

Believe me, I enjoyed every moment of the action and commotion, but

poor ol' Mom had to be revived with a queer smelling medical

aid called smelling salts!!

I can easily sit here all night and write about my escapades on that

farm, but my thanks go to a blogger friend (you know who you are)

who enspired me and placed the idea in my head to write a little

something about yesteryear!

LET'S START THE DAY WITH A SMILE !

A smile is a curve that sets everything straight.

Go out and give the

world a smile, you'll feel a whole lot better!

HAVE A GOOD MONDAY! ! !

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY !

Not exactly a love story , but have a good laugh and enjoy a
WONDERFUL VALENTIN'S DAY !!!

An Illinois man who left the snow-filled streets of Chicago for a vacation in Florida. His wife was on a business trip and was planning to meet him there the next day. When he reached his hotel, he decided to send his wife a quick e-mail.
Unable to find the scrap of paper on which he had written her e-mail address, he did his best to type it in from memory. Unfortunately, he missed one letter and his note was directed instead to an elderly woman whose husband had passed away only the day before. When the grieving widow checked her e-mail, she took one look at the monitor, let out a piercing scream, and fell to the floor in a dead faint. At the sound, her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the screen:
DEAREST WIFE:
JUST GOT CHECKED IN. EVERYTHING PREPARED FOR YOUR ARRIVAL TOMORROW.
YOUR LOVING HUSBAND
P.S. SURE IS HOT DOWN HERE

The Carnival's done and dusted.

This year the FASNACHT - Carnival started earlier than usual,
as a lot of Swiss folk will tell you, the purpose of the Carnival is
to shooh the Winter away, but we've been having the loveliest
weather for the last couple of weeks - So what's going to
happen now? We've already had our Spring in Winter - can
we now look forward to Winter during Springtime? I really
don't hope so.
Nevertheless, I think everyone who partook in the Carnival, yes
and even the thousands of visitors from near and far could
enjoy the festivities and not having to freeze their fingers to
the bone - as I do remember a few decades ago!


This year I've taken quite a load of photos, but I'm posting only
a few on the blog (THANKS BLOGGER FOR ALLOWING)

I'm a little lost for words, perhaps it's the excitement of blogger

being so nice about me posting so many pics, but I think these

pictures will speak for itself.

To round it all off, here a few night scenes.

Snippets of the Fasnacht - Carnival

We came across these two characters making a very pompous
appearance, but they were quite willing to pose for us.

Masks and drums standing against the walls along the street

while the merrymakers take a well deserved break.

Don't leave home in a hurry ! !

LET'S HAVE A LAUGH !

"I was due for an appointment with the gynecologist later in the week.
Early one morning, I received a call from the doctor's office to tell methere was a cancellation and the 9:30am appointment was available.
I took it. I had only just packed everyone off to work and school, andit was already around 8:45 am. The trip to his office took about 35minutes, so I didn't have any time to spare.
As most women do, I like to take a little extra effort over hygiene whenmaking such visits, but this time I was not going to be able to make the full effort.
So, I rushed upstairs, threw off my pajamas, wet the washcloth that wassitting next to the sink, and gave myself a quick wash in "that area" tomake sure I was at least presentable. I threw the washcloth in theclothesbasket, donned some clothes, hopped in the car and raced to my appointment.
I was in the waiting room for only a few minutes when I was called in.Knowing the procedure, as I'm sure you do, I hopped up on the table, looked over at the other side of the room and pretended that I was in Paris or some other such glamorous place a million miles away.
I was a little surprised when the doctor said, "My, we have made anextra effort this morning, haven't we?" I didn't respond.
After the appointment, I heaved a sigh of relief and went home. The rest of the day was normal... some shopping, cleaning, cooking, etc.
After school when my six year old daughter was playing, she called outfrom the bathroom, "Mommy, where's my washcloth?"
I told her to get another one from the cupboard.
She replied, "No!!!".
She yelled, " I need the one that was here by the sink, it had all myglitter and sparkles saved inside it!"

Eye Witness again ?

Why is it whenever I set foot out of my 4 walls, I get to see people

fall in the street, or fall out of a tram, or fall right under a tram?

At this very spot I waited so the bus could turn left, and the road will be

safe for me to cross the street, when neither the busdriver nor the cyclist

saw the danger before it almost turned into a fatal accident.

The guy on the bicycle was in a world of his own and the bus driver

had his eyes somewhere else, only when this huge bus bumped into the

(not paying attention to the bus)

young man on his bicycle, did the bus driver

step on his brakes!

There I was, standing on the sidewalk with horror on my face when the

sound of bus hitting man on bicycle brought the traffic to a halt!

LUCKILLY, the guy on the bicycle was "hit back to reality" when the

blow from the bus made the bus driver stop and the cyclist stumbled to keep

himself from being slung from his bicycle.

The two men "oggled" one another, and the cyclist went up to the bus

driver (who never even made the slightest attempt to step from

the driver's seat, and had a few words with the guy who had a guardian

angel looking after him on this day! !

Will somebody pleease stop the world, I wanna get off!!!

Vampire Plant? ?

For some time now I've been wanting to post about the strangest plant
I've ever possessed in my entire lifetime!
I've searched the Internet for any available information about this
plant, but unfortunately I've had no success to the whereabouts of this
unique and most unusual flora.
As soon as the day light or even just the slightest bit of sun light
shines on this plant, it will droop and show signs of "help, I'm
dying of thirst in the bone dry desert " - as you can see on the top picture.

The moment it gets dark, the little begger will stand guard and it

looks like "he's" ready to spread "his" leaves, step right outta "his"

plant pot to hit the town and do his evil little thing!!!

Just look at the picture below, and you'll see what I mean!

Could this be an escaped convict from the dungeons of a Transylvanian prison,

or did someone steal this plant from Dracula's castle, - and yes, you've guessed

it, I was the one to take a fancy to the little bloodsucker, and buy it!!

If anyone out there in Bloggyland has any valuable information

about the whereabouts of this creepy little greenleaves - I will

appreciate and consider all comments!

And there will be light, Eeeeh! Hot water!

Taking a bath in steaming hot water seems like the most natural thing to

do in this day and age, but for the past year and a half all of us had to be

content with a bath filled with luke warm water.

Not a very pleasant experience in a cold country, if I dare say so!



Althoug all the tenants have complained about our cold water situation,

and many visits from the craftsmen, we're still saddled with miserable cold water!!



We have a tenant living directly above us who comes from India, and

believe me if it wasn't for him (who doesn't care a monkey's about how

much cold water he lets out before he gets HOT water, we, who live in

the apartment right underneath him, won't even get the whiff of luke

warm water) because when he lets out tons of cold, it enables us down

under to feel warm water on our skins again!

For the life of me, I don't know what the craftsmen have been doing

when they tried to fix our water problem. IT REMAINED COLD!!



This morning we were all woken up with the sound of boring and

drilling, it was the craftsmen at work again!!!!!



Low and behold!!!

This must be a craftsman of another calibre, because he found the

problem!

With a song in my heart and a dance in my step, I can tell you,

AFTER A YEAR AND A HALF, WE HAVE HOT WATER AGAIN!!!
This afternoon when I took doggy dog for her walk, I saw the culprit
lying against the wall just outside our building, and being a blogger,
and thinking about things to write , I dashed upstairs to the
apartment to fetch my camera.
In the middle of the street I managed to take two pictures of the
rotted pipes that made our lives a total misery for so long, unfortu-
nately I completely forgot to take a picture of Fuji, my dog's face, she
looked at me with total disgust, she must have thought, "Wow, we
haven't even gone for a walk and now she's taking me back upstairs again...!"

Please click on the pic for a better view of the nasty little pipes!!