Hate google chrome and google and the new comments box

What stupid idiot re-arranged all the comments, the verification and generally put me in a bad mood?

And for heaven's sake don't click on this photo or it will look like it's going to eat you.  Another bloody stupid thing to learn, how to get the photos small.
Anyway today's Wednesday so I ate this on Monday and enjoyed every delicious bite. Mind you, it wasn't that big but cherry ripe sponge with coconut and large morello cherries and a thin layer of chocolate sponge in the middle. It was covered in a thin layer of chocolate and I only ate this because mother got in and grabbed the last of the lemon meringue.
The Trevally was a bit overcooked and overpriced but then so was the Barramundi we had at the last place.  I haven't been to The Sandy pub since I can't remember when and the view over the bay was fantastic but while the air-con was icy inside, outside was like a sauna.  Very wheelchair friendly but the chairs were murder. The sharp edge of the back hit the spine and really hurt everyone but especially me who spent half the night with ice packs on the one spot I don't need to be hit on.
Most of us decided on fish and salad but mother wanted old fashioned sausages and mash until she saw the Guinness beef pie and Irish mash which came with a can of Guinness. She didn't drink that but passed it on. She did a good job on the pie though and the lemon meringue.  One and a half hours is tops for her, mostly it's getting in and out of the taxi.
I left about four when they were putting her to bed and she went to sleep, through tea, until breakfast the next morning.
Even though it's a bit pricey, $9 for a glass of wine but only $3.50 for soda, lime and bitters (mine), we've decided to go again simply because of the spaciousness of the dining area and the view. But we're changing the chairs whether they like it or not. 

This was supposed to be "MY YEAR"

According to all the stars at the end of last year plus all of those stars predicted a new baby coming in to my life and all I'm thinking is, my granddaughters couldn't be that stupid, surely not but we know the stars never lie and I'm not going to be a greatgrandmother just an interested onlooker.

So here is eldest granddaughter, 19 in February not 20 as I thought. One loses track when their bitchqueenoftheuniversemother doesn't let them keep in touch with me not to mention her consort bastardoftheuniversestepfather.  Youngest does email but has to sneak photos to me and as their internet was slow I only received this one. She's working two jobs to keep a roof over her head while my 39 year old teenage father to be is still living here but enough of him, blood pressure goes up. I should yell and throw his things into the street but it wouldn't make him face reality, he has to leave on his own or it won't mean he's growing up.

Now down to my year, all good things happening but with only one full moon in my sign this year and it's gone. 

1. Mother is still with us, well me mostly since I'm the one carrying the bird seed bells and the books and all the other crap she needs/wants immediately.

2. Weight.  Right back to where I was 10 years ago and very pissed off. And pissed off was where I was 10 years ago until I suddenly became very happy and dropped weight like 6 biggest loosers. I hate that show, utter crap. If it was that easy with weight lifting I should be sylph like with the family I'm carrying on my back.

3. I'm healthy apart from blood pressure (goddess knows why) Diabetes (my name is copperwitch and I am a chocoholic) dodgy knees (jeebus Southland raise your damn toilets to people height,we're not all gnomes) and now a tear in the Achille's tendon. Of course it would be the left leg, always the left leg. It's like that movie where they transplant the murderer's hands and the guy starts killing people. It's the same with the left leg, it's always getting in the way and falling over, I'm sure it belonged to someone else who was fat and clumsy.

4. Money. For some reason, I'm a little in front. Absolutely nothing to do with playing the pokies.  And, 'Getup', stop sending me petitions calling for the abolition of poker machines, I feel like a hyocrite if I sign them.

5. Family. Me losing, them winning. What can I say, once a family doormat always a family doormat.

The good news is that I only appear to have a small tear in the Achille's. That's as far as the experts in thin leg ultrasounds can tell. Doc Marvin was more positive. I was more positive after googling (sue me for using your crappy name!) ruptured Achille's tendon. I don't advise the squeamish to google (go on get me again) images. There's a site  devoted to the experiences of people with ruptures (no not the ones ascending) and the neg and pos of surgery, plaster, moonboots. Now there's a joy, you can take them off to go to bed but you must put them back on even if you're only going for a pee and as a nightly frequent pee'r that comes under the heading of sheer hell.

I digress (and now need a pee) but from the reading I have only a small tear which will heal with the help of scar tissue and probably hold.  Most on this forum are basketballers, marathon runners, all that masochistic stuff and just can't wait to get back to breaking and tearing some other body part.  The self healing part happened to a lot who had only a small tear, colour me happy.  Thank you Antikva for telling me to strap it with Fixomul stretch tape, now get down here and do it for me. What a bluebird of happiness stretch ultra sticky tape is to get on the back of a foot below a fat leg that belongs to someone else and doesn't co-operate.

And just when you really need that half price taxi card, the micro chip fritzes itself. Happily fritzed chips are the taxi directorate's fault and I don't have to pay $16 for a new card but I have to wait a week for it to arrive.  Oh dear, sorry mother, can't stagger to the bus this week but I will meet you for lunch on Monday since I'm being picked up.

AAAAAAAAnd I'm signing up for online shopping with both Coles and Woolies. Whichever store has the best bargains for the week, gets my shopping. Lateral thinking, I haz it.

 Lucky Rio Tinto, with all of W.A. to plough around in, it manages to find this 12.76 carat pink diamond. The largest of the rare and precious pink stones ever found in the resources-rich West.



Named the Argyle Pink Jubilee, the huge rough stone was found at Rio's pink diamond operations in the Kimberley region.


"This rare diamond is generating incredible excitement. A diamond of this calibre is unprecedented -- it has taken 26 years of Argyle production to unearth this stone and we may never see one like this again," said Josephine Johnson from Rio's Argyle Pink Diamonds division.


Rio produces more than 90 percent of the world's pink diamonds from the Argyle mine, and said large stones like the Jubilee typically went to museums, were gifted to royalty or end up at prestigious auction houses like Christie's.



Christie's had only auctioned 18 polished pink diamonds larger than 10 carats in its 244-year history, Rio said.


When the Jubilee diamond has been cut and polished it will be graded by international experts and showcased globally before being sold by invitation-only tender later this year.


It would be nice if Gina R picked up the tab and presented it to Her Majesty.
 
I'm hoping they make a documentary of the cutting and polishing and that it turns out to be absolutely flawless.

They ain't heavy, they's my family

Well they're getting heavy now and I wished they'd leave before I'm in real trouble.
I feel like I've been carrying all of them on my back for six years. Now piss off.
I have a small tear in my Achille's Tendon and all the recommended 'get it better' stuff is not good for me.
So Doc Marvin is hedging his bets and hoping I won't do anything further to damage what's left.
I have to walk with a stick in my left hand and not trip on it.
I can use my 3 wheelie walker but try and get that on a bus that doesn't have the step lowered.
I have my foot in the air tied to the bed head to try and reduce the fluid. That works only so far as I found out tonight, if I leave it too long, the knee cap appears to drop.
So I've looked at online shopping for groceries.
BOH said he will drive me to the supermarket when it's not busy. I remind him that he has an expectant mother and baby to look after.  Hey, no sweat, it's not for five months yet.  
HEAD.    CRASH.   DASHBOARD.
I may kill before he leaves here.  The EM is not much better.
Fortunately the foot doesn't hurt if I'm careful and watch what I'm doing, if I don't forget the stick or the wheelie walker.  If I don't trip over the mat at the door of Coles.  If no-one runs their trolley into the back of my leg at Safeway.  If I don't walk up stairs. How about if I don't walk at all and stay home and read books. Eric the mower is coming on Thursday and I intend to sit in a chair and yell instructions to him.

*I should not abuse the parents to be. I confess to leaving my child in his pusher outside the shops while I wandered home enjoying a quiet ice-cream and then remembering why it was so quiet. 

My first photographs

 My Mother at the Home.

It's hard to reconcile this smiling face, 82 in 3 weeks, with the vicious old crone that made our lives miserable for three years.

 THE CAKE.

The dessert of desserts. A double chocolate mousse cake covered with ganache but so light in texture it almost floated off the plate.  I was told the secret was in beating the egg whites to a stiff foam then adding to the chocolate mixture.  I could look at it for hours.

My first bird.

It was after I realised that using the telescopic button would bring it closer.

It was nice of him to pause the apple eating for this not so great shot.

I do not belive it!

Okay, I've been doing the right things for my back muscle, I just haven't continued long enough. Tranquilizers to stop the spasms and nsaids for the inflammation.

Today, Doc marvin at 11.30. Laughs at my blood stained book of BGL readings and tells me not to worry if readings are a bit higher in summer than in the colder months. He tells me what to do for the back but is worried about the Achilles tendon and wants an ultrasound.
In the meantime, he thinks a blood test is in order.
Ever had a needle bend in the middle halfway into a vein? Great fun.  Try other arm and no problems as my precious blood drains away.

Thinking on my feet/foot, I asked the receptionist to ring the X-Ray place since they usually can get an appointment faster than a civillian. Done, 4 p.m. this afternoon. The place is opposite Southland.
Thinking fast again, I stagger over to the pharmacy for tranqs and water, stagger across the road for the bus to Mentone. Method in the madness, have lunch with mother and catch taxi from the Home straight to southland.  Except that mother is out in Mentone having quiche and ice coffee for lunch and I've walked straight past the cafe. It didn't matter, I sat down in a comfy chair in the lavender room and ate my lunch in peace and quiet while my back eased down from scream to snivell.

Taxi to imaging place with signs everywhere, "Payment is expected on the day". Well, that's what credit cards are for but they bulk billed me, Yea!  Foot is very swollen by now and leg isn't much better but ultrasound machine beeps away. She goes to find a doctor, who inspects Achilles tendon.  Yes, it looks like a small tear but  Houston we have a problem. 

Scientists can photograph a martian picking his nose behind an outcrop of mountainess crud but try to discern a tear in an Achilles tendon in a fat leg, monumental fail.  They are now talking MRI but can't think how to do that with a fat leg.  I have the ultrasound images which I have to give to Doc Marvin but I'm not walking anywhere until somebody tells me what is going on.

Now I have a hate on two bus drivers, SE water and ultrasound experts.

From the pit of pain

I thought pulling the left Achilles Tendon was painful enough but combined with tearing a back muscle on the right side, it's a whole new world of discomfort interspersed with bouts of ouching in a loud voice. 
I can lie down but I can't sit or bend. Standing is fun unless I move and goddess forbid that I should sneeze.
I did the damage on Tuesday, ignored it.
I went to the residents and family meeting on Wednesday and wheeled Ma's wheelchair, pain ramped up, ignored it.
I went shopping on Thursday and wheeled a trolley when I should have gone straight home to an icepack and bed with lots of painkillers.
Friday is a blur of obsenities and pills. I can't lie on my back or left side, only on the right side and only one way.  It takes 30 minutes for the painkillers to kick in.
The BOH wants to take me to Doc Marvin. The thought of a shower or dressing makes my eyes water so I decide on more painkillers instead.
There is twinging again which is going to lead to another bout of ouching and grouching and more pills.
I can't think how it happened. Raking up the lemons?  Raking up the mess SE water left?
Picking up the pebbles SE water chucked everywhere? Dragging out the bins? Couldn't have been that, the pain stopped me halfway. Bending upside down to unscrew two cupboard doors? That's a good candidate since I couldn't get the last screw out and walloped it with a hammer. BOH comes home and removes the screw in 2 seconds.
Nothing helps. Pain is not my friend, thank you Mr. Myagi. Relaxation exercises helps but requires the body to lie flat on the bed. So today is the first time I've been able to sit at the computer and what happens, I read the comments on the last post between the Bear and Lord Rochester and laugh.
Bloody pain is back again.
Doc Marvin it is.

Incalmo

Incalmo, a technique invented by Venetian glass blowers nearly 500 years ago and still being mastered today. Mastered is definitely the word for this glass work as it's technically complex and physically demanding. 

The glass artist has to make two separately blown cups of glass which must be the same width at the base or top where it is to be fused to another piece of glass. The second piece must be placed directly at the edge of the first piece with no overlap of the edges. Compare this to our Burmese glass where the pink top is made of pink glass over the cream glass, put back to the flame and fused.

The finished piece can have two or three coloured sections of glass and it must appear as though it is one piece of glass.  From Venice, the method of making incalmo spread across Europe to America where this glass ware is still made by skilled artists.

So just to end on a uplifting note, when I was reading various sites about this glass I came across another innovation and, dare I say, it had to be America.  I was struck by the name "memory glass" and it comes in hearts, orbs or pendants and, wait for it, within the blown glass is suspended the ashes of one's beloved departed.  As the site put it, "...a beautiful keepsake memoir piece which can be displayed in one way or another."  I think I'll give this one a miss. I do enough talking to the departed without having them swirling around in a paperweight which I'd have to dust.

Aurora down south

Victoria had it's own aurora last week but I wasn't near enough to Flinders to see it.


The sunspot activity showered particles on the Earth, that excited oxygen atoms high in the atmosphere which emitted a red glow as they fell back to their ground state. Oxygen atoms lower in Earth's atmosphere would glow green.

So here is a photo of the aurora just visible above the horizon near Flinders, our own Flinders, Victoria. Also seen in the photo is the central disk of the Milky Way Galaxy on the left and the large and small Magellanic Cloud galaxies on the right.
 
The photograph was taken by Alex Cherney.

Gardening sucks lemons

Especially when SE water digs up all my polished river pebbles, bluestone chips, concrete surround of the water meter and buries the hose in the diggings while her next door who had the leak has it all neatened up.
 My fault but I can't go out in the heat so I've been waiting for a cool day to get into that corner and fix everything. I did pick the hose up while waiting for the taxi yesterday and put it on the hose reel which is when I realised how much of it was buried. And they chipped the ear off my concrete pig. So I haven't found much of the concrete surround but I can't say anything because that could have been the fencer or SE water because with my dodgy memory I can't think whether it was still there after the fence but I'm sure it was.
 When the ex left, my first foray into the garden was to uncover the water meter, I used the concrete that used to be on the gully trap (so it is over 30 years old and fragile) then put bluestone chips around to stop the weeds. Now that was a task in itself, I'd fill a bucket with chips and sand and sieve out the sand and I did this so many times until I had enough. Then every pension day I'd buy a bag of polished river pebbles and put them on top. It was very satisfying to see the reader just flip the top instead of digging to China.
Now I have a new meter which they put in without notifying me which is below ground level so I'm out raking dirt and pebbles before Eric the Mower takes his eye out and finding my precious river rocks. I was not a happy camper and honestly I can't be bothered going through the crap with SE water complaints.
 I nearly fell over so many times because I can't kneel so it's all bending from the hips and does the head go woozy after 30 mins of that. So I have half a bucket of pebbles and bluestone around the water meter, several homeless spiders and a one eared pig.
The concrete pig, I know you're wondering.  Count Creepula's brilliant idea to buy a concrete animal corresponding to the current Chinese New Year animal went on for quite a few years and then I inherited my mother's concrete collection of gnomes and assorted beings so the yard is a minefield when the grass grows long.  Fortunately Eric the Mower knows where they're all hidden.

Two mysteries

Yesterday I received an email from a nice bank security site that asked me for my details to ensure that I wasn't being hacked.  Okay so that was easy to suss out and delete.
The next one took me a while.  A phone call purporting to be from Telstra telling me that because I was an excellent payer of my bills I was going to get a discount.  Need I tell you that it sounded like the Peter Sellers Memorial call centre.  They weren't asking me to change from Telstra which is why is took some time to get suspicious and even now, I might be wrong.  The discounts sounded great apart from the fact that I don't make STD calls even capped at 90c.  But they had my phone number, my 2nd right name and address (SE water has the 1st right name) and asked for my birthdate as confirmation, no problems as every company I deal with does that.  After complimenting me on not sounding as though I was born in l948 (never getting a webcam, never) she asked for my ABN for the business I was running.  No ABN, so to get this wonderful discount, could I give them my pension card number.  By this time I was getting a bit stroppy about how much information Telstra had but was asking to be verified and the pension number was the last straw. I yelled and was handed over to a supervisor who was also told that I do not give out my pension number or my credit card number over the phone.
The supervisor was tough, she kept going on about the wonderful discount if only I would hand over that number.  The yelling got louder on my end and I won by hanging up but I did say thank you first.
I thought about ringing Telstra and asking if there was a wonderful discount but with my luck I'd be straight through to the PSMCC.

There was a third mystery involving a deceased black bird under the apple tree. There are no cats around, I didn't think a possum would beat a bird, the ravens just scare them away so how did Blackie die?
I was watching the lorikeets in the apple tree this morning, it's right outside the back door, no more than the footpath away.  I only keep the tree and its wormy apples for the birds, keep it cut flat on the house side but let it run wild on the lawn side. They all crowd under it when it's screaming hot.  So, I'm watching the upside down bird munching away in the tree while under are pigeons, black birds and mynahs eating seed or bathing in the drinking water, little sods.  The up bird munches through a vital holding twig and down comes the apple and misses a pigeon by a bee's appendage. All the others took off for the rotary line but I think lucky was a bit wonky from the shockwave and just stood there looking at the apple (or possibly an avian Newton pondering gravity) while Lorikeet moved up to the next level apple.
So it's possible that's how Blackie was topped.

You'll have to wait a bit..

I announce the arrival of a digital camera in the house.
This morning I photographed my first bird in the apple tree and it was a lorrikeet.
The second photo was much better when I discovered the telephoto lens and I could actually see the bird in the leaves scoffing an apple.
I managed to get the charger assembled, yes, only two parts but it took the best part of an hour to read instructions and follow.
I'm getting used to holding the camera still and not waving it all over the place but being short sighted I have to put my glasses on top of my head to see what I'm looking at through the view thingy.
Now I have a grand total of one image of mother and 3 images of a bird and 4 deleted of me.
I have to load the software so I can load the images and that should take about a month.
Honestly would it kill manufacturers to paint the teeny tiny icons in white so I can see what I'm supposed to do.
The camera is a lovely bright red so I can't lose it, unfortunately the mobile is also bright red so I can't lose it.  I do see some confusion in the future.
The salesperson was very helpful when I showed him my 7 year old mobile phone and told him I was still carrying the instructions and I wanted a camera for dummies. He put the battery and the memory card in the camera, very slowly so I could follow him.  That really was a help since I now can't figure out how to get the bottom open. I had enough trouble with the cover over the charging doover.

So I still have 12 exposures on the big camera from last year and I'll use them up for old times sake then store it with its instruction book which I started to read. Well who knew that odd little piece on the end of the plastic bit on the strap was to put in the hole on top to rewind the film. I just used to keep clicking until the film gave up and rewound itself.  11 years to find that out.  You could be waiting a long time for a digital post around here.

Wowie!

It seems the sun chucked a wobbly last week and earth copped the fallout of electrons, protons and ions.
Most of the cloud passed over us but the magnetosphere managed to get a share and in the high northern latitudes had a spectacular showing of auroras.


This image was taken above Grotfjord, Norway by Bjorn Jorgens.


A more powerful solar flare occurred yesterday so we'll have more brilliant photographs in the next week.

I just had to share.

Remember that nice little Burmese glass fairy light that no-one else liked except me?
This is just as sweet and would look lovely in an entrance hall. The soft light reflected back is very kind to old skin, wrinkles and sagging everything else.
The only drawback are the colours which are the Burmese glass colours but too, too pink.
See how easy it is to stuff up something so gorgeous.

By the way, a sea-going world cruise is off the Bucket List.

Meet me whale mate

Another ' what is it' moment but honestly don't click and enlarge.

It's the vertebrae of a basking shark.  They've been overfished thanks to their highly valued fins and are now on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. They don't reproduce quickly, having low fertility, are slow growing, long lived but slow to mature.

This is what a basking shark does best.  Lazes at the surface of the sea with mouth  (what a north and south it is)  open, filter feeding on zooplankton. In one hour they can filter enough water to fill an Olympic-size swimmig pool.


They are the second largest fish behind whale sharks but not much is known about their habits. Pregnant females and and young have never been spotted and they disappear for half the year. Scientists have tagged them but since they live for 50 years or more and the tags fall off after a year, it's hard to follow their migration patterns.

Which is where this section of vertebrae comes in.  Like tree rings, the vertebrae consists of distinct layers of tissue laid down sequentially over an individual's life time in an alternating light/dark banding pattern.  Using vertebrae from sharks that have stranded on beaches, scientists are looking for a radioactive isotope from nuclear bomb blasts set off in the l950s. the residue which fell all over us and the ocean.  Different areas of the ocean have different ratios of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes so when overlain on a map of the ocean, they create distinct isotope patches and when the whales eat the plankton in these patches it shows up in the layers and in time will enable scientists to map their migration pathways.
Knowing where and when they go will help form a plan of conservation that will also help whale sharks and great whites thanks to the research of Li Ling Hamady.

As you can see in this map, colour variations represent different ratios of nitrogen isotopes in the ocean.

Burmese Glass

The beautiful shading of Burmese Glass is something glorious.  Queen Victoria is credited with naming this as it reminded her of a sunset in Burma.  Antique ware is rare but Fenton Glass is still manufacturing items.  The surface was finished with acid giving it a satin look.

This lovely vase was manufactured by the Mt. Washington Glass Company of Massachusetts which introduced the line in 1885 and produced it for about 10 years.

The addition of calcium based minerals such as fluorospar and feldspar made the glass opaque then a small amount of gold was added for the top pink portion.  A moderate amount of uranium oxide was used to produce the soft yellow tone.  This is a Webb mother of pearl finish with a painted overlay

This vase is similar but is called Peachblow, the bottom is pink to red at the top and is not satin finished. It has a raised gold painted overlay.

This has to be my favourite.  Burmese glass was used for fairy lights and they are still being produced.  This is an example of late Victorian work and I really want this on my dressing table. The soft glow of a tealight candle would show up the hand painted butterfly to perfection. The delicate colour of the fluted edge is just me.

Slaving at the Home

I am so tired I could sing "ole Man River" and sound like Paul Robeson.  
How can a woman in a wheel chair collect so much junk that it filled two candy striped bags from the $2 Emporium?
She just looked at me and said I didn't put it up there, up there being the topmost cupboard which is above the clothes wardrobe.
I tidied all the clothes last week and the drawers. I put her heavy winter things in a garbage bag and put it on the floor of the wardrobe after taking one look at the top cupboard where  several plastic bags of clothes threatened to fall on my head.
So I go down today armed with four bags to pack her clothes neatly until next winter and it looks like there will be a next winter. I tell you this woman will outlast cockroaches. 
There are only two small bags of clothes and night dresses, the light ones she feels too cold to wear.  I'm hoping the nighties will fit my lardarse in which case I won't have to break into the emergency 'going to hospital' brand new nightdresses.
The rest of the space was taken up by an empty box that the cd player came in. A plastic bag full of books belonging to Gail who'd like them back but it's been over a year since her ma raced up that stairway to paradise and she hasn't been seen.  But just in case I put them in the bookcase library. I'm glad they didn't fall on my head, damned heavy trying to get them out from the back of the stupid deep cupboard.
Then two lots of lace in bags.  She'd gone through all that lace I'd taken down for the activities room two years ago and why?  She hid them up there because they were her favourite pieces and she didn't want to share.
Also on the heavy side, 3 parcels of Christmas cards, envelopes (I don't have any envelopes, can you bring me some etc....)and Christmas stickers (expensive ones).
Of course she didn't put them up there, she got one of her lackeys to do it.
They're home now, ready to be put with the rest of the dresses she'll never wear again but isn't quite ready to part with yet.  My sister would throw them out but I can't, I remember where we bought the material and what I usually bought in the jewellery line to go on them.
I'll go through the cards, throw out the really crappy ones, cut up the good ones and put them in the Christmas box for next card season.  
You see how my year has progressed to next Christmas already. Still if I don't do it now, I'll have to at some stage.
No, I haven't finished the Christmas brooch tree.
No, I haven't finished or started the gold crackling on the frame for the tree.


Speaking of cockroaches, we were way up there, somewhere. There was a huge one in the  BOH's room and I was going to shove the critter in one of his work sneakers to see if they really could survive anything but I took pity on him and threw him out the front door for the magpies to chase. He was a biggun and so's the huntsman that's disappeared from his usual corner.  I swear on New Year's Eve I had a tribe of possums sitting on the roof watching the fireworks and being very merry considering the noise of kerthumping over the tiles for an hour.
I've seen a brochure for a round the world cruise, $35,000.00, it would be worth the mortgage and I wouldn't even set one foot to the ground in any country where there were people.
Oh, and I thought I might take up Scuba lessons but then I thought of me in a wet suit. The headlines, "Unusual whale sighted off Mentone Beach.  Scientists baffled! Aussie Disposals rushed for harpoons."  


Life is like a box of chocolates especially if the box is full of empty wrappers. 

Glass Pretties

I have had so much trouble dragging my brain into 2012 so I'm making an effort to post a teaser subject. I had to read about these so look and learn.

They are from the period 1850 - 1910.  Pretty aren't they, gorgeous colours and I bet you can't tell me what they are. You couldn't because I didn't know and I'm rooly smart.
These glass balls with a handle length neck and fragile walls were filled with a chemical, carbon tetrachloride or an ammonia/salt water solution and, wait for it, were an early form of fire extinguisher.

These fire grenades were mounted on walls in homes, hotels, schools and churches.  Thrown at a burning area, they would break and the chemical would eliminate any oxygen, albeit briefly, to help extinguish the flames.

The most common shape were balls about 6 inches in diameter and were fluted, quilted, diamond patterned or embossed with the makers name.  The colours were beautiful, cobalt blue, green, amber, clear or ruby red.
They went the way of the dinosaurs when hose style fire extinguishers took over in the early 1900's.  Much more effective but not quite as pretty.
Now I have to find a title that won't bring budding terrorists to the blog looking for grenades.

One last ChrisPic

Here we go, just one last Christmas Picture and only because if the weather bureau is correct, then for the next few days we're all going to want to be plonked on an iceberg with the penguins.


Me Mam doesn't want me to be wandering around in the hot sun so I get to stay home with the air-con and read the extremely expensive book I indulged myself for Christmas. I've only flicked through it so far but Boucheron makes lovely jools and a sneak through their archives shows who bought and re-sold what and for whom.  All the 'Grande Horizontals' of the Fin de Siecle were customers of Boucheron and I was surprised by how many of them survived well into the 20th Century.  La Belle Otero and Liane de Pougy were courtesans and great rivals in men and jewellery.  Liane heard that Otero intended to dine at Maxim's wearing every jewell she possessed. She allowed La Belle to arrive then entered wearing a simple white dress without a single ornament, but followed by her maid, who, according to which version you like, was bowed down by a burden of diamonds or carrying a large cushion of  Madame's jewells.  Such a grand putdown almost as good as the swipe to the Duchess of Windsor, who put on a show of her latest emeralds only to hear a Maharani comment that she had been wearing those gems on her ankles only months before.  They were returned to the jeweller the next day.  


So I had another day at the Home where I picked up the escapee twice when he fell, called the bingo and had my suggestion of a small jumble sale hailed as good fun. It will be combined with a sausage sizzle, a car boot sale and  no doubt I will bring home more than I take down. It's all very well to have a Pink Ribbon afternoon for charity but not when the Activities fund is down to its last $50. Fortunately it's now looking a bit more healthy with sales of Coppy brooches going like the clappers. 


I have booze, dvds and San Churro chocs for tomorrow night and just me alone with myself, the perfect New Year's Eve.

It's all go at The Home.

I've just arrived home from a quick dash to Harris Scarfe for the BOH's Christmas present.
A set of scales that tell you everything including how many calories you need to keep your present weight or lose weight, $169.00 reduced to $49.95. Bargain.


I've been at the Home for the post Boxing Day BBQ.  I have to say that the new head girl has a real team leader spirit and everything event that I dreaded having to go to has been a blast.  The staff did all the cooking today, sausages, chops, hamburgers and garlic and herb bread. The sweets were out of this world, trifle made with sponge and crushed strawberries, chocolate ripple cake, fruit salad and one of the nurses husbands turned up with an enormous fresh chocolate cakes with strawberries on top. And icy cold Cascade light beer and wine.  But best of all, laughter, lots of it.  Something that's been missing for a while and I'm sure it had nothing to do with most of them being half pissed.


If this is my mother's last Christmas, it's been a beauty.


And no, I'm not taking my BGL until the New Year.  I would like to enjoy the last days of 2011.