Back to the Sixties in a minute

 

Do you remember the eye-make-up we did in the sixties? I still paint my eyes quite heavily - but I do not use baby-blue powder on the whole eyelid anymore, which will give you an instant sixty-feeling. 

And I do not paint the "Twiggy"-eyelashes (in the corners of the outer edge of the lower eyelid (though I liked it). 

But every day I paint - and love it, whether I am alone or going out. It is like a meditation, looks great, and gives me - together with my daring YSL-lipstick - a feeling of protection. 

"My eyes in shining armour" - to malappropriate a song title from the 

Rolling Stones. 

Wildflower-Bouquet of May

 

I sometimes wonder if I use the right word (bouquet) for the arrangement of a few wildflowers which I gather on my walks. "Bunch" might be more suitable? 

Today you find "A Study in Scarlet": dove or pigeon scabious, lucerne and one soft pink dog rose. 

I'm sorry to say that the photo does not show the many colour values of the lucerne, but as May is almost over in the blink of an eye this has to suffice. 

I opt to make things simpler, thus I decided to put the blog about plants and garden into "You are witty and pretty". 

The love of plants is part of my life, and a joy.  

Decision FOR My Happiness

 

I had to think for a while. Or better: feel. Recover from a (mild) shock. 

Then I came to the conclusion that it would be mad to let one person not only rain on my parade, but stop me doing something I love. 

I talk of writing. 

So I'll take a deep plunge and meet (the rest of) my friends again. 

Happy to meet you! 

(The Pegasus is a photo I took from the window of the Alte Nationalgalerie Berlin; the the open-air bath is in Wantlitz, Brandenburg). 

 

"I've got it, yeah, baby, I've got it!"

 

Well, well, well... For days I was in a position that Yours Truly utterly hates: I was "Anonymous" - even on my own blog! 

"You only see those standing in the light/ Those standing in the dark you do not see"wrote our sociocritical poet Bertolt Brecht. 

Have you ever got the impression that I hate standing in the spotlight? Not me. Even while getting older I do not accept to be overlooked. NO. 

The photo above I took a few days ago - here in the early morning you sometimes see only a wall of fog, and a few tree tops. 

INVISIBLE. Bah! I even asked for help in the community, and they kindly answered - Thank you! - in English - THAT was not the problem, no - my problem was their technical jargon - and honestly: if someone does not know what they EXACTLY mean with a browser you have a problem. Which I had.(Though I know how to help myself and scrolled the Internet, which kindly did not start it's answer with "Dear Idiot"... :-) 

Of course I suspected that "cookies" had something to do with it - I avoid them as the devil avoids the the holy water as we in Germany say while you say: "to avoid something like the plague". 

Well - if you see how many users want your and my cookies... 

Long time ago Son explained: "Mama, you either pay with money or with data". 

But here I do not even have a choice. If I want to be seen. 

So: to be able to communicate with you further, also with  Rachel and others who will have very good reasons to close their blog completely against any anonymous commentator I scatter my cookies all around. 

Here, cookie monster: chick, chick, chick: munch, crumble, gobble! 

Back and almost ready for Easter

 

As you might guess: I spent one wonderful week in the Netherlands. 

Now I have a lot of work to do before I can start blogging again. 

I apologize to all of you for not being able to comment your blogs: I read them, but evidently I muddled something contra Google's wish for data - thus I am kept away from commenting. 

I'll try to fix that. 

Till then: I wish you a Happy Easter time. The little village here is already nicely adorned: 

Posture - or: How To Look Slim, Energetic, Powerful and Younger in a second

Posture.              Well, well, well...   "Stand tall!"  "Sit upright!"  mother reminded us. 

I have to confess that my posture never was Very Good - I am a tall woman, 1,78m, and though I found out that this has many advantages (I could work as a model and now silver model, was not overlooked when I entered a room - very important for a committee or as teacher) - it has also some drawbacks. 

When you are 15 years old you want to be as everybody else - so in my peer group I curved my shoulders. 

A tall girl seldom wants a lover who is shorter than her (though there are exceptions: beautiful Carla Bruni and Monsieur Sarkozy). And though I know that this is very shallow, and found out that in bed the flaw disappears, I wanted to wear kitten heels or High Heels and "look up" (silly again).    

"You" - a dressmaker said to me, " will get problems with your hip if you stand like that!" 

I looked at her and thought "Prattle on!" (I was 15) - and protruded my right hip in the typical model angle - très chic. Today I think: she had a point. No big problems with my hip, thank God, but sometimes I can feel it. 

Walking with the then tiny triplets made my not very good posture even worse. 

So now it is really, really time for action. I read some enlightening books , go to the fitness club, do exercises from Youtube - and try to recall it when I stand up from an armchair WITHOUT using my hands (at least I do not say "Phew!", as some friends of mine have started - "phew" when they sit down and "phew" when they try to get up...) 

"Keeping up appearances" - a dress looks so much nicer when you hold your head up tight (young people nowadays slouch over their cellphone - and their posture is as bad as mine...) 

Your waistline looks so much slimmer when you stand tall. 

And you look younger. Definitely. 

But it takes some effort now.  (Phew!) 

I Feel Overprotected! "Dressing Instructions" for your tights

 

We all will have read about "helicopter parents". 

A difficult balance in a world to protect your child - without making it feel helpless. (I was always a supporter of the maxim "Do not support someone by giving him everyday a fish - better give him an angling rod.") 

Nowadays they pamper us, average adults, with suffocating eagerness. Whining they see problems everywhere - today I read that PETA, animal rights activists, in earnest call for forbidding wooden animals on roundabouts - carousel animals would give children wrong impressions how to treat animals. 

Politicians "care" about what you SHOULD eat. Don't get me wrong: I think it is great to eat healthy vegetables - but you should have heard the rage of German citizenry when our Green politicians wanted to establish a "vegetable day" once a week for all of us. (Sugar or unhealthy fast food has a big lobby -  you don't hear much to protect children on that front, though timid attempts are made to implement a sugar tax - so: I am not against protecting children).

And now I found that dressing instructions for tights. 

Honestly: the triplets, now 4 and a half year old, can put on their tights without those instructions, thank you very much. 

What will they try to "teach us" next???