Colour: Brown

Hi everyone

Welcome back to Evi's blog

Lets go through the photo's this week and see what we have ..

First up we have some yummy Austrian delights. Beautiful heart shaped bickies, with a thick choc coating. Evi makes these bickies at Xmas time, along with all sorts of other goodies. She's brilliant in the kitchen, and really excels at making Austrian sweets.

Next we have a old cane chair, which I happened to scrounge from the local tip. It's been used for all sorts of things, from kids play thing to garden utensil.

Looks like some shrivelled flower heads. I wouldn't hazard a guess as to what type of flowers these are, but I know they were growing along side the veggie patch.

These are some yummy ginger bickies, that Evi has been making for years. Everybody at our place loves them, and they don't tend to last long.

We have some friends who live about 10mins out of Sheffield here, on a property of 85 acres. This photo is of a pair of old "Jotul" heaters, that are ready for restoration or recycling. 

Last we have a cute little mushroom trying to poke it's head out of the snow. Not to sure where this photo was taken. Somewhere in Tassie though, on one of our winter time snow adventures.

Brown can mix into many surroundings. It is a mixture of red, blue and yellow and has many shades and tones - each producing a different effect. 

Brown can be a stabilizing color. The red in brown gives it practical energy while the yellow and blue add mental focus energies. Too much brown can make a dull effect. Brown gives a feeling of solidity, and allows one to stay in the background, unnoticed.

Some shades of brown create a warm, comfortable feeling of wholesomeness, naturalness and dependability.

 Hope you've enjoyed the post this week ..

Love to all

Stuy ..

colour: black

Welcome back to Evi's blog

Black is certainly not my favourite shade, but it has it's uses. Actually, I don't like it at all. It's dark and dreary, and I don't find it uplifting.

But lets have a look at the photo's and see what we have.....

This first photo was one of the traction engines on display at Steamfest, our local show that's put on once a year here in Sheffield. This particular engine is the oldest traction engine in the southern hemisphere, and there is only two in existence worldwide.

Glamour evening wear. Don't know where Evi scrounged this up from, but one would assume it's one of those treasured finds from an Op shop somewhere. She loves hoarding all this sort of stuff.

The organic & sustainable field day at Penguin (Tasmanian north coast), is where these cute little porkers where snapped. From memory, I think there were many snotty little piglets as well. Pigs can be fun, but there messy.

I remember taking this photo on our way down back to Tasmania, from Wauchope NSW. This particular church is in Victoria, and Evi and me took a fancy to it. Can't remember what town it's from. Evi and me really love doing road trips together when we get the chance.

Looks like some elderberries. We have a patch of them growing in our paddock. Don't know what these were used for. The kids in the background are offering all kinds of differing opinions, so I'm totally confused. Just don't know...

An old sewing machine, don't know its age and can't remember where we took this photo. I must say, it looks particularly old.

I'm very familiar with the last photo. This is the unique, and rather appealing "Tassie Barrel Heater". Manufactured by me right here in Sheffield. This heater started life once as an 18gal stainless steel bear barrel. We ship these heaters Australia wide.

Black may make some people think of depression, but it doesn't have to. It's a very dramatic shade; many artists were nothing but black. It can denote mystery, something hidden - or maybe an introvert who's been around crowds to long, could use it to hide from people. In this sense, it can be a very protective shade, but I think in general, most people would consider the shade black to be a very dense, stagnant type of energy.

Thanks for calling in again  !!

Love to all ..  Stuy (the green man)

Lofty heights

 

Another day spent traipsing around alps....... what a dreary life we lead!!!! Anton and I even had to buy new walking shoes so we could be assured of not slipping down some shaley bank! And to top it all off, it was a perfect sunny day with only a hint of breeze....... poor us!!!!

 

 

Okay, seriously now, as you can see by the pic above, we had a fantastic time, high up in the mountains. We headed off for the Lühnersee this morning, first by train, then a big yellow bus. Oh my, the public transport system here is awesome but the places they take these buses is mind boggling! Imagine a large bus and a one lane road that winds up and up through pine forests for a very long way, turning zig zag style all the way. And imagine being the car that meets the bus on one of these tight corners and has to back up a few car lengths and then hug the very edge of the road - no railing, steep drop - while the bus negotiates the bend and powers on to the next! These bus drivers are amazing! In fact all the drivers are amazing and if I remember I'll do a post on the roads and road rules soon!

 

 

Lühnersee - 1970 metres above sea level, of which the last 500 or so was on a cable car again.......four in three days now and I think I may have conquered the fear of heights!!!! The tops of the towering mountains around the See (lake) are all approx 2500mtrs which is a bit staggering for an Aussie who is used to lesser heights! We walked half way round the lake then stopped to laze aroiund in the flower speckled meadow. Theres no grass up here, rather, lots of different herbs and tiny flowers and mum spent some time identifying some that she remembered from her youth on the alm. Sadly, I cant press any to bring home - the grumpy nice man at customs wouldn't like it!!!

 

 

I must point out that while we were lazing around in the 'grass', I was feeling like I was disobeying the rules. In most beautifuul places in Australia, you are not allowed to leave the path, but here, it seems anything goes! One of the very surprising things I've noticed is that lots of people bring their dogs to all sorts of places. Dogs are here, on leash and off, dogs on public transport, dogs in pubs and dogs in restaurants........lots of dogs!

And so it is with leaving the path too - you can sit where ever, walk where ever and not think about disobeying a law somewhere.

 

 

I took a whole heap more flower pics and these blue ones here are Enzian, one of Austria's most favorite alpen blooms along with Edelweiss. Apparently I'd need to climb up those very jagged peaks in the distance to find Edelweiss, but I don't mind missing out on a photo of those!!!!!

 

 

This one is taken from the cable car and shows the narrow hiking track that's an alterrnative to using the cable. There were quite a few hikers crawling up the steep path and the zigzag pattern looked reallly interesting from above. That long grey bit in the background is a very long rock slip made up of mostly smallish rocks. I'd say it gets added to from time to time.

 

Another day over and I'm not sure how many to go......... I'm not counting until closer to the end!

I hope you're enjoying this tour of Austria as much as I'm enjoying bringing it to you!

See you all next time!

 

 

Alm matters

 

This is my lovely nephew, Anton, who came with mum and I to find out a bit about his roots. His father, my brother, died in a tragic accident just before Anton was born, and when mum asked him to come along and meet the Austrian relatives, he said an enthusiastic yes!!

He definitely has mountain blood running in his veins because he's spent most of this week, traipsing along mountain paths and only coming home to download his photos, tell us about his adventures and eat!

 

 

Mind you, he also eats while wandering around and this meal was one he had at an Alm Hut - a large glass of buttermilk, rye bread, two slabs of cheese and a gherkin.

There are little huts all over the mountains. In the mountainous parts of Austria, farming families own various parts of the valley - a house and barn on a bit of ground in the village, a parcel of forest somewhere up on the mountain and an alm, right up above the tree line. The alm is only used in the summer months, usually by one of the women in the family. The cows are taken from the barn where they've been all winter and herded up to the alm, where the 'shepherdess' milks them and makes cheeses for the household. Once a week or so, someone comes to bring supplies up to the alm and take the cheese back down to the farm.

Of course, I'm sure that things have changed in the way the Alm's are used and from what I gather, a lot of them are just used as getaways or as useful places to sell a farm snack to people wandering around the mountains. It's such a shame that the old ways are fast disappearing in this brave new world!

Although I am pleased to see how many people still get around in Austrian national costumes. Especially on the weekends or if there is a festival somwhere, you will see young and old steppingg out in a dirndl or lederhosen. And alot of folk going up to do some hiking in the mountains wear traditional garb too.......

Are you wondering why the farmers land is owned in several different locations? In the steep valleys theres not much room to have all your hectares in one lump and no point having all meadow and no firewood, so it's been sorted out so that all the farmers get a bit of each. I suppose everyone was a farmer and living off the land once, although some would have been more prosperous than others.

All of these gorgeous photos were taken by Anton on his travels around the heights. I haven't yet had a chance to get up and do some wandering but hope to remedy that when we go to Karnten, which is where my dad is from and where I feel most at home. Mum and I have been on three different cable car/gondola rides in the past two days, which is a bit extreme, I know, but she likes to go up and down alot!!!!

Luckily Anton has a bit of flower appreciation going on, and is happy to take pics of them all...... as well as any fat cows he sees......

.......isn't she gorgeous? They are all over the mountain and you can hear their big bells tinkling as you sail over them in the cable car. Which makes me realise that there are obviously many farmers still keeping cows on the alm over the summer. Excellent!

I hope you've enjoyed the flora - I'm having difficulties with this silly Blogsy app that I bought to enable me to blog from the ipad. It's not easy uploading pics and as for cropping, forget it! They will just be as they are! I will try not to let it deter me from posting!!! ;o)

 

colour: violet/purple

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Evi's blog.

Evi's selected a great set of photo's this time round. She loves the camera that I bought for her last Xmas, a Nikon D3100, and just loves flashing it around Europe. Mind you, she hasn't sent me one single photo of her doing something exciting via email yet. Evi, you've been a slacker, most remiss of you, but I know your having just the most fab time of it all. Half your luck !!

Lets run through this weeks photo's and and see what I can make of them.

Looks like we have a beautiful honey bee scrumaging through the flower of a scotch thistle plant. They must be the most dreaded thistle of all. I remember cleaning out half a paddock of them last year.

The next photo looks like sage, but I can't be certain.

Next is the view looking from the rear of our property, out across some loverly green paddocks, and on to Mt Roland in the background. This mountain is 1234m high, and well worth the climb up if you think your feeling fit enough.

One of our great colour parties. L to R we have Shamir, Belz, Nina, Evi & Layla. We love to dress up in colour themes just for the fun of it, and revel around the house having yummy things to eat & drink. With lots of humour thrown in for good measure.

One of Evi's violet cups and teapots.

This photo is obviously some type of plant, but really wouldn't have a clue.

Looks like the flower of a "hearts ease" plant. I think my spellings wrong ??

One of fairy girls favourite dresses

Some beautiful birthday candles, can't remember what we used these ones for.

The most radiant passionfruit flower. Striking, yet peaceful.

Violet is the colour of good judgement. It is the colour of people seeking spiritual fullfilment. It is said, if you surround yourself with violet, you will have peace of mind. Violet is also a good colour to use in meditation.

Put some violet in your life if you want to

Use your imagination to it's fullest

Re-balance your life

Remove obstacles

Calm overactivity, and to re-energise from depression

Hope you've enjoyed the colour violet.

Love to all    Stuy ...   

Shopping dream

Something a little different today. I'll leave the houses, churches and graves for a bit and tell you about the shops instead! And, oh boy, are these shops awesome! You can see in the pic above that the ceiling is curved and it's actually like that in most shops because they are all, right at the bottom of tall old buildings, and I'm guessing the curve must be stronger.

The Old City is amazing indeed! Lots of little streets or lane ways, really, and arched alley ways leading between them all. Some of the cobbled 'streets' are only wide enough for one car and two narrow walkways either side, and theres no curb - its all one level of cobble stones. And everywhere shops! Shops selling designer clothes or real fur coats; shops with upmarket dirndl and lederhosen, the national costume of Austria; tiny corner shops filled with shelves and shelves of local spirits or handmade chocolates; silversmiths, antiques, more chocolate, cowbells, tourist treasures and delicious breads and pastries! I just know I'll be a little rounder on my trip home!!

Every shop is so beautifully presented, there's nothing out of place anywhere and everyone seems to clean and primp their little space to the 'nth degree. Tourists are obviously a huge target but locals hang out here too in the late afternoon, shopping and chatting at the tiny bars dotted everywhere. Alcohol is sold in most shops. The chocolate shop, the corner store, everywhere, you can purchase a bottle of schnapps or a six pack of beer to take home or just a glass and then you can stand outside and drink it. There seems to be a very relaxed feel about alcohol in Austria.

As I was going to say right at the beginning, one of the shops that I explored was a Christmas shop which was primarily filled with baubles! Eggs, wooden cut outs and glass balls covered all the surfaces available and shone like a treasure trove of delights. I was completely awed by it all and can only imagine how a child might feel walking through this wonderland.

Can you imagine living or working in a building that was built in 803AD? Its mind boggling, isn't it? In this case though it's not actually the building that's so old, rather the inside which was carved into the rock on the cliff face and used by the monks of the nearby monastery. I dare say the front is quite an age too!

My nephew and I have whiplash now from craning our necks in an attempt not to miss a single sight!

I'm really not a city chick at all, but must say that Salzburg is a sight not to be missed if you ever get the opportunity to visit. More tomorrow!!!