Flowers: Violets

http://floralfridayfoto.blogspot.co.nz/

 

These violets are very bashful. They hide among the leaves. 

Gynura aurantiaca

Purple Passion Plant or Velvet Plant

Botanical Name: Gynura aurantiaca
photo © 2007 Botanischer Garten TU Darmstadt | more info (via: Wylio)
Purple Passion Plant is known for its finely serrated green leaves, densely covered with purple hairs.
The leaf undersides and stems are also hairy, giving the whole plant an iridescent, velvety sheen.

http://floralfridayfoto.blogspot.co.nz/ 

Bottle opener grip

The Easy Grip Jar and Bottle Opener is the perfect kitchen aid for individuals with grasping or upper extremity disabilities or arthritis. The Jar and Bottle opener features a flexible body.

I bought this out of curiosity and found it useful to teach my students simple machines. 


http://rubytuesdaytoo.blogspot.co.nz/

Red: play for red riding hood

http://rubytuesdaytoo.blogspot.co.nz/

Alphabe-Thursday letterA Guacamole avocado dip

Guacamole avocado dip
I am told that avocado has the good kind of fat, so I don't feel guilty eating them.
I also made this Guacamole with the yogurt I made myself.
To add the heat, I put a teaspoon of hot chilli powder and half a chilli.
For crunch, I chop up a quarter of red capsicum aka red pepper or bell pepper.
To taste, I add half a teaspoon of salt and one tablespoon of lemon juice.
You may like to serve your dip in the avocado shells.

Alphabe-Thursday letterA
http://jennymatlock.blogspot.co.nz/search/label/Alphabe-Thursday
 

Flower Echium candicans

Towering purple spires from Echium candicans (the pride of Maderia)
Grows in a small garden where I park my car near my printer 3A. 

http://floralfridayfoto.blogspot.co.nz/ 

Flowers: peony,

http://floralfridayfoto.blogspot.co.nz/


Love peony, China's national flower. My boss gave me a bouquet when I finished a course.

Pennyroyal and fleas.

I bought two plants of Pennyroyal after posting my article on Fleas.

The internet says they will repell fleas. I can't wait.

I am trying to propagate the plant by putting a pot next to it and lie the plant of the soil. The plants grew very well, but after 2 seasons. they dried up.

We didn't get fleas when they were growing.

Cry of Oppressed Women

Cry of oppressed women 妇女的哭泣

 

Published May 2014
www.3a.co.nz
Ann Kit Suet Chin Chan/Chen Jie Xue 我是 陈洁雪

Women face many kinds of oppression through the centuries. The author takes you to a journey of modern day oppression.

This story traces the life of Nadine, a girl born to Indian parents. It embodies the issues of a Kiwi girl, Nadine, growing up in conflicting cultures and getting lost in her environment.

Nadine grows up to overcome her problems to help women who suffered from physical and mental violence, domestic violence, rape, pornography, swinging, incest, bullying, sex with minors, sex slavery and human trafficking.

Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it.

― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind

Ann is the writer of Diary of a Bereaved Mother, Goodbye my baby, From China to Borneo to Beyond, and Mail Order Bride. Indeed each of these books has a soul. Ann gives a voice for the bereaved and the oppressed


I am the writer of:
1: From China to Borneo and beyond. 海外华人的中国魂: 从中国，到南洋，到更远
2: Diary of a Bereaved Mother, Goodbye my baby 丧儿记: 丧失儿子的母亲的一本传记 
3: Mail Order Bride 邮购新娘

Red: souvenir key chains.

http://rubytuesdaytoo.blogspot.co.nz/

http://www.suelovescherries.blogspot.com/

flowers Lavender

http://floralfridayfoto.blogspot.co.nz/

flowers Campanula

http://floralfridayfoto.blogspot.co.nz/

Campanula /kæmˈpæn.juːlə/^[2] is one of several genera in the family Campanulaceae with the common name bellflower. It takes both its common and its scientific name from its bell-shaped flowers—campanula is Latin for "little bell".

My Japanese friends

Welcome to the Stardome.

http://www.stardome.org.nz/
We have our sweet story about the Stardome. Back almost thirty years ago shortly after we were married. We didn't have children or nappies to worry about. We used to go around Auckland driving our Ford Escort. We were at the Stardome one evening, and we met this Japanese lady with her two pre-teen kids.
We said hi, and she thought we were Japanese.  My grand dad would have been proud of my hospitality and we struck up a conversation. They were very trusting when we offered to take them round Auckland. She was a plastic surgeon and was holidaying with her kids. We took them places that the tour  guides would not normally take tourists to.
The next evening, I cooked her dinner of pan fried mullet, steamed rice and veg. She was so pleased as they were tired of Kiwi food. When we took them back to their hotel, she told us to wait at the lobby
She came down with two beautiful dresses, a Japanese silk make-up bag, and two bangles. The dresses are long gone, but I can still remember them and the remarks of my Japanese dresses.
One of the bangle was very unusual, it had some twenty "bangs" join together at the ends. The gold colouring had gone, and I asked a jeweller in Malaysia if he could coat it in gold for it. It proved too expensive, and he said, he won't recommend it.
I still keep them, as a token of our friendship. I have forgotten her face, but I guess she would remember the time when she met this couple who she said," very handsome couple who have no need of her professional services as a plastic surgeon." May be her son and daughter might come back to visit the Stardome and recollect the time they had pan fried mullet in our little apartment.

Red: Gown

It is bereaved mothers' day. I packed my two gowns and a piece of flounce material to Angel Gown last week to be made into gowns for babies who have left before their time. Sent with much love and to the memory of my Andrew.
http://rubytuesdaytoo.blogspot.co.nz/

http://www.suelovescherries.blogspot.com/

You can see in the above photos, the young plantlets have already grown on the stalk itself, and the mother plant is slowly dying.


I re-dedicate this post to my friend E. She is beautiful and strong like this Yucca. You see, I have not met E, but our lives have been intertwined because we are both bereaved mothers of Campomelic children. If my life of having Andrew is tragic, E's is doubly or triply worst.

Who told me that lightning doesn't strike twice? E lost two babies to Campomelic Dysplasia and now she is struck again and is battling with cancer.

E, you are like this Yucca/Agave americana. You will not be beaten.

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/campomelicfamilies/