Have you seen the very first kiss on the silver screen?

Thomas Edison’s movie, The Kiss, was the first to show a kiss on film. The 1896 film is around 47 seconds long, and depicts a re-enactment of the kiss between May Irwin and John Rice from the final scene of the stage musical, The Widow Jones. The film caused a scandalized uproar and occasioned disapproving newspaper editorials and calls for police action in many places where it was shown.
Hmm.
We come a long way..

The New Yorker:

Fragments of postscript: Leo Cullum. Posted by Robert Mankoff:

"The cartoonist Leo Cullum died yesterday, at age sixty-eight. He had a long career with The New Yorker, publishing eight hundred and seventeen cartoons since 1977, and a long career with TWA, where he flew the big jets for thirty-four years.."

"This cat cartoon appeared about a month after 9/11, and in that dour and fearful time Leo showed us that laughter was not only permissible but necessary. He had already led the way with the very first cartoon we published after 9/11:"

"..Leo assured us that, autopilot technology notwithstanding, he never worked on cartoons while airborne. He might have thought of ideas, but he inked his cartoons on layovers in such glamorous locations as Rome, Paris, Rio, and Newark."

"When he retired from flying, the cartoons kept coming from Malibu, California, as wonderful as ever..."
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A great place to spend an afternoon..

..and to have a vegetarian lunch based on fresh produce from Gotland is Leva Kungslador
just south of Visby. It is a great meeting place for any one interested in an ecological lifestyle.
It is beautifully situated in typical old Gotland limestone barns here called "The Kings Barns". I have been going there off and on lately to have lunch with friends in their laidback ambiance.

And to buy their inspiring groceries and produce from the store that smells like I imagine stores used to smell before plastic sealed off the pleasures of sensitivity: spices, freshly stone baked bread, apples, home made soap, candies, honey and candies.

In the eatery there is a library corner filled with books and cosy sofas were you can easily spend a rainy afternoon reading and sipping a mint tea and have a piece of home made cake.

The Barns are also a meeting place for all kinds of functions like lectures, exhibitions, pottery making and alike. And the food - is like a dream! Mmmmm mm.
A visit to Leva - Leva means to live in Swedish - is compulsory for any Visby visitor!

Leva Kungslador

Three sisters..

..came to visit me last Sunday. Three lovely graces. Not any sisters. No.
They all grew up in the house I bought. And came to see the changes the house gradually are going through.

They are all full of laughter and fun and tell me stories about the past - of what happened in the house many years ago, what the garden looked like and how they planted, played and about their parents and grandparents who lived here and about the closely knit relationships of the people of this county where almost all used to be related.

The great thing is that it almost feels like they now include me in their network of relations to carry on the traditions of the house - with some minor alterations and modernisations, of course. I feel quite priviledged to know them!

Fall is now upon us and Sunday night I caught these dramatic skies from my bedroom window..

18/10 is her birthday!

Her very first birthday as a mother. We all wish her a wonderful birthday and new year with her little baby, Isabella! Hip, hip hurray!

Now:

Make a wild guess..

.. who is the master of this lavish mansion?

No, no. It is not the Versailles!

No European Royal palace. At all.

Or an oil baron´s palace in Dubai.

No. Wrong again. Not a Hollywood set for a soap show on "From Rags to Riches"..

The Vinter Palace in St Petersburg? It definitely has a Tzarescan tuch!

The bath of the Maharadja of Jaipur?

The cosy TV-room of the King of Brunei?

No. No. Another continent. Quite unexpectedly.

Neighbours in the same city. Africa. Now you might guess--

I just wonder at what stage megalomania struck Mr. Mugabe, adress: Harare, Zimbabwe?

The President´s Palace in Harare. Anyone uninvited will be shot on even trying to approach it´s vast grounds. Or the very district. Been there. Seen the heavily armed guards..


This Mansion is in Harare and belongs to:

The President of Zimbabwe - Robert Mugabe -

While his people starve, they do not have food, and die because of no medical help . . . .

. . . He and his family live like this . . . his GREED kills his own people, again and again . . . .

A wonderful little device..

..is this little apple (pear-potatoes-beetroot-etc) peeler, slicer and core remover that I just had to buy in view of the thousands of apples which are presently covering the garden grounds!

It was invented by a clever Swedish housewife many years ago..

It is called "Auntie Hulda´s Appleslicer" and is a genious of a gadget!

So simple in its construction and so very effective!

The apple core is removed. Easy as apple pie.

Here she is "Auntie Hulda!"

Apple mousse in the making. En masse! I found the more varieties of apples you add to the mash - the tastier it becomes. I often add a bit of lemon juice as well.

Sunny and beautiful autum days are upon us right now.
Apple days of October.

I love these "before" and " after" pictures..

This was the kitchen in my house in Gotland when I moved in 1,5 years ago.

And tonight I can start cooking in my new kitchen! This part of the kitchen is almost done and made on a shoe string budget with some help from friends! I just love it! And I have a dishwasher! Haven´t had that for ages! So I soil and soil and just waste for the pure pleasure of listening to its´ cosy sounds.. Rinse..clean..dry..yes
(The criterias of happiness sort of alters with age!!)
Tonight I will cook parmesan tortellini with butter fried Sage leaves freshly picked from the garden and.. a glass of good wine to celebrate!

The prettiest of pictures..

A mother and her love.
Lina and her baby, Isabella, September -10.

Walnuts galore!

Today, I harvested my first walnuts!
Which is really something for being in Sweden. Last year this old three in my garden did not render a single nut. But this year the tree is full of the green fruits.

I opened my very first one -and it tasted rather bitter, alas! I of course have nil experince of growing walnuts but a wild guess is they need a bit more time. However, fall is upon us and the nigts are getting frightfully cold so I wonder.. Anyway, I will bring a few nuts indoors to see if they will ripen. Feels a bit exotic though the very thought of picking walnuts up here in the far north.
What I didn´t know was that when picking walnuts: the husks should be handled wearing rubber gloves, to avoid dyeing one's fingers, as the dye does not require a mordant! The palms of my hands are now stained darkbrown and will be for along time! I learnt this too late from Wikipedia from where I got the picture above. Thus, walnut husks are often used to create a rich yellow-brown to dark brown dye that is used for dyeing fabric and for other purposes.
I have come to a point I don´t really know what to do with all the plums this year. Today I picked my 10th basket of these lovely purple fruits. It is difficult to see them rot away there on the ground. So, tonight, Friday night, I´ll divide my time between making plum marmelade and watching Swedish Idol and to browse the internet for any recipe on how to handle those voluptous goodies in alternative ways! Any great hints or ideas anyone?