Chatting Over the Garden Fence! :-)

Thanks for the info Dave & Ron.  Fascinating stuff. 

The wasps we have here are much more like the English Hornets and nasty, vicious creatures they are too!  Really know all about it when one of those gets you, although it's not usually one but a squadron!!

We have removed several of them, though we never let them get as big aas the one your showing...you can now buy worker bee hives if your an nurseryman..or have fruit trees...we need the "worker" bee's desparately. I've had so many bee stings growing up and in scouts from time to time...just apply some soda in an water-paste and let it dry, and bruch it off...out will com the stinger...my hubby had an sting that swelled up on him and took his hand into swelling and the doctor thought maybe the bee had been pollinating something with mankind type chemicals in the pollen. I have my two golden bee pins from the Gateway Elks travel club in years past...we use to go on those events and pick up different pins from different lodges..to display on our club jackets.

Jr. Rose Parade went well, 10,000 kids showed up to see it. Was an kind of darkish..but no rain.. an cloud bank hung over the sky in the area....first of the Rose Fleet ships came in, some really big Coast Guard vessels came in today....they are doing the plaza at "Pioneer Square" with it's massive flower display also now...should be done on it by tomarrow I think they said.... Ron you have an picture of it in the book I sent to your kids last year or so ago. BTW...our Bank where we bank is sponsoiring the Parade this year...and I think they did it last year also...we have banked there for well over 32 years. they were one of the "slovant"ones during the banking crisis in our state.

Interesting about the wasp nests, Ron and Dave. I remember my dad taking one down that hung over the washing machine in our cellar. Scared my mother silly when she saw it. We used that same remedy, Shirley, for the stingers. Baking soda has a lot of uses.

Glad the Jr. Rose Parade went well. The Susquehanna River runs through where I live and my city just spent thousands of dollars building a riverfront. In two weeks, they're having the grand opening with boating trips, concerts, Chinese Dragon boats in a flotilla on the river. I hope everyone appreciates it and takes advantage of it, but there are those who feel it was a waste of time and money. I'm hoping my grandsons will be here that weekend and I'll take them. They're having family fishing off the pier. Should be fun for them. I like the food stands myself. I was just thinking about that. Here the food stands at this type of event is generally hot dogs, pizza, funnel cakes, ice cream, sausage and peppers sandwiches, things like that. Now I wonder what types of things are sold at fairs and things in other parts of the world. It does vary within the US, of course, too, depending what part of the country you're in. There's a big Slovak population in my area so potato pancakes, halushki and pigs in the blanket are big items. 

Now I'm hungry from talking about all that:)

Interesting to read about your Parades ladies. 

Our food stands woud be more likely to have hamburgers, hot dogs (with vienna sausages), boerewors rolls, koeksusters, pancakes (sweet and savoury), vetkoek (also sweet and savoury) and toasted sandwiches.

That's so interesting, Cathy, how different it is. Now you've given me some work to do on the Internet unless you want to tell me what all those things are you mentioned, except for the hamburgers and hot dogs, of course, but using vienna sausages is different than we would use. What makes a pancake sweet or savoury?

Just popping in quickly before I start work.  Brenda sweet pancakes are those which you make and then sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on them and roll them up, or add cooked apple slices with the above and roll the pancakes.  Or many people use syrup in the pancakes.  The savoury ones are cooked the same as the ones above but then rolled up with savoury mince or cheese or whatever takes your fancy.  The pancakes I'm talking about are made from a batter which is poured quite thinly into a frying pan and cooked on one side, then flipped over, a filling can be added at this stage or after the cooking is complete.

Boerewors rolls (are like hot dogs) but with a particular type of Afrikaans sausage in it.  Koeksusters are very sweet and are made from a dough and covered in melted sugar (I think - I've never made them!).  Vetkoek is similar to a doughnut mixture and is made into handsized balls, deep fried then filled with jam or minced meat or cheese and onions - all types of fillings.

Sounds good, Cathy. Thanks for telling me.

OK if the is too controvercial, or possibly not family freindly, I don't mind if one of the mods (but not me, of course) deletes it. 

When I saw this picture, submitted by Andrew Marks, I couldn't help but think that this was carved/scupted in a period of time when women were accepted with 'normal' bodies. 

What if this were on the cover of Vogue and a few of the other magazines, especially teen magazines. Would it help the young women (and some of us old ones) to be more accepting of our bodies, than the pictures of paper thin models that 'set the standard' which we're all supposed to reach?

What say you.

Picture by Andrew Marks

Besides the sculpture of Aphrodite (the goddess of love) above nearly every single painting by the "Old Masters" that I have seen, show women with figures like hers.  And I think this was a cultural preference as  it was felt that women with this type of fuller figure were much better able to bear children successfully, an important factor in those days.  It also showed that they were well looked after, they were not going hungry and they were much admired! 

I have found that culturally in Africa the men still much prefer a woman with a fuller figure - for the same reasons as above.  They do not generally want skinny women although because of mass media the younger ones are trying to look leaner and trimmer.

I think it would be a great relief to the vast majority of women if models/actresses/media personalities with fuller figures were seen far more often.  After all the majority of women naturally look like the sculpted lady above not escapees from Ethopia or other disaster zones!