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Sunday, August 3. 2008

I just want to share something nice with you

I suppose that you know what the word, “serendipity” means. It‘s the ability to find something good without looking for it (or while looking for something else). I guess you could say that it‘s related to synchronicities – except that sychronicities do not always result in something good.

 

Anyway, I really love it when things happen serendipitously – it‘s like getting a present and it‘s not even my birthday (or Christmas or whatever...). 

 

When I was in Vienna in June, my SO, my grandson, and I had taken the train home from an afternoon outing. Just outside the train station, a charitable organization had a table full of used books that they were selling to earn money to help support the homeless.

Of course, we stopped and looked and you might argue that it doesn‘t really fulfill the definition of serendipity because we were indeed looking for books, but I certainly didn‘t expect to find such a little treasure! My SO found it and just held it out to me – a small book (only 4 1/4 x 6 inches/ approx. 11 x 15 cm), with only 36 pages and practically no text. It was called “Österreichs Trachtenbüchlein” (Austrian National Costumes), printed by Pinguin Verlag in 1954 and it contained 18 color illustrations, hand-painted by Maria Rehm (I googled her – Austrian painter and illustrator, born 1915 and died 2002). The figures in the paintings aren‘t just standing there, they‘re dancing! Some times kicking up their heels and sometimes sedately promenading. The details are delightful – different “knit” patterns on the knee socks, laces, pleats and gathers, etc. etc. It‘s so much fun to pick up this lovely little book time and again – and discover something new each time.

 

I thought that you might enjoy seeing a few of the illustrations also.

 

 

 

Here's the cover. You can probably understand why SO thought I might be

interested.

 

 

 

Inside the front cover is this map of Austria. Good for seeing what part

of the country the traditional costumes come from, but also for understanding

Austria's place in Europe. Back in 1954 it had 6 neighbors and was off

on the eastern edge of West Europe. Now things in Europe have relaxed considerably

and Austria is right in the middle, so to speak. 

 

 

This couple is from Vorarlberg (the farthest west, on the border to Switzerland).

 

 

 

The couple on the left are also from Vorarlberg, while the couple on the

right are from Tyrol (the Inn valley) – look at her ribbons fly!

 

 

 

They are also from Tyrol, but from the valley of the Ötz. Notice the sock patterns,

embroidery, etc. 

 

 

And here is a couple from South Tyrol, which is now a part of Italy.

 

 

 

Burgenland is in the far east, on the border to Hungary, so this pair

looks much different – no more Alpine influence.

 

And this ends my little selection. I hope you enjoyed these illustrations as much as I do! 

Written by Mary at 22:18 in Synchronicities and such
Comments (1)

Tuesday, July 8. 2008

It happened again!

I don't believe it! It happened again! Something that I couldn't do on purpose if I tried a thousand times! (I seem to be using a lot of exclamation marks...!)

Every morning when I get up, the first thing I do is make myself a pot of tea. Then I start work (computer – translating, website, etc.) and drink my tea while I work. I have the teapot sitting on a tea warmer – a glass base which holds a small candle (a tealight, as a matter of fact) – to keep my tea warm during the time it takes me to drink all the tea.

This morning, the little candle went out, and I wanted to re-light it. I lifted the teapot off the tea warmer, got out a match, and struck it.... maybe a little over-enthusiastically, because the head of the match broke off....and (get ready...) flew right into the spout of the teapot! And into my tea, of course.

The spout of the teapot has a diameter of roughly 1/2 inch (or 1.5 cm). Just think how many things had to be just right for the match head to fly into the spout!

Is there a lesson to be learned here? Not really. It's just that these synchronicities fascinate me! 

Written by Mary at 08:50 in Synchronicities and such
Comments (0)

It happened again!

I don't believe it! It happened again! Something that I couldn't do on purpose if I tried a thousand times! (I seem to be using a lot of exclamation marks...!)

Every morning when I get up, the first thing I do is make myself a pot of tea. Then I start work (computer – translating, website, etc.) and drink my tea while I work. I have the teapot sitting on a tea warmer – a glass base which holds a small candle (a tealight, as a matter of fact) – to keep my tea warm during the time it takes me to drink all the tea.

This morning, the little candle went out, and I wanted to re-light it. I lifted the teapot off the tea warmer, got out a match, and struck it.... maybe a little over-enthusiastically, because the head of the match broke off....and (get ready...) flew right into the spout of the teapot! And into my tea, of course.

The spout of the teapot has a diameter of roughly 1/2 inch (or 1.5 cm). Just think how many things had to be just right for the match head to fly into the spout!

Is there a lesson to be learned here? Not really. It's just that these synchronicities fascinate me! 

Written by Mary at 08:50 in Synchronicities and such
Comments (0)

Sunday, April 20. 2008

Synchronicities, coincidences, and such

My dad (87 years old) calls them synchronicities and says that they will be the end of him. What he is referring to is something that all of us experience at some time or another. One of his favorite examples is: He is driving along a lonely county road. No other cars in sight. The road narrows to a small bridge...and here is where he and the only car to be driving in the opposite direction end up meeting – where it causes the most trouble for both of them! My dad claims that it happens more often than can be just explained by the law of averages. I suggest that it‘s these incidents that he remembers the most – but so far I haven‘t been able to convince him.

 

Here‘s another of my dad‘s examples: He likes to have a pencil always at hand, so he has one or more in the breast pocket of his shirt. He often goes to a hardware store and when he‘s there, he‘ll check what new equipment they have in stock. On one such hardware store visit, he was looking more closely at a wood chipper or some such gardening machine. He bent over to look at something on the inside of the chipper, the pencil fell out of his shirt pocket and into the chipper. But not just into the chipper – into the narrow space between the inner and outer walls of the chipper so that it was impossible to just reach in and retrieve his pencil. I can hear him now. “If I had tried to drop a pencil into that narrow space, it would have been impossible!“ I don‘t remember how he got the pencil out...possibly the chipper had to be partially disassembled.

 

And now I have a good story to add to my dad‘s collection. I have a porcelain nail file. The file itself has a plastic handle and since the file is porcelain, it‘s breakable, so it has a tightly fitting plastic cap to protect the file. When I say “tightly fitting”, I mean, you can hold the plastic cap and the nail file will not slip out. When you put the cap on the nail file, it clicks in place. The nail file “lives” in an open basket on a shallow shelf in my bathroom – the shelf is directly across from the toilet and about 2 feet from the toilet (it‘s a small bathroom). The other day, I wanted to file my nails. I reached for the nail file, but inadvertently knocked it out of the basket. It landed on the (tile) floor, handle-end down. When the file landed, the force of the impact made the protective cap fly off. The cap flew up and in an arc, over the toilet, and hit the wall behind the toilet. It bounced off the wall and slid from behind into the small crack at the back of the toilet lid (the lid was closed), and – into the toilet! And then that fraction of a second before I really grasped what had just happened. Give me a break! How many things had to be just right (or just wrong) for that to happen? I could hardly wait to tell my father!

Written by Mary at 23:30 in Synchronicities and such
Comments (2)