image dump (warning: disturbing/annoying objects present)

[Perelandra]

Baronne Alice de Rothschild

A variety found in the gardens of the Rothschild estate at Hyeres in southern France. Name after Lady Alice Rothschild by one of her gardeners. It was said that the lawns of the villa were planted with thousands of violets. Large blue flowers with long petals, and long stems.

Rare and interesting flowers. I have some in my garden and can't wait until spring for planting and such. I really don't enjoy winter.
Merry Christmas, everyone!

[Penguin]

Baronne Alice de Rothschild

A variety found in the gardens of the Rothschild estate at Hyeres in southern France. Name after Lady Alice Rothschild by one of her gardeners. It was said that the lawns of the villa were planted with thousands of violets. Large blue flowers with long petals, and long stems.

Sigh...When will flowers be named after not the rich person employing the gardener, but after the lovingly toiling gardener herself...

[OP ED]

Baronne Alice de Rothschild

A variety found in the gardens of the Rothschild estate at Hyeres in southern France. Name after Lady Alice Rothschild by one of her gardeners. It was said that the lawns of the villa were planted with thousands of violets. Large blue flowers with long petals, and long stems.

Sigh...When will flowers be named after not the rich person employing the gardener, but after the lovingly toiling gardener herself...

after Jesus comes again?

[Penguin]

Actually, I was more thinking of a book by one of my favourite scifi authors, Jack Vance. The book is "Emphyrio" -

Plot summary

Ghyl Tarvoke grows up on the planet Halma with his father Amiante. Their people are ruled by two hundred lords whose forefathers arrived 1500 years earlier and rebuilt a world devastated by many wars. In return, they were granted a 1% tax. Later, all mass manufacturing was outlawed and the people became artisans, selling their handmade work to a single company controlled by the lords. Amiante is a master woodcarver and his son follows in his trade.

When he is eight, Ghyl attends a puppet show; part of the entertainment is the traditional drama of Emphyrio, a legendary hero. The proprietor points out a young girl in the audience and informs the boy that she is the daughter of a lord. Some time later, he and a friend sneak aboard a space yacht out of curiosity and are caught by the same girl. She has them beaten and thrown out.

As time passes, Ghyl comes to realize that his father is dissatisfied with the constraints of their society. Twice, Amiante is caught by the authorities illegally duplicating ancient documents; the second time, he is taken away for four days. Soon after his release, he passes away.

A few years later, Ghyl goes to a ball and encounters the girl, now an appealingly attractive woman, for the third time and finally learns her name, Shanne. That night, they become lovers. But she tells him that she is leaving soon to travel to the stars.

An acquaintance persuades Ghyl and three other friends to hijack a space yacht and hold the passengers for ransom. The scheme is only made possible because Ghyl knows the departure date and the particular ship (the same one he sneaked aboard years before) that Shanne is leaving on. However, no ransom is forthcoming. When Ghyl wants to release their captives, there is violent opposition, resulting in several deaths. In the end, they reach an uneasy compromise: Ghyl is left on a planet with the lords, while the rest take the ship.

Ghyl guides his charges to civilization, but notices their odd behavior along the way. He then slips away before they have him arrested. By chance, he sees one of his father's works in a shop. He discovers that it is a reproduction; the priceless original is in a museum. He talks the shop owner into a venture to buy artwork on Halma for more than the pittance the lords pay.

However, for some reason, no one is willing to sell to him. Then, though disguised, he is recognized and sentenced to death for his earlier crimes. Escaping a horrible execution undetected, he steals the best works from a warehouse, takes his cargo to Earth and sells it for a fortune.

While there, he visits the Historical Institute and learns the true history of his homeworld. The alien Damarans were forced to abandon Halma by spacefaring invaders. They found refuge on its moon and eventually struck back with warriors they had bred, but by then their enemy had departed and humans had arrived. Emphyrio attempted to negotiate peace, but was killed by the Damarans. However, the warriors listened to his message and stopped fighting, forcing the Damarans to resort to other means.

Ghyl visits the Damaran moon and locates Emphyrio's execution place. Seeing the Damarans firsthand, he deduces something of monumental importance. He goes to see the head of the lords on Halma and threatens to broadcast the truth about their relationship with the Damarans. With this leverage, he forces them to leave Halmas. Soon afterwards, a human fleet lands on the Damaran moon and extracts payment for centuries of unwitting slavery.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emphyrio

[OP ED]

[OP ED]

never read that one, penguin. tho' i know Vance. read the Demon Princes stuff years ago.

[Penguin]

I found Vance by happenstance..His books have rarely been translated to finnish, there are maybe a novel and some short stories...anyway, I had heard of the name, but had chanced just one translated short story.

Its a pretty summer day, Im walking home and pass a small book store. Whadda ya know, he is selling off old scifi books in english for 3 marks a piece on the street side (one euro is six marks, so thatd be 50 cents a piece). I rummage thru the pile and take 10 Vance books, and a few Asimov collections to boot. I go inside and ask why he is selling them all out - he says that 20 years ago when he started the shop, he was young and naive, and thought that of course everyone wants to buy good scifi paperbacks. Haha. He said nobody had ever bought a single one of them
I asked if itd be alright to come back the next day to get the pile, and it worked out.

[zhivkov]

Perelandra, OP ED, Penguin and everyone-just wanted to stop in and wish all of you a beautiful and inspiring 2009-havent had a chance to look at all of the new thoughts yet-i do like Vance although havent read that many of his books-i did steal Perelandras flowers and some other images-i spent xmas day curled up in agony in my bed-this has been the most unseason season i have ever been through-but i think i am very deserving of my fate-whereas i do not think a lot of other folks are-i will try to come back later if connection holds-just wanted to post the new year thoughts b4 my virus addled brain forgets-sorry for all of my sexual commentating-do not know wtf is wrong with me sometimes-peace and love-Z

[Perelandra]

[OP ED]

time to go start drinking. see y'all next year.

[Perelandra]

For a Ladies's Magazine
c 1970

Dear is my family,
dear my home,
and yet
I like to leave
at times
my tended garden, trimly hedged,
to watch unruly things that grow
and go and tramp alone
to watch the violet
in deep of woods
unplanned
and rest my head upon moist weeds,
disown all wordly cares.
And, as I do,
at level with my eyes I see
around the violet there is
dogshit
which would be alright, too,
except a war is coming
and I have no place to hide
my children

- Arlen Wilson

[OP ED]

*drinks*

[Perelandra]

Happy New Year, crazy ones! I don't identify with this calender stuff, but whatever, any excuse for a party. Wishing love and peace and health to all.

[zhivkov]

Happy New Year to you all from Arizona! I think it has been 2009 for about 20 minutes now here. Not drinking but enjoying the feeling of being chemically sedated-by pillz-if the virus is not going to be my downfall the pills certainly will I wish all of you a wonderful New Year to come and many more after that-I generally agree about the thoughts of calendar dates being arbitrary and meaningless-but I have found the calendar to be usefull in thinking about eras of time and even eras in my life and people I know lives. Thanks for the lovely images Perelandra OE and everyone-enjoyed the thing from the ladies mag also. Peace and love-Z
this is kind of off topic and about nothing-but whatever do i post that isnt? this is the first year since i have lived in this complex that i havent even heard one firecracker go off-have lived here 4 and a half yrs-it just got me to thinking many more folks in AZ and elsewhere may be melancholy-troubled-not in the mood to celebrate as i also have not noticed even half of the holiday lights as in the past-but my hiv case mgr told me that Az is behind only one other state being hit economically-and he should know as he deals with a huge cross section of socio-economic folks lives-the state he mentioned that we were behind suprised me tho-he said it was Rhode Island- i had thought he was going to say Calif-maybe he meant as far as state med funding for emergenicies or something.

[OP ED]

blonde girl dances with my aunt. she was very aggressive. i almost went with her.

below, pictures of my cousin's band. he is on the right. they were good.