Here in Perth, Western Australia Spring is finally here and my garden is full of life and all the flowers are in bloom. This is a garden that Dad and I started a few years ago with a lot of hard work digging out a lot of lawn and then mulching as we put plants in. Now it has developed more to have shrubs and succulents, the honeybees native to the area love it and when I went to photograph it today they gathered around me.

It can be seen from our front window of our house and never fails to put a smile on my face and others to see all those flowers nodding in the spring sunshine. It is getting warmer, but still cooler nights prevail at this time of year. We are still having rainy days and then you see all the flowers close up tight to…

Caroline did bake this cake.

It was a good weekend. We had the family visiting with little Lucas. And we received the great news, that in September Lucas is going to have a little sister or brother. How exciting this is for the whole family!

Caroline and Matthew arrived yesterday at lunchtime. This afternoon they left again to go back to Sydney. Yesterday we had Kartoffelsalat (Potato Salad) and Bouletten (Berlin Meat Patties) for lunch. Caroline did bring some cake which she had baked herself.  We had this yesterday for afternoon coffee when Monika came with Mark as well as Troy and Ryan who did bring little Lucas along. Ebony, the newly expectant mum, had stayed at home to have a little bit of a rest.

This is what my plate looked like for lunch, yesterday, 9th February 2014

Caroline, Matthew, Peter and I went for a bit of Supper…

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German Verse by Ludwig Uhland

In the original German with a
line-by-line prose translation in English

Frühlingsglaube	Faith in Spring
von Ludwig Uhland	Prose translation by Hyde Flippo
Die linden Lüfte sind erwacht,	The gentle winds are awakened,
Sie säuseln und wehen Tag und Nacht,	They murmur and waft day and night,
Sie schaffen an allen Enden.	They create in every corner.
O frischer Duft, o neuer Klang!	Oh fresh scent, oh new sound!
Nun, armes Herze, sei nicht bang!	Now, poor dear [heart], fear not!
Nun muss sich alles, alles wenden.	Now everything, everything must change.
Die Welt wird schöner mit jedem Tag,	The world becomes more beautiful with each day,
Man weiß nicht, was noch werden mag,	One does not know what may yet happen,
Das Blühen will nicht enden.	The blooming doesn’t want to end.
Es blüht das fernste, tiefste Tal:	The farthest, deepest valley blooms:

GMO-OMG

Jeremy Seifert (2013)

Film Review

GMO-OMG is an excellent first documentary by a young father on a quest to understand the science of GMO technology and its impact on the environment and human health. The film starts by focusing on the general ignorance of the American public about GMOs. This contrasts markedly with other countries, where popular pressure has led many governments to ban GMOs.

What filmmaker Jeremy Seifert describes, in essence, is the systematic hijacking and poisoning of the US food supply by three companies (DuPont, Monsanto and Syngenta), all without the knowledge of the American people. At present 85% of all corn grown in the US is genetically modified, 91% of all soy and 90% of all beet sugar. In addition, most non-organic meat and dairy products come from animals fed on GMO corn and/or soy.

Seifert first learned about the potential dangers of GMOs due to…