With the global economic crash predicted to result from the COVID-19 lockdown, the publication of RetroSuburbia earlier this month is a happy coincidence.
This book is based on the premise that our current globalized economic system is inherently unstable. Although the exact mechanism that will topple global capitalism is impossible to predict, Holmgren believes it will most likely relate to one (our more) of the following three crisis points: 1) major resource depletion (oil, water, topsoil, phosphate, collapsed fishstocks, etc); 2) catastrophic climate change; or 3) the collapse of a massive real estate or share market bubble (as occurred in 2008).
Under any of these scenarios, the vast majority of us will experience a reduced standard of living. As jobs disappear and personal income declines, people will have no choice…
“Starting a new website can be a bit overwhelming but we’re here to help! Beginning Monday, April 20th, WordPress.com will host free, 30-minute live webinars to cover those initial questions that come up as you start to build your website. Each day will cover a different topic, all designed to give actionable advice on how to create the type of website you want. ”
“Date: Starts April 20, 2020 and repeats daily Monday thru Friday”
. . . .
I am 85. At my age I am not interested in changing my website. But I put this in here in case one or the other of my readers is interested in following this up.
I want to stress that I am not qualified to give any advice in this regard!
It was great to see the family over Easter. It’s Easter Monday today, another holiday. Today Peter and I are on our own again. We took some pictures yesterday with our lovely eight months old great-grandson Lucas and the whole family while they were at our place. We had Black Forest Cake. Baby Lucas had a taste of it too and liked it! He had his bottle, sitting upright and holding the bottle all by himself. He was keen to finish it right to the last drop!
Peter and I might go for a drive later on. For lunch we are going to have just left-overs from yesterday. We had yesterday a very colourful lunch. Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture of my lunch-plate. However it definitely looked very colourful. There was “Hackbraten” (Meatloaf!) with gravy and champignons, Brussels sprouts, red cabbage and boiled potatoes. Also a glass of beer with it. It’s such a simple meal but everyone liked it. We had Caroline and Matthew for lunch with us. Later on all the others arrived for afternoon coffee and cake and a little welcome drink. We were ten adults plus Baby Lucas. In about two weeks we are going to spend some time with our family in Melbourne.
Our drive to Melbourne in a rented car is going to be a great event for us. We don’t drive straight to Melbourne but have a few overnight stops on the way to see a bit of the country. We are very much looking forward to this.
Peter’s sister Ilse writes this is going to be an unforgettable Easter for them for there’s still snow all over Berlin. The asparagus farmers in the area fear the worst for their crops. It’s just too cold to grow anything. Large parts of Europe are still in the grip of winter. How much they long for warmer days and a bit of sunshine!
We had plenty of chocolate Easter eggs. I helped myself to quite a few and loved them!
A few days later I was able to publish some Easter photos from 2013:
Finally I am able to show you our lovely Black Forest Cake that we had for Easter Sunday. Peter said this morning something about our router being quite old and the modem being even older. So he went today, bought a new modem/router, all in one, connected it and voila, now we can upload pictures again. What a relief!
So for good measure I include now some more pictures from Easter Sunday.
Little Lucas, our baby great-grandson, was allowed a taste of that delicious Black Forest Cake. He loved it and later on licked the spoon! He also loved to drink out of his bottle.
We all love little Lucas very much.
For breakfast I had hard boiled egg with a garnish of salmon.
Here are a few more of Easter Sunday’s pictures which I only just found in the files when I looked a bit more. There is a picture with Grandma Monika in the background holding little Lucas. In one of the other photos you see Ryan, the dad of Lucas. The brother of Ryan is at the table too but cannot be seen properly. Sorry, Troy, that I didn’t catch you properly.
On Saturday, the 2nd of March 2019 Peter and I did walk up to the NAN TIEN GRATITUDE BELL. This bell is being chimed in gratitude for our ancestors. I love the sound of this bell. It travels far across the surrounding country.
The walk was quite exhausting for us oldies. But we enjoyed it. We walked slowly and took frequent rests. Later on we met up with our granddaughter and her friend at the Nan Tien Tea rooms. We were happy that they had come from Newcastle to visit us for the weekend. Son Martin had also come for a weekend visit from Benalla in Victoria and was happy that he could meet up with his daughter.
Saturday night we went for dinner to the Dapto Leagues Club where we met up with our daughter Monika and a lot of her family. The next day, on Sunday, we went with our visitors to the foot of Macquarie Pass for a little walk called the Cascades Walk.
I took this picture while Peter holds my walking stick!
I wrote in a comment on the 12th of March 2019 the following:
. . . to be reminded of our ancestors is always special to us.
A week later, on Sunday (March 10) we had another beautiful day with Caroline, Matthew and Matthew’s Mum. It was a lovely late summer day and we all went to the Port Kembla Swimming Centre. Later on we had a great lunch at our place.
We find that early in the morning it is never too warm to go for a little walk, that is we walk for a little bit every morning before breakfast. I take only about 4 or 5 minutes to walk to my favourite trees in the park behind our complex of villas. Peter and I usually leave our place together. I do walk very slowly just to stretch my legs a bit. Walking back home I can usually walk a bit faster. Peter uses some spray on his tongue that helps his breathing. He aims to walk straight away at a faster pace for 8 minutes. He walks quite a bit faster than I walk. I watch him walking in the park in the distance. On the way back, when he passes me, he calls out (just for fun!) Good Morning! And I call back: Good Morning! The whole park area feels to me very private, meaning even if I owned the whole area, I could not make any better use of it than walking there for a few minutes every morning! These days the sun comes up later and later. So often we miss out on some sun when we walk early in the moring. However, I love the mornings, when the sun does shine through the trees! When daylight saving is finally finished, the sun will be up a little bit earlier again. 🙂
Here is another comment I made on the 12th of March 2019:
. . . we had two beuatiful walks on that weekend, one on Saturday and another one on Sunday. The best thing was that some family took us to these beautiful places. 🙂
Since Peter and I are very elderly, we went at our own pace, while the others could roam about at their much faster pace. 🙂
I think I was very brave last year to venture on this walk with Peter. When I started walking I knew I could not very well have made it as far as to the waterfall. The others were of course much too fast for me. I was grateful that Peter stayed with me. When the others returned, we took a path that goes right back to that large meadow at the entrance. Peter chose then to walk ahead with the others towards the meadow. However I did get some support from a younger very fit person. I think she thought nothing of it giving me a helping hand. I was so grateful for that!
Om the 28th of April 2019 I wrote the following comment: . . .
this map of the world looks great on that wall. Lucas is 6 now and Alexander 4. We had not been to their place for a while. Usually they come to see us when there is a family get-together. Often birthdays are celebrated at a different venue as for instance at a club. Little Carter is 2 and is going to have a little sister in September! 🙂
Lucas and Alex live in Unanderra on a very steep property. When I climb up there, I have to be very careful not to slip, especially on the steep drive-way. But with my walking stick and someone supporting me I am alright. 🙂
The back of the backyard is extremely steep too. I was happy to see that they landscaped it very beautifull now. It has become a vey good play area for the boys! They are lucky to have a great toy-room too. This has always been a toy-room and their two dogs are allowed in that room too when they do not happen to be outside in the back. The family had the two dogs already for many years before the boys came along. I think the dogs are getting pretty old by now, especially Hamish, the little dog. 🙂
The roof with the solar panels, is the roof of th neighbouring property. But their roof also has a lot of solar panels now.
Thursday is the day when Monika takes a day off to look after her grandson Carter. To make up for Thursday she goes to work on Saturdays. Last Thursday Monika took little Carter to see her other grandsons, Lucas and Alexander, who were on Easter holidays already. This is why Peter and I went to see all the boys (our great-grandsons!!) too, for we knew they would be going away with their parents for the Easter weekend.
Lucas and Alexander have two dogs: Kaiser and the smaller dog is Hamish. I think they are both pretty old already.
Ich sagte am April 8, 2015 um 5:22 am :
Es war ein schöner Morgen. Am Nachmittag fand little Lucas bei uns im Garten einige Ostereier. Eine Horde Kinder in Sacramento, Californien, wurde auf eine Wiese gelassen um 500 Tausend Ostereier einzusammeln! Das sollte ein Rekord sein für das Guinness Book of Records! https://auntyuta.com/2015/04/07/easter-egg-hunt-in-california/#comment-
Vom Eise befreit sind Strom und Bäche durch des Frühlings holden belebenden Blick, im Tale grünet Hoffnungsglück; der alte Winter, in seiner Schwäche, zog sich in rauhe Berge zurück…..
Das ist der Anfang des berühmten “Osterspazierganges”, aus Goethes “Faust”, den ich in einem Blog fand.
Nun, ich lebe auf der Südhalbkugel unseres herrlichen Planeten, und da sind nun mal die Jahreszeiten etwas anders. Wir feiern hier, in Australien, Ostern im Herbst. Dürfen wir da eigentlich Ostern, das Fest des Frühlings, feiern?
Ostermorgen von Caspar David Friedrich
Wie dem auch sei, wir feiern die Auferstehung des Jesus von Nazareth, ob wir glauben oder nicht. Man kann sich ja nicht helfen, denn überall werden die Fruchtbarkeitssymbole in Schokolade, angeboten.
Unsere jüngste Tochter kam mit ihrem Partner, frisch vom Pessach Fest, zu Besuch. Der Schlächter hatte ein “Lamm geopfert” und wir bereiteten davon eine Keule für das…
(OMNS February 2, 2020) No matter which hospital a coronavirus patient may seek help from, the question is, Will they be able to leave walking out the front door, or end up being wheeled out the basement backdoor? Prompt administration of intravenous vitamin C, in high doses, can make the difference.
Abundant clinical evidence confirms vitamin C’s effectiveness when used in sufficient quantity.[1]
Physicians have demonstrated the powerful antiviral action of vitamin C for decades.[2]
Specific instructions for intravenous vitamin C
The Japanese College of Intravenous Therapy (JCIT) recommends intravenous vitamin C (IVC) 12.5/25g (12,500 – 25,000 mg) for acute viral infections (influenza, herpes zoster, common cold, rubella, mumps, etc.) and virus mimetic infections (idiopathic sudden hearing loss, Bell’s palsy). In adults, IVC 12.5g is given for early stage illness with mild symptoms…
“The reason for the exploding popularity of vitamin B-17, and thereby bitter almonds, was due to the fact that vitamin B-17 has dramatic and miraculous tumor-killing properties. While alternative medicine has had other effective and non-toxic cancer cures since the 1930’s, this new vitamin really looked like the magic bullet. There were reports everywhere of cancers being killed merely from patients eating bitter almonds daily. Soon there would be almond extract capsules, so that these same patients would only need a cheap, non-toxic pill per day. This did not bode well for the most lucrative segment of the medical industry. Hundreds of billions of dollars were expected to be lost in the oncology market.”
Forbidden Fruits: Whatever Medicinal Foods The F.D.A. Forbids Written by Sarah C. Corriher Category: Reports Published: November 28, 2009 “Drop the almonds! NOW MISTER!” Vitamin B-17, Raw Bitter Almonds, and Apricot Seeds In 2007, bitter almonds were becoming popular throughout alternative medicine for their vitamin B-17 (laetrile) content. Health food stores had stopped selling B-17 in the form of apricot seeds in 2002, due to armed raids. The F.D.A. openly banned apricot seeds and laetrile extracts, because they had been published as a cure for cancer. Curing cancer is illegal in America. The British government followed suit, and did the very same things during 2002. Innocent people in both countries were arrested and wrongfully charged as criminals for merely selling apricot seeds, a carrier of vitamin B-17.
Bitter almonds were later discovered to be the highest source of this vitamin. Vitamin B-17…
This is very interesting:
He explains that “it’s the inflammation sparked by the Coronavirus, not the virus itself, that kills patients. Inflammation causes a condition called Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), which damages the lungs so that patients, suffering fever, fatigue, and the sense that their inner chest is on fire, eventually cannot breathe without the help of a ventilator.”
How about this news: Three US hospitals use of IV vitamin C and other low-cost, readily available drugs cut the death-rate of COVID-19-without the use of ventilators! A press release dated March 30, 2020 stated:
“If you can administer Vitamin C intravenously starting in the Emergency Room and every 6 hours thereafter, while in the hospital, the mortality rate of this disease and the need for mechanical ventilators will likely be greatly reduced,” says Dr. Pierre Kory, the Medical Director of the Trauma and Life Support Center and Chief of the Critical Care Service at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
He explains that it’s the inflammation sparked by the Coronavirus, not the virus itself, that kills patients. Inflammation causes a condition called Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), which damages the lungs so that patients, suffering fever, fatigue, and the sense that their…
Photograph: ‘Andes in a Crystal Ball’ by Luis Ezcurdia. Sourced from Wikimedia Commons. CC-BY-SA-3.0.
On Monday, my day began at 7am, giving feedback on a PhD student’s research proposal and ended some fifteen hours later, when I gave up trying to contact a relative who is locked down alone and I finally managed to calm the insistent panic that they were not ok. They were ok, they just forgot that we had set up a call. Lost track of time.
I learned about the three seasons of the Ancient Egyptian year and the key features of their agricultural production (Year 7 Human Society and Its Environment) and how to design a fair and reliable experiment (Year 7 Science). I reminded my kid to log in to his Google classroom on the hour every hour and perform his virtual attendance, because his school has…
Photograph: ‘Andes in a Crystal Ball’ by Luis Ezcurdia. Sourced from Wikimedia Commons. CC-BY-SA-3.0. 
AuntyUta 