I Wish You a Happy Water Dragon Year!

Dragons, printed on cloth after a gouache painting,
inspired by an ancient Chinese vessel

And may the dragon be a symbol for strength, beauty and spiritual growth. In Asia, it is a positive symbol, not the incarnated evil, but a natural force that arises in early spring. The Chinese celebrate the New Year in these days; the Tibetan calendar sees the 22 of February as the beginning of the Water Dragon year. In this article there are some very interesting and helpful remarks on astrology in general. See it with a huge portion of sensible and critical understanding. Most of it is what we make of it.
When I started doing needlework again a few years ago, I did so because being too much on the internet and reading each and every site on conspiracy theories wasn't doing my soul any good. True or not -- I decided not to decide, but feed my mind with issues I experienced to be positive. I worked on a cosy and colorful little world around me. The cushion is part of it.
Curing the world is hardly possible. Doing what we can without neglecting our own welfare has become my solution. Have a time of happiness and well-being!

Fight Censorship

http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/12/13/how-sopa-will-hurt-the-free-web-and-wikipedia/

Off Topic once more: A Birthday Celebration in the Country

 Out in the country, the meadows and fields are so green, you can see we did not have a proper winter yet. We are grateful not to be driving in the ice and snow!  We were heading to the village where my brother lives, to celebrate my sister-in-law's 60th birthday. We had a meal with her aged relatives, even her father was there who is going towards 90. We did some German bowling -- which is different from the American way. It was an old-fashioned inn with a bowling alley still from the 50ies or 60ies, I guess, just with an electronic outfit. This sport is different from what you may know, the bowls are smaller and don't have holes for the fingers. I took a few pictures without a flash, so the motion was visible at a quarter of a second.

My niece's dress looks interesting in the motion of picking up a bowl. In the background, you see Bente on her daddy's arm. It was the very first time I tried, and our team won. Amazing.

Later, we spent the evening in my brother's home, and my grandniece Bente had a good time discovering my ukulele. She is very affectionate to her grandad, my brother.

At 10 pm we launched a few New Year's rockets out in the fields. The neighbour whose house was 200 yards away menaced to call the police, but did not. A day of fun!

Working on a Difficult Issue

Our district parlament holds an hour of commemoration every year. I have a job now: creating a picture show for this ceremony which will be held on Jan 27. It is about the victims of Nazi judiciary. There are almost no photographs of the deserters who ran away from Hitler's war, got caught and were executed. And their families were treated in a scandalous way even after 1945, because too many of the judges were still in charge after the end of the regime. We have a number of records about their death sentences and farewell letters to the families.  So I thought I should arrange a still life as a background. The rest of the backgrounds are landscape pictures of the place where the executions were carried out. It is a moving job.