Remembering......

I know why I blog?!

It all started with THE Diary I got as a Christmas present 'mumble' years ago, almost as soon as I could print capitals....it was a tiny book with a key - all those secret thoughts under lock and key ! Writing all in capitals, it filled up too soon. And more diaries/notebooks came.
Sometime later, say during early 'highschool', I became an author! Yep, wrote prettily about flowers my father photographed. Some of those early 'works' did get printed in "Dr. Eipeldauer's", a reference book for Gardeners.
I remember climbing the alps, not because I really wanted to, but my Dad did, in search of an elusive flower: "Schachbrettblume" - an flower looking like a chessboard with dark and light squares. Naturally, it could be found only in the marshy areas of Austrian mountains of Carinthia, at a certain month in the year.
And in the Himalayas, or so I was told.. and the Himalayas were not in the family's vacation budget. Checking with Wikipedia I find it is called Fritillaria meleagris, and is POISONOUS, all parts of it, especially the bulbs. It is used in medicine (maybe that is one of the reasons I went on to study Medical technology ....not really) and some plant it in gardens.
Being a naturally curious kid, starting at age 10, I spent my whole allowance on stamps.. not to collect, but to correspond with a number of equally curious PENPALS the world over.

Most were Japanese, but there were Swedes, Dutch, a kid from Aden and one from Nigeria, and a couple Germans (my favorite was a freighter first officer-he sent the most interesting postcards from around the globe). There was an American girl, Peggy, later her brother Lowell, who was stationed in Kaiserslautern and eventually met up with me in Munich and came to Vienna to stay at our apartment for a few additional days. And several Canadian boys, too. Heady stuff for a 16 year old!
But the Japanese penpals get the blame! Sending dolls as gifts - those started a collection of dolls in folkloric costume which takes up (and still does) a huge cabinet. And are still being added to when I travel, or friends travel. Ranging in size from 2 inches high to several over 2 feet. And, yes, someone did 'gift' me a couple of some like those hula dolls! Kitsch is in the eye of the beholder! For me, it is the thought that counts...someone had a great vacation but STILL thought about bringing home a gift for a friend, and that I cherish, really do!

So, to paraphrase: Cogito ergo sum... I blog, therefore I am!
A blogger is quite simply the modern world equivalent of an essayist, a diarist and/or profuse letter writer :-) :-)...