My Daily Banana

Banana (Bonanza) Bike

 

 

Photo of the day:

 

Mammutblatt

Detail Mammutblatt

The Mammutblatt flower (on the left)

 

The Mammut Leaf is growing. It's interesting to watch the progress. This week I noticed two flowers forming, I wonder what they look like when they are in full bloom?

 

Word of the day:

derive

To obtain something from, or based on

German: ableiten

 

Name of the day:

Martin

The surname comes from the given name Martin, which comes from the Roman Martis deriving from the Roman God Mars

 

Event of the day:

7th May 1950

West German Chancellor Willy Brandt resigns.

He was toppled by his personal assistant Günter Guillaume who was an East German spy.

 

Willy Brandt

The Knee Fall in Poland

Watch out for friend and fiend.
Guillaume whispering in Brand's ear

 

Birthday of the day:

7th May 1924

George Alexander Martin (GAM)

In a croft in Banffshire, Scotland

Died 11th November 1990

In Perth, Western Australia

George said of his family „We had a ladies football team and I was the referee“. He was the only son of Granny and Grandad, they also had eleven daughters; that’s eleven nagging sisters, it’s no wonder Papa left home so early.

At sixteen he joined the services, too young, fibbing about his age. His services took him in Belgium, where he was an Ack Ack gunner. After the war and meeting Mama on Sylt, he demobbed and went home to Scotland. It was a short stay, because nineteen months later he reenlisted and for the next twenty-four years travelled the world working for first King then from 1953 onward Queen and Country.

Papa at thirty years old with me in his arms

After the short stint in the RAF he couldn’t keep his feat still and moved, with the second family 1972 from Lincoln, England to Perth, Western Australia, where at last he and the family settled down. (The first family Sylvia and yours truly stayed in Lincoln; well Sylvia did I moved to Germany, but that’s another story.)

Papa was a very gentle man, he loved working (a very good craftsman; I inherited this) and a genius gardener.

Papa 1984 in his garden in Singleton.
As you can see there's still a lot to do.

He passed away on the 11th November 1990 due to cancer.

 Learn from his faults, „Please don’t smoke“

Papa as I remember him



Died on this day:

7th May 2013

In Barrington, Illinois, United States

Born 8th October 1924

In Mount Chicago, Illinois, United States

Albert John Fritz

In 1963 he invented the Schwinn Stingray Bike,  also known as a Bonanza Bike or the Banana Bike.

 

Albert John Fritz

The Swinn Stingray Bike

Kids enjoying a ride on their Banana Bikes

 

Cycle ride of the day:

First time this year on my RACER. Thank you Andrea! Thank you Fraser! Without you two and our challenge I wouldn’t be so far. I swore to myself, I’m on that bicycle first when I weigh under one-hundred kilos. The frame can carry more but the super dooper wheels; they rust’d me a grand, that’s Euros not play money.

Beautiful piece of carbon

Well the first time is always the best, and it was. I flew my round at an average of twenty-six kpm that’s three to five faster than on my cyclo-crosser. A great feeling but I’ll have to extend my circle because it’s under one hour going round and I want to do at least one hour of sport a day.

The obligate rape field photo

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/494343163

 

Bye, see you all tomorrow. Have a good day and my thoughts are with Papa

 

 

My Daily Banana

 

 

The Wedding Bell Banana

 

Photo of the day:

 

The happy couple 06.05.1950

 

Word of the day:

lascivious

 

Lustful, arousing sexual desire, sometimes common

 

Name of the day:

Waldtraut

A two part Germanic name meaning (Wald) wood or forest and (traut) belief, trust or strength

Event of the day:

6th May 1950

In Munkmarsch, Sylt, Germany

Fraulein Waldtraut Agnes Nickelsen and Master George Alexander Martin were married.

 

It was Mama’s 20th birthday and a day before Papa’s 26th.

They met 1946 or 1947 in Westerland on the Isle of Sylt; Papa was stationed there on the R.A.F. camp. Soon after they met Papa was demobbed and went back to Scotland; where he worked as a joiner for the Earl of Huntly. They kept in touch! Mama once proudly showed me a fountain pen that she treasures; it was the pen with which she wrote her love letters to George.

Westerland Friedrich Strasse about the time they met

Haus Seeburg; There was a dance hall in the cellar where they met

 

 

George and Waldtraut stayed apart for the next nineteen months until Papa enlisted again and got a posting to Westerland. It took another year and a half and they were married, had four loving children and lived together and were first separated when Papa passed away on the 11th November 1990 (that’s forty years of marriage).

 

Sylva

Raymond

Sorry I haven't any pictures of Andrea and Fraser as babies, pity!

Birthday of the day:

6th May 1930

In Keitum, Sylt, Germany

Waldtraut Agnes Martin born Nickelsen

Mama in 1956

Waldtraut was born in Keitum on the beautiful isle of Sylt, Germay. Her parents were Agnes Nickelsen (born Stegemann) and Karl Nickelsen. Oma and Opa couldn’t wait till they were married before they hopped into bed, so Mama was born shortly after they said „Ja, ich will". (Ha, how could this happen? Sylvia and I followed suit!) Mama had two sisters, Henriette and Karla and a brother, he was killed in a motor crash at one or two years old. The two sisters have unfortunately also passed away, so Mama’s the last of the Nickelsen clan.

Mama today

 

Died on this day:

 

6th May 2011

In Paris, France

Marlene Dietrich

Born 27th December 1901

In Schöneberg, Berlin, Germany

A German actress, that left Germany for Hollywood in 1931. She never returned!

Her most known film appearance is in the UFA film "Blue Angel" in which she lasciviously poses in a short costume showing her legs above her stockings. Nowadays not much; back in 1930 it was very daring.

Falling in love again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaZDiKRT1is
 

Marlene Dietrich

 

 

Cycle ride of the day:

Flies, flies and flies. While flying round the countryside I was constantly thrashing through swarms of flies. It’s not a nice feeling; they get everywhere, in the eyes, in the mouth, under the clothes, everywhere!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/493717961

 

I saw a spud planter again. The technic is very ingenious. Look at the tractor with its planting trailer. I was asking myself though, why do they plant so many spuds in a row? The potatoes are planted with no room between and sometimes two next to each other. If I were planting potatoes in my patch I would leave three to four inches between them. Is it so that they stay small? I can imagine if they don’t have any room in the earth they will stay small. Can anyone remember the potatoes when the were as big as a cooking apple? In the shops now-a-days they are just a bit bigger than large eggs.

Spud Planter being fed

 

Hope you enjoyed my blog today.
 

Andrea if you've got the time you can show Mama it on your iPad :-)

Bye, see you all tomorrow. Have a good day

 

My Daily Banana

 

 

 

Photo of the day:

Planting spuds

 

Ploughing the field

Planting? or Sowing the potatoes

The rows are heaped to stop the potatoes coming to the surface, where they turn green

 

Word of the day:

Paloma

Is Spanish for dove, it‘s also a tequila based cocktail

One part tequila

Three parts grapefruit soda

Served on the rocks, with a wedge of lemon or lime.

Name of the day:

Ozzie

Pet name given to someone with the name Oswald, Osborn

Event of the day:

5th May 1905

The trial in the Stratton Brothers case begins in London, England; it marks the first time that fingerprint evidence is used to gain a conviction for murder.

This reminds me of a book that I read in German from Caleb Carr „Die Einkreisung". It was historic crime novel placed in New York around the beginning of 1900. Integrated in the crime story he described the methods of criminology in that time of history and the first usage of fingerprints to solve a crime. The book is well worth reading in English it’s called (now I have to use Google) „The Alienist"

 

The Fingerprint

 

The "Who Dun IT"

　

Birthday of the day:

5th May 1948

in Aston, Birmingham, England

Bill Ward, English drummer and songwriter (Black Sabbath and Mythology)

What a great music Black Sabbath played (when they were young). It was music to get high on, it’s very cynical with thunder, rain and sharp guitar riffs. The voice of Ozzi Ozborne still had its youthful touch not as broken and scratchy as nowadays.

Black Sabbath as I remember them

Died on this day:

5th May 2011

in Perth, Western Australia

 

born 2rd March 1901

in Pershore, Worcestershire, England

Claude Choules

The last British-Australian WWI veteran. Born in Worcestershire, England, his family with him immigrated to Western Australia in 1911, where he lived until died in 2011. He joined the Fleet at fourteen and seventeen he witnessed the downfall of the German fleet at Scapa Flow (the narrow channel between the northern point of Denmark and the south of Norway)

Claude when he joined up at fourteen

Claude Choules

Cycle ride of the day:

Cold, man it was cold. The round was good though, I even took a short detour.

In the last few weeks I’ve so much in my mind. This blog is an inspiration, I think of my life, I write (mostly English,; that’s something I haven’t done for years) and I’m always on the lookout for a motive to photograph. Sometimes it gets a little bit queasy, I concentrate more on my motives than on my cycling.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/493108531

Look at the bulge, that's what I'm fighting against

The Challenge:

Here we go, now it’s time to lay our cards down.

Challenger I Raymond weight 97.8 kg
(Howzat? 2.3 kg in one week.)

Challenger II Fraser weight 98 kg
(Fraser; you've got to combined your eating habit with sport, then it'll work wonders)

Challenger III Andrea weight 89.6 kg
(that's not much Andrea, you've got to try)

The prize of the week goes to ???

Bye, see you all tomorrow. Have a good day

My Daily Banana

 

 

One Wheel Cycle Banana

 

Photo of the day:

Family Petersen



Words of the day:

Spittoons

A vase made or brass or pottery, which is spat into.

Well known from all the western movies, in the saloon it was always on the floor at the end of the bar.

Western bar with two spittoons

German: Spucknapf



Name of the day:

Panzer

German for tank or armour

 

Armoured Tank invented and built in Lincoln

 

 

Event of the day:

4th May 2014

Welt Fischbrötchentag

(World Fish Bun Day)

No one other than the fish heads on the German Baltic coast will celebrate this day, but as they have called upon today to be their „World Fish Bun Day" let us honour it.

I haven’t eaten a fish bun for at least twenty years (it doesn’t fit in my diet, me being a vegetarian). Heike still eats the animal stuff, but some of the fish buns are too expensive. Imagine paying 3.90€ for a shrimp bun? In McDonald‘s you could by a whole meal for that price (or am I wrong here? I haven’t been to McDonald’s for twenty years either).

 

A Shrimp Bun cost: €3.90

 

Birthday of the day:

4th May 1958

Keith Haring

in Reading, Pennsylvania, United States

Died

16th February 1990

in New York City, New York, United States

Keith Haring (he died too early)

Graffiti artist, his work resulted out of the street culture of New York.

With very simple methods he brought life into his paintings. They are very bright and bouncy.

I have three reproduction posters hanging in my living room.

Unhappily he died at thirty-two from aids.

 

The Montreux Jass Festival Poster (this poster decorates my living room)

 

Died on this day:

4th May 1984

Diana Dors

In Winsor, Berkshire, England

Born 23rd October 1931

In Swindon, Wiltshire, England

The British equivalent of Marilyn. Blond and busty! She played the sexy comedian in many films, such as „Lady Godiva Rides Again". Also starring in Adam and the Ants musical video „Prince Charming" miming the fairy godmother.

 

Here is the video:

http://vimeo.com/77658143

 

Diana Dors young and pretty

Diana Dors trying to pose like Marilyn

 

Cycle ride of the day:

What have you got hidden in your barn? Well on my round I noticed a barn with its doors open, I couldn’t help but have a peek; and what did I spy? An old Mercedes Benz from the sixties. Nice piece of old iron. The way it’s been stored I’d say they’ve ruined it; the rust and the dust of many a day gone by will have eaten its way into car and the fluids will have chocked it from the insides. But it still is a work of art; I love those relics of days gone by.

 

The Barn

Look what's hidden inside

 

Der Haupt Straßen Fest:

(The Main Street Festival)

Yesterday we had our Main Street Festival in Niebüll, it’s been a reoccurring festive event for the past twenty-eight years. A must to go to and see!

Bathing through the crowd we stumbled on Kirsty with her family. The big’uns were hungry, tucking into a portion of chips with ketchup. You can see the remains around their mouths.

 

Fentje and Martje tucking in

 

 

Gretje enjoyed the scene on her Papa’s arms. It was nice to see her awake; imagine she’s eleven weeks old already (time flies!).

 

 

Gretje with Papa

We stopped to watch a juggler cum jester appeasing the crowd with his talent. He was very good, but the star of the show was Peter Panzer. He’s one of the Mürwicker’s, they are disabled and part of our town. Well the show was about to start and he sat down on one of the jester’s requisites and stayed. He had his binoculars with him, to see what’s happening elsewhere on the Main Street. The jester included Peter into his sketch, great fun.

 

Peter Panzer sussing it out

The street artist with his audience



Bye, see you all tomorrow. Have a good day