One of my favorite spots from my childhood: a lone tree atop a hill with a small farm beyond where my two brothers and I used to get milk fresh from the cow. Who remembers what that tastes like? What I remember is that it was so good that it was usually gone by the time we got home 🙂
Two flies are mating on a lavender plant 😉 Never knew how colorful flies were until I took this shot!
A sandpiper bird on Santa Monica beach. These birds look very delicate and vulnerable but are extremely fast runners!
Nice to see this rare honey bee visitor in our backyard. They used to cover the lavender plants, now I only see them occasionally. In the past three or four years I have seen more dead bees than live bees unfortunately.
This was at the beginning of the concert at 11am – Motley Crüe were the first to go on.
I stood in the very front of the pit what seemed like forever when Ronnie James Dio finally turned around and pointed at me! I almost dropped the camera!
Somehow these pictures from MOR in 1984 in Karlsruhe survived me moving about a dozen times, including moving to the US (I grew up in Germany). I went with a few friends and I remember the concert started at 11 in the morning and lasted till about 10 at night. Bands there were Motley Crüe, Accept, Gary Moore, Ozzy Osbourne, Dio, Van Halen and ACDC. I think it was Motley Crüe’s first concert in Germany; I always loved Gary Moore’s guitar playing; Dio was a blast like all his concerts and so was ACDC – they had to be the best party band around!
Accept and Ozzy also rocked it but everyone complained about Van Halen who totally screwed up that day: Roth was so drunk (or whatever), he left after half a song, the band played for a bit longer and then also left.
We were in the very front pretty much the whole time and the crowd behind us was pushing so hard that sometimes my feet lost touch with the ground and I was ‘carried’ from the front to a few rows back. It was a constant fight to stay in front. It was also very hot that day and we were periodically hosed down by Ozzy haha! After about 11 hours of rock and ACDC’s finale with the canons blasting, my ears were ringing for days … It was so worth it!!
I found a few more pictures of Monsters of Rock here.
If you’ve been to one of the Monsters of Rock back then, tell us about it in the comments! (Deutsch oder Englisch :)) This Monsters of Rock concert took place September 1, 1984.
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A great big “thank you!” to Tad (see comments) for sending the following pics:
Michael Anthony – Van Halen
The headliners: ACDC – Angus Young
This 100 Mark bill was printed in 1920 – inflation is just getting started.
The front and back of a 5,000 Mark bill in 1922. The back (bottom) states that falsifying money will get you at least two years in a labor camp.
This one was printed at the height of the hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic in Germany 1923: 100,000,000 – one hundred million Marks. The inflation was caused due to Germany financing the costs of World War I by borrowing needed funds and exacerbated later on by having to pay large sums of money for reparations. A massive deflation and depression years later is believed to have paved the way for national socialism. (More about the collapse of the currency here.)
When my grandma (dad’s side) was still alive I’d ask her about the two world wars in Germany. She had lots of stories to tell, but she would eventually always add these words “war is nothing but hunger, fear and death. I lost my husband (my grandpa I never met), my brother, my neighbors, my friends. Nobody’s life was worth a dime.” And she would always tell me “girl, pray that you will never have to experience a war. It’s hell on earth.” She had gone through two world wars, she knew what she was talking about. Actually my mom would say the same thing, she remembers not having enough food and having to run and hide from the bombs – she had nightmares about that even decades later. Thinking of it, my dad said the same thing too, he had witnessed an execution as a child when he was only five years old that has been cause for distress his whole life.
My grandma was a war widow, raising a child and taking care of her mom. She had to be self sufficient and creative to make it through: she knew how to fix just about everything, build a house (she built her own house, brick by brick), heal just about every ailment with herbs and minerals and techniques she had learned from her mother.
My grandma on my mom’s side was probably the most frugal person I knew. She would save a tiny leftover piece of tomato and cook something with the end slice of a loaf of bread. Talking about being creative! She also lived through two world wars and had five (!) kids through World War II for a total of seven children! My mom would often talk about the proverbial cabbage water they had to subsist on. My grandpa was a phone tech and didn’t have to go to the front because he was needed at home. I remember him as having a wicked sense of humor 😉
Needless to say maybe, but I learned a lot from my grandparents!
The advice I got from them and my parents: live in the moment and don’t keep all your money in savings. Words to live by!
I was finally in the right spot at the right time WITH a camera to take this Memorial Day flyover shot. Thanks a million to our military! If anyone knows anything specific about this particular formation, please leave it in the comments.
This is our neighbor’s cat Chewy. He was a beautiful grey and white cat and used to hang out in our backyard every day, beg for treats, always be super social and taking naps outside our window. When I left the door open he’d feel comfortable enough to walk right in and make himself comfortable on our bed!
Saw these mating firebugs on concrete stairs in a public park in Southern Germany. They were pulling left-right-left and eventually moved from their spot to underneath the stairs.
Before I devoured this luscious and ultra-fresh fruit tart from Portos in Burbank, I had to take a picture of it. I wish I’d live a bit closer to them, I’d go there a lot more often!