Something Typical

[Escriba]

I lost one day and when I come back I discover a Swedish Western-style town

[Asso]

Ferragosto

Ferragosto is an Italian holiday celebrated on August 15. Originally, it was related to a celebration of the middle of the summer and the end of the hard labour in the fields. In time, the Roman Church adopted this date to commemorate the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary-- the real physical elevation of her sinless soul and incorrupt body into Heaven.

Before the Roman Catholic Church came into existence, however, this holiday was celebrated in the Roman Empire to honor the gods -- in particular Diana -- and the cycle of fertility and ripening. In fact, the present Italian name of the holiday derives from its original Latin name, Feriae Augusti (Fairs of August).

Almost the entire month of August is taken as holiday and leisure time in Italy in honor of this feast day.

A peculiar celebration in Piedmont is the "Symphony Concert " in high height, in open air, on the high mountains.

On this year, the concert will take place here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Col_de_Tende

[Escriba]

August 15 is holiday here too ("La Asunción" a festivity for Virgin Mary.) So it's your fault...

The concert looks great.

[vero3110]

August 15 is holiday here too ("La Asunción" a festivity for Virgin Mary.) So it's your fault...

The concert looks great.

We have it here too, so I guess we inherited from Spain.

Vero

[Alelou]

We have it here too as a holy day of obligation if you're Catholic but nobody I know ever pays attention to it.

However, since we were taking my goddaughter out of Catholic school to visit her godmother on the one day she (that would be me) was in town, my friend made a big deal telling the teacher about how we were going to discuss her upcoming first communion. Which consisted of:

Me: I went to that Irish import store to ask about confirmation dresses, but he said they won't be putting them out until December, and nobody else does either.

Julie: Oh, that's okay.

[Asso]

I was uncertain where I should post these images, if here or if in "Member Pics" thread. Then I have thought they are very typical, so...
My wife and I went on a short journey. The last period has been a bad patch for her and for me, so we decided to go away, all of a sudden, to relax.
And we came here, first to Garmish and then to Fussen, in Germany (you can find the reasons of my choice on "Member Pics" thread ).
Why "Something Typical"? Well! Observe the decorations which there are in Garmish and the "Trompe l'oil"s which there are in Fussen: they are very typical of this region."


Garmish: Decorations on the houses.

Garmish: Decorations on the houses.

Garmish: Decorations on the houses.

Oberammergau (Next to Garmish): Decorations on the houses.

Well! This one is not a decoration, but it is "Typical", sure!

And this one?

And this one?

And this one?

And this one is a "Trompe L'Oil", in Fussen.

Where is the window?

And the little balcony?

[Escriba]

They are beautiful.

I imagine the people building the house and thinking "Mmmm... some columns and stone ornaments could be fine... Mmmm... Do we have money for that? No. So let's paint them instead"

[Asso]

Eh Eh!
I think you are right!

[Bookworm]

Something very typical for us finnish people is Sauna.
Here are some examples from this week.

At work we had this nice team meeting spending time in a less official setting. First we had some interesting presentations about all the research done by our team, but one of the main events was the Sauna. I don't know if someone who has never experienced it could imagine what it's like, but it's not just sitting in an extremely hot room throwing water into the sauna stove. When you sit there with all those female co-workes everyone naked and sweating from the heat and feeling relaxed and all titels left outside you start to talk and get to know those co-workes a lot better than you ever could in an office setting.

A friend had a baby recently and the dad arranged a party for his friends to celebrate that. The party was held in a sauna. That is also very typical to have a party so that you rent some big sauna that can hold lots of people and then you spent the evening alterating between sauna room and a lounge room, eating and drinking and having a great time.

One evening per week we have this jog sauna in our appartment building. The name comes from the thought that people might enjoy a warm sauna after a jog in the evening so the sauna is warm all the evening and there are severals hours when people can go there any time they like. It's the best place to get to know your neighbours and learn about things happening in your area. It is very typical here to have a sauna in an appartment building and usually every apartment has one hour per week for their own use and then it's very common to have one evening per week for a shared jog sauna.

But the best sauna is always in a summer cottage, There you burn wood in a sauna stove for heating the sauna and the stones in the sauna stove, where you throw the water to get the hot steam. You carry the water in to the sauna from a well with a bucket and heat some of the water with a wood burning water heater. There is no shower and you use a bucket to mix the boiling and cold water that you pour with a scoop to wash yourself. You sit there with your loved one very quitly just enjoying and sharing the relaxin moment and the alteration of a burning and soft heat until you go outside to enjoy the cool, but light summer evening and maybe swim a little in the cold refressing water until you have cooled enough to go back in to the warm sweaty sauna.

[Distracted]

Sounds nice...but I live in a sauna (95 degrees and 100% humidity today), so there's not much attraction for me to enter a hot steamy room, naked or not.

I do enjoy a hot bubblebath. Never had one with anybody from the office, though. That might get kind of awkward.

[blacknblue]

Just got back from a long weekend of escorting my aging parents to visit their property in KY. That place is starting to become a challenge. They are too old to tend it, and I just don't have the time or energy right now. But something has to give. We stayed a few days and got the hatches battened down for the winter, I hope. While I was there I took a few shots. Thought I might post them to this thread. Perhaps they might clarify some of my eccentricities.

I will start with probably the most unique feature of the place. This is an actual American Chestnut tree. And it is blight free. The spot is at the edge of a former corn field, but it has lain fallow since my Dad was a child. He cleared it when he started building the house 44 years ago. About 25 +/- years ago this little volunteer poked its head above ground and then took off. Nobody planted it. There is no way to tell how long that seed has lain there, waiting for the right conditions to sprout. Probably since before the blight hit - or so I suspect. I haven't spoken to the man myself, but Dad reports that one of the neighbors, who actually still tries to make a living as a farmer (poor sap), informed him that the local Ag agent is worried sick about that tree and plans to bring a team out to check it over. I hope he is. It would be nice if we could help contribute to restoring the groves in some small way.

Even if not, if comforts me to know that it's there. To me, it symbolizes the bullheaded stubborn survival toughness of the American spirit in general, and the hillbilly redneck spirit in particular.



Here is a close up of the leaves, for those who have never seen the American version of a chestnut tree. that should include most of you, since they are officially considered all but extinct:



While I am at this, just in case anyone might be interested, here are a few more.

Partial shot of the hill behind the house. It doesn't begin to cover the whole are, just a brief glimpse of what is visible from the corner I was standing beside.



This is a little bit more of the old family farm. The hill behind the pasture is included. This particular section belongs to my aunt.




Site where my family's ancestral cabin once stood. The cabin itself washed away in a flood in 1939, and almost took my father, aunt, uncle and grandparents with it. It DID take the family bible and all family records, as well as all family heirlooms. But they got out alive which is what counts.



The guilty party in question, the creek which washed out my family history. Doesn't look like much, does it? Not now in the autumn drought. But you should see this SOB during the spring thaw.




This is my cousin's house, who lives next door. She and her husband keep an eye on the place for Mom and Dad. As a side business...



... they breed Rottweilers. These are some half-grown pups. Ain't they the cutest little things you ever saw? Frisky too.



This is a WPA bridge near the house that both of my grandfathers helped build.



Last but not least, the final morning I was there I went outside in misty morning to take a leak, and to my astonished delight I bounced a deer. In the yard. Right beside the propane tank. Most surprising of all, it didn't even leave. The fool thing just bounded off a few yards to the edge of the yard and stood there staring at me.



Could any hunter have asked for a more perfect shot? And there I stood with no license, no tag, no bow. All I had was an Olympus 545 with a zoom lense and my gun.

[Alelou]

Deer always know when you don't have your license. Didn't you know that?

Good luck with the chestnut. If it were a tree that had actually SURVIVED the blight, people could get really excited. There are some elms -- like the ones that line the main drag in Princeton -- that have proven resistant to Dutch Elm Disease and are now being cloned and bred like crazy to try to repopulating all those poor denuded Elm Streets.

Some of those photos are huge, by the way. I had to scroll like mad to see them, and to read the text.

[CX]

I've done the sauna thing before, but not naked - we all had bathing suits. It felt awesome to sit in the sauna for a while, and then go dive in the lake to cool off afterwards.

[justTripn]

Sitting naked with your coworkers in a sauna . . . not something I would every try My sister has a hot tub, but even there, we wear bathing suits. Wow that sounds scary.

Come to think of it, I did sit with my female coworkers in a sauna in Thailand, but we were wearing sarongs. And the woman who owned the sauna applied some mysterious concoction to our skin that dyed it yellow for a whole day. In fact we did this a couple of times. In our little town, if you saw someone walking around dyed yellow, you just smiled and knew they had just been to the sauna.

I enjoyed the beautiful Kentucky scenery, Blacknblue.

[Asso]

I enjoyed the beautiful Kentucky scenery, Blacknblue.

Splendid images.