How time flies - with capers

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Over the weekend I checked my photo files about our palazzo. That means I had to go through summer holiday files of four years ! And we do not have just one summer holiday file per year. It was quiet a lot ... but of course very enjoyable. Not only to see the progress (the slow progress!) of our renovation project but also to see our child grow.

I found these funny photos below, that we apparently took every year. I call the serie "capers harvest on our terrace" (capers = caperi).


caperi August 11, 2006
This picture was taken when we saw the house for the very first time.

My Italian mother-in-law - always having space in her handbag - is collecting capers with our son.
This is still at the very first visit to the house in August 2006.


One year later: July 2007
Meanwhile the house is ours.
But we have not started the renovation yet.
Still harvesting capers ...

... and enjoying the view (summer 2007)


March 2008: renovation in progress
The terrace is the roof of the second floor and needs sealing.
The caper plant was taken out and the balustrade paint plastered.


Tow years later, August 2008 : uups ! A tiny caper plant popped up again !
The roots must be very stong and resistant.
Not good for roof and walls underneath. Water could infiltrate. Special treatment is necessary.


Three years later, August 2009 : Done !
No more capers. New tiles and security grid.

Although the tiles are beautiful and the iron grid is necessary - I still can't stop thinking that I like the charme of the old dilapidated condition - more? This is one of the difficulties, I think, when renovating. How to stop dilapidation without changing the character of a building or interior too much.


To get a broader picture, I am posting the sea side facade before and after:

August 2006, not our house yet


Sea side facade March 2008


August 2009
The palazzo from the sea, 54 meters above sea level

Some readers might know my sea side pictures. But since I am posting for almost three years and the renovation progress is so slow, some of you might have forgotten about the "look". Here are some more before and after posts.
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10 Simple Actions to contribute to save the Planet

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Today is Blog Action Day and I am participating because our planet is in danger. Every human being that is able to think should be aware about how much our planet is threatened by climate change, global warming and shortness of resources, to name some environmental problems which again cause social unbalance that can result in poverty, terror and war. It is a very complex subject. Our children and grandchildren will face tough times.

But where to start and who to start ?
Today, blog action day is focusing on the environmental problem "climate change".
Please take a minute and read the following what you could do today and maybe next week and more and more often :

10 simple actions to contribute for a better Planet :

1) Replace a regular light bulb with an energy saving light bulb

2) Move your radiator down one degree in winter (and the aircon up 1 degree in summer)

3) Use less hot water (it costs energy to heat water)

4) Air dry your clothes instead of using a dryer as often as possible

5) Only run your dishwasher when there’s a full load and use the energy-saving setting

6) Unplug electronics from the wall when you’re not using them (even when turned off, cell phone chargers and televisions use energy. The energy used to keep display clocks lit and memory chips working may account for 5 % of total domestic energy consumption !)

7) Plant a tree - or think twice before cutting down a tree ! (a single tree will absorb one ton of carbon dioxide over its lifetime. Shade provided by trees can also reduce your air conditioning bill by 10 to 15%.)

8) Buy locally grown food (transportation is polluting and consumes energy) - and buy fresh food instead of frozen (frozen food uses 10 times more energy to produce).

9) Eat less meat !!! (The production of 1 kg of beef consumes about 13,000 liter of water !!! And methane is the second most significant greenhouse gas and cows are one of the greatest methane emitters. Their grassy diet and multiple stomachs cause them to produce methane, which they exhale with every breath.)

10)  Drive less ! Walk, bike or use public transportation !

(source: Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth)


Today I will buy fresh food at the local farmer's market, eat no meet and use public transportation ! (easy in't it ?! But every little contribution of every human being counts !)

What is your contribution or tip ?!


Follow these links for more information about saving the planet (who is thinking, what to do and how to contribute) :

Club of Rome
Global Marshall Plan
An inconvenience truth

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Update:
I would like to recommend the following posts on CLIMAT CHANGE
http://flowerhillfarm.blogspot.com/2009/10/blog-action-day-2009-climate-change.html
http://selfdestructivebastards.blogspot.com/2009/10/wake-up-humanity.html

If you have another interesting post let us all know with a comment !
To check the other 13 thousand something participating blogs go to --> blog action day 2009

Remark: I had to change the publishing time, delay 2 hours in order to have this post appear on Oct. 15, blog action day. Now my two posts on Oct. 15 just appear in a different order. That's all. Sorry for confusion.

Modern Furniture in Rough Rooms

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Recently I came across the photographer Michael Himpel via Lumas Gallery and his shots of beautiful old interiors, all with that fascinating dilapidated but luxe feel, all empty and all belonging to historic villas in Havanna, Cuba.

Only little later I saw an advertising campaign of German furniture manufacturer WK Wohnen in print media (February 2008). - And I recognised the rooms! Single modern pieces were placed into these old villas in Havanna for shooting the campaign - in November 2007 with photographer Michael Himpel and Creative Director Christian Follert. The rooms usually are not empty. For the shooting the owner's furniture was taken out. I wonder how these interiors normally look?

See here the photographs with and without furniture :

via WK Wohnen

Villa Eulalia, Havanna by Michael Himpel via Lumas

 
"the charme of past times is present in Havanna ..." via pmi publishing

Villa La Guarida by Michael Himpel via Lumas
What a ballroom !


via WK Wohnen

Villa Carlos, Havanna by Michael Himpel via Lumas
What a ceiling lamp ?!

via WK Wohnen

via Eulalia, Havanna by Michael Himpel via Lumas
What a flooring !! Love the tiles !!


And when writing about advertising modern / luxe furniture in rough / shabby rooms, I want to post two more samples :

red sofa (Charles) above by B&B Italia ...

... in the same room that I  posted it in Feb. 2007 !

However the above picture is not taken from an advertising. If I remember well it was the furnishing of a house in Italy. The style was called "neo-shabby chic" by the magazine it was featured in (Casa International, Beijing).
I do love the fresco !


This is clearly advertising for an Italian divano - the location looks like an abandoned church , similar feeling to the other two pics before.

While the German advertising campaign was this year, I am not sure about the Italian ones. The last (mantelassi) is from about 2 or 3 years ago. However, I do not care if a style is in or not. It has to fit. This shabby chic or rough luxe style just fits to old historic buildings that have a past to tell and to preserve. I hope that I can preserve some interior walls and ceilings in our palazzo in Italy that are testimonies from so many years.

My next post should show some dilapidated walls, ceilings and fresci of our Palazzo Pizzo ...

To round up my recent posts about rough luxe - or shabby chic - I want to provide a few links to some similar content, posted recently or a bit ago, here for the interested reader :

Rough luxe and the new antiquarians by The Architectural Antique Review (09/2009)
Rough Luxe by Wall Street Journal (WSJ, 09/2009)
Rough Luxe Hotel by Designers Block (03/2009)
Cote de Texas about Belgian Design (01/2009)
A description of Boho Modern by Decor8 (01/2008)
Axel Vervoordt