{How is YOUR Blog's TRUE Presence on the WEB?}

• As bloggers we love to get followers, comments and whatever social media connection we are participating in.
• But HOW can we measure the OUTPUT?
• Surely we CAN measure this and I will show you here with some examples at random, to also make clear that a high NUMBER of FOLLOWERS is often very deceiving! Bare with me till the very end; you will be in for quite a surprise!

• Let's start with my own very humble number of 490 followers...

link: google.com/webmasters

• The world's number one site search is of course Google with 4,390,000,000 results...

• This is my own humble site search result for those 490 followers of my blog in 189 countries.
• Not bad; 1,840 results.

• This is Nora from the emotion-centered Seelensachen blog in Austria, with a very high number of followers; 1,868.

Seelensachen.blogspot.com yields 1,080 results on site search (blog has been removed)

• That is LESS than for my humble number of 490 followers.
• Loyal readers cannot be lured in temporarily, by feeding them just emotion-centered content. 
• The Experts call that style: The vampire blogger.

A dangerous way for being emotion centered and selfish. Love the last line by Clay Morgan in his: The Undead Guide to Killing your Blog: then your online career will be in its twilight faster than Dracula can flap his cape...

• Some writers are just brilliant with their words and it comes across rather clear; don't you think?
• Below is an excerpt from Clay Morgan's post:

• Meet Anita Rivera from the Castles Crowns Cottages blog.

• Doing the site search for Castles Crowns and Cottages yields 554 results.
• Guess that Google too did spot this Copy & Paste Master with her very vague linking to the source; if at all.
• Does that make you feel more at ease about not having that many followers? 

• Meet Delores from Vignette Design with her 1707 members.

• Doing the site search for Vignette Design yields 847 results.
• She does have great and genuine content at times, all of her own but she too knows how to borrow content and ideas from big websites. 
• Again; Google knows how to spot when anyone uses thin or scraped content. Another issue is that she seldom does comment on other bloggers posts anymore. 
• I gave up on her because of that as it cannot be a one-way event. Sad fact as Delores did help me out in June of 2010, when I was as green as they come in blogging. She pointed me to a tutorial for creating the widget to have others take it with them, off your side bar. That was mighty sweet!
• Don't you agree with me?

• There is Katysue from Good Life of Design who obviously no longer uses her Google Friend Connect but she ranked very high with her Copy & Paste blogging style and very vague source linking (just mentioning it is from Pinterest and such). 
• But Google KNOWS that certain people are plagiarizing and they make it show up in their site search as you see above; Katysue yields only 847.

• Another blogger is Bella from Bellas Rose Cottage with quite a high number of followers; 1464 in total.
• She long abandoned my blog and never ever did comment, contrary to the beginning.
• Guess I no longer did qualify for belonging to her ranks.

• Doing the site search for Bellas Rose Cottage did yield 557 results.
• So, Google knows that she is not out and about as much as she ought to.

• Sweet Tammy from T's Daily Treasures with her 552 followers.

• Tammy's sincere, down to earth, happy and genuine posts with only use of her own photos did yield 1,190 with site search!

• Meet Elisabeth from Elisabeth Welt in Germany.
• Sure, speaking seven languages does make my horizon a little bit bigger but most bloggers do have a Google translate button so you too can visit more 'out of the box' so to speak.

• Dear Elisabeth from Elisabeth Welt does yield astonishingly high with the site search: A MEGA 7,810! 
• So how come that Elisabeth's World (translated from German) scores THIS high?

One thing I know for sure; she is the MOST LOYAL COMMENTER in the blogger world and she posts very frequent, short posts, not those BORING long text stories that nobody has time to read.

We scan the Internet; we don't READ on the Internet.

Hah, lesson learned...?!

Elisabth also is following the COMMENT- DIALOGUE instead of the Monologue theory; she does REPLY to comments!

Another fabulous blog that I have had on my side bar for quite a while is: Fashion.

• Sarah does have 1,249 followers.

• Sarah also yields very high with her outstanding blog Fashion; 22,600!
• You ought to check out those outstanding blogs and think twice about running like lemmings after something that IS NOT...
• Okay, both my husband and I have done a lot of analyzing during our years as international mushroom consultants. I still like to do this. It teaches you how to read between the lines, how to detect genuine material from pretentious plagiarized material. 
• Somebody else did the work by making excellent photos and big deal you write a blog post about it. 
• Or those that use others' suffering as an emotion-centered bait for their blogs. 
• I do not approve of that either.
• We all ought to bring RESPECT back into our culture.
• As for my MANTRA it is BACK TO BASICS.
• Like former chief evangelist of Apple +Guy Kawasaki is saying so well:

Personal Branding: 5 Secrets of Success from Guy Kawasaki

We all ought to recognize and promote other bloggers as well. It is not only about us.

• On my sidebar I have always put some fledgling bloggers, to help them being exposed to a larger audience.

Certainly I would have appreciated that myself in my beginning period.

• Under my Blogger Tips, you still can find several tutorials with Blogger Tips. 
• Use them as you please, that is my little contribution of Making Meaning. 
• What is your opinion about this google site search result?
• Were you surprised by the outcome?
• Love to hear your thoughts!

PS for Ria from the blog It’s Me this photo of her site search which did yield 708 for her 1120 followers and not 6,070 as she mentioned in her comment below. Follow the Google Webmaster guidelines by logging in to google.com and then type: site:... fill in your blog name only, as shown in above examples, leaving the http:// off. We have to compare apples with apples!  

{Of Course I Missed THE Moment...}

It looked like quite a thrill, for having come up SIX 4s... BUT Of Course when trying to capture THE Moment, I Missed it while I was in the shower this morning! But I got some pretty close screen shot of it. Next round will be SIX 5s and who knows WHEN? You can see this gadget when scrolling down on my blog, just below my 189 Countries visited.

Still not bad for being only 5 Pageviews off...

At least I got my FIVE 4s JIT = Just In Time!

• A BIG and sincere THANKS to all my readers, wherever you are!

When I started off I would never have dreamed of seeing such numbers on my screen...

• That is because of YOU; not on my own merits.

Stay tuned for reading more about my travels and lifestyle.

• I will write also about what I eat; promise.

BUT we need photos for doing any post!

Still in the progress of scanning slides etc., archiving our life...

Your replies to my previous posts have been heart warming!

LOVE to read them and hope you did mark the comment box for receiving my reply!

Have a great week ahead and stay healthy, warm and safe.

{My Italian Boots & Escada Leather Vest and Shorts}

Having done consulting for the Italian company near the Venice area, before we actually started working and living there full time, did yield me some buttery soft Italian boots as a GIFT. Leave it to the Italians for presenting you with the most elegant and luxurious gifts! They know how to do that. These boots were bought in Montebelluna, province of Treviso, Italy on November 2, 1984. They are entirely lined with the softest leather and have a little heel.

That's me out for a walk. Nancy Sinatra sang it already: These boots are made for walking...

Leather vest from Escada with leather shorts from Escada; both entirely lined and also buttery soft.

Wool sweater by Escada and my old lace tights...

With the sun out it is hard to look at you...!

So let's turn around and you get to see my lace tights with back seam and the little heels.

Our kittens are well disciplined; evidence that those tights survived many, many years!

Are you wearing anything made out of leather; besides your shoes, belts and handbags?

Related links:
{My Old Boots Rejuvenated & New Sweater} | previous post by me
{My Favorite Boots} | previous post by me

{Color Psychology and Blogger I Admire}

• On my dear Mom's Birthday, Susan from the blog: Ava Grace's closet, did post about a very special subject. Where the Magic Happens. Just click the link... 
• Susan is one of those young and energetic women I greatly admire. She has a flare all of her own and knows how to deal with fashion, interior decoration à la Susan and managing to raise her three super cute kids. 
• When visiting her great blog you will no doubt start clicking on one of the LinkWithin Thumbnails to read more and lots MORE! 
• Because she did bring up the blue gray colors that she's worked with in her Master Bedroom, I came up with today's subject. 
• Are you aware of the influences of colors we wear and what we chose for our interior? It is telling a story about us; our moods etc.

Source

This circle is revealing a lot about the main colors and we can learn from it.

• Even the German dramatist, novelist, poet, & scientist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832) did design the color wheel in 1809. Goethe on the Psychology of Color and Emotion just click on this hyperlink.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's, 1809 color wheel, from above link.

• Psychological Properties Of Colours from the UK (hence the word colour) some interesting facts as well.

The Meaning of Colors link with full story from above photo.  

In my wardrobe there is a wide scala of colors, depending on the season and on the mood I guess...

For the home there is a lot of white and earth tones from beige to brown.

What is your opinion about colors?

Do you love but one color or are you more like a chameleon that changes ever so often? 

Related link: An Easy and Elegant Palette just click

{Winter View of Our Gazebo from Bay Window Area}

Just like to show you a Winter View from Our Gazebo, taken from the Kitchen Bay Window Area. These photos are from January 20 when we did make the rounds over our estate. Our felines Tiggy Tiger (l) and her brother Bandido (r) did follow us. 

The sunlight makes it look already like spring. 

Storm door is from Vintage Woodworks and also the Fleur de Lys and Scroll Work.

Having breakfast in our Bay Window Area always gives us a nice view of the garden from its three windows.

The Ilex Opaca or American Holly tree is visible behind the wooden railings of the steps. 

We do have enough evergreen shrubs and trees on our property to help us always feel happy.

Having lived in the tropics, in Indonesia does make us long for more green during winter time...

How is your winter going?

Related link:

{Robins Stripped our American Holly - Ilex Opaca} | previous post by me

{HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY | ALWAYS}

• Wishing all of you, worldwide, a HAPPY SAINT VALENTINE'S DAY | ALWAYS. 
• YES, you read that correct as in my opinion it should be always 'Saint Valentine's Day'. 
• Not the commercialized way however, but in the purest sense of the word. 
• No one did write about this better than dear friend Celia from the blog High Heeled Life.
• It is far more about little pleasures and little gifts that we find for one another; year round.
• Or even, as Celia M. High Heeled Life & Resilientista did recommend in her 2 blog posts: This Valentine's be Your Own Valentine ...Part I
• Rekindling the Romance ~ With Yourself- Part 2 of 2 - Just click the two linkd for a worthwhile visit to her expert blog.
• Celia's third post: Valentine's Day - Spread Love and Kindeness
• As for me...?
• I still stick to: {Valentine - Toi & Moi} - Just click to go there...
• So WHAT is your opinion? Are you buying lots of commercialized things to celebrate or are you also a more pure and romantic TOI & MOI duo?
• Love to hear your version for 2013!

TOI & MOI

French for YOU & ME...

Related link:

{CUPID} | previous post by me

{Our Rose Suite Pantry & TRINITY EcoStorage™ NSF 6-Tier Wire Shelving Racks}

There are still rooms to be viewed from our Rose Suite. This time I take you to our Pantry & TRINITY EcoStorage™ NSF 6-Tier Wire Shelving Racks (click it). That is such a great find from Costco about two and a half year ago when they had them on sale for $ 89.00 each and that for 6 shelves and on wheels! It makes cleaning my pantry a snap and also the reach is never a problem as you can roll them away from the wall or whatever. Great investment and the open Eco Storage chrome shelving lets the light shine through in the room also. Solid shelving would block the light. 

From the hallway you enter here. The same Spanish tiles as we have in our entire Rose Suite.

We keep our old refrigerator and freezer combi in here as well. 

Cool boxes are stored on top of the shelves.

The entire room is air conditioned.

Very easy to stash away our groceries and it is also easy to have an over view.

Looking now back into the hallway...

This white shelf has no wheels but it is convenient to keep it.

Lots of luggage we store here as well.

We did replace the old suitcases with those light weight spinners on wheels.

Some down duvets and sleeping bags are being stored here as well.

On the shelf to the right I even keep my napkins and other table linens.

The laundry room is next door, so that is convenient.

To the wall there are shelves too and if I need to reach something there, I just ride my  EcoStorage™ off the wall and reach for the item I need.

One of our friends was in the cabinet business and we did buy enough to cover this wall.

Those cabinets too can be reached by pulling the shelves on wheels away.

So what is your opinion about Our Rose Suite Pantry?

Do you also have a pantry yourself for storage?
Do you like this Eco Storage system?

Loved to hear some thoughts!

Related links:
{Our Rose Suite's Little Room} | previous post by me
{Our Rose Suit Hallway} | previous post by me
{Welcome to Our Rose Suite - Entrance} | previous post by me
{Our Rose Suite Kitchenette} | previous post by me

{Our Rose Suite Living Room} | previous post by me
{Our Rose Suite Bedroom} | previous post by me
{The Construction of Our Rose Suite - Part II} | previous post by me
{The Construction of Our Rose Suite - Part I} | previous post by me
{Our Rose Suite with Angels + a REQUEST} | previous post by me

{Happy 89th Birthday Dear Mom}

Wishing my dear Mom a Happy 89th Birthday on February 12! She is quite a hero for still going strong after almost 5 years of kidney dialysis. You can read more in my previous posts about her, below... 

• Mom taught me how to love, love my human Parents and love my heavenly Parents. How sweet it always was when she came to my bedroom, to see if I got tucked in well, together with my sister Diny. She marked my forehead with a cross and said her sweet prayer: Danke Lieve Heerke, danke Lieve Vrouwke, danke engeltje zoet die ons Marietje bewaren moet. Thank you Dear Lord, thank you dear Lady Mary, thank you sweet Angel who must wake over our Marietje... With that prayer by Mom, I felt so loved and so fuzzy that in no time I was in dreamland! 
• Mom taught me how to care for others, how to cook, how to love flowers, how to do fine needlework.
• Mom taught me how to uphold myself and for wearing good, decent and supporting lingerie. She repeated what her Mom always taught her: Wie zijn eigen bewaart, die bewaart geen rotte appels. Those that keep their own do not keep bad apples. 
• Mom taught me how to keep the sun from damaging the face, she covered up with an all cotton headscarf, while working the fields. Smart woman as till today her face is soft and a lot younger looking than her actual age. So glad I too always covered up with a wash cloth when at the pool or wearing a hat at the beach. Thank you Mom!
• Mom taught me the love of ginger and I recall as a young teen, staying up late and baking her a surprise ginger cake on her birthday! Got reprimanded by Dad for not being in bed, I cried but it was worth it. Mom loved it!
• Mom also taught me to LOVE those diamond shaped nougat blocks with chocolate covered. I always would bring her one home when I was dating and going to a fair where they got sold.
• How Mom could put a spring in my step as I did smell her home cooked delicious tomato soup when we came walking home from school for lunch. No one could sautée onions better than Mom. She also used sautéed onions with her green beans and her ribs were so yummy with sautéed onions and tomatoes... Her apricot pie baking was something out of this world! 
• Mom kept an exemplary MORAL COMPASS—passed down by generations of strong women.
• With love I did bake and cook for you during your four stays with us here in the U.S.A. and also giving a High Tea in your honor for some ladies... Short video where at 1:23 you can see the tea/coffee table in her honor here in Georgia: Pieter J.C. Vedder squeezes lemon over Popovers for Mom & Dad & High Tea in Honor of Mom in Georgia ←click it.

Here in our living room we are together; framed forever in silver. Mom's is with roses...

I still can hear your voice when you exclaimed that those pictures were the most precious gift you ever received... 

We went together to the next city for this photo shoot, when you and Dad were staying with us in the USA.

That will forever remain a wonderful memory, as there are so many others!

Thanks Mom and Happy 89th Birthday from your American daughter.

Related links:
{The Little Black Dress & My MOM} | previous post by me
{Mom's 4th Dialysis Anniversary} | previous post by me
{Like to see my own Everlasting Silver ROSE?} | previous post by me
{MY VERY FIRST BLOG AWARD} | previous post by me, listing 10 points about me...

Mom got called MOVIE STAR for once she was the CENTER of ATTENTION! | later post with video

{Little Me Grocery Shopping in the Frost & Candy of my Childhood}

On Tuesday, January 15 of 1957, I had to do my usual chore of Grocery Shopping, in the Frost. This was Little Me back than in Horst, The Netherlands, with typical low skies and kind of foggy weather. Standing next to the driveway fence, at the age of almost 6. My Mom was pregnant with child #6 and my brother Harry was born 3 weeks later. It always fell upon me, to do the shopping chores, on foot or on my kick-bike. I do remember getting frosty white fingers when toting the heavy shopping bag home with me for one kilometer or 0.6 mile one way over a cinder street on foot. That's what life was like, back than. A kick-bike is no good on icy cinder roads!

It was quite an adventure to go to our local Albert Heijn grocery store.

Do you remember that they had to weigh the beans, the flour, the sugar etc. and taking it out of those wooden bins into a paper bag?

This photo below, I just bought and down loaded, from Nationale Beeldbank in The Netherlands and it shows the very first Albert Heijn grocery store in The Netherlands. The one I walked to, looked very similar.

If you would like to have a better view, look at this video clip from the→(click) Beeldbank in The Netherlands with a good showing of the interior at such a local grocer kruidenier in the 50s. 

This was before Super Markets came along...

The actual Albert Heijn where I went, at Schoolstraat 5 in Horst.

That very store got opened in 1936...

Every time when I went shopping I did get a paper cone with candy. Most of the time it were cinnamon or peppermint cushions.

My younger siblings were eagerly waiting for my return as I did bring home this loot of candy.

At those days there were no sweets for us otherwise.

Toversleutel sells them still ←(click it)

These are the old fashioned cinnamon cushions or kaneelkussentjes in Dutch.

It is quite interesting to see the Old Dutch candy that got sold by the scoop.

 Eucalypta > Oud Hollands Snoepgoed > Schepgoed ←(click it)

Was the Dutch selection of candy in above link different from what you grew up with?

My French born American friend Véronique from the blog: French Girl in Seatle just did a great post: Les bonbons de mon enfance. Candy of my childhood.

Véronique inspired me to do this post...

Hope you enjoyed this sweet journey of nostalgia!

{Our Beech Trees with their Fortitude and Perseverance}

Yes, in our wood garden we do have several Beech Trees, Fagus grandiflora. I would love for you to meet them and see some of their symbolic meaning, like Fortitude and Perseverance. The beech is called the Queen of the forest; fine and graceful. The beech symbolizes female wisdom and attention, warmth and comfort, fortitude and vigilance. In the Celtic culture the beech was symbol for creativity and good taste. For the Germans the beech was dedicated to the goddess Freya, goddess of marriage and fertility. In German the name for beech is Buche and the name for book in German is Buch. Maybe because of the ancient carving names in the bark of beech trees?

The beech is symbol for:

Wisdom and attention

Warmth and comfort

Fortitude and vigilance

Creativity

Perseverance

The beech with its leathery leaves and bark signifies endurance. It is also connected with death because of its relationship with the Gods Hades and Cybele. The beech tree is the emblem for Denmark and symbolizes prosperity, divination and immortality. No wonder that in The Netherlands they often used beech hedges around the cemeteries. 

The beech tree surely symbolizes immortality or lasting life as they do hold on to their leaves through winter. They persist and turn into a nice tan color after their golden bronze fall color. From The Deep Rooted Symbolism of Trees: Beech tree symbolism - tolerance, past knowledge, softens over criticism.

During winter time it is quite a show to have all these beautiful leaves still on the Beech trees. Sad fact will be that both of us will not live to see them bear fruit as they only do that at the age of 50! A beech tree reaches easily 100 years of age and there are several beech trees from 300 years. As a child we often went to the woods with my Dad to search for beech nuts! Dad knew always a spot where there was a huge beech tree.

They only will drop their leaves when new ones come...

Like a symbol of lasting life!

This beech tree is growing closer towards the street side, you can see through about mid photo.

Another one in the center of our wood garden.
Photos are taken on January 21, 2013.

This one has a perfect shape and that is more to the left in our wood garden, viewed from the house.
I had to remove that big branch that was hanging in the beech tree. Storms do break off weak limbs from taller trees and we always need to collect fallen branches.
Do you have a beech tree, or a beech hedge?

{Our Camellia Japonica Pink Perfection}

One more of Our Camellia blossoms I love to share with you. This time it is our Camellia Japonica Pink Perfection. One cannot have enough of these pink beauties in any winter garden! We certainly do enjoy them. 

Such a beauty and even the bud is looking very pretty.

There is someone hiding on that pink petal... probably that very insect ate from the leave?

Kind of folding the lower petals backwards...
No fragrance - only pure beauty!

Very romantic flower for winter time!
Thanks to Paola from the blog Laboratorio di Zia Polly for mentioning the romantic book, ballet and movie:
THE LADY OF THE CAMELLIAS or LA DAME AUX CAMÉLIAS by Alexandre Dumas

Linternaut.com/livre/magazine/ces-personnages-de-roman-qui-ont-vraiment-existe/image/dame-aux-camelias

Related articles:
{Our Camellia Japonica Nuccio's Gem} | previous post by me
{Our Camellia Japonica Debutante} | previous post by me
{Camellia Japonica White by the Gate} | previous post by me

{Camellia Debutante & Chocolate} | previous post by me

{Let It Be A Happy New Year} previous post by me, showing Camellia Japonica Debutante

{Our Camellia Sinensis Tea Plant and Japanese Magnolia} | previous post by me

{Our Camellia Nuccio's Gem & Christmas Angel Gift} | previous post by me

{Our Camellia Sinensis | Tea Plant} | previous post by me

{SUNSHINE as a Perfect Birthday Gift}

My Birthday was a very happy day and it was full of SUNSHINE. That made it already a Perfect Birthday Gift, considering the dreary, cold and rainy day that followed... Our foster-daughter Anita in Indonesia did Skype us via video call before breakfast time; that was a nice gift to see her beautiful face and smile in front of us. When we were reading our mail and had a cup of coffee with chocolate, our Liz called from Rotterdam in The Netherlands. With the iPhone in front of us, we could again chat via Skype video call. How times have changed for the better in communication! Lots of phone calls from family and friends. We also did go outside and I did snip off our only two Ehrlicheer daffodils that were blooming. We have almost no daffodil blooms this year; very sad... only leaves but no buds. But at least one Baccarat  perfume bottle could be filled with them, together with the two from a previous day. 

Happy at the dinner table with friends...

Happy with daughter Anita calling via Skype video before breakfast...

Happy with daughter Liz making a Skype video call and her singing happy birthday together with her Dad...

We started off with some Fog in the early morning but the forecast was excellent.

By 2:29 PM it was 78°F or 25°C Real Feel ~ what a Birthday gift with lots of SUNSHINE...

See the BLUE SKY? Smelling my two stems of Ehrlicheer daffodils; they are so fragrant!

Wearing my Escada jeans and Escada cotton cropped black sweater.

Also Escada shoes...

Frontal view of 62 year old me...

Happy day!

In-between telephone calls and such, I did manage to make some Tom Yam Koeng Thai soup with fresh Georgia shrimps and served with brown rice as a full meal.

Tiramisu for dessert with coffee...

Using my French Le Jacquard Français placemats and napkins and Baccarat crystal.

French Gien Rose soup bowls with Alvin Bridal Rose gumbo spoons...

Happily eating some of my tiramisu... sugar for a Birthday is allowed!

It felt great to be with dear friends at table...

Grateful for another year being added!

Related articles:

{Ehrlicheer & Sweetness Daffodils on my Birthday} previous post by me

{Our Daughter Liz} previous post by me

{Anita Anggraeni our Foster Daughter} previous post by me

{60 Years Ago} previous post by me