Hugh's take on 2017

A brand new year and a brand new thread, hopefully to be filled with books, CHEESE, pictures and any musings that take one's fancy. So let me start by wishing one and all a Happy New Year; may it be better than the last one was!

A brand new year and a brand new thread, hopefully to be filled with books, CHEESE, pictures and any musings that take one's fancy. So let me start by wishing one and all a Happy New Year; may it be better than the last one was!

Some months ago somebody -- sorry to say I've forgotten who -- said that as a kid they couldn't imagine mountains, as they'd never seen any, and I promised to post a picture my father took from the top of Mont-aux-Sources. It's taken me from then until now to find and scan the picture, but here it is at last.



Taken in July 1934, looking roughly southwards; altitude here about 10 500 ft.; at the foot of the cliff, just over 6000.

Don't know what's biting LT, but it's not just being slow; glacial would be a better term; hence the duplicate post at #2. Apologies.

I actually finished reading the first book on the thread yesterday, but who's counting?

Submerged by Daniel Lenihan -- I thought I'd only be able to correct the touchstone in about 3 weeks' time, at the rate it's reacting. Anyhoo. Despite bad grammar, variable proofreading and bitty narrative, I was sucked in to this story, which details the establishment and first steps of the US National Parks Service's Submerged Cultural Resources Unit. Bearing in mind that I don't have the courage to even think of doing what the author considers routine, I can only salute a truly major achievement in not only preserving irreplaceable heritage underwater, but pioneering underwater archaeological thought and techniques and changing attitudes in a fundamental and positive way. If you read it, you will need to suspend not disbelief but the linguistic critical faculty. There are considerable rewards for doing so. (Unkind thought: are some of the faults alluded to perhaps fallout from his frequently mentioned nitrogen narcosis?)

>4 hfglen: I've noticed the slowness. Suits my brain capacity today anyway.

Looking forward to another year of reading about your reading.

And CHEESE!

Wishing you all the very best for 2017, with many happy hours of reading of enjoyable books, accompanied by appropriate quantities of cheese and wine.

>5 MrsLee: That cheese looks inviting, but I'm not sure about the competition wanting it!

Happy new year and happy reading!

Happy New Year and a great year of reading.

>7 hfglen: Come on, it's cute! (Plus, I think you can take it if it comes to that...)

>10 zjakkelien: To be sure it is, but despite the intro to this pub, I'm particular about who gets to the secondhand cheese before I do ;)

Happy new year!

>6 Peace2:, 8, 9, 12: Happy new year, all! And many thanks for your good wishes.

And the first DNF of the year. I've finally given up on The Future: Six drivers of global change by Al Gore. If you accept that what one reads influences how one writes, the problem immediately becomes blindingly, stiflingly clear. Mr Gore spent a long time in government reading bureaucratic memos every day. And so he has written an extra-length civil service memo on everything that's wrong in the world. Now undoubtedly there's a need for a book on the problems we should expect to meet in the next generation or so. What I query is whether the leaden style of this one serves anybody's purpose (except possibly the deniers'). The best I can say is that it's an excellent cure for insomnia. Zzzzz.

Happy New Year, Hugh! I hope it is a wonderful one for you.

I'll be tagging along in the lurking seats if not right up at the front.

A visitor yesterday had never heard of Brother Cadfael. So I lent him a couple and was inspired to re-read The Sanctuary Sparrow myself. Enjoyed it all over again, the second time around.

Happy new year! I look forward to following your travels, both literary and literal, this year.

>14 hfglen: Funny that his editor didn't consider pairing him with a ghost writer to leaven his style. Bit of a missed opportunity to reach a wider audience.

And Happy New Year to you!

Mmmm, cheese.

Hey wait! Vermin and cheese.

This is gonna be a problem. lol

I'm currently reading the Cadfael series. Glad to hear it stands up to a re-read...

Happy New Year, Hugh!

CHEESE!

>19 Bookmarque: Just cut off the chewed bits (of the cheese, not the mouse) and give it a rinse. LOL

>19 Bookmarque: Nothing wrong with a little extra protein, right?

>20 BookstoogeLT: It stands up to several well-spaced (a couple of years apart) re-reads IMHO.

An old dear gave me Sissinghurst: the making of a garden yonks ago, but I've only just got around to reading it. My bad. It's well worth the effort, especially if you like looking at other people's gardens, or are planning to, or have ever visited Kent. I first encountered the name of Anne Scott-James as one of the level-headed ones on the "My Word" panel on the steam-radio in the long-ago days of youth, so I expected and for the most part found perfect English. Only one persistent error grated: couldn't someone have explained to her or the copy editor that 'specie' is minted coinage, and the singular of 'species' is 'species'. But apart from that, an excellent read. It was published as long ago as 1974, so is somewhat of a historical document, and presented in the style of the times -- relatively few pictures, even fewer of which are in the colour that 21st-century thought would consider obligatory for a book of this nature. Sorry this note sounds much more negative than the many virtues of this book deserve.

Oh, I hates the DNFs, but it's silly to read stuff you aren't enjoying!

>25 majkia: The bad part of this one is that hidden in the bureaucratese dross were some things that need to be said clearly and engagingly.

Talking of Sissinghurst, as we were, here's an overview from c. 1981.

Happy 2017, Hugh! Hope it's filled with books and CHEESE (minus rodents) and lots of pictures.

>16 hfglen: I'm re-reading Cadfael too! It's one of those series that is good whenever it's read.

>7 hfglen: If you have read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, you will realize that your reactions are being closely studied. Careful now, your brain may soon be required for the answer to life, the universe and everything.

I will definitely be rereading some Cadfael novels this year.

>29 MrsLee: good point. I first encountered HHGTG as the 1981-ish TV series, and have a set of the books.

By the way, I have just heard a wonderful term that I can commend to the ISPCB. Books are not "got rid of" or "rehoused". They are liberated to spread their memes far and wide.

>31 hfglen: Nice one, Hugh. You should bring it up at the next committee meeting. We can get mugs and tee shirts made up for the occasion.

:-)

The Bletchley Girls. Reminiscences of 15 of the women who worked at or with Bletchley Park on the British effort to decrypt German, Italian and Japanese secret codes during World War 2. Why "or with"? Because tow or three of the ladies were attached to "Station Y", meaning they were stationed in various remote places listening to enemy radio communications and supplying "Station X" -- Bletchley Park -- with raw data that the others worked on. Not that any of them had anything like an overall view of what they were doing, or how their job fitted in to the bigger picture. Tessa Dunlop (thinks: is she any relation to Fuschsia of that Ilk, the Sichuanese-cooking author?) spent some considerable time interviewing these ladies, when they were aged between 89 and 96. Why so late? Because Bletchley Park was Britain's most secure wartime secret, and for a long time after; it is only in the last 40 years or less that these ladies have started to get the recognition they deserve. So yes, the story in this book is necessarily bitty, which is not a crime, as that is all it ever could be. The work was so secret that none of them knew what their billet-mates did, and if memory serves me well, one only met her neighbour from when they were both at Woburn, decades later. But the equipment they used was the first ancestral form of the computers we find today in cell-phones, washing machines, the GD and elsewhere. And so I can only be pleased (as some of the Bletchley Girls are evidently not) that the place is now a trio of museums showcasing their work, and the history of radio and computing. I found the book interesting, but it needs a companion describing how the Enigma and other codes worked and were broken. There appear to be several such -- wonder if the library has any of them?

>34 hfglen: Have you watched the television series of that subject? Very good IMO. I'll keep an eye out for this book.

>34 hfglen: The Code Book by Simon Singh has a good account of the breaking of the Enigma code. It is an excellent book on the whole history of encryption and code breaking.

>35 MrsLee: No, I don't think it's ever been aired in this country. But the book of the series is referenced in The Bletchley Girls, and I have it in mind as a search target.

>36 pgmcc: Thank you, Pete. That sounds like a very definite BB.

>38 hfglen: That would be the first notch of 2017. :-)

I should think the book would be readily available in the library as it is not that old.

Current Read: Riddled with Life.

One of my favourite cartoon strips is Hagar the Horrible. One of my favourite characters in that strip is Dr Zook. So how could I not pick up at the library, a book by a Dr (actually Professor) Zuk? Fortunately, at 1/5 way through, I'm hooked. More later.

Time for a weekly picture. I found this while looking for the Karoo image for Sylvia; this is a place called Garden of Eden, on the southern Cape coast, and one of the few natural forests in South Africa. I hope it inspires Pete in the use of his camers.

The City in the Autumn Stars. My first Michael Moorcock in many a long day, though I read him avidly in my misspent youth. This one brings back vividly both why I read the books so enthusiastically 50 years ago and why I stopped. Would I call this one steampunk? Picaresque? Possibly both.

Young Manfred von Bek is in Paris at the start of the story, just as the Terror gets under way (1794). He decides that a rapid and discreet exit is his best option, and tries to make his way to a minor (south-eastern?) German state called Mirenburg. Pursued by the vengeful Montsorbier, he only just makes the Swiss border in the Jura. Here he meets a strange and beautiful lady who helps him escape Montsorbier's clutches. As he pursues her in the hopes of a second meeting, first to Vienna, then Prague, then Mirenburg, matters get steadily more supernaturally strange. And then into a parallel universe, from which he is, eventually, rescued by a crook with a steerable balloon powered by a gunpowder-fired internal combustion engine (hence the steampunk). The story is nothing if not immersive, and one knows some of the characters, but it is evident that the author has immersed himself in the style of the Augustan / Regency age. The result is wonderfully overwritten by 21st-century standards, and it is almost impossible to read every word.

>41 hfglen: Lovely shot!

>41 hfglen: That's beautiful. It's so lush! Just what I needed to see this chilly snow-covered morning. :o)

>41 hfglen: Lovely and peaceful.

>42 hfglen: That is a terrific picture of the Moorcock book. I have not read him, only about him, but what I have read about him has never described his actual writing style so clearly.

I've never much cared for Michael Moorcock, but your discussion of The Bletchley Girls did catch my eye. Thinking I'll track it down for the TBR pile.

>41 hfglen: Lovely photo.

>42 hfglen: Sounds interesting. Piqued my curiosity.

>41 hfglen: whoa, that's beautiful! When I think Africa, I don't think green, lush, and ferns!

>48 catzteach: Quite right! Only about 0.7% of South Africa is natural forest. (There is more further north.)

Thought of you today, Hugh. The gentleman ahead of me online at a TJ Maxx department store was telling the checkout woman that he had just arrived from South Africa a few days ago and was having a little trouble adjusting to the temperature. It was -2°F (-19°C) when I woke up this morning, just to give you an idea of what he was talking about it. Poor man wasn't dressed for it properly, either. He'll be happier in a few days. It's supposed to be 55°F (10°C) by mid week.

>50 clamairy: Poor guy! In that case, he'd dropped 50°C almost overnight -- no wonder he was not a happy camper. And I could see the conversation he had in the clothing store a week or 3 before leaving (having been there myself).
"I need appropriate kit for a cold winter"
"Oo-er. (much sucking of teeth). Our winter range is only coming in about April-May time."

>41 hfglen: I can see how the forest got it's name! It's beautiful.

>41 hfglen: That place is beautiful.

>43 majkia: - 45, 47, 48, 52, 53. Thank you! It's a great place to visit.

Finished Riddled with Life. Interesting, but maybe not for the weak of stomach. I never thought I'd live to say it, but this time I'm quite glad there are no pictures.

It is becoming ever more widely known that each one of us carries an immense number of (mostly harmless -- maybe Douglas Adams was right!) fellow-travellers, mostly but not all bacteria. And it is becoming ever more evident that the harmless ones may be good news if we're young enough when we first meet them. They help train the immune system so that it doesn't go bananas out of the chemical equivalent of boredom, and start attacking its own body. The problem is the other parasites, which Prof. Zuk goes into loving detail about. Glad I read it, but not sure I'd recommend it to anybody in the pub.

>54 hfglen: It seems like there have been a plethora of books published recently on the subject. I haven't read any yet, but have a couple on my TBR pile. I think I'll skip Riddled With Life, though, as my previous encounter with Prof. Zuk's writing left me unimpressed.

You have a point there. She seems to have about half-a-dozen stock phrases with which she tries to make us believe she has a sense of humour. It doesn't work, at least not for me.

Further to >36 pgmcc:, it turns out that the library system here owns two copies of The Code Book, neither of them up here in the "Upper Highway" area. So I have asked for an inter-library loan, and await the results with interest but not much hope, given the library's track record of 100% failure to deliver on previous requests.

Re-read of The Holy Thief, which I first met 3 or 4 years ago. It has morphed into a "comfort read", and none the worse for that.

>57 hfglen: That is a shame. Hopefully the library might surprise you this time.

To the Manor Drawn by Leslie Ann Bosher. American lady and Brit husband decide it's time to move into a more rural home than London's Chelsea. She found a village near Paris; he found a stately home in Rutland that was being carved up into apartments. So they moved to Rutland. The stories here detail the move and the subsequent year of settling in to England's smallest county. Which they evidently thoroughly enjoyed. Thoroughly recommendable to any Dragoneer who wants a comfort read that can be broken up into lots of individually tasty morsels.

The story of KwaZulu-Natal by Dr Billy Reed -- no touchstone, which makes sense. To misquote a Dorothy Parker review "This is not a {book} to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force." It is semi-privately published, and to the sins of bad English, worse editing and disastrous proofreading (if indeed it was ever dignified by the last two) to which Peter refers in another thread, it adds factual errors, omissions and half-truths. This would be of no consequence, but for the fact that it appears that this book was originally written for a tour-guiding course. (In this country tour guides are licenced and are supposed to be trained and to write an exam before getting their badge.) Oh dear. If nothing else, this book explains the hot air and B.S. tourists are all too often subjected to.

This is a greater pity, in that the province thus traduced deserves better, and mostly gets it in other guides. A proper guide to the province would be at least twice the size of this book (144 A5 pages), and possibly three times if illustrated. It would give adequate detail of the many attractions to be seen here, and not just the Politically Correct ones.

I cannot even claim this as a DNF; a quick skim was all that was needed to label it a disaster.

>61 hfglen: I feel your pain!

>57 hfglen: No library should have that kind of failure rate when it comes to inter-library loan. What on earth is the issue there?

>63 jillmwo: Wish I knew, Jill.

And now it's time for the weekly picture. This week, a fish-tail palm growing not far from here.

>65 hfglen: Very nice.

>65 hfglen: Does a fish tail palm produce anything edible, like dates or something? Maybe my new diet is getting to me - i seem to think about food constantly...

>65 hfglen: Oh, how lovely!

>65 hfglen: beautiful!

>67 Darth-Heather: Not that I'm aware of. The best comment I know of about their usefulness is in a Mauritian palm book. There they say that fish-tail palms are ideal for shopping centre parking lots, because they grow for 10-20 years, flower once and kick the bucket. And no shopping centre manager yet born can leave the parking lot alone for more than 10 years, so when they come to mess with it the trees are about to peg out anyway, and no harm done.

>65 hfglen: Great photo!

>70 hfglen: LOL

The Shepherd's Crown snf. No more to come from the great Sir pTerry. And Granny Weatherwax dies. And the rest of the book is about how Tiffany Aching has to cope as Granny's chosen successor. Every bit up to Sir pTerry's standard, though his wife and daughter and an editor needed to give it a "final" polish, and the editorial note is dated 2 months after the author died. The result is a bittersweet but very good read. No more detail, it would all be spoilery. Just read the book (with Kleenex to hand if needed).

I'm bemused. By the way dumb bits of history repeat themselves. Tonight's news had a story of a bod on a farm near Mafikeng (about 1000 km from the sea) who is building a vast 12-sleeper, sea-going catamaran. At least this time the ground around the shed is flat, and there's space for a low-loader to turn. But it reminded Better Half and me of a disaster we could watch happening some 45 years ago. A man who lived in an expensive suburb of Johannesburg decided to build his own yacht. Pity there were just a few problems with this. You may be able to guess the nature of some of them when you learn that the suburb is called Westcliff. Yes, it's on top of the hill. And the front garden where this structure was being built was on the service road for a major artery. So the way out involved steep gradients and sharp turns. And then he made the hull out of concrete, I kid you not. So needless to say there was a major problem getting the low-loader in and the hull out, after it had stood there forlornly for several years. Truly, there's nowt so quare as folk.

>73 hfglen: ACK! Wish I could unsee that third sentence. Not that it's completely unexpected I guess... Perhaps you should move that bit to the Spoiler section of your post. :o/

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Hugh! I hope you have a great day.

Happy Birthday! I have leftover dark chocolate tort to share, as well as the rest of my meal if you would like some!

Thank you, Pete! Pretty ordinary day, but I hope this evening to learn about plans for a rail tunnel under the Bering Sea, thus effectively providing a rail link between London and Washington (an intriguing concept, especially as the tunnel would pass through a very active tectonic plate boundary).

>77 MrsLee: Tempting! All I would need now is the air ticket to California. Many thanks for the good wishes and thought. You'll enjoy the coincidence that I spent some time trying to explain a Viennese Spanische Windtorte to the Children's Church lady this morning.

ETA: Some time later: And then the picture arrives! Yum!! But I may achieve something similar tomorrow night, when we take Marie (visiting from Pretoria) to O Tio, our favourite Portuguese restaurant.

Happy Birthday!

Hope I'm not too late for adding in my hopes for a great birthday celebration -- one with cake and lots of books as gifts!!!

Hope your day has been full of books, wine, cheese and joy, not necessarily in that order.

Happy birthday! I hope it was good one!

>80 majkia:-83 Ever so many thanks to all of you!

One book to keep: an omnibus volume of Ursula Le Guin's short stories, The Wind's Twelve Quarters and The Compass Rose. Re-read of the Earthsea Quartet duly suspended. Also five from the library; will comment on those in due course, when I've read them.

Not much wine and cheese, but a remarkably good chicken curry at the German Club (that makes sense here in Durban, the largest Indian city outside India) before the Railway Society meeting. The main item there was a Discovery Channel offering on a proposed 103km (65-mile) tunnel under the Bering straits linking Russian (easternmost) Siberia and Alaska. Yes it would mean you could in theory board a train in London (why not Inverness?) and disembark from the same train in Washington (why not Miami?). Yes it would be the fastest way apart from flying to get goods from China to the US. But outside temperatures of -30°C? 4 hours of daylight each winter's day? Earthquakes measuring 7.5 Richter-scale points every few years? Better Half and I are glad this is one engineering marvel we won't see.

So kry ons Afrikaans. I'd be surprised if more than half-a-dozen Dragoneers can surmount the language barrier on this one. It's a history of the Afrikaans language, written by a language professional. So there's a second language barrier behind the obvious one: he's not sparing with the jargon. One thing that wasn't even acknowledged when I was at school that I found interesting, was the Khoi-Khoi (Hottentot to us old toppies) influence steering Afrikaans away from classic Nederlands. Interesting for a day or 2, but I can't recommend it to anybody in this pub.

And now, the weekly picture. It's two days late, for which my apologies.



The Umgeni Steam Railway making ready to leave Inchanga at the end of a running day. Appropriate, seeing I've been spending a lot of time since Wednesday on the @Railwaysoc library.

One of my favorite short stories in The Winds Twelve Quarters is the story "April in Paris". A bit of science fiction fluff, but such a lovely piece of science fiction fluff. No particular point or agenda, just a nice story.

>86 hfglen: I love trains.

Fans of Brother Cadfael may wish to know that a BBC dramatisation of Monk's Hood is presently (for about the next three weeks) available here. Enjoy.

>89 hfglen: Nice! Thanks. I got sucked into Cadfael by the tv series with Jacobi, 2 years ago or so? Steadily making my way through the books. Will probably watch the series again once I finish the books. I was having a very hard time with them changing the people playing side characters, as I wasn't familiar with the side characters. Hopefully after the books, it won't matter who plays Hugh, it'll be "Hugh" no matter who plays him.

>89 hfglen: Oh boy! I didn't know about the show; I've only recently started on the books.

>90 BookstoogeLT: I had forgotten about the character switching. It's been a very long time since I watched them, but I am another who discovered the books through the shows. Cadfael will always be Jacobi for me, but Hugh is not set into my brain so much.

>92 MrsLee: "Hugh is not set into my brain so much". In this thread that's a surreal comment ;-)

>93 hfglen: Oops! I'm sorry! YOU my friend are very strongly set in my brain. You are that very clever and funny man who loves hot food, and ancient cookery and all things plants, who is sweet, charming and kindly shares his knowledge and experiences with others. Although, I'm not sure I remember what you actually look like. :)

>94 MrsLee: Awwww! All is forgiven.

ETA: But your penance is, you will walk with a limp from having had your leg pulled vigorously in #93.

>93 hfglen: >94 MrsLee: and >95 hfglen: well played!

>95 hfglen: At least that is a better/more interesting reason for a limp than plantar fasciitis!

The other day Peter mentioned that his mental image of our pub includes rough-cast walls, stone flagged floors and ceilings of broad wooden boards. That immediately put me in mind of the Swellendam Drostdy, although that has cow-dung floors in most rooms and reed-and-clay ceilings. I'm sure I had a picture of the building, but can't find it yet. So here instead is a different rural 18th-century building, namely the Burgerhuis in Stellenbosch.

Waah! I've finished The Code Book. Now I shall have to look for another read, and it won't be as good. On the other hand, yay! I got to read this amazingly mind-expanding and thought provoking book. Many thanks to Pete for the recommendation.

Just to let those who are following the BBC radio adaptation of Earthsea has moved on to The Farthest Shore. Listen to it here in the next 4 weeks if you're interested.

>99 hfglen: I am delighted you liked the book. That is the induction training completed. You will be contacted in relation to your next training phase. Eat this post as soon as you have read it.

PS I love the pub picture.

>101 pgmcc: Thank you, Pete.

The Rithmatist, my first Brandon Sanderson, but I sincerely hope not the last. In case anybody in the GD hasn't read it, "Harry Potter meets steampunk" (though this world uses clockwork rather than steam to power everything) might be a good description. Almost anything more would venture too far into spoiler territory for comfort. Suffice to say, for those who don't like YA sex, yes there is a boy and a girl, they can't stand each other for 3/4 of the book, and only succeed in co-operating without snapping at each other in the last 2 chapters.

Does anyone in the GD know anything about The Aztlanian, which LT gives as a sequel but with no further details (no date, publisher, ISBN, review -- nothing)?

>103 hfglen: Cool! I just picked up The Rithmatist so I'm happy to hear positive things. Brandon Sanderson became a new favorite author last year when I read the Mistborn trilogy.

Edit: Sanderson is very good to his fans! He's a fast writer and likes to provide updates on all his projects, even providing estimated timelines. This blog post provides a status on Rithmatist #2 http://brandonsanderson.com/state-of-the-sanderson-2016/

>104 Narilka: Ah. All is explained. Many thanks. (Thinks: I wonder how LT manages to record 24 copies of a book that doesn't yet exist ... wishlists, maybe?)

Wishlists sound plausible :)

>98 hfglen: I suppose we could use the dung of our water buffaloes, but perhaps old tiles would be best.

>107 MrsLee: The advantage would be that you could paint a carpet on to the dung floor (as in the front room of the Swellendam Drostdy museum), but it wears quickly and makes immense quantities of dust. And if you protect the matrix with peach pips they become as slippery as glass when they wear. Tiles last much longer in a safe condition.

>103 hfglen: Oh, how awesome. I'm always happy when someone finds a new author, and even happier when it's one I too appreciate. And many thanks to you for the reminder. I completely forgot that I bought this for my Kindle quite some time ago when it was a daily deal. I shall make a point of getting to it sooner rather than later.
:o)

By the way, Poirot-philes may wish to know that Lord Edgware Dies has been dramatised by the BBC, and is available here for about the next 3-4 weeks.

Trains! :)

I was looking for materials for Clam's hat, but it seems I don't have any pictures of farmed ostriches at Oudtshoorn (where feathers are easily come by). So we'll just have to be careful with these wild -- and much more dangerous -- birds in the Kruger Park.

>112 hfglen: Ooh...I don't think we should put one of those on Clam's head! The few times that I've been close to ostriches they've terrified me.

0.o
o.0

Not on my head! Nooooooo!

I was thinking more of putting something like this (from Safari Ostrich Farm, Oudtshoorn, Western Cape) on Our Clam's head. Clearly, we missed out the step of harvesting the feathers in #112.

>115 hfglen: That's the sort of thing I had in mind! Clam, make sure you don't lean to either side, or you will tip over.

No wonder I hate hats, lol

That's quite the hat!

Now that's quite the picture hat, isn't it?

I wouldn't recommend wearing it outdoors - you might get attacked by birds of prey...

>120 Darth-Heather: or it might act as a windsurfing parachute, and we'd see you sailing away "over the rainbow".

>120 Darth-Heather: Oh, I don't know...what creature would be foolhardy enough to attack an ostrich?

>122 SylviaC: they are quite tall and intimidating looking, aren't they? The one I met at the zoo was, at least.

Birds do surprising stuff sometimes - I was on the flag squad in high school and would practice at home, until a male cardinal took a dislike to the flag and started attacking it every time I brought it outside. It was quite a large flag, but he wasn't having any of that in HIS yard.

>122 SylviaC: Humans, lions, cheetahs, hyenas and crocodiles, mostly, according to Google ;-)
Safer if you approach from behind, as ostriches kick forwards.

>115 hfglen: I would love to dress up just once and wear a hat like that. Maybe get some good photos taken in that get-up while I'm at it. Okay, maybe NOT quite that elaborate... :o)

Pompeii, the living city by Alex Butterworth and Ray Laurence. History, interspersed with fictional vignettes to explain some or another point. The result reads like a novel, if you don't worry about the several hundred footnotes referencing mostly sources, and a few items of additional information. Utterly fascinating for 21st-century tourists who have been there or are planning to go see the place. But aren't I glad I can't time-travel and live there in its first-century heyday!

>125 clamairy: There are tourist traps where you can do exactly that, and have a suitably sepia-toned Victorianesque picture taken. I know I've seen a couple, but can't offhand remember where.

They were South Africans by John Bond. First published in 1956, and not wearing its years all that well. Essentially a sixth-form history book, detailing the (considerable, and mostly unsung) contributions of English-speakers to South Africa. Being above all else a text book, it manages to be dull, stodgy and lacking detail, all at the same time. A clunker, and a good book to miss; or it would be if there was anything better in that niche.

Elizabethan England by A.H. Dodd. More history; not a quick read but not as heavy going as the previous one. It also has the advantage of a decent number of pictures.

>126 hfglen: is the Pompeii book particularly dense with footnotes? Or can one ignore them and just enjoy the ride? I'm intrigued but know I'm not up to any seriously challenging history at the moment.

>130 jillmwo: A good 2/3 of the footnotes are eminently ignorable, being no more than references. Handily, they are gathered at the end of the book (so, properly, endnotes) and so are unobtrusive.

*thumbs up*

The Life and Times of Victoria by Dorothy Marshall. Part of a long series of biographies published some 40 years ago, and still at least mildly interesting. Worth reading when the library is low on more compelling material; in this case, good background for the YouTube video that Morphy gave us a link to on @jillmwo's thread. (Though somehow the mind boggles at the thought of Our Late Great Queen and Empress being caught short while in a crinoline.) Hardly surprising that local libraries are well supplied with this series: they were never exactly expensive, and Natal has always been The Last Outpost of the Empah. Jill will be pleased to not that there are no footnotes.

Time for the weekly photo. A friend took me to a house he's been renovating as offices, halfway up Field's Hill (so sort of just below the edge of the plateau-let I live on) -- picture of the view next week. But this week's picture is the reason we went there: this enormous old Tree Aloe (Aloe barberiae if you're interested) he found in the garden. It's easily twice the size of any other of its kind I've ever seen, and I'd guess it's a remnant of the forest that once clothed the hills behind Durban -- a good 160 going 170 years ago. I think that's an exciting find.

That's impressive! So is it related to the aloe vera plants that are the only things I seem to be able to keep alive in pots?

Yes indeedle. Though you'd need a monstrous large pot for this one, and AFAIK this one has no medicinal uses. (You might try Bitter Aloe -- A. ferox -- if you get a chance; it has a seriously cold-resistant strain, and is used in cosmetics and DIY medication; disconcertingly, I've also seen sugar-preserved fragments of the leaves offered as candy.)

>134 hfglen: Wow! The things it has seen! If it could see. :)

You have a good point there. It's close enough to the way up Field's Hill to have seen oxwagons, Zulus bent on wiping out the sea-people, post-carts, the coming of the railway, British troops bent on wiping out the Zulus, and later the Boers, South African troops setting out for both World Wars, the first and subsequent cars, over 90 Comrades Marathons ...

That is one magnificent tree! What would you estimate the diameter of that trunk is?

Very cool tree!

What a super tree!

>139 clamairy: Tim measured the circumference as 11.4 metres, which gives a DBH of 3.63 metres or nearly 12 feet.

Extra Virgin among the olive groves of Liguria by Annie Hawes. Two sisters go off for a few weeks' casual work in a village (more-or-less) overlooking the Italian Riviera. In their time off they go exploring, and end up buying an abandoned cottage overlooking their village. Where they live for the next 15 years, Adjusting the cottage (read the book to find the significance of the initial capital) and becoming absorbed into the company. Distantly (very distantly) reminiscent of Gerald Durrell on Corfu, but without the animals; but just as entertaining.

Firefight, nearly but not quite the most recent Brandon Sanderson. There appear to be 3 1/2 books in this series; why am I not surprised that the only visible one in the local library is the next-to-last? Though it does seem that Durban is not the only library system with this eccentric view of series.

And the book? Action all the way. The POV character seldom seems to get any sleep at all, which is bad news for a 19-year-old brain. The story hangs together in the grand Sanderson manner, though one reviewer here on LT considered young David to be too hormonal to be credible. Myself, I'm not so sure. Overall, an enjoyable day's read, and I'll keep an eye open for more by this author.

Guilty as charged! :-D
And a good reason why I stay away from YA as a whole. I just can't overlook certain things that one has to to enjoy YA...

It's yonks since I showed any animals in the weekly picture. So here's a (semi-)wild cheetah seen right next to the fence at Nwanedi Nature Reserve, now in Limpopo Province, then in Venda, in 1984.

Nice cheetah.

Nice puddy-tat, nice, nice kitteh. *backing away slowly* Oh, wait, you said there was a fence.

How high is the fence?

>146 hfglen: Do you ever wonder how these kind of animals (and a few others) would react if they saw themselves in a mirror? Wonder no more and just click here.

>149 SylviaC: It was a more-or-less standard 8-foot game-proof fence. I cropped the picture so that it doesn't show.

>150 AHS-Wolfy: I hadn't, actually. There are many accounts of animals and birds attacking their images in car wing mirrors and hubcaps in our various game reserves.

>150 AHS-Wolfy: >151 hfglen: Not a mirror story, but...our first dog went crazy, started barking and jumped up onto the back of the couch to get closer to a painting on the wall which featured a sheep standing in the foreground looking out. Luckily there were no real sheep living in the area.

>152 pgmcc: When one of our Feline Overlords tries to get near one of the pictures hanging on the wall we know there's a gecko hiding behind it :-)

>153 hfglen: Geckos are cute. I shared an hotel room with one in Accra many moons ago.

Yersss, they are useful in that they eat mosquitoes, but on the other hand it's not possible to house-train them, and they evidently don't believe in outdoors.

>155 hfglen: Maybe make them little diapers?

>156 zjakkelien: Naah. Just let the cats keep the gecko population in bounds.

>146 hfglen: a wonderful photo! I hadn't realized that cheetah's tail would be so thickly furred.

>158 Darth-Heather: There's quite a lot of weight there, not just fur. It's an important balance organ when the animal corners at speed. (Irreverent thought: imagine if F1 or police cars were similarly built ...)

Finished Bloomsbury at Home last night. Why does the touchstone start by selecting The Odyssey until corrected to LT's second choice, which is what I typed in? Anyhoo, a 3-star look at a strange bunch of people -- though maybe not so strange now as they were then. Illustrated, unfortunately, mostly with paintings by members of the group, which give little idea of what was going on, however atmospheric and 'period' they may be.

Found Ripe for the Picking in Waterfall library, which normally has precious little worth reading but has today redeemed itself in spades! This is the sequel to Extra Virgin that I recorded with pleasure in #143, and Better Half is now enjoying. The sequel is setting up to be just as good, even with borer in the roof for starters.

>159 hfglen: my house cats' tails are somewhat longer in relation to their overall body length, and not so thick, comparatively. But, they aren't very fast, either. :)

>157 hfglen: But, but... they are cute and useful and eat mosquitoes! (I say safely from my vermin-free room. Well, I've had mice once. They are also cute, but less useful.)

>162 zjakkelien: But, but ... cats are cute and useful and eat geckos!

>163 hfglen: Hahahahaha!

Finished Ripe for the Picking this morning. Just as much fun as Extra Virgin, and starts where that one leaves off. With Ciccio as the love of her life, the author faces up to Frank the Knife replacing the roof of her cottage, which had a bad case of borer. While the cottage is roofless, Annie is housed in a cousin's taverna in the next valley -- together with Salvatore's (Ciccio's father's) chickens, as he appears to be at death's door. The family decide that Ciccio and Annie should buy a neighbouring vineyard belonging to a cousin (acquaintance? there's a difference?), which they do out of the proceeds of her first book. Despite the drama of being semi-adopted by Ciccio's excitable family, all ends in sweetness and light ... for a while.

When we lived in Bangkok, we had chinchuks (small lizards of a similar species to geckos) running up and down the walls. Those were cute and ate mosquitoes. Geckos (IMHO) are bigger and not nearly as cute even if they DO eat mosquitoes. I am of the opinion one should encourage the household cats as they do go chasing off after both chinchuks and geckos.

I also like the photos of the big cats. (Did I already say that?)

>166 jillmwo: Thank you. At least our cats limit the indoor-guano problem ;-)

>166 jillmwo: "When we lived in Bangkok..." She tosses off casually as if it's something of no account. Layers upon layers of mystery this woman is shrouded in.

Just finished a re-read of The Other Wind, which put a thought into my head. Namely, I suspect her home environment of the Pacific Northwest shows in Earthsea in a place not all other Dragoneers would see, namely the Immanent Forest. Which is a place I'd love to see, or even better, its (sub)tropical extension. Here's what's bugging me:

She lists some half-dozen trees (or even fewer kinds) to be found there, and mentions one in particular as being way commoner than all the others -- typical north-temperate forest, with millions of copies of the same kind of tree. So far so good; let me throw into the mix the idea that in all of North-Western Europe there are 66 kinds of indigenous trees (North America does better). Now, when the Tree Society went for walks in the Magaliesberg -- back in the blessed days of when -- we would consider that a barely acceptable haul for the first two hours' walking; long weekend outings yielded species-lists in the hundreds. And so in my home environment I could easily imagine a Manketti tree or an umKhuhlu tree wandering around looking for a mate. It might have to go several kilometres past a gazillion other trees to find another of the same kind, and if you grew up in or near a (sub)tropical forest, that's normal. So in our perfect fantasy world to visit, can I have a corner of the Immanent Grove with thousands of different trees, and at least some of the associated wildlife, please?

I'm here Hugh, lurking and enjoying your posts tremendously. So many things I could comment on, but too much if I ever hope to come close to catching up with everyone. *waves*

It's lovely to see your pictures again and I've taken a bullet or two - the Pompeii book sounds very good for starters.

*waves* Hi Katy! Good to have you here!

>168 MrsLee: I'm on to it @MrsLee. We've had our suspicions about this one for some time. We have been waiting for a slip-up just like this. I shall keep you informed of progress in the investigation.

>172 pgmcc: Good man.

Journey to the South, No, O touchstone machine, not Kon-Tiki nor Scott of the Antarctic, just exactly what I typed. Annie Hawes's partner's Uncle Enzo has died, and the di Gilio family must go to the month-later wake. In Calabria, 1300 km (according to Google) or 1600 km (according to her) away from their home in Diano San Pietro, Liguria. Mamma Francesca insists on taking half a ton of food to the Calabrian cousins, and so they have to drive there. In one day (rather you than me, mate). A fascinating book on their adventures and Annie's (vertically steep) learning curve ensues. But all good things come to an end, and so after learning volumes and finding the plot that Ciccio was left, they have to pack to go home. With even more "proper food" for Salvatore, who couldn't come. And Francesca insists that they have to do the whole journey in less than a day, because she must get home to cook supper for Salvatore. A fascinating read, but I'm glad I wasn't with them. That said, if I had infinite funds I'd be planning a trip to Italy. I can think of more than a few Dragoneers who would enjoy this one, and am inclined to disagree with the LT reviewer who considered it the weakest of Ms Hawes's books so far; it follows naturally on the previous two.

Here's another pair of big kitties for @jillmwo



They remind me of the Ogden Nash verse:

The Lion is the King of Beasts
and husband of the Lioness;
Gazelles and others on whom he feasts
address him as: "Your Hioness".

Love the photo. I bet that's what my cats think they look like!

>175 hfglen: big fuzzy kittens! I want to scratch the tufts on their heads.

>175 hfglen: They are beautiful! One day I will come and see lions in the wild. Until then I do enjoy your photos!

>175 hfglen: Hugh, the picture is lovely. Unlike @Darth-Heather I will restrain myself when it comes to scratching the tufts on the heads of wild lionesses.

>179 pgmcc: but, all kitties are itchy on their heads, and under their chins. At least that is what they tell me.

>177 Darth-Heather: Here's why Pete's right. This monument celebrates an event when the then Sabie Game Reserve was still very new-and-all.



One night in August 1903 Harry Wolhuter, the reserve's only game ranger, was riding homewards on his horse, when he was attacked by a lion (too much scratching of its mane?). Anyhoo, he was knocked off the horse, but managed to retrieve his sheath knife and stab the lion to death. Badly wounded, he managed to drag himself into a tree and secure himself there with his belt. His dog kept the other lion at bay by barking all night, and eventually help arrived. (What became of the horse I couldn't tell you, but Wolhuter's book Memories of a Game Ranger might.) He was carted off to Barberton Hospital (the nearest one at the time), where he nearly died of septicaemia -- lions aren't noted for brushing their teeth -- but in due course returned to his job. The hide of the dead lion and the knife are to this day displayed in the library (!) at Skukuza.

And that is why you NEVER think of petting an adult lion.

By the way, this place is called Lindanda, and the stump is all that remains of the tree Wolhuter spent that most uncomfortable night in. It's about 54 km north of Skukuza, according to Google.

PS to the above: Wolhuter says in Memories of a Game Ranger that his assistants recovered the horse, "bloody but unbowed" the next day. The bridle was broken but he says he was still using the saddle 40 years later. Incidentally, he set up the Pretoriuskop rest camp, which is why their elderly museum hut is called the Wolhuter Hut.

>180 Darth-Heather: I am sure they are, but I would still prefer to let these particular kitties go on itching.

"Scratch! Scratch me back! A little lower!
Scratch! Scratch me back! A little higher!
It really is a fact, the less I itch the more I scratch!"

I know... :( I CAN'T pat them. But the want is there anyway.

My scratching quota is already filled by my three enormous lion-wannabes at home, anyway.

>178 Sakerfalcon: I'm sure you'll have a ball if/when you do come, but please be warned that you need enough luck to be more-or-less alone in the right place at exactly the right time. All too many big-cat sightings actually look like this:



and I can't promise to lay on anything better.

>181 hfglen: Holy crap! What a story. I will say however that once standing in the middle of the Bronx Zoo, a lion came out (deigning to notice the human riff-raff) and the sound of his roar was such that I could understand how they struck fear into the hearts of those who heard him. He was impressive. I would never presume to scratch behind the ears or under the chin without distinct and explicit permission.

And I loved the cats in >175 hfglen:. Thank you.

Parenthetical Note: To those who muttered about me being a woman of mystery up there in #168 and #172, I can produce documentation as deemed appropriate and/or necessary.

>186 jillmwo: My pleasure; it's good to be able to share them here.

What I gave you in #181 is only the barest bones of a summary. If you can find a copy of Harry Wolhuter's Memories of a Game Ranger (which is still in print, though the first edition came out a tad less than 70 years ago), he gives a full-length blow-by-blow account in chapter 6. Though you may be put off by the casual racism; he expresses himself exactly the way my grandparents' generation did as a matter of course.

>186 jillmwo: I can produce documentation as deemed appropriate and/or necessary.

We have no doubt that you can...and no doubt that the documentation would all look authentic and appropriately aged.

>186 jillmwo: You have official Woman of Mystery certification? I'm impressed.

>189 SylviaC: I believe that would be International Woman of Mystery certification!

What was said by >186 jillmwo: set me thinking last night. Maybe the good and highly intelligent Dragoneers would be able to help the train of thought along.

First, Jill, Harry Wolhuter's story is by no means the worst I could tell. For one thing, he knew what he was doing, and for another, he survived. Some 15--20 years ago there used to be a tourist trap called the Lion Park out on the north-western fringe of Johannesburg. Google Earth suggests that the site is now taken over by informal housing, but there is a newer place called the Lion and Safari Park on the other side of the N14 highway. The earlier place had an enclosure, arguably smaller than it should have been, where the eponymous lions were. Both entrance and exit were controlled by double sliding gates, and the entrance was plastered with signs saying STAY IN YOU CAR, CLOSE THE WINDOWS and turn on the aircon. So one fine day a party of Taiwanese tourists turned up in a hired minibus -- they may even have had a local courier -- and decided when they saw the lions right next to the road that Oriental custom trumped local rules, and one of them leaped out for a photo opportunity with the lions. Who decided that Dinner Was Served, and within seconds the tourist was no more. Cue denials by the park management, and any number of corny stories in the local press, with punchlines along the lines of "Your Czech is in the male". You can see why the new place only allows their own safari vehicles in the lion camp, and these vehicles put the tourists inside a steel cage.

Which reminded me of the scene between Hest Finbok and the dragon in Blood of Dragons, except that Ms Hobb's dragon at least stopped to talk to Hest before eating him -- not many lions would! Which raises the question: how did those dragons know that the Elderlings and some other humans were carers / servants, and not dinner on the hoof?

And so progressing, what did the dragons of Pern eat? One assumes they were carnivores, as there aren't many flying herbivorous reptiles much bigger than a duck. OK, they probably knew the humans of their home Holds were not to be eaten, but what about visitors from distant Holds?

Or do I just have a nasty suspicious mind bent by growing up in a land full of hungry lions, crocodiles and others?

And PS to the above. I can't help wondering if there's space in the world for a story where the Lion of St. Mark comes alive and jumps down from one of the innumerable columns in the middle of piazzas in the Veneto, grows rapidly to life size and flies around causing mayhem.

>190 ScoLgo: Oops! My mistake.

>185 hfglen: Ha! I love how nonchalantly the lion is strolling along, holding up all the traffic.

>193 SylviaC: Or... maybe not - if all her secret missions happen to be in Bangkok... We will simply have to wait for Peter's report on the matter... ;)

Also, being a dog-person, I would go nowhere near those cats. They can sense (and eat!) people like me.

>191 hfglen: Food for thought.

I haven't read about the dragons from Pern, but what a handy way to dispose of the bodies a dragon would be.

>196 MrsLee: but what a handy way to dispose of the bodies a dragon would be.

@MrsLee, I seem to recall your saying something along these lines in your hotel management days; not about dragons, but about disposing of bodies.

@jillmwo isn't the only woman of mystery on LT.

>197 pgmcc:

Makes one wonder how many bodies she has to dispose each year.

>146 hfglen: & >175 hfglen: Magnificent photos. Or photos of magnificent beasts, at the very least.

>185 hfglen: Yikes!

>196 MrsLee: It may not be that great if @pgmcc's about with his supersleuthing skills. Harry Wolhuter (cf. #181) reports that is assistants found him, his belongings and the dead lion by following the blood spoor. Just saying.

>199 clamairy: *bows extravagantly* Thank you, kind Lady!

By the way, does anybody know what was biting LT yesterday that all it would do for me was time-out the connection? BBC, Gmail and WeatherUnderground all worked perfectly normally.

>191 hfglen: - I know when I was on safari last year (kenya) we were all in open topped 4x4s any cat who wanted could easily have hooked a juicy human, but they were conditioned to the cars no being food, not looking or sounding or smelling like food, and so ignored us completely. I've a picture somewhere of the tail of a leopard just wandering around the front of the car, literally no more than feet from me in the back. Not fast enough on the shutter to get it then, but plenty of other opportunities.

>202 reading_fox: Yes indeed, Kruger Park uses that design too. Family Glen was on a night drive with a bunch of French tourists some years ago, at Satara -- great lion country. So we encountered a pride of lions out hunting, on our way back to the camp. They displayed great interest in us; the locals could all see the speech balloon over the matriarch's head, saying "I fancy tinned food tonight". The ranger with us was more than somewhat antsy, but the French contingent were determined to get their pictures of lions' tonsils, until forcibly hustled away.

Saints and Sinners by Eamon Duffy. The 2014 (4th?) edition was evidently prepared in great haste. Pope Francis is there in the text and bibliography, but missing from the list of popes in one appendix. And on pp. 412-4 we read in some detail about Pope Benedict XVI's resignation, but on p. 451 in an appendix we are assured that "No pope has voluntarily resigned since St. Celestine V in 1294". Do I detect the absence of a good editor? I suspect, also, that the proofreader's attention wandered from time to time: several proper names are misspelled, and there are two disconcerting cases where there are only one or two short words on a line, and the sentence continues placidly on the next -- in one case, over the page. And the text? Is thorough, and given the misgivings above, readable. Any note on bias or otherwise would IMHO contravene the sign at the entrance to the pub.

And this week ... a change from the carnivores. May I present what I consider to be the most majestic of all antelope, the sadly now too-rare Sable:



In a way it's a pity that the Rhodesian 2-shilling piece of my youth is no longer seen. It would serve to remind us of the majesty of this beautiful animal.

>205 hfglen: A very handsome animal indeed. It's a pity those horns can't defend it against the 21st century threats which it must face.

>206 Sakerfalcon: Yes indeed, Claire. Fortunately the one in colour is part of an official breeding programme. That has had enough success that some animals have been re-introduced to the Kruger Park. Where the Glens have yet to see them, not for the want of looking.

Just finished Temeraire \1\ aka His Majesty's Dragon, which I seem to recall having been widely discussed not all that long ago in this very pub. So I'll not repeat others have said, but will keep an eye out for other volumes in the series.

>205 hfglen: A lovely picture of the antelope and a beautiful coin.

Thank you, Peter. I couldn't help thinking of you while reading This is not the end of the book, which I have just finished (It's a beautiful day for sitting out in the garden, holding the book I'm reading in one hand and tickling a cat with the other. Having survived Umberto Eco's conversation, I may be inspired to try his fiction on my next trip to the library. Anyhoo, this book includes a delicious thought spoken by Jean-Claude Carrière: "It's important to clarify that a library is not necessarily made up of books that we've read, or even that we will eventually read. They should be books that we can read. Or that we may read. Even if we never do." If we didn't have so much clutter in the doorway of our pub, I'd want this one on a bronze plaque, mainly because it's too long to fit if engraved on the lintel of the front door. Overall, I'd suggest that this is a must-read for anybody who enjoys books, and surely that's all of us in the GD?

>210 hfglen: This is not the end of the book is on my shelves but I have not read it yet. It is one I look forward to with anticipation. You have pushed it well up the tbr range of mountains. I love the quotation and I agree, it should be engraved and mounted somewhere visible. I think I will put it on the door to my study at home. It will explain a lot to visitors. (The touchstone system produced, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for "This is not the end of the book".)

I may be inspired to try his fiction on my next trip to the library.
His best novel by all reckoning, including my own, is the one that made him famous: The Name of the Rose. Might I suggest you start with that one.

Baudolino, taken as a whole, has a very interesting concept, but is very long. I am glad I read it, and I got a lot out of it, but I did have to force my way through it. I am glad I did; it was my first realization of how Eco was sewing thoughts of how what is reported, be it in historical documents, contemporary journals, or through eyewitness statements, may not bear any relationship with what is real or what actually happened.

The Prague Cemetery is very good. Again, it leads the reader to question what is true and what is not.

Numero Zero, his last novel, is short and, for me, fascinating. I think, however, it is for the reader who is familiar with how Eco plays with history, news, and the veils between what is true and what is not. I would love to have Umberto Eco's views of the Trumpian world of alternative facts and fake news. He would have been very eloquent on the subject.

I also enjoyed The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana. This book taught me a lot about the politics of Italy during and after WWII.

If I were to sum up my understanding of what Eco was doing in many of his books, I would say it was to stir his readers into a state of discernment when observing the world and listening to reports of what is happening or what has happened. Question everything!

I also enjoyed his non-fiction work, Mouse or Rat? Translation as Negotiation.

Apologies for rambling on about Eco and his books, but I do love his work.

>210 hfglen: I will want to remind myself of that quote occasionally, as it is a nice relief from the pressure I feel when my TBR shelf is spilling over. I like the thought that I can enjoy the having of books, regardless of whether I've read them yet, or ever will. I think I am in the midst of a mid-life crisis, but instead of wishing for my youth to return, I am anxious about how much time there is left for all the books and music.

>211 pgmcc: The Name of The Rose is in my TBR pile, and I am eager to fit it into a monthly challenge soon.

The touchstone system made the same strange error for me, too. I've just scribbled your recommendation into the notebook that will go with me to the library tomorrow. My scanty knowledge of post-WW2 Italian politics comes mainly from the Don Camillo books, which are doubtless quite a long way downmarket. Odd, as many Italian POWs spent time here (and came back after the war), and Springbok soldiers fought all the way up the length of Italy in 1943-5.

>211 pgmcc: Apparently all our library system can find is 2 copies each (one in Kloof and the other at Hillcrest) of Baudolino and The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana. I have the latter from Kloof, and a mental note to check the Waterfall branch before trying the ever-unreliable inter-branch loan system.

I have a copy of Baudolino but haven't yet got 'round to reading it. Being the brave @hfglen who wields his mighty camera to photograph big cats and rare Sable elk that I know you to be, you must brave the inter-library loan wilderness and provide me with your considered review. (After all, we all know @pgmcc will be off to the south of France any day now on one of his mysterious missions, leaving us to our own devices in selecting reading material.)

>205 hfglen: Another wonderful photo, and >210 hfglen: some worthy words... I'll see what I can do about putting them somewhere visible.

>217 clamairy: Many thanks, Clam. The clutter I was thinking of was not signage but wet raincoats, hiking boots (nudge nudge wink wink), hunting gear, boxes of books and the like.

>218 hfglen: Boxes of books? I must investigate. I'll be back in a minute.

A curious coincidence and a strange experience: I have been reading The Meaning of Hitler and The Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall almost simultaneously. That put me in mind of an articleModern Miracle made in Germany in theJune 1959 National Geographic: not nearly as informative as the other two. Prof. Dr. Haffner's book makes the interesting point that when Hitler realised that his war was unwinnable, he moved instead to the total destruction of his own country, and so should be considered guilty of at least two (groups of) counts of genocide, against both Jews and Germans, as well as one of treason, against Germany.

The Berlin Wall book serves as an account of what happened next, starting with the end of WW2 in May 1945 and ending somewhat raggedly with the earliest stages of reunification at the end of 1990 -- understandable, as it was published in 1991. The trouble with this as with just about every book that tries to take history "up to the minute" is that it leaves me (if nobody else) wondering what happened between the time of publication and the time I read it. Totally irrational, but I find that frustrating.

Next up: probably Umberto Eco, in deference to @pgmcc.

And so to this week's picture, a nocturnal heron.

Beautiful bird!

That's an excellent piece of photography there in #221. Nice work, @hfglen.

Nice shot! It looks rather ghostly.

>221 hfglen: I had the pleasure of watching a Great Blue Heron on my break at work the other day. It was too far away for a satisfactory photo though. Very similar in looks to your bird.

>222 catzteach:-225. Thank you, all! MrsLee, I'll have to look up what kind of heron it is in the picture.

Question for @pgmcc: How much of The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana is autobiographical? I'm now somewhat over 200 pages in (and totally addicted), and it seems to me that Gianbattista Bodoni in this one sounds awfully like Eco himself talking about himself in This is not the end of the book. (Touchstone for the latter still points to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban -- why on earth?)

>221 hfglen: Super picture!

>227 hfglen: I cannot answer that question. I do not know enough about Eco's life other than he was a academic and not a bookseller.

Of course, you only posed that question in that form to put pressure on me to read, This is not the end of the book sooner rather than later. Hey! Harry Potter. I think I shall just keep that touchstone as it is for effect.

>225 MrsLee: Newman's Birds of southern Africa tells me it's a Grey Heron.

>228 pgmcc:-229: Thank you! It appears from some of his throwaway comments in This is not the end of the book that he was not averse to selling books when necessary or when he thought desirable (how does that square with the ISPCB?). For the rest, I was curious, as in many ways the story maps quite convincingly on to Eco's life (dates, etc.).

There's been quite a lot of discussion on other threads of the inadequacies of self-published books. Allow me to add another example: Who was who in Durban street names -- no touchstone, though I have just added the book, and no loss at that. The author may have the excuse that his book antedates the esteemed works of Lynne Truss and Bill Bryson on punctuation and choosing the right word respectively, but surely to goodness he's heard of the sainted Fowler?! No sign of such familiarity here, sadly. To inconsistent facts in (almost-) consecutive entries, he adds inconsistent misspellings of proper names, misplaced punctuation and elementary gaffes of the "flaunted for flouted" variety, all with great abandon. This book suffers not only in its own right but by comparison with Anna Smith's magisterial Street names of Johannesburg, which shows how a subject like this should be tackled.

>230 hfglen: It took me a long time to decide which one I was seeing, because they have many similarities.

Yes indeedle! Yours seems to be a New World special; mine is to be seen throughout southern Africa and presumably further afield. According to Kenneth Newman it's almost the same as the Black-headed Heron, which doesn't have the white stripe on top of its head but is otherwise very similar.

>221 hfglen:, >230 hfglen: Great photo! We get grey herons in the park where I work (Regent's Park in central London). They look far less dramatic than the one in your photo, as ours can usually be seen begging for bread with the pigeons and geese.

>234 Sakerfalcon: Now that you mention it, isn't there one in Harry Hargreaves's Hayseeds?

The Mysterious flame of Queen Loana; not so much a book bullet as an author-bullet from @pgmcc. Pete, I wouldn't have said there's much about Italy after WW2, but much of it is about growing up in Fascist Italy before and during the war. That was fascinating, and the bits where Grandpa taught him to always check the news using an independent source still resonate. You'd be surprised how many English-speaking South Africans had and used shortwave radios for this purpose before 1994, and some now bless the internet for making so many varied news services available. So I'll easily agree to look out for more from the Professore's pen, and say 'thank you' to Peter. What Pete didn't say about this one is that the framework of much of the book is how the protagonist struggles to get his memory back after a 'medical emergency', and the fantasies he experiences in his final coma after a second one.

>236 hfglen:

Hugh, I am glad you enjoyed The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana. I think one of the main historical elements I learned from the book was how people dealt with the Fascism in Italy.

Eco uses the same, "recovering memory", technique in The Prague Cemetery, another book that I found very interesting.

>236 hfglen:, >237 pgmcc: I really enjoyed The mysterious flame of Queen Loana when I read it a few years ago. I remember a lot of reviews at the time criticised it for not having a plot, but I really enjoyed the ramble through Yambo's attic and his past. It did have the same problem that I have with all of Eco's novels that I've read though, which is it feels as though he doesn't know how to end them and so resorts to burning things down/blowing them up/putting his protagonist into a coma.

>238 Sakerfalcon:

Claire, I have never had that difficulty with Eco but I found it with all but on of the Neal Stephenson books I have read.

Like yourself, I enjoyed the rambling, picking up bits here and there, approach of The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana. I also liked his rambling through different genres.

>239 pgmcc: I agree with you about Stephenson!

The illustrations in Queen Loana added to the fun.

>240 Sakerfalcon: Hear, Hear! The worst bit of the copy I got out of the library was that the pictures were too small to appreciate fully. I would have liked more of them, and at least the newspaper pages to be nearer A4 in size.

>238 Sakerfalcon: Actually this morning I concluded that the fourth past (protagonist in a coma) was a brilliant ending, in which all the loose ends except the appearance of Lila Saba were very well tied up. And as an inveterate snuffler-through forgotten storerooms, the plot never seemed less than watertight to me.

>240 Sakerfalcon: I neglected to mention the illustrations. Some of the editions a lovely books physically.

>241 hfglen: Watertight is essential. I would have nightmares if I thought of water getting to books.

>211 pgmcc: (continued). Today the library system disgorged Baudolino and Prague Cemetery, as well as exactly the second completed inter-branch request in 13 years (their record is improving!): Station X: The codebreakers of Bletchley Park. The first two are direct BBs from Peter. and I think the last-named is a ricochet from him. A dangerous man, to be sure.

In other news, I am reminded by a conversation in the Pub that coming home after last night's meeting and eating left-over chicken pie was highly appropriate.

For those who want to know how allied codebreaking worked in WW2, may I recommend Station X as the ideal supplement to The Code Book (Pete's recommendation) and The Bletchley Girls. This one could have been dull as ditchwater, but in fact I found it a riveting account of how the team (some team -- at one point they were just shy of 9000 souls!) went to work, what they achieved and how they interacted with the Powers That Be, with what result. This one fills the gaps the other two don't reach, and also acts as a salutary antidote / completion to The Meaning of Hitler. Sebastian Haffner, the author of the last-named, evidently forgets that Hitler was waging war not in a vacuum but against real, sentient people, and those people come to life in this one. Recommended to the 20th-century historians in the GD.

For this week, I offer another of my father's July 1934 pictures from Mont aux Sources.



This is the top of the Tugela Falls; the drop is some 2700 feet, making it second only to the Angel Falls in Venezuela, and vastly easier to get to. You can now drive up to a tiny parking area at 8400 feet, and climb most of the rest up a chain ladder (haven't done it myself; other people's pictures look terrifying). Or you could walk on the almost level from the Royal Natal National Park campsite to the foot of the falls; that is about an 8-hour round trip for the reasonably fit, and AFAIK even @majkia's new bus wouldn't find the road to the campsite too much of a squeeze.

>246 hfglen: I'm glad that there are intrepid photographers who make the trek and provide the opportunity for the rest of us to admire such amazing sights. But I can't even imagine what it must be like to view it in real life. How did your father get up there?

>247 SylviaC: On foot. The "old" route was a 4-day outing from the Royal Natal National Park hostel (which no longer exists, though I believe there are plans to rebuild it). The first day was about a 14-hour hike up to the ridge where there's now the road I mentioned in #245, then up the chain ladder to a hut on top. The picture album mentions that even using all 24 blankets in the hut, his party of four were still bitterly cold -- it was midwinter, after all! They then had two days on top, and came back to the hostel on the 4th day. The party had a guide and a pack donkey.

>248 hfglen: Now I know who you got your love of the great outdoors from!

Time for a new thread, methinks. Find it here.