Hugh's 2018 reading and observing, part 2

Welcome to part 2, with more pictures, books, thoughts and more.

duplicate message

50 Architects you should know. Mostly from the last century or so, and from the major population centres of the Northern Hemisphere. Indeed the only southern-hemispherian in the book is Oscar Niemeyer of Brazil. But no Lutyens, no Herbert Baker, no Pancho Guedes .... Lots of pretty pictures, though. Dumb question: it is painfully obvious that the authors and their subjects love flat roofs. But what do they do about the inevitable leaks? In fact a wider point: should our suspicions not be raised by the almost total absence of any mention of the users' response to the buildings listed here?

>3 hfglen: I agree with you about the leaks.

>3 hfglen: I think I would love that book! When I was a teen, I wanted to be a female Frank Lloyd Wright. I went a different route and have since learned he was a goober. But he could design a building!

Flat roofs. They look good but aren’t practical in most areas. The Husband and I chuckle when we go by one of the new neighborhoods. They are all flat roofed. In an area where three feet of snow on a roof isn’t uncommon. Dumb.

My second apartment was a one-story complex with flat roofs. This was in northeast Ohio where we got quite a bit of snow. I was there maybe four years and never had any issues with the roof, but at that time I had never owned a home and didn’t give much thought to things like that.

I had previously lived for several years on the bottom level of a three-story apartment, so the main things I noticed about my roof were that rain was a lot louder with a roof than without one, and that squirrels can make a surprising amount of noise when they bound across the roof. More importantly, I noticed that it was glorious to only hear nature-type sounds above me instead of people stomping around constantly. I swear everybody who ever lived above me set up stomping shifts to make sure there was somebody stomping around at all hours. :) Rain sounds are relaxing. Squirrels are cute.

>5 catzteach: *snork* That belongs to the same class of dummo architecture as more than a few houses in suburbs around here, which have such steeply pitched roofs that the roof is taller than the walls. Presumably to encourage the snow to slide off, though not a single snowflake has been seen in these parts in all of recorded history. IMHO flat roofs are a good idea in northern Sudan and Egypt (where rain is essentially unknown), and almost nowhere else. They might work in Swakopmund (coastal Namib desert), but the town glories in its quaint German Black-Forest architecture, which at least allows the fog to drain off as it condenses every night.

The Riviera Set. The comings and goings of a group of the super-rich surrounding Maxine Elliott (actress about 100 years ago -- I didn't know who she was either) and, almost more importantly, the house she built between Cannes and Antibes. Visitors include Winston Churchill and many of his friends and relatives, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and other famous names. Like many palaces in the area, the house suffered occupation by Italian, German and (briefly) American forces in World War 2. After the war, it was brought back to life by Prince Aly Khan and his "fast" friends. An epilogue tells us the property was sold to the Saudi royal family when Aly Khan died, and the house was rebuilt five times its former, already palatial, size, and at the time of writing belonged to Prince Fahd. An enjoyable read, whatever one may think of the characters.

Thief's Magic. A relatively recent Trudi Canavan. I only finished it in time to return it to the library by skimming goodly chunks in the middle, and feel no loss thereby. This first part of a trilogy consists of two so-far-unrelated stories sharing only that they evidently take place on the same world, with the same somewhat depleted magic system. Although I wouldn't give it more than three stars, and am pleased not to have to find it house room, I shall keep an eye out for the next one in the series, which is apparently to be found in a nearby branch of the city library.

Seeing it's about sunset here, how about this late-afternoon view of the Cederberg, on the Wuppertal road from Clanwilliam?

Super picture.

Beautiful scenery.

It's Mother's Day here, too, @MrsLee. So for various reasons it made sense to us that Better Half and I should go to the open day at Baynesfield Estate, near Pietermaritzburg. We didn't go into the house -- saw that under more peaceful circumstances with the National Society last year -- but did take a look at the Vintage Tractor Society's base, which was open today. There was every imaginable food and craft stall, rides on a double-decker bus or a tractor-drawn trailer for the kiddies (of all shapes, sizes and ages), and more. And music from the Pietermaritzburg Caledonian Pipe Band.



The lady drummer is easy to spot, but do you see the lady piper as well?

The Vintage Tractor people had a real live steam-breathing Green Dragon, grinding mielies (US: corn) into maize meal.

>13 hfglen:

She's the one with a skirt.

Sounds like a fun and interesting day! Love the green dragon you found.

Loved the facial expressions on the critters in your previous thread. Just took too long to get in here to tell you. Love >13 hfglen: in this one as well.

Thank you, Clam!

The search for the rarest bird in the world. A very strange book. At one level, an expedition to find a living example of a bird known to science from a single roadkill wing. In case you're wondering, it lives in Ethiopia and rejoices in the name of a Nechisar Nightjar. Yes, they saw it live on two occasions, but not as up-close and personal as they wished. On other levels, meditations on the nature of birdwatching, rarity and more. Here the author tried to be poetic and usually succeeded in being no more than tiresomely purple. Also rather too many accounts of far-flung birding expeditions that he has been on. If this book presents itself to dragoneers, I wouldn't duck out of the way, but I also wouldn't go out of my way to search it out unless you're a monomaniac birder.

Special for Our Clam: On Thursday Better Half and I went to see Coedmore Castle, about the nearest thing Durban has to a Stately Home. The surrounding property has, for some decades now, been formed into a provincial nature reserve named after the then owner, a certain Kenneth Stainbank. And so it wasn't entirely surprising to see the resident herd of zebra. After relieving itself inches behind somebody's expensive Mercedes, this one wandered off, doing a remarkable impersonation of Eeyore.



Nowadays the remarkable feature of the reserve is that it's surrounded by suburbia (in the mid-19th century when the Stainbanks arrived, it was a farm out in the sticks) and only about 5 miles from both the city centre and the old airport. Our most practical route there involves a public road that goes through a cement factory that borders on the reserve.

In the previous thread @pgmcc suggested we had reached the end of the gnus. Indeed, no.

There was an East German gent at the Baynesfield open day a couple of weeks ago, selling various East-European-inspired products made with local venison. Among them was this "wildebeest ham", which, if I followed his description of the process, is distantly related to Bündnerfleisch or bresaola. Any way up, the deliciousness justified the expense.



That is the end of the gnus. Now we can follow with the weather.

Angel of Storms is the most recent Trudi Canavan to put in an appearance at the local library. Rather unusually considering my previous attempts with this author's books, it kept my attention from start to finish. Indeed matters improved steadily from start to finish, leaving me hoping that the library will get the third book in the trilogy in the foreseeable future. In the whole 500+ pages of the first book, the two protagonists remain totally unaware of each other's existence. In this one they meet (in the last 2 or 3 short chapters) and spend all of about 2 1/2 minutes in each other's company. And so this one manages to make sense of all that went before. Now I'm curious to see how all the loose ends are handled -- I suspect that "they lived happily ever after" is not an option.

>21 hfglen:

Hugh, thank you for all the gnus.

>20 hfglen: Thank you, that is one lovely beast. Though I must admit that at first I thought that the photo in >21 hfglen: was the present that the critter left near that parked Mercedes. :o)

>24 clamairy: ROFL :-D

>20 hfglen: and >24 clamairy: Lovely use of a detail to bring the reader into the writer's reality. (*snort* Clam has a lovely gift for restatement of the effective inclusion.)

>20 hfglen: and >24 clamairy: *snort* @hfglen has a gift for including effective detail to draw the reader into his reality. @clamairy has an equal gift for restatement.

This week you get two for the price of one. Not only a terrapin swimming in a dam (at Hans Merensky Nature Reserve, a few km outside the Kruger Park) but a fish as well.

Sunset this evening was truly spectacular IMHO:



A few minutes later it looked like this

>29 hfglen: Wow!

Beautiful!

>29 hfglen:

Awesome!

>29 hfglen: wow! your camera does a good job capturing the bright colors.

Things ewe never kn'ewe about South African Place Names. Clarens is a very arty village in the eastern Free State mountains. With one exception, the artists are a strange bunch who take themselves very seriously. The exception is Ann Gadd, who paints cartoon-like pictures of sheep embodying puns almost worthy of the Xanth stories. She has now produced a book on place names, liberally illustrated with her highly characteristic sheep drawings. There are some errors of fact, some typos and some outright fabrications (these last mostly clearly labelled), but nonetheless the result is a highly entertaining package of trivia.

The wildlife TV series the family is addicted to has lately taken to including quiz questions in the hopes of educating their viewers. The results aren't always quite what they expected.

Q: What is the fastest antelope in southern Africa?
A: The one being chased by a cheetah.

The answer they wanted was "a tsessebe". So here's a tsessebe:



If @catzteach's kiddos aren't already on summer vacation, they may enjoy that exchange.

>35 hfglen: Whether @catzteach's kiddos enjoyed it or not I certainly did.

>35 hfglen: we are not yet on break. I will share this with them tomorrow. I have seven more days with the little guys.

Hi this is Hugh's wife: Sadly Hugh was rushed to hospital on Friday night with cardiac failure, I am not into these chap groups , so am hoping this the correct page and some one will receive this message and send it on. Please can you send any further correspondence to lissie1@telkomsa.net and I will keep you posted. Today he is undergoing various test,

Greetings,

Rene Glen

Thank you Rene, I have sent an email, but this post is here hoping that Hugh will be able to read it soon and join us again. You are a special friend, Hugh, please recover soon!

Thanks for letting us know, Rene. I, too, am hoping Hugh will be able to read this soon. Healing vibes heading your way, Hugh.

Hugh, get well soon. I hope all goes well and you will be recovering quickly.

Get well soon, Hugh!

Wishing a speedy recovery!

Hope Hugh heals quickly and can join us in here as soon as he feels up to it.

Wishing a quick recovery for Hugh. Will miss your posts. How will we get the gnus until you are back?

Yeah, no gnus is not good gnus! All the best, Hugh and Rene!

All I can do is echo the sentiments of the above. I wish Hugh a speedy recovery and pass on my thanks to Rene for letting us know in what must have been some very trying times. All the best to you both!

Oh no! Get well soon Hugh!!

Update on Hugh. He will be staying in the hospital for more testing, but will not be having surgery at this time. He sends his thanks for all the good thoughts and prayers and misses everyone. His wife is the one who sent me the update as he is not allowed to have access to the internet in the hospital.

>49 MrsLee: Many thanks for keeping us in the loop!

Just adding my hopes for Hugh's rapid recovery. (And swift emergence from the hospital!)

Hi Folks! Happiness is being back home, intermittently with a kitty (the Dowager Duchess of Difficult herself, no less) purring on my lap. Recovery can now proceed. Lee I don't think it was so much "not allowed internet" as "we couldn't make my tablet connect to anything", which is a problem I've known for years. But now I'm home that bit's working normally.

The tests showed nothing one couldn't have predicted. Apparently when I was a kid I picked up some nasty virus that seems to have interfered strangely with the growth of my heart, and all else flows from that (which sounds like TMI to me).

The bummer is that I am not allowed to pick up a decent-sized pile of books, and so the Railway Society's library will take sme extra months to become presentable.

>52 hfglen:

Man, I was really worried about the "no internet". Good to see that you are plugged in again.

Kitties can be great unless they want to lay on an incision.

>53 suitable1: Agreed, and agreed. This time round there's little scope for kitties to settle in the wrong place, as there's only a relatively small hole where the angiogram plumbing went in. Which may also be TMI.

>52 hfglen: - I'm so happy to see that you are back! Best wishes for your continued recovery.

Welcome back and BEST WISHES, @hfglen!

>52 hfglen: I'm glad to see you back!

>52 hfglen: Hugh, it is brilliant to see you posting again and to hear you are back home. You gave us all a fright. Make sure Rene knows we are all grateful for her letting us know what had happened. @MrsLee was a great liaison person making sure we were all up to date with the news from Rene.

Keep up the recovery.

Yay! You're back! Massive hugs to you, Hugh. (But not rough painful ones!) :o)

Good to "see" you back, Hugh. Best wishes for further recovery.

Yay, you're back! Here's a butterfly to celebrate (or creep you out - it seems to have eyes :) )

You’re back! So glad you are home!

I'm so happy to hear that you're back home! Take care of yourself, and let someone else do the heavy lifting. We really appreciated Rene letting us know what was happening.

>52 hfglen: *BIG HUG!* Hope hugs are allowed, virtual ones have very few side effects. You take care of yourself until I can get my finances and courage together to come visit you! I've made a start, in that I am on the east coast of America, but I won't be hopping the pond any time soon.

Please do thank your wife for us. I know how difficult it is to post things in the midst of the stress and worry of emergency hospital visits, and we very much appreciate her keeping us aware of your situation. *another hug*

>59 clamairy:, >64 MrsLee: Hugs are most definitely welcome! And huge thank-yous to all for all your kind words and thoughts. Lee, coming to visit here just got (technically) a bit easier, and you can now do it in "only" two hops. I believe there are plenty of flights from San Francisco to London, and a certain well-known airline now offers direct flights from London to Durban three times a week (thereby avoiding a known baggage-theft problem in Johannesburg). Will pass your thanks on to Rene.

>61 tardis: Celebrate, certainly, but I'm confuzzed rather than creeped out. Most if not all butterflies and moths I know of, that have eyespots on the wings keep them near the back end, allegedly to confuse predators when the morsel takes off in the "wrong" direction. But your pretty beastie has the eyespots on the leading edge, which seems to me to rather defeat the purpose. It's a very pretty beastie, anyway; many thanks for sharing.

Whether by lack of observation or plain bone laziness, I can't find the "new books" thread. A pity, as the latest box from the publisher (which arrived in the middle of the Family Drama) contained two rather special books.

I'm sure I wrote up The Historical Overberg -- must be in part 1, as it's not in this thread. Better Half and I both enjoyed the library copy that we couldn't resist getting our own, especially at the good discount the publisher gives me. By the same logic -- cooking out of the library's copy, every recipe a winner -- I am now the happy owner of my very own copy of My Cape Malay Kitchen, by cooking wizard Cariema Isaacs. I'd strongly recommend this one to all the foodies in the GD, but especially to @catzteach, as an example of one of the many influences that make South African food such fun.

So sorry to hear that you have been unwell and very happy to see that you are back and on the road to recovery. Good wishes to you for all things going smoothly and good wishes to your wife for her post.

Welcome back!

>67 hfglen: oh, I’ll have to see if my library has that one.

>45 NorthernStar: Here are some gnus to be going on with. Seen a couple of years ago in Swaziland.

>70 catzteach: I can't wait to hear how you explain Oumense onder die Kombers (Old folk under a blanket) to the kiddos! (It's a suitably spicy mutton stew, with meatballs-wrapped-in-cabbage-leaves packed on top.)

Gods behaving badly. AFAIK this is Marie Phillips's first novel, and I've wanted to read it ever since encountering The Table of Less Valued Knights, which is hilarious. This one is not quite as good a read -- but still memorable in the right way. It takes over 100 pages to get going, but then it's just as good as the other. I shall certainly look out for other works by this good lady.

Memo to Apollo: don't let anybody smite the cleaner unless you enjoy living in a pigsty ...

Oh Hugh, I’m so glad to hear you’re home and recovering. Big hugs from me too. I really appreciated Rene (and Lee as liaison) letting us know how you were. Please thank her for me too.

Take good care of yourself.

@hfglen, Good to see your stay in hospital was a brief one.

>73 hfglen: I've had that one on my tbr pile for quite a while now. I need to get around to reading it at some point. Thanks for the push.

I'm late in welcoming you back to the Pub! But I'm so glad you've eluded the chill of the medical environment and are now recovering with a cat on your lap! As to the railway library, just think of it in terms of one book at a time rather than piles to be processed.

oh my... I'm catching up on last week's news to find out what went on while I was away on vacation, only to find out that while I was having a good time, you were having a poor one. Glad to see that you have recovered. It is very thoughtful of your wife to share news with us - much appreciated!

>71 hfglen: Reassured by the return of good gnus :D

>71 hfglen: good gnus!

Again, thank you all for your kind good wishes. Much appreciated.

A perfect Vacuum. Oh dear. Stanislaw Lem can write entertainingly, but you'd never say so from this offering. It's presented as an anthology of reviews of non-existent books. One does not wish for any of the books to become real. Heavy-going, turgid, polysyllabic Literary (I use the capital with intended malice) pseudo-philosophy, exactly the kind of text all good readers run away from. Even worse when in at least one case, and one suspects in others as well, his essay is based on a misunderstanding that is best characterised as an elementary howler. To be avoided at all costs.

Somewhere in the last couple of weeks, @katylit asked for a picture of the great grey-green etc. Limpopo River. I am happy to oblige with a file photo from a couple of years ago (even from Durban it's not exactly just round the corner).



The strip of land at the bottom of the picture is South Africa, with the border in the middle of the river immediately above it. The baobab tree is in Botswana, and you can just see the Shashi River (mostly sand) between some trees to the right of it. The rocks beyond the Shashi are in Zimbabwe.

The last days of new Paris. Most odd, but then this is a China Miéville. Just suppose the Germans hadn't been cleared out of Paris in August 1944, but were still there in 1950. Suppose, also, the Resistance fought using surrealist art as weapons. Now go read the book. As an LT review says, there's precious little of characterisation or plot in this one, but we're carried on by the surreal action.

>81 hfglen: Love that baobab tree! Pretty amazing photo to get three countries in one shot. :) That's what I call saving time.

>67 hfglen: I bought Cape Malay for the Kindle. I will look through it tomorrow while drinking my tea on the patio.

>67 hfglen: Yeah, that cookbook has gone on my wishlist, too.

>84 catzteach: My crystal ball tells me that Family Catzteach has some blissful eating in their future. One thing about this Cape Malay book I find curious (mainly as an indication of customs changing while we watch): both Hilda Gerber (1957) and Faldela Williams (1988) record carrot bredie as a dish that is only / mainly made for the wake after a funeral, yet Cariema Isaacs doesn't mention that connection at all.

>85 MrsLee: Lee, one thing you'll find with it is how relatively sparing the Cape Malays are with chillies; often only one or even half a chilli to a whole kg (2 pounds) of meat.

>86 hfglen: I looked at the recipes and marked a few. I’ll have to figure out where to buy lamb, though. I’ve never cooked it.

Cindy, you could probably use beef in many cases -- just cook it about twice as long. It won't taste quite the same, but would be relatively authentic (lamb is expensive here).

Lamb is readily available here and this is the perfect time of year for it. I am found of a nice piece of lamb cooked to perfection. Soft, tender and moist slices or falling off the bone.

Agreed, Pete. Many of the Cape Malay recipes are for the tougher / lower status cuts. With lamb (or mutton or goat, here) you reduce these to bite-size chunks and simmer gently for about 3/4 hour, and the result is divine. (Evil thought: if Cindy goes for absolute authenticity, how much trouble do you think she'd get into for wanting her lamb halaal?)

>91 hfglen: Red flags would be raised. Answers would be sought to questions. Gourmet tastes are no defence for enquiring minds.

>88 catzteach: You might find lamb at a local farmer's market, or Costco has lovely boneless leg of lamb, about as good a price as you will find, which can be cut into pieces for recipes.

>87 hfglen: One can always add spice! ;)

>89 hfglen: Beef, I can do that. We buy a 1/4 of a cow every October. We still have tons of meat from our last one. I wonder if the top round cuts would work. And what is lamb halaal?

>93 MrsLee: I will check my Costco. I also have a Market of Choice and a Whole Foods. I wonder if either of those would have lamb.

>94 catzteach: Remember that almost all Cape Malays are Muslims. Halaal food is certified ritually clean by the local Islamic Judicial Council. (In this country, many packaged foods carry both a Beth Din Kosher tag and an IJC Halaal symbol. Some also carry the equivalent Hindu logo.)

So, how goes the healing process? You certainly seem to be getting a lot of reading done!

As always the photos are much appreciated!

>96 clamairy: Thank you Clam! Slowly enough to be frustrating. And yes, reading is one of the few things that doesn't contravene one or more of the innumerable regulations and limitations I am hedged in by.

Many thanks for the photo appreciation. There'd be another if the @#$% fiber company hadn't chosen this weekend to pull the plug on the internet and sit back, presumably claiming to be "repairing a problem".

The Adventures of Conan Doyle. Elderly but still good biography of a classic writer of detective fiction.

Yay! They've found where the roadbuilders were parking their trucks on the fibre-optic line and bust it.

So here's a view very close to the one I use as a desktop background. It's a place called (confusingly) Algeria. This one's in the Western Cape, in the Cederberg between Citrusdal and Clanwilliam.

>99 hfglen: lovely!

Thief of Time. I'm sure I read this while I was still in Pretoria, before there was a Green Dragon. But I don't recall it at all, so it was a very pleasant (re-)read. Lu-Tze the sweeper, Lobsang Ludd (I love the Discworld names) and Susan Sto Helit versus the Auditors. Plentiful, boisterous fun.

This week's picture is all about camouflage. That's not a dead stick there, but a large stick insect.

Stick bugs are cool! We get them here too :)

>95 hfglen: thanks for explaining. I didn’t realize Muslims needed kosher food.

Glad you are healing. Slowly is better than not at all.

I love stick bugs! I used to have some in my classroom.

I love S.A. National Society meetings! Even when the speakers are lousy (this evening they weren't) the book table is almost certain to have at least one good read at a very reasonable price, half of which supports society funds. Pete would be pleased that by supporting this operation, one is offering homeless used books a good home. So today a history of the oldest surviving newspaper in South Africa (Bearing Witness: The Natal Witness 1846-1996 -- no touchstone) came home with me. It's written by the chairman of the Pietermaritzburg history group, which makes sense as the paper is published there. I'm looking forward to reading it!

>105 hfglen:

Always good to store up points in case the enforcers come calling.

On Thursday we went to visit old friends from Pretoria days. Their son is now headmaster of Hilton College, South Africa's most exclusive and expensive boys' school (fees translate to just over $20 000 a year!). Needless to say, everything is ultimately de luxe -- I had a quiet giggle that the clothing swop-shop is labelled "stock exchange". They also have a significant nature reserve on the property. Here is the view from the verandah of the headmaster's house, looking over the reserve into the Umgeni River valley and the hills beyond.

Field Guide to the Cradle of Humankind. It's amazing what you find in our local library; this one appealed because the area was a popular day outing when I was a kid.

Is it a field guide? To me a field guide is a book that aids understanding or enjoyment of an area in such a way that it earns a place in one's back-pack if hiking, or car if driving, for ready reference. In competition with other guides (some listed in the references to this book), this probably fails to fit that definition. However, it would be a welcome read in one's overnight accommodation the evening before or after going around the area. And it would be of inestimable value while still at home, planning a trip to Gauteng. And so one reads essays on the geological history of the area, how the caves were formed, and how the fossils in the caves were laid down, and how they were found. And the possibly surprising statement that the area has yielded more hominin fossils, and hence more detailed information, than the whole of East Africa put together. There are descriptions of which caves are accessible and if so how, but the main Maropeng visitor centre is hardly mentioned. The animal-identification section has, unusually bu appropriately, details on when each (mammal) species arose and, if extinct, when it died out. The descriptions are sketchy and the watercolour illustrations often lack detail -- any southern African photoguide would be better for extant animals. The plant section omits more than it includes, and the best that can be said for the pictures is that better ones are readily available -- try Van Wyk & Malan's Field Guide to the wild flowers of the Highveld for starters. But for armchair travellers to Gauteng (a much better idea than actually going there -- the traffic is awful and mannerless) a great read.

>108 hfglen: That looks quite good! What year was it published, do you know?

Also, how are you feeling?

>109 clamairy: This is the 2nd edition, published 2004. As I recall, the first edition (2002) was a disaster.

I'm doing fine, thanks, give or take a quite inordinate number of rules, restrictions and pills.

I'm glad to hear that you're fine, but I do hope those rule & pills are eventually rescinded as you mend.

>107 hfglen: What a restful vista.

>112 MrsLee: Just off the left of the picture but still visible from the house if you choose the right viewpoint is a hillside where you can sometimes see game if you have sharp eyes and binoculars. But all sensible animals avoid open grassland in the early afternoon, so we didn't see any.

>113 hfglen: Well, I saw a deer on the lawn below my house yesterday. Not a good sight for my roses. In theory, I hate them because they devour all the pretty things in my yard, but when I actually see them I can't do anything but watch because they are so graceful and pretty. Seeing one in the afternoon here is very unusual, but we are in the middle of summer here, triple digits, and the lawn had been watered that morning, so it was a strong temptation.

>114 MrsLee: Clearly you don't have a game-proof (electric as well, in most reserves) fence ...

>115 hfglen: we've given up on anything-proofing our... well... anythings. Nothing is completely successful against deer and woodchucks and insects. Might be the same at Mrs Lee's. I am fortunate to have farm stands in my neighborhood, and I prefer to let those folks battle the creatures. Better them than me!

My neighbor moved to the country from a nearby small city, with intentions to develop a bucolic lifestyle involving chickens roaming freely about his yard. That is a lovely idea, except that EVERYTHING eats chicken. The roaming ones were eaten by foxes, coyotes, owls, hawks, and the neighbors dog, except for the two that got hit by cars. So he built a wire enclosure, but the raccoons pried it open. He dug the wire deep underground, but the fisher found a weak spot and got in. He finally put electric fence up, but while electric fence will DETER a bear, it won't actually stop a hungry one.

He doesn't have chickens anymore, but recently got bee hives... sigh.

Ah yes... the chicken thing. There are a lot of people around here who let theirs wander a bit during the day and then secure them at night. And others who just resign themselves to losing some. And even a few others who's chickens ended up living in their trees. LOLOL

I hope all goes well with the bees! At least they can defend themselves. But oh... the bears might be a big problem there. :o/

>115 hfglen: My husband is in the process of putting up a new fence. Mostly to deter the "urban campers" who live in the wilderness tract behind our yard (fences to keep deer out must be at least 8' high). Right now he has 2 lines of baling wire strung between the poles and hung randomly with strips of red fabric. Oddly enough, the deer don't seem to be getting the message! :D

I too purchase most of my produce at the Farmer's Market.

>118 MrsLee: The 8-foot model is what I had in mind, with white-painted discs at eye level at regular intervals, and half-a-dozen electric strands on the game side. Replace the droppers with used railroad rails and your husband's baling wire with used elevator cable and the fence becomes elephant proof.

The 100 most influential scientists. Short biographies of 100 famous scientists. To make a definitive list of the most influential scientists is almost by definition impossible, and one has to agree with most of the choices here. Though in the more recent ones I couldn't help feeling that the editors showed a possibly overly great fondness for mathematicians and physicists, a few of whom the rest of us had never heard of. I'm not sorry I read it, but equally pleased that it goes back to the library and becomes their problem to house.

>119 hfglen: Sadly, the elephant reserve which we had hopes of got waylaid somewhere along the line, so I guess I won't be needing an elephant proof fence. :(

droppers = fence posts ?

yes. Another example (as if we needed one) of two nations divided by a common language.

>105 hfglen: I am indeed pleased with that rehoming programme.

>124 pgmcc: In that case, you'll be pleased by the old gent who's started clearing out boxes (they moved to a retirement home 4 years ago!) and is passing some really quite valuable book(let)s to me.

The keys to Avalon. It seems quite sensible at this distance that Arthur should have been a Welshman. This book makes a case for his having been a warlord in North Wales, to be sure with quite a large proportion of arm-waving, but not too much woo-woo. The prose tends towards the leaden, making parts of this one at least a palliative for insomnia.

>126 hfglen: That is the theme of a fiction I may or may not finish, which name evades me at the moment and I'm too lazy to walk across the room to look. It's in my reading thread. There has already been a scene of woo-woo, but not too much arm-waving yet. Still gathering the troops.

Bearing Witness: The Natal Witness 1846-1996. Company histories are often deadly dull; when the company in question is a newspaper, this is less likely for the simple reason that the document must necessarily take quite detailed note of the events the paper reports. And so it jis with this, the sesquicentennial history of South Africa's oldest surviving newspaper. It helps that the author is a trained historian, who also writes well. In the unlikely event of any dragoneer finding a copy of this, it's a worthwhile read.

I couldn't decide whether to post another picture of a wild animal, or one from my visit to Hilton 10 days ago. So here's a compromise. Hilton is beautified by many works of sculpture, in this one of small antelope.

>129 hfglen: Oh, that is wonderful!

The Island of Lost Maps. How one person stole hundreds if not thousands of maps from rare book rooms across the United States and Canada, and almost got away with it. A fascinating read, but one hopes someone actually monitors the security cameras installed in the wake of the events this book describes. Recommended if you love old books and maps, and even more if you're planning to write a mystery set in a library.

>131 hfglen: Sweet cheeses, it's non-fiction! *gasp* Hope everything was recovered.

>129 hfglen: cool statue!

>132 clamairy: I get the impression that nobody knows. They recovered lots, but probably not all. But he reports that one FBI agent was tasked with returning 250 maps (eek! in itself) to their rightful owners, and could only place about 180 of them. Apparently a large part of the problem was librarians not admitting they'd been hit, which I find worrying.

>134 hfglen: In defense of historical archivists (having worked as one for the last few years) things could go missing without anyone realizing... posibly for years. Especially from a small collection like the one I was supervising.

>134 hfglen: & >135 clamairy: When my grandmother was in charge of the local/California history section of our library, a rare bookseller came in and pointed out to her the many valuable volumes on the shelves which should be kept in an area which could be monitored. They did that, placing them all in a small room which people needed to sign in to gain access. Now, the library has moved to a new building. Not sure what they did with all those books, but I know I got one out of the bargain bin. I suspect the rest of them went in there, too.

>136 MrsLee: I worked in a climate controlled room that was kept locked unless in use. But the rest of the library staff often unlocked the door for strangers, pointed to what they thought they wanted and then left them unattended. The only security measure was that anyone using the room had to sign in, but that would be easy enough to fake.

Edited to add: The correct protocol was that the staff (or the patron) was supposed to call or email me to schedule an appointment. A few times I was called in spur-of-the-moment to take care of a folks from elsewhere who would not be able to get back in.

>135 clamairy:-137. Indeed. Most if not all of the stolen maps were cut out (argh!) of centuries-old atlases or somewhat younger books of exploration, and so wouldn't have been immediately obvious. But the FBI man was complaining of librarians who wouldn't check their rare-books holdings against a list of recovered booty. And the thief used half-a-dozen aliases.

When I was still in Pretoria the librarian had the custom of placing booksellers' catalogues on the new journals shelf, apparently in the vain hope that someone would request the purchase of one we didn't have -- fat chance, as there was never any money for such purchases. But several times I felt constrained to ask the librarian to please remove one or more of them, as they disclosed just how valuable some of our rare books were. Because of lax security just like Clam's in >137 clamairy:, one thief hit us for ten books. Fortunately, we got four of them back a couple of years later. As far as I recall, his punishment was every bit as light as that described in the book.

King Solomon and the Showman: the search for Africa's lost city. G.A. Farini was a showman and circus impresario. For some unknown reason he took himself and his foster son on an expedition to the Kalahari, which he wrote up in a book (which has since been re-issued in a facsimile reprint). Farini claimed to have found a ruined city in a part of the Kalahari that is now in southwestern Botswana, north of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. Since then, no trace has been seen of this city, and not for want of searching. The author of this one shows that Farini was, er, shall we say not exactly the world's most reliable witness. And so the choice he offers his readers as a solution to the mystery of Farini's city is (1) one of several diabase dykes in South Africa, south of the park or (2) quite crudely made walls in the Riemvasmaak area, even further south. We did say that Farini's account needed a good pinch of salt, didn't we, and our author makes a good cast that Farini could never have reached his alleged locality for the "ruins" in the time available to him. A good, if short, read and well worth the effort to find.

>139 hfglen: Your review reminds of Umberto Eco's Baudolino.



The book tells the story of a crusader's pilgrimage to the East to investigate tales of Prester John, a Christian king reputedly ruling over a Christian kingdom in the East that had lost contact with the West. What reminds me of this story is the reliability of the reports returning from the pilgrimage.

There was quite a band put together for the pilgrimage. They thought they should bring things with them to trade for food on the way. As Christian pilgrims intent on conversion on the way, they decided relics of the saints would be appropriate items to trade. Convert the locals and trade the wonders of the new faith for provisions.

In drawing up their collection of relics they included six heads of John the Baptist. They did take the precaution of not trading two of these heads in areas close to one another.

In relation to the reliability of the reports from the pilgrimage, on their return the pilgrims told of their adventures and wrote about them in books that had margin illustrations of the strange beasts they had found. Funnily enough, few of the beasts described or illustrated have ever been found. Lions with wings, men with the heads of beasts, etc...

As with many of Eco's novels, and even some of his more serious non-fiction, one is left with a strong scepticism for documented history and the authenticity of relics and artefacts brought back from distant, unknown lands.



It is quite a funny book and I am glad I read it, but it is quite big and it does take a lot of time to get through. I found the effort rewarding but some may find it an effort t plod on through.

>140 pgmcc: Indeed. I read Baudolino last year, on your recommendation. The Kalahari book seems to me to be a few steps earlier in the making of a legend, or possibly a fictional trope. In that Farini really did exist, and his dates of arrival in and departure from Cape Town are easily picked up from the passenger lists of ships of the period (these are kept in the National Archives in Cape Town). It's equally easy to locate Cape Government Railways timetables and see where he would have had to spend a week waiting for a train. And that is how we can show that Farini was great at embroidering his story. For one thing, the French edition of his book claims Huit mois ... in the title, but he left Cape Town less than six months after arriving. Shades of six heads of John the Baptist ...

>141 hfglen: :-)

For those whose time zones or weather conditions didn't allow them to see the blood moon last night, here is a lousy picture. Max tele to make it more than 3 pixels, max ISO, altogether not a happy combination.

>143 hfglen:
Hugh, we had cloud, so thank you for the picture.

>144 pgmcc: Isn't that normal in Ireland?

>145 hfglen: ...and you were doing so well.

>145 hfglen:
I've heard that there are children there that were several years old before they saw the sun.

>147 suitable1: What’s this “sun” you talk of?

And so to this week's picture. I hope this peacock cheers up those who need it.



Seen in Tulbagh, Western Cape, in 2014.

>149 hfglen: Peacocks always cheer one up.

>149 hfglen:

I feel better already.

>149 hfglen: wow.

>150 pgmcc: >151 suitable1: >152 Jim53: Thank you, all.

The Truth. I'm sure I read this not long after it came out, and before there was a LibraryThing. If you've just landed from Planet Zog, this is the one where Ankh-Morpork acquires a newspaper.

The Black Prince of Florence. Biography of Alessandro de' Medici, who flourished in the 1530s. He was an illegitimate child, but became (to the intense annoyance of the Florentine nobility) the best of the bunch at the time, and first Duke of Florence. Like most of his noble contemporaries, he came to a sticky end at a relatively early age. A couple of generations after the Medici you first thought of, and it shows in how he went to work.

Touchstones have been iffy this past weekend. It didn't want to recognize North and South for my review yesterday. The Truth is working now ;)

>155 Narilka: Many thanks. It's now fixed in my post.

>149 hfglen: I feel like that should be accompanied with a musical flourish! So lovely, and yes, cheering when needed.

PS report to all the kind people who sent good wishes in #39-51 above, and subsequently. I went to see the cardiologist yesterday; if The Hunting of the Snark is to be believed and "What I tell you three times is true", then I must be doing all right. He commented at least six times on how well I looked, and how the examination results (ECG, blood pressure etc.) were all good news. Indeed, I ma now allowed, indeed instructed, to start returning to normal! Many thanks to everybody for all the good wishes -- they undoubtedly helped. Truly, the GD is the friendliest, most caring pub (or community) in cyberspace.

>158 hfglen:
Great to hear that news. Keep it up.

>158 hfglen:

Yay for modern medicine!

>158 hfglen: So pleased to hear this.

>159 pgmcc: >160 suitable1: >161 Peace2: Thank you, all. I couldn't resist the temptation to crow!

This week's pictures:

Today Better Half and I went to a place I hadn't even heard of a month ago, though it's only about 20 minutes' drive from here ("Don't ask me, I only live here" rides again!). Tanglewood Nature Reserve is privately owned, and protects a patch of mixed forest and grassland almost halfway between downtown Durban and ditto Pietermaritzburg. The farm was originally owned by a family called Field, who were among the most important founders of the village that grew into our suburb and surrounds. Hence the visit under the flag of the Highway Heritage Society. The present owner is keen on the resident animals, and showed us some. Including these Long-tailed Lizards.



These animals are not snakes. You can see that, just like their lizard relatives, one of these guys has shed his tail in some past emergency. The detail picture shows the vestigial hind legs.

>163 hfglen: At first I read this as "Today's Better Half," making me wonder if you've got one for every day of the week. Me? Tired? No way.

>164 Jim53: I'm so glad other people (mis) read things in that way :-D I do it often, which is disconcerting (eek! I'm losing my mind, if I ever had one), but it makes the world a much more interesting place!

Lovely to hear the good news, Hugh! For the record, I misread things, A. Lot. I firmly believe it has nothing to do with losing ones mind, and everything to do with our age and experience of what we expect to see when we are reading quickly to get through all of our reading material in the time we have left. ;)

Odd thing. When I first saw your picture, I didn't have the visceral SNAKE! reaction that I usually do when I happen across photos of snakes here and there. Then I read the post and see that they are not actually snakes. I wonder if it's the way their tails hang, as opposed to actual snake which would be all curvy?

>166 MrsLee: Inneresting. Could it be that the person holding them and, indeed, the lizards are totally relaxed, and so don't trigger a fight-or-flight response?

Jan Smuts: unafraid of greatness. Biography and evaluation of one of the two greatest South Africans ever. Sadly, at this stage honouring him as he should be honoured is Politically Incorrect, and the much smaller politicians we are saddled with now (we have no statesmen) do their utmost to sweep this genius under the carpet. The author was editor of the Natal Witness for years (see #128 above), and then moved to The Star (Johannesburg), and so the book is as well written as it should be. Recommended.

>167 hfglen: I don't know. I've seen people holding their "pet" snakes who seemed very relaxed, still wrenches my gut.

Men at Arms. Another re-read of a book first read back in Pretoria. 'Nuff said. Why doesn't the touchstone work? -- there are only somewhat more than 8000 copies in the LT system.

Men at Arms

Must be cable problems

>171 suitable1: Actually, it was that LT didn't like the capital A in "At". I've corrected it. Thanks anyway.

Carpe Jugulum. This is surely the first appearance of the Nac mac Feegle. Fortunately, they grew in importance when they moved from Lancre to the Downlands. Otherwise, how Granny Weatherwax and some other witches defeated some vampires, with a starring role for Agnes Nitt. A re-read, and a welcome one.

Jan Smuts . . . "one of the two greatest South Africans..." (168)

The curiosity of someone who has never seen South Africa: Was the other Nelson Mandela?

Anyway thanks for the heads-up on the bio, which I havenʻt heard of before.

>174 rolandperkins: Yes. The bio is quite new (published 2015).

This week's picture is South Africa's National Bird, seen in 2014 on a farm near Genadendal in the Western Cape.

"Yes . . ." (174-175)

Thanks, @hfglen.

Passionate Minds. Part biography, part history, wholly fascinating. I'd never heard of Emilie du Chatelet before, but she seems to have been one of the brightest minds of the 18th-century Enlightenment. In this country we're celebrating (?) National Women's Month, so I can claim this as a more-or-less appropriate read. Which doesn't in any way excuse the anti-female bigotry of the Académie of the time; fortunately Marie Curie received better treatment 200 years later. Mme Emilie's "boyfriend" was none other than the poet-playwright Voltaire, which adds to the interest. This one is written to author David Bodanis's usual high standard, and comes highly recommended.

Only in America. A BBC correspondent's account of living for six years in Washington, and the general strangeness of American life as seen through British eyes. As far as I can make out from his description, he lived a bit beyond the National Zoo in the NW quadrant, not far from where I stayed when I had the privilege of visiting the Smithsonian -- good grief! Was it really 20 years ago? Told with a good dose of humour and not at all unkindly. Definitely worth looking for. (Political note I'll remove if anybody objects: the story takes place during George W. Bush's presidency, and ends in the middle of Obama's first campaign.)

Barcelona Style. Pretty picture book of the city. The text is harmless, but also next to useless as a guide. Heaven alone knows why the library has this book.

Glad you are doing well!

Cat among the Pigeons. I suspect I avoided Agatha Christie in my teens because Aged Mother and my grandmother liked her books. Pity. Because now that the library is gearing up to get rid of her books, I'm enjoying them. This one involves M. Poirot solving a spate of murders in a classy girls' school. Classic Christie, but in this 21st century would a teenaged girl really fail to spot the difference between overweight and pregnant? Otherwise, much to be enjoyed.

And so to this week's picture. Scenery this time, from a rarely-visited part of the Karoo, roughly in the centre of the country.



This is Theekloof Pass, about halfway between Fraserburg (in the middle of nowhere) and Leeu-Gamka (on the main road from Cape Town to Johannesburg, far enough from Beaufort West -- nearest major town -- to ensure a boring ride).

Great shot. Looks like a beautiful place.

Nil Desperandum. Part biography, part history of a family of early sugar farmers on the lower South Coast of Kwazulu-Natal. One says sugar farmers, and sure enough they were among the first in this activity, but much of the book details the life of William Bazley, who built the harbour at Port Shepstone and many of the main roads in the lower South Coast. The harbour suffered all the problems of Durban, but more so, and was tiny, not being able to take ships of more than about 1000 tons; needless to say it did not long survive the arrival of the railway from Durban, and is now firmly closed. The roads, however, still largely follow Bazley's routes and alignments, despite having been rebuilt from time to time. The writing is competent, despite having too many italics in places, and needing the good offices of an eagle-eyed proofreader. Probably of interest only to KZN residents interested in their province's history.

The Bible Unearthed. Interesting, but impossible to review without contravening the sign in the foyer.

Just Add Dust. The Dragoneer who dislikes descriptions of travel in their stories would hate this. It's the story of an expedition for (the South African) Getaway magazine, from Cape Town to Cairo (about 9000 miles) in a single Land-Rover. One driver covered the whole distance; a photographer and three writers shared the other place, in sections (Cape Town to Lusaka, Lusaka to Nairobi, Nairobi to Addis Ababa, Addis Ababa to Cairo). They made it, despite the incompetence of Sudanese bureaucracy and the best red tape the Egyptians could summon up. Like many of my generation, I grew up with the ambition to do exactly this. Somehow, nowadays one can think of less gratuitously frustrating journeys -- though they saw many amazing sights on the way. If you like good travel writing, this is highly recommended.

The secret of Chimneys. Old (first copyright is 1925) but still good. This is not a Poirot, nor yet a Miss Marple. Instead, the star detective is (police!) Superintendent Battle, who apparently features in no less than five of Mrs Christie's books. The tale itself is highly improbable (as seems almost usual in the genre) but none the worse for that. I think it was @MrsLee who said that the best one can do with books of a certain age is to accept the prejudices of the times and get on with the story. Certainly one has to do so here, and cope with some shaky geography as well. We first meet the protagonist (as Anthony Cade, which turns out to be a pseudonym) in Bulawayo -- which, despite many comments in the story, is and always has been in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe, I know) and not in South Africa -- indeed it's 200 miles from the border, almost as far as it is from Victoria Falls. More distressing is the assumption among the upper-class stay-at-homes that the Colonial must by virtue of his having gotten up, gone and found his fortune in the Colonies be inferior and always wrong. Sadly, I can attest from personal experience that 55 years after this book was written that prejudice was alive and well and living among the "more liberal than thou" crowd in London. For all I know, it still is.

The family favourite TV nature programme had an insert on warthogs this evening, which caused me to think that if @catzteach is doing her piece on Africa again this year, the kiddos should really get to meet a warthog. They're tough little critters (this evening's offering revolved around one that got the better of a cheetah), and quite common (and, incidentally, good eating; that cheetah wasn't wholly stupid). So therefore:



Warthog running, Kruger Park, December 2010. Note the tail held up as a "follow me" flag.

>189 hfglen: They will be familiar with Pumbaa from The Lion King.

Travelling Cat in Ireland. Dearly as one loves the Feline Overlords, I cannot imagine taking them on holiday with me. Frederick Harrison did -- not one, but two, and all the way around Ireland. The resulting account is laugh-out-loud hilarious. Like the time the cats went hunting in Bray, and the gull they wanted for dinner relieved itself on the senior cat's head. I gather parts of the journey featured in a column in the Guardian, even before the gang returned home. And so an Irishman could stop the cavalcade and ask for an introduction to the cat that farted in the face of the RUC (and got away with it!). Highly recommended, but I would imagine Pete has read it already.

The Father of Forensics. Non-fiction, but gore aplenty for those who like a good mystery. Oh, there are more than a few of those here too, albeit in thumbnail form. Sir Bernard Spilsbury found the science of forensics in a state not far from complete woo-woo and arm-waving, and left it a genuine branch of biology. Sadly, his legacy lacks the monumental textbook he was probably better placed than anyone of his time to write, but he did leave thousands of cases for his successors to study. A good read, but only by daylight -- the potential nightmares else could be horrendous!

>191 hfglen: That looks right up my alley. It's going on my wishlist.

>191 hfglen:
No, Hugh, I have not read it. It is the first I heard of it which is surprising as one would think that cat would have been celebrated as a national hero.

Forgotten trails across the midlands of KZN. Oh dear. Will I ever learn to avoid self-published books? On the other hand if you want to read about obscure local history, there's little choice. In this case I hoped to find out about the routes used by transport wagons before the railways came. The author tells us how she realised that she was looking at wagon trails, and how she did her research ... but what she found? Nada, or very close to it. She credits an editor, but she really needed a research leader to tell her what should go in, what could be left out, how to cite sources so that readers can find them, and to whisper the dreaded word "copyright" at appropriate moments. Be glad you're pretty well guaranteed not to find this one.

The Longest Road. Sorry pardon, I like travel books. And this one is particularly good. Surely driving from Key West (FL) to Deadhorse (AK) is more do-able than going from Cape to Cairo, despite being about the same distance (the route that Philip Caputo went). Mostly blacktop, only two border crossings, those manned by competent staff ... but still plenty of adventures to be enjoyed and interesting people to meet. He bought a truck and hired a trailer (UK: caravan) -- a 1962 Airstream -- and off he went with his wife and two dogs. And celebrated his 70th birthday somewhere in the Midwest. Message received: there's hope for me yet. Strongly recommended, and many Dragoneers may find they live near the route.

>158 hfglen: Glad to hear that you're cleared for normal life again!

>189 hfglen: I am charmed by the warthog. (Or at least charmed by the photo. I don't know if I'd find them charming in real life.)

And I am intrigued by and/or curious about The Father of Forensics book. Are you suggesting that there was way too much detail provided about the cases?

>197 jillmwo: Thank you.

Maybe not. They are incredibly ugly when running around. (But very attractive when on a plate, having been suitably marinated and slow-cooked.)

Not so much TMI as that the detail -- generally no more than enough to understand the story -- was immensely and unrelievedly gruesome.

Fossils for Africa. Dunno why this is in the adult section of the library, and is avowedly a primary / middle-school book. However, the pictures of reconstructed past times are gorgeous, even if some of the botany caused sharply indrawn breaths. I could visualise it being popular in @catzteach's school, even though all the examples are African (and mostly South African). I can't help thinking how lucky 21st-century kiddos are to have books like this; the ones on the same theme I recall from my y00t were dire by comparison.

I was thinking of you last night as I was sipping my wine. A Cabernet Sauvignon from South Africa called Fat Barrel by Stellenbosch. Very enjoyable!

>200 MrsLee: No wonder I was a tad confuzzed! Had to google to find out who these people are -- turns out it's an importer in Portland OR, who buys in from a number of estates in the Stellenbosch area. The only brand listed on their web site that I recognised is Jack Black's, but they make craft beer (and quite possibly gin as well, as many craft breweries seem to do these days). I pricked up my ears on reading your post, as a favourite tipple (possibly second after Railroad Red -- work out why ;-) -- from Franschhoek) is called Fat Bastard, but that comes from Robertson in the Breede River Valley. They also do a Cabernet Sauvignon; hardly surprising as that's the most widely planted red wine grape in this country. Anyhoo, I'm delighted that you enjoyed it, and hope you will continue to explore the produce of the Western Cape (maybe on the spot one day?).

ETA the vital missing words.

>201 hfglen: I agree, I would love to sample on the spot! But until then it was fun to see a bottle from your country.