Hugh's 2018 reading and observing, part 3

Yes I know part 2 is about 1/5 shorter than I would really go before breaking and starting a continuation thread, but I'm also looking ahead and decided to move on now so that Part 3 would be long enough to give me a smooth transition to 2019.

Welcome, anyway, to part 3 of 2018.

Delighted to be here. It is always a pleasure to drop into your reading thread.

Yesterday many South Africans did green things in honour of Spring Day -- this is the southern hemisphere, after all! And so to celebrate the longer days and warmer weather I offer you a plant for a change.



This is Huernia hystrix, aka Porcupine Huernia or umanhlangwane. I saw it in January at the lodge we stayed at near Ndumo, almost on the KZN / Mozambique border. AFAIK it grows easily if you're into succulents and have a suitably hot, dry, sunny spot.

Elizabeth: the forgotten years. Elizabeth 1 of England, that is. This is undoubtedly the best possible study of her, ahem, maturer years, from about the time of the (first) Spanish Armada until her death. By the way, did you know that there were no less than five Spanish Armadas sent out to England between 1587 and 1603. All were disastrous for their authors. The book is a veritable brick of 400+ pages of text, but nonetheless very readable.

I always look forward to your lovely pictures. Happy new thread!

>3 hfglen: that is an amazing looking flower. I've never seen anything like it. Are they indigenous?

>6 Darth-Heather: It's indigenous to northern KZN, southern Mozambique, parts of Mpumalanga and probably Swaziland. So yes, it belongs in our area.

>3 hfglen: :( I can't see the marvelous flower. Only a tiny square.

ETA: :) I refreshed my page and the flower magically appeared!

The City of Falling Angels. Mr Behrendt decided that the best way to get to know Venice was to live there during the non-tourist season. So he hired an apartment, and managed to arrived very shortly after the fire that destroyed the Fenice Opera House in 1996. He duly did get to know an amazing assortment of fascinating, interesting and even eccentric Venetians. Interwoven with the shenanigans that surrounded the rebuilding of the Fenice. Why "falling angels"? Because Venice is full of decaying buildings, and bits are inclined to fall off from time to time, especially decorative angels from rococo churches. A great read, and recommended.

>5 majkia: >6 Darth-Heather: >8 MrsLee: Thank you, all. These are remarkable plants, indeed. Here's another, seen in my garden when I was a teenager:



This is probably the commonest carrion-flower of all (Stapelia gigantea). See all those flies on the flower? They're part of what makes these plants interesting. The flowers generally smell evil, and if you look with a bit of imagination (or through the eyes of a fly), they look like a festering wound with some matted hairs around the edge. So the flies lay their eggs on the flower, which fades within three days. And the eggs hatch and die of starvation >:-). Instant vermin control. Clever plants, hey?

>10 hfglen: I like the way that flower behaves.

*waves*
Those flowers are beautiful, but rather creepy, Hugh!

Update for all the kind people who were thinking of me in my recent health problem. I'm just back from the cardiologist, who has pronounced me recovered. Many thanks for all your kind words and thoughts.

>12 clamairy: They do rather lend a new dimension to the phrase "nature red in tooth and claw", don't they? But that's life here. DD wonders what you'd think of the flowers that grab on to their pollinators so tightly that the insects often lose a leg in trying to free themselves. Which is also part of life.

>13 hfglen: I am delighted to hear your news.
Keep well.

>13 hfglen: That’s great news!

I also loved the above flower pictures, and especially the explanation of what the flower in >10 hfglen: does. That’s very cool.

>13 hfglen: Hooray!

Fascinating flower, but I don't know if I would want one in my garden.

>15 pgmcc: >16 YouKneeK: >17 NorthernStar: Thank you, all!

>17 NorthernStar: I would suggest that growing them where you live would be a perfectly lousy idea. You'd need to keep them under glass, at least in winter (they can take a degree or 2 of frost, but not more). And some of us can still remember the pong in the National Herbarium when Cythna Letty was painting them in the '60s and '70s -- definitely not to be repeated!

Glad to hear the good news on the health front!

>13 hfglen: Very glad to hear this.

>19 MrsLee: >20 Jim53: Thank you, both. Driving alone up the highway to Inchanga I was grinning the way Jeremy Clarkson used to when doing 300 km/h in a supercar for Top Gear. And yet I was staying (just) within the speed limit. Honest.

Evil under the sun. Another vintage Agatha Christie, and one that has aged better than some. To me the most remarkable evidence of the almost-80 years between the copyright date and the present was in the teenage Linda Marshall. I believe there is firm scientific evidence that puberty and all that entails happens at least three years earlier now than it did then. And sure enough young Linda is described in terms that would surely fit a modern 12-13-year-old rather than her stated age of 16. The clothing seemed to me to be passable, but then I have zero fashion sense (to the despair of Better Half, who knows full well that I will continue wearing clothes until they are well and truly worn out, and visiting the clothing store is my second-least- favourite activity after going to the doctor). And yes I do know that kind of resort hotel. There may even still be a couple like that on the South African coast.

>22 hfglen: I enjoyed the film of Evil Under the Sun, the one with Peter Ustinov, Diana Rigg, and Maggie Smith. I think I enjoyed it for the cast rather than the story.

>23 pgmcc: That cast would indeed be memorable, regardless of the story.

>24 hfglen: My thoughts precisely.

Beautiful, creepy flowers!

Glad you got good news at the cardiologist!

>26 catzteach: Thank you, Cindy. And so I am able to feed you and your kiddos information on Africa again, if required.

After the creepiness of the last couple of weeks, let's have something gentler and probably more harmless, namely this bushbuck doe seen a couple of years ago in Letaba Rest Camp, in the Kruger National Park.

>28 hfglen: Very calming. I can hear the Awwwwws already.

>29 pgmcc: Thank you, Pete.

How annoying. I've spent weeks plodding through Leonardo da Vinci: the flights of the mind, only to find that I had already read it in 2012. Didn't recall a word, and probably won't this time either. And there are so many other books out there.

wtf -- Capturing Zuma (no touchstone). Political cartoons by the esteemed Zapiro, with linking commentary. Description would contravene the sign in the foyer.

Helen Suzman: bright star in a dark chamber. A very political biography, and so discussion would again contravene the sign in the foyer. Touchstones evidently not working today: LT has 14 copies of this!

Back to the strange flowers this week. Did any of you by any chance live through the commercial feeding frenzy a few years ago about The Latest Herb that (supposedly at least) works and is Good For You -- something called Hoodia, which has been used since always by the San as an appetite suppressant and was discovered by the food-supplement industry a few years ago as a slimming aid? Here's the plant:



It lives in Bushmanland / southern Kalahari, north of the Orange (Gariep) River, and I took this picture decades ago -- long enough to forget exactly where.

Fascinating and a great picture.

My waistline is sufficient proof that I have never heard of this before.

>34 hfglen: Nope, never heard of that, but what an interesting plant! The pollinators must either have a very long proboscis, or crawl inside?

>36 MrsLee: Neither. That flower is almost flat, so they just walk up to the (tiny) important parts in the middle. The pollen masses form a sort of saddle that gets tangled up or stuck on a leg, and off they fly to the next plant.

Oh, it looked like an empty hole in the photo. Thanks.

Sigh. So many books in the library that I've (almost) forgotten I've already read. Latest "unintended" re-read is The Last Theorem. At least it was as enjoyable second time round as the first. And I don't feel too bad about fading memory, as LT tells me I first read it in 2009.

>39 hfglen: That is one reason I love LT, another is when I'm looking at the library sales, I can peek at my catalog here and see if I've already owned it. Frequently I'm looking at a book I've read and donated!

>40 MrsLee: Snap. LT has saved me a fortune in avoided duplicate purchases.

>34 hfglen: I remember hoodia among many other supplement crazes. We had some friends in Durham Friends Meeting who had a radio show called The People's Pharmacy, and it was fun to see how many different ways they could come up with to say "Nah."

>40 MrsLee: I have had the experience several times of picking up an interesting-looking book at a used book shop and realizing that I had traded it in there not all that long ago.

>42 Jim53: Interesting that you seem to be the only person in the GD who does remember it. When the product was launched it was made out to be the greatest thing since sliced bread and South African, Indigenous Knowledge and all other things bright and beautiful. Since the, it's apparently died the death here, too. Why am I not surprised?

Cards on the Table. M. Poirot is never wrong, though at one point he thinks he is. Add in an irritating Lady Novelist (a tongue-in-cheek self-portrait of the author, perhaps?) and several characters of varying degrees of shadiness, and you have a pleasant DNBR-day's entertainment. And despite there being essentially no romance in the story, thoroughly decent boy gets charming girl.

>43 hfglen: I remember hoodia. I was working in the Agriculture Library at the time and we did a lot of research trying to figure out if it could be grown here as a diversification crop. It got beat out by Rhodiola, though.

>45 tardis: Now there's a bizarre thought. It's generally held that farmers from where it grows who die in summer and go downstairs find Hell pleasantly cool after normal Bushmanland weather. And although they do get frost in winter, it's only a degree or 2 and all gone mid-morning. Surely in Edmonton you'd need to grow it under glass with lots of heating? Rhodiola would surely be a much more viable prospect.

>46 hfglen: Well, they weren't thinking of it for this far north. Summers in southern Alberta can be pretty hot and dry, but not THAT hot, and not long enough.

The family's favourite TV nature programme led this week with a story to the effect that the Barberton Mountain Land was very recently adopted as South Africa's 10th UNESCO World Heritage site. This was mainly because it has outcrops of one of the world's three oldest unmodified rock types. Unlike the other two, which are inaccessible, ours is right on the main road from Barberton into Swaziland (and scenic in its own right). The road now has regular pull-off places with information displays on the rocks in the area. (Unfortunately, the nearest ATM is in South Africa and the nearest loo in Swaziland, which could be awkward.) In some places there are veins visible to the naked eye, showing bacterial activity that took place 3600 million years ago. There's also a whole host of endemic plants growing there and nowhere else. Because I've already posted one (last year IIRC) of the mountains, this time round you get one of the rare, endemic and I think rather pretty plants.



Aloe thorncroftii, which doesn't seem to have a common name, and only grows in six small areas in the mountains behind Barberton. I took this picture in the mid-1980s.

111 places in Cape Town. Ahem. It's amazing the variety of non-South Africans who aim to make money publishing guide books to parts of our mad and sunny land. The descriptions in this one are not bad, though I wouldn't willingly be seen dead in half the places these authors recommend. The text is translated from a German original; shall we say that every now and then the translation wavers a bit. And if you believe in the Prussian reputation for pinpoint, paranoid accuracy, and you know the area, the route directions will make your hair stand on end. At least one uses a road that doesn't pass within 1000 miles of Cape Town, and most of the others vary between guaranteeing that anyone who uses them will get lost and being simply incomprehensible. If you mean to use this one seriously, check against a streetfinder, Google Maps or both.

Even more things that nobody knows. Engaging trivia ideally suited for occasions (like bedtime) when one only plans to read a page or 2, and that with the mind firmly in neutral. Given that condition, heartily recommended.

Pete's just reminded me (in @Bookmarque's thread) of the time I went to a conference in the Canaries (spoilt brat, aren't I) in 1978. The post-congress tour was to the island of Lanzarote, which is actively volcanic. There was a village here in the Timanfaya national park, but it got buried in the 18th century.



In the picnic site at the park headquarters they have braai places, almost like we do at home. But they use geothermal (volcanic) heat to cook their food -- fish in this picture.



The local tour guides' party piece is to pour some water into the sand just off the path -- a few seconds later there's a miniature geyser as it boils. They then stick some kindling into the same sand, and their flock watches as it bursts into flames.

>51 hfglen: Glad to see you are continuing the volcanism. I love your descriptoon of the Lanzarote trip. Is a braai a picnic or cooking area?

>52 pgmcc: Picnic with barbecue facilities. I was thinking and speaking in Seffican not standard English. The picture is, obviously, the local version of a zero-carbon-footprint barbecue.

For this week's picture I first thought of the inevitable picture that everybody (at least everybody who's ever been there) has of a caravan of camels strung out across the volcanic desert. Dullsville. So then I thought of what you find in a desert: succulents. Allow me to introduce ...



Frithia pulchra, or "Fairy Elephants' Feet". Not in a desert but on top of Breedt's Nek in the Magaliesberg, scarcely an hour's drive from Johannesburg. When they're not flowering they are amazingly well camouflaged, and I was tempted to post a "spot the plant" puzzle picture of a group of non-flowering individuals.

>54 hfglen: What an interesting little plant. Right now, succulents are all the rage here. Especially frosting ones on cakes! That one would be a hit for sure. I love its name.

Eyewitness to History. Brief notes on important or at least interesting items from the death of Socrates to 9/11, by writers who were there, or near enough that it doesn't matter. Varies from the fascinating (dinner with Attila the Hun, who was remarkably civilised as it turns out) to the stomach-turning (a visit to a Nazi death camp, which was anything but civilised). Good bedside reading, in part.

Once again these are awesome pics, Hugh.

Hoodia... I do vaguely remember something about that craze. What happened? Did it not work? Or were people taking it and then chasing it with three cheeseburgers?

Thank you, Clam!

Hoodia undoubtedly works, and has been used by the local San (PC term for Bushmen, which may tell you something about the plant) for millennia. It works by suppressing the appetite, and so I doubt you'd be able to get three cheeseburgers down as a chaser. However (1) the juice tastes vilely bitter, as with all members of that family, and (2) IIRC it didn't occur to the promoters that as a desert succulent the plant might just grow slowly, and a large industry might just not be sustainable. The local Nature Conservation guys did work that one out, and stopped wild-harvesting before the veld was stripped completely bare. It then became apparent (as @tardis probably found out) that it's neither the easiest nor the quickest plant in the world to grow. Giving the promoters all the time they needed to go phut.

>44 hfglen: I collect bridge mysteries, and as I recall Cards on the Table was a very good one.

It's a great story, Jim, but I regret to say the bridge references sailed straight over my head without a ripple.

How Churchill saved civilization. Despite the title, a history of World War 2. Readable, and detailed where it needs to be. Points out sympathetically that Churchill was a product of, and had the prejudices of, his time -- something all too easily forgotten these days. As such, interesting.

The subject of this week's picture is, I suppose, best described as Art. It's part of a panel of Eland (with a few hunters) painted some time in the last 2000 years by a nameless member of the San (Bushman) people. The panel is now housed in the Iziko South African Museum in Cape Town. Sadly, most panels like this that are still in situ have either faded almost to invisibility or been vandalised.



Eland are one of the commonest subjects of Bushman paintings, as they were of immense religious and practical importance to these people.

>62 hfglen: Ahhh.... This is magnificent!

>62 hfglen: That is spectacular. So it's painted on a panel of wood?

Thank you both. Not wood, which wouldn't last a fraction of the age of these pictures, but stone. They were generally painted on the back wall of the shelter / cave, which gave them some limited protection from the weather. I think this one came from somewhere in the Drakensberg, so the substrate is called (depending on the age of the informant) Cave Sandstone or Clarens Sandstone. By the way, that Clarens is named after a village in the Free State, surrounded by outcrops of the eponymous stone. The village, in turn, is named after the place in Switzerland where Pres. Kruger of the Transvaal died in exile in 1904.

>62 hfglen: Wonderful image, It is a pity about the lost images.

Crown of Thistles. Most peculiar. The cover blurb assures us that this is a book about Mary Queen of Scots, yet we have to read just over 3/5 of the book before she makes her first appearance (by being born). And her story peters out about 15 years before her execution. The first half-and-more of the book details her Stuart ancestry and Scottish politics from the 15th century.

And carrying on the bushman-picture theme from last week. The other great medium used by the First People was engravings in ironstone boulders, which are found in many of the drier parts of South Africa. Based on the rate of weathering of the newly-exposed rock, these are believed to be much older than most paintings. So I offer you a 2000+ year-old Rhino seen at a "museum" (actually a trail through the veld, with stop at various boulders left where they were found) near Barkly West, Northern Cape. Apparently the disposition of the images has religious significance to the present generation of San.

Very nice.

Made it to the Kloof SPCA's used-book store yesterday, and needless to say came home with some rescue books. Like the sign on the way in says "The best breed of all is -- Adopted!".

So the Railway History Society scored a 50-year-old edition of
London's Underground -- I believe there are more recent editions, but we do examine history, after all.

And I scored two cookbooks:
French regional cookery: Brittany
French regional cookery: Burgundy
I foretell some good meals in our future.

And some fun reading (which may in cases be questionable):
Two Stephanie Plums:
One for the money
Eleven on top
And an Umberto Eco
The Island of the Day Before

I'd be curious to hear Pete's opinion of this last.

Actually read London's Underground, and am now ready to pass it on to the Railway Society. Its thoroughness will warm the heart of the dedicated railway historian. Each line is dealt with in detail, including the Victoria Line, still under construction when this book was written. Also loads of detail on many aspects of running the Underground; enough that I got a bit lost from time to time. I still wonder about the Victorian mindset that considered running steam trains in unventilated tunnels to be a Good Idea. Surprisingly, enough punters considered this to be better than the crowded streets that the Underground grew, prospered, and is still a marvel today.

Oops! Sorry, I switched to the @Railwaysoc account to check a catalog entry and didn't think to return to my own before posting. The last two posts are me.

The news this evening ended with an interesting report that Europe is thinking of scrapping daylight saving and the hassle of shifting clocks twice a year. Can anybody add to this, please?

This week's picture was taken in 2003 in Vaalbos National Park near Kimberley, which was the target of a land claim and no longer exists. Fortunately the animals were moved to a new reserve at Mokala, about 50 miles away. This may not, actually, have been all that much of a loss, as the old reserve fronted on to a stretch of the Vaal River. The neighbours across the river operated a very noisy mining operation for alluvial diamonds -- still do for all I know. At least the new site is quiet.



Wonder if this little guy moved with everybody else?

>73 hfglen: My understanding is that the public will be consulted and there will be a decision regarding whether the clock stays as it is now (having just gone back an hour this morning) or if it changes for the last time in March. The piece I read was a little ambiguous and I thought it left an opening for some countries to go one way and others the other way, which would mean neighbouring countries that have hitherto kept the same time could differ by an hour. All this does not take into consideration what the UK will do under Brexit. It could decide to just keep changing the clock which would end up with the time in Northern Ireland being one hour out of step with time in the Republic for six months of the year.

Things are becoming so exciting in a "going-back-to-the-Dark-Ages" sort of way.

Oops! I hope that has not overstepped the no-politics rule.

Thank you, Pete. Now I know why the news readers sounded like they didn't understand the story either. They did suggest that major consultations were scheduled for April, which sounded to me as if somebody was trying to pre-empt a decision there.

Shorelines: a journey along the South African coast. Not to be confused with the TV series and spinoff book by a totally different team, but covering the same ground. Chris Marais and Julienne du Toit usually write witty and knowledgeable articles for the South African Country Life and Go! magazines, illustrated by their own photos -- often comparable in quality to @Bookmarque's and so well worth seeking out -- indicating deep knowledge of and passion for the Karoo. Here they follow the South African coastline from Alexander Bay on the north-western border to Kosi Bay in the north-east. Sadly, the few pictures are woefully reproduced. The text is eminently readable and often hilarious, and really deserves better presentation than this paperback. Grab it if you can.

Evolution: the whole story. Gorgeously illustrated, factually accurate 2- or 4-page essays on main themes in plant and animal evolution. Why do I put it that way? Because at nearly 600 pages the book is a brick, a doorstop, a behemoth already, and to add more evidence, more examples or more detail would make the whole work thoroughly unmanageable. A good read for those with strong wrists.

>75 pgmcc: we have a similar situation here in the US. Some states have done away with DST, and for part of the year they are 1 hour off of the time in their neighboring states. More states have proposed doing the same, and the issue is raised often but without any resolution.

In larger states it might not be as much of a hassle, but here in New England where there are several small states, we cross the borders often and it would make sense for the states to just all choose one approach and stick with it.

I personally would like to "spring forward" in March and leave it that way. I don't like the winter schedule where it is completely dark when I leave work at the end of the day.

People who have children heading to school in the morning dark may prefer the other.

either way, I don't know many people who wish to keep changing back and forth twice a year...

>79 Darth-Heather: How very interesting; thank you, Heather! You make me glad I live near the tropics, and so have daylight at both ends of the day, summer and winter. You also remind me of a conference I went to in the Netherlands in 2007 -- just round the corner from @Ennas's workplace -- that ended just before the clocks went back in October. One of the best bits of getting home was not having to grope around in the dark for what felt like hours in the morning.

Some years ago a local airline tried to whip up enthusiasm for starting (restarting; I gather we had it in WW2 but the dairy cows objected) DST in this country. The idea fell flat as a pancake, I suspect largely because anybody who looked at a map saw immediately that except for a small sliver of the east of the country (most notably the Kruger Park and Durban), everybody has some DST anyway; in Cape Town sun time is 48 minutes behind clock time. Where's New Hampshire in relation to your "standard meridian" -- I can see where that would influence what people want.

>76 hfglen: & >79 Darth-Heather:

I do not have strong feelings about it one way or another. The clock went back an hour this weekend and as a result I was going for the bus with a little light that was not there on Friday morning. This evening it will be a bit darker when I get home than it was on Friday. In a couple of weeks I will be going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark. At my latitude it makes very little difference for a very short period of time.

ETA: Looking out the window I can confirm I shall be going home in the dark tonight. It will probably be next week when I shall start going to work in the dark.

>81 pgmcc:

You should carry a flashlight. (torch?)

>82 suitable1: AFAIK Dublin has streetlights

>82 suitable1: & >83 hfglen:

You are correct, Hugh, and the glimmer-man goes around the streets at dusk lighting the gas.

>73 hfglen:, >75 pgmcc:, and onwards on DST: In Sweden we just changed to "standard time", and I do have to say that it's rather bleak. It gets dark by 4 PM/16:00, and on a day like today when it rain has poured from a dark grey heaven it feels like the sun never ventured above the horizon...
At my latitude, equal to the Shetlands or so, it gets really REALLY dark during winter. And up by our cabin by Yule sun's only lightening up the sky between 10 and 13 (10 AM to 1 PM). Can't really say DST changes anything, while setting back and forth the time twice a year only leads to artificial jetlag. I'm all for abolishing it.

The last I heard a decision is in the makings for no earlier than 2020, and as someone said: it looks like the member countries will be allowed to step one way or the other. Which is insane. At least keep to some kind of longitudinal sanity, I say!

Also - >83 hfglen: & >84 pgmcc: ROFL!

>79 Darth-Heather: I’m with you in that I would prefer to switch to DST and just stay there. It’s nice to have a little more daylight after work. I would be nearly as happy with just staying in non-DST year-round. I don’t like flipping back and forth.

Whenever we “fall back”, my cat wakes me up an hour early for days, if not weeks. I have tried very slowly and patiently to explain the concept of daylight savings to him, and we’ve also discussed how to read a clock, but he really doesn’t get it. :)

Our state (California) has a proposition on the ballot that would allow legislators to go with Europe or do whatever they want about DST. Not sure how I feel about that. I wish we didn't have to deal with DST. Seems like it isn't necessary any more, but what do I know.

So if it passes California would do DST a couple weeks ahead of the rest of the country?

I too wish we'd just do away with DST. Forward or back, it always screws up my internal clock.

>80 hfglen: Hugh, this is a somewhat vague map that shows the relation of NH to the rest of the continent:



We are in the Eastern Time Zone (the pink section):



Central Time Zone is quite a long way to the west; it would take me about 16 or more hours to drive there.

Other states in the New England region are within relatively short drives of each other, and many people commute from one to another between work and home.So that would be confusing if it were 8am in NH but 9am in Massachusetts.

There has been a proposal to create a new time zone - Atlantic Time - that would encompass the states that border the Atlantic Ocean, but it's certainly not the simplest solution.

Ah. It looks from those as if NH is about half-an-hour east of your standard meridian, in which case permanent DST makes sense. It would then be like the area near where Eastern Cape turns into Western Cape here, where sun time is half-an-hour behind clock time, and has been for over a century. (Most of Kenya is the same, by the way.)

Namibia Space. Now this is what the husband-and-wife team of Chris Marais and Julienne du Toit are famous for, at least around here. Informative travel writing, perceptive comment on the history and ecology of dry places, and brilliant photos that rival those that @Bookmarque shares with us. Unlike their previously mentioned Shorelines book, this one is well printed on decent paper in a sensible format, with lots of pictures. Now, of course, I'm itching to go there! Others, browse it if and when you can.

I mentioned in @Bookmarque's thread (at #133) that the cover of one of her October books reminded me of a very famous place I'd visited a long time ago. Here is a passageway in what I gather is now called the Great Enclosure in Great Zimbabwe Ruins, as it was in May 1971.



The perspective is, of course, different to the picture on the book, but the similarity is, I hope, clear.

In case anybody's curious, this is what happens at the other end of the passage above.

did people live in there? or is it military fortifications?

AFAIK this is supposed to be a religious structure. There are fortifications -- confusingly, inhabited by the chief and his nearest and dearest -- on the hill overlooking the site.

In northern Europe churches doubled as fortifications, especially during the middle ages (which lasted a fair bit behyond the Italian renaissance started, down south). Maybe the same applies in this case?

Unlikely. Who fortifies a valley floor? (Which is where this enclosure is.)

Ah, no, that makes total sense - not to build a fortress in such a location, I mean. That wasn't obvious from the pictures, though, and so I just made a spur of the moment guess ;-)

Indeed, @Busifer, there's no way you could possibly have deduced that from this week's pictures. A long time ago I posted a view of the site from the "Acropolis", or whatever they now call the fortification on the hill, so I guess it wouldn't hurt to re-post it.



This week's pictures are inside the left-hand-side of the elliptical structure, which clearly is indefensible against anybody on the hill. If you're curious, I've probably got a picture or 2 of the actual fortification I could post.

Happiness is snagging a copy of "Snowy's new Strelitzia book" (Strelitzias of the World) without having to pay for it! It's a very splendid, deliciously illustrated, mostly historical study of each species in the family of bird-of-paradise flowers, and would grace any keen gardener's bookshelf, especially those wholive in a warm climate. (How did I achieve that? By reading every word before publication as referee.)

100 Flowers and how they got their names. Short, 2-page essays on the origin of the names of 100 common garden plants. Well written and mostly accurate, if occasionally lacking in detail. An ideal book for bathroom reading, but this copy has to go back to the library.

>99 hfglen: I see how the fortification idea has no merit, at all. More a "keeping people from escaping" set up, with fortress-like installation up on a height and then a walled installation at the bottom?
But I'll stop speculation, it was just rambling curiosity!

This Wikipedia article is pretty good, and explains that the fortification on the hill was housing for the Great and Good -- and their bodyguards, of course. The Great Enclosure was almost certainly ceremonial -- there is not and never has been anything in the doorways to anchor a door to -- and the ruins to the left in my picture were housing for the plebs when the place was inhabited. The result gives a town plan rather like, and almost certainly descended from, the somewhat earlier Mapungubwe.

Miss Marple's Final Cases. Short stories of a very smart lady amateur-sleuth; very much the mixture as before.

One for the Money. Good heavens! All the elements of a typical Stephanie Plum, right from the start! Enjoyable fluff, just like the other 23 in the series.

Land of the Midnight Sun: my Arctic adventures. Possibly a strange title, considering this is the story of the making of an ITV documentary series, and they start the story in February. So he only gets to see the sun for the first time this trip about three chapters in. That the author's day job includes being a comedian is, happily, reflected in the writing, which is often smile-worthy. The result is a fascinating, beguiling and readily recommendable story, but with all due respect to @NorthernStar, I'm glad it was him and not me doing it. I'm far too attached to being warm!

Oh, this seems like a fun read! I’ll see of I can find it.
I, too, am dedicated not only to warmer climes, but ones where the sun actually shows it’s face above the horison all year round... but as I stay just south of the arctic circle regularly, and travel above it most years, I find a certain fascination in other people’s reaction to it. Extreme living conditions are always both extreme and essentially very similar, regardless of if it’s snow, sand, cold, heat, light, or darkness.
”Life finds a way.”

It’s the darkness, not the cold, that has me staying well away.

Interesting. I also don't like groping around in the dark at "unreasonable" hours, but find the cold more trying.

And so to a warm, daylight picture to cheer us up. Trumpeter Hornbills are indigenous to our area, and there's a family resident, if not in our garden then at least in the neighbourhood. We see them from time to time, and hear them often.

Death's Mistress: sister of darkness. Can't say I had read any Terry Goodkind before this one, but can say this won't be the last. Even though the Durban city library system doesn't have the next one in the series, they do seem to be quite keen on this author.

This is a fast-paced adventure tale, with plenty of action and emotion on every page, and there are lots of pages (512, to be precise). At times, indeed, one almost felt the story was overstuffed; why, Nicci and her companions could hardly move from one site of drama before landing in the next. But nonetheless enjoyed.

On maturer reflection I have two problems with Death's Mistress. One requires a spoiler tag. I get that the Lifedrinker could turn productive farmland into a desert over time -- humans are quite good at that, unfortunately. I can buy that given time that desert can be returned to its former state of productivity -- nature and the Israelis are good at that, too. But what does require a major effort at suspension of disbelief is that Victoria could convert the desert into a jungle in a few weeks, with no sign of rain or any other water. That doesn't wash.

The other is more minor and will probably affect less than 1% of readers. On the face of it, Mrra is the perfect name for a feline. But ... when I say it to myself it comes out as almost exactly the same as the Swahili word miraa, which is the same concept as Arabic khat, or the tree Catha edulis, more particularly the leaves when chewed as a "recreational" drug (among the most commonly used in the Horn of Africa and SW Arabia).

Unintentional re-read of Coast to Coast: Life along South Africa's shores, the book that the same authors' Shorelines: a journey along the South AFrican coast book should have been. The pictures are indeed up to the standard set by @Bookmarque, and so the book is recommended.

Noting the number of the previous post, I let the total stand for a while quite deliberately (though I may soon need piffle just as Clam has said she does). Amongst South African cricket fans, a score of 111 is called "Nelson", and superstitous fans will see that when their favourite batsman or side reaches that score, their feet stay off the ground until it is surpassed. (Or, of course, that feet stay firmly planted when the opposition reaches that score.) Do cricket lovers from other countries do the same?

>112 hfglen: David Shepherd (former umpire and cricketer in his own right) was probably the foremost exponent of recognising the number.

>112 hfglen: Innneresting ... not to be confused with David Shepherd the wildlife artist and railway enthusiast (no. 3 on the disambiguation page), I take it.

Stone of Tears. Took an age for me to find this series, but now I can make up for lost time, at least partly. I'm still amazed by the amount of action this author manages to pack into a single book -- even a long one like this. Noted with pleasure that Nicci, the female lead in Death's Mistress has a walk-on role already in this one, and Nathan, her companion there, also gets a cameo role here.

>112 hfglen: I would certainly notice if my feet stayed off the ground.

>116 Jim53: One holds them up.

And so. Having missed any picture last week, what do I have now for you? How about this? I've posted pictures of the Amphitheatre in the Royal Natal National Park before, but here's a detail shot of the Eastern Buttress from the Tugela Gorge in Royal Natal National Park. The highest point is some 10500 feet (3250 m, roughly) above sea level -- not much by the standards of the Rockies, but still close to the highest point between here and Kilimanjaro.

The Wright Brothers: the dramatic story behind the legend. Highly entertaining and very readable biography, fully annotated for those who want such things. Orville and Wilbur come across as men who in a different age would have been worthy members of the GD, than which there is scarcely any higher praise. Recommended reading, almost unconditionally.

It's kinda difficult to join in the chatter when all you can see of the screen is a pair of adoring blue feline eyes, the sound comes with an undertone of purring, and you have to lean across the cat to the keyboard (which is blocked from view).

>120 hfglen: LOL!!

>120 hfglen: I miss having one or more cats. If I had less self-control I'd end up a cat lady... ;-)
But, I'm rational, and we'd not be able to travel the way we do if we had cats. Having a holiday home 960 kilometres from were one lives has its downsides.

Cat has now found somewhere more comfortable to sleep ...

I had forgotten that I've already read The Book of British Battleaxes when I took it out of the library. It bears re-reading.

The Last Lingua Franca. A slow and heavy but still worthwhile read. If nothing else, I've slept well while it's been next to my bed.

The other day @Busifer and I were discussing the general absurdity of overly "green" postmodern planning. I said Cape Town is one of the few places where rooftop public areas can be relied on to work, in that the climate involves winter rain, so when you might consider braving the elements at night, the weather is reliably decent. And one thing Cape Town has in vast profusion is views from almost any rooftop not blocked by the neighbours. Here's a typical southward view from the City Bowl -- in this case, from a top-floor flat in a timeshare joint.

>124 hfglen: Nice view.

overly "green" postmodern planning

Isn't "postmodern" the term used in literary criticism to refer to works by mainstream authors that contain a supernatural or science fiction element and the critic cannot stoop to calling it genre fiction?

Does overly green postmodern planning contain any supernatural or science fiction elements?

You may well be right when using the word in a literary context. In terms of architecture, as I understand it, it refers to designs fashionable after '70s brutalism. In particular, @Busifer was objecting to starry-eyed planners who think you can have an outdoor "tropical beach" pub (or anything else) on a rooftop where she lives so close to the Arctic Circle. I was reminded of a certain bunnyhugger I had the misfortune to share a committee with, who thought that sod roofs were the latest, greenest idea the world had ever had, and we should all instantly plant wildflowers on the roof. (He was not best pleased when I circulated a picture of the barn at Linnés Hammarby, which has had such a roof for at least 250 years, and pointed out that in Sweden at least they are traditional-since-always. I suppose the supernatural element would be the belief held by Busifer's planners that users of their product can do so in winter without freezing to death.

Here's the picture I referred to in #126 above. I took it in 1976.

Mind you, at least as traditional is this click mill (medieval water-powered mill for grain) in Orkney, Scotland. Seen in 1981.



Apparently the point of structures like this is that if they hunkered down low enough in the glen and had roofs made of the local scenery, they would escape the notice of the laird and his minions, and so avoid being taxed. That sounds to me like a very Scottish tradition.

>126 hfglen:, >127 hfglen: & >128 hfglen:

Very enlightening.

When they were building the Witness History Visitors' Centre in the GPO it was deemed appropriate, if not a planning requirement, to plant heather on the flat roofs involved. The plants took a while to take hold and eventually a green covering was seen. Another couple of months provided tall weeds. The drought last summer finished it off all together. We now have a brown patchwork pattern to look out at.

Ahem. Yes. Surely you remember the Great Heatwave and Drought of 1976, or did it not hit Ireland? The Hammarby roof shows it all to clearly.

>130 hfglen:
I remember it well. I spent three months in Donegal mapping the geology of North West Inishowen. It was a wonderful summer; blue skies from June to September.

I’ll have to be short because I’ve managed to do things not allowed by corporate IT security and now my laptop won’t work ... so pecking on my smartphone at the moment...

The idea beyond the Swedish variant of the traditional roof is that it’s practically maintenace-free. Other traditional roofing material were straw (high maintenance), wood slats, slate (certain regions only), and birch bark. In comparison peat roofing (which is what’s under the layer of soil and greenery) was readily available and easy to care for.
For the past 20 years or so another kind of green roof has become popular - the Sedum roof.

The trend I ridicule is the ”let’s pretend we have a Mediterranean climate and build urban rooftop gardens everywhere”.
Last summer was terrific if you love having drinks outdoors. It was a record 10 weeks in a row of warm weather. Then, it’s too cold, until next record summer...

>132 Busifer: I take it you don't have thunderstorms. Here we do, and thatch (straw) catches fire in them so easily -- even if not struck directly -- that the insurance is astronomically loaded. And as you suggest, they need constant maintenance and vigilance against birds seeing loads of free nesting material, snakes taking up residence in the thatch, etc. But a new thatch roof does smell good!

>132 Busifer: The trend I ridicule is the ”let’s pretend we have a Mediterranean climate and build urban rooftop gardens everywhere”.

I felt similarly about restaurant and café tables and chairs on the footpath in Dublin. "Let's pretend it doesn't rain in Ireland."

Well, they do look good, and when the weather is nice it is nice to eat outside.

There are now hundreds of footpath tables and chairs in Dublin and they are used a lot. What promoted their appearance and growth was not the tropical weather experience in the Irish capital, but the smoking ban. Ireland was the first country to introduce a total ban on smoking in work places and the road side restaurants haven't looked back. Canopies over the tables shield them from the "occasional" shower.

Secret Africa. This is a 1980 reprint of a book evidently written some time in the 1930s. As such, one should maybe regard it as history rather than description. The attitudes shown and indeed glorified by Mr Green (who was, by the way, a good and accurate writer) are very much of the earlier time, and 21st-century reader will probably find the casual, paternalistic racism nauseating. The industrial processes are at best quaint, the disregard for occupational health alarming. And the description of 1930s winemaking, with all its third-rate practices and shortcuts, is simply embarrassing. South African wine has improved beyond all recognition since then. Unless you have a very good reason for reading this one and go in with eyes open and fully warned, it is best left to rest in peace; a wish one can extend to its author as well.

>133 hfglen: We do have thunderstorms, but not on a tropical scale. However, straw roofing is not in use any longer except in museum settings. Combined with a lightening rod, of course.

> 134 "What promoted their appearance and growth was not the tropical weather experience in the Irish capital, but the smoking ban." Same here. One of the best laws, in my opinion.

Indeed, lighning conductors are mandatory here too. Often three or four for a large roof.

And we, too, have a smoking ban; I fully agree that this is "one of the best laws". Ours extends (with the exception of designated smoking areas) to public outdoor spaces as well.

Ah - "public outdoor spaces" would be a very welcome addition to the smoking ban. As is it is a delight to be able to have a nice dinner at a restaurant without having it disrupted by some obnoxious being lighting a cigarette at a nearby table...

Rather necessary here, as most of our vegetation is tinder-dry and highly inflammable for at least half of the year. And those you so accurately describe as "obnoxious beings" are immensely (and sometimes deliberately?) careless with burning matches and cigarette butts.

Warheart. Last in the Richard and Kahlan story arc. Why is it the second I read? Because Durban libraries don't believe in keeping all of a sequence together in the same place. One reads the ones one can, when one can. Anyhoo, this ties the arc up nicely, with no loose ends but with a hook to hang the subsequent Nicci Chronicles.

This week's picture is a baobab in the Limpopo valley, between Musina and Waterpoort in the Zoutpansberg. At one time there was a post office in the hollow.



ETA Clearly The Little Prince hadn't been gardening here!

>141 hfglen: I shall have to pass this on to my Post Office colleagues as input to their Post Office redesign initiative. The Post Office has always been rooted in the community.

Eleven on Top. One of the books that I adopted at the SPCA last month. Exactly what one would expect from Stephanie Plum. It is amazing how she never either grows up or learns from one book to the next. Which does at least mean that one knows at the start what one is going to get; sometimes that makes for a comfort read.

>142 pgmcc: :-) I'm sure your colleagues are engaged in a more than superficial redesign. In that case a baobab may not be a suitable model, as they are surface-rooted.

Naked Empire. Interesting reading this one so close to Warheart. The plots are almost identical.

I'm taking YouKneek's comment in Narilka's thread (#66) as an invitation to post a cat picture of my own. Danica, my daughter's cat, insists (often loudly) on drinking running water in the bath. As she's getting elderly -- almost 16 -- her pet hoomins abide by her wishes.

>146 hfglen: Woo hoo, a cat picture! ;) That is very cute. Mine showed some moderate interest in drinking from the tap in the sink when he was a kitten, but he doesn’t now.

River of Gold: Narrative and exploration ... by Peter Norton and others. A most interesting and detailed account of the great, grey-green, greasy Limpopo River from its sources in Johannesburg to the sea in Mozambique, with numerous gorgeous, almost Bookmarque-ian pictures. Page size is not quite coffee-table, and the text is a whole lot more meaty. I love the story of a church I knew in almost-central Johannesburg, which developed structural problems. These turned out to be because it was built on a spring that, as it happens, is among the tributaries furthest from the sea. So the church now rejoices in the name of St. Mary-on-the-Limpopo, though the spring flows into Braamfontein Spruit, which flows into the Jukskei, which flows into the Crocodile, which only becomes the Limpopo when it is joined by the Marico, on the Botswana border. Sadly, you'll need a map a great deal better than any in the book to follow that one. Recommended, nonetheless.

>146 hfglen: It's pretty impressive that she can get INTO the tub (and out again) at her advanced age! That's not so easy as it probably once was.

>146 hfglen: I love it. I've had various cats over the years who wanted to play with or drink from dripping faucets. My first cat loved to play in the tub with anything small and round. We called it "tub hockey."

>141 hfglen: Love that baobab as well!

>150 clamairy: LOL, my cat did the same tub hockey thing when he was a kitten. He doesn't do it as much now that he has better things to do like opening drawers. He’s the only living being in my home who actually uses the bathtub for anything, except when my mom visits. It’s separate from the shower, and I prefer showers.

>149 Darth-Heather: Sometimes I think Danica has at some stage overdosed on Downton Abbey, and rather fancies herself as a feline "Lady Violet, Dowager Duchess of Grantham". I suspect if I spoke Cat more fluently I'd recognise some of the barbs she aims at "the boys" (our other two cats) as Lady Violet quotes.

>146 hfglen: Cats :D
All the cats that has lived with me has had their own quirks, but no one insisted on drinking from the faucet. A friend’s cat used to drink from the toilet bowl, though. He opened doors as well, so only way to keep him from doing it was to lock the door to the loo...

>146 hfglen: What a pretty kitty!

Happiness is ... a substantial tax refund, last week. So we spoiled ourselves with new beds (the first in 42 years) and a Magimix. What bliss, to sink an inch or so into the mattress and not be prodded by an errant spring. On the other hand, they stand so much taller than the old ones that we climb up rather than fall into them. In African tradition this may be no bad thing, as sleeping that far above the ground means the tokoloshe can't get you. I have just given the Magimix its first proper run, making olive tapenade from a recipe in the manual, and Cafe de Paris butter from a combination of at least 2 recipes found by googling. (Daughter is on her way home from hospital, and the celebratory steak for tonight's supper is thawing.)

Secret Namibia (Touchstone not working, though there are other copies in the system: Here is the main page.). Ravishingly lovely pictures of this desert land make me wonder what we'd see in the GD if @Bookmarque were let loose here with infinite time and budget. Maybe I'm getting old(er) and crabby (crabbier), but there are only two sites described that I really want to see. However, they omit plenty of others worth a visit. The maps make me wonder why they bothered. Surely it would have been worthwhile to include one decent one. If you come across a copy, browse the pictures.

>155 hfglen: Enjoy those new beds! I for one, look forward to hearing all your adventures with you Magimix. Your first two sound lovely. I had to Google it, but it is what I would call a food processor. I bought a Vitamix, which is more like a blender on steroids. Love it! Now and then I wish for a food processor (chopping, slicing, bread dough) but counter space is at a premium here, so I get by without. Best wishes to your daughter, I'm sure the welcome home meal was delicious.

Ooh, tapenade! I used to make tapenade for Saturday lunch sometimes, back in the old country. The kids (none older than 12 then) would fight over it.

>157 MrsLee: Thank you! While consuming the steak and Cafe de Paris butter (which I enjoyed, though it was far from being as homogeneous as one might wish), I couldn't help wondering whether I'd survive the making of Archchancellor Ridcully's Wow-wow sauce. Wikipedia tells me there's a roundworld recipe in The Discworld Companion, but my copy's gone AWOL (temporarily, I hope).

>158 haydninvienna: Sounds good!

A propos of which, Wikipedia also reminded me of the sad tale of the B'Hang family, who emigrated from the Agatean Empire and tried to start a grimchi factory in the Sto Plains. Their fate may be an awful warning to @MrsLee.

Masterchef South Africa: the cookbook (there's only one copy in LT, so it's pretty certain there's no touchstone; here's the main page). The book details what the contestants and their mentors cooked in a competition held 7 years ago, with lots of delicious pictures. Makes me glad I'm not anywhere near that league -- the effort, expense and equipment needed all boggle the mind. Interesting, nonetheless, and one might suggest that if the Pub's foodies (@MrsLee, I'm looking at you!) come across a copy it might be worth a few seconds' browsing, but I cannot see anybody actually making anything in here.

>160 hfglen: LOL, I made a sauce this summer that must be close to Ridcully's Wow-wow. It had 4 Trinidad scorpion chilies, lot of Thai chilies and whatever others were at hand. Everyone who tries it gets great big round eyes for a moment, and some have certainly uttered the word WOW, if not Wow-wow.

>162 MrsLee: Eee-yowww!

Take Six Girls. The Mitford sisters were at their best in the 1930s, and things started to unravel in the following decade. An interesting description of six incredibly beautiful, intelligent and often unbalanced sisters -- only Debo (and maybe Pam) comes across as wholly at peace with herself. Fascinating people from a distance, but I can only be relieved not to have known them. Nonetheless, a good read.

Surprised by France. The LT review that says "both funny and accurate" is itself accurate. The book covers most aspects of survival that an Anglophone visitor to that country may need to know. I wonder if @pgmcc kows the book?

Wizard's First Rule. "Start at the beginning", said the Red King, "go straight through to the end, then stop". Yes well, there's a reason why I read the first in the series third, after the last one. But Mr Goodkind is better at following the King of Hearts's instructions, and reading this one ties up the loose ends of the ones I've read in the series. Onwards and upwards to Severed Souls, the penultimate one in the series.

Sometimes I worry about myself. I have just done a double-take on reading a playlist entry that at first glance seemed to say "The Huron Canal". The second, closer look showed that the words actually there read "The Huron Carol".

Merry Christmas / Chanukah /whatever and a wonderful New Year to one and all!

>168 hfglen: You’re a couple of hours ahead of us in southern England and probably 20 degrees warmer. You have a wonderful Christmas or whatever you celebrate too.

>169 haydninvienna: Thank you; and the same to you! Tomorrow is set to be a scorcher according to the weather forecast: 42°C in Upington, 35 in Johannesburg and "only" 31 (but doubtless very humid) here in Durban. The whole family looked at the weather and made the same unkind remark: thank goodness we don't have my (late) mother demanding an English Christmas with all the trimmings, on time, with a house full of guests for "drinks before lunch", none of whom seem in any hurry to go home. Just ourselves. Ah, peace; ah, bliss. (Yes we're a whole family of introverted grinches.)

>170 hfglen: Been there, done that—as an Australian, I’ve been through a good many southern-hemisphere Christmases. Do people in SA ever celebrate “Christmas” in June?

"...celebrate ʻChristmasʻ in June?" (170, 171)

When living in the Southern Hemisphere (Tonga, 1981-1986), I was always aware of the reversal of seasons from the Northern (Hawaiʻi). But, sometimes, my awareness carried me too far, and I found myself imagining that during the Tongan June (first winter month) that the month up north was, concurrently, December! In a few seconds, though, I got back to reality --it was June up North, too.

>172 rolandperkins: Some people and businesses in Oz used to hold their “Christmas” parties in June. Advantages: you could have a proper “Christmas” dinner in appropriate weather; fewer potential guests would be on holidays or otherwise unavailable.

Thanks for the interesting info, @haydninvienna.
I suppose the June celebration didnʻt become a nationall custom?

>174 rolandperkins: No, but still recognisable enough that people generally know what you mean if you talk about “Christmas in June”.

>171 haydninvienna: It's rare but not totally unknown.

SKY TV did a Christmas in June film season this year.

Well, forgetting commercial TV stations for a while, let me say: MERRY CHRISTMAS!

>168 hfglen: Happy holidays. :)

>177 pgmcc: >178 YouKneeK: And you too!

>172 rolandperkins: Is Tonga far enough south to have actual seasons? I thought it was deep in the tropics, pretty close to the equator.

In Another Europe. The author cycles across Hungary and Romania just 16 months before Ceausescu was overthrown. This is and cannot be anything else but a tourist's-eye view of the places at that point in time, and as such is a historical document. It is so beautifully written that one could wish it twice as long, but how could she have achieved that? More words would have required more notes, and she states quite clearly enough for (almost -- see below) all of us that more note-taking would have been an unacceptable risk. Pictures, the same stricture applies, remembering as we do that 1988 was long before smartphone-cameras.

Note that the published review attached to the LT datasheet for this book was written by the kind of one-dimensional fanatic we have suffered far too many of in this country over the last 60 years. This person makes it quite clear that nobody who does not hammer the reviewer's prejudices home unceasingly, with a large sledgehammer, cannot possibly be worth listening to. The review reminded me of all the "experts" who came to South Africa in the 60s--80s, stepped off the plane trumpeting their omniscience, and left a week later utterly confused. Even though the reviewer claims to have lived in Romania. I conclude that Ms Harding did what she could and set out to do admirably.

Better Half found this flowering in a quiet part of the garden this afternoon.



It's a Voodoo Lily, Amorphophallus bulbifer, originally from India. Wikipedia tells me encouragingly (not!) that the smell of the flowers is not as bad as in some members of the genus. Considering that Kew's party piece is a hort posing next to their Titan Lily (A. titanum) wearing a gas mask, I'm wondering if I need to warn the neighbours.

"Tonga . . . deep in the tropics..."

Tonga is about as close to Capricorn as Hawaiʻi is to Cancer and is similar to Hawaiʻi in climate; a Tongan
June is similar to a Hawaiʻi December, so: a mild winter, not one of ice and snow. I have even seen Tongans wearing an overcoat during the "winter": June-July- August, but not often. The Northern archipelago (Vavaʻu) is closest to the equator, but not cosidered
"equatorial". Farther north is Tokelau (not part of Tonga, but its name is the Tongan word for "North"
The word "Tonga" can mean just "South", or the Southern archipelago, Tongatapu, or the whole country.)

>182 rolandperkins:. Ah. Must be like us in Durban. In the nearly-15 years we've been here we've had frost on two nights, but there is a difference between summer and winter.

>181 hfglen: My first thought when I saw the picture, before reading the text, was - "I hope it doesn't smell as bad as it looks to do!"
If the smell was too bad I'd probably cut it down. I know, sacrilege, but my nose has limits.

(One of the worst things that can happen up by our cabin is when the farmer sprinkle cow urine on the fields in late July/early August. Sun's up around the clock, shimmering heat, and we're across a small road from the fields. The smell is atrocious, not to mention millions and millions of huge flies. And we can't just close the doors and windows. Swedish houses are built to conserve heat, so when it's hot out we depend on getting a good draft going or we'd cook to death in our beds. And the wind is always from the direction of the fields...)

>168 hfglen: Happy Holidays!

>184 Busifer: It's outside, so mostly the neighbours' problem. But so far no off smell.

>185 Narilka: And to you!

Agatha Christie Crime Collection. Satisfying stories, as always. I'm sure I've already read Peril at End House and The Body in the Library, but Hercule Poirot's Christmas was new to me. Every now and then the stories seem dated, but then they are (on average) about 80 years old.

A new year deserves a new topic, but LT is being glacially slow in processing mine.