More reading, piffling and exploring with Hugh: the 2022 edition, part 1

First delight is to wish all Dragoneers a Hippo Gnu Ear!
Or if you wish, 'n voorspoedige Nuwe Jaar.

Particular thanks and good wishes to Pete and Richard (see end of previous thread).

>1 hfglen: And Hippo Gnu Ear to you as well!
Happy New Thread.

Happy New Year and happy reading in 2022.

Happy reading in 2022!

Enjoy your reading in 2022!

Happy New Year to all who have posted / will post in this thread.



Sweni Dam in the Kruger National Park. The eagle-eyed may spot some mostly-submerged hippos in the distance. The Mozambique border is about 5 km behind the camera, which may be bad news for the hippos (poachers).

Lovely photo for the new year and thread.

Happy new year, Hugh. Looking forward to more of your pictures and glimpses of your faraway world.

Happy new year! I hope it brings you many adventures in books and in RL. Looking forward to your photos!

>7 hfglen: Another nice picture, although I did get eye-strain trying to see the hippos. :-)

>7 hfglen: and >11 pgmcc: I'm still trying to find the hippos. All the more so because somebody recommended River of Teeth where you have cowboys riding them and I need a visual. Can we add helpful red arrows pointing?

>12 jillmwo: There is an outcrop of rocks about halfway along the left bank. I have my suspicions of the blacker "rocks" just a little further into the water.

Hugh will no doubt correct me.

>7 hfglen: Lovely photo! I can't wait to travel again and finally make it to South Africa.

I hope you have a lovely 2022!

>11 pgmcc: >12 jillmwo: >13 -pilgrim-: And the prize for eagle-eyes goes to .....

*

*

*

*

-pilgrim-!

During the day hippos usually spend most of their time submerged if they can, with just ears, eyes and nostrils showing above the water.

Here's a heavily-cropped enlargement of the same scene to bring them out.



ETA: This is a classic example of what most game sightings in the Kruger and other reserves are like: a small part of the animal, usually only for a split second.

>14 libraryperilous: Thank you! And the same to you.

Considering how important tourism is to our economy and that our unemployment seems to be second only to Zimbabwe's, I can only wish that you come sooner rather than later, and stay long enough to see lots.

Baobab Trails. A memoir of a life well lived by one of the doyens of private-enterprise nature conservation in southern Africa. If you don't live here, you may need to be told that Clive Walker's Endangered Wildlife Trust is at the forefront of essentially all worthwhile conservation initiatives. The book has pen-pictures of individuals the author considers especially worthy, between the chapters. He ends with a descriptive list of baobabs that residents of southern Africa may wish to visit. When I moved to Durban I was just as surprised as he evidently was to find three cultivated specimens not only surviving but apparently doing "quite nicely thank you" in this unsuitable environment. The Musgrave tree (of which he supplies a picture) is at least far enough up the Berea ridge that it has some drainage; how the Botanic Gardens specimen survives in a position where the water table is not many inches (if that far) below the soil surface, I have no idea.

>17 hfglen: You might find this article interesting: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/africas-baobab-tree-photographs.

>18 haydninvienna: Curious. The article title says Africa's baobab trees, yet all the pictures are taken in Madagascar of species that only grow there, not in Africa.

>19 hfglen: If we are talking in continental terms, rather than landmasses, isn't Madagascar usually counted as belonging to Africa?

>20 -pilgrim-: Geologically, maybe. But not biologically; most Madagascan species (including all their baobabs) occur nowhere else on earth.

We are the Champions. Gorgeously illustrated coffee-table book on some very special trees (including the tallest planted trees in the southern hemisphere). In South Africa, the designation "champion tree" implies that the individual concerned has special legal protection, usually because of impressive size but sometimes due to known age or historical importance. This book includes minimal text, and sadly the associated website is defunct.

Too Much and Never Enough. Ahem, this could be overly political. The author is probably better placed than anyone else to write this biography, though she manages to raise the question, granted that the subject is terminally dysfunctional, how well-adjusted is the writer? (I am given to understand that almost all psychiatrists are as nutty as their patients.) She presents plenty of evidence, but it may be less than clear how she arrives at her conclusion, though the conclusion seems to make sense. Chilling reading, and not only (not even mostly?) for USAnians.

>19 hfglen: Is the Madagascan species' uniqueness a product of the island's natural isolation?

>17 hfglen: This sounds fascinating! I'm being more cautious about adding books to my TBR, but this made the cut.

>23 hfglen: I avoided this one while the subject was still in office. I am still thinking about reading it, but not sure I will as the pandemic is causing all the stress I can handle for the present.

>24 libraryperilous: In all probability, yes. And lack of competition from mainland species.

Of course the next thing after reading the book is to come and meet the trees (and the ellies).

>25 clamairy: I have to agree. It's not a comfortable read. (ETA: And that's from the other side of the world!)

This week I have for your delight one of the smaller residents of the Kruger National Park: a Sharpe's Grysbok.



This wee lassie stands barely 18 inches tall at the shoulder, full grown. The species is mainly East African, from the Kruger Park to Tanzania. Surprisingly, considering how close they are to the ground, they are usually browsers.

>26 hfglen: Thank you. I find island biogeography fascinating, but I've read very little on the subject.

Perhaps if I read the book it will accelerate my trip.

>28 hfglen: Adorable!

>28 hfglen:
Very nice.

>28 hfglen: What a lovely animal!

>28 hfglen: what a cute animal!

>28 hfglen: Awww :)

>28 hfglen: How do you always manage to score such remarkable photos? Based on what I read, at least on Wikipedia, Grysbok are part of the antelope family.

>34 jillmwo: They are indeed tiny antelopes.

As for the question, I imagine you'd get much the same answer from Bookmarque, whose pictures are much better than mine. A fragrant blend of patience, being in the right place at the right time and throwing away the vast majority of (substandard) pictures. For example, I kept six of this week's Grysbok, five of which you'll hopefully never see. And living amongst spectacular scenery and wonderful animals (and plants!) helps.

>28 hfglen: Very cute!

>28 hfglen: Very cute, and I love the pattern on the inside of its ear.

Thank you, all!

And where have I been this past while? In a slough of frustration. Ten days ago our fiber company handed out a "birthday present" -- a line failure meaning no internet, no phone, no GD. It took nine days' nagging to get them to pay any attention at all, and when they did they left three schoolboy errors behind ensuring that the silence continued. But today the (retail) service provider appeared and took five minutes to fix the problem. Now, no doubt, the fiber company are wondering why they got a 2/10 rating on their callout evaluation.

It's amazing how unimaginable life is without that these days. Of course I had a full life before the internet, but it's more so now. Glad you're back.

I do envy the fact that you have this infrastructure at all even if it does give you pain now and again.

>40 Bookmarque: "I do envy the fact that you have this infrastructure at all"...

This third-world resident is amazed that there's anywhere in the first world that apparently doesn't have fiber to the home! Other than that, I fully agree.

The Origin of Humankind. As I believe Neapolitan lads are wont to say of ladies, er, a bit more senior than themselves, "Vecchia ma ancora bella!". The book may be nearly 30 years old in a field that is far from being set in stone, but it still expresses thoughts worth thinking. Unfortunately I had to return the book to the library while our internet connection was down, and the memory isn't what it once was.

Would I read more by Richard Leakey? Yes.
Would I recommend this book? Yes; it is well written.
To whom: Anyone interested in human origins, who doesn't mind a slightly "mature" book.

Small Boat in the Midi. DD has introduced her parents to Foxes Afloat (a vlog with a new, 20-minute episode every Friday evening on YouTube) some time ago. So one was primed to pick up a book on a private boat on the Canal du Midi. With all due respect to the Foxes, I do believe that Roger Pilkington would be a much better travelling companion / tour guide. Why? Because Mr Pilkington does not hesitate to leave the immediate surrounds of the canal and show us interesting sights rather less nearby. Also because he's much better on the 17th-century (!) history of his canal. And he has a delightful sense of humour, and writes well.

Would I read another by Roger Pilkington? Difficult; he evidently used a very small, specialist publisher, and so (I would imagine) his books would be hard to find. But yes, if the library can produce another I wouldn't hesitate.
Would I recommend this book? Yes, if relevant.
To whom? Anyone who enjoys travel books and/or "messing around in boats".
Am I inspired? If funds were infinite and if I spoke any French at all, I would love to see the Canal du Midi.

>41 hfglen: 10 days! I'm familiar with how these sorts of things can drag on for all of the wrong reasons when it seems like service should be restored quickly, but that's going above and beyond bad service.

>39 hfglen: Happy Belated Birthday! Sorry we didn't get to send you wishes on the actual day. And I forget to check the list for months (years) at a stretch...

In my experience, technology service providers have decided they are best served by not addressing customer service issues directly. Most recently, my employer's meeting broadcast service did something that meant that our (fee-paid) corporate account and those of a number of other paying customers were reduced to a basic (or free) account. This kind of outage is pretty bad in the current pandemic environment. This left that subset of their customers without access to tech support of any kind and unable to record any of their meetings. The response from the company posted to a status page was (1) We've been told this has happened to a subset of our clients and we're investigating; (2) We've identified the cause of the problem and (3) We're working on resolving the issue. Note the information missing -- what exactly happened and the length of time that the service would be out. From their perspective, they were telling their customers that they knew of the issue and were working on it. From my perspective, they were not communicating the real information I needed to know which was how long I was going to be without the service which is what all the company's clients REALLY needed to know. Tech companies do not believe that is an effective use of their resources to explain to customers what is going on because they don't think the client will understand the explanation and thus it would be a waste of time to explain. It's maddening as an attitude in modern business.

But happy birthday (however belated the wish is in reaching you).

>40 Bookmarque: >44 Karlstar: >46 jillmwo: Many thanks for the sympathy!

>45 clamairy: >46 jillmwo: Many thanks!

The Life and Times of Edward III. Picked up because the accounts in this series of the more recent royals are well-illustrated short reads (216 pages each, with many full-page pictures). This one was quick, but does it inspire me to find out more about the Middle Ages? No. There's nothing obviously wrong with this biography, except that it and its subject fall flat.

>39 hfglen: I'm surprised they scored so high! Unfortunately this does seem to be the way of things. One of our key providers of a technology platform service recently merged with another company. We jumped through multiple hoops to ensure that we met all their new requirements (including one of us manually screenshotting the information in one part of the system and the other manually entering it into the new part of the system because they couldn't provide assistance although it was their changes which had caused the issue in the first place - hours and hours of work - that the new system kept stalling on because there was a limit to how much information we were allowed to add at a time) and then the new system keeps falling over and denying access. So we had an email earlier this month to say 'We apologise for the last couple of months and the issues everyone has been experiencing. We are pleased to say that normal service will now resume.' Unfortunately given the experience of the rest of the month, normal service is the falling over/denying access not what we had before the merger.

>49 Peace2: Thank you for that. One almost feels like suggesting that a senior manager needs to respond to that email, saying that in view of the abominable service received since the merger, you might hope that they would upgrade to some semblance of competence rather than the "normal" you have been subjected to.

Tales from Titchmarsh. Essays, thoughts, stories from the famous BBC TV gardener (think Ground Force). Best story for the GD was the Stately Home he toured with growing disquiet, until he realised what was wrong: there were no books! Anywhere. Not even in the library.

Would I read another by Alan Titchmarsh? I do, quite often. I don't find all of his fiction readable.
Would I recommend this book? Yes.
To whom? I could imagine MrsLee enjoying this as bathroom reading.

>52 hfglen:
Belated Happy Birthday, Hugh.

, until he realised what was wrong: there were no books! Anywhere. Not even in the library.

My wife and I often end up watching programmes like, "Grand Design" and other home building or improvement shows. I comment regularly that these fantastic looking houses are obviously not for the likes of us as there is never a book in sight. I can recall only about three shows were a house featured some books. How can a house without books be a home?

:-) I am not biased in any way.

>41 hfglen: This third-world resident is amazed that there's anywhere in the first world that apparently doesn't have fiber to the home!

America is weird and big and I live in what's called a fly-over state. That's the first problem. The second is it's rural. No one cares. There isn't enough money in it to put infrastructure out here. There are millions in the same situation. Oh sure they make noises now because of the enforced remote learning (what about the children!!??), but nothing will get done. Right now we're waiting to see if anything comes of Elon Musk's satellite company, the mission of which is to provide high-speed connectivity to rural areas in the US and I think maybe Canada. There are a few folks further south in the county who have beta units and have reported good things. Until then, cellular hot spot is all we gots.

>53 pgmcc: There used to be a magazine programme called "Top Billing" on SABC-TV, in which each episode was based in some new ultra-rich home. All puffed as being "daringly different", and each being pseudo-Tuscan, indistinguishable from all the others. There was never a book or a magazine in sight. The quote most often brought to mind was Flanders & Swann's "It wouldn't do for every day, / We actually live in 7A -- THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR!"

Like you, I am neither biased nor envious, not at all :-)

>52 hfglen: That does indeed sound like a book I would enjoy.

Must You Go? Excerpts from the diary of Antonia Fraser, with a few connecting pages by herself and occasional interpolations by her husband, Harold Pinter. An interesting read.

Would I read another book by Antonia Fraser? Yes, if I can find one I haven't already read.
Would I recommend this book? Quite possibly.
To whom? Maybe MrsLee would like it.

Closed Casket. A pseudo-Poirot written long after the departure of The Master. Praised on LT and competent enough, but for me it just didn't gel.

Would I read another by this author? Not intentionally.
Would I recommend this book? No.

ETA: And now I have caught up with reading done while the internet was down. Normal service may now resume.

>57 hfglen: Stop that! I'm gaining weight from all the book bullets aimed at me. Yeah. That's it, my weight gain is from book bullets. Ummhmm.

Do you think this baboon's ears indicate a distant relationship with Spock of Star Trek?



Kruger National Park, March 2014.

>60 hfglen: More like a bat, if you ask me.

>60 hfglen: I don't think the Romulans will take kindly to your insinuations!

>61 MrsLee: So, that would be a photo of a batboon then? ;-)

>63 ScoLgo: Bat-a-Boom!

>60 hfglen: A furry Nosferatu...

>60 hfglen: that picture gives me the willies. Have I ever mentioned the time when I was 5 and was chased by spider monkeys? This pic brings that all back. *shivers*

>66 catzteach: Sorry about that.

Pop goes the Weasel. Historical study of the meanings of some nursery rhymes, which according to the author were invented back in the day (before newspapers, TV etc.) to disseminate the news the authorities didn't want spread. That said, a surprisingly large number have named 18th- and 19th-century authors. The book is rather like the Curate's Egg (good in parts), and one needs to take a break from it occasionally.

>68 hfglen: I think your link might be going to the wrong place.

>69 Peace2: Fixed.

The Colosseum. Coffee-table book with lots of usually good pictures, and (surprisingly) a goodly quantity of readable and informative text. Looking at the publication date, I mutter "vecchia, ma ancora bella".

Would I read another by Peter Quennell? Yes.
Would I recommend this book? It depends. For many purposes, a good modern guidebook to Rome may serve the purpose better.

Where on Earth? Place-names in Natal and Zululand. Unsurprisingly, there is no touchstone for this rare piece of Africana, lent me by a friend. The book was produced by a columnist on a local newspaper about 50 years ago ("The Wayfarer" of The Daily News). It consists of indications of where to find most named places in Kwazulu-Natal, with the origins of some of them, and sometimes thumbnail histories. One may wish to live in a place called Gcinamacebozwi ("where all falsehood ends" -- like the GD?), but you may wish to avoid Golela ("place of snatching"). There are curiosities like Mvutshini ("place of the hippos") and Usikaba ("place of the fat men") -- and many others. The book gains from all too few cartoons by Jock Leyden, staff cartoonist of the Daily News when it was published, but suffers from far too many typos and cases of dubious spacing.

Would I read another by this author? AFAIK there isn't one.
Would I recommend it? If I thought MrsLee had a snowball's hope of finding a copy, I'd recommend adding it to her bathroom-reading pile.

I do believe somebody's laughing at us (probably not without reason)!



Giraffe, near Crocodile River in southernmost Kruger National Park, 13 September 2016

Are giraffes generally snarky in their commentary on human behaviors? For some reason, I'd always thought they were sort of benign.

>74 jillmwo: They mostly are benign, but I did once nearly lose my shirt to one (while I was still in it).

>74 jillmwo: >75 hfglen: Paul Simon says they're insincere.

>76 Jim53: :)

The Imperial Tea Party. Meh. Three extended meetings between British and Russian royals, told with extended quotes from diaries, letters and memos by the participants. My overwhelming feeling on reaching the end is that it's a pity the library had nothing else I hadn't read already. And that if the Tsarina had been able to concentrate on something other than her own aches and pains for a few minutes, she might have been able to do some good. Instead, she comes across as wringing wet.

Would I read another by Frances Welch? Probably not -- her LT catalogue shows her as a bit of a "one-trick pony", and the Romanovs are of limited interest to me.
Would I recommend this book? Only in exceptional circumstances.

I love the giraffe!

>75 hfglen: I think we're need a little more detail about this incident! Love the photo!

>80 clamairy: Tod's Hotel, 75 miles north of Beit Bridge on the road to Bulawayo (on this route, the first place you came to after the Rhodesian -- now Zimbabwe -- border); I don't think it exists any more. April 1971, on our way to the 4th-year botany field trip at Sinamwenda on Lake Kariba. From Johannesburg, a good day's travel. The hotel had a pet giraffe called Shorty; he was only 14 feet tall. Egged on by the hotelier, a bunch of us went out the back to meet Shorty, who was very friendly. And all too interested in my sweaty shirt, which he tried to get off me with his tongue. Unfortunately, a giraffe's tongue is very slimy, with a thick coating of algae.

>41 hfglen: This first world resident does not have fiber optics, cable or even WiFi. My Internet is purely by mobile phone.

Will continue catching up. Slowly.

Very belated birthday greetings.

>81 hfglen: That's hysterical. At least in part, because I had no idea what a giraffe's tongue might be like. Slime and algae. (But I'm not so far gone that I can't sympathize with why you found the experience to be less than ideal.)

>81 hfglen: >83 jillmwo: Have you tried a canel's?

>82 -pilgrim-: Thank you; much appreciated!

>84 -pilgrim-: No, but I'd imagine that it's even more disconcerting.

>83 jillmwo: And this is why I find the idea of writing fiction so difficult to grasp. I gather one is supposed to include one's own experiences; but who would believe the things one sees (like Shorty) in what I consider to be a fairly normal life?

Fresh Air Fiend. Another Curate's Egg (see #68 above); a collection of Paul Theroux's writings from 1985 to 2000. The first three sections are fun, but the one on China is so wearisome I almost bailed. The book recovers after that, but by no means completely. This is the problem with using a small public library that necessarily keeps books in three languages and hasn't had anything new in years.

From the very tall to the very small ...



Flightless dung beetle (a red-data species, believe it or not), Addo Elephant National Park, 10 October 2016.

>88 hfglen: That's cool! And makes me think of Terry Pratchett's Pyramids!

>88 hfglen: I play a video game called Animal Crossing. At this time of year we can catch Dung Beetles as they roll snowballs away from us (the snowballs can be used to build snowmen for a prize). They are quite valuable in the game. From your photo, I see that the game got one thing wrong (aside from the fact that dung beetles have probably never seen snow). They have the beetles rolling head up, whereas it is clear from your photo that they roll bottoms up. Love the photo.

>90 MrsLee: One of the things that distinguishes a genuine first edition copy of Jock of the Bushveld is an error in an illustration -- they were done by one Edmund Caldwell. Caldwell was an Englishman who never visited this country and so never saw a dung beetle. In consequence he made the same mistake as Animal Crossing -- the beetle faces the wrong way. I gather this particular met with something of a chorus of derision. Certainly it was quickly corrected in the second and later editions.

One up to the ancient Egyptians, who looked around them and drew the beetles right way round in Pharaonic tombs.

ETA: Beetles pushing snowballs in Animal Crossing is probably no odder than the ones in Egyptian wall paintings, where they push the sun around.

The Mandela Files. Homage by Zapiro, arguably our best living cartoonist, to Madiba. This large, heavy, sumptuous book contains most if not all of the cartoons Zapiro drew of our best (so far) President, starting while the latter was still in prison. There are a few others, relevant to the subject in hand, and a few photos of the Shapiro family interacting with Madiba. A foreword by (the late Archbishop) Desmond Tutu -- who appears in a few of the cartoons -- sets the tone, and small blocks of text set the cartoons in, er, context. Well worth seeing, but I'm glad this copy belongs to the library. I don't have a coffee table big enough for my own.

It was a delightful day! Better Half has for some time been saying that I need some new shoes (but the old scuffed ones have shaped themselves to my feet, and are comfortable!), so off we went for a beautiful sunny day in the KZN Midlands, which must surely be one of the most consistently lovely places on the planet. Pictures to follow. First stop was a coffee roastery-and-restaurant, which does splendid food and even better coffee. Suitably fortified with what we chose to call "brunch", we could continue. The leather factory shop is in one of the original mid-Victorian wood-and-iron ex-farmhouses of the area. Better Half and I now each have "presentable" footwear. Feeling the need for refreshment, we made our way to a place called Piggly Wiggly -- several shops, restaurants, a model train and a wine estate (!) all on the same site, where we wrapped ourselves around some fruit juice. DD went to look at bed linen, and I found a place called Huddy's Books. Came back with a modest purchase, and mentioned to DD that because of the price I'd passed up South African Eden by the amazing James Stevenson-Hamilton. DD told me in no uncertain terms to go back and get it! To my amazement, as book-buying is frowned on. Turns out that one is out of print, hard to find in libraries, and the most sought-after work in the Kruger Park forums. I am very lucky, the more so as I now have bedside reading for a planned expedition to Johannesburg next weekend. (Thinks: must pick up Hidden Johannesburg from the library during the week; it mentions the place I'll be heading for.

The books I found are
Great Northern?
Wayward Winds in the Bundu Books series, and
South African Eden, which both DD and I want to read asap.

It turns out that the eponymous Huddy is one Colin Hudson-Reed, whose father was the founding deputy headmaster of the school I went to for primary school. Hudson-Reed senior taught me briefly in standard 5 (7th grade), and then went to re-found a school called Treverton, in the Midlands, where DD completed her schooling. Colin H-R informed me that he was named after one of the original houses of the school I went to, and it was with some delight that I could tell him I was assigned to Collins House back in the day. What a small world!

I love Great Northern?. I love all of Arthur Ransome's books.

>93 hfglen: That really does sound like a wonderful way to spend your day. Brunch is a lovely means of sustaining one's energies. Comfortable shoes are important. But most importantly, buying books, particularly when actually encouraged to do so, adds a real fillip of joy to the day.

>93 hfglen: What >96 jillmwo: said. I really love the idea of being told to go and buy the book.

The KZN midlands are still lovely and green, despite the lateness of the season.



View looking roughly south-west from one of the minor roads we took yesterday.

>93 hfglen: What a great day! Brunch, books, and errands successfully completed, all in good company. And the landscape you've posted is beautiful.

>93 hfglen: Sounds like an excellent adventure.
>98 hfglen: Just beautiful. So lush and green!

South African Eden is a must-read for anyone interested in nature and its conservation, and I can quite see why it's proving hard to find these days. Colonel James Stevenson-Hamilton tells how after the Anglo-Boer War he was introduced to a rough, dusty, unloved Cinderella, the Sabi Game Reserve. He loved her, nurtured her, learned how to handle her, and masterminded her transformation into the Princess we now know as the Kruger National Park, some quarter of a century later (a fairy godmother having evidently given her the blessing of agelessness). He stayed on with his Princess for the rest of his career, writing this book in 1937 (the Cinderella - Princess image is his in the book), and retired in 1946. The book was reprinted in 1974 with a new epilogue by the then management of South Africa's national parks.

The first decades were hard, with no help, no money, and plenty of enemies and wrong turnings. But Cinderella survived against all odds, and in 1926 he persuaded Parliament to pass the National Parks Act (Africa's first!) specially for his Cinderella, though since then she has acquired a number of younger siblings. On the way we see his philosophy of what makes a National Park and how it should be run; I can only agree with him there!

Maybe it's as well he didn't live to see Cinderella in her second century. He would surely be delighted with her Miss-Universe-finalist role as one of the world's top few tourist destinations. But what would he have made of Paul Theroux's account of a visit to Mala Mala in Dark Star Safari? I suspect he would Not Be Amused. Yet Mala Mala was part of Sabi Game Reserve in the early 20th century. It was excised in a land-swap for territory north and east, messed up totally by cattle farmers and hunters, and later rehabilitated into part of "Greater Kruger", with 5-star uber-luxury camps, tour guides and others pampering the guests, and so on.

If you can find a copy of this book, grab it and read it. There's a reason why it's a classic.

>102 hfglen: Well, of the four copies available in North America (searching ABEBooks), only one of them is justifiable within a normal soul's book buying budget, but you are so strong in your recommendation, I'm going to seriously consider the single copy I can afford. I should probably go check Worldcat to see if there's a copy nearby in one of the more accessible academic libraries.

>103 jillmwo: I think I'd suggest Worldcat as a good start. What if you spend a young fortune on it and decide you don't like the book?!

Special for MrsLee. I think this is the first definitely urban view I've shown the GD. The view point is near the top of the campus of the school I attended in primary school, over 60 years ago, looking eastwards into what is now Sandton CBD. When I was at school here the foreground was wall-to-wall invasive wattles, and the hillside opposite was just grass, except for a square of wattles around the tannery, which closed yonks ago.

>105 hfglen: "wall-to-wall invasive wattles"
To me, that sounds like a great many wild turkeys making annoyances of themselves. Pretty sure that isn't what you mean though.

We had about 25 wild turkeys in front of our house the other day. They certainly can be both invasive and annoying.

>106 MrsLee: it's like that at our house too - the flock leaves a trail of refuse on our front walkway and i have to clean it off, otherwise it gets tracked into the house and makes a mess on the carpet. messy buggers.

>106 MrsLee: >107 Darth-Heather: ... and I meant Australian trees originally introduced for tanning extract (but they escaped, as they have everywhere they were tried outside Australia.

>108 hfglen: ah, so they are invasive but do they also make a mess on the carpet? :)

are they still used for tanning extract?

>109 Darth-Heather: AFAIK they now use some kind of artificial brew. And the trees continue to breed, mess up the soil and be ugly. Mess on the carpet? Not directly, but they destroy the natural veld.

>108 hfglen: Yet another bright idea not well thought out.

>108 hfglen: I sometimes think every gardener, landscaper, biologist and conservator should be required to read Day of the Triffids before introducing any new kind of plant life to local environs. It offers an illuminating idea of what invasive plants can manage. Imagine the clicking of their little branches.

>112 jillmwo:
However, to be on the safe-side keep some seawater handy at all times.

The Mountbattens. Group biography of the family that gave rise to the late Prince Philip and the last Viceroy of India. Interesting and, for the time (it was published in 1978) well illustrated. And not over-long. I recently read (skimmed) Truman on Internet Archive -- a BB from several Dragoneers. That one could happily have been cut by half or more for a non-USAnian audience.

>104 hfglen: I couldn't help noticing the expression "young fortune." After a bit of searching I am no wiser. Please elaborate.

>115 Jim53: an inordinate sum of money

Many thanks to the kind souls who have asked how my family and I are coping in the floods. Answer: could be much worse. For example, the beachfront settlement in the story linked below, which is about 50 km from where I live.
https://www.iol.co.za/ios/news/holiday-town-reels-from-flood-devastation-7ca11f3...

The best of times, the worst of times. Insightful but ultimately depressing analysis of the world at the beginning of the Trump presidency. A worthy, but not necessarily enjoyable, read.

That looks pretty horrible, hugh and I'm sorry it's happening, but at least you and yours are getting through it. I guess I won't complain about my 1/2 inch of snow that fell overnight.

>117 hfglen: I saw the report on the PBS news last night and immediately thought of you. Glad it's not impacting you directly, but it's terrible...

>117 hfglen:
Sorry to hear about the dreadful floods. I hope they have minimal effect on you and yours.

>117 hfglen: oh, how awful. I hope the worst is over.

>119 Bookmarque: >120 clamairy: >121 pgmcc: >122 catzteach: Thank you all! Cindy, I'm not sure it is. There's an orange-red warning out for flooding tomorrow. There was a yellow warning for today, but it's hardly rained at all.

Ya gotta love this place.

In the flood chaos, 12 crocodiles escaped from a farm near Tongaat. Fourteen have been recaptured, and a fifteenth has been spotted on the beach at Ballito.

>124 hfglen: that's some complicated crocodile calculations. are they like tribbles?

wait, why were they on a farm? do people raise them?

Eeek, can you imagine trib-crocs? I guess there's a typo in there.

And yeah, I bet they are raised on farms. Alligators are here. Mostly for the hides and some meat, too. I have a crocodile strap on a watch and I bet the strap is worth more than the watch.

>124 hfglen: That's hilarious!

>126 Bookmarque: I haven't eaten crocodile, but alligator is very tasty. Well, I had it in chili, so I am not sure what's it's like on it's own. It seemed similar to frogs legs.

>126 Bookmarque: >127 clamairy: I'm told crocodile tastes like chicken (most strange things do). It's too expensive for me to find out.

>124 hfglen: yikes!
I don’t know of any croc/alligator farms near me, but I do know of a place that raises ostriches. I hear the ostrich burgers are tasty.

>129 catzteach: Ostrich is great. In this country the abattoir at Oudtshoorn can provide vacuum packs of various cuts to your local friendly supermarket meat counter. It usually costs somewhere between beef and lamb, so not the cheapest protein but credible for luxury events. It's notably low in carbohydrates.

>129 catzteach: & >130 hfglen:
There was a move a couple of decades ago to introduce new meats to the Irish market. Ostrich farms were started and ostrich steaks appeared on menus. I had it a few times. My recollection is that it was like the texture of a filletsteak but with a slightly liver flavour, not unlike the flavour of pigeon.

Other meats on offer included crocodile. There was a local restaurant that offered about five different meats that were not traditional in Ireland, but the more exotic ones disappeared and Ostrich was the one that persisted on menus. I am not sure if it still appears on menus here, or if any of the ostrich farms have survived. I suspect the pandemic has hit any ostrich farms still around hard as restaurants would be their only customer base and they were closed for almost two years. Perhaps the ostrich farms are now full of some tough old birds.

Plenty of crocodile to be had in the Top End of Australia—also emu, kangaroo and buffalo (water buffalo, not bison). I’ve eaten all of them at least once. All pretty tasty. Also available: feral pig, goat and possibly camel.

>131 pgmcc: If you can get stewing ostrich, you'll find the skeleton of a recipe in Apicius. The Roman Cookery of Apicius by John Edwards has an English translation. I have tried this, guessing quantities, temperatures and times based on other similar recipes. It worked, to a reasonable approximation. And didn't taste of liver.

>132 haydninvienna: Yonks ago the Kruger Park had a culling programme for some reason best known to themselves. Spinoff from this included quite widely distributed cans of (Cape) buffalo meat. They have long since stopped this, and I think the only physical memory is some (empty?) cans in the museum hut at Skukuza.

>132 haydninvienna: Kangaroo was one of the meats on offer in that local restaurant. I could only wonder at the carbon footprint of a kangaroo steak in Ireland.

>134 hfglen: >135 pgmcc: Back in times of yore, there was (may still be) a significant export of wild game meat—mainly kangaroo, pig and goat—from Australia. The animals were shot in the wild (goats and pigs are feral pests in Oz) and butchered at specially licensed abattoirs. I know this because for a while I was head of the drafting unit that was responsible for the governing regulations.

>123 hfglen: I hope the flooding continues to abate. The destruction looks terrible.

I cooked ostrich steaks once, reminded me more of beef or venison than liver. I despise liver.

Crocodile tasted very like chicken breast to me. I had it fried in a restaurant. It's been awhile. I haven't tried gator. Maybe later.

>138 MrsLee: That was terrible! :)

>137 Karlstar: Thank you. It's grey out but not raining at the moment. The municipality now thinks they might restore our water on the 24th, after a break of near-enough two weeks.

Reading between the (Head)Lines. A collection of Prof. Piet Naudé's columns in the Herald (Port Elizabeth) provides a very sharp-eyed assessment of the New South Africa. Although the book was published in 2014, it still reads as if up-to-the-minute.

Would I read another by this author? Possibly not; I only see one interesting title in LT, and that's in Afrikaans (and not seen "in the flesh")
Would I recommend this book? Yes
To whom: anyone interested in the present state of South Africa, and who can find a copy -- which may not be easy.

Princesses It turns out that Flora Fraser is Antonia Fraser's daughter, and has clearly been taught her craft and taught it well, by her mother. Here we have biographies of the six daughters of King George III of Great Britain. (He and Queen Charlotte also had almost enough sons to make a cricket team; they appear in passing.) The obvious comparison (to me) is with the last biography I read, Truman by David McCullough. For a start, the story of the six princesses only occupies less than half as many pages as the single president. This non-American found the president tedious and his story long-winded; the princesses were not. However it must be said that in the long term, they left no mark. The writing is workmanlike, the illustrations worthy.

Does this by any chance remind MrsLee of a former employer?



Next to a culvert (drain) near Mopani Rest Camp, 2012.

>143 hfglen: Aww, I love hyenas. So pretty!

>143 hfglen: Awww, he (?) is adorable! I know they look differently when they open their mouths though.

>143 hfglen: Deceptively cute!

>145 MrsLee: Male and female hyenas look so similar from the rear (ahem!) that it took millennia for the knowledgeable to learn how to sex them. So your guess is as good as mine.

The Waterways of Britain is now 40 years old, and shows its age. The notes on handling a boat are probably timeless, but effectively all his indications of which canals (rivers not so much) are restored and navigable and which not are pretty well all out of date. Rather google for these.

>142 hfglen: While I love the photo of the hyena, I was kind of struck by your final assessment of Princesses. The writing is workmanlike, the illustrations worthy. Ouch. I thought from some of your earlier comments in that paragraph that you found it to be more interesting than that.

Can't find a May good-news/bad-news thread, so posting here.

Bad news: yesterday morning as we were packing up in our first stop in Kruger, DD got bitten (unprovoked) by a monkey, necessitating a trip to the Park doctor, at Skukuza -- fortunately only just over an hour away. She now has to endure a course of rabies shots.
Good news: On the way to Skukuza we saw a Sable Antelope, IMO the handsomest of all herbivores (picture to follow) and a Civet -- no picture; it was a fleeting look in a traffic jam.

>150 hfglen: Sorry to hear about the bite, that is unfortunate.

>150 hfglen: seconding what Jim said. Are rabies shots still as unpleasant as the folklore has it? Still, I dare say rabies is worse.

>150 hfglen:
Sorry to hear the news of the bite. I hope it will not upset the holiday too much and that DD recovers quickly.

>150 hfglen: Oh no, that's a terrible start to the trip. I hope DD doesn't feel too bad. Yay for the wildlife sightings though.

>150 hfglen: and >152 haydninvienna:: A work colleague and I were just talking about the current course of treatment for rabies. Current treatment according to him had improved and no longer required the old regimen of 14 shots in one's abdominal region. But I don't know what the new course of treatment requires.

Rabies is still far too serious of a disease to play around with. My best wishes for recovery to DD.

>152 haydninvienna: >155 jillmwo: It has improved since then. It's now about six carefully timed shots in the upper arm. Still painful, though. Right now, she and better half are at Skukuza clinic getting the second one.

Methinks it's time for a new thread ...

>156 hfglen: Please give a gentle hug to your daughter from all of us. Such a shame that happened, but I am very glad there is a treatment! May the rest of the trip be lovely.

Many thanks, Lee. She got the penultimate one from our own doctor yesterday.

>159 hfglen: Just catching up on threads, and I am so sorry to hear about this. Hope all continues to go smoothly.