More reading, piffling and exploring with Hugh: the 2022 edition, part 2

What better way to start a new thread than with a picture? Specifically, the picture of the Sable Antelope promised near the end of the previous one.



Despite the fact that we're five weeks off midwinter and this is the dry season, the Kruger Park is amazingly green.

>1 hfglen:
That is an amazing picture to start your new thread with. Good luck with the new thread.

>1 hfglen: Great captures :) Happy new thread!

>1 hfglen: He is a handsome fellow!

>1 hfglen: Lovely. I wonder if that is where all our winter's water ended up? It certainly didn't fall here.

>1 hfglen: From on a quick-and-dirty Google search, I learn that sable antelopes as they mature develop white patches or segments of white in their coats. Your photo shows white on the antelope's face. Does that have the same meaning? Is it indicative of the animal's age?

>1 hfglen: Happy new thread and thanks for the picture!

Please remind me, Hugh: what is a piffle party? Did you invent them?

>8 Meredy: Piffle parties were inspired by Lord Peter Wimsey who is a master of piffling, the art of clever and mostly useless chatting.

>9 MrsLee: Thanks, I do know about Lord Peter talking piffle to Harriet. I didn't realize that that's where it began. So a piffle party is just a bunch of chitchat that (one hopes) is witty?

>10 Meredy: Piffle parties do have the more serious purpose of helping GD friends reach the magic number of posts that let them trigger a new thread from a link at the bottom of their original thread. This has led to much piffling, some witty, and some very informative.

Piffle parties can be easily triggered. All it takes is one person to ask another a question, such as, Please remind me, Hugh: what is a piffle party?

>11 pgmcc: Ah, yes, thanks, Peter: the brilliant thread advancement maneuver. I did forget.

>6 jillmwo: That comes as news to me. Thank you for the information.

>8 Meredy: - >12 Meredy: Thank you, all.

Not sure if pictures count as piffle in the sense of >11 pgmcc:, but here's one for Peter, anyway.



It's a Barberton (Onverwacht group) greenstone boulder on the S120 Steilberg minor road near Berg-en-Dal camp in the south-western Kruger Park. What makes it special is that the Onverwacht group was laid down between 3550-million and 3260-million years ago, so we are looking at a chunk of the world's oldest continental crust. Geology off the Beaten Track gives a quite frightening view of the environment when this was laid down: the moon was much closer to earth then, and so the month was only 18 days long, and tides were therefore much more violent. Meteorite bombardment was continual and the thin crust meant that volcanoes were everywhere. The sea temperature was about 70°C, and there was no oxygen in the air -- instant suffocation for time travellers. Not that it would have mattered: between the volcanoes and the meteorites there was so much dust flying around you wouldn't have seen anything anyway.

>14 hfglen: Is it just me or does it look like a lizard on top of a rock?

>15 Karlstar: If I'm looking at the same thing as you (the white squiggle in about the middle), it's a baby (possibly bonsai-ed by the local herbivores) rock-splitter fig tree.

>14 hfglen: That’s a great picture, Hugh. Three and a half billion years ago? At the time the Earth itself was “only” a billion years or so old. Very deep is the well of the past, indeed.

>14 hfglen: Love the photo, but the commentary is even better. As much as I'd love a bigger moon I would not be thrilled with the violent tides!

And this week's picture



We met a family of warthogs one day ...

>19 hfglen: What a beauty! Picture, that is.

But Hugh, what happened? Did you get down and party with them? You can't just leave us hanging like this!

>19 hfglen:
I would not like to get too close to those tusks.

>20 haydninvienna: It's amazing what you can do with a suitably long tele lens! He was quite close to the road; I was in the car with the window open.

>21 pgmcc: Me neither, actually.

>19 hfglen: >20 haydninvienna: >21 pgmcc: I had a single glimpse of that photo and immediately lyrics from a musical number from The Lion King started up in my head, "When I was a young warthog..."

We had frequent visitations from the local wildlife while at Pretoriuskop. In addition to the @#$%& monkeys, there were pleasant visits from starlings, guineafowl and dwarf mongooses.



This is a Greater Black-eared Starling.

It's possible that starling will attempt to steal at least half of the cookie bars in that container.

They're rusks, and he did.

That little guy I could handle. The monkeys, though, would send me over the edge. *shiver*

>19 hfglen: Love this! Was that a young one?

>28 clamairy: Fully adult boar.

One of the guide-books we took had a complicated spiel directing interested parties to an abandoned termite mound in the middle of nowhere if they wanted to see Dwarf Mongooses. We had no need to follow that; the abandoned termite mound in the stand next to ours was suitably inhabited.



They came every morning to see that the humans' rubbish was correctly recycled. Discworld lovers will be curious to see that although they are dwarf mongooses, there is no sign of a battleaxe or helmet, and not a scrap of chain mail.

>30 hfglen: There is, however, a considerable amount of cuteness.

>30 hfglen:
What >31 MrsLee: said.

They look so soft and fluffy!

>33 catzteach: Yerrsss, but never forget that these are wild animals who number Kipling's Rikki-tikki-tavi (who killed and ate snakes for a living) among their relatives. As >31 MrsLee: says, they're cute, but they're also very tough.

Heavens! It was a good six weeks ago that I last posted any reading notes! So have I been reading since then? Yes: more than a few re-reads, and some generally less-than-stellar "new" reads. I shall note the latter in a series of posts starting here.

Kings and Queens. Seems somehow appropriate as preparation for Jubilee Month, and may be regarded as "concentrated iron rations" for binge-watching TV and internet coverage of the jollifications. The book contains one- or two-page potted summaries of every English King or Queen Regnant (except, IIRC, Lady Jane Grey, who only lasted nine days) from Alfred the Great to date. There are illustrations of each one drawn from coins, paintings and other contemporary sources. A good book to read at the time, and possibly nice-to-own if one had been a tourist in UK at about this time.

Ghost Ships Possibly best read in one's tent in the bush, sheltering from the rain. Eminently forgettable catalogue of maritime tall stories and disasters. Clearly Durban's libraries have had no budget for new books in the last three years or so.

George VI. Interesting. A comparison with Truman springs to mind and refuses to be shaken off. I know many USAnian Dragoneers think very highly of the latter, but I beg to differ. I found that because of Truman's lavish attention to the minutest detail it dragged to the point that I could only finish the book by skimming. George VI covered much the same period from the other side of the Atlantic, and did so in only 60% of the space. George was thrust into the post by the abdication of his brother, with minimal training for the role. Nevertheless, he did his job remarkably well in immensely difficult circumstances. It is possible to argue (and may even be correct) that his excessive smoking was a response to the stresses imposed on him, and it shortened his life drastically. However I would suggest that just possibly Wallis Simpson did us all an unintended favour by removing David (Edward VIII, the Duke of Windsor) from a position of actually less power than he imagined at a critical time -- the evidence suggests that the Windsors were at least Nazi sympathisers during WW2. This one was very readable.

In Search of King Solomon's Mines The author was determined, inspire by a (probably forged) map bought from a souvenir stall in Jerusalem, to discover the source of the gold used in the Middle East in Old Testament times. He set out for Ethiopia and in the course of a series of hair-raising adventures saw more of the country than most visitors achieve. This included much of interest besides mines both legal and "pirate". One might have read on with more interest had the book blurb not promised a hilarious read. He is interesting and writes well, but Gerald Durrell he is not. Nowhere near in the same league.

Culture Shock! South Africa Hmmmz. The fine print suggests a second, updated edition with a publication date of 2004, but much of the material suggests that it was written just over ten years earlier. It is therefore nearly 30 years old, making the advice to potential immigrants woefully outdated. What it does well and possibly unintentionally is to point out just how much the country has changed (not necessarily for the better*) in the last 30 years.

*For example the long-standing joke in which a kid says "Daddy daddy, what did we use for light before candles?" and the father replies "electric lights". Or the fact that we used to have good roads, and a functioning rail system and post office. Nuff said.

The Jazz Age in France An interesting study of American artists, writers and musicians in France, and their interactions with their local colleagues. Some remarkable pictures, and a good read, give or take the format. One appreciates that the larger the page the better the possible reproduction of artwork, but taller than foolscap? The result is uncomfortable to handle, and must have cost a fortune to produce.

>37 hfglen: I could see that reaction to Truman. It didn't bog down for me, but I was aware that it was really, really long and there were parts near the end, for example, that clearly could have been made shorter. Sounds like George VI would be a good read for me.

>41 Karlstar: Thank you! I was worried that my cool (at best) response to the highly regarded Truman might offend some denizens of this esteemed pub. I hope you enjoy George VI.

Today's offering is an almost-sunset view of the Makhonjwa mountains from the R40 road a few kilometres out of Barberton towards the eSwatini (Swaziland) border. According to the geotrail markers, which I can well believe, this is the best view of the greenstones of the Figtree group. The rocks under the vegetation are some 3500-million years old, and thus some of the oldest on Earth.



The tourist blurb says with some justification that it takes about six hours to do justice to the geotrail, which occupies nearly all of the 40 km between Barberton and the Josefsdal border post. This is probably not an over-estimate, as it allows for negotiating a steep and winding mountain pass and a road with many large potholes.

>43 hfglen: a beautiful vista. Very peaceful looking.

S.A. National Society meetings usually have a used-books table that often has items of interest. Yesterday's, after a long Covid-induced hiatus, was unusually good. I snagged
The Royal Family in Africa (1947)
The Complete Amateur Photographer (1948)
More about Inn Signs (1962) and
Zulu Place Names in Natal (1968).
The Neapolitan comment Vecchia ma ancora bella applies to all of them.

Among the many avian visitors to our camp-stand at Pretoriuskop in May was this Black-collared Barbet.



This is a fruit-eater, so no surprise that it's sitting in a marula (yes, the source of Amarula liqueur) tree, nor that the tree next to it was a wild fig. A family of Crested Barbets also live in the immediate area.

Glass Half Full is the third in a series chronicling the adventures of a couple (and their two daughters) who give up evidently well-paying office jobs in Dublin to go wine-farming in the Dordogne (I gather this is about 5 hours' drive south of where Pete goes for briefings). The Feelys specialise in organic and indeed biodynamic wines for a number of good reasons that the author explains in the book. However, life is not easy, and she pulls no punches in describing the problems of being self-employed and trying to cope with French bureaucracy. She writes well, and this book is an easy read. Recommended.

Edited to remove a superfluous word

>45 hfglen: What an excellent haul of titles!!

>46 hfglen: Beautiful! And how obliging of it to sit still for you!

>45 hfglen: The Delderfield looks fun.

>50 libraryperilous: Brief, but fun.

The Royal Family in Africa. The most detailed account of the Royal Tour of South Africa in 1947 known to me, which actually says less than it might. The foreword (by General Smuts, no less) tells us that the author, Dermot Morrah, was a journalist who travelled with the royal party (presumably in the Pilot Train). Maybe. His other books on LT certainly show him as a royal-watcher. But his grasp of the environment the royals travelled through in this one shows holes one could drive a coach and horses through at great speed with no danger of touching anything. The text is replete with historical inaccuracies and omissions, not to mention the towns in the wrong province (and once, the wrong country) and route descriptions that if taken literally would imply that the cavalcade doubled back on itself for no reason. Other than that an event was misplaced. Although the text is readable, given a certain level of suspension of disbelief, I come to the conclusion that the pictures (which are many and often not seen elsewhere, not even in the Transnet Heritage Library collection of some 1500 pictures of this event) are the best part.

If libraryperilous likes the pub-sign book, may I recommend the Zulu place names too? It's also brief but fun. Some of the places sound as if they're straight out of Tolkien or maybe any other fantasy novel. Such as umDedelelo, the mountain that should be shunned (aka Cathkin Peak in the central Drakensberg) or eDukuduku, a forest so dense that one must grope one's way about. That Mirkwood is near St. Lucia village. Or enGele, a precipitous, serrated place; or Golela, the place of snatching. Or emaHwaqa, the frowning mountain. Or Mehlomnyama, the mountain with the threatening, black look. You may wish to live in a valley called iNjesuthi (the well-fed dog), where game is so plentiful that even the dog, traditionally fed last after a hunt, has all it can eat (in the central Drakensberg). But what about emaBedlana, place of the small breasts (two small hills in the Ixopo district)?

This week's offering is a Grey Heron:



Kruger Park, May.

>53 hfglen:
Great shot. All fluffed up for show.

>54 pgmcc: Or because the wind was blowing :-)

>55 hfglen:
Hugh, please do not destroy my delusions.

>52 hfglen: Oh, this does sound fun! I shall add it to the list of books to read when I finally make it to South Africa (hopefully this year or next).

>57 libraryperilous: I have a horrid feeling that few copies survive. It may be that the minimum-hassle legal way of getting you and the book in the same place at the same time would be to invite you to visit here and sit you down under a tree with the book and some refreshment of your choice.

>58 hfglen: This does seem to be the most expeditious way of reading said book. I look forward to visiting your archive!

Fairy BrewHaHa at the Lucky Nickel Saloon. Oh dear. I am definitely the wrong reader for this, and am at a loss to explain how it found its way into the local library. A short story of minimal plot and less interest, padded mercilessly until it reached novella length, is just one of the problems. It is written in a dialect almost incomprehensible at the other end of the world. Avoidance recommended.

One day we had only a few minutes to get back before the rest camp gates closed for the night, when the traffic in front slowed to a halt. Here's the cause of the stoppage (near Pretoriuskop on the H1-1 Skukuza road:



Many tourists only come to the Kruger Park to see lions, and make themselves ridiculous in the process. Family Glen goes to absorb the atmosphere and see whatever cares to show itself. And oh yes, we got in a minute or two before the gate closed.

Beautiful!

>61 hfglen: Fabulous photo!

>61 hfglen: she’s a beauty!

>61 hfglen: Great picture!

>61 hfglen: Many tourists in the National Parks here come to see the wildlife as well (the bison, the bears, etc.). The problem is that people don't realize that the wild animals may not be friendly. They think they should be able to PET a bison like it's a big friendly dog and there have been incidents of people being trampled, gored, etc. for trying to do so.

But yes, wonderful photo.

>66 jillmwo: "Seeing the wildlife" is in large measure what the relationship between the public and the Kruger Park is all about. What I was being negative about is a fairly large segment of the visiting public who ONLY want to see lions, and ignore all the other widlife. Fortunately a significant number seem to have progressed to accepting the rest of the Big Five (leopards, buffalo, elephants and rhinos).

>67 Bookmarque: LOL!!

What's Gone Wrong? : on the brink of a failed state. Very political study of the first two decades of the New South Africa. To say more would infringe on the rules of the pub, but one can say that this is a recommended if disquieting read.

And this week's picture:



It's a patch of tidal sandstone that's been tipped on its side in the ages since it was deposited. Moodies Group, c. 3220-million years old; oldest tidal deposit on earth, and contains evidence of bacterial mats. The stripes apparently provide evidence that the moon was only half as far away then as it is now (so much more violent tides), and the system rotated much faster, so a day was only about 18 hours long.

Stonehenge. Long and occasionally long-winded story about the construction of the eponymous monument in England. The social background is, as far as I can tell, accurate. The late Neolithic -- earliest Bronze Age ancient Brits seem almost completely interchangeable with our 21st-century Zulus; give or take the drive to build temples, the religious background is almost identical. Did Mr Cornwell study tribal Africa as part of his background reading?

>70 hfglen:
Very nice.

>70 hfglen: Does this mean there is still hope to gain an hour in our day? Beautiful photo.

>70 hfglen: I studied A level Geology and I still find it amazing that rocks can tell us so much about the earth's history.

>73 MrsLee: Yes it does, but you might have to wait a few million years. If my very rough calculation is correct, and bearing in mind that the rate of slowing varies quite a bit, about 75 million.

>75 haydninvienna: Thank you, Richard, for giving Lee a much better answer than I could.

Yes, the earth's rotation is slowing very gradually. This may come as a counter-intuitive surprise to those of us who find that the years go past ever faster as we age.

>70 hfglen: Gorgeous!

>74 Sakerfalcon: The sense of wonder that science engenders!

>53 hfglen: What a glorious bird.

>67 Bookmarque: Haha!

>75 haydninvienna: Perfect! Maybe that will give me time to read all the books on my TBR shelf!

>70 hfglen: oh it's wonderful! we were just discussing stromatolites in Geology class this week! One classmate posted a photo of the Helena Formation in Glacier National Park (Montana USA) and I was amazed at the different structures that are formed by the bacterial mats.

>80 Darth-Heather: Maybe just maybe, somebody should suggest that your Geology class might like to look at the Sudwala Caves website, as they have some spectacular, ancient stromatolites; there are others of similar age near Sabie. No doubt Haydninvienna will point out that (given enough money) you can go and see live stromatolites in Western Australia. We'd love to see you here, though!

>81 hfglen: Not only do I point it out, I've been there!

The one thing I remember about algal mats from my Geology lectures is the use of Markov Chains analysis to analyse the repetitive patterns in the mat deposits.

So let's have a picture of by far the commonest antelope in the Kruger Park, an impala ram.



His face is, for some reason, covered in ticks.

I'm mildly amused by an instruction in a recipe I read on the internet. I'm planning to make Stolzer Heinrich for the family supper on Friday, and one instruction in the recipe I intend to use goes "Dredge the brats with flour...". I suspect that speakers of British English will interpret that in a way other than what the writer intended. (Yes, the dish is made with Bratwurst, not naughty boys.)

Cross-posted in the Cookbookers

>85 hfglen:
:-)

I had images of something like an Eeling Studios comedy with someone using a wallpaper paste brush to slap across the faces of a line of street urchins. Funnily enough, it was s black and white image in my mind.

>86 pgmcc: Those old Ealing Studios comedies were brilliant! Thinks: must check and see if any are available to watch on YouTube.

Milner: last of the Empire-builders. Not the most popular historical character in southern Africa -- indeed he managed to offend almost everybody in his eight years here. It turns out that his combination of high principle and (often mistaken) rigidity -- and inability to see anybody else's point of view, was not limited to southern Africa. It was how he worked throughout his life. Yet he managed to gather a group of politicians who thought he was marvellous. Richard Steyn has written several excellent biographies and historical studies, of which this is the latest. Highly recommended, especially to anyone interested in the history of southern Africa in the last decade of the 19th century and the first of the 20th.

>84 hfglen: I am struck by what the word impala conveys to people. To you, by virtue of its being so common to your region, the word is an animal. Whereas I see the word and more readily think of a gas-guzzling American sports car, built for speed. Language ambiguity and all that.

>84 hfglen: He's very handsome, even with the ticks.

>89 jillmwo: The American car made its way here too, to the accompaniment of smiles and raised eyebrows. "Do these Yanks have the faintest idea of what the word means? -- Probably not." And seeing you mention it, I can't help thinking of my Standard-Six Latin teacher (Yes, Jeremy Taylor no less!) and a line from the song he wrote as a result of shepherding schoolboys to the municipal sports ground at Wemmer Pan:
"Ag pleeez Deddy, woncha take us down to Durban;
It's only eight hours inna Chevrolet ..."

>85 hfglen: there is a farm a few miles from me that raises goats. Every spring they hang a sign: kids for sale. Makes me giggle every time I see it.

Some years ago (2007, to be precise) a friend took me to see De Hoge Veluwe National Park in the Netherlands. I was fascinated by Marta Pan's sculpture Otterlo in the sculpture garden, and didn't know why.



Going through my pictures from a visit to the Kruger Park in May, I worked out why.



This is a Hamerkop, which I gather is related to a pelican.

Love the sculpture and the bird!

>93 hfglen: that sculpture does look like the bird. Cool!

hfglen Your photos and posts are broadening awareness of the variety of species on various continents. I'd never heard of the hamerkop.

>96 jillmwo: Thank you, Jill. That is part of the purpose of my weekly pictures.

So this week I offer another, bigger bird.



Here is a White-backed Vulture, presumably waiting for something to die, in a tree near Pretoriuskop in the Kruger National Park.

>97 hfglen: Lovely!
But I would hate that to be the last thing I saw...

>98 clamairy: By the time the vulture turns up, you'd have been dead quite a while already ...

Cape Town: the making of a city. Accurate, readable text and great pictures; what more could one want? Not much, but possibly a paperback with A4-size pages isn't great for reading in bed. The story starts with Jan van Riebeeck in 1652 and ends (mostly) in 1899, with only a few mentions of the decade after the (second) Anglo-Boer War where necessary to end a story. There are many details here that one won't find (at least, won't find easily) elsewhere. Both better Half and I found this a good and interesting read.

Would I read another by this author? Maybe: there's supposed to be a second book taking the story into the 20th century, but I wouldn't go out of my way to look out any of the other books on his LT list.

Would I recommend this book: yes.

To whom: Anyone interested in South African history in the period covered, or who likes Victorian pictures.

Where the hell is Tuvalu?, a revised version of Philip Ells's The People's Lawyer. London lad chooses law as a career almost by default, decides he doesn't like working for a large corporate and volunteers for overseas service. So he gets sent to Tuvalu, the world's fourth-smallest country, as "people's lawyer" -- a state-paid post for helping those who can't afford to pay a lawyer themselves. At the time he was there, that included almost everybody, but since then Tuvalu has become wealthy through use of their .tv domain name. The culture shock of being a driven Londoner, used to a cool-temperate climate, finding himself in a lowland-equatorial, laid-back community, results in many humorous episodes.

Would I read another by this author? According to LT, there isn't one.

Would I recommend this book? Yes.

To whom? Dragoneers looking for a cosy book with good humour.

>101 hfglen: Well, first of all, I had to google Tuvalu because I had no idea whether it was real or not. Having determined that it is a part of the British Commonwealth, I then wrestled with the genre of the work -- that is, whether this was memoir or fiction. (I had mentally placed it from your description as being something like the television show Death in Paradise. That was wrong, so again had to recalculate.) All of this will undoubtedly result in me being able to remember the title for weeks yet to come. ;>) What a roundabout way of hitting your visitors with a BB.

>101 hfglen: I love the title! I’m with >102 jillmwo: in wanting to know the genre.

>102 jillmwo: >103 catzteach: Part autobiographical memoir, part travelogue.

The "main event" of 1899-1902 was not the first dust-up between Britain and Kruger's republic; there was an earlier one in 1880-1. The British side was characterised by slowness, incompetent management and inadequate manpower, and faded out relatively quickly.



This is Majuba Hill, on the border between Natal and the ZAR (to use the names current at the time), seen from the Transvaal side. British troops under Major-General Sir George Pomeroy Colley managed to scale the peak from the Natal side. The next morning a force of 150 Boers attacked, taking the hill back. Colley and some 200 troops were killed, for the loss of one Boer at the scene and another who died later of his wounds. That rather ended the war, in the Boers' favour. Read more about it here.

This week's offering is a Dark Chanting Goshawk, one of the smaller and relatively rare resident raptors in the Kruger Park, in a Marula tree. Yes, trees of this kind outside the park supply the raw materials for Amarula liqueur.



There is indeed also a Pale Chanting Goshawk, but you would need to go to the drier, western part of southern Africa to see it.

>106 hfglen: Gorgeous!

>106 hfglen: Such a pretty bird. Great capture.

>106 hfglen: Very interesting feather pattern, and the color of that beak!

Very cool bird!

I like the goshawk!

And, at last, some reading. Some kind soul has donated a copy of Last Call for the Dining Car to the Railwaysoc library, so I read it before finishing cataloguing it. The book is a collection of some of what the editor considers to be the best railway-themed items from The \Daily\ Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph, dating from deep in Queen Victoria's Glorious Days to the 21st century. The articles range from very short to several pages, mostly tending towards the latter. I quote the shortest (dated 5 September 1945) in full: "Owing to the difficulty of obtaining crockery the service of cups of tea in trains in Britain may have to be stopped."
The authors, and the gems, in this book are numerous, and it makes a great book for odd moments. It is so beautifully produced (but, sadly, lacks pictures) that I have to say it's too good for MrsLee's bathroom reading; keep it in the bedroom rather.

Would I read another book by these authors? They are many, including the prolific Anon., so yes for at least some of them.
Or edited by Michael Kerr (no. 2 in LT)? Yes, I gather from LT that he edited two more anthologies.
Would I recommend this book? Yes!
To whom? Anyone wanting good bedside reading.

Steam Train Romance has been in the Railwaysoc library for some years. It is an account of seven journeys (undertaken by whom? The author does not say.) on important railways in South and Central Africa between 1890 and 1947. I checked it out in the hope of learning anything I could about the three official visits King Albert I of the Belgians made to the Congo; this is the only book in the library with the tag "Congo". No joy; the Congo journey is on the narrow-gauge line from Matadi to Leopoldville. Although the line made trade possible for the (ex-Belgian) Congo, King Albert is not mentioned even once. Other lines in the book are the Benguela Line (Lobito, Angola, to Elisabethville, Congo), the military line of Deutsch-Südwest-Afrika (Swakopmund to Windhoek, now Namibia), Cape Town to Victoria Falls (opened 1904) and later on to Broken Hill (now Kabwe, Zambia), Pretoria to Lourenço Marques (now Maputo, Mozambique) -- the NZASM Oosterlijn opened 1895, Beira to Umtali (now Mutare, Zimbabwe) and Beira to Blantyre (Malawi). The book suffers from being self-published and so not copy-edited (I object to reading about "bovine cattle", for example), but the old postcards illustrating it are well reproduced and worth a closer look.

Would I read another by this author? I see he has self-published several on the history of the parts of Cape Town where he lives, and one on old railway postcards that Railwaysoc has. I'd not avoid the former, though I expect they would be hard to find, and the latter deserves a closer look.
Would I recommend this book? Unlikely.
To whom? In view of the difficulty of finding a copy, probably only to users of the Society library at Inchanga.

>106 hfglen: Safe to assume the last 2 posts were also by you?

>115 Karlstar: Not only safe but perfectly correct. I wanted to look something up on the Railwaysoc catalog, and forgot that LT can handle two windows from the same computer into the same account, it gets confused when you try to look at two different accounts from the same computer at the same time.

>116 hfglen: The writing style was clearly yours.

>113 Railwaysoc: I've been interested in these volumes for several years but never taken the time to read any of the essays. I did find one of the reviews on LT amusing.

Rangers and their dogs form closely-bonded teams, and each part of the team is essential to the other. So it should be no surprise that Skukuza, the Kruger Park headquarters, has a "Little Heroes' Acre" for dogs who have given their all. Possibly more surprising that it is in the public area, right next to the library. Each of the stones within the enclosure is a grave.



Some of the tourist accommodation can be seen in the background. Each cottage sleeps 2 to 4, and has an en-suite bathroom and veranda with cooking facilities; many have aircon. The food cupboard and fridge are heavily fortified against monkeys. There are two restaurants, a takeaway and a shop in the complex.

Dumb question for British Dragoneers: Is your new Prime Minister and relation to Lynne Truss of Eats, Shoots and Leaves fame?

>119 hfglen:
That is a nice idea for remembering the dogs and the part they play.

>120 hfglen: I believe not. If she is, neither is admitting it!

>120 hfglen:, >122 Sakerfalcon: At least her first name is different. Someone else is getting called out on Twitter. :)

>123 libraryperilous: Thank you for that. I happen to be Swedish so found the (capitalized) Meatballs reply to be absolut gold.

Against All Odds: the story of the Oceanos rescue. The Oceanos was a rather elderly, Greek-registered ship being used for cruise charters in the early 1990s. It had already scraped the sea-bottom on leaving Saint-Denis, Réunion some time before and not, apparently, been inspected after that mishap. In early August 1991 it was due to cruise for a day from East London (South Africa) to Durban. As bookings were poor more than a few travel agents and Sout African Airways staff were offered tickets at giveaway prices. The day before the ship was due to leave, East London harbour was closed by one of the severest storms ever recorded there. The next day, ships were allowed to leave "at the captain's discretion"; the Oceanos left. And almost immediately started to encounter difficulties, not improved by the crew's attempts to unblock sewage drains in the storm. When it became clear that the ship was sinking the captain and Greek officers fled, leaving the passengers to manage ass best they could. The mayday call and subsequent rescue were managed by the entertainers on board, and the S.A. Navy rescue command post in Cape Town (about 1000 km away). Four cargo ships plucked 221 survivors from lifeboats, despite the continuing vey high seas. Eleven Puma helicopters arrived from Air Force bases all over South Africa, and started winching survivors off the ship and depositing them at a nearby country hotel. (This area is called the Wild Coast for a reason!) Eventually all 571 people, one dog and one canary on board were rescued -- the ship itself took 17 hours to sink. This book is an account of the rescue and subsequent enquiry, written by one of the lawyers involved in the latter. That is an unpromising start, and the result could have been deadly dry and boring, but in fact it is riveting (if less than ideal bedside reading for those prone to nightmares). A little googling reveals that the shipping line involved no longer exists -- no loss, as they emerge with no credit whatsoever. The tour company has also ceased to trade, which may be more of a pity.

Would I read another book by this author? Hard to say: Andrew Pike on LT seems to be composed of at least three authors, who are beyond my wit to disentangle.
Would I recommend this book? Definitely yes.
To whom: Anyone who likes a story of immense heroism told honestly, or a good sea story.

For years I have known that there has been a family of Dassies (Rock Hyraxes, Procavia capensis) living in a stormwater drain on a quiet street one block away from where I do. However I was quite surprised the other day to see another family of them, evidently as happy as Larry, living in a different stormwater drain -- on the busiest main road in our area!



I saw these dassies some years ago in the rest camp at Storms River Mouth, in the Tsitsikamma National Park on the southern Cape coast. Believe it or not, they're distantly related to elephants! Somebody once told me they make good pets, but as they are wild animals it is highly illegal to keep them as such.

>126 hfglen: Those are adorable! I have never heard of them, either, so there is my first bit of new knowledge for the day.

>126 hfglen:
Like >127 MrsLee:, I learned of the existence of dassies for the first time today.

>125 hfglen: That's quite a story!

>126 hfglen: A new creature to me also.

>126 hfglen: Are they related in anyway to capybaras? If they're related in any way to elephants, it seems unlikely but the general shape of the dassies seems fairly close. Although the ears may be different.

You live in an enchanted area of the world, Hugh!

>130 jillmwo: Not even slightly, other than being mammals. Dassies belong to their own family, and so the relationship to elephants is also tenuous. They generally live in rocky places (well, our suburb is bounded on one side by cliffs), while capybaras are semi-aquatic, aren't they?

An enchanted area? Maybe. Certainly one of the most beautiful places I know, despite the attentions of the city council and other vandals.

>126 hfglen: those are cute! And a new-to-me creature as well. They kind of look like a cross between a rock chuck (groundhog/marmot) and a bear. Are they big?

>132 catzteach: About cat-size.

>133 hfglen:
I am sorry, but given the range of sizes the cats are where you live, your answer does not narrow it down too much. Tabby cat, leopard, or lion sized cat?

>134 pgmcc: LOL, I thought the same thing, but didn't want to call him out on it. :D

>135 MrsLee:
I think Hugh would expect it of me. He might even have composed his post deliberately to tease me out of my den.

>134 pgmcc: >135 MrsLee: >136 pgmcc: Domestic tabby, petite to slightly overweight (3.5 to 5.5 kg, according to a Field Guide to the Mammals of the Kruger National Park that just happens to be within reach).

>134 pgmcc: Being the crazy cat lady that I am, my mind immediately went to house cat size. You raised a good point, though. :)

>138 catzteach:
It comes from my years of interrogation experience asking questions on consulting assignments.

Travels in the South. A coffee-table book celebrating South Africa's roads and their makers. Magnificent pictures, text rather curate's-eggish (good in parts). The historical parts not bad, but the management parts very bureaucratic and dry.

Would I read another by this author? This Malcolm Mitchell appears to be neither of the separate authors on LT, and I am not convinced that he wrote anything else. This may not be a loss to the world.

Would I recommend this book? Probably not.

Fat, Fame and Life with Father is basically autobiographical, but not structured enough to count as a proper autobiography, so best call it a memoir, and none the worse for that. Deirdre Barnard is Chris Barnard's (of heart transplant fame) daughter, and that is evidently a major feature of her life. Not one that made her life any easier, either; Deirdre (rather frighteningly, it turns out she was born only three months after me) evidently feels things deeply, and life has bee rough from time to time. Recommended.

Would I read another by this author? There isn't one.
Would I recommend this book? Yes.
To whom? Anyone who wants a good and ultimately heartwarming read, or who wants to know what it felt like to live in Cape Town between the '60s and the end of the century.

This week's picture is a bird any visitor to any rest camp in the Kruger Park will almost certainly see: a Natal Spurfowl (formerly called a Natal Francolin; aka a bush chicken).



A very common and often quite tame seed-eater.

Amazing pics, as usual, but I especially love those Dassies! What cuties.

>140 hfglen: Okay, I've never been entirely clear on the meaning of "curate's egg". As a British expression, what is it supposed to convey to the hearer? I know curates were frequently poorly paid, but beyond that?

>142 hfglen:
Super picture. Great detail.

>144 jillmwo: A very British expression, referring to a famous Victorian Punch cartoon, showing a very new curate dining with (IIRC) his Bishop. The egg served to the curate was evidently well past its use-by date. The bishop apologised for the "off" egg and was rewarded with the immortal payoff line "Oh no Sir, I assure you it is very good in parts".

ETA: You can see the original cartoon here.

Stories from the Karkloof Hills. Memories -- his own and his senior relatives' and their neighbours' -- of life in the Kwazulu-Natal Midlands in the latter half of the 19th century and early 20th century. One gathers that the author, Charles Scott Shaw, was a parish priest, whether Anglican or Wesleyan is unclear; he was certainly a chaplain in the Korean war. I think I'm glad I was never part of his flock: on the basis of this book I'd have slept peacefully through his sermons every Sunday.

Would I read another book by this author? There is one, but I certainly would not go out of my way to track it down.

Would I recommend this book? Most unlikely, and not only because it seems to be "as rare as hen's teeth".

Sweet Honey, Bitter Lemons. Food nut travels back and forth across Sicily on a red Vespa. Good stories, with a few mouth-watering recipes at the end of each chapter. If I were ever to win the Lotto, I'd give serious thought to doing something similar, but in a small car rather than a scooter. Though I suspect one would need all his contacts to make the journey as enjoyable as his.

Would I read another by Matthew Fort? Yes; indeed, LT assures me that I have.

Would I recommend this book? Yes.

To whom? 1. Anyone who enjoys cooking and eating Italian food. 2. Anyone who likes a good story of off-the-beaten-track travel, well told.

And now for something completely different:



May 2022 full moon seen from our camp stand at Pretoriuskop, Kruger National Park.

>149 hfglen:
I like it. Very atmospheric.

>124 ScoLgo: absolut: I see what you did there. :)

>125 hfglen: This sounds interesting.

>148 hfglen: This sounds delightful!

>149 hfglen: Lovely

Africa: a biography of the continent There surely can't be many histories that try to cover over 3000-million years. Naturally, the result is a brick (700-odd pages, and none the worse for that) that leaves out nearly everything, and gives the rest the broadest of broad-brush treatments, understandably. And this one starts with a couple of well written geology chapters, starting with the Kaapvaal Craton and ending roughly with the Great Rift. We move on to some paleontology and paleo-ecology to explain what nature would be doing here if left to its own devices. Then on to human evolution and what one would normally consider to be history. Despite South Africa's deplorable track record in the past of my youth, it is interesting to see in the economic chapter at the end that we were (even those of darker hue) between 10 and 1000 times better at adapting to the late 20th century than anyone else on the African continent.

Would I read another by John Reader? I'd have to find one first. Given that, quite possibly.
Would I recommend this book? Yes.
To whom? Anybody who wants a thumbnail (big thumbnail, obviously!) sketch of what Africa is and why.

>153 hfglen: sounds super interesting!

The Late Scholar is set in Oxford many years after Gaudy Night. It is one of Jill Paton Walsh's continuations of the Lord Peter Wimsey saga, and none the worse for that. Evidently in one of the other stories Peter's brother Gerald died, leaving him the title of Duke of Denver. One of the Duke's lesser-known (indeed so terminally obscure that he has to do some research into the matter) duties is as Visitor to an obscure Oxford college. Which would normally take, on average, about five minutes a year, but a problem has arisen that requires all his and Harriet's tact and detecting skills. This being Lord Peter, the problem includes three murders, two attempted murders and an incidental almost-death, all offstage. It's very much in the Dorothy L. Sayers tradition, and so counts as a definitely cosy mystery. Unusually, Lord Peter isn't seen buying rare old books -- presumably the estate soaked up any spare cash.

Would I read another by this author? Sadly, LT tells me that there is only one of Jill Paton Walsh's "Lord Peter continuations" that I haven't yet read. I am torn between saving the last one as a special treat and downloading it soon from Internet Archive.

Would I recommend this book? Yes

To whom? Lovers of "Golden Age" mysteries. Peter, perhaps?

>155 hfglen:
I hear you, Hugh.

I will finish my romp through Dorothy L. Sayers's own Lord Peter stories before I dip my toe into the Lord Peters of another author. I am intrigued, and a little tempted. That is two shots fired at me today. Sakerfalcon fired one at me earlier.

>149 hfglen: I love this!

>155 hfglen: Jill Paton Walsh wrote a standalone historical novel, Knowledge of Angels, that is one of my favorite novels. It has some speculative elements and is a thoughtful and sad examination of religious institutions vs individual faith.

>149 hfglen: Spooky and beautiful!

>155 hfglen: I read only the first of her Lord Peter continuation novels. I was not pleased with it. Perhaps I should give her one more chance? I thought Gerald had a son to inherit?

>159 MrsLee: IIRC the son died before Gerald.

It's about time we had another picture. This one's inspired by our dog, who's inclined to go tearing out of the house at night and bark hysterically at who-knows-what. Better Half has just had the inspired idea that Genets are known to live in the nature reserve 1 km away and in most of the suburbs around us. So could Jess (the dog) be yapping at a Genet?



Here is a Large-spotted Genet seen in 2013, at Tamboti Tented Camp in the Kruger Park. There's one rather large misleading feature of this picture: Genets are strictly nocturnal, so this is taken with flash, not by daylight. The animal belongs to the same family as a Civet, so not all that closely related to a cat, despite appearances. They're 50-55 cm long and the same again for the tail, and weigh 2-3 kg, so rather less than a domestic kitty.

We know this one is a large-spotted because the tip of the tail is black. In Small-spotted Genets the tip of the tail is white.

>161 hfglen: it’s very cute. It looks like a cross between a Bengal cat and a weasel.

>161 hfglen: What a pretty animal! Is their behavior like skunks? The skunks around here year up the rocks and paths looking for snails, slugs and bugs. My husband gets very annoyed, but I tell him it's cheap pest control, if you can stand the smell. Do genets have an odor also?

>161 hfglen:
Another fantastic and educational post. It is another new animal for me, as it the Civet.

Thank you for posting and broadening my knowledge base.

Your wildlife photos are stunning. Thank you for sharing them. Always fascinating.

>162 catzteach: It is rather, isn't it?
>163 MrsLee: Can't say I've ever consciously seen a skunk, but the diet seems similar; the one in the picture had discovered what rest-camp rubbish bins are for, and was on its way to investigate ours. According to the mammal book, they can pong, as can civets.
>164 pgmcc: Really? Yet I'm sure that if you aren't, Catríona is aware of at least one product involving African civets (though the makers swear by all that is holy that Chanel no. 5 now uses synthetic civet as a fixative.
>165 Meredy: >164 pgmcc: Thank you; it's a pleasure.

>161 hfglen: I hope Jess didn’t actually try to take the genet on: it looks mean. I still think fondly of Jess. Your pictures are another lot that I’ve given up on commenting about because I’ve run out of superlatives.

Somebody said a while back that you live in an enchanted place. On long reflection, I agree. There’s quite a few places in the world where I feel that the old magic never went away, and Durban is one. (Peter, if you’re reading, in certain lights and at certain places Dublin is another.)

>167 haydninvienna:
Sure don’t Durban and Dublin start with the same two letters; aren’t they bound to be similar.

>167 haydninvienna: She has more sense than that; even the monkeys she just barks at (we need a resident leopard in this suburb ...). Thank you for the compliment.

>168 pgmcc: To be sure. But then what about DUbai, whose most important function is surely as a good place to change planes between the other two?

>169 hfglen: I’ve actually been to all 3. So much for “initial determinism”—I have no particular wish to return to Dubai.

>166 hfglen: Pong is one of my favorite words for that action. I manage to mentally reverse the revulsion of the smell (if it is from a skunk just passing by, not actually spraying) by associating it with brewing coffee. This learned whilst on a ride at Disneyland where I was informed that the smell used by the artificial skunk we were passing was actually coffee, not skunk.

>161 hfglen: Based on a quick and dirty Google search, the Cincinnati Zoo (https://cincinnatizoo.org/animals/large-spotted-genet-3/) offers a few quick facts about the large spotted genet. They are night hunters (which I gathered from the various posts here) but they actually hunt as prey the following: Small rodents, birds, reptiles, invertebrates, and fruit. They're apparently big on leaping and pouncing.

A rather attractive creature and, as others have said here, I value the photos and other tidbits you offer this way. I don't think I'd have been likely to encounter a genet otherwise (not being near enough to the Cincinnati Zoo to visit).

>172 jillmwo:
Membership of the Cincinnati Zoo has been our Christmas present to our US based daughter and her family for the past two years. They get great value from that gift.

Their daughter is called Fiona and Cincinnati Zoo has a hippo called Fiona.

>172 jillmwo: Interesting! Rubbish bins are good prey -- they don't run away. No doubt you've worked out that I was on our accommodation deck looking straight down on the one I showed, but Cincinnati Zoo chose a more orthodox eye-level view.

>171 MrsLee: Roasting coffee? Which can get a bit high if you're too close.

>173 pgmcc: Now I have a persistent out-of-focus mental image of a line of hippos all called Fiona, dressed in tutus. But I can't remember what film I'm thinking of (Fantasia?) or what they were dancing to.

>174 hfglen:
I believe it to be Fantasia.

>174 hfglen: >175 pgmcc: It was Fantasia, and the music was "Dance of the Hours" from La Gioconda. Hippos and ostriches.

Heh, I just referenced the movie "Fantasia" in the Cookbooker group, in 2WonderY's thread. She posted an image of a kitchen gadget which looks like it should have been in that movie.

>174 hfglen: I meant brewing coffee, a dark roast. I've never actually smelled roasting coffee.

>177 MrsLee: there are a few coffee roasters in town. It is not a pleasant smell, in my opinion. I’d rather smell brewing coffee.

The Fishy Smiths. Not "fishy" as the opposite of "kosher" but "fishy" as in "ichthyologist". J.L.B. Smith wrote what in 1949 was the world's best account of marine fishes of a particular area -- single handed. The latest revision, by many authors, is still a monumental and highly-regarded work, and the ultimate reference for fishes of the Western Indian Ocean. Here we have a sympathetic biography of Professor Smith and his wife; he was driven, intensely focused, and hard to get on with. She spent twenty years completely in his shadow, and when he died she underwent a remarkable metamorphosis into the great lady I met at botanical conferences (! -- she was still an ichthyologist to her fingertips, and Director of the J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology) when I was much younger than I am now. She always attended with her sister, and they were by no means the only regular non-botanical participants in the post-congress tours. And there the sisters (the book tells me they were known to close friends as "Fauna and Flora"; the sister's name was Flora Sholto-Douglas) displayed a brilliant, green-dragonish sense of humour that was always enjoyed, and invaluable in adversity such as when the bus broke down.

On my bookshelf is a greatly treasured copy of Old Fourlegs. Why more than any other copy of that book could be? Because it was a wedding present from Mrs Fishy Smith, and so inscribed.

Unfortunately the comment in the one and only review on LT (which is badly biased against the subjects) that the editing could have been better is justified. This is surprising, as I have worked with the proofreader, and know that she would never have let me escape with missing references, which is a problem here.

Would I read another book by Mike Bruton? Yes, if I could find one. Even more, I suspect some Dragoneers would like his wife's book Fisherman's Favourites were it not just slightly rarer than hen's teeth.
Would I recommend this book? Yes
To whom? Anglers and readers of biographies.

Fear: Trump in the White House. Very recent, very political, so minimal discussion. But this evidence does suggest that other countries (outside the U.S.A.) have cause to be terrified of the prospects for 2024.

Would I read another by Bob Woodward? Yes
Would I recommend this book? Quite possibly.
To whom? This is the difficult one. Anyone who finds it relevant.

Albion: the origins of the English imagination Oh dear. Peter Ackroyd's histories are usually readable, if ponderous. Not this one. I wouldn't go quite as far as the person who scribbled in the library copy that this is a load of pretentious b******s, but it certainly is unremittingly, pretentiously Literary. And therefore almost totally unreadable. The author displays the same fixation on twee Poetry that a certain eejit English teacher had, and turned a generation of schoolboys off for life. Three quarters of the way through, he does mention some other products of imagination: Art and Theatre (note the intentional initial caps) -- the kind that empties galleries and theatres instantly. Why o why does he not accept that a steam engine (for example) or Middle Earth (for another) are just as much products of imagination that are no less important because they do useful work, or are loved? The answer I first think of does him no credit.

Would I read another by this author? I have, and know he can do better than this.
Would I recommend this book? No.

Joy Adamson: Behind the Mask. Sjoe! I think I'm glad I never met the subject of this biography. She seems to have been one of the most demanding dragons of her generation -- in some ways one gets the impression that Elsa the Lion was one of the few people who could stand her company for any length of time. The author does a good job of producing a very readable account of a difficult human, for which one can only commend her. Mind you, for all he foibles Joy Adamson and her husband did some remarkably good work in conserving part of Kenya's amazing wildlife; as witness of that, the Kenya Wildlife Department to this day lists George Adamson's camp and grave as major attractions of Kora National Park (I checked seconds before starting to write this). Recommended.

Would I read another by Caroline Cass? Yes, if I find one.
Would I recommend this book? Yes.
To whom? Anyone who wants to know about sharing one's life with a big cat, or learn about an extraordinarily difficult but nonetheless significant person.

This week's picture is a small antelope called a Steenbok. Not always easy to see in the undergrowth.



They stand just less than 2 feet tall and weigh 10-15 kg. They're browsers, but will graze on very young grass in spring or after fires. This one is a ram (the ewes don't have horns).

>183 hfglen: Now that I have heard of. What a terrific photo!

>183 hfglen: Very cute!

>183 hfglen: The eye size to face ratio is very high! What a beautiful animal.

>186 clamairy: The book of words tells me that they're crepuscular, becoming nocturnal in disturbed places. Somehow, I'm not surprised.

With Both Hands Waving. Group of travel journalists go by 4x4 from South Africa to Mozambique in 2000 or 2001 (the book came out in 2002). I managed at trip to Maputo in 2002, so share a very few memories with this group. Travel in that country was not easy for us at the time: chaotic and expensive visas (scrapped a few months later, to nobody's regret), corrupt police and officialdom and the aftermath of the civil war made life, er, interesting. As the keeper of the B&B we stayed in put it "The civil war reduced the country to black-and-white. Now the colour is coming back." -- a thought I was reminded of often while reading this. Brief response: the country has changed too fast for this to be usable as a guide. But it is a very readable snapshot of a moment in history, and a moment close to what the Chinese call "interesting times".

So have I been reading in the last 10 days? Yes. Five Anne McCaffrey Pern re-reads surely don't require comment, though one might wish it were possible to meet some of the characters, such as Menolly, Jaxom and a few others.

The King's Speech is new to me, though probably not to many Dragoneers. Somehow seemed relevant right now, and was a good if well-known story.

How to Steal a Country is a deeply worrying book, not least because it describes the events I have lived through in the last 20-30 years. However from this distance I cannot help thinking that it contains an implied warning for other countries, and not just such well-established kleptocracies as Angola and Zimbabwe. As the book is very political, I shall say no more other than to encourage Dragoneers to read it.

Would I read another by Sir Robin Renwick? This is the third I have, and I see there are several others, so yes.
Would I recommend this book? I rather think I just have, so yes.
To whom? Anyone interested in, or who needs a warning about, government gone bad.

And time for another picture.



The Fayi River near Pretoriuskop, Kruger National Park. Rather unusual that it should still have water in so far into winter (late May); it's a seasonal stream in a rather low-rainfall area. The road this was seen from is one of the oldest in the Kruger Park (Pretoriuskop camp was the first, opened in 1928). The road was also one of the first to remain open all year -- when I wur a lad only Pretoriuskop was considered cool enough to be malaria-free and so stay open all year round, and there were only a very few roads tourists were allowed on between October and May (our summer).

>191 hfglen: Very beautiful! Can't wait to see it. Sigh.

Butter and Love. Knowing that several LT friends have enjoyed the recipes in My Cape Malay Kitchen, I cannot wait to suggest that they need the comfort food recipes in this one to go with the previous enthuse. Caro Alberts (touchstone not working) grew up on a farm near Piet Retief in what is now Mpumalanga, near the KZN and eSwatini borders, and so has known good farm food "since always". She now has a TV series called Koskaskenades, where she cooks a special meal for a group of friends / acquaintances in each episode. It's in Afrikaans (though I'd have been slaughtered at school if I'd dared to use her mongrel Afrikaans!) with English subtitles; here is a sample. Her recipes are eminently do-able, and yield great stick-to-the-ribs farm food.

Cross posted in Cookbookers

>190 hfglen: Thanks for the book review and >191 hfglen: the picture!

A Castle in Tuscany. So who was Janet Ross, the subject of this biography? Daughter of Lucie Duff Gordon, who at different times in Egypt and at the Cape of Good Hope, and wrote published letters home from these places. Aunt and guardian of Lina Waterfield (née Duff Gordon), who wrote local histories of cities in Italy. Chatelaine of the castle (hence the title of the book) at Poggio Gherardo, near Florence. Pillar of the late Victorian -- early 20th-century Anglo-Italian community around Florence. The book is well-researched and readably written; who could ask for more? I may even go and look for a copy of her Leaves from our Tuscan Kitchen; she also wrote and translated several other works.

Od Magic Hit fair and square by BBs from both Karlstar and clamairy I was, and suitably grateful I am to both. The instant takeaway is that Patricia McKillip is always well worth reading. I could imagine wanting to meet some of the characters (Sulys, Mistral, Brenden Vetch or Yar Ayrwood for example), and being terminally repelled by some others (Valoren Greye, the king or most of the wizards for example). Further, I'll let this one sink in before commenting. It bears a great deal of thinking about.

>196 hfglen: I completely agree, all of her books are so well written, it hits me immediately every time I pick one up. Often when people ask about a under-appreciated fantasy author, she comes to mind. Glad you enjoyed it.

>196 hfglen: I'm so glad you enjoyed this one. It's fascinating to me how very different and yet how absolutely wonderful everything I've read of hers so far has been. This was definitely one of my favorites.

>197 Karlstar: I agree. Picking up on a recent comment by (I think) pgmcc, Patricia McKillip's specially beautiful passages seem to me to have the subtext "Isn't this wonderful?!" rather than the subtext in too many self-consciously Literary works of "Look at me! I'm so clever to write such Beautiful Prose!".

I have always loved McKillip's description of a medieval kitchen in The Book of Atrix Wolfe. I have kept a number of her hardbacks on my shelves, although I have not read Od Magic.

>200 jillmwo: That was the first one of hers I read, thanks to your encouragement. I loved it so much I bought a copy so my daughter could read it, too. I still want that kitchen...

In the Forests of Serre. Am I the last person on Earth to discover that this is Patricia McKillip's version of the Firebird story? It is certainly more complex and makes more sense than the Stravinsky version, pleasant as that is to listen to. As is only to be expected, this one is a compelling read, and at least as beautiful as one has come to expect from Ms McKillip.

Would I read another by this author? I expect to start doing so within minutes of posting this note.
Would I recommend this book? Yes
To whom? Dunno, but I think candidates might have to take a test first.

And it's time for another picture, I think.



This is the Nwatimhiri River, a small seasonal stream that rises near Shirimatanga Hill (Stevenson-Hamilton graves) south of Skukuza (Kruger National Park), and flows into the Sabie River just over 30 km later, near Lower Sabie restcamp. The Sabie probably would be a permanent stream, but for the agriculture and townships outside the Park. It is unusual to see water in such a seasonal stream in late May -- that is quite far into the dry season.

About two lines in to Alphabet of Thorn, and my mind has hit a snag. In this country the only possible name for a Queen of Rain(e) is Modjadji. Curiously, I see that the personage herself, or actually her ancestors, inspired not only the rather obvious She but also The mysterious flame of Queen Loana.

>203 hfglen: Beaut picture of what looks like a seriously nice place, Hugh.

>203 hfglen: Lovely, Hugh. Very inviting.

>203 hfglen: I always look forward to your pictures and the stories behind them! Thank you!

Have now finished Alphabet of Thorn, surely an appreciated BB from jillmwo.

Sometimes there are worse road hazards than having to wait for a zebra crossing...



Elephants rarely walk straight across the road and get on with their lives. I think some of them like baiting tourists.

>209 hfglen:
A super image.

I have a running joke with my children* which is communicated with the phrase, "There is always an elephant." This sprang from driving around on holidays, and we very often saw a sign with an elephant on it, or a truck with an elephant on the side. In shops we would come across elephant toys, ornaments, decorations, etc...

Interestingly they were sharp enough to pick up the idea that when there is no physical elephant to be seen there can still be an elephant in the room.

The interesting thing is that there very often is an elephant image, model, toy, or whatever visible.

*Use of the word "children" when referring to my offspring becomes more inappropriate with every day that passes. The youngest is twenty-five and the eldest is thirty-seven. However, I find the word "offspring" to be a bit too impersonal when referring to them. I think I will stick to using children.

>209 hfglen: Very cool!

>210 pgmcc: Our children (or 'kids', for me) are always that in our hearts.

Getaway Guide Mozambique. As I was preparing a note on Mozambique railways for the KZN Railway History Society Chronicle, which I also edit, it seemed sensible to read a decent guide to the country for background. This is decent, with beautiful pictures, but suffers from being 13 years old. As the country changes rather fast, one really needs a guide less than one year old.

So instead of the spammer, a picture. Seeing we were talking about waiting at a zebra crossing before we were so rudely interrupted ...

>214 hfglen: Love that!

>214 hfglen: How wonderful, Hugh! Thank you.

>214 hfglen:
Brilliant. All you need now is the Beatles.

>217 pgmcc: Thinks: What a wonderful excuse to go to Addo and try to line up four rare-and-endangered flightless dung Beetles. Thank you!

>218 hfglen: You would have to make sure their hair-dos were appropriate.

I don't think I would mind being delayed if I got to watch elephants and zebras cross the road.

Hugh, I don't remember when, but sometime when I posted a photo from my yard you commented on how one of the plants looked very like an aloe that grows in South Africa.

I just saw an article on it, calling it a torch aloe, that it ranges up and down the coast and inland of California, and is native to South Africa, :)

>221 MrsLee: It's one of those ubiquitous things I've never quite gotten around to taking pictures of myself (the "don't ask me, I only live here" syndrome is real!), but here is a picture taken by an early aloe expert, F.Z. van der Merwe, in June 1937, at a place called Smitsdrift (which Google doesn't know) in what is now Limpopo Province. I'd call that Sekukuniland, which might be just as unhelpful. The species ranges from the Western Cape to Malawi.



Bookmarque may be interested to know that the original is a 1/4-plate (3.25 x 4.25 inch) Dufaycolour transparency.

>222 hfglen: They look like Red Hot Pokers.

>223 pgmcc: They're related. Same family, next-door genus.

>224 hfglen:
I was going to ask if there was any link. Thank you for answering my unspoken question.
I did a google search with Red Hot Poker and Aloe but got no commonality.

>225 pgmcc: For everybody else, here's one species (Kniphofia fluviatilis, River Poker), growing on the edge of a mountain stream in the Dargle, KZN, about 120 km from here.



Typically, Red-hot Pokers grow in wetter places than Aloes.

>226 hfglen: I purchased a red-hot poker for my front yard (I was told it was drought resistant, hope they weren't lying to me!). The leaves are very different from the aloe, more like grass instead of succulent. I love them both.

>226 hfglen: The one you got isn't the one in the picture, and is more drought resistant. Like most South African plants, it expects a 3 to 5 month total drought in the non-growing season.

>226 hfglen: & >227 MrsLee: My dad loved red-hot pokers. We had quite a few in our yard when I was growing up. I wonder if they would grow here in Central Oregon or would it be too cold in the winter?

>229 catzteach: Maybe if you tried one of the Drakensberg species you'd get away with it, if you could find material.

ETA: Elsa Pooley lists three or four very high-altitude (up to 3000 m / 11 000 ft) species in her Mountain Flowers book. The significance is that these are used to winter temperatures of -20°C (-4°F) or maybe lower, and I would guess they'd survive central Oregon. Lesotho Red-hot Poker (Kniphofia caulescens) and Broad-leaved Poker (K. northiae) are particularly striking; the one I showed is listed "only" up to 2900 m and may be less hardy; it would certainly need more water. The problem with all of them is acquiring plants legally.

>230 hfglen: I’ll have to research these plants. We want to xeriscape the front yard as the water concern grows here. I need to make sure these plants aren’t toxic to cats, especially if we put them in the backyard.

>226 hfglen: These are lovely! Love that name, too.

>231 catzteach: Maybe what you need is a couple of visits to specialist growers of alpines, cacti-and-succulents and/or indigenous Oregon plants. Local stuff and cushion-formers would take the climate and be kitty-safe (mostly), but may not quite look like what you first thought of.

>228 hfglen: That explains my failed attempt to grow some in the past, I put them in a spot that was dry during the summer but not the winter/spring. I suspect it just isn't dry enough here, consistently for them at all.

>222 hfglen: and >226 hfglen: Which is the red-hot-poker? As I read your postings, it's the first one?

Not being overly botanical in real life, I must admit that when one refers to red hot pokers in a conversation with me, the first thought in response has nothing to do with plant life...

>233 hfglen: I do think one of the nurseries in town cater to more local fauna rather than bring in stock from other areas. I’ll have to go there in the spring and talk to someone.

>235 jillmwo: Red-hot poker sounds like a really good drink for the pub, or a really fun card game. :)

>235 jillmwo: Actually, it's the second; the one in #226.

Madam & Eve Unmasked. The annual Madam and Eve collection by one of South Africa's top cartoonists (the other being Zapiro). The usual suspects are skewered deliciously: corrupt politicians, Covid deniers, anti-vaxxers, hadedahs and more.

That last book I expect to complete this year is The Attenbury Emeralds, the one Jill Paton Walsh continuation of the esteemed Dorothy L. Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey stories. In this one we discover how Lord Peter came to be Duke of Denver in 1951/52, which tied up a loose end. The writing was as good as ever, the story very convoluted. But more disturbingly was one "continuity error" and what I thought was another but proved, on closer inspection, not to be. In the original Sayers stories, Bunter used a relatively large (quarter-plate, 3.25 x 4.25 inch?) stand camera. Here, after WW2, he has "downsized" to a Leica. Yes, they were available in England in 1951 ... used, at over £100 a pop -- a small fortune at the time. Let that one go; we know that Lord Peter was generous to his butler. But we're told he was about to use Kodachrome 25 to photograph the jewels in the title. In 1951? No madam, it was only introduced in 1961. In 1951 he used the original ASA 10 Kodachrome. And that I'm picking at such minor nits indicates that on the whole the story was very enjoyable on the whole.

>239 hfglen: Something put me off about the Jill Paton Walsh editions long ago. I can't remember now what it was, but I am glad you are enjoying them. I may have to try one again.

>239 hfglen: I get the impression that the Paton Walsh books are a bit like Marmite -- you either like them or hate them, with minimal middle ground.

>241 hfglen: LOL, that may be. However, IIRC, the first time I tried them was when I had just exhausted the last story about Wimsey that Sayers had written, and it may be that I was sentimental and to ready to find fault. I remember thinking the tone was off. I had the same reaction to Robert Goldsborough who wrote sequels to the Nero Wolfe series by Rex Stout, only now I can read them with pleasure. They are not perfectly true in tone, but better than nothing.