Reading, Exploring and Piffling with Hugh in 2021

Not a great header, but descriptive.

First item of business is to wish one and all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year. It must surely be better than 2020 ... mustn't it? *cold shiver*

I was reading The National Trust Guide in bed this morning -- libraries are closed, as we're back to level 3 lockdown -- when I came across a succession of people called John Wyndham associated with Petworth House. And lo! The very next entry, Philipps House in Wiltshire, produced another Wyndham. Can't help wondering if any of these are related to the author of (among other things) The Day of the Triffids (touchstones are flaky today -- in an earlier post they tried to tell me there was no such person as Terry Pratchett!).

>3 hfglen: Sorry, Hugh, no. "John Wyndham"'s real name was John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris, according to Wikipedia. (I knew that "John Wyndham" was a pen-name but had to look up the full version.) He came from Dorridge in Warwickshire, not from the South-West where the Wyndham family hung out.

Happy new year!

Happy new year and thread. Your thread title is excellent and irders of magnitude better than mine. With you and Richard heading your threads with highly accurate titles mine is simply functional.

I have taken my seat for The Reads of Hugh, brought to the masses by Librarything Productions.
Trumpet fanfare; drumroll; lady in flowing gown and holding a flaming torch steps up onto a pedestal.

Happy New Year!

>1 hfglen: Best wishes for 2021! I like the thread title. :)

Happy new Year!

Best wishes for 2021 for life and good reading.

I like your heading. Piffling is a very usefull technique for getting through the day-to-day events, even as you cram new explorations into real life. Happy new year, Hugh

Happy 2021 reading!

Happy New Year!

Wishing you a year of both good reading and good piffling.

>4 haydninvienna: -- >13 Marissa_Doyle: And a very happy new year back to all of you.

Happy New Year everyone. As far as thread titles go, you can see how creative I am! I picked one several years ago and now only change the year and chapter. Don't want to strain the brain.

Happy new year Hugh! I hope it will bring you good books and entertaining piffle!

>3 hfglen:

Do you have stay in bed during a level 3 lockdown?

>2 hfglen: Happy New Year! Hopefully, this year is better (or maybe just not worse) than last.

>17 suitable1: No, I was being lazy.

A propos Peace2's mention of Bookworm: A memoir of childhood reading in the 'Best Non-fiction ...' thread, a thought forces its way into my tiny pea-size brain. Has anybody else (re-)read the Swallows and Amazons books recently? Peace didn't specifically mention them, but did jog a memory of having enjoyed them in, IIRC, my earliest teens, and that when I revisited them over the past couple of years, they were untouched by the suck fairy. These days, a re-read would be well rounded out by a visit to the various Lakeland museums with Arthur Ransome exhibits; the logistics of doing that first-time-round -- if the exhibits even existed then -- would have been awesome: either 2 weeks by sea or 25 (DC7b) or 16 (707) hours by air each way, and factor in Aged Mother demanding to fill every waking second with Compulsory Family Commitments. Glad I didn't think of the idea then.

Happy New Year and New Thread! Another good year to look forward to in the pub.

>20 hfglen: I tried reading them in the last few years - they didn't work for me and I abandoned the effort, but I wouldn't take that as an indication as I have a vague recollection of trying them as a youngster and not liking them then either - so I may be an exception rather than the norm.

Wishing you a joyful and satisfying 2021, Hugh.

>22 Peace2: Vive la difference! This is what makes the Pub such a stimulating place. Though I must admit that much as I enjoy the adventures, the books raise no enthusiasm at all for sailing. But then I grew up on the Highveld, far from any navigable open water.

>20 hfglen: I reread the Swallows and Amazons books every now and then and still love them. The adventures set in the Lake District are my favourites, but I think if I were to visit Norfolk I'd take Coot Club and The big six with me. The picts and the martyrs is, I think, even better read as an adult, when you can see things from the grown-ups point of view as well as the children's and it's hilarious. I recently watched the original film of Swallows and Amazons again, and found that it too holds up very well. I have, however, been warned to avoid the more recent remake.

Specially to whet Bookmarque's desire to visit the fynbos of the south-western Cape.



This is in Rondevlei Bird Sanctuary, within Cape Town suburbia. Coastal lowland fynbos (strandveld) in the foreground, mountain fynbos on Muizenberg Mountain on the horizon.

Lovely pic.

Add me to the Swallows and Amazons fan club. I have re-read them many times since childhood, and they always delight. My favourites have changed over the years. As a child, Peter Duck and Missee Lee were tops, but now they're my least favourites. Still good, but no longer the best :). And I grew up on the Canadian Prairies - sailing is possible (I took lessons at camp when in Girl Guides and Rangers), but not common.

>28 tardis: *snork* Yes indeed. In Johannesburg we had the choice of Emmarentia dam (a few hundred yards long) or Wemmer Pan (the same, but fed by runoff from mine dumps, so the water was basically sulphuric acid with a pH not far off 1).

Happy New Year!

I'm also a Swallows and Amazons fan. Might be time for a reread. I remember Swallowdale as one of my favourites.

Well now that does look full of potential!!

Happy new year! I wish for your piffling to be extra excellent in 2021!

>20 hfglen:
Since I do live slightly closer to to the relevant area than you, I have spent time in the Lake District finding the locations for Swallows and Amazons. I read Arthur Ransome and Captain Flint's Trunk by Christina Hardyment, which provided a good accompaniment to the exercise.

>28 tardis: Those were my childhood favourites too. Thanks to them, I could confidently name the sails and ropes on a sailing ship. (A useful skill for many a subsequent nautical novel.)

And a happy New Year to you, Hugh!

>33 -pilgrim-: I have a couple of Hardyment's books on my TBR. I've heard she's a lovely writer.

I own a copy of Swallows and Amazons, but it currently is at my mom's Florida apartment. I shall have to wait until travel is a thing again to bump it up my TBR.

>33 -pilgrim-: That looks like an infinitely desirable book, and would be a BB if it were accessible.

Happy New Year and Happy Reading! Btw, I like the new header.

>35 hfglen: It is available cheaply, second-hand, from Amazon UK. But I expect the postage would be prohibitive :-/

>37 -pilgrim-: Thanks. I looked on abebooks, and saw one affordable copy in UK. At a rough guess, I'd expect the postage to be more than twice the price of the book. Plus VAT and import duty on arrival, if it's not stolen while in the post office's "care".

>26 hfglen: That looks glorious. I've wanted to visit the fynbos since a friend described it to me some years ago. Weren't we talking about a GD trip to South Africa at one time? ;-)

>39 Sakerfalcon: We were, but we needed someone to win the lotto, rob a bank or something to fund it. I must admit that, if we ever see the end of the present pandemic, the idea of 15 or more Dragoneers gathering for a seafood meal at Muisbosskerm hath its charms, especially if we stop at a wine farm or 3 on the way from Cape Town. ;-)

Re-read of The Picts and the Martyrs. Every time I read this one, the Great Aunt reminds me more of my own grandmother and mother (no compliment to them, but an indication of the quality of Arthur Ransome's observation and writing. I can't help thinking that the Picts learned more life skills in the ten days of the G.A.'s visit than they might otherwise, while the "training" the Amazons were subjected to was a total waste of time and did nothing to fit them for the lives they would actually lead. Unanswered question this time around: what did the Picts use for a loo while they were in hiding?

>41 hfglen: My Girl Guiding days involved being taught how to dig a natural toilet facility (which, fortunately, we were not required to test out).

I also remember being invited, at 19, to visit a university friend's country retreat, discovering, upon arrival, that it had no plumbed toilet facilities.

The hut in the woods did not seem so very strange to me.

Happy new year, Hugh! Hope it's a great one for you.

A friend of mine said once told me that her childhood was entirely wrapped up in that Swallows and Amazons series. I have only the vaguest familiarity with it, but I gather it was much to do with letting children run free and learn at their own speed about life and acquired skills that might or might not be practically useful, etc.

Yes. They all certainly learned to sail and camp, and among their number could produce an expert code-maker and -breaker, and an analytical chemist at least. Remembering that the stories are set in the early to mid-1930s and exercising 20/20 hindsight, one can only conclude that all the girls would have been valuable Wrens in their late teens -- early 20s, and in particular Nancy would have been a useful adjunct to Bletchley Park (which would have taken some explaining to the Great Aunt mentioned in #41). The boys would no doubt have been useful in the War, too.

I think the parenting style is best exemplified by the telegram sent home by Walker Snr. on the subject of the Walker children's unsupervised sailing expeditions:
Better drowned than Duffers. If not Duffers won't drown.

:-D I'd forgotten that telegram! IMHO it deserves to be engraved in gilded letters on the souls of all parents, schools and health-&-safety officers (especially in Australia, for the last)!

And now, to further whet the appetites of Bookmarque and Sakerfalcon, some more fynbos.



This was taken in Meiringspoort, an almost-level pass following the course of a river through the Swartberg between Oudtshoorn (Little Karoo) and Beaufort West (Great Karoo) -- IIRC there are 37 river crossings in the poort, or about two per kilometre. The vegetation is dry mountain fynbos. Nearby attractions include the Cango Caves and several wine farms -- the sweet wines are splendid!

>48 hfglen: I love the chewed up edges of that cliff.

Yeah, that does look pretty awesome.

>49 MrsLee: >50 Bookmarque: Can you imagine the violence of the impact (even if it took millennia) needed to twist and bend the rock strata like that? Especially seeing that the point of impact was over 250 miles away.

>48 hfglen: Love this photo.

>51 hfglen: I remember our structural geology classes about modelling and simulating rock deformation under the high temperatures and pressures deep within the Earth's crust. Physical modelling included materials such as plasticine and custard as appropriately representing the nature of rock under those conditions. The growth of fold mountains at converging plate boundaries, such as the Alps, was demonstrated by sliding a mat against a wall.

As you say, the energy released by a violent impact would have been enormous.

By the by, anyone interested in helping me with my cooking thread over in the Cookbookers group to get to 151 posts would be more than welcome. Just saying. Piffle party with food!

>55 jillmwo: I have contributed my mite to the need!

Like MrsLee, I also need help piffling on my cooking thread in the Cookbookers. Many thanks to anyone who turns up to the piffle party -- I'm off to arrange biltong, dry-wors, beer and witblits!

>48 hfglen: Nice geology! And caves and wine make it even more enticing ....

>56 hfglen: thanks for the invitation, Hugh! But what on earth are witblits?

>56 hfglen: I've been working hard over there. I want my witblits, whatever they are. ;) I don't know what dry-wors are, either. Biltong and beer I know!

Of course I should have guessed. Witblits = white lightning. Moonshine, in fact. I love how Wikipedia lists its uses as “drinking” and “cleaning fluid”.

>60 haydninvienna: lol, I like to be clean.

I remain pleased that I have South Africa on my top five destinations list.

>59 MrsLee: I posted a link to a picture of some rather wet droëwors (air-dried sausage) in my thread on Cookbookers -- essential rations for in the car on holiday!

>62 libraryperilous: We'll keep a welcome!

The King's Grace, 1910-1935. Oh dear. I snagged this from FadedPage, expecting a good read from the author of The 39 Steps, forgetting that in his other persona, John Buchan had been part of "Milner's Kindergarten", and as such went on to become Lord Tweedsmuir and Governor of Canada. And this one is definitely written by the Lord Tweedsmuir persona. A hagiography, written in pompous, leaden prose, and to be avoided. There are much better histories of Britain in the first third of the 20th century, for example Stephen Clarke's Dirty Bertie: an English King made in France, where the story is told with much humour, and The Long Weekend. But then I'm given to understand that George V, the subject of this unfortunate book, also lacked a sense of humour.

>65 hfglen: Interesting. That is a book that I had inherited a copy of from my father, but not read.

ETA: Now not current high on my priority list.

>65 hfglen: I have collected most of John Buchan's novels and supernatural tales, but have read only a few. I recently bought an e-book version of one of his historical books, Oliver Cromwell. I was interested to see his take on a character regarded as a hero of the people in England and, because of the atrocities his army committed, a demon in Ireland.

There is an estate near where I live which is still in the hands of the family a round-head who was given the land after the Cromwellian campaign. The big house was used in one episode of Foyle's War.

I am not sure if I have The King's Grace as I have only catalogued a fraction of my Buchan collection. That is something I hope to remedy when I finally get my books arranged on the new shelves that I am confident will eventually be available from IKEA.

>67 pgmcc: I will be very interested to hear what Buchan's take on Cromwell is like. I am well aware of the excellent reasons for his excoriation in Ireland, and he is not universally regarded as a hero here.

Vaguely political comment (so behind spoiler tag): The way he consolidated his power through successive removals of Members of Parliament, and his policies towards any whose political or religious views did not match his own, his use of enslaved, banished labour (a sentence from which it was almost impossible to return)... there are certain parallels between the English Civil War and another one just over 200 years ago.

Whether or not absolute monarchy, on the Stuart model, was a Bad Thing (in Yeats and Sellers terminology), is a completely separate issue from question of the propriety of the behaviour of the Protectorate, and the military forces that installed it.

Executing for "treason" a legally installed previous ruler, however much you disliked his rule, set a very bad precedent.

And just to get in slightly ahead of time: happy birthday, Hugh!

Hugh, I hope you have a fantastic birthday. Plenty of peace, nice food and some pleasant company. Any guests can sing Happy Birthday from the garden. :-)

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday! Will there be cake?

Nα τα εκατοστήσης!

Coming up to wish you a Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday!

Happy Birthday on your own thread! I left a recipe in the Cookbooker group on my thread for lesmel you might enjoy, although I predict you would spice it up a bit with more than the few spices mentioned. It's for tamale stew from one of my mother's friends. I've never tried it, although it sounds solid in principle.

>69 haydninvienna: -- >76 MrsLee: Thank you very much indeed, all!

>73 -pilgrim-: That may take a while. Though some 15 years ago a friend gave me a very pot-bound seedling of Giant Kauri (Agathis australis), IMHO one of the world's most beautiful trees. Though I have several times been heard to say that, looking at the ancestor of mine in Durban Botanic Garden, I shall have to live to the age of 200 in the same house and garden that I inhabit now if I want to see my tree in its full glory.

>76 MrsLee: I'll go look.

I'd like to add my birthday wishes to you as well, although I recognize that allowing for time zone changes, etc., you may already have had your birthday celebration and are now sleeping it off!

Hippo birdie to ewe!

Happy birthday! I hope you had a fabulous day!

Best wishes for your special day!

>78 jillmwo: - >81 Peace2: And thank you all, too!

>78 jillmwo: >81 Peace2: It's only tomorrow! We're only about 11 hours ahead of MrsLee, not 36 hours!

This week's fynbos for Bookmarque and Sakerfalcon is, essentially, right in the middle of Cape Town.



This is an only slightly telephoto view of Table Mountain from a holiday apartment we rented in 2017. The Lower Cable Station (bottom right) is 3.7 km by road from the viewpoint, and the same distance in the opposite direction will place you well on the foreshore. From where, of course, you're well placed to sample the bookshops on Long Street (right in the CBD). The vegetation is a somewhat better-watered mountain fynbos than last week, and the tourist association makes much of the fact that the 2500-odd kinds of flowering plant on Table Mountain (about 50 x 5 km) are more than in all of Britain.

I've posted a projected recipe in my cookbookers thread, as it stands too much of a chance of breaking Pub rules. Suffice to say that the original recipe partly inspiring my thought suggested almond essence where I suggest mint.

How imposing!! Are those the cliffs of insanity? lol

>85 Bookmarque: They used The Cliffs of Moher for The Cliffs of Insanity. What Hugh has photographed would be The Mountains of Madness.

:-)

>86 pgmcc: Or possibly the beacon on top would be the Peak of Absurdity?

>87 hfglen: And if anyone knows about Absurdity...

Congratulations on another successful voyage around the sun!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HUGH!

Have a great day.

Happy birthday Hugh! I've lost track of the days/posts so I don't know if it is belated or not, but hope you are having a good time!

Thanks for the Table Mountain photo. The mention of bookshops makes it even more alluring.

Thank you, Pete and Claire!

I'm confuzzed. Before the horror of the new format (count me in the group that mourns the passing of a group header that works), we had just over 4100 members. Now suddenly we have about 3900. Where's everybody gone?

>93 hfglen: Maybe when a lot of people were poking around on the new Group page to see the changes, they were motivated to clean up their group list while they were in there and unjoined groups they weren’t actively reading/posting in? That’s the sort of thing I would do, anyway.

Well at least it means we can have another 4000 party some time!

Happy Belated Birthday!

Saw a very pretty flower in the garden this afternoon:



Anika the (almost fully grown) kitten.

Ahhh! Catnip! Total bliss! (Anika and Leo, this afternoon)

MINE!! (Anika and Leo, this afternoon)

>97 hfglen: >98 hfglen: >99 hfglen: just the other day I was wondering about Melissa’s kitten. All grown up now and quite a beauty. Leo isn’t letting any liberties be taken though.

And is that what my mother used to call a ginger lily (noting to do with actual ginger) in the background?

>100 haydninvienna: Eucomis somebody-or-other-ii, or Pineapple Lily, which is indigenous. Wild Ginger is a different family, and invasive down in the gorge.

>97 hfglen: Such gorgeous markings!

>99 hfglen: Lovely cats.

>97 hfglen: That is a very elegant Miss.

>99 hfglen: Your cuties sure have grown :)

Very nice captures! I find it very difficult to take any photos of my kitties unless they are asleep.

Happy belated birthday, Hugh! (Sorry I was gone for a stretch and missed it.)

>107 clamairy: Thank you, Clam!

>106 MrsLee: You will have to come to this mad and sunny land for lessons in wildlife photography. Most of which involves having the camera ready and to hand, and being prepared to sit still and watch for hours on end. Works for kitties of all sizes.

YouKneeK said in -pilgrim-'s thread she enjoyed looking at other Dragoneers' home environments. So do I. So I was inspired to share the late-afternoon sunlight on the valley below us. I find it most attractive, and wish there was a Bookmarque nearby with the vision to make the most of it.



Yesterday, c. 5:30 pm, about an hour-and-a-half before sunset. No chance of repeating this today -- Cyclone (by now Tropical Storm, inshallah) Eloise has made landfall, and we're expecting between 100 and 300 mm of rain this afternoon.

>110 hfglen: Keep safe and keep dry. That is a lot of rain.

>110 hfglen: That is a very lovely home environment! I'm glad you shared it!

>111 pgmcc: Thank you. So far the flooding is to the north and west of us: the storm made landfall yesterday at Beira (Mozambique -- 2000 km away). Today the northern part of the Kruger Park (800-1000 km away) and the Limpopo Valley are flooded. Both major dams on the Orange River are overflowing, which suggests heavy rain in Lesotho; the Aughrabies Falls, below the dams, must be spectacular; it takes very little water to make them second only to the Victoria Falls. And Victoria West, which has had not a drop of rain in the last five years (ended yesterday) is now, apparently, flooded.

>112 YouKneeK: Thank you. Without wishing to be arrogant, my view is that if this neighbourhood isn't actually the Earthly Paradise described by Dante, it's a very acceptable substitute!

>98 hfglen: Beautiful kitties! Thanks for sharing!

Further to #113. Eloise is now much weaker, and heading for Botswana. Here in Durban we only had moderate rain, and are now drying out; the worst floods in our province were around Jozini, not far south of the Mozambique border. They're starting to dry out, too.

>116 hfglen: That is good news.

>116 hfglen: Glad to hear you were not too badly hit.

>116 hfglen: What >117 -pilgrim-: and >118 pgmcc: said from me as well.

Thank you, all! Apparently we get more tonight.

North-West province (think Mafeking, as in the Anglo-Boer War) report that in the last 48 hours they've had just over 200 mm of rain -- more than the total they had in the last ten years of drought. The farmers are smiling!

Good Heavens! The old "proper" format Green Dragon is back! What happened? Whatever it is, I'm delighted.

>121 hfglen: It appeared, it disappeared again, and then it reappeared (all this morning).

Dare we got it is going to stay?

ETA: It seems not. :(

>122 -pilgrim-: Yes, I have been excited and disappointed several times now.

Oh! It seems to be good right now!

So let's continue our fynbos series. This is lowland fynbos (or sandveld) at Seeberg in the West Coast National Park, overlooking Langebaan Lagoon. (September 2014).



Earlier in the week I listened to a very high-powered lecture (by Zoom) on the response of South African vegetation to climate change, as indicated by comparing historic landscape pictures with recent ones of the same view. It turns out that over the last century or so, fynbos (give or take alien invaders) and desert have been stable, while succulent karoo and nama-karoo are in trouble. Grassland is expanding into nama-karoo, woodland into grassland and forest into woodland. Apparently extra CO2 encourages vegetation in the same way as extra rainfall would -- important in a water-poor land like ours.

The wonders of modern technology were on display for this one: the speaker is in Cape Town, the chair of the session in Johannesburg and this member of the audience in Durban. You could never be that scattered when I wur a lad!

An appealing image! Some of the veg looks to be fairly tall. Hip height?

Depends how far above the ground the hip in question is, but yes 0.75 -- 1 m in the foreground, ankle high on the granite outcrop.

>124 hfglen: That is a great view! What's the white building in the distance?

>127 Sakerfalcon: Probably was once a fisherman's cottage, possibly now a SANParks store shed. But truly, I have no idea. It's just there.

>128 hfglen: I had no sense of scale, and had wondered if it was a large hotel or other development. I am happy that it's something less intrusive.

>129 Sakerfalcon: The dark stripe is the doorway! Actually, buildings like that (if you're less than polite you could call them hovels, not hotels!) are getting scarce, so that one is a museum piece.

Is anybody else having intermittent problems connecting? Almost every second time I try to go from one page to another in LT, it faffs around for ages and then proudly announces "Server Not Found". If I go somewhere else and come back 30 seconds later, I get the page I was looking for in the first place, quickly.

Re your comments a while back (#110) about Tropical Storm Eloise, Hugh: here's a NASA photo of a bit of the aftermath: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/147866/eloise-floods-mozambique.

>132 haydninvienna: Yikes!

>133 clamairy: One of Richard's pictures shows Lake Urema, about 90 km inland from Beira. The lake is part of Gorongosa National Park, which I saw in 1960, when it was very new and I wur nobbut a lad. In those days Gorongosa was amazing, because the guides had no more than the vaguest idea of sticking to any road (so we can tell you that lions have truly horrendous halitosis), and all the pictures I took of animals have some other animal in the background. Sadly most of the wildlife succumbed in the civil war, but it is, apparently, coming back. In 1960 one of the attractions was an abandoned rest camp of cottages with flat roofs, all built of concrete. the (ex-)office had stairs on to the roof, which the lions used as a sleeping place cum lookout. Before you ask for pictures, I used an 8 mm movie camera way back then (why, fergorsake?!), so digitising is not an option.

The Victorian Country House. Large, beautifully illustrated and rather academic, but not quite as dry as one might expect. He makes the point that very few of these houses survive, because for a 20th-century (let alone 21st-century) lifestyle, they are essentially unliveable-in. And for my taste, most of the exteriors are meh, and the interiors hideous. But many of them have libraries! With books in! Which has to be a plus point. (But then there's the house with 13 loos and no bathroom ...)

>135 hfglen:
Is that not merely an artefact of how the house functions? One did not need hot and cold running water when one has servants!

If one wanted a bath, the bath would be brought to one's bedroom, and filled by the poor maids running up and down stairs. Just as a gentleman would wake to find a basin of hot water in his room, ready to shave, and a lady would have water on her dressing table, ready for her toilette.

Thank goodness the servants are being spared the job of emptying chamber pots.

ETA: But beware the libraries with the fronts of fake books...

>136 -pilgrim-: Absolutely so, but even after World War 1, let alone the "return fixture" who, even among the excessively wealthy, could afford 30 or 40 servants? And later Victorian houses (think of Lanhydrock, one of the few survivors, for example) were by their standards well supplied with bathrooms -- one on each floor!

Actually come to think of it I recall hotels like that from my childhood.

(And I have been heard to suggest, tongue not entirely in cheek, that Durban Botanic Garden should plant an orange tree with explanation board just outside their visitor centre loos. Why?, said the tour group. In honour of 17th-century palatial architecture. When Louis XIV re-did Versailles, he had 2300 rooms and no "cultural amenities" of any description. In winter, courtiers relieved themselves whenever and wherever they were caught short, and the garden staff put flowering orange trees in corridors and on landings to counteract the pong.)

And other reading? I can hardly imagine that Dragoneers would have much patience with me detailing 60--100-year-old bound volumes of the South African Railways Magazine and 60-70-year-old ditto of the Rhodesia Railways Magazine, however fascinating I find the tiny historical gems therein.

ETA: A propos -pilgrim-'s comments in Papa Jim's thread, there are a few letters in the SAR Magazine that were undoubtedly cute when written, but make conservationists' blood run cold in the 21st century. In the mid 1920s the Railways ran train tours (bad idea, but there were no roads there then) around the Lowveld and in particular to the then Sabie Game Reserve (now southern Kruger Park), which was great as far as it went. But then there was the matron who wrote a letter to the management, quoted in the magazine, in which she gushed about a kudu that accepted an apple and a cuddle before posing for a photo. Not Done In Decent Company, lady!

Many thanks to the kind, caring souls who noticed my silence in the Dragon this past week and left PMs for me. I have this bad habit of shutting up when I've nothing to say (it happens occasionally, and did so this past week).

So a different picture this week, themed to #138 above.



This is the combined road and rail bridge over the Orange (Gariep) River at Bethulie, at the upstream end of the lake held back by the Gariep Dam -- the dam village (no cussing!) is 50 km away to the left. The vegetation is dry grassland tending to Karoo.

>137 hfglen: You don't even have to go as far back as my childhood. I vividly remember contracting a "tummy bug" whilst lodged in a hotel for a scientific conference, which only had one loo per floor. (But a shower in every room!)

My university accomodation had a single bath per corridor, and was considered relatively luxurious at the time. A friend's rooms, in an older college, were an elegant wood-panelled suite. But on the third floor, with ALL facilities on the ground floor only.

And are you aware of the toilet facilities at the Hermitage Palace? They consisted of a large, extremely lavishly ornamented room, with about 30 seating places (and no segregation whatsoever between them!) BUT they were 10 minutes' walk away from the main palace and, having experienced St. Petersburg in winter, I would consider that a significant factor. I suspect orange trees may have been needed there also.

>140 -pilgrim-: Do you recall the Gerard Hoffnung piece where he tried to book a holiday in the Tyrol? And the one hotelier replied to his query "Bedroom with bath I have not. Bathroom with bed I have." So in the early 80s Better Half and I went to the Belgian national herbarium at Meise near Brussels. A small spot of bother on arrival: only the Director was Flemish-speaking and we have no French. Reluctantly, the receptionist found us Flemish-speaking digs (Afrikaans passes for Flemish quite easily). Where each bedroom had a shower cubicle and the "cultural amenities" somewhat inexpertly plumbed in as very much of an afterthought.

And the strangeness of life continues. Readers of the Cheese group will know that I spent some time on Thursday, with a return visit taking the whole family on Friday, investigating a farm-stall that takes internet orders and either delivers or you can go through some of the loveliest scenery we have (IMHO) and collect. And they sell at least six kinds of artisanal CHEESE from the Midlands -- bliss! They also sell corn chips made in a factory in Cape Town, so far so good. The packaging of the chips has both kosher and halaal tags printed on -- fair enough. But how come the kosher class of these allegedly vegetarian snacks is milchik and not parave?

>142 hfglen: Possibly it is a matter of the vessels used for preparation?

If the chips contain no milk products, but we prepared using utensils that has not been ritually cleansed after contact with dairy, would this not produce that result?

>138 hfglen: Do you mean I can't Cuddle a Kudu?

>143 -pilgrim-: Possibly. I get the impression it's not exactly the world's largest factory, and I don't know what else they make. Also what some of the E-numbers are in real life.

>144 -pilgrim-: There's a semi-tame kudu at Swadini, who is candidly a bit of a nuisance to tourists -- stands around blocking the cottage door and refusing to move until fed. For this reason SANParks and others who think like them have conniptions at the thought of "wild" animals getting habituated to humans. Baboons and monkeys get aggressive, and how would the kudu know that the next human isn't a Hooray Henry with a rifle and no brain? So no, cuddling a kudu is almost always a lousy idea. And they tend to be bigger than you.

>145 hfglen: Yes, in practice it is always difficult to balance the need to care for orphaned animals, who it is difficult to avoid becoming human-habituated, and inadvertently setting up a market for such orphans being deliberately created.

A schoolfriend of mine used to have their garden periodically invaded by deer, so I have encountered the phenomenon of "cupboard love" from the local wildlife , albeit less impressively horned. (But still bigger than me.)

>142 hfglen: Adding this cheese emporium to the itinerary for my dream trip to ZA.

>147 Sakerfalcon: On the last weekend in the month, I hope, so that you can enjoy the Umgeni Steam Railway outing on the Sunday. (Take a look at the first video on the right a screen or so down on the right in the link.)

Not so much a reading slump as a succession of re-reads and 70-year-old bound volumes of the South African Railways Magazine and the Rhodesia Railways Magazine. But the libraries are open again, and I have a full card-worth of books to read!

Starting with Louis Botha: A Man Apart. The subject of this eminently readable and satisfactory biography came to prominence as one of the best ZAR generals in the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. He went on to become Prime Minister of the Transvaal when that colony was given responsible government in 1907, and from then on until his untimely death he worked tirelessly for reconciliation between Boer and Brit. No surprise that he became Prime Minister when the Union of South Africa was formed in 1910. He annoyed many erstwhile followers by leading South Africa into the First World War on the Allied side -- the bittereinders saw the war as a golden opportunity to fight for an independent Afrikaner republic. At the Versailles Peace Conference of 1919 he was one of only three delegates (himself, Smuts, Foch) to have seen service at the front, and pushed as hard as he could for reconciliation rather than reparations -- only he and Smuts knew from experience whereof he spoke. Worn out by work and care, he died soon after his return home in August 1919, at the age of 57. His importance wasn't part of the history syllabus I endured at school, and one can add this to the long list of deficiencies of that syllabus (on the other hand, the criminally bad teaching demanded did leave a lot -- nearly everything -- to be discovered pleasantly in later life). Which may be no bad thing.

>149 hfglen: Hurrah for open libraries and maxing out one's library card!

>150 libraryperilous: Hear hear!

Re-read of The Long Weekend, which carries on the story after The Victorian Country House, very acceptable and not without humour, mercifully. Recommended.

Re-read of Musician at Large, which of course leads on to a re-read of My Music. I was delighted to see that Michael Flanders was once a guest on the radio/TV show.

Our local TV has a weekly "magazine" show featuring the houses of the indecently rich and publicity-hungry, which are all "daringly original", pseudo-Tuscan and indistinguishable one from another. What a sad contrast with the houses (mostly National Trust) one could see on weekends while posted at Kew. There was, for example, no chance of confusing Bateman's with Waddesdon Manor! Actually it would have been hard to confuse Waddesdon with anything except itself.

Which reminds me of the delightful piece in At the Drop of a Hat about decorating a house (at 7B Scarsdale Villas) in the TV-approved manner. In particular, the punch-line: "It wouldn't do for every day / We actually live at 7A / In the House. Next. Door!" Quite.

>154 hfglen: Have you run across McMansion Hell? if not, go to https://mcmansionhell.com/ . It's one of the funniest blogs I've ever read. The author features homes from real estate listings, mostly in the US, and critiques them.

>155 tardis: I took a look. Today’s entry. Oh my! That decor! I do want to say, the price was great! The average home price in my town is $550K. And that’s for only 2000 sq ft, if that.

Hugh, glad your library is back open!

>155 tardis: I hadn't, but am close to ROFL! The stone-effect one is horribly familiar, and turns up regularly.

ETA: Here is the latest episode of the magazine. You have been warned (but it is very close to what McMansion Hell is lampooning).

>155 tardis: That reminds me of one of my favourite time-wasting sites, Terrible Real Estate Agent Photographs Hours of fun and horror!

>158 Sakerfalcon: Thanks Claire. I was trying to remember this site but now I've seen it—I think the one for 4 May 2020 is more than I can cope with except on the basis of a couple of shots of Jack. Large ones.

>159 haydninvienna: Yes, this is not a site for the faint-hearted!

>158 Sakerfalcon: Highly entertaining, but a different kind of horror from the one I was commenting on. At least the pictures on that site are identifiably of different houses. Though I have to add that I had a distant (not far enough!) cousin who lived in a village in East Anglia, in a house where everybody who'd ever had it, had added bits without reference to what was already there. And much of it was in the same deplorable state as in too many of those pictures.

>158 Sakerfalcon: oh, I follow that one, too! It's great!

Some time ago YouKneek expressed a desire to see more of other Dragoneers' home environments -- I'm every bit as curious to see the places where our members live. So here's a fairly random view on the way back from my current favourite farm stall (see the CHEESE group). This is about 15 km / 10 miles inland from home.



Does this homeowner really think Botha's Hill is that tropical? Evidently. And evidently gets away with it, too.

And here's one for Catzteach.



It's (most of) the Comrades Marathon Wall of Honour near Drummond on the old road between Durban and Pietermaritzburg. The halfway mark is just round the corner; when you get here you have come 44 km and have the same to go. AFAIK, which isn't far, if you win a gold medal you get your name on a plaque that goes on the wall. Do you think one day if we ever get over Covid and re-start the Comrades we'll see one for Catz?

ETA: Google Earth tells me that the halfway point is 850 m towards Pietermaritzburg from here.

>163 hfglen: You live in a beautiful environment! At some point I’ll have to dig up some outdoor pictures from around my home to post in my thread. They aren’t nearly as interesting though!

>163 hfglen: I love that hill, with the epic boulders! Are they erratics left by glaciation? The palm trees do seem a bit of an unnecessary addition to the landscape.

>166 Sakerfalcon: No. Although we did once have glaciation -- about 280-million years ago -- the evidence left was a scratched, flat glaciated pavement a couple of yards each way that is now a national monument, on the UKZN Westville campus. More important was the opening of the Southern Ocean between Africa and Antarctica some 140-million years ago. That provided the hillside. AFAIK (which isn't very far) those boulders are part of the granite underlying the Natal Mountain Sandstone I live on.

Now that I know of the site, I'd suggest that the palms belong on McMansion Hell (see >155 tardis: above) and not in Botha's Hill!

>165 YouKneeK: Thank you! I think so, too.

After we'd been to the farm stall we stopped for lunch at a place called The Brown Cat (not, sadly, a Green Dragon), which has a classic view of the Valley of a Thousand Hills. Memorable, even under heavy cloud.

>169 hfglen: One could imagine in that image that the view is of a very large, sleeping green dragon. What a lovely place.

>169 hfglen: Lovely view.

So beautiful.

Beautiful!

Thank you, all.

>174 hfglen: What elevation are you at?

I'm mildly amused to see in the Rhodesia Railways Magazine of December 1954, an advertisement for
'"Seafoods" Bulawayo. For all your Fresh and Smoked Fish Requirements. Contractors to Rhodesia Railways.'
If the absurdity hasn't hit you between the eyes yet, take a look at where Bulawayo is, and remember that most of that fish would have been railed up from Cape Town. After that ad, would you trust the fish served in a Rhodesia Railways dining car?

>176 hfglen: Office at one end of the line and warehouse at the other?

>176 hfglen: As I was reading your post I was asking myself, "How far away is this from the sea?"

Reminds me of my mother's old joke about the rotten fish. Long time no sea!

>177 -pilgrim-: Wouldn't help; the difference is 2 sets of customs (Botswana and Zim) and 2000 miles.

>178 pgmcc: Your mother's about right. Minimum train journey of three days. And it gets hot in summer there.

I haven’t commented on Hugh’s pictures so far; however, I wouldn’t take a lot of convincing that as he says, Durban is located in one of the inner circles of Paradise. Along with the eastern coast of Australia, of course, and maybe even the Oxfordshire countryside on a good day in spring, when all the hedgerows turn white with may and blackthorn flowers.

>158 Sakerfalcon: How do I un-see those?

>169 hfglen: Amazing view!

>175 -pilgrim-: Sorry, -pilgrim-. I've only just seen your question. I live at 540 m above sea level. Botha's Hill is a bit higher, 742 m according to the road atlas.

Here's a picture for Bookmarque. A ruined farmhouse, seen in Bushmanland in 1985.



Tomorrow I think I should start a continuation thread, but this one's still available for comment on what's here.