A Strong Belief in Wicker

The Magician, with bonus Catacombes photos

2012-02-13T21:30:00.000+11:00

The Magician is the second in a series of six fantasy novels by Michael Scott, proclaimed as the 'King of fantasy' on the cover of each book. This has been the bed time reading for my 11 year old of late. We read the first book, The Alchemyst last year. Fantasy isn't really my genre, and I don't normally want to read long series of books. So I was wondering how I would go with this one. I'd enjoyed the first book well enough, but wondered at the staying power of my interest. Although in the past I have managed to read aloud all 21 of Enid Blyton's Famous Five, so obviously I can manage to keep going long after my interest has waned.

As expected, my interest did wane with this book. I was optimistic at the start as it is set mainly in Paris- and for me that can make up for lots of things. The Paris story line was ok, but I found myself more interested in the storyline set in San Francisco (it was better and more exciting I think). Our reading was disrupted with breaks for holidays and other things, and I think my enjoyment suffered all the more because of that. So while the action in the book takes places once again over a mere two days, it did become a bit long and drawn out as a reading experience. I found myself getting confused about which monster was which, and who smelled of what when they were doing their magic.

We did get through it though, and my son is keen to continue the series. We have three more sitting about the house, and the sixth book is due out mid year. I think his interest in fantasy is larger than mine. And that's fine. I do find it interesting how Scott has managed to blend figures from most of the major world mythologies and turn it into a modern story, and enjoy that aspect.

Much of this book was set in the Catacombes of Paris. We were lucky enough to visit the Catacombes on our last trip to Paris. We even went twice as the queue was much too long the first time we visited, so we returned early one morning to be there when they opened. They are a gloomy, weird and creepy place to visit, and makes an excellent backdrop for a fantasy story. My son really enjoyed that we had been there- even though he was a bit freaked out about it at the time!

It can be a bit overwhelming

Femurs and skulls been placed with such care and artistic precision at the front
(and then there is a big jumble of bones behind this veritable fence of bone)

The Catacombes de Paris were created in the late 18th century because the cemeteries of Paris were overflowing, so there was nowhere to bury the recently dead. A decision was made to use the old quarries that crisscross under the city as a vast underground ossuary. It has been open to the public since 1874. It is a remarkable and sobering place to visit. It is estimated that 6-7 million people now lie interred there.

Jake's Great Game

2012-02-12T21:11:00.000+11:00

I hadn't heard of this book, or the author, before a copy plopped itself at my front door (thanks to a lucky break late last year, when Fremantle Press sent me a lovely parcel of books as a prize). It turns out Jake's Great Game is the fourth book that Ken Spillman has written in the Jake Series.

I knew I was going to like this book from the time I read the dedication

For every kid who makes an effort and all those who encourage them.

Sometimes books that set out to be encouraging can be preachy and soppy. No danger of that here. This is a wonderful early chapter book. Jake is keen to try soccer. He buys some fancy silver soccer boots, but still has trouble dribbling the ball. His hard-kicking Nana helps him practice. Jake isn't a natural soccer player but he does persist, and tries hard, and does of course eventually find his feet, and his place in the team.

There's a great sense of fun too. Repeated mentions of dog slobber. Just for effect. No real purpose. It's a great little book. I look forward to coming across the other books in the series. I will give this one to my son's primary school library, where I hope it will find a happy home, and lots of enthusiastic young readers.

Spotted Pardalote

2012-02-11T12:50:00.000+11:00

It's quite frustrating to take up bird watching just as your eyesight fails and you can't really see anything much! Small birds are especially difficult. And there are so many different small birds once you start looking.... Often I don't work out what I've actually seen til I get home and have a look at the pictures! This was a Spotted Pardalote that I saw a few months ago in my local Botanic Gardens.

Saturday Snapshot, is a wonderful weekly meme from at home with books

A Family from Bosnia

2012-02-10T12:14:00.000+11:00

My 11 year old son has interesting reading tastes. He has a great interest in Europe, largely from his deep obsession with Eurovision (accidentally created by his parents two years ago). Recently we were at the library and he was browsing the European History section. He always wants to try to read adult tomes on Russia, and I have to try and sway him to something more achievable- despite his interest, he often doesn't finish these books. On this day he picked A Family from Bosnia.

A Family from Bosnia describes the daily life of a young family during the Bosnian war in the early 1990s. A rather extraordinary subject for a children's picture book I think. Nadja and her parents are forced to leave their home town and journey to Sarajevo to live with her grandparents in their small flat. They can't use the lounge room all that much as it's on the side most likely to be bombed or shot. The family spend much of their time in the kitchen at the back of the building, or in the cellar when the bombing is particularly heavy.

Nadja's father, Nedzad was a hairdresser before the war, but now he is in the army. Her mother, Arina walks for kilometres to collect water when the water is off, which it often is. There are food shortages, and the electricity is often off too. One page is titled Making Do, and it shows Nadja's grandfather turning old paper and cardboard into fuel for the stove. It is certainly a far cry from what modern children would see as "Making Do".

Schools are closed many days, yet the children can't play outside. Nadja has a small bike, but she isn't allowed to ride it outside because of the danger. Instead she plays inside, or occasionally on the balcony with other children from the apartments.

My library has several other titles from this series (Families around the World, Wayland Publishers) and I think I will search them out. Bosnia during the war is possibly the most extreme example but it is good to have older primary school children living comfortable suburban lives in Australia realise that not everyone has it so good. Ethiopia next I think. Somehow I think that Switzerland may not be as challenging.

An Illustrated Year is hosted by An Abundance of Books.

Wondrous Words Wednesday 8/2/12

2012-02-08T21:07:00.000+11:00

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a fabulous weekly meme hosted by Bermuda Onion, where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our weekly reading.

A Visit from the Goon Squad was such a rich source of new words, that I made two weeks posts from it. This is the second one. The first is here.

1. Contretemps (Noun)

Of course, our little contretemps has been enormously helpful to Kitty.

An unforseen event that disrupts the normal course of things; an inopportune occurence. The Free Dictionary.

2. Egg Creams (Noun)

'Still the second band,' Sasha says, so you walk up the street for egg creams at the Russian newsstand and drink them on a bench in Tompkins Square Park, which just reopened last summer.

Conceptually, I really don't know about that. Anyone ever had one?

3. Deliquesced (Verb)

But eventually a sort of amnesia had overtaken Susan; her rebellion and hurt had melted away, deliquesced into a sweet, eternal sunniness that was terrible in the way that life would be terrible, Ted supposed, without death to give it gravitas and shape.

i. a) To met away
b) To disappear as if by melting.
ii. Chemistry. To dissolve and become liquid by absorbing moisture from the air.
ii. Botany
a) To branch out into numerous subdivisions that lack a main axis, as the stem of an elm.
b) To become fluid or soft on maturing, as certain fungi. The Free Dictionary.

4. Spoors (Noun)

They were not permitted to so much as knock upon the door to the room in which he thought and wrote about art, but Ted hadn't found a way to keep them from prowling outside it, ghostly feral creatures drinking from a pond in moonlight, their bare feet digging at the carpet, their fingers sweating on the walls, leaving spoors of grease that Ted would point out each week to Elsa, the cleaning woman.

The track or trail of an animal, especially a wild animal.

Picture credit

5. Majolica

Apart from the marriage itself, the casualties by summer's end included the majolica plate Ted had given Beth for her birthday; sundry items of damaged furniture; Beth's left shoulder, which Andy dislocated twice; and her collarbone, which he broke.

An English version of the Italian word maiolica, is a term covering a wide variety of European tin-glazed pottery, typically brightly painted over an opaque white background glaze, with an earthenware body. Wiki.

Picture credit

6. Demimonde (Noun)

The irony of finding himself smack in the midst of the demimonde he'd tried to avoid amused Ted.

i. a) A class of women kept by wealthy lovers or protectors.

b) Women prostitutes as a group.

ii. A group whose respectability is dubious or whose success is marginal. The Free Dictionary.

The broader context of demimonde as used in the book, is clearly the third one.

7. Dandling (Verb)

Bands had no choice but to reinvent themselves for the preverbal; even Biggie had released yet another posthumous album whose title song was a remix of a Biggie standard, 'Fuck You, Bitch', to sound like 'You're Big, Chief!' with an accompanying picture of Biggie dandling a toddler in Native American headdress.

i) To move (a small child) up and down on the knees or in the arms in a playful way.

ii) To pamper or pet. The Free Dictionary.

Picture credit

I just love this word. Everyone does this, but I never knew there was a word for it. And in a magnificent piece of synchronicity- it's in the next TWO books that I've read too! Never seen it before, and now dandling is everywhere!

8. Reify

Alex had loved the glasses for their inability to suppress Rebecca's sexy beauty, but lately he wasn't so sure; the glasses, along with Rebecca's prematurely graying hair and the fact that she was so often short on sleep, threatened to reify her disguise into an identity: a fragile, harried academic slaving to finish a book while teaching two courses and chairing several committees.

To regard or treat (an abstraction) as if it had concrete or material existence. The Free Dictionary.

The Wind in the Willows

2012-02-07T22:34:00.001+11:00

I felt a bit of pressure taking on The Wind in the Willows. The introduction to Robert Ingpen's beautifully illustrated 100th anniversary edition calls it "one of the best loved children's books ever". That's a big call. I know it's famous. I know it's beloved. I remembered hearing actor John Gaden gush over it on Radio National's Bookshow last year. He spoke with such passion and enthusiasm for it. He rereads it as an adult. I had tried to read it before, and not got beyond the first few pages. I named it one of my Top Ten Books I Can't Believe I've Never Read. What if I didn't like it? What would that mean?

I was so very relieved to find that I did love it. I now understand John Gaden's enthusiasm and rereading. The language is so wonderful and evocative- cudgel, dank, turbid, flagon, lest, folly. There is even a character named Portly! Gaden dismisses it somewhat as "Edwardian rubbish", but his fondness for it shines through.

It is a story of it's time. The characters have smoking rooms. They write poetry and drink beer. It is wonderful to meet these characters that are possibly more famous than the book. Ratty,Toad, Mole and Badger. You don't need to read The Wind in the Willows to know that Toad lives at Toad Hall.

The descriptive passages are so beautiful.

It was a cold still afternoon with a hard steely sky overhead, when he slipped out of the warm parlour into the open air. The country lay bare and entirely leafless around him, and the thought that he had never seen so far and so intimately into the insides of the things as on that winter day when Nature was dep in her annual slumber and seemed to have kicked the clothes off. Copses, dells, quarries and all hidden places, which had been mysterious mines for exploration in leafy summer, now exposed themselves and their secrets pathetically, and seemed to ask him to overlook their shabby poverty for a while, til they could riot in rich masquearade as before, and trick and entice him with the old deceptions. It was pitiful in a way, and yet cheering- even exhilarating. He was glad that he liked the country undecorated, hard, and stripped of its finery. He had got down to the bare bones of it, and they were fine and strong and simple. He did not want the warm clover and the play of seeding grasses; the screens of quickset, the billowy drapery of beech and elm seemed best away; and with great cheerfulness of spirit he pushed on towards the Wild Wood, which law before him low and threatening, like a black reef in some still southern sea.

Wow. That is the start of my favourite chapter. The Wild Wood, where Mole sets off by himself to try to find Badger. He gets lost in the wood, and as his fear takes over, he imagines faces everywhere. He hears things that my or may not be there. It is a most wonderful description of swelling anxiety as Mole becomes more and more lost in The Wild Wood.

I was surprised that the most famous quote is so early on in the book

'Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing- absolutely nothing- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.'

And also surprised that that quote is so famous when a few pages later we have Toad saying

"Boating! Silly boyish amusement. I've given that up long ago."

Which is much more my point of view.

I wish The Wind in the Wilows had been part of my own childhood. I wish that I had given it to my son as part of his childhood. I think it would make a wonderful read aloud book, especially read in a wonderful English accent. I see the BBC audibook is read by Alan Bennett. Tempting. Very tempting. I've only begun to reread in recent years. Pride and Prejudice is my most reread book at this stage. I can see myself rereading The Wind in the Willows. I hope I do.

Super Macro!

2012-02-04T09:22:00.000+11:00

I'm still playing with my new camera, a Fuji X10. It has a supermacro setting which lets you take photos from 1cm away, and can make photographing even the weeds in my front lawn fun!

I'd noticed a rather unusual delicate mushroom ( I think) nearly underfoot as I went to get in the car.

Macro

Super macro

Even dandelions become cool up close, and you can see tiny bugs inside

Clover! Boring old clover. My favourite I think.

Saturday Snapshot, is a wonderful weekly meme from at home with books

Manna from Heaven

2012-02-02T13:52:00.001+11:00

I don't consider myself a lucky person. I've never won the lottery, despite entering at least 20 times. But back in November I got a letter from the lovely folks at Good Reading, my favourite Aussie magazine about books and reading. I had won their subscriber draw for November! Which is most exciting as I've been a subscriber since their very first year. Then in December my parcel of books 8 fabulous books arrived from Fremantle Press.

Brothers by Antonio Buti
From Coast to Country by Neil and Jenny Delmage
The Waterboys by Peter Docker
Have You Seen Ally Queen? by Deb Fitzpatrick
My Dog Gave Me the Clap by Adam Morris
The Kid on the Karaoke Stage edited by Georgia Richter
Jake's Great Game by Ken Spillman
The Deep by Tim Winton

A great mix. Two kids books- the Winton, and Jake's Great Game. Some YA. Some that looks like adult fiction. A true crime. And a lovely gardening coffee table book.

I've read The Deep before. The ones that speak to me most:

My Dog Gave Me the Clap. That's a fantastic title. Who could go past that?

I love the back cover- even though it doesn't help me know what the book is about...

And Have You Seen Ally Queen looks like intriguing Aussie YA. I'm looking forward to learning more about them all. I've got a lot of Good Reading ahead of me....

Wondrous Words Wednesday 1/2/12 (and some random Paris photos, because it's been a while)

2012-02-01T11:35:00.000+11:00

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a fabulous weekly meme hosted by Bermuda Onion, where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our weekly reading.

Recently I read Jennifer Egan's Pulitzer Prize winning novel A Visit from the Goon Squad. There were lots of great new words for me, so much so that the rest of them will be next weeks post.

1.Sinsemilla (Noun)

We inherited it from last year's Pitters who graduated, but still we get nervous walking in if other Pitters are already there: Tatum, who wears a different color Danskin every day, or Wayne, who grows sinsemilla in his actual closet, or Boomer, who's always hugging everyone since his family did EST.

A highly potent form of marijuana obtained from unpollinated female plants. The Free Dictionary.

I didn't think there was anything else you would grow in your wardrobe, but I thought that I knew most of the terms for cannabis.

2. Cholos (Noun)

Down the path from the Pit is where the cholos hang out, with their black leather coats and clicky shoes and dark hair in almost invisible nets.

In modern usage it most often applies to a low-income Mexican-American sub-culture and manner of dress. It was an ethnice slur created by Hispanic criollos in the 16th centruy, and it has been applied to individuals of mixed or pure American Indian ancestry, or other racially mixed origin. Wiki.

3. Badinage (Noun)

And since the badinage I proceed to exchange with Kitty are simply not worth relating, I'll mention instead (in the footnote-ish fashion that injects a whiff of cracked leather bindings into pop-cultureal observation) that when you're a young movie star with blondish hair and a highly recognizable face from that recent movie whose grosses can only be explained by the conjecture that every person in America saw it at least twice, people treat you in a manner that is somewhat different-in fact is entirely different- from the way they treat, say, a balding, stoop-shouldered, slightely eczematous guy approaching middle age.

Light, playful banter. The Free Dictionary

I've enjoyed badinage all these years and never knew.

A costume Regine Crespin wore for La Chevalier a la Rose (March 1957)

4. Sophistry (Noun)

I've engaged in a bit of sophistry, here, suggesting that entangled particles can explain anything when, to date, they themselves have not been satisfactorily explained.

i) Plausible but fallacious argumentation.
ii) The teachings and ways of teaching of the ancient Greek sophists. The Free Dictionary.

5. Ontology

Have you ever managed to use the word 'ontology' in a conversational sentence?

No I haven't, because I haven't known the meaning before!

i) Philosophy. The branch of metaphysics that deals with the nature of being.
ii) Logic. The set of entities presupposed by a theory.

Gorgeous lamps on sale at the shop in the Paris Opera

6. Debouchment (Noun)

Now, I've orchestrated our debouchment for several reasons: One, I want to filch a few extra minutes off Kitty in an attempt to salvage this assignment and, in a larger sense, my once-promising, now-dwindling literary reputation ('I think she was maybe disappointed that you didn't try writing another novel after the first one didn't sell...' Beatrice Green, over hot tea, after I threw myself sobbing upon her Scarsdale doorstep, pleading for insights into her daughter's defection).

The act or an instance of marching from a narrow, confined are into the open. The Free Dictionary.

Marshall Armstrong is New to Our School

2012-01-31T10:09:00.000+11:00

It's tough being the New Kid at school. Marshall Armstrong is the somewhat geeky New Kid at school.

His arrival is viewed with suspicion by the current inmates.

After all, his things are different.

He does things differently.

Will Marshall, poor geeky Marshall, who has mosquito bites and food in silver parcels, ever fit in and be accepted?

The drawings are simple, quirky and fun. You don't often get design classics in kids picture books!

Once again I was alerted to this wonderful book on Kids Book Review. It was voted one of their favourite books of 2011. I'm planning on donating my copy to my son's public school library. I hope they love it as much as I do.

An Illustrated Year is hosted by An Abundance of Books.

Old Newspapers #2

2012-01-30T23:20:00.000+11:00

Today I was reading an old Sydney Morning Herald, and came across a fascinating article about Damien Hirst. Usually I'm not that interested in his work- all that chopping dead animals in two, seems more like butchery than art to me. But he's making a lot more money than I do that's for sure.

This article caught my eye because it was about his dot paintings. I wasn't familiar with these. He's been making them since 1986, and yet they are apparently the least known of his themes. He was inspired to make them after his dad painted blue circles on the front door of the family home. Ok then.

Picture credit

You get the idea.

The most interesting part to my mind:

Of the hundreds of spot canvases, Hirst painted only five himself. ''When I worked out how to do it, I sold one painting for, like, 50 quid and then used the money to employ other people to paint them,'' he says.

So is Damien Hirst an artist? Or a businessman? I imagine he's been called worse.

BTW The article mentioned his butterfly paintings. I hadn't heard of those either. They're fantastic! And art I think. Unless he pays someone else to do it, which he probably does. I am somewhat sad at the usage of butterflies in this way, but I think he's highlighting their beauty by creating these kaleidoscopic, trippy images. I'd love to see one.

A Visit from the Goon Squad

2012-01-29T18:30:00.000+11:00

I have a busy reading schedule. I'm reading mainly kids books at the moment, carrying on with my quest to read 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up. But I want to read all sorts of books. Sadly life gets in the way. Family. Work. Being possibly the slowest reader in the world. Naturally I have a huge TBR, both tangible and figurative. Sometime though a book shoots out of nowhere and becomes the book I have to read next. Reading schedules be damned. An itch that has to be scratched. A Visit from the Goon Squad is exactly such a book.

I'd heard of it of course. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 2011. I'd seen it in the shops. But I only knew about it in a vague sense. I'd never read a review, and I don't remember anyone on any of the myriad blogs I read reviewing it. If they did it's possible that I ignored the review anyway. The title really didn't appeal to me. Somehow I thought that is was a mafia book or something. Even though the cover art didn't look like a mafia book.

Then one night recently I was home alone and decided to watch an old edition of First Tuesday Bookclub (check out the video, it's well worth it), and I was hooked. I had to read it. I bought it a few days later, and read it when I should have been reading The Wind in the Willows. Thankfully, it's not a mafia book.

It's really quite hard to say what sort of book it is. It's about music certainly, the interconnectedness of our lives, the personal and the political, and time. Time is the titular goon.

'Time's a goon, right? You gonna let that goon push you around?'

There is an extraordinary cast of characters, but the story centres mainly on music executive Bennie Salazar, and Sasha, who is working as Bennie's assistant when we first meet her at the beginning of the novel. It's a broad sweeping novel. An unusual structure it must be said. A challenging multiple point of view, multi-layered work. Thirteen chapters all offering a different narrator, giving us insights into the main characters and those that inhabit their lives- whether briefly, or for the long haul. Many times I found this confusing (and I am generally a fan of the multiple POV), and for the first two or three pages of each chapter you're searching hard for clues trying to work out whose voice it is and when, as the chapters slip back and forward in time too. I started to imagine this book as a heap of threads of coloured wool thrown haphazardly on the floor. It's all connected, it's all joined together, but it takes time to make sense of it.

The two chapters that work the best are the least traditional non-narrative structures. A great one written as a celebrity bio piece by Bennie's brother in law (and is apparently an "uproarious parody of David Foster Wallace", I wish I was well read enough to know that). And very late in the book we have an extraordinary powerpoint presentation style chapter, a slide journal, written by Sasha's daughter. You wouldn't think that would work- but it definitely does. It's really very clever.

But not too clever. Jon Ronson one of the guests on the First Tuesday book club says that it's not annoyingly post modern. I think that's very true. I'm not a fan at all of postmodern styling just for the hell of it. A Visit from the Goon Squad breaks with tradition, and takes some risks, but never tries to annoy the reader. In fact, Egan often ties up loose ends. Early on, she tells us the future of a very minor character. What will happen to him 35 years later.

Thirty five years from now, in 2008, this warrior will be caught in the tribal violence between the Kikuyu and the Luo and will die in a fire. He'll have had four wives and sixty-three grandchildren, one of whom, a boy named Joe, will inherit his lalema: the iron hunting dagger in a leather scabbard now hanging at his side. Joe will go to college at Columbia and study engineering, becoming an expert in visual field robotic technology that detects the slightest hint of irregular movement (the legacy of a childhood spent scanning the grass for lions). He'll marry an American named Lulu and remain in New York, where he'll invent a scanning device that becomes standard issue for crowd security.

It's funny the detail of that passage stayed with me, and it's only now, when looking it up again, that I see the significance to the story! It's more clever than I realised. And every review I read is only making me want to reread. If only I had time to go back and read it again. I don't feel compelled to do that immediately, as I did with The Road (and the Wind in the Willows is still waiting). But this is definitely a book that would reward rereading.

Crested Pigeon

2012-01-28T21:54:00.001+11:00

I love Crested Pigeons (Ocyphaps lophotes). They're a very common bird where I live in rural NSW. Actually they're really quite widespread across Australia. They used to live mainly in central Australia, but this seed eating forager has made great use of farming and urban areas, and they are now found in most areas of mainland Australia.

They are great to take pictures of, especially for the novice birdwatcher and photographer. They're quite a large pigeon sized bird, and they are relatively used to people being around, and so aren't skittish. When they do take flight they make quite a commotion, so you can often hear them before you see them. Their wings whistle as they take off (think corduroy jeans rubbing together), because they have modified wing feathers, and so the wind can whistle between their feathers as they take flight, easily alerting bird stalkers to their presence.

Recently I found some in my local Botanic Gardens.

They have quite a strutty walk when trying to impress the Ladies

As well as a snazzy mohawk spike they have beautiful colours on their wings if you look carefully.

Sometimes you can't see the coloured patches.

Sometimes one hops up onto a branch in a little spot of sun to perfectly display the beautiful colours in his wings.

Saturday Snapshot, is a wonderful weekly meme from at home with books

Wondrous Words Wednesday 25/1/12

2012-01-25T21:11:00.000+11:00

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a fabulous weekly meme hosted by Bermuda Onion, where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our weekly reading.

This weeks words come from Tom's Midnight Garden.

1. Clunch (Noun)

Of the four sides of the garden, Tom had already observed that three were walled: one by the back of the house itself, another by a very high south wall, build of clunch blocks and brick; and another by a lower wall that might well prove climbable.

Clunch is a term for traditional building material used mainly in eastern England and Normandy. It is a term which encompasses a wide variety of materials, often locally variable.

It often comes as irregular lumps of rock either picked up from the fields, or quarried and hewn from the ground in more regular-shaped building blocks. It is predominantly chalk/clay based and is bedded in mortar to form walls. It is a particularly soft building material. Some people comment that it could be cut by a saw. Wiki.

Picture credit

2. Besom (Noun)

Perhaps he had been on his way to stoke the furnace; perhaps- for he carried a besom broom- he had come to sweep the rest of the pond-ice for Hatty.

i) A bundle of twigs attached to a handle and used as a broom.

ii) Sports. The broom used to sweep the ice from the path of a curling stone. The Free Dictionary.

Besom brooms are the broomsticks traditionally associated with witches. Wiki

3. Pollarded (Verb)

Now the young men among the skaters were pulling curved branches off the pollarded willow-trees, to make sticks for a practice game of bandy, or ice-hockey: a stone was to be the ball.

i) A tree whose top branches have been cut back to the trunk so that it may produce a dense growth of new shoots.

ii) An animal, such as an ox, goat, or sheep, that no longer has its horns. The Free Dictionary.

Picture credit

4. Lodes (Noun)

Here it prepares to enter the Fenland, where many other waterways- lodes and cuts and drains, with a man-made directness, rivers with ancient meanderings- will, in their own time, join it.

I initially found meanings about a vein of mineral ore in rock. Clearly that is not the right usage.

The Cambridgeshire Lodes are a series of man-made waterways, believed to be Roman in origin.

5. Hithes (Noun)

Ice stopped the wheels of the upriver water-mills, and blocked the way for the barges that, in those days, plied from King's Lynn as far upstream as the hithes of Castleford.

A port or small haven. The Free Dictionary.

Concrete Jungle Project

2012-01-21T18:27:00.000+11:00

On my recent trip to Sydney I came across an interesting use of temporary hoardings in Ultimo. I found it particularly fascinating. It's a project called Concrete Jungle, and is designed to stir us out of our comfortable suburban slumber, and question our actions and our life.

I love the plants built into it

I think these are my favourites:

I thought it was all great.

Nearby in the big car park where I parked my car I found a new sort of parking space that I hadn't seen in rural Australia. Perhaps it's common in larger centres? I don't know.

Saturday Snapshot, is a wonderful weekly meme from at home with books

The Dream of the Thylacine

2012-01-19T11:39:00.000+11:00

Margaret Wild and Ron Brooks are both famous in their own right. Margaret Wild as the author of more than 40 books, including the extraordinary Fox, the result of her previous pairing with Ron Brooks. Ron, equally is one of our most famous and celebrated illustrators, his Bunyip of Berkeley Creek an enduring Australian classic. So I was sure that any new book by the two of them would be an interesting read.

I have a soft spot too for books about Thylacines, the Tasmanian Tiger, that became extinct in the 1930s after the last known animal died in captivity in Beaumaris Zoo, near Hobart, in 1936. Their extinction is particularly tragic I think, although of course the extinction of any species is tragic. Thylacines lived on the Australian mainland before the introduction of the dingo about 4,000 years ago. After white settlement of Australia they were restricted to Tasmania, and they were hunted out of existence in little over 100 years, aided by bounties. Now the Tasmanian Devil, Tasmania's other major predator, is under threat from Devil Facial Tumour Disease, at least now people are working to try to prevent the Devil's demise.

I was always going to pick up this book as soon as I saw it at the library. I hadn't heard of it before, but it literally leapt off the shelf at me. The back cover blurb calls it a lament for a lost species, and it certainly is that. The words are few, and illustrated by black and white illustrations of caged Tigers. The Tiger in each of the three pages like this becomes faded and more distinct in each image.

Interspersed between these pages are Ron Brook's beautiful painted illustrations of a free Tiger, capturing the Tiger's dreams of freedom, and a life in the wild. Ron Brooks writes very movingly about his paintings for this book on his website (you just need to scroll down a bit). Ron lives in Tasmania, and his love for the Tasmanian landscape is evident in his paintings.

It's a beautiful and moving book. I found this last image particularly poignant.

An Illustrated Year is hosted by An Abundance of Books.

Wondrous Words Wednesday 18/1/12

2012-01-18T09:17:00.000+11:00

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a fabulous weekly meme hosted by Bermuda Onion, where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our weekly reading.

This weeks words are from Comet in Moominland.

1. Tarn (Noun)

A little farther down they came to a tarn, which had sunk so low in its stone basin that the sides were too steep for them to get down and have a swim.

i) A small mountain lake, especially one formed by glaciers. The Free Dictionary.

An Aussie tarn

2. Titivating (Verb)

But as she was titivating herself, a horrifying picture came into the looking-glass.

i) To smarten up (oneself or another), as by making up, doing the hair etc

ii) To make decorative additions to, to spruce up. The Free Dictionary.

Why are all the Google images of Pamela Anderson?

3. Cowslip (Noun)

"Oh, we celebrated my escape with minnows and cowslip wine for many hours," answered Snufkin.

Primula veris. A flowering plant native throughout most of temperate Europe and Asia. The common name cowslip derives from the Old English cūslyppe meaning "cow dung", probably because the plant was often found growing amongst the manure in cow pastures. (Wiki) Nice. Despite this, cowslip leaves and flowers have culinary uses in many countries, including using the flowers to flavour wine. And indeed good old Google tells me that the ladies of Cranford busy themselves making cowslip wine.

The alternative name of palsywort caught my attention, and now The Free Dictionary tells me - A perennial herb, the flowers and roots of which contain flavonoids, glycosides, and saponins; it is analgesic, antispasmodic, diuretic, expectorant, laxative, and sedative. (not exactly what you look for in a wine) It has been used internally for arthritis, headache, insomnia, measles, paralysis, respiratory tract infections, and restlessness, and topically for sunburns.

Old Newspapers #1

2012-01-17T07:04:00.000+11:00

I'm a dreadful one for leaving unread or partly read papers in an ever increasing stack. I always mean to read them on the day, but somehow never get the time. Whenever I get the chance to sit down to read some, like I did this morning, I'm always rewarded by finding some fabulous articles of interest on a wide variety of topics. Here's what caught my eye today.

An inspirational article about 98 year old Jim Henry from Mystic, Connecticut. Jim had to stop schooling when he was in the third grade. He worked as a lobsterman, and then took up reading in his late 90s! Jim didn't admit his illiteracy until he was 92, and then began to learn to read and write when he was 96. Jim has since authored a book called In a Fisherman's Language.

More astonishingly I found a suggestion for Christmas presents (I did say they were old papers). The one I was particularly taken with was this one.

Shooting modes including food and sweets! Does this mean sweets aren't food? Why would they need a different setting? Now, I got a new camera for Christmas. A snazzy Fuji X10. Does it have a food or sweets setting? I hadn't checked!

Oh Man. I was totally ripped off. My new camera doesn't have a food OR a sweets setting. Although it does manage to take mighty fine photos in dimly lit restaurants. I just happen to know.

Tom's Midnight Garden

2012-01-16T08:17:00.000+11:00

Tom's Midnight Garden is an enduring English classic published in 1959, and immediately popular and lauded. It won the Carnegie Medal in 1959, and in 2007 was voted in the Top Ten Carnegie Medallists in a public vote to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Medal.

In some ways it starts off as many classic children's stories do by taking a child away from their home, and removing the normal parental supervision. Typically, this is done by orphaning children and sending them to live with cold, uncaring or mean guardians. Here, Tom is sent to live with his aunt and uncle for a while. He hasn't been orphaned, but is merely being placed in quarantine as his brother Peter has come down with measles. Tom tries to explore his new world, but there isn't really that much there. His kindly aunt and uncle live in a flat in an old large house that has been converted into flats, with a small back yard that is only used to store dustbins and parked cars.

There is nothing to do, and Tom quickly becomes bored, for he is not unwell, just quarantined and marooned. He quickly finds that the clock in the main hall doesn't work as it should, and one night it strikes 13 and he goes to investigate. He soon finds his midnight garden. A garden that only exists at night.

Tom finds a magic garden out the back door, in just the same way that the Pevensie children find Narnia in the back of the wardrobe. The garden is only there at night, in the day it's replaced by the boring back yard full of dustbins. And just like in Narnia time doesn't move in the easy linear way that we ordinarily expect. Tom meets a young girl called Hatty, orphaned, living with her aunt in a rather Jane Eyre existence, and not really included in games by her older male cousins. Hatty spends a lot of time in the garden. She is the only person who can see Tom, and so they become friends and companions. Tom's nocturnal adventures make his boring days worthwhile, so much so that he doesn't want to return home when the time comes.

Philippa Pearce was inspired to write Tom's Midnight Garden by the memories of her own childhood home. After her father retired the family home was to be sold and Philippa "imagined the possibility of it being converted into flats and its garden lost forever. Pearce wanted to recreate and 'preserve' the house and its garden as it was when her grandfather was alive."

We certainly get a sense of the workings of a Victorian house. Abel the gardener is always busy at work in the garden, the maid, Susan in the house. The garden is more than ornamental- it is a working garden, there are asparagus beds, gooseberry wires, hot houses with rather complicated plumbing

I certainly enjoyed visiting the midnight garden with Tom, but wasn't blown away by the book overall. I did learn lots of things from the book, and enjoyed that aspect of it very much. Ely Cathedral is mentioned several times. I'd never heard of it, but it looks quite magnificent and I know I'd love to visit. At one stage Tom researches clothing history so he can try to work out when Hatty lived, and he discovered that the Duke of Wellington had caused a sensation by wearing trousers in the early nineteenth century. And in a beautiful moment of synchronicity, I had just learnt about the Duke of Wellington and his scandalous trousers being refused entry to Almack's on QI the night before I read about it with Tom! I love that sort of thing. And I love this little insight into 1950s women in Britain:

On Friday morning, in the peaceful hour before the others were awake, Aunt Gwen leaned out of bed, boiled the electric kettle and made an early pot of tea.

Really? Is it normal to keep tea making things within easy reach of the bed?

Comet in Moominland

2012-01-15T09:01:00.000+11:00

Comet in Moominland is the first in a series of books very famous and popular still in Finland and Europe, but less well known to those of us in the rest of the world. Intriguingly they were written in Swedish, but published in Finland because Tove Jansson was part of the small Swedish-speaking minority population in Finland. In the 1940s and 50s she created the Moomins- gentle, white hippopotamus-like creatures. Moomins even inspired their own theme park in Finland, Moomin World.

I was thrilled to get to finally read this book. I've been hearing more and more about these books in the past few years, and the suspense was killing me. In the end I enjoyed meeting these famous characters, more than I enjoyed the book I think.

Moomintroll learns that a comet may be heading towards the peaceful valley where the Moomins live in their blue house. Moomintroll and Sniff set out to visit the Professors in the Observatory on the Lonely Mountains to find out more about comets and whether or not their peaceful existence is under threat. The "scientists made thousands of remarkable observations, smoked thousands of cigarettes, and lived alone with the stars." It was certainly another time.

I've never been a big one for quest story, where "the action" is a seemingly endless journey across unknown country, and the things that happen along the way.

I particularly enjoyed the philosopher Muskrat though:

I should just like to point out that your bridge-building activities have completely ruined my house in the river bank, and although ultimately it doesn't matter what happens, I must say even a philosopher does not care for being soaked to the skin.

Thank you, but I was just thinking how dangerous it is to load yourself up with belongings.

And I did enjoy the gentle writing, and the occasional nuanced humour.

There are hardly any unnecessary things, I think. Only eating porridge, and washing....

I loved that she used words like titivating in a book clearly written for reasonably young children. I loved that the Moomins played poker, and ate pancakes rather incessantly. So while I wasn't bowled over by my first Moomin experience I am willing to give them another go, after all Neil Gaiman is quoted on the cover proclaiming it "a masterpiece". That alone is worth a second look.

As we must appear to the hawk #2

2012-01-14T12:02:00.001+11:00

I've always loved looking out of plane windows, down at the world below. Reading Alain de Botton's The Art of Travel last year confirmed it, and helped me start this series of plane window visions. These are from a recent flight from Launceston to Melbourne.

Tasmania is famous for rugged mountains

and verdant valleys

I caught just a glimpse of the Tamar River

and the Northern Tasmanian coastline

before coming in to a stormy afternoon in Melbourne

Saturday Snapshot, is a wonderful weekly meme from at home with books

The Scar

2012-01-13T07:16:00.001+11:00

I came across this book on the excellent Kids Book Review a few months ago, and searched it out at my library. I'm so glad that I did. It's an astonishing read.

European picture books sure can pack a punch. Somehow they have a different sensibility. Right from the first page.

Wow. Not just about bunnies, or lost toys then.

This book deals with the raw grief and numb period after the loss of a mother. Her husband and son are left to cope with her loss. Her son is angry. At his mother for dying. He's sad. And he's upset about many things, that he might forget how his mother felt and sounded, that his father doesn't know how he likes his toast, cut in half with the honey in a zigzag, the way that his mother knew.

He's upset that his mother is gone, and won't be coming back. That the radio isn't on of a morning, and he doesn't smell the coffee brewing (that's actually a good thing in my book!). That his mother isn't there to comfort him after he grazes his knee.

It's a powerful and moving book about a boy moving through grief. The redness of the book helps reinforce that I think. The illustrations are strong too. Ultimately of course life must go on, and the boy and his father have to find their way, without their wife and mother.

An Illustrated Year is hosted by An Abundance of Books.

Wondrous Words Wednesday 11/1/12

2012-01-11T22:11:00.000+11:00

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a fabulous weekly meme hosted by Bermuda Onion, where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our weekly reading.

I recently read Eleanor H. Porter's classic work Pollyanna. As with any older book there were some interesting words that made be ponder as well as a lovely story.

1.Basque (noun)

But there weren't any black things in the last missionary barrel, only a lady's velvet basque which Deacon Carr's wife said wasn't suitable for me at all; besides, it had white spots- worn, you know- on both elbows, and some other places.

In Victorian fashion, basque refers to a closely fitted bodice or jacket extending past the waistline over the hips (wiki)

How I imagine Pollyanna's basque
nothing like the modern ones

2. Gimcrack (Noun)

When he comes back he writes books- queer, odd books, they say about some gimcrack he's found in them heathen countries.

A cheap and showy object of little or no use; a gewgaw. (And isn't gewgaw a fabulous word?)

No mention of how this may relate to Gimcrack, the racecourse.

3. Scylla and Charybdis

They were always fight- I mean Father had- that is, I mean, we had more trouble keeping peace between them then we did with the rest of the Aiders,' corrected Pollyanna, a little breathless from her efforts to steer between the Scylla of her father's past commands in regard to speaking of church quarrels, and the Charybdis of her aunt's present commands in regard to speaking of her father.

Between Scylla and Charybdis, is an idiom deriving from Greek mythology (wiki), which is used as we would use between a rock and a hard place. They formed either side of a strait. Scylla being a six-headed monster, and Charybdis a whirlpool. I always wonder how often child readers would get Greek mythology references.

4. Pharisees (Noun)

"But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgement, mercy and faith: these ought to have done, and not to leave the other undone."

i) A member of an ancient Jewish sect that emphasized strict interpretation and observance of the Mosaic law in both its oral and written form.

ii) A hypocritically self-righteous person. The free dictionary.

5. Jigger (noun)

'Oh, she ain't handsome, of course: but I will own up she doesn't look like the same woman, what with the ribbons and lace jiggers Miss Pollyanna makes her wear 'round her neck.'

While I found lots of meanings for jiggers I couldn't find this meaning. I haven't been stumped before! We used to use jigger when I was a kid playing pool, for the thing you used to rest the cue on.

Swallow

2012-01-09T06:39:00.000+11:00

My fascination with Junior Non Fiction continues. Of course, I'm quite interested in birds so that helps too. We have swallows in Australia, but the Barn Swallow that is the star of this book, sadly doesn't live here. Although Barn Swallows born in Russia and China may spend their winter enjoying the warmth of far-Northern tropical Australia.

I wondered about the cover photo when I borrowed this book from the library, but didn't think all that much of it- til I read the book. Barn Swallows are really quite extraordinary creatures. They only weigh about 20 grams, yet can travel hundreds of kilometres in a day! They eat insects which they mainly catch whilst in flight- the distinctive forked shape of their tail helps them turn or brake in flight to catch delicious flies.

The female swallow lays up to six eggs at a time. Whilst incubating them she turns them gently with her beak to help them mature properly. While feeding their incessantly hungry chicks the parents will make up to 400 trips to and from the nest each and every day. Little wonder they need to go to Africa for a break!

Pity the poor swallows born in Alaska or Scandinavia!

In the Northern autumn the swallows will feed and build up reserves for their long flight south. We're told they can fly up to 965 kilometres in a day, and eat up to 6,000 insects in a day to prepare for their journey. Which seems near impossible. Their migratory journey can take 3 months to complete! It's extraordinary to think of a 20 gram bird flying for months to get to Africa, to spend a few months, and then to journey back, and then do it every year of their life. Which is why the cover shot is amazing when you understand it- these amazing little birds even drink on the fly.

Of course you can't think about European or African swallows for too long before thinking about coconuts.

An Illustrated Year

2012-01-08T07:20:00.000+11:00

Generally I try to avoid reading challenges for bloggers. My own TBR, and my 1001 Children's book quest is usually more than enough fodder for my reading fire. Last year I tried two, I was successful with one and did several posts for the Foodies Reading Challenge, but abjectly failed with the other (much to my shame, I mean I love Oscar Wilde).

I was immediately hooked when I saw An Illustrated Year was being hosted by An Abundance of Books. Such a no-brainer for me, I love reading kids books, and I love reading picture books. Last year I didn't get to read all that many, so hopefully this challenge will help keep me on track. I'll go for Level 3 - 24 picture books. I have at least 6 sitting on my shelf ready to go right now after all.

The Details

Timeline: January 1, 2012- December 31, 2012
Select your level:

Level 1 - Read 12 picture books

Level 2 - Read 16 picture books

Level 3 - Read 24 picture books

You don't have to select your books ahead of time, you can just add them as you go. If you do list your books in the beginning, you can always change them later on.
Crossovers with other challenges count.
Digital books count
Re-reads count as long as you read them in 2012 and you post a new review for the book.
You can join anytime

Noisy Miner

2012-01-07T16:33:00.000+11:00

I got a new camera for Christmas this year, which is very exciting. Now I have to learn to use it. I was very excited to come across a friendly subject out the front of my parent's house over the Christmas break.

Noisy miners are native Australian honeyeaters. They shouldn't be confused with the introduced pest Indian Mynah.

This little fellow was fabulous.

He tolerated me peering through the bushes. He moved about within the bush a little bit (he was in the grevillea), but then he let me push some branches out of the way.

Until I got the perfect shot. And it was even in focus and sharp!

Saturday Snapshot, is a wonderful weekly meme from at home with books

Hands Only CPR

2012-01-07T12:35:00.001+11:00

Interesting to see two recent videos from both sides of the Atlantic introducing Hands Only CPR to the general public. Both are fun, and funny, even though dealing with a scary sort of situation, and perhaps pave the way for the day that we can have Stayin Alive blaring out from the resus bay? We can only hope so!

I do love any video that uses the word geezer, that's quality! But I do prefer the Disco Can Save Lives aspect of the American version. Wonder when the Australian version will happen? Oh dear they did a flash mob version, but did the wrong music!

Ah but noone expects it to work!

The Adventures of Tintin 3D

2012-01-04T23:02:00.000+11:00

I was so pleasantly surprised by this movie. The reviews I'd seen had been lukewarm at best really, and the gushings of Richard Wilkins have never swayed me, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I hadn't been a great Tintin fan as a child, and so wasn't familiar with the stories. I was hoping to catch up with the three stories that were the basis for the movie- The Crab with the Golden Claws (1941), The Secret of the Unicron (1943) and Red Rackham's Treasure (1944). But the Chrismtas period got away from me, and there was only one opportunity to go see the movie as a family outing so I went before reading the books.

And it was fun. Much more funny than I expected. Much of the humour comes from Andy Serkis's wonderful Captain Haddock. A hard drinking Scottish sea captain is always going to provide some excellent opportunities for humour. Certainly much is made of his drinking, and the movie actually has quite a strong anti-drunkenness message.

Tintin is of course a famous boy reporter, who rather unwittingly becomes involved in a mystery when he buys a model of a ship at the town flea market. The story is action packed and I think the 3D effects are the least annoying of any 3D movie that I've seen so far. They didn't seem tacked on for the sake of it, even though I guess at times they were.

It is a movie that appeals to all ages too, my 11 year old son loved it, and my mother enjoyed it as her first experience of a 3D movie. Actually, my son and I both want to see it again.

After seeing the movie I did get a chance to read the books. All were so much better and more refined and developed than Tintin in the Land of the Soviets that I read recently.

The Crab with the Golden Claws has opium trafficking as a central plot which was skipped in the movie version. Opium trafficking not being too kid-movie friendly I guess. I do love Captain Haddock's strings of inventive profanities. Swine! Jellyfish! Tramps! Trogolodytes! Toffee-noses!

Some elements of the three stories are reproduced exactly in the movie, other parts changed, others omitted completely. Red Rackham's Treasure introduces the eccentric, stone deaf inventor Professor Calculus who is left out of the movie. Still it's fun to meet Tintin properly after all these years, and I hope to read some more Tintin titles.

101 Dalmations

2012-01-03T23:36:00.000+11:00

I was anxious about this book. I've seen the Disney version and read lots of abridged versions when my son was younger, and I didn't like them all that much. In fact I'd really come to quite dislike them. The Independent suggested that Dodie Smith had been eclipsed by Disney, which is sadly true I think. But I should have known better than to doubt the original.

The basic plot of the story is familiar to most of us from the Disney movie I suspect. Mr and Mrs Dearly are a lovely couple, living in London, who have two Dalmations, Pongo and Missis Pongo, who have a litter of 15 puppies. The Dearly's are somehow friends with the terrible Cruella de Vil, who wants to make a Dalmation coat, and so she steals the Dearly pups, and many other Dalmations to make her coats. Pongo and Mrs Pongo set out on a journey to get their pups back.

That is the bare bones of the book too. Naturally there is so much more nuance than the movie. So much more humour. It is written with an omniscient third person point of view, so we get the thoughts of the major characters- particularly the dogs, who while they only speak dog, they are able to understand English. Indeed the dogs here think of the Dearlys as their pets, and the dogs take their pets for walks at times. Cruella hosts a dinner party to get to the dogs and all her food tastes of nothing but pepper.

I learnt quite a bit about Dalmations from this book, not a breed I'd thought a lot about, although of course they are possibly one of the most distinctive dog breeds. Dalmations are thought to originate from the Dalmatins Coast in Croatia. They used to be used to run behind carriages for reasons which aren't totally clear to me. Dodie Smith tells us that Pongo was a name commonly used by these Dalmations who ran behind carriages. Later on Dalmations became "firehouse dogs" in America. Wiki tells us lots more interesting things about Dalmations- such as they are prone to deafness and gout.

There is a delightful English gentleness suffused throughout the book.

Now (Christmas) carols are always beautiful but if you are sad they can make you feel sadder. (There are some people who always find beauty makes them feel sadder, which is a very mysterious thing.)

Perdita here is not Pongo's wife, as Disney would have us believe, but rather a lost dog (perditus being Latin for lost, and also a Shakespearian reference) who becomes a wet nurse to the bumper crop of puppies. Another Latin reference is cave canem "beware of the dog", which is apt, but I do wonder if young children actually got Latin references in 1956, or if their parents were much more likely than now to know what it meant. I do particularly like the notion of the twilight barking, it seems a perfect bookend from the dawn chorus, that the dogs use to communicate, perhaps all those dogs barking in the distance are really trying to help find lost puppies?

Dreaming of an Aussie Christmas

2011-12-31T21:56:00.000+11:00

In Australia we don't dream of white Christmases, we hope for a waterside Christmas- and I had a perfect one this year.

Bubbly for breakfast

French, bien sur

Family

Fun

Lots of fun

There was lots of delicious food too of course, but somewhat strangely for me I forgot to photograph it. Might have something to do with that French for breakfast!

Saturday Snapshot, is a wonderful weekly meme from at home with books

2011 A Year in Books

2011-12-31T00:16:00.000+11:00

I wasn't planning on writing a wrap up post, but after having read a few other lists, it got me to thinking. What were the best books I'd read this year? It's interesting to look back and wonder. These are the dozen titles that I gave 5 stars to on Goodreads this year, generally gushed about here, and remembered fondly.

Michael Leunig has still got it

Jackie French Nanberry

Martine Murray The Slightly True Story of Cedar B Hartley

Brian Selznick The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Jackie French Flood (I sadly haven't managed to blog this amazing picture book as yet)

Shaun Tan The Lost Thing (coincidentally my most popular post by a mile)

John Baxter Immoveable Feast A Paris Christmas (a book I loved so much I did two blog posts about it #1 and #2)

Fred Gipson Old Yeller

Lonely Planet Paris Not for Parents

All the 13 things children should know series that I've read so far.

I started listening to audio books in the car this year when my commute time tripled (from 4 minutes to 15!), I've been listening to nonfiction, and a few of these really won over my affections.

Tim Flannery Country

Dawn French Dear Fatty

Jim Leavesley Mere Mortals

I'm pretty pleased with myself that a full 50% of these books are Australian! Also pretty pleased with the diversity. Fiction. Nonfiction. YA. Picture books. Adult books. Interesting to note that no adult fiction made my list. I hope to remedy that next year. The TBR always looms large.

I really enjoyed participating in the Foodies Reading Challenge and Wondrous Word Wednesdays memes this year. I've learnt so much from these activites, and made new online friends. I look forward to continuing both next year.

Another 5 star discovery this year:

Mango Pancakes!

Yum cha dessert used to be easy. Mango Pudding. No decision. Now I discover Mango Pancakes! Pudding? Pancakes? Such a dilemma!

Paris Not For Parents!

2011-12-26T18:09:00.001+11:00

I'm moderately obsessed with Paris. Ok, quite obsessed. So I was immediately drawn to this book. Let's face it I bought it for me, not for Master Strong Belief. He's not really interested in reading it. Even though he is an especially lucky child who ventured to Paris at the tender age of 9. He gave me a shrug and a meh when I asked if he was interested in reading it. Maybe before the next trip he'll be more interested. Sadly it's a fair way off at this stage. So I had to get my Paris fix somehow. And this is a great little book. Sure, it's written for kids, but it's a great format and I still managed to learn stuff, as I generally do with Junior Non Fiction.

All the major stuff is covered. The Louvre. The Eiffel Tower, but it includes cool pictures taken during the construction. The Pompidou Centre. Notre Dame. Le Tour de France.

Place de la Concorde was the site for many of the beheadings in France. It is thought that up to 40,000 people met their grisly end there. The book of course includes a section on the Guillotine -named after Dr Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, who apparently hated that the beheading machine (actually invented by Antoine Louis) was named after him, and indeed Guillotin was actively campaigning for a more humane method of capital punishment. Before 1792 beheading was only bestowed on the rich and powerful, and this typically done with an axe or sword, and wasn't alway quickly effective. The poorer citizens of Paris were more commonly hung.

Hard to believe now. A summer day, Place de la Concorde 2010

The more obvious kid-centric topics are interesting too. Asterix the Gaul (who I don't think I've ever read), who is still very popular in France, and has his own theme park, Parc Asterix. Dogs in Paris. Kid friendly food- crepes, baguettes, Galette des Rois (which I am quite desperate to try on a winter visit), and of course the gross stuff like snails, frog legs, and stinky cheeses.

I enjoyed learning about the British art collector Richard Wallace who donated 100 public drinking fountains to Paris in the 19th century. His famous Wallace fountains are still there, and still operational, and although I must have walked past many, I don't remember actually noticing them. They will definitely be on the must find list for next time.

I also enjoyed learning about the siege of Paris. I don't think I'd known that Paris was under siege by Prussia in 1870. Times were desperate and the Parisians ate 70,000 animals including two elephants named Castor and Pollux.

It's always great to make a sudden realisation about a familiar object or substance. I don't think that I had ever thought about the origin of the term Plaster of Paris, even though it's something I deal with most days at work. Plaster of Paris is a mix of water and a powdered rock (gypsum) that was common in the hills of Paris.

There are 4 titles in this fun series from Lonely Planet - Paris of course, New York, London and Rome.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T21:56:00.000+11:00

These photos of trees decked out for the Christmas season are from my recent trip to Houston. Merry Christmas.

Saturday Snapshot, is a wonderful weekly meme from at home with books

Wondrous Words Wednesday 21/12/11

2011-12-21T22:20:00.000+11:00

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a fabulous weekly meme hosted by Bermuda Onion, where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our weekly reading.

This week's first word comes from an article by Amanda Hooton "Plug Me In" in the Good Weekend 10/11/11.

1. Moue

And, as we all know, there is nothing so ageing (apart from a really terrible haircut, or wearing black too close to your face) as making a moue with your mouth.

i) A small grimace; a pout.

Picture credit

The Weekend Australian's Books of the Year (Part 1) was also a source for wordy fun- actually all words that I recognised, but that I didn't really understand.

2. Inchoate

In its arrested, inchoate, David Foster Wallace's The Pale King was not so much a novel as a fictional artefact, but the chance to study his teeming mind wrestle with a work unfinished and perhaps unfinishable was captivating.

i) Just beginning; incipient

ii) undeveloped; immature; rudimentary

iii) (Law) (of a legal document, promissory note, etc) in an uncompleted state; not yet made specific or valid

3. Scabrous (adjective)

Also a scabrous satirical poem about American politics, As Long as It is Big (2005), by John Bricuth.

i) Roughened because of small projections; scaly

ii) Indelicate, indecent, or salacious

ii) Difficult to deal with; knotty

4. Apogee

In this way, the apogee of my year's words combined Michael Ondaatje's novel The Cat's Table, Joan Didion's memoir Blue Nights and W.G. Sebald's 2002 masterwork Austerlitz: a triptych of memory, remembrance and the tricky nexus between recall and creativity.

i) The farthest or highest point; the apex. (Clearly it's this first defintion, but the other definitions are interesting too).

ii) The point in the orbit of the moon or of an artificial satellite most distant from the centre of the earth

iii) The point in an orbit most distant from the body being orbited.

Picture credit

Tintin in the Land of the Soviets

2011-12-20T22:10:00.000+11:00

I remember trying to read Tintin as a kid, borrowing a couple of books from the library one time, but I never really got into it. I don't think I ever read a whole book. I remember the covers of course, they're rather iconic. Except I didn't know this one. Tintin in the Land of the Soviets is the first Tintin book, and was published way back in 1929. The upcoming Tintin movie was the impetus that finally got me over the line and reading a Tintin book. Except now I have to read 4! Tintin in the Land of the Soviets is the Tintin title that is included in 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up. The movie is based on three of the other titles- The Crab with the Golden Claws, The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure. I'm hoping to read those before heading off to see the movie after Christmas.

I don't think Herge liked this book. It is the only one of his books that he did not redraw in a colour edition, and Wiki quotes him as saying "I didn't consider it real work... just a game", and he later described it as a "transgression of my youth". This disdain is quite obvious, the artwork and drawing is rough and crude, showing an apparent lack of care compared to the precision and detail of his other works.

Herge had even prevented the books publication until 1973, with the English translation not appearing until 1989. Interesting to note that it was originally published in serial form over 18 months 1929-1930, much like Dickens had 70 years before. Of course this was a common way of story publishing, and still remains so for cartoons of course, but I'd always thought of Tintin in book format. Reading through I noticed that Herge signed at the end of every double page, so I presume that that is how it was originally published.

And that Snowy, like most dogs, is always hungry

It's rather extraordinary to think that it was written as anti-Marxist and anti-Socialist propaganda for children. I don't know many children who get to read anti-Socialist cartoons these days. I wonder if Ben 10 deals with this stuff? Although I suppose most media is biased to some extent, and we all fall prey to propaganda. Wiki tells us that Herge wrote Tintin in the Land of the Soviets based on a single pamphlet published in 1928, and that he did not research Russia independently. This apparently lead to a number of factual errors. LIke guards eating bananas. He likes to have a hack at their food supplies and elections.

There are some jokes

And of course several references to vodka.

I found Tintin in the Land of the Soviets to be interesting to read for an historical perspective, but I hope some of the other stories will be intriguing in their own right.

The Ibis that ate Sydney

2011-12-17T06:54:00.000+11:00

I lived in Sydney for nearly 10 years in the late 80s and 90s. I don't think I remember any ibis then. They're certainly there now- and they do appear to be taking over. The Australian White Ibis is an intriguing looking bird.

They were everywhere on my recent trip to Sydney

Drinking water in puddles- note there is actually shadow here!

Hanging out preening in gardens

Sitting in trees (there's three)

They seem to like to take in the major tourist sites

Adorning statues

Outside the Chinese Gardens

Out the back of St Mary's (the first time I noticed their funky feet and their really ugly bald neck)

On the Domain

Supervising the outdoor chess game in Hyde Park (the first time I noticed some of them are tagged)

Wherever you were going there was one going that way too

Joining you for breakfast

Overlooking your lunch

Hunkering down in the wet

Most of the time there was only one or two

But sometimes there were heaps

I've since found out that there is an Australian White Ibis Survey. I've now made a small contribution towards it, and have forwarded my (accidental) photos of banded birds.

Saturday Snapshot, is a wonderful weekly meme from at home with books

Wondrous Words Wednesday 14/12/11

2011-12-15T01:42:00.000+11:00

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a fabulous weekly meme hosted by Bermuda Onion, where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our weekly reading.

Julian Barnes' The Pedant in the Kitchen was such a rich source of Wondrous Words that I have more this week. I blogged the first installment back on November 23.

1. Risible (Adjective)

We've all done some pretty risible things in our time- I know a Canadian novelist who once tried to make pesto from dried basil- but nothing quite as risible as this.

i) Relating to laughter or used in eliciting laughter
ii) Eliciting laughter; ludicrous
iii) Capable of laughing or inclined to laugh. The Free Dictionary.

2. Strimmer (Noun)

I shan't enter the absorbing debate- a recent long-runner among correspondents to the Guardian- over how to peel one without blubbing, except to warn you that if, as I once did, you try wearing a pair of strimmer's goggles, the plastic lens will quickly steam up and there will be much blood on the chopping board.

Moderately obvious from context, and easily solved by a Google image search, but I'd never come across strimmer before. It is what we Aussies would call a whipper snipper.

Picture source

3. Obeisance (Noun)

In any case, what do cookbook writers want? More obeisance?

i) A gesture or movement of the body, such as a curtsy, that expresses deference or homage.
ii) An attitude of deference or homage. The Free Dictionary.

4. Voluptuaries (Noun)

Perhaps there really were houses with a butler's pantry; perhaps voluptuaries really did pile slag heaps of soft fruit on to stemmed porcelain display plates, and serve dishes of stuffed quail in the shape of a Ruritanian crown.

A person whose life is given over to luxury and sensual pleasures; a sensualist. The Free Dictionary.

5. Marmande (Noun)

"Now we might extend the picture to include high-rise blocks, patched with vegetation on every balcony- Marmande and plum tomatotes in pots, herbs in window-boxes, courgettes and squashes trailing round the doors.

Marmande is a variety of tomato, and also a town in France.

Picture credit

6. Capybara (Noun)

His alimentary canal has down the years played host to cayman, capybara, rat, agouti, armadillo, monkey, monitor lizard, maggots, palm-grubs, and other life forms.

Capybara is the largest rodent in the world. They live in South America.

Picture from wiki

7. Mangel-wurzel

Similarly 'magel-wurzel'. This began life as 'mangold-wurzel', literally 'root of the beet'; but people (German people, that is) misheard it as 'mangel-wurzel', 'root of scarcity'.

It is a root crop generally grown as fodder for stock, but can be eaten by people too.

Picture from wiki

8. Toby jug (Noun)

Having Mrs Beeton on your shelf was like having a chromolithograph of Queen Victoria on the wall, or a toby jug of Florence Nightingale. It was both reassuring and a vaguely patriotic statement.

A Toby jug is a pottery jug in the form of a seated person, or the head of a recognizable person (often an English king). Wiki. The Americans even have a Toby jug museum.

Picture credit

A Wet Week in Sydney

2011-12-10T19:43:00.001+11:00

A few weeks ago I got to spend a week in Sydney at a conference. Usually Sydney Harbour is like a gorgeous turquoise jewel. A joy to behold. A bit like this

This particular week supplied only 45 minutes of sunshine, and Sydney was looking grey and drab, and more like her winter self, than her usual springtime loveliness. Still a week in Sydney is always a great thing. The views were more often like this though.

I became increasingly distracted by the jewel like painting that was down a corridor at the Convention Centre. It looked like a Brett Whiteley. But could it really be a Brett Whiteley? Just sitting out there? Not in a gallery? With no guards to guard it?

It's really quite big

On the last day I went down to check it out. And there it was. It was a Whiteley! Just hanging there with no gallery guards to guard it!

Saturday Snapshot, is a wonderful weekly meme from at home with books

Hello Dolly

2011-12-09T22:35:00.001+11:00

I made the boys watch Hello Dolly for our family movie night tonight. To be honest I don't think I'd ever seen it before either. The idea came to me recently when we rewatched Wall-E.

Wall-E has a desolate life on a ruined Earth, and he keeps himself sane by watching two songs from Hello Dolly over and over again. (Put on Your Sunday Clothes and It Only Takes a Moment). Which delighted both Wall-E viewers and the composer of Hello, Dolly! I've now seen Wall-E often enough that I was keen to see the original inspiration.

Explains why Barnaby is in the song so many times

My desire was strong enough to counter my natural reluctance to watch any movie with Walter Matthau in it (he's never been a favourite). In the end I was glad to watch it. Even if the plot is a bit improbable. Dolly and Mr Vandergelder? Really?

It was fun to see such a famous movie. Thankfully the boys didn't complain (too much). And it was fun to note that

Gene Kelly directed it.

She's Barbra, not Barbara.

There is a lot of Frank Spencer in Cornelius Hackl.

Very sad to note that Danny Lockin who played Barnaby Tucker, met a tragic and unfortunate end.

Walter Matthau is still annoying. And couldn't really sing either. Although his major song It Takes a Woman is perhaps the funniest scene in the whole movie. I can't find a youtube video of the song from the movie (and have no idea how to upload it), so you'll just have to find a copy of Hello, Dolly! and watch it yourself.

December 6 Top Ten Childhood Faves

2011-12-06T23:26:00.000+11:00

Of course this is going to be a subject close to my heart. I loved reading as a kid. Love reading now. And I particularly love reading kids books as an adult. Indeed I embarked on a quest nearly 2 years ago to read 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up. So much so that I started my own Yahoo reading group for like minded souls to gather.

I have such a strong visual memory of the illustrations of this book

And this one

I know I read this repeatedly

It's kind of odd to realise that I read so many books that were from a series. I'm not that into reading series of books now, and would generally much rather read stand alone books.

And most interestingly not an Aussie amongst them! I'm glad that's changed.

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Pollyanna

2011-12-05T23:30:00.000+11:00

As ever with any book that you're a bit unsure about, I wasn't expecting to fall in love with Pollyanna. I should have known better! As with any enduring classic, Pollyanna has a lot to teach us about our modern lives from almost 100 years ago. Pollyanna was published in 1913, just before the start of the First World War. Of course it reflects a simpler time in some ways. Every house seems to have a porte-cochere. And Pollyanna spends much of her free time in the summer walking to visit various invalid neighbours to take them calf's foot jelly.

Pollyanna like many famous children's book characters before her has been recently orphaned. She is looked after briefly by the local Ladies Aid Society, but is then sent to live with her Aunt Polly. Of course Aunt Polly is not thrilled to have her ordered life disturbed by the presence of an unruly child. Even if that child is very well mannered, and awfully glad. Pollyanna joins other plucky, optimistic orphans such as Heidi and Anne of Green Gables in changing the lives of their new carers.

Miss Polly is introduced to us by her young maid Nancy on page 2:

She knew Miss Polly now as a stern, severe-faced woman who frowned if a knife clattered to the floor, or if a door banged- but who never thought to smile even when knives and doors were still.

Pollyanna is an enthusiastic child with a sunny disposition who wants to get the most out of life.

"Just breathing isn't living!"

She began playing her famous "glad game" with her minister father after a disappointment. Pollyanna's family were poor and reliant on missionary barrels sent to them with supplies. Once Pollyanna asked for a doll, but received crutches instead. Pollyanna's father invented the game with her to help counter her disappointment. The game was to find something about everything to be glad about. Of course Pollyanna could be glad that she didn't need the crutches. Rather a hollow feeling at that point I'm sure.

Pollyanna makes the game her own, and shares it with the adults around her who all need it in some way. Apparently after the novel was released Glad Clubs were set up, and a Glad board game was on sale until the late 1960s. In some ways, Pollyanna seems to be a forerunner of more modern endeavours such as The Happiness Project. A very interesting audio exploration of Pollyanna from America's NPR reminds us that even though Pollyanna's message to rejoice may come from the Bible, and her minister father, gladness doesn't require religious faith.

Superb Fairy Wrens make me glad.

I hope modern girls are still reading Pollyanna. I hope some other modern adults get to read Pollyanna too, after all, it's not every character that enters the lexicon as a noun. But Pollyanna isn't a Pollyanna in the modern sense that the word has taken on. She is not "foolishly or blindly optimistic". Indeed, after Pollyanna has a serious accident she can't feel glad about anything. She becomes so distressed that she needs to be given a quieting powder! What was this mysterious quieting powder? Google is surprisingly circumspect, and keeping secrets hidden. Although I did find one reference to nutmeg being used in small doses to quieten irritable children. Perhaps Pollyanna was enjoying some nutmeg?

After her accident the townsfolk all come to help Pollyanna, to show her their gladness for the help she has given them. One particular passage appealed greatly, and stood out from the generally more sedate nature of the rest of the book.

Not long after Mrs Tarbell's visit the climax came. It came in the shape of a call from a certain young woman with unnaturally pink cheeks and abnormally yellow hair; a young woman who wore high heels and cheap jewellery; a young woman whom Miss Polly knew very well by reputation- but whom she was angrily amazed to meet beneath the roof of the Harrington homestead.

Rhododendron Garden Blackheath

2011-12-03T17:59:00.001+11:00

Blackheath in the Blue Mountains (2 hours west of Sydney) is a lovely spot. They are very famous for their Rhodendron Garden, the town even holds a Rhododendron Festival each spring. Our recent visit was a few weeks after the festival, but the gardens were still worth visiting, even though they were past their best.

Waratahs- our state flower

Hopefully next year we'll make it back when the garden is at it's peak.

Saturday Snapshot, is a wonderful weekly meme from at home with books

Guest blogger!

2011-11-29T00:01:00.000+11:00

Today is quite the Red Letter Day for me. I've risen to the exalted status of Guest Blogger!

I was So Very Excited recently when the opportunity came up to write a guest post for the wonderful and esteemed Whispering Gums. I loved the opportunity to showcase five of my favourite Aussie children's authors and illustrators. There are many more out there of course. There was no particular rhyme nor reason for my choices, just my love and admiration for their works.

My Guest Blogger post is here.

A celebratory Red message!

Kidnapped, or Adventures with Porridge

2011-11-27T00:19:00.000+11:00

It's been a number of months since I finished my first ever read of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic adventure story Kidnapped. My memory of the specifics is perhaps fading, but I have some very strong notions of the book that remain with me.

Firstly, I found this a rather hard book to get through. I was surprised to read in his Dedication that RLS intended this as a book for boys to read at bed time.

This is no furniture for the scholar's library, but a book for the winter evening school-room when the tasks are over and the hour for bed draws near...

I'm not sure that that many boys could get through it any more. Some classics still seem modern and vibrant despite the passage of time, and differences of language. I found this quite hard going as an adult. It must be said that I don't have a vast knowledge of the politics of Scotland in 1751. I tried to learn some as I went along with my reading, but well, didn't get all that far. Perhaps child readers would just let that part of the story wash over, but politics is rather integral to the action. A lot is made of the warring between the Highlanders and the Lowlanders, about the Whigs and Jacobites. Still, it is amazing to learn that in order to suppress the Highland clans it was "a sin to wear a tartan plaid, and a man may be cast into a gaol if he has but a kilt about his legs." A footnote informs us that the "relatively mild" Disarming Act of 1715 outlawed the possession of Highland dress or bagpipes upon pain of transportation.

The story at it's heart is relatively simple. David Balfour, a poor young lad of 16, has been recently orphaned. He sets out from his village to find his only known relative, who turns out to be the miserly, and awful Ebenezer, who sells David into slavery and tricks him onto a ship heading for America. The ship famously sinks on the remote west coast of Scotland. David miraculously survives the shipwreck and heads back towards civilization.

I hold somewhat romantic notions of Scotland as my ancestral homeland. The Scotland RLS portrayed here is dank, drab, murderous and very cold, where the existence of a few hearty individuals is tenuously maintained only by their intake of porridge and drink in various forms- gills of brandy, wine and spirits, strong ale.

Ye may keep a man from fighting but never from his bottle

Naturally it was not our modern day luxurious warm cooked porridge drizzled with maple syrup, and maybe some bananas or caramelised macadamias that they were eating. David, and his companion, the rebel Alan Breck, subsist on drammach as they journey through the isolated wilds of Western Scotland- an uncooked mixture of oatmeal and cold water. This sounds completely unappealing, and I'm sure it's no coincidence that Gaelic has a word drammag meaning foul mixture.

Somewhat surprisingly a google search did not turn up an image of what I could take to be drammach. So I headed to the kitchen to make some myself. Normally for making porridge with heat I just use rolled oats. Clearly Scottish oatmeal looks more like this.

Not knowing how to make drammach, and expecting not to like it, I put a little bit of oatmeal in a bowl, with a small amount of water. After a minute or two it looked like this

and tasted like bland, awful, texturally bad soap

it did get slightly better after about 10 minutes

a final taste after 20 minutes was all I could stand

I have no idea how people could fight wars, farm their fields and live their lives fueled only on this stuff.

dogs like drammach!

Och aye, you've gotta love the Scots, and their love for all things porridge. They hold a World Porridge Championship each year, called the Golden Spurtle. A spurtle is the implement you need for making porridge, and here I've been making my porridge all along without a spurtle! Wonder if a spurtle would have helped my drammach? I suspect not.

Another intriguing food reference is about buying butter in France.

'Ye see, David, he that was all his life so great a man, and come of the blood and bearing the name of kings, is now brought down to live in a French town like a poor and private person. He that had four hundred swords at his whistle, I have seen, with these eyes of mine, buying butter in the market-place, and taking it home in a kale-leaf. This is not only a pain but a disgrace to us of his family and clan.'

It's not clear to me whether the shame is that he is buying butter in the market, or taking it home wrapped in kale. The passage of time has made such distinctions impossible I think. I don't see much shame in either. I would certainly love to be buying butter in a French market place, and wouldn't care if I had to cart it away in kale or not.

Foodie's Reading Challenge

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking, a fabulous weekly meme at Beth Fish Reads.

A Day Trip to Blackheath

2011-11-26T18:37:00.000+11:00

We bought a new car a few weeks ago, and so last week we took it for a run up to the Blue Mountains (a lovely area 2 hours west of Sydney in the Great Dividing Range). I was doing some bizarre things with the camera that day (sometimes a weird button gets pushed whilst lugging about in my handbag, and it usually takes me a while to notice). Still even with dodgy photographic technique it's a beautiful spot and we had a lovely day. These photos are all at Govett's Leap, Grose Valley at Blackheath.

You can see why they're called the Blue Mountains

The sandstone that gives us our beautiful beaches

I know it's not in focus, but I still quite like this one- I think it looks like an Albert Namatjira painting.

Saturday Snapshot, is a wonderful weekly meme from at home with books

Wondrous Words Wednesday 23/11/11

2011-11-23T18:34:00.000+11:00

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a fabulous weekly meme hosted by Bermuda Onion, where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our weekly reading.

Recently I read the rather fascinating The Pedant in the Kitchen. Julian Barnes always provides us with lots of new words, and this book was no exception.

1. Matutinal. Adjective.

But male culinary competence was clearly limited to such matutinal dabbling.

Of, relating to, or occuring in the morning; early.

Black swan and white geese enjoying a Tasmanian morning

2. Avuncular. Adjective.

I need an exact shopping list and an avuncular cookbook.

i) Of or having to do with an uncle.

ii) Regarded as a characteristic of an uncle, especially in benevolence or tolerance.

3. Prelapsarian. Adjective.

It surprised him to discover that gardening, for all its air of prelapsarian serenity, is furiously competitive, frequently indulged in by the envious, the deceitful, the quietly criminal.

Of or relating to the period before the fall of Adam and Eve.

4. Midinette. Noun.

And the more I browsed through the 300 recipes intended 'for the student, the midinette, for the clerk, for the artist, for lazy people, poets, men of action, dreamers and scientists', the more the book seemed an aromatic trifle very much of it's age.

A Parisian seamstress or salesgirl in a clothes shop.

Picture credit

5. Umber. Adjective

After decades of cooking dauphinois potatoes the same way, I was instantly converted to his version; sloppier, creamier, the surface an eruption of umber bubbles, it took me back years and kilometres.

i) Of or relating to umber.

ii) Having a brownish colour.

Also a noun. Any natural brown earth containing ferric oxides and manganese oxides, used as pigment. All definitions from The Free Dictionary.

Picture credit

Eurasian Coot

2011-11-19T23:24:00.001+11:00

Another bird that I was really quite fascinated with in Tasmania recently was the rather ubiquitous Eurasian Coot (Fulica atra)

They have such weird feet

That let them do this:

Saturday Snapshot, is a wonderful weekly meme from at home with books

Finding Violet Park

2011-11-18T01:35:00.000+11:00

This author and book were new to me. I was quite keen to read it, for some reason I really liked the cover even though I knew relatively little about the book.

Finding Violet Park is the story of a 15 year old boy, Lucas, who comes across an urn of ashes in a minicab office. Lucas becomes quite obsessed with the ashes, the mortal remains of Violet Park, and he wants to free her from the drudgery of her final resting place. Someone had left Violet's ashes in the back of a cab a number of years earlier, and they sat there, unloved and unclaimed. Lucas wants to find out more about her.

If you think about it, a person being dead isn't any barrier to finding out what they are like. Half the people we learn about in school have been dead for ages. People write whole books about William Blake and Henry the Eighth and Marilyn Monroe, and they've never met them and they still sound like they know what they are talking about.

I do have a soft spot for books written in an engaging first person narrative. While I wasn't completely swept away by Lucas, as I was by Cedar B. Hartley recently, I did enjoy it very much. As with all young, quirky first person narrators, Lucas is somewhat precocious in his observations. And naturally Lucas's life is fragmented, his father has disappeared several years ago, and Mum is doing her best to keep the family together.

The book deals with some serious subjects, but has a great sense of humour mixed in. There is a wonderful anti-smoking rant quite early on which starts with Lucas railing against the fact that tobacco

"doesn't get you high. What's the point of being addicted to something that will kill you and doesn't even make you laugh or feel good or anything?"

Which makes a great deal of sense when you think about it. In one of my favourite sections Lucas is talking about his grandmother, Pansy.

Pansy has a dog called Jack (Russell) and sometimes I have no idea if she's talking about the dog or Grandad.
"He's been under my feet all day and his breath smells terrible." (Dog)
"he's not been for three days. I think he needs a good walk." (Norman)

Lucas ponders the pivotal moments in a life "chance happenings that end up meaning everything." And wonders if "all most people do when they grow up is fix on something impossible and then hunger after it."

We learn a number of interesting things along the way- such as Agatha Christie famously disappeared for 11 days in 1926. Was she really in a fugue state? Or did she deliberately run away? And thugs as a concept comes from 14th century India!

Wondrous Words Wednesday 16/11/11

2011-11-16T21:38:00.000+11:00

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a fabulous weekly meme hosted by Bermuda Onion, where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our weekly reading.

My words this week are from some unusual sources. I'm pretty sure this qualifies as the first word I've ever learnt from facebook!

1. Murmuration

i) The act of murmuring; a murmur

ii) a collective noun for starlings- a murmuration of starlings. The Free Dictionary.

My second word came from Stephen Fry's wonderful show QI. It was the 2010 Christmas edition.

Stephen said something like "Do you have a trick or a jape?"

Jape.

Noun.
A jest or a joke.

Verb.
To joke or jest (about). The Free Dictionary.

The Pedant in the Kitchen

2011-11-12T23:01:00.000+11:00

I have a growing respect and admiration for Julian Barnes. We didn't get off to a good start because I read his England, England book first. And hated it so much I can't explain. The only reason I ever picked up another of his books was because I read and absolutely loved Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary. So I tentatively picked up Flaubert's Parrot. And loved it so much that I bought my own copy after I took the library copy back (I'd borrowed it expecting not to like it, and gave myself permission to stop reading it within the first few pages if I hated it- and I always make myself push on!) Anyway, I Absolutely Loved Flaubert's Parrot. And so I started to hope that perhaps England, England was an aberration.

Somewhere along the way I accumulated The Pedant in the Kitchen, and in an idle moment last night I picked it up. I've had a wonderful break in my scheduled reading over the past 10 days and have actually been able to pick up books on a whim! I've been very keen to read his recent Booker winner The Sense of an Ending, but have remained strong and not bought it yet.

The Pedant in the Kitchen appears to be a collection of 17 newspaper columns about Barnes' relative OCD nature in the kitchen. He starts off telling us rather matter of factly that he is a late-onset cook. He didn't learn techniques and measurements at his mother's side as a young child. It was only as an adult, in his twenties that Julian was forced to try and prepare his own meals. With some initial disappointments of course. I think most of us go through that stage really. Wondering how your mother did very simple things, when it had just always appeared in a perfect form previously.

Julian isn't without ambition or hope in his cooking efforts though. He uses cookbooks, and relatively complicated ones at that and comes to take on some rather challenging dishes. Chocolate Nemesis from the first River Cafe Cookbook. A smoked haddock souffle from Margaret Costa's Four Seasons Cookery Book. Autumn Pudding (apparently much superior to Summer Pudding- with a mix of elderberries, blackberries and crab apples) from Susan Campbell's English Cookery New and Old. Jane Grigson's Salmon in Pastry with a Herb Sauce.

Julian wants things to be extremely precise whilst creating his haddock souffle. "Why should a cookbook be less precise than a manual of surgery?" He is an "anxious pedant" in the kitchen. Should that tablespoon of currants be heaped or rounded? In truth, I'm sure it matters not. I don't think Julian has ever truly heard, and certainly hasn't internalised the wisdom conveyed in the phrase "we're not building a piano".

I adhere to gas marks and cooking times. I trust instruments rather than myself. I doubt I shall ever test whether a chunk of meat is done by prodding it with my forefinger. The only liberty I take with a recipe is to increase the quantity of an ingredient of which I particularly approve.

I think anxiety and lack of self confidence is the key here. You should never trust instruments more than your own judgement. In the kitchen, or in surgery as it turns out.

When not obsessed about minor details in the kitchen Julian takes us rather far and wide. The trial brought about by Oscar Wilde against the Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. Gustave Flaubert apparently not only admired camels in Egypt on his travels but he also ate some. However, his favourite delicacies were mandarins and oysters. And Mrs Beeton died at the unfortunately young age of 28, and so was not the dowager housekeeper we all imagine.

Julian has some interesting and useful thoughts on cookbooks, which I think I will leave for another post.

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking, a fabulous weekly meme at Beth Fish Reads.

Foodie's Reading Challenge

Turbo Chooks

2011-11-12T18:39:00.001+11:00

In September I was lucky enough to go to Launceston, Tasmania for a conference. I wasn't there all that long, but had a very enjoyable few days, and got to see some new birds.

Tasmania is a funny (small) place, and I was lucky enough to have the same cab driver 3 times! The second time was planned, but the third time was pure luck. Anyway, Paul told me that Tasmanians call these birds Turbo Chooks (turbo because they run really fast, chook is Australian for chicken). More properly called the Tasmanian Native Hen (Gallinula morterii). They were certainly plentiful in the nice lake across the road from the conference centre, and also by roadways. Turbo Chooks used to be common on the mainland too, but sadly went the way of most flightless birds when man, and their accompanying predators move in.

After a day or so (yes I'm very quick sometimes), I realised that some were juveniles.

Saturday Snapshot, is a wonderful weekly meme from at home with books

Joan of Arc

2011-11-11T12:08:00.001+11:00

My fascination with Joan grows daily. This Junior Reader was a perfect place to start. As you may have noticed I quite like Junior Nonfiction, and believe even adults can learn something from most JNF that we pick up. I certainly learnt lots from this little book.

Joan's basic story is so fascinating, that it would appear to defy reality, but of course it's true. An illiterate poor provinicial girl, starts seeing visions as a young teenager. The saints appear to her- St Michael, St Catherine, St Margaret. The saints tell her extraordinary things, that she is to do the work of God, and lead France to victory against the English (who control Northern France in the early 15th century, at the tail end of the 100 year war). Somehow, she gets into the royal court, the dauphin supports her, she starts fighting at Orleans, she gets the dauphin coronated as king in Rheims. Joan has a series of extraordinary victories, but is killed at the age of 19 by being burned at the stake.

The structure of this DK reader is typical for this series. The story is in the middle of the page with fascinating little tidbits or sidestories on the margins.

My favourite tidbit

Makes me hope for a DK reader about Charles VI

I learnt lots of things from this little book.

The saints who appeared in visions to Joan, were all quite specific to her needs. St Catherine was a local saint for Joan. She was the best-loved saint of Joan's time. She would have been a local hero for Joan as she is buried near Joan's town of Domremy. She was the patron saint of unmarried girls. It reminded me that Catherine wheels are named after her, and the terrible method in which she was put to death on such a wheel. Thankfully in the modern world, Catherine wheels are pretty fireworks, but for many centuries they were a brutal method of torture, and a slow death.

St Margaret was an early Christian girl who wore men's clothes to allow her to join a monastery. St Michael of course was a famous warrior who slayed the dragon.

Joan refused the offer of a sword from the dauphin, and instead used a sword that her voices told her would be at the shrine of St Catherine at Fierbois.

Orleans had been under seige by the English for 6 months when Joan led her assault. This was apparently a favourite method of the English, they would just wait, with no need for fighting, while the inhabitants of the beseiged town starved until they were ready to surrender.

The dauphin was cowardly and didn't want to go to Rheims, in English held Northern France for the coronation.

Half of France, including Paris, was held by the English at this time. Joan gathered her soldiers at the small town of St Denis outside Paris. St Denis is particularly fascinating. I learnt a bit about him during my trips to Paris. He was the Bishop of Paris in the third century. Bishops weren't treated too well at that time. Denis was beheaded, and he was said to have picked up his head and walked six miles carrying it, preaching a sermon. He is usually depicted holding his own head.

St Denis at the entrance of Notre Dame

Joan started experiencing some losses. Her sword broke. She was captured by the Burgundians, and bought by the English for 10,000 francs. She jumped 20 metres from a castle tower trying to escape. She was tried in a French court, but tried by the English. She signed a confession, and was sentenced to lifelong imprisonment wearing dresses rather than her usual men's clothing. Joan's voices came to her and told her she had been wrong, and she changed back into her male attire. She was burned at the stake at the marketplace in Rouen on 30th May, 1431 wearing a dunce's cap which labelled her a heretic, and a dress dipped in sulphur to burn more quickly. Her ashes were thrown into the river as a final insult, instead of being collected for worshippers.

Joan called herself Joan the Maid. She was never referred to as Joan of Arc during her lifetime, and it was only after her death, and her legend grew that she became Joan of Arc.